PERFECT MOMENTS

Mom's Apple tree

Mom loves her apple tree which has been sprouting a lot of apples over the years we have lived here. Mom's been wanting to take a pic with her apple trees.

Napa Valley

Glad to be off today...Mom wanted to go to Walmart in Vallejo to look for Mel's pj's but first we go to Napa Valley to see the bunches of grapes...I wanted to go to Castello Di Amarosa (but it's a steep and windy climb to get up there and my Echo will probably not make it)

The pictures that I posted here are some of my favorites...there are more pics but I won't bogged down this blog of mine with pics which can be overwhelming. My computer is groaning from all the pics I have on my iphoto...there is 15 thousand something pics in there....I have to delete and store some in a cd. \

We ate @A&W for lunch and after that headed to Walmart in American Canyon near Vallejo just to buy some stuff. Whew, it was HOT! I sure could use a frappucino.

                

Celebrating Ann's Birthday

We celebrated Mary Ann's birthday @Isla restaurant in San Bruno (formerly known as Ihaw-Ihaw) the food was not bad,actually. Melissa and Serena came. We love Serena she is so cuTe!

I don't know why some of the pictures are upside down.

I remembered for the food that we ordered was:

Pancit,Sisig,Crispy pata and Kare-Kare. We were going to order Coco Cha-Cha but they don't serve it there instead we opted for the Halo Halo which was equally great as well.      

Happy Mommy's Day

With all my Heart....I love you mom! Happy Mother's Day to you. Thank you so much for being always there for us....always loving us when sometimes when we are hard and stubborn towards you but you know that we love you that's why you will always be there unconditionally. YOU epitomizes everything a wonderful MOM that you have been to us. Thank you for giving birth to us with out you (and our birth father) we are nothing. There is so much more that I need to lists but I will stop with these for now.

• Oldest of the 11 children from Delfin Santos and Eusebia (nee De Guzman)
• Was born in Caloocan City in the Philippines
• Has 3 kids (two girls and 1 boy)
• Migrated in the USA, SF 1980
• Married to Luis Soto Medina since 1980-2002
• Worked in the Holiday Inn for almost 25 years 
• Retired at the age of 62 becoz' she had a Bilateral knee replacement
• Always been independent
• The strongest woman I know
• Always worked hard all her life
• Loves the color Red and Yellow
• Loves to garden (she has a green thumb)
• Wears a hat and always ready for the cold weather
• Can't bear to throw anything out
• Rather dine at home than outside in the restaurants
• Would do anything for her kids
• Loves going to her school
• Enjoys eating fish
• I love her Lumpiang sariwa and Guinataan
• Can watch TFC and GMA 24/7
• I love her laugh (it seems to last forever especially when she is watching a funny show)
• She talks along the shows that she watches (she also reacts if someone gets shot-like she is the one who got shot...it's so funny that's why I love her so)
• Talkative just like my sister (I think thats where Ann got it from)
• When she cooks you would think she is cooking for a fiesta she uses a lot of pots and pan (even though she is only cooking one entree)
• An avid reader of Filipino pocketbooks
• Loves any kind of bags...she has a lot of collection and hand me downs from my sis and I
• My mom and I are so opposite in so many ways

Here is a picture of the 4 of us (Poppa Luis in spirits with us). Raquel took this picture.

 

Mom's 68th Birthday

Today is the birthday of my Beautiful Mom...who turned 68. Love you MOM! My loves going to Casino so I decided to just take her and my lil' sis Ann (her first time @Cache Creek) for her birthday. Then we went to the Vacaville outlet afterwards. We spent about 3 hours there in the Casino and longer in the outlet coz' my sis loves to go shopping.

We went to the Epiphany church to offer flowers to Momma Mary for mom's birthday.

Mom and Ann posing @the Cache Creek casino

Me and mom...gosh I look so much like her....the ride was about 1 hour 41 minutes...not bad and thank you Echo (my car) for getting us there safely back and forth. I even won 4 dollars on the scratchers!

Beautiful scenery of the mountain

The facade of the hotel....

