vacation mode

I haven't been blogging the past few because I've too gladly put myself on Vacation Mode. Two weeks ago, the Hubby and I flew over to see my Mom, her husband and my little sister in Nevada. We're still here by the way. So far, we've had somewhere to go and something to do every day.



I'm quite enjoying the "new environment" - the cool, non-humid climate, the alien scenery, the differing culture.



I love most of all how I've finally gotten to spend time with this slice of family.



We've had so much fun snapping and sharing photos too.


The Hubby and I have around two and a half weeks before we head back to Manila, and we hope to make the most of those days.

one day to go! =D

This day in the world of emoticons, I am equal sign capital D. I'm pumped (albeit a little stressed) and enthused (although a little tired) because tomorrow I shall be making that several-hour flight to see my mom and my littlest sister for the first time in years. The Hubby and I will be traveling together, bearing gifts and good tidings.

We didn't think we could make this trip, but thanks to a few wonderful family members and family-friends, we shall be on our way. Our Mama - who just went through a major surgery - would be very happy to see us too; our presence there will be an awesome (late) Mothers' Day gift for her.

I shall continue packing and preparing now. ^_^

another answered prayer

The Hubby and I hung out with a few of our younger friends after church service last Sunday. We chatted and did some catching up in a resto with J, B and K.

K had just graduated from University and told us how he had already begun to apply for his dream job. This was a field he had always wanted to be in, and we've been praying about it since he was in high school; the Hubby and I had supported him and trusted with him that it's his destiny. It's something that we believe God placed strongly in his heart, and we can envision how the Lord can really bless him and use him to bless others in that area.

It was like watching the rising action part of a movie - it was already becoming a reality for him, that kid we invested our lives in (who is now no longer a kid, by the way). It truly was exciting, and we hoped for the best with K while he waited for a callback. The only problem K perceived was that there was one other more qualified applicant for the particular position he was aiming for. K still felt confident about it though, somehow knowing this job is really for him.

We paused to pray right then and there for K. It wasn't a begging, pleading "whatever happens happens" kind of prayer, but a positive and faith-filled one, phrased as if K was already sure to land the job. We all just sort of knew; after all, God had already made it known somehow years before.

Just as we finished, another friend of ours came into the resto. Our older friend L. The Hubby came over to him to greet him, and led him to our table to introduce him to our younger friends. As I introduced them, I felt the urge to include brief, interesting details about each person (a useful tip I picked up from Bridget Jones' Diary a couple years back, haha). As it came to K's turn, I mentioned he had recently graduated from university and applied for this particular position in this particular organization. Who does that, right?

Without pausing, L asks K to write his name and the position he was applying for on a piece of paper. It turns out L personally knew the head of that conversation. No promises of course, but he did put a word in for K.

Earlier this evening K gave me a call, announcing that he got that job. Wheee! Though we already believed he was getting it, it still felt great to hear that he actually nabbed it. Even if it wasn't my personal success, I celebrate with him. It somehow feels like my accomplishment by extension, because he's a person that I love.

I stopped by his Facebook wall to leave him a note. "I believe in you," I said, "this is the start of something big".

a chance encounter? perhaps not

The other night I had this intense craving for Mexicali food. There was food at home but I didn't want any of it; I hungered for something specific. The Hubby hinted on taking me out for dinner, but I felt too tired to go anywhere so we called delivery.

We were informed it would take an hour and a half before we would get our food. It was already past 8pm so that meant the meal would arrive at almost 10. I nearly changed my mind and thought about boiling an egg for dinner, but I decided to wait it out.

Hungry, tired and near-sleepy a few minutes to 10pm, the delivery guy finally rang our doorbell. My mouth began to water at the thought of sopa de lima, ortilla chips, burito, quesadilla. The Hubby went to fetch the food and came back with our order, with a free pleasant surprise.

It just so happened that the delivery boy was someone we knew - he was a kid in the youth group the Hubby and I used to handle some time ago - he isn't a kid anymore of course. I was just recently thinking about him and wondering where he was now, and voila, he shows up at our doorstep, literally. He and the Hubby had a short chat, he said he and his grandma are doing okay; he hasn't been to church in a while but he'll drop by soon. I would've asked him to come in and hang out, but I'm pretty sure that's against company policy.

Of all the odd situations, right?

