The "All About Me" Syndrome

With the rise of blogging and social media sites, I think I've found a new syndrome, the "All About Me" syndrome. You see, this year I deleted my birth date from my FB profile. Last year and two years ago, I got so many birthday greetings from lots of people (even those I don't really "talk to" in FB so much but they're in my friends list). This year with the new profile, I've also set my FB wall so that if anyone writes directly on my wall, nobody else can see it but myself. That's why there were only a few birthday greetings on my FB page yesterday.

And I felt a bit weird because I don't get as many greetings as the previous years. I guess I've really gotten used to getting "attention" in FB so that when things "get back to normal" (like the time before blogging and FB), I felt a little deprived of all the attention, though I know that most people who congratulated me the previous years only did so because FB had notified them about my birthday.

I wonder how the future will be like...when the world is getting more and more connected so easily...it's so easy to succumb to the lures of getting more and more attention. In the past nothing like this is possible unless one puts on a huge sign on top of one's head "Today is my birthday", but then that would make others think that the person is such a narcissist or over-the-top or crazy. 

There's a very fine line between sharing with others and "bragging" or "wanting as much attention as possible" and I really have to be careful in not crossing that line, especially since it's so easy these days to do such a thing without it being considered a crazy thing. 


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34th Year On Earth

This year for some reason I feel so overwhelmed with emotions. So many blessings...unexpected ones...so many blessings each day...His grace is new every day. His peace beyond understanding is just out of this world. His perfect timing even makes me feel at awe at His grand designs. You know how life makes more sense when you look back on the past? And you get to see things more clearly? That's how I feel today even more acutely than ever...

PRAISE THE LORD for everything good that comes my way...
THANK YOU for your love, 
THANK YOU for the closed doors...
THANK YOU for the open doors that I never even expected to be open...
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU...

And for you, dear readers, enjoy this lovely video clip...Kim Yunaaaaaaa on ice!!!! :-D

Funny November + 3BT: Random Days

I've been busy and have been getting a bit of a cold again, so haven't been writing here nor have I had a chance to blog-hop. This year is a funny November. Usually October is the yuckiest month of winter when the temperature still gets a little bit over and under zero, so the accumulated snow melts and refreeze and then there's new snow coming in and then it melts again, but this year this all happened in November. However, now it seems that it's gonna be much colder this week. So overall this November has been very warm compared to the previous years.

A week ago it was really dangerous 'coz the thick snow melted and even our yard became like a skating rink. My customers had been saying to me how slippery it was outside. Some got really sad 'coz almost all the snow melted by then and there was brownish, yucky, wet snow on the side of the streets. Those who loved White Christmas just groaned in sight of all those yuckiness he he he...Thankfully the other day it snowed again. It wasn't too much, but enough to cover up all the dirt he he...Now that the weather has gotten much colder all of a sudden, it's actually better this way. If we had lost all the snow, it'd been SO dark here, especially next month.


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Work is going to get busy again next month because one coworker has resigned and another one is currently sick. Dunno how hectic it's gonna be, but there will sure be changes to all of our work schedules. We shall see.

Yesterday R2 came back home from work in a very agitated state, asking me if there was a package for him. I said no. He had been waiting for the package already the day before. Then he found out that it had arrived already, so he went back to the PO to get it. I got a hunch that it must've been my bday present hi hi hi hi...so when he got back home, I asked him, "Is the package THAT important that you just had to get back out to get it right away?"

He said yes with a huge grin, then told me NOT to touch the package at all. And he proceeded in wrapping it up in another room HA HA HA HA HA HA...Can't wait to open it!!! :-D

Here is my 3BT list:

1. Last night I told hubby, "You're the best gift God's ever given to me." And he squeezed me tightly in response. :-D

2. A customer said, "My cat loves Gotler ham so much so that it wouldn't eat anything else but that." LOL!!! Never heard of such a thing before! She made me laugh!

