Babymoon

I so want one.

According to a Baby Center (a pregnancy newsletter I'm subscribed to) , Babymoons are those mid-pregnancy getaways when morning sickness is gone and energy is trickling back. It is the couple's chance for a last "couple only" getaway before the wife gets too big then the baby comes then their lives are forever changed.

Quoting from the article:

"The top dream destination: anywhere you can kick back and relax.The kind of trip you decide to take — and whether you go away for a week or a weekend, to the beach or a favorite city — will depend on how much time and money you have. If you don't have the resources for a trip far away, you might want to make a reservation at a nearby hotel or bed and breakfast. Request the honeymoon suite and treat yourselves to a nice dinner out. Order room service and have breakfast in bed. Just being together, out of your regular routine, will make it special.

Keep in mind that you may have to make some changes to accommodate your condition. Listen to your body and schedule a bit more downtime or naptime than you normally would. You'll need to avoid sports or activities that carry a high risk of falling or that may cause trauma to your abdomen. That means that things like surfing, diving, downhill skiing, and even some amusement park rides are off-limits. And scuba diving is a definite no-go. "


Sam is actually preserving his weekend leaves so he can accompany me during monthly OB checkups. Sam can't avail of his R&R (which was supposed to be scheduled this month) because he gave way to somebody else who lived in Mindanao (Sam explained that the guy couldn't go home to his wife during "quick, stolen weekends"). This is a major bummer because I'll be on vacation starting next week until July! But this is okay, because I imagine that one family in Mindanao is going to be happy to have their daddy there.

Maybe it's the thought that counts :-) Sam texted me last weekend saying that "when the baby comes, I'll go home every weekend." Hah. And so we wish.

Where do I want to go for the Babymoon? We definitely do not have enough money for a hotel or a bed and breakfast, so we'll just go somewhere closer... I want to go to the beach - even if it's just Calatagan or Laiya (not La Union, ang layo!), or have an Italian dinner at Buon Giorno in Tagaytay, maybe visit the Ilog ni Maria Bee Farm in Silang. Or watch that violin concert the Italian Embassy is sponsoring (which I can't find the number, huhu).

Oh well, if we can't go - I just hope he'll be here on the next ultrasound!

Croakin' New Shoes

First of all, thanks to my Tita G from California who sent me a pair of Skechers Shapeups ! I love them, even if they look so unusually Spice Girl-ish! I use them during my short morning walking exercises. They really do improve posture and you can feel the stretch. I also don't feel any back pain as compared to when I am using my regular track shoes or office shoes. There are a lot of cool reviews from pregnant users, too!

Now... here's another one! Sorry but you can't find anything like this anywhere ! First, it's highly unlikely that anyone near my circle of friends would like to have frog shoes... and second, I had these customized. I first heard about Momo Custom Design from Kiel (salamaat!!!) and when I saw her shoes, I spent a LOT of time thinking and thinking what I would want on my shoes. Hehe. And tada! After around 1 week of conceptualizing with Jasmin of Momo, she painted these!

I bought regular Advan shoes for under PHP 200.00, shipped the pair to Jasmin -- and paid PHP 600 for painting and shipping. We used a German postcard that I have in my collection as peg. I say it's time and money well spent because I just looove them.


Order your own shoes at www.momocustomdesign.multiply.com :-) They have ready made designs you can choose from... or you can be adventurous and try what I did.
Jasmin is very flexible and creative , it was a really fun and creative experience...

Halfway There...

We're at 20 weeks! Passing the "baby mark" left by our sad loss at 14-18 weeks last year gave us a LOT of relief. I was jittery during the 4th month check up, but was in higher spirits yesterday during our 5th month checkup (especially because Sam was with me :-). Baby gave us a nice, steady heartbeat, which was quite difficult to catch because he/ she kept moving around.

My tummy is already "rounded" , and I have gained around 2 inches around the waist. I now wear my Belly Belt (Sam's happy birthday gift :-) ) and find comfort in stretchy shorts and dresses. I think I am still small for real maternity stuff, and people say it's not a cause of worry because some pregnancies don't show until the 7th month!!!



We are still so afraid of what may happen because we know that there is no way of preventing what might happen (we didn't have any symptoms before) - so we continue to pray our St Raymond of Nonato novena every night - and try to keep the anxiety at bay. Now that we're at 20 weeks, at least our excitement outweighs the worry already!

I was given the go signal for another ultrasound before our 6th month checkup (week of June 15) , and we'll be having gender determination along with a congenital anomaly scan... We are sooo excited. So, what's your guess? Boy or girl? :-)

Photo taken at around 17 weeks, I'm slightly bigger and rounder now.

The Good Soldier Svejk

Culture stop!

My bosses recently visited the City of Prague in the Czech Republic for a meeting with our European counterparts. I heard it's a wonderful city so I bugged one of my Slovak colleagues to get me something traditionally Czech, preferably a famous pair. He came back to Manila with a Czech patch for my travel bag and two small figurines of famous Czech characters: The Good Soldier Svejk ("because you have a thing for soldiers") and the Golem ("because it looks funny").

