Guns and Acrylics

Well I'm back in LA, back to school and slowly but surely getting over jet lag. I'm trying to get back into wedding preparation mode but I'm very lethargic about it and I'm imagining myself a couple of weeks before the wedding cramming everything in!

A couple of interesting stories from my first week back.

I got acrylic nails! Evelyn, my roommate gave a manicure voucher for Christmas. My nails are really bad at the moment and they're in no fit state to be manicured, so I decided to get fake nails and see what they might be like.

They're interesting-all my nails are the same length now. They look pretty natural-I might do it for the wedding-saves me worrying about the state of my nails :)

Another interesting event for me happened on Sunday night after the evening service. Andrew and I were talking to our good friend who is a police officer. He was talking about helping out with the church security and how he was looking into that. He mentioned that he would be carrying a gun, so I expressed my surprise that he would be licensed to do it. He said that he would be because he's a police officer and I was again surprised because I thought they were only allowed to carry guns when they were working. He told me that this wasn't true and that he was even carrying one now on his ankle. I laughed and told him that he must be pulling my leg and because I refused to believe him, he lifted up his pants leg and I saw the gun on his ankle. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw it. It just shows how unused to that kind of thing I am.

Oh well...I'm definitely living in America :P

Heading home now, I think I might buy a blackberry on my way...

Monday in Ireland

Aaah! We're back on the Emerald Isle! It's good to be home :) Our bags didn't arrive with us however but they are on their way to us right now from the airport. So, although we spent two days without our clothes, Christmas gifts and some of my bridal party attire, we are now €120 richer and everything has returned (hopefully undamaged!)
Yesterday we went shopping in Bandon and we met up with some of my friends in O'Brien's cafe. We got to see Anne Marie and meet her boyfriend Colm, we met up with Gillian and Rachel and Gillian's new hubby. All the boys stationed themselves at one end of the table while we girls parked at the other end and had two separate conversations :P Our seats were very well placed on the outside of the cafe facing the main thoroughfare of Bandon shopping centre. This gave Andrew a taste of small-town Irish life because every few minutes we'd see someone we knew and they'd come over to say hello and the men would need to be introduced to these people over and over. Aaah I miss home...I think I'd like to do that again today :)
Tonight I am going to my first hen party ever! It just happens to be my own hen party too-interesting I've only ever been to kitchen parties. I think the first hen party I was ever invited to was Gillian's hen party but I couldn't make that one because I was already in LA. Thankfully my maid of honour has been to many hen parties and so is probably an expert at organising one! Will hopefully have some photos to post soon!

Lobster in My Hair

Today was a day of firsts. Well two major firsts-any other firsts are not really worth mentioning :)

First First:

I went curling for the first time :) This morning Andrew and I got out early to watch his dad curl. When I say curl I mean the stone curling kind, not the hair curling kind. It was a lot of fun to watch Mr. Fung play. He's really good! He did one shot and it got right into the middle of the blue circle! His team mates were really nice to meet as well and most of them were Irish-which of course is a huge asset! Then one of the very nice Irish gentlemen brought us down to the curling rink and let us have a go. He gave us a few pointers and we tried our best-it was fun :)

Second First:

Then tonight, we had lobster. Not just one lobster, but five lobsters, that is, a whole lobster each! It was very very nice. I had to get a few tips from Amy and Andrew on how to pull it apart etc But they're experts and they trained me well...you'd almost think they used to work for a restaurant at some point!

Having lots of fun! Loving the snow and looking forward to a white white Christmas!

Heading Home

So my apartment hasn't flooded-just yet...hopefully it will stay that way over Christmas.

Andrew and I are hoping to fly to Ottawa at 7am tomorrow morning for a week. We'll be heading to Ireland then on December 26th. Hopefully there will be no delays in Chicago tomorrow or leaving Ottawa and Washington D.C. next Saturday. Can't wait for our Christmas break!

We'll do some last minute Christmas shopping and pack our bags tonight. Roll on the end of the school day! Will hopefully have some nice photos to upload after the holidays.

