I realize that it has been months. We’ve had a lot of stuff going on, so I’ll try to cover it…

To start with, our best friend JJ died. This was probably a couple months ago, and we don’t like to talk about it, but a couple people have wanted to hear about it. We don’t know exactly what happened, we just came home and he was sleeping in his bed, but never woke up. Very very sad. The only explanation we may have is some trash he could’ve eaten (but he’s eaten everything and been fine), or the heart problems that plague Jack Russells. We had a little funeral for him and Cole dug him buried him in hundred degree weather.

After a while, I couldn’t handle the quiet any more and went searching for a new friend. I found Lola at the scary shelter (West Valley, of course) where she was the only dog not barking and screaming for attention. Instead, she was sitting in the back of her cage shaking… which is exactly what she did for the first week at home. From what I know of her, she’s about 4, has gingivitis (sad!!, but we she is going to the dentist soon), and appears to have been abused. She’s pretty beat up and is still really afraid of sudden movements and people in general. Lola is another Jack Russell, but is a completely different. She’s extremely calm and lazy: she won’t even fetch and sometimes has smashes into the side of the bed several times before making it up. Overall, she’s very sweet, but it is still a little strange not to see JJ’s little head poking out from under the covers at night.

On a much much happier note…

Probably the biggest of the events would be our wedding. We had a small outdoor ceremony in Boise (beautiful flowers thanks to the ridiculously hard work of Dad and the crew at home) and an hopen house following. It was really nice to be back home, and everything went very smoothly. Nadine and Sandy are mostly to thank for that since, after a certain point, I kind of avoided all of it. We tried to get as much taken care of before leaving Utah as possible, but there was still a lot of running around and preparation after arriving in Boise. I think it turned out very well. Cole, who I think was a little freaked out, didn’t really know a lot of the details and was quite surprised at how well it looked. Good thing he has so much faith in my planning abilities… haha. It really wasn’t me doing much at the end.

We (meaning myself, Dad, Cole, Sandy) started by making all the invitations. The mass production was mainly done at the cabin, yay! While we were there, Alexis turned one. She’s getting so big, it’s ridiculous. She enjoyed her cupcake and had a really good time playing up there. For more, check Dad and Sandy’s blog, here.

On a side note, Cole and I took Alexis to the doctor today for her wellness check and her shots. Shots, obviously, were not her favorite. But, everything else is going well. She’s developing well and knows lots of words for her age. She’s up to 20.5 pounds (25th percentile), and 31.5 inches tall (95th percentile). Again, she’s tall and skinny. Hopefully her freakishly long (and chubby) legs are a reason she isn’t walking yet, who knows. In addition to the roaring, she now says hat, head, cup, up (she can only make so many sounds), and can tell us where her nose is and what the doggie says.

Back to the wedding. We were lucky to have a lot of help and a lot of people come to see/support us. We had Cole’s family as well as our neighbors drive up from Utah, Kim and Winny in from Seattle, Engs from Canada and eveyrwhere else, and a lot of people driving from all over town. I was very very excited to see everyone–it’s been forever, so thank you. While I really didn’t want a fancy, over-the-top wedding, I did get the nice celebration that I wanted. Yummy food, and we got to see lots of people we like. The high school and Asian reunions were funny to see.

We stopped at Mom’s house the day before the wedding and caught a little bit of the Olympics. Cole said something to the extent of, “It felt so weird– sitting in a room full of Asians watching Asians… I’ve never been the minority before…”. Ha. The house also got toilet papered while we were there, which was kind of funny since it was probably not even 10 pm.

We haven’t gotten pictures from our photographer yet, but I’ll be sure to put them up and send out copies to those that want them when we do. Here are just a couple.

After the wedding (Aug. 9th), we left Alexis with Dad, Sandy and the twins (sadly, she refused to learn to walk from them) who were nice enough to watch her. They said she was good; I don’t know how much of that we believe. For our few days off, we went up to the cabin in Donnelly. We love the lake and the mountains, and the relaxation was perfect. Cole and I got to jet ski, swim, bike, ice skate and obsess over Michael Phelps and the entire US team at the Olympics. He’s a freak of nature, by the way. It was perfect. We love it up there.

And now, sadly, we are back in Utah and both back to work. School is starting next week though; we are both really excited. Me more than Cole I guess. We were lucky enough to get Alexis into a really good childcare program on campus for the few hours a week that I will be in class. I’m a little afraid of daycare, but hopefully it will help her gain some much needed social skills and it will be really nice to be learning things again.

And to Nadine… Probably the strangest thing to happen so far is my new hobby. Haha, as much as I hate it (and really, I do), I’ve been going to the gym and running. Seriously. For all those who know me, they should be well aware of my aversion to any physical activity. But, I’ve been bored and sitting on the couch eating ice cream hasn’t been cutting it. So ha Nadine, I’m up to about 5 miles a day, almost every day. It wouldn’t happen without the iPod. Within the last week, I’ve watched the first Harry Potter and have made it through a good portion of the first Lord of the Rings.

This is probably the longest blog <ever>, and hopefully I’ve gone over some of the more important points of our lives. Again, thanks so much to everyone for coming to the wedding and for all your help.

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