How do you feel...On Great Difficulty...

As I am writing this post, I myself can't really give a concrete answer on the above title.. This is one of those times when you say, "When it rains, it pours."

I just know that I feel better somehow just by reading these 2 messages from Ralph Marston. I wish I can say that I am one of the "Others" who choose to feel energized and inspired even in a challenging situation or in great difficulty. After all, these things are blessings in disguise, right? Whatever I feel, whatever difficulty that I am experiencing right now, I know that I have my family and I have God to help me get through all these..

Hope you get inspired and motivated also by reading these 2 messages:

How do you feel?

It may seem that the way you feel depends on how much things are going in your life and in the world in general. Yet the exact opposite is true.

The way things are going in your life depends on how much you choose to feel. Your feelings are your most sincere expectations. Every part of your life picks up on those expectations. Your thoughts, your actions, your words, and the results that come from them all take their cue from the way you feel.

Some people see a challenging situation and feel dismayed. Others will see the same exact situation and know that they can choose to feel energized and inspired.

Life does not arbitrarily impose itself on you. Rather, through your feelings, you select which of life's many offerings you wish to accept.

How do you choose to feel about things? Whatever it is, that is the way your life will play out.

On Great Difficulty

Are you encountering difficult challenges? That means you're ready for great things.

Are the problems becoming more critical, complicated and demanding? That puts you in a position to make an enormous positive difference.

Take a step back, take a deep breath, and consider it an opportunity. For that's exactly what it is.

The challenges that come your way are precisely the ones you are now able to handle. If they're becoming tougher, that means you have become stronger.

You've grown so much that you're ready to move to a higher level now. Take the opportunity to do so.

For in great difficulty is great value, right in front of your eyes, begging to be created. Choose now to be the one who creates it.

Lola Pura's 86th Birthday Celebration

Further to PJ's post on the above subject, like to acknowledge all people who came to celebrate our lola's birthday last Saturday. Relatives - close and distant, old and new friends, past and present neighbors, waiters, caterers etc... LOL! The night before her party she was worried that no one will come aside from us! So cute!

It was a last minute preparation from all her children and grandchildren, but it didn't stop us on making that day a huge success for our beloved granny! Too bad that my "Ta Tess" wasn't able to take a leave from her work in the the US. She was the missing link for that birthday and family reunion.

Anyway, we all made our contributions one way or another to make it a memorable birthday celebration for her. I especially like what we, the grandchildren (special thanks to Jannie, Johnby and Ivan) did on the movie presentation as one of the highlights of that party. Ahhhh....just watching this makes me reminisce the old days when we were all here in the Philippines, in one community, living in the same area, having lunch and dinner together on weekends, playing games with all our cousins, the "harutans" and the "kulitans," the never-ending picture takings, the out-of-town trips...Not that we don't do those things anymore, but it's not the same when the others are already a million miles away.

This is the second and last part of the presentation we showed last Saturday... (special thanks to PJ for the technical assistance) Sorry I had to cut the last few slides...



The Roman clan has certainly grown so big! And I just realized how lucky I am to be part of this family. We may have a lot of differences and we may have petty quarrels within the family, but who doesn't have anyway? The more important thing is that, we love and we care for one another and we all love the same Mother, Grandmother, great grandmother and friend, our "Lola Pura."

To my dearest lola, hope you enjoyed your party. Happy 86th birthday! We love you...

Weekend get-away @ Puerto Galera (Part 2)

Let's have a recap: Kim and Mitch, my 2 loudest friends, forced me to go with them to Puerto Galera last weekend. Why? Simple. They needed someone to pull the plug when the volume got too loud! Peace guys!

Still on Day 1:
1830H - Kim and I went to the boat station to change our schedule for the following day. We were initially scheduled for the 1545 trip, but we found out that we needed to check-out by 12 noon. We were a little lucky that the 1245 trip still had 5 available slots.

This is a pretty cool shot of the sunset silhouette.


1930H - Dinner time! Kim and I made instant friends with a gay waitress on one of the resto bars while we were on our way back to the room. Don't be surprised if you see lots of them there, they have invaded the whole White Beach resort! LOL! Nothing against them! In fact, they provide better service compared to the other M/F waitresses. So, we decided to have our dinner @ Paul's Beach Bar and Bistro. Their grilled kebabs are worth your Php110+!! After that, we got ourselves coffee from another bar and we walked for an hour just to burn some of those calories from that heavy kebab meal!


2030-2200H - Shopping, haggling and more shopping!!!
Got myself a "kikay" beach dress,(don' know actually what they call that, but that's my version!) souvenir shirts for my 2 boys, blue earrings to go with my blue swimsuit (kelangan talaga terno ;P) razor-back shirt for my dear friend Sty, and these pictures for Chrissy! LOL!

2200-midnight... - Spent the rest of the evening in the sand drinking beers with the girls. The bar that we chose offers "banig" or sleeping mats for free that customers can use if they want to drink or dine by the beach. The moon was perfect that time also! So, we talked everything and anything under the moon till midnight! Ooopps, I forgot! I was the first one who called it a day, since there's no chance that these 2 would retire by 12. I was really too tired and exhausted to spend another hour awake...

(To be continued..)