The IKEA Monologue

This was written a year ago when the new IKEA catalogue came out.

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My Love of IKEA started back when I was still in the Philippines. Of course there was no IKEA back home and I am left at drooling at the keyboard as I browse online. I love their simple, stream lined innovative designs. Just seeing how much crap they can cram (tastefully, mind you) in small areas makes the then-younger me dream of lovely, white, organized spaces. Since I grow up in a narrow and crammed home, I am always looking for "space" or how to "spiffy up" our place. IKEA provided inspiration and ideation.

First place The BFF, Sam, took me when I came to the UAE is the IKEA store in Dubai Festival City and mind you, they do not disappoint. Granted I only bought scented candles on that visit (I was on visit visa and was still looking for work, so no moolah!) I very much enjoyed the visit. Since I was with Sam, I enjoyed the sideline commentaries and our usual what-ifs.

Whenever Mr. RL asks if I want to take a trip to Dubai, I would ask if we can drop by IKEA and he will lose interest in going altogether. He actually thinks of our IKEA trip as a huge favor and should count as a "gift". I think he gets bored out of his mind just entering the store while the IKEA junkie that is me, has my adrenaline pumping the minute we pulled into the parking lot.

So why an ode to IKEA? Because the annual catalogue is out! Yipee! In the UAE, you have an option for an English and Arabic link, see below.

http://onlinecatalogue.ikea.com/AE/en/IKEA_Catalogue/
*Updated

The new issue is more colorful and concept of the spaces is more lived in as opposed to "catalogue-y". It seems the prices are still the same as last year, yey! But there is nothing notably new or awesome. so I'm kind of disappointed. Seems weird that I'm reviewing a catalogue. Oh well, I still can't wait to visit and explore!

Any IKEA monologue of your own?

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Update: the new catalogue is kinda magulo for my taste. The injection of colors and patterns did not suit well for me. That said,  I would still go and  make pakyaw in a heart beat. No question. Also, we have been eating from their resto when I was pregnant last year and really loved the food, very affordable pa. I just need to convince Mr. RL we need something from there para makalagaw uli.

 

Baby RL's Passport

Baby RL is now 2 months and 22 days. In the UAE, well at least in RAK, newborn expats (is that a thing? hmmnn..) are allowed to stay in the country without a visa 4 months after birth. After that, the father or mother needs to sponsor the baby for a residence visa. Visa application for newborns takes only a week or so since they don't need medical, etc. But then at the rate the policies are changing, we will know if the time frame still applies. I'll blog about the process when its done.

While some parents eagerly apply for passport days or weeks after the baby, we have waited for more than 2 months. Are we lazy? Did we procrastinate? Erhhmm, kinda. Baby RL was born early and I was scared to travel with him in the first month. In the second month, I went back to work and cannot take a leave of absence. Then Ramadan came, it was summer, and so many things in between. 


So after much preparation on my part, I hauled my family and trekked to PCG-Dubai on a fine Monday morning. Coming from RAK it took us just a little over an hour to get there. We arrived at the consulate at around 9am and people are already swarming outside. The line inside the processing area was not very long and there was priority lane for babies, pregnant women and disable. (Yey! for that). There was a lady in from of the counter filling up her forms and I really wanted to ask her to do that somewhere else so the line could move, but whatevs. When it was my turn, I handed over my documents, all filled up, stapled, paperclipped and arranged in the order listed in the website. Then lo and behold, they asked for the Original Birth certificate and I don't have it with me. Doi! Imagine the rage and fury of the hubby when I asked him to go back to RAK to bring the Birth Certificate. I asked him to bring us to Dubai Festival City Center where we can wait for him. There is an IKEA in DFCC and I went Bat-shit cray-cray! But that's another post.

When hubbie returned, we went back to PCG. There was no one manning the special lane but I was called by the gentleman at the regular counter despite the queue. After he reviewed the documents I was told to go to counter number 3 (Cashier) to pay. The Cashier is outside of the main building and around the back. After paying I went inside to check the line and there were a lot of people sitting and standing waiting for their turn. But babies again have special treatment and we were called on right away. Only catch is, baby must be awake (eyes open) for the photo! And my was he tough to wake. I had to call his papa but he was no help. The ate outside gave us baby wipes for his eyes, but no. I bought water to wet his face, but no. A nice arab gentleman help his papa wake him, but no. So Mama resorted to a NICU tested way to wake him up, make pitik his dapa-dapa! He woke up screaming so we rushed inside and was able to take a few photos. Unfortunately, none looked good. Kind manang at the counter offered to take another photo but as I was lifting him up, he started to get drowsy and slept in a nanosecond. People at the room were laughing at him. So baby when you see your passport photo, remember that mama did her best to make you look good but you insisted on your pugak look so there!

