Random Thoughts

Yesterday, Hubby and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. Woot, woot!

I can't believe we are together for 8 years already. I feel like it was only yesterday when he proposed on a VDay. He gave me a fortune cookie and let me open it and look what I got...


Yes Hubby proposed through a fortune cookie. Sweet, isn't he?

Now after 8 years plus two little girls, I would say, I always feel blessed and grateful for the life that we are living now. Hubby who never fails to make me laugh. The girls who never fail to give me joy everyday. And the little miracles that we get everyday are more than enough to make me say that GOD truly LOVES me.

Thank you dear God for the 8 wonderful years. I pray that you bless us with more and more years and lots and lots of blessings and miracles in our happy lives.

Happy Anniversary, Sweetie! (*wink*)

Happiness is...

1. Another relaxing weekend for us!
2. Quick dinner at Seoul Galbi. Yummy Korean food!school last Sunday
3. Les Miserables Movie (finally!)
4. Thanksgiving mass at the Ate's school
5. Quick shopping at MNG sale
6. Ed Sheeran's Lego House
7. I'm making a grateful journal to jot the blessings that I receive everyday!
8. Photos and Photobooks make me happy.
9. Viber with the Household
10. 8th Anniversary TODAY! Woot!

To know how this started and credits of the header, click here.

All gifts were given and were opened, done with family lunch, dinner, noche buena and lunch again. Done with packing for our Christmas trip. Now off to terminal 3 on Christmas day for our much awaited trip! Yebah!

And guess where we are going...

Yes, VIETNAM!


Our flight to Ho Chi Minh was around 1045PM. We got to the airport by 7PM. We ate snacks first then off we went to the boarding area to wait for our flight!

I remember, I've been craving for a good and tasty fajita for almost a week already and since we were going out to watch a play, we decided to have dinner at Chilli's. It's been months since we had dinner there so we were all so looking forward to it.

What did we order? I tried their Clam Chowder for the first time and surprisingly the little girls loved it!

Just like the Clam Chowder that I tasted way back in San Francisco - thick, creamy, and tasty. YUMMY!

After the soup, we had Chicken Fajitas and Baby Back Ribs for our main courses.



Aaaah, I tell you, we were all so quiet during dinner. I guess because we were all hungry and loving the food so much.

Chilli's is still our all time favorite when it comes to comfort food! ♥♥♥

I'm sharing this song simply because I want to dance...

Let's go!

And now that I'm planning for the Ate's 7th birthday party, I'm probably adding this song to her party. What do you think?

I've posted a couple of months ago that we will be watching Disney's Camp Rock Musical Play at Onstage, Greenbelt. So, here's what happened...

I purchased two tickets which were on SALE! YEY!

We told the Ate that it was our early Christmas gift for her, she was ECSTATIC! So, off we went to Onstage for the play. Yes, we made sure we were early!



The theatre was full! I was surprised because the movie of Camp Rock came out a couple of years ago. Most of the kids at the theatre even knew the songs. Wow.


It was a wonderful play and I'm so happy Hubby and I decided to have the Ate watch it with me :)

While we were watching the play, the little girl, on the other hand, was having the time of her life with the Dada at the play area!



We met up after the play and ate early dinner at Chilli's.

Last December, before we got really busy with the Christmas vacation and the holidays, we were able to witness a very nice wedding of our newly found friends from the CLP.

We were so happy to see them finally tie the knot!




The wedding reception was at Richmonde, Eastwood. The setup was very beautiful and the food was oh so delicious!

Congrats and thanks again for inviting us, B & T! (*wink*)

Happiness is...

1. Relaxing weekend (again! Thank you Lord!)
2. Dinner at 2nd's last Friday
3. Jade's Baptism
4. Lots of food at Shangrila Restaurant!
5. Long nap last Sunday!
6. Coffee
7. KFC's BBQ Shredder. Yummers!
8. Long chat with my Mom
9. Instascrapping our Vietnam photos ♥
10. Great food at Kanto Freestyle Breakfast

To know how this started and credits of the header, click here.

For 5 years, we haven't given our car a priority since we needed to focus on home renovation. WE had to put off those things to give way to more important stuff like the renovation of our family hall, the terrace, the leaks that are bothering us for years now. These are the things that we need to fix IMMEDIATELY so it will not bother us again. Besides our safety is our first priority. But now that we have somehow taken good care of those things, we are now ready for the next step which is our car and maybe a couple of accessories.

Now that we can check out car accessories, I'm condering a couple of accessories but I think Hubby will have to agree that we will go into a vintage air just for a change. I just don't know if it would fit our current car. Hubby can definitely find that out. For the mean time, I can check out more options of classic auto air at Old Air Products Online Store. They have two major categories on their website - AC Systems & Parts, which include, complete systems, inside packages, switching and louvres. The other category is called the Factory Parts that provides, NOCS & NORS, hard to find parts and 15,000 + Parts in Stock. This is where you will find the online shopping cart too.

I can't believe they got all these stuff. I'm sure the Hubby will be glad to know that they even have the Classic mustang air conditioning. Amazing, right? I haven't seen these kind of car parts for YEARS now. I'm so glad there are online stores like Old Air Products Online Store that provides these kinds of car parts. Because of this, we can fulfill our dream of owning a vintage car.

We didn't do much on New Year's Day except that we slept until 11AM. WE got home at 5AM from our Ho Chi Minh flight so we slept the whole morning!

By night time, my family came and we had dinner. Since we missed Filipino food (after eating too much Vietnamese food for almost 7 days), we ordered Crispy Pata, Kare-kare and Pork Sinigang.

Ooooh, YUMMY!

After dinner we had wine, nuts and chocolates while looking at our Vietnam photos.


Perfect way to spend the first day of the year - with the family! ♥

I feel like dancing today so I'm sharing this song by Swedish House Mafia entitled Save the World.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. Happy Sunday! Don't forget to go to mass! (*wink*)

We didn't do much on Christmas day except we ate and open more gifts. But I made sure that the Hubby take more photos of us for our Christmas Photobook. Check out our photos by the Hubby...

I'm so happy how these photos turned out. I hope I find time to have it printed and put in nice picture frames.

Thanks again, Sweetie for the wonderful photos! (*wink*)

I think everyone has a dream house or a dream property that we would want "when we grow up". Well, even if we are a grown up already, we would still look far from our future and DREAM.

This dream will be a reality when you check out west valley real estate. Every home, every property is something that you will be proud of. That is, if you purchase any lot from them. I think any lot that you buy, wherever location, it would still be a hit. Especially when you build and make your dream home design, a dream home would be a possibility!

Where do you want your dream house's location? Phoenix? Glendale? Peoria? Buckeye? They have available lots in these areas. All you need is choose! I think with so many years in the industry, they have catered so many clients already. I would say they are experts in real estate for quite a number of years now. I guess it pays to deal with reliable companies. Will add to that a reliable real estate agent who will work with you on your dream home would also be a plus. I know the advantage of having a good real estate like Joanie Mahar of West Valley real estate. The peace of mind that you get for being pampered is priceless!

I believe that our Christmas Eve in 2012 is extra special this year. Simply because we were able to attend the CFC sponsored mass plus Hubby and I together with the little girls were asked to bring candles for the belen at the Church. It was a wonderful experience and being able to do it for the birthday celebrator - Jesus Christ.

So that explains why we are all wearing white on our Christmas EVE photos.

We didn't have much activities before 12 midnight except for photo ops beside the in-laws' beautiful Christmas tree and huge belen.


The kids were on a high so nobody felt sleepy. They were all looking forward to open their gifts! We decided to eat at around 11PM and by 12, we started opening Christmas gifts!

We wrote a short message for the girls so I read it to them before they opened their gifts.




I'm glad they liked our gifts for them.

And for Lolo, Lola, Titos and Titas, thank you for all the gifts.

It was a happy Christmas eve for all of us. And we slept feeling full and happy looking forward to another great day in the morning.

Happiness is...

1. Coffee in the morning
2. Loving the cold weather in Manila ♥♥♥
3. Greenwich Overload Pizza
4. Family bonding at home
5. New games
6. Lovely photos of Vietnam by the Hubby
7. Instagramming
8. Catching up with family, thanks to Facebook!
9. Good health for all of us
10. New friends in CFC

To know how this started and credits of the header, click here.

Ever since the year has started, we've been checking out the things that we need to prioritize with regards to expenses. Definitely we need to prioritize the house renovations apart from the kids' tuition fees in March and summer activites too. Expenses are over flowing and now I wonder how is it with huge houses and pools, I'm sure they allot a huge budget for the maintenance too.

But if they know a company like phoenix pool repair that provides great service for their clients, I'm sure they would think it is worth it. And it is worth allotting budget to maintain one of the important things in the house - the pool. It is hard to save up for making a great pool so it is understandable that they should allot a huge amount for the maintenance. It wouldn't be nice to leave the pool just like that. And besides, getting companies like Arizona Pool & Spa Renovations would do the trick. They are a one stop pool company in Arizona that offers new and custom pool and spa construction, Phoenix pool remodeling, Phoenix pool replastering, repair and pool equipment upgrades, as well as green to clean pool cleaning services. Definitely my kind of pool company!

