The EXcounter

From the time we decided not to bring the car anymore on ordinary days but commute instead, my husband suspects that sooner or later, he and his ex-girlfriend’s paths would cross again since we’re just some blocks away from their residence and she also happen to work around the area within the vicinity of our office. Indeed it happened very soon.

The first encounter was a Friday night when we ate dinner first before going home since it’s already late. The three of us rode the same shuttle on our way home. =) I didn’t see her (or it’s because I already forgot how she looked like), my hubby did. It was only during halfway our ride when my hubby disclosed her to me and that’s the time I knew the reason why he’s very agitated from the moment we stepped into the shuttle. Immediately after the ride, we can’t help but to ask each other our thoughts and feelings. We had the same thought – “What was she thinking?” =)

The second meeting was prevented beforehand by my husband because he chose not to ride that shuttle. He saw her again at the front seat, I didn’t (as usual). We went home early that time so we opt to wait at the shuttle terminal just a block away in front of our office building. We thought we’ll not meet her there since it’s a bit far from where she work. She might be thinking the same too. All of us were wrong.

And the recent encounter was this morning on our way to the office while we were on queue waiting for a ride. She passed by us after disembarking from a jeepney since we’re in front of the queue. But this time my husband forewarned me about her presence that’s why I become aware. We doubted her lining up on a different queue. Perhaps to avoid the three of us riding the same shuttle again.

I only see scenes of encountering with an Ex on TV commercials. Never thought it can happen to us. It’s indeed such a small world.

Revived Throne

I can barely remember how I grew fond of bowling. All I can recall was I used to cheer Mama whenever she played duckpin bowling during our school's PTA sportsfest when we were still in elementary. I always ask her to play for my Grade level and not with my siblings (parents of grades 1 to 6 students will have a team that will compete for the championship) because she's very good at bowling and I wanted our Grade level to win. I can also remember watching my grandmother's brother joining the city's bowling tournament and the countless recognition he got from it. Perhaps it's with my early exposure on that sport that led me to it.

I started playing with duckpin when I was in highschool. My mother doesn't like me to be involved on that sport because of my very frail physique but I never heeded her advice because I love what I'm doing. The first time I experienced playing with tenpin bowling was when I was already working. It became our Friday or weekend pastime with friends and officemates. My hubby who was my boyfriend then insisted on me to get serious on bowling since he saw in me the potential to excel on that sport but I just simply turn my back on his comments because it never crossed my mind to join bowling clubs and tournaments. I just play for the love of playing bowling. Not soon enough, I bought my first and only second-hand bowling ball. Followed by the accessories (shoes, bags, wrist support, etc.) that my hubby bought for me to show his support. That was when I won in our company bowling tournaments.

From then on I strive hard to always be the best female bowler in our company’s annual bowling tournament. I can only remember three incidents where I was never awarded that title. The first one was due to some loopholes on the rules. But I was still happy because my bestfriend-officemate got the award. The second one was so unlucky for me. I got the highest score during the elimination round but someone beat it during the finals. My team was eliminated so I never had the chance to increase my score. The third time was due to my pregnancy that I wasn’t able to attend the tournament. But in reality, I never expected to grab the award again after two years of not striking the pins. My hubby and I practiced just a day before the tournament. Bowling is a muscle memory sport. We never expect to win or get some awards from the tournament because not being able to play for a couple of years already.

Sweet comeback. I got the best female bowler award and my husband's team were in the third place. =)

My winning pose  =)

The Christian World

After all the planning, preparations and not to mention the delays due to my husband's extension on his biz trip, the baptism of our darling little angel was done yesterday. The occassion went out very well. All our families, relatives, close friends and officemates were present to grace the affair.

This is the first spiritual milestone of our daughter. And we believe, it's our responsibility as parents to guide and teach her towards the enhancement on the spiritual aspect of her life. We do not only give her the basic needs for her physical growth but we have to develop her holistically so she can withstand with grace and wisdom all the things life has in store for her. I can't help to mention this - among the babies that were baptized that day, I think she was the only one attentively observing the ceremony. I wonder if she understood what the priest was saying. =)


The invitation I created and revised for the Nth time already. =) Made this while I was still on maternity leave and very addicted with digiscrapping.

