Behold, the Wedding Photos

It has been a wonderful few days of fall. Unfortunately from yesterday the weather had begun to hike up to the 80s and 90s... Let's just say that I look forward for the fall, winter weather to return.

I am so grateful for my internship. It has only been a few weeks, but I've learned so much and have grown already. Today I couldn't help but appreciate the certain teachers who show genuine concern for their students. They are key to noticing when a child may be struggling with something that may lie beyond the school campus. To me, they make a big difference.

Over the weekend I had the wonderful privilege of attending the wedding of Chadsen's dear friend from high school. I have been friends with these two unbelievably kind people for a few years (Chadsen has known Jill for much longer though). It was so sweet to see them be married. :) I cannot say but it was the most beautiful wedding reception I've ever attended! My face looked like :D pretty much the entire time being in awe with just how adorable, cute, classy and beautiful this event was. The feeling of happiness simply would not leave as we celebrated the marriage of Jillian and Casey, because they are both such sweethearts. Though the wedding and reception venues were gorgeous, I know that what truly made it such a spectacular event was the fact that these two are now married for life. :) It was such an honor to be invited to their beautiful event that I know Jill and Casey spent long hours preparing for. Chadsen and I hope for the best for those two. Congratulations!

The main photographer of their wedding was Meg Meyer. Does she sound familiar? She also captured our wedding and reception! While watching her do her stuff I couldn't help but reminisce back to my own wedding day with my forever Chadsen Chads Chads. So in memory and tribute to Meg, I wanted to post some of my favorite photos that she captured on our big day. I'm very excited to see what photographs she took at the wedding for the TeVaults. 

I'm a picky person. Call is stubborn, snobby, whatever. I'm just picky. So when I found something that I come to really like, I love to tell people about it because I think they might benefit from it or find it to come in handy someday. Meg, although some may underestimate her because of her age, is definitely skilled. She also shows her confidence in her skills, proving herself with the photos that she presents afterward. She knows how to work her magic especially using the sunlight, but when the sun set on my wedding day she made the photos looking nice (at least in my opinion). Her style of photography was what I was looking for when looking for somebody to capture our wedding day, and when I happened to stumble upon her I beamed. 

FOOD:

No food today, but here's something.

Personal opinion: Making fried rice without a wok is not fried rice. I look forward to buying a wok. The rice doesn't seem hard when I cook it in a regular pan. In fact when I use a regular pan the rice seems all sticky and definitely not fried rice material. :/

Fried rice lovers, what do you think?

Sunshine:

So the wedding over the weekend took me back to my own marriage celebration. Aside from the fact that the portion of food that was served to the guests was much smaller than what we had planned (:(), Chadsen and I had a wonderful day (:)). Our goal was to have a reception where we can have a fun time with our guests. Hopefully our guests had an enjoyable time with us that night. We were so grateful for our guests for coming out to celebrate one of the most important days of our lives with us. 

My friend today asked me whether I posted up my wedding photos on Facebook. I had but something tells me that because I made it available to only certain people first, when I made it public it didn't get to people's newsfeeds. If anyone wants to see them now, it's all theirs to view :) Here's my (fav) picture version of my wedding day, taken by Meg Meyer Photography.

This is her website for those who want to see more of her skills :) http://megmeyerphotos.com/

My Favorite Picture <3

Masumi

The Ex in Ex-Offender

Last week was sweet. Still continuing the busy business, but nonetheless sweet.

Not only did I get my group presentation done with and out of the way, but for the first time in seemingly long awaited months, I felt the greetings of crisp, cool winds. Yes!!! Is it fall at last? Man I sure hope so because Fall is my favorite season. Unfortunately down here fall seems to only last for a week, so just as quickly as it comes it goes. Every year it's quite disappointing. :( Regardless, I'm feeling pretty chipper right now. That feeling of cool, crisp air, ooo I just love it.  

We also had General Conference on Saturday and Sunday. I love how every time I listen to the inspired leaders speak, it seems that I grow and feel a desire reach for higher ground. I especially love those slap-in-the-face speakers. 

During break time in between the sessions on Sunday, Chadsen and I found something narly. Well, narly in my opinion. The LDS channel was showing a short documentary about a honey company that hired ex-offenders, those who have been incarcerated either once or much more than once. The owner of the company looked at the potential in these people who have made wrong choices in their past and now suffer from being employed because of their status as an ex-offender. She created a transitory program where the employees can acquire skills to be employed at other jobs after a few months of employment with their company.  (Thank you Chadsen for helping me clarify the info).

