I’m Back!

Yes, I am from my 4-day out-of-town fieldwork and from all my crazy-busyness prior to that. Whew! I missed my blabbering world! But even if my full schedule has loosened up a bit, I’m still getting back on track when it comes to blogging because I’ve got a lot of backlogs I don’t know where to start! 😀

While I’m still processing things, let me just give a quick rundown of my eventful April-May, I dub as #aMAYzingrace (sorry I really have to use this hashtag. haha!):

April: The Little Princess’ 2nd Birthday

My baby girl is now 2! Wait, what?! She’s 2 already?! Where has time gone?! Anyhow, to celebrate my Little Princess’ terrific twos, I prepared a simple Frozen themed party at home amid my super duper busy work schedule thereby sucking the remaining energy left in my body that week. 😀 I posted a photo on my Instagram and as I mentioned in the caption, I still owe a post on this. Long overdue, I know. 😦

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Super Momma Diaries (@supermommadiaries)

May 1-3: Family Out-of-Town Trip at Hundred Islands

We took advantage of the long Labor Day weekend break to have some beach time and get all tanned at Hundred Islands in Alaminos, Pangasinan. The kids enjoyed the beach so much with the proof of the fun they had still evident on their skin until now. 😀 Ebony and ivory combined. 😀

May 6-8: Fieldwork in Naga City

Three days of out-of-office work going house-to-house observing research interviews and more interestingly, people’s culture and way of life, under the scorching heat of the sun. I kidded my colleague, “Why do we have to go through this all these again?” Hahaha! Also did some office work at night until the wee hours to finish a report. I thought I was back in college. Or my research agency days. Crazy.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Super Momma Diaries (@supermommadiaries)

And to compensate for that physically and mentally tiring business trip, I got to taste Naga City’s famous Sili Ice Cream from 1st Colonial Grill! 🙂 I didn’t like how the spicyness of the sili gets stuck in my throat though but the other unique flavors were so hmmmmm  delicious and refreshing! 🙂

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Super Momma Diaries (@supermommadiaries)

May 10: Mother’s Day Celebration

I was so looking forward to the weekend of Mother’s Day to relax from all the stress of that week so I hinted my husband to bring me and the kids out on this day. I would have preferred a spa or salon time all by myself but I wanted to spend the day with the kids and hubby so we went to Active Fun at Boni High Street and had early dinner at IHOP. I felt exhausted physically but the joy of being with my family on this special day took away all the tiredness. And for some treat for me, Daddy J bought me 2 bags from Cole Vintage at a booth in BHS. Happiness because they were on sale! 😀

May 15-16: Department Summer Outing

Our “sorority” (because we are an all-ladies department 😀 ) had an overnight summer outing/team building at La Luz Beach Resort in Laiya, Batangas. We had fun being together beyond the walls of our office room and just enjoying the sun, sea and sand. 🙂 Afterwhich we had a sumptuous lunch at a beautiful, very inviting Italian restaurant in Lipa City called Casa Marikit.

May 18-21: Fieldwork in Cebu and Iloilo 

My #aMAYzingrace ended, so far, with a 4-day fieldwork in Cebu and Iloilo. Again, another tiring, much more tiring, but worthwhile trip because apart from experiencing people’s way of life again, we got to explore Cebu particularly Iloilo on the side  (and no office work to finish at night!). We experienced Cebu’s Zubu Chon, Iloilo’s Jo’s Chicken Inato, Buto’t Balat Restaurant, Breakthrough Restaurant,  Deco’s La Paz Batchoy and Madge Cafe’s Iced Coffee. 🙂

So that was my jam-packed May! I’ll try and I hope to be able to blog about these events separately. I’d like to share lots of photos! 😉

Our Nomadic Holy Week Vacation (Part 2)

Sorry it took a while but here’s the continuation of our action-packed nomadic vacation. 🙂

Day 2: FORGETFULNESS Friday

• We spent the morning at home — I sorting and pricing the rummageable items we brought to be put in my uncle’s yard sale, Daddy J watching TV and looking after the kids once in a while and the kids playing and being taken care of by their older cousins. 😀 The perks of having nephews in their tween years. 😀

My packing amazingly captured by the Little Princess. Hahaha! I was just browsing my phone to check if I was able to take photos during our vacation and found this. She always manages to click the camera app whenever she gets hold of my phone without my knowledge. Gotta keep my phones away from her reach!

