New York, care free days, and blue skies.
Someone please give me a reasonable excuse to go back and see New York again.
Summer is here, I can hear Donna Summer singing in the background again.
The past weekend was life-changing. I got to unwind and chillax with the bestest best friends in the world, and we parted knowing that things are *literally* never gonna be the same again in a melodramatic but exciting sort of way. What a way to start summer, yeah? :) (And what a way to start another chapter in our lives.)
Gone are my dark and twisted days. I think I’m starting to fall in love with life again. :)
7 things I love about this week:
1) Welcoming my beautiful nephew Robert Isaac to the family.
2) That he gets to inherit our Dad’s name, Robert, that even if he didn’t get to meet him anymore, a part of his Lolo lives in him.
3) How “Tita Riz” seems to just roll off the tongue, I can imagine little Isaac soon saying my name and tugging on my skirt. “Tita Riz, I want ice cream.” “Tita Riz, let’s go to the zoo.” “Tita Riz, I wanna play plants and zombiess!” (Just you wait, kid, your Tita Riz will spoil you like crazy. And well, I’ll leave the disciplining to your Mom, Dad and Lola, haha.)
4) That he’s got all of us wrapped around his cute little finger without knowing it. He cries and everyone in the room panics, figuring out what he needs. He sleeps and we all silently stare at him like lovestruck puppies. He blinks and we all go “awww” with tiny hearts in our eyes. It’s kuh-rayy-zee what babies can do, when they’re not even doing anything at all!
5) That I got to take their first family picture, and that I was able to preserve love in a photograph. Definitely one for keeps. <3
6) That I’ve witnessed (over again) with my own eyes this beautiful thing called motherly love, something we often fail to appreciate because mothers are always there anyway. I can still picture in my head the look in Ate Imy’s face as she admires her son, and the twinkle in my Mom’s eyes everytime she speaks of her grandson. Priceless.
7) Finally, I love days when, not expecting anything, something beautiful happens (or someone comes along) and your life is never the same. Such is this week in the Sanchez home. <3
And so I pray for a life that’s full of days like these. Dear Lord, that’s all I ask today.
There’s no better way to spend an over-sensationalized occasion than this. Last Sunday, instead of the usual Bible Story telling, I let the kids play with colored papers, pens, and crayons and make cute little greeting cards for them to give to their parents. I think I enjoyed it more than they did. Sunday School is love.
Someone’s getting her sunshine back. :) (God is amazing, what can I say?)
* * *
Later, I spent the night with a bunch of (not so) “lonely” friends. But that’s a totally different story altogether. How about you? How did you spend your Valentines? :)
There’s no doubt about it, Urban Decay’s Alice in Wonderland is by far the prettiest and most photogenic make-up I’ve ever laid eyes on it’s so pretty I want to live inside it! But first things first, I’m not about to make a review or a tutorial because I know nothing about applying make-up I don’t know why I’m even buying make-up to begin with.
(But okay, I’m lying, I do know a thing or two about applying make-up, I kinda enjoy coloring my face with it, and I do know that Urban Decay has got the best eyeshadow palettes out there. As a matter of fact, I’ve been using UD’s Sustainable Shadow Box as my daily ’shadow for months now and it has not failed me EVER. And now I’m just happy to give that good ol’ thing a break, Alice saves the day.)
So I’ll just take photos instead. Because Alice is pretty. And these are the kinda stuff I’d like to adorn my blog with.
Also, I know that I’m one of the few lucky ones in Manila who get to have Alice ahead of everyone else, so yeah, this is just me making you girls die of envy. *insert evil grin here*
OAN, if you want real, credible, useful reviews and swatches, head over to Liz and Lauren’s blogs, they’re actually the ones responsible for my ongoing love affair with Alice in Wonderland. (Thank you, ladies, for inviting me and Mara to order with you.)
Now please please please take me out to coffee so I get an excuse to leave the house and wear make-up.
..and went home with a pocketful of sunshine. (Or fine, an SD cardful of sun flares.)
There are no further words.
(This is an obligatory 2009 Starbucks Planner post.)
Have you got your SB planner yet? Got mine about a week ago, and currently halfway through the second sticker card.
I’m not crazy about this year’s planners, I actually don’t dig the calendar’s experimental vertical format. But since about 5 or 6 years ago, collecting Starbucks stickers has become something like putting up Christmas trees in December. It’s irresistible, it’s tradition, it’s something you just have to do because hey, you go to Starbucks like, everyday, anyway.
Now what I’m really crazy about is Toffee Nut Latte. Ahh. Just saying its name out loud makes me crave. Up to now I still don’t understand why it’s available only during the Holidays. Then again, it’s a reason (one of the many) for me to look forward to this time of the year.
So forget all my sad thoughts about Christmas, there are just a lot of reasons to celebrate, and to be happy, and to be filled with hope whenever this time of the year comes by. (That’s a schizo moment right there, I’m preaching to myself, don’t mind me.)
I think I’m ready to face December now.
