F.B. & I have been married two weeks now. We got to spend our first Christmas & New Years together as husband and wife.

Christmas Eve day F.B. & I went to Robinson’s Metro East early in the morning. We hung out at a net café for a couple hours while I uploaded more wedding photos, etc. Afterwards we had lunch at Wendy’s in Sta. Lucia Mall. (Baconator…mmmm… deadly, but delicious! Hehe!)

We stopped at an electronics store after lunch so F.B. could get me a Christmas gift. He got me an 8GB USB Flash Drive. Yay! We also stopped at the Guess store again… I have a bad addiction with that store in the Philippines! I’ve gotten 4 t-shirts from there already, and it’s not exactly cheap. They were all around P800-P1300. ($17-28 USD).

Christmas Eve we went to church around 9:30pm. The church was packed with people. When we got back to F.B.’s house we had ‘Noche Buena’ around 12am. We exchanged Christmas gifts with the family and took pictures. We had dinner around 1am and didn’t get to bed until around 3am Christmas Morning.

Christmas Day we stayed home and relaxed. Around 6:30pm we went to Mega Mall to Saisaki Buffet to have dinner with F.B.’s family & relatives. Afterwards we had Starbucks.

Christmas Photos:

F.B.’s aunt got me this cute wooden mouse pen and wooden mouse toy for Christmas.

Mugwort eating in the kitchen:

December 28th we had a free overnight stay at the Malayan Plaza Hotel in Pasig City. It was a gift from one of F.B.’s aunts. It’s just around the corner from Mega Mall and Robinson’s Galleria in Pasig City. Our hotel suite had its own little kitchen, with a microwave, stove and full fridge. There was also a DVD player, but we didn’t bring any DVD’s with us!

Our Room:

Our Kitchen!

View from our hotel room:

We wanted to go to the IMAX Theater at Mall of Asia, but it was still packed with holiday shoppers, etc so we ended up going to Robinson’s Manila to spend the afternoon there. I got another cute keychain mouse/rat to add to my collection! We also checked out Fort Santiago but it was really hot that day so we didn't stay long.

New Years Eve we headed to church around 9:30pm. We got back home around 11pm. It was pretty loud with people setting off firecrackers and fireworks all over the place. At 12am we had dinner. F.B. & I had Spongebob necklaces that light up from Ate Malou’s daughter, Jenny.

New Years Photos:

With Jenny:

I also got to call home to my family on Christmas & New Years. My ratties are doing well while I'm away. They even got banana chips as a Christmas Gift from my Mom. Hehe. Here's a photo of Saffy they sent to me, she's wearing a Santa Hat!

Sunday we are headed to the Best Western Astor Hotel in Makati City for 5 days, 4 nights. We check out on the 7th. We also still have to pick up our marriage certificate sometime soon and we are also still waiting on the professional wedding photos. We want to head back to Tagaytay one day this month too. For our first wedding “monthiversary” on January 19th, we are going to go back to the Manila Hotel.

The 23rd I will be heading home. I've already been in touch with our lawyer. I will be contacting him when I'm back in the USA, so we can start F.B.'s immigration process. It's estimated to take 1 year to 2 years at the most. We are doing a longer process on purpose because it will save us money in the long run and F.B. will be a permanent resident when he finally steps off the plane in the USA.

NOTE: Our lawyers Peter J. Gonzales & Shanna Stanton have changed firms. They are no longer with Kahiga Tiagha. They are now with Green and Spiegel LLC, but still located in Philadelphia. 

December 19th, 2009 was our wedding day. The day before I was still really sick, I woke up with no voice and a terrible cough. I drank hot tea all day long and was taking Benadryl cough medicine. The next morning F.B. said he woke up at 5am because he couldn’t sleep, I woke up at 6am. Around 7am we got prepared for the wedding. My cold was much better, only slight sniffles.

We arrived at the Cainta Municipal hall before 10am. The mayor had a lot of appointments scheduled so he didn’t arrive until around 10:30am. F.B.’s parents hired a professional photographer, so we posed for some photos until the mayor arrived. F.B.’s sister had my camera to take photos and her camera to take video of the ceremony, etc.

The entire civil ceremony was in Tagalog, but the mayor gave an overview in English for me every now and then. When we were holding each others wedding rings I got nervous and was thinking real hard, “Which is his left hand!?” lol! F.B. got a little teary eyed when we exchanged rings and we each had to say a little something. After the ceremony we had to sign our marriage certificate, it has to be filed at the municipal hall so we will be able to pick it up the week after Christmas. Afterwards we took more photos with the mayor and outside the municipal building.

The Municipal Building:

Photos from the wedding ceremony:

When we arrived back at F.B.’s house we were greeted with his relatives throwing rice and rose petals. It was already around 12pm by then and we needed to leave for the Manila Hotel by 1pm, so we had a quick lunch at his house. His parents had a luncheon prepared for all the relatives.

Traffic is pretty bad on weekends and so close to the holidays. Even though we left around 1pm, we didn’t arrive at the Manila Hotel until just after 3pm! We checked in and relaxed for awhile, watching Spongebob and eating Ruffles chips!

Picture of the Lobby at the Manila Hotel:

We got prepared for our wedding reception and headed downstairs to the Champagne Salon around 7pm. F.B.’s sister announced us as we came into the room. She hosted the evening, with speeches from friends and relatives. My friend Gayle came with her sister to the wedding and also gave a nice speech for us. F’s sister also prepared two cute movie presentations for us. ‘On The Way’ down by Ryan Cabrera and ‘Happy Together’ by The Turtles were our songs! She also read some greetings from my family members. They also had a giveaway for whoever could guess when we made our relationship official! (4-1-2004).

