Nearly time...

A few pics from the Baby Shower that took place on Sun, Nov 18th for you to enjoy:

1. Greeting guests as they come in to Baby Shower at mum's - Gina on my right lives just a few doors down from my parents, Grace in black on my left is also pregnant, and Chris(tine) is the one standing opposite me. They're all members of our English Ministry at Church called Pathway.

2. Pic of most of the guests that attended - we cudn't get everyone in the room (or in the pic) but I think that's at least most of the adults that attended. We had a few men too! :) Prayer for dad, mum & baby as well as for food before the festivities begin!

3. Mum, me and Jade after all of the guests had gone... :)

Again, it's been absolutely a~ges since my last blog update so apologies!!!

So much has happened during the past 6-8 weeks: new carpet (last & final step of remodeling our condo), updating the Youth information spreadsheet and creating a Youth/student-focused directory using that info, collating parent input and writing a Youth Newsletter for the parents (in Korean!!!), attending gestational diabetes "sweet success" clinics, eating 7 times a day, checking blood glucose 4 times a day, going to the loo at least 10 times a day, attending baby-related classes at the hospital, taking care of my brothers while mum went to Korea for the first anniversary of her father's passing (his passing away last year brought Peter & I together), Thanksgiving dinner, brothers' piano recital, preparing dinner for in-laws and Peter's uncle & aunt on my birthday (with mum's help!), having guests over (finally!), visiting Youth students & parents in their homes aka "visitation", major baby shower (!!!) - sent out invitations myself and ended up paying for the food too!, writing baby shower gift thank you cards, shopping for baby stuff and breastfeeding-friendly clothes (they're so funny), trying to finally once and for all finish off the Korean School Yearbook (and we're very nearly there!!!)... Not in that order but it's all been happening!

In between all of that I've been trying to keep our condo tidy too but haven't been doing very well. Would be in an even worse state without Peter's help with the housework! The same with trying to go walking regularly to get some exercise. It's supposed to help while I'm in labour or at some point during the whole childbirth process anyway...

Speaking of labour... I went for my last Obs & Gynae appointment today. How did I know it was my last? 'Cause during last week's, Dr Noh discussed with me the possibility of being induced this coming Fri night / Sat night due to my gestational diabetes if my labour hasn't already started naturally. He doesn't want Sara 주희 to stay in there any longer than necessary. So Peter went with me today as we wanted to make a joint informed decision. Dr Noh checked me and said that I was about 1-1.5cm dilated and that my uterus wall was about 70% thinner / softened so we were all really happy to hear that preparation for childbirth was happening naturally. He said that there would therefore be no need for me to come in Fri night as he was going to give me something to soften the uterus wall on Fri night and then give me Pitocin to induce labour Sat morning but because it's happening naturally he wouldn't need to give me anything on Fri night to help my uterus wall soften. So if I start having contractions before Sat morning, he won't even have to induce me and that would be abs fab!!! So after our appointment, Peter took me to the "shopping mall" practically across the road from the Dr's office and made me walk for about an hour (it was raining outside so we needed somewhere indoors...). I was completely exhausted! But it's hopefully made the possibility of me having a natural childbirth (with epidural) a bit more probable.

A few stats: I've gained 20 pounds (just under 10kg, 2 stone) during my pregnancy, the length of my tummy (from bottom to top) is just under 35cm, shoe size hasn't grown but they are feeling a bit tight, had morning sickness from about week 7 - 18 (started earlier than most, ended later than most), spend about 48 hours in ER during week 17, haven't had any cravings (Peter has though with his sympathy pregnancy! :)), attended many hours of classes which were really helpful and highly recommended (!!!), diagnosed with gestational diabetes in week 20-something and have been keeping it well under control so did not need to use insulin (thank goodness!!!), will be having an epidural while in labour, will be having Sara 주희 at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Gatos, CA, USA, will be staying at mum's for about 3 weeks once the baby's born.

I/We haven't written a single Christmas card yet (still working on baby shower thank you cards!) but hopefully you'll forgive me this one year for wishing you & your family a very merry, peaceful & laughter-filled Christmas and all the best for the New Year via my blog.

I promise we'll do better next year! :)

Lots of love & miss you lots,
Jenny

Me & My Bump

Photos of me, mum, dad and my mother-in-law at the end of September after Peter & I had lunch with both parents during dad's one week fly-by visit to the States during lunar Thanksgiving 추석. I saw my mother-in-law quickly fixing her make-up using a near-by car's window when she thought no one was looking so I was a bit more persistent with her and she 'succumbed'. Father-in-law kept on resisting so he's not in any of the pics but I think he secretly did want to be in one and I regret not having insisted just one more time... I think he would've 'succumbed' eventually in a very typically Korean way.

I'm wearing my new fall / winter maternity clothes as none of the clothes I brought from the UK fits me at the mo. ;)

Gestational diabetes confirmed and I have a 2 hour appointment at O'Connor Hospital on Monday, 22 October. I think it's a clinic they run for expectant mums with gestational diabetes rather than a 1:1 appointment 'cause they have a name for it: "Sweet Success". We were actually shown the clinic when we went for our maternity ward / floor tour last week but I didn't pay much attention to it - wish I had now! I don't think the Good Samaritan Hospital (our other option for delivery) has a specialist clinic area for gestational diabetes but it's something I'll need to find out as it's now become a must-have for us.

Lots of love,
Jenny

Gestational Diabetes?!

I had a phone call from my Obs & Gynae doc this morning to say that my glucose tolerance blood test results just came in and that my blood glucose level is extremely high. He said that 140 is considered normal but mine was something like 192. If my results had been just a bit over 140 they would've asked me to go take the 3-hour test just in case but as they were so high there was no need to. He said that the fact that I'd had lunch right before taking the test wouldn't have made a significant difference either. :(

A bit from the www:

Gestational Diabetes Screening: Glucose Challenge Test
(1 hour after a 50-gram glucose drink)
Less than 140* mg/dL (7.8 mmol/L) Normal glucose tolerance
140* mg/dL (7.8 mmol/L) and over Abnormal, needs OGTT (see below)
* Some use a cutoff of >130 mg/dL (7.2 mmol/L) because that identifies 90% of women with gestational diabetes, compared to 80% identified using the threshold of >140 mg/dL (7.8 mmol/L).

Gestational Diabetes Diagnostic: OGTT
(100-gram glucose drink)
Fasting* 95 mg/dL (5.3 mmol/L)
1 hour after glucose load* 180 mg/dL (10.0 mmol/L)
2 hours after glucose load* 155 mg/dL (8.6 mmol/L)
3 hours after glucose load* ** 140 mg/dL (7.8 mmol/L)
* If two or more values are above the criteria, gestational diabetes is diagnosed.
** A 75-gram glucose load may be used, although this method is not as well validated as the 100-gram OGTT; the 3-hour sample is not drawn if 75 grams is used.

So I've been doing a bit of reading on gestational diabetes this morning and I'm actually in the very low-risk category but somehow... It's been one thing after another with my pregnancy and as Peter once said I've been "over-achieving" (morning sickness went on longer than 90% of average pregnant women, ending up in A&E / ER, etc) but this is the most worrying of the lot as it may affect Sara(h) while she's in the womb, during the birth, after birth and beyond for both of us. Only 2-7% of expectant mothers develop gestational diabetes, which apparently makes it one of the most common health problems of pregnancy but with my medical history, my family's medical history, and everything else considered the chances of me ending up with gestational diabetes were lower than low... There's a higher risk of stillbirth, of me needing a c-section, of my developing pre-eclampsia (was involved in a clinical trial with women with pre-eclampsia - it's not nice at all!!!), and 2/3 of women who have gestational diabetes have it again during future pregnancies and usually go on to develop Type II diabetes within 5 years after delivery amongst other things! Sara(h) has a higher chance of developing childhood & adulthood obesity and of developing diabetes too - poor thing!

