Man proposes; God disposes.

Before the holiday season started, I told myself that when vacation starts I would do a general cleaning of the house. Nothing was done till now.
Oh well...

Rainy Christmas day....

I woke up late yesterday and this was what I saw outside the window...



Waahh! So gloomy Christmas day...



But that's ok. This resulted to everyone staying in the house and did (hopefully) some bonding with the ONLY REASON for the SEASON: my saviour Jesus Christ!

Merry Christmas!

from happyslip.com:



eyelovit!!! Thanks Christine for sending me the right embedding code. More power to Happyslip.com!


Ooh. Seriously now, may the Lord reward each thoughtful deed you do and hear each prayer you say. Merry Christmas everyone!

How did you know?

For my dear husband...

I remember so well
The day that you came into my life
You asked for my name
You had the most beautiful smile

My life started to change
I'd wake up each day feeling alright
With you right by my side
Makes me feel things will work out just fine

CHORUS
How did you know
I needed someone like you in my life
That there's an empty space in my heart
You came at the right time in my life

I'll never forget
How you brought the sun to shine in my life
And took all the worries and fears that I had
I guess what I'm really trying to say
It's not everyday that someone like you comes my way
No words can express how much I love you

Got my Little Brown Book

Finally. Thanks to MM's directions I was able to finally see my copies of the Little Brown Book.



I ordered two pieces and I still dont know who to give the other one to. Haha! Hmmmnnn... I think I know now. I am sure she will appreciate this Christmas gift because she is into Food & Housing Services.

Here is MM's page:



All proceeds of the book will go solely to the fundraising of this school:



Nice project. Happy to be a part of it.

MM t-shirts and tote bag

Well, since I'm in the mood to post some more pics and blogs that are waiting to be finished, here goes...

17 November 2007

We arrived last night at around 11pm. We could have arrived much, much earlier but there were some things we needed to drop off to our nephew's house in Calamba so...

Felt light waking up on our own bed. Hubby woke up early also so he could go play tennis. I have an early appointment at S&R Taguig today. Am supposed to pick up the MM tote bag and T-Shirts. I am driving alone to Bonifacio Global City for the first time but no worry, MM was so thoughtful enough to give me the directions in his website.

I left the house at 7. I was in Starbucks at Caltex SLT at 7:45 for my very much needed decaf. MM's directions were simple and straightforward. I just love it: " Bengski, I am so flattered that YOU would DRIVE all the way from Laguna! Yikes! When you get off at Market!Market!, keep going towards EDSA. S&R is at the corner of 5th Avenue and 32nd street, beside the large Home Depot hardware store. It is also beside the under construction St.Lukes Hospital and across the corner from Mcdonalds (there are two Mcdo in the Fort). It is NOT right near the McKinley Forbes exit. I hope that helps!".
November 15th, 2007

I didnt get lost, didnt get confuse. Now, if only some people could give directions in the same manner...

I reached S&R at about 8:30. S&R was still closed and the guard wont let me in inside the parking area. Hay naku. I have to wait daw till 9am. so I asked where I can park while waiting and he pointed upwards towards his back and said, "sa kabila po ng MC depot mam,". So off I drove around the block and immediately saw the open parking area. I parked the car and walked to S&R.


MC Depot walkway to S&R

When I got there, I saw this lady talking to the guard. I guess she was also trying to enter the garage but the guard maybe gave her the same answer so she got off her car locked it and walked towards the S&R gate. She left her car standing right there at the entrance of the garage! Hmmnnn, so I thought maybe I could go get my car and make pila na rin while waiting for the gate to open. About-face ako. Walked rapidly to the parking lot, took my car, drove off and reached the S&R lane. 8:45, hmm, I decided to just wait inside the car. 9am sharp, the barricade went up finally.



