the saddest news

I was hoping to write something happy tonight. I was thinking of writing about my daughter's up-coming birthday party. But as I began writing, my husband called me to read an email from our very good friend, Carlo, who lost his wife in the Glorietta 2 blast last Friday. And I just had to blog about it.

The devastating news reached us Friday night, just before midnight. My husband received a text message from Carlo and after calling Carlo to find out how Leslie was, it was confirmed that we have lost our good friend in the G2 blast.

I have known both Les and Carlo for over 7 years now. I have not seen much of them the past few years. The last time I saw her was during her wedding day. I still remember us being late for the wedding, but just in time to catch her at the church door before walking down the aisle. I still remember her saying "mahihimatay ako sa nerbyos" or something along that line before the church doors opened and she starts walking over to Carlo.

It pains me to know that she is at the peak of her life when it was taken away from her. She has been married for only about 4 years to Carlo and she has Amber who's only turning two. It makes me cry knowing how difficult raising a child is, more so a daughter, who would grow up without a mother. I can only pray for her and her family - that she finds her path back to our Creator, that Carlo finds strength to go through this painful experience, especially for their daughter, that Les' family recovers from this devastating experience...

It is at these times that people tend to question their existence. But one fact remains, everything happens for a purpose. Only God knows what good will come out of such painful experience. Let us not lose faith. Let's keep on believing. Let's keep on praying.

priorities in life

prioritizing is really tough. big part of my decision making is based on my personal priorities. especially now that i am a mother, all my decisions affect my daughter's future. i have great plans for my family. i have set such a high personal goal for myself to benefit my young family.

yes, we cannot afford a house now. yes, we have debts to settle because of my unplanned pregnancy. yes, we're still looking for better opportunities to support our plans for our family. yes, we're still adjusting to our family life. but we will get there. we will be able to get our own house, we will be able to finish our car loan and probably get another car for myself, my husband will be able to put up his own business, i will finally be able to settle down to a job that will make me happy. we have a long way to go, but there's no rush, i know we will get there.

i thank my mom with all my heart for making me the person that i am now. i appreciate the life that we have been through, because it helped me be who i am now. i would rather live my whole life again and be where i am now rather than exchange it with anything in the whole world. the more i meet people who were not brought up like us, the more i appreciate the kind of family i have and the kind of person i turned out to be because of how we were brought up. i just pray that i will be able to bring up trisha the way my mom brought us up.

part of me is sad, because my father was not patient enough to wait and see what life we could have. but you know, that would have to be another blog. maybe when im finally over the hurt he caused the whole family, i would be able to write something about that aspect of my life. in its own time :).

getting lazy again

im getting lazy again! i want to religiously blog, but i get too lazy. i was telling my husband that nobody reads my blog anyway, but he's right when he said that keeping a blog must be for one's self and not for the purpose of having other people to read it (that comes secondary).

but i want other people to read my blog! haha. because i feel that when people come back to read what you post, then they find your blog (and you) interesting. but then again, maybe i should change that outlook, i should maintain my blog as a journal (like MS said), so it would be more for myself.

maybe im just too tired. too many things need to be done. there's my project going live end of this month, there are house chores that i have planned to do for so long but never got to starting, and of course there's my daughters birthday party to finalize!

i do not have a single train of thought. little bits and pieces just keep on pouring in. so im writing as they come. as my blog says, Tet Says - Whatever Comes to Mind! so excuse me, if sometimes, i just jump from one topic to another.

ok then, ill try to write down something more meaningful next time. i hope :).

my fashionista trisha

i love dressing up my daughter :). i never let her wear "baby" clothes. i am indeed very picky with the clothes she wears. my guiding thought in shopping clothes for her - i must want a bigger version of the clothes i buy, for myself :D.

just last thursday, we got her a white havaianas brazil, which i also have. so she has something to wear for the shorty shorts i got her a few weeks ago. gingersnaps has a good shorts collection that came out last september, i got her several pieces which she frequently wears now. i am a shorty shorts person myself and i was so happy to see shorts that fit her with the same cut as some of my shorts. so now, we have similar clothes to wear when we go out :).

i admittedly have some clothes that were given as gifts last year, which i never let her use. just because they're so baby-looking! i know, i know, some might argue that she is after all a baby... but she is MY baby and she will NOT wear "baby" clothes! haha.

her dad adores her! it makes me happy to see him so proud of her daughter when people approach us to say how pretty trisha is :). her dad, just beams with so much pride! she is pretty and so adorable, not because i'm the mom (well, actually, yes, big part of it is because im her mom haha). but really... she has this charisma that draws people's attention. so, i'm like saying that she might not have something from me physically, but the personality is all me! haha.

well, well, it must be in the genes really... haha!

my favorite things

the past few weeks have been tough at work. i have a project going live this monthend and it has been hell for the team. we've been staying really late at work and working on weekends. we're also expected to be at work on nov 1, which is normally spent in baguio with my family. im starting to get stressed out.

so to get my mind of that, i want to think about my most favorite material things at the moment...

1. my tlcn09 technomarine watch. a gift from MS for no reason at all. i have been wanting to buy my technomarine since about 2 yrs ago but i was penny pinching haha.. then one day, we just walked in the technomarine store at glorietta and my husband got me one, unplanned! i so love it! i wear it everyday.

2. my purple oakley crosshair. a gift from heaven ;). love it!

3. my brown havaianas with purple flower swarovski crystals. don't ask me how much i got it. haha. but im so inlove with it that i wear it every weekend.

4. my havaianas slim - brown, beige-gold & red-gold. the havaianas slim fits me well. my toes are better defined with its slim shape and they're so comfortable. i love havaianas.

5. my rl polo shirts! i got addicted to polo shirts because of my husband. it's now my staple wear at work. we wear jeans at work everyday, so my polo shirts really go well with jeans and my high heels. my smart casual look :).

6. my ipod shuffle. another gift from my husband, intended to encourage me to workout everyday! well, i did workout everyday for a while, until this project started! hmphft. i will start working out next week... that's a promise i made to myself today! hehe.

7. my big big bags! i love big bags. it can hold a million tiny things that i bring with me everyday.

8. my ever favorite perfume - green tea by elizabeth arden. i have been wearing this scent for about 7 years already. i wear regular green tea for ordinary days and if i want the scent to linger longer, i use green tea intense. i also have its body cream, pasalubong from MTB (My Tita Beh) last time she came home.

i have tons to list down, but i feel so sleepy now. will continue my list next blog.

crazy weekend

it has been a crazy weekend. we went to divisoria saturday morning to buy some loot bag goodies and game prizes for trisha's birthday party. then an afternoon visit to partyshop in quezon city to finalize the balloon arrangements, bubble show and additional food carts for the party. then we attended the birthday party of trisha's ninongs - jon & ron at greenwoods pasig. i brought trisha along since she was still awake, but i would never bring her out at night again. i think the party stressed her out, she slept almost until noon the next day.

sunday was an early day for us too. MS was able to convince me to join him in the 3K walk (AVON walk against breast cancer) around sm mall of asia. it was tiring! my first time for that kind of activity. then we had breakfast at kfc before heading home.

the rest of the day was spent catching up on sleep and playing with trisha.

im not really in the mood for writing now. another mental block.

you can read more about our weekend activities from MS's blog :). http://31thirtyone.blogspot.com/2007/10/productive-weekend.html

constant change

i have always welcomed change. if there's one thing constant in my life, this is change. i never feared new opportunities, never feared leaving my comfort zone. i always long for something new, something unexplored.
i never believed in settling for what i have, with where i am now. this is different from being contented, because, i am content. i am happy with my current state. but if there's an opportunity for me to grow, i always grab it, i always take my chance.
God has been good to me. He has always guided my decisions. i am happy with the chances i took in my life so far. i pray that God continues to be with me each day of my life.

teddy bears & hearts

we are starting to send out our invitations. well, the softcopy that is. but we'll get the real ones within the week, so we can send those out too.

it was quite difficult to cut down our guest list. as much as we want to invite everyone we know, we're limited with the capacity of our function room. so we had to priotitize. so if you didn't get invited to the party, it means... what? nothing really, just that the space is limited hahaha.

i attached the front of our invitation card. it's suppose to be a business card type invitation (i conceptualized it!). i originally didn't want a theme, just thinking about the usual kiddie party themes makes me want to shout. i just want something unique for my daughter's party. then i thought about what the cake will look like if i don't have a theme, and the invitation, and the setup of the place and the other party stuff.. so at first i thought about fairies and pirates.... and then angels and bubbles.... then, i saw a cake by Bohemia Cakes in their display at Rockwell ... and fell in love with her teddy bear inspired cake design. Then it all fell into place... i want teddy bears... and i want hearts to go with it so it wouldn't be plain teddy bears! and to put more meaning to my daughter's 1st birthday, we want to do something for charity. so we're requiring our guests to bring as much teddy bears as they can (brand new or used but in good condition), then we can give this to the kids at CRIBS in marikina.

i want trisha to have a nice 1st birthday party. a lot of people say 1 yr olds will not remember their birthday party... but i want good memories of this party that trisha can look back to when she's older. after all, we can always keep pictures and videos and most importantly, the kwentos that our guests (who are mostly really close friends) will share with her about this party.

maybe we'll invite the same people during her 18th birthday and share a video of this 1st birthday party....

