hugsDear!

All in one :)

2012-01-24T09:13:00.001-08:00

Yes, all in one post… Christmas, New Year, and a Birthday!

First off, our camera got broken… and yeah, it was me… I dropped it... I know boo! :( But we manage, thru our phones we are able to capture bits and pieces of what came about on these very eventful days. So yeah, this won’t be the usual a-picture-tells-a-thousand-words kind of blog today. :)

Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas card this year… thanks to our good ol’ friend Roland for lending us his camera to be able to take a decent picture for our Christmas card. :)

A Christmas party on Wii… not a bad idea… in fact it was a hit! Watch this… lol!

the desperate husbands :)

Happy New Year!

Off to South Carolina we go! It was good to see everybody of course. We took a few days off work so we can spend time with our family there.

on new year’s day with super cute Lucy & uncle Warren and the cutie pies

Then, we get to go to Atlanta to visit the Coke museum… bottomless coke soda products from around the world!

Happy Birthday!

To the most wonderful man in my life… the love of my life… my hubby! It was a triple treat with close friends.

Dinner @ Buffalo Wild Wings | Dessert @ 16 Handles | and a quick stop @ Starbucks

Then went home for a Wii party all night! :)

Contrasting interests

2011-12-12T08:38:00.000-08:00

Yes folks… me and the hubby, though very much in sync on almost anything, do have contrasting interests :).

The Biker (Oh, didn’t I tell you? Yeah, he's into motorbikes! )

during hubby’s two whole day class at HVCC to get his driver’s license.

The Baker (I took a class at Michaels for cake decorating… really fun! Every Wednesday nights last October and November and will be coming back on January for the next and final course).

me at the class with my friend Joan and our yummy cakes :)

I’m a Mac

2011-10-07T08:34:00.000-07:00

That’s my iBook G4 from late 2003 and yes it’s still working! My first ever computer here in the US that my hubby gave to me on our first Christmas as a couple… which he knows I’m planning on getting for myself but beat me to it. I love him! :) And the first computer I have ever called my own!

Anyway, I have always been fascinated by anything Apple since my awareness of its existence. I think I’m an artist by heart and their product really speaks to me, not only from an IT stand point, but more so on how they are brilliantly and innovatively crafted to give its users the ease of use and the instinctive acknowledgement of how computing should be, uncomplicated and beautiful… truly a work of art. A standard I have personally adopted as an IT.

And as many who have already expressed their love and appreciation to the key man behind it all… I too would like to show my appreciation to this man who makes us look cool… Cheers to you Mr. Steve Jobs! You will stay an inspiration to us all.

Otesaga

2011-09-26T11:28:00.000-07:00

I can’t believe summer is over… Oh well, at least we get to enjoy most of it trying new stuff and doing things we love.

I guess we can call this our last summer escapade :). Otesaga is a resort hotel in Cooperstown NY, home of the baseball hall of fame that we got to visit and stayed in for two nights. It was a really nice treat for us… more so because it was a very nice hotel with breakfast and dinner included, and we didn’t have to spend a dime! All because of my hubby’s diligence in exploring probabilities. : )

The Otesaga Resort Hotel

Then we visited local attractions… so many things to see for such a small town (the hotel provided us the tickets too). Trivia: Cooperstown was named after Judge William Cooper, the father of James Fenimore Cooper the author of a novel series “The Last of the Mohicans”.

Golf driving range

The Farmers Museum

The Fenimore Arts Museum

The Baseball hall of Fame and Museum

The Piano

2011-07-30T09:33:00.000-07:00

I got a piano!

It was so nice to have help come your way when you least expect it… We are very grateful to everyone for their help especially to our home teacher, Troy! Who told about us looking for a piano, and who told us about the piano, and who is even the one who organized the move for the piano. And to the Nagamatsu’s for entrusting us this fine piece… such a joy to play it in our home! <3

the move...

and this is me showing off hehe... ok don't be hard on me i'm still taking lessons :)

"lullaby"

Camping!

2011-07-26T09:29:00.000-07:00

One of my hubby’s favorite thing to do :) and we finally did it! The last time we went camping was 7yrs ago hahaha! We enjoyed it so much that we promised to do it again each year since… but always get pass by other things… so this has been long overdue :).

On our way to the camp… we stopped by a scenic area for a picture and to check if everyone is still on board… hence the phone on my hand (I am no phoneaholic! hehehe).

Tent… all set! It was super hot that day! But no complains :)

The food… :)

dinner... yum!

breakfast... yum!

The next day… we stopped by to check this place for zip lining… but nobody dared to try it :) so we just took pictures and ate ice cream lol!

Hmmm… this looks like all we ever did there was to eat lol… though true… we went swimming as well and did a lot of chit-chatting, just no evidence to prove it :).

Backsplash

2011-05-20T11:13:00.000-07:00

Another DIY moment :) I tell you watching that channel almost every day will turn you in to this if-they-can-do-it-sure-we-can-too attitude hahaha! So here we are again like a proud new puppy owner ha-ha… sharing another accomplished moment from start to finish.

hard @ work :)

Before ... After :)

Down it goes...

2011-05-02T06:40:00.000-07:00

The tree that is standing proudly at the back of our house, though putrid, is standing no more. Thankful too that it went the other way and not towards the house. Now the challenge is how to get rid of it hahaha. Chain saw anyone? :)

We got home from work and found it like this… it chose it’s time to go.

He tried… yeah, did not even moved a nano lol!

Lobster killers! Lol!

2011-04-05T07:52:00.000-07:00

guilty as charged! :)

Of course we had lobster before… but already cooked either from a restaurant or from a store that steam them for you. Well, last week we thought “let’s have lobster for dinner”… nothing, just feeling it… a little treat for ourselves I guess :). So off to the grocery store we went… picked out a couple of the smallest ones… but the thing is it’s already passed 6pm and their steamer is already closed, they’ll open it for us but it will take a good half hour to 45mins of waiting… so we said, what the heck we’ll cook the lobster ourselves! :) It also helped that another costumer was there boosted our confidence told us it’s easy and that we can do it! So do it, we did! :)

We got home thinking… how to cook this thing??? Oh yes, our gud ol’ friend Google :) While googling “how to cook a lobster” came across a result that says “if you can boil a pot of water, then you can cook a lobster” – http://www.lobsterhelp.com/. Aaaah now that’s uplifting coz we know how to boil a pot of water! And as it turn out… it was as easy as boiling water! Came out good! We are fed and accomplished! Ha-ha!

