Looking Forward to 2012

One goal is to purchase a laptop for each of my girls. A bit of a strain on me since this means I'd have to work even more extra hours. But my girls have been working so hard, they deserve it. We're looking at Samsung Series 3 each for Angela and Alex and an HP mini for Adrianne. If things go as well as I've been hoping, I should be able to get these before the end of the first quarter of 2012. If not, a little bit into the year. Mainly, I am hoping to get all 3 at the same time.

This has become necessary, especially after all my 3 daughters argued over who gets to use my laptop first. Angela had to do her paper on classical music, Alex had to do the layout for their school newspaper and Adrianne had to edit the script for their school play. Angela's netbook had recently broken down and Mario's laptop isn't as fast as mine. Although they worked out a compromise and a bit of a schedule, I really should work harder to get them on each.





Come February, Angela is dying to get Soul Calibur V...



For March, our whole family is excited to get our hands on Mass Effect 3 that we will have to draw lots on the order of who gets to play first...



Also between March and April, a 3 day family weekend at La Luz Resort with Mama, Maan, Kuya Manny and his bff Ruel!



In April, I am looking forward to season 2 of, well, they're sticking to the title Game of Thrones...



No plans yet for the rest of the summer...

Then come June, Angela will be on her second year in college, getting more and more seriously into her chosen major. Our Alexandria will be starting her first year college! We will have two college girls already! Also, we will be transferring Adrianne to a better school nearby called Ingenium. She is in love with the place, having an all new building complete with everything!



Oh dear, how time seems to just speed on by! Looking back at my first year doing this here blog, at how tiny our girls were back then, I'm in tears, man. tears...

2011 Mini Vacations

First off was our annual summer family camping in Caliraya, with my rubber boat in tow. Ahahaha! I always fancied myself a pirate when I was a kid but I was kinda thinking of a bigger boat. Still, I suppose the child in me will never fade, same for Mario, which is an awesome thing for our kids.









We also spent a weekend during semestral break at Tagaytay Wingate Manor, a small but lovely bed in breakfast. We also had breakfast at Bag of Beans, checked out Picnic Grove, had lunch at Antonio's Grill, enjoyed the view of Taal lake at Starbucks and had our fill at Carlo's Pizza. The rest of our meals we had at Wingate. I've been working three weeks straight for 12-16 hours a day and my girls were so exhausted from all their school work, so this trip was a sudden urge to escape.











We spent 3 days of Christmas in Tagaytay as well, which is now our go-to for relaxation. This time, we stayed at Hotel Kimberly. Again, breakfast at Bag of Beans, drinks and lovely view at Starbucks, drove around to explore the area, then hardly left the hotel after our check in. We didn't have to. We had the rest of our meals at the hotel's restaurant, Cafe K, where buffets were quite delicious and satisfying. They also have a game room, dvd player in the rooms, swimming pool, a large open field with farm animals, a playground and a bonfire in the evening where we can roast marshmallows. The other guests were hesitant to do this, but soon as our girls started, who are used to it from camping, others followed. Some even watching them to see how to do it properly.

While quietly admiring the view on the terrace of Starbucks, one of our girls started singing the start of Afternoon Delight. With each line, another family member joined in until we were all singing, with straight faces and different, er, tones until the end of the song, which was the only time we actually started laughing. It was much like in that scene in the movie Anchor Man, and yes, there were other people around witnessing this. I guess that kinda sums up how embarrassingly fun, random and musically ill-coordinate our family is.





























And to cap off, here are my top 10 status on facebook for 2011...





Here's to an even more awesome 2012 year of the dragon!

2011 Highlights

I have been too busy with work, family and fun fun fun to do any more updates on here. What some only yak-yak-yak about, aspire to and claim to be capable of, I actually do, and so does my family. So, I decided this will only be an annual thing, to remind me of a truly blessed life. I got most of these photos from Mario's facebook.

First off, our angels who are now young ladies!

Alexandria and Alex off to JS Prom.



Angela turns sweet sixteen and had a small pool party for friends at home.



Alex's birthday with family & friends at Rack's MOA then we saw the new Green Hornet movie which was loads of fun, especially since Kuya Manny was home from the UK during the time.



We spent Adrianne's birthday at Rack's MOA and then attended our first cosplay event at SMX which was awesome.





Angela graduated high school while Adrianne finished elementary school. They opted to have lunch at a bacolod chicken restaurant nearby, which is their current favorite. We go there whenever and they still chose that place for this special ocassion. Ahahahaha!



Our Angela starts her college life at UA&P at age 16 as a hatchling, studying Integrated Marketing Communications. She got a 1.0 grade on her first English paper. The professor even read her work in class and complemented her writing style. Her subject was our family dog and she managed to make it entertaining, interesting and touching. Our baby is truly talented!



Our Adrianne starts off her High School life as a class president and with a third honor in academics along with other awards. I actually have two envelopes bursting with certificates from when our girls started school up to this day.



Our Alexandria has also started applying for college. Sadly, she didn't make the cut at our top choice, UA&P, but has been accepted at Miriam College. We are still collectively contemplating on whether or not she should go to culinary school.



Next up - Family Elders...

