Blog Party!

BLOG PARTY!!!

To our Malaysian friends, Happy Independence Day!!! It's Malaysia's MERDEKA Day today, and in honor of that, Zakirah, the face behind Matahati Designs, and a wonderfully talented designer, has designed a fun, FREE kit for all of you:


Isn't that a FUN looking kit? I used it and scrapped with it of course :)

LINGGO NG WIKA-RANGER

This is stop number 4 of the Matahati Design Team's Blog Party, and here's piece number 4 of the free Merdeka! Kit that Zakirah is giving away!

And since I had done a layout with the kit, I made that into a quickpage, and you can get it as an add-on to the kit as well. Click on the image for the link if you want it! :)


Next stop is at Jess' blog: http://myboycrazylife.blogspot.com/

Oh, and to help you along for the blog party, here's a list of the rest of the Team participating. Please remember that we all live in different time zones, so please be patient :) The links *will* be up for sure!!!

1. Zakirah
2. Sya
3. Fliffy
4. Rona
5. Jess
6. Holly
7. Alice
8. Len
9. Veronique
10. Sandra

Have fun everyone, and thanks for stopping by!

A Party Coming Up!

Just a heads up to stay tuned tomorrow!

Precious Computer Space

O.M.G. Can I just say it? I am running on less than 2 gigabytes of space on my laptop right now. Yes, you may kill me now, hehehehe. I am living in the extreme danger zone, I know. And I just about FREAKED earlier this evening, just as I was about to leave the office.

I had finally gotten a new external hard drive and I happily clicked on Time Machine. Ok. Everything going great. Check. I also had Excel and Photoshop running at the same time. Check. No biggie. My laptop has 4 gigs of RAM, so no prob. I had a kazillion folders open for some inane reason. And NO, I was NOT downloading anything.

I was working on a layout, had finished it and clicked on save. And all I saw was that little round rainbow ball spinning. Cool, saving. And spinning. And spinning. And spinning. Drat! Right click on the PS icon and sure enough, at the top, the dreaded words "application not responding". Aaaaaargh!!!!!!

Holy crap, I tell you!!! My precious layout, kaput! No choice, I had to force quit the darned program if I wanted to go home! It was taking forever to back up, too (initial back up for that particular ehd), so I quit that too. Then all my other programs wouldn't quit properly, none of my windows would close normally.....and I swear I was about to pull all my hair out!!!

Ok. Breathe. Breathe. A million times breathe. Which I did on the way home. Willing mac-mac to be ok when I got home. Thankfully, he came back to life and I started everything from scratch: backing up with Time Capsule (which took forever, by the way) and scrapping that lost layout.

Something good that came out from that was that I scrapped with a vengeance, coming up with these:

LAGEN TRAIL
LOOK AT THE SEA
JUNIOR BRIDESMAIDS

See? I knew scrapbooking was relaxing! :)

PTCs x 3

Uhm. Yeah. That took up my entire morning. I dropped off the kids at the dentist (the girls had cavities and Rogan had to be checked if he could wear braces), and went to school.

Embarrassing moment of the day: I went to the WRONG classroom!!! Aargh! You would think with ALL the years I've been with the school, I'd get the right classroom. But then again, with all the KIDS I have in the school, I guess my mistake is justified?!? Bwahahahaha!

Anyhoo, the classroom I was looking for was 2 doors down, and I mercifully lunged for it.

Rogan's teacher was Teacher Erika. She was a bit young, but was already on her second year of teaching. She said Rogan was a funny boy; smart, but easily distracted. Typical and perfect description of my son, I say. Especially the easily distracted part. Apparently, his desk is one of the messiest ones in the classroom, he seems to NOT be listening to teacher and doing something else, but when he is called, he KNOWS what the answer to the question is! Which teacher couldn't fault, she says, hehehe. (Go, Rogan!)

He needs to work on his writing (in a MAJOR way!) and on his neatness. He is everyone's friends, loves to play soccer during their free time, and surprise of all surprises, he READS his Pokemon books in class! Of course, he does get into trouble because he reads the darned books WHILE class is going on, the little turd! Sigh! I told teacher at least he's into reading now! Hehehe.

Raine was under Teacher Tess. One of my favorite teachers in the whole school. One of the most practical, too. A no-nonsense teacher who really knows how to deal with her students. She is truly a second mom to all the kids. Her love shows in the way she talks about "her" kids. She says Raine has undergone a transformation of sorts from being a big, loud, rambunctious girl to someone who has mellowed and toned down, is a big sister (literally) to her classmates. She is a mediator (whoa!) and a comforter to those in distress for some reason or another.

Raegan seems to be a fave of Teacher Nez, their mama-bear. Rae-rae (hehehe) is responsible, funny, charming, smart, and always ready to help her classmates. She always recites in class, can be counted on to make sure everyone stays in line, and is teacher's little helper.

All the kids got mostly A's. The girls got 1 B, Raegan in Social Studies and Raine in Science, while Rogan got 2 B's: Social Studies and Filipino. Not surprisingly, hehehe. All in all a good haul for the kiddos, and I'm proud of them! These grades despite the fact that we were super duper busy during the ruby anniversary and wedding events and I couldn't even be counted on to look at their homework notebooks! At least, I told them, they were learning to be independent :) Besides, they needed to learn how to study on their own anyway, and not have to count on either me or Japa to have to review them! That would be spoonfeeding too much, I think. I survived without being reviewed/tutored by my folks, and I think it made me a better student.

* * *

My back has been KILLING me since yesterday. The same kind of pain that I was experiencing during the dance practice we had for the wedding anniversary program in Shangri La. Excruciating. Hurts to sit, stand and walk. Like I had a choice today.

I *was* going to go home and rest after the PTCs, but Elizza's prodigal employee decided to show up at the office today of all days. Darn it!!! So I went straight to the office to deal with the situation and get it over it. In short, I had to fire the guy for some circumstantial evidence that directly incriminated him. Sigh. What a job, eh? Took about an hour to do, but the poor guy was talking a mile a minute and then would break into tears. But my hands were tied; I had to do what was best for the company, I told him. And we couldn't have an environment of doubt in the office because of him. Thanks, Lai, for the idea!!!

Before I went home, I decided to pass by Greenhills. I wanted to buy a couple of bags to take to Hong Kong with us. Wrong thing to do. I knew I should have just asked Lai to buy the bags for me when she went there next. As it was, I was there for an hour or so...in ONE store. Buying a total of 5 bags and 3 mini bags. Sigh! Yes, Lai, I shouldn't have brought that much cash with me! Grrrrr! Oh well, at least I have some really really cute bags now! Hehehehe.

I was able to scrap early this morning:

YOU AND ME

I used the new collab SIMPLY YOU by Nina Scraps Designs and Sue Cummings, coming soon at Oscraps!

Bills, Bills, Bills!

That time of the month. Bills everywhere! And it's not even the 15th yet when I get the credit card statements! Aaargh! I have school extra curricular bills, swimming training, Kumon, art supplies lists to buy....everything money out! Sigh! It is so hard to save nowadays, especially with prices for most everything increasing every so often.

Mom, if you're reading this, please please PLEASE go through the salary scale I submitted for your approval!!! Hehehe. Nothing like saying it out in public, eh? Sigh and double sigh here.

Some good news for the family though, escrow for our office finally pushed through! Whoohoohoo! So in a few months' time, it'll be time to start packing stuff and stowing them onto either storage space or onto moving vans. Then the long drive east (?) to Las Vegas. Not sure how fast or slow the drive will be, but a leisurely drive will let us sleep in Vegas or reno hotels before we get to Inspirada, our final destination.

Then a mad rush for decorating and furnishing....something that dear mother would enjoy, I'm sure, hehehe. This includes the shopping part, of course! She will be in her element at this time and she's probably already raring to go, planning who and what to bring at that time :) Hmmmm....think of the BILLS she'll rack up! Yikes!

Ok, enough. On lighter matters, I scrapped and continued work on The Sisterhood Challenge. Finally! I finished up the 5th month of Ranger:



Now that I've started on the Challenge again, I'll hopefully be able to keep on going and going and going.....keep your fingers crossed! Onward to the 6th month!!!

TTFN!

