We went to California!

I promise we had a good time. Life has been crazy. Literally, I am going to do my best to update this blog with everything that has happened in the last few months but it may take  a few weeks so just follow along…

First, we went to California! It was so fun! We were out there for 10 days visiting Brandon’s extended family on both sides. It was fun to meet family members I have never met, and for both of use to see family members we hadn’t hung out with since the wedding. We did so many things too. Thanks to Brandon’s cousin Bryan, we got to spend a free day at the happiest place on Earth plus california adventure. We even spent a few days in Sequoia National Park. We met up for lunch with Jon Bennett, and spend a day in lovely Santa Barbara with the amazing Josh and Alyssa Canada. We went to Newport Beach one day with Brandon’s parents too. It was seriously a great way to (almost) end the summer. We felt so blessed to know so many great people out there. Can’t wait to go back. Here are some pics so you can visualize what a great time it really was.

I forgot to mention how much amazing food we had there too. Oh my goodness! First of all, I am so glad I married into a Chinese family for several reasons but one has got to be the food. We also stopped and had the world’s best fresh orange ice cream, yum! Plus, who doesn’t love In-n-out?

 

 

 

 

A summer update.

Things have been great here. Hot. But great. Like 99 degrees today. Have I mentioned it’s been hot? That’s why I moved to Charlotte right? To be warm. I have to keep reminding myself that.

Here’s what’s been up.
First, there was the Ephesus Art Gallery. It was a fun night, and I even sold a piece! (hence the picture with the big blank space.)
 

 

Then, for the rest of the weekend of the Fourth, we spent a day at Lake Norman with Brandon’s great fam, went to Pops in the Park with the sweet Minors and then went to see the Knights play and they lit off the best Fireworks I have EVER seen. (seriously, not an exaggeration.)
 

This weekend the wonderful Brian and Marlyn, our friends from Ephesus, tied the knot. It was a very sweet celebration.
 

I hope that your summer is going splendidly as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

homemade strawberry julius.

It’s summer! Everyone loves strawberries especially in the summer, so here is a super quick recipe for one of my personal middle school mall strolling faves.

1 1/2 cups strawberries. no greens.

3/4 cup water

1 egg white.

1 tbsp. of one of God's greatest creations.

1/4 cup of your favorite sugar or sugar substitute, and 2 cups of ice.

blend and enjoy

Create in me.

Friday night is that art gallery.

That one with MY art in it.

I made art and people are going to look at it.

I feel weird about that.

I feel like I am writing a Rob Bell book right now with all these spaces between my lines so I will stop. after this next one…

So on top of the pressure I am feeling about putting my work on display, my dear friend and art curator, Bambi, has asked that I write up a quick bio to be displayed with my stuff. Yikes. I have to write something about me? Little ol’ me? I guess I could write about not being an artist who happens to make art….booorrrriiingg, or about being a teacher who makes art our of glitter and foam….booorrriiing. And to make matters worse the artist from last month had this deep story about cancer taking one of her eyes and then becoming a painter….how are you supposed to top that? I guess it isn’t about topping her, but you know what I mean. So here I sit, listening to the Patty Griffin Pandora station while my husband attaches paper mache hot air balloons to my canvas and I search for inspiration. You, my faithful blog readers will be the first to see my finished bio… Here goes nothing (add extra space for dramatic effect.)

Laci Wong: In all of my 26 years I have never considered myself an artist, or even artistic in the least. I probably still wouldn’t. The fact is, I see things other places or sometimes even in my daydreams, and I think to myself “I could do/make/cook that.” For a long time in my life I would think it, but it would never come to fruition. So, in the past few years I have ventured into the life of becoming a “connoisseur of the DoItYourself.”
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And then, He created me. So maybe my timeline is a little off, but you are following right? So this super creative God, not only created me, but created me “in His image.” Wow. So he made me like Him.  So what that means is that He made me/us at least a little bit creative right? The last few years have been a journey into me finding out what that looks like. Not just admiring His creation and the creation He works through others, but getting involved myself. Some of the things I have tried have been a mess, but certainly not all of them, and it’s such a joy to see God work in me creatively in ways I never thought were possible. So hopefully a few of my pieces leave you thinking “I could do that.” Because you can. Because God loves you perfectly and the power that raised His Son from the dead lives inside of you, and you are capable of so much more than you think.

