my husband…

3 June 2008 by betty | 1 comment

Gosh, it still surprises me that I have a husband now. I’m getting more used to saying “my husband Alex”. It makes me smile now, thinking about my husband. You know, I think I only blog when Alex is away (as he is now). So maybe the only way I’ll be blogging regularly is to have Alex go away more often (but if any of his bosses are reading this, I’m not saying I want him to go on more business trips :P … unless, I get to go too – do you have clients in New Zealand or Africa?).

Anyways, a lot of people have asked me how married life is. For me, I’ve found the transition to married life with Alex to be quite smooth so far, praise God. It is definitely very different from living with a housemate. At first, I thought moving in with Alex will be like my experiences with living in shared houses and with housemates. But it’s been a very different experience. Perhaps it’s also living with Alex that makes a difference ( :P you know I love you!) but I also think it’s been myself who’s entered this new lifestyle with some expectations of my own. I hear the first year of marriage is a lot about figuring out our ways living with one another and hopefully, with God’s grace, we’ll have more good times than bad ones by the end of the year.

Tags:

Why I love working for Liferay

30 May 2008 by alex | 2 comments

Many who know me well know that I have a special interest in China.  Many who know me even better know that my parents were part of the Chinese diaspora in Burma (known to some as Myanmar).  Ironically, until recently, I have taken up little interest in the disasters that have recently rocked the Asian world.  Perhaps it was due to the busyness involved in planning a wedding and attending a honeymoon.  Or maybe I needed to devote more time to nurture a new marriage while balancing the other demands of life.  I remained quite disinterested until the company I work for part-time did something like this (see link):

My CEO explains in his blog the very essence of Liferay’s existence: bless others as we too are blessed.  That is what I want all non-Christian institutions to embrace.  It is the gospel message.  It is the Abrahamic calling.  In fact, it really lies at the core of why us humans were made.

This reminds me of the parable of the good Samaritan.  Aside from religious and cultural status, what makes the Samaritan different from the others?  The others were too busy with other things.  The others were too much in love with their own lives to sacrifice some of their precious time to love one who was in need.  The others are me.

Tags: , , , , ,

Wedding Mini-Me’s

27 May 2008 by alex | 2 comments

If you attended our wedding, you may have noticed one of my favorite components of the day — the wedding topper.  At times, Betty felt as though I was more excited about the topper than the wedding (still open to debate).  Let me explain how it came about.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ,

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

28 March 2008 by alex | No comments

March 28th.  It is spring.  And… it is snowing.  Huge snow flakes were falling all morning.  Now its all melted away, but today’s high was 5 degrees C (that’s 41 degrees F).  This is Vancouver.  They say this never happens.  They say it never snows here.  But it does.  And it’s cold.

Where, o yellow circle, have you gone to hide?  When, o yellow circle, will you come to play?  Speak, o yellow circle, to the clouds!  Speak, o yellow circle!!

Tags: ,

Snow day!

30 January 2008 by betty | No comments

It snowed a lot here in Vancouver yesterday. Woke up this morning to like a foot of snow. It took me like an hour to drive to work. I must admit, my heart had a few moments of pounding against my chest as I drove slowly in the slushy mess. A lot of people were taking transit, for obvious reasons. I felt really sorry for those people who were innocently waiting for their bus to arrive, but instead, were greeted by these big splashes of dirty wet snow slush splashed onto them by passing cars on the road.

Aside from the ugliness of a bad commute on a snow day, I really do love snow. Especially watching those big snowflakes slowly drift down from the heavens… it’s like everything is in slow motion, and for a moment, I can just pause and daydream a little. Thank you God for these moments…

Tags: ,

Veils and other things…

29 January 2008 by betty | No comments

I am officially now very much into the wedding mode… the light beacon that shines on that May 10th date is getting brighter and bigger with more and more wedding tasks done/being ticked off the seemingly neverending list. I’m very excited!! :)

It’s pretty interesting… this world of weddings. Did you know that some brides buy a few wedding dresses and a few wedding veils and a few sets of accessories before they decide finally which one is the ‘perfect’ ensemble for their wedding? As a result, many of these “rejected” dresses and veils and other things are put on ebay/craigslist/other bridal internet forums for other brides to buy at a much reduced price. It’s great for bargain-hunters, of course, but I just don’t understand why brides would spend so much extra money in the first place? I guess I don’t know all the stories behind each item for sale. Actually, there was one ad on craigslist that said the wedding was called off and because of that, the bride-no-more wanted to sell her wedding outfit. That is sad, of course.

