catching up series: year-end photo dump

Except it's not year-end currently. Hahaha! You see, I have this secret mission of compiling my niece's random photos twice every year. I really didn't plan this at first but after realizing I did it for 2013 {first half, second half}, I decided to do the same for 2014 {mid-year photo dump}. Life got in the way as per usual but at least here I am now cleaning up after my own mess. Hehehe!

There's not so much to post actually 'cause I was uninspired as heck during the latter part of the year. Then there's Teepee. Life only started picking up November -- the makeover, the birthdays, the new baby. And thankfully, life has been good since then.

Anyway, shall we?

JULY

A different take on invading my privacy, Faye rummaged through my old journals. She then saw a pressed flower and not surprisingly, she insisted that we look for a flower and do the same in her "journal". It became an ear ornament before the process.

Meet Beary-Apple and Owly-Faye. Hahaha! We baptized the stuffed toys I got from the Claw Crane game when we visited an arcade house one time. Yep, it was me who caught both and I think it's important to note too that I got them consecutively. The Claw Crane Gods must love me, huh?

Wala lang. We were both amazed at the humongous Avocado so we played around with it before putting it to its final rest, also known as our tummies. :P And for the record, it's my favorite fruit -- not Apple. Am I making myself clear?

AUGUST

For the love of my niece, I jumped into the loom band craze. Mommy bought her a kit and the moment I saw it, I knew it's me who doesn't have a choice but to learn. But I have to be honest, I got hooked. Pun intended.

Now the photo below perfectly depicts what it's like to have my niece and my make up at once. Lippie: Victim; Faye: Prime Suspect. She really never fails! Right now I only have three lippies and they are all buhrokeennn. Hahaha!

Avie at 8 months. I rarely get to play with her for a long time 'cause her ate Faye is always with me and I can't have them in my room both at the same time. Baka pag apat na yung kamay ko, pwede na. Hahaha! Kidding aside, it's better safe than sorry, right? I don't want the kids getting hurt under my guidance. No way, José!

Last from August! I just find her extremely cute wearing my specs so.. :) 

SEPTEMBER

The cuteness that is Avira. You can tell mommy was suffering from headband addiction during Avie's first year. I just revisited the last post from this series and true enough, Avie was never without a hair knickknack. I'm pretty sure she'll have something to say about this when she grows up. Mommy's got some explaining to do. Hehe!

 

OCTOBER

Nothing from October. I must be dead then. Or lazy. :P

NOVEMBER

No random photos from my end but I got a couple from my Facebook's tagged photos. Although it was quite a busy month with Faye turning five and Mitmit being born. 

Let's proceed?

Grocery Hits! The photo below is just one of the billion "SM photos" from mommy but I had to include it because.. maganda 'ko! Hahaha! And no, I'm not even kidding. You have no idea how gusgusin I'd let myself be if it's just a quick trip to the mall.

Now the story behind this little mixer is worth sharing. Faye and I were spending an ordinary afternoon together when we heard a "dirty ice cream" passed by. We went out of the house only to find out it has wandered far already. I don't know whose idea it was but the next thing I know, we were running after the vendor. Hahaha! Although it was just for fun 'cause with Faye's pace, there's no way we would catch up. We surrendered eventually but she asked for a toy in exchange. Para daw happy pa rin sya. Hehe! That's emotional blackmail right there at the age of 5!

DECEMBER

Yet another busy month with Avie's christening and 1st birthday, and then the holidays, of course. But to begin the month, I got myself another journal for twice the price! I don't need to elaborate how and why, right? Hehe! Cause it's either I get her one too or she'll mess up with mine. :P

Towards the holiday, a generous soul gave papi three gargantuan watermelons. We let Avie play with one and she happily beat and kicked it. Sorry, watermelon!

And we're down to the last random photo I managed to dig up. Tadahh! She did that to herself daddy, I promise! Hehehe! She's been doing this to my make up, clothes & accessories for as long as I can remember and I doubt she'll stop anytime soon. I don't mind though.

There you go! Completely, utterly, random! I'm confident I came up with a better collection from the first half of 2015 and I can't wait to dump everything here as usual! Meanwhile, let me have my dinner. :)

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catching up series: to remind me of the holidays

The bad: we're still playing catch up here; The good: we've reached as far as the Christmas season. Yahooo! Konting kembot na lang, Borbonita! Hehe! Anyway, nothing much for today. No random thoughts, I promise. Just a ton of photos to remind me of the season that was. 

First off, Christmas! Looking at the photos, we obviously chose green as the color of the night. Wala eh! Gustuhin ko mang isikreto yung theme, parang di kakayanin. Hahaha! Kidding aside, we actually take pride in our family kakornihan. Here's a rundown: Christmas 2010, it was orange; New Year 2011, prints & polka, Christmas 2011, red; New Year 2012, polka dots again {with matching spray paint, spray paint pa!}, didn't have a theme Christmas 2012 but we made up for it New Year 2013 by wearing customized "Incrediborbs" shirts; and then finally Christmas 2013, red again. Haha! Can you see how much we take the holidays seriously? Remind me to suggest blue this coming Christmas, alright?

