Fisherman's Wharf, Chinese Style

Japa and I went for another swim this morning. If it was possible, if was COLDER than yesterday!!! It was 7 degrees outside!!!! Aaaargh! Yes, we were CRAZY to go out, but even crazier, we were joined by Randy and Stella! Hehehehe. But by the time they were going to start, we had ended our swim, so we did the same thing yesterday and rushed indoors.

By the time we were all ready to leave, it was time for lunch. But left we did, as we met Lai and Dic at the Sands Hotel on the other island. Across that was Macau's Fisherman's Wharf. It was similar to the one in San Francisco (I guess) in that there were a number of small shops and a lot of restaurants up and down the main street. There was a Colosseum-like structure (think Rome, Italy) in the middle of the area and a picturesque street off of it.



We actually strayed from Chinese food (thank God!) and entered an Italian restaurant....completely run by Filipinos. The food was good, and it *WOULD* have been a pleasurable experience if not for the fact that the waitresses (BOTH of them!!!) completely FORGOT my order. And this AFTER I had asked the both of them on two separate occasions EACH to follow up my original order!!! And if you know me, that is totally UNACCEPTABLE and constitutes service of the worse kind!!!

When I finally rounded on one of the waitresses --- keeping my voice down but I'm sure my eyes were doing all the dagger throwing---she just looked at me with her mouth open!!! Not an apology, NOTHING. Ugh!!! And because of that, I never even bothered to remember the name of the place. Hmp! Soooo NOT worth it! This person's not going back to that place at all.

But the pizza was good :) as evidenced by Stella below:


And wonder of wonders, I actually got time to scrap!

LOVE = DAD & MOM

TTFN!

Zhu Hai, China

Japa and I braved the cold and the wind and went swimming. In 9 degree weather. Brrrr. Yes, the pool was heated, but the outside was most definitely NOT! Hehehe. We did 20 laps, to help prepare us for the aquathlon we wanted to join with the kids next month. A 500-meter swim and a 2.5 km run. Once we were done, we rushed out of there!

{CHINA}

Zhu Hai has got to be THE biggest warehouse tiangge evah. As in, I told Japa NOT to go anywhere without me because I knew I wasn't going to be able to find the meeting place by myself. There were so many aisles crisscrossing everywhere, I swear I couldn't concentrate in the first hour or so because every nook and cranny was PACKED with stalls!!!

I ended up getting the kids some chinese clothes, a ton of Pokemon figures for Rogan, some leggings for the girls, and some DS rubber cases for the girls, among other things. Nothing really for me, because obviously, they didn't have extra extra large sizes there, hmp!

We ate at this teeny tiny restaurant and out of the 4 tables that we occupied, I guess our table (and Bang and Boydee) knew what we wanted, because our food was pretty good. Mom's and Dic's tables were just blah. Hehehe.

And so we wandered around the entire complex for most of the day. Yes, even Dad was there the whole time. True, he didn't get up from his wheelchair, but he has gotten stronger from all his PT and OT sessions for sure. He didn't complain, he was just taking it all in. The weather helped, since if it were boiling hot he'd be in a cranky mood and would demand to go home to the hotel. As it was, it was a MIRACLE that we all met at the specific time and place we agreed to in the beginning.

Then it was back through immigration and into the buses that would take us to the Venetian.

And that was our WHOLE day.

Off to Macau

Dark and early (the sun wasn't even out yet), Japa, Rondic, Lai and I were the first to arrive at the airport. Surprisingly, before we even got there, Mom and Dad were already on their way! Whoa! Major achievement there, on Dad's part!

Luckily, as we were checking in, the lady at the counter asked us if we wanted to have seats on the upper deck. Apparently, we were using a 747-400 from Manila to Hong Kong.....and the business class section was open to economy passengers! Being early DOES pay off, Ma! hehehe. So yes, we told her we would LOOOOOVE to have those big cushy seats; we requested her to block of the number of seats we needed for the rest of the family as well. So we traveled in style to Hong Kong!!! :)

We get to Hong Kong and waited a bit for the Hydrofoil. While waiting, we were happy to see that there was FREE Wi-Fi!!! So we whiled away the time looking at the newest Filipino sensation to hit American Idol, Renaldo Lapuz: (LOL!)


For almost a full hour, we looked at different versions of this song on the internet. Hehehe. Too funny, totally Pinoy, man!

