A Few LOs to Break Up the Text Space

Yeah...I need to update my blog with my layout postings as well AND really, I need to break up the almost all-text space on my blog recently :)

WAITING FOR A MIRACLE
Photos of my Tita San, a day after she arrived from a 3-week stay in Korea where she had to have an emergency brain operation.

Credits: kit - Hope Springs Eternal by Rina Kroes at SBE; word art - by Rina Kroes for the SBE Scripture Challenge; photo frame - Vintage Storyboard Frame by Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals; fonts - DB Pooja, DB Joy Script by Darcy Baldwin at Blue Flombingo; layered sketch - by Rachael Giallongo

STARBUCKS BIRTHDAY
Journaling reads:

straw for a candle
chocolate cake
Tazo Tea
birthday breakfast
at Starbucks
Japa’s 38th Birthday
26 Apr 2007

Credits: kit - Forward Thinking by Royanna Fritschmann at MDM; paint chip art Da Vinci - by Katie the Scrapbook Lady at The Digi Shoppe; twill numbers - Celebrate, a GMD Collab kit; font - DJB Messie Amanda by Darcy Baldwin; layered sketch, corner fold, staples, film strip - by Jen Caputo

And yes, Japa's 38. Yikes! That means I'll be that age in a couple of months!!! At least the Gavino side of the family seems to have nice luscious hair and Japa may not have to have a hair transplant Florida just yet, hehehe. So here's to nice, THICK hair in the genes!

Ugly Dog

Had to squeeze this in. Watching some late night TV on either CNN or BBC, I can't remember, they had this feature on the Ugliest Dog ever. I cannot even BEGIN to describe the facial features of this critter. It seemed the size of a Chihuahua (I'm not do expert, remember) and had some facial hair like some Scottish Terrier. It also had it's pink tongue hanging OUTSIDE of its mouth. Ugh. And there was a mom that allowed her little daughter to be licked by this thing!

The ugly dog was probably clean.....it's owner sure looked respectable. And of couse, she was saying things like beauty is only skin deep and everything. True, but her dog was still ugly. Maybe some Organic dog food will help improve its features? Hehehe.

Randy and Stella's Wedding

Warning! Photo heavy post! :)

Today's the big day! The kids didn't go to class since we had to be at the Makati Shangri-La by 10 am to have our hair and make up done. My poor cellphone....I had fully charged it last night, but by the time 1 or 2 pm came around, my battery level was less than half! Hehehe. Goes to show what it takes to plan a wedding eh? And I'm not even the bride!!! :)

That is tradition, I guess. The Sisterhood steps up to help with wedding preparations. Mainly the chaplets (read the post below), but there were a lot of behind-the-scenes preparations too, such as guest lists, seating arrangements, powerpoint presentations, wrapping giveaways, etc etc etc. Thank goodness Randy and Stella were pretty much hands-on....at least they knew what was going on in their wedding, hehehe.

Ok, fast forward to having our hair and make up done. We had a FEW pictorials. We had to get to the Church early; earlier than the bride and her family of course, who were staying at the same hotel. We couldn't have the groom seeing the bride before the actual ceremony could we?

So we arrive at The Shrine of St. Therese at 4:45 pm. The wedding was to start between 5 pm and 5:30 pm. Our dear Mother could NOT stand to be early for anything; she was finding fault at everything, and getting everyone stressed! Good thing we know her, otherwise, WE'D be totally harassed and stressed by the time everyone had to march down the aisle!

The WHOLE family was part of the wedding party. I tried begging of being one of the Matrons of Honor (matrons sounds so OLD, doesn't it?), but to no avail. Oh well. My biggest concers (as a scrapbooking mom, hehe) was taking pictures of all the kids as they walked down the aisle. Being flower girls and bearers, the kids were going to walk BEFORE me.....which pretty much told me I could take NO pics! Sigh!

Enter Japa, one of the secondary sponsors. I don't know how he got his hands on his camera after he walked down the aisle, but he did have his trusty Sony SLR! Whew! So he took some pic of all of the kids and me as we walked down the aisle. Of course, I did NOT like any of the pics he took of me; thank God Elizza was there, too, and she had some pretty good ones, hehehe. Thanks Lai!

Zhar was also on hand to take pics at the end of the aisle. Thanks bunches, Zhar, although I have yet to copy Rod's compact flash card at this point :)

And yes, I cried. I cried when I saw Randy walking down the aisle with Mom and Dad. I cried as I was about to begin my walk. I had to compose myself as I walked down the aisle though, or all my pics would be awful! As I passed Randy with Mom and Dad though, the tears started falling. I looked back to see Steph, the other Matron of Honor, dabbing at her eyes, too! Hehehe. Sigh! I guess we were both emotional to see our baby brother and sister finally tying the knot!