Going back, the past Christmas was extra special for us 'cause it was Mithril's first. She was barely one month old then. Mom and I were just talking recently about how happier the next holiday season would be because by then Mitmit's probably walking & talking already. Ahh, the joy that baby brings EVERY.SINGLE.DAY! I can't even begin to explain.

meet my family {for the nth time}

my brother, her girlfraan & mithy

my cousin's little family

the difference age can do. haha!

with granny loves

our boys and their tummies :P

New Year 2015 -- our most blah New Year to date. Yags {my cousin} still had his annual "fireworks display", props to his consistency. On the other hand, I once again took the liberty of recording it. I've been doing the same for three straight years already {2013, 2014, 2015} and I was actually wondering why no one else would take the role when I obviously suck at my job. Hahaha! I mean, have you heard me shriek?

our only NYE photo

Anyway, I said blah. Yep, 'cause we almost didn't eat for Media Noche. I was the first one to leave for my room 'cause I wasn't feeling well and come morning, I found out that they slept early too. Boo! We felt like our New Year was a failure so we thought of doing something different on the next days. And with different, I mean playing basagan ng itlog, pinoy henyo, pabitin and palayok in our living room. Hahaha! I have yet to personally know a family as bizarre as us.

I contemplated not writing this in detail but we might look back at this in the future and argue about the results so..

Basagan ng Itlog. Originally, this should be a game for the couples but my niece insisted that we join. Also, we weren't able to convince the old guy aka our father to look silly with us so Dana became his replacement. Long story short, the partners were: mommy & daddy {ate Tin & Yags}, Gigi & Marisse, Mama and Dana, and finally Faye and myself. Guess who won? Yep! Faye and I along with mommy & daddy. Faye kept pressuring me the whole time 'cause apparently the little one isn't so good at accepting loss.

let the basagan ng itlog commence haha!

Pinoy Henyo. By virtue of palabunutan, the partners were: daddy & Faye, Dana & Anit, Marisse & mama, mommy & gigi and finally, papi & I. We were the last pair to be called and everyone burst into laughter. It's just odd for papi to accommodate such silliness so my case seemed like a misfortune. True enough, I wasn't able to guess the word which was alakalakan for crying out loud. Turned out papi thought it was the tagalog word for adam's apple so he kept on touching his throat. Hahaha! Mandadaya pa sana ang mahal kong ama. :P I was confused the whole time 'cause the audience was hinting "paa" but then papi had a world of his own. Needless to say, it was the highlight of the game. Dana and Anit {and also Faye 'cause she said so} emerged as champs.

faye's winning moment x daddy's confusion

Pabitin. Can we not talk about it? Hahaha! I'll let the video below do most of the talking but the highlights were (1) I GOT NOTHING. Can you believe that?! {I bet you can. Haha!} (2) Dana only got one but it was the major prize. Like it was 10,000 pesosss! Kidding! It was only P50. Hahahaha! (3) Mommy was monstrous. Hehe! I mean, mommy got the most number of angpao. (4) And lastly, Faye cried. Hahaha! Humagulgol and bata bilang wala rin syang nakuha. I could have done the same, srsly. :P

Basagan Palayok.  Of course we let Faye try it first and when she wasn't able to break it, we resorted yet again to bunutan to decide our faith. Luck was on Dana, she was the next to try. POK! Basag ang palayok. Hehehe! But knowing her, I'm pretty sure dinaya nya kami. So anyway, after the pot was broken, we killed each other for the moolah that came from it. Again, mommy was unforgiving.

As obvious as it is, Dana and mommy were the biggest winners. We had to pacify the little one though by telling her that everything mommy got was actually hers too. Funny kid! On my end, no one provided me the solace I need. I guess the pabitin tragedy will haunt me forever. Hahaha!

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catching up series: truths, realizations and some old photos

I'm back! My thoughts have gone bonkers YET AGAIN and I'm down with no other refuge but to blog. {Read: Too broke to shop. Hahaha!} So what's going on exactly? But wait! I'm kind of talking to myself here trying to figure things out so don't mind me. Unless you really, really want to. Go ahead! Haha! Anywayyy, there's this chapel I regularly visit. It's where I pray 'cause take this -- I don't attend Sunday mass. Oops! So I visited it few days ago and as usual I reflected on life. And guess what? FINALLY! Medyo natauhan ako. WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE?! 

