Typhoon Glenda

Another July 16, another disaster. This time, a typhoon.

Reports leading to today stated that Glenda will be like Milenyo, which meant winds. The night before, I stocked up on bread, crackers and canned goods.

At around 3AM, I woke up because power went out. Thankfully, there was still running water.

At around 7AM, the wind started howling and rattling our windows. Scary. I tried to cook breakfast but for some reason, we could not ignite the gas stove. So we ate bread, Vienna sausage, apples and kiwi.

Then at around 9AM to 10AM, it was raining hard and the wind was really howling.

Double Rainbow

Rainbows never get old. I just saw a huge one on the way home. After a few minutes, I realized it was a double rainbow. Pure love.

#Blessed

I honestly thought this day would never come. You know, I hate how some people use the hashtag #blessed. I've tried not using it ever. But I think this is the best exception:

We've been trying to conceive for years. We have issues, we've had treatments - ranging from work-ups to injections to acupuncture. We've spent many pennies on medicines. And I always got one line when I peed on a stick.

My cycle has always been irregular so I take a pregnancy test on the 36th day or so. April 30 was my 36th day so I took a test. Negative. The next day, May 1, was a holiday and hubby and I made plans to run in UP in preparation for Run United 2. I was aiming for 10km but I felt so heavy that I ran-walked, mostly walked, around 7km. I blamed the heat.

Come Saturday, May 3, we were scheduled for acupuncture. Still no Aunt Flo in sight. I took another test. Negative... or was that a faint second line? I had another test. A really faint second line, if you held up the test near a light. I called the hubby, who was watching the NBA. He wasn't sure if there was a line. So we still went to our acupuncture appointment.

But I was feeling antsy. We tried calling my OB but no one was picking up. We decided to go to an ultrasound clinic. After a couple of hours, the sonologist saw nothing, and could neither confirm or deny if I was pregnant. She said to have an ultrasound again after 2 weeks.

I took a few more tests and the second line was getting darker. Mother's Day came and passed and we couldn't tell anyone, not even our parents.

We finally went to the OB on May 12. She saw a yolk sac and teeny tiny embryo that she called "bulinggit". Finally! We told our family and closest friends right after.

BUT. There's more.

During our next ultrasound, the OB suddenly asked, "May lahi ba kayong twins?" I said no, on our side. Turns out she was seeing two yolk sacs. Ack! Hubby later said his grandma had twins-siblings. However, after a few weeks, the yolk sac was empty, the embryo never really developed. The OB said it was vanishing twin syndrome. The good news is, Baby A is A-okay.

Today, I am at the end of the first trimester. I am still (unfortunately) experiencing morning sickness. I hate the smell of bagoong cooking so goodbye to my staple pinakbet. I am not yet showing much but I'm bloated so I now live in Uniqlo stretchy jeans. 

I am due in January. I'm excited and I'm scared. And I can't believe this blog is going to be a mommy blog! Haha. :)

Happy 4th and Nat Geo Earth Day Run

Last Thursday was hubby and I's fourth wedding anniversary. Time flies indeedy. Since fancy night-outs are "rare" in our household (hehe), I'm documenting this one.

We were supposed to go to Boracay or some other beach for our anniversary but then we signed up for the Nat Geo Earth Day Run on April 27. We decided to book a hotel for a staycation the day before the run and luckily, hubby found a deal for F1 Hotel in BGC.

Since we were going to a hotel on the week-end, we opted for a low-key dinner on our anniversary day. We had dinner at Trellis which was our special-occasions-place back in college. We will forever love the sisig there.

Bolinao 2014

Last Black Saturday, my side of the family went on a day trip to Bolinao. Although it's still in the same province, it took us three hours to travel from our city, hence, it still felt like an "out of town" trip. Pangasinan is such a huge province.

We arrived shortly before lunch, and stayed at the Treasures of Bolinao resort. For day tours, the resort usually offers tables and chairs in various shaded parts of the resort. However, hubby and my sisters managed to haggle their way into taking a room until 5pm. 

