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We had a very busy weekend last week.  After finishing up the work day on Friday, Frank, Kiya, and I headed to Turlock for the evening.  We spent some time with my family and spent the night there.  On Saturday morning, we woke up early, said goodbye to Kiya (hoping she wouldn’t dig in my parents’ backyard), and began our trip to L.A. for Alisa and Albert’s wedding.

We had a great drive and thought we’d have plenty of time to relax at the hotel for a few hours before getting ready for the wedding, but of course, we arrived in L.A. just in time to hit traffic on the 5.  Fun!

After a very long, slow crawl on the 5, we finally made it to our hotel.  And guess what?  As we pulled up to it, Frank was like “Hey!  We’ve stayed here before!”  Turns out the hotel that I booked online was the same one that we stayed at years ago on our very first trip away together!  The hotel had since changed names, so I didn’t realize it when I booked it.  But it indeed was the same place we stayed at in 2005 when we went to L.A for a Lakers game and a day at Disneyland.

Alisa and Albert’s wedding was at Inner City Arts, a children’s art museum, in downtown Los Angeles.  As teachers, the two of them had taken their students there when they taught in L.A.  What a fitting venue!  And it was the very first wedding held there too!  How awesome!

Alisa did a wonderful job planning what was a beautiful wedding!  She designed and made the invitations and the programs, and planned a shaved ice station during cocktail hour, as well as an ice cream sundae bar and taco bar after the buffet dinner and wedding cake!  We didn’t leave hungry!   She was a beautiful  bride and we were so happy to be celebrating with her and her new hubby!

During the reception

On Sunday, we woke up early and planned to get out of L.A. before lunch time, but as is typical for us, we ended up staying until after lunch!  We headed into downtown, did some shopping, and stopped by The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.  It was our first time trying it out, and we LOVED it!  I had heard great things from friends, and boy were they right!  The caramel ice blended was so yummy!  It totally beats out Starbucks’ caramel frap!  And Frank loved his vanilla ice blended so much that we bought the ice blended powder and coffee extract to make them at home!

We hit the road after eating at the Panini Cafe in downtown (which was really good by the way) and swung by Turlock to pick up Kiya.  Thanks again to my parents and sister for dog-sitting, and sorry again for her digging!  (She can’t seem to help herself!  She always digs in the same spot–where the pool filter is.  I think it’s because she hears the noises and wants to know what’s going on!)

After picking up Kiya, we headed back up to Fremont, gave Kiya a bath, and headed out to dinner with Frank’s family for his dad’s birthday.  It was an extremely busy, fun, tiring weekend!  And on a side note, we whipped out the blender that we had gotten as a wedding gift, and we’ve put it to good use making our own ice blended drinks!  They are YUMMY!

Wow, 7 married months already!  We are spending the evening relaxing at home, eating Chipotle burritos for dinner, and watching the season finale of The Bachelor and tonight’s episode of 24.  It takes some good planning to get all the t.v. in, but having DVR helps!

My sister added a new dog to her family–a Shiba Inu (just what I want for our next one) named Pasco.  She sent pictures tonight and Daisy and Pasco look so cute hanging out together.  I wish we could get a brother or sister for Kiya to play with, but I know it’s not the best idea right now.  And Frank says we have to wait for when we have more room.  I guess a furry addition will have to wait.  Bummer.

We celebrated Kiya’s 4th birthday today!  She had a fun-filled day and we spoiled her with birthday gifts of food and toys!

It was also 3 years ago today that we found her at the Oakland SPCA and welcomed her into our lives.  We fell asleep last night talking about all the fun, frustrating, crazy, lovable moments we’ve had with her.  We can’t believe that it’s been 3 years already.

Kiya enjoying her ‘birthday cake’ cookie

Kiya with Daddy and her new squeaky squirrel

Kiya with Mommy, squirrel, and Blue (a gift from grandma and grandpa Leung)

Kiya playing with her new squirrel

Craving her doggie ice cream

Enjoying her ice cream

Ice cream’s all done!

Happy Birthday to our Bubba!  We love you so much and we feel so lucky to have found you!

As you may know, Frank and I adopted Kiya from a local SPCA about 3 years ago.  Obviously, the plight of shelter dogs has become close to our hearts.  Shelters are often overcrowded and depend on donations of money, food, blankets, and even toys to be able to care for homeless/unwanted animals.

You may have seen Pedigree’s “Maybe You Should Get a Dog” Super Bowl commercial.  Well, here’s something easy you can do to help!  Pedigree has a couple of videos on their website, and for every video watched, they will donate a bowl of food to dogs in shelters.  Last I checked, the videos had been viewed 220,936 times.  That’s a lot of meals donated to shelter pups!  Please help!

www.pedigree.com/03Adoption/superbowl/?CID=SB3648&zjxj=01400004W2503022W903W0

We’ve been married for 5 months now and the last few weeks have been very exciting and busy for us and the Leung family.  Let’s review:

*Christmas:  We spent pretty much all of Christmas vacation in Turlock so we could help my sister prepare for her New Year’s Eve wedding.  The Leung family house was bustling this year with a new son-in-law (Frank), a soon-to-be son-in-law (Alex), and an aunt and uncle visiting from Hong Kong.  Though we all decided to go low-key on gifts this year, we still had plenty to open.