Randomness

2011-03-29T13:25:00.000-07:00

A collection of random precious moments taken while in the Philippines… with our family, relatives, and friends. Something to browse back when home sickness kicks in and/or the winter cold breeze starts to creeps in :)

cuteness!

with family

with relatives

with friends

just us :)

Oh, and I drove while we’re there! loved it! But the people riding with me… not so much LOL!

Bataan

2011-03-25T13:53:00.000-07:00

We made it to the beach!!!

What’s the point of being in the tropics and not go to the beach? So this is a must for us! Lol! And we get to enjoy it with family! It was awesomeness to the max! :)

Btw, Bataan is one of the famous historic places in the Philippines it is where the “Bataan Death March” took place in World War II (click the link to know more about it).

@ Montemar Beach Club in Bataan:

the view

just us :)

with everyone!

The Market

2011-03-21T10:11:00.000-07:00

We gotta post pictures of this… fresh fish… fresh meat… fresh vegetables… fresh fruits… it’s got everything! And they’re cheap! :) What else could be better than that… if you’re into good eating who loves to cook… this is your place to be! Missing having a place like this where we at now :(.

(left to right): look at the size of those shrimp!; sea weeds; fresh from the sea mussels; squirting clams!

(left to right): fresh meat; that's an ox tail!; fresh fruits and vegies; dried fishes

satisfied costumers :)

Eat… eat… and… eat!

2011-03-18T07:38:00.000-07:00

I think all we ever did there was to eat! And that my friend is the secret reason behind all the gym visits before we left… not for the beach… not to look good… maybe to stay fit… but most definitely to make room to over indulge! :)

The evidences... and these are just a few that we happen to have a camera with us :)

@Fely J's in Greenbelt

@Reyes Barbecue in Glorietta

@Mang Jimmy's in Old Balara UP Diliman

@Uncle Chefy's in Eastwood

@Gerry's Grill in SM fairview

@Dencio's in Marikina

@Untie Leny's Karinderia in Burgos Montalban

@the Stock Market in Serendra Bonifacio High Street

@Congo Grill in Tomas Morato

@Lamesa Grill in Mall of Asia

@Sambokojin in Eastwood

And here are a couple of cool tricks of the food chain trade captured in motion :)

1.) Just a spoon full of rice will make this delicious “Pop rice”

2.) DQ frozen yogurt… if it drops… it’s free! For real…

Was even able to help my niece bake her first chocolate chip cookies! Now this was a lot of fun, not to mention it’s delish!

Sophie's finest cholcolate chip cookies :)

i luv pilipinas

2011-03-15T09:42:00.001-07:00

climbed a coconut tree… rode a carabao… even swimmed the deepest sea… just to get there! :)

If you are ever wondering why the absence of February posting here… it’s because we are way too occupied indulging ourselves with the things we missed… yes folks, we get to go home again after two long awaited years to spend precious time with our families in the Philippines… it went too short too fast but we surely did enjoy ourselves. So yes, this month will solely be posting details from our awesome trip to our homeland the Philippines. To start of… here are some BIG ones :)

everything’s big! :)

Happy Birthday!

2011-01-18T09:27:00.000-08:00

Yes! Happy Birthday to the most awesome husband in the world! The man I’m going to grow old with… and I know I’m going to be with for all time and eternity. Thank you for all that you are and for loving me… I love you with all my heart!

surprise! Yes they did! Very very nice indeed!

Watched college basketball too the day before :)

Check this out… camera man from ABC, FOX, YNN network… synchronized! Cool huh?! :)

Met Charley

2011-01-12T08:38:00.000-08:00

with grandpa

Happy new year everyone! 2011 is going to be great!

Sort of a tradition for us to celebrate and welcome the coming of the New Year with our family in South Carolina. This time is a little special because we get to meet for the first time the newest addition to the Tolentinos, this precious little being, Charley! She’s beautiful! At 3 months old, you can tell she’s going to be a great kid… such a happy baby! and soo adorable!

us with Charley

Of course Uncle Warren can’t get enough of her... we almost brought her back here in NY! :)

uncle warren babysitting Charley :)

Merry Christmas!!!

2010-12-28T08:28:00.001-08:00

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6)

“Perhaps we stray from the path which leads to peace and find it necessary to pause, to ponder, and to reflect on the teachings of the Prince of Peace and determine to incorporate them in our thoughts and actions and to live a higher law, walk a more elevated road, and be a better disciple of Christ.” (President Thomas S. Monson, “Finding Peace,” Liahona and Ensign, Mar. 2004, 3.)

We are grateful to be surrounded by good friends in the absence of our families here in NY.

Pre-Christmas dinner...

We laughed… feasted… chatted… karaoke'd… and most of all showed our love with one another.

Oh… and went crazy taking pictures! :)

Christmas Eve…

Breakfast @ Mocha Lisa

Lunch @ Cheesecake Factory

Dinner @ home (our favorite part of the day) …and had my hair cut too :)

Christmas day…

watched two movies! At different theatre location! :) They’re equally good!

Productive! :)

2010-11-24T07:11:00.000-08:00

Yes, another project this year and it took us six months to complete! I know, that long?! Well, we’re amateurs’ hehehe and we only are able to work on it mostly on Saturdays and on weekdays after office when it’s not raining and the sun is still out and we’re not yet tired… not to mention it was manual labor to the max! :( But it was truly a feel good project when all things planned came together… sore… but definitely worth it!

The retaining wall… our back yard is hilly and since the top part doesn’t really have any grass on it (well, there was but they keep dying on us hahaha!) but trees, when it rains the soil runs down the hill and it fills out the already little space we have at the back… so we thought a retaining wall would be prefect and it sure is!

Then, the patio… since we’re out there digging dirt already might as well finish the whole thing so we dig some more to flatten the surface of our very uneven backyard and laid out step stones to cover the area to create a mini patio for playing and sitting or what have you :) We didn’t think we’ll be able to finish it before the snow comes… but we did! And again… the time spent and body aches… totally worth it!

