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.

Movie Trailer

Hey Harry Potter fans! Here is the movie trailer for Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix. If my memory serves me correctly (actually, my pregnancy has made me dingy as hell... even more so than i already am), this is the one where hormones are flying and everyone's snogging eachother. I think it's also the one where Harry acts like a whining brat. The book should have been called "Little Bitch and The Order of the Phoenix".

Anyway, i'm so excited about this movie. The way these movies are filmed get better and better. It makes the first movie look cheap.

Congrats is owed....

First off, I wanna say congrats to Mark and Christa on getting engaged. I'm soo happy for the both of you! What's next now, kids (no pressure)?

Speaking of Kids.....

Congrats to Meli and Andy!

We can't wait to meet Myla. It seems like Meli's been pregnant for almost 10 months. Oh wait, she WAS pregnant for almost 10 months! I know the wait was well worth it. She's beautiful, and she looks so round! I can't wait to smell her!

notice how i got rid of the pink... it made me feel over stimulated every time i looked at my page. I'm sure you felt the same way.

Have you seen 300?

Let me re-phrase myself. Have you seen the EYE CANDY in 300? Forget the wall of dead Persians in the background... look at Sparta's finest in leather speedo's and boots!

Question: Why the pink page?

Answer: It's a girl!!!!!!

Lights, Camera, Action! Wiggles!

This past weekend we saw The Wiggles in concert! It was soo fun even though Greg wasn't there. Before I share my pictures, i just wanna say that i've been to a lot of punk, hip-hop, and reggae concerts in the past, and this concert was one of the more rowdy ones i've been to. It was partly the kids, but mostly.... it was the adults! There were adults shoving each other, especially when it came time to give roses to Dorothy the dinosaur or a bone to Wags the dog.
Also, i want to explain that the pictures i took are not the best. In fact, they suck. But it's not my fault! I had a crazy toddler hitting me from behind and there's a 1 second delay when taking pictures with a digital camera. I used a flash, but apparently, it doesn't matter when your in a theatre.
I know it sounds like i'm bitching and moaning, but honestly..... IT WAS A GREAT CONCERT!!!! Marley liked the show but she was shy to dance, and i think all the people were overwhelming her. I have to say that i had fun and i'm a little ashamed to admit that i was even star struck. To see Murray play guitar LIVE was awesome! And it was funny cause Manny looked over at me in the middle of the performance and said "This concert was for you huh, not Lee-lai." Whatever sir, i saw him all gitty in his seat when Benny (the cheerleader dancer) came out on stage. So anyway! Here are the pictures!

Here's the view we had from our seats. It was smack in the middle!

"Toot-toot, chugga-chugga, Big Red Car.. we travel near and we travel far.."

note: if you read one of my earlier blog posts, i wanna let you know that i was right. The part when they sing "Sam is doing the driving, singing "Scooby doo wa" DID sound wrong! Sorry Sam, it wasn't the same for me.

Here is the back of Murray's head. This is what i was talking about when i said that the digital has a 1 second delay. It makes the difference between getting a shot of some one's face and getting a shot of the back of some one's head.

Here are some shots of Captain Feather Sword. I forgot to mention that the madness was so bad, that every time a character went into the audience, 2 security guards had to follow them to make sure they got around okay.

Here's a picture of them performing one of our favorite songs "Fruit Salad".

side note made on 3/14/07: I just got off the phone with Bina (she went to see The Wiggles yesterday with Gani and Lupita), and she has a totally different experience than it did. Keep a look out on her blog for her story!!!

Story to Story

I'm such in a blah-blah-blah mood. Say it fast not slow.

I love how conversations lead to a story, that lead to another story, that lead to another story... and next thing you know, you're sharing 6 stories at one time and all are links by nothing but a single word that reminded you of the next story. If you know me, then you know what i mean.

I'll abbreiveate the story(s). Terry (co-worker) and I were taking today about Grey's Anatomy and how intense the show is (especially for me as a preggo, GADS! I cried like a, well, like a preggo lady!). So anyway, we were saying that the episode is a 9-11 type disaster but in a much smaller scale. Still though, to see the people upset that they can't find their loved ones, and when they do, they're either happy that they are okay... or they're afraid cause they are in ICU.... or they're greiving cause their loved one didn't make it. There's even others that are still hanging on to hope cause their loved one is missing.
This reminded Terry of a website she use to look at called PostSecret (which is conicidently a Blogspot website also) where people anonymously mail in their secrets on a post card and the owner of the site will post it up every Sunday. It's very interesting! Anyhoo, one post she read said something like "no one knows that i made it out of 9-11 alive". Crazy!!!!

The point of my blog entry today? i'm not sure....

NEWS FLASH!

Why did i choose this sexy picture of Hermione you might ask. Because i find it strange that she would be portrayed like this for advertising when in actuality, she is one damn goofy girl. In Goblet of Fire, Hermione's buck teeth get knocked and she had Madam Pompfrey fix them. I doubt she came out looking like THIS!

I'm so excited! The release date for book 7 (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) is July 21st. I know this one is really gonna make me cry. I was a blubbering mess and the end of Book 6. Manny had to give me a hug so i would feel better. Anyway, to get the scoop, you can just click here.