Dec

22

Six Years

Filed Under MrPartyBoy

Everything that is best in me, belongs to you.

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Dec

8

All Things Manny

Filed Under AbantePinoy, My $0.02

First of all, congratulations, Manny (o di ba, first name basis? haha!)! You were the perfect antibiotic for my flu, thank you!

Although, now, I’m doubly hoarse from all the screaming that I did. Oh well, it was worth it. :)

~~~

The David and Goliath thing actually caught me off guard in the first round. Not until I saw Manny and Oscar in the ring that I really saw the actual difference in their height. Ninerbyos talaga ako, to tell you honestly. The first punch to the nose, though, changed all that - apparently, our hero brought his proverbial slingshot.

Right between the eyes, straight and true.

~~~

I was glad that the first gentleman wasn’t there this time. But then I saw Noli. And Chavit. And Dingdong Dantes somewhere. And that guy with the huge nose that dominated the winning frame on TV. Anuveh.

Parang awa niyo na, do something good yourself para hindi na kayo maki-ride sa victory ng iba. Gah.

~~~

I’d have to agree with Larry Merchant and say that it was a rather disappointing match that didn’t live up to the expectations of the people. We were expecting two fighters, but only one (our fighter) showed up.

Just between you and me, don’t you have this feeling na Larry has a thing against Manny - that he arranged to have this fight with the Golden Boy so that he can prove to everyone that the little pinoy could be reduced to a pulp? Belat!

Well, I do hope it’s not just because Manny couldn’t answer his interview questions properly, hehe!

~~~~

Ricky Hatton. Hmmm, can you imagine the British boxing fans ringside? While the Pinoys are screaming their lungs out, the other corner would all be prim, proper, and restrained, toasting their cheery-ohs for their slugger. Cute di ba?

And Juan Manuel Marquez naman, di ba pa pagod mabugbog yun? Ah well, baka malaki ang pangangailangan.

~~~

Finally, it bothers me that our national fist has elected to have his next child born in the US. Hmmm.

With dual citizenship, I guess she’ll have the best of both worlds - on one corner, the country that loves her dad and on the other, the country that pays her dad.

(I’m presuming that the baby will be a girl, Manny needs something to keep his fists sharp for, long after he’s retired, hehe.)

~~~

Again, congrats Manny. Congrats Pilipinas! Mabuhay! :)

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Dec

4

Because There’s A Lot To Be Thankful For

Filed Under Confessions, Connections, WonderNinna

It has been a while, yet again, since my last confession.

Last week, I had the excuse of preparing for Ninna’s birthday party and Thanksgiving (and the retail madness that always goes with it *wink*). Busy, busy, busy. This week, though, my excuse is that I’m sick sick sick. I should have gotten that flu shot! Arrgh.

Anyway, runny nose notwithstanding, I will try to cram everything (and I mean everything) into this picture-heavy post. For those with short attention spans, please consider this as a sufficient warning, hehe!

Here we go…

November 21, Friday: Ninna’s Pre-K Thanksgiving Feast


Every year, Ninna’s school celebrates Thanksgiving with a November Feast.


Lunch (c/o the school) was Turkey (siyempre!) with cranberry sauce and stuffing, ham, candied yams, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, and rolls. The parents contributed various desserts, mine was a huge Double Chocolate Cream Pie, which the kids loved.


Here’s Ninna with Josh, holding up their Turkey/Handprint art work. :)


Ninna’s special guest. Who else? :)

Thanks for the pictures, Tita Sheng! :)

November 22, Saturday: Ninna’s Birthday Party

We held Ninna’s 5th birthday party at Monkey Joe’s, a jumping paradise for very active kids like mine, haha! It was attended by twenty of her best playmates and their parents (our playmates, hehe!). It was supposed to be only a 2-hour party but the kids enjoyed themselves so much that we all stayed on until closing time.


The “birthday banner”.


The birthday cake.


The birthday girl-slash-boss in her party room.


Maligayang Bati!


As most children’s parties are here, it’s pizza for everyone!


Taking home the lootbags. :)


One…


Two…


Threeeeeeeeeee…!!!


Ninna’s wonderful loot. Thanks for her gifts! She loves them all!

More pictures to be uploaded in my multiply site. Soon. Hopefully. :)

November 23, Sunday: More Celebration

And because Ninna is not the only November celebrant in our huge extended “family”, and because a pizza party does not truly constitute a real pinoy birthday party, the following day, it was handaan galore!


