AND THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS...

The decision is Final...


and i guess...


IT IS REALLY TIME TO MOVE ON...

So the countdown begins...




Couple more weeks till we say Aloha 'Oe to this beautiful island...





And we will be saying ALOHA to Long Beach, California.

CARL-SIFE LOVE AFFAIR

I have a busy husband.

ERASE ERASE

I should have said -
I HAVE A VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY BUSY HUSBAND -
Thanks to Students in Free Enterprise more commonly known as SIFE.

Here we go...

A couple of months ago, Carl and his SIFE Team won the regional competition in Honolulu, and because of that they got to represent the school in the SIFE Nationals in Philadelphia. They prepared for two months, memorizing rehearsing and memorizing again and again for this competition. It drove me nuts... Carl was busy with hisn senior classes, with job hunting, with two part time jobs, with me, and with SIFE... come on...Carl only has 1 body and he only got 24 hours a day...




I know I know - i got really jealous with SIFE - because he spent most of his SPARE time on it. But yes - I am also the dutiful wife and i convinced myself everyday that one day, when Carl eventually becomes the CEO of his own company, it could be worse. So there i was, gave Carl the chance to invest his sweat blood and tears to SIFE. To top it all off - I GAVE CARL TO SIFE FOR A WHOLE WEEK and celebrated our 9th monthsary and mother's day alone.




But like i said on my first blog about the Carl-SIFE love affair, in the end it was all worth it.




After Carl's months of preparation and a week of being apart - CARL and his SIFE team made history.

TOP 12 in the whole US - BYUH has never done that before. Awesome!

Maybe I could bear SIFE for a Mistress after all!!!

BECAUSE HE LOVES ME SO MUCH...

So Carl is spending a week in the east coast for his SIFE Competition (which, as of press time, has brought them awesome success - separate blog to watch out for! woot woot!!!) and so we didn't get to celebrate our 9th month mark and mothers' day together. However, on Sunday morning while I was getting ready for church, a friend passing by our apartment building yelled by our window to let me know there's a package at our doorstep... With my face half made-up and unset hair, I opened the door and... Lo and Behold...

this was what I found!

...and came with it was this cute little blooms

... and a pink card that read...

Mommy JV,

"Even though things don't always turn out exactly how we planned them, I wouldn't want it anyother way.

I love our life together - because I love you so much.

Happy Mother's Day!"

Daddy Carl

I couldn't ask for anything else...

TO ALL THE MOMS I LOVE

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL WOMEN WHO MOTHERED A SOUL IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER...

To my Mama...




Thanks for being a super woman. I can never ask for anything more than a mother like you. You've taught me every thing I know, and I realize how I should have listened more growing up. You taught me how to love. You are an amazing example to me. Your strength has been a constant inspiration to me everytime I feel like backing down. Your faith has sustained me in my weakest moments. I love you... and I will always be your little girl.














To my Lola Mameng (in picture) and Lola Mareng (bless her soul)...



I will always be grateful to the Lord that I have been raised under your loving guidance. Mama and Papa couldn't have done it without you. You were always there for me when I think nobody listened... it seemed like you always understood. I can tell the world how my life has been powerfully shaped by your life's examples. I love you with all my heart and soul.














To Mommy Mabel...




I have been blessed to have married into the privelege of having a mother like you. Your influence in Carl's life strongly defines what a man he has become. Without you, I wouldn't have the blessing of a wonderful husband like Carl. Thank you for being supportive to us and for your continuous guidance. You are an amazing person. I wish Carl and I could live closer to you so we can spend more time together. I love you... and thank you for lovingly accepting me into the family!

And to all mothers out there, this is your special day. To all the women who has "mothered" me in many different ways, I send my love to you - not only this day, but ALWAYS!

DOUBLE CELEBRATION

This month is not just an ordinary month for Carl and I. Not only is it the 9th month since we got sealed in the temple for time and all eternity, but this month also marks the 3rd year since we decided we wanted each other in our lives.

To Carl, I love you so much and having you in my life makes it even better.

3 YEARS - AND STILL LOOKING FORWARD!

TURNED THREE (inspired by Shey's seven years)

I love milestones - it gives me a feeling of accomplishment knowing that I've been through things that, at least for me, helped me grow.




I've made my a lot of big steps in my life in the past three years... and i think they are more appropriately called BIG LEAPS OF FAITH.

In 2006, I left the Philippines - families and friends - to attend BYU-Hawaii. I even had to give up the University of the Philippines - the university I've planned to attend all my life. But I guess Heavenly Father has been planning on sending me to His university all this time.

Of course I needed to have a picture here! LOL

I was confident that the Lord will lead to me kind-hearted people - and I was right. Even so, He prepared me to meet this man.

Carl and I - building something special

Throughout my Hawaii adventure, I was indeed blessed to have shared my life with awesome people. Not only were they great friends to me, they were also great source of inspiration and they were amazing examples to me.

Island girls know how to have fun :)

Being a student at BYUH and working at the Polynesian Cultural Center was a big learning experience.

Emerson and I with Abish Pelipel at the Snackshop :)

The Food and Beverage AWESOME Trio :)


The Food and Beverage Admin Staff - we work and play!

A lot of the challenges I had really tested my faith and on many occasions I found myself depending solely on God's grace. The temple was a great source of strength. I grew up in the church and I was raised to work hard so I can attend the temple. Having the temple so close was a tremendous blessing.

At the temple grounds on a Sunday afternoon - can't beat that!

The day I received my Endowment

Exam after exam, I made my way to college graduation. My testimony immensely grew as I realized how weak I was and that the greatest source of wisdom is the Lord. In the end, He paved the way for me to achieve what I have worked hard for.

Senior Paper Presentations are FINALLY OVER!

After all is Said and Done...It's time to move on and grow up!

People came and left, and I stayed in Hawaii. And if there was somebody who I knew was gonna stick with me the longest, I figured it was Carl. So after months of dating, we decided it was time to make the companionship eternal.

Making it OFFICIAL!

THE BIG DAY!!!

The Hawaii adventure continued as Carl and I started our married life here in the islands. The Temple View Apartments community is just awesome. We have the best neighbors and we belong to an amazing ward of faithful saints.

Rain Rellora's Naming and Blessing

With our neighbors Ranjit and Ali the night before they flew back to Fiji

New Years Eve at our teeny weeny studio apartment :)

The past three years were indeed full of fun and adventure. As my island life draws near to its end, I look back and I realize how blessed I have been. I can honestly say I wouldn't have the past three years any other way.

ALL IN A DAYS WORK - THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN

A while back I claimed that I am not a big fan of the corporate world - I still am not. I gave up on Honolulu and no matter what I did to convince myself that Honolulu has the great jobs and what not - nope, sorry Honolulu...but you are over rated! LOL


Anyways last month, through my new agency, I was hired by the Salvation Army to be their Assistant Property Manager at one of their Senior Affordable Housing Programs in Wahiawa. When I was given the offer, honestly I just accepted it out of desperation. Carl and I are financially needy right now and paychecks save lives - seriously! So anyway, after the almost 45-minute phone interview with the Asst. Regional Director and HR Manager who were in California and 3 days of waiting for the background check to come through, I was finally offered the job and I accepted it without even knowing how to get to the property by bus. (These all happened when TheBus was making route changes!)



On my first day, I took the bus 55 Kaneohe Circle Island and went pass the beautiful Northshore until I got to Wahiawa. I couldn't sleep while on board because I didn't even know my exact bus stop. Interestingly enough, my bus stop was the last stop before the bus travels non-stop to Mililani - that's a bus stop you don't want to miss on your first day on the job! So I got off the bus, followed my google maps direction (thanks Google!) and found myself in a residential area. I eventually found the property, buzzed in through the intercom system, and led to the property's management office by the Building Superintendent. I was 15 minutes early and my property manager wasn't in yet. As I sat on the chair, I was dumbfounded - seriously. I couldn't believe I was actually inside an apartment unit converted into a "home office" to serve as the management office. I didn't know what to expect but I geared up myself for the unexpected - especially when I saw piles of paper work and disorganized shelves, plus bearing in mind all the stuff I was told during my interview about the manager's challenges with the residents (imagine hard of hearing + poor english = total misunderstanding).



