Jenie and Frank dot com slash blog

I’ll keep it short and simple..

Even though the Lakers lost the NBA Championship to the Celtics, it still would have been nice to go to an NBA Finals Game. We got tickets from Jenie’s dad (Thanks Mr. Leung!), and decided to go to Turlock to meet up with Jenie’s parents and drive down to LA for the game. Initially we thought the game started around 1 pm on Father’s day, so we planned to leave Turlock by 7 am.

Well, after dinner the night before, Jenie checked the game time just to be sure, and found out that the game started at 6 pm! There was no way any of us could have made it down to LA for the game and then back to the Bay Area for work the next day. Needless to say, we were so bummed that we couldn’t go. This was one of those once-in-a-lifetime things! Doh!

We took our engagement photos in late May in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Most of the pictures were taken at the de Young Museum and the Japanese Tea Garden. I also wanted to get some shots taken at the carousel, just for fun. We brought Kiya with us too, because she’s just so cute and we love her so much! Thanks again, Mom, for dog-sitting for us!

Our wedding photographer, Augie Chang (www.augiechang.com), was awesome! We had so much fun taking our pictures!

More photos are viewable on our wedding website.  Please visit www.jenieandfrank.com.

Here are a just few:

Frank and I joined my parents for dinner at Napa’s beautiful Auberge du Soleil last Friday. My dad’s company, Save Mart Supermarkets, sponsors a Nascar race–The Toyota/Save Mart Supermarkets 350–in Sonoma every year, and they make a weekend of the event. Last year, dinner was at the Pine Ridge Winery, where we got to have dinner 150 feet under the grape vines. So cool!

The dinner was a joint function between Save Mart and General Mills, who sponsors race car driver Bobby Labonte. He drives car #43 and he sat out our table. We got to ask him all sorts of racing questions and I found out that their cars only get about 4.5 miles to the gallon! Oh my! He’s a very nice, down-to-earth guy. We don’t really watch Nascar, but we will definitely root for him from now on.

This year’s dinner at Auberge du Soleil was equally yum! The dessert was to-die-for! Christina Aguilera even had her wedding rehearsal dinner and stayed there when she got married in Napa a few years ago. It’s a beautiful place! We hope to go back some day!

A picture before dinner. The view was gorgeous–you could see the entire Napa valley. But it was soooo hot that day!

I am so excited and relieved to say that the school year is officially over!  YIPPEE!

My last day with kids was yesterday, but I had to pack up my entire classroom because our school is being remodeled over the summer.  So everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING, had to be packed into the 2 cabinets in our classroom or the 30 boxes the moving company provided to each teacher.

I stayed last night after school until 10:30pm to get started on the packing.  Frank brought me dinner, helped me pack a little, headed back to the store to close up, and came back to help a little more.   This morning, I started at 8am and worked until around 4pm (with a few breaks in between of course) until Frank was finished with the store and joined me in the last of the packing.

In all, we emptied all the book shelves, my desk, the top two drawers of my file cabinet (a must according to the moving company)…the list goes on.  I can’t even say how much stuff went into the trash or into recycling.  One positive of having to pack was going through everything and getting rid of stuff I didn’t need.

In all, we packed 24 boxes, going through almost three rolls of tape!  We finally finished at around 7pm.

So now I can relax…until Monday.  That’s when summer school starts.  Ugh.  Note to all:  Don’t start a business in the same year you’re getting married!  Life just gets too crazy!

Yikes! 2 months to go until the big day! We can’t wait, but at the same time, we feel like there’s still so much to do!

Latest wedding planning updates: addressing invitations is in progress, I took my wedding dress in to get taken up and in, and we picked out the guys’ tuxedo ensembles. The boys are all gonna look so good!

The most exciting thing that we’ve done recently wedding-wise (besides my bridal shower of course) was taking our engagement pictures! We took them last week at various locations in Golden Gate Park. It was so much fun! Augie (www.augiechang.com) is so awesome. He’s got a great eye for the modern, but is down-to-earth and loves everything to be natural. The whole day was a testament to why we chose him in the first place. The experience made us feel so good about choosing him to photograph our wedding.

We’ve gotten a preview of the pictures so far, and will post some here soon!

My best friend and matron of honor, Diane, hosted my bridal shower at her beautiful home last weekend. I had such a fabulous time! I can’t thank her enough for all the thought she put into it and everything she did to make it happen! A big thanks to my sisters, Anita and Alyssa, who helped Diane put it all together!

The shower was Italian themed, in honor of our honeymoon destination. From the decor to the food to the favors, everything reflected Italy! So cute! Here are some pictures from the day. The entire set of pictures will be emailed to everyone who came soon!

A picture with Frank before I left for the shower

Diane and me

Me and my mommy

Me and my sister Anita

My baby sister Alyssa and me

Some of the decor

The table setting

More decor, the cake, and the favors

The favors-chocolate dipped biscotti. Yum!

One of the games–How Well Do You Know Jenie and Frank? Anita and Lina tied as the winners!

Giving answers to the game

The prizes…aren’t they wrapped up so cute?

