Christmas Stay Ins

With the economic recession underway, Ronnel and I made a conscious decision to cut back on expenses. Plus, we also have to prepare for the big arrival of the newest member of the family on May. So, we decided not to take out-of-town trips, cut back on gifts and “pamasko” to our friends and relatives (Thankfully, they understand the situation and are happy with the Christmas cards we sent them.) Instead, we had get-togethers in our home and invited friends to celebrate the season. Yep, it’s time to tighten our belts.

Tightening our belts doesn’t mean we have to skimp on what’s important this season – remembering the real reason why we celebrate – the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ. And we do this best by celebrating the gift of life, love and friendship.

So here are some of our pics spending Christmas day with friends we’ve come to love and cherish here in NZ…

Here's the Couples for Christ Music Ministry Get Together:


Here's our Christmas Eve celebration. (side story: It's been a tradition for the Rodriguez and Baloyo family to spend Christmas together ever since we were in Malaysia. We now bring this tradition to New Zealand....)



And Christmas Eve Celebration Part 2 Cum Household Meeting/Band Jamming Session



And lastly, our post Christmas Picnic by the beach (nope, it's not a nudist beach, much to Ronnel's dismay)




Watch out for our New Year's Special!

Missing Pinas and Family

Being pregnant wreaks havoc on my emotions. Tears start falling from just watching a corny advertisement. Ronnel and I were watching Cinderella Man the other day and I was really annoyed with myself for bawling my eyes out on a boxing movie!

Drunk with hormones, I get to reminisce about past Christmases and other celebrations we've had with our families. Looking at the photos of their celebrations this year, I feel a longing to be with them...

Here's my dad and my brother in their business venture. They're the sole distributor of the Amazing Education Software. Hope this business will bring them success.



Here's my brother and sis and Papa celebrating my sister's birthday last Nov 16. (I'm also nostalgic about the days when I was as slim as her.... haaaay)




And my wacky cousins, uncles and aunts...

We're ready to share the good news!

Since I've posted my recent pictures where I appear to be bigger than usual coupled with the takoyaki craving incident, friends have skirted around the question "Are you pregnant?", carefully asked so that I won't be offended (in case it's just because I ate a lot!). Well, we're ready to share it now. Yes, we are pregnant! 13 weeks as of this post.

It's been an interesting experience for me. I was pregnant last year too but had an unfortunate miscarriage during the 9th week so we were really careful about sharing the news. But since we're past the critical stage (12 weeks), we're ready to share the good news with our family and friends.

This time around, I experienced all the pregnancy symptoms I haven't had the chance to experience before. I swear, after throwing up for consecutive days, being nauseous at any slight movement, feeling faint and craving for something you can't identify - I am in awe of my mother, my grandma, my mother-in-law and all the mothers out there who have gone through this. The only consolation I get is that Ronnel is extra attentive and has been very patient with me.

Anyway, let me end this by posting pictures of our little one. I thought I'd be different from mums who show ultra sound pictures to everybody but no, I'm just like the rest of 'em proud mums-to-be. So bear with me.

At eight weeks we can barely figure out where he/she is. Good thing there's a little arrow... that's why at work, our little one is fondly called "Little Arrowhead".

Here's our little one at eight weeks:



And at 13 weeks (yay, we no longer need an arrow to find our little one!)

More Takoyaki Fun

Takoyaki is more fun when cooked and eaten together with family and friends....

Healing

Posting a song that's been playing on my head for some time now...

I'm still looking for the chords of this one.. or maybe I'll try playing it by ear...

deniece williams songs
Music downloads | Mp3 downloads

Very inspiring lyrics...



Download mp3

Satisfying My Takoyaki Craving

Perseverance and hard work really pay off.

It has been weeks now since I’ve been craving for Takoyaki and I can’t justify always spending $10 for just four pieces of it when I knew (I thought!) that it was easy to make. All I needed was a takoyaki pan. (My brother even had Takoyaki as a result of my craving and he loaded pictures in his blog to make me drool over them).