When my manager came in, she gave me a brief orientation (you bet it was brief), assigned me my desk and my computer and showed me where things were... and then she started to run down the reasons why they hired me - I was a bilingual Filipino with a Psychology background and they thought the residents would be more comfortable with somebody "local" and maybe I can use my psyche skills to deal with the challenges of our old folks. I wanted to fall off my seat - I had the most unusual workplace compared to all the jobs I had, but now I finally have a job that expects a lot from me.



Couple of weeks into the job, I started to get the feel of how things were in our property. When the Asst. Regional Director came to visit for two weeks, the residents had a meeting with her. They had all sorts of complaints especially about my manager - that she didn't have people skills and was rude and inconsiderate to the old folks. I was sitting in the community room and I so wanted to speak for my manager - she has the kindest heart. All she wants is the best for the residents. She's been placed in the property in September and was without an assistant until i got on board 5 weeks ago! It was so unfair to her because they don't know or maybe understand the burden and the workload she has. For Pete's sake, she haven't gotten a day off since Day 1 - even when her daughter and grandkids visited her from the mainland. And everyday, I see her and I hear her work her butt off to make sure the welfare of our seniors were given top priority.



I always tell Carl this has been my best job ever since I moved on from BYU-H. Not only do I get to work at my convenient hours (9am til 2pm, sometimes 4pm) and see the beautiful Northshore every bus ride to work, but everyday I am inspired by the kind hearted people serving the one sector of our community who are often forgotten. A couple of weeks ago, one of our contractors came in to fix the flooring in our lobby because some residents have almost tripped upon entering the front door - HE DID IT FOR FREE. Last week, the Calvary Chapel provided an Easter Luncheon for our residents. Last Wednesday, Aloha Harvest brought in free food for our old folks. They brought mashed potato, spare ribs, chicken, pasta, pastry, salad, musubi - all kinds from their friends from KFC and Umeke Market among others. Yesterday, a retired military lady came in to deliver free meals to some of residents who were benefiting from Lanakila's Meals on Wheels. The resident wasn't there and instead of giving her food to someone else (like she has been instructed), she brought the packages to the office and asked us to inform the resident about it. We talked for a while and she told me she's not being paid for it and she doesn't claim for her mileage reimbursement. FYI - she goes CIRCLE ISLAND.



But I guess the most inspiring day I had at work so far was on Wednesday when students from the Christian Academy came to our property and sang and danced for our residents. Those kids were awesome. I saw one of our residents crying while the kids did a little pantomime about turning our hearts to God and the joy of having been lost and being now found. It was heartwarming - I was glad my manager decided that we close the office for the meantime and be with the residents while the kids were doing their thing. Before they left, one of their teachers/pastor offered a prayer. In his prayer, he specifically asked the Lord to give my manager a special blessing that she may continue to be strong amidst all the trials she's having with her job responsibilities. He also asked that the residents be blessed with more love and understanding towards my manager that they may feel her love and concern for their welfare. As he was saying those words, I thought to myself - How inspired that pastor was! How the heck did he know all the challenges were facing to the point that he could be that specific with his plead to the Lord? He must have the light of Christ in him - he was inspired by the Holy Spirit, and he was at the right place at the right time.



I love going to work everyday. Today is a company holiday - it's our Employee Recognition Day. Seriously, I know non-profits don't pay that much (though honestly, this has been my highest paid job ever LOL) because they don't have much either. They couldn't even afford to have me work 40hours/wk because of budget issues. But who cares? I mean, yes I don't get paid big bucks - but the perks I get are stuff that money can't buy.

"And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

- Matthew 25:40

How can it be more fulfilling than that!

EASTER THOUGHTS

The headline of the monthly newsletter we have at work reads this:

Here's a wonderful Easter Message from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Easter is a wonderful time to reflect and ponder on the life of Christ and the lessons he taught us. Let us all pause from our overwhelmingly busy lives and take the time to pray in gratitude for the Infinite Atonement that our Savior Jesus Christ has done for all mankind.

Here's one of my husband and mine's favorite song about Christ's love for us...

DEAL WITH IT...

