Good News Mama!

So many things have happened since the last time I posted on blogger. For an update regarding the accident, let's just say it's costing Kevin and me a lot of money...my gosh! I just can't believe how much of our money is gone. It's kind of freaking me out but at the same time ...not really. This will pass eventually. But I really wish it would just be over with already. And then of course we both have work, but only one car. Surprisingly it's been working out pretty well. I only work part-time at the moment, so I drop off Kevin at work in the morning and then pick him up after I'm done, which is about 7pm. He just stays at work for an extra hour and a half doing homework as he waits. My life seems to be bogged down with education, work, and family. Being raised in a very Asian environment, those three things only seemed to work chronologically: Education first, then work, then have a family while you work (but only after you paid off your loans and have a mo...

It's been about 5 days since the car accident, and it's still hard to believe it happened. The day was such a normal and happy one. Earlier on in the day, we celebrated with the Galindos their baby shower for Levi! ADORABLE! It was a huge party, I almost felt like it was a wedding haha. I even won the raffle and got a gift card for Yogurtland! Yum! And then after, Kevin and I wanted to spend more time together so we decided to watch a movie. We got out a little after midnight, and wanted to go home, which was only 1 mile away. The intersection we got hit at was literally the ONLY intersection we had to pass through. One moment, Kevin and I are laughing about something and just chatting in the car, and then a second later we look to our left and notice this huge SUV heading straight for us. We also recall looking at our light and thinking 'Hey...our light is green!' then BAM! It was like a movie. All slow motion but way too fast to react rationally, so much noise from th...

If you were to ask me one thing my parents did right in raising me as a child, my answer would be an immediate "They raised me with pets!" Most of my happy childhood memories involved me with a whole buncha dogs, two cats, a few lovebirds, and some fishies. But my favorite was always a Collie dog I grew up with (just picture an overweight Lassie because he had a Filipino diet). Whenever I was scared, he was there to comfort me. When my parents were tired from work and wanted to watch TV, I would just go to the backyard and my fat dog would greet me and play with me. One day I was curious about what it would feel like to be bit by a dog so I stepped on him on purpose and cried when he bit me real hard...lol. After he died of worms, I had a couple of other dogs: a mutt, a shih tzu, a blind AND deaf poodle, a lab retriever....It wasn't until my parents divorced when I was 7 that I wasn't allowed to have pets anymore. So I've suppressed this longing for a dog until I ...

WoooOOoOoOoO it's been a LONG time since I typed on a computer/laptop. It's actually weird for my fingers and the sound of the keyboard is annoying my ears, but I've been horrible at keeping up with fb and blogger. I'm on my husband's laptop bc he's out with my little brother and I'm home alone with the pup (which I will blog about separately). But I do believe a lot has happened these last few months, and I'm going to list them from least to greatest. Just another testament of how good God is to me in my life! God provided me with a job as a summer school teacher for second graders at a church in Cerritos . I got the job through a sister in church (thanks Bethany!) and absolutely LOVE it. It was hard for me at first because I went through the feelings of guilt ("I got my license as an LVN...I should do nursing asap...it makes more money..it's a waste of money not to use it..I already wasted money trying to get a Bachelors of Political Scie...

This has been on my heart lately. So many young people struggle with lust, and they lose and fail over and over again. I can't count the number of times my girl friends have turned to me with this struggle, and even though I tell them what God's Word says, they go off and fall to their sin. The issue isn't that they didn't listen to me..the issue is they didn't listen to God's Word. It's important to kill sin. Why? Because if you don't...the sin will kill you. Praise the Lord that He is in control of all things (Romans 8:28) because honestly, if He wasn't, I'd be very discouraged.  I can honestly say one of the biggest struggles for me, in this season of my life, is being one of the only young married women among a lot of friends, and watching this happen over and over and over again. It is my prayer that my girl friends learn to love God more and learn to obey Him and listen to wise counsel based on the Word of God. Here are ...