Of all the possible delivery boys of all the possible restos.

We wouldn't have had the encounter if I didn't have that strong hankering for a specific kind of food at that specific time, and if I agreed to eat out instead, or if I had been too impatient and had just settled for eating a boiled egg. It's easy to believe God orchestrated this somehow - especially now that the Hubby and I have been picking up a few "stray sheep"; the guy might possibly need a flock of sorts right now.

I was thinking maybe we should order from Mexicali again tonight. Maybe I can search for him on Facebook, ask about his shift and request him to deliver our food again? Or maybe we could just cut all the side-routes and go straight to scheduling another "encounter" during his free time? The sure part is that he's back in our lives somehow.

things are looking good

I had a difficult time falling asleep again last night so I gave in to an inspiration: I reviewed my 2008-2009 journal.

It always amuses me when I read stuff I've written in the past, even in the not-so-distant past (Too bad I threw away my journals from my teen years [they took up so much space]; those would have been fun to revisit). I was hoping that this particular journal could help me see how much ground I've covered in the past two years.

My logs began sometime in the last quarter of '08, and the last entry one was dated mid-'09, (around the time before my dad had his stroke; after that episode I recall I resorted to logging my thoughts online because I found it more convenient). There wasn't much in that journal, but the contents were enough for some perspective.

Reading what I had written, it was easy for me to see that life is much better now than it was two years ago, in most if not all aspects. The Hubby and I are in a better place in our lives; there is visibly more peace and joy and love. This is undeniably good. Even better than good.

The wisest decision the Hubby and I made was getting out of a toxic environment full of non-supportive people. It allowed a whole lot of room for more good things in our lives.

In that journal I also found our '08 wishlist. Though we still don't have the top item (which was / still is, our own home), I realize that we've already acquired most of the other things, such as a laptop, a DSLR and some other stuff we wanted. Cheers to us!

I also reviewed some of the prayers and prophecies concerning myself which I jotted down during that time-period. I think they are now in fulfillment - well, not every prayer / prophecy is happening right this moment, but I see some significant items coming to pass in the present. There are still a few that have yet to happen, and I am quite excited about them.

One very encouraging word I received was that I will make choices that will seem wrong to others, but I will be exactly where God wants me. Right now - despite the probability that there are others frowning upon us - I am convinced that the Hubby and I are where God wants us, and I am blessed and thankful.

In the following nights, I suppose I should visit my journals from as far back as 2000. I'm, sure I will be encouraged by the progress I've made.

our dog was lost, and now he's home again!

This is definitely a happy thawt! We thought we'd lost him forever, but today Puffy's wagging his tail and munching on treats just a few feet from me.

It must have been two months ago or so when he disappeared. We were pretty convinced he was stolen. He's a pure pomeranian, the cute kind that attracted the attention of the neighbor kids. Our theory was that someone from the nearby squatters area climbed our wall (again), nabbed the dog and considered selling him for a couple thousand. We looked around the neighborhood for Puffy, and after a few days we resigned to the probability that we might not see him again.

I know it may sound silly, but I prayed for our dog. I asked God to bring him back - maybe he could escape and come skipping back to us, or maybe the dognappers could repent and deposit him at our garage - but if that were not possible, I prayed that he would be adopted by a loving home that will care for him well. Of course after awhile, I just sucked up the emo-ness and tried to convince myself that Puffy was in a good place. I hoped and chose to believe that nice dog-loving people took him in. After all, he's too cute to be mistaken for an askal, too charming to turn into pulutan.

We never threw away his bowl and bag of dog food. It just seemed too soon.

Then the other day, our house helper's morning greeting carried good news: She saw Puffy! She spotted him tied to a pole at the tricycle stand by the nearby squatters' area. She was sure it was him because he recognized her. Apparently someone picked him up, took care of him and brought him there. She didn't take Puffy home right away of course, since she had to ask around and look for his new "owners" and wanted to be gracious (If it were I who had spotted Puffy tied at the trike stand, I would have just grabbed him and warded off anyone who tried to ask questions. He's our dog. Good thing our helper had more manners than I did).

So anyway. By the end of yesterday, Puffy was finally brought back home. He appeared well-groomed and well-fed, so I couldn't complain.

It turns out a tricycle driver saw Puffy wandering in the street two months ago and took him home. The driver's family took care of Puffy for two months - apparently they took very good care of our dog. They even brought him to the vet when he got sick, bought him his own soap and shampoo. We were told that people have been offering to buy Puffy for a few thousand bucks, but his "caretakers" didn't feel they had the freedom to sell him because they knew he belonged to someone else. The driver would tie Puffy near the trikes, thinking the real owners are likely to be looking for the dog. I'm so happy that Puffy has been in good hands all this time.

I felt sorry for the driver though - he looked really sad when he came by the house to tell us he was the one who found our dog. Apparently he already fell in love with Puffy and was probably even hoping he could keep him.

But the happy thawt persists - Puffy's home! I prayed to God that Puffy would come back, or that he would be well-taken care of by a nice family - and both my prayers were answered. I know that a dog's welfare may seem too unimportant a thing to ask of the Lord - but as I have been told, if it matters to you, it matters to God, and that is very comforting.

they're not just words on greeting cards

I realize I've broken one of my own rules and neglected this blog for a little over two weeks. I made it my personal mandate to think and write at least one happy thawt per week, but hah, what's a happy thawts blog worth if I can't even break my own rules for perfectly good reasons, right?

The lack of new posts isn't because of a scarcity of happy thawts. On the contrary, my life has been filled with back-to-back happy thoughts lately. I am in fact still in the middle of enjoying them all, and haven't gotten to the business of translating them into coherent paragraphs yet.

Let me describe all this by stating two rosy words that seems to be resonating in my heart right now:

p e a c e and j o y

image from here

I know that kinda reads like a Christmas card, but I really have no other way to describe it. It's just great.

A friend I haven't seen in a while texted me to ask me how I was; I answered that things were going great, even almost perfect. I wasn't so sure about the almost perfect part, so I asked the Hubby if he agreed. Well, he seemed to think so too. Though if anyone looked at our life from a logical standpoint, it's kinda far from perfect: We aren't living in our dream house - not even close; we aren't working our dream jobs or earning big bucks or anything like that, we don't even have enough cash to but everything we need for most days. But for some reason we both feel quite content. Peace and joy - there you go.

I don't know how to explain it, but it's not quite an emotional state. I don't feel hunky-dory every time (in fact I had some slight dysphoria and slight depression lately), but I am hunky-dory beyond the feelings.

There's this overwhelming-but-sweet sense that everything's going to be alright. And not even just alright, but astoundingly, exceedingly wonderful. It's not just optimism, but a solid assurance within me that things will get better from now on.

I somehow even feel as if something big and good is on its way to greet us, and that the Hubby and I will be part of something big and good.

And just can't stop thinking about it. :)

how sweet it is to be apologized to

I love the feeling of receiving a sincere apology, especially one that is expressed in an effort to save a valued relationship. When the sorry is sincere, there hardly is any need for explanations.

Which is why I post a little celebration in receiving one of the most sincere apologies I've received in a long time. Salve of joy. It's so healing, especially after wearing a stake through my soul about it for a long time.

nomnomnom-ing

I arrived home at around half past two this morning, a full moon smiling with me as I stepped out of the car and into the threshold. I came from an awesome night with old schoolmates from the absolutely amazing college of UP Fine arts. It was great to see them all again, all in one place, all at the same time.


I've been looking forward to a rendezvous such as this. It would be a decade since I last saw most of them (online / television / magazine sightings excluded), so you could imagine how excited I was.

We had dinner and drinks at a really cute, cozy resto in QC owned by 3 other schoolmates. Really, really lovely place. Would you believe it? - It's called Nomnomnom Happy Food. Wonderful healthy gourmet-ish food at fastfood prices. Highly recommended.


Some 60 or so folk came, UP CFA graduates from different departments and various batches of the late '90s. There was a whole lot of us from our block and we filled half the smoking area. Everyone sort of just adapted into the scene, as if simply picking up from where we left off almost a decade ago, like we were never separated by years. Most of them looked just like the way I left them.

A lot of things were pretty much the same ...