For this past week, all I ever heard of was finals. I felt so out of touch because everyone is just rambling and stressing out on something I have already been done and over with. This is Carl's last semester and he's taking his biggest tests (Spring term is technically his last leg, but we could care less for spring...LOL). So anyway, this week for me is a breather. I have a four day work week because in observance of the Holy Week. I got Friday off, the perfect day to stay at home especially on a rainy Hawaiian day!




I am writing this just because I want to have the feeling of being really busy - hahahaha! I mean, I talk about how busy my day has been and yet I don't feel like I've been as busy as the people I know. On top of that - I get a day off on a day everybody is VERY BUSY!




So on my day off (or let me just say LONG WEEKEND) - these are the things I have to deal with...

1. MAIL THESE TAX FORMS

These precious envelopes will bring us money in the next couple of weeks. The deadline is on the 15th so I better mail them out now. Thanks to Jeryl for doing our taxes. Carl and I couldn't do it online because we are non-resident aliens so the appropriate tax forms for our classification are not available online. We had to do it manually - so we owe a lot to Jeryl for doing this for us for FREE!

2. HANG THESE LAUNDRY IN THE CLOSET

Actually, this laundry basket is the other half of the clean laundry. I categorize our clothes based on their purpose - private vs. public. These are the public ones. Actually, these have been washed on Saturday. I am a procrastinator at times, and laundry stuff is one of my favorite victims. But I don't have any reason to put off this tasking any longer - because tomorrow is another laundry day.

3. SEPARATE THESE!
[WHITES] [{PRIVATE} {(TOPS) (BOTTOMS)}] [{LINENS} {TOWELS}]

Yes, I am very particular about this. Carl and I have argued about my system of doing laundry a couple of times already. I got this system from my mom and dad. Growing up, our kitchen's floor would covered with dirty clothes on laundry day - arranged in sets (just like above). I became accustomed to doing the same thing. Its challenging to keep up to that though because of the cost of doing laundry here - so i try my very best to limit our laundry to three wash loads (max of 5 loads), and just hang the heavy fabric clothes to air dry whenever possible.

4. PUT THE CATERING IMPLEMENTS BACK TO STORAGE

Last Saturday, I took care of preparing for the Filipino club's refreshments during their closing socials. Thanks to all those who came over to help. Jonald you were an awesome president. Edward, Aprilon, Andrew, Janet, Richard, Ayi, Jemar, Jasmine - you guys were great helpers! Most of all, thanks to Carl for his undying support to my passion - cooking and serving people! HAPPINESS. But yeah - these things really do have to go back to storage!

CATERING 101 with my HAPPY HELPERS - 'Til next catering event!

5. CLEAN-UP AND ORGANIZE THE FRIDGE

Because i love to cook, there's always left over in the fridge. Sometimes, i can't even keep up with what's on the fridge - LOL! HAHAHA. That doesnt necessarily mean though that we have lots of food. Its just that I always cook. So this fridge of ours needs some clean-up: unload the left-overs, trash out the wilted stuff, organize what's inside, and remind myself what stuff should be consumed as soon as possible!

6. BILLS BILLS BILLS AND BILLS AGAIN

Back in the day, i check my mailbox at least once a month. Now, almost every othe rday i have to check our mailbox because whether i like or not, some company out there is sending us something. At least twice a month, thanks to our jobs, we get blessings from the mailbox. But most of the time, we get bills. When we get them, I review the bills, then I pass them to Carl. Then he takes care of 'em.

7. MEMORIES OF WINTER SEMESTER

These things need spring cleaning too. Most of these are Carl's - because he's the student! But I get my hand on them because - I am more deliberate on letting go of paper products that are already useless. Hehehehehe. I should have taken a picture of all the paper i trashed out of this pile.

8. REALITY CHECK

Last but not the least - in fact this is the hardest thing i have to deal with - these jeans that I can't use because I don't fit on them no more! I have gained pounds since we got married. I've been trying to lose pounds for 2 months now. I consider losing five pounds succesful considering I am not a work-out fan and I don't have much free time for tennis matches nowadays - though I know I can lose more if I can only burn my calories faster. I have been cutting on rice, eating either a sandwich or a green salad for lunch, and drinking more water. I feel a little bit lighter but certainly not smaller yet. And these jeans are proof that I need to work harder - because after losing five pounds, i still don't fit on them.

Whew! I felt really busy!