Almost A Year

YIKES!!!

A once addict blogger, went almost a year without updating her personal blog. Good one Babsy!

Lots of things happened that I wasn’t able to document. (sigh) It was one of the reason why I blog … to remember what have I done and to move forward learning from my day to day experience. When I read my posts years ago, I just couldn’t believe I could do some of the things I have done in the past … I guess, with a right mind-set, a person could change … to the extent that one could not recognize oneself from the past.

Let’s just leave it at that. I could not remember what happened to me days ago. So, I’ll start documenting again starting from what happened to me today (which inspired me to blog again).

I watched the movie 7lives and a scene from that movie caught my attention.

A widow asked a man to dig-up something from her backyard. When the man finally found a so-called treasure box, he thought it was filled with something of monetary value. However, when the widow opened the box, it was filled with pictures. Then the widow said, “Pictures … happy memories are the best treasure we could have.”

I don’t want to forget, though I often do. So, here’s for today:

Me and my kids are now living in an apartment. So the pic above shows tired me and on the background, my sleeping kids. Yeah, I am already tired from all the activities a single hands-on working Mom has to do and I still have to wash the dishes after this. AAARRGGHH!

Well, even though I am often tired with all the chores in here. I still do smile a lot. Like the usual scene after I cook something, I would serve the food and my kids would be the one deciding how to divide it. Example 6 eggs; 1 for Mommy (that’s me), 3 for Hannah and 2 for Hector. Of course, AN EGG will not be enough for the BIG ME, so when I attempt to get another egg, the two would be growling at me. If you are a Mom, I guess you could relate that however tired and hungry you are when you have a scene like this, you can’t do anything but smile

 

Positive Bank and Negative Salon

Today, I went to Bank of The Philippine Islands or BPI and was amazed of their upgrade. They removed the use of those paper you have to fill-up for transaction. Instead, they put a computer where you could input the account number, transaction and amount. Then, you will be given a number.

Though it was a good upgrade, still BPI needs to work on having their agent speed up the transactions. Earlier, the number of people builds up and almost filled the bank due to slow processing. Maybe it is just because of the new upgrade and people are still adjusting.

Anyway, I got a haircut. I now have a bangs.

I don’t like my bangs

I have a bad experience at Salon de Rose;I waited for an hour before I was attended, the one who cut my hair doesn’t know how to follow instruction – I said, “straight and thick” bangs (Obviously, as you could see it is not), and they didn’t care if there are still hair on my face after the haircut, no one brush it off. Also, no shampoo before the cut, so my hair is dry when the haircut was done. Because of such traumatic experience, I immediately went to my car and looked for a water and washed my face. I hope my hair grows longer fast.

Celebrating Dad’s B-day with Red Ribbon

My Dad’s birthday is also of the same day as Manny Pacquiao’s birthday. So, as the Pacquiao family had a grand celebration in Mindanao, our family here in Visayas just had a simple one.

We have dinuguan, bihon, adobo and my favorite, the NEW Red Ribbon Chocolate Mango Mousse. See my family as we enjoy our simple celebration.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

By the way, the celebrant is not with us because he is working abroad. Still I could say, “Whatever the celebration, it’s more beautiful with a Red Ribbon!”

An Encounter With Scrooge

Yes, I meant Ebenezer Scrooge or at least that was his personality. You might be confused, so let me tell you a story that happened yesterday.

I just fetched my son from his classroom and we planned on going to a store to buy gifts and ham for Christmas. As, I moved my car going out of the parking-lot, I noticed a building traffic on the road and because of that I couldn’t get out to the main road.

To have a better picture of the situation, here’s an image I have created:

Legends:

• Yellow – my car
• Black – Scrooge’s car
• Green – Cars on traffic
• Tan – School
• Red Blue Stripes – parking spaces
• Light Grey – School Road
• Dark Grey – Main Road
• Orange – blocking

The parking spaces are filled with cars and in a hurry to get out, I tried to check what the problem is because it is not a usual scene to have this huge traffic in front of my son’s school. Upon seeing the root of the traffic, I approached the driver which is an old man and asked him a favor,

“Sir, could you move your car forward just a small space.”

I felt relieved when he did move, but indeed a small space. I checked the situation again and the first green car still could not move from its position, so I again asked a favor to the old man in the black car,

“Sir, if you want to park, could you move your car near the blocking, so that those at your back could go forward if they want to.”

The old man seems pissed and he said,

“I do not want to move any further.”

I then answered him calmly,

“Sir, you are blocking them and you are creating traffic.”

Angry old man argued,

“What do you want? Me going near the blocking and then later when its time for me to go out I would have a hard time backing out because there would be cars coming in? NO!”