My Obs & Gynae doc will be setting up appointments for me attend a clinic for pregnant women with gestational diabetes so I can learn as much as poss about it and start regulating my diet and exercise appropriately as too much exercise can be just as bad as too little. *Sigh...*

Only Peter and mum know so far... I haven't even told Peter's parents yet. There's a very slight chance that it might be a false alarm and our doc said that he'd get the lab to re-check my results but...

I think the most important thing to remember in order to keep things in perspective is that most mums with gestational diabetes have natural births without too many complications and have healthy babies.

Please continue to pray for us, especially our health, that there will be no complications during the next couple of months.

Prayerfully yours on a nostalgic, lovely, rainy day in San Jose,
Jenny

Her name is...

I didn't realise till after I posted the blog below that I completely assumed that everyone knew Little Miss Oh's name but that I hadn't written anything about it! Oops!!! Sorry~!

So while we were at one of the Youth Summer Retreats (think it was the Sr. High one) was when we decided on the name Sara(h). We'd been m-ing & r-ing about names since we found out I was pregnant and then concentrating on a girly name since we found out in July but on that day in August, Peter asked me what I thought of the name Sara(h) and I was completely gobsmacked! I'd been thinking of the name for the past few days but hadn't mentioned anything to him yet as I wanted to go thru all of the pros and cons in my head first and hadn't quite finished but he actually mentioned it first! Needless to say we were both very happy to have found a name that we both liked. :) The only thing that's undecided is whether or not we're going to spell it with an 'h' at the end! I prefer with, he prefers without. I think I'm starting to sway towards without but don't tell him I said that. ;)

As of I think last week, Little Miss Oh also has a Korean name which will be her middle name - Juhee. 'Ju' as in 'all around' and 'hee' as in 'happiness / joy' so her name means 'one gives happiness / joy to all around [her]'.

Miss Sara(h) Juhee Oh. :)

After I wrote my previous blog I also realised that I forgot to mention that another reason why I've been so busy is because my house in the UK is finally in the process of being sold and I had a lot of paperwork to complete! It's been a bit of a pain as the tenant refused to pay rent during the last few months she was living there and then left suddenly but the estate agents didn't even tell me that she'd left! So I was here in the US becoming increasingly frustrated at the fact that I wasn't receiving any rental income and then I find out... Anyway... The nightmare's nearly over now - I think?!?!?!

Another thing I left off the previous posting re things I need to do: study for and take the DMV (US equivalent of the DVLA) driver license tests. I need to take both the theory and practical tests, or as they call it here, 'written' and 'driving' tests, as mine is from outside the US. Even within the US if your license is from a different state, you're required to take the practical again in order to be issued a CA driver license. I was supposed to have taken it within a certain number of days after becoming a resident of CA and I've gone past it but I don't they really care. I'll definitely be taking both of them soon though as I need it for ID purposes as well!!!

Going to write separate blog updates for a couple of other things...

Lots of love,
Jenny

Sorry!!!

Wow... I can't believe I went through Aug & Sep without a simple blog update! So sorry!!!

Quick summary of August:
1st week - Stopped having morning sickness - hurrah!!! :)
2nd week - Jr High (6th - 8th "grades", as in 6th - 8th year students or similar to) Retreat ("camp") from 7th - 10th.
3rd week - Sr High (9th - 12th "grades") Retreat from 14th - 17th.
4th week - High School Registration period for two brothers so lots to prepare (forms to fill in / check, cheques to write, classes / teachers to confirm, buy uniforms, back-to-school stuff, etc). Mum finally returned from Korea after her stay was unexpectedly extended from 2 to 4 weeks. Peter started using Facebook!
5th week - Korean School Teachers' Orientation on 26th, Peter had to preach for the Wed night Korean service on 29th. Started packing our stuff and on 1st September...

After living at mum's in Almaden for months, we moved out on 1st September back to our place in Sunnyvale. My morning sickness was gone, I was able to eat, cook, etc and mum was over her jetlag so we moved out. I cried the first night. :)

Quick summary of September:
Really busy with Korean School - Had to quit though 'cause it was so exhausting physically and mentally. My heart wanted to teach 'cause I love the kids and I love teaching but I wasn't able to cope with the workload so found a replacement and quit. I also didn't think it'd be fair on the students to have a fatigued not-as-well-prepared-as-she-should be teacher. I was still involved with a lot of the more exec stuff as mum's Headmistress ("Principal") but my workload was much less than when I was teaching.
Really busy with church Youth work - We started having two-hourly(-ish) gatherings with parents and students from each grade. It took a lot of coordinating, preparation, asking very nicely for "favours" and a lot of energy too. It was the first time we'd tried this kind of meeting so the first meetings in particular were very experimental but the outcomes for all of them (so far, they're still going on!) have been really positive. Only a couple more left! A lot of additional work has come out of it but it's all good stuff and stuff I'm excited about doing! :) My only worry is about possibly letting the parents down and not being able to get things done as quickly as they'd like. A lot of parents seem to think that pastors & wives have superhuman powers and have more hours in the day than everybody else. If only! :)
Really busy with my Permanent Residency / Change of Status US visa docs - So complicated and so expensive! The fees for the forms came to a total of 1,365 USD but that doesn't include the cost of taking passport photos (paid 40 USD for 8 passport photos and that's a bargain!!! average 10 USD for 2 passport photos, funny size too!), blood tests & vaccinations (about 200 USD), medical examinations (about 100 USD), printing, photocopies, etc... I'm very happy to be able to say that on 4 Oct I finally sent everything (all labeled and in order of course :)) so I'll hopefully hear back from them with good news very soon! There are a couple more medical things I need to have completed once I've had baby Sara(h) but otherwise, they hopefully have everything they need. It should take 3-6 months for my Permanent Residency approval to come through and then approx 2 years thereafter for my Citizenship to be approved - I think.
Other things that kept me busy (not in any particular order) - trying to organise / make more home-ly our 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo; dad visited for a week; sister's boyfriend visiting for 1 day from Dallas, Texas to ask dad for his permission to marry my sister; 2-hourly quilting classes Thurs mornings (bit of sth for myself), 2-hourly Childbirth Preparation classes Mon evenings; met with a rep from the IMB (International Missions Board) re Peter & I going out on long-term missions soon, application, etc; Peter sick for a week; usual cooking, cleaning, etc.

We've had a busy start to October too as I set up appointments with various carpet companies so we've had people around to measure and sell us their stuff! We've narrowed it down to two of four options now and so hopefully we'll be able to get our new carpet soon so it can settle before Miss Oh arrives. :) Weekend just gone was packed with a wedding, chauffeuring my brother around, two grade-specific gatherings, and two PTA (Parent Teacher Association) meetings involving all of the parents with children in the Youth group. Monday (yesterday) we just vegged! :)

Quilting classes are almost over now (so sad... :() and our Childbirth Prep classes are almost over now too (birth's getting closer - eek!) but I think this month's going to be pretty hectic with the new carpet coming in, trying to get rid of as much of our stuff as possible to make room for lots of baby stuff & prepare for our eventual move abroad, finishing the Korean School yearbook, producing a directory / phone book for the Youth group, getting the ball rolling on the Youth yearbook, organising Miss Oh's baby shower in mid-November, starting to look at all far-too-many options for all the things we need to buy before she's born or soon thereafter, pick photos for our wedding album (still haven't done it so still don't have an album!), send last remaining wedding thank you cards (appalling I know...), etc. I think I've covered most of the big things.

I've started interpreting (real-time!) on Sunday for the non-Koreans who attend our Korean service at church. It was really scary the first time but I'm starting to get used to it and am hoping to start enjoying it soon too. :) They've asked me to do it until Sara(h)'s born with the hopes that they'll be able to find someone else by then. The lady who's been doing it apparently wants a break which is perfectly understandable as it's adrenaline-rushing brain-numbing high-concentration work!

