39

The first order of the day (yesterday) was to attend the 7am mass at the Redemptorist Church. It was a good and fitting way to give thanks to the Lord for 39 blessed years and to invoke for His generous blessings to continue. The mass set me up for the rest of the day and hopefully for another 39 or more years.

As for dinner, it was a toss-up between Alavar's de Cebu for their curacha and other seafood specialties or Marriott Hotel for their Monday Madness buffet, but Mama swayed me into choosing the latter as she preferred the hotel from the native resto ambiance of the former. Hehehe... I readily agreed and started the short-notice text invitation for yesterday's dinner.

Except for Ann (hubby was out of town thus couldn't leave her kids at home), Stella (indisposed) and Malou (with a prior commitment) who were not able to make it, the people who mattered in my life were there - close friends and loved-ones (super supportive, thoughtful and generous) from my side of the family who are based or presently in Cebu. The 7pm dinner invitation stretched up to 10pm. We were all full to the brim!

For gifts, I got boxes of cakes from Marriott, Georg, and Leona's, a pair of thongs from Havaianas Dupe, a lariat necklace made of pearls and a cute card from my boys. Sweet!

My heartfelt thanks to those who took time off to join me on my special day, those who SMS-ed their birthday wishes and greeted me thru my comment box. If you are not too busy, check out Memento's 39 things about me (if you haven't done yet).

Generations

Cebu is a much better place these days, Pa & Ma are here for a short stop.



Paparazzi & Mama by the fountain at our Guadalupe address


Four generations in all!
Jake, Ma, Lola Meding, moi, Kyle, Matt, Jerry (in green)


This time sans Jerry but with Paparazzi...


If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do well matters very much.---Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

In my almost 1.5 decades of being a parent (together with Jerry), I continuously pray for success in being the best mom to my 3 boys very much like Lola Meding and Mama's success in rearing their own.

Work-Life Balance

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We just had our first ever teambuilding activity last night at the Bowlingplex. After an early dinner at the office, 2 hours of play and 3 to 5 games later, everybody was still up and about inspite of the early 8am call time the following day.

It was a fun event put together by the software engineers themselves. All I had to do was to fund the activity and provide the food on company's account. It was timely that one of the engineers was celebrating his birthday. We had extra doses of carbo from the 3 half gallons of ice cream he treated us with (yummy pistachio, cookies and cream, choco brownie).

The successful activity was a welcome breather for this hardworking bunch. And we plan to do it again - really soon!

(Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus our company does exist and no need for me to show you our articles of incorporation. :P)

Beats Georg & Wang Shan Lo

Kyle and his friends...


Matt and his friends (and Jake)...


Most of the invited guests (with Jerry and me)...

After the busy preparations for the 2nd quarter exams and having the last exam day on Friday, Matt and Kyle were just too eager to unwind and have fun. It was the perfect excuse to invite their friends for a swim party to celebrate Kyle's 10th birthday (Oct 11).

It took us only 2 days to make the guest list (Matt and Kyle were given the free hand to choose their guests), reserve the pool, plan the birthday menu and buy the giveaways (beach balls and snack items). On the day itself, we were all glad the weather was sunny and perfect for the 130-5pm swim.

Here are some photos of the Saturday afternoon riot between the groups of 10 and 13 year-old boys..

Jake all geared up for the swim...





Without the clowns and the cartoon character themed- parties now, birthday celebrations for the boys have gone significantly less costly. What a relief for us peso-pinching parents! Hehehe..

The sound of laughter, the looks on their faces as they swam, dove, played basket(beach)ball, romped and cannon-balled clearly indicated they enjoyed every minute of it. They didn't seem to mind if they were served regular picnic food and gobbled up, and went for seconds and thirds of the roasted chicken, ngo-hiong, hotdogs, macaroni with meatsauce, puso and choco mallow cake.


After the swim, time for trading of Pokemon cards...


Playing unmodified PS2 and Dota PC games...

To these boys, the free afternoon play (that stretched well into the early evening) and pure fun in the company of each other were all that mattered.

Live and Let Live

Taken in Toronto
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You know how word gets around, right? Well, I got wind from someone of some tidbit about XXX hesitating to send XXX's kid to the same school my sons are attending. Reason being, XXX apparently does not want the kid to feel the pressure of being compared ....

It's probably one of those hearsays which shouldn't affect me... But then again, IMHO, it's totally up to XXX to send the kid where the kid could soar to great heights.

It's a small world we live in where we all co-exist. Let us just live and let live.

Work@Home

It’s my 5th day at home. Tomorrow, Nanny Ann is coming back hopefully well enough after her bout vs. conjunctivitis. I should say Jake and I have bonded quite well this week, though not without the occasional fits of tantrum from both parties. Hehehe…. Anyway… the week seemed to just breeze by. After getting Jake all done and fed when he's not asleep, all I could remember doing since Monday, was sitting in front of the computer that was connected to our office network while Jake sat next to me watching tv and drinking his milk or playing his new Reader Rabbit cd.

Time flies, it’s already mid-month and before we know it, it’s Christmas time!


Click this video to see happy Jake...

Happy 10th Birthday Kyle!

Kyle 10, Matt 13 & Jake 2.5

Kyle turns 10 today! When asked where he would want to have his special dinner, he already had 1 resto in mind.

Tonight we will be having Kyle's favorite pochero/bulalo.

