on life and career

lately, thoughts about family and career have been looming over me. i dunno if its because tabs and i have had some time to talk about where to live and how to go about expenses, and what our goals should be about our salaries to live life at least comfortably. needless to say, we are so far off from our target incomes (suffice it to say kids are out of the question at this point). with this discussion comes the realization that i really have to find me a new job next year. with changes in the organization (including that of my boss), i find myself wanting to experience a different work environment. True, i'm happy to be here, with my officemates who are like a family to me, my other set of officemates, though i don't see them often, are also good friends, i happen to like my boss, except that now she's being transferred. :-( but truth be told i find myself overqualified, especially in terms of salary. i dunno, i guess i crave to be able to hold more responsibility. because right now, things are just too darn boring.
my contract will end mid-january of next year. by then i will be mrs. jennifer maravillo-tabios. by then i would have only 3 semesters to go in my MBA, plus 1 compreshensive exams, before i graduate. by then i'd have been working for 5 years already. that's 5 years of career life and i am short of achieving the goals i had set when i started to work. I said then i wanted to get my grad degree within the next 5 years. could be done. will be a manager in 5 years. not yet (well as of now). have a good paying job. far from it. :-(
i resolve to do the best i can in improving myself in the next 6 months before i finally tie the knot. be more mature, read on more self-improving books, leadership books, etc. basta, this next 6 months will be all about self-improvement! promise!!!! now that seemed to lift my spirits more! hehehe... i guess the realization is half the battle won (or at least 25% the battle won, getting there is another matter!)

on to more interesting stuff:
last saturday tabs and i finally ordered our wedding rings. the feeling was exhilirating, to be able to picture the design of the ring we ordered (cause we're still getting it on july 28). and somehow imagining the look of it on my finger. hay. :-) so happy. anyways, we got it from matus jewellery. i figured that since the wedding rings will be our own and only possession after the wedding we might as well buy something of good quality. and we did. just can't wait to have it already.
and yesterday i asked my mba classmate and friend, ging, to be our emcee on our wedding. he's a really great speaker and marketing person, and i've always been fond of the way he entertains us with his jokes and kwento, but on one side he's a great leader and all. :-) turns out he's done wedding emceeing for like, 3 times already! weeeh, that means i really need not fret about having him do it. :-) such bliss.
that's all for my updates lately. still hoping i can blog more often...

updates on me and my wedding

again i have not had much time to blog these days, not much time to bloghop as well. in fact when i read w@wie mails i delete those posts i really don't feel interested in, when before i would read anything and everything. maybe its because i've already accomplished much and i've booked most suppliers already. in fact, except for the rings, i've already booked everything else. :-) now i have to move on to the more tedious stuff: maps, guest sheets, seating arrangements, luminaries, souvenirs, etc. this takes effort, i know, but hopefully in the next five months i can dwell on these things as well as on the documentations necessary for the wedding.

our agenda for the weekend is to finally book our ring supplier. gad, i had no idea it takes a month to do the rings (hehe, kala ko 1 week pa lang e type ko na isuot. :-p). we plan to get matus jewellery. i changed my mind on scrimping on the rings because in the first place, the rings and the pictures will be all that's left of our wedding, so an additional 2k i think will be worth it. so tomorrow we're going to the fair in rockwell to but the rings, two-tone white and yellow gold bands. i'm sooo excited.

Other updates:
Luminaries - ongoing production, need to buy candles
Guest sheets - design should be done already!!!! learn photoshop!!!
Table names - after learning photoshop and doing guest sheets.

relationshipwise, tabs and i are having a hard time re-adjusting to our new skeds (with my classes commencing). Its sad coz recently we fight a lot. We fight when we don't see each other much, we fight when we see each other but not for a long time, and we fight over when to meet. hay, i really,really hope his office pushes through with the plans to move to the ortigas area, that way we can at least spend lunchtimes together. nope, the love is still there, we at least have time to chat in messenger. I guess the only solution to our never ending fights is to finally see each other everyday! 5 months to go!

work has been kinda boring. and my boss is transferring come august so its really sad. a lot of rotations have happened and i find it harder to get the info i need now. grrrr.... this is so sad. hopefully by next week i'll be more in tune to work. :-) tabs is in subic now for a company holiday, the company he works for got good reviews from a PC magazine and that means good publicity. congrats hon!!!

more wedding preps

haven't been able to post that much for the past few weeks, sadly, been posting only once a week because of my current work sked (now its work, wedding, school and palm activities). palm activities meaning the addicting game called Fish tycoon, geez. hehe... anyhoo, will just give a rundown of what i've been able to do last week (at least for my own memory's sake)

Wednesday, June 15 - watched Batman begins with tabs. nice movie, its more important that we at least have some time together since we are both busy at work and i'm busy at school.

