Big Brother

Death of a family member or other people I know reminds me just how short our life is and that it’s something that we don’t really own and could be taken from us anytime.

My brother, 44 years old, passed away last September 19^th. We did not know of any illness, if he had any, prior to his passing. Everything happened so quickly that we did not even have time to say goodbye to him.

12 years older than me, he's supposed to be the youngest until I came. He’s my big brother who was also my Math tutor when I was in grade school. He would help me with my assignments especially with worded problem solving, which I so hate. I would wait for him to come home from his work in Q.C. just because I don’t have interest in Math. When he was still with his work then, he’d buy me stuff like shirt, cassette tapes, my exchange gift for school, etc. He’s that kind of big brother.

He’s also the clown of the family, well, aside from me. He’s known as the joker who did not take things seriously. Despite this, he’s also the only one who wouldn’t answer back to our “elders” – our lola, mom, and dad. There were times they’d lecture him about something especially before he got married (or even when he was already married) and we wouldn’t hear anything from him. To my mom, he’s the quietest, most obedient of her sons and daughters.

My only regret is that I may not have been a perfect sister for her. I also became busy with my life during the time he probably needed help. I am hoping he’d forgive me for that.

One thing I never had the chance to tell him is that I love him. We’re that kind of family; we’re not the telling kind. We’re more practical than anything.

Thank you, Kuya, for everything you have done for me. I hope you're now in a better place with no problems and worries.

Award Winning

Hubby won this award the other day. According to the letter that came with the trophy, it’s given to those who “go above and beyond their given responsibilities within the organization. Whether it is managing client relationships and growth, creating operational excellence, spearheading major cost reductions, or attracting top talent, these individuals have helped to drive significant growth within the company.”

As always, I’m a proud wife. He gets recognized at work and still finds time for us. I feel blessed to have a hubby like him. 

School Activities

One of the parents' roles is to support their child in his school or extra-curricular activities. Here’s what we’ve been busy with related to that…

Buwan ng Wika

Performing "Paruparong Bukid"

First Quarter Convocation

09.08.12

Our little boy is currently at 6th place, which is an improvement from last year. It's definitely an achievement for him being the youngest in his class. He's also not very bookish and studious so we're just very glad he’s part of the honor roll. We provide him guidance in terms of school work and responsibilities but we don’t necessarily pressure him to be an honor student. So this is definitely a good sign. :)

Congratulations, little boy. Mom and Dad are so proud of you. We love you.

18 Years and Counting

Tomorrow, September 6^th, marks a great milestone in our love story… hubby and I are celebrating our 18th year together (counting pre-wedding)!!! Can’t believe we’ve been together that long.

Hubby and I have known each other since high school and it’s no secret that we became boyfriend-girlfriend then. We weren’t exactly serious that time and you really can’t expect us to be serious. Hello! We were teenagers (LOL). When we were in high school, we did not even date as in the “just the two of us” type of date. We only went out as a group, together with our friends or classmates. And we eventually became best friends.

The journey of 18 years wasn’t just a walk in the park. We had to deal with several petty quarrels (which I thought weren’t petty before), parental concerns, and other real-life problems. As days, months, and years pass by, the hurdles we face became more and more real and “grown-up”.

As a young couple, going to different universities was one of our major concerns back then. Prior to taking college entrance exams, we already agreed that we will study in the same school, which did not happen. We only took admission tests for two universities actually. Looking back, I find it funny that we even had a crying session just because of it, thinking that we’d eventually grow apart not being together everyday like we used to. As it turned out, all the drama was futile. We still found a lot of time to be together when we were in college and even after college.

Now that we’re married, it’s still not that easy. Marriage is not at all just a bed of roses. But what’s good is that we already know each other so well and we talk, listen and compromise. We’ve had arguments but we haven’t reached a point where we yell or hurt each other physically. OK, I yell sometimes but not all the time. ;) Of course he is not perfect, he has shortcomings and the same goes for me, I have limitations as well. But we’ve accepted that and we try to work on it somehow in our own little ways. We know that we love each other and that’s all that matters.

After all these years, I can say that I am truly blessed to have found my soul mate early in life when other people are almost ready to give up on love. I am thankful for finding a better half who does his best in providing for the family, spending quality time with me and the son despite his work schedule, and being a hands-on dad who takes part in molding the little boy… and the baby girl for sure.