Inside the elevator...i know...

lil sis posing infront of this giant umbrella...i love this outfit she is wearing from H&M.

Of course,mom had to get a picture,too. Hey, after all it's her special day,don't you know?

We were going to eat our lunch at the Harvest Buffet but it doesn't open til' 4pm! So we ate @

The macabebe gang ate here b4 when we attended the Aegis concert. The food is quite good. But Mary Ann got a free $25 dining credits so we used it for our lunch. We only had to pay $18 plus tips for the three entree and the drinks that we got.

From my iphone apps...cool!

Korean BBQ beef with Kim Chee

Honey Walnut prawns....so yummmy!

This is the Hongkong Style Chow mein...the veggies are so fresh and great with the sauce.

The two ladies with the food....

This is the Dragon hanging up on the ceiling...this is such a beautiful restaurant..they had a theme for the different nooks of the restaurant...we ate @the Forbidden city. I forgot the rest of the names.

More of the beautiful designs of this resto...mom rubbing the buddha's tummy for goodluck!

mY Beautiful lil sis with the casino on the background.

momma ready with the cha-ching slot machine...!

I ordered Mango bobba pearl and it was like the best I have ever tasted even lil' sis liked it. I even had ice cream before hand...gotta have my dessert.

After the casino...we headed to the Vacaville outlet since we were going to hit the traffic. Little sis fave store and mine is next doors to hers. HAH! We went to Walmart first to buy miscellaneous things I bought myself an $8 day/night wear (an orange colored night shirt)

The Yummy Candied Apples from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate store...I had to buy my Avalanche bark (i got auntie mel and merly hooked on it) and grasshopper bark.

Chocolate covered Strawberries....I saw that they were selling choc covered strawberries in Costco.

Did I tell YOU that it was DARN HOT in Vacaville...omg i don't know how many liquids I have swallowed to quench my thirst...got this vanilla for mom and white choco for me...mine wasn't that great.

This yummy drinks are from Chowking in Vallejo....sago't-gulaman,halo-halo and Taho w/sago. Mom and Ann did not eat...me always hungry ate their Spaghetti (I love this one better than Jollibee's). I bought my love Chicken Wonton Noodle. We even went to Seafood city which was next door. We bought Manila mangoes 18 pieces for $9.99.         

        

Raquel & Morris Baby Shower

Even though,it's a Sunday (next day is work day) and it's a 2 hour drive from the City. We went to Sacramento to share in the joy of Raquel and Morris' upcoming arrival of their baby boy. We love this cousin. He is such a sweet man and we are so glad that he found a nice girl to be with him forever, Raquel. I immediately liked her the first time I met.  She is due to have the baby on May 27.  They live in Sacramento, our cousins have been their forever. This is in their home. My hubby, my cute love is the one who drove. I am so thankful for my husband who is always there for me but sometimes he can be maarte!

 

Food all made by my auntie Norma except for the bbq wings made/marinated by Uncle Ed.

My cousin,Maria who I haven't seen in 10 years I would take it. Along with our nieces, Kaylee and Isabelle (who was one of the flower girls for my sister's wedding)

She is so darn cute!! Anthony and May's youngest kid--they asked me to be one of the godparents.

Mom and her sister, Auntie Norma...looks on while mom mixes up the Palitaw (I love how my aunt made this, it was so good.)

My love trying out my cousin Anthony's recipe for okoy....omg I am so inlove with okoy so yummy! He used the sweet white potato, togi, shrimp for the top. For the batter...flour, corn starch, water and achuete, salt and pepper to taste and make the batter like a pancake consistency. Then you only put a little batter on the veggies and then fry on a very hot, lotsa oil and then one shrimp on top. Then for the dip is vinegar, garlic and S&P.

Jeanne and her daughter, my cousin Joseph's wife. They are back in CA, they used to live in Colorado.

Opening the presents....

I love the diaper cake that Jeanne made for Raquel. I won one of the games that we were playing. You have 10 pins that you have drop in the bucket to beat Raquel's score of 1:30. I beat everyone at the score of 1:03! It was so hard to do. I won a gray bag with a pillow, and make up bag!

