So I feel like I re-read journal entries and catch-up on other peoples journals more than I update my own... so after that realization, I have decided to post. Don't be surprised if this consists of a whole bunch of random, you know how I roll...

First off, tonight is my first night playing with Brampton Volleyball League (BVL) and I am nervous for two simple reasons: 1) I suck - or more like I don't remember the last time I played and 2) I signed up as an individual on a co-ed team because I don't know enough people who would actually join to make a team. So I have been placed on a team with other 'randoms' and we are called "Indy 2"... very creative! I'm also curious as to who these other 'indies' are. I'm a pretty random person myself, so I'm sure I will get along with them just fine. For some reason, I'm hoping that they are older and not that great at volleyball, like me! Not sure if that is a selfish desire on my part. But overall, I'm just in it for the fun and the activenessticism that my body requires. I'm also glad that my husband is playing again and has found a team this year for mens 6's. I look forward to this season... really :)

I also felt the need to mention how much television I've been watching lately. I know I'm home a lot of the day but that's really no excuse for me. Although I still get things done around the house, there is always time to sit on the couch and watch! It's not that horrible since I've really only been watching HGTV, but it also makes me want our own home sooner than possible! It is definitely in our near future plans, but obviously not something we would rush into. It'd be amazing having our own place, but we would like to save enough where scrounging around for money won't be an issue. Even though I drool and dream of what our own house will one day look like, owning a house is a lot of money and watching these shows make me nervous! haha. I'm also curious as to what people's views are on OWNING vs. RENTING? especially when you feel the need for independence and privacy for yourself, or for our own little family, in this case.

Aside from HGTV, I've been watching some actual sitcoms... GLEE is probably our fave right now. It's just great, isn't is? I'm also on track with Gossip Girl but can someone please smack Georgina in the face? Argh.

Anyway, onto some other babble... last night was our last official 'meeting' with the Pastor from my church. Ever since before Emmanuel and I got married, we've been meeting with him for marriage preparation & 'counseling' but not the troubled kind... lol. We've been doing a workbook which we then go over and discuss about when we meet... at Tim Horton's, yum! I've really come to enjoy doing the chapters together and I love how it's easy for the both of us to answer the questions comfortably and honestly, especially when it comes to subjects like our pasts & growing up, our plans for now & the future, and most importantly our spiritual lives. I am thankful & blessed to have a Pastor who shows so much support towards us as a family and a husband who understands me in many ways & can also relate to some things that only a few can <3

I am also so thankful for & blessed with my beautiful Emma who is sitting on my lap as I type this, haha. She will be 6 months this coming Sunday and I can't believe how much she has grown! She'll be able to start eating cereals, which I am soo excited about! She is rolling all over the place and squirming her way to wherever she wants to go. I feel like she will walk before she sits up! She likes being on her feet while bouncing up & down. She's pulling my hand away from the keyboard right now and seeks a lot of attention! She even got her hands on the keyboard earlier and everything was zoomed in! Emmanuel and I didn't even know how to fix it. She makes us laugh & smile with her own laughs & smiles. She is definitely something! She is such a trooper and I love her so <3

I think that is all for now... I'll be back :)

so knowing that people are going back to school is making me a little envious! not sure why, but i somewhat wish i went back this year. i enjoy going to school when i don't feel the pressure of graduating and actually enjoy the courses i take, at my own pace. that's just how i do things, and i wish some people would just understand that about me. despite the 'going at my own pace' mindset, i'd also like to graduate as soon as possible for the sake of my family & future plans, so it's a little confusing! but i know for a fact that i love spending every day with m'darling Emma and i wouldn't miss her first months/year for the world! some people might get it mistaken that i feel behind in my 'pathway of life' or the generic path that is expected of almost every normal human being, whatever you wanna call it haha. but let's just say that even if i'm on a different route i still know, without a doubt, that whichever way i have chosen to take i will still fulfill all my hopes & dreams (graduating included, obviously!) and that it's also in line for what God has planned for me. my life plan has already been designed; He knows the desires of my heart and there is nothing else i can do but put my trust in Him :)

HE still writes MY STORY.

I'm baaaaaaaaa-aaaccck. just for a quick update though. it's nice to see some lj friends still using this thing. i like how it's not crazy stalker-ish like how facebook can be. or is it?! eep.

