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.

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... :(

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.

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...

be thankful

Good morning!

Time really flies and days go by. And now it's Friday again. It's PD day again and my kids are here. I woke up and I learned that they had their breakfast already. They had pandesal with butter (Filipino sweet bread that I bought yesterday). Thanks to "Ate"- Filipino term for eldest sister, she knows how to feed her siblings if I'm sleeping or not available to them. It's always like that every weekend where I wake up late. They know that I have to rest since I work in afternoon shift.

At their young age they learn to be independent. Ate dresses my son every morning while I'm cooking or preparing breakfast, 2nd daughter knows how to take a shower on her own. You see in the Philippines we had a nanny or we call her "yaya". She takes care of my kids feeding them, help them dressing up, give them baths, every care she can give to my kids. I was a working mom already back home so I need someone to take care of the kids.

Now we cannot afford to have a nanny because it's so expensive. We just have a babysitter for few hours when we are at work. You have to do all on your own, do household chores, takes care of the kids, cook, do the laundry,everything because you have nobody else to it for you, it's only you and your husband. Back home we can afford to have a house help or kasambahay aside from the nanny. They will do chores in the house, so after work you're not rushing to cook dinner or worry to do a thing, you just sit down and relax.

If we're still there, my kids will not be as independent as they are now. They understand now that its only themselves that they can depend to. And I'm thankful that they are smart to understand things that they are to young for. And they are willing to help me in chores especially arranging their closets, cleaning up their mess after playing even though you have to remind them for the nth time. At least they are doing it...

And one thing that I'm really thankful and grateful is making us closer and stronger. My relationship now with my hubby is better compared when we're back home. As I have mentioned, we have a house help so my hubby did not do any single chore in the house. Now, it's division of labor in the house. My friend Pearl even mentioned to me she can't imagine my hubby being domesticated! Well, new place changes everything. You have to adapt and adjust, because you have to.

And if you'll ask me which is better? Well I like it now. As days pass by, we mature and learn from mistakes. Be grateful that we have a house, a job, food to eat and have things that we can afford to buy. And especially having a family that you love and loves you!

in-laws

Last Saturday, I had a chance to talk to my mother-in-law via long distance call. Usually we talked about how's life here and there, tell her stories about her grand kids. She really missed the kids.

We lived with her for 7 years. Before it's just the three of them my parents-in-law and hubby living in the old house plus one house help. My husband and I stayed there after we got married. Then came our daughter no.1, then no.2 and then our son. For 7 years the house was full of noise made by the three kids. The house was really organized, free of clutter and mess since my MIL is a retired elementary teacher. But when the kids were born, the house was different.

MIL is so kind to me, it's like I'm the daughter. But still mother and daughter in law relationship has it flaws. We don't fight but there are instances that we have misunderstanding. And usually we always had different views on everything maybe because of the age gap. She's old school and I ,a young and modern mom.

And then we migrated here. Now the house is organized and clean, no more mess, clutter free. Of course, no more kids there, no more yelling, running, crying. It's the same as before. Only my parents in law and two house help in the house. My mom (my own mother) told me that it's so silent there unlike before.

I miss the house, and I miss my in-laws especially MIL. If I have the time to talk to her, I really give her a nice conversation with me. Unlike her daughters (sisters-in-law) and son(my hubby), they don't have the patience to have a chitchat. After few minutes they will give the phone to me. It's so weird how they talk to their mother, it's different compared to me when I was talking to my own mom.

Well, it's different for every family. But I'm very lucky to part of this family. I'm really grateful because my hubby's family is so supportive, very generous, very helpful. And they treat me really as PART of their family. And love me, too. That's what you get when you gave them beautiful and adorable kids!

then and now

Time really flies...and that means I'm getting older! Oh, no!

X'mas tReE

First week of November had passed already. December is fast approaching and this means Christmas season! We, my family are excited on having Christmas decor inside the house. So, we decided to buy a Xmas TrEE. Luckily, there's a sale in Canadian Tire Store and told my my husband to go to that store last Friday before it will be sold out. In this store, they don't offer rain checks for items that are on sale.

My kids are really excited to set up the tree. It's like I'm hearing a million times of the word PLEASe.

We set up the tree. Now we need decor for the tree.
















We bought some Xmas balls and a star for the tree. It's so hard to choose what decor, and decided to have red and gold as the motif.






We also included the ceramic Xmas decor my kids painted.
Not bad for our first Xmas TrEE. Maybe few more decor. Ribbons? Garland? few more red and balls?


Christmas is in the air in our house and we're really excited. This OUR house, our very OWN house. The Xmas tree is so simple, but we love it, our kids love it. And it's personalized with their painted decor. And they also sang Christmas carols as we put the decor on the tree.




















Can't help singing,

"O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy leaves are so unchanging;
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy leaves are so unchanging;
Not only green when summer's here,
But also when 'tis cold and drear.
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy leaves are so unchanging!"

flu is all around us...

After a month of having virus inside the house (my 3 kids and had chicken pox; I was the last one to have it and the worst!), now it's stomach flu!
My 2nd daughter has it yesterday and now it's my son's turn. When will these sickness be gone in our household? It's so hard when the kids are sick.

Curiosity

Kids do not have a hard a time in learning gadgets such as iphone, laptops, PSP, Wii, Xbox, Ipod etc. It's like they really know these stuff even if it's they're first time to see it.

Yesterday, my uncle and aunts talked to me about something. OMG! My second daughter took a picture of my son's private using my uncle's iphone! I checked the pictures and out of hundred pictures there are two pictures of behind and the private. Other pictures are just funny faces of them, things in the house, etc. But the two pictures made me shocked! They asked me to talk with the two in a nice way. So I talked, asked and explained to them. I asked them why they did it. They just said they don't know. So in other words, it's just a joke to them. They are just amazed of the iphone with camera. I kept calm during our conversation avoiding to be angry. I don't have problem with my eldest bec. I explained her already about "privates". So I asked them not to do it. They promised me back.

Kids life are so simple yet for we adults make them complicated because of our fears that they may hurt themselves, make mistakes, do things that are bad, may hurt other feelings and many other fears. We make sure that we protect them from these.

Kids do things out of curiosity not knowing that it's not allowed. When I knew that they took pictures of the "private", I can't help but laugh bec. I know it's nothing to them but I can't also help that this is very sensitive. Taking pictures using cellphones, cameras, Dsi is not a bad thing but you will never know what are in these pictures. And my uncle stressed out to me that if he hadn't checked his phone, and somebody look in the pictures maybe he will be asked why he has these private pictures? This is so sensitive. But he understood my kids. It's out of curiosity, nothing else.

In the end, I deleted the pictures along with hundred plus non-sense pictures that they took. I told my husband about this and we just laughed about it.

We're so lucky, my uncle and aunt are psychiatrists. They told us to spend more time with the kids bec. they really need it. They need love, affection, appreciation and respect in order for them to love and appreciate themselves and others, too. Thanks T. Dads and T.Pearl!

And my husband and I agreed. :)

And to all parents out there, with your busy schedules and all, spent quality time with your kids bec. time will come you cannot force them to have quality time with you.