My ME Time

It's actually all about ME today! No work, no school. It's National Heroes Day today. Randy and Stella took the older kids with them to Lago to go wakeboarding. Stella---don't forget to give me pics, please!!! I need to scrap those :)

Meanwhile, Japa took Raine and Ranger to the Shrine for a photo shoot for the Columbarium. They met Rodney (who would play Ranger's dad) and Boots Anson-Roa (who would play Raine's grandmother), the face of the Columbarium. Japa took lots of pics, but the lighting wasn't all that great because he couldn't use his flash because it would have triggered the slave flash of the professional photographer.

Here are a couple of my faves. Just a couple, since these files are just HUGE!



Boots did say that Raine was a natural. To which, my dear daughter replied, "Yuck! I don't want to be an actress!" Sigh. What to do??? Grrrr! This girl needs some manners, man!

And what did I do with myself all at home? Why, I reveled in my ME time! I alternated between reading and scrapping of course! I enjoyed myself thoroughly and I told myself that once in a while, it *is* good to have some time just by yourself, for yourself. Yes? Yup!

LAUGHING SO HARD
VIRGINIA

Ok. I hear the kids. Time to put away my toys :)

Go Vultures (Basketball Game)

After mass and lunch at Gloria Mari's (hotpot, UGH!!!), we went to go see Rondic and Rodney play basketball. Their Jaycees team, the Vultures, was in a quandary: it was the second game of the semi-finals and they were down 1-0. They lose today, and they can kiss their shot at the championship goodbye. So Dic asked us to cheer for them, the way we did last week (when they lost).

We (Elizza, Zhar and the kiddos) were better prepared today. We brought a DRUM, hehehe. Not a big drum, but a pretty good sized one with a deep booming sound (not an icky, high-pitched sound). With the kids' Rock Band drumsticks, we were set. Louie, from the game before the Vultures, lent us the megaphone he was using.......so we definitely had sounds. :) Randy and Stella arrived sometime in the 1st quarter but had to leave before the game ended.

And boy, did we make sound! The other team was better prepared as well, having some empty gallon bottles of cooking oil on hand. They would bang these together; their "drum". Not as effective as our drum (didn't drown out the sound of it), but it was a good idea, hehehehe. Maybe we should bring some next week just to make our side louder.

Anyhoo, the Vultures NEVER led throughout the game. N.E.V.E.R. They would get to within 3 and the other team would make another run. The biggest difference was 9. But the Vultures' awesome rebounding in the 1st quarter game *me* some hope; they could beat the other team no problem because they could CONTAIN them!!!

So with a few seconds to go, the Vultures TIED the game. Our side of the stands erupted in cheers, yells, and screams. I jumped up holding on to the drum with my left hand and banging feverishly with my right. Zhar had control of hte megaphone and was all over it. Hehehehe.

Five minutes later, the game was over. The Vultures WON by 7 points (I think). Whoohoohoo!!! So the series is tied at 1-1. Next game, this Wednesday.

Oh, and I sure as heck lost my voice...I was cheering THAT loud!

It's all quiet at home right now. Raegan and Rogan are at La Vista; they're going with Randy and Stella first thing tomorrow to go wakeboarding. I would have loved to go, but I think the temptation NOT to participate would be too strong...and I can't get careless about my back :(

So I scrapped, hehehe.

TO THE ISLAND

TTFN!

Home Sweet Home, Bed Sweet Bed

You guessed it. Saturday is my total-veg day. I did nothing but loll in bed, alternating between scrapping and reading. Majorly! Oh and throw in tons of downloading too, hehehe. Good thing the kids out the whole day too, otherwise I'd never hear the end of it!

The kids started their Saturday swimming training today. Bright and early, at 630 am, they left for the pool. Training for the Hong Kong meet, I guess. But it was good, since I've been wanting them to start Saturday training for the longest time.....so they'd get stronger and have some structure to their weekends. Or at least on Saturdays. After swimming, they went straight to Kumon. Rogan took his achievement test for the D level and made it, yay!!! Raegan's taking her achievement test for E level sometime next week, while Raine has started level C already! Pretty soon, they'll be too smart for me at Math! Yikes! You think I should unearth the calculus textbooks? Bwahahahaha! Uhm, NOT!

Ok, ready for my layouts? I did FIVE today! Whoohoohoo! Way to go on catching up with CT requirements, you know! :) I *so* needed today to really sit down and scrap, with practically no distractions at all!

SUN
SCHOOL PROGRAM 2001
SUN GOD
I FOR ICE CREAM
PAJAMA PARTY

Was I productive or what?!? I surprised even myself, hehehe. At least I did a pretty good job of catching up with my CT requirements :) I'm pretty sure I'm at least at the minimum required to stay on their CTs by now; just a few more just to make sure so they won't kick me out!!!

It's been quiet on the reading front, blog-wise. I got embroiled in the whole Twilight saga. And trust me, believe everyone when they say that it is HARD to PUT DOWN!!! Lai pressed me to start the series because Reese was already on Book 2 when Lai found out that the series MAY have some scenes too rated for an 11-year old. And so I set on my quest.....and discovered and enjoyed the world of Bella, Edward and Jacob.

But I'll reserve my analysis of the books for another post :)

Not Going to Work

Like I really was? Hehehe. It *is* Friday....and my brain's still in Palawan, I guess.

But there wasn't anytime to go to work today. In the morning, I watched Ranger perform for his Linggo ng Wika program. Nothing major, but at least he danced with his partner, hehehe. He looked so cute in his orange bandana too! Dark little monkey, from all the sun in Palawan, but he was easily the cutest on stage. Hahahahaha-yes, I am biased. So there!

After the program, I went with mom and Lola (with Tita Nonie and Tita Lucy) to have lunch at Choi's where we met up with Mrs Yao and her lovely daughters. Ninang Tina and I were the youngest in the bunch. I told mom I did NOT want to go and be the only young un there; everyone was going to be O.L.D!!! But oh well. Daughter-duty beckons.

Glad thing I went, too. These Chinese gals sure know how to order from a Chinese restaurant! I swear, most Chinese restaurants have their own special menu for other Chinese folk! We never got to order the wonderful things on the table! I don't remember all their names, but I know I loved the seafood salad in a mango half (artfully prepared, too!), the lobster with noodles, the sweet empanada, and for dessert, this wonderful lychee milk with eggwhites thingamajig! Yum yum yum! :)

Turns out I was the replacement of Tita San, sort of. Ninang Tina told me I took the the place of Tita San. And I could tell she missed Tita San. I responded by telling her that Tita San may not be with us physically, but I'm sure she was in the room somewhere, smiling at all of us, happy that WE were happy we were enjoying the food and each other's company.

And the best part? We ended lunch (THREE HOURS later!!!) with the promise of planning a trip to either Hong Kong, Taiwan or Beijing (or anywhere, really) so that we would just eat eat and EAT! Hehehe. Hey, just as long as they did all the ordering, then we're going to be ensured of a feast, right?

Then it was homeward bound....until Mom said that we should pass by the Landmark Department Store in Trinoma. Man oh man oh man. I should NOT have gone with them! Hehehe. But the kids, Rogan especially, needed pants in a major sort of way. It has been a couple of years I think since I really shopped for them. So.....with a brave face, I stepped into Landmark.

All I can say is, thank goodness most everything was on SALE!!! I walked out of there with 12 pairs of pants, 1 pair of shorts, and several shirts. Plus lotion, cologne, Eskinol, and other toiletries. The best part? I spend a minimum of P3,000 on one receipt and I get to pay my total in 6-month installment! Whoohoohooo!!! How COOL is that? Hehehehe. Psych!!!

I got home, spent but happy with my purchases. I do have to exchange a few pairs of pants for a smaller size, but it was a good day! I read some more (almost done with the whole Twilight Series saga!) and scrapped a solitary page:

2001 Vacation Album Cover Page

Is that a cool awesome template or what?!?! It comes with the castle of course (you think I'd be able to do that myself???) and is by Tracy Blankenship over at Funky Playground Designs. She does awesomely unique -and embellished- templates!

TTFN!

Bo-o-o-o-o-ring Board Meeting

Well, we couldn't avoid it forever. A Board Meeting. Right after a vacation, too! Definitely throws cold water in your face, doesn't it. Sigh. And it was a looooooong day. Damn chairman Randy wouldn't even let me open my laptop during the meeting!!!! Grrrr! I mean, really, if I can multi-task, I think I should be entitled to do it! HMP!!!!

