My cousin is totally cute...

My cousin Sue is totally cute...

Today, July 31st at 4:51 p.m., she sent an email and it said: "Exactly 7 days from now......you will be staning around with your daddy to walk down the isle in your pretty dress....

I wish I could see that in person...

Are you nervous now?"

She took the time to remember exactly when we'll be married. I thought that was very cute. And then we realized that we're not getting married at 5 p.m. California time. We're getting married at 5 p.m. Hawaii time, which is 8 p.m. California time. Then she replied back to say "I am going to play the wedding march to your kids next week...so that they feel like they get to participate :)" Awww....how cute!! Yes yes! I want my kids to feel like they are a part of our wedding too! And then she wrote: "Oh good then I don't have to go home early to play the song. I got all the time to prepare. I will give them gourmet dinner (steak or pork chops) to celebrate your marriage."

How cute is she? I have to send her the song I'll be walking down the aisle to. =) I initially thought about bringing a dress for my princess Bash to wear during that time too. But I thought it'd be too much to ask my cousin.

It's good to know that there's another person who is as crazy as you when it comes to your 4 legged kiddies... ;)

Just cuz you have it...

Just cuz you have your RN license, that doesn't mean you'll have a job. Yeap..that's how it is now for all the newly licensed RNs.

Stupid! I hate that! When I started the program two years ago, there were plenty of jobs. People were being hired left and right, BEFORE they finished school. That's how it was a year ago too. And now? Job searching is hard!

I went to a place yesterday in San Mateo because one of my sister's contact told me to go there. When I got there, I told the receptionist I was there to pick up an application. She asked who sent me and I told her. She contacted my sister's contact and basically scolded her to say "we don't give our job applications to walk in or people that call". She just took my resume. I guess the receptionist past my resume to someone else, who called me within 30 minutes, to say that since I don't have one year experience AFTER getting licensed, they won't be considering me for any of their positions! UGH!!!

And one of my gfs who works at Kaiser told me about two positions. I applied. And then I found out that two of the internal RNs took them! If the two internal RNs took them, then their positions should be opened, right? I'm hoping...and I'm waiting.

And initially, I wasn't really worried about not having stuff to do. I figured, well, I will apply for jobs, go on my trips, and if I don't have a job by September, then I will work on school applications to go back to school. And then, guess what I got in my inbox today? A letter from SFSU telling me the following:

**Enrollment will need to be reduced from 30,000 students to about 27,760 students for 2010-11. The total student enrollment reductions due to budget cuts will be approximately 2,740 full time students.

**We will not be accepting any new or transfer students for spring 2010.

**Effective fall 2009, fees for fulltime undergraduate students will increase by $672 to $4,740.

WHAT!! They ARE NOT accepting any new or transfer students for next semester? What does that mean? What do I do now then? I'm annoyed! Can someone give me a job as our wedding gift, please......!!

On the other hand, my sister has been contacting a few people and suggesting different assisted living facilities to apply to. I hope I do get a full time job ... VERY SOON!

something close to our hearts

Do you ever notice that kids are almost always closest to their mother's side of the family? It is true for me and Mr. JB.

You see, Mr. JB was raised by a single mother. Mr. JB and BIL JB weren't close to their father's side of the family. And Mr. JB's grandparents helped MIL JB raise these two little monkeys. Mr. JB has a lot of fond memories with his grandparents -- from being protected from his mom when he burned down his grandparents' closet or going over to their place to eat and so much more.

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. JB's grand mother only. Even though we didn't carry on conversations with each other, I still liked her. She was very sweet. I can only imagine how she was with Mr. JB. Mr. JB's grandpa died a few years before Mr. JB and I got together.

Mr. JB doesn't remember his grandparents from his father's side as much. And I don't blame him. He barely saw them.

I have a full set of parents who aren't divorced but we spent a lot of time with my grandparents from my mom's side. My aunts and uncles from my mother's side helped my parents raise us when they were busy with their work as teachers. They fed us, bathed us, cooked for us, washed our clothes, etc. Everything we needed, we got from my mom's side of the family. I have lots of very fond memories of my grandparents from my mother's side. We only went over to my dad's grandparents house to sleep during the night. And my grand mother from my dad's side came to US when I was about 8 or 9, I believe. And my grand father from my dad's side passed away when my grandmother was pregnant with my youngest aunt, which was 20+ years before I arrived into this world. And I'm not very close to my dad's side of the family. I can tell you this though -- my grandmother from my dad's side who is still alive is close to the grandkids from the daughters' side.

