Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant, they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let not this blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams; it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful.

Strive to be happy.

- Max Ehrmann

from http://marilee.us/desiderata.html

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An officemate came by today to make chika about her recent trip to Hong Kong, but somewhere along the chickahan she talked about Desiderata and that she's writing it down in a small notebook to give as a gift to her son. She said she's been living by these principles and read a few bits of it to us. I admit it's the first time I read it although "Desiderata" sounds vaguely familiar. It's beautiful isn't it? And her idea of giving it as a gift is wonderful!

*******

Have a blessed Christmas everyone!

Wedding Photos are Up

Yehey! Jayson blogged about our wedding (nawala ata yung sakit ko nung nakita ko mga pictures) and I'm pasting all the photos he posted here at my blog mwehehehehehe. But head on over to his blog to see all his other couples. We actually have the CD for a few weeks now but we haven't got the time to sort everything out. So thank you so much for this, Jayson! And belated happy birthday sa photographer naming asteeeeeeeg!!!

Slideshow: http://www.redefineweddings.com/slideshows/joemacris.html

Christmas Decors

I'm not feeling so good since yesterday. :( I've been popping pills since I woke up yesterday afternoon. Must be because of the cold weather plus we slept in late last Saturday night, or should I say Sunday morning. Anyhoo, Christmas is just around the corner and we haven't finished shopping for Christmas presents yet. Promise, next year October pa lang mamimili na ko ng gifts.

My mother-in-law gave us some Christmas decors which we've used in our little home.

Little santa penguin and dog (?) with an angel

Christmas ribbon by our bathroom door; detailed shot of the ribbon

Decors by the stairs; view from the top

My First Adobo

Before I blog about my first adobo let me tell you first about my cooking skills, or lack thereof. I don’t really cook. In our family, I’m the only one who doesn’t know how to cook. So when my brother and I are left at the house he’s the one who has to cook and I wash the dishes haha. There are only two times in my life when I attempted to cook - the first time was when we didn’t have a maid and I cooked tinola, I remember having to taste the dish every so often because I was afraid it won’t taste right, by the time it was cooked and ready to eat, I didn’t eat anything at all. The second time was when I cooked a simple pasta dish for Joema, I don’t remember if it was his birthday or it was our anniversary. My problem is I don’t know how to tell if the dish is cooked already - I know everything in theory but I don’t know anything in real life haha!

One of the wedding gifts we received was the George Foreman grill. I figured it will be a breeze cooking in this thing. So we bought chicken breasts and barbeque marinate. The manual of the grill says that the chicken should be cooked in 9 minutes. I set the alarm in my cellphone to 9 minutes and popped the chicken in the grill. After a while, I started smelling something – not like when someone is cooking. Basta it smelled and I was afraid I was going to burn the chicken. And then I heard a toot toot tooot. I was panicking already and telling Joema that it must be a fire alarm or I’ve set the smoke detector of our unit. Joema followed the sound and he tells me “E yung cellphone mo lang yun e nag-aalarm!” holding up my cellphone for me to look at. LOL That was hilarious! I was ready to call someone downstairs to help us. But anyways, inspite of the anxiety attack that chicken caused me..it tasted good (thanks to Mama Sita haha!) But suffice it to say, we haven’t used the grill after that.

I’ve only ventured into frying chicken and pork after that. Or we buy cooked dishes. The other day, I attempted to cook my very first adobo. I know it’s a simple dish for those who really know how to cook. But it’s still a milestone for me – cooking something that’s not fried haha. And I used other ingredients other than salt, pepper and oil *teehee*

Pork adobo (recipe from Maya Kitchens cookbook, which was lent to me by an officemate)

1 kilo pork, cube
1/3 cup vinegar
2 tablespoons crushed garlic
1 bay leaf, crushed
2-3 tablespoons soy sauce
salt to taste
½ teaspoon pepper
water
1 tablespoon oil

In a saucepan, put pork, vinegar, 1 tablespoon garlic, bay leaf, soy sauce, salt and pepper.



Bring to a boil then simmer uncovered until pork is tender. Remove meat from sauce.




