CRL Worship through Music

I was pleasantly surprised when instead of the regular vesper worship at Church of the Risen Lord in UP Diliman, was a fitting worship through music. The soprano was Aileen Espinosa-Cura with tenor Jonathan Malicsi. Espinosa-Cura's rendition of the songs was great but the tenor hit a few flat notes. I know of a Jonathan Malicsi back in the 70's at the UP College of Music (back then). I wonder if  the Malicsi of the vesper service is the same Malicsi of the 70's Madrigal Singers. Most probably.  Anyway, the songs were quite inspiring. Ethan was not  fan though.

After the worship we were all set for an early dinner but not before my son and Ethan took a peek of the catered free snacks after church. I love CRL UPD. It's a great place to feed the spirit and the really hungry!

Freakishky Hot!

 It's so freakishly hot! The temperature yesterday peaked at 35.8 degree Centigrade! That was hot!  Even if  I wanted to closet myself in an air-conditioned room all day, I can't afford it -literally and figuratively. Utility bills continue to rise and  a lot of my friends have expresses shock with their latest electricity bill. It must be great working for a gas, water and electric company. They could just hike up their operating cost and consumers have no say but to embrace the hiked-up price. Anyway, the other reason why it was not possible for me to stay indoors yesterday was because we had to attend a going-away luncheon for my cousin and his wife. They're retired and they are off to migrate to the US. Not that they need to but more on "they want to". God bless them.

The luncheon was held in my other cousin's house. This was the house where I spent many hot summers soaking in the swimming pool. Some years ago, the pool was filled-in for the pool's flooring was cracked due to soil movement. It was better and more practical to fill-in the pool than have it repaired.  The pool area is now a green area made more ideal by the patio furniture and wicker swing placed on it. The very shaded area offered a relief from the hot summer sun.

Blue Satin Shoes

Tabby's satin navy blue shoes make me think of ballet lesson days.

Summer Music Lessons

Ethan is presently enrolled in a soccer summer program. His reading therapy (as he's dyslexic) is still current  and I still see to it that he memorize the multiplication table to the point of giving out the answer in one second flat. Getting there...Anyway I told him the other day that he has to start in his piano lessons. I'll be his teacher and I've already bought the necessary books  for his lessons. He told me that he does not want to take piano lessons and prefers to take drum lessons instead. This irritated me for he never took interest on the mini drum set that I bought for him 5 years ago. Now that I gave away the drum set, he suddenly wants to "play the drums"!

My son heard our altercation and, naturally, he butted in. He said he was at a local music shop buying a reed for his sax when he saw some Fender Custom Shop Guitars on sale. He said some pieces were 20%  and could I possibly consider buying him one. What?!  I told him that I would gladly buy him a box of  reeds and that's that.  Well, maybe for Christmas.

It's So Hot!

It is hot! The average temperature here in Manila is from 28 to 35 degree Centigrade! This is equivalent to around 82 to 95 degree Fahrenheit!  It's great if you work in an air-conditioned office but if you're one of those whose work entails him to be out in the hot sun, woe on him! I could stay indoors and turn on the airconditioner but that would create a great dilemma when the electric bill comes. What to do? Hit the mall and enjoy the cool blast of the mall's air-conditioning system! You can even go shopping or window-shopping. This was what I did the other day.

It's interesting to note that summer time seems to be one of those times when mall-wide sales happen. The thing is, why would I want to buy a thick cardigan in the middle of  the summer season? Well, it's on sale and maybe I could save it as a Christmas gift for who-knows-who. I saw a real elegant mens leather briefcase but I've no idea who to give it to in case I do buy it. So, did I buy it?  Well... not really but I did buy the cardigan.

Tabby's First Pool Dip

D1, Tabby and Ethan

Tabby had her first dip in a swimming pool! D2 wanted to teach Ethan and his friends freestyle so we went over a friend's house with a pool. D1 decided to tag along so she could Tabby for a "dip". This baby girl is one gutsy baby! She did not get scared! Maybe she could take her first "swimming" lesson next week.