In terms of the pregnancy, I was able to eat with no worries for a few weeks and then started experiencing heartburn, indigestion, nausea, feeling "gassy" (problems with wind), and breathlessness so I've started being more careful again about what and how much I eat during each meal. I hadn't had any vomiting for about 10 weeks but then I vomited today so... :( Hope it's not the beginning of another bout of vomiting!

Miss Sara(h) Oh is healthy, very busy kicking mum when she's not sleeping but a bit on the small side. According to her size, at last measurement during our Sept appt, her due date is 2 Jan, nearly 2 weeks later than the original due date of 22 Dec. Apparently 1st babies are usually born late too but we'll see... Peter and I are both hoping for mid Dec for various reasons. :)

It's such a nice feeling updating my blog! :) Will definitely have to do it more regularly now that I don't need to worry about being kicked out of the US or having to do more work 'cause I didn't get my application in on time.

Love you and miss you lots,
Jenny

We found out the gender today...

He he he... :)

So we went to our Obs & Gynae doc early this morning and after routine checks (my weight - decreased, urine, etc) with the nurse the doc came in to do the ultrasound. Jade was with me as was Peter fully equipped with a camcorder! :) The doc checked for things as when he could see them - heart's four chambers, spine, other limb development, brain size, etc and then he finally got the view he needed to tell us the gender of our baby... It was hard 'cause the baby was constantly moving around and was very active in my tummy! After a long time we found out that we'll be buying a lot of white and pink 'cause...

It's a GIRL!!! :)

She'd grown so much! The scanned images are from our first two appointments, the first when she was 11 weeks, the second when she was 13 weeks. Our third appointment was today, towards the end of her 18th week. I'm nearly halfway there!!! :)

Mum took the scans with her today to Korea to show my grandparents their great-grandchild. They already have lots but to my paternal grandparents as I'm their first son's first child, have always been their (obvious for better or for worse) favourite and she's my first child, she's very special to them! To my maternal grandmother she's very special too as it was through my maternal grandfather's death that Peter and I were able to meet. My mum had always been my maternal grandfather's favourite as well so my little baby's the first grandchild of my maternal grandparents' favourite daughter.

The doctor was a bit concerned when I went today 'cause although the baby's growing well I'm not gaining any weight, I'm not eating well and he said that he suspected possible a slight internal tear because my blood results showed that I'm slightly anemic. So he asked me to try and eat more / better and increase my iron content. He asked me about prenatal vitamins and I told him that at his suggestion I'm just taking folic acid at the mo 'cause my organic three-times-a-day huge smelly tablets were making me sick so he said to continue till my morning sickness is better and then swap to prenatal vitamins as soon as poss.

Well... Peter made me take one tonight! He sat and coaxed me till I eventually took it... Yuck!!! I know it's good for both me and the baby but it's so big and so yucky! Oh well... I'll try...

There are lots of girl babies at church so I'll be receiving all of their stuff plus my niece's who just turned one this past weekend so I think we'll be alright for a while at least in terms of clothing! Jade says she's going to take her shopping as soon as she can leave the house and then when she's older take her shopping and dress her up, etc etc... Oh dear! :)

Can't wait for her to be born! It'd be so funny if we found she's actually a boy at our next appointment. ;)

He he he... :)

Love you and miss you lots,
Jenny x

Re: blog posting below...

I know the posting date says 26 June but it was actually posted Saturday, 21 July. It's because I started writing it on 26 June that it's showing up as that date rather than the date I posted it... Just in case anyone's confused. :)

Counting My Blessings... :)

The day after I wrote my last blog update I found out that one of the ladies in our church had to be hospitalised due to her and her 2 month old foetus (is that technically correct?) being dehydrated. A few days after that, on Sunday, I was chatting with a friend on the EM (English Ministry) side at church and she told me about an Australian couple also having to go through the same ordeal, receiving iv treatment while being hospitalised due to dehydration. She's just over 3 months, at a very similar stage to me.

Lots of people & a lot of the literature out there say that morning sickness usually finishes around 12 weeks. The iVillage weekly email update I received read like this:

You are now 14 weeks pregnant!

WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH YOU
You open the refrigerator door, only to be greeted by the nauseating smell of garlic. But you love garlic. Or rather, you did. Now all sorts of smells seem unappealing at best, and gut-wrenching at worst. What's going on? It might be hormones, or it might be your body's way of keeping anything that may be harmful to your baby out of your system.

WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH YOUR BABY
Your baby is now about 3 1/2 inches long and weighs about 2 ounces. His or her neck is complete, and your baby even has fingerprints. The ears may not be fully developed just yet, but he or she has been absorbing the sound of your voice since day one so that he or she can recognize Mommy the moment after you give birth.

*****

I wrote the above nearly a month ago, put it in draft and today, Saturday, 21 July 2007, am finally updating it with intentions of posting it as well today!!!

I'm definitely counting my blessings. I haven't had problems with dehydration and although I'm still "suffering" from morning sickness in my 18th week, baby's ok and so am I.

I've actually just come out from being hospitalised for the past few days. Mum rushed me to A&E (ER) Thursday night with severe abdominal pain. I was able to sort of walk all hunched to the car and into A&E but that was it. The pain got worse and worse till it was so bad I couldn't even lift my legs when they tried to sit me in a wheelchair and they had to pull me from one trolley / bed to another. They suspected appendicitis as that's the area where most of the pain was and because my WBC count was way above normal (around 1200, danger zone starts at 1000). They gave me morphine for the pain and then more morphine 'cause I was still in a lot of pain. Despite the two doses I was still in pain but they couldn't give me anymore 'cause of the baby. It did make me extremely drowsy though which was a definite blessing 'cause I really didn't want to be in pain anymore! They performed two ultrasounds, one in Maternity to check on the baby (heartbeat was fine! Thanks God!) and then another one in the A&E area to check my appendix. On Friday they performed both checks in the latter so not sure why they had to do two separate ones on Thursday but anyway... Mum left the hospital at 3am once they told her that I'd have to stay overnight for observation and that it'd be a while before there'd be a room free for me. Sometime in the middle of the night they took me up to the 5th floor and that's where I stayed till around about lunchtime today.

Yesterday morning my WBC count was lower but still high but I wasn't in anywhere near as much pain as the night before - phew! I still couldn't move without wincing and a struggle but I was much much better. After more blood tests, urine collections, another ultrasound, more prodding by the doctors, I was told that the likelihood of me having appendicitis was extremely low as my WBC had gone to 800 by the afternoon but that it was still a possibility so they wanted to keep me in one more night for observation. Also, because I'd been Nil by Mouth for 24 hours they didn't want to send me home, me eat something, and then be rushed back to hospital again so I was given a Clear Liquid meal for dinner (clear chicken broth type thing & apple juice). Two of our church pastors came to pray for me and the baby and my in-laws came for a visit too. By evening I felt much better and was able to take a walk down the hallway! It was a slow walk but I was walking!!! :)

This (Saturday) morning my WBC count was down to 500 so whatever infection I had was gone (they came to draw blood @ 5:20am!!!), I was able to keep down my upgraded Full Liquid breakfast of "cream" of wheat and OJ (I so wanted the bacon & eggs the grandpa in the room across from mine was having!), and the pain was only present in half of the areas and only when the doctor prodded so I was discharged! Hurray!!! My father-in-law came and stayed with me for a few hours and one of the Korean School teachers came to check on me too. She was feeling guilty 'cause she thought it was partly her fault for stressing me out about the Korean School Yearbook. :)

Counting blessings: baby seems to have been untouched by the whole event and received a bit of extra nutrition from all the i.v. I received. Mum didn't say anything Thursday night but when we had visitors Friday evening she told them how frightened she was on Thursday 'cause I was in so much pain during my 17th week and that's when she had her 2nd miscarriage about 20 years ago in the exact same hospital... It was all a bit too dejavu-ish for her and she didn't want what happened to her to happen to me. She had both of her miscarriages outside of what people call the "safety" period - 13th & 17th weeks. I'm not eating well but I'm eating well enough, I'm being well taken care of and the baby's heartbeat is nice and strong & is very active in my tummy (according to ultrasound, haven't felt anything yet) so I'm very very grateful!!!