As for our expenses, I guess we don't have to focus on ALL of it. We'll just have to prioritize which one to do first.

When our last day of work for the year came, we decided to hit the mall to go on a last-minute shopping for Christmas gifts. After that, we decided to have dinner at Yabu, since I've been craving for the unlimited salad for a few days already.

It was the kids' first time but knowing how much they love to eat almost anything, we were confident that they are going to love Yabu.



And we were right! The Ate was saying, "I Love Yabu!" and right after dinner, she said she wants to go back.


We just ordered the usual, torikatsu (chicken) and Hubby had katsudon. With unlimited salad with the sesame dressing, it was a perfect meal after doing last-minute Christmas shopping!


We LOVE Yabu!

Our first day of Christmas vacation was spent for errands. It was a Friday and we were with the little girls and we all went to the Pedia for their monthly checkup and vaccine.

Since we were all hungry after the checkup, we decided to eat at Pancake House after. We ordered our all time favorite pancakes, spaghetti, coffee and we tried their corn dogs with fries.



It's always FUN to eat with the whole family especially if we are eating at our favorite resto. We all had a blast!

I noticed that ever since my kids had grown and the Ate started going to big school, they gained a lot of new friends. I realized this because we've been attending parties almost every weekend. Parties are scheduled every weekend starting October last year. My kids are so lucky and I can say that they are now party goers! For this month, there are a couple of baptisms that we were invited to go. One by a relative and the other by Hubby's higschool friend. We would love to see their babies baptized!

The Ate was invited to a party last weekend and it was a blast!

The kids and even adults enjoyed the circus and magic show. This particular birthday party is so timely since I was able to find adventure time shirts from Your Favorite T-Shirts website. This is a perfect gift to give on birthdays. Especially since the birthdays that we've been attending were all turning 7. Kids who are 7 are usually the ones who love unique and colorful t-shirts.

What I love most about YourFavoriteTshirts.com is that they can customize according to what design you like. They have almost everything from hats, hoodies, accessories, tshirts for kids and adults and more! It looks like I found a site that would provide me gifts on every birthday party that we will be attending. And guess what, they even have costumes for Halloween too.

How cool is this!? I checked and the prices are not that bad considering that most of their items are unique and of good quality. There are more birthday parties that we will be attending this 2013 and one thing for sure is that we will definitely get our birthdya gift at YouFavoriteTShirts.com. How about you? You should check out the website too!

Sharing this nice song by Dishwalla.

Have a blessed Sunday, everyone! (*wink*)

A Christmas season will never be complete without celebrating with my highschool friends. So for our fifth and last Christmas party for 2012, we went all the way to Cainta to meet up my good old highschool friends. As usual, we all had a blast!

We had food of course - chicken, pansit and bbq! And just like our other Christmas get togethers, the kids got their loots again...


... and they were so happy! Thanks Titas and Titos! See you again next Christmas! (*wink*)

Holidays made us stop whatever we were planning in the last few months of 2012 and focus on the festive mood of Christmas, gift giving and family gatherings. We had a fun filled Christmas vacation and I would say our vacation was very well spent.

And now after celebrating the new year's, we are back to our daily grind. Kids are back to school, Hubby and I are back to work too. Now that we have settled down after the holidays, we are back to our home improvement planning once again. I had several choices before the holidays after checking out all the reliable and reputable carpet stores that I can check online. So yes, I've done my to-do's or assignments or tasks or whatever you call it. But the thing is, after our trip to Vietnam (which I will post in the next few days), I saw a couple of traditional tiles there that I really liked. So, after choosing the trend setting tiles last year, I'm gearing towards the traditional tiles which thankfully can both be found at Carpet One Floor & Home. At least it is easier to compare which one to get since most of the tile options are already in one website.

One particular branch that offers these types of tiles is the Brewer Carpet One, the source for all of your flooring needs. Tom Brewer, the owner of Carpet One Floor & Home believes that new floors can completely transform a room and I totally agree with him too. That's why I need to fast track this choosing of tile so the installation can start right after. Carpet One Floor & Home also we have top quality carpet, hardwood, tile, laminate & vinyl in different colors, textures and type. I guess they are the one-stop-shop when it comes to the flooring. A visit to the Brewer branch is a must then!

Last December 20, 2012, we had a blast at our fourth Christmas party for 2012.

We had the party at Club Phi, Metrowalk. It started around 10AM, yes, we partied early! We had a talent contest that was really fun! And it ended around 3PM. It was a fun last day of work for the year.