Yikes!

We had to wake up at around 4:30 a.am. to make the call time for the 7:30 a.m. batch run of Outbreak Manila. We needed to be there at 6:30 a.m. for registration et al. The venue is close to 50 kilometers from our house and even if there's no traffic early in the morning, the first 20 kilometers and last 6 kilometers were interior roads therefore I can't really press the gas pedal to the max.

We were able to leave the house at 5:12 a.am. It was still quite dark when we stopped by a gas station for gas. Once we reached the SLEX, I thought I could finally speed up. No. There were so many cars and buses that it was not really a breeze to switch lanes. One car kept on tailgating our van! Anyway, we finally reached our exit point. The queue to the toll gate was also long. It seemed that every car in line were heading for the fun run. After the toll, we proceeded at a speed of 20-25 kmp to the venue. We finally reached our destination with minutes to spare. But! Parking was another issue. Anyway we were able to spot a parking space and proceeded to the registration tent.

Wave 9 (that's us) started on time. The 5k run was really hysterical. See the picture.

Outbreak Manila: FUN!

Oh yes! My kids and I together with some friends of theirs joined the recently concluded fun run aka Outbreak Manila. There are two types of participants in the 5K (or was it 7k?) run - the runners and the zombies. The runners start with 3 red flags tied to their waist. The object of the run is to reach the finish line with at least a flag intact. The zombies are strewn all over the run trail and their objective is to get the runners' red flags. The run was filled with screams and bursts of speed and terror as runners try to get pass the zombies. Fun! I was able to keep my 3 flags! Why? I intimidated the zombies!

my son was the shuffle bot runner.....

my kids and i with two of their friends

posing with two zombies after the run

my favorite zombie, a friend of D4

this is my group - wave 9

made it!

"I Luv U Tabitha"

Tabby just turned 10 months old! Yey! She has become more active to the point that I now find it hard keeping her still. She pulls herself up when placed in her crib or playpen. She tends to climb down beds and seats which is actually fruitless as she can't walk yet. We bought her this "walking wings" which is a type of walking aid that she wears like a vest. Is it useful and effective? Well, I guess so as Tabby is certainly having a great time "walking".

I tend to put toys in her playpen and crib so she could play with them. I believe that toys are not just for entertainment but serve as brain stimulants. I especially prefer construction and puzzles. I also make sure that Tabby has her share of musical toys to expose her to different tones, tempos and rhythm. She is presently enrolled in Gymboree and she really enjoys the interaction with other babies her age. I make sure that she gets to listen to classical music too as there are studies that show that classical music, especially the compositions of Mozart, do stimulate the brain. In case this study is unfounded, well, surely there’s nothing wrong in listening to classical music.

Ethan adored his dancing and talking Elmo when he was just toddler. I was able to keep “Elmo” in storage and brought it out for Tabby. Oh she just adores Elmo’s sing and dance act. She actually laughs so hard that my tendency (and the rest of her adoring fans) is laugh with her too. She loves her other stuffed toys too! She loves that talking Teddy Bear that says “I love you Tabitha”.

I wonder what are the latest stuffed animals from Toys R Us now? It’s a good thing that there’s a store 10 kilometers from my house. This makes toy shopping more convenient. Maybe I could just drop by and window-shop. While I am at it, I should maybe look around for an inflatable pool for Tabby. Yup! It’s summer time and that means fun-backyard-inflatable pool swimming for Tabby!

Skin Care

It is best to take care of your skin while still young. If only I've known the merits of using sunscreen when I was in my 20s, I think I would have less wrinkles now. Come to think of it, suncreen products decades ago were a far cry from the products of today. Sunblocks back then were thick, white, gooey creams that makes one look and feel sticky. Anyway, there are plenty of great skin products available today and one such brand is pure fiji. It has soaps, hydrating lotions, coconut shampoos and conditioners, body scrubs and oils for better skin care.

Happy Baby

Happy Tabby getting ready for bed. It's a task to tuck this baby girl to bed at night. She'll play, laugh and do all sorts of things just to deter going to bed. By the time she's ready to hit the sack, we're all so tired!

FB Freebies and Discounts

Facebook has definitely made its mark as the top social networking site. Statistics indicate that there are now more than 800,000,000 FB users now and continues to grow. I know! That's a lot of zeros. The popular social networking site is also used for advertising products and services too which is expected as who would not take advantage of the large number of users as potential customers or clients. There are plenty of fan pages that offer their followers freebies and discounts. I saw one page that indicated a 20% off through proflowers facebook page. Well, who would not take advantage of an offer like that?

Bikini!

Alright! Tabby's in for her first summer ever! In preparation, one her aunts bought her a bikini suit! Everyone's excited to see Tabby wear this cutesy two-piece suit. Ummm.. I wonder where she'll have her first dip.

Getting Fit not Fat

As my four daughters and son say, it is time to seriously take a step towards our fitness training. Yes, we're a overweight. Yes, we are lumps of fat wobbling this way and that. Yes, we tire easily as we've nor done any cardio training (not even brisk walking!) for quite sometime now. Summer time seems to be THAT time of the year when fat accumulated in one year (from summer to summer ha! ha!) has to come off! Not that I'd be sporting a bikini while I traipse about in the beach for truth be told, I don't like traipsing about in the beach. Why then? Well... it's because it is easier to loose weight in the summer months because it's too darn hot to eat! It's 33 degrees Centigrade here!

It's Freezing in Beijing!

D4 and her girlfriends went to Beijing in March. Here are they are shown huddling seemingly watching a lone swan but in truth, they were freezing as the temperature was a mean 3 degrees Centigrade.

Flippin' Fun with Skitbooks Flipbooks

The fun starts when you book Skitbooks for your event. Like your regular photo booth, their well-trained and friendly technicians will set up a booth, complete with a background screen, camera and printing equipment. Your guests will then line up and wait for their turn, whether on their own, as a couple, or as many as can fit in the frame. But that is where the similarity with your regular photo booth ends. Skitbooks uses a video camera that makes a seven-second recording of your guests posing or acting out a skit. They can review the video before giving their okay to have it converted into pictures that are printed, cut and bound. The best thing about it is it only takes two minutes before they experience the fun of flicking through their own flipbooks! Skitbooks can print out as many as 45-50 books in an hour. And at the end of the event, they will give you a DVD copy of all the flipbooks that were printed. How’s that instead of film negatives?

Remember being awed with how professional cartoonists draw a sequence of images so precisely on separate sheets of paper that, when stacked and flicked through rapidly enough, seem to be moving? Today, that technology has evolved with the advent of computerized animation. So how about something halfway between the old and new technologies – converting a short video into a series of pictures in a small album that you flick through to watch the images come to life on their own? Say hello to Skitbooks, a Manila flipbook maker and one of the first to bring the technology to the Philippines. Skitbooks, the latest in party booth entertainment, lets you record your own video and “play” it back by flicking through your own flipbook.




Enjoy being someone else with the right props and costumes. Be amused with pretending you’re somewhere else by using a green background which the technicians can overlay with an image or video of your choice. Fascinated with jump shots? Still photographs are sometimes caught at the wrong moment and take so many shots to perfect. But with Skitbooks, you can flick through the entire flipbook and actually view the entire jump! Do you want something more creative and amusing than the usual postcard to show off your country to your foreigner-friends? Why not send them Manila flipbooks, using the famed Intramuros walls as backdrop? Scenes and actions that you want to appear in your flipbooks are only limited by the imagination. You can even have the option of giving them your own video for conversion. And for a more complete package, change the colors and text of their standard book covers for a more personal touch or to match your event theme. Better yet, make your own for an additional fee.


Flipbooks make for interesting invitations and party favors during baptismals, birthdays, weddings, and other events, or even as lasting mementos of that fantastic getaway trip. With Skitbooks, the possibilities for entertainment and creativity are endless.

You may contact Skitbooks via website: Skitbooks.com, via email: skitbooksph@gmail.com or via mobile 0917.9404254