lost for words

because what else can i say when photos tell everything?

running for those who can't

i was sitting in church earlier tonight when our pastor told us that pastor ferdie cabiling, "the running pastor", is already on his last day of run today. that means he ran 50 miles a day every day for 50 days, covering the whole stretch of the country -- from saranggani to appari. that's quite a distance, especially when i compare it to my 3-kilometer treadmill runs that i even complain about. (don't ask.)

i got to sit down with pastor ferdie the day before he flew to saranggani, his starting point. it was a casual conversation, but his passion for God and for what he does is just so inspiring i couldn't help but ask myself, "how about me? what do i do? how meaningful can my life be?" he was to run a total of 2,180 kilometers to raise funds for Real Life Foundation -- for young people hopeful for a bright future. in a sense, his run solidifies their hopes! what's more, he is able to encourage and move people like me to do more and be more. 

a lot of people love running. in fact, pastor ferdie does too! he said that running in a new place is a treat for him, and that running across the Philippines is a raw adventure! he talked about his favorite pairs of shoes, the physical preparations, his diet, and even the technicalities of running a marathon. but this lifestyle goes beyond being healthy or having a hobby. because he is fueled by God's love for him and His people, he is able to challenge himself to do outrageous things and run thousands of miles, of course all with a purpose.

one of my favorite stories from our conversation was about his son, John Philip, who can't run like you and me. pastor ferdie told us that years back, while in the middle of a marathon in Pangasinan, he wanted to simply give up. he was tired, and couldn't seem to find any reason to go on. but he remembered John Philip, how he has sturge weber syndrome and is unable to run. pastor ferdie then decided to finish the race, with renewed energy from his love for his boy. since then, the thought of running for those who can't has become his inspiration to go on and go farther. 

pastor ferdie is a man who likes to be challenged. after running across the country for 50 days straight, i wonder what his next goal is. no distance is too far for a runner who runs with a purpose that serves the glory of Jesus. 

"and as your days, so shall your strength be." - deutoronomy 33:25

give to real life foundation through the run50 marathon here:

http://www.igivetolife.com/donate/donate-to-real-life

nightdreams and daydreams

gail woke me up one saturday at an earlier than usual time because "may surprise ako sayo." i mumbled words i don't remember anymore, but i got up and got ready for his surprise, recalling the dream i was having: 

i was texting tin if she wanted to watch a repeat show of bantugan, a school play she took part in when we were in freshman hs. in my dream i even called her and i was super excited because the play was happening the next day, which means i'd see her soon. 

now back to reality. a few seconds after gail woke me up, somebody knocked on our door, and it was tin!!! and totskie. blooming and dalawang bagong kasal. yes totskie, blooming ka din. hehe. syempre may pasalubong akong pastries as always, thanks tin. and saya saya ko! didn't think my night dream would turn into a daydream come true: spending time with tin and totskie. di nga lang kami nanood ng play. :p

tin and i are both pregnant by the way, so we're back to our high school days of sending letters to each other almost everyday. yes, we did that back in high school bagamat magkasama kami araw araw. we were really mushy that way. hehe. now it's just more logical to write to each other. i enjoy my pregnancy more because i get to share it with tin and also with cheekcheek!

thank you guys for visiting! gail and i had fun! next time ulit. hehe. 

ps: tin makes cakes and pastries. if you're in LB or somewhere near, get your noche buena desserts from her!!! check her sweets at http://momscupcakefactory.blogspot.com/ :) and anytime you come back to this blog, just click the icon on the right part ober der. :D cheers to friendship, cupcakes and buns in our ovens!

how we found out

(this is one of the many drafts sitting in my laptop. im keeping my pledge to myself: just keep blogging.)

first, here's a song that reminds me of my baby in my womb. whenever i hear it, i see my baby. and i know s/he will even be more beautiful than my vision. give it a listen as you read. mas masaya. :p 

the journey to having a baby is one part exciting and one part scary. magkakababy kaya kami? are we healthy enough for it? i even googled "how to get pregnant" on our 2-month baby-making mark, and i researched if gail's anti-asthma medicines were hindering us from being successful at it. 

around a week prior to us finding out, jhorace texted me and told me that God prompted her to speak of a vision. "sky is coming," she said. i got super thrilled, knowing that God's promise stands and indeed, our baby sky is coming soon. 

it was also around this time that one of our churchmates told me to sit down and relax while we were talking, because "baka ka makunan." i told her "wala pa pong baby," but she said "meron na yan." so again, my faith was boosted. 

within just three months of trying, i was already struggling. i got frustrated every time people would ask, id ask God and id ask gail. thankfully, God always assures me, and gail always tells me that God knows the best time for baby to come. 

the day before my birthday, i bought a pregnancy test kit. i wasn't so excited about it. i wanted my expectations to be manageable. i just wanted to test because in case it's a positive, maiingatan ko na ang sarili ko agad. at syempre, alam nyo na ang nangyari, positive! i held back tears as i saw the two lines form, i didn't want gail to know yet. i wanted it to be my birthday gift for him. but my self control (and the lack of it) got the better of me. i went what the heck I'm telling him, and tossed the pregnancy kit to his laptop. when he saw it, he said "anong ibig sabihin nito?" smiling. i spoke with my eyes and he hugged me tight. 

the first one to know was my mom, because i wanted to know if i had to do anything. she said to just take care. oo nga naman. and remember she was the one who advised me to just "let the love flow" and not to get pressured about having a baby. love flowed all right. 

we haven't stopped daydreaming ever since. ano kayang mannerisms nya, ano kayang personality ang mabubuo nya, what will be baby's favorite songs and dances? we tirelessly pray for him/her. my personal prayer is that s/he takes everything from his/her dad, except the asthma and the dancing. :p 

sometimes we look at our living room and we feel that it's so empty. good thing somebody's coming along to fill the house with all sorts of joy and fun. we just can't wait. 

ps: sabay bang natapos ang pagbabasa mo at ang music? kung oo, ang galing mo! 

some nights

after seeing my name and my words in a blog read by many, i thought to myself, i can do this. i can write. i don't write, write, like a professional fiction writer with words like "behooves" and "plethora", but i know i can get across what's in my mind, and I'm always satisfied with what comes out. 

but here we be, with a blog barely breathing with once-a-month posts. is my life that boring that i haven't written anything in ages? actually, it's been great. I'm pregnant! and stuff! but i just cannot get myself to write in this webspace. 

i enjoy back reading my entries, because they remind me of feelings I've had before, of words i miraculously weaved together. sometimes i cannot imagine being able to use such words to express my mind. i think every person who enjoys writing feels the same way every time they go back to their past works. knucks, works! as if! 

with the response i got from the blog entry i wrote for pastor dennis sy's, I'm challenged all the more to push myself and to just blog. in fact, i have a confession to make: i have a lot of entries in my drafts folder. i just feel like they're unworthy of being published, not like the previous ones i wrote. just like any "artist", i feel a sense of pride in some of the blog entries here, and a lot of cringe in those i do not like. nevertheless, each and every post here is a page of my memory, so why should i stop? 

so I'm not stopping. see ya after two days! :) 

ps: i names the blog entry after a song which, after i listened to it, made me just post this draft that has been sitting for days. give it a listen!

i love you because i know no other way.

i didn't know it was remotely possible to fall in love with someone i have never set eyes on, but i did, and i fell hard.

you're that work of art marked by the two crosses, inside your temporary home

i can't stop thinking about you. you're tiny (they say you're around an inch now), but you consume me like no other. your daddy tells me he can't stop thinking of you as well. i can tell you're the most beautiful kid we will ever set eyes on, and we can't wait for that day. 

ps: you've got your daddy's eyes. ;)

tin's bridal shower

tin is my best friend in the whole wide world, and i was her maid of honor (matron of honor :p) during her wedding, so naturally all signs point to me as the one responsible for her bridal shower. i actually had a lot in mind about how i would plan and execute her shower, but my crammer self got the best of me, and all the pretty pink souvenir boxes remained in my dreams. :p 

pero we had so much fun nonetheless, and i wasn't stressed about any program at all. hehe. we just had a fun dinner filled with chismisan and talks about human nature. hehehe. nagawa pa nga namin syang isuprays!

suprays!!!

the ceremonial passing of the helo kitty veil

see? i wore it first. wonder who's next ;)

the most scandalous gift :p from geli

ang salarin

thank you girls!!!!!

changes schmanges

in all my years of existence, I've never experienced insomnia. until last night. apparently coffee now works really well in keeping me awake. I've switched to decaf for my twice a day dose of coffee, so last night when i had real grownup brewed coffee, i was up till 4am. *droopy eyes* now it's 1030am, and I'm not sleepy anymore but my head's heavy like a baby. 

so there goes my rant about switching to decaf, but gail can't be prouder. he has turned into a big advocate of not being caffeine-dependent; i sense a slight satisfaction in him about my insomniac bout last night, it being proof that caffeine is now foreign to me.

going decaf is a big change for me, among other things. how's everybody? 

back when my hair was shorter and my body more tolerant of caffeine

one zuihitsu

(a blog entry i posted in multiply, back in 2008.)

AGAINST LOGIC

God works amazingly beautiful and beautifully amazing. He takes us by surprise and gives us presents we never thought we would get. But we take them, with much thankfulness and awe. After that a question might be asked, “What do I do God? With this gift?” The answer does not really need to be waited for, because we know that we would find a way to use whatever God gave to glorify Him. So amid wide-eyed amazement, things are rationalized and used so that the world would understand. The love God gives to each of us is personal and almost unfathomable. But we understand, and we share that.

I REMEMBER

I remember one person told me, “You’re waiting for a fairy tale,” and I immediately answered, “Ya I am.” After hearing such, I was dismissed as someone who would live my life with my hands on my face and my eyes to the sky. I am a believer in destiny, in someone for someone.

WHY I LIKE ROCK

I have heard the best, most socially-relevant lyrics in songs that have “loud and noisy” music. Amid the mind-boggling, messages emanate. That is music.

REALITY

Like a squeezed heart

Slowly loosened

By the hand

That has held it forever

Is my squeezed heart

Slowly loosened

By the hand that has held it forever.

IT’S BEEN AGES

It’s been ages since I wrote a song. Maybe because I’ve been hearing music even without the radio on. *buzz buzz*

I’M A BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLY!

You never stop learning. You get satisfied, then disappointed. You have to choose to get up and work. It’s a beautiful cycle that you go through. Before you know it, you’re high above your old self.

PERFECT GOD

God has this perfect way of keeping His relationship with us. When you’re on the edge, you draw closer. And just before you fall, He responds. Generally, it’s when you’re on your knees. You see His glory and highness – the very thing that makes you hold on to the truth that is salvation. It happens every single day. I want that. I want to get saved every day. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Every single day.

ps: Zuihitsu is a genre of Japanese literature consisting of loosely connected personal essays and fragmented ideas that typically respond to the author's surroundings. The name is derived from two Kanji meaning "to follow" and "brush", and thus works of the genre should be considered not as traditionally planned literary pieces but rather as casual or randomly recorded thoughts by the authors. (thank you wikipedia, and that's our literature lesson for the day.)

senti mode

i asked gail to play rivermaya's 214;  i missed listening to it and i wanted to sing it loud. hehe. so he lined up rivermaya songs for the rest of our working day. i heard 20 million again for the first time in a loooong time. it blew me away! when did i last listen to this song?! this used to be a favorite, and it immediately sent strong emotions I've never felt in a long time. suddenly, nostalgia. college days, joyful days, super sad days, days so far from today.

we move on. people around us move on. sorry for being sentimental, I'm blaming the winds and rain, but people, where are we? where are the songs we used to listen to? why don't we hang out anymore? why don't i play guitar anymore? why don't i sit down to write poems anymore? argh. its tough to think about such things. like grasping the air for a hug, it's just not possible to go back through time. we move on. 

I'm all ok with that, but i hope sometimes i can go back. sometimes. like today, when i want to hang out with my college friends in lb and eat twister fries. twister fries! such a significant food for me. i think ill cry at my first bite of twister fries. hay. 

is it weird that i find all sorts of symbolisms in gail's gesture of buying me army navy's FREEDOM fries when i asked him to buy twister fries (there was no mcdo in his route home)? may kasama pang cream cheese para makagawa ako ng aking favorite cracker dip. hehe.

ps: here's rivermaya's 20 million, for your reference. if you don't find it good, gash what is wrong with you! 

home alone thoughts

i orginally wrote something that was really really long, but i dont fancy long blog entries, so here's a concise, reader's digest version of what i think about when im home alone. which is mostly everyday. like right now. 


after weeks of staying in the house and being rid of the need to wake up to the demands of an office, I'm now in some sort of a pit stop, where the following take place and take over my thoughts, sometimes simultaneously, sometimes as individual thoughts carefully placed in labeled capsules in my mind. 

1. i haven't blogged for ages. this comes from my late night bedtimes and late morning wakeup times. if before i would get to the office at around 8am and blog to crank up my sleepy mind for serious work to do, now i don't have such. i wake up at 10am and go "shucks i missed two hours of work. i better get to it fast." as a result, my blogging time is compromised. ill get around to it. 

