With lots of graces and excitement, year 2017 has been a journey of unforgettable memories. I have made big decisions, created new relationships, met new people, formed a new family, learned a lot of new things and most importantly received the greatest blessings I ever had, my very precious baby. Listing everything would be possible but the gratitude we have from these experiences cannot be measured by words. These memories will be forever treasured and the lessons that I learned on each will serve as my stepping stones to grow and mature and take on new challenges that will for sure be a very rewarding journey of my life.  Here is my 2017 story book:

BIG DECISIONS

Early January of 2017- settled into a true relationship and made a big decision in my life to get married. Decided to leave my family in my home country to migrate with my fiance in the U.S. Then I arrived in U.S the very first time and met my new family. It’s indeed a life changer, one big life turning point for me stepping in another milestone of life. I’m a Filipina and living abroad for the fist time was not easy because I had to adapt to several changes that I’m was not used to from a total environment change to certain practice changes. It is really true that great things come from the big things that we make, just sometimes you have to risk it all to see the possibilities to know what awaits ahead of you.

MARRIAGE

Started life with my partner as husband and wife. Yes it happened last year, 2 months after my U.S arrival, We had a simple civil marriage but was a very special event that we both experienced. Since that day my husband and I faced the beginning of a blended family life and thrive for a lifetime commitment.

PREGNANCY

This was a truly unique experience especially going through the roller coaster of emotions and all the discomfort that pregnancy brought to me as a first time mommy. During this time of my life I realized my worth of being a woman and realized how my Mama loved me so much that she too endured all the consequences of being pregnant with me before.

HOLIDAY SEASON

First time to celebrate America’s special holidays like 4th of July and thanksgiving. We have it simple but very remarkable, small family gathering full of fun and laughter and lots of food! For every occasion, nothing could replace the joy that our family brings and nothing is much more special than the memories we made together.

TRAVELS

First time visits to several places in California; have witnessed the beauty of California in different spots, enjoyed a lot of outdoor activities and a long fun joy ride while traveling with the whole family.  Traveling is our escape from our daily routine, breathing fresh air and taking time to relax and enjoy the company of each other , we wish to go to numerous places this new year with our little one too and we hope to make it a reality.

BLOGGING

Started blogging in the middle of the year and it was not as easy as I thought. It was a challenge to figured out how to set up a blog and establish our own website. It was a struggle to gain traffic in the first months but little by little we gained experiences and insights that helped us learn how to manage our blog properly and productively.

How about you? How was your year 2017? I would love to hear it. Feel free to let me know below. Thanks for reading and I wish joy, health and success in this new year!

A Milestone of New Beginning

Marriage is the base ground or the strong foundation of our commitment to the love that would last a lifetime even in the most challenging times of life.  We are now moving ahead with our lives as one body and soul in the journey to forever.

I am an Asian and my husband is a Latino, 2 different people of different race, different culture, different principles and beliefs and a total different well being. We have met as strangers in a social network back in 2009, built a constant communication from 2015 and through this we have known each other well. We offered each other friendship but the continuous  talks and sharing of everything became a special connection between me and him that eventually resulted to that special feeling of love that we never really expected. Even us didn’t believe with this kind of relationship before but as it happened to us, I could say now that it’s true. Love has no boundaries, its a magical thing that can happen even to the most unexpected way, it was real and it did really happen as the reality of the beginning of our love story. From then we made sure to introduce each other to our families even only through tools or by  technological means of communication. Despite the doubts and questions that they have, we were blessed to have their happiness for both of us and their approval to our relationship.

As we knew the sea of life has lots of waves, the challenges and trials are inevitable and through this we tests ourselves how strong we are as a human being. We, at the same time realized how strong is our relationship to the people who truly love and care about us. This is how we build the foundation of our relationship to each of our loved ones especially to our partners in life.

We were in the delight of love when life strikes its strongest storm to one of us. My father got a motorcycle accident and after a day he passed away, it was the hardest struggle I’ve been through and with the pain and grief, sorrow had drowned me. At first I thought I would reach my weakest point but I stood firm because of the unconditional support and love of my partner/boyfriend. He slowly lifted my spirit from sorrow and despair of loss, he had offered me the unconditional support I really needed in those darkest times of my life. Love has been so powerful that even though he was in the farthest place away from me and with the difference of time, it never became a hindrance to communicate and be with each other in those times of suffering and hardship.As I try to accept the process of healing, he became one of my inspiration and motivation to move ahead with life and see another light of new beginning. He had came to visit me in my country, had talked to my entire clan of family and brought me to some places I could unwind to freed myself from all the thoughts of the painful past I’ve been through.

