Tag: Oslob New Village

Reflecting on the Adventures: My 2023 Holiday Recap

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As I sit down to recount the adventures of my 2023 holiday season, I must admit that this recap may come a bit late. It’s already March, and I actually created the vlog last month at a time when I was feeling a bit down. However, if you’re in need of some travel inspiration or just want to relive the magic, this is the video for you! It’s never too late to catch up on the fun! So, grab some popcorn and watch it here or down below:

The holiday season of 2023 was a whirlwind of adventure, relaxation, and memorable moments. As I sit down to reflect on the experiences of those days, I’m filled with a sense of gratitude for the opportunities I had to explore new places and create lasting memories. In this blog post, I’ll take you through my holiday recap, sharing highlights from my travels and the lessons I learned along the way.

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Unwrapping 2023 Halloween Magic: A Spooky Saga and a Dash of OCness!

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Hey, fellow festive souls! I know, I know—it’s December, and the twinkling lights of Christmas are already stealing the show. But hold on to your elf hats because I couldn’t just let the Halloween magic fade away without sharing the spine-chilling details of our most epic celebration yet!

You see, life threw a curveball my way in the form of family travels right after Halloween. The excitement of exploring foreign lands with my loved ones consumed me, leaving the tales of our bewitching Halloween hanging in the balance. Blame it on my OCness, but I couldn’t dive into our travel chronicles without first immortalizing the ghosts and goblins of October on my blog.

So, here’s the deal—I’m about to spill the cauldron of Halloween goodness, and once that’s done, I’ll be your guide through our international adventures. I promise, Christmas and New Year‘s tales will have their moment in the spotlight come 2024. But for now, let’s relive the most fun-filled Halloween that swept me off my feet!

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Hanz & Jen Pre-Wedding Film Shot in Southern Cebu (Oslob Cuartel, Boljoon, Alcoy, Tumalog Falls)

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April and May up to a week after our dream beach wedding celebrations and tours have been such an exciting roller coaster ride! I wanted to share so much about our wedding — the pre, during and post events but I am still a little bit overwhelmed until now with everything that has happened that I think I need to organize them all here on my blog to satisfy my OC tendencies. Teehee. (^_^)

You can also go back to my engagement posts for more background about us in case this is your first time to visit my blog and you’re curious about us:

A DIFFERENT KIND OF ENGAGEMENT

OUR BESPOKE ENGAGEMENT RINGS

ROMANTIC ENGAGEMENT AND FINE-DINING BY THE SEA AT SHANGRI-LA MACTAN

OF WEDDINGS AND BREAKUPS [A RAW CONVERSATION WITH A 6 YEAR OLD]

HOW TO COMMUNICATE BETTER WITH YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHER? [REAL TALK WITH MY THEN LIVE-IN PARTNER]

OUR ENGAGEMENT TEASER VIDEO

BEHIND THE SCENES – THE MAKING OF OUR ENGAGEMENT PHOTOSHOOT AND TEASER VIDEO

SHANGRI-LA MACTAN 5-STAR VACATION

And of course, we already got legalized last Nov. 21, 2022 through a “secret” civil wedding: SECRET CIVIL WEDDING: BECOMING MRS. VILLANUEVA PART 1

And this wouldn’t be possible of course if I had not gotten annulled from my previous marriage. So you can understand how everything feels so miraculous for me. Not in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I’ll be so much blessed with Mahal and the life we live now. Thank you, God, for all your graces and blessings!

Both our engagement, the civil wedding, and everything in between are all  parts of the journey leading to the realization of my ultimate dream beach wedding with Mahal. 

But before we head there, let me share with you first our prenup / pre-wedding photo and video shoot done by Lumad Creatives. The succeeding photos are by Marion Dhen of D’PIX Photography.

