It’s going to be June tomorrow. Half of the year has gone in a blink of an eye.
It’s going to be Father’s Day, Martha’s first month, and our first year as husband and wife.

WOW.

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I got tagged by Litzie
I derive pleasure from these simple things:

1. A clean house without me cleaning it :P. Cooked meals without me cooking :P.
2. A good, uninterrupted, LONG sleep where I can move around in a bed with no kids (Heehee).
3. Mango shakes.
4. Foot spas.
5. Baby smell — this gets me high these days. Hmmm, the scent of baby powder, cologne and milk rolled in one…can never be replicated LOL.
6. Matthew’s cards. He gives me one everyday. (need to scan them in one of these days).
7. Edil washing the dishes 8. Air-conditioning (It’s summer here where I am and IT IS HOT!!!)
9. Uninterrupted surfing, blogging, blog-hopping, digiscrapping for about two hours (please?!?!?!)
10. Pictures like these:

My joys

My strength

My Little Man

My Princess (look at those cheeks! She’s 2 weeks old here)

No new layouts to share. Im busy organizing my “life” — scheduling things to-do, fixing Matthew’s things, reorganizing life plans (naks, deep! LOL). Im busy doing and finding sketches though. Since PC time is limited nowadays (I get to have the PC all to myself minus cyring baby and competitive husband during early mornings — as early as 4AM. 9AM Matthew wakes up already), I need to have a LO in mind with a full sketch and journalling so I can still surf. As such, I dont have time to comment on blogs and leave praise on galleries already. I still owe people some e-mails (sorry!!). Hay buhay!

Martha is in need of a feeding. Bananas and Pyjamas are on and I need to make breakfast. Until next update
PS. I notice from my last post I had a lot of typos Pasensya at mahirap magtype ng isang kamay, LOL.

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Martha-Ba c”,)

Chubba-Chubba already weighed 11lbs on her 10th day of life — surpassing the physiologic weight loss a newborn goes through (as her pedia said). She now has chubby cheeks! Kagigil! Id love to post pictures but resizing them is such a drag, and hard when you have a babe suckling at your breast while blogging Yep, Chubba is purely breastfed, yay!! I did it! Having a baby in the house is such a happy experience — it IS hard, financially, physically..but emotionally very much rewarding. Times are hard for us money-wise but seeing my Martha-Ba’s sungit kilay and irap eyes makes it all worth it :). Edil is having such a kick hearing people comment how our kids look so much like him. Isnt it unfair that I WAS THE ONE who endured 9 months of agonizing anxiety, caring for the baby, gaining the super daming pounds, and went through horrifying labor and delivery, while he just contributed the sex of the kids? OK lang, I have thought of a witty comeback: “Kamukha mo nga sila, pero ugali ko mamamana nyan!” You guys just wait and see LOL.

Anyhow, you will see more Martha-Ba in my layouts on the web and my birthing story soon! Im back to making one layout per day so hopefully I can make all the ideas in my head materialize before I report back to work!

Working MOM

Ive been avoiding thinking about this lest I go through post partum depression again (Ive been very conscious of depression the past weeks, since I know I can get all moody and cranky and God knows Edil and Matthew dont need the added pressure). Im going back to work in roughly 2 and a half weeks. *sigh* Job hunting for Edil has been negative, and we still dont have househelp, so it’s really no option for us, not unless, a maid will miraculously appear at our doorstep. So for us, it’s either he gets a job, we get househelp; OR, I look for a much higher paying job — which will be not that hard, but alas, I soooo want to practice nursing already

We will cross the bridge when we get there.

Real Life Family Experience

Speaking of having no househelp, we not get to experience real life parenthood — meaning, the late nights, the alternate schedules. Yep, Edil and I have no chance to even stay at the same bed at the same time. He cooks, does Martha’s laundry, gives Mato his meds, while I focus on Martha — when Mato starts to crave attention, we switch, I go to Matthew, he bonds with his little girl. It IS hard, honestly. We always have something to do. But the bonding we experience is also no joke. Hindi pa kami nag-aaway! LOL, world record na ata etoh! Hahahahaha…..

Exlusively BF-ing!

I have decided to try to exclusively breastfeed as much as possible. The first week was so hard, I would cry at every feeding (I dont know who cried harder - me or the baby!), my other nipple was inverted and she had a hard time sucking it, then some ducts got clogged…ay ayayayay!! But all is well, I have plenty of milk if I can say so myself, Im stocking up for work, and Im loving my breastpump (Avent Isis), Id love to have a Medela but my pocket cant afford it, LOL. PLUS, breastfeeding really helps me lose weight, I lost 10lbs one week after getting out of the hospital on top of the weight I lost during delivery…Im 10lbs away from my prepregnancy weight — which is STILL overweight, LOL — but at least it wont be hard for me to lose weight anymore. I am banned from coke, iced tea or coffee since I am watching my diet because of the milk (Isnt it ironic I drank Coke when I was preggo then stopped after I delivered?! Hehehe). For my peace of mind….Martha is a hyper kid when I drank iced tea a few days ago, hehehe.