The celebrants (standing l-r) Mavic, Macky, Kitz, and Carlito. Ninna blows the birthday candle for everyone.


The humble handa prepared especially and mostly by Super Mommy Macky.


The humble dessert table frequented especially and mostly by Super Mommy Meeya, haha!

Happy birthday, mga amigos and amigas. May all your wishes and prayers come true.

November 25, Tuesday: Ninna’s Cupcake Party in School

This is probably the easiest children’s party I’ve every thrown. Since no home-baked (or home-made) food was allowed in the school, all I did was buy a couple of trays of vanilla and chocolate cupcakes from the local grocery, plus some juice boxes and, voila, school party! :)


My little hostess.


Making the rounds.


Debutante na debutante ang dating, haha!


Goodie bags for them to take home. :)

My Ninna loves her school a lot, and that’s mostly because of her wonderful teachers and classmates. I didn’t think twice about sharing our joy with them especially that they’re also a huge part of my daughter’s life now. :)

November 25, Tuesday: Zoe’s Thanksgiving Feast in School

Earlier that same day, I was invited by Zoe to be her Special Friend. Zoe is the daughter of my good friend Sheng. She’s a first-grader and was supposed to invite a friend to their school’s thanksgiving feast. Siyempre, because I seem to be the constantly present person around with nothing to do (haha!), she invited me to come with her and her mom.


Zoe and her mom.


Zoe and her Special Friend.

Like Ninna’s school feast, it was a simple lunch of turkey, stuffing, green beans, corn bread, and the usual, but it was my first time to enter and eat at an elementary school cafeteria so it was quite an experience!

Thanks for the invitation, Ate Zoe! I love you! :)

November 26, Wednesday: Ninna’s Actual Birthday

I cooked a few special things for Ninna’s actual birthday and then invited some friends over to help me finish eating everything, hehe! (So sorry for the orange-y pictures, the lighting in our cave-slash-home is definitely not a photographer’s dream.)


Shrimp Spaghetti Carbonara with Garlic Bread on the Side.


(Supposedly) Chicken Pot Pie.


Hotdogs and Mallows, no stick.


For dessert, Ninna’s favorite “egg-nut cake” - my sans rival.

Hubby arrived from Tampa that same night so we were all together for this special day.


This is what she got for her birthday - she didn’t lose a moment and twinkle twinkle little starred her way into our eardrums.

Happy birthday, my Ninna. You will always be the little star in our sky.

November 27, Thursday: Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving dinner was celebrated in the lovely home of our friends in Duluth. I also swiped these pics from their family’s online photo album as I was too busy eating and eating and eating to take pictures, haha!


Our gourmet chefs preparing our dinner: Jam, Sheila, and Helen.


The finished product. Gobble gobble. :)


Food pa lang ang dami na to be thankful for. :)


Ellys leading the prayer. “Dear Lord, in behalf of my dad, please do not let my mom trespass into debt later, and deliver us from the evils of Black Friday Shopping, Amen. Oh, and thank you for the food, too.”


Uy nahihiya pa yata. Dig in! Attack! Sugod! :D


Making sure we are stuffed in preparation for the midnight shopping that was yet to come. :)


Again, making sure that the nutrients will last until Cyber Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday…. :P

Pwera biro, after dinner, the ladies trooped to the Outlet Mall in North Georgia for some bargain hunting (despite the 30F weather), while the guys babysat the sleeping kids as they played mahjong.

My favorite loot? These…


Two Crocs chinelas, one for me and one for Ninna, $15 for both na! :)

Well, these, two bags, and two sweaters (one which I already destroyed in the clothes dryer *rolls eyes*) were the only things I got for my puyat. :P

When we arrived at around 5am, it was the guys’ turn (and some ladies’, too) naman to look for good electronic buys. Hubby came home with a new tripod, hehe!

It was a fun weekend, for sure! Nakakapuyat, but fun!

~~~

Ninna’s birthday almost always falls on Thanksgiving week so we always have a ready reason to be thankful. But more than that, we are thankful for our family, for the blessings we have been receiving especially in these difficult times, for our good health, for the little miracles that come our way everyday, for the laughter and the love that we share, and for the freedom and the will that enable us to make our own life’s choices.

Lastly, we are thankful for our friends - you who may be far and yet so kept near to our hearts, you who do not forget to include us in your prayers, you who have become our family away from home, you.

So thanks.

~~~

And how have you been? Sorry I haven’t been able to bloghop and answer comments (I should just copy and paste this apology as I seem to mention it over and over again in my past few posts). I hope to make it up to you guys really soon! Promise!

