Caroleen’s Treasures

I was up until 3 in the morning looking at photos of cakes. Donald brought up the idea of baking cakes and pastries again and I remember when I wrote about some wild thoughts October of 2008. I really wanted to learn how to bake especially cakes and we actually have a plan on buying oven and baking equipments before Eman was born. Then came Eman March the following year along with the unexpected hospital bill and the  bills that came from him being hospitalized for three times last August 2009. I have no regrets at all because I can trade all the material things for the life and health of my kids. And came the idea of baking again which I think would be a great business. Well I have proven that getting into a business don’t have to be big. It should be something that you love to do and baking is not difficult to love. Who could resist the cakes?????? I fell in love with fondant icing. I can’t wait to get my hands to it.

There is one thing that made me have second thoughts. It was having a handful to do. I have sew cloth diapers and baby slings plus I make personalized gift items. I told Donald that maybe we are jumping from one project to another…..but he said doing that is not good if we have not perfected the craft and yet start another thing again. He said I have perfected the sewing and hand-painting of gift items so to start a baking business is not a bad idea. That I really need to hear from him so I won’t feel guilty. Why not try? After all all of the successful entrepreneurs does not focus on one business only. So we are now buying an oven for me to bake cakes and cupcakes. I am so excited! I wish I can bake cakes and cupcakes for Eman’s 1st birthday. Read more… »

Last Saturday, I went to SM to meet my high school friends and of course my whole family tagged along. We are inseparables ya know. We were at SM a couple of hours before the agreed time. We brought the laptop to Thinking Tools to get the DVD ROM checked. Then we went down to the Food Court (our favorite tambayan) and pigged out on cheese flavored french fries and choco fudge black pearls. Nom nom nom.

Since we will have  dinner together with my friends, we brought the stroller so the little guy will be comfortable just in case he naps. The whole time we were there Ella was the one pushing the stroller around. She would get mad if we will take over.

She was showing his little brother around the windows we passed by, stopping for a while to let the little guy see those mannequins in fancy clothes. Read more… »

Early morning when no one in the house has taken a bath yet, they stayed longer in bed staring at a large picture frame.

Ella found my mother’s picture and for days she kept it close to her.

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I have not accomplished anything worthwhile today. I have some orders for cloth diapers and will be working on baby sling for Mitch but Cheche was not yet here. She stayed for a couple of days at my sister Crislyn’s place to help her with chores and going to the market. Even when she’s not yet here, I tried getting myself infront of my sewing machine yesterday only to get a big scare from a snake. I received a message from Ms. Alex about her order and I was also determined to make myself a baby sling so I started working on it as soon as Eman was settled in his hammock for his morning nap. I don’t usually leave the front door open when I am sewing because I don’t want people to see me working but yesterday I left it wide open. I did that for ventilation since I did not open the back door and windows thinking it will just be a quick sewing. My sewing machine is on top of a table just 3 ft. away from the door. I was facing the windows (the door is on my right) and thank goodness an angel whispered to me to glance at the door because if not, the cobra could have entered the house without my knowledge and could have bitten me. Yaiks!!!! Read more… »

I made myself busy today with baby sling project so I could wear my baby! After a couple of  tries…(and a big scare with a snake) tadaaa!!!!!!

Here’s my handmade baby sling made of cotton fabric that is so comfy for me and him.

Hip carry – very convenient

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He could have understood when I told Donald that I don’t trust the strength of the hooks that are holding the hammock…..

So he held on tightly for his dear life.

I should write a series of posts this morning while Eman is in his hammock. We were at Manang Inday’s place the other day for lunch (to break the monotony of them being here everyday for lunch and dinner) but we have to bring him home right after we finished our food. He was getting very fussy because he was so sleepy and was looking for his hammock. This hammock really helps a LOT. During our first few days here, Eman naps in the bed (he wouldn’t want to be put down in his crib even during playtime and I wonder why) and wakes up every now and then when he hear a noise. We wouldn’t want to be hammering nails on the walls here because this is not our place but Donald figured out what to do. He brought out some big hooks that Mama Ingrid sent along with the stuffs in the big boxes and drilled it on the ceiling. I was very hesitant to put Eman down because it might not hold Eman’s weight but thank goodness we didn’t had any fall yet and I must say we won’t have any of it.

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The agony was over. After months of worrying what is really wrong with the little man, we brought him to the hospital for his VCUG last Wednesday. Actually it should be last Monday but I don’t think I can manage it because I was too nervous to do it. I already have read all about the procedure even when Dr. Lobo talked to us about doing VCUG as soon as the circumcision is healed. I even mouthed it before the doc had mentioned the word and I am very confident that time that things will be very very easy. Not until we saw the other doc that performed the circumcision. If I may say so…he is one big discouragement to parents (I don’t want to stress it out anymore so as not to create issues here) He opposes Dr. Lobo’s opinions and decisions and when I decided I have enough and it’s time to give up one of them….I dropped him and went to find another urologist.