I have no pictures yet of my actual two but they are now happily looking at me from my office desk. I find them soo sweet. Hehe. And the story of Josef Svejk equally interesting. It is apparently an unfinished series, I don't know why: (excerpts from Wikipedia)

My Svejk wears a green uniform. I think mine wore a Russian uniform by mistake

(one of the plots of his many anecdotes)

The story begins in Prague with news of the assassination in Sarajevo that precipitates World War I. Švejk displays such enthusiasm about faithfully serving the Austrian Emperor in battle that no one can decide whether he is merely an imbecile or is craftily undermining the war effort. Through possibly-feigned idiocy or incompetence he repeatedly manages to frustrate military authority and expose its stupidity in a form of passive resistance: the reader is left unclear, however, as to whether Švejk is genuinely incompetent, or acting quite deliberately with dumb insolence.

He's probably really famous because I also found a Facebook fan page and a Flickr photo set of all the cartoons from the original book.

The other one, the Golem - has a pretty colorful story as well! He is famous around Europe and have been used as an inspiration for many movies and sci-fi characters.

Depending on the version of the legend, under Rudolf II, the Holy Roman Emperor, the Jews in Prague were to be either expelled or killed. To protect the Jewish community, the rabbi constructed the Golem out of clay from the banks of the Vltava river, and brought it to life through rituals and Hebrew incantations. As this golem grew, it became increasingly violent, killing gentiles and spreading fear. A different story tells of a golem falling in love, and when rejected, he became the violent monster as seen in most accounts. Some versions have the golem eventually turning on its creator and perhaps even attacking other Jews.

Point of View

Memi, Pepi, Hanna (and baby)

So lucky that my parents support Gibo, too - I would never go to all those sorties in this condition.

I think we have different VPs tho.

I have been so caught up in the "Green Fever" the past few months. The passion and the drive of all the Green Team (and its other variations all over the country, the G-Force, G-Squad, and a whole lot more...) volunteers are very infectious. I am amazed at the creativity, dedication and sacrifice they lent to the campaign. I would specially like to recognize the dynamism of Green Team Cebu for coming up with non-conventional campaigns such as the Flashmob (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXrkl3yCcGU) and the Freeze (http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1302075601170) . I liked how the volunteer coordinators sincerely followed the campaign promise of positivity and how the volunteers (well, most of them) gently reminded each other to steer clear of mudslinging. It was great to see the crowd of supporters thickening from the "Takbo Para Kay Gibo" event in early January , to the increasing Facebook fans, up to the fun "Gibo Rocks" and the 135,000+ people who joined the final Miting de Avance. As my mom and dad said (EDSA I veterans), it was just like the EDSA crowd (I don't know exactly what they meant, they said it was that feeling of unity and doing something for the country) . We actually ran into a few of their friends who were part of EDSA I!

We stayed in the bleachers to avoid getting crushed by this crowd

We eventually mingled :-) I didn't know this girl but I just had to have

a picture with that head dress!

People came to hear the president speak, and not for the free games or entertainment. It was like a huge concert where the rockstar was Gibo. Kulang na lang ang pag-sigaw ng "More! More!" Might sound OA, but it was sort of like magic. Win or lose, we have made our statement that we are definitely not 7%. People came wearing shirts they bought or made themselves, and waving makeshift banners and other paraphernalia. People came even if they were not promised jobs or heaven and earth or P20.00 each. People came because they believe - that he can be the change that we have been wishing for.

Note: Thanks also to GT Taguig who "adopted" us and shared dinner! The coordinato

r even called me and asked if we were coming because some volunteers sponsored food "Sayang naman kasi" The celebrities who were there stayed out of the limelight - but it followed them anyway. Who would miss Ruffa G's and Miriam Q's towering heights over average-sized Pinoys?

Maybe I am sort of biased, but do you feel the same kind of magic and "ownership" towards your candidate's vision? Are your volunteers as passionate? I really want to know. I've been searching the web and news for evidence of such collective action (led by the people and not by the party) for other candidates but have so far come up with nothing.. please send me links! I am also looking for "crowd" photos from your miting de avance. All I see are closeup shots of the candidates. I am sure the "others" have their share of the tech-savvy followers! I want to see the Filipinos becoming involved - even if it is just this one time because that is good enough (for now.) I am sure you have felt the Noynoy/ Manny/ Gordon/ Nick/ Jamby (??) / JC Magic if there is such a thing.

Tomorrow, we all vote. We make our own silent statement. Whoever you are picking for whatever post, I hope you are picking them for all the right reasons. Don't forget that change comes from you, your family, your barangay, your town/ your city, your province - before you start blaming the national government.

Praying for everyone to make the right choice (emphasizing that mine MIGHT not be the right one, so I am praying for all of us) , praying for all winners to be real winners - and praying for all losers to be man (or woman) enough to accept their defeat.

