Family News

Got lots of things going on in our little family once again. The big news is that WE"RE FINALLY MOVING! WE"RE GOING TO GET TO LIVE ON OUR OWN!!! I am obviously totally hyped up about it. We'll be moving to Quezon City just a little distance from SM North Edsa. Mark also want to post about it but he doesn't want to till he has some pics to show. We found the place last Saturday after we didn't find any of the places we found on the newspaper ads to be right for us. Our criteria for moving was:

• It should be really near Sam's therapy center.
• It should fit our very little budget.
• It should have good airflow.
  
• It should be as presentable as possible. In case we couldn't get a nice apartment we wanted one we could fix up.

Here's what we got:

• A 5-10min walk from Sam's therapy center.
• A small 2 bedroom condo for P6500 per month. P175/per person for water. No association dues.
• Not hot at all. With good airflow since the corridors are open at both ends plus we're located on the third floor.
• Spanking brand new place. The visitor's lounge at the ground floor isn't even finished yet. We even got a mini-porch.

All in all we got something that's so much better than we ever hoped for. And here I was determined to find something P6K and below that we can renovate. Oh me of little faith. We got a P6.5K deal, which doesn't need to be renovated at all. I loooove great deals.

What's even better is that Ate Neng, the manager, held the unit for us WITHOUT any downpayment since we didn't have any cash on hand. Mark's paying the required 2mos advance and deposit this Wednesday but the few days hold was really important since the place was selling like donuts. They had a policy that no reservations could be made without the down payment. Well of course we just had to mention our trump card, Sam, and we always get what we want.

More good news that excites me. Since we don't have any furniture or big appliances (except for the bed from Rico - thank ye Rico dear) we're having our table and book shelves and whatever else wood stuff we might need made out of the red lawan wood that washed up during the October storm. My dad had portions of the tree cut into planks and since it's really good wood we get to have quality furniture for a very very low price. I'd hate ...no I love to imagine how much it would have cost us ready made at SM.

And last. Mark has even cut a deal with his officemate (I love you Monics though you might not really know me) for her unused refrigerator. She bought it at 10k and we get it for half the price. She's selling it because her husband also bought a ref from the States and sent it to her just when she bought the one she's selling now . Thank God for other people's mistakes.

So many blessings. As I said this year is just going to get better.

10 Things I Love That Starts with K

I visited this blog a few days back and liked the meme. Anyway though I didn't know the blogger I asked Evil Genius for a letter anyway. If you read this meme and want your own letter just tell me.

My only problem with this meme is that I can't think of much stuff that starts with the letter K. As I try to enumerate stuff I love I find myself of thinking about everything that starts with any letter except K. Oh well, after much thinking a few peeks at the dictionary here's what I ended up with.

1. Kisses/Kissing - I like kissing Mark be it a simple kiss on the cheek or the stuff my mom would hate to see. I like kissing Sam's cheeks, chin, nose, armpits, and butt. I like getting kisses from small kids as their parents force them to kiss me their ninang or tita. Kisses and hugs are the best. xoxoxo
2. Kisses - Hersheys Kisses are great. I like all kinds but the white ones and those with almonds inside are my favorite. I loooove chocolates!

3. Kites - I love it when I see a kite flying high. It brings back childhood memories. I can still remember trying to "help" my dad build this big kite for our neighborhood's kite flying contest. I don't even remember if it flew but I do remember thinking it was the best looking kite of all. It probably wasn't but it doesn't matter. I miss being a kid.

4. Kris Kingle - I used to not like Kris Kingles that much because I hated seeing people disappointed with the gifts they bring home. But lately my enthusiasm has come back thanks to the Christmas Party we attended at the Manasan's last year. I don't know if there's any formal name for the modified kris kingle where you get to swap gifts and strategize. I did sleep through the actual exchange of gifts but Mark told me all about it and we played it with my family during New Year celebration. It makes kris kingle so much fun. It's not just about the gifts anymore but the game too.