3. Still a few customers said, "Where have you been? I haven't seen you in a long time." It's good to be missed hi hi...

4. The machine got jammed at one point, so had to wait for a few minutes and there were a few people in line already (but they were all old people). One of them kept on joking with me during the whole wait, making the wait much more bearable. :-D THANK GOD for patient people who do have a good sense of humour! :-D

Fate, Love...

My Mom loves telling me stories about people, including love stories about our relatives. One particular story that I'm reminiscing today is about a long-distance relative of ours. I don't even know the person and I don't remember too well anymore how he's linked to us in the huge family tree, but I always feel "awwwwwww" whenever I remember the story.

When this guy was young, he fell in love with this girl, but his parents didn't approve of her because they were from different races. So the guy got married to a woman whom his parents approved of and the girl also got married to someone else. Both of them had children of their own and perhaps even grandkids and their spouses died before them. One day as fate would have it, they met again and they rekindled the long-lost love. 

I hoped that in the end they were happy together, even though I also hoped they were happy with their own spouses and families before they could reunite.

In Indonesia, it's considered a bit "inappropriate" for older people to get married again (after their spouses have died, I mean). A few years ago I heard some uproar in a family because the mother (a widow) was courted by this widower. If this happened here in Finland, nobody would have said anything about it, but in the end the widow and the widower didn't get together because the widower's sons disapproved of the relationship. 

Anyway, speaking of a love movie, here's a different take on love: Fireproof.


The Love Dare in the movie can be found here: Fireproof My Marriage. 

3BT: Random Days

1. A mute customer tried to have a conversation with me again. He showed me some paintings (which I think he did himself) and I held up two thumbs. He's always smiling at me friendly, so it's always nice to meet him. :-D

2. Had a small accident on my bike yesterday - slid on a patch of ice and bumped my right knee, but FORTUNATELY it wasn't any worse than that! No broken bones or whatsoever. Phew!


3. Meeting some friends by accident and being able to chit-chat with them for a while and catch up with them. :-D

4. After hubby had such a long day of work, I was thinking of giving him a back massage in sauna ('coz I had a free day today), but then he gave me a foot massage instead! BLESS YOU, babe!

5. #4 made me even more enthusiastic in giving him the back massage. :-D

6. Despite the onset of a cold, at least this time I manage to sleep well during the night. I sure do hope it won't turn out any worse, though.


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Closure: Funeral of a Dream

I think I've managed to separate my regular self and my "infertile" self in two different blogs. Lately I feel that I've shared more happy thoughts/memories here and the less happy thoughts/memories in my other blog and I know there are different readers for each blog. 

A while ago I felt that I needed a more "definite" closure in terms of our infertility journey, so I allowed myself to go through a painful "farewell party". The thing is, when you lose someone "real" (or even a pet), there's usually a funeral, but what about losing the dream of having children? Even though we've surrendered to life without kids for a longer time now, but I still felt that it was lacking something. Closure. A funeral. 

I felt that my grief was so unreal and it was made unreal with the fact that I couldn't even have a decent funeral. It made sense that the grief was unreal because it was an ambiguous loss, but the knowledge didn't really help soothe my pain. I was actually afraid to grieve properly all over again because it meant that I would have to lose control over whatever might happen, but the call/need to grieve fully AGAIN was WAY too strong. I was so lost and desperate when I wrote the post for my infertility blog, but now I'm OK (so no need to worry about me - I just want to share this to raise more awareness on the acute grief an infertile may feel), so I'm ready to share it with you all in this blog as well...here's my "Funeral of a Dream".  

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

We're in the middle of In Memoriam Forest, burying our precious dream. There's a glass coffin right in front of us. A beautiful glass coffin with some leaf engravings on top and at the sides, the patterns of which matched the kind of wedding ring that we liked but never made. There are flower bouquets everywhere and there are nobody else there except us. The coffin looks empty, but it's actually filled with so many memories-cum-possibilities-cum-hopes-that-never-happened, the things that IF (infertility) has robbed from us. 

