How old is he again? (and my pancit story)

This is what my mother in-law asked me when I told her if we can maybe prepare pancit or spaghetti for Ane's birthday. Hehe. She's forgetful...Hubby is an only kid! :)

My better half turned 31 on July 14. We just stayed home the entire day. MIL and I weren't able to cook anymore. And then we had dinner with my brothers at Burgoo Rockwell using some of my blogging money. That's it. No gifts hehehe. We need to save badly.

And then on July 16, we brought food to the courts so we can share it with some of our friends. We initially planned to serve Buddy's Pansit and Pichi-pichi from Arny and Dadings's. Buddy's is in Pasig and delivers to Greenhills minimum of P1000. Since they have nothing else to offer and P1000 is too much for pancit alone, we decided to look somewhere else. Before looking, we drove to A&D's in Katipunan, but we came later in the afternoon, they only had 12pieces left. I was craving pichi-pichi so we bought twelve pieces and enjoyed it while we think of another place to get Pancit. Then I remembered a post by Donna -- they buy their pancit from Orchids Motel in Pasig, hehehe. So we called the place and realized that they also offer BBQ. There we were on a bed-weather late afternoon driving through a motel, LOL! The bellboys readily pointed us to a garage and we just had to wave them off. I opened my window to ask where we can order pancit hehe. We ordered two kinds, Pancit Sotanghon and Pancit Bihon good for 5-7 pax, P450 each. It's kinda steep but when we saw the bilao, one can serve 10 or more pax! Super sulit! And they're yummy too. I liked the Bihon better though. The toppings include fried chicken! Their BBQ is a different story altogether. For P160 and only three sticks, we found it too expensive, so we bought two jumbo lechon manok from Andok's instead.

We waited more than 30 minutes for the pancit and enjoyed "sight-seeing", hehe. I tell yah, cars and cabs come and go, I realized having a motel for business is lucrative, LOL! If you aren't too bold to drive through inside, they deliver in Pasig area for free. If you're not working or living in Pasig, you may call ahead and pick it up outside (Orchids Tel 9100164 or 6712233).

Anyway, even if there was no big bang on Ane's birthday, we are still thankful that we are so blessed in many other ways. Belated Happy Birthday, Hun. I love you! ;)

It's a Sunday and I am at work.

Ane is at work (days-off: Fri & Sat). I am at work. It's always stressful when I am here. You just do not know how stressful it could get just to be here. I hear voices and I'm not hallucinating at all, believe me. It's been a struggle just to be sitting and hearing two people exchange/throw childish remarks at each other. Enough.

I should be happy. The past few days were happy. Except for Wednesday.

I'll make this Wednesday kwento short. Ika nga ng matatanda, ipagpasa-Diyos na lang natin. My mom and I took the first flight to Cebu at 430am. We planned to go to the Requiem Mass for Ana, my sister's college barkada (she also grew close to our family), at 9am. Before Ane and I left for Manila, we received the sad news that she was on respirator after she committed the unthinkable. When we arrived here on Sunday, my ate said that she passed away. Of course we were all sad. She was too young to die. When we (mom and I didn't know we were on the same flight with some college classmates and a prof) arrived in the funeral parlor, we were able to talk to Ana's cousins and we were enlightened a bit. The mass was a very emotional one. Immediately afterwards, her body was taken to the crematorium. I took some photos. Her ashes was to be thrown to the sea, so there was no point really to stay longer. Later, my mom's friend picked us up and showed us the city (it was my first time to be in Cebu)...more like a joyride I'd say. Since the trip was totally unplanned, mom's friend wasn't able to clear her sched and we spent the entire day in her car. The trip was really short. We were back in NAIA by 9pm, same day. I plan to visit again some other time.

Thursday was a busy day at work.

Friday, I was at the cafe early to take care of some money matters. By lunch time, Ane was back from renewing his driver's license and went to pick me up. I went with him to his HR Department then he dropped me to my Rotary Meeting at Heritage.

