Amazingly Me

I have become someone I never thought I would be. Before I became a mother I was never really fun of taking pictures (of myself), but suddenly all of that changed when my little Liam came out. Would you believe I have to pick out the best among all the digital cameras available in the market to be able to get also the best photos of my baby. He is only two weeks old but I have to confess that he has more photos than me. I can't believe I have become a stage mother. Maybe I am just proud to be a mom, and proud of my baby.

Photo taken February 19, 2012 (Liam @ 4 days old)

On our way to his first Pedia appointment (February 21, 2012)

Here are some photos of my sister in Baguio. Just wanted to share it with all of you.

 It has been over a year since my little brother left for the US. For the first time in 29 years we have been separated this long and I must admit I miss him so much. There are only three siblings, although we grew up without our mom on our sides we have somehow draw strength from each other. I am the eldest, next is my lil brother then our youngest sister. Jan2x, my bro's nick name, and I are so alike. We get along well more than I get along with my sister. We both like sports, the same type of music, movies and a whole of other things. I was just chatting with him online and I can't help but miss him more. I know he will freak out ones he'd find out I wrote something like this in here, you know men. But at least he knows I miss him and I love him so much.

Upon learning that I am expecting one of the first people I told about it is of course my mom. She has been asking for a grandchild for quite a while now and I know she will be very,very happy. Now more than me my mom is also very proud and excited about the baby. She would want us to talk everyday and wants to see my tummy if it has grown bigger. I showed her my baby's latest ultrasound photo when we were enjoying our newly installed video and conference call services. Here is my baby's latest photo. 

He/she, we do not know the gender yet, is already 14 weeks.

I have been working with the same company for over six years now. I have gained so many friends along the way and many have already left for different reasons. Despite the fact that I no longer work with those people we still remained friends and I value the friendship I was able to build with them. But honestly I miss most of them. Most the people who left are the ones who are really close to me. Most of the people I work with now are relatively new and are much younger than me. Although I know I may still be able to develop the same kind of friendship with them in due time, it would have been better if they were still around.

So in my desire to remember them I want to share some memorable photos of us. 

This is me and Love, one of my closest friends who is now working in Kuwait. This was in 1998, during our Christmas team building activity. We all had so much fun.

While this photo was taken during Ate Sheila's farewell dinner. This was taken a couple of days before she left for London. We had this photo framed. Weeks after she arrived in London she sent me an e-mail with a photo of her showing me what she called as Wimbledon Hospitality. I was so envious but was so happy for her as well. 

As I was going through my old stuffs last night I found some old photos from way, way back. It brought back a lot of wonderful memories, some sad ones especially when I saw some photos of my late uncle who passed away last year. Most of the photos I found were not properly stored in an album and so most of them were not really in great condition. Moist have destroyed a few of them and it saddened me even more. 

I showed the photos to my sister and she told me to find a way  to somehow prevent the other photos from being destroyed. I told her it would be impossible to restore the ones that are already destroyed but I think I know of a way to preserve the ones that were still in good condition. It would be best if we have the photos scanned and stored, that way it would be easier to retrieve them. We can even put them in our social networking accounts and share them with our cousins and old friends. The problem is there were so many pictures to scan. It will be a bit expensive, but good thing my mom has Scan Cafe Coupon and she told us we can use it so that we can save in the scanning of the photos. I can't wait to upload all the scanned photos so that you all can see them.

It was his first time to go to Disney World. It was there that he decided to celebrate his 29th birthday. With him was my mom and step dad. They were in Orlando for 2 days, mom said they had a grand time but I was having trouble believing that when I saw my brother's photos.

Let me introduce you all to my idol. For me she one of the most strong-willed woman I have ever known. She Sinforosa Bajarias, she will be turning 84 years old this year. She is the mom of my mom, my grandmother for short. This photo was taken November last year. This is her holding her certificate, signifying the end of her chemo and radiation treatment. Also in the photo is the mask she used during her radiation therapy, it is used to immobilize her as well as marker as to where exactly is the area to irradiate.

We found out that the cancer which was first diagnosed 32 years ago is on remission, on the later part of 2010. We were all worried because she could not eat anything solid and was eventually on feeding tube, as per doctor's advise. Early of 2010, she lost a son to heart attack. Lola (grandma) was here in the Philippines for vacation that time, we were given the hard task to break the news to her. We were all crying but she did not shed a tear. All she was able to say was, I am going to bury another one of my children again.  

But before all that she went through last year, she had gone through   more difficult and life changing experiences many times already. But every time you see her, with her skinny, frail looking body you would not imagine how she was able to manage all of that. She is able to maintain a happy and positive outlook in life. at her age she remained very fashionable and still very beautiful. You will not think she is already in her 80's. 