Now that we're getting married, I miss my grandparents from my mom's side a lot. My grandpa died first in October of 1989 and my grandma died in January of 1991. I think about them often and I wonder what they would think about Mr. JB. Or how I can include them in our wedding if they were still alive. I can only imagine.

So, for our wedding, I wanted them to be a part of our wedding. Initially, we thought about having their pictures as part of the ceremony. But I didn't want to have a morbid feeling. So, I searched to find more ways to include them in a subtle way. My solution? A locket! A locket for Mr. JB and a locket for me.

Pictures On Gold is a company that specialize in custom photo engraving. So, I bought a 1/2" round locket for Mr. JB and had his grandparents (mother's side) engraved and I bought a 3/4" heart locket for me with my mom's side engraved on the left side and my dad's side engraved on the right side.

The hard part of doing this was finding pictures. Mr. JB's grandparents didn't really take a lot of pictures, I guess. So, we had to look through old albums and found one. I was hoping for a picture of them on their wedding day but I guess my MIL lost it or something rather.

I had a picture of my grandparents from my mom's side on their wedding day. I was so happy!! You see, I'm a hoarder of memories. I like to have everything old in my possession. =) When I went to Burma a few years back, I saw the wedding picture and I HAD to have them. My cousin had it redone at the photo shop and it came out really good.

And of course, I had to also include my grandparents from my dad's side too. I know we're not close but they're still my grandparents. If it weren't for them, then my dad won't be here. =) So, I had to have them also. And also, if I didn't have them as part of my locket, I'm afraid I will hurt my dad's feeling. And I definitely don't want a bitter and mad daddy walking me down the aisle. ha ha.

The only thing problem with including my dad's side is not having a picture of all of my grandparents. I've only seen one picture of my grandfather. So, I had to use that picture. And I have two grandmothers. One died in Burma in 1991 and one (the one that gave birth to my dad) is still alive. It was easy to find picture of my dad's birth mother but not of my other grandmother. So, I had to use what I had. I scanned three individual pictures of my dad's parents into one file and hoped that the company will alter it to the way I want it.

I placed the order with Pictures on Gold and waited patiently for the lockets to arrive. And the package came yesterday. I was afraid to open the envelope. But I took a deep breath and opened them.

All I gotta say is....WOW!!! These came out REALLY REALLY GOOD!!! Seriously!! Mr. JB's locket came out really good too!! WOW. I'm speechless.

I put Mr. JB's locket on his bout so that his g'parents are close to his heart on our wedding day. I put mine on my bouquet so that I can carry them close to me...

Even though the cost of doing these lockets was a bit steep, I think I would still do this again if given the choice. To know that they are part of our special day is priceless....

One little thing can make you feel very "bridal"

When we started looking at wedding dresses, I didn't know what I will end up with. I also didn't know if I will get a veil. I was so focused on finding THE dress and nothing in my budget made me feel like it was THE one. Well, during one of my many times of visiting bridal boutiques, one of the sales ladies in Burlingame store asked if I wanted to try a veil. I told her that I thought about a birdcage veil. She asked me to try some on...and swoon...I was very "bridal". Oh My!

Here are some shots of me trying on different head pieces...(forgive the blurriness of some of these pictures)











I remember saying: "you know, I wasn't even thinking about veils. I thought I would go all bare". And the sales lady for the veils gasped and said, "then how are you going to be different from any other person or feel like a bride". I thought she was just pulling my chain. Now that I'm looking at these pictures, I do look oh so very hot in these veils.

And it was just about two weeks ago, I remembered that I had to get a veil. Oops. Taking NCLEX and all these DIY projects got me side tracked. But before then, I was looking to see how much it'd be to buy a birdcage veil. The ones I liked on etsy were $80+. And some were $150+. Um...huh? No thanks. You can keep it. Oh, I should also add that a fascinator was sometimes included and sometimes not.

And I thought I would just want some flower on my hair. So, I created some hair pieces. Although I liked them while I was creating them, I knew I wanted something else. I kept drooling over various fascinator and knew that I didn't want to spend that much money on them either.

