family – Chasing Dreams

Hello, I Turned 30!

May 30, 2013January 19, 2020 Rhiza25 Comments

It’s been a week since I turned 30 years old, you want to know how it feels? I’m a mix of everything—happy, excited, grateful, in awe like I still can’t believe I’m now past my 20s, a little anxious about the future, driven to work harder and be better, blessed beyond words can say.

Turning 30, you find yourself pondering upon questions like, Am I living the life I’ve always wanted? Where have all the years gone? Have I invested in the right things? Am I happy? What’s next? True, you ask yourself these questions any given birthday anyway, but turning 30 kind of magnifies everything to a point where you end up feeling depressed (about what you didn’t have), or feeling like you’re on top of the clouds (for everything you have). Guess how I feel? :)

My birthday celebration has never been more quiet and more low profile than this. And it has never been more childlike and more adult at the same time too. Lately I’ve been having some form of identity crisis: Pressured to act like, think like, and actually be an adult, whilst spending a lot of time singing Barney songs, being surrounded with dolls and toys, and acting silly to entertain our 7-month old twins.

That’s the story of my 30th birthday celebration. The theme was slumber party, where I spent the majority of the day in my PJs, keeping my heart from bursting into tiny pieces while playing and rolling in bed with my cute little dolls:

Tell me you didn’t just rotate your computer screen sideways. :P

Mommy are you taking our pictures again?

#bestillmyheart

There’s more of these photographs where it came from, but.. you get the picture, right? That’s my 30th birthday party in a nutshell, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Later in the evening my family came to have dinner with us, and we hung out in our tiny living room, around our darling twins like it’s their birthday. (I don’t mind at all.)

The truth is, I don’t think I accomplished a lot in my first 30 years. I don’t have a lot of things—not a big house, or a car, or a fat savings account. I may have seen a few cities outside this country, but I haven’t really gone places. I could spend hours processing my life, thinking about the things I wasn’t able to do before I turned 30, places I still haven’t seen, dreams that have yet to come true.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what didn’t happen. What matters is how God turned all my plans around and gave me these instead:

And how can I not feel so blessed and happy and rich when I have them? A husband I’m still so smitten about, two little girls who drive us crazy and fill this home with so much joy, a roof above our heads, food on our table, a warm bed to sleep at night.

You realize, even more when you turn 30, that the measure of happiness and fulfillment is not based on the material and financial things you acquired in your life, sometimes not even in the number of friends you have, but in the handful of people you journey this life with.

Now that, is a milestone worth celebrating.

God be praised and glorified in this life, always.

Day 8: You know who I’m really missing right now?

October 4, 2011June 19, 2019 Rhiza1 Comment

8/30: My family. I think I said this before. :)

I just looove this family photo Sheila took of us. Look at Isaac’s face! (:

Something happened to our family when Daddy passed away. We became more thoughtful than indifferent, more encouraging than critical, more accepting than judgmental, more gracious than proud. We learned to be more accountable to each other and more appreciative of each other’s time and effort, something that has kept me afloat especially in trying times.

It’s sad when I hear people say that they want to succeed in life because they want to prove their family wrong. It makes me even more thankful that I grew up in an environment where encouragements are overflowing and affirmations are given more emphasis than criticisms. Growing up, I know I strive to be better not because I want to prove my family wrong, but because I want to make them proud.

I miss them. I know they’re just in the next city, a taxi cab away. Besides, I always see them in church. But a month into this married life, and I often get this “so-near-yet-so-far” feeling whenever I think of my family, especially now that David and I are starting our own.

Today’s three beautiful things, inspired by thoughts of the family I sooo miss:

1. Waking up to a text message from my mother, who always seems to know what to say when she needs to say it. This morning, she texted, “Everyday, find out what you are and be that. Decide what comes first and do that. Discover your strengths and use them. Learn not to compete with others because no one else is in contest of being YOU. You’re fearfully and wonderfully made, there’s only one YOU in the world.”

Such wisdom. Thanks, Mom. (:

And I sure do miss midnights back in Caloocan when she would knock on my bedroom door with 2 tumblers of tea–one for me and one for her–and we would just talk about anything and everything to the wee hours of the ~~night~~, morning after. Good times.

2. Kuya Nikos’ chicken enchilada, which I also once blogged about here. He cooked for us last Friday, and we ate leftovers until two days after. Mmmm, I can still taste it in my mouth.

3. Isaac’s posts and comments on Facebook. Yes, the little boi has a facebook account. “Aw aw”, he would randomly post here and there. Of course we all know it’s either Ate Imy or Kuya Nate who posts those stuff, but still, the thought of him really posting on Facebook is just plain adorable! Having Isaac around is a real joy.

48-hour Cebu Adventure

July 16, 2009December 29, 2019 Rhiza4 Comments

Hi. I’m here in Cebu and will be flying back to Manila in about two hours. I thought I’d blog something before we leave, just because it sounded like a good idea to blog from some place besides my desk (or my bed) in Ortigas.

I’d like to think I’m well-traveled, being here for the second time in the past two months — I was here with Mae and Joni just last May. But really, it’s mostly because a cousin from New York is in the Philippines for a 2-week visit, and I have been one of his designated babysitters and tourist guides since he arrived. He wanted to see Cebu (and our relatives here), so here we are.

Now this has got to be my longest 48 hours ever. We landed here Wednesday morning, and tried to squeeze in two days as much of Cebu as we can.

That’s me (the one wearing the hot pink shirt), with the beautiful people I share my genes with.

It was a short trip, but it’s one of those trips that you’ll always remember and associate a place with. The secluded Mantayupan falls, the unforgetable rafting experience, and freezing cold water. The yummiest ice cream in the world made of cow’s milk from Molave — I can’t remember ever eating five ice cream cones all in one day. Sleeping in one of those bamboo gazebos and waking up to the smell of fried tilapia (that my cousins fished themselves), native tinola, and churizo. Daddy Rods’ home-made avocado ice cream, and Kuya Ginggoy’s kaldereta. Losing about 200 pesos over Majong and Poker. Cheetos, chapstick, the Terraces, cheap souvenirs, and making up funny songs on the road. And most of all, spending all of these with family.

I had to lose sleep and squeeze in work as much as I can in the middle of all of that, but it’s okay. I shall resume regular programming and catch up on piles of work as soon as I’m back in Manila, I don’t care. The past 48 hours is priceless.