• We then started to prepare and pack our things for our next destination: my husband’s hometown. I really wanted us to attend the 7 Last Words service at our local church in the afternoon but Daddy J preferred that we leave after lunch at around 2pm. I gotta push for it next time. After all, Holy Week is not just about enjoying and bumming around. It’s about remembering and living up what Jesus did for us on the cross. To be honest, a Holy Week vacation without Jesus is void of complete joy. It could be fun but not joyful.
• So our nomadic vacation life continued as we started rolling at 4pm for another one-and-a-half-hour drive. The kids just slept through the ride, tired from all the playing they did in the morning.
• When we reached my in-laws’ house, we unloaded our things, bag after bag, until I noticed we had left the Little Princess’ tote bag of cloth diapers! Uh-oh. Imagine me spending hours matching the cloth diapers to the Little Princess’ clothes, using all possible means to make them all fit in a tote bag only for the cute little bum pieces to be forgotten and taken for granted…Huhuhu! But thank God we were able to load into the car the laundry bag of peed diapers and I was able to squeeze in her diaper bag a good-for-nighttime nappy (a Cottonytail HF in pretty print! 🙂 ) and 2 training pants. We were able to survive the night and we had a few pieces to use for the next 2 days. Whew!

This cute kitty pretty sums up my reaction upon learning of our forgotten nappies. Que horror! 😀 Photo via jockeroo.com

Day 3: Horrible Black Saturday

• Of course, we didn’t let the kids miss the customary Black Saturday swimming of hubby’s side of the family. When the scorching heat of the sun had subsided after the kids had taken their afternoon nap, we drove down to the nearby resort with hubby’s cousins, nephews and nieces to take a dip into the pool.
• We reserved a cottage, put our stuff and brought the kids to the kiddie pool. I wasn’t in my swimwear yet at that time as I planned to change into my rashguard and board shorts a little later so it was just Daddy J accompanying the 2 kids in the pool while I watched over them by the poolside. The kiddie pool was knee-deep that goes deeper up to 4 ft where the slides invitingly rest. You know what slides can do to kids. Despite our incessant warning to the Big Boy not to go far from his Daddy because he was not yet wearing his floater, the very excited Big Boy who is not so friends with the waters braved the pool, climbed up the ladder and slid his way to the 4 feet deep water without floater! I saw before my eyes how my Big Boy waved his hands while tip toeing and gasping for air because he doesn’t know how to swim. It was a horrible sight to see for me as mom. 😦 Thank God Daddy J was just a few feet away so he carried the Little Princess like a surfboard on his right arm and reached for the Big Boy, pulled him up and carried him on his other arm. He didn’t cry but I witnessed the undeniable look of fright in his face. My poor Big Boy. 😦
• Daddy J brought the Big Boy to me and I immediately checked on him if he was okay. A little shaky as he sat beside me, the Big Boy said he went under the water. He added he didn’t want to go swimming again without me. There’s really a magical comfort that children find from their mommies. I felt that when I was a kid, too, whenever I had an aching body part usually my tooth or a pending scolding of my dad for some rules I had broken. I would always go to my mom for comfort and rescue.
• So I went back to the cottage with the Big Boy and immediately changed into my swimwear to accompany him in the pool. He gave the pool water another try with his floater on but he didn’t want to let me go even a little distance from him. There was still a trace of fear in my precious boy’s angelic face but at least he paddled again in the water. But I think the slide totally ruined his pool experience. He didn’t want to slide again even if I already went up with him to the point of bursting into tears as if an ice cream he is deliciously savoring was grabbed from him. Meanwhile, as the Big Boy struggled with the water especially the slide, the Little Princess was having the time of her life in the pool with his Daddy — leisurely wandering, swimming, paddling and floating together with their cousins. She really loves the water! 🙂
• After around 30 minutes of swimming, we had a break to eat merienda. The Big Boy no longer wanted to go back to the pool so we already showered him. The Little Princess, on the other hand, still longed for the water so we went back to the kiddie pool until dusk broke in which prompted us to shower and pack up.
• As I watched the kids sleep that night, tears rolled down my cheeks because of the unfortunate incident that the Big Boy experienced. My poor little Big Boy. 😦 I hugged and kissed him and whispered a prayer of thanks to the Lord that he didn’t let anything worse happen to my precious boy and he was still there soundly sleeping, lying beside me on the bed.

Indeed, He is. Photo via thoughtyoumayask.com

Notes: 1.) We already forgot to take pictures that day because of the incident. We focused instead in looking after the kids. Pardon the boring novel. 2.) It’s weird to narrate a story in bullets. Haha!

Day 4: Resurrection sunday

• I prefer calling this day as Resurrection Sunday rather than Easter Sunday because it was about the resurrection of Jesus, a remarkably pivotal event in history that completed the story and God’s gift of salvation to humankind. I was hoping to be at the church listening to God’s beautiful message of how Jesus raised from the dead and its importance and relevance in our lives but we do not have a local church to visit at Daddy J’s hometown. CCF’s online worship service could have answered my desire to hear the Resurrection Sunday message but the internet connection failed me. Anyhow, I’ve put in my search list the local church we could visit when we spend the holidays at my in-laws.
• Moving on, since we were not able to go to church, the last day of our vacation, as usual, was spent packing our things. While the kids were enjoying the company of their cousins while being looked after by their Lola who was equally enjoying attending to her apos, I was busy collecting all our laundered, pressed and folded clothes, squeezing them back to our bags and luggages just how I packed them when we left for vacation. I don’t mind packing for home because it’s way much easier and less stressful. I don’t have to think of mixing and matching our clothes. 😀
• Our ETD was 2pm and we were able to leave for Manila at 2:30pm, a 30-minute improvement from our usual 1 to 2 hour delay. 😀 I think my packing skills have significantly improved! Hehe!
• It was a Sunday and the last day of vacation so we were caught up with the high volume of vehicles going back to Manila. Surprisingly but thankfully, there was no accident along the road.
• We made a stopover at a gas station and had dinner at Chowking so we would just rest and wouldn’t mind our growling tummies once we reached home. Both Daddy J and I noticed how Chowking’s food quality has deteriorated. Their pancit canton tasted so bland as well as their wanton soup. Their edge lies on the low price plus the selection of non-fastfood.
• As expected, we arrived home at 8:30pm, a good 6-hour travel time including our dinner break which usually takes around 4 hours.

That recaps our Holy Week vacation, nomadic edition. 😀 Tiring, yes. But the experience, incomparable. 🙂 Sorry for the lack of photo documentation, my “photojournalistic skills” also went on vacation. 😀

More travel stories to come! Hopefully! Hehe! 🙂

Our Nomadic Holy Week Vacation (Part 1)

I have finally unpacked our things from our 4-day Holy Week vacation and got some good night rest so, I can already start blogging! I know I was nowhere to be found in this little world of blabbers of mine for quite a while but I’m back and the blabbering resumes now. 😀

Week before the Holy Week, I attended a 3-day work conference in Tagaytay then I got a load of “labada” (aka work) upon my return that I got to finish before I went on vacation last week. Thus, my short hiatus from blabbering (promise, this is the last time I’m gonna use that word. I just can’t stop mumbling it in my head. 😀 ).

Anyhow, I don’t know if the summer heat has already hit Tagaytay but when we were there, it was sooooo cold, Baguio cold, especially at night and the wind was so strong I thought I was going to be carried and flown away like Piglet in Winnie the Pooh. Thankfully I didn’t underestimate Tagaytay’s cooling powers and decided to bring a jacket. I was saved from freezing. Whew.

By the way, I got some loots from our Tagaytay trip which I will share about in another post. 😀 For now, I’ll talk first about our Holy Week vacation in our home province. A nomadic kind of vacation, not an all-bumming, eat-sleep-watch-TV-all-you-want one. A little exhausting but of course fun and thrilling.

Daddy J and I are from the same province and like our usual, historical Holy Week vacation since we got married, we split the holidays by staying in my side of family first then moving to his hometown which is about an hour and a half away from my hometown. Hence, our traditional nomad vacation life. With 2 kids, 1 (used to be 2) huge luggage, 1 overnight bag and several other bags for cloth diapers and other stuff. No more feeding bottles because the Big Boy no longer drink milk from the bottle and the Little Princess is breastfed. Thank goodness.

