Social Gatherings

My MN Baby Shower

by Sarah Novak on July 27, 2011

On Sunday afternoon my Mom and Sisters threw a Baby Shower so our friends and relatives could celebrate the upcoming arrival of Baby Nia. Given that my Mom was in charge, guests knew that they could expect a memorable time (she has a reputation!) Being a big fan of party themes, I of course, was delighted!

Mom and the girls decided to theme the games around water, so that when my water eventually breaks and it’s ‘go time’, I can distract myself from the pain with amusing memories from this day. Diapers also played a prominent role in the games, as you might imagine.

The first game involved collecting as much ‘pee-colored’ water in your diaper as possible and then running down to the opposite end to wring it into your collection pail. Participants were very careful not to let much escape during the run!

The winning team was the first to fill their collection bucket to the top!

Game two involved picking up marbles with your toes in a pool of water and dropping them into a diaper.

The winning team was the one to get the most marbles out of their pool in the allotted time period.

The third and final relay game was a water balloon toss. This was no ordinary water balloon toss though (that would be too simple!) This relay involved unique tosses like ‘through the legs’ (as pictured above) AND…

also required participants to catch their balloons inside of a pull-up diaper! The winner was the one whose balloon was the last to break. Wish you could have seen some of the amazing strategies/technique that appeared during this game!

The diapers really grew on the attendees and some went so far as to turn them into new fashion statements! :)

Games were followed by a present opening in which Nia was spoiled with amazingly cute things like this crochet hat (which she’ll wear in her newborn photos). The weather cooperated perfectly, so we were able to have the entire party outside in the late afternoon sun.

Our friends and relatives were so incredibly generous! My poor husband is stressing excessively about how we’re going to get everything to DC in the car (he’s currently researching car rooftop carriers). Good thing that’s his department and not mine because it is looking to be a daunting task. And yes, I have promised to finally stop garage saling (although I’m not happy about it).

We ended the day with a yummy BBQ that the boys cooked up (yup, I managed to convince Nick to make an appearance at the shower!) What a blessing it was having so many beloved friends and family celebrate our upcoming life change. It meant the world to me, especially since many came from far distances. I’m all showered out now after my 3 beautiful events and we’re slowly getting all the things we need to welcome Nia in 3 months time. Thank you all for sharing in our upcoming joy and making this process so much fun!

If you want to see the entire photo album, CLICK HERE.

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In Preparation for the State Fair: My Food-On-A-Stick Party

by Sarah Novak on August 8, 2010

As most of you know, I am less than 30 days away from my visit to Minne-SOH-ta. My energy has been ramping up for weeks and I’ve found myself talking non-stop about all the things I’m excited to do there. In an attempt to share my joy with my Manila friends (and stop their eyes from glazing over each time I mentioned it), I decided to throw a Food-On-A-Stick Party to give them a sense of what all the State Fair fun is about!

This was the first time I’d done this theme and I have to tell you, I was pretty damn proud of it. Nick even got really into it, which is rare. We had some initial conflicts over how “involved” it should be. I wanted a dress-up AND food theme. Nick wanted a plain-old party (how boring!) and even went so far as to insinuate that the attendees would see it as college-like. How OFFENSIVE! We ended up compromising on an innovative food theme (did I mention we’ve become SUPERB compromisers over the course of our marriage). Here’s how it worked. Each attendee was required to bring either:

An Appetizer-On-A-Stick
Something-Healthy-On-A-Stick
Something-Random-On-A-Stick
Meat-On-A-Stick
Dessert-On-A-Stick

Check out this picture, for example. Mark is sporting Relish-On-A-Stick, while Kristen chose more basic staples like Kebobs-On-A-Stick, Fish-Balls-On-A-Stick and my personal favorite (the deep friend corn dog). YUM. One can’t help but admire such extreme displays of creativity. Some other fun ‘stick foods’ that showed up were pickle roll-ups (with toothpicks in them), Rice-Krispie-Bars-On-A-Stick and Caprese-On-A-Stick.

Of course we had to do something stick-related with drinks as well, so Nick and I required that all participants drink their wine and beer out of a straw. I was later told that doing this causes you to become drunk faster…. oops! I had no idea! I would like to thank everyone for being good sports. There wasn’t a single complaint! :)

I must give special thanks to our good friends Sam and Lawrence who went the extra mile and lugged their Deep Fryer over! I had forgotten how good corn dogs could be when you add in that extra fatty goodness. Between that and the fish balls, the fryer was going all night long…

Nick was the designated ‘Mixologist’ for the evening. Our guests insisted that his drinks were getting stronger as the night went on, but he didn’t seem to take their concerns into account. He also amused me by finding innovative ways to reuse his sticks. That’s my boy!

