The one with family dinner

We had a great time last night with our family dinner celebrating Lola Alma and Popsy's wedding anniversary. We were complete and it's always fun seeing everyone there. We started a little late though since the traffic was really bad last night but we still had a fab time. Simone was so cute in her jumper which I was "maximizing" since after a few washes, I think it won't fit anymore. hahaha. She looked like she just had her P.E. that day. pure cuteness! She had some "moments" too since she was kinda sleepy na rin but everything was good. When I changed her diaper pa nga, she was playing with the bathroom faucets and splashing water all over her face. hahaha. and she peed on the sink...eewww!

Our little prince Justin was not in his best mood since he had colds and a little cough but he still looked so adorable in his sweater and pants outfit. And I so love it when he laughs, super gwapo talaga.

My sis in law and her boyfriend announced that they're getting married next year. Wishing you all the best and the love in the world. But i just hope you wait til achie marries. ahehe. oh well, none of us waited too so we can't pressure you either just because you're the last single apart from her. nyahaha. All in God's time...

To Lola Alma and Popsy Tony, God bless you always. God is doing something marvelous in your lives. All your hardwork and labor are bearing fruits specially now that you see that all your children are successful, happy and contented and you see your family growing with your grandchildren...(there's more to come!!!) Thank you also for the gift, we opened an account for Simone already. *wink*

PS As usual, no one brought a camera...grrrhhh...

The one with I Heart your blog

Thanks Sheryll for this award.

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The rules of the award are: 1. The winner can put the logo on her blog. 2. Link the person you received your award from. 3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs. 4. Put links of those blogs on yours. 5. Leave a message on the blogs of those you have nominated.

Previous awardees: Mabelle, Prily, Ate Norma, I Love Philippines Too, Shenga, Nova, WebbieStuffs, Nancy, Webloglearner, Pinay Wahm, and My So Called Life, Let’s Spice Things Up, Beauty and Shop, Idealpinkrose, allin, kimchiland, Korean Food, The Paper Vision, Embrace Simplicity, Me and Mine, A Window To Our World, A Grateful Heart, Can of Thoughts, A Mother’s Stuff, http://housewifeatwork.blogspot.com/, MommaWannabe, Lourdes Mia, Praning’s Shoutout, When Silence Speaks, Etc Atbp, Aeirin’s Collections, Life is What we Make it, Underneath It All, Cellulitic Bliss, 100% Kelly, C'est La Vie, Our Family Adventure, We are Family

I'm awarding this to Melisse, Jody, Mec, Kathy, Mari.

The one with viral linking

Thanks Rocks for this. :)

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Rules:
1. Copy paste from {Start Copy Here} to {End Copy Here}.
2. Please link back to the person who tagged you and PASS this tag to many of your friends.
3. If you have more than one Blog, please post this on all your Blogs, the more the merrier.
4. The use of NO FOLLOW on links is not allowed, let’s all be fair!
5. Remember to come back here at JENNY TALKS (Pls. don’t change this link) and leave the exact Post URL so I can add you to the Master List to help increase our rankings and improve our Technorati Authority.
6. Spread the virus.. oooopps I mean the VIRAL LINKING and Happy Blogging!

BLOGGERS: 1. Scraps & Shots 2. Simply Jen 3. This and That 4. Fab & Chic Finds 5. A Slice of Life 6. Jenny Talks 7. Tech Stuff Plus 8. Food on the Table 9. Aussie Talks 10. When Mom Talks 11. Moments of My Life 12. My Crossroads 13. A Life in Bloom 14. BLOGSILOG 15. Because Life is a Blessing 16. Digiscraptology 16. Buzzy Me 17. Fab Finds, Etc. 18. Thinking Out Loud 19. Wishing and Hoping 20. PRC Board Exam Results 21. Jobs Abroad 22. My Blog Portfolio17. Race Corner 18. Mommy Talks. 19. Home and Health 20. All Kinds of Me Stuff 21. Ink Baby Studios 22. The Salad Caper 23. Winding Creek Circle 24. Aggie Scraps 25. Momma Stuff 26. We Are Family 27. Gandacious 28. Busynessworld 29. Folcreative 30. Swanportraits 31. Rumination Under The Clouds 32. Consciously Think 33. Sprawt 34. Healthy Skinny 35. Geekyology 36. When Mom Speaks 37. Rumination 38. Etc Atbp 39. When Silence Speaks 40. When Sahmone Speaks 41. Fun|Fierce|Fabulous 42. Ozzy's Mom 43. Kidd Designs 44. Me,Myself+2 45. My Life in this Wonderful World 46. My Online World 47. Living A' La Mode 48. God's best gift 49. Through The Rain 50. We are Family 51. Jacque of all Trades 52. Yours here

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I'm tagging everyone in the blogroll! Join the virus!!! hehe.

