the baby that makes everybody happy

I should have written something about this little princess couple of weeks ago... but well, I waited until her momma took enough baby pictures of her :)

This is our family's newest little princess, Keana Leirose. She is now 6 weeks old... and she's getting prettier and prettier everyday.

Carl and I love watching and playing with her while momma Jasmine is busy doing something or taking a break.

We are content with her while we're waiting for our own, who will come when Heavenly Father decides we've had enough vicarious parenting experience and its time for us to do the real thing.

We love Keana!!!

We're Proud of Our Brothers

Carl and I are very proud siblings of these two very smart boys..

Carl's youngest brother James graduated Valedictorian from St. Leonard Academy in Paranaque. He was also awarded Best in Math. James will be attending college at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines come June, and he will be majoring in computer science. Way to go James!!! Kuya Carl and I are very proud of you!

My younger brother Jave Yken graduated among the top of his class and received his Bachelor's degree in Nursing from Easter Colleges in Baguio City. He was also given a Varsity award for playing in the school's basketball team.

Yken will start his review classes this April in preparation for the Nursing Licensure Exam in July. While doing so, he is also processing his mission papers and is preparing to leave right after he takes his boards.

Carl and I are very proud of our brothers. They have both studied very diligently and they were blessed for their hard work.

Congratulations James and we hope you have fun in college!

To Yken, we wish you all the best and we welcome you to the bigger world!!!

We love you both!!!

Date Night and Twilight

My awesome husband Carl surprised me last week when he came home from work. After he left the office, he dropped by the Walmart Supercenter to get an oil change for our car. When he got home, he asked me, "do you want to go to a Twilight Party this Saturday?" More than surprised, I was intrigued. Carl understands my enthusiasm with Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series, in fact he gifted me with the books for Christmas. So, anyway, I thought he was joking because I had just been reading the books again for he nth time. But he was serious...because Twilight Saga cast members were making an appearance at the Riverton Walmart for the Midnight Release of the Twilight Saga: New Moon DVD.

So Friday was date night - he was so patient with me, and he endured all the girlish cheesiness of the fans. I guess he was surprised too, to see young girls, young ladies, young moms, old moms, and SOME boys at the party! LOL. The cast members came out at about past 10pm and they sent the crowd screaming in excitement. Christian Serratos (Angela Weber), Michael Welch (Mike Newton), and Justin Chon (Eric Yorkie), who played Bella's high school friends in the movie, were there to sign New Moon DVDs for the first 300 fans. Too bad, we were probably the 3000th fan to get there...with all those Twilight moms and their daughters already lined up since lunch time, I would still be the 1000th fan to arrive even if I came at 3pm.

But anyway, Carl completed my Twilight DVDs so far... and he watched them with me. He'd actually grown an appreciation for it after he saw how the movie was made - from conceptualization down to post-production. He actually said, we might probably see Eclipse at an IMAX Theatre!!! I am so excited for June 30th!!

I love you Hon - Twilight or no Twilight!!! :)

when it rains, it pours

FEBRUARY 2010

While Carl was out of a job, he sent out countless resumes to prospective employers. When he accepted the job offer from Silla Automitive, he was still waiting for word from 2 other companies. One was a healthcare company in Los Angeles, and the other one was from The Corporation of the President, LDS Church. The latter one was a one-year internship that has promising IT training for Carl, but something that would require us to move to Riverton, Utah. On his 1^st week with Silla, Carl received a call from the Church Headquarters asking him when he will be available for a video conference interview. What's gonna happen after that interview was something we would have never expected after all that we've been through.

One night, after we've said our prayers, Carl asked me... “are you ready to move to Utah?” I thought at first he was talking about my application to BYU Graduate School. It didn't quite sink in to me that he was referring to his internship with the church. I was speechless there lying in our bed. He began by telling me how they asked him to start by April 15^th or earlier. It hasn't been a month yet since he started with Silla, and he's just about to quit...and we have a month and a half to pack up. Our kind of good rain pour has literally started...especially because Carl received a request from his future boss for him to start as early as March 1^st. Now we had barely 3 weeks to pack up and move 700 miles north of California.