Well, since I don't want to spend that lots of money on a veil or a fascinator, it meant I have to DIM (Do-it-myself) of course. The fascinator I created did not cost me that much. I bought a flower from Joann's while they were having a floral sale. Then, I went through my jewlery box to see what I can use there. There I had a "pearl" necklace I had bought from a flea market. I must have paid like $2-$5 or something. It was fake but very pretty. And I originally wanted to toss it away after inspecting it carefully to see that the coating of the pearls were coming off. BUT I'm glad I didn't.

Anyhoo, I cut up that pearl necklace and use the nice pearls to construct my fascinator. I know this is kind of cheesy but there are nine small pearls -- one for each year that we've been together and a big pearl in the middle -- to represent the big step we're taking. Ha ha. Okay, here are some pictures.


+

=


After realizing I bought the wrong veiling materials from JoAnn's a while back, I decided to use that lace on my fascinator.


What do you think? You likey? Maybe I'm biased but me likely lots! =)

And the other day, I created my veil. Even though it took a whole afternoon to figure out how I wanted the veil, it seems simple now. Ha ha. You'll see it soon in action!

So, the sales lady was right: this little piece of fabric does make you feel very bridal. Swooning my veil and fascinator....

Sigh..FINALLY!!!

I've been waiting for this day for a long time. I placed my order with Diane of DK Designs back in 2008 and changed my mind on her gazillion times. Then, when she sent me the pictures of all our items, I was so eager to pick them up. And we initially told her that we were going to pick them up on Friday, the day Mr. JB usually works from home.

After having his night out with the boys yesterday, and coming home around 11:30-ish, I convinced Mr. JB to stay home. I didn't want him to wake up too early and be tired at work. Aren't I nice? ;)

Right before Mr. JB came home, I emailed Diane to see if our items will be ready. I told her that Mr. JB may stay home tomorrow and it'd be great if we can pick up the items then. She replied back to me today morning to say that the items may not be completely dried yet. When I told Mr. JB, he thought I was crazy for wanting to go down to San Jose today. He said, we should just wait until Friday. I emaield Diane (thank goodness she's quick with her emails) and told her about Mr. JB's concern about having those favor boxes ruined. She replied right back to say there shouldn't be any problems and that I can pick them up. Within 10 minutes of her replying back, we were out the door, getting ready to pick my lovelies up.

I've waited so long. I wondered how they will look like. I know I've seen pictures of them...but I just wanted to touch them and have them in my possession. I want them.

Within 45 minutes of leaving the house, we were there. Yes, we made what would've been an hour trip into 45 minutes. We didn't want to get there too late since Diane was taking her son to the swimming practice. I walked in and saw my lovelies on her table. Swwoonnn.....She told me how to pack them and to have our favor boxes dry outside. We brought them back home and the favor boxes are being dried in our living room as we speak.

Diane also blogged about our order on her blog: **the following was copied from Diane's blog**


The final pieces of Joyce's order...



As I write this blog post, Joyce and her fiance are driving down from San Francisco because Joyce is anxious to pick up her order and didn't want to wait until Friday. Who could blame her?! :)



The last pieces of her order were the two boutonnieres and the 30 orchid flower favor boxes. So without further ado... here they are! I'm glad this order is complete and ready to be picked up because that means now I can cross it off of my long list of orders to do and move onto the next one. I'm excited about the next blog post (more butterflies, flowers with crystals and a BIG BLACK BEE!)... LOL, you'll just have to wait and see.

All my best wishes to Joyce and Chris on their wedding day!

The ladies of my life...

July 26th: Sunday Brunch with my lovely ladies

My sister was kind enough to host a bridal shower for me. She told me to invite some friends and I invited some of my friends from school. Initially, I wondered who I should've invited. I always felt like me and females didn't get along very well. Some females are very nasty -- they talk shit behind your back and such and some are just very hormonal, which I can't stand.

Anyhoo, the ladies I invited were the ladies who were close to me during the past two years. They were there for me to give me support and to listen to me bitch about school. I think going through the whole nursing school experience for two years made us bond in a way -- kind of like a sisterhood type of thing.

And I also invited my old boss, Anne. I've known Anne for a LONG time! Golly. I think 10 years now. I worked for her and her business partner (Michael) for a long time too. ha ha. Working for them is like being in a black hole -- no matter what happens, I keep going back to them to help them out. I need to cut my umbilical cord with them but somehow, I can't. I love working for them.

Okay, going back to the Sunday Brunch......

My sister, my mom, my sister in law, a gf of ours and I all drove together. When we went up the escalators of the Hyatt hotel to go to the restaurant, we saw a few ladies who were already waiting for us. And I thought, wow, these ladies are here for me? We got seated and then one by one, the ladies started to make their way there. The brunch was buffet style, so the ladies ate their hearts out. I didn't do it so much because....I ate right before I left. Shhhh!!! Mr. JB and I took our babies to Fort Funston right before and stopped at Noah's Bagels to grab some bagels. If I didn't eat, I would be too cranky. I had to. But no one knew. =) But of course I felt bad because my sister paid for all of us to pig out. =/

Then, game time. My sister had three games -- how well do you know the bride, the first person to give me these 5 items (mascara, something blue, ), words scramble. My cousin Mi Mi won the "how well do you know the bride", my classmate Adrienne was able to give us 5 items and I'm not sure who won the words scramble.

Then gift time. I got some really cool stuff: KITCHEN AID MIXER (Yes!! I can make cupcakes now!!!!), frozen yogurt mixer, a few VS / Fredrick of Hollywood lingeries, a cookbook, an apron, and measuring cups, VS perfume/lotion set, photo albumns, a memory book, candle holders, a picture frame, and gift cards to Target and Bed Bath and Beyond. And I got some moola too. ;)

THANK YOU LADIES from the bottom of my heart for spending the day with me! And thank you for being in my life as well.

And special heartfelt THANK YOU to my sister, who paid for everything! Eekk!! And she gave out "two peas in pod" salt and pepper shaker too. Sigh..what a good sister I have. ha ha.

Some pictures for you:


(with Annie, my old boss)


(with my in-laws)


(with our friends, my sister in law and my mom)


(with my cousins)


(my sister's favor -- two peas in a pod salt and pepper shaker)


(my sister and our friend of 14 years)


(with my classmates)


(my homemade favor...hee hee.)


(with my classmates)

Another day of being awake so darn early

It's Sunday and I'm up already! It was about 6 a.m. when I woke up and I couldn't go back to sleep.

So, of course, I turned on my computer wanting to see if Diane of DK Designs sent me some pictures of our favors or our bouts. None. I checked on her blog. None. =( I shall keep waiting.

I did however find an email from one of my friends who is going to the wedding, telling me of her hotel address and her plans while on Maui. So, that led me to me emailing two more people to ask where they're staying.

Is it the wedding that's keeping me awake? What's going on??

On a side note, we started to pack our luggage, our balibayan box, our hand carry on and my babies' luggage. Sigh. Things are coming down VERY quickly!

And yesterday, we ran some errands -- we started out by going to San Carlos to look for the parasol. After driving that far, we found out that the store only opens by appointment on Saturday and Sunday. D'oh! We should've called before. Then, we headed to Michael's to buy some candles. And since we were using the 50% off coupon, the customer service lady told us that she will only accept ONE coupon from me and from Mr. This was not my "home" Michael's. We were near San Mateo and thought she will let us use two coupons each, even though the coupon clearly stated "one coupone per customer per day". DAMN HER for wanting to follow the rules! =)

Then we went to go Hillsdale mall in San Mateo to buy some shoes for my dad. Then we ate at Hotaru, then went to the other Michael's (aka "home" Michael's in Colma) which accepted TWO coupons each. Then, had to go to Petsmart to buy some anti barking collar for my Bran, as requested by my cousin Sue who is going to be watching him while we're gone.

Today, I have a bridal shower, which is being hosted by my sister. And Mr. JB has a dinner with his brother and some friends to celebrate his singlehood. ;)

See you soon.

Let me share my excitement with you...

I knew from the beginning that I didn't want to spend too much money on flowers. I also knew that if I do get flowers, I want them to last a long time. Not just something that will look beautiful on the wedding day but for a LONG LONG time, something that will remind us of our special day whenever we look at it. That led me to search for alternatives. I searched for different options but also knew that I didn't really want to have silk flowers. Not that there's anything wrong with silk flowers, but I just wanted something different. That's when weddingbee came into my life. I believe it was Mrs. Pineapple on weddingbee who had Diane of DK Designs to make her clay flowers. Since then, I was stalking Diane's website, etsy site and her blog.