For those of you who have no idea what Takoyaki is – it’s a Japanese street food which Westeners call Octopus balls. I’ve had them since I was little in the Philippines and I knew them as “Samurai Balls”. When we moved to Malaysia, I frequented MidValley Megamall since there was a stand there selling takoyaki with different fillings – octopus, prawn, cheese. Naturally, when we came to New Zealand, I’d be craving for it. We found only one restaurant serving it which became our official celebratory restaurant since food wasn’t that cheap. So I had this idea to just make them myself and all I had to do was get myself a takoyaki pan. (Check out this site and learn more about takoyaki).

A takoyaki pan is quite unique because it has holes especially made to mould the batter. There’s an art to making it as well where you have to use skewers to turn them over at the right time. I googled for places where I can get the pan here in NZ and it turns out that there are none. I ended up in Amazon and found a takoyaki pan selling for USD20 but the shipping costs $40! I also came across the Aebleskiver pan which looks a lot like the Takoyaki pan but is used for cooking Danish pastries. I gave up and begged my mom (who was in the States) to just buy me the Pancake Puff pan and send them here.

And so just to satisfy my cravings, Ronnel and I went to our celebratory Japanese restaurant and had my Takoyaki fix. Deep inside, I haven’t given up so for the last time, I searched for Japanese shops which had one. I was directed to a Japanese good wholesaler in Auckland and back to the Wellington warehouse and finally, I was told there was one pan left. I couldn’t believe my ears. I dropped what I was doing and asked Ronnel to drive us there (we left at about 440 pm from work).

At first, we couldn’t find the place since it didn’t look like a shop. It turned out that we were looking for a warehouse. They were a wholesaler and they just gave in to my request to purchase just one item—because there was just one left! I was truly blessed! When I got there, the guy asked if I was Anthony. Apparently, some other guy named Anthony was also looking for a pan and I got there first. What are the chances! Oh well, sorry Anthony, you snooze, you lose!  But hey, you made somebody very happy.

Anyway, here’s my first attempt at making takoyaki… It wasn’t 100% successful but it tasted great!

My 2 Seconds Of Fame and more..

Sharing Career Success
I've shared with you in our last update how I passed the CBAP exam and how proud my husband and our families are of this achievement. Last week, the company also joined in the celebration by posting it in our company website. We were bursting with pride as this is the first "big" success that I've had in my career here in NZ. I told our families about this and they were so proud that they didn't spare a second and spread the news to our extended relatives. My dad, being the proud father that he is, is planning to print the article in national newspapers and magazines in the Philippines, much to my chagrin (well, deep inside I'm happy that he's THAT proud). Ofcourse, I had to clear it with my boss at work -- thinking that the company had a policy against publishing the Bank's name but my boss was supportive of "proud dads embarrassing their daughters" and is probably waiting for a copy of the newspaper. Anyway, here's the article published in our company website. There you go --my 2 seconds of fame (well, it was more of a week since the article was in the front page for 1 week).

Ako Si Kim Sam Soon in English Subs (My Name Is Kim Sam Soon)
After my exam, I found that I had extra time to spare so I joined a group via the Internet whose goal is to put subtitles on Filipino TV series and movies. The group's intrinsic goal was to share the Filipino culture to the rest of the world and a best way of doing this was to let them understand our TV programs.

The first "project" I joined in was to put subtitles on the scary series, Patayin sa Sindak si Barbara (Scare Barbara to Death) and it was my first time subbing a series. Wow! It was hard work. I have so much respect now for the people who sub animes and my favorite korean/taiwan/japanese dramas. Translating Filipino dialogues to English was quite challenging and there were times I was stumped and had to call in the wisdom of my hubby, Ronnel and if that didn't work, I resorted to my all-time saviour -- google. There are just Filipino words that we can't directly translate to English so most of the time we'd paraphrase. Like the line, "Nanginginig ang laman ko sa galit." which directly translates to "My flesh is shaking in anger." which to me sounded absurd so we had to paraphrase it to "I am really really mad."

Anyway, now that the team is done with the scary series, I moved on to a romantic comedy - Ako Si Kim Sam Soon, which is the Filipino version of the popular korean drama My Name is Kim Sam Soon. I loved the Korean version so I was highly skeptic about the Filipino version but much to my surprise, I am enjoying it,s well as Ronnel. So yeah, it's now officially in the eingenel list of recommended dramas.