Two Peas in Devan’s Pod.

These are our friends Devan and Paul.Aren’t they cute? They are about to have Twins! We went over to their house on Friday night to find out if they were having 2 boys, 2 girls, or one of each. Wong and I both thought it would be one of each…(but what do we know?) Under these 2 cakes…..was the answer to the question we were all anticipating. And, as the cakes were cut open…….(drumroll please)……… 2 girls!!!!!!!

We are so excited as Paul and Devan embark on this new adventure and we are praying for two healthy, happy, and beautiful baby girls.

To read even more about this lovely couple and find out the super cute way Devan told Paul he was getting babies, you can go to Devan’s blog.

A Full Moon.

I am naturally someone who stays up late. I love it. I get more done and do my best work when most people are peacefully dreaming. Unfortunately, I am also someone who requires a decent number of hours to sleep soundly before entering the world of functioning human beings. So, for all you math whizzes out there you have probably figured that I have to sleep in late on the nights when I get to stay up. This never happens during the school year. So tonight for the first time since I got married over 8 months ago, Brandon went to bed, and I stayed up.

I have been putting finishing touches on most of the art for my little gallery next weekend and decided to browse netflix streaming for something I can watch but not really “super watch.” Most of the time that movie list includes some but is not limited to the following list…
1. Mean Girls
2. When Harry Met Sally
3. Sweet Home Alabama
4. Steel Magnolias
5. Enchanted
6. Sister Act 2
etc. etc.

But as I browsed, I noticed Anastasia and realized I had NEVER seen it before. Can you people even believe that is true??? So I am naturally shocked when I hear so many familiar voices! WHAT A CAST! I have been truly missing this gem of a movie in my life.  So if you are like me and didn’t know what you are missing, get on it!

Besides that, the real reason I got on here to post is because I came across this little piece of masterpiece web-theatre.

Did you have to look a few times? I know I did too. I didn’t want to look several times but I had no choice… I found this picture here. Below is an explanation of this pic. Please as you read take a second to imagine yourself as that poor woman stuck in the center of the world’s most awkward photo.

“So, I had just given birth to my first son at a local birthing center and there had been another couple that had given birth just before me there as well. The midwife told us that the couple in the other room wanted to come over to say congratulations and introduce us to their child as well.  Little did I know that they would come into my room with no pants on. Even better, they both had NO UNDERWEAR ON. And from my vantage point, I could see everything. It was disturbingly awkward to say the least. I have no idea why my husband had his shirt off, but I assure you, he had his pants on. To this day I still have no idea why they were both naked from the waist down. Even more importantly, why was HE?”

Goodnight and God Bless, and for goodness sakes let this be a reminder to always keep your pants on when there are cameras present.

…and the thunder rolls.

Man, we are getting some nasty storms here in Charlotte. I am currently sitting in bed waiting for the electricity to go out….and there it goes. Let’s try this again…

I am currently sitting in bed waiting for the electricity to come back on and praying that the trees in the parking lot aren’t going to fall onto my car, or into our bedroom.
Brandon is reading the end of the last Harry Potter book by flashlight, (Thank goodness he is finishing so we can talk about it all finally.)

Summer has officially begun here in Charlotte. I have been out of school and away from these lovely faces… for 1 whole week and am quickly adjusting to life outside of work. I am reading “The Hunger Games” series. I think that they are extremely well written, but they are heart wrenching so that’s fair warning if you decide to read them yourself. I am babysitting two days a week for the world’s sweetest little girls so I don’t really even get to consider it a summer job because it’s too fun.  

Outside of hanging out with the girls, I have spent my time doing some things around the house that I put off when I didn’t have as much time. I painted a dresser that I am currently in love with. It started as I sad blue chest of drawers from the salvation army store and has become a cute piece in our bedroom and a cozy home for my unmentionables. I am also going to have some pieces in an art show on July 1st, so I try to make some time each day to finish those up. 

We are also preparing ourselves as Christine and Tracy pack their belongings and head out for their great adventure in Chile. We are going to miss them dearly. I get pooly every single time I think of them going, but God is going to do HUGE things through these two that we are so stoked about. 

