remembering 2010

i know this is too late (it's already february!!!) but i promised myself since the time i started this to end every year with a summary of the important events/happenings in my family. i know this would serve useful in the future... i just hope multiply still exists by then... but more importantly, am able to count all the good things God had given me and my family by doing this. :)

we started 2010 busy hunting for a place we can call our own here in makati only to decide last minute that it's not yet feasible for us budget-wise. we moved into this rented apartment march of last year and quite loved the bigger space we have.

except for the few and small trips/outings we did, nothing very significant happened in the succeeding months until august came and without a warning my father, or papa as i call him, died of cardiac arrest. this is my biggest heartbreak to date. i couldn't articulate the grief i had during those times because his passing was something we never thought of; hence, there was not even a single chance to say all the love and gratitudes we have for him. but i know he's happy now with his Creator... he should be... because my papa had always been a good husband and father and for this, we will always celebrate the life he spent with us. :)

i was already convinced that his party will be canceled since we were still mourning and my father's funeral and burial also made a dent on our savings but God heals and provides and it was 4th of october when we celebrated theo's first birthday with our families, relatives, and friends with a big party. it was my mother who told me to go on with the party since there were already major preparations made and it's also unfair for theo not to have one. lolo joe (my father's nickname) would have also wanted a party for his youngest apo as he was already excited for theo's first birthday even before he passed away.

another thing that we also thought of canceling last year is our trip to south korea but jude and i decided last-minute to push it thru since 1. he thought the trip would make me happy; and 2. rebooking the flight is as costly as the airfare we already paid last april. so off we went to seoul last november and though it was probably the most tedious and expensive trip (in our standard) we made it's also one of the best we had.

december and christmas came and we decided to spend the holiday season simply... needed to... :D but inspite of our limited resources last holiday season we still managed to enjoy the season and make some people happy. it's in 2010 that i realized that it doesn't always have to be bigtime to enjoy life and to show love. but what matters is i did something, small it may be, to seize the moment given to me. :)

thank you, 2010!

kodak moment: the day inigo wished to become a pedicab driver

i've already blogged about inigo's pretend plays here. i thought it will stop when he turned four but i was wrong as the more he's into imagining things lately and he uses different media to make them close to reality. the megabloks still remain as one of his favorite toys and it's quite amusing to see him that after watching a tv program (mostly in playhouse disney channel since it's the only channel i allowed him to watch) he'd immediately rush to their play room and play with his blocks to copy what he saw in tv.

he's also very fascinated with how some things around him operate. one time while we were driving along the streets of makati the pedicab caught his attention and as soon as we got back home the kiddo assembled his own pedicab using his own bicycle and one of our dining chairs. i was doing something upstairs when he called me and showed his own pedicab, complete with roof! hehe.

when i asked what he wished to be when he grow up, inigo quickly answered, "i want to drive a pedicab!" :D

guess what he did to connect his bicycle to the chair?

inigo used my skip rope to tie his bike to the sidecar, este, chair

 

kodak moment : inigo played hopscotch

thanks to special agent oso, inigo was introduced to hopscotch or piko. it was one sunny afternoon when out of the blue, inigo told his daddy that he wanted to try it as he saw how it's being played in playhouse disney channel. jude obliged to his wish and drew the 'course' in the parking area outside our apartment. we picked a small rock to serve as inigo's pato. it was fun watching him hopping and skipping as i never thought the game which i loved to play when i was a kid will be now played by my own. and i was happy as well that my son is interested with outdoor games like hopscotch since most of the kids now are alien to this kind of activities.

now only if he has a playmate to enjoy the game with... :(

inigo picking up his pato

 

uh-oh... missed again!

 

"only one foot inigo... don't step on your pato" - mommy

 

funny move :D

 

"go back now and get your pato" - mommy

on savings and investment

a blog dedicated to these topics is what am working on right now. only a few many know that am economics graduate and i love to discuss about opportunity costs and trade-offs.

but let me share it also here... because now i realized i have to put up my defences...

SAVINGS

yes, jude and i save a lot and in whatever form we save for the kid's college education... we save for our retirement... we save for emergencies.... we save because we have to save:

- because blessings may not always be this good. we have all heard of retrenchment or personal crisis and its the family, especially the kids who always suffer. whenever my friends comment on how savings-conscious we are this is what i always say: jude has a good job right now but we never know until when he will hold this job. it's stewardship that we practice.

