Saturday, January 23, 2010

Andrea of Oz ;)

I saw this pair of baby shoes a few weeks ago that reminded me of Dorothy's ruby slippers in the old movie Wizard of Oz.


I to was passing through a mall when I saw it but I was rushing to meet MG at another place so I didn't have time to inquire. I took a quick photo using my phone to show MG to convince him to go back to the mall to buy it. We didn't get to go back but then imagine my surprise when Andrea came home one day wearing it! It was a gift from my cousin, Krystel :)


Now I need to find a perfect outfit to go with it :D

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

All Things Bright and Beautiful

"All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures (kri-ey-churs) great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all."

(excerpt from poem by Cecil Frances Alexander)

Since I had Andrea, I had been racking my brain... dredging up old memories of nursery rhymes that I can recite to her (and I discovered that I know so few!). This morning, dizzy from lack of sleep, a section of this poem started floating around in my head while I was taking a shower. A memory from so many years ago (ouch!) of kids sitting in a classroom while reciting this poem.

"...All kri-ey-churs great and small...''

Pause.

Kri-ey-churs??? (if anyone out there uses this pronunciation, sorry!! It just strikes a wrong chord with me).

Yep, that's what my former English teacher taught us. "Creature" is pronounced "kri-ey-chur" in her world. Back then, the teacher's word was law but even as a young kid (1st grade? 2nd grade?) something in me was rebelling and I told her I believed it was pronounced "kree-cher". She insisted she was right and some of classmates sided with her (mga sipsip! haha!). To keep the peace, I kept quiet and conceded. When it was my turn, I went to the front and recited the poem, wincing as I said "kri-ey-churs" like my teacher wanted. That ruined my teacher's credibility in my eyes.

Maybe that's why I can still recite that poem in my head (and in my head... it's always kri-ey-churs... aarrrrggh!! ). The trauma that came with it ensured that it will forever take up space in my head. I still wince inwardly when I come to that line in the poem.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Si Andrea... si Andrea... palagi na lang si Andrea

Wala pang 3 months, madami ng kalat:


(Yeah, we finally got a bouncer for her).

Next week, magsh-shopping naman ako for ME!! ;)

Monday, January 11, 2010

...And in with the new

... year!

I'm 12 days late for New Year's resolutions. Anyway, I don't like resolutions so I'll stick with plans.

1. Get Andrea walking and talking by the time she reaches 1-year old.

2. Visit my dad at least twice this year. I'm not the best daughter but I'm not a bad one either. I wasn't able to visit my dad even once last year since I couldn't travel but I hope to do better this year.

3. Bring Helaena with me to Bataan at least once. I still don't know how I'll manage this since my mom will probably fight me tooth and nail against it. But by hook or by crook I will try my best to get Helaena to meet her relatives in Bataan.

4. Buy a new car. I still don't know how I'll manage to convince my husband short of wrecking our old one but I really believe that we NEED a new car.

5. Lose the weight I gained during pregnancy. I am not shooting for the moon here. I know my limits.

6. Get rid of around 50% of junk around the house. My husband likes keeping things. I don't know what he has against the trash can but he doesn't like throwing out stuff... even old, broken ones. Top on my list of things to get rid of: old broken VCR, old corrupted external hard drive, old books.

7. Get a flu vaccine. I was not able to get one last year so I will definitely get one this year.

8. Get the vaccine against cervical cancer. I am a bit undecided on this one since 1) I seem to have developed a trauma on needles due my numerous needle encounters when I was pregnant; 2) it's expensive, and I already have Andrea's vaccines to think of; 3) one of my friends told me it hurts!

9. Participate in at least one volunteer activity/support a charitable activity. I think this is something we all have to do every year so I'll put this in again.

I had 9 plans last year and I have 9 again this year. Bring it on, 2010!

Out with the old

One good thing that came out of our yaya crisis is... ta-dah!!!!

Forgive the image quality, I used my camera phone for this.

This is our new "work area" at home. My husband hates the vases in the corner and told me it's an accident waiting to happen. But those vases used to be the sole occupant of that table and I have yet to find another place for them. The possibility of one of us having to stay home for a long time gave me the leverage to convince my husband to finally replace our old laptop. But now, we already have a yaya for Andrea AND I got my new laptop so the year is starting out great! :D

Friday, January 8, 2010

Earth Hour 2010 Schedule

Just got this information this morning.


Let's do our part! :)

The year 2009

This is the first time since the year started that I find myself with a little extra time to reflect on my 2009. Life really is full of surprises! My year turned out very differently from how I planned it.

At the beginning 2009, I documented my plans for the year (see Begin with the end in mind, January 7, 2009). Let's see how well I did.

2009 Plans:

1. Consume only 1 plastic cup from the pantry per week.
(Just the ones from our office pantry and not including the plastic cups used to serve drinks at fast food joints). I think I actually did better than this. Since I started using my own mug... I think I stopped using plastic and styrofoam cups from the pantry as early as February last year.

2. Start thinking about carbon footprints.
As I said... just START ;) Since we didn't get to go anywhere all year (no flights)... and I was even stuck at home for a month (no cab rides, car rides), AND I started bringing my own re-usable cloth shopping bag late last year when I go to the grocery, I think our carbon footprint was significantly reduced.

3. Have shelves installed and cabinets repaired downstairs.
Yey!!! This is done :) (See Home Improvement - Part I regarding the book shelf). My husband installed new shelves for our books and the cabinet doors in our kitchen downstairs have been replaced (thanks to my in-laws, they were the ones who had the new ones made :D).

4. Visit 2 Asian countries.
Sadly, this was out of the question last year and for the next few years I think until Andrea is old enough to actually enjoy an out of the country vacation.

5. Get Flu vaccine.
I wasn't able to get one last year either since my OB Gyne asked me to wait until after I gave birth. But I've never been so healthy in my entire life as I was last year. Even without the flu vaccine, I didn't get the flu. I took vitamins everyday, milk 2x a day, no drinking, no exposure to 2nd hand smoke, plenty of rest, etc etc.

6. Visit at least one Philippine destination that we've never been to before.
Hmmm... I didn't get to do much travelling last year due to a complicated pregnancy. My husband and I did get to go to Clark to witness the Hot Air Balloon festival though. It was the first time we've been able to see it (though we've been to Clark before). I think that can count... though it wasn't exactly what I had in mind.

7. Limit purchases for the year to 5 pairs of shoes and 2 bags.
Stupid plan for any other year but I was able to keep to this last year. My feet were so swollen for most part of last year that I lost all desire for shoes and just bought one comfortable pair which I wore out from overuse and discarded immediately after I gave birth.

8. Make sure that all books and magazines in the house are in bookshelves.
I think they are... except for the ones my husband read and never returned to their proper places X(

9. Participate in at least one volunteer activity/Support a charitable activity.
Wow... I forgot this was even part of my plan. I think I only had Earth Hour in mind when I wrote this but I didn't get to volunteer for that since I was already pregnant then. But I was able to give my support to a couple of organizations during their Typhoon Ondoy relief operations.

That was it. But I had additional accomplishments:

1. My blog did 2x as well as it did last year. As of last year, I was only targeting 1000 visits before the year ends. I was able to meet that. Then this year, I had more than 2000 visits. So Thank you!

2. And very important: I had Andrea :)


Now I have to start thinking about 2010.