Goodbye beautiful beard...

So, we wake up this morning and for some reason the first words i blurt out are "Leelai, wanna cut papa's beard?" To my surprise, Leelai and Papa were both like "Okay!" So we got out of bed and ......

our little hair dresser got ready with the clippers.

A final shot of the swamp creature.

And who knew that under all that hair i was married to Cheech Marin?

The most cutest flippin thing in the world...

Okay, the things they have for babies today are certainly to die for. It's so fun to have a baby!

First, I see baby MP with the cutest little leg warmers and i absolutly had to get them too (BTW Meli, we need to get pictures taken of the girls in matching rainbow babylegs). Now, i find this at Nordstrom!

Isn't this the silliest thing!? It's cool too cause you can put it in the carseat and wrap your baby. UGH, i wish they had this in adult size. I'd wear it while driving. I can just imagine getting pullled over and the police officer saying "um, ma'm step out of the footed blanket please". This blanket is 40 something dollars but i'm getting it... and then i'm going to Joann fabric to buy me some fleece and make one for myself....

Marley's 4th Birthday!! aka Halloween!

Okay, so i'm a little late of posting up for Leelai's birthday... i'm still recovering from the madness.

Both sets of her lolo's and lola's weren't able to celebrate her actual birthday so we had a last minute shin dig for her at gool ol' Chuck E Cheese. It was a blast as always. I swear they have the best pizza and salad bar in the world.

Getting ready to do some damage.

Call it a hunch, but I don't think MariJam's having fun.

For Halloween/Leelai's birthday, we headed to the hills to Nina's house for our annual Halloween Fest. Each year the group gets bigger and bigger and we absolutely love it! Chamina has posted a few good pictures on her blog too.

Notice the absents of Johnny Boy. He was with his friends.... a typical teenager now. Did i mention that he's taller than all of us now? He's catching up to his Uncle Jeremy who is (only 1 word to describe him) HUGE!

Monster Jam.

We have a new tradition for Halloween. Auntie Chamina introduced us to a new friend named "The Great Pumpkin". After all the trick or treating is done, we choose 10 pieces of candy (mostly chocolate) and we leave the rest outside our door for The Great Pumpkin. She then leaves us, in return, a gift!

Halloween Treat!

Despite the fires, we hauled our cookies over to California Adventure for Mickey's Halloween Treat. It was sooo much fun, and it's probably something i want to do for Lee-Lai every year for her birthday. So you 5 people who read this blog, be ready to go every October! For the whole album of our special birthday event, click HERE.

CAST

Gani as Zurg

Lee-Lai as Minnie Mouse

Mina as Pablo

Happy Birthday to me!!!!

Getting Old?

Here's a picture of our 2nd generation Moontower Crew.... formerly known as the Denots Crew. How silly that sounds huh. Actually, this is only fraction of the kids in our group. I still think of my friends and I as a bunch of goofy young peeps, but seeing pictures like this really puts me on a reality check. These kids are starting to become older and are giving themselves a "crew" name. It crazy.

I also wanted to experiment with this site cause i noticed a small film reel icon on the toolbar section of this blog thingy... let's see how it goes. This small video clip is from the hospital when the Jam was only 2 days old. My little one just turned 3 months old but already she's sooo different!

Geez, the upload time takes long....

The Ultimate FAT Boy.....

Another "big ups" to my homie Andrew Zimmern. He has on the Discovery Website what he calls "Andrew's Rule Book". There are few things that i read and actually take to heart. For instance, the Harry Potter series, US Weekly Magazine, instruction manuals, MySpace comments... and now Andrew's Rule Book.

I love this man...

Andrew Zimmern has traveled all over the world, and he's learned a few things along the way — what to do, what not to do and what to definitely eat while traveling to these countries and cities. Dig in!

Ecuador

Rule No. 655 - (Please write this one down, folks.) When you're in the Amazonian rainforest and you're eating lemon ants, you have to be very careful that the conga ants (otherwise known as bullet ants) aren’t crawling all over you, because that would totally blow your game. It's a very important rule."

Gulf Coast
Rule No. 1 - If it looks good, eat it!

Rule No. 15 - If you can bake it, broil it or steam it, you're probably better off deep-fat frying it. At Wintzell's, the legendary oyster house in Mobile, Ala., their feeling is, if you can't shuck it or fry it, why bother eating it?

Rule No. 42 - If a backyard is littered with shotgun shells and an old rusted smoker – well, you know the food’s gotta be pretty good.

Rule No. 136 - Never trust the shop owners to tell you where all the good stuff is. You’ve got to sniff it out yourself."

Morocco
Rule No. 1 - Camels are much, much taller than you ever thought they were.
Rule No. 107 - Never breathe through the nose deeply in an open-air fish market.
Rule No. 156 - If you want to eat something funky, head down to the seashore.
Rule No. 505 - You gotta eat it twice before you say no thank-you to the rest of the plate.

New York City

Rule No. 361 - When you are ordering a lot of deep-fried stuff, don’t waste space on the garnish. Garnish is garnish." (this one is my personal favorite -melon)
Rule No. 375 - I would subtitle this one the 'Bizarre Foods Counterintuitive Rule': There’s no food on Earth that bacon doesn’t make better. (In the case of the food featured on this episode, we did want to taste all the maggots, so I defer to your judgment.)

Rule No. 378 - The enjoyment of the meal is in direct proportion to the size of the line you have to wait on to get it.
Rule No. 647 - The more disgusting the food, the greater the chance whoever is hawking it, selling it or pushing a bowl of it on you will say that "it’s good for what ails you."
Rule No. 724 - You know you’ve had a good meal when you have a pile of teeny shells, feet and connective tissue lying around on your plate.

Rule No. 937 ('Bizarre Foods' Rule No. 937, for those of you keeping score at home) - The QRA (Quick, Reliable and Accurate) method of dispatching animals is very important when it comes to eating things that have just been living and have now sadly given themselves for our pleasure.

Philippines
Rule No. 75 - aka Zimmer’s Law No. 75: The more disgusting the food looks, the more neutral it tastes."

Spain
Rule No. 107 - Any place with suckling baby pigs in the window is top-notch.Taiwan
Rule No. 1 - Never talk too much about a food before eating it (e.g. like on this episode, when Andrew and his companions were discussing what part of a goose they are about to eat).

Rule No. 379 - The more innocent a food looks, the more dangerous it is. It’s like those teeny little snakes crawling in the rainforest; they’re always the deadliest ones.

Trinidad
Rule No. 281 - Scan the booths, and look for the one with the biggest line. It’s got to be the best ... right?
Rule No. 311 - If you’re looking for interesting stuff in an outdoor market, just follow your nose to one of the stinkier spots in the market. Usually that means there’s fish and meat, and usually that means there are going to be some more interesting things going on.
Rule No. 364 - Food always tastes better when you catch it yourself.
Rule No. 747 - You don’t need to have a bite the size of a jumbo jet to absolutely freak you right out of your seat.

United Kingdom
Rule No. 235 - Food surrounded by a jello made from its own juices is always better than food not surrounded by a jello made from its own juices. Eel jello is one of the best.
Rule No. 439 Pigeons that poop on the host of a T.V. program usually wind up as dinner in a restaurant.

I got 2 months to my name!

On the 17th, Jam turned 2 months old! You know what this means..... a not so happy visit to the doctor. She actually did pretty well at first. She impressed the doctor by lifting her head high while on her tummy, and being able to see mama walk back and forth in the room. She also smiled and cooed like a pro. She totally screamed when the nurse gave her shots but that was expected. She actually stopped crying right after it was over. I also had the doctor look at her birthmarks (she has one on her upper back and another on her eyelid). The doc told me the cutest thing about them. The one on her eye is called a salmon patch or aka an Angel Kiss. Those types of birthmarks usually show up on the forehead or eyelids of babies and usually disappear with in the first year. The one on her back is a small hemangioma. When they are on the upper back or neck, they are also called a Stork Bite. So, my MariJam was kissed by an angel before the stork delivered her. I can't wait to share that with her when she becomes old enough to understand!

Lobster Fest '07

Last weekend we geared up and hauled our cookies to Lobster Fest in San Pedro. We ate, listened to the "one-man band", ate, listened to a rock band, ate, road on a ride, and then ate ice cream. Strange thing is, even after all that eating, we weren't discustingly full... i guess seafood isn't as heavy as pan de sal with butter and cheese. Anyway, i'll let the pictures tell the story.

Here's me and the Scheweitz post lobster / pre bucket of shrimp.

Tita Bean Bags and Uncle Pers Bags having lobster and the most expensive calamari in the world. BTW, Lobster fest was fun but not cheap. Good thing it's only once a year.

