LP # 5 Malungkot

Nahirapan ako maghanap ng lahok sa linggong ito. Ito ang "view" ng Atlantic ocean dito sa Casablanca, Morocco. Tuwing "summer" ito ang nagsisilbing pasyalan dito, marami ding turista ang "nag-susurf at nag-s-swim" dito.

Maaaring hindi ito malungkot na larawan para sa lahat pero para sa akin, nalulungkot ako sa tuwing makakita ako ng ganitong tanawin.

Travel Update and Award

I just learned that the Raptors didn't made it to the semis, the LA Lakers defeated them four times in a row. It only means we will not be able to watch NBA in Toronto. Sad news for my husband.. anyway his ultimate favorite Dallas Mavericks is also out of the game, the only good thing is we can still watch the F1 race in Montreal on June 8.
Everything seems fine right now, our tickets and hotels we're already booked except for our still cluttered things that may take forever before i finally sit down and take time to relax.

~~~~~~0000~~~~~~

Jody and Abie gave me this rose award, thank you sisters! I would like to share this to all mothers out there. Happy mothers day!

"A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity, it dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path."

-- Agatha Christie

Weekend Snapshot

Some pictures i got from our visit to Marrakech, Morocco. Their traditional food and religious place. It was such a nice weekend! Have a great week everyone!

Birthday preparation

One month away before my daughter's 2nd birthday and this time we're thinking of celebrating it with the orphanage or give something to C.R.I.B.S foundation. We prefer to celebrate it that way so we can help those infants in need.

As early as now, my birthday girl seems excited to celebrate her birthday. Whenever we're discussing our itineraries, she would sing the "Happy birthday" song for herself. We just booked our flights to Paris and Montreal and as our birthday gift to her, we will bring her to Disneyland in Paris. We're still checking which hotel to stay in Paris, so it's gonna be a busy week for me... not to mention i need to ready our things.
Here are some photos of Elyse having fun with his daddy:

Happy weekend everyone! :)

credits:
fmarini yellow paper, flowers and frame, natalie bird paper and bracket,jeann jeannG wordart, sds flower, coralie flower

Arte y pico Award

LorieM, a very creative designer gave me this Arteypico Award. Thanks so much again Lorie, I'm so flattered.

Now there are some rules, I need to pick five other blogs to get this award..

For those of you receiving the Award, here are the rules:

1) You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.

4) Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y Pico" blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

http://arteypico.blogspot.com/ Make sure you visit the link above. There are crafts of all kinds shown; you are bound to come away inspired!

5) Show these rules.

I believe everybody should receive this award but I need to pick only five. It's tough! Anyway, here are my five favorites:

1. Abie
2. Liza
3. Sheng
4. Jacqui
5. Eds

LP # 4 Hugis ay Pahaba

Salamat sa mga laruan ni Elyse at meron akong entry sa litratong pinoy. :) Ang mga blocks na kung tawagin nya ay "castle", kasi nga naman nakakabuo sya ng castle kapag nilalaro nya ito. Si "catalalar" or caterpillar naman ang isa sa mga "friends" nya na parati nya katabi sa pagtulog.

What's up with her?

This morning, Elyse just bite the teat of her feeding bottle and tear it. Lately, biting is back in her routine and i guess because of those teeny-weeny-teeth coming out again. But this one must be her worst bite ever, take a look!

I'm sorry for big bird because she's always been her favorite friend to bite. Sorry for the word, but nose picking is another bad habit she's been doing lately. I caught her but still kept on doing that while i was taking pictures. From time to time she would say "yuck" and smile on the camera like she's doing it only for fun and picture purposes. My super kulit bulilit is growing up fast and will soon turn 2. Whenever asked how old was she, she would respond "I'm one year old", i reminded her that next month she will be "2 years old". Surprisingly, she said "Oh no!."

As I've mentioned in my previous blog, Elyse had her first haircut in Manila and here's the storyboard.

My Featured Friends

I'm one of Kelly's featured friends and here's the badge she gave me. Thanks Kelly! This one is really cute! :)
















And here are my featured friends:

1. Eileen is one of my featured friends.
2. So when Eileen makes her featured friends for the week, she has to include my name and should pick 4 or 5 more from her own list of friends.
3. She has to inform ALL her featured friends to keep the ball rolling. If you use Blogger, you can add your featured friends using the new page element ‘Link List’.
And here are my other Featured Friends: Abie, Eds and Sheng

You can read everything about how this Featured Friend started by reading here and here. So keep it rolling.
For my featured friends here’s my badge for you.

Men Hunt starts now!

Tag time! Got tagged by fellow n@wies Joanne and Eds. :)

<---I just love him! :P oopps.. I believe i have posted his picture in my multiply account a year ago or during the time I was hooked with Prison Break. He's really sexy and gorgeous!

---->Since his movie "Just Married", I just can't forget his character as funny and sexy husband of Brittany Murphy. He is my second choice after Wentworth Miller, but now I'm having second thoughts since he got married to Demi. :P he he he

{start copy}

1. Post pictures (I want to see what is all the hotness about),

2. Keep the linky linky alive ( Tip, highlight the text whicha has links, right click and choose View Selection Source and just copy the HTML). Link the post where you wrote about the topic so women can find more drool-worthy men. (You might need to publish and then edit the entry first)
List: 1. Aggie 2.Thea 3. Litzie 4. Joy 5. Jane 6. Eds 7.Yvelle

Tag all the people you want!

{end copy}

Now, I'm passing this tag to idle in makati, jacqui, elizabeth and gerthy. Have fun! :)

Weekend Snapshot

The pictures of Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, Morocco. It was designed by the french architect Michel Pinseau and currently the second largest mosque in the world next to Masjid al-Haram in Mecca.

No for haircut!

This was Elyse's first haircut from a professional hairdresser. Since birth I was her only hairdresser, so now you know why her hair was in total mess! We went to "cuts for tots" in Robinsons Galeria. When she first saw the car and toys inside, she was amazed and excited. But when the hairdresser started to spray some water on her hair, it's another story. I will just post the story board here later. For now, here's a snapshot and my latest lay-out. I'm bored and not inspired to do a lay-out.. so I'm not that happy with this lo, the same with the little girl on the picture.
Happy and safe weekend everyone! :)

credits:
kb frame, mco paper, nathy bling, akiloune border doodle, lisbonlioness alpha, misty cato number bits, scrapdoll journal paper

LP #3 Apat na Kanto

Ito ang "blocks" na isa sa mga paboritong laruan ng aking anak. At pagkatapos nya ito paglaruan, ito ay madalas nya ibato at ikalat sa buong bahay. Ito ang isa sa naging regalo namin sa kanya noong nakaraang pasko.

Move on!

As day goes by, my husband is getting convinced to stay permanently in Canada than to pursue his career here in Casablanca. At this time, I'm still puzzled because I'm not really sure what will happen in the coming days.

All I know is three weeks from now, we will live in a new place again, meet different kinds of people with own beliefs and culture. It is definitely a whole new world for us, but we know that it is the best for our daughter. Some would raise their eyebrows and say, let's see! or some would say that my daughter will grow up without values compared to those children brought up in the Philippines. As for me, we'll never know... we don't have to be judgmental just because we heard the same stories before. As a mother, I will do something to raise my daughter the way I want. I know it will not be easy. I also heard a lot of horrible stories about immigrating or living abroad but I never had that fear to try. Maybe because I'm an optimistic person and I'm up to challenges.

It's been 7 months since we got our visa and I guess it's enough, we have to move on and start a new life to our new home.

credits:
monika69 alpha, kskd staple and journal, cinnamon designs cardboard paper, sgrimwood flower and frame, cmentz swirl and button

LP #2 Tatlo ang sulok ko

Bukod sa isang lampara sa gilid ng aming kama, eto ang isa pang ilaw na nagbibigay liwanag sa aming kwarto na madalas paglaruan ng aking anak na si Elyse.

(Thank you Eds for letting me know about Litratong Pinoy, this is my first entry! :))

You Are Merlot!

Got tagged by Gerthy.. Thanks sis! :)

You Are Merlot

Smooth, confident, and popular - you're the type most likely to order wine for the whole group. You seem to breeze through life on your intuition and wit. And no one seems to mind! You're comfortable in any social situation you find yourself in, and you never feel outclassed. And while you live a charmed life, you never let it go to your head. You are truly down to earth and a great friend. Deep down you are: Balanced and mature Your partying style: Surprisingly wild... when you let loose, you really let loose Your company is enjoyed best with: Some greasy pizza

What Kind of Wine Are You?