One of Diane’s gifts to me was a huge collection of lingerie on a line of tulle. It kept coming and coming out the bag! Frank had stopped by and we thought it’d be fun to have him model some! He wasn’t too happy!

Everyone was asked to fill out a card that included when each person first met me, three words they would use to describe me, a favorite memory, and marriage advice. By the time the shower was over, Diane had put together an awesome scrapbook for me. Amazing! It included pictures of me and each guest with the advice cards. How cute!

Here’s the first page, which showcases the shower invitation

Diane’s page

The entire book

I had so much fun! It was so nice to celebrate with family and friends. Thank you to everyone who was able to come enjoy the day with me! It really meant a lot, and you all helped make wonderful memories that I will cherish always!

There are three months to go (91 more days to be precise) until our wedding day. Oh my goodness!

I’m happy to report that lots of details have been taken care of lately. Our wedding favors are complete, and we’ve picked out the tuxedos/vests. Luckily, we found a great vest color match to the bridesmaid dresses. I was worried about that one. Speaking of which, our bridesmaid dresses arrived and I went to pick them up. They look great! Can’t wait to pass them onto the girls!

After much thought, frustration, bouncing back and forth on ideas, and a sleepless night or two on my part (I can obsess), I think we have figured out what we will do for our centerpieces.  Thanks to Katie for affirming my ideas!  Phew!

Just today, we received our completed wedding invitations by UPS. The UPS man must’ve thought I was crazy (in a good way of course). It was so exciting to open that box! Our designer liked what we came up with so much that she asked if she could post a photo of them on the “Inspiration” section of her website! How cool! We’re thinking this one over, but it’s such a nice compliment!

We have yet to figure out lodging for Italy, but we’re working on it. Thanks to Michelle for the list of places you and Jimmy stayed at. We feel like we have some direction now!

Next up: my bridal shower and our engagement shoot! Fun fun! Can’t wait! Thanks to Diane for all your hard work on the shower so far! I loved the invitations!

On a side note, Frank and I saw our first Lexus IS F in person tonight. Boy was it beautiful! “Aggessive” looking, as Frank would say, but so beautiful. Frank spent some time walking around it and probably drooled a bit, and all I could come up with was “Baby, it’s an F!” We considered trading in the IS 350 for a moment, and then came back to reality. What on earth would I do with 100+ extra horse power anyway? Maybe in a few years, if and when the store makes us lots of moola!

There are only 4 months to go until our special day! We were so swamped with Dream Dinners stuff during February and March that I made it a point to get some serious wedding planning done over my spring break.

Diane, my matron of honor, and I started planning my bridal shower. Fun! We looked for invites, and I got to hear all about her fantastic food and decoration ideas! I’m such a lucky girl to have such an amazing best friend!

I worked for hours designing our wedding invitations, and just got the proofs back from our designer. We should be going into the ‘production’ stage tomorrow! Yea!

Wedding favors are in the works, and I FINALLY found those gold shoes!

We have a lot planned for this weekend. We hope to take a serious look at tuxedos and make it up to the Flower Market in Oakland to search for what will make the reception centerpieces I have envisioned. Oh, and we really need to find hotels in Italy for our honeymoon. Suggestions anyone?  We plan to visit Rome, Florence, and Venice.  I’ve been told to try to get to Tuscany as well…where will we stay?

The store has officially been open for sessions for two full weeks now!  We’re happy to say that we survived the month of March and we’re ready to take on April!  We are learning a little more with each passing session and getting new ideas everyday.  It’s been exciting, frustrating, tiring…you name it!

We’re trying to settle into a more set schedule, but we’re still having trouble eating dinner at a normal hour.  Ironically, our business saves time and provides healthy food for our guests, but we’ve been eating at 9:30pm and getting take out.  =(  I’m desparately trying to change that!

And believe it or not, Frank–who loves his sleep–is waking up super early and making it to the store by 8, sometimes 7am!  Who would’ve imagined?!

Kiya is being such a good girl with all these changes!  She started seeing less of us beginning in February, and we felt so guilty that we started feeding her extra treats when we got home.  But with less exercise time, she started getting a little chubby, and she is by no means supposed to be chubby!  So, we’ve made it a point to make sure she gets time with us and time to play outside.  She’s lost her chubs now and is getting used to our new schedule.  =)

More to come soon…wish us luck for a great April!

We are so happy and relieved to say that we had a very successful Grand Opening party tonight! Thank you to all of our family and friends who were able to make it out to celebrate and support us! For those who couldn’t make it, we missed you!

It’s been just about the longest two weeks in our lives–Frank’s been at the store everyday, all day, and I’ve gone in right after school lets out. We’ve stayed until midnight on weeknights and until 2 or 3am on weekends. We are so looking forward to a more normal schedule!  And sleep.  We want sleep.  Desperately.

Our Grand Opening party was tons of fun. We had a great turn out and everyone seemed to enjoy the food and good company!

Outside the store:

Enjoying the company inside:

A HUGE thanks to our family and friends who came to our soft Grand Opening on Wednesday night and served as “guinea pigs” during our staff training! We hope you’re enjoying the dinners you made!