In a skillet, heat oil then sauté remaining garlic. Add meat and fry until light brown.



Add the sauce.


****


We only bought half-kilo of pork so I divided every measurement of the ingredients by two. Nasarapan naman si Joema. :-)

For Resty

Here are my answers to your questions:

1. POSD is Public Order and Safety Department. The family planning seminar is held at the back of the POSD building. Parang walang phone line dun sa mismong place where they hold the seminar pero here's the contact number that I get in touch with to ask questions...697-1325.

2. Pwede ka na magsubmit agad ng requirements for the marriage license sa Office of Civil Registry ng city hall without the seminar. Kaya lang kailangan mo pa ulit bumalik para sa seminar dahil nga isa sa requirements yun. Since we don't have time to go there again and again kaya we went on a Thursday para after the seminar, diretso submit na lahat ng requirements. Yung iba namin kasabay sa family planning pangalawang balik na nila yun sa city hall dahil yung una nilang punta wala pa silang dalang certificate ng family planning.

Here are my related posts regarding the marriage license application in Antipolo City Hall.

While Waiting
Marriage License

Best to call the contact number I gave you if you have other questions na hindi ko nasagot :)

One Month

I can’t believe it’s been a month since the day we said our “I Do’s”. Yes it’s been 30 days since our wedding and I haven’t finished blogging about it. Yikes! I don’t think I’ll be able to blog about it in one go because of work (year-end is hectic!) and Christmas is just around the corner (we haven’t started shopping for gifts yet! Sooo bad!). We haven’t received our CD from our wedding photographer yet. They’ve been busy with work also – can’t blame them because December is the busiest season for wedding suppliers.

I only realized that it’s our “monthsary” when I got here at the office and changed my date stamper to the correct date. So it was a delightful coincidence that Joema prepared my baon for today. It's the first of, I hope, many more baon preparations to come hehe.

I fried the fish last night but he was the one who cooked the rice, cut the tomatoes and put them in their containers.

Chopsuey

I haven't been feeling well the last couple of days. Had a fever and wasn't able to go to work this week. Been back for not even a week and I've been on leave again. Haaay... I just realized for three consecutive weeks, I haven't been going to the office 5 times a week. Last week, I went back starting Thursday, and then this week I was on sick leave Wednesday, and then next week Monday is a holiday. Hurrah!

Yesterday, I was going around the mall with a friend when I saw a Christmas countdown...28 days to go! Oh gosh! We haven't even started shopping for gifts yet. We haven't decorated at home. We have Christmas decors but haven't got the time to put them up. Maybe tomorrow, if I'm feeling better.

An officemate told me that I might be getting sick because I'm cleaning now, that is, I might be allergic to dust. Oh yes you read that right...I don't clean my room, our house..any thing when I was single. We have househelp to do that. But now I have to do it or else we'll be living like filthy pigs. Oooh I have plenty of "newlywed" stories to tell ya!

I'm waiting for the hubby to text me so I can go and meet him. We're buying some appliances tonight. We're buying them one by one.

****
He texted me already..Bye bye!

My Maid of Honor Arrives

But before she did (this was Thursday before the wedding), we spent the entire day doing the packaging for our placecard holders. I bought the candy holders really early into our wedding planning. I think around March or April. Bought them at Living Well and got the cake and bell toppers.

I initially asked Grace if she could purchase for me the personalized M&M’s. But this proved to be very expensive. So when I saw those personalized Hershey’s kisses from The Knot website, I thought to myself, I can do that. I just need to buy the kisses and then print out those stickers (they are the same kind of round stickers I used for our save-the-date cards). But because I was out of time, I didn’t do the stickers anymore but stuck with Hershey’s kisses. My knows the local distributor so I can get them on discounted price anyway. Those were what we picked up from My the week before that.

So there we were, the whole morning of Thursday packing the chocolates in their individual packages and putting the name cards with their ribbons. That was a bit easy, but Marj wanted these delivered to them and packed per table.

Look how pretty they are

We can’t just put them in plastic bags because that will ruin the organza ribbons and the name cards, so we were desperate in finding boxes for them. We couldn’t find any in National Bookstore and Robinsons Department Store. So off we went to SM Megamall. SM really does have it all for you. We found shoe-box typed boxes at their Stationery department. I was exhausted after that because before the task of finding the right box, we were at Greenhills looking for jewelry for my mother. She wanted a specific kind of necklace that will go for her earrings that she wanted to use for the wedding. We then picked up my dad, before eating dinner and finally going home.

But the night was still too early for us. When we got home, we boxed all 180++ pieces of packed kisses in their respective boxes. Each box were labeled with the names of the guests for each table. And then I emailed Marj our guestlist with the seating arrangement. Had a few minutes to rest, and then my brother and I are again out of our house. This was probably around 10 in the evening already. We first headed to Lorena’s house to pick up Heili and Grace’s dresses. And then we were off to Makati to bring Heili’s dress and pick up the CD they made for the surprise audio-visual presentation for us. After that, we were cruising our way to the NAIA terminal 1 to pick up Grace. How pathetic the arrival area of our international airport is! You have to pay P30 just to get inside that waiting area where you can see the balikbayans across a road (you can even cross the road to fetch them, they have to cross the road to get to you) and watch them from a TV monitor that will not even show you a clear shot of your balikbayan’s face. Grace’s flight landed early but we waited for her for almost an hour to come out. I was watching the TV monitor the whole time but I didn’t see her, when I set my eyes across the road she was already standing there hahaha. Jay and I had to go back to the parking lot, get the car and go around the terminal to get her. Can’t anyone think of a better way to do this? We have lots of Overseas Filipino Workers. I’m sure a lot them come back to the Philippines each day, can’t we atleast make their arrival easy for their families waiting for their return and for the OFW’s as well?!?!?!

Anyway, we brought Grace to her condo after that. It was already Friday by then and was past 1am. I had her fit the gown because if there alterations to be done, we have to be up and about early morning of Friday to go to the modista. And as luck would have it, the dress didn’t fit her. Blame it on her for giving wrong measurements harharhar. We left her to rest but when I got home, I still had to some packing. I still had to pack my clothes – those I will bring to the hotel (nights before and after the wedding) and those I will bring for our honeymoon. Finally got some shut-eye at 3am but was already awake by 630am.

The Days Before

I’ve been back to work since Thursday last week but haven’t blogged much because I’m not sure how I’ll start blogging again now that I’m married – yuck ang drama! Di ko lang kasi maisip if I should start blogging where I left off (a few days before the wedding) or blog about my daily life as a newlywed.

Anyways, let me go back a few days before our wedding day.

Monday night

Joema and I met up with the choreographer of our first dance, Phyllis Lim. Phyllis is such a sweetheart. She not only arrived on time, but she was early (promptness is plus points for me as I’m a stickler for time). She didn’t teach us any steps that we were uncomfortable doing. She suggested that we do separate steps as intro for our dance but Joema was adamant he will only dance if we’re dancing together hehe. The first part of our dance was … shucks I don’t remember what style of dancing it was called =P The second part was swing. Phyllis was really patient in teaching us. She was the one urging us to practice, practice and practice. She even suggested we record our dance on video so that when we practice by ourselves, we have something to guide us. I'll upload this video on my multiply account soon.

We chose the song “Honey, Honey” from the OST of Mamma Mia. Actually, Joema was in charge of all the songs/music used in the wedding. He gave me the list of the songs and I just gave my final sign of approval.

Phyllis even gave us some tips like we should practice before our first dance. If we have an “alone” time between the church and the reception, she said we should practice then since if we just go there unprepared even if we practiced the night before we might forget a few steps. Another important tip she gave, never make eye contact with your audience. If you’re not a seasoned perfomer (surprise, surprise we’re both not!), you should not make eye contact with anyone during the dance. If you have to look at the audience, look at the top of their heads. She said making eye contact will make us lose our concentration and forget our steps.

When Phyllis left, we felt we accomplished so much hehe. Now learning the steps is one thing, pulling this first dance off is another.

Tuesday

Joema and I met up for another round of dance practice. This would be the last day that Joema and I will see each other before the wedding. He was telling me we should see each other Friday night so that we can practice but I told him we shouldn't. We were both eagerly anticipating our wedding day.

Wednesday

Since it was only a few days before the wedding, I planned to go to confession on this day. I went to EDSA Shrine because they had regular confessions everyday. It was my first time to confess there so I though there will be a confessional box. Of course before going, I had an examination of conscience and started listing down all my sins. It was really my plan to just read the list when I go to confession. When I got inside the “box”, the set-up was face-to-face with the priest. I had a big paper bag with me because I brought home Mama’s gown. I reached into it because I placed my prayer book there with my list. The priest (he’s a funny one!) said “Oh I thought you were going to give me pasalubong” ahahaha. He was I think of Indian descent so I was surprised to hear him speak Tagalog. When he saw my list, he just asked me to hand over the list and he read it himself. There’s probably something on my list that made him ask my age. When I told him, he asked me if I have a boyfriend so I told him yes and that we’re getting married. I also told him that we were having a mixed marriage because my fiancé isn’t Catholic. Then he asked “What? Muslim?”. Before I left he asked about the wedding again and I said it was that coming Saturday and he wished me well. It was a very “easy” confessional. I wasn’t terrified to be there at all. The priest was very warm and very “forgiving”.

Appetizer

Visit Bim's blog for our onsite video.

Will post more after I'm done sorting out work. Just came back from a short vacay after the wedding.

Countdown: 5 days to go

I think I spoke too soon that I'm not worried. Because the other night (mm...that was Saturday night)I woke up in the middle of the night (nyak! redundant!) so worried about some wedding details. Now, I don't even remember what it was about. Good thing, I was able to fall asleep again. This morning I woke up really early and worried again! I know I woke up early because my alarm went off only after a few hours (I think). Hate that feeling that your mind is awake but you still don't want to get up and fix yourself. Hate it that I woke up before my alarm went off. I'm pretty sure I don't have anything more to worry about. I just keep on thinking about the small details which is sooo frustrating.

I'm also paranoid I won't fit into my wedding dress. For the past couple of days, I've been eating rice three times a day and not going to the gym. I only went once last week for a 30-minute cardio exercise, that's after a week of rest (because of my sprain). So I decided to go today and surprise surprise! I lost 1.5 pounds. Now that is amazing. I don't know what happened for me to lose that weight. Although I've been drinking tea and using this foot patch that's supposed to detoxify you. Note to self: blog about this patch after all the wedding hulabaloo!

And then later this afternoon, we'll be doing something as a surprise for the our wedding guests hehe. I hope we pull it off. (Is that giving away so much on what it is?)

Countdown: 7 days to go

It's exactly one week before our wedding. I'm left here at home while my family left for the province to visit the grave of my Tito. They didn't want to bring me just to be safe, since I already proved that the saying is true for me hehe. Anyways, I stayed here the whole day. Joema didn't visit because his family stayed with him at the condo. It's their last weekend together, his last as a bachelor, so I can't force him to come here. Atleast I still get to be with my family everyday. Unlike him, when he started living at the condo he only saw him atleast every other week.

So what have I been doing for the past 12 hours? Not really twelve hours because I woke up at 10 this morning. I think I haven't slept that long since we were in the thick of wedding preparations. Then I started watching Samurai X heheh or should I say Rurouni Kenshin asindicated in the DVD. I saw Jay watching it the other day and I was hooked. I was fascinated that it tackles much of the political arena in Japan during an era after their revolution. I just don't know how historically accurate are the things in this anime. Or if these are all fictional. The primary character, Kenshin Himura, known as Battousai the Manslayer was a former part of the Imperialist group. As his name suggested he slays the enemies of the Imperialist government. Most of the fights are done with much talking between the two opponents. Himura usually convinces his enemies that their principles are not for the good of the majority in Japan. See I'm really into this hehehe. One more thing, Himura reminds me of Zaizai. I don't know why because as Joema points out Himura is Japanese while Zaizai is Taiwanese =P. Must be how the Japanese anime is where one moment the charachter is serious and then the next the drawing will be all whacky. Zaizai is like that in his Taiwanese dramas and in real life I suppose because he's the clown in F4.

