Today My Life Begins (Bruno Mars)

I love, love this song by Bruno Mars.

It Gets Better: Today My Life Begins

"...A whole new world is waiting,

It's mine for the taking

I know i can make it,

Today my life begins."

"Garment of Praise"

At this point I have a very important decision to make in terms of my career. Whenever I am in a difficult situation, this always comes up in my head, "go back to your values".

I know what I value most in my life. I will not enumerate one by one but now is that time again when I am reaffirming my values such that what I do, the way I behave aligns and matches the very things that I value in life.

Reassessing my values help me a great deal. But nothing beats praying and pouring my heart to God. I am not religious but unknown to a lot, I am very spiritual. It is not being fatalistic or being complacent. It's after all I've said and done, I keep still and know that He is my God. This is something I put a great effort on because I am someone who almost always have to see first before I believe. But then I rest my case because I don't know all the answers, because I don't understand everything. It's resting my faith to God Almighty. God is good all the time. I will tread the right path knowing He is guiding me. I can attest to this going back, reviewing the details of my life.

So what are we to do? Trust God, and just like the birds, praise Him. Keep that song of praise in your heart. When the praises go up, the blessings come down. His joy is our strength through the hard times. When you spend your time worrying, you're not putting your faith out there.

The garment of praise says, "Father, I thank you for the victories you've already brought me. Thank you for the favor. Thank you that you're turning my situation around."

One thing I've learned is that you can't worry and praise at the same time.

You can't say, "I know You're on the throne, and You're good all the time. You always cause me to triumph. You make a way when there seems to be no way," and then worry and think, "I don't know how this is going to turn around."

Supernatural things will happen when we praise. Supernatural things do not happen when we worry. Worry does nothing but rob your joy.

You might feel like worrying is getting you somewhere, but it does nothing but zap your strength. We need our energy for the battles in life, and we need the knowledge of who God is during these difficulties to keep singing.

Suddenly, God can change your situation around like Paul and Silas when they were in prison. In the midnight hour, they were set free. But was it from them crying, fretting and wringing their hands, being in despair and complaining? No, they were praising God and the prison door went wide open.

No matter what the news report says about how many points the Dow Jones is down, each day, wake up with great faith and keep your joy and praise God.

And don't forget to enlarge your vision. You can't do that when you're worrying. You might have lost a lot in the stock market, but God can cause you to make back everything you lost, plus more. There is no limit to what God can do. But what does limit Him is when we don't believe, and we allow worry to rob our joy and faith.

This is what Scripture says in Jeremiah 33:11, "'…Give thanks to the Lord Almighty, for the Lord is good; his love endures forever. For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were before.' says the Lord."

That means when you wake up, praise God. Believe Him for restoration in your retirement and savings. Believe God for restoration in that business you lost. There is nothing too difficult for God to do. Everything that was stolen can be restored in your life. God always gives us double for our trouble, and He likes to outdo Himself. The question is do you believe He will?

Keep your hopes up. Don't let worry have any room in your heart today.

Keep a song in your heart. And when you wake up in the morning and hear the birds singing, let it remind you to praise God during these difficult economic times. He has the whole world in His hands. In fact, He has you in the palm of His Hand. Nothing is a surprise to Him. If you will stay full of hope and praise, God will show Himself strong in your life, and you will not be disappointed!

*Quoted from "Worry is Like a Rocking Chair".

The Glee Project and Robert Ulrich

I love gLee like most people I know - even my husband loves the show. We both love how the songs are arranged. We love the choreography and yes, how each actors suit the characters they portray. My daughter and I love Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer). :) My husband loves the character of Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch). She is perfectly cast(ed). Actually, gLee has a perfect cast.

Now the whole family is hooked on The Glee Project. We can't wait for Monday night to watch how it will go. We love the homework assignments given to each participants as well as the music video which serves as a group performance. My favorite so far is Firework and Ice, Ice Baby/Under Pressure. Boy, the slushie must have been that cold. Cameron needed to stop as he appears to be very cold and distracted.

Unfortunately, one of my favorites had been eliminated tonight - Marissa. But hopefully her good exposure in The Glee Project will open doors for her in Hollywood. My husband thinks Hannah, the big, bubbly girl just might end up the winner. I am rooting for Cameron (with his glasses on) and Samuel.

The Glee Project is actually looking for someone not just who can deliver an outstanding performance but someone whose character can evolve and blend with the cast, someone whose personality can inspire the writers to develop a story which will be relevant for gLee.

My husband contests my bet Samuel because he is just like Puckerman. It can be Hannah for him but I am saying there's already Mercedes. But he says Hannah is very bubbly compared to Mercedes' character. But we're both one in saying it could be Cameron since there's no one like him yet in gLee - nerdy, awkward, cute. But that sounds like Finn, right? But Finn is not nerdy.

But you know what? Aside from the participants, I also look forward to the three judges/mentors of The Glee Project - gLee creator, Ryan Murphy, choreographer, Zach Woodlee and most especially Robert Ulrich, the casting director and the show's master host. All three guys are good mentors and are very appreciative of the efforts of each contenders. I like it that they are very encouraging.

I liked Robert Ulrich the first time I've watched him in The Glee Project. He struck me as someone who is so fatherly and who has genuine concern for the kids in the show. Not to mention he is cute, haha. I needed to search for him in Google. And the things I read made me liked him more. He is also the casting director for CSI and other popular shows in the US.

Robert Ulrich, Casting Director of gLee and The Glee Project, among other shows.