We spent Valentine's weekend with friends. We watched Valentine's Day on the 13^th in Glendale, with Aprilon, Mhar and Liezel and later had dinner at Pho Citi. Mhar and Liezel stayed for the night. It was kind of our last couple of weeks together. They went to church with us, and later went on their own Valentine's day date at Kincaid. Carl and I on the other hand, bought a bouquet of flowers for Joyce. I received a gorgeous bouquet too, and we had heart shaped pancakes for breakfast earlier that day. Carl and I had dinner at Hokkaido's Seafood Buffet in Long Beach. It was awesome – better than Honolulu's Makino Chaya. Carl bought me a silver necklace for Valentine's. This was way better than last years...

A week later, Lui visited us from Salt Lake and Mhar came down again to interview for Carl's position with Silla. It was our last weekend in California. Almost all our friends from SoCal got together that weekend – to see Lui, to welcome Mhar to SoCal, and to send us off to Utah. We had dinner at Hokkaido's on Friday night, on Saturday night ate dinner at Home Town Buffet and later hit Santa Monica and walked down 3^rd Street Promenade and watched Leo DiCaprio's Shutter Island. It was another good weekend. It would have been nicer if the Pascuals were able to join us, but they were busy with getting into their new home (which was another good thing to celebrate actually!).

The week that followed was all excited, sad, rushed, but glad. We finished packing the rest of our stuff. Our bed was donated to a new family in the ward. I said goodbye to my kids Brent, Chase, and Kaylie. We had family dinner with Joyce, Jen and her kids, the missionaries, and Lei and Ricky. Jasmine gave birth to a healthy 6.9-pound baby Keana Leirose and will be home from the hospital when we arrive later that week. Carl prepped our car, and we were all set to move by Thursday night...

At the beginning of the year, Liezel told me 2010's gotta be a good year. Well, for one, Carl and I have finally found a better deal with the US economy. As for our friends, the Pascuals finally bought a home for themselves, Mhar has found a job in Southern California and can now live closer to Liezel, Becky's almost done with school, Jennifer has found a family friend company and now has more time with her kids, and Joyce can help another family when an opportunity comes up just like the way she helped us get back on our tracks. I guess Liezel's vision of a better 2010 is pretty accurate...

Now its time for a new adventure...

greeting the new year

JANUARY 2010

We greeted 2010 with our friends in no less than Las Vegas. Yes - a bunch of broke young adults went to Las Vegas with hopes of having fun and setting aside our stressful lives for just a couple of days. Andrew was visiting from Hawaii, and so we took him around – maybe too much. Mhar took him around San Francisco, and with Liezel and Becky he was taken around Los Angeles. When we met up with them on the 30^th, he was bound to explore Las Vegas and probably Salt Lake City in the next 2 days. Carl and Mhar took turns as we took off to Vegas for New Year's Eve. With no hotel accommodations waiting for us, we just braved ourselves and decided we were gonna have fun as we greet the turn of the decade with a bang! We walked down the strip and took endless pictures until we were tired and feet were all numb. Carl and Mhar took a nap in the car, to recharge for another stretch of a couple hundred mile drive to Salt Lake City. Andrew from the islands wanted to see snow, and Carl and I wanted to take the chance to visit Jasmine before she gives birth.

We enjoyed ourselves in the lights and sounds of Las Vegas. The boys, perhaps, had too much to see! We “partied” to the New Year!!! We left Vegas at around 3am.

We reached Draper around 7am. The Milburys made us breakfast and were too kind they let us use their bathroom so we could all shower. Carl and I were very happy to visit Jasmine before she gives birth.

We went to Provo and took pictures around BYU campus,the Missionary Training Center, and Provo temple. We had dinner at Jenneth and Daniel Hampton's home. We had a good time reconnecting with old friends like the Catahans and the Comptons from Hawaii.

We later met up with Carl's mission companion Scott Warner and his fiance Cherise.

