OUR LITTLE SOCCER PLAYER

You probably already know by now that Marcel is a major soccer fan.  Lately, I have been growing into enjoying this sports so that I can spend more of that should-to-shoulder time with Marcel.


Well, now that we're expecting, I REALLY enjoy this moment when Manny is still inside of me and that I can take him wherever I go and expose him to the things I normally do.  Cause time will continue to pass.  And one day, my baby will start crawling and get busy with the new things he encounter.  And pretty soon, I will have to chase him in order to cuddle with him.  So I might as well enjoy this very moment.  :-)


Here is a video of Manny while joining Papah and Mamah in watching soccer.  :-)






Hope you enjoyed the video.  Have a great rest of the week!

GROWING IS A PROCESS

During our Nursery teachers devotion 2.5-3 months ago, I was sharing about how uncertain I was about the baby inside of me.  My belly had not popped yet at the time.  I couldn't feel his moves.  Was he OK?  Was he growing?  Was he still inside?  Did I feed him enough healthy food to survive (since I couldn't eat well in my first trimester)?


Throughout my second trimester, God continued to whisper this Word of comfort in my heart which just so happened to be the Nursery's Bible Verse for the month of Nov. 2011.  I found comfort in these Verses as God guided me through some concerns and mood swings in my second trimester.  God really tended to my "hi-jacked" minds through these Verses.

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." -- Philippians 4:6-7

Fast forward to the month of Jan. 2012.  We had another teachers devotion before the start of our Nursery.  This month the kids and adults have been learning about God who loves us and helps us to grow.  Growing is a matter of process.  The result doesn't always come up the next day.


Just take for an example the life of Jesus.  I can't think of a bigger and grander birth announcement and the birth itself other than Jesus'.  Mary and Joseph was told that they would give birth to a Savior.  But when Baby Jesus was born, He was just a very vulnerable baby like other babies.  He needed Mary and Joseph to feed him.  At his younger ages, Jesus did NOT perform any wonder.  He did not turn water into wine yet.  He did not heal sick people yet.  He was basically like a regular human being.  If I were to be Mary, I would have been very disappointed and give up my patience.  THANK GOD I wasn't Mary.  God indeed chose the right Mary :-)


Then what happens?  God fulfilled His Word through the life and death of Jesus Christ.  And that's why we're here today.  But it didn't happen overnight, did it? Jesus had to go through the "growing up" process first before He's ready to fulfill God's purpose and perform wonders here on earth.


That story was very encouraging to me.  It challenged and reminded me to put my FAITH completely with and in God.  And the sharing I told the teachers 3 months ago could finally be used to testify that God is still at work in MY life ... in Manny's life ... in our family's life .. in all of our lives ... even though our eyes cannot see and our mind cannot understand at times.


With that, I want to share this video of Manny's update.  All this time of waiting, God was perfecting Manny's muscle, nerve, sensory, etc so that Manny's ready to show and "communicate" with Mamah and Papah through some of his moves and kicks.




Hope you enjoyed the video.  And may this be a blessing!

MANNY'S JOURNAL: 25 - 28 WEEKS

It's me again ... MANNY.  Oh wait, actually, Mamah and Papah have been calling me with a new name these days.  I think that's my real name.  At first I was like, "Who are they calling?"  But now I know that they're calling me because every time they call the name, they would rub Mamah's tummy and I could feel it.

Anyway, I'm getting taller and heavier each week.  Mamah's tummy is getting less spacier these days.  Sometimes I get bored inside and started moving, stretching and kicking in all directions.  So I let Mamah and Papah play "Guess the Shape" of Mamah's tummy.  The three of us could have good giggles from playing that game.  I'm really good in making weird shapes for them to see haha.


Lately I've also been enjoying tickling Mamah.  You know how I like it when Mamah takes me to swim and walk everyday right?  Well, when it rains outside, Mamah told me that we don't walk outside but stay inside instead.  The thing is, I love that routine when every time after a meal, Mamah would take me for a walk in the neighborhood.  I could hear dogs barking, Mamah talking to the neighbors and mailman, birds chirping, garbage truck going around, music on Mamah's phone bla bla bla.  It's so much more fun walking outside.  So when Mamah decided to lay down instead after a meal, I would STRETCHHHHH and then wiggle my toes and fingers.  I know THAT would tickle Mamah and made her walk a bit.  Maybe not outside cause I don't want Papah to find us sick and call me the culprit.  :-(  But at least I get some exercise after each meal.


