Little Miss Wanderlust

This time last year, I was celebrating this special day for mothers with our little munchkin still inside my tummy.  I felt I had the right to co-celebrate with all amazing moms (and dad-moms, lolo/lola-moms, sibling-moms etc) of the world because technically I'm a mom already. Little did I know that being a mom is far from what I imagined it to be. Spoiler: IT'S WAY BETTER! :) After giving birth, I was exhausted. Happy, relieved, and just plain exhausted. It was a grueling almost 24 hours of "labor". I was brought to the hospital around 6AM on the 27th, hoping that I will give birth a couple of hours later so I was pretty sure our little boy's birthday will be July 27. It took me a whole day of waiting, monitoring, cm-checking and "doc wala pa ba talaga" questioning before finally seeing our little one the morning after at 5:55AM. This year, I am definitely, solidly, officially, proudly a mom on mother's day. Everyday I thank God for this b...

It's been a while since I blogged. I can't say I miss it that much. Instagram, twitter and Facebook posts took over the blog world. I guess it's the accessibility and because you need not think about templates and color palettes for the layout. Anyway, going back to the title of this post - When was the last time I felt super? Well.. I traveled to Denver alone this September. It was a week long business trip. I was trying hard to convince my husband to come with me but failed because he had work too and couldn't take the time off. This is not the first time for me to travel alone but what made this different is that it was the first time for me to travel after getting married. For some reason, it did feel different not having that constant person with me aka the hubby. I felt super because I survived it. I did get homesick after office hours while I was alone at the hotel and walking around Denver downtown. It was an experience to be stopped by a number of homeles...

So I am now a Mrs. It has just been weeks since our wedding and we just came back from a trip to Korea. That country is awesome by the way, I'll talk about it in another post. Still thinking if I'll start writing here or if I'll continue blogging through our wedding site. Until that gets decided then I'm staying put here. Hello world, this is Mrs. Grau signing in. Mr. and Mrs. Grau   Carpe Diem! I'm out.

image from HERE  thanks! After my scheduled WFH today I went to the mall to withdraw and do some walking (and reward myself with some Potato Corner fries. Guilty pleasure.) Ended up in a bookstore and got depressed when I realized I have not bought a book and completed reading a book since early last year. Wow. So I spent 30 minutes just browsing around the store. I promised myself that after all the wedding preparations, I will go back to reading. Okay, maybe after the wedding na lang. I'll just end up making my eye-bags bigger if I start reading before the wedding because I have the habit of not putting down a book if it's really interesting. So there, promise number 1.  Next activity was to cleanup my old email accounts. Got to the email where this blog is linked to. Got to check on the blog and saw that my last post was from August of last year. The post where I officially started to countdown to our wedding day. Re-read a number of other entries and realized ho...

Today marks the start of our countdown to our big day! This time next year, we'll already be married. Wow. How exciting! :)

I was asking a lot of people if I really need to create our very own wedding blog. I planned to open one initially but then laziness won. So I shall continue to update you here in my good OLD blog and hope that I'll be able to update this blog as often as I can. :) So... we got engaged last March 17. My birthday. As what we have been doing for the past years, when the celebrant can't think of anything to do or a place to go to on his/her birthday, the other one is required to plan for it. So that's exactly what happened on my birthday this year. My plan was to have lunch with my family - we had a hearty celebration at Dad's/Kamayan/Saisaki - then dinner plans was made by Arvic and me being my spoiled self wanted a surprise celebration. My only request... Surprise me with a new place. :) He brought me here.... He said he wanted to have dinner on a Cruise and so we did just that. I was happy he managed to plan this out.. impressive! Dinner was just okay --- a piece ...

I've been visiting Baguio City for countless times already and this was the first time I got to visit the BenCab Museum. Who is BenCab you might be wondering. Here's bits of info about the guy. :) (Excerpt came from this site ) ==== Benedicto Reyes Cabrera — or BenCab, as he is more popularly known is widely hailed as a master of contemporary Philippine art. He was born in Manila on April 10, 1942. BenCab began carving a niche for himself in Manila’s art circles shortly after receiving his bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Philippines in 1963. A painter and printmaker, he has exhibited widely in the Philippines and in Asia, Europe, and the United States. He has won several major art awards in a career spanning four decades. In 1992, he received the Gawad CCP Para sa Sining (Cultural Center of the Philippines Award for the Arts). In 2006, he was conferred the Order of National Artist for Visual Arts by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in Malacana...

This is what I got this Valentine's day and I must say that Arvic really knows me pretty damn well. He gave me food instead of flowers :) And it was cute as well how and when he did it since I had no idea he went all the way to Slice after our lunchout to get these. "Ang init pa nga dear e" was what he said when he told me about it. Awwww. I love the red velvet and chocoyema cupcakes! Plus.. I shared it with my Mom and she liked it as well. Pogi points for you Arturo ;) After 5 years of being together, it feels great to know that the kilig and pagpapakilig factor is still there. I'm one lucky lucky girl! How was  your Valentine's Day celebration? CARPE DIEM! I'm out.