We can hear this song at the background, accompanying us to say goodbye to this dream...



We're saying goodbye to these nonexistent-memories-cum-possibilities-cum-hopes:

- Taking HPT test and then feeling the rush of excitement and unbelief when I see two lines and then running to show it to hubby and then shrieking happily while squeezing hubby with all my might. "I can't believe it, I can't believe it! You're gonna be a dad! I'll be a mom!" I probably won't be able to sit still the whole day and it'd be close to impossible not to tell anyone else right away.

- The joy and excitement of both grandmas and uncles and friends when they find out about our good news after our tough effort to stay silent for weeks.

- Going to the gyno together and hearing your heartbeats for the first time. I'll probably shed some tears while your daddy's smiling calmly beside me.

- Feeling you kick for the first time and then excitedly telling daddy about it and while daddy's always so calm about anything, I bet deep inside he wants to feel it too and he'll get plenty of chances to feel your kick as time goes by.

- Feeling tortured during nausea period and during my back pain period as you get bigger and bigger inside me. Having trouble sleeping at night and I can't wait to see you, but at the same time I don't want you to get out too soon. I worry about you and try to do my best to eat healthily and avoid certain things that aren't good for you.

- Excited and scared while waiting for your arrival. After all, I won't be able to deliver you in this village, but I have to go to Rovaniemi (about 1,5 hours by car from here) and I don't want to deliver you in an ambulance just like what happened to a friend of mine.

- After hours and hours of pain and agony, finally you arrive. Welcome to the world, kiddo! There are so many people waiting for you and ready to shower you with love.

- Your hair is dark. Darker than daddy's, but less dark than mine. Your nose is exactly like daddy's. Your eyes are the combination of ours. You look so small that I'm afraid I'm gonna squash you if I hold you too tightly. I never know that holding a small baby for a long time can really make my arm numb...daddy and I have been exchanging glances and our hearts are bursting with so much awe and happiness. We can't believe you're finally here!!!

- Now the tough time really starts...sleep deprivation and total chaos in the house, but that's all right. I may get grumpy sometimes, but I still love you anyway. If you're as feisty as I was when I was a baby, maybe you'll bite me if I breastfeed you and then you realize that there's no more milk. *chuckle* And then I'll have to do what my Mom did with me - pinched my nose so that I'd breathe through my mouth, releasing her of the pain that my gum had caused her.

- You keep on growing so fast and learning so much. First tooth, first words, first step...We take so many pictures and videos of you over the years. I can't believe how occupied I've been with you. I long for some adult conversations in peace every now and then, but I suppose your grandma would be willing to take care of you for a few hours so that we can have some quality time or I can enjoy some adult conversations without you.

- At home I speak to you in English and you speak Finnish with daddy. I want you to be bilingual because that's going to be helpful in the future. 

- Then when you're old enough, I'll tell you so many stories: our love stories, how we met, how we fell out of love, how we restarted our love, stories of your grandmas and grandpas and so many other people you may not even get to know. But these stories may help you learn life lessons. 

- I can't believe how many questions you're asking me these days. What is it? What is it for? Why? Why? Why? Thank goodness there's the internet 'coz mommy can't possibly answer all your questions without it. 

- And then you start testing the boundaries and power struggle begins. Mommy and daddy have to stand our ground and be united to discipline you. But at the end of the day, even though we're sometimes at our wits' end, all the troubles melt away when you hug us with your little arms, kiss our cheeks, and say, "I love you, mommy. I love you, daddy." And gosh, you look like a perfect little angel when you're asleep. *chuckle*

- We both grow older along with you and now you've started mingling with other kids. It feels as though only yesterday you were a baby and now you're already as tall as me. It hurts us to see you hurt, but real life is tough and you've got to learn some things the hard way. Whatever happens, we want you to know that we love you despite your mistakes and our limitations as parents and we hope that we can help you become an independent adult and human being who has compassion towards others.

