yes i'm still alive

months that i did not even visited this site! i just lost my mojo in blogging! and now I'm back! i miss writing about my daily happenings. so sit back and there's more to come

it's about time

hay it's about time i update my blog..nag-tatampo na sya sa twitter at flickr ko since you can find me there almost anytime of the day!!

well regarding my last post...in a very spontaneous decision hubby and i decided to spend 19 days in manila!! we always want to go home for a visit but there's always something hindering us to make our plans final...until about 1 1/2 weeks before my scheduled annual vacation, we decided to go with our plans!!

so there....in the span of 19 days i (we) were in heaven!!


detailed posts to follow!!

guess where i am

i'm in heaven!!

hehehehe

will post about it soon....

be right back

because i am on laziness leave of absence

holiday 2008

our christmas was spent with the inlaws. and since all of us (eric and his brothers including I) are all nurses, it's really hard to have all of us in one house in a particular holiday!! so for christmas it's just eric and i with his older brother with his parents.

ofcourse lots of food and nice gifts given and received

then we greeted 2009 in our own humble apartment. just the two of us!! we had our round fruits

then for media noche i just ordered pacit malabon, beef caldereta, bibinka, and puto bongbong for desserts!!

for some reason i decided to hold the video camera more that night than my camera..so didn't have so much decent photos of us!

but what's important is that we are greeted the new year together ever loving each other and hoping that this year will be much better for us!!

December 20, 2008

a busy day for me...

a month before our friends decided to held our annual christmas party this day..i was so happy to find that since i was off from work this weekend! then a week before the said date my manager from work decided to host a christmas party for her nurses at the same night. as a party goer as i am i needed to be on both parties!!

so here comes the first for the night:

our christmas party form work at Stargazer Restaurant in West Hills, CA

here's my co-workers...

they are my filipino mafia from the morning shift!! non of my night filipino mafia was able to come kaya they adopted me for that night!!

sharing a drink with one of our charge nurse

the party started at 7:30pm the food was good. bonded with the other nurses outside my usual night filipino mafia. we danced, drinked and took lots of pictures!! and by 10pm when we were starting to exchange gifts, my husband texted me that i need to leave now so we can be at the other party.

second one for the night:

our friends annual christmas party.

so by 2am i was dead tired. we called it a night

December 19, 2008

a special day for my hubby for he again added a candle on his cake!! we celebrated his birthday with a special lunch with his parents and one of his brother for a lunch at cameron's seafood restaurant

then hubby and i went to the mall for our christmas shopping...since we were tired from the hustle and bussel of the shopping mall this time, hubby wants to call it a day for him. but i declined so!! even though we are still quite not hungry from our big lunch and snacks at the mall, we decided to have a dinner at our favorite thai barbeque restaurant. then were off to JJ's bakery for hubby's bday cake, but we could not decided which cake to get, we decided to get the different kinds of mini cake that they had!!

then we called it a day and just cuddled in each others arms while enjoying some christmas movies that the cable was showing!!

so to my dear hubby...

you know how much i love you and this one thing for sure my gift of love i promise to give you each and every day of your life!!

girls night out part3

january 4:

my filipino mafia from work decided to have a post-holiday get together. they decided to have an intimate dinner at yamashiro restaurant. the location of the restaurant was heavenly, overlooking the hollywood lights and with just candle light to light us...super romatic talaga...(but no husband allowed that night!!)

seafood feast

we just finished our seafood feast. and we are so full right now that we didn't even touch our dessert!!

the lobster tails i got from costco and the rest i just got from ralphs supermarket. i just steamed them except the shrimp which i grilled. cooked rice pilaf and steamed some corn and mix vegetables and wwwhhaaallaaa a seafood feast!! syempre with candle light pa kami!!

this is the first time i prepared this kind of dinner... cheaper than if we go out and get it in a restaurant...so now i should do this kind of meal more often!!

(just testing on how fast it is to load pics now with our new internet services...ang bilis nga within 10 seconds uploaded na...this is without resizing my pics!!)

yippeee after 2 1/2 weeks of not having a high speed internet..we finally got it today!!

we decided to upgrade and bundle our phone, cable and internet services with time warner and we upgraded our cable receiver to HD so finally we can watch in HD channels and we might as well upgrade our internet service to their high speed turbo internet services!!

so now my online work piled up and here's my to do list:

• email my mother-in-law our christmas pictures (done)

• upload pictures of my co-workers in their friendster account (one down one more to go)




• make a photobook for my big boss of our christmas party pictures (sipsip para malaki salary raise this may!!! yah right makuha ko ito!!) (done pero kinukuripot ako $43..i just need to order this one..but done)




• book my mom her las vegas airline ticket for her birthday in february




• update my friendster pics




• update my blog (getting there)




• update my flickr (started already)




• pay my online bills (done)

hay.... one at a time....

i'm still here

still no decent posting in here...hopefully tomorrow....for our high speed internet will be installed tomorrow!!! so see you all soon..!!

