Credits: Moody Blues from Shabby Princess

Yesterday morning I got a call from Len-Len (the lady in brown) that she wanted to meet us in the evening with the other high school classmates. She came home for a 2-weeks vacation from London. She had already spent time with my other classmates in our hometown drinking and playing billiards. MyMy (the lady in blue) and I are the only ones who are based in Davao so our reunion was something more decent. LOL Well it’s because we are both mothers and we don’t drink. DenDen (the one in yellow) is from Cagayan de Oro. She traveled all the way from there to Kabacan just for the get-together party and was towed from Kabacan to Davao with a promise that she can go home after dinner.

We had dinner at Antonio’s Bar and Grill. The food and the service is great, worth every peso you pay and the ambiance is really nice for an intimate dinner. I find it hard to catch up with everyone’s life….we are jumping from one person to another talking about each others lives and remembering memories from long time ago.  I have my whole family with me which is not a problem since they all wanted to see the kids and they kept telling me how lucky I am for having such a good husband.

LenLen was my bestfriend during Sophomore and Junior years. I was always at their house spending the night with my partner-in-crime DenDen. Later did I know that LenLen’s family has moved to Davao and their house is just near in our place! So we will be seeing each other more in her next vacation. DenDen is like my sister and even my sisters call her adopted sister because she has lived with us when her family moved to Bukidnon. She calls my parents Daddy and Mamang too. MyMy is the shy type and was always so sweet. We didn’t spend time like I did with the two because she’s a home buddy and I go out a lot during weekends. After 16 years, look at us…soon we will need anti aging products but the good part is that I am now the most home buddy of us all. The world is really round eh?

]]> http://caroleenstreasures.com/2010/02/reunited/feed/ 2 http://caroleenstreasures.com/2010/01/growing-old-together/ http://caroleenstreasures.com/2010/01/growing-old-together/#comments Thu, 14 Jan 2010 06:16:38 +0000 carol http://caroleenstreasures.com/?p=2318 Last Sunday night, my sister’s PILs visited them and since we were there the night before, we joined them for dinner too.

They are the sweetest couple I have seen. They are our wedding godparents and have known them for some time now. Of course couples have indifferences and they are a living example of “growing old together”. My sister and BIL prepared grilled tuna (daddy is very good at grilling so he was the one who fixed it), beef with ampalaya (bitter gourd) and crabs. The whole time we were eating (food is so good that you will forget about diet and just get fda approved diet pills afterwards), Uncle Tony was diligently putting crab meat at Auntie Carmen’s plate. We have lived with them for months and I have not heard or seen them argue. They are to me one of the nicest couple on earth. Aren’t their daughters-in-law and son-in-law the luckiest?

Last night after I have posted my entry for the day, Tatang and Inang came over for a short visit. They missed Ella and wanted to know how we are doing too. Chatted about our trip to Kabacan and how Papang Alfred was doing and about what kept them both busy the past days. When it’s time to leave, Ella tagged Inang’s hand and asked if she would like to buy some painted blocks. She opened the box and showed it to Inang followed by her “sales talk”. Of course who could resist a 5-year-old charm? Inang asked her how much and she said each small block costs P1, showing her the green block. Inang was in awe and could not believe that Ella has this wonderful idea and fished in her purse a one peso coin and bought one. When Inang asked her what’s the use of it, she showed her that the blocks could be made houses or buildings when stacked (like lego). Smiling, Inang hugged and kissed Ella after praising her for being so helpful to Mommy and Daddy and headed out the door. So this thrilled Ella so much and could not contain the happiness that at last someone bought. Now because of this, she was convinced that she could sell more the following day. She painted some more and planned on selling it after worship.

When it dried, she carefully packed it inside a box ready for selling.

This is how her blocks look like. She tried her best to make it as appealing as it could be.

And she kept on changing box. You could see the excitement in her eyes and she had a hard time sleeping last night thinking about it.

So today after our Children’s class, we all went inside the chapel. The kids stayed behind me and when I looked around, Ella was carrying her box of blocks! I never thought she was serious about selling it to the members after te worship service and before I could stop her, she was talking to someone about buying some. Some find it cute, some find it amusing and all of them said it is good that at a young age, she is this resourceful. When the last couple left the chapel, Ella has P20 in her pocket which she was counting every now and then. When she asked me if her money has still change when she buys a car, I said “Nak, kahit gulong kulang pa ‘yan.” (That would not be enough even for a tire) And so this makes her want to sell more.

After lunch, I started doing the laundry and Donald helped me as usual. I was not suppose to do it today since it should be rest day but I want to take advantage of the good weather. It was sunny today and I was hoping it would go on until it all dried up. After everything is done, we received an invitation for dinner at Ate Lourdes’ house as a thanksgiving for her twin daughter’s birthday. The twins are in Davao right now but she want to celebrate it here too so her SIL Ate Rose, BIL, nephew Edward were there. It was supposed to be a family affair but they invited us because we were like their adopted family. It was such a very wonderful night with Ate Lourdes and Ate Rosie. We had great time chatting and I literally forgot about the time. Ella played all by herself with the dishes and pots in the kitchen while Donald, Edward and Christopher (Ate Lou’s son) had some men’s talk in the living room too. After Ate Rosie and her family left, Donald and Christopher joined us in the kitchen to have some review of history (our life’s experiences). It was a night full of laughter and we were so full too. Ate Lou let us bring some spaghetti and pansit which I would be eating again after this post.

