I wanna gush about this book by Colleen Hoover. I literally just finished it a few minutes ago and my head is still reeling from everything this book put me through!  UGH!


This is incredible and if you haven't read it yet, do yourself a favor and get a copy! 

Summer Summer

The sun is definitely out today! It was soo hot I thought am going to be in a coma!

It was actually 38 degrees!!! Here's a picture taken from my new weather app Solar. Isn't is pretty?

Anywho, to beat the heat my brother and I decided to make some fruit shakes and bake easy pizza for snack.  Unfortunately, I didn't have any pictures of the pizza because we were wolfing it down as soon as it is out of the oven.   But for the shakes, we have watermelon, melon and mango to buzz with ice and simple syrup.


Here are a couple of pics. :)


Mango-Melon :D  Mango is my go-to fruit shake but since my dad got melon and I loved it, I added some to mine too.

Watermelon!! I wasn't very sure I'd like this but boy was it super yummy and refreshing! :)

Summer, I am not really a fan but more of these might make me a convert. :)

Eleanor and Park

Friday, I planned on getting to work early but I started reading Eleanor & Park and lost all care for time until I finished.  I love everything about this book - especially the part where Park loved music and Eleanor not being the perfect leading girl. :)


Best Parts of the book:

• Park and his mix tapes
• All the holding hands they did
• Whispering during their way to school
•  Eleanor's curly red hair

This is a snapshot of my favorite part of the book.

this and that

The past weeks, I have been holing up in my room - watching a lot of suits and new normal and catching up on my youtube subscriptions.  I have been reading quite a bit too, trying to finish all the books I've started and been visiting some websites I haven't checked in a while.


So here are some links!


Last week I checked out Relevant Magazine and was welcomed by this article. 

"The devil is a liar. Sin is defeated. God is for us, Jesus is with us, and His grace is sufficient."

I have been obsessed with side braids so I went looking for a tutorial in youtube.  what do you know, i found this!  

And the result: :)

Just like the whole internet, I love Jennifer Lawrence - watch this from The New York times.

SCANDAL

So, I am probably living under a rock because I just got into ABC's SCANDAL.  I mean - OMG, I love this show! I finished everything in 2 days - now I am all caught up with it!

If you're like me and you are just getting out of that humongous rock you are hiding from, do yourself a favor and watch SCANDAL.  GO!

Mondays

To Tiger Lily

I just read Tiger Lily and loved it.  My favorite part is Peter's last letter to her..

“Did you know I always thought you were braver than me? Did you ever guess that that was why I was so afraid? It wasn't that I only loved some of you. But I wondered if you could ever love more than some of me.

I knew I'd miss you. But the surprising thing is, you never leave me. I never forget a thing. Every kind of love, it seems, is the only one. It doesn't happen twice. And I never expected that you could have a broken heart and love with it too, so much that it doesn't seem broken at all. I know young people look at me and think my youth seems so far away, but it's all around me, and you're all around me. Tiger Lily, do you think magic exists if it can be explained? I can explain why I loved you, I can explain the theory of evolution that tells me why mermaids live in Neverland and nowhere else. But it still feels magic.

The lost boys all stood at our wedding. Does it seem odd to you that they could have stood at a wedding that wasn't yours and mine? It does to me. and I'm sorry for it, and for a lot, and I also wouldn't change it.

It is so quiet here. Even with all the trains and the streets and the people. It's nothing like the jungle. The boys have grown. Everything has grown. Do you think you will ever grow? I hope not. I like to think that even if I change and fade away, some other people won't.

I like to think that one day after I die, at least one small particle of me - of all the particles that will spread everywhere - will float all the way to Neverland, and be part of a flower or something like that, like that poet said, the one that your Tik Tok loved. I like to think that nothing's final, and that everyone gets to be together even when it looks like they don't, that it all works out even when all the evidence seems to say something else, that you and I are always young in the woods, and that I'll see you sometime again, even if it's not with any kind of eyes I know of or understand. I wouldn't be surprised if that is the way things go after all - that all things end happy. Even for you and Tik Tok. and for you and me.

Always,
Your Peter

P.S. Please give my love to Tink. She was always such a funny little bug.”


Always, Your Peter - singing the letter this way makes it all the more wonderful!

Challenge

This year, I am doing the Reading Challenge again.  :)  I did it 2011 but not last year.  I don't know what was happening inside my head why I didn't.  lol.  This time I am trying for 75.   I cannot wait!


Anywho - I just wanna share the books I read last year:

GAME OF THRONES - this year I tell you, I got hooked!  George RR Martin is a genius!  I love everything about this series, I love the characters, the story line, the plot.. AMAZING!

THE HELP - now this book, wonderful writing.  The heart.  I did not stop reading until I finished. Loved the movie too.

♥ "All I'm saying is, Kindness don't have boundaries"

UNLOVABLE - now when you wanna be all giggly and girly, this is the book.  :)  

I REMEMBER NOTHING - I fell in love with Nora Ephron this year.  

♥ "Reading is everything.  Reading makes me feel like I've accomplished something, learned something, become a better person.  Reading make me smarter.  Reading gives me something to talk about later on.  Reading is the unbelievably healthy way my attention deficit disorder medicates itself. Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it's a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it's a way of making contact with someone else's imagination after a day that's all too real.  Reading is grist.  Reading is bliss."

SARAH'S KEY - I've read a lot of books about Germany and the Holocaust this year.  This could be the best one.  

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS - could be my best read this year.  I cried.  Ugh.

♥ "That's the thing about pain, it demands to be felt."

On ending this year...

This post is pretty late but what the hey..

I much enjoyed 2012.  I found new music, watched a bunch of movies and series, tried to be get some culture so I saw a couple of plays - a concert because had to be a fan-girl and took a bit of picture. :)


Music:

Because of this scene from GIRLS -  DANCING BY MYSELF became a favorite. 

Gotye's IN YOUR LIGHT and EYES WIDE OPEN

Phil Phillips - this year I got really fan-girly and liked him because of this performance.  Of course I automatically like his song HOME.

I fell in love with Noah and the Whales this year.  LIFEGOESON is one of my favorites.


There are soo many more songs I loved this year but I found myself playing these all the time.


I also have pictures:

So last year I caught a couple of shows, a concert and the Pasinaya festival - which was so much fun!

 

Last summer, the family drove to Baguio.

On my birthday, we drove to Tagaytay for family lunch.

 

 

Also, we got family pictures taken this year!

   

   

    

So.. there in a nutshell is my year... and here are some of my favorite photobooth pictures:

 

 

 

MIA no more

Hey! I have been MIA for so long - life kind of took over again.  Work and such things make is a little bit tricky for me to keep up with things that are actually fun or I enjoy.  It is sad, i know but see it is just less than 24 hours before Christmas and I got some time off. Yey!


Beside work being such a drag most of the time, there are still little treasures here and there which makes it a bit bearable.

I have been sucked into the world of Zombies. I totally lost my mind! I finished 3 season in 2 days -can you believe it? 

 

I finally got a new phone! Happy because I can now get all the cute cases I want! *insert evil laugh here*

Here are some of the new pics I took using "Max""