Daily Happy Thoughts

A tribute to all the mothers:

Somebody said it takes about six weeks to get back to normal after you’ve had a baby…somebody doesn’t know that once you’re a mother, “normal” is history.

Somebody said you learn how to be a mother by instinct…somebody never took a three-year-old shopping.

Somebody said being a mother is boring…somebody never rode in a car driven by a teenager with a driver’s permit.

Somebody said if you’re a “good” mother, your child will “turn out good”…somebody thinks a child comes with directions and a guarantee.

Somebody said “good” mothers never raise their voices…somebody never came out the back door just in time to see her child hit a golf ball (or any ball) through the neighbor’s kitchen window.

Somebody said you don’t need an education to be a mother…somebody never helped a fourth grader with his math.

Somebody said you can’t love the second child as much as you love the first…somebody doesn’t have two children.

Somebody said a mother can find all the answers to her child-rearing questions in the books…somebody never had a child stuff beans up his nose or in his ears.

Somebody said the hardest part of being a mother is labour and delivery…somebody never watched her “baby” get on the bus for the first day of kindergarten or on a plane headed for military “boot camp.”

Somebody said a mother can do her job with her eyes closed and one hand tied behind her back…somebody never organized seven giggling Brownies to sell cookies.

Somebody said a mother can stop worrying after her child gets married…somebody doesn’t know that marriage adds a new son or daughter-in-law to a mother’s heartstrings.

Somebody said a mother’s job is done when her last child leaves home…somebody never had grandchildren.

Somebody said your mother knows you love her, so you don’t need to tell her…somebody isn’t a mother.

Today, as I did, hug your mother, tell her “I love you” and “Thank you”. Treat her with a meal she likes or call her if you’re not anywhere near her geographically. Greet all the “mothers” in your life (whether you call her “Mommy”, “Mom”, “Eomeoni”, “Mama”, “Imma”, “Mamang”, “Inang”) and to everyone who ever had a mother. This isn’t just about being a mother; it’s about appreciating the people in your life while you have them….no matter who that person is.

Happy Mother’s Day!

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Tomorrow, at 8 a.m., I would already be off to Dumaguete for my consecutive days off. Yay! I am already excited.

How fast 9 days go by. Why 9 days? (I don’t think I have posted it yet, but I think I made a draft with this somewhere in here..and I don’t know where it went..typically a sanguine..LOL) Well, that’s the cycle length of our duty. 9 days on, and then 6 days off. Our sked is really very convenient and when I think about it, I don’t think I would ever use up any of my allotted vacation leave credits. That’s a good thing, especially because we get to monetize 10 days of leave every year.

Anyway, I already packed with me my BIG badminton bag for travel tomorrow as I plan on playing all evenings of my day off, with Borski of course. Tomorrow would also be Kai and Siegfred’s (our badminton buddies) wedding, and from what I gleaned from their invitation, gold would be the motiff. I would have to find me a gold polo tomorrow as the wedding isn’t until 6 p.m. yet and I’d be in Dumaguete around 4 p.m. already. I think that’d be enough time for me to find one, and yes, the gift too. As Borski and I were chatting over Skype earlier, she also told me that she’d also be shopping for a gold dress for the wedding. So we’ll be doing that as soon as I arrive.

Earlier, I got a text message from Clyde (brother no. 3). I guess he has memorized my schedule too. This brother of mine usually gets teased by us because of his vanity when it comes to his skin. Whenever any of us has acne, he always recommends acne treatment that he gets from his dermatologist, which is also our aunt.

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..below is an excerpt of our text exchange… 

Clyde: are you coming home tomorrow?

Nai: yup..why do you ask? are you cooking something special because I am coming home?

Clyde: you want?

Nai: Sure! as if you know how to cook! :p

Clyde: what you don’t know can’t hurt you…hehehe

Now I don’t know what to make of this. LOL.

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I accompanied my dad earlier this afternoon as he was busy preparing their (he and my mom) papers as requirement for their scheduled travel to the US come July this year. They will be attending an international convention on their organization that is involved in the reach out to married couples all over the world. They will be representing the Philippines because they are the national representative of the country in their organization. This organization of theirs is worldwide and they have other similar counterpart organizations in other countries.

As we were going around the city, they then got to the point of discussing their accommodation and reservation on their stay in the states. They had mentioned that a lot of their friends and counterparts in the host country were volunteering to host them in the said convention. However, they agreed to contact a close family friend of ours in New Orleans. These friends of ours have been in the states for more than 5 years already. My parents and they have constantly kept in touch and they call us via international long distance once every month. They have a property here in Dumzville (their former residence) that they are renting out and they have designated my parents as the “guardians” of the said property, taking charge of collecting the rent, as well as carrying out any major repairs of their house when needed.

I have mentioned about these phone calls because usually, these phone calls would stretch for hours. As you probably know, the time difference between these two parts of the world would mean that the time they would call (usually daytime at their end) would be dawn in the Philippines. On more than one occasion, my mom has told me about how she managed to fall asleep while holding the phone while engaged in conversation with this friend of theirs. My mom has also asked them how she managed to talk that long on the phone and on international long distance at that. She told my mom that long conversations like that was made possible because she has been availing of online phone cards that were cheap, which then allowed them to save as much as 80% or more over regular long distance providers like at&t, sprint, and such.