Then it was Hydrofoil time. Ugh. Can anyone say seasickness??? Here's Japa as proof of that ride:
We stayed at the palatial Venetian Hotel, a replica of the one in Las Vegas, although this seemed to be bigger, and grander.

Some pics as we walked through the Grand Canal Shoppes:





And that's that!

Meals, Mass and Maleta

{MEALS}

Well of course we ate: breakfast, lunch and dinner! hehehe. Breakfast at home, lunch in La Vista because Emmy and Eugene were there, and dinner at home.

Eugene is pregnant, finally! Even Dad had to smile at Emmy, who immediately told Dad that his army had finally penetrated! So yay for Eugene and Emmy, who have been waiting for what seemed like forever for a baby. They're due in May.

{MASS}

We went to mass at Pentecost today, so that the kids could be with us. We leave for a 5-day vacation in Macau and Hong Kong early tomorrow morning, so mass was a must this evening. There was Tita Ingrid's party to go to tonight, but I've been feeling tired lately and Japa and the boys had asthma, so we decided to decline the invite. I packed instead.

{MALETA}

Our suitcase. Had to pack tonight so we could rest and be up early tomorrow morning. No first wave of family members anymore: ALL of us would be getting on the same flight. I take that back: there IS a first wave...those going to the airport first to see if we can get better seats, i.e., aisle, exit, as far up in front as we can get for economy.

We TRIED to fit a duffle bag into the suitcase just so we would be rolling ONE piece of luggage on and off the hydrofoil that would take us to Macau from Hong Kong, but it wouldn't fit! Sigh! So....we're bring an empty duffle bag to check in, hehehe. Which is usual, for trips to Hong Kong!

{SCRAPS}

Forgot to upload these yesterday:

SCREECH!
P FOR PARTY
US IN THE NEW YEAR

TTFN!

Disney on Ice

I had the kids picked up at school during lunch because we were off to see Disney on Ice! The kids were excited, as was I, hehehe. I LOVE Disney anything!






Not the greatest of photos, as these are straight from the camera. :) But it was a pretty good show, and the kids were entranced. The best thing to see? Ranger's EXCITEMENT when he saw Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and Daisy come out in the beginning!

And I'm too tired to do blog about anything else! :)

Board, Band and 'By

{BOARD}

First Board Meeting for the year! Wasn't TOO bad, considering people were going in and out of the meeting! Hehehe. The meeting started half an hour late, Lai came in late. I had to leave a few minutes after the meeting started, Mom had to leave a half hour after that for Mass, and Dad had scheduled OT in the early afternoon. Oh, and Boydee was gone, too, for an emergency meeting at the Shrine.

But we had quorum, and the meeting continued throughout the day.

{BAND}

I had to leave early for an hour because Rogan had a mini-concert with the rest of the Kids' Band members at school. So off I went to see this artistic child of ours :)




See the excitement, the concentration, the pride :) Obvious eh? He really loves doing Band.

{ruBY anniversary}

Yup, that's the 'BY in the title, hehehe. The Sisterhood with the twins (and later on Rondic) and Tito Lito met at Agave in Eastwood to discuess plans for Mom and Dad's 40th Wedding Anniversary. Agave was a Mexican restaurant; loved their Chicken Burrito and thoroughly enjoyed the scrumptious frozen Strawberry Margaritas! In fact, we had 2 pitchers' worth of the stuff! YUMMMMMMM!!!!

In the process, we got Lai feeling pretty hot---er, warm---hehehe, and Zhar feeling a little bit tipsy. Stella was excused since she was pregnant, and Bang......hmm...she called it quits after 2 glasses I think, hehehe. Me? I drank the rest! More like GULPED it! I totally MISS this stuff!

Anyhoo, plans. We set up an e-group to discuss options and keep everyone abreast of developments. The work has been divided and delegated. Can't say anymore here just in case dear Momma suddenly decides to read this blog. Hehehe.

I scrapped again! Yeah!

3 GENERATIONS

What a day! :)

Boys to the Doctor

Sigh! Only my boys. We went back to the doctor yet again. Rogan has full-blown asthma. Again. Ranger had another check up so that the pediatrician could rule out having a tuberculine test. Ranger has gained some weight thank goodness, and his cough was all gone. That is, unless he pretends he has "ubok", as he calls it.

