On Wednesday, July 22nd, I made my way to Kaneohe for Cindy & Noah’s tea ceremony rehearsal…and I am glad I did. Although I have been at tea ceremonies many times before, I can only imagine how hard it would have been to find the location on the wedding day. By going to the rehearsal, I was also able to create a customized map (with pictures and instructions) for my staff and the photographer to find it much easier.

Then on Thursday, July 23rd, Christine, Mary, & I made our way to Luana Hills for the rehearsal of the American ceremony….
Giving tips to the wedding party

Giving tips to the wedding party...we practiced in doors as it had just rained and we wanted to save the grass as much as possible for the wedding day

The next day…Friday, July 24th was Cindy & Noah’s wedding day! On my way to Cindy’s hotel, I picked up Christine (intern) at her home at 6:15am…then we stopped at Foodland to pick up ice for the cooler of bottled water and clear soda for the wedding party.

After Foodland, we stopped at Sweet Blossoms to pick up the wedding party & immediate family flowers…and as usual, we were early so we sat in my van and waited for the shop to open.

A little early from when they needed to be open, we say Natasha enter the shop so we asked if we might be able to pick up the flowers early as well.
A BIG Thank you to Natasha (left) for opening early and having all of the flowers ready to go! And thank you to Christine (right) for helping throughout the day!

A BIG Thank you to Natasha (left) for opening early and having all of the flowers ready to go! And thank you to Christine (right) for helping throughout the day!
Bride's bouquet

Bride's bouquet
Bridesmaid's bouquet

Bridesmaid's bouquet

Upon arriving at the Lotus hotel (where Cindy and her girls were getting ready), it was SO nice to find Christine Gardner and her girls from Flaunt progressing so nicely!
They even finished early! What a GREAT crew!!!

They even finished early! What a GREAT crew!!!

Once Cindy got dressed, it was PERFECT timing as the groom’s party had also just arrived to participate in the Chinese tradition of obstacles and bridal bidding so Noah would be allowed to see and marry Cindy…
After finally completing all obstacles, Noah is being guided into the hotel room by his best man to see his wife for the first time

After finally completing all obstacles, Noah is being guided into the hotel room by his best man to see his wife for the first time

Then photographer David Murphey took a few pictures of Cindy & Noah in the lobby which happened to have a nice Asian theme…
This was actually down in the lobby!!!

This was actually down in the lobby!!!

Then after the pictures, everyone made their way to the location of the tea ceremony
Getting the tea ceremony started...

Getting the tea ceremony started...
tea ceremony taking place...

tea ceremony taking place...

After the tea ceremony, the family members and wedding party made their way to the main house to have lunch. While they enjoyed lunch, I made my way to Buger King to pick up lunch for my staff and continued on my way Luana Hills to help and oversee that setup.
Upon arriving, I was happy to see Naomi had started setting up the draping of the bamboo arch (rented from Accel Rentals)...

Upon arriving, I was happy to see Naomi had started setting up the draping of the bamboo arch (rented from Accel Rentals)...
my staff at Luana Hills took a few minutes to eat lunch as Naomi was putting up her linen and while Laurie was back at the residence with the wedding party (as they ate) to make sure they were comfortable and would leave on time

my staff at Luana Hills took a few minutes to eat lunch as Naomi was putting up her linen and while Laurie was back at the residence with the wedding party (as they ate) to make sure they were comfortable and would leave on time
after the quick bite to eat, it was back to work....the flowers were going up and David Louis of Dynamic Sounds was setting up and testing the sound for the ceremony

after the quick bite to eat, it was back to work....the flowers were going up and David Louis of Dynamic Sounds was setting up and testing the sound for the ceremony
Mary started putting on the reserved seating signs...

Mary started putting on the reserved seating signs...
and David was on to testing the microphone that the minister would be using...

and David was on to testing the microphone that the minister would be using...
aisle flowers (which will later become centerpieces)

aisle flowers (which will later become centerpieces)
gazebo arch piece

gazebo arch piece
FINISHED arch (bamboo arch rented from Accel Rentals, linen draping by Les Saisons, and flowers from Sweet Blossoms...isn't this pretty!

