Life update

What a beautiful day today! That little image on the left is the weather we had this afternoon. Quite a contrast to the snow in Utah. We've both been quite busy as of late, hence the break in entries. Mai Vi has been running to and fro (as always), trying to balance work and school and family, and doing a great job (as always). This is the first time she's faced a full load at school in a very long time, and it's proving to be very full indeed. Ben is on the verge of recovering from the last election held on Feb 6th and is looking forward to more time at work to develop the meager Access database he created for recruiting Vietnamese election volunteers. UPDATE: Put a TBA on the recovery part, the Registrar announced that there will be a recount. Yeah, more overtime!

The next project is re-flooring the condo. We've had this in mind since we bought this place last year, but we've just never had the chance (or the money). We still don't have the money, but my dad said he'll come lay the floor if we buy. Woohoo! We figured that was the sign we needed. The carpet is quite old anyway, and very hot in the summer. We ordered the materials last night, now we just need the dad. Here's an idea of what we're hoping for (just the floor, not the other fancy stuff).

Tết đã đến! No matter how hard we try, we always get pulled into some kind of involvement with the annual Tết festival. Come to think about it, if we really didn't want to help out, we'd probably try a bit harder. hehe Anyway, it is upon us again. Tomorrow is the opening day of the 3-day festival, fortunately overlapping the actual Lunar New Year which falls on Feb 18th this calendar. No matter what they have us doing this year, it will be a fun (tiring, but fun) experience. One year it rained like crazy and everything turned to mud... and we still worked!

Well, that's about all for now. Hope to keep in touch little more frequently.

bmv

So, how's married life?

Thanks to everyone who so diligently trudged through our infant website, with all of its broken links, confusing twists and turns and extremely long slideshows. Many more thanks to those who actually told us what needed improvement, whether through the guestbook or email. We are working on it: so far, we've updated two of the four picture sites (Đám Cưới Cali - California Wedding ; Đám Cưới Utah - Utah Wedding) to a much more visually-appealing format, fixed several minor bugs that probably most of you don't notice but drove us nuts (like who brought Mai Vi out during the Đám Hỏi, bố or mẹ), and added an enhanced sidebar to navigate the whole website and a links page that's pretty bomb. That's it. More updates are on their way, but Mai Vi started school this week and Ben has another election in two weeks, so everything besides bathroom stops are on hold. Thanks again to all who helped review the site and gave us their comments. It's your site, too!

See the title? Yes, the one that says "So, how's married life?" We have heard that so many times since July. We didn't realize that there's so many ways of phrasing 'how's married life,' but it seems to grow by the day. After careful analysis, we have concluded that this phrase is more of a cliche than anything, a catch-all phrase that expresses feelings of happiness and excitement. We're guessing that when we talk to friends, the first thing they remember about us is, 'OH! They just got married!' and hence the inquiry into our 'married life.' We never know how to answer - it usually comes out something like this: "Um.. good." How does one express the joy and "completeness" of being united with your best friend, with someone who has already become part of you, with your other half? Being married is not the burden that is ofttimes portrayed in the media and society at large. Rather it is the pinnacle of a relationship, the time and place when walls are broken down and where lives and dreams intersect. We had no idea how good life can be... until now. And we're still learning. So in answer to the infamous question, perhaps the best answer is "Perfect." People aren't perfect, but two people who are giving everything they have and are to each other is pretty darn close.

And the best part is, when our friends get married and we feel so happy and excited for them and just don't know how to express ourselves, we realize after the words have escaped our mouths what we just said: "So, how's married life?"


bmv