Photo’s from our Wedding Reception:

My Rose Bouquet (30 Roses) from F.B.’s parents:

The pretty ice sculpture (F & S).

Everything is so fancy at the Manila Hotel! They had a little stage set up with a table for F.B. & I. Even though it was a buffet style dinner, because we were the bride and groom we had a waiter that would bring us each course in the buffet. If we wanted a drink, or more of certain dish we just had to ask.

Unfortunately there was a ton of picture taking, with the professional photographer. We kept having to stop eating to take more photos. I thought it was really funny when F’s sister announced, “I hope you’re all enjoying your dessert.” Because F & I hadn’t even begun to start our main course! I think I enjoyed dessert best, we made the waiter bring us more of the chocolate cake!

It was also really funny when everyone began clinking on their glasses and saying, “Kiss, Kiss”. F.B. thought they were saying “Speech, Speech.” So he shook his head ‘no’ and kept eating. Everyone was like, “Ooooh!” because he wouldn’t kiss me, so I held my fists up at him, haha. (I think the photographer got a photo of that, I hope, lol!) I had to explain to him later, they wanted him to kiss me!

Most of the guests started to leave around 9pm. But F.B. & I didn’t leave until after the cleanup around 10pm to go back to our hotel room. It was a longggg day! I don’t think we got to bed until 3am. They had this neat ipod dock in our hotel room, but the alarm was set on it accidentally so it ended up waking us up at 6am! We did get a nap later on though!

To view more of our wedding & honeymoon photos you can view our photobucket album here!

Also here:

Wedding Photographer Photos

Our Wedding & Honeymoon

NOTE: If you are getting married in the Philippines and you are a US citizen these requirements from the US Embassy in Manila Philippines, will be helpful: Getting Married in The Philippines.

Tomorrow I will be picking up F.B. at Philadelphia International Airport! He left for his flight to the USA about 7 hours ago. He will arrive in Los Angeles around 6:30pm this evening. (9:30pm Philadelphia). Then he will catch a flight to Dallas Texas around 12am. (3am Philly). He will leave Dallas around 6:30am and arrive in Philadelphia around 10:30am. Praying he doesn't have any delays. We talked on the phone last night and he texted me this morning before boarding his flight. Unfortunately it's supposed to rain heavy tomorrow so hoping he arrives on time!

Yesterday & today I spent getting the last of the cleaning and organizing done. I'm finished! (And exhausted, lol!) I only have to put clean sheets and make the bed tomorrow morning.

Besides the toiletries and a few clothing items I got F.B. I also have a snack pack for him in a Spongebob tin, hehe. There's Herr's thin ripple chips, Ruffles chili cheese chips, Goldfish Pizza crackers and two Snapple Iced Teas in the tin. Plus a belated Valentines day card, since we decided not to send any packages.

I also hung up our 'Sarah' & 'F.B.' hearts that originally were on his bedroom door in the Philippines on one of my trips there. They are on my closet door now.


My cousin Chrissy and her husband Matt who are in Georgia, sent F.B. & I cute 'his & hers' towels and a pretty frame. :) I put one of our wedding photos in the frame.



I have the whole week off work to spend with F.B. and get settled in. We will be heading to the Social Security Office probably on Monday to apply for a number for him and also do a little clothes shopping. Were also going out to Chinese Buffet with my family this Wednesday. Lot's to do!

In ratties updates! I've had to take 3 ratties to the vet in the past few weeks. After Basil passed away I decided to try integrating all my girls so I could open up the levels in the Ferret Nation cage. There were a few scuffles and some fighting but it wasn't so bad. Until I noticed where Honey had bit Iris and Clover they had swelled into lumps. This happened to Jasmine a few months ago and she had to go to the vet and get a Baytril injection and antibiotics.

Iris was bit in the neck and it swelled exactly like Jasmines wound had. Clover was bit on her back and it swelled into a painful lump. They were given Baytril and antibiotics and now Iris's lump is all gone and Clover's is just about gone. I've never seen rat bites swell & get infected like that, and it's only when Honey bites someone that they do swell. She has a viscous bite.

Iris

Clover

Then Barley, my hairless rat started to have this weird odor to him. I couldn't figure out what it was. I gave him a bath and I could still smell it. I thought maybe it was coming from his mouth, maybe he had gotten food stuck in his teeth. The smell turned out to be coming from his left eye! He had a vet appointment this past Tuesday. The vet used a magnifying camera to examine his eye and also ultraviolet drops and light to check his cornea.

Barley had something in his eye that the vet removed. They thought it was a piece of litter, but I don't use litter. So it was either food or lint or who knows what that had gotten stuck underneath his left eye and that's what was causing the odor. So strange! Hairless rats do not have eyelashes so they can get stuff in their eyes. He has an eye ointment he has to have for 10 days. But he is doing much better and doesn't smell anymore! Poor guy! :-p

Barley

Sadly... I did not get my SRR Rat Train rats today. Our driver went MIA and never contacted Brittney. The original driver even disconnected their phone number and unfriended Star's Rat Rescue Facebook page. So weird... I don't understand why someone would go to such lengths if they didn't want to do the drive anymore. It would have been nice to just say they had changed their mind. Sooo... we are back to the original plan and Brittney is hoping April or May we can get this rat train going!