I’m looking forward to more years with hubby and I’m hoping that we’d stay truly in love forever… even after the kids have grown and have their own families already… even after we become old and wrinkly… even after forever.

Is It a Boy or a Girl?

Ever since I found out I was pregnant, I've been waiting for the day to find out whether our baby is a boy or a girl. Finally my OB already scheduled me for the pelvic ultrasound with congenital anomaly scan where we can also find out the baby’s gender.

July 30, Monday - Together with hubby and Evan, I went to HP Diagnostics Clinic in Power Plant, Rockwell for the ultrasound and another lab test called OGTT which was for pregnancy diabetes detection. We came in full force as Evan has no school that day due to the heavy “monsoon rains”. My little boy was as excited as we were to find out what his baby sib is.

But first on the agenda was the OGTT. It’s a grueling process that involved 8 hours of fasting prior to the scheduled test, drinking a disgusting glucose juice, and 3 blood extractions set every hour. My OB has a knack for giving peculiar instructions to ensure a healthy pregnancy. The test started at around quarter past 10AM and it ended at quarter past 1PM. This meant that I had to endure 11 hours without food, water or any liquid intake aside from the disgusting glucose juice (stress on disgusting). Fortunately, I have a very supportive family who kept me company until I completed the test. Actually while waiting, I reviewed Evan for their first quarterly exams because I was also not allowed to walk around while waiting for blood extraction. What a productive way to spend the waiting time so it just went by fast. J

Glucose juice for the OGTT

While having our late lunch, everyone’s excitedly talking about our predictions on whether baby is a girl or a boy. Hubby was trying to be impartial, saying as long as the baby’s healthy, the gender doesn’t matter. But deep inside I know he wanted a baby boy. Evan’s opinion that day was leaning towards having a baby brother and the reason for that was so that he can borrow his brother’s new toys. What a clever young boy! I, on the other hand, was joking that I feel pretty and sexy during this pregnancy so my intuition’s telling me it’s a girl. Deep inside I have apprehensions in raising a girl as I was having doubts if I’d be a good role model and a good mother to her. 

We immediately went back to the clinic after lunch for the congenital anomaly scan. It is a more detailed type of ultrasound where the sonographer measures and examines the organs and other parts of the baby’s body. In my case, the scan took about 30-45 minutes. The sonographer, who also happens to be an OB Gyne, counted all the fingers and toes of the baby, measured the arms and legs, checked the baby’s cleft pallet, heart, kidney, spine, and many others. In short, the doctor checked if everything about the baby’s good and if he/she doesn’t have complication of sorts.

Prior to the measurement and examination of the baby, the doctor’s first question was if I want to know baby’s gender. Is that even a question? LOL. I’m not so fond of surprises so of course I’d like to know. As I’ve observed, baby’s a gymnast and a kick boxer rolled into one and it showed in the ultrasound so looking for the genitalia wasn’t so hard. Baby’s feet were raised while sort of throwing punches. The doctor immediately saw baby’s vajayjay! Without any hesitation, she announced it’s a GIRL! I was sincerely happy I almost cried. I guess I just have to set aside my doubts and BE the best mom I can be for her.

The OB-sonographer then proceeded with the more serious stuff, examining the organs and body parts as well as taking measurements. While exploring my womb, she was also describing to me what she’s doing and what her findings were. My smile grew bigger and bigger each time she confirmed that a certain part is normal and good. Overall, baby’s health is in good condition and she’s developing well.

After the health check, it was time for my boys to see our little princess. The OB-sono showed them that we’re having a girl and she echoed to them that the baby's in the pink. It was a precious moment for me seeing them smile while looking at our very animated baby girl. The boys were amused and overjoyed as I was! Priceless! In their eyes I saw that I won’t be alone in raising this little princess. She’ll have the best dad and big brother who’ll take care of her and keep her safe. I just love my family to pieces!

Complicated Pregnancy

As they say, no two pregnancies are exactly alike and this is so true based on my experience. My first pregnancy was NOT as complicated as this second one. Although I felt uglier the first time, it was somehow not as fussy. As I remember, I did not have to go on bed rest until I was on my ninth month when I had spotting – perhaps a week before I gave birth. As for my current, I had to be on bed rest once for a month and another instance for 3 days.

