Another week has come and gone, and here I am again typing for my blog. For those of you who have been following along, I have been working on my portfolio recently. I need a good portfolio since I am often getting new clients, and it would be nice to show them my work showcased on a nice website. So I’ve been working on www.wildkatana.com for the past couple of weeks, and now it is really shaping up. It is built on the Drupal platform, and it lets me post portfolio projects, testimonials, and anything else I want. I heavily customized the system of course. I still have a lot more things to do with it, namely making a blog there for my business (and moving the posts from here to there) and a few other things as well. Go check it out if you want to see what it’s like: WildKatana Design.

Sharon started her Photography Class this week at Dixie College, it is a part of the Community Education Program. She is WAY excited because in her heart Sharon is a student. She would go to school her whole life if she could. Sharon and I also did some fun things this week, like on Friday we went up to Provo with my mom to watch my brother Kendall play Tennis for State, and she wanted to meet up with an old friend, Vicki. Tyler came to watch Kendall play too, so it was good to see him again. Afterwards he gave us the grand tour of his apartment and his new (to him) ‘85 BMW. We went to see a movie (Taken) later with my mom at the $2 Theater. We also had a nice meal at Panda Express.

Sharon and I also went out Saturday. We went to eat at IHOP (I LOVED IT) and then went to play Miniature Golf at the Laser Tag place. It was cool because it was all in a black-light room, and it had lots of cool art work and fun things. We also got to see a Classic Cars show and then went to a movie (Watchmen, it was so bad we left half-way - seriously no plot and bad language and violence, if you haven’t yet seen it: don’t).

I had to give a lesson in Elders Quorum this morning, and it went pretty well. It was about ‘The Power of Forgiving’. Many people had good comments so it went by very smoothly and I was only able to get half of it done. It reminded me of when I used to give trainings to Missionaries on my mission.

Well, I suppose that’s all for this week. I’ve been working hard and things are getting caught up with my work, which is a big relief. I also have been working on the Adjustment of Status forms with Sharon, and we are getting close to being ready to send them in. Hopefully Tuesday or Wednesday. It will be a huge relief once we get those in as well. This summer we are planning on doing fun things with my friends, Paul, Nikki, Chris, Ben and June. Fun days are comin’! And Sharon is going to Hawaii in June to visit her friends there before they graduate.

We still haven’t sent any Thank-You cards, which is really sad because Sharon does have a lot of time during the day >.> I’m looking at you now Sharon with a strange look on my face, you’ll know why later when you read this! I am probably spelling things wrong because I’m not even looking at my keybiard or screen.

Random Pictures for this week:

Sharon and I at Weeping Rock

Is she really that sad to marry me? Haha. I love u babe~

Paul got his Associate’s Degree! Congratulations!

Sharon is a natural!

I love nature!!

Fun in the Park

Go Fish is an intense game

That’s enough for this week, to see more cool pics of the Picnic and hike and other stuff, be sure to check out Sharon’s Blog, it is always much better than mine^^ Until next time~

Well, this week has been nice, since I was able to get caught up with all of my clients except one now, so I’m not so stressed out from work, and also because I got to go over to Paul’s house twice, once on Wednesday to play Age of Empires 2 (Sharon actually liked it!) and then again on Friday night to play Magic: The Gathering and Munchkins with some of my friends who I haven’t seen in a while. Joe Wasden, Justin Williamson and his girlfriend, Chris Lambert, and Ben Wilsterman all came to Paul’s and we had a lot of fun. I ended up winning both games, though the first one was a team game so 3 of us won that one. It reminded me of old times, and I wish we could do it more often. Now that summer is here we are going to try to do things every week with as many people who can come. Sharon is being a good sport even though she is often times bored (and my friends are usually too preoccupied with cards to be polite and talk to her haha). I made it up to her on Saturday when we went to the St. George park by the Library to have a nice picnik together. Sharon made some delicious sandwiches and devilled eggs and we also had yougurt and strawberries. It was an excellent lunch. Some cute kids came and made friends with us, we shared our lunch and bubbles with them and they shared their laughter and smiles with us, both parties profiting thereby. Sharon had a lovely little bird leave a lovely little doodoo on her head, so I guess she was really lucky that day. After playing in the water there at the park and taking lots of pictures, we went over to the Red Cliffs Mall to do some shopping. Sharon was really mad at me for not taking her there sooner (I thought I had), because there are some stores there she really liked but she didn’t know they were there til yesterday. We bought some shirts at Hollister and some more shirts at American Eagle. It was a lot of fun and we came home feeling tired but happy.

