Itchy eyes. Endless sneezing. Scratchy throat. Irritated ears. Troubled breathing. And now, you can add “neglected blog” to my growing list of allergy symptoms.
 
I’ve been trying to figure out why this year’s allergy season is hitting me so hard. Why, I can hardly remember having any difficulties last year! What’s going on this year? Has the weather really messed up [...]

It’s Friday! Time to get ready to bid the work week goodbye. (Haha. “Work week.” It almost sounds like I have a normal life, doesn’t it?)
 
In case you’ve had a hectic week (like I have), and need a bit of help unwinding (like I do), here’s what usually works for me:
 
First, I close my eyes, grab a nice refreshing glass [...]

During my trip to the Philippines earlier this year, one of my most cherished moments was the day I spent the afternoon cooking with my beautiful Auntie Lou in her kitchen.

Auntie Lou is an amazing cook. When I showed up at her house, starving and waiting to be picked up by her daughters for lunch, she invited me to [...]

My latest Pioneer Woman photography post is up now, and if you’ve been holding back from shooting at night, maybe I can encourage you to give it a try.
I probably wouldn’t have tried it myself if not for my love of taking sunset photos. I eventually noticed that, in the Philippines, night invariably came almost right after sunset. It took [...]

These boys were in the water every single day that I was at the resort for my diving certification.

Sigh. To be young again.
And on summer vacation.

Yeah, I’d sit and think about that for a while, too.

Because I enjoy torturing myself, this is the second installment of my unofficial “they’re so cute they make me incredibly homesick, and no amount of cake can fix it right now” series.

Meet Mattia, or Mattie for short. She’s Brian’s younger sister, but don’t tell her that. She’s convinced she’s older, wiser, stronger, and tougher. And that she has super powers [...]

This photo was taken during our first night at Palm Beach Resort in Batangas, Philippines. I need to give a shout-out to my cousin Gerard, who dug his feet into the sand, squared up, and let me use his shoulder as a makeshift tripod.
His tripod duties came with some unusual hazards, like, say, inadvertently squeezing a toothpaste sachet a wee [...]

I have problem. A very, very serious problem. See this little guy here?

His name is Brian. He’s six years old. His dad and I are first cousins, and his mom is like a long-lost sister to me.
So here’s my problem: Brian is just too far away from me. More than 8,500 miles, to be exact. There’s just no way to [...]

I took probably over a thousand photos during my recent trip to the Philippines, and you bet many of them were shots of the sunset, the beach, my family, and tons of food. But there are a handful of photos taken while riding with my cousin to their office deep in the city that make me stop in my tracks [...]