Anyway, the team has released the first few episodes of this comedy with English Subs. If you're one of my Malaysian or Kiwi friends who don't understand Filipino and are keen to see what our culture is like, I suggest you watch this series. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. And hey, that's the product of an eingenel effort (I did the translating/timing while Ronnel did the review on tough Filipino dialogues).

You can get the episodes here.

CLP has started....
A new series of Christian Life Program(CLP) sessions has started. The CLP is basically the introduction level to Couples For Christ/Singles For Christ. Ronnel and I had completed ours last year and that's why we had our funny video/drama as part of the "graduation". This year, we were a bit sad to see there was only 1 couple during the orientation session last week but we are hoping there'll be more attending next Saturday. Ronnel and I trying to invite our friends here but there's just so many things that keep them from joining but I know one day, we will all be together in this community so there's no rush, we are giving them all the time that they want.

Looooong Updates

Hello People! Here I am again after a two-month break from blogging. A lot of things happened in the past two months that I just had to share with you all.

Marriage Enrichment Retreat (MER)
The Couples for Christ Wellington (CFC) Chapter held an MER (guess where?) at our home and as you can imagine, our house was jam-packed with couples and friends attending the retreat. It was a refreshing retreat as it made Ronnel and me reminisce why we're together in the first place, that there is an unseen force that led us to where we are now, that we are here not because we want to be here but because He wants us to be here. I'm still waiting for our official photographer to upload the pics but I'll share them with you when I get them.

I'm a CBAP!
This is one of the things that has kept me reeeaaaallly busy these past few months. That's on top of the big project I was working on. I was encouraged by my bosses to go through the certification process of the IIBA (International Institute of Business Analysis). It was a bit hard to explain to my grandma what exam I was taking – I just told her it was kinda sorta like the BAR exam for lawyers. A CBAP (Certified Business Analysis Professional) is what they call someone who’s passed the application process and exam. At first, I wasn't really keen on taking the exam this year (I was hoping to wait for next year so that I have enough time to study) but with constant prodding and support, I went through it. I'll be honest - it was a tough and tedious process. Filling up the application form alone took me a whole week. Studying for the exam was even harder since I usually got home at around 8 pm, tired and sleepy. But I found a perfect study partner, who else but my ever supportive hubby, Nel! His sole responsibility was to make sure I was studying. A few weeks before the exam, we made a deal. If I passed, he was going to buy me my dream phone. And so that he's motivated to motivate me, he also gets something out of it. I promised him that if I passed, I'm going to buy him whatever he wants. That wasnt so BA-like of me as I forgot to get his detailed requirements! I should have known better. Anyway, I got through the application and passed the exam! Yay! It was big deal not only for me but for the Bank I work for because I'm the first BA who's been certified. Apparently, there are only 432 CBAP's in the world and 15 in New Zealand! I'm one of the 15 and I'm not even Kiwi! I immediately told my parents, my grandma (who's been holding novenas for me) and friends who shared my joy. With this kind of support (and blessings from God!), how can I fail?

But wait, there's more... Remember I told you about my deal with Ronnel? Little did I know that he wanted a new car! And since I gave him my word, I had to oblige. So we had to trade in Sue (our old car- model is Premacy, hence, the name Sue) for bigger and better car that Nel has been eyeing for quite some time. And now we got Byaku (Short for Byakuya, the really handsome anime character in Bleach). So now that we spent our savings on Byaku, we no longer have funds to keep the other end of the deal. Bye for now, dream phone. I will see you this Christmas. But Im really happy for Ronnel. I remember when we were going out, Ronnel's dream car was quite simple, a Nissan California. I urged him to dream big, to stretch his ambitions, to see how far he can go. That's what I learned from my parents. They've always encouraged me and my siblings to use our God-given skills and talents to see where it will lead us. One of my mantras has always been "Reach for the stars, if you fall, you fall on the trees. Reach for the trees, if you fall, you fall on the ground." I suppose that's why we're not on the ground now. Thanks ma and pa for instilling that in your children. Anyway, before I get overly dramatic here. I'm really happy for Ronnel. His face lit up like a little boy opening a present when he got the keys for Byaku, and it’s worth giving up my dream phone…. well, for a few months, anyway.

