If only

Having a baby is as easy as buying a car.

Good Attitude

I have some thinking a few days ago.

I shared to Bill when we went out for a walk.

I've been thinking that everything has come in place so perfectly, to make me like living in Seattle.

Moving is a big thing, and when you move to a different country for the rest of your life, and being away from your comfort zone, it is not easy.

But ever since I came here, everything was just so nice.

Once I got here we traveled to San Fransisco, 

I started school, and made some really good friends, and actually got decent grades,

It was snowing during thanksgiving, and more in December and January.

Bill took me snowboarding, and I actually LIKE it,

I discovered quilting, and love it, and supplies are easy to get here.

I took the Nursing Assistant class, and practice in nursing home and hospital, and enjoyed it,

Went snowshoeing and also LIKE it,

Fabulous friends and study group in school,

Passed driver's license test and NAC state certification test,

etc.

It's not that I never had a bad times, because I do have some bad times, and some bad mood, and some temper tantrum, and some hard times.

But somehow good things came together, and makes me love living here even more.

After I share all these, Bill said: "Well, it's also because you have a good attitude."

"What do you mean by attitude?"

"You are open minded and eager to try everything."

"But I sulked a lot of times too."

"Yes, but it's okay, you still have a good attitude."

I gave his words a thought, and find it true.

Good attitude is necessary.

Being open minded and positive thinking is important.

If you feel good about something, it is easy to make things works.

Great life starts with good attitude.

Life is Great !

Wedding

The happiness of our wedding day, on April 2, 2011 is still lingering on my memory. It always brought a smile to my face.It started early, the sky was still dark when Bill drove me to Seni's house to get my make up done, while he slept on the room next door.

The make up was perfect, Seni's talented hand applied all the essentials so the make up will stay for the whole day. It was soft, but with color. It was colorful, but not over the top. She did a great job on the eye. Few pallets she used to mix the color did show a good result, and the false eyelashes makes it perfect. I thank her for this, and did I mentioned that she trimmed my eyebrows and shaped it so it really fits my face ? I still continue her work of art until today.

The preparation of the wedding went all the way back to last November, when Bill and I started to look for a place to have the wedding. We both are in school, and pretty much busy with homework and study almost all the time. We want the wedding to be as simple as possible, yet memorable.

We looked into some places nearby our house, we browsed for some other possible places. Some are too big, some are too small, some are too costly. Until we find Skanzonia, an old docked boat in Lake Union. It was perfect setting for our wedding. It was on the lake, it is docked so no one will get sea sick, the view was facing Seattle's space needle, and it's only 15 minutes away from our house. To make it more perfect, they have their own caterers, which bring us less trouble to find a good caterer. Yay! No hassle to find a caterer and deal with them.

Beautiful view from the boat.

The DIY invitation are bought from an artsy-crafty store near our house. We print out the desired texts on the paper provided, and sticks all part together, put our pictures in, print out people's address, stick them all together, and send it from the post office.Simple and nice.

Clothes we wear on the ceremony

The dress for wedding ceremony in Holy Family Church is Kebaya. I got it made back in last June, by my neighbour in Indonesia. I just want it to be white, and with color, and pretty. The shoes that were wore with kebaya are made in a shoe shop in Indonesia for $30. Comfortable and pretty.

Bill's suit for both ceremony and reception was made in Shanghai, and he wore them for my brother's wedding back in 2009. Batik ties is purchased when he came over in the same year.

Reception dress I got from Etsy and the boots 

The dress for the reception was a vintage boat neck dress I got from Etsy. When my mom came, she put some beads on it, and makes it even prettier. The bow are made by me (with my mom's help). The cowboy boots accompany the dress was from back in October 2010, when I fell in love with cowboy boots for the first time. The decision to wear boots was the best decision I made. It was so comfortable, I was able to enjoy the party without any pain on my feet, without being barefooted.

Wedding bouquet and wrist corsages

As for the flowers, I was talking to my Maid of Honor, Michelle, that I am looking for a place to find a cheap flowers. And she offered to do my flowers. It will be cheaper of course, as she don't want to get paid to do it. I told her our budget for flowers, and what kind of flowers I wanted, and she made it ALL came true. I love tiger lilies (some called it Oriental lilies), and the arrangement should be simple. The hand bouquet should be just stems of lilies, tied by ribbon. Flowers for the table can be any kind in assorted colors. The vase should be just simple, and can be in all different shapes. She do extra effort to go all the way to Ikea in Renton to get beer mugs as the vase, tied it with fuschia and pink ribbon, and for the flowers, she got me another tiger lilies ! My favourite! And the good thing is no flowers got wasted. We encouraged our guests to bring home a vase of flowers with them.

