Hi All- One of my favorite annual traditions is to reflect on the year I’m finishing and set some intentions for the year ahead. This year I happened to stumble across a really great tool...
Philippines
This is a collection of posts from our tour in Manila, Philippines from July 2009 to June 2011.
WAHOOOOOO! Â Presents for Pinoys was a SMASHING SUCCESS! Â I will have lots and lots more photos for you tomorrow morning, but bed is calling my name right now. Â More later… In the meantime...
The night I had been waiting for months to arrive was finally upon us! Â After all the fundraising, all the wrapping and all the transporting, it was finally time to give out the gifts… and...
Hi All- One of my favorite annual traditions is to reflect on the year I’m finishing and set some intentions for the year ahead. This year I happened to stumble across a really great tool...
I know we’re new to this Foreign Service thing, but I have a hard time imagining that we’re going to find household staff in other countries that love and care for us as warmly as Norma...
I jumped out of bed this morning, eager to get online and see what replies had come in response to my first foray at putting myself out there as a cancer coach on some public forums. Â I had spent a...
Hi All- One of my favorite annual traditions is to reflect on the year I’m finishing and set some intentions for the year ahead.  This year I happened to stumble across a really great tool that is...
In accepting this cancer work, I knew that facing loss was part of the deal . . . although part of me was hoping I wouldn’t have to deal with it so soon. Â Sadly, I lost my first cancer client...
I think one of the coolest ‘take aways’ from our time in Manila is an honest-to-goodness appreciation of the concept LESS IS MORE. Â Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve known that...
No, this post is not about the weather! Â :) What this post IS about is this strange pattern I see show up year after year in January! Â Here’s what it looks like. Â January (and the lead up to...
Two weeks ago my dear client (and friend)Â Magne died of cancer. Â She was only in her early 50’s, so her death left many young children and grand-children behind. Â I knew it was important for...
On Sunday our good friends Mark and Kristen invited us to join them for Dim Sum at Golden Seafood near Mall of Asia. Â Nick had been there once before with them when I was home in Minnesota, but this...
Lately Facebook has been abuzz with talk about an exercise class called Nia. Whenever I hear something come up again and again, I just trust it’s a sign that I’m supposed to explore...
If you’ve been reading for awhile, you’ll recall that on Day 5 of being in Manila I started a Basic Photography Class in Fort Santiago. Â Just 5 weeks later I was a Proud Graduate of...
It is decided. Â We’re going ALL-OUT for our final trip in Southeast Asia. Â I can’t even begin to explain the ginormous amount of pressure we had placed on planning this trip… You...
Hi all- please forgive the lack of posts this week. Â I have felt like absolute crap and needed to use all my available energy to drag my butt to a 10 hour Photoshop class on Friday and an 8 hour...
I was at Fort Santiago last Saturday enjoying lunch with my friend Christine while on break from our Advanced Photography course. Â We started wandering around the park after finishing up and...
If you’ve been following me on the blog or Facebook lately, you’ll know that I’ve been very vocal about my top goal for 2011 which is (Drumroll, please….) TO HAVE A BABY...
Last Saturday I had the privilege of having an impromptu photo shoot with these lovely little girls who were playing in Fort Santiago.  The photos were simply stunning and as I was uploading them...
Can I just say that I am thoroughly enjoying my Photoshop Class and all the cool new tricks I can apply to my photos. Â And no, I do not consider that ‘cheating’, it is merely ENHANCING...
There’s nothing like a little end-of-the-week baby scare to get a soon-to-be-parent’s heart beating faster… Earlier in the week on Tuesday morning I had a bit of dark spotting (for...
I feel misled. Â I was told that pregnancy was magical. Â And I believed it – hook, line and sinker. Â I was ready to GLOW from within and feel an INSTANT BOND with my unborn fetus. Â Instead...
Nick here. I very rarely post on ‘our’ blog as it’s Sarah’s pet project and I want to keep it that way. As always, my views are my own and don’t necessarily reflect those of the US...
Hilarious, helpful tutorial on the “Filipino Accent.” No lie, I run into comprehension problems on a daily basis … now I can decode better!
So here’s how we’re divvying up the overwhelming amount of baby-related information to learn in Novak land. Â It’s really quite simple, I take care of anything that has to do with...
If you remember back just 3 short weeks ago, Baby Novak was a 1/4 inch, lentil-sized blob with a little flicker of a heartbeat in the middle. Â Fast forward 3 weeks and we’ve got a 1 inch...
After MANY, MANY weeks of being cooped up in the house, my dear friends Andrea and Brian took pity on me and invited me on an overnight with their family down to San Pablo (Nick was busy working all...
It’s hard to believe, but it’s T-minus 3 months until I leave Manila for good. As one of my parting gifts to you, my loyal blog readers, I’d like to bestow upon you a list of...
Bohol Beach Club This is my second and final installation of ‘Best of the Philippines’ where I sum up all I’ve learned in the last 21 months of living here. Â I know you’ll...
I’m all about trying new alternative therapies (especially after having such amazing results with Network Spinal Analysis a few years back), so when my friend Selina suggested I check out an...
So last week I had the chance to go on my first-ever Medevac for the Foreign Service. Â The term sounds a little scary and that’s because usually it is just that – A Medical...
On Tuesday at 12 noon Nick and I watched as a massive black cloud began to rise from an area called Guadalupe, which is part of Makati City (where we live) and blocks from where many of our Rockwell...
How freakin’ cool is this that I can share our photobook online?!? Â Nick made this one, but I’m on Year 2 (which will be released sometime in the next month). Â Hope you enjoy...
Baby Novak’s Brain! (a top view) As you all know, I’m quite impatient in general, so this whole baby gender thing has been on my mind since we found out we were pregnant 11 weeks ago...
A Joint Labor of Love One of Nick’s many roles in Manila is President of the US Embassy Club (USEC). Â USEC is the charitable arm of US Embassy – Manila that supports 13 local...
Our Tentative Travel Schedule I’ve been getting lots of questions about our schedule for the next year from friends and family. Â Although we do not have our official orders yet (which means...
I used to think of moving as a simple (but annoying) process where you threw everything you had into boxes, stuffed them into a Uhaul, drove across town and then unloaded those same boxes into your...
24 years my senior, I never expected for Marisa and I to become so close. Â I originally met Marisa during my volunteer work at Carewell. Â She was a frequent attendee and ended up...
Over the weekend I had the privilege of touring a Garment Factory that one of my expat friends owns. Â It’s a large-scale production, producing roughly 25,000 pieces per day and employing...
Click the photo to check out the highlights from our most recent photo book!
This is very amusing (and definitely makes me sound more important than I am). Â Browhaus, my favorite eyebrow threading place in the Philippines, turned my blog post into an endorsement of...