Hearts Month

Today was my third (and thankfully, the last) day of "calling in sick" at work.  Over the recent weekend, my cough and colds got worse so I wasn't able to go to work since Monday so that I could recuperate faster.  As I was feeling a bit better, hubby asked me to go on a post-Valentine's Day movie date with him.  It has been quite a while since we've watched a movie (in the theater) so I said yes.  Plus I really, really am super excited with the sequel of Ghost Rider  so even though I was still coughing occasionally, I wasn't able to pass up on this.  I don't like to elaborate too much on the film as I might get carried away and give out spoilers... suffice it to say that you really should watch this if you liked the first movie.  I just love Nicolas Cage... next movie to look forward to would be National Treasure 3:

Since I have been in bed almost the whole time that I was home these past couple of days (my kids are with my mom at my parents' house so they wouldn't catch what I have) I was able to squeeze in reading a couple of books I have purchased a while back but has not gotten the chance to read.  "Call After Midnight" and "Stolen" by Tess Gerritsen were the ones I couldn't put down once I started reading them so I got to finish them.  Lately, I have been looking for more Tess Gerritsen books that my collection of Sandra Brown books may soon be matched by a new favorite author!

Also, since I had so much free time... I was able to research on how I could further stimulate my son's mind by giving him more educational activities at home.  I was already talking to my husband and my mom about enrolling him at a nearby school but my mom said it might be too early for him.  This article is also very helpful when contemplating on "school" choices for your kids.  I haven't reached a final plan yet, but this summer, I would definitely be looking for an activity to expose Adam to "school environment" so I could gently ease him into it and avoid the "crying" when it's time for him to attend "real school" already.

Tomorrow, I'll be going back to work... back to papers and deadlines...

Dropping By

Work has been quite hectic these past couple of weeks that I have not even visited my own blog much more visit my friends' blogs... Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to do that!  Anyway, I'm happy to report that life has been quite amazing.  My son, Adam celebrated his 3rd birthday on the 26th and got his wish!

My baby, Charlize is now 3 months and she often smiles and giggles when you talk to her.  She's getting so big, it's gonna be time to keep (or give away) some of her clothes to give room to her bigger clothes *plus we have to buy new ones, of course*.  On her last monthly visit to her pediatrician, she weighed 5.5 kilos already! And she got her ears pierced.

  I keep thanking the good Lord for all the blessings he keeps on giving me and my family... even for the stress of being busy at work, for without it, my husband and I wouldn't be able to provide for our kids' needs and the occasional luxury.

That's all I've got to report right now. (or that's all I can with so little free time)

Water Dragon

As far as I can remember, this is the only time that the Chinese New Year became a holiday from work... So here I am, just now about to go to sleep and it's about to turn 2am already... I let my little boy stay up also, we watched fireworks (on Television, hehehe) and shared a midnight meal of Ham, Barbeque, Sweet and Spicy Roasted Chicken, Herbed Loaf, Queso de Bola, Fruit Salad and Tikoy.  May the year of the water dragon bring all of us good luck!

Kiong Hee Huat Tsai!

Back to Work

Tomorrow, I am reporting back to work after two months of maternity leave.  Time seems to fly so fast.  I hope my mom and sisters would be able to care for Izzy and Adam while I am at work because I still have yet to find a nanny.

Wazzup?

2 months and no posts... that's what a difficult pregnancy and being busy at work does to you...

There are of course moments during my bedrest that I could have written something just to update this blog but I seem to have lost the will-power to do so... Anyway, I a couple or so weeks away from starting my maternity leave at work and I still have a kilometer's worth of lists to attend to before giving birth...  There's doing the laundry and ironing of baby's clothes that I have been given or have bought over the past couple of weeks; there's buying the baby stuff I would be needing and don't have yet; there's figuring out who's gonna be taking care of Adam during my hospital stay; and a lot of other stuff that I can't seem to figure out when I'm going to do and how I'm going to go about it.  Who knows when my next post is going to be... maybe a month or so after I have already given birth (let's cross our fingers) or maybe much longer than that...

Coping

Looks like I'll be doing one post a month again... I just came from a couple of weeks of complete bedrest as ordered by my OB and I'm at a loss as to how I'm going to deal with the mountain of work that was piled on my desk while I was "out".  There's also hubby's change of work to take into consideration... I'm just thankful that I have a very supportive mother-in-law who has been quite a huge help in the financial department.  And of course, I wouldn't be able to cope if it weren't for my parents and youngest sister, Mae, who takes care of my little prince when I can't.  Thank God for blessings like a supportive family, without which I wouldn't know what to do!