Sharon made some Bak Kut Teh for dinner while I weed-eated the lawn. The Bak Kut Teh was really tasty and smelled delicious. We also went over to my Grandma’s house to take some pics and ended up getting a tour of the property and a nice wedding gift from Grandma and Grandpa.

Today was Mother’s Day and we had a really nice program during Sacrament Meeting. Sharon and I got up early (for us) at 7:40 and made my mom breakfast in bed, following a family tradition. We also sang ‘Mother I Love You’ (well, I sang it solo since Sharon didn’t know the words). Kendall was at Mission Prep (crazy they even have it on Mother’s Day). Now we are all back home and getting ready for dinner with all of the extended family over at our house to celebrate Mother’s Day.

In other news, I’ve been working on my business website, which will serve as a place for me to showcase my work and give information about my business. It is http://www.wildkatana.com. It is not finished yet, but you can check it out anyways if you are curious. I am also looking into getting a Business License and registering my business officially, so I can start cashing my checks which are made out to my Business name (WildKatana Design) rather than my name (already a few people have done this ><). I’ll report on that next week.

Sharon and I are also working on getting the Adjustment of Status forms ready to send in (like 6 forms with multiple pages each, plus lots of other supporting documentation and photocopies of records, etc). It is a complicated process, and costs $1010! Anyways, we will be happy when it is all settled.

Well, it’s been a long time since I updated this, so let me apologize first. I married Sharon Ting Ee Wen on the 15th of April, 2009 in the Bountiful, Utah Temple. It was the happiest day of my life. It snowed after we came out of the temple, so it was amazing and gorgeous. Sharon actually said she wanted to get married in the snow, so she got her wish! I had lots of my family and extended family come, and many of Sharon’s friends came as well as her mom and her sister, Ivy, and her friends Doreen and Vicky. It was all really nice.

That Saturday we had a reception at the Lichfield Pond. It was really windy but that didn’t stop us from having a killer time. We rode the bumper boats, had a slideshow and danced to some of our favorite songs played by the DJ. It was a really beautiful setting, and we had a lot of fun there, and some good food. Oh yeah, for pics of all of these happenings, please see Sharon’s New Blog which she has put a lot of work into the designing of. She has been really diligent and good about posting tons of pictures and commentaries, so I would definitely recommend checking it out. Ee Wen is her Chinese name, so her new website is www.eewenstales.com .

Thanks to all who have sent gifts, we are still trying to get to sending the Thank-You notes, but they will come, I promise!

Since the wedding, I’ve been pretty busy trying to catch up with my work (since I was gone for the better part of a month, the work just piled up!). Things are going well, I went rock-climbing with Paul, Nikki, Chris and Ben, so that was a blast. I’ll re-commit to writing on this blog at least every Sunday again now that things have quieted down a bit. I love you all!

Yay! I am back in the USA! Those of you who faithfully read my blog (Granny, I’m thinking of you~) probably noticed that I missed posting last week. First two days late, and now missing a whole week. Well, it was because I was sick, and I didn’t want any of you guys to catch it, so I decided to wait til I was better first. Isn’t that considerate of me? I thought so too. Here’s the scoop on what’s been going on:

We had a super long trip coming back to the USA. We went from Miri -> Kuala Lumpur (9 hour layover) -> Tokyo (10 hour layover) -> San Francisco (2 hour layover, just right) -> Las Vegas -> 2 hour drive to Toquerville. All in all, it was over 40 hours of traveling. I think in that much time, I got less than 3 hours of sleep. And since I was still recovering, I had a relapse when I got back home (Monday and Tuesday I was pretty sick). The good news is, I’m feeling much better now.

At Kuala Lumpur, we watched a bunch of movies on my laptop at the McDonald’s while we waited. I LOVE MARLEY AND ME! Wow, it is really such a good movie. I really cried like a baby, and that is saying a lot because I hardly ever get teary eyed, and here I was actually sobbing in a McDonald’s with people walking by. It struck a chord in me when I thought of all the good dogs I’ve owned or been associated with over the years (Little Black Sambo ;;).I highly recommend that everyone go see this great movie.

