Back to Normal

Hello!  I'm back :)  Aly started school today (sniff!) and I miss her already.  Anyway, now that my little bunny's back in school, that only means two things:  #1 vacation is officially over not just for Aly, but for me as well.  Now I have to take my household chores more seriously.  I've been feeling a little guilty about feeding my family with takeout and food delivery because I was too lazy to cook in the past couple of days.  I will try my best to be a more responsible housewife.  Heehee!  In fact, the washing machine is rounding up its rinse cycle as I type.  (Pats self on the back)

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#2 I also have the computer all to myself (on weekdays at least), which means I will be a more responsible blogger from now on.  Heehee!  But more on that later.  Meanwhile, here are snippets of our month-long holiday:

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Aly's playdate with her cousin Eli.

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Coron

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Funtime with ate Gab and kuya Moe.

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Baby Eli's 10th month birthday.

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Dinner dates with my cousins.

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Movie, shopping and dinner date with my three kulits.

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Swimming date at Splendido.

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Spa date with my girlfriends.

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Discovered a new Italian place in Tagaytay with the sibs.

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Super fun weekend with the cousins in Laiya.

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More kwento and photos in the coming posts.  I have some cleaning up to do.  Oh yes, things are definitely back to normal here.  Whoopeedoo!

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Later...

Where Did the Days Go?

Hello!  I'm still here...hope you are too :)
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Aly and I are on the homestretch of our holiday.  It's funny how at the beginning, I was thinking that five weeks is a LOT of time for a vacation.  But now that we down to the last few days before we fly back to Bangkok, I'm thinking ang bilis ng mga araw!  Where did the days go?

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Our calendar which I taped on my bedroom wall.  See how almost all of the days have been crossed out already?

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Aly drew the sad face on the day we're supposed to fly back home.

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Just like everything that's good and great, our holiday is coming to an end.  Sad, yet at the same time, happy -- happy that we'll be with the hubby soon (miss him so much!) and happy too, that this holiday was really sulit with all the things that we did and have yet to do -- we still have a few days left, remember? In the coming days, we have a beach trip (yes, in spite of the storm!  This has been planned for weeks na kasi), a birthday party and a spa trip with a girlfriend.  I'm also hoping to squeeze in another shopping trip if time permits.  Heehee!
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Oh, and btw, if you noticed the sticky note on my calendar, it says: buy Splenda.  Yes, I'm going to make another attempt at South Beach Diet when I get back.  I don't really know how much I gained -- ayoko naman kasi mag-weigh kasi alam ko malulungkot lang ako when I see how much weight I've put on.  So diet na lang ulit pag-uwi.  Kasi naman dba, pag bakasyon ka, dapat pati ang diet bakasyon din.  Heehee!

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Meanwhile, I'd like to thank you, my dear readers for sticking by.  I know this blog has been quiet for sometime now and you all know why :)  I promise to post holiday kwentos ASAP!

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K. Tnx. Bye!  (This is a private joke between me and my sibs.  Heehee!  I just wanted to use it here.  Haha!)

Extreme Makeover Playhouse Edition

When mom and dad were in Bangkok, Aly would have quiet discussions with her lolo Bernie (she's really a lolo's girl).  Turns out, she was asking lolo to build her a playhouse (complete with drawing pa!) so that when she comes home to the Philippines, she will have something to play with.  We all know how lolo Bernie can't say no to his unica apo so when we arrived, we saw this:

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A playhouse made with love.  Dad used an old tv box, scraps of metal from his shop and other stuff that he had lying around the house.

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Syempre, the picky princess wasn't satisfied yet kasi hindi masyadong pink yung bahay nya so off we went to National Bookstore to buy pink cartolina and gift wrapper, to pimp up the playhouse.  Our original plan was to paint the house but it turns out, you can't buy pink paint straight off the shelves.  Special mix pa pala yun.  Plus, it will take longer for paint to dry so we opted for cartolina instead.  It's safer for kids, cheaper and doesn't require any drying time.  We used the gift wrapper as wall paper.

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Pink cartolina + white glue = pink playhouse!

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But I still wasn't happy with the plain pink so I got a black marker and drew "bricks".

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Pink cartolina + black marker = pink brick house!

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With the happy little bunny inside :)

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Aly's crib.  Heehee!  Lola Aple made the lovely curtains, by the way.  Thank you, lola! 

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I love the ribbon detail.  So girly!

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This is how the inside looks like.

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I made a "chandelier" using old art materials (leftovers from our wedding in 2007 pa!) that I found in my room.

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The wall paper.

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This detail is inspired by the Extreme Makeover Home Edition series (Aly's a big fan and she would watch several episodes in one sitting!):  a pretend window.  I created it mainly because I was running out of gift wrapper and cartolina, but it turned out to be a nice touch to the house.  I printed out a photo of the view from our apartment in BKK.  Sosyal ng playhouse dba?  May city view -- right in the middle of a garden in Tagaytay!

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Lolo Bernie really took time to create the metal framework for the house.