Here are the kiddies. Monster Jam and Lee-lai loved the "One-man band". If Gani was awake during that time, he would have loved it too! Either that, or he would have said " Stop! Go away one-man band".

Twins!

Here's Lee-lai riding her first carnival ride BY HERSELF! I was scared that she would flip out in the middle of the ride, or barf, or something. She was fine though... what a big girl now....

Here's Gani and Lee-lai being big kids. Gani told Tita Beanbags that they were singing the "little einsteins" theme song when the ride was on. How silly is that! I just love them!

This looks like Perci and Manny holding hands.

I forgot....

to share this picture. I love my girlies!

Back to work already?

Time has gone by too fast. My little Jam has turned into a regular baby now. This going back to work thing totally sucks. 6 weeks is not nearly enough time to spend with a baby before going to work. With Leelai, i spent the first 11 months of her life at home with her. It felt natural and right when i started working again and put her into daycare. Plus, it helped that the daycare she was in was my work place (i sort of planned it that way)! Now that we have more responsibilities, i HAVE to go back to work. The good part about this though is that i'll be working part time till 12 and then hopefully i can earn more money and work from home as well on a regular basis. So, the mornings will be all about Jam and Papa (good luck!) and them building a bond together.

"somebody's touching me!"

It also looks (but doesn't feel like) summer is almost over. I have a feeling though that it won't be the end of daily swimming for Leelai at Lolo and Lola's house. She and Gani have truly become brother and sister over the past couple of months. I don't know how i could have functioned this summer without Tita Bean bags and Uncle Purse bags. They have helped us out sooo much! I wish i had more time to take pictures, but the whole breastfeeding thing really keeps me occupied. I'll see what i can steal from my dad's camera to share.

1 month!

Hi! I haven't had much time to blog... mostly cause my boobs are on call with the little MJ. We have so far had a great summer! Lee-lai and the cousins are soo dark from swimming everyday. She can now jump into the pool (no floaties) and swim across to her Lolo. Once i get pictures of the clan, i'll post them up. I'm soo proud of her too! She's a wonderful big sister and is always willing to help out her Mama.
Anyhoo, the little one is officially 1 month old tomorrow! I can't believe how fast that was. She already has lots of nick names. My favorite is Jam.... short for MariJam. For the full story of MariJam, you need to ask Nina Bean Bags. It's a great nick name cause you can add whatever flavor to the front of it to describe her or her mood. For example, when she's pooping and her face is all red, i call her Strawberry Jam... or when she's all mad and crying, i call her Sour Jam. She's such a good baby too. It seems like she's at peace most when there is craziness going on at Lolo and Lola's house. When it's too quiet, she opens her eyes and looks around like there is something wrong.

I call this shot "Sio-pow Jam".. the most sarap flavor of them all!

Some new photo's

Just sharing a few pictures of the ever chubby little mug.

Jillian showing some love to her new cousin.

Our newest member...

Here she is, and with lots of hair! This labor was very different than when I had Lee-lai. I had been having contractions all weekend and i have my funny ass cousins to thank for that (see guys, i told you that i'd go into labor from laughing so hard). The contractions were all over the place though. My doctor had told me to go to the hospital when they were 10 minutes apart, but they were coming every 4 minutes, then 10 minutes, then 6 minutes, then 3 minutes, etc. You get the picture. So anyway, at about 1:00 a.m. we headed for the hospital and when they checked me, i was already 4 cm. So they kept me. Then it felt like the contractions were one on top of the other and super strong. Breathing techniques didn't do crap for me... it was almost a joke! And to think i still had 6 cm to go until i could push. I finally decided to go with the epidural.

WORD OF ADVICE: DO NOT GET A TATTOO IN THE MIDDLE OF YOUR BACK IF YOU THINK YOU WILL GET AN EPIDURAL FOR DELIVERY IN THE FUTURE!

The anesthesiologist said that they can't insert a needle through an area with a tattoo because it is unknown what the ink contains. So he had to go into my skin at an angle to get the tube in my spine. This made the process longer and truly agonizing. It didn't hurt, but the sensations comes close to chewing tin foil. The good part is that it seemed like it took effect right away. The doctor told me to take a nap so that i'd have energy to push later on. That was the best advise in the world. A few hours later, the nurse checked me again and i was ready to go! So the doctor broke my water and said to push when i had a contraction. In about 4-5 contractions later... out came the next little girl who will change our lives forever! Unlike Lee-lai who cried her lungs out when i delivered her, this little girl cried just a little and then stopped and looked around with a confused look on her face. Yay! I have a calm one! She was born 7 lbs. 3 oz. and was 18 1/2 inches long.

