wishes...

Wish I could take a break, but I can't for now. Guess I'll have to wait until the wedding is over.

Wish I could just make certain people disappear, but I can't. Unless I'm Harry Potter and I can turn them into a ferret, I'll take that. (I think that's so much better, hmmm.)

Wish that I could oversee everything on our wedding day, but I can't, so I guess I'll just have to trust our friends, suppliers and coordinator.

Wish I didn't have eyebags on the day! Waaah!

Wish I could try on my wedding dress (just to check if it fits perfectly!) but since that's my Mama's one and only bilin, I can't not obey. For my Mama, whom I will miss terribly. :-(

Wish I could buy all the stuff we need for our condo in just one trip to the store, but we can't. We'll have to wait if our friends and family will be giving us some of the things that we need, para di madoble. Sayang naman.

Wish that, kung di man ako makatulog ng maayos ngayong mga panahon, I could sleep like a baby on the eve of my wedding.

Wish I had bigger pay!!!!!!!!!!

Wish that people whom we've assigned roles would cooperate and that those who've confirmed that they're attending will indeed come. Wish they'd be in the proper dress code, too.

Wish ko lang matupad lahat ng ito, waaaaah!

Our wedsite ticker says "1 month and 9 days

until the Big Day", and already I've got the jitters!

No really. I fret and worry that I might not get everything arranged, that there's something I'm missing out, that the wedding we've planned for more than a year might not go exactly as we want.

I know that I shouldn't leave any detail out, so that, come our wedding, I can rest assured that if anything goes wrong, it clearly wouldn't be attributable to me, as everything is already out of my hands and knowing that I did the best I can. That's quite different from forgetting something or neglecting to get everything together; that's the surefire way for the wedding to be a disaster, and for that, I can only have myself to blame.

We're in the process of finalizing everything... Right now, I'm finishing all the printed matter. After that, small details for the wedding reception and venue.

Jitters!!!!!!!!!!!!

neglected blog :(

The start of the new year has been really hectic for me. Between my work drawing up reports, "extra-curricular" stuff for my Boss' Ateneo class, and preparing for the wedding, I hardly have the time to update this blog. In fact, I couldn't even remember the last time when I've had a decent night's sleep. :-(

I picked up our invites on the first week of January and have done nothing for the last 2 weeks preparing them for distribution. We've already sent out a few, but we're far from finished. It's a challenge to give out the invites of people whom we haven't seen in quite a while, and we're debating on whether we should resort to mailing them if we can't find the time anymore. Personally, I'm leaning towards that option.

My gown is still not OK, I was supposed to line fit last weekend but I couldn't go because I had to attend my best bud Vanny's wedding as her secondary sponsor. My Boss is disappointed that the lace that I chose would not go well with an ecru-colored Thai silk, but I am SO happy that we'll be using Mikado silk instead. It's been my first choice anyway. ;-)

The marriage banns have been scheduled for reading and we expect to have the certificate by the first week of February. Then our Pre-Cana seminar, which we were supposed to attend on January 9, was moved to the 23rd because of the Black Nazarene Feast ~ all roads going to Intramuros will surely be chokepoints because of the procession. Hay, wala pa akong weekend na na-libre!

Will post pics soon. Or you can just visit my FB profile for that. ;-)

new year, new baby!

Archie and I shared in the purchase of this new baby, but after the wedding, it will be mine solely as he wants to buy his own ~ either a Vaio or Mac:



Love the color! Shiny, sparkly red.. My first laptop ever, hehe. But in the meantime, he'll be the one using it because his Acer conked out - for the second time - and he needs one to use for work. Oh yeah, he was just promoted as a Co-Managing Partner this December, and I cannot be prouder! :)

Come March, though, it'll be mine. In the meantime, I'll still be using my trusty old desktop muna.

Happy New Year everybody! :)

Christmas with The Almeidas

The Almeida clain holds an annual reunion which happens every 25th of December, at my Lolo and Lola's house at Rizal Street. We have dinner (buffet nga lang kasi di kami kasya lahat kung sabay-sabay) and games for the kids ~ years ago, that was us, mga apo. Then as the years went by, the participants became the apo sa tuhod ~ and believe me, my Lola now has countless great-grandchildren and yes, even one great-great-grandchild. :) Every year, laging merong bagong dagdag sa pamilya. But no matter how many we are, she remembers everyone by name, at kung kaninong anak, hehe.

