Crazy Busy

Things have been a little hectic for me lately. My mom was in vacation and the business work was all left to me - the number one thing that's keeping me out of the blogging world. And we've been staying at mom's home to accompany my sisters since she left for her week long vacation. And of course, I was also extra busy in tending to the little one.

Well here are some updates for the past weeks..

1. The holy week was spent in Batangas with the hubby's family. No fasting happened but the opposite. It was all about pigging out and enjoying the beach :)

2. Jared got a new haircut and he's not so cooperative compared to his previous haircut sessions as he has become so ticklish.

3. Attended a wedding in Batangas. The groom was hubby's cousin and my BIL was part of the entourage. What we really enjoyed was the photo booth. Had lots of photos! It was really fun.

feeling groom and bride.. with a kid haha!

4. Lynette's homecoming. She was my high school friend who's now living in France with her wonderful family. I thought of bringing Jared with me so he can meet Lynnette's son, Zach. If I remember correctly, the last time I saw her was more than six years ago.. that's too long! so here we are after six years :)

Photos courtesy of sandra.. thanks girl! :)

We both already have kids and they're of the same age :)

they look like long time friends here

at Gerry's grill, thanks to Lynnette for the wonderful lunch :D

the girls

Friday night with the girls

Some photos from our post birthday celebration of my friend, Andy, with another good friend Janice. It was a dinner at TGIF and ice cream for dessert.. yum yum!

Super belated happy Birthday Andy! :)

Balikbayans

2 of my friends who were both living in another country have come home for a holiday vacation here in PI. That's why Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year because it's when you get to meet a lot of friends and have a lot of parties.

So I met up with my friend Maan with her husband Rex along with another two high school friends. It was set in the early afternoon because Cel & Lorie have appointments at night. Anyway, we had a nice dinner at Shomal which serves Persian cuisine. I had the chelo beef kebab solo and it was good and the rice was super yummy. Didn't know that rice can be that tasty. And the best thing about it is it was free! Thanks Maan! :)

And another one night out with Chelle and the gang (first one for 2010!). Started with coffee while waiting for the two late comers (you know who you are! haha!) Then we had dinner at Cyma, Trinoma - a restaurant that serves greek food. I thought that we will just have dinner so H and I agreed to go home together after dinner. But everyone was bitin so we decided to go to Guilly's at Tomas Morato(with H). Too bad hubby and I had to leave early (yeah bummer) because we're leaving for Batangas at 4am the following day. But still I had lots of fun! fun! fun!

Feeling college naman

Last week I met up with my best college friends at the Shangrila mall. It was supposed to be a celebration of Kitine's and Doann's birthday which were already months ago haha! It's because everyone was so busy we couldn't find a schedule that works for all of us. But thank God, it already happened :)

It was a dinner at Green Tomato at level 6 of shangrila mall, my first time to dine there. I ordered Rosemary, chicken & asparagus pasta but when I got to taste it, it was like I'm eating chicken tinola with pasta. We also had the mighty meaty pizza but it was just OK.

Anyway, I went home the happiest because I got to bring home lots of gifts from my generous girlfriends for me and for Jared :) (gift for my bday pa and xmas haha) And I was such a bad friend I haven't shopped for gifts yet.. Next time na lang ha :)

Feeling highschool again

It's because I met up with my high school best friends last week. Rachelle and Ann were back for a Christmas vacation so we were almost complete except for my friend Lynnette who's been living in France for years. The good news is she'll come home for a vacation on April. So excited for that one :)

We did the usual thing - dinner and coffee afterwards. It was such a great night. There were a lot of stories to tell and a lot of reminiscing about our high school days. We could have talk for more but it was already late and I have a makulit son who's been calling me that night. He said that mommy needs to go home NOW. :)

Since that night was not enough for us - we are planning another one after Christmas and I hope it pushes through.

Birthdays and Baptism

My weekend was a bit jam-packed with activities with friends and family but minus the hubby. Unfortunately, he has lots of things to do so wasn't able to join us.

Met up with my 2 girlfriends for Janice's bday celebration.

Saturday was Ninong Ferdie's and his daughter Grace's bday celebration in a private resort in Pansol, Laguna. As usual, the one that enjoyed the most was my little Jared :)

Sunday was the baptism of my new God child, baby Ashley. Sorry for the photo as this was the only one I got (taken by my sis). After that we went to the mall for some Christmas shopping and got home late in the evening.

Oh and I watched Harapan the ABS-CBN Presidential Forum that night which got me so tired and sleepy today. But I still don't know who to vote for (Noynoy or Gordon?). Anyway, I'm not yet sure if I can really vote in the coming election.

Okay it's a Monday again and I wish everyone a great week ahead!

Apat na kami!

Hung out with my 3 girlfriends last week. It's the first time for the longest time that we had this get-together with Andy. Andy and I had dinner first while waiting for Cel & Sands who were both trapped in traffic then.

When the two arrived, we headed to Gilligans to have some food (again) and drinks. It was a night of catching up, chattering and non-stop picture taking. Really really enjoyed it! We're planning to do this every month. So happy to be blessed with such wonderful friends. I hope Ann can join us next time :)

P.S. I noticed that my friends have been changing nick names.. like Sandy from Sandra & Andy from Andrea. Cel, I think we should come up with a new nickname soon hehe!

Hataw Pilipinas

This is a long overdue post. Been too lazy to blog these past few days so...

We weren't really planning to run that Sunday (Aug. 9) since we were not registered on any race. Good thing, Cel tried to contact the organizer of the Hataw Pilipinas run and asked if they accept onsite registration. The contact person replied immediately so we went off the following morning.

There were not too many participants and I noticed that most of them registered onsite since they have a disorganized registration then. There were 3k, 5k and 10k categories. The 10k runners were the first off but due to the poor megaphone that the speaker used, not all 10k runners started at the same time.

The race route was very redundant. It was all about running around the UP oval until you reached your target distance. And when I reached the finish line, there was no one keeping track of the official timing of the finishers. And I don't think they even care to check if you have finished the route or not. Good thing, there were a lot of freebies after the race but still the distribution of the singlets and other stuff were so disorganized.

Anyway, the best part of it was our post-run breakfast courtesy of Cel (super thanks!). It was a post-celebration of her birthday. Happy happy birthday Cel!

FYI: We are just doing the Villar sign and does not mean that we are Villar's fans ;)

Zoo day

We went to Manila Zoo last Saturday with my friend Nec and her family. We were supposed to meet at 2:30 in the afternoon but for some reasons we were late by an hour.

Manila Zoo opened in 1959 and is the oldest zoo in the Philippines. And because of that the place really looks old. For me, it was not well maintained and very outdated. The animals seem bored and lonely. Mali, the only elephant in the zoo is a good example. He is housed alone in a concrete pen. The monkeys are all in really small cages which cannot compare to their natural habitat. I hope they get added support and assistance from the government so they can improve the lives of all the animals there.

In spite of all those things I mentioned above, the kids Lily and Jared enjoyed their visit to the zoo. Jared was amazed to see the animals live which he only sees in books and in video. He kept on asking to go back to the tiger and elephant when we were already done visiting them. Oh and he asked us to find the place of the polar bear in the zoo.. haha!

We were not able to go to the Kinder Zoo or the petting zoo wherein you can interact with the all the tamed animals. Maybe next time..

Entrance fee is 40 pesos for adults and 20 pesos for children while Kinderzoo has a separate entrance fee of 40 pesos per head.

10 signs you're getting old

1. Your friends' status in facebook/friendster have gone from 'single' to 'married', some even uploading even their babies pictures. And your baby's photo is always on your primary photo.

2. The clothes you've put away until they come back in style... have come back in style.

3. You meet your friends from time to time, talking about the good old days, repeating again and again all funny stories you have experienced together.

4. Your idea of a night out is now the dinner-and-coffee kind.

5. Your friends are married. (and having children!)

6. You are always surprised to see small children playing comfortably with computers.

7. You rely more on your cell phone’s reminder feature than your good old memory.

8. You can relate to the series Desperate Housewives more than the Gossip Girl.

9. You know more of those nursery rhymes than the current songs playing on the radio.

10. You cannot see your feet when you are standing... haha!!

And you know you're old when you read this post, and start thinking how true all of this is... ;p

OK, these are all me :)

Friends

I had a great night out with my girlfriends last week. First, with my bestest college friends which also happened to be "May and My" birthday celebration. We met up at G5 and had dinner in Dulcinea. We had the chicken salad pasta, pesto, steak ala pobre, calamares, gambas al ajillo. The servings were pretty small and taste is just ok. Anyway, we had the usual chattering the whole time. And we ended the meal with a banana crepe which had become a topic for laughs. Oh, doann and kitine forgot to bring the gifts for the bday girls so we had to meet up again soon ;)

Then a day after, I met up with my childhood friends. We were neighbors back then. We met up at a nearby mall and had dinner at Shakeys and coffee afterwards (both chosen by Andy). And as usual, we had non-stop chitchatting and picture taking. Janice is such a picture addict hehe! (and so am I) We had a whole lot of fun! Until the next one!

Dinner with gurlfriends

Last night, my friends and I had dinner at Krocodile Grill in Trinoma. It was my first time to dine there and I enjoyed it. We had seafood soup, inihaw na tahong and the yummy salted spicy squid - seafoods galore! It was wonderful to see them both. Haven't seen them for months. Looking forward to our next night out.. Sands, don't forget the P&P receipts.. :)

Dinner with friends

I had dinner with my friends Andeng & Janice (my childhood friends). So nice of Andeng to come all the way to Fairview from her apartment in Pag-asa. We dined at Napoli Pizzeria and they didn't like the food (my bad!). I was the one who suggested the place and the food.. we had pizza, seafood pesto and chicken and luckily they didn't like the pesto so I had more for myself hehe! They said that it tasted like grass (hmm..) Well, I was not aware that it's their first encounter with pesto. Had I known, should have ordered other pasta. . After dinner, we went to Janice's house to see her kids. Man, they're really big kids. I wonder how much food and milk they consume. They're all so cute and huggable.

It was really great to catch up with them. Some photos..