I've posted a few pictures below but HERE are all of the pictures of the little mug with her monster big sister. Lee-lai can not get enough of her little sister. She is such a natural too, and is the best helper in the world. Our family is truly blessed !

RE: Dare I Say It?

I first started off by posting a comment on Lil'Momma's site, but then found my self writing a whole freaking novel. So instead of invading on her site, i'm just gonna comment here on my blog instead (what a concept!).
Chams and I saw HP5 yesterday and all i have to say is "AWESOME MOVIE". Well, maybe that's not ALL i have to say cause otherwise that's all i would have put on Chamina's comment page.

Here are my thoughts:

RE: Dare I Say it?

I got chills thinking of the movie again. I'm always one who says "the book is better than the movie" but I have to say, this movie was pretty damn good. It stuck to the story well and i'm glad too that they left out a lot of the adolescent bullshit of bitching and crying (I remember in the book that Cho Chang cried every time after kissing Harry). And Helena Bonham Carter freaking ROCKS this roll! She took it to a level that makes people who have read the book really see how damn crazy and evil these death eaters really are! She's MAD I TELL YA, MAD! She gives you that feeling of "you don't want to turn and look behind you for fear that she might be there". Ralph Fiennes was also great at creeping me out. I think he portrayed the role of Voldermort really well too. To me, he gave off a "I'm a cool-cat who wants to take over the world" kinda attitude. And i might get banished from the Wizarding World for saying this but..... did a certain "scene" remind you of another battle between "good and evil" and the use of "light force". I'm just saying......

Fat girl status?

If you know me, you know that i love the show Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern. I remember watching the first episode and thinking "good lord, this show makes me wanna barf"... but now that i'm addicted to the show, it makes me feel like i'm missing out on the possibly best eats of my life. It could be the pregnancy though. I'm usually a person who skips the salt and pepper, avoids hot sauce, and would choose Jicama over other fruits. But since this pregnancy, aww man, "BRING ON THE HOT SAUCE", "THIS NEEDS MORE GARLIC", "I WANT MORE GINGER ON MY CHICKEN", "IS IT PICKLED? CAUSE I DON'T LIKE IT IF IT'S NOT PICKLED". My taste buds are just yearning for more flavor.
So anyway, I watched the new episode of Bizarre Foods today and i nearly drooled over the cooked iguana with curry sauce. Anything sounds good with curry sauce... even if it's iguana. Then they made fresh conch ceviche, with raw lobster salad off the beach. Then at night, they went to the streets and ate food from the vendors off the streets (and you know that always tastes good). My mom is such a kill joy though... she was saying "It's so easy to get sick or food poisoning like that". Lady, go take your Beano and relax! It's not i'm really gonna get a chance to go to Trinidad and Tobago and eat like that. I just hope that after having this baby, i'll still have this yearning for more flavorful foods cause brother... there is so much different foods i wanna try now.

My Ring!!!!

I've been really embarrassed to tell this story, but now that there's a happy ending, i'm not afraid to tell it anymore!

About a good 6 years ago, i (hold on to your knickers) lost my engagement ring. What happened was that the setting where the diamond goes was a little loose and I was going to take it in to get fixed. I should have not worn it at at all until i got it fixed, but you know.... i wanted to show it off too. So any way, we were at a party and i got to show it off to everyone with the diamond intact and everything . At the end of the party (and after about 5 cups of my friend Mike's "Magic Water") I realized that the diamond had fallen out. I tried looking, but i knew it was a lost cause. Manny wasn't mad, but gave me the look that said "you drunkard".
So, i was feeling like shit the next morning as i took the ring off and left it on my night stand. After a few weeks, Manny and I switched to the master bedroom of his house cause we needed more space. When we were all moved in, i tried looking for the ring so that we can get another diamond put into it.... but then i realized.... i didn't know where i put it when we moved rooms. We looked through everything! I was starting to think that maybe we vacuumed it when we cleaned up the previous room we were staying in. I'm such a dunce!

So now, 6 years later (yesterday), Manny was looking for something in the drawer of his night stand, and low any behold, what does he find in his basket of loose change, junk, and key chains? THE RING! It totally boggles me that he found it for sooooo many reasons.