Here's a group picture of our salo-salo last night. There were so many who were unable to join (wala pa sa kalahati ng buong Almeida family ang nasa pic) but nonetheless, we had a great, fun time.



I can't name everyone on this pic because I have nieces and nephews by my cousins whose names I don't know (or can't remember, hehe) but suffice to say that this is one great bunch. ;-)

ecstatic!

My Christmas gift from my sweet, sweet fiance include these: new (and not-so-new) titles I've been recently wanting to get my hands on ~



The books are just part of the gift he actually, really gave me ~ a shopping spree! Heeheee!!! Not without limit, though. Meron akong "credit limit" and he was the one to tell me kung go pa, o tama na. I would've picked more notwithstanding the "limit" but I felt my own hiya. Hehe!

Can't wait to start reading these all..!

On the other hand, this is my pamasko for my niece and inaanak, Venice: her very first Disney Princesses bike.



She still can't get the hang of it, and we just need to teach her patiently. I'm sure she'll enjoy biking just as much as I did when I was a kid.

Have a Merry Christmas kiddos! ;-)

party, party, party!

Here's what I've been doing for the last 2 weeks:


Office Party ~ Dec. 15 with the Staff of EPB. I won P3k in the raffle sponsored by our very generous Bossing, hehe!


Our annual get-together/Christmas party with friends from law school. Always at Nonoy's place in Fairview, and always with new additions. This year it's Louie, the Defensors' darling baby. :)


Eat-all-you-can pre-Christmas dinner with my officemate-lawyers plus Lalaine at Tamayo's Ozeano, in Ocean Park, Manila. Sariling gimik ng mga may sariling mundo. ;-)

Also last December 16, Archie and I attended the Christmas party organized by Usec. Salazar of the DOJ, for his DOJ staff as well as SEDA Law Family, at Traders Hotel. I'm still waiting for pictures from Chulo of the DOJ so I can post them as well.

After the holidays... strict diet na ang kelangan!

oldies ;-)

Archie and I went to Manila City Hall today to secure our marriage license. Prior to that, we had to attend a pre-marriage counseling/seminar. It was unforgettable for 3 reasons:

1. We were the oldest couple in the group that attended the seminar, hehe. How did we know? Kitang-kita naman sa mukha, plus, most of them had to have their parents' written consent together with the marriage license application. Archie and me, well, we didn't need one. Pinamimigay na nga kame, hehehe.

2. The seminar was really just a film-showing, more or less an hour long. In the Tagalized DVD, the "natural method of giving birth" was shown ~ literally! The camera focused on the mother's private organ, in all its naked and throbbing glory, until the baby's head popped out and the doctor finally extricated it from its mother. Before, I couldn't imagine how that could expand to accommodate an entire baby, but after seeing that video, now I can!

The film also showed what abortionists do when they, well, abort unborn children. Nakakaawa sila, and the method was so barbaric and horrifying. An ultrasound showed how a long instrument was inserted into the uterus, trying to pop the amniotic sac which protects the baby, and how the baby appeared to be dodging the instrument, as though it was aware of what was being done. There was an instance when the fetus' mouth seemingly opened, and that was the time when the amniotic sac collapsed... :-( So sad.

3. The fat lady at the City Civil Registrar, whom we shall call "Debraliz" because of the uncanny resemblance, questioned my Dad's name on my birth certificate, saying his last name reads something like "Ambien" and not "Almeida", and that "kahit anong pilit nya, hindi talaga Almeida" ang basa nya.

I insisted that she can't question the birth certificate because I used the very same one in securing my passport, and had no problem with it whatsoever. Hindi raw. So she finally asked her superior... and came back saying that they reconciled the entry with my Dad's signature which clearly says "Almeida", as well as his full name under the "Informant" entry. And to complete her power-tripping, she said, "Hindi kasi basta-basta yan gino-go pag may problema, hindi yan igo-go dahil lang sinabi nyo."

Sure. Go-go-hin ko kaya mukha nya? Kaya hindi umaasenso eh. Tsk tsk.

____________________________________


Marriage license to be released on the 21st. Yipee!