Anyway, it's hard to give an update with what's been going on since i last posted because it has been months! all i can say is that Emma is growing quick! too quick for my liking, but so glad to see her progressing at the same pace full-term babies do. she is now 11lbs and will be four months old this coming Tuesday. I love how she coos, smiles and gives me her full attention when I make little conversation with her. Makes mee heart melt =*]

My cousin Gyan just had a baby boy Friday morning and I was so happy Emmanuel and I got to visit them. He is way cute! and I'm so glad him and Emma are only a few months apart. We didn't get to bring her with us but I cant wait for them to meet. Welcome to the world, Noah Lucas :)

Earlier today was nice. We had a church picnic at Niagara-on-the-Lake. I was so thankful that the heat wasn't death around where we were because we were close enough to the lake. The view from around that area was so beautiful by the way. The Peach Festival was also going on at the same time and it was nice walking around the Historic part of town with cute little shops that sold random thinggamabobbers. We were planning on going downtown to watch Gabe Bondoc at Dundas Square later on in the evening but we both don't like being surrounded by 5 million Filipinos, but heard that they did a pretty amazing job! Instead, Emmanuel and I watched Time Traveler's Wife and it was a pretty good movie. I've tried reading the book but even after my second attempt, I still couldn't get into it. Even though I can read about vampires & werewolves hours on end, I can't grasp unrealistic ideas such as traveling back & forth into time. Not only is it hard for me to imagine, but it's confusing as well. I was a little confused while watching the movie, but I still enjoyed it overall. Plus, it's nice being able to go out on little dates with my husband whenever we get the chance. Even now that we're married and have Emma with us, he still never ceases to amaze me just as he has since day one. I definitely feel the support, respect, happiness & love that I've been talking about (more like venting about on LJ) all these years and I know Emma will see it between the two of us when she gets old enough to understand. I am so thankful for my two most favourite people in the whole widest world, and I love them to pieces! <3

i am too g-damn lazy/busy for this. for now.
but i still check up on everyone elses posts, of course :)
there will come a day for me to update... there WILL come a day!

xx

I haven't posted since before Emma was born... a month and a half early! hah :)

I'm not really sure what to write about because even though it's been almost two weeks since I gave birth, I'm still pretty shocked that this is all happening... I'm just glad that I have thee most amazing husband and family to walk with me through all this. But one thing I have to say is: MAAADDDDD RESPEXXXXX to mothers who have delivered full-term babies! Hahaha. I've got nothing on them with my 2-3 hours of labour :S

So many things to do, and it feels like there's so little time, but really... I've got plenty! I think? I still need to improve in the "organize" and "prioritize" dept. as a Mommy but it's a little hard when she is one of my main priorities and I NEED/MUST/WANT to see & feed her in the morning, try to nap somewhere in between, then see her again in the evening and kiss her goodnight :) Although I'm not one for daily routines, this is one I have come to love. I'm so proud of all her progress... it reminds me of how quickly children grow up. Not too fast, please! But she is definitely a determined little one, doing things on her own time, and "WOW-ing" all her nurses. That's my girl! I can't wait to bring her home. That's when the REAL fun begins. Soon enough :)

Our wireless at home decided to start working for me again today, so yay! I guess the router got scared... 'cause I was about to call Linksys. So with that said, I just finished all the Facebook, Twitter and LJ creeping I missed out on (lol, half kidding) and decided to update. This entry is gonna be quite random so feel free ignore me and my nonsense. Haaha.

I lack sleep! So during afternoons like these when I choose not to take a nice nap before heading off to work, my body feels a little weird or... hyper. Maybe it's the Fudgesicle I just had. Yum. Deer and I went to the grocery before he went to work and I bought some of the things I was craving for late last night, but was too lazy to go out and get... popsicles, french vanilla ice cream + crunchy apple crumble pie, and sour keys! But along with all that was a bag of milk and vegetables :) I haven't craved anything too crazy, which is kinda good. I've spent a good amount of money on strawberry-lychee frozen yogourt from Yogen Fruz, pizza from Faeeemz, and extra spicy thai express. My heart desires real RAW sushi from NewGen or a nice medium-cooked steaaaaak from the Keg or wherever at times, but that'll have to wait til after the bebe.

Oh and another thing... BASEBALL GAMES + BEER. come to momma :)

I've got high hopes for the Jay's this season. Who am I kidding, I ALWAYS DO! I don't think that'll ever change. I need to find my '92-'93 back-to-back World Series Champs sweatshirt and rock it this springtime. Haha. I can't believe that was more than 15 years ago. Just thinking about those days makes me smile/laugh.