Anyway for new babies, here are the procedure.

1. Get the Original Birth Certificate (in English) attested from Ministry of Foreign Affairs, cost is AED 160
2. Download form for Report of Birth here,
3. Download passport application, here

Useful tips:

- Bring 6 sets listed documents, except for passport application you will only need 1. There is a photocopy machine but there is a line. 
- Bring Original Marriage Certificate as well, they asked for this.
- Make the baby wear Polo or Shirt with collar
- Bring a rattle or something that will keep your baby's attention while photo is being taken.

Passport will be ready in 8 weeks (Yikes!) hopefully it will be less. Inshallah!

My Big Ouwiee

No post since mid-last week. We had a 4-day holiday in celebration of Eid Ul Fitr, this marks the end of Ramadan. Now we are back to regular office timings. I will miss my afternoons with Baby RL. So I spent every waking (and half-asleep) moment with him while I can. I loved it.

Anyway, I was depressan-depressan over the holiday. I am not going into the details cause just thinking about it make my tummy aches. I am in a situation that I will suffer for the next months and will probably be carried over til next year, at the rate this is snowballing, probably til next, next year. This is not even my blunder. I will never put myself in this position. But as the magulang and sole provider I will be carrying this burden. I cannot imagine the stupidity, the audacity and lack of common sense that brought me this. I should have seen it coming. I lived with this "thinking" for most of my life. When I worked abroad and thought that if I make padala monthly, I would be helping. Apparently my generosity was taken that as an incentive to be more stupid and precarious. 

I have not slept well in days. I fell asleep calculating, I woke up calculating, I drive computing payment plans, I have filled pages of my notebook with numbers. I hate feeling this way. I hate that I scraped, deprived myself for years, only to pay off something I did not spend. Initially the number was manageable. I was already prepared to tighten our budget and pay it off the next months. Then more numbers came up. I was overwhelmed. The interest alone will bleed me. So I borrowed money. For the first time in 6 years in the UAE, I borrowed money. Then over the weekend, more bad news came. The figure is now 6 digits and 3 times what I was initially told. I felt like the rug was pulled under me and I cannot steady myself. This time the minimum payment required is 5 digits. Fees and charges alone is the monthly budget for my baby. I cried then I threw up.

There goes the next two years. There goes the savings for our annual vacation, there goes my baby's bunyag, there goes the iPad, there goes my budget for my baby's nursery, there goes the trips we planned with the baby, there goes the new black shoes I need badly for work.

Unfortunately this is not the end of this saga, lies and omissions are still there. This is causing a pit in my stomach. The unknown. Not knowing how much more is out there and accumulating interest.

Is it so hard to live within your means? How come you do not know where it went? Oh. My. God. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

A Chuckle

Something nice happened this morning. It stopped in my from my usual bustle and made my heart skipped a beat. I will blog about it so I won't forget.

I was making sibin Baby RL before I leave for work, as usual I was singing our morning song (Yes, I sing. To my baby. Exclusively), chit chatting with him, telling him to behave today, not to give his papa a hard time, etc. he was cooing and gaagaaing at me, then he chuckled! Not his usual wide eyed, toothless, soundless grin but a throaty chuckle!

You know what, I was just happy I am present when that happened. As a working mom, I will miss out on so many of his firsts. That I have to accept. Small miracles like this may not come by again, so baby please reserve some milestones for mama.

Sus, ina lang anay.. puli na ko!

Frosty's Minions Swimming Party

Frosty is turning 4 and is having a Minion's Swimming Party!

From the FB updates that we were getting from the parents, it seems that we are loading up with cupcakes and cakes calories that night. Papi Aries makes the tastiest sud-ans ranging from mouth watering Bulalo to super tasty Kare-kare. Mama Lani is in-charge of the yummy desserts! To say that I was bursting at the seams by the end of the evening will be an understatement. Lani handed over a plateful of chocolate cake and cupcakes before we left. Sad to say, most of it was gone by lunch time the following day. Sadder still is that my Project: Balik Alindog is postponed til further notice.

