A Happy Christmas

It's our second Christmas with Trisha and yes, we've somehow established our routine for the holidays :). We spend Christmas Eve's dinner with MS's family and come home around 10pm to spend Noche Buena with my family. Then Christmas Day would be lunch with my family and dinner with MS's family. We will be spending our New Year with the same routine. I am sincerely very thankful that MS understands my need to be with my family for Noche Buena and Media Noche. Without Trisha, MS and me, it would just be Mom, MAC and MAA (My Ading Adrian). It breaks my heart to leave them on their own.

Anyway, this Christmas is one of my happiest Christmas :). I have always loved the holiday season, but with Trisha around, my Christmas became more special, more meaningful. I know my daughter feels the love around her, her Lola (Mama Lou as she wants to be called) loves her dearly, so as her Tita MAL, Tita MAC and Tito MAA. And she holds a special place in the heart of her dad's family too. And of course, I feel that nothing compares to the love her dad and I feel for her. We just love her so very much :).

She has grown so fast in the past year. I don't regret missing out on gimiks since I had her. I am happier spending each night with her, playing until she's ready for her sleep and dancing her to sleep when she gets tired from playing. Though, I sometimes complain about not getting enough sleep because of her feeding time :), I don't really mind waking up during the night to feed her. I know it won't be long when she'll stop feeding from her bottle and I know I will miss her dependency on me on that area.

I am looking forward to next Christmas when Trisha would be more excited to open her gifts. I just feel a little bit of sadness thinking about Cai graduating and eventually pursuing her career out of the country, then it would just be Mom and Adrian here in Baguio. Good thing that Trisha's around, I know that her little presence helps my Mom overcome any sadness in her heart :). Christmases would be more special once MAC also leaves the country, we plan to make it a big reunion with MAC & MAL coming home to join us or all of us flying out to one location to spend our Christmas together.

Again, a belated Merry Christmas to all and a Blessed New Year.

What I did today :)

It has been a busy day for me. I had to go out this morning to meet my cousin at the bank. Then MAC (My Ading Cai) and I had to run errands for mom. Our last stop was at SM to do our groceries. This has been a happy vacation for me (with a few more days left to enjoy it).

Oh by the way, I bought K Magazine this morning (Kris Aquino's magazine). I love her new house :). I love her kitchen, her rooftop, the facade of her house... Ok, I think I should stop here now or else MS will tease me again - of being a big fan of Kris. Which is actually true *laughs*. I do like Kris Aquino :).

Anyway, I just wanted to write something down. I would love to write more, but my thoughts are kind of disorganized today. I need to work tomorrow, on the documentations I brought home. I have to finish them all tomorrow, which I think is not possible. But I have to submit them before going back to Manila. I will, I will, I will work tomorrow :).

Goodnight everyone!

2007 Holidays :)

As I write this, we are in Baguio with my family for the holidays. So far, things have been great since we left Manila at 5am last Saturday, Dec 23. I have not updated my blog for so long, honestly, I have been really lazy to write. I have a million things in mind to do before the holidays, but I have some unfinished tasks back home in Manila (It was also my last month in U so I have been busy completing my projects in the office, which took my time off from my household tasks I wanted to complete before the year ended).

Anyway, back to my main line of thought. I just wanted to write something down before the year ends. I plan to post new pictures of Trisha as soon as I have time to upload them.

My young family is looking forward to the new year ahead, I have a new job which I am really excited about. MS has great plans for next year as well. I am also looking forward to getting my own car by February when the new Altis ('08) is released.

(Belated) Merry Christmas everyone. Let's all look forward to 2008!

Trisha's First Walk

I just want to share some pictures of Trisha walking around MOA's Science and Discovery Center. She enjoyed walking around, despite of falling several times (good thing the place is carpeted).

She is such a happy baby, oh yes I stand corrected, she is now a little girl :). She dresses up like a big girl actually. In the picture that follows she wears one of our favorite shirts from Zara, her RL pants and our favorite Brazil Havaianas.