Shortly after they arrived, hard rain poured like God is washing the earth. It was so cold and I feel like wanting to go sleep all day. We had fried chicken for lunch but I ate just a little. I hate the smell of some foods and I just can’t take the same servings as I used to. I hope the first trimester will end soon so I’d be back on my eating habit.

Surely we did had a good nap even without power. I was wondering what caused the power interruption on Monday. As I said, it is very unsual that they cut power on Saturdays, much more on weekdays. We usually had black outs during Sundays. Good that it rained, it saved me from ranting whole day for sweating profusely and not being able to get a good nap which I really really wanted to have each day of the year.

When we woke up I was craving for banana que and I dropped a hint to Donald that I so wanted some. He went to buy near the National High School which is nearly a mile away. He took a ride I know and the rain has stopped, but I am just so glad that he did not complain. it is really good to be pregnant.

It was getting dark when Tadiday came from school. I heard her ask Ella where am I and called for me that my “order” has arrived. She saw Donald on the banana que stand and Donald send her the 12 sticks of banana que. It is not so sumptous as I wanted but it fed my fantasy. I wanted big and really riped ones but those are small and not-to-ripe ones. Even it was not the same banana I wanted, Donald’s willingness to go and get me some made it taste more delicious than it ought to be.

After Donald sent the bag of bananas to Tadiday, he walked to the Methodist Church to check what the folks are working on. He said he have seen wires laying low and trees being cut. But there is still no rain when the power went off so it should not be due to falling branches that have cut the wires. He found out that the church members there decided to do some clearings and they accidentally hit some wires among the trees and it took them forever to contact the electric corporation to fix the problem.

It was nearly 6 pm when the power went back, just after I have made a lamp out of salt and cooking oil. When we were still small, Daddy taught us how to make a lamp. I filled an empty coffee glass of salt and then I poured cooking oil enough to soak the salt. I then rolled a cotton on a thin stick which I stuck in the middle of the glass and lit it up. I made lamp in case those dumb people who cut tree branches very professionally cannot let the lineman fix it up before darkness sets in. Tadiday was amazed at how salt and oil could make a lamp and exclaimed “maybe it is science…”. I answered back teasingly, “Maybe it is mathematics…” and I grinned. We are enjoying the lamp and the dancing flame when power went back.

You might be wondering why my monitor was on if we had no power, I took this while I am making this post just to share what this lamp looks like. LOL I remember the Sunday School song…give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning, burning, burning….give me oil in my lamp I pray.

We had a feast tonight. For dinner we had roasted chicken, coke and ice cream. The three of them was happy but I am the most happy with my grilled eggplant dipped in fish paste with vinegar. This is to celebrate for getting paid again from coding.

And her new hairstyle….

Well I like her new look now, at least I can send her to school with a head band and not worry about tying her hair wet.

I lost internet connection at 4am so I got some sleep before Ella went to school. I feel so sore on my back when I woke up from my naps. Yes I had several naps. I again did some cutting of fabric for her pyjamas. Did I mention before that there was a neighbor that keeps on coming back to borrow money? She did come back thrice and she seem not to believe we don’t have money to lend. We don’t really have some extras, only we have enough for our needs and my medication. Then there’s another neighbor who went here last night to borrow money for food, I said I have no change so I offered to lend her if we can find a change of my bill. The she refused to accept since I don’t have a change, I offered a pack of noodles and a can of corned beef but she didn’t accept it. Why would I offer to lend her and I said no to the first? Because the second one needs food, the first one just needs money to pay her debt (she loaned money to buy lotions and other beauty products and to me it is not a necessity). Then in the afternoon, a third neighbor came to borrow money to pay the truck who will deliver wood for their furniture shop. So this one is a need to (to my judgment) so I loaned her the amount since we have ordered a desk for Ella. If she can’t pay it, I can deduct it on the amount of the desk.

I am honestly stressed with all the rantings of my neighbors. Each day I can hear each one of them complain having no food. As much as we can, we try to help. But now I need some medication, all we hope is for more opportunities to come so we can still hand the kids some biscuits when they come here with grumbling tummies.

This makes Ella understand how hard life is….so last night while I was busy cutting fabric, she she was busy counting something on the floor. Then I heard her complain some are missing. I looked at her and there on the floor were nails in different sizes and with different thickness of rust in it. She said she will sell it so we can have money. She told us once before but now she seems to be serious. I said she don’t need to make money herself because Mommy and Daddy are the ones who does it. But she insists, saying she want to help so she can buy slippers for the kids here. Oh well, I can’t argue with her at this point.

Tonight we went to Tatang and Inang’s place. Ella wanted to ride her bike because we couldn’t fit in the motorcycle. Me, Donald, Ella and Cheche (the one who fetched us). We said NO so she was forced to ride with us. When we were half on our way, the motorcycle died. In the middle of woods, without a single light and a house near. So Ella was grumbling more saying if she only rode her bike, we can get there on time She was saying…”because I said so….” and “Mauna na lang ako sa inyo Daddy…” (I will go ahead of you Daddy…) and started to walk. Gladly Cheche had a celphone so she sent a message that we are stuck there, anotehr motorcycle came to get Ella and Cheche while I stayed with Donald and Uncle Jun who fixed the sparkplug. It was an old one and needs overhaul or replacement.

After a few minutes, they finally made it run. So we had a nice dinner and chat with Tatang, Inang and half of their family (I say half because not all children and grankids were there) We took some snaps and was thinking it must be better if Tatang and Inang wore renaissance clothing for more drama and effects.