Here’s the video:

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Secret Civil Wedding: Becoming Mrs. Villanueva Part 1

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It was supposed to be a “secret wedding”… We wanted our partnership to be legal and official even before we lay out all the plans for 2023, one of which is being able to do our dream beach wedding. Blame it to my “segurista” and OC personality, I just want everything ironed out on the legal front before the year ends. And I’m very grateful for the fact that Mahal has always wanted to marry me and supports me all the way, til forever and beyond… ❤

Actually, if we didn’t have the funds to do a beach wedding next year, a simple, “secret”, intimate civil wedding one is what we’ll really do. We are both introverts after all. I was even content to just have a piece of thread tied to my finger as a promise of his love. But thank you, God, for blessing us with a beautiful engagement, complete with an engagement photoshoot and engagement video shoot, and even an engagement honeymoon in Camotes Island which I’ll share here soon. We really feel so grateful plus I feel like such a celebrity (lol!) doing 2 kinds of weddings. Actually, even before J.Lo and Ben Affleck did their two weddings, doing the same had always been my plan… the two stars just beat us to it! Lol!

Didn’t JLo say

“Life is an art… and we are the artists… make it as beautiful as you want and create exactly what you want it to be…”

So that’s what we did!

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Oslob New Village Christmas 2022 Celebration

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MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

How’s everyone doing? I hope you’re all having a wonderful holiday season!

It’s been a year since Typhoon Odette hit us and just remembering that makes me feel all the more grateful because this Christmas, the weather has been good to us. Though it’s a bit cloudy and sometimes windy here in Oslob, at least so far, there’s no typhoon in the horizon. Thank you, God!

And so, we decided to celebrate our Christmas here at Oslob New Village. The original plan was actually to check in at a nice resort like what we used to do before in Cagayan de Oro but then we figured it would be more fun to celebrate it here at our own mini resort because we have Jona and Wenie (our staff at Oslob New Village) to celebrate with.

I created a vlog about it. Enjoy!

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Holiday Musings [and a Recap of Halloween]

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Our 2022 is about to end. I’ve been reviewing my previous blog posts here and my life has really been “more of the same” kind of thing. Just like last 2019, when I wasn’t even able to blog about our Halloween celebration because of my jam-packed schedule at work, with motherhood, and family! And it’s happening again this time of the year!

Don’t get me wrong though — I DO LOVE OUR LIFE AND THE LIFESTYLE WE’VE BEEN LIVING — it’s been the best year so far — so many celebrations, so many happenings, so many blessings despite the sleepless nights from my VA work, being a homemaker, and homeschooling our now 7-year old kid! So, I’m gonna give myself a little pat on the back here…

Jen 1: “You’re such a superwoman, Mommy Jennie!”

Jen 2: “I know… I know…” 😉

Anyway, I am not going to let 2022 pass by without documenting here my most favorite holiday. For those who have just started to follow me here, Halloween is my most favorite and Christmas comes second. Though I like Christmas, Halloween is just more fun for me with all the trick or treating, candies, and costumes. Don’t you think? So though it’s already December and we’ve started decorating our little home resort for Christmas (you can check my FB page for updates), sharing my favorite holiday here with you this late is better than never, isn’t it?

But before that, let me just give you a rundown of our Halloween activities since Tuz was born. Re-reading my blog entries here… Oh what a roller coaster ride it has been! So many trials, joys, financial troubles, and tribulations. From being in a long distance relationship with Mahal, to finally living together in my first dream home, to giving that up in exchange for living the hard kind of life at the farm, then back to city life and experiencing tiny home living and finally, living the beach kind of life which has always been my dream. It makes me all the more grateful for the life we have now because we are living our best life so far and we can’t wait for things to keep getting better and better…

(2014, 2015, 2016) Nuvali Night Sky Cinema

(2016) Thoughts This Halloween

(2016) Nuvali Night Sky Cinema 2016 Family Event

(2017) Halloween 2017: How to Let Go of Attachments

(2018) Halloween 2018 – Transformative Lessons and Realizations

(2020) How to Celebrate Major Holidays During a Pandemic: Halloween Feature + a Guide

(2021) The Root of Happiness (And How I Found It Around Halloween)

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Thoughts About Real Estate and Mortgages in These Trying Times

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Hello, hello, hello!

I’ve been catching up on a TON of work since we got engaged!!! A lot of things have been going on in my personal life as well but I’m hoping to share more of our adventures real soon. And one of these adventures that I’d like to share here with you now is not just about travels that we’ve been doing but more importantly, stuff that we’ve been accomplishing to help fulfill those goals we’ve set out for ourselves for this year and the next. I gave you some ideas before about how to reach your goals for 2022 and I’ve also shared with you some financial tools if your goal is a financial one.