R and J were still the fist to arrive and the last to leave.
D still has the nicest camera, and is still married to R.
MB still looks like she did in college.
MD still has her subtle-funny way of telling stories .
G is still nicey and unintrusive.
A is still the pretty girl who has never had a boyfriend.
JP is still on whatever regulated substances those are.
AL is still the weird artist type (with ultraman toy watch to match), still talks like a cool geek and is still a self-proclaimed closet gay.
D is still openly gay and openly flirts with AB. AB is still a sweet-and-sensitive toughie and is still dating C.
H is still a heckler.
L is still his heckle-buddy.
The single girls are still single.
And there was this whole confuddled commotion with paying the bill, like how things usually went when we ate at Mang Jimmy's ten years ago.
And JP hitched a southbound ride home with me like he used to.


... Though there have been a lot of interesting developments:

JP finally graduated (Centennial batch! Woot!) - big news of the evening.
D is a classy sort of sexy-manly gay who does some designing and a bit of modeling.
AB has a lot of uber-cool tatts.
MD just recovered from an operation that revealed she had a parasitic twin (oh yes, she gave us a detailed, descriptive report while everyone was eating).
MB, one of the owners of the resto we were eating at, is now a successful entrepreneur with a couple of businesses.
H is engaged.
D and R have three kids now.
R is a respected teacher at a girls' private school.
D spells his name differently now. He has a studio and does glamour photography; we see his work everywhere.
AL is a filmmaker and has a thing for K-pop.

It felt a lot like college hang-out days all over again - except that people were now more stable (in every sense of the word) and the guys knew how to handle their drinks (i.e., no drunken vomitfests). Too bad a lot of the other friends weren't able to make it.

It was a much-needed trip away from the usual everyday of present life. I'd love to call it a great night of catching up with old friends, but great is an understatement. Hoping and waiting for a second round ...

just visiting

The Hubby and i went visiting another church last night. We were invited by some people to come listen to a guest preacher and we decided it was worth going to (we invited some church kids to come along as well but they ended up not coming - but anyway ...)

There wasn't anything particularly special about the meeting - I mean, nothing out of the ordinary by Pentecostal standards - but it was great that I was there. More on that later.

In a more general sense, I personally like attending services of other churches - whether it be a special meeting or the usual Sunday service. Of course that goes with the foundational MUST of being rooted and committed to my own local church. Here's what I like about it:

1. I get to appreciate more the diversity in the body of Christ. There are various ways to worship and it's nice to see - and even participate in - how other people do it. Aside from that, I might get ideas for little bits that we can try at our home church, hee hee.
   
   
2. Sometimes I appreciate my own church more - for all its flaws and flubs - when I see that other churches are flawed ad flubbed too. :p
   
   
3. Now this is real important to me: It's a chance for me to receive ministry. When I visit another congregation, I'm just an attendee there; not a worker or leader or anything. I can get their workers to pray for me. At our home church, the Hubby and i are at the administering end, hardly ever at the receiving end, and we're at this constant "watch" mode to see that things are getting done (besides, due to our virtual position, most people at home are too intimidated to minister to us). When attending another church, we can temporarily lay aside the serve others first guideline; in this instance, we are the others. We give them the chance to minister to us.
   
   
4. I like it when a minister who doesn't know me prays or speaks over me (provided of course that he / she is actually experienced and knows what he / she is doing). Not that I don't appreciate the people at home who do know me, because I really do - it's just that sometimes i think they know too much about me so they might just say what they think I need / want to hear. Some of the best, most powerful, spot-on prophecies I've received are from people who don't know me personally; I know their messages were from God because they hit the mark even if there was no human way possible for them to know those things. There's an added zing about it when a message comes from someone unfamiliar.
   
   
5. It just plain breaks monotony. In today's reliably-structured, modern religious practice in danger of becoming the same old same old, I so welcome variety (with certain restrictions of course, but that's not the point I'm trying to make here).
   

So anyway, at this meeting, the Hubby and i were at the receiving end, right? We didn't have to worry about making sure people were lining up properly at the altar, we weren't concerned about asking for words for people, we didn't have to look around to make sure our sheep were eating their greens and so on. It felt so darned good to just think about ourselves at a meeting like this. It's been a while since I personally received some really meaningful prophetic ministry, and at an opportune time too; it gives a whole new dimension to the word refreshing. I count this as the happy thawt of the day and the big blessing of the week.

recovery notes

After nearly a month of thinking I could find no pearls along the path, I realize that there was a big pearl right under my chin, so close that I nearly missed it.

