forces of nature

I had it all planned out. A perfect time for a get-together and getaway from the hassle and bustle of the metro with close friends. Everyone was excited when I told them my idea for our friend's bridal shower. To add more to the excitement, another friend (Misty) suggested to indulge ourselves with pampering at a nature spa. Sounds good right? I myself am super excited when I made our reservation, sending email correspondence to my cliquish girlfriends (that I consider as sisters that I never had) to get their opinions, making the itinerary and so eager to tell our honoree about our wonderful plan for her shower. Of course I don't want to spoil the surprise so I just told her to save and block the date for the whole day because she'll have a very unforgettable bonding with the girls. I said those words exactly one month ago. October 30.

Then by some stroke of bad luck, on November 14, our President declared to move the non-working holiday of Bonifacio Day from November 30 to December 1 so that it will be a long holiday. I would normally praise her for this administrative order but it was the first time I was so pissed off for moving the holiday to another date. This is because we have already set November 30 as the date of our getaway. Now, we don't have any choice but to move it to December 1. And so came my dilemma... Misty had another engagement on this day. Rachel and her BF already made plans as well. Oh no! It was not a good sign. I was thinking of an alternative date to move the bridal shower but every weekend, some one has an appointment already. And we don't have any other choice but to stick to Dec. 1 because the following weekend is already the Big Day. I'm losing hope. I prayed for everything to work out. If its meant to happened it will happened.

And so I wait.

I can't remember if Misty called or sent an sms.. but all I can remember was she informed me that her prior engagement was canceled! Gosh, prayers have been answered! Rachel decided not to go through with the plans with her BF. Excitement mode is back. And so I called Sonya's Garden to change our reservation date for the full body massage and foot spa. Everything was set. Thank God!

And now...

Another test in our faith comes along. A week ago, there was a weather forecast about the super typhoon REMING. It will hit the country's area of responsibility on November 28 and by December 1, the eye of the storm will be in Metro Manila. WHAT!? WHY NOW? Why not later. Why not next year?

Are the forces of nature trying to say something about our planned getaway? Is this a sign from God that we should not have this bridal shower?


Ok. Fine So, earlier today, we decided not to push through with the trip to Tagaytay. We agreed to just have dinner on Monday at TGIF. But then around 3pm, I received an SMS from Misty, saying that the typhoon will not hit Metro Manila. Yehey!!! But since doing the bridal shower out of town is no longer an option. We just decided to stop over at the Rustan's employee sale (no were not employees of Rustan's Dept. Store, we were just invited) then have lunch and go to The SPA afterwards to pamper ourselves.

If you see me blog about it.. then everything planned happened. If not, it means Typhoon Reming, changed her mind and goes to Metro Manila to ruin our perfectly planned day of bonding.

who rocks my world?

Create Your Own

Gimme FiVE

AJ at his 1st and 5th month birthday

Look how much AJ has grown since his first month birthday. We celebrated his 5th month birthday last November 13. Had a Chocolate Marjalaine cake and of course pansit (for long life). Our pedia visit last weekend included a 5 in 1 vaccine (Polio, Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib) ) and physical exam. He did cry for a few seconds when he felt the needle on his leg and then stopped after I picked him up from the doctor's table. He got another very good from Dra. Que and she informed us that he is ready to start table food on his 6th month birthday. Yehey! Looking forward to post those messy encounters with the high chair in the future. Hehe!

My boy is getting bigger and I can't wait to see him sit on his own, crawl, stand and walk.. And wonder what his first word will be. I know some mothers will say that I don't know what I'm asking for ...but for first time mothers like me, everything my baby does is a sure delight, even if it makes me go nuts sometimes. At the end of the day, I thank God that I survived the day of chaos with learning on the side and loads of smiles & giggles on top. When I stare at him while he sleeps at night... all the craziness just melts away. And find myself looking forward to his toothless smile when he wakes up in morning and the chaos that comes along with it.

a duck tale

Last weekend me and hubby were at the mall to get AJ's supply of diapers and to buy a new bottle and nipple brush. When we reached the counter, we saw these "bath pals". There were black and while whale, blue shark and a... purple seal. I have not seen a purple seal even on the Animal Planet (cable TV). I've always wanted to have a rubber duckie when I was a kid but since rubber duckies are useless in a shower.. it didn't matter anymore. We asked if they have rubber duckies, and they did! We went straight to where the sales lady directed us and there were fishes and then there were ducks!!! I pressed the duckies to see if they were in prefect condition. As I pressed each duck, they quacked noisly... I was like a 2 year old quacking my way to the counter, hahaha!