Starting to Get Jealous

My big boy is starting to get jealous already. It is harder because I have Martha all the time because of she needs me to eat. It doesnt help my temper is so short, a misplaced toy gets me shouting agad *sigh* Need to work on that. He loves the baby though, too much. He wants to at her side when she sleeps, offers to help everytime (which is good if not for the help he wants to give — he wants to carry, bathe the baby, LOL), and is really sweet. His classes start June 15 and it will be bittersweet for me. When I hug him now, I cant help but notice he is too big to be my baby anymore. He has transformed so much this summer.

Love my Man

Our first wedding anniversary is coming up! Father’s Day is near, and Im cooking something special for Edil

Oops, Mato is up already, till next time.

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I will keep this short as I have a suckling baby at my arm Thanks to everyone who sent well wishes and said a little prayer for us that day. Labor and delivery was really hard for me, but seeing Martha was worth all the pain. Im taking time off the web for a couple of days as I am adjusting with a new babe, a struggling (aka KSP) preschooler, a sick husband, and BREASTFEEDING!!! My hormones are all whacked out as well, so I cry every now and then, LOL, but all is good, could never be better (except for more poundage lost, please!).

Motherhood has become me. It is my destiny
Happy Mother’s Day!!!

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Please send your thoughts and well-wishes and include me and Martha in your prayers as I will be induced today at 9AM! I’m excited and anxious and happy and not sleepy at all! HA! I will pay for this once the delivery is over so I better rest. Bags are packed, Matthew is at my in-laws’ place, Edil is excited and NOW thinking for the second name (FINALLY!), and here I am, bloggin’! HAHAHA!!!

I, hopefully, can squeeze some layouts later (I wish!).

I will be back before you know it!

Aggie

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…if Martha will come out OR I need to hang on just a few days more. I have an OB appointment in an hour so we will see if my cervix is still closed. If it is, she’ll have me go in for an U/S and for some fetal monitoring (if Im having contractions but havent really felt anything) just to find out if the baby is doing well. If Im open by 2cms., she will go right ahead and induce me. Personally, Id want to be induced already. Carrying her for 40 weeks (10 months!!!) is taking a toll on me already. Im getting anxious and depressed.

Well, yesterday (actually Saturday night and early Sunday morning) was heaven for me. Internet connection was restored and I was able to fully take part online for the NSD Celebrations. Im definitely a level above my passion for scrapbooking now. I have met a few very nice online friends who inspire me so much that I have filled most of idea book on ideas and sketches I would love to do. I actually went on a little shopping, but not too much, since I am on a lot of creative teams who give me such amazing kits to work with.

I actually purchased stuff from 2Peas, ACOT, Shabby Shoppe, Designer Digitals and spent my GC at SBB. Want to know which kits I bought?
2Peas: The one day limited edition of NSD Cheer by Rhonna Farrer. Ive always loved Rhonna’s stuff and blog but never have had the chance to splurge on her kits, maybe when Im familiar with brushes and all. But the kit’s colors are gorgeous and HUGE for the price, the brushes are something I can actually learn to use over and over again.

ACOT: The collaborative kit called Circle of Friends. I just finished downloading all 5 or 6 download links and the kit is GINORMOUS and AWESOME (ok, I need synonyms to awesome please? LOL).

I spent most of my time at the Shabby Shoppe and Designer Digitals for the chats. The DD designers and CT girls were so kind and amazing! The room was small (we were only averaging about 20-35 people), so everyone had the chance to talk about themselves. Ive learned so much from Katie and now want to order books from IdeaBooks4U.com They also gave freebies every hour and the chat was all day! Can you imagine? I think I managed to get around 8 freebies (because I need to sleep for 3 hours, LOL), and about 4 of them were items from the store, even new releases! Love them..all of them! DD is fast becoming my fave place to shop, teehee. Now, if only I can get to post my LOs in their gallery, you can see some seriously fabulous stuff in there. I was also able to get some stuff from their store, love their embellishments and stamps!!