Countdown to last...

Our last week in the Philippines was the busiest! I'm just happy that at least we had time for a massage. It wasn't any better compared to David's Spa and Fitness First. Anyway it was unplanned, we've just finished our shopping at Megamall when we thought of getting a massage and checked the Hollistic Circle, of course we thought the place was nice so we give it a try. The staffs are nice and accommodating but the room was too cold with unpleasant smell, beddings, lighting etc.., the massage was so so, i don't even think it was relaxing.

We also visited the Manila Ocean Park and i believe the place has still a lot of room for improvement. If you can use the flash of your camera in Singapore's Under Water World, you cannot use it in Manila Ocean Park or else you want your camera to be confiscated. And because of that, I'm sorry if our pictures are not properly "lighted".

credits: peta boardman elements and blue paper, banner woman black paper, loriem thankful doodle, awp doodle-licious flower and alpha, coralie element, dco heartdesire frame

Holy Week in the Philippines

I'm too lazy today so I will not post a detailed kwento / story of our Holy Week in the Philippines. :)

Holy Monday: We watched the recital of my sister-in-law at UP Diliman. It was great! Maybe, Elyse thought that it was her concert because she kept on singing along with the orchestra. By the way, we had the following pictures taken across the engineering building. Quite lovely!
Holy Tuesday: We reserved this day for our bank transactions.... with Elyse running around and still forgot to applied for an EON account. Hayyyy....

Holy Wednesday: We went to the mall and bought some things for Elyse and finally watched a tagalog movie, "My Big Love" of course with Elyse! It was her first movie! ha ha ha. I know.. we should not be watching movies on Holy Wednesday. We wanted to watch Horton but wasn't yet shown that time. We are very proud of little Elyse, looks like she's only watching a tv or one of her favorite cd's.

Maundy Thursday: Back to Batangas and organize my mother's birthday party. It is also our family tradition to do the Visita Iglesia, unfortunately we we're trapped in the traffic so we moved it the following day. The usual 2-3 hour drive from Manila to my place became 6 hours.

Good Friday: We visited different churches in my place including the Taal Basilica, an old nice church with a stunning view. We also visited our relatives and loved ones who already passed away.Black Saturday: My mother's birthday celebration which also became a family reunion. We went to the beach in the afternoon and stayed there until morning of Easter Sunday. We had a bad experience staying at A. Santos beach resort. It was a nightmare!
Easter Sunday: Elyse had fun swimming at her mini pool while we enjoyed taking the pictures.

High School Life

Tag time again. This one is from my co-n@wie, Joanne Ü Thanks sis!

What section were you? St. Bartholomew.
Who were your seatmates? Jocel and Genevive, we have alphabetical seating arrangement.
Still remember your English teacher? Yes. Mrs. Malabanan.
What was your first class? Physics.
Made friends to the lower years? Yes.
How was your class schedule? 7am-4:30 pm Mon-Thur. Fridays, we extend till 5:30 pm due to CAT.
Made any enemies? I can't remember but as far as I know I don't have any
Who was your favorite teacher? My Physics teacher who happens to be our adviser as well
What sport did you play? Badminton.
Were you a party animal? Nope.
Were you well known in your school? I don't know hehehe
SKIP CLASSES? Nope
Did you get suspended/expelled? Nope
Can you sing the Alma Mater? Yes
What was your favorite subject? Biology and Chemistry
Did you go to the dances? Nope.
Where did you go most often during breaks? Stayed in the classroom.
What did you do on the last day of school? I can't remember.

Revisiting Singapore

We had a hassle free flight to Singapore, we're just surprised that the plane was smaller compared to those of Emirates. But then I remember that it was just a 3-hour flight, so no worries. On the other hand the food was great! We took the morning flight of Philippine Airlines and arrived at Singapore around 1:00 p.m. We immediately checked in at Strand Hotel where we are booked for 7 days, their rates are cheaper compared to their neighboring hotels Bayview Hotel and Hotel Rendezvous. Good thing they are nicely located and few steps away from Orchard road, train stations like Dhoby Ghaut, Bugis Junction and City Hall.

