Caroleen’s Treasures

Saturday again! We are surprised by an unexpected guest early in the morning when we are still in bed. He was here to see his niece who is a member of the church but was ashamed to attend the service here. So he and Tatang arranged to visit the niece and the family today. I quickly prepared breakfast and when it was already 8:30am and no shadow of Tatang has appreared, Donald decided to bring the guest to Tatang’s place in case he forgot about their appointment. When Donald came home, we all went to the market.

Speaking of ukay-ukay…I found a maternity capri jeans! And while I am busy picking vegetables, Donald dissapeared and he came back with a Nike baseball cap. I could not ruin his excitement for finding a very nice cap. Ella has 5 peso coin in her little purse and she bought a rice cake out of it. Donald and she are equally happy about what they got.

We ended up carrying a bag full of vegetables, fish and some meat. I doubled the meat and vegetables for our meal fellowship tomorrow. Early morning, at 8am, we lost power. No power means no water too for us who uses electric water pump. So I have to send Ella and Tadiday over the well to take a bath. Tadiday has filled the three basins before the electricity went out. Glad that I believed what the neighbor has told me yesterday. We usually have a whole day power interruption during Sundays and not Saturdays, but I said to myself I wouldn’t be hurt if I believe. So the water on the basin has helped me clean and wash the fish, meat and vegetables.

In the afternoon, we took a nap. It was not yet long when the members came to clean the church yard. We have assignments what area to clean and they decided to come even it is not yet their schedule. Me, Donald and Tadiday also cleaned the area where we would plant our seeds. I hope we could start the garden Monday. The rain has hindered us to go to Tatang’s place to get some bamboos. Hope it won’t rain next week.

I think Ella could be the fastest runner here in town. Donald borrowed Tatang’s motorbike to get a big pan that I need tomorrow to cook big batch of dishes. Ella wanted to ride with her Daddy but Donald said NO. When Donald started the motorbike, Ella ran as fast as the bike and even ran ahead of the bike. Donald stepped on the brakes and she got her way. Donald knows he should have not let Ella get her way but as he sees it, Ella could get an accident if he won’t stop and he knows Ella won’t stop running either. I think they had a nice and long lecture about obiedience after that.

I will be off for a while to check on portable oxygen concentrator and be back to blog hop. See yah!

I am such a lazy bean lately…or should I say more lazy than usual. It was drizzling when Ella woke me up. She asked me to get up and make her breakfast. Thinking that it was still 6am and Tadiday was still around (she usually leaves for school 15 minutes before 7am), I told her to ask Ate Tadiday to make a bowl of cereal. Feeling so lazy and sleepy, I closed my eyes and tried to go back to sleep. Minutes later I heard no sound in the kitchen, I dragged my feet out of the bedroom to see Tadiday’s room is empty and Ella was not in the house. I called her name and looked in the gate. No sign of Ella going out. I opened the back door and there she was in her knitted jacket and boots, sitting infront of the church with umbrella parked on her side. I called her in and prepared her breakfast then I looked in the wall clock and was surprised to see it is 15 minutes going 8 in the morning! Ella’s class will be in about 15 minutes! I woke up Donald who has been up almost the whole night. I decided not to give Ella a bath. I rubbed a wet towel all over her body and dressed her. No uniform today. Friday is their FREE day. She was fussing earlier and was saying she do not want to go to school but I told her she can wear her boots and raincoat to school….and this made her jump out of her seat.

The whole day I spent most of the time in bed tossing about with a book on my hand. It wsa a book I have read a year ago and I loved it so much that I wanted to read it all over again. I hate the feeling of being pregnant…I mean this phase, the 1st trimester where you feel nauseated and tired all the time. I wanted to eat but I do not know what I like. My mind changes from time to time and Donald is going crazy too like I was because he is the one who runs to the market to get peanut, custard cake, ripe mangoes or anything that a crazy pregnant could think of. Yesterday I have not decided what I wanted to eat for lunch when I smelled the neighbor’s roasted pork. We ended up roasting pork too.