From our trips, we have shared our own special moments together in which we have known each other’s character and stories of identity. Our love for each other had developed into maturity and more serious state until finally we have decided to settle down into a decision of getting married. By that time my fiance had to go back to his country to let his family know and I’ve done the same, I have talked to my mom and brothers about it as well. As normal reactions of concerned parents, the acceptance was not easy. Due to the fact that we just met on the web and we came from a total different race and culture, doubts and hesitations from our families cannot be denied.

The decision of getting married means the acceptance of the whole family from our both sides, despite all the risks and in whatever situation of life we are in. It was a tough decision to make considering that those risks might result to a total success or total failure. Concerns about the possibilities of “what if’s” and “if only” were a risky truth to take and a courageous matter to be conquered. Doubts and hesitations from our families have been addressed well and known to us for the assurance of understanding all the consequences of our decision and the risk we would want to take. But our love had overruled everything, it was brave, courageous and strong, it had been our assurance against the uncertainties, our only reason to believe to the success of our relationship. 23rd of March 2017- Wedding day. Simple but very joyous day to celebrate when our relationship was finally in the legality of lifetime commitment. Being young and married is quite a blessing and a blissful start for both of us. As a couple who started from a very distant commitment, it was a true joy to be in each other’s arms after the sacrifice of being apart for a year. Having been in a long distance relationship is quite a long journey of communication, the only way to build the force of our relationship into reality and to see the truth behind the distance that sets us apart. When I say communication, it was not just through words but the feeling of being fully related with your special someone. As if he was always present beside you consciously listening with his whole being, all his concerns and care. Individually, we have our own separate stories of storms in life but through the power of connection that we have created in our commitment, each of us became the strength of each other.19th of September 2017– We are now happily married and with the love and grace of God, we are blessed to have our most precious little girl. Stepping up to the milestone of family life, a new beginning with full of hopes and prayers to a love that would last a lifetime.

By the kitchen window stands a cylinder shaped speaker, we have had it since 2014. I have to be honest this speaker has been so useful to all of us, I can’t imagine living a whole day without it. I mean that is possible and I’m probably exaggerating but it is one thing that we use daily, it is fun, helpful and entertaining. It is the Amazon Echo but we have changed our wake word to Alexa.

When we got it and placed it on our table, we were skeptical, to us it was just too good to be true. At first we treated it like a toy, we asked Alexa all sorts of question, some she answered and others she just wasn’t yet programed to. As time went by we stopped asking silly questions and we found ourselves asking for time, asked her to set the timer while we were cooking, asked her to play music, asked her to find our phones or we would ask her to quiz the kids and so on. Alexa has so many useful skills that you just have to enable through your app and also she updates automatically so that is never a hassle.

We have Alexa in the kitchen because that is where we gather and that is where she most comes in handy. All you have to do is say “Alexa play music” she will instantly play music from Amazon Prime Music. I personally love asking Alexa to play my favorite song while I’m working around the house, while I’m cooking or reading a book in the living room. The speaker is great because I could listen to Alexa in other rooms in the house, I can even ask her questions too from a long distance if there isn’t any noise on the background.

I have used Alexa countless of times to find my Iphone, I have a terrible memory that is why I had to enable that skill. “Alexa ask lost things to find my Iphone” My phone then vibrates and rings at full volume. It is always a relief to find my phone lying unforgotten either in my bag or under the couch. I do not use my phone that often so I tend to lose it a lot but I am grateful that Alexa is there to save the day. Another thing that I ask Alexa is to remind me to do something. “Alexa remind me to take my lunch to work tomorrow in the morning” I tell her the exact time in the morning that I want her to remind me and she does what she is told to do.

When I’m in the mood I ask Alexa “What’s up” she tells me the weather, time, date and the latest news. I ask Alexa to tell me a joke which most of the time doesn’t crack me up but I do it anyway just for the hell of it. Or I’ll ask Alexa to inspire me to which she’ll read me a famous inspirational quote, it works if she chooses the right quote if not then I ask for another one.

Alexa is a wireless smart speaker that has so many skills, although we don’t use all of them except the ones that we think can be useful. Alexa can do so many simple things and I think a tinge of help around sometimes is never a bad thing.We’ve had this speaker for 3 years now and it still functions as the first day that we got it because we never get to touch it, move it or unplug it. All we do is use our voice to to ask it to do something and that is it.

What do you think? Do you have an Amazon Alexa and what are some of your favorite skills?

At dawn, the sun rose and I heard a knock on my bedroom door. It was mom reminding me that it was time to wake up and get dressed for work. It was my first day going to work with dad after a long time. I knew it was going to be challenging since I knew little next to nothing about painting. Yes, dad is a house painter and just now and then he takes us to work with him. This usually means having to wake up really early in the morning and stop by at Starbucks to grab a drink and a bite to eat before embarking off to the start of a working day.

Dad owns a van where all his painting tools and materials are well kept and he has EVERY material possible to get a job done: rollers that vary in sizes, paint brushes that vary in size as well, paint sprayer machines, paint drop cloth and a bunch of tapes that also come in different colors and a lot of other things that I get to familiarize myself with by the end of the day.