We stayed at Shey and Micah Bybee's apartment for the night (unfortunately, the Bybees were spending New Years in Pocatello). We had breakfast the next day at ate Jan's place...and Lui prepared Curry for our lunch!

Utah friends are so awesome! Shey and Micah made it to Salt Lake right before we had to leave for California. It had been an awesome holiday weekend.

Two weeks later, the gang met up again in Southern California for Kohath's 2^nd birthday.

KC Cornelio took time off from her training in North Carolina and paid us a visit. We spent that weekend in Bakersfield celebrating with the Pascuals. Ate Yvonne and kuya Kamille prepared a feast for their little Koko. Koko had a Mickey-themed party. We filled ourselves with pork bbq, pancit, grilled squid, addobo, salad and a lot of karaoke singing on top! It was fun. Of course, no trip to Bakersfield is complete without stopping by for ice cream at Dewar's... so we did that before driving back to LA.

In LA, we took KC around Universal City Walk. It was a rainy and rather gloomy day in sunny California.

The following week, Carl started his new job with Silla Automotive in Compton. He's be working as the company's Network Administrator. You know what they say, “when it rains, it pours”? Our kind of good rain showers was about to come our way...the kind of good rain pouring – its unbelievably overwhelming...

holiday stories...

DECEMBER 2009

Carl never ran out of interviews. He took the job search seriously – like an 8-5 job. He wakes up and opens the computer, takes a break at noon for lunch, then resumes his search. He was anxious because we only had enough funds to cover a few weeks and he only had a couple of months to find a new job or he will be out of legal status. We frequently talked about our options, sometimes we ended up arguing about them. Each day became very stressful. Carl tried to reach some of his contacts in San Francisco.

We took a trip there a week before Christmas with Liezel and her friend ate Thelma.

We attended Serramonte Ward's Christmas party. Carl served most of his mission in Serramonte back in 2003.

We met up with ate Ann and kuya Philip Sagum. They are Carl's dear friends from Daly City. Carl was one of their witnesses when they got sealed in the Oakland Temple in 2005, and kuya Philip was one of ours when we got married in Hawaii in 2008.

They took us to BJs for dinner to celebrate ate Ann's birthday and their long awaited pregnancy. They've been trying to conceive for the past 8 years...and now she's finally expecting. Their story inspired us, since Carl and I are not having success reproductively. We were comforted because, indeed, in the Lord's time and through the Lord's will, we will be blessed with the opportunity to bear and raise a child.

Back in Southern California, I sent out our Holiday greeting cards just in time. We received some ourselves and we displayed them on our wall. Christmas time was getting closer as advanced notices from friends who were visiting for the Holidays came one by one.

Julie, Carl's ex-workmate from MySpace, treated us with free park-hopper tickets to Disneyland. It was like a return favor for everytime that Carl agreed to switch days off with her when they were still working together. We took that opportunity to unwind and de-stress ourselves.

Carl had a lot of interviews but no job offer came. It was frustrating...but we kept our hopes, Carl actually did this more than I did. I was getting more pessimistic everyday I was pathetic. Somedays, I thought our California-adventure was a big joke when no one was trying to be funny. Christmas came and we called home...I was sobbing like a severely wounded child as I talked to my mom. Carl kept his calm and comforted his family, telling them we were gonna be ok. We had Christmas dinner with Joyce's family. I made stuffed pork loin and guinataan and brought those to ate Lei and Ricky's apartment in Downey. Ate Lei made spaghetti. We ate and played Uno until probably 11pm. I prepared buko pandan salad for Carl and mine's own little feast in our room. Carl got me Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga (all four of them) and I got him photobook of our wedding pictures. Carl bought alcohol free White Zinfandel from Albertson's and we made a toast for a beautiful Christmas.

Our first visitor for the holidays was Zingeber, visiting from Canada. We met him at Universal City with Keith and Emerson. We later had dinner at kuya George's place in Carson.

A couple of days later, Joaquin and Hannah Gellor paid us a visit before Hannah and their daughters head back to the Philippines. Andrew arrived with Mhar and Becky a couple of days before New Year. Yes... 2009 was almost over. Liezel told me 2010 should be a good year, that we've all had a rough year and we all deserved a break. I wouldn't disgree on that... in fact, I am looking forward to a better year...

