A Walk Through Life

some days i feel so sleepy. some days my eyes are wide awake and today is just one of those days. why is this so? i wonder. maybe i've been thinking about my brother's nursing licensure exam. he just took the first set today. he'll have the other set tomorrow. we've been praying to God that he will pass this licensure exam. as you know, it is our tita juliet in new jersey who sponsored for his education. i know that there's nothing else that can make her happy but for him to finally make it to the end. but i'm not only praying that he pass it in order to give delight to our aunt--more than anything else, it's his future i'm so concerned about. i want him to finally feel that sense of fulfillment for himself. that he will already feel what it's like to reap the fruits of your own labor. so here i am again, pleading to God, that he will grant what I have prayed for on my birthday . the baby is starting to kick me. looks like he/she wanted me to get to...

I've been putting off going to SSS to get a new ID card that should already bear my married name. If it is not needed for my maternity benefits/claims next year, I would have postponed it until I give birth but then I learned it's part of the requirements. Blah blah blah. Since our company follows the American holidays, I had the opportunity to schedule my visit to the SSS last Friday. Hubby and I had it carefully planned. Or so we thought. We woke up at 5 a.m., took a quick breakfast and shower, got dressed, and hurried our way to SSS. We got there by 7:30 a.m. Our target was to arrive at 7 a.m. but I guess we weren't so lucky with commuting. As far as I know, when we arrived, the office hours hasn't really started yet but to my dismay, we were told by the security guard that we can no longer make our transaction on that day because they can only accommodate 160 persons each day to have their IDs taken (talk about computerization with some limitations). Unfortunately,...

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… Everywhere I go, something always tells me Christmas is definitely just around the corner. People already started to put up Christmas lights and decorations in their homes, Christmas songs are frequently played over the radio, malls are having their own pre-Christmas sale, blogs about Christmas are everywhere, and people are already busy thinking of what to give to their loved ones this Christmas. I used to look forward to the Christmas holidays until last year came and broke my spirit. It was December 20th of last year that we lost our mom. Everytime I think about it, I feel like asking myself “What’s there to celebrate?” Christmas will always remind me about losing her. But then I guess I need to look deeper into the real essence of Christmas. That it’s not just about merry-making, get-togethers and family reunions. Come to think of it, we are celebrating our Savior’s birthday. This is not our day. It is His. Since it is His, there’s so mu...

It looks like I haven’t written anything for like three days. Last week, I was caught up with one challenging project in the office that almost all of my energy went into it, and by the time I got home, I was too tired to even think about anything. I tried to be in the writing mode but before I could get my fingers typing, my eyes were already drooping that I had to give in to my sleepiness. Over the weekend, I felt I wanted nothing more than just curling up in bed with my husband and sleep all the weariness away. This morning, though, I looked up at my notes in the calendar and realized that it's my pre-natal schedule with my ob gyne. So, it's not the 28th, huh? Whatever happened to my sense of time? Fortunately, we still made it to the clinic on time--I was her 18th patient. Well, there wasn't much of an update. Dra. wanted me to continue taking iron-folic and omega-3, and just replaced my vitamin B complex with calcium. I was unaware that I had been eating too much ever ...

Time flies so fast. It's getting more and more obvious. My belly. I realized I almost run out of clothes to wear. It looks like I have outgrown almost everything I have in my closet and nothing seems to fit me anymore. Don't you just hate it when you have to search for anything still wearable at this time? Ah, I told my husband, we're going shopping this week. Just a pair or two every payday. I'm not planning to buy lots of maternity clothes though because I know this pregnancy won't last very long. We would rather save it for baby's future needs. Here's a sneak peek at my growing belly. Hubby just took a shot of this tonight. Should I let it grow more by eating more? I think there's nothing wrong with my appetite, though. I eat anytime I feel hungry. So, no worries. Don't I look awful? hehehe.. I guess I'll just have to sleep this off. Goodnight.

I just got a call today from my elder brother who works in Abu Dhabi. It was so sweet of him to ask how I am doing with my pregnancy and all that. I told him I'm okay and that I'm already in my 5th month. He had strict reminders: Take care of the baby. Cover your belly with black cloth when you go to sleep. Now the black cloth was something new to me. So I asked, What's with the black cloth, bro? He said it's for protection or covering against negative elements around, like aswang . And that's not all, he also added that I should have with me garlic and ginger in the bedroom, still for protection purposes, because they help drive the negative elements away. Now that wasn't the first time that I've heard about the garlic and ginger stuff because I've seen it already in the movies and I know of some superstitious preggies who are really doing this. My brother's pointers had me paranoid a little bit. After the call ended, I asked my husband not to sl...

Yesterday, when me and my husband were heading home after an eight hours' work, we bumped into Manang L, the owner of a carenderia just beside our office. Everytime we bump into each other, she usually has something friendly to say to me, although I didn't like how she would often mistake or call me "Janet" (she meant " Jenneth ", a friend/ex-officemate/ex-lunchmate of mine, who already found a new life with her American husband in Ozark, Arkansas) when we've already known each other for years. Don't get me wrong, though, I don't have anything against my good friend, Jenneth. Maybe I just find it irritating everytime Manang L displays episodes of selective amnesia. Anyhow, I'm willing to forgive Manang L for it as she must've been too stressed preparing all the viands each day, or worse, she must've been affected by a lot of monosodium glutamate intake in her cooking which probably blocked her memory moisture hehehe. Yesterday was su...