Okay, I'll continue watching as I'm having a hard time typing and watching the subtitles of this anime.

Countdown: 8 days to go

I'm on a holiday today (one of the rare times that The Bank is on official holiday and the outside worlds still have to work hehehe). My brother and I did some errands for the wedding. We first picked up my purse from Dream Bride. I actually have my wedding gown already together with the pillows, veils and cord, we picked them up last Saturday. But Tria was not satisfied on the purse so she had it re-done. I'm really really happy with Tria. She didn't scrimp on the materials used in my gown and the paraphernalias even though I really haggled with her on the price. It doesn't matter if you paid a little or you paid so much, she really gives you her 100% attention and makes sure your gown is really beautiful. As I kept on mentioning, I'm really happy with how my wedding dress turned out. It was more beautiful, if I can say so myself, now that I've seen it complete, than when we had our last fitting. It's simple and elegant.

Our next stop was meeting with Marj. This is actually the fifth time I've met up with her. The first time, I was with Penny, and we were still scouting for wedding coordinators then. I actually didn't meet up with any other coordinators as I was satisfied with my meeting with Marj. The second time, I was with Joema, and we discussed the details of our wedding. I was actually surprised because Marj contacted me more than a month before the wedding to have the meeting set up. I was expecting to receive word from a month before but was happy she was pro-active that I didn't have to be the one to initiate the meeting. The second time, we were supposed to have the final menu tasting with Eloquente but Ms. Tina begged off at the last minute. Marj decided we could still meet up and jsut make chika hehe. But we still managed to talk about so may things about the wedding details. She has a lot of stories about her other brides. She also makes suggestions on how we should do things. By the way, she's also our emcee for the reception so I'm pretty sure our program will flow smoothly. I didn't actually have to think about the program proper because she just gave it to me and we just have to make some inputs. She and her husband, Carlo, were also with us for our final food tasting (4th meeting). I was with Joema and my parents then, so Marj got the chance of meeting the 'rents already hehe. She and Ms. Tina talked about the details for our wedding reception. In the end, we had Carlo be in charge of our sound system (my quartet specifically requested for a direct box and monitor speaker, which are not included in the basic sound system of Eloquente). And of course, we all had a taste of the good food provided by Eloquente. Today (5th meeting), I turned over some of the wedding stuff to Marj. She really wanted to make sure that her bride are worry-free come wedding day. That's why she requests most of the stuff to be turned over to her a week before the wedding. We (me and my helpers - Jay, Mama and Papa) were still finishing the misalettes last night but everything turned out okay. Just a few more things and everything will be in Marj's hands. I can sleep well (if I can) the night before the wedding.

After the meeting with Marj, we went to My's house. We picked up the Hershey's Kisses we'll be using as fillers for our place cardholders. My knows where the local distributor of Hershey's is so I requested her to buy a box for me.

Last stop was SM Megamall for some last-minute buying. Although I'm pretty sure I will still be back there next week to buy more stuff for the wedding hehehe.

I Just Noticed

..that our ticker says 10 days! 10 days before our wedding! 10 days na lang!

May Nagpapapansin!

Kailangan talaga blue ang buhok?!?!?! LOL Kaw talaga ZZ bigla kang nagpaparamdam porke less than two weeks na lang magpapakasal na ko! (Bahala kang intindihan yang Tagalog ko at wala na kong panahon mag-aral ng Mandarin ngayon hahaha)

*Images sent via email by zashi

When We're Not Busy Going to Hospitals

We managed to buy Joema's shoes. Where else but at Cubao X.

Joema choosing among the myriad of shoes

Mirror shot

And we also got his suit.

Mang Oman of KNIK altering the length of the pants

Waiting...waiting...

Two more weeks, baby!

This blog invests and believes, the proximity*

Thanks to Cheryl for giving this to me. Sorry it took some time to post this. Hope you're feeling better.