Now you and I squeeze each other with all we've got, tears streaming down our cheeks. I sob and choke...the rain is pouring down hard upon us, as if the sky understood and cried with us...

- I can't believe how tall you are now! As tall as your daddy and you're now ready to leave us and start a new life in another place. Tough as it may be to let you go, I have to remember that you've got a life of your own and it's time to spread your wings and fly. 

- Maybe you'll grow up to be a rebellious person like me or maybe you're an easy-going person like your daddy or maybe you're a people-person like my Mom and your uncle. Maybe despite the rebellious years, you'll turn out OK. Or maybe you'll never ever be a troublesome kid at all (like your uncle) and you'll be one of those kids that don't give their parents a headache. All those maybes...all those possibilities...we'll never know, we'll never know...We're sorry we've never met you. 

Goodbye, darlings...Just know that we love you and we miss you and it really hurts to say goodbye this way but we know that if you had been there, you would have wanted us to let go of you and move on and be happy with our life together.



And after the song is finished, with our soaked clothes clinging to our bodies, we look at each other and realize that the rain has stopped...and the sun has started to come out again. 

Yes, "weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." -Psalm 30:5

Animated Movies

The other day my close friends and I were talking about animated movies. It's always a funny topic to talk about because we have clearly different tastes in animated movies, so it's very tricky to recommend any animated movies to one another (recommending human movies is a different thing). I think it also has to do with our own expectations on what we consider "great animated movies" and what kind of scenes we consider "funny". 

Side note: To make it easier in case you're not familiar with the movies, I've linked them to their imdb pages.

For example, in the past my friend J talked about how great "The Incredibles" was. This was backed up by another friend, S. I was so eager to watch it because I wanted to join in the fun, but alas...when I watched it, I think I may have expected WAY too much (or way too differently), so I was left disappointed so to speak. It was funny in parts, but nothing special for me.

Among the girls, I'm the only one who's totally crazy about "Ice Age" trilogy. All of them think that Ice Age is fine, but nothing much.

N loves "The Emperor's New Groove" along with another friend F, but I don't think it's too memorable. 

I love "Tangled" (esp. the horse's character Maximus!!!! I'm a HUGE FAN!!!!), whereas F says that she doesn't really like it. 

The last animated movie we were discussing was "Brave". I had been DYING to see it ever since I saw the trailer. An independent princess who knows how to shoot arrows so well? A rebellious young lady who refuses to follow the norm? My kind of heroine! :-D 

J and S loved "Brave" so much, but J thought that I wouldn't be so crazy about it. F also enjoyed watching "Brave" much more than "Tangled".

Finally last night we got a chance to watch "Brave". And even though it was funny, I think again I had had a different idea on what the story would be (after watching the trailer), so I was rather taken aback at the plot that continued after the trailer ended. So unfortunately I think J was right in thinking that "Brave" wasn't going to be my fave animated movies, even though I had been dying to watch it.

Conclusion: Sometimes I think it's better NOT to expect anything at all than being disappointed in the end ha ha ha ha ha...but then again it's rather hard at times esp. if you wish the story would go a certain way, but it doesn't. Oh well he he he...

Because I love Maximus so much, let me share this fun video with you...this isn't included in the movie itself. I found it on youtube. I just watched it again and couldn't help laughiiinngggg HA HA HA HA HAAHHHH...

3BT: Random Days

1. To see FIL's smile during our visit to the old people's home on Father's Day. 

2. To see FIL's eyes flickering, trying to recognize the faces on the card that I printed for him (a pic of us and him). It was nice to see him interested like that.

3. The other day the temperature went up to above zero (most of the snow melted due to that), but thankfully it went colder again and it's been snowing afterwards. Winter Wonderland is BACK!!!! :-D

4. Seeing the neighbour kid rolling around on the thick snow today. :-D


5. I accidentally spilled something on my clean fleece vest, but thankfully I have another one to wear (and it's newly washed and fragrant mmmmhhh...). :-D

6. The moment I wake up from a tiring dream/nightmare and realizing, "Phew! I'm glad it's just a dream and now it's over!!!"

7. Being able to give better advice to customers on where to look for things in my workplace because now I remember more about the products and their locations.

8. Talking on the phone for the first time with one blogger friend. FUN!!! :-D


9. The first time I cooked kaalilaatikko (cabbage casserole) and it was a success (R2 said I could cook it again later). I ate some with gusto after shoveling the very heavy snow outside. :-D

10. I've healed very well after the molar tooth extraction and I've been eating normally again since last weekend (though in the beginning I didn't dare to chew on tough food on that side). :-D 

11. Having a job that I enjoy doing. :-D 

12. Seeing hubby try to hold back his laughter but his quivering nostrils betrayed him. It was such a funny sight that I couldn't help laughing like a mad woman! :-D

13. Laughing uncontrollably for no reason - that caused hubby to do #11. And the crazy laughing cycle continued! :-D 

6th Wedding Anniversary Cabin Trip

Yep, just got back from the cabin again. R2 took two days off 'coz I've been getting work during the weekend so it's kinda hard to go there then. Didn't take too many pics, but I did take some ha ha...but first of all, here are a few pics of the cakes I bought. Yep, the first one I bought a few days before our anniversary already LOL!!! Couldn't stop myself 'coz it looked SO delicious (and it was!!!).

The second one I bought for all of us (it was a frozen one), so I brought it along to MIL's place. Luckily BIL and SIL also came over that day, so we shared the cake with them, too. Otherwise we'd have been eating too much cake HA HA HA HA HA HA...

We arrived in Kelujärvi at around 5.30 pm yesterday and it was SO dark already. Mind you that the area had no electricity (the path towards the cabin near the lake, I mean). Usually we had a flashlight with us, but this time each of us had a head light (the one with the rubber band that we could put on our forehead) hi hi hi...I bought it a few hours before we left at a nearby store. It was only €3 (it included the batteries already!). Pretty cheap!!! And it was nicer to walk in the dark without having to carry a flashlight in your hand ha ha ha...

Because it was so dark already, I didn't take any pics. The lake was already completely frozen, though I didn't dare walk on it yet 'coz the river water downtown Sodankylä is still running like normal (only parts of the surface is covered with thin ice). But that helped us a lot in getting some water for the sauna, 'coz R2 didn't have to dig too long to get the water hi hi hi...It was a glorious starry night, though. The sky was very clear and the stars were twinkling happily up there.

We went to bed early 'coz R2 was too tired already and I woke up at 6 am due to my screaming bladder. Had to get up and go to the outdoor toilet. R2 woke up as well to burn more firewood 'coz the cabin started getting cool already, then we went back to sleep HA HA HA...At around 9 am the sunlight woke me up. It was SOOOOOOOOOOO bright outside and just lovely (around -8'C). Thankful that we got a chance to enjoy the sun, 'coz at around 12.30 pm it went cloudy again and the sun was already hiding behind the clouds.

OK, here are some pics...enjoy!!!

This is the frozen lake. Don't the funny-looking small piles of snow on the surface of the lake remind you of a meringue pie topping? (click on the pic to see a bigger version)

Plenty of birds were eating and chirping happily outside the cabin. Had to fix the colourings of the pic below 'coz I took the pic against the sun (there was no other way I could take the pic):

Ice crystals. Marvellous under the sun!
 

More ice crystal pic. This one below is from the car window:

Another one. This one is formed on the car door:

Here's the original photo:

Playing with my shadow HA HA HA...

Had to fix the colourings of the pic below 'coz I took the pic against the sun (there was no other way I could take the pic):

A one-winged angel? :-D

Web of...deceit? LOL!!!

OK, that's all for now. Take care, people!!!!