I was really thankful that I found Dr. Latayan’s blog….we were lead to his clinic and Eman had this test done without much issues. He is writing very helpful articles about his specialty and we encouraged him to monetize it.
The procedure was quick. We actually spent more time in the waiting room and the I am not so sure if the young group there are students or licensed radiologists but they’ve been so nice and entertaining to Eman. When Dr. Latayan arrived, he greeted Eman and we went inside the x-ray room. He was so kind to teach us how to save for the procedure and that is to buy the stuffs needed (dye, gloves etc.) outside the hospital and so that is what we did. We laid Eman on top of the x-ray table with clothes still on while Dr. Latayan prepared the dye and everything. They took one shot before we stripped Eman’s clothes and he started to insert the cathether and filled his bladder with dye. We were asked to wear a colorful vest and skirt that are very heavy! I don’t know what they are made but I guess it has some metals on the small pockets as protection from radiation. I just regret that we didn’t have a camera at hand because we looked so cute in those costume! Picture out Donald and Dr. Latayan wearing a skirt! It’s not really a funny attire but I was just amazed at it. Add to it is the group of young people in the room who ran in line like ducklings going inside the cubicle each time the doc would shout, “shoot!”. They aren’t wearing those awesome costumes so they are running for their lives.

Eman didn’t care while Dr. Latayan was inserting the cathe. He only cried when he peed and he was soaking wet. We have to wait until all the series of x-rays are taken before we can clean him up and dress him so he was not so happy with lying there in his pee. So the idea of it being painful is not all true and I have proven that. So after all the pictures are taken and films are out, Dr. Latayan’s verdict was Eman has no reflux and it was all clear for valves lying along the ureters. Thanks God Eman won’t be needing any surgery. I know this is a long shot again…but please check on rackmount. Have a wonderful day!

We had the lamest excuse of not going to church today and that is getting up late. Ella was the most disappointed and I just realized we should bring her to church every Sunday morning because she detests the evening worship. When I told her we will go to the mall first and proceed to Matina for the evening worship, she protested violently telling me she woke up early because she wanted to go to church in the morning because evenings don’t have Children’s class. I know, I know….the bad parents award goes to us. Anyhoo, even if justifying it won’t make any sense at all….I would just like to write down here that Donald and I are both working online until late last night (he even left the laptop on while it was running some seo tools software thinking it will get done before we leave for church in the morning) not to mention it was hot like hell that made me stay up longer, then the aching head and back that I got from the scares brought to me by the little fella with his rolling over and snake crawls. Many times did we catch him near the edge of the bed even if we just put him a while ago in the side of the wall. So back on the disappointed Ella…..since it will take us an hour to get there, we faithfully sworn that we will not miss morning service anymore (so help us God).

I just didn’t realize that our 15 month stay in Trento had made a great impact to her. She’d knew it was Sunday because Donald plays acapella Christian songs while we are still in bed. She will wake up hearing the songs and she even memorized even the part of the base and alto. Then she is used to me teaching them at Children’s class. We live in the parsonage right next to the chapel so she was never absent from the class (except when we had trips to the city) and that is what she is missing. I honestly thought it’s fine with her to be absent once in a while. Now I know it would be a major disaster. Read more… »

Waaaah! It’s so hot in here!!!!! It’s almost midnight and all windows are open but I feel very very hot. The kids are asleep peacefully but Eman is surely sweating profusely on the head. We are actually on much higher ground and we should have cold wind blowing now but the weather forecast could have been wrong when they say we will have rain today. You see we only have one fan here. We used to have two but we don’t want to mess with the walls here because we are just renting so we decided to gave it away when we moved.

I hope it will rain. I am not really a person who complain about being hot…..I am pretty contented with just a little fan that blows humid air but lately I can’t help it anymore. For the sake of the kids Donald was talking about getting an AC for the room so they could sleep comfortably especially during daytime because we don’t know what to do anymore. If we keep the windows open, bugs and other insects will be coming in and Eman will get more of these bites and rashes. If we keep it closed……he will float from his own sweat! But anyway, the AC could come last. We need to settle other loans first before thinking about that so for now I am crossing my fingers weather will be nicer tomorrow, the next day, the day following the next….and so on.

Yesterday was special because Eman turned 6 months old and it was “Family Day” for Ella. I am becoming lazy in taking pictures of the kids which is bad since Eman is showing more antics than ever and I missed to capture most of that. So to mark this day, I propped him on the bed and started clicking away.

He seemed not so in the mood for photo shoot.

then he started praying or was he counting his little fingers?

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