When we got to the customers house I was left with awe when I looked at how big and beautiful the house was and I had no doubt that the inside would look stunning too. The house was vacant and as we walked inside we could hear our footsteps echo. This is why I like coming to work with dad because I get a glimpse of this wonderful place and most of all I get to marvel at dad as he brings it back to life. It could be easily intimidating, the amount of work that needed to be done considering the size of the house but dad looked determined to get to it for that is what he had promised his customer.

I have learned that a painter’s job is never easy because there is a lot of preparation that needs to be done before he can start rolling the the walls or spraying the ceiling. Fixtures get covered or mounted down so that paint is not splattered on them, the outlet covers are removed and the plugs are covered with tape so that it doesn’t get painted and damaged when the painter starts rolling the walls and the floor gets covered too for the same reason. I get to help with some of the minor preparations with dad’s instructions, I handle everything with care and cautious. Depending on how big the project is the preparation could take some time. Dad is very meticulous when it comes to his job, he is so dedicated because he loves to leave his customers happy after he is done with the job. He prioritizes that and that’s not hard to tell. With each passing hours we make progress, dad goes back and forth, room to room filling holes, applying caulk where it is needed and climbing ladders to get to the ceiling before we can move on with the colors.

The owners were particularly careful selecting the colors for their new house. It is easy to go wrong when it comes to choosing colors that is why dad always advices his customers to take their time customizing the colors to their liking. By the time we got to the house the owners had already sent us a list of paint colors that they had chosen and dad had them all ready. So right after all the preparation are done dad goes through the listing of colors and labels the lid of the paint cans and places them to the designated room. For instance, he leaves the can of paint in the bedroom that contains the color that that room will be painted with and he repeats that same step for all the other rooms. I work on a specific task that dad gives me which most of the time is a simple one and after I am done with it I let him know so that he can inspect it. He tells me when I do something wrong ant teaches me the right way to do it.

Once everything is set to go dad gets all his painting materials ready, this is the part where I usually get to do nothing except pass him his tools, bring them to him when he is up the ladder where he cannot reach it. Dad paints a room, two rooms and he makes it look easy with every paint brush stroke. He can cut perfect lines where a color meets the white ceiling. He does this with focus and seriousness as if his life depended on it and that is how he does everything that he cares about.

Dad is the boss, he will leave a job site at the end of the day only when he is satisfied with what he has achieved and the progress he has made. But before we can leave the house we clean, sweep the floor and gather up all of the tools because he likes it all neat and ready for the next day. He does not like a house in a messy state, he does not like to see all the trash piled up.  Dad closes the door and locks it, we get in the van and head home.

This is my experience helping the man I love the most and I would love to know your experience helping your parents with any task.

We never thought of getting a pet before. A few months ago, our life was quite hectic; we were always busy working and taking care of important family stuff. A pet was definitely the last thing we thought about. I am not an expert about life but one thing that I’ve learned so far is that it can surprise you when you least expect it, it could change your plans unexpectedly and direct you to a totally different direction and suddenly realize that you’ve made some choices that you would have never done before, either because you were always pessimist about it or you thought that it just wasn’t the right time.  

I remember waking up one morning from a lot of scratching and pounding on the door of my room and quite a lot of whining too. It was probably around 4am, I opened my eyes and walked to the door to find Rio standing there staring up at me as to say “can you let me in please, that room over there is so dark and lonely for a fragile pup like me”.  I tell you, you can never say no to that adorable face like a child pouting wanting you to do something for them. In the first place, we were reluctant leaving him alone in the living room, it was his first night in the house and it is obviously normal for him to feel alone, he wanted company. To a pup our house was probably a maze, he felt uneasy. This was not the house he had slept in the night before, the people living in there were strangers. It was overwhelming for him, all these changes happening so fast and so sudden. Honestly It was overwhelming for us too. I stood there looking at him not knowing what to do, I was so sure he had woken everyone up and at any moment they could change their mind about him.

Rio is a Pitbull lab mix; he’s got black fur and a strip of white on his chest. He was only 9 weeks old when we adopted him from the shelter. His name originally was Pistachio but the lady that fostered him named him Rio. “Rio” was simple and easy to say so we went along with it. We had never had a dog before let alone adopt one. The adoption process was a new thing to us, we had no idea about the papers that needed to be filled up. We thought it was just showing up at the shelter, pointing out the pup that you wanted to get and that was it. As ridiculous as that might sound that’s how naïve we were but we were new pet owners, what can you expect, Right?. I kind of wished we had done some research before digging ourselves deeper into the situation as to be aware of what to expect. I sort of did some research on the internet prior to deciding whether continuing with the plan of getting a pup but most of it was like “is it a good idea getting a pup?’ or “what do you like about dogs?” that sort of thing to convince myself that it was indeed a good idea getting one. All the articles I found outlined the positive and negative sides of having a pup. The positives always outshined the negatives until finally I realized that I was absolutely sure that that is what I wanted, what WE wanted and what we needed.

