Photo Shoot and a Wake

I guess my scrapping mojo came back. That, and my uhm....current weight loss pills contributed to the fact that I uploaded an amazing FOUR layouts this morning! Hehehe. Insomnia has apparently struck again. Sigh! I'm not doing anything different, I swear. I *did* turn my laptop off early enough to try and go to sleep, but it didn't work. I was up 'til 4 am I think scrapping and finally uploading these pages:

PORTFOLIO NIGHT AWARD - RAINE RAINE'S PORTFOLIO BEAUTIFUL MOMENTS PORTFOLIO NIGHT AWARDS - RAEGAN

And because I slept late, I woke up later than usual...around 930 am! Sheesh! I *was* going to work, but I figured by the time I got out of bed, shower, breakfast, taking my sweet time, more than half the day would be for nothing.

I looked outside and saw that we had some sun (it was raining very hard last night!) so I decided we were going to do our Photo Shoot 2008. Good thing Coset had prepared the kids' shirts and pants ahead of time, ready to go at a moment's notice. And because the kids were on break, I NICELY, i.e., pretty much demanded and ordered, them to PLEASE get showered, fix their hair (for the girls) and practice their smiles.

Two hours later, several pleading instances, shouting and wrestling matches, I can settle down to look at the pics. I shot the kiddos in red, yellow, green, white and black. I set up the girls' room to look like a studio; natural light was streaming in from the side window and I hurriedly clicked to make the most of what I could.

Sorry, no pics yet. I'm lazy. And sleepy. The photo shoot took a lot out of me, had me on adrenaline for the most part. The kids wolfed down a huge bowl of french fries and that what when I realized it was already 2 pm! My poor hungry babies! Heheehe.

Later in the evening, I dragged the 3 older kids to the wake of their late great-grandmother, Lola Basya. I never knew she was still alive, until this past weekend when I was talking to Mom Nena about her. And just yesterday, I was thinking that I *had* to bring the kids to see Lola Basya to at least get a photo of them together. I think it's always a special thing to have a photo of a GREAT-grandmother right? Sure, the kids have pics with Lola Nene, but to have found out that they had yet ANOTHER great-grandmother was just something.

Mom Nena looks exactly like her mother. The kids commented that Lola Basya was just thinner....and didn't have Lola Nena's frou frou hair, hehehe. She was a tiny woman, but was very strong willed, according to Regie. She had had a PEG tube for 10 years and weakened considerably when she fell and broke her hip.

We approached the coffin to say a prayer for Lola Basya. Afterwards, Raine tugged at my hand and whispered that she saw Lola Basya nod at her. Oooooookaaaaaay. This, from my child who really has seen erm, "stuff" i.e., some other-worldly thingamajigers. Trying to fight the shiver running up my spine, I told her that maybe Lola Basya was just happy that the great grandkids she never met were able to visit her.

Later in the night, the kids' cousin, JohnB, ALSO told his mom that Lola Basya had nodded at him. OOOOOOOOOKAAAAAAAAY. :)

I guess we have kids who have their third eye blinking once in a while? Nevertheless, we made sure to stop by Starbucks (Rogan went with the Rani and Jojo to Jollibee) to "persuade the dead's spirits from lingering with us". Where that superstition came, I have no idea.

TTFN!