And she walked all over the place....

So proud of herself walking alone...

Smiling at everyone she catches looking at her walk by herself...

See that proud look that seems to be saying "Yes! Mom! I am so good at walking!

:)

8 years as a couple :)

Dec 1 marks our anniversary as a couple. Although our May 8 wedding anniversary is now THE official anniversary, Dec 1 still holds a soft spot in my heart. We were not able to celebrate it with an intimate dinner this year, we instead held Trisha's Time Capsule party that day.

We are now on our 9th year as a couple. Only almost 2 years married to each other, but prior to our romantic relationship, we have been friends for a long time. I think I can still recall how we were introduced by our common friend, Rhona, who is now based in Cayman Island. We were classmates in some of our subjects (only a few, since he's a batch ahead of me) and we have a lot of common friends, so we would often see each other in our school corridors and their barkada's tambayan. But we only got close during my 3rd year in college. I can't really explain how we hit it off, I couldn't even recall how we developed our friendship. Oh now I remember! Hahaha. I am not sure I would want to share the details now and I don't think MS would want me to tell the detailed story. But suffice it to say that he became my confidante and my bestfriend ;).

I still feel kilig thinking about that part of our lives. MS still makes me kilig until now. I enjoy his company. I love talking to him. I love spending time with him. I enjoy laughing with him. He is a wonderful person, he is a good husband and a good father. And yes, I love him and will love him with all my life. :)

Nov 30 is the day!

Nov 30 is my daughter's first independent walk! I have been so wanting to see her let go of my hand to walk on her own, but when it finally happened and the initial excitement wore off, my heart broke into pieces *frowns*. My baby is now a little girl, the realization hit me hard. Soon, my little Trisha will not need Mommy to walk around, she will start doing things on her own and will not need me anymore.

Sad sad.. But at least, all my worries flew off! At 1 year old and not wanting to walk on her own, I feared that there is something physically wrong with her. For awhile, I thought that she might have problems with her legs (maybe not of the same length that's why she can't find her balance *laughs*). I am such a worry-wart! I thank God that everything is ok with my daughter. Thinking about it now, she has only been sick twice. First one because she got the flu from me and second, I think she got it from somebody else during the first birthday party she attended (of MCT, My Cousin Troi, at Little Gym Alabang). And in both occassions, she recovered really fast. If and when I ever have a baby again, I will surely breastfeed as long as I have milk! There is nothing like a breast-fed baby. Trisha has only been breastfed until she's 10months, but she's got a really strong resistance.

MS posted some pictures in his blog entry about Trisha's first walk on earth *winks winks* (who knows, she might be able to walk on the moon or another planet in the future!). Here's the link to Sherwin's blog to view her picture (pardon my pangbahay outfit hehe, really difficult to be a fashionista when you're a mom to a very active toddler).

http://31thirtyone.blogspot.com/2007/11/1-year-1-month-and-4-days.html

I have so many things to write about, but I am sleepy. We had our time capsule party last night and had coffee with our close friends until 1am. Then I had to wake up early today to go to the office for some month-end activities. I will make time to write tomorrow, provided that our Globe Visibility connection will be as good as tonight.

Goodnight everyone :). Watch out for some TETwitter updates (a new feature that I just added to my blog site).

Another long weekend

Yes, it's another long weekend which I am not going to enjoy. I need to report to the office on Sunday for the bookmonth close. As much as I hate taking off weekends from my family time, there is a comforting thought about this particular bookmonth close. Whatever that is, you will know soon enough *winks*. Now, is not the time to share that yet.

I am happy with my accomplishments at work, I am almost done with my main project. I am very satisfied with the models and screen designs I did in Cognos Analyst (an additional skill acquired by the way). I have not shown it to my business partner yet (my parter from the business operations side). But I am 100% sure that she is going to love it. Aside from the very good graphical design, my model is very user friendly and very dummy proof! I have yet to start on my documentations, but that I can do from home. I will just have to capture some screens to be able to work from home.

