I can say that I feel like one of the most loved women in the world, by the two men in that picture. How can I not feel that with the amount of hugs and kisses and “I love yous” I get from them everyday?

In a few months, I won’t be the only one calling those two ‘my men’ because I won’t be the only girl in the family any longer. The coming of our baby girl brings excitement to all of us. Despite the loss of my privilege of being the only girl in the family, having someone to do things with in the future is something to look forward to.

I look forward to buying dresses and having a (hopefully) less active and easier to take care of baby. There would be sooo many changes in our lives in the next few months and I vow to approach them head on with as much enthusiasm and excitement as I could muster. Of course, we hope to be more prepared than we are now. Hopefully, we could even look at life insurance quotes. Nevertheless, we can feel God’s hands in our lives right now and we know we will be directed according to His will.

I’m now in my 6th month and based on my computations, I could give birth as early as July 8, which is approximately my 36th week. Since I gave birth to Mateo on my 37th week, I’m betting on a mid-July delivery for me.

So it’s not surprising that I’ve started noticing swelling on my feet. It was a huge problem for me when I was pregnant with Mateo. Not that it’s a serious medical problem but that it seriously bothered me, haha!

Aside from this, my tummy has been feeling the weight. I’ve been feeling soreness on my abdominal muscles and I can sometimes feel some pulling in my abdominal muscles whenever I’m straining. Of course, it also means that I’ve been gaining a lot of weight though I won’t be visiting http://www.dietpillcomparison.net soon. Still, with my self-imposed 30 lbs total weight gain for this pregnancy, I have to be careful with how I eat.

Right now, I’ve gained around 16-18 lbs so I only have around 12-14 lbs to go. Yikes! Hopefully I can manage the weight gain along those figures.

On a good note, I haven’t really noticed a lot of swelling on my face (I think). I think I could still pass off for a non-pregnant lady with my tummy covered, hehe! Likewise, not a lot of skin darkening and I hope there won’t be any in the next few months.

So the heaviest trimester is about to start and I’ve also started walking around for 20 minutes almost every day. With the additional budget tightening we’ve been doing the past few weeks, we haven’t had much resources to go swimming. The heat has been terrible so it would have been nice if we did but the summer break is not yet over so maybe we’ll have a chance one of these days.

“I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)”

Something might be up for us. It’s pretty exciting but I don’t want to keep my hopes up. I know that God has plans for us and whatever those plans are, I know that things will fall into place and that we will have the means to make it happen. God knows our desires and He knows what’s best for us.

I’m starting to see signs of swelling in my feet. It’s one of the things I hated the most when I was pregnant with Mateo. To prepare for it, I stayed away from a lot of salty food early on in this pregnancy and I think it kind of worked because the swelling was already obvious on my 23rd-24th week with Mateo.

During my check-up last week, my doctor noticed that I’m getting big really fast and she noticed my weight gain I think I ‘overgained’ a pound from my last visit. Since it’s not time to try any weight loss products, I planned on controlling my food intake in the next few weeks. The terrible summer heat is making it difficult though. I find myself constantly hungry with all the sweating I’ve been making. I also make it a point to never go thirsty, hehehe. So I’ve been drinking liters and liters of water everyday.

Anyway, I know I’ll get even more bigger and most of my clothes feel very tight already. I’m planning to get a few clothing items and bigger underwear in the next few days. I still have a few months to go and I only hope I get through them comfortably.

That is approximately how long we have left in our summer vacation. Well, Mateo and I, technically, will still be on vacation but once May rolls in, Ramil and my sister will be back to work from 7:30 to 4:00 everyday.

Also, my dad will be finished with his company training by then. Since the results of his medical check-up are all okay now, no need for cholesterol treatments so he might be leaving already by the first week of May.

These all means that Mateo and I will be left here on our own for a month. Well, it will be a challenge since I’d often have Ramil or my sister to help me out with him whenever I’m juggling several work tasks. It also means that it will be another 9-10 months before we see him again.

We finally got to hit the beach last weekend. My dad has been in training for several weeks now and the holiday last April 9 was an opportunity for him to get out of town. So he and my mom decided a day before that they’ll be going to Batangas for some beach time. Good thing my aunt who lives in Batangas knows a nearby resort that’s not frequented by most people.

In other words, they brought us along a freeloaders. Hehehe! Mateo was so excited he didn’t mind getting up at 3 in the morning. The beach is one of the rockiest I’ve seen in Batangas but the water is also one of the clearest I’ve seen. Mateo, having innate affinity for the life and earth sciences, had a blast with the rocks, the sand (whatever few sand patches there were), and the fishes.

For Ramil and me, it was a welcome break from the nonstop work from home tasks we’ve buried ourselves into. And it was indeed great to be in a beach even if it’s not one of the well-developed, classier resorts. The place was tucked deep into a part of Batangas. It was so liblib that we literally had to go up and down the mountain several times. The road going there rivals that of  Kennon Road and our trip was filled with ‘are we there yet?’ jokes.

Nevertheless, it was worth it. What made the trip even more worth  it and what proved that the place is indeed not frequented by many people, are the dolphins we saw before going home. Yes, dolphins! They were playing in the water, not even a kilometer from the beach. They were so close that Mateo was able to identify their fins and bodies. It was a perfect ending to our trip.