Some pre-wedding pics:
Don't we all look nice and lovely? Hehehe. Here's the Sisterhood Three----for the last time. Looking forward to adding Stella!
Ok, time for the photo-heavy part of this post: wedding pics! (straight from t

Here are Japa and Bang as the cord bearers:Lai and Jovic as the cord bearers:
The bearers:

Ranger as the Rosary Bearer...but I couldn't find a pic. By the way, he also kind of destroyed the Rosary...Raegan saw some pieces rolling around and Japa put it back together. Whew! And SO typical of Ranger!
Here's Riley as the Myrrh Bearer. Not sure about the significance, but hey, we needed to fit in all our boys as part of the wedding party! Hehehe.
And my handsome little BIG-man, Rogan as the Crucifix Bearer. Trust me, I was praying fervently that he did NOT drop that breakable crucifix!
And now for our pretty "little" flower girls (who SHOULD have been billed as junior bridesmaids....but we stage mothers forgot!):

Rielle: Raine:
Raegan:
Reese:
This is ME...a MATRON of honor, hehehe:
Our dear mother, looking FABULOUS in her equally fab gown by Paul Cabral:
Randy and Stella:
Doesn't the altar look goHgeous in this shot:
And a CUTE pic, just because I like it, hehehe:
TTFN!

Wedding Giveaways

The Sisterhood was in charge of the wedding giveaways of Randy and Stella. We were doing chaplets to St. Therese. We thread memory wire through 24 pearls, 26 silver filler beads, and through a St. Therese medallion. Put some glue on the silver rubber-filled stoppers and voila! A chaplet!

Chaplet making was a lot of work; fun, but a lot of work. We had to make 400-500 chaplets...and these were for the female guests! Woodeb beads were used for the male guests; we had 300 of those.

Wish we had learned of unique wedding favors* sooner, hehehe. A plethora of truly different kinds of giveaways, including gifts for the wedding entourage! For the scrapper in me, there were picture coasters and a mini-album. There's a bunch of personalized favors as well, ranging from matchbooks to champagne and water labels, to CD labels. Other unique favors include a bucket of flower seed packets (personalized of course!), chocolate bars (yumm!), wonderfully-shaped rose soaps (they look real, too!) and totally cute wedding cookie favors! These are sugar cookies shaped and decorated to look like the bride and groom.

So for the next wedding, I'll be sure to look this site up for different wedding favors for sure. Let's see....there's Mom and Dad's 40th wedding anniversary and Rod and Zhar's wedding. What do you think, guys?

*This blog post is based on information provided by Blogitive.com.

Our Wedding Gift Has Been Sent

Oh I just LOVE technology! I am so lazy when it comes to buying gifts; I prefer to do everything online when I can. And that includes wedding gifts. Hehehe. I sort of knew what I wanted to get Randy and Stella; we had talked about it and they said they wanted it :)

And so, thanks to my blogging-for-money posts, I came across the coupon chief. When I went through this site, it gave me an awesome coupon code for overstock: 7% off my entire order! How suh-weet is that! But just in case Randy or Stella are reading this right now (which I highly doubt since it's their Big Day tomorrow, but still!), I won't be mentioning what I got them just yet. But suffice it to say that on the already drastically reduced prices, I got an additional $15 off! Cool!

And the great part about overstock.com? I didn't even have to scrounge around for a gift card or nice way to send it to Randy and Stella! They had this option that I could send an E-card to them telling them what our gift was :) Of course, I could have chosen the option where they wouldn't know what the gift was, but that was too corny, hehehe.

Ok, sleeping time!

Birthday Greetings

Happy Birthday to Stella, Tito Lito and Yuri!!!

Obviously, Stella can't be seen by Randy today, so we won't be seeing her at all. The wedding is tomorrow after all :)

Mom was throwing a birthday party for Tito Lito, as well as an eating party (hehehe) for our foreign guests who flew in for Randy and Stella's wedding. Yes, food galore once again. Our family loves to eat, or haven't you noticed? Hehehe :)

We congregate in La Vista before the party to see if Randy needs any more help. Of course he does, LOL! While him and Mom do the final guest count and seating arrangement, I hole myself up in one room and do the powerpoint slides for the Church. Easy peasy! :) I was done in a couple of hours, I think. Nothing like stressing out before the big day eh?

