kakagigiiiiiiiiilllllll!!!!!!!!

it's amazing how i've never seen my brother's youngest child jepoy, but i love him sooooooo much. it's breaking my heart how much i've missed--he's so big already! i can only watch him grow from afar, through photos and videos online. tell me, is he adorable or what?

luv sic

the husband has been training for more than half a month now, and it's starting to be pretty difficult. he's at the national training center in the middle of nowhere (the closest landmark is nevada, but even that is about 3hours away), and he's not allowed to use his phone. we're paying for 700 unused minutes this month.

this is supposed to be training for both soldiers and their families. ntc is pretty much a replica of a village in the middle east, and the conditions there are as close as they can get to iraq or afghanistan. as for us family members, this could be how seldom we hear from our soldiers. it's hard.

it wasn't long ago when gary asked me to go with him to fort bliss. i knew it wasn't a happy bring-your-wife-to-work kind of invite, but the dreaded pre-deployment briefing. it was something both of us would rather not hear, but we needed to. while at the auditorium along with hundreds of soldiers with their wives and other family members, i couldn't help but look around and hope that everyone will make it back safely after 12months. it's too stressful just to sit there and listen.

gary's tentative deployment date is nov.17 this year. we wouldn't be spending christmas, our first anniversary, his birthday, my birthday, and all other important events together. but more than this sad truth, i'm worried about him being out there. just yesterday, when he was able to sneak a call using his troopmate's phone, he told me he hasn't been sleeping well, hasn't been able to shower, and hasn't been eating enough because they were in some desert, firing. it really is heartbreaking being apart, and i have to convince myself to be strong for him when he can't. we both have our work cut out for us.

                one afternoon after work, he was running late. turned out he got me a little something :D

i love this picture. disneyland, july 3, 2009

this was taken during one of our movie dates. the story goes that before going to the movies, we checked the lotto ticket we bought a few days back, and realized we won. $5. haha we got two of the numbers, and were among the hundreds of thousands who won five bucks that draw. then we went on to watch the time traveler's wife, where the lead male, who can time travel, bought a lotto ticket with the winning numbers. gary tells me he should have stayed long enough in the future to get all the numbers right. corny, but we had a good laugh :)

my boobtube hunks :D

there are very few people on TV that you can go on watching over and over and over without getting tired of their faces. well these two guys make my couch potato days bearable.

I have a schoolgirl crush on Anthony Bourdain, who could very well pass for my father thank you very much, except he's caucasian. haha he's smart. and funny. and he cooks.

I start my day watching Emeril Live. I love Chef Emeril Lagasse so much in fact that i buy Emeril tomatoes at Albertsons even when i don't need them :P he's smart. and he's funny. and he cooks.

i <3 kids

here with jude (6), kiana (4) and amber (2). i miss my jelo (7) chay (6) and jepoy (0) back home... :(

pictures!!!

gary's baby sister debra only had a few days left before going back to school in california. so we decided, along with gary's elder sister loulou whose family is now based in texas too, that we were gonna get debra down to texas for a vacation. so deb arrived in el paso and the three of us drove 16 hours (we made too many stops) to houston. because gary had to work the next monday, he and i had to travel ahead back to el paso. ate loulou, her husband kuya don and debra followed a few days later. debra, of course, flew out of el paso back to santa clara. here are just some photos we took along the way.

neither here nor there

i am not filling this blog with any more grievance. i'm not going to complain that i'm here in california while gary's on a 12-day field training in el paso. i am not going to bitch about how this disrupted our simple life in our own little corner of the world. i will not gripe about how neither of us knows whether i should head back to el paso after the 12-day thing--he is, after all, going to a month-long intensive pre-deployment training shortly afterwards. nope, i will not fuss about the fact that i don't know when i'll see him next before his deployment, for how long, and what we're supposed to do from there. i won't. i have no right to whine about the travails of an army wife. no nagging, no muttering, no grumbling. yeah. none of that.

kaloka!

the lease on the apartment is up, and gary and i are moving to a new place on the other side of town.

as if the universe conspired, gary's field training fell right on the date of our lease signing and move-in day. so the husband went to pay the deposit before he left, two days ahead of schedule. now the catch: i had to pack everything on my own. since we have to settle in tomorrow, gary couldn't help in putting away our stuff. he felt pretty bad about it, but we had no choice. i had to do this one on my own.

so now i have a mound of luggages, boxes and plastic containers in the middle of the room. i'm ish-ting-ky and i'm pretty beat. but i did it. and i'm really excited about our new home. :D

kiligs!

i am so not in the position to announce this to the world but i'm just so happy for one of my bestest best friends, i can't help but blog about it!

i got an e-mail from tina today, saying the usual how-are-you, things-here-are-ok. then at the end of her message, she gave me the biggest shock (well it's not like i didn't know about what has been happening, but it still comes as a shock that she finally gave in--if you know her, you understand what i mean :) );she and neil are an item!!!

okay, what's all the fuss about? well, neil has been courting her all throughout high school and they were inseparable then. but see tina is tina. we shared the same nbsb record back then and it pretty much looked like it was gonna stay that way...at least for her. she's christian, and was really, really choosy like you would not believe.

college happened. they even went to the same university, so neil could be close, if i remember correctly. they somehow lost touch, and well, neil had a girlfriend.

tina is a very secretive person. even as her closest friend, she would not tell me how she felt about things. but i'm psychic, and she will tell you so now. i somehow always knew neil would come back, and that tina, in her heart, has never loved anyone but him and would eventually want to be with him.

