It's a baby girl!

Last Friday (Nov 15) was my scheduled doctor's appointment and 4D ultrasound. I was super excited to find out my baby's gender and see that beautiful face. The doctor happily announced that my husband and I are having a baby girl. I guess it was kind of expected since a lot, and I mean a LOT, of my friends are already assuming that I'm going to have a girl due to my happy-go-lucky personality and glowing appearance (He-he!). But unfortunately, we weren't able to go through the 4D ultrasound because my little angel was not facing us but only her cute behind, enabling the doctor to easily see that we are indeed blessed with a girl. It would be a waste of time and money to go through the 4D if you can't see the face. 

Hello there, Tala Mari Yzabelle!

Oh, well. We'll simply try again next time and hopefully Tala will be facing the camera by then.

Top 10 Baby Essentials for Moms-to-be (including ME!)

Here's a list of my 10 baby essentials that I would surely need from day one:

1. Avent Classic Infant Starter Set 

2. Avent 3-in-1 Electric Sterilizer

3. Babybjorn Baby Carrier Miracle (recommended for mommies like me with bad backs)

4. Britax B-Agile and B-Safe Travel System (came highly recommended as one of the safest stroller and car seat)

5. Wooden Crib 

6. Diaper Bag

7. Grooming Kit / Tools

8. Snug-a-Hug Pillow

9. Bath tub

10. Rocking chair

Buntis Diaries: Almost Halfway There!

It's been 5 months since I've taken the time to write on my blog again. A lot of things have happened and I wasn't able write down all the things that I've gone and is going through. With my last blog I announced to the whole world that I'm going to be a mommy soon. It's such a wonderful feeling knowing that a life is growing inside of me, my own flesh and blood. With that discovery came the decision that I would have to go home to the Philippines and put a hold on teaching for a while. The first 2 months of my pregnancy were quite delicate as I've experienced a lot of abdominal pains, and being in China and going to their hospitals proved to be quite difficult for a lot of reasons, one is having a lot of communication barrier with doctors and not being able to express what exactly I'm feeling at the moment. I wanted to make sure that I get the best of care as I go through my pregnancy.

The moment I arrived in the Philippines, I had myself scheduled for my first thorough check up at Makati Medical Center. I was already 3 months and 1 day pregnant at that time and it was my first time to see my baby's form as I had my ultrasound. I also found out that I had urinary tract infection (UTI), thus the reason that I was having a lot of abdominal and back pains for the past 2 months. It was such a relief to be able to express all my fears and apprehensions without inhibitions.

Piglet at 3 months and 1 day (13 weeks)

After staying for a week in Manila, I then flew to my hometown where my parents live. There I'll live for the next few months until I give birth. My husband and I also decided that I stay in the Philippines for a while until my baby turns 1 before going back and joining my husband in China. 

The first few weeks that I was at home was busily spent looking for the perfect gynaecologist that would take care of me and cater to my needs. This is my first pregnancy and as I've mentioned earlier, I want everything to be ready, stress-free and perfect. Call me "maarte" but I wouldn't risk anything for my baby.

Here are some belly shots taken during my second trimester. I didn't get the chance to take some photos during my early 1st trimester.

My belly at 4 months (16 weeks)

My belly at 5 months (21 weeks)

Current photo of myself at 6 months (23 weeks)

I was already 4 months pregnant when I heard its melodious heartbeat.

Baby's heartbeat at 15 weeks

My baby's first ultrasound video didn't show much because piglet was still shy and refused to move. The second one showed progress and you can even see him/her wave hello.

Shy baby at 15 weeks

Active baby still at 15 weeks

My baby's movements have been getting stronger and visible with each passing weeks and I was quite lucky to capture that moment. Here's a video of my piglet kicking and saying hello to his tatay (dad).

Piglet saying 'hello' at 23 weeks

I'm due for my doctor's appointment soon and I can't wait to find out whether I'm having a lil' big Bryan or an adorable Majal. I'm so excited for this little bundle of joy that sometimes I wish it's February already so I can snuggle and cuddle my baby in my arms. I also can't wait to start shopping and buy my piglet's stuff!

Until my next post then. I will be sure to keep you updated this time. :)

1 + 1 = 3! We're gonna have a baby!

My husband and I have been trying to conceive for two years now and finally, the stork found its way and answered our prayers. Having been experiencing period-like cramps for the past few days turned out to be my little miracle burrowing its way into the lining of my uterus, looking for a comfortable place to call home for the next nine months. I wouldn't even find out about it if my mom didn't persuade me to go to the hospital and have myself checked just in case I might be having appendicitis or some urinary tract infection (UTI). After a series of test, the doctor finally confirmed that I am indeed pregnant. Yipee!

It's positive!

There it is at 3 weeks!

Unfortunately, I also got sick the same day I found out that I was pregnant. With the weather becoming unbearably hot, one can easily catch a cold with how we easily turn on our air-conditioner after being exposed from the heat. I made that mistake thus I ended up with a cold and fever. These two aren't a perfect combination especially for a pregnant woman like me. So I ended up going back and forth to the hospital, getting Chorionic Gonadotrophin shots to nourish the egg after it has been fertilized and becomes attached to the uterine wall and be prescribed with a lot of medicine, including Folic Acid and Vit E. But I am not complaining. I am willing to endure the pain (the shots are pretty painful!) and get well as soon as possible to ensure a healthy pregnancy. My husband is all supportive and has bought me tons of fruits, gives me back rubs and kisses my 'still small' belly. Talking about being an excited dad! 

I can't wait to hear our baby's heartbeat. But for the meantime, it's time for me to get my daily shots. I will keep you all posted to this new journey that I am about to embark.

No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake!

Remember about my recent post where I get to try making beef tacos because I was able to purchase them online? Well, not only did I buy Taco Shells but I was also able to get some Jell-O No Bake Strawberry and Oreo Cheesecake. I've never made cheesecake before and so today, I finally decided to give it a try.

Beef Tacos is Love!

I have been craving for tacos recently and having purchased some Taco Shells online recently, I finally satisfied my desire to munch on its crunchiness!

Here a simple and fast way to make home-made Beef Tacos.

Zongzi and an English Competition

On the 5th of the fifth month of the Lunar calendar, a festival is celebrated by the Chinese called the Dragon Boat Festival (Duan Wu Jie). This festival started because a great patriot poet, Qu Yuan, was so disgusted by the corruption of his mother country, the Chu State, that he decided to end his life by flinging himself into the Miluo River. When people heard about his death, they were dismayed and hurriedly raced with their boats to find his body but were unable to do so. The people then decided to throw zongzi, eggs and other food into the river to feed the fish and to preserve Qu Yuan's body. Since then, people try to remember Qu Yuan by holding dragon boat races, eating zongzi and other activities. 

The Chinese Dragon Boat Festival

Feeling hot? Visit Green Lake Park Club!

With the past few days being unbelievably hot and dry, it's hard to believe that it's still spring in China. So when a friend of ours mentioned swimming to us, she had all our undivided attention. Luckily, we didn't have work this weekend so we all decided to go swimming yesterday. 

Green Lake Park Club is located inside the Charming Lakefront community.  It's a 10-minute bus ride if you're coming from our apartment. The community has just been built recently and hasn't been quite discovered by most people. It has this Victorian-inspired look and is quite foreigner-friendly since all of its signs were in English and there's even a Western restaurant just outside the gate (prices were pretty expensive, though!).

Entrance to Charming Lakefront and direction going to the clubhouse

A shot of the Western restaurant called the 'Western Restaurant'

Fried rice 101

Got some leftover rice in the fridge? Here's one easy and tasty way of frying your rice.

What you need:

• Rice
• Bacon strips
• Garlic
• 2-3 Eggs
• Salt, pepper

Kaang Masman Chicken Curry

My co-teachers and I decided to have a bring-your-own-food-and-watch-a-movie kind of day yesterday. We were officially on our day off and we simply decided to relax and share a good meal together. We had a bucket of KFC, some vegetable salad and fruit salad, fried eggplant and egg, fried noodles and chicken curry.