At the Narita airport in Tokyo, we tried to meet up with one of my good friends who is currently teaching English in Japan, Nathan Godfrey. He spent $200 and came to Tokyo via the Bullet Train, but unfortunately we weren’t able to come out of the Airport to meet him, because we had already gone through security and had our boarding passes. So that really stunk. Thanks Nate for coming, it’s the thought that counts, and you’re a really great friend for coming. We’ll have to meet up next time we are in Japan (hopefully in a couple years).

For more details of the trip, I suggest reading Sharon’s blog.

Next big news item: Sharon and I bought a car! I found it on Craigslist for $1000, and Sharon and I split it. It is a 1995 Ford Taurus, in decent condition and running smoothly. Some of the parts are getting old, like the doors, but we feel blessed to have found such a good car for such a good price. We have been grateful every time we drive it. I bought insurance through Geico for it the other day, but I still have to send in the papers for the title and go get it registered under my name. Maybe tomorrow…

This coming week is going to be very busy for Sharon and I, since we are getting MARRIED! (Finally!).  But before I get into that, let me finish last week. After healing up from my sickness and buying a car, I’ve been trying to get caught up in my work (Wildkatana Design, my web-design business). I got a lot accomplished but still have a lot to go. Paul invited Sharon and I to go rock-climbing with him and Nikki, his wife. We decided to go and had a lot of fun. It was the first time for Sharon and I, so we were a bit scared but we made it up our first climb! Paul and Nikki let us use their gear and we found a good cliff and started climbing. Sharon did really well, and we have some nice pics. I’m sure she’ll post some on her blog. I held my own as well, and besides bumping my head made it up relatively easily. Afterwards we learned how to play Texas Hold ‘Em with them (another first). We also went and got a membership at Costco’s and bought some stuff for the Reception. Also, my Grandma Stratford threw a Bridal Shower for Sharon on Friday after we went to get her Endowments at the St. George Temple. We had it at the Golden Corral, and had some relatives and friends come. Lia, Sharon’s friend, came, and so did Paul and Nikki. It was a lot of fun.

Today (Sunday) is my Birthday! I turned 23. It is also Easter, so we had a good Church program. After church we had an Easter Dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Stratford. I got stuffed, it was really good. After that, we had cake and ice cream and I opened my gifts. Sharon gave me a really nice watch, which I’m sure is because I always ask her what time it is, haha. My mom gave me a nice shirt and some cool shades, which is also good since my old shades which I loved got ran over in Malaysia. They will come in handy tomorrow when we drive to Las Vegas to pick up Sharon’s mom. After the gifts, we watched an old recording of my 3rd Birthday Party. Tyler and I were the only ones on the scene and it was really fun to see how we were back then. It also had the Christmas of 1992 on the same tape, so we actually got to see Chantelle and Kendall too, along with younger versions of the Rita and Allen family (everyone was there).

I also got to speak with Tyler, Chantelle and my dad on the phone, who had all called to wish me a Happy Birthday. I will see them all this week at the Wedding/Reception, so that will be nice.

Sharon and I are just settling in to our new life here in the USA, and we are using lots of Chap-stick (Malaysia is very humid, while Utah is notoriously arid). We will undoubtedly have a lot of pictures to post after the wedding and reception. We sent out the Invitations last week so hopefully everone has one now. We are going to be very busy this week getting everything ready, but we are very excited about it. Until next week, Jumpa Lagi!

Well, some of you already know this, so for the benefit of all, here are some pics of Sharon and I when we got married at the Hong Kong Temple December 12, 2008:

In front of the Temple

From the Side of the Temple

To see the rest of the pics, check out the Gallery.

