One Year Down!

"There is no more lovely, friendly, and charming relationship, communion, or company 

than a good marriage."

~ Martin Luther

The statement is nothing short of true.  And this month, Rolly and I are celebrating the very first year of one good marriage.  Woohoo! Happy anniversary, my love!

In celebration of Year One, my husband and I thought of reliving a few milestones...

Stop 1:  UP Diliman, where Rolly and I first met.

our Alma Mater

It was one fine day in May at the FC Steps.  This chinito guy shook my hand and said, "It's nice to finally meet you." Hihi.  I still find myself giddy even after half a decade, geez!  Just a brief background: Rolly was an officemate of my UP blockmate Precious.  The latter hooked us up at that time when both Rolly ad I were partner-less.  She's in the States now so I couldn't personally hug her to say thank you all over again. 

We didn't eat at Rodic's on our first date, but we stopped by because we missed its famous tapsilog! =D

Stop 2:  Eastwood Richmonde Hotel, where we spent the night before and on the wedding day.

This time, we didn't book an expensive suite. =D

This place will always be memorable.  Obviously, it will forever appear on our wedding preps photos like these below! :)

Rolly and I with our courts at the hotel before going to church :)

Since we weren't able to book a trip for our anniversary, we just stayed overnight at the hotel for some R&R.

Oh yes, R&R included a visit to the hotel's gym. *frowns*
It was a good thing there's TV, I got to catch The Buzz while Rolly worked on the muscle machine. =D

Stop 3:  Christ the King Parish, Greenmeadows, where we exchanged vows.

CTK's altar is one of the most photogenic in the country! :)

We attended mass at the chapel of Padre Pio near Eastwood, but of course we wouldn't let the weekend pass without dropping by the church closest to our hearts.  Christ the King was a witness to our big day - the flood of emotions, the overflowing love and happiness that the two of us felt, the tears of joy that were shed. We love this place!  Though Greenmeadows is far from where we live, we know we will definitely keep coming back. Who knows, we might be renewing our vows here two or three decades from now! ;)

*****

And that wraps up our very simple anniversary weekend.  But more than the quality time spent, I guess our most important takeaway from the celebration is our "SWOT" talk.  It wasn't really a convo about strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (hehe); it was more of an assessment of our first year of being married.  We told each other our feelings, the good things and the bad, things we could improve on in our daily lives, our dreams, et cetera.  Rolly and I believe that marriage is hard work, that's why we feel that discussing things like these and working on stuff which need to be worked on are essential.  We plan to make this discussion a regular part of our annual wedding celebration. Kung may "BR" as in business review, meron ding "MR" as in marriage review. ;)

*****

PAHABOL: This was taken on our actual anniversary night, November 8 Friday, at Yabu. :)


ONE YEAR DOWN, FOREVER TO GO! :)

Cheers,

Oreos and Cream Cupcakes

Yesterday was October 31st, one day before All Saints' Day... Undas as we call it here in the Philippines.  I took the day off in anticipation of the heavy traffic I wasn't brave enough to endure, so I had the entire day all to myself (hubby still went to the office because he's got no more VLs left)!  And what do I usually do in my free time?  BAAAAAKE! =)  This time, the superstar of my cupcake wasn't blueberries or yellow yema filling.  This time, the center stage belonged to the world's favorite cookie.  OREO.

 

Wanna know how I baked my new Oreos and Cream cuppies?  If you're interested, read on. :)

For the cupcakes, it's very simple.  Just follow my Moist Chocolate Cupcake recipe here and you're good to go.  However, do not miss this very important step after you're done preparing the batter:  Put one oreo cookie into each baking cup as shown in the photo above. You'll be burying it under the chocolate batter you just made. Yes, we are going to hide the sandwich cookies! The twist, lick, and dunk Oreo way won't do here. :)

After you've covered the cookies, be ready to get them into the oven pre-heated at 350 degrees F.  Bake for approximately 18 to 22 minutes.

Now we're ready to make the cookies and cream frosting.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter or shortening

1 & 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

3-6 tbsp milk

2 cookies crushed into crumbs (you can use a food processor, but I crushed mine only manually)

Directions:

1.  Beat the butter or shortening in a mixer until smooth.

2.  Add vanilla and mix until combined.

3.  Add the powdered sugar in 3 batches, scraping down the sides after each addition.

4.  Add a tablespoon of milk at a time and mix together until you achieve the consistency you like.  As for me, 3 tablespoons was perfect.

5.  Add the cookie crumbs.  Since I crushed the cookies manually, I sifted the crumbs to make sure they're really fine and won't form lumps in the frosting.  You can do the same if you want. :)

6.  Place frosting in a decorator bag and swirl any way you want. I always use Wilton's disposable piping bags so I never have to deal with washing anything anymore. =P

7.  Do not forget to put the star of the show on display.  Insert the Oreo cookie on top of each cupcake.

Oh well, you can still twist, lick, and dunk the Oreo on top if you want to.  But instead of dunking it into milk, do so into the frosting.  It's way cooler, not to mention, much more delicious. ;)

 Cheers,

Odd = Bad? I Don't Think So.

