When I was 6… May 13, 2009

Okay, so I just showed you pictures of me on my last birthday.  As much as I am into scrapbooking, I have a confession to make.  With all the moving we have done, I have somehow lost all my earlier pictures and the only pictures I have are my children’s, some of my wedding, and a handful high school and college pictures emailed to me by my friends. 

That’s why I was sooooo thrilled to find old classmates in my elementary years in Facebook and they scanned our Preparatory yearbook.  And guess what I found?!?  I found a picture of me when I was 6 or was it 5?  Yes, this truly was a treasure.  So, without further ado, this was what I looked like—basang sisiw (wet chick)…   

I almost died laughing at how I looked back then!!!  LOL!    Oh, I can’t wait until my family sees this, but before they do, I’d like to share my laughter with you… 

 

The tale of THREE Birthdays…and Easter, too! May 12, 2009

I am catching up on my posts.  So, here’s what happened in March and April–it was a very busy month prepping for Jian’s 13th birthday party,  Alex’s 18th and my 34th!    Yeah, all three of us are ARIES that’s why we always butt heads.  hehehe!

Jian’s 13th birthday was on March 25th and since it was a weekday, we had dinner at our favorite Italian Restaurant, Assagio’s. We celebrated with our good friend Tracie and her girls, Aimee (4) and Amanda (2). My whole family is totally, utterly in love with these two girls.  They are just too funny especially Amanda! This two-year old Amanda-Panda was the life of the party! Yeah, Jian met her match in Amanda-Panda when it comes to scene-stealing!!!  LOL!  She had to be with Jian the whole night catching every scene as much as she can. And when we thought she was with Uncle Stan when Jian was opening up her gifts, pop she goes from the back of Jian’s chair causing Jian to scream and make a scene at the restaurant! LOL! We all had a great time, although it wasn’t later until Tracie ever-vigilant and looking out for me and my diabetes spilled that the cake was sugar-free! hehehe

Pictures below L-R:  Jian at Assagio’s.  Jian with Amanda Panda singing the birthday song with us.  Amanda Panda startling Jian. 

      

Pictures below L-R:  Jian’s sugarless cake–hehehe. And finally, my plate, Chicken Alla Saltimbocca Romana—HEAVENLY! 

  

Then on to Jian’s birthday slumber party at Ohana West Hotel in Waikiki on March 27 and 28th.  We had two of Jian’s friends from school, Katie and Max.  For dinner, we went to Round Table Pizza in Waikiki….

 

Then we headed back to the hotel.  The boys went home.  I had one room and the girls were in the other adjoining room.  I wish I could say it was quiet…*sigh*…  The following morning, the girls headed to the pool while I made breakfast.  The beds were stripped of beddings…don’t ask…  Candace then joined them later that morning and they played on my laptop, and hide and seek.  Candace found a great hiding spot, which Katie had to try, too.  Of course, Max and Jian had to try it out, too, but let’s not show you the picture when Jian was trying.    Stan and Alex came back to the hotel.  We then drew the shades for the birthday cake and since it was Alex’s birthday that day, Alex sat behind the cake as we sang the birthday song to both of them. 

 

 

The girls left in the afternoon, I rested a bit and then it was time to celebrate Alex’s 18th birthday at Cheesecake Factory in Waikiki.  It was a short walk across the International Market. 

 

My much-deserved drink after the slumber party craziness!  Our Birthday Boy…

  

We couldn’t decide which appetizer to order.  Stan solved that by ordering the appetizer sampler…and here’s my plate of Steak Diane and Shrimps…YUMM-O!

  

Here’s our big girl, Aimee, eating all by herself–no help and no high chair at that!  Alex’s birthday cake

  

The Birthday Boy again and the party animals!!! 

Then came my birthday on Easter Sunday, April 12th.   We celebrated it at Max’s of Manila Restaurant in Waipahu. 

   

Below, armed with my camera.  Flowers from Tracie and the girls. 

 

My children.  My family.

 

Below, with Tracie, James, Aimee.  Yummmmm–grilled mahi-mahi with chopped onions, green mangoes and tomatoes.

 

This is how we eat sinigang na baboy at home…yes, my kids even eat it this way in the restaurant.  Aimee and Amanda-Panda loved it! 

