I've been tagged!

I've been tagged but my good blogger friend Shelley from Calypso in the Country. SO here it goes...

1.  Are you named after someone?  
I wish, I was named after a street. Actually my full name is Maria Claravel. Maria Clara is one of the most famous female literary character in a Philippine novel called "Noli Me Tangere"  and initially I thought I was named after her. But when I asked my mom, she nonchalantly said  "No, I named you after a street I saw, just around the corner from our first apartment"! Hah!

2.  When was the last time you cried?  
3 weeks or so ago, I got upset with a petty argument about the baby's name! LOL! My hubs was having 2nd thoughts about the name "Sophia" since he found out it was the most popular name in 2011 and 2013,  but I didn't care and I cried!!! Petty, petty, must be the hormones!;-)

3.  Do you have kiddos?
Yup, 2 boys and a little girl on the way - the center of my universe.

4.  If you were another person, would you be a friend of yourself?
YES definitely! We would have so much fun shopping together!!!!

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5.  Do you have a guilty pleasure?
Have a weakness for anything chocolate - I have them everywhere from home to work. I also collect dolls - not the collectible and expensive one, Disney dolls!

I have more than these...

6.  Do you like handwriting?
Nope. My hand-writing is horrible!!!!!
 But I still write my "thank-you notes" & Christmas cards whenever I can!

7.  What is your favorite cereal?
Nestle's Koko Krunch - it's from the Philippines, my mom sends me a boxful from there! Super yummy, haven't found a substitute for it here yet!

yum

8.  What's the first thing you notice about people?
Their feet. Yup, I have a foot fetish sort of... weird, but true. ;-)

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9.  What's the color of your eyes?
Brown black.

10.  Scary movie or happy endings?
Never liked watching scary movies, so definitely I'm a happy-endings-kinda-gal!

11.  Favorite TV shows?
I binge watch my shows - Sherlock, Downton Abbey, House of Cards.

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12.  Summer or Winter?
Summer baby yeah! I would live by the beach someday. :-)

13.  Hugs or kisses?
Both. Love giving hugs and receiving kisses more.

14.  Do you have a special talent? 
I can sing Videoke like no one can... well sorta!

one of those moments

15.  Where were you born?
Manila, Philippines

16.  What are your hobbies?
Collecting, decorating, shopping, reading blogs, watching movies, trying new recipes.
  
17.  Do you have any pets?
Does our pet Beta count?

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18.  Favorite movie?
Sooo many - but to name a few : Sleepless in Seattle, While you were sleeping, The Devil wears Prada, Shawshank Redemption, Toy Story, LOTR series.

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19.  What color is your car?
Silver.  I drive a momma van a.k.a. mini van.

20.  What do you want to be when you grow up?
I'm lucky to be doing what I love now - a kiddiedoc and would probably do it the rest of my life (yup no retiring, just slowing down). And oh yeah, Travel, travel, travel, like there's no tomorrow!

CHEERS!

Now I'm tagging these awesome bloggers next!

Selene from Restoration Beauty

Lisa from Texas Decor

Marty from A Stroll Thru Life
Brandi from Don't Disturb this Groove
Carol from An Oasis in the Desert
Fabby fromFabby's Living

Garden Days & Summer camps

If you've read my blog for a while, you know I'm one those cursed people with the dreaded

BLACK THUMB (daaan daaaan daaan!!!)

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Yup, the opposite of those people with the GREEN THUMB - I 'Kill' plants. Not on purpose mind you, they just 'don't like me'! ;-)

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So luckily, I married a man who has better thumbs that I have! And so he's been busy planting up and pretty-fying our back patio with pots and plants.

You already saw what we did with our pergola...

But we also added these to the opposite deck...

Don't mind the weeds, just look at the planters ;-)

We chose boxwoods and got the planters from Sam's Club ($12.99 each which I think is a bargain).

I don't know why we only added these recently, I love them here.

He also repotted this Adenium plant - a gift from a friend

We also had this problem area beside the pool house...

Overgrown weeds BLAH!

As you can see, we plan to remove the weeds and plant these 3 flowering shrubs there too, we just have to have the time to do it. ;-)

On another note, this past weekend, we dropped of my oldest son in Chicago for a 3 week camp, the longest time he'll be away from home.

In his dorm room

I think I'm having more' withdrawal' symptoms than he does, since I am missing him like crazy (yes, he's only been gone less than a day since we dropped him off  yesterday afternoon), so my hubs promised me we're going back next weekend to visit him in Chicago for just a few hours (they limit the visits for parents like me since they feel the child will feel more homesick seeing their parents homesick)

So please excuse me for my sporadic posts since other than taking frequent long drives we're also gearing up for my other son's Summer Camp play the weekend after the 4th!!!

I hope you all have a wonderful and fun 
4th of July everyone!

VEL 

 Would love to hear your thoughts! Please share away...

The Chase is over for my Chaise!

Remember when I posted about "Chasing a Chaise" back in April?

Well I mentioned briefly afterwards that I did find my Chaise but it had to be custom-made, so it took a long while to get it and now it's finally here!

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I ordered it from ARHAUS in St. Louis and I thought everything would be fine and dandy until delivery date...

After all the talk and email back and forth with my store rep, I (stupidly enough too) didn't notice the city address was wrong...

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Actually it wasn't all my fault because when I placed the order in the store, I specifically corrected the store rep with the zip code and city name, so I assumed, that it was corrected already, without bothering to double check the final order form (talk about being excited)!

So instead of getting the chaise on May30th, it went back to OHIO and I had to wait another 3 weeks!!!!!
I was sooo upset thinking I could relax on it that day after a long days work, but no, disappointment like this sucks!

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Luckily ARHAUS realized it wasn't at all just my mistake and refunded me all the shipping cost. I decided for a couple of hundred dollars (yes, it cost that much to deliver it since we were considered out-of-state-status), I figured I could wait. And here she is....

My Living room Spot!

Love that it's not too soft and not too hard, just right enough to sink in or lounge in

I love the brass railheads 

I love putting my feet up and watching tv  to movie with the kids

This chaise is a gift, from my hubs. He wanted me to feel comfortable with my pregnancy and when the baby comes and I am absolutely ecstatic about it!

I can just imagine relaxing here with baby sometime in the near future!

I need to still fix up our living room for the summer and with my new chaise,  it just might get me motivated to do it soon!

Have a Great Weekend!

VEL 

 Would love to hear your thoughts! Please share away...