After dinner, we girls met in Mom's room to choose our bling for the wedding. We take out Mom's crown jewels (hehehe) and start trying several on, making our choices after about 40 minutes. Not an easy task, but we managed :)

Then off we go home to pack the wedding clothes. We are going to the hotel bright and early tomorrow to have our hair and make up done. The girls aren't going to school since we have to be at the hotel at 10 am. I'm making Rogan go to school until lunch so he won't have to miss much. It's so easy being a BOY, eh?

Gotta get some shut eye. Can't have any black circles under my eyes for the wedding tomorrow!

TTFN!

Music Lovers Anyone?

Anyone out there interested in singing or belting it out for real? Check out this press release:

Tourdates.Co.UK, Britains fastest growing new music website, has launched a chart for unsigned bands.

The site allows new bands to upload promotional tracks, announce gig dates and create profiles to promote themselves alongside major artists such as the Artic Monkeys and The Twang.

Tourdates Jarrod Robinson says, there are some fantastic unsigned bands in the UK and we wanted them to know how much our community likes their music, an unsigned chart seemed the perfect answer.

Chart results are announced on the site at 19:00 every sunday, the sametime as the No1 single of the week is announced on BBC's radio 1.

I wonder if just anyone can send in a tape or CD of their music? Hmmmm.....I can't believe I typed in "tapes". Hehehe.

Stupid Shoe People

I have NO shoes to wear on the wedding!!! Aaargh! The stew-pid shoe people who were supposed to make my shoes simply forgot! I ranted, raved, and screamed bloody murder on the phone. I demanded to talk to the manager or owner and that was ONLY when the person on the other end said she was going to try and do something about it! Leche!!!

In short, they ran out of fabric for the shoes and didn't even bother to call me! Yet they have my cell number! I totally let them have it, saying that it was THEIR problem and not mine! Obviously, it WAS my problem because I was left with NO shoes!!! Stupid imbeciles, I tell you!

So, Lai and I went to Shoe Mart (told you this was the place to go when in a pinch, hehehe!). And found a pair that would do. Not that comfy, but it was passable. Open-toed, but at least my toesies could breath :). And NO, I have absolutely NO intention of picking up my shoes on Friday morning, when the custom-made ones are supposed to be done!

Uploading Layouts

Will slowly be uploading some layouts I've done on my blog...slowly because I can steal only a few minutes a day to post on my blog, that's why. With the day of Randy and Stella's wedding coming super duper soon, it's crunch time! :)

So a layout a day or something, until I get caught up.

MOM & DAD GAVINO
A photo of my in-laws when we had lunch a few weeks ago.

Credits: kit - Unforgettable by Rina Kroes at Scrapbook-Elements; stitches - by Gina Miller; stamped alpha - by Michelle Coleman; font - Adler; layered sketch - by Tracy Blankenship

I can't believe it's been more than a WEEK since I've last posted layouts on this ole blog! Sigh! Ok, taking a deep breath, and taking it one day at a time...or really, one layout at a time, hehehe.

The Day of the Despedida de Soltera

Tonight is Stella's Soltera. For those who don't know it, the Despedida de Soltera is essentially a huge party thrown by a bride-to-be's family as a "going away" party for their daughter. The party is the family's way of saying goodbye to their daughter as she embarks on a new life of marriage. It is also a time to get to know the families of the groom and bride, as the immediate families and some extended ones will be in attendance.

For this important party, of course the whole family was in a hullabaloo with regards to preparation! We always are, actually, but of COURSE we all had to look nice and regal and oh-so-formal. Egad---I absolutely HATE these kinds of parties! Hehehehe.

I come home from Hong Kong only to find out that the boys did NOT have any barong tagalogs to wear. This is the Philippine formal wear and the barong tagalog looks like this:
Simple enough, yes. And I just KNEW that Rogan had at least a couple of barongs at home, the most recent one being the one he wore at the wedding of Boydee and Bang...but they were nowhere to be found!!! Aaargh!

So off I go to Shoe Mart in Megamall....THE place to go to when one is in a pinch, hehehe. And true enough, in this store called Kultura (Culture), they had a plethora of beautiful Filipiniana things! And while I was looking at the kids' barongs, the only thing that was going on in my mind was "oh where or where was this store when I had to find something to wear during the Shrine's inauguration?!?!?" Sigh!

And voila! A barong for Rogan, Ranger, and Riley (Elizza had called me almost in a panic like I was, because Riley had no barong as well! hehehehe). I then rush over to the SM department store to get some camisa de chino, or the plain white shirts the boys wear under their barongs.