Praise the Lord! I know this sounds kinda funny, but I actually enjoy going grocery shopping now. Not sure when it happened, but as I was walking down the aisles last week (I try to go grocery shopping at least once a week) I found myself taking my time and soaking it all in. I think the reason for this is because I haven't failed at cooking. It's also encouraging because a few people tasted my cooking and said it tasted good. But of course, I had those really  bad mistakes done in the kitchen that I'm glad no one was around for. Let's just say, I overcoated some garlic shrimp I was trying to make and that I felt like my heart stopped beating with each shrimp I ate. Gross. Bad memory. Do I stay within my budget? Absolutely not! I wish. We are trying to spend about $50-$60 a week...and my favorite places to go are Fresh N Easy, Winco, and Zion Market. For shampoo and soap or cotton balls and toilet paper, I go to Wal Mart. I can't believe money flies by so quick. B...

Sunday morning is my favorite. I vaguely remember, about a decade ago, I made a Livejournal entry about how much I loved Sunday mornings. I described how every Sunday morning, I'd wake up to my mom singing and ruining all of the lyrics. And how my family would go together to Catholic Mass, and then we'd go to Cerritos and eat some DJ Bibingkahan or Pinoy-Pinay. Those are still some fond memories I hold. And then I became Christian, and those memories remained as they were: memories from the past, never again to happen in the future. But now, as a married woman, I love Sunday mornings still, if not more. I wake up to an empty bed, because Kevin wakes up earlier than me. And I go downstairs and he's up and talking with my brother-in-law Michael, making omelettes. Michael's omelettes are always so pretty and fluffy, with yummy vegetables and other fancy-shmancy stuff in it. Kevin's omelettes usually look like they went through a car crash, with hot dogs and spam ...

...before the storm. Found out a few things this past week, and I'm trying to make sense of it all. Maybe it's not supposed to make sense. The only comfort I have is that God is in control. And thank God for a wonderful husband and some wonderful friends too.

A few hours ago I returned home from our Wives Ministry. A couple of wives meet every two weeks and are going through a wonderful Bible-based book called "The Excellent Wife" by Martha Peace. We're on chapter 9 and are talking about Love! What is true love? Is it based on feelings and romance? Or is it something bigger, something exemplified by a God-man dying on a cross? And what are some challenges to loving your husband? It's really nice to hear stories, share struggles, praise God together, and try to glorify God as wives. Kevin has been so good to me, and it's hard NOT to love him :) He's just so wonderful. But of course, he fails me, and I fail him, and I can't shake off the reality that I am a selfish human being. There are so many changes that come with marriage, such as...living and serving this other human being! And I'm not talking about bebes, folks. As a wife, I try to keep things clean around the home and cook for Kevin, and I have to m...

feeling so blessed! i'm SO happy i passed the NCLEX so i never have to retake a test like that ever again!! and i got my application to apply for the nursing license more quickly than i thought i would, so i should be getting my nursing license in a month. these past few days i've been working full-time in irvine and i really empathize with my husband a lot more. he works full-time AND does school full-time! this will be his life at least for 3 more years, before he gets his bachelors degree.  i already was exhausted just coming home from work to make dinner and pack our lunches (and it really isn't even that hard! i just wanted to sleep lol). it was the first time i passed out as he was praying for us before we slept last night. woops! imagine my confusion when i opened my eyes and it was day! i told him i was tired because i was the weaker vessel. HA! ;) in a sense, it's times like these i'm glad we don't have a baby yet. my mom has been throwing fits sayi...

Sooooo...guess who's working together AGAIN?!?!?! HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!! Jamie and I are both working at the Superior Courts of Orange County in Irvine, CA. Unfortunately we aren't in the same departments, but we still find reasons to hang out! Love her :)

Well, not really. But I'm home alone because Kevin is gone on Tuesdays...his schedule goes like this: Work from 6am-ish to 2pm-ish..then a 2-3 hour drive to school..then from 6pm-10pm he has class, and sometimes he stays later to hang out with Vince and Ceejay...so I don't see him until midnight or 1 am. And when he arrives, I'm happy and jumping and really energetic and wanna catch up! And what does he do? Pass out!!!! Sigh. lol. We're also wondering if he's going to go to pursue  a Masters Degree in the future. I told him that if he does that, which will be in about 3 years, it will just be the same thing...him being sleepy all the time! We like to say that it's really dependent on if we have kids or not by then, but I told him I'd just lay the baby on his lap as he types out his homework. I'll be at home all day and the baby can just stare at him like he's an animal...a furry, fluffy tall animal :P Did you know that it's advisable for new ...