I would have wanted to get stuff from Holly’s and Dani’s and SSD, but I dont have Paypal, which if I really think about it, is better for me, since I can control my spending.
Now, I have a list of kits I need to use, on top of all the gorgeous kits from my CTs I need to scrap! I already have Ange Dawn’s new kit called Eleven, and I know Andrea Burns’ going to release the new installment for her HourGlass collection, and her new kit, called Playtime, is out in ACOT already. Be sure to check them out! Andrea Victoria is making her really exciting kit and I’ve only seen previews of it, but I bet it’s still in her signature - classy, modern and contemporary
PLUS, I am proud to announce I’m on another creative team! Kristin Cronin-Barrow has picked me to be one of her members and Im excited to be working for another TDC designer. As you know, TDC is my first home and will always be my home. Im going to make a LO within the week for her upcoming kits! Just wait
I also made it to Round two for the Ultimate Digiscrapper Contest!! Yay! This week’s prompt is tough, and 100 will be cut off so Im not counting on it, but this should make me scrap outside of my box again! Have a general idea already, but I want to try a different style which I havent done before, we will see….

Ok, Im out and headed to the hospital, wish me luck!

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Happy (International) Scrapbooking Day! I have my whole night tonight and early morning planned, and what better way to screw it up than to have our wireless connection dead at the middle of a chat I was attending at ACOT?!!!! BUMMER! So here I am at an internet rental shop, taking advantage of their connection and downloading kits like crazy. Argh, SM@RT (ass) needs to have our connection up and running by tonight or I’ll be frustrated as hell. I’ve been having some little tummy aches early in the morning but they are gone now, probable because I dont want to deliver right now, LOL. Not this weekend, I’ve got lots of scrapping planned, hahahaha. She can come out first thing Monday morning - which is really her due date anyway. I’ve got an appointment Monday afternoon and we will see if she is doing alright, through ultrasound and fetal monitoring. She is still moving like crazy, kicking, though her kicks are getting stronger and they hurt already!! Mom is away for the weekend so Im not pushing my luck. I do plan to walk walk walk and walk Sunday afternoon. We have tried the “guaranteed inducer of labor” (you guys get my drift?) and no, it didn’t work (yep, it didnt Nette and Vi! LOL! Thanks for your suggestions though). We had fun, LOL.

(I’m actually thinking of something to write about while I’m waiting for the kits to download so..)

• Matthew has been a trooper lately, washing dishes, making our bed and being a very nice kid. The only problem Im having with him is he sleeps awfully late at night — around 1 or 2AM, and it’s all because of B1 and B2 and the Playhouse Disney Channel. Nuts.
• Edil has been actively looking for work. He stopped working to study advanced computer-related-something (Im not familiar with it, hahaha), but since times are hard, he just finished a sem and is looking for a job. He passed the first job interview he went to, and his final interview will be on Monday. Not the dream job we were looking for, but it will be enough to keep our growing family alive :).
• Since Ive been home, Ive been taking pictures of Matthew everday. My son is learning how to appreciate my scrapbooking. He knows Im doing his albums and such, and when he does something great (or memorable), he’d pipe, “Mommy, picturean mo ako oh!” Yesterday, he told me to bring down the camera because he was brushing his teeth, earlier, he was “scrapbooking” his pictures and told me to document it as well. Last week, we made his very own storybooks, his own drawings, his own story/concept, but Mommy’s scissorring and pasting. It was a blast. Matthew is a craftser like me! He draws like my brother and sister who are real artists. Need to do a scrap about that one soon.
• Ive been yearning any spicy during lately. Need to go to my in-laws for the usual satisfaction. MIL is the BEST cook when it comes to Bicolano food. Ive never appreciated laing and bicol express until Ive tasted hers….yummy. Maybe tomorrow.

I scrapped two pages this week, kinda slow, since Im just planning ideas in my head. Many layouts to be done, however, next week, since I plan to join contests again. Speaking of which, I actually joined the Ultimate Digiscrapper Contest over at Digiscrappin.Biz. Sounds crazy because there were over 300 contestants but what the heck? I had fun! We are not allowed to post our layouts anywhere until after the contest, so you can look at it here, with the full gallery here. And we actually will receive a collaboration kit just by completing the first round!

Andrea Burns’ second installment on her Hourglass Collection is out and the yellows and soft greens made me think of my yellow dress during one of my self portraits. Heehee. Vain

Ange Dawn’s Kit Eleven will be out this coming Thursday!

