hot mama!

met Eula Valdez in the flesh! can you say girl crush??

still so pretty after all these years!

and she's the only one who was all dressed up during the event.

Ristras

one late night after hubby picked me up from work, we decided to treat ourselves. we have been scrimping and saving up for the wedding and the kid's school, that we thought, why not enjoy something new for a change?

while driving along wilson st. (a little short cut from our usual edsa way going home) we chanced upon Ristras along J. Abad Santos st. i read about it when i read Anton's (our awesome planet) and the reviews were quite ok. good thing hubby agreed since we're not fans of mexican food. give us tuna and salmon sashimi anytime!

here's what we ordered:

nachos: got sold with the purple chips! the dips were so-so, i thought it was a specialty but it tasted generic.

quesadillas: didn't expect it to be this huge! but i was really hungry and i finished off 2 traingles. hehe if only we knew we can choose the toppings, we would've avioded the fresh onions, bell peppers and the green leafy stuff on top.

it was really good and filling.

we didn't try the burrito since i told hubby i wasn't in the mood for one and i have a feeling that it will sure give me gas for a week. haha! we didn't expect the size of the burrito. again, it was huge! saw the people next in line order two. one for each of them. but surprisingly, they were able to finish it. grabe!

for sure, we'll come back to ristras and try it out again. :)

thought bubbles

how can you remain positive when the people around you are so negative that sometimes, it just rubs off you. as much as you want to avoid it, they seem to gravitate towards you, perhaps trying to suck you in into their own sad world.

how can i raise my kids with all the good vibes and positive energy if these people keep on blocking it off?

if i had a choice, i'd leave them all behind. after all, they only think about themselves and what benefits them, so why not do the same for my kids?

but of course i can't because, i just can't.

updates updates

since i'm on a blogging high today, might as well post things we've been up to as a family.

keon's finally going to school this june! and the people who are on the same level of excitement as ours are his future teacher! she was able to meet him for a trial run for a week. and he was the star of the class. sadly that time, he just turned 2 and he's quite young to go to school this fear of seeing him bored before he hits his highschool term scares me. keon has this tendency to get bored easily so putting him in school after he turns three sounds reasonable. since his attention span is much better compared to when he was 2. and his vocabulary has blossomed! it felt like he was talking in straight sentences from the moment he was born! such a talkative boy! make that 2 boys! conversations with kyle feels like talking to a grown up already!

wedding preps are in full blast. more updates on my wedding blog. :)

work has been fun even with a very intimidating quota/target. but i know our team can make it! the incentive's a great motivator! hahaha

whew, so far, that's what's been on my mind lately. will update/revive this blog as i go along. :)

but you can find me on twitter, tumblr, plurk and facebook LOL

we found a gem in yaya jackie

i was venting out before that i was in dire need of a yaya for kade. and god has answered our prayers. the time that the yaya we got left just before new year's day, there was an angel who was waiting on the wings. thank god for our loyal labandera/plantsadora who was able to talk to her daughter's best friend to work for us. thankfully she was also in need of work.

aling ton (our plantsadora) arrived around 7 in the morning. i woke up 30 mins after and was surprised to see a new face sweeping the floor! she introduced herself and greeted me. (plus points already). i told her to give me a few minutes since i just woke up and kade's still sleeping.

jackie is 28 years old from bicol. i knew right there she will be a good caregiver. she has this pleasant aura about her. the moment i let her hold kade i knew the two of them would get along. and they did quite nicely.

she's been with us over a month but the bond that she has with kade is commendable. when i'm home, kade's all over me, but when i'm not, it's ate jackie or no one.

i just trained her for a week about her tasks and duties but she exceeded our expectations. everything's done by the time kade's awake. clothes have been washed, floors sweeped, the crib ready for kade. also with the help of keon's yaya, who, is a gem as well.

pfft

sometimes i just feel as if i'm the only one making sure everything falls into place for the wedding.

i felt a little hurt, when i wanted to get this hair and make up artist only to get an "ah ok..." (ellipses included) as a response. been mentioning hair and make up artist for 2 days now and no response. not even, "if you really want to get him, then go for it." nada.

and did i mention i'll be the one to pay for this? i didn't ask him to pay for it. because i know it was my responsibility to look for one.

and this is what i get.

now tell me, how am i going to be motivated after this?

wedding preps

the past few months have been quite crazy and hectic for hubby and i. we've been focused aside from work, our wedding preps. as of this posting, we've only got 7 months left. and it scares me. we've still have a lot to cover.