2. we are now sort of running a business. all of gail's thoughts and energy are poured into this: foreveryday photography. he'd randomly call me from the other room and throw me a new idea, as if I'm always ready to hear them. when I'm pinning pins on Pinterest (i love that phrase btw), i seldom catch his drift and just go "yeah thats nice." ill get around to it. 

3. I've been fearful. its amazing how years of employment has molded me into this company-dependent person. i don't have healthcare anymore, what if i catch a virus tomorrow? that's one thought that never crossed my mind when i had healthcare, even though each and every day of the week i had to risk myself and my health by commuting, you know, when i actually had the chance to catch viruses. now I'm always at home catching nothing and giving viruses a hard time finding me in my room. 

4. God completes me. with everything that's been going on in the past months, with all the adjustments, risks and dives that I've been doing, i came to the realization that nothing else in the world can take away the real peace in my heart. you know how when youre alone you start to imagine things? the bad kind? well i did that one day and i thought of how a lot of other people are doing much better than i am in different aspects of their lives. i tried to imagine all the bad stuff that may happen to me. 

i felt a tiny bit of jealousy and a whole blanket of love, warmth and assurance from the truth that whatever happens whenever it happens wherever it happens, i have God and He has me in His hands. the peace isolated me from all my thoughts, it presented itself as the single possession that i know for sure will never be taken away from me. 

God steadied my heart, and i slipped out of my thoughts renewed, happier than ever. i didn't have to go some place, i didn't have to buy myself ice cream. God's amazing (and really healthy) that way.

ps: we're running a series in church called "That Thing You Do" where we talk about reading the Bible and how it should be our thing every single day. lets go!


ps: i found this video online (where else, right?) of a guy reading a one-star review from Yelp. it's hilarious! i hope he reads youtube comments next time, mas intense. :p

sponsored post: Skyscanner travel search site

i hope everybody's been having a great week! i heard the traffic last night was terible (in thick Spanish accent), so *virtual hugs* to you who braved it with coolness and calmness. you might have daydreamed of yourself boarding a plane and flying off to your favorite beach. sadly, for most of us, it's not as easy as it seems. planning a vacation can be as frustrating as the traffic sometimes, right?

enter Skyscanner, a travel search engine that lets you search for flights the easiest way possible. let's check out the homepage, which has a clean interface without compromising functionality:

and then, let’s take a look at each feature in the homepage:

1. not only can you search for flights, but you can also look for hotels and car rentals.
2. to search for a flight, you need to fill in details much like what you place in airline websites, but the results that skyscanner will give are hands down more comprehensive.
3. you can view it in English or in Filipino.
4. “there’s an app for that.” Download skyscanner on your smartphone and book your flight wisely wherever you are.
5. like them on Facebook! Aside from updates, they also have giveaways.
6. skyscanner gives an overview of the cheapest flights you can take for your travels.

so I tried searching for a flight, and this is how the results page looked like:

it gave me all the flights that matched my preferences. you can sort the results according to price, time of departure or arrival, airline choice and journey time. moreover, you can easily narrow down your search using the knobs and tick boxes on the left side of the interface. and when you click Book, you will be redirected to the airline's website, where all the flight specs you entered are reflected and all you have to do is book your flights. Skyscanner will not charge you any penny, cent or peso. they just love you like that.

my favorite skyscanner feature is that it allows you to look for flights going to "Everywhere". just set the place where you're coming from, and leave the To field blank. Choose your preferred date (Holy Week, or whenever you plan to take a break), and Skyscanner will give you destination options arranged according to price.

you can click on every country to see the list of places (airports, basically) you can go to.

hhmmm... how about china? :p 

all in all, Skyscanner makes it a whole lot easier for budget travelers like me to find the cheapest flights, the most convenient times of departure and arrival, and the travel schedule that best suits you. click here to give it a try!

how does a bride feel?

giddy. nervous. excited. anticipating. all the hopes and the thrills for just that one moment. one definitive moment that will lead her to foreveryday.

how i feel right now is how i felt on my wedding day. all those jitters because today, gail and i celebrate our big dive into the waters of wedding photography. he's been training under THE pat dy, but it still is one big scary swim in one big scary ocean.

my heart skips beats as i write this. this is a dream come true for the both of us -- to have something to keep us going, to have something that makes us believe and trust God more, that He fulfills the desires of our hearts just because He loves us and He's awesomely generous.

to everybody who reads this blog, you know how much of a daydreamer i am.  thank you so much for whispering little prayers, thank you for all the encouraging words.

it is amazing how God has one by one granted our prayers and made my daydreams realities. my only hope is to bring Him glory and praise through how i live my life. we're now here at the beginning, and you're in on this journey.

we are foreveryday photography: capture. love.
 

