Our ever, ever after

In less than 3 weeks, our fairytale story is coming true! "You two must be insane," our home Pastor would say. He says that marriage is the height of insanity, in case we still didn't know. "Putting two different people with two different personalities under one roof? It's a disaster in waiting!” (something to that effect) he adds. No, he wasn't discouraging us from walking down the aisle. He was just relieved to know that we get the picture he's painting and that we are so sold on going insane for each other after all the despites ;-)

EVER, EVER AFTER
Carrie Underwood
©Disney 2007

We've been very busy these past couple of days (the weekends, especially), running here and there, preparing for our wedding and readying our apartment. We rarely even have time for our laundry! Last Friday, we treated ourselves to the movies for the week's job well done. As with our last movie date (see related post), the combo was movie + boxed rice meals -- which we had right after.

Enchanted was indeed a treat! Although the plot is predictable (of course it's Disney!), we are more after the laughter and entertainment.

Quoting one line from the song (video on play):

No wonder your heart feels it's flying
Your head feels it's spinning
Each happy ending's a brand new beginning
Let yourself be enchanted, you just might break through!



Haaay, ang saya!

30 days and counting!

Time is speeding up the days and there's no way stopping it. We always tell ourselves to take it easy but honestly, stress is slowly creeping in! Haaaaay!

But one big thing crossed out from our checklist is the house, and this finally happened two days ago. The search is over! Yey! We found an apartment which is newly-built and very accessible to where we go to work. It’s very accessible to everything, actually. We're very excited about it. In fact, we already have design ideas in mind. Yesterday, we went to Ace Hardware in SM and bought lamps and window fixtures!

Just 30 days to go...

Going back after 11 years

I was quite apprehensive when Vincent first told me to go to Iloilo after he himself got back from his short official trip to this province last August. He said it will be very important for me to go back there before our wedding. I'm glad he persisted. And so we flew down there during the long All Soul's Day weekend.


Homecoming

On board to Iloilo.

Vincent mentioned in his post about me spending part of my adolescent years in Iloilo -- Miag-ao in particular. Mama was then an employee of UP's College of Fisheries when the "migration wave" in the University went full swing in the late '80s. Mama was one of those transferred to the Visayas. Since she can not give up her job, the whole family decided to join with her. I finished my junior and senior years in high school from this town's Catholic school and attended my first three semesters in UPV. A year after I transferred back to Diliman, my mother passed away. Papa and my sister remained settled there, but three years after Mama's passing, my sister lived with me and attended school here in Quezon City. The last time I set foot in this province was in 1996 and wasn't able to go back there since, until two weeks ago. As for Papa, I haven't seen him for six long years either. He got married again and now, I have two little brothers. This was one meaningful homecoming reunion for me, indeed.


Di-in kamo ma-agto?

Having counted the years, I scrambled big time in piecing together my Kinaray-a -- one of the province's local languages. Actually, I've never been fluent in Kinaray-a and never acquired the tongue accent. Kinaray-a na tunog Manileña pa rin. While I went to school there and got exposed to the language for three years, Tagalog is still the medium at home. Vincent was more confident that because he's with me, getting around Iloilo will not be so much of a problem, unlike when he was there three months before. We did manage to go around with my broken Kinaray-a, although we constantly get the "Di-in kamo ma-agto (where are you getting off)?" tagline from tricycle and jeepney drivers because we are obviously trying hard to speak the language. My personal favorite was whenever we go home to Papa's house after roaming around the town square. Whenever a tricycle driver asks where we're getting off, I would always say, "Rigto sa dako na balay ng mga Nerpiol (over there at the big house of the Nerpiols)". The Nerpiol's is that big house right next to my Papa's humble home. No, I'm not ashamed of my father's house (we actually love it because it's cozy). It's just that most drivers know this prominent family and so name-dropping the Nerpiol's would mean us never getting lost. Hahaha!


Ate Teng and Kuya Vincent

Welcome!!!

Papa's been married for six years to Jeane, who is a native of Miag-ao. I've never met her personally nor their little cookie monsters, CJ (5 years) and Jian (18 months). Papa is a father to pre-schoolers all over again at 53. The whole family picked up Vincent and me near the historic Miag-ao Church and took us home along with them. I should say I'm proud of Papa and Jeane for raising my brothers the right way. The kids are both smart and most of all, sweet! I was nearly in tears when I saw the banners they made for me and Vincent! Nakakatuwa!

Days before our trip, CJ would call me up wishing for a trolley school bag, a pack of crayons and pencils as his pasalubong (present). We got him his present and the moment we got home, he excitedly rolled the bag around the house! The boys are inherently sweet to each other. They share their stuffs sparingly without complaints. Of course they fight a little sometimes like normal kids do, but they are mature for their age. If it were me and their Ate Sheryl (my sister), we would be scowling at each other by then and Papa would be down on the floor pulling us apart! My sister and I didn't get along when we were kids. But CJ and Jian are not like that.



I am so grateful to God and to Vincent for this trip. It was indeed a humbling experience for the both of us. Among the many lessons we've learned, one thing that we realized is that WE ARE BLESSED WITH SO MUCH. We've learned how to be grateful with little things and count them as blessings. We tend to discount the simple things as gifts and call ourselves poor when in fact, we are richly blessed.

Only Papa and CJ will be here for the wedding, but we are going to visit the whole family again next year.


View more photos HERE.

Binsent and Teng in Iloilo

Family visit to Miag-ao, Iloilo.
02-04 November 2007.

Invites are out

We are finally distributing our invites! We've been conceptualizing the card since March this year (yes, it took us that long). Firstly, we want our invite to be unconventional. We want to keep it simple with all the essentials intact. Working along those lines, we first thought of adapting the theme "our favorite things", which would have showcased a collage of an assortment of our favorite things put together. But as we go along, we felt that while it does represent us, it doesn't really showcase who we are. In the end, we decided on design no. 8: the checkered, sepia-toned one. We had it done by Papemelroti, but the flaps, inserts and accents were on us. Jeff and Rona helped us out with the cutting and pasting.



WHAT'S INSIDE:

1. RSVP card. We are asking our guests to please return the response cards on or before December 1st (those who got RESERVATION cards need not return these). This will help us do the seat puzzle for the breakfast reception.

2. Gift registry card. We had our wish list registered at the SM Homeworld. All you need to do is to present this card at SM's (North EDSA, Megamall, Mall of Asia, Makati, Las Piñas) Homeworld department and choose your pick from our wish list. You get 10% discount with your every purchase. We chose SM because this is the mall that most of our friends (and even we) frequent. Honestly, we never knew how a bridal registry works until we approached the store's registration counter (wedding dummies, remember?). Well, getting ten flat irons or five rice cookers would be way too much, diba? We wish to avoid that. Although getting a hundred set of linen is okay with us. Hehehe...We enjoyed doing invisible shopping -- pointing at items we felt we'd need without really putting them into a cart! Don't worry. Most of our choices are affordable but functional items.

Of course, if you feel like gifting us with items not listed there (like all-expenses' paid holiday getaways, spa treats, et al.), you may do that too (smiles and winks)!

3. Location map. Please note (see bottom right-hand corner of the map) that the Church of the Risen Lord (CRL) compound is a NO SMOKING zone. This is a strict policy that we should all observe. You can't miss the CRL. This is the white, parabola-shaped building, almost facing the round UP Catholic Chapel (i.e., Parish of the Holy Sacrifice).


Tuloy na tuloy na 'to (this is it)! No turning back now! ;-)