Curved it! :)

2010-10-22T20:35:00.000-07:00

After years of living here there are still things that we have yet to try and one of them is curving a pumpkin. So many times we thought about doing it… but never really get to for some reason. And so last Saturday, finally! We did it! :) We thought it’s going to be complicated and messy but the complete opposite… it was very easy and fun and not messy at all, we really enjoyed it! As you can see… we probably took more time taking pictures than curving the pumpkin hahaha! We’re thinking of making this a tradition now :) HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Now, what to do with the pumpkin seeds?

Found this really simple recipe online:

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups raw whole pumpkin seeds
2 teaspoons butter, melted
1 pinch salt

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
2. Toss seeds in a bowl with the melted butter and salt.
Spread the seeds in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake for about 45
minutes or until golden brown; stir occasionally.

Unfortunately, I burned it! Got distracted from watching TV plus the recipe called for a cup and a half of pumpkin seeds and we only have a hand full (well of course Warren saved some too for his garden next year! ) and I still baked it for 45 minutes! so go figure hahaha! :( Oh well, I’m just gonna have to try this again.

Produce :)

2010-10-04T17:13:00.000-07:00

Why of course we have our little produce garden again this year... and of course i'll say "we" again even though it's mostly my hubby who did the work hehe... i helped! promised! :) Looks like this is becoming to be a tradition now for us... which is good... really good, actually! Especially when we try to grow new fruits and veggies. So to start of... here are what's new in our garden this year:

raspberries, green beans, and cherries : )

Pretty cool huh? But like from last time... little creatures around got to harvest the fruits before we did :( now we don't mind sharing... but apparently those little thing do! Silly little rabbits... or maybe it's the chipmunks... it's got to be the squirrels! Oh well, we're still happy! We get to enjoy weeks of not buying tomatoes! :p

@ Lake Placid

2010-08-30T17:45:00.000-07:00

We finally are able to do something fun this summer :) Our first time in Lake Placid and it did not disappoint... the place we stayed in was wonderful (Lake Placid Lodge)! We can't say we'll be able to stay there again but atleast for now we have this saved momories to remember it by :)

the view...

sweetness :)

drama poses :)

silliness :)

sumptuous dinner :)

now you see it...

now you don't :)

Also are able to visit some of the Olympic sites in lake placid... they're awesome! and watched some shows too... womens hockey game US vs Canada, ice skating show, and ski jump athletes practicing (scary, this one is... so brave and bold are those young men... I don't envy their moms :))

tried this (chair lift)... no pictures of us though because somebody is too scared to pose :) and these pictures are taken from our cellphone because somebody forgot to charge the camera :)

the lift and the view down from the top...

Life -size Sculptures

2010-08-02T19:19:00.000-07:00

So I went hunting looking for these interestingly amazing life-size sculptures scattered around my work place’s city during my lunch walk :) Every year in the summer they’ll put these out and scattered them around the city for people to enjoy.

this one in particular is special because it’s HUGE! So I have to be in it :)

Trip to SC

2010-07-18T07:50:00.000-07:00

This was our first July 4^th trip to South Carolina… we think. We’re trying to remember because we don’t recall watching fireworks or something July 4^th-y in South Carolina ever but we may already have been there and just can’t remember it :) Anyway, we try to go there at least twice a year to visit Warren’s family, one in May then maybe in September or November and then definitely in December. Since we didn’t get a chance to go there last May, we went this month instead.

Below are pictures of us spending some quality time with our family in South Carolina. Warren’s sister Ivy is expecting a girl in September and their first baby too! Woohoo! And we just learned that David, my brother, is expecting their second child a boy in November! Yay! Our families are growing!

solos :)

Late post

2010-06-20T09:32:00.000-07:00

So this post is meant for last month... but hey, i'm allowed to slack once in a while right? :)

My dear hubby was asked to read our state governor's proclamation on Asian/Pacific Heritage last May 12th during the Asia/Pacific Heritage Celebration held at DOT. Here is the video clip and photos I took of him (well of course i was there too! hehe) He looks good as always, calm and collected... i'm so proud of him!

Had my haircut too in May... it's short! My hair hasn't been this short in while. :)

are those gray hairs???

Few things to share…

2010-04-25T06:21:00.000-07:00

Did a little presentation about the Philippines to our primary girls activity days, and boy did they brought their inquisitive minds that night! They have some really good questions… made me think myself hahaha! We have bright kids in our ward that’s for sure! I feel so blessed to have this calling to be around them…. they’re such good kids… they keep me grounded.

my little presentation :)

Continuing on talking about blessings… our good friend Jen and her husband had a baby boy! His name is Sam (short for Samuel)… and I had the pleasure of helping out in the baby shower for her.

helping Lynn making a diaper cake for Jen… fun! Turned out good too! we think... Lynn and I of course! :)

with Jen… she has this glow on her that exudes happiness… such a joy to watch!

Talking about counting your blessings… met up with my good friends… friends I came with in the US twelve years ago… friends who shares my feelings of being grateful and happy for the opportunity that has come our way and also of the sadness and longingness from being away from home. It’s good to still be close to them and to see them around and to hang out with them every now and then and to witness the progress and changes in our lives since.

can’t believe it’s been twelve years! and still looking good :)

blast from the past twelve years ago :)

And lastly, saw these giant spoon and fork at Pier 1 on a weekend when we were doing our routine window shopping rounds.

can't help ourselves... gotta have picture of these LOL!

Excess flour

2010-03-09T18:11:00.000-08:00

We kind of did a sort of spring cleaning over the weekend and one of the things that I have on my to do list that’s probably been there for quite some time now and haven’t had the chance to do or more like never really made time to do so I keep postponing :)… is to organize our pantry. Now, it’s not really much but it sure has stuff that is ready to be thrown away and would really free up space to store other stuff… and so I did! Finally! And part of that endeavor is I bought air tight containers to put our pastas and flour in, as a starter, to prolong its life and to keep it fresh than just leaving them in their opened boxes/bags and also for better organization and use of space… but mind you, they’re not cheap! So I just bought a couple and maybe a couple more next time when we have another few cents to spare hehehe.