Saturday, June 18 - Morning: My MOH-bestfriend and I went to Unique Novelties and Toys, a store recommended by Millette (w@wie) for buying all sorts of stuff. Really nice store, I was able to buy the gifts for the male entourage as well as jewelry cases for the female PS, will just need to buy crystals to be able to place something in the jewelry case. hehe... I was also able to buy the nice wrappers for wrapping gifts. And teddy bears for the FG. Really a good place to buy. I'm going back there another time to buy the parent's gifts, probably those nice fountains or lamps, still thinking about it. I've also finally decided to buy wines for the male PS instead. Simpler, really.

PICS! PICS! PICS!
The jewelry cases for the PS - just to serve as case for the Swarovski bracelets!

Female ento gifts

Gifts for ento

Teddy bears for FG

Candles - can't remember when I posted about this. :-)


-- oh, tabs was really furious we didn't meet. We've been arguing a lot lately about managing our time together. :-( can't really say anybody's wrong, been wanting to do wedding preps and sometimes we have to sacrifice some time so I don't need to be rushing to much come November. :-( again.

Saturday pm - went to Michel Dumandan's wedding at ICC. This was a real high for me since I was able to watch THE WEDDING MASS INSPIRATION. Sort of like watching my own. A few points I gathered from watching:
~ The aisle flowers were ok, They were assorted mums so that it won't favor any other wedding for the day. teeheehee.
- The closed door entrance of Michel really took my breathe away. I want to be able to give that feeling to my groom and guests on my wedding. It was like "WOW" with the matching song (Michel's was "The Prayer"). I'm still deciding if its gonna be IKAW. By the way, I saw the march of the wedding after Michel's and I really got infuriated. hahahaha..... sorry, can't think of any other word. Imagine, the bride was marching to the Bridal March song (hers was open door entrance). and then when she met her parents (2/3 of the way), that's when the soloist sang "IKAW". I was like, HUWATTTT???? It was sad, really. Case in point: Make sure coord will cue the soloist as to when he has to sing my song.
- I really like the couple's seat at the church, its sooo grand. And the parents had their own seats too, it makes them feel so special. Oh, and the first few pews also had covers that make it look so nice. The priest was very good, I'll probably ask for him on my wedding too.
What else? Overall, I was really happy with her wedding (so happy for her, so excited for me!!)

PICS! PICS! PICS! (ICC Wedding).
The entrance:


The Altar:

Plan to get the same priest for our wedding:



I bought the luminaries materials after attending Michel's mass. And glad to say, I think my luminaries were sooo beautiful (even my parents thought so!) Now I need to wish for sunset at 5pm so they'd be lit up when I get to windmills. Nyahahaha. I plan to do 40pcs (20@ of tangerine and torquise) but I think I'f probably just need 25-30pcs.

Sunday, June 19 - went to my sister's house in Nova, the family celebrated Father's day. It was again an eating fest. hahaha. Take note, tabs and i still hadn't met and still not made up. :-(

As of presstime we are still not talking that much. :-( maybe, just maybe, we will meet tonight...

:-) sorry for the long post. promise, will be a good girl and try to post more. teeheehee...

wedding preps yesterday

had a VeRY Productive wedding preps monday. whew. I do hope this will become a regular workout for me. Haven't done any preps for the longest time and I was glad I was able to do some nitty gritty stuff for the wedding. So here were my accomplishments:
- Went to Divi - bought candles, abaca pouches and bags, small bottles for gifts (Spent 1215pesos).
- Canvassed barong, now the estimate is at 1200 for the barong (tailored). Goody!
- Finished gifts for SS, BM and MOH: Swarovski earrings in bottle, placed inside abaca bag (sorry haven't taken pics yet, camera is not with me right now.)
- Finished table centerpiece candles - like i said some posts ago, tabs found the centerpieces (flowers in colored water) too simple, so I decided to up it a bit by buying small votive candles and then 4 candles will be placed around the flower centerpiece, with rose petals scattered along the table. Also I'll be placing the table names there, hopefully I can arrange the acrylic menu holders thing for the wedding. teeheehee.
- Finished decorating the taper candles - 2 for the SS, and 2 for the Unity Candles.
- Finished decorating the offertory candles - which reminds me to look into how much the Mompo (am I right(?) costs).

That's a lot, I think. Considering that I have more than 5 months to go, I think my preps so far have been smooth sailing, and hopefully I can work on the more tedious stuff next (AVP, song list, guest list, etc).

of gadgets and other matters

The rain has not stopped for the past few days... no, i take that back, the rains have been coming and going the past few days that it was nearly impossible to wear something dressy for work, since I want to wear boots to make sure my feet don't get wet (and i fear for the life of my poor sandals too).