we graduate. we work. the years just pass by, our other friend mina (yes, that's tina, mina, ina to you) gets blessed with two kids, i met the love of my life. there were signs that neil was making a comeback but tina always dismissed the 'rumor'...until now.

it just goes to show, however cliche, if it's meant to be, it's meant to be. they are just sooo good together. they look good together, and it feels good to see them together. this is another one of those cases when you just know, you know? no questions asked, you just know.

so tins, if you ever read this, i'm sooo happy for you and neil, and oh my gosh mina and i were always scared you'd be an old maid. we are proud of you for proving otherwise :P


********
on to another subject, the husband has an inspection today in his class a suit. so! we went shutter happy.

ranting...

my life right now feels like the front seat of a roller coaster at its peak, waiting to dive. literally everything in my life is on hold, and it mocks the i'll-put-things-in-my-hand, get-it-over-with sensibility i have.

i just had my biometrics with immigration today. gary and i have been in the process of first, petitioning, and now adjusting my status, for close to six months. besides a possible interview, all we can do now is wait until the dep't. of homeland security decides on my papers.

it's killing me. not that we expect a major problem or anything to happen, it's just the approval of my permanent residence case affects--if not dictates--what THE PLAN would be.

i cannot leave the states unless i have an advance authorization to travel from immigration, which of course, is part of the papers. can i go home to the philippines when gary gets deployed? will the papers make it on time? or do i live with his family again while he's gone? gary's giving me the choice on this one, but even this is out of my hands. i wait. and i hate waiting.

and man, he's leaving for a year. that's 365.242199 days. we don't even know what kind of communication he'll have in iraq. i hate not hearing from him even now that we live together. it's gonna be like gary and ina circa bootcamp 2006 again. waiting for his call for weeks only to miss it when he suddenly gets the chance to phone at three in the morning. and this, of course, is something i can do nothing about--but wait. and i hate waiting.

our lease is also up, and we're moving to a new apartment. it's really nice, and it was actually my choice out of all the places we gathered through research. moving out was another thing i was stressing about, but my fix-it guy surpised me and not only got the apartment i liked but also ironed out everything that all i have to do is get all our stuff and settle in.

i should be happy about this move. but now i have to notify just about everyone--the electric company, the post office, immigration, about this change of address. and i can't do the last two until we actually move out on the 24th to avoid mixing up my mail. so i wait again. and did i tell you i hate waiting?

so yes i'm stressed out about my life. patience is not a personal virtue. but then again, all this could just be pms.

O.M.G.!!!

i had, lately, only very few streaks of flair. today, however, is a day of brilliance; and oh my gosh, am i excited!

a corregidor wedding. yeah? yeah!

okay, so gary and i were talking last night about our plans. he's most likely to get deployed to iraq by november, and we were discussing about saving up, or buying a house, or investing in the philippines, or maybe all. for a year, we will be apart, and we will both be busy with nothing but working, and earning.

then the husband tells me, 'hey what about the wedding?' the plan really was to have another wedding officiated by a catholic priest in my parish in hermosa where i grew up. we also wanted to have it this december, which, looking at our circumstances, is almost impossible.

so gary aims for a post-deployment wedding. it'll be perfect timing: he'll be out of the service and we'll have plenty of time to save and do the preparations.

and then this morning. i was doing my usual online surfing, researching about wedding planners in manila, and wedding packages that we can afford. one of the websites outlined possible venues in metro manila, luzon, visayas and mindanao. then
it hit me: corregidor is the place! i suddenly remembered that the last time i toured my college friends from UP in corregidor, the management was renovating the island hotel. now, judging by the photos online, it is ready to go.

think about it: corregidor is bataan (well yeah, it is under the supervision of cavite, but won't you agree if i say that world war II, the last stand, mt. samat, corregidor, all ring truer with bataan rather than cavite?), and bataan is my home. plus gary has somewhat of a link to this historical place too, being a member of the united states armed forces. i think it will mean more to both of us to have it as the wedding venue. also, guests coming from manila will find it convenient to board the ferry that travels to corregidor, because the terminal is located near the senate.

i stumbled upon the blog of the now-famous tour guide carlos celdran, the 'man who is trying to change the way you look at manila one step at a time.' he had about three posts about a trip to corregidor a few years back, and even he thought a corregidor wedding would be 'very edgy.' he's nice enough to allow me to use his photos on his blog, and even told me to drop his name to the lady in the agency that runs tours in corregidor. below are photos from his blog, walk this way:


i did not know that there was a chapel beside the hotel. it's small, and it's quiet. perfect for a simple, classic ceremony.

here's the inside, which he describes as 'a cute little chapel with cool retro/modernist hardwood confession booths.'

another shot of the hotel facade

the restaurant. i don't know if this is really where the wedding reception happens--it looks a bit crowded to me--but there is always hope.

the cozy room...which may look a tad too eerie to some

so yes, a wedding at the historic corregidor. this would normally spell a filipiniana wedding but i promised myself to not go that path. maybe an old world meets modern kind of theme. hmmm...

i know it's a little too early to get all worked up, but hey, our civil wedding was done in haste and gary and i just want to make this one THE wedding. i hope we can pull this off, transporting people (including a priest--which reminds me, my buddy noel might be a bona fide priest by that time)to the island, making a wedding work from a location an hour and forty-five minutes away from civilization and stuff. i can hear my mom now, 'hay, wag ka na magpakapagod sa ganyan,' or something like that.

well we got time. let's see what happens... :P