- because emergencies may happen any time. unlike in his previous company, me and the little boys are no longer covered by hospital insurance (that's the trade-off...), we have health cards but only for outpatient cases. *knock on wood* in case one of us gets ill, i don't want to stress ourselves more by desperately borrowing money from our relatives and friends.

- because we want to sustain our living until we grow old. this is the reason which i brought up with jude when i told him that we save a percentage of his net pay. i know our kids love us but we love them as well, and part of that loving is giving them wings which we hope not to clip because of their responsibilities for us. soon they will also grow up and marry and the cycle continues. jude and i know very well the overwhelming duties in parenting and i want my kids to just focus and devote more of their resources to their families.

- because we also want to enjoy life... someone told me before that we save to travel and i agree with his point, "kelan pa? kapag matanda na kayo at parusa na maglakad ng isang kilometro?" so we save to pay for the airfare and the other expenses involve in a trip. in exchange for this, we're content with simple gadgets (i never held an ipod, blackberry, wii, etc.).

INVESTMENT

the hamilo coast club membership

oh yes, we're proud members of this premier, exclusive resort in nasugbu, batangas. jude is enjoying a club membership allowance from his company and he's expected to use it for club membership... and that's we did! it's not only a matter of prestige and enjoyment for us, but on top of this we're thinking that this is a good investment vehicle. we can force ourselves to save, let the club share's value go up and we sell it after some years. we're still thinking of what we can do with the proceeds if ever but using it as capitalization for a business, so i can have other option aside from going back to an office job, is a very nice idea.

you may have seen my posts in facebook about hamilo coast as we alredy like to have a little return on investment (ROI) as early as now.

real property

jude and i are on a lookout for another house and lot near makati (because prices of makati properties are really prohibitive for us). we already searched high and low for a property within our budget and i hope God will give us one.

we're leasing now our house in laguna and our plan is to keep it, not only because we love the place and the house, but because it's so hard to sell it.

we seriously considered early this year that we will move back and live in laguna but it's really not feasible. first and formost, jude has an agreeement with his big boss that his house must only be 20-minutes away from the office. so for the meantime we just really had to rent and yes, lease rate in makati is expensive, php 15k exactly for our apartment. some of our friends say it's exorbitant but when i computed to them the everyday gas and toll if ever jude will drive from laguna and back the amount will total to 11k... and yes, the pagod!

but of course we also feel that the rent money is sayang so we thought now of getting another property which will be in our name after 15 years. anyway, jude has another benefit of subsidized interest rate for any housing loan he will get thru the company. this will help us a lot in paying the monthly amortization.

***

i only wish to put into detail how we go about with our finances as i think there's a need to... but if in the process i was able to inspire you to go for your financial goals, am happy that i was of help. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

this is our blog...

but basically, this is my blog... this is my journal... my outlet... whatever i write here may give a glimpse of my life, but not the whole picture. i am a happy person and i try to be as happy as much as i can but it doesn't mean that when i only talk about tribulations and celebrations, my life is all rosy. i just don't dwell on my problems too much. i just count my blessings and sometimes gets too excited to blog about it.

my life, our married life has a lot of struggles but we only relied mostly on ourselves to win from them. we also had sleepless nights (lots of it) as i don't really like bothering other people. though i didn't talk about it, it doesn't mean that it should be downplayed. it's probably i earned the monicker 'supermom' among my peers as they how my life was.

i talk about good life but there were trade-offs and sacrifices behind it, jude knows how i master our budget and to insert something means i have to remove something. if you see us enjoying it may also mean we were depriving our family with other things.

i also had to accept that i cannot be of help to everybody. until now i feel sad that my father passed away without having a taste of all of luxuries of life. it hurts but whenever this pain is nagging me i just recall the time when he said that "he's already happy when he sees me and my family happy."

but in all these, i never complained nor had regrets because it's MY CHOICE. i chose that i leave the corporate world and take care of my kids round-the-clock... i chose that we live a simple life to give way for once-in-a-while enjoyment. we set our choices, we set our priorities.