The pasta containers I got are perfect it was able to hold all the pasta that we would normally stock. Now the one for the flour, which I thought looked pretty big enough when I was getting it from the store, did not quite hold up… (bought the bag of flour from SAM’s club) oh well… so what to do with this excess flour??? I can’t just leave them in an opened bag??? Bake! :)

I made brownies and chocolate chip cookies… from scratch! Oh yeah! First time too, that is! Not bad… even tasted better, I think, than the pre-mixed ones from the box that we would usually buy… hubby definitely think so too! And that’s all that matters :)

Wintery wonderland

2010-02-24T16:44:00.000-08:00

Just when we thought we had it light this season… then bam! A foot of snow and still counting… it’s been snowing since yesterday and will continue to, they said, for the rest of the week… yay fun! Not! But it’s not like we’re new to this… some years we’ll get it more than other years but they’re all pretty much the same… cold and snowy! :(

don’t think that a t-shirt will do… I just stepped out a bit to pose and to take some pictures… you can’t tell but I was freezing! Hahaha!

and we still have to go to work today… :(

One fine day

2010-02-11T17:43:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday I spent my morning at Ashley’s decorating sugar cookies together with few girlfriends from church and just hangout. It was a lot of fun... the cookies smells really good and they’re yummy too! I left with quite a few of them to share so I brought some to work :)

The lobster one is for warren… it was specially made for the husbands :)

Then at lunch, my dear hubby planned a lunch out for us to try the Arizona pizza restaurant. We’ve never been there since it opened last year and every time we passed by the place it’s always packed so we figured it must be good. I’m not a pizza lover myself and I’ll probably just eat a slice or two if it’s good… but their pizza is pretty good! We both like it a lot. We ordered a 10” pizza and hot wings :).

Then we window shopped for a bit and then went home and did our laundry while we watched a hallmark movie. These movies always speak to your heart! I must have cried a bucket of tears hahaha!

The Cranwell

2010-01-21T15:29:00.000-08:00

To make a long story short… my dear Warren’s name was drawn to receive a gift certificate for a night stay at the Cranwell Resort, Spa and Golf Club in Lenox, Massachusetts from Times Union. We booked it for the holiday and we had a wonderful time… the place was awesome! We are thinking of coming back but not anytime soon. Although we didn’t pay anything for this stay, we saw the bill… and yeah, can’t afford it on a whim hahaha!

the mansion

room

outside

@ the spa

Wishing you a happy Wii year!

2010-01-11T19:03:00.000-08:00

last date in 2009 @ burger king in South Carolina (Dec 31, 09)

We spent the new years with Warren’s family in South Carolina. Aside from enjoying a warmer weather… we celebrated the coming of 2010 with families and… wait for it… playing Wii! LOL! It actually worked because we played “Just Dance” and it was so much fun and at the same time are still able to carry on our Filipino customs of jumping at midnight for a taller you in the coming year and shaking coins for a prosperous new year, all while dancing… not to mention created noises from all the laughter, clapping and cheering to drive away bad spirits! Happy new year every one!!! We wish you all a blessed 2010!

Below are captured craziness from our 2010 celebration in SC :)

Also, part of my New Year means saying goodbye to some of my primary girls as they move to be YW… I’m going to miss them :( but I am also excited to welcome new girls in my class this year!

with my primary kids... yep they're all taller than me! :)

A Christmas Tale

2009-12-29T21:35:00.000-08:00

First of all, we wish you a Merry Christmas! And may we all feel the love of our Savior this season and always!

So Christmas is here bringing us good cheer! We had two Christmas dinners at our home with our dear friends and their families. The food was great… everyone brought in something special… we are sooo stuffed! We laughed… we played… we sing... we chatted… we watched a movie… we had a wonderful time to say the least!

Pre-Christmas dinner

Christmas Eve dinner

Then on Christmas day… we went out to watch movies! Avatar is sooo good! Saw it in 3D! Everyone should see it! Sherlock Holmes on the other hand is just ok :)

First in line!! Woohoo!

Random Things

2009-12-15T18:15:00.000-08:00

This is a collection of random things that happened lately. :)

First snow of the season! (I have to put the date on this one, Dec 5, 2009) it’s a beautiful site! Still not liking it though. :)

Made my very first ginger bread house at our RS Souper Saturday activity. Not bad I think :) just don’t place it next to the other ones… or this would look like a shanty hahaha!

I had my dose of the The Twilight sequel New Moon! Watched it with a bunch of girlfriends from church… which made it even more fun!

Rainier turned 2! Since we didn’t have kids to bring to the party… we make it up by being the KIDS! Hahaha!

We witnessed a dream become a reality… our dear friend Roland completed his MBA! Yay!

Drove to the Berkshire in Massachusetts… nice place. Was not able to take pictures though :( just this one on our way there. We’re going back so… next time. :)

Googled my hubby’s name :)

2009-12-07T17:43:00.000-08:00

I Google a lot! I Google stuff about anything from a word definition to work related stuff to knowing something about something to recipes to artsy stuff to… yeah, how to put on make-up hahaha (don’t judge me I’m a late bloomer). Then just out of the blue, I googled my dear hubby’s name :) and found this blog entry/article where he was mentioned… it’s pretty cool I think… here is an excerpt and the link to the blog:

Blog Link: About Oracle (http://rwijk.blogspot.com/2008/09/oracle-openworld-day-2.html)

“I decided to have a look what Greg Pike had to say about the forum. His point was that he was amazed at the speed and the quality of the answers in the SQL and PL/SQL forum,…

Greg showed a particular thread he participated in about a quite complicated query combining string aggregation and counting. He was impressed by the answers ("these guys are unbelievable"), and went on to show all the given alternatives by Warren Tolentino, Nicolas Gasparotto, Rob van Wijk and michaels, solving the problem with hierarchical queries, model clause and xmldb stuff…”

Warren is a regular to the Oracle forums website, will try to help on questions that people post regarding things they are having trouble with in their codes or things they wanted to improve in their codes or some general questions about SQL and PL/SQL. I know he’s very good at what he do but his kind of modest about it. And so to see other people recognizing and appreciating him, I think, is kind of cool. :) He’s pretty surprised when I showed him this hahaha!

Thanksgiving and a Wedding

2009-12-02T19:36:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving Every Day
By Karl Fuchs
The table is brimming with good things to eat;
We're surrounded by family and friends; what a treat.
The feelings that fill us today can’t be beat;
It’s Thanksgiving Day, and it all feels complete.

But other days, sometimes things don’t seem so fine;
Those days are not polished and don’t seem to shine.
It's then in our minds, we forget all the good,
And think of the things we would get, if we could.

