Belated!

So we missed an entry for our 2nd year anniversary! Actually we both forgot about it haha! It wasn't until I went to work and got onto my computer did I see on Google Calendar that it was our anniversary date! I immediately called Nancy at her work.

Me: Hi hunny!!

Nancy: Hi...what's up?

Me: Happy 2nd Year Anniversary!!

Nancy: Oh yeah!!!!! hahahaha Happy Anniversary!

I mean, it's not like our marriage is on the rocks and we don't care about the happiest day of our lives. We just got a little caught up in the busy-ness of a Tuesday. Nancy likes to celebrate our original anniversary of when I first asked her out, March 12th. I told her it's time to let that one go but she still likes to remind me haha.

We decided to go out that night to Lucille's BBQ in Culver City to celebrate. It was a good night out for ribs and cornbread. Nothing too fancy but we were saving up for our Bucket List trip to New York in July. I'll have Nancy detail out in the next entry about that trip with some pics.

~Mike

Bon Anniversaire!

Life always goes by fast when you're with the one you love. Mike and I had our first year anniversary this past Monday and we celebrated it by dinner at Gloria's Cafe. Not the most posh place, even Mike's dad suggested that we go somewhere nicer another time (funny guy, huh? haha), but given our exam schedules spending time at a fancy restaurant wasn't quite one of our options. The most important thing was for us to enjoy each other's company and have one of our favorite meals together. :)

Some folks asked us if we ate our wedding cake at the 1 yr mark. Truth be told, we did quite the unconventional and had it on our 6 month anniversary! Believe it or not, it was delicious. Of course, it was tastier on our wedding day though. The thought of waiting another 6 months to eat the cake actually kind of grossed me out. We still have the last of our wedding favors sitting in our fridge. I'm sure the John Kelly chocolates are still edible, but I really don't want to take apart the favor box with the cute bow. I am still very pleased with how they came out. :D

Here's to many more wonderful years together!

End of Summer, Beginning of Fall

Hello blogworld!

Much has happened through the summer and into September. Nancy has finished her first rotation at Loma Linda for her 4th year and now is working at Costco in LA. Instead of staying the week in LL, she gets to commute from our home. Speaking of commuting, we now have a new 2010 Silver Rav4 for her to drive. I think Toyota cars are great. They're a great drive and very durable. We bought our Rav4 at Puente Hills Toyota. I swear we're never going back there again. I didn't like the experience we had there and regret not sticking with Russ from Hamer Toyota. I posted on yelp as well.

Puente Hills Toyota Yelp

But at least some good came out of it. We found two new restaurants, Boston Cafe, and Boston Kitchen. Boston Kitchen was pretty good when we had breakfast there. It was a classic Hong Kong style breakfast of soup noodles and sandwiches. Anyway, this is turning into a review so I'm going to skip the details.

On Labor Day, Nancy and I met up with the Tong family with Aunt Jane and Uncle Ken in Las Vegas for the F&W Associates company trip. We stayed at the Mandalay Bay and had a fun time at the Wave Pool. The craps tables were kind to me as well and we took the family out to Olives @ Bellagio. They really enjoyed the experience. I ended up $475 from the tables but after shopping at our favorite place, Tangier Outlets, I was probably down to $150 haha.

For my birthday Nancy took me to Disneyland. We were lucky our friend Tracy works for Disney and got us park hopper tickets as well. I had a great time because a lot of 9/13 babies were there and were very friendly. It was like a community from young to old, all of us were born on that day. We discovered Dole Whip Float by the Tiki Room and it really hits the spot on a hot September day. We got the drink twice! In addition, all the Disneyland people were saying happy birthday to me and that really was pretty special. Even Peter Pan during the parade celebration gave me a thumbs-up happy birthday wish. As cheesy as that was, I felt pretty cool haha.

Final Thought: The weather is turning colder now (well cold for LA anyway) and the chilly feeling of Fall is coming. I sort of like this weather. The leaves begin to fall, the rain starts to come around and I get the hint of the holidays around the corner. Football season is here and UCLA basketball is a comin'! This time of year is great because I think people come closer together and see each other more. There's more festivities to lighten the season and in the cold season of winter, the company of family and friends will keep us warm. Bring on the holidays!!

Part 1 of Nancy & Mike's Wedding slideshow

Wow. Where has the time gone?

