going to church or party?

This is what we saw in my daughter's 1st communion. Are they going to Church or to a party?

I don't want to judge or anything but isn't their outfits inappropriate in the occasion? Well, it's a free country.

one of my angels...

thursday songs

Indigo girls

great music, great artists...where are they now?

and their very famous song that can make you cry...

buddies

my everyday buddies...

friday photo flashback

I missed participating in fpf. Now I'm back! Thanks to Alicia for starting this.

Here are pictures of my daughters I think the year is 2004. This a one lazy afternoon nothing to do so I took a picture of them playing. I don't have a digital camera but this one was taken using my motorola cellphone. See the quality of the pictures? The cam has a low pixel. But still I captured a memorable one. Priceless!

visitor

We had a "visitor" in our backyard this morning. She's having breakfast-dandelions!

friday photo flashback

I haven't participated in fpf for a couple of weeks, been very busy. Check out Alicia's blog.

My sister posted this one in Facebook so I grabbed it. They attended the wedding of one of uncles. Our mom so sexy with her outfit- the hour glass shape, see the belted skirt? And the top matched the skirt. It was very classic.

My sister is so young here, maybe she's only 12 years old here.

10th

Today is our 10th year wedding anniversary. :)

My hubby and kids are greeting me the moment I woke up. A very nice feeling and hope a nice day ahead. We don't have really a great or fancy celebration, maybe this weekend we will just go somewhere and stroll.

Here's a picture of us...

To you my ever loving, understanding and sweet hubby, happy anniversary!

rules

I think these are mommy's rules!

spring

this is the only sign that it's spring here already...

my day

It's been a while since my last post. So what happened in those weeks?
I celebrated my nth birthday. Thanks to Pearl for the post you made in your blog. I really appreciate it.

Before my birthday, I got sick. And this added to my tiredness and exhaustion that I was experiencing in those days. In spite of my sickness, we had a simple party here with some of our relatives. And of course, with cake with candles to blow with. But nobody had a lighter or match to light it. We just pretended that it has.

The best part: I made a blueberry cheesecake. I think It's better from what I did before in cheesecake. And did not last long. My eldest was complaining that she did not even had a piece.

what kind of people are they

I mentioned that our car was hit in the parking lot by a woman who is not looking while she was about to leave the parking lot on reverse. She didn't see our car which had a hazard signal because our kids were getting inside of the car. We were not blocking here way, we stopped/ parked properly on the kiss n ride lane, so there is enough space for her. When my hubby talked to her about the incident, she gave her name, address, contact numbers. And she told my hubby that she forgot her driver's license! Picking up your kids and driving without a license? Ridiculous!

The first thing we did was to report to the police. But advised us to go to the collision center. We went and had a quotation. Hubby called the woman and informed her how much is the damage. She said there are other collision centers. And she asked my hubby to go to Milton which is really far from our place since maybe it will be a lower quotation if we will bring our car there. But hubby told her that he can check also at Orangeville which is nearer. Last Thursday we called her again to ask for a settlement since it will be a great hassle if the insurance will cover it.We went straight to her house. Hubby talked to her with her husband. I didn't hear their conversation. It was a quick one. Hubby went back at the car and told me- "They don't want to pay for the amount the collision center had quoted and when I mentioned that I consulted the police about this, they said to me - GET OUT OF HERE!" I was shocked.

Here we are making diplomatic and nice approach to you and then your going to treat my husband just like that? Who do you think you are? You are the one who made the damage not us. It is your fault because of your carelessness. What if you hit the door where my son is seated? What if it is a kid you hit? You are not looking while your are on reverse. You stupid, woman! And how stupid are you for not having your license? Maybe because we are not the same color? I am sorry for your kids because their parents are so hard to deal with.

We went straight to the police and stated the problem. The police called the woman. While the police were talking to here you can tell that the police was irritated with their conversation on the phone. So he told her, it is her fault. You have to pay them. In the end, their insurance will cover the damage. And expect that their car insurance will be high next year. Good for you.

my vacation part 2

Day 3- What a day! Snow on the first week of spring! And I picked up my kids from school and we just walked. Too much snow on the streets and sidewalks. And it's cold and tiring. My son cried as we walked because it's so hard foe him to walk with all the snow. I shovelled our driveway, so my hubby can easily park the car and the snow continued until evening. We planned to go to the park after school but the weather did not cooperate. We just stayed inside the house. I was not able to bake a cake, too tired after walking and shovelling.

Day 4-My plans for day 4 was cancelled because my son is not feeling well again. He was coughing and I was afraid that it will be worst just like what happened the 1st week of March. I decided to take him to our family doctor. But this time we will take public transit. I don't have any choice since we only own 1 car and I don't drive. - that's my goal this year to learn how to drive, I think it's a must for a suburb mom. It is so hard to walk on the sidewalks because of the snow. First week of spring and we experienced one full day with continuous snow. But Day 4 is a sunny day.As it turned out, we had a great day, my son and I. Our commute is like a field trip to him. He loves riding in the bus. We are seated at the back of the bus where he can see all the views. We arrived early on our stop so I bought my son a muffin since he said he is hungry already. He ate his blueberry muffin and he really liked it. A big muffin for a dollar. Not bad. We went straight to the doctor's clinic. His checked up was fine. He was given a prescription and got it from the pharmacy. I liked this pharmacy because the personnel here are so friendly and they are all Filipinos. I checked our transfer ticket-will expire at 4pm. It was already 3:45pm. My son and I rushed down the street. And rode the bus exactly 4pm. The transfer ticket is still valid. Yey! We only spent $3 for our trip. We were both tired and fell asleep in the bus. We waited for my husband at the mall near our stop. While we waited I treated my son with a popsicle. If you just can see his joy while eating. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera. :(

Day 5- I stayed at home the whole day. I didn't sent my son to school. I wanted him to have a full rest. The girls had a date with their Uncle at the bookstore after school. My son and I had a nap. He had a headache and was crying. After our nap, I gave him a bath. He stopped complaining with his headache while he is in the tub. He enjoyed it, really. At dinner, we decided to have a Vietnamese Pho soup. So the five of us went out for our dinner. It is so good to have a hot soup in this cold weather.


That's it. My vacation is over. Back to work, back to reality.

my vacation part 1

Day 1- Very busy day, health card renewal, doctor's appointment and someone hit our car bumper while we are picking up our kids! I was shocked because it happened in the school's parking lot. One mommy didn't see our car while she is leaving the parking lot. She didn't bother to check if the way is clear. What a day! What if a kid is passing by and she didn't see it. What if she hit the part where my son is seated instead of the bumper.

Day 2- finished already, started already our tax return and gave me a headache. Whew! I already cleaned the blinds, washrooms, washed the bedsheets/ pillowcases, vacuumed the carpet in the bedrooms.

Day 3- Hmm, next for my early spring cleaning: living room, kitchen, maybe bake a cake, cook and if I have the energy and power maybe the basement, too. This is supposedly a vacation from work. But it's my other work being domesticated and being a mom.

Thursday cooking

And it's Thursday cooking for me again. We have food good for three days which were cooked last Sunday. Today I cooked baked chicken which I marinated in barbecue sauce and ketchup and baked pasta. My hubby woke me up before he left for work. Even though I was still sleepy, I went straight to the kitchen and started cooking. It's already 10:45am, and I'm still thinking if I am going to bake a mocha cake. This mocha cake is inspired by the famous Goldilocks brand of cake in the Philippines. I searched for the recipe in the net and found two. I hope this will be good.

My daughter enjoying the baked chicken...yum!

march break

Good morning!
Today is the first day of March break. Woke up late, yes, no school, no snacks and lunches to prepare and no yelling/ whining in the morning. Kids are busy- playing their DSi.

We don't have any activities for them this week because my hubby and I are working. I was supposed to take a day off but the company where I worked decided to have a shutdown next week. And we will not be working next week. They said we can file it as vacation leave. It sucks! Why did they decided to have a shutdown after March break? Why not this week? It really sucks. This week no school but with work and next week no work but they have school.

So what can I do with that? Nothing, a break that will be wasted, no family activities... :(

thank God!

And now the furnace is working and still OK. I thank God for it and we are still blessed. Having seen in the news about Japan's earthquake and tsunami, we are still fortunate for having a house and far from any calamity.
Thank God to that my son is well now. Really God is good.

Be content and thankful for everything even though how hard some things are...

worries

What a week! We are really stressed out this week. First, my son had a bad cough and had to stay home and rest. I have less hours of sleep because he is really coughong badly since Sunday. He was checked up already by a doctor and gave him an antibiotic that the pharmacist said that is an ultimate already. As in a strong medicine for his age plus 2 puffers. Four days after, I can see the improvement. Thank God!

And here's another thing: when I came home last night, our furnace is not working! No heat inside the house. Temperature is dropping from 20 degrees to 18 degrees. Another problem for my hubby and I. :(
We checked everything, tried to call hotlines for furnace repair and Enbridge gas. I tried to read the manual just to find out what's wrong. Hubby had no patience in reading the manual. In my understanding of the manual, the furnace had a lock out. It's about the sensor or something that's why it's not lighting anything and the motor is not working. Hubby even thought maybe there's no gas supply but it can't be. Who's crazy person gonna cut your gas supply in this kind of weather? And the funny thing is I just called Enbridge yesterday about our bill that we have not received since December. Really it's weird. At 1 am, we went to bed. Hubby stayed inside the girl's room with the small portable heater and I with my son in his small room. My hubby woke up this morning and found out that the temp. is already 15 degrees! Oh, it's getting colder. And he is really mad and worried.

He called Enbridge, but it's not the problem. So we searched furnace repair on the net and found one near us. They gave us 1 and 1/2 hours and the technician will be right here. I told my hubby to wait for the technician and be late for work. Luckily, the technician arrived he leave for work. And one really weird thing is, the furnace is already working minutes before the technician arrived. But at least he can have a checked. He did some checks and explained why it happened. As of this time, it is still working. I hope it will stay OK...

a lazy Sunday

Staying at home the whole day makes me lazy. I know have so many chores to do- cleaning the washrooms, bedroom, finish folding clothes, clean the kitchen, do some sorting of unused things etc. etc. etc. but I feel lazy doing them all.

I stayed up late last night folding clothes while watching a movie. I just finish the first batch of clothes because I was so sleepy. And now I haven't started yet the next batch-still inside the dryer. My three kids are coughing all together like they are part of a group doing their solo performance of coughing. Hubby said he is not feeling well. And I am the only person here who is ok. I hope the next few days I'll be fine.

I just started cleaning the kitchen, and now it's dinner already. The pizza is cooked already. Kids will start to eat again. More mess and I'll clean again the counter, clear the dining table, never ending cleaning!

I haven't shower yet, as I have said this is a lazy Sunday.
No choice but I have to start moving!

good deal again!

I worked again half day yesterday. Hubby picked me up from work and our plan is to go straight to the grocery but we're starving already so we grab a bite from the fast food near the grocery.
After doing groceries, I needed to go to the washroom but I don't want to use the one inside the grocery so we went to Sears outlet near the grocery. Of course we have to go around the store since we are in it already.
We looked around at the furniture section and we found a dresser which is exactly the match of our bed frame. We cannot buy a full bedroom set before because it is so expensive . We had only a bedframe. So when I saw the dresser I was delighted and excited since it's 50% off the original price. But I was hesitant in buying it since it was to big. My hubby told me that it is a good deal already and matched with our bed frame. I looked around and saw a night stand which matched also. It is exactly the same night stand we saw when we bought the bed frame. Yey! I -have -found- my -night- stand! And it is more than 50% off! We didn't think twice of buying it but of course we checked for some damage. We talked to the salesperson, she said to avail of the sale price, we had to apply for a Sears card. I mentioned before that we had some trouble of applying for this card since it's asking for credit background. Read credit card. I applied again to avail of the sale price. The salesperson processed it and within 15 minutes of filling up a form and some information, it was approved right away! No questions asked unlike before. We went home with our new night stand.