I got in touch with Diane in 2008 and asked her to help us with our wedding stuff, including invitations, favor boxes, cake topper, bouquet, and bouts. I also thought about having programs, water bottles, etc. After thinking about it for a while, I decided that it was better to create my own invites so that I can have some consistency with our wedding-related stationery without spending too much money. BUT we still wanted to include Diane's work in our wedding. She is still creating my bouquet, 2 bouts, a cake topper and favor boxes.

And since 2008, I've been changing my mind very often regarding what kind of flowers I want. Of course, that mind changing was a result of seeing her beautiful work every week. It's not my fault for changing my mind so often. It's just .. well, her work is just beautiful.

So, today, I woke up early (5 a.m. to be exact) and turned on my computer to her email of bouquet pictures. I was in shock. I couldn't wait til Mr. JB woke up to show them to him. He was in shock. He couldn't believe the pictures either. Then, I came home from walking my little monkeys at Fort Funston and I found another email. Again, I was excited. I couldn't wait for Mr. JB to come back from the laudry so that I can show them to him. He saw them and he said "oh wow!". hee hee. Well, let me just show you:

(The following was copied from Diane's blog:)

***************

Cake Topper = Keepsake Vase Arrangement



In between this post and my previous post this morning, I was working on Joyce's cake topper. Joyce asked that I create a keepsake cake topper that she can have as a home decor piece after the wedding. Much like what I did for my clients back in NY last year, I created a cake topper to match their wedding day flowers but that could be kept as a keepsake and decorative piece. I think more and more, brides are thinking about how to spend their money wisely and that's what I love about the clay flowers. They serve a purpose for your wedding day but at the same time they are also a keepsake and a decorative piece for the newlyweds' home!



I love this piece. So stunning against a white cake. You can even mask the vase so it looks like another layer with ribbon at the base.



Well, now that Joyce's cake flowers are done, I need to head back to my studio and make the 30 flowers for her favor boxes and finish her boutonnieres!

***************

Vibrant and Tropical Bridal Bouquet



I've been busy working on a dear friend's website and branding yesterday, but I did manage to finish the bridal bouquet for my next bride who will be getting married at the SeaWatch Restaurant in Maui. The last time I talked about the SeaWatch was for my clients, Alyssa and Daniel!



At any rate, originally when Joyce and I discussed her order, she wanted a dome shaped bridal bouquet with orange and green cymbidium orchids and some hipericum berries. But as time went on, she saw other flowers and wanted to incorporate some other colors that are part of her color palette. So.... the end result is this, orangey-yellow cattleya orchids, green cymbidiums, peach roses, orange ranunculus and red peonies with tuberose buds and some greenery to finish it off. I was honestly a little worried about this bouquet because i didn't know how it would turn out, but last night as I was painting the finishing touches, I realized how beautiful and how much I really liked how it turned out.




Today's agenda is finishing the cake topper and working on Joyce's 30 cattleya orchid favors! Another vibrant, luscious, beautiful bouquet to cheer you up! :)

You again?

I'm sure this is what the people at Kinko's and Michael's craft stores are saying when they see me. I've been going to Kinko's and Michael's a lot. Kinko's to print out different things -- our program, gift tags and post card tags. Then at Michael's to stock up on some adhesives and the materials needed to make gift bags for the ladies that are coming to the bridal shower that my sister's throwing me this Sunday.

I bought these little handbags and treat bags to put two verona cookies (my favs!). I made tags to go on there too. So, we shall see how my idea will turn out.

And I bought some refills for my xyron glue thingie but I ran out as I was working on our programs. I also bought corner rounder too. This is actually my third corner rounder. Fiskars has corner rounders with two sizes. I bought it and exchanged it for another. And that new one was still giving me trouble by not cutting the corners properly, so I bought a better and bigger Fiskar one. LOVE it. It's so easy to work with.

And I have to go back to Michael's again to buy more adhesives. I need to glue lots more...

But until then, I get to rest. =) Oh and Michael's stopped giving 50% off coupons with their receipts like they usually do. They're now offering 60% off of framing. Boring! But I still have coupons to use until the 25th of July. I'm going again to take advantage!

Presenting.....Ms. JellyBelly, RN

Yes siree...

I am now a REGISTERED NURSE!!

Can you believe it? I sure can't. I came home from walking Brandon and checked my cell phone. I saw this message from one of my classmates (A. Bernado): "hey we passed thanks joyce for the talk and support enjoy your wedding take care and keep in touch B".

Huh??? What? Really?