It was my first time to experience a 'White Christmas' so this is what happened when we woke up one December morning with snow falling.... Of course we had to go outside! Look at those footsteps :P  Layers of Snoooooooooow! That's Pa and Ma  My brother, Ivan  The mailbox The mini Christmas Tree outside of the house And of course..... ME! :P It was soooo cold outside that after taking everyone's pics we rushed back to the house, had breakfast then drank hot coffee. :D CARPE DIEM! I'm out.

It has been a while since I last posted in this blog and the reason behind it is simply because I was too busy enjoying each moment, food and conversation that I seldom forget to take pictures. And if you do read my blogs you'll notice that I always include pictures in my post. So there... that's my excuse. :P Anyway... I'm back. And allow me to go way way way back to the last quarter of 2012 and update you with what I have been up to. :) ===== Christmas 2012 was extra special for me since we spent it in the US and we were complete (with an additional blessing named Layla!). It has been years since we celebrated Christmas as a complete family since Ate (my sister) moved to the US with her family. Initially my brother was not supposed to join us since he's busy with Medical School but I insisted that he followed even if it meant he'll just spend 2 weeks in the US. Quality time over quantity! :) I think it'll be years again before we get the chance to d...

I'm back. After spending more than 3 weeks in the US, I'm finally back. It was a really fun and steady vacation. Spent most of the time there playing games and talking with my nephew and taking care of my new niece (she's sooooo adorable!!!! I love her to death!!!!). Look!!! This vacation made me realize that I can go anywhere in the world as long as I'm with my family. This vacation made us closer and made us all realize that we should take advantage of the chance to go on trips together and spending holidays together. We won't be able to do it this year. Because Ate and her family will obviously be in the US and we'll be here. IF we do go there, Ivan won't be able to join us since he'll be busy with his Medical/Hospital internship. There's just 1 reason why I still was excited to go home to Pinas. Arvic. I love that he's been missing me like crazy when I was gone. And that he never failed to say that he misses me. He never missed s...

I lost a friend last week. A dear dear dear friend. And until now I refuse to accept the idea of not being able to see her or talk to her ever again. We were blockmates during college. Became close girlfriends. And stayed in touch eversince. We have dinners and drinks at least once a month and we constantly chat via whatsapp or skype. I was just talking to her before she left for the US and was teasing her about not coming home since she might suddenly get married or something. She assured me I'll see her mid-November and we'll talk about her trip. She left for the US for a 5-week vacation last Oct. 18.. got sick in the US (they say she caught the flu or some kind of virus or maybe was already sick - blood results are still being processed).. then died Oct. 23. Why her. Why this soon. Why why why. Life is unfair. The first time I heard about her death was when I visited her FB page. It has been 3 days since she left and I was bothered that she hasn't updated me y...

L-R : Ketty, RV, Merie, Arvic, Me, Emil Friends. I really treasure my friendships --- especially those kind formed in times when I really needed friends to be able to cope through something. I was given a chance to meet-up with my IBM friends recently. And it was fun fun fun! I really missed these people. If you've been to the bad and back with people, the friendship just can't be replaced or tarnished. Even if we don't talk that much like before, just one text message or chat would do. Anyway, enough blabbing. Thanks for the friendship amazing people! See you soonest. :) CARPE DIEM! I'm out.

Happy 2 months Baby Supladita!!!! Tita is very very very excited to see you na. :) CARPE DIEM! I'm out.

Another new find!!! Well.. new to us at least. Since it's that time of the month.... I am craving for sweeeeets!!! And this is the cake I really want as in NOW. Pistachio Sansrival! Haaaaay... why why why do girls have this cravings monthly. Unfair. Carpe Diem! I'm out.

And because I can't get enough of her, here she is AGAIN! Sooooooooo cute!!! Carde Diem! I'm out.

Friends,... I am an Aunt again. My sister just gave birth to a very healthy (and really fair) baby girl. Here's Layla She looks like my sister and my nephew!!! Congrats Ate! I'm glad it was an easy and safe delivery :) I'm excited to see you on December Little Girl!!!! :) CARPE DIEM! I'm out.

I saw this interesting application that's related to hair. And since i've been kinda obsessing about my hair lately, it was cool to see myself sporting different hairstyles. Here's me with short hair and long hair Hahaha :)) Carpe diem, i'm out!

A few days back I posted a status in my FB page to remind myself (and my friends too) to surround ourselves with "sunny" people. When I say "sunny" I'm referring to happy, positive and carefree people. Why? Well for me personally I think it's healthy. In a world now full of negativity, jealousy and pain, trying to stay sane is a struggle. So we must try our best(est) to stay happy inspite and despite of a lot of things. I can say I'm lucky that I am blessed with sunny friends and family. I hope you are too :) Stay sunny! :)

 We weren't able to spend Father's Day together since I think Pa hosted a firing range competition at our home in N.E. So bawi na lang kami one of this weekends :) Thank you Papa! You will always be the number 1 man in my life. :) Thank you for taking care of us... for making sure we grow up well, for providing us with nothing but the best. We love you and I'm looking forward in travelling more with you and Ma. Kaya please na, pumayag na kayo ni Mama mamasyal hahahha! :P ( Sidenote: My parents are such homebuddies)