Caroleen’s Treasures

Our day went pretty good today inspite of the bad weather. The first thing I did was cut flowers to put in the vase for today’s worship service. I planted cosmos in the frontyard two months ago. I was hoping to grow several rows of it that would be a great sight when I look outside the window and take photos that would be wonderful for future use for memes but they all grew taller than me! That’s not what I was looking for. It’s mother plant was just perfect, its height was at the level of my shoulders only and I could get photos of its flowers without any hassles. Now I wonder why did these plants grow to be like giant cosmos which I really do not appreciate at all because I could not get a nice view of the flowers and it’s hard to cut flowers every Sunday. After almost straining my arms and shoulders, I finally had a bunch of it and put it in the vase. I really love the shade of this cosmos, not too slick and not too pale. The softness of its hue is just right.

Even if I don’t have much issue about being organized, I do have a huge issue on making everything I do as perfect as possible. I had a hard time arranging the flowers in the vase. The height and balance…I want it’d be perfect but after third try, I gave up. I could not do much with a kind of flower that would easily bend and cut and a small wooden vase that’s broken at the bottom. Anyway, I think I still made a pretty bouquet or did I just convince myself that it is so I could take a shower?

After a very quick shower, Ella and one of my students in Sunday school that was too early today had breakfast together; then Ella’s turn to take a bath and get dressed. Soon more kids arrived and we settled in the living room for our class. After singing and short class, I let them watch The Secret Garden while I cook for our meal fellowship. I wasn’t able to buy Bible Stories in DVD’s last month and I would really get some this month. Although what we were watching are for kids with moral lessons, it’ still best to have bible stories dvd’s.

So while the kids’ eyes are pasted in the tv, I was busy cooking 2 pots of rice, milkfish soup, sauteed pork with string beans and squash and fish paksiw (fish simmered in vinegar, salt, pepper and little amount of sugar). We just have little of pork and three kinds of fish in the fridge and I could not get them all together in just one recipe so I cooked three dishes. When everything’s done, the movie was over too and we all went out to the chapel to join the others for fellowship. We had a great meal because everyone brought their dishes and we have more than we could consume.

 Excuse the little girl who loves communion bread so much that she waits for some leftover after the service. That’s the cosmos bouquet in the background. It looks better and more balanced when taken on from the front view.

 A snap with Ate Venus (Tatang and Inang’s daughter) before I filled my plate with food. I had only rice at the moment because I had a rough moment deciding what to pick. More or less we have 10 kinds of dishes plus Biko (glutinous rice cake with fried coconut milk solids as toppings), rambutan and marang for dessert (not to mention I almost drowned in softdrinks). After the meal, I was this full.

See, you could tell the way my tummy bulges :lol: After a great meal, Donald gave us a very long time to rest (more or less 5 minutes) before he started calling all of us for the games. I did not join because I am avoiding stress. I get really nervous when I join games even it’s just only for fun. I could pee in my undies or I’d faint. Believe me the last time I joined in bible verse drill and memory verse contest, I could feel my heart would pop out from my body. So I just took pictures of them while Ella joined group 2. She was the only kid who joined the games and she did a great job of making her groupmates feel more tensed by shouting “Bilisan n’yo, bilis!!!! Maunahan nila tayo!!!!” (Faster, do it fast!!! They could get ahead of us!!!!”)

 After so much fun and laughter, time to go to the river for baptism. I and Ella stayed because it was raining. I cleaned and restored everything in the chapel while Ella and other kids played inside the house. When they came back, Donald, Ella and I went to Tatang’s place to get rambutan. My sister Crislyn asked me to bring some since this season, there isn’t much sold in Davao. Since it was still raining and Donald was already soaked (he was the one who baptized), so I was thinking to send him alone with Tatang while Ella and I will stay so we won’t catch colds. But rain could not stop Ella from riding her favorite tora-tora, so we went along with them. Tatang instructed Bro. Jun to take the short cut to save gas because the tank has just a liter when they left for the river. We have traveled half a mile when we have to turn back and take the longer route instead because there were tables and chairs under a tarp suspended in the middle of the road. There is a wake and they don’t have much space to accommodate the people paying respect for the dead so they decided to use the road.

We just spent an hour in there. Donald helped Marlon harvest rambutan. They only filled a bucket because it was raining and the trees are hard to climb. Before we left, I picked bunches from the short tree because what they got are the maharlika variety which I don’t like. I prefer the one infront of Tatang’s house because of its sweet and sour taste that I love. Still raining, we headed back and the dreaded thing happened. We ran out of gas!!!! I am glad we are just two blocks away from the house so we W.A.L.K.E.D. and we were laughing because we looked so silly. He was carrying this sack of rambutan on his back, Ella was on her raincoat and rainboots while I was still on my Sunday dress with flipflops, a shawl and a torn kid’s umbrella. What we are laughing most is the sack. Not just a sack but a tortured sack. I hope I have taken a close up photo on the other side to make you judge how bad the torture was but the battery went dead. It’s a very thin sack sewn together in patches that you would doubt if it could hold what you would put in there. Not to mention how filthy it looks. We are not actually just laughing at the sack but because Donald looks like his uncle Lucio. His uncle has mental problems but I do not know how bad because he can still recognize family and relatives. When he was still living, he carries a sack on his back too and this reminds Donald of him.

Donald says my sisters and BIL “should” feel guilty because we risked our lives just to have “pasalubong” for them. Maybe a KFC bucket meal treat when we get there would pay for getting soaked. :lol: