Rounding Up March

Getting the questions to the Round Up from Katie the Scrapbook Lady:

Round Up: March

What books and/or magazines did I read this month?

Eeek! Another no-book-read month! How awful is that?! I wonder if my excuse of researching for GSS would be sufficient? I did get the kids started reading Grammarland, so that's a plus, right? We've done the introduction and Chapter 1. It'll have to do.

What movies and/or tv shows did I watch this month?

I thought we'd average a movie a month, but we did manage to squeeze in New In Town starring Renee Zellweger this afternoon. Japa was able to come home early (the kids needed the car and driver since I had used the other car to fix our tickets for Hong Kong!). So, 2 movies this month:

For TV, it was just CSI everything. Reruns.

What special days did I celebrate and how?

Swim Camp

Mom's Birthday

Year-End Program of the kids

Start of GSS

Swim Meet

Earth Day

What gifts did I give and/or receive?

A toothbrush sanitizer for Mom's bithday, which she said was something she had wanted for a long time! Yes! Score on that gift! :)

But I think the best gift that we gave Mom was going to mass with her on her day, and helped arrange Dad's gift of 63 roses and a mini-album that listed 63 reasons why he loves her :)

What illnesses or health concerns did I have?

Blech! Lousy head cold and sore throat. The pits to have BOTH of these at the same time!!!

Does discovery of an Age Spot count? LO!

What fun things did I do with my friends and/or family?

Office Aerobics was great because it gave me my 2 days of exercise in a week!

Earth Day was pretty memorable, with the country (and thousands of cities around the world) going dark for a full hour.

Oh, and finally convincing Mom to go to the nail salon to have our nails wrapped. I think she was pretty happy that her nails were a lot longer this month, and that they'd last a minimum of 3 more weeks with no breakage! Hehehehe.

What new foods, recipes or restaurants did I try this month?

Nothing new and adventurous this month. Shangri La (twice in a day!) and Silk in Serendra were the only 2 places we ate out this month. Oh, I guess we can count eating a Magoo's Pizza while watching a movie? LOL!

What special or unusual purchases did I make?

Nada this month. Although it sounds like such a boring month, it sure was busy as heck!

What were my scrapping accomplishments this month?

Only 22 pages scrapped this month, and probably another 3 more using quickpages. Eek! I guess I'm slowing down?

Anything else noteworthy to record?

I guess I should mention that I'm feeling proud of myself for surviving (albeit barely!) life without a yaya even when I'm sick! :)

Office aerobics have a special mention as well for giving me some much needed exercise.

An advanced Happy April Fools' Day tomorrow :)

I Feel Lousy

Ugh. I feel awful. Watery eyes, clogged nose, sore throat. Add to that almost no voice from all the cheering I did for the kids during the swim meet. Does not make for a pretty picture, that's for sure.

But valiantly, I got up, took a shower AND herded ALL four kids into the van to go to the office. I envisioned that I would give them GSS work which would keep them busy enough so that I could get a few hours of work in.

Umm....not that I said I had "envisioned" it to be that perfect. And of course, as we all know, NOTHING is perfect. Sigh.

First, Ranger wanted me to sit beside him when he did his painting. Ooookay. Not a very good start.

Then, when I had finally maneuvered myself out of the conference room (that's where I had their "classroom" set up, hehehe), and settled into my chair, the big kids started walking in one by one to ask me the SAME set of questions!!! Ack!!!

Finally, an hour or so after lunch, I called it quits. I couldn't concentrate with the kids going in and out of the office and making the entire place a playground (grrrr!) and I was coughing up a storm. We got home just in time for the kids to leave for training.

I settled in and drugged myself with Theraflu, which helped a lot. Ahhhhhh!

Feeling a bit better, I scrapped (since I had left my work stuff in my computer bag in my office, whoops!):

MEETING POOH

VERDUGO PARK

No Yaya :(

Yaya, nanny, babysitter. All mean the same word. And mine, along with our cook, went on vacation! Yesterday! Waaaaaaah!!!

I just KNOW this is NOT going to be an easy week....or half month. The kids' yaya will be back in mid-April and it sure seems sooooooo faaaaar away!!! Heheehe.

Sure, I exaggerate (a bit), but in all honesty, life is much much MUCH easier with a yaya for the kids. And you don't appreciate how much easier until you're left with no yaya for a period of time. Sigh!

Japa and I copped out a tad: we took the easy way out and brought the kids to see Monsters vs Aliens. Yes! A relatively PEACEFUL and fight-free couple of hours!

Movie summary:

When California girl Susan Murphy is unwittingly clobbered by a meteor full of outer space gunk on her wedding day, she mysteriously grows to 49-feet-11-inches tall. Alerted to the threat of this new monster, the military jumps into action and Susan is captured and secreted away to a covert government compound. There, she is renamed Ginormica and placed in confinement with a ragtag group of other monsters: the brilliant but insect-headed Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D.; the macho half-ape, half-fish The Missing Link; the gelatinous and indestructible B.O.B.; and the 350-foot grub called Insectosaurus. Their confinement is cut short, however, when a mysterious alien robot lands on Earth and begins storming the country. In a moment of desperation, The President is persuaded by General W.R. Monger to enlist the motley crew of Monsters to combat the Alien Robot and save the world from imminent destruction.

And the kids LOVED it! Ranger sat through it all, away from Japa or me, seated beside Rogan, at the END of our row of seats. He did NOT sleep through any part, but just sat contentedly, munching on his chips and popcorn. He was still and did NOT move until after the movie was over. Really over, AFTER the part after the credits *wink wink*

Yes, for those of you who have yet to see it, make sure you stay until the very very END. That means after all the credits have rolled up. Not the greatest post-movie scene ever, but hey, remember we were squeezing in the peaceful part sans yaya as much as we could. Hehehehe. That is precious time indeed!

