I am not a professional photographer and I am not trying to be one but I like taking photos and I really like taking photos of people. I like to pursue this hobby but my problem right now is; there are not a lot of no willing people  I can photograph. My husband is very handsome but he’s a lousy model.  He feels uncomfortable if I ask him to make some poses for the camera. And there’s my brother-in-law who needs a lot of cajoling before he agrees to do such thing. The last time I got my brother-in-law to do a mini-photo-shooting with me was two years ago and if I ask him that now, he’d probably give me the look that says…hey, I’m a cool guy and that is so gay.

You see, he’s now a teenager and is very self-conscious. He’s no longer the cute little boy who likes to get into my nerve by pulling my hair or by pinching me. He’s now a self-proclaimed DJ and we have to be cool to be near him. I kind of miss those times when he was just a lovely boy who likes to show us crazy stuff he can do.

Time really flies away so fast.

P.S. These photos are unedited. Except for resizing and copyrighting it, I haven’t done any special editing to these photos.



winter in graz

But I will list my plans. I like plans.  At least with plans, there are always alternatives if they don’t work out. Resolutions, on the other hand, sound so drastic. Like, I “need” to change things or else I will be the same person I was in the previous year and my life will stay the way it is. Resolutions are more like promises to yourself you have to keep. They just have to be fulfilled.

Who wants such pressure? Obviously, not me.

So here are my plans for this year.

1. Put the house together in accordance to what we need and what we can afford. My husband and I just bought a house and like many other young couples who are from humble families, most of our savings went to the purchase of the house. It was also necessary for us to take a housing loan to cover that which can’t be covered by our savings. The house is “Belagsfertig”. That means, it is completely finished outside but it still needs work inside.  The heating, electrical circuits, floor, kitchen, toilet, bathroom, and the painting still need to be done and those are what we are working on right now. We decided to do some things ourselves to save some money and because we already have a very handsome credit, we agreed not to take more credit.  Hopefully, we will still be able to save money for some nice stuff for the house.

Alternative: if in case, we are not able to save money, we can always use our old stuff and be content with it until we are able to afford fancier things.

1. Make teaching props during the summer break. The most difficult part of my job is preparing teaching materials. It is taking so much of my energy and my time so to make my life easier for the next school year; I plan to prepare my teaching props this summer.

Alternative: If by chance, I can’t find time to do this during the summer break, I’ll just have to be content with the teaching props available at the learning center or I’ll just have to accept that my second year of teaching won’t be that much easier from my first year.

Those are the two main things. The less import things are as follows.

1. I plan to visit home.
2. I plan to take more pictures. I am living in a very nice city so why not compile my impressions of it?
3. I plan to save for an iMac. I do have a lappy and it is still very good but an iMac is just so… beautiful. I don’t plan to buy it this year. I just would like to save for it.
4. I plan to learn how to bake. I am already excited because I am getting my very own kitchen soon! With all the things I need for baking and cooking.
5. I plan to start a garden. The house we bought has a tiny garden! Excited, excited, excited!

Those are my plans and some of them I share with my husband.

I know. You’re probably a bit disappointed. I imagine you saying like… that’s it?!? Really? What about having a baby?

I’ve been asked about that question several times.

Baby…. hmmmm.

That will have to wait a bit.

I don’t know when exactly but I still have enough hormone pills for six months.  Haha.

Seriously though, we think we are ready but we still have wait until the house is ready and then we can start trying. *wink

Damn, if I knew she’d be coming I would’ve clean the place like crazy. My mother-in-law is not that kind of mother-in-law. I never heard any criticism from her and not once did she try to mingle in my way of running our place but still…it would have been better if I would have made the place spotless clean for her visit.

So anyway, after I let her in I notice that she didn’t look sad at all. In fact, she was all smiles when she told me that she didn’t have to work that day too so she thought of visiting me. She handed me some sweets and the cake she specially made for me. Then I heard the door creaking… I must have forgotten to close it so I rushed to the entrance only to find my father-in-law standing there. By that time we were all laughing. So they both successfully surprised me.  Hah! Wait till my husband hears about this…

But I didn’t have to wait long because hubby entered the door a minute later. Hubby told me that the parents came for a small visit and will be going back to their place (2 hours drive away from our place) that same day but we should all have lunch together. We decided to go to one of those Buschenschank for lunch. On our way there, hubby pulled over to a parking place and told me to get out of the car. I was already very suspicious but didn’t have any idea what they’re playing at. Then hubby pointed to a parked car and told me that car is mine.

A grey and apple green Smart—just what I have in mind for a perfect car for me. I was literally shrieking. So… they all connived in planning all this. Hubby bought the car and my in-laws delivered it.  They were really successful in keeping it a secret from me until the very last moment.

A lot of hugging and “thank yous” followed after that then we headed off for lunch—Hubby and me in my Smart and the in-laws in hubby’s car. The lunch was long and was filled with happy conversations and laughter.

Once again, I realized how blessed I am to have a loving husband and kind in-laws.

I don’t know if I clearly mentioned in any of my blogs that we will definitely leave China sometime in April but I remember briefly mentioning about moving here, here, and here. My husband is not so happy with his job here anymore so it’s time for us to move on. We plan to just go and settle in Austria but there are some talks of Mexico so at this point, we are still not 100% sure of our destination.

I hate moving. Not just because I have to pack everything and that I have to prepare all the needed papers for the shipping but also because I sort of have a life here. I like this city even though there are just some things I haven‘t quite gotten used to. I like living here.

I know from the start that this is not where we will stay for the rest of our lives but “this move” is just too soon. And I would simply go crazy if we move to Mexico because that means there will be a time that we have to move out of that country and at this point, it’s just painful to think that this won’t be the last time we have to pack our things and go.

I get attach to things, places, and people so it is always difficult for me to leave.

They grew up in the same place and went to the same schools. They’ve been exclusive since they became sweethearts at age 14. At the age of 16, they became a couple and at 20, they became husband and wife. 30 years later, they still share kisses and they still hold hands.

I find it amazing.

Couples like them make me believe more in “happy ever after“  and now that I am married, I wonder how far my husband and I could go. A year of marriage is nothing compared to 30 years. We are still on the starting line. Life is still all sunshine and meadows for us. We have not exactly encountered a major problem yet and we never had a major fight. Everything is still pleasant. Not that I am waiting for bad things to happen. I am just hoping that when they do, my husband and I will also be able to surpass them.

It’s a good feeling to be completely confident in Marcus and in what we have. A few weeks from now, we’ll have our first year anniversary and I can honestly  say that after a year of being married, nothing has changed. We are still like we were before. We still look in the same direction. Sometimes we also have some small misunderstandings but we always managed to fix these before that day ends. I can never be sure that we’ll be like this forever but based on how things are between us at the moment, I can say that we will last for a very looooooooong time.

Benjamin is Marcus’ younger brother. At the time of this video, he was 13. Like their father, Benjamin is also musically inclined. He’s currently studying how to play the trumpet. In this video, he plays the acoustic bass guitar. He doesn’t have formal lessons on how to play it but somehow, it was sounding okay.

We did this video last June 2007 just a few months after Hans’ accident. Marcus and Lia (their mom) were the ones videotaping us. I am not used to being video taped so you’ll notice my uneasiness all throughout the video.

It was a simple song with just four chords. When Hans heard me sing it and play it with the guitar, he suggested that we do it all together so we did it and the outcome is of course nothing close to professional or practiced performance but it’s nice and it show candid setting within the family.