Allergies...

J's teacher sent home instructions for upcoming birthdays (They do half-year B'days for the summer kids). I found this part of the note particularly amusing:

"PLEASE NOTE: We have students with allergies to the following: dariy, eggs, and nuts, keflex."

Keflex... hmm... Not sure what parent would be lacing the cupcakes with antibiotics, BUT thanks for keeping J's safety at the forefront :)

-P

Catching up with photos...

Caraher - # 9 - Shua's basketball game through the Y!

Score!
I love action photos even if they are blurry...
Shua's pinewood derby - he named it Tiger Bolt...since he is a Tiger cubscout.
Shua as a skunk during their musical christmas program (he is in black beside the Dinosaur). Very blurry again, just couldn't get a good photo that day.
The dinosaur and the skunk :)
him at his ultimate favorite spot at school - the tire swing!
The NOT so proud Filipino on Heritage day. I had to force him to wear his barong. He hates wearing anything fancy.
cool 3D glasses dude!
Shua's half bday at school. They all had a good kick with the 3D glasses that came with their books.

Updates and ramblings

We too have been slackers here when it comes to updating our blog. Here's some happenings here lately:

1. My dad is now in L.A. living with my Aunt (his older sis) and Uncle (youngest brother). He flew there on Sunday. He's found a job or should I say my Aunt found a job for him at the hospital where she works. He had his orientation yesterday and I think will begin work today as a kitchen helper. I wish him all the best. He will have to learn how to commute to and fro work since he doesn't drive still but that is just part of getting started.

2. Pat is in Idaho this week and has been warning me about possibilities of going to India sometime this first quarter. I certainly hope he won't but what can you do.

3. Shua is at home today because he is not feeling well. Glad he made it to school yesterday since it was his half bday celebration. They do half bday at his school just so the kids whose bday falls during vacation gets a chance to celebrate it with their teachers and classmates too. He did have fun and enjoyed the "special treatment" for the day. Some pictures will be posted soon.

4. I am suppose to be studying for an exam right now but I am so distracted with the possibility of moving to Washington by this summer. I spent 3 hrs this morning researching the area specially the schools. I've worked so hard to finally get Shua settled to his current school and now has to do the same thing again and with little time to spare. It's just so tough to get in to the Catholic schools here and it seems like it is the same in Washington. I am looking at two possible schools in the area and again the registration already started. Jan - Feb is registration time and as usual they have a "priority list" again....ah I have to go through the same thing again. I am hoping that our parish here is affiliated to one of the parish schools there and hopefully we can qualify to get in. Otherwise we are back to zero - AGAIN! :( As for housing and all those stuff - I have looked into it already but school is my priority right now. If we have to live in an apartment, rv or something for a while I won't mind that as long as I find a good school for the "snot locker"...

5. School is ok so far. Both Shua and I are doing ok. My first exam is due next week and homeworks picked up quite a bit and so I have spending countless hours too on my courseworks lately. I get depressed though when I spend hours on something then Pat "swoops in" and solves the homework in an instant - darn smart guy! I do all of my homework though and just asks his opinion now and then...still in the end I feel so dumb, but oh well as long as I am grasping the lectures - I will be fine.

6. Mama is working on a new project right now so that will keep her busy and distracted. She is pretty lonely without Papa and so I make sure I keep her company. It can be quite tough to do that sometimes since she doesn't stop talking. She repeats her stories over and over and with every repetition comes a new version :). Well, we don't call her "machine gun" for nothing...she's a non stop working machine specially when it comes to talking and she's got volume. The only time she stops talking is or when she has to answer the phone or if our neighbor comes over.

Ok, I should study now.

Belly Dancing...

No, I am not doing or have any interest with doing such but interesting enough my Mom does. She was all excited to tell me about this "thing" that she saw on TV and that she wanted to buy the dvd because it was only $19.99 and that it is the kind of exercise she wants to do. Then, she begun telling me that it is a sort of dance that will help you lose weight and make your waist and hips smaller according to the ladies who are in the video...and followed it with, "you should do that, it will help you lose weight"... hmmm, I guess she is implying that I need to lose weight. I do agree with her but I think I'll skip belly dancing as a weight loss program.

I think I need to get her out of the house so she's not watching too much TV. I come home and she tells me about all the good stuff that they are showing on TV that is suppose to be good for you...and here I thought I have escaped all of this nonsense once Shua has stopped watching TV and now - my Mom is next!

Movies

Pat and I went to see Slumdog Millionaire this weekend and didn't get home til 1AM. It was totally worth seeing because it reminded me about the difficult realities of life. While watching the movie, it somehow brought me back home specially the earlier scenes in the movie. Although I didn't live in that kind of condition, I was very much exposed to it. It was a tough movie to watch but it managed to make us laugh. Pat mentioned that he has come to enjoy the "balywood" dancing. He watches quite a bit of them when he is visiting India.

Pat and I agree that whiney teenagers should go and see the film - perhaps they will quit their whinin' after seeing it. Anyway, that is my take. We have been very spoiled lately and actually got to go out twice in a row. We wait till Shua is in bed then we go out and watch the last show. We too have seen Gran Torino the other week. I like Gran Torino too, never thought I would like a Clint Eastwood film but I did like this one...again he too made me laugh! If you will ask Pat, it is quite a big deal when I laugh this days - because I rarely do! Anyway, I would recommend both films. The best thing about watching is that I get to spend sometime with Pat and it gives us something to talk about other than the usual boring stuff we talk about :)

zoo for nothing...

Since J didn't have school on Monday, I decided to take him and my parents to the zoo. It is my parents first time to visit the Oregon zoo so I thought that would a neat thing to do. Turns out Monday was a free day at the zoo and boy was it busy. It took us a while to get parked but it wasn't that bad. It was also pretty cold at the zoo but I did warn my parents about it so they kind of bundled up. The first ones we've seen were the bears (sleeping/hybernating?), the leopards (sleeping),the eagle from afar since the area was closed, lots of sheep at the barn, and the very few moving animals - the wolves, elks and the bobcat. I liked the wolves - they were in tracking mode when we went there. Their ears were all standing up and they really looked like they were out hunting. So, we roamed around a bit then met up with my friend Helen and her little girl Lola. After that, we all decided to check out the new baby Elephant and that was pretty neat. Then, we headed out to the animals from Africa - boy was that a mistake! What were we thinking - there were no animals that could be seen at all at their exhibit. No zebras, giraffes, hippos and rhinos to our dismay. Then, we wanted to see our "relatives" the primates - again it was closed because it was under construction! Same with the animals from Asia, there were hardly any of them to see. Anyway, at least we did get to see the Polar bears in action and the sea lions. The sea lions were even somewhat smiling, they had a wide grin on their face and you can see their teeth and they too were really swimming close to the glass screen. The kids enjoyed that of course. In the end we realized that maybe, the reason why the zoo was free is because there was hardly any animal out to see. Boy, so much about having a zoo membership when you can't put it to use since there is not much to see. Anyway, important thing is J was entertained enough and my parents did get to see some animals...

Now about my mom. I was a bit surprised as to how she showed little interest to the animals. She's never been to a zoo her entire life and so I thought she would be at least entertained. Plus, she does like animals - heck she's got about 5 dogs and 3 cats. She even attempted to buy a squirrel in the Philippines. She'll keep all of the puppy's whenever one of her dogs gives birth, if we let her. So, I was pretty amazed (hate that word because it is so overused) but that is how I felt anyway. So, when we got home I asked her why she showed little interest at the zoo or the animