Tomorrow is also One Tree Hill's 6th Season! :)

Omg, omg! Who did Lucas call??? I wanna know, I wanna know!

Who gets to be in Lucas' ever after? I wanna know sooo bad already!!!

Tomorrow It's GG Season 2! :)

I'm over excited! :) 

Skinny jeans are so not last season. :)

Wanna take a sneak peek at the coming season?

Ohh, S looks mad. Still on LQ, I see. 

And she is?

Little J doesn't look so little to me. 

Hmm... and who's the new guy? Chuck sure looks disturbed.

 Hmm.. I kinda thing they look cute together. But still Serena + Dan for me! :)

Now if it isn't the Queen B herself. I'm sure everyone's missed her. 

Yey! I Have The Twilight Saga!!! :)

This afternoon, it felt to me like Christmas came early when I received the amazon package containing THE books I've been wanting to read for quite sometime now. I've heard about these Stephenie Meyer books late last year from various peoples' blogs and their varying great reviews made me interested to read even just the first book. But I wasn't sure if I was willing to spend on the book because I'm not big with vampire stories. [I did read Interview with a Vampire in high school though]. I was waiting for someone I know to get a book and lend it to me, and I was starting to get overcome by curiosity because until recently no one really had a copy for me to read. 

Lately, the Twilight has garnered more attention than ever because of the upcoming movie to be released this November. Although I'm thinking the movie can never be as good as the book [because I'm always biased on books turned into movies], I'm still very excited nonetheless. It's not difficult to get fascinated with the characters of Bella Swan & Edward Cullen, and get caught up in their Romeo & Juliet-meets-The Vampire Chronicles love story.  

Now, I want to thank my great friend Marco for buying me these books and totally making my "bed rest" livable, at least for a few days. ;) I was so touched when I opened the package and saw all FOUR books inside the box. How sweet! Talk about good friend!! I love you, Marco!!! :) 

I love the fresh, crisp smell of new books. The Twilight Saga just looked so inviting that I couldn't wait to devour them. Actually, I already read the first book and I was immediately attached to Bella & Edward's characters and to their impossible yet touching romance. The book is unlike any vampire book I've ever read before, I don't remember being this captivated by any other vampire book. I read in a review before that Twilight "is a vampire story for people who don't like vampire stories", and it looks to me now that there's a lot of truth in that. The book is beautifully written, and the story is both compelling and intense. I love the melancholic feel I get with as the story unfolds and I look forward to getting to know more of the Cullens in the later books. that I can't wait to curl up in bed and read the next book. And the next...

Here's a preview of the movie. November seems a decade away. 

"ABOUT THREE THINGS I was absolutely positive. 

First, Edward was a vampire. 

Second, there was a part of him – and I didn’t know how dominant that part might be – that thirsted for my blood. 

And third, I was unconditionally, and irrevocably in love with him."

[Yahoo! News] Bangladeshi Boy with two heads dies

On August 26th, a Bangladeshi baby boy named Kiron, weighing 5.5 kg (12.1 lbs) was born. He died after his parents decided to take him home against doctor's advice because they could not afford to take him to a hospital in the city for proper medical attention.

According to the doctor, "It was a very unusual case. The boy had one body but two complete heads." [Yahoo! News]

Too bad they weren't able to keep the baby alive for a longer time. It would have been a great case study. If the parents could not afford the medical attention, why couldn't their government help out even just a little bit? Surely, the news reached them because the local police was called in to control the crowd of 150,000 which gathered in the clinic to look at the baby [Yahoo! News]. I am seriously wondering if both heads were responsive, like did both heads cry upon delivery, do both heads have reactions like smiling or yawning and did both heads need feeding? Poor babies. :(  

I want to watch For The First TIme

My five day stay in the hospital left me with nothing to do but watch television. Most of the time, it was about Kc Concepcion & Richard Gutierrez's film For the First Time. Initially it was a bit interesting since the movie looks good being shot in Sartorini, Greece plus they both look great together, but after awhile it got old. I got tired of all the celebrities endorsing the movie and all the guestings.

Although I have to admit that I find Kc pretty, I'm not a Kc Conception fan, nor am I a Richard Gutierrez fan. Kc is beautiful and talented and photogenic as well as telegenic above all, it's just that I see a little too much of her everywhere and I find it a bit nakakasuya.