Then after a short dinner at Ayala, we went home. I wasn't feeling very well at all. I think I must be coming down with something since my throat really REALLY hurts when I swallow! And clogged nose? Not fun at all. Grrrr! Time for some much needed meds!

Swimming and Earth Day

The kids competed today at the ULTRA. Warm up competition for Singapore most likely. It was a hot, hot HOOOOOOOOOT day! Incredibly hot, it was unbelievable!!! Sheesh! We were up early since Japa and I went with the kids because Romy was bringing Kocet and Sibred to the airport.

So at 720 am, we were settling ourselves on the concrete bleachers in front of the pool. Good thing there was SOME shade, so there was a little bit of respite despite the heat. And in true Filipino style, instead of the 830 am start time, it was at 9 or 930. Grrrr!

Here are the kids' events and their times:

Raegan
200m freestyle - 2:50 (2nd in her heat)
100m breaststroke - 1:39 (4th in her heat)
200m IM - 3:11 (1st in her heat) [splits: 0:43-0:50-0:55-0:43]
50m free - 0:35.18 (2nd in her heat)

Rogan
50m backstroke - 0:49.48
100m breaststroke - 1:55.81
200m IM - 3:46 (5th in his heat) [splits: 0:53-1:03-1:03-0:47]
50m free - 0:38.41

Raine
50m backstroke - 0:47
100m breaststroke - 1:55.40
200m IM - 3:56
50m free - 0:41 (4th in her heat)

Reese
200m freestyle - 2:59 (4th in her heat)
50m backstroke - 0:43.48
200m IM - 3:25 (1st in her heat)

Rielle
200m freestyle - 3:44
50m free - 5th in heat
100m breaststroke -

All of them were in the 12 and under category. Yes, you just KNOW my eyes are rolling, hehehehe. We didn't stay to even take pics of the final times and places, it was THAT hot! We just wanted out of there! Hopefully, the coaches will have everything!

{EARTH DAY}
We celebrated Earth Day with the rest of the world for the very first time. The original plan was a SIMPLE dinner in the middle of the garden, surrounded by candles. The meal was equally simple: fried chicken, hotdogs and burgers.

But our dear mother decided she was going to have a thanksgiving mass said for dad.......and lola invited the rest of the clan. So our simple dinner turned out into a party, pretty much, lol. With a buffet spread of so many foods, I don't know where to start the list!

Oh, and yes, the lights went off at exactly 830 pm. Mom had torches set up around the garden, so we had some light. We also had a couple of fans turned on; it was too hot without any air circulating at all. We tried in the beginning, but it was really stifling. The whole house was lightless, with the sole exception of Dad's room, for obvious reasons.

A few minutes after 930 pm, the lights went back on. Lola kept a very careful eye on her watch; she wanted the hour to be just an hour, hehehe. But it was a good feeling to have that we were one with hundreds of thousands in the world dedicated to take this little step in the fight against global warning. It was also heartwarming to have just family around, chit-chatting about our lives, about our families.

It would be interesting to know what the total wattage or whatever the Earth Hour people use to measure how successful this hour of no-light is, and what the effect is for the planet.

Here's to Mother Earth!

Squeezing in a Layout

I'm at work and have hit a mental block. Sooooo......I clicked on Photoshop and came out with this:

ENTERING TOMORROWLAND

AND, it wasn't too hard to boot! In fact, I only used ONE paper. Uh huh. Just ONE paper, from this new pack of Jacque Larsen:


It was easy peasy :) Of course, the hard part was trying to figure out what pictures I was going to use! Hehehehe.

Ok. That's it from the office. Finishing up some stuff (like health insurance!!!) before I head home. I am NOT feeling well at all. I think I'm coming down with something.

The darn kids must have been drinking from my water bottle from our ref in the room.....and left their germs to spread in the water! Ack!

Pee, Nails, Sleep

I know, weird title, hehehehe. Soon to be explained, below:

{PEE}

Ahh, the "dangers" of having a 4-year old sleep on your bed. Ranger was exhausted from all the swimming he did yesterday. Even when coach would be holding Riley and Ranger was supposed to be resting on the side, he would swim to the bottom and up, go to Bric and try to console him, and back. No wonder he was tired!

Anyway, apparently, he was scared to go to the bathroom by himself (he can't turn the door knob on that door) and he was scared to wake either Japa or myself to let us know he needed to go to the bathroom! Grrrrr! My memory foam!!! Waaaaaah!

Oh well. That was at 530 am. And if you know me, I was hard pressed to go back to sleep. Sigh!

{NAILS)....and WORK

I was finally able to convince Mom to go to Le Charment, the nail salon, and get her nails done so they'd last longer :) Yup, I took a photo of my hand with my wonderful-looking nails in their french-tip, wrapped glory.

By the by, those ARE my real nails, with some sort of powder wrap on them. I had them put on about 3 weeks ago (yup, they last that long, thank goodness!) so that one nail with a huge break in it wouldn't drop off on me. I loved the results, and have been extolling their services ever since, hehehe.

My nails have been sturdier and the best part? Becaue of the nail wrap, the nail polish doesn't chip as often! Seriously! The day after I had my nails done the first time, I was typing the WHOOOOLE weekend and then 2 more days or so and there was NO chip at all!

So of course I had them done again! They took out the wrap, nipping at it after soaking it in some solution. They were just going to add some fillers but I said no, I wanted the whole thing to come off so that they can put in brand new ones. I wasn't going to pay them a bundle for doing half a job, now would I?