My husband, who's a better cook that I am, decided to make Kaang Masman Chicken Curry. Thanks to some of our friends who went to Thailand, they brought back different curry powder and my husband had an excuse to try one of them.

Here are the ingredients:

Baked Macaroni and Cheese with Tomato Sauce

Ever since my husband and I had an oven, I have always wanted to use it and bake something. We were able to bake a cake and make barbecued chicken. Today, I wanted to do baked macaroni and cheese with tomato sauce.

Here are the ingredients:

• 4 cups elbow macaroni
• 5 tbs unsalted butter
• 1/2 medium onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 can of tomato sauce
• salt and pepper, to taste
• ground pork
• 1 cup condensed milk (we like our sauce to be a little sweet)
• 2 cups grated cheese

What color is it? It's Pink!

Every now and then, Aston English School holds promotions to encourage and invite students to enrol in our school. I already wrote a previous post about this where the school had us do promotions outside on Labor Day. We were at the square doing demo classes and playing games.

Today, I had the opportunity to do three 20-min demo classes in a middle school. Each class almost had 75-80 students from grades 3-5. We picked our own topic and I chose to teach them colors.

Hot pot on a hot day?

Last Tuesday, some of the Chinese teachers in our school decided to invite us for some Chinese hot pot for lunch. 

Hot pot (also known as Chinese Steamboat or Chinese Fondue) is a Chinese way of cooking where they serve you a big pot of soup, or in our case, our own individual pot of soup and some various food materials that are put in the pot such as sliced mutton, beef, leafy vegetables, mushrooms, glass noodles, frozen bean curd and seafood. There are built-in burners on our table and as soon as the soup boils, we put our foods and wait for them to cook for a few seconds. We were also served different kinds of dipping sauce to add flavor to our dishes since we don't need to eat rice with it. I usually prefer the peanut sauce with a little bit of garlic, meat oil and spring onions.

A typical hot pot setting where you have the choice to choose between a spicy or a non-spicy soup

A variety of ingredients to make your own dipping sauce

Hot pot is usually ideal in winter because it keeps us warm while giving us more time to talk and socialize with friends as we wait for our soup to boil. It's also a fun way of sharing a meal together where everyone cooks their own meal right at the table. 

Thinking of making your own Chinese hot pot?

Reducing Large Audio/Sound Files on Mac

I have made another discovery that most Mac users might find helpful. Being an online English teacher (a part-time job), we are sometimes required to record our classes and submit for observation and scrutinization. The audio/sound files that I usually have tend to be large that it's usually hard to send through email. With further research online, I found an easy solution to reduce large files. This can also be helpful in condensing your music collection, even allowing you to fit more MP3s to your player or burn to your CDs.

Simply follow these simple steps:

1. Open your iTunes.

Strawberry Milkshake, anyone?

What's the best drink to make on this hot day? 

Answer:

Yup! Some creamy, smooth and cold strawberry shake would surely beat the heat and make your day. Thinking of making yourself one? Here's an easy way to do it.

Reducing the size of Large Photos on Mac

I've been a Mac user for almost 2 years now but I'm still discovering a lot of new things everyday. This morning, as my husband was trying to submit documents to his new school, he kept getting frustrated because he can't seem to upload his .jpg files. As it turned out, the sizes were too big. He then requested I reduce the sizes of his files. For a while now, I had no trouble sending photos thru Mac email as it is automatically resized (depending on how large or small you want your attached file is) for you. I also didn't have any reason to resize them until now. 

My mom, my superhero

My mom is my superhero. She may not look like it, but she's a very strong woman. She may be quite emotional but she has the strength of more than ten thousands of men.  

The BABES in my life

I read this quote today that says "True friendship isn't being inseparable, it's being separated and nothing changes" and it got me into thinking how lucky I am that I have those kind of friends in my life. I call them the BABES.

Love is sweeter the 2nd time around!

When my husband and I celebrated our 1st anniversary, we were far from each other (him in China and me in the Philippines). But this year, we were finally able to celebrate it together. Waking up on your anniversary with the one you love cuddled next to you was such pure bliss. 

