This Sunday, there will be a fundraising fun run for Jon Angelo’s Breathe Hope campaign. I would so love to go, but I have work that day from 5am.
But if you have time, and you’d like to run for fitness, and help at the same time, do Run for Hope!
Check out Jon’s Facebook page to get in touch with his Mommy Tet. 🙂
I don’t remember my sixteenth birthday. And I don’t say that with any bitterness ha, I just really don’t remember what we did or who I was with at the time.
My niece and goddaughter Ycha Shanti celebrated her 16th birthday on National Heroes’ Day, August 30th. It was a simple celebration, but she had a LOT of guests! I’m sure she will remember this for a long time.
She’ll be graduating from high school in a few months, and then she’ll be starting a brand new adventure: college/university life! Earlier this month, she took the UPCAT (University of the Philippines College Admission Test). Soon, she’ll be taking entrance exams to other universities in the metro. I have no doubt that she will find a good school. She has the head and heart for school, but she also doesn’t forget to enjoy and just be a kid. 🙂
I heard that she’s also interested in learning photography. Maybe my gift to her would be to help her develop that (since I don’t have the dough to get her her camera, haha).
Mana sa Ninang 🙂
Ate, with Da Boys
Me, Papa (our grandfather), and Shanti
with her girlfriends (since they were younger kids)
with her schoolmates, the other boys in her class didn't join the shoot. but there's probably as many boys as there were girls.
All photos were captured by the boyfriend, which explains the abundance of my face in these stills. Haha 🙂
I saw my girlfriends on Sunday just to catch up and to spend time with Mayeen before her special day. I finally published our photos on Facebook, and I hope that pacifies them for awhile. Although, I should probably dig up photos from Y’s wedding last year because they’re bound to remember that I never shared those to them. Lol 🙂 Di bale, I’ll post them on the couple’s one year wedding anniversary. Haha!
Before the bride and groom arrived though, it was just Arianne, Raech, me and Iskra. Okay, before I arrived, Yrish, her baby Sean and hubby Pao were there too. 🙂 Since I have no baby pics of Sean to show (because I didn’t get to see him in person :(), here are photos of our first baby. Iskra and Mommy Raech. 🙂
This kid has loads of energy! We were together the week before, for dinner at Max’s. She started out with a really bad mood, but then the playground fixed her up until very late that evening. Just when Max’s was about to close, she finally felt hungry. So napa-chocolate cake tuloy kami! 🙂
At Trinoma last Sunday, she was playing with some kid at the Activity Center when they arrived. We trooped to the paid lounge so her mom could try out a dress that Arianne had brought for her and you know what she did while waiting? Wash up! As in she washed her face and arms several times. It looked like she was trying to cool off 🙂 While there, I remembered how, as a kid, I was half scared, half fascinated by the hand dryers in strange big restrooms like that one. Play wasn’t getting myself wet. It was getting wet so I had an excuse to dry off. 🙂
Iskra’s all grown up. She’s in grade school now and I could hardly believe it. To me, she’ll always be this little girl from two years ago:
Iskra
Because I’ve been on vacation, I had the chance to finally meet these two adorably bright kids:
He is Adam, three years old. She is Vien, four years old. You might have seen her elsewhere, she’s appeared in magazines before 🙂 Hehe. These kids belong to my girlfriends Anliza and Everth. I met those two back in grade school and I don’t see them very often. I crashed their party on Wednesday night just because I could. Haha!
They are so full of energy, and both were talkative (though in different ways). It was so much fun just watching them have fun and fool around. Of course, I also did get to catch up with their moms. Last time all three of us went out to just have a chat was more than a year ago (I think). And I’ve always just heard about their kids and looked at their photos. They’re more lovable in person 🙂
We got to talking about how expensive putting kids through school is. And how it might be hard to give the same things you’ve given to your first-born to kids that come after. And it isn’t because you play favorites, but because it’s just too expensive already. They both only have one child each.
Vien started school this week while Adam is still too young. Soon enough, they’d both be preparing for college entrance exams! Hay.
My eldest niece has just started senior year in high school. One time over the summer, her mom mentioned looking for an affordable review center to enroll her in. They want to prepare for the UPCAT (entrance exam for the University of the Philippines). Though I didn’t have to enroll in such classes, I do remember spending afternoons and weekends with my friends going through reviewers and sample exams. Those were enough for me, but yeah, it wouldn’t hurt to have more help.
For some of us, the UPCAT is the most important exam we’ll ever have to take. Others move on to take more crucial, life-altering exams like the LAE for UP Law, and the NMAT to qualify for Med school (it’s like the GMAT for business schools in the US), etcetera. Â Oh and that’s not to mention the bar/board/licensure exams you need to take before you can practice what you’ve just spent years studying for. No wonder there is a huge market for review and tutorial centers. We need a lot of help preparing for the many tests we’d have to take. These centers specialize too. You have ones specializing for gmat prep, nursing board review prep, bar exam prep, and so on.
Oh well, life is a series of tests, one right after another.
Hey, how did I get here? One moment I was gushing over how cute Vien and Adam are, the next I’m talking about exams!
Anyhoo, I am so looking forward to meeting up with my girlfriends again and also seeing the kids. I don’t know when that will be, but I hope we won’t be waiting another year for it. 🙂
Oh I just remembered! He’s the same Adam on this infant layout, and here with the toys too!
And another thing. Not all kids can be as energetic as these two, let’s not forget them. Please reach out and do what you can for Baby Jon Angelo!
Apart from my friend Kathie, another special person is celebrating his birthday today: Baby Jon Angelo!
Click on the photo (which I borrowed from the family’s site) to get to his website and learn more about helping out with his cause. I am already cooking up a small giveaway for my birthday next month, and his bracelets will be a central feature of the giveaway. I don’t have mine yet (haven’t ordered), but I sure will have one, along with members of my family 🙂