Christmas time

Sorry that I have been MIA. I just don't see the point of posting if there aren't pictures.

But then again I am horrible with taking my camera everywhere.

As far as updates go, Please pray for my mother. She has decided to close her store because her business has been so bad. The recession is preventing people from spending their money and its affecting small private owned business such as my mother's. We have no idea what she is planning to do for income afterwards so prayer would be much appreciated.

But we know that the Lord will provide as long as we seek Him first and there is much comfort coming from that.

Here are some pictures from the holidays:

Look at my parents, aren't they cute? They decided to wear matching outfits.

Bathroom

Today history was made: the first African American president was elected into the most powerful office position in the free world.

But I still choose to blog about my new bathroom today.

HA

Here are the before pictures. There were so many little things I could've fixed beforehand but why bother when we knew that we were going to be changing EVERYTHING about it anyways?

Before






Yes, navy blue toilet seat. EWWWWWWWWW Barf in my mouth

When demolition was going on inside I was screaming, "Yes!! BURN IT ALL!!!"

Our shower and vanity

My pride and joy in the bathroom. Granite sink.

Jacuzzi tub

I never have to massage Matt again...

Our stone ceramic floor.
Ahhhhhh....

Next project:
Upstairs bathroom (there is a leak apparently in the pipes so its has to be gutted as well)
and carpets in the bedrooms..
and FINALLY THE KITCHEN!!! (Julie off to fantasty dream land now)

I love the Fall

The weather has finally started to get cold!

For those of you who do not know I LOVE the cold weather. It makes me all happy and giddy inside. Maybe its because I have so many happy memories associated with the cold weather. And also being a romantic at heart I love how romantic the cold weather can be. Couple days ago my husband blessed me with starting a fire in the fireplace and I curled right up next to it with a good novel. Ahhh...heaven. Well close to heaven for me.

I imagine my house in heaven to contain that HUGE library that Belle was introduced to in Beauty and the Beast. (You ladies know what I'm talking about)

Can I also share another tidbit? My husband wrote a cute Haiku poem for me yesterday. I mean it turned out more of a comical value than a romantic one but it warms my heart how much my husband is making the effort to step out of his mold to be romantic to me! Of course I gobble it all up.

I love Thanksgiving. I love Christmas. I love this time of year!

Also I bought some new clothing and can't wait to get it in the mail. I found this great website that sells clothing cheaply but there are some catch to it like paying for shipping cuz it ships from hong Kong.

Here are some of the things that I purchased. If you want to know if the matieral is worth the price I paid for it just ask! (Hopefully it will arrive next week)

Summer 2008

So the summer of 2008 was a busy one for the Smiths. Among weddings, anniversary, birthdays, family gatherings, etc. it was a blessed time. I think there were maybe like 3 weekends total all summer where Matt and I had NOTHING to do- which can be a good thing and a bad thing. Oh yeah did I mention a mock olympics? (Think adults covered in dish wash soap and a big water slide)No pictures of those unfortunately. God is so kind to us and even though I am struggling with a complaining heart these days, writing blogs like this help to remind me of His goodness and kindness.

So ready for a throw up of pictures? I have been pretty bad about taking my camera with me to places but this is what I have of summer 2008. I am trying to be better about the Fall. It starts with just a random pictures of some people from nyc coming down for a wedding/slash my birthday. Poor girlies just collapsed as soon as they arrived to MD!


My wonderful mom during my birthday dinner.
Emmm Kar bee- its a korean BBQ. Probably one of my favorite meals to eat besides sushi.

One of the events that I do at work is the annual Staff picnic. This year was so much fun! The greatest compliment that you can get as a event planner is that your event was the most fun they have ever had...by kids! One of my pastors came up to me and said that his son said "Dad it's impossible to have any more fun next year then I did this year!" (Be still my heart)
Katherine (my co-worker) and one of my other co-worker's son. Soo cute! Katherine is probably one of the most godliest women I know and have the honor of encountering with on a daily basis. When I grow up I want to be just like her! (Too bad she is younger than me-what does that say about me?)



Matt took me to a butterfly exhibition at Brookside gardens. It was sooo beautiful! There were HUNDREDS of butterflies everywhere and I absolutely loved it. Even Matt was entertained. We wished that we could've stayed in there for hours on end, but unfortunately it was a jungle-temperature in the exhibition so we only stayed for oh..one hour. =D


Please excuse Matt's clothing- we went right after his Brazilian Jujitsu class
Then on September 16th, we celebrated our two year anniversary! I can't believe how fast the time goes. God has been so kind to us and continues to bless us and our marriage. Its the best thing I have ever done with my life so far and I am so blessed to be married to this man! We celebrated by going to where else? One of our favorite sushi places in MD called Sushi Sono in Columbia. It was also where we had our first AND second date..hehe.


First thing, I suck at picture taking. Really I do if you don't know by now. Probably because my practice comes only through taking pictures of my husband or food. I really need lessons- so I apologize for the blurriness!

This past weekend we went up to nyc for a wedding, my wonderful friend Yvonne got married. She was probably one of the most elegant brides I have ever seen.
The happy couple. They came into the reception walking to "We are the champions song" while the groom held a WWF champion belt and the bride doing a motion of "bring it on" sort of attitude. I love them!! By the way, is there a correlation with a Taiwanese wedding and the color pink? This is yet another Taiwanese wedding that I went to where everything was pink. Just wondering...

Some girlies from Remnant Westside church. Man.. brings back goooooddd memories.

Our gracious hosts. James was kind enough to let us stay at his place (his building has some SNL celebrities living there plus US weekly Editor in chief) and Mizy kept buying us food! The cupcakes from Magnolia bakery was...INSANE. *droolllll Can't wait until their wedding!
Upcoming posts, once our jacuzzi comes in our contractor will start on our bathroom renovation! We are super excited, we are pretty much gutting everything and making it new. Finally one of our house projects are going to get done. I will DEFINITELY be taking pictures of before and after. But then again I might not be interested in posting up the before since its gross...

Getting old and the Great American Detox Diet

Hope everyone had a good weekend!
Matt, my sister Cindy and I went to Bethany Beach in Delaware this past weekend for a last, summer beach event and had a blast. Matt's company rented out a 7 bedroom beach house right on the beach, and it was wonderful. We went out to the beach, went Jet skiing and ate LOTS of food of course.

I am hoping that my sister will send some pictures so I could show you the pictures of the biggest crabs I have ever seen. Since last year I have been allergic to crabs and now i cannot eat them anymore. =(
Whenever I eat them I have the worst stomach cramps and some other unmentionable body functions. These crabs might have been worth the pain but we were planning to travel home that night so I figured it wouldn't be so wise to be that sick when planning to sit in the car for 3 hours.

Matt's boss has his own boat and 3 jet skiis that he allows his guests to use freely so my sister was out on the jet skii literally for like HOURS (glad to know that she had so much fun!)

Now after a month of HORRIBLE eating, and Matt starting to train again for Brazilian Jiujitsu, we have to start eating healthy again. I have been reading this book called the Great American Detox diet. Its written by Alex Jamieson, the wife of the guy who did SuperSize Me.

She is a vegan chef who apparently was able to get him back in shape within a matter of 8 weeks using her recipes. Before I have started to eat a little more like how she suggests and I could feel the difference in my body. I stopped craving nasty, oily foods and would even start to have reactions when I would eat them.
Now i start to get headaches if I eat something too salty and feel uncomfortable if I don't eat enough fruits and vegetables.

So with a little encouragement Matt have decided to not go Full blast vegan, but geared towards more vegetarian. So if anything we will have meat like probably 3 times a week, and then the rest of the protein will come from beans and tofu.

Ever since I turned 25 I feel like my body has been falling apart slowly. I really need to invest in taking care of it so I am in tip top shape when I am in my 50s. I would hate to retire and then physically be in a condition where I can't do anything!

Some recipes (at least the ones that we like) i will post to share.

Coming updates

Sorry i seriously need to update. There have been alot of stuff going on and in the midst of enjoying novels, Olympics, Matt getting sick and working, working, working.

I have some pictures to post soon I promise. Also get this: we are attempting to be vegetarian!

Ahh the joys of getting old..

So I am never going to have a crazy weekend like I did last weekend ever again..EVER.
To make long story short: I watched a midnight showing of Batman the movie, 8k run, picked up my sister from Dulles Airport, worked Sat. and Sunday, and came into work on Friday morning at 5:30am to set up for The Mill. Did I mention I got 10 hours of sleep in 3 days during the midst of this?