Every person is unique.  Many may have similarities, but it's impossible for two people to be exactly alike. Heck, even identical twins have differences, and that is God's design. :)  All of us are aware of that, aren't we? However, why do we tend to dislike someone who is totally different from the way we are?  "Dislike" may not even be the right word for some, it could go as far as "hate."  And this is sad.  Very sad.

I myself am guilty of this sometimes. I may not be among the ones who hate, but there are moments when I feel aversion and disapproval towards something someone does.  I am very sure that I do not detest the person, but I am not a fan of his/her odd ways either.  To a certain degree, I could understand why others have a strong dislike towards him/her.  Sigh.  Most times, I am caught in the middle.  Who do I choose? The people who are similar to me or the person who's alone and peculiar?  Tough.

During my personal quiet moments like right now, I stop and think and imagine what Jesus would do.  I am not trying to sound righteous here, okay?  What I am making an attempt at is in eliminating all my biases and judgment.  The person I am talking about is different from most of us, that's a fact.  But it's also true that s/he is a good person deep inside, and I myself can attest to this.  S/he does things without malice, without the desire to hurt.  People may not understand his/her manners, but that's the the way s/he is, that's they way s/he was brought up, that's the way God wired him/her to be.  Perhaps I should always put this in my head whenever I'd start feeling all negative. And I think it's about time to stop thinking that s/he's different in a bad way.  S/he's different, period. Like I said, every person is unique anyway.  I myself am different, and it ends there. Perhaps we can start throwing the person a positive light from now on?  Stop anticipating all the displeasing antics.  Let's expect him/her to do good, and for sure, s/he will. :)

Cheers,

#HubbyAt31

“My husband is one of my greatest blessings from God. His love is a gift that I open every day.” 

– Anonymous

I've said this time and again and I will never get tired of repeating it over and over: I am extremely blessed to have found a husband as amazing as mine. And this month, he just celebrated his 31st, his very last year on the calendar, woohoo! =D It’s the first time we’re celebrating it together as husband and wife, and like we agreed, he took charge and planned the things he wanted us to do.

Stop #1: Ringside Boxing Club

Rolly may not be a huge guy with monster biceps and a shredded six-pack, but he is a fitness buff.  There’s never a day that he doesn't exercise. He runs and does marathons, and his most recent ‘thing’ is boxing. I even gave him a new pair of Twins gloves and hand wraps as a birthday present! :) I didn't expect he’d include his boxing gym in our day’s itinerary because he knows I hate any activity that'd make my fats cry, but he did, much to my dismay surprise. Haha. Oh well, it’s his birthday. What the birthday boy wants, the birthday boy gets. And so he got me to join him. Hmp.

Hubby doing his thing while I was 'busy' taking pictures. =P

Stop #2: John and Yoko

The birthday boy knew I wasn't very happy with the boxing thing (hehe), so the next stop in his IT was something he was sure would please me. FOOOOOD! Both of us wanted to eat tempura and ramen, so our next stop was John and Yoko in Alabang Town Center. We stuffed our faces full with maki salad, shrimp and enoki pizza, California roll, ebi tempura, and tonkotsu tempura ramen. I think the food was good for about 4 people, but we gorged everything down!  See? That’s what exercising does to people! At least that was what it did to me; the energy I spent from all the jabbing (and picture taking =P) turned me into a hungry, grizzly bear. Hehe. =D

Barioishii! (Japanese for "very delicious")

Stop #3: Vanilla Cupcake Bakery

Cupcaaaaaaakes! It’s obvious that it was me who wanted this stop. How can you not crave for these super lovely sugary creations, right? Add to that the fact that Vanilla Cupcake Bakery is full of all things pretty! The couches, the saucers and forks with beautiful floral designs, the walls, the lamps, the cute teacups, and everything else are to die for! Aaaaah, I couldn’t get enough of this place!!! Thank heavens we were fortunate to find vacant seats outside the café unlike all those other times when it was full of people. Birthday luck, perhaps? :) Of all the exquisite cuppies on display, Rolly picked the Strawberry Shortcake while I had Cotton Candy. Sugar rush! :)

I belong here! :)

Stop #4: The Spa

Because the birthday boy is a sucker for spa and massage treatments, it was not a surprise that he chose this final stop. As usual, we had it done together in a couple’s room. I had Swedish while he had Deep Tissue (which I will never want for myself because it’s painful!). But more than the massage, what I enjoyed was their signature ginger tea.  In fact, every time Rolly sets an appointment for us at The Spa, it's the tea I get excited about! :)

Heaven on Earth! :)

And that's the roundup of hubby's 31st! :) Nothing grand, just pure quality time, just the way we always like things to be.  Cheers to another amazing year, Mahal! :)

A happy wifey,