I have to admit though, I was impressed by her weight loss. It suits her pretty well. She looked great in her Bayo ads.

For the many Cassandra fans out there, you might like to check out Kc's multiply account.

As for Richard, he's been around for quite some time and I never really found him attractive. First of all he's not my type [although I highly doubt I'm his either], second, his face is also all over the place so nakakasuya din. So I guess him and Kc are really a perfect match. I surprised myself this weekend because all of I sudden I found him oozing with hotness & sex appeal. It must be the facial hair. Turns me on, big time. ;) Hahaha. He's almost as hot as my husband.

I don't want to sound so showbiz but they are a beautiful couple. And yes, I think they are a couple and all the PDA is much more than just for show. That or they're just really big flirts. I choose the former. Check out this site for pictures and see what I mean.

I'm curious to see what all the hype is about, and the trailer looks cute, so I want to watch this movie. Okay, fine, and I like Star Cinema movies. I'm mushy, I like to be mababaw sometimes, I cried buckets and buckets while watching One More Chance. Medyo corny ako eh. :) So what?

Problem is, I'm on bed rest for another few weeks. Anyone want to lend me a DVD? or maybe I should just wait for a download at mininova.

Until then, I'll just wait and you can tell me what you think of the movie.

-----

Updated: After having watched the movie [downloaded], all I can say is: Although Santorini looks beautiful, the movie was uberrrrrr corrrrrny. Such a disappointment! The best parin ang One More Chance which is my favorite! hehehe.

Happy Birthday Achi Corinne!

My fondest memories of Achi Co was when we were younger and in our Barbie doll playing days and she super idolized Sheryl Cruz (I don't think she denies it until now). I remember that she liked to play teacher/student and she would be the teacher of course. Now all grown up, she is a true blue teacher english teacher and one that Chong Hua desperately needs. I really wish we had better english teachers during our time, so the kids are a lot luckier now to have her. 

I'd like to use this post as an opportunity to publicly thank Achi Co for being our wonderful and entertaining emcee during our wedding reception. No one else could have done a better job. :) 

My Early Christmas Wishlist

Christmas is just right around the corner, in about three days it will be a -ber month once again and everyone can start on their early christmas shopping so as not to leave anyone out of their list. I will have to write down my own list of names because I have lots of people to be thankful to this year. 

Right now I'm b.o.r.e.d. and everytime I am, my thoughts seem to be swarming with mundane and trivial matters. Like right now, I'm thinking of an early christmas wish list. But who in their right minds would even consider making a list of wants after a costly surgery?

Someone who needs a treat. 

Someone like me. :p

I am fond of downloading television series because as you know, I am quite a junkie and I don't like watching local television [yes, including local soap opera]. Save for the news when I feel like I am totally clueless about what's going on in our lovely little w@w Philippines. I also like downloading music, lots and lots of it, especially after having accidentally lost my ipod video containing years and years of my collection in various genres, which now leaves me with no choice but to save the songs to my hard drive because there's nowhere to transfer them :(. Aside from that, I love taking pictures. I'm no pro obviously, but I want to have mementos of every special and not-so-special occasion in my life. Considering all these and by inductive reasoning, you'd know that I probably would be running low on my disk space. 

Low would be an understatement. In fact, my macbook is running on 1 gb of free memory at this very moment. Which worries me tremendously, considering that September is coming up, and if you've been reading my blog you'd figure out why. 

Hence, my need for an external hard drive. 

Toshiba HDDR250E03X 250GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive

$119.99

As I mentioned, I am no pro at photography, but it is a common knowledge that I am an enthusiast. Given the  luxury of time to take photography lessons or merely just the luxury of free time to go snap away on lazy days, I am certain that my enthusiasm would turn into passion. I also know now for a fact that one is not born with the "eye", but rather it is acquired and nurtured and it will all depend on your attitude toward the craft. I've seen firsthand how several friends started out and how their pictures evolved from ordinary to absolutely breathtaking. So I know there's hope for me. ;) But in order to build a hobby on that, there is one essential thing: an entry level SLR.

Now, I have no particular preference on SLRs. The only SLR I got to fool around with is Alfonso's D40x, so I really don't know much about them. A Nikon or  a Canon? Which is better for an entry level? You tell me.