Oh, the other day something weird happened.  I woke up to Papah's alarm clock and then my breathing started to feel funny.  My body went up and down.  I couldn't control my breathing.  And every time the breath paused, I jolted a bit.  It happened for quite some time and I didn't know what happened until I heard Mamah laughing and saying, "Manny, are you hiccuping?"  I guess it's OK for me to hiccup.  Mamah said that it is a sign of a healthy baby.  ALRIGHT!!!  I'm a healthy baby, y'all!!!


*Yawwnnnn* Anyway, I'm sleepy again now.  I will talk to you later!!!

CRAVING: AVOCADO JUICE

One of my swimming buddies is a farmer.  Sometimes he would bring some of the products over to the gym to sell.  I would buy his lemons and honey (yeah, seriously, he grows his own bees too).


A few weeks ago, when he finally noticed that my belly has popped, he gave me a care package to stay healthy during the pregnancy.  I've used up the lemons and honey to keep Marcel hydrated as he battled the flu virus.  Leaving me with the avocados.  I've been looking at the avocados for days ... not sure what to do with them.  For salad?  Ehhh, no.  Not in the mood of eating salad.  For hair mask?  Ehhh, no.  It's too cold to DIY the hair mask these days.


Until finally as I was talking to Baby Manny this morning, "Hmm, Manny, what should we do with these?"  Then, Manny inspired me to make AVOCADO JUICE!!!

When not pregnant, I don't normally like avocado juice.  I thought it's just too rich for a juice.  Since I'm pregnant; and the avocado contains good natural fat for the baby, I decided to make it today.  Hmmm, it's so nom nom.  I love being pregnant!!!  Click here for the recipe if you're interested in making some.  ENJOY!

UPDATE ON MOM'S HEALTH

Remember my sharing about my mom's health last month?  Here I am recording our journey of praises and prayer request about it.

My sisters and I decided that Mom should be taken to Singapore for further investigation.  They were there for the entire week last week.  Mom went through the general physical check-up and met with some specialists to check on her liver, pancreas, and womb for any cancer indicators.

Before I continue, praise the LORD that the result = NO CANCER.  And the details on what's happening with her are as follows:

1) She has Hypothyroidism due to menopause and the lack of Iodium.  This must to be treated using medication to avoid further complication at her older age.  She is not yet taking the medication at the moment since more tests need to be done on her to determine the right and balanced amount for her body.

2) Her diabetes was high last month because of the pancreatic cysts that are causing her insulin production to mess up a bit.  Praise the LORD her diabetes is under control at the moment.  Thanks to the exercises and changed eating habit.

3) The pancreatic cysts remain benign, have not grown in size since 2007 (about 1.1 cm diameter), and are not cancerous.  Bi-annual check-up will be required to monitor them.  They don't need to be removed if not cancerous because if touched, they could actually become active and more dangerous (potentially become cancerous).  However, once they become active/enlarging and/or cancerous, they have to be removed right away.  So the timing is everything on these.  Hence, the bi-annual check-up.

4) Her liver that was swollen and hardening last month was because the fat had already entered INTO it causing some irritations.  Praise the LORD, her Hepatitis B remains inactive.  The doctor prescribed her a medication that she should take for the rest of her life to maintain its "status quo" and avoid it from causing Liver Cirrhosis in the future.

To close this post, I am grateful for the power of prayer.  And I am thankful for all the praises as things could have been worse.  But they are not because God has been in it throughout the whole process.  Thank you for your prayer support.  I have been a believer in the power of prayer.  And I still am.

Please do not hesitate to shoot me an email or call me if I can be a prayer partner in your life.

"Life is good because the Giver of life is good."

"Our help is in the name of the LORD,

Who made heaven and earth." -- Psalm 124:8

CHOICES

"You didn't have a choice about the parents and siblings you have, but you do have a choice about the kind of son/daughter and brother/sister you are.  And definitely you have a choice about what kind of parent you want to become."

GRATEFULNESS FOR GREAT SOUL

"It is gratefulness which makes the soul great."

SCARS TO STARS

"God turns your scars into stars."

EXPRESSING GRATITUDE

"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it."

KIND WORD

"One kind word can warm three winter months."

GOOD LAUGH

"A good laugh is sunshine in a house."

LOVE AND RESPECT

"The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother." -- Theodore Hesburgh

I love this quote.  And I think it works the other way around too for the mother to respect the father.

"Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband." -- Ephesians 5:33

DAY OF MEMORIES

"No day ever ends if it makes a memory." -- Jackie Erickson

ORIGINAL IS HARD TO FIND

"An original is hard to find but easy to recognize."

