How to Communicate Better With Your Significant Other? [Real Talk with My Then Live-In Partner]

December 19, 2022December 19, 2022Leave a comment

The recording of this video happened 13 months ago, Nov. 17, 2021, at Crimson Resort in Mactan as we were celebrating Tuz’s 6th birthday. I’ve always wanted to share this here in the hopes that it may give some helpful insights for other couples, particularly those living together for several years now, who are trying to be better partners and lovers and trying to find certainty about where their relationship is really going.

I mentioned it here on my previous blog post that Mahal and I have had our share of tough times in our relationship prior to getting engaged last April 25, 2022. There have been so many fights and we almost broke up for good. I believe that one of the major reasons why we were able to work things out, stay together, and continue to love one another was because of our willingness to be better communicators. We already know we love each other so, so much. That’s already a given. But if we don’t know how to properly communicate our wants, needs, thoughts, and feelings, we will continue to crumble as a couple.

So I’m very thankful for talks like this because it made loving each other much easier. Plus, looking back, it just makes me all the more proud of how far we’ve come in our relationship, how deeper our understanding of each other is now, and how much more we’ve grown to love each other, more than we ever did before…

So, here it is… bring some popcorn with you because this is quite long… ❤

Continue reading →

Romantic Engagement and Fine-Dining By the Sea at Shangri-la Mactan

May 2, 2022May 2, 20223 Comments

I’ve just been engaged! And it’s a different kind of engagement, way, way better that how I thought it would be… In case you’re interested to find out, you can check my 2 previous posts. This is about our unique engagement and this one’s about our bespoke engagement rings…

For this blog post, I just want to make a special shoutout to Shangri-la Mactan for creating a one-of-a-kind engagement / romantic fine-dining experience for us. And in case you want a similar one, I’ll share with you the inclusions and how much a set-up like this can cost. Read on…

Continue reading →

OUR BESPOKE ENGAGEMENT RINGS

April 29, 2022April 29, 20227 Comments

When it comes to jewelry, especially rings, I don’t like surprises. I want jewelry that I consider one-of-a-kind, truly beautiful, symbolic, and something that I will never get tired of looking at for the rest of my life. I think this is one of the reasons why Mahal doesn’t like surprising me. He wants to please me as much as he can and wants only what’s best for me and what can make me happy.

And so, we chose to have our engagement rings customized. Normally, it’s just the girl who gets an engagement ring, right? But as you may know, if you’ve been following me for a long time now, you know that I don’t follow the trends or what’s considered normal (lol!) I personally wanted us all to have one ring each to symbolize our promise to each other that we will soon become one legal family.

Continue reading →

A DIFFERENT KIND OF ENGAGEMENT

April 27, 2022May 15, 20228 Comments

As J. Lo wrote in her inner circle newsletter “On the JLO: “Life is an art… and we are the artists… make it as beautiful as you want and create it exactly as you want it to be…” ❤ ❤ ❤

Growing up, I never really had a clear vision of what getting engaged and getting married should be like for me. I remember attending very few weddings during my childhood and teens and it always left me with feelings of lack and sadness coz I felt like I can never have that kind of wedding. My automatic negative thoughts were: “I’m too poor to be able to afford that.” “That will never happen for me”… etc. True enough, you attract what you think. Despite the amount of money I’ve had in my early adult years, I never had that kind of engagement nor wedding.

Continue reading →

How We Celebrated Valentine’s Day Throughout These Years

February 13, 2022February 13, 20221 Comment

I was planning to have a repeat of how we celebrated Valentine’s Day last year because I really liked it so much. But because we are in Cebu City today (we’ve been here since Feb. 11 doing a different kind of shopping spree and running some important errands), and we won’t be traveling back home until probably evening of Valentine’s Day itself, I just thought of sharing with you here some of the things we did to celebrate the love occasion throughout these years.