As I walked towards the S&R gate, I saw people starting to gather then I saw this bunch of people behind a table with the MM banner



I immediately knew that the tall guy in dark blue MM shirt is Mr. MM! The lady sitting behind the table must be Mrs. MM. We stood in a distance for a while giving them the time to arrange things. After a while, MM approached us and handed out a brown book for us to see, maybe order if we like it. This book was already featured in his website. Its a fundrasing project of a school and all the proceeds will go solely to the school. I ordered 2 pieces as soon as I got home that day.

A few more minutes and MM approached us again and this time exchanged pleasantries with us (I was standing with two other MM bloggers, forgot their names). I was happy because I was able to handshake with an idol. Kinda got star-struck. Ahihihi! That was why maybe when he finally announced that we can start choosing sizes I was still rattled and took size L for all three designs and a tote bag. I asked MM if he could sign my tote bag and he willingly did it for me. yay!


The MM stall as I was leaving S&R

As soon as I got out of S&R, I started asking myself if I should go home already. Then it occurred to me, what the heck! Hubby wont be home yet anyway so I might as well use the time to go around the global city. so, I proceeded to Market!Market! I took some pictures along the way...


On my way to Market!Market!


Passed by Bonifacio High


Cooled down at Starbucks Boni High



Purchased some cupcakes at Marta's Cupcakes, Serendra (pictures taken at home)





... and more cupcakes from Sonja's at Cupcakes by Sonja



Next day, hubby wore his MM shirt to church.
I took these pictures after the service on our way to lunch:



Nice, isn't it? Mine has "MarketManiac" written on the front and I still got another piece that says, "SUKI". The tote bag looks good too. I will bring it the next time I go to Salcedo market. I hope I remember to take a picture of it by then. Wanna know how you can get one for yourself? Check out http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/more-t-shirt-and-tote-pick-up-dates-saturdays-december-1-and-8.

Sitti, Live!

Hubby and I had a great time watching Sitti Navarro last 22 Nov 2007. Her concert entitled One Bossanova Experience was held in Trace College here in Los Baños. It was great watching her since I liked her voice so much. It was a lively concert and she was so pretty that night. Lovely legs, my husband said.

She even signed my CD (Cafe Bossa) and DVD (Sitti Live!) Loveit!



Hope it won't be the last time!

An old discovery

15 Nov 2007
Inside our room in Regents Hotel

After we had our breakfast at the Oysters, hubby and I went out to look for an ATM. Luckily, BPI was nearby so we took some cash.

When we got back in our hotel room, hubby said we forgot to pack his shaving kit. so I sent him back downstairs to pick up a shaver from a grocery store nearby. Unfortunately it was still rather early so the stores were still closed. He found one odd store though, manned by a chinese. He asked if he got a gillette mach 3 instead the guy handed him this item:



It was an old-fashioned razor. Hubby got amused because its been a long time since the last time he seen this so he took it. He showed it to me as soon as he got back and I watched him assemble the thing:



He was laughing all the while. As he was about to start shaving, I turned to go back to the computer when suddenly I heard, "ouch, ouch, aw, aw, ouch!" As in sunod-sunod! Haha! A few minutes after shaving he started complaining about how his skin is starting to ache. I guess he didn't know the right way to use the blade. Haha!

My youngest niece, Eunice, celebrated her birthday last 21 November 2007

Double celebration in Naga, part II

15 November 2007
Oyster Restaurant

Mama was really surprised to see us. She was sitting all alone busy looking inside her bag when we entered the restaurant (Roy & Tom were in the Men's room). I stood beside her and said,"Happy birthday Mama!". She looked up and said,"Uy ne..." then looked down again in her bag then when she realized what was really going on, she looked up again, amazed, then stood up and hugged me. All that was captured in the video that my husband (her youngest son) was taking all the while. Surreal!





After all the exchange of stories, nephews and nieces started coming in. We had one family picture taken right before lunch.



The waiter took the cake out after lunch.



Glenn fixed and lighted her candle 83, RJ, Mama's great grandson stood beside her as we sang her Happy birthday song.



I served the cake right after she made her cut.



Everyone was happy!


