A Happy Birthday

Another year had just been added to my age. Whew!!!  It’s been an interesting year for me -- lots of fun with friends, several travels and priceless family bonding.

My heart is literally bursting with joy when I woke up with birthday messages pouring through text from my grade school to college friends to my previous and current workmates; several tweets; lots of FB private messages and posts tagging me;  endless personal greetings and a morning call with my entire family on the other line. PURE JOY!!!! I didn't realize that I would develop such strong relationships with these people who truly matters to me.

Here's  how my birthday celebration goes...

My birthday is actually April 26.  But some of my friends have work so we decided to have a simple advanced b-day celebration a day before it--- a late lunch date at Bigby's in SM CDO.

Thank you Yay (thanks for this pic too), Shiloy, Allen, Maddie and Angelo for celebrating it with me. You guys are amazing!!! Thank you for the friendship. Love you!!!!

On my actual birthday, I had lunch with Nanay, Vangie, Ate Bey and Baby Brett at home. No picture taken here. hehehe Forget to take pics, maybe because we're starving? Oh well..

At around 3pm we assembled at SM to watch The Avengers. With me were Ching, Dee, Arah and her hubby Charlie.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="607"] Image grabbed from Google[/caption]

Will describe this movie in two words...AMAZINGLY AWESOME!!!!! A must watch movie!!!!!....We did enjoy the movie, we're even talking that for sure there will be a sequel for this that we can't wait to watch.

Enough of this The Avenger awesome-ness.

Right after watching the movie, we had dinner at Roadhouse still at SM CDO. Group picture while waiting for our order. Missing Hazel here.Unbelievably crispy Kangkong.Pork Sinigang. We then realized after eating that we don't have group picture with our food. hehe Hungry much I guess..

After dinner we headed straight to N Hotel for a night swimming.Yey!!! By the way swimming at this hotel is worth P150 and it's available till 9pm only.

While paying at the front desk,  I took some pictures around the lobby anything that caught my attention.Those cute, colorful butterflies hanging on the wall are eye catchers.That "bling-bling" at the ceiling looks like bubbles about to spread. Nice, isn't it?Center table at the hotel lobbyPlant beautifully lit with a blue bulb.

Now time to get wet.

The swimmers in us got excited to dip in the pool. Not a single minute wasted, we immediately changed into our swim wears.The restless feet were literally wet.  Oh how I love to do this more often. I so love this photo. Beautiful ladies.

Group picture before leaving the hotel premise.

Brief stop over at the Taza Coffee shop before wrapping up the night. I personally don't like their Amaretto Frio but I just let it pass coz I don't want to ruin my wonderful day. I'm so happy that no bad vibes could interfere it.Another group picture before going home.

Good company and sincere greetings from people close to me would be enough for my birthday, but I HAD more than ENOUGH.
I am so truly blessed with wonderful family,and friends to share my birthday joy with ...
Thank you all guys for constantly being there.

I can't wait to see what the next year has in store for me!

Happy birthday to myself!!!!

Hazel's Bridal Shower

Our friend and officemate, Hazel, is getting married next week (Apr 27, 2012).  We are so happy and excited for her big day.  There's no better way to honor our dear bride-to-be than with a bridal shower, but where do we start? Most of us are first timers in this “You’re-getting-married” party.  So we just opted to have an intimate get-together-house-party for her. Considering our work  schedule it is so hard to get free time but all for the love of Hazel, we were able to make it last night. It was a simple, memorable, intimate and fun bridal shower.

We asked 2 of our friends to act as our "surprise guest" for Hazel. Thank you to Mike and Jeff for participating esp to Jeff.  It wouldn't be that fun without them.

Let me share with you the happenings last night.

One of us quickly rushed to put a black veil onto Hazel's head before she entered the house. That's Jeff in plaid shirt gamely participated for our little suprise. Look at the bride-to-be's reaction!!! Sooooooooo priceless.

On top of the the cake is a black "naughty candle".

Cool reactions seeing the cake. hehehe

The bride to be showing that girly sexy lingerie.

After our munting salo salo each of us gave our best wishes for Hazel.

Our group picture before we went home.

We have less time and less preparation but we had fun.  I loved the bond that we all have.

Best wishes to you Hazel and to your fiance . You and Julius deserves each other.

Reggie and Yayu's wedding

I've been into several weddings but this wedding I just attended I should say is one of the best. Spell solemn and well-organized, this one is the answer. My two thumbs up to the couple who meticulously planned and prepared their big day. The bride even blogged about how pressured she is for this big day, click here to check it.  One thing's for sure the result was super worth the pressure.

Here are snippets of the wedding grabbed from their official wedding photographer's FB account.

The church. This is St Lorenzo church overlooking the city of Cagayan de Oro. A very perfect sanctuary to exchange that vow of a lifetime partnership.

The tastefully arranged flowers in the side brought perfection to that red carpet.

Reggie here with his proud parents. His glorious smile is a proof how ready he is to tell God his vow of love and fidelity to his  then girlfriend now wife.

