Japan

It takes a lot of energy from me to to scream in fear. The Philippines is in the "Ring of Fire." We are highly prone to earthquakes, volcanic erruptions and tsunamis. It terrifies me that what is happening to Japan may one day happen here. How can our little country survive something like that? Our sad, disorganized country.

I've gotten in contact already with my former students who now are back in Japan and I'm happy to hear they are safe. One was stuck in a train during the earthquake, God bless her for her bravery.

Dear Santa,

Ty wrote his first letter to Santa the other day. He and I sat down, picked out the paper and color of marker. I gave him a sheet of paper to draw what he wanted. I'd post the picture, but it he used a yellow crayon on white paper.

Ty's List:
- A yellow remote controlled race car
and
-Boco the Train (From Thomas and Friends)

I was impressed that he had such a short list, when I was his age, mine looked more like a shopping list.

Things I want for Ty:
-Tickets to the Little Big Show featuring Barney, Thomas, Angelina Ballerina, Bob the Builder, Pingu and Fireman Sam (we got these yesterday!)
-New clothes. This kid outgrows pants like it's nobody's business.
-Soccer lessons at the nearby park
-Thomas and the Carnival set (It usually costs 4k but we got one second hand at only 1k)

Hero's list:
-Not really sure.

She likes getting involved in whatever game t is playing, and that sometimes upsets Ty. But they get on well for the most part. We remind Ty to share and he usually finds something for Hero to play with. She does enjoy playing with any musical instruments. I guess I’ll look for that.

My list for her would include:

• A cooking set
• A dollhouse (I convinced my sister to get her this, yay!)
• A soft doll (I gave her one that I found at a bazaar recently. It fits my requirements perfectly—It does not pee, poop, blink, drink, move, cry or make scary crying sounds. AND it is not blonde.)
• A doll stroller (So maybe she can learn to love the doll, since she won't give it the time of day)

Last year, I gave Hero a little toy to hold (she was only 6 months at the time) and helped her give the gift to Ty. I really want them to think of each other when doing things. This year, Ty’s started to get into Chuggington and we found some die cast toys in Market Market. I bought one and labeled it from Hero. I’m going to take Ty to shop for a present for her later today.

As for me, I'd love to get any of these things (hint hint, hubby!)

• A small point and shoot camera that takes video too
• A trip to the spa or parlor
• Some pretty bracelets or necklaces, I've fallen out of the accessory habit since they'd always get in the way when nursing.
•  Craft materials (good needles, crochet lessons, more thread and TIME to craft!)
• Patience. Oh Santa, lots of patience please.

questions, questions

I'm a teacher. 1st grade to 5th. I love my job.

But they often ask really, really dumb questions. I don't mind questions about the subject matter, but when they are in the midst of doing something like say... making a poster and I hear,

"Can I draw a hat on the person?"

or

"Should the words be big enough to see?"

I get frustrated.

Especially since I was exactly like that when I was their age.

chickenpox

My son gave himself the chickenpox. With a permanent marker. We realized this soon after he started making clucking sounds. Apparently, that's one of the symptoms, heheheh.

coffee craziness

Why do I even bother drinking coffee? I have not had a cup in about 2 years and today, I decided I needed one. A grande a that. I hate how it makes me feel, nervous and jittery. Out of control. At the height of it this morning, I felt as if I were standing in the middle of a highway, cars whooshing to my left and right.

I barely slept last night because both my kids are sick and I'm compelled to check on their temperatures and breathing. So when I tore myself from bed this morning, I felt like I'd collapse during work today. No choice, coffee. Now, my back hurts and I'm second guessing each thing I say as if I were a different person.

As much as I love the taste and warmth, it must hate me. My chemistry rejects it.

But it is delicious.

3 days of Halloween

This year, Halloween lands on a Sunday. Manila has found  way to spread the holiday (is it really a holiday?) over the span of 3 days.

FRIDAY
The village we live in had their Halloween parade in the park followed by trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. Since my dad's siblings all live in the same area (genius move by my grandparents to gift each of my uncles and aunts with a parcel of land near each other) we had a family merienda/dinner together. My cousin had her three kids there too and we all went around the village together. There were grand aunts and uncles who each came bearing pre-packed goodie bags, so the kids didn't have to walk all the way to their houses.

Hubby and Hero

Ty wore the fish hoodie I made for his Christmas show in his school last year. It finally fit well enough that his tail didn't drag on the ground. Hero was dressed in a ladybug dress handed down from her cousin in the states. I wanted both of them in homemade costumes, but she is a difficult one to measure and fit!

SATURDAY

We stayed home to rest all morning, anticipating a frenzied and nap-less afternoon at my friends daughter's birthday. The party was autumn harvest themed and the kids were asked to come in costumes. Ty begged to be in the Woody (from Toy Story) costume I'd made him. I was originally planning to have him in his store-bought train costume, but decided against it. My friend is a crafty mom, and I thought it would be nice to have him in a home made outfit. As the kids had lunch, I realized that Hero only had cowgirl pants and a plaid shirt as a costume. I was sure she wouldn't wear her hat, so I whipped out the glue gun and made her a vest. I think it came out very well.

With Tita Yen at Marion's party

After making the vest, I ran off to Landmark Department Store (5 minute walk from the house) to get a shadowbox for little Marion's present. I had been working on this sampler on and off for a few weeks and was finally happy with it. I got home, cut up a sheet of scrapbooking paper for the background and it was done. Phew.

I can't seem to rotate this...

The party was so much fun! They had old Charlie Brown cartoons playing on a big screen, coloring pages, and carnival games. I loved that there were fresh apples to snack on and a photobooth to goof around in. It was a simple, non-competitive, and not overly stimulating (for the kids) party. They played with soap bubbles, and danced with each other. There was a table of goodies (stickers, crayons, rubber ducks, and scratch-off leaves) that kept the kids entertained.

After the party ended at around 5:30, we headed over to another friend's house where he was hosting our church group's costume party. The house had been decked out in the creepiest decorations. There was a casket in the front yard, horror movies projected onto the living room wall, spiderwebs everywhere, and the entryway was illuminated by black light. I was worried that the kids would be scared but after the kid's room filled with orange and black balloons, they forgot all about the creepy stuff.

We didn't get to stay long because we were all tired. I miss partying like a single girl sometimes.

SUNDAY
Needless to say, we were exhausted the next morning. We lazed around for a while and hubby and I forgot we'd promised to have lunch at his brother's house in Alabang... and that we'd cook quesadillas. So we rushed off to the grocery while the yayas bathed and dressed the kids. We got the ingredients and headed home to pick up the kids. When we got home, one of the yays told me that the kids didn't have costumes for that afternoon's round of trick-or-treat.

It's really just a decorated apron.

So I grabbed my ever-faithful glue gun, all my felt and a few other things, and we headed off to Alabang. We got there a bit before 1 and I started making Hero's costume first. The simplest thing I could come up with was a flower pot. I wanted to make something feminine because she'd been mistaken for a boy so many times the day before.

I'd originally made plans to make Ty a cookie jar, but when he saw the red felt, he insisted on being a car. Not bad for 30 minutes of rushing, I think.

Since Alabang is such a gigantic village and the houses are pretty far apart, we hopped in my bro-in-law's van and picked houses where we knew the people, or less populated (with kids) areas. One of my BIL's neighbors is a movie producer so he usually gets props and decorated the front of his house witht hem. They had a big Alice in Wonderland setup this year.

Thi kids with their Achis (big sisters)

I loved the house with the 4 moms who were sipping wine as they gave bottles of soap bubbles to the kids with nicer costumes and Mentos to the kids without costumes. Hehe, my kids got bubbles. There was another house where the whole place had life-sized cutouts of horror movie baddies (Freddie, Jason, Chuckie and the Clown from It) peeking out from the bushes, and a huge "Bates Motel : vaccancy" sign over the garage. I wish I'd gotten a picture of it, it was obvious they'd put a lot of thought into it. There was a "We have candy, ring doorbell if you dare!" sign by the front gate.  We didn't dare.

So now the long Halloween weekend is over. Ty hasn't quite gotten used to the idea of Christmas coming up next. Hero is just happy she gets to wear her ladybug outfit whenever she wants.

Customer surveys and true customer satisfaction

Whenever we go to restaurants nowadays, we always seem to be given customer survey cards. Now, I've noticed that not all the tables are given these surveys. I have to wonder why they give them to us. Is it obvious I'm that much of a complainer? I've been known to cry in frustration when a salesman at the hardware store talked down to me in his "little missy" voice. I'm a girl, I'm not stupid.

So I complained. I told the manager how I'd been treated and then walked out, promising to buy from their direct competition even if I had to walk 2 blocks in the rain. I did.

There was a span of time where I kept finding hair in my food. It became an awful joke. I'd dig through pastas, salads and cakes to see what my "prize" that day was. I sent back each plate and had the food replace. I'm terrified to think of what invisible things I've eaten.

I'm usually very truthful on these cards, if I see a roach, I write it down. I find that very few of the cards have enough space for my comments.

Last week, we were at a Chinese restaurant and I diligently filled out the card. My son seemed to disagree on how I graded them.

Here he is, erasing all my marks.