Normal Weight

Ever since I was 16, I have been self-consciously aware about my low BMI and the fact that I was "Very Very Underweight". As in... whenever I went for a checkup, the doctor would take my measurements, refer to his chart and give me that glance as if to say, "Look - your weight is unrecorded here and less than what's in the 'Very Underweight' category."

The inevitable questions about whether or not I was anorexic would follow.

At the Walkers', I eagerly stepped on the scales that I spotted in the Girls' bathroom. A grand total of 112.4 lbs flashed back at us. Wiser from that moment, I decided to compute my BMI today. It's a healthy 19.9! O_O

This, my friendlies, is a solemnly significant milestone of my life. For the first time ever, I've attained the "Normal Weight" threshold I'd always thought was beyond my getting.

Congratulate me, please. :-)

*Cheers for weight gain*

~ Mrs. Arcfide

A Thankful Heart

This year, I celebrated my second Thanksgiving. What can you say... it is a uniquely American holiday. :)

While I certainly had a blast making these Pecan Pie Bars, the highlight of our evening was visiting with family and singing Christmas carols around the piano. Combining the traditions of two separate holidays was wonderful!

• Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. Ps 30:4
• To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever. Ps 30:12
• Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks: for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare. Ps 75:1
• IT IS A GOOD THING TO GIVE THANKS UNTO THE LORD, AND TO SING PRAISES UNTO THY NAME, O MOST HIGH: Ps 92:1
• Praise ye the LORD. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Ps 106:1
• Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name: the upright shall dwell in thy presence. Ps 140:13

Verse Art

One morning after my husband had a very serious conversation with me, I began working on a Word Art that I hope to someday transfer to one of our bedroom walls. It will serve as a constant reminder to me of that late-night discussion. :)

However... I am quite clueless as to how I should proceed on this project. Would cut-out cardstock stuck on the wall appear tacky?

~ Mrs. Arcfide

From my bookshelf

Lethargy has been the rule of the day for the past couple of weeks as Aaron and I took turns coming down with different bouts of fever and colds. I suppose that in marriage, everything wonderful is shared... including the magical, and not-so-magical parts of life! ;)

This past week, if I weren't doing some work around our home, I was animatedly talking for hours on the phone with my girlfriends, miserably pegging away at thousands of product codes listed on a spreadsheet, or curled up reading a good book.

Reading. Ah, it is my new recently-revived, long-neglected hobby.

Books on relationships have always interested me. After reading Gretchen's review on Dr. Laura's The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands, I decided to purchase the book for my own perusal. I loved it, and have had no regrets reading it!

I present you my list of other must-reads for all married couples.

1. His Needs, Her Needs by William F. Harley Jr.
2. Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs
3. Romancing Your Husband and Romancing Your Wife by Debra and Daniel Smith
4. The Five Love Languages for Couples by Gary Chapman

Election Blues

Obama/Biden 2008

~ Mrs. Arcfide

Happy All Hallow's Eve

I grew up boycotting Halloween, sincerely believing that it was "Satan's holiday". This article that I read last year, together with this article, drastically changed my perspective and opened my mind to celebrating October 31st as All Hallow's Eve - the antecedent to a glorious All Saints Day.

As one of the authors clearly stated, the calendar of the Satanists is a perversion of Christian seasons - there would be no Satanists if Christians were not around. Until we cease to cower in fear and take dominion of what is God's and ours, the Evil One will continue to have his heyday.

What better way to repudiate him than to embrace this holiday with mirth and delight?

Yes, I'm looking forward to tomorrow. And to a marvelous time at Harvest Parties with both families and friends... because it's Hallow's Eve.

~ Mrs. Arcfide

October

What better thing to do, on a lovely afternoon, than to go for a walk and embrace the cool, crisp air of fall? Even more so when one resides in a small college town with gorgeous buildings to behold.

I loved Singapore with all its modern buildings and impressive infrastructures; that city will always hold a special place in my heart.

But maybe... just maybe, early 1900s architecture will grow on me. And I'll call this place my home.





"Even if something is left undone, everyone must take time to sit still and watch the leaves turn." - Elizabeth Lawrence

"October is nature's funeral month. Nature glories in death more than in life. The month of departure is more beautiful than the month of coming - October than May. Every green thing loves to die in bright colors."
- Henry Ward Beecher

~ Mrs. Arcfide

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

- Rudyard Kipling

~ Mrs. Arcfide

Happy Birthday, Aaron

Thanks to Scrapwow, I just completed my first digital scrapbook page.

It's another reason to celebrate. :-)

~ Mrs. Arcfide

Timber Ridge

Photo courtesy of Isaac B.

Last Friday, we were invited to spend an evening with some of our Canadian friends who were attending camp meetings in a neighboring town. We joined them for supper, an evening service, and a time of singing around their campfire.

It was a delight to bump into several other Friends of friends as well, and match real life personalities to different well-known names and faces.

