All Work

Nothing to write today...just worked the whole day at the Shrine. But I did finish my vault adjustment stuff!!! YAY!!!! I finished earlier than Lai, who was still laboring over the gazillion things that Boydee had assigned to her, so I scrapped to unwind :)

And I finished almost 2 whole layouts while waiting for Lai! The second one I finished at home though, although I scrapped while in the car, sitting in the endless traffic!

CARMEL MONASTERY
MONSIGNOR LAGOUTTE

TTFN!

Enrollment

Education is VERY EXPENSIVE nowadays. My checkbook is sooo light, it's almost to ZERO!!! Seriously! *roll eyes here* And with 4 kids in school, it's no wonder! The price of progress, I guess *shrug*. Oh well.

I spent a good part of the morning fillin up the damn form....FOUR times, one for each kid!!! You would think the school would HAVE the kids' information since they are returning students!!! Aaaargh! By the time I had signed off on the last paper, my wrist was hurting from all the writing. Let me tell you, my handwriting got progressively worse with each set I had to fill up!

Then it was time to write the checks. Yes, as in plural. I couldn't afford to pay everything up front this year (when did I ever? hehehe) and this fine institution *still* hadn't arranged to accept payments via credit card!!! So PDCs it was...and that was another FOUR checks I had to write!

By the time I left school a couple of hours later, I was tired. And drained. Both me and my checkbook, hehehehe. And the heat was just unbearable today!

With the electric fan blowing directly into my face, and enjoying the peace and quiet in the house with the kids at swimming, I scrapped:

EVERYDAY BLESSINGS
4TH MONTH-RAINE

TTFN!

Just a Sunday

Slept in a little bit and got up at around 730 am....which is no small feat if you fell asleep at 330 am! Sigh! Oh well. That's age's doing, I guess, throwing my schedule all a-kilter.

We all got up, showered, dressed and met the rest of the clan over at Yedang's, another fave restaurant of the family's. Going Korean again...I guess Rondic didn't have his fill of Korean food when he was in Seoul last week! :) After a verrrry satisfying meal of grilled meats and other traditional Korean fare, we went home for a nap.

All the napping after meals isn't very healthy, I know...but my excuse was that I've been sleep deprived ever since the doctor put me on Duramine! An average night's sleep for me is 4-6 hours; I'm lucky if I get close to that all the time. Then I wake up with a start, sometimes drenched in sweat with the bedding wrapped around me. Weird, I know, but hey, it's all in the name of trying to lose weight eh? *wink*

Anyway, right before going off to Ayala, I was able to do some pages for some of my neglected CT (sorry!!!)

THE RELIQUARY

TTFN!

Happy 39th Birthday, Japa!!!

Whoa. 39 years old. Hehehe. Despite it being his birthday, we had a normal Saturday: breakfast at home, late lunch at La Vista. Then we went home for a short nap, then mass at Pentecost. Japa figured he'd do a 2-for-1 mass to celebrate his birth day AND Sunday mass. Typical eh?

For dinner, we had texted family to join us. Originally, we were set to go to Pho Hoa, a Vietnamese restaurant in Eastwood. When I was in the middle of writing down appetizers for everyone, the manager approached me and told me that they had no credit card facility for the night...that I had to pay cash. O-o-o-kay. And I was salivating for some of the appetizers!!! Grrrrr! Needless to say, we left Pho Hoa in a huff.

And proceeded to our all -time fave and back up place for eating: Omakase! Hehehe. Rogan was literally jumping for joy on the way to the car from Pho Hoa. I got a text message from Robin saying "Yes! Thank you, Pho Hoa!" Told you it was an all-time family fave!

We were a noisy bunch at the restaurant. The poor diners had to endure our loudness and rambunctiousness all throughout dinner :) It did help that we were in a private room, although there was 1 poor family who had to sit through it all, hehehehe.

My gift? Nothing yet, although I have been planning to get Japa the new Sony A700 camera. It'll have to wait though, when someone comes home from the States. He also wants a forerunner GPS watch that measures his strides, and distance and other stuff for running. I have absolutely NO idea what it does! :)

Just one scrap today:

BASILICA CRYPT

TTFN!

The Shrine, The Pirate and The Forbidden Kingdom

We spent the ENTIRE day in the Shrine! Sigh! Trying to make headway into some columbarium stuff. I did get a big chunk done, thank goodness, so I'm estimating about a day or two more for vault adjustment stuff.

Anyhoo, when Lai and I were ready to leave the Shrine, Boydee said he was going to go home with us. Okay. Close to an hour later (maybe I exaggerate, but Lai will attest to the fact that we waited for a looooong time before Boydee finally got done!), we were all in the venture going home. All of a sudden Boydee decided that he wanted to watch a movie and proceeded to call our spouses to tell them of "our" i.e., his, plan to see one! Hehehehe. Typical Boydee.

But it was a chance for us siblings to get together and we had a blast. After sitting in traffic for more than an hour, we arrived at Eastwood. Japa and Bang were already there, since they came straight from the office. Our restaurant of choice? Il Pirata. Cute pirate-y things, but it just seemed weird to have an italian restaurant with a pirate theme, no?

After a hurried dinner, we went to go see The Forbidden Kingdom starring big Asian stars Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

Synopsis: While hunting down bootleg kung-fu DVDs in a Chinatown pawnshop, Jason makes an extraordinary discovery that sends him hurtling back in time to ancient China. There, Jason is charged with a monumental task: he must free the fabled warrior the Monkey King, who has been imprisoned by the evil Jade Warlord. Jason is joined in his quest by wise kung fu master Lu Yan and a band of misfit warriors including Silent Monk. But only by learning the true precepts of kung fu can Jason hope to succeed - and find a way to get back home.

It was quite an entertaining movie, and I was pleasantly surprised. I'm not that big a fan of either actor, although admittedly, Jackie Chan was funny in the Rush Hour (?) series. The storyline was interesting; the kids would have loved it. At least, Rogan and maybe Raine, would.

Coming out of the theater, we went into "quote" mode: Boydee and Dic were spewing memorable quotes from the movie....and I made karate-like motions and sounds. Heehehehehe. You had to be there to really appreciate our antics! Maybe we were too full from the pizza at Il Pirate? Hehehehe.

Meeting, Meeting, Meeting!

Say that title the way Jan says "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha" in Brady Bunch and you've got the tone I want to convey. Boydee, Bang, Japa, Lai and I trooped into the Board Room to have our weekly (as it turns out) meeting about the columbarium. Although Boydee forgot to print out an agenda (que horor! hehehe), we *still* met for at least 4 hours....right through lunch, I may add!

And after that meeting, my To Do List contains a gazillion different things!!! Aaaargh!!! I really HATE meetings!!! Can't we do this all through email??? Hehehehe.

Sigh!

Oh well. I did stay in the office 'til late afternoon...talking to people. I swear, sometimes I should be awarded an honorary degree in counseling, bwahahahaha! That's what I've been doing this whole week I think. I don't know if my sanity can take this though. We need an honest to goodness Human Resources person to take over this department!!! Grrr!

Went home, TRIED to scrap, but my mind was too tired from today, I guess. All I could do on the computer was brainlessly play with Snood. After a few minutes of that, and blogging, and I'm ready to turn in.

Japa has been online ceaselessly it seems....he's doing this Brain Game thingy on Facebook and he's become addicted to it! Gone are the nights of watching TV shows on the internet. Even playing Mac Poker has taken backstage! Hard to believe, I know, despite the camaraderie he's gotten playing Fulltilt Poker with the Poker Stars!!! Great graphics or some online poker and easy to use...and believe me, he's spent HOURS on end playing this game online, it's not even funny! *roll eyes here*

Yes, I don't like poker, but there must be something in the colorful graphics and real-life looking poker table that gives Japa and his friends the thrill of "seeing" and "meeting" each other online! BOYS!!!

At the Shrine

Lai and I went to the Shrine today to W.O.R.K. Yup. We actually worked! :) We did have a bit of a break when Mom arrived with Lola and Aureo Alonzo in tow. He measured us for the 40th anniversary celebration and chatted a bit...for 2 hours I think! Sigh! And we could have been making major headway into our work, hehehehe.

Anyway, it was a good break, nevertheless, as Lai and I were quite productive afterwards. We did leave before everyone left, however, since there was no way we wanted to be stuck in traffic!

And what did I do at home? I dove into my CT folder and scrapped like a maniac, hahahaha!

4th MONTH-RAEGAN (Left)
4th MONTH-RAEGAN (Right)
SWING

Before I forget, a shout of HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Tita Tinggoy today!

And with that, it's off to bed for me!

Sub 200!!!

Alright!!! Hehehe. For the first time in a super duper looooong time, I am under 200 lbs!!! Shhhh!!!! :) Yes, very heavy, still. But I'm hoping to lose more weight in the next few months. I have to: with 2 weddings I can't be fat and dumpy, can I? :)

Why do you think there's been a sudden rush to detox? To exercise? To diet? Ok, not so much diet since I HATE having to curb my appetite (hehehe) but I've got some of the best diet pills working for me. So yes, it's curbed my appetite, and has most likely increased my metabolism since I've been sweating up a storm, even when in an air conditioned room! :)

The best thing is, I don't feel irritated or have my heart thumping a million miles per minute. With the addition of fiber to my diet, I've been feeling a lot lighter than usual. And even though my weight isn't moving all that much, I know the inches are coming off, so I *know* that everything I'm doing is working!!! Whooohooo!

It's been a horrendous day at the office today. Scandal, gossip, rumors. Ugh. I had to help sort out a mess between 3 people in the office which normally I wouldn't touch since it was their relationship, but because something happened within office premises, then of COURSE I involved myself! Sigh!

So after 2 hours of "counseling" (that's what it basically was), everything seemed hunky dory once again. I hope. I mean, I don't think anything criminal went on, just a whole lot of confusion. The most that's going to come out of this is an administrative sanction or warning from me.

Anyhoo, I was able to scrap something real quick this morning, while waiting for coding time to arrive:

LAUGH-ROGAN

Now, I'm at the office, again waiting for Japa to get done with his meeting so we can go home! I'm tired and sleepy! Hmmmm......maybe I should scrap now. It's past office hours anyway, hehehe!

After 2 Months....

...we had our board meeting. Hehehe. We try to have it once a month, but with everything happening the past couple of months, we somehow forgot to remind everyone of the schedule! Let's see, we had Valentine's Day, Mom's birthday, Dad being rushed to the ER, Lolo's birthday, Raegan's birthday....and swimming and summer! Oh, there's also office and the company outing and team building! Sheesh!

The meeting went well, though. We even had Randy present his reports via iChat, hehehehe. And I guess he's homesick and wants to hear our voices, huh Ran? *wink* Poor Stella was throwing up after she gave her report; I guess she forgot to take some med that prevents her from throwing up after smelling strong odors. We told Randy to go take a shower, hehehehe.

While at the meeting, I had my external hard drive on and I used Time Machine to back up ALL my laptop files, including system files. As an extra precaution, I also backed up my precious Scrapbooking files :) But of course I couldn't leave them out!!! Hehehe. I was able to finish 8-10 DVDs worth of scrapping files. So yes, it was a productive meeting for me! ;)

Afterwards, we waited for the sun to start setting before I joined Mom, Bang, Boydee and Bric for their almost daily afternoon walks around the village. Dic and Lai followed after a few minutes; they jogged until they caught up to us. Bric and Robyn were in the double stroller and were entertained by my singing of "Mr Sun" hehehehe. The streets were practically empty; the older kids would have loved to join us in their skate shoes, but they were at swimming. Oh well. Maybe next time. We walked for 45 minutes I think. Not gross, running sweat, but I did perspire a little bit from our walk. It was super duper hot outside, despite it being 5 pm!!!

I did get to finish my scrap from yesterday, though!

NO DREAMER TOO SMALL

TTFN!

No Time to Scrap but Learned a Great Story for Scrapping

Well, I actually started a page, but that was it. It never got finished, hehehe. It was a pretty busy day.....we had lunch at Yedang, a Korean restaurant where our family is fast becoming regulars! And it's authentic, since most of the people who go there are Koreans!!! Yes, that's how you can tell if the food is "just like home"---look at the people who go there. If lots of Chinese people frequent a Chinese restaurant, you know they serve good chinese food. Same goes for Korean and Japanese :)

Ruckus in the restaurant though....Ranger was acting up because he wanted to use his older siblings' Nintendo DS Lite. None of the older kids were paying much attention to him, which made Ranger's cries much louder. And more irritating. And Japa had had enough. He told everyone in his quietly deadly voice to keep all the DS units or else. I guess that works more effectively than my screams since the kids quickly stowed their DSs. *roll eyes* Hehehe. Anyway, we had a relatively peaceful meal....all 20 of us scattered between 4 tables. :)

We went home afterwards and I did try to scrap, but I guess I was too full and too tired from this morning's jog that I ended up just laying in bed, doing nothing. Played Snood and that was it. Oh well. Japa went to the firing range with Doods and we waited for them to arrive so we could all go together to Ate Becca's house for dinner.

We were celebrating a double graduation (Jopie and a cousin) and Ogie's 50th (!!!) birthday. Since we couldn't fit in just one vehicle, we had Romy take the Everest to Apitong to pick up the kids while we crammed ourselves in the pick up to go to dinner. I swear, sometimes I think we have to buy a bus just so we could all fit in one vehicle and go places *together*!!! Think of the gas we'd save, too, by just using the ONE car/bus!!!

