2011 went by so fast I did not get a chance to even prepare myself for this next year. Although, it doesn’t feel any different, except that I have to start writing 2012 instead of 2011.

I guess it’s because there has been an ongoing change in my life that it doesn’t seem like it’s another year.

If I haven’t announced it yet, I guess now’s the time. I AM PREGNANT! I am now 4 months preggers! (17 weeks) It’s a shocker right? What with Nick’s new job and us having a baby in 2012. It seems like everything is new everyday. It doesn’t matter what year it is. What matters to me right now is that there’s a life growing inside me and my body is changing tremendously.

Sometimes I feel like a psycho, sometimes I feel like I could eat a cow. Actually, I’ve been craving for some good steak so yes, I could eat a cow right now.

I’ve also started a blog but with all the holiday craziness my last post was on Dec 5th. Not only that, I also have been tired most of the time so that’s another reason why I haven’t been blogging as much.

The good news is that I never had the morning sickness. Thank you Lord! I’ve just been tired a little headachey sometimes. Not so bad though. I just have to make sure that I don’t eat food that would trigger a migraine. Other than that. My baby is just growing every single day.

I’d like to talk more about this but I have to go. Hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas and New Years holiday.

God is a good God who listens to our prayers. I hope that this new year would be filled with so much blessings for you as it already has for me.

I helped out a friend and did a shoot for the marketing campaign of his play, Suffering Inc. My friend and former co-worker is the director and writer of the play. So of course I have got to help a brother out and spread the word. If you haven’t seen the play, you should go get your tickets now before the run ends.

It’s been really fun doing creative shoots where I am able to use my ideas and even add more in post.

The great thing about shooting photos like these is that it gets published on web zines and even popular weekly newspapers here in Seattle.

One of them is the Stranger. They did a great review on the play and even included the photo I took with a credit.

Oh yeah! That makes me happy.

Never tell your friends that you’re trying! Actually, don’t tell anyone at all! Because if you do, everyone will ask you, “Are you pregnant yet?” And it has been happening for a while now. I don’t just get asked face to face but even on Facebook.  Even people that I didn’t tell that we were trying are asking me if I was pregnant yet. WHAT?!

This happened at church. Someone walked up to me (we’re not close) and asked me if I was pregnant yet. I said, “Who told you we were trying?” She says, “Oh so and so told me about it. We talk about these things you know.” UGH!!!! Mind you, this woman has had 2 kids already.

The thing is, if I was pregnant, did she think I’d tell her right away? I mean, this woman waited until her first trimester to announce she’s pregnant, back when she was pregnant with her kids. What makes her think I’m an exception? Shouldn’t she be more sensitive about these things?

Also, what makes her think I’d tell her if we are or not. We’re not close!

Just had to vent.

I did had the best of memories at Payanig sa Pasig. One of them is of the haunted houses. My cousins and I, with the push of my uncle, would try and check out the haunted houses to see how brave we were. I was usually on the side of, “I don’t really need this in my life.” But with my very persuasive uncle we pretty much had no choice but to go through with it.

There was also this warehouse type haunted house where you get into this truck, the truck goes into the warehouse. All the lights are off and when they do turn on, you discover you’re in a cemetery. So what they’d do is that they’d have the zombies come out their caskets and the ground. They’d start walking over to the truck, thank God the truck was surrounded by a cage type thing so they couldn’t touch you. My cousins and I would be so scared but we kept on riding that truck every year.

What I didn’t know was how I looked when I got all scared. If someone took a photo of me then, and look at it now, I probably would be laughing so hard and I’d even post it here. But since I don’t have a photo of myself. I thought I’d entertain you guys with these. I don’t know how I found the photos but it was a very good find.

What’s up with all the guys using their women as shields?

And then it gets better….

I love the guy wearing green

No words.. I have no words…

Not only did he take us out in his boat but we were able to take a ride on his scooters. Which was pretty fun since I haven’t been on one since I was 11 years old.

When I was young, my cousin’s dad had a motorbike, a scooter, and a 3 wheeler. It was all for us cousins to ride in around the subdivision where they lived. Since I was the youngest girl, I rode the 3 wheeler with another cousin, who’s the youngest boy. What’s funny was, we were the youngest and we were on the most dangerous ride. Go figure. It was fun though. We just had to make sure we didn’t do any turns quickly or else the 3 wheeler motorbike would be on top of us in a second. Those were good times. Makes me smile remembering all the things we did. We thought we were so cool. Revving the engines of the bikes to make sure other people heard it. We were just on the bikes riding around with no destination to go to really. I loved that.

And since it’s fall. It’s also time for shopping. Not that I need new clothes every season. But who says I can’t enjoy putting stuff together on polyvore just to see how things look?

If you’ve known me for a while, you’ll notice that I dress comfortably. I still believe in being stylish of course. But comfort is of high importance. So it’s pretty rare that you’ll see me in heels. If you do want to see me in heels, invite me to your wedding.

For this boyish sexy look, you’ll notice how loose the outfit is. Which is totally me. I used to wear a lot of tight tops. I feel that I am over that now. I haven’t been buying anything tight since last year. I’ve also been giving my old tight tops to Goodwill since I don’t see myself wearing them anymore.