Canon Digital Rebel XSi 12MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens (Black)

<$799.95

Nikon D60 10.2MP Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G AF-S DX VR and 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED IF AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor Lens

<$849.95

Since the loss of my Ipod Vid 60 gb during the wedding preparations, I missed it sooo much :( I had a wonderful collection of songs there and often everything I ever want to listen to depending on my mood can be found there. I remember how during my pregnancy with Kaden I listened to my mini a lot and now Kaden is such a music lover. I wish I'd have one now for my coming baby. 

Apple iPod touch 16 gb

$397.18

Well, that's actually kind of steep for an ipod. So it's really just a want and not a need unlike all my previous wishes. Hehehe. I'm actually thinking that getting a 16 gb iphone would be more practical, but the rates that globe are asking for are way too much. Personally, I'd never go for it. Whatever happened to apple's twice as fast half the price? Which is why I'm willing to compromise with a:

Apple Nano Video 8 gb

$179.48

Last on my wish list is an Adobe Photoshop for Mac. However, the prices for a CS3 are ridiculous and I do not see why amateurs should spend over $200 at least for the software. Although the Adobe Elements is more affordable, it's functions seem very basic and it doesn't seem worth the purchase. Anyone can give me or tell me where I can get a bootleg version for macs? I'd be eternally grateful.

All of these items available on amazon.

Essentially, all I'm really wishing for is an SLR with nice lenses. The Nikon seems to be a better deal though, not that I'm planning on buying anytime soon. Which is obviously why it's on my wish list. Because I can only wish for them. ;) 

Thankful

After a week of being m.i.a., I'm back to blogging. I was released yesterday from the hospital after an emergency cystectomy on my one remaining ovary. The operation was performed last friday, September 22nd. 

Thanks to Daniel Miguel, my classmate who willingly brought me to the ER at 3 am in the middle of a delivery room duty at another hospital while a patient of ours was on labor (potential managed delivery case) after noticing that I was in severe back pain. "Mar, porke tiku ka ta kamina?" To our clinical instructor who was worried sick about me, "Neng, pabor sale ya tu baka aqui pa se man rupture dtuyu cyst. Hay naku." The nurse on duty for her concern. "Hay, kosa mas importante neneng? Baby or nursing? Tali lang se duty, tali lang se cases. If I were you I'd go to the ER right now." 

I want to thank all my friends & family who went out of their way to visit me in Doctors' Hospital and also those who aren't in Zamboanga City but still bothered to check up on me and send their prayers. I love you, people! :) 

To my mommy who took very good care of me with no complaints at all! Who gave in to my whims and spoiled me rotten. I actually felt like a child, not a married woman during my hospital stay. I don't know how I could have survived this one without her. I love you, mom! 

To my new mom, and my new dad [mother & father-in-law]. Who were there for me every day, and who were just as worried sick as my parents was about me & the baby. This experience made me feel that I really did gain a family because of our marriage, and a great one at that too. How wonderful. :) 

To my husband, who proved to me that boys don't cry, but real men do. :) I love you much, sweetie! Thanks for all the support, and all the love. I am SO lucky to have married you. I am so blessed to have you in my life. 

To my new official Ob-Gyne, Dra. May Gonzales, who did her very best to keep me and our little embryo safe all throughout the operation and until now. God-willing, she will be delivering our little bundle of joy into this world 8 months from now, which seems like forever and a day to me. 

To the Almighty Big Boss and the Great Decision Maker. To You be all the glory. Thank you for blessing us with more than what we deserve. Thank you for giving us the great gift of life and preserving it for us. May you always be with us as we journey through this. As my little boy says before we go to sleep every night, "I love you, Jesus!" 

Oh, and for those who are asking, yes, baby is doing well. Thank God. I need 3 wks of complete bed rest though. We are truly truly blessed. Even the doctor herself says so. There are times in my life that I would wonder what I have ever done to deserve all the blessings from Him, this is one of those times. Nonetheless, I'm thankful. We're thankful.

My Version

Here's my take on the photofunia.

It's a LOT more subtle than Art's, and a lot less obvious, I think. ;) 

Okay, fine, that was boring. Here's one more photofunia. 

Ah, now that's more like it! Don't you think? David Beckham is uber sexxxxy. This particular picture just makes me want to bend it like Beckham ;). 

I Think My Husband Is So Hot

For my bored and vain friends out there. I know there's lots of you. So, to help you channel your boredom and vanity, here's a good site and another one. 

