My 2011 in review: Places and faces

Looking back @ early 2011, I prayed for major changes -- in career, in relationships, or about life in general. I also asked Him to take me to places where I can discover things about myself more.

Thanks to my friends who have reminded that blessings come in different forms, and one of which is TRAVEL.

This year, I went to at least 4 local and 1 international destination. I have been blessed with the great company of family and friends to celebrate the beauty of friendship, life, love and the beauty of God's creations.

1. Marlie's Boracay wedding - I could not even remember when my college barkada and I last got together. Sweet thing was that we were reunited to celebrate the love Marlie and Mark has for each other.

2. My cousin Aimee's El Nido wedding - it is always refreshing to be reunited with Dad's brother and his family. This time to celebrate the wedding of Aimee and her long time beau Elliot. My cousins also brought their respective partners and it's so nice to see them all grown up and doing great in the medical field.

3. Bohol with Mom & Daryl - one of the first travels Mom & I did in a long time

4.  CamSur - I was here to attend the Singles for Christ International Conference.  Again, we stood as witnesses to God's awesome power by gathering more than 6,000 single men and women to hear his messages and singe praises to Him.  I was here for a good 3 days, no side trip included as I had to work (bummer).

5.  Bangkok, Thailand - my first international trip in a loooooong time.  It's pretty much like Manila (but their traffic is worse).  Thanks to our gracious host for taking us in, for allowing us to finish the food in his fridge (yummy papaya!) and of course our adorable driver who made our stay even more memorable albeit the language barrier :p

This year, I don't know where my feet would take me.  I hope to be given the resources the see the world in a whole new perspective.  That said, paano na lang ako makakapag-ipon ng maayos? :p

Positivity

To start my great blogging year off, how about injecting some positivity in all of us.

Now whenever I am on my way to work, I'll always remember this ad. I will not be a WHINER, instead be thankful for what we have and strive to be always always always better at what I do :)

Thanks, Ahyen, for sharing the link.


Hmmm... I've always thought McDonald's serves the best breakfast :)

2012

Happy new year everyone!

Contrary to what the freaks believe in, for me, it's not the end of the world.

I believe this is gonna be a great year. Great meaning this is gonna be a great year to travel, discover new things, do more daring things, and a whole lot more!

In a separate blog, I will be sharing with you what happened to me in 2011.

And, yeah, this is a great year to BLOG! :)

i miss you

i miss blogging. hope i can muster enough courage, thought and coherence to put up a story to post. but i will definitely see you soon.

happy holidays

sorry i've been in hiatus these past few months. so many things happened and whenever i think about blogging, i feel so tamad to type away.

i've been busy with the iPray CLP (trying hard to be a responsible facilitator, it's no work in the park), finalizing requirements for my new job (yey! answered prayer!), intimacy weekend mission, playing shrink to mommy who terrible misses daddy, christmas parties almost every night, and the list goes on.

also, i've been doing a lot of retrospection lately on how i spent 2009 & how it's treated me.

it's been a combination of highs and low blows for me.

when daddy earl asked us to rate our 2008 during our last household last december '08, i gave it a perfect 10. there were both good positive and negative sides to it. i came out of it stronger and hopefully wiser. what i remembered about it though was that i promised myself to "open my heart" in the coming year. i knew God was cooking up something grand for me for 2009.

first up, i had a brand new relationship. it's one of those romantic relationships i didn't search far and wide for. but God thought i was ready for it and maybe this is the one He'd want me to have. for long term? i don't know yet.

i was also able to attend the sfc international conference in cebu. it was one life-changing experience. imagine a pack of over 7,000 delegates from all over the country (even worldwide) who gathered to celebrate the True Icon. i'm looking forward to more powerful sharings though. and this 2010, we're conquering davao! woohoo!

in september, i was able to serve in the iPray CLP. inspite of my personal struggles coz of dad's condition, i was adamant to serve. i've always looked forward to spending my friday nights at the makati stock exchange penthouse to listen to powerful talks and moving sharings and exchange sharings with my group. i was able to meet new wonderful people and the bond with old friends became stronger. what made it even more special was the fact that jen & ahyen also stepped up. service was doubly exciting because i was doing it with them. it entails hard work and a heart of a servant to do the job right, but i know that we will be good household leaders because we learned from the best. go MaVErick!

last november, i signed up with the philippine national bank as their new product manager come january 2010. it's a job i've been wanting to have for the longest time. admittedly though, i'm anxious about the new job. it's something new for me, but i am open to anything, bitchy boss and all. and, yes, it's an answered prayer.

on the other side of the spectrum, what highlighted my year was the demise of the number 1 man in my life, my daddy. dad succumbed to heart failure that he's been battling for the past 3 years. i remember how his health dropped tremendously from the onset of his illness until the last few moments of his life. it was hard for me to see him get weaker by the day. i will always remember the bright smile he would paint his lips with everytime i kiss him goodbye in the morning. i missed him on my birthday (he went 5 days before my birthday), and now i'm aching for him this christmas. i will probably ache for him more as the years pass, but for now, i take comfort in the fact that he's at peace now in heaven. pain-free.