The aunties and my mom with the Mom to BE!

mmmm....BBQ wings....

Isabelle is 9 years old now...

Uncle Eddie bbqing...it was a hot weather but where he is there is a lot of breeze thank goodness for the trees that makes it breezy. It's a very nice neighborhood. Quiet naman.

The kids computering....Isabelle and Romeo.

         

    
 

The travelers

Raquel and Rommel are back from their 3-weeks trip in the Philippines and they truly had a great time especially that it was also the holy week. Here are some of the candies and goodies that they brought in. My favorite is the home made adobong garlic mani that her aunt made. I also like the fresh coconut balls and she also brought Buko pie from her town,Laguna. Raquel got really dark becoz' they were going out a lot

Good Friday

I took a day off today and then Monday...turned out well as today is Holy Friday. After my MD appt, my mom and I went to the St. Mary's Cathedral  church in Gough Street. The weather today was rainy. We were going to visit 7 Visita Iglesia but we were only able to do 3 becoz' of the rain-we were getting soaked but at least we were able to attend the mass in St. Augustine and saw the Veneration of the cross. 

My mommy infront of the Cathedral.

I really love this Pink Tree.

My mom doing the Station of the Cross.

The Disciples and the Virgin Mary. Underneath is a cabinet filled with the Holy Oil. 

One of the Station of the Cross. I love how each and every Catholic church their Stations of the cross are all different. 

Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Sprinkled around this magnificent Cathedral are Golden statues that are suspended it seems like in mid-air. They are so beautiful. At this time there were a lot of tourist already touring the Cathedral.

2nd church that we attended. This is the St. Bruno's Church in San Bruno,CA.

This is one of the Station of the Cross for San Bruno (outside the church-the pathways)

Here is my model MOM eating all seafood Dim Sum becoz' we have to observe NO MEAT Friday this is the last day for that. We ate @our (nelson and I) favorite Dim sum Resto Hung To. We ordered the Soy sauce chow mein and MOM loves that. For dessert we ordered TO GO Sesame Balls.

This is a display from the St. Augustine. We were able to attend the Veneration of the Cross. After that, we went to Pacific Market near there and bought groceries. There weren't so many people shopping. I went to Goldilocks but they were close for that day to observe Good Friday. We also visited Poppa Louie at the cemetery in Cypress Lawn and head home and it was still raining. My Nelly made us Shrimp Balatong for our dinner and I made us a Strawberry/Manila Mango shake which he liked and of course, I liked a lot. I forgot to mention that my lil' sissy Ann gave me a Rosary from Mexico coz' she and her hubby took a cruise to Mexico. Currently, my sis in-law Quelly and my brother is in the Philippines vacationing. I am so glad that I took a day off today to attend some of the churches too bad though that we only did 3. Next time I will be good.     

Raquel & Rommel

Just a picture of my beautiful sister in-law and my equally Handsome brother, Rommel ready to head out for Raquel's Christmas party for work. They held the Christmas Party @Woodfin Suites in Emeryville.

I love her hair here and the dress she bought-it's ruffles.

The handsome couple matching each other!

Love the hair! She had it done.

The guys just decided to hang out at our house to drink and they brought food...love the lechon with the liver sauce and the skin...YUMM! Mr. Magpayo (Nelson's teacher in high school who currently works in Ongpin-brought the lechon.) Anmar came along later at night while I watched TV and enjoyed the food.

New Moon

Today, we (Mary Ann, Michael, Raquel, Rommel, ME and Nelson) all went to Tanforan to watch New Moon. Yes, that was the first time the brother and sisters watched with their respected husbands and wife to watch a movie together becoz' of New Moon. New Moon is definitely better than Twilight. The next movie Eclipse will be 6/10/2010.

 

We watched the 12:30 pm (matinee was $8--just want to remember the prices of the movie ticket prices the year 2009). I bought a small popcorn,pretzel with cheese,small and large icee-total price is $19 bucks!

Tomorrow, after church we are going to watch 2012 can't wait to watch that one!!!

OH by the way I am for Team Jacob (what a body!!) He is so hot!