John and Laura's Wedding, March 30 2008

Yes, I have my Scottie back. He came back last night and not a minute too soon. We stayed up to 1:30 am because he had so much he wanted to share about his trip and I had so much to talk about my weekend. Yesterday was a very full day. I've been working nights and then running crazy in the mornings. I canceled on a baby birthday party and stayed home just to catch a quick nap before heading off to Hale Koa hotel for John and Laura's wedding.

I always attend the friday night church service so I hadn't met laura before she started asking about wedding services. But, now that I have met her, I just think she is the most adorable thing. She's sweet and so easygoing. Her fiance (ahem...I mean husband) John, looks so serious and then he opens his mouth and it is wisecrack after wisecrack. He's really funny (and I'm married to Scott so I just everyone by his humor). And she just laughs and laughs.

I volunteered to help with their ceremony, because (1) I've been too busy to feel like I was really devoting enough time to helping them plan it and (2) I've never really seen Ralph perform a wedding. I mean, he did mine, but it was all kind of a blur and I don't remember much of it.

The only hitch I could see was they were really on the fence about having a communion. Not a big deal, unless they decided at the last second they wanted communion and I wasn't ready. Second hitch in the plans is that the parking lot is far away from the ceremony site. So, a tired me had to improvise...with a collapsible wood dinner tray and I needed a solid clean fabric to cover it, so I pulled down my curtain. Oh, if they only knew. There was a bottle of wine in our wine chiller, it could have been ours, it have been Stanton's, but, whatever, I opened it. Never opened a bottle of wine before in my life. Didn't know that you were supposed to unwrap label at the top before you try to remove the cork. Kept trying to pull that wine opener out and it would just rip through the cork. Thankful that there were not little pieces of cork floating in the wine.

I'm not supposed to make recommendations to people under my position as the wedding coordinator for the church. But, personally, I loved the Hale Koa as a wedding venue. Mind you, the last wedding I helped at was at Ko Olina and my standards are pretty low after that one. But they were unbelievable attentive and gracious. John left the wedding CD in his car and I really should have known to just bring my back up but I didn't think of it until I was halfway to Waikiki. He's trying to figure out how to get his brother to go look for it...and bam...the hotel staff is stepping in...they have wedding music...and it's the same songs that Laura wanted. The sound system was excellent. The best I've heard in an outdoor ceremony.

The wedding photographer was also really nice. What really struck me about the photographer, Alyssa, was that she was very personable and melded right in. She was calling everyone by name (not just the bride and groom) and she didn't draw attention to herself during the ceremony.

Ralph has a policy about starting weddings a little late. To give everyone a chance to be there. 15 minutes before the schedule ceremony start, the bride was itching to go. She wanted to start. She looked at all the seats that were filled and said "let's start, everyone is here." Laura laura, let's wait a little, you're still early. Five minutes later and 20 more guests have filtered in. "Let's go, that's everybody." Are you sure, Laura...let's just give it a little more time...now there is a whole crowd of guests. She was so excited that we just had to cue Ralph and start it. It was really cute and funny.

If I was to get married again (to the same guy), I would consider getting married at the exact same place. I was really glad when it was over, because I had a long day and just wanted to get in my pajamas and lie in bed...but I was also happy because Scott was coming home. *sigh*

(this post is in homage to my sister who say I write too much. pbttt :)~

(this is from my prime lens...No PS editing at all)

(my classic blur pose, that's gina's shoulder in the corner)

(the videographers had crazy crazy equipment everywhere...I barely managed to catch a glimpse of the flower girl, Laura's grand-daughter, peeking at her)

(Laura also sewed her own dress...whoa, nelly)

Don't be surprised if you don't see a cat

Scott is still gone...gone gone to the second best island of Maui (das right, Big Island no ka `oi)...and he took all the cool people I like to hang out with (wait, might that be insulting to the people who are here on Oahu....sorry, of course you are included as part of the cool people)....so I miss him and I have no one to distract myself with. I'm so jealous, I'm planning a two day outing to Big Island in April if anyone wants to come along. Volcano and Waipio Valley. `Nough said.

