I need your help guys. A good friend of mine will be getting married in two months and has asked for my help in looking for cheap wedding favors.

I love wedding preparations that is why I got really excited when my friend asked me to help her for her wedding. But it has been four years since I prepared for my won wedding so I am a little out of the loop when it comes to new trends on weddings.

They like something personalize and something that reflects their personality as a couple. I already have some ideas in mind but these are the wedding favors that are in when I was still preparing for my wedding so I am not really sure if my ideas are still the “IN” thing now. I will be checking out the bookstore too and check on bridal magazines so I can get more ideas. Do you have any suggestions, guys?

Oh my gosh, my friend’s credit card account has been hacked. She just got her bill for this month and was shocked to find out that someone purchased something online under her account. She will not mind if it is just a few hundred bucks but we are talking of a big amount of money here.

She was crying while she was telling me what happened and I don’t know what to do to console her. It is easy for me to say to just let it go since I am not the victim here. I know it would really be difficult for her to accept it since it is hard earned money.

I have been reading lifelock reviews by consumers, and I have learned that this kind of experience is very common especially now that we live in a high tech world where everything is really possible. And that is the reason why more and more consumers are using their lifelock promo codes to enroll themselves to the life lock system. This is their only way to get protection and tool for the prevention of this kind of experience from happening to them.

I don’t know if there is still something that my friend can do to debit the amount back from his credit card account but I don’t think the credit card company will do that. I think the only thing that she can do now is to get protection too, like most consumers are doing now and enroll to the life lock system too.

We visited my friend’s mom (who is also one of our godmother for our wedding) last night to pick up the “pasalubongs” that Jacq and Neil sent for us. We had a nice chat and she told us that Jacq already received her green card last February.

Yehey. I was so excited upon hearing this because my good friend Jacq has been waiting for it so they can finally go home and have a vacation here in the Philippines. I was able to chat with her also this morning and she said that they are just waiting for her husband’s visa to be released (she sponsored her husband so her husband’s visa will be release anytime soon also) so they can pack their bags and finally be able to have a vacation here.

They plan to have a vacation here next year. Hope their plans will push through as she is also 5 months pregnant now. I’m really excited and we would love to take them to Bohol.

So, Jacq & Neil just let us now and we will immediately file a leave as soon as you confirm it so we can all go to Bohol.

No, it’s not me! But I just received a good news from my friend yesterday and she is now 5 weeks pregnant. Guess who she is. I’m so happy and excited for them. I know they already want a baby. Yehey, Bela will now have a playmate every time we go out.

Do take care always and hope you have a safe pregnancy.

When we still had our office at Allied Bank, we would always go out for lunch as we are very near Greenbelt, Glorietta and even Landmark. We even have a schedule per month on where we will eat because we really had a lot of options. But when we moved here at RBCB, aside from the fact that restaurants here are a little pricey, there’s not much option. So majority of us always bring our packed lunch to save money and at least we will have food variety. But we all agreed that we should have at least one day of the week for lunch out and we all decided that we will always have it on a Thursday.

And so yesterday we ate at Arkipelago. We had laing, crispy pata, Sinigang na babot and seafood rice. The food was really yummy and we’re all really full after that sumptuous meal. I wonder we’re we will be eating next week.

Last night, I met up again with my High School friends for our send off party for Anna and Edhi and my birthday celebration. Our initial plan was to meet at Issa’s place at 7PM, have a small baby shower program for Issa, then proceed to our house for dinner (we decided to have our dinner at our house so Issa who is 8 months pregnant now won’t get tired in entertaining us). As usual majority of our friends are late. By 8:30 Pm, we’re all very hungry already and so we decided that we give our gifts for Issa and then head to our house so we can all eat and those who are late can just go straight to our house.

We we’re able to convince Issa and her husband to go with us even just for dinner so they can join our get together. By 10 PM, all my friends, together with their husband and kids, are at our house already. After dinner, we had a drinking session and Weng (Janelle’s husband) is our bar tender). Of course, our house was super noisy since this is the only time that almost all of us are present for a get together so we all have our own stories to tell. We didn’t notice the time passed and it’s already 2 Am when we decided to call it a night (or morning?).

It was really fun having seen all my High School friends once again. Hope we can do this every month. Calling Lala, you promised to organize the monthly get together of our barkada.

Below are some pictures.

.: from lala :.

.: from us :.

.: from anna :.

.: the early birds at issa's house :.

.: jeno enjoying the fountain :.
.: the husbands minus howell (photographer) :.
.: us :.
.: our bday cake :.

My high school friends is planning another get together at our house this coming Friday. Majority of our friends were not able to make it to our dinner last week and so they wanted to see our friend Anna before she leaves on the 15th.

So on Friday, we will all meet first at Issa’s house. She is 8 months pregnant now and so it would be difficult for her to travel so we will visit her first. Then we will have a surprise baby shower for her. After the shower, we will proceed at our house (which is just a couple of minutes drive from Issa’s place) for dinner and of course another drinking session.