On days when our thinking causes us dread,
If we could remember, it’s all in our head,
And not let our minds take our gratitude away,
Then we'd make every day like Thanksgiving Day.

It’s always good to be with families and friends on days like the Thanksgiving Day. It always makes us feel more blessed and grateful for the love we feel around and the joy of being together. We drove to South Carolina for 14 hours to be with families on this day… and it’s worth the trip!

at uncle Nanding's house (Warren's mom's brother)

Then on Saturday the 28th, Ivy (Warren’s only sister) and Erik were married. It was beautiful! Everyone was sooo overjoyed and is beaming with pride for the couple as the two exchanged their I DOs. It was very evident that love abounds at the wedding! The reception on the other hand was crazy fun! Everyone seems to have a wonderful time from the food to the dance floor! I know we did! :)

The wedding

and a solo pic of us too of course :)

Prepping for the holidays :)

2009-11-25T00:51:00.000-08:00

Christmas breeze is in the air… holiday décor is everywhere…

We have Parol in NY everybody! Look it! We bought this precious little thing from our last vacation in the Philippines and we were so excited and anxiously waiting since for this time to come to be able to hang this with pride on our humble abode. It does make it feels like home even with the brutally cold breeze of winter… it warms our hearts!

my dear warren working hard as usual with me as the spectator and helper too of course :)

So, since we hung the Parol… might as well put up the tree!

Aaaah… Christmas breeze is in the air… holiday décors everywhere!

But of course we didn’t forget about Thanksgiving… its one of the holidays here that we do enjoy. Not only because of all the good food but also of what it’s for… a celebration of being grateful of anything and everything! We’re driving to South Carolina for Thanksgiving and a Wedding… so we’re very excited! :)

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-04T18:55:00.000-08:00

Good thing it falls on a Saturday! No need to rush to go home from work, prepare dinner and have the candies out ready for the kids. We even have quite a few chores done that day… so proud of ourselves!

Goofing around while waiting for the trick’r treaters… with our friend Roland.

Then later went to our friends house for dinner… so nice of them as always to invite us over… here is warren with little Elmo… sooo cute!

One of the chores done that day… yes, it’s time for our yearly workout! Look at the sea of leaves! :(

body sore the next day :(

worth sharing..

2009-10-21T19:06:00.000-07:00

A couple of things worth sharing. We somehow got struck by “Curious George” while going about our grocery shopping a couple of weekends ago, we were at the produce section and was looking at this fruit that we have never tried before, the actual fruit that is, but heard so much about even bought juices with this fruit and actually loved it. And they are plentiful than usual that day, probably its season or something, anyway, we bought one after a few dialogues of “should we try it?” “are you sure?” “it’s NOT cheap..” “does it taste good, you think?” “the juice taste good” “do you know how to eat this?” “they said it’s good for you” “should we try it?” put these inside a loop for 3 or 4 iterations until we hit that “OK”. We probably stood there for a good 5 minutes deciding whether to buy or not to buy. It was funny thinking about it. Anyhow, it didn’t quite lived up to our expectations, it’s good but it’s not as sweet as we thought it to be and not that easy to eat either… so, yeah, it was quite an adventure eating it really hahaha! I’m talking about the pomegranate fruit by the way. :)

Then last Saturday I went out with my girl friends… well, more like a lunch date with the ladies as our server would say… “can I get your drinks, ladies” “are you ready to order, ladies” “I’m ready when you are, ladies” “is there anything else I can get you, ladies” “is everything good, ladies” I don’t know why I find this amusing hehe… sorry, I’m easily amused :) We had a great time! Eating… sharing food… talking… and LOL’ing on almost anything... even able to sneak in a photo op on our way out! LOL! We ought to do it again.

nooo… we didn’t buy those hats… just trying them on :)

Other Guys

2009-10-02T18:33:00.000-07:00

A movie in the making titled “Other Guys” starring Will Ferrel, Mark Wahlberg, Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is shooting just outside my work building! How cool is that?! Disappointingly though, I have not spotted any known celebrity yet, except for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s stunt double… that count for something, right? No? :) They’re shooting car chasing mostly… so they’ll drive to and from one end to another end of the road, over and over again… it’s actually neat to see live how they do this things. Well, it does create a little hassle coming to work too because they’ve closed roads that we would normally take plus the heavy traffic can make a person a little crazy in the morning haha…. but it’s all good. It’s not like we get to see this things everyday so it doesn’t bother me at all. :)

Here are some stolen shots I took while they’re on their break. The city mayor, Mayor Gerald D. Jennings even made an appearance… wanted to be in the film too didn’t yah? LOL!

Ok, so to make up for my celebrity deficiency here I’m posting a picture of myself with Mark Allen. What… who? I know, right? LOL! He is said to be the Tiger Woods of Triathlon, the Iron Man. I have no clue who he is (I’m not a sports fan myself since Michael Jordan retired and the team Ginebra disbanded ha-ha!) until I saw him at our Government Technology Conference held last Thursday September 24, he is one of the keynote speaker. He is actually a very good motivational speaker and I find him very inspiring, his presentation is very well thought-out. If you want to know more about him, Google is always there at your disposal of course. He is a celebrity. :)

Well, hello…

2009-09-25T15:19:00.000-07:00

A little on the down side lately, not that something tragic happened (*knock on wood*)… it’s just that, as you know, my parents are here to visit us… well, the time has come and they went back home. It’s been wonderful having them around and when they left, we’re kind of lost and felt like we have to start over again, but we’re all good now. We miss them though. Thank heavens for webcam! :)

To reminisce… here are pictures of what transpired during their visit here… good times! Looking forward for more of this in the future! :)

Thanks to our ever so generous relatives in the east coast for making the following tours possible for my parents… you guys are awesome! Hope you could extend your generosity to me and warren too, we’ve never been to Utah :( hahaha!

Salt Lake City, Utah (to ate hydie, amoz, omri, and yes to you too kuya rico hehe, Thank you!)

Las Vegas, Nevada (to jacob and maryAnn and to tiya auring and tiyo pepe, Thank you!

Reno, Nevada (to ate doray, kuya jo and to your lovely kids, Thank you!)