Tomorrow is market day again. My favorite day of the week. No class. No need to wake up early and the thought of what I could find in ukay-ukay makes me more excited. We will also buy things we needed for the Meal Fellowship on Sunday. I have to prepare two dishes and I decided to make chopsuey and my favorite sotanghon guisado. I have to stick on vegetables because we will have lechon (roasted pig). And oh I hope I won’t forget to get two bottles of different vitamins for me. My OB prescribed two vitamins that I would take alternately. I need to make the baby healthy because one of my friends has delivered a premature baby and the doctors have to give the baby legal steroids to help develop the lungs.

We are supposed to be going to Tatang and Inang’s place to get bamboos for the vegetable garden that we are planning to make in the backyard. But just after we had lunch at 1pm, rain started to pour so we ended up taking long nap.

A friend from Australia has sent me seeds that I am not sure if will thrive here in our province. Seeds of cabbage, brocolli, parsley, carrots, cauliflower, pepper, tomatoes, squash and peas. We also bought eggplant, string beans, tomato (we will be having three varities of tomatoes), pepper, chinese cabbage (pechay), cucumber, sponge gourd (patola), bitter gourd, bottle gourd (upo), bell pepper and okra. I don’t actually eat okra but I bought a few packs anyway. I am excited with the tomatoes since we will be harvesting three kinds (if the neighbor’s chicken decides not to go near the garden. This is why we need to put of fence….to keep the chicken (and let’s include the neighbors) off the garden. Ella has chicks but we are keeping it in a big native basket and when they are big enough, we will make a real cage for them. Hopefully we could add a dozen more. Ella then said we should have a cat. I hate to have a cat around the house! But she said cats are lovely and she will dress it up like her teddy and buy some stuff from a store which sells cat supplies. I just rolled my eyes and told her to study well and when she has a job she could buy all the cats she wanted. LOL

Last night while I am blogging, I asked Donald to review Ella in her English and Language subject. So he opened the book and scanned to the page where the teacher said the examination would begin. It was now in letter D. There were pictures of the objects beginning with letter D. The review began. Donald points to the objects and Ella answered pretty well (her school last year is more advance, they even have spelling of 3 to 8 letter words last year) but they had problem with the picture of a bird. Donald point to it and Ella answered EAGLE. Donald corrects her saying DOVE. After pointing to the other objects, Donald goes back to the bird and Ella says EAGLE again. Donald was was beginning to be impatient and told Ella that they are studying letter D so it is a DOVE. Ella then said “Eagle na lang kasi para hindi ako mahirapan.” (Just call it eagle so it won’t be hard for me) LOL

I could not blame her for being confused now because the book they are using is totally confusing! scanned the entire book and truly kids will get confused. On one page a picture of a round thing is called PLATE…but on the other page it is called a DISH. Then there is a picture of a flower which is called a FLOWER on one page and then was called DAISY on the other page. Here comes the bird! It is called a BIRD on the letter B, DOVE on the letter D. I bet they call it EAGLE on the E page and PARROT on letter P. I was ranting the whole night how come the school chose the author. HMP! It was supposed to be a Private School but it is like a very plain Public School. I hope the teacher won’t read this. GRINS

Anyway, I was over with it when I woke up. Prepared Ella to school and Donald walks her there. When she comes from school she is bringing a bag of Bihon guisado and two slices of jackfruit. Donald met her in the intersection a few yards from school. There was a birthday party in her class and her examination is moved tomorrow. Good! We still have enough time to review on DOVE.

Speaking of bihon guisado…I was craving for it since the other day. So last night I made sotanghon guisado (vermicelli) because I hate the texture of the local bean noodles. I am sharing the photo of it….my favorite dish.

I know Donald is praying that I won’t be making another batch today. He knew me very well that if I crave for something, I’d crave for the same dish for another 6 days even if I am not pregnant. Now his praying harder because I am pregnant and who knows when I will crave for it for the whole month? LOL

Whew! At last I was able to blog today. Since my schedule in OHJ has been changed, I had a hard time getting myself to get on here just before I start my shift. Last time my schedule was only Saturday and Sunday (12midnight to 8 am) and I still do coding during weekdays but it is always on graveyard shift. So this gives me enough time to do my post and do some blog hopping. But now my schedule is 5pm to 1am Monday to Sunday and I still have not made myself adjust to blog earlier. I do not know why I just loved blogging in the evening…when the day is about to end and I could write what has transpired during the day. I hate blogging this early (before 5pm) because I am pretty sure there are still many things to happen later tonight.

