Before anything else, I just realized that in my last post, I made it out like Spring follows Fall, and totally forgot about Winter! Lol! Blame it on the fact that it rarely snows in Vancouver (at least since I've been here) and Winter is mostly just cold and rainy, so much like how Fall is. We actually got snowed on just last Saturday (last time was November) and now we're back to rain showers. Great.

Moving on now. My family and friends know me as fond of taking pictures of food before I eat them, I even have an album on Facebook solely for them, titled Food I Love. I haven't updated that in ages and have just succumbed to posting either on my Twitter, Tumblr, or my Facebook wall. I should probably do restaurant reviews - though I don't often try out different places, my friends and I on occasion check out other places besides our ever-favorite hangout, Boston Pizza. But I don't think I can do good reviews, so yeah, scratch that idea for now.

Anyhoo,  I'm just rounding up photos of food I've taken recently. I know I already posted them on my other social networking sites so this is making it redundant but for the purpose providing a backgrounder, I'm posting them again. Lol.

 Triple Seafood Roll from G-be Izakaya. Yes, the 7-grain sushi rice is violet! I've had better ones, but I'd give it to them, they know food presentation from the heart.

 

Assorted dishes for Filipino Pot Luck Party.

 Roses given to my Mum for her birthday. I know it's not food, but aren't they pretty?

 Chocolate chip cookies and milk I had one night to pamper myself. Dipping these in milk make 'em so yummy! I thought I'd sleep better 'cause of the milk but since cookies are sugar, had a hard time falling asleep, of course.

 Seafood, seafood, seafood. It is apparent I love seafood. Indulgence courtesy of Mum's birthday at King Buffet.

 King Buffet. The place seems not to have a lot of people but it was actually pretty packed that night. Funny thing was, half of the diners were actually my Mum and aunts' friends from way back in high school! Talk about sudden reunion and small world. Who would've thought right?

 Kyung Bok Palace. Sunday lunch date with Janey. I liked it there, plus the price is just right methinks.

 Our Pastor's wife' birthday cake from La Patisserie. Looks really good but not sweet enough to be really a cake.

 Instant and improvised Japanese meal at home. I'm pretty resourceful when it comes to feeding myself. Haha! Oh yeah, Mum and I made those Sushi ourselves. Since I so love Japanese food, I better know how to make 'em!

 Sunday lunch with friends at Misoya, said to be one of the best Ramen places in Richmond. It was alright for me, I think I still like Rai Rai Ken better. Sadly, there isn't one here. But the best part for me - I was able to use my little knowledge of the Japanese language! Haha! 

 Black Sesame Ice Cream by G-Be Izakaya. Surprisingly, I found it to my liking, it's actually pretty good. Those biscuits (I think they're lenguas?) topped it off.

 Soy Milk Hot Pot in Paper by G-be Izakaya. Name is weird plus it being a paper in a hotpot made my friend try this one. Plus points to presentation again but taste is bland. Basically, just vegetables in soy milk and put in a hotpot to make them constantly hot.

G-be Izakaya's Sansho Chicken Karaage. I think they described it as flash fried rice-covered chicken with Japanese salt and pepper. They had me at flash fried rice. What is that right? So I ordered that and this is what I got. I actually like it especially when dipped in the 'yellowish' pepper and salt. Yum.

Spring Is Near ☼

I know it is too early to welcome the change of season, after all, we're just in the middle of February, but I'm just excited to see lively and vibrant colors again. I do like Fall, but I'm not really a fan of the gloomy weather coupled by the rain showers it brings. But I admit there is joy in seeing green change into dramatic hues of orange, yellow, and brown and stepping onto crunchy fallen leaves is a plus as well. And weird as it may be to some, looking at skeletal trees lined up gives me a sort of calm albeit with a tinge of sad. And to some, Fall is a favorite for the fashion it brings - layers and layers of clothing, fun, classic scarves, cute rain boots, coats and topped with an equally cute or nice umbrella - and you're just about ready to sing and dance in the rain, in style! But I'm really not one to talk about fashion, I still have yet to acquire a sense of it!

