Family Stuff « Kutitots

Gardening

11 March 2014 • Comments Off

Yey! I’m finally able to blog again. Thanks to my hubby, Marc, for sorting out my uploading problem. I didn’t have the time to fix the server permissions on my blog. Lucky for me, I have a husband who loved me enough to fix my server configurations during his free time! Okay, so maybe “because he loved me” is stretching it a bit. It’s more likely that he’s finding my lack of updates a waste of domain name registration payment. Either way, I’m thankful 😛

So, what have I been up to the past year? Aside from the usual “busy with work” thing, Marc and I found a new hobby together: Gardening!

My Garden

To be honest, I never really considered myself having a green thumb. I tried to grow a rose bush during the first year of my marriage, but it was beyond fail. It didn’t even last a week before it withered and died. My next attempt was a basil plant, but somehow I totally forgot about it and left the poor thing to die. You can understand why I was so hesitant when Marc decided to buy our first plant to grow together. It was another basil plant. I tried to dissuade him from buying — I didn’t want to be a serial basil plant killer! Read more

Awakening of the hibernating book worm

5 September 2012 • Comments Off

Daily Dose Family Stuff

I was around 7 years old when I first learned to read. I wasn’t exactly the quickest learner — my classmates in the first grade were long into reading more complex sentences before I could even string two words together. But my late grandma was patient, she taught me to read diligently. It wasn’t long before I fell in love with reading.

As embarrassing as it is for me to admit, I got addicted to the Francine Pascal’s Sweet Valley series. Love Stories. Nancy Drew. Christopher Pike. A few classics like Tess of the D’Urbervilles, The Little Prince, When Worlds Collide, The Joy Luck Club, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and my all-time favorite: To Kill a Mockingbird.

I probably amassed quite a collection of books back then, but lost most when we moved. I didn’t read much when I started working (at a call center for 6 months, then eventually to having my own home business), until I got hooked on Harry Potter. I probably bought only a few other books besides that series for the past five years, but the need to keep sane from the all the work deadlines lured me back to reading. I was starting to amass another book collection when my husband Marc finally got fed up seeing my books everywhere, and got me my own book cabinet 🙂 Read more

My new Smurf companions

2 September 2011 • Comments Off

Daily Dose Family Stuff

I didn’t have a totally “tomboy” childhood. I loved Voltron, but I liked cute cartoons too. The Smurfs is one of them.

It was quite lame watching The Smurfs for a Friday night date with my husband — far from romantic — but hey, it’s not often those little blue creatures get to be on a live action flick. Besides, it just goes to show how much my husband loves me — he endured an hour and a half of cuteness! 😀

Aside from our yaya who reveled in those quiet moments I’m glued to the TV, my sister also spent a lot of time watching cartoons with me as soon as she was old enough to. The Smurfs was one of our favorites cartoons.

I learned about the Smurf toys being included in McDonald’s Happy Meal from my sister. I made it a point to collect every one of them, with the main obstacle being: I rarely eat fast food nowadays. I haven’t had a burger in almost a year, and the most I’ve bought from McDonald’s are chicken nuggets and fries. But my family likes fast food. And that made collecting all eight toys possible.

The toys are now displayed beside my work computer. They’re quite a relief to see whenever the going gets tough at work (so cute!). But best of all, they’re a welcoming reminder of how my family — my husband, mom, dad, and sister — all made an effort to get Happy Meals instead of their usual orders for the past few weeks just to let me have my Smurfs. 🙂

My Christmas wish list

23 December 2010 • 4 Comments

Family Stuff

Because I am a thoughtful wife, sister, and daughter… I saved my husband, little sis and my parents the hassle of thinking of what to give me for Christmas 😀 I posted this list on our home office whiteboard a few days ago so they’ll have a “reference” 😛

Dad rolled his eyes when he first saw it, but he and the family still headed over the grocery to buy some off my wish list 😀 The gifts I want are quite practical, stuff that I can use for the kitchen or to aid me in my marathon training. But if somebody thought an iPad is the best present to give me… How can I refuse? 😀

Merry Christmas everyone! 🙂

Four years… and counting :)

25 November 2010 • 2 Comments

Family Stuff

Four years ago, on this day, around this time, I made this vow at the St. Ignatius Cathedral in Quezon City:

I, Gail Dela Cruz, take you Marc Villanueva, to be my husband, my partner in life and my one true love. I will cherish our friendship and love you today, tomorrow, and forever. I will trust you and honor you. I will laugh with you and cry with you. I will love you faithfully. Trough the best and the worst, through the difficult and the easy. What may come I will always be there. As I have given you my hand to hold. So I give you my life to keep So help me God.

Four years of 4 years of laughter and tears, the best and the worst, the difficult and the easy.

But who’s counting? 🙂

Happy anniversary, Marc, my partner in life and my one true love 🙂

Humility lessons from my Dad

21 June 2009 • 7 Comments

Daily Dose Family Stuff

Like my husband and I, my parents are as different as night and day. My mom (before her stroke), liked to talk a lot and was as noisy as I am at parties. My dad, on the other hand, didn’t really talk muchâ€”he was the quiet type before my mom had a stroke. But oddly enough, it was my dad who gave me a lot of sermons when I was growing up.

My mom preferred giving the silent treatment, while Dad could go on for hours lecturing me about something I did wrongâ€”or about to do wrong. So it’s really no wonder I got a lot of anecdotes from him. He liked making metaphors to explain things, and I have to admit sometimes I couldn’t help but do the same 😛

But among the many metaphors and anecdotes my dad gave, one sticks out as my favorite. Read more

Happy New Year!!!

1 January 2009 • 5 Comments

Family Stuff

Happy 2009!!!

We just want to greet you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Our first suburban Christmas

28 December 2008 • 4 Comments

Daily Dose Family Stuff

I have always been a “city girl.” Katipunan Road, to be exact. I lived along Katipunan Avenue, Blue Ridge ever since the day baby me was allowed to go home from the hospital after my mom gave birth to me. I studied at Miriam / Maryknoll College for preschool, elementary, and high school; then took up BS Communications Technology Management at the Ateneo de Manila Universityâ€”schools situated along Katipunan Avenue. The schools I went to were just less than five minutes away, so I never really had the need to stay in a dormitory. Simply put, I’ve been rooted to Katipunan Avenue for as long as I could remember.

It’s hard to believe that this year, we just spent Christmas in the suburbs of Antipolo. Read more

Merry Christmas!

26 December 2008 • 6 Comments

Family Stuff

Better late than never 🙂 Hope you all have a happy Christmas!!!

Have you put up Christmas decors yet?

2 December 2008 • 4 Comments

Daily Dose Family Stuff

I have! 🙂 With the help of my younger sister Joyce, of course. Serious bonding time between me and my sis 🙂

Ever since we moved to this new house, we had more space for decors like a 6-foot Christmas tree. The dogs no longer have the run of the house, so Marc allowed me to buy a tree that would be the centerpiece of our living room. Read more

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