happy birthday the HUBBYNESS!!!

cheers to your 31years on earth honey! :-) di na ulit tayo magka-age!!! mmmmwuah! let's make today your bestest bestest ordinary day this year... :-)


-paomommy-

nappy verdict

some 2years ago i never thought i would be talking about diapers so soon... hehehe... i was even shocked by the price when i accompanied my sister buy her Uno his supply while here in Zambo... and all those nappy commercials, i really didn't mind them at all.

but today, lemme share some diaper thoughts... hehe me and hubby had been discussing which one's worth it... pao started with Huggies when he was still at the Nursery... 7 days after, he developed some red spots on the hindcheeks... i decided i'll change his diapers to Pampers New Baby... and the reds were gone! we used that until he was over a month old... then we were on different diapers every month, experimenting hehe....you'll notice it in my monthly birthday photos of pao... thoughts and reviews and the final decision to settle on which nappy below...

1st month: Pampers New Baby. this saved us from the red spots that could have worsen into some diaper rash... i like that it remains dry even inside even though it looks so full already. it can last the whole day!!! i like the fit too, the color and design is very straightforward, almost plain-looking so no need to worry if it matches or not with the top...

2nd month: Pampers Comfort. this is the one that's being highly advertised by Pampers. It's the cheaper end of Pampers... sizing is smaller than the other Pampers so you have to go up one size higher so it wont be too tight for your baby... contrary to the ads, it can not last the whole day! you have to change in between... and it feels wet when lightly squeezed.

more photos after the jump. Please click "Read more".

tummy bed strikes again! :-)

i'm not complaining though...i'm actually loving it. :-) well at least for now, i just hope it won't turn into a bad habit both for me and pao...

this photo was taken when he was still 4months old... this was the only instance back then... but the past 3-4days he's having some crying moments in the middle of his sleep, before it was just a sign for feeding time... but lately he wants something else... he cries and tries to lift his body as if wanting to be carried, and all that while his eyes are still closed... so the mommy instinct tells me to carry him, and he stops crying immediately... i have tried lying down, same as in the photo below, with pao on my tummy/chest... and he gets to sleep soundly while we are in this position, but he prefers to be faced down while sleeping over me now...

the "tummy bed" term was actually coined by my sister... she experienced the same "lambing" from her son... i wonder if this happens to your baby too? :-) i wanna know, please tell me... hehe i just want to make sure this is normal haha!

visita iglesia zamboanga (2011)

I was 4 1/2 months pregnant during last year's holy week. Since I was not allowed to go to Abong-Abong for the stations of the cross.... me, hubby and SIL leila decided to do a Visita Iglesia for 10 churches in Zamboanga. I will be creating one post for each church visited. Links will be provided below:

Visited churches:

1) Tumaga Parish Church (Our Lady of Manaoag Parish)

2) Sta Maria Parish Church (Our Lady of the Purification Parish)

3) Pasonanca Parish Church (Holy Trinity Parish)

4) San Roque Parish Church

5) Wesmincom (Southcom) Chapel

6) Philippine Navy Chapel (Our Lady of La Naval Chapel)

7) Claret Chapel (San Antonio Maria Claret Parish)

8) Metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate Concepcion

9) Fort Pilar Shrine
10) St. Joseph Church
11) Tetuan Parish Church (St. Ignatius of Loyola Parish)

12) Guiwan Parish Church (Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish)

Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish Church (Guiwan, Zamboanga City)

12th church stop. finally!!! this was our last church visited... we stayed longer here. that visit was my first time in Guiwan parish church... this is a newer structure i think... the first time i saw this some years before my first impression was that it's exuding some rough air... it's too concrete... but this visit changed my views about this church... despite being concrete all over, i love the flow of the breeze in and around the church... we were all tired from the 3-5hours of visita iglesia and this church offered us a place to breath before heading home....

i just find the ceiling's design a bit unusual...

more Guiwan church photos after the jump. Please click "Read more"

St. Ignatius of Loyola Parish Church (Tetuan, Zamboanga City)

11th church stop. the most striking feature of the church for me is the ceiling... i love how grand it look when you're standing at the end of the aisle. :-) we tried going up the bell tower and even got a better view of the ceiling. 