2008------>2009

i'm bidding 2008 good-bye...

• this year i matured about how to deal with everyday life struggles
• i became more faithful to God
• i loved my husband more
• i became a better and more caring nurse
• i reconnected my relationships with my siblings and parents
• i gave more time to my needy friends

overall 2008 was a good year for me......

and now that 2009 is starting to peek-in....wishing all of us a lucky 2009!!!

touching story

So I walked to the door and knocked. 'Just a minute', ansered a frail, elderly voice. Ic ould hear something being dragged across the floor. Aftera long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 90's stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940s movie. By her side was a small nuylon suitecase. The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for years. All the furniture was covered with sheets. There were no clocks on the walls, no knickknacks or utensils on the counters. In the corner was a cardboard box filled with photos and glassware. 'Would you carry my bag out to the car?' she said. I took the suitcase tot he cab, then returned to assist the woman.

She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the curb. She kept thanking me for my kindness. 'It's nothing', I told her. 'I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother treated'. 'Oh, you're such a good boy', she said. When we got in the cab, she gave me an address, and then asked, 'Could you drive through downtown?' 'It's not the shortes way', I answered quickly. 'Oh, I don't mind', she said. 'I'm in no hurry. I'm on my way to a hospice'. I looked in the rear-view mirror. Her eyes were glistening. 'I don't have any family left', she continued. 'The doctor says I don't have very long'. I quietly reached over and shut off the meter. 'What route would you like me to take?' I asked.

For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator. We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds. She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl. Sometimes she'd ask me to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing. As the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, 'I'm tired. Let's go now'.

We drove in silence to the address she had given me. It wa a low building, like a small convalescent home, with a driveway that passed under a portico. Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as we pulled up. They were solicitous and intent, watching her every move. They must have been expecting her. I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase to the door. The woman was already seated in a wheelchair.

'How much do I owe you?' she asked, reaching into her purse.

'Nothing', I said

'You have to make a living', she answered.

'There are other passengers', I responded. Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug. She held onto me tightly.

'You gave an old woman a little moment of joy', she said.

'Thank you'.

I squeezed her hand, and then walked into the dim morning light. Behind me, a door shut. It was the sound of the closing of a life.

I didn't pick up any more passengers that shift. I drove aimlessly lost in thought. For the rest of that day, I could hardly talk. What if that woman had gotten an angry driver, or one who was impatient to end his shift? What if I had refused to take the run, or had honked once, then driven away?

On a quick review, I don't think that I have done anything more important in my life. We're conditioned to think that our lives revolved around great mements. But great moments often catch us unaware-beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one.

PEOPE MAY NOT REMEMBER EXACTLY WHAT YOU DID, OR WHAT YOU SAID, BUT THEY WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER HOW YOU MADE THEM FEEL.

Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance.

lakers live

i could not think of a better birthday present for my husband but a lakers tickets.

so with his friends we watched lakers live at staples center last december 10, 2008. lakers was agains phoenix suns (but shaq o'neil was injured that night so we did not see him play!!)

side note:
** on our way to the game....few blocks away from our house, hubby remembered that we forgot the tickets...hay imagine, if we totally forgot...!!! so what can we do but drove back home to get our tickets!!

** as picture mania... i have my pocket camera plus my dslr with my regular and zoom lens!! just to find out that they don't let my zoom lens in because "it's too big" ?what? so i'm left with my regular lens which makes the players look like ants at the pictures!!

at the end...we were all happy because lakers won...!!! galing talaga ng lakers!!!

disappointed

today is "our birthday" this is the middle day between our actual bdays. since we were both off from work, we decided to have a "supposed" to be special dinner.

Location: Barn Burner texas barbeque in pasadena, ca

(we always pass by this restaurant everytime we need to take the 110 freeway. so i told hubby why not try their food here. ay...mistake...)

before heading to the restaurant we already searched their menu online. so we had the idea on what we want to get when we get there...

for starters...garlic fries...this one is really good if you are into garlic flavor

hubby got the baby back ribs and fingerlinks sausage platter with bake beans, mashed potatoes, and 2 dinner rolls

i got the brisket, barbeque chicken platter with macaroni and cheese, corn in a cob and 2 dinner rolls

when they were taking our order, i was so worried that i would not be able to finish my food and ask my hubby if he wants to just share his platter with me, but he refused since according to him he was starving that time. so we both ordered different stuff so just that we can taste the different barbeques they have

we they brought our food...we were surprised how small their servings are.....my hubby's exact words were "nge...eto na yun?"

then to top it off their food was not so good....i could not describe it any better than DRY. good thing we were hungry that time, kaya napag-tyagaan!!

my hubby and i was so disappointed that we decided not to get any desserts anymore...

the big rooster that will welcome you

pose with "mr. texas"

this restaurant will go down in our "will not eat there again" list

sad...