Diagnosis: enteritis. As I'd been eating only about half a portion of food 2 - 3 times a day, had probably been working a bit too much at the beginning of the week, and had had hardly any meat over the past four months, the combination of fatigue, suddenly eating meat and a full portion at that too took its toll and my intestines doth protesteth!

Treatment: rest, porridge for the rest of today, can eat "normal" food from tomorrow but must watch carefully what I eat (avoid spicy, salty, oily meat like bacon, deep fried stuff like tempura) for the next week as it takes about a week for full recovery and then can eat slightly more normally but try to maintain eating 6 small portions per day from today till the end of my pregnancy. And no over-doing things and plenty of rest.

I still have sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much to do too!!! I was wiped out by Wednesday this week but I felt good at the same time 'cause I was finally starting to see progress in some areas. But then... I think I'll just really need to pace myself 'cause I don't want to re-live the past 48 hours again!

6 bags of i.v, 6 blood tests, only two meals, excruciating pain, causing so much worry to those around me, countless trips back and forth to the hospital and home for mum, numerous visits from my Obs & Gynae doc + a surgeon, and poor Peter worried and feeling helpless being away from home traveling with ten teenagers in charge of our Youth Mexico Mission trip!

We were supposed to find out the sex of our baby this Thursday just gone but I delayed our four-weekly appointment for a week so that Peter, Jade (sis), and mum can all be there with me when we find out. Jade, like Peter, is also currently on a Mission Trip but she's gone to an Indian reserve near Vancouver, Canada. My brother John is with Peter and Jade's boyfriend Jon is with Jade. All four come back late Wednesday, we'll go to see Dr Noh, my Obs & Gynae doc, early Thursday morning and then mum leaves for Korea on Thursday. Mum was a bit disappointed and cross that I'd changed the appointment 'cause she's dying of curiosity! :) Peter and Jade were delighted though 'cause Peter wanted to be there for this very special occasion and Jade wants to get a peep at her niece / nephew. Dr Noh wants to see me next week for a check-up anyway now so we'll be killing lots of birds with one stone during that trip.

For someone who has so much to do, I'm probably spending too much time on my blog but I've written so many drafts of so many different topics in my head over the past few weeks and have been disappointed at myself when going to bed so many times 'cause I didn't have time to update my blog, I think I definitely owe a slightly long blog posting to myself and to my friends who've been so patient with me!

Thank you for keeping me in your thought & prayers and please continue to do so!

Lots of love,
Jenny :)

Being Pregnant...

It's hard being pregnant. I'm not enjoying it AT ALL at the moment and am just waiting for the day my "morning" sickness and constant fatigue will be gone. I don't want to sleep anymore... But I'm so tired... Not being able to eat properly leaves me really drained and energy-less too. I'm tired, emotional, feel helpless, useless, and even slightly claustrophobic. I haven't ever stayed at home so it's frustrating and depressing. Even when I'm at home resting I don't usually have the energy to do all of the things I still need to... Haven't done any of my visa stuff yet, still have about 400 Thank You cards to write, still haven't unpacked my stuff from the UK... I think that might be part of the reason why I don't quite feel 'at home' yet here. That and the fact that we've been constantly switching between mum's place and ours 'cause of my morning sickness... I can't even go food shopping on my own 'cause I can't lift heavy things!

I'm 12 weeks pregnant and am still lighter now than I was on my wedding day!

The last few weeks have been hard. The beginning of June was crazy with the end of the Korean School (KS) semester, having to create colourful exams for the kids, marking them, preparing them for the end of year performance, sorting out prizes, writing report cards for all of them, trying to see if the parents could help out with the food on our last day...

The day after our KS Graduation Day was the day of our church play 'Shim Chung (kind of like a Korean Cinderella) Jun (story)' and I played the main character Shim Chung.

Having looked up Shim Chung on google:

A young girl, Shim Chung, gives her life to a sea dragon so that her blind father may see again - and is rewarded for her filial piety by becoming an empress.

Very short version of a very old Korean folktale. This is a slightly longer version:

The story of Shim Chung has its roots in the shamanistic rituals conducted for fishing vessels on the East Sea, tracing back 1,500 years.

According to the story, Shim Chung’s blind father stumbles one day while walking alone and falls into the river. A Buddhist monk rescues him and tells him that he can regain his sight if he donates 300 sacks of rice to the temple. When a ship’s captain arrives in the village looking for a maiden to sacrifice to the Sea Dragon King during his next voyage, Shim Chung volunteers, planning to use the money from selling herself to purchase the 300 sacks of rice needed to restore her father’s sight. Willingly accepting her fate, Shim Chung plunges into the sea when a ferocious storm breaks. At the bottom of the sea, the Sea Dragon King proclaims her Daughter of Filial Piety and asks her to become his undersea goddess. After she declines his offer, pleading to be allowed to return to earth to care for her father, he sends her back to Earth in a beautiful lotus flower. The lotus flower appears in the Korean king’s courtyard and Shim Chung emerges from the flower. After Shim Chung tells the king of her search for her father, he orders his subjects to gather all the blind men of the country. The king proposes to Shim Chung and she accepts. At her wedding banquet, Shim Chung meets each of the blind men and is disappointed not to find her father. Finally, one last blind man approaches and she is overjoyed to realize that he is her father. As he touches her face, he regains his sight.

The play I was in a was a Christian version written by one of our church members as part of our church move celebration events. So in our version, my father is a Christian, the seas are calmed by the prayers of my father and the church members and also due to their prayers, I follow my father and become a Christian as well. :) So our 'Shim Chung Jun' was called 'Shin Shim Chung Jun'. 'Shin' as in 'faith / belief' rather than 'new' or 'spicy' (as in Shin Ramen sold at Tesco's).

Peter was worried 'cause play practice usually went on till late at night and also because I fall to my knees a couple of times and get pulled in different directions so it was a bit physical. It's all over now though, more people than we thought came to watch and the response was really good too! So all's well that ends well.

Which goes for Korean School too! I don't know which class I'll be teaching yet next year but I hope I'll be able to teach the 2nd generation Beginners' class again as I already know what I need to teach and have most of the material for the spring semester.

Peter doesn't want me to teach next year though 'cause he says that since becoming pregnant ever bit of energy I did have I used to prepare for KS and that I neglected everything else because of it. So as I'll be in my third trimester during the autumn term and then recovering from child birth during the spring term... I love being involved with KS though so I'm going to try my best but definitely not over do it. At least I won't have a rush engagement party or wedding to organise, a non-honeymoon honeymoon to go and recover from, and hundreds of Thank You cards to write! :)

We actually have our first baby pic but I haven't had the energy to scan it in yet. It was amazing seeing the little 3.8 cm being kicking and waving its arms! And the heartbeat! Oh my goodness!!! It was beating so fast and we could see it thumping away too! :)

I'll scan it in and upload it soon.. someday!

Our next appointment is this coming Thursday, only two weeks after our first one but apparently the doc needs to do a full medical on me which he didn't have time to do the last time. Every trip to the doc we pay $25 as our insurance is "co-pay". Absolutely nothing in the States is free in terms of medical treatment! Even an ambulance ride costs you $1,000 and that's just for the ride! If you see a doc / nurse or get a prescription / medication then all of that's extra on top!

Need to go... It's taken me a few tries and a few rests and a meal in between but I'm glad I've finally managed to update my blog after 3 weeks!


Miss you and love you lots,
Jenny xxx

Peter's Ordination

Today's Memorial Day, a national holiday in the States. Our next door neighbours have their flag flying outside but I haven't seen a whole lot of other flags...