Finally Seen Snow!
One of my childhood dreams is to see snow. You see, when I was young, I’d stick my head in the freezer and imagine I was an Eskimo. But it wasn’t the same, for one, the ice in the freezer smelled like fish. That was why when Nel and I came to New Zealand, I decided that I must see snow at least once. And this weekend, not only did I see snow, I touched it, smelled it, rolled in it and yes, even tasted it. The last one made Ronnel think twice about my sanity though.
We went to Mt. Ruapehu with friends from CFC. It was a 5-hour drive from Wellington and it was the first test for Byaku and his master, Nel. The sight of the snow-covered mountains was breath taking. It really makes you feel how small you are relative to the universe, and how great and powerful our Creator is. Ronnel couldn’t ski because of his basketball injury but he understood my thirst to try new things so he encouraged me to go for it. It was good that he was there since he played the role of my ski assistant, picking me up when I fell which was all the time and bring me my skis when I couldn’t lift them. Once again, I’ve proven that I am not suited for sports. Hours of practice in the Wii Ski did not prepare me for the real thing. Who would’ve thought that skiing was that hard? I always scored high in the wii! So after a couple of hours of falling and sliding, I’ve resigned myself to just playing with snow. We threw snow balls at each other, made snow angels, took pictures with friends and ate sushi surrounded in snow. We even took some snow and put it on a cooler bag to cool our drinks! We spent the night at Taupo and did some sight seeing. And so I'm really grateful that we found good friends.. thanks to Donald and Tin for organizing this trip! You helped me realize my life-long dream to see snow!

Below are pictures of us with friends frolicking in snow and some sights to see in Taupo.

Wii Fit fits Our Life

I've never been athletic, although at first glance you'd think I am -- probably because I wear sweats and sports clothes most of the time (that's just to cover up the fact that I'm just the opposite.) In school, I was the klutz ("lampa") -- imagine, I even had to make up by writing a thesis on Volleyball because I didn't want to fail Phys Ed! Ok, I'm sure you get the picture.

On the other hand, Ronnel is quite the athlete -- he loved playing basketball. He joined town tournaments with his friends and I think he got an mvp award in school. But after the accident in Malaysia, he had to give up basketball and now, he's contented with playing NBA Live and 2K8 on the xbox.

So yeah, we live a sedentary life. We love the indoors and we never run out of things to do at home. We eat, watch our dramas and animes, eat some more, play some music (i do keyboards, he does the guitar) and surf the net.

And then we got the Wii. At first, it was for the tennis game other interesting games like the Boogey Mic were also released. Recently, they released the Wii Fit here in NZ. We pre-ordered it to make sure we got one. And we're very pleased with it. We were planning to buy a tread mill but it's so pricey here that we crossed it out of our list. The wii fit is only an eight of the treadmill's price and we can do more than just run! The game comes with a balance board which you have to step on for the games. (I heard new games are being released which is compatible with the board so it's not solely for the wii Fit.)

With the Wii Fit, you can do yoga, aerobics, tightrope, hula, boxing, snow boarding and a whole lot more. It measures your weight and your BMI, helps you set a goal on how much you want to lose/gain for the next period. It tells you your fitness age based on some exercises, your BMI and your actual age (see video to find out Ronnel's age! Im not telling you mine, though.) Ronnel and I highly recommend it for people like us who like spending time at home but want to keep fit as well. (My bestfriend Marj wonders why I don't jog outside and admire the beauty of NZ. Actually, I did run a few blocks before but I guess the novelty ran out and it's just too freezing cold outside.) Anyway, it's a great game! I'll write about it again after six months if both Ronnel and I meet our weight goals. :-)

Here's the video of us playing... for your entertainment... :-)



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Breaking my loyalty to Friendster

Ask anybody (ask Ronnel!) if I'm loyal and you'll get the affirmative answer (most often accompanied with a vigorous nodding). I'm a loyal employee-- once I've said yes, I'd stick with my company no matter what (well, except in cases where I need to leave the country). It's the same with Friendster, even when multiply, facebook and other more popular friend-networking sites crop up, I stuck with Friendster. But I can't take it anymore. Friendster blogging is a pain. Trying to put in that veoh video took me ages because I had to find a work around in posting html. I suppose that's the reason why I don't frequently update my posts anymore. Plus, my friends/readers havent signed up to friendster (they're either in facebook or multiply) so they couldnt make a post. And a blog without comments or posts is just sad....

