30 DAYS OF TABIJE- UNCLE ROLLY'S BIRTHDAY, DAY 30

IT’S DAY 30- WOOHOOO! Sunday, April 26th, 2020 was my Uncle Rolly’s (Rolando) 65th birthday. He’s the 2nd oldest out of the 4 siblings, with my dad as the eldest. We most likely would have gone out to eat at a restaurant for his birthday…but since everyone is still on lockdown, we ordered take-out and had Filipino food for dinner. Before I get started with that, let me catch you up with everyone else that lives in this house…

My cousin, Randy, recently purchased his first home (Congratulations!) and will be staying here for approximately 5 months while he waits for his new place to be built…He also has 2 twin girls ( Mila and Gigi) that will be staying with us as well! Uncle Rolly and Auntie Ching (Rachel) are also his parents, so he’s living back to where he grew up as a kid…Mila and Gigi sleep in his old room while Randy sleeps in the bonus room downstairs. This is a big house, so thankfully we still have our own personal space.

As for myself, I’ve been living in this house since moving down from the Bay Area in October of 2018. Auntie and Uncle have let family and close friends live in this house for as long as they’ve owned it, starting as far back as the late 1980’s. In fact, both sides of their family have moved in to this house from the Philippines, so that they can settle in to the U.S. and begin their own lives. Now, those same people are all successful with their own family, career, and home! So, when I asked to move in with them to get my life back on track, this was nothing new to Auntie and Uncle- I just had to agree to their house rules- which is to continue to work hard in my career and help around the house. They have brought me in as if I was their own son and will forever be thankful for them.

Ok, so now you’re all caught up with the backstory! Now, back to these photos….

Uncle picked up the food (hand-selected of his favorite dishes) from West Covina…That’s where most Filipinos go to get the “goods.” Once we finished setting up the dinner table, I brought my camera down to snap a few photos of the food. As soon as I finished that, he quickly snatched the first pieces of lumpia. Once the rest of my roommates arrived downstairs, the girls sang happy birthday to him! I took a few more photos of the family and started eating right away. This was the first time in a longgg time that I’ve been so full from eating for the entire day!

I also purposely posted this as my last feature because it’s the same message that I have been trying to address to you this whole time: Family is everything to me. And we are all thankful for each other and take care of one another. In this time of unforeseen issues in the world, I am happy and equally lucky to be stress-free in this home.

Thank you to everyone who have been reading about my life over the past 30 days. I appreciate you and it doesn’t go unnoticed. I also hope that you are well out there, wherever you are. Continue to still wash your hands and continue to check and take care of one another! This will all be over with soon.

With love,

Justin Andrew Tabije

30 DAYS OF TABIJE- 2006 & 2014 WORLD CUP, DAY 29

Sorry I’m late- Busy day today! I wanted to include videos today before writing this because going to the World Cup was sooo much fun and I wanted to share those fun moments with all of you. Whether you like soccer or not, It’s still the only sport that can single- handedly unite the world for 1 tournament. Might I also add that USA fans travel deep and follow the team wherever they go? Next World Cup is in Qatar in winter of 2022 but is currently on pause for qualifying because of the Coronavirus. I still would still love to go- it’s worth every penny!

On the first trip, my brothers and I backpacked through Europe for the 2006 World Cup, while also catching a few soccer games in the early stages of the tournament. The cool thing was that I was able to meet my friend Oscar and his two friends while in Germany. I swear, some of the best traveling stories with Oscar were during that trip haha! The other countries that we also went to visit was Zurich, Switzerland and Amsterdam, Netherlands. Can’t wait to go back to Europe and visit more new countries!

The next one I went to was 8 years later for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil! The first weeks of the trip were with my good friends since high school, Nassim and Mariko. Nassim had some family friends in Sao Paulo, so we were able to save money and travel more often because of that. On the last week of my trip, I met up with Jerry after Nassim and Mariko flew back home. Jerry and I really wanted to go to a game together before I had to fly back home, so we had to cough up around $2,200 for 2 tickets….That’s a ridiculous amount of money to spend but was totally worth it and would do it all over again if I had could!