Two hours later (hehehe, yes, it takes that long!), Mom and I were happy campers indeed with our nails! I should have taken a pic of mom lolling on the chair with 3 attendants: one for each hand and the other for a pedicure. But my nails were still wet, so there.

After the nail salon, I told Mom I had to go back to the office. A TON of work still left to do, but I have been so tired the whole day. Maybe it was because I was up at 530 this morning???

But anyhoo, off to work I went. Since I was sleepy, I sooo wish I had some voice recognition program to use to make work easier. Imagine, lying down and giving instructions, and having the computer get it right the first time around! Ahhh, that would be awesome, wouldn't it? They probably cost a bundle, but what if it would make someone more productive and efficient? Hmmm.....something to think about yes?

And with our trunk-hunting capability for the phone line in process, having a speech recognition software installed would have a ton of advantages! Like having the client talk into the phone and make an option, and the computer would be able to forward that call to the proper person! Cool, huh! Whipping out the wish list! Hehehehe. Just in case.

{SLEEP}

And no, I didn't do aerobics today, sad to say! :( I was just too tired and sleepy to be of any use; I don't think I'd be able to bounce around following the instructor!

So here I am at home, very tired. Uploading a couple of pages I had done late last night and early this morning (yes, because I couldn't sleep! hehehe) and I am calling it a day!

FLOWERBOX

A FUNDERFUL DAY

G'nite and TTFN!

Swimming Lesson and Start of GSS

After a few hours at the office, the Sisterhood (minus Zhar and Stella) went to Ayala Heights to see Swimming Lesson #1 for Bric (#3 for Ranger and Riley). Lai and I were telling Bang NOT to be there because of the high likelihood that Bric was going to be bawling.

When we got to the pool, the kids were already there. Bric, in all his matching glory (rash guard, trunks, floaters), was supremely confident in the kiddie pool. He was jumping and splashing around; when someone handed him a kickboard, he gamely put his weight on it and continued jumping around. Ahhh....the confidence of a toddler! Hehehehe.

Bang was pretty sure that Bric wouldn't have a problem since he was such a water baby. I reminded her that Ranger was a water baby as well, but he cried a good 30 minutes when coach was holding him with no swim vest and no floaters. True enough, Bric started freaking out when he realized he was in the water in the big pool with NO floaters. Hehehehe. He immediately started screaming for Bang, until Lai and I told her to hide somewhere. He then started calling out for his yaya, and we banished her from the poolside. Poor baby, I know, but it was the only way he would get used to the water withOUT his support personnel in front of him!

Bric did a roll call of us there sitting on the wall, hoping against hope that we would at least go and get him from coach. To no avail. He called Elizza after me then Yaya Kuuuuuucet (hehehehe). I looked at Lai and told her NOT to look at Bric because she's a true softy! Hehehehehe. When Lai wouldn't respond to Bric, his last course was calling Haydeeeeee! Uh, sorry kid, she's the last person in the world who would jump in that pool to save you......I don't think she can swim all that well! Bwahaahahaha!

Finally, after an hour of crying (and forcing himself to vomit, ugh!), Bric was finally allowed to go out of the pool. At least, he stopped crying for a little bit, enough to answer coach with a "yah" when she asked him if he was going to be back tomorrow. Hehehehe.

Hopefully, this whole day didn't traumatize the poor child! :)

{GSS}

Ah yes, the Gavino Summer School. We started tonight, since the kids were so excited to use their new materials, hehehehe. And they did pretty well in their sketching, even Ranger! I may set up a blog (yes, another one!) just so they can see their work online :) I'm sure they'll love that!

........ok, I just set the blog up. Go to the Gavino Summer School Blog and check it out. The kids would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see your comments, so go ahead and leave them some love :)

Harder Aerobics

Site duty today :) The day started late, though, since I dyed my hair a deep dark brown. Yup, all by myself; the advantages of having much shorter hair, hehehe. Cheaper, too! I took my time blow drying and straightening it.

Boydee arrived to pick me up and we went to the site together. He attended the funeral mass of Oel's dad while I went straight to work. I would have been much more productive if it weren't for the internet connection going all wonky again. Sigh! Otherwise, it was finalizing monitoring work sheets, calling some clients, coordinating payments.

I didn't have time to even set up my DVD burner to back up files to disc! I was planning to have that running in the background, but there simply was no time to take everything out of the bag and set it up. Oh well. Sometime tonight as I watch TV....or scrap.....maybe.

I did get to Office Aerobics on time, though! And MAN, it was just HARD today!!! I'm not sure if it's because I was tired in general (which I'm sure it wasn't), or our aerobics sessions keep getting harder and harder! I was telling Bang during our burning-butt exercise that Lai might DIE if she waits too long to join us since our workouts seem to be getting more and more difficult to do! Hehehehe.

Can anyone say Jane Fonda workout? Yes, those famed exercise sessions that brought on the aeroics craze. We were doing ab workouts and leg-burning exercises like there was no tomorrow! And holy moly, did I find out the HARD way that I had lower abs!!! Ugh! I'm usually pretty good with ab workouts but I have to admit that my humongo legs were totally weighing me down. LITERALLY!!! Most of us were grunting, huffing and puffing in the latter part of the hour. Yes, I was probably the loudest since most of the staff were probably too shy or too embarrassed to make loud noises :)

This is probably the last thing I'm going to do tonight, I'm that tired. I did try to scrap, but I found myself staring at Photoshop for about a minute without doing anything. That's when I realized I was tired, hahahahaha!

I just want to veg out in front of the tv, pop in a DVD movie or TV series and just RELAX!!! Obviously, some home theatre seating would be waaaaay preferable to this super duper old thing we call a couch which leans against the foot of our bed, but beggars can't be choosers, lol! This old thing probably has at least a couple more years on it, bwahahahaha!

Look at all the endings of my paragraph....they end in laughter. Yes, I'm delirious and tired. Signing off now before I keep laughing myself silly!

The Wake Chapel in Use

I spent the entire day at the Site today. The Wake Chapel was used for the first time, with Oel's Dad, Rolando, interred there. The area was a flurry of activity this past weekend, because the Wake Chapel was very clean. Not spotless, but pretty clean. I was surprised, lol! It looked really big and well, CLEAN!

Several couches were arranged, and several sales agents were waiting for Oel and his family to arrive. The coffin arrived at around 1230 pm, and was set up in the place of honor, in front of the crucifix. I was teary-eyed when I greeted Oel and his wife who, obviously, had reddened eyes from tears. They were very grateful for what the company had done for them. But hey, they're family, right? And we take care of our own.

Ok. Kinda sounded like the mafia, now didn't it? :)

In the evening, there was a mass said for Rolando and the entire office attended and mingled with some of the sales force and Oel's family and relatives. Putting aside the homily, it was a pretty moving service, especially when family was called to spray holy water on the coffin. Oel's stance was one of disbelief, and he paused before he started to sprinkle the coffin with the holy water.

Apparently, his dad's death was pretty sudden. He was a strong man. But he was wracked with extreme pain towards the end, and had told Oel that he was tired. Tired of fighting the pain, tired of it all. He told his son that if the doctors managed to revive him and put him on a machine, that Oel would pull that plug when he saw it. As it was, Oel told the doctors not to try and revive him anymore.

That's probably one of the most difficult things a son or daughter can ever say to a doctor, isn't it? Hard to fathom, but it's a decision that must come from the patient and must be respected by everyone.

Talk of supersitions abounded during the time we stayed at the wake chapel. Some of them (that I understood!):

1. On the way to Manila from Batangas, the funeral procession made several stops at elderly relatives' homes. This was so that none of these elderly relatives would follow the dead too soon. Also, people were said to whisper to the dead to take away their aches and pains and bring it with him to the afterlife.

2. At night, during the wake, avoid looking at a mirror when you're by yourself. It is said that if you don't see your reflection, you'll be dead soon. Creepy, I know, but aren't most superstitions?

3. At a wake, family members aren't supposed to see you off at the door because this would mean passing on the death to another family.

4. When coming from a wake, you shouldn't go straight home, especially if you have old people or very sick people at home. This way, you don't "rub" being dead onto the others.

So in the custom of keeping #4, we (Mom, Bang, Lai, Japa and moi) went to Serendra to have a late dinner at Silk. Yummy Thai food! A bit too spicy for me, but it was good! We had Tom Yam (sp?) soup, some stir-fried stir-fry seafood, fried king fish, steamed bass, and the best dish of all: pad thai! :) Although the restaurant had pretty good ambiance, it was a tad bit hot for me (or maybe it was because of the spicy soup? Hehehe. I loved their restroom, though. It smelled so fresh but not overly flowery. It reminded me of some of the historic hotels we've been to on our tours in Europe and the US East Coast.

Mom was craving for dessert; yes, she of the no-cakes-and-ice-cream-for-Lent sacrifice, hehehehe. We decided on Portico where she had coffee sansrival and Lai and I had brownies a la mode.

The sansrival wasn't anything fantastic. In fact, it looked downright skimpy! Four thin wafers atop each other and sprinkled with what looked like coffee flavored chocolate sauce. I like my sansrival chewy, this was crunchy. So crunchy, that when you stuck a fork in it, the wafers splintered into several pieces.

The brownie a la mode was a different story, though. Yummy and chewy. And the ice cream wasn't plain vanilla, it was coffee-flavored scoop! Sorry, though, that we had to make mom sit through this forbidden dessert of hers :)

It's Official.....

....I have a darn AGE SPOT!!! Ack!!! It's at the base of my neck, on the left side. Of all places to be, it had to be in a visible area!!! Grrrr!

And freckles! Holy moly! I had always wanted to have freckles....as a KID, NOT at this day and age! Sheesh! I asked a dermatologist, Elise, what these brown spots were, thinking that they were sun spots. They sure were.....freckled ones! LOL!

And this darn age spot is an indication that I *am* going to be forty this year. Hehehehe. Honestly, if it were situation somewhere else, like my upper arms or something where I can hide it from view, it wouldn't be such a big deal. But at the base of my neck??? The only thing that can hide this from view is a scarf (I'll DIE wearing a scarf in this horrid heat wave we live in now), a turtleneck (blech!), or a really thick necklace (ummm......nope!).

What are my options? Aside from just leaving it, there is laser treatments, which is horrendously expensive! Scratching that from my list, lol! There's also diamond peeling, which is ok, if I had the time and the effort to religiously go to the dermatologist's clinic (I really don't). I also have some creams that were given to me. We'll see how that works.

Ok, that's my big news for the day. LOL!

The girls were out the entire afternoon and evening: Raegan went shopping with Tita Bang, and Raine went to try out tennis with Tita Zhar and Mamalyn.

Japa was at the Shrine, overseeing details for the wake of Oel's dad who passed away yesterday morning. The boys stayed at home: watching tv, playing the PS3 (or was it the PS2? I can't keep up with their toys anymore!) and their Nintendo DS, playing the computer.

Me? Scrapping like crazy to get an album done for Bishop!