From all your children and grandchildren we want you to know that we love you very much. I would want my children to meet and know you. So you should get better, you have to come back here we still have many more places to go, people to meet and food to eat.

We surely had so much fun wandering around inside the Crocodile Park inside the Davao Riverfront Corporate City. Here are some of our photos inside the park. 

Us posing with the snake statue. That's the only thing I can bare doing that involves snakes, I can't have a photo taken holding the real snake.

My friend Ai2x with the baby Croc...

The Amazing 3. Young adult crocs inside the breeding cage.

The not so shy Eagle...

Baby sister with the...gosh forgot what this reptile is called...LOL

 The sleeping tiger..again forgot her name...

Aside from the Crocodile park, also inside the Riverfront compound is the Davao Butterfly, House Tribu K'Mindanawan, Riverwalk grill which serves crocodile dishes.  There are so much to do while there.

Let me share with you some of the photos that I took last December 18, 2010. It was a very busy day for me.

My sister's bestfriend Kathy, my sister, me and my brother's girlfriend Lorna

Me and Lorna playing Wii while my sister and her boyfriend Karlo watching us from behind.

Then I had to meet my sister and some of our friends at a club in the city where we took a VIP room where we can use the videoke machine or play Wii. Aside from that the VIP room also has a personal computer with internet connection and a document imaging machine. Afterward we decided to play billiards, and we had so much fun.We ended the night at around 3 in the morning.

I am not the most creative person you may know, not even the most patient. Creativity and patience are just two of the traits a person must posses to be able to come up with amazing work of arts. So since I do not posses those there is no way I can come up with something very creative, right? Well I guess that where you are wrong, thanks to smilebox.com I was able to create a beautiful slideshow which I used during a clinic presentation. I was obliged to make one since I am the head of my department and I cannot delegate it to somebody else. 

I was so happy with my work, to think it only took me less than an hour to finish the whole project. Now I am planning to make more slideshows but this time it will be composed of photos of me and my friends which I will pose in Facebook. Better watch for it guys, you will not think that it is made by me. 

I have always wanted to visit Mati, Davao Oriental. I have heard about its beautiful beaches from friends and ha seen pretty photos of it in the net and in magazines. Finally I will be able to visit the place next weekend. I am very,very excited, the long wait is finally over.

Here are some photos taken by one of Mati's very own Miss Jojie Alcantara.

A day before my natal day I went out with my sister, a friend and her daughter. We had diner and went to bazaar and did some picture taking. Here are some of the photos we took. Included are the food we ate during dinner.

Me and my friend's daughter Nadine

Bistro sandwich for my sister

Deep sea pasta for me

If me and my brother is now far from each other, in short separated, it is a different case for my dog Feet-feet. She has been recently reunited with her sister. Her sister, Stitch, was brought to our house this afternoon and will be staying here until Wednesday. Fitch will be o a short vacation, she will spend some quality time with her sister. We were so happy to see them together especially when we saw that they were getting along very well. I think the photo above shows exactly just that.

I have not posted anything here about UFC for a while. I don't think I will be not unless I am willing to watch the fights alone. The reason? My brother... Since he already left to join my Mom in Florida I would be watching the fights on my own. He was my partner, we would exchange thoughts on previous fights by various MMA fighters. We also had our favorite fighters, the most hated ones as well. I will surely miss my brother. This is the first time that we have been separated this far.

Our house feels so empty, very quiet without him. We don't have a housekeeper and cook, that was his job before. We miss you so much!

Another update... I hope I am not boring you with all these photos its just that I have been inactive for a very long time that I have so many things I wanted to share with you. So here are some of the latest photos I took.

Photo of me and mommy. She is here in the Philippines for vacation together with my Granny and step-father. We are all glad to be able to spend Christmas with her after almost ten years.

See that pretty girl in the photo? That's Rylie, Mommy Rose and Sir John's beautiful daughter. There is this contest entitled "Pinoy Smile" which Mommy Rose participated at. As her entry she submitted this amazing photo of her little girl. Now all Mommy Rose needs are our votes so Rylie will win. Look at that smile guys, she really deserves it.

There are three of us girls in the family. Would you care to meet "The Sisters"?

The eldest is my Ate Leila, thirty something (she doesn't want me to reveal her real age, she doesn't look it anyway) bank employee, has one child my first nephew Lance who is already 13 years old. She lives in General Santos City, but I get to see her often coz she visits us here in Davao. Oh she is my half sister, we have different fathers.

The one beside her is my younger sister Rea. She is two years younger than me, spent almost all my life with her. We have not been separated from each other, the longest that I can remember was when she had her ultrasound training in Manila for two months. We graduated from college at the same time, from the same school, took the same course and now does the same job. We fight more often than my younger brother, I guess that how it is really when it comes to sisters.