Caroleen’s Treasures

Ella has been trying to get everyone a gift and that’s what she succesfully did last night when we went out to do a little shopping. Donald, Crislyn and I started off at nearly 4pm while Ella who was taking a nap at that time was left with Cheche. It was good that she and Cheche followed us at the mall just in time that we already purchased her gift from us. The whole time she’s with her Tita’s, she was picking gifts for me and when she’s with me, she points at the stuffs that Donald might need. In short, she picks, we pay.

So the little girl was very excited and as soon as arrived here at the house, she started wrapping gifts.

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I do believe in miracles and this morning, I witnessed one. Baby Taz was pretty behaved in our Sunday School class and it was indeed a miracle. Unlike the past Sundays when all she does is getting so physical with her cousin, lie down on the floor as if she’s in their house, getting her hands into all the stuffs at Ella’s study table and walking back and forth disturbing not just me but the entire class…..today she stayed there at her chair, eyes pinned on me and repeats every word I utter (that I asked her to stop)while I tell them another story about Jesus. She and her cousin hasn’t exchanged kicks and pinches and it was such a miracle. I now see her as a doll or an angel, not a Baby Taz. Read more… »

I wasn’t feeling like blogging tonight because I am dead tired but there’s a very significant event for our little girl that I couldn’t resist sharing. It’s their Christmas program/party at school this morning and both I and Donald went to party with her. We were in a rush because the program will start at 8am yet we were still about to leave the house at that time. We even hailed a cab even it’s just two blocks away because I am afraid that Ella will miss their class presentation only to see that there are only few kids and parents inside that came before us. Was I surprised? Absolutely no because here in the Philippines when the time that was set is 8am, expect that the program will start an hour late. That’s so called Filipino Time. Read more… »

Nah, I am not speaking in tongues nor was I not talking about prescription medicines (i.e. Paracetamol, atenolol etc)….But that’s Ella’s new word in her growing vocabulary.

UNBELIEBALOL - adj. beyond belief, unconvincing, implausible, inconceivable, unthinkable, incredible, farfetched, unimaginable, impossible, astonishing, astounding, staggering, preposterous.

Yes, you got it. UNBELIEVABLE that is.

She’s been very serious in learning the language of the “white people” (that’s what she said) and everyday that the Lord has made, she watch Magic English and follows all-the-word-that-mickey-mouse-says. Now we have a half-baked American girl in the house. How did Teddy Bear and other bears (who came from US and are full-blooded American) understand her own English language and vocabulary, I had no idea. Read more… »

I was not able to blog yesterday because I was called for back up early. And since it was Saturday night is my shift on OHJ, I was coding until the worship service was about to start. I have more than a dozen kids yesterday on my Sunday School class and we continued on the story about Moses. It is good that kids from the neighborhood was here at last. Ella wore the dress I have sewn. Of course I feel so proud that I have sewn her a dress. But even it is the simplest design I have seen in the internet, I still had a very hard time figuring out what part to pass through the serger machine first

It was also our Meal Fellowship and a baptism of two more souls after lunch. It was just a simple fellowship and everyone enjoyed the food. I wa expecting to see frog on the table but there is none. I hope next fellowhip there will be “adobong tokak” (frog cooked in soy sauce, vinegar, pepper, onion, garlic, ginger and bay leaf with a little sugar).

Today a package from Australia arrived. My friend Kylie sent it and it was a big envelope with gifts for all of us three. I got….

Donald got….

And Ella was so happy to receive….

There is also some seeds but I will keep it and plant it in our own yard. We are planning to buy a lot near here and we pray God will bless our plan. It is nice to live here in the parsonage but it is better to have a place to call our own. Of course we will not buy an expensive lot. Got to go now, have to check on how to get a passport. Who knows we will need it someday

Early in the morning I woke up feeling fine. As if I got the complete sleep my body requires. I crawled to bed at past two in the morning reading blogs but too tired to comment After Ella and Donald left for School, I sat on my pc and went on Opps hunting but no luck I wish tonight I can grab…even just one.

I did some box wrapping today too. The shoe boxes and other boxes I found around the house I wrapped with gift wrapper to give it a more decent look to store stuffs like Ella’s school supplies, my craft supplies and other abubots. I have done several boxes and went to see some more box in the second room where I put all our stuff from Davao. I saw a box outside the house and asked Ella what is the box doing outside. She said she has nothing to do with it so I asked my other child…I mean my husband about the box sitting on the table on the shed.

I found out that Donald put it there the other night when he caught the rat (named Donald Jr.) and put it inside the shoe box. So yesterday, Donald was grumbling about the rat who escaped from the box. He was saying….”He was such a rat!” What else could he call it aside from rat? So to make the story short…(I hope it will really make it short) He caught the rat in the sink the other night, put it in a box with two holes in it. He covered the box and inserted a lit paper (of course it was smoking) to suffocate the rat. He could not kill it as he feels unhumane to kill a living thing (Remember when he doesn’t want to kill bugs and he would just drop them in the chamber pot to drown instead of squeezing them to death?) After sometime, thinking that the rat have died, he went back inside the house. The following morning when he woke up, he saw the box empty. So the brilliant rat escaped! I told him, “You should be ashamed of yourself. The rat is laughing at you. You didn’t know while you are trying to suffocate him, he went into prone position and covered his mouth and nose?”

So much of the rat story In the afternoon, I and Ella had a nap.  At three pm I went to see a doctor for my chest pains and was advised to have a ECG and x-ray in the city. So this means we are going to Davao again. I was hoping it can wait until next month so I can save money for it.

After the check up, I went to pick up a few items in the grocery store and a little present for a 2-year-old boy who invited us for a small party this afternoon. I also got few wrappers to use for the other boxes and also picked up pencils and erasers sets that i can give to two other kids in my Sunday school class who will be celebrating their birthdays next week. It is not much but I am sure they would be happy to receive a present as they are not used to having some during birthdays. After the quick grocery shopping, I went home to drop the grocery bag and off we went to the party. It is far from here and we are the “guest of honor” Only us came from afar, most of the visitors are relatives and friends nearby. They house is small and you can tell they are struggling financially but hey, the still managed to give the boy a happy birthday We had spaghetti, buko salad, bihon guisado, cake and Coke.

When we are done and full…we sat there chatting for a while when we received a message from Tatang to go to her daughter’s house ASAP ‘cos it is Ate Venus birthday too. Oh this is what I miss…too much food It is getting dark when we left the place. I feel horrified by the dark clouds  as it will pour heavy rain (if I say heavy, it is really heavy) It is a remote place and we are like in the woods in the story The Red Riding Hood. We ran as fast as we could, Ella was on her Daddy’s shoulders while I was following them. Only a few cabs get there and we are just so lucky there was one. As soon as we got on the cab, it rained so hard. When we finally arrived at Ate Venus’ place, Ella had a nice time chatting with the visitors who are two to three decades older than she. Only a few friends were there but we had soooo much fun. The visitors could not help but laugh when after we sang “To God be the Glory” and Donald said a prayer, Tatang began to sing loudly The Birthday Song and two more songs. We sang with him trying not to laugh but the visitors almost fell on their seats in laughter because they assumed they can start filling their plates with food after they said Amen :lol: Since we are full, I had only a little rice and steamed catfish. I also picked puto cheese which I really missed and so are Donald and Ella (this is what we are making back in our hometown before to earn a living). We also had buko salad, choco moist, chicken soup, bam-i and fried quail We left with a bag of food for Bogart who patiently waits for us at home.