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 🙂

On changing habits: Gradual change or cold turkey?

14 July 2008     •     3 Comments
Daily Dose Family Stuff

Whew. I finally got to blog. I haven’t been totally out of commission though… I’m still giving Plurk its much-needed attention 😀

For the past two months, Marc and I had been eating nothing but meat. I think the only vegetable part of our daily consumption were tomatoes. Sometimes we have lettuce, pechay, kang-kong, corn and string beans, but not on a regular basis. The experiments I did in the kitchen were mostly of beef or pork—rarely of fish.

Last week I was already getting fed up with eating meat… Somehow, I feel “unhealthier” than I used to. Receiving emails about animal slaughter and abuse (I’m subscribed to Philippine Animal Welfare Society’s mailing list) doesn’t help either—they made me more inclined not to want to eat meat. I don’t think I can go fully vegetarian, but I can cut off meat completely. Question is… Can my husband? Read more

One year of better and worse

25 November 2007     •     15 Comments
Family Stuff

Me and Marc at the Ateneo de Manila Kostka ExtensionJust this evening, Marc and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. We didn’t really do anything much, the two of us just went out on a dinner date at Il Pirata in Eastwood City and saw the Beowulf movie. I guess I’ve been favoring quieter evenings ever since Sheero passed away—I still haven’t had the heart to party yet.

I can’t really explain it, but it’s kind of weird celebrating our first wedding anniversary. It’s another one of those instances when you feel that time seems to pass by too quickly. It seemed only like yesterday when my dad and I were just arguing over the wedding plans. Now, a year has already passed—one year of me and Marc being stuck with each other 😀

No, make that six years of being together. Marc and I started going out back in college. And funny how it started too. Read more

Marrying a blogger ain’t easy — Ask my husband!

5 February 2007     •     14 Comments
Family Stuff Tech Things

Marc just found out how hard it can be marrying a blogger.

I’m so mean, am I not? Heh. But really, it’s not as bad as it sounds. Every blog post he makes merits a “no-refusal” ticket with me. So if I’m the one in mood, he’ll be in luck 😀 Besides, we just got the blue print of our house’s expansion. We’d need to exercise some degree of self-control if we want to have the house constructed. If we keep up shagging like hamsters, we’d have to save up for a baby instead of a house! 😛

Ok, fine. That wasn’t the only reason. Hehehe. Jayvee actually gave me the “no blog, no sex” suggestion a few months back, when I asked him what’s the most creative way I can make Marc maintain his blog. I’ve been itching to monetize his blog ever since I sold my first link on TLA. My posts aren’t Adsense-friendly, and I’ve been hoping that Marc’s would be.

I tried to convince him by flashing at him my TLA checks—didn’t work. I showed him his site’s current PageRank—the doorknob would probably appreciate it more than he did. When his domain jumped to PR5, I knew I had to do something. And quick.

It was time to use Jayvee’s suggestion. And it actually worked.

I don’t know how long Marc and I will be able to keep this up before we start shagging like hamsters again (hahaha Jaypee, are you getting shocked yet?! LOL). But for now, I’ll make the most out of it and plaster some Adsense stuff on his site.

Maybe it’s true that the fastest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. But it seems that the fastest way to a man’s Adsense earning potential is through his penis! 😀

Go on, Digg Marc’s post and help me give him more reasons to blog! Hehe. (Thanks for the Digg post, Migz!)

My almost two months of Housewife-hood

15 January 2007     •     2 Comments
Family Stuff

My mom used to run a flourishing flower shop business at the same time as my dad’s photography studio during my early childhood. But when my parents decided (with the consent of my late grandma) to have the place rented out to a bank, my mom seized the opportunity to become a full-time housewife.

I remember resenting my mom a bit for this decision—I felt we became poorer because of it. We had to let go of my mom’s workers (who have always made me feel like a princess) when the shop closed up, and moved to a smaller home (or “cozier,” as my mom used to describe it). We still had our two housemaids, but the loss of the flower shop workers who used to be all over our house (my mom’s flower shop used to be part of our house) was a huge change for me that I really felt that we were already very poor.