i don't have any connection with this church except for one or two instances back in highschool when instead of the parish priest going to our school for the first friday mass, we were the ones who went to the church. i can still remember the huge balete tree in the church's courtyard. it's not there anymore, after they renovated the church.

very simple when viewed from outside. :-)

more photos after the jump. Please click "Read more"

St. Joseph Church (Zamboanga City)

10th church stop. Before we head to the west side of the city, we decided to pass by the churches at downtown. So we included St.Joseph... though I don't feel any attachment with the church (as much as i have with Fort Pilar and EAAB chapel), this is where me and my siblings were baptized.... i can also remember Christ the King celebrations where my mom drag us here to join the procession and mass after... i can vividly remember the chaotic getting of the snacks haha...that really stuck with me... that's why years later, when i go to St.Joseph church not during the Christ the King day, i find myself amused at how peaceful and serene the church compared to my association of it with the chaos i get to experience during childhood...

more St. Joseph church photos after the jump. Please click "Read more".

lemon garlic pasta

this is my latest pasta craze... :-) i'm the kind who kept on cooking the same pasta recipe discovered over and over until i grow tired of it... hehe 

i can't remember where exactly I got the idea for a lemon-garlic pasta... but I think i've tried it or seen it in menus of one of pasta restos in Manila before... and since my discovery of lemons being sold at La Tienda here in Zamboanga, this pasta with lemon garlic sauce had become my usual...

for this batch i've used our newly harvested prawns sauteed with fresh basil leaves as my topping... although the pasta and the sauce is already good as it is... i guess, it's that Filipino thing that always make me look for something to top my pasta.

more photos and lemon-garlic pasta recipe after the jump. :-) Please click "Read more"

Fort Pilar (Our Lady of the Pilar Shrine, Zamboanga City)

9th church stop. (i'm still struggling to complete my Visita Iglesia series despite Holy Week's 1week ago already hehe). Fort Pilar is my go-to church here in Zamboanga (UP Chapel's the one for me in Manila)... here's where i pray for my heart's wishes and say my super duper thank you's to Him. :-) basta it's my serenity place... 

this is the only outdoor Catholic church in Zamboanga. These concrete pews and those plants underneath it, it's been there for as long as I can remember... I remember back when we were kids, me and my sister would play on the leaves while the mass is on-going (typical kids hehehe)... we play-pretend it can tell us how much blood we have (???) haha! we would press one leaf on our arm then check on how much portion of the leaf darkened... less darkening means you're anemic and an almost darkened leaf means you're highblood! hahaha my gash! where did that come from?!?!?! hahaha

some more photos after the jump. Please click "Read more".

happy big birthday kuyapots!!!

to the kuya who 

• made me and the other kids in the neighborhood climb our guava tree and play Star Trek, play-pretend that the guave tree's our version of the Enterprise hehe...
• made me play baril-barilan and even made us one wooden gun each(with bottle caps as bullets) and made the whole neighborhood our battlefield
• made me eat leaves of "batuan"... well he and my other crazy cousin
• helped me catch HUGE grasshoppers in the grassy portion of Zambo's runway (the bugs are for my science project hehe)
• made me join him fly kites in Zambo's runway (yep, that was part of our playground before... hehe well, at least we declared so), and made me run when there was an AirForce car going towards us kasi nga bawal ang kites sa runway! haha
• made me pick up used bullets in EAAB's firing range after school
• made me join him pass by EAAB's motorpool after school and play there (outdoor stuff and Nintendo... because we don't have one at home nyaha!)
• made my school artworks... because i suck big time in doing anything artsy before and he was like our (me and my sister's) art god! hehe
• taught me how to ride the bike
• was more excited about me going to highschool.... he taught me algebra summer before my first year... which made me feel like algebra's just a piece of cake nyaha!
• spoiled me with bookstuff when he was in the academy
• locked us up (kuyapangets, baduday and me) in one room for chika galore after not seeing each other for months (kuya in the academy, me in manila, baduday in zambo)
• freaked me out when he said they'll be staging a coup... 
• freaked me out some more when he was texting me while they were in Oakwood, giving me instructions what to do should worst things happen... all that while im taking my pre-board exam! nyaha!
• made me look forward to cooking weekends inside his jail hehe...
• made me experience Cavite!
• despite all the things he had gone through remained that sweet kuyapangets namin... 

