Jesus.

at the end of all of this, ill be taken home to the One i live for.

my most intimate times with Jesus aren't spent talking about how i've been with my life. instead, it's about Him and me, Him and nobody/nothing else. that's always how it goes. there is absolutely nothing else in this world that should take His place. i always end up so convicted yet also so comforted by His love and His promise.  

i pray that all my energy will be spent to glorify Jesus. i pray that the rest of my life will be to seek Him with all my heart, to love Him with abandon. i pray that my soul will not rest until i see His face.

i love you Jesus. thank You for holding me tight. You are my only one.

ps: switchfoot's song restless stirs me up every. single. time. i suggest you listen to it prayerfully, and God will meet you right where it's all beautiful.

almigirl's bday/housewarming party

when it comes to creative, kewl and cutesie stuff, almi makes it to my list which im not even part of. :p last week, we all trooped to their apartment to warm it up and make some noise (sorry neighbors). we played some mean jenga (mean as in trashtalking each other, leng mostly), ate food almi and kim prepared, and talked nonstop as we always do.

jenga before destruction

pansinin ang intensity :p

ang tagaligpit :p 

amazing photobooth/wall by almi+kim

thanks for the warm welcome bday girl almi and kim! :) till next week! :p

ps: almi gave us an assignment which ive been trying to accomplish for a good 30 minutes already. will make a pahabol post about it na lang. hehe. :)

pps: my good friend gaby blogged about Gail Bitoon Photography. read it here! also in the blog is my pretty sis-in-law feb and my prettiest mom-in-law portia. it's like the whole family is in the industry. haha!

mondays are for blogging

times are a-changing. back then, i had to restrain myself from spending too much time in this blog. now, i have to discipline myself so i can use a few of my free time in this little webspace. i checked my photos for upload and i still have about 4 or 5 folders from 2011, with my 2012 photo hamper getting filled fast. hey, at least i have the proofs. if all else fails ill upload them all to facebook.

but im not giving up on this blog, not yet. not when i know some changes are gonna happen in the near future (new blog layout and a rockin domain name, plus more time for blogging!). so i carry on.

gail and i are home together, and we've been locked in since yesterday just daydreaming about the great things that have been happening and are about to happen. God is faithful. just this morning we heard from a prospect that she's turned into a client. yay! i sure hope more people get married and more of them get gailee as their photographer. i promise to do my part (make sure he comes to the wedding with pressed clothes and a filled tummy). click here to see his works.

so, im still beating arond the bush because i cant think of how to transition to today's set of photos: our wedding anniversary food. tagal na kasi so it seems irrelevant already. anyway (talagang anyway lang ang nakayanan kongn transition :p) we went to red at the shangri-la makati, where nakasalubong namin si ryan agoncillo *silent scream* and we had pangmayaman food.

seriously, food was expensive and tiny. haha! im so sorry but this girlperson right here is far from being a foodie. good thing they have good fries. i mean, they have the mean kind of fries that tastes pangmayaman but still very comforting, like i wanted to slouch a little while we were in the presence of posh. dont take my words seriously ha, im faaaar from being a credibly food feedback-giver. what ill tell you is that if you want some alone dinner time where you can cry a little (the place was super dimly lit) and tell each other "i love you", this is a great place for that. great  if you want to see ryan agoncillo too. hehe.

ill stop talking and just show you the beautiful (albeit expensive and no match compared to galunggong) photos of the food we ingested. i cant recall their names anymore. :| but i had so much fun taking the photos so here they are!

this one we remember: wild tasmanian trout 

the name starts with "spinosi omega 3..." all their pasta dishes do.  :p

taal trek tips

yes, ive been living majority of my free time (or lack thereof) off the web, hence the hiatus in this blog. but im back, at least for now. :)

i and gail's family went to tagaytay/taal about a month ago for an impromptu gimik for jo, their cousin who lives in australia and who went to manila for a quick visit. if you're interested in going to the taal crater, there's one thing you need to know: you cant. you'll see it from above, but you can't go to it. dati yata pwede kahit sino, pero ngayon kelangan na ng permit. the best you can do is to throw golf balls to it. seriously, you can, with a golf club you can borrow. craziness. 