I am so excited! So many things to look forward to in the near future. I have my short term plan in place (3 years ahead), that of course, includes plans for my young family. May the Lord guide me in the execution part, which by the way (and I know everybody will agree with me) is the most difficult to do *laughs*.

I so wanted to blog

I wanted to blog last night but because of the poor internet connection provided by Globe Visibility, I lost my patience with the very slow speed and just went to bed early.

Ok now, moving on, I was viewing Trisha's "baby" pictures (when she was just a few months old) and wanted to share some of my personal favorites :). We have so many nice shots of her and I'm planning to put together a digital photo album of her. I should also have my favorite pictures printed, there is nothing like the traditional photo album that my mom keeps of us. So yes, that's a good plan. I will make time for that.

So now, here's one shot that I really love. She is really a very happy baby.

This shot was taken in Tagaytay, I think this was her first out of town trip after our long stay in Baguio for my maternity leave. She was only 2 mos old when this shot was taken. She is just the cutest!

2008 = my completion year

I declare 2008 as my completion year! If you are wondering where this came from, read the article on Mirriam Quiambao's self-cleansing experience from HealthToday magazine last February 2007.

I will also subject myself into a de-cluttering stage which will help me achieve the completion year in 2008. So, I will start to do away with unnecessary things and emotions in my life. I will only keep what I need, I will stick only with the basic, keep only what is good, let the bad be a learning experience.

Now, defining what is "basic" is a totally different matter. I might have to review my definition of terms *giggles*. Let's discuss basic next time.

I am Fat :(

Yes, I am fat! I am at my heaviest now at 124lbs! I weighed after my night bath, because MS just told me that I am fat. The 124lbs on the scale proved that. This was around the same weight I had when I was in Nestle, just before I was treated for Kidney stones back in 2005. But diet and work out brought that down to 105lbs.

I must get back to a 105lbs. I keep telling MS that I'll take rice off my diet, but was unable to until now :(. I must really start eating healthy and working out. I must, I must, I must!

New picture of Trisha & Me

Notice my new picture with Trisha? :) This is one of our shots from her most recent photoshoot at Blow Up Babies. I love this shot! The other shots are nice as well, when I am not too lazy to post pictures, I will post them here for your viewing :).

I have been really lazy to blog lately, good thing MS consistently updates his blog for the past few days, so if you noticed, instead of catching up on my blog, I just posted links to his blog entries :).

We spent our weekend at Clark (Clark Hostel) in time for MS's New Balance Marathon last Sunday. We arrived there around 2pm, then just spent the afternoon going around the duty free shops, which are NOT good. I was expecting a lot more than what I saw in the shops. Most of the duty free shops are now closed so we just just ended up buying junk food and chocolates in one of the open ones :). Then we spent the evening resting, we only had dinner at the hotel. Food is okay for the price :). The place itself is nice, the place is not big, only one floor with a couple of rooms. But the ambiance is very cozy and it's really clean. Sherwin also had a 20% discount because of his participation in the NB Marathon. I would stay there again :).

Sunday was a blur, MS woke up really early for his 630 marathon. Trisha and I were suppose to join him as soon as Trisha woke up, but this was already around 830. We went to the park though as soon as she woke up, but was unable to find Dada. He and Ninong Jon found us walking back to the hotel. We had breakfast and was on our way back to Manila as soon as we were ready to leave. We headed straight to Bonifacio High Street to see Lola MTB and Ninang MCA (My Cousin Ayesha) off to the airport (their 3 weeks holiday was over and they were leaving for Australia that day). We were just in time to say bye bye at the parking lot. We had lunch there before heading home. So there, that was our weekend.

This weekend, MS is joining the Men's Health Marathon here at the Fort. :)

Trisha's Photo Shoots Samplers

MS has posted some of Trisha's best shots from her photo shoots at Blow Up Babies at his blog. These are only a few of her really nice shots :).

