Early this morning I woke up with a very heavy head and it went on until late in the afternoon. I can’t seem to figure out the reason. It’s not migraine, just a pain on my temple but I have problem trying to relax. This goes on for a couple of days and during the evening, I feel tightening on my nape. We eat healthy foods and if we had meat, we always add vegetables as extender and I do cut down on salt. So how come I feel my blood pressure is shooting up again. 
Oh well, I just hope it’s because of the weather which could be too striking hot during the noontime and would end up raining late in the afternoon. Read more… »
ACTUALLY is one of the words that amuse me lately. Ella was doing good in learning to speak English and three nights ago, when I was telling her to come up in bed she made me and Donald burst in laughter. “ACTUALLY, ‘di pa ako inaantok.” (Actually, I am not sleepy yet.) And she pronounced the word pretty well. I asked her where on earth did she get that word and she answered, “Galing kay Rabbit.” (It’s from Rabbit.) Yeah, Rabbit. The keritz lover in Winnie the Pooh movies. She’s really learning. 
Read more… »
Our day went pretty well except for a little stress in my part as a stage mother. Tomorrow and Friday will be Ella’s final examinations for the first semester and I am quite horrified what mark she would have in her report card at the end of this semester. I have given to Donald the duty of reviewing her on her lessons since I got a very short patience and as a choleric person, I want her to get right away what we are studying about. But I promise to myself I work on this one; I am trying to level myself with my 5-year-old. I called her after I made the reviewers and we studied peacefully but as minutes passed by, I began to feel I need to turn this over to Donald. Read more… »
Early this morning, the cellphone rang. I asked Donald if it was SOS message from OHJ staff, he nodded and went back to sleep. Whenever we receive SOS message, I could not disregard it so even half asleep I jumped out of bed and started the pc. Who could resist an SOS message when we are barely able to work 4 hours a day for a week now? When I got online and was invited in the voice conference, the queue is only 16 and I just told myself maybe it went down that fast. So I stayed there and in no time I was asked to log in. When Donald was finally in his own self…totally awake, he asked me why I am so early to work. I told him because we received an SOS message which he read, and his eyes went rolling like this 
The celfone rang because of the alarm clock!!!!! Oh bummer!!!! At least I have worked for almost 3 hours already and I only need to work more than an hour more tonight. 
Read more… »
Woke up too weak to move. Stayed in bed until Ella left for school and was still under the covers when she was back. Yesterday she made Donald angry when he went to pick her up to school and she was still there writing, the last to finish I think. Like what the teacher always say, she write very well but she is such a talkative girl. So yesterday while the others are copying what the teacher has written on the board, Ella was busy talking to her seatmate. When the time to dismiss the class, she was still halfway through it. Read more… »
Our day went well with drizzles during late afternoon. I was too lazy to do the laundry and I am crossing my fingers that I could drag my feet into doing it tomorrow. After Ella and Donald left for school, I went back to sleep until Ella was back after 3 hours. One of her classmates pinched her on the left arm that left three little wounds. Donald wasn’t able to talk to the teacher and the boy who did it because she just met Ella almost halfway from the school. Even if Donald would go back to the school, the boy might have gone home. So when I asked Ella how school was and she showed me her wounds, I was totally mad. I interviewed Ella what happened and she said the teacher has put her chair close to the seat on her back so she moved in forward a little. That is when the boy infront of her got mad and pinched her thrice (with the other boy saying “Do it harder!”). She cried and she told the teacher what happened and the teacher scolded the boy. I hate to say that I am frustrated at what is happening inside the classroom even when the teacher is around. I told Ella to ask the teacher to transfer her seat beside the “good” kids but she said all of them are “bad”. :sighs:
So tomorrow Donald will talk to the teacher and the stupid boy. I am suggesting he should talk to the mother too because she should know and “hopefully” discipline her son.
I was a really really stressed with what is going on in here. Tadiday’s mother was furious that she won’t go home. Yesterday after worship, Tadiday went to their home because her mother wanted to talk to her “again”. She was insisting that Tadiday will go home so she can work in the ricefield during school days to pay off her debt. She knew I won’t let Tadiday be absent from her classes to pay her mother’s debt during school days because what we agreed is Tadiday can harvest rice during Saturdays only. In fact I should not let her work during Saturdays because it is the only time she can help us here in the house. But just to help the mother too, I agreed on that arrangement. But now she wanted her daugther to work whenever she wanted. I pity the girl because her mother said she will disown her if she won’t go home.