Web: http://www.foreverydayphoto.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ForeverydayPhotography

rest is having the time to iron.

to the tune of you and i both by jason mraz (listen to his new album!), i happily sweeped the floor, cleared the sink and took a photo of my weekend's accomplishment. *high kicks*  

im sorry, but this gives me more fulfillment than a word document filled with words. to some it's a chore, but to me, ironing is a peaceful rest from all the rush of work. being able to finally tackle that pile of clothes meant that i had enough time to do something other than writing and beating deadlines. :) just dont call me iron woman/lady, because then you'd be at the top of my corniest people list. agreed. and while im super blessed with work that's not stressful, im just saying freshly pressed clothes deserve a photo. because look at those colors! i was about to take them to our closet when i noticed how they looked super cute and pretty and pinteresting beside one another. *snort* do you think i already need intervention? *snort*

in all honesty, there's a lot going on in our life/lives now, as in. napakarami kong gustong ikwento, but right now i need to prepare  for an interview later for a magazine gig. i promise if i get that, ill buy a really nice notebook for me to bring during interviews and for thought preservations in coffeeshops. also, ill get myself one of those mamahaling tumblers from starbucks. and hipster glasses, yeah. i have enough scarves. *fingers crossed* pray with me and pray for me please! i promise to let you know if i get it, what are friends are for what for! 

ps: ive been "chosen" to attend pastor dennis's upcoming Christian bloggers go viral! super excited to meet other bloggers who love Jesus and shout it out online. I LOVE JESUS! 

a rush of blood to the head

im not sure what this exactly means, but it's close to what i felt a couple of days ago when i received news that scared me to the point of sweaty hands and wanting to eat my way under my blanket on my side of the bed. nothing bad really happened, YET, but it was a close call and it shook my sitting-pretty self.

and minutes after hearing that news, gail's internet/pc got cut short. it was one of the most unsettling fifteen minutes of my life, and it pointed me to that one stable Rock that i have seemed to miss.

in between wanting to tell gail how could he restart his pc and disconnect from me while my hands were sweating because of worry and fear, and thinking of ways to give remedy to a situation, i was praying frantically (if thats even possible) to God. i just treated Him like a vendo machine. "God please do this."

i instantly got convicted, at the same time calmed down, by the realization that my reactions aren't at all reflective of a relationship that God wants to have with me. that's when it dawned on me that the thing that scared me wasnt as bad as i thought it was. that i can rest on the truth that God is in control. that losing one thing will never, even minutely, affect how much ive got because ive got Jesus.

i just learned that i cant control everything, that not everything happens according to plan and desire, that i can never be secure unless i look to God.

im learning to trust God more, to depend on Him more, to be stronger in the faith and to be stronger for my family.

i will learn much more, im looking forward for more humbling lessons that will bring me closer to God and not to anything else. they may not be pleasant, but i know that as a child of the King of kings, im in some serious training. world, bring it on. i want to make my God smile.

ps: im so blessed to have gail to train with. he's grounded and humble, and also very aware of God in our lives. thank you for listening to me and for always pushing me to pray and get closer to God. you are the bravest man i know. your birthday is far from over. ;)

fridays were for dancing

my mondays are for spending time with family and for catching up on house chores. gail and i pretty much have one of the oddest schedules. im used to hearing him say "monday pala ngayon, akala ko saturday." we're whacked like that. and so to have some normal friday nights for late night conversations and dancing... wait, what?! dancing, and dance classes, for that. *raises hands up in thu ayeerr*

purple leggings bilang pagbibigay pugay kay justin bieber :p 

thanks to one group buying site and to the ever-updated dikong, i saw myself dancing to the tune of "so what" by far east movement and found myself doing little but super obvious moves in my office desk. so funny just thinking about it! i didnt even know about far east movement until i googled the lyrics to that song that goes something like "so what so what so what you want...". side comment: ang lalim ng mga kanta ngayon ano. puno ng aral. tsk.