Enjoy viewing.

http://31thirtyone.blogspot.com/2007/11/favorite-photos-of-trisha.html

Pictures at Cribs

My husband wrote a detailed blog regarding our visit at Cribs. So instead of posting my own pictures here, I am redirecting my readers to his blog (with pictures) :D.

http://31thirtyone.blogspot.com/2007/11/cribs.html

Enjoy reading!

quiet sunday

it has been a crazy week since trisha's birthday party the previous saturday (oct 27). my family, except MSL (My Sister Len) who is now based in dubai, was here with us since monday night. it has been really fun having them here. i wasn't able to spend much time with them as i wanted to since i had to report to work for our project go-live within the week, but i enjoyed coming home in the afternoons and having my mom and my siblings to talk to. i highly appreciate the fact that my husband took them around while i was at work - yep, MS has been great :). thanks hon!

today is a quiet day for us, well for me and trisha at least. MS went to have lunch at his parents' house and our "ate" went out for her day-off. so it's just me and trisha this afternoon. she is now taking her nap while i write this blog. i am hoping that we could still take trisha to bonifacio high street for a walk and to see the dogs. she has been crazy about dogs for a few weeks now. her new favorite work is "gog" which really means "dog" :D.

i will post some pictures later, i want to share a picture of our loot bag, which i designed personally for my daughter's 1st birthday. good thing my mom was able to find somebody to sew it for me and cai was able to find a shop to silk-screen print it (all in about 4 days all the way in baguio!). it turned out very nice and a lot of people are asking for one.

this is it for now, i will be back later with the pictures.

at work on Nov 2

yep, i am writing this blog from my workplace at the office. we're asked to report to work today and be on-call tomorrow and sunday for our project go-live this month-end. i only have a few things to finalize for my module, then the documentations to complete it. i also still have several "smaller" projects to complete before this fiscal year ends.

i am not happy reporting to work within this supposedly long vacation. imagine filing a leave for only 1.5 days for a 9-days vacation? im suppose to be in baguio getting a long rest along with my family. oh well, darn it all, better luck next time for me :(.

i can't wait for this year to end. i am so excited to get this year over and done with. yahu! there's so much to look forward to in 2008.

trisha's birthday cake

i love our birthday cake! it might not be in the shade of gray and red that i wanted and the bears are not "our" teddy bear, but i really love how the cake came out to be, it's perfect for a one year old's birthday cake :).


bohemia cakes are really pretty. i have seen their cake portfolio at the rockwell exhibit and all of their cakes are really unique with very detailed designs. the cake itself is also good. our's, i think, is lemon cake with mocha filling.

Our Teddy Bears & Hearts Cake :)

so color-coordinated!

did you notice how color-coordinated we were in the picture i posted in my earlier post? MS wearing the gray polo shirt from springfield, i was wearing a red blouse from iora and trisha wearing her polka dot dress and red shoes from zara. all in the perfect shade of gray and red we chose for trisha's party motif. her party balloons were also in the perfect shade of gray and red! im so proud to say that i designed her birthday banner in the background. i so love how everything fit perfectly during the party.

i would also like to thank all our guests for bringing the teddy bears we requested for the kids at CRIBS, we were able to collect about 3 balikbayan boxes of bears from our guests. we already brought the teddy bears to the orphanage last Sunday (day after the party). my next plan is to invite friends to spend half a day with us as volunteers at CRIBS.

i will be posting our pictures in front of CRIBS very soon. have not had the time to upload the pictures yet. again, thanks so much to all the guests of trisha for sharing the teddy bears with us :).

im the happiest mom

im the happiest mom :). last saturday, we celebrated our daughter's first birthday. we have prepared for this party for the longest time and im really happy to share with you all that the party was a success. all the kids enjoyed the entire party, and so did the "big kids" ;).

here's to share with you a picture perfect moment of my young family during trisha's 1st birthday party.

a lot of people have been telling me that im one of the happiest mothers they ever saw, haha, so true. i am super happy having trisha with me. having her is so far the best thing that ever happened in my life.

true, true.. i am indeed the happiest mom :).

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 :).