Friday, July 29, 2011

D2, D3, my son and I are in Hong Kong right now.Why? We were hoping to find some great sales but! I guess the season for "whale-of-a-sale" is quite over. Yes, there were some stores offering up to 60% off but there was nothing to be excited with what these stores have to offer. I was able to buy a few items for Tabby and Ethan though. However, my son can't find anything that "excited" him save for the passport holder he bought for $20 from a sidewalk vendor. My son thought it better to do some serious planking at the IFC Mall.


Anyway, I spent some time at a local drugstore sourcing for medicated mud soap. I found some and bought 3 cakes for me! No I don't have acne but this soap is guaranteed to cleanse and nourish my "tired" skin. Great buy!
Posted by desperateblogger On 7/29/2011 10:41:00 PM 1 comment READ FULL POST

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Our health cards were just recently renewed. One of my brother-in-laws has the same HMO as us. The curious thing was that when he tried to use the card for a series of laboratory tests requested by his doctors his card was denied! Whaddah? It seems that according to the HMO office, my BIL has used up all his lab works! Huh? How could that be? I think there's a glitch in the HMO's system. BIL was so mad as he ranted that it's a good thing he got his life insurance policy from another insurance company.
Posted by desperateblogger On 7/28/2011 09:42:00 AM No comments READ FULL POST
Sshh... baby sleeping! We were on our way out when Tabby decided she wanted to take a power nap first! Since we can't afford to be late, we decide to just swaddle the sleepy girl and buckle her up in her car seat. She never noticed the difference as she was still fast asleep when we got to our destination.
Posted by desperateblogger On 7/28/2011 09:35:00 AM 2 comments READ FULL POST
My girlfriends and I got to talking and "dreaming" of things we want to do together and we came up with a real cool idea. If we have the chance and the resources, we would like to do some serious RVing from the state of New York to California. We would do some diligent research and mark the places we want to visit and food we'd like to eat. We have been totally swayed by these TV shows were the host skip from one place to another soaking up its local culture and food.

I wonder how much that trip would cost? I wonder how much is the rent for a large RV? Of course we're only renting as what would we do with an RV after the trip? I wonder if in case we rent we have to insure the RV ourselves? There are a lot of online insurance agencies that will gladly give a free rv insurance quote but hey! I think I'm way over my head with this RV trip. First thing first. We need to settle on our budget and the date. One thing great about "dreaming"... it's free!
Posted by desperateblogger On 7/28/2011 09:22:00 AM No comments READ FULL POST

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Classes were suspended yesterday because of an impending tropical storm. Some roads in NCR were already flooded but it's a good thing DedEd decided to suspend classes early since no incidence of students stranded in school was reported.

Tropical storm Juaning is set to hit Manila at1 P.M. today. Rain is expected so we are gearing up for a possible flooding in our area. It's a good thing that the typhoon has only a maximum sustained winds of 85 kph near the center with a 100kph gust of wind. In the past, typhoons with sustained winds over 150 kph caused many homes to lose their roof.

Traditional houses here in Manila have wood roof framing that could be easily blown away by a strong typhoon. However in the last 20 years or so, more homes were opting for steel framing for structural strength. Yup! steel buildings have translated to houses now.

Anyway, the typhoon is forecasted to move West Northwest at 11 kph so by tomorrow morning it will be out of the Philippine's area of responsibility. Great!


Posted by desperateblogger On 7/27/2011 08:25:00 AM 2 comments READ FULL POST

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Truly, my backyard gardening is slowly but surely "blooming". As you enter the front gate of my house, what will greet you is an explosion of different shades of green. On one side is the orchid group where at this moment, there is no single bloom. By the terrace are my pots of herbs such as rosemary, mint, basil and pepper. Creepers are thriving in the trellis while hanging plants adorn the bamboo fence. I have recently cleaned the fish pond and put in a good-sized pump. I'd get the fish later. There are creepers and some water plants by the fish pond too. Ethan said I should get a bird-feeder and a garden gnome statue to complete the decor. Ummm... nice idea.
Posted by desperateblogger On 7/26/2011 08:39:00 AM No comments READ FULL POST

Sunday, July 24, 2011

It is my mother-in-law's 82nd birthday - a real cause for celebration. Two years ago, we held a real big party for MIL , complete with a well-rehearsed and thought-of presentation. That birthday party caused me a lot of headaches for the planning, costumes, rehearsals et al were complicated. Today, we opted for a simple lunch at a restaurant. It was simple alright for there were only 50 guests or so, including the whole clan.

