37 weeks 5 days!

We're 37w5d today!

Wow, it has been quit the journey thus far.  As I hit the 37 week mark, I start to notice many new changes in my body and how active Baby Hong has been.  Walking has been quite the challenge that comes along with aches, an extremely heavy belly, a lot of pressure, and noticeable stretch marks.  When I'm sitting or laying down, I'm great.  As soon as I gotta get up, oh my...the pain that comes with just trying to walk around.  

At our 37w1d week check-up, I had asked Peter to join me for this appointment knowing that I'll be getting my cervix checked.  I've heard good and bad stories about it and not knowing how it'll be, I needed the support from Peter to be there for me.  Thank goodness he came!  On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the worst; I'd say it was about a 7.  My OB-GYN was fantastic and had told us what she'll be doing step by step; she had made sure I was comfortable every step of the way.  As of that day, I was dilated 1 cm outside, but not the inside.  Baby Hong is face down and ready to make her appearance.  It's left us speechless to how amazing our body is and regardless of all the unglamorous side of pregnancy, I wouldn't trade it for the world.  Knowing the fact that inside me is a little human that God has blessed us with and seeing the changes in my body to prepare for her birth is really amazing.  God is so good in all that He does.  It really leaves us humbled with His love and grace who watches over our family.

As each day and weekend passes, we have slowly prepared her things.  For someone who isn't here yet. she sure has a lot of stuff.  Setting up the crib is when it hit us!  Soon enough, our daughter will be sleeping in the crib and our world will be forever blessed.  Her clothes are all ready washed and put away.  Along with all the fun toys and miscellaneous things that are needed.  To be honest, this has been a daunting task for us since the baby shower.  We are just finally getting our apartment back from all her things in the hallway and living room.  Well at least for now, since I'm sure when she's here everything will be back to chaos. 

Now the waiting game to when our little bundle of joy will bless our home!

34 Weeks!!!

Today we are 34 weeks and 1 day...our Sweet Pea is growing growing and my belly is getting bigger bigger!  Yesterday was a rough day for me, walking around at work was difficult and I only found comfort sitting down.  I loath you round ligament pain, you are no fun!  

My last visit with my OB, after measuring the growth of my belly she estimates that Sweet Pea will be 8 lbs at birth.  Oh man do I hope she's wrong.  8 lbs out of me?  ouch!  As we get closer to our due date and reading on baby center that between 34 to 37 weeks, even though the baby is not full term she will generally do fine with no other health problems.  
I can't lie, I am pretty nervous with the whole labor process.  I am working up until my due date and I pray that contractions will start when I'm at home, not at work.  Can you imagine the sight of that?  My water breaks at work!  I am worried that when I'm offered epidural, I overdue how much I get and when it's time to push I won't be able too.  I have to be strong and just have take enough to be comfortable, but not fully take away the pain.  I have an amazing husband and family who are my support system through all this.  Knowing that I have my family and God with me, it brings me comfort that all will go well.

We were blessed with two baby showers in the February thrown by co-workers and family.  We are grateful for everyone that are part of this new journey of parenthood with us.  We can't ask for better family and friends.  For a someone who has not arrived, boy does she have a lot of stuff already.  We are in the process of reorganizing our closets and making space for all her things.  It has been a daunting process as I have been tired lately and all I want to do is sleep.  I've definitely seen the difference on my energy level in my 3rd trimester.  Sleep has been difficult and trying to stay awake at work has been quite the challenge.  Yes, I am totally nodding off at work and it's horrible.  None the less, I am grateful knowing that all that is happening to my body is preparing for our Sweet Pea's arrival.  

Hong Party of 5

Long over due on an updated post from the Hong family.  So much has happened in the past year, but the biggest news we have yet is our little family is expanding and Baby Hong will make her appearance in April 2015!

Photo Credit: Paul Nguyen

We are currently 31 weeks pregnant, it's been a good pregnancy with no complications so far.  Had mild morning sickness in the 1st trimester; found myself not being able to eat greasy food like fried chicken, fries and all the bad stuff we shouldn't be eating already.  Work was definitely a challenge and trying to stay awake.  I had no energy for anything, but just sleep.  Sleep was my best friend and no matter how much I slept, it was never enough.  The best and most exhilarating feeling that overcomes your body is feeling the little flutter in your belly.  Words can not express what an amazing feeling it is to know that the butterfly fluttering feeling is your little baby.  

People weren't kidding about the 2nd trimester being a dream.  As soon as we hit the 2nd trimester I was myself again.  Had energy to do anything and everything.  I even went biking with the husband around miramar lake!  It felt great and I certainly took advantage of feeling awesome by doing whatever I wanted.  During the 2nd trimester her movements in my belly started to be less like flutters, but bigger movements as she somersaults around.  The only stressful part of this trimester was the glucose testing.  I really was scared that I would have gestational diabetes and made sure I monitored my sugar intake throughout my pregnancy.  I failed my 1 hour test and had to take the 3 hour glucose test.  Boy oh boy, this was hard to do.  Drinking flat soda sugary water was not the business, being on an empty stomach made me feel nauseous and a headache.  None the less, I PASSED and couldn't be happier.  Towards the end of my 2nd trimester I had to pay a visit to Urgent Care due to my round ligament.  I had a lot of pain and trouble walking, sitting, laying down, and any type of movement at all.  Since this was my first pregnancy I wasn't sure if the pain was normal and had peace of mind that this was normal.  My wonderful husband canceled his bike ride to take care of me, even though I told him to go ahead and bike.  All I needed was to rest and drank a lot of water; after two to three days the discomfort went away.    

3rd trimester hasn't been too bad.  It's definitely not the nightmare that people say it is, but it's still early and I still have a few more months to go.  Belly is getting bigger and when I look down, my feet have magically disappeared.  I'm finding myself very clumsy as I waddle around, stubbing my toe, walking into my bed post, tripping over the pups toys and more.  I find it all so funny and amusing most of all...gravity is definitely getting the best of me.  I usually am a sound sleeper, but ever since I got pregnant I wake up to anything.  Our pups sleep with us and so whenever they move in bed or cuddle with me, I wake up.  Not just the pups, but going to the bathroom has been a daily routine in the middle of the night.  That's probably the one thing I dislike...especially when I have an hour or two before waking up for work.  At 31 weeks today and boy oh boy she takes my breath away every time she somersaults in my belly.  She is an active little one and I can tell will be a handful.  

My pregnancy so far has been such an amazing journey and feeling blessed to have the support from my husband and family.  It's amazing what our bodies go through to prepare for the birth; the hormonal changes, physical body changing, and mentally preparing for what's to come.  

New Addition

I'd like to introduce everyone to our new little precious, Bailey Hong!

Bailey Hong

Sleeps like a classy gal!

After a few months had passed and several discussions, we decided to adopt another pup.  The pup would be initially a playmate for Bear.  With our great surprise and luck, they both get a long beautifully.  The first moment they met, Bailey was a little shy, but they quickly warmed up and now the best of friends.  Watching them play with each other is the cutest thing ever.  Bear watches after her during our walks and is always making sure she's doing ok.  They both tease each other and run around the apt making a mess.  

Bailey is the sweetest pup you'll ever meet.  She'll immediately make you smile and say "ahhhh...so cute!".  She gives lovely kisses and loves to cuddle; my favorite thing about her.  When she sleeps next to you, she has to be snugged right next to you.  One of the oddest, but yet coolest thing about her is her breath...it smells like coffee!  Yes, you read right!  Her breath smells like coffee; makes her name even more fitting.

Hope you'll be able to meet our sweet precious soon.

 

It's not just a promise, it's an adventure

As I ponder by this statement, it makes me eager to see what adventures God has in store for Peter and I.  Time to time I would look at Peter and feel blessed and grateful to have found him.  It's ridiculous how much joy he brings to me and how much love I have for him and us.  

As stressful or overwhelmed by life can be for us, I have peace at heart knowing that God is in the center of our marriage and will never leave us stray.  There are so many things we want to do in life and I don't know... I feel like a clock is ticking fast.  In moments feeling like this, I take a deep breath and have to trust God's timing.  Not always the easiest, but if you truly live your life for God, then this is what I must do.

We are eager to travel, buy a home, start a family, possibly even adopt another pup (Peter's hope in the near future), and for me possibly starting a new career, or even start up a daycare.  Yup, one of my goals and hope some day start up a daycare.  We shall see...*breath in, breath out* all in God's timing. 

The day we vowed to become husband and wife was not just a promise, it's an adventure! A growing adventure as we are slowly building our foundation and future together.  

Crafty Cocktails

I love finding new places that have craft drinks.  To name a few places, I've enjoyed being introduced to El Dorado and Prohibition.  The bartender would ask what I would like to drink and my response is, "something with gin and an egg, please!"  It hasn't failed me yet...I've always got a drink that made me smile and not regret ordering it.  I'm sure your eyebrow is raised when seeing the word egg.  Yes, it wasn't a typ-o, an egg!  Don't knock it until you've tried it.  The egg white creates this cream frothy finish to the drink and it's very entertaining to watch the drink being made too.

I haven't been back to El Dorado in awhile and feel like I'm due back for a visit.

Last night a group of us went to URBN Coal Fire Pizza/Bar and it was fantastic.  You can find my awesome review on yelp for all the fun details.  I was initially excited for the pizza, but the crafty cocktails and list of beer made me a happy girl.  I got the Vienna Crush and sipped a few glasses of beer that Peter ordered.  Everything was very tasty!  Best of all, happy hour is until 8pm...how great is that?

I am becoming a huge fan of craft cocktails...the drinks seem to have so much more love into creating these delicious concoctions, it's hard to not like.  I have a few other bars in mind to try out their crafty drinks and look forward to sharing it with you guys. 

Best,
Crystal

6 Months!

6 months ago, 11/10/12 was the happiest day of both our lives; the day we became husband and wife!

It has been a blessful road for Peter and I.  It is said that the first year is the toughest; the transition of living together and learning new habits that we may never have known about one another.  Knock on wood, but God has really been in the center of our relationship and as my sister puts it, "we are truly madly deeply livin da vida loca."  :-)

The biggest obstacle we have faced is feeling that our marriage has just recently begun.  What I mean by that is we had a roommate living with us.  Even though our roommate was respectful with our space and pretty much gave us most of the apt, we didn't feel like we started our lives together until after we moved to our own place.  I only say that because I felt like the place wasn't part of me.  Yes I may have decorated and used the kitchen most, but it wasn't home to me or for us...not yet  I guess it's not really an obstacle, but for us we were very antsy and could not wait to move.  Especially since we had all these wonderful wedding gifts to use for our place.

Our place is coming together slowly, but surely.  I'm slowly adding my crystal touch to everything and so far we are both loving how everything looks.  What I love best is that Peter and I make a great team and really work together through everything.  I love how I am in the middle of cooking and he'll come home after work and always offers a helping hand.  Even cleans up the apt when we are about to have guests over the weekend...I don't even have to ask.  My heart absolutely melts when I see him with Bear and I know he will be a wonderful father someday.

6 months and counting as I continue to fall in love even more with my best friend, my help mate, my life partner.

Best,
Crystal 

Excited - New Project

I'm excited for my new little project...blogging!  I wanted to keep a blog in a scrapbook-ish form of our new journey together as husband and wife.  This particular blog was initially created when we had undergo the long, blessful process of wedding planning.  After a month of working on the new layout to our blog and trying to figure out the contents we wanted to share was a fun process.

I'm excited to share fun food adventures, recipes (good and bad), yelp reviews, and a little bit about our journey together as a cruiser and sportster.  For those who ride knows what I'm talking about.  I'm eager to see this blog grow as our marriage grows through the daily obstacles and blessings we will have along the way.

"We love because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19

Finalizing Invitation Design & Guest List

It has been such a surreal feeling, as we are less than 4 months away from our happy day, 109 days to be exact.  yay...:-)  


We are in the process of finalizing our guest list with our parents.  Being sure that we are covering our bases with the correct names, addresses, and putting them in the RSVP portion of our website.  Between my parents and me, the guest list has been quite a struggle and a obstacle.  All in all, God has certainly been in the midst of it all.  I dreaded working with my parents on the guest list, just because I didn't want to get into a argument with them.  Just recently while working on the list, they completely took a 180 and was actually talking to me and not at me.  For those who have asian parents know what I'm talking about.  Anyhow, I just have to give thanks to God for being in the center of it all...God is good!


It has been so much fun seeing our invitations come together.  I have been designing them slowly since last year after we booked our venues.  Now that the time is nearing to print them, it becomes even more surreal to me that this is all happening.  I can't wait to send them out and have our family and friends see what we did.


On a side note, our pastor who will be officiating our wedding was the same pastor who baptized Peter at the rock church.  When I shared from day one that God is orchestrating our relationship, it humbles me to see how good He is to us.  The pastor gave us a little homework assignment to write a draft of our vows and his and her story.  As silly as this may sound, I had tears just thinking what I would write.  I can only imagine how I'll be the day of...oh happy day!  

Dam Hoi (Engagement) & Wedding Shower

The Dam Hoi (Engagement) and Wedding Shower is done!  It was a beautiful day with family and friends.  Our engagement was a very important and significant event for our parents.  It was the day where both immediate families meet and for Peter's family to ask my parents for my hand in marriage.  Like my cousins say it, "we're officially engaged!" 


Some pictures to share on our special day!

Dam Hoi (Engagement)

The Wedding Shower

Special thanks to our family and awesome friends who made this all happen for us.  Thank you guys for everything, it means a great deal to know that we have you guys in our lives.

Save The Date

They are SENT!  :-)

It was like Christmas morning opening the package of the pretty paper I selected for the Engagement/Shower invites.  

Envelopes are stuffed, stamped, sealed, and sent!

We kept our save the date cards pretty simple.  Our wonderful photographer designed it out for us and we couldn't have been more thrilled.  He really understood what we were looking for and executed with such creativity.  If you guys are looking for a photographer and looking for someone who will creatively blow your mind, then book Eric Kieu!

I am pretty detail oriented and a perfectionist, so picking the paper, envelope, address stamp, etc. was important to me.  We ordered our address stamp through a groupon wedding special they had and couldn't have been more happier.  The paper I choose for the invites was a pearlescent champagne that really brought out the graphics my brother and friend designed.  

All in all, it was a fun seeing it all come together and slipping them all in the mailbox.  

Guest List and more...

Overwhelming and a complete nightmare...

I tend to shy away talking about the guest list, just the fact that I've had plenty of discussions with the parents and fiancé about it.  Dealing with my parents is a whole other level of patience and communication for me.  Being sure that we respect our parents and they are happy with the agreement is priority for us, but keeping in our budget because of it has been a struggle.

We are in the process of finalizing our save the date list and engagement/wedding shower invites.  I'm hoping to send them out by mid May...

I've been starting to feel really overwhelmed and stressed with the little details, thankfully I have a wonderful fiancé who helps me take a breather and reminds me everything will be ok.  Makes me smile knowing how wonderful he is.  

Photos of the Galore

Photos photos photos...It has been a lot of fun, yet overwhelming.  We had a terrific time with our photographer and videographer.  We were able to recreate a lot of memories that brought Peter and I together.  To be able to capture that on camera was like reliving that honeymoon stage all over again.  It made me fall in love with Peter even more so.

At this moment, we've been overwhelmed picking out photos for the save the date card, website, slideshow, etc...It has been a overwhelming process, but the outcome has surpassed my expectations.  We received our final edited proofs and we were ecstatic to look at them again.

We are in the process of finalizing everything and can't wait to share it with everyone...

We did it!

We completed our premarital counseling class!

I really can't put into words to how blessed we are from attending this class.  We would hands down recommend this class to any couple who are thinking about getting married.  You really do not have to be engaged to take this class and now I can see why The Rock church would recommend taking it before getting engaged.  The class helps you discuss things as a couple that you never thought was necessary and you learn so much about each other.