If my math is right (and it usually isn’t), there are only about 21 days before Christmas. Ready na kayo? :)

As for me, back to bed muna. Kukuha ng lakas for the holidays! I have yet to put up our tree (yes, I’ll put one up whatever it takes), do my Christmas shopping, finish my “care package” for pinas, attend a few parties, and get ready for our drive to Orlando for the New Year’s.

I should have gotten that flu shot talaga. Aaargh.

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Nov

26

Five and Forever

Filed Under WonderNinna

You are always so excited to go to school. I never have a problem waking you up early in the morning, and you always wake up with a smile. You have a love for books that more than equals mine. You love taking care of smaller kids so I know you’ll be a great big sis someday. You love to sing and dance, make up stories, play pretend, and take amazing pictures. You cry when I do not let you help me with the house chores, and you cry even more when I tell you to watch TV instead.

You are happy with the clothes that I pick out for you, no matter where I bought them. You don’t like fast food, although a cute happy meal could change your mind. You don’t like being kissed by other people, unless the smooches are from Papa or me. You trust my love and my words unconditionally - so it makes me want try harder to become a better mom every day. You laugh at the silliest of jokes and appreciate the simplest of gifts. You never forget to pray, or say opo, or thanks. You love trying to speak in Tagalog, and how you say it tickles your tongue when you say “o sige, bye, babush!”.

There’s just so many things I want to say to you about you that I do not know where to stop. Someday, many years from today, I hope you’ll read this and see how such a perfect little girl you have been. I am proud of you with each day that passes and I thank God that, of all the little babies He could have given us, we were extra blessed with you.

At five or at fifty-five, I will love you forever.

Happy birthday, my Ninna.

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Nov

11

My Midnight Caller

Filed Under NotJustNuclear

My dad has developed this habit of calling me in the middle of the night. Like this morning, as in very early morning, I woke with a start when my phone rang in the midst of a sweet REM slumber. Before, when any of my family members called me in the middle of the night, I used to have palpitations as I expected the worst. But now, when I see my dad’s number on my caller ID… sigh.

When I picked up the phone, he chirpily said: “good morning, wake up, it’s almost six!”. Six?

No, dad, its just 4:30 in the morning, DST po.

According to my brother, I’m not the only one he wakes up for chitchat - ever since he got his hands on our VOIP phone, he’s been calling his friends in the US and Canada at PST (Philippine iStorbo Time), which is technically his own time. And its not that he doesn’t mean to do so, sinasadya talaga minsan. Asar no? Haha!

But then, its always such a treat to talk to my dad because he’s such a funny guy. He talks of his problems in Pinas like they’re boiled peanuts, he calls to tell me he’s jet-setting to some place or another (it’s Australia, btw, on the 22nd for him), and, because he knows how much it irritates me to be woken up (ideally) before 10am, he passes the phone to whoever sibling of mine is around just to prolong my agony.

So anyway, never mind that I have to wake up early to prepare Ninna for school, he just urgently wanted to tell me that he and a few of his friends will start a franchise here in the US for Kapeng Barako to rival Figaro. And they’ll call it, Barako Bama.

Arrrgh.

Tell me, could you get any sleep after that?

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Nov

4

Tomorrow Morning

Filed Under My $0.02

It’s going to be a new day. New and historic.

So far, Change is winning, and that’s good - there’s hope for America, yet.

~~~

Props to all Americans who voted today. Good for you!

In truth, I’m jealous… jealous that you guys have the luxury of voting electronically while I, and my poor low-tech countrymen, still rely on our trusty Bic ballpens. So if you didn’t vote today, I’ll take you to Pinas and force you to vote there. Hmp.

~~~

All I know is that, my family and I need a US President that will give my husband job security, my daughter proper and affordable health care and education, and me hope for the future.

I pray that he’s as good as his words.

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Nov

3

A Queen For Two Days

Filed Under WonderNinna

On the first day of my queenship, I had Princess Snow White as my daughter, and on the second day, I had Princess Cinderella. O di ba, pakyaw?

Finally, finally, finally, even without any grovelling involved, Ninna agreed to dress up for halloween! If you can remember, for the past two years I could never get her to dress up as anything.  This year, I don’t know what happened but, she just did it.

And as it turns out, she had two occasions to dress up for. One was for her school’s Fall Festival, where she dressed up as Snow White, and for Trick or Treat itself, where she dressed up as Cinderella. This, of course, more than made up for the last two years of her not wearing costumes, hehe.