MIL was dressed in her usual flamboyant way complemented with her big diamond earrings and diamond rings. This year, one of the guests is Tabby, my new granddaughter.See how cute she is. MIL insisted on carrying her which sort of worried me for after all she is 82! Since it's her birthday D3 gave MIL Tabby but supported MIL's arms as baby girl is quite heavy.
Posted by desperateblogger On 7/24/2011 11:41:00 PM 2 comments READ FULL POST

Friday, July 22, 2011

Today, I ate a lot!

I was up all night yesterday as D1 graciously asked me to take Tabitha for the night. D1 said she has an open-heart surgery in the morning so she needs to sleep straight for at least 6 hours. So Tabitha was with me all night. She refused to sleep that by 5:30 AM I woke D3 up and told her to take care of the baby.

I slept for 2 hours. By 10:00 AM I had to leave for my luncheon meeting which lasted for 4 hours. Oh, we ate a lot!

By 4:00 PM I was at Ethan's school for an informal tete-a-tete with the parents and teachers of grades 3-7. There was a lot of food too. I kept on eating for it helped keep me awake. By 6:00 PM I had more than enough to eat. I was secretly wishing that I could take some fat burners that work fast, really fast to burn-off the thousands and thousands of calories I stuffed myself today.

It's close to midnight here and I'm still awake. I need to burn off some more calories before I go to sleep.
Posted by desperateblogger On 7/22/2011 11:25:00 PM 1 comment READ FULL POST

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Ethan came home one afternoon after school excited about his running for class treasurer. Coming from a small school, it was no wonder that Ethan did not have a clue regarding class officers, class elections et al. We had to explain to him about the whole thingamajig. It was hilarious how he misconstrued the duties of the treasurer. He initially thought that he could spend the class fund for himself. After another round of explanations he was finally able to "get it".

We take class elections seriously. My husband (Ethan's grandpa) had 10 tarpaulin banners printed. Ethan's "ninang" designed a poster with Ethan as Obi Wan Kenobi with the message:

The Force is With Me
Vote Ethan for Treasurer

An uncle tweaked the same poster and came up with another Obi Wan Kenobi campaign poster. Below are the two campaign AD posters.



The nomination was on a Tuesday. By Wednesday morning 10 of Ethan's tarps were up. I had 24 pieces of one of the designs printed in 3R and asked Ethan to give them away to his classmates. By Wednesday afternoon, his 3R campaign pictures were given out to his classmates and teachers. We even campaigned in Facebook so that thousands of our contacts were more than willing to vote for Ethan as class treasurer. Too bad, they're no in Ethan's class.

The election was on a Friday. By 2:00 P.M. the results were out! Daughter #2 being the adviser of the student council was able to text us the results of the election. Yes! Ethan won! It was even overheard that his class was seriously considering promoting him as class president for he got the highest vote. Funny!

I told Ethan's mom to prepare him for his job as Mufti Day is in the offing. FYI, Mufti Day is when students of SISC come to school in civilian clothes as long as they donate a certain amount to the sponsoring club.

Go Ethan!


Posted by desperateblogger On 7/19/2011 11:17:00 AM 2 comments READ FULL POST
D1 is back to work! She still has a few weeks left of her leave but one of her residents had to take an emergency leave. D1 has lost some weight. There was no need to take diet pills to lose pounds though. All she had to do was limit her carbo intake and to stop eating junk food. It also helped that she cut back on her intake of fruit juices and cola drinks. She still has to lose a lot of weight though to reach her ideal weight. Well, I do hope she sticks to her current diet. If she does, she'll be in her ideal weight in time for Christmas!
Posted by desperateblogger On 7/19/2011 10:13:00 AM No comments READ FULL POST

Monday, July 18, 2011

I was at the mall yesterday looking for the right school shoes for Ethan. The black pair I bought in May are already pinching his toes. My, at the rate Ethan is growing, maybe I should buy shoes 2-3 sizes bigger than his current shoe size. If I do that I probably should buy him a piece of red-rubber-nose to complement his "clown" shoes. The thought of buying a pair of shoes 2-3 sizes bigger than required brought tears to my eyes -tears of laughter- for it reminded me of someone who did just that.

It didn't want leather shoes for Ethan. I wanted casual-rubber-soled-black shoes for him. I saw one but it did not have his size. I finally decided to go to a sports shop to look for a pair. The shop was full with people as the store was having a super sale. There were so many sports items for sale. Too bad I do not know anything about "bow and arrow" because an archery equipment was on sale for up to 70%!