Yesterday was my Hubby's birthday. He is now three-oh years old and he surely doesn't look like one. We didn't do anything special. When we woke up, we had the urge to watch the new Harry Potter Movie. So off we went to Rockwell with my two brothers. The theater disappointed me because the seats and carpet looked dirty, hay. Powerplant cinemas are my fave cinemas pa naman. The movie was okay except that it got dragging at some parts and the climax was, oh well, too quick it did not sink right away. We had lunch afterwards at Kaya. Later, we were found at GHBC playing with our badminton buddies. I had five games and you bet my body is aching as of the moment. Dinner was at 4xforce. Oh, I certainly missed our Saturday after-play food!

Today, since Ane is at work, we (my two bros and parents) celebrated his bday without him, hehe. We had lunch at Healthy shabu-shabu at SM North The Block and had some desserts at Cerealicious (yummy!). And then I am here.

It is almost closing time and I need to end this now. ;)

My husband has a "Baby"

An intriguing title, I may say. But you have to read til the end to understand.

As all of you now know, today is our First Year Anniversary :) We are not in Manila and we are running low on funds so we didn't plan on doing anything special. We just went to mass together with our "foster family", watched the 130pm showing of Ratatouille (which is not really for kids, as most kids were kinda bored during the movie) while we munched on refillable popcorn (notice we didn't have lunch, hehe), brought Kuya J home coz he had to work, fed the Kois at the Park and then watched the Minor League Baseball at the Municipal Stadium. Watching the game is a first time and it is a bummer that SJ Giants was losing 7-1 at Seventh inning, so we decided to not finish the game.

On our way to the Stadium, Joaquin and I were having a conversation that went:

J: Where are we going Ninang?

Me: We are going to watch a baseball (I pronounced it as basebelle on purpose) game.

J: Ninang!!! It's not basebelle!!! It's baseball!!!

Me: Ah okay, basebelle!

J: Baseball!!!!

And we continued to quiz him with other words (truck, candy, bank etc etc), and it was so funny we almost got him annoyed heheh. Anyway, we got home at 7pm, ate dinner from yesterday's party and we have been just lounging since then.

What about my title?

I woke up this morning and read my text messages. One came from Clarice, our wedding coordinator. I told Ane that she greeted us. He said someone texted him too, asking him to answer his phone... it was from a certain Clarisse. I thought why would Clarice text him too, ayt? I read the text he received and this transpired:

Me: Eh ibang Clarisse naman yan eh. (this is a different Clarisse)

Him: Sino ba sinasabi mo? (Who are you talking about?)

Me: Si Clarice natin, may iba pa ba? (Our Clarice, is there anyone else?)

Him: Meron, pero ang tawag ko "Baby" (Yes there is but I call her "Baby").

**note for mitch, magkaibang tao sina Clarisse at CLARICE, mwehehe...

And then he was laughing that very funny laugh. My dear husband can be pretty comedic, huh? Of course he was just kidding! ;) I know that one factor this relationship didn't feel like a year has passed already is that he can make funny moments out of serious ones without too much of an effort. I love him dearly for that. I usually fall into a pit of sadness (without reason!) and he is always there to pull me up and keep me sane.

I love you, Ane! We have a lifetime to go! :) xoxoxoxox

Joaquin's party

We didn't plan on having a big party. Simple is the word. It was a lunch party yesterday at the BBQ grounds of this apartment complex. We started the day at around 8am (too early for me waaahh!). I started by cutting the fruits and putting it in serving trays. Ane and Kuya J worked on the balloons (people can actually buy helium tanks here, hehe). While my sister got the cake and some ice from the supermarket. We started bringing the things outside and setting the place up just before 10am. Before 11am, Ane and Kuya was off to pick up the food from Chef P's. There were lotsa food to munch! :)

We finished setting up a bit past 11am and the guests started to arrive. The adults started chatting away while the kids enjoyed playing with the train tracks we also set-up. By 1215pm, the entertainer, Silly Dee arrived and warmed-up the kids by blowing balloons and setting it free. The kids were easily amused! They wanted to do that over and over again. And then SD started making balloons for the kids. She asked Joaquin what his favorite animal is, and my boy didn't answer right away. He looked up, as if thinking and said "a Penguin!". SD rolled her eyes and am quite sure SD was caught off-guard. What 4 year-old kid would say that, eh? Hehe. Silly Dee would have easily done a dog balloon or a cat or even a rabbit. But a penguin?! She was able to pull it off, though. Coolness! And then there was a little puppet show with SD and her worm in an apple. It was so easy to entertain the kids, I had so much fun just watching them laugh :) Silly Dee also adored the kids, they were all so cute :) The kids also had fun playing in the playground. Later we has the candles on the cake blown and before we knew it, it was time to clean up.