While I Was Out

It's almost a month since my last post and I have been dying to write about what's been happening to me these past few weeks...  I'll just have to compress everything into one short post for now because I am still reeling with the flurry of activity that has been my world lately.

First, let me start with a big, happy bit of news:  I'm pregnant!  Yes, baby #2 is on the way... I am now 7 weeks pregnant and counting.

The thing is, I have been suffering from asthma attacks again.  I even developed skin allergies from I don't know what, a couple of days back and had to take my anti-allergy meds again.  That's something I haven't done for a couple of years now, so it was quite a surprise to me.  There's this constant feeling of nausea and drowsiness that I didn't experience while I was pregnant with Adam before.  I have gained almost a kilo of weight already and I haven't even reached my 2nd month of pregnancy!  I'm scheduled to have my first ultrasound next week so...

In the office, a transfer of offices has been already announced and I have to carefully pack and label everything before the big move.  I don't have a secretary/clerk to assist me so I have to do all these on my own.  It's a good thing that the office I'm moving to is just a couple of doors away from my current one so it's not going to be a huge adjustment, but still, the amount of documents I need to transfer is quite a lot and the office I'm moving to is relatively smaller so it's going to be a challenge to fit everything into my new space.

As for my talkative, active baby boy, Adam, he's just a little fireball that keeps me going.  Currently, he's into games in the I-touch like "Traffic Rush", "Sniper Strike", "Cops and Robbers", "Tower Bloxx", and "Pig Rush".  While Pororo, Pocoyo, Handy Manny and Cars are the cartoons he never tires of watching.  He's more conversational lately although some of his words, you'd have to strain your ears and imagination before you can understand.  Like one time he kept asking for "Picky Caws" when he was actually asking for his "Mickey Mouse" stuffed toy.  Then there was one time he said he wanted to eat "Pochik" when he wanted to eat "Pork Steak".  But most of the time we can understand him and is very talkative...

Well, I guess that's all the update I can give right now.  Hopefully I'd be able to post soon and report more often but I can't really say anything for sure these days.

Optimistic

I want to start the year right, I want to be able to blog more yet work as efficiently and be a mom and wife at the same time... talk about multi-tasking!  Anyway, 2010 has been a year of ups and downs, like most years are, and I'm sure 2011 would be another roller-coaster ride.  But whatever blessings or obstacles come our way this year, I want to stay positive and stay mature about everything.  I have been a bit of a procrastinator for the past several months but I want to do away with that this year.  Optimistic and Participative... that's what I want to be more of for 2011.  I'm crossing my fingers, praying hard and concentrating as hard as I can so I would be the best I can be for this year and the years to come!

It's Me!

Since it's been a while since I last posted anything in this blog, some of my "regulars" may be wondering how I look like these days... We'll, as you can see... I've gained weight!  Hiyang siguro sa stress at puyat, hehe!  Hopefully, I'd be able to lose weight this year and post a slimmer me soon!

P.S.  Just in case you were wondering, I am not endorsing the alcohol that I was holding in the picture... I tasted it that night (it was given to a friend as a gift) and it was way too strong for me, even for occassional drinking! (Gumuguhit, teh! Sobra!)

Welcome 2011!

I want to revive this blog from it's long sleep by greeting everyone a Happy New Year!  May the year ahead bring us more happiness, less troubles and abundant blessings!

One Last Post for March

We're only until noon today at the office and I'm glad I get to spend a longer time with my family (especially my son) this long weekend.  And so I wanted to end March with a short update for this blog...

First there's Adam, he's just a bundle of energy that never ceases to amaze me (not to mention, tire me out!).  He's a constant source of happiness.  He can say "mama" he wants to go with you (meaning "Sama"), he says "la na" or "nanana" to indicate that the toy he's playing with has somehow vanished or what he's been watching is finished or he's food/milk is all gone (meaning "wala na").  He walks with support now and often demands that he be put down (as opposed to being carried or in the stroller) so he can walk.

Then there's Charlie, my hubby, who often demands that he be "babied" too, hahaha!

And then there's work, which keeps me busy enough not to be able to update this blog as much as I want to.

And of course, there's my now more active social life... Thursday is the day for coffee with friends after office hours.  Or sometimes we just go to the mall and talk while we window shop (or shop period).  Or we go on a food trip and try out new restos...

