Birthday Lovin', Part 1

After a long day at work, and a few hundred phone calls and texts of birthday greetings at work {ok so I'm not that popular, it just felt like everyone under the sun showed me some love that that}, me, my mom and tim went out for my birthday dinner. my ate had to work till ten so she wasn't able to come till later, for desserts ... but i'll get to that in a little bit.


Because of my indecisiveness I picked my favorite pie place, once again, for a good hardy authentic Italian dinner and for another special occasion. Though it wasn't the most original choice, we were all insanely hungry, and Don's is alway a eat.


As we waited for our Sicilian Hit {yet again ... 'tis is my new favorite pie} I couldn't help but notice the lovely reflection on the window of the lovely chandelier hanging over head. It was a bit erie, but still lovely none the less.

Our pie came, and I was ready to attack, we all were actually.
And Tim ... well he attacked that janx a little too much...

Me and my mom laughed up a storm at the sight of his "full face". And I followed it with a "I didn't go all out because I'm saving room for dessert" {my mom mentioned she had a dessert at home so I was excited about it}.


Dinner was lovely, and we were all smiles ... although my mom wasn't up for pictures herself ... so me and Tim ran to the other side of Don's to check out their "wall".

{he spaced out ... but I think he was suffering from a food coma as well ... hehe}

When we were all good and ready we finally headed home
for some sweets that awaited us...

On the way out, I spotted a lonely little bulb,
unable to shine through out the rainy night.

Then into the rain I followed both my mother and Tim...

The rain fell pretty heavy, but it did nothing to dampen my spirits ... it simply helped build up anticipation for what was to come ...

stay tuned for Part 2 of my Birthday Lovin'
... and the lovin' that followed the pie ...

One Romantic Little Donut

At the stroke of midnight, I was surprised by my lovely little family.

I just so happened to be talking on the phone with Tim at the time
{who was in on the whole thing, so i hear},


and as I was called to "help" my mom out in the living room I was blown away by such a wonderful, and may I note quite romantic, little sight.

While Tim kept me busy on the telephono, both my mom and sister were busy decorating our living room with twenty one candles, a cupcake balloon, and a sprinkle covered donut as a substitute cake {sprinkles make the diongzon sisters happy by the way}. The donut was kind of random I confess, but thats my fambam for you ... we're pretty random like that.

It was quite a romantic sight, and I give credit to my sister for conjuring it all up, and to FRIENDS for the inspiration {Monica proposed to Chandler in her apartment lit with candles scattered all over the apartment and it was such a lovely sight}. And because we Diongzon girls always stick together, as silly as it sounds ... we have the tendency to do the romantic little things we dream of or are inspired by ... for each other. We're sappy like that.


Before I began blowing out my twenty one candles, I was requested by sister dearest to say one thing I'm thankful for before blowing out each candle. It wasn't a difficult task, the hardest part was narrowing down a list of 21 things I'm thankful for because there are way more than 21 things to be thankful for in my life.


Here are a few that I said: sprinkles, friends, my salvation, Mr. Mac A. Roni, Tim, my sister, my dad { i miss him terribly, especially during these unforgettable milestones in my life ... but my gratitude is for the foundation he build this family on, and that foundation is faith and love for the Lord, and for each other } ...

... and my mom, who was actually the last candle. I only hope and pray that one day I may become at least half the woman my mom is. In my eyes she's the strongest woman I have ever known, or will probably ever know. My faith and strength pale in comparison to hers because she is steadfast and unmovable in her faith, and that is the most beautiful thing I see in her.

It was such a lovely way to start my birthday lovin' and that alone could have been it for me , I would have been one happy camper... but there's more, lots more ... more to come on another entries so stay tuned, this was only the beginning.

Hello Venti Uno

I've had such a wonderful couple of days. Although my birthday was yesterday, I've gotten so much pre-birthday, post-birthday and ... birthday birthday love from friends and loved ones both near and far, I simply can't keep up with all the thanks yous. I haven't had much time to just chill out and blog ... {blog deprived ica, yuk!}, let alone send out some much deserved thanks you cards, messages, text, phone calls, emails, etc ... but I will make sure I do that because everyone's been more than wonderful. I'm bout to blog up a storm about all the birthday lovin' that went down this week and share with you all the blessings I'm so not deserving of.

Praise God for His unfailing grace and love and for keeping me together and strong for these past twenty one years. I pray that I only continue to grow stronger in my faith and deeper in my love and service for Him, and I pray that others may see that through my life as well. There truly is no greater love than that of our Father above, and each day I am humbled by such an unmeasurable, and unconditional gift.

goodbye venti.

ring ... ring ... ring

{insert deer in headlights face here}

"Panda West. How may I help you?"

twas a day of firsts for me, as well as my sister down the street.

LEGOS

Growing up I had this one insane dream. I wanted to became a "professional LEGO builder" someday. I watched an episode of some science show and feel head over heals with lego building. Before that I would always play with legos, I always loved to build stuff, that's actually why I concidered architecture as my major for sometime. Anywhos, now my lego dreams are lived vicariously through my sunday school boys.

Also, as I was walking around the mall with Tim we saw some "professional LEGO builders" putting together an 8 ft tall R2D2...

... with a few other helping hands.

To bad we were to old to help out.
My dreams almost came true ... almost.

Between Birthdays Weekend

This past weekend I had an impromtu joint Between Birthdays Celebration, for my "pre-birthday" partying and some "belated birthday" bliss for Angie. Where, you ask? At The Melting Pot for some fondue fun.

As things started to heat up...

we soon began to chow down.

{the cheese came quickly and disappeared in the same fashion}

{1 belated birthday cake}

{1 early birthday cake}

yum-OH! And I spy Angie's chocolate face, do you? hehe

chocolate s'mores = killer dessert
literally... all that chocolate nearly killed me

the girls

the girls and our "full" faces


The Birthday Girls


The Birthday Girls overcome by food comas.

Later that night I had a long overdue sleepover at Angie's where we pigged out on cheetoes as we watched emil "try" to fix the dvd player and the tv, and talked the night way as we usually do at sleepovers. Although we've progressed in our choices of conversation ... rite Gie?

Before going to bed we played with this old man right here. REX! I've missed this guy and I confess that for a split second I had forgotten Angie had a dog at all.. its been that long. Anywhos Rex was playing dead with me and Gie so well at one point that we got scared... but he was faking.

It was a pretty eventful weekend, even if I planned so little ahead of time but spontaneity is usually alway good to me.