Dinner was great, and we spent a couple of hours reminiscing with Doods and Mom and their kids. Ate Becca brought out her album and we went through the photos. We got great stories too, especially about Doods and Mom! Turns out that even though they were neighbors in their barrio, they never knew each other. They finally met when Mom was visiting another neighbor in a hospital in Manila where Doods was an intern (I think). Mom was dared to start a conversation with some doctor (who wasn't all that great looking she said), and she replied something along the lines of "no thank you, I think Romy looks better anyway". Hehehe. Mom didn't deny it, so I'm assuming it's true :) And the rest, they say, is history! Hehehehe. Chalk one up for the scrapbooks. Soon. :)

I Actually Went Out for a RUN!!!

Alright!!!! Yes, I did get up bright and early (not to mention hot hot HOT!) this morning for a run. Ok, a jog. Ok, even slower than a jog, hehehe. NO, not a walk either.

The girls and I trooped to the Moro Lorenzo Sports Center to have our run in the SHADE. I didn't mind shelling out P30 for each of us; just as long as we didn't have to run out in the scorching sun, it was fine. And the best part? We had the indoor 200-meter track all to ourselves! There was some basketball team playing down, but the trace was empty except for the 3 of us.

And all I can say is: Thank goodness for iPods!!! It totally made me forget the time and helped me run faster, depending on what was playing. Good thing Japa had loaded some 80's music for me, so I ran to that. I ended up doing a total of 1.5 miles run and 1.0 mile walk. It took me 45 minutes. Not bad. I'm hoping to do this somewhat regularly just so I can up the mileage a bit.....I just hope my back will hold out though.

But that's a major reason why I prefer running on a track though. I feel safer that my back and knees won't be crushed from my weight because I'm running on a softer, more padded surface on an oval compared to out on the cemented street. And yes, the SHADE is also an all-important factor! Now, next in line is to convince the girls to keep going with me in the morning. I'm sure they'll say yes.....just as long as their Papa doesn't come along to torture them with his sprinting programs! hehehehe.

I had to call La Vista to borrow a car...Japa had gone off early to row and the pick up was being used for marketing. Good thing there was a driver who could bring the car over! After our run, we went straight to La Vista to return the car AND have some breakfast. Boy, did the girls chow on some kielbasa and rice! Whoa! :)

Scrapping and Lechon

Well! I ended up sleeping at about 330 am, waiting for Japa who was out partying until about 5 am!!! *roll eyes* Total MLC, man! (that's mid-life crisis for those who don't know).

Needless to say, running first thing in the morning was out. Raegan did come in to ask me if we were going out and I must have mumbled something in the negative because she went out, hehehe. I woke up close to 8 am, which is major sleeping in time for me. And of course, I started the day right by starting to scrap! Hehehehe.

EASTER BOYS
ARC DE TRIOMPHE

That blending of the Arc looks pretty cool, if I do say so myself! Hehehehe. Just did an overlay of the photo on top of the paper, and duplicated that overlay layer. It came out in a sepia tone because the paper is brown (at least, that's what I think!). :)

Boydee, Bang and Bric arrived from Cebu in the evening. We were having the usual late dinner at La Vista, so the lechon they brought home arrived just in time for dinner. Of course, Japa and Elizza were totally holding off eating anything before the lechon arrived, hehehe. And I kid you not when I say that within 15 minutes of starting dinner, that poor porky pig was GONE! Good thing Melinda had taken a few ribs for Mom and Lola (who were at a party), because the second time I looked over at the buffet table, even the CARCASS of the lechon had disappeared!!! Yikes! Scary, sometimes, when you think of how this family eats!!!

TTFN!

Another Work-Filled Day

I got up really early in the morning to do some subrosa reviews....turned out it took me practically ALL morning, hehehehe. I edited and finished the review in the office, right before lunch time.

After lunch, it was all office work. Mostly signing RAs, commission checks and printing out 40 RPUs! I didn't even get a chance to continue doing the job descriptions for the new company!!! Aaaaargh! Oh well, at least come meeting time, I have something to turn in, hehehe.

Staying up pretty late, too, since I can't sleep! Crossing my fingers I can get up early enough to go running at Moro.....I refuse to run out in the open anymore...not with this horrid heat wave we've been having!

Productive Day!!!

Ahhhh. Don't you love it when, at the end of the day, you just KNOW that you got a ton of work done??? :) That was today and it felt GOOD!!!

Just work stuff, so no need to bore everyone with those details. But days like these are fulfilling, that's for sure! Hehehe.

Lai brought me home. Reese and Robyn picked us up at work. I persuaded Lai to get down and have some dinner before they all went home. It was spaghetti, so of course Lai couldn't refuse that! hehehe. Then I brought out the 6-layer dip and the tortilla chips. Lai looked at Reese and told her that they were going to spend just a few more minutes so she could enjoy the chips and dip. After a few minutes of watching her mother and me eat with gusto, Reese asked if she could taste it.

And she LOVED it! Hehehe. Even when Raegan said that Reese was going to be in a farting mood tonight, Reese didn't care, saying that it was GOOD! Now THAT is enjoying your food, hehehe.

I tried to scrap tonight, but nothing was entering my mind. Maybe the past few days' of having only a few hours of sleep is finally catching up on me. That, and no mojo whatsoever in me. So it's time I turn off my laptop to see what's on TV :)

TTFN!

Work, Work, Work

After the past few days, it was time to play catch up at work. Loads to be done, especially for the Columbarium Management meeting next week, not to mention the monthly Board Meeting! Sigh! I *hate* meetings!!!

Today there were checks waiting to be signed. Research had to be done for the columbarium job descriptions. This was the tedious part since it was sooooo hard to find something specific to columbarium on the internet! I ended up with funeral homes type of descriptions. They'd provide me a good start before I'd pattern the whole job description for the company. Elma was also hovering, clutching the folder of promotional products we had for the 2nd visit of the Relics of St Therese a couple of months back; she couldn't wait to show me how much we had made, how much was contributed to help defray the freight costs of the Relics.

We had dinner at La Vista again. The results of the chest x-rays were submitted to Bang. Sadly, we have a few cases of tuberculosis. However, because of the exposure we've had with the kids before to the primary complex, we knew that it wasn't the end of the world, that it was more than curable. People just needed to be patient with taking the medicines religiously, daily and without fail for the next 6 months for the medicines to take effect. Out of 70 employees, including household staff, there were 5 cases of TB.

Being HR head as well, it fell on me to break the news to the employees who had them. That's going to be tomorrow. No, we're not going to fire them just because they have TB! We just need to educate them on taking the medicines so that they *will* get well.

Now, it's time to finish off Season 1 of Las Vegas! :)

Homeward Bound

When I woke up, my whole body hurt like heck!!! It was very difficult to stand up. I needed an extremely HOT shower to help circulate the blood! :)

We decided not to go on the lake tour, although Boydee and Bang stayed with the rest of the employees to go on it, along with Raine. The rest of us trouped onto the banca and ferried across the lake to where the cars were. Thank goodness Rondic followed with an extra vehicle; we put most of the bags in the pick up truck's bed!

