Unique Blogger Nomination

Thank  you Hunida @Hunidasblog for nominating me for The UNIQUE BLOGGER AWARD. Please visit her blog because she writes awesome stuff. She writes with honesty and I always enjoy reading her blogs.

If you’re nominated for this award, you have to follow the following rules.

The Rules:

• Kindly thank the person who nominated you!
• Answer the 3 questions asked by the person who nominated you.
• Nominate 8-13 bloggers for this award!
• Ask the people you nominated 3 questions.

So here are my answers to Hunida’s questions:

#1 If you could live one week in someone else’s shoes who would you choose?     

I would choose to live in the shoes of Jesus, it might sound religious but in all honestly I want to know how he looks at me and how he thinks of me and other people too. I want to see how he feels and what’s in his heart.

#2 Do you brush your teeth in the shower or do you think that’s extremely weird?   

Yes, I brush my teeth in the shower so it’s not weird for me. I do crazy things in the shower like recording a song!

#3 Describe your handwriting. Is it big or small? Do you write in cursive, print, or a mix of both? Do you write in all caps or no caps?

My handwriting is has normal size. I usually write in cursive especially when I’m in a rush. I really don’t like my handwriting when it’s print but I do it when taking down notes.

Now I nominate the following people:

• Wandering Flower @strawberrykim.blog
• chroniclesofherdiaries@chroniclesofherdiaries.com
• Keira@Method to My Melody
• E@marcusandmommy
• Kathi@kathrynwarmstrong
• eagerlistener@comeletsdiscuss.com
• loftspeaker1@loftforum
• JenCat@ldrdoneright

Here are the three questions for you to answer.

1. What is the best and worst purchases you’ve ever made?

2. If you had to change your name, what would your new name be, and why would you choose that name?

3. What’s a body part that you wouldn’t mind losing?

 

I’m learning French!

Yes, you heard it right, I’m learning French. Thanks to Duolingo, an app from playstore, I can learn French for free. I like Duolingo, it’s easy, fun, and challenging. I know now some vocabularies and can write simple sentences in French, though I’m really not good in the pronunciation part. My husband is Canadian so he knows French, I am overwhelmed when he teaches me how to say the words, it’s hard! so I told him I’ll just concentrate on the writing part for now. I’ve noticed that some words are exactly the same in English. I guess some English words were derived and adopted from French. Anyways, I am determined to finish it, up to the last lesson. I’m not sure how long it will take but I’m definitely taking it seriously.

I’ve read in some articles that learning a new language has a great benefit to the health of my brain. It can create new neurons, they call the process neurogenesis. We lose neurons as we age and this affects our memory. That’s why old people often have difficulty with recalling information or retaining new information. Omg, I tend to forget a lot of things now!

According to the research of Dr. Sahay a neuroscientist, neurogenesis can help prevent Alzheimer’s disease, depression, and reduce anxiety. When more neurons die there’s a huge possibility to get Alzhaimer’s. I have also learned that depression can make a part of our brain called hippocampus where neurons grow, shrink. It’s scary! I remember one of my favorite actors Robin Williams who had Alzheimer’s disease and took his own life due to depression. Depression prevents neurogenesis!

The good news is, moderate-intensity exercise like aerobics, walking, jogging, and swimming can produce more neurons. That’s really good for me because I don’t like working like highly extensive workout. Any activity that is engaging and relieves us from stress can increase neurons. We also need to prevent things that damage our brain, like not getting enough sleep, eating unhealthy, and not managing our stress. And to tell you honestly, I was scared a little bit upon learning this because I’m guilty of all of it! Who else is guilty?

My mind is all mess since I had my miscarriage. I told my husband I’m gonna take a break and will stay at home for about two to three months before working again and he supports me in it. I have so many anxieties and it messes my brain and makes me unhappy. So now, I’m trying to fix myself little by little by writing a blog, learning French which is really fun for me, eating healthy, and go out and do some walking and jogging. I admit I haven’t done the latter part because I don’t like going out. But you know learning these facts makes me wanna do it. I have to live a healthy life and being healthy is one of the ways to be happy. So maybe I will find some dance exercise in Youtube and dance along with it. Lol.

What new things are you want to learn? What relieves your stress?

Mt. Pulag Adventure

If you have read my Most embarrassing moment entry, you know that I nearly died that day we climbed Mt. Pulag. I’m glad I survived and reached the summit.