This Saturday is Tyler's 1st birthday. I can't believe a year has passed since Momma B gave birth to him! Time definitely flies, and I know it'll be the same for us, too. Oh, and we had another ultrasound yesterday, which was nice. I'm not sure if I ever mentioned that we wanted the gender to be a surprise, but he or she is doing good :*) I feel like the baby's getting bigger but my tummy isn't expanding at the same rate so it is very tight and I feel every little movement and see every not-so-little bump protruding in random places. It's nice to see from my point of view. I feel a little pain at times especially when it's moving at my sides, but more joy over anything else... he or she is an active one! 7 more weeks to go! :| :O :D

May is gonna be a fun month for us (assuming the baby will come as scheduled - on or around May 26)... But before that it's the husband's birthday on the 2nd and I would normally talk about birthday ideas on here except he will almost positively be reading this, so I'll have to keep those ideas to myself. I'm thinking Il Fornello's as a part... but you already know I always wanna go there :)

Work sucks balls... I'm not getting any hours because it hasn't been too busy. I need the hours, dagnabbit! Anyway, just working tonight and tomorrow... then I've got prenatal yoga tomorrrow night after my shift, which I look forward to. A couple more weeks of work and then I get to begin my maternity leave. I know I'll be bored out of my mind at home, but let's make the best out of it 'cause we all know it won't be like that for too long.

gotta go
thanks for reading
love you all

:)

This is a YouTube video of a piano & violin acoustic duet of "The Prayer" and "Over the Rainbow"... which I decided to use for our wedding. The Prayer was for our entourage march and I marched with my parents to Over the Rainbow :) The first time I saw this video it made me cry lol, so I said to myself, I MUST have that! aaaaand with a little bit of work, I did :) Emmanuel's friend BJ played the piano and my cousin Elise was on violin. To be honest, I don't even remember how it turned out because I was too busy baaaaawlinnnnn' as I was walking down the aisle. Hah. Just listening to it now still gets me a little teary-eyed =*)
*(Over the Rainbow is the "encore" part of the video.)



PS: Ed Westwick and Jessica Szohr. Looooove them.

Bella gives me kisses through the phone, haha :)



What a silly goose!
I miss thee, my little sweetheart!


GAH. I joined Twitter.
Hollerrrrr at meeeeeeeeee.
GAH. I don't know why, but it's addicting!
Maybe 'cause it's easy to update & creep, especially through my phone >:)
GAH. Just because.

I'm so glad it's finally Springggg!
10 more weeks or so and we finally get to meet j00 :)

Je suis trezzzzz fatty-gay. Woke up early because deer had to leave for work by 6:30. No lazy mornings this whole week since he's working all of March break, but that's okay. My sister and her family just left a while ago as well to go back to Virginia and I'm gonna miss them again so much (especially Bella)! The next time I see her she'll be a head taller and hopefully she'll learn to say 'yes' more, rather than 'no no no no no'. Because I had the... privilege... of babysitting her two days in a row and getting to spend that quality time together, I've decided that she loves me most hahah. After watching her with Emmanuel the first time, I know that if we can handle her and her crazy little antics together, we will definitely do a great job with our own little one... minus the half-bag of Hugs chocolates for bribery :)

edit: march 17
So I fell asleep while doing the post above and I woke up ten minutes before I had to get to work! What else is new. I haven't had the best sleep as of late... and how much more a few months from now? :( that's ok... that's ok.

OH! and I know I'm super late with this one but I WANT AN iPHONE. GIMMEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm addicted to the games on my cousin's phone and I dream about getting one - a purple one. I'm such a loojer, I love it hahah. I can't wait until my contract ends in a few months!!! No really, i CAN'T wait. They're so pretty and... FUN :)

Hhhrrmmmmm, cannot sleep. Eating cheerios w/ lactaid milk and banaynays. YUM.
Going to try & catch up on some GG without waking up my deer. I've been so slack!
Season 3, where art thou?

edit
I wish I had a little more time to take photos as well as post them. the weather will become much nicer, eventually... so that is my goal the next couple of weeks :)

My sister will be staying over this weekend and they're going back home on Monday. Spending time with the family has been great and now that Bella is a little bigger and is starting to talk, she is so much more fun! I love her to pieces :*D I will definitely miss her again when they leave but the next time they come back she will have a new cousin! Yay.