The old man is obviously not in a good mood and because of his attitude I raised my voice,

“Sir, you are not in a parking space and you are creating traffic. I can’t get out of the road because of the traffic you caused!”

Old man Scrooge will not back down and he asked me,

“Where are you parked?”

I pointed to him where my car is situated. He then answered with a smirk,

“So, what do I have to do with it?”

This moment, I was confused why he said that. Can’t he see that he is causing the traffic and that is why I can’t pass? I answered him,

“Sir, you are not in a parking area and you are blocking the way for other cars to pass.”

He keeps on moving his head left and right as if saying NO, I am not going anywhere. Just in time, a car left its parking space nearby. This moment, I am already angry and when the car left its parking space fully, I shouted to old man Scrooge,

“There! Go and park your car in a proper place!”

The old man Scrooge moved its car to parking and the other cars passed without a problem and I was at last out of the school parking-lot.

After that incident, I was so angry and I asked my Mom,

“How could an old man be so selfish like that?”

Until now I wonder, how could someone grow old and be selfish like that; He doesn’t want to have a small problem in backing out when cars are coming in but he could swallow the idea that he could stop in the middle of the road and create traffic – THAT’S STUPID!

Lesson I learned this day: If this situation happens again, I would not hesitate to call a traffic officer and have them take the license of the driver causing the traffic specially those who are not in a proper parking space for “Illegal parking.” If the officer is hesitant to do his job, I would file a case against him for “Negligence of duty.”

Beware of 018774273368

It started 3 nights ago, I received a call from “no number” or 0000000. Whenever I answer it, I cant hear anything from the other line, not even a sound of someone breathing. This made me think that maybe there is something wrong with my phone, so I tested my speaker by calling a friend and everything is working well on my end.

After several calls that I answered yet fail to communicate with the other side of the line, it begins to scare me.

Years ago, we received a phone call in the middle of the night from U.S.A. bearing some bad news about my cousin. This was such a traumatic experience for the family. So, I keep on answering this call thinking it might be an important call because despite the fact that there are errors on the call it keeps on calling.

For the nth time, from scared my emotion turns to irritated. Then I thought, if this is an important call this person would try other ways to contact us. I am not the only one with mobile number plus we have a land-line. So, that night I turned off my phone.

I turned my phone on that morning and the day seemed normal until the clock strikes midnight. It happened again. It called, when I answer – fail to communicate. Eventually, I turned my phone to silent so that I won’t be disturbed when it calls.

Morning came, and no calls. Then I thought it would end, but I thought wrong. It called again just after midnight and this time using a number 018774273368 but also keeps on switching to “no number” and 0000000.

Having the number, gave me a reason to search about it and found out that there were a lot of complaints about this number.

Here are comments about the number:

They called us a moment ago:
Them: Hello it’s Julie from Major Brands. I believe you’re with British Gas
Us: No.
Them: E-on?
Us [clearly they're phishing]: No.
Them: nPower?
Us [how many are they going to go through?]: No.
[ approximately 12 suppliers later ... ]
Them: I can see you’re paying with Direct Debit.
Us [how? if they don't know who we're with]: No.
Them: How are you paying?
Us: We’re not saying.

My advice: don’t volunteer or confirm any information with the caller.

~.~.~.~

I got a call from this number today – i agree with tim above – total phishing scam. They said they were from the varification department from E-on and were calling to confirm my details… however, i dont use e-on so i just hung up on them.

I have had several calls from this number over the past few months… i just keep hanging up…

Source: Who calls me from

Same call as above: they said they had found viruses on my Windows computer and wanted to help fix them and they work very closely with Microsoft (although he could not tell me their Partnership status) – I enjoyed speaking to them as I use an Apple Mac – they try and direct you to a website – he actually hung up on me!!!

Source: Phone call comments

BE CAREFUL!

Satisfaction this Christmas 2010

I bought new Christmas tree and Christmas lights. The past few days, my kids are given what they wanted. My room could be filled by their toys alone! So, I guess Christmas spirit at atmosphere is in my house.

Today

• Hannah: Because we have a new Christmas tree, Santa would be putting gifts under it.
• Me: What do you want Santa to give you?
• Hannah: (shouting excitedly) BARBIE …
• Me: You already have lots of those.
• Hannah: (thinking deeply and then smiled)

SATISFACTION! To a point where my daughter cant seem to think of anything she wanted that she doesn’t have. Knowing my daughter, she would probably be thinking of a gift for someone else. This is an example that Charity starts at a young age. My daughter is now 6, because she had her GLEEful party last September 17.

She had everything she wanted on her day, a magic show from her requested magician, a cheerios costume from Glee because she likes Quinn, the cake as she wanted, the guests and of course lots of gifts.

