Big Day for my Sister!

My one and only sister is getting married in 6 months time! This has been the most awaited wedding in our family being that she is the only one left single. Also, she has waited for so long for the man of her dreams to come sweep off her feet from the world of aloneness . Oh, wait... I also waited for many years! In fact, I didn't get married until I turned 34. In that case, my sister is following my steps because she is also getting married at 34! Oh, this is getting more interesting. We have been praying for this to happen and God, in His time and wisdom, has given us the desires of our hearts for our precious little Gigi. When I chatted with her fiance for the first time last week, he was telling me how he knew that God answered his very detailed prayer for a wife when he first met my sister. Oh, how God answers prayers according to His plans and purposes. This guy is a very young devoted missionary in southern Thailand. Grace told me that she has never met a prayerful man like him. I've also heard that this guy has been mentored by a 72-year old veteran missionary. Sounds to me like Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elisha and Paul and Timothy. Awesome! They are planning to continue to live and serve God in Thailand after their wedding.

My Open Birthday Letter to Kuya N

Dear Kuya Nem,

Happy Birthday, Risktaker!

I'm so proud of what you have become today. After many years of faithfully working with grade schoolers and pastoring the church in a small village, you came to a point where you have to leave your comfort zone to obey what you believe God is calling you to do. It would have been easier for you to remain and enjoy your promotions at school but you desire to obey and grow, even if it demands you to sacrifice your ego of being called a "starter" after what you have already achieved in life. I am so proud that you are able to take a seemingly very risky decision. You're unafraid of where that road you are traveling in now will take you and your family and completely trusting God to bring you to the place where He wants you all to be. God bless your heart! May He continue to give you stamina to finish what you have started right now. May He continue to provide you and your family a safety refuge from the unnecessary cares of life and may He sustain all of you with His grace and joy.

Muchas muchas Amor,
Dines (for Paul and Belle flower too)

Janet and Peter

I am posting these photos for Janet. I was browsing through my albums today and found this one. If my memory still serves me right, Janet was pregnant with her second baby then. Am I right, Jan?

Help!

My little girl hates shopping! Every time I bring her out shopping, she always acts as if it's the end of the world. And as if she was in the right place at a right time to display her worst tantrums. She would cry and scream like I am beating her. Curious heads turn to us! Oh, it's embarrassing. This evening, I wanted to enjoy shopping at a craft store but she had to come with me so that her daddy could have time to read at home, so I brought some candies to help (or bribe! bad! bad! bad!) her act normal at the store. It wasn't effective! As soon as we entered the store, she started crying and screaming. When I gave her a piece of candy, she grabbed and ate it while crying and screaming! Can you believe it?!

This morning, we walked to a kid's apparel store near our house, and as expected she had her bad temper. The store has a small play area, so I put her there. She was playing and smiling for a minute and after that she remembered how she hates shopping, so off she cried and screamed again. Oh, well, I can only hope things will change with her feelings about shopping in the near future or else I'll be forever a lone-shopper in our family.

Painter Wannabe

She really does belong to our family- the family of painters. Her dad paints! Her mom paints too- nails! And daughter paints her face!

Paul's Sofball Season

Paul has been playing for Eagle Heights Church softball team this summer. For a baseball pitcher like him, he is doing extraordinarily well in the out field and hitting home runs. In fact, he is the top hitter and catcher in the team. Well, that's my husband! He doesn't settle for "seconds". He goes for the best and works hard to obtain it.

Paul hit the ball home run!

Eagle Heights Church Team (Paul is in far left on the front row)

Izzy and her daddy after the game yesterday.

Paul always runs Izzy around the bases every after each game. Izzy loves it.

First Letter of your Name

Got this one from Aisha... "I'm trying Aish, see?"

ITS HARDER THAN IT LOOKS! Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following. They have to be real places, names, and things. Nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same first initial. You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question.

Your name: Dines

Four words: Darling? Debonair? Diva? Dynamic? Hahaha!

State/country: Dominican Republic

Boy name: Dan

Girl name: Dina (? so realistic! I can't stand it!)

Occupation: Dazzling Mama

Something you can wear: Diamond ring?

Something found in a kitchen: Dry Roasted Peanuts hahaha!

Something you shout: Duhhhhhhhh!!! (well i just have to do it louder :)

Something you do at school: Do not cheat.... hahaha! gotcha!

Name of an animal: Dogie

Name of a Beer/or liqour: sorry, no idea!

Name a holiday: D Day

Name a body part: D eyes (haha! see, I don't cheat by searching one in the internet)

Now pass it on. Tagging, Gigi.

Oooftahhhhh!

Paul, Isabelle and I have been seeing our chiropractor for regular adjustment. Some of our major bones need fixing, I suppose. Just kidding. Seriously, our friends referred us to their chiropractor and told us good reports about their visits with him as a family. We thought it won't hurt to try it. We found it to be beneficial. And Isabelle loves our visits because she gets to say "hi fishie" and "bye fishie" to the colorful animals inside the aquarium in the clinic. And yes, she also gets adjusted. Our chiropractor said that my Filipino version of the Minnesotan "oooftahh" is "hahaha". Yes, I do "hahaha" when I get clicks in my bones on my adjustment.

Our Baby's Comfort Zone

I'm still puzzled why our little Belle feels so comfortable under our dining table between the chairs. I've stopped trying to figure that out to save time, lol!

Then... (a year ago)

Now... (a few days ago, actually)

Multi-taskers better read this one...

http://hardkap.net/blog/?viewDetailed=00019

The Bollants

We met with the Bollants (the American missionary family to the Philippines who introduced me to Paul) today. It was a short but sweet visit. We bought them lunch at Red Lobster and off shopping afterwards. Peter is gwapo gihapon (still handsome!) as he always says. :) And Gwen still says, "Life is good!" The kids, though, have changed a lot, especially the youngest. He has grown so tall and he grew his hair longer and curlier. Oh, we love this family, not only because we are forever indebted to them for introducing us to each other but because they have such contagious joy and attitude of gratefulness. Little things make them happy. They all love the Lord and desire to serve Him. Tomorrow, they're off to Canada and back to the Phils. We hope to meet them when we fly to the Phils in January '09.

Izzy's Summer Days

We finally got our little Belle an inflatable swimming pool last Friday. She loves it to pieces. But before she could enjoy it, her "poised" mommy had to blow that thingy from her own lungs. How come? Our air pump refused to serve me. Blowing it was like climbing Mt. Everest forever. My cheeks inflated long before that thing would look like that. I was blowing air into it for about 2 very long hours. Not to mention the sound I made while doing it... it's disgusting and Izzy insisted her idea saying, "Mommy tooted!" I explained to her that it wasn't what she thought it was. Oh, boy. But seeing my little girl so happy swimming and playing in the water pays all of the hard work I put into it.

A Day at Fort Snelling

We had a great time at Fort Snelling State Park today. It is just 15 minutes drive from our house. When we got there I almost couldn't believe we were still in the cities (as we call Minneapolis- St. Paul, MN). I felt like we were in some nature park many miles away from the hassle and bustle of the modern twin cities. That's what I like about our home, it is close to the places that I like to go to. MOA (the largest mall in America) and the MSP Int'l Airport are both 15 minutes away from us. Other main nature parks, campgrounds and other tourist destination are just within 30 minutes drive. Isn't that great?

Picnic under the tree by the river.

Izzy loves picnics!

Izzy and daddy at lunch time.

We spent most of the afternoon biking around the nature park... izzy was in her wagon pulled by her daddy's bike.

Fort Snelling is the oldest fort in Minnesota.

The Guest Center at Fort Snelling.


The Minnesota River in the middle of the park.


On our way back to where we parked our car, the rain poured hard on us. Izzy was crying because she didn't want to get wet. It was fun for me though... biking in the rain is my idea of fun.

Scenic Sunday

We were out biking up at the bridge above Fort Snelling in the cities (Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN) this afternoon and saw this beauty. I thought it's perfect for Scenic Sunday. Here you go, Aisha, my very first entry.

Paul won a Dinner for 12!

That's right, my husband was selected to receive a free dinner for 12 people at Old Chicago. See, he takes calls from sales people and surveys from time to time ( I tried to avoid them). The dinner he won was from D & K home protection company. He just answered a few questions over the phone and after a few days the company called back to announce the news. We invited our friends to join us at Old Chicago last Tuesday night. It was fun. Food was great, of course. I had sirloin steak (my favorite food here, well-done please!) and potato fries. What's great about it? It's all free! So from now on, I'll try to answer every single call... you'll never know when a treat like that comes along.

My Hometown- Tandag, SdS, Philippines

Cagwait White Beach, about 30 minutes drive from my parents' home in Tandag, Surigao del Sur, Philippines. My husband proposed to marry me when we were in this beach celebrating his birthday in April 2005.

The Restaurant where we had lunch on my husband's first day in Tandag. We go to this one every time we eat out, especially with my whole family.