Dic decided to go through the "scenic" and much shorter route. To our horror, it was zig-zaggy for a major part of the way!!! I tried to sleep it off, trying to close my eyes to the fruit stands, the sari-sari stores, the beat up furniture stores, the nice and not-so-nice restaurants, and the mountainside as everything seemed to go in fast forward mode. Ugh. Definitely not a great ride.

Just as we were coming to the end of the zig-zaggedy part, I heard Raegan cough. And I started scrambling for a plastic bag. It was BARF time! Sigh! And she upped her entire breakfast, spilling some on the van floor. Gross! We stopped on the side of the road so that she could get wiped up and changed. While that was happening, Rielle "communed" with nature for the first time I think. The yaya wouldn't give her one of Robyn's diapers so I suggested she make use of nature, hehehe. Soon, Lolo Doc and Riley followed suit! Lai has that pic and I haven't gotten a-hold of her photos yet, so that's going to be one for the scrapbooks for sure! :)

We went straight to La Vista for lunch where Dad was in a pretty good mood. We said hellos and related all that had happened at Caliraya before we played the "I'm tired" trump, pleading exhaustion.

Rogan had a sleepover with Nathan and Kiel arriving in the late afternoon. They holed themselves up in the boys' room playing the PS2, DS and the Wii. Typical boys, eh?

I took the girls out for an all-girl date. To Kenny Rogers, hehehe. One taste of the mac and cheese side dish and both of them went, "Mmmmmmm!" After a taste of the roasted chicken, they both pronounced that they had a new favorite restaurant! Hahahahaha! Kids. So easy to please, huh? :)

I scrapped, too!

JUST BE HAPPY
ZOOM ZOOM!

Ok, off to bed!

The Rain in Spain....

Isn't that the way the song goes in My Fair Lady?

Although Mom and I only had time to go to Paris and Lisieux in our latest foray into Europe, maybe Rod and Zhar may be interested in some Cheap Spain Hotels when you guys go for your honeymoon? Last time I went to Spain was in 1990 with the Arceos, and two years before that, with Mom, Dad, Boydee, Lola Nene and Lola Alud.

Why do we like Spain? I guess mainly the FOOD, hehehe. In general, it's like Filipino food, I guess. Considering that we've been under Spain for more than 300 years, there's definitely some influence there! Not that I like Filipino food.....but I must admit, I LOOOOVE Spanish paella, especially the green kind! I'm not sure where we ate that green paella dish, but it was just pure gastronomic delight!

The bullfight is always a must-see. When we went in 1988, a relative of ours brought us to an amateur bullfight. She said if we wanted to see how it was really done, see the amateur matadors. Why? Because they take more risks when in the ring...so that they would be noticed. And true enough, the 3 bullfights that we witnessed that day was just that: full of excitement, sit-on-the-edge of your seat moments.

I can't remember much about what else we saw while in Madrid, but the food was plentiful, that's for sure. Cheap Madrid Hotels are to be found, if you know where to look. In the "olden" days (i.e., days before the internet and online booking), we went to the central train station to book for our great hotel find of our stay.

In Barcelona, there's the Picasso Museum that should interest you, Rod :) You and Randy are the only art afficionados in the family. Me? I read up on the subject if we're going to be seeing it, hehehe. There's also the Museum of the Sacred Family (Sagrada Familia). Not sure if we went there, but it looked interesting. Cheap Hotels in Barcelona are available, especially if you're going in the non-summer months.

Like I said, Spain to me will forever be equated with bullfights and matadors, paella, cheap leather shoes (!!!) ......and I remember Dad took down a poster about some rowing regatta from a bulleting board and gave it to me, hehehehe.

Team Building Day

***Warning: Photo heavy post coming up!***

OMGoodness, what a day!! Every inch of my body hurts!!! Aaargh! Yes, I knew today was going to be physical but holy moly! Team building activities included:

1. team chant - this is the worse and corniest part, hehehe. I maintain that the RED team had a waaaay better chant than the yellow team----even the kids said so! Hmp! Obviously, the point was awarded to the yellow team and I belong to the red team, hehehe.

2. obstacle course #1 - a series of exercises that the team had to go through in order to advance. This set of exercises gave new meaning to the word team:

a. the Tire - everyone had to go through the tire without touching the tire, including the last person. My fave fave FAVE photo of this event? Here ya go....breathe, and then laugh your heart out:


Hahahahaha! Can you ENVISION a scrap page from that?!?!? I surely can!!!

b. the Log - 12 members of the team had to stay on this log that was held by cable at the ends only. The key thing? We had to balance:


If you come across this "game" in the future, just remember that do NOT do it that way in the photo. You're NEVER going to get balanced that way!

c. the Parallel "Bars". This was muuuuch harder than it looked. When I got on the cables, my whole body started shaking no matter who my partner was! It was horrendous! I thought I was never going to make it across!


d. the Tires. This was just horrible. For all my strength (not to mention my weight, hahahaha!) I could NOT get across the swinging tires!!! Aargh! Bang and Lai did it no prob, but I couldn't finish it! I did get through to the second to the last one, but then my body went parallel to the ground and that was it. I couldn't pull myself up anymore, hehehe.

Everything was timed, with the red team going first. By the second exercise, the Log, we knew we had won since the yellow team could NOT balance at all! They used up all their time on the Log, which was too bad really, since they demolished our time on the Tire!

3. obstacle course #2 - This was your typical obstacle course. And it was a riot! Each member ran through 3 pairs of tires, crawled under a net, jumped over several pvc-type hurdles and ran all the way back to pass the baton to the next member. One of my fave pics of this event? Here ya go:

The red team handily won this event. The yellow team still had a person left when we finished.

4. monster ball - This was volleyball with a humongo monstrous ball, hence the name of the game. The yellow team won this one, too, dang it!


5. mud slide - Team members slid down this 50-meter tarp doused with soap and water. At the end of the slide was a big pile of mud. Members held a plastic cup of water in one hand and at the end of the slide, needed to pour the remaining water (if there was any!) into a container to be measured. The team with the higher level of water won.



The yellow team beat us by a millimeter!!! :)

All in all, it was a heck of a FUN day that's for sure!

Everyone had a few hours of free time before dinner. Most of us headed to the pool to cool off!

Off to Caliraya

We left Manila at about 930 am. We squished ourselves inside the Everest and the red E150. With Rondic following tonight, it was quite spacious, hehehe. I was comfy in the van, along with all the girls. Japa, Doods and the boys were all in the Everest.

And let me tell you, that van was pure NOISE. The girls were talking NONSTOP!!! Holy Moly! It was a good thing I barely got enough sleep last night (watching Las Vegas, hehehe), so I nodded off a few times during the whole 2 hour something trip.

It was getting close to lunch and we passed some restaurants, some ok looking and some uhhmmm......where you would never think of going in, hehehe. How could I tell? Usually the nicer restaurants had some custom-made digital signage as opposed to the handmade signs of the seedier places. :)

Japa was ahead by about 2 minutes and spotted this:

He turned in, texted us and that was that. I'm pretty sure the sign translates to "eating with your hands by the fishpond" in English, hehehe. The place wasn't too bad, actually. There were some nipa huts that served as dining places and they were on top of the fishpond, floating! It was very different, that's for sure.

