Summer... has been oppressive and I'm sooo ready for fall and colder weather... and pumpkin spice lattes! We really haven't been up to much lately, just staying at home... in the air, lol. And I've been busy with work and exhausted in the evenings, so I haven't been updating my blog as regularly. But, if you want more up to the minute updates about what I'm up to you can find me at the following places:

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I'm guest blogging at A Day in my NYC today! Please check out Patty's blog, she is one of my long time blog readers & one of my good blogging friends! My guest post is about long distance relationships, something I am very familiar with! :-)

Here is the post I wrote:

Hello! I'm Sarah Lynn from the blog 'Tunay Na Mahal' (which translates to "true love" in Tagalog, the Philippines national language). Patty asked me to do a guest post and I wanted to speak from something I have a lot of experience with. Long distance relationships!

If anyone is the queen of long distance relationships... I am probably it. My husband and I dated for 5 years long distance before getting married in December 2009. We even spent the first year of our marriage apart due to immigration.

And when I say long distance... I mean it! My husband is from the Philippines. A whole day ahead from Philadelphia. 12 hours apart- (13 hours during daylight saving time). Somehow during our 6 years apart, we made it work. And now we are finally together in the same time zone! Long distance relationships are not easy but they can work if you put enough time and commitment into them. My husband and I are proof of that. We have been together seven years now and married almost two.

How did we do it? LOT'S of communication and trust. Unfortunately it's pretty expensive to call the Philippines ($1.99 a minute!) My husband and I only talked on the phone for special occasions (birthday's, anniversaries, etc). I kept a phone card handy for those times because the rates were cheaper.

We made time to have a "date" every weekend. This took some commitment from both of us. We would meet online every weekend on Yahoo messenger. We would meet on my lunch break at work; while in the Philippines it was 12am and my husband's day was ending.

We texted. A lot. We emailed each other several times a week. We wrote letters and sent packages for special occasions. My husband didn't have a webcam because he had dial up internet, but I'm sure if we had both had a fast internet connection that would have been another way for us to connect. We were able to chat sometimes through headsets on Yahoo messenger, if the connection behaved.

I traveled to the Philippines almost yearly. And yes; it was very expensive. I worked all year long to save up enough money. I would get 0% APR credit cards and buy my plane ticket and then work hard the rest of the year to pay off that $1,200.

Sometimes it sucked and we really missed each other. Going out with friends and seeing them with their significant others, while yours was hundreds and hundreds of miles away was not easy. Sometimes we just wanted to be a normal couple, to be together in the same place; but it wasn't the right time yet. We persevered. Patience is huge thing in long distance relationships.

When we did get to spend time with each other in person it was exhilarating. They say to live every day of your life like it's your last, and the times we were together, we definitely did that. We would have to cram so much into a small amount of time.

One book that really helped us both during our time apart was The Long-Distance Relationship Survival Guide, by Chris Bell & Kate Brauer-Bell. We each had a copy.

Long distance relationships require 100% commitment & trust from each partner. They require loads of communication. Sometimes, years of patience and perseverance. But they do work. And if anything sometimes they are even richer when you finally are together, because you've put so much work & communication into your relationship.

*~Sarah Lynn~*

Tunay Na Mahal

http://www.tunaynamahal.com

1. I was struck by lighting June 13th, 1997. (Yes... Friday the 13th!) We had a really bad thunderstorm in Philadelphia. We lived in a 3 story row home that wasn't grounded. When the lightning struck the house it came through all the power lines in our house blowing out electronics, starting a fire in an outlet in my parents room. I was sleeping in a bunk bed and woke up to what I thought was the light bulb exploding. I slept with a metal locket on, I sat up trying to get out of bed and felt a jolt go through me. The locket acted as a conduct-er. My left arm had nerve damage and I needed physical therapy for a little while. The worst thing was going to the emergency room and having everyone ask, "Did you hair stand on end?!" To this day if I visit a new doctor and they check my reflexes they always say, "Hmmm, do you know your left side is weaker than your right?" And then I have to tell the story!

Image Credit

2. I'm left handed.

3. I can't write in cursive. It never stuck with me as a kid. I can sign my name and that's about it. Everyone always comments on my signature!


4. When I was 13, I won a grand prize trip for 4 to Los Angeles California and I got to co-host a kid's radio show called The Fox Kid's Countdown. I was even in their Fox Kid's magazine, lol.