Anyhoo, the meeting took up the entire day. The WHOLE day! This is a huge factor as to why I abhor meetings. Too much information, too long a day. Considering that it's been two months (I think) since we last met, I guess we're lucky the Board Meeting didn't take more than a day.... Randy had tons to report for the Stateside companies, so that was given priority. All the talk about moving houses, escrows, mortgage quotes, brokers, etc etc etc, drove me nuts! The short of it is that we NEED to sell Polaris right away; the buyer for the office seems to be serious enough to have made an offer, a way lower offer than the appraisal value. But with the US economy the way it is right now, we're lucky if we are able to sell the office AND the house!

Because it was such a long meeting, I can only post a page I finished before the wedding:

GHOST CHASE

I really need to start some serious scrapping for our 2001 and 2002 vacations, hehehe.

TTFN!

I'm Back!

Palawan was just BEAUTIFUL!!! Very clean, very green, very fun. Tiring, but fun. We went kayaking, snorkeling, boating and always always we had the most fun EATING!!! Yup, that's what we do best I guess. :) And it helped that all our meals were buffet style, hahahaha! We never did go hungry and let me tell you that the hospitality at Lagen Island is unsurpassed! Everyone was just polite, helpful and KNEW what their island had to offer.

I'm trying to figure out how to get Japa's and/or Elizza's facebook albums and videos on here just so I won't have to upload everything myself. Takes too long, you know? So hang on just a sec while I try my luck.....

Ok, no such luck. The best I did (and a much faster way) was to save the images from the Facebook albums of Fr Benny, Lai and Japa and uploaded them to slide for a slide show. It takes forever to load the hi-res photos!

Japa and Lai's pics (I mixed them up by mistake!)

Fr Benny's pics

See how beautiful this island is? I guess the layouts I'm planning to do will speak for the true beauty of the place :) While not exactly in the boondocks, Lagen Island wasn't a metro hub either. But food was plentiful, the hospitality unsurpassed, and the amenities were a-ok. We sure could have used Rubis tweezers though, when Rogan got a wood splinter in his finger, but there was an on-site clinic and we got the thing out of his finger no prob.

Luckily for the kids, DepEd had declared half day of school today because of a storm. So technically, the kids just missed a half day of school, whew! :)

Now it's time to get our sunburned bodies in bed. After slathering the lotion all over, of course, hehehe. Don't want to be itchy and peeling tomorrow, right?

TTFN!

Wedding of Rod and Zhar

It's very very late and this post will most likely consist of snippets of whatever I remember, hehehe. And maybe a pic or 2 before exhaustion overrides me.....

We started the day bright and early. Sort of. I took my time taking a shower, telling the girls that we would leave for La Vista at 9 am sharp. And we did. The girls lined up (figuratively speaking) for the hairdresser and eventually the make up artist, Rene Samson, who incidentally, did my hair and make up for both my debut AND my wedding. All those years ago. :) I waited a bit for Jesi Mendez who was going to do hair and make up for Mom, Lola and me. These guys were the same ones who made us look presentable during the wedding anniversary a few weeks ago.

Make up, a light lunch so as not to ruin my make up, touch up, and then hair. Then it was time to get into our gowns (flown in just this week from Cebu!) and bedeck ourselves with jewelry. Rush out of the house at 1230 pm to make it to the church with plenty of time to take informal pics and line up.

And the wedding started. It was a beautiful event, marred only by the ineptness of the *supposed* wedding coordinator, JP Montilla. Yes, that's his name for all to see as a reminder NOT to even consider him (however remotely!!!) for his (lack of) services. The subject of his ineptness will be for another post. You're going to WANT to see that for sure! :)

Anyway, Zhar was a beautiful bride, moving her sisters to tears when she started almost-bawling when she saw the face of her dad giving her away. I cried when I saw Tito Waldy trying with all his might to stop the tears, and to control his facial features. To no avail. It was very moving, he couldn't control himself. Tita Zen was, as expected, crying copious tears as she went to her seat.

Dad was the first to cry, probably realizing that this was his LAST child to get married. Mom was doing a Tito Waldy, vainly attempting to keep her tears in check. She was a tad bit successful than Tito Waldy, ever-conscious of how tears would ruin her make up, hehehe.

And Rod? Well, he was stoic as usual. I'm sure he was greatly moved when he saw Zhar floating to where he was standing. But, as I later found out, he was boilingly pissed at JP for ruining Zhar's entrance. Randy patted his back and said to forget about the stupidity of the rotund wedding coordinator and just to concentrate on the bride.