We're not happy with the room they gave us, it is smaller than we expected. We asked them to find us a bigger room, sadly no other room is available. They informed us about the available room after 2 days, anyway, I'm no longer interested on transferring to another room that time. What good about most hotels in Singapore are their buffet breakfast. My husband had his training at Hotel Rendezvous and we had a free buffet lunch too. Great isn't it?

From the hotel, we decided to have lunch at Bugis Junction Mall. My husband was keen to try his favorite Fried Prawn Mee, but ended up dissapointed not seeing any resto offering this at Bugis Junction Mall.The place was crowded, so we opted to have lunch at KFC. It was so hot and humid that I'm afraid Elyse will catch a cold or fever due to climate change. After lunch, though I'm hesitant to visit the Jurong Bird's park, I finally agreed to my husband that there's no other time for us to visit the place since it's quite far from our place. While we are at Jurong, waiting for the bus going to the Bird's park, a strong wind and non-stop heavy rain suddenly pours down. Very bad timing, we thought. So, we decided to go back to our hotel and get some rest.

On our second day, Fred has to attend his training while me and Elyse will go out with her Ninang "Ukay" Jocay and Ninong "Iki" Niki, but since morning I was really worried when I found out that Elyse has slight fever. Fred already left for his training, so i called Jocay and Niki about the situation.. They went to the hotel and brought paracetamol, thermometer even grapes and food for us. Thank God for having such nice and wonderful friends, without them, I really don't know how will I survive at that time. Thanks to God that even if Elyse has fever, she didn't acted sick.. i believe that her fever was the effect of climate change, as i'm previously worrying about.

The next day, we went out and visited the underwater world in Sentosa. It was undeniably rainy day again. Elyse was happy to see Nemo and jellyfish, but acted sleeping when she saw shark. She was on her stroller and when she looked up she saw the shark staring at her, since then, whenever asked how shark was, she would do this.

The bad weather ruined our plans, but it didn't stopped us enjoying the delicious food of Singapore including the Fried Prawn Mee at Food Republic in Wisma Atria and Suntec City. Most people I know will say that those Fried Prawn Mee in Wisma Atria was the best, but for me, it was in Suntec City. You should try it! We we're at the most visited Electronics sale at Suntec and we almost got a 32 inch of Samsung LCD TV with home theater (no more stock) and SONY VAIO CR Series in Cosmopolitan Pink or Dove White. My husband was not convinced to get the laptop for so many reasons, so let it be. But we've got this Philips portable DVD for Elyse.

On our last day, we had a chance to go out and shop. There was a kid's fair at Takashimaya that time and I'm lucky to find Dora stuffs and Avent feeding bottles for Elyse. All i can say is we had a wonderful time in Singapore, despite the bad weather.

credits:
singapore /dcorbitt tag
sentosa / lucky luci bracket, dfd stitched alpha, alexa crazy paper
shark/ vanilla hush and cinnamon designs

The Rule of Fours

Tag time! Friends, thanks for all the tags! I will try to do all my backlogs as soon as i can! Promise!
For now, here's one from Eileen. Thanks sis!

4 Jobs I Have Had
Accounting Assistant
Purchasing Assistant
HR and Administration Assistant
HR Specialist

4 Movies I Watched Over and Over Again
Serendipity
The Notebook
Wicker Park
Pretty Woman

4 Places I Have Lived
Batangas, Philippines
Manila, Philippines
Shenzhen, China
Casablanca, Morocco

4 Shows I Watch
American Idol
Desperate Housewives
The Amazing Race
The Buzz

4 Places (Countries) I Have Been
Hong Kong
Singapore
China
Dubai

4 People Who Email Me
Friends
Aunt
Nephew
Husband

4 Favorite Things to Eat
Seafoods
Chocolates
Crepes of Petite Faim
Croissants of La Pause Gourmade

4 Places I would Rather Be
In my place now, where my husband and daughter is.

4 Things I Look Forward to This Year
Our visit to Canada this May.
Elyse's 2nd Birthday this May.
My husband's Birthday on June.
Christmas, hopefully with our family in the Philippines.