Know your Camera… March 27, 2009

Did I mention I took a Photography class through University of Hawaii? Well, don’t be impressed yet…because, this is the basics of all basics and the class was aptly titled: KNOW YOUR CAMERA 1. It basically taught me the different cool things my Canon XT (I need an upgrade BAD!) can do. Yup, I’ve only using the automatic functions of this camera since my hubby gave it to me for my birthday 2 years ago.

Okay, so, I hear you guys asking me, why not read the instruction booklet that came with the camera, right? Hmm…it’s not Marisa-friendly… I don’t know what I was reading as far as aperture, ISO, and all those technical boo-hoo they were talking about. Besides, being a visual learner, I need someone to take my hand (not that my teacher had to literally hold my hand, mind you! hehehe!) and point out what the different buttons, menu and what those numbers are that I see when I peek through the eyepiece of this crazy camera of mine!

The class was shown the very basics starting with exploring the camera, taking it apart, what the lens can do, etc. Then we were given homework on our first week–btw, this class was every Monday for 5 weeks. The first homework was on aperture and to bracket or show different exposures changing the aperture by one F-stop — the normal, normal minus and normal plus of the same image using one of the compositional elements.

So, here’s my take on this homework using COLOR as my compositional element at normal exposure:

Our second week’s homework was on Shutter Speed–stop motion and stop action. Again, here’s my take on stop motion, normal exposure:

Our third week’s homework was on Portraiture. Here’s my take on it, it’s on normal exposure, but I felt it was overexposed:

Our fourth week’s homework was on Night Photography. Here’s mine on normal exposure:

Oh, while I was waiting for the sun to set to take our 4th week’s homework, I took this…my futile attempt on rule of thirds:

I submitted my sunset picture as an add-on photograph to be critiqued, which we did mostly on our last class last Monday. I think my teacher was prepping us for the next class. And yup, got me hooked and I signed up for the next class…Know your Camera 2!

Typing… March 26, 2009

speed, that is…

81 words

Speedtest

 

Actually, 81 words, 1 mistake….YIKES!  Not as fast as I was when I taught typing eons ago…hmmmm…hopefully my students from HAU won’t read this…hehehe

You’re invited… March 21, 2009

Jian’s having a slumber party to celebrate her 13th birthday with a few classmates and friends. So, I figured, just tell them to come to the hotel, right? Well, these girls are spoiled because they wanted invites to show their parents. I’m not truly sure, though.  I think they just wanted me to make the invites–again!   You see, for as long as I remember I have been making Jian’s invites…don’t ask me where they are now…I’ve lost most of them from all the moving around of boxes and things in the house. Maybe I’ll find them again when I move things around–yet again! LOL!

Jian asked these colors for her 13th birthday…scared me a bit…these would be colors I’ll pick, but didn’t think she’ll like these “older” colors for her 13th Birthday invites.  Anyway, here they is!!! hehehe

 

Very easy invites to make.  I think I spent less than 1 hour to finish 9 of these babies.  I used Bazzill cardstocks, black colorbox ink pad, Memories white ink pad, Micron 03 black pen, 1/4 tape adhesive, CTMH Slumber stamp set, and red fringe ribbon.  The red cardstock measures 3 1/4 x 7 3/4.  Black cardstock measured 4×12.  I folded the black cardstock with the “pocket” measuring 4×4.  I adhered the sides with the tape adhesive to form a pocket.  Stuck the fringe ribbon on the front of the pocket, stamped the bed stamp with the white inkpad.  On the red cardstock, I stamped the pillow using white inkpad and used black ink for the rest of the word stamps.  Pretty easy, huh?    Yeah, these are my type of projects, fast and easy to create. 

Thirteen… March 17, 2009

Yes, 10 days to go…my baby’s going to be THIRTEEN!  So sad.  It’s just yesterday that I had her in my arms, breastfeeding and bonding with this cute baby girl of mine.  Where did the time go?

This hit me again as I was working on my assignment today for my photography class…here are some pics of my little girl…

non-stop…sleep-deprived… February 4, 2009

Whew!  Got back to the island on Sunday afternoon and I am just talking non-stop according to my hubby. The kids even looked at me weird when I came in the house.  My honey told them that he couldn’t shut me up from the airport.  I was soooo tired and sooooo sleep-deprived that just couldn’t stop talking! 