I can go on and on about both trips…but I’ll just end it by saying that both of them are part of the best days of my life. My #30daysoftabije is coming to and end- Are you gonna miss me?

See you tomorrow morning,

30 DAYS OF TABIJE- MARILOU G. TABIJE, DAY 28

Today’s feature goes out to Momma Bear. I’ve been trying to find the words to express my love and gratitude for her…but the words won’t seem to come out. I was only 18 years old when she passed and was in 7th or 8th grade when she was diagnosed with cancer, so there were more silent comforting moments that I remember with her. Even though we didn’t have many long conversations, I was always observing her from afar because I knew she was a hard worker but at the same time I was just a kid and very soft spoken, so I didn’t know how to express myself or ask the questions that I wanted to ask-

She was my number 1 fan during my soccer games and was always supportive with the activities that what I wanted to pursue outside of school. During car rides, we listened to KIIS FM and Coast 103.5 often, so there are certain songs that remind me of her because of that. Whenever I see her in my dreams, she’s always doing something and is never still- She’s usually walking around the house in a fast pace, trying to finish her tasks before leaving the house. Having to raise 3 boys, there was always food and snacks that needed to be prepared or clothes that needed to be washed and set for our sports activities. In some of these dreams of her walking around, I get to enter them and it feels like present day…But she’s talking to me as if it’s 20 years ago because she’s telling me to change my clothes and get ready… and to do this and do that, so we can leave the house on tim. I still have yet to have her visit me where we’re both sitting down, talking face to face- I guess only time will tell if I ever get that opportunity.

However, there’s 1 particular dream I have of her…In this dream, I was the one walking around and she was the one standing…just following me with her eyes, not doing anything. I asked her why she was staring at me, and she just says, “Nothing,” with a big smile on her face. The dream ends and I wake up. When I quickly recap the dream, it’s the same look she’d give me on the days that she was proud of me when I was a kid. That dream was earlier this year and am thankful for it.

Lastly, I wanted to talk to you about this photo that I posted. This was taken at our home in La Verne, around 2000-01- I was a sophomore in high school at the time. I don’t remember where we went on this particular day except that Mom, Dad, and myself left the house to visit someone. Mom was sick and had to stay home most of the time, so Dad decided to bring his camera out that day to take a few photos of us before leaving the house. As you can see, Spicy was a big part of our family, especially for Mom, to spread positivity and love in our home, so it was only right to include her in this post with Momma. For those who don’t know how Terrier dogs are, they are very hyper but very smart, so our family shared a lot of funny moments watching Spicy run around the house like a crazy girl…Thank you for those funny memories with the both of you.

Thank you for taking the time to read this! See you tomorrow.

Much love,

30 DAYS OF TABIJE- PHILIPPINES, SINGAPORE, AND MALAYSIA, PART II

Good morning to you! This is part II from yesterday’s post. During this trip in 2017, I brought my laptop with me and documented it as “21 Days in the Philippines” and posted it on my website. Having a go at it a second time around has allowed me to edit more photos but more importantly, share to those who are seeing all of them for the first time. This trip gave me quality time with family and allowed me to heal mentally from having lost my dad in 2016. It also made me think about the materialistic things that I owned and they became less important to me.

When I got back home, I made some important life decisions that made me become more goal-oriented, which snowballed in to me becoming more successful with work and life in general. These are all common things that I experience after coming home from any vacation- your mind resets, decisions become more clear, and you look forward to going back to work to tackle those difficult obstacles. It is all of these things that make traveling so important- Sometimes you have to leave your regular way of living to realize what the next step will be for you.

As the days continue of me writing you, I hope that my life stories have inspired you to doing something new and challenging for your own life- For this #30daysoftabije project has been both of these for me. Have a great start of the week- See you tomorrow.

**For phone users: Tap on photo and grey dot on bottom right corner for each description!