Site Administrators:
MJ Tam - Chicago, IL USAFounding Editor
100% Filipino at heart, but can be as American as an apple pie. A wanna-be techno geek MJ is a work-at-home wife of 14 years, and a mom to 2 soccer lovin' little boys, and a breastmilk lovin' baby girl. Her husband is 100% Chinese (Cantonese) and so their children are infused with both tradition, culture and language. While raising her firstborn in 2000, she accidentally found the joy of blogging and still to this day occupies her extra time writing in her personal blog SugarMyBowl.com.
MJ spend most of her working hours as the Editor of MomViews.net - Your Family Informational Source on Smart Shopping.
She also writes for a syndicated site @ Chicago Moms Blog - It's Cooler By the Lake.
Geraly aka Mamazilla- Chicago, IL USACo-Editor
Geraly and Shaquille O'Neal were born on the same day, same year. He was born in New Jersey with a destiny to be in the NBA. She was born in Chicago with cystic hygroma and raised by a single Filipino parent with an extended, dysfunctional, and loving family. She is a former art student and alumnus of Columbia College Chicago, a refugee from San Francisco's multinational fashion design/garment manufacturing industry, wife to "the thin man", and stay at home mom to the "paloma" and the "porkchop" with two cats and an old, beautiful, southside chicago house. Lately, she is the embarrassed author to her poorly edited blog, Mamazilla, and her not so great, somewhat american, unfinished novel. Everyday she struggles to maintain the balance with girlzilla, wifezilla, mamazilla and all the 'zillas inbetween.
Our Writers
Ana aka Bonggamom - Silicon Valley, CaliforniaBonggamom grew up in the Philippines and moved to Palo Alto, CA in 1994. Originally, she was determined to move back to Manila 2 or 3 years after finishing grad school; fourteen years, one husband and three kids later, she's still here. She's a never-stay-at-home-parent to The Pea (yes, I know she's blond but she really is my daughter, I was there when she was born), 3Po and CleanBoy (no, twins don't run into the family, yes they're identical, and yes, we can tell them apart).
Bonggamom enjoys blogging about being Pinay -- after all, she still craves Spam and rice for breakfast, fights the occasional urge to say "close the lights" and thinks Philippine mangoes are the best in the world. She also blogs about balancing her personal life and parenthood at Finding Bonggamom, and about life in her adopted home at the Silicon Valley Moms Blog.
Dinna aka Pinay New Yorker - New York, NY USAPinay New Yorker is a forty-something mom who moved from Manila to
NewYork in 2000 to get married and start a family. In 2004, she and herbetter half were blessed with their son, Angelo.
She was a former radio newscaster, technical writer, lawyer, corporate communications executive and marketing maven in a previous life, but now counts motherhood as her passion, with her current work in a financial services company in the big apple taking a distant second. Starting an online journal in 2001 on her personal webpage, she has been blogging at Pinaynewyorker.com since late 2004 and writes about her day-to-day life as a mother, wife, homesick US resident (who willalways consider the Philippines her home), as well as her love ofreading, scrapbooking and Paris. She maintains a second blog,"Motherhood, etc." at http://pinaymommy.blog.com/ and a third, "PinayFrancophile" at http://pinayfrancophile.blog.com/, a love affair withthe City of Lights that started with her first trip there in 2005.She is also an avid postcard collector of maps, lighthouses andanything Filipino or New York.
She is the webmaster/developer of their high school batch website (St.Paul College of Quezon City HS Batch '83) at http://spcqc83hs.com/, andis a regular writer for their eZINE.
Irene aka Chicago Chick- Chicago, IL USAIrene is the mother of 2 toddler boys who are 16 months apart and she works outside the home as a corporate jockey. Her husband, a patient and wonderful man, agreed to put his career on hold and be the stay at home parent. When she leaves this earth, she wants to be remembered for the beautiful boys she brought into this world, a wicked sense of humor, and a raucous and infectious laugh.
Her personal blog is Chicago Chick also writes for the Chicago Moms Blog.
Jen - Southern California, USA
Jen is currently practicing her skills as a working ‘working’ mom after a three-year hiatus from corporate America to raise her family. She has two wonderfully quirky kids, and is married to the love of her life, Mr. Jen (aka Hubby). She spends her time trying not to get too caught up in the rat-race, planning as much family time together that a pocket calendar will allow, and carving out as many date nights with Hubby as financially possible.
Being of mixed ethnicity (Filipino, German, and Spanish), as well as a navy-brat, Jen has always dealt with being the odd-one-out; never quite finding her fit here nor there in school and other social situations. She learned early on about the art of ‘blending in’, and attributes her skill of getting along with just about anybody to these early experiences.
Although born in the District of Columbia she considers herself a California native since she’s called it home for the last twenty-plus years of her life. She enjoys quiet evenings with friends along with the occasional girls’ night out to boogie. Scrapbooking is a favorite hobby but only on the rare occasion(s) when she gets a daypass to get away and create. Most days you’ll find her jetting around in the family mini (van, that is), rockin’ out to country (much to Hubby’s embarrassment), usually on the way to a nearby park or the beach with family in tow.
Past jobs include positions in the medical and administrative fields a well as the beauty and television industry. Her most challenging position to date? Mommy-ing , and blogg-ing , and doing both while work-ing. Jen's personal blog is Mama's Moon.
Karmela - Washington DC, USA"Karmela Johnson" is actually the pseudonym of this blogger who writes action-adventure and sci-fi novels in between working as a marketing exec, a dance and martial arts instructor, and raising six-year old Science Boy and four-year old Mini-me alongside her better half, Moonshine Lad. The entire family resides a stone's throw away from our nation's capital. Ever the contrarian, look for Karmela to blog about the politics of motherhood right here on FilipinaMoms. Karmela's personal blog can be found at http://www.karmelajohnson.com/blog.
Maria - Los Angeles, CA USAA mom, daughter, sister, aunt, friend and a lot more... all at the same time, but sometimes not necessarily in that order; raising two teenagers in our home away from home. Came to the LA with a purpose, but stayed for a different reason.
A librarian by accident, loves to read, writes poetry, listen to music, and experiment on cooking. Started blogging as a means to keep family and friends updated with what's going on with life in this part of the world.
Her personal blog is Everything Under The Sun.
Michelle aka La dra - USA
La dra is a family doctor, wife to DaddyinaStrangeland and mom to toddlergirl The Pumpkin who has Filipino, Japanese and Jewish ancestry. She is new to blogging and hopes to find community and diversity by joining this exciting new group of Filipina Moms. She was born in the Philippines and came with her parents to California when she was a year old. She grew up separate from extended family-- hearing stories about them was almost like listening to fairytales. Recently, she became reacquainted with her Filipino family during brief trips to PI. She also grew up with few Filipino friends but discovered a community of diverse pinoys while in college. So, while she's always been pinay, she is only beginning to discover the richness of her heritage and the meaning of that label in America.
La dra blogs at Mommy In A Familiar Place.
Monina aka Mom2Amara - Ohio, USAMom2Amara is a self-proclaimed extraordinary mom, married to the wonderful part-German, part-Polish Dad2Amara. Their daughter, Amara, is an eclectic preschooler who already believes that the only thing better than a new pair of shoes is a new pair of shoes at 50% off. They live in "the yellow house," but as a working mom, Mom2Amara calls the television station where she works her second home. Lolo and Lola2Amara instilled the importance of Filipino values on her family, so now Mom2Amara hopes to pass those qualities on to her daughter.
Roseanne aka Mandytrue - Chicago, IL USAAn Italian-Danish Mom that lives in a 100% Filipino household. Her Filipino husband and his family has given her enough material to contribute in the FilipinaMoms Blog. She has been exposed to everything Filipino - from bagoong to family karaoke nights, and will spew out a couple "hay naku" whenever dealing with their active 10 year old.
Roseanne enjoys reading and writing and once even published a poem.
Sheila aka XiaolinMama - Bay Area in CA, USASheila is 100% pinay, born in canada andraised in LA and NY. I now live in the Bay Area. She is married to a great man 1/2 korean and 1/2 caucasian, so my children and quite themix. She love to write about them and exploring just the basic trailsand tribulations of raising them to know about their culture and torevel in others. Sheila has been writing at http://www.starfishcircle.com/ and http://www.xiaolinmama.com
