moon ko photography

an anniversary, a birthday and a layout.

Yesterday was my 16th year of marriage with Richard. Probably the smartest thing I've ever done to date was saying, "I do" to that man. The way he proposed wasn't elaborate. He was stationed in Georgia going through Officer Basic Course and I was still in Bloomington finishing up my last semester of college. He would drive 11 hours one way to spend a day and a half with me and then drive back. He came up to see me in October and we were both in his car, saying our reluctant good-byes to each other when he finally said, "Hey, you wanna get married?" That was probably the last thing I was expecting to hear from him. You know, because I still had 2 months before graduation and the fact that he lived 11 hours away. But for some reason, while my head was still comprehending what I had just been asked, my mouth said, "Sure."

There was no ring. Just a promise between the two of us that no one knew about. And for me, that was enough.

Richard's hand-made card that he gave to me yesterday said: Actions speak louder than words. I try everyday to show you now much I love you.

Yup. Totally smart on my part...
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Charlie turned two today. It's going to be weird telling people that he's two and not almost two and not 23 months. But just two. That's just plain weird.
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And the layout:

By the way, he says more now. When you ask him how old he is, he says, "Two!"

Have a great weekend everyone!

friday's layout

I used American Crafts stamps for this layout with a bit of ribbon and thickers. Pretty simple but I loved how it turned out. This is my best friend's baby and I sent the layout to her as a little gift.

Sorry this is late but I was at the book signing for Diana Gabaldon, the author of the Outlander series. She's quite a little firecracker, that one. It was so neat to be in the presence of someone famous. I would highly recommend her books but I have to warn you that they are all quite long (600-800 pages). I've only been able to make a small crack into her second book and am having a hard time finding the time to read for more than 5 minutes at a time.

Happy weekend to all and to all a good night!

xo,

-moon

high school reunion

I had my 20 year high school reunion about a month ago. I'm sure every high school had that one girl...the girl that all the guys wanted to date. The one that was smart and pretty and was liked by everyone. The one that seemed to have it all together. You know which one I'm talking about, right?
Yeah well that girl's name was Vanessa.
It wasn't me. I would be what you might call the antithesis of that girl. The shy, awkward, glasses wearing, wall flower type of girl that no one really knew. But that was OK because you know why? Because I had a really small group of the most excellent girlfriends. Without them, I think high school would've been a completely miserable experience.

So here's to girlfriends-old and new!

Hope everyone in the States has a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

my sister and my baby girl

This is a photo of my sister and my first born, Maddie, back in 2001. Maddie was just a few months old at the time and my sister had become an aunt for the very first time. My sister was pretty smitten with her niece, as was everyone else since Maddie was the first baby to be born for any of our respective families.

When I found out I was going to have a baby, we made our appointment with the OB. Well actually, we had to first find an OB that we liked and we quickly chose the first one we interviewed. At our appointment, he figured out the due date by using this really high tech device which consisted of a paper wheel and a bunch of numbers written on it. Yeah. Like I said, very high tech.

We were going to have an August baby.

August 16.
My birthday is August 14th and my sister's is on the 19th.

Can you guess which date Maddie chose as her birth date?

Happy birthday to my big sis who tuns the big four-oh today. And to my Maddie who turns eight.

Love you both so very much!

thank goodness for my math scores.

During the summer between my junior and senior years of high school, I took my SATs on a very early Saturday morning. The only thing I remember was taking naps in between each test. Not a good sign that I was actually concentrating on what I was doing. Especially the verbal part. I not so good with words. I not so good with writing too. I not good with vocabulary. And talk about those analogies. I really hated analogies. I don't care what drinking is to beer as swimming is to what?

Maddie, who is getting ready to go into the third grade, is already doing analogies in her daily homework. And that's good, I suppose. She also has spelling/vocabulary lists every week and I usually know what all of her words mean. BECAUSE SHE'S IN THE SECOND GRADE.  But a few months ago, she came home and said, "Mommy, I'm going to make igneous matter in the microwave."

Huh? Wha- matter?

So I just said, "Oh. OK. Just don't blow up the microwave." and slowly slid into my office where I found out what igneous meant.

And then I did a layout about it:

 

I got my SAT test scores back in a few months. Let's just say that my math scores bumped me up into being able to get into a nice state school.

Speaking of all this high school stuff, my 20 year reunion is tomorrow. I will probably have a post early next week about it. But in the meantime, you can gaze upon this little gem I found at my parent's house.

 

Ah yes, the lean-on-some-hay pose. A classic in senior poses. And what's up with the over-sized shirt and yellow shoes? Who wears yellow shoes?!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Hi, I'm Moon and my parents weren't hippies.

The girls went to birthday party yesterday. It was for Nadine, Laurie's daughter. Laurie and I've been friends for about 5 years now and is considered one of my first friends that I met since moving to KY. Over the years, I've come to know a few of her friends here and there. All very nice and a wonderful group of ladies. At the party, I met Annie for the first time. She's known about me as I of her through Laurie and so it was nice to finally meet her in person for the first time.