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Happy homeowner!

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We spent the afternoon there reading magazines.

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This is a great place to hang out!

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She loves it here!

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Getting sleepy!

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Great for siesta too!

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Thank you, lolo Bernie and lola Aple for my playhouse!  It's the best playhouse ever!  I love you both!

A Quick Update

I am sitting comfortably in my old room at my parents' house in Tagaytay as I type.  It's great to be home :)  I miss the hubby, though -- big time!  I'm counting the days when he will be flying over to join us. 

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Our welcome fruit basket and the bag of Aly's meds.

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We received our welcome fruit basket a couple of days ago, which means we are now officially residents of our new old apartment, as far as management is concerned.  It also means the grueling move is finally over.  Goodbye to endless hours of packing, unpacking, wiping, dusting, arranging and rearranging!  I have a couple of to-do's left, though, to make our new old apartment truly Casa Valdez, but it can all wait when we get back.

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With barely enough time to relax, I was busy again preparing for our trip.  It has been my ritual to do the laundry and ironing before going on a trip.  I didn't want to leave the house with hampers full of dirty clothes.  I also make sure that there's enough food for the hubby because I know that he won't have time for trips to the supermarket.  

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I also left a list of to-do's for the hubby -- you know how husbands can get when the wife is not around to do things for them or to remind them in person, right?  Heehee!

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I taped it near the computer because that's the spot where I know he won't miss it. 

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Gosh, a mother/housewife's job truly never ends!  Maybe moreso if you're OCD like me.  I was kinda adamant about leaving but letting Aly spend her summer break here in the Philippines was a great decision because mom and dad have a big yard so I can let my little bunny run free.  For this vacation, I'm going to let my Aly get down and dirty (ok, maybe not too dirty!) so she can explore the outdoors (or at least my mom's garden), interact with pets -- anything to get her away from the computer and tv!  More about that as the days go by.   

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I wasn't able to get my mani-pedi and massage too so that's on top of my to-do's but that's really not much of a problem here because mom has a manicurista and masahista who does home service -- at a fraction of BKK prices!  I can't wait! 

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Another piece of good news: Aly's fever is gone!  Yay!  Thank goodness for that.  She still has to finish her antibiotics, though.  But that's easy peasy.  The most important thing is no more fever.

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The last couple of days were ker-razy!  The entire family was exhausted but we all survived.  Most importantly, we all came out happy.  That said, I'd like to leave you with photos of the cutest little assistant ever.

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Aly decorating our ref with our magnet collection.  I'm grateful that my girl is big enough to help me with chores such as this and unpacking our wineglasses.  Small as they may seem, they were a big help to me.

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P.S now that Aly and I are on vacay, please bear with me if I don't post as often.  We'll be busy spending time with friends and family :) 

Our New Old Apartment

We're almost done with our move.  We cleared out all the other rooms except for the master bedroom and both bathrooms.  With the load of work that we were able to accomplish yesterday, I expect to finish everything today, which is good because today is really my deadline.  I want to have a few days to rest before I start packing again for our trip.  
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Moving is not easy, I tell ya!  I worked all day yesterday but there were still loads of stuff left to pack.  We were only able to speed things up when the hubby arrived from work -- he was just amazing!  He did like twice the amount of work I did all day.  Pagod pa sa trabaho yan ha.  I have a super hubby.  Hehe!

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Anyway, I don't want to bore you anymore with the moving and packing drama.  Allow me to give you a sneak peek at our new old apartment -- it's new old because it's our old apartment (the one that we had the day we landed here in BKK) that's been newly renovated.

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I love the gray walls in the living room!

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Richard's really excited about the bigger tv.  He can't wait to set-up his entertainment stuff.

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Aly's room.  We love the backlit artwork thingy.

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The little boss loves her new room!

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She loves her flat screen tv too! 

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The master bedroom.  Nothing much has changed really, except for the backlit art thingy and the carpet.

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We're getting a flat screen tv too!  Yay! 

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Can't wait to move in!

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The dining area has a smaller table with a marble top and newly upholstered chairs also in gray.

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Lookie!  A REAL oven in the kitchen!  Woohoo!!  My hardworking oven can finally get some RnR.  Haha!

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This will serve as our home office.

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And my favorite part?

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Is this!

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A full-length mirror!  Finally!  I can't wait to prettify this small space.  This part of the house is MINE!  Haha!

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Even the elevators have a new look. 

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Two things that I love about our new old apartment are #1 the new color scheme.  I love that it's gray.  If you've been reading this blog for quite awhile, you'll know that I love black and gray.  #2 the full-length mirror, obviously :)  Now I don't have to bug the hubby to buy me one.  Haha!

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Best of all, we're getting all these for free!  We're getting a new apartment, pimped up with all the trimmings, and we didn't spend a single peso -- ok, in this case baht.  Heehee!  This place is not really ours, though, because we're just renting it out.  But still!  This place will be our home for the rest of the year and I get really excited with new stuff!  Can't wait to have friends and family over :)