I am not a fan of the cold weather, but fall is beautiful. And I get to wear boots again!

Any good suggestions on rain boots? My Rocketdog rain boots died on me after 3 months of use. Note to everyone, don’t buy their rain boots!

Dave Matthews Band, did such a great job last Saturday. I loved their whole set. Jimi Thing got me up and dancing and shakin what my momma gave me.

We got to watch the concert for free by volunteering for Reverb. Our job was to take photos of people. It was pretty easy yet there were a lot of very “interesting” people. So interesting that there are no words for it.

It was our second year to volunteer and 3rd year to watch DMB. We decided after watching the concert that it’s going to be an annual thing for us. Kids or no kids, we are going to watch DMB dang it! We’re also thinking about going to the Red Rocks and see his concert there. Just to see the difference between the Gorge and Red Rocks.

In other music news. I am slowly falling in love with the John Butler Trio. If you haven’t heard of them, you have to check out their website.

Anyway, after DMB, we went to visit Nick’s sister and her husband, who lives an hour away from the Gorge. We slept at their place and the following day we spent most of our time at Columbia River. Nick’s sis and her husband have a boat and they wakeboard often. So we were able to try it out again. Last year I couldn’t get up on the board ’cause the water was so cold I couldn’t hold on to the handles. So this year, I made up for last years failure. On my second attempt I got up for 3 seconds. I was in such shock that I actually got up that I fell right away. On my 3rd attempt.. well see below.

Not so bad eh? The next time I try it, I feel like I’d do better with my right leg in the front. I’d probably have more control. Even if I’m right handed, most of the time, when I do some kind of sport, I move like I was a leftie. So we’ll see how that works.

I’ll put up some photos on my next post. Can’t do that now since I am off to enjoy the sunshine. I hope everyone is out and about today.

I am a sun child.

So, I hope you guys like the new look.  I really liked the old one but it looks like the more simple it is, the better.

Timing could not be anymore perfect for this change in theme, since soon enough there will be more changes in Nick’s and my life.  Nick’s going to be done with school in 2 weeks and we’ve finally decided that it’s time to make some little Nicks and Tanyas. OH MY GOSH!!! And once there’s a little one baking in the oven, we might also have to move to a bigger place. Pretty big announcement huh?

The great thing about change is that I actually enjoy and look forward to it. I will admit that sometimes it gets pretty scary, but I get really excited about how my God is going to pull through. How He’d show himself always faithful in taking care of us.

I am always reminded of when I moved here to Seattle from Manila.  My friends would tell me that that must’ve been really scary.  I was honestly more excited that scared.  I was excited to be married to my best friend, excited for the new things I have never seen and was definitely overjoyed because Jesus showed Himself faithful in finally letting Nick and I be together after 3 years of a long distance relationship.

Change helps me look up to where I’m supposed to look.  It helps me look up to Him who knows what He’s doing.  And I trust that with the discomforts that comes along with change, He will never leave me nor forsake me.

I know that our future little kiddos will be a handful and could be stressful. But the positives will definitely outweigh the hardships.  I believe that.

I am excited to hear an additional sound of laughter in our house.  It will be wonderful.  So please pray that after Nick is done with school in 2 weeks that he gets a job that he loves, that pays well and of course includes really good benefits.  Thanks guys!

Photos below are a few more excerpts from our summer in Seattle.  Please excuse all the foot shots. For some reason I am very fascinated with the shots.  No I’m not turning into Quentin Tarantino.

Olympic Sculpture Park

Nick on our new float. This was at Greenlake.

Camano Island water.

I think the guy beside me is pretty hot.

A few highlights I wanted to share with you guys…

Nick and I have been doing a lot of exploring of our neighborhood.  After work we’d go have a picnic where we can get the best view of the sunset.

Our church had a bbq in the church parking lot. There were music and dancing and we were all thankful that the sun showed up.

My friend Rhonda and I

Little Michael and I. We were both laughing at a really funny joke.

One of the best things we’ve done this summer (so far) is go on a camping trip.  We had our own piece of lake. No one else was there. The sun graced us with its presence. We ate and swam and played a whole lot.

One can’t complain about where the tent was set up.

Yes, the water was that clear and refreshing.

I still have the skillz.

View from our tent.

Nick and his raft. He built that himself and he was very proud of it.

It’s really great to be married to my best friend.

PS. I started doing bootcamp at the gym 3 times a week. Nick is graduating in a few weeks and I deactivated my Facebook. I shall write a post about that shortly. Now that I’m not wasting my time on Facebook. Ha!

I’m not sure if summer has officially arrived in Seattle, but I definitely have a summer schedule. I have the type of schedule where I don’t go home right away after work. I mean, if the sun is out (which is rare in Seattle), it’s pretty hard to be indoors. So Nick and I make the most of it.

I know I said I was going to post some photos from our Anniversary trip but it’s been harder and harder to find the time.

Here’s a little excerpt.

I have not forgotten about you my dear readers. What have you all been doing since the beginning of summer?