a working mother's dilemma

I was getting ready for work this afternoon, when my kid's school called. Second daughter is not feeling well. Here it goes again my dilemma- not going to work and be a good mom and take care of my sick kid or be a good employee even you have a sick kid - who is staying with the baby sitter. I hate times like this! I cannot asked my hubby to come home right away because I think my kid cannot wait in the school office for another hour and wait for someone to fetch her.
So what did I do? I called my supervisor to tell that I am not coming to work which I guess is pissed off with my short notice. We work on shifts so it's hard when one is absent. But it's not my fault, I don't have time to make arrangements for my sick kid so it's better to take the day off. And I'm not sure how sick my kid is. Screw them! I'm gonna be with my sick kid no matter what you say.
I picked up my sick kid and we went to the doctor. She had a fever, coughing, with stomachache and really not feeling well. With this kind of weather, who will not be sick? She was prescribed an antibiotic for her throat. Now, she's feeling better.
Tomorrow, I'll be working as I promised and already asked somebody who I can trust to take care of my sick kid.
This is the life of living in the foreign land!

Friday Photo Flashback

by Alicia

Here's a photo of my father's family. I do not know what year is this. My uncles had this photo posted in their FBs. So I decided to grab it and post it here in FPF.

My dad is the male 2nd from the left side. He is still single here according to my aunts and uncles. And the kids here are daughters of the eldest and second son of our grandparents. It is so nice to see pictures like this.

similar songs...

Born this way by Lady Gaga




A cover of Born this way by Maria Aragon, a 10 yr. old Filipino-Canadian


And the song which the previous is similar to. This is Waterfalls by TLC.


And they compared it also to Madonna's Express yourself.


Waterfalls and Express yourself were much better than Born this way.
Well, it's the kind of music they have now...

wordless wednesday

longing for summer time...

Friday Photo Flashback

iT'S fRIDay PhoTo fLasHbacK again!
And I thank Alicia for this.


1983

Here's a photo way back in Grade 2 as remembered it. We are having our graduation recital for speech dynamics class. It is an English class where we were taught of grammar,correct pronunciation, speech and over coming stage fright.

And guess who was beside me? My hubby... :)

a 90's song

one of my 90's songs favourite!



Lisa loeb is great!

he did make an effort...

As I said yesterday, v-day is just another day for us.

But my hubby made a little effort-he gave me a rose chocolate. And didn't even notice when I got home last night. I thought it was a gift from work but actually it is really for ME.

At least. Thanks hubby!

My 2nd daughter can't wait to eat it. :)

a not so v-day

We have greeted each other. The five of us this morning. And that's it.

We don't celebrated v-day ever since we got married. Why? because it's my dad's and youngest sister's birthday. And every year we go to my parents house and celebrate their birthdays. We are used to celebrating this day with them and not as the v-day. No romantic celebration, no chocolates, no flowers, no presents for each other. And now we're here in foreign land, it will be just another day.

Anyway, happy v-day to everyone!

an e-reunion

My sisters and I had an e-reunion last night. Reunion on the net! With the wonders of skype - call group and YM web cam, we are able to chat and at the same time viewing each other. Our eldest sister is in the US, our youngest is in the Philippines and here I am in Canada. It's like we're really talking each other face to face. And then youngest suggested that she will take a picture of our images in web cam side by side. It was so funny because eldest can't follow her instructions in how to pose. I laugh so hard last night and it gave me a very nice feeling. I haven't laugh that hard ever since we came here. I really missed my sisters!