Different Things

So it was raining today. I have walked around my room trying to get things up off the floor for fear of another flood (like the one this time last year) I really hope nothing like that happens again. I have visions of poor old Bandon in my head!
This past week my bridesmaid dresses arrived in the post, Andrew and I booked our caterer who is including our wedding cake for free-nice! And we went to Sojourners' Christmas banquet where Andrew fell into Will Varner's arms, which was just crazy :)
I will post some photos as soon as Andrew lets me have his memory card!

Calgary and Invermere

Aaah Calgary-I really like Calgary, I like the cold crisp weather, I like the tall pine trees, I like the lack of traffic and I love the Rocky mountains which are just down the road.
We spent the weekend with Andrew's sister Michelle, her husband, Andrew and her little boy, Matthew. We spent Thursday in Calgary and spent time with Andrew's Uncle Steven and Auntie Esther. We had great Dim Sum and did some shopping in the local asian market T&T.
On Friday we traveled to Invermere, B.C. to the McBride's newly built cabin by the lake. We had such a nice time. Their house is in the middle of a wooded area, a short walk from the beautiful lake/beach. They have a very nice delux hot tub at the back of the cabin-great for relaxing after a hard day in the mountains :)
On Saturday night we went out for dinner in a Scottish pub and there was a band there playing Irish music. I started chatting to one of the band members and it turned out he was from Kerry and they sang 'The Irish Rover' for me because it was a Cork song :) It was very nice to sit and listen and feel nostalgic about being Irish.
Andrew told Matthew some bible stories while we were there. He told him a story about 'The Good Shepherd' and he told him a story about Mr. Noah and the ark. On Sunday Matthew came into my room with Andrew's bible and proceeded to tell me stories from him it. Be careful how you tell a 3 year old stories:

"I'll tell you a story about Mr. Noah Sharon. Mr. Noah shut the door of the ark and wouldn't let any of the people or any of the animals on the ark. They were all in the water (this is from seeing a picture in his children's bible of animals and people drowning in the flood). Then Mr. Noah hit the Bad Shepherd with his stick. And then the Good Shepherd was on the ark and he saw some bad wolves on a mountain so he hit them with the ark"

Matthew tells a great story! :)

Thanksgiving Plans

I went to my first football game and my last pre-marital class this week. Both were good to start with but while the football got a bit boring toward the end the pre-marital class got more interesting :)
This week is Thanksgiving and Andrew and I are planning to visit his sister Michelle and her family in Calgary-same as last year. We're really looking forward to spending some time with them and visiting their new cabin in the Rockies. I'm also just really glad to have two days off-bliss!!
I think that's it for this week-need to get to bed now-didn't get enough sleep this weekend at all!
Goodnight

Planning and Pumpkins

I realised yesterday that I forgot to do my weekly update last Monday-I don't think anyone noticed though :)
Since booking our venue and confirming our date I have been going crazy doing wedding planning. Last Saturday I went to downtown LA with two friends Evelyn and Natalie. I bought shoes for all of my bridesmaids and I also ordered beautiful dresses for them. I was very excited-I couldn't believe that I had achieved so much in one day! My bubble was burst however when I got a phone call during the week to say that they didn't have all of the sizes I had ordered and that they weren't making any more of those dresses. I was so disappointed, but, multitasker that I am, I started looking on www.etsy.com (check it out) for some dresses and while I was still on the phone I found even nicer dresses than the ones I had previously ordered. I have also ordered my flower girl dress, we have almost settled on a caterer and I have chosen a lot of my bridesmaids accessories. In the middle of all that, this Saturday night, Andrew and I hosted a pumpkin party! We challenged our guests to make a dish using pumpkin and offered a prize for the best one. I couldn't believe the things that people made! We had pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin mash, pumpkin strata, pumpkin dumplings, pumpkin lasagne, pumpkin penne pasta, pumpkin jelly, pumpkin muffins and pumpkin bread! People voted on their favourite and the winners were:
1st - Pumpkin Jelly -by Andrew Fung
2nd - Pumpkin Mash - by Seon Woo
Joint 3rd - Pumpkin Strata and Pumpkin Lasagne by Natalie Tiscareno and me :)

Anyway it was fun and fascinating to see how many things can be made with pumpkin!

June 19th it is!

Well this week was pretty eventful. Andrew and I finally booked our venue. We are hoping to get married at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley on the 19th of June. We also had the first of our pre-marital seminars, which we have to take in order to be married in the church. You do learn some good stuff-if I could just do it all now things would be great!
After P.M.S. we went to check out a dress making store near the church, for my bridesmaid dresses...I may use this lady, I'll see. A friend of mine, Natalie, my roommate, Evelyn and I are hoping to go to the Fashion District on Saturday to see if we can find anything there as well.
We also when to check out a possible photo venue near the church. The San Fernando Valley Mission. If you google California Missions you will find a lot of info on them. They were the very first Spanish settlements in California so there's a lot of history wrapped up in these places. Check out some photos:Andrew could probably do the photos if he didn't have to be in them :P

Another Week

Well...another week goes by...This weekend Andrew and I went to a Creation Conference in our Church. We really enjoyed it, but I was tired! We also nearly have our venue organised. We're hoping to have it at our church in San Fernando Valley, we just need to confirm that June 19th is free. Hopefully our Irish guests will be able to get booking soon!
Here are some recent photos of Andrew and my visit to Griffith Park Observatory on the weekend of our engagement with our friends Erik and Natalie:

Praying Mantis, Bees and Brendan

What a weekend/day...On Sunday I was at a friend's house. He came into the house with this beautiful, rather large, praying mantis. Knowing little about these insects I became quite excited and wanted to take a photograph of it with my phone. I got closer and closer and then it jumped onto me. I was not impressed-the feeling of a rather large insect crawling on me is not too pleasant I must confess. I was quickly relieved of my burden and Andrew and I headed off to spend time with some other friends at Griffith Park. While there I felt something in my hair and went to brush it off only to find a bee attached to my ring finger, stinging me in a most ungracious fashion. Andrew, my knight in shining armour, took the stinger out and I iced my finger, unfortunately my finger proceeded to swell up like a balloon and I still can't get my ring off. Yesterday I got some antihistamine tablets to try to stop the swelling, after taking them I couldn't stay awake. I kept falling asleep all evening. I took one more before bed but then I woke up in the middle of the night with a very upset stomach. I rang in sick for the first time ever and slept for the morning.

On a more serious note I found out today that my inspirational uncle Brendan was in a very serious car accident last night. The Gardai say that he was lucky to come away with his life. He has a broken pelvis, broken ribs and a punctured lung. I thank God that he was watching over him and kept him by His grace.
Feel better soon Brendan!!

Crickets and Grasshoppers

The thing I love most about LA evenings is the sound of crickets. It makes me feel like I'm on holidays at a tropical destination...it's very relaxing.
On Thursday I brought my children for a walk and we saw a grasshopper! And it was hopping like a proper grasshopper! I was so excited-I got all the kids excited too-although they've probably seen many of these -who knows :)
Andrew and I have booked tickets for Christmas, so it looks like we'll be in Ireland from the 27th of December to the 4th of January. I really can't wait to get home again and see everyone. I think it won't be the same without my Grandfather though, but I look forward to seeing everyone else before our wedding in June.

Bronchitis - I think

I feel pretty miserable. Any kind of activity makes me feel like I'm scaling the alps. And next week we have our international fair day so I need to be in work, at least Friday is professional development day so it's a shorter week. Unfortunately our school isn't as grateful to poor old Columbus as most of the rest of America is so we had to work today.
Whine over
Goodnight :)

Los Angeles Jewellery District

I need to do a quick post today because when I get home today I have a bunch of things to do before I go out to have dinner with some of our friends - Calvin and Tiffany. Over the weekend I visited the Jewellery district with Andrew to get my ring resized and to check out some rings for him. The jewellery district is amazing. Street after street of jewellery shops selling diamonds and ring settings and every other kind of jewel and gemstone. The place where Andrew got my ring was in this tall building with a reception area. When you enter you go up in a lift and on every floor there are many jewellery shops filled with people fussing over stones and settings and all this crazy stuff. Dad - you have to visit it!
Also they spell jewellery wrong.

