Archive for July, 2008
Butterfly
I walked Ella to school today, my first time to to this since this is Donald’s duty 
The school is far for me, I don’t know what Ella thinks about it. After I ushered her inside the classroom, I waived goodbye and went to the seamstress to check on her uniforms. The woman was still sewing the second uniform and told me to get back in the afternoon. I was a little bit dissapointed. The yellow piping in the collar are not even and the thread she used on the inside of the green skirt is YELLOW 
When I got home, I asked Donald to prepare all the hangers then I changed clothes and went to do the laundry at the back. While I am washing and Donald was hanging clothes, a cab stopped by infront of the gate and off came Ella. One of her classmates was fetched by her father and they happen to pass a little girl with pink umbrella…gave her a ride home. Thanks to them…Ella baby fats are saved from getting burned from walking. :lol: As I told you guys before, we forgot to fetch her at school during laundry day. She can manage well to walk home only we worry that she might get hurt along the way. There isn’t much vehicles that passes by the road that we take but we worry about her being kidnapped. 
While we are still washing clothes, Donald saw a big butterfly up in the coconut leaves. It thrilled Donald so much as it was the first time he saw such butterfly. Though I saw a much bigger one way back in highschool, I was excited too. The butterfly stayed up in the coco tree as if watching me doing the laundry.
After hanging all the clothes, we went in and prepared lunch. Ella went with Inang and Tatang in their house…while there she was asking them to bring her home. They told her they will have their lunch first but Ella said “Ako na lang uuwi…magtakbo-takbo lang ako hanggang sa bahay.” (I will go home alone, I will just run to our house) Then Inang asked her if she knows where our house is and she answered, “Hindi nga eh…” (Nope). 
We forgot about the butterfly and we thought it was gone. But just before dinner, it went flying inside the house! Ella was asking us if it was Mamang Eling and began talking to it. It was like trying to see our place….it went to the kitchen window….
then it went down to my sewing machine (as I was making a shoe pocket for Ella)…posed in there….
then flew to the wall underneath my handmade wall decor….it was really like Mamang Eling…she posed in there and seemed so proud that I personally sew and hand painted the wall decor….
Ella went near it and carefully examined it…..
then asked to get a photo of her and the butterfly.
In Ella’s eyes…this buttefly was Mamang Eling. She said Mamang came to visit and see if we are doing fine. As I was making this post, it was still there resting on the wall.
Ella is on diaper again
Tomorrow will be laundry day, soaked all the clothes in 5 basins. Me and Ella has diarrhea and Ella is pretty unhappy about it. I think the fish that we had for lunch yesterday is the culprit :-( Donald has the tummy of an elephant and isn’t affected at all. When Ella saw the diaper Donald bought for her to wear tonight, she’s quite thrilled about the thought of it. I hope the XL can still fit because there is no pull ups available in this part of the Philippines. I am crossing my fingers that she won’t poop in it tonight and she will survive wearing diaper. When she was 2, she can go out of the house without wearing one, only at nightime…and by the time she turned 3, she was completely out of diapers during night time.
Here’s a photo of Ella when she was 5 months old with her Daddy, still on diapers of course
I am feeling so tired today…maybe because I didn’t had a good nap. Just when we had finished our lunch, Tatang and Inang came. We offered melon juice and leche flan since they do not want to eat rice. They’re here to ask about the Medical Mission that was planned to be conducted here…then a short chat. At 2ish Tatang and Inang, me and Ella laid in the pallet for the afternoon nap while Donald was in the bedroom. Since I am on the side where the fan was, my head was aching when I woke up. Tatang and Inang left like cats…with no sound and traces.
I won’t bore you too much. This is all for tonight See yah when I see yah!
Happy Sunday!
It’s Sunday again! Ella’s favorite day of the week After logging out from OHJ at 8am we rushed to shower and get dressed for the worship service. Ella wore her new outfit that we bought one size bigger so she could wear it longer. She has outgrown all her clothes soooo fast and we got no choice but to buy new ones 
Last Friday I taught her to fold her own clothes since she is already 5. She did well on her first try and was asking me to fold Donald and mine’s clothes too but I told her ours are big. Donald took some snap of her little debater.
After the worship service and a quick lunch (it took me 1 hour to roast the fish and only 15 minutes to eat it), nap time as usual. At 4ish I went to the market while Ella played in the pc and Donald still off to dreamland. I bought tinting color for the table that the neighbor is making for us and ingredients for leche flan. It just popped in my mind that I wanted to make leche flan for Donald. Here’s the most decent shot since we had power interruption while I was taking photos of it.