This class helped define and recognize a lot of obstacles that we went through.  A lot of the struggles that we were facing was definitely not any different from what we've learned from other couples.  It definitely gave us some peace in mind that we weren't alone.  It certainly helped us iron engagement/wedding details with our parents.  Wow...in-laws was definitely the hot topic in our discussions and also how us ladies would give our halves the "silent treatment".  Sorry guys...:-/

We learned so much from our marriage coaches, they are the most grounded and solid people we've met.  Along with the 4 other couples we've met on this incredible journey.  During all our discussions as a group helped us learn so much about one another.  It was great to see everyone being so transparent and honest with one another.  Seeing all the quirkiness about each couple brought a lot of laughs and fun.  Definitely bittersweet to our weekly meetings coming to an end.


We are both stronger as a couple; learning to be a team and a unit in all aspects of our marriage.  We have both grown exponentially in our spiritual lives individually and as a couple.  Praying together is key!  A great start to building a strong foundation and we surely can't wait to see what else God has in store for us.  

WE DID IT!  

Dam Hoi (Vietnamese Engagement Ceremony)

It is set!  


After all that has been said and done, the parents have come together and have finally come to a compromise.  We are, well I am ecstatic to start planning the décor and details of everything.


I'm approaching the planning with a best of both worlds type of attitude.  What I mean by that is, I have a lot of ideas and things I want for our wedding. I didn't want a "wow, there is so much going on" type of reaction.  So I decided to keep the feel of the wedding simple and chic.  Yet I love the country rustic feel also; therefore, our engagement party will be just that!


I have been brainstorming various affordable ideas for decorations.  We definitely don't want to break the bank on this event, since our budget for the wedding wasn't set for this event.  I'm looking forward to a lot of DIY for this event and can't wait to let my creativity juices start flowing.  


Stay tuned for my many DIY projects!   

Engagement Preparations

We are weeks away from having our engagement video and photo session.  Gathering ideas, props, and how we want to portray ourselves has been fun.  We are constantly reminding ourselves to stay grounded and not do anything that isn't us.  So we are gonna stick with the simplicity of our relationship and just be ourselves.  Our goal is to help our family and friends understand our love story.  Can't wait to see how it all turns out....stay tuned! :-)


Now for the engagement ceremony, I wish it was as easy as the video and photos.  We have both learned that when parents are involved, it surely complicates things even more.  We both want to honor our parents and now depending on the parents to compromise and help make our day special.  We are both looking forward to having our families come together through this traditional ceremony.  It will be a time for presenting the two families, bride & groom, tea ceremony, shower of gifts/jewelry, and prayer.  


We are both excited as our countdown is getting closer to our big blessed day to come!  

Big Checks & Smiles

Church? - check!
Reception? - check!
Photographer? - check!
Videographer? - check!


Big checks and smiles for me and Peter.  We have officially booked our church and reception venue; we couldn't be more happier.  It has been a tiring, but fun adventure thus far.  Appointment after appointment...searching and hunting for the perfect church, reception venue, photographer, and videographer was stressful, yet exciting.  


We had initially found a church and it was beautiful.  The pastor was very accommodating and the fee was quite reasonable. The only negative thing about the church was the aisle, it was short.  So our search for a church continued. I started to head north with my search for churches and had stumbled on First Baptist Church of San Diego.  The pictures were beautiful and I immediately contacted the coordinator for additional information and set up an appointment to look at the property.  We instantly fell in love with the church and knew that this was where we were to be married. 


Our reception site was on the dramatic side.  We initially had our hearts set for the Coronado Community Center and were able to get our date.  Unfortunately, when they sent our contract to sign and pay our deposit, their were some fees that were not initially disclosed to us.  It was quite disappointing to see this and turned us off to hold our reception there.  We had the Hilton Del Mar in the back of our minds and scheduled another appointment with them to see the property one more time.  The second time around, we knew that this was where we will be celebrating our new family with our family and friends.


We had our hearts set for our photographer and videographer at the get go and was eager to book them.  Fortunately, the videographer was a friend of mine who does amazing work and we were able to book him.  I wish I was able to say the same for his sister, the photographer.  To my great sadness, she was already booked on our date and became unavailable.  My heart sank hearing this news and my stress level shot up in the fear of not finding a photographer we liked.  In our great fortune, my friend recommended us an amazing photographer who was twice as expensive, but the work we've seen so far is worth every penny.  


Big check offs on the list of venues/vendors to book and it came with giddy and smiles from ear to ear.