They will be calling those friends tonight to break the good news to them. Alas, after more than 5 years, they will get a chance to meet and get in touch again. I am excited for them just thinking about it.

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This next weekend will be eventful once more. The reason for that is because it will be a triple celebration of the birthdays of 2 of my brothers and our only sister. You see, their birthdays fall on consecutive days. What can I say, my parents have impeccable timing! LOL. The celebration would start on the 19th with Ray’s 27th birthday, followed by Ellen’s 21st birthday on the 20th, and finally Clyde’s 24th birthday on the 21st. Ray will be coming home from Bacolod so that we’d be complete on those days. During the previous years, we hear mass on each of those days, and they just usually hold the birthday party on any one of those 3 dates, taking turns each year who gets to have the celebration that year. Now I am thinking what to give these guys for their birthday.

As for Ellen, I am thinking of these medical alert bracelets that I have found online, she being a practitioner in the medical field as a nurse.

Hope she doesn’t read this post and spoil my surprise.

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As I mentioned in my previous post, the 2 youngest brothers are here staying with me for the summer. They will be here for the duration of the summer vacation and will be going home only in June, in time for the start of classes. Andrew (brother number 5) will be going to college by then. He will be taking up Hotel and Restaurant Management, or so he says.

Last week when I was back in Dumaguete, many of his classmates, whom I got to meet on a daily basis at our internet cafe, kept on asking about what my brothers were up to in Bacolod. I told them that they were both getting pretty good at water sports (read: doing the laundry) as there wasn’t anyone else to do it here. Aside from that, they were learning how to cook some of the more common dishes too. However, the news that they wanted to hear for certain was that if Andrew had already lost weight, as he had been texting his friends that he was going to lose weight, as part of his summer project. You see, he is only 16 but he weighs around 220+ lbs at 5ft.7in. with a waistline of more than 38 inches. He is bigger than me as we are only about the same height, and I only weigh around 180+ lbs the last time I checked.

Part of his motivation to lose weight is because he was promised by our parents a new cellphone if ever he was able to lose weight to about 200 lbs at the end of the summer, and I could tell that he is really on a mission to accomplish this. Since around the 3rd week of March, they have also been going to the gym for workout sessions daily. When I got back from Dumaguete just last Thursday, I asked him how much weight he already lost, to which he replied that he already managed to lose 4 lbs. Now that would be small for others, but for him, that was already quite an accomplishment, considering the appetite that he has. Sometimes he takes his dinner twice..hehe. No wonder he weighed that much. For his height, I think the recommended weight would be around 160+ lbs, which would make him obese. Considering that diabetes was in our genes, I think he needs to do a better job of managing his weight, just as I need to lose weight myself too. We agreed to help each other out in this regard. Whenever we would be having our meals, we would remind each other if ever we already had a lil’ too much to eat. It’s a bummer yeah, but hey, we gotta do whatever works, right?

Anyway, as I was browsing online, I managed to find out about this drug that many hail as a miracle cure for obesity. I am talking about Generic Acomplia, of which the active ingredient is Rimonabant. It has been clinically proven as a powerful tool for weight loss, along with diet and exercise. It works on receptors in the brain to block cravings for food and some other substances. A person’s desire to eat is lessened as this drug acts on the Endocannabinoid system, which is the system that regulates appetite and energy. It actually targets the same receptor responsible for ‘the munchies’ when people smoke marijuana, except instead of making one hungry, it has the opposite effect.

Aside from its help in losing weight, it is also a very effective anti smoking measure. It has been proven to lessen nicotine craving, making quitting smoking more achievable. Furthermore, it also decreases the level of bad cholesterol and increases the level of good cholesterol in the blood, meaning that the patient not only looses weight, but they also become more healthy.

This drug is a prescription medicine, so in order to take it safely, a consultation with a physician should first be in order before starting a course of medication.

I think that with this drug, along with diet and regular exercise, managing one’s weight would be easier, and people would be able to lead healthier lives.

I think I am going to inform Andrew later of this great find.

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Haven’t posted in quite a bit. Was feeling lazy and indolent..hehe..well, who wouldn’t be. The room is a mess! The two youngest brothers are here. They will be staying for the duration of the summer so I guess I am stuck with them. The whole family was here last Thursday and they (minus the 2 youngest) left around lunch time Saturday. The room was jampacked. Oh well, the joys of having a large family. LOL. Just this evening, after hearing mass, we went to get groceries and as we were transferring the eggs to the egg tray in the ref, my youngest bro dropped about 4 eggs…grrrr! I was so mad on the waste due to clumsiness, but I managed to reign my emotions in and counted 1-10, after which I was able to ask him, “What have we learned from this?” On which he promptly replied, in the Visayan language, “Not to place the tray on the edge of the sink.” I guess I was guilty of the same mistake too when I was younger, so I guess I felt it was just something coming full circle and I can’t feel all too righteous on him. LOL. Oh well you can’t blame me too, as that could have been breakfast tomorrow morning. Now we’re down to 8 eggs instead of the 1 dozen that we bought.