Got these pages done using CT stuff:

FR PATRICK

I used Vintage Charm, a collab between Matahati Designs and Faith True at Scrap Orchard for my Fr Patrick layout. Perfect touches, I thought! :)

CLIMBING MONT ST MICHEL

I used Patricia Christensen's Spring Fever kit for this fun page of us making our way up Mont St Michel (except for the stamp cluster). Perfect colors, I thought!

And I used fabulous quick pages for these:

MAISON ST JEAN

SR MONIQUE

BY THE ROADSIDE

Incompetence

incompetence in·com·pe·tence (ĭn-kŏm'pĭ-təns) or in·com·pe·ten·cy (-tən-sē)
n. The quality of being incompetent or incapable of performing a function,

At the hospital, we were getting ready to bring Dad home. Finally. The plan was ---and this had the ok of ALL is doctors--- that after his dialysis session, he could go home. Ok, great. Dad was brought down to the Hemodialysis Room at 3 am. He was done at 7 am. Add a few more hours of bathing him, and technically, we were ready to leave at 10 am. Obviously, even BEFORE Mike had attempted to bathe Dad, word was given to the nurse's station that we were going to be leaving.

Fine.

The only thing was, we were missing ONE doctor's ok to leave. Grrrr! But Dr Martinez had ALREADY given his ok the day before so really, everything SHOULD have been fine.

Fine.

Just how long was it going to take to prepare the bill? Especially when the past few days, we had been given an initial statement for us to go over. After an hour or so of just waiting, Mom made it clear that she was NOT going to be paying for a full day for the room. So the nurses technically checked us out at 11.28 am, just before the cut off of noon.

Fine.

FINALLY, someone from billing went up and gave us the bill. I brought this to the Business Center on our floor (the few privileges of being the Suite Floor) and planted my arse in front of the person there to pressure her to move HER arse. Which she did. Rein did go all out in trying to speed everything up.

After a few minutes, (or what seemed like mere minutes since I busied myself checking my email in the lone computer in the Business Center), the (pregnant) cashier FINALLY came up. She asked for my credit card and other pertinent cards like Dad's Senior Citizen ID, the hospital card, etc. I had these out in a flash, just so she'd get the hint.

As I was waiting, almost bored to tears, I heard the cashier ask Rein repeatedly if our bill was ok..since her printout read 12:58 pm and our checkout time was 11.28 am. In other words she wanted us to pay the full day for the room to cover her slow butt! #$%^&!!!!!

This made me see red, but I controlled it, thank you very much. The stupid cashier asked Rein the same thing about 3 more times and that was it: I butted in their conversation and almost-rudely asked what the problem was. The cashier took one look at my face and quickly answered "nothing". Hmp!

Well obviously, she couldn't ask the question again with me in front of her face now could she?!? So she swiped my credit card and had me sign it.

Fine.

Ten minutes later, I was STILL waiting for her stupid highness to give me back my card and my receipt. I could see her over the counter punching numbers on her calculator and comparing her set of papers to our bill. What the #$%^&???? Very pissed, I asked her what was taking FOREVER???? She looked at me and very obviously saw that I was nearing slapping-her-stupid-self-point, so she sheafed her papers and said that everything balanced.

Like I cared one iota about whether it balanced or not!!! I mean really! Everything's on the computer and it printed out right? Before the computer could spew all the totals, all the departments concerned had input everything. So what the heck was her $%^&* problem????

Aaaaaaaargh!

Incompetence at its best! Leche!

Squeezed in this layout today:

LISIEUX

I'm trying to finish the album for Bishop Tumulak of our trip last year :) I'll probably be dipping into my QP folder just to hurry things up, lol!

Did I WORK Today!

I have soooooo much stuff to do, especially before Boydee comes home from Korea!

So off I went to the office and buckled down to work. And work I did. I totally forgot it was Friday, and therefore should have fasted and abstained. I ordered Chicken Nuggets and inhaled the lot of them while typing on the keyboard, I was too busy to stop and enjoy the food!

Click, click, click. Type, type, type. Rustle, rustle, rustle. Mouse, laptop, papers - both actual and electronic copies. Sigh! In the midst of the working I *still* had to do some coordinating so that someone would be in the hospital with Dad at around 530 or so, so that Mom could go to her daily mass. Thank goodness for technology and group sending via cellphone! Hehehehe. Made things soooo much easier!

Thankfully, Mom's 3 angel veterans in the office (Bechay, Letty and Elma) stayed on while I was still working.....they were going to lock the office for the weekend. Startled, I looked at the time and it was 745 pm! I felt bad that the 3 ladies had to wait, so I told them to go and order pizza for all of us so that we had something to eat. I was waiting for the driver to come get me, too, after bringing Japa to his poker game.

And so at 9 pm, stuffed from pizza and brain-tired from work, I left the office to finally go home. Tired, but with a feeling of major accomplishment. No, I didn't finish everything I had to finish, but I did chop off a pretty big chunk of work....the kind that required so many details. So it was definitely a big hurdle that I had just gotten done! Whew!

Before I retire for the night, here are a few pages I didn't get a chance to upload last night:

HAPPY MOMENTS

HONG DISNEYLAND (back cover, most likely)

A BIRTHDAY PRINCESS

Aerobics for the Third Time

Oh yeah, oh yeah! Doing the happy dance here!!! I am on a roll with aerobics, lol! Sounds a bit archaic, I know, so........80s, but one of the Sales Directors here at work suggested having some aerobics sessions. So heck, why not right? It's exercise AND I get to suffer ---er, workout--- with other girls from the office, too!

And today was the third session in a row (started Tuesday last week, every T-TH). I just about died with all the leg workout, but I just sweat up a storm, hahahahaha! As in! Not even 10 minutes I think and I could feel the sweat pouring down my face! Alright! This is a good sign, yes? Sure beats being on treadmills anytime! Usually, I start to sweat only on the 12th to 15th minute whenever I start to exercise, but the aerobics sessions so far have been pretty good for me!