This post is actually a long dedication to my Mahal, who stuck with me throughout all these many years (we’ll be celebrating the 10th anniversary of our best friendship this March and we are now on our 90th month of being together as life partners); who loved me and continue to love me through thick and thin; who, despite all my flaws and craziness, continue to show his patience, dedication, and commitment to me and our little family. I just want to declare to the whole world how much I appreciate everything he does for me and our son, and I thank God every day for him coming into my life…

Continue reading →

ON SURVIVING THE 7-YEAR ITCH ON OUR 7TH ANNIVERSARY AND STRIVING TO LIVE A BEACH KIND OF LIFE DESPITE THE PANDEMIC

August 24, 2021August 25, 20211 Comment

As our 7th anniversary was fast approaching, I was tapped by Mommy Ruby of CDO Bloggers Group to participate in a campaign by a certain insurance company. It was about being stronger now despite whatever it is that we are struggling with. What came to mind was about being stronger than my demons because as I’ve mentioned before, my emotional and mental health haven’t been that well lately.

Below, I am sharing with you the original draft of what I wrote in that campaign which in a way helped me recognize my power, my strength, and sense of resilience.

And further down below, You can watch the entire video on how we spent our 7th anniversary despite the lockdown here in Oslob.

Continue reading →

Sudden Death of a Great Man Weeks After Getting Vaccinated — My Grandfather, Almost a Centenarian

June 7, 2021June 7, 20213 Comments

I’m still in shock about the sudden death of my Lolo, Atty. Domingo L. Martinez. I didn’t think this would be my post here after a long hiatus on blogging. I have several vlogs lined up, so many exciting things have happened since we moved here in Oslob, Cebu but the news about my grandfather passing away really came as a shock to me.

It is our family’s theory that it’s all because he got vaccinated with Sinovac recently… Though official WHO (World Health Organization) findings reported that various Covid-19 vaccines pose as no threat to human health, and that the benefits of taking the doses far outweigh the risks, there is still news circulating about some people experiencing complications from getting vaccinated, one of which is dying. I’ve been seeing real-life accounts of both people I know and don’t know saying how the vaccines caused them grave illnesses with some eventually dying like my Lolo when they were otherwise in good health prior to getting those jabs. Getting that vaccine for my Lolo was the only thing he did differently in his routine in the last few weeks. And suddenly, he couldn’t breathe… He died of pneumonia according to my step-grandma. He was still very much alive and well just a few days prior to this.

To cut it short, please refer to screenshots of my Facebook posts below before heading to my current writing…

Continue reading →

How To Make A Relationship Last [3 Major Tips for Those Living Together]

August 14, 2019April 16, 20204 Comments

We’re home now from our very long road trip starting from Cagayan de Oro to Oslob, then Dumaguete, Bacolod, Iloilo, Gigantes, Boracay, back to Iloilo, Bacolod, Oslob, Cebu City, Dapitan, and now back in Cagayan de Oro. Whew! What a blast it has been! We are so tired from our trip but so rejuvenated as well.

We came home just in time for a few things:

my grandfather’s 95th birthday celebration
an event I am attending later for Solane as a blogger
a package that arrived from Blue Bee which I will be using and reviewing before I join their affiliate program
and most especially, just in time for our 5th anniversary as committed life partners ❤

Wow! So many blessings! Thank you, God, for all these love and opportunities in my life right now. I really feel blessed despite the fact that I am oh so tired (which is why I am now taking Thiocell to give me more energy, aside from my usual multivitamins and organic supplements — perhaps, I’ll blog about them next time).

Anyway, that long trip of ours really tested our faith, our patience, and ultimately our love for one another. We are used to traveling together, but it’s not always that we travel with a group, more so, our extended family. I must admit that on a few occasions, it did make me feel like I wanted to give up on us because of the little stresses that came along the way (you can read about it here: How to Avoid Travel Burnout When Traveling With a Group) but as always, after every storm, a rainbow always comes and I’m glad that we always get out of it stronger than ever.

So how do we keep managing to strengthen our love and commitment for each other (as if we’re falling in love for the first time all over again) despite our imperfections? How do we make our relationship last year after year after year and hopefully until death do we part? How do you make your relationship last longer… until marriage… how do you make a marriage last a lifetime?