Now back to the west coast :)

South Carolina

NYC

Palmyra, NY

Cape Cod and Boston, Massachusetts

Saratoga, NY

Troy falls, NY :)

Albany, NY

And some everyday living pictures too. :)

An update :)

2009-09-01T13:39:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to update you on our ever so gorgeous vegetable garden hehehe. We just harvested two tomatoes! Yey! And the corns are coming out… unbelievable! Sorry for the excitement but it’s our first time to see, up close and personal, a corn plant with a corn fruit attached in it! Very cool!

the tomatoes :) look how happy we are! Hehehe

sweet corn!!! few more sleeps.. Can’t wait!

and another promising produce yay!

Also, we have here pictures of flowers that we have taken around the house this year. They are sooo pretty! :)

vegetable flowers (onion, squash, and tomatoe)

and just flowers...

Oh, remember that thing we showed you in our last post? The little project we are working on? It’s all finished! Check it out…

Gardening

2009-08-03T19:10:00.000-07:00

the garden scarecrow :)

Yes, its summer at last here in New York… a much awaited one too that is! Yey! The cold season seems to have stretched longer than we anticipated this year but we can’t complain… we choose to be here… well, maybe a little grumbling is understandable hahaha.

the garden... and those who tends it :)

And it’s time for our gardening skills to put in use once again and we’re happy to report that.. so far so good! We have a wide variety of vegetables this year. From our usual tomatoes, squash and peppers, we have added and hoping to harvest some corn, eggplants, parsley, melon, cabbage and papaya too this year… so cross your fingers! It does help big time when your parents are around too hahaha!

looks promising so far

And a preview of what is to come next... yep! another project in the making! :)

a little brain teaser... what do you think this is?

RIP MJ

2009-07-07T20:01:00.000-07:00

Those that know me well would probably expect this from me. I grew up listening to his music, watching his music videos on our then black and white TV back in the Philippines (I can’t remember how many times I’ve watched the Thriller video and the Billie Jeans video and would still feel excited like I’m seeing it for the first time), and singing his songs. I can specifically remember singing Ben over and over again when I was a little… and it still stand as one of my favorite Michael Jackson song of all time! And so as a tribute to this man who has given us these great music… I’m posting this music video of Ben by Michael Jackson. Rest in peace, MJ.

“Lazy afternoons”

2009-06-26T20:36:00.000-07:00

Well, the title is kind of misleading hehe. It’s not really lazy as in do-nothing-sit-all-afternoon-in-front-of-TV-lazy… it’s more like, forget the chores and go out and have fun kind of lazy hehe. So there you go… a disclaimer! No wonder it’s on quote *wink* :)

Any who, following are our “lazy afternoons” escapades… who starts a post with a disclaimer??? Duh! :P

A couple of Saturdays ago few families in our neighborhood have carried out a garage sale and so we decided to check them out and, what a gorgeous day that day was!

Do you know that June is National Fruit and Vegetable Month? Well, at least that’s what it says in one of the website I visited when looking for a place to go strawberry picking hehe. Yep, you learn something new every day! Turned out there are quite a few farms around here that do U-pick fruits and vegetables and that June is the best time to go strawberry picking. So… we went strawberry picking! Our first time too and it was fun!

So what to we do with all these strawberries?! Google alert! Search: “Strawberry Jam recipe” and ta-da! It tastes really good!

from this...

to this… :)

Tweet! Tweet! Tweet!

2009-06-10T19:13:00.000-07:00

Just an update on the bird’s nest... it is now the house of little birdies chirping their lungs away! How did we know this? Well, we noticed that the mommy bird doesn’t come as often as she used to anymore and so while she’s away… we sneak a peek! hehe… we just wanted to make sure everything is alright and taken care of, you know… yeah, right! Ha-ha! Actually the real story was, while we were looking at it from inside the house and thinking whether there is even anything in there (and as to why mommy bird doesn’t come as often as she used to anymore)… a tiny bird head popped out! and we all jumped in excitement and did what we did… sneak a peek! And sure enough, there they are… all three of them!

poor little bird opened its mouth thinking food is coming… how cute! too bad it’s just an intruder :(

and a week later...

this came as a surprise to us... we checked again just today... and what do we find??? FIVE little birds!!! wow! and those are bird droppings around hahaha! eeeww!

Pandesal! bird nest and Scout!

2009-05-22T19:37:00.000-07:00

No, wait, we’re not turning this into a cooking blog hahaha. I just thought of sharing another accomplished moment we recently had. But before I go on praising myself here hehe… let us give you a little background about “Pandesal” and what it is… so go on click on the link. Yes, I made exactly that… Pandesal! I still can’t believe it! I made Pandesal! LOL!

The Pandesal!

We only are able to eat this lovely thing in the Philippines or whenever it’s available in the oriental store (which does not quite come close to eating the real thing). And now in the comfort of our home away from home… we are actually eating freshly baked Pandesal! The smell, not so much the look hehe (I have yet to perfect cutting the dough), and specially the taste… it’s the real deal! Thank you Google! And to all online Pandesal recipes out there that made this historic moment possible! Hahaha! Sorry for all the excitement… I just can’t believe it!

I really did it! :)

Another cool thing happened was, we discovered (all this happened over the weekend by the way hehe) that there is a bird nest situated outside our front door’s ceiling! How cool is that?! I tried to take a picture of the nest with the bird still on it but every time I do… I’d scare them away :(

the bird nest

Lastly, we got to hang-out with our next door neighbor’s ever so lovely dog, Scout! She’s 14 years old and yet she’s still full of life and excitement! I remember the first time she introduced herself to us… Warren was outside mowing the lawn and all of a sudden this huge dog appeared out of nowhere in front of him staring at him… my dear hubby was so scared that he called for me! Hahaha! It turned out she’s the sweetest dog there is!

with Scout

Hot Chocolate Soufflé

2009-04-13T08:17:00.000-07:00

It was Easter Sunday and we thought of doing something special and so… I brought out my all time fave dessert cookbook! Flipped through the pages and looked for the ones that our little pantry could accommodate haha! And found this! Not bad… not bad at all! A little mishap in the baking time… but still good! :) Oh, this recipe calls for tablespoons of coffee or brandy but I skipped those because as you know, our house is coffee and brandy free! : )

The recipe:

2 tablespoons superfine sugar
4 oz semisweet chocolate
2 tablespoons brandy or coffee
4 eggs, separated, plus 2 extra whites
1 recipe Dark Chocolate Sauce, to serve (optional)

Preheat oven to 400F (200C). Butter a 4-cup soufflé dish and dust with 1 tablespoon of superfine sugar, break the chocolate into pieces and place in the top of a double boiler or a bowl set over a pan of simmering water with the brandy or coffee.