Chicken Macaroni Soup

The past few days had been surprisingly cold and wet that we often wonder what season we're in at the moment. The weather for the first few weeks in April were quite perfect that we were able to do a lot of outdoor activities such as picking strawberries, going bowling and visiting nearby cities to shop. Recently, with the weather we're having, it takes quite a lot of effort just to get out of bed. 

On days like this, it's so nice to cuddle with the one you love and watch movies while having a bowl of hot Chicken Macaroni soup. 

So how do you make one, you might ask. It's quite simple. Simply prepare the following ingredients:

Sweet-Sour Fried Fish (Escabeche)

My husband and I went to the open market one day and bought ourselves some fish. We usually just fry them every time we decide to have fish lunch or dinner but on that day, we were having some guests in our apartment since it was Thanksgiving Day. With a few hours ahead of me, I quickly grabbed my one and only cookbook and started searching for an easy and quick way of cooking fish (besides frying it, of course!)

Climbing Qinling Mountain in Xian, China

Every school term, Aston School usually holds team building activities to promote camaraderie, teamwork and to fully know each other since we get new teachers (both foreigners and Chinese teachers) every term. For this year, we went to Qinling Mountain last March 19. We were instructed to come to school early (as in 6 in the morning!) and to wear comfortable clothes. 

We took 2 buses and travelled for almost 2 hours to get there. Days prior to the trip, it was still a bit chilly and windy. Thus, it was such a relief that the weather was absolutely gorgeous that day. I guess I mostly slept throughout the entire trip because I was still sleepy that time plus the fact that I am not a morning person.

When Mr. & Mrs. S turned 1!

Married couples usually look forward to celebrating their 1st wedding anniversary because this marks to see how much they have grown and it gives you a very tangible and physical reminder of just how far they have come. Anniversaries remind them the reasons why they're still together and what made them fall in love with each other. It also reminds them their promises to each other as they stood before God, family and friends. They stood there with wild optimism, hopes, and dreams that were strung from their heart straight to their partner’s and believed…as a child believes in Santa, that it all would come true.  

So how was our 1st wedding anniversary, you ask. Here's our story:

A laptop bag for a fashionable techie!

I have always been on a hunt for a fashionable laptop bag. When it comes to fashion, I always make sure that everything matches. You invest time and money on clothes, only to encounter crisis on which bag goes to which clothes. Being a techie girl myself (I never go out without my phone, iPad and laptop) I need a bag that would fit all my girly stuff and protect all my gadgets. Luckily, I found Alesya Bags online. It's the most functional and fashionable bag I've ever seen. Check it out yourself!

Hundred Islands in Pangasinan: We came, we saw & we conquered!

"Well, hello there, sunburns!"

On January 29, 2019, my husband's family decided to go island-hopping therefore off to Hundred Islands we went. We left Urdaneta at five o'clock in the morning and reached the port after two and a half hours.

We were greeted with this as we reached the port.

Today's dessert: Mango Float!

I've always loved desserts. A meal is never complete without an ice cream or something sweet for dessert. Way back in high-school, I went to my best friend's birthday party and she served me this mouth-watering and heavenly dessert. It's a combination of mangoes and cream that tasted like ice cream but looks like a cake. It has become my favourite ever since. It's so delicious and so easy to make. It can go in any occasion, whether it be a formal or casual one. Just follow these simple steps and soon you'll be enjoying it's divine taste.

Ground Pork with Vegetables in Tomato Sauce

Here's another attempt to my awesome culinary skills (Tee-hee!). I decided one evening to surprise my husband my making one of his favorite dish: Giniling na baboy with tomato sauce!

Ingredients:

• ground pork

• onion and garlic (diced)

• carrots, potato and string beans (all diced) and mushroom

• boiled eggs (simply because my husband and I loved them)

Steps:

• Saute garlic and onions.

• Put in ground pork and wait till it turns brown. Mix salt, ground pepper and soy sauce.

• When meat is already tender and has turned gray, put in the vegetables. 

• Mix tomato sauce after vegetables are already cooked. Add sugar if you want it to be a little sweet. Let it simmer for a few minutes and mix the eggs.

• Ready to serve.