Oppsss….my photos are so huge! Sorry I have no time to edit now Have to find the best car insurance that I was looking for weeks now. Not for us ‘cos we have no car! But for Tatang’s son-in-law. Good that Ella is studying alone and was just asking me questions from time to time because after this, I will get online again for my coding job until tomorrow morning.
I decided to edit the two last photos because they went past the border. :lol:
5 long months
We had power interruption last night an hour before midnight. I sent a message to my co-coder about it and I had no choice but to sleep. At 2ish I was awaken by a text message from Inah asking me to get online if we had the power back. We did had the power back so I sat infront of my pc, just before I signed in she called. They surely needed back up. Finally I was off from work when Crislyn logged in for her shift at 10 in the morning.
We had a cold weather, drizzling the whole day. I hate this when I am trying to stay awake for the night shift but I am off from work so I have all the time to snuggle under the covers. That is what i was imagining, but hey we had to go to the market. Today is market day here but since God washed the world today, I don’t want to get around the market that much. With all the muddy pavement and everything is wet….we decided to do some grocery shopping instead at the “biggest” grocery store here.
While I and Donald are waiting for the cashier to ring all the items, Ella asked me if she could buy “projects”. I told her she has still crayons and papers at home, I didn’t know she went to the school supplies and toy section and put in her basket a toy telephone, a pack of oslo paper, one pen and a notebook. I told her she cannot buy all those and she should return others and just pick one. She went back and put everything in its place and goes to the toy alley. I remembered she didn’t got a tea set on her birthday so I told her she can have it instead of the telephone. She was so thrilled to get tea and cooking set as she was asking for it since the world began ;)) She actually has some pieces left from the tea sets we bought before but she was having trouble looking at them in different sizes and colors. The kettle is smaller than the cups, the plastic piece of chicken is bigger than the plates and the stove is a lot smaller than the pots and pans. It was all mixed up from different sets she has since she was 2.
When we went to the city for my check up, she stayed with her Tita Crislyn in their house on the second day of my check up. While Crislyn was busily coding, Ella asked her to get the pot, pan, plates and other dishes. Ella said she will play cooking thing and that she will use the real stuffs because she forgot to buy her the tea and cooking set she had promised. Since Crislyn worked, she has no time to go shopping. She just laughed upon hearing what the little girl has said. Same here, I like to buy her those toys but I was thinking about getting them when we ge to the city. When we finally went to the city, we totally forgot about it! So I can say she had waited patiently for 5 long months and she deserves it. I let her pay it in the counter and she was over the moon when the lady puts it in the bag, like she was holding her breath while she was waiting. Afraid that I might change my mind. :grins: Gotta go, have to check on Outer Banks.
Another boring day
Not much going around today. Ella still has no class and spent most of the day inside the house. Donald substituted me last night from coding because my bee sting still hurts. I actually didn’t plan to work last night but they sent an SOS so I asked one of the staff if Donald can sub for me. Gladly he agreed.
After he logged out at 7 in the morning, he dozed off while I sew and Ella had breakfast. Crislyn asked me if I can sub for her shift and I did. So my pc is on almost 24 hours! I was released earlier than expected. At half past 4 I logged out because I will be coding again tonight. We are monitored the whole time now. We are required to install webcamax because there is one coder who wasn’t typing at all and just pressing the enter key. It was so funny that one coder was caught sleeping.
Ella has no class since yesterday and she spent most of the day inside the house reading (pretending to read I mean), playing, eating and sleeping. When she went outside to play with other kids, she just cried because one boy was sticking his tongue out to Ella and taunting her. Like Julie, my question too is “Where do the good kids live?” Then there’s a boy who won’t let Ella borrow his toy when he was Ella’s favorite. She always gives this boy cookies and candies and lends her toys too that is why Ella was so disappointed with him and tells him not to play with her anymore and they are not BATI (friends)
Have to end it here before it gets too long Have to find Proactiv acne cream
on the net. Not for me but for my co-coder who has problems with acne. I am so thankful that I don’t suffer from it, just some scars that was left from ants bites
Let is snow around the globe
It was cold in the morning and the weather is quite fit to just snuggle in bed but I am coding since 11:15 last night. When I had a 15 minutes break at 8 am, I quickly cooked instant pancit canton. Then went back to my “throne” again with the plate on my lap. I finally rested at 10:28 am and I jumped right to bed.
We had snow here before noon!!! Ella played with the styropores and was jumping and giggling. She was so thrilled to play with those tiny white balls.