5. We got to tour Warner Brother Studio's while in L.A.


6. My brother and I only wanted to go, because we were obsessed with the Animaniacs and thought they really lived in the water tower there, lol! We even dressed up as them one Halloween!



7. I will not set foot inside a McDonald's. I'm anti McDonald's for some reason. Maybe I went there too much as a kid, I don't really know.


8.That doesn't stop me from going to another fast food place... Wendy's! I ♥ Wendy's!


9. I've been to the Philippines, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo. The last 3 were just the airports I've been too... but when you have to use different currency in the airport to buy items like this gatorade, I think it counts!


10. I met my husband online on a Lindsay Lohan fan forum in 2004. :-p We were just friends at first. We had a long distance relationship for 5 years, and we were married in the Philippines, December 19th, 2009.

11. As a kid I was terrified of the one that yells in Dr. Suess', One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. I would skip the page, or hide the book.


12. I have 3 tattoos. My name on my left ankle, pink stars on my right ankle and a rat tat on my right wrist.


13. I have 7 piercings in my ears, but I only wear earrings in my 2 cartilage piercings now.

14. I have owned 41 pet rats since October 2007. (Not all at the same time of course!) Pet rats have a lifespan of 1-3 years. (Updated: 11/14/13)

15. I currently have nine pet rats. 4 boys, 5 girls! (Updated: 11/14/13)

16. My rat Sugar was in the Philadelphia Metro Newspaper back in June 2009. I had come into work late that day, and all my coworkers kept coming up to me all day saying I was famous, lol.


17. I wanted to BE Laura Ingalls when I was a kid, I was obsessed.


18. The boys next door to us when I was a kid in the 80's, thought I was Punky Brewster, lol.


19. When I was a kid, I used to keep pieces of gold Crayola crayons in this Easter egg locket, I guess I thought it was treasure!


20. I taught myself how to play acoustic guitar in my teens, I used to even write and compose songs. I haven't played since 2004. I think I forget how to now...

21. I was home schooled from 6th grade until I graduated high school.

22. I took acting classes in my teens. They were pretty expensive, my grandparents were nice enough to pay for them. The owner of the classes, Rodney Robb, even gave me a scholarship for some of the classes.


23. I had a cat named Popcorn for almost 15 years. I used to dress her up when I was a kid, poor cat!


24. I never took public transportation until I was 28 years old. Now I have to commute on the train to work. I've been driving since I was 16.

25. I always eat cereal or soup out a cup or mug, because it's easier. I never use a bowl.

I was sitting here going through my blogger dashboard and checking in on the blogs I read everyday. Lynn over at Rattie Corner was awarded the 'One Lovely Blog' award. Congratulations! I always enjoy reading about her ratties. I also saw she awarded my blog too, wow! It must be my lucky day, first I find $4 on the ground & now I get an award! Heehee. Thank you so much Lynn, I really appreciate it!

If you read my blog, you know it is pretty much a mix of everything. It is about my long distance relationship with my fiance F.B., it is about my travels to the Philippines, it is about what books I'm reading, what music I'm listening too, what stores I'm shopping at, etc. And you also know a big part of it is about my pets, rats included! Basically this blog is about my life and I love writing about different topics that are important to me and that may be interesting or helpful to all of you! I also had my very first blog giveaway this past month and I know I'm planning some more for the future! Thank you for reading!

I would like to do what Lynn did & pass this award onto some of my favorite blogs:

One Crazy Bride

Tales of a Misguided Mommy

Lucky in Love & Life

Rattitude

Call me Crazy

Chronicles of an exhausted mom

I have too many favorite blogs it's not easy for me to narrow it down, haha! Congrats everyone!

On April 1st, 2004 we took a risk. It was the day we first said, "I love you." We hadn't even seen a picture of one another when we said those words... but was a risk worth taking. Flash Forward to 2008 & here we are, still together. Engaged 1 year already. Who knew 4 years ago we would be here today? I've started this blog to document our incredible long distance story. I'll be back tracking in our story until I reach what's going on with us currently. I will also be using some of our old posts and emails to tell our story. I hope you'll enjoy reading and sharing our long distance love story...

P.S. Please feel free to comment on any entries. You do not have to be on blogger.com to post a comment. Anyone can comment!

BTW: "Tunay Na Mahal" means, "True Love" in Tagalog. The national language of the Philippines.