We will do our groceries later so I’ll buy some stuff for my chocolate fountain, as that will be my contribution for the party plus pork barbeque and rice. For sure, this will be one great get together again.

I met up with my High School barkada last night for our post new-year celebration. Our friend, Anna, arrived from London before Christmas to celebrate her Christmas and New Year here so we really made it a point na matuloy ang get together namin so we can see Anna whom we haven’t seen in 3 years na.

I was able to go home early from work so nakauwi pa ako to fetch Bela para maisama namin sya sa get together. We just had dinner at Big Buddha in Greenbelt 3 courtesy of our dear friend Anna (Ty ulit). We just had some chit-chats, some catching ups and we just had a meeting for our out of town get together next week. They wanted to go to Laguna for an overnight swimming so the kids can come to. Hopefully matuloy naman ang plano namin. Since it’s a weekday and most of us have work the next day, we decided to call it a night around 10:30 PM.

Howell was busy taking care of Bela while I was making chika with my barkada so he was not able to take pictures. Good thing, our ever-reliable Lala brought her cam. Below are some of the pictures.

.: L-R norwei, jaja, anna, cedric, lala, me, bela, edhi & jan :.

.: posing with our tote bags from anna :.

.: busy playing with her balloon :.

.: at nagkagulo kami sa pasalubong ni anna :.

More pictures at the newly created multiply account of our barkada (courtesy again of Lala).

Yesterday we went to Tagaytay for the Christmas get together of my office buddies. We wanted to break our traditional lunch or dinner out every Christmas so we decided to go out of town this time.

Since Howell’s still not here and we don’t have a driver, Bela’s ninong Dennis was so bait and he picked us up at Chowking in front of the US Embassy. We then went to Shell in Magallanes to meet our other friends who are coming from Makati. When we met at Shell Magallanes, Timmy and Liza transferred to our car and then we head off to Tagaytay.

We decided to stop by at Paseo de Sta. Rosa and we’ll have a convoy from there. We arrived there first and so we we’re able to check some of the stores there. They now have an outlet store of Havaianas. Good thing there were no size for Bela, so I was not able to buy another havaianas for Bela. I was able to checked Nike park and was able to buy my dad a jersey at 50% off and I was able to buy an aqua socks (which I will be using for our Bohol Trip) at 50% off also. After a few minutes my friends form the other car arrived and then we head to Jospehine’s Tagaytay for our lunch. We had a sumptuous lunch at Jospehine’s. We we’re not able to avail of the weekend buffet since the buffet closed early yesterday because there was a wedding reception at the garden. Our lunch was courtesy of our October and November celebrants, Timmy and Dale. After Jospehine’s we went to Bag of Beans for dessert. We had our exchange gift there and Bela was the luckiest since she received gifts from all of my office buddies since all of them are Bela’s god parents. And she was happy with all the gifts she received as she was saying “wow” after opening each of them. She also enjoyed running around the garden and playing with the birds. We we’re not able to take any pictures since all of us assumed that somebody will bring their digital camera. LOL. This is the only picture that I got of Bela while she’s having a grand time at Bag of Beans.


After Bag of Beans, we then went to Sonya’s to check the place and bought some pasalubongs from their bakery. After Sonya’s they wanted to go back again to Paseo de Sta. Rosa for more shopping. I was able to grab more great finds. I bought a Levi’s jeans at 50% off and another shirt for my dad from Adidas at 40% off. After shopping, we decided to go home na since we’re all dead tired already.

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My officemate we’re so amazed with Bela because Bela was not shy in showing them all her tricks. This is the first time that Bela spent an entire day with them and so this is the first time that they were able to see Bela’s tricks. At 2 years old daw, she already knows a lot. Like on our way to Tagaytay, Bela started counting the trees from 1-10. When we we’re at Havaianas, Bela was identifying all the colors and images (fish, flower, bug, etc) that she sees at the poster outside. She even identified all the shapes that she sees. And she’s really a confident and sociable little girl because she readily played and entertained my officemates. Oh, I was one proud mom every time I hear compliments about Bela from my friends.

As I mentioned in my previous post, on our way to Mc Do this lunch time, I saw someone from my past. She is my college barkada.

When we’re in college, our group is composed of more than 10. But there were five of us who are really-really close. As in, they know all my secrets and problems, I know all their secrets and problems , we are the one who’s always hanging out, we’re always group mates when there is a group project, we even sleep in each other’s houses. We are friends since first year college so you can just imagine how close we are.

But right before graduation, when we are doing our thesis, we had an issue and tension in our group that we we’re not able to resolve. Maybe it’s because we’re all stress from doing our thesis or maybe we are immature, that instead of doing something to patch things up, nobody stepped up from us to fix our problem.

I can’t even remember the exact reason why we drifted apart. All I can remember is that they did something that pissed me of, I did something that pissed them off. It’s like we had a competition and nobody wants to lower their pride and we have to have our own revenge against each other.

After graduation, we lost contact. Sometimes I heard news from our common friends about them, but we never really talked after graduation. Just recently, I heard that both of them got married already and my other friend just gave birth to a healthy baby boy.