Ann K. tagged me so here I go:

SIX weird facts about me:
1. I use(d) ketchup on everything until I was about six. Ketchup on fried fish and tocino, yep. And I only use Del Monte Tomato ketchup.
2. I have not gone to the beach in six years.
3. I dont know how to swim either.
4. Totally not boasting here, but I can actually study really fast. I dont know why. I can easily grasp things. Running joke around my class was I dont study, I just sleep — which is actually true. I study for about two hours, and then sleep. Cramming 30 minutes before exams do not do me good. So Id rather not waste my time.
5. I also do not check my answers after. Based from experience, my first guess has always been right. If I think too hard, I get it wrong (hahahaha!)
6. Totally true, but my dreams always mean something. I RARELY dream, so when I dream about something, it usually forbodes of something or is happening. Evidence: The two time Edil was hanging out with a girl during our many breakups, I dreamt about, I even saw the face of one girl. AND, dig this, it was during the nights they actually went out on a date. Freakishly weird as well? Edil dreamt about me dating somebody on the night I actually went out on a date..(now, you are thinking, awwww…MFEO! hahaha). So, everytime we joke about cheating each other, we always say we would find about it real fast. I also dreamt I was pregnant two months before I actually pregnant with Matthew, saw his face on my 4th month, and knew it was a girl during a dream I had during my 4th month as well. Amazing isnt it? Im blessed.

Now, if only Martha’s face can show itself to the world….

Be back later, my darling husband is calling me (so we can eat, LOL).

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.. and the past few days were pure torture for me! I think we experienced the hottest days of summer the past few days! I literally cannot do anything but stay locked up in our room, because it was so hot! The A/C was either overworked or simply cannot compete with the heat because our room still felt like sauna — better there than going outside and experiencing hell! Seriously, wasn’t it just tooo hot? Made me miss the A/C in my workplace, LOL. Or maybe things were just aggravated because here I am, still pregnant, still with HUGE tummy.

Update from the OB: She would not induce me not unless I go over 40 weeks which will be on May 8th. *pout* I’m effaced already (meaning the baby is in position — she can actually feel it when does an IE already — the reason why my toot-toot has been aching and swollen the past frigging week! ARGH!). BUT, alas my cervix is still closed. Seems like a tight-lipped virgin, LOL, as she says. (Baka nanganganay daw kasi ako, hello, it has been 5 years since I last gave birth!) So, no baby Martha yet, yep. Still waiting. Honestly, I think she’s going to come when I least expect her — so people, stop asking questions like, “Hasnt she come yet?!” This baby is either SHY or planning on making a very GRAND entrance, LOL. All this waiting is killing me actually. Im starting to have fears on my delivery, that something bad might happen to ME or HER, or she will come out not healthy…those sort of things.

Other than that, there’s not much to post. I have been scrapping like a crazy woman the past week, yanking out some pages Im proud of, actually. My CT Guest spot for Gina Miller has ended, and though I will surely miss the team, I had a great time with them :). Thanks for the little big gift too Gina!!

Here was my last “official” layout for her team:

I have been cranking out a lot of Matthew layouts lately, and Im now looking for a great album to print my layouts to (and an affordable printer). Better start compiling them or else he will be run over with the layouts that will sure come when the new baby arrives.

Have been making clean layouts for Matthew using Ange Dawn’s papers, love them!

Remember the Morning Glory Kit from Andrea Burns’ Hourglass Collection I mentioned from the previous post? Well, I was able to play with them last week and these were the outcome:

This was taken from a “Simply You” prompt over at ScrapArtist. I thought I’d jump in and join all the fun This was inspired by Gina’s perspective on “How Did You Meet?” where she tells the story like telling it to her kids NICE! The journalling is awfully long and sorta personal (But if you have read my journal entries ever since, you kinda know the jist :P), so Ill just keep it at that. Speaking of ScrapArtist, I won a little contest for the Color Challenge by Michelle Coleman The alphas and frames and brush strokes that you will see on every other layout I make is courtesy of the GC I received Too bad they only accept Paypal (Good thing as well or else I’ll be broke, I LOVE THEIR STUFF!)

And I finally scrapped Matthew’s milestones! His Birth Story and Graduation!

This was actually a three-page layout, so you can view the rest here. Can I also mention the kit I used is FREE? Yep, wowie friends, get it here for FREE!

And finally, my blog has a new look! Didn’t you notice? Everything is from Jen Wilson who finally has a blog! Yay! I strongly recommend you add her to your links as she is ONE AMAZING DESIGNER!! Im on a self imposed DO NOT spend spree, not until I get to my 100th layout. I have a LOT of kits from the teams I work for and quite a few CDs I spent when I first discovered digiscrapping. Im happy to report that I have scratched at least 20% of them already And! I have closed one credit card as well! YAY! I plan to scrap about it real soon. The second one is ALMOST empty so that would leave me with only ONE more, let’s see….we might spend something for the kids, with Matthew’s school and Martha’s coming, you know..at least, one thing to cross off my debt-list Ooops, Im digressing, everything from the blog’s new look is from Jen’s FREEBIE on her blog, so grab it NOW
More to post, Im off to do my usual two-hour-make-my ankles-swell-walk again

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