T R U T H S

Truth #1. I've been unemployed since January 2013 and if we're going to count the months that's freakin' 30 months already! Like how?!!! The last time I checked, I have this very demanding job that I very much love  -- never ending to-do's, impossible deadlines, difficult people? Bring it on! So what happened? Illness happened! There you go, now you know. I am not a professional bum person just because I want to be one, or because I can afford to be one. For the record, I am a professional bum person because I am a professional sick person too. {And yes, I read John Green a lot. Ha!} Although I have this little online shop that allows me to go out or shop once in a while. Having said that, please follow @shopteepee on Instagram for cool bohemian bags and wallets. Hehe! Shameless plugging right there, 'cause I can. 

Now what? An epiphany came to me one sleepless night -- I realized I want to teach kids! It's no secret, right? I love kids to bits so I'm thinking that might be easy for me. No stress, I hope. But two more things I should hope for.. that my doctor approves of it and that I qualify for it. Hehe! Medyo malayo lang naman yung tinapos ko from teaching so I don't know. I have a particular learning center in mind but I have yet to do my research. By God's grace, I'll be able to go back to work. This should be the start. Kailangan nang ipilit to!

Truth #2. Life is far from perfect. Got that friends? I am fortunate enough that my family can back me up through this tough time but it's no easy for all of us. Okay? It's just tiring to hear from people that we are wealthy enough I can afford not to work. Like this is my choice, NAWMSAYIN'? Hehehe! 

And to convince you more that our life isn't a bed roses.. did you know that living where we live sucks? If you have time to spare, you can begin with this link. Yep! The Araneta's are trying to shoo us from our homes 'cause according to them our whole village was theirs when clearly, we have land titles of our own. From what  I understand, the former president Ferdinand Marcos issued a presidential decree that offered our area to Malacañang employees {my uncle used to work for ze president, that's why}. Apparently, it was declared as unconstitutional and since then, the Araneta's did literally everything to claim our place. And with everything, I mean kill people and take away our basic necessities -- electricity, water, phone and internet lines, name it! Ugh! Thank God for generators, seriously! And for water deliveries too, if I may add.

See? Life ain't easy, man!

R E A L I Z A T I O N S

Realization #1. As long as you have your family, you're okay! Take it from the person who isn't allowed to live life, has nothing at all but is perfectly fine. I mean, I'm not the happiest of happy but I know for sure that I'm not sad. At least not anymore. Our home provides me the comfort I need and it never runs out of ways to help me survive. I was actually thinking that even if the time comes that we're left with no choice but to leave our house, we'll all be alright. And that's because our home is one another. Wherever life takes us, that will be home. And also, I guess it's faith. I don't know why but I'm confident about the good days that are about to come. I have this weird feeling of lightness despite the ugly circumstances. Call me a weirdo 'cause yes I am. Hahaha!

Realization #2. I really, really want to teach kids. Haha! I know I've mentioned that already but apart from teaching for a living, I'd love to teach less fortunate kids too -- and for free! Since I got sick, I started thinking deeply about life and I decided to live it with a purpose. I've always known too that it's going to be about kids but it's only during that night of epiphany that I imagined exactly how. I'd gather my favorite kids from the village probably grades 1 - 3, teach them Math & English, give them treats that they don't get to eat often. Gahh! I can't wait to be able to do that!

Realization #3. I have to start NOW! As in by hook or by crook, kahit ano pa yan! If I can't go back to the life I used to live, I'm willing to compromise with what can work with my current situation. Thank God for knocking some sense to me that faithful chapel day. I honestly can't believe I waited this long! Might be the sickness, huh?


S O M E  O L D  P H O T O S

This has got nothing to do with my random thoughts. Instead, this is the next item in my neglected drafts. If you've been here early May, you'd know I'm trying to catch up on my documentation. But since I'm a huge mess, I got lost again. Hahaha! Anong bago dun di ba? Good thing I found my way back this afternoon. Shout out to my awakening!

So anyway, here's where we left off -- Avie's baptism & birthday celebration. Now the photos below are from her post birthday celebration for the family. It was the usual dine out, sing & dance, play scenario. But what was unusual was mommy's {my cousin's wife} muryot. Hehehe! She got pissed off after we weren't able to make it to City Buffet and she felt like daddy {my cousin} was blaming her for not making reservations. We had to settle with Racks but she went on hunger strike and they continued to annoy each other. We continued anyway because heyy, that's food. Hahaha!

the birthday girl with her mita & pito ❤️

remember mithril? the new kid on the block?
it was her first official gala :P

the little family within the family ❤️

resident maaartes

After we were full, we went to our go-to amusement center to further amuse ourselves. Hehe! It became Marisse's {my brother's girlfriend, Mithril's mom} initiation. We forced her to sing and dance with us. We did the same to mommy way back 2011. That Waka Waka dance number still brings us to laughter every time we'd reminisce about it. Hahaha! So alam na! To the future members of the family, be ready! I bet that's why my sister and her boyfraann broke up. HAHAHAHA peace, baby girl! :*

the singers in the family (and yep that doesn't include me)

Marissa's initiation ✌️

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