Venues & Guestlist

Venue searching has been fun and quite eventful.  It's amazing to see God's work at hand when we start seeing things slowly come together.  Our hearts are set on a few locations, now we are just playing the waiting game to see if we get our date.  Today is the day we should find out if our names get pulled for the Nautilus room.  I'll tell you now, it's unnerving not knowing if we got it or not.  We're both praying hard that if this is where and when God wants us to wed, then the place will be ours.  Which in turn, brings us peace and comfort in mind that we don't have to worry about it.

Now the guest list, oi...NIGHTMARE!  If it was just Peter and I making our guest list, we wouldn't have any real problem.  Adding the parents into the equation has certainly been quite the experience.  Parents can either be easy going with our plans or adamant wanting it a certain way for themselves.  Only time will tell what the outcome will be.

All in all, we are both enjoying the planning process and coming up with ideas for centerpieces, invitations, party favors, etc.  So far everything is going smoothly with the ideas, now it's just a matter of executing our ideas now.  Let the craziness begin! 

I said, "YES!!"

On April 8th, it wasn't an ordinary Friday for either of us.  Little did I know that it was the last day I was going to be a girlfriend.  My boyfriend at the time, who is now my fiancé had been so sneaky for the past two to three weeks.  

During my friends visit to San Diego, I was busy for most of the weekend helping her plan her wedding.  Little did I know that the "big ride" to Ortega Highway that Peter claimed to do during the wedding planning was a hoax.  He took advantage of the time to go ring shopping with one of our close friend, Tony.  Peter had thrown me off for the past month giving me the idea that he was just beginning to do "research", but all in all...he knew exactly what he needed to know.  That same day during his "big ride", he went to several shops and bought my ring.  He had to get it fitted on the setting he picked out and resized, so he had to anxiously wait for four days.  He picked it up on Thursday, April 7th and to his great surprise, he received a bottle of Don Perignon and a beautiful box for the ring.  He certainly couldn't hold his excitement as he left the jewelry store and called Tony to let him know that the ring was gorgeous. Peter quickly drove home and hid the ring in the closet, since I was on my way over.  Who knew the whole time I was in his room, my little gift in the closet was the start of a whole new beginning for both of us.

As Friday rolls around, we were getting ready to leave the house and have dinner at Bud's.  I noticed that Peter put on his pea coat and I thought to myself, "big coat and not his north face?"  *shrugs* oh well...When we arrived to Bud's I noticed that he walked on my left side, which isn't normal.  Since I carry my purse on my left, he would normally be on my right side.  During dinner, he kept checking his jacket pocket and fumbling with his keys, so then I asked him if he wanted to put his keys in my purse.  He declined and we continued our dinner.  After dinner the check arrived and I wanted to pay for it, since the day before he paid for so much already.  Obviously he didn't let me, since it would be odd for me to pay for dinner on the night of our engagement.  Mind you, I still had no clue!

After dinner, we decided to go to Tabac, the coffee shop that definitely kick started a wonderful relationship.  We had to park at Horton Plaza and we had to carry an umbrella, since it was raining.  He insisted to hold the umbrella and walk on my left side.  I made fun of him for holding my pink Victoria Secret umbrella and continuously bumping into me. 

We finally arrived to Tabac and Peter went to order our coffees and find a table, while I went to the restroom.  As I came back, he sat inside at a secluded corner table closest to our table from the patio.  Sadly it was raining and so we weren't able to sit outside at our table.  As we both sat there sipping our coffee, he then started to share our journey together.  From the moment we met and the hurdles that we had to overcome together to get where we are today.  Throughout the whole time, I kept thinking to myself, "Where is he going with this? No, he's not proposing is he? No...he just wants to reminisce our journey together!"  Then to my great surprise, his ending line to his speech was, "I have something for you." He then pulls out a box and there it was, the most beautiful ring.  As I looked at it and then turned towards him, he was down on his knee and said the most beautiful words, "Will you have my hand in marriage?"  I quickly shook my head yes and was left speechless.  That night I walked into Tabac as a girlfriend and left as a fiancée, whom I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with...my best friend and my life partner. 

He did sooooooo good!  ^_^