Complete Valentine's Day Package

I am such a lucky, happy, preggy wife!

My husband treated me to a pregnancy massage. I enjoyed it so much, the whole 90 minute-long pampering of my tired and aching muscles. I should have had one a long time ago. I am 7.5 months pregnant now and that's how long I have not had a massage. That masseuse had magic hands! Aches and pains... G-O-N-E!

After massage, we went to House of Brutus. We love the food there and we love how it is never crowded. Apparently they had a Valentine's Day special: Salad, main course of rib-eye steak and basa fish, apple pie and ice cream for dessert, and 2 glasses of wine (which I can't have)... all for just $35! What a great deal!After yet a successful dinner date, we went home and my husband surprised me (but wait, there's more?!) with a bouquet of flowers. :) He knows that my weakness are flowers. I was really surprised since I really do not expect flowers anymore since we got here in Guam. IT IS SO DAMN EXPENSIVE and they are just mediocre flowers, compared to the creative, colorful, variety of flora they have in the Philippines. I guess it really does help to not expect anything and you get doubly surprised by the gesture.


♥ My husband cooked up a Complete Valentine's Day Package. He is perfect! ♥

Happy Valentine's Day to all!

P.S.
It's a good thing we did celebrate V-day this year. My co-worker just reminded me that this will be our last V-day as a couple... why?
Because starting April, yes, that's in a few weeks, I and hubs will no longer be two... but three! Our little one will be here very very soon! Next V-day there will be the three of us celebrating. Woooow! :)

A Snore of a Conversation

I just had a whole conversation with my husband... while he was sleeping.

This was not the first time it happened but this is probably one of the most interactive talks with him while he is unconscious. Haha.

He usually just mumbles about some random phrases. Like when the time he was reviewing for his CLEP Algebra exam, he mumbled about a certain formula while he was asleep. While he was taking one of his subjects about IT Management, he mumbled about tables and databases.

The other night was my first work day after a 3-day weekend, and his first day back in the island after a 5-day vacation in the Philippines.

It was 8 AM, he was still in deep sleep. This was the gist of the conversation (translated in English).

Me: Mr, I am off to work.
Mr: Huh? You don't have work today.
Me: Me? I have work today, it's already Tuesday.
Mr: No, you have an excuse letter.
Me: What excuse letter?
Mr: The (mumble mumble mumble) letter.
Me: You're still sleeping, you don't know what you're saying.
Mr: No, you don't have work today.

'Me' then walks away.

Trial HMU

We’ll be having our pre-nup shoot the same day we arrive in the Philippines. Well, technically the next day, since we’ll start at midnight. Haha.

We had our shoot originally set for September but due to really bad weather, we postponed it for December. The only free time the photographers, videographers, and us have in common is December 23.

Given that I need to start preparing for the shoot around midnight, it might be too awkward to ask for my make up artist to help me out that time. Besides, I’d like to explore my own ‘artistic’ abilities too.

So today, I woke up early and had nothing to do. Therefore, it was the perfect time to practice doing my hair and make up for the pre-nup shoot. It took me more than an hour to finish everything. Viola! I looked ridiculous posing by myself but what the heck, I need to start practicing now. We only have 1 month left! Whoa!!!

Anyhoo, so here are some samples of the Magic that hair and make up does:

Above HMU by my make up artist Kris Bacani. She’s so good!!! She has magic hands. Hahaha!!!




For both pictures above, HMU is done by *ahem* MYSELF! Yeah! It isn’t as grand as what my make up artist can do, but pretty good for someone who doesn’t know anything about make ups. This is good for our pre-nup shoot I guess. Agree? :)

Mahnemis

For those engaged women* who will be changing their names soon.**

Marriage Certificate

Note that this is the last time you will be writing and signing using the name you had for at least 2 decades. It’s not something sad that you’re changing your name, but it should be something treasured, Yes, I am sentimental. Hehehehe.

Write Your Name

Practice writing your new name. There will be a lot of forms that you will be filling out and it would be really embarrassing to have an erasure on those forms in the NAME FIELD, right?

Say My Name Say My Name

Hehehe. The song just popped in my head. Anyway, what I mean is, try saying your new name aloud. People will be calling you in that name (Mrs. ____ ) and you better acknowledge it is you they are calling and not your husband’s mother. Hihihi.

Try saying your name too. It would also be very awkward to stutter when asked what your name was and you still end up saying your maiden name.