Well, for the first time all year, I am two days late on my weekly post. I do, however, have plenty of excuses to throw up in my defence, which you will soon hear whether you want to or not:

Sunday I was sick! I don’t get sick very often, and when I am sick, it really tries my patience. I really don’t like being sick. It all started that restless night in an Inn in Bintulu…

Saturday night in Bintulu I was exhausted from traveling all week AND had just gotten back from seeing my friends in Sungai Plan Flats (perhaps for the last time for a while more to come) and when I got back to the Inn, I just laid down on the bed and fell asleep (after helping Sharon grade her papers for school). It was nice and peaceful — UNTIL 11 PM WHEN I WAS AWOKEN BY LOUD DANCE-HALL MUSIC WHICH HAD A CONSTANT POUND-POUNDING OF HUGE BASS SPEAKERS. It was coming from the club which was situated -to my dismay- right next door to the Inn. We’re talking about 1 door (the door to my room) being the only thing separating me from the crazy dance music. Well, how long could it last, I thought. Give it a couple hours and it will quiet down.

5 AM. I had been awoken numerous times during the night by the incessant pounding of the music. I swear they were playing the same songs over and over. At about 5:45 the music finally stopped, and I was able to sleep for a couple more hours before getting out of bed. When I woke up in the morning I discovered that my throat was raw and sore from the aircon which had been blowing on me all night. That was the start of my sickness. Sunday morning we went to the Bintulu 2nd Branch for sacrament meeting, where I was able to see all of my friends for the last time before heading back to Miri.

Wednesday Night we flew in to Kuala Lumpur for Sharon’s Visa Interview. We landed late and didn’t get to our hotel until about 1 am. The desk person was very rude and smoked like a Steam Train. We slept well for a few hours, then got up at 6 am to get ready for the Interview.

Thursday we went to the Interview at the US Embassy after eating Breakfast at McDonalds (yay!). Immigration has been hasseling me because my Passport was full and there was no more space to stamp in it, so I got some extra pages put in at the US Embassy as well. Once Sharon submitted all of her papers, she was told to return at 1:30 pm for the interview. That meant we had about 3 hours to kill. So we went to KLCC to window shop (well, Sharon bought some makeup stuff) and eat lunch (A&W!). Then we went back to the Embassy for the Interview. This was the part that had us most worried, because if the Embassy Worker didn’t accept my Affidavit of Support, we wouldn’t be able to get the Visa. This was in all of our prayers for the past two months. I actually make enough at my current job to pass the minimum amount required by the Affidavit, but since I am self-employed, we were afraid it might cause problems.

Fortunately, the worked was very nice and we felt very comfortable during the interview. She accepted the Affidavit and we were told to come back the next day at 3 pm to get the Visa! Wow! We had gotten it! We were so excited. It was pouring down rain outside but we ran to the taxi stand (getting mildly wet) and flagged down a taxi. This was the answer to our prayers.

On the way back to the Hotel, we somehow managed to get a Crazy Indian taxi driver. He was literally insane haha! Or at least eccentric. It made for an interesting ride. He was a nice guy though and was the most honest driver we had in KL.

That night we went to see a movie at Times Square: Confessions of a Shopaholic. It was a good movie.

Friday we had some time to kill in the morning so we went back to Times Square and ate breakfast at… WENDY’S!!!! Wow, I was so excited to find that KL now has a Wendy’s! It is my favorite fast food restaurant, and I was happy to eat there. We then bought tickets to see another movie, returned to the hotel to check out, and went back to watch ‘Race to Witch Mountain’. It was a good movie as well, we enjoyed it. After the movie we took a taxi to the place we were supposed to pick up the Visa. There was a long line so I was worried at first, but it actually went by pretty fast. After we got the Visa (YAY) we took a taxi to KL Sentral, then a bus to the Airport. Our flight was delayed by 2 hours so that stunk, but luckily we were able to watch ‘The Office’ and play some games on my laptop. We didn’t get in to Miri until 12 am. When we got back, we went right to bed so we would be ready to go to Bintulu the next morning for Sharon’s interview with President Skelton for the Temple Recommend.

Saturday was Zone Conference in Bintulu, so we got to see all of the missionaries. Sharon passed the interview (no surprises hehe) and we were now all set. I had bought the plane tickets to return to the US earlier that morning, so we now had everything we needed! We were so happy!

Sunday night when I checked my email, there was a message saying there was a problem with the airline reservation and that I would have to call immediately to clear it up. It had been sent right after we left for Bintulu on Saturday Morning. I quickly called the number (despite being sick) and spoke with an agent who said they needed to mail the tickets to us since it wasn’t an e-ticket flight. This really had us worried since Malaysia’s post system is notoriously slow, and we were leaving Friday morning for KL. I tried to see if there was any other way, but the guy kept reassuring me that it would get here on time since it was being shipped by FedEx Second Day mail. We were skeptical but we really had no choice, so we agreed. Thus began the worrying over the plane tickets.

