Jenie and Frank dot com slash blog

We haven’t blogged in a long time!  We just celebrated our 2 month anniversary a few days ago and we marked the occasion by picking up our wedding photo proofs!  Looking through all the pictures has been a great way to relive the day!

Here’s a quick recap of some of our September activities:

Frank and I went to the 49ers opening day game against the Arizona Cardinals with my parents.  Had a great time even though our Niners lost.

Our Dream Dinners store had a booth at Newark Days.  We got a lot of good exposure for the store and signed people up for sessions.  Plus, I saw a LOT of Milani students, past and present, wandering around.  They thought it was pretty weird seeing me outside of “being a teacher.”  Some would say hi, and others would just walk by and stare.  Funny!

Frank and best man Alan played in a badminton tournament and won 3rd place.  Frank paid for it the next few days though.  He was so sore and looked hilarious walking up and down stairs!

We’ve spent most of our weekends cheering on the Cal and 49er football teams (at least one of our teams is doing pretty well!  GO BEARS!), putting wedding things away, and making room for our new kitchen items.

My goal of trying to keep to an earlier bedtime schedule so I’m not as tired as I was all of last school year has yet to be reached.  I’m getting closer to my target though, so I’m seeing this whole process as one of baby steps.  I’m working with a husband who is VERY much a night owl.  He always says he’s tired, but then he miraculously gets his “second wind.”  But he’s getting up much earlier in the morning than his pre-Dream Dinners days, so I think he’ll be on board with me sooner or later!

At 49er’s Opening Day, 9-7-08

Mom, Dad, and me at the “Bud Zone”–free food and drinks!

Frank and Dad, enjoying more food, even though we had just had dim sum in Millbrae

Just before kick-off

Our booth at Newark Days September 20-21, 2008

Our wedding photo proofs.  It was a great ‘present’ to open!

Our box of photos…LOVE the brown!

Today marks one month of newlywedness!  Since returning from our honeymoon in Italy, we’ve gone straight back to work–the store for Frank and the classroom for me.  Fun fun.

Frank’s gearing up for what we hope will be a busy September, while I spent the last two weeks putting my classroom back together after it’s summer renovation.  After having to unpack almost 30 boxes of my school stuff and having to re-fabric all my walls b/c of the new bulletin boards they installed over the summer, I’ve spent every night sleeping with the aid of my heat pack.  I love that heat pack.  Frank doesn’t so much, but I love it!  It works wonders!

We had a chance to take a small break and go the the Cal/MSU game this past Saturday.  It was an exciting game (we won!) and we both had scratchy voices afterward.  We had some good ol’ Berkeley food–Top Dog and Steve’s Korean BBQ in the food court!  Yum!  And I FINALLY was able to find a Cal visor that I liked (and it was on sale too!) and an embroidered Cal sweatshirt to replace the one I’ve had since high school!  I’ve been looking for the perfect visor and sweatshirt for 2 years…I’m picky I guess.

I started my 7th year of teaching 2nd grade today, and boy, was it an eventful day!  It was exciting to meet my new students and fun to catch up with my past students.  So many of them asked if the wedding happened yet or how the wedding went, so it was really sweet.  I’m crossing my fingers and hoping for a great school year!  I still can’t believe I’ve been teaching for 7 years.  Where does the time go?

At the Cal game…GO Bears!  Thanks for the great tickets Mom and Dad!

Frank came home with roses to celebrate our one month anniversary!  How sweet!

Our photographer sent us a preview of our wedding photos. Here are just a few:

Our rings

The boys goofing–”Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil” and…Brycen

Frank during our ceremony

My Daddy and me (in tears) and Mom and Frank too

Just married!

Around Wente Vineyards

It was a beautiful day! There will be more photos to come soon! We’ll post when we get them all from Augie. If you’d like to see the whole preview, visit http://augiechang.com/GALLERY/JenieFrank/

Here are some pictures from Venice, Honeymoon Destination #3 (our last stop, sniffle sniffle):

Getting ready to board our first vaparetto (waterbus)

The Campanile at Piazza San Marco (Cal modeled our Campanile after this one)

The Basilica di San Marco–it’s really sparkly

Gondolas passing by

On a small foot bridge

A cool lion statue and me

Our 2nd day in Venice was cool and rainy. I finally got to leave my hair down! We are on a vaparetto, going down the Grand Canal.

A typical sight in Venice: bridges and gondolas

A foot bridge being built

Frank (pretending to be) sad in the rain. We were actually quite happy with the cooler temperatures. We were probably the only ones sitting in the rain, but it was kind of romantic. See the dry spot to the right of Frank? That’s where I was sitting. We sat there so long that by the time we left, our ‘dry spots’ were really dry compared to everything else.