After lunch, Kuya Roy asked us to take Mama to doctor to have her hips checked up by her doctor. So off we went to Mother Seton Hospital and luckily we were the first people so Mama got to be the first patient. So, the doctor came, checked her, asked for a full spine x-ray because he wants to show us that Mama is scholiotic too. After the check up, we headed to Mercury drugstore and got her prescribed medicine then went straight home.

That night, as I was sitting in Mama's bed, I noticed her framed picture with dedications written. I stood up and read it again.



Dang! Mama is only EIGHTY-TWO!

The night I ordered the cake, I was not sure about Mama's age so I texted hubby and asked him. He texted back saying she is 83. So, I wrote HAPPY 83RD BIRTHDAY MAMA! in that piece of paper and gave it to the cake house crew. When I got home, I asked hubby again if he was sure about her age. He said yes and that he even confirmed it from Kuya Roy.

Oh well... Mama had a good celebration anyway.

The next day, we hit the road early. It was raining in some areas on our way back but we still made a stop to take pictures...

of me at the Welcome to Camarines Sur Arch


and of hubby at the Welcome to Camarines Norte Arch

Double birthday celebration in Naga!

Today is my birthday and I am writing this blog from our room in the Regent Hotel in Naga City.

We decided to celebrate here this time since it is also my mom-in-law's birthday. She is now 82. We wanted to surprise her. She believed we won't be around because we already went home last Nov. 1 for the All Saint's Day celebration.

We left Los Baños yesterday noontime and reached Naga at around 7:30pm. We checked-in then headed straight to the Oysters Restaurant for Dinner. We wanted to have a quick dinner so we opted to order fast foods like Pancit Guisado & Chicken in garlic sauce. The food turned out great. After dinner, we decided to check the menu and order the food for the next day's celebration. I ordered several Crispy Pata, several Sweet & sour lapulapu, several Pancit Guisado, Beef, chicken and fried Rice. I brought a chocolate cake from a famous chocolate cake house in Los Banos and told the waiter that I would like it to be the dessert right after our Mom blew her candles. The waiter said they might charge corkage for it. He went to the counter to confirm and came back to tell me that the corkage is P150. Dang!!
Anyway, seems like we no choice after all so we agreed.

Just received an SMS from my brother-in-law, Roy that they are now leaving Libmanan for Naga so... gotta go! Hope I get good pictures that I can post here later.

Happy birthday to me, to Mama, to Aaron (my nephew) and to Em's (my sis' bestfriend) brother!

Memories revisited: Whaleshark watching in Donsol, Sorsogon (28-30 April 2006)

At last, our Macau Walking tour!

Me, my colds and the Chinese medicine...

Am not feeling so well. I got colds since friday and still persisting today.

Yesterday, Sunday, hubby planned to go to work after breakfast so since I wasn't feeling well and the temp in the house is high enough to contemplate on turning the aircon on, I decided to just go with him and stay in my (cool) office instead. I thought I could work on my scrapblog while waiting for him.

So there, me and my never-ending sniffs in the office on a Sunday morning. Then a Chinese colleague came and we had a short talk. She noticed I wasn't feeling well so she dissapeared only to come back after a few minutes carrying with her a pack of Chinese medicine.

She offered it to me telling me to try it because it is very effective. The caplets have two colors. She said the white ones are for daytime (non-drowsy) and the black ones are for night time. She mentioned that another friend tried the meds recently and just after two caplets, the friend returned the pack saying that the colds are gone. Great, so I took it.

After 2 white and 1 black caplets, no change, really.

Oh well, maybe I should wait.

Saturday blast

I had a nice Saturday last weekend (28 July 2007).

Morning, 9-12 noon. I attended a livelihood seminar - Gift-wrapping and packaging seminar. I learned how to make paper bags from scratch, how to wrap wine bottles and design giftwraps for ordinary boxes.

The speaker also gave us tips about which wrappers to use for different types of items/gifts. She showed us how to handle different materials such as sinamay, abaca, non-woven cloth, cellophane, papel de hapon, etc. She demonstrated how to make bows and ribbons using plastic ribbons and paper twines. I really enjoyed this seminar. There were about 25 of us half of which are senior-citizens already. But those ladies amazingly worked faster and had better-looking stuff than us. Haha!