Monday morning I received another email saying I needed to call immediately about the Reservation. To make a long story short, here is a transcript of my final call with their Agents this morning (Tuesday Morning):

Ma’am, I realize this isn’t your fault, but let me explain my situation:
This is the eleventh time in the past 2 days that I’ve had to call this number and speak with an agent. I’ve been told all kinds of different stories why my tickets could not be ticketed, and have had to change my itinerary 5 or 6 times. I’ve been told to wait 3-4 hours on two occasions, and 4-6 hours on two other occasions and they all promised me the confirmation would be sent within that time. Needless to say, after more than 24 hours of waiting for this confirmation message, I still haven’t received any. I called an agent last night (it is morning time here) and she promised me that my trip would be ticketed and I would receive the confirmation email within 4-6 hours. That was 9 hours ago now.
My fiancee and I are flying to the USA to be married, so these tickets are very important to us. My fiancee is very nervous because the trip has not been ticketed yet, and I’ve been sick the past few days so it has been a nightmare for us. I promised her last night that the trip would be ticketed by morning because of what the agent promised me, and now it has still not been ticketed. I really can’t wait any more, I need to get this situation resolved now. We cannot go on like this.
I am calling you to find out why my our trip has not been ticketed yet like the agents have told us it would be.

Wow. So much worrying and so many times I had to call them. I have their hold music memorized. I spent about $15 on the calls. I was told to wait 4-6 hours so many times. Even the last time I called this morning that was her answer. Our flights had been changed so many times. Anyways, just after lunch time, I received the long-awaited confirmation email that our tickets had been confirmed! Finally! Sharon and I were both really happy. I will be returning to the USA this Saturday, flying in to the Las Vegas Airport with my darling Sharon. I am still a bit sick and I have a ton of work to do before then, but I’m hoping that I will get feeling better before we fly, and that I can finish a lot of my work first. I guess all’s well that ends well, so we are happy to be COMING BACK TO THE USA!

As a side note, I was looking at my site stats and it said that someone found my site by searching for D&C 90:24. Sure enough, when I searched google, my study journal was on the first page. Some other wierd searches include:Singapore Airport Electric Shaver, and Iban Alcohol Problems. Haha

Another Sidenote: If you read a post, comment on it! I always comment on posts when I read them, and it really is nice to see what other people think. There’s a comment form just right down below this, just enter something and press Submit! It’s not going to explode your computer, I promise*!

* Promises made in a sarcastic tone are not binding in a court of law.

Well, I am home sweet home again here in Miri. In KK I was able to get an extension to my Visa. It was actually somewhat of a nightmare. Sharon’s Dad took me to the immigration office in KK. I waited in line and then we were told that we needed to go to this place across town to get a signature and stamp, so we drove across town and waited in line there, and filled out some forms, then we took Sharon to her Doctor’s appointment and then drove back to the Immigration office, where I submitted the papers and waited in line some more. Lines lines lines. Anyways, when it was my turn, the officer said I needed to go pay RM 100 before I could get the extension, so I had to - you guessed it - wait in another line. After I paid, I brought back my papers and everything to the officer. He put them in his basket and told me to go wait. So I went and sat down. The officer literally sat at his desk doing nothing for like 20 minutes, (all the while trying to avoid my gaze of impatience which was directed at him), then finally he took it and signed it and then called me back up. He said that I need to leave Malaysia since my passport is now full, and that he would give me 30 days to stay here. I thought, well that’s fine since I only need to be here til the start of April anyways, so I took it and we left. Once I got in the car, I was reading the papers in my passport and realized it said I could stay in SABAH ONLY for 30 days. This basically sucks since I am currently living in Sarawak, and I need to go to West Malaysia as well before I go back to the US. So we had to go back and speak with another (nicer) officer, who told us to wait while she took care of it. While we were waiting, I said a silent prayer to myself (the first time I’d prayed about my Visa) and asked Heavenly Father to let it work out in a way so that I wouldn’t have to pay any money and I’d get the Visa for the places I needed to go. I was thinking ‘pay any extra money’ but I said ‘pay any money’ in the prayer. Anyways, when the officer got back she handed me my RM 100 and said that no payment was necessary, that the system the other officer used was old and out of date. Then she said they would give me a new extension and that it would be free! Really cool, I feel like my prayer was answered. Anyways, after waiting (another 30 minutes) I was able to get my shiny new Visa sticker they put in my Passport (in the back since there was no more space left on the pages). This one was nice since it let me stay till May 2009 and was valid for SABAH and WEST MALAYSIA. The only problem was that SARAWAK was still not listed. I asked the officer and she said that it wouldn’t be a problem, since when I flew back to SARAWAK they could just stamp me another tourist visa. Anyways, that ended that fiasco.