Here's a pic of my handsome little men all dressed up in their little barongs:
Are they cute or are they cute? Hehehe. Biased Mama here.

As for the girls, they were pretty much set....until I found this cute little burgundy number for Raegan, also at Kultura. It was a bustier with a long skirt, similar to the gold one I got her for Thanksgiving last year, which was what she was supposed to wear at the Soltera. Raine had a girly-dress that was ok and nothing major. So when I saw the burgundy outfit, I bought it; Raine was ecstatic when she found out because she knew was going to be getting the gold outfit to wear tonight, hehehe :)

Here are my girls....and I canNOT believe how grown up they look!!!
Aren't they gorgeous? I can brag all I want....it's MY blog after all! Hehehe :)

As for the grown ups.....after all the rushing I did, I went to La Vista to have my hair and make up done by this gay guy, Edgar, and his assistant, Dong. Funny pair, especially Edgar as he kept up a running commentary throughout the entire time he was doing make up for 6 of us!

My hair was of course very thin when compared to Elizza's and Zhar's...but it was long. Actually, all of us girls with the exception of Mom and Tita Belen had long hair, which made things all that much harder and time consuming for poor Dong, who was the hair specialist. I did want nice, long, thick hair though...so I'm writing that down officially as one of the things on my "I want" lists, hehehe. Anyone up for a visit to Dr. Larry Shapiro? :)

Here's a cluster of photos from the Soltera:
I'll be saving some pics for my scrapping obviously. Also, I have NO nice pics of me on my camera. I'm hoping Rodney has some few nice ones of me :)

TTFN!

Hong Kong: All Girls Only

Yes, yet another Hong Kong trip....but this time it was just all girls: Mom, Tita Belen, Bang, Elizza and me. And yes, we HAD to schedule a trip that was going to be filled with eating, eating, and more eating right before the wedding, didn't we? Hehehehe.

And that was all that we did, really. Eat, eat, eat. It is DANGEROUS to have Bang in charge of the food, I swear. She will schedule ALL three meals and they won't be fast food kind of eating either. It's a must-be-sitting dining experience! Hahahaha! I give her a hard time about it, but the truth of the matter is, we wouldn't be able to try all sorts of food if it weren't for Bang, our food connosieur (sp?).

So here's a recap of our mainly eating-and-shopping trip to Hong Kong:

June 15

We take the first flight out of Manila, even Mom! I guess it's easier without Dad tagging along; we can move much faster and we can do the early flights no prob! :)

We arrive in Hong Kong, take the Airport Express to the Kowloon side and then board the bus to go to the Marco Polo Hong Kong Hotel. Mom and Tita B get down at one of the stops so that it would be closer to this shop where Tita B can have her Rolex watch cleaned.

And we have this NIGHTMARISH, stupid bus driver who totally misses our stop!!! Aaargh!!! And so we start yelling and say hello, you've missed our hotel! So he turns the bus around not once or twice around the SAME block, but THREE times!! What an IDIOT!!! To make matters worse, he stops the bus a good 50 meters AWAY from the entrance of the hotel, ACROSS the street!!! Then he tells us to go down! Elizza and Bang look at each other and then look at me. I tell the bus driver in my sungit, loud voice: "NO! We have 5 bags and there are 3 of us, we can't possibly drag all those bags across the street. Take us to our hotel." I refused to say please because I was super duper pissed by this time.

So the driver drives his bus some 10 meters away and stops. He turns to us and says, "wait for the next trip." Uhmmm HELLO!!!!! What an IMBECILE!!! I say in a LOUDER voice, "NO! We paid our fare, now take us to our hotel NOW!" So the idiotic driver makes a show of looking at his watch and shaking his head...all of which obviously UNMOVE me, and he stops right in front of our hotel!

I mean, REALLY! If he had done this in the FIRST place instead of going around the block several times, he would still be on time for his route! Sheesh! What an IDIOT!

***
We were of course pretty famished at this point and we all searched for the nearest restaurant. Bang led us to the Chinese Kitchen, some noodle house, where our dear Mother actually sat on a STOOL in a restaurant! Hahahaha! I wish I had pics of her now, but they're still with Lai who was the only one who brought a small camera :) The food was good, and if you love sweet and sour pork, this is THE place to get it! So Dic, pay heed! :) It's right opposite the Marco Polo Hotels, so it's hard to miss.

