Baby Blessing + Reunion

I just noticed that I didn't post anything for the month of March. I kind of made a New Year resolution that I'd post something on this blog at least once a week. But that just doesn't seem very possible right now. With a full-time job and doing photography part-time, I've never been this busy in my whole life. My 2 days off from work really isn't enough. They just go towards cleaning and organizing, and doing groceries and running errands.

Anyways, Brandon and I were in Parowan, Utah 2 weeks ago for the naming and blessing of my nephew, Gavin. In LDS Church, we have the ordinance of blessing and naming the babies that are born in our Church. It's like the baby officially becomes a member of the Church and is officially named. But this is different from baptism. Children are not baptized in our Church until they have reached the age of 8. Usually families gather together for the baby's blessing. So when Gavin was blessed, it was a reunion. It was sad that my family in the Philippines couldn't come. They missed out on so many other important events already. :(

First day in good ol' Parowan.

First thing I wanted to do was take pictures of Gavin. I missed him a lot. Last time I'd seen him was when he was only a week old.

At 3 months, he's now so much more fun. He giggles when I play with him, and oh, he smiles and laughs a lot.


First night.

We had ourselves a good dose of Wii workout

I love Kristine's in-laws. Aside from being really nice people, they're also a lot of fun to be around.

That's me in stripes, getting my groove on.My poor husband was having a hard time focusing the camera on me.

Meet Kiers, probably the most hyper little girl I've met. She reminds me so much of my youngest sister, Roxanne, when she was her age.


Uhmm...don't try this at home, k?

I could post 20 pictures of her doing her tricks.

Who dat?! :P


Second night was Gavin's blessing. But before the ceremony we had a meet-and-greet party at the LDS chapel.

The Bartons. Gavin wasn't in a happy mood for family pictures.

If I were five years old, he'd be my boyfriend :) Ha! Seriously, this boy is really cute.

Shianne. I have more pictures of her here.

My favorite part at any event.


After the big dinner, we proceeded to the blessing and naming of the child ceremony. It's not that I'd be hung upside down if I took pictures of the ceremony, but I chose not to. I just felt like it would be rude for me to be clicking my camera and distracting everyone else who were very reverent. So fast forward to about an hour later, the ceremony was over and we took more pictures.

Kristine's family and her parents-in-law


I'm no expert at child photography but I've learned that if you tell kids to smile or say "cheese", they're more likely gonna give you this:

or this:

But if you tell them a joke, (even the corniest one), it becomes more natural :)

Gavin in his cute blessing outfit. It's the same blessing outfit that his dad wore for his own blessing. Sweet huh!

Such an angel! :)

Out with the old, in with the new pictures

Brandon and I finally had our new pictures done (see the new side bar pictures?). We did them just inside the apartment and some in the backyard. We took turns taking each other's picture, and it ended up that I took more photos of him than he did of me. We took these pictures because the ones that were on the side bar were very old. The photos have to keep up with the new blog look, haha! So now it's just Wyatt's picture that needs to be updated although he's too cute in the one that I'm currently using in the side bar that it doesn't necessarily needs to be replaced.

But me and Brandon taking pictures of each other, believe me, isn't a fun thing for us to do and for other people to watch. lol. These pictures pretty much explain why, and give you an idea what it's like when Brandon and I are having our little "photo shoot". :D

He hates taking pictures and 5 minutes after the first shot, he goes "Can we already finish this please? Let's go!"

And I'm a whiny, picky subject.

"Bes, you're too far. Get closer!" (but smiled anyway)

"Camera's too high, bes. Lower it a bit!" (but smiled anyway)

That's why our pictures aren't always updated. I wonder if there are other couples out there who when it comes to taking pictures.

To close this post, I'll leave you with a pic of me and of B looking so tight. Haha!

Can't get enough of my husband's cuteness? lol. More pictures of him here.

Wyoming Trip. Can You Say Yeeehaw?

Here are more pictures from our trip to Wyoming last month.

The men's daily activity, playing video games in 3D.