The first time happened right after our Virgin Beach trip, which was last May 14 to be precise. What happened was, I had difficulty peeing. I can feel that my urinary bladder was full but it won’t empty and it’s too painful to pee. At first my OB thought it was UTI. But as it turned out, it was more complicated than that.

My OB advised me to have Kidney-Urinary Bladder Ultrasound (KUB) as well as pelvic ultrasound to check the baby. Fortunately, the baby’s well and was completely unharmed.

She also ordered me to see another doctor - Urologist. So I looked for one in Makati Med. The first Urologist I came to seek advice from hasn’t really worked with a pregnant patient before and so during consultation, he had to confer with his book to find meds that would be ok for me. Unable to find one, he suggested hot and cold compress and if it won’t work, he recommended a catheter to relieve the pain and rehabilitate the bladder. My OB did not immediately agree with the catheter. She referred me to an OB Gyne-Urologist who has handled similar cases. This was perhaps on my second week of bed rest already. Imagine the pain I had to go through!

So I went to see the OB-Uro and she explained that what I had was “voiding dysfunction” meaning the baby’s weight was making it difficult for my bladder to work properly. On my first consultation with her, she already insisted on the catheter saying that there were no meds necessary in my case aside from the medicine that my OB already prescribed. The med wasn’t for the pain but was for baby to sort of hang in there. There was nothing else I can do but to raise the white flag and surrender... so she put the catheter in. It really hurt that I fainted for a few minutes and I can’t imagine my reaction when she said I had to wear it for 2 weeks. Actually, after the second week I’d have to undergo lab tests before she could decide if it needs to be extended for another week or so. But you know what hurt more than this? The doctor’s fee! She’s too expensive and all she said was I can actually work even I’m wearing cath. Unbelievable!

On that day of consultation, we had an annoying but funny experience with MAPA (Makati Parking Authority). As our appointment lasted until past 5PM, which was over the allowed time limit in Salcedo Street, our car was almost towed. Aside from the fact that wearing a catheter was really excruciating, I was also wearing it under a short dress, so I did not go with hubby to where the car was parked. It was weird that I had to wait for him for more than 10 minutes so I went to follow and was surprised to see that MAPA was already towing our car. It was infuriating because they weren’t listening to hubby while I was uncomfortably walking along the street. The manong MAPAs were looking at me as I approached them and I almost laughed when one of the manongs yelled to the driver of the tow truck that I was wearing dextrose while looking at the catheter peeping under my dress! LOL

Anyhow, the two-week catheter experience was one of the most harsh, painful experiences I have had in my life. Haha… Maybe second to giving birth. There was even a time when the cath leaked and I had to be rushed to the emergency room of MMC. It was too painful that I almost pulled it out not knowing there’s like a balloon inside to keep the cath from sliding down. So all throughout the two weeks, my prayers include recovery from all of this.

My most awaited day came, I was too anxious as I wanted to remove the cath so bad. Hubby accompanied me to the Urology department of MMC. Although the waiting area was comfortable, I wasn’t feeling too comfy at all. Finally the nurse called me for the bladder scan and uroflow (if I remember it correctly). After the tests, I still had to wait for the OB-Uro for perhaps an hour more to consult with her again so she can interpret the tests and give the verdict. Although it was just short, the wait wasn’t that easy. I was silently saying my prayers.

When it was finally my time to speak with the doctor, I was glad to hear her say that although my bladder was still not fully emptying and the rate was still a bit above normal, she recommended stopping with the cath already. It was the best thing I heard that day! Once again, I proved that day that prayers really work.

The recovery from the cath took perhaps a couple of weeks more but it was all good. I’m just relieved the complication has not recurred as I don’t want to go back to that condition again EVER.

The whole month I was on bed rest, I was also working from home. It was actually better for me as I still felt useful despite the complication. Turning the pain into something positive, I was able to spend time with my little boy before school started. On top of it, the baby was okay even at the onset. It also helped me appreciate how much hubby care for me. He was always there especially during very difficult and awkward situations. Although he was also busy at work, he took the time to be there for me. It’s a simple proof that he’s keeping his vow that he’ll never leave in sickness and in health.

Although hardships keep our family closer together, I am continuously praying and looking forward to a healthier, fuss-free or at least less-fuss pregnancy from here on out.

 

Our Story of Friendship: Summer 2012 Edition

Give or take 18 years ago, I became friends with a bunch of crazy but wholesome teenagers (and I just have to stress that).  Back then, when life was still simple, our concept of amusement was just pretty shallow and our problems were only about finishing a project, memorizing the table of elements, understanding algebraic equations, etc. Our world consisted of home works, projects, fire exit (also known as Luneta), patio, Smokey’s, Glorietta, Megamall… and of course our crushes and young loves.

To quote Meg: “We used to tint our lips with red crepe paper, stashed baby powder inside our hankies and dabbed our oily faces with it, shared Brownies lunch on birthdays, helped each other finish assignments, waited for each other at the Patio, hung out at Smokey's... and the list goes on.”

We’d share chips or halohalo for lunch, we’d talk on the phone like we were not together in school, we’d share our life stories like were sisters. Awwww…. Good times!

As years go by, others went missing in some get-togethers but would resurface and rejoin in other occasions while others just probably chose to disengage from the pack. Nevertheless, most of us chose to stick together through the years and our number has grown and continues to grow each year.

...And here we are now with husbands, boyfriend, and kids…

at Virgin Beach Resort, May 2012 

Now we talk about more serious matters like other people’s lives (haha) and other serious mommy/kids/hubby issues and that very complicated thing called life.

 at Virgin Beach Resort, May 2012 

I’m glad I have a support system that goes back to my rebellious, drama queen years. We have a long history together and I’m thankful we still have each other. Here’s to hoping for more great times ahead. May we be reunited once again especially with those who have gone missing.

Blessed to be Having a Baby

Prelude:

On March 10^th, I went to see my OB Gyne to consult her about a concern which apparently had something to do with my cervix and ability to conceive. She prescribed a medicine which I had to take for a week so that my cervix would heal. She explained that if it remains untreated, I would have difficulty conceiving again. But we were already planning on having another baby so of course I wanted to get better. And so I obliged and took the medicine.

The Symptoms and other things:

Holy Week 2012 – Since it was a long weekend, I’ve been planning for a beach trip for the family. I was asked to go on kind-of-a forced vacation leave on Holy Wednesday while Maundy Thursday and Good Friday were both regular holidays. The following Monday, being Araw ng Kagitingan, was also a regular holiday. HOWEVER, hubby’s vacation leave request wasn’t approved and so we can’t go out-of-town. Ugh!

It was somehow a blessing because when Maundy Thursday came, I was sick as a dog. I was feeling queasy and nauseous for a couple of days. Thank God I felt a bit better on Saturday and so we grabbed that chance to go on a road trip to Tagaytay. It was a quick trip, surreal but uber fun. We mostly just hung out at the park and then had dinner at Leslie’s for Roden’s favorite bulalo. Evan enjoyed the cold night and kept on asking us to buy a house there… haha

 

Now, going back to my pregnancy story…

The Test:

Combined with my attacks of queasiness and missing my period, I finally succumbed to my beckoning intuition that I might be pregnant. Armed with a pregnancy test kit, I went for it and voila… it came out positive!

We did not expect it to be so soon but we’re definitely very, very happy about it. Given our situation, I felt blessed to be having a baby again.

The Ultrasound Confirmation:

I immediately contacted my O.B. Gyne to schedule an appointment with her for the confirmation of the test. She advised me to have a trans-v ultrasound first before seeing her… and so I did...

April 11^th, a Wednesday, is Inang’s birthday and we’d be having dinner at home. It was a good thing that I was already on VL that day so I had time to get the ultrasound done in the morning. Since hubby’s already asleep and he has work that night, I did not wake him up anymore to accompany me. I went ahead by myself to the OB Gyne Department of Makati Medical Center. The lounge was pretty comfortable despite that I had to wait in line. I actually had to wait until around lunch time for my turn.

I regretted leaving hubby only because they allow spouses to go with their preggy wives in the ultrasound room. It would have been a precious moment for him as well as I was on cloud nine looking at the tiny “beating seed” for the first time. I felt immense happiness to see life forming inside my womb. It was like witnessing a miracle.

The Good News:

I was all smiles going home and it was a good thing that Roden woke up early that day. I gleefully narrated what happened in my morning - the wait at MMC, the ultrasound confirmation and basically everything I saw, heard and felt. Probably infected by my energy and of course equal happiness about the baby, he’s so thrilled and excited as well. 