My son turned 3 last June 18 and his party was also what he wanted.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

He thought he was Aang back then. So, his party was all Avatar: The Last Airbender. Now, he thinks he is Power Ranger Red. Unlike my daughter, this 3 year old boy is still on a phase of being “spoiled.” So, I can’t kiss him like I use to because he gets angry when I do. All he wants is do karate and watch Power Rangers.

The way Hannah Remembers

I was inspired to blog today, because I noticed something about my daughter. “Study Time” just finished and it put a smile on my face when I reviewed her spelling words.

This is a picture of my reviewer.

I gave this to her to study the spelling of the words.

This is the picture of her test paper.

I randomly called out the words for her to spell, but yet she arranged it the way it was on the reviewer.
One misspell world – sock.

Anyway, that is how my dear daughter remembers.

Another Name Error

About 3 years ago, when my daughter started going to school as Pre-Nursery at St. Joseph School, I was given a gate pass and when I checked my name, it was Junelle C. Teodosio. Now, that my son is going in the same school, same error was made.

Preparing for June Hector’s 3rd Birthday Party

Today was a very busy day! Let’s start from this …

I slept past 3 in the morning, and

Mother Dear: B-Girl Wake-up! You’re driving Hannah to school, it’s the first day of school and it is already 7:00am.

Jun Hannah: Mommy wake-up!

-Awake-

Jun Hannah: Mommy call Daddy.

-Dialed number and give phone to Hannah-

Father and Daughter conversing on the phone.

-Stood up, opened the door.-

Jun Hannah: Mommy, Daddy will talk to you.

Me: Hi, I just woke up and I need to change. Mom is already angry. I am driving Hannah to school.

Hannah’s Dad: Ok.

-Phone down, changed, drive- YES WALANG LIGO … eeeww

7:30 am to 1:00 pm = DRIVER, Yaya, Assistant, Delivery, etc

Upon arriving home, I started working on making props and costumes for June Hector’s 3rd Bday.

• Aang’s glider. Finished by 6 pm
• Toph’s headband. Finished by 8 pm
• June Hector’s 3rd cake design: Printed pictures to show to the cake-maker. Finished by 10 pm

It was already late so my kids was already asleep and I need to bring them in our room, but first I took a bath.

• Jun Hannah sleeping on sala floor. Picked her up, with all the strength left in me (38 kilos). Started climbing the stairs … 1, 2, 3 (PANTING) – Hannah woke up. “Oh, good baby could you climb the stair and go to our room?” Hannah started walking, went to the bed and continue to sleep.
• June Hector sleeping in the guest room. Picked him up and went upstairs into our room and put him in bed.
• Put diapers on both kids and let them drink their milk even while they were sleeping.

Now, 11 pm and I need to sleep for tomorrow will be another long day.

For the First Time I Felt I am a Good Mother

Hours ago, I noticed myself doing selfless acts for my kids and it made me feel special. I know for the fact that having two kids; a boy and a girl, that I am a well blessed but because of some negative aspects that surrounds it, I sometimes forget the good side of things. Anyways, since I am living my life now trying to see the best side of everything, I’ll try my best to have the heart and mind to accept and understand the flow of life.

I am the “official driver” of my family and I am the one bringing and fetching my daughter to her summer classes. Yesterday, after her class I decided to go to a mall to buy her a toy to play with this summer. On our way out after we have bought everything we planned on buying, my daughter saw a pizza and asked me to buy her a slice because she wants to eat. However, before she asked me I was already planning on buying a water to quench my thirst. If you would read just this part, you would probably say there’s no problem “go and buy both.” Now, here is the problem: The money is enough to buy only one of our demands. So it is either my thirst or my daughters satisfaction. As a mother, I think a little sacrifice won’t hurt, so I bought a pizza. Then we got into the car, I noticed she didn’t eat the pizza and I asked her why. She said, she’ll just eat it at home but I noticed she took a bite and I guess she didn’t like the taste of it. Home we went and the pizza was forgotten by my daughter. Here I am, Mommy dearest who sacrificed being thirsty for hours can’t forget about that pizza that was forgotten. (SMILES)

I am still awake at this time (3:33 AM) because I am observing my son. He is having heavy eye discharge while sleeping and I am worried that he would be hurt opening his eyes in the morning due to that. Earlier, I searched for ways to avoid that hurt and found one; I need a warm water and a cotton balls. Cotton balls are easy to get because it is just in the room a few steps away, but the warm water, I need to go down the stairs (checked the time – 2:50 am … Paranormal Activity). I build up my courage and got some warm water and cotton balls to be use on my son’s eyes in the morning.

The selfish me became selfless for my daughter and the coward me faced my fears for my son. I guess a person becomes SUPER when they become a parent or just having some to love – cared for.