Hope we can spend a day or more together...

Friday Photo Flashback

by Alicia

2005

My son when he was just a 4 month old baby...

our own

We moved to our house last year. It's been a year already and we are really enjoying it. This house is our very first house to own. We've been married for nine years and had not own or even rented one. We lived back home in my parents-in-law's house since there's only the two of them in a big house. For seven years, I managed to live with in-laws. They are very kind to me and my family but it's a different thing if you don't have your own place. Our decisions should include the in-laws especially if we talked about the kids. But there are many nice and not-so nice memories in that house.

When we migrated here, we stayed in my sisters-in-law's house again. Another phase of my life of living with in-laws but with my husband siblings. I survived living with their parents so maybe it's easier. MIL is not a bad mil. As I mentioned in in-laws, they are a very kind, caring and very generous family. But you cannot avoid personal differences. I'd got along nicely with them and if something comes up which will cause rift, I kept my mouth shut. I am a very patient and understanding person. We have lived with them for more than a year.

Back to our own house. We planned to buy our own house but not that soon. I saw this house in listings through the net and was familiar with the address. I told my husband and we checked it out one saturday. Apparently, it's the open house day. We went to the open house and upon seeing the inside, I fell in love with the house. I loved the lay-out and it's a small house, the right size for our family. The agent welcome and entertain us. She learned that we don't have an agent so she really entertained us. My husband talked to her about real estate thing (he's a good negotiator :) ). My husband and I discussed and thinked very carefully if we are going to buy the house. We will just try it, if we are not approved for the mortgage or if the owners will not be happy with our offer, it will be of with us. At least we tried and experienced how to buy a house.

To cut the long story short, we got the house! We don't have any idea of how it is to buy a house here in Canada. How the mortgage works, the legal matters, etc. But with the help of that very kind agent, we managed to gather all the documents and requirements we need. We are so stressed during that time especially when we made our first offer. I was so nervous because we are talking a big amount of money that we will borrow from the bank and if a bank will approve our application. And we did it! On our own without the help of my in-laws! It's a big achievement for my husband and I. We have decided on our own. And maybe the house is destined to be ours.

We are just blessed because we have good jobs that can afford to buy a house. And still hoping we will find a better job. And we are thankful to SILs for being supportive.

What about the kids? THEY WERE VERY HAPPY AND EXCITED. And the one thing that they said that time- "Yey, we can be noisy, can yell, play and do anything we like in our house!" See, the kids too are aware of how hard living in another's place.

By the way, our place is just two blocks from SILs house.

Friday Photo Flashback

I really want to join the Friday Photo Flashback by Alicia but I don't have the time since I'm busy during Fridays. And now I had the chance-it's only 12:16am here. So here's the photo...



It's a Christmas reunion party. Taken at the ancestral house in my hometown Tiaong, Quezon (it's in the Philippines). My father's family always had a Christmas reunion every year. I don't know what year is this, maybe 1973 or 1974 because I was not here in the picture. I was born 1975.
I encircled my grandparents in red line, my parents in yellow and my elder sister in green.
Lolo Panong and Lola Isang (we call grandpa -lolo and grandma- lola) have 11 children. My dad is the 5th child.
This tradition that they had started is still practiced at the present. Every reunion has a theme. We had Hawaiian, striped/ plaid attire, orange and yellow, red and green, white and scarf, camouflage/ military attire and Savannah.We have food and parlour games. Old and young ones has to participate. It usually starts 3 in the afternoon until midnight. And of course, giving presents! That's the best part.

The last reunion was held last Dec. 27, 2010 and they had pjs a the theme.
I really missed this! The last one we attended was Dec. 2007.

reflection

I did some thinking these past few days. And here is what I'm thinking...