I woof you, Hubby!!!

NESTING: ORGANIZING GADGETS

My hubby is a gadgets fan.  I felt overwhelmed at times because I couldn't find enough desk space to work from home.


Praise the Lord, gadgets are getting thinner and thinner these days.  So earlier when we just moved in to the house, I took advantage of our desk paper organizer as our gadgets AND paper holder.  This fits nicely on our side desk.

View from the side.  We normally have my work laptop and hubby's work laptop on top of our tablet and Google Chromebook stored in here.

View from the front.  Not bad eh??

NESTING: TICKLER PROJECT

Ci Kiki shared the Simple Mom website several years ago with me.  Last month I read their post about the Tickler File to organize the counter paper piles.  Inspired by that, I adopted it for my nesting project and leveraged Google Calendar which has been our family organizer for the past 4.5 years.

This was my side desk before.  Filled with mails and coupons

Step 1 - I got myself a Tickler folder from OfficeMax for $7.00 (on-sale)

Step 2 - I labeled the pockets by months

Step 3 - I cut all the coupons and placed them in ziplock by their expiration month.  Then I put the ziplock into the Tickler folder by month.  So I only have to grab the ziplock from the appropriate month when I need to use the coupons

Step 4a - Example #1: our property tax invoice before I put it in the February (due month) pocket of the Tickler folder

Step 5a - I added a new event in Google Calendar with "(T)" in front to indicate that there is an associated paperwork in the Tickler folder.  The event date is the due date listed on the property tax invoice.  I added hubby Marcel as the guest and reminders to alert me when the time gets closer.

Step 4b - Example #2: our vehicle registration renewal notice from DMV before I put it in the March (due month) pocket of the Tickler folder

Step 5b - I added a new event in Google Calendar with "(T)" in front to indicate that there is an associated paperwork in the Tickler folder.  The event date is the due date listed on the renewal notice.  I added hubby Marcel as the guest and reminders to alert me when the time gets closer.

Step 6 - The result is ... TADA ...very organized and clean right???

Thank you, Ci Kiki, for sharing the website.  Thank you, Simple Mom, for sharing the tips.  My house is getting more and more organized in preparation for Baby Manny.  LOVE IT!!!  It's easy to maintain.  It's stress free ... clutter free ... all needed papers are in one folder.  All others are either shredded or placed in our filing cabinet.

NESTING: ORGANIZING LINEN CUPBOARD

One of the nesting projects we did over the holidays was organizing our linen cupboard.


We didn't buy or install a new linen cupboard when we moved in to the house.  There used to be two of them: one hanging and the other one at the corner.  For security reasons, we uninstalled the one at the corner because we kept hitting our hip to the edge of it every time we walked pass it.

So with the one hanging cupboard that we have, we store all of our towels and the bed-linen sets.  The towels are rolled to save some space.  The bed-linen sets are stored inside one of their own pillowcases.  So no more hunting through piles for a match for us!!!!


Hopefully with a more organized home, we can be readier in taking on more responsibilities that come with having our Baby Manny this Spring.

OUR NEW YEAR CELEBRATION

Well well well, Happy 2012, Friends! Hope you had a memorable 2011 and an exciting start of 2012.


As for our family, Marcel's parents and brother were in town.  Since it has been 3.5 years from the last time we all gathered together, we decided to have a family dinner and fellowship to close 2011 and open 2012.  It was very simple yet memorable.  I always LOVE doing this with Marcel's family every time we get together.  Praise the Lord, this time Mario could also join us.


For dinner, we didn't do anything fancy.  Something quick so we have more time for the more important one: the fellowship.  Our dinner was INSTANT NOODLES!!! :-)  But they were NOT just regular instant noodles.  They were special because they were prepared with love and care from Chef Mamih Santi and Sous Chef Papih Johny.

Only gentlemen dare to wear pink.  Only gentlemen would cook ... especially for his family :-)

Our main chef spreading some love in the food

First time cooking.  Papih's proud face of the result. 

After dinner, we prayed, sang, shared, and prayed and shared ... AND prayed and shared until close to midnight.  Unfortunately, we couldn't keep our eyes open till midnight.  So we bid good-bye to 2011 and said hello to 2012 about 30 minutes early.  But the entire family couldn't thank God enough for the blessings and teachings He allowed to happen in our lives last year and are so excited for the goals and directions God will unfold to us in 2012.

Trying to stay warm till midnight

Happy New Year, All.  Make it a wonderful one!!