The one with Butterfly award

Thanks to Jovie for this blog award. :)

Once accepted, the rules would be as follows:
1. Put the logo on your blog;
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you;
3. Nominate 10 other blogs;
4. Add links to those blog on yours;
5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs;

Now I'm nominating Jacq, Doc Joey, Con, Lissa, Ritz, and Cee.

The one with frustration in glasses

I want to share a little secret...one of my frustrations back in my teenage years was wearing eyeglasses. no kidding! I know you'll find it really weird since having a 20-20 vision should be something to be proud of. Back then, i thought it was really fashionable. hahaha. I was so weird. What more now that there are a lot of really nice glasses with cut-back prices. soo cool! and what's more hot is that you can buy these online. With the steal prices, I can buy my parents and my in-laws with these glasses. Zenni Optical sells stylish prescription glasses from less than 10 bucks. They have a huge selection of frames, lenses, bifocal lenses and other stuff. It's too good to be true right? But the secret to their really low prices is that they sell their manufactured glasses straight to consumers. They do not use advertising, nor any middlemen. There was an article written about it actually. The marketing strategy is so apt for us since these glasses do not pose any health risk at all. It's the same glasses that you can buy at the malls without the margins as high as a building. This revolutionary pricing model assures you of savings and quality items. And you're assured that you're dealing straight to the manufacturers. I'd have to buy now for Christmas gifts.

The one with birthdays

October is such a peak month of birthdays and celebrations!

Happy birthday to my mom last October 23. I think this is the first time that my dad's not with her to celebrate her special day since daddy is in cambodia for another mission trip. we miss daddy na. so we celebrated her birthday with a simple dinner together with simone's 20month celeb. :)

diba magkamukha sila???

My mom will always be my inspiration. As in I pray that I will be the mom that she is to us. I love the democratic way of raising us up. It's very western. But most importantly, I love her for she has been and will always be a big sister to me...and a bestfriend. I don't have a sister so she made sure she was my barkada too and she still is. love you mommy! I miss our dates! :)


Happy birthday Naan! I think this is the first time too that I did'nt see her on her birthday. Sabi nga ni simon, "ayy, walang dinner???" hahaha. puros pagkain talaga. but seriously, we miss her and jason to bits!!! waah! But i know she's enjoying China now (well despite the melamine scare) and I know that God is doing something really great in their lives right now. So to you Naan, just enjoy your sunny side-up days. thank you for being a great friend. love you!

Jason and Naan

Happy birthday Michael! He's my younger brother, the more malambing one. The one I can kiss and hug in public and whom I can ask for a beso and hug in public too. bwahaha. I'm sooo proud of this guy. You see, he has always been a smart one. Unfortunately, he really got hooked in barkadas and computers that he did'nt take studying seriously so took a while before he finally finished college. But I thank God coz when he decided to go back to college, he really did it. He was a scholar, graduated with good grades, was able to find work immediately and still does what he loves most, computer games! and yes, because of his love for computer games, he was part of the Philippine team for Ragnarok. can you believe it?! hahaha. he was sent to Korea to play this stuff. Nothing beats a heart of passion. hahaha. love you bro and I hope you liked your Van Huesen shirt!

from L-R: Michael, Me, and Kuya Jomon

Happy birthday Jane and Oliver. Jane is my sis in law and Oliver is her hubby. October 4 and 5 respectively, pretty cool huh? Jane is the face behind sweetbite and I'm glad she's starting to take clients now. At least she has an outlet of her passion. Justin is their unico hijo, our little prince. :)

ang baby pa ni simone dito...hehe.

there, more celebrations to come...

The one with Kapuso to the max

On one of our driving moments, Simon teased me to blog about how we met and how we ended up as a couple and the mushy kind of stuff. I wanted to do it now so i decided to look for old photos to create that "historical" effect. While surfing the folders, I stumbled upon an album of Simon with some artists from his office. hahaha. and I wanted to put it here. wala lang, trip lang. next na yung mga big stars. hahaha.

One happy family - ahehe...sweet jolina, love her to bits. :)

people have this tendency of wanting to take pictures with celebrities noh??? hehe.

o diba, parang sila? hahaha.


with marky, naks! kulet, pareho naka hiphop sign. haha.
with Jay-R

with Jonalyn

with Aicelle, winner ang boses...

with Lovi...ay, kapamilya na pala ito. hehe.

for the finale, with kapatid dingdong. o diba, para lang silang magkapatid, same color pa ng shirt. hahaha.

The one with Day one

A good friend of mine, Con, inspired me to go back to my greens and it's Day one today. I've always had a customized diet. I just follow what I think suit me and for this, I'm trying (read trying okay so don't pressure me that much! haha) to eat just salad, bread and if i'd eat viands or any dish, no rice is a must. I don't want to cut on my iced tea consumption, sorry, but I really need the sugar rush, I also will not force myself to eat less during events since i need the energy, so that leaves me to two "eat-all-you-can days". bwahaha. so much for a customized diet eh? But I hope i'd improve. Con promised to give me a pedometer to inspire me to walk more and count my steps. thanks sister! remember the 10,000 steps of Ms. Dina B.? hehe. i won't promise, i'll just do it. so expect more blogging about dieting, keeping fit and the like. I need an outlet to express my actions so i'd get more motivation to do it. ahehe, and hopefully I wont be needing any hydroxy cut in the future. I don't think I'm that desperate. ;)

The one with racing for a hundred

God is really good. Below is a column about hannah's fund-raising activity. Thank you so much Ms. Cathy for a very moving and encouraging article. winner! anyway, if you want to be a part of the 100 very nice people to bless Hannah with a ventilator, please email at hannahshundred@gmail.com. thank you and God bless you!

Fundraising race for Hannah Cordviz
By Cathy S. Babao-Guballa
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:52:00 10/18/2008

MANILA, Philippines - A month ago, I wrote about the case of Hannah Ysabel Cordviz in this column. I found out about Hannah through my friend Rapa Lopa who spearheads the I am Ninoy campaign. Hannah is a 1-year-old girl afflicted with Congenital Central Hypoventilation
Syndrome (CCHS). CCHS patients are expected to lead long and productive lives provided they get the care and necessary medical equipment required for their day-to-day existence. The syndrome occurs in one out of every one million newborn babies.In the Philippines, there are only three known cases of CCHS; the eldest is now 3 years old.

A ventilator is crucial to Hannah’s survival. Her parents, Carlo and Joann are steeped in debt that everything they make now all go into paying hospital bills. They had to quit their jobs to care for her 24/7. A portable ventilator costs P750,000. You can read more about their family’s story on http://hannahysabelle.multiply.com. When I first wrote about Hannah, my blogmate and friend, Tessa Mendoza Cruz, a physical therapist based in Atlanta, distributed letters to
ventilator suppliers in the United States. We prayed for someone to donate a unit or sell it to us at a substantial discount. And God answered our prayers in a really big way! So, Tessa, Rapa and myself split the anticipated cost and did our own fundraising. Hannah’s Hundred
On the eve of my birthday, I launched Hannah’s Hundred, a 5K run that I plan to join on Nov. 23. I will be running in a race sponsored by Unicef, aptly titled Walk On The Child’s Side.
It was my coach, Rio de la Cruz who egged me to join this event. There are also a 2K walk for families and 5K and 10K races. The events will be held at the McKinley Hill in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig and participants may register at ROX on Bonifacio High Street. Now, I am no true-blue runner. As of this writing, I have only ran a measly 3K race. I do not expect to win this race, but Hannah is my motivation to run to the best of my ability. So how does Hannah’s Hundred work?
I am looking for at least 100 individuals who will pledge P1,000 pesos each for the race I will join. Roughly, that is P200 per kilometer since I am entering the 5K category. Each person who donates P1,000 will be entitled to a raffle ticket.

What do you win? A beautiful watercolor painting (17 x 23) called “Hannah” donated by the generous and talented architect and visual artist Joven Ignacio. By 10 p.m. on my birthday
last Thursday, I had hit the half-way mark for my target. I know that in God’s time, I will eventually reach it. I know that times are difficult but one lesson I have learned over the last few years is when we find the courage to go beyond ourselves, when we step out of the shadow of our own sadness, financial difficulties or whatever problem you have, it is then that the burden lifts and we feel braver and more optimistic about our circumstances. It has always been
in giving and placing a cause greater than ourselves that we become
more fulfilled.

If you want to be a part of Hannah’s Hundred, please e-mail me at HannahsHundred@gmail.com
Excess funds collected by Rapa, Tessa and myself will be donated to Hannah’s parents to help defray the cost of her medical expenses. The raffle will be held after the race, the first week of December.