Well, that's life...

Stolen Moment

As my title suggests, this is just one of those moments when I can write a few words just to let everybody who happens to read my blog know that I am still alive... I have been super busy lately and has less time to go online so I grabbed this rare opportunity to check whether my blog is still here.  Hopefully, things would be easier a week or so from now and I would be able to blog more but for the moment... I just have to ride out the work that has flooded my office.

Picture Updates

I just don't have the time nor the energy to write anything these days...

So to make up for the lack of words, here are some of the pictures I took or of me taken during the holidays...

this one was taken during the school custodians' Christmas party last Dec. 16

this was right before our office Christmas party started

this is my cutie pie niece - Marian - showing us her antics day after christmas

and here is Marian again with my hubby, Charlie.

Here I am posing beside Adam's crib which we set up new year's eve

And here's a closer look at the crib.

Swamped!

I'ts good that I get to blog now... I have been waiting for the opportunity to do so since this morning. I have been buried in paperwork and other work stuff because I had to go on leave yesterday for a checkup.

~ * ~

Yesterday's checkup was an advanced one... I decided to go early this month because my scheduled checkup on the 21st will coincide with a personnel audit at the office so I cannot go on leave then. What was surprising about my visit to the doctor was that I found out that I lost 2 pounds! What?! I couldn't believe it... I have been pigging out on whatever food strikes my fancy these days and yet I lost 2 lbs.? Anyway, my OB says it's no cause for alarm as long as the baby's fine and I am eating healthy. It's just that my blood pressure is still stuck at 90/60. Plus, despite my calcium supplement intake, I am still getting cramps. Haay! just a little less than 3 months to go and all these would pay off... I am just focusing on the wonderful fact that I am going to say our baby soon.

~ * ~

The tentative date for my baby shower has been set to December 12. It's my mom's birthday but she says it's as good a time as any to hold the small party so it wouldn't coincide with Christmas Parties of the attendees. I was actually thinking of holding it on January but my sisters said it would be better to have it next month so I could start ticking off possible gifts for the baby and buy the rest of the baby needs after the shower. Makes sense...

~ * ~

Finally, my office is going to get the attention it needs from maintenance this week, hmmp! If the Personnel Audit wasn't scheduled for the 21st, I'm sure I would be waiting until next year pa for the much needed light fixtures maintenance and the installation of a new airconditioning unit!

The Return

Wow! Finally I'm able to update my blog... Anyways, thanks to all those who visit my blog and watch out for updates periodically... I have been itching to be able to update eversince I came back from my month-long leave from work in July but unfortunately, my internet connection at the office was suspended when I went on leave and it's only just now that I am able to get connected again!

Ok, first thing's first: About my pregnancy, everything going quite well... I am now 21 weeks preggy and although I am still having difficulty (like a bit of tummy pain and the occassional bout with morning, noon and night nausea) I am quite happy and content that my last check-up went well and I have stopped taking duphaston and am just now taking prenatal vitamins. My tummy is quite prominent already and people who see me often make it their business to guess my baby's gender. So far, a majority of the well-wishers and self-proclaimed "fortune-tellers" think that I am having a girl and only four people said I'm going to have a boy... Well, they would just have to find out later when I have my next ultrasound.

In the past couple of days, I have been feeling my baby move and this miracle continuously makes me smile and thank the Lord that I was fortunate enough to have been given such a wonderful blessing. My only prayer now is that my baby would be healthy... no matter what gender (although Daddy Charlie is saying it's going to be a handsome baby boy, hehehe!).

I guess this would have to do for an update for now, because work is currently beckoning and I have to answer. Hopefully I would be able to return bloghops later and continue with the updates as well!

More Details (Part II)

here's the continuation of my previous post...

My Hospital Stint

Early Tuesday morning (really early because it was only around 4am) I woke up Charlie because I really was having a hard time breathing already. The previous night I took my asthma medication and nebulized because I was feeling an attack coming already but I guess I miscalculated because what I thought was just another mild attack turned out to be a major one. By 3:30 in the morning of Tuesday I was wheezing so bad I decided to go down to the bathroom and splash water on my face and then I lied down on the sofa in the living room so as not to disturb Charlie's sleep but my wheezing just got worse and so by around 4am I went back to our room again and woke up my husband. Charlie went on panic mode and decided to rush me to the nearest hospital before I could even protest. There I was not allowed to go home na... and the rest is just a hazy memory. I stayed in the hospital until Thursday morning when I was able to beg the doctor to please allow me to go home na with the promise that I will religously take my medication and rest talaga. By Thursday afternoon I was home and sleeping in my own bed.