5. Kitchen - Mark and I ate here once for a spur of the moment date. The food is good. The ambience nice (it's not too stuffy and pretentious there) although you can't slouch much since the seat are benches with no backrests. They use recycled paper for their placemats and menu. The price is definitely more expensive than LB food but not outrageous. The plates are big. The serving not too big but very filling. I'd like to go back and sample more of their food. The Kitchen I'm talking about is located in Greenbelt (I have no idea which part of Greenbelt but it's near the garden) couldn't find their website so I can't point you guys to it. Sorry.

6. Klingons ... and Star Trek Books. Note I said books. I don't watch the series nor the movies but the books are great. I know they're based on the scripts and the show itself but I was exposed to the books first and I like imagining the stuff better than watching it. Truth be told I like Vulcans a lot better than Klingons too. I even really wanted to be Vulcan before or at least be as logical as they are.

7. Katherine Kurtz - She's not the best fantasy writer but her Deryni Chronicles first exposed me to the wonders of fantasy novels. We still haven't completed our collection since her books are hard to find. We just find them in old book shops and in book sales. Cool fact: A person's Deryni powers are actually not magical in nature but a result of genes.

8. Ketchup - Ketchup is good. Just make sure it's tomato ketchup and not banana. I hate sweet ketchup. Ketchup is supposed to be sour not sweet. Get sugar if you want something sweet.


9. Kids - I love well-mannered kids. I love witty kids. I love the way kids say the darnedest things. I love having kids around on social gatherings because I always have someone to talk to when I get left out or anxious. As for bratty kids or extremely hyper ones I don't love them but I still generally like them.

10. Kind people - Random acts of kindess whether from friends or strangers just amaze me. Without kind people I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have gotten through a lot of difficult situations. Thank you to all the kind people who gave me their seat on the MRT, who carried my bags for me, who gave me change, who offered a ride, who uttered a prayer, and who smiled back when I smiled at them.

Not so Quickie

Smart Bro Fiasco

I have internet again! Will need to test it though so I want to post before something goes wrong again. I should be posting something for work as a quickie but my blog's a bit more important right now. ;-)

Right after I posted my last entry I gave Sam his milk and when I returned after 30 mins no more internet. So I actually ended up working a bit on Feb 14 though I didn't work when Mark got home. Besides the internet has still been utterly horrible the entire week. Ugh!

*************

Valentine's Night

On a lighter note Mark and I decided to spend the night at home watching a movie and eating pizza. Although I waited so long for the take-out pizza from Pizza Hut LB to arrive (there were just too many customers) it was worth it because they made a mistake with my free pizza (love my Palm Card). Instead of giving me a Veggie Lovers with cheesy volcano they gave me a Super Supreme with cheesy volcano for free instead. I also got to chat with this girl who as never ordered from Pizza Hut and she copied my order except that she threw in some pasta combo. I now remember how I love chatting up strangers and making acquaintance. It feels nice to be pleasant and human. Little town mentality can be fun.

Thanks to Cherry, I finally watched Memoirs of a Geisha from beginning to end. Mark fell asleep though, which he always does when we watch movies at night. Even if he did am pretty happy because he actually brought up the topic of semi-planning about the Valentine's Day before I did. He also left his office as early as he really could. Maybe by the time we're sixty Mark will learn to be the most romantic and thoughtful guy in the world. I can wait though...It should be fun seeing how much we've changed yet stayed the same by the time we're sixty years old. I still do shudder at the thought of growing old though...