After lunch at their restaurant, we took pictures with the parentals who had no interest in swimming (hehe) and then swam in the coral-y, albeit very clear, waters.

Nesting 2014

As 2014 rolled in, we were hit by a major nesting bug. Well, hubby specifically. He's been installing lights and setting up extension cords everywhere (we have 3 in our bedroom alone!) We also have a ton of stuff but not enough storage space. The past couple of years we've been planning to put up storage in our bedroom but never had the time nor the resources. One day, hubby went ahead and ordered some at a store in Market, Market. Around the same time, we bought two free-standing cabinets from SM North Edsa's Our Home for my side of the bed.

 

I spied this pillow case in Our Home while buying the cabinets. It was the last piece.

Since I cleared some of my stuff from the top of the shoe cabinet, I put in a teal (wedding motif!) vase with fake grass and a painting from my law school classmate. I want small but real house plants, even if I do end up killing the poor things. That wall needs something, perhaps decals, or more shelves to hold my gazillion of books.

Just last week, we had combi blinds installed to replace the curtains in the living room and the kitchen.

According to Wikipedia:

           In human females, the nesting instinct often occurs around the fifth month of pregnancy,^[1][9] but can occur as late as the eighth, or not at all.^{[citation needed]} It may be strongest just before the onset of labor.^[1][10][11]

           It is commonly characterized by a strong urge to clean and organize one's home and is one reason why couples who are expecting a baby often reorganize, arrange, and clean the house and surroundings.

As I tweeted a while back, in our case, it's not the acquiring of stuff that's tough, it's having the bebe to put in the nest. Oh well. At least we now have a pretty nest.

The "Victims"

Fans of the band The Killers are apparently called "The Victims." However, we never thought it'd get literal at the end of the night.

Let's backtrack a bit. Hubby is a big fan of the band. Me, I only know their song "Mr. Brightside." Hubby had already bought tickets to their 2010 concert here but that was cancelled because the lead singer's mother died. So hubby was really excited when their 2013 Manila concert was announced. However, he was not keen with the (high) ticket prices so he settled for General Admission. Since I'm not really a fan, I wasn't sure if I'd go with him. At the last minute, I bought my ticket from someone who was "desperately" selling her extra tickets.

 

#MillionPeopleMarch

Hubby has been complaining how a chunk of his salary goes to taxes yet we have dilapidated roads and crowded LRTs and MRTs (the things that directly affect us as of the moment). So when he learned about the Million People March on August 26, he resolved to go, with or without me. Of course I wasn't going to be left behind.

There were lots of people, although sadly did not amount to a million, must be the long week-end and the dreary weather. 

I digress, while I'm no supporter of Atty. Kapunan, I don't get it why the media personalities who interview her insist on questioning her to make admissions about Janet Napoles. Hello, she is her lawyer, she's sworn to defend her. Besides, as of this writing, no complaint related to the pork barrel scam has been filed against Napoles. I just wish people would just go ahead and file the complaint and stop yakking in the news.

More Calligraphy Posts

I find myself picking up my Noodler's pen or going back to dip pen when I have a chunk of free time.

 

Found this washi tape of nibs on the internet, hence, perfection. :)

 

I am beginning to love this song of Pink's. I especially like the line "We're not broken, just bent."

 

Written during a bad time in the office.

 

Written while my laptop froze. Hubby's song for me daw, hmp.

 

This is the gold Speedball calligraphy ink that I picked up in Scribe last week-end. It's a little tricky thinning it out and getting the gold to show up on white paper. But I like it. :)

Blue (Da ba dee da ba di)

 Today we were in Eastwood, a place we rarely go to, so I made sure to check out the calligraphy stuff in Scribe. There are quite a few bottles of ink and nibs since I last went there (a long time ago). I resisted my hoarder tendencies and bought two bottles of Speedball calligraphy ink - blue and gold.