It’s going to be a big summer.  I promise to be a more faithful blogger because I don’t want you to miss out on the excitement either. Now if the electricity would just come back on so I could post this……

Throw some glitter make it rain

This weekend was incredible.

Brandon and I flew out to Denver to celebrate this lovely couple.

There truly are not words for how I feel about these two. Mary, is my best friend. She was my matron of honor, my college roommate 3 years running, my rock, the sister I was unfortunately raised without, and one of the most loving, smart, and funny people I have ever been blessed to know. As for Matt, he shares my love for small town Indiana, laughs at my jokes, is a great friend to my husband, looks great in a bowtie which we found out as he stood with us at our wedding, and allowed me to share in his first ever and probably only karaoke experience. He is going to be one of the best pastors that this world has ever seen or heard.

We went to Denver to watch them graduate from seminary. Matt with his masters in divinity, and Mary with hers in counseling. What a dynamic duo these two are and will continue to be. 4 years ago they made the hard choice to go to school full time, be newlyweds, and work as well. They knew it was going to be hard, and it was, but we were so blessed to be there as they crossed the stage into their new lives as masters graduates, and I cannot wait to see what life and the Lord has in store for them in the near future.

We did some fun things while we were there. Matt and Mary were blessed to have both sets of parents there as well so we got to enjoy some seriously fun family time. And even though the weather wasn’t completely cooperative (aka freezing), we still got to do plenty of fun things, including cook out, watch baby mama, and go to the world’s largest mexican restaurant.

I ask God daily to make a way for us to live closer to these precious friends and he has stayed quiet so far, but I will stay faithful in my prayers and someday we can journey together though life at a closer proximity. Until then, we will continue to love them from afar and watch as God leads them into a new adventure.

May the Fourth be with you

Tomorrow is Scott’s birthday. If you don’t know Scott, well you should. He’s a great guy and it has been nice being his friend for a couple of years. I love birthdays. It’s like your own special day that’s all about you! That hardly ever happens, well it only happens once every 365 turns around the sun, and that isn’t often enough. So, I think birthdays are nice and that special things should be done when someone’s 365th turn around the sun comes to pass. Sadly, or not so sadly, Scott has to share his birthday with Cinco de Drinco. So tonight for homegroup we celebrated a little early with a special batch of cupcakes.

I think it was Scott who introduced my dear husband to the game Angry Birds, and therefore introduced me which led to a near addiction. Anyhoot, I thought these turned out pretty cute and it was a fun way to celebrate one “super-fly” guy.

One night with The King.

Tonight, Wong is out playing poker with the guys from church. (hopefully winning) I have been feeling under the weather this week so I decided to stay home. I got a tiny bit of school work done, and referred to my netflix queue that never gets watched.

I love the story of Esther. I love the whole Bible of course but I always find myself drawn to those strong female stories, Ruth, Abigail, Esther, etc…… A year or so ago I was part of the Esther study with the women from my church. It was fab. So tonight as I stared at my never ending list of chick flicks and horror movies that Wong will probably never watch with me, I remembered that I once started the movie “One Night with The King” but fell asleep and never watched the rest.

Now, I know what you are thinking. Surely, that must be the cheesiest movie ever written. First of all, stop calling me Surely, and second of all, it very well may be, but tonight I was willing to look past that for a good solid biblical story because I will give it to them, even with the cheesy-ness, they cling pretty close to the true story (feel free to argue…) ANYWAY

I made it the whole way through without rolling my eyes or laughing at the cheesiness. I actually kind of liked it. (Don’t tell my movie buff friends. They will ridicule me for life.) The real reason I am posting this is because after the movie was over I was browsing through facebook and I heard a song rolling through the credits that I couldn’t even believe was real. It was like they took all of the cheesy things that could have happened in the movie and saved them for this one moment……I have taken the liberty of finding a video of it on youtube for you to enjoy…granted, it is less cheesy actually watching her sing it than listening to it while the credits roll. The moral of this story is…if I ever decide to be a song writer and they play my song during the latter parts of a movie’s credits, I will know that it’s time to find a new career path.

In an attempt to not overuse the word cheesy in this here post…enjoy.