There. I've done it.

I bought the boxing gloves last weekend. Which means I now have to totally commit to my decision to take up boxing. No more excuses. I've decided the time has come to finally get my act together and win the get fit and lose the rest of the weight battle that has been plaguing me for the last five years since giving birth to my first child.

Yes, I am a bit vain. I'm not grossly overweight or anything and I think I have quite a healthy self image. I was the proverbial 90 pound skinny girl in college and for most of my single life and spent that time desperately trying to gain weight. I burned up the calories faster than I could eat up all the "sinigang" and rice and chocolate my 5 ft 1 inch frame could manage.

Ten years and two babies later, said metabolism has slowed down to the point where I wonder if I still have it. What freaking metabolism????!!!!!! It's gone, I tell ya. Completely gone. Which leads me to thinking about what possible activity I can get into without sufficiently losing steam after the first month.

So...walking. I already do a lot of that, and nope, not working fast enough. I'd enjoy biking but I have a terrible phobia of being chased by neighborhood dogs (there are NO such things as dog pounds over in my corner of the world). Besides, mountain and racer bikes are way too high for me and I am also deathly scared of having to brake and falling sideways when I can't reach the ground sufficiently. Gym? I hate going to the gym. I hate going to those posh places where women wear make-up and wear nice clothes just to sweat a little. Besides, working out on a machine is intensely boring. I've still got a year's worth of gym membership I don't use simply because I can't be bothered.

I have all the motivation to start this year. First, I'm not getting any younger and I know it pays to be physically fit of only to keep up with my hyperactive children without my tongue hanging out from chasing after them. Second, I have an important event in January that I need to look good for and third, my co-workers and I have a bet going where the biggest loser (as a percent of total body weight) wins the pot.

And perhaps the most important reason...I'm sick to death of dieting. There is no possible way I can cut out a whole food group from my diet for the rest of my natural life. And chocolate. I loooove chocolate. It keeps me sane. And between my sanity and my weight...well, no contest there.

So I'm taking up boxing. Starting today, in fact. In a place where boxers like Manny Pacquaio train. All the equipment but none of the posh. Heck, it's not even air conditioned.

Perfect.

Number 100

Yes, I know it's been a while since my last post. I've been a bad blogger. It's been a crazy two weeks on the homefront -- but what's weird is I can't really pinpoint the reason why I didn't seem to have enough time for everything.

But it's my 100th post, and I had to think carefully about my subject. So I decided to write about someone who's mostly been in the background here in my blog. You'll notice I usually write about the children and me and lately, *ahem* gerard butler (or whoever takes my fancy) but rarely about the most important person in my life.

He's a bit quiet, you see and a private person so I am usually careful about what I share here. He just celebrated his birthday last week so I figured it's about time you get to know him. He's the one who puts up with me because he has no choice (LOL!). Yeah, the one who put a ring on my finger.

Not to be overly mushy or anything, but I know it's rare to find someone who is your perfect counterpart. He is the quiet to my rambunctiousness (where do you think my kids got it, huh?), the calm to my temper (especially when I'm driving) and just the overall good guy in the family. My sisters adore him and often seeks his advice when it comes to matters that need a guy's opinion (or when they don't want to listen to me *hmp!*). In fact, when we have one of our rare fights, they always assume it's my fault (even if it isn't!!!...grrr).

He can't sleep without me (that's why he hates it when I travel) and he used to make and feed me my breakfast while I was exhaustedly feeding the infant Joshua after another endless sleepless night. I make the grossest faces and he still finds it really cute. Aaand, he thinks I'm gorgeous first thing in the morning (isn't he the perfect hubby??!!). He loves me when I'm good and adores me when I'm bad.

I know I'm extremely blessed to find a guy like him and I thank my lucky stars every single day.

Let's Dance!

My wits are still scattered by the long long break from work. There's a lot about the weekend that I wanted to blog about but my mind's not up to it yet.

So instead, I am posting a video taken of the kids dancing on the front lawn of the house in Tagaytay where we spent most of the long break.





In case you were wondering what the heck Joshua is doing, that's his Pokemon dance. I can't figure it out either, buy hey, it makes him happy.

I hope you had a nice Easter holiday.

We're off on a Lenten holiday starting tomorrow. Everything pretty much shuts down for the next two days for Lent. Monday is also a national holiday so that makes it five whole days with no work and all play (and prayer, of course).

There won't be an internet connection where I'm going (at least until Saturday) so I will miss trolling your blogs. Meanwhile, the nanny's on vacation for two months so the kids have our unadulterated attention for the next five days at least.

Also, it's the hubby's birthday on Saturday so will have to think of an appropriate way to celebrate seeing as it is Lent.

But I'm leaving something for Ces (because you don't know him yet), Keshi (because you like him too!), and Maria (because I want to cheer you up)...something to look at in the next four days! This is Gerard Butler...

This one is courtesy of GB.net


*Sigh!*

During the past two days I lost count of Faith's tantrums and the reasons behind them. There was the ice cream that she wanted when we were all in the car, the pink balloon she wanted that belonged to another child and the video she wanted to watch when it was time for bed. And those were all just episodes from last night. The terrible twos. Right.

Never has the difference between Joshua and Faith been more apparent than now. Nobody in the family remembers a similar tantrum from my eldest. He's usually sweet and even tempered and, when upset about something, is usually very easy to distract. Not so with my little girl. She screams her lungs out and cries pitifully when she wants something and doesn't get it. We realized early on that to give in to her screams and tantrums would not be very good idea.

So we've learned to harden ourselves against the tears and the screaming. I can tell when she's just trying to manipulate the grown ups into doing her bidding and when she's genuinely upset or scared or hurt. The former gets her no attention and I am quick to tell the softening grandparents to let her cry in the corner. Sure enough, the volume lessens and the screaming subsides into soft sobs after about five minutes of non-stop crying. Like last night, I put her in the corner of the room to cry it out while I went about the business of preparing the room for bedtime. Even Joshua has learned not to interfere during these times and just keeps quiet on the couch. I could see her watching me, increasing the volume when I looked her way but I kept ignoring her. When I was done, I turned off the main light and called Joshua to bed. She quieted and when I asked her if she wanted to go to bed now, she nodded and went to me, took her bottle, lay down with my fingers on her face and went to sleep.

She's only two years old. I wonder what she'll be like when she's a teenager?