One of Aaron's lab students was amazed to find him in the crowd! What a small, small world.

~ Mrs. Arcfide

100 Days & counting

Weddings occur in one day. Marriage is for life. It's hard to believe that Aaron and I today celebrate the "First 100 Days" milestone of our lives together.

"Just a hundred days?", you may ask. Though we still qualify as newlyweds, some mornings when I wake up beside him, it feels as if we have been married for longer.

Divorce statistics among Christian adults (the highest among faith groups), are high enough to cloud even the Most Hopeless Romantic's view of marriage with cynicism. Marriage counselors advise couples to be prepared for a transition period that includes disagreements, misunderstanding, and disappointed expectations.

Some couples psych themselves by reading dozens of marriage preparation books (this is not to say I discourage them - I've read dozens myself!) that touts compromise as the key to mutual happiness. Others delay matrimony until they are ready (whatever that means), and still others decide to remain single for life because divorce is too painful or troublesome.

The downside to these views is that many couples end up unhappy with their compromises when they each settle for less-than-their-ideal. There exists no point in life where a person will ever financially or spiritually "arrive," thus becoming marriage-ready. What better lessons in learning and living are there to learn than the ones we gain from real-life experiences? God grants wisdom to those who unwaveringly ask! By the time many young adults meet society's expectation to complete college, find a stable job, and then marry, they are not-so-young adults anymore. Hundreds are tempted to sin and commit fornication simply because they were ready for marriage long before our society said they were.

Have I for one moment regretted marrying? Not one bit.

Am I sorry I "married young"? Not at all.

I love the thought that my husband and I, in our early twenties, are able to begin our family.
I love hearing him whisper that I am his. I love sneaking up behind him with hug attacks and kisses. I love how he calls to ask how my day is going. I love ironing his clothes. I love how he understands my thoughts even as they tumble out disjointed. I love gliding my hands over his back in massage. I love how he commands me to "Relax," as he slow dances me around our Study - and how we laugh when he notices we had been dancing to the Funeral Eulogy. I love memorizing scriptures with him. And all the melodramatic, tortured sounds we make as we review our monthly budget together.

I love the Love and Respect we share.

Oh. And our predisposal for stopping in the kitchen to renew our wedding vows.

~ Mrs. Arcfide

Short stint to Indianapolis

I got to meet Marissa this evening! She was visiting some friends at the Indianapolis Training Center, and Aaron and I were invited to kidnap her for a couple of hours. We drove to Starbucks for supper, and spent several hours gabbing, just getting to know each other better. Meeting LJ friends face-to-face is such fun!

Marissa's a sweetheart, as Chantel would say. I loved every moment we spent talking, laughing, and thinking together. Yes, we actually enjoyed some intelligent conversations! I had been afraid my mind would fail me (like it is failing me right now), but I managed to share at least one credible thought. What a great evening. ;-)

~ Mrs. Arcfide

"Narcissistic Self-Publishers" have a sense of humor too

~ Mrs. Arcfide

The Hsu Times

This afternoon, I chatted on IM with mrscaleb. She is going into labor any day now!! O_O

I also got to talk to two girlfriends back in Singapore for more than an hour over Skype. The video had slow playback, which made for weird visual-audio co-ordination. Other than that, I was just happy to be able catch up with, and hear my sissies' voices. Poor girls, if I were awake up to 5am like they were, I wouldn't have managed to still be as pleasant! Not sure how they do it, but sure seems as if the batteries they run on never die.

In other news, Aaron came home hankering for McDonalds'. For the first time since we got here, we ventured by foot beyond our parking lot to the restaurant with the golden arches across the street. Someday, with a girlfriend, I'll walk just a little further to its neighboring Starbucks... *daydreams*

My husband also brought home his first stack of test papers for grading today. Seeing those brown envelops on his desk brought back memories of my dad doing the very same.

The two differences?

My dad *never* once had to borrow a red pen from me. And. Aaron brings papers home in a backpack. My dad used a brief case. So my husband has to be the cooler geek. Or educator. *ahem* :-P

Gosh. Isn't he starting to look professorish? I can't seem to escape men from academia...








~ Mrs. Arcfide

Fireproof

So many friends recommended seeing this movie, that two days ago, Aaron and I obliged. When I learned that its creators were the producers of Facing the Giants, I knew this was going to be good.

Every couple should see this. If ever a movie demonstrated the need for love and respect in marriage, this one did. If ever a movie demonstrated how husbands should love their wives as Christ loved the church, this one did.

It is unashamedly Christian. Go see it!



~ Mrs. Arcfide

Recycling our "wedding stuff"

Is frugality to innovation what necessity is to invention?

Since Aaron and I might be entertaining our first guests this weekend, I was slightly more motivated to re-look at the pieces of decoration that have been laying around our home since we first moved. I have been surprised at how long it has taken me to get things unpacked and put away, but we're finally mostly organized.