URL for the newspaper article: http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/lifestyle/lifestyle/view/20081018-167171/Fundraising-race-for-Hannah-Cordviz

The one with hitting the note

Yes, our simone is finally starting to hit some notes! yahoo!!! i know she will become a musician when she grows up. well, she does'nt have to do it professionally like her dad but i'm sure a speck of my husband's genes will do it. hahaha, syempre, love your own. anyway, like i said on my previous posts, she has been doing great in imitating actions and mimicking words and there were attempts of singing with notes picked up from everywhere. hahaha. we'd just laughed at it silently and tell her how good she is. (syempre, words of encouragement ito!) and then, just a couple of days ago, we heard her try to sing "Elmo's song" with just one syllable and she was able to hit some notes right. and just a while ago, while driving home from mommy's birthday dinner, we heard her again singing the elmo song with more notes struck right. well, it was more like "la, la, la...la, la la!" If you know the song, you'll get it, hehe. we are two proud parents. i can't wait when she sings the whole song. I was amazed of how a child grows. really? imagine, when she was just a baby, i remember her being able to lift her head is already a milestone, then it became to being able to coo, then turned to being able to laugh, then being able to eat solids, then being able to sit, crawl, stand, walk, run, talk, and now hopegully sing. :)

We love you simone. We will always sing our songs with you baby.

The one with dream vacation

I was surfing thru the net of vacation packages so i can choose how we'd spend just in case I win at the dream raffle. haha. anyway, i stumbled upon this cool site where they offer grand packages for families staying in Branson Missouri, the Live Entertainment Capital of the World. They offer packages from $450 per couple that includes board and lodging and your meals for your entire stay. Cool deal huh? But what's more appealing is that they can also customize packages based on your needs, what kind of entertainment would you want to see on Branson getaways, what attractions you'd like to see, where you would like to stay. In this way, you get to customize based on your budget, which is practically an important aspect when you're planning a vacation. I personally would like to see The Titanic Museum, ride the Outback Bungee, see the Dogwood Canyon nature Park, and best of all, shop til you drop at Grand Country Square. I think Silver Dollar City will be in the list too.

would you like to go back to the Titanic???

you think i can ride this??? yikes!

The one with Barfs

As a mom, I'm constantly on the lookout for hip items for simone. I don't want ordinary things for her. parang gusto ko laging iba, so i frequent baby stores to check out new items and the non-traditional ones. and one of these items is Barfs. When my friend Rhea told me about her new venture with her friend, I got excited coz I know this girl has a taste. And when I saw their items, I got more excited to try these barfs on simone. you see, my baby does'nt like bibs. it makes her feel she's choked. haha. so this must be a better alternative for her. and the design is just as hip. check it out here for more details. congrats rhea!

The one with good girl

I recently ordered these cute shirts from tubbytees and Simone loves them. They have really nice novelty t-shirts that you can give as Christmas gifts too. And the prints are just as cool! I bought the "Future Atenista" and the "Good girl Terms and conditions apply" shirts for her. well, the former is something that we declare by God's grace. hahaha. funny though, everytime Simone wears the Good girl shirt, she's really hyper and restless. and the daddy will make a hint, "next time, don't wear that shirt anymore ha...there are really terms and conditions e..." hahaha.

The one with fiber

Okay, okay...i really need to do something about this weight issue again. As i've said, concon has inspired me to try again losing weight. (and the master is now the student...ahehe) and i'm trying to cut my rice consumption and sweets...haaay, sooo hard! but i have to do it or else my jeans won't fit me again. I also bought this fiber dietpills frpm a friend but i can't seem to consistently take it as prescribed. It's not diet pills like bangkok pills or the like. it's more of an organic, fiber-filled capsules that lets you digest your food properly. I hope it will work...


Honestly, I so envy those who are moms already and yet, their figures can pass to a teen's bod. as if no baby came out from them. no stretchmarks, no belly bulges, no anything! i guess we really can't have everything...oh well, let's try this again and see how it goes. haha.

The one with falling in love

I'm in love...with Charice Pempengco. she's such a charm! When I saw her in youtube, I had goosebumps. And her story felt more like the ones you can only see in movies or read in some fairy tale books. her voice maybe as extraordinary as the other great singers here in manila, but her heart and her passion when she sings adds that oomph to it. she transforms into whoever she should be "portraying" when she sings and she sings as if she means and experiences all the heartaches, the love and the joy of the songs she sings. winner! And just the other day, I saw her again on the news with Mariah Carey. Man, aside from Vegas vacations she is not enjoying, she has met almost all the best singers in the world...and im sure there's more to come! Congrats!