See? We’re happy with the rain!

On the plane from Venice to Frankfurt, Germany, where we had a quick lay-over

It was only an hour flight, but they feed you in business class on Lufthansa

Not bad, huh?

Heading home on the plane from Frankfurt to San Francisco. Honeymoon over. Boo hoo. We had a fabulous trip!

Side note: Business class is definitely worth it for international flights. You can actually recline and they feed you so often that even Frank didn’t get hungry. Really! He didn’t get hungry. Ever. And the food is actually good. I usually don’t eat airplane food–it smells bad to me–but kudos to United business. Food was yum and service was fantastic. The flight crew even gave us a bottle of wine and a bottle of champagne to take with us when they found out we were newlyweds!

As promised, here are some pictures from Florence, Honeymoon Destination #2:

On Ponte Vecchio, Florence’s very first bridge, built in 1345

A statue of Zeus, holding Medusa’s head at Palazzo Vecchio

Palazzo Strozzi at night (Frank started experimenting with his digital SLR camera. Doesn’t the carousel look cool? He’s very proud of this shot!)

The Santa Maria del Fiore at night (the building is constructed of 3 kinds of marble)

A shot from the Giardino Gardens, which overlook the city

The Campanile at Santa Maria del Fiore

Frank outside Santa Maria del Fiore

The Duomo at Santa Maria del Fiore–the same Duomo we ended up climbing the 463 steps up later in the day

Frank was amused by this Honda Civic–looks totally different from what we have in the states

Can you believe they park cars this close in parking garages? How on earth do you get in and out?

At the exact center of the city at Palazzo Strozzi

Taking a break after finishing what we called “Stage 1″ of the 463 total steps up the Duomo. Temperatures in Florence were in the upper 90s, and the stairs spiraled in a very small space. It was HOT, and I got dizzy!

Still climbing…my tennis shoes became my best friends during our trip! Sandals just didn’t cut it. We saw a girl in line before our climb in Candies heels! Couldn’t believe it, but she made it!

Frank taking pictures from the top of the Duomo

The view of the city from the top of the Duomo

We made it!

Our last night in Florence, enjoying a well-deserved dinner after the climb

Venice is a beautiful little city. We arrived here by train 2 days ago, and were surprised by the heat. After looking at the weather report, we thought we were going to get cooler weather, and even some rain.

We wandered the city, took the vaparettos, or water buses, around, had some dinner, and continued wandering. At the point where we thought we were lost enough and decided to find our way home, we saw lightning strike the sky. The weatherman was right! We were going to get rain! About an hour later, right after we found our way out of the middle of Venice with the help of a very nice local, it started pouring!

Yesterday, though rain was forecast, we headed out again and took the vaparetto down the Grand Canal. The whole day was rainy on and off, but it was kind of romantic walking in Venice in the rain.

We are headed to the airport soon, and sad that the honeymoon has to come to an end. But at the same time, we’re looking forward to home, and not living out of suitcases.

No time for pictures right now, but we’ll share some from Florence and Venice once we get home!

Arrivederci for the last time from Italy! It was a fabulous honeymoon!

Ciao from Florence! We’ve spent the last 2 1/2 days here in this beautiful city, wandering around on foot to see all the sights, getting lost, eating gelato…trying to stay cool! Here are a few highlights:

We visited the Galleria dell’Accademia to see Michelangelo’s David. It’s pretty cool seeing it in person. Unfortunately, the museum doesn’t allow guests to take photos, so the whole experience will have to live in memory.

We took a walking tour of the city during which we visited the palaces of two families of historical importance to the city. We also visited Ponte Vecchio, Florence’s very first, and still intact bridge.

We walked, and walked, and walked up to the Giardino Gardens, which overlooks the city. Unfortunately, we were both bitten multiple times by hungry mosquitos, so we didn’t stay long. We took in a viewing of a photography exhibit instead.

I think the most memorable thing we did was visiting the Duomo, or Santa Maria del Fiore, where we climbed the 463 steps up to the top of the cathedral’s dome. It was an experience! This was the second time we’ve climbed up a ‘cupola.’ We also climbed to the top of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. I’m thinking no more dome climbing for the remainder of our trip! Our feet our tired.

On a side note, we also went looking for 2 Japanese restaurants one night (one in particular, and the other as a back-up), because we were craving, well, something other than Italian food. We found BOTH closed! So far, we’re 0-3 for Japanese food in Italy–we had also tried to find one in Rome. We’ve given up the idea. I guess we’re just not meant to eat sushi in Italy!