Mi kumares -- delighted with their souvenirs and special goodies

There's a place. . .

My husband is supposed to return today from his business trip but very sad to say that their team is again extended for a week or so. We badly miss each other, he missed our daughter a lot. This is the longest separation we had ever since our relationship. Just comforting each other during our lengthly nightly chat. But the distance we have right now provided us a purpose to be intimate again with each other. Rekindle the love we are sharing during the past years. Our nightly chat gave us the freedom to tell and describe to each other our plans, desires on our careers, our family life, our future and even our deepest personal secrets. We also had a good time reminiscing our very beautiful and colorful pasts as well as the hideous ones (**hehehe**). I think we've become much closer now; nothing's hidden between us anymore; set an all-out honesty policy. This made us realized that there are still a lot of things to discover from each other. And this makes life more exciting on the days to come. =)

I remembered the above phrase I send to him everytime we are away. Created this digiscrapped picture to remind us always that no matter how far the distance between us, our love for each other will and still remains strong

DigiScrapping

I bumped into this new stuff which will definitely become my new hobby -- DigiScrapping, short for Digital Scrapbooking. I was searching out suppliers and materials from the net for the invitation of our baby's baptism. Having second thoughts if we'll have the vendors make it or I'll make it to save some bucks.

I got very excited. Downloaded lots of free samples from the net. Creative ideas overflowing from my mind. I've already created two samples which I gave to my bestfriends. Actually I pressured myself to create it because I've got nothing to give them on their birthday. Remember I'm still on maternity leave and cannot go out the house.

They were amazed on my masterpiece (**hehehe**) and want their photos to be digitally scrapbooked, if I have the time.

I'm suppose to mention all the people or sites whom I got these scrapbook materials, but they are too many to mention. Just refer to the links on the right I posted in this blog site. I'm not using this for business anyway. =)

Piercing

Alas! After a month of waiting, our little girl now have earrings. We went to the Health Center, where my mother-in-law (MIL) served as a resident doctor before she retired a couple of years ago, for the ear piercing service. I'm glad I still know how to drive the car =). My MIL see to it that there's nobody in the center so as not to contract virus or disease of some sort from patients.

I was somehow amazed on how the piercing is done nowadays. Very different indeed from the way it was before, during my childhood days where we have this white thread pre-soaked on the reddish merthiolate solution that served as our earrings. We can never have a decent earring at that time because our ears always get infected. This was due to the unsterile equipments used when our ears got pierced. It was only until college that that I wear original gold/silver earrings because they become very itchy everytime I put on a fancy one.



This is how our little 2-month old angel looked like after getting her first earrings =)

Gloomy Valentine

We've been through years of spending our Valentine's day together as boyfriend/girlfriend. Tagaytay is always our favorite getaway because it's not too long drive away from Alabang. Watching concerts and shows too is very memorable coz it never fails to remind us of a very tragic incident..(**hehehe **) And who would've thought we'd visited Baywalk Park just to see the Lovapalooza craze. Now our friends would know. But we weren't one of the kissing couple's, just an expectator. =) And the best part is hotel hopping, watching couples dine and feeling the very romantic ambiance of the place.

Sigh, I missed those crazy and extraordinary things we do during valentine's day. It's so sad to think that we're husband and wife now, our first time to celebrate this day after being married, we're apart from each other. =( Well, I just have to think that we have our whole lifetime to spend our Valentines anyway.

Visitors

Never experienced staying in the house for too long (approx 2.5 months) in my entire life without going out. My world is just evolving inside the house of the Candazo's where we are temporarily staying. My hubby's in Japan for a business trip for a couple of months or so. It's just me, our baby, my hubby's family and the househelps. I barely go out (just to nearby Mercury drugstore), I mean I can't go out (to stroll around) because I'm still recuperating from surgery. Also the fact that I'm not familiar with Marikina yet. Haven't tried going around the place riding PUVs, always with a car.

