Mama and Papa's trip to the U.S. of A.

So I know Carl and I have been sort of outside the radar. We have not become boring people with no updates, that I can assure you... Still, no excuses... and I will really try to keep this blog updated as often as possible...

After picking them up from SLC Airport, we had dinner at
The Garden at the Joseph Smith Memorial Bldg
in Temple Square

First of all, my parents visited us from the Philippines and we had a blast. It was a good month and a half, and it was truly something Carl and I will cherish forever. It was a great blessing for our family, especially for my parents to be granted tourist visas by the US government. I, personally, am grateful for a wonderful husband who helped our family make it possible to come to America. My parents have never been out of the country, well my dad travels a lot throughout the Philippines as a part of his job but mom pretty much hasn't gone out of town a lot. Their trip was indeed a very much deserved one for both of them, as they have worked pretty much with very limited breaks and time-off for the last 30 years. It was a very tiresome almost 24 hour plane ride, which according to my dad has been the hardest thing he has ever done in his life (that is to sit in a seemingly motionless plane for almost 14 hours from Hong Kong to San Francisco). Nevertheless, both of them beamed with gladness when we picked them up at the Salt Lake City Airport. Though we all knew they were tired from their very long flight, their excitement was stronger than anything else.

Mama and Papa after attending
the Salt Lake Temple

As we did most of the Salt Lake City to-do activities one at a time, I came to better appreciate and understand how much this trip really meant to my parents... and I am glad that Carl was able to know them better as well. Three things my parents wanted to see (and do): visit the Salt Lake Temple, see my school (BYU) and Carl's workplace (Church Headquarters/Riverton Office), and have fun with Carl and I and make sure we were ok (well, ok, yeah my dad wanted to see snow and visit Las Vegas since its only a 6 hour drive - pretty much like travelling from La Union to Manila). Of course, we did other things too - but at the end of their trip, my mom said her favorite activity with Carl and I was visiting temples and doing sessions. My dad, he really liked that part too - but Mr. Explorer that he is - he didn't pinpoint anything in particular and said he loved everything (but I know he was ecstatic about experiencing SNOW up in Alta). We visited temples (number one on my parent's checklist), watched the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, toured BYU (and met with mi propesor who told my mom great things about me I felt embarrassed because really I'm not great - just good haha!), hiked the Y mountain (this proved to be another testament of mi madre's strength!!!), played frisbee and some billiards, did a Kinect sportsfest, danced with Wii Just Dance, took countless pictures in Las Vegas, dined at Jollibee, ate dried fish over and over, and ate and ate some more (you can never beat mi madre's home cooking).

Photo-op with Brigham Young :) in front
of BYU's Smoot (Administration) Bldg

at the Church Headquarters in Temple Square where Carl used to report
for meetings every Thursday (He now works full week at the
Riverton Office Building as part of the mormon.org team)

Finally reaching the "Y" up at the mountain!!!
(FYI - madre has not hiked for the last 35 years)

We played :) (This actually went in and they won!)

We ate lots of these - squid, fish, and TUYO - over and over again!

Up at Alta - Papa was so stoked about "real" snow

Waiting for the dancing water show at the Bellagio in Las Vegas

Jollibee!!! Las Vegas, Nevada

MoTab Sunday for Music and the Spoken Word

Visiting the St. George Utah Temple
(we also visited Draper, Oquirrh Mountain, and of course Provo)

The night before their flight back to the Philippines, we had FHE and I couldn't say a word (actually, I didn't want to say a word 'coz I was feeling really sad and I might just end up balling). I didn't want them to leave, or maybe I was hoping if only we could fly back home with them, or maybe I was hoping if only it was easier for all of us to live closer with each other. I practically left their nest when I was 17, and I have always been comfortable being away... but this time was just different, maybe because I am just in a very critical period in my life where I want them to be very close and accessible for many wonderful reasons (like I could just visit my mom and talk to her the whole day about my worries about having children and such, or visiting for the weekend and be carefree 'coz mama and papa will make the meals and we'll just play frisbee outside and soak every bit of sunshine). I guess we never really appreciate our parents until we're grown-up and we realize how awesome it is to have someone else take care of life's complications for us. But I guess its our turn to take care of those "shoot me now" situations, because they're supposed to have raised us to be able to handle those ourselves. That was pretty much what FHE was about on the eve of their trip back home... and when we finally bid them goodbye at the SLC airport, I was balling in the car (like crazy - you can ask Carl!). Carl and I miss mama and papa a lot. See, my mom made us curtains for our living room and for our master bedroom. Mom's yellow curtains remind me to be happy everyday - and people running in the morning reminds of my dad every single time (too bad he missed the Utah Valley marathon, I bet he would have had a blast). But for now, we got to live in the right here and right now.

Our next goal is to have Mommy and Daddy (Carl's parents) to come and visit. That would be another great opportunity for all of us - with my sisters-in-law Jasmine and ate Ley having not seen them for the last 5 years (and them having not seen/met Keana and Scott, and Ricky, yet). That should be one great family reunion to look forward to!

