Merry Christmas!

The BER months have started. And naturally, people have started looking forward to the holidays. I especially look forward to our “shutdown” where we don’t work for 2 weeks to celebrate Christmas and the new year. This is the time where I get to mingle with friends and relatives without worrying about work-related stuff. It’s a rest period for my mind.

So as early as now, I’m on a hunt for nice holiday cards and gifts. But warning, like I blogged before, I suck at gift giving. So don’t expect much. :p

Mike and I chose the Godparents for our son people we trust who can give advice to him when he seeks one. Gifts (to be) given to him are just bonus. One particular Godfather was not around because he has work that day, and his mom just handed me a big paper bag with crumpled paper on top. So one would think there’s a big stuff toy inside. But I was in for a surprise. Later that night, when I lifted the crumpled paper, I saw all these inside. Wow!

There were Benetton, Zara, Marks&Spencer and Nike items. That’s what I love about Europe. They have gorgeous items even for babies and kids!

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Anyway, I had a chance to talk to Mike’s aunt who is working in Ireland. I asked if there are many IT jobs there thinking that perhaps we could consider working there, where purchasing power is high. She mentioned that demand is more on Licensed Nurse Jobs.

I still feel comfortable living here in Manila. I know we should consider other countries too if we want the best for our kids. So far, only Australia fits the bill.

I miss talking with my office mates. So yesterday, while working and in between meetings, I chatted with one officemate, sitting next to me. We talked about all sorts of stuff, even her new toyota echo custom floor mats. And then she suddenly asked me if it would be practical for her to get a wedding coordinator (she’s engaged) when she thinks the tasks are so simple and can be done by someone close to her. My take here (which I told her) is that yes all those tasks are simple and can be done by a friend or relative but my question is, wouldn’t that friend or relative be on your entourage? Because I’m pretty sure that a friend that you can trust your wedding to deserves a slot on your entourage. So yes, it is practical to get a coordinator because they are experts, they won’t forget any little detail.

That’s my take. Same with getting a photographer for baptism. A family member can always take the photos but I wanted for someone to “cover” the event. Like he knows what he’s doing, and what his client expects to see. This has been my frustration as we didn’t during Mikee’s baptism so we made sure someone will cover Theo’s baptism. And we don’t regret it (especially now that I’m addicted to making photobooks).

Look!

I’ll be coming back to work from my maternity leave. Believe it or not, I am looking forward to seeing the office again. Not that I’m missing to see fresh grads in front of their hp netbooks with this twinkle in their eyes. It’s just that I miss interacting with people in person. Pathetic huh? But it’s a personal choice. No regrets.

Mind you. The desire to resign and be a stay-at-home mom has lessened. I still dream of having more time to spend with the family, and ME time but I realized it’s actually harder for me to be an efficient mom when I’m home often.

While researching more about rv repair on the ipod, I received an email from my SIL recommending another app. She knows me very well and that I love taking photos and have no shame post processing them. And most people who know my interest also know I’ve been wanting to try lomography for the longest time. It’s just that I have no budget for it yet. Plus thinking of all the effort and EQ needed (patience to wait, I think you need to have 5 rolls of film before you can have them scanned to a CD at digiprint) makes me want to procrastinate even longer.

Anyway, as I was saying, er, typing/sharing, my SIL recommended a new app. It’s called Leme Camera. All I can say is, it is one amazing app! It has 9 “lomo” cams including my favorites: their version of the action sampler, super sampler and fisheye.

It works like Instagram where you share your photos with your friends. But what I do is also share the saved photos to my IG. I also use their photo editor Leme Leme (from the same developer).

Coolness!

We will be having dinner later tonight with my parents. They were letting me decide where the whole family will eat, where it is most convenient for me. Yes, having a two-month old baby makes you wish you have a mobile home so you can go anywhere but still attend to your baby’s needs asap. It has been difficult for me to leave him as he feeds from me directly. A couple of weeks from now, my maternity leave will end and I have no choice but to adjust. I’m just not sure how.

Note to self: start storing milk! ^^’
That alone is the road to liberation, I think. I hope.

The challenge now is NOT to formula-feed him, to feed him my milk, 100% of the time, direct or from the bottle, even if I go back to work. Keeping my fingers crossed… until June next year.

A college friend buzzed me over at YM asking me about disability insurance. I was surprised that she asked me, for I’m not the type of person who knows a lot about insurances, and she knows that. And then she told me, she simply asked everyone who was online at that moment. Haha.

Anyway, I’m not sure if I have previously shared/blogged about this. Way back, this college friend and I, with all our other friends, had a vice. We saw our fortune teller friend once a month, or sometimes more than that. This went on even after college. I only stopped this vice in 2003. We got so addicted to it, and visits to her place had become part of our bonding. We didn’t even make use of the predictions. We just enjoy hearing all the possibilities and hopes we got everytime.

Then in January 2010 (or was it Feb?), this college friend went to visit Manila, and met with us. And since our fortune teller friend is, like I said, part of our bonding, she invited her during our meet-up. For some reason, I went to see another fortune teller in August last year, who predicted I’d get pregnant again in October and it will be a boy this time. Well, yeah, she was right. I discovered I was pregnant in Oct and we now have a son.

This I’m telling because, yesterday, a friend told me she went to this same fortune teller last week, and my name came up. And that my previous pregnancy won’t be my last. Stresssssssss!

This September, we will be part of my brother’s wedding entourage. While my daughter and I will be wearing gowns and husband will be wearing a barong (an embroidered upper garment used on formal events), I thought of buying a mini barong for our son. When I shared this to my mom, she immediately discouraged me as it could be too itchy for a baby. Since our baby won’t be part of the entourage anyway, maybe he could get away with something less formal like this cute outfit.

Since the reception venue will be on the same hotel where the preps will be held, we plan on checking in as well (separately) so I can always run to our room in case my baby wants to nurse or needs a diaper change. I told my husband that I’m looking forward to this since we last had an out of the country trip March last year, we didn’t get to check in any hotels anymore. I sort of miss this luxury. Husband replied telling me we can always check in on our favorite hotels for our anniversary but I always prefer other anniversary gifts like those that he previously gave. No regrets. Just the same, as early as now, I’m browsing at RedEnvelope for unique gifts that I want to receive from him, and also something I’d be giving him for our next anniversary.

As early as now, I’ve been busy looking for ideas for invitations and giveaways for our son’s Baptismal party in September. I saw several DIY projects that I can do while on maternity leave. I’m leaning towards one project with matching invites and giveaway box simply because I can customize them using one digiscrap kit and use the same kit for the photobook that we’ll use as a guestbook. I haven’t decided on what to put inside the giveaway box though. I wonder if a cupcake would fit inside one.

As for the sponsors, I’m thinking of giving them gift baskets. I especially like wine gifts like the one I saw from RedEnvelope. They have a variety of gift baskets that one can choose from. Knowing our friends (who will be the sponsors), they’ll love it. All these I still need to “present” to the husband for approval. I’m sure he’ll be likely to approve. Why, he might even want one for himself.

When my mom asked me where can I buy a garmin nuvi gps, I looked at her checking how serious she was. I knew GPS from work. I used to program car head units to communicate with a GPS unit. The head units were mostly for the Japanese market, so I rarely heard people in Manila using it. But that was years ago, people probably learned more from the internet. So more and more people use GPS now in Manila. Still, I didn’t expect my mom to be interested to use one. She told me it will be very useful for her and my dad since they love going out of town on their own. Sounds good enough.