Played with the blue tonight:

I've always used the Brause nib but now I've discovered that the Hunt 101 creates finer upstrokes. I read that Speedball calligraphy ink should be thinned out with water - I put too much so it turned watercolory. Still love it though.

Sad thing only is while I was cleaning the nib, I stabbed my thumb with it. Ouch.

Noodler's Pen

Just realized that I haven't blogged about my Noodler's pen. It has a flexible nib with its own ink barrel so I don't have to tote around a bottle of ink with me everytime. It's perfect for me to practice with while waiting for hubby in Trinoma.

This morning, the CA received a bomb threat then my Noodler's pen exploded ink all over me. (hum X-Files theme)

Rubber-cut Stamp Workshop

Early last May, I dragged my youngest sister to accompany me to one of Alessa Lanot's (www.lifeafterbreakfast.com) Rubber-cut Stamp Crafternoons. I attended Fozzy's calligraphy worshop by my lonesome and it was, well, lonely haha. I'm not good at making friends instantly, and most of the participants also brought along friends and family.

Alessa was with Mansy of www.heyhessy.com (washi tape galore!) We were provided with rubber blocks, carving tools and tracing paper (and a yummy merienda of Pipino's cold buckwheat soba noodles and lumpia). We were instructed to draw our design on the tracing paper and then rub them on the rubber afterwards, thereby producing the reverse of the design. Then, we had to stamp our own fabric tote bag and a scarf.

Raffles and Me

Early this month I learned that I won a pair of Feiyue sneakers from Karrot Nazareno's (@karotitay) Live Love Lolz Facebook give-away. When the pair arrived, they were too large for me. I contacted Karrots and Feiyue and they said I could exchange them in my size. Thankfully, hubby was in the mood to venture out to Ortigas.

Currently breaking them in, like right now. And I'm reflecting how I'm a "bit" lucky in raffles - years ago, I won P25,000 in a Smart raffle, then I've won twice (minor prizes though) in office-wide raffles (population:1,000 employees). I say I'm only a "bit" lucky because I'm still waiting to win a car or a house and lot in supermarket raffles! :)

Aerosmith in Manila

Two things after the Aerosmith concert in Manila: (1) why so expensive? and (2) why no Amazing and Crying?

Upon initially seeing the ticket prices, I was resigned to the fact that I won't be going to the concert. However, after peer pressure that the band will soon be an "alamat", I bought tickets at the last minute, hence, the nosebleed section.

Which I kinda regretted because Steve Tyler worked up the mosh pit. A couple of our friends scored VIP standing tickets at 50% off via Deal Grocer and they had the most amazing photos. Nonetheless, the 90s kid in me who grew up in the MTV era when MTV actually played music videos and not teenage moms shows happily listened to "Janie's Got A Gun", "Jaded", "Come Together", "Livin' On the Edge", "Dude Looks Like a Lady", "Dream On", the quintessential "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" and my favorite of the set, "Cryin'" (I got kilabot here, dunno why).

But I really really really wanted to hear "Amazing" and "Crazy". Sayang. I wonder which 90s band will grace our shores, too?

You've Got Mail!

I love receiving mail, even if it's stuff that I paid for myself! :) Today, the things I ordered before the Holy Week arrived in succession. First was these Oblation USBs that I ordered from the UP Mathematics Club. Cuties!

The next package I thought was gonna arrive in a few days pa. I ordered the Young House Love book from Amazon and had it shipped to me through My Shopping Box. I paid through G-Cash on March 22 and the package arrived today. I love My Shopping Box already although I have to find a way to change my account to one not tied up to G-Cash.

Yes, I went out of the office just so I could photograph the book with the Philippine flag behind it haha. I also ordered Speedball pen cleaners from Amazon for my calligraphy nibs even if I haven't touched them for a while!

 

I love mail days! Okay, more online shopping starts now! :))

 

Shelves and Shadowboxes

Ze hubby has been on a real nesting kick recently, what with putting up picture frames and buying shelves. He's painting our shoe cabinet right now and wants to learn carpentry. Soooo I can't help but be swept away with his fervor that I decided to do a project that I wanted to do a couple of years ago haha.