The focus of our decoration has mostly been relegated to our bedroom, study, bathrooms, and kitchen as those are the most "lived-in" areas of our home. Surprisingly, we rarely use our living room at all --- perhaps its lack of furniture and isolation has everything to do with our disinclination towards it.

Knowing how well I love pictures, my husband generously gave me several gorgeous frames and wall decorations from Hobby Lobby for my birthday. They quickly transformed our bedroom from utilitarianism to homey coziness. I was one happy camper.

Our budget, though, restrained us from purchasing any other items for our kitchen. Yesterday morning, I was inspired to reconsider some of the candles, basket, and roses someone had kindly saved from our wedding. We had a cranberry-red themed wedding, so I was uncertain how red would interfere in our blue and oak-wood kitchen. In the end, the results weren't as tacky as I'd feared. Those different colors appear relegated to separate hemispheres of our kitchen. :-)

I used a silver 5 lights candle stand we purchased from Craigslist, some scotch tape, some porcelain votive candles I already owned, and some creativity to create this look:



~ Mrs. Arcfide

Keep thy words soft and sweet

Human nature is ever growing, ever retrogressing... never static. Determined though one may be never to change, separation inevitably takes its toll on even the closest of friends. Divergent experiences and philosophies gained along life's way make each old-time reunion never quite the same.

Still, knowing this... one can't suppress the little sigh of disappointment that escapes at the realization that your friend is not, and will never again be the same as before. Changes are hard to appreciate, even if they have been wrought for improvement's sake.

Outward changes are by far the most conspicuous. Others have lamented the changes they saw in me. Was it just my appearances, manner or beliefs?

Have I learned to be more prudent and discerning? I hope so. More imperious and sophomorical? I pray not.

Keep thy words soft and sweet: someday you might have to eat them.

7 Things I'd proclaimed over the rooftops, and have had to renege:

1. "I'll never get married."
   
2. "I don't wear pants because they're not modest."
3. "When I grow up, I'm going to be a drummer."
4. "Music with a beat is wrong."
5. "I'm not into eye make-up."
6. "I hate bean sprouts."
7. "I can't cook."

~ Mrs. Arcfide

Picasa 3

So I just downloaded Picasa's newest beta version, and have been toying around with some of its older features (like the collage) with renewed interest.

I think I am liking the way text can now be added, and angles of the pictures even more simply rotated. Here's a sample project I did in less than ten minutes this morning. Pretty cool way to display multiple snapshots on one file, huh? :-)

Has anyone tried movie-editing using Picasa?

~ Mrs. Arcfide

Constant Changes?

If anyone asked me what has been going on recently in my life, my response would be, "Changes. Constant changes."

Last January, I was in the States, celebrating the New Year with Aaron's family. February and March found me back in Singapore, working on team projects, competitions, and our FY closing. April was fun-filled, with company trips and event kick-offs. May saw me winding down my entire twenty-one years in Singapore. There was packing to do, closing of accounts, goodbyes to be said. June 2nd, I flew back to St. Louis to be with my beloved. With help from his family, we were able to plan our wedding in all of four weeks.

July was a month of catalytic change. I left girlhood forever when we got married. There were new discoveries to make, new roles to embrace. I learned more about myself in that one month than I did in all my teenage years put together.

Then came August. Aaron graduated from UMSL, and we moved. Another whole new state, new town, new place. New responsibilities to assume, new ideas to embrace.

It's hard to believe that September crept up on us, and even now is almost gone. It seems as if school just started yesterday, that life has just settled into some sort of normality for us.

I feel very much alive... and dead. Aaron's intense love for me warms my heart, and shelters me with an aura of protecting kindness that I have been missing for the past two years. Yet, even that does not replace the ache that loss of fellowship with other loved ones brought.

I sometimes wonder if I am able to stay true to all the principles I call my own. Take away all the extenuating circumstances and the short term goals that drove me, and do I... fail? Will I?

The enormality of the changes in the past eight months has literally shaken my world. Though many of those changes were for the better, I can't say I care to live the rest of them over again. While all that has transpired does translate into growth, the more I learn, the less qualified l feel I am, of being equal to any new task ahead.

And yet, despite me being who I am, and the people around me being who they are... He has assured us,

"...be content... I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever" ~ Hebrews 13:5-6,8

Our God is too wonderful for words.

~ Mrs. Arcfide

A new beginning...

After numerous well wishes over the past two days upon attaining three and twenty years of age, and many more (belated) congratulatory messages on Aaron's and my nuptials, I decided to begin what I left off and have been wanting to do ~ blog again.

It is only fitting, then, that a new site should be created for this new chapter of our lives. I no longer live independently, but am now closely intertwined with that of my dearer, smarter, geekier, and better half. No doubt my scribbles about even The Mundane will reflect this change.

So. Until Aaron creates his new blogging software for moi to use, this becomes my temporary home.

I remain, as always... a fan of the "big brother" Google.

~ Mrs. Arcfide