The provincial capitol. Paul jogs with my brother and friends around this building.

Sunset in Tandag Beach, a mile drive from our house.

Tandag City Park- I like to bring my nieces here for our afternoon play and ice cream.

More photos of our place...

My Flowers

My perennial flowers (I only plant them once in the spring and they die in the winter and come back to bloom the next spring. They only bloom for about a month, usually in July. See the roses? Aren't they pretty?)

My Annual flowers (I plant them each spring and they bloom from spring to fall. They are completely gone once the winter comes. They don't come back next spring)

I'm posting this one especially for my mother who always have a passion to grow flowers. I have been cultivating the same passion when I got here in the US. I've been blessed to arrive to a house with a big yard and flower gardens three years ago. Gardening has not been easy for me though. It is entirely different to plant and care for flowers here than in the Philippines. It requires me a lot of time studying about perennials and annuals and caring for them. They sure need a lot of care. I'm glad that this year we are able to see lots of blooms in our garden beds. But I think I really need to redesign my gardens for them to look more organized. The most difficult for me to care are the roses. See, roses are my favorite flowers. But caring for them in the northern part of the US is quite challenging. Last year, I planted about 12 of them but this spring only 3 survived through the harsh winter. I think I could have done a better job of protecting them when the ground froze in the winter. But anyway, I planted more a couple months ago and they are blooming like crazy now. I hope I could follow the right guidelines of protecting them this coming winter.

An eye for beauty!

Last night, my husband and I were watching the Miss Universe Pageant show on NBC. When the pageant was about to get to the part that they announce who gets what place in the final round, my husband and I acted like we were among the panel of judges. We had a split decision, of course. I comfortably bragged to him that I have an eye of a Miss Universe beauty having watched a whole lot of it and so there's no doubt that my choice will turn out to be the winner. He was just silent. As the hosts announced the winners, I was so amazed at how my husband's choices accurately agreed with the final result. Wowie! I took it as a compliment though. Let's face it, he has an eye for beauty, that's why he married me. LOL!

Miss Universe wannabe

Baby Bump

Got this tag from Lalaine. Thanks dear!

Rule:
1. Copy from ::Start:: through ::End::.
2. Add your blog to the list.
3. Tag your friends. You don’t need to be tagged in order to join. Feel free to join the fun.
4. Don’t forget to let me know your blog’s name and url by leaving me a comment HERE so I can add you to the Pretty Momma LIST.
5. Come back regularly to update your master list! You never know? This might help improve your ranking!

Pretty Preggy Momma’s

1.Fun|Fierce|Fabulous 2.Me,Myself+2 3.Confessions of a Supermodel Wannabe 4. Momiespace 5.Because Life Is Fun 6.Bits and Pieces 7.The Shopaholic in Me 8.When Silence Speaks 9.Everything About Deye 10. Etc Atbp 11.VanityKit 12.MindBubbles 13.Stripe&Yellow 14.Something Purple 15.Em’s Detour 16.Living the Healthy Life 17.Juls Random Thoughts 18.Thea is bloggerhappy 19.Thea is berry scrappy too 20.BigMoneyList 21. Me and Mine 22. Creative in Me 23. Little Peanut 24. Pea in a Pod 25. Sugar Magnolias 26. kathycot 27. buhaymisis 28. whenmomspeaks29. Changing Lanes 30. Pit Stop 31. Life is What we Make it 32. Dancing in Midlife Tune 33. Life’s Questions 34. Photoblog 35. 100% Kelly 36. PinayWAHM 37. Teacher’s Corner 38. Simple Life, Simply Me 39. Porangag 40. Belly, Baby and Beyond 41. Simple Life, Simply Me 42. Bisdak’s Footprints 43. my little home 42. Lalaine's World 43. YOUR BLOG(s)

Well, as for tagging this one, I'm not sure because I don't know anyone else who was once pregnant and has been blogging now, except for Janet and Bernadeth. Here you go, Jan and Bern.

Baking Day

While listening to Nancy Leigh Demoss over lunchtime, I decided I would put into practice what I've learned from her on loving our husbands. She said that one way we could love our husbands is to show that we care what is special to them. Mint Brownies was the first thing that came to my mind. You see my "honey" just loves Mint Brownies for his dessert. Good I have a cute helper who made my baking time easier (?!) and more fun. Before I could surprise my husband with the brownies I made for him, my helper announced it as soon as her daddy got home saying, "Daddy, my cake!" She thought it was her cake because she helped stir the cake mix and licked the spoon. Oh, boy.