Much has happened the past weeks. I don't even know where to begin. But I guess, I'll start with the news that we now have two feral toddlers to keep an eye on. 

Our little girl, Isabel, turned one this month. And I know I have already said that we won't be traveling until she turns two. But here I am, creating a toddler-friendly itinerary for our next out-of-the-country trip.

I am sure no one is going to disagree when I say that traveling with a toddler is a pain in the ass. I've seen it, experienced it, and proven it an understatement. Yet, we find ourselves turning a blind eye to the thought that with these feral two in tow, we may never be able to relax—which defeats the purpose of a vacation.

I think I now know what hell is like. It's where you have all the delicious food you can eat right before you but can't because your stomach is on a rather violent protest. 

Food poisoning. That's what you get for committing one of the seven deadly sins. In my defense, I was just making sure that no food will go to waste. So I ate the leftover that has been in the fridge since God knows when even though I already had two full meals five minutes earlier. 

If it wasn't for the blog contest entry that I posted a few days ago, you all would have assumed that I have been zapped into Uranus and never return. Well, to those who love hate-reading me, sucks to be you, I am still here!

I kid about the haters, of course. I don't remember offending anyone or at least, not in their face. But there's probably someone out there who's willing to make a pact with the devil in hopes of seeing me lose the blog contest just so I have something to be miserable about.

Well, there's no need for that, buddy. I have already read almost all the entries and most of them are coming from professional and trained writers who showed me how inferior my writing skills are. I wouldn't even think I'd make it to the top ten. And also, my job application at Automattic was, unsurprisingly, unsuccessful.

December kicked off sweetly and along with it came not just one but several good news!

1.) We finally got our passports with approved visas! We might fly to South Korea this winter so we can experience what's it like being bundled up in layers and still get frostbitten then agree on the idea that hell is literally a better place to live. Haha. I can't wait!

With the series of strong earthquakes happening in our city, I thought I'd never go braless inside our home again. I hate bras not only because they are uncomfortable but I also had to deal with the trouble of trying to tug my boobies back into their proper positions as if they are always on an escape mission every time I have a bra on. But with what's happening the past few days, I had to imprison these lady bumps lest I risk running out of the house in my loose, ragged shirt with the nips underneath begging for attention again.

Okay, I think I said too much but let this be clear that I'm not here to talk about bras and boobies.

Jan and I cried the other night.

After days of anxious anticipation and nights of reading horror stories of rejection and denial, Jan and I reached the highest level of excitement when we received our passports with approved visas yesterday that we did not feel the strong earthquake that shook our city.

You see, the biggest fear for a would-be and even a seasoned traveler with a weak passport is not getting lost in a foreign country. It is getting denied of visa or worse, getting offloaded in the immigration.

And for someone who does not have a normal and stable office job, having an approved visa, especially in one of the G7 countries, is such a share worthy success story for me. And I think I have to prepare myself for more "the anticipation is killing me" moments because that is just one of the many visa applications that we'll have to go through.

That I apparently forgot to post.

And I'd like you to believe I was busy.

1. Bagged two awards at the Davao Blog Awards co-presented by PLDT-Smart.

Best Personal Blog

When I told the universe I'm ready for the great stuff, awesomeness started pouring in. I just hope I don't jinx this, but it does feel like the entire universe is working in my favor.

Don't get it wrong though. My life is not exactly all rainbows and butterflies as I would have loved to imagine. Shit happens. But you can only either sulk about that or move on and give shit the middle finger it deserves. And I chose to do the latter.

Anyway, I revisited my blog today and realized I only have one post for November (big deal haha), when in fact, I got tons of these "I am sooooo blogging this" moments. But Instagram took the light away.

I'm blogging now because the incoming days are going to be blog-worthy (assuming I can give time to write about it). So before I get overwhelmed and end up not writing about anything at all, I might as well do a blatant gloating because that's what bloggers are supposed to do.

Here's what I've been up to lately: