Caroleen’s Treasures

Last February 8 was our 7th wedding anniversary and that day we had the worst meal.

Daddy, who is in Pagadian City, sent an sms greetings early in the morning. Donald was surprised he still remembers it. Well of course he does because he was the mastermind of our wedding date. LOL Daddy is not Chinese but he suggested it should be on the 8th or any date that the bottom does not points downward (like 1, 4, 7 and 9).

There in so specific plan for that day but Ella wanted it to be special by making a greeting card for me and Donald. We went to SM and did our usual walk around the ground floor and checked for a good deal at the second floor. Good thing I didn’t find anything worth buying because I have no plans in spending for anything but food that day. Then we passed by this new section at the second floor that really bothered Ella.

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I am not feeling well today. I guess it’s the over-exertion from holding Eman. He is becoming more and more active and when he’s on my lap, he tries to reach for things that he finds interesting. He also have this attitude of making his head fall back when he can’t get what he wanted. Well I am the mother and he can’t get his way. I am giving him a swat on the leg and tell him it’s not good each time he does that. He’s 9 months and he’s not too young for discipline. So there you go, nip it in the bud.

So the whole morning I was feeling sick. Donald gave me a massage and he said what I needed is a joy ride. I don’t want to be called a wet blanket so I agreed. We went to Mintal taking the back road as usual. The afternoon breeze was cold and I somehow felt better. We wanted to eat so we looked around for a resto that serves Pansit Guisado and the like and so we did some kind of a little tour because we are not yet familiar with the place. While we are looking around I told Donald about the fellow blogger, Chikai, who grew up in that place. Last night I scoured her blog for the post she did many months ago when her grandma died. It has photos of their house. I was lucky to have found it last night so I told Donald about it and he was interested in finding it too. I knew the name of the street but we didn’t get around to asking people where it can be found because on our next turn I saw a house that I thought their house (I mean her parent’s house - since she is married and is based in the US now). But the house is not like what I saw in the pictures…..theirs is green and beside it is their grandma’s house. We are slowly moving and as we got near the curb, I saw a very familiar house. Read more… »

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”. Read more… »

Yes! Guess what’s new with this sleepy little town?

So now we have it here! I know, I know the title is pretty much exaggerated. It’s just that I am too overwhelmed with this little improvement here in town. We didn’t know about it until we went to Central Warehouse to get some groceries. I was telling Donald since Monday that we really needed to go there because Ella’s goody cabinet and the fridge are bare. We will be the host of the bible study tomorrow afternoon and we have to prepare snacks for the members and since we won’t be having enough time tomorrow to run to the grocery store, we went there after we fetched Ella at school. We are both wanting to nap in the morning but I am glad we are not defeated by our sleepiness. We have been working on his blog for “light years” now and I have come to realize the importance of buying a laptop. We can both work at the same time which is nice and we stayed up until 3am just tweaking his theme yet we are not yet there….still needing lots of work and tons of patience. :-S

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Still God isn’t done washing the earth and by now, everywhere I look is pretty soaked. I was planning to send Cheche’s tuition fee through xoom but changed my mind at the very last minute. The fee is for me unreasonable, and since she has our Daddy’s atm card, why not just send it directly there. I asked Donald if he has any plans on going to the market today and he said none but he went anyway after I told him that sending the money through xoom will cost much.

We spent the whole day just inside the house which is not new at all since we rarely step out of the house. If only the bathroom inside was done, we won’t be going out at all except for Donald and Ella going to school or market. There were even days when the gate was left locked for the whole day. Tomorrow, Ella’s class will resume and I will go out with them because it’s my pre-natal check-up and anti-tetanus shot. I hope the weather won’t be too nasty tomorrow as I do really hate getting out in such a bad weather. Read more… »

While I was arranging Ella’s photos in her albums, I found this old photographs that I would like to share. Read more… »

Today is Saturday and as I have already said, I like this day more than any day of the week because it is “market day”. Since we skipped going to the market last week, we planned in going there today to buy fruits and vegetables that I really need.

Yesterday, I was checking my eon account if the $35 I transferred from my paypal account has already been sent but until this morning I still haven’t received it. I was puzzled how come it took so long for the money trasnfer when it usually takes 3 days for the whole process? So I checked my paypal and I was surprised that the $35 is still there waving at me. What a bummer! Read more… »

As I mentioned on my last post, I will be making some more improvement on my blog and I hope I did it better with this new theme. I was hoping for a total make over But I only have a few downloaded themes to choose from. I have found some nice ones but have to send it to my sister Kerslyn for her to upload it and send it back to me. Maybe in a few more days I can finalize my theme….my fourth theme.

Today we spent the day having fun. First thing in the morning, Donald checked our eon account and our earnings from OHJ has been sent so after Ella’s class we all headed to the market. Poor us….we weren’t able to see the world for two weeks now since our earnings was delayed for a couple of weeks. We had a brunch at The Resto, the only snack house which serves burgers, pasta, halo-halo and combo meals. Ella and I both had cheese burgers while Donald had a platter of rice, chicken, pansit miki, banana cake and shrimp fries (their own version of Chowking Lauriat) As usual Ella only ate the bun This is why when she asks for burger, we just buy her a plain bread because the beef patty, cheese and anything else in it will be thrown on my plate and I end up having the biggest and fattest burger there. Read more… »

Probably this is the most tiring day for me since school has started. Donald usually goes to school with Ella and was the one who is attending PTA meetings. But today was different. Ella asked me to go with them at school for their Nutrition Month Celebration and won’t accept my alibis that MsE or GE won’t let me end coding because the queue is very high. As early as 6:30 in the morning, I already sent pm to the admin asking for permission to log off at 8 am and stated my reason but it was already quarter before 8 and still no response from them.