Mother's Day

May 10, the eve of Mother's day, I instructed my hubby to please buy cake for Mommy the following day so we could celebrate a simple mother's day. May 11, Charlie went out on the pretense of getting me a refill of my prescription. He came home after lunch with two cakes. A big one for my Mom and a smaller one for me... I laughed and told him, I wasn't a mother yet so I'm not supposed to get a mother's day gift but he said that he's my "panganay" daw and Marian, our neice who is now a frequent sleepover visitor at our house is our baby na din, hehehe! Sige na nga...

More Details (Part I)

Ok, so I was so swamped with "catch-up office work" that I wasn't able to blog more about my activities for the past couple of weeks of blogosphere absence. Well, you know how it is... you're gone for 4 days and you work starts piling up and before you know it, your office table is just a memory and all you see in front of your chair are folders and papers that needs to be attended to. Anyways, half of my table can be seen now so I take it as a hint that I deserve to be able to blog for a while.

***Warning: before you continue reading, let it be known that the following are past happenings already, I just wanted to be able to journal them even if the moment's true excitement, disappointment or whatever has already passed by.

House Guests

Recently (about two weeks already, actually) my parents, together with my siblings, moved in with us at the townhouse we are currently renting. No, not for good, it's just that our super old house in Parañaque (the one I grew up in) is being renovated. Actually, the old house was buldozed to the ground so let me correct myself, it is not being renovated. They're building a new house from scratch. Instead of having them rent another place while the house is being rebuilt, hubby and I volunteered our townhouse for us to share. I mean, they're just going to be there for a month and a half anyway, so why rent? Besides, the townhouse we are renting is big enough for all of us naman. Here are some of the current pictures of the house being built:

Feast of Saint Joseph

On May 4 , we celebrated the Feast of St. Joseph in Las Piñas, there were lots of fun activities including games for kids and a marching band contest. I cooked a simple meal for us and our guests.

... now I have to go back to work so this post will have to be continued later!

Why?

My frequent visitors may be wondering why I have not updated in quite a long time... this is why... Before April ended my internet connection at home bogged down, and it took quite a long time before it got serviced, to be up and running again... and then when it was finally repaired, I got busy with lots of stuff so I wasn't able to blog. And then last week I was hospitalized for 3 days because my asthma acted up again and this attack wasn't a minor one. I was fighting to breath for a couple of days and if I didn't beg my doctor to please release me from the hospital, I probably would have stayed there longer. I guess the heat was just too much for me. So anyway, here I am, attempting to pick up where I left off but there are just too many things I have to do and too many events that I want to blog about that I don't know where to start. Let me just collect my thoughts and maybe later I'll be able to come up with a couple more posts of what has been happening with me lately. I already have several drafts waiting to be published but the internet connection here at the office is so slow and I have several photos I want to upload... besides, I am going to have to publish those in between paperwork and other office duties so... Well, that's my problem... anyway, to everyone who visited while I was "out" thanks a lot, and to those who tagged me, I will get to them eventually, just give me a little time... I'll be returning bloghops soon!

Let Me Explain...

I have not been able to blog or even just go online to check my e-mail for the last couple of days because Charlie and I became parents for the weekend (for the second time). This time, it was just the two of us who had to take care of baby Marianne because my sister was not with us to help. It was quite tiring but really gratifying to be able to take care of such an adorable bundle of joy. We picked Marianne (who hubby now calls "princess" and sometimes "baby namin") from my parents' place at around 4pm last Saturday and took her home for us to take care of for the rest of the weekend. That night, Charlie and I were both sleep deprived not because the baby was crying all the time but because we were both watching her closely. She sleeps well enough but she keeps tossing and turning (later on we found out that she's like that all the time) so we thought she was cold or someting so we put a blanket over her but she keeps taking it off so we just let her be. She woke us up (it's not like we were able to sleep deeply anyway) at around 4:30am and she was all smiles and cooing that you cannot resist playing with her right away. Hubby took her (on the stroller) for a walk around the subdivision at around 6am while I prepared breakfast and cleaned the house. And then after her bath and morning feeding she slept until lunch which was good because I was able to cook lunch before she woke up. Hubby had to fix the brakes on his motorcycle for a while so I was left with Marianne. We watched cartoons for a while, munched on a biscuit, jumped on the sofa (while holding on to me of course), crawled around the bed, had another bottle of milk and slept until 4pm. It was a good thing we finished the laundry on Saturday morning before we picked her up because we were not able to do any other chore around the house while taking care of the baby. Anyway, Charlie and I realized after my dad picked her up last night that having a baby isn't easy, specially if you don't have any help but it was doable. I had experience taking care of babies because I took care of my youngest sister and some of my other neices and nephews... Charlie on the other hand was a newbie and was quite surprised at how much attention the baby needs but all in all it was a weekend that would be on our top 10 most unforgettables and we would always be thankful to Marianne and her parents for letting us experience being parents even for just a couple of days.