Mama has been a happy retiree and we spend the day or weekend with her once a month. She had an operation this year to take out her kidney stone. I had to be there most of the days despite my busy work schedule cause she kept insisting she feels more confident when I'm there. When we visit, she prepares the most delicious meals, you'd think there's a special ocassion!





Cris and I took our Mum on a lunch and movie date for her birthday. We got to see Bride's Maids which is terribly funny, I'm gonna get it in dvd when it comes out at our suki, Astrovision.



Lola Rosing is our grandfather's sister. She has no kids and so it has been left to nephews and nieces as well as grandkids to take care of her. It came to a point she had nowhere left to go at her old age of 85 and confined to a wheelchair. I cleared out and prepared an old room at our compound and we took her in. I hired a caretaker as well. The whole clan shares all of her expenses and it has become easier to visit her here.



Now, about work. Its been going well although we have massive issues about the spending of our Dad's second family eating off our capital and, well, everything else. Still, the battle moves forward! I also continue to do another job on the side, which tides us over during times our main business can't. Despite this, I still deliver my usual high quality work. I love most of my buyers, including the new accounts I got this year. Although their orders are smaller than what I'm used to, their compliments on my work is just part of the non monetary aspect that keeps tired old me going.



Oh yeah, this is one of three of my designs that was included in the Horchow catalogue. I submitted about seven designs and they got three. I also had a previous product that I designed that they featured two year earlier. This is just one. I have accumulated a great many others.



This year, I also attended our 20th year High School reunion. Kulasas (St. Scholastica's Academy of Marikina) batch 91 came together and it was just as wild and crazy as we were back then! Also, I especially like that philanthropy seems to be a norm amongst us, the mark of a true Kulasa. I was also at the table that got reprimanded the most. Ahehe! It was Pong! I swear!





We also visited Papa with our dear Tita Clavel who flew in from the US. We had so much fun! She is always such a joy to be with! It was pleasant to be with a family elder who has as much drive and courage as I do.



Food tripping was still a once to twice a week thing. Sometimes more. Ok, there are just so many, I dunno, I just took some random photos. Ahaha!

















We also went to Enchanted Kingdom sometime during the summer with my brother, Joel, and one of Alex's bff's and now family friend, Jodie. We just went nuts and acted like idiots, having fun fun fun to a point that other people around us were laughing as well!







Mario and I still play airsoft for a bit of fun, but very rarely. I guess it's mostly cause we made great friends in our team that we simply cannot stay away for too long. I love you, SMAC!



New gadgets this year: Alcatel phones for Alex and Adrianne, and HTC for me and a Sony-Ericsson for Mario, the third one this year. He also got himself a Pentax digital camera.











Kuya Manny also bought us an Xbox360 to match the big LCD tv that Mario got late 2010. This allowed us even more bonding with our gamer kids. Our Alex's preference is Sims and Resident Evil; the contrast almost disturging. Ahaha! I love it! Our Adrianne likes shooter combat like Modern Warfare and Call of Duty. She and her Papa are best friend on that, among other things. Our Angela is the most into gaming of all kinds, first slaughtering the in-house champion and challenger after challenger in Soul Calibur 4 at a cosplay event. She attracted a small crowd and a line of challengers until our baby got up and decided we were there to admire the cosplayers as per our birthday celebrant, Adrianne's, request, not watch her play. The booth owner went after us, trying to get her to continue playing. Rockstardom runs in the family.





I guess I can say I'm a tiny bit of a "gamer" now myself, although my entire family calls me a noob and laughs their asses off at my attempts.I did, however, manage to finish Mass Effect properly and Mass Effect 2 with the perfect ending. It helped a lot that it has a hot, green, lizard alien that you can actually romance! Ahahaha! I admit, I have seven different commander shepards waiting for Mass Effect 3 to come this March. It is awesome how Mario and I can spazz with out teenage kids about the same things! I think that my favorite gift this year is this authentic Mass Effect t-shirt that my girls secretly ordered online straight from the Bioware store and gave to me as a surprise!







Although I haven't read much since college, I have to admit that the new HBO series Game of Thrones made me curious about A Song Of Ice and Fire. Mario figured it would take me back to far more carefree days when I would read, do some extreme sport, read, pester my friends, read, do something extreme again. Due to my busy schedule and duties, I spent long late nights reading with so much gusto, I finished all five books in about 6 weeks. It is awesome! I am obsessed! George RR Martin, you nautical beast, hurry up with books 6 and 7 already! My girls are also well read, especially Angela, who devours book after book after book.




Another thing we got into is the Walking Dead tv series which we enjoyed immensely as a family. Any more of this and we'd probably have zombie apocalypse kits ready besides our emergency packs. Ahahahaha!



Oh yeah, while I was into this, Mario went through his pompadour phase which lasted a few months. Ahahaha!



Mario got Angela to draw a, whatchacallit, animae version of me, and then got our good old friend Bong to tattoo it on the inside, upper part of his arm. Sweet! I love you, tart! I also got my dozen red roses come Valentines day, among many other sweet things during the year. Yep, our marriage remains strong, fun, interesting and hilarious!









This is ridiculously long. I'll have to make another entry for our mini-vacations and whatever else I might have forgotten. There are just so much, it is overwhelming! Thank you, Lord! Your goodness overflows all the day of our lives!