The food? Umm....Filipino of course. So nothing great for me, although I must admit the curried fish and the garlic rice were pretty good. Everyone else feasted on liempo, barbecue chicken and pork sinigang.

We were a mere 30 kilometers away from Caliraya when Japa phoned to tell us that our back tire seemed flat. Uh oh. Nooooot good! We pull into a gasoline station and true enough, there was a gaping hole in the tire!!! Ugh! The gasoline station didn't have a vulcanizing machine, so we stayed in the small Select store for about an hour while Bong went looking for another gasoline station. However, when the service station guys took the spare tire out, it was only to find that it, too, was flat!!! Luckily, there was only a small hole and it would be enough to take us to Caliraya. Bong would have to go back either today or tomorrow morning to buy a replacement. Sigh!

We finally get to the Caliraya Recreation Center parking lot. Turns out we had to cross the huge man-made lake to get to the island via a ferry boat. Or was it an outrigger boat? Anyhoo, it was barely a 5-minute ride and we were on the island. The accommodations weren't very nice, but they were ummm......serviceable, hehehe. The kids were billeted at the dormitory type house that would sleep 10-15 people. The adults were in the hotel. The room had a queen sized bed with a bunk bed in the corner. Since it seemed cooler in the hotel, we let the kids sleep on the bunk beds with us and the yayas and the drivers had the dorm-house.

As soon as the kids saw the swimming pools, they were talking nonstop about going swimming. This, from kids who train every single weekday! Hahahahaha! You would think they'd be sick and tired of swimming, but nope! They were in that pool as soon as we said "ok, let's go swimming" and they quickly changed into their swim suits.

Here's the view from the terrace by our room:


After a couple of hours, it was dinner and bedtime. :) Tomorrow the rest of the employees will be coming and we expect to be very very tired at the end of the day!

TTFN!

I Scrapped!!!

Yup, I actually sat down and started the 4th month of The Sisterhood Challenge! I found photos of Raegan and Rogan no prob. Now I'm stumped, because I seem to be missing a few CDs of Raine's pictures that were converted to digital from negatives! Aaaaargh!!! NOT good! And I know Ranger's pics are in the room. Somewhere, hehehe.

4HT MONTH-ROGAN

Wasn't he a cutie with all that curly hair? hehehe. I loved how this spread turned out!

I was on a roll but had to stop: we needed to pack for this weekend's company team building/outing at Caliraya. My family and Dic's family are going to be the "advance party" so that we can have time and fun with the kids. I'm trying to pack as minimally as possible....because we don't have a lot of trunk space! Hehehehe. Thank goodness Lai has the van---some of us are definitely going to have to ride with them on the 2-hour trip.

G'night!

A Day at the Office

Definitely no trip to Hong Kong for Raegan and myself......everything is just TOO expensive! Dang airlines are taking advantage of the summer months, that's for sure! Grrrrr!

Spent the morning at the office, having a meeting about the Columbarium. The meeting wasn't *to0* bad, despite Boydee being there, hehehehe. It took us a little after lunch to finish, and it was quite productive. Setting up a new company is definitely not easy work! Sigh! And what does little ole moi have to do? Job descriptions up the kazoo! Sigh! Tedious stuff. Human Resources stuff. Employees, policies, and benefits. Health benefits, including screening for tuberculosis and other illnesses (disease is such a strong word, don't you think?) like cancer, diabetes, mesothelioma, allergies, etc. It's going to be a loooooong road ahead that's for sure!

Thank God it's a Friday, though.....our car's coding so Japa and I decided to leave the office before 3 pm. It gave me time to watch a few episodes of this:

I am LOVING this show!!!

I scrapped too:

H FOR HORSE

TTFN!

Happy 10th Birthday, Raegan!!!

My oldest baby is TEN YEARS OLD today!!! Where did the time go?!?!?!?

I wanted to take her to Hong Kong, just her and me, to celebrate this milestone...unfortunately, I had decided too late that I wanted to do that, so I was presented with extremely expensive airfares!!! Um, which means we're going to delay this trip by a few weeks, thank you very much! Hehehehe.

We started off Raegan's day with a 630 am mass at Pentecost. Raine came with us (I think she came mainly because she knew that the possibility of eating out for breakfast after mass was VERY high, hehehe). After mass, I dragged Raegan over to Fr John and asked him to give her a birthday blessing. He willingly and smilingly obliged. One of the parishioners who had been talking to Fr John right before I asked him for a blessing, sang the Birthday Song while Raegan was getting her birthday blessing.

Starbucks was our next stop, for a light breakfast. They had something new on the menu today --- mozarella, tomato and basil on a multi-grain bagel---and it was yummmmyyyy!!!! The girls had hot cocoa and a chocolate shake with some waffles. When we got home, we found the table set with piping hot schublig cheese sausages, noodles, eggs and pancit canton.

I had brought over a square piece of Conti's cake from La Vista and stuck ten wavy candles on it for Raegan's birthday cake.

***picture to be inserted***

We rested a bit whilst waiting for lunchtime......where we all gathered at the Coral Garden, this chinese restuarant (ugh!) in Libis. Lots of food, but the all-time favorite really, were the salted fish fried rice and the crab foo young. Always a hit!

Finally, stuffed and totally FULL, we all went home. We passed by National Bookstore to get the kids some word puzzle books, and I found some great GSS books for painting, drawing and other crafts. Reminder for me: I need to write down some sort of program for them this summer just so it won't all be swimming, kumon and video games!

Lola Nene very nicely and generously (!) told Raegan that she was going to buy pizzas for dinner (originally for merienda, but the kids talked her into doing it for dinner since they had swimming training at 4 pm). When we got to La Vista, there were 6 huge pizzas from Pizza Hut on the table, along with a large and medium sized pizzas from Yellow Cab (purportedly for the more discerning adults, hehehe). Rejy even cooked up some nutella crepes (with and without peaches) to complete our meal. What a feast, man!!!

A CALORIC feast, to say the least! All these parties and other excuse to eat kinds of gathering are soooo NOT good for my "diet". Makes me want to think of trying out anoretix, along with leptin and other meds the doctors have prescribed for me! Hehehe. Anything and everything to help suppress the appetite you know! Hehehe. Yes, I'm that desperate already!!! It's April and there's only 3 and 4 months to go for the weddings in the family!!!!! Aaaaargh!!!!

I'll be back to upload a few pics of Raegan on her birthday :)

TTFN!

X-Rays and Scraps

Since the office was going to be closing after lunch due to the staff having to have some x-rays done (mandatory for all of us!), I didn't go to the office. Besides, it wasn't easy trying to schedule the driver; it's hard being held hostage to your kids' schedules! Sheesh! Ranger had a swimming lesson at 930 am. He usually gets back home at around 11 am. If I left then, I'd be at the office at around 1130-1145. Then I'd have to leave at around 2 pm just to make the xray sessions at La Vista! Not worth it, so I decided to stay home. Did a little bit more research, and scrapped of course!