GQ-ing it

It was always 70 degrees inside my sister and her husband's house which was understandable assuming that since she just gave birth, Kristine's body temperature was still boiling hot. And this was Wyatt's idea of keeping himself warm. I don't like it when he's laying on my laptop because he sheds a lot leaving gazillions of hair on the keyboard. But the entire time that we were in Wyoming we had to keep Wyatt inside one of the rooms, away from Harvey, because they would never get along. I felt bad for Wyatt that he was stuck inside the room while the rest were having fun, so I just let him do this.

And this is Wyatt's least favorite "housemate", my sister's dog, Harvey. Harvey who stained the carpet of our old apartment with his pee. Harvey who scratched our old aparment walls until some of the paint came off. Harvey who you better not leave in the house by himself or a cop will knock on your door because a neighbor complained of his non-stop barking and crying. Harvey, who despite all that, still melts my heart when he looks at me like this.

We had Christmas dinner at my brother-in-law's parents' house with the missionaries. Since both my husband and brother-in-law went on a mission, they had plenty to talk about with these men. After dinner they spent the rest of the evening playing cards.

Wright doesn't have McDonald's, Burger King, Olive Garden, etc. They have Subway and this restaurant (I forgot the name). So this place is the fancy place to eat in town. We ate here on our last night in Wright and there were only 4 customers. Me, Brandon, Justan, and Kristine. Haha. But I tell you, I'd pick this restaurant over the Cheese Cake Factory in Salt Lake City any day.

The food was t-t-t-tasty! tasty!

I don't know about you but I had never seen on a menu a steak as big as 32 oz. Must be very good because Justan ordered it.

Everytime I look at this pic, I feel like the moose is staring back at me. Don't you?

It was time to go back to Salt Lake the next day. :(

We just barely left Wright when we saw deers on the left side of the road as we were driving. There were like 10 of them but these 2 were running up and down the hill, one chasing the other. So I grabbed my camera and was lucky enough to snap a pic of these deers. If I lived in a small country town like Wright, I'd probably be chasing deers everyday to take pictures of them. :D

My Newly Reconstructed Blog, and an Old Blog I found

My blog is now finally back for public viewing. To those who tried to visit this blog and got a message that said: "This blog is open to invited readers only", that was because my blog was "under reconstruction". Please read the previous post.

So here it is folks! The new look and the new address. You like? I love how clean it looks now. I especially love the header. I know it's nothing special but I made it and I like how it turned out considering that I have next to zero knowledge in graphic design. Now, I just have to change the pictures on the side bar and my profile picture because they're pretty old. As for the new blog address, I wanted to combine my name and Brandon's but the brandonandlaura address is already taken, so is brandon-laura. I was a little surprised to know that there's are least 2 other couples out there whose names are Brandon and Laura. And guess what I found when I typed brandonlaura.blogspot.com to see if somebody already owned it? Our super old blog! It's almost 5 years old and haven't been updated that both me and Brandon literally forgot that we had a blog together. Brandon made it when we were only engaged and back then I had no idea what a blog was. I love how reading that blog brings back sweet memories, and it motivates me to be more active in blogosphere.

So LBCarree.blogspot.com it is! Why it works? Because not only LB stands for Laura [and] Brandon, it's also the initials of my maiden name.

Changes

Happy New Year to you! (yes you, my reader :P) I hope you had a wonderful 2010. New Year resolutions taped somewhere in the house? Ha. I remember when December 2008 was about to come to it's end, Brandon and I wrote down our goals for 2009. We like to write down goals instead of resolutions although they're pretty much the same. I taped my list on our bedroom wall and Brandon taped his on the side of his computer monitor.

Speaking of goals, I'll try to update this blog more often this year. Maybe at least once a week? So wish me luck. Also, I'll make the following changes to my blog:

-Overall blog look. I'll make it more simple and more clean-looking. If I haven't mentioned it yet, I'm a minimalist. So less is always more for me. Always.

-Blog address. I didn't wanna do this but I'll be using the address of this blog for my photo blog. So I have to think of some new address. And maybe change the blog title too. Suggestions?

What are your goals and planned changes for this year?

Before the year ends...

...I'd like to update this blog and greet everybody "Merry Christmas!" Sorry I'm almost 2 days late for that greeting. I've been here in a small town in Wyoming with Brandon since the 24th to spend the holidays with my sister and her husband and in-laws...and her brand-new baby boy! Yay, I'm an aunt now! I'll have to post some pictures of her stinkin' cute babe here later. And since I'm on a vacation, I haven't done anything but sleep, sleep, and sleep.

