Something's up

It's been a looooooooong time. Admittedly, I've been swamped with all things domestic and work related which is something I've written about before.

Really, nothing special in the past two months except for my birthday. But, just in case you missed it, I have news.

Take a peek over at the right side.



Yep.

I am.

At church last Sunday, I noticed a little boy, not more than 3 or 4 years old, staring at my daughter. At first I thought he was looking at both Josh and Faith since they were giggling about something. But no, his gaze kept staying at Faith. I just smiled inwardly, thinking, there goes another admirer.

About 15 minutes later, while Faith was sitting on her dad's lap, I saw the little boy slowly walking over to us with his hand outstretched. He stopped in front of her and grunted, "Uh", all the while holding out his hand to her. It was a dried leaf. Faith just looked at it and smiled then turned back to her brother. Poor little boy. My whole family was watching by now. To my surprise, he once again went back to Faith, this time clutching a bigger green leaf in his hand and once again giving it to Faith. She was looking at it when the boy's dad came over and got him with an apologetic smile.

Goodness, she's only four. What will it be like when she's 16?


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Yesterday when we dropped off Joshua at school, I kissed him at the gate and murmured "I love you", as I always do every morning before he walks off with his humongous stroller bag. And, like every morning, he yells back (yes, he actually yells) "I love you too mom!!"

I remember thinking as I walked back to the car, will he ever stop yelling I love you back?

Will I ever be prepared for that to happen?

Heard in the car today

"Yay! School!!!"


This from the boy who spent the first two weeks in tears and clinging to my leg. Things got a lot better since we let him watch the Sneezing Panda video before he got off. I am happy to announce that he doesn't even need that anymore. As I suspected, he only needed to make new friends to make him comfortable.

Now if i can only muster enough enthusiasm to announce....."Yay! Work!!!"



Nope......can't do it.

Couple of things on my mind

Why do schools assign homework for pre-schoolers that they know they can't possibly do by themselves??? On top of everything else I have to keep track of, I've got homework. Which sucks, by the way.


Zara sale is ON! My shopping gene is doing the dance of joy....


Check out the sneezing panda on You Tube (just search for sneezing panda). It is the sole reason why Joshua finally stopped bawling on the way to big school. Just make him watch it on the PDA before he gets off and its no more tears mommy! Frankly, I didn't think it was ever going to stop. It was something I never experienced when I was little and I was kind of at a loss in terms of knowing how to make him stop. Endless pep talks did NOT work. I was late for work for two weeks! Did your kids cry when they went to big school? How long before they stopped???


My weekend's pretty full starting with dinner with girlfriends tonight (can't get even a little bit tipsy as I am driving tonight). Tomorrow's my dad's birthday and we're having a bunch of people over, mostly family. Then there's the groceries and supervising the kids' homework. Wonder if the hubby and I can fit in a movie somewhere......

Easing....

...back into blogging! It's been ages and ages!!

A recap of what I've been up to...

- Both kids' birthdays celebrated without much fanfare, just a one on one day with me ending with dinner and cake and presents at home. Check out this pic of Joshua blowing his cake in our messy kitchen/dining area.


- Faith's ballet recital. Pics below. There was a bit of drama that day, when I left the backstage after the 1st half break, she fell to pieces and refused to dance in the second half. But oh, she danced beautifully during the first half! My bad, actually. I shouldn't have gone backstage to check on her. She was totally ok during the dress rehearsal. My mom already nailed my hide to the wall for that little bit of stupidity.

Faith, Joshua and cousin Tina before the recital


Costume for the second half

During rehearsals

- School's just started last week for Joshua and yesterday for Faith. You will not believe the document I received from Joshua's teacher yesterday. It's his curriculum for the first quarter (june - august). All seventeen freaking pages of it! I kid you not. And he's only Prep! He's got six subjects and is expected to take his first long test in Filipino next week.

Hard to believe I've stayed away from the blog for so long. But I think I needed the break. I got to focus on other things that needed to be done and others that I just wanted to do for the heck of it (like watch all the movies I wanted or make a dent on my pile of books).

Check out my new toy...

So yes, I have been busy tinkering with my Palm Centro the past few days. So has the hubby (as the overall-techie-geek-in-charge). He has been constantly needled and wheedled to figure out whatever I want to do and make the thingie do it. He even figured out how to make an MP3 file into a ring tone.

