Done with the itch!

Last Sunday, J and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary! That’s right, we reached the mileston-y seven!! I know super cliche but seven years passed by just like that. I was writing Wedding Kwentos one minute and celebrating the Magic 7 the next.

It was a fun, fun day! Because we were kinda preoccupied with my illness and other everyday stresses, we really did not plan anything for our anniversary. A few days before the day, J told me that he just wanted to go have lunch in Tagaytay. He also asked me not to bring the kids along. At first I was hesitant but later on realized that the anniversary was indeed for us two and not for the kids. So at around 10am, off we went.

J wanted to have lunch in Antonio’s but we were not able to make prior reservations so we ended up in Breakfast (at Antonio’s). My husband knows me so well and he knew I was not happy. It was such a casual place. My being bratty was starting to come out but I told myself that what was really important was that we were together (hay, it’s still not easy for me sometimes to avoid being bratty… bad). Once we were seated, J told me that we’d just have dessert in Verbena in Discovery Suites so I’ll be happier.The food was so-so but for the sake of journaling, I ordered Mixed Seafood Tagliatelle and J ordered Sauteed Fresh Corned Beef and Eggs. We had hot dalandan for drinks.

So if I’m starting with a so-so restaurant and boring kwento, what made it so fun? Well, as soon as we were seated, I asked J if we could come up with the seven highlights of the past seven years. We had fun coming up with this. Ang funny dito, we realized that the list we came up was not really good since we forgot what was on the list as soon as we were on the next list. Here are the lists we came up with:

Seven Turning Points in our Life:

• When I decided to pursue wedding planning, I didn’t realize how big a part it will be of our life together. It was. And it dictated the dynamics of the first few years of our marriage.
• When J took a one-month leave for health reasons, he came out 40 lbs lighter and with a renewed sense of energy.
• When we decided to try for a baby and then actually had Jia, all hell broke loose! LOL!
• When we moved from 3F to 1B, from playing bahay-bahayan,we were actually forced to have a couch, a real dining set, etc.
• Deciding to stop working to focus on Jia was such a big thing for me. Somewhere along the way, my priorities have changed and making sure that my baby grows up well became more important than a thriving and fulfilling career.
• Just as we were getting used to the new normal, we had Joya! Haha! All hell broke loose again!
• My kidney health scares changed my whole outlook in life. It made me realize how important life is and how trivial some most of my concerns are (yes, including having anniv lunch in Breakfast instead of in Antonio’s)

Seven Favorite Restaurants:

• Antonio’s
• Aubergine
• Floating restaurant in Mactan
• A small restaurant in Chinatown in Singapore which serves the BEST chili crabs
• Sababi
• Paseo
• Crystal Jade (in HK)

Seven Best Resorts/Hotels We Have Stayed In (might be because the place was so nice or the food was so great or that we just had so much fun here):

• Misibis Bay
• Bellaroca Resort
• Sofitel
• Oakwood
• Discovery
• Virgin Beach Resort
• Bellevue

Favorite Food

• Steak
• Seabass
• Sinigang na Baboy
• Pringles (original)
• KFC
• Linden Suites Angus Burger
• Starbucks Coffee (yes, I know this is not technically food)

Favorite Cheap Thrills

• Isaw
• Rodic’s Tapsilog
• Staying at home
• Home Service Massage
• Ginataang Gulay
• Sinigang na Baboy
• Planning, Goal Setting, Dreaming

Things We Like

• Eating
• An R-21 activity. LOL!
• Travelling
• Movies
• Dreaming
• Being with Jia and Joya
• Beach

Seven Things We’re Thankful For:

• Jia
• Joya
• Our place now
• My being a SAHM
• J’s work
• J’s RAI procedure
• Jia’s development

We basically came up with all these while eating. It was fun reminiscing and discussing our answers was very enlightening to me. I realized that some things that I thought J took for granted were actually very precious for him, too. I learned a lot about him. It made for a poignant lunch time.

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After Breakfast, we went to Verbena in Discovery and had chocolate fondue. The chocolate was sooo yummy that we ordered a complete set of dips again. (This is the part when I think I gained back all the pounds I have lost the past weeks. LOL!)