My Dear Molar

Yep, you guessed it! Last night I was eating some toffee (or toffee-filled chocolate) and enjoying it UNTIL it got stuck to my molar (the upper left molar) and then I realized something hard came off. My molar's filling!!!! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH...It didn't hurt yet 'coz I stopped eating after that.


I've never gone to the public dentist before in Sodankylä, so today I was a bit lost and I had to call R2 to find out the direction. I have actually looked it up on Google Map, but I'm not really good with direction and scales. I had miscalculated the distance. The dentist's number was 31 and when I passed by 27, I was happy 'coz it meant the building must have been nearby, but NOOOOOOOO...it was still far away from there!!! In my confusion, I turned on the right after passing through number 27, going to the wrong direction HA HA HA HA HA HA...R2 picked me up from where I was lost to get me to the right building.

Anyway, at first I thought that they'd only refill my molar, but turned out the dentist thought it was better to pull it out altogether. Then after the painstaking task of pulling it out (my molar was already in a bad condition*** - the dentist said that the gum was a bit inflamed already and there was little tooth left 'coz the filling was HUGE!!!), he told me that I should take it easy for a few days and I shouldn't do any physical exertion 'coz it could start the bleeding all over again. WHAT?!?!?!?! I have an evening shift today, so I asked R2 to pick me up again (I walked there and I wanted to tell my boss ASAP so that she could find my replacement - calling her was an option but I was chewing some gauze and it made it harder for me to talk) and he dropped me at work. Luckily another coworker could be my replacement. Phew!!!

And I'm happy to say that I wasn't put on a long waiting list 'coz that was my fear before I called them today to set an appointment. And because another patient before me didn't come, I could get inside earlier and that gave the dentist enough time to do the procedure. Otherwise he probably would have been forced to do it another day. Oh, and I got the bill right away. 42 Euros.


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The dentist was a nice young man (my dentists in Indo were much older) who just visited Indonesia a few months ago with his girlfriend he he he...It's nice to know that some people aren't confused about where Indonesia is located whenever I tell them where I'm from. He found out about it 'coz I had to fill in a form prior to getting inside and I wrote that I had my wisdom tooth extraction in Indo last year. And at the end of the meeting, he said "Terima kasih" (thank you) HE HE HE HE HE...

I'm very thirsty now, but I still can't drink anything yet. Trying to bide my time writing this post until I can drink again. Oh well...just half an hour until I can drink again...

*** I think that molar was in a worse condition 'coz when I realized that my right wisdom tooth grew horizontally and that it had left an gap between that wisdom tooth and the molar beside it, I was afraid of chewing food on that side of my mouth, so for a long time I chewed my food with the left side of my mouth and that molar must've suffered the blow 'coz it had been in a bad shape even before then.

Love Is...(Our Style)

LOVE is...
Sharing such a smelly fart with your spouse
Which inspires your spouse to sell it as a brand of perfume called "Heaven"
And you think that it's such a brilliant idea

LOVE is...
Ruining a movie plot together
By adding in crazy/unbelievable/yucky/over-the-top scenes 
Laughing together
And calling each other "a genius"

LOVE is...
Not minding the sweaty palms
That you hold while watching movies/TV series together


LOVE is...
Going back inside to write a note of warning on the door
When you go out to work and realize how slippery it is outside
To make sure your spouse doesn't fall down

LOVE is...
Telling your spouse "Shit happens" and "It's gonna be OK"
Whenever something bad happens instead of blaming him/her

LOVE is...
Hating the idea of hurting your spouse by doing back coining
Yet always giving in whenever your spouse begs for it
Because your spouse convinces you that it'd help
Even though that means whenever you do it
You always say, "Masochist!" to your spouse 

LOVE is...
Pampering each other when asked
And without being asked


LOVE is...
Knowing that whenever your spouse says that you're crazy
It's actually a compliment that shows how special you are