In short, it was the perfect way to test the waters for themed parties in Manila. The attendees raved while I sparkled and flashed my biggest smile. I may not have built up the reputation I had in MN yet, but I have no doubt that in a few months my parties will once again become the buzz-generating events that I am known for! Check out SMUGMUG to see all the fun food being showcased…

Popsicles, of course!

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30 Years Young: Starting the Decade Off Right!

by Sarah Novak on July 10, 2010

You are all well aware of the fact that I don’t really believe in doing anything small, especially when it comes to milestone birthdays. All it took was 5 months of hinting on my part before Nick caved and graciously agreed to host a 30th birthday bash for me (against his better judgment). And what fun we had…

But before we go into all the juicy details of the night, let’s first explore why 30 is such a big deal for me. Now, I find birthday conversations a bit frustrating at times because most people expect you to be depressed about getting older. You see, that’s never been a fear for me. Actually, for as long as I remember, I’ve wanted to be an adult. This goes back as far as age 10 when my parents would be hosting dinner parties and I’d sneak down and put my ear to the wall of the adjacent room and revel in the adult conversation. In high school I remember leaving the party in the basement and going up and chatting with the host’s parents (yup, I was a full-fledged dork). Dare I say I even preferred talking to adults over my peers. It was a sad day when mom sat me down and told me I need to spend more time with people my age!

I thought the 20′s would finally get me into the “adult club,” but it always seemed to elude me. I still found that more senior adults disregarded my opinion because I was a 20-something or questioned my ability to coach them because of my lack of life experience. And that proved to be insanely frustrating because what I’ve known for a long time is that is that age is irrelevant – I just happen to be an OLD SOUL…..who now has the digits to back it up! No more writing me off as a mistake-making 20-year-old because 30 is the REAL DEAL. 30 is maturity. 30 is baby-making time (a very grown-up thing to do). And 30 is above-all-else, not the 20′s!

And so I’m sure you can see now why this was such a HUGE DEAL. This was my débutante ball, my adult coming-out party and my day of birth all rolled into one. Happily, the hubby came through big time on this one! He started by surprising me with my gifts the night BEFORE my birthday. This is unheard of in the Novak family, I might even go so far as to say it’s prohibited. And since I believe in opening a gift as soon as it’s given, you can imagine that this has created some tension in our newly-joined family. So imagine my delight when he proposed that I open it early!?! YES PLEASE!

Again, I need to fill you in on some background details. Being that we’re traveling like mad this year, we both agreed that we’d just spend $100 on birthday gifts. Being the rule follower that I am, I stayed perfectly within the budget for his 30th birthday last December. He got some very cool sandals, a fab new briefcase and an electronic helicopter (okay, it even sounds pathetic when I write it – but I swear, it seemed very adequate at the time). Well, imagine my surprise when I unwrap my gift and discover a beautiful new phone (for texting, of course – I do now live in the texting capital of the world) that was well above the limit. I was tickled pink and only feeling mildly guilty until we’re laying in bed later that night and he mysteriously pulls out another package. Yup, you guessed it, that little punk totally broke the rules and got me the most gorgeous new long-range camera lens (a 55-250 mm). I couldn’t decide whether to be pissed or delighted, as this was totally and completely unexpected (and inappropriate). He looked so excited about it though that I just melted and buried my shame at giving him such crap gifts (stupid rule following – never again)!

Fast forward to my actual birthday: I decided to take a nice ‘n easy Manila pampering day since the evening was going to be very people-filled. I managed to fit in a manicure, lunch out and a massage (of course). Nick had rented a place called Nicotina’s for the evening. It’s a favorite hang-out of the Embassy folks that we were introduced to earlier this year. I immediately fell in love with the open-air setting, good food and live band! When Nick suggested it for my birthday, I knew that was the perfect spot. Here’s what it looks like inside:

The venue was AMAZING to work with. We had about 30 RSVP’s, so Nick had pre-ordered 10 pizzas. They allowed us to bring in our own cake as well, which was really nice. Best of all though, Nick arranged the opportunity for me to sing with the band! Talk about dreamy… that’s 1000 times better than regular karaoke!

Traffic was bad, so people trickled in throughout the night. We started with lots of eating, drinking and dancing. Once I was sufficiently relaxed I was ready to rock (I get insanely nervous when I haven’t soloed in awhile). I started with my signature Karoake song, Alone by Heart. Nothing like a classic 80′s ballad to belt out. Once I was feeling good, we moved into some duets (with the band’s lead singer). We took on Hopelessly Devoted To You from Grease and One Sweet Day by Mariah Carey. To close down the set, my friend Jen came up and dueted with me on Alison Krause’s When You Say Nothing At All. What you’ll notice as you watch the progression of these pictures, is that I’m getting more and more into it with my ENTIRE BODY. Hands, eyes closed, head back – I brought it, diva-style! :) I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect night! Thanks to everyone who made it so magical….