Yayu the stunning bride. When she entered the church she's simply dashing, boasting with elegance and confidence. She looked every bit of a princess finally marrying her prince.  Her gown is just perfect for her petite built. Take a closer look of it below.

The reception was held at Pearlmont Inn. When we arrived visitors were not yet allowed to enter the hall. Everyone was treated with pastries and cold drinks. Some took advantage of the photo booth also.  After several minutes of waiting we were then allowed to enter the hall.

VOILA. The place is simply impressive.

This is a real WOW, stylish flower arrangement blending well with the magically lit banquet hall aaahhhhh SPECTACULAR that is.

The couple  were dancing upon  entering the  hall.

Sometimes all it takes is just looking at pictures of happiness to trigger a good vibe, this picture of the couple above is so contagious and it radiates  happiness. Well, who wouldn't? By the way that picture was taken when they were watching the video of them shown in the projector.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/40665187]

Can't help but notice some visuals that caught my attention. Super happy that their photographer was able to capture all those. Here they are....

These flowers are sooo damn cute to be ignored. So posh

The celebration was filled with smiles and  laughter.  Everyone is overwhelmed with delight and amazement. Sumptuous food, romantic music, classy ambiance, super in-love couple..what else could you ask for?

That wedding was truly worth every penny spent and every single effort made. It was a huge success.

Best wishes to the newly wed.

Intangibles

If you'll ask the 7 or 8 year old in me what are the things that I like,  I'll definitely answer ice cream, dolls,  toys, a play in the park, beach days and more and more toys.  But then in those times of brooding I just realized that some of the best things in life are intangibles. It can be experienced anytime, anywhere if we'll just open our heart and mind to let them in.

We're so engrossed in securing a good life,  fully furnished house, clothes, shoes, and cars among others. These material things draw us away to notice and appreciate the intangibles and the immaterial things. Don't get me wrong, I'm still a huge fan of ice cream - Magnum ice cream to be exact, though not into those kiddie toys anymore but I have my little indulgence  of material things too,  and oh man you can't just stop me from loving the beach - beach  is and will always be one of my happiness.  It's just that there's so much more  about life that doesn't cost any penny.

What I mean is....

How could you ignore a simple hug from your brother and sister!!! aaaaaahhh pure joy.

The love and support of your family when you are so uncertain to decide for something.

That feeling when you wake up to a beautiful day and that you are still breathing to enjoy life.

Those laughters shared with your  friends from grade school, high school and college.

Your act of kindness being appreciated by a simple yet sincere "thank you". Isn't it lovely?

A smile from stranger - a gift of smile is such a pleasure much more when it comes from a stranger.

That level of fulfillment when you try new things that you didn't expect  you're capable of doing

When someone send you messages and tells you "I miss you" *insert kilig-ness here*

Good food, good company, good health and a GOOD NIGHT SLEEP (call center agents can relate to this)

All these intangibles brought me peculiar joy that can't be bought by money.  It made me realize that life is not all about material things and not all bad vibes.  All we have to do is allow  these intangibles embrace us.

Indeed, there's so much to be thankful about life.

Wish List

April is my birthday month.  I don't have  specific plan yet what to do and where to go on my birthday. I'm not into partying,  mostly I spent my birthdays with family or with close friends.  Just a simple dinner or lunch will do,  for I believe that it's not how extravagant your celebration is but it's how and who you celebrate it with that matters the most.

I don't really want much on my birthday. All I want is good company, simple greetings and good food. But should you be willing to make me more than happy here's  my list of wishes for my birthday. hehehehe

1. Round trip ticket to Palawan -  I'm such a sucker when it comes to traveling so a free ticket is on top of my list. If you've been reading my blog you'll know that I'm dreaming of this place,  check my post here. I know this wish is too good to be true but as they said it's free to dream. So there...Just look at that picture below, who wouldn't love to be in that place?

Image above is grabbed here.

2. Swim wear.  Since my birthday month falls on summer so swim wear is the next thing popping out on my mind. I don't need super expensive one. As long as it will fit me and I'm comfortable wearing it, I'll be very happy with that then.

This neon swim suit is so cool. Image was grabbed in this  site

3. Cover-up. These knitted cover ups below are to die for.

I grabbed this photos from Patty Laurel's blog

4. Hats and Flip flops. Considering the hit of the sun,  these lovely and girly hats are good options.  Walking along the shore, flip flops are also needed.

Will surely love to receive these cool hats and flip flops. Got this picture at Laureen Uy's blog.

Isn't it obvious that my list is all about summer and beach. I just can't resist my excitement to hit the beach anytime soon. And those items above are my must haves.

There you have it. I have other things to add on my list, maybe I'll just add it and make a new post for it.

Hello Summer

Summer is officially here. I have no plan yet to take a break this month, (take a break means going to the beach and just enjoy) but still I'll welcome summer.

Image grabbed here

Will hit the beach next month and then BORA after a couple of months. Yehey!!!! The traveler in me can't really really hide the excitement when Boracay is mentioned. Who wouldn't?