4 People To Tag
Alma
Abie
Anna
Audry

Birthday and Friends

The day after we arrive in Manila (March 8, Saturday), we went to SM Megamall, met some of our friends and grabbed something for Gelo, Iya, Serenity and Elyse at Toy Kingdom. I can't remember when was the last time I visited Toy Kingdom in Megamall, I was impressed because I never had a hard time finding what I want. I'm sure most kids will enjoy shopping there, including my little Elyse who always want to grab a bike and ball of her choice. Oh I just remember, there was something I wasn't able to find.. the hugable Dora. Months ago, I saw them at Marjane here in Casablanca, but during that time Elyse wasn't yet fond of Dora so we just ignore it, unfortunately, now it's out of stock. Did I mentioned that whenever we are at the toy section, we always offer different kinds of dolls to Elyse? She will hold it for a while but after a minute she will either leave it somewhere or throw it. She love to push a bike and kick / throw balls instead. They said that most toddlers of her age act the same, well, I just hope so.

That same day, we we're invited to attend Gelo's 1st birthday at Mcdonald's San Pedro so Ninang Lea, Dianne (future Ninang? hehehe), Ninang Beth, me, Fred and Elyse met over lunch at Yoshinoya, Megamall. Ninang Lea was with her cute daughter Iya, who just celebrated her 1st birthday last February.

At the party, we enjoyed every bite of our McChicken! :) According to my husband, "It never tasted like this before!" Is it because of super hot and spicy chicken of McDonald's China? not so tasty McChicken of Hong Kong? most of all, McDonald's Casablanca doesn't offer McChicken so, i guess it must be the culprit. McChicken in Manila was so far...the best! We had fun at the party, of course Elyse didn't left without balloons in her hands. She got 3 balloons! We've got to mingle with our friend Shai, mommy of adorable Serenity Rane who is barely 3 months old.

Also, we got this flyer from Imee, our friend and mom of Gelo regarding the properties for sale at San Juan, Batangas. They are developing the place like those in Boracay, and selling condo units / shares at 6,000/sqm, if I'm not mistaken. Quite interesting! The design was exquisite and relaxing.

Around 6:00 p.m. the party was over, we got to go home to prepare for our flight the next day. After the party, we're not able to join them for another get-together-over-coffee. We need to be at the airport at 7:00 a.m. for our flight to Singapore. Ciao!

Have a great weekend everyone!

credits: petitesouris elements, KAw paper, freebiemars_fanette element, maryse vincent alpha, gina maria number, tking alpha

We're Home!

Our Casablanca - Manila flight was just fine. We we're seated beside another family with 2 daughters, one is around 4 years old while the other is around 2 or the same age with Elyse. Thank God Elyse didn't gave us a headache during our travel, unfortunately that baby seated beside us. She was crying all throughout the flight. I understand that she is uneasy or uncomfortable "maybe" with her dress. In my opinion she might be overdressed, the fact that most babies often felt warmer than adults to which "maybe" her mom didn't realized. Anyway, we did our best to pacify the little baby, we offered her food that made her stop crying for a while.

So glad and relieved when we have landed at Dubai airport, we tried to check some stuffs as "pasalubong" or gifts to our loved ones. And of course our shopping will not be complete without "Galaxy chocolates with almond, macademia and hazel nuts", we always bought those found in plastic container. We we're lovers of their choco-caramel candies too. We never had time to pass by Emirates lounge since we only had 4 hours stop over.

On the other hand, our Dubai - Manila flight was better, we had time to sleep and rest but still made me felt a little dizzy. A jet log from my previous flight, I guess so. Because most flights of Emirates from Middle Eastern and European countries we're stopping Dubai, it is expected that the flight would be full.

While in Manila, my in-laws picked us up from the airport at around 4:00 p.m. We immediately went to Jollibee in C5 for a quick "lunch" since we don't like the food served by Emirates (exception to their flights from Manila), from Dubai to Manila. I enjoyed my spaghetti and chicken, while Elyse had cream of chicken soup. She loved it! On our way to Cainta, where my husband's place is.. we noticed the heavy traffic in C5 due to flyover construction but then of course we've got to realize that we're finally home!

credits: marys scrapgalerie elements

I'm Back and Trying to Catch Up!

Hello dear friends and bloggers! I'm back from our vacation! I'll post my stories and pictures here soon. I'm not yet done resizing our pictures. :)

Hay....It was a stressful vacation, but the best part was the valuable time we spent with our families and some friends. We didn't have enough time meeting all our friends and visiting new places in Manila, but somehow.. we did the best we could to enjoy our vacation.

I'll be back later and hopefully I can post the first part of my kwento. Have a great week everyone!