Kiya was completely spoiled not only by her mommy and daddy, but by her aunties, uncles, and our friends as well!    She has plenty of new toys to learn by name and treats to snack on.  Kiya says “thanks!” 

Aside from my stomach issues, we had a great Christmas.  After throwing up 6 (yes 6!) times on Christmas Eve due to either a questionable pearlie drink from a pho restaurant or a 24-hour flu bug, I spent Christmas day afraid to eat.  That was hard because there was a lot of yummy holiday food around the house.

About to open our presents

Frank, Kiya, and cousin Max with my Dad’s new reindeer

Kiya opening one of her presents

The aftermath–the box didn’t survive!

Kiya and her Papas playing with a toy he picked out

*California vs. Miami in the Emerald Bowl 12-27-08:  My dad, sister Anita, Frank, and I went to watch Cal play Miami in the Emerald Bowl at AT&T Park in San Francisco.  We went to a pre-game party and ate some yummy appetizers before heading into the park, and then had plenty to eat during the game as well.  We were lucky enough to watch the game from the luxury boxes, though the people around us probably thought we were pretty nutty with all of our screaming.  Go Bears!

At the pre-game party at ACME Chophouse 

Inside AT&T Park

The bride-to-be, me, Frank, and dad

Right before kick-off

*Anita and Alex’s Wedding 12-31-08:  My sister Anita married her long-time boyfriend of 10 years on New Year’s Eve.  The bride was beautiful and her love of pink was reflected throughout.  It was perfectly Anita!  Congrats you two!  We are so happy for you!  (Pictures from the wedding to be posted when I get permission from the bride and groom.)

The sisters at the rehearsal dinner

Frank and me (in my bridesmaid glory) before the ceremony.  It was SO cold!

Daddy, Mommy, and me

Just two more days of vacation left…bummer!

…Or I’ll pee on your tree!  Here is Kiya with her holiday t-shirt and one of her new toys, Rudolph.  She doesn’t look happy, but she really likes wearing her shirt and she LOVES playing with Rudolph! 

Merry Christmas everyone, and best wishes for a Happy 2009!

I am officially addicted to the Shiba Inu puppy cam!  If you haven’t seen these 6 adorable puppies, check them out here:  http://cdn1.ustream.tv/swf/4/viewer.45.swf?cid=317016The puppies are in San Francisco. There are 3 girls and 3 boys, and they are almost 6 weeks old now. I wish I could have one, but apparently they all have homes waiting for them already. They’re so cute and watching them is addicting!Kiya is part Shiba Inu, and ever since adopting her, I’ve wanted our next furry addition to be a Shiba. They’re just so cute! But I’m having a hard time with the idea of buying one with so many doggies out there needing to be adopted or coming from inhumane puppy mills.  I guess when the time comes, we’re going to have to look at Shiba Inu rescues!

In our last blog we mentioned that we’d given up trying to keep Kiya off the couch.  Accepting total defeat, we decided to give Kiya her own couch “mat.”  She knows the word “mat” as a place for her to lay down and hang out.

Here’s a picture of her enjoying her now-legal napping spot with her newest Loofa dog toy named (for obvious reasons) “Orange”:

She’s taken to her couch mat pretty well, huh?

On a side note, Kiya LOVES Loofa dog toys.  They are her absolute favorite!  She runs around with one in her mouth and shakes her head frantically back and forth.  It whips around and hits her in the head.  She loves it and it’s totally hilarious watching her!

She is building quite the collection of Loofa dogs.  First, we bought her “Red” and just last week, we bought her a value pack of them from PetSmart.  The value pack included 4 Loofa dogs, in various sizes and colors.

We picked “Orange” to come out of the value pack first, just to see if she could differentiate between the “Red” and “Orange.”  She totally can.  We tell her to “get Red” and she runs to find it.  Same thing when we tell her to “get Orange.”  She’s pretty darn smart!

“Blue,” “Green,” and another “Red” are safely tucked away in the closet, waiting for the others to be retired.

Months ago, I thought it would fun to invite Kiya up onto the couch, just to see what her reaction would be.  She was actually pretty confused and looked really uncomfortable because we had never allowed her on the couch before.  Every once in a while after that first time, we’d call her up while we were watching t.v. and she’d snuggle comfortably between us.   But she never attempted to get on the couch unless called.

Then one day, I came home from work and found the couch covered with incriminating evidence–we call it “Kiya fur.”  It was everywhere, and our black leather couch had a nice, round, and very warm indentation in one of the cushions.  She had apparently made herself very comfortable while we were away for the day!  We scolded her and figured that would be the end of it.

Well, we were very wrong!  Every other day or so, I’d come home and see Kiya on her bed, looking very guilty.  Then I’d find the ‘evidence’ all over the same couch cushion.  We decided to take action and put magazines all over the couch before leaving for work every morning.  That worked for a while, until she realized all she had to do to get her favorite napping spot back was to move the magazine aside.  Yes, she did.  She moved the magazine aside.

I concede defeat.  I’ve given up on trying to keep her off the couch while we’re away.  I figure she’s gotta be so completely bored, we might as well let her be cozy.   Dog wins.