And seems like AJ enjoyed himself playing with them in the tub as well.

What's in my list?

It's exactly 37 days before my 29th birthday.. .which means Christmas is only 40 days away and I have not done any single Christmas shopping. Okay, I'm procrastinating until I get hold of my 13th month pay. Which is really not much since I plan to put half of it in AJ fund (aka bank account). Hope I can find some good stuff on a tight budget.

Before, I usually have different wish list for my Birthday and Christmas.. Now that I'm a mom and know how hard times can be.. so I've decided to have only 1 list this year.

To my colleagues who read my blog (you know who you are), please pass this to my Birthday Santa so that he/she can already bring out that brown envelope and route it in time for the release of our 13th month pay.

And so here are mine.. In chronological order:

1.

Baby Couture Diaper Bags
(love the one in Pink & Brown)





2. Manuscript of Shopaholic & Baby

3. Shu Uemura Eyelash Curler

4.
Havaianas Flip Flops




5. Lulu Lemon Yoga Mats

6. SPA Gift Certificates

7. DVD of Cars and The Incredibles (Pixar)

8. Half Blood Prince in Paperback (to complete my Harry Potter collection)

9. iPOD nano 2GB

10. Sony Cybershot DSC T10 7.2MP Digital Camera (in Pink please!)

So what's in your Christmas wish list?

Updated:

I've crossed out baby couture from my wish list coz I've received an email from my so generous and gorgeous friend Abi, that she's giving me this tote for my birthday and Christmas...yipee! Love you Girl!!

So, to my Birthday Santa...I'm just gonna go for those cutie havaianas flip flops.

I'm so loving this Christmas season!

Shopaholic & Baby

To all you fans of Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic Series, I am pleased to share this good news... I got an email from the author's mailing list that the 5th installment of her ever best selling Shopaholic series will be out next year. Yup that's February 2007 (mark your calendar). I have long been waiting for this and I've been in and out of Powerbooks checking out the fiction shelves to see if Sophie has a new book out.

The email invites to take a peek at the brand new Shopaholic novel. They hide the links of special
excerpts from SHOPAHOLIC & BABY throughout the Sophie Kinsella site - you'll have to dig around to find them. I actually needed help just to find excerpt #4 and #5.

If you want to read the excerpts, go and play here. If you can't find them, send me a message and will tell you where to look.

And as if the excerpts are not enough, I stumbled into the book's synopsys from amazon which made me even more anxious to get hold of the book.

Becky's life is blooming! She's working at London's newest fashion store, The Look, house-hunting with husband Luke (her secret wish is a Shoe Room)...and she's pregnant! She couldn't be more overjoyed - especially since discovering that shopping cures morning sickness. Everything has got to be perfect for her baby: from the designer nursery...to the latest, coolest pram...to the celebrity, must-have obstetrician. But when the celebrity obstetrician turns out to be her husband Luke's glamorous, intellectual ex-girlfriend, Becky's perfect world starts to crumble. She's shopping for two...but are there three in her marriage?

I'm so so excited! I wish its 2007 already! This could be a great Christmas gift or Valentines gift... unfortunately it will be released after these occations (As per Random House, February 27 is the release date) Sigh!

highschool girlfriends

I enjoy bonding with girlfriends... especially those whom I have not seen in a long time. Everytime I log in to my YM, I'm always thrilled to see two of my highschool bestfriends... Ellie, who's currently living in Texas with hubby and their new born son Nash ( he's just 3 months younger than my AJ) and Nancy, the only remaining single gal in our barkada. Even if Nancy just live within the Metro, I don't see her often because of our busy schedules. Gosh, the last time I saw her was at my wedding...Yup you read it right.. 14 months ago. Same goes with Ellie. I'm glad she came to my wedding but before that, I have not seen her for like 8 years. She flew back to the States 2 days before we arrived from our honeymoon so there was really no time to bond when she was here.

But last Tuesday night, armed with web cams (unfortunately Nancy has yet to purchase one.. but promised to have it the next time we see her online) we were waving at each others babies and giving kisses in the air.. its nice seeing Ellie after she gave birth. Time flies so fast.. the last time we saw each other we were just a wife now we are both mothers to our boys. Before, we used to chat about boyfriends, shopping, common friends and usually reminising our high school days. This time, there were lots of laughter, "kamustahan", mommy talk, wife-y talk, ex's (na may mga utang pa!), slimming tips and what to do with Nancy's love life were majority of topics. With occational BRBs because the other one has to go to the CR, feed the baby or the baby woke up, change diaper, and put baby to sleep. We ended the session... talking about reunion.. and mind you, the planned reunion will be in Australia next year... Ouch! that will surely suck up my budget. I've never been to Aussie and I'd surley love to go ...if budget permits.. why not! hahaha! i'm keeping my fingers crossed here :p (Asa pa ako hehe!)

