david – Page 2 – Chasing Dreams

He Turned 31

December 20, 2014December 20, 2014 Rhiza2 Comments

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I had a memory lapse and thought we turned 32 this year. He looked at me, stopped for a moment as if he was trying to count years in his head and then asked, “are you kidding?” I wish I was kidding (that was a good joke, right?) but I really got confused for a moment.

Maybe some of us don’t intentionally stop counting birthdays after we turned 30. Maybe we just become forgetful. Or maybe we sometimes feel older than we really are.

We got him a cake this year! Although I intended to maintain my non–cake tradition by making dessert shooters (I planned to stick little candles on them), in the end I thought this year should have a proper birthday cake, even though, as expected, I’ve been eating all the left-over cake ever since. By the way, there’s more cake in the ref as I type this.

So he turned 31 (yes, not 32) this week, and even though we’ve spent the past 3 years celebrating birthdays together, everything I said 3 years ago still rings true today. Still in awe, still kilig, still in constant wonder for being blessed with such a great man to journey this life with.

Happy birthday, D. I love you, don’t forget.

How to Celebrate Your 3rd Wedding Anniversary (Wife Edition)

August 29, 2014June 20, 2019 Rhiza3 Comments

Your third year as a married couple is such a great year. By this time you would have adjusted pretty well to living together, and have grown a deeper level of understanding and acceptance of each other. Which means, less fights, more happy conversations, and a messier house. Having children in your 3rd year comes with totally different dynamics too, but the addition of little humans in the house makes it all the more fun!

Here are 8 suggestions to celebrate your third wedding anniversary: Continue reading “How to Celebrate Your 3rd Wedding Anniversary (Wife Edition)” →

Love Comes Tumbling Down

August 13, 2014August 13, 2014 RhizaLeave a comment

Dear David,

Do you remember that day? We ran around the old Philippine Air Force museum grounds with our small crew of 3, cramming our prenup video. We had to be quick because the sun was about to set that day and we didn’t have a lot of days left. Our wedding was less than a week away.

Do you remember that day? We were grinning from ear to ear, couldn’t keep our eyes off each other, couldn’t contain our joy. We awkwardly posed where they told us to pose, jumped when they told us to jump, chased each other when they said we should, smiled for the camera till our cheeks hurt.

Do you remember that day? We were so happy like we were living in a dream, except that our eyes were wide open and you’re, well, for real. And while we knew then that the best was still yet to come, we still couldn’t have guessed what God had in store for us!

Do you remember that day?

It’s been three years since then. So much has changed and so much has remained the same (we still chase each other around and smile til our cheeks hurt, that’s for sure). But in the midst of the big and small changes, the good times and bad times, you still remain to be the boy who makes my heart sing.

Thank you for being a huge part of the happiest days of my life, and even the ordinary ones. You’re my most favorite blessing. A lifetime thanking God for you is not enough.

Happy third year anniversary!
I love you, don’t forget.

Love, Riz

Continue reading “Love Comes Tumbling Down” →

30th Year With You

December 31, 2013December 31, 2013 RhizaLeave a comment

Allow me to post this before the month (and the year!) ends.

Once upon a time, I was not very fond of Decembers. For me, Christmas season was the saddest of all holidays; like, there’s something melancholy about it that I couldn’t quite point my finger on. But just like the many things that changed in my life, the month of December has become merrier and brighter through the recent years.

Evidently, much of this can be attributed to the addition of this guy in my life, whose birthday happens to fall right smack in the middle of the Christmas season.

And then these two girls were born, and suddenly everyone’s birthday feels like it’s their birthday. My, Decembers have never been better than this.

Highlights of D’s 30th birthday

We were at our bible study group’s blue-and-orange Christmas party the night before his birthday. Totally unintentional, this year’s color motif lends itself well to the birthday boy’s favorite NBA team, and he was happy to have the excuse to wear his New York Knicks shirt..

..which is, obviously, his favorite shirt. (He was wearing the same shirt on his birthday 2 years ago.) Haha. Funny coincidence.

We surprised him with a birthday cake as the clock struck 12mn, and once again we feel blessed to have friends who would, well, wait around ’til past midnight to celebrate special days like this. Thank you, Thursday Group. And special thanks to our friend Jasper, for decorating his birthday cake with robot candles. Very 30-years-old. :)

The rest of his birthday looked like this:

Christmas sunrise worship, tapsilog for breakfast, home-cooked meals, a coffee date to cap the night, the gift of time.

Except for the birthday cake we had in Thursday Group’s Christmas party the night before, I managed to stick to his birthday non-cake tradition. Three years running, LOL. First it was stacked pancakes, then it was donuts, and now, this:

In my defense, I’d looove to buy him a real birthday cake, or maybe even bake him one.. but he hardly eats cake! Either it gets spoiled in the ref, or I end up eating the whole thing, which is bad for my new year’s resolutions, lol. Maybe someday, when Dawn & Rain are big enough to finish Daddy’s birthday cake with me. :)

Thank you, 2013

2013 is the year both of us turned 30 years old, and surely it was the year where we learned the most meaningful of lessons. God blessed us with opportunities to trust Him even more, to live simply, to be content, and to place other people’s welfare above our own.

30th year is a beautiful year in and of itself. As an added bonus, I get to go through this journey with D, to see him grow, and to witness up close what God is doing in his life. What a blessed year indeed. I wouldn’t have it any other way. :)

Starbucks Double Date

November 11, 2013November 13, 2013 Rhiza2 Comments

It’s November and the Christmas drinks at Starbucks are here. So on Saturday morning, I convinced my husband to go to the nearest Starbucks with me so that I could get my Toffee Nut fix.