Anyway, after an hour of "looking" around, I left the store with a canister of shuttlecock, a new pair of sneakers for me, a pair of 2.5 pounds dumbbell but no shoes for Ethan. Next time.
Posted by desperateblogger On 7/18/2011 07:08:00 AM No comments READ FULL POST

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Ethan wants a Kinect! He was introduced to the seriously physically "active" computer game by his godfather.Ethan said that if I buy one, I can lose weight playing Kinect as I have to be really be physically active to play it. Ummm.. let's see. I checked online and learned that an XBOX 360 4GB SPECIAL EDITION KINECT BUNDLE cost $299. The bundle includes: Xbox 360 4GB slim console; Kinect sensor; Kinect Adventures game and Xbox 360 Wireless Controller. Exclusive is an xbox live subscription which I don't even understand its meaning. What will I subscribe too? I expressed this concern to Ethan and he laughed and said "Mom, you are old!"
Posted by desperateblogger On 7/14/2011 09:42:00 AM 2 comments READ FULL POST

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

In a few short days my new-found freedom will be cut short! D1 is going back to work and guess what?....baby Tabitha will be left with me. Yes, she does have a nanny but she's new and I don't feel comfortable leaving Tabitha with her yet.

On the other side, D1 is busy sorting out all the details of her back-to-work details. It seems like the HR department "forgot" to file her maternity leave and SSS benefits! "Quite upset" does not really describe her reactions. Yesterday, she tried on her "work" clothes and what-do-you-know..they don't fit!

D1 felt that she needs diet pills that work to quickly shed off 50 pounds of extra weight. Good luck to her!... to me too! I'll be nanny to my granddaughter!
Posted by desperateblogger On 7/13/2011 07:15:00 AM No comments READ FULL POST

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

The last activity I attended at SISC was at my son’s high school graduation. My son is in his fifth year at the University of the Philippines. I am still amazed at how time flew. What have I been doing since April 2007? Aside from monitoring my son’s studying I am basically the primary caregiver, driver, tutor and friend of my one and only grandson.

Ethan is going on 9 this September. When he was 4 years old he was independently diagnosed by two doctors and one psycho-therapist that he has a learning disability called dyslexia. Knowing nothing about this type of learning disability, the whole family strove to know the how's and why's of this LD (learning disability) We thought that it was best for Ethan to attend a smaller school so we chose a supposedly “progressive” school for Ethan’s preschool education.

He was doing alright in preschool. His school seemed to be sufficient so we decided to let Ethan continue his basic education there. For 2 more years my grandson stayed in that small school. I beginning to question the curriculum and methods of teaching employed by the teachers. I was not happy since I kept on comparing SISC’s curriculum and syllabi. However, I was not leaning on transferring Ethan to a big school such as SISC because I was afraid that he will not be able to cope because of his dyslexia.

When a teacher cannot spell the word camouflage and cannot distinguish dessert from desert, it is time to change school.

The whole family concurred that SISC is our only option for Ethan. He was about to enter grade 3 so I decided to drop by the PR office to make inquiries.

I dropped by SISC and proceeded to the PR office. I saw Ms. Candy, still as pretty as the first day we met back in 1995. I also saw Ms. Avic, my 4th daughter’s Prep teacher in 1993. I saw Ms.Noli who prefers to be called “lola” by Ethan. A few minutes later I saw Sir Jerry and we exchanged pleasantries. Sir Rolf and I also talked a bit. It was the Upper School graduation day so I saw a lot of my son’s old teachers and they all asked about my son. They asked me what I was doing at Southville. I answered that I was considering SISC for my grandson.

Before I knew it, an hour has passed. The afternoon brought back memories spanning 14 years (1993-2007).If I count my 2nd daughter’s teaching years at SISC (2003 up to present), my affinity with SISC spans 18 years!

Ethan is now a grade 3 newbie at SISC. It’s as if “we’re home”.
Posted by desperateblogger On 7/12/2011 12:03:00 AM 2 comments READ FULL POST

Monday, July 4, 2011

Remember the post I have regarding KMBI sponsored mass wedding on June 25,2011? Well, the event went fairly well considering it rained cats and dogs on June 23 to 24 which virtually flooded a large part of Metro Manila. It seems like come rain or flood water... the wedding has to go on!

great! i'll wet my new shoes!


are our grooms coming?



yup! we're here!



off they paddle off to their new life....
Posted by desperateblogger On 7/04/2011 09:38:00 AM 3 comments READ FULL POST
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