all these and more kalokohan before... suuuper thank you!!! happiest birthday kuyapots!!! you made our childhood more fun with all your crazy stuff! i'm glad you're not the strict kuya, but one who just let us be while giving those pangaral side comments subtly... you made us grow on our own while keeping watch... and it's making me smile seeing the way you handled us is the same way you're handling chuchay now... she'll grow up fine for sure... 

we're (me, mamang and baduday... and now alyn and chuchay) the luckiest girls in the whole wide world because we have you! :D 

yihee! ipagpatuloy ang kasentihan! haha! 

lotsa love kuyapots! happy birthday!!! mwah!!

 - 

Metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate Concepcion (Zamboanga City)

8th church stop. since moving from the west to east coast of the city we will somehow pass by the Cathedral (well at least based on our route) so despite our goal to visit new churches we included it in our visits. 

The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate Concepcion in Zamboanga is one of the most photographed churches in the city, well for obvious reasons... so i will just be sharing photos from a regular church-goer's point of view (except for the photos from the supposed choirs' area on top of the spiral staircase hehe)

view from one of the center pews where we would usually sit when we attend mass here.

how the altar looked like from the top of the spiral staircase (in the area where i'm assuming was intended for choirs)... I'm actually intimidated by the grandness of the Cathedral now, honestly i like the feel of the old Cathedral more. The Cathedral now just makes me feel the power of the church (oh this religion thing is another issue for me which i don't intend to include in this post). But despite being eaten up by the grandness of it now, I still love the high ceiling and the huge arcs on it... 

more photos after the jump. Please click "Read more".

happy 0.5yo birthday my siopao!

we went back to the beach!!! supposedly for Easter but we know how the beach around here is during that day so we decided to go back on the last holiday before workweek starts... and right on it's our little siopao's 6th month!!!

it was just a little family gathering... my parents and my inlaws... plus hubby's cousin that i was able to bond during her review here in Zambo... we went back to La Vista del Mar, we were there around 8am beating everyone else so we can enjoy the resort's crowdless atmosphere.

more photos after the jump. Please click "Read more"

San Antonio Maria Claret Parish (Canelar, Zamboanga City)

7th church stop. This is also my first time to see Claret church... :-) I remember taking entrance exam for Claret high school some yeaaars ago hehehe but i don't remember seeing the church hehe.

more photos after the jump. Please click "Read more".

Our Lady of La Naval Chapel (Phil Navy, Zamboanga City)

6th church stop. Another church from my past! My papang used to work in the Philippine Navy's base here in Zamboanga. And this is the chapel inside the base. We would spend Saturdays of our summers in this base playing at the beach and we were even taught how to swim by their frogmen... :-) 

I will always associate this chapel with Easter!!! because there were several Easter sunday spent here... I can still remember how excited I am for the easter egg hunt right after the mass! I always end up with just white eggs (not good enough for any price hehe). But I can vividly remember this particular boy in his pambahay shorts and slippers who would come to the chapel only in time for the egg hunt... and he gets the most number of eggs because he would even dig up the turtle's egg in one of the mini pools inside the base! oh how i hate him back then... i wonder where that kid is now....

I think they have made renovations in the chapel already... because i'm trying to recall how it looked like before because this one seem to look new... 

the charm of this place is that cute little chapel feel and the sea breeze!!! it's just a few steps from the base's beach! 

We stayed here longer than we did in other churches during this visita iglesia... it's chillax with the sea breeze! oh how it brings a million childhood memories just being in that place. :-) soooo many beautiful happy memories. :-) 

I forgot to mention in my San Roque church post that at the time we were doing our visita iglesia we noticed that there was no other doing it, most people seem busy with the preps for the afternoon church activity. However, we bumped into a family who's doing the same visita iglesia as us... we met them at San Roque church... and later we both shared smiles when we saw each other again here at the Naval Base chapel. :-) I guess, Visita Iglesia is still not a popular practice here in Zamboanga.