As happy as we were about the confirmation, we decided against telling Evan immediately since he wasn’t so keen on having a sibling just yet. About a week after this, that’s when we talked to Evan to tell him he’s going to be a big brother soon. To our surprise, he wasn’t upset after all. He initially can’t believe it but he became so excited while I tell him about the ultrasound and showed him baby’s first picture. He’s actually very ecstatic too.

The happiness is just soooo overwhelming. I’m still intoxicated by it now.

Dinner at KaLui

KaLui is one of the most famous restaurants if not the most famous in Palawan. Located in Rizal Avenue, it is very much accessible to hotels in the city. It is in a charming old house inspired by traditional and native Filipino homes made of bamboo, nipa and banig. Designed this way, it is very welcoming, warm and it will make you easily feel at home. Traditionally Filipino, they ask all their guests to leave their footwear by the entrance.

KaLui specializes in Filipino food with variety of dishes from vegetables to different kinds of meat and seafood. Since we were first timers in KaLui, we tried the KaLui Special of the Day set. It is a set meal good for two to three persons, which includes fish steak, prawns, pinakbet (as the veggies for the day), another seafood dish, and dessert. The meal was oh so scrumptious and undeniably the best meal we had in Palawan. Though their pricing may be a bit higher than the other neighboring restaurants, it still offers great value for money.

Not only does it serve delectable banquet of food, you may also feast your eyes on the many artwork! There's an area in the restaurant where photos, paintings and sculptures are proudly on exhibit.

With the combined mouth-watering goodness of food, warm and cozy ambiance, and value for money, it offers the best dining experience in Palawan. As it is well-known, reservation is necessary.

I'd gladly dine there again if given a chance to return to Puerto Princesa.

The Puerto Princesa Underground River

The PPUR is definitely a destination one should not miss when in Palawan. Being one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature, it is one of Puerto Princesa’s sources of pride and of course the Philippines as a whole. It is one of the many tourist destinations in the Philippines that revived our country’s tourism.

Our PPUR tour started early given that the Underground River is approximately 2 hours (or more) away from the city. We had a stop-over at a halfway rest area then headed to Sabang Beach for lunch. Sabang is another white beach that Palawan boasts of.

After eating, we made our way to the Underground River park and since there are a lot of tourists, we had to wait in line. Near the river lies a beach front where we stayed to while away the time.

The tour inside the Underground River took about 40 minutes.  The boatman, like an expert, talked about the crystals, stalactites and stalagmites found in the cave. He surely made the 40-minute tour informative but entertaining and never boring.

The pictures above do not do PPUR any justice especially the ones taken inside the Underground River. It is magnificent, it feels like actually seeing God through nature’s wonder.

 

DIY Puerto Princesa City Tour

For our Puerto Princesa city tour, we opted to make it a DIY adventure instead of getting an arranged tour from the hotel. The city is pretty much easy to navigate since the tourist spots are just about near each other.

Butterfly Garden

Our first stop was the Palawan Butterfly Garden, which is about 20- 30 minutes away from the hotel. It is inside what seems to be a regular, quaint, little house. Aside from butterflies, it also conserves other bugs and insects.

Crocodile Farm and Nature Park

More popular as a tourist destination, it is also a research center for conservation of Palawan’s endangered animals, which includes but not limited to crocodiles. Its nature farm also gives shelter to species of mammals, reptiles and birds.

Mitra’s Ranch/ Rancho Sta. Monica

Mitra’s Ranch, situated at Sta. Monica heights, is owned by the family of the late Senator Ramon Mitra. Located on a hill, it provides a magnificent panoramic view of Honda Bay and the Sulu Sea. Aside from the picnic ground surrounded by greeneries, they also have a zip line as an added attraction.

Baker’s Hill

Our last stop – the Baker’s Hill, is a bakery and a small theme park at the same time. It was originally known for their hopia, pianono, cashew nuts and other pastries prior to expanding to a theme park. We actually bought boxes of the different varieties of hopia as pasalubong for our family.

Put on display are life-size statues of cartoons and other famous icons like the Looney Tunes characters, Marilyn Monroe and Snow White and the 7 Dwarves. They also present a few selections of animals and a botanical garden with a great landscape.