The verdict? I love it. I was originally bent on getting an Iphone as a replacement for my old phone but I got some feedback from friends who said that you can't do a lot of things with it (can't send group text). Plus the price is a bit prohibitive. The cute little phone above answers all my needs -- I can edit worksheets, read ebooks, take pictures, surf the web. It's got all the features of the Treo except it's sleeker, smaller, lighter and has a better camera.



New toy aside, I've been pretty busy at work too. Then there's housework and the kids. This month's got Faith's ballet recital, and their birthdays.

I've missed visiting my daily dose of blogs so expect me to pass by soon. :D

Three Guesses on How I Spent Last Weekend.....

Guess who conked out in the middle of her dessert Saturday night??



One minute she was chattering about getting gummy bears and the next moment she was asleep. Didn't even wake up when her brother got all her leftover marshmallows.

Maybe next time she'll listen when I tell her she needs a nap. :D

This is where we spent the day last weekend. One glorious day spent swimming, playing frisbee and volleyball and my favorite part, just stretched out on a lounger with a book. I was in heaven.
The kids, of course, had a blast at the kiddie pool. They were sooooo brown at the end of the day (no sunburn! Yay!).

Waiting for breakfast....


Thumb wrestling while waiting...


Someone felt like taking a nap....


My cousins and brother on their PSP's (too much glare)...


And this is how the day ended.....






Can't wait to come back.

To the one who...

- makes me laugh until I can't breathe

- brings out the tease in me

- likes all my ugly faces

- kisses all of us goodnight

- shares all my secrets

- taught me how to do the moonwalk and the running man

- holds my hand in the car

- gave me my beautiful babies

- doesn't get mad when I wake him up at 3am because the stupid "vlookup" function won't work

- makes me forget there is a world outside the one we made

Yeah.

You.

Happy Birthday.

When You're Bored....

What do you get when you have one bored-out-of-her-mind almost four year old hell bent on destroying your concentration as you're trying to finish work on a Saturday morning?

You get a camera phone photo shoot, of course.









Didn't distract her for very long but we both got a kick out of it. :D


Still a lot busy with work and household stuff to go online much. I've been visiting and reading your posts from my Google Reader but don't have much time to comment. Am hoping to catch up real soon.

And Just Like That....

It's summer! The heat has been unbearable the past week.

I've been out of town last week and then spent the rest of the Lenten holiday at home. We did squeeze in a day trip to the beach which was thankful for. See, I originally didn't want to go cause I was planning on doing a lot of house cleaning. I was very obviously demented that day. It was guilt that eventually made me go and I had a great time with the kids.

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I got pooped on by a bird at Sunday mass. It was warm and gooey and green! Gross! I wondered about the green color though. I usually see white stuff on cars and windshields. Then my brother told me that particular bird probably had a bum stomach. Ew! Ew! Ew!

Nothing special about this news, I know. Just thought I'd share the grossness.
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We bought the kids new bicycles. A Disney princess one (what else??) and a suitably masculine one for Joshua. Those were supposed to be birthday presents for their special day in May but hubby and I thought that with the rainy season kicking off on that month and school being near to starting, it would be a shame if the kids can't enjoy them during the summer. Ergo, they are in bike heaven.

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I was supposed to post pictures I took of Faith while she was clowning around refusing to let me do my work peacefully. So I took a photoshoot of her on my camera phone. Darn phone won't connect to the laptop. And I've got too much stuff open to bother rebooting. Bugger!

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My google reader is overflowing with unread items. I'm afraid my online time has taken a backseat to work, and, after that, to just spending time with the kids and catching up (a little) with the housework and my books.

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Happy Easter! :D

There is nothing creepier than hearing a dog howling (horror film-like) in the middle of the night while you are the only one up. I had to turn up the music on my laptop just to drown it out.

So those energy drinks really work. I took one at 11:30pm so I could work and I was still bouncing off the walls in the car at 7:30am. So I took another one for good measure. Because, well, I still had a two hour presentation to go through.

No warning about the crash when it wears off though. My eyes kept crossing while trying to stay awake. I have now fortified myself with a double caramel macchiato. Two shots of espresso and two packets of brown sugar. If that doesn't keep me awake, I don't know what will.


Sigh. I still have to work this weekend. Bugger.

It's Just Too Early.........

Santa will laugh my ass out of the North Pole. It's only March, for goodness sake!

Yeah, like it matters to the five year old who asked me last night if Santa got his letter....

Right in the middle of......

-- Spring cleaning. STILL. There's too much junk in the house. I am wishing for three whole days with nothing to do but clean. It's official. I've turned into my parents.

-- Treating the kids for severe asthma. Each kid has to be nebulized FIVE TIMES A DAY. Nebulizer = My Best Friend.

-- The busiest time at work. Talk about HELL WEEK. Hopefully, everything will be done by Monday next week. Crossing my fingers, legs and toes.

-- Fantasizing about a day off. Just me and a book. No brooms, mops, and laptops.

People will probably never look at me the same after my last post. LOL!

Didn't mean to gross anyone out. That conversation just struck me as very amusing. It really does represent what usually takes place in our house. Which probably makes our family one step away from the loony bin. Ah, but we do have lots of fun....


Anyway, can you tell I'm upbeat? Yep.

I'm bursting with excitement and quivering to the tips of my freshly pedicured toes. Uh, no, I am NOT pregnant.


Because it's FRIDAY. Yep. You can tell it's been a long week when just the thought of Friday sends me into paroxysms of delight. Or maybe it's the white cheddar cheese popcorn I'm munching.

It's Friday, it's a long weekend, I have a heavenly banoffee pie saved up for Sunday dinner, and a tub of Chef Tony's popcorn to last me till the drive home tonight. I also have a ton of feeding bottles to wash, a wedding to go to, and a whole lot of cleaning to do but that's beside the point.

I'm just disgustingly bubbly and happy right now. And I haven't even eaten any chocolate.

Weird, huh?

One of our typical conversations during breakfast:

Faith : (with a proud smile) I swallowed my vomit Mommy!

Me: that's great, baby!

Joshua: You know mommy, sometimes I swallow my vomit too!

Me: Really?? Me too.

Hubby: Yuck! That's gross!

Me: What?? You've never swallowed your vomit before??


Well? It's normal, isn't it??

Let's Play I Spy!

I hadn't realized it's been three weeks since I last posted.

The truth is, I'm drowning. In housework (see above). And in work. With no end in sight.

I've been trying to finish cleaning up the house the past few weeks. Trying being the operative word. Above picture is a sample of the toy area which I was able to partially clean up one weekend. It took me the whole day and I was very very tempted to throw the whole lot out the terrace. But since it would quite negatively affect my mommy polls, I contented myself with occasional bouts of really loud screaming and pounding on the xylophone. It was a good thing the kids were hijacked by the grandparents again. They would've thought their mom was crazier than they already think I am.

I know that other people are not used to having help around. I salute you. I really do. I don't know how you do it. My current household situation is driving me nuts.

Don't get me wrong. I've been liking cleaning up and organizing the house but the lack of time to do it is very frustrating for me. In between a four hour commute, caring for the kids and the day to day housework, well, you get the picture.

So I've been denied my daily pleasure of visiting your blogs and I'm sorry. I'm also sorry for this rant after three weeks of being gone. I just had to get it out of my chest.

*Holds breath* SIIIIIGGGGHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

There.

I'm okay now.

Time to go visiting.

We had already walked past it. A good 10 steps past it. But the brief glance that I took stayed with me. I obviously have self control issues.

I am such a SUCKER for Haagen Dazs strawberry ice cream.

After the brief detour from the ice cream counter and while I was scarfing down my cone, I happened to look at the poster for the Armani store -- the usual gorgeous guy wrapped around a super skinny model. A question popped up.

Me: Do you mind very much that I'm not super sexy? (Don't ask where the question came from. I am an expert at asking these types of questions.)

Hubby: No.

Me: So you agree that I'm NOT super sexy?

Hubby: (with an ooops! expression on his face) Was that a trick question?

Me: Yup. And you just failed miserably. (Honestly, you'd think he'd be used to trick questions by now.)


And we laughed ourselves crazy on the way back to the car.

Eleven years, two kids and the occasional let's-just-have-a-quick-dinner-cause-I-need-to-unwind date but we still have such a fabulous time with each other.

So, nope. Can't complain.

A Two Second Post

There is a reason (besides the obvious one) why you should NOT text while walking.


You are liable to get a faceful of dry, hanging coconut leaves.



Let me tell ya. It is VERY embarrassing. Especially if happens on the road two minutes away from the mall.

I know, I know. It's Monday.