Jamielyne, one of my best friends, did so much for my wedding. She also spent a lot of moolah, poor thing (in more sense than one!) lol I tell her I'll pay her back once I'll plan her wedding, but one of the gifts she gave me was a pair of books called "Shepherding a Child's Heart" by Tedd Tripp (plus the Parent's Handbook). I was really excited to read it, but also kinda scared. I was talking to my discipler Ate Rona (Ate "Ah-tehh" means 'older sister' in the Filipino language) and she was encouraging me to read a few parenting books a few months ago. My immediate answer was "No way! If I read more, then it will happen sooner than I want!" She told me I was being ridiculous, which I was, but it's kinda based off of experience. I kind of went haywire with this "Omg I wanna be a Proverbs 31 wife!!!" obsession and read a whole bunch of books (I wanna say anywhere between 10-20) but it could be less, it seems like an over...

Kev and I arrived home after bible study at around 12:30am, and saw his brother Mike in the garage. He usually leaves earlier than us so we were passing by him, and I asked: "Yo Mike! Did you like the message?" "Yeah I really enjoyed it!" "Really? Even though it's paraphrased?" I chuckled and sauntered by, and Kevin laughed really hard for like 5 minutes! And this, my friend, is why we became friends almost a decade ago :) Partially the reason why we fell in love with each other too. What a stud.

Tonight I had some friends from my college fellowship AACF (Asian American Christian Fellowship) over for dinner. It was SO much fun! Some of them I hadn't seen in a while, and others I see at church functions various times a week...but man, there was so much laughter and just too much catching up to do! I spent a lot of time figuring out what to make for dinner, going to Fresh n Easy and Wal mart (and going down the aisles freaking out because I'm not used to grocery shopping for food, having to pray because of my insecurities with cooking) and made some testers so when Kevin came home he told me which he liked most, and I made those right before everyone arrived. It is SO nice being married because we get to invite people over and minister to people more often now! Can you imagine-all those hours wasted during the "dating/engagement" period? Now we live together, and in a beautiful home, and can invite others over! HUGE PLUS TO BEING MARRIED (and good for me, to p...

YAY!!!! Today marks the first month of Kevin and me being husband and wife! But how did we celebrate? BY BEING IN SCHOOL! We are so romantic! LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAME!!! That's what we get for getting married young!! I had an IV Certification class from 8am-5:30pm, and Kevin had class in Santa Clarita from 6pm-10pm (and tonight he's going to be hanging out with the guys over there later for In-N-Out and some guy bonding time!) I miss my husband :( My brother-in-law is watching Lord of the Rings loudly as I type this, and my father-in-law just offered me some popcorn. Gausselins! lol. Ahh it's so nice being married! The Lord is SO good to provide me with a godly man who seeks to lead me spiritually and love me the way Christ loves the Church (Ephesians 5, baby!) So blessed to be married! Honestly, life is just so nice. Not perfect. But there's nothing like it! I don't even know how to explain it. I was saved 4 years ago, and halfway through that when I learned mor...

Well, not completely. I'm very thankful to be married because my days seem...lighter. I love love LOVE it! Cannot describe how happy I am to be a married woman! I'm so blessed. When people ask how the married life is, I just say "Extremely happy. I feel like all is as it should be." Cannot thank God enough for Kevin in my life. In other news, I was supposed to take my NCLEX this morning but I wanted an extra two days to study, so I'm taking it on Monday instead. I told Darrel and he was like "You just gave yourself 2 extra days to WORRY. Don't worry. You'll pass." I was like BUT WHAT IF I DON'T??? Actually, as nervous as I am, I'm more concerned that if I don't pass the first time (which is for free and paid for by the school if I DO pass), I'll have to pay hundreds to retake it! I better make sure I understand these things! Bleh. I've studied enough! I can't wait to get this test over with on Monday! I was studying al...

My family is CRAZY!!! And hilarious! One of the things they like to do is misinform people about Kevin's future occupation. Again, before I got married, I lived in a home with my mom, two brothers, cousin, grandma, and occasionally an aunt or uncle (or two) depending on the rotation of those coming in from the Philippines. My grandma "Mamang" calls all the relatives in the Philippines everyday and many episodes from TFC "The Filipino Channel" play loudly from the living room. I'm also the only one who is a professing Christian, and it was a pretty strange thing for all of my family for me to stop being Catholic. When the family first met Kevin, they asked him what he wanted to do as a permanent career. Kevin answered, "I want to teach the Bible!" He went into a description of how he wanted to teach high school kids in a high school setting and described his past experiences with Bible teachers. It was only until some family members started talkin...