*I had to google the translation of the award. Got the translation from here.

Your Fingerprint, My Fingerprint

We have our wedding rings already, but I would love to have this kind of wedding ring..


Wouldn't it be nice to carry something unique to your spouse wherever you go?

Source

Another Trip to the ER

Oh yes! You read that right. After my allergy attack last week, I was back at the ER (Medical City) this past weekend. *sigh* Yung kasabihan ng matatanda na “Lapitin sa disgrasya pag malapit ng ikasal” - so true for me! Joema and I were in SM Megamall last Saturday night. We were walking down a flight of steps when *bham* natapilok ako and sprained my righ ankle! I felt my mind went blank and when I opened up my eyes, I was holding on to Joema for dear life. I was squirming in pain. I had to ask him not to let go of me and to let me sit down for a few minutes.

Joema and I went to the MegaClinic at the 5th floor but their orthopedic wasn’t in. They instead gave me the schedule of their doctor, which I didn’t need at that time, because it was then that I was feeling the pain. I needed the doctor right at that moment. So again, I called up Ge and she advised me to go to the ER of Medical City instead. But since it was a weekend sale at Megamall, we figured we might have a hard time getting a cab. So I called up Pam, only to ask if it’s wise not to go to the ER hehe. But she advised me to go as I am getting married in a few weeks, and it’s better to be safe than sorry hehe. There was a long queue for a cab outside Megamall so we started walking towards Podium along Julia Vargas. Yes, even if it was killing me, we walked. And it was all worth it because we got a cab at the intersection of Julia Vargas and ADB Ave.

Triage Area

When we got to the ER, I filled up some forms and then they “wheeled” me to their “trauma” area. The doctor took a look at my ankle and then we had to wait for a few minutes. Then they wheeled me to have my ankle x-rayed and then we waited again. After a few minutes, the doctor said the x-rays were clear, that they had to bandage my ankle and to keep it there for 24 hours, and to rest my foot for 48 hours. So during the weekend, I was carried around the house ehehehe. Thank God for my medical card, we didn’t have to pay for anything. I had to call Jay to ask him to pick us up. But it was okay, as he was the one who told our parents what happened. I really didn’t want to tell them but I can’t hide my bandage. Jay was just in time to pick us up as we were cleared from the cashier and Joema has bought my medicines.

Patient Tag

My mother was still awake when we got home. So we told her what happened and that there’s nothing to worry about. Joema and I ate dinner (we still haven’t eaten, that was 10pm already!) and he had to carry me to my bedroom after. Hahaha nauna ang pagbuhat kesa sa kasal!

Now, I’m back to work but my foot is still swollen. *boohoo* Please, no more accidents. No more trips to the ER.

My bandaged foot

Canonical Interview

I've blogged a few times that the first thing we actually "booked" was our priest. Fr. Caloy usually officiates the first Friday masses here at our office. I've been inspired to go to mass during first Fridays because of him. His sense of humor is right at the bat but he strikes you as someone who is sincere and honest in what he says.

Joema has not met him until our canonical interview last week. And like me, he loved Fr. Caloy's humor as well. Joema wanted someone who will make us laugh on our wedding so I made the right choice based on his criteria hehe. Some of the things we talked about during the interview:

• Fr. Caloy asking us if we're both Catholics. Then I told him that Joema isn't, he's a Methodist.

Fr. Caloy: Ah talaga Methodist? Yung girlfriend ko din non Methodist e.

Me: Yan po ba yung classmate nyo sa Social Dance*?

Fr. Caloy: Ay hindi bago pa yun.

++++++

Fr. Caloy: Naalala ko pa non pumupunta kami dun sa piangttraining-an ng mga pastor nyo (Methodists) sa may Tagaytay di ba? Pastor kasi tatay non e kaya sinasama pa nya ko dun non.

• When asked about the impediments to marriage. He had to explain the "Others" part.