Hello Minot, North Dakota

This post might sound like we've been travelling a lot... But let me just say, as much as we like to travel and go places, we do not have bottomless pockets. This trip, almost didn't happen, for many different reasons, but we decided this one was worth taking - because there are just some things we shouldn't miss!

So we used up some of our miles to buy this trip, and we boarded a Delta flight bound to Minot, North Dakota. Where in the world is Minot? We flew out from Salt Lake City and then caught a connecting flight in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Minot is a small city, and Minot State University was a quaint little campus, pretty similar to BYU-H sans the tropics (and the sun!). We were so close to the northern border of the US, Canada was about an hour and a half drive north. In fact, we were told that North Dakota's economy gets its boost from Canadians who cross the border everyday just to shop - in fact i wouldn't doubt that at all. When we went to a nearby mall, most of the cars in the parking lot had Saskatchewan and Manitoba plates.

after the Hooding Ceremonies at
Minot State University's
Old Main Bldg
(formerly Teacher's College)

First of all, Carl earned his Masters degree in Information Systems (online program) from Minot State University, thus the trip to a city located in north central North Dakota. The reason of this trip to Minot, was in fact, Carl and my love for him. He deserved this trip - he well deserved to be there at his graduation. He worked really hard, completed his assignments, and finished his thesis - despite of occasional burn-outs from work stress and some taunting that sounded like "Cougars vs. Beavers?". I am so proud of Carl, and again, I can not emphasize enough his hard work and dedication. Go Beavers! Minot.... (drum roll)... to TOP!!!

Our Minot experience was very heart-warming. When we got there, we had a car rental reservation with Enterprise. But after some asking around locals at the airport, we decided to cancel our reservation with Enterprise. Even then, the Enterprise rep who was already at the airport to take us to the car garage to get our supposedly rental car still dropped us off at the car garage where a cab was instead waiting to take us to our motel (free of charge!). We stayed at Comfort Inn, which was very close to the mall and to some restaurants (and McDonalds of course - it actually reminded us of the McDonalds in Laie). We decided to get Chinese for dinner, but Carl ended up absolutely hating it - and thankfully McDonalds was just around the corner. We were tired from our flight - and so we hit the bed early... and soon we were out!

Carl and his graduate chair, Dr. Lory Willoughby

The following day was Carl's graduation day. We had to be there early for the hooding ceremonies. For the first time, Carl met his cohort, their professors, his graduate committee, and his mentor. We were so excited, and it was such a unique experience to watch them talk to each other in person for the first time. After the ceremonies, their Department Chair Dr. Willoughby treated the whole cohort for lunch at Badlands Grill. We were so full!!! After that, the group split because some had to drive to Bismarck to catch their flights out of North Dakota. Carl and two others who we carpooled with decided they wanted to look around campus, in fact they decided they wanted to get their school IDs! Another guy joined us later on, and they talked and talked. This third guy was a local and he talked stories about Minot and stuff.

So they started talking stories at around 2pm... an hour later, they decided to get coffee at Starbucks (of course we had hot chocolate), and another 2 hours of talking ensued. At one point I couldn't blend anymore 'coz the started talking tech stuff, so I went and read at Barnes and Nobles. But then they decided they wanted to have dinner together. We were gonna bail since our motel was already around the corner, but they insisted. So we went to this only Thai restaurant in town called Baan Rao. Carl order a very spicy dish, which he did enjoy, but regretted ordering it to a very spicy specification! It was a very heart-warming experience, and we were blessed with very hospitable and generous new friends. See, we went on this trip with a very strict budget. At the end of the trip, we only paid for our plane tickets, 3 cab rides, (discounted) motel rate, one yucky Chinese dinner, and 3 dollar burgers. And to top that, we had a very kind-hearted friend waiting to pick us up at the SLC Airport when we landed the day after.

My graduate :)

Some of Carl's MSIS cohort with Dept. Chair Dr. Willoughby
(we carpooled with the guys on the far right and 3rd from right,
and they paid for dinner too)

Carl and his new friends at the
Scandinavian Heritage Park

Our trip to Minot, North Dakota - was indeed worth taking!

Guess Who's Here...

Mama and Papa are in town - and we are absolutely stoked!!!

Dear San Diego weather, can we take you HOME?

So we headed to San Diego... for a conference (not really for fun in the sun) - but it was an amazing experience. Carl has been involved with the Clinton Global Initiative since 2007. He actually attended the very first CGI-U meeting at Tulane University in Louisiana. He's always encouraged me to apply so we could go together but I wasn't very interested at first. This year, though, I decided I'd check it out.

Clinton Global Initiative 2011, University of California-San Diego

For someone to get into the conference, one should have a commitment for action related to one of CGI's 5 causes. Carl's was poverty alleviation. I decided I wanted to do something about human rights, specifically human trafficking. Our action plans are not yet very solid, but with all the good stuff we learned from CGI-U at University of California-San Diego this year, we'll probably be able to solidify our plans and find a way to make a difference. It was a very enlightening experience, meeting young student leaders and advocates from all across America (and the world) and learning about their advocacies. It personally gave me a lot of insight about working with NGOs and empowering communities and rethinking public policy.