Going back to the topic at hand (for a minute there I was lost in Fall), this post is really but a poor excuse for me to post some photos I edited way back, but I've been lazy to post at that time. As apparent as it is, timeliness in blogging is something like a "Whut?" to me. Haha!

A little backgrounder, these photos were taken in the Summer of last year when we were enjoying the sun and clear skies of Victoria's Butchart Gardens. I felt absolutely like a girl in love (you know, when you feel like flowers are blooming around you 'cause of giggles of love). So yeah, this might just be me when I am blissfully in love with someone. ♥

Aha! Moment

In my heart I know this to be true:

"Everything ends well for anyone who believes... in God."

When I wrote that after my three-month ordeal was over.

But this morning, my heart skipped a beat after reading this:

"Everything is possible for one who believes." - Jesus (Mark 9:23)

Upon reading that verse, I quickly thought about that line I wrote more than a year ago which had the same context. And I just thought, "Those were not my words, but God's!"  To have seen a reference, a biblical truth, to what I've believed all along has left my heart smiling in awe. See, I wasn't wrong! 

It is written: "Is anything too hard for the LORD?" (Gen 18:14) And He made Sarah, Abraham's wife, give birth to a son, Isaac, at ninety-years old when she laughed and believed she was already past the age of child-bearing.

Never doubt God.

Oh hey, 2011!

I've been MIA again but surely December and January are valid enough reasons as to my absence in the blogosphere. The end and first of the year always puts everyone scurrying about different places trying to get things done and going, and always, always coupled with a full-blown reflection of what life's been in the passing year, and evaluation as to how to make the coming one better. Gone is that seasonal emotional hulabaloo and as I've done my fair share of evaluation on life, I think I've come to terms with what I want to do for the rest of it.

It was the renewed passion, now burning more than ever, which has awakened much inspiration in my life to have a goal, see the bigger picture, and pursue it. I must have thanked God a thousand times already for giving me this goal and also for pleading for help to be with me as I work on it. And He has heard it and given me an assurance in this: "Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (Philippians 1:6). Ah, how sweet it is to be loved by Him! It is simply amazing, I tell you. It blows my mind to see my goal sort of go in the right direction, to see a vision of what could be, if God wills it to. I just recently experienced a moment like that and I was like, "Oh my gosh, He really is at work here!" I immediately told my Mom about it and she said that I only have to want it so much and everything will work out. It is a true story folks that wanting it so much in your heart and praying for it fervently will produce results that'll surprise you. Now, this dream isn't a fast and the furious journey. It'll take time, perhaps a year or two, before I can harvest anything but the journey to my pursuit of it excites me too. When all is well and done, it will be one of my greatest testimonies for sure.

Reflecting on what my life's been like last year resulted in me removing some depression-triggering stuff. We all have that, right? Stuff we do that seem to put us on a high at the moment but then zaps us into somewhat Dr. Phil sessions where we wonder again what life is about and what our purpose is in this world. Tiring, no, exhausting, is what it is to be always going back to that state. With me it's not so much a depression, but more like because of the things that I continuously do, I forget to live in the here and the now (I've pondered about this lots of times!). At the end, I find myself in a slump as I've neglected a lot of responsibilities and my room is such a bloody mess, it feels like I'm starting my life over again. Jeez. It is so unhealthy. Why I keep on doing that beats me. I must be really just an idiot. But oh well, I'm organizing everything now up to the schedule of my daily crunches on my Pilates ball (haha, yes, I get reminders to do it). I'm extreme, I can be really OC with my schedule or I'd have that "the-hell-I-care-attitude" at times. It's driving me insane, too, not being consistent with this. I'll just always pray for Him to be with me everyday, whatever I'm doing, wherever I am.

You can tell I'm having a good day, eh? I'm rather talkative today, it must be because I'm having a good hair day. Let's all admit it, we women feel great when our "crowns" are just the way they should be. (Lol) No doubt I'd still go through "the dreaded moments" (y'all know what I'm talking about) but I know it'll pass, it always does. I'll just talk it out with Him, He'll comfort me in His arms and I'm back on my feet again. Plus, I'd just look forward to little stuff that excite me, that always does the trick! 

Bloghopping, And On To Dreamland

So, I decided to finally use that blogspot button "Next Blog" to check other blogs here and almost all the sites I got into, the blogger is a Mom. Wow. Really, I am not kidding. 

Most posts are, of course, about their daily life with their kids, places they went to as a family, pictures of them lounging in the park or at home playing, baking, or whatever you can do at home. Then I wonder when I'll be posting similar stuff? Of course, try as I might to keep these kinds of thoughts away, I can't help but still think about it. I have a couple of friends and batchmates who are already married and have kids, and I smile and think, "Wow! Are we really in the marrying age already? How time flies, really!"

This usually leads to daydreams of a happy family life, with a kid or two running around while I bake an apple pie or something. What? Lol. Yeah, my thoughts run around like crazy. It's more fun though when my friend voices out our dreams, she'd be like, "Aimee, we'll be neighbors and we'll have tea time while our kids play. Then, we'll go to the park to play with the kids and go to the mall and shop for our husbands' ties." Yes, ties, cause apparently, said "husbands" have no sense of taste (and they work in a corporate company where ties are a must). Poor 'em. Lol.

Sweet thoughts. These keep us sane while we wait for the day we're actually doing that and I'll be blogging and posting pictures about it, with our tie-wearing husbands. (Sorry, I just had to add that!) ♥

of cute pens & notepads

I like collecting cutie pens and notepads. I have always been fond of cute and girly stuff, blame it on my kiddie height and on the child in me that will never go away. ^_^

As a child, I remember always feeling happy whenever I receive those pretty organizer notebooks during Christmas or on my birthday. It served as my toys in my teenage years and helped me be a *bit* organized with my daily-life schedule - as if the 14-year-old me had that much events to go to and stuff to do. Do homework, clean my room, buy this-and-that, things-to-pack for a field trip, read this book, watch my fave-at-the-moment anime, do the laundry, wash the dishes, meet up with friends, go to Megamall with the family are what you'd mostly see scribbled in a doctor-like-script in the pages of my organizers. I once ran out of pages and I didn't wanna buy filler pages 'cause they're super plain and dull, so I made my own pages! Hey, I am  no art club member for nothing. Lol! And I actually still have those pages now (in that blue and red organizer with Samurai X stickers). Preserving them, you can say. Lol!

A Moment of Weakness

Admittedly, hard as I try to positively look forward to the future, I still have my moments of doubt.

Growing up, I've been taught the cruel "reality" that if I am too happy today, then I'd be sad tomorrow. Life's worth of happiness is so limited that we'd ought to be careful when and how much to feel it, so they say. To me, that's just cruel. Does this mean that I am always to dread the post-effect of my happiness? That we can never be truly happy without having to think of what will come next?

I'd just recently been overwhelmed with happiness and gratitude to my Father that right now, I'm not feeling sad, but dreading what unfortunate thing will come next. This is no good a habit and must be totally rid off. It is during this vulnerable time that I think and ask, "Where will life take me?"

At twenty-four, I am actually pretty blessed - my family's with me, I live in such a beautiful place, I am starting to establish a grounded relationship with God, I have a good job, friends surround me, and I have friends back home who never forget to communicate and tell me I am missed. Life is good. God has always been good. This kind of life was just a distant dream before. I remember just imagining living in Richmond and telling my friends how it is here, driving around the city in my own car, having the things I've dreamed of - and here I am actually living all these. It is amazing how dreams can come true. Of course, that is not to say I didn't like it in Manila. I loved it there. It is a big part of who I am, helped give me friends that I will now treasure for the rest of my life, and taught me life's lessons I couldn't have learned any other way.

As I write this, an epiphany hit me, it's like He spoke. I am only 24, it is not the end of the world. I am just beginning my life-long journey. I need not know where I will be going, I only need to know that my Father is in control. I am in good hands and will always be. It is written:

"My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the Lord. "And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts."

                                                                                                                             Isaiah 55:8-9

As I've said before, "I am where God wants me to be." His will brought me here and I will continue submitting to Him. Definitely, God's way.