1. We've looked through this basket before.
2. We've moved houses since i lost the ring and we didn't find it then.
3. We bought new night stands when we arranged the room at our new place. We went through the drawers of the old night stands and threw away old junk that accumulated.... and still no ring.
4. Marley plays with this basket and it's contents all the time and has never brought attention to finding a ring. She's even dumped the basket out and counted the change and put the contents back into the basket.

So now that it's found, you bet that i'm gonna have it cleaned and throw another stone in that mug. The difference now is that i'm gonna saran wrap that shit around my finger so nothing comes out or gets lost anymore. Yay!!!

My really cool printer

It pays off to have a mechanic husband! My co-worker needed an oil change for her car and as payment, she gave us this really cool photo printer! I could just stick in the memory stick and it automatically saves the pictures to your computer for you. I love it!
Leelai had her annual spring concert on June 7th and they were soooo adorable. We were able to get closer seats this time, but geez... we almost went deaf. These kids don't really "sing", they sort of "scream/sing". Still cute though.

Somehow, the girls always end up behind a kid with a big head...

And after, for doing such a good job, COOKIES!

Also, last week, Leelai and Brie started their first dance class (*sniff*). Auntie Mim-mim and i were so excited. We've pictured this day for years... probably since they were born! I have to say, Brie was a natural and danced like it was no ones business. Leelai was a little scared at first (you should have seen her face) but got the hang of it with the help of Brie holding her hand. It reminds me of how i always want to try new things, but usually don't try it unless Miriam's with me.

Names!

Okay, this is getting silly. I need a name for this kid! People are asking me "are you nervous that you're gonna have the baby soon?" but honestly, i'm more nervous about not having a name for this baby when she gets here.
So, i'm asking you lovely peeps for some help, and throw me some names. We're looking for names that start with "M".

Ready... Go!

Hogsmeade anyone?

I read on MSN today that Universal/Warner Bros. has plans to open up The Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park in Florida. The park is set to open up in 2009, and you bet your bottom dollar that i'm saving up for this trip already. I can totally picture it! Visiting The Three Broomsticks and having a big glass of butterbeer in my hand.... Yummmmmmmmm! Then i'd go to Fred and George's joke shop and buy an extendable ear so i can nosy in on conversations. I know ya'll are with me on this so keep the year 2009 open for a trip to Florida!

Almost Summer 07

I promised that i would take pictures.... and i failed. But my dad (who always has a camera on hand) took a few pictures while the De la Cruz/Maniquis familia came to visit this weekend. Here are a couple of them.

It was perfect weather for swimming! Look at Gani's face... that boy was soo Gung-Ho that he took it upon himself to jump in on his own. Thank goodness he already had his floaties on.

Here are the 2 synchronized kickers.

Lazy...

Wow! The last time i wrote in here was when there was a whole slew of peeps still on American Idol. Now the damn show is over! The only excuse i have for not keeping this up is cause i'm lazy. That's it, just lazy. I'm not even gonna claim that i was busy with the pregnancy, or Lee-lai, or work, or cleaning my poor house. Actually, now that i've typed all that... I guess i WAS busy! Summer is almost here and that's great cause there's always a series of events that happen that make me want to post up in here.
My nights are gonna be dead now cause the season finale to my favorite shows are all officially done now. If any one wishes to discuss LOST or Grey's Anatomy, i'm ready and waiting for you!
I also have a secret. A secret that i'm willing to share (if i haven't already shared with you, i'm such a big mouth) if you are deemed worthy. And by the way, the only 4 readers of this blog probably already know my secret.
Anyhoo, Bina is coming down this weekend so i'm sure i'll be back with pictures of swimming monkeys, monsters, and a whale (me).

Elvis and Celine

doesn't she look great here? I'm glad she ditched the bleach blond crew cut she use to have.

I know i'm late, but i'm not not much of an American Idol watcher. I know what's going on and i have my favorites, but it's hard for me to sit through a whole episode. So, the 2 hour special this past week started to lose me at Ben Stiller and i HAD to change the channel. My parents, on the other hand, are religious watchers. They have every episode on their DVR and watch their favorites over and over again. Just this morning, my dad showed me the performance by Celine Dion and Elvis on American Idol. My dad was so beside himself when we were watching it (and it was probably his 40 to 100th time watching it too). He has been a crazy Elvis fan since his teen years and he has the pictures to prove it. Anyway, the performance was sooo awesome! Here's the video clip of it.