PS- Nick was on picture-detail for the night, so check out his work at SMUGMUG.

Bring it on 30, I am SOOOO ready for you!
It’s going to be a fan-frickin’-tastic decade ahead!

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Party Like It's 1999!

by Sarah Novak on June 7, 2010

Turned out to be a BIG party weekend for this girl. Felt like I was back in my early 20′s, not 1 month away from the big 3-0! Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I went out for both Friday AND Saturday (Does that mean I’m getting old or just pitiful?). I guess this was long overdue.

The fun began on Friday night when I ended up back at Redbox singing Karaoke for the second straight Friday in a row! A new tradition perhaps? I could definitely handle that. Too bad I’d have to drug Nick to get him to go there. Oh yeah, did I mention I flew solo both nights? I felt like a single girl again (that fiercely independent one that I used to be). It was all good. I managed to rock the mic again, performing a perfectly selected mix of show tunes and 80′s hits.

The highlight of the night for me was dueting with one of my favorite gal-pals, K. We took the house down with our rendition of “Total Eclipse of the Heart”. Sadly, it was her last weekend in Manila so we won’t be singing together again for quite some time. In the foreign service we never say goodbye for good though, because we always assume that we’ll be thrown together again!

K and her husband B managed to draw quite a crowd for their going-away bash, so we were able to get the mega-party room at Redbox, complete with a pool table! Seriously, this concept needs to come to the US. Karaoke at the VFW is so 90′s. Anyone want to be my angel investor and bring this to MN? :)

And that was just Friday night! Saturday involved a glam girls night out with dinner and a showing of Sex and the City 2 (hereafter referred to as SATC2). Now, I cannot be considered an avid fan of the show, but I love a good excuse to gather with the girls. In fact, I wasn’t so hot on the movie. But oh did we have a good time though! I wore way more make-up than my husband likes, pulled out an old bar-going top and found a little shimmer. In staying true to the movie, we knocked back a healthy number of Cosmos and even had a contest to see who could pull off the highest heels (I was never going to with that one!)

Check out these monster heels! If I would have attempted these, I would have ended up back at Makati Med with a broken ankle. I’ll leave it to the pros, thank you very much!

I can’t tell you how thankful I am that we have such a robust, welcoming expat community here. It has never been easier to make friends (shocking considering that I came from MN)! The groups that have embraced me have modeled the most wonderful example of hospitality, something I know that I will carry with me for the rest of my Expat life, especially when I’m a ‘Veteran Expat’ down the road. Cheers to Global Friendships that know no physical boundaries!

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Still Rocking the Mic after all these Years

by Sarah Novak on May 31, 2010

Those of you who have known me a long time know that Sarah & Singing just plain go together. I think the best way to explain it to you would be that I have my own “Pandora” station that plays in my head (we’ll call it WSLN for simplicity sake). At any given time on WSLN you’re most likely to find one of the following playing: Show tunes, Church Songs, anything by Celine Dion, the latest top 100 hit from the pop charts or a nice acoustic singer/songwriter piece. The key is that the voice is emphasized over the other instruments, because I’m ALL ABOUT THE VOICE.

Where I get into trouble is when I think WSLN is just playing in my head but then all of a sudden I find myself singing out loud with it (the music is just so damn good!) During my Target Corp. years I got a lot of crazy stares for being that “Elevator Singer”. I didn’t mean to, it just kind of happened as I was in my own world… Alas, some things are just a part of you.

For those who have only known “Foreign Service Sarah”, I’ll give you a brief history on my musical background to build my credibility (so at least you’ll think I’m a DECENT elevator singer!) Here goes: Started church choir in 3rd grade, started soloing around 6th grade, took 6 years of voice lessons from 7th-12th grade, sang with a choral group and soloed on a Christian recording that was released when I was in 8th grade, did musical theater and choir all through high school, soloed in church in my early 20′s, currently choir-less and trying to identify the role singing will play in my overseas life.

So why am I even writing about singing today? Well, on Friday night I took my sister out with a group of friends to a place called Redbox, which is basically a Karaoke club. The thing is, it’s nothing like Karaoke in the States. It’s not in a bar or VFW where you’re singing in front of a room of strangers. It’s an intimate, social affair where you and your favorite peeps rent an appropriately-sized room to rock out in. There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 different rooms that you can rent out, varying in size from 2-4 people all the way up to 35 people. The largest rooms have both an area for singing and an adjacent area for pool or poker. That way the people who don’t like to sing are entertained as well. It’s a brilliant concept, I tell you, because even non-singers are more inclined to come.

Okay, so not only did we have a blast, but it also stirred up all this longing to be singing more regularly (translation: in a choir). I love using my voice in that way… I can access this part of me that’s just so free and ALIVE. The simplest way to put it (the thing I think I’ve always known) is that the best part of me, my HIGHEST SELF, shows up when I’m singing. It’s like I get a direct connection to the divine because in those moments when I’m singing, I know that everything’s going to be fine and that I am MAGNIFICENT.

I can’t believe I’ve never been able to articulate that up until now, but it’s true. Who knew it would take a night of karaoke singing to get me in touch with that? So now that I’ve shared, I’m curious, what’s that one activity you do that connects you with your BEST, MOST ALIVE self?

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An Idyllic Afternoon in Bulacan with my Carewell Friends

by Sarah Novak on April 21, 2010

Life doesn’t get much better than spending an afternoon in the country with my new-found Carewell friends. And although the gathering was set up “just because,” there ended up being much to celebrate that day, including a cancer-free scan that had come back for one attendee!

Isn’t their place adorable? I should start by saying that this is not at all what typical houses in the Philippines look like. It reminds me more of a MN cabin than anything I’ve seen here… maybe that’s why I took an instant liking to it. My absolute favorite part of the house was the SECRET BATHROOM, which was hidden behind the closet. Ingenious space saver for the main floor!

And allow me to begin by introducing you to our gracious hosts, Remy and Danny (pictured above). Remy truly was the “hostess with the most-est,” serving us a table full of Filipino delights.

And yes, that’s Kuya Rudy (our driver) partaking in the delicious fare. On a side note, Rudy recently told me (with pride, mind you) that he is the second oldest expat driver (the 64 year old driver beat him out). We couldn’t be more proud Rudy! Enough of that… back to the party!

Filipinos love their food and they are MAJOR food-pushers. Just as you’re about to puke, they’re kindly offering you another plate that they made up “just for you”. I’m starting to set down some serious rules because a girl only needs so many calories a day… good thing I had a chance to work it off as I rocked the karoake mic for a solid hour!

I tell you, these women (and Danny) are pure joy to hang out with each week. They have taught me so many lessons about gratitude, spirituality and living life to the fullest. I mean, look at these pictures – would you guess that they all have cancer (with some even in stage 4)? I think not!?! They are vibrant and alive, eeking out every last moment until their final breath (whenever that may be). Suffice to say, it’s intoxicating to be around them.

What I now understand is that you may not be able to control your circumstances, but you can ALWAYS control how you’re going to BE WITH your circumstances. They may not have the full range of options on the table (no chance of getting that breast back), but they live each day as empowered individuals committed to living. It is amazing to see how much power resides in letting go of the outcome and just focusing on being in the here and now. Powerful lessons for this 29 year old…

To see the rest of this BEA-U-TIFUL gallery of pictures, head on over to SMUGMUG!

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When Blogosphere Friends Become Dinner Guests

by Sarah Novak on March 23, 2010

Have I mentioned how much I love you, my blog-reading public. Last week we reached a new high, with over 550 of you visiting in one day! Thank you for the L-O-V-E… I know you have many things you could be doing with your time and I appreciate it!

Since I started blogging 2 years ago, I’ve been shocked by the number of connections I’ve made online via social media channels. I never would have thought it possible to develop solid relationships with strangers, but I find myself doing it almost daily now.

One of my favorite stories regarding online-friendships happened just last month. I was spending the morning at the local equivalent of the Farmer’s Market when someone shouts out, “Hey, this is a strange question, but are you MinnesotaGal?” I was totally floored but managed to respond that I did write a blog of that name. She then proceeded to tell me that she’d been following my blog for several months and “absolutely loved the way my chaise turned out” and “thought my Cambodia photos were spectacular”. I was completely taken aback by the one-way nature of this conversation and thinking how crazy it was that this woman knew so much about my life.

But then I realized that I had invited her into my life by putting myself out in the Blogosphere…AND wasn’t it cool that she had connected with so many of my stories? Technology is truly creating a whole new way of being in relationship with people, and I must say that I like it. Yes, it can start out a bit one-sided sometimes, but there are always chances to rebalance it.

For example, once I got over my shock, I managed to ask for her contact info. We then proceeded to invite Rebecca over for dinner this past Saturday and I am now thrilled to say that I’ve gained my second blog-reader-turned-friend. Turns out she even lived in MN for awhile when she went to William Mitchell Law School! Love how small the world is… we even have common friends!

So my challenge to you today is to stretch the ways that you’re allowing new relationships to come into your life. It was only because I was pulled out of my “MN friend zone” that I really forced myself to look for new ways to make connections. That’s the thing, you just never know– your new best friend may end up being a faithful blog reader or a Twitter pal!

PS- I don’t think this trend is going to end anytime soon. I just heard from another blog reader named Jessica who’s moving to Manila in April. She and I are already discussing when we’re going to connect. Too cool…

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