Fr. Caloy: Sa "others" kasama jan yung impotence. Kasi kung impotent na di na ikakasal yan. Dati nga may lumapit sa kin na sissenta-anyos na lolo gusto magpakasal. Tinanong ko kung tinatayuan pa sya sabi nya hindi na. Sabi ko "'Lo, subukan nyo kaya bumili nung viagra. Kung tatalaban pa kayo non ikakasal ko kayo." Sabi ni lolo, "Nagbibiro ho ba kayo?" sabi ko "ay hindi ho seryoso ho ako" LOL

• When asked where we lived

Fr. Caloy: San ka ba lumaki? Ah sa Valenzuela, sa may Marulas? May bahay kami dati jan e.

++++++

Fr. Caloy: San ba kayo don? Sa may {insert name of village}? May bahay pinsan ko don.

++++++

Fr. Caloy: Sa Bulacan ka ba? May bahay din kami dun sa may Marilao. Ang sarap ng talaba don!

(Gusto ko humirit na...Father, ang dami nyo pong bahay ah!)

• With the question, are you giving your consent to marriage with your entire freedom

Joema: Opo

Fr. Caloy: Sigurado ka? Gusto mo palabasin muna natin sya tapos sumagot ka ulit? Sigurado ka ha?

• Talking about the ghosts in the seminary

Fr. Caloy: Ako hindi naman ako nakakita e. Pero meron kaming naging bisita nakakita daw sya. Ewan ko ba don ikinwento pa sa kin. Kumuha tuloy ako ng aso para may kasa-kasama ako dito.

• Telling a story about the Italian priests who can't speak English. The priest ordered hamburger while in New York

Fr. Caloy: Sabi nung pari "Amburger!" di marunong mag-English e yun lang alam nya sabihin. Sabi nung crew: toasted or not. Sagot yung pari "Amburger". Tanong ulit yung crew: toasted or not. "Amburger!" E nainis na yung crew hinawakan sa kwelyo yung pari na parang sasaktan na. Natakot yung pari "Pizza!" ...true story yan ha! LOL

• Still talking about Italian priests. Three of them were going to visit the seminary

Fr. Caloy: Ayan o bumili nga ako ng kape P300 ang mahal-mahal. Buti na lang isang linggo lang sila dito. Kasi kung mas matagal baka kailangan ko pa bumili ulit.

* In one of his Friday mass sermons, he talked about his calling to priesthood. He wanted to be a priest as early as when he was in Grade 2. He would practice with his cousins and have them "eat the bread". But when he was in Grade 4, an older cousin of his told him he was stupid to go into priesthood because he wouldn't have any girlfriends. And he was convinced! haha During high school he had crushes on his beautiful classmates. Druing this times, he knew he had a calling but brushed it aside. And then during college, when he had to take Social Dance as his PE he had a major crush with one of his classmates. He would ask her to practice even after classes hehe. It was during this time that he was asked to come to Vatican by a priest. He went and he saw Pope John Paul II and was lucky enough to kiss the hand of the Pope. When he came back, he heeded the call to priesthood.

Rey and Pam's Wedding

On the last day of September, one of my secondary sponsors got married (inunahan pa ko! haha). It was a perfect time to have my trial hair and makeup with Ella hehehe. I’ve had my trial makeup with her on our prenup but I wanted to see how my hair will look. I gave her a photo of the updo that I wanted and Maricel, her hairstylist, did it perfectly. I met up with them at 1030am at Ever Commonwealth. Just a side story, when I rode the the taxi going to QC:

Me: Ever Commonwealth po
Manong taxi driver (MTD): Ma’am padagdag na lang po ha
Me: *flared up already* Ano!?!?!? Humihingi na nga kayo nung dagdag na sampung piso tapos dagdag pa ulit? Wag na ho…ibaba nyo na lang po ako (kahit na umaandar na yung taxi by this time)
MTD: Ah sige po hindi na..
ME: Ang hirap sa inyo manong humihingi pa kayo ng dagdag. Sa totoo lang po nagbibigay naman ako ng tip e pero pag ganyang nanghihingi kayo lalo akong hindi nagbibigay. Pare-pareho lang naman po tayong nagttrabaho
MTD: e ma’am kasi po yung iba hindi nagbibigay..nakikiusap lang naman po kung guto magbigay e di okay po..kung hindi, hindi naman pipilitin
ME: e mabuti naman ho!
MTD: blah blah blah blah (di ko na inintindi sinabi nya…take note hininaan pa nya yung radio ng taxi nya para marinig ko sinasabi nya)