3 weeks after dad's passing, it was my favorite tito who passed away. yes, another death in the family. what broke my heart was when i saw mom break down the way she did that day. he was there for mom the moment dad passed on. little did we know that he'd go a few weeks after as well. it was doubly hard for us.

inspite of my losses, there have been people in my life that made me realize that i was never alone. i received a million and one hugs, comforting words and prayers from family and friends. they're mainly the reason why i was able to keep my head up the water.

i am looking forward to the year ahead. i know it will be a better year for me. my fervent prayer, however, is that God grant mommy impeccable health as i want her to live long enough to cry with me tears of joy as she gives my hand in marriage and stay strong enough to play with her grandkids.

happy christmas, everyone! let us not forget the real reason & meaning behind the holiday season, and totoong "star ng pasko."

just where did september go?

okay okay, it's not been that long since my last entry. it was only in august, yet soooo many things transpired in a month. when i turned my office calendar to "september," i even remember writing "and the countdown begins" on september 1. i was excited for my favorite month & my birthday. but things were more, er, on a sad note, but i've managed to dust it all off. here i am, still standing, stronger than ever!

after my dad's death, the typhoon ondoy & tito vic's untimely demise, i still believe that i am blessed.

faith is all i have.

mission: accomplished

This was the email I sent to my household after I came from Marinduque.

Hi CSI!

It's Monday, I came in late in the office (about 1 hr late), I only had 5 hours of sleep (compared to my usual 8), but I retired & woke up with a big smile on my lips/heart. Wanna share you lang my story on the trip before I totally forget about it. Matagal pa naman yung next hh natin. =)

We left Manila Friday night. Supposedly, we're about to take the 8PM trip to Lucena. Rain poured like crazy around 6PM but we're praying hard to make it to the bus station on time. Unfortunately, the bus couldn't accommodate the 16-man team so we had to take the next trip at 8:30PM.

We were all so anxious to get to Lucena port and hop in the RORO row your boat to get to Marinduque, not knowing how long it'll take us to our destination. Most of us tried to catch some sleep, but Ahyen & I failed to do so. For some strange reason, excited kami. We docked to the port at 4AM, super hyper at full of energy pa rin! We waited for the shuttle to take us to this wonderful resort (til now di ko alam ang pangalan) na pagmamay-ari daw ng congresswoman na super hush hush lang.

The girls, Martha, MK, Corinne, Princess, Jao, Tetet, Rachelle, Tin Kareem, Ahyen & I shared one room. While the boys, Chief Erick, Irvin, BenJohn, Paolo, JR shared the other. Super "extra challenge" samin ang pagligo that morning because we're 10 to take turns in using the bathroom na sobrang liit and kakaiba ang setup nung bathroom so mejo weird sya sa paningin ko.

Call time ng 10:30 AM (so no decent sleep for us), some generous soul (I think this was Erick's college friend who's running for public office) prepared sumptuous brunch for the group. Take note, the Marinduquenos prepare a different kind of kare-kare made out of grilled pork and pork blood. Kakatuwa si Corinne coz she was all grossed out by the idea that it's made of pork blood, but too late for her coz she already ate some. And the way she pronounced Imelda Papin (the former wife ba of one of the local govt officials) was "Poppins," just like "Mary Poppins." This gave Ahyen & I a hearty laugh while riding the trike (tama ba spelling?).

Anyway, the topics were all so heavy and very appropriate for the crowd. It's about intimacy, and when we broke into groups, I was stunned by how these young girls experience things they do. Akala ko sa mga liberated na Manilenas lang nangyayari, pero sa province din pala prevalent ang mga ganung cases.

I honor, however, the sharers, the brave ones (walang sinabi si Jodie Foster sa movie nya), for owning up to their bittersweet stories. I have new-found respect for these people. What's good about this experience though is that it liberated us from the scars that have deterred us from moving on or even relate to others effectively for a long time. Sobrang bow ako sa service team natin (and syempre in awe din ang Marinduque SFCs for that). What's good about that though is that everyone was ballsy enough to say "enough is enough" and that we're all hopeful that God will lead us the way in fulfilling our personal mission -- that is to live up the way He designed us to be. Everyone surely learned from one another. Love and tears were overflowing in that 2-day session. Syempre nagsama ang "cryola" ladies (kulang lang si Ms. Conde, whom we missed terribly) who just hugged and cried all Saturday.

Any SFC Makati endeavor will never be complete sans the presence of Tatay Rico. Praise God for that! Praise and worship made me cry all over again (shucks, lagi ako pinapaiyak ni Rico. haha!).

God spoke to me through nature the entire time. The venue was facing the beautiful sea, I was thrown and yet again mesmerized at how wonderful God's creations are. When we're doing our opening worship, I was just facing the sea and I swear I even saw dolphins! Just how great was that?

Kahit lahat groggy from lack of sleep (and lack of food), we really didn't care. Basta alam namin we're all enjoying the experience and that we were called there to do a mission and that's all we cared about. Was telling Ahyen that I have never smiled that sincerely for quite a long time. Sobrang nakakataba pa ng puso yung ginawa nilang "putong" ceremony. They gave us flowers, put "putong" on our heads, showered us with coins & candies, & even danced with us. We were all Kings & Queens for that day. Everyone was just so happy and full of love. Ang sarap ng feeling na they appreciated our presence & contribution in their community.

Dare I say, MISSION: ACCOMPLISHED!

Sana makasama kayo next time. Ibang klase!

Will post pics in FB next time. Dami namin photographers, er, papa-paparazzi pala nung mission trip. =)

Big hug to everyone!









Until we meet again, Marinduque!