My special thanks go out to my friend, Nanette, for Ninna’s outfits. *muah*

Now, I just need someone to help me finish off five pounds of candy, hehe.

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Oct

28

Me, But Not Me

Filed Under Confessions

I was digging around some old files of mine when, of all things, I came across my old resume. It was last update in, I guess, around 2004 when I fancied applying for an international banking institution based in Washington DC (a dream is a wish your heart makes, la la la). But then, I changed my mind and my priorities sometime in the process and eventually settled for good ole, comfy, domestic bliss.

Of course, I don’t regret not going for it (besides, where the delusion of being qualified enough to be accepted into such an august institution came from, I have no idea) - everything that happened afterward shaped me in ways no developmental banking could ever do.

Anyhow, I was reading through my resume and realized how greatly disparate my past has become with my present. Line by line, I read through the qualifications of a woman who seemed to be me, but is also not me. I guess she now belongs to another parallel world and I in mine.

Somewhere out there, is a woman in a pantsuit and stilettos, living her life to the fullest despite the office work. I don’t think I’d want to be her anymore, but I am happy for her.

O, the paths we choose to travel.

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Oct

20

Panic Monday

Filed Under Confessions

This morning, I opened my eyes, I looked at the clock and it said: 10:14am. Huh?

10:14am, Monday!

With a start, I woke up, my heart pounding, my adrenalized brain going over the speed-limit thinking: “omg, my daughter is late for school!!!!!!”

And as I ran into the kitchen to hastily prepare some breakfast, I realized my Ninna was missing.

Where? What? Something was not right.

And then it hit me, two full minutes after I jumped out of bed, that: Ninna was already in school.

Naihatid ko na pala kaninang umaga, hehe. I was just so sleepy that I crawled right back to bed as soon as I got home from hatid duties.

Yes, friends, that’s what Mondays (and a long nap) tend to do to me.

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Oct

16

UP And Others

Filed Under I, PartyGirl

I know I have a lot of kwentos yet to tell, but I just have to share this (got the idea from UP Boy, by the way).

http://upcat-themovie.com/

~~~

My UPCAT story?

I actually wasn’t one of those who aimed for “UP or nothing”. In fact, at that time, choosing my college gave me a complex - personally, I (and my inner Jesuit) wanted to go to Ateneo; my dad (who’s a certified and loyal Tomasino) didn’t want me to leave Espana; plus, my two bestest friends were enrolling in La Salle. See my dilemma? Babaw no?

To my mind, there was nothing in UP for me. The only reason I took the UPCAT was, simply, because my mom made me. “UP yan anak! UP!” was her main argument.

I remember I didn’t review for the exam or anything, I partied the weeks preceding it, and didn’t really take the application seriously (I actually checked the box that asked if I were applying for INTARMED, haha!). Taking the exam at Palma Hall didn’t exactly boost my interest in UP either - rickety old school desks, old-smelling corridors, students in Teva (Reva/Deva/Neva) mojo sandals, the letters L and F and S on the walls - everything was just too “free”.

I don’t really remember much about the exam itself, except for the fact that it was harsh. I do remember walking out of Palma Hall after, waiting for an ikot jeep, five hot minutes under the gorgeous canopy of acacia trees and thinking: God, this is where I should be.

Of course, with several bunches of luck (and my mom’s novenas), I passed. Officially, I had become the first person in my family to ever make it to UP. The newspaper, though, that bears my name, sweeter than a sweepstakes win, is now lost to me. I wish I had kept it.

Soon enough, my dad conceded, my soon-to-be Green friends pushed me to go Maroon, and I, well, since I learned to accept the fact that I couldn’t handle chemistry and physics, abandoned all premed dreams and dropped my BS Biology bid with the big blue.

And the rest, as they say, is plan B.

PS. And no, I did not make it to the INTARMED program. :D

~~~

A further post script to the UPCAT.

Did UP really help me?

In reality, the words UP on a flimsy resume does make you a first draft pick (or at least gets your foot in the door). What can I say, there are only two schools in the Philippines (refer to title of entry). Ahem.

And although those two letters don’t mean anything where I am now (Lord knows it should!), there’s more than a substantial expectation of leadership, academic excellence, out-of-the-box thinking, volunteerism, and integrity, that attaches to being a UP grad.

Ten, twenty years from now, I don’t know. I hope we can all still say the same thing. Even acacia trees can’t shade us forever.

Or can they?

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