nikka, jo, me, erwin, feb, dikong

so, tips! see the plastic bags we're carrying? you dont need em. we were convinced by the tinderas to buy snacks dahil wala nang nagtitinda sa taas pero meron naman pala. so we had to carry our snacks the whole time (around 15-20 minutes horse ride) and get to the peak without any need to drink water or fill our tummies. you would not go hungry, unless of course you dont take breakfast before you go there, or unless you choose to walk.

we were convinced to ride horses, though. :) it's P450 per horse (balikan na yon), but the handlers told us they only get P50 out of it so give a decent tip to your ate/kuya at the end of the trip. (unless style lang nila yun to get tips. hehe.) you may opt to walk, but i discourage it. 1) you'll walk the same path as the horses' 2) there's nothing to relish during the travel to the peak, only grass, dust and sun. sayang ang pagod, plus it's an experience to ride a horse up a mountain, so go! my horse was named junjun. :D

so bring sunglasses and gas masks to protect yourself from dust. you may buy gas masks from the vendors at the start of the trek (P20 super sulit). as much as possible, go there early so that you wouldnt have to endure the intense heat of the sun ala arabian nights.   

the whole trek will last you about half a day (including drive to talisay where the shore of taal lake is, and a semi scary boat ride to the foot of the volcano), after which you can go to tagaytay for comfort food.

some rode the car, some rode our tour guide's trike 

our calm selves. notice how there's almost no waves. dont be fooled though, cos taal is one mean lake. para syang pacific ocean sa lakas ng alon! weird.

comfort food and coffee at bag of beans. photos hijacked from kuya's fb :D

ps: did you know that the taal volcano that our sibika/hekasi/social studies teachers tell us to be is not what it is?! postcards even label it the taal volcano. apparently we're all fooled. the crater is what we went to, and it's behind the fake taal volcano that we know. the taal volcano that we know is simply a piece of land that looks very much like a volcano's mouth, and that's all there is to it. 

here's a photo we snapped at the crater, and at the far left of the photo you see the fake volcano, the one we take photos of and label as the volcano itself.  :p

where are we?

i spend most of my nights gushing over brides who are super pretty and radiant, over dream gowns and reception pieces that i wish were on my wedding pero sa binyag na lang ni baby, over couple portraits that show what it's all about: love. hair wet, jammies on, ready for bed, i take out gail's camera and view my own slideshow of the day's wedding whenever he comes home from a shoot. i ask him questions like a girl who dreams of her wedding day with his prince. ive had mine and it was perfect because gail was the groom, but still, weddings are weddings! "kinakabahan ba yung bride? maganda ba yung vows?" #hopelessromantic

that said, gail's photos serve as my source of joy. i consider them as his pasalubong (aside from the occasional serenitea pepper corn and hokkaido milk tea). everytime he'd tell me he's on his way home, id ask him if he had a great time, and if his photos are good. i tell him how blessed he is to be surrounded by love on a workday, while the rest of the world romances their laptops. haha!   

mind you, i watch bob nicolas videos in between writing articles because gash, his videos are pefect and weddings are weddings. it's so nice to know that in a world where nobody seems to care anymore, there's at least one group of people celebrating one couple's love for each other.

all in all, i heart weddings, and im happy i still have the "license" to browse wedding blogs and curate lovely photos, para pwede kuhanan ni gail ng ideas. palusot knucks. hahaha!

so where are we? we're at the beginning of all of this. :) we're cooking up something/s, we'll let you know as soon as they're ready, ive almost forgotten about this blog because we're both so giddy about the future. to brides and grooms, reprazent!