WOW! Egyptian Woman Gives Birth To Septuplets

The picture shows Egyptian nurses tending to the 4 boys and 3 girls delivered by Caesarian Section to a 27 year old Egyptian woman, Ghazala Khamis during her eight month of pregnancy, in the mediterranean city of Alexandria, to what doctors termed a "miracle". She took fertility pills to conceive in an effort to give birth to a son since she already had three girls. The newborns weighed from 2.3 and 4 pounds, are being kept in incubators but appear to be healthy. [Yahoo! News]

I am beyond amazed. All I can say is WOW. Septuplets. Wow. What fertility pills can do! Didn't you ever wonder how couples seem to be having twins one after the other in hollywood? 

Well, there's your answer. ;)

I got an 88 on the Internet Addiction Test (IAT)

Your Score is: 88

Your Internet usage is causing significant problems in your life. You should evaluate the impact of the Internet on your life and address the problems directly caused by your Internet usage.

Uh oh, I think its about time for me to lie low on the internet, starting right now. Seriously. Although we don't know just how accurate this Internet Addiction Test is, I know that I do spend TOO MUCH of my time online. I always rationalize that it's my way of keeping communication with my husband. But even I have to admit that I spend WAY too much time doing nothing on the internet when I should be doing something with my life. Even my quality time with Kaden is getting compromised because of my excessive internet usage. HELP. I may need counseling. :p

My Vows

Most of you have probably watched our onsite AVP by the master himself, Jason Magbanua. He incorporated a portion of our vows in the short video, which made the video sweeter than it already was. I would wonder how he chose which part to include and which to exclude, sometimes I think he chose the part where our facial expressions looked the most romantic, or where there was very little funny expressions.

A friend of mine who did not attend the wedding because he was invited first for the wedding of our batchmate, Jaydrick in Davao, watched the AVP and asked me. "That's it?! That's your vow?" I told him of course not! I told him if he would have been there he would have heard the entire vows. Anyhow, our conversation got me to thinking if other people who've watched our video had the same thoughts regarding the vows.

Here is my vow:

"Art, I love you. As we exchange our vows today, I promise that I will strive to always give you the best of myself, while always accepting you the way you are. As your wife, I will always be here for you as we support each other’s goals and build on one another’s dreams. Finally, I promise to always love you, cherish you, & respect you in good times and in bad, with all I have to give and all that I am in the best way I know how -- completely and forever."

Except that, I said "always and forever" instead of "completely and forever" which is is really really really corny. Even if I have to say so myself. If you watch our video, you'd see I had a funny look in my face as I was saying the last line because I couldn't believe I was gonna say what I was about to say. But since that was the only thing I could think of then, I went ahead with the corniness of the line. I even missed the part where I was supposed to say "... in good times & in bad, with all I have to give and all that I am..." ARGH.

I wanted a long touching vow that would bring Art to tears, I wanted to use profound words and make it sound poetic as I love poetry so much. But because we were both too busy with the wedding preparations, we neglected to prepare our vows. We didn't even have our pre-wedding counseling, which bothers me until now, because we arrived in Zamboanga only a few days before our wedding, and our Pastor was out of town by the time we arrived, and he came back on the day of our wedding. I remembered about the vows an hour before the wedding, and I was panicking! Who could think straight with all the things I had to deal with that day. I could tell you about it but it would turn the blog entry into a novel. I could have easily cheated on the vows, I have sample vows from the internet but I couldn't bring myself to use other people's vows. There is even a part in Jason's video where I was trying to see if the long "usual" vows would work for me, but I decided against it. Because it wasn't me. I wanted to say something to Art that comes from me, to make it as real as it can be, something that I would say in the realms of our day to day living, and came up with that short vow.

Sometimes I think that I should have just written my vows and read them just like Art did so that I wouldn't have left anything out. But that day is done, the vows were exchanged, and we're married. So right now the best thing for me to do is to always remember my vows, especially when times get rough for us, most especially when going gets tough and tougher... To cherish and to respect, is easy to say, but both are big words. I've seen that it is very hard to do especially when things get sour into the marriage.

So, wish me luck. I'm pretty sure I'll need it. ;)

Kaden's Faces

Mischievous Face

Crying Face

Sleepy Face

Funny Face

Nerdy Smiling Face

:p Face

Serious Face

Happy Face

Nerdy Face

Surprised Nerdy Face

Amused Nerdy Face

"DUH" Nerdy Face

Pensive Nerdy Face