I've had a really busy and long few days and I've been surprised by how well I've coped only to find that my body didn't cope as well as I'd thought. I felt really rubbish today for the first time in about a week and I know it's because I'm so physically exhausted from having such a mad weekend. So many unexpected things came up last week though, it couldn't really be helped. Well, I could've said 'no' instead of volunteering for things but as you know, that's not one of my fortes! :)

Our church finally moved to the new building a couple of Sundays ago so we're now starting our 12 celebratory events of which one is Peter's ordination this coming Sunday at 16:00! So he'll be an ordained pastor or reverend as opposed to an un-ordained pastor. In Korean his title's completely different as he'll go from being a Jun-do-sa-nim (or JDSN) to a Mok-sa-nim (MSN). The "nim" bit is the ending we use for people to show respect in Korean so teachers are Sun-saeng-nim, your boss you call Sa-jang-nim, and so on and so forth. I'm a Sa-mo-nim (or SMN) at church as I'm a pastor's wife! :) It's weird 'cause a lot of our older church members have known me since I was 5 so for them to go from calling me Yeonsook to Sa-mo-nim is awkward for both sides! So I've ended up with lots of names like Mak-nae ("youngest") SMN, Ggo-ma ("young" / "child") SMN, Yeonsook-e SMN, Jenny SMN, Oh SMN, Jenny Sam (some of the Youth kids think that Sa-mo-nim is too long), Yeonsook, Jenny... :)

There are a lot of formalities that go with being ordained which we still need to figure out so it's going to be a busy week. We were thinking of going to an Obs & Gynae this week but we've pushed it back to next week - my 12th week! There's the ordination which will take a lot of coordinating (and cost a fair bit too!) but it's also Finals week for Korean School this Saturday so I need to come up with a colourful not-too-hard but still assessable exam paper for my beginners' class students (ranging from ages 5 - 10!) and there's also a Youth Praise Night revival event on Friday & Saturday evening so we're both going to be really really busy this week. Some say we don't have our priorities quite right... I don't think they're entirely wrong!

I'm hiding in my mum's room right now 'cause the smell of the fish dish I ate so yummily this afternoon for lunch is now making me sick so I'm in the room furthest away from the kitchen... Sigh... Unpredictability is a pain...

I've been encouraged by emails from friends (like Carolyn B's today!) saying that they read the blog even though I've been so rubbish at keeping it going - thank you for not giving up on me!!!

Going to bed now... Good night dear friends!!! :)

Lots of love,
Jenny xxx

Bit of news... :)

Well, I was going to wait till after our first doctor's appointment but we still haven't been so thought I'd share the news with you anyway...

I'M PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

We found out the week after we got back from our honeymoon... Talk about things happening really fast... Sheesh! We were hoping I'd become pregnant within the 1st 3 months but not quite so soon! I really didn't think it would happen so soon 'cause I was the weakest I'd ever been in my life 'cause of all the stress, lack of stress, lack of exercise leading up to the wedding and during our honeymoon so thought my body would need some recovery time before I would be able to conceive but I guess not! We also wanted to enjoy a bit of time together just as normal husband and wife, do things together (like play tennis, go for walks), go on "dates" as we hadn't been able to spend any quality time together on our own at all prior to the wedding, go on a proper honeymoon even if just an overnight trip to somewhere nice with just the two of us unlike our 10-day honeymoon in Korea, find out more about each other, just relax and enjoy each other's company without having to worry about planning a major event but alas... God's keeping us on our toes and has blessed us with a baby very early on in our marriage - can't get much earlier than a honeymoon baby!

According to the e-calculator on ivillage.com the baby's due date is 22 Dec and I am now in my 10th week. As I mentioned previously we haven't been to see a doctor yet but one of the best Obs & Gynae doctors (or OBGYN doctors as they're known in the States) in the area is the husband of my mum's friend and he said that I don't really need to go till I'm about 12 weeks and that it's actually better if I don't go as the poking and prodding will only stress out the baby and can actually lead to a miscarriage and has done for many women in the past. He said to make sure that I get plenty of rest, eat as much as poss, don't stress myself out, don't lift heavy objects and take vitamins! Apart from him though, everyone's been saying that I should go see a doctor during the early stages especially as it's our first!

We wouldn't have been able to go though even if we wanted to 'cause I had to wait for my insurance to come through as Mrs Oh :) and also because it's just been so crazy with the church moving buildings that Peter's been completely swamped with work. Last week he worked a minimum of 12 hours per day and on 3 days worked 18 - 19 hours. Absolutely mad! If some of the Youth kids hadn't been around to help him Fri, Sat & Sun, even with him working mad hours, not everything would've been ready for our first service in the new building the day before yesterday (20 May). If mum hadn't picked-up and paid for 4 Mexicans + a U-Haul van on Friday, it would've been even worse! Also, there would've been absolutely no way we would've been able to conduct Korean School on Saturday 'cause none of the chairs & tables had arrived yet. Crazy... Mum was out working from 4:30 a.m. Friday morning together with Peter and came home late too.

(The picking-up Mexicans thing: there are loads of unemployed Mexicans in California that just hang around places like Home Depot - B&Q-type big DIY chain store - waiting to be picked-up for odd temporary jobs every day all day.)

Hopefully things will calm down a bit now, especially as we now have a new Youth Pastor to work with Peter! Phew! And maybe within the next couple of weeks we'll make it to an Obs & Gynae doctor.

So... Am I enjoying pregnancy? Uh... No!!! I think I might a bit later on but at the moment... I started feeling morning sickness already a few weeks ago and it was really hard 'cause I had a cold and bad hayfever all at the same time! On Monday, 30 April, Peter & I actually managed to go to a nearby lake and spend some time just relaxing before and after running errands and even catch a film in the evening - our first "date" since we actually became a couple! :) That evening when we came home I didn't feel so good and then the next morning was when it all started happening... Oh my goodness... Not nice... That first week was the hardest... Even without the morning sickness, just having a really bad cold + hayfever and not being able to take meds would've been hard enough I think. But then to experience morning sickness as well on top of all that... Just wasn't nice...

After that first week we moved into mum's 'cause I'd lost 4 pounds (just under 2 kgs) in 5 days and Peter and I were really struggling with my unpredictability when it came to food, not being able to eat in general, and nausea. We've been at mum's for two weeks now and we'll probably go back home today as we have a better idea now of how to handle this morning sickness thing. One of the most important things for me has been to always have a supply of something to eat next to me. I've found that if I don't eat / snack and let myself become really hungry, I start feeling nauseous and then I can't eat and then feel even worse and it's a vicious cycle. So initially I started eating cheesy crackers (called "Goldfish") but now I'm eating loads and loads of fruit every day which is healthier but a lot more expensive and a lot more work! Poor mum's been buying bag loads of fruit and preparing a big container full of them for me every day. It'll be interesting to see how Peter & I cope... From the frequent trips we'll have to make for fruit to the having lots of things available in the fridge but then me not being able to cook it and maybe not wanting to eat it even if / when Peter's cooked something to not being able to buy loads of different stuff and me eating what I can eat and then my brothers, Peter and mum eating the rest, it'll definitely be a challenge! It's been a real luxury having mum so close by and just being able to move in for a while.

The reason why we wanted for me to become pregnant within the 1st 3 months of our marriage is because we can't / shouldn't go out as missionaries during the first year of marriage (reference: Leviticus, Old Testament, Bible) and we've been advised that during the first year of your first child both parents are so busy and tired that we wouldn't be able to concentrate on our ministry and it'd be even harder as we'd have to adjust to a new country, new culture, new food, everything, so as that's already two years we wanted to have a baby earlier rather than later on into our marriage. I didn't go on the pill as you just never know how long these things are going to take but it all happened very quickly for us!

Pastor Chin, our head pastor at church, was very pleased when he heard that we're planning to stay for approx 2 years as if Peter and I hadn't met Peter would've already gone early this year and they would've been without a Youth Pastor completely! Peter sticking around for 2 years also means that they'll hopefully be able to resume a bit of stability within the Youth group as there's been a lot of comings and goings during the past few years.