i have 17 years to plan for that... :)

ms polly's sansrival :)

i just wanted to share with everyone that the sansrival of ms polly's is really good. still not comparable to the sansrival of baguio (sizzling plate in session), but i liked it.

if you're visiting baguio, you MUST try sizzling plate's sansrival. it's super duper delicious! so crunchy! butter very thin! and it's not too sweet... it's just right! it's perfect ;).

oh and i miss our palengke's lengue de gato! it's better than the lengua of good shepherd. well, i like it much more. if you prefer it thick and more similar to peanut butter cookies, then good shepherd's lengue is just that. i like mine thin that it melts in your mouth and medyo sunog so it's not too sweet :). so yummy!

also while i'm on this, try the banana loaf of baguio country club. it's also sold at caltex near victory liner in dps compound. i loved it when i tried it. i love banana cakes! i also like the banana cake of starbucks.. not the one with chocolate bits though. i'm so happy that they brought back their plain banana cake.

i'm sleepy now.... sleepy and hungry! :) night everyone.

food tasting weekend

we have finally decided to use Queensland catering for Trisha's party. we went to las pinas today for the food tasting and the food is really good. price starts at 190/head for adults and their kiddie package at 170/head. their set menu includes 4 ulams, 1 pasta, 1 dessert and drinks. now, that we're done with the caterer, we still have to take care of the balloons, loot bags, prizes, pinata, and other party stuff. we're scheduled to go to divi next saturday with auntie tek for whatever we can buy there for the party.

i haven't decided about the bubble show yet, i want to get one for my daughter's party but MS said the package he saw is around 4500, so i still have to think about it. so far, we only have bibbo the clown - highly recommended by MTT (My Tita Tek) for the party hosting, games, clowning and balloon twisting. that's already around 7,000. good thing auntie tek got a good discount for our party :).

trisha's cake will be made by a good friend of MTT of Bohemia Cakes (daughter of her big boss actually ;D). we saw the sample cakes and we loved them. the cake creations by patricia erika fortunado are one of the best cakes i ever saw. very original, very personal designs, very good detail... i'm super excited to see our cake! her 1st birthday cake creations come with a "smash" cake (if i remember correctly, sized at 4x4 inches), as the name implies, the cake is intended for smashing by the birthday girl for photo ops :). i am so so excited!! oh, and trisha's cake will be a gift from auntie tek! :)

i've also finalized the arrangements for the invitations. i went around glorietta last friday to buy some stuff while waiting for MS to fetch me and i saw this booth in glorietta 3 - Printed Matter, between mcdo and esprit (in cinderella). and i was able to meet the designer/owner (although i already have a design and i just needed somebody to print it for me on good quality paper) and i was able to make a good deal. their prices are reasonable and the quality is good. so i went ahead and got their services. so yesterday, we were able to see the mock-up of our invitation and i am so happy that my husband liked it. we only have minor revisions on the mock-up and we just have to confirm the details of the map and text the final time for the final printing of the invitations.

so it was a good week for the party arrangement. thanks for my husband for helping... i've been really busy at work lately and i wasn't able to do much for my daughter's party.

inspired to blog again

i am inspired to blog again. but as i sit here and start writing, i can't think of a single thing to right. mental block! knock.. knock..

why do i want to blog again? well because i want to keep a journal of how we're going to go about preparing for trisha's first birthday. so much for this excitement for oct 27 (official birthday on oct 26, but because this falls on a Friday, we are going to celebrate on the 27th) ok now going back to my original train of thought, so much for this excitement, we forgot about her 11th month bday yesterday. as MS (My Sherwin) said in his blog, we're bad parents. but then again, not! or maybe, in a way, yes. but, today, we got her a cake, one last one before we get her a big real birthday cake next month. i got ms polly's sansrival. we're hoping it's as good as her chocolate cake, which we get at shell magallanes. i will let you guys know how the sansrival is.

there now, we celebrate her birth day each month. sometimes the photo ops are a bit late because she is either sleeping on the day itself or we haven't decided where to get her cake yet. but we do make it a point to take pictures with a cake every month. maybe someday, i'll post pictures here. then trisha can see and read this blog someday.

im so excited about my daughter's first birthday party! we have not finalized anything yet, except for the venue. we're going to taste test our potential caterers this weekend. we're now left with two options, we will let you know which one we choose after this weekend. oh and yes, i will also blog about the preparations we're making so i could help other moms who are in the same boat as i am. it's really difficult to prepare for a party that we will all remember.

.... sleepy now. really tired from work, been coming home late from work the past 2 weeks, been also in the office for 2 straight saturdays. this saturday? not! will be going to work early tomorrow to finish everything to meet my deadliest deadline for my deliverables...

night night...