Our friend and wedding photographer, Nely Fok, is back in town and John-John suggested I ask if I could tag along and watch her work. And, this morning she was doing a portrait session with Megan and her cute little Catholic girl/man-loving cat called "frankie." Unfortunately, Frankie must have sensed I'm not a cat person because she was absolutely set against being in the same room as Nely and me. Hmmm...might have been Nely's laugh and the fact that she almost stepped on the cat multiple times. Nah, it seems to be the sound of the camera shutter that had her spooked.

So, I occupied myself by taking pictures of Megan's furniture. Seriously, if she ever needs it...for whatever strange, out-there reason...I have photos of all her major furniture pieces. And her home does look very beautiful...Nely named it "Pier 1."
(it might not be a cat...but it stays still and it is just as cute)

(cat-less megan)


Ugh, so much to do before tomorrow. I have to cover the children's choir practice and 10 am service song practice for Troy, make more copies of the CD's, sing in the choir, and then run a wedding in the afternoon, dinner with Ted and Mike, and then off to the airport to pick up Scott.

Doesn't really seem like a day off.

Do you like to fluff it up or do you like the wedge? (Memoirs of marriage part 1)

Pre-marital counseling hit the major points but left out some of the little and finer points that you don't discover until you're drenched in marital bliss. One thing we learned Scott and I differ on is the answer to this question:

Do you like the "wedge method" or do you like the "fluff method?"

And, yes, you guess it, we are talking about that wonderful starchy fluffy concoction "rice." I usually like to just cut a wedge of rice and plop the whole wedge on my plate...Scott likes to use a rice paddle and fluff the entire pot of rice. Eh, so minahs. I thought so too until two months into our marriage (i guess that is when the honeymoon fades), it hit me one morning that I hate "fluffed rice." I'm always trying to race to get my rice before someone fluffed it and I'd be so bummed if I didn't make it in time. We had to come up with some sort of compromise...he'll always save me a wedge and fluff up the rest.

Geez, they should cover important things like this in those marriage books.

I've come to realize...

I truly don't like the beach. I love the "during" feeling, but it's the after sandy/salty feeling I hate.

It's my three day weekend in the middle of the week and Scott had yesterday off because of Easter Monday. So we invited my sister and nieces over. She only brought 1 out of the 3 nieces because the other two snuck out the night before. Oooh, so naughty. I lived in a dorm and I only snuck out once in high school. My friends and I sat in the Maluna baseball field dugout for twenty minutes and then went back to bed cause we weren't really sure what you were supposed to do once you were "out."

We tried to dig a pool in the sand for Lauren and she did like it...but she also like crawling in the edge of the water. It's funny but she gets on her stomach and squirms backwards towards the waves until the water rushes up and hits her. She kind of looks like a turtle. When we went off to shower, Scott stepped on a bee and got stung. When he was younger, the doctor did a skin test and told him he was allergic to bees. He used to carry an anaphylactic shock kit around but he said it was so old that he just threw it away. So we were a little worried and kept an eye on him. His foot swelled up and he started getting hives around his neck but it didn't get any worse...so I guess God was watching him.

( I think she ate some sand)



(I call this her filipino bathing suit...she is filipino...waipahu too)

(in the hole scott dug for her...played with textures...but I didn't do anything to her eyes...they're reflecting something cool)



(right after Scott was stung by the mean bee)


that night we had a fun and very very LOUD dinner to celebrate Nely's visit to Hawaii with appearances by Rachel x 2, Stacia, Erin, Tisha(In order of increasing decibals)and many other fun, but maybe quieter people...check out Scott's blog for that one.

Stir crazy at work...Happy Easter!!!