anyway, we went to ACTS Dance Studio at the GA Tower, super convenient location, and had classes during friday nights. but those nights are over because we only bought 5 vouchers each. hehe. buti na lang may dance central sa youtube, i can continue polishing my dance skills. naman! :)

gail as ben's substitute :p

but what release, and what a fun thing to do, to learn how to dance hiphop bagamat beginner level. gail took some videos of our last class, but i dont want my life to be cut short by some people who dont want to expose their mad skills just yet. just a tip though, never take me to the club with any of the ff people: djana, ben or dikong, if you dont want to see some choreographed dance moves. hahaha! we're saving those for an audience. :p

after-dance tambay: dikong, djana, gail, jhorace

ps: we just came from the beach and i have major sunburn (the one with skin peeling off like libag) that gail finds odd. hehe.

a celebration

well, we were able to thoroughly clean our house about two or three weeks ago, and i couldnt be prouder. im sorry about how domesticated and married this sounds, but im actually not. if you find general cleaning as a random ho-hum moment, you're reading the wrong blog. because a supah clean house rocks like a rockstar who has gazillions of fans. like that. im cool.

you see, i have been swamped with work (how many irritating times have i used this phrase in this blog its so irritating) the past days, to the point that i have a pile of clean clothes that smell of wrinkles. yes, wrinkles smell and im sexy. i. cant. even. find the time. to... iron. if you've been here for a while you know that ironing is my favorite thing to do and the plantsa, it's the best invention since coffee. so to actually find the time, nay, a day, to just clean our house and not work on anything at all was a relief/relaxation/rest time for me as much as it was for gail.

so to celebrate our squeeky clean floors, we headed out to banapple somewhere in greenhills. man was it a celebration: comfort food in large proportions worthy of a month-long rigorous diet.

yesterday we also celebrated because gail just got a gig for next week. thanks chazee! so last night we decided that we will celebrate with food (without thinking of our stingy budget and our big tummies) whenever such a milestone happens.

obligatory photo ng tao :p

ps: we're headed to the beach tomorrow. thanks for organizing family! i cant wait to win the paitiman challenge.

pps: have you seen gail's set on Church Simplified's concert? Ang galing. #stagewife

dates

as a copywriter, i suck at making titles. the only titles/taglines i ever loved are the name of this blog and the tagline of gail's website (which is still in the works.) anyway, on to my highly intriguing post about, well, dates.

whenever i come home to lb, i make sure that i get to spend time with family, with tin, and with any other friend/s who would want to catch up. speaking of catch up, im doing such a bad job at catching up with all these pictures ive accumulated the past months. gah!

i loved this date with ninang jean (who doesnt look like a ninang) and teacher faith (who doesnt look like a teacher). ninang, gail and i had milk tea at moonleaf, then we thought "miss na natin si faith a. puntahan natin siya sa bio." we texted faith and figured, let's just meet at vega!

wow. to say that was refreshing is an understatement. it made me appreciate lb and its peace in a whole new way. our life in manila is great, but lb, it's just soooo different. we don't have the luxury to have impromptu dates, you have to set it three months before. haha joke lang! but you have to set it a month before, and im not exaggerating. maybe it's all because we're now professionals, or because we're married, but faith is also a professional whose busyness is at the level of being a mommy! hahaha. so i therefore conclude that when you're in lb, you're really more carefree no matter what. wachutink?

next date, with tin and totskie. tin and i, we go way back. it's through her i learned about text messaging, and it's through me she learned about... i can't think of anything she learned from me! haha. she also makes delish and pretty/cute/wow-pano-mo-ginawa-yan pastries over at The Cupcake Factory. see, my best friend has a factory! you may click on that new badge at the right side of my blog whenever you crave for revel bars and sweet goodies.

but yeah, we go way, way back. she was a disney princess and i was flounder/stitch. haha! she's the girliest girl and i would wear white shirts and jeans. you get the idea.

but we never fought, EVER. they say a friend is a friend if you're honest to, and at a point, offended each other. but tin and i are honest to each other, but never got offended. it's clear to the both of us that we are licensed to correct each other. our friendship is deep that way, but is also super childlike, like we never outgrew our highschool uniform.

bottomline: i miss LB.
submarine-bottomline: i miss blogging.

PS: it's my momma's birthday today! this morning i was drafting in my mind the blog entry i would write about her, and then i cried. in the jeepney. panalo na naman ako sa pinaka iyakin challenge. happy birthday my mommy liza! see you this weekend! :) 

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!