About Me

In Brief
A mother of 3. Graphic Designer. Filipino-American. Christian. Married to a wonderful husband who supports the entire family and loves the Lord absolutely. Eager to post anything and everything I love, from stories to photos about my life back in Cali and now in Tally.


More About Me and Why blog?
I was born in North Carolina, during my dad's grad school days. Shortly after that, we moved to the Philippines and lived there for about 5 years. My father, Isagani Sarmiento, worked as a professor at the University of the Philippines, Los Banos (UPLB), which is known as the top college in the country. My two younger sisters were born there. My mother had it good there. Of course, she didn't think too much of it considering her poor background. Her view is that things come and go, and things are just things. My mother, Rhodora, is one of a kind. She is completely opposite of me. Simple, submissive, cooperative, supportive, and loving. Obviously, that sheds me in a negative light.

One of my major downfalls is to look at at everything in my personal life in a depressing view. That's why I chose to make "Rediscovering the great things in life" as a description of the blog. I hope that blogging will inspire me to find the positive things in front of me. I say "rediscover" because I forget about the innumerable things in life I have. Knowing the meaning of my life. Remembering how much my husband loves me and my children. Realizing that my love of my life is a gem given to me undeservedly. There are so many reasons why I should be so happy and I hope writing about it will refresh my memories when I hit my low points.

Okay, back to the timeline. After 5 years, my father wanted a change. My mother packed up our few bags and possibly some balikbayang boxes and immigrated legally to the U.S. We moved to the Bay Area. I am so grateful in many ways my parents moved to America. Although my father has regretted the move solely for the culture clash he went through raising us here. My mother had to go through with speaking to us English so we can pick it up quickly to adapt to this foreign country. I recall my ESL classes. Now I can only understand tagalog a few lines here and there, especially when they mix English in, a.k.a. taglish. Which is why I can now put down my disclaimer. Apologies to all you grammarians, because I will have some indirect English once in a while. Writing is not my strong point, but thanks to my best friend Shifrah (the outraged grammarian) I'm better off than most designers. She has taught me so much and still continues to.

We moved 4 times within a span of 10 years, from basement to a one-story to a two-story, to a beautiful suburb home 1-hour outside of S.F. Bay. My father lived the American dream. Had low-wage jobs with a PhD and endured long days of work, barely having time to spend with us. I never understood their suffering until I became a parent myself. My mother probably didn't know it but was probably depressed from being away from her homeland and learning a new language. She didn't seem happy during those days of transition. We 3 girls were little smart straight A students until jr. high hit us like a brick wall. Something changed when we hit that stage and not sure what happened. The social life became a bigger deal.

While living in Daly City, known to be Little Manilla highly populated with Filipinos. Side note: The joke is that it's always foggy because of all the rice cookers. LOL. It was cool to follow the hip-hop culture. Low, baggy pants. Listen to rap. Dance, dance, and dance. Education wasn't important to most of us. Thankfully, I didn't get caught up in drugs, alcohol, or getting into a gang, etc. Then, we moved smack dab in the middle of my high school years to a suburb called Fairfield, more populated w/ Caucasians and black people. I was not used to being in the minority. That's another story to tell.

Then sweeping through high school I had my struggles with the Lord because I loved so many worldy things. Then, He became a real Savior to me during my senior year. I dropped everything and ran away from my old life to start a completely new path. I had to pursue with those who called on the Lord (2 Tim. 2:22). During my freshman year, I moved into a home filled with other Christian college students at Berkeley. Most of them were UC Berkeley students and I was the sole art major who attended classes at Academy of Art University. It was quite an experience but I would never take those years back. That's also when I played Ultimate for the first time. After graduating, I attended a Bible College in Anaheim, CA. This is where I met my husband. Little did I know, he was clear from day one that he had feelings and waited respectfully for 2 years before letting me know. Well, he had to wait because that was part of the consecration agreement we signed going into the college. No relationships until you completed the 2 years. It sounds hard but made the atmosphere so conducive to focusing on the Lord.

It was also during those 2 years that I played Ultimate every week. We played but without knowing the rules. So reality hit that I didn't know how to play real Ultimate until I found a pick-up game organized by Rocketsauce, Irvine, CA. Their home page said, "Rocket Sauce Ultimate Frisbee Club is a rag-tag collection of fun loving Ultimate Frisbee players. This bunch of out-of-shape, over-fed, and under-paid friends and co-workers have been getting together to "throw a little disk" once a week, since 1998." I showed up expecting that a young mom like me could keep up with the guys. Uhhhh yeah. That's the first time I heard "Pick" or "No breaks. No breaks. No breaks." I'm thinking what are these guys saying? They were very kind to me, except for one intense chick. She'd get mad at me for making so many picks. Understandably. 

And now, after 3 kids, I'm still determined to learn how to play correctly. I may not be the fastest or best but I will learn the rules. I already know the rules for volleyball, baseball, football, golf, badminton, ping pong, foosball. Played all those and love all those sports. Sorry soccer fans, still learning those rules. I wasn't a huge fan until recently. But I'm having a blast playing Ultimate, which is why I dedicated that as a topic for this blog.



Why did we move from California?
It's a question people in Tally ask me every time. "I'm trying to move out there," most people say. Well, first off, cost of living is horrible. We also knew that one day the Lord would just lead us to move for His purpose. After much prayer with our companions, we sensed the Lord opened the door for us to move to Tally. He made it clear by all the job offers my husband received. He did get plenty of great offers in other cities, but we just knew that Tallahassee was it. On top of that, my best friend and her family had a similar leading to move there, totally unaware of our plans. It was just another confirmation. After a year, we are really enjoying our church life, marriage life, and family life here. There have been plenty of difficulties adjusting but we're happy to raise our children here. 

The children
I have 3 kids under the age of 4. It has been quite a ride the last 5 years. Shortly after 5 months of getting married we get a surprise... My daughter came into our lives the following year. While being pregs for the first time, I was terribly sick. That goes the same for the 2nd and the 3rd, except they all gave me different intensity levels of sickness. Anyway, the order goes like this. I was sick and pregs then we moved. Then sick and pregs a year later and moved again. Third time, sick and pregs and had the 3rd and shortly after that packed up for our big move to Tallahassee.

The 3rd was another huge shock. My second was only 6 months and we get another surprise positive pregnancy test. So they are 15 months apart. People ask if they're twins because Noah eats less than Jonah. I'm not sure what to do about that kids diet. He doesn't have an appetite for anything except sweets or snacks. Don't worry, I got an I.U.D after the third was born. I'm not sure if I'm done. Maybe I am, I know for sure my husband is. I don't plan on blogging too much about the children because I'd like to keep that more private. I'm protective. Too many crazy people out there.

An Outlet
As complicated as I am inside, I hope this blog can free my mind of constantly analyzing every single aspect of my life. When I play a game of Ultimate, I can easily stop thinking about it after typing the story out. If I have a personal project I'd like to share the rest of the world, I'll post it and tag it w D-I-J. Stories happen all the time, especially unbelievable, embarrassing ones or cute kid conversations. My Filipino family, 55+ members on one side alone, need I say more? Creatives needs a vent so I'll post what I've worked on, which will be tagged "J's Portfolio." Or, even to vent my momma rants online. Very therapeutic indeed.