***
And we shopped. We went to Granville and Ocean Terminal. Because lunch was at 1 or 2 pm AND we still had afternoon tea at about 4 pm, we jokingly said that dinner was going to be at 10 pm, much to Bang's horror, hehehe. And we shopped. And shopped. And shopped. I even bought a new laptop case (roller bag) AND a new suitcase because it was such a great deal! :) Dinner? We had it at Spring Deer at a little bit past 10 pm, hehehe. And Bang survived *wink*.

June 16

We get up early so that we would make the early buses to Stanley Market. Again, for the first time that we can remember, our dear Mother rode the bus all the way to Stanley Market, a good hour away, hehehe.

What Granville was before with all its export overruns and brand names, it was Stanley Market again. AND, the best part was, because it catered to expats, I had sizes! Glorious array of sizes! Hehehe.

We didn't have any breakfast, but Bang was prepared: she had set aside a whole roll of Ritz crackers with cheese in her purse. She brought this out and we pretty much inhaled everything, downed with some bottled water from Watson's.

And we shopped. And shopped. Then we had lunch over at this Italian restaurant by the bayside. It was simply delish, and had portions big enough to satisfy me (and Bang, hehehe).

And we shopped. And shopped. Until our arms couldn't hold any more shopping bags. With much sadness (LOL!) we left Stanley Market aboard a taxi. We figured we'd get to the hotel faster and that our shopping bags were safer in the trunk of a cab rather than the aisles of a bus!

So we took our trunk-ful of shopping bags, had the porter bring them up to our rooms (again, Lai has a pic of this, hehehe) and we segragated everything. Lai and Bang went to Mongkok while Mom, Tita B and I went to Ocean Terminal.

And we shopped. And shopped. Anyone see the pattern here yet? Hehehehe. We had dinner at about 9 pm I think; it was in a seafood restaurant in Ocean Terminal, so it was nice and near. After another delish dinner complete with a carafe of orange juice, we shopped again while walking back to the hotel! Hehehehe. I told you this was a tale of shopping and eating!

We pretty much closed Ocean Terminal. When we got back to our room, we frenziedly started packing. One thing of note here: Mom did NOT have a suitcase when she went to Hong Kong; she and Tita B shared ONE suitcase. However, after ALL the shopping we just did, she had filled her brand new suitcase to its seams! Hahhahaha! And for the life of us (Mom and me), we couldn't figure out what she bought that would fill up a whole suitcase!

I am proud to report that I managed to squeeze in a double session of YOGA whilst in Hong Kong! I definitely needed to, with all the eating we did!

June 17

We went to mass at 845 am at Rosary Church on Chatham Road. The church was filled with Filipinas, and the walls resounded with the loud singing :). The priest was another story, though. His voice just droned on and on and on; no matter how hard I tried, I could NOT stay awake during the homily!

After mass, we took a taxi back to the hotel. We asked the concierge where a nice restaurant was that served breakfast dimsum. This was where Bang was going to bring us that first day, but she thought it was closed for renovation.

So we walked the couple of blocks to the restaurant and went on up to the 3rd level. The place was full, being that it was Father's Day, but we managed to get a table for us. And we ate. And ate. And ate. Dimsum platters kept coming to our table and in the end, Mom ate a WHOPPING FOUR siopaos and Bang had three. The people next to our table kept looking at us and wondering how and why we could eat so much! Hahahaha! This was our cheapest meal, too! :) Sorry, forgot the name, but Bang should know.

***
We did some last minute shopping before returning to the hotel where we checked out at 1 pm. We went to the In-Town Check In Center and then took the Airport Express to the airport. Where we shopped at the Disney Store. I got the kids some cute little pens and some chocolate at the Duty Free Stores.

We went up to the Lounge where we ate some more, hehehe. I mean, what else could you do if you had some 3 hours to spare before boarding time?!!?

***
Back in Manila

We finally arrive in Manila and we go straight to Masas, a Filipino fusion restaurant in Greenbelt, Makati. Pretty good food...but I ordered from their Spanish sister restaurant, Cena. Yes, we ate some more! The rest of the family met up there to break bread together to celebrate Father's Day.

***
And THAT, in a nutshell, was our all-girls' trip to Hong Kong.

TTFN!

Happy Birthday Lola Nene!

My maternal grandmother turns 88 today! And we suprised the heck out of her! Hehehe. With Tita San at home, she was at Tita San's bedside practically the entire time. Mom coaxed her and said that Dr Bitanga was expecting Lola to treat him for lunch. And so dear Lola obliged....