We’re headed to Venice tomorrow, where we’re looking forward to what we hear is one of the most beautiful cities in Italy, if not the world. It’s also supposed to be cooler, which will be a welcomed change. We actually might get some rain, so we’ll see what wandering we’ll be able to do!

Pics of Florence to come soon! Arrivederci for now!

Ciao from Rome, Italy! We arrived here on August 5 after a very nice flight on United Airlines. We used our miles on our credit cards to fly business class, and it was worth it! We had so much room to recline and they fed us so often that even Frank never got hungry!

We were pleasantly surprised by our hotel room in Rome. We’d been told that rooms in Europe were small, but our room is quite large. Kudos to booking on the internet!

On our first full day here, we went on our tour of ancient Rome. We visited the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum. Seeing the Colosseum in person was unbelievable. The structure is just so massive!

On our second full day, we went on a tour to Vatican City, where we toured the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica. St. Peter’s Basilica is simply amazing. It’s so ornate and beautiful. You can’t describe it in words.

In the past few days, we’ve visited Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Campo de’ Fiori, and numerous other places that we’ve stumbled upon while wandering around. We’ve been navigating the city by metro, bus, and good ol’ fashioned walking. We’ve done well so far not getting completely lost!

The weather’s been very hot, so we’ve eaten a lot of gelato and enjoyed granitas daily. Food here is yummy–Frank’s filled up on steaks, lamb, and pizza, while I’ve gotten lots of gnocchi and pizza too. Today, we ate at the very first McDonald’s in Italy–we wanted a break from Italian food and they were handing out coupons on the street. They have curly fries at McDonald’s here! We’re still not used to having to pay for water at restaurants, but at dinner tonight, we drank lots of house wine. We left happy. Very happy.

Tomorrow we leave Rome (boo hoo) and head to Florence, where I’m dragging Frank to see Michelangelo’s David. He’s still wondering why we’re going to see a statue of a naked guy…

We’ll blog from there soon! Arrivederci!

P.S. Thanks to those of you who’ve sent us pictures from our wedding! It’s been fun to look at them! If anyone else has any, send them our way! We’d love to see them!

Frank on the plane, eating

At the Colosseum

Me being “FOBy”

In front of St. Peter’s Basilica–Inside is BEAUTIFUL!

On the Spanish Steps

At Trevi Fountain

At the first McDonald’s in Italy

Doing laundry at a local laundrymat (which I’ve never done, and Frank hasn’t since his college days). We did it though!

We did it! We got married this past Saturday!

We had the wedding of our dreams! It was the absolute best day of our lives, and we are so grateful to family and friends who were there to celebrate our special day with us! Thank you so much! We only wish we had more time, as we didn’t get to a chance to talk to everyone…sorry!

We’re all set for our honeymoon, and if we get a chance, we’ll blog from beautiful Italy! See you when we get back!

**Thank you Mommy and Daddy! It was a perfect day, and it wouldn’t have been possible without you! I hope you know how much you’re loved and how special you are to us! And to our bridal party–Diane, Anita, Alyssa, Alan, Brycen, TK, Zachary, and Rev. Alan–thank you so much for everything!

We are truly blessed with wonderful family and friends!

Arrivederci!

Only one month to go until our wedding day! I don’t even know what to say…we thought the last 18 months would take forever to go by, but with everything going on, the time flew by so quickly!

With one month to go, we decided it would be a good day to get our marriage license. So we filled out the application, took an oath, handed over $75, and voila! We are now licensed to marry! How…official!

We’ve spent the last few weeks doing quite a bit of wedding preparation. We went cake tasting (yummy!), had a meeting with our wedding coordinator, booked 2 of 3 of our Italian hotels, picked out our ceremony music, ordered our ceremony programs…oh, and finally picked out centerpieces. Phew! Surprisingly, the centerpieces were the most difficult part of this whole process. I was crazed and, in turn, made Frank crazy. Glad we finally got this part taken care of! I know Frank is beyond relieved.

Last week, my mom came up to go to one of my wedding dress fittings. I got to try on my dress again, and the seamstress showed her how to bustle it up. Fun stuff! We also went to get my Chinese wedding gown made. My mom bought the fabric in Hong Kong the last time she was there and we brought it to a local seamstress (thanks to Katie for the reference!) so we could talk about the style and get me measured. I get to pick it up next week! I’m so excited to see it!

Next up on the to-do list: booking our last hotel, getting Frank’s wedding ring sized and engraved, and picking out all of our wedding reception music.

There’s probably other stuff that I’m forgetting about, but I’ll remember at the most random of times and add it to my list! Hopefully…