So, since I don't get around here much often, I feel obliged to write an update of what happened since my last entry. I tried to remember as many as I could, but these are all I can think of for now:

November
I turned 27. That's pretty hard to believe, and even harder to accept that I'm getting older fast. Ha!

December
-I became full-time at my second job so I had to quit my other job last week because me working 2 full-time jobs at the same time just sounds insane to me.
-I became an aunt for the first time. What a blessing!
-I bought a new DSLR camera a week before Christmas as a Christmas present for myself. :)
-Christmas morning was awesome!

Pictures will be up for this post soon.

update (1/16/2011): and here are the photos! :)

We slept in on Christmas morning and didn't open the presents until about 10 a.m. So while the neighbors had already gone back to sleep after unwrapping their gifts, our excitement just started to kick in.

We did this tradition at the Bartons' residence (my sister Kristine's parents-in-law) and I was glad that we did. Why? Because me and Brandon got tons of presents from them, something that we didn't expect at all. They sure are amazing people, and ever since Kristine got married to Justan, I have always felt like Justan's parents are my family too.

We took turns opening the presents, and I was always itching for my turn.

This one is from my mom-in-law. I still don't know where to put it so its temporarily just sitting on top of the fridge (I hope Brandon's mom won't get to read post.) I suck at decorating and I'm so good at procrastinating to decorate.

I normally don't do the peace sign because it kinda annoys me that everybody does it especially when they do it in every picture. So this is probably the only peace sign picture I have and will ever have. Anyway, this was the last bag I opened because I wanted to save the best for last.

The fat guy in the funny red suit was so good to me this Christmas.

I'm inlove with my new baby.

Considering that it was a winter month and we had a good amount of snow 3 days earlier, Christmas morning was unbelievably beautiful in Wright that I honestly didn't care for a white Christmas.

To close this post, I'll leave you with a pic of my adorable nephew. I swear I couldn't get enough of this teeny-tiny guy. Meet my new favorite boy, Gavin!

I'm back!

Oh my heck! I can't believe that it's been 5 months since I last posted an entry here. I swear I almost could not remember my blog address when I decided to make a post today.

So let me give my excuse(s) for being away that long. Well, I've been back to working since the last couple of weeks of May. I started with an on-call position, a month later I became full-time. Two months after being hired for a full-time position, I found a second job which is part-time. So I've been working my tush off 64 hours a week since August. Whew!

What happened during the last 5 months?

-3rd year wedding anniversary on August 15

-We moved from Holladay to Midvale by the end of August.

-like mentioned, I found a second job and that was in August too.

I guess that's all it. Or maybe I just can't recall what happened in July and June.

So, see you again, uhmm...next year? :P

It's been 3 years

...since I stepped on the grounds of LAX. Looking back, I arrived past 8 pm and when I got out of the airport with my husband and his mom, I was freezing. How can I forget the very first food I ate? We stopped by a Taco Bell drive-thru for dinner. It is Brandon's most favorite fast food and he thought that I might love it as well, so he got me 2 burritos. I had 2 bites before I started to feel like throwing up. I don't remember anymore if I threw up or if I was able to hold it.

Food and not homesickness was my biggest problem. I came to the US weighing 100 lbs or maybe a little heavier than that. Two weeks later, I was 95 lbs. For about a month or so, I lived with toasted bread (with butter and sugar on each slice) for breakfast, rice and bacon for lunch, and pizza for dinner. I always prayed for Chinese take-out every night. Americans don't eat breakfast and lunch. By that, I mean they don't make meals in the morning and at noon. They only prepare food for dinner. So growing up in a culture where people eat a complete meal (which means main dish + rice)at least 3x a day, this was strange to me. Thanks to my discovery of Filipino recipe websites on the internet several months later, I was able to eat again my much-craved Filipino dishes.

