Today, I witness how the young and lovely bride say her “I dos” not just in front of the many witnesses and to her groom but most specially in front of the Lord. It is a music to my ear when she sweetly utter the “Yes, I do” during the early part of marriage rite.

For me, this is the part where the bride needs to be 100% aware and sincere of her answer and this is the beginning of a new stepping stone of married life. A wedding of a lifetime does not only mean expensive gown, cakes, entourage, flowers, foods and venue, but the real essence for it to be a lifetime wedding is the sincerity of the couple in answering their “I do” in front of their family, friends and to the Lord.

The priest who represents God will ask the couple to join their right hand and express their intention before God and His church, the church stands for the people who witness the occasion. I remember the important questions are as follows which should be clearly answered “Yes, I do.” by the bride and groom themselves:

• Bride, do you take your groom here present, for your lawful husband according to the rite of our holy Mother, the Church?
• Do you give yourself to him as his wife?
• Do you accept him as your lawful husband?
• Groom, do you take your bride here present, for your lawful wife according to the rite of our holy Mother, the Church?
• Do you give yourself to her as her husband?
• Do you accept her as your lawful wife?

My cousin who is the groom is a very lucky man to have finally get the “I do” of a very lovely and young lady who now become his wife. As the one who bind them with the cord of married life, I wish them all the best of being together as a couple and soon raise  beautiful kids and be happy family with God at the center of their relationship.

This wedding is the featured occasion.

for Lunch - Blue Elephant The Walk IT Park

for Lunch - Blue Elephant The Walk IT Park - his favorite

for Dinner - Giligan at Ayala Terraces

I got lots of options in mind how to make him happy on his special day. I will share some of them to you:

• Go out of town together in the place where we both haven’t gone to
• Buy him a new gadget, his favorite (psp, itouch)
• Throw a party at home exclusive for his friends only
• Treat him to a spa
• Dinner in the best restaurant in the city

Well, I have to pick only one though since I’m not a millionaire to have them all in just one day. I realized that aside from all these gifts and treats just to make hubby happy, one important thing that cannot be bought and too expensive but I know I can afford is “Time”. So even both of us are busy in our respective career, I make it a point to meet him for lunch near his office. So we have lunch in “Blue Elephant” at the “The Walk, IT Park”. I chose the place because it’s new and we haven’t tried it yet. The food is good and affordable, and the place is cozy.

I did not choose to throw him a party or go out of town but one thing I realize is that having a simple and sweetest time together even in the middle of your hectic schedule already means a lot to the man you love. A dinner in “Giligan” in Ayala terraces completes the occasion. So just finding time together will make a husband happy on their birthday.

I tried to recall how we usually celebrate our anniversary way back in high school and it makes me smile… I remember that I wanted to make sure that I greeted a “Happy Anniversary” to the 5 of them first so I set my alarm clock 5 minutes before 12mn, so I can send a text message greeting right away. One of our favourite activity to make the celebration complete is to make sure that we heard holy mass together in our school chapel. The simple exchanging of gifts and letters will mark a remembrance of the celebration also.

Now that we have different lives, hectic schedule from work and family makes it difficult for all of us to bond regularly, some are even out of the country. But despite of the distance and time, I’m still proud that we remain friends for more or less 15 years now… and counting. Amidst all the misunderstandings, petty fights and long silence between each of us, the essence of friendship when blessed will never vanish. And we will always remember that we call ourselves ‘Cheramis’, which means ‘best of friends’.

Happy Anniversary Cheramis!

on the way to her culminating activity

I’m one of the many proud moms watching my little 2 year old performing in the stage… Sitting in the front row, I can’t help but to clap my hands all over again from start to finish when Claire’s batch perform their “My toes, my knees” song. I’m amazed how she simply cooperates without running and moving around the stage.

We got her certificate of completion and also her report card… and I’m so happy to see all her compiled art projects that according to the teacher, Claire performed them all. I’m just glad we decided to enroll her to this summer activity. Now that summer is over, our little sacrifice to wake up early and change work schedule just to drop and fetch Claire in School is also over,… I can say that it was fruitful and such a great accomplishment as a parent.

Bright Academy

Claire's Play Group Certificate.

Happy Mother’s Day to my mom whom since day 1 of my conception took good care of me until I was born and finally lead me to where I am now. And to all mother’s out there, this is the most special day to honor all of you!

From Wikipedia, Mother’s day is an annual holiday that recognizes mothers, motherhood and maternal bonds in general, as well the positive contributions that they make to society.

Motherhood is the best thing for me, I never realized how special and heroic all my mom’s sacrifices for me before until I myself get to taste the stage of motherhood. It is a special responsibility that each mother portrays uniquely and by instinct… I always love to hear my friends’ different stories who are now parents how they care and support their kids. I learned from them, and most especially I learned from my mom who showed me one of the best example of motherhood.