In the meantime, The Clan (yes, that is us!) was congregating at Xin Tian Di at the Crowne Plaza. My dear brothers with the exception of Rondic (of course) were running late, as usual. Rod and Zhar were there ahead of us but they had a driver and we had to park the car, so no fair *wink*. A lot of frantic text messages and phone calls later, we had most everyone assembled at the restaurant.

Randy and Stella's story of getting to the hotel on time was pretty funny, it's worth mentioning here :). Their car had pulled up at the entrance of the restaurant when the black van pulled up behind them. Thinking the van had Mom and Lola in it, they told their driver to go to the side of the building and they got out at the Galleria side. They rush into the mall and hurriedly take ginormous steps on the escalator.....Stella was in HIGH wedge heels and I can tell you now that THAT was no easy task, hehehe. But she was game and ran up the escalators to get to the restaurant on time. No wonder she was a bit red in the face and was a bit winded. Hehehe.

Anyway, I call Mom and she said (within earshot of Lola) that she was just walking in to the restaurant where she and Lola were going to have lunch. I say "ok", shut down the phone, and tell everyone to shush because Lola is near the restaurant.

Our 88-year old matriarch walks in, we yell "Surprise" and nothing registers on Lola's face, hehehe. She said later that she thought someone else in the restaurant shared her birthday. Then recognition dawns as she gets closer to where our tables are and she starts laughing and pointing at everyone. Success!

Roby, if you're reading this, I would LOVE you forever if you send me some pics to upload for my blog and for me to scrap! :)

Talk of Yet Another Vacation

Yes, we are the family who loves to eat and who loves to plan and take vacations.

Apparently, the boys are going to be attending the Jaycee World Congress this November in Istanbul, Turkey. So Elizza comes up with the idea to go to Paris, France since she hasn't been there ever. And she starts working on all of us to see who are amenable to the idea, hehehe.

Well of COURSE I want to go, too! It's been a looong decade (!!!) since I've stepped on European soil! So now, I'm off to call RCI and look through the internet to see if we can find a timeshare unit to exchange for France and Turkey.

Hmmmm.....I wonder how many in our family are open to the idea of vacationing in some Villas in Italy? That should be fun! Cold, but fun for sure. Any takes dear family? Just let me know!

School Time

With all the activities and excitement going on yesterday, I forgot to blog that it was the kids' first day of school! Yes, on Independence Day itself, but because President Arroyo decided that the holiday itself was going to be on Monday so as to have a long weekend, the kids' first day of school happened on June 12.
Here are my kiddos on their way out the door. I was so sleep-deprived, but the scrapper in me was definitely awake! I told them to grab the camera before they walked out so that I could take their pics. Hehehe. I even had them take out their school binders and I took a picture of them holding those :) And yes, the standard answer was that "Mama NEEDS pictures of you guys to put in your albums!" Thank goodness the kids are so used to me taking their pics that they happily oblige, hehehe.
Here's to a school year full of lessons to be learned, friendships to be made, and growth to be experienced!

Drug Rehab

We're getting closer and closer to bringing Tita San home!!! No, she won't be going into drug rehab. Apparantly, Dr Bitanga has started decreasing the amount of medication being pumped into her body. She won't need any addiction treatment of any sort anymore. I'm sure it will be tough going, since Tita San will start to feel pain. Extreme pain, according to her doctors.

Although her face won't show much emotion despite the pain, I'm sure Tito Lito and RJ will be able to tell if something is bothering her. After all, they are with her constantly, and can tell by the slight movement of the face what Tita San is feeling. I'm sure she's going to have a hard time coping --- with no pain medication whatsoever and the fact that she can barely communicate her wants and needs --- but Tita San is a fighter. She'll need to start getting some strength, both physically and mentally. She needs to start eating more, eating healthy. I'm not exactly what she can do to help in the physical aspect since she can barely move by herself, but with constant care and attention, she WILL overcome all the drugs that has been in her body the past month or so. She does NOT need anymore drugs. She WILL prevail and will not need more drugs to treat her.

With our prayers, here's hoping the miracle will come and Tita San will find peace.

Exciting News...Happened Last Night

Yup yup! But I can't go into details just yet.....it is SOOOO busy, I can't even take a breather!

What's the exciting news? Well, Rodney PROPOSED to Zhar last night....right after the Walking Tour! And of COURSE she said YES!!! Could she say no? Hehehehe. Nah, not a chance!

I will be back with all the details in a little bit. I need to do some chaplets, get some pics from last night and upload them, and compose the blog post in my head while I do the chaplets :)

I'll be back for sure!