-meeting potential suppliers
-my assignment from my coordinator
-forms and other documents
-the dreaded guestlist
-meeting with our principal sponsors
-gown fitting - we have to find the best couturier first.
-payments

a lot!

it's a blessing that we also have a good good friend who'll help coordinate our wedding. and she had been gracious enough to provide her services for free since we've bonded over beer and seafood way way before everything had materialized. she had been making kulit and finally the day is here!

if you want to know what's going on in my wedding preps,just click on the title and you'll be directed to my wedding preps blog. (as if this blog isn't enough)

oh well. time to try to catch up on my blogging soon!

and if that isn't enough, we have a wedsite! hahaha

http://www.mywedding.com/hazepitoy

lies

amazing how facebook can really validate the lies and the deception.

telling things to my face but the evidence i saw says otherwise.

the quest for the yaya

as mentioned before, we were faced with the dilemma of looking for a yaya at the last minute because kyle's yaya left at the last minute because of a scruffle. i don't want to go into the details anymore since we've forgiven and forgotten the incident already. we've found a new yaya for kyle/kade, albeit temporarily since she lasted only 3 weeks with us. i can't blame her since she's a mother as well and looking after your kid is every mom's priority. again, we're grateful for the service she gave us, she was a gem but we have to let her go.

anyway, just a little rant while i'm on the topic of yaya hunting. i was able to get a referral from a friend who knows this person who let's say searches for potential yayas. i got in touch with her. after a few sms exchanges, and a short notice meeting, we agreed. hubby and i agreed to travel all the way to commonwealth with the promise that she'll meet with us binging with her the potential yaya. we arrived at 9pm. traffic was hell but we took it all in, for the sake of finding a yaya. we even had kade in tow with us.

after a few sms with her, i found it quite odd that since she's within the area, she was no yet there. i called her up, asked her where she was. the exchange that followed was quite odd:

me: ate nasaan na po kayo? andito na po kami
ate: ay sandali lang po, wala pa po kami dyan, hinihintay ko pa po yung yaya para sa inyo.
me: akala ko po ba na kasama nyo na siya?
ate: ay umalis lang po saglit. magkita na lang po tayo sa may mcdo. i text ko na lang po kayo
me: matagal pa po ba yan kasi alas-9 na po eh taga makati pa po kami.
ate: opo. pahintay na lang po

from there, it was quite odd already. my paranoid self was screaming inside. we must leave now, i think smell a scam. i told hubby to wait for a few mintues, if she texts me, then we'll meet her if she doesn't we'll leave. we waited, had a late dinner even and no text. so i sent her a last message that we can't wait for her anymore and we're leaving. she then sends a message: ay mam, paalis na po kami. mauuna na lang ako para ma meet ko na rin kayo tapos papasunod ko na lang siya dito.

but i declined and told here we've left already. i told her i'll get in touch with her next time if we need her again (i guess this is never haha)

so we went home yaya-less. again.

but blessings come in the form of surprises and the next day my mom told me that she found a yaya for us. (the one mentioned earlier that had to leave after 3 weeks).

but we weren't left yaya less again for long, after a few days, with the help of our trusted labandera/plantsadora, she broguth with her one friday morning our new yaya. and so far she's good. nice to the kids, very attentive, takes initiative and very easy to talk to. i sure hope this one stays longer. this time i'm crossing my fingers.

what have i been up to?

for the longest time, i have been neglecting this blog. much of what happens to me on a daily basis has/had been logged in 2 of my planners. one for daily thoughts and rants and the other for wedding preps.

hubby and i have been going through a lot of potential suppliers. one criteria that ranks high on our list is how much we can get from their rates, the cheaper but with a lot to give, the better. and so far, we're still trimming down our lists.

9 months into the planning and i can feel the stress and the pressure. but we've booked 2 out of the our 3 major suppliers: the church and the venue. next on the list is the photo/video. 60% of the budget goes to them. the rest, we can find cheaper ones - especially for the attire. finding a good "mananahi" that can copy our pegs works fine for me. ms. practical in me screams that i only get to wear my gown once so there's no need to make it really bongga. i'm all for the comfort.

on the homefront, things are still much the same. the kids have been reserved for next school year and we're tickled with excitement at the thought of keon going to school. he'll sure wow the class. that's how confident we are of him. our little wonder, next to kyle.

kade, has turned 6 months. and i still can't believe that it has been half a year already! he's such a little bundle of surprises. he's now into solids and quite the hefty eater! 5 scoops using his spoon is enough for him. to think he just started a week ago! how's that for matakaw? :)

i guess i shall focus now on the wedding preps blog so that i won't forget any details or pegs to use.