My husband put Mt Pulag at the top of the list of the places he wanted to go to in the Philippines. I wanted to do a do it yourself trip for this climb but when I researched, it’s kinda hard to get transportation, so I decided to book with Trail Adventours. The slots are easily filled so I booked six months prior to my husband’s arrival. The guides were very friendly and accomodating and everything were taken cared of including our food.

The Trail Adventours team met us at Victory Liner terminal in Pasay and we left Manila at around 11:30 pm and arrived in Baguio at 4:30 am. We slept in the bus the whole time. When we arrived in Bagiuo, the guides split the group into two and we were designated to our respective jeepneys. We made several stops to our hostel. First, to a small restaurant to eat our breakfast, next to a clinic to get a medical certificate. You can’t climb without this. My husband made some friends here while we were waiting and everyone was amazed because he could converse in Tagalog. We went to the a dam and took some pictures.

After that we went to a mud spring. It was my husband’s first time to see something like it and he was amazed. After that we headed to our hostel. When we were near the hostel, we were allowed to ride at the top of the jeepney. We really enjoyed it.

We arrived at the hostel and a beautiful scenery welcomed us.

We rested and freshened up before dinner. The guides gathered us in the dining area and each participant was asked to introduce and say something about himself. We were about 20 in number and it was fun. People got to show their personalities and we shared good laughs. After that we ate dinner and went back to our rooms. We woke up at 12 am to prepare and started hiking at 1 am. We reached the summit just when the sun was rising, it was wonderful.

We enjoyed watching the sea of clouds

After a couple of hours we started going down.

We passed by some farmers who were loading carrots in a truck and said hello.

We made it to our hostel by lunch and we were very exhausted. We freshened up and headed back to Baguio.

We stopped by a bridge and crossed it back and forth. It was exhilirating!

Until now I couldn’t believed I had climbed Mt Pulag. It was one of a kind experience. Here is a video of our trip.

Thank you for reading, I’m happy to share this experience.

Hear me…

My burden is weighing me down

Why it never ends?

Don’t punish me Lord

Spare me me from the consequences of my sins

I’m afraid, I always am

When I listen to your Word, I am comforted

It gives me strength

Don’t let my joy be stolen

I am seeking you for shelter

Reveal to me my trangressions

and cleanse me with your love and forgiveness

Don’t show favoritism

I am your daughter

I am longing for your affection

Soften your heart and have mercy

Take me out of darkness

Ease my mind

Fix my heart

Bring me healing

Day 30 – Hopes For My Blog

Wow! Finally, today is the end of this challenge. I failed four times to post on the actual day, but I’m still proud to have been consistent for 26 days. But I am more proud of my husband for being consistent on 30 days blogging despite of his busy schedule. He enjoyed this challenge and I think he will continue to blog in the future. You can read his blog here.

I have met wonderful and beautiful people here and I’m happy that I gain more and more followers everyday. It’s nice to know that someone is interested in what you write. I hope that I will be able to write more and exchange experiences from other bloggers. I hope that one day when I read my blogs again, I will smile because I had gone a long way and learned a lot of things and also able to help or inspire others because they could relate to what I wrote.

I still have number of things to document through my blog and maybe someday my children will have an idea what their parents had gone through and appreciate us more. Thank you WordPress bloggers for giving me inspirations and for sharing your lives.

If you want to do this challenge, please read the Start blogging with the 30-day blogging challenge post.

Day 29 – A Confession

My mom was selling meat in a wet market from the day I was born until I graduated from College. Although my mom would never force us to help her in the market sometimes we volunteer to help her. My mom worked hard so she could send us to a private school. My classmates were well-off. My school things were simple while my classmates’ were cool and pretty. When I was in highschool, my mom enrolled us again in a private school. My classmates would invite me to go to the mall and hang out with them but I couldn’t afford it because I never had money for it. I envied them and wished we were rich. I badly wanted to go out with them so one time I helped my mom in the wet market but I took money from the what the customers paid me. I did it a number of times so I can go with my classmates. My mom would count the money before we go home and wondered why it didn’t tally from what were sold. She never thought that I would steal money from what we sold. I was really foolish. My mom was the best. That’s why after I graduated from College, I immediately applied for a work and asked my mom to stop working because she had worked hard for us to finish our studies and I wanted her to rest and enjoy her life.