Cook over medium heat, stirring until smooth. Remove from the heat and beat in the remaining superfine sugar and egg yolks. In a bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold 1 tablespoon into the chocolate mixture. Scrape the chocolate mixture into the egg whites and, using a metal spoon, quickly fold together.

Pour into the buttered soufflé dish and plate on a baking sheet. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until risen and just set. Dust the soufflé with powdered sugar and serve immediately with the sauce.

Serve 4.

Note: take care when melting chocolate not to overheat it. It loses its gloss and becomes very thick, making it difficult to combine with other ingredients.

Ta-da! A little wobbly in the center… but we had a good laugh about it! LOL!

Another random thing… last Saturday we had a trip down memory lane. We visited the NYS museum here in Albany and came across the “Sesame Street”! oh yeah! I grew up watching this show! Seeing it in person – though a replica – was just plain cool! Brought back memories for sure! Haha!

♫ ♪ Can you tell me how to get How to get to Sesame Street ♪ ♫

Snowy :)

2009-03-31T06:31:00.000-07:00

Well, what do you know… it snowed! Not much like we asked for but it snowed nonetheless… just enough for my parents to see! : )

out we went in our PJs! Hahaha! they’re totally excited!

Now we’re ready for the warm weather and hoping this to be the last one for this year. :)

PS..
Today is the special election for a congressional representative in our district and of course my dear Warren conscientiously took part of it. As always, I’m soo proud of him!

What a joy!

2009-03-20T09:19:00.000-07:00

My parents are here! Yey! First time in the USA and the cold weather! :) We are just sooo happy and excited to have them visit us and to stay with us for a while!

at the newark airport in NJ : )

We picked them up at the Newark Airport in New Jersey... but we made a stop at FOREX cargo first (also in NJ) to drop off our balikbayan boxes for our folks in the Philippines. Guess who’s there to assist us… Abet Guidaben! He’s one of top basketball players in the Philippines! Cool huh! We know ahead of time that he’s meeting with us though… we just can’t believe our eyes! Hahaha! This is another one of our “rubbing elbows with celebs” moment hahaha!

sometimes it’s good to see to believe… so here we are with Abet Guidaben :)

Anywho… sorry I got sidetrack there a bit :) as i was saying… we are filled with joy that my parents are able to come here in the US to visit us. I took a few days off work this week to show them around (Tatay had a great time at Home Depot! LOL!). They are actually hoping to see the snow and as much as we are looking forward to a warm weather... one last snowfall won’t hurt I guess :) so yeah… strange as this may sound specially coming from me… we are praying for a snow right now… not much though… just enough for them to see. : )

in the meantime… they're completely satisfied seeing piles of snow/ice around hahaha!

The Project

2009-03-03T17:19:00.000-08:00

If you guessed painting from the hint on our previous post… then you’re absolutely right! :) Yes, we’ve been painting like crazy around the house haha! For lack of better things to do I guess : ) but tough job as it is… we had fun! And the outcome is just a great feat! Choosing the right color is the tricky part, you’ll never know which ones would look good until you actually apply them… good thing at home depot they sell paint samplers for $3.99. I know it’s not cheap! But it’s better than not trying it before buying a gallon and then finding out that it’s not the right color… there is no return/exchange in paints! :)

so here we are at home depot… trying to pick the right color :)

Actually, the hard part falls under putting in the painter’s tape around the edges… window frames… cabinets… ceiling… and all parts in that room that you do not want paint to touch. Painting itself is not that bad, sure your arms will get tired occasionally but you don’t really mind it that much because you get to see the room slowly transform into what you hoped it to be. But the painter’s tape part is just tedious to do that while doing so would make you feel like shouting and say… I want to paint already! At least that’s how we feel. Hahaha!

NO! You do NOT want to skip the painter’s tape part… grueling as it may sound, it’s very important and a must to do if you don’t want paint mishaps all over the place. :)

Our favorite part of this project is to peel off the painter’s tape… yes, really! Because it’s finally done! And you’ll get to see the finish product and it makes you feel great especially if it turned out good! :)

ta-da!

First floor done… moving on to the next level! : )

Ps. I stole this picture of my niece Sophie from her mom’s picasa album… sssshhhh! : )

she’s the cutest thing ever! miss her much :(

What now…

2009-02-16T16:52:00.000-08:00

So what have we been up to since we got back from our vacation galore : ) well, nothing much really haha. As we have stressed out a million times already, winter is not our thing! And as the good ol’ groundhog predicted, it will be four more weeks of grueling winter for us :( oh well. But there are some exciting things happened that are worth sharing in spite of this cold COLD weather! hahaha!

First, somebody had his birthday! My Warren dear had his birthday last Jan 9. We ate out and watched a movie, these was 4 days after we got back from the Philippines and so we have not fully recovered yet from our jet-lag and throwing a lavish party is totally out of the picture! hahaha! But it was a happy birthday nonetheless! :)

another one of our morning picture here : ) sorry! At least it’s not close-up this time! LOL!

Then we went to our friends’ son’s first piano recital. Everyone was sooo cute and talented!

here is Vernald in his rendition of “Pussywillow” isn’t he awesome!

Lastly, we are working on a project right now that involves a lot of work but at the same time, it’s so much fun! We’re kind of half way done… the details will be in another post :) in the meantime… here’s a hint!