The wedding went well, except for a few things:

1. Zhar forgot her vows in her purse which was nowhere to be found (it was with one of the maids who left the church!)
2. The Ring Bearer (Ranger) was already asleep when the priest asked for the rings and the arrhae to be brought to the couple.
3. Most of the guys' suit buttons popped OFF.
4. And the best one of them all: my freakin' dress BURST apart!!! Aaaack!!! hahahahaha!

All I heard was Raegan or Raine saying "Mama, your zipper!" And without even thinking, I plunked down my behind on the pew and felt behind me. Sure enough, I could feel AIR going into my gown. There was a BREEZE behind me!!! Hehehehe.

In my mind, I was thinking, "now how in the HECK am I going to go to the reception" and "oh thank God the lighting of the candles is DONE!" and "I'm going to kill Cary! (the couturier). Hehehe. My shawl was immediately draped behind me to cover this new fashion faux pas. Bang and Elizza were scrambling, trying to figure out what to do.

Thank goodness Cary himself came to the pew to assess the damage. He needed pins to get me through the rest of the ceremony, and Bang and Lai ripped the pins from their bouquets. The junior bridesmaids (Reese, Rielle, Raegan and Raine) obligingly did the same with the pins from their bouquets and handed them to Cary.

Now realize that I am a LARGE woman, and really, 3 pins from oh.....7 bouquets just wasn't going to cut it and hold my gown closed for the next hour or so. Raegan told me that she looked behind her, where the Maid and Matron of Honor (Zharro and Zharine) and the bridesmaids were, ALL of them had their hands out with the pins at the ready. LOL! Can you imagine the situation?!?

So if you are one of those girls reading this, I say THANK YOU for saving my behind from further embarrassment! Your pins saved me. That is true SISTERHOOD, yes? :)

And not to worry, when we got to the hotel for the reception, Marivic and I rushed to the ladies room where she sewed the gown shut with me in it. And I survived the whoooooole night, dancing, too!!! Now, the tricky part was getting OUT of the dang thing. On the way home, I was starting to itch, with the girdle underneath the gown. As in ITCH. I tried taking the girdle out withOUT loosening the gown, but I could only take out half the hooks. Out of sheer desperation,
I asked the yaya to unzip what she could of my gown. It gave me maybe 10 inches max before the stitches. I wriggled and writhed all I could until I could ask Kocet to PULL out my girdle. Ahhhhhh!

When we got home, I hurriedly turned the gown around and took a pair of scissors and ripped through the zipper before I could claim FREEDOM. Double ahhhhhh!

Some photos of the wedding:

Here are pre-wedding pics, at home in La Vista:

Pics during the wedding ceremony:

Ok, gotta go. Need to pack for our Palawan trip. I'm bringing my laptop, but who knows if there's internet access there, and how fast it'll be. Sigh. At least, I'll be sure to have TONS of pics for scrapping, yeah!!!

Owwwiiieeee!!!

I woke up with a stiff neck today. Definitely NOT a good thing to have when the wedding of Rod and Zhar is TOMORROW!!!! I was feeling a bit of a twinge last night, so I slapped on some Ben Gay. So far so good. When I woke up this morning though. It was ba-a-a-ad. In a panic, I slathered on Zostrix, something like Ben Gay but prescriptions strength.

Say it with me....OOOOOOOWWWWWWIIIIIEEEEE!!!! Whoohoo! Did that ointment sting, especially when I was sweaty! Yikes! I couldn't rub it off since that would make the ointment get deeper into my skin, hehehehe. Ugh ugh and triple ugh, man! It was not a fun thing to have today at all! I couldn't even stay on my laptop that long since I was extraneously craning my neck no matter where the laptop was---on my stomach, on my lap, on a table. All I could do really was rest, supine in bed pretty much.

Thank goodness I have a STACK of books I got for my birthday, hehehe. They kept me company today!

My stiff neck was the perfect excuse NOT to go dinner with everyone else, though *wink wink*. It was at Tita Moning's, where Rod proposed to Zhar. In Intramuros, Manila. Need I say any more??? Of COURSE I didn't want to brave the Friday evening traffic, coupled with the fact that it was payday AND that it was the night before the wedding!!!