FINISHED arch (bamboo arch rented from Accel Rentals, linen draping by Les Saisons, and flowers from Sweet Blossoms...isn't this pretty!
FINISHED ceremony site (just waiting for the petals down the center aisle...which will go out at the last minute so they won't blow away)

FINISHED ceremony site (just waiting for the petals down the center aisle...which will go out at the last minute so they won't blow away)
Cindy & Noah's big moment!!!

Cindy & Noah's big moment!!!

Once the ceremony started, I left some of my capable staff at Luana Hills to make sure everything else finished smoothly and the wedding party left without a hitch. I went straight to the Chinese restaurant to begin overseeing the setup. Soon after arriving, I found…
Steven (Naomi's husband) hard at work and still smiling :)

Steven (Naomi's husband) hard at work and still smiling :)
Head and cake tables...linen...check! Not to worry...Steven also brought their steamer and was still yet to steam this linen...so when it was done, there were NO lines or wrinkles :)

Head and cake tables...linen...check! Not to worry...Steven also brought their steamer and was still yet to steam this linen...so when it was done, there were NO lines or wrinkles :)
Immediately after the grand entrance, Cindy, Noah, and all of their guests were treated to a lion dance that infused the reception with energy & excitement

Immediately after the grand entrance, Cindy, Noah, and all of their guests were treated to a lion dance that infused the reception with energy & excitement

Have you wondered what I staff would NOT do at a wedding? So have I! As far as I know, we will do anything to make things happen…
cut & serve cake

even cut & serve cake...here is my intern Christine Nip helping to cut & plate the wedding cake
Noah (left), Cindy (middle), and me :) The new HAPPY couple!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Back On The Saddle

We had a special guest instructor at the dojo last night.

Does More Money Buy You Happiness?

No one can really understands how much a wedding can cost until they are getting married themselves. Sure, you can have some idea of the end cost, but in the grand scheme of things, the total amount spent is shocking. On top of that, a wedding price tag is even more jaw dropping on a tropical island. To save money, I know many couples who have had small intimate weddings with about 10 guests. Some of these couples viewed weddings as a nuisance and others just wanted a simple day to express their love towards one another.

With all the chaos involved in wedding planning, sometimes I wonder if I would actually be happier with a smaller less expensive wedding. After running every scenario in my head, I think if I had a less expensive wedding, I would regret my choices.

Your wedding should be whatever you want it to be. If spending less money makes you happy, go ahead and do it. There are plenty of married couples who have shared their wedding planning advice with us. Most of them shared that they regretted spending so much money for their wedding. BUT, all of them had the time of their lives! Yes, there are certain things I could have done to cut corners but in the big picture, would I be less happy? Weddings are about happiness. For the most part, this is one of most important days of a person's life. Whether an immediately family member or the bride, a wedding is a special momentous day for everyone.

My wedding is a celebration of my devotion and love to that one special person. That person is my world. They are the other part to my half.

More or less money cannot buy you happiness. Happiness is only found within yourself. My wedding makes me happy.

Beach Buff Bodies

I went to the beach this weekend to work on my tan. I figured that I should be slightly tanned for my wedding. I can't believe it's only three weeks away! Ahh! And I still have tons of little things to do. It's never ending.

Saturday was a beautiful day to go to the beach, but apparently, everyone else on the island wanted to go to the beach too. Ala Moana Beach Park was also hosting some kind of carnival event as well as the Dragon Boat Races, so it was really hard to find parking. Luckily, we didn't have too much trouble and parked in a prime location.

The beach was hot and filled with people. The ocean was bright blue and glistening. I could feel the sun beaming down on my skin as Noah and I walked toward the beach. We found a nice spot near the water that wasn't too populated. Unfortunately, there was nothing else around to provide any shade from the hot sun, but I slathered on the sunblock to save my skin. I was really shiny! The heat wasn't as bad as I thought because the sand wasn't burning my toes after I took off my slippers.

The warmth of the sun was nice, but after a couple of minutes, I started thinking whether I should get a tan? I was wearing a halter bikini. My wedding dress is strapless. Oh No! Am I going to have this weird funky tan at the wedding?

This is the one problem with many wedding in Hawaii. People don't realize how strong the sun is here. In most cases, people end up either lobster red from sunburn or with funky bikini shadowed tans on their pictures.

I didn't want to be stuck with a halter tan, so I quickly jumped into the ocean and waded around. At first, the water was cold. Ahh!! Really cold! But, I said, "What the hell!" and jumped in, submerging my whole body. Yikes! The torture only lasted a couple of seconds, and I acclimated to the temperature. I had a blast wading in the water. The ocean was extremely calm, so it was like being in a swimming pool! I floated on my back, pretended to be a fish, and splashed around like a maniac. It was great! I think I was in the water for a good hour or until my fingers were prunes. I jumped out of the water and laid down on the beach mat to warm-up again.

Do you ever go to the beach just to people watch? It's very interesting. Sitting back, I see tourist, locals, and teenagers. The tourist are quiet obvious. They speak another language and are enthralled by the "beach". Locals are the ones who are overly prepared with their chairs, grills, and cornucopia of food. Teenagers on the beach are usually holding their significant others like it's their last time.

Some people who visit the beach have no taste in fashion or embarrassment factor. I saw a elderly man in his 60's wearing a Speedo strutting his stuff along the water. I believe he was trying to attract the "ladies". There was another man in the water who did the weirdest thing. While I was wading and splashing around, I heard this funny noise. I couldn't figure out what it was. So, I turned my head all around me searching for this mysterious sound. Louder and louder, I saw a man swimming towards me. He was moving his arms like a normal freestyle stroke, but when his head came up, instead of breathing he spit. It was an intentional spit. And sure enough, after watching him for at least a minute, he spit every single time. I was disgusted.

Some people do the strangest things in public even at the beach. Overall, I had a lot of fun relaxing at the beach. Living on this island makes you forget that we're surrounded by beaches. Warm and beautiful beaches too! Not like beaches in California where they're cold and rocky. Hopefully in the weekends counting down to the wedding, I can hopefully visit and relax at the beach again.

Now, off to another adventure...

Do You Have Curves?

This past Monday was my official one-month anniversary attending Curves. At every month's anniversary, they take all your measurements and compare it to your last measurement. I've been going to Curves consistently four days a week for one month. Crazy, but yes! I've been working my butt off, and literally because when I was measure this past Monday, I lost 2.5 inches from my thighs! Can you believe it? I was shocked! Whoo!!!! I even lost 1.5 inches from my waist too! Overall, I lost a total of 5.5 inches on my whole body and 1% body fat! Curves has been great. I was so happy with the results that I'm changing my four day a week workout to five days a week.


I try to make working out a routine. When I get home from work, I immediately change into my workout clothes and hop out the door before I become a permanent couch accessory. If I let myself relax and chill out, I don't want to workout anymore.

Work totally drains the energy out of me, so when I rush out to Curves, it gives me something to look forward too and I have a lot more energy since I've been working out. It's amazing!

The people at Curves are inspiring and very supportive. Since Curves is an all-woman gym, everyone is very friendly. There is one lady at Curves who is fairly large and obese. She's been going to Curves for a couple of months, and since starting, she's lost about 40 pounds already! It's amazing! I was so happy for her when she told me. We also have women that are over 90 years old that workout. Some of them can barely walk, but after training, they gain their mobility back and can walk without a cane.


I'm not working out just to be thinner. I'm workout out so I can feel good about myself. I want to be healthy, strong, and full of energy!

Dojo Growing Pains

We had a new student show up for class last night. He was a very nice guy and seemed enthusiastic about training. I was very happy that we had someone new. Since the beginning of the year, Noah and I have tried bringing more students into the dojo. We posted fliers all over town. I even advertised on Craigslist and Facebook. Usually when new people come, they attend class for about one to two weeks, and for some reason, they do not end up staying afterward. We're not sure if it's the physical aspect of the class or simply because we have a lack in attendance.

I personally think that a large class has its downfalls. The learning curve is a lot slower. You only have the opportunity to learn maybe five techniques in one night, instead of 25 techniques with a small class. In a small class of three to four people, I receive one-on-one instruction each night from multiple high ranking martial artists, who have more years of martial arts experience than I've been alive. Who wouldn't want that? You're learning from the best.

I understand that it's human nature to want and long to be a part of a group. But, I guess I don't have that problem. The only problem I had was that it was difficult to learn a technique and not become upset at myself because I couldn't do it the same as a black belt. The perfectionist in me always strives for the best, so if I couldn't do a technique like a 20-year experienced black belt, then I sucked. Yes, I am crazy.

Well, I hope our new students attend class for the long haul. It's always great to have new energy on the mat. Let's cross our fingers!

The Black and Blues

This past Monday's workout was hard. I had a huge headache, and I was exhausted from working out at Curves. I'm trying to get my body in super shape for my upcoming July wedding. So at practice, I was out of energy.

Sensei Noah and Sensei Bruce wanted me to do Oku, and being Oku, it was a hard board. You really have to be on your A-game or else you get hurt. I really didn't feel up to it, and I took a couple of hard falls without being mentally and physically ready. So, Sensei Noah decided to do some Newaza (groundwork) instead. Basically, I had to escape from every Shime technique. Some of the techniques were impossible to get out of. You literally had to break your arm to get out of some. Really, some techniques you don't want the opponent to get it on you. As I said, it's impossible to get out.

Here is a picture of Noah performing a Shinin technique on Nolan.


The Newaza techniques were fun. I was screaming, grunting, and growling everywhere and anywhere to get out of Noah's pins and chokes. I have a ton of bumps and bruises everywhere. Plus, my back feels like I hit a ton of bricks. It's so sore and tight. I feel like a stiff robot. Advil is my friend. My neck is super sore too because Noah did a ton of chokes on me. I was successful in getting out of the chokes though. Yay! But, boy do they leave a mark. My jaw even hurts when I try to eat. Sensei Bruce commented that, "Cindy's has to stop martial arts at least two weeks before the wedding or else she'll be covered in bruises." Exactly! I see his point.

No pain, no gain!

My Sankyu Test

Sensei Danny Saragosa was kind enough to take some pictures during my promotion. It's strange seeing myself in martial art pictures. I look like a different person. It's also a little embarrassing. I definitely over analyze myself in pictures. Like, "Am I falling correctly?" and "Oh, am I doing the right thing?". It's the perfectionist in me again. Curses....Here we are standing in front of the dojo. On the left is Sensei Danny Saragosa and to the right is Sensei Bruce Raney. Both men are full of martial art knowledge, plus look how big they are. Ha! You wouldn't want to get in a fight with them.


Sensei Noah Harders is presenting me with my sankyu certificate and belt. How exciting! I was nervous and happy at the same time. It's an amazing feeling to be promoted.


Whenever we had visiting instructors, I was always looked down upon because of my belt rank. Our dojo is very old school, so we didn't even give out strips or different colored belts besides blue, brown, and black. Belt colors are at the dojo's discretion, but many senseis have decided to add ranks in between to give their students a sense of accomplishment. The visiting instructors were mainly from the AJJF organization. Their organization has a striped blue and a green belt before brown. I already reached those ranks, but because my belt didn't show it, they thought I was a beginner until I started training.

Many instructors are quite impressed when I hit the mat. They're like, "Wow, she's strong for her size." Also, learning the hard way, instructors don't want to glorify good martial artists. If a martial artist is exceptional, they will simply correct everything you do until you're frustrated out of your mind. Grr...I wanted to punch someone so hard that they couldn't get up!! AHH!!!!

Can you tell they did that to me? You betcha! I was frustrated out of my mind. I was so angry and sad. I thought to myself that I could do nothing right. Well, it just so happens that it was the exact opposite opinion in the instructor's eyes. They saw so much potential and skill in me that they only wanted to help me become the best. Wow! I couldn't believe it when I found that out. I was in complete doubt. "Are you SURE????" Sensei said yes. Oh gosh, after hearing that, I felt so small. Like a tiny ant. Squish me!