Signature

Invent your new (and improved) signature. Again, you will have new forms and identifications and all of them need your signature. Practice practice practice. Your signature has to be consistent, especially with bank related documents.

When we were getting my Military Dependents ID card, I did not think I had to fill out the form and then sign it. I got stuck for around two minutes or so. I had no idea how to sign the document. The personnel was waiting for me so I had to be creative – fast. I did sign it with the best I could think of at that moment.

I probably have around 3 different versions of my signature in different documents. Tsk tsk tsk. No worries, I already know my final signature.

Passport

Your passport has to be amended after your wedding. You don’t need a new passport; they will just put an amendment note at the last page of your passport.

My husband and I are planning these trips and it’s not until someone mentioned during a military spouse orientation (yes, they do hold a monthly Military Spouse Orientation/Workshop which is greatly helpful for military-newbies like me) that since we just changed our name, we would need to have our passport amended so we can still use it for travel.

Other Documents

Start asking your banks, license offices, what happens to your account/IDs after getting married and changing your name. They might be requiring some amendments too.

** This is probably just applicable to those who will be changing their name.

* Wink wink to my sister… CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR ENGAGEMENT! :)

Meet the Packers

They came at 9:00 AM.

3.5 hours and 2.5 crates later, EVERYTHING has been packed and loaded in the truck. As the 'SBC Packers’ say it: “It’s simple, we pack anything!”

Goodbye sofa, goodbye bed, goodbye tv,

goodbye house…

Hahaha. Ang drama! ;)

‘The Packers’ will be moving our stuff to Guam while I and my husband will meet our stuff there later, at the end of this year. Counting the days!!! New year, new country, new home. Exciting! ;)

Now that we’ve moved out of our house, my husband and I have a 3-luggage-worth of stuff with us that should survive us until end of this year.

~.:.~~.:.~~.:.~~.:.~~.:.~~.:.~~.:.~~.:.~~.:.~~.:.~~.:.~~.:.~~.:.~~.:.~~.:.~~.:.~~.:.~

Next week, goodbye kotse naman… :

Pamamanhikan (A.K.A. National Lamon Day)

It was May 18, 2008...

...A very special day for me and Manuel because this was the day we decided to have the Official Pamamanhikan. Yes, Manuel and I have been engaged since March but since he wanted to do the Pamamanhikan Tradition the Filipino way (and I’m really really really thankful for him and his family for doing so), he had to go here in Manila so he and his family can formally ask for my parent’s blessing.

We picked Hawaiian BBQ in Tagaytay since we really loved the baby back ribs we had in Boracay last year. However, since we got to Tagaytay too early for lunch, we stayed in Starbucks for a while first. Magkape habang nagpapagutom. Ahem.

We arrived at Hawaiian BBQ and started pigging out (yes, I tell you, it was pigging out! We ordered waaaaaay toooo muccch) at 11:30 AM and finished dessert at around 2:00 PM. Some of the day's highlights was when my father said the "hindi yan parang kanin" quote while my sister was recording everything on video. Bwahaha. He also shared several "handa na ba kayo sa mga pagsubok at hindi kayo aatras"- related words of wisdom; which in turn I responded with "Opo, father" or "Yes, I do." Hahahaha!

Then, as the day went along, we realized that it had to be declared a National Lamon Day too. Here are SOME of the reasons why: Longsilog for breakfast, Starbucks coffee and cake for morning merienda, Hawaiian BBQ Baby back ribs and oh so much more for lunch, Chunky Monkey and Fruit Bowl for dessert, Mushroom Burger for afternoon merienda 1, Isaw manok, isaw baboy, tenga for afternoon merienda 2, Dinner at home, Buko pie, espasol, etc for evening dessert.

I could tell you more about the National Lamon Day as you browse through our pictures.

Again, thank you very much to Manuel and family (I am truly truly grateful). God bless us all.

Vector

My first vector art attempt!

239 photoshop layers

18++ hours of labor (of love :P)

I had it printed out in big size (big lang, hindi humongous ala billboard, but that will also do because vectors do not get pixilated even if you resize it, yey!) so the layers were more visible in the printed copy. I didn’t find any printing services that uses vinyl sticker but that would be the best option. Mine was just printed on an 18”x18” glossy poster paper.
It was really fun to do but would really take a lot of one’s patience, countless trial and error layer-color picking, some hand-cramping mouse controls, back aches were also encountered, and probably millions of pen tool points.
Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!! :)

~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~Thanks to online tutorial and some friendly comments.

Woot woot! :)