...More stuff to tell

NOVEMBER 2009

Mhar visited for Halloween. We helped Aprilon move to his new apartment in Monterey Park. Aprilon started working at Union Bank in Monterey Park. Mhar took the time to help us look for a car. We almost purchased a red Saturn sportscar but Carl found out it didn't have a good history through Carfax. Mhar and Liezel later took off to spend Halloween in Hollywood. Carl and I spent the night giving candies with Joyce...

We didn't stop looking for a car. Carl skipped sunday school to check a car he was interested in. We were desperately looking for a cheap car because Carl works graveyard shift at MySpace all the way down in El Segundo. At last, Carl contacted a dealer in Orange County who was selling a 1996 Ford Taurus with 70,000+ miles for $2000. Carl negotiated with him and he agreed to accept $1500 cash and pay the rest in an installment basis. Carl's uncle, tito Cesar, took us to the dealership...and Carl closed the deal. There goes our savings and some help from a really good friend. We drove off with our “new” car...we were supposed to head straight home, but I got confused with our orientation and I prodded Carl to take the wrong freeway by mistake.

We ended up heading to Liezel's apartment in Commerce and showed them our baby. We named her Ramzel, in honor of her fairy godparents, if you know what I mean.

November proved to be yet another trying month. Carl and I caught a bad case of flu on Thanksgiving week. I wasn't able to babysit for a couple of days. Carl rested through his days off, but wasn't quite feeling well enough to resume work. He ended up missing a whole week of work, including Thanksgiving weekend. I didn't roast a turkey on Thanksgiving. I made pork steak for our little potluck with ate Lei and Ricky, we had Thanksgiving dinner with Joyce's family, and we met up with the Pascuals on Black Saturday while recovering from the flu. When Carl was ready to go back to work the week after, he was told he had already been replaced. We braced ourselves... it was a very bad time to lose his job. We had one more payment to make for the car, and we still had to pay the rest of our break lease fee. I continued to watch Jen's kids. I watched them 4x a week, 2x from 12noon to 1am and 2x from 8am to 8pm. Doing that covered our housing. Carl took small projects so we could get by... and the search for a new job began...

and the holidays was just around the corner...

A lot of stuff to tell...

I know its been 5 months. How do I explain why I didn't blog for 5 months. Since I dont know how to explain, or rather, what explanation I would give, I would just go back to 5 months ago and start sharing our lives again.

OCTOBER 2009.

This was our last month at Lakewood Manor. We had to be out of our apartment by the 19^th. It was one of those months when it was easy to get lost in the chaos of real life. I broke down a couple of times. We moved into the apartment in June...and it hasn't been 6 months and we're moving out. Our bishop was helping us look for a place to move into. Bishop Fisher is an amazing person. He would always tell us to hang in there and counseled us to stay strong. He found us a good deal with one of the single ladies in the ward. Sister McNary lives by herself since all her kids have already moved out and are settled with their own families. She was willing to help us out since I was helping another single mom in the ward watch her kids while she works late shifts. It all worked out pretty well.

It was also Liezel's birth month. Carl and I took a trip with her to Oakland. We all had fun, especially Liezel. Usually, its Mhar who comes down to visit her in Los Angeles. We all wanted a break from Southern California anyway, so we went up north.

We met with April and Randall Zielke and had lunch at Max's in South San Francisco.

Liezel always wanted to take a ride on the cable cars in downtown San Francisco, so we went and took the rides all the way down to the pier.

We took the time to visit Nanay Julie as well. She's a lady from Carl's mission in San Francisco that he's really fond of. She took us out to dinner at Banana Island in Daly City.

By the end of the month, Emerson arrived from his trip to the Philippines. It was time to return his Camry. We picked him up at LAX, had dinner, we dropped off Carl at MySpace, he dropped me off at Joyce's, and he drove off to Bakersfield. Carl took the train to come home in the morning...and our search for our own car began...

more to tell...