Counting Blessings v. 2

It's the night before Easter. Over the last few days, we have been reflecting on our lives, on what we have done, on what we have failed to do  and on the goodness and love of God.

As always, I realized that despite my weaknesses and failures, God has been so good to me and is always blessing me and my family.  So I have decided to do a weekly count of my blessings.  I have done a post entitled Counting Blessings some months ago but starting today, I will do it on a weekly basis, lest I forget how generous God is.  

Here we go....

1. Ruel arrived safely from Vietnam.  

   

    And though he had just given me these from his trip to Thailand two weeks ago,

    He still gave me something from Duty Free.  I bought a shirt by esprit and some Victoria Secret.

  

2.  I got a free diamond peel treatment from the mother of a former student of mine.  I accompanied my friend, Angel to the skin clinic three days ago.  She was going to have a facial.  I didn't know that I was going to have a nice surprise.   The receptionist asked who Ms. Fernandez was and Angel said it was me, and I was so surprised to hear that I had a free diamond peel treatment.  So, who was I to say no to such a blessing , right?

3. Emilio, my baby nephew has now started babbling and now loves to lie on his stomach.

4. I did the Stations of the Cross with my son, husband and parents on Good Friday.  And after that, I treated them to a simple but yummy lunch.  Since it was Holy Week, we had to keep it simple and light.  It  consisted of fish, veggies and noodles.  It feels good to know that I can do this once in a while for them.   

There are so many other things that I consider as blessings, like my life and those whom I love, our safety and our health.   These three will always remain as the most important blessings and which I do not need to mention.

My Firsts

I stumbled on  Mandy's blog and saw this fun post which some other bloggers are doing as well.  I decided to join in the fun and make my own.

1. First thing you do when you wake up in the morning.  

   Look at the time on my phone then spend a couple of minutes trying to convince myself to get up and prepare  

   for work.

2. First thing you do when you get home from work.

    Sit without doing anything.

3. First kiss.

   With my son's dad.

4. First thing you wanted to be when you grew up.

   Hmmm.... a wife? 

5. First choice beverage.

   iced tea

6. First choice dessert.

   So hard!  I love desserts....but maybe if I have to think of one that I will never ever get tired of eating over and over and over again, it's mango float!  I sing whenever I eat it. And I thank God I'm alive.  Really! No kidding!

7.  First choice of a restaurant.

Don't have one, probably something that serves pasta.

8. First song that comes to mind.

I Dreamed a Dream

9. First major purchase.

My laptop, if you can call that major.

10. First job.

.  After I graduated from high school I had a summer job in a pizza parlor.

11. First time you flew on a plane.

 I was 23, I went to Zamboanga City to meet my in-laws.

12. First real "big girl" job.

     I was 20 years old, two months after my college graduation, I started working in Sunlife Financial which was still Sunlife of Canada during that time.

Weekend Recap

The last weekend was a little stressful because I found out I had a mass in my endometrium which made my doctor recommend a hysteroscopy.  It's scary for me because of the risks involved and the financial implications.

Good thing, I went to a birthday party right after the doctor's visit.  It was the first birthday of my cousin's daughter.  She had her party at TGI Fridays in Libis.  The party was from 3pm to 6 pm but because of my check-up, we arrived towards the end of the party.   You know what that means...
Anyway,  it's always fun to see my relatives, plus, my sister and her family were there too so I forgot my problems for a little while.

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Hope you had a nicer weekend.

Too Cute ! Tuesday v. 1

                                                                            Source: lifeaccordingtokenzblog.com via Marie Claire on Pinterest

             This is the first time that I'm linking up with Megan and Kenz.  

                 When I read what the link-up was all about, I knew I had to share this video.

                      I saw this on Facebook and this little girl just stole my heart!

She's not only smart, she's also too cute! Just precious!

Look for something cute and share it with us by linking up at  Life According to Kenz.

For My Husband

My husband is in Thailand for a business trip.  We have never been apart for more than ten hours ever since we got married.  I am terribly missing him! I know he usually checks my blog so this message is for him....

Source: babybangs.tumblr.com via Lisa on Pinterest

I wish it was Friday already so I can hug him again!

The Week in Pictures

                                         Some highlights of my week in pictures....

Not included here is my attempt  to learn how to breathe when swimming.  I know how to swim, freestyle and backstroke but I don't know how to breathe while doing the freestyle.  I am always afraid to get water inside my nose.

Last Thursday, my co-teacher, our PE teacher,  tried teaching me, but I still have the same problem.  I hesitate whenever it's time to breathe! Oh goodness! maybe next week!

It was a tiring but a rather nice week for me.  How was your week?

This Weekend, I... v. 12

Here's another round of This Weekend, I.... with Sar and Syn. 

Here's what my sweet husband gave me when he fetched me from school last Friday.

Krispy Kreme doughnuts!  I'm not a fan, but if it's from my hubby, I always enjoy it.

We were exactly three months old as a married couple last Saturday.  To celebrate, my husband agreed to take me anywhere I wanted in Makati.

I don't know why but Makati has always held a special place in my heart.  It is my favorite place in Metro Manila. When I was young, my dream was to work in Makati.  So when I graduated from college, I only entertained job  invitations from companies based in Makati.  Eventually, around two months after my graduation, it became my second home.

Today, I seldom go there because my job keeps me in Quezon City.  Ruel is not so fond of Makati because of the traffic going there.  This time though, Ruel wanted to make me happy so he brought me there.  

I was overcome with a sense of nostalgia as we traveled Ayala Avenue.  Everything was so familiar.  It took me to a different time, a time when I was younger, when I was more naive, more idealistic.  It took me to a time when I had no care in the world.  I always take this trip back in time whenever I go there.  And it always makes me happy.

The street right below is one that is closest to my heart.  This is the street where our office used to be.  The bookstore below this photo has been in Greenbelt for probably more than twenty years.  It felt so good to see that it was still there, one of the few stores that were left after the renovation.

I used to go to the Greenbelt shopping center almost every day.  Save for Greenbelt 1, I would already get lost in the other parts of the center.  Nothing looks the same.  But everytime, I would find myself imagining how it was when I was younger. I always ask myself, "What used to be here?"

At 6:30, we had a buffet dinner at Red Crab!  So fun!

Ruel tried their other dishes. As for me, except for the salad and the soup, all I had was crabs!  Different recipes but all crabs.

I am allergic to crabs but I can't help eating them.  I just love them so much! What I do is I just drink plenty of water!

Concentration!

At this point, I finished my crab and I was waiting for the chef to finish cooking my next crab.   It was a long wait and Ruel decided to capture my mood with my camera.  Such a long face I had!

And then....Fidel's Pepper Crab arrived!  And I was happy once again!

Except for the laundry and the exam questions I had to do on Sunday, the weekend was such a fun one for me.

How was your weekend?