For 3 years of living in the U.S.A., a completely different country with a completely different culture, I've learned a lot of things such as:

1. Americans don't know what the word viand is. When you're referring to "ulam", just call it main dish. Lots of them don't know what nape (back of the neck) is either.
2. Say "fridge" instead of "ref" if you want to be understood.
3. Even if there's not a bath tub or a shower inside, it is better to say "I need to go to the bathroom" instead of "I need to go to the C.R.".
4. Americans call different footwear differently from how Filipinos call them.
   • Flip-flops- are those thong rubber-made footwear that we call slippers in the Philippines (although more and more Filipinos have adapted the term flip-flops).
   • Slippers- those are the fluffy close-toed ones we wear inside the house, which they only wear here during the cold season.
   • Sandals- anything wearable on the sand (this makes sense!). Your pair of Islander are not slippers, they're sandals. In Philippines, sandals are those that look more formal, like the high-heeled and strappy ones.
   • Shoes- In Philippines, what we call shoes are usually those that are black and made of leather or faux leather such as those that we wear to school and church. They also call those shoes here, but what we call sandals are also shoes to them.
5. Filipinos call it bag (the kind that a woman slings on her shoulder), the Americans call it purse.
6. During the Spring and Summer seasons, the sun sets at 8 pm or later.
7. Unlike what Filipinos think, just because you're dark doesn't mean you are attractive to Americans, and likewise, not all fair-skinned girls are unattractive to them.
8. American use forks to eat, even with rice. They only spoons for soup.
9. It's not true that American's rarely take a shower. In fact my husband showers more often than I do. He does it twice a day.
10. Never upstage the bride. Whether you're one of the bridesmaids or just attending the wedding ceremony or reception, you can't look more beautiful than the woman being married. I've actually heard funny stories about some brides purposely planning ugly dresses for the bridesmaids to make sure they won't steal the "spotlight" from her. So keep your dress simple.
11. People in the US call more than they text.
12. Americans are generally animal lovers. They treat their pet like a family member.
13. In the US, they pay much respect to the cops, military, and other members of the US forces. Usually, before a show starts, the host would call any army in the audience to stand up, then ask everyone to give them applause...something that I had never seen in the Philippines.
14. Americans are generally polite. They don't push around no matter how long the line is. They ask "how are you doing?" whenever they get the chance to. They probably don't always mean it but the point is, at least they make an effort to greet. And they always say thank you.
15. Americans are book lovers.
16. They pronounce a the same way that they do e that's why they always misspell than for then, and that's just one of the words always misspelled. Example: Instead of writing I'm better than you, they always write I'm better then you. Americans are not as conscious with spelling as Filipinos are.
17. Spaghetti is a dinner food, not a dessert. And unlike how Filipinos make spaghetti, they never include ketchup in the recipe.
18. Never never never use the term "niger" unless you're looking for trouble. Although African-American is the politically correct name, black is also acceptable.
19. Most Americans don't eat fish that still has it's head on.
20. Cereal is the most common food for breakfast.
21. Grandma is pronounced as gran-mah, and grandpa as gran-pah.
22. Their biscuit is not the same as what Filipinos call biscuit. This is what they call biscuit:
    Note: Not my own photo. Click the image to see it's source.
    
    
23. They don't call it washing machine. They just call it washer.
24. While we Filipinos are content with either steaming; boiling; or frying rice, Americans have more ways of making it.
25. I don't think Americans can live without paper towels in their homes.
26. It's definitely not true that all American girls are no longer virgins by the age of 14.
27. American women are not as wild as they are portrayed on TV...unless they're from bigger cities like New York, and many American parents are not as tolerant of their children as Filipinos think. Many are actually still conservative. In the Philippines, little girls wearing skimpy and sexy dance costumes are allowed even in schools and most parents don't mind because they find it cute. But here in the US, as far as I know and have observed, schools and parents don't allow little children and even young teens to unnecessarily expose skin.
28. I used to find all black people unattractive (since I was raised in a culture where dark skin is less appreciated). Now I know how to identify which ones are beautiful and good-looking.
29. Regardless of her marital status, use Ms. + her first name to address a woman politely, such as Ms. Karen, Ms. Jill, Ms. Ann, etc.
30. White guys don't like big butts for women. Black and Hispanic men do.
31. Those who grew up in the US don't peel pineapples. They just cut 'em.
32. You can rarely find a calendar hanging in an American home. So far, I've only been to one house where I saw a calendar hanging on the wall.
33. Everything here is in jumbo size/portion. I was like "OMG!" when I first saw how big their burgers, drinks, bell peppers, tomatoes, etc. were. The large McDonald's drink in the Philippines is the regular size here. Double the size of the sandwich you get at a fast food there, that's how big their sandwiches are here.
34. They don't eat their Oreo without milk. :)

These are all I can think of for now. It's 3:46 in the morning and I need to go to bed, haha. I will update the list later. Oh, and if you can add more, please do. :)

Bye-bye Meat (again)

Any vegetarian in the house?