and i am thankful until now that God made it possible as when the time that i was already crying to jude that i can no longer juggle work, house chores and taking care of inigo that time (plus the fact that just i leave him with an almost stranger, a labandera to be exact) jude was given a job with income that could also cover my lost income--just what we prayed for!

this is our life and i had nothing to explain. by next week, jude and i will celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary and we will renew our vows and look back ito the commitment we made with moral obligation of keeping each other as husband and wife, and extend this goodness to our children. i guess jude and i's accountability is only bounded within...

from thomas the tank to handy manny

i remember when i was a kid and E.T. (the movie which became a hit in early 80's was the "it" thing during those days. my mother bought me an E.T doll which i became so fond of that i forgot that i have other and better-looking dolls. it's must probably because of the movie which i have watched a lot of times which made me love it for some time.

now that am a mother myself i also try to spoil my kids  a little by buying them some items of their favorite characters. i also get amuse at how kids, particularly my eldest kid, change his loyalty as he grows up and gets exposed to more fictional or cartoon characters.

it was only last year that he was soooo into thomas the tank. aside from toy shops, we also frequent the characters section in landmark or SM for other thomas the tank merchandises.

trying out the thomas the tank pajama set and cap which he got as gifts last christmas

but obviiously, it's not only inigo who's fond of this character. on the day that i was discharged from the hospital where i gave birth to theo, a lady approached jude in the lobby while i was in the restroom. the lady is the mom of the kid who we earlier saw and we thought shares the same age with inigo. we found it funny that the kiddo also has the same thomas the tank backpack, cap and watch which inigo was wearing that time, both of them are holding thomas the tank toy train engine too. :)

but what's more funny is the other boy's name is also inigo! hehehe. it's the reason why the mommy approached jude, to ask if our kid's name is indeed "inigo" as he heard us calling our son's name in the lobby.

after thomas, inigo became fond of lightning mcqueen (from the movie cars) though their love story is only short-lived. :) it's only this year that i allowed him to watch the dvd of cars that's why he's quite a 'late-bloomer' on this character.

it's buzz lightyear (from toy story movies) which he has a strong bonding that he brings his toy (the buzz lightyear action figure we gifted to him thru santa) wherever we go. it's like woody for andy, and the only thing lacking is his name imprinted on one of the soles of buzz's shoes. uhm, he actually planned to do it... ;)

aside from buzz lightyear, inigo's other crazes right now are special agent oso and handy manny. he likes the adventures and gadgets oso are having while he likes the job and tools of manny... he even imagined himself as manny when i bought him his own set of tools and put them in his own tool box. his daddy fed his imagination more when he asked the tot to wear his helmet and safety glasses - inigo was thrilled!!!

he didn't remove these even after we jogged that day in the fort and strolled in piazza venezzia afterwards. inigo was obviously tickled pink whenever people are looking at him while we were having dinner and i tell him that they think he;s handy manny... abot tenga ngiti! hihi.

inigo unmindful of the inconvenience of wearing his daddy's helmet while walking :P

"us" time

i am happy that jude and i are now going out regularly as a couple ONLY; no preschooler to chase and no infant to carry. we do this two times a month as my 20-year old cousin stays with us every other sunday to get her allowance for school. i always seize this opportunity since we really don't like leaving the kids with our househelp especially at nigh, there must always be a relative around.

we're usually away for two to three hours and  must be back before midnight as experience taught us that theo wakes up around this time and cries incessantly when am not around, making me only guilty over our pleasure date, which should not be the case since jude and i really need a break from them. we don't go far anyway. our rule is our 'dating ground' should only be 15 mins. away from home and this only allows us to watch a movie in the nearest mall along pasong tamo or chill out in a bar which is actually many near our house.

the last date or gimmick we had was two sundays ago and jude brought me to a grill and bar along jupiter st. which is only 5 mins away from our house, if traffic is light and flowing. and should i say that we had a great time! too bad that am strill restricted from drinking booze or liquors (as if i was a tomadera before. hehehe) because i still nurse theo.

this only made me miss my pre-wedding days when jude and i didn't care at all for babies and breastmilk. we enjoyed pretty much our single days since the mountaineering group we belong in is very active in gimmicks and drinking sprees... 'di ba jah and mareng lui? hehehe.