Hannah's Baptism

November 29 - Hannah's Baptism at the EDSA Shrine and reception at the Max's Restaurant in Robinson's Galleria.

We had a lovely time. Hannah's so cute! :) I think she looks more like Toni than Stevie hahaha Dimples, Jericho and Rhys were also there but they came a bit later.

The food was yummy ! There was fried chicken (of course!), pancit canton (chow mein), shrimp fried in batter, beef stroganoff, chopsuey, leche flan (man, writing about all these makes me hungry again! hahaha)

After, we went around Robinson's Galleria itself because it's been such a long time since we've been there.. We got Dylan new slippers for going out (they're more like sandals), bought Dana some jeans and then we had snacks at Krispy Kreme (the best donuts in the world!)

Visiting Loyola

After so many attempts at visiting Patrick's Mom at the Loyola Memorial, we finally made it. We always intended to visit it's just that money matters sometimes interfere or even the weather isn't cooperating. Well, we're glad that the situation's improved and we were finally able to visit her.

In a way, it was also cathartic for me as it was like visiting my mom's grave as well. It was painful but it helped.

It was also nice that the grave was still in well-kept condition and that we met the caretaker to give him his due.

After that, we went to the nearby Marikina River banks Mall and were able to take advantage of the sale they were holding. Bought some shoes for the kids and pajama sets (which were long overdue) and Triumph bras for myself (hahahaha). Patrick was supposed to buy new jeans but he didn't find something that he liked. Oh well.. there's always the next sale! :)

How my kids have grown!

For the past couple of weeks, I haven't been doing any writing at all! Good, because it allowed me to catch up on a lot of household chores LOL Bad, because we're going to be quite broke again LOL

Honestly though, I was glad that I wasn't doing any writing because it allowed me to look at my kids real closely. And I noticed that they really have grown!!!

Dana's pants, shirts and shorts have gotten so small for her. Dylan can reach across the desk where the laptop is and get access to all his DVD's!! And just the other day, Den noticed that Dylan has grown really tall and now his head has gotten past the stairs railing.

Also, Dana and I were playing Suikoden III on the Playstation and with it, I noticed that she can read whole sentences already!!! The dialogue for the game is read not heard so that allowed me to watch and listen to her. She was reading the dialogue by herself!! Gosh, that surprised me !! I mean, I knew that she knew how to read but the skill with which she was reading was awesome!!!

Dylan is also pretty much potty-trained already. He's gotten used to going to the bathroom for both peeing and pooping :) The problem is, when he's wearing just briefs he still has an accident because I think it confuses him and he thinks it's a diaper! hahahha when he's wearing shorts, he doesn't have any problem LOL When he's taking a nap, he even wakes up and goes to the bathroom and then goes back to napping :)

Time is really flying by and I wish we can slow it down some :) I still want to spend more time with my kids :) Although I do am lucky that I've been there for them all these years.. It IS a privilege :)

2nd Sem has started, more expenses coming our way!!

Oh my gosh.. the 2nd semester for Den's freshmen year has started last November 3 and we're plagued with so many expenses. Those who have kids in college and university will understand what I mean LOL

Can you imagine this? I think their generation has turned into a generation of waste. I apologize before hand because this post may have a few gripes in it so be warned! :)

What I mean by a generation of waste is this. For instance, every sem, every student is required to take PE classes, right. So that's fine. The problem is the uniform - for every class there's a special uniform. She took soccer last sem, she had to buy soccer pants, a cap, gloves, socks and a shirt for P700 a set if I'm not mistaken. After that, she's not going to use it anymore. For this sem, we just went to the mall to buy her a pair of dancing shoes because her PE is social dance. I thought it's just your regular pair which may cost around P300, at the most P500. This is on top of her PE Uniform which already cost P700 yet again. Well, guess what? The danged pair of shoes retails for P2,000 pesos!!! Is this right? Do I need to spend this much for a PE Class???? What the heck?!!!

I remember when I was in college, we only had a regular skirt, shorts, jazz shoes and a shirt for our PE Uniform.. All girl students have the same uniform regardless of their PE class. The shirts are color-coded based on year level, so the whole ensemble you can use for a year's worth. The only different PE Uniform is that of the swimming classes, which is understandable coz you can't exactly swim with a skirt on.

I just don't get it. It was just lucky for me that when we went to this mall, they were having a pre-christmas sale so we got the shoes for 50% discount. But still, it's a big chunk of cash out of our budget... It's just not right, man!!

At a time when people are trying to scrape off every little thing they can to live day to day.. this is a big blow.. I don't know what their university is thinking!!!

Well, enough of this ranting.. I was able to buy some sandals for both Dana and Dylan at a fraction of the cost yet again :) I'll post the pictures soon :) Oh and DVD's for kids were on sale - if you buy one, the next DVD that you buy will only cost P5 hahaha. I bought Dana one of Thomas the Engine and the other of Pingu :) That was a steal !!

Happy Anniversary!

Patrick and I just reached our 14th year together!! Wow, I guess this is more than what most married couples reach hahahaha I mentioned this to my brother and he laughingly said, "Marriage is evil" hahahha I guess it's to be expected coming from siblings of a broken marriage..

Anyway, so I was thinking what was it that made us last this long? I would have to say it's our sense of humor. Both Patrick and I are crazy hahaha, just ask anybody we know.. It's no surprise that our kids are the same way :) We both love the same things - we both love to read, we both love to write, we both love to play video games, we both love to watch movies and films, we both love to eat. That's not to say that we don't argue or fight about some things, of course we do, who doesn't?

But from our differences we also learn something new. Like, if not for Patrick, I wouldn't have known what the heck an F1 is (honestly, I still don't know haha) and I guess he's tolerated my fascination for the X-Files and David Duchovny (for that matter) and I know that he favors Madchen Amick and Charlize Theron among others :) We each have our own indulgences LOL I keep telling him that he's lucky with me because I don't get jealous when pretty girls (and pretty boys ) come into his line of vision.

Now that we have kids, we find our fulfillment from them. Watching them grow and learn and be happy. Our kids are bright, it's unbelievable they came from us hahahaha they're pretty cute too if I do say so myself :) We may not have enough money (sometimes no money at all!) but we believe that raising our kids to be good, intelligent and independent is more than what we can hope for. It's a testament to
our parents who raised us the same way. I just hope that they'll be proud of us someday.

A satisfying day at the Mall

Yesterday, we trooped to Robinson's Manila to buy Den new pairs of shoes for the 2nd semester in school. "New shoes? Again?!" you ask haha yes, she needs new shoes because her feet are like a bulldozer for some reason and shoes don't last long in them LOL

Fortunately, when we went to Philam we found out that Robinson's Manila was having a sale so we decided to go back for some great bargains. And we did find great stuff, not to mention, getting confused about the whole layout because apparently, the new Adriatico Wing was expanded even more and it was surprising to see so many more shops! :)

Here are the bargains we got:
We went to the children's department because the kids needed new shoes. Dana got a pair of rubber shoes for P250 (down from P700) and Dylan's pair cost only P150!! In a world where shoes cost a minimum of P300 per pair, these were a steal hahahaha

We got Den's two pairs of shoes, for P200 each, a great buy since their regular price was P600 each !! So we bought two pairs and saved P800!! Not bad for a day's work hahahaha

Other items that we bought, though not on sale include light bulbs, an extension cord and a new phone cable. We ate at Karate Kid.. man, I really had a craving for their gyoza and Beef Teriyaki :) We brought home some california maki too :) We also bought a chocolate roll from Goldilocks. Yummy! We were so full from eating at the Karate Kid that we didn't eat dinner at all, except for the cake hahahha

Remembering the Dead

For most of us, Halloween is celebrated every October 31st. It was only in the recent years that the Philippines has adopted the tradition of Trick or Treat except that kids don't go around houses and neighborhoods, they go to the malls and some other event destination. Oh, they do go around in neighborhoods for those who live in the rich and upscale ones ;)

Anyway, after Halloween, there's All Saints' Day and then All Souls' Day - days on which you remember the dead. People go to cemeteries in droves, some have a reunion there, others spend the day cleaning the graves, tombstones and mausoleums. Most times, it's a very happy event, unless the dead that you speak of has only recently joined the ranks, in which case, it's a very solemn occasion.

During this time, we call it "Undas" in the Philippines, it used to be an ordinary day for me because I don't really know anybody who died, at least not someone close to me or the family. The only person I know who we visit at the cemetery is Patrick's Mom who died last August 2000.

But now that my mother is dead and the wounds in my heart are still fresh, I bear the weight of the season in my heart. I can't visit her grave because it's in the States. I can't lay flowers on her, I can't stay with her, I don't even know what her grave looks like. It's like I feel that I should be doing something but I don't know what.. It's like I'm in limbo for the dead, if there's such a thing.

It's just terribly hard and I comfort myself in the hope that wherever she is right now, she's happy and she's free...

It's Christmas time!

I just added another widget to the blog. I thought since we didn't even have a Christmas tree at home, might as well have the illusion of having one within my blog :) It even allows you to decorate the tree yourself and change the background color ;)

It's pretty simple but festive. My only decoration for Christmas ! :)

Scary night!

Last night, everything was just normal. We had dinner, the kids were playing and everyone was doing their own thing.

At first, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me when I felt like the lights were flickering. I didn't mind it at first. And then while Den was in the kitchen washing the dishes, she also noticed that they were flickering. So now, I was taking note of the interval between the flickerings (is there such a word?) just to check if it's not just a fluctuation in power.

Well, it happened again and this time, there was a "buzzing" sound from the circuit breaker. I was getting nervous now because, for sure, that wasn't a good sign. I asked Den to go downstairs and ask my uncle to check on our breakers because even if I looked and looked I wouldn't even know what I'm looking at LOL much less know what I'm supposed to do. Unfortunately, he was out.

So, I was really panicking now. The intervals were getting closer now (wow, like contractions in pregnancy!) until everything went pitch black, but the power was trying to come back on. I asked Patrick to just turn the breaker off. We didn't want to risk a fire.

It was then that we thought about the light switch in our bedroom which gets wet every time it rains. It was turned on last night so maybe there was already some short circuit going on which caused the circuit breaker to get hot. We turned it off and then turned the power back on. Thank God no more flickering. But, as a precaution, we unplugged the ref, the computers, the entertainment systems, the microwave.

An electrician arrived in the morning but the flickering never returned. What the electrician did was try to fix the sockets in Den's room which for some reason, lost all their power (this wasn't related to the flickering). He was also supposed to fix the light socket in our room. That's scheduled for tomorrow.

Wish me luck that we'll have this figured out soon! :)

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Okay .. the day has come and I'm now 36 years old!! hahaha It's so weird but it doesn't feel any different LOL

There also wasn't any celebration as I was sick. I remember that ever since I was a kid, during my birthday I always come down with something (usually asthma) and I spend the day at the hospital. At least this time, it's just simple fever and lethargy :)

I cooked tonkatsu and Italian roasted potatoes instead of the usual pasta .:) It was still delicious though :)

All in all, it was a pretty uneventful day :)