I'm finally moved into the new house! (If you consider a packed suitcase and no furniture moved in ;)...I'm SO happy to be here! This house is beautiful, I feel like a wife!!!  It's also way more peaceful with no conflicting authorities in this house. Ahh it's just so nice...I really cannot help but praise the Lord for such a beautiful home! New home, new beginnings. I finally got to see everyone at church today and that was so refreshing! It seems like it's been so long! I was gross, sick and coughing and blowing my nose everywhere. But so many people still attempted to hug me lol and that was nice! Lots of questions about the honeymoon, reminiscing about the wedding day, talking about babies, being startled by Mark coming out of nowhere yelling "YOU'RE MARRIED YOU'RE MARRIED! I READ YOUR BLOGS!!!" Hahaha so good! It's our last time in that tent! I'm just happy to know Kev and I came back married, had our last time in service there, and ...

On our way to our honeymoon, we stopped by this place called "Big Boy Restaurant" to get gas. Reminiscing, I remembered how when I had a crush on Kevin, I would always go through his photos on facebook (LOL...STALKER!!!!) hey, I ain't denyin' it ;) We've all done it! Lol!!! And I asked him to pose like the character again! Kevin 2 years ago Kevin 1 week ago Come to think of it...that statue is kinda creepy! And did it lose weight?? Anyways, I just thought it was cute how he came back to the same spot as a married man :)  We are gonna try to move out of my mom's starting tonight...Thank the Lord! I understand the emotional ramifications of not leavin' and cleavin'! Of course, we would have preferred to leave asap but this little sickness has gotten us both. It's been funny too, because my mom got so surprised over what I've been cooking. She never ate casserole before, so this was a first for her.  A few days ago we ha...

Man oh man! Kevin and I are still sick. What a way to get used to being married huh? After saying our traditional vows we're already having to deal with sickness! He got better, and I got worse...Around 6 am this morning I woke up drenched in sweat and had a fever! Thankfully I took some Tylenol and felt a lot better...still felt kinda gross because my normal bed had turned into a water bed within the span of a few hours! Poor Kev is still working on his 15 page paper and I'm just trying to fill the time with recovering and looking forward to moving out of my mom's later this week. But since we've been back on Saturday we've been ordering out and I was like "Okay, enough is enough! I gotta cook for my man!" (And if you know me...you know I'm not very good at cooking...the most I can do is to fry eggs and spam and Vienna sausage and anything and everything Filipino) In all honesty, this is probably the most intimidating part of marriage for me (I...

It's been a strange transition back from the honeymoon! Kevin and I got sick on the last day of our week long honeymoon (Kevin had it worse though, poor thing!) and when we arrived back we were EXHAUSTED! My mom told us that we should just stay at her place until we both got better. Another reason why this is convenient: none of our stuff has actually been moved yet! The place where we are gonna live just got new carpets installed! So it didn't really make sense for us to move all our stuff there, move it all around for the new carpets, so we just decided to wait. So please pray for us! We would love to be healthy again. And poor Kev has a 15 page paper due tomorrow from school. He just never seems to get any rest.

Kevin and I got married on March 3, 2012. That's 8 days ago! It was such a weird feeling to know that it was only a year and a half ago when he proposed, and that waiting felt like forever! It seemed like the wedding day would never come. But all of a sudden, there I was standing in front of him saying our vows; he was the same 14 year-old boy I had become close friends with, but he was also the man I had fallen in love with because of his love for Christ. I'll go ahead and blog about the day itself, and the many highlights of what happened! Kevin and I had planned to get married around 2:30 pm, but many of my bridesmaids/wedding attendants decided to get ready with hair and make up around 9:30am in El Segundo at the pastor's home next to the church. Jamielyne and Zerah (my best friends and maids-of-honors) came over early and we rode over from La Mirada to El Segundo. Man oh man that was a wonderful way to start off the day. One minute we are just talking about Jamie...