The Fantastic Four Women In My Life

A day before the official “Mother’s Day” celebration I was so tempted and jealous seeing friends from Facebook expressing and sharing their words of love and gratitude in creative fashion to their own mothers. 

I was in the brink of expressing my celebratory remarks and way of honoring the four important women and mothers in my life – that if I finish would surely be shared in the social network I own - Twitter, Facebook & Instagram are waiting. 

Good graces – my control worked to my advantage. Before the jealousy overtook me, it deviated my focus to spending our day by going for a family bonding in the mall with my immediate family, together with my mother – who is under my care right now.

God -- You Are Sovereign!

"God – You are sovereign and all encompassing. We surrender all to You."

"My tatay had encountered a motorcycle accident yesterday night. We were stunned by the news coming from my eldest sister through FB. It was his third accident with the same vehicle. At first, we’re a bit furious because he didn’t listen to our proddings not to drive when drunk. But minutes after expressing our disgust and disappointment, it is our hearts that melted down in pity with his current situation. He’s the only person left in our house in the province since all of us are miles away from home. My eldest sister is residing in Carmona in Cavite, my two brothers are also in the Middle East ( one in UAE and the other in Western Part of Saudi Arabia). My nanay is under my care here in the Eastern Part.

We were like helpless because we cannot personally attend to him. But, we owe our great thanks and favor from our relatives who closely monitored him after the accident. I’ve been calling him from time to time, not minding the amount of money I already spent calling overseas.

Of Lenten Season, Of Summer, and Of Ihaw-Ihaw Sa Tag-Araw

A powerful sneeze has just exploded before I started scribbling this. And I felt like my lungs could also explode any moment. It’s painful to sneeze esp. if it’s a forced one. The urge to release is so sudden. 

I don’t have any plan to write about anything right now – I mean it’s 2AM. Who the hell would wake up at this holy hour? I should suppose to be in my sound sleep. But I was awakened by that powerful sneeze and incessant coughing. It's so disturbing that I can't even go back to sleep again. 

So, what I did was - I went to the kitchen, boiled the lemon grass. After boiling, I pour out into a mug and mixed it with a powdered ginger given to us by my sister-in-law last Friday. 

Rated BP as in "Baby Patronage": Damien Caleb's Fun Times

I reached home at around 2pm today. Good thing, my driver Dulal was able to speed-up the velocity without being caught on camera in some areas. Dito sa KSA, kung nasa highway ka, kapag nag over speeding ka bigla na lang may magpa-flash na camera on the side and kaboom "huli ka" - And what's the verdict? tumataginting na SAR 900.00 more or less 10k in Php peso. Anyway, it's just a side story. 

So dumating ako ng house at 2:10pm. Kagigising lang ng aking cute boy at ng wife ko. Kaya pala di ako sinagot sa text ko while on my way home ako kanina kasi tulog pala silang dalawa. At yun, sa sobrang sabik ng daddy sa cute boy bigla akong lumapit while her mom ay binibihisan siya. Of course, kinailangan kong maglagay ng alcohol gel kasi papagalitan ako ng wifey ko if hahawak ako sa baby ng di naglalagay. My wife is so strict when it comes to hygiene. Understandable kasi she's the "Infection Control Supervisor" ng hospital where she works kaya ganun siya ka strict. Many a times where I was caught not using it kaya maraming beses na din ako nase-sermunan hehehe..sermong may pagmamahal naman hehe (palusot pa)

About A Perfect Gift and Of Prayers: When You Pray Hard God Really Listens

"When you pray hard God really listens! "

I almost failed to be with my wife and son on the eve of Christmas last night due to work reason.  

Yesterday, I was surprised when my manager tasked me to do a physical count of all the stocks we have in our warehouse.  When I hear it I was really pissed off. I know that it will take me from morning until almost midnight. I mean there’s a whole lot of inventory stuff that we need to reconcile. 

About Tatay, Of Principles, and Of Family: In Your Footsteps I Will Follow

I love 'em both! - kunwari "date" nila yan hehehe!
chaperon kami - hahaha!

"I am blessed to be your son. I am gifted that you’re my tatay."

Every child needs and/or deserves a father in the same capacity of having a mother. Luckily, I grew up having both of ‘em. A privilege I'm forever thankful. 

But of course, the absence of one doesn't mean happiness will be that aloof. There are exceptional situations where absence of a father is inevitable. There are valid reasons to that and I respect those who are under this category.

About Family Bonding, Of Veggies & Fruits, Of Breads, and Of Malling: Unplanned Mall Visit

Family bonding is synonymous to having great time, enjoying sumptuous meals while having funny talks, and just having fun times with the members of the family. It owns a very significant part of my time. When it comes to family time, I make sure I have portion allotted to it no matter how busy I am with work and stuff. In short, I'm a family oriented guy. 