The fact that I'm pregnant is supposed to be a secret at church, another reason why I've been delaying writing about it on my blog just in case anyone from church read it, but most everyone seems to know! Pastor Chin asked to keep it a secret until I'm a bit further into my pregnancy just in case so it's not "official" yet. My mum couldn't contain herself so she started telling "just the people I'm close to" about a month ago saying "it's still a secret but..."! And then on Mother's Day Sunday my brother and his Mexico Missions 2007 Team were in charge of pinning carnations on all of the mothers when they arrived at church and he pinned one on me saying that I'm a mum now too! So that raised a few eyebrows and prompted a few questions... ;)

Everything's happening so fast!!! I don't have any regrets but I do wish we could take things a bit slower. I know Peter's in a bit of a rush as he's older and has been praying and training in preparation to go out into the mission field for the past ten years and now he has to wait a bit longer and some of the things we didn't really have a say in (like how quickly I became pregnant!) but it still hasn't been 6 months yet since Peter and I had a long chat in his car on our way back from Wednesday night service at church and he asked me to consider him as part of my future. During that time I moved from the UK to the US, went to two Youth Winter Retreats (camps), got engaged, had our engagement party, organised & had a big wedding, been on honeymoon and am now pregnant!

Our honeymoon? We went to Korea for ten days, arriving evening of 1st April, from 2nd - 6th we had a lunch & dinner 'introduction' meal every single day including lunch on the 6th the day we went on our tour, from evening of 6th - 11th we were with a group of about 34 other people, mostly really old touring around Korea in a bus, waking up at SIX AM (me up at SIX AM!!!), breakfast at 7am, leaving at 8am, when we got back to Seoul on the evening of the 11th we had another 'introduction' meal and then had to go to my paternal grandparents and then finally got to our hotel around midnight and then on the 12th we went to check-in at the airport, then came back out to see my maternal grandparents, rushed back to the airport, ate a quick lunch and then finally relaxed on the plane ride home. We were exhausted when we got back! Thankfully Peter didn't have to preach that Sunday but I had to teach Korean School on Saturday so I had a lot of preparation work to do on Friday despite having done most of it prior to the wedding and Peter had a lot of catching up to do too. Peter also had his ordination interview / text to prepare for on Monday so he was trying to find time to swot up as well. We've already decided that we'll be going on another honeymoon some time in the future where we can actually spend some time on our own and relax!!! When and where, we don't know yet, probably won't be for a while now!

It's lovely to be married, to have a loving, caring, Godly husband I can really look up to and respect and who takes really good care of me. My sister used to say that he's completely goo-goo-ga-ga over me and I don't know if he still is that much but we're both very much in love and very happy together. :)

We finally have our Thank You cards!!! It was actually cheaper to print customised ones at a Korean printer here then to buy blank standard ones so we got 500 printed for 180 USD (inc tax) but it would've cost us approx 25 USD (exc tax) per box of 50 so it was about half the price and they're much much nicer too with one of the studio pics and a pic from our wedding too! I'll be busy writing them this week starting with the Koreans here (they've started complaining!) and I have hundreds to write so it'll probably take me a couple of weeks at least. Oh my goodness!!!

It's been a while since I've been able to spend a few hours just catching up on emails and actually write on my blog too - it's so refreshing and liberating! So strange... I used to take things like this for granted... Things like checking my email whenever I wanted to, eating whatever I felt like eating, knowing that I'd still feel like eating it when it's actually in front of me, being able to smell of rice cooking and loving it (can't stand it now!), being able to be just normal and do whatever I wanted to do!

Hopefully, as I get stronger and the baby grows more, I'll start to really enjoy the whole pregnancy experience and be able to do more of the stuff I want to do too!

Love you and miss you loads,
Jenny xxx

Studio Photographs

Hi!

Ok, so the day before our wedding Mum, Peter & I went to take studio pics in our "hanbok"s (traditional Korean outfits) as my hair was going to be a mixture of Korean and Western on our wedding day and mum & I wanted proper traditional pics. It was a bit stressful doing it the day before the wedding but we couldn't do it any sooner 'cause the studio / photographer was busy and the entire outfit didn't arrive till a few days before the wedding.

I don't know how much longer these photos are going to be available but definitely have a look if you can!

http://www.michaelswedding.com/website/Family/PeterJenny033007Korean/

I've finally made my selection as to the ones we're going to have printed. Our original agreement with the studio was that they'd take about 20 pics and we'd choose 10 but the photographer got really excited when he saw me and went completely snappy-happy! They uploaded 40 of the pics they thought were best and of them I've chosen 20 - oops! I asked a few people for their opinions asking them to choose between 10 - 20. My sister chose 22 and my mum chose 34! So I think I've done pretty well. :)

The delight of the photographer was in complete contrast to the horror on Peter's face when he saw how much make-up the make-up artist had put on my face. I came out of the car with full make-up, hair done and in my hanbok and he just looked horrified! Poor thing... He had to make a real effort to smile in those pics 'cause every time he looked at my face he kept on getting upset! :)

Past midnight now and have a morning meeting tomorrow regarding the Korean School Yearbook I'm working on so must go to bed.

Let me know what you think of the pics and have a look quick before they disappear as I'll be emailing them tomorrow with my choices so they might take them off once they start working on them. I'll see if they can leave it for about a week or so.

Good night lovelies! :)
Jenny x

PS: Technically speaking, the outer garments I put on later isn't actually "hanbok" as it's ceremonial wear so it's called "hwalot" but everyone tends to call any part / combination of the traditional Korean costume "hanbok". The term "hanbok" definitely isn't as well known as the Japanese "kimono" which is a shame but it's our own fault as Koreans aren't very good at taking pride in and "selling" our own culture, history, and very beautiful country! :)

Our wedding - a reflective piece

Wow... I can't believe it's been over a month already since my last blog. I'm not doing very well at this at the moment! Hopefully I'll improve as life becomes more settled.

I have so much to tell...!!!

I guess the first thing is the wedding!!! :) It all went beautifully and if anything did go wrong, it wasn't disastrous and I can't remember it! Loads of people came which was lovely and there weren't enough seats in our approx 520-seater main sanctuary so people were standing at the back and in the aisles. Some gave up and were watching outside on the screens too! It was a big team effort from lots of people at church - some I don't even know yet! Lots of the Youth kids helped, the teachers, parents, adult EM (English Ministry) friends, relatives... A hu~ge thank you to everyone who came and helped make our wedding a very special, beautiful, and stress-free day for us!!! Couldn't have done it without you! :)

Things I wish had been done differently? Hmmm...

Bought a bigger dress size!!! I almost didn't fit into my wedding dress!!! I thought I'd have time to go to the gym at least once a week, get fit, slim down a bit or at least maintain the figure I was at the time I bought the dress but no chance! In fact, I was constantly eating and then sitting back down in front of the laptop or in the car to go to one place or another that I gained weight, my posture became very bad, and my shoulders were so tense they hurt when anyone applied the slightest amount of pressure. Thankfully it's a lot better now!!! :)

Walked a bit slower down the aisle. I was really nervous and was afraid of falling in my high heels and heavy dress so I ended up walking a lot faster than I'd anticipated. As a result, I didn't get to hear my absolute favourite piece of music (Pachelbel's Canon in D) for as long as I'd hoped for. It was so beautiful~! Susan, Sarah, Tim, Sohyun and Ahn SMN did a wonderful job with all of the music. It was absolutely fab~!

Worn my wedding dress for the first dance? Not sure about this one but maybe I should've just worn the sweat-drenched super-tight wedding dress again for just a couple of hours in the evening. Because it was really warm on stage due to the lighting and I'd grown a bit (sideways that is!) I became really sweaty and the thought of having to suffocate again for 2 hours while going around greeting guests, dinner, cake-cutting and the first dance just didn't appeal much to me at crunch time. So I opted out and decided to wear my evening dress from the start of the evening reception instead of after the first dance. Although the pics might not be as nice, at least I was comfortable! :)

Gone to the hairdressers earlier (than 9am - 4 hours before the wedding)! Hair & make-up took a lot longer than we'd thought (especially as someone unexpected showed up) so we weren't able to take the group pics we'd planned to take before the wedding at church and a couple of them we weren't able to take after the wedding either so missed out on completely. :( It also pushed our arrival time at CA Buffet back too. However!!! It did mean that Peter didn't see me in my dress until I walked down the aisle which we'd given up on due to time pressure but then ended up doing. I liked that! :) Not for tradition's sake but more for the surprise effect. He told me I was beautiful. *^^*

Worn a bit less make-up!!!