She didn't know I was Asian. She was expecting a hippy-like person, who wears long, flowy skirts and smells like patchouli.

That cracked me up.

So I'm putting out there, Internet. I am Asian and not a hippy. And my first name is Moon. Just Moon. My last name is Ko. I am also married but did NOT take my husband's last name. Not because I didn't want to, but because we eloped and I lost the paperwork to get my last name changed. And I'm lazy. :p And if you happen to Google my name, I am NOT the hot Asian model in those provocative poses. That is a different Moon Ko, no relation. This is me...

 

Circa 1981. In a very awkward pose and definitely not hot.

Back to the birthday party...

I was able to get a few pictures of the birthday girl, Nadine...

 

Nadine's wearing an apron that her mother made for the cake decorating party. She made one for each of the girls with their initials on them. So cute!

And I also got some of Annie's little girl, Martha:

 

Isn't she striking? Here's another one of her...

 

No layouts this week. I know. But definitely some to come next week so stay tuned!

I'm back...

We were here last week.

 

...the New Jersey Shore. We met up with our very good friends from college who live up there and whom we haven't seen in almost three years. Way too long if you ask me. The drive up there wasn't too bad because we stopped in Harrisburg to see Richard's sister and her husband. The girls were thrilled because they have a pool.

 

Charlie's favorite thing was climbing out and jumping to his daddy.

 

He did it over and over and over and...

 

Check out his pink little swimmers. I had a few left over from Katie's pre-potty days. And yes, they are the ones that have the princesses on them. What? If you think putting pink swimmers on a little boy is bad, you should see what I did to his toenails. But that's a whole other story...

Anyway, we finally made it to the beach. And it was lovely. The water was really quite cold but the weather couldn't have been more perfect. I was a little concerned how well Charlie would do since he's never been to the ocean but he surprised me. I think he surprised all of us.

 

He had the best time. Up until a wave knocked him over and he swallowed a lot of salt water. But a few Pringles later, he went right back out.

 

Maddie's in the background getting ready to body surf.

Charlie also got to meet his future girlfriend, Xiao Li.

 

Aren't they the sweetest? We are planning on getting together again next summer. Maybe someplace where the water's a little warmer.

On to layouts! I did these for the 2peas garden:

 

 

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

total weirdness

Today, I took a nap with Katie while Charlie took his because I haven't been sleeping well this past week. Don't really know what my problem is. Stress? Nah. Heat? Nah. Like I said...don't really know. Anyway, I had seen this video on youtube and thought it was hilarious. If you haven't seen it, you must stop reading and watch it. Now. Stop reading. I mean it.

Glad you're back. Funny, no? So I watched the video before I took a nap and had the weirdest dream. I dreamt that I was camping out with Rob Pattinson (Edward Cullen for those of you who live under rocks. I kid. I kid.) I wasn't married in my dream so it was totally OK to be making out with him (Sorry, Richard- who didn't exist in my dreamlike state of mind) but while we were camping (which i hate to do, btw) he was also filming New Moon. At the campsite, there were a lot of really crazed fans and one of them had her daughter with her and came rushing towards Rob. Rob had just finished a scene with a fencing sword (because of the video, I'm sure) and she ended up getting impaled. It was awful. But what he did after was even more awful. The boy ran. RAN AWAY. He flipped out and ran. ugh. That's when I lost all respect for him as a human being and woke myself up because I didn't want to have this dream anymore. What does it all mean?

Maybe it means I should move on and show you my latest creation.

This was done for 2peas:

 

A layout of my bff's wedding. I embossed "LOVE" with metallic AC powder and pasted the itty bitty strips of yellow papers. A little stamping and thickers...throw in a prima flower and BAM! you're finished.

Have a great weekend!

ok. which one of you mowed my lawn?

This morning, I went to make some dinners at Dream Dinners and when I came back home, I noticed that the lawn had been mowed. Richard usually hires someone to do it but from the looks of the lawn, it was mowed by a riding mower and not our usual push mower. So when Richard came home, he asked who had mowed our lawn. I told him that i didn't know. Our lawn had been looking rather long-ish and unkept with all the stinking rain we've been getting.

So whoever you are, random riding lawn mower person, thank you and sorry we didn't mow it sooner. I have a sneaking suspicion that it was one of our next door neighbors, as they both own riders. One of them has even come by and given us a ham. A honey baked ham. It wasn't Easter, Christmas or any holiday that requires the use of pig. Random, no?

Have a great weekend!

mighty fine day.

sorry about the no layout last week. i was here:

 

this would be hilton head island. i was there with my friend from grade school whom i'd lost touch with when she moved away in the 7th grade. she found me on facebook. thank you, facebook.

so to make up for my lack of scrap-sharing, i will share this with you...

 

holy cow.

yes ladies. this would be the half-naked Edward Cullen in New Moon.

a mighty fine day, if you ask me. now go talk amongst yourselves while i take a cold shower.

:)