But anyway, this is my problem not yours LOL I am glad that MsE has moved my schedule to earlier hours so I could get enough sleep during the night which I really really really need.

This morning Ella had her second examination in Mathematics and Science and tomorrow will be Language and English. Donald walked her to school earlier than usual and Ella was given test papers. Donald left her there as usual and went back home. My fellow coders sent an SOS message right after they left so I logged in and found out that the queue is more than 500!!! (we should maintain a queue of 30 or less) so I was here coding the rest of Ella’s class. When it was almost 10am, Donald left to fetch her but Ella emerged from the door beaming right after Donald left. She walked home alone again and took the main road. So Donald was there looking for her around the school and the neighborhood for a good amount of time until he decided to check if Ella was already home. And she was here smiling when Donald appeared on the door. I told Ella NOT to pass on the main road and that she should go in the road they usually take. That she might get hit by a vehicle and that Daddy and her would meet on the road in case she will be released from their class earlier. Oh well, how could I make her wait for her Daddy to fetch her at school? I told her that twice. To wait for Donald or me to get her but she just could not stand the waiting. She is such a very impatient girl. I do not know she took the main road when she always love seeing the goats by the road they always take. She said to me the other day that the goats can understand English very well because when she said “EXCUSE ME….” while passing by, the goats in the middle of the road made way for her. LOL

But then I thought she is already 5 and yet we are babying her while the other kids her age goes to school and home all by themselves. Maybe we need to accept that our baby is a big girl now and soon to be a big sister. So we practiced leaving her at home with her Ate Tadiday while me and Donald went grocery shopping this afternoon. At first it was very hard to convince her not to go with us. She used to go along when me and Donald leaves the house. Maybe she feels alone when we both go out but she can let me leave her to Donald’s care without a fuss. Only when both Mommy and Daddy walks out the door (which just happened today since we moved here) that she was like being abandoned and home alone. LOL

 On the other note, I remember seeing a shop in the mall in the city which sells shirts with pictures in it done with airbrush. I was trying to figure out how they do it and hope to try it myself.

I am not so sure if I am the Carol Julie has tagged along with this meme…but I want to play along with this ABC’s of me meme in case I am the wrong one LOL

Attached or Single?: Very much attached LOL Donald and I has celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary last February.
Best Friend?: Stephanie (a dear friend of mine since high school)
Cake or Pie?: Cake (choco moist please!!!!)
Day of Choice?: It used to be Sunday when we are still in the city since it was also our family day….but since we moved in here, I must say Saturday because it is market day! I can hunt for cheap used clothings (Ukay-ukay) in the market LOL
Essential Item?: My bag with a couple of hankies and a powder and hair brush…and earrings too (I feel there’s something missing when I am not wearing it)
Flavor of Ice Cream?: Ube macapuno
Gummy Bears or Worms?: worms because bears are too big for my mouth LOL just kidding! I can take them both, I don’t care much about the shape.
Hometown?: Kabacan, Cotabato
Indulgences?: Reading and buying stuffs on great big sale or items with SLIGHTLY DAMAGED mark.
January or July?: July because it is rainy season here.
Kids?: I have one beautiful daughter and one on the way!
Last Movie I saw in a Theater?: Jumper (I was bored….)
Middle Name?: Dagandan
Number of Siblings?: Two
Oranges or Apples?: Apples
Phobia or Fear?: Fear
Quote?: I have a new quote which I have just made up today and posted in my entry for today: IF AN ENEMY THROWS A STONE AT YOU, THROW A DOUGHNUT BACK.
Reason to Smile?: When Ella shows me pictures that she drew and she comes to me and give me a kiss and a hug.
Season?: I think now I want rainy season since I wanted to lie down almost all the time and it is so hard to sleep with a hot weather.
Tag Four More: Sheng, Cielo, Malyn and Kerslyn
Unknown Fact About Me?: I sleep with my eyes half open (so embarassing!)
Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animals?: I am a big oppressor of animals because I even could butcher a chicken LOL But I love dishes with little meat and more vegetables.
Worst Habit?: Loves lying in bed when I am not doing anything.
Xrays or Ultrasounds?: Ultrasound…so I could see the baby (like Julie)
Your favourite food?: Spaghetti and barbeque
Zodiac?: Sagittatius but like Julie, I don’t believe in that stuff too.