Married life has been fantabulous! We have been super busy with our family after the return of our honeymoon. I guess everyone just wants to hang out with the "newlyweds"!

A huge update awaits!

Valentines Day Special

Happy Valentines Day!

Mike and I celebrated our 5th Valentines together by eating lunch at Louises and enjoying each other's sweet company. :)


We meant to take pictures of our delicious food, but realized we forgot to after we took our first few bites. That always happens when our stomachs are impatient!

For appetizer, we ordered the lemon-buttered sea scallops- a Valentines special. The dish only had 4 scallops. By the time we remembered to take pictures, we had already eaten 2! These scallops were simply melt-in-your mouth amazing!

One of my favorite things about Louises is they give you very special bread with a olive oil and basalmic vinegar sauce. We had about 3 rounds of these and snuck some in our to-go boxes.

Mike ordered their lasagana. It doesn't look that appetizing, but that's because he already destroyed the backside (if you look closely) within seconds of getting the dish.

I ordered their cajun jambalaya with italian sausage, shrimp, and chicken. I had expected it to be spicier since it's "cajun" style, but it was hardly spicy at all. Still good though. Yes, I admit, I took a few bites too, but by the time I remembered to take these pictures, I was already 3/4 full from eating so much bread!

And last but not least, I present to you our dessert- red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting! By far, my favorite dessert EVER, of all time! And by then, I was so full that I actually remembered to take a picture BEFORE we started eating. :)

~Nancy

Moving Along!

Well we're in February now and a lot of things are moving along. Last week we got our rings back from the jeweler, Gaspar Jewelers. I went with the 14K Gold Satin band with milgrain channels, rounded edges, comfort fit. Nancy got a half eternity band with 14 diamonds. She still wants to round her edges so we'll probably take it back for remolding. But here it is!




Sweetness yeah? We also took some free engagement pictures with Ashleigh in Beverly Hills on Super Bowl Sunday. Apparently, there are people that don't watch the game and wander around the 90210 haha. You can see one of the pics shown at the top of the post.

Everything but our invitations are running smoothly. Doug, our photographer is set to take our pictures in march and I gotta set up a taste test for our reception food soon too. Our invites on the other hand are stuck. One thing is linked to another and I don't even know what blue or pink we have anymore! I swear Nance just asks me about other similar colors to make it complicated -_-. Oh well.

The groomsmen are coming through and that makes me pretty happy. I'm excited to see what they have planned. Whatever it is, I'm sure it'll be fun.

That's it for now!

~Mike

http://ashleightaylorphotography.wordpress.com/

5 more months!

Yes, you read that right!! Exactly 5 months from now, Mike and I will have already exchanged our vows and be taking pictures with our family and friends in front of our amazing gazebo. I would most likely have already smeared my makeup by this time from being overfilled with joy and emotion. 

 

As time is winding down, things are slowly beginning to come together. There are really a lot of surprises for our guests (and us too!) that I really think will make our wedding unique. :) 

And btw, we're no longer having a Tiffany blue wedding and we are a lot happier. Sometimes in the midst of the wedding planning, you forget what's most important to you and in the end, the decisions that are made aren't meant to please anyone but ourselves and our families. So we don't care if you don't like our new colors, dresses, flowers, or anything. This is our wedding and this is how it's gonna be! :D 

 RAWR!

Tiffany Blue Wedding

Yes, that's right. After 3 potential color schemes later, we've finally decided on our colors! Tiffany blue and pink, with accents of ivory, brown, and green!

And the planning has begun!

So our date is set and our deposit to our venue has been submitted. It's official- we are getting married on June 28, 2009 at the Pacific Palms Resort!

This place is perfect and absolutely stunning. I don't think Mike and I could be any happier. We visited tons of chinese restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley area and even collected all their banquet menus. There's one place I won't ever forget- the Elite Restaurant on Atlantic Blvd. Don't get me wrong, the owner was really friendly, but he insisted that we could fit all of our 150 guests in the small restaurant, even if it meant setting up tables in the already crowded hallway. Um, thanks, but no thanks. Sadly, none of these restaurants had what we wanted. We wanted a place that had a Western ballroom setting and yet offered a Chinese banquet menu. The only exception would have been Mission 261. That place has got the best chinese food (ok, well, dimsum) in town! Their decor is decent and food is delicious. For the whole duration of our meal, we happily chattered about the possibility of having our reception there, but the situation was out of our hands...Mission 261 will be closing for the 2009 year for remodeling. :(