I am Patriotic...and Independence Day

One hundred nine years ago today, the Philippines celebrates its independence from Spain. The US recognized Philippine Independence day on July 4, 1946; I remember having a holiday on this date when I was in Grade School, when President Ferdinand Marcos still celebrated it.

It was GMA's dad, Diosdado Macapagal, who, upon the advise of historians, and who was very patriotic, brought back the June 12 date, formerly known as Flag Day. *Historical facts from Wikipedia :)

{WALKING TOUR}

To commemorate my country's independence AND to show my patriotic spirit, I agreed to go with Zhar, Rod, Elizza and Bang on a walking tour of Old Manila, otherwise known as Intramuros. Bang had called Carlos Celdran and I must say, it was an AWESOME walking tour. Sure, it was probably one of the dang hottest days in Manila EVER, but the tour was SO fun and Carlos so funny, knowledgeable and just an overall great tour guide, we forgot the heat...

Ok fine, not really. It was friggin' HOT (!!!) but I must stress that Intramuros was NEVER as well explained as it was by Carlos. It was one heck of a history lesson: fun, informative, and did I say, FUN?!? :) Carlos' blog says that he is trying to change the way we look at Manila....and this is what he has done.

There are SO many things that I learned in a span of a mere two hours than I ever did in my Philippine history class on the Japanese times and the rise and fall of Intramuros. I went into the tour expecting nothing, but I definitely got everything!

Carlos is this small, funny coñotic guy standing smack in the middle of the plaza in front of the Manila Cathedral, our meeting place. He was wearing a barong tagalog paired irreverently with khaki shorts and flip flops, hehehe. He had a top hat on, as well as a messenger bag slung across his chest. He beckoned to us, and we joined him on the plaza square. He reaches into his bag and pulls out a small cassette player and raises a small flag.

Because it was Independence Day, I had brought a small flag to wave through the streets of Intramuros. I like to think Carlos was pretty impressed that I was proudly showing off my patriotism, hehehe. Anyhoo, I raised my small flag as well when I heard the strains of our National Anthem, the Lupang Hinirang, come out from his music player. And so the 6 of stood in a circle, with a couple of Philippine flags waving in the hot, humid air, standing straight and proud with our right hands over our hearts.
*Negative cluster by Gina Miller

And for the next 2 hours, we would all be enthralled by Carlos as he led us through the streets of Intramuros. His explanations were well thought of and well delivered. Sure, he talked pretty fast, but I thoroughly enjoyed his entire repertoire and the way he said it. There were hilarious incidents, such as the time he described the First Gentleman Mike Arroyo as a Filipino siopao who could easily pass off as Mao Tse Tung if you put a red star or something on his forehead. Hahahahahaha! Totally funny! You just HAD to be there when Carlos said it, hehehe.

And at the end of the tour, I WAS proud to be a Filipino. I was mad at what had happened to our country and how it had happened. But as always, there is HOPE. Hope to rebuild what was lost, hope for a better life for our people.

This is a HIGHLY RECOMMENDED tour, for Philippine history buffs and ESPECIALLY for those who don't care about our history at all. I will definitely be mentioning this (read this as PUSHING, hehehe) to the kids' teachers. Yes, Carlos says he does tours for the kiddos, with some editing to take out the blood and gore, but dependent on what he feels the kids can handle. He has many kinds of tours, too, so I'm looking forward to those sometime in the future as well. So if you're just thinking about getting on a walking tour, do it with Carlos. I am pretty sure anything and everything else will pale in comparison to Carlos' wry and witty humor.

I only have my photos of the tour, haven't gotten Bang's and Rod's pics yet, so I won't blog anymore until I have those to substantiate my post, hehehe.

Happy 8th Birthday Rogan!!!

My baby boy is now 8 years old!!! How time flies! From an almost 8-pound baby to an almost 100-pound "baby", Rogan is a big boy :). When I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday, he immediately answered, "Bowling!" Chalk it up to the Wii..he really really wanted to go bowling on his birthday!