It should have happened on Wednesday but I was sooo hungry...

On Wednesday Andrew hurried me down to Santa Monica Pier on one of his 'surprise dates'. It was a perfect evening with a beautiful sunset over the sea. We planned on heading to the ferris wheel as we had gone on it a few years before and had really enjoyed it. There's a beautiful view of Santa Monica and the beach from it and I really love big wheels :) Unfortunately though I was very hungry and I convinced Andrew that he wouldn't want to take me up on ferris wheel on an empty stomach cos I'd get grumpy :) So poor Andrew had to wait for me to eat my scallops as the sun went down. Still determined to go on the big wheel, we headed in that direction only to find that it was closed for the evening. I was disappointed but didn't mind so much-at least my stomach was full -Andrew, however had to wander around for the rest of evening with the ring in his pocket.

We decided to give the ferris wheel another go on Friday -this time we were equally determined to make it, food or no food. I had no idea that Andrew was going to propose because he gave me the distinct impression that he had no ring yet. When the ferris wheel slowed near the top Andrew said 'I have something for you'. I said 'no you don't!'. He reached into his pocket and something fell-he looked around in a panic as though he had dropped the ring-I was confused at this point because as far as I was concerned there should be no ring let alone a ring that had just fallen off the ferris wheel into the pacific ocean. He was just messing with me (it was a coin that he dropped) Then he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.

The ring is so beautiful. I asked Andrew for a Marquise diamond with yellow gold. He went to the jewelry district in downtown LA and picked out a magnificent diamond with the slightest touch of yellow. Then he chose a setting online and had one of the jewelry shops custom make it. It has a trinity knot on either side of the stone. I really love it and I can't stop looking at it. Andrew says I'm obsessed :P
We're hoping to get married next June here in LA. I hope many Irish friends and family will be able to make it!

Back in LA

I'm back...that's right...back...
So I got in last night at 10pm. My flight from Shannon to Boston was great-nice and smooth and a really nice plane with half decent movies. Boston airport and the flight from Boston to LA was another story altogether. They say that the Irish built Boston, well I think they also must have built the airport because there are no signs anywhere for anything important. I would not advise it as an airport to fly through-especially if it's one of your first times doing a connecting flight.
The flight from Boston to LA was one of the worst I've been on. The plane shook almost the whole way there, and even though I know in my heart of hearts that it's okay, I just can't convince myself that's okay to be rattling around thousands of miles above ground...
Anyway I did get to LA safe and sound and when I got home Andrew had left a lovely surprise in my room:Oh yea, he also bought my favourite food for me to have when I got back- he takes good care of me :)

Sharon in Cork

I haven't been updating this blog for a while, mainly because I'm not in LA right now and it just seems wrong to be updating my sharoninla blog when I'm not there :D
I've been in Ireland for the past 5 weeks waiting to get my visa processed. Finally it has been and I'm set to head back on the 20th or 21st of September-I'm excited and I can't wait to get back!
Here's some pictures of a trip to Fota Wildlife Park here in Cork with my gorgeous niece and nephew.

One Word

Clayton Erb!



Congratulations on 30 years of ministry!

Guitar Hero!

John, Andrew, Addison and the rest of my apartment had fun....

Bits 'n Bobs

So here are a couple of the things I've been up to recently...

Calvin and Tiffany's wedding with Andrew and Amy



Me with the state bird



Andrew amusing himself



Dim Sum with John



Angels of Anaheim with John



The three of us went to the Hollywood Bowl to watch a Henry Mancini memorial concert