MATH QUIZ BEE
EASTER 2008
RANGER & LOLO BOY

TTFN!

Just at the Office

Boring day today. Just stayed in the office researching and doing my to-dos for the Columbarium meeting later in the week. Job descriptions, plantilla, etc. Just semi-tedious stuff, although admittedly, it isn't easy looking for and writing job descriptions for the death industry!

I have been trying to book a Hong Kong trip for Raegan and myself, in time for her birthday on the 10th, but to no avail! Letlet was able to find a couple of seats, but it was just TOO expensive for a short little trip just to have some mother-daughter time for a birthday. Sigh! Maybe towards the end of the month, the flights wouldn't be so full! This will teach me to leave things at the very last minute!!! Grrrr! Totally aggravating! Oh well. Lesson learned.

TTFN.

Happy Birthday Lolo Carding!

Lolo would have been 94 years old today. Most of us trooped to the Garden of Memories to say the rosary and sing happy birthday to him.

And Rogan started acting up, throwing tantrums and wouldn't listen to me. For the most part. Until I threatened to leave him in the cemetery among other things. All because Robin made fun of him and didn't know when to stop. Grrrrr! Immature, the both of them, I swear!

Anyway, we all went back and amassed in La Vista, where Rondic and Elizza had made the rounds of several restaurants to come up with the feast that we all dove into! Let's see, there was Chinese (Spring Deer), Thai (Soms), Filipino (Tito Ricky had brought Crispy Pata), and various desserts from Conti's. Oh, and Italian---on the way back to the house, I had phoned Pizza Hut to order a total of 6 pizzas. A feast, I tell you!

And it was all gone in about 2 hours, hehehehe.

There was mass scheduled at 5 pm, but we had made plans to go to training with the kids......so Japa and I swam with the kiddos at Ayala. We both tried to swim with Rogan during training, thinking we would beat him for a lap or so. Uh....nope. He spotted us and sped up his swimming, the little turd! Hahahaha!

Afterwards, we raced the kids but to no avail. We could NOT swim faster than them at all! Ahhhhh......what age does to the body! I mean, the mind is willing for sure, but the body? Uh-uh. It could not go as fast as the mind willed it to! :)

And here's something to break up the text:

Your Spelling is Perfect

You got 10/10 correct. Your spelling is excellent. You also have a great memory and eye for detail.

How's Your Spelling?

TTFN!

Ordinary Sunday and a Cake Meeting

We did the usual things. Mass at 1030 at Padre Pio--okay, this is a bit of a change since we've been going to mass at Pentecost on Saturday evenings. But the heat this summer being the way it is (incredibly hot hot HOT), we *NEEDED* the airconditioning of the small chapel to be a little bit more comfortable during mass.

After mass, we went straight to Ayala since I had planned to go with Zhar, Lai and Bang to meet the cake maker for the anniversary of Mom and Dad and the wedding of Zhar and Rod. By the time we had to leave Ayala, I wasn't in a very meeting-y mood. Blame it on the heat; I just wanted to lie down on my bed with the AC on full blast, it was that HOT! Ugh!

But Lai and Bang picked me up and off we went to Makati, that drasted far-off place! Hehehee. IN actuality, a mere 20 minute-ride on this blissfully traffic-free Sunday! At least! We met with Michelle Hechanova, a SAHM who first experimented and taught herself how to make fondant cakes a few years ago when her son turned one. The rest is history :). She makes these incredibly amazing cakes that are so beautiful, it's hard to believe they're edible! Gorgeous gorgeous cakes!!!

Between the 4 of us, we had somehow managed to impart to Michelle what Mom was like and how she expected her anniversary cake to be. Hehehe. I hope! Michelle said she was going to get back to us within a week for a sample drawing of what she envisioned Mom and Dad's cake to be.

Crossing my fingers that the design would be as close to perfect as we can make it, so that we wouldn't have to keep going back and forth with comments and suggestions etc. We need this to be done and over with so we can cross it out from our list of countless things to do before the big day!!!

Now, not only are the cakes yummy looking, they are reported to be really delish when you get down to eating them after staring at their beauty for hours on end. They are, after all, not only for display. They MUST be eaten because we surely don't want to be taking home 5-6 tiers of humongous cakes for us to eat for a whole month!!! And yes, with yummy flavors and all sorts of filling in between cakes, of COURSE they contain a TON of calories!!! Aaaargh! I need me some hoodia to be able to curb my appetite for these kinds of desserts!!! Ack! The appetite MUST be controlled and suppressed if there's any hope for losing weight! Of course, by this time, we all *SHOULD HAVE* lost the weight we wanted to lose to look good in our gowns......yeah, right. Hehehehe.

We then met up with Rodney and Rondic at Cuiller to have a taste of one of the possible caterers for the event. French cuisine. Very good and tasty, especially the flourless chocolate cake!!! :) Yes, dessert, I know. Between all of us we had French Onion Soup, some sandwich, some salad, tenderloin steak, prime rib, duck contif, sea bass. Everything was good, except for the sea bass which I really didn't like. I'm not a big fan of bass and this one didn't change my mind for liking it either. It was oily and seafood-y and had my hair stand on end when I tried it. Barring that though, everything else was yummy!

TTFN!

Lighting

Remember my talk about renovating the terrace a few posts ago? Well, I forgot to add lighting to the list! The terrace is so wide, we need 3 chandeliers at the very least, to get some decent light in the area. I'm thinking 3, since that's what Mom and Dad used to have out here. Three ceiling fans. But ceiling fans are a bit....umm.....retro? Hehehe. I never did like the look of the ceiling fans we had here.

So, I'm branching out a little bit and considering some forecast lighting for the outside, especially the walls or maybe on the posts of the terrace. I'm thinking I can use white lights with these, affording a cleaner, brighter lighting of the area. I don't like yellow light, never did. I've always liked white light better, and even if the bulbs are a little bit more expensive, they will save me more in the long run because they are more electricity-efficient than yellow lights.

Now if we end up not changing the brick posts in the terrace area, I like quoizel lighting options as well. More traditional looking, and more for fixture-type of lighting, I think they'd go quite well with the brick finish of the posts. Hmmmm......then maybe I'd have to consider colonial or other traditional type of decorating for the terrace? Could be fun. So many options to choose from, it's dizzying I tell you! Another major reason why I would rather *NOT* go into having to renovate yet again! Sigh!

Lazy Saturday

Nothing exciting happened today. I went with Raegan and Ranger to La Vista since Dad was apparently looking for his grandchildren. Raine and Rogan stayed at home with Japa to help him entertain the children of his college friends who were coming over to swim while the dads played poker.

And that was it, hehehe. Told you it was not *that* exciting.