Oh, I'm getting restless. It's Easter Sunday, everyone is at my house having fun and I'm at work. Well...I caught up with a lot of work and now I'm watching the clock tick until 11 pm.

At my job, when you find any type of fingerprints, you transfer them to cards and then you turn them in to the Identification Section. I have lost count of how many of those fingerprint cards I have turned in. They publish a list of "print hits" of all the prints the find matches too. I check every week and nothing...we're lucky if one of our guys gets on the list just once. This week I come in...WOO HOO!!! My name is on that list. FIVE TIMES!!! That's right, baby!!!

It totally validates your job and makes you feel like you're having an impact.

I was so tempted to take a picture of it for my keepsake box...but I'm pretty sure that is a violation of policy. So, I'm reduced to staring at it and taking mental photos.

Let's just say she not named after Hannah Montana!!!

Friday, March 21st, 2001...a very Good Friday indeed!!!

Our lovely friends, Kanani and Carl, are increasing the workload for the children's church ARK. Yesterday was the arrival of little Samantha Maile...pronounced like "Miley" for those of you who also mistakenly thought that she was named after Miley Cyrus. Believe me, I am also slightly disappointed. But I'm glad that she has a strong hawaiian name...that way she can attend Kamehameha Schools and abandon her "english" name. We all do it, it's a requirement for admission.

We visited Kanani and Samantha today. They chose Samantha because it is the feminine version of the name "Samuel." And Samuel heard from God. I think their name choice was really blessed. When we arrived, she was a cute little bundle of hiccups...loud hiccups that sounded like little yipping barks. She didn't stop. Then as I held her, I just prayed out loud over and over again "Jesus, please stop the hiccups" while rubbing her back. And, she stopped. Oooh, this one is going to change the world.

Also there was Amber and Jessica. Scott was over his cold from this last week but he didn't want to take chances. So he was banished to sit in the corner where I heard sick grandpa also had to sit. I think he was glad to be ousted though when the talk turned to topics like labor and breast-feeding.

Wake up little one!!!


This is sign language for "give me the camera, Scott!!!"
I really love this one where baby Sammie(I've decided to call her this) is staring up at Amber



Jessica came to visit. She is so photogenic. I told Scott she should be a model...and he said "I think she is." Look, you can catch a glimpse of Scott in this one. Can't you tell how thrilled he is about babies?





hello, little one. you have a whole life ahead of you. isn't that awesome?

Look who's a month old!!!

Not me.
She was born on valentine's day and we took these pictures a little over a month later on Saint Patrick's Day. I think she'll run out of luck in April...what holidays are left?


Her mom, Liz, made the cupcake for Saint Patrick's Day. Jenny put it on the baby. She didn't even twitch. That baby can sleep. Kind of reminds me of Scott.

March-ing on with weddings

I'd like to welcome my assistant, Ashley Yuen. She helped me with the following pictures!!!

Photo 1: Our beautiful couple "M" and "B" visiting from New Jersey chose a dream wedding in Hawaii and we happened to be there to make it happen

Okay, first things first, I'm back. Sorry I've been away but there have been some personal and stressful situations this past week...not mine, but involving people I love and care about more than anything. So, keep the world in your prayers. It just reaffirmed just a spirit of pure gratefulness. As I was sitting in church, after skipping out on choir singing and children's rehearsal, I just felt depleted and defeated and I was so relieved to be able to sit in church and just receive restoration. I have God to lean upon. I have no idea how people out there who try to do it alone survive.

But before all the craziness started, my hubby had to perform a wedding. One of his good friends, Auntie Pauline, organizes weddings. The woman is amazing, she knows places on this island i've never even heard of. So she organizes and puts these things together and we just show up to do our parts. This time was slightly different because I convinced my 18 (or is she 19) year old niece to be my assistant. It was so helpful but it was really just a way to get her to come hang out with me and Scott and to be able to slip her a little spending money. She held my reflector (I bought it from Amazon) and we still don't know how the heck you're supposed to use it. We brought a second camera for her (Scott's) but it died on us.