Wouldn't have done that 'coating' thing the hairdresser told me to do to make my hair shiny 'cause it didn't make my hair shiny, was painful, cost loads, and worst of all, made my hair turn brown even though he promised that my hair colour wouldn't change!!!

Go around the tables to greet guests at CA Buffet before doing the traditional Korean ceremony bit. The person running the ceremony rushed us when we arrived as we arrived at the lunch reception venue later than planned and probably because she had a four-hour drive back. She rushed the whole thing a bit actually but I was baking in all those layers and the constant bowing and standing and sitting and having to hold my arms up so I was ok with it but I think Peter wished she'd done it a bit slower. About 400 people came to the lunch and we only got to see about 150 of them which was a shame. :(

But all of the above were things that didn't spoil our day. We were the happiest people on the planet, we had lots of fun that whole entire day, and we successfully got married without any major mishaps so especially considering how much time I didn't have to plan such a big wedding, I think we did pretty well! ^^

I cried one time that entire day... I slept at 4am, woke up at 7am, was at the hair / make-up place by 9am, finished the evening reception at 11pm, went home to pack and then arrived at Peter's at around 1am and during that 18 hour marathon wedding day, I only cried once... When Sarah & Jay T, and Roy (and Roger) were walking out of the Decathlon Club, the very last guests to leave, and it hit me that I didn't know when I'd see them again and how much I'll miss them. Just thinking about it is making me start crying again! It'd been so wonderful having them there with me on my special day and I'd been looking forward to seeing them the whole time and then when I saw them it was so wonderful and like a dream and so special and I was so grateful that they flew all the way from the UK & Belgium and yet it seemed so normal too for me to be with them all at the same time that I didn't think of them going until they were actually going... :( Hopefully it won't be too long though until I get to see them again~! :)

So all of the Koreans think that I smiled the whole day so I'm apparently going to have a daughter as my first child. ^* Little do they realise... He he he... ^* We'll see! We're happy either way.

I don't have the official pics yet but I do have some of the pics from other people which I'll upload soon. I'll post the link as soon as they're available. I still need to upload all of the engagement pics too!

Still lots to do... Hundreds of Thank You cards, Thank You gifts to buy and send too, still in the process of moving my stuff from my parent's to Peter's / ours + all the usual stuff (Korean School, play practice, other church activities, cooking, cleaning, etc).

Will write again soon - I promise!!! :)

Lots of love,
Jenny x

D-10!!!

Wow! I can't believe it's been nearly a month since my last blog update. Time's flying~~~!

I still have lots to do during the next ten days... TEN DAYS!!! Oh my goodness... Eek!

Today I need to work on the budget as we have lots of payments due for the wedding starting today and I also need to start working on the programme for the ceremony. We'll need about 500-600 maybe even 700 copies so our printer at home's going to be very busy during the next few days! We'll have to round up some helpers any maybe do it at church on Friday evening / Saturday after Korean School.

I still need to draw up a task allocation list too.

We need to chase people who haven't RSVP-ed yet, will probably need to cancel the chocolate fondue fountain we were going to have 'cause more people than we expected actually said 'yes' to the evening reception / after-party (mum went a bit crazy with the invitations), iron / alter all of our wedding attire, book hair / make-up appointments...

Everything's so last minute!!!

On Sunday we went through most of the music with the musicians that are playing at our wedding. The pianist is the wife of our Music Pastor, their daughter Soyun's playing the flute, Timmy & Sarah Cho are playing violin and Susan Lee's playing the cello. I didn't realise how many songs I was missing on the initial list I gave to them a couple of weeks ago! I practiced walking down the aisle to Pachelbel's Canon with Peter as my dad and then he swapped sides when I got to the stairs going up the stage to walk up as the groom. I had a big huge smile on my face the whole time! It was so exciting!!!

If I smile so much on the big day, apparently our first child is going to be a girl (Korean saying). :) I'd love for our first child to be a girl. I'd love for our first child to be a boy too! :)

I'm so excited about seeing everybody, about the fun everybody's hopefully going to have, the good food people will enjoy, and all the dancing in the evening too!!!

I am bracing myself as well though for the complaints. I know that regardless of how much time I spend trying to perfect everything, things may go wrong, and even if they don't someone will find fault with something. I'm sure my aunties and grandparents will be very critical as they've already started criticising our wedding, I'm sure some people at church will feel hurt as we couldn't invite everyone to the invite-only evening reception / after-party, I'm sure some people won't enjoy the food at CA Buffet / Decathlon Club, I'm sure some will think that we should've had a no-kids policy for the wedding & receptions, etc etc but I'm going to enjoy the day as much as possible 'cause I know that despite all this, I will be surrounded by lots of friends and family who will be soooooooooooooooooooooo happy for us and will enjoy the day as much as if not more than Peter and I!!! :)

I've started to get spots (zits) on my face in very obvious places but hopefully they'll be all gone soon and no new ones will develop next week. ㅠ.ㅠ (Crying face using the Korean character for the sound / verb 'u' as in 'you'.)

We're nearly there... In ten days' time I can look back at the past nearly 4 months and just smile... :)

Can't wait for March 31st!!! :) :) :)

Lots of love,
Jenny

Few Photos & Couple of Links

I'll tell you about my manic week maybe later on this week but first I thought I'd post a few pics as I've finally managed to sort through some of our engagement photos during the bit of free time I had while on our Youth Ski Trip on Monday (more details to come later). I was going to post all of the "before" pics onto my kodakgallery page but it's under construction so you'll have to wait to see more later.

This is a pic of Peter, yours truly, and my dad in our "Korean" living room (we have 3 living rooms, one we call a "den" with sofas, coffee table and fireplace, the other's more like a "play" room with our new big teli, PSII/DVD, video, pool table, comp, karaoke machine, etc). The "screen" behind us was actually hand-sewn by my maternal grandmother and is one of her irreplaceable masterpieces. We had low tables with legless chairs for 30 adults in this room + 8 around our dining room table (open plan dining room leading off "Korean" living room) and the kids were all upstairs in the "play" room.

The dress I'm wearing was made / overseen by my mum's older sister who has taken over from my grandmother in her trade and is a very traditional Korean engagement "hanbok". I know you can't see it very well in this pic, but I promise to post some more!

The second pic is more so that you can have a better look at Peter, or Pastor Peter Oh as he's known at church, or Peter "mae-hyung" (one of a few words meaning brother-in-law but more specific) which is what my sis & brothers have started calling him! :)

When I post more pics you'll see that underneath my very light pink "top" I'm also wearing another one of the same shade as my dress. You'll also be able to see the traditional "socks" and "shoes" I was wearing with the dress too!

The dress I'll be wearing the day of my wedding will be very different in colour - lots of strong, vibrant ones! I'll probably be wearing the same "socks" and "shoes" though.

I'll tell you about my week, my Lasik surgery, the Youth Ski Trip, my mum suddenly flying to Korea, 24hr Prayer Meeting, etc soon!

A link for a laugh (bearing in mind that it's from Michael Moore...):
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=204

On a slightly different note:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070215/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_korea_singing_1

Miss you lots!
Jenny xxx

Peter's Birthday!