Here are some pictures of our quick getaway and since I’m always lazy to take pictures whenever we’re enjoying ourselves, we have very few.

These past few days, I’ve been busier than ever. As a part-time teacher, I don’t get paid during the summers and even full-time teachers like Ramil gets a considerable decrease in salary because of add-on ‘pays’ that only apply during the school year. Hence, ever since I could remember, summer has always been ‘make-up’ time for Ramil and me. It’s a time wherein we both find ways to augment our significantly lower pay.

Ramil would often augment it by taking on summer classes but since he was not given any summer class this year, we again had to find other means. God has always been great the providing means for us to earn just when we need it because when April 1 rolled in, I found myself working for 2 bosses aside from our online blogging opportunities. When the second week of April came along, I hooked up with another earning opportunity which increased my boss total to 3.

Yep, I’m currently juggling three different working opportunities. It’s all great because I don’t get stuck doing just one thing all week long. I always have an option over what I feel like doing – whether I want to earn using a bit of my creativity or just something that will let me earn without thinking so much. Also, I get to do them at my own pace and time.

Unfortunately, I’m also at will to take on as much workload as I want, which I tend to do since we’re also saving up for my delivery on August. Hence, Ramil and I have been getting an average of 2-6 hours of sleep only. I ask him to help out and he has been more than willing and able.

So right now, we’re doing okay and getting by, financially that is. Despite the enormous amount of work load and stress at times, we couldn’t complain but instead we’re more than grateful. Aside from these, we’re enjoying being at home together ALL THE TIME. Ever since April started, all three of us get to stay home and it is so enjoyable.

Although I didn’t quite get the fixed summer schedule that I want for Mateo, we’ve been ‘studying’, coloring, tracing, painting, cutting, pasting, watching TV, reading books, and whatever else we might feel like doing. I’ve taken on a whatever-we-feel-like-doing attitude and refrained from getting frustrated over schedules that I myself set. I figured that I’ll be limiting Mateo and myself if I set a fixed schedule everyday. Hence, we’ve been spontaneous and it has been good so far.

It has likewise been a very welcome change for Ramil not to have summer classes for once. He’s enjoying his summer break and we’re enjoying his company all day long as well. Having limited income this summer has not affected our enjoyment of summer because all of us are pretty much content to stay home and do things together. We still get out from time to time if we have to but I think we’re turning into certified mountain home buddies.

So, it’s great to have so much work and yet be with each the whole day. It’s such a great set-up for us. We’ve been receiving help from up there, our delivery cost dilemma has just been partially solved yesterday, and just last night I felt so giddy about the upcoming addition to our family. We can only imagine how so much more wonderful it would be.

A friend of mine recently expressed her desire to take on further studies. No, it’s not to take up a masteral degree or a doctoral degree. Instead, she’s thinking of trying short courses like baking, cooking, bartending, computer animation, hairstyling, and many more. She’s checking out other certificate courses she could possibly take.

According to her, she wants to expand her knowledge and skills in many different aspects. I told her about a cosmetology school in Florida that she could have tried if she could have access to one. Her interest in anything that has to do with hair, make-up, and styling, got her more interested in trying out a beauty school like this.

Right now, she’s listing down her options and trying to decide which ‘craft’ she wants to take on. She does not plan to stop at one, mind you. She’s seriously thinking of taking up several different short courses to enrich herself further. I hope she gets to do everything that she’s planning and that she finds success and fulfillment in them.

We’ve been on a swimming spree lately. We discovered a swimming pool that’s very near our subdivision. It’s located in the clubhouse of the nearby subdivision and almost no one swims there, just a few people from time to time. Aside from being relatively cleaner than other swimming holes up here in Antipolo, their rate is just 90 PhP – relatively affordable considering that we have the pool all to ourselves.

So far, we’ve made a total of four visits to the clubhouse since we’ve discovered it a few weeks ago. The last two of which were just two days apart. The intense summer heat is constantly making all of us want to go back every day. It doesn’t help at all that I’m pregnant and that it makes me feel the heat faster than usual.

It’s just halfway through April but I’m assuming we’ll be making even more trips before the summer ends. My sister was even suggesting going every afternoon. Hehe!

Below are our pictures from yesterdays trip.

I’ve always had problems with my teeth. Now that I’m pregnant once again, I feel them catching up with me. It was unfortunate that my dental treatments, which we were getting done one at a time, had to be postponed indefinitely because of my pregnancy.

Aside from the several fillings and an impacted tooth extraction, my teeth are also in need of braces. I already wore braces back when I was in high school but because I did not wear the retainers anymore, my teeth now needs them again. The other day, I came across an article on Cancun Cosmetic Dentistry. It so happened that dental clinics in Cancun, Mexico are experiencing a boost in their business because of dental patients from the US, Canada, and UK.

They get many American, Canadian, and UK patients because Cancun Cosmetic Dentistry is so much more affordable than having the dental procedures done in their respective home countries. Aside from this, they go to Mexico not just for the Cancun Cosmetic Dentistry but also for a vacation.

It makes me wish I can go to Cancun too for my dental problems.