GRATITUDE JOURNAL

This is one of those times that a three-hour lunch is not enough.  There is always something to talk about when high school friends get together.  Our table was probably one of the loudest in the resto as we shared a good laugh while reminiscing about the past and finding humor with the present.  We were like high school girls again.   As a backgrounder, we all graduated from DLS-Zobel (Alabang) in 1985.  Only one of us is a Cebuana.  Three of us are based in Cebu.  All of us are married to Cebuanos. What are the odds? :)

This was my guilt-free dessert at the surprise birthday party prepared for hubby's cousin last night.

Hubby's cousin was treated by his family to a surprise dinner and we were part of the guest list.  The venue was my sis-in-law's Australian bistro called Canvas.  That plate was mine and much as I wanted to cut portions, I couldn't.  The spread was just mouth-watering!

http://instagram.com/p/dLcGTamsTX/ Si Jake, suot ang kaniyang Barong Tagalog sa araw ng kapanganakan ng "Ama ng Wikang Pilipino", na si Manuel L. Quezon.

Kyle ate blood for lunch while Jake drank his veggies.  Then we all shared dumplings and quadrotto at the Saturday food market. :)

This was on our sons' first of three nights back in town for the weekend. :)

Flashback Friday - This is a family pic taken at Roxas Blvd in 1969 of Ma and Pa with me and bro.  Check out the stirrup leggings on Ma and the skinny jeans on Pa.

Our sons 1 and 2 got back to Cebu this afternoon via a delayed Cebu Pacific flight from Manila.  They will be in town only for this weekend so we could have a belated birthday celebration for son 1 (in yellow tee) who turned 20 last  July 23.

"...a heap of giggles and wiggles and love..." A wee bit of dirt and a devilish grin Curious eyes and spaghetti sauce on chin A dollop of mud behind his right ear And a handful of worms in his pocket I fear You see his knees through the holes in his jeans He likes ice cream but won't eat his beans He's made of mudpies and bubblegum kisses And wonders at Christmas and birthday wishes And a heap of giggles and wiggles and love These are the things little boys are made of (from Pinterest) We're all excited to have you back this weekend!   

Awww... These snaps I took from a news clip online are just dreamy. You can practically include all positive adjectives here and on top of that, they're royalty! *Sigh*

I was looking for junk food to munch on before lunch today and found nothing. Instead, I found my stash of healthy cacao nibs from Superfood Grocer. Their website says this: "Contents Organic Raw Cacao Nibs, Organic Coconut Sugar Functionality Antioxidant Powerhouse Happy Hormones Iron Magnesium Pure Healthy Chocolate Now that's my healthy choco fix!

This Sunday's peg is Alessandra Ambrosio and her printed pants.  

After Citibank's 12 bars Kitkat promo for Php2.00, this is my next fave - 4 Drumstick cones for Php2.00.

Bittersweet dark choco with cereal crispies... oh so yummy!  I was teetering on the brink of temptation, but no, I didn't! Now where's my ice cream reward?

That's our eldest on the left (1993) and our middle son on the right (1996).   Imagine that, the same shirt in my closet for three years, and maybe longer. I can be frugal like that (pala). My hairstyle didn't change as well.  Those were the days of printed photos, no digicam, internet was not mainstream, no social media, let alone selfies.  Haha! I was probably wearing the same pair of pants too. Wait...

I've usually worn my hair straight and long... except for that point in time. That hairstyle in the photo which Ma called Twiggy, was made famous by model Twiggy in the 1960s. It's the shortest I could remember and if I weren't in a short dress, I could have passed for a boy. With the resurgence of retro fashion these days, the short hair is still very mod especially for statuesque women with model-esque necks. I actually admire the few who could wear this androgynous mane and still look feminine and very well put together. I'm not statuesque and the pixie look doesn't suit me. Instead, I have the beginnings of turkey neck ("gobble-gobble") and a jowl where my square jaw used to be, hmm, not exactly a pretty sight to display at my age. So unless I go for a little nip here and a tuck there, I would keep my hair long. Besides, hubby loves it the way it is. ;)

If you pay using BPI credit card, it becomes buy-one-take-one, just like what we had. Yeah, we "heart" discounts. Don't we all?