This year, to spice up our vacation a bit, we decided to go to the nearest beach instead of just staying home and watching the hours tick byyyyy (hehe!) apart from the usual Black Saturday swimming with hubby’s family/clan. So our 4-day itinerary and thorough decision-making went something like this:

holy wednesday: prepping for the vacation

• Our original plan was to leave Manila in the morning of Wednesday to maximize our vacation and avoid the Holiday traffic but this didn’t materialize because Daddy J had important things to finish at work. So I spent my filed vacation leave doing my favorite (not!) thing: packing our stuff. This is always the hardest part of leaving. We left at 9:30pm as Daddy J had to take some rest before our long drive.
• Part of the original plan was to go for a day “beach-ing” trip in Dingalan or Baler, Aurora on Thursday but since we left late and arrived in my hometown late (or early because it was already 1:00am!) and we felt a bit tired, we cancelled the beach-ing (it really doesn’t sound good, does it?) plan. Though I still packed extra swimwear for all of us. Better ready than sorry 😀

DAY 1: Marvellous THURSDAY

• On Thursday morning, I brought up to Daddy J the idea of going to a nearby tourist attraction of serene blue-green river surrounded by limestone formations and he gave his thumbs up. But my brother insisted we go to Dingalan instead. After a few minutes of deep contemplation, we changed our mind and gave in to my brother’s persuasion and agreed to head on to the beach! 😀 Eleven of us in 3 convoying vehicles.
• We had lunch, packed away and drove one hour and a half (without traffic!) to Dingalan, Aurora passing by the breath-taking mountainous view of Sierra Madre, the green and gold meadows fronting the mountains and the peaceful rivers flowing nearby. Rural life is absolutely love.

Sierra Madre mountains

Greenery with Sierra Madre and the perfect blue sky as backdrop

A river somewhere along the way to Dingalan 😀

Another spectacular view of Sierra Madre. As Daddy J put it, “The drive is sulit”.

• We arrived in Dingalan at 3:30pm with no idea which resort we would check in. 😀 In our minds, any resort would do since we were just spending the rest of the afternoon anyway. So we turned right from the Aplaya, traversed a rough road and went to the first resort that we spotted: Juniban Beach Resort. 😉 That’s how you plan a day trip. 😀
• We quickly surveyed the resort: it has an ample parking space, a small pool, a few aircon rooms for overnight stay, a snack bar with a videoke machine, pretty decent beach front cottages, and a little stony shoreline. It’s a spartan kind of resort — not for those looking for comfort and luxury. But for our 1/4-day stay, we didn’t mind the amenities (or the lack thereof) because we were there for the beach anyway. 😉 There was an entrance fee of P50 per adult and P25 per kid for a day trip with free use of cottage and we paid for 11 adults and got the 2 kids’ free. Sorry I didn’t get to ask the overnight rate but I’m sure it’s pretty reasonable.
• After settling our payment, we headed to our cottage by the beach and we were welcomed by the huge, human-high waves! We remembered there was an upcoming typhoon. 😀 I got scared of the humongous waves that I opted not to proceed with my plan to get all soaked even just with the remnants of waves at the stony shore. 😀 My nephews, hubby and the kids were all prepared to get wet so they let the waves chase and hit them at the shore, except for the Big Boy who, as usual was scared of the waves. As they play with the ocean waters, the roaring waves swallowed the Big Boy’s slippers. Poor slippers and poor Big Boy. He went home barefoot. 😦 😀

Daddy J and the Little Princess enjoying the beach and view…

…and getting chased and hit by the waves!

While the Big Boy is contented with the small pool of seawater formed by the huge splash of waves. 😀

Look at my barefoot Big Boy!

• Aside from playing with the waves, would you believe we were also able to fly kite and play beach volleyball at the neighboring resort (for free!)? 🙂 And most of all, marvel at the beauty of the ocean and the forested mountains that stand wonderfully beside it. Magnificent creation of our magnificent God.

At the cottage

• When it got a bit darker and the waves got stronger, we decided to bring the kids to the pool so they could use their newly-bought floaters. 😀 We let them paddle and enjoy the water for 20 minutes but the Little Princess didn’t want to get off the pool yet and started to wail. 😀 She was pacified when we showered her in a pretend pool called timba/pail. 😀

Happily paddling in the pool 🙂

• We left Dingalan at around 6:30pm with the bright light of the full moon guiding us. It was a brief but worthwhile trip giving us a fresh province life experience. We would definitely go back with a more well-planned itinerary. 😀 And oh, since hubby suddenly felt awful and couldn’t continue driving, I took the wheel and it was the first time I drove 100kph without taking a full stop every so minutes! Woohoo! I love rural driving (except for the unlit vehicles)! 😀

The poor lighting and poor camera quality turned us into wolves. 😀

The gang 😀

To be continued (I’m already sleepy)… 😀