LOVE is....
Forgiving the weaknesses and faults
Because your spouse also forgives yours

LOVE is...
Keeping in touch regularly whenever you're out of town
To make sure that your spouse doesn't get worried
If a phone call is not possible, at least an SMS would do 

LOVE is...
Kicking infertility in the ass together
And believing that two is a complete family

LOVE is...
Driving each other crazy at times
Saying sorry sincerely when you've done something wrong
Still saying "I love you anyway"
And knowing you really mean what you say

6 Years Ago Today

Six years ago today, I had the final fitting for my wedding gown. R2 was with me along with my parents. It was the first time for my Dad and R2 to see my wedding gown, 'coz the first time I went there to choose my gown, I went there only with Mom.

In the beginning I wasn't planning to rent a wedding gown at all. Due to the fact that R2 was still unemployed at that time, I was the one budgeting the wedding all by myself, so I didn't want to waste too much money for the wedding, so I bought a silver party gown already (I ended up giving it to my friend 'coz I had never worn it). However, Mom asked me, "Are you REALLY sure you don't want to wear a wedding gown? It's once in a lifetime, you know? It's OK if you're sure about it, but I just don't want you to regret it."

I thought about it and then decided to rent a secondhand gown IF I could find one that fit my budget. My budget at that time was around €120-130 max. So off we went to this bridal boutique and the owner/designer was there. When she saw me, she immediately took out 4-5 wedding gowns. We tried on three, but we fell in love already with the first one, so I asked how much it would cost and she said it would cost about €125. Splendid!!! She said the price included the rent of tiara and jewelleries as well as the veil and gloves of my choice (they had several options). She also said that she showed me that first gown as her first choice 'coz she thought it'd suit me best. Well, she was totally right he he he...

It was such a blissful time to be able to spend time with R2 again (the second time we were together in real life) and we had a blast, though I was a bit worried about the craziness of it all for him. I mean, it was his first trip to Indo and he came to Indo ALONE to marry me!!! He'd have to meet my whole family and friends at the wedding party, but he was so calm and collected as usual. :-D

My make-up artist was heavily pregnant at that time. She was a bit worried that she would give birth before or on my wedding day, but thankfully it didn't happen, though she did give birth only a week or so after my wedding day, can you believe it? When I first went to meet her months and months prior to the wedding, I didn't know she was pregnant. When she asked me our wedding date, she said, "Oh, I think I'll be able to make it. I'm 3 months pregnant, you see?"


She usually did the hairdo herself as well, but due to the fact that she was pregnant, she called on another guy to help her with it. Let me tell you that the guy was the gentlest hairdresser EVER in my entire life! He had to put on at least 50 hairpins on my hair but I didn't feel any pain at all (I had such a bad experience before with another salon). And I can't forget the look on R2's face when he saw me with my make-up, hairdo, tiara, and wedding gown he he he he he...He said I looked like an angel! (this is coming from a man who says that make-up = fake-up, so I was afraid he wouldn't like the make-up bit). :-D :-D :-D

Ahhhh...so many lovely memories pouring forth already...13 years ago we "met" by chance through an internet emailpal site, 12 years ago we started falling in love with each other, 8 years ago we met for the first time in real life and we've lived together for almost 6 years now. I really love growing old with him.

Anyway, I guess I'll still spend the next few days reminiscing and being sentimental ha ha ha ha ha ha...

P.S. We went searching for R2's suit in an outlet 'coz there was just no time to order one from a tailor (ordering one from Finland would be outrageously pricy!). After all, he arrived in Indo only 4-5 days prior to the wedding day. Not bad for a €50 suit, eh? (though the jacket part is probably a bit too long).

P.P.S. For the sake of nostalgia, here are two wedding pics...Notice my high heels in the first pic! LOL!!! :-D They may look troublesome to wear, but they were REALLY soft and comfy (I've never been a big fan of high heels) - and most of all they came in my size (36 - the only pair in the store)!!! :-D