Conversation in the evening was pretty rousing though. We pretty much talked about the future of Philippine politics and where it was headed. One of Japa's close friends had the inside track on a "presidentiable" and we discussed pros and cons of supporting him. It was a very lively discussion, and funny too. I got to learn loads of stories about high profile businessmen, senators, congresspeople and other presidentiables. Yes, the elections aren't 'til 2010 but the posturing of several people in government are unbelievable at this early stage!

Nope, no names or really juicy gossip will be spilled here. One, it's not that kind of blog and two, I'm not even sure I'm going to get all the names right! Hehehe.

The boys played poker, the girls just chatted and flitted between supporting our guys at the poker table or exchanging (or just listening, in my case) to all the dirt being spilled, hehehe. The kids? Well, after tiring themselves out in the pool for practically the whole afternoon, they trooped inside sometime in the early evening to play the Wii. Great entertainer, that Wii is! Totally great investment, if I do say so myself!

Then I looked at the almost-sorry state of the patio/terrace. It sure needed some major fixing up, hehehe. I mean if Japa were left to himself, he'd be entertaining constantly and/or hosting poker games between friends here at home. And renovations have got to be made if we keep this up! Some friends smoke, so obviously, that automatically means that everything is done outside and away from the dining and living room areas. Which is where the airconditioner is! And with this intense summer heat, it can be very unbearable outside!!!

I want to be able to repaint (and re-plaster) the walls with their icky small pebbly surface. I want to be able to have some curtains or blinds to pretty up the huge brick columns. I want some nice furniture on display out here in the terrace area, including a poker table (of course!) that can be tranformed into a regular table when not being used. Fix up the bar area for sure. Have several cold fans installed (or maybe an AC or two? hehehe). Yup. Looking at this list, it's some major work for sure. Which means major bucks. Which means considering mortgage lenders to be able to do all these planned renovations! Sigh! More expense, really, but it's time we started looking to fixing the *outside* of the house instead of just the inside!

With company, I had time to scrap only one page:

AQUATHLON-ROGAN

And with this, I've completed layouts for all the kids for their participation in the aquathlon. And mine. Whooops! Still need to do a page for Japa! Hehehee. Next time.

Japa attended a high school reunion and I'm too sleepy to wait for him......

TTFN!

This is SOOO ME!

Check this out:

Your Thinking is Concrete and Sequential

You are precise, orderly, and realistic. You tend to get to the point and get things done. Difficult, detailed work is easy for you. You take things step by step. Time limits aren't a problem for you either. You work well with deadlines. What does drive you crazy is any sort of task that isn't precisely laid out. You don't like anything to be ambiguous. You prefer to deal with the facts at hand.

What Kind of Thinker Are You?

I think that describes me to a tee! Hehehehe. Yup, I'm trying to wrack up the Sweet Rewards Points as early as I can so that I won't be so stressed towards the end of the month like I was in March! *roll eyes here* Thank goodness for 2-points' worth of layouts when using a new product for the week! hehehehe.

I scrapped:

MONT ST MICHEL

TTFN!

PANIC

Wikipedia defines PANIC as a sudden fear which replaces thinking and often affects groups of people or animals. Panic typically occurs in disaster or violent sitations which endanger the overall health of the affected group. The word PANIC is derived from the name of the Greek god Pan, who was said to have the ability to cause extreme, irrantional fear, especially in lonely or open places.

And panic was prevalent in our dear MOTHER this morning. A classic case of panic if ever there was one. She was at the hospital, just getting her Stress Test done. She was killing time waiting for her Bone Densitometry test when Dad's nurse called and said that Dad's blood pressure was very very low. Something like 77/44. Super duper low. And that was enough to galvanize her into action. Or non-action, depending on how you looked at it, hehehe.

She has 2 phones. With the first one, she kept the nurse on the line, probably barking orders and making sure to have a direct line between her and the house. With the other phone she calls me and tells me the news. At the onset, I could HEAR the panic in her voice. Understandable, I know, but this is the aftermath, and so I can make fun of her a little bit, heheehe. She rarely reads my blog anyway.

SO, she calls me and tells me Dad's BP is low. She pauses. I ask her what she wants me to do. She says go home. Okay. Without question, I start packing my just-taken-out-of-my-bag laptop. She calls a few seconds later. Call your brothers, she tells me. I ask her if she wants to take Dad to the hospital. She answers that she had called Tita Vykh and that she said to prop Dad's legs up higher than his heart to help elevated his blood pressure. I ask her, if she still wants to take Dad to the hospital. She mutters that there's no driver at home. I tell her Rondic is at home and that I'll call her. She tells me to call him. (what did I just say???)

I call Dic and tell him the whole situation. He said ok, he was going to leave right away. Ok. One problem down. I finish packing. Mom calls and asks where I am. I tell her I was about to leave. This in about 3 minutes after the first time she called me.

I get to the elevator and it is right smack at the beginning of lunch time. I knew we were in for a wait. The elevator pings open after only 3 minutes' wait. We get in and stop at a few floors. The elevator fills up. At this one floor, a group of giggling ladies looks at the obviously filled elevator and squeeze inside. Instead of pressing the damn close button they WAIT. And the buzzing sound signifying overload rings and they laugh and discuss who amongst them would have to leave. I was obviously getting irritated at this point. After an EON, some decide to step off (finally!) and of those who got off figured that their weight wasn't too much of a burden decide to get in at the LAST minute, making the damn elevator stay open forever. I had had enough.

I yelled "LET'S GOOOO!!!" in a really loud, obnoxious, ORDERING voice. I swear, everyone in that elevator stiffened and froze. I don't think anyone dared breathe! Mercifully, the doors close and one of the stupid giggling ladies mumbled an apology. Egad, man! What a bunch of dimwits! The elevator was blissfully silent the rest of the way down to the ground floor. At ground level, I told one of the guards that people were playing with the elevator and for him to check it out. Man, was I pissed! Sheesh!

In the van, I phoned Rod who had just arrived at the office, who had pretty much just sat down at his desk. I told him Mom wanted all of us home immediately. And he went home. Like all of us, pretty much no questions asked.

At the other side of town, Boydee and Bang were buying an arwana (sp?). They had just paid and were waiting for the saleslady to prepare everything when Mom called them. They dropped everything, telling the saleslady they would send someone to collect the fish. No questions asked.

I called Dic and he said he was in the garage maneuvering the van, getting it ready, just in case we decided to bring Dad to the hospital. I call Mom to verify if we wanted Dad taken to the hospital. She said yes. Then in the same breath, she tells me that there was horrendous traffic going to the hospital. So I asked her whether it was a yes or a no, if she wanted Dad taken to the hospital or not. She said yes. I asked her where she was, and she said still at the hospital. I tell her WAIT there just so she wouldn't be caught in traffic. Besides, she wouldn't make it at home in time to go WITH Dad to the hospital. She replied that she didn't WANT to wait!!! Sigh.