Got to go! Been asked by my freind to get some info about mesothelioma.

Today is National Heroes Day. Ella has no class and she was very pleased as she said she doesn’t want to go to school anymore because of the bullies. I cooked Bihon Guisado in the morning and I have to call Donald to help me stir it from the pan. I bought 1 kilo of bean noodles plus the vegetables that goes with it so it is pretty muck packed in the pan leaving no room for me to stir. It was also the birthday of JanJan, Ella’s playmate who turned 4 so I gave most of it to them.

In the afternoon, it was too hot and I feel like I am going to sweat all the fluid in my body. Even the fan could not help! I have slept for only a few minutes during my nap. I am just soooo glad that at 5, the sky turned so gray and it began to drizzle. I decided to check on Cat5e patch cable on the internet.

I feel really pregnant now LOL My tummy is bigger than with my first pregnancy. With Ella, I have climbed a mango tree in my FIL’s farm when I was 7 months pregnant. And we wonder how Ella have fit in my tummy because she turned to be a chubby baby. I crave for donuts but I could not find any decent one in the market. There is one bakery which makes doughnuts but they are so hard that it might leave a black mark on your face when thrown at you. I think I have to revise the old adage: IF AN ENEMY THREW A STONE ON YOU, THROW A DOUGHNUT BACK ON HIM (AND HE WILL SURELY LEARN HIS LESSON)

Today is the Floral Float Parade for the KADAYAWAN FESTIVAL (Davao City Foundation Anniversary) and was thinking if we went to see my doctors this weekend instead of going there last weekend, we could have watched the grand parade of beautiful floats. It is always been a big contest among establishments and organizations. The first parade that I have seen was when Mamang was still alive. Ella was 2 then and most of the time she was carried by Mamang. She just loved carrying her piglet.

This float was made of corn grains, chrysanthemums, anthuriums, dendrobiums, mums and foliages of different kinds. We really enjoyed the event and Mamang, who is the most crazy over flowers climbed on some floats and let me took her photos which is the last photos she had before she died. I must say last because some of the negatives after this event are not yet printed until now including Ella’s 2nd and 3rd birthdays. (sighs)

I hope Crislyn will post photos of the parade tonight so I could at least feel I was there.

We have a 12 hours power interruption from 6am to 6pm today. Since we do not have fans in the church, I did not feel that we don’t have power until after worship when we went inside the house. After lunch we spread a mat on the living room floor. To help Ella sleep, I read her a couple of stories from her favorite children’s books. It is too hot! Ella and Donald has slept and I wonder HOW they manage to sleep without fan.

Ella was very protective of her chicks. She has 5 broiler chicks which she and Donald bought yesterday when we went to the market. She was asking for it for a long time and we decided it is time for her to raise chicken again BUT I told her that they will be “fried chicken” when they get big. She nodded and so they went to the store to buy 5 chicks. I think they are more than a week old because their feathers has turned into white. I have to make sure Ella understood that her chicken will be cooked for dinner because we had a very hard time convincing her last year that her two chicken will be butchered for food. She loved her two chicken before and when they are 45 days old, we decided to sell and just tell Ella that they went home to our hometown to visit her grandma’s grave. She bought the idea of her chicken travelling 3 hours to Kabacan. LOL Now that she is 5, I think she have to know so we won’t be feeling guilty again selling or butchering them one by one. So now that she agrees with the idea of making them “fried chicken” someday, she takes care of them as best as she can and makes sure they have always food and water in their cage.

Today I woke up feeling very nauseated. I sat infront of my pc to check on emails and blog hop but I could not stand the cold. I feel like wind is gushing around me and I have to go back to bed and hide under my flannel blanket. I think I have slept for half an hour.

