Mel and the New Normal

I was busy last week, so just had the chance to post this now. My Baby turns 1 today. If she was alive, we'd probably be having an uber cool, super-fly party for her. Because, well, that's what we do for a living. Extra special because she would have been a survivor. But, since we're corny and she's not here with us, we just styled her grave in a super cheesy manner! FUNNY, CHEESY, CORNY, GOOD VIBES! (FYI when we got there her "caretaker" had taken it upon herself to put those white flowers on her own, haha. She was expecting us because we're there almost every week, so she anticipated the date.)

This is such a late follow-up to my 30th birthday celebration, but anyways I just had to continue it because I haven't written about the best part! After Gourmet's, we went to our massage appointment at Sonya's Garden. Since everyone's been there,  I'm not posting any shots anymore. Also, coincidentally, our room that day wasn't that great. =p There was a plumbing problem so we were put in a room on the lower floor, which was facing the property beside it and had.. outside people, if you know what I mean. Nevertheless, we had a great massage. Please note that the massages there are A LOT more expensive than Metro Manila massages, roughly P1,300 each. We went straight to Antonio's after, where J made reservations for dinner. We were there super early, around 5:30 or 6PM. Antonio's is our favorite celebration place! We usually go there for his or my birthday, or... when there's a DealGrocer deal available, haha! For us, it's the best...

We had a short picnic in the cemetery as we celebrated BabyKat's 6th month. Even if she's not with us, we agreed to celebrate her important dates, like her 6th month, and her 1st birthday onwards =D She will always be our daughter. We bought some food, a blanket, etc. Her only guest today was the usual orange cat that keeps us company, so we gave her some of our food. Our caretaker set up a few chairs and a tent for us, and the weather, as usual, was wonderful.  Lunch! Perfect weather. We bought her a small cake from Aggy's, and lit a candle. We didn't blow it out, we just waited for the candle to die on it's own, then left the candle with her flowers.  The caretaker knew it was her birthday, and stuck some flowers around her marker.  We enjoyed spending a few hours there on our own. We did not cry today, and we have not for a while now. Perhaps because we feel her everywhere now, instead of feeling like she's gone.  As we were driving...

Finally done! It's like a huge burden has been lifted from our shoulders. You'd think since we do this for a living, we wouldn't be stressed out over it. And actually we weren't, it was our staff that shouldered all the work, therefore confirming my belief that it is very very difficult to DIY a party like this. But anyways, we were worried about how to have everything fit within a budget, because as mentioned in a previous post, we didn't have any! But God is so good, he gave us so many bookings this month and next month. Grateful for generous friends in the industry who gave me their services as gifts, or super discounted prices. Here are a few pictures my brother took. Still tired from the weekend (17 bookings this weekend, crazy!) but will post more details eventually. It was a bittersweet event. We were so grateful our friends and family came and mingled, but at the same time we knew it would be different and so much more joyful is Kat was with us. Happy Birt...

Today is our baby boy's 7th birthday. He celebrates with a party this coming Sunday. For months Justin and I have been deliberating whether we should have the party. We reserved the host and magician, both our friends, but if ever we didn't push thru, there were other parties we could put them in. Before we found out about the CDH, we have already been thinking about Josh's party. Our kids don't celebrate every year. What we do is, we order pizza at home, or eat in Shakey's for dinner. And they're very happy with that. What we agree on is they'll just have 1 big party - their 7th birthday. And we were more than happy to do that for them. But this year sideswiped us with so many problems, and incredible expenses from the checkups, surgeries, etc. In a different post, I will explain the costs that CDH has on the families, but to give you an idea, we spent about P700k total for the whole ordeal. Normally I wouldn't discuss money, but eventually I have t...