TAJ OF TAGAYTAY

Late Post
01/13

My relatives from Canada came home for vacation just in time for our wedding. Our time was very limited because there were family gatherings & invitations left and right.Apart from my wedding preparations, me and fiance (now my husband) had to entertain visitors from the US who were all home for our special day.
I wanted to make their visit a memorable one but since I don't have that much time to do so, I made the most out of what I can offer them best :) I asked them to spend one night at the Cuna resthouse in Tagaytay. I felt bad I couldn't stay with them at that time because that was actually 2 days prior to my wedding date. It could've been a very great time for us to bond.

My husband & I planned to treat them for an early dinner some place in Tagaytay. While my aunts and uncles went to visit a friend in Lian, Batangas.. we went to try out this very intriguing restaurant situated at the boundary of Tagaytay & Alfonso.

This is TAJ OF TAGAYTAY. If you are coming from Tagaytay proper, you'll see it on your left before reaching Batangas exit. Oh, you'll see banners along the highway so i'm sure you won't miss it :P

The place is so perfect. It's overlooking taal lake.
An ambiance that completed our sunset dinner :) The menu is not so complicated.Price is affordable:)

All of us tried their huge shawarma, refreshing melon shake,
and my favorite .. samosa -average,I still prefer Arya's :D

I so love the interiors of the place! Very cozy!:)


1st row(l-r): karen, jp, mico
2nd row (l-r): ate chris, me,nichole

Taj of Tagaytay
Indian. Mediterranean. Asian Fusion
Tel# +63 916 936 4219, +63 927 711 4247

watched Alvin and the Chipmunks with our little boy last night while waiting for dear husband to be home from work. The movie is really funny. Me & Kyle really enjoyed watching! Yes babe, you read it right, I finished the film in one seating hehe! didn't fell asleep :D

wishlist

I'd love a warm shower with this :) mother in law gave me this grapefruit scented candle that I placed in our bathroom and I so love the smell. I usually light it when I am at the shower or when I am doing my 'before bedtime rituals'. I love the fruity smell :) this bath essentials is a perfect pair for my sweet scented candle!

for the love of food and dining out, this is really perfect :)

checked at National Bookstore it costs Php2,000...quite pricey!!!

Christmas

This post is long overdue. Nonetheless, I want to share to you my perfect holiday 2007 ...

with my family on Christmas Day! with my brothers

gift giving after noche buena
our gift to our ninong butch

with my super gwapo inaanak


festive!!! as always tita mona served the best noche buena for everyone!

A MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! :)

4 SHOWERS

One of the most exciting and fun part of getting married is this! I am so lucky to have met thoughtful friends and loving in laws who went out of their way to prepare and surprise me with these bridal showers.

1) My college friend Marielle and Naomi, a friend from highschool in Ilocos surprised me with a spa bridal shower last January 6-a Sunday. I've chosen this 2 ladies to be a part of our wedding entourage because both of them happen to play important roles in my life's journey... I feel so special, this two ladies actually are from 2 different barkadas that I have and surprisingly, the two ended up doing this together for me. That's probably in between law books & work shifts :) I love you both!

This is us after our very relaxing swedish massage.

Hmmm, another surprise gift????

Whatta!!!!!!! Its a fondant cake of a woman sitting in a pxxxs! That's me daw! accdg to Naomi hehehe! That was really funny & crazy! Especially coming from 2 o the most conservative friends that I have! hahahaha!

This is us at PASTO, Eastwood Citywalk after the surprise shower party. Thanks so much guys! You just don't know how much I appreciate all the effort and the love. I will surely have to thibk of better surprises when time comes that I have to prepare a shower for the both of you!!! :) More? click this, this, and this.

2) A shower from Jp's mom, cousins, aunts, lolas etc etc last Jan 5! love. love.love. Nobody can beat the warmth of the CunaS. I must say that I am pretty lucky to be a part of this family. Words can't express how thankful and blessed I feel. This women are the most excited for our wedding. I guess, this is one of the reasons why our wedding turned out very happy and grand. Our guests/relatives blissfully celebrated with us.

This is everyone after the very generous & special shower :)
More photos here :)

3)Girlfriends from the office where I used to work prepared a shower dinner for me at Marios Tiendesitas.... which I unintentionally almost missed. My uber busy schedule both with wedding preps n office tasks really got into me that night. Good thing, I was told earlier that day that I am not allowed to RAINCHECK :). It's good that I showed up for this was actually planned especially for me! If not, Aj would've have ended up wearing the white lingerie, Smile could've taken home the "cream" thing and Hazel could've used the frenzy hahaha!

These are the crazy friends that I met @ Traffic Power in 2005.
L( Me & Smile) R (Aj & Hazel)
More about this here.

4) I love my in-laws. For one, I get along with them so well. We enjoy doing things together-- shopping and eating to name a few hehehe. They were the very first to host a shower for me. December palang tapos na!!! Ate Ina & Nina gave me this black pair of lingerie from MNG. I love it. Simple and daring :P Kara, on the other hand, gave me a more conservative gift. a MNG razorback which I just love wearing to sleep.

This is us in Cibo, Shangri-la last December 06. More photos here.

Thanks friends and family for all of this! You made my wedding event more perfect :) More than the generous gifts, I am thankful for the presence,time & effort given. Update:) the lotions, shower gels, I started using some of them already. I love all the scents :) For the lingeries- not yet coz of this not so cooperative & not so funny monthly event. The T- backs, I am still trying to begin to love it hehehe. For the creams and c-nd-ms, its safely kept ( I don't need it yet hehe). The cake is divided into 2. We ate the cake at home and the p---s topper was fondly eaten by Ms Mabel of Cest'ca. She was the only person who had the guts to swallow it hehe! and for the shower money, it's saved for future needs!:) Thanks! Thanks! I am sincerely grateful and very happy.

i'm back

I know I haven't posted in a while. I miss blogging and I miss reading entries from friends' blogs too.

Breath...

I want to get the groove back... the girl is too excited and overwhelmed at the same time..I don't know what to blog first.

Holidays? Wedding preps? New Year? D-Day? Honeymoon? Wedding gifts? Relatives home from the US! After wedding parties? new home?! Waaahhhhhh!

Looks like I will have to work overtime for this haha! Need to go grab my coffee for now... I'll be back :)

BLOG BREAK




See you next year! =)

28 days to go! uber excited! can't wait!=)

BUSIEST...EVER

this is WANDER-ful :)

watch WANDERS at PAGCOR Grand Theater
every Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays
for tickets ,click: ticketworld

Me and my friend Aj went to watch this show last night and it was AWESOME!:)Thanks to our very good friend BUGOY for including us in the guestlist.. And by the way, he is the official drummer of this magical show. Of course we are very "bilib" and proud!
He definitely played it so well :)

This is the first year of this musical show and this is an official project of Pagcor. It may not be that perfect yet but I am very proud that our country was able to produce a musical show such as this wherein local talents played a very big part of the production. I hope this will be shown every year not only in the Philippines but around the world.

the guy on the rightmost side wearing the red emirates shirt is our friend lawrence!
he is the super galing & one and only drummer of wanders:)

Oh btw, cameras are not allowed inside so no souvenir photos of the show except for the photo shoot with the cast at the end of the show which costs Php100/shot. So I guess, one would just settle with the enchanting experience and memories.:)

*** shown in Manila until December 2007

Manila Ocean Park

Manila Ocean Park will open on DECEMBER! :)

No Reservations

Jp & I went to watch No Reservations last Friday. I personally wanted to see this film because I am fan of Catherine Zeta Jones (next to Julia Roberts hehe) ...and because there is a culinary touch in the story. I love to cook and for some really close friends, they know that I am a frustrated chef :D I initially wanted to take up culinary studies for college but my folks is not very supportive of it... and I have financial responsibilities to take care of so this dream is set aside for the meantime.

