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My Family

33 years ago…since we met

““A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person” Mignon McLaughlin

Just like everyone else in cozy relationships, I counted month-saries, then years. And on the 7th year, I was thinking “Is my boyfriend ever going to marry me?”

So with the sweetest smile I could muster and my head leaning on his shoulder, I asked him “Will you marry me or not?”

Of course, I didn’t want him to feel like I placed a shotgun on his forehead, so I added “it’s okay if you don’t want to marry me, I will join my sister in San Francisco.” I entwined my hands on his.

The year 1984. I had just gotten back from a trip to the USA and Europe with my sisters and dad.
Read More »33 years ago…since we met

Hubby and I are now compatible with new Zodiac signs

Success in marriage does not come merely through finding the right mate, but through being the right mate. Barnett R. Brickner

gemini-virgoOut of curiosity, I checked if my new Zodiac sign (the news is debatable) is now finally compatible with that of my husband. When my hubby was then my college sweetheart, the incompatibility issue disturbed me but I shrugged it off anyway because I was deeply in love with him.

Let’s take a look at our old Zodiac signs.

Old sign

Gemini me vs Virgo hubby

Check this Gemini Woman and Virgo Man

A Gemini woman and a Virgo man will understand each other’s needs as well as feelings quite well. Infact, most of the time, they will share feelings and thoughts, especially about the outside world. However, as far as their personal lives are concerned, they have more clashing, than compatible, traits. The best way to keep the fire alive in this relationship is to be honest with each other and respect the other person’s opinions. At the same time, they will have to find ways to neutralize his critical nature and her tactlessness.

The old Zodiac signs have been consistent with all Horoscope readings. It said my husband and I are incompatible. Perhaps that is one reason I started to ignore Horoscopes altogether. Strangely, my husband and I clashed a lot in financial management during the early years of our marriage. This was resolved fifteen years after we got married when I finally took over the finances. Despite these clashes, we were passionate and romantic towards each other.
Read More »Hubby and I are now compatible with new Zodiac signs

Cheers to a New Year 2011, another chance to get it right

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.” T. S. Eliot

new-year-2011Despite the challenges that our country face in 2011, I am excited of the possibilities and eager to start things rocking and shaking. Around 15 minutes before 2011 came in, Butch and I ate our traditional media noche such as our bam-i, a Cebuano noodle dish for long life, buko fruit salad, embutido, and sparkling juice.
Read More »Cheers to a New Year 2011, another chance to get it right

Flashback 2010: A good year that was

“Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.” – By Hal Borland
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Lauren views Singapore cityscape December 31, 2010

Tonight’s New Year’s Eve celebration is the first time that our children are away from home. It will just be the two of us. Butch and me, well the two cats and my trusted two helpers. The last couple of days were rough on us especially the cancelled family vacation to Singapore, my surgery and being away from my kids for the first time in my life. Yet all that is in the past.

I will affirm the good things for the New Year 2011. I will offer a prayer, wait and expect good things to happen to me and my loved ones. Whenever I wonder what is coming, I tell myself the best is coming, the very best love and life have to offer, the best God has to send. I open my hands to receive to claim it and it’s mine.

I see the best in my mind and envision what it will look and feel like. Then I let it go without obsessing over it. Instead I become excited and express gratitude for all that I have achieved this year, all that I am and for all that I will become.

I am thankful for all the blessings for the year 2010…

1. Having the opportunity to interview 7 presidential candidates and empowering myself to understand the electoral process by being in it rather than just being an observer.

presidential-candidates

2. Getting a part-time contract to work with Vibal Foundation as their associate editor for the features section of the Philippine Online Chronicles. It is my first paid work since I left employment to be a full time mother in 1987. (I always thought companies stopped finding you useful when you reach over 40. I should know. I tried getting a job.)

with-vibal-foundation

3. A siblings’ reunion in San Francisco, in happier times, not funerals. I miss them a lot. We are so close even if we are continents apart.

my-family

Read More »Flashback 2010: A good year that was

My husband’s surprise gift

All of us have had the experience of a sudden joy that came when nothing in the world had forewarned us of its coming – a joy so thrilling that if it was born of misery we remembered even the misery with tenderness. Antoine de Saint-Exupery

lavallier-pendant

That’s not the surprise gift yet, well almost..

