following an unknown path

a great surprise

I found these in my desk chair on Friday . . .

I was so totally surprised that I actually cried. 

He choose purple flowers because our Taiwanese marriage covenant ceremony is using the color purple.  And, he knows I don't care for roses. :)

Perfect! 

And, he left them in the perfect place too.  There could have been no better place where he could have left them for me to discover. :)

Thank you, Honey!!! :)

i have a valentine

For the first time in my adult life I have a valentine.

Sweetheart, you are the love of my life!  I love you.

You have totally changed my life . . . for the better in every way imaginable! 

Happy Valentines Day, Honey!!

taiwanese toy store finds

Awhile back Lawrance and I had fun looking around in a toy store.  We've actually done this a couple of times since--I guess we are just kids at heart.

Here are some of the cute things we found on the shelves. I love that one"kitchen set" includes the hot water heater thing most homes here have and that the other one is a rice cooker with chopsticks and sushi.

I can't wait to have someone to buy these cute kitchen toys to play with.

Then of course what little kid wouldn't want to zip around on his or her own little moped?

red bombs

Tuesday night we folded, stuffed, and addressed all the Taiwanese wedding invitations.  We are still missing a few addresses . . . but this is one major "to do" that we got done. :)  YAY!!!

Our invitations to the Taiwanese ceremony and banquet are traditional Taiwanese in style . . . and yes, they are red with gold lettering.  Lawrance's parents picked them out.

The inside wording follows the traditional form and announces that an oldest son will be marrying an oldest daughter.  And, we chose to go with Chinese only for these invites.

Oh, yeah, and, like most Taiwanese wedding invitations, they are scented too. 

In Taiwan, wedding invitations are known as "red bombs" because receiving one means you must now "pay money" (wedding gifts are not given, but red envelopes with cash inside are given ).  I think it is kinda sad that, like children, wedding celebrations are considered a burden and not a blessing.  Don't get me wrong, Taiwanese people love weddings . . . but to have the first gut reaction to be "oh no, a red bomb" . . . well, that's just sad.

Anywho, I guess this week are bombing close friends and family in Taiwan.

simple pleasures

Tuesday night, I needed to run an errand for my husband.

It was COLD, and I was going by moped which makes it even COLDER. 

At first, I wanted to grumble, "I don't wanna go back out on this cold night . . . . yada, yada, yada." 

As I slipped on HIS jacket and HIS face mask (to keep mouth and nose warm while mopeding), it felt wonderful. 

My feelings quickly changed to gratefulness; instead of reluctant willingness I experienced simple pleasure.  It felt great!!

Being able to wear my HUSBAND's jacket to go do an errand for my HUSBAND.  What a blessed girl I am!

a pictorial year in the life of amanda

Continuing a blogging tradition that I started three years ago when I first started blogging . . . a month by month look at my 2008 using only one photo per month.

(BTW, each month name below is a link to a calendar view of pictures taken that month and uploaded to flickr. Just in case you wanna see more than 12.)

January: We Went on Our First Date

February: And Dated Some More

March: We Shared the Gospel Together

April: I Turned 30, but I had Someone to Celebrate With Me

May: We got Engaged

June: I Got to Meet My Nephew for the First Time

July: Smith Girl's Threw Me a Bridal Shower

August: Lawrance Came to Texas and On the VERY Last Day of the Month . . . We Got Married!!

September: We Honeymooned in San Antonio

October: We Enjoy Married Life (ie. I learn to cook Chinese food and Lawrance builds some shelves)

November: The In-Law's Come over for Dinner

December: We Celebrate Our First Christmas as Husband and Wife

So, this was one LIFE CHANGING year . . . awesome in every way imaginable!!  We look forward to seeing what 2009 brings! 

Blessings!

A Little History:

The first year I did this, 2005, I had just started blogging which started because I had discovered 43things, flickr, and library thing.  Flickr and the blog are the only two things that stuck.  And, just like my non-virtual life, my flickr account is in need of a little organization.  Maybe one day . . .

Anywho, back to 2005, it was the year I discovered the freedom a digital camera offers.  I have carried a camera in my purse since 1999.  That's nearly ten years now.  I wanted to be able to record moments of life as an exchange student.  It became a haibt to always carry my camera with me.  In fact, the non-expense of picture taking with a digital camera hit me so strong I took so many pictures that year, I was so overwhelmed I quit printing them out.  Too hard to choose which ones to print. 

In 2006, my brother came to Taiwan and my sister and good friend (as well as three others) got married. And, I took over 9000 photos to record these awesome events.

In 2007, even though my cousins came to Taiwan (which was awesome), I didn't even take half as many photos as I did in 2006--a measly 4,000 something. 

So, in 2008, life changing year, . . . wanna guess how many photos I took?

tong yuan tradition

For the first time in 30 years, I went to school (aka: work) on Christmas day as did Lawrance.  In fact, since he didn't come home till after 10, there was no point in cooking a special meal.  So, in order to still do something special, after lighting our advent candles and opening gifts, we made tong yuan. 

We also made these sticky sweet dumplings right after we decorated our Christmas tree in late November. 

Below is a video of Lawrance showing you how to prepare tong yuan.

first month as husband and wife

Yesterday marked our first month together as a married couple!

Lawrance went to a job interview while I was at work; we both left about the same time.  I beat him home because well my school is closer and, well, my lovely hubby stopped to pick me up some colorful gerber daises! 

What a great guy that new hubby of mine is!  They were totally unexpected! 

If there were only one thing true about my husband it is that he is VERY SWEET!! :) 

Happy one month, honey!  I look forward to each minute I get to spend with you as your wife.