---------------------------------

Our Lady of La Naval Chapel

Naval Station, Zamboanga City

Visita Iglesia Zamboanga

April 21, 2011

Wesmincom Chapel (Zamboanga City)

5th church stop. from San Roque we were thinking where to go next... i suggested we try going inside Wesmincom (formerly known as Southcom), because we can visit 2 chapels there... good thing we were allowed to get inside, they're usually strict specially if they are on red alert. we first visited Southcom chapel because it is the nearest from the base's main entrance.

i don't have memories of this chapel because i never get to attend mass here except for my twin nephews' christening... but this chapel is special to my parents because they got married here. :-) it looks big in their wedding photos but the chapel is just small when you get there. :-) but i love the chill feel of the chapel. probably because of the huge tree beside it.

-------------------------
Wesmincom/Southcom Chapel
Wemincom, Upper Calarian, Zamboanga City
Visita Iglesia Zamboanga 
April 21, 2011

San Roque Parish Church (Zamboanga City)

4th church stop. This is also my first time to see San Roque's church... i love how each church we went to has its own character... this one feels the most friendly for me... i don't know why, but that's how i feel when we got there. 

It looks big from the outside, and a lot bigger once you enter... It also has a big courtyard... very spacious inside and out. :-)

church's facade...

this is the site that will welcome you once you step at the entrance...

more photos after the jump....Please click "Read more"

Holy Trinity Parish (Pasonanca, Zamboanga City)

3rd church stop. This was my first time to see the Pasonanca church both from the out and inside... i guess i never get to pass by this part of Pasonanca before, or if i did i always miss out their church... 

out of the 10churches we visited this was my no.1 fave... i love how it looks simple from the outside...

 and i was awed by all the lines and high ceiling inside. :-)

more photos after the jump. Please click "Read more"

Our Lady of the Purificacion Parish (Sta Maria, Zamboanga City)

2nd church stop. This is another church from my past! nyaha! i grew up in Sta Maria but we rarely spend sundays here (it's usually at the EAAB chapel)... but i can remember several Sta Maria church activities which we joined (i just cant remember which ones). This was not the original structure... I think this replaced the old Sta Maria Church sometime in the late 80's or early 90's (i'm not so sure, I just have this image of my sister in her angel outfit during a procession of the church... she was around 4-5years old then).  I wish I will be able to find an old photo of the older structure.

more photos after the jump. Please click "Read More"

Our Lady of Manaoag Parish (Tumaga, Zamboanga City)

first church stop. This was the nearest church to my inlaws' place so we started here. Tumaga church is right beside the river and is along the main road. Structure utilized every space so it's almost at the edge of the road. To make it a bit exclusive front stairs was covered up and side stairs like the one in the first pic was created.

more photos after the jump. Please click "Read More"

i'm pass the 3decade mark!

it felt like stopping for the view at one of the highpoints of an uphill&downhill route after running continuously... then that natural high feeling knowing that you're in a good spot to see and appreciate what you've covered so far. my heart does not want to stop smiling... i know i have covered a good run. i have more than a million happy memories along the route. :-) 

the last few years went by really quick. i don't have the usual list before turning 30 thing (i'm a sucker for that kind of goal setting hehe) but right now I am really grateful that God gave me a smooth ride and really wonderful people to travel with me. Thank you YOU!

what's up for the next decade? for sure it will be a totally different journey than the past 3 because i have my little siopao in it. i'm excited!!! :-)

there will be one major life lesson I will carry forward from the past decades :

See things in a positive way... ALWAYS! 

...and everything else will follow. :-)

round 2 papayat

ok...let me do this one more time...

i set a goal for me to lose 35lbs by March last January... i only reached 14lbs... still not bad right? now, lemme have a second chance... hehehe goal is still to reach 125lbs but this time it will be just for 60 days... wish me luck!!!

Goals:

weight: from 147lbs to 135lbs

waist: from 35" to 28"

hips: from 38" to 34"

hehehe setting goals real high...

here's update posts from my Jan-Mar attempt:

Day 01 

Day 30

Day 60

Day 90