The title of this Flashback Friday post was what my brother said when I emailed him a copy of this photo.  And then I guffawed when I suddenly had a visual in my mind's eye and realized how hilarious we would look in the same style of clothes with the added poundage.   Haha!  Uh... no... more like "eww"! :D

My hubby and the other employees are now working from home. Today after work, they all got together, had dinner and a few drinks in the office. Then karaoke using youtube promptly followed. Some could actually sing well while some belted out notes just for fun or probably because of inebriation. :)

Jake had a large cup of fresh orange-mango shake (no sugar) while hubby and I had fresh buko juice which I partnered with Cebuano bibingka. It's a relief to know that this is one of the many schools here that mandate their cafeteria operators to refrain from selling sodas. I hope next to be taken off the shelves are the sweetened artificially-flavored teas. Our already hyperactive kids do not need these drinks, with excessive sugar and questionable ingredients (that are hard to say and even harder to spell!), in their system. On another note, it's not just the act of getting Jake from school, I also look forward to sharing fresh healthy food during snack time with the bub, while he still "allows" me to do so. :)

This is our eldest boy back when he was barely 2 years old.   When I look at this pic, I could vividly imagine his momentary hesitation to go to the water.  We gently prod him to try.  I could remember clearly the eventual giggles, the happy sounds he makes as he warms up to the ripples.  He looks like he is more at ease to see me and his Pa in the pool with him even if he is snuggly secured on his boat.   It feels good to look back at the times when our kids were wee in size and were innocently attached to us.  They constantly look in our direction for our assurance or approval.  And they squeal in delight when the prank or trick is met with "oohs and ahhs" or a cheer or a kiss. On the other hand, it feels good to know that this boy is now an adult with a mind of his own and hopefully ready to take on whatever the world has to offer.  What an awesome blessing for us to have come a long way and that the boy in this pic is now almost at the same age we were, when this pic was

This is the  Prasarita Padottanasana pose or  Wide-Legged Standing Forward Bend.  My yoga buddy M snapped my pic at yesterday's ashtanga sesh.   Many benefits of inversions—especially bathing the poor old tired brain with freshly oxygenated blood to perk it up—accrue to Prasarita without any weight-bearing stress on the neck. In general, Prasarita is a good warm-up for other wide-stance standing poses... Pose Benefits Stretches backs of legs and inner groins Tones abdominal organs Calms the brain and eases fatigue Improves circulation Contraindications Hamstring injury Groin injury Lower back injury (for full pose) - from  http://www.yogajournal.com/basics/2306

During last week's haircut inspection at school, he was told to have his haircut. We complied. And here is our grader's new haircut five weeks after his last one.

We had this at the food market for lunch today, together with sisig (again), dumplings (again) and rice.  It's another food trip Saturday for this trio. Oh, and Jacob thought the burger was from Ilocos. Haha! 

This was taken 7 years ago while hubby and I were on a business trip in the USA. My brother was also there so he took us around the sights in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, etc. We even went on 2 weekend trips to Las Vegas, New York, New Jersey and Toronto. Haha. Whenever we get the chance to travel, it is usually packed. And we try to squeeze in as many places as we could. The very first time was in 2003 (the kids were old enough to be left behind) when hubby and I visited my brother and wife M in Switzerland. We swung by Italy and France too, all in about 18 days. It's always so much fun traveling with these two. The next time we traveled together in the USA was in 2010 and recently in May 2013. I hope it doesn't take long for the next one. -A Flashback Friday post-

And believe it or not, we were back home by 6pm... on a Friday.

I have finally gotten around to replacing all of them. This morning I was choosing between making my blog rounds or sewing the new buttons by hand. I chose the latter. Hehe. Because it's Friday, I wanted the option of wearing this dress other than my usual jeans and shirt combo. And I don't usually wear a dress because of numerous reasons, one of them is when a dress is missing a button or two. Now I've gotten that out of the way... We'll see. The buttons are kinda off color but that's the closest shade of green I could get my hands on. So... there.

That was only right after I finished off a big bag of chips.   Hala!

These are my elder sons who are in Manila (from Cebu) for college.  They had dinner with their Pa last night and that is the picture hubby posted on his Instagram. They're only halfway through their first trimester but they already look scruffy.  Haha! "Maybe you should send them money for shavers, Ma", exclaimed the youngest son when he saw this pic of his brothers. Hmm, maybe not, I thought. Unless scruffy is the "in" thing in uni these days, or they're too busy cramming for their midterm exams, they just need to spend some extra time to clean up. Just sayin'...  And I still do miss them, shaven or not.

The caption says "Junnie 3 mos old, Linnor 2 years old" - this was June 1969 at the very first apartment rented by the family along P. Leoncio St. Manila.  - A Throwback Thursday post

I make the questionnaires, our grade 3 student answers them... Such is our Mon-Fri routine (except for Mandarin which hubby handles).