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.