Later on when I told Joema and our friends about it, he joked that if it was a bad driver he would've told me: "Ah ganon po ba ma'am sige po hold-up na lang" hahaha

I arrived earlier than our scheduled meetup so I went inside the mall and bought two books from Expressions hehe. Will soon post my review on the first book, I’m still reading the second one.

After they picked up me at Ever, we then went to Ella’s house. Maricel did my hair first and then Ella did my makeup. She said she will be using the same colors for my wedding. At first I was a little bit apprehensive. Bagay ba sa kin? But later on looking at the whole picture, it was good on me haha! We had time to eat lunch, Ella ordered Mcdo delivery (8-6236 – plugging pa!), in between applying my makeup. We finished early and had to wait for Joema, Heili and Tric to pick me up. Actually, Ella brought us back to Ever and then from there I meet up with the trio. They suggested we should drive-thru Mcdo to order lunch (super good idea – never got to a wedding with an empty stomach!). They ordered while I just drank Coke, I was sot thirsty but wasn’t hungry because I just had lunch then.

Before 2:30pm we were at the church. It was an old church right smack in San Mateo, Rizal. We waited for a bit before the ceremony started. When the doors were closed and we’re waiting for Pam to enter, my heart was beating so fast. Ewan ko ba! Nagffeeling lang ako na ako yung bride hahahaha! Now, what the heck will I ever do on my own wedding! Buti na lang maikli lang aisle ng Archbishop’s Palace.



Anyway, the rains started to pour during the ceremony but it ended during the pictorials. No more rains when we went out the church!




By 6pm we were at Timberland Heights. It’s a new members-only club. Kind of like Tagaytay Highlands, on top of the mountain with a great view of the city. It was newly built and Rey and Pam's wedding reception was the first ever event that they hosted.

When we entered the property, we were joking with Joema that he might have to present his invitation because of security. Tric and Heil's invite says Mr. and Mrs. while mine only has my name on it. We were telling him that he might be asked to not enter the compound haha. Of course, before we went into the reception hall there's the registration table for the guests. After asking which table I'm assigned to, I had to ask Joema's name too. Aha he wasn't on the guestlist hahaha! Sabi nya if they deny him entry, he would have pulled Pam aside and tell her to include him in the guestlist hahahaha! Anyways, everything's cool coz he has an assigned seat as my guest.

The reception program was short and sweet. Dinner followed by speeches, songs, dance and the traditional garter and bouquet toss.

Congratulations and best wishes, Rey and Pam!

Invites Out

I know I’ve mentioned that we started giving out our invitations. I’m very happy with how our invites turned out. We had A Perfect Creation print the main invite as I blogged before. We went back there, I think after a week, and got our sample invite. We were expecting to get the invitations by the end of September but I think they had some problems with the printing. It was okay because we asked them to make additional 20 pieces (we originally ordered just 80). Iona informed me that there were some delays and that the invites will be ready by 6 Oct. But the 6th was a Monday and they don't open shop on Mondays. Iona suggested that they can deliver it the following day instead. So on the 7th the invites (all 100 pcs of them) were delivered right on our doorstep.

The invites came in these cute brown boxes

But there were some pieces that were damaged - either there were stains or the embossing was not correct so I asked Iona again if they can do anything about it. She said they will replace all those pieces and again had them delivered to our house. The replacements were delivered today. Now that is customer service!

Anyway, on the night of the 7th I started assembling our invitations...

The rest of the invite was DIY. I made the RSVP card..

and the map..

and the sticker (just like our save-the-dates, i just corrected the order of the name, guy's name first yada yada and changed the font)...

and the envelopes too..

(which my family helped me fold, our little assembly line)

So when you open the envelope you will see this...

and it will open up to this..