I tried this lifestyle a couple years ago and was surprised that I did it successfully...1 month? 1.5 months? 2 months? I don't exactly remember how long I had been eating meat-free. So why am I claiming to have succeeded at vegetarianism if I stopped? Well, in all honestly I did not miss meat, although in the first 2 weeks I did. I stopped because I was horrified looking at the mirror and seeing how skinny I had become. I wore size 00 jeans and XS shirts. I felt really light and looked starved. Well, I was starved! And it was all my fault. I dived in immediately to the decision of being a vegetarian without much preparation. I just woke up one day and decided to stop eating pork, chicken, beef, and even dairies. Weighing under 90 lbs. after several weeks, I was desperate to win my normal weight and healthy physique back that I had to quit vegetarianism. It was kinda sad for me because I felt like I failed and all my efforts went to nothing.

Two days ago while viewing some videos on Youtube, out of the blue, the thought of looking for PETA videos suddenly popped into my head. Really, that was very random. I don't even know why the letters P-E-T-A came to my mind. I hadn't been thinking of going vegetarian again or whatever. So I typed "PETA videos" and different heart-breaking and disturbing footages on animal cruelty displayed.

The video below was an enough wake-up call for me to go back to living meat-free. While watching it, it just broke my heart so much that I came to this realization: "How can someone enjoy something that another creature had to suffer for?" Without a second thought, I made the decision to stop eating meat again. The next day, I planned my meals for the rest of the week. For those who do not know, there are many types of vegetarian diet. I decided to start with being a Pescatarian. A pescatarian is a vegetarian who does not eat all types of meat and animal flesh with the exception of fish. Aside from pescatarian diet, I also consume dairy products. I don't want to rush again into being a vegan (a vegetarian who refuses to eat all types of meat as well as every food product that comes from animals), so I'll do this little by little, takin' short strides at a time.

Warning: The following video is heart-breaking. Watch if you want to know why YOU SHOULD NOT EAT MEAT.


We understand things differently. While your opinion may differ, mine is that animals are supposed to be our friends, not our food. They struggle to live just like we humans do. They breathe, they think, they cry, and they feel pain. So what gives you more right over the animals? If you're saying that they are here for us to eat, humans can survive without eating meat. Humans choose to eat meat to satisfy their tastebuds. You may say that you eat meat but you also love animals and are against animal abuse. My opinion is that, if you love animals, you won't support the idea of killing them for food.

"My body will not be a tomb for other creatures." ---Leonardo Da Vinci ( a vegetarian)

Visiting the Sunshine State Part 4: Into Parenthood

This is the last part.

Click here for Part 1
Click here for Part 2
Click here for Part 3

Brandon and I don't really have a timeline on when to have our first baby. It's not that we don't want one, we just don't feel ready. Well, actually Brandon is ok about having one soon but it's me who always say no. Before I got married, I used to think of bearing a child immediately after the wedding, like within a year. Maybe because I grew up in a country where babies come either before marriage or shortly after. Living in the USA and seeing the Americans' way of life definitely gave me a better understanding on a lot of things, parenthood being one of them. I feel like I woke up to the reality that being a mom is a lifetime responsibility, and without a doubt the biggest responsibility a woman can place on her hands. And I don't want to be faced with that responsibility financially, emotionally, mentally, and physically unprepared.

Like I mentioned in part 2, Brandon's younger sister has a baby boy. He is sooo adorable that I couldn't get enough of him. Here are few pictures of me taking care of Parker while his mom was at work. I was his nanny for the whole day that day. I fed him, changed his diapers, played with him, hushed him when he cried, and put him to sleep...in other words, I practiced mothering with him that day. Honestly, it was more fun than stressful.





These 2 were taken after doing the family pictures (see part 2). Don't we look cute as a family? :D



One day, you'll see me and Brandon on this blog holding our own baby/ies. I promise! :P