Photo 2: There's my hubby in action.
It's sad, I don't even get to hear his spiel anymore, I'm too busy running around them trying to get different shots.

Photo 3: We took a lot of pictures of the rings, but there is something simplistic and beautiful that makes this one my favorite.

Photo 4: There was a bench under the awning. And I just asked them to sit and I think they kind of forgot all about me.


Photo 5: They really forgot about me.

All these pictures were taken at Queen Lili`uokalani Gardens, under the shadow of Diamond Head near the Honolulu Zoo. I've never been there before. It was a charming little oasis, a homeless man sleeping on a picnic table nearby obviously thought so as well. He woke up to watch our certificate signing process.

Lauren at Kalama Beach

My older sister Cassandra is officially off work until her maternity leave is over. And the twins aren't coming til May so she has a while. So, yesterday (my day off) she and my oldest niece, Ashley, and my youngest niece, Lauren came over to visit the windward side. We ate lunch at my house first. My roommate, Vinnie, joined us. He originally thought he had to testify in court but turns out he had the day wrong. I bought furukake chicken from KJ's. The Waipahu girls loved it and then we went to the beach. I haven't been to the beach in years...it was a shock to my system. Plus, I remembered how much I hate sand. It gets everywhere. But it was a nice day and we found a prime parking spot at Kalama Beach Park in Kailua. Just down the road from the more infamous Kailua and Lanikai beaches.

Lauren has come a long way since being deathly afraid of the water. Now, she'll still cling to you but she loves it.

Photo 2: This is such a rare picture because she's actually looking at me and somewhat smiling. She's a lot more bubbly and talkative with Cassandra around. She's not saying any actual real words that we understand but she seems to think she is.
Photo 3: This is my favorite picture. She was just fascinated with sand. She just kept staring at it and picking at it. Can't you tell? She's covered in sand. She did learn a valuable lesson after she dropped her snack in the sand and she still tried to eat it. I just saw her make a face and stick out her tongue which was covered in sand and she spit out her banana puffed cereal.

Photo 4: This was my bright idea and I made Ashley and Cassandra help me set up the shot. But Lauren decided she was just not going to sit still. She kept getting up and leaving...darn it, once they learn to walk, it's a whole new ball game. But, for some reason, she did decide to do this little handstand and held it for a good minute and I thought it was still cute.

Guest Visit from Photographer Scott

No, these weren't by me. Scott gave me a paid-for certificate to get scuba diver certified (I don't even know the term) two somewhat years ago. It's still in it's original blue folder with the dive video the store wants back. But he did go diving yesterday with our friend, Keidi, the girl with short blonde hair in all the pictures. I'm super depressed to hear that Keidi will be leaving us for Florida by this summer, she came to our sleepover, and she is an AWESOME awesome girlfriend. Scott says the water is Keidi's element. Seasickness, however, is Scott's element. He was sick all day yesterday and said he even threw up during the boat ride. I think I made it worse. Last night, I made some curtains and wanted to put them up when I got home from work a little before midnight. Of course, the two windows are right over our bed....so I was trying to softly step over his head as I put the two curtains up but I guess I woke him up. He opened up one eye and growled "can you stop moving the bed...I'm getting seasick all over again." (or something to that effect)

Photo 1: Keidi somewhere under the water, I have no idea where they are.

Photo 2: Keidi completely ignoring the state laws that state you must stay at least fifteen feet from the endangered turtles (honu)

Nah, just joking...I mean the law is real...but one summer back home on the Big Island, me and my friends would grab onto the turtle's shells and make them pull us around underwater.

Photo 3: I'm thinking Keidi is on the left and that might be John-John on the right. I don't even know if he went, but there's some studly guy who looks like him.

Photo: Cute little turtles having a morning snack