A few months ago, I even dreamt about them. Maybe it’s a sign that I miss both of them. We have gone through a lot already and I think 5 years of friendship shouldn’t just be put to waste. I tried sending one of them a message in friendster as that is the only way that I have, to contact them (I don’t know their email address or their cell phone number). But I didn’t get any reply.

When I saw my old friend this afternoon, I wanted to greet her and asked her how life has been. She was even with her husband and I was with Howell and Bela so I wanted to meet her husband and introduce Howell and my daughter to them. But when I looked at her, she looked away.

Maybe she’s still not ready to talk to me. Or could it be that she looked away because she doesn’t want to get reconnected with me and our friendship is totally gone forever. It made me kind of sad and up to now I’m still a little affected. But then I realized, maybe I’m still not ready also. Because if I was, I should have the courage to call her attention even if she looked away. Maybe, I’m still scared that I would be the one doing the first move. Maybe I’m still scared that she might reject me even if I wanted to say sorry.

I just miss them so much. There are times, I would reminisce and think about our college days. I just wish that after more than 5 years of being out of touch with each other, I hope that there would still be a way to bring back our friendship.

Just got back from another house to house campaign of my mom’s team. Syempre kasama ulit ang buong family including Bela. So I was carrying Bela the whole time. She doesn’t want to go with her yaya kse kaya super pagod na din ako.

My mom is also sick. Nahawa ata sa akin or maybe super stress sa election.

And just this morning we also attended the Dedication of the Noma Twins – Eliana & Eliora. I’m one of the ninang of Eliana (Yani). The mom of the twins was my barkada from high school and is also one of the ninang of Bela. Howell was the official photographer so we arrived there early and we’re also one of the last one to go. But we’re happy because super satisfied naman sila sa service ni hubby. Binook na nga si Howell for the twins 1st birthday on June…hehehe…I’ll post some pictures pag na download na ni Howell.

So now I’m blogging. Just relaxing before another long night as tonight is also the meeting de avance. Hay, feeling ko magkakasakit na naman ako. Super busy weekend.

SATURDAY

• My brother is out of town so he can’t man our Cellphone store at Greenhills. So we have to deliver the cell phone units to our tindera
• We decided to take Bela with us to Greenhills as she doesn’t want to let go of me (Nakatunog na naman kse na aalis kami ni Howell)
• After Greenhills, we dropped by at Farley’s house to get the cocktail dress that he made for me. I will wear this for Thet’s wedding.
• On our way home, Bela saw Malabon City Square (small mall in Malabon) and she keeps on saying “SS”, “SS”, “SS”. And so we figured, she was saying “SM.” Of course, we didn’t stop to go check out the mall and so she looks at me and gave me her paawa effect look. So we decided to have our lunch at SM na lang
• We fetched Yaya Chris then decided to have our lunch at our favorite resto –Café Monaco in Banawe before going to SM. We had Bibimbop (one of our favorites there and my favorite Fruit Crepe). We’re so full after our lunch.
• On our way to SM, Howell decided to drop by Dapitan Arcade / Suki Market to check some stuff for his new project (Bela’s TV/Play room). We didn’t find anything nice to buy, so after 30 minutes of window shopping, we decided to go to SM na lang.
• I left Bela, Howell and Yaya Chris at the Toy Section while I went to buy a gift for Thet and Dex for their wedding.
• Then we went home na as we we’re out again almost the whole day and we still have another long day tmorrow.

SUNDAY

Bela’s class at Little Gym: The topic for this week was singing so Teacher PJ incorporated a lot of singing to all the activities. During the opening circle, aside from singing the welcome song they sang ABC. And I was really proud as Bela was staying in the middle of the circle and was singing the song with Teacher PJ (as she knows some of the letters already). They also sang Twinkle, Twinkle and Bela was doing the actions with Teacher PJ as well.

Too bad we we’re not able to take pictures as Howell forgot to bring the CF cards for his camera.

After the class, we just had a quick lunch at Mc Do as we have to go home right away as we will be attending my friend Thet’s wedding at 5:30.

When we reached home we immediately went to the parlor for a HMU and Howell for a haircut. We left at 4:30 and since it’s Sunday, there is no traffic and we reached Wack Wack Golf & Country Club just before 5:30. Below are some pictures taken by Howell during the wedding.

some of my favorite pictures of the bride & groom - taken by Howell

my H.S. Barkada

mr & mrs. howell laguerta - 10.07.2007

Congrats again to Dex & Thet.

Last weekend, we went to La Luz Resort to celebrate my dad’s birthday. Then I noticed a couple walking in the beach and the girl just look like my best friend Jacq, who is now in LA. Wala lang, na miss ko lang sya bigla.

She just got married last December in LA and too bad I was not able to be a part of this special event in her life. Hope they can come back here in the Philippines soon or we’ll have a budget to come and visit them again in LA.

Miss you jacq….

Fooling around at Universal Studios

With her hubby, Neil