It's in the blood...asthma, that is. Seems the Gavino boys have it, and only them. The girls are fine, having outgrown asthma (knock on wood!!!) somewhere around the age of 2-3. I thought Rogan would outgrow it as well, but he's been having a horrible time of it, since late last year. And this was when we had taken the carpet out and installed wooden flooring! Weird!

Rogan's been put on antibiotics AND a 3-day steroid program to ease the constriction in his throat. Then it'll be anti-allergy meds for 5-7 days. This, plus nebulization! The poor child! Like father like son? *roll eyes* My poor boys!

Like I always say, girls are stronger! hehehe.

I scrapped!

HOLY COMMUNIONTTFN!

Science Quiz Bee

Rogan has done it again this year: he is representing his class for yet another Quiz Bee. This year it's Science. Even I was surprised! Usually, he's entered in either the Math or the Spelling Bees, but it seems he answered some average and difficult questions during eliminations which catapulted him into the top 3! :)


That's my boy in the back. Looking bored, because he obviously did NOT know ANY of the answers to the EASY questions!!! Sigh! It was looking bleak, I even texted Japa to say that his son had NOT answered anything in the easy round!

Then the average round began and he squeaked by with a couple of questions answered correctly. Yahooey!!! Score at last! Hehehe. He also answered a few questions in the difficult round....and this was the EXACT same thing that happened during eliminations, according to Teacher Tess!

But it wasn't enough to get him a top spot though. :( I told him he did well; however, if he had answered even ONE easy question, he would have been battling it out for 3rd place!!! At least he DID beat one of his really brainy classmates, which was good enough for me. AND the fact that he didn't finish last! Whew!

Shrine Sales

With all the hustle AND hassle of getting all the merchandising stuff ready for the Relics' visit, we are relieved to learn that we have been successful (so far) in raising much needed funds for the Relics' freight. Who would have thought that the Reliquary would weigh a whopping 400 pounds?!?!?

It was not easy coming up with different kinds of imprinted promotional products. And of COURSE they had to be imprinted to be the "official" merchandise of the Relics' Visit, right? We were off by a LOT after the first couple of days and we had to scramble to get more shirts and hankies printed. The best-selling items were the chaplets. Not the plastic, regular kind (although sales of that chaplet went well as well), but the pearl ones! And those were homemade, assigned to the maids in Abada and Apitong! Hehehe. At least they'll make a little bit for their labor, right?

The Relics leave for the Visayas in a few days, and we're *still* scrambling to get merchandise ready for our people to take while they go on "tour" with the Relics. We have got to raise those funds for the freight! So here's hoping that the merchandise will sell during the Visayan tour!

TTFN!

Bye, River!

Today was a very emotional day for the family. We laid River to rest in the Shrine of St. Therese. The Requiem Mass was a small, very personal affair with just family in attendance. Bang gave the kids parts in the ceremony, in remembrance of River. Reese, Rielle and Raegan were readers, Rogan assisted Fr. Benny, and the rest were offerors.


Bang had initially laid River in a temporary vault when she arrived from Cebu. Today was a formal affair, with the inurnment taking place in the Remembering Chapel. River was the first occupant of the La Chapelle Des Roses in the Columbarium.


Before the Mass, I innocently asked Bang if I could take out the tape holding the lid of River's urn. She said yes, I took it out. Lai wanted to see River's remains and I took it out. I never even thought about how Bang would feel when she saw her baby. When I glanced at her, her eyes were welling with tears and that was all that was needed for ME to start tearing, too. Sigh! From then on, it was almost non-stop crying.

From the previewing of River's bones, to the songs chosen by Bang for the Mass, to the laying of flowers by River's urn. Seeing Boydee and Bang crying was already heartbreaking, but for me to see Mom and Dad (Dad especially) being so emotional, that was something. Got me thinking that really, life can be so cruel. Nature dictates that the young bury the old, not the other way around. I can just imagine Dad thinking that. It's hard enough for parents, but what more of GRANDparents? Of GREAT-GRANDparents? Unfair, yes, definitely.

But it is God's will. And only He can say why He chose to take River so early. We never got to know what this little angel would be like. All we know is that she is in heaven, watching over all of us, especially her Kuya Bric and her parents.

Yes, we took pictures. Someday, I'm sure, Bang and Boydee will ask for them. When they have had time to cope. When they have healed, when they are at peace. Someday, they will ask for the photos, and the photos will be waiting for them.