It's been a hard five weeks since my dad was discharged from the hospital. His stroke naturally meant that our lives would be different from then on. His doctors (including our dear uncle the general surgeon) made it quite clear to us that our dad would not have full use of his motor and verbal skills for at least a few months, and even after then he will need supervision for every aspect of his life. The way my uncle put it, Papa will be the child now and we will be the parents. We'd had to work our routines around his new ones - blood pressure checks, sugar counts, diet regulations, adjustments to the interior of the house, medicine intakes - it was a sudden adjustment that I neglected most of my own routines. He now needs at least one of us by his side 24/7. I felt as if I was being robbed of my own life.

I couldn't keep from thinking about the inconvenience of having a 63-year old baby about as gentle, submissive and as patient as Grond. Many times he would express his frustration at not being able to say what he wanted to, and at our not comprehending his message. Add to that the unnecessary pressure of meddling-but-not-very-helpful relatives who always seem to notice what we've done wrong and overlook what we've done right. And then the stress of getting in each other's hair every so often.

But wait - this is my happy thawts blog. No whining in here, right?

I needed to put all that first just to emphasize how welcome a seemingly tiny blessing is in the midst of all the unpleasantness.

And here's what it is:

A month or so into recovery, our dad is doing good. Even the doctors and therapists say that his quick recuperation is surprisingly ahead of schedule. His Grond-like qualities have been helpful to him in that he forces himself to cope and regain his strength. He is now able to walk quite briskly (whick is his normal pace, pre-stroke) with the help of a cane; we needed the wheelchair for only two weeks. The right side of his body which was still weak post-op has regained strength; he has close to full use of his limbs. His speech has not yet retured to normal, but with the help of speech therapy, he has been able to communicate better.

And speaking of that - we've been told that there are only five speech pathologists in the country, and that we are quite fortunate to have one attend to our dad.

Healing is good. It ain't all extremely superatural, but healing is still healing and it is welcome here.

I have no illusions that things will return to exactly the same as they were, but hey, we're in good Hands. Life ain't a piece of cake, but we've got enough sugar to last us.

hospital hills

For a week now, I've been camping at the hospital, attending to my Dad as he recovers from a brain surgery. The past few days were quite busy and stressful, but things are beginning to mellow down now (Hallelujah) and I'm finally able to go online.

I am thankful for neither my Dad's predicament nor the expenses because of it, but I am thankful for a lot of little things in the whole experience. First of all for the notion that all this inconvenience is a character sharpener. You know how it goes - testing and suchlike.

There's this big reason I want to post a huge shoutout for. But I can't quite because i was instructed not to. Err.. In a nutshell, i am immensely glad and grateful that my father is well-loved both at church and his workplace, and my sibs and I don't need to worry about the hospital bills. I thought that sort of thing only happened in movies.

Sans all the stress, these hospital days have been a fun experience. I have a few more until my Dad is discharged. I'm pathetically tired, but for some reason, I'm having a more-good-than-bad time.

happy today due to a few small and one big reason

First of all, I finally have time to blog again ! Hooray!

Now that summer is over and the tan lines have disappeared, my sked has wound down considerably. I can finally revert to my original intention of blogging twice a week.


Secondly, I gave my blogs some really nice makeovers!

Thanks to BTemplates, I acquired a few lovely and easy-to-use templates. What makes me extra happy is that these designs hardly had any kinks, and they were so easy to edit - not that they needed much editing anyway.

Of course it would have been better if I used my own designs but, bah, I'd rather use my time elsewhere.


Thirdly - and this is the biggie - I've got an answer of sorts to something I've been praying for for years.

I'd love to celebrate it a bit, but I shouldn't yet because the answer isn't complete yet. Besides, the situation involved is still not for public consumption, I think.

Basically, I've got this brother in faith who went away some years ago, and people have been praying for him of course. I wasn't praying for his protection or his prosperity; I was praying that he would come to the end of his rope so that he'd be so desperate that he would have no choice but to seek God, and no one to turn to but us, the church family that he left. Well, just a few minutes earlier, I heard from the hubby that this guy called our Senior Pastor asking for help because he was in some kind of deep shiz. As in really deep shiz. Sounds like the end of the rope right there. And even if he never asked for our help before, he called us, his true church family. If my hunch is correct, this'll be the beginning of the end of his wayward wandering.

Well, if it isn't, I'd still be excited to welcome him home.