Call it age or whatever, but I would rather rest before the big day, even if I'm not the bride, hehehehe! I'm expecting it to be an uber-full day tomorrow, what with make up sessions starting at 7 am for some! :)

Here's my one and only layout for today:

GHOST CHASE

Off to get some much needed beauty sleep! :)

Root Canal Take 3

Don't worry, no explicit descriptions this time, hehehehe. But everyone will be glad to know (I know I was!) that today was the very LAST day of my series of visits to the dentist for my root canal. Like the last time, everything was clean and nice-smelling :) The dentist put a *permanent* filling in and I was done! Yeah!!! Now, my chipped teeth are another matter.......

We *were* going to have a wedding rehearsal today at 7 pm. Thankfully, that was cancelled. Not like we had to absolutely cram more stuff that we had to do this week of the wedding! Just looking at my calendar HURTS!!! Hahahaaha! I guess it's to be expected, last minute stuff to do, fittings, exams of the kids HAD to be this week (!!!) plus a Linggo ng Wika celebration in school. Sigh! I will be sooo glad when it's wedding day on Saturday! All this madness can then stop!

Speaking of weddings, I did do some layouts featuring the Ruby Anniversary. Check them out:

GLAMOROUS GRANDMOTHER

GREAT ACHIEVEMENT

Now, to take advantage of this momentary lull in our busy lives this wedding week to scrap some more!

The Prince is Having a Ball.....

Most of us trooped to the CCP to see Lea Salonga as Cinderella in Rodgers and Hammerstein's production of Cinderella. I was hesitant to see it, just because I personally think Lea is just too old to play Cinderella. I was pleasantly suprised to have enjoyed the show.....all the while thinking that the kids would have loved to see it.

Of course, I wouldn't be shelling out the big bucks to let them see it. More like the el-cheapo tickets in the P1,000 or so range. There are some P550-P750 I think but then we'd be needing not just binoculars but telescopes to be able to see the performers' faces! hehehehe. We'll see.

It was an enjoyable night, with a few mutterings of critiquing here and there, but it made for a fun evening all in all. My favorite characters include the fairy godmother and the "fat" nerdy stepsister. Lea's voice was powerful as always, and she sang a pretty good number of songs. However, I hated her kinky hair set atop her head just to give the illusion of height. And still she came only to the shoulder (if at all!) of the prince! Really, they should either have given her 10-inch platform shoes or just picked a waaaaay shorter singer to play the prince!

I also loved the horses and the 2-mice. It was a bit anti-climactic, I'd have to agree with Dic here, because we were sort of expecting how the mice would "sew" the gown of Cinderella! hehehehe. Another fave character is the King, father of the prince of course. Loved his voice and guffaws. Hated the Queen though, especially when she sang in this teeny, tinny voice. Reminded me of Matutina, if you remember her. Best description? Try nails on the blackboard. THAT is what I mean by teeny, tinny. *shudder shudder*

Then, as is typical with my family, no matter the late hour, we *had* to find a place to eat. Sigh! And we want to lose weight?!?!? Sheesh! We settled for a Japanese restaurant that was open all night (it was already past 10 pm!) and lingered for a filling meal. I was good, having only udon for me. I did text Japa, who was still up, and he asked me to take home some sashimi for him.

Some Scraps I haven't uploaded yet:

CELEBRATE 8

DIFFERENT WAYS TO EAT A STRAWBERRY

Off to be I go!

Totally Risque

How risque is this bridal shower? Suffice it to say that I can't bring myself to upload most of the photos here, hehehe. We opted to go with the more modern twist to the bridal shower and made it a co-ed shower instead of the traditional all-women-present kind of shower.

And it was just hilarious! We were doubled up with laughter at practically all the games! It was definitely a fun (if rated) night! And the kids were totally banned from La Vista for the night. They weren't allowed to step into the house, even for dinner. I think this is the FIRST time we've ever done this to the kids, hehehe. But really, with everything that was going on, it was not something that they should see. Yet.

Some not-s0-potentially-embarrassing photos:

Our massage oil souvenirs
Totally delish cupcakes!!! I took home a box for the kids, too! Hehehe.