Packing goods at the San Diego Food Bank

Aside from learning all the good stuff, we had some perks too. We met former US President Bill Clinton, who of course, is the founder of CGI. We met and greeted with various experts in the field of urban planning and public policies, and even celebrity advocates like Mandy Moore (Ambassador, Population Service International), Drew Barrymore (Ambassador Against Hunger, UN World Food Programme), and Sean Penn (Founder/CEO, J/P Haitian Relief Organization).

beautiful Sunday sunrise overlooking the San Diego Temple

We stayed at the nearby Sheraton Hotel in La Jolla, which was very close to the San Diego Temple. On our last day in San Diego, Carl and I walked from our hotel to the temple and we felt so good. It was beautiful, magnificent to say the least. The CGI conference was held during the April General Conference weekend, and we were hoping to find time out from the conference to do a session at the Temple... but the conference schedule was so packed - day starts at 7:30 and ends at 8:30 - and we were all shuttled in from the hotel to UCSD. So on Sunday morning, we woke up extra early (like 5:30am) so we could walk to the Temple. It was an amazing sunrise! Of all the good stuff we learned from CGI, I can honestly say that being on holy ground reminded me of all the good things in my life. The temple, more than facts of humanity's need for aid and relief, reminded Carl and I how we could be instruments in the Lord's hands in making a difference in the world.

P.S. And the weather was absolutely gorgeous!!! We heard that while we were soaking lots of sunshine in Southern California, it was snowing like CRAZY in Utah... and so we were extremely glad we were somewhere else that weekend!!!

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...

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...

BUSY DAYS Part 2

JUNE 9. It was Jasmine's big day. Our day started at 4am. I know... I know... I swore to myself after all these things are over - I am going to sleep in everyday for a week until I feel normal again. LOL. Anyway, so we all woke up early and I made Jasmine pretty... at least I tried my best. I am not a pro when it comes to dolling up other people - but duty calls!

She was a beautiful bride. It was an honor for me to be there with her every step of the way as she received her endowment in the house of the Lord. It was an extra special day because it was also Carl and mine's 10th month together. We haven't been to the temple since the Laie temple closed in December, so it was a really good time to be in the temple again. We've been on a very hectic schedule, and that time at the temple indeed gave me a boost of spirituality that I really needed. And after all that we've been doing and will be doing in the next couple of days - I needed a calm day.

After Jasmine and Scott's sealing, we spent the rest of the day preparing for our flight back to Oahu.

We had a quick lunch at Romano's Macaroni and Grill, headed back to the resort, packed our bags, let the newly weds take off to their hotel, took a nap... and when a little strength was regained, Pat and Paul took us to the airport and soon enough, Carl and I were heading back to Honolulu. Our kind friends Aaron and Susan Moore picked us up at the airport and drove us back to Laie. We are so grateful to them for doing us the favor on a very short notice and considering Susan's delicate condition. We are really blessed to have great friends.

JUNE 10. Ckaz and Jamie were so kind, they let us stay with them in their apartment for the rest of our days in Laie. They were also kind enough to have us use their kitchen so I can cook for the wedding reception. They also let us use their car so we can finish our last minute errands. We can not be grateful enough to Ckaz and Jamie. Ckaz helped me with some of the cooking. She had to go to work too... but that's ok, she had already done enough. Sheila helped me cook too... it was really nice of her, considering she was babysitting at the same time. Good thing little Tom took an extra long nap time! Carl, on the other hand, was busy helping with the reception area. I know he was really tired - physically exhausted - and he needed a break. I know Carl wants to go surfing so bad (he almost took a surfing class, but he dropped it when he learned he had to pay some extra fees)... so I asked Jamie if he could take Carl rip some waves before we leave.

Though he was tired too, Jamie took the time off from work to take Carl to the beach to surf. When they came home, I knew Carl was overjoyed - he almost wanted to surf for another hour, but we had to be at Jasmine and Scott's wedding reception.

Jasmine and Scott's reception was good - good food! LOL. It was a bitter sweet moment for our family. It was sort of a farewell for us as well. Jasmine was excited to go to lalala-Land with her groom. But Carl and I were sad to say our goodbyes to our friends in Hawaii. I told myself no crying... but heck, I could not help it. I was really sad. Jamie took pictures of sobbing like a little girl, but I deleted some - I looked really messed up. After the reception, we tried to personally say goodbye to our friends. Some families we missed were the Sparks and the Catahans. We didn't want to disturb Lois because it was already late (it was almost time for her to give birth) and Janette was still in the hospital recovering from her delivery. We were able to say goodbye to the Gellors though - Oh we surely miss their two princesses and of course Wacks' queen, Hannah! LOL. Ckaz and Jamie had to leave for Honolulu that night because they were flying to Kona the next morning, they were going to the temple with our ward. Before we went to bed, April gave Carl and I a good back massage - we were knocked out... and so was everyone.

TO BE CONTINUED...