A mother does not only care for her kids but also to the father of her kids… this for me is the essence to perfect motherhood because when my little daughter sees how her dad and I bond and take care of each other, I see in her eyes how lovable she is and how sweetly she expressed that love to both of us too, and from there I can say that it is my first step to lead her to respect me as her mom.

Happy Mother’s day great Moms!

sorry, this is the only shot I got of the couple

Finally, it’s Glenah’s wedding day and I really make it a “date” to attend and witness this very special occasion of her life. Glenah is one of my high school friend that I can always remember because we once shared a piece of our “admiration-to-a-nun” fever (just my own term, hehe) before… I can’t say the full details here but those high school memories are enough for me to be present in her special day… Well if our favourite FMA knows how well we managed our life after high school especially Glenah, I’m sure she will be very proud… And oh, not to mention, it’s been quite straight 11 years since we didn’t see each other. The first time we chatted after 11 years was on my cousin’s wedding day last year and gladly I met her again during our high school small reunion dinner last 3 months ago, where she announced her wedding date and invited us.

I’m glad to be with my high school classmates again, exchanging stories and news, it’s a nice feeling because these are the people whom I’m not seeing everyday yet when I got to see them occasionally and in an event like this, the happy thoughts of high school keeps pouring in… Oh, how I miss high school life.

high school classmates, iping, marie, matche, abbey and dothy...

with yayong and nera...

To Glenah and Roy, my sincere Congratulations! I appreciate how you organized your wedding! You did it well, you’re such a nice couple to look at! The occasion is beautiful, well not to mention your motif is my favourite color. I’m also lucky I got your give aways (thanks to Iping), it’s a nice remembrance of your wedding, very useful… now I know why it’s ‘honey’. I wish you both a happy married life!

the game is about to start and we still manage to pose...

thats me, hiding...

When the game is about to start, I honestly feel scared thinking of how painful it is if get hit! Scared but excited… and my excitement reached to the highest level when the umpire gave a loud ready-set-go signal. What a nice feeling when I tried to run as fast as I could to find a perfect spot to hide myself at the same time find the target opponent and shoot… The best part is when the game is about to conclude and when I tried to go out from where I’m hiding to look for the enemy and… OUCH!, I’m HIT! I felt two paintballs splat on both legs! But at least we win! Happy!

Paintball is indeed a “No Paint-No Fun” game and it’s fantastic! No wonder many loves to play paintball even the girls, now I know how much fun it is! It is painful and even I go home with 2 large bruises, at the end of the day, I decided to play again! Hope I could organize and invite all my girl friends!

Thanks for Rowel’s birthday and “WebOss Paintball”… visit their website at www.weboss.ph.

I just want to share how the whole trip goes and why it was such a successful, memorable and blessed trip even for a short time.

Exactly 8:25 am – A very fine weather made our flight and arrival to Manila safe and sound. I already felt the excitement even if our craft captain announced the delayed of our arrival due to the problem of frequency signal in NAIA.

10:30 am – We hired an airport taxi to bring us to the nearest Victory Liner terminal in Pasay. Just in time we got the last ticket for the 10:30 am trip. We had ourselves comfortable bringing with us food and drinks for I’m already aware how long the trip to Baguio base on my research. But the clean and cosy bus didn’t give me any discomfort plus I had the comforting company of my hubby. I enjoyed the view while on our way and when we were nearing Baguio, the fog almost covered our view and I’m so amazed to see that Baguio is a city within a mountain.

6:30 pm – It drizzled when we reached the bus terminal of the city and when I stepped out of the bus, I already feltl the gentle cold breeze and it excites me the more. When a man approached us and offered us a ride to our hotel and later learned he is a tourist guide, I decided to hire him for only 2,500 for a whole day trip the next day.

Burnham Hotel is the hotel I booked for our whole stay in Baguio, It is a simple, small and old hotel in the city. It is accessible and a walking distance to most of the popular tourist spots so even if it isn’t the best choice of a hotel, I don’t mind.

7:30 pm – We went out and get a walk in Session Road and trying to find a restaurant where we can eat dinner, I had no idea what is the best place to eat here aside from the common, Jollibee, KFC, Don Henricos, Pizza Hut, etc… until I sight “Solibao”, they served Filipino cuisine and it’s worth a try because I’m satisfied with the food I ordered and the service is good.

Our 2nd day in Baguio was the highlight of this trip. I’m so excited to wake up early and the rain doesn’t stop us to tour the whole city of Baguio. Our tour guide is good for he was able to tour us around almost all the places of Baguio City from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm and the rest of the day we managed ourselves.

These are the scenic places in Baguio where we spend the rest of the day (in order):

Lourdes Grotto. Early morning and I got an exercise by climbing the 252 steps, whew!