Okay pictures time.. delectable ain't they? I can feel my hips swelling just by looking at them.

Dessert Table at #teamMarquez

Cupcakes Galore

The RLs were very excited because it is Baby RL's first birthday party.  As usual we were the early birds, but knowing the Marquez' penchant for punctuality we have to come early! =) Baby RL is dressed in his Pooh outfit and he was A-D-O-R-able! Obviously as the mother I am biased. But if you do not think that is cute, you are not my friend and I don't like you! =D

Back to the party, Mama Lani DIYed most of the decorations. From the banners, to hand drawn minions balloons, mama's touch was everywhere. I love everything DIY. 

The Sumanga's on the bottom right

The party was so much fun with lots of chicka-chika and kulitans. I was not able to take photo's of the pool and the "other" party outside, I was full on mommy alert because of an incident. The istorya is below, if you came just for the party update you can skip the below part and be spared of my mommy rants.

Anyway, to end this on a happy note. Here's another picture of Baby RL with his Maninay Kate who turned 10 that evening!

mini-Project Thursday

Since it is the holy month of Ramadan, this means shortened office hours for us employees in Islamic countries.

Since it is Thursday, it means start of the weekend here in the UAE.

After a hectic week I was so looking forward to going home early and snuggling with my Baby RL. Then I got an FB message that says, "May request me pwede kung di ka busy". Since the molester (in ilonggo, ang gamolestya) is someone very dear to me, how can I say no.

So instead of napping on our bed, I was doing this..

Our dear precious Kate is turning 10 on Saturday and is having a small party at home. She sent me a picture of 1D cake that she wanted to replicate for her birthday. The cake is already ordered, I am only asked to make the abubuts for the cake. So goodbye naptime, hello papercuts! Good thing Baby RL napped so I was able to finish the mini project for his manang na maninay pa Kate.

O sya, final product..

 
That will be one overly decorated cake. I did not have time to scour for materials, so I just used what I have in hand. And what do I have? BBQ sticks! It works.. kinda.. I guess.. Well, I still have time to tweak it a bit if I find something else more suitable.

I can't believe Kate is 10 na. I met her when she was 4 and a little monster. Now she's 10 going on 45. Beautiful, smart, sassy and kinda awesome really. That is why she is maninay to Baby RL. Will post photos of her party, hopefully I'll get the chance to take photos while baby sitting. Indeed, her ihado is very much invited, we can't wait to attend our first birthday party!

We have 2 birthday parties to go to this weekend, still no gifts. I was supposed to look for gifts this evening but Mr. RL took the car so I am stranded. I just need to wake up early tomorrow and hopefully find one for Frosty who is turning 4 and having a Minions Swimming party in the afternoon.  Kate's gift will just have to wait when I get the time shop.

Can you guess Kate's party theme? Honestly, what is it about girls and boy bands? From the time of the Beatles, girls had been screaming their heads off for boys that are prettier than they are. Is it the hair? The music? The moves? Oh well, far be it for me to judge. I still have my BSB CDs inside a BSB tin lunchbox back at home in Iloilo. Yeah baby, BSB for life! Hahaha!

A day after the 35th!

So, I guess blogging is a yearly thing for me, huh?!? 

I had my 35th birthday yesterday and I remembered the blog! Note that I wrote HAD instead of celebrated, because there was no celebration. I was full force alert mode so no cake day for me. But still I was extremely happy and felt blessed on my birthday. Life nga naman..

So what happened last year? There were too many lows and one pinnacle of high. Lost some, gained some. So many stories and apparently no time to share it. Maybe one of these days I will be brave enough to write down some of them. Just so 10, 20 years from now I can look back and say, "Yep, that happened."

I optimistically titled the blog House of RLs, that was in the hopes that by the time this becomes a full pledge blog, we will have a little RL in our midst. I was planning on chronicling our TTC, the pregnancy and preparations for the baby. Even asked for a DSLR for my birthday to chronicle our soon to be new life as parents. 

Well, I guess you shouldn't underestimate the power of positivity.. Be still my heart, their smile melts me like a popsicle under the hot UAE sun. jeeeeheeeeeezz.. corny na kung corny! 

So, here I am 35 and utterly grateful, looking forward to the challenges of motherhood, to the excitements, celebrations, even the (*anticipated) aches and pains. Looking forward to his smiles, his coos, his milestones, his unabashed love and admiration (*inshallah! =).

We are finally a House of RLs and these are our stories.