• I want to study again, maybe change profession- I love what I do but it's physically draining and I don't want to do that kind of work for the next 10 years
• In connection to the studying part, as an immigrant and internationally trained I have to study or what they called upgrade my skills in order to get a better job here in Canada. We are grateful we have jobs, but it's not enough. Time flies, better start setting goals.
• I want to have a job also that is a day shift or a 9-5 job. I tried night shift already and currently at afternoon shift, but I missed my kids. I want to spend quality time with them everyday-assisting them with their homework, reading a book with my son, playing monopoly with them and things that we used to do before. As I have said, my work is draining me physically, all I want to do on weekends is to rest and sleep. No quality time with the kids. And there's the household chores, too.
• Need to learn how to drive. Finish the book and take the written test and do driving lessons. This is a must!
• Be organized. Papers, receipts, letters, closets, laundry, kitchen, sort out unused old clothes, clean the basement, everything.
• Have one blog post a day at least. And my last entry again was last Wednesday! :)
• Have a "quality" time with hubby. These past few days I am not in the mood-stressed out?

This is not a reflection. This is a to-do list. And it's bulleted. Which comes first?

to go or not to go

Extreme weather alert, that is what we are expecting here. But it's not that bad. We had only 10 cm of snow in our driveway and hubby shoveled it already.

My hubby did not go to work today as I told him not to. And it's not safe.
Around 7:30 to 8 am, I can hear endless question from my hubby.
"Should I go to work?"
"No, it's not safe."
After a few minutes,
"What do you think? Maybe I'd go to work."
"I told you, don't risk it, it's not safe."
After few minutes again,
"I think I can manage the road. What do you think shall I go to work?"
"It's up to you, if you wanna go, you go."

But he didn't.
I know we will lose a day's pay, but would you rather take the risk of driving to this kind of weather, not sure what the roads will be like, or just stay at home and be safe.

I went to work later in the afternoon. At least one of us is paid for the day.

it's been a week

It's been a week already since my last post. I did not have the chance to write since Thursday last week because I picked up my son from school at noon. He had a bad headache and he's not feeling well. He didn't go to school last Friday so he stayed with me the whole morning. No chance to write. I just read blogs and leave comments. Weekend? Rest from blogging, family duties first. And I don't want my hubby see what I write. And today after reading Sandra's comment, I finally had the drive to post again.

So what's new? Well, just updates and changes from the older posts. From the invasion, the dark elephants are nowhere to be found in our living room but were replaced by two great elephants to whichI finally agreed with hubby. :) The dragon and horse stayed. Lucky to this two. Finally, my hubby was satisfied to his "pets" already. I'm done with the search of a good decor a.k.a. good luck charms in our small dwelling.
Isn't it weird my hubby is really concern of the displays. And as usual I don't always agree. :)

Now ,my throat hurts, maybe because of the weather, but I'm baking my second attempt of carrot cake. I baked the first attemptlast Sunday afternoon. And I don't even had a chance to take a picture of it because my family was so excited to taste and eat it. And it's so hard to concentrate on baking if all of them are here. I baked half the recipe on muffin cups and half on a square pan. As it turned out, the cake was not that moist as my hubby said but the cream cheese icing was great. The girls really liked it but my son was not impressed. He's a cheesecake fanatic.

I decided to bake again because hubby and the kids missed the taste of carrot cake. So here it is...

Finishing the icing and I'm done! Time to rest...

he has more...

This is true for my husband.

He has more pair of shoes than me.


I love shoes but he has more. And the thing is when he likes a pair, he buys more than 1 pair! Last December he bought 4 pairs of walking shoes. His reason? A pair just last for six months only. Since it's on sale, he better stock up. Ok, that's reasonable...


I'm thinking of buying myself a pair of flat shoes...but still thinking.


Don't think that we're an impulsive shopper, but we're not. We only buy what we need and will use. And we only buy if it's on sale.

lovely song

another one of my favorites...
hope you like it, too.
it makes me smile today...

invasion

our house is invaded...















My hubby's idea... I'm not impressed. I don't like it. Really.
Just told him this morning and I think he was surprised. Sorry hubby, not a fan of dragons. Elephants are ok.