But my maternity leave wasn't very boring at all. Thanks to my close friends, families and relatives who paid me some visit even though we we're miles away from them. It relieved me of my loneliness somehow. My very dear uncle from US whom I've not seen for almost 5 years together with his wife visited me. Though for just a couple of hours of conversation over lunch, it made me feel at home again, together with my family and relatives. Not to forget to mention my bestfriends' (Phen and Ileen) visits. A very cheerful chit-chats over what's happening around. It somehow polished my guest-hosting which I've never practiced for so long now since I used to be a guest, always. =)

Away In The Land Of The Rising Sun

It will be a week this Saturday when my husband left for a 2-month business trip. I can still feel how sad we were when we exchanged our poignant goodbyes. Two weeks before his scheduled trip, I was the one who always cry because of sadness since he'll be leaving me and our baby very soon. He told me not to weep since the trip will be for our good financially and he's already ashamed to decline the project offer for the fifth time. But it really broke my heart when I saw him cry the dawn we see him off. We promised each other not to cry on the departure date. He broke it, I consoled him instead.

I'm unhappy knowing that this is our first child and he can't be with her during her first months. Not to mention that I am still recovering from a surgical delivery and I need him badly beside me. But life has to move on for us. I'm just very grateful that I'm very well taken cared of by my in-laws. All the support and care that I can never imagine. For now I have to be contented with the nightly chat with my hubby. I wish I could be there with him, to cook his food, prepare his clothes and simply take care of him.

Four years in relationship and months of marriage, we still hate being away from each other. He had numerous business trips before and every separation is painful. And like his every homecoming, I'm now counting the days of that blissful moment.

Giving Birth

The day was December 27, 2005. It was just a normal day for my routine pre-natal check-up but arrived in the hospital at 3cm already without any pains, symptoms or whatsoever. We were ready though coz we already brought all the things needed in case I'll be induced by my OB because our baby is growing large at 38 weeks. I was prepared by all the nurses, midwives and interns for the labor, checking on all my vital signs, contractions and cleaning my body. I'm keeping myself brave with prayers while I was in the pre-labor room.

My OB came and directed an induced labor by giving Oxytocin to rupture my water bag. I waited in the labor room. An intern named Andrea closely monitored the contractions, baby movements and vital signs. After an hour of being induced, she found out my baby's position was no longer cephalic but oblique, turning I think about 20-30 degrees to my right. It was a crucial moment since she seemed can't contact my OB which was very busy at that time and my bag could rupture anytime. While waiting for about 30 minutes, I prayed very hard for my baby to turn for normal delivery but it never happened. As soon as they got in touch with my OB, I was ordered for stat CS, meaning I can no longer proceed with normal delivery but had to undergo CS operation immediately.

There were many thoughts running inside my mind. I don't want my first childbirth to be a cesarean. I've been tediously preparing my body and myself for the pain of normal delivery. There was a moment in the labor room, though afraid to, I asked God why this happened at the last minute. But still, I told Him I'll surrender everything to His will for me and our baby.

I was immediately brought to the operating room after being cleaned for the second time. The OR's very cold, I'm merely wearing a sheer hospital gown. The anesthesiologist came with his sidekick and I chatted with them to calm myself. The OR team passed the time chatting while waiting for my OB while I'm praying very hard until I drowsed to sleep. The OB came an hour and a half after and the room became very busy.

I still remember all the sequence of events. I was given a spinal block, my lower body became numb and they cleaned it again for the last time, the anesthesiologist was standing beside my head and kept talking to me perhaps to check on my consciousness, equipments were counted twice, my OB ordered the blades (there were two). Though I can barely see my abdomen via the OR lamp's reflection, I didn't do it because of fear. Not until I heard a cry and the first thing I saw was the hairy head of my baby. The OR was filled with my baby's cry until she was brought out to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The last sight I saw on my abdomen was an aluminum bowl full of bloody stuffs. They might be cleaning the mess at that time.

Although I've questioned God's will for me in some way, I realized that His plan is always perfect. My baby turned oblique at the last minute and had to be delivered surgically because of short cord, meconium (she pooed inside) and she's plainly too big for a normal delivery (at 8.3 lbs).

Giving birth to my baby took me only 6 hours from the time I was admitted to the pre-labor room. I even didn't experience much pains from what I've expected. Perhaps my prayers worked anyhow. What's keeping me strong during the process was I always bear in mind that all the pains I have to undergo in the delivery is nothing compared to all the physical and emotional sufferings Jesus went through the cross for our salvation.

I made it! I'm a certified mother now, ready to raise another child of God.