Isn't it nice to hear a guy who devote plenty quality time with his family? I say this because lots of my friends somehow lacks in this department. Lucky me? It's a choice actually. If you choose to do it, it won't be a problem with you even if you're the busiest person in the whole world. If you value the importance of being with your family, you will deliver no matter what. As I've said, it's a choice. And everyone has a choice. Right?

About Honoring, of Thank You's, and of Gratitude: A Prelude Message Before My Birthday

Usually, when one celebrates a birthday, the celebrant is the one being honored -- that's the usual norm right?  (at least for us here in the Mid-East in our community-hehe). But today, let me put a twist in it. Instead of them honoring me for my upcoming birthday, I will be doing the favor as I will honor them who have been a blessing into my life. Family, relatives, friends, and acquaintances alike will be the focal point of this entry. 

Life has been so good to me. I never thought that a simple man in me will be bestowed with blessings so overflowing that I need to share. Ika nga sa kanta "So blessed I can't contain it, so much I gotta give it away" . Don't get me wrong huh? I don't keep the biggest material or financial blessings. What I'm trying to convey is the blessing that is abstract and cannot be seen by the naked eye. It's like the good will in business. Blessings (apart from the material ones) for me are the gift of life, family, friendship, work, and that of a community. 

About Simbang Gabi, Puto Bumbong, & Christmas Carols: 10 Things I Love About "Krismas in da Pilipins"

We’ve past Halloween season. We’ve paid our due respect to our departed loved ones.

Now, the focus of the people is on the yuletide season. The hustle and bustle of the metro is on. The big rush on the streets, the busy shopping centers and malls, the overcrowding in Divisoria. Christmas songs being heard from every corner, from every houses. Indeed, there is no stopping the onset of the grandest season of the year. 

This time, I'll make a countdown of the different things I love about celebrating Christmas in Pinas. For us working abroad, nothing can beat the longing we feel every year that we miss celebrating Christmas back in Pinas with our family, relatives, and friends. It's hard. No! It's really hard. So I'll just contain myself enumerating things that will somehow ease that feeling of isolation from the rest of the family during Christmas. 

As a Filipino, we have intrinsic qualities that separate us in celebrating Christmas. Most often, we brand our celebration "Christmas Pinoy Style". I would proudly say that we're the only nation which celebrates this festivity in a month long period.

A Worthy Pursuit

"There is more to life than sitting in our comfort zone. We were made for something more than merely avoiding failure. There is something inside us that wants to walk on the water -- to leave the comfort of routine existence and abandon ourselves to the high adventure of following God's lead for a greater and worthy pursuit."-- JayRadaRafol

When God presents us with a platform to help and change lives of others we cannot choose our circumstances where, when, and how it will happen. Unexpectedly, it just happens in a least likely place. In the same way that it chooses no race, color, gender, status, and most of all it ignores appearances. Our heart just obeys to the leadings of the Divine. Out of nowhere, we’ll just realize that we’ve touched someone’s life and impacted to our community. On a greater scale, a domino effect spreads-out to the society where we thrive.

And The Winners Are..........

I know it's too early to announce the winners since the announcement is really slated on July 15, 2012 but since we're done in deliberation anyway we decided to do it now. So, without further ado, this post will reveal the winners of this contest. 


So how did this blog contest came to life?

It was a cool and sun-shiny Tuesday of April 10, 2012 when I devised this blog contest. Basically, it has two major reasons: 
1. To sponsor a blog contest following the lead of other bloggers who have done it already.
2. To add an exciting twist of how our soon to be first born will be named.


To count it back, it ran for the period of two months and five days.  How time flies fast isn’t it? I never imagine that I would receive one hundred thirty four (134) in total entries. All I thought was just maybe 20+ entries would be many for me. But when I counted it last Saturday I was in awe when it totaled 134.

Firstly, I would like to express my sincere thank you to all who have passed their entries. I couldn’t put all your names here since it would cost me too much space but I believe my gratitude is enough for all of you. For giving me your time joining this contest, meticulously thinking of beautiful names for our soon-to-be-new-born is worthy of a praise from us. This contest won't be possible if none of you had joined. THANK YOU VERY MUCH indeed!

You never know how excited I was every time I receive additional entry every now and then. And my excitement would lead me to reading it and smiling while thinking "Is this the one?" You have made the journey of our soon-to-be-first born baby boy very momentous. And this event will surely be one of his life's highlight when he grows up. 


Overwhelming joy is the right word to describe how we feel of your overflowing response to this contest.