More instances of panic? The whole time Mom was on the phone, she would tell Rani to go straight home. As Rani would make a u-turn, she'd yell, no, go back to the hospital. A few minutes later, as the car was about to make a u-turn, she'd say, no go back home. And round and round they went for a few minutes. Ack! Can anyone say panic attack???? Hehehe.

Dad has stabilized a bit now, with normal blood pressure, and close to normal blood sugar (for him, at least). He's being given a shower now and should feel better afterwards.

'Til next update.

* painting is called The Scream by Edward Munch

Surprise Party

We had a meeting at the office today, so it was up to Rondic to help Mom in all the checking out procedures at the hospital. But the BEST thing happening today is that Dad gets to go home!!! Yes, yes and YES!!!

One of his docs just said for the kids to not get too close or stay too close to dad for long periods of time for the first week or so. I guess it's because of the meds he's going to be taking for his tuberculosis. Although he wasn't officially diagnosed with TB, the doctor is giving him some meds to be on the safe side. He's also overcoming some pneumonia and an infection in the kidney, so maybe the meds will help in these too? Not sure. But he's going to get better! So we are all ecstatic and relieved.

Peach, if you're reading this, Mom says THANK YOU for the prayers you've said for Dad. Lai told her that you read about it on my blog and that you were praying that he gets better soon. So from all of us, thank you for remembering to include Dad in your prayers. Prayers such as yours have helped immensely in helping Dad get through all such obstacles in his life. I know he questions God sometimes why all these are happening to him, but in general, I think he's accepting of his fate, and whatever God hands to him. He just can't help but be scared a lot of times, and that's what throws him off a bit. But his faith is there, and we're all glad that it's been an anchor for him.

{PARTY TIME}

Boydee & Bang, Dic & Lai, Rod & Zhar and Japa & I all trooped to the far-off South for a surprise 40th birthday party Cathy was throwing for Jerome. Although we were probably who lived the farthest, we were the first ones there, hehehehe. Typical I guess :) We do like to be on time, you know!

It was a huge success and Jerome couldn't believe that Cathy had pulled it off! He looked very happy and kept saying how Cathy had pulled one over him! The signs were all there, but for some reason, he wasn't able to put 2 and 2 together to come up with 4! So Cathy, great job you did, especially that video!

Four hours later, tired, sleepy and VERY FULL, we left the South to go home.

TTFN!

Centimeters Off!

Yes, yes, YES!!! I went to my weight-loss doctor (Dr Mitch) today and she measured and weighed me. I lost 4 cm from my waist, 2 cm off from my thighs, and a cm or so from my arms and hips!!! Whooohooohooo!!!! Yes, in centimeters, which, in inches, isn't all that big a deal, but hey, celebrate with me here, ok? Hehehehe.

Aside from the initial 5 pounds I lost from her detox diet to start everything off, I've lost another 5 puonds from our Paris trip --- mainly because of Reductil from Dr Villa and Dr Mitch's first Leptin shot!!! How cool and exciting is that!!! I couldn't believe the measuring tape!!!

By this time, you guys all know that I don't care all that much about weight, but hey, 8 pounds in a month is WOWOWOWOWOW to me!!!! Cause for celebration, wouldn't you think?!?!? And the centimeters off? Beautiful gravy and music to my ears!!!

I just googled Leptin and found that the hormone Leptin, taken from the Greek word Leptos, meaning THIN (!!!), has important effects in regulating body weight, metabolism and reproductive function. Not that I need that last effect, hehehehe. Just the first 2 is great, thank you very much! Leptin is supposed to help me increase my metabolism, and with Reductil helping to suppress my appetite, I've lost the weight and the inches (or centimeters, in this case, hehehe).

Of course, I had to have my thyroid stuff checked, and believe it or not, my thyroid is NORMAL!!! After years and years of taking Eltroxin, I thought I was supposed to be taking that for the rest of my life! But hey, somehow everything has balanced and has allowed my doctor to prescribe me all these things. So yayayayayayay!!!!

{MORE GOOD NEWS}

It looks like Dad is going to be discharged sometime tomorrow! Yeah! We finally got the official results of his chest and abdominal CT scans and they pretty much say that there's nothing there, maybe some calcified TB or something. So with medication, Dad should be on the way to recovery!

His body did lose a lot in terms of what he had gained from all the PT and the OT he has been doing, but we are all SO thankful that he is okay physically!

Before I say good night, wanted to wish Roselle a very Happy Birthday!!!

TTFN!

April Fools Day

I read somewhere that it is said that April Fools began sometime in the 1500s when the Gregorian calendar replaced the Julian calendar. Those who forgot about the change and attempted to celebrate the New Year ---previously celebrated on April 1--- were teased as April fools.

Oooookay. Hehehehe.

I took the kids today to watch Horton Hears a Who. Raegan, Rogan, Raine, Ranger, Reese and Riley. And 1 yaya. What was I thinking?!?!? Hehehehe. I took all of them (except Reese) to Rustan's first to shop for their movie food and drinks thinking it would be way cheaper than if we were to buy everything at the theater. It may have been cheaper (I think) but I sure didn't count on all the chaos in the supermarket!!! Holy Moly! Imagine 5 kids running around with their mini-carts scrambling to find their snacks and chocolate drinks! Hahahahaha! Again, what was I thinking?!??!

We picked up Reese and finally went to Metro East to watch the movie. We were the first ones in the theater and practically the only ones there, with the exception of maybe 2 other smaller families. Thank goodness. We occupied 2 rows, and Ranger kept walking back and forth between the rows! Finally he sat down on the steps of the theater aisles! Sheesh! Thank goodness I had a yaya with me otherwise I'd have died!

Synopsis: The imaginative elephant Horton hears a cry for help coming from a tiny speck of dust floating through the air. Suspecting there may be life on that speck and despite a surrounding community which thinks he has lost his mind, Horton is determined to help.

It was an okay family movie. The kids enjoyed it, with Ranger and Riley laughing at the right places, hehehe. It was a good 90 minutes of just sitting there with nothing else to think about except the kids and how they were enjoying the movie. :) We need more times like these in our lives sometimes, I think :)

Dad was doing okay in the hospital today, although he seemed tired from having a regular room and a stream of nurses and some visitors going through the room every now and then. All of us were present in the evening, after office hours. And that put a strain a bit on him I think. It excited him and made him happy I'm sure, that all of us kids were there (except Randy and Stella) but at the same time, too much emotion was making him exhausted. He was slurring his words a bit and wanted to sleep most of the time. So we left him at around 9 pm, after he had had dinner (with everyone watching him hehehehe), so that he could finally have some much needed rest. The rest of us trooped to Choi's to have Chinese food for dinner. Ugh. Good food, but if you know me, it's not my first choice! :)

All this staying up late is definitely NOT good for the complexion! Pimples sprouting here and there, most especially by my chin area! If this keeps up, I'm going to be needing some major acne treatments soon! Crossing my fingers Dad is cleared so he can go back home and our bodies can adjust to our regular schedules, hehehe. I mean, I don't think my body has overcome jet lag from the Paris trip yet!

TTFN!