Baguio Heritage Hall and Prayer Mountain. We were so lucky to get inside this heritage hall, for this place is supposed to be restricted to ordinary travelers, good thing our tour guide had an access so the guard and allowed us to see inside. It is a ruined yet historical building and I cannot state the whole history here, our tour guide was very good in explaining to us. I find the place spooky yet magical, especially when we got to go to the top of the ruined hall where you can see the other side of Baguio.

Easter Weaving Room Factory. I can’t believe I finally saw weaving in action!

Botanical Garden. The very famous scenic spot in Baguio, very wonderful place and I cannot forget the photo shoot we had with the natives. It’s perfect for postcards… hehe

Wright Park. The horseback riding in Baguio, and it’s my first time to ride the back of the horse! Haha, super fun!

The Mansion. Right in front Wright Park is another long stairs, and even how tired it was I had to hike about another 100 steps just to add the fun! We took this way towards the Mansion, exactly a perfect frontal view even if it’s still a very long walking distance towards it.

Mines View Park. The place is very cold as if you are on top of the mountain. There are lots of souvenir shops and I got confused what to buy because there were so many.

Camp John Hay. On our way to Camp John Hay, I got a perfect view of different and beautiful pine trees surrounding our way, we passed by the Golf Estate, Camp John Hay Manor, took picture at the mini statue of Liberty, and tour around the beautiful place.

Paintball Republic. I don’t want to miss and see how this famous Paintball Republic in Baguio is set up. Indeed it is a big game site, where pine trees become one of the obstacles of the game. Butterfly Sanctuary is beside the paintball game site but because I’m so hungry already, we missed it.

Ibay’s Silver Shop. After our late lunch, we dropped by the most famous silver shop in Baguio.

Burnham Park. The very heart of Baguio City! I don’t want to miss the boat riding in the park’s lagoon too, wonderful experience… when we get out from the boat, the rain began to pour but it did not stop us to stroll around the park. We dropped by the Orchidarium where it is in this place I am so amazed with different kinds of orchids that I haven’t seen ever since… the more I get inspired to install one mini orchidarium at home.

Baguio Cathedral. After a short rest back in the hotel which is a walking distance from Burnham Park, we took another walk and trekked another long stairs towards Baguio Cathedral. It’s 5:30 in my watch and we have to catch up the 6:00 pm anticipated Mass.

SM City Mall. After the mass, we planned to end our Baguio tour going to SM City Baguio. I think this is the only mall I know in the country that doesn’t have AC installed in mostly part of the mall area… well, the coolness of the city already serves as aircon. And indeed it is very cold inside that I had to wear my jacket on.

Classic Savory Chicken Restaurant. We had a sumptuous dinner on our last night in Baguio. The restaurant is nice and clean and the service is good and the food we ordered is delicious!

It was a beautiful and enjoyable day… an occasion that I will never forget. I will definitely go back to Baguio and bring the rest of my family and friends…

The weather cooperates to the occasion, I prayed so hard that amidst the storm in Manila, God will keep us safe and let us enjoy this special day, and thank God He answered my prayer. From Baguio, we arrived in Makati safe and the typhoon is gone although we experienced some rainfalls but we ignore it, I tried my best to make him happy on his day so no room for any complaints even how uncomfortable I am with the rain. But when we arrived in the Mall of Asia, the rest of the day was already his day, we had so much fun!

We had lunch in “Burgoo” – I’m amazed with their unique style of having their table covers in a blank white paper and they have coloring materials ready on top, then I found out that we can freely mess the table and write anything on it… then I write a big “happy birthday” greetings to the love of my life… hehe… perfect background which reminds us why were here, it’s his birthday! Less than 15 minute, our food is served – I tried their chef’s choice of soup for the day – the creamy mushroom soup, it’s delicious! The main dish that my hubby picked is one of Burgoo’s best – the Shrimps and Rib’s platter, we enjoyed our lunch up to the last rib! My mango shake is perfect too… the restaurant is cozy and very comfortable, it’s one of the best dining experience.

the birthday celebrant...

the mango shake with our inspiring background

the chef's choice of soup for the day

the best shrimp and rib's platter

Then we spent the rest of the afternoon in the Science Discovery Center which highlighted the 45-minute planetarium show, Ice World. Everything we shared together on this birthday is first time and special to me and I’m sure he enjoyed his special day! Indeed a blessed day and a memorable one!

Happy Birtdhay, mwah!

• Chill in our room, play and laugh
• Movie Marathon – Dora, Disney Princess, Disney characters
• Play rhyme songs and sing with her
• Feed and cook for her myself
• Go out and stroll in the mall – a fun ride in Timezone
• Dine out and order her favorite Congee in Chowking
• Attend kids birthday party to simulate her interaction with other kids
• Go to church together
• Hang out in our living area and teach her how to walk

… and I can see how my little girl responded happily to the quality time her dad and I give her.