Mabuhay ang Bagong Kasal: Brad and Donna

Heaven made a way to make them happy again. Brad lost his wife in 2017 and in the same year Donna lost her husband as well. They eventually met, became very good friends and then fell in love. We were overjoyed to see how their relationship progress and saw how much they loved each other. It was a match made in heaven. 

Donna and Brad tied the knot in a beautiful ceremony last February 8 at the Palmera Garden Hotel in General Santos City. 

Congratulations and best wishes Brad and Donna! May you have many blissful and happy years together! <3

547 Clicks (Days)

Yesterday, Sweetie and I celebrated our one year and a half anniversary. It's just amazing how Sweetie manages to remember important dates (more than me!)! We didn't make any grand plans to celebrate and just heard mass and ate lunch at my Mom's. We spent the rest of the afternoon at home doing chores! Haha.

We've been through a lot in the past 547 days. After getting over our frequent household chore mishaps we got busy with Miguel's college application and exams, moved to a new home, went through graduation ball and graduation and then prepared Miguel for college.

And here are ten things I learned in the past 547 days:

1. Chores are bottomless. Instead of hating it you just have to embrace it and find joy in doing it. I've found joy in letting our laundry bin roll down the stairs and I have discovered the secret to distributing laundry load is in how you sort them.

2. Things can get pretty routine and you just have to spice things up every once in awhile. We try to head out of town every once in awhile when time and budget permits. (Buying stuff on group buying sites helps!).

3. Delegate responsibilities. I'm glad that Sweetie and I filled-out the "100 Questions" book before we got married because we got the chance to discuss important matters like finances, household chores etc. The book got wiped out during Typhoon Ondoy, good thing we spent time discussing several chapters every week before we tied the knot.

4. It helps to draw up a budget sheet. This is where we put in all our bills and monthly obligations. Being transparent with your finances is important.

5. Be frugal and just spend as needed. Inasmuch as I'd love to travel every so often our budget sheet keeps me on ground. Unlike before we just go out now at least once on weekends so we can save.

6. Don't let your expectations rule your marriage. Leave that baggage even before you walk down the aisle because if you don't you'll just set yourself up for disappointment. It is always better to give than to receive. Wow-ing your spouse with little surprises every so often keeps the fire burning.

7. Write love letters or love notes. Sweetie does this for me every day (except weekends) because all of his love letters perished during Typhoon Ondoy. He also files it for me! And surprised me once by putting those notes in an album.

8. One of you will get sick every so often. Be supportive by being attentive to his/her needs. I'm glad that Sweetie runs to my side whenever I SMS him about an ailment. Miguel's also been great at taking care of me when I'm sick because he can already cook!

9. Sweetie has been travelling often too, so we try to space our travels so we can be together. I've been grounded for the rest of the month because I traveled a lot in May haha.

10.  Don't forget the good night kiss! And always have fun!

Ten Months!

We're celebrating our tenth monthsary today! Okay, before you get any ideas, we don't really celebrate our monthsary but we usually greet each other (when we remember!), but this month is different since we just moved to a new home.

We've been crazy busy the past ten months and here's some of the fun stuff:

January - this was the month a wanna-be domestic goddess was born. We tried to survive on left-overs and fast-food, but we longed for home-cooked meals. We thought we'd burn down the house with our first cooking attempt. The smokin' stove though was overshadowed by our rocker-washing-machine. We took some time off though by going to Singapore for our honeymoon.

February - our second month was a barrel of laughs when I our sink started spewing out smoke. This was the month that I took my ambition to be a domestic goddess into the next level. Conquered the stove and washing machine!

March - we finally got our groove at home and took our first out of town trip with Miguel and friends. Things were going on smoothly and we had a gardening 101 session with Mom. This was the month that our septic tank gave us nightmares.

April - the summer heat was so bad we dreaded our Meralco bill. With the septic tank problem solved we managed to have some summer fun by attending events here and there. We were plagued though with ants! They were everywhere and attacked our gadgets. Thank God for ant chalk, they soon dreaded setting foot in our house.

May - this is the month we had our first family vacation. Went to Cebu and Bohol. We got so busy that month we weren't able to make any blog posts. This was the month that SM Supermarket included me as one of their 25 Food Council members.

June - the start of school proved to be difficult since Miguel got sick. We were relieved though that the multiple sickness that plagued him was resolved with meds. Our sixth month though was no less happy.

July - this was the month I started to get pats on my back for learning domestic chores really fast -- especially cooking and doing the laundry. I also learned to cook more dishes with the help of the internet and online cooking mentors. We were also quite busy working on Miguel's college entrance applications. Jay also started working for an embassy and so I had to get used to being home alone all day.

August - during this month we started to discuss moving to a new home. It was reinforced by the fact that our neighbors weren't friendly and the bathroom started bubbling up waste again. We began house hunting. Miguel also took his UPCAT and Mapua entrance exam.

September - there's just something about that sink. I was found unconscious by Miguel when he got home. Our all-around helper, Mang Jose, sprayed a little insecticide under the sink because we suspected it to be infested with termites. It took three days before we could eat at the dining table again. We almost bought a house, but eventually decided to move closer to my parents.

October - moved! We love our new home and hope to build more happy memories here sans house problems. Our wedding feature on Kasal.com is also now available!

How time flies! We've had a lot of fun and have learned a lot of stuff in the past ten months we've been together. Hopefully with our new groove in our new home we'd be able to do other stuff and be of service in our community.

Woohoo!

We Have Tied the Knot!

After so many months of preparation and the perfect proposal Jay and I tied the knot last December 26, 2009, at Mary the Queen Parish. A simple and fun reception followed at the North Greenhills Clubhouse.

We planned this blog months ago and was supposed to launch it last Saturday but we, uh, got busy. Hey, we're newlyweds so we're doing what newlyweds are supposed to do! We hope that we'll be able to chronicle how we're setting everything up so we can help other newlyweds and engaged couples too.

Here's our fabulous wedding video done by famous wedding videographer, Buddy Gancenia.