Our table setting, care of Conti's. Yummy catered food, and of course, Mom *had* to add other foods. She's so scared someone would go hungry (roll eyes here)

The Bride and Groom
Randy filling up the questionnaire on how well he knows his twin. He lost by half a point, by the way, just in case anyone's interested!

Those pair of "dice" were the best part of the shower, hehehe. Marked with a body part and an action, each time the bride and groom to be made a mistake in how well they knew each other, they'd roll the dice and have to do what the dice said = consequence!




Another great game at the shower was Stella's modeling poses. Guests were divided into 2 teams and we chose our "model" for a particular shot BEFORE the photo was revealed. Best lookalike pose won a point for the team. Sooo fun!

This is the LAST shower we'll ever host, thank goodness. At the same time though, it's a little bit sad that it's the LAST time we're going to do this, too! Hmmmm.....mixed feelings yes, but one thing's for sure: it was loads of FUN!

P.S. I so wish I could upload a photo of our wonderfully x-rated cake from Kink Cakes, but I like to keep this blog on the wholesome side, kwim? Hehehehe. But it was the best-looking cake! Hahahahaha!

Getting Ready for the Shower

As if this past weekend wasn't stressful enough, I spent the entire day getting stuff ready for Zhar's bridal shower. It was buy this, buy that, print this and that, research this, etc. You get the picture. In fact, we were all so last-minute in doing stuff, we even had a lunch meeting at TGIF to sort of finalize everything! Boydee, Bang, Japa, Lai, Stella, Japa and myself were there and we were laughing up a storm thinking of totally risque games to implement during the shower.

The FOOD was going to be catered, and we didn't finalize that until about 2 pm. And yes, the event is TOMORROW. Sheesh! Hehehe. Down to the wire, I swear! Not good for the heart in all its panicky thumps, but hey, a great challenge for all of us.

We did the usual family divvy, each one doing our own forte. Easier that way, and we got to divide and conquer the tasks quite easily. A tad stressful, cutting it so close, but we are going to DO this! :)

Zhar's sisters are going to be joining us for the shower, so we put them in charge of the giveaways and the prizes. Our side will be taking care of the food, the venue and the games. Can you see me rubbing my hands in glee? This is going to be so much fun, especially when you factor in that I'm *NOT* going to have to participate, heeheehee!

Some layouts I forgot to post yesterday:

RANDY, STELLA & TYLER
GROOVY POSE

Off to Stepford...

Dressed to the nines (sort of), in our Stepford Wives attire, we drove TWO HOURS (!!!!) to Tagaytay, to Sonya's Garden for Zhar's Despedida de Soltera. This is a traditional send-off party that the bride's family gives to formally acknowledge that they are "giving away" their daughter to the groom's family. Literally, despedida de soltera means "saying goodbye to being single".

Here we are, in a surprisingly passable family pic. FINALLY! Actually I *insisted* we take a family pic BEFORE the kids got all sweaty and gross and removed their hats and jackets. No way was I going to let them get away from these scrapbooker's little hands, hahahaha!

There was a harpist who strummed beautifully on her huge harp

We also had Zhar's cousin, Anna, dance a couple of numbers. Anna is a yoga instructor from New York, but she danced wonderful Hawaiian interpretations of love songs (traditional wedding songs I think?). When she was introducing her first number, she said "Aloha" and probably almost fell when our whole table responded with an enthusiastic ALO-O-O-O-O-HA! Hehehehe. We went to school in Hawaii ya? *wink wink*




More pics from Stepford land:

Here are Rod and Zhar:

And pretty maids all in a row:

Can I just say what a STRESSFUL weekend this has been?!?!? The baptism was yesterday, and this morning, I was up bright and early to park my arse on the parlor chair to have my hair fixed for the Soltera. But the !@%^&*@#$ hairdresser didn't listen to me!!! Grrr! I wanted a flip at the ends of my hair, but she just did my entire HEAD in curls!!! Sigh! Oh well. At least most of it was covered with a hat!

And thank goodness I had opted OUT of getting in a DRESS. I was the smartest one out there in the sweltering heat in some plaid pants and a white fitted blouse. Instant Stepford-iness, if you ask me! I was comfy, especially during the 2-hour ride to Sonya's garden! The kids (and Japa, actually) were dressed care of Children's Place, hehehe. Can you BELIEVE that Japa fit in a boys size 14?!?!? Sigh! What is this world coming to???