We have fabulous Naomi as our photographer. She is a friend of Bill's, she is eager to do wedding photo shot, and we truly trust her.We bought a briefly used, and higher level Canon DSLR camera, and some nice lenses, and we give it for her to practice, two weeks before the wedding. Things goes both ways, she practiced hard with our camera, and we're not being demanding, and the pictures are gorgeous.We are fully satisfied, and now we have nice camera and lenses as a result.

Flower and table runner

The batik table runner for the dining table are made by my mom. Some Indonesian culture.

Sign in here !

My dad brought some colorful wayang bookmarks for our guests to bring home, they are from Jogjakarta. Another Indonesian culture, not to forget that it is useful.Guest book was a black moleskin book bought in a bookstore. We stick pictures on it, and my mom did some writings on it. The big photo album was made by me in 2007, as our 1st anniversary presents for Bill.

Coconut cream cake - amazing cake topper

The cake was from Metropolitan Market. White and delicious coconut cream cake, and the fabulous cake topper is a wedding gift from my cousin, Monique. Perfect.

Fun time

The combination of our desire of a simple and beautiful wedding, surrounded by helpful and talented people around us, and our good attitude about everything definitely erase the words stress from the preparation process.

We enjoy the reception on the boat, keep moving around to greet family and friends, enjoying delicious food, and companion. We danced, we laughed, we had fun.

A wedding is only one day, Marriage is a LIFE TIME.

Reasons to live

There are lots of reasons why I don't want to die:

1. I don't want Bill to live alone without me :)
2. My parents are still alive, and I should be the one who send them away
3. Too many places I haven't visit.
4. Pancakes, Indonesian food, Michelle's homemade spaghetti sauce, Marcia's chicken soup, Zelah's stir fry asparagus with meat, my mom's homemade food, and tons of millions of food I love.
5. Muffin my boy, all my pride and joy.
6. My blog, who will continue to write on them ?
7. Nice warm weather every summer, snow in the winter, falling leaves during fall, and the blooming flowers in the spring.
8. Silly and funny moments with Bill
9. etc
10. etc
11. etc

Live life to the fullest, Laugh as there's no tomorrow, Love one another.

I marry bill for the 2nd time, yesterday !!

It was April 2, 2011,
I marry Bill again for the 2nd time, this time at the Church.

Everything went really well !
Make up was done by the talented Seni Jehnsen, and hair was done by Linda.
Flowers are done by my maid of honor, Michelle Cereghino.

I wear Kebaya for the ceremony in the Church,
and a short dress with cowboy boots for the reception.

The food are great, the guests are awesome, the weather was nice (no rain !), and the flowers are gorgeous.
Everything is perfect to what I pictured it to be.

I am such a lucky girl.
And Bill is one lucky gentleman to have me as his wife :)
And I love my wedding ring, I can't stop staring at it !

I will post some pictures later, once I retrieve the files from our fabulous photographer Naomi Parker.

it is okay

During life, you will encounter a lot of people

And you develop relationship with them
you become close, and they became your friends

Some are best friends, good friends, old friends, study friends, and some are true friends.

As time goes by, you see things are different.

Maybe they grow so fast and you are not,

or you feel like you are growing, and they stay in the same place.

And you feel things changed.

You don't interact with them in the same way you did before.

Comments became irritating, insulting, hurting.

You got frustrated to share ideas, opinion, or even just being you,
 and sometimes you just don't want to say anything, to avoid arguments.
And then you came to a realization.

You've grown apart.

We are no longer in the same places.

We are no longer able to share a good conversation, without wanting to hurt each other.

We are no longer enjoy each other companion.

And it is okay.

The statement "friends are forever" is not true.

And if you count the amount of people you've became friends with,
you'll see that not all of them are still your friends today.

They may became enemies, or those who you consider as "People that I used to know"

And it is okay.

This doesn't mean that you have to hate them,

or to cut the relationship with them.
They can still be a friend,
or those people you used to know.
No one is to be blamed on.

It's just you go into a different direction.
You just have to accept that. 

Therefore words of jealousy won't hurt you.

Comments won't be irritating.

Just because you've known them for years,
and they were your best friends before,
doesn't mean they will be forever.

And it's fine. 

There is nothing wrong with it.
People change, and changes are good.

Because in life you will find a true friends.
True friends are there to stay.

Together you grow to become a better person.

True friends cherish each other, and be happy for each other, and mourn together.

True friends don't get jealous, or underestimate you.

True friends are there whenever, ready to catch you when you fall.

They are proud for your accomplishments.

This is an important understanding that I got today.

And I feel so much better.

I will be happy no matter what.
I have true friends, best friends, study partner, people that I used to know, etc

Life is great and growing is an essence of life !

May you all be happy.