married life.

"Remember, the growth of a believer is not like a mushroom—but like an oak, which increases slowly indeed—but surely. Many suns, showers, and frosts, pass upon it before it comes to perfection. And in winter, when it seems to be dead—it is gathering strength at the root. Be humble, watchful, and diligent in the means, and endeavor to look through all, and fix your eye upon Jesus—and all shall be well."

—John Newton, Letters of John Newton

(note: full screen the window so the layout of the photos isn't wacky).

it seems like the longer i don't blog, the harder it is to pick it up again - too many updates/pictures i want to post. the last time i blogged was the day before the wedding - it's been two months + a day since then! i wonder who are the dedicated few who still check for updates on this blog.

my fave of tim + me, and of our all-star bridal party

my fave detail shots from the wedding

it's very strange to try for an update now - i feel like my whole world has changed, yet a lot has stayed the same. to the chagrin of many of my friends who ask, "how's married life?", my reply is often just, "it's normal! i love it."

how can i explain that? this is my day-to-day now, as a wife, as a Mrs. tim and i are experiencing some things together for the first time and some things that are new to the both of us - marriage is still a novel thing and we are still very much newlyweds in the honeymoon stage. but i posted the quote (above) because it rings so true. though the starkest change was, of course, that tim and i are a family now living in the same house, the greatest changes, our growth as husband + wife + and as believers, are going to be slow + recognizable only over time. everything else is falling into place and beginning to feel normal. our backer road house finally feels like home, and we've even established some routines. and it's been just two months, praise the Lord =).

my temptation as a writer is to write down the entire chronicles of our marriage from every exciting occasion, every learned thing to all the little quirks of the Yu's (and there are plenty!). i began to, but the post got super long. so, like with any big project, i just started & hopefully i'll get somewhere!

tim suggested that i post up my cooking diary in this blog. i've started to track the dinners i've been making for tim in a word document. i started it to motivate myself to try new things and to remember which meals my hubbie's enjoyed more. it's quite involved, and i've really enjoyed updating it - included are his rating (out of 5 stars, 5 being unbelievably-amazingly-best-thing-he's-eaten-since-marriage) and a photo. i might make it a regular thing to post that up here, but i thought it'd be a shame to ignore the past two months of our lives together.

i've already written a novel, BUT i'm going to stop + just post up some of my favorite pictures from the past couple months =) & give a little plane ride through our marriage thus far!

honeymoon in belize..."i never wanna leave, ambergris caye!"

mccormick & schmick's date night courtesy of a generous gift card from one of the weddings i did makeup for. our date nights generally include some type of fun or good food.

bowling night with the hasegawas...there's our men re-living their boyhood days @ the arcade. i played house of the dead and had so much fun, though i jumped + screamed with every zombie.

first time @ hodad's. Mmmm. humongerous burger. it was delish, not my favorite though.

i think i'll stop now and slowly upload the rest later, my compooper is going too slow & it's time to make dinner =). but as you can see, the start of our marriage has been mostly having fun as a family + giving thanks to the Lord for this grace of life. it's good to be back!