I tried calling him back as I was turning on my computer. He didn't answer. Ah crap. I looked my name up on the state boards website and there it was. My name, in black and white. Next to it: "Registered Nurse". WHAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTT!!!

I called Mr. JB and of course, he wasn't there. I tried calling my mom too and she didn't answer the phone either. What the heck was going on?

I checked my email and found this message from L.W. and the subject was "Congrats to you Ms. RN!" and she wrote: "I knew you would pass! Yeah!"

Mr. JB returned my call and I said, "honey, guess what?" And he said, "no way! let me guess." I said "yeap, I passed". He was so excited. He said "I knew you'd pass. You're a smart cookie!" Aww..shucks!

I called my dad and he was so excited. He said, I knew you can do it. He was really excited for me. He said.."wow, I don't believe it." I said, "no daddy, really, I'm a registered nurse now". And then he paused and said "I'm very proud of you. You did really good. Congrats." And he asked what I was going to do celebrate. I said, "I have to take Bash to the doctor's". =)

Sigh.. I'm so excited! I have been waiting for two years for this moment. I didn't know if I would make it or not. Okay, that moment of doubt didn't come to me until last Thursday when I took the test.

Here's a breakdown of what happened on Thursday:

Mr. JB and I went to the test center together. He had to be there with me because we both knew I'd get lost if he wasn't there. He's my TomTom. ;) Even with a GPS, I get lost. So, it was good for me to have Mr. JB there. It eased my mind to know that I will get there on time and at the right spot. I parked at the garage and the attendant asked how long I was going to be. I said "Hopefully less than 2 hours but it can be as long as 6 hours." Mr. JB kissed and hugged me and wished me luck. I walked to the testing center. I was nervous as heck. Do I have all my paperwork with me? ID? Check. ATT? Check. Okay. I'm ready.

It was around 7:30 a.m. There were a few more people there waiting for the testing center to be opened. Okay. Let me use the bathroom really quick. WHen I came out of the bathroom, I saw that the testing center had opened and people were taking numbers already. I was #6. The girl at the site gave me two pieces of paper to read. Then, she started calling people one at a time to register. Okay. #4 was checked in and I thought to myself. Oh no. I have to use the bathroom again. I did. Then I sat down and then she called me. My heart started pounding. Holy moly. Okay. I was breathing through my mouth. Breathe in, breathe out. I sat down after the girl registered me. Put my things away, minus my ID card, in locker number 8. I need a drink. I drank a little bit of water. I felt my heart pounding and I took my own pulse. It was over 130. Eeek.. My normal heart beat is around 70. Oh boy. I'm nervous.

Another lady called me and another test taker into her station and went over the testing center rules with us -- how we can get breaks if we needed to by raising our hands but it will count against our time and how we can use the ear plugs as well. She gave us a erasable pad with marker. Okay. This is REAL. Heart pounding...

The lady put me in cubicle number 10. I put my ear plugs in and had to tweak it a little since O've never gotten a chance to use ear plugs before. The clock started as soon as I started the tutorial. And I started to take my test. Question #1, 2, 3, 4,...why am I getting all of these questions? Are the questions getting harder or easier? What's going on? Next thing I know, I was at question #50. Holy Moly. Question #50 already? How in the heck am I doing? All the damn questions. Ahhh.. I told myself: try to remember your questions #75 and try to answer it right. By this time, I was at question #74. What? Already? I selected an answer. Then moved on to question #75. Please please please..let me have more questions. Please please please. Then I hit next. The screen went blank! WHATTTTT!! No..I'm not ready! Please give me some more. I put my head down on the table and wanted to bang on it. OMG.

I came out of that testing room with a lot of anxiety. What was I studying all of this time? How come everything I was studying for isn't on there? What the heck? A waste of 2 years in college and a waste of another 6 weeks of studying. For nothing? Shit!

I walked to my car and tried to call Mr. JB. Of course, he left his cell phone at home. I tried calling one of my classmates S.B. and she wasn't answering either. I saw the attendant and said "oh..that's my car." He smiled at me with that "oohh...less than 2 hours..you must have done good" look. I just wanted to hug him and cry. I didn't. I got the car, and make a right turn on to the street and starting crying. It was horrible. I cried my way home. I didn't know what to say or do. I kept asking myself: did I even know any of those questions? What the heck is going on?

Sigh..

All I could do was just to wait and see my results. I was able to talk to Mr. JB and S.B. and vented out. They were all supportive. S.B. was so funny. She said, if you don't pass, I'll give you my left nipple. I said, alright. I'm coming for it.

My mom called and asked how I did. I said, I have no idea. Then Friday came. I was feeling much better. I was able to finish some wedding related things on that Thursday and also on Friday. Then on Saturday, I saw my dad and he asked how it was. I told him how I was feeling. He said, I'm sure you passed. Sunday, I told my sister in law about the test and she was certain I passed too. Monday, kept myself busy with last minute wedding stuff. Then today, I found out the good news.

Sigh...two years of waiting for this moment ....

One of the biggest decisions...

One of the biggest decisions we had to make was regarding our babies. Who is going to be responsible enough to take care of them when we're gone?

So, I started looking for someone to take care of them last year. I wanted someone I can trust and can handle both our doggies. Mind you, Bashee is an older lady and she walks really slow. And Brandon is younger and he needs his exercise. He wants to play and such.

There's a lady we see almost every morning when walking Brandon. Her son is a realtor and he has a lot of time and he pet sit on the side. We were thinking we can have him come over our house and stay here and walk our kids.

Then, my cousin, Sue, offered to petsit our loves (just the two canines). She offered this a few months ago and I didn't think it was real cuz she was invited to our wedding and thought that she was going to go with us to the wedding. But she declined our invite because her husband has a condition where his body doesn't regulate his body temperature very well. And because our wedding is in August, they don't know how hot it'd be and if his body can handle the heat.

And I still had to look for a pet sitter for my Skitty. Sue has a cat and she was worried that her cat and ours won't get along. I was okay with that. Just by her offering to watch our canines was enough.

So, over the past few months, I was looking for someone who can care for our Skitty. Then, my friend came over and met Skitty and said that she really liked Skitty. And I asked if she wanted to watch Skitty for us. And she said yes. So, a few weeks ago, I followed up with her to see if she was still serious and she said yes. And a week later, I asked to see if she was still sure and to ask her mom. She assured me that she was still interested in watching Skitty. Then, this week, she asked when we were going to need her to watch Skitty cuz she was going out of town August 8th, for a week. I was shocked!! Pissed too. WHAT? Are you serious with me? She had our wedding invitation and knew that we were getting married on the 7th. And then she finally said that her mom didn't want Skittles in the house because she doesn't want cat's hair everywhere. Mind you, I asked her WAY long ago to okay it with her mom and she said everything was okay. And she just told me just this week she couldn't do it. Just a few weeks before the wedding? Does she not think I have other stuff to worry about?

LUCKILY, I am an anal person and had a back up plan. But what if I didn't? Then I'd be going crazy looking for someone. So, I was very annoyed.

And my backup plan for Skitty will be my other cousin, Steve-o.

My cousin, Sue, hasn't backed out on me yet or anything. And between Sue and the realtor pet sitter, Chris wanted to leave our kids with someone who we can really trust and that's why we chose Sue. Chris said that he trusts that Sue will take care of our kids like we treat them. And I agree...

Hopefully, Bash and Brandon will like the time they're going to spend with their cousins, Teddy and Billy....

Count down .. 3 weeks to go

Three weeks to go and we're getting many things done for our wedding...

On Thursday, July 16th, I was able to:

- put our vendor's contact list (phone numbers) together
- put all the information we need to take to Maui (marriage license, our costco travel information, contracts, etc)
* non wedding related -- I cleaned up my office of all the books. =)

On Friday, July 17th, we did the following:

- create a pdf of our table cards, binder tags, hanger tags and luggage tags to take to Kinko's
- print our table cards, our binder tag, our hanger tags, and our luggage tags at Kinko's
- cut our table cards and our luggage tags
- put our luggage tags together
- put the name tags on our luggage tags
- cut out the petal cones
- put the table cards together

On Saturday, July 18th, we were able to:

- put the hanger tags on the hangers
- hole punch our petal cones

I'm waiting for fan handles so that I can work on our programs. I emailed the lady that sold me the fans to see if she sent them out yet. Oh yes, I'm also working on making my own veil. And I ordered the supplies but the items were shipped to another address. The lady I bought the veil making supplies from said that she was sorry for sending it to the wrong address and that she shipped out another shipment today. Thank goodness I followed up on this order.

More stuff to do... Sigh.

I'm a wuss...

My body is a bit strange...

Sometimes, I swear the synapses do not connect right. I've been stressed a bit lately and my body's going through weirdest phases.