Yes, we've got abdominal workouts as well, so I know this will be good for my back!

PTC x 4

And the PTCs start. Hehehe.

PTC 1 was Ranger, at 830. No problems, good grades. Ranger was writing better, pressing on the pencil more than before. His assessment test scores were pretty good, too. He just needs more practice using his motor skills, like cutting with scissors, coloring within the lines, etc.

PTC 2 was Rogan, with Teacher Erika squeezing me in since her parents cancelled for the next time slot. Rogan had pretty good grades, too, mostly As, a few Bs. Like in Filipino, hehehehe. To be expected! He was a messy student, requiring a whole garbage bag to himself to clean out his locker! Ack!

PTC 3 was Raine. Last of the kids with Teacher Tess. For now. Hoping that Teacher Tess will still be in school when Ranger reaches the 2nd grade! She was excited that Raine almost got a perfect score in her Math exam! She was the one who told Raine to take it easy and make sure she went back to check her answers. All As was all I could see on Raine's report card.

PTC4 - finally!!! - was Raegan. I rushed up the stairs since I was a few minutes late already. By this time, I was lugging more than a foot-worth of report cards and projects from the first 3 kids. I dumped everything outside the Grade 4 door and went in. Teacher Nez was all praises for Raegan, nothing else. She is so funny, and obviously oh-so-loves her class very much! Wishing she'd go on to Grade 5 with them, but it looks like she's staying on at Grade 4. At least Rogan gets to have her this coming school year.

Teacher Nez was returing to me Raegan's painting that was displayed in the lobby of the UP Theater during the Year End Program, and I asked her if she wanted to have it. She looked at me like she couldn't believe I said that, and I told her that I'm sure Raegan would want her to have it, too. Hesitantly, she took it and then with a big smile, she said thank you and that she was going to hang it in her room, hehehehe.

Here's the "famed" painting. Teacher Nez pointed out to me that Raegan's trademark is that flower at the bottom. Most of her artwork has this flower, albeit in different colors and different sizes, but it's there to be found. :) Cool. Gotta watch out for that and see if I can spot the "hidden flower". Hehehehe.

A Day at the Hospital

I *was* supposed to go to the Site today, but Mom didn't have anyone with her in the hospital. The second male nurse couldn't quite cut the work required for Dad. Oh well. So I spent another day at the hospital, TRYING to work. The most I could do, really, was write several memos. And that was it. I tried to do numbers stuff, but the hospital environment just wasn't a conducive working environment at all! Sigh!

I did beg Mom that I *had* to leave by 530 at the latest so that I could attend Office Aerobics, hehehehe. I need to keep that going just so I'd get some exercise in! We were smarter today, leaving the AC on a tad so we can get some air. It was better, and I think everyone did pretty well. I worked up a sweat pretty quickly, which was an achievement in itself, LOL!

Here are a couple of pages I got done yesterday:

SNAKE BOY

2ND AQUATHLON

Oscraps Turns 3

Oscraps is having a huge sale! And of course, Nina Scraps Designs is part of it, celebrating with a huge 33% off all her designs!
And Nina has a NEW kit, Springy Days. Check it out and see all the yummy scrappiness here:

And yes, of course I've scrapped with it already:

NATIVE HORSE

Go check out Nina's stuff! You won't be sorry!

Year-End Presentation

It's been a looooooong day! Mostly because of the kids' Year-End Presentation. This year, it was held at the UP Theater and the poor kids had to wait backstage for TWO whole hours before they actually came up on stage! Call time was at 330 pm, but because of the awarding of the Intelligence Awards, it seemed like forever before the program proper actually started!

We had the following awardees:

Linguistic Intelligence - Alexander Lacson. I nominated him for his awesome little book, 12 Little Things That We Can Do For Our Country (or something like that).

Logical-Mathematical Intelligence - John Gokongwei, Jr. The big guy wasn't there, but his daughter, Robina, was there to accept the award.

Spatial Intelligence - Rey Paz Contreras. He was an interesting man, a sculptor who uses his ability to help set up a community-based art training program. But he seemed to talk forever, and I know I had a catnap during his speech.

Musical Intelligence - Chin Chin Gutierrez. She was a beautiful lady, inside AND out. She spole in a lilting voice and advocated for a cleaner environment, mainly for our children's benefit. However, her aceptance speech was a tad bit too long when she took the mike and performed an indigenous song. It was a beautiful, local lullaby, though, and Chin CHin sang it with grace, accompanied by body movements of a bird, I think it was.

Interpersonal Intelligence - Cecilio Pedro. Yes, the guy behind Hapee Toothpaste. I nominated him as well. I texted Bang and she mentioned that Papa Ces was in Taiwan with Boydee! Hehehe. Cecilio accepted the award in a pre-taped segment, which was pretty cool :) and short and sweet!

Intrapersonal Intelligence - Gamaliel James Auste. He founded the Cancer Warriors, which concentrates on raising funds for the Filipino child who has cancer. He's a young guy and he's already done so much!

Naturalist Intelligence - Illac Angelo Diaz. Loooove his first name, and hey, his face and body weren't too bad either! LOL! This guy helps the urban poor build low cost houses, cheap and fast.

Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence - Noele Wenceslao, Janet Belarmino, and Karino Dayondon. Collectively known as the Filipino Women Mt Everest Team, they were the first female team to reach the summit in 2007. I don't know why they weren't there to accept the award, but I know that they visited the school sometime during the schoolyear.