The guests started to leave, with take-away boxes :) Dami natira na food! Some relatives helped us clean up. They also stayed a while in the apartment to chat a bit more. After they left, Joaquin opened his gifts and he was obviously more interested with the toys than the clothes. His mom is so thankful not all guests gave toys. We had to keep most of the gifts otherwise Joaquin will just mess-up the house again, hehe.

Earlier, we talked about watching a movie but at 6pm, we were all tired already. We decided to stay home and guess what? Ane and I were asleep by 9pm. Very rare indeed :) It was a restful night. :)

We are almost one year old

Our Anniversary is coming up! I can remember the same time last year we were almost done with our preparations and were already trying to relax waiting for our Big Day. We got married on July 1 and the preparations alone took us about a year.

During the first few months of the preparations, I was busy checking online for designs of Bridal and evening gowns (for our reception!). I was also able to collect a number of magazines, some purchased while some were lent to me by friends who got married earlier. The gown was on top of my list (not necessarily my husband's priority, hehe). I was very particular about the design -- simple but elegant, not too flashy and definitely no petticoat! In the end, I loved how my gown turned out and everyone was raving how wonderful it was on me.

Those days are still vivid in my mind and the memories make me smile until now. I cannot wait until my dear husband marries me again. :)

Joaquin is 4!

When I woke up this morning, I greeted my fave nephew (there is no other nephew! heheh) a Happy Birthday. But before I was able to kiss him, he brushed me away saying that it's not his birthday today. I think he is in denial and is waiting for his party on Saturday. It can't be his birthday today because the party is not today. You can't be right with him, I tell yah. ;) He wasn't really in the mood because he was feverish his morning but he went out with the boys. We were thinking he might just need a little bit of fresh air and some sun.

So yeah, the lone girl left (that's ME, my sister had to work) stayed at home the entire day. I was supposed to meet up with M and L for a fun day-out but L had some sort of an emergency at work so she could not take her off, of all days! I spent my day in the net, just bloghopping. Am still my lazy self. I cannot believe I am taking opps now when I should be getting ready for bed. I am not sleep deprived but my body feels I am. I told the boys to bring me some burger (I was craving for burgers for the last four days but haven't gotten the chance to buy one). They got me a double double cheese cheese & bacon from BK. You know what I did after I wolfed down that sinful sandwich? Took a nap!!!! I bet I'll be huge when we return to Manila. Thanks to Ris who decided to call and cut my trip to lalaland. :)

My sister got home from work and we all went out to celebrate our baby's day. We went bowling near Oakridge and J had fun doing his mom's game :) We were supposed to eat there but decided against it since the mall is just next door. We got some yummy garlic fries though. Haha buti na lang. My sister missed the sign that the shoes were to be rented (at $5 each!). So when the bill came, her eyes widened. Hihi. Oh well, anything for the boy, she says. She's glad the birthday boy had a blast even if we only played one game. :) We don't want to have body aches, do we? Dinner was simple. We just grabbed some chinese food, stayed a bit and strolled until it was time to go home.

Hayyyyy, the boy is growing up fast.

Chuck E. Cheese!

Since the parents and brother are already Manila bound on Saturday and Joaquin's Birthday is still a few weeks away, my sister decided to have an early celebration. We went to Chuck E. Cheese this evening! :)

We had pizza and salad and bottomless soda and lotsa lotsa fun! We got tokens bundled with our food order but Mommy and Daddy had so much fun playing that they ended up buying more tokens for all of us! Read: 200 tokens more! Hihihihi. See, each game requires only one token in exchange for tickets everytime we win. So we were there for about three hours and we were able to collect more than 2000 tickets! It wasn't tiring as the crowd was just few and the music wasn't too loud. The manang in me thought I won't be able to take it (you know, am not too keen on arcades such as CEC and Timezone).

Joaquin went home (in exchange for our winnings) with a CEC shirt, 5 mini-pirate toys and a bag of cotton candy. While we, the adults, went home grinning from ear to ear. I would gladly go there again :)