One: my body breaks out. I don't mean pimples. I mean, rashes. Yeah. It's weird. I get these rashes everywhere. Oh and I scratch like crazy during the night too. So, that means I have to take some anti-histamine pills, which knock me out like crazy. It takes about 12 hours to get the anti-histamine pills out of my body! Slow!!!

Two: my brain and my body don't connect. The other day, I don't know what happened but one of my legs was on the stairs and the other one was in front of the house. For some reason, I had forgotten the leg that was on the stair and tried to get into the house. Of course, you know what happened? I fell. I told you, my brain and body don't connect.

Three: I get numbed! Seriously. If the numbing and lost of sensation was on my left side, I would be worried for a stroke. I noticed this week, I was getting numbed around my face and my neck. Then, on my ribs and on my thighs. What the heck. Isn't that weird? I told my mom about it yesterday and she called me to tell me to take some aspirin. She's so cute.

Well, today, I'm feeling a little bit better from all the wussiness of my body. I'm going to try to relax....

Long day...but productive!

Sigh..

Today, I woke up at 6 a.m. and started working on different wedding related things. Since things are getting REALLY close, I had to make sure that all the items I want Mr. JB to print is all ready. I started working on our welcome bag correspondance. (You'll see soon enough.) I worked on the table tent idea some more and also on the actual layout of the table name.

Then, when Mr. JB woke up, we ate and then took our kids to the park. After that, we got ready to get our shopping started. First up, we went to meet this lady from Craigslist to buy a babygate from her. Then, we went to a petstore, a music store to look for drum set, a 2nd hand store to look around. Then off we went to Costco, Michael's, Joann's, Party Warehouse, Cost Plus, Trader Joe's, Home Depot and some unique stores here and there. We're EXHUASTED!!! Of course, we went to Chevy's to eat too. =)

Well, we got most of the items off of my shopping list. We're missing a few items still but we got most of them. Good enough. We got most of our wedding related items from Michael's because I found 50% off one regularly priced item coupon. The sales lady was kind enough to use 8 of my printed coupons. So, I saved 50% on 1/2 of my things. But we ended up paying full price for the items we bought for the kids. Oh well. Can't complain.

Now, off I go to work on some of these darn projects. =)

I realized a few things regarding our wedding...

I realized that if you're on a budget, you FIGURE things out so that you can do-it-yourself everything.

Case in point: table tents. We were at Paper Source yesterday and saw that they had their table tents for sale. It came in a package of 10 for $8. But since we only have about 4 tables and I didn't want to waste money on things we can't use, I came home to create one and it came out pretty good. BUT we don't know if we'll be using it yet because we're going to try to buy a few photo holders (pet related) to keep with our theme. You just have to wait to see how everything's put together. =)

I also realized that Mr. JB and I could've saved about $60-70 on our Japanese papers that we used as our envelope liners if we had scanned just ONE of those papers and have it printed out. I seriously doubt that anyone noticed our Japanese envelope liners. But of course, Mr. JB said that people noticed and that they "felt" our Japanese paper. I doubt it. ha ha. We spent a lot of moola and our envelopes for our invite alone came out to about $2+. And you know, people tossed them away. Sigh...

I realized that the closer you get to a deadline, the more you do things. Within this week, while taking breaks from studying, I was able to finalize our petal cones, our table seating chart, our programs, our luggage tags template and our table names. But I still need to buy a few more things to make them all happen.

I also realized that if you have a piece of paper next to you, you get to jot down everything. I think of things here and there as to what items I need to buy for our wedding. But when I get to the stores, my brain has a fart attack and forget. BUT I've been writing things down and it's working out for me. =)

I also realized that if I get up earlier, like 6 in the morning, then you can get more things done too! =)

Where I've been ....

It has been a while since I've blogged because I've been stressed. It's already July and things are finally happening. Well, of course things are happening. Things always happen, right? Well..you're right. But what I was referring to was, things that I've been waiting for, for the past two years, are happending: our wedding, me being done with school, and me needing to study my butt off to pass the NCLEX (the exam you need to take to become a registered nurse).

And it's stressful knowing that you have to do things for the wedding, such as coming up with table names, doing table cards, seating chart, out of town bags, etc. And then of course, I also have to study for the biggest test of my life. Sigh.... So, that's why I haven't gotten a chance to blog as much. But I will soon. You'll see... ;)