After dessert and coffee (yes, I had coffee, the upside of not being able to breastfeed), we headed back to Manila. Before going home, we had a massage (his was good, mine was so-so). For dinner, we went to Mesa and ordered scallops for appetizers and CRISPY PATA!!! Bakit naka-caps lock? Kasi bihira lang ako pumayag na yan ang order namin eh but that night, I was ravenous that I was the one who insisted on ordering it. Hahaha!

We went home after that. It was a 12 hour date to celebrate seven years of being together.

And to end this post, I will share here my most favorite list… the Seven Things We Appreciate in Each Other. This was the most difficult list we came up with. In fact, J really had a hard time completing the seven. He thought so long and hard about it.

J appreciates…

• that I stay at home and I take care of him and the kids
• an R-18 activity (Men! LOL!)
• that I breastfeed (This floored me. I never realized how much he appreciates the effort I give to breastfeeding. I mean I know for a fact that he’s pro-breastfeeding and he’s a staunch advocate but I thought that he took it for granted that I did it.)
• the little things I do like preparing his baon, asking him how his day was, etc.
• that I tolerate condone his bad habits when he’s stressed… like when we wants to order from TapaKing when he’s stressed or like when I cook him liempo even when we already  have gulay for dinner when he needs to work late (Bad, I know!)
• that I appreciate his passion for the stock market
• that I submit to him (Aysus! Akala ko nga iniisip nya masyado ako palaban. In fairness, nakikita naman pala niya efforts ko! LOL!)

I appreciate (and since blog ko ito at madaldal ako, this is loooong)…

• that J works so hard for the kids’ future. Really, most of his free time is spent thinking about how he can make sure that Jia and Joya have a good future.
• that he provides for us enough so I can opt not to work.
• that he is faithful.
• that he used to talk to me when I’m asleep. Early on in our marriage, I would sometime wake up with J talking to me. He thought I was asleep so it was always a no-holds-barred one-sided conversation. He would tell me he love me, he would promise me that he would work hard for me, that he would make sure I remain happy. Sometimes, after a fight, he would apologize to me. These talks made me feel so loved. You see, J is never the touchy-feely-tell-y type. He was never one to declare his undying love nor one to write long letters with avowals of forever. So to hear him actually tell me these words made me feel so special. I never told him that I knew he did that. Since Jia has been born though, I have never woken up to his nocturnal chats. When I told him that I appreciate that he used to do this, he told me he still does it but I have been sleeping so heavily that I apparently don’t wake up anymore.
• that he fought to live. After his paralysis episodes/RAI procedure, J was so down. He developed hypothyroidism and he ballooned to 240lbs! I knew that was a hard time for him but instead of wallowing in his sadness (hyperthyroidism made him feel like he was going to die) , he took a one-month leave, exercised everyday, lost 40lbs, and ended the month with a renewed sense of energy. That was a turning point and I really appreciate that he did it, that he fought that.
• J’s involvement in family rituals/family-raising/home-making. To say that J and I grew up very differently is an understatment. Whereas my family would always talk (and talk and talk and talk…), J’s was quiet and tended to keep to themselves. Whereas my family had traditions and rituals, his family had none. This is not say that he didn’t have a good family because he did. It’s just our parents had different ways of doing things. And since I am the mom, I tend to keep the rituals (really, just everyday things) I got from my family. I appreciate his efforts to help me even if it’s exactly the opposite of how he was brought up.  I realize how much he values our family when I see his efforts to do the things he’s not really used to doing but because he is an involved Dad and he wants a family as close-knit as ours, he does it.
• J’s efforts to keep us us. Like lots of moms I know, I feel so guilty when I leave Jia and Joya at home. It came to a point that after an hour or two with J at the mall, I would be in a hurry to go home na. I forgot that before being parents to the kids, we should be husband and wife to each other first but he — he made the effort to keep us alive. He insisted on movie dates and dinner dates. While I was the one who made sure that we were constantly openly communicating, it was J who made sure that we had time for ourselves, that our relationship blossomed even in the midst of all the everyday stress of raising a family.

The day finished as quietly as it started with J and I just talking and reminiscing about the past seven years and making plans for the next seven. And until now, three days after our anniversary, I am still on a high. I can’t thank the Lord enough for giving me a passionate marriage and an awesome, awesome husband.