What I also could not understand was why my mom had to be the one doing our laundry when we already had two maids to do the housework. That actually “confirmed” my conclusions that we became poor (I even got to the point of telling my mom that maybe we should borrow money from my grandma). I was so afraid I would have to stop my schooling. Since then, I vowed to myself that I would never be dependent on my future husband and have my own business so our children won’t ever feel poor. I would never be a housewife—I’ll just hire a maid.

But when I look back now, I can see that it was just childish paranoia. That event wasn’t our “hardest time,” it was only transitional. Comparing it to the time my dad and I had to find ways to pay for my sister’s hospitalization (psychiatric treatment here in the Philippines is very, very expensive if you want the best), I would have to say that we were still pretty well off then. I guess I just didn’t want to accept the fact that my mom was no longer a “business owner,” but “just a housewife” doing housework instead of managing a business.

I guess that’s also the same reason why it irritated me when somebody calls me “Mrs.” during the first few weeks of my marriage. I always had the notion that a “Mrs.” is attached to the concept of being “just a housewife.” I didn’t want to be just somebody’s wife, doing “wife things.” I wanted to be my own person, a person who has her own career or flourishing business. Read more

Me, a home-maker?

5 December 2006     •     5 Comments
Family Stuff

If my college friends heard you saying “home-maker” and “Gail” in the same sentence, they’d probably think you’re nuts. But lo and behold, these guys were the first ones to bear witness to my home-making.

One of my best friends in college, Rahul, went back to the Philippines for a week just to attend my wedding. He left to migrate to the United States a few months after graduation, so I never really expected he’d be there when I took my vows. You can imagine how shocked and pleased I was to see him (even Marc was so surprised to see him at the Church). Since it’s really rare for me and my friends to be together in one place like that, we made the most out of Rahul’s visit as soon as Marc and I got back from Hongkong.

My friends were the “first visitors” of our new home. But since they went to visit us the day after we got back, what they saw was a mess of a house. To be honest, it looked more like a storage facility than a home (yeah, that’s why I don’t want to post pics yet). So there. We had our first ever drinking session in our new home over boxes of electric fans and microwave ovens (not to mention atop of the eight rice cookers we received). And since Marc and I are such generous hosts, we bought my friends beer and sunflower seeds (Rahul treated us all to dinner in Eastwood City) for our little bonding session that lasted till 2am.

They were very amused to see me opening boxes of plates and glasses, and preparing stuff for them. Leng even commented that this was the last thing she thought she’d see: me getting excited opening boxes of kitchenware. It wasn’t what they were used to, that’s for sure. They won’t be surprised to see me go gaga over a new stick of 1GB RAM (they’ve already learned to accept the fact that computer parts will excite me more than a dozen of roses and a box of chocolates will), but kitchenware? It was simply… unusual.

To be honest, I’m also still finding it hard to believe that I’m now a wife. Checking my email used to be the first thing I did in the morning (I only brushed my teeth after I’ve gone through my emails hehe), but now, it’s different. Aside from having to brush my teeth first (it’s disgusting to kiss your husband good morning with a dragon-breath, you know), I now have to do some household chores first before I get to open my inbox.

Yesterday, I made my version of Connie’s Baked Creamy Chicken and Potatoes. Which, to my surprise, was a hit with my sister and Marc. Just this morning, I cooked rice, did some laundry, and marinated the beef we’ll be having for lunch. And now, as I write this entry, I still marvel at the thought that I actually did those things first before sitting in front of my pc.

I don’t know how long before I could really get used to this whole idea of “wife-hood” (it’s such a new thing for me that I even added a new post category called “wife-hood”). I guess I’ve just been so used to being a daughter with parents who run the household that the idea of me running my own household is still a bit strange.

Though there are still some things that remain the same (I still jump up and down on the bed when I desperately want to wake someone up—annoys the heck out of Marc), the thought that I’m now in a new chapter of my life is beginning to sink in. I’m also starting to realize and understand what it meant when people say “marriage will change your life.” Because in a short span of a week, it already has.

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