And so finally, we come to the program proper. Entitled Batang Pinoy, Batang Bayani, the whole program was Filipino-based. It featured native instruments and local Filipino artists, all of whom were just awesome in their performances! They sang with the kids and really connected with them. They must have spent some time practicing with the kiddos because everything went perfectly!

Rogan was funny in his cameo "solo" as an OFW. He posed in the center in this weird position, we were all laughing at him, he was so cute! Hehehehe.

Rogan was the first of our kids to "perform". In quotation marks. Practically ALL the boys in his class were up stage, banging at the native instruments, hahahahaha. Probably to get them out of the way as the girls danced. Rogan and his gang were having the time of their life though, as they laughed, banged, swayed, banged, and sang....as they banged on their instruments!

Raine was next to come on stage. She didn't dance though and was in the background playing some instrument. I later learned that the music teachers were very particular in choosing who were going to play the instruments because that was the accompaniment to the UP Chorale's song. Ooookay.

Four numbers later, Ranger came out in his Superhero costume. All the kids were just darling in their outfits! Ranger danced with gusto and it was so obvious that he was having so much fun onstage! Good thing, too, because when we left the car to go into the theater, he had just woken up and was NOT in the greatest of moods!

Another four numbers away, Raine was up. She didn't dance though and was in the background playing some instrument. I later learned that the music teachers were very particular in choosing who were going to play the instruments because that was the accompaniement to the UP Chorale's song. Ok. Next year I should tell her to NOT do the instruments so I can see her onstage. Of course, with her size, it was easy to spot her, hehehe. Take note of her sandals, below. She spied that in Tita Zhar's room and knew IMMEDIATELY that it would go well with her costume!

Right after Raine, was Raegan's class. The best for last? Most likely. In the past few programs of the school, it seems that Raegan's class has always been the finale. Yes, they were pretty organized and GOOD! :) I barely saw Raegan as she was running all over the stage during their entire number! Ahhhh, the disadvantage of being one of the tallest ones in the class. She was holding on to several pieces of cloth that the class used to simulate waves or something. In the end, the pieces were fit together to form the flag. And Raegan was BEHIND the cloth helping to hold everything together! Hehehehe.

Very good program, and when it was all over, it was time to collect the kids. Raegan and her class were apparently bawling because they would miss each other over the summer. Even the boys were crying, as well as Teacher Nez! They were that close. You would think they wouldn't see each other after a few months! Hehehehe.

Scrapping at the Hospital

I spent practically the whole day at the hospital today. Dad's been transferred to Telemetry, which allowed us to stay in the room with him the whole time. Of course, there were still visiting hours, but the staff were very nice, allowing us to go in and out anytime. They sort of knew us, what with Dad being in and out of the hospital so many times in so many months, faces were very familiar.

While at the hospital, Dad was asleep most of the time. He just had dialysis yesterday, which makes him tired, so he sleeps it off the following day. I used the time wisely, scrapping and catching up on CT requirements. Thank goodness the creativity was there; I had quite the productive scrapping day today!

DISNEY HATS

ROGAN WITH CHIP N' DALE

DISNEYLAND RESORT STATION

BAD HAIR DAY

No wi-fi in the Telemetry section of the hospital, so I still have to upload these pages tonight.

Not bad for a day's scrapping eh? :)

Happy Birthday, Mom!

My dear mother is 63 years old today. We surprised her by showing up at church for the 6 am mass, to thank the Lord that Mom was given to us and to Dad. We are very very lucky to have Mom as our mom :) She is an inspiration, a pillar of strength, the epitome of faith. She is the foundation of our family and has played a huuuuge part in making us the kind of people we are today.

We all like to think we turned out pretty well, lol, and that's mostly because of the way Mom brought us up. It wasn't easy for her, transferring to the province when she first married Dad. She was a city girl, that's for sure, a socialite. But she uprooted herself to be with Dad. And she coped. Sure, she had her rough times, especially with Dad busy at work AND playing mahjong during the early part of their married life. She was pregnant with me and then with Boydee within 2 years. Life didn't seem easy for this city girl, that's for sure.

But it made her stronger, more a molder of character. And from that we all benefited. And for that we thank her from the very bottom-est part of our heart.

Even today, her birthday, her first though was still to be with Dad. We did try and coerce her into showing up for her birthday dinner, but she didn't want to leave Dad's side. We were all hoping that Dad could leave the hospital today, but it wasn't to be. Oh well.

After mass, we trooped to Shangri-La for breakfast. Yummmm! Then Lola wanted to treat Mom and all of us for lunch. After that HUGE breakfast. Yeah right! I couldn't put another thing inside me! So I begged off, since I had so much work to do anyway.

With that one big meal, I was set for the day. But noooooo....Boydee texted us in the afternoon saying he had made reservations for dinner at Shangri La. Again. Nooooooooooo! LOL! Mom wanted the grandkids to celebrate her birthday as well, which was the reason for dinner.

So we were all seated, stuffing ourselves silly from the plethora of seafood at Heat, when Mom calls and says that she's NOT going to make it to dinner after all! WHAT??? What's a birthday without the celebrant??? Heheheee. Soooo typical of mother dear! At least we were all sated and full! :)

This birthday celebration surely is one for the record books! :)

With Dad in the hospital, we all conspired to send Mom a gift from him. Of course, we already knew what it was. I just confirmed it for formality's sake when I went to see Dad yesterday. We were to have 63 flowers delivered in a bouquet or arrangement, red roses and white roses. We --ahem, *I*-- made the card; everyone absolutely pitched in to give 63 reasons from Dad as to how and why he loves Mom. Thankfully, with everyone texting me something, we did come up with 63 reasons! Who would have thought it was an easy thing to do! Sheesh!