*************

Family Day Out

Our little family went out to LB today. Mark tutored a sister of his old friend because she isn't doing well in her Physics 3. Sam and I for the most part didn't do anything but wait outside St Therese dorm. I was so sleppy but Sam enjoyed being pushed around in his stroller since it was pretty breezy. After the tutorials we headed on to MetroHair where we met up with Nikki and Kei. Kei got her hair treated, Mark got his hair trimmed, and so did Sam. Kei took some pictures with her phone so I'll be posting some pics after I ask her for some copies. We ate at Bonito's and had a pretty good time eating and just chatting. There's nothing like a queit time with old friends to relax you. Anyway I looooved my spicy chicken wings. Next time you go to LB try the spicy chicken wings at Bonito's.

Today was a very tiring day for me (try lugging Sam around and you'll understand why) but it was a day well spent. I enjoyed going out and doing nothing much for a change. Sam seemed to have enjoyed the day too. Even on the way home at around 10pm he was still squirming in the tricycle very excited. We should go out on weekends more often.

Happy Valentines

No this wasn't done by a five year old. I created this myself using GIMP (wala kasing paint or its equivalent in Ubuntu). Pretty bad huh? I LOOOVE IT! It's a practice drawing for what I want to create for our love blog.

Anyway a not so premature Happy Valentines to everyone! Hope you have a good time tomorrow celebrating the day of love or forgetting all about it. it doesn't really matter as long as you have a great day. ^_^

***********
Mini-RANT
***********

I plan on cramming lots of work tonight so I won't have to check the net that much tomorrow. Am getting paranoid about all the headaches Smart Bro is giving me. I hate their service but I need it for now. Ugh...

Note to self: never link to their service. Beh.

Pal and Ubuntu

Just went to visit the Ubuntu website and look who I found in the new cd cover!
The guy on the lower right looks sooo much like Pal...cool.

For those who don't know about Ubuntu, it's a great Linux-based OS that I actually use sometimes (usually when Windows acts up and I have to reinstall and don't have time or an installer with me). Am thinking about going Ubuntu all the way though.

Ubuntu - an African word meaning "Humanity to others" or "I am what I am because of who we all are"

The software as the Ubuntu website says, "brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world." Uber cool.

Recap of Last Year

All my posts this year have been pretty stupid so far. Anyway to get things going I decided to post a recap of last year's blog pretty much the same way a lot of us did back in January 2006. So here's the first few lines of each first post for each month last year.

BTW I should be writing a really special article right now but since I want it to be really perfect I'm all stuck so as usual I'm procrastinating. :p

January
So much and yet so little has been going on in my life that I've been all muddled up and couldn't post anything for some time now. I didn't feel like anything was worth posting. (This seems to happen every year but this time my reason is laziness and not the lack of stuff to post about)

February
Too little time to blog what I meant to... (so I posted an online quiz result)

March
Makikigaya na rin ako. Am interested in finding out how others perceive me. (on the Johari/Nohari Window)

April
We just found out that Sam was actually misdiagnosed. (Best news ever)

May
Bye Tube. Sam has been without a tube for almost 2 weeks now.

June
This is a me post because I am feeling happier each day.

July
Todays are ok, even great. Its the yesterdays that bog me down.

August
Happy Birthday...to me!

September
In Love. Most days you just plod through life going through the motions...Today is not like most days.

October
Life can be really tiring. I sometimes just get sick of going to Sam's doctors paying all those fees for a tiny ray of hope.

November
I saw Mark's Halloween post and nainggit ako. So I decided to post my fave Halloween pic of me and my baby plus other pics na rin.

December
I have a party dress. We've been planning on attending the OCS Christmas Party for weeks now.

*****
Looking back, the tone of my 2006 posts were WAY better than that of 2005's. Just goes to show that things really did start looking up for us last year. I am so grateful for all the blessings the past year especially regarding Sam's health and our marriage/romantic life's great improvement. It seems that we saw bottom last 2005 and there's no way but up. I'm really excited about what this year has in store for our little family. At least now I know that we can survive extremely hard blows in life and come out the better for it. Hardships really do make you stronger. But not only that, they also leave you with greater faith and a better appreciation for life. Here's to an even better year for everybody!!!