Butch and I promised not to give each other expensive Christmas presents because of the planned holiday trip to Singapore. We told each other “Let’s just shop there”. As most of you know, that did not happen. I still gave him a token gift, you know something to open, having that element of surprise and wonder during Christmas day. He had none to give me that day. I know him to be a generous person and I just shrugged it off. Maybe he didn’t have time to shop at the last minute, having to deal with my surgery and taking care of me. While recuperating in the hospital, I only thought of “what could have been..” if we were all together during the holidays. My husband often assured me there will be more family vacations so to “just get well”. I kept my optimism high, letting only positivity reign my life and focused on my recovery.

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My daughters’ Christmas Greetings via Skype Video Call

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I am sure I am not alone in using Skype to greet family members. Family members in different parts of the world would want to be together but are unable to. Skype has brought a new level in Christmas traditions for those that can’t spend Christmas together. Just a few minutes ago, my daughters (who are right now in Singapore for the holidays) called me up in my hospital room.
Read More »My daughters’ Christmas Greetings via Skype Video Call

Merry Christmas from my hospital room

My heart grows tender with treasured childhood memories and love of family when the Christmas season comes. I believe we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time. It is an exciting moment for me.

christmas-in-hospitalEverything was planned at the last minute. My daughter, M based in Australia called me December 10 that she was spending Christmas in Singapore. I entertained the thought of spending it with her too. It was all set. Butch, Lauren and I were booked to leave December 23. I was looking forward for family bonding moments. Things didn’t quite happen the way I envisioned it. On December 22, while on my way to the bank to prepare our dollars for the trip, I felt this excruciating pain in my middle abdomen. To make the long story short, I had an operation on December 23 at 3 PM. I had bilary colic. I knew I had some gallstones in my gallbladder but they were small , and didn’t need immediate surgery. Two small stones lodged in the common bile duct causing my bilirubin, amylase, liver enzymes to skyrocket and the terrible pain. Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy was not possible because the surgeon wanted to run a dye in the biliary tract to trace the stones. The surgery took 3 hours and I was told it was a complicated surgery.

Read More »Merry Christmas from my hospital room

Meralco lights up Christmas for kids from 1 to 92

Christmas is most truly Christmas when we celebrate it by giving the light of love to those who need it most.– Ruth Carter Stapleton

Christmas lights always gives me that warm fuzzy feeling that glows inside for the entire season. It brings me so much joy. Childhood memories of twinkling lights and Christmas carols are enough to lift my spirits during the holiday season. Through the years that I lived in Pasig, the lights in the Meralco compound never fails to mesmerize me as the car passes by.

meralco-christmas-lights2
It never occurred to me that Meralco has been opening its gates to the public for a long time now, giving delight to kids from ages 1 to 92. Yes, not just young kids but kids at heart like me. I didn’t have to think twice being invited together with other bloggers to witness the Christmas lighting tonight.

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CEO Manny Pangilinan together with other very important guests marked the lighting event. For Meralco, lighting up their Ortigas compound symbolizes the light of Jesus Christ whose coming to the world brings joy and hope to the young and old.
Read More »Meralco lights up Christmas for kids from 1 to 92

Gratitude is the memory of the heart

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow. ~Melody Beattie

gratitude-rainbowspiral1

I am right now in Cebu. I am beginning to love this place. There is still something missing about Cebu that makes me sad. Perhaps because I often travel to Cebu just to bury a family member. Just when I made peace with the deaths of family members, another chaos ensued after a class reunion, then a death of a classmate. Making sense out of a chaotic situation is futile especially if the door is shut in front of you.

A conversation from a dear friend tonight jolted me out of chaos when she said that “there are more important relationships that need responding to just like what you have just done; gving comfort to parents who lost a child.”
Read More »Gratitude is the memory of the heart

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a mom blogger who advocates constructive engagement in issues on family & society.
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