Was I right in how I feel about him being so paternal with all the participants. I love this write-up about him, "Robert Ulrich Reveals His Glee Casting Formula"...

"As a casting director, you never tell somebody to their face anything negative really," he remarks, adding that he felt very paternal toward the contestants as many are the same age as his 19-year-old son. "You don't get to share in the joy necessarily, but you also don't see the disappointment, as you're always dealing with the agents. And to be so invested in these kids and see on their face when they were going home, it was really, really hard because I love them all."

Isn't he such a sweetheart? :)

*Photo from the same link of the article.

One Fine Weekend

We have been so busy the past months that even our weekends are so full, mostly, they are work-related for me and the husband. But this weekend we both went for the laid-back mode. I did work at home, finished a few reports in the morning, emailed them quickly and I was done. My husband needed to go to their place for a while but generally our Saturday was laid-back most parts of the day. Do we have to thank the recent tropical storm for it?

I love it and I miss it already now that only a few hours are left for our precious weekend. We did nothing special but I treasure days when we just stay at home, do simple things like watch DVD together while munching on chips.

Funny thing, my husband frowned at the idea of watching Letters to Juliet and Eat, Pray, Love but he sat with me until the very end of Twilight. Haha. He even clarified the characters he got confused with. I asked him if the movie was any good. He said yes. He's a late-bloomer Twilight Dad. Lol. He was even open to the idea of watching New Moon only I was not able to find the DVD in our storage. My guess is it's in my daughter's stash of DVDs.

Speaking of my daughter, she had a good time watching a special of Justin Bieber which was not a re-run but something she has not watched yet. Our favorite chips and the left-over butter sticks accompanied us while we were having some "the-art-of-doing-nothing-day".

I want more weekends like this - more family bonding. We need to create our balance again. I am eagerly looking forward to it. :)

Father's Day 2011

Just like Mother's Day, it was a very rainy Father's Day last June 19. But we still opted to have dinner somewhere near our place. We managed to go out around six in the evening and head to Trinoma but the road leading to the mall was littered with cars. Heavy traffic so we thought of going to the mall across it, SM North EDSA. It has the same scenario. We will probably consume 20 minutes just for lining up to the parking area and maybe another 30 minutes just for looking/waiting for parking.

We decided to go to Ayala-Technobhub. Good decision as there were still a few slots in the parking area and the place was not crowded. We celebrated Father's Day at The Old Spaghetti House. This was actually my daughter's choice because she loves one of the desserts the restaurant offers - colossal chocolate chip cookie a la mode.


Father's Day in the Philippines coincided with Jose Rizal's 150th anniversary. Jose Rizal is the Philippines' national hero. My father, my husband are heroes in their own rights and in the eyes and hearts of their families. :)

We always have this mandatory pose whenever we go out. :)

Just like how it was back in college. Happy Father's Day!
***Read more sharing at Mommy Journey.

Daddy's Moments

What can be my husband's Daddy Moments? Well, he loves Top Gear. He loves the magazine and the show. He even bought sets of DVDs of it. He watches them to relax. He loves going to shops for car accessories. We have known each other since our early years in college which was a long time ago. Haha. He was the one who introduced me back then to Transport Show and all other car shows.

From our school in Manila, we go to World Trade Center to watch the exhibit of cars and car accessories. I don't know much about cars but I appreciate how they were modified or designed especially how the hubs, then boyfriend, describe them to me, with all his passion. :)

The last car show we went to was the Manila International Auto Show and yes, this was a super Daddy Moment I want to share here.

My daughter is fond of cars too, obviously influenced by her Dad.


Nice pose, Daddy yo!

And of course, Daddy Moment won't be complete without the family. Simple joys, we love eating out and this is one of them taken during my birthday last May 2011, at Amici.

The family devoured all the food.
***Read more sharing at Mommy Journey.

Super 8

We watched Super 8 last night. How was it? Not great but good. Honestly my daughter and my husband were not too keen on watching it. They prefer Kung Fu Panda 2 but well, I've been living under a rock for quite some time I haven't watched Kung Fu Panda 1 yet. So I said we should just watch Super 8. On my mind was Super 8 was directed by Steven Spielberg. *Sheepish grin*

It turned out to be an enjoyable movie. My husband and daughter love it, especially my daughter. We both like Elle Fanning too.

I have to say science fiction movies do not at all excite me. I watch, yes, but I am not the first one to line up the cinema just to have that high feeling of "yes! I've watched THE movie". I am not fond of aliens. I rave about the effects and the novelty of watching a much talked about movie (like Avatar, Star Wars, and the like). But how come I enjoyed watching this one?

This movie is like straight from a cable channel you opt to watch in a lazy Saturday afternoon and surprisingly you get so engaged watching it. It reminds me of several movies featuring children and their the friendship that binds them together through thick and thin. No hidden agenda, just plain, innocent, sweet friendship. It reminds me of Stand By Me, Goonies, E.T., War of the Worlds, and My Science Project. Haha.

There were moments when I wish they could speed up the scenes and let me know who the antagonist is. But those scenes were bearable. This movie, though without any popular star, is nice to watch. I like the look and feel of the setting which is the 70s. I like its official soundtrack, "My Sharona". I feel like dancing to it. :)

We stayed until the credits at the end of the movie was shown as it showcased in full the film the kids have created and shot amid the chaos caused by the military and the extraterrestrial being in the little town of Ohio. This short film is also fun to watch.

Super 8 is a good summer ender for my daughter who is about to start her intermediate school next week. If you want to relax, give a little scream, and just have fun while eating your popcorn, go, see this movie.