I read about shadowboxes in YoungHouseLove and I knew I wanted to do that with our ring bowl. I searched high and low for shadowboxes and salespeople seem to not have heard of one everrr. Fortunately, I saw these deep picture frames in SM North and I realized, hey, they could be shadowboxes or maybe they really are shadowboxes.

So I first cleaned our ring bowl from Paloma's Nest. This is one of my favorite details from the wedding. We almost did not have one because they don't ship to the Philippines anymore. Fortunately, my friend in the US asked me what we wanted and I immediately forwarded her the link to the website. I threaded two camera charms that I found in Etsy. The nest-like stuff came with the bowl and I just spread it behind. I didn't glue anything because it was already a snug fit with the nest. I'm actually worried it might break because it was a bit snug, so I'm crossing my fingers with this one. I hid some silica gel in there so the charms won't rust.

Betty Bright

Back in elementary, I liked going to a classmate's house because (1) her room was airconditioned and (2) she had a library of Archie comic books. I think she wasn't allowed to lend them out so I tried to read as much as I can whenever I was in her house. Sometimes, I won't even talk to her because I was reading haha. Back then a comic book costs P50 or so and that was expensive-o already.

My youngest sister is lucky because our parents bought her the comic books which she promptly destroyed through the years hehe.

So I was excited when I read that MAC was coming up with an Archie's Girls collection. Not a fan of make-up but currently collecting lipsticks. I settled for the Betty Bright lipstick because I've always wanted to rock a coral shade. The lipsticks are sold out in Trinoma so I ordered through the @shopHK Instagram account.

I tried it just this morning and while I adore the shade, I find it difficult to apply. It's Satin but I use Brave which is also Satin all the time and it's so easy to apply. Oh well, at least it's cute. :)

Recovery Food

Sometimes I wish I live or work neare Fort just so I could try the new places popping up over there. I'm no foodie, I just like new stuff.

We happened to be in the area yesterday and hubby remembered me mentioning Recovery Food to him. He was planning to go to MC Home Depot anyway and Recovery Food is just across it, so we decided to have lunch there. I ordered the Spicy Sweet Tuyo while hubby ordered the Tapa De Morning.

We ordered the "half recovery" bowls because the waiter said a "full recovery" bowl was good for two. The spicy sweet tuyo was good and generous, and it's not everytime that a restaurant offers tuyo. The bite of tapa I had was also good, sweet and tender. Our only beef (pun intended) was that the rice was kinda bitin - serving-wise and price-wise (our orders were P180/each). And this is coming from me who was a bit full from breakfast that time and who does not eat much rice anyway. Their side salad was also good, too. I read that Recovery Food is by the makers of Mamou - a fixture on Instagram posts which I have yet to try. I also saw from Instagram posts that their ramen is good, maybe we'll get to try that next excursion to the Fort.

 

Unfiltered

Who else loves Instagram? My social media hierarchy is presently Instagram > Twitter > Facebook. Instagram has made taking pictures more fun because of the wonderful filters. But sometimes, there are scenes that are best left unfiltered.

 

P.S. I've been using the Blogger app to upload pictures from my phone to well, Blogger. Then I edit on the laptop because the app keeps all the photos on the bottom part. However, I hate it that when I choose a bigger size for the photo, it skews up the resolution. Le sigh.

T + R

We attended T + R's wedding a couple of weeks ago. I think that this was the first wedding where I knew both the bride and groom well - T was my classmate in law school and a kababayan and while I first met R through T, she is also my office mate for a year now. I was placed in the office mates' table which was beside the law school table so I was table-hopping throughout the reception.

I am in love with carnations. Our wedding centerpieces also had carnations. I plucked a few pieces to bring home, though I wanted to take a vase-ful. The couple loves John Grisham.

 

Eternal bliss to T+R!