Another heart-wrenching scene was when Boydee spoke after the Mass. He shared their journey with River. The dark times, the scary times. Of when they were trying to decide to let River have her time in Bang's womb. Of their decision, of how they arrived at their decision.

I wrote in a message board that the both of them, Boydee and Bang, have been an inspiration. An inspiration of faith, pillars of strength, true people of God. They didn't opt for the easy way out; they prayed for guidance, and they were given guidance. Would I have done the same? I don't know. It's a hard thing to do, and I don't know if I would have had the strength, the faith and the perseverance to do what they have done. All I can say is that having a miscarriage is waaay easier than having your little one die in your arms. I don't think I can bear that.

Seeing that little urn was just enough to bring me to tears. Thinking of what Boydee and Bang went through.....they are in God's grace for sure.

Cookies, Anyone?

I love cookies! Especially the ones that Elizza USED to make herself: Crinkles and the Chocolate Oatmeal ones. Now, I have to bribe Melinda to make me a batch or two....and then hide it from RJ and Robin when in La Vista, otherwise they'd gobble them all up in a few minutes! Hehehehe. And yes, I like them chewy, NOT crunchy the way Lola likes them. Ugh.

I know I saw a TON of cookie recipes with links over at Katie the Scrapbook Lady's blog......but I have to look for that and bookmark it. Where to put cookies? In cute, whimsical cookie jars of course! If they last long, that is, hehehe. Normally, a batch of cookies would last 3 days in our household. But with cookie jars like these, wouldn't you want the cookies to last a little bit longer just so we can use the jars? hehehe. Cute, huh!



You can get one here.

CHESS

Can I just say that the MOST BORING thing you can ever do as a mother is to watch your child during his chess tournament???? Uuuuuggggggghhhhhh!!!!!! I never did like chess, even when I was a kid and Boydee and I would play it. I would get really impatient with all the waiting and dear Boydee knew it and would take FOREVER to make a simple move! Ack! How anyone could love this game is beyond me!!!

Anyway, BECAUSE my child seems to love this game, I swallow my pride and go with him at 9 am for a chess tournament. I stay in this warm room with the parents and peer through glass windows at Rogan having the time of his life (or as much emotion as you can possibly show while playing chess) during the tournament.

Rogan and the rest of his school had been playing chess since November or December. The boys from Ateneo, their opponents, had started playing chess when they were in Prep. They are now in Grade 3 or 4; that's 5 years of chess under their belts!!!! Heheeheh.

The MI boys had a respectable showing though, which made their coach pretty proud with their accomplishment. No, we didn't take any of the top spots, but a lot of the boys (and 1 girl!) came out with a few individual wins. Rogan finished with 3 losses, 2 wins, and 1 draw. Pretty ok. AND he was tired, but fulfilled. He said he was happy he participated, thanked me for coming with him, and promptly fell asleep in the car on the way home. Hehehe.

Wouldn't it be cool to have THIS chess set?


TTFN!

I Scrapped!!!

What a productive day for me, scrapping-wise!!! Here's what I did today:

HALLOWEEN IN DECEMBER
LIFE AS A MAMA

WITH LOLO

I seem to be scrapping mostly squares now. Not sure when that happened, but somehow it seems easier than scrapping rectangle? Dunno. Nevertheless, I'm just happy that my scrapping mojo has returned! That, AND I've used a lot of CT stuff, too! I am on a roll!

Now watch me jinx it and not be able to scrap for the next few days! Hehehe.

TTFN!

Visiting the Relics

Lai and I took the kids to the Shrine to see the Relics. We figure that this is probably a once in a lifetime for the kiddos to see the St. Therese Relics in the Philippines. We attended Mass at the Shrine and the kids were well behaved in general, thank goodness, hehehe. Considering the fact that there were so many people and it was HOT, that was a feat, nonetheless.

During the mass, Msgr. Lagoutte, the Rector of the Basilica of St Therese in Lisieux, presented Bishop Tumulak with a first class Relic of St. Therese, a piece of her flesh, to be housed in the Shrine. A momentous event for sure, and I was glad the kids witnessed it. Now did they listen? Not sure, but they DID ask a lot of questions about the Relic when we saw it up close.

After mass, I instructed the kids to stay behind me so we could be first in line, and so that I could take photos of them. I had bought them some St. Therese handkerchiefs for them to wipe on the Reliquary, and make it a souvenir for their visit. I told them to pray while at the Reliquary, especially for Lolo Boy.


If you look behind us, you will see the throng of people lining up to see the Relics and pay homage to it. The Shrine seats 1,600, and that was quite full by the end of the mass. People were just starting to get off work to visit the Relics. And according to Japa, there were more people who arrived that night, too! An endless stream of St. Therese devotees.

Here's the Relic up close, or at least, as close as I could get to it with the camera's macro setting.

Afterwards, we all trooped to La Vista to have dinner with Msgr. Lagoutte, the Bishop and a few other religious people.

TTFN!

Another Page Done

Alright! Thank goodness for the Cookie Decorating Challenge over at Sweet Shoppe Designs, I finished another page again! Yeah! I love this challenge because it gives me a template I get to work with. And if you know me, I just LOVE using templates to scrap! It just makes it easier to start a page. And once I've started, the creative juices usually start flowing! :)

Here's the page I came up with, using the template given for the Cookie Decorating Challenge:

BOYS AND ICE CREAM

And of course I used up yet another CT kit to do this one. Love how it turned out! Hehehe. Listen to me tooting my horn. I just love how when a page turns out greater than what you expect!

Oh, and here's a video that Japa uploaded to YouTube....featuring Raegan! Hahahaha! She dies with embarrassment each time we click on play on this video, but it is so cute! You gotta love iPhoto, hehehe.



Enjoy the video! :)

Honeymoon Time Again

No, not for me and Japa......but this time for Rod and Zhar. They're getting married in August, but the real OC people that they are (hehehe) they are already planning their honeymoon! Where do *I* come in? Uhhhmmmmm.....I guess I'm their RCI planner, hahahahaha! We've got timeshare weeks banked and they're up for grabs by any one of us kids to use. So since it's a honeymoon, I guess they have priority. For this year. Hehehe.

I've called RCI, Rod and Zhar and I've put in your request for Paris and London....was it somewhere in Italy for the third one? I can't remember. I'm hoping to hear from the RCI guy in a week or two. I've given him a time frame and he's going to be working around the parameters we've given him. Will let you guys know when I hear from him.

Travel plans....hmmmm.....we're still hoping that we can take a proper vacation with the kids this summer again. This past summer was just horrible as it was sooooo HOT!!! Ugh! Besides, aren't we going to be looking for a place to set up base again? With our plans for GRC, we've got some options. Las Vegas real estate is on the decline, which makes it a viable option IF we decide to remain with the current project. But if not, it's time to look at other states. If we're thinking of Arizona, how far is that from Texas, I wonder? The Houston real estate market is looking pretty good, too! And I've always wanted to see President Bush's home state! :) And dear Carolyn, our friend who's gone out of the army due to health reasons, says that her homestate is a great place to settle, too, although I do have to research a bit on Georgia real estate to even attempt to come up with a recommendation for the place.

So yeah, a proper vacation to look at all these places first hand? I'll volunteer to do it! Hehehe Anything to get out of here during the HOT summer!

Off to Visit the Relics of St. Therese

Lai and I arranged to go to the Shrine together to visit the Relics. We figure this morning would be an ideal time, since most people would be at work. But before I leave, here's a layout I *just* finished and uploaded....yes, I got up early, don't know why, but that's pretty much the norm, even if I go to bed really late.

Anyhoo, here's the page, and I like what I did with it! Hehehe.

TOOTHLESS SMILE

Off I go to take a shower, otherwise Lai might leave me! Hehehe.

TTFN!

The Relics Arrive

The office was a MADHOUSE today!!! Everyone was jumping around, rushing around to get sooo many details done for when the Relics arrived.

Japa went to the airport to join the crowd greeting Relics. He said there was a LOT of people from the airport to Kalayaan Hall where they "dressed" the Relics on a festive tabletop and placed in a "Therese mobile" to transport her to the Shrine, and still a lot of people lining the streets in front of the Shrine.


When I called our Site Office, I was surprised to learn that people were already there at noon. I thought there was a mass, but our person at the Shrine said that no, the people were there to WAIT for the Reliquary. And they knew that the Relics were going to arrive in the country at 245 pm, and that it wouldn't get to the Shrine until close to 5 pm! So WOWOWOWOWOW!

For more information on the Visit of the Pilgrim Relics of St. Therese, just visit our site, www.stthereseshrine.com. Yup, I'm proud of that site since I made it, hehehe.

***
In other news, Ranger still has his cough, but it's abated a lot. The antibiotics have helped, and he is now on a 3-day cycle of steroids. Some prednisone or something like that. His pedia told me not to worry, it is just a mild steroid; it's supposed to help Ranger's air tracts widen a bit more, allowing him to breathe more easily. His asthma is not a good thing to see. The poor boy really has a hard time inhaling :(. Hopefully, like his older siblings, Ranger will outgrow the asthma. I don't want him to get used to the meds and go into rehabs or anything like that. He *seems* to be getting his attacks after a longer period of time EXCEPT this last one. There was one in December and another this month. Definitely not a good sign!!! Additionally, I hope there is no cause for the pedia to call for a tuberculine test. Ugh! PTB on top of the asthma?!?!? Nooooo!

***
No time to scrap today, as we were all busy finishing up the website, the tour maps and the merchandising. What a headache, the merchandising! Sheesh! You would think we would have everything in place BEFORE the Relics arrived. But nope. As usual, it was last minute and we were scrambling around to get stuff to the site for selling.

***
Watching Season 3 of House. This is yet another reason why I am not in a scrapping mood. Hehehe. A few episodes here and there, and that's at least a couple of hours down the drain. Very addicting series! Love it!

TTFN!

CPK Part 2

Lai and I did it again. We made California Pizza Kitchen our office away from the office. Eva from iStudio texted us to let us know that our laptop memory simms were available. So off we rushed to juice up our macbook pro babies. We are both now operating at the laptop's maximum of 4 gigabytes of RAM!!!! Whoohoohooo!!!! Photoshop is definitely flying sooooo much faster now!

So of course, while we were at Shang Plaza, where else would we have lunch but at CPK. We decided to try new stuff today and we came up with the fantastically yummy (our new fave now!) Waldorf Salad, White Pizza and Portabello Mushroom Ravioli. Yum, yum and YUM! :)

Yes, we were hard at work as we finished up the Columbarium Tour Map. So much attention to detail, I tell you, but we got it done! AND we are proud of the results! Hehehe. Of course, it's OUR work that's going to be printed! And because Lai couldn't find her files for the Shrine shots, she used MY photo for the cover! Whoohooo! I am officially published!!! Hehehe. Sort of. The BOTH of us are published, since the map WILL be printed out for distribution!

We wrapped up after a few hours' work. Happy, but tired. Not that all the work was done; I had to do some uploading and emailing when I got home so that the files could get to the printer's tomorrow morning.

But all this eating at CPK will make us rotund and FAT for sure, hehehe. Gotta get me some hoodia pills or something to help me suppress my appetite especially when working on a deadline. The pressure!!! But for both Lai and I, we found it verrrrry productive to be OUT of the office when working on something like this. There's way less distraction, less interruptions when out of the office, which helped us work continuously AND productively.

Desperately Finishing Up the Website

Yes, that's what I'm doing. The Relics of St. Therese will be arriving on Tuesday, and I am NOWHERE near finishing up the website! Yikes! So yes, I still needed yesterday's ME time to scrap. I think that helped refresh my mind a bit and helped me dabble in some creative juices.

Check out what I've done at the website for featuring the 2nd Visit of the Pilgrim Relics to the Philippines. Thank goodness for iWeb, it's made my life sooooo much easier! Easy, ready-made templates plus the stuff that I've picked up while bloggine here, made it not-so-difficult to come up with the site.

Most of the Pilgrim Relics visit is up, and a lot more little tweaks here and there and I should be happy with the result. Not bad, for a first-timer, hehehe. Now........all the updating will be another story. I think that part will be oh-so time consuming in the next month or so!

A Couple More Layouts

Just a short trip to post my latest layouts I finished today:

LEGOLAND SLEIGH
G FOR GIRAFFE

Slowly but surely catching up on my CT requirements! :)

TTFN! Good night!

TGI Saturday!!!

Oh blessed Saturday!! Hehehe. After this stressful week, I NEED this day. But wait, I just remembered, we have a Board Meeting scheduled for today. Aaaaaargh!!! Randy requested a special Board just for our US companies. Ugh ugh and ugh! Oh well. At least we get to eat good food first, in La Vista, hehehe. Sigh! I really really hate working on weekends! Lai and I will have our laptops out though, during the meeting, seeing as we have a deadline on Monday. So I guess I've got office work to do this whole, entire weekend! Man!