It's Peter's birthday today!!! I'm in his office at church working on Korean School stuff preparing for this Saturday's class while he's in a meeting with the other pastors in a different room. My mum provides breakfast for them during their Tuesday morning meetings (as she's part of the pastoral staff and she's like head mum) and usually takes bagels or sandwiches but took homemade rice, curry and kimchi today as it's Peter's birthday! My dad asked her to take seaweed soup & rice which is what we traditionally have for breakfast on birthdays but she didn't have any so we've had to make do with curry instead for his birthday breakfast - yummy!

I haven't bought anything for Peter for his birthday which I feel really bad about. He did say that he didn't want anything (just me :)) but I still I wish I had the time to get him something. I've organised dinner for tonight though with us two, my mum, and his parents so that'll be nice!

Wedding plans keep on changing... The latest thing was to not do the Korean ceremony bit as some people feel that Peter & I will be too tired & busy that day to do it and that we should do it in Korea when we go on our honeymoon + Peter's & my traditional Korean outfits are worth about $20,000 and dad will have to bring it from Korea with him so even though we'll be borrowing not buying, it's still very risky and cumbersome! However, doing it in Korea didn't make much sense because the ceremony that we're going to perform is an "introduction" where we'll be bowing (face flat on the floor!) to both sides of the family but focusing on Peter's as I'll be "leaving" my family and "joining" his. Most of Peter's family & relatives are here in this area so it'd be pointless doing it in Korea + we want all of you / Peter's friends / Youth kids to be able to join us and experience it with us! So it's definitely back on - phew!

I'm having my Lasik procedure done tomorrow - eek! We've researched it and I think we're going for the best, safest, most cost-effective, risk free option possible. Apparently I'll experience some haziness for the first 24 hours or so and dryness for about 3-6 months but I'll be liberated from glasses / contact lenses forever! :)

I want to try and get so much done today before I get my procedure done tomorrow!!!

Thank you for the emails you've been sending me. I have a big smile on my face every time I see one of your names in my Inbox and as I'm reading your emails.

Miss you all so much!!!

Slapped Wrists!

After a long silence I finally spoke to a couple of you on the phone today - and got well-deserved slapped wrists! :) It was so nice speaking to Sarah and Roy and I nearly started crying while speaking to Sarah - I miss you all soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much!!! I'm going to be a bit better with my emails / phone calls from now on. I promise!

So much has been going on but we're nearly done sorting out our vendors now. We haven't even started our guest lists yet on either side of the family, but that's something we definitely need to start on very soon!!!

I've given up on making / sending Thank You cards for our Engagement Party and I still need to get the pics sorted ASAP but that's amongst all the other things I need to do that seem to be more urgent!

I got my first ever tattoo yesterday and for those of you that know me well, I'm sure it'll come to you as bit of a shock! Not a normal, picture-kind of tattoo but I had my eyebrows and upper eyelid done (like eyeliner) so more like a tint rather than a tattoo but that's what they call it here anyway.

I'm having Lasik done on my eyes next Wed, yes, on Valentine's Day! It'll be our first ever Valentine's together and I'll be in bed not being able to see properly but we'll do something the day / evening before as it's Peter's birthday. Any good bloke birthday present ideas, let me know! :)

All of the Juniors are coming over tonight after Friday Night Gathering (FNG - weekly Youth meeting at Church) for their "lock-in" and will be staying the night so need to do lots of tidying up today. They'll be bringing their own food, blankets, etc and then cleaning up after having brekkie tomorrow so it shouldn't be too much work for us. I'll be attending play practice during FNG and also preparing to teach my Korean class tomorrow. My eyes are still swollen though from yesterday's impromptu ordeal so I'll need to spend some time in bed with an ice pack on my eyes too! I'm not very presentable at the moment but I don't think & don't want to not go to church tonight - at least I don't smell! ;)

I'm actually going to try and send an email out to everyone today to let people know that I've started this blog. No point in having a blog none of my friends know about!!!

Miss you all soooooooooooooooo much!!!

Lots of love...

Missing you... :(

Dear friends,

I know I've been horrible at keeping in touch but now that I've finally managed to start a blog, I'll hopefully be able to communicate with you much better!

Quick summary of what I've been doing the past nearly 7 weeks.

December:
15 - left UK am, arrived US pm, attended church event in evening
16 - sister arrived from Dallas, Texas
17 - church am, meet Peter's brother's family pm, church pastoral staff Christmas party at our house
18 - buy mobile phone, buy wedding dress!!! oh my gosh!!! made things so real! i was afraid to look at myself in the mirror!
20-23 - church Youth Fasting Leaders' Winter Retreat
24 - church, last minute shopping!
25 - Christmas Day, lunch with Peter's parents, dinner party at our house
26-29 church main Youth Winter Retreat (151 + me & Peter under Peter's care!)
31 - church am, dad arrived from Seoul, S Korea pm, New Years' Eve service @ 23:00

January:
01 - Peter proposed!!! :) New Years' Day, brunch with our family followed by the bowing, pm @ Peter's parents
04 - pre-marital counselling!!!
06 - Engagement Party!!!
07 - sis flew back to Dallas, parents went to Las Vegas for the International CES Exhibition (ended up buying two LCD very nice telis, one for me & Peter!)
08 - bro's 16th birthday
11 - parents arrived back from Las Vegas with my mum's older sister recovering from chemo, jetlag and a cold
13 - dad flew back to Seoul
15 - Martin Luther King Jr's Birthday is actually a national holiday! (last day for most students to study for their "finals")
16 - attended first meeting as a Saturday Korean School teacher (mum's the headmistress and someone pulled out last minute so...)
18 - Youth group meeting at our house pm, bro's 16th birthday sleepover party from 18:00
19 - brekkie for bro's friends, no school
20 - first day of Spring Term at Saturday Korean School, first day as Korean School teacher! the bloke that had to pull out last minute was with me though - thank goodness!
22 - shopping for flooring, granite, etc as we're "remodelling" Peter's kitchen
23 - lunch, dinner & long chats with Auntie, first day I actually had the chance to sit down and do some wedding planning!
24 - Auntie, feeling much better, went back to LA to be with her daughter and her 3 grandsons before flying back to Seoul, burst into tears in the evening 'cause I was missing all of you so much and couldn't hold it in any longer!!! also because I was getting very stressed out with the wedding planning and I was really sad 'cause it's supposed to such an exciting girly time and I'm severly lacking in girly companionship and close friends over here at the mo so it just made me miss all of you even more... :(
25 - got my mum's dishwasher fixed (it's been broken for about 18 months!)
27 - first day alone as a Korean School teacher - eek!
29 - decided on flowers for wedding day, looked at one possible wedding photographer (def no) and possible wedding cakes
31 - received lasik eye surgery consultation, interviewed possible part-time minister / pastor / helper for Peter for the Youth Group at church

I've also been down with bad cases of the flu twice and Peter's been ill twice too which slowed us down considerably. Peter's actually still recovering and I think I'm falling ill again!

I still have a million and one things to do - lasik eye surgery, California Driver License theory & practical tests, prepare for Korean School every Saturday (no simple task!), sort out Engagement photos, write Engagement pressie thank-you cards, find a DJ and MC, meet two other possible wedding photographers, meet videographer, sort out Peter's kitchen and bathrooms, choose food for evening reception, seating arrangements, everybody's clothing (apart from my dress) for the big day, make & write invitations, finalise guest list for both families first!, think of a birthday present for Peter's birthday in less than two weeks, organise other bro's birthday party next week, sort out wedding cakes, get a medical done to submit with wedding papers, complete wedding forms and send off well in advance of wedding, etc etc. The challenge will be trying to get everything done while trying not to fall ill again and / or become majorly stressed!

I'm really glad I've finally written this first entry in my new blog today. It's something I've really wanted to do for a long time now but haven't had the chance to do as I've had to fire-fight for the past 7 weeks. It actually took me over 4 weeks to unpack! Things have calmed down a bit now and I'm more in control so hopefully I'll be able to do more of the things I WANT to do as well as the things I HAVE to do.

I miss you all sooooooooooooooooo much!!!

I'll tell you more about how things are going in my next posting...

Good night! :)
Jenny xxx