G'day!

How'd you get alla dat in dem jeans (dem jeans), how'd you get alla dat?

HAH. Just the thought of that song makes me laugh.
Anyway, the whole point of this post is to vent about my "like" for shopping and how there are so many things (articles of clothing, in particular) that I'd love to get my hands on at the moment but just can't because of my circumstances and the fact that a lot of what I buy now probably won't fit me the way I'd like it to a few months from now *fingers crossed*! It's hard working in a retail store and wanting to buy that pair of denim or that pretttttyful blouse and just settling on imagining how it would look on due to not even knowing your size at the moment... and it doesn't help much that I practically live in leggings :| Drooling aside, I know spending all that money isn't worth it right now anyway!

Which brings me to mention one of my favourite things --thrift shopping! I spent a good hour or so of alone time at Value Village yesterday (x2 lol) and found some nice things that I can wear now as well as later on, so yay! :) and I only spent X amount of $$$ for a handful of goodies, which is even more yay when you're on a budget. I love how everything is so cheap in price but what's even better is that the quality of many of the items you find there are much better than what you'd find in a lot of stores inside the mall. It's funny how I use the mall for everything now but clothing (ie: wal-mart or zellers stuff, the bank or... frozen yogourt mmMMm lol).

Aside from all this shopping talk, I should definitely do some light "working out", walking, stretching, etchetera etchetera. It's hard though when I get exhausted super easily and have elephantitis (half kidding). I would really like to go swimming IF I can fit inside the pool and maybe even walk to the community centre to see what else I can do there... except I can't even bend down or see my feet to put my shoes on. Juuuuust kidding, I know lugging this body around for a few more months will, without a doubt, be worth it! Oh, and I also look forward to prenatal yoga classes the next couple weeks, where I can finally use the yoga mat my deer bought for me way back when :)

It's nice to see LJ friends updating their journals every so often and although I haven't been commenting on posts much the past couple of months, I am definitely still reading/viewing them!

Since I still log onto LiveJournal, I really have no excuse as to why I haven't posted since last year. I guess I've just been busy with other things and haven't really had the time to sit down and think of anything to write. Don't get me wrong, I surely have many (life-altering) things to blog and share about since my last post, but I enjoy taking it all in mentally and smiling about it to myself. I can be selfish like that :) Plus, I wanted to give my journal a little make-over before going public again. So i changed my layout and decided to make all my previous posts (all 3+ years) private... So for mine eyes only. I was also thinking of deleting this entire account and creating a whole new one but that's just plain annoying. And while I was making every single entry private, I was able to look back and re-read most of those past entries. Even though the negative entries outweighed the good memories, it never hurts to be reminded of everything and everyone that has helped me get to where I am now, into the person I am today. I have lived and learned from the past, and for that I am thankful. I can only grow from here on in.

So as I start this from 'scratch' once again, I only look forward to all the amazing things I can share with you guys as I go through some new and amazing experiences... as well as what I learn from them. It's as if each and every day seems better and brighter than the last. All I can really say is that my life has just been simply wonderful.

+ + +

I re-read an entry that I posted approximately two years ago with news about my sister and how everything would be so different from that day forward; how life-changing it would all be... and it definitely was. How much more personal is that life-change for me now that I can say I have personally been in and still am in her shoes. I doubt that I would have been anywhere close to pin-pointing her exact thoughts and emotions if I tried to at that time, and even now I can't even begin to explain that feeling or sudden rush. And I guess I use the word 'rush' because it all happened so quickly, yet I can remember all the time and thought I put into those decisions I chose to make --that we chose to make, knowing that going through with everything would change our lives forever; that YOU would change our lives forever.

It's something you simply can't explain because you just know. With or without certain circumstances, you just know if he or she is that person, you just know that you can do it, you just know that this is what has been planned for your life. As days and months have passed, I still feel it; a different kind of rush --one that only a wife or mother-to-be can explain. Hmmm. And alongside that rush I feel this strength I've never felt before. A strength that kindly reminds me that I just know I was meant for you; for the both of you.




♥ ♥ ♥

What lovely weather we had today; can't wait for the sunshine, can't wait til May :)

Note: This journal title is in loving memory of my favourite grocery store by my house... Dominion, which has now been turned into Metro.
(They got rid of the fresh gelato!!! What the whack.)