There is a man peddling fish and we bought “danggit”. I pity those tiny creatures…just the size of a euphorbia leaf! Not the large one…but the new one that has just sprouted from the stem. Since it is too tiny to fry, I decided to make it a “paksiw” and Donald said it was the best paksiw I cooked. “Twas my first time to cook danggit, maybe it is in the kind of fish because it is tastier than the other saltwater fishes.
The thing that I like when we eat is Ella doesn’t choose what part of fish she would get…especially the chicken. I like the wings and drumsticks and I hate the part with no skin. Ella doesn’t care as long as it is chicken so she gets these parts. At least it is healthier than the parts with skin. I explained that skin has too fats and it can cause many illnesses and she don’t want to get sick.
In the afternoon, we went to attend a birthday party. Tatang and Inang are also there. Just a simple party with only a few relatives and us. When we got there, Ella was thrilled to see three kittens. They are sooo tiny but I didn’t notcied one is premature! Yes indeed. This kitty was born a week before her two siblings and she is so frail looking and tinier than the others. Ella also saw a tiny globe, she held it and was turning it around trying to find our house in there! Silly girl!!!
We had a short service lead by Donald. There’s a special “biko” (made of glutinous rice, coco milk and brown sugar), maja blanca (made of cornstarch, coco milk, white sugar and some peanuts and corn kernel…for more special, cheese may be added), spaghetti and bihon guisado (sauteed bean noodles with meat and vegetables). While we are enjoying the food, Ella went missing for a while unnoticed and came back with 4 kids from the neighbor. She says they are her classmates She gave them plates, spoons and forks then ushered them in the table saying “Come on…do not be shy…just get what you want to eat…it is not my birthday though….it is Kuya Mon-Mon’s.” Then she even served them with coke! I was blushing because it is not her party and yet she invited those kids! Good thing that the mother of the celebrant was pleased those kids came since they so shy to come.
The bigger, the better
I received my first payment from OHJ today. Makes me want to work 24 hours a day Ella’s first monthly exam was this morning and she said it was easy When kids say this, I don’t believe them until I saw their papers I hope she got high scores on both if not perfect. Last year was more difficult for us to study because of the tv. Yesterday when she arrived from school, she begged for us to study which is so strange. She never do that last year. So I told her I will cover her books first before we will study. It was her fist time to bring home her books. They just use it in school and aren’t brought home. Like last year in the city, books are left at school too because kids forgot to bring their books the following day.
I was called for back up at half past 11 in the morning when I only had 4 hours of sleep from my coding last night. After I logged out at past 3 in the afternoon, I napped until it was almost dark. Since I received my first earning and we are so lazy to cook, we dine at Resto in the market. The best in town. We tried dining at two barbeque places here but I am not satisfied. Maybe I am just used to barbeques and roasted chicken in my hometown which I am dying to have as well as Donald.
My bee sting is getting worst when I sit and stand. Does the gravity makes it even worst??? My elbow and the joint in my shoulder and upper arm hurts so much. Hope the tylenol can make it better. I just hate taking those big pills!!!! Plus the vitamins I am taking that as huge as Tylenol…I feel like throwing up with all the water I drank just to swallow those pills. Why can’t they make smaller pills anyway? Like those of the medicine I took when I had typhoid fever…those tiny, easy-swallow ones that doesn’t make me hate being sick. Oh well, maybe the bigger the better.
I hope I can have some sleep before I’d be called for OHJ tonight. Bye for now! See yah when I see yah!
Honeybees
I am making this early post tonight. Donald and Ella are still finishing their dinner while I am here now writing. I hope I won’t bore you to death.
I didn’t worked last night because I feel so tired..dead tired from yesterday. I thought I could get up at 12 midnight to get online but I couldn’t get my back off the bed. Donald attended the homeroom meeting at Ella’s school and I went out in the yard to do some weeding, tilling and planting. I don’t get out under the sun often since we moved here that’s why I feel like a dried mango when I went under the shade.
Donald said the meeting was about the Nutrition Month Celebration at school. Honestly my jaw dropped when I heard his reports. There will be table setting and cooking contest. I was WHAT???? The 5 year olds will cook and set the table??? But no, the parents will. Oh I thought this celebration will be for the kids, why are the parents on the scene? ‘Twas my first time to hear this and I literally dropped my jaw. Then second thing that made my jaw drop was there would be contributions for a LECHON (roasted pig). Why the hell would there be lechon during a Nutrition Month Celebration??? Don’t get me wrong, I grew up with a teacher mother and we attended schools before that has some Go, Grow and Glow Foods set on the table outside the classrooms that awaits judges. Then there are some veggie dishes and the “binignit”. This snack is my lifetime favorite….it is like a porridge made of bananas, yam, jackfruit and some tiny circles like tapioca cooked with sticky rice and some stick rice balls. Even there are strange things agreed in the meeting, the binignit is the snack the parents will prepare for the cooking contest. So there would be pots after pots full of binignit!!!! Can’t wait for that day to come. And hey, the most strange thing is the parents and guardians here never complained of the amount to be contributed and they are even very pushy to have lechon on that day! (the culprits) While last year in Davao, the parents there are always complaining even for just a little amount!