Early today she went to their house to get something and her mother was furious. Yelling she will throw all her clothes and burn them up if she won’t go home. Then again this evening she was called and again the issue is to go home. She didn’t said a word and left. The mother went near the house and was yelling….”Kung dili ka muuli karon, ilabay ko tanan imong mga sanina diri!!!! Pangita ug laing inahan nimo!!!” (If you won’t go home, I will throw all your clothes here!!! Look for another mother!!!) I was afraid what Donald might do because he was just holding his tongue and controlling his temper. What we wanted is for the mother to talk to us maturely because we talked to them maturely before Tadiday went to live with us.
I pity this girl because she really do not want to go home. We talked to her several times what is her decision and it won’t change. She is staying with us. Donald and I said we will support her decision because she hasn’t done anything wrong to be treated like that by her own mother. I was trying so hard not to be affected but I can’t help feel very bad about it. She wanted to finish school. She deserves it so much. If we let her go back to her mother, we know for sure her life will be back in misery. This is crazy!
As I already posted last night, Donald played “Jack of all Trade” and did some tweaking on the PC to make it look like Windows Vista. And then…poofff…he could not access to any program. Such a genius! 
Well, I could now laugh at it…but last night I was really mad because I so wanted to blog and blog hop and maybe I could grab some opps. Anyway, he already learned his lesson and my dear PC is back on its normal state again
Today was pretty good. So good to take a nap because it rained. Ella went to school bringing a bond paper for their drawing session. She told me last night that Teacher would want them to bring ONE piece but I insisted that she’d bring TWO. At this stage, the Teacher is always right and the little kids always say “Sabi ni Teacher isa lang…” (Teacher said to bring just one…) or just anything that the teacher said. I remember the joke about a teacher. She was teaching 1st grade, she said…” A as in Apple” (pronounced as A as in EYPOL) But anyway, when Ella was about to leave for school I wrapped two pieces of bond paper in case she makes a mistake. I don’t know what her reaction was when she discovered Mommy sent TWO.
After school, Ella played like she always did. She dressed up like Barbie in Fairytopia and scattered all her plastic toys in the living room. She doesn’t fail to dig on the other room what she could find on the bags where I kept all the costumes I got from our store before. She has this Tinker bell, Jasmine, Cinderella, Snow White, Barbie and those ballerina costumes too. Today she chose to be Barbie and was enjoying every moment.
The Fairy who claims to be a mother
to two beautful bears
who lives in this house
and loves making meals out of clay and leaves
and is crazy over her ironing
It is half past nine but Ella was still playing. She changed into an Angel costume. Can’t take photo because the battery is dead. Before she changed to Angel, she was a Ballerina and twirling in the living room like crazy bum like she has taken tons of energy pills. She is can stay wide awake until after midnight if we let her.
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.
Today we went to the seamstress to get measurement for Ella’s uniforms. Donald and I are talking about fetching her after their class so we could go straight from there to the seamstress, but Ella got home before we left the house.
Before she went to school, she looked for Bogart around the house. Bogart always walks with her and Donald to school and was on the front door waiting. But today, he was nowhere to be found. I didn’t realized how Ella missed her dog and her day would be not complete without Bogart when after her class, she walked to the big house owned by Tatang’s daughter….called Bogart’s name then she said “Bogart, let’s go home now…come on!” Bogart seemed to understand and he did went home with Ella.
Bogart visits her brother at the big house once in a while. But since Ella was here, he stays in the house. When Ella and Bogart gets home, we headed back near her school to see the seamstress. Oh it was like walking on a treadmill….I was so tired yet I feel so good with the exercise. On our way there, I took some snaps of them……
Ella goes to school following the road less travelled….
passing by some friends…..
Then a swimming pool……for ducks and frogs.
And gets to appreciate the beautiful flowers that grows along the road…..which are actually weeds.
Then she arrives at her school, say goodbye to Daddy and Bogart.
Look at Bogart….wanting to get in the picture too.
Then after class, Ella goes home faster than she walks to school.
Life is really different here in the province. Ella had to walk while she does have a “sundo” while we are in the city. But she never did complain about it. I think she enjoys here a lot only she misses the city when she gets to remember of McDonald’s and Wonderland.