I think it was already around 1am when I went to bed...but I had fun bonding with the girls.. and I don't mind staying up late again to chat with my girls.

Three weeks from now, I'll have another bonding with the girls...this time with my officemates and ex-officemates. Its going to be a SPA Day :)

with Nancy ( my maid of honor)

with Ellie (my matron of honor)

*During our high school, digi cams does not exists ...sorry can't show you our before and after hair styles .. haha! (those spray nets are huge hit.) eek!

feels like the Alps

me 'n carol

Early this year, we were complaining that the air condition in the office does not release the temperature that it suppose to provide. While this was being repaired by the administration, the management bought electric fans to keep us from smelling like shit.. i mean sweat. Months have passed, took my maternity leave, gave birth and came back to a working air condition. But this time the temperature was more than we asked for.. its freezing are brains and asses..its like I'm in Swiss Alps everyday. I got cough and runny nose for the first two months when I got back to work. The problem with an office inside the mall is that the air condition is centralize and we can't do anything but get used to it and bring out those jackets and pashminas.

A day at the office looks like this:

L-R:Jen, Carol, Liz, Louie & me

out-of-town to hometown

All Saints Day is over and Christmas is just around the corner. In no time it will be the New Year. Sigh...Time really flies so fast, AJ will be a year old in no time. But since that's 7 months away, I'll enjoy my little guy one day at a time. Since this year's ASD holiday was in the middle of the week, the family decided to visit Hubby's hometown in Nasugbu, Batangs last weekend. Also, last October 28 was the christening of AJ's 2nd cousin (Robie Celestine) so we were able to meet some of the Hubby's relatives in the fraternal side.

I woke up early to pack for AJ. This is the first time he'll go out of town and will be staying overnight so I have to pack almost all of his things. If his cabinet can fit in the car I would have brought it with us. Clothes, blankets, milk, bottles, beddings, sterilizer, vitamins, teeters, pacifiers etc. The whole trunk of the car nearly ran out of space for our duffle bag. Good thing we didn't bring the stroller and the bath tub with us coz we might be taking the bus and hubby drives alone to Batangas. AJ was dress and ready to go by 6am and I have yet to pack my clothes and take a bath...and just imagine hubby rushing me to hurry up.. argh! The pressure! "I'm packing for two people here you know!" I was not in the mood to argue. Ok so maybe its also my fault for not packing the night before... We came home late from work and was too tired to do anything but sleep.

The drive to Batangas was peaceful and no storm yehey! (remember our trip last May 14 when we have to go through the storm, me preggy at the time). AJ slept most of the time during the road trip. Good thing he didn't poo poo while were on the road. When we stopover at McDonald's Tagaytay for breakfast, its like on queue that he opened his eyes just as we parked. After breakfast, we went straight to the Church for the christening rights and the buffet lunch after. There, hubby's relatives meet AJ for the first time. AJ's great grand parents, lolo paco & lola ina where very happy to see him agin, Lola Letty who cuddled AJ for the first time and uncles & aunties who gushed at how AJ looks like his Papa Jun (Hubby's dad) and cousins who made him laugh and constantly pinching his cute litte foot. We stayed the whole afternoon at hubby's parents house and AJ slept after his bath. I myself was tired and slept until 6pm. When AJ and I woke up, the famous Aling Celing's Halo-Halo and BBQ were served for our late meryenda. Of course I ate AJ's share..hehehe!

AJ played with his cousin Abby until he fell asleep around 10pm. And when he woke up in the morning, we headed to the beach for a morning walk and sunshine. Unfortunately, Mr. Sun was nowhere in sight because of another storm coming our way (as per the news, Storm Paeng was in Catanduanes at that time) so we just click our camera and captured AJ's first time at the beach.. well almost .. He has to wait for 7 more months to be able to run on the sand and swim the beach. We left Batangas just as the rain started to pour.

Hope all of you have a great time trick or treating! And for those who didn't celebrate Halloween in their part of the world...Hope you had a great week!

daddy & AJ

we had a hard time making AJ Smile, this one's a lucky shot