Sharon also had a bit of a fiasco with the doctor, but I’m sure she will tell us how that went on her blog.

The rest of the time in KK we spent going to get Sharon’s hair done, seeing her friends, going to Tanjung Aru Beach Resort, and lazing around at home (well, I tried to work when I could). It was a nice mini-vacation before things get hectic again. We are planning to go for our Visa Interview in KL this week, so if you guys could pray for us that we will get the Visa, it would be a big help.

I know it’s been a long time since I’ve posted any pictures, so if you guys want to see some pics, go check out Sharon’s blog, I believe she will be posting some.

Well, another week has come and gone and Sharon and I are that much closer to coming back to the USA. We really can’t wait, and we are crossing our fingers and praying that all will go well with the interview. If any of you who read this want to help, please pray that we will be able to pass the interview and get the Visa with no problem. You may think that the previous sentence is somewhat haughty since I assume people actually read my blog, but the truth is that I have this power. I can tell whenever someone reads my blog. For example, I know that YOU are reading THIS right NOW. Was I right? I know I was. Hehe. Plus I have my stats that show me who visits (I have your IP addresses - BEWARE!) haha.

Anyways, Sharon and I are in Kota Kinabalu again. We flew in from Miri this morning. We have to come so that Sharon can get her Medical Checkup and since there aren’t any approved doctors in Miri we had to fly to KK. On the way to the airport I was looking at my passport and discovered that I had only been given 1 month last time I got my passport stamped. I had just assumed that I would get 3 months since I always had in the past. I got my passport stamped last when I came back to Malaysia from Brunei on February 14th. Luckily February was a short month so my 30 days isn’t up until March 16th (tomorrow) ><. So I was able to come here fine but the immigration officers looked skeptically at my passport before stamping it. My options are running out now since I only have one day to get my Visa taken care of. I have 3 options: Fly to the Philippines, Fly to Brunei, or get my visa extended at the Immigration Office. I will try the extension first, but depending on how much it costs (or even if they will do it) it may be cheaper/easier to just leave the country then come right back. We’ll see how it turns out… I’ve always wanted to go to Manila >.> Haha

Speaking of my passport, I am running out of space! I only have two more squares for people to stamp, which may be gone after tomorrow. I will have to get additional pages put in when we go to the American Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. Especially since my passport doesn’t expire until 2015.

Depending on the blood tests, we may have to stay here in KK for 4-5 days, but we’re hoping we can get the results back before then. Hopefully Sharon doesn’t have anything bad, like HIV or some other STD >< :P. But I’m sure she’s just fine

We slept most of the day today, which for me is odd, since I don’t usually take naps (Sharon takes naps often though). We watched the Office season 1 and had a good laugh. We also got all caught up on Heroes and Criminal Minds. We may be a bit behind on Gossip Girl, but we’ll get that fixed soon I bet.

Nikki Yoder, one of our good friends, made us some really nice Wedding Invitations. If you are one of those lucky enough to receive one (insert evil laugh here*), you will see what I mean. She has been really helpful in many other things too, giving us valuable tips and pointing us in the right direction as we are preparing for our reception and wedding. If you’re reading this Nikki, let me just say, thanks a million!

Well, I’ve decided to start writing various memories I have that are important/interesting which I haven’t written in my journals. This memory is regarding the Honolulu Airport. There are two major times that I was at the Honolulu Airport (not including return trips).