The film is very light and inspiring.Simple movie. The recipes are mouth-watering. Makes you want to go on a date in a fine dining restaurant with the man of your dreams. However, Katherine Zeta Jones' appearance in this film is not so beautiful as she is in most of her films. I am disappointed with the film shots. The "grumpy" and "sungit" character of Kate reminds of some people i've met in my life, friends and officemates... hmm, like what i've said, one should have a better outlook in life.. It helps! You can get all stressed in your life but your problems will not be solved that way. lighten up! Smile! :)

happy birthday my love :)

Impromptu celebration! :D no party planned on this day because Jp and I initially thought of just spending the day with our Kyle. Original plan was to bring the little boy at Toy Kingdom to buy his wrestler collection ...and Powerbooks for his Geronimo Stilton books...and have a simple dinner after.Last minute we changed the plan because manong ponch said they should all go with us.. The kids wanted Mcdonalds! So everyone was there to celebrate Kyle's birthday :) Everyone's happy especially our little boy!

You can view our wedding website here .
Not yet complete though... :)

HAPPY WEEKEND FRIENDS!:)

for my Jp! :)

Happy 3rd Year Anniversary Baby! I love you very very much!
Thanks for being my inspiration, strength & happiness.
This is for you ! :)

MVS

Jp and I had our Marriage Vocation Seminar for the Engaged last weekend (Oct6/7, 2007). This was one of the requirements for our wedding but I made myself clear with Jp that I wanted us to attend not because it was required but because this is something that can help us be good parents and life partners in the future. This is similar with Discovery Weekend except that we didn't have to stay overnight. We are lucky that the CTK Parish conducts this kind of program for the engaged couples. This is a very good time for the couple to asses themselves and talk further about their decision of getting married.

As for me and Jp, we enjoyed the weekend. Yes, we didn't have enough weekend rest and were both back to work today but it was really worth it. Most of the questions asked after the sessions weren't anymore new to us, since we talk about these things over dinner or desserts. This made me realize that we were really doing things the right way. There were six topics discussed during the program and of each topics, there were married couple speakers who shared their experiences. After that, we are asked to answer some questionnaires individually in which we had a "couple discussion" thereafter. The group discussion was the last procedure. We were divided into several groups and an elder facilitated the discussion. This was the fun part also because we were able to learn about the opinion of the other couples during the seminar. There were no right or wrong answers because truly marriage is a continuous process that all of us engaged couples will learn as we work on our lives together.

During the very first part of the program, we were asked to introduce ourselves and say something endearing about our partners. I became speechless when it was Jp's turn to speak. This man never fails to surprise me. He really knows how to make me fall in love with him over and over again :)

We were separately asked to prepare a "secret" letter for our partners. Us girls were instructed to personally interpret a marriage vow in a form of a letter for our fiances. On the other hand, the men were asked to write letters for their future wives. And here's what I got from my ever-loving Jp...

Three last sessions of the program were discussed during the 2nd day. We even had a game after lunch. We played this human jack n poy, girls against boys and of course, the wives won!hehe! One intimate part was when we were these small boxes where we wrote our simplest but very meaningful promises to our partners. We had to keep them back to the boxes and return to the facilitators because they will be blessed during the mass. We were only allowed to read them during the mass. The seminar ended with a mass.

The program wasn't perfect. In fact, Jp and I have the same comments like how impromptu it was,how bad the food were(hehe), how the timetable wasn't followed, and how bad the souvenir photos were taken. Nevertheless, this was a very memorable experience for us. A story that we can share to our kids someday. Topics particularly love and marriage, sexual communication,parenting and marriage as a sacrament were all very interesting, and oh! the family planning part was interesting too!haha! ;P

Hmm, I can't help but wish to be able to tell our love story someday and inspire other couples that... married life is indeed wonderful! :)

Marriage Vocation Seminar for the Engaged
Christ the King Parish Church
Greenmeadows Ave.
For inquiries, contact Ms Lily (632)633-0280

on hubby's new work

I am a bit weary today :( It is fiance's first day in Lipa, Batangas. He was assigned to a new position in their office and he will be working in their Lipa site for the next 9-12 months. It is actually his first time to leave home so I am a bit worried even if I know that he can handle himself very well. He has a free housing for the next two weeks and he will be staying at the staff house provided by his office. He called this morning and said that the house is really big and that he was by himself :( I was actually teasing him that he is scared of "mumu" but truth is I am very uncomfortable to hear about that, I just pray that he gets a restful sleep today. This is really a big sacrifice for him. I was initially unhappy about his company's offer but I know he is positive about this promotion and that he has good plans for our future family so I am just here to support him on that. We had to sit down and talk about the set-up though. This is not easy for me because I am never a fan of long distance relationships as I value both quantity and quality time so much. The maximum time that I allowed him to work far is one year and I told him to work on a transfer back to Manila and he agreed. This promotion/transfer is just his initial step for a better and more fulfilling position in their company. I trust him on that.

I hope I can go with with him next week to help him find a place or a room to rent. The adjustment is really a big sacrifice for him. I know how much he is used to his sleeping in his room, his bed and everything else inside his comfort zone. Lipa, Batangas is just a two-hour drive from Manila but I don't want him to risk driving back to Manila everyday especially he will be working graveyard. So we decided that he get a small room for himself where he can sleep during daytime and take a shower. He plans to go home Wednesdays and weekends.

I just pray that things will work out and that this is just a phase in our life that we have to go through. I don't want him far from home- this is what my heart honestly feels, but I don't want to be selfish nor I don't want to be a hindrance to his career plans neither. This is definitely not easy for us both especially that we are supposedly just about to be starting our life together. Nonetheless, I am here to support and guide him. I know God has plans for him, for us and for our future life together.

yabang pinoy bazaar

Our little boy's Math subject is getting complicated so I am trying to look for ways to make learning easier and fun for him. I'm glad I found this. This multiplication site has ways for both parents and teachers to make multiplication learning less complicated. Last night, I was considering Math Coach, a tutorial center on the 2nd floor of our building in Katipunan to further help Kyle with his Math reviews. Good thing I found this site today! This will really be helpful to both Kyle and me :)

cupcake craze

My friend Tricia ,who is currently based in Ilocos came to visit Manila last weekend. We watched Avenue Q play Sat afternoon then we went to Serendra @ The Fort for Tricia to see the place & try out Sonja's. She's been craving for it when she came across a number of blogs about these cupcake craze...

This tiny restaurant gets really packed.. the cupcakes are a bit expensive (around Php80/pc) actually but I read in one of Sonja's interviews that she uses imported French Brand ingredients and that is the reason why her cupcakes are a little pricey.. Hmmm, tasted it finally! And the verdict? good enough for a once in a while treat.:)

Months of ym messages and were finally here! :)

(7/22) with my high school friends, Tricia & Naomi outside Serendra.. :)

Must loved. Perfect for my afternoon tea. Tricia found the cupcakes too sweet but they were just perfect for my type of dessert :)

It was my first time to try Sonja's also. Too bad Jp & Kyle wasn't with me at that time :( I'm sure the boys will love the cupcakes also! I plan to go back with them soon :) This is one of the rare times that I went to try out a new restaurant or food without Jp. We go together most of the time because this is one hobby that we enjoy doing together.

Naomi & Tricia tried Chelsea for early dinner but I was a a bit unhappy about their service. Duo & Portico pa din talaga ang the best! :D Nevertheless, I am happy for this very quick but productive & memorable get together! :)

Sonja's is located at SERENDRA, Fort Global City.

for my jp :)

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You are the air I need to breathe
You are the river of life inside of me
You are the half that made me whole
You are the anchor of my soul

chorus:
You strong when I am weak
You are the words when I can't speak
You never fail to see me through
That's the love I found in you

You are my shelter from the storm
You are the road that leads me home
Baby, with you here face to face
I know I've found my place

Bridge:
Once in every life
You find the one that's right
When you say forever it's true
That's the love I found in you

save the date

The bed that we bought last week for our soon to be home will be delivered in 2 weeks. Self-confessed excited we are, Jp & I scheduled a run to the mall last Sunday to check out some sheets, beddings & comforters. We first went to Living Well - Podium to buy these pillows that I saw months back. The brand is SLEEPCARE. These are hypo-allergenic & aroma therapy pillows. We went to check out sheets & comforters. Jp & I agreed to have earth-color motif for our room. We'll play on browns, tans & beige colors. Not too masculine, not too feminine. We also agreed to use curtains instead of blinds for a more relaxing ambiance. xx
















Of course these aren't the actual pics yet :D These are just a few of our inspirations. I will post actual photos when were done fixing the room :)

One last comment : magastos pero masaya!hehe!:D