The result of all this is my body came crumbling down. It took a week for me to finally recover. My body reacted with a bacteria infection (which I will not get into), a cold sore and some extremely sore muscles all over.

The problem is that I could do something like that in college perfectly fine. I would just need one day to recover and then everything will get back in schedule. I feel like ever since I turned 25 my body has just slowly been deteriorating. Not only do I have to care about what i eat but I actually have sleep decent amount now?
It kind of sucks realizing that your body can't stay the same forever.
My husband however still remains to be my Superman. He worked a 65 hour week this week in order to have all his projects turned in time. He would wake up at 5am, and then come home at 10pm. He comes home early on Friday, and instead of relaxing he proceeds to work weeding out in the lawn for 4 hours! Even in the midst of all this he was able to care for my body and soul while I was sick, even praying for me in the morning before he would leave for work. I am SO BLESSED to have this man in my life.

On a happy note we finally decided on a contractor so we will happily be shopping to redo our bathroom! Our masterbathroom now consists of a small shower, toilet and a two sink vanity. Instead we are going to rip everything out, put in a jacuzzi tub with one sink vanity and a new toilet. We will put some new fresh tiles on the walls and hopefully put some marble flooring.

I am soo excited! There will definitely be before and after pictures to come.

Batman: The Dark Knight

Two words: TOTALLY AWESOME.

Probably the best comic book movie I have EVER seen.

I have always been faithful to certain Marvel and DC Comic characters, with Batman being one of them. It astounished me how true to the real characters from the comic book they made in the movie.

I LOVE how they portrayed Batman and the Joker. They really portrayed the Joker out to be a psychotic serial killer that he really is in the comic book.

I had NO idea Heath Ledger was such a good actor. Everything I've seen him in I never thought that he was good, just another pretty face getting on simply by his looks.

This movie is defintiley for the people who grew up reading the comics at its popularity peak- and have grown up not to be able to enjoy the Comic book medium anymore. So here is the more "adult version."

I slept only 1.5 hours because of this movie (got home 3:30am, had to be at work at 5:30am)

IT WAS ABSOLUTELY WORTH IT.

I love this feeling, the feeling after you watch a movie so good there really is nothing about it you think they should change about it.

Happiness...

I survived a Japanese Game show...

This is probably my new favorite show.
I will still have my love for Anthony Bourdain in No reservations, and Andrew Zimmern for his Bizzarre Foods show, but seriously no matter how sarcastic Bourdain gets nothing is as amusing as Americans making fools of themselves on tv in a foreign land for money.

"Survived A Japanese Game Show has begun shooting in Japan and will premiere TUESDAY, JUNE 24 (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET) on ABC. This unscripted reality/game show takes an eye-opening, behind-the-scenes look at 10 Americans - many of whom have never traveled outside the United States -- who are whisked away to Japan and compete in the ultimate Japanese game show...with hilarious results. The final winner will take home $250,000. "

http://abc.go.com/summer/isurvivedajapanesegame/index

Seriously- the Japanese never ceases to amaze me. They are the only ones in the world where people in expensive suits are probably sitting in a high rise building in conference rooms and getting excited about an idea to put people in chicken costumes so they could pop egg balloons with their butt- and make money off of it.

May I also suggest searching on You tube "Human Tetris"

God's Absolute Provision

Yesterday was just a another wonderful day to see evidences of God's mercy and absolute sovereignty. He truly is the living and active God.

I talked to my sister for a bit last night over AIM. She was still in Vietnam so she had access to the Internet. But after she had her money stolen she was telling me the story of how she was able to retrieve her passport and license back.
A cleaning lady found it in the trash can in the bathroom after her wallet was stolen and after running around frantically a guard who had seen the lost passport recognized my sister and called her over to tell her that he found it.
Then when she was not able to get onto the plane because she had lost her visa, a citizen of Vietnam was on the plane and somehow that person was able to help my sister board the plane.

Then if this wasn't enough- the whole day that she was there neither her, or her team members spent ANY money. Through connections of the team leader, they were able to receive free lunch, boarding for the night, internet and dinner, and breakfast the following morning. They were also able to receive free transportation while they were there as well.

God is so kind!

Through my conversation with my sister I was encouraged myself at how amazing it is that God just orchestrated everything. After sharing the news to my co-workers there were so many words of encouragement and prayer for my sister and her team! God even went as far as gathering a group of people who were going to consistently pray for this team while they are in Cambodia!
Those prayers and the lessons that my sister will learn through this trip is worth so much more than any amount of money she could have lost.

My husband and I are so encouraged through this as well. It makes us love our church so much more. It encourages us that even though my co-workers and caregroup do not know my sister, out of love for Christ they are willing to pray for her and her team.
What an honor it is to be a part of this church, to have this community so early in our lives. We would've been grateful if we had found it after years of being alone, at the end of our stay here on earth but the privilege to have it so early- what a wonderful gift and blessing!

Please continue to pray for my sister and her team. She will be meeting with ladies (or rather extremely young girls) who have been victims of the sex trade industry.
These girls were either sold or have been brain washed into this industry at such an early age and therefore have no sense of identity.
My sister had mentioned that they like to make crafts (particularly jewelry crafts) because it gives them a sense of femininity that they have lost so early in their lives. Please pray that my sister and her team will be able to reach out to these girls, that Jesus had died on the cross for them because He loves them, and that they will be able to find their identity and purpose in life through the cross.

Please also continue to pray for the team's safety- physical, mental and spiritual. That they will not get sick and that they will be able to return home safe and sound, outside of the grasp of those people who wishes harm upon them.

A Prayer request from Vietnam and Cambodia

For those of you who do not know:
my sister Cindy is currently on a missions trip to Vietnam and Cambodia.
Her team are going to be leading a missions trip that is geared towards reaching out to victims of sex trafficking in South east Asia.

On her way over there she had a layover in Hong Kong and while checking her e-mail she had her wallet stolen. Thankfully they were able to retrieve her passport and license but everything else was taken away. So right now she does not have cash and she does not have any credit cards.
My mother is in the process of working out the bank details on her behalf in the states but right now needless to say all of us are a little frazzeled.

In times like this we have to remember God's kindness and faithfulness. But when you are in a country you have never been to, in a place where you don't know the language, and you do not have means of your own money- it is needless to say anxiety, panic attacks and worry are all real emotions to deal with.

Please pray that God will give her joy and peace during this time. Also please pray that He will provide everything she needs and then some during this trip. Finally that she will be able to come home safe and sound.
I am so proud of her because in her last e-mail she said that she knows that she needs to have faith in the Lord right now, that He will provide everything for her. She chose our Lord and Savior in the midst of her difficult trial and I am so proud to call her my sister.

She has said that she had never been put into a situation where she was solely depending on the Lord for money- and means to live everyday. Thankfully there are two other ladies with her on the team and they are willing to support her at the moment. But please pray that she will be able to completely depend on the Lord, that there will be no anxiety or worry in her because our Lord is faithful.

I am also completely encouraged at my work place. All my co workers have been coming up to me and asking for details on how they could pray for her better. Again the Lord is reminding me of how fortunate I am to be working here at Covenant Life. How blessed I am for working with Christians who loves the Lord and who believes in the power of prayer.

In the midst of all of this God is again showing himself of how faithful He really is. How fortunate we are to be called His children!

So how do you start a blog?

I don't really know where to begin.
I started out with Xanga.com 6 years ago as a freshmen in college.
I really enjoyed updating it while I was in college. Then people moved to Myspace.

I swore never to open up a myspace and to be honest I am really glad that I never did. (Aka all the stalker stories gave me a resolute never to do anything like that)

But people have been mentioning that ever since I moved away and got married its been harder and harder to keep in touch. Since people no longer do Xanga anymore I decided to do facebook. But you can't really "discuss" anything on facebook.
There is the constant "updates" and the one liners but no real conclusive intellectual thought gets expressed.

So after debating for a long time I guess I have succumbed into peer pressure and opened up a blog.

And lets be honest not every blog will be something extremely intelligent and forward thinking. There will be blogs about food, cooking and traveling. Basically my interests, goals, and random thoughts: thus the phrase "brain farts."

So here we go! Lets see how this venture starts.