At one point, one parent said whatever amount that would come up short for the lechon will be shouldered by the PTA officers. Since they have just elected officers, and Donald is the Vice-President, he reacted almost violently (with rolling eyes) I was kidding Donald have been the Prince Charming and not the VP
In the afternoon, after our nap I went to do some gardening again. Donald was at the wake with Tatang. While I was raking the weeds on the bermuda grass that I have pulled (yes, I carefully pulled each one so I won’t ruin the bermuda bed that is still growing), I was stung by bees! Now I have a big, fat, bulging, hot, painful left arm. Tomorrow I will burn their hive so Ella won’t get hurt too. She was actually afraid…so afraid of bees because she was stung once from the same hive. I didn’t realized there is a hive there in the corner plant near the gate. I thought the bee that stung her was just wandering around that time. With the trauma, Ella didn’t even want to eat honey. Donald bought a bottle the other day and he let me and Ella have a tablespoon each. After me was Ella’s turn and boy, Donald had a hard time convincing her to eat it. We are wondering why because Ella just loves eating yet she refuses honey. We asked her why….she answered “Because I am afraid of bees….they bit me…so painful!!!! Are there any bees in here?” Pointing the honey on the bottle. I almost fell off my chair! She was so afraid to eat honey thinking they would sting her again. Now she learned something about bees.
Tasmanian Devils
At last I ended my shift in OHJ at 8am after 12 long hours. I slept until almost 11, just in time Ella and Donald arrived. As usual Ella played until lunch time. Siesta afterwards but I opted to blog hop while they napped.
Tatang came here to ask if Donald will be going with him to the wake of one of the member’s grandmother. It should only be about the wake but we ended up chatting the afternoon out. We are talking about lots here and Tatang was encouraging us to invest on it. I made the “best” pancake for merienda then we (Tatang, Donald, Ella and me) went to their place to get rice (Ella’s subsidy) While we were there in the farm, Ella visited Mr. and Mrs. Pig, Mr. Cow, the stubborn chicken and quails and me? I hunted for anything I could plant on my plastic flower pots which I just bought last Saturday. After loading the rice and plants on the motorbike, we went back here and exercised. Yeah, exercised pulling weeds in the yard
Pinoy Style
Sunday again and it was my Mamang Eling’s birthday!!!!! It must be her 59th birthday and tomorrow will be Cheche’s 19th birthday also. So while Mamang was celebrating her 40th birthday 19 years ago, she was in labor and gave the following day to a bouncing baby girl. I was 8 then. Now Mamang was gone to heaven, we missed her so much especially Ella who ALWAYS talks about her E.V.E.R.Y.D.A.Y.
I have a good number of kids on my class today. There were two boys who has a mini motorbike and Ella just loves it! She was dreaming of riding it since the day she saw it. One afternoon she finally got the chance to drive it. Not completely driven alone. of course with the help of Cheche, the friend of Ate Venus. So today she was beyond happy when she was able to get on it again.
Yesterday while we are in the market, Ella asked me to buy her some rambutan. When I helped her open each, she was grumbling to herself: “This is my favorite fruit before, and still my favorite until now. Why is it? (paused for a couple of seconds as if thinking) I don’t know to myself.”
Oh she has fallen this morning and scraped her upper leg. Poor Ella….has been attacked by a hen before the fall when she was going in the kitchen door. The stupid hen thought Ella might hurt her chicks so she began flying over Ella’s head and started pecking on her hair. You could have seen her run for her life. After the worship service, she went to the neighbor just beside us and told them “Your bad chicken almost killed me. Haven’t you taught her not to frighten little girls? The next time she comes near me, I will make her a fried chicken.” I was giggling but she was so serious and I know she mean it…and I will wait for it to happen ‘cos I am craving for ir for a long time….native fried chicken….
In the afternoon, Donald and other members paid respect to one of the member’s grandmother. Ella wanted to go but she had fallen asleep so she wasn’t able to ride the Tora-Tora. I mentioned about it on my preivous post but I was just able to take some snaps of it.
The proud driver
It was an improvised car. Filipinos are really resourceful. A plain trailer, now it looks sexy. LOL
A very good transportation here…only it makes your tummy aches when it starts to run….it vibrates like hell but it was really fun!