So I hope by moving to blogspot, I make it easy for you to react and comment on my writing. So feel free to comment -- your words are encouragement to us. I strive to be a better writer and I'm sure you will help me all the way -- who knows, Ronnel might even start blogging....

CFC STAGE 1 CLEARED

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Tip: If you're on dial up, click PLAY and PAUSE until the video has completed streaming so you can watch it continuously. (NB: Filipino language used in Video.)

And while you're waiting for the video to load, read on...

I can't say I'm a very religious person but I'm comfortable with my current relationship with my Maker. If you have been painstakingly reading my blog entries, you'd understand what I mean when I say my journey to where my husband and I are in now is anything but easy. We have faced many obstacles -- leaving our budding careers in the Philippines, the accident in Malaysia and starting anew in NZ. We know we wouldn't have overcome all these just by ourselves, we know that a stronger force has been guiding us all the way.

For the longest time, I've made a promise to show my gratitude by serving the church but every time, something gets in the way. This year, Ronnel and I made a commitment to join Couples for Christ, with the gentle urging of my in-laws. The first stage to being a full member is to complete the Christian Life Program (CLP) which is a series of seminars on different Christian topics. I admit to being hesitant at first. My past experience with CFC wasnt that great and I won't expound on that anymore. But I decided to give it a go because I don't have anything to lose. With cynical eyes, I attended the first talk with Ronnel. The topics were mostly familiar for me especially since ten years of my life was spent in Catholic schools. I wasn't too hot on the singing and dancing part but I gave it a chance as I would be the odd one out if I didn't join it.
Soon after, I found myself opening up to new-found friends. My jaded eyes began to see a new light as I formed bonds with other wives. I remember being a little depressed because I felt pressured that we didnt have kids yet but I realized that I wasn't alone. Some couples spent ten years trying to have an offspring -- it's just the second year for us since Ronnel and I consciously made a decision to build our lives first before building a family. Ronnel looked forward to the delectable Filipino dishes served after each session. I also found myself enjoying the songs and sharing sessions --- I still dont jump and dance, nor I raise my hands and speak in tongues but I know I am not pressured in any way. And before I knew it, Ronnel and I completed the program -- wow, it has been eight weeks already?

To mark our graduation, we were asked to do a presentation. We decided to have a video skit (flashback High School years) which we shot on ANZAC day (NZ holiday). It was a pity that we had some technical issues when it was time to show it but thanks to technology, we have an opportunity to share it again -- even to our families and friends who are not here. So here is the video, enjoy!

Nel hit the big 3-0!

It seems like I'm losing the will to write... I don't write as much as I did before. I blame the wii and our addiction to asian dramas and animes. Ronnel and I have been watching over a hundred episodes of Naruto for the past few weeks, plus, I find time to watch They Kissed Again (sequel to Taiwan drama It Started With A Kiss). That's on top of work and housework . So it's not surprising that I've been neglecting my blog, my keyboards and my passion for sharing our NZ adventures. But all's forgiven, right? Coz here I am with more photos! Im not even photoshopping them anymore..

Honeyko, the breadmaker. Here's Ronnel putting his years of breadmaking practice during his childhood... We suddenly had an urge for the pan de sal that we always had for breakfast during our stay with my inlaws (well, for ronnel, he had this everyday since he could walk and talk and he never gets tired of it!). So we asked Nanay for the recipe and tried it here. The first try, it was too hard and it didn't rise. Figured it was too cold. Second try, too sweet. Third try, it was perfect -- fluffy, sweet but not too sweet and really tasty! The Perfect Pan De Sal! Yay!

This year, I managed to coerce Ronnel to join me in the Round the Bays marathon. We did the 7K walk (didnt dare run in fear of collapsing) and truly enjoyed it. Had a great time with our friends Dave and Nic who set the pace for us. I honestly think I did better this time compared to last year! Too bad they spelled our last name wrong in the newspaper! (Rodrigeuz instead of Rodriguez)

To celebrate Ronnel's 30th birthday, we went to Picton (South Islands) and took the Sounds Cruise. It's not as exotic as it sounds but it was really relaxing (I probably slept half the time during the cruise because the sound of the water combined with the soft breeze was so relaxing.) We saw sting rays, stopped by different coves and admired the scenery. Too bad we didnt spot any dolphins or whales.