Just like old times

2009-01-29T16:03:00.000-08:00

As expected… we were busy as the bees when we were in the Philippines. Going places, meeting relatives, meeting friends, attending events, checking the malls hehe, and so on and so forth…there is just no stopping us! Fitting everything to our month worth of time hehe. Even the heaviest of traffic couldn’t do anything about it, huh! Though there were tough times and even got sick (fever, cold, stomach bug... we were not spared ha-ha!) “life goes on” as we always say it :) being home after a while of absence makes everything extra special and so we try to make the most of it! : )

Lola Conchita's b-day	lola just turned 91! it's amazing!
Christmas day..	warren missed dinner (the traffic was sooo bad) but just in time to open presents! : )
Cris and Che's wedding	two people in love… just beautiful!
Life long friends…	we're so happy to see you guys after a long time!
Our relatives…	it's worth the travel to see everyone!
Rubbing elbows with celebs! :)	totally unexpected! LOL! (to feed the curious minds: from left-right-top-bottom - Philippine Senator Richard J. Gordon; Entertainer/Actor German "Kuya Germs" Moreno; Former Philippine President Fidel V. Ramos; Former Philippine Vice President Teofisto Guingona, Jr.)
And some random moments…	we're going to miss all this! :(

This actually took us a while to compile… so many good pictures! We could have posted every single one of them here but that would be too much hahaha! So we’ll just put an album up with all of our cool pictures from our vacation to the Philippines. How’s that? :)

Enchanted experience

2009-01-17T17:44:00.000-08:00

And so we’re back… it’s sad to be away from your love ones once again but we are glad and very much grateful that we had the opportunity to spend some time with them and created fun and unforgettable memories to sustain us until we meet again.

With that said we would be extending our story telling and picture sharing about our trip to the Philippines up to this month just because there is still a lot to share! : ) I don’t think it will interest you much to know what we are up to in this time of the year here in NY… it’s winter! It’s cold! It’s uninteresting! Hehehe.

Just to give you an overview...

what we came home to :( but we’re just grateful that we got home to our house in good condition as we left it.

Anyways, to pick up where we left off… following are pictures of our enchanted experience! with kuya Neal, Nicole, and ate Jo. To say it was fun is an understatement! We had a blast!! Haha!

It’s the New Year!

2009-01-11T02:05:00.000-08:00

Time to amend unwanted behaviors, improve wavering relationships, and correct ghastly habits, or in other word, RESOLUTIONS! :)

We hope that whatever it is we decide to change, improve, or correct in our lives, that we will try our hardest to stick with it until it is no longer a resolution that we are struggling or trying to accomplish, but will become a natural part of us, of our character, and of who we are.

We may fail on some, but we hope that the spirit of trying it again will remain on us. That though we failed in spite of giving it our all, that we would still be happy of ourselves for trying and not be miserable and be spared of feeling sorry and pity.

The same hope we have for you. May we all have a prosperous and blessed New Year!

Below are some of our pictures celebrating the new year in the philippines! mausok! lol!

To Batangas..

2008-12-29T07:52:00.000-08:00

Then we went to Batangas... and it was equally awesome! Especially becuase it's with family and the place is really really nice! The water is clean and clear with beautiful sceneries and lots of other activity things to do (billiards, ping-pong, etc..), and the best of all is that we had the resort all on our own! No kidding! Though it was just an overnight stay... still we had so much fun! Check out our pics bellow...

sophie!

the view...

with our family

gotcha!! haha!

On the next day... off we went to Tatay Tonying's (Warren's grandpa) bahay kubo. This is defenitely an experience of a lifetime... this maybe our second time here but we are still fascinated by how well crafted it was built and how refreshing it always felt to spent sometime there. To describe it is to simply recite our old nursery song "Bahay Kubo".

Bahay Kubo
(Nipa Hut)

Bahay kubo, kahit munti
Ang halaman doon ay sari-sari.
Singkamas at talong, sigarilyas at mani
Sitaw, bataw, patani.

Kundol, patola, upo't kalabasa
At saka mayroon pang labanos, mustasa,
sibuyas, kamatis, bawang at luya
sa paligid-ligid ay puro linga.

Now, the pictures... :)

the Bahay Kubo

and some random pictures..

all on her own... she never ceases to amaze us! haha!

To Boracay..

2008-12-20T06:23:00.000-08:00

And so our vacation begins hehe... one of the main things we are most looking forward to on this vacation (aside from to be with our families of course) is our three day trip to Boracay. So on our first week, that's exactly what we did... and it did not disappoint! From the first class treatment that we received (a shell necklace, cold towels, and ice cold juice when we arrived, very nice and accomodating crews, and a free hotel shuttle at our disposal to go anywhere on the island... just to mention a few) from the hotel that we checked in until the time we checked out, to the breathtaking sceneries in Boracay... this experience definetely made it to our list of things we wanted to do again! : )

We'll now let our pictures speak of the awesome time we spent in Boracay! Visuals rule!! :p

airport pics :)

at the beach...

and some candid moments... :)

Guess what!?

2008-12-09T08:53:00.000-08:00

We’re here in the Philippines!!! Yoo-hoo! There is definitely no place like home especially this time of the year! And so, we would like to dedicate this month to posting stuff about our vacation here in our lovely country, the Philippines! This is going to be fun!

We left on Dec 5 and we’ll be staying here until Jan 5, that’s right, one whole month! :) It has been two years since we last went home (if our budget permits, we at least try to go home every two years) and this will be our first time as a couple to spend Christmas and the New Years here. We usually go during the time when the tickets are really really cheap coz we’re frugal like that haha! Following are some goofy pictures of us taken at the airport on our way to the Philippines. : )

view from the top!

at the airports : )

this may sound wierd : ) but we love airline food! :P

But of course we did not forget to put a little Christmas spirit in to our humble abode before we left even though we’re not gonna be there… we just don’t want our neighbors to think that we’re “The Grinch” who doesn’t celebrate Christmas! Hahaha! And we love Christmas lights too!

It’s snowing!

2008-11-26T17:14:00.000-08:00

Nov 18, our first snow fall of ‘08! So light and fluffy and so neat to watch. I thought I’d take a couple of pictures and videos to share and post it here for everyone to see : ) don’t get me wrong I’m still not a fan of winter hehe… but awesome things like this makes you forget though : )

Pictures!

at work looking out the window (that’s Walt’s voice in the background hehe)

and then I stepped out for a quick vid :)

Funny… somebody excitedly asked me if it’s my first snow hahaha! I know! I looked like I’ve just seen a snow for the first time ever taking pictures and all! LOL!

Ps…

Over the weekend, few friends from church and myself went out to watch the movie “Twilight” after our Super Saturday activity. It was awesome!!! Now I’m eagerly finishing the book. : ) almost done though! If you have not seen the movie or read the book… you should!

Also, a quick shout out to Ivy for introducing the book to me! Thank you! I’ll definitely add it to my book collection and place it next to my Harry Potter book! Ha ha!