Ella: Mommy, sama ka sa amin sa school….please….(Mommy, please go with us to school.)
Me: Baka hindi ako payagan mag-log out eh….(I may not be allowed to log out.)
Ella: Lambingin mo lang si MsE…wag mong biglain para hindi magalit. (Ask MsE in a sweet and  gentle  manner so she won’t get mad…)(It was like-Break it to me Gently)
Me: Eh paano pag ayaw talagang pumayag? (What will I do if she won’t really allow me?.)
Ella: Eh di patayin mo na yang computer mo. (You shut off your computer.)

A 5-year-old does know more than we isn’t it?

Luckily, Crislyn went online a few minutes before 8. maybe she has received my SOS txt message and also MsE has answered my pm because one coder called her about my case. She apologized that she hasn’t responded immidiately because she was also coding that time to help keep the queue low. Ella and Donald went ahead and I followed after an hour. The whole program went fine.

Each level has table to set. There was a table setting contest and the “binignit” cooking contest. Our group, the kinder 2 won. Since it was Nutrition Month Celebration….nutritious foods from the GO, GROW AND GROW food groups were served…..roasted pig and chicken, hotdogs, spaghetti, cake and ice-cream plus there are candies Well, I cannot argue with the master minds of this because I was not there during the meeting. All I can do is grumble why on earth does they have these sort of food in such celebration. Nutrition Month Celebration…so nutritious food should be served. But hey, maybe it was during my time…:lol: It’s generation Z now. Ella was busy pointing who did this, who did that to her…But anyway, the whole program was a success!

In the afternoon we went to Bunawan, a town next to Trento, to follow up about a neighbor’s lot that she was planning to sell (to us). Bye for now, have to rest.

Thank goodness I was out from OHJ seven minutes before 8am. Donald woke up Ella, bathe, dressed, fed and walk her to school. Ella wore her P.E. uniform and I was suprised how she has grown tall in just a month! When we bought it, I made sure it has some allowance so she can wear it longer….but man, this girl sure does in growth spurt! She has literally outgrown ALL her clothes in a span of 5 months! She grows taller than our income OHJ is such a blessing and thanks to my sister Crislyn that she encouraged me to apply as coder. Now we we have something to look forward to each couple of weeks aside from my blogging.

The butterfly is still inside the house and it went inside our bedroom. I was sewing the rest of Ella’s pyjammas when I noticed it was on my back…resting in the curtain. Donald had the uniforms of Ella and I was wrong when I said on my previous post that I am a bit disaapointed because when I examined it closely, I am very devastated. I spent the whole morning until dinner time repairing it. The neckties are such a mess, the embroidered intials of the school was like that of an amateurs work when in facts she has been sewing for over a couple of decades now; the necktie itself is too long; the edges of the uniform has not passed through a serger machine (only zigzaged and really looks like hell); the button holes are not shaped as a button hole but a human eye; the green skirt has a yellow thread in the inside and the skirt is 1½ shorter. I was grumbling why on earth the seamstress has measured Ella when she did not follow the exact measurement especially the length! I unstitched the embroidery in the necktie and the skirt. I sew the skirt and the necktie the length that I wanted. Which is supposed to be and I must say, the right length. What took so much of my time is the initials in the necktie, as it was my first time to do it, I redid it 20+times until I finally got the result I wanted.

Today Ella’s study table was finally delivered from the furniture shop beside us. It took 20 days before it was done but it is worth the waiting because it is finely made. I will post a photo tomorrow.
As some of you know, Ella’s plastic table flipped from the truck when we moved from the city and since then she was writing and drawing and even reading on the floor. This was our first project from my coding job.

Last night Ella watched tv in the neighbor’s house. I do not know why she remembered it. We do not have tv since moved here and she seldom asked us to go over there and watch. She has been so afraid of being locked out at night time especially when we do not want her to go over and watch tv in the neighbor’s house. Thisf amily has no little kid so Ella has been the center of attention. When I saw the butterly came out from the back of the plastic cabinet, I closed the front door so it won’t get out and I can take snaps. Little did I know Ella saw it and came rushing home thinking she has been locked out. She was so thrilled seeing the butterfly too and after a while she went back there. I think it was past 9 in the evening when she called from the neighbor’s porch telling us to lock her out. I asked, “Are you sure????” She wuickly replied, “Yes, I have the key here.” If you thought she was just kidding, you are wrong. We locked the door and she came home and used the key she has with her.

The house has benn packed with kids and a mother. I would really get old earlier when we will live here for good. I get stressed too with the neighbors problems on money, school allowances, debts and even food. Just before lunch, three sibling came over to play with Ella. I know their mother was working in the ricefield and they were left alone by themselves. I asked what they have for lunch, the 8 year-old girl said rice with vinegar and salt The other kids are 3 and 1. We sent her to the store to buy a can of sardines for them to share. Ella now eats whatever on the table knowing that her friends has no food on the table and goes to bed hungry at times.