But his idea was even more ~~crazy~~ brilliant: Take the twins with us and have a little family date. And so we did, and what I got was more than just a satisfied craving.

Going to Starbucks has always meant for me either one of these two things: (1) to meet friends for some catching up, or (2) to have some alone time with my laptop, my earphones, and my thoughts. Bringing along two giddy little girls is surely a deviation from my usual Starbucks “dates”.

Instead of having a meaningful conversation, my husband and I had our hands full—holding the babies close, feeding them, entertaining them, singing songs to them, and making sure they didn’t fall off the couch.

But in the midst of the riot, I found myself pausing for one moment and holding back tears of joy.

It was my Dad’s birthday that day.

He would have been 64, and I still often find myself wishing that he’s around to spoil his grandchildren rotten, watch them grow, and steal them from us every now and then so that the parents can go away for a date haha.

But even if there’s a little bit of sadness in that thought, mostly there was joy knowing that a part of my Dad lives on.

So we placed a little candle on our Banoffee Pie to remember the life of the Great Lolo Bob who still never fails to inspire us even until now, 6 years after he’s gone to be with the Lord.

Happy birthday, Dad. Happy birthday, Lolo. We love you.

I praise God for moments like this.

In fact, I look forward to moments like this. Afternoons when we can just slow down and breathe in this new life that we have as a family. Times when we can bring them along wherever we go (while they still have no choice!), take them to places we love, and make some happy core memories.

And okay, maybe I’m a little too excited about making memories. They just turned one year old and surely they won’t have a recollection of this day just yet.

But someday.. someday, they’ll start to remember.

In the meantime, I’ll keep taking photographs and writing memories down.

What September Reminds Me Of

September 13, 2013September 13, 2013 RhizaLeave a comment

This post was inspired by a couple of things. (1) Timehop, (2) This day being Friday the 13th, (3) Septembers, (4) #throwbackthursday and #flashbackfriday and (5) This guy I shall call “J”, who my husband and I have been exchanging letters with since the start of the year. More about him later.

Based on my Timehop, the past Septembers have been full. Timehop is a mobile app that pulls out photos from your social networks, from the exact same day the past years, putting them together in a nice little message alert that you receive every morning.

Since the start of September, my Timehop has been on a roll.

September 1, 2006: We went to a music festival.

D was about to end his one-month vacation, flying back to New York the next day. As a final date, he took me to Penshoppe’s Denimlab Rockfest. We were “just friends.”

Photo: Couple selfie taken inside Araneta Coliseum that night. (Uso na selfie nung 2006.)

It’s been 7 years since that September night, and most of what happened then has become a blurry memory. But I do remember Imago singing “Akap”, my song for the night. I remember riding a cab after the concert and hearing the first Christmas carol of the year. I remember us having coffee at Starbucks Pearl Drive, catching up on years worth of stories until the early hours of the next day. I remember blogging about the concert. I remember D walking me back to my apartment—a moment he lowkey tucked into the words of a song.

I remember the awkward goodbye, a casual hug that lingered a little longer than “casual”, one last glance and a wave. I remember watching him disappear around the curb, totally clueless that that was the boy I was going to marry someday.

September 9, 2010: We got engaged.

He’s back in Manila, and for a reason.

And you probably already know what happened.

September 13, 2010: We spent the night at Hong Kong International Airport.

Ending his one-week vacation here, he was flying back to New York with a 12-hour layover in Hong Kong. Who in the world would buy round-trip tickets to Hong Kong just so she could hang out in the airport while someone’s in a layover? Well, me. Ahh, young (stupid) love!

And hey, that was the exact same day as today!

Photo: Taken while having breakfast at HK International Airport, an hour before his flight.

Sometimes I wonder why I put myself through all of this unnecessary torture, lol. It was the saddest day ever, sending him off, alone in a foreign place. And yet I made the choice (and spent a ridiculous amount of cash) if only to spend a few more hours with him. As soon as his plane took off, I ran to the other side of the airport and boarded my plane back to Manila.

It’s been 3 years since that bittersweet (and expensive) day in HK!

The rest, as they say, is history.

September 2011 – We were married.
September 2012 – I was pregnant, half-way through my 3rd trimester.
September 2013 – Two ten-month-old little girls are crawling around the house.

September 13, 2013: Friday the 13th.

And here we are today.

Three long-stemmed roses from the husband are on top of my desk as I type this, and the twins are playing, screaming, and making a ruckus around the house. Looking back at the past Septembers, I can only laugh at all the crazies, thankful for the long-winding road that brought us to this day.

Dear J,

The point of this backtracking exercise is to acknowledge and appreciate how far the Lord has brought us. You said you read this blog from cover-to-cover (or page-to-page), and based on these pages it might look like we had it easy. But there were long days, months, and years in between the dates I mentioned above.

In between these stories were long periods of uncertainty. Nights when we felt like giving up (and nights when we actually gave up.) Prayers that weren’t answered the way we expected. Days when it felt like God wasn’t listening. Months where we were so sure we would never get back together ever.

We messed up, many times. We were impatient. We struggled to do things our own way. We had too many missteps and God had to pull us, break us, tear us, maybe all for the purpose of bringing us back to the path we’re supposed to be.

I pray that you find the courage to make better choices than we did. God knows the desires of your heart, He knows what He’s doing, and someday, you’ll see why you have to shed a few tears right now too.

Sincerely,
David & Rhiza