The one with from brides to wives to moms

I really don't know how to describe the feeling seeing our kids together at yakee's party last Sunday. Time flies so fast that I can still clearly remember the first time I met these girls at a bridal fair in megamall and how we disturbed the peace and silence of Dulcinea. haha. It was an instant bond. We instantly and accidentally clicked. Accidentally because we did'nt plan to meet just by ourselves. And it was such a great blessing because until now, now that we are wives and mothers, we are still good friends. I just can't believe how these girls, while knowing them only through the internet with meet-ups only sparingly, I have considered them to be for keeps. It's such a wonderful experience sharing everything with them, after all, we all go through the same phases in life.

June 12 2005 - the day we all first met. grabe, ang papayat pa natin! hahaha! (yna, chris, charie, and mai not in the picture)

Half of us are moms already, one is almost due and the other three are waiting for God's perfect time. I know it will be a while before we can meet all up again, but i'm sure we'll be friends 'til our hair grays...

from brides, to wives, to moms...and not far from now to grandmoms...

Oct. 12, 2008 - At Yakee's party From L-R: Mai with Asher, Mec with Yakee, Con with Joaquin, Jacque with Simone and Tin with Andy

The one with butata and wawaw

It's such a wonder how we both have our own language version of the word "flower". my parents used to call me butata when i was a toddler since that's how i used to pronounce the word bulaklak (english word for flower). and now simone, whom we taught "flower" speaks it as wawaw. amazing! hahaha.

Lately, Simone has been mimicking and imitating words, phrases, expressions easily. she easily picks up words we speak and naturally speaks them off. such a cutie! and we've noticed that she's very observant.

just a while ago, i heard her sang...promise! she sang bits of the "elmo song". ang cute grabe! and kaka-emote at the same time.

for the past weeks, we've been fetching simon at starbucks in sta. lucia since we need to "tour" simone around so she can doze off easily and when we went to starbucks a while ago and she saw her daddy, she was giddily excited and said, "hi daddy!" waah! big girl na talaga.

she can talk to her ate maru with "ate, milk" "ate, wache" (ate, water). she distinguishes orange, yellow as in knows the colors. my mom in law and my mom keep on telling me that none of their children is as wide as simone's vocabulary at the same age we were. and i'm just so proud. imagine, she can identify an oval from a circle and clearly pronounce them. She knows how to count from one to five albeit the need to enunciate more. ahaha.

Baby, don't grow up soo fast. Mommy will miss you as a baby...

The one with the wrong mommy

Last night, we had our monthly family dinner with our n@wie friends. Present were Con's family, Rhea's family, Jeng's family, Ayn's family, and my family. Ooops, sayang pala, i only brought ate maru and simone since Simon was'nt able to make it for the dinner but he was able to see con and ednel and porkchop at Starbucks while we were waiting for him and the traffic to be less annoying. hahaha.

We had fun as usual. Well, we were'nt able to talk mommy stuff last night but seeing the four kids and one not so kiddo anymore (hehe, ibim) it was such a pleasant sight. Funny though, our kids kept on hugging different legs (read: pata) thinking that it's his/her mom. Like Simone hugged Tita Con's leg, Joaquim almost went on my direction until he saw his mom on the other side. haha. And Simone hugged Tita Rhea's leg. hahaha. They will run towards the leg, hugged it tight and looked up and realized that "oops, she's not my mom!" and will instantly look for his/her mom. hahaha. cuteness! That's why I'm in constant denial that I don't need treadmills or bikes. I have my own group of mommies with biggie legs too. harharhar. I remember a same incident when i was 6 years old. I was so excited to see my mom come home from work and when it was dark already, I saw a lady walking towards our street and since i can't recognize if it was my mom, I just hurried to her and hugged her and said "mommy, pasalubong!" and when i looked up, she's not my mom. I ran towards home and cried in embarassment. hahaha. i will not forget that...never!

Although, of course, there are some unexpected incidents. Simone threw up after playing with her mouth. Bulimic? hehe. Joaquin slid and bang his head on the floor because of the milk that simone barfed. Joaquim had to warm up coz he just woke up but it was not that long, he was his own perky bibo self. And it was my first time to hear Andie cry. I know she does'nt cry often coz so happy baby yun, but she bang her head on a glass door, did'nt recognize that there was glass. But other than that, everything was sooo good!

See you again girls! Share the pics!