Day 28 – My Most Embarrassing Moment

It was May 14, the weather was perfect. It was 12 am and we were getting ready for the climb. I was so excited that finally we will get to climb the second highest mountain in the Philippines, Mt. Pulag. We started walking but after 5 minutes I was already out of breath and my lungs were burning. I was starting to panic. It was embarrassing that it was so quiet everyone could hear my heavy breathing. In my head I was asking myself why I put myself in this, why did I think I could climb a high mountain.  I realized I was exerting too much effort to breathe. So I decided to close my mouth and breathe through my nose, and after a while I was breathing normally. I just needed to calm myself and try something that would make my breathing normal.

It was dark and I was foolish for not bringing a headlight, I used the the flashlight of my cellphone instead, thinking that my husband has a flashlight anyway, and thought we could walk side by side but it turned out you can’t do that because the trail is narrow. I know you’re saying I’m stupid. We didn’t have much time to prepare because we just came back from our honeymoon. I knew I had some headlight in my room but I couldn’t find it.

We reached the rocky part of the trail and I had tripped a lot of times and fell on my knees a lot of times but I never imagined that one those trips will be the most embarrassing moment of my life. I tripped on a rock and lost my balance that it pushed me forward ending up bumping in someone else’s leg. I bounced to the edge of the mountain but luckily saved by a tree where my butt landed with my left hand holding on to a branch and my right hand still holding my cellphone. The woman whose leg I bumped into shouted because she was afraid that I would slowly fall at the side of the mountain. Everyone had his flashlight on me as my husband and the woman pulled me out from where I was nesting.

I slowly tried to gain back my composure and was telling everyone that I’m okay even though I feel my hand was burning and my knee was aching. For a second, I thought I’m gonna slide down at side of the mountain and die, it was a horrible thought and I was very thankful that God protected me. It was a terrible experience. We continued to climb and reached the summit after 4 hours of climbing. The sun slowly came up and the sea of clouds greeted us and I knew that my most embarrassing moment was worth it. It was a magnificent view and  it’s a mountain I would never regret climbing.

How about you? What’s your most embarrassing moment?

Day 27 – What’s In My Closet

This will be the most boring blog entry of mine because…

First, I don’t find my closet very interesting. I have some clothes that I don’t even wear because they are already small because basically I got bigger and bigger and still gaining more weight. But you know I don’t dispose them because I’m still hoping that someday I can wear them again!

Second, there’s not much else in there but books, some bags and shoes. That’s it. My closet is not that fancy I only have like five hangers in there, all my clothes are folded. I’m also not a clothes or shoes buyer. I really don’t buy unless I really need them. My husband is like that too. He only buys things when he really needs it.

Finally, I try to be a minimalist and I’m embracing the thought of “Less is more” so whatever is in my closet that I won’t be able to use I’m gonna dispose it (Give it to people who might need it.)

I guess I’ll enjoy my favorite things everyday by only owning my favorite things.

How about you? What’s in your closet?

Day 26 – My Hidden Talents

I’m thinking if I still have any hidden talent because I think have shown it already to a lot of people. I like to sing to alot and I play instruments too. I also love hosting parties and school events. If there are other talents that people don’t know about me maybe it would be these things.

#Using photoshop

My bestfriend taught me how to use Photoshop years ago. Though I am not as creative as she is, I can make something out of my basic knowledge like invitations, business cards, t-shirt designs, tarpaulins, fancy resume and images that I use in this blog.

#Editing videos

If you don’t know I put up a channel in Youtube to upload some videos I edited. I’m not really good at it but I enjoy doing it and I’m happy when my husband tells me that it’s good. I’m dreaming of being a Youtuber someday but I’m still camera shy and hope someday I can be comfortable with it. If you want to see the videos click here.

#Hardware and software troubleshooting

I worked as a technical professional before so I was trained to assemble computers and install Operating System and other software. I guess I have this techy personality inside me. I like exploring and navigating tech gadgets. I specifically enjoyed setting up this blog and customizing the appearance. I had spent numerous hours trying different themes and figuring out how it works. Sometimes I wish to have taken computer-related courses like IT or programming and earn money from doing it.

#Dancing

My husband say I’m a good dancer so I’m including it! Lol. This for sure will not come out in the open. Never. Haha.

It’s a nice feeling when you get to learn new things and be able to use it and share it with other people. My relatives would ask me for help or make something for them and it’s a wonderful feeling that I can put smiles on their faces.

How about you? What’s your hidden talent?

To participate in this challenge, please read the 30-day blogging challenge post.