Enough about the eggs. And I know many people have been busy with the traditional Easter egg hunt. As I had observed on television regarding the coverage of the many practices during the holy week all over the country, each place has its own unique stamp on how they celebrate the Holy week. Regarding the Holy week practices here in Bacolod, I find it very different from the previous ones that I have experienced so far in my stay in Dumaguete. For one, the via crucis we attended early morning of Good Friday at the Redemptorist church was participated in by only quite a few people, numbering about 30 as I estimated it, and it was just around the church grounds. In Dumaguete, I would estimate the whole procession to cover about 5 kilometers on the main roads, with easily more than a thousand people joining the procession.

Another practice I find quite unique is the one wherein after the prayer in a particular station is completed, the people scramble and compete with one another to gain possession of the flowers/leaves that were used to adorn the said station. As Borski would be in Dumaguete for the Holy week, I already gave her the heads up on capturing this practice on her digicam so that we could post it on our WS post. Too bad her cam bogged down on her during the procession, I think she was only able to get a shot of the flowers and not of the actual commotion whenever the people would be scrambling for those. I was actually laughing when she texted me her frustration on her camera woes. I guess it’s time to get a new one Borski hehehe

I asked an aunt a long time ago why the people acted the way they did, and she told me that this practice stemmed from the belief that the flowers possessed medicinal properties. The usual practice, she said, was that these flowers were immersed in oil and this oil could be used to treat ailments. I don’t know how true this is, and I have not tested it. I guess everyone is entitled to his/her own practices. To each his own. As one TV ad uniquely expressed it: “Kung diin ka masaya, te suportahan taka.”

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Hi guys! Ian here. At work now, and its almost time for lunch here. Yey! Just got an SMS from my brother Andrew that they’re on their way here to Bacolod for some bonding time with us for the weekend. Actually, the 4 of them are coming over, our mom and dad, and our youngest brother Anthony.

We are actually quite a bunch, as Borski can probably tell you. 5 brothers and 1 sister, I the eldest (age-wise but not as far as appearances go..lol). Ray is staying with me, and he has just started training for work as a costumer service representative last week of Feb. I texted him already to tidy up the room in preparation for our “visitors” (I can almost already imagine the look of my mom’s face when he sees our room..hehehe), no response yet though, as I think he is still dozing off after getting off from work at 6am earlier today. I just hope he wakes up in time to clean up before they arrive.

And oh, bonding time wouldn’t be complete with the food trips, and I haven’t had time (and money) to refurnish our groceries and supplies, so I’m thinking of getting that done after work today, what with the appetites we have. I’ve got a problem with my schedule though as we have scheduled a badminton session today with Ray together with a couple of my officemates. I think they are holding a mini tourney today, friendly games they called it. So I guess I’m gonna have to do some time juggling today.

Borski has been having problems yet with getting her internet connection hooked up, so until then, I’m handling the task of creating activity on this blog and “pimping” it..lol..looking forward to having her work on here as I am sure she can introduce a lot of cool things on here.

Also, we would like to make our appreciation felt to the guys and gals who have been so warm and accomodating in teaching us on this blogging journey. You guys know who you are. From us to you, a big, warm hug

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I just cant help but smile while I was travelling back to Bacolod for work today. I caught the 5:25am aircon bus in time for my pick up for duty at 2pm today. Last night we had our weekend family rosary after dinner (actually it was already after the weekend, since we were not able to do it Sunday night because we were all too tired from the day at the beach).

My brother Andrew, who by the way is bigger (taller and heavier) than me, cooked fish tinola, with the aid of our household help Manang Edith. He did a pretty good job considering it was his first attempt. Hats off to him!

Anyway, after the rosary, teasing began with the topic of what Ellen and Andrew wanted to get from my parents for their graduation. You see, Ellen is graduating with a bachelor’s degree in nursing come March 15, and Andrew would be graduating from high school a day earlier. Andrew confided to me earlier that he wanted me to “plant” an idea on my dad’s mind that he wanted to get an Ipod, while Ellen wanted an N95 cellular phone. It was so funny because in order to open the topic up, they asked me what I got during my graduation (so so many years ago…lol), which got me to thinking..hmmm..what did I get?

And then I remembered that picture of me holding up a large wooden frame in one of the many pictures of me during that time. I was holding up a large framed crosstitch made by mom. It was entitled “Sunset” and it was so beautiful and very special to me considering the time and effort my mom put into that gift. They all laughed and told me that I was kidding, at which I retorted that perhaps they wanted to check out the framed crosstitch hanging by the wall of our guest room and they would know for a fact that I was not kidding. And to think all of them signed on the back portion of that framed gift..hehehe..they were in on that gift too..

Now I am wondering what to get the both of them for their graduation too..any ideas guys?

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