For many years now I have considered the question, "How do we see those who have been thrown in jail?" I can understand that there are those who seem to routinely get themselves in trouble, but I sincerely believe that their intent is often to make a change in their lives, a better change. Of course again I'm not speaking for the entirety of those who were incarcerated. Understandably companies see the title "ex-offender" as "offender" while looking at an application. The lady who hires "ex-offenders" to work with honeybees is so inspiring. I strongly believe that if we continue to live in fear of what people can possibly do, we can't grow. Many times it hurts to trust somebody and get kicked in the the butt in return, but I can say I've come out feeling glad when I choose to believe in what people would do despite what they can do. I think the local communities are vital to help these "ex-offenders" back into the jail cells. (Again, personal journal :)) Anyways, I've added a link to the company just in case any reader would want to check out what this business is. Chadsen and I definitely want to try out this natural honey that they get straight from the bees. Yummmm!

http://www.sweetbeginningsllc.com/honey

FOOD: 

Chadsen made dinner today, and started the dish off with a lil love. Get iiiiit? hahaha

Our friend Casey is an amazing chef.
I wish he would make a food blog because every meal we've had of his has been jaw-dropping delicious. 

Sunshine:

I can't believe that it's been over a year now since these two have been a part of my life.
Lucky me :)

This is the cutest Halloween costume that I've seen thus far, what about you? :)
Retrieved from http://attrip.jp/38822.

Masumi

It's Been Hectic

Last week was hectic. It must've been a long while since my life has been that busy.

Now that the week is done, I can say it was one of those first week crazies.

Internship began, work began, and school also started the week prior to last week. I consider myself really blessed in this situation though because I'm loving my internship, loving work, and I have just the right amount of classes not to overkill me. It's been really exciting!

In the past I've had so many bad experiences with work, so I feel so lucky to have such an enjoyable job. My duties at work are to help kids take naps by reading them books, eat with them when they wake up, and play with them! Best of all, we facilitate healthy growth for the children and help them practice their agency. It's exactly what I've been wanting to try for a while, ever since I had started working with kids!  

Now that I get home a little later than usual, I miss out on one thing in particular: Cooking. I miss cooking already! 

Saturday, 9/22, was my big 22. In celebration Chadsen took me out to have a scootin' good time! That's right, he took me out to ride a scooter out in North Hollywood :) I hadn't touched a motorcycle/scooter since I got my motorcycle license over a year ago. Oh man, that feeling of exhilaration! We tried a little trip and drove ourselves to Porto's for some chhhheeeeese roooollllls! :) Love em love em love em! 

FOOD: 

Thank you sweet husband for the BLT minus the L! :) 

Look how cute they are!

This is one of my favorite cakes ever.
Lemon Cake!

You can try a taste of this at Eat Cake Cafe, in Rowland Heights.

Credits to my Sis in law Errissa for getting us a cake saw for our wedding gift. :)

Sunshine: 

Chadsen took us out to ride scooters for my 22nd birthday :)
He took the heavier one, thank you :)

My lil ride for the day.

Current dream bike. Look at that beautiful red color!

My friend Joanne got Yelp mints. Aren't they so cute? ahhhh!
They're shaped like the Yelp sign, and taste quite good too.

Chadsen noticed how strange of a pose the lady had in modeling for the gloves.

These three cats were young four month old strays living in front of our house.
For reasons our landlord was thinking about getting animal control services to take the cats away.
We knew what would happen to these kittens if they were taken, so we ventured to get them adopted somewhere.

The process of capturing the cats took about a month.
After several failed attempts in catching them with a box to save money, the landlord was so kind as to get three cat traps for us to carry the cat in.
When we got the cats, Chadsen & I drove out back to Chino Hills to an adoption center, but unfortunately they said they didn't have space. On top of the denial, they told us that the black cat had a really low chance of being taken in at another center because of the stigma a black cat carries (black cats are my fav :( ).
That made us feel very worried, our hopes were very dim for the black kitten.

We got referred to Cats In Need, located at Petsmart (or Petco) in Chino, in Central Ave, so we went.
While waiting for about an hour for the owner of Cats In Need to come in, a miracle happened.
This random lady who walked into the store saw the black one, disregarded the two other beautiful ones sitting next to it and asked us, "Hey are you selling them?"
After explaining the situation, she tell us "I'll take the black one. Someone stole my black cat, and I'm pissed off!"
The cat that we thought would not find a home, was the first to go.
Thank you God.
Luckily, the owner of Cats In Need took in the other two, after assessing that they had the potential to be friendly with humans. It's been a few weeks now, I hope they're all doing well. 

 Masumi