So, this other adventure that I want to share here with you is also a bit related to finances. As you may know, Mahal and I are getting married next year and we are in the works of fulfilling our dream of having a beach wedding in Mactan, Cebu. Even if what we want is just an intimate one with only a few guests, it would still be considered as a big spend for us frugal folks so we’re doing everything we can to augment our income. We don’t want to spend so much on the wedding because we have a bigger fish to fry so to speak. Or shall I say “fishes”? Teehee.

And these “fishes” are:

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3 Simple Ways to Reduce Stress During These Hard Times

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How are you? We are on the 18th month of this pandemic and so many things have already happened… deaths left and right… Covid getting closer and closer to home (if it hasn’t hit yours already… it surely did mine. 5 of our family members caught Covid and thankfully survived it despite not getting vaccinated)… businesses shutting down… people suffering…. freedom getting suppressed in many places around the world…. and all this is starting to get on my nerves. Do you feel the same? Am I alone in feeling this way? If you’re on the same boat as I am, don’t fret. There are ways we can do to try to ride these waves. And we must. I just read an article on Bloomberg that this pandemic can last for a really long time. We can’t just give up, can we?

So what can we do to help reduce our stress during these hard times? Let me share with you some ways we try to do at home to help cope with this depressing worldwide situation:

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Sunrise in Oslob

How We Transferred to Oslob, Cebu During the Pandemic

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Hello Summer! It’s been a busy 2.5 months as we started our new beach life here in Oslob, Cebu and I promise, I will be catching up on my blog posts and vlogs until I get more current with what’s happening with us. I may still insert some throwback travel posts from the past since I’ve collected a ton all these years. But for now, here is a vlog on how our transfer from Cagayan de Oro (where we lived, half the time, the other half was in Claveria) from Sept. 1, 2017 to Jan. 7, 2021) to Oslob, Cebu happened, how we got quarantined for 14 days when we got here, and what we did while in quarantine (Jan. 9-22, 2021). 

For those who are considering transferring to their respective provinces in this time of the pandemic, you can check out this related blog post:

BOAT TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS DURING A PANDEMIC IN THE PHILIPPINES (FROM CAGAYAN DE ORO TO CEBU

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Boat Travel Requirements During a Pandemic in the Philippines (From Cagayan de Oro to Cebu)

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The first time we traveled during a pandemic was back in August and it was just within Cagayan de Oro City so the only documents that were required were barangay exit pass for our family, barangay clearance for me and Mahal, and health certificates for us three either from a doctor or the city health office certifying that we were in good health at that time. It was quite easy. This time around though, we were moving from Cagayan de Oro City in Northern Mindanao to Oslob, Cebu which is the southwestern part of Cebu Region. We traveled by land and then by boat from Cagayan de Oro port to Cebu port then traveled by land again for 3-4 hours outside of Cebu City. 

The following documents were required of us (and I assume it would be the same for people traveling by boat between regions anywhere in the Philippines). Just keep in mind that once you have all these travel requirements, their validity will last for only 2 weeks. So you better have your travel itinerary ready and make sure you’re good to go! 

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Lying on the beach

Covid-19: How It’s Affecting My Mental and Emotional Health

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OVERVIEW

While most of you have probably been in quarantine / lockdown for about a month or so now, I’ve been imposing it on and off upon myself and my family since I first heard about the coronavirus in the news the last week of January. We were preparing for another batch of Hands-On Mushroom Training at that time when the Coronavirus Outbreak began circulating in the media. My “prepper” instinct tingled and I started having worst-case scenario visions in my head. (“prepper” is a person who believes a catastrophic disaster or emergency is likely to occur in the future and makes active preparations for it, typically by stockpiling food, ammunition, and other supplies.) That was the time I started buying a little bit more than the usual number of masks and alcohol bottles we use for mushroom training just in case the outbreak becomes an epidemic, or worse, a pandemic. And because we had plans of going back to Cebu to set up another Mushroom farm, I almost decided not to go for fear of contracting the virus during our travel. This was around Jan. 25-28 when the rest of the world didn’t care much about  the Coronavirus yet, and much less about preparing for it.

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