Below are the major 3 things I learned along the way (which I learned the hard way by the way) and which I want to share with you in case you’re in a relationship too, whether a new one or a seasoned one, and you want to make your relationship stronger too. As I continue to embark in this amazing relationship with my best friend, my life partner, my soulmate, my Mahal, here are the 3 major tips I can give you based on our own experiences: Continue reading →

How to Get the Relationship You Want (He’s Not That Complicated by Sabrina Alexis and Eric Charles)

May 24, 2018May 29, 20182 Comments

How do you get the relationship you want? Okay, before we discuss that, I’m now on the 16th day of my very own self-imposed 30-day blog post challenge which also propelled me to restart doing other things I love and some of them include reading about how to have a better relationship and blogging about what I’ve read.

Whenever my girlfriends and I get to talk about relationships, I can’t help but tell them how different my relationship is now compared to my previous ones (which aren’t that many by the way). It’s not just because I’m older, hence, I’m more mature. Though maturity comes with age, it doesn’t magically nor automatically happen that way. You have to be conscious of all the life lessons you encounter along the way and actively apply them to your life; You have to will yourself to change and mature. And I suspect that because I’ve always actively sought wisdom when it comes to being a better version of myself, my relationship with my partner has become better as well.

I also know that a huge part of it, I owe to this book I bought from a blog I subscribed to that time I was in the middle of my separation.

Continue reading →

How to Not Worry in Life and Love

October 18, 2016July 21, 201916 Comments

We were having lunch a while ago when I suddenly blurted out to Mahal“OMG! I’m so excited!” He looked at me and I saw in his eyes that he was wondering what was I excited about. So I immediately added “I’m excited about all our upcoming travel plans both near and far!” Like this month we plan to celebrate Halloween at Nuvali, we plan to do some hotel hopping in Manila, and we want to explore those parts of Laguna we haven’t visited yet. Then next month we’ll be in Batangas. We already booked an overnight stay at Acuaverde for baby Tuz’s first birthday. Then come December, for Christmas until New Year, my parents want to spend it at the beach with the whole family and I’m already calling various beach resorts to inquire for their cheapest rates. Then on January next year, we’ve already booked flights to Cebu and we’ll be going home to Oslob. Then on my birthday month, February, I want to explore a place we haven’t been to yet (Tuguegarao perhaps?) then the whole summer I want us to go back to Boracay, visit Aklan, Capiz, Romblon and Masbate! So exciting!

After a little while, now that I think about it, I started to worry a bit, like, okay, how are we going to do all that with baby Tuz in tow? Where will we get our budget? Can we really travel that many times like I used to do by myself before? Hmmm… Then I remembered that it’s not good to worry so much about it and just let things unfold. So this is what this blog post is about. How to not worry whether about life in general or even love…

Continue reading →

My Past, Present and Future

September 15, 2016November 30, 20161 Comment

It’s our 25th monthsary and baby Tuz’s 10th month! We’ve been busy the past month at home taking care of our baby, celebrating our two years together (which I will still blog about — I still have a few more Tagaytay posts lined up in draft mode), doing personal projects and going out that I haven’t really had the time to fully reflect back on our life together and how it all came to be. You see, when you reminisce the past, it gives you more reason to be grateful for with what you have today. Don’t you think? And that’s what I’d like to do here through this blog post.

Since we love to travel whenever we can, we thought of doing a much needed vacation this weekend where we’ll relax, surf, look at beautiful views and what-not… so before we get all busy with nature, I thought of sharing a story… one of my many stories. I’m the type of person who likes to remember the past as long as that past has turned me into a better person today and keeps doing so. Otherwise, into my mind’s recycle bin they go. Lol!

Anyway, this story is something I already wrote more than 2 years ago that I wanted to publish here… It’s a bit long for a blog post so if you’re one of my readers or if you’re new to this blog, you can read it section by section or chapter by chapter. This one has 3 chapters, just something to occupy your free time and hopefully learn from. Whether you do your reading in the toilet (like I do when I read some of my books, online news and other people’s blogs) or in the car in the middle of traffic or wherever you do your reading, that’s alright and much appreciated. I just want to tell you some bits and pieces about my life and hope to inspire you as well. 😉 Continue reading →