The first time I was there was in the Winter of 2004. I was attending Dixie State College in the Fall of 2004, and I had applied to BYU-Hawaii. To my surprise, I was accepted for admission. My parents agreed to pay for my plane ticket, so I decided to go. I flew out from the Las Vegas Airport a couple days after Christmas (I think the 28th). I missed the plane I was supposed to take from Las Vegas, so I had to take the next one. This presented a problem, since I had arranged with the Coconut Express to take me from the Airport to the campus and I was hours late, so I missed it. My plane arrived in Honolulu late that night and I ended up having to spend the night there in the Airport. I found a place to sit and just sat there next to my luggage the whole night. I didn’t sleep, partly because I was afraid someone might try to steal my luggage. I just sat there listening to my CD player until morning. In the morning, I was able to meet up with the Coconut Express and go to the School. Once I got to my dorm, I slept most of the rest of the day.

The second time I was in the Honolulu Airport was when I was going back to BYU-Hawaii. I returned home from my mission to Singapore in September, 2007. I then went to Florida to work and save money so I could return to school. This time I flew out just after New Year 2008. I had arranged for one of my friends who I knew from Kuala Lumpur (Royce and his wife Melanie) to pick me up at the Airport. Everything went smoothly with the flight, but when we landed and got to the Baggage Pickup, there was no baggage. We had to wait almost 2 hours before our baggage finally came onto the Baggage Train. Not sure what the problem was with that. When I finally got my baggage and made my way out to the pickup area, I saw Royce calling me from the curb. So I brought my bags over to his car and got a surprise: Sharon was there in the car with them! She had come along with them to pick me up! I had actually secretly been hoping that she would, and she did! Haha. It was strange though because she was totally shy the whole ride home. She didn’t really say anything to me haha. Royce, Melanie and I got caught up so it was nice to be able to talk to them. They took me to my off-campus housing and I gave Sharon a hug before going into my new home for the next 5 months.

As I am writing this, there are birds outside the window chirping. It is Sunday Morning, nice and sunny, and there is the faint smell of Pancakes in the air. Oh, let me introduce myself. My name is Leighton Whiting and I am the luckiest man in the world! At least that’s how I feel right now. Sharon has promised me pancakes this morning, and I am salivating already. Usually I don’t hear many birds here, but it reminds me of home.

I have had a good week this week, did a lot of work and got things accomplished. The days are getting busier and the time is flying by. Sharon and I already have most of our days planned out from now until after the wedding. It is going to be pretty busy, a lot of traveling, trying to get things ready for the Visa. This week I missed another day, somehow Thursday got away from me and in my mind we went from Wednesday to Friday. I was none too pleased about this, since I value my days haha.

Plans are moving along for the Wedding, we are getting ready to print the invitations this week and start sending them out. That will be a relief to get them sent. We are planning on only having seating for 100 people, since the reception area is a bit small, so if you get an invitation, be sure to RSVP. The Reception will be formal and guests should plan to be on time. It is going to be lots of fun and very nice.

I am really excited to be going back to the USA again. I’ve been here now for more than 7 months, and that is a long time in Leighton-Years, considering I’ve only stayed in one place for at most 7 months during the past 5 years of my life. This is about to become my longest area of residence within the past 5 years. I’ve been busy and traveled to many places, but I am happy and healthy, so that’s good. I’ve been craving American food more and more, since most of the time it’s just rice or noodles here. I can’t wait to get back and have a nice Wendy’s meal.

I’ve begun looking for a decent car I can buy for (hopefully) under $1500 so that Sharon and I can have transportation when we get back. I was thinking about buying one through CraigsList, since that is how I got my last car in Hawaii, and I was very satisfied with that. Among the criteria I have are:

1) Must look decent/nice (no paint chipping, nice interior)

2) Must have no major fixes needed.

3) Must have A/C and Heat (since Utah is pretty extreme sometimes)

4) Must be Automatic Transmission (since I’ve never really learned Manual adequately)

So wish me luck and I’ll keep searching CraigsList. I’ve found a few good potentials, and I figure if I start looking now I should be able to find one before we get back in early April.

Once we get back, I will continue working during the summer and then attend school in the Fall, probably at Dixie. I love Dixie, I really think it’s a great school. Then for the Winter/Spring semester, we were considering heading back to Hawaii. We’ll see how that turns out. Sharon and I both love it there in Hawaii. I’m sorry I haven’t posted any pics in a while, but I don’t really have anything new yet. We should be having tons of pics to post around the Wedding and Reception time, so just wait^^