The tour made us appreciate and love Puerto Princesa more. It is a fascinating city that combines urban development and countryside charm.

Our Palawan Trip: Honda Bay Tour

In keeping with our goal of going on at least one trip a year, we embarked on a trip to Puerto Princesa, Palawan, home of the Underground River and pristine Honda Bay beaches! Our 3 days and 4 nights were oh so busy and hectic yet fun and relaxing.

As soon as we went down the plane in Puerto Princesa, we already felt, saw and smelled its difference from Manila. The air there is fresh and clean unlike our polluted Manila air. There are trees and the streets aren’t too crowded. Reasons why we think it's a good place to build a vacation home (wishful thinking).

Day 1 – Honda Bay Tour

Honda Bay is well-known for its pristine white beaches and copious aquatic life and ecosystem. It is a group of islands popular for swimming, snorkeling, and diving.

For the Honda Bay tour, our day began bright and early. We left the resort at 7AM, then we had a stop-over at a place where they rent-out snorkeling goggles, water-proof camera cases and sell hats, sarong, etc.  After this, we proceeded to Sta. Lourdes Wharf, which was probably about 30 minutes away from the city. There’s a Tourist Center in the wharf where all visitors are required to register. It was peak season when we were there so we had to wait for a while as there were too many people who had to be enlisted. Good thing, ours was a guided tour that we got from the hotel so we only waited for the tour guide to finish the registration process on our behalf while we took photos around the wharf.

From there, our first destination was Starfish Island, where we spent almost all morning until maybe after lunch. Aside from its breath taking sandbar, it’s also a great place to snorkel and literally swim with the fishes. There was no need to swim far from the beach as the fishes come and play with people. It was an awesome experience that my little boy enjoyed so much.

Next stop was Pambato Reef, which showcases the abundant marine life and coral reef in Honda Bay. It’s pretty much a snorkeling area in the middle of the sea. There are only platforms connected by bamboo bridges.

I’m really not a good swimmer so I almost chickened out knowing that the reef is too deep (perhaps 15-20 feet deep if I recall it correctly). Then again, we might not return there anymore so might as well just try it. Anyway they also require everyone to wear vests and they’re pretty strict on implementing it. Since the reef looks intimidating, Evan chose to just watch from the platform. It was already too late when he decided to go for it.

Last stop was Luli Island, also known as Lulubog-Lilitaw Island. It is a small island that is only visible during low tide. We spent maybe an hour there, just swimming and basking in the sun. Evan was already enjoying too much by this time that he didn’t want to leave.

Since we can’t just stay there, we left with everyone else at around 4PM.

By the time we reached the hotel, we were already too tired. But we didn’t want to waste one bit so after an hour of rest, we heard mass at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral and had dinner at Kinabuch’s.

Of Resolutions, Diet and Exercise

For this year, I only kept 3 major resolutions that I thought I could focus on attaining. My favorite of the three is LOSING WEIGHT and I began working on it as soon as the year started.

Since our family loves to eat, cutting down on food was a real challenge, not to mention working out and exercising which was twice as hard. From a sedentary lifestyle for years and years, it took a lot of determination to get my butt off the couch and into the gym and work out. Diet-wise, I started out slowly but surely, cutting down on carbs and my caloric intake. But I’d slip during weekends and binge eat especially when we went out.

Eventually I discovered Nutrimeal and the so-called low-glycemic diet through an ex-office mate. It wasn’t cheap so I felt I had to strictly oblige on it. It was effective that way *wink*. I did follow this diet religiously for probably about a month and I never stopped working out EVERY.SINGLE.DAY! I did taebo, dance, aero, and the usual cardio exercises and light weight lifting. Oh! And this was on top of my endless mommy and wifey duties. It was difficult but I wasn’t only doing it for myself, I was also doing it for my boys. I was trying to be healthy to avoid illnesses same as before.

And so after sooo much effort and even before I became depressed for too much dieting I was slowly LOSING WEIGHT! I actually lost a total of 14 pounds. I would have wanted to lose 5 more pounds but a blessing came which prevented me to continue with all the dieting and working out… But, I’ll share more about that in one of my next posts.

Though I didn't get the chance to close the year with a smaller waist line, it still felt great knowing that I did it and that I was able to see results after a great deal of hard work and determination. It was all worth it!