We're talking about washers and stuff for the meeting. A minor part of it, anyway. Seems some marketing needs to be done to have this particular company make more profits. Maybe branch out into related Delta machinery? Who knows? Something, anything would be nice so that income would increase without much effort.

Oh, doctor day today, too. Almost forgot about that. Ranger needs to go see his pediatrician. I have a feeling he's going to need another round of strong meds yet again to help combat his asthma.

I did get up early to scrap a page:

FAMILY PIC-CHRISTMAS EVE

Controlling Our Work Environment

To finish a website and a couple of Tour Guide Maps, Lai and I decided we were going to take matters into our own hands and control our work environment. See, while in the office, we have TOO many distractions and interruptions. People coming into our office ( we rarely espouse a closed-door policy) and having questions needing answers, or checks to sign, or just to chat. So we figure if we eliminate those interruptions, we would get so much work done.

With that said, we went to Shangri-La Plaza at 11 am. We opened the mall, hehehe. We went straight to our fave restaurant over there, CPK. Before we settled in though, we had to make sure that we could have a table near an outlet so we could plug in our laptops and work away. Because we were the FIRST ones in there, of course we had that option! Hehehe.

So we ordered food and proceeded to discuss some last minute things. We finally started work on our respective projects. I started on the website while Lai started on the Shrine Tour Map. The food came, we ate, while constantly typing on our keyboards. We'd re-surface when we'd get a call or text message on our mobile phones, but most were work-related so that was ok. We however, did NOT have any internet connection at CPK, so we were forced to call people at the office or Bang (a life saver!!!) for some info we needed that instant.

I was having a lot of problems with my iWeb program. For some reason it would NOT open and load my files!!! Ack! Good thing we were at Shang, so at least I just moseyed on over to iStudio to have them look at it. Well, when I was there, the program seemed to work fine. Ooookay. Back I went to CPK and tried to open it; same thing happened. Then it dawned on me that MAYBE the darn program needed some internet connection for it to work?!?! Impossible sounding, but I do need to look that up if that's true.

So anyhoo, since I *NEEDED* some wi-fi connection, we finally left CPK.....after 4.5 hours!!! Hahahahaha! Oh well. At least it was an ultra-productive working lunch because we got a TON of work done! We proceeded to Starbucks on the 6th level and paid for some access. An hour was good, it was enough for me to come to the conclusion that I *did* need internet connection for my iWeb to open up and for me to work on my files! Weird, but I guess that's that. It would be cool to be able to hook up my laptop to a TV or projector via HDMI cables and see my work in high definition! Hehehe. A feeling of accomplishment, somehow. But oh well. It's not all done yet, and I've got tons to type in still.

After an hour and half or so at Starbucks --- sipping some Frappucinos, of course! --- Lai and I decided to call it a day. We had done good work, and made a huge dent in our respective projects. So yayayayayayyyyyy us!! WHoohoohoo! We left Shang fuller, yes, hehehe, but with satisfaction that we had done a LOT today!

I got home and I decided I was done with work. So I scrapped :) And was productive, too!

SO COLD
STAIRS

What a GREAT day it has been! Yeah! TTFN!

Another Trip!

Well, yes, France was canceled pretty much at the last minute, but Mom instructed Rondic to start looking for fares to Macau. I have NO idea WHY we're going to Macau----it's not like we haven't seen it. Methinks mother dear WANTS to go to that shopping street that Randy and Stella went to after Christmas. Not sure what it's named, but it's in some tunnel between Macau and China.

Dic was able to find some rates for airfare and the Venetian. A bit pricey, and it was for 5 days. We were saying that 5 days is TOO long for Macau, but the Venetian seems like a good place to stay; maybe it's the same line as the Las Vegas hotel one with the same name? I'm hoping that it is because they have big rooms!

I did scrap this page today:

BELIEVE

I'm forcing the issue of some ME time just so I can scrap. REEEAAALLLY late at night. Can't let go of the mojo once it starts flowing, right? *wink*

TTFN!

Happy Birthday, Robin!

Another birthday party! Dinner at La Vista, pretty much just family. Lai and I got to La Vista early and were so hungry we started munching on junk food and C2 drinks. Hehehe. But Mom told us we were going to have some imported steak for dinner, and that made us put everything down. Didn't want to ruin a good steak, you know!