Speaking of sleep-deprived…

This is my friend and niece, Rollyn.  Don’t let her fool you with the glasses–on the first picture above, she’s actually catching some z’s at Goofy’s Kitchen and then again at the new Nemo ride at Disney.  Yep, in fact, I caught her drooling in her sleep at the Nemo ride!  LOL!   

Rollyn flew all the way from the Philippines for the Winter CHA.  She’s approx. 6 months pregnant.  We had a blast and walked M-I-L-E-S around the Anaheim Convention Center during the Winter CHA from Jan 24 to Jan 28. 

I also went to see my first NBA game with Rollyn…Lakers played against Charlotte.  Charlotte won after two overtimes.  Rollyn was funny as she jumps everytime the Lakers scores.  One would think she’s not pregnant!  LOL!   

And oh, we also visited the Mouse…

the longest… January 22, 2009

There was a commotion at the hallway last week.  So naturally, the curious cat in me had to check it out.  My friend from work, Rose, gave our boss this eggplant, and it’s the longest I’ve seen.  And she also had one for me! 

And oh, checkout my new hairdo!  Short, huh?  And here’s another picture of the longest eggplant…

Oh me, oh my!  Ok, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, back to work. 

random stuff… January 20, 2009

We had some rain two (or was it three?) weeks ago.  It was the end of the day and I was walking from my office to the parking lot when I saw this beautiful rainbow peaking thru the tree.  Luckily, I had my new camera with me and took this picture.  Beautiful, isn’t it?    Just one of the many blessings I thank God for–lucky to live in Hawaii–the Rainbow State.    Rainbows never fail to keep me in awe, a wonderful reminder that there’ll more beautiful days to come. 

Jian and I played with my new camera while I was driving her to school and me to work last week…no worries, we arrived okay. 

I’m working on getting my stuffs packed for my trip to Ahahemin for Winter CHA on Friday.  Yipee!!!  I still have a few things to get together for the trip.  Supplies I need for all my classes are packed. Clothes are all ready..well, almost.    And yes, need to grab the suitcases from storage.  *sigh*  And this I made while looking for my class supplies…something “scrappy”…I found this plastic check cover while looking for the supplies and remembered that I need one for my checkbook…yeah, I easily get distracted.  LOL! 

Holidays and Beyond…2009 at last! January 7, 2009

We opened all our gifts and we toasted the New Year…

 

and yes, to include me catching my children running away and divvying up remainder of the bottle.   Thank goodness it’s Welch’s Sparking Grape and NOT real wine.  Can you imagine if it was real wine???

 

 

Although at some point during the last hour of 2008 going over to New Year’s, I was starting to whine…tired…yep, look at me in the pictures.  And oh, the first batch was Christmas Dinner at my good friend, Tracie’s house.  The munchkins are Tracie’s and our favorite girls, Aimee and Amanda.  Jian loves to babysit these cuties and just couldn’t get enough of them.  See how they hang on Jian???  New Year’s in Hawaii was a BLAST or several BLASTS…literally!  We, of course, had to contribute to the noise and smoke with our store-bought firecrackers ranging from penguins, hummer, firetruck, sparklers, etc.  A lot of the pictures I took were hazy especially the aerials.  My fault actually for not being able to fix my camera’s settings.  Either way, I hope you enjoy these pictures… 

                                                        

Now that the holidays are over, I am looking forward to this year as I hope to enjoy and do a lot more with my family, take care of myself, learn to properly use my cameras, have more scrap-time for myself, etc.    Of course, I still plan to bring you the latest in scrapbooking both in supplies and techniques through the website and events I plan to attend and teach.  However, I’m taking a break in January…or am I?  Towards the end of January, I plan to be here:

Yeah!!!  Can’t wait!  My dear friend, Yoyin, will be flying from the Philippines and will join me in Anaheim to peruse only the best and latest scrapbook products for all of you in Hawaii, US mainland, and in the Philippines.  Please stand by for more on this as we bring you more through Scrapbooks Hawaii!  We’re hope that you all continue to support us and Scrapbooks Hawaii in 2009. 

HUGS to you all and here’s wishing all of you the best in 2009…more blessings for you and your family, more scrapbook supplies for you, more layouts and more cards, too!