I don’t think I’ve become anything like some of the “bride-zillas” that we see on these wedding TV shows. But I can see how one can easily get sucked into the wedding world black hole where the details can be never-ending with that mentality of wanting a “perfect wedding”. So please, if anyone sees me spiraling into this world, please give me a strong pinch and bring me back to the real world!

Tags:

Popularity of Whistler

27 January 2008 by alex | No comments

I always knew Whistler was famous, but not really that popular.  Then, today, I arrived in London-Heathrow airport for a week-long business trip.  Waiting to claim my bag, I saw dozens and dozens of long bags — snowboard and skis — coming into the baggage pickup.  I turned to the British gal next to me, who had some skis, and asked “Did you just go to Whistler?”  In which she responded, “Of course.  Whistler is famous!”  Go figure.

Ok… jet-lagged with two hours of sleep on the plane… nite all.  

Tags: , ,

the Wii and my mom

27 January 2008 by betty | No comments

Okay, I’ve been “encouraged” to add to this blog of ours. So taking the opportunity of Alex being away on business in London, I’ll sit down and properly collect some thoughts to share in this blog.

So for Christmas, my parents wanted to get my brother Alan the Wii but it was so in demand, we haven’t been able to get one until now. Alex and I just happened to come across all these Wii’s for sale at Costco last week and bought one for my family. I haven’t properly played yet with my whole family. But just watching my mom play is quite amusing. She and I are similar in many ways (scary thought for me at times :P ) and the way we play video games is one such similarity. We get very ‘involved’ in the game, so to speak. I know for myself, my hands get all sweaty and I let out these shrieks of excitement whilst getting caught up in the whole situation. My mom is just like that. Tonight, I was sitting in a different room when I hear these shouts of exclamation coming from the living room. At first, I thought my mom was watching a scary movie on TV, but no, she was playing tennis on the Wii.

Anyway, I wonder how many sets of parents are now hooked on the Wii too :)

Tags: ,

The Default Girlfriend

5 January 2008 by alex | 1 comment

I have heard about how a significant other quickly becomes your “default friend,” but never had I thought I would become a “default girlfriend.”  Just today, Betty asked me if I wanted to go with her to attend the Wedding Fair tomorrow.  She said, “Just to warn you, there’ll be a LOT of women there.”  She asked a girlfriend of her’s who had not yet responded.  As a faithful fiancé, I grit my teeth and said, “For you, I will be your backup girlfriend! :) ”  If that is not sacrificial love, I don’t know what is.  Thankfully I mean, regretfully, her girlfriend said she could make it and will.  ;p

Tags:

Blogging

3 January 2008 by betty | 1 comment

Hmm, my first ever blog. It’s sort of strange to me, probably because I think other people will read this, so I’m not exactly writing like I would in my own personal journal but yet, I feel like I’m writing in my own personal journal since I’m basically typing out all my thoughts into words right now. Anyway… for those people who know me, you’ll know that I can tend to blabber on a bit especially with the written word, so please bear with me. Or else, I guess you can just skip all my posts :P

It’s now been almost two months since Alex and I got engaged on November 4th, 2007. From the very start, at least from my perspective, it feels like it’s been a balancing act between family and our own expectations/ideas for our wedding. I was definitely swept up in the romance of being engaged, and then realities about the actual planning details of a wedding started to sink in. As I (and Alex too, unfortunately) have found out, I can sometimes easily be overwhelmed by the many tasks that seem to require my immediate attention. Thankfully, with God’s grace, things are slowly falling into place.

It’s really quite exciting now that certain key things have been set, such as the venues for the wedding day and me getting a wedding dress already! I can allow myself to imagine a little what the real day will be like. The details are not completely there yet, but I think I want to enjoy my own little world for a bit anyway before having come back to earth with things like budgets and tasks still to do.

Things I’m thankful this past week:

1) finding our reception venue (New Year’s eve)

2) finding my dress at a good deal (Dec 27th)

3) building friendships at my first-ever Winter Conference retreat

4) ringing in 2008 with good friends and Alex

5) celebrating Christmas with both of our families

Tags: ,

« Older entries § Newer entries »

Page optimized by WP Minify WordPress Plugin