So off we went to Paeng's Skybowl at Eastwood. No classmates, just family. And we had a blast. We had 4 lanes all to ourselves, with 2 lanes going to the kids --- they enjoyed zero-less scored due to Bumper Bowling :) Moi, who couldn't resist playing, braved the heavy balls that would wreak havoc on my back. Hehehe. I took 2 extra strength fast-acting Tylenol just to make sure I wouldn't be in too much pain :)

Spaghetti, chicken, hotdogs with marshmallows and pizza galore rounded up the celebrations. Easy peasy for me, as all I did was pay. No other preparation to do for the bowling party, except send out text messages to family. If only all parties were as easy as this one! :) Can you tell what a lazy mother I am? Hehehe! But hey, it's what my son WANTED! Therefore, he shall have :) Who am I to complain? :)

Some photos of the Bowling Party:

This is Rogan posing before anyone did anythine else, hehehe. See the NEON lights behind him? That's what they call Disco Bowling :) That streamer with his name on it was a pleasant surprise; didn't know that the party package included a personalized banner!
Here are Rogan's cakes. Nothing fancy, just a basic chocolate cake from Sweet Inspirations and a chocolate mousse from Red Ribbon. Shoppersville ran out of cakes, believe it or not!
And here's one of Rogan cutting his cake. He INSISTED on cutting it! hehehe.
What a day the birthday boy had! He had sooo much fun just throwing that bowling ball! Thank goodness Rogan isn't into golf...a bowling party in a bowling alley is definitely easier on the wallet than a golf party with golf clubs all over the place! But ooooh....miniature golf IS an idea.....maybe next year! :)

Chaplet Making and Poker Night

No, I didn't play poker. For those who know me, they will tell you that I absolutely hate playing the dang game. It is the most BORING game ever known to man, and all I will say is that I have waaaay BETTER things to do with my time than watch people lie and bluff and try to pretend they're not the whole time. *roll eyes here* Ugh. No thanks.

So in Apitong, while the boys --- with Lola, Tita Belen and Stella (and later on Elizza) --- were playing poker, us girls stayed in Lai's Mother-Child room and made the chaplets for the wedding. With less than 2 weeks to go, we were doing things double-time, hehehe. With non-stop chatter from Zhar (hehehe), it helped us while the time as we glued, pierced, boxed and ribboned chaplets. On my last count, we had done 205 chaplets for the girls and about the same for the boys. Which meant 300 girl chaplets and 100 boy chaplets to go! Ack!

We had the maids and the yayas doing chaplets, as well as the girls. Good thing we had help, otherwise I don't think we'd get this done in time! I guess I need to take pics of the chaplets just so my dear readers have an idea what they look like (not that I have non-family blog readers, but who know right? *wink*). Hehehe.

When we finally got home at about 11 pm, my hands were so tired, I was so tired. But a weird thing happened. I turn on the airconditioner and 3 seconds later, all the lights inside the house turn off. All the electricity was out EXCEPT the airconditioner! Needless to say, that was a RELIEF, hehehe. So we took showers in the dark and got dressed in the dark. Ranger was freaking out, understandably, but he settled down just because he was really sleepy as well. And hey, I don't care if there are no lights...just as long as the airconditioner is on, I'm one happy camper off to dreamland in comfort! :)

TTFN!

Scrap Related Stuff

I downloaded and downloaded and downloaded. It's Saturday in the States and the designers have uploaded their new digi stuff to the stores. And I'm still downloading! Hehehehe. I'm not complaining---I LOVE it! Now to figuratively roll up my sleeves, pick out pics and scrap!

I got these from Eve Recinella. This is the counterpart of her Shabby Sundress Collection, called Trendy Trousers Collection. Cute names, huh?

There are other paper packs available, but I showed you these because I used them to scrap this:

GROWING AS A SWIMMER
Rogan during his swim meet yesterday.

Journaling reads: Today we saw a marked growth in your ability as a swimmer. You showed poise and confidence with each stroke, each race. In the breaststroke, despite the neck-and-neck race, you didn’t falter. You swam with all your heart and it showed. Today was also the first time you beat Ate Raegan’s time in freestyle. Even the coaches were proudly surprised in your achievement, as were Mama and Papa. Great job today!

Credits: kit - Trendy Trousers Collection by Eve Recinella at Sweet Shoppe Designs; date stamp - by Amber Clegg at Scrap Artist; bend it tag - by Debbie Knorr; Don't Be Negative Cluster - by Gina Miller; fonts - DB Jennifer and DJB Ashli by Darcy Baldwin at Blue Flombingo; layered sketch - by Rachael Giallongo

Fab collection, which I will be using a lot of for more summer and swimming layouts for sure.

{POLARIS DRIVE}

Time to move on....from Los Angeles, that is. We've put our house on the market; Polaris has been our home in the States since 1985, when Mom and Dad bought it when Boydee and I first started studying in the States. But with our imminent move to Las Vegas (where our other business is close to), the twins have taken advantage of the low (or is it high? Sorry, I forget finance terminology) of california mortgage rate to help beautify Polaris before having it listed.

Lai, if you're reading this, please put in the comments section the website where we can see Polaris listed and can edit my post include it! :) Thank you!