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I was home since Monday because Jake's nanny was sick with sore eyes. Today, while I was multi-tasking, taking care of Jake and managing my email, Jerry sent me a text message. The birthday miswa from my MIL's cook was on its way to our house (and probably to the other in-law's houses as well being customary for Chinese families to share the birthday miswa). So I sent down the helper to meet with SIL and get it.

When she came back up, there was one pot of birthday miswa, a gift for Kyle from 2 SILs, 2 red money envelopes for Kyle and me (a generous cash gift from MIL since I share the same birth month with Kyle) and a birthday invitation from our niece for her debut.

Looks like a lot is going on this October... birthdaysss, school exams, sem break, vacation, etc... busy days ahead...

While running thoughts through my mind, a knock was heard on our front-door. I opened and there stood another SIL who's just bringing over a gift package for Kyle. When I went back in, Jake had a naughty look on his face... "Open gift, Ma?"

Home-cooked Meals

EDSA Shangri-la steak lunch during our last Mancom meeting

We lived with my mom-in-law for the 1st 7 years of our marriage. When we decided to live on our own, my generous MIL offered to send us food everyday. Something that was to be a unique set-up for the next 7 years. Friends and relatives from my side who knew about it would say I was lucky. Hehehe... It was no secret, as far as I'm concerned. And I only have Mommy to thank for. She really doted on us.

Though it was and still is very much appreciated, we finally advised the cook to stop sending us food. I think it came as a surprise to her who's been doing it routinely everyday. My MIL probably doesn't know about this and would have wanted to continue the supply. However, we felt it was too much of a burden now not just for her (she's not feeling too well due to Parkinson's) but for the other members of the family too.

Well as the song goes, some good things never last.

On another note, my boys are always looking forward to going home from school nowadays. Next thing they'd say after the customary kiss and greeting is: "What's for dinner?".

SIBLING RIVALRY REVELRY**

An old pic taken during our trip together in Switzerland.

Here's an introduction for the benefit of those readers who have just been directed to my personal online space. I'm the eldest among 3 sibs. We are your regular sister-brother-sister trio and like the rest of humankind, we squabble, bicker, compete, among many things.

For most of the years while we were growing up and even up to the present, our normal get-together wouldn't be complete without one of us getting teased or taunted or made fun of. That's just us. We were and still are a classic example of "makarinyo brutal". Blame that on our Paparazzi, whose idea of fun is dissing either one of us jokingly. Operative word being "jokingly". Even Mamarazzi is not exempted from this and would just be cool about it... or not, whichever the case may be. Hehehe...

So anyway, what's all this gibberish about? Though outsiders or non-members of our family may deem us loud almost to the point of "parang nag-aaway", we never really took offense of what the other had to say. I guess we were made tough not to take to heart any snide remark. In all certainty, we'd all agree that we've become like Mamarazzi who's just cool about most things, fortunately.

That being the case, a lot of things are non-issues for the three of us. Things like who is more good-looking, who is smarter, who is wealthier, who is more successful or powerful, who is more generous, who is more willing to help, etc don't really count as important. These things give a different dimension of us that we try to joke about. Of course we recognize these as blessings and as positive qualities, but NEVER as a license to act more superior over the other two.

In any situation where one of us needs the other, we do what we have to do when we are able to do it, and we don't expect anything in return. We don't demand for credit. It's up to the beneficiary of the good deeds to recognize these and reciprocate. The doer moves on.

Simply put, we don't count points.

We are makarinyo brutal but we love each other to bits. I hope everybody could say the same thing about their sibs.



** SIBLING REVELRY was a title of one of Junnie's posts.

At the Milo Olympics

Matt (leading the pack, wearing blue) finished 1st place in this heat. He represented his school (high school division) to compete against other participants (from all over Cebu) in the Milo Olympics. However, he was not fast enough to qualify for the finals.

Time to lose the weight he's gained since last year's competition. Hehehe... Plus of course he needs to work out and practice regularly to regain his speed...

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What were my other two boys doing while Matt was getting ready for his event???

Here's a video...

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And a few pics (did I hear anybody say psychotic again???)

Kulit ni Jake!


Hmmm.... Kyle is probably a candidate for braces... We'll wait till all his permanent teeth come out.

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Right now Matt is at home (since yesterday) nursing a swollen foot. He's on antibiotics to prevent infection. His doctor said no need to worry about tetanus as his shot is still in effect. Hopefully, his swollen foot gets better before Friday or the other doctor (surgeon) that we consulted will have to make an incision to drain the swollen blister. This will take longer to heal. Poor kid.

I hope he doesn't need to have the (minor) surgery.

New Meaning of Psychotic?

I have recently been described (and i quote) "to do psychotic things like taking picture of my money and publishing them, etc"...

That blogger probably never knew (never will?) that there is such a thing called PHOTOBLOG. So for dear blogger's sake, repeat after me... THIS-IS-A-PHOTOBLOG.

Well blogger, now you know.

Loving Brothers...

When our generation passes on, I hope my sons grow up loving each other, appreciative of each other and being there for each other, no matter what. May their bond remain strong. Though conflicts may arise, I pray that they be spared from pain. If they have to go through it, may they persevere in doing what is right before the Lord. May they not fall prey to any evil... May they be discerning enough not to let anybody put a wedge in their brotherly relationship....