Afternoon. My honey and I left for Alabang after lunch. We did one must-do, to bring our Aiwa component to Solid Service for its long-needed repair. It was our first time to go to this center but we did not take long to find its location. Thank God for websites!

Then off we went to SM Southmall to get tickets for the Don Moen Concert at the Araneta Coliseum.

In this concert, his new album, the "Hiding place" was featured. Nice songs. We bought the CD after the show.

The concert started ON TIME! Boy, was I so glad! Don Moen came out in the stage at exactly 8pm. This was our 3rd time to watch Don Moen but still he was mesmerizing. I love all the songs. He did a healing prayer too. Glory to God!

We tried to follow Dom Moen in the backstage right after the concert. But the guards were so strict. We were hoping Don would sign our "Thank You Lord" DVD. Well... anyway...

We were out of the coliseum a little after 10pm. We went to the car and immediately played the CD and heard 'He never sleeps' once again. It was really a nice song:

- He Never Sleeps -

by Claire Cloninger & Don Moen

When You've prayed every prayer that you know how to pray.

Just remember the Lord will hear and answer is on it's way.

Our God is able. He is mighty. He is faithful.

And He never sleeps He never slumbers.

He never tires of hearing our prayer.

When we are weak He becomes stronger.

So rest in His love and cast all of your cares on Him.

Do you feel that the Lord has forgotten your need.

Just remember that God is always working in ways you cannot see.

Our God is able. He is mighty. He is faithful.

And He never sleeps He never slumbers.

He never tires of hearing our prayer.

When we are weak He becomes stronger.

So rest in His love and cast all of your cares on Him.

===================

We decided not to go home yet. We went to Klownz, a comedy bar. We had a nice time there. We were laughing to the end. Don't know but when it comes to comedy, I think gay people delivers them best. Its so natural for them. There was singing, dancing and lots of comedy. Allan K is good and I like the 3-gay people (forgot their names already) who stood as his back-up.

We left Klownz at past 1am and got home at almost 3pm. Love it!

Celebrating Anniversary #1

July 18, 1997. After almost a year of always being together (in groups), he took me on our first dinner date on this day.

Nobody knew then that there was ‘us’ already. It wasn’t easy at first. There were other women in his life at that time. One (MRB) openly showed her affection for him making everyone in the group think that it was ‘them’ somehow. Second (MB), felt that since he once visited her in her house (I think that was fiesta time in their area), he had feelings for her already. The third one (JB) was still her girlfriend at that time but she lives way up north of the country so they seldom see each other.

Then things just fell on their respective positions. MRB left the company, worked in Manila but still kept in touch with him until he decided to stop it already. She was furious. She tried all imaginable tactics just to win him especially when she found out that he was dating me already. She sent him letters, notes, gifts, emails. There was even one time she came at our workplace so late at night just to see him. To think she lived about 2.5 hours away from our workplace. She was practically stalking him. She is still in love with him until now. At least this is what she claims in her blog. MB on the other hand also left the company a year after MRB left. She just disappeared but I won’t forget that day when I met her in Crossing and she snobbed me. Oh well, that's understandable. JB’s case - this he had to take care of personally. He drove 7 hours to see and finally broke up with her.

Our relationship went deeper after that. I knew he was serious about me when he finally decided to introduce me to his mom. Then he took me to his brother’s house in Paranaque. Then to his cousin’s house in Ayala-Alabang. His mom, his brother and his cousin. All played really important roles in his life.

He is now my husband. We got married on his birthday and we’ve been married 4 years. Still, we celebrate our Anniversary #1. We talked a lot about it while still in bed this morning. It was fun reminiscing those unforgettable moments. We haven't decided where we should go tonight. I hope I can take pictures.

Happy 10th anniversary honey, I love you!

I love my new bags!

My dear sister recently sent me 2 bags.

The first one is a Prada Evening Heart (BN1134)

nice design, isnt it?

The second one is a Louis Vuitton Speedy 25

I love 'em! Thanks Catherine!
Mwah!

Iba ang kakilala sa kaibigan

Unforgettable line of a fellow blogger about shedding friends: Shedding polishes and sorts your relationships with people. You shed friends who are insincere, phony, difficult, annoying, treats you bad, or uses you. Shedding is human nature's way of picking out TRUE friends from a pile of whom you call "friends."

So true.

Sometime last May, I decided to shed out a friend and I feel better now knowing that she is no longer a part of my circle.

She is a rich kid but she is also self-conceited, proud and boastful. One concrete proof of my description of her was her scratched car. She used to bring her SUV to work pero dahil sa sobrang yabang nya in dealing with people at work, she found her car one day displaying two long, deep scratches, one in the front bumper, the other on the driver’s side door. She’s also had a number of verbal and written arguments with several employees of the company. To think na to date, she’s only been with us for 8 months.

Just the other night she met an accident. Wala naman syang injury pero the company car was wrecked. Galing sa gimik, pinilit umuwi kahit na dis-oras ng gabi. Hayun, binangga nya yung mga barriers dun sa SLEX. She called her boyfriend to help her, she called her friends to tell them what happened but she never called home. Why, apparently, pag nalaman ng tatay nya yung nangyari, pagreresignin sya sa trabaho. Weird.

I’ve never met her father (Thank God for little mercies...) pero ganun ang press release nya tungkol sa father nya. High and mighty. She is what, 33 years old pero ni hindi sya madalaw ng bf nya sa bahay nila kasi ayaw ng tatay nya dun sa guy. Why did she go home that night kahit na antok na antok na siya at nakainom pa? Dahil sa tatay nya. Hindi pwedeng hindi sya uuwi kasi her tatay will go ballistics if he finds out na hindi sya umuwi. So kahit na anong pigil sa kanya ng mga kasama nya that night, she still opted to drive ~60 kilometers just to get home. Ang bait. Pero aksidente ang naging kapalit. Kawawa naman.

Hindi naman ako galit sa kanya. Nagtampo lang ako nung una. So I kept my distance for a while. But then later I realized nawala na rin pala ang amor ko sa kanya so I finally decided to shed her out. I still see her around. I greet her plainly whenever I see her pero syempre, minus the usual happy rapport.

What does my latte say about me?

What Your Latte Says About You

You are easygoing and pretty simple to please. You don't put up a fuss... ever. You can be quite silly at times, but you know when to buckle down and be serious. You have a good deal of energy, but you pace yourself. You never burn out too fast. You have a healthy relationship with caffeine. You're definitely not dependent on it. You are responsible, mature, and truly an adult. You're occasionally playful, but you find it hard to be carefree. You are complex and philosophical, but you are never arrogant.

What Does Your Latte Say About You?

I love this video of MSNBCs Mika Brzezinski.

My funny honeybunch

What does your birth month mean?

Your Birth Month is November

Tolerant and inspirational, you are wise beyond your years. You are universally sympathetic and a great humanitarian. Your soul reflects: Compassion, friendship, and secret love Your gemstone: Citrine Your flower: Chrysanthemum Your colors: Dark blue, red, and yellow

What Does Your Birth Month Mean?

My honeybunch's birth month meaning

Your Birth Month is May

Unique and creative, you seek your own path in life. You love change and are able to adapt to any situation. Your soul reflects: Sweetness, joy, and a complete life. Your gemstone: Emerald Your flower: Lily of the Valley Your colors: Yellow, red, and green

What Does Your Birth Month Mean?

I love my new rubber shoes...

Bought a new pair of rubber shoes in Megamall last Saturday.

Skechers (Energy 2-Zags). Made in USA. Love it.

Last April 2007, my honeybunch went on a business trip to California.
He bought this pair of rubber shoes from Ontario Mall in Rancho Cucamonga.

Nike. Made in China. Well...