When we got to the shelter however, we were asked to fill up some papers, the adoption application. Basically, asking about our household size, if we had a backyard and if it was fenced, where we lived, what kind of dog we were looking for etc. In the last sheet of the paper, they asked us what kind of dog we were looking for, what characteristics to be specific. They wanted to find the perfect match for every type of family because selecting the right dog for you was crucial to both the family’s and the pup’s happiness. We checked a few boxes on the paper that said friendly, energetic, playful, perfect for new owners. We submitted the application and a while later they told us that we had qualified and that they had found a perfect match!. So they introduced us to Rio and he captured our heart immediately. He was super hyper and friendly and he wasn’t shy at all. He walked towards us and sniffed us with his tail wiggling all over the place. We looked at each other and nodded. This is the one no doubt about it. Before leaving the shelter, they gave us one last paper to fill which was the Rescue Adoption Agreement in which you had to promise to take care of your pup, never to mistreat him and give him a loving home. We agreed and signed. It had been a long and exhausting day; we had spent all morning getting everything prepared for our new puppy. We had bought him toys, a crate and blankets and we had spent almost the whole afternoon at the shelter.

Sweet Rio had finally become a member of the family. We settled him in the living room which at the time was ideal because that is where we spent most of our time and Rio wouldn’t feel so lonely but at night it was inevitable for him to feel alone. We all would go to sleep in our bedrooms and he would immediately start whining and scratching at the door. As first pet owners we felt sorry for him, although we were advised to ignore his whining because all he wanted was attention and if we gave in to it he would continue doing it every time, we couldn’t take it. So we brought his crate in our bedroom and let him sleep there next to us. He would fall asleep right away and the snoring would begin, yes Rio snores and he snores a lot. Occasionally he would have nightmares and whimper in his dreams. He would start to tremble and we would try to shake him awake until he’d open his eyes and stare startled at us not knowing where he was. We really got to know him well for the first few days. We learned that we needed to take him out potty twice at night which was very unpleasant for us because we weren’t used to it but no matter how much we despised the idea of waking up in the middle of the night we knew it was important or else our little buddy would start wondering in the room until he’d find a nice spot to do his business in. He’d do this during the day too if whenever we’d forget to take him outside which most of the time we did. In the beginning it was all cool but as time progressed it became a hard task, having to take him outside and cleaning up poo and pee. We started to potty train him but nothing worked because he would still do it in the house instead of going outside. At some point we thought he’d never learn.

Rio would make a big mess inside, he would chew on anything he’d find. Chew on you’re lovely fluffy slippers that were on your feet, he would try to snatch them off and half rip them into pieces and he would nibble on your fingers just hard enough to hurt. He was only playing of course but it became irritating. By this time we were almost on the verge of giving up on him, we had started to regret the choice we had made. It was all too much, he was a lot of work, more than a baby. We started to wonder why we had decided on the idea of having a puppy in our house and our life.

At one point we started to discuss the idea of giving him back, to rehome him. Maybe a more experienced pet owner would be able to take care of him and his needs better than we can. There was always a pang in my heart every time we brought up the conversation. We had gone through tougher situation though not really relevant to this one, it showed that we could endure anything. True, Rio was a rambunctious pup but all he needed was some time to learn and it was all up to us.

Dogs are precious creatures, they require a lot of patience and a lot of work but trust me the results are very rewarding. We trained rio to the best of our abilities, we taught him to sit, stay and lay. To our surprise he learned pretty quickly but there was still one thing that he wasn’t catching on with, he would still pee and poo inside the house. Every time he did it we would just shake our heads in dismay and mildly scold him. What we decided to do is get a bell and hung it on the door knob, we trained him to ring the bell every time he wanted to go outside. It took some time but he caught on.

Rio has improved immensely, all the time that we have spent on training him has not been in vain because he has made so much progress and we couldn’t be happier with the result. It feels good to come home and have him staring out the window with his tail wiggling, it feels good to have him welcome us with so much joy and you just can’t help but smile even when you’ve had a tough day. I love watching him run around in the backyard, how sometimes he would bring out his favorite toy waiting for me to grab it from him so we can play fetch. He loves it when you hug him, he definitely understand it when you’re in need of one. Rio has been a perfect addition to the family and although we wavered on the idea of having him in the beginning there is absolutely no doubt in our hearts now that we made the right decision in keeping him.It’s true, life will surprise you with little adventures like this. Dogs fill in a hollow in our hearts, a hollow we never knew existed until they come along and show us a kind of love and devotion we had been longing for.