My other home.

In an article at Femalenetwork.com entitled "30 Must-Visit Philippine Cities and Towns", one place made my heart skip. My hometown, Dumaguete City. This is where I grew up,  where my home still is, and, where I still get so giddy and excited every single time our airplane lands in its' airport. My Hubby and Uno has already called Dumaguete their home too and has been loving this City to bits. My hubby loves it so, that he dreams of us building another home there for when we grow old. Uno loves it so, that he never ever forgets all our vacations there and counts the days until we can come back.

This is the article I found at Femalenetwork.com:

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16. DUMAGUETE
Province: Negros Oriental, Central Visayas Region
Dumaguete is also referred to as “The City of Gentle People” and sometimes “University Town” for the seven universities and colleges it houses, which includes Silliman University (the oldest Protestant university in the Philippines). Students from all across Negros Oriental thus come together in this town for their college education. The city also serves as a convenient jump-off point for trips to the marine sanctuary around Apo Island, which offers great scuba diving and snorkeling to anyone with an interest in nature.
Must-Sees: Mabinay Caves, Silliman University Anthropology Museum, Silliman University Whale Bone Museum, Bell Tower, Quezon Park
(Photo by Cristian Bortes via Flickr Creative Commons)

End of article. Taken from femalenetwork.com.As some people say, "words are not enough to express ...", in this case, I say, PICTURES are not enough to show you how beautiful this home of mine is :). I have a thousand pictures of this magical place, but instead, I will just show you some, taken from our latest vacation there :).

At Silliman University. Where you walk and study under giant umbrella Acacia Trees. That is the famous Silliman Church and the Amphitheater at the back.

Early morning boat ride to visit the Dolphins and take a swim at the Sand Bar.

So playful and so close! You just get tempted to touch and feel them! :)

At the Sandbar, where the water meets the sky. Where the water is so clear, you can see the fishes swimming by and grazing your toes :). Hello there Daddy and Mommy :)! My Mom just stayed there sitting down and hanging on to our boat's anchor rope for an hour - that is her way of swimming :).

Where Uno got to hold and pet the live Starfishes with his own hands ...

Where colorful live sea urchins still abound ...

At the beaches of Bacong, Sibulan and Mabinay. Endless water, endless sand, endless sky.

Swim, Swim, Swim and Swim. Uno's "Book of Memories " is so full there, but it is a giant book after all, so it has thousands of pages more for us to fill  :).

I read somewhere that the name Dumaguete came from the Visayan word "daguit". Daguit means "to lure". They said that when you go to Dumaguete you simply just get lured  - by its beauty, by its quiteness, by its nature, by its simplicity. Ahhh Dumaguete, I cannot wait to  go back soon :). Counting the days till Summer . . .

Little Earth Saver and Stacy's.

Yesterday, Uno's school had a little program called Little Earth Saver. They do this program yearly to culminate the fund raising drive that they do to raise money for various school projects and also, to raise awareness on recycling trash to help save Mother Earth. Each child is encouraged to bring recyclable trash from home, every Friday of the week. They were able to raise around P73,000.00 this year! Wow, money from trash :)!

They performed adorable dances for us :).

After the school program, Hubby, Uno and I went to Stacy's to have lunch. Stacy's is a fairly new restaurant owned by one of Uno's schoolmate. She has been inviting me to try out their restaurant since the day it opened :). So yesterday, we finally got the chance to visit it and oh my, it is such a charming and pretty restaurant! 

It felt like I was in a place designed by Rachel Ashwell of Shabby Chic :). So pretty!

One of the things that I really loved about this restaurant was that they had a nook for the little ones! Uno loved the nook and so did this little girl :). They had wooden blocks to play with and coloring pages and crayons to get busy with :).

Before serving our food, they gave us this really cute mugfull of salted popcorn, mini marshmallows and strawberry pretzels! :)

What we had for lunch :).

Random pretty things. Check out their ref! A retro pink one that I would love to have but I am quite sure my hubby would not allow me to put in our house :).

Me and my little boy who is getting taller everyday! :)

Have a happy weekend everyone!

Thankful.

Today, I am thankful for . . .

This little family of mine.

This funny boy of mine.

My other household members - Sheila, Juvy, Len, Ricky and Kay. My life would not be the same without them, they are such blessings to our home and to Uno, who loves them so (they are his playmates, watches DVD films with them, eats with them, have dancing and singing concerts with them . . .) :).

This morning, I had my new breakfast favorite (again!). Peppermint Mocha and Pretzel with Sour Cream. Yum!!! Can't wait to have it again! And of course, I got to spend time with my breakfast buddies: Aleah, Enchit, Mona and Mai.

My window view while having breakfast and the early morning sun framing everything so perfectly.

Thank you dear Lord, for all these blessings - small ones and big ones, random ones and important ones. They are one and the same, reminders of how big your Love is for me. Happy almost weekend!

Pocket of time.

We got a little pocket of time today, Uno and I. After school, before we headed home, we spent some time together at Seattle's Best Coffee. I had my favorite cup of White Chocolate Mocha and he had Peach Juice and we talked, and played, did our own thing (him at the Ipad and me on my laptop) and we had fun :). It was just for a while but nevertheless, it was special :).

Oh I forgot, it wasn't really me and Uno only. Dexter was with us too. See that monster tucked in his shirt? That's Dexter. His favorite companion of late. He goes to school with him (in his backpack), sleeps with him, baths with him, drinks milk too - everything, they do everything together.

This is Dexter. The newest member of my little family.

Dream Rooms.

As I mentioned previously in an older post of mine, we have not really finished fixing Uno's room yet. We are waiting for a time (not so long from now, I hope) when his choices for his room theme have quite settled down and when we have saved enough for new furnitures. Now, if you ask him, he wants WWE, Spiderman, Cars, Batman, Thomas and so many other more choices that increases by the day. These days, his long list now includes Alvin and the Chipmunks, Dragonball,  and a rocker theme (one that includes a guitar, he says, like the ones he saw in American Idol). So, his room now is a mismash of themes: WWE, Fishes, Spiderman, Sports, Penguins and a whole lotta more :).

This is pretty much how Uno's room looks like now :). His bed used to be his Papa's when he was still a law school student, so that bed would be more than 15 years old :)! That study table and the toy rack, we got when he was still in my tummy, so those two would be over 5 years old :)! Wow, now I realize I got some pretty sturdy stuff here huh :)?!? Needless to say, they really have sentimental value.

As much as I love the furnitures we have in his room now, because they do have sentimental value and they have stayed with us through thick and thin, we do have to make some changes here and there. The study table for instance is getting too small for him. When he sits on the chair his knees already hit the table :)! And not that we are not happy with the "mismash theme" - I  simply adore it and Uno loves his room to  pieces! So from time to time, I have kept a little compilation of really adorable dream rooms just to keep me inspired and dreaming :). Here are some of them:

I would love for him to have a cozy nook to read some books. And look at that giant animal pillow!

It is a girl's room I know, but I love how fresh the green wall looks and yes, the tree decal - I have been looking for tree decals ever since last year when I saw this, but I can't seem to find some.

Images from: Ohdeedoh, Apartment Therapy and Topazmommy.com.

Have a great weekend ahead everyone! It is a long weekend once again (because of the Chinese New Year on January 23), so HOORAY!