Leaving you with this "huling hirit" a fan music video and song dedicated for all the GT Volunteers. Let's all cross our fingers while the PCOS machines are a-counting. It's a great song - so if you don't care much for my candidate - you may close your eyes and just listen. Hehe, but you'll miss some cool photos and the subtitles.

Malaysia!

LTJG suddenly arrived Sunday night from his Malaysian journey. I was expecting him on Monday, but he said they managed to arrive earlier so he went home to Laguna - much to the delight of our bundle of mischief, Mia. She couldn't stop barking and jumping and running around when Sam arrived, to think that it was wayy past her bedtime.

He stayed overnight and the following morning I had to leave him for a while to attend the send off for Green Team Laguna and Cavite's motorcade in San Pedro, which I couldn't cancel because I promised some people that I will meet them there to turnover some campaign materials. I didn't stay long because Sam had to leave for Cavite at 10am for the closing ceremonies of the Malaysian training program.

He was back again Tuesday night, this time at Fort.5 and I had a 2 hour roundup of his Malaysia trip. This was his first trip outside the Philippines and I was so excited for him! I saw that he loved the experience and learned a lot. It was fun hearing him talk about Malayan culture and share with me some of the words he learned while there. He also showed me a music video their Malaysian counterparts made for them where he had a few "seconds of fame".

Some stuff I learned:

1. The Royal Malaysian Navy has their own version of Sam's unit called Paskal.

2. According to Sam, Malaysians were very friendly and much like Pinoys and the food was very spicy.

3. Kuala Lumpur is soo clean and that it looked like a well-manicured golf-course.

4. The Petronas twin towers are made of aluminum for more efficient cleaning.

5. Navy ships around the world have fun "rituals" when passing the international dateline. A core group does some role playing where Neptune welcomes the first-timers to the sea. He then lists the ship's "sins" like throwing garbage or people not behaving in the mess hall. Then the first timers will run through an obstacle course set up all throughout the ship! Looked so fun!

We planned to blog about this together but he had to leave again before I could get used to a crowded bedroom. :-) Now it's all quiet and clean again because he left for Elyu this morning. We're looking forward to a break after the elections.

I found a folder labeled "Popi Malaysia" on my desktop with some photos I can share with LTJG's permission!

They had a stopover in Boracay (and Palawan) en route to Malaysia last April.
It was also his first time in Boracay! Some of them played beach football and there were also
pictures of cliff diving, inggit!

Petronas Towers in the background.

View from above

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Update...

This says it all.

GIBO Motorcade !

r
o

No, we didn't join the motorcade - but my small family and I decided to be there for the send off! It was a fun and happy atmosphere at the Fully Booked Parking lot at Bonifacio High Street. Volunteers trickled in sharing all sorts of GIBO paraphernalia - aprons, shirts, baller IDs, posters, calendars, flyers so everyone can give them away.

Some quotes:

"Give away the materials! Konti lang yan, tayo - alam na natin na GIBO tayo so let us influence more people!" - Volunteer

"Kanya-kanya na nga ang pagpapagawa ng materials! Last time umuwi ako damit ko na lang dala ko ubos na ubos talaga!" - Volunteer

"Not for GMA but GO for GIBO!" - from a Tshirt

Later on we're going to CCP for the concert. Go GIBO, for the WIN!

Lessons

The crash of my external hard drive last month brought a trickling sense of loss. I got it primarily for my photos and layouts, so they won’t hog my laptop’s memory. Sadly, like most people, only 30% of its content had backups. I easily convinced myself that it was no big deal, so I wasn’t too mad about it (especially since it crashed right after somebody borrowed it from me to transfer big files to her PC… grrr). But now, I’m full of “If Only” statements. If only I backed up the files like what I always thought I should do. If only I didn’t let her borrow it. If only I watched her like a hawk while she used it. If only I had finished that album already. If only I had printed the photos already. If only, if only, if only!!!!

Let this be a lesson to people out there who don’t back up their files, and don’t bother to print out digital photos. Virtual storage gets ruined, they crash, they just get lost. So please learn from me and BACK UP files or do it the old fashioned way and PRINT your favorite memories! (Put them in a safe place away from molds, anay and baha)

Sigh. In memory of the following files:

- 2 years worth of digital scrapbook layout and files
- A folder of scanned photos from my mom and dad’s wedding (have to do it all over again)
- Up With People Photos (wahhhhhh) , a UWP half finished digital photo album, and all my scanned mementos (I scanned them so I can throw away the originals – I remember that it was 3 days of scanning)
- Sam’s Photos from his “unit” training. From reception up to his graduation. (wahhhhh)
- Compilation of our wedding photos, our photo album layout. Good thing I had these printed already!!!!
- Scanned “creative work portfolio” and workshop certificates, lovingly arranged
- Raw, layered files of my brochures for work. I kept them there because I didn’t have Photoshop at work to manipulate them anyway
- A LOT of pictures and other files, that I know I’ll probably look for someday.

Sigh.