It is Saturday, market day here in our town, so I can’t just lie in bed the whole day without going to the market. Donald, me, Ella and our working student went to the market at quarter before 9 in the morning just right after I woke up the second time. I was not able to blog about our working student since I became so sick the past weeks. She is in 1st year high school, daughter of our neighbor who happen to be a member of the church too. We decided to get her a couple of days before I learned about my pregnancy. She is here to help us with preparing Ella for school, doing the dishes and cook rice. She also do some light yard works but I won’t let her wash clothes. Of course she should wash her own clothes but not ours. I have problems with other people washing my clothes. I am not comfortable with it that is why with all the house helps we had before…laundry is not included in their work. And of course I do not want this girl to be very tired to go to school. Ella really enjoys having her around and she even introduced her to her Tita Cheche when we went to Davao last week, “Tita, ito si Ate Tadiday, may ate na ako…bagong panganak lang siya.” (Tita, this is Ate Tadiday, my new big sister. She is newly born.”

Ella was really excited too that she will be having a baby sister or brother. But she really like a sister. She said if it was a boy she will look for a tall tree, climb there with the baby in his arms and knock in heaven adn ask God to exchange it with a  girl. I actually want a girl too so we won’t be buying new things for the baby since I have kept some clothes and toys and even Ella’s stroller and walker (well with the stroller and walker, it could work well with either boy or a girl since it is unisex). But when I came to read an old post of Julie in her blog, I came across this Chinese calendar and it says I will be having a BOY!!!! Gosh! I do not know how to react on this one. So I emailed Julie and she said with her 4 kids..it was pretty accurate adn with her friends too who have 3 kids!!!! So I told Ella that she might have a baby brother….I was nervous that she might react violently but instead she said, “Okay lang, kahit boy…kasi baka bawiin ni Lord pag-magpili ako eh.” (It is okay if it is a boy. I am afraid God will get the baby back if I will choose.)

With Julie’s kids, she has wrapped gifts for his other kids when one is born. Like it was from their little brother or sister. It was a great idea so I decided to do the same when the baby is born. Maybe I will wrap children’s books or even a bike which Ella was asking for so long (she has outgrown her “torn” bike). So this will make Ella and the baby more attached as Ella. I hope I could save for it before I give birth.

I am back!!!! I have been sick for almost two weeks and I decided to take a break from blogging LOL I am so sorry not to be able to get online and blog hop since my last post. Last Saturday we went to Davao for a check-up and I think there is not much worth sharing except that we met Tita Crislyn and Tito Ace with Tita Cheche and my cousin Manong Joey and his wife Manang Day and their unica hija Dimple. I say there is not much worth sharing because I was not happy with what my cardiologist and OB-gyne said that I am at high risk pregnancy and that each month I need to go to the city for a pre-natal check up with the OB and they won’t let me deliver the baby here in the province. Maybe I can share some more on my next posts. As of now I wanted to show you all the portraits of Ella.

This was taken when she was 6 months old

On her first birthday

Just turned 2

Our Princess a few days before her 3rd birthday

The Cindrella on her 4th birthday

Taken a month after her 5th birthday

When Ella was born, Mamang Eling said I should take pictures of Ella each day after her birth, then weekly and then monthly…then we decided we should get her studio portraits each year. And since we live far from the city, we just had her portrait on the her birthday. The others were taken a few days ahead or late.

By the way, have you heard about Fenphedra? It is the world’s first chemically altered diet pill. Check it out!

It’s seems like lightyears that I wasn’t been here. My internet connection was out since Monday and was up for only a few hours yesterday and out again. I have just did coding for only a few hours and was really dismayed that our base station here in the province had some problems. Glad that finally it was up again and I hope it will be stable so I can make up for the lost time in coding.

Remember when I said Donald was telling me to look in the mirror because I now have some bulges? I am feeling strange and I noticed some changes in my body so I let Donald bought a home pregnancy test and I am positive! Donald and Ella are very excited as it is what they are waiting for. I am two weeks along now and Ella was overly happy. With another member of the family coming, we are hoping we can have more coding hours in OHJ so we can save and pay for our insurance. I came across the NC health insurance and was hoping we have like this here.