The steak was blah. Nothing great. I wasn't all that happy with what we ate. Maybe it's because I'm subconsciously trying not to eat too much? Hehehehe. But honestly, we have had better food before. It was okay, but I guess I was expecting more? Or maybe all that junk food had ruined my appetite? Hehehe. Oh well.

Ranger sounded like a little sick boy tonight :(. His cough definitely had some phlegm in it and he looked really pale. So definitely some Calpol tonight, and monitoring of his temperature just in case. I don't want him catching another bout of pneumonia only a month after his last episode of it. It IS another asthma attack, I can see that now. Sigh! My high-need baby boy! At the rate we're going, giving him tons of meds just to be able to control his asthma and pneumonia/bronchitis, we may be headed for drug treatment centers in the future! Noooooooo!!!! That is SOOOO not going to happen! With luck, he'll be like his siblings and outgrow the asthma! Time for some nebulization for my baby!

I got to scrap a page! I don't know when and how but I did! Maybe early in the morning when I woke up?

IN THE SNOW

TTFN!

Work, Work, Work

Today was just a continuation of yesterday. Sigh! Doing some major catching up on stuff to do for the Relics' visit, including merchandising. As usual, everything, as in EVERYTHING!!! is last minute!!! Aaaargh! Sooo horrible!

And while Lai and I were slaving over (sort of) ideas for the tour map and the website, my dear brothers (except Boydee) went golfing. As they were hitting away with their Cleveland golf clubs, we girls were in front of our laptops practically the whole day with our eyes glued to the screen! Sure, there were some welcome interruptions at work, like signing checks and checking on reports, but we were pretty much glued to our desks, hehehe.

But I think we pretty much have an idea as to what needs to be done. Lai has a "secret" weapon that we will be referring to for our projects. As for merchandising, thank goodness Bang is on it, despite the fact that she is in Cebu!

So major stressful telephone conversations over the dang handkerchief though! Major discussions about red vs brown ink, print size, who to print, and how much. And all around 9 pm already!!!!

I am SOOOOO glad this day is over!

Back to Reality

Man, work was exhausting today! What a madhouse!!! Ugh! I surely didn't miss this kind of thing! First, I got up late, with a migraine starting. Not a good start to the day, for sure. I rush to get ready, passed by Riverbanks, then it was off to the office.

At the office, it was one thing after another. Ugh, ugh, double and triple ugh! I had barely sat at my desk when the phones started ringing, my cellphone started beeping, and a whole lot of things happening at the same time. I kid you not when I say that people were going in and out of my office with PAPERWORK in their hand...paperwork that DEMANDED I do something to it immediately. From checks to requests for over time and leaves, I could barely breathe!

I finally had a breather at around 2 pm, and was about to open my salad...when Mom rang and asked me to go to her office. An hour and fifteen minutes later, I was back at my office and had my wilted salad for lunch. Sigh! I guess that's what I get for being out of the office for 2 months!!!

Elizza then calls me and tells me to go down to the lobby so that we can enroll the kids for Kumon Math classes. We talked to the Kumon guy for over 2 hours! Sheesh! But at least the kids are enrolled and will be starting this Saturday. At the very least, I am hoping the Kumon system will give them STRUCTURE to the way they do their homework. Crossing my fingers!

The big kids were all enrolled, but my amby baby Ranger will have to wait a year or 2 or 3 before he can start on a Kumon program. Tuition is P1,460 per child, which technically, isn't TOO bad. But multiply that by 3 and wowzers! I've got a major expense on my hands. A MONTHLY expense! Yikes! But after talking to the Kumon guy, I feel somewhat reassured at what to expect, although my wallet will be a lot lighter after a few YEARS. Yes, years, of taking the program.

It was a bit difficult trying to figure out a schedule with the kids' varied extra curricular activities. We had swimming, ice skating, taekwondo, graphic design, kids' band and chess to take into consideration. Hehehehe. What a list, eh? Lai and I lumped them all together for now on Tuesday evenings right after swimming and Saturday mornings. If that doesn't work out, I can change the girls' schedule and have them go a couple of afternoons during the week instead of having an evening time slot. We'll see.

Now I really, really, REALLY have to scrap!!! Migraines, go away!!!!