here she is sleeping in the middle of our bed (around 11:30pm)

here she is waking Charlie up at 4:30am

playing with her bottle after her morning feeding

slept again after her bath

woke up energetic and happy

one more picture before dressing up to go with Aunt Mae and Daddy H.

So that's why I was not able to update this blog nor go bloghopping for the last couple of days... that's the explanation... anyway, Thank you to those who visited my blog over the weekend and I hope to be able to visit your sites too within the week.

Makati Adventure

First of all, let me just say that it has been quite a while since I visited Makati. Besides, I have never been known for skills in locating places most specially while commuting. I am a self-confessed "geographically challenged" person and I am not ashamed of admitting it. Ok, having said that... Hubby (who by the way has never been to the places we went to yesterday) and I went to the Atrium in Makati for our Pag-ibig counselling seminar and to Herrera Tower where Charles Builders (Gecland Dev. Corp.) was housed. We are already on the final steps in acquiring our own home and so it was quite an exciting day for us. We set off on our "adventure" at around 8am (I know it's quite late considering we didn't know exactly where we were going and we were supposed to be there by 10am for the seminar but I forgot some of the papers we were going to bring in my office so we had to swing by there first before going to Makati) and arrived at the Atrium of Makati at exactly 10:45am. Yes folks, it took us two and a half hours to get from Las Piñas to Makati. Why? Well, needless to say, because of the slower than turtle speed of traffic, plus we were unsure of where to walk to when we got off the bus so... Anyways, we were informed that we were already too late for the 10-12 Seminar and that the next developer-assisted seminar would be at 3pm that day or 9am the next day so we opted to wait for the 3pm one. We decided to go to Herrera Tower first so we could sign documents and submit the requirements we lacked before to the developer of the townhouse we were acquiring. But before doing so, we had a quick bite to eat first. We got to Charles Builders at around 12:30 and had to wait another 30 minutes to get assisted because it was their lunch break. Anyway, by 1pm hubby and I were both signing away at a couple of inches thick of documents. After being evaluated and rated fit-to-go, our papers were submitted and the only thing we needed to do was attend the seminar at Pag-Ibig. We went back to the Atrium at around 2:30pm, armed ourselves with bottled Iced Tea and waited for the 3pm seminar. It could have lasted for just an hour but of course a lot of people had a lot of questions so it lasted an hour and fourty-five minutes. We were given the certificate we needed and off we went by a quarter to five. We were so hungry and tired by this time (plus the heat wasn't helping) so we decided to walk to Landmark and have something to eat there. Now, normally I would have window shopped or even bought something in the mall but I was starting to feel the onslaught of migrane so we just ate at the food center in the basement and grabbed food for muffy (our dog) and pizza for our dinner and went to find our means of transportation home. I know we could have walked towards SM near the MRT station for the FX taxi's which would only cost 45 bucks each but like I said, I was too tired already and my head was starting to pound so we just endured the long queue at the taxi bay at the Landmark. We got home at around 8pm and we paid 200 bucks for the taxi fare (the meter showed only 150 but we were gateful to reach home without negotiating with the cab driver so it was only fitting that we give him the 50 pesos tip). I could have gone online last night and blogged for a while but I just didn't have the strength so I ate a couple of slices of Pizza drank lots and lots of water, took a shower, watch PBB teen edition while waiting for my hair to get dry and then slept! It was quite an adventure but it was fulfilling to know that we have accomplished a lot yesterday and we just have to wait for 7 working days to get approval of our housing loan (I'm keeping my fingers crossed). Today, we are going on another hunting trip. This time we're looking for building materials for the home improvement of my parents' house in Parañaque. Haay, life...