And for the information of the brotherhood and the sisterhood, I stayed up til 3 am printing, cutting and gluing to make that card come together. I was so tired, I didn't have a chance to take a photo of the finished product, darn it! Oh well. When I see it next, I will :)

Happy Birthday, Mom. We love you!!!

Ad Materials Meeting

Can anyone say.....FOREVER?!?!? I swear, it took forever for this meeting to end!!!

Ok, fine, I exaggerate. A bit. We started late morning, through a working lunch and finished between 3 or 4 pm, I can't remember anymore! Bang was there, with Mario. Alex to assist. And Boydee. I rest my case. Bwahahahahaa! It wasn't too bad, really, there was just a TON of things to go through!

Total rehaul of all our ad materials, and then some. This included letterheads and envelopes, and calling cards. Then there were brochures, novena cards, fans, postcards of some sort, billboard posters and the sales kit. Holy moly, the sales kit was a production in itself!

Artsy fartsy sales kit, that's what it was. A beauty to behold but if you know me, I tried to tear it down by giving disadvantages left and right. Hey, that's my job. Not to rain on anyone's parade, but to look for the loopholes, the cons, of any project. :)

The printer guy came in, and it was another round of discussion as we went through all sorts of paper; thin, thick, laminated, glossy, etc, etc etc. Aaaargh!

By the time we were done, the entire conference table was strewn will all sorts of paper and prototypes of the ad material. Alex must have needed some luggage to haul everything out of there afterwards! I kid you not, with the way everything was laid down on the table (and it's a HUUUGE table), we were hard pressed to see the actual table top!

My head hurt towards the end, with the never ending thinking.....I guess it's not easy thinking of BAD things about something, hehehehe. But it was FUN. Yup, there, I've said it. It was a pretty good challenge wading through all that cr....er, stuff. LOL. We talked some Photoshop terms, layout terms...and came off a bit knowledgeable in that area, bwahahahahahaa! Thank goodness for scrapping, eh? Wouldn't have known all those details to tell the artist on what to click and move in Photoshop! :)

And yes, scrappers, I *did* say that it was such a faux pas to put a shadow on TEXT!!! Eeek! :)

Ok, I need to lie down here and REST. Just typing about all this again and my head is throbbing! I need an Excedrin!

La-Ga-Re

Lagare. In Filipino, it literally means "saw", as in the tool. In English, it roughly means "all over the place", going back and forth, like a saw.

Anyhoo, to better illustrate, here was my wonderful schedule for today:

845 am - left the house to bring Japa to Makati
936 am - dropped off Japa at his meeting
955 am - arrived at the Site, ready to work.
1:20 pm - left the Site to go back to Makati, to pick up Japa
1:35 pm - picked up Japa and proceeded to go to Ortigas
1:55 pm - dropped Japa off at his office
21o pm - went to Megamall to buy some books at St Paul and to pay for our bar stools (finally!!!)
245 pm - arrive at the office. finally.

When I got to the office, it was straight to Mom's room, just in time to catch Chris the interior designer going over MY bed for the Van Gogh house. Whew! Hehehehe. At least I had the final say in the few, minor details Chris wanted to confirm.'

Then it was off to my room to interview a potential receptionist. Among other things. It was typing all over again, this time for work instead of for the kids' projects! Sigh! Summary pages for 3 potential employees so Boydee could see everything at a glance. Then I typed more stuff, mostly for the columbarium.

Stuff like points of discussion, maintenance monitoring sheets, multi-media system hook up, wireless security systems, forms galore for a gazillion things....and the list goes on and one. And on. After a few minutes, back to Boydee's office to discuss the employee summary sheets.

A good thing that came out? I stayed a little bit longer just to text the 3 applicants that they were going to start working tomorrow and on monday! :) At least we made a few people happy with the prospect of a job, right?

Ok, this was the extent of my scrapping for the past WEEK or so! Sheesh! Rogan did all the writing, and some "directing" in how he wanted the final project to look like:

The pizza slices:

The whole pie:

The boxed pizza pie:

So, what do you think? :)

One More Project To Go!!!

Yes, I.....er, the kids....have ONE more project to do! Ack! The past few days have been all about typing, typing and more typing. Seems like that's what I've been doing the whoooooole day! Sheesh!

I swear, these projects of the kids are just going to be the death of me! Luckily, ALL the Kids Can Projects have been all typed up and submitted....and on the blog. Someone rescue me from all the talk of endangered animals! Hahahahahaha! I've said it, and I'll say it again: thank GOD all the kids agreed to do the SAME project!!!

Different endangered animals, sure, but everything else was the same. Watch out next year, maybe we'll talk and research all about the crape myrtle tree, hehehehe. Always good to be different, eh?

Ok, like I said, ONE more project to go. And that's Rogan's book report. The boy sure does want to be different. He said he would rather NOT do a Sandwich book report like his sisters. Makes life difficult for his poor mama. Ya think?!?!? Sigh! He was soooo set on having a PIZZA book report, I didn't have the heart to say no.

So off I searched for a pizza box template and thank goodness I found one! Now, all I have to do is print, cut and assemble. Maybe I'll show it off tomorrow. But I have to order pizza to be delivered.....just so I have a box to put his Pizza Book Report in!!! Hehehehe. What, did you think I was going to MAKE a pizza box??? I would.....if I had the time! LOL!

This is probably going to be the most convenient P400 plus I'm going to be spending for this pizza (box).

Stay tuned 'til tomorrow for pics of the project. Maybe. :)

Oh, I did this layout for Jacque Larsen (I'm guesting this month) and I need to upload it tomorrow:

BELLE