The San Gabriel Hilton was able to offer the grand ballroom with a Chinese banquet reception to us. Unfortunately, their menu prices were beyond reasonable and the ceremony site on their rooftop wasn't quite what I had in mind. You see, summer wedding and a rooftop ceremony don't really go together. Our guests would either 1) sunburn, in which case, we might have to consider offering sunblock or rent umbrellas at $45 a piece, 2) sweat in their nice clothes, or 3) feel extremely uncomfortable under the sweltering hot sun. Hmm... yeah, another thanks, but no thanks. Though I must say, their ballroom reception room was beautiful, but I wasn't willing to sacrifice a not-so-mediocre ceremony site for that! And so we kept looking....

Until one day (ok, maybe the same day we visited Elite, Mission 261, and all the other big restaurants in SG valley), we visited the Pacific Palms Resort. A friend had recommended this place to me and I've come across PP several times during my internet search for wedding sites, but I had been left with the impression that PP would be very, very expensive. Nonetheless, Mike and I decided to take a look. We fell in love with the place immediately. The view of the ceremony site was breathtaking, the reception room had these hight ceilings and huge windows (we love huge windows!), and even better, they had a Chinese banquet menu option. The menu prices did originally scare us off, but fortunately, we were able to haggle with the wedding coordinator and even got some freebies! :)

I can't wait to get the ball rolling on all the other planning!!

Her Story

i carry your heart with me

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

-ee cummings

--------------------

le dreamy sigh.

I had dedicated this poem to Mike for our Valentines celebration back in 2006 . Little did I know that more than 2 years later, Mike would be reciting this poem to me as part of his scheme to get me to marry him. :) Yes, I do admit, I did accuse him of being "mushy." But hey, what was I to think? We had just completed a 2 mile hike and I was tired. I only wanted some peace and quiet...just some time to sit, relax, and admire the grand waterfall. And when Mike decided to cut the poem short and pop the question, it felt as if the whole world paused for my answer. I couldn't believe what was happening right before my eyes. MIKE WAS ASKING ME TO MARRY HIM!! I was afraid I'd give him the wrong impression and wanted to say "yes" right away. I've known for the longest time that we'd be soulmates and this was seriously the moment that I've been waiting for. But problem was, a frog jumped in my throat or something cus I was at a lost for words. I was completely speechless. What seemed like minutes to me, only lasted seconds. I was finally able to squeak out a "yes, hunny." And now, Mike and I are officially engaged!!

In less than 1 year, I will officially get to be Mrs. Nancy Tong! Wowowow. It felt so cool writing that! Lucky for me, the F and T look somewhat similar, so at least I get to keep my signature. :)

The Proposal - Waimoko Falls

On August 8th, 2008, Mike and Nancy drove the Hana Highway on the North Shore of Maui to Oheo Gulch and the Seven Waterfalls. Upon arriving at 2pm, they began their 2-mile hike up the mountain towards Waimoko Waterfall, a 400ft waterfall.

(The backpack actually goes on the other side)

After 1.2 Miles, we arrive at a beautiful bamboo forest



Finally after crossing a stream, we arrived at Waimoko Falls. It was a stunning sight and Nancy took a seat on a rock at the base of the waterfall. Mike had other plans and climbed up a grassy knoll and called for Nancy to come up. Nancy, being already comfortably sitting, refused to budge and took pictures of Mike instead.



On his final begging, Mike was able to convince Nancy to come up. Begrudgingly, she took her time climbing up while Mike secretly hid the video camera behind him on a rock.

On the Eastern Coast of Maui, at the foot of a 400 ft waterfall on August 8th, 2008, he began reading a poem "I Carry Your Heart" by e.e. cummings to her. Asking why he was being so mushy, Nancy stopped him from finishing. Then the following happens:

In Nancy's own words, "I came up the mountain as your girlfriend, and now I come down as your fiancee'!"

*Did you know the man getting married is Fiance and the woman is Fiancee?? Wiki that.

New Beginnings

Hello world!

Nancy and I got engaged last friday 8/8/08 and we've decided to start blogging our lives together! Check back here for our story and our updates!

~Mike