My Poor Aching Knee

About a week ago, I was promoted to Sankyu. Yay! It was surprising but not surprising at the same time. I kinda knew it was coming. Actually, I wanted to be promoted a lot earlier. I mean, since it took so long, I thought I was never getting promoted. Ha! So, it was really nice to change from a blue to a brown belt. The last time I was promoted was in April 2008.

Well, the so-called "test" wasn't easy. I got some bumps and bruises along the way. My left knee is still aching. It's puffy and still bruised. Noah threw a beautiful and super high Hane Goshi, but I went so high in the air that I basically was landing on my face. Noah held me up after he saw what he did, but beside my face smacking the mat, my knee wasn't so lucky. I hit my knee on the mat right smack dab in the center. Wowee, did it hurt like a b*tch.

I also bruised my right achilles pretty good throwing Sumigaeshi. My right ankle was caught and hit while kicking Noah over. It wasn't my intention but my ankle was stuck. It wasn't too bad, but it swelled up.

Noah admitted to me after the test that he tried to throw me without holding back. He said that if I was going to wear that brown belt that I had to know how to fall. *Gulp* No pressure. Haha!

But, I passed! I'm so happy!

I Need To Be Realistic.

It's actually really late right now, but I wanted to write something to start. In my opinion, martial arts is fun, challenging, and complicated. Sometimes I get so frustrated with everything because I think I need to know everything and be perfect. I greatly emphasize the "Perfect". I know, it's crazy! I know I'm not being realistic because I'm only a yonkyu, which is a fourth rank or blue belt student. It's the perfectionist in me. I can't help it. I see the technique being done, and I think okay, I got it. That's doesn't look that hard, but HA! let me tell you that it's an illusion. Black belts and/or your sensei always make a technique look easy because they have fifteen years or more experience on you. I'm trying to get over this hurdle and not be so dissappointed in myself. I try to repeat in my head, "Everyone makes mistakes. It's not normal to be perfect. If you're perfect, there is no challenge."

I really need to listen to my advice. Well, let's see how practice goes tomorrow night.

Until then,
Cindy

The Beginning of Hawaiian Life

Moving to Hawaii in 2006 was a very difficult decision for me. Everything I knew was in California. My friends. My family. I had just graduated college, so I wanted to start a life for myself. I wanted to find out who I really was without my parents.

I believe that a person should not live in fear or regret. I was given an opportunity of a lifetime to live in Hawaii. It's next to impossible for Mainlanders to move to Hawaii before retirement. People don't move to Hawaii because jobs pay next to nothing and the cost of living is extremely high.

I had to take the chance, and it's been very lonely. I left all my family and friends. I didn't know anyone who lived here. I also grew up in a large family, so there was always someone to hang around or talk to.

I am very grateful that my now fiance, then boyfriend, moved with me. He sacrificed as much as I did. He sold his car. He left his job. He left his mom. He moved away from all the activities and friends that made him happy, just to be with me.


I don't regret moving to Hawaii. Yes, life has been hard but I have made a life here. I found myself and who I am. I enjoy the people of this island and their calm energy. I would just like my California friends and family to realize what I've gone through and how I have changed.

I do miss everyone in California, but I don't want the relationship to be one sided. In the past three years, I have traveled to California six times. I try to visit as often as possible, but I want people to have to desire to visit me as well. Why do I always have to come to California to see anyone? Why can't they come and see me? I have free accommodations available.

Everyone needs to understand that my life is not in California anymore. Yes, it is a part of me and where I grew up, but it is not my future. I love California and it's energy, but I made a home in Hawaii. I'm ready to start a family. I just wish that my friends and family could open their eyes and see me now.

I want people to be happy and supportive of my choices. I don't want to hear, "So, when are you moving back?" all the time. In my mind, I asked "So, why haven't you come to visit me?"

Contrary to what some people think, I do not make a lot of money in Hawaii. I have been in the same job position for the past three years, and Noah teaches elementary school. Life is hard, but we are living life together one step at a time.

"Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end." - Unknown