Schoolworks are starting to take priority, as well as never-ending work targets that never seem to get done. In the end, I've left the productivity tips I sooo badly wanted to use come start of school. So in an attempt to capture everything I need to do (plus have some perks), I decided to buy myself a PDA. Yup! With all the wedding expenses I had the guts to buy me a PDA. :-p same 'ol low-EQ-obsessive-compulsive-Jenn.

So now I have a new toy, a Palm Tungsten E2. Really sleek and stylish. I now have a calendar, a notepad, a notebook for my school stuff, and wedding preps files all rolled into one. And I'm soo having fun with it. What did tabs say?

J: Hon, if you knew it would make me happy would you give me 1thou a month for 6 months?
T: Bakit?
J: May binili akong school tool (blah...blah... blah...)

That's my technique... paawa ng konti, pacute. hehehe.... At first I was planning to keep it from him, pero di ko pa rin natiis so I figured probably I can coax him into giving me a donation na lang. And he did!!!! Yipee!!!! At may bonus pang pang-relax ng hair! Oh diba! Love you hon!

Haven't been dealing with wed preps lately. Now that I think about it I realize I should have dealt with the divisoria thing sooner! Now its raining a lot and its harder to get by. Darn. I'll see if I can ask karen to go with me this sat, at least to take a look at stuff we can give the PS and Ento. Then I have to check on the stuff the ento will wear, meet with the mananahi and discuss the designs, etc. Dami na kelangan gawin. :-(

Question from my mom: Tapos mo na ba mga para sa kasal mo?
Jenn: Di pa.
Mom: E bakit ka pa nag-enroll?

Wehehehe... Backgrounder: I don't let others handle the details of the wedding. Mas kampante kasi ko mag-isa. I can ask for people to go with me, pero I'm more at ease alone. Sometimes my best friend and MOH joins me, pero iba pa rin pag ako andun to do everything. Things might change at the last leg of the preps, but for me, as long as I can handle it, I'll do it myself pa rin.

177 days to go till my BIG day. :-)

180 days to go

Haven't been able to post for around a week. whew. i'm taking time out now to post (taking a break from work, kapagod na e!!!). Whew. So many things have happened the past few weeks and days that i wasn't able to tell you.

For one, tabs and i decided last week to buy a house. i had to buy BuyandSell, property finder, search the web, bother friends (esp. Fran, my classmate-friend from Pag-ibig) and literally research for the house. After visiting one house last saturday and finding that it's really not the type we want (nice location, but the house is inside an alley and is too dark and its as if there is no air), and we realize that it'll really be hard to get a place at our current situation. yeah, things could have been different if we continued with the dog-breeding business, but i guess, God had other plans when the dog we were waiting to breed suddenly died. We do intend to get another one after the wedding. Anyways, we finally decided to just rent for now, and when my salary is already better (his is already ok, mine is DEFINITELY NOT), we'll start looking for the house. He is also considering looking for work abroad. I am considering that too but not till I finish my MBA. I didn't work this much to finish my degree to leave it hanging there. Besides, I definitely want to get ahead in my career and this is for my own sense of accomplishment.

Its sad that right now, I really can't find time to move ahead with the preps. Too many things are in the way. I still have trouble adjusting to school. It was okay to sleep late during the vacation, but now, whenever I get home after school all i want to do is doze off. Add to that the fact that we got a terror teacher that requires a whole lot of effort to keep up, and I am definitely not yet keeping up.

Office work is just as tiring. So many things are laid out which I can't implement because of external factors such as the system breaking down, people not replying to e-mails, and so on and so forth. Next week we start with the MLS program, sort of a Certification program for Supply Management practitioners. To me its a good skill to learn. But on the other hand, I may consider other fields so its all one big question mark. For now I'll view it as another challenge in order to move ahead.

Budgets are just as hard to come by. The CBA which was supposedly released last year still has no definite date for release, and no definite amount as well. That is another frustrating thing to think about. Will it be enough for wedding expenses? How else can we save on it when a lot of things previously not budgeted seem to be popping out of nowhere. Haay...

On the other hand, tabs came to our house yesterday, for the first time since the "pamamanhikan" incident, the whole family was there. I'm glad to know that I did not have a hard time with it. I'd rather not talk about the pamamanhikan but at least I now feel better about the fact that we can all become one big family. Even my sisters and my mom keep on reminding me to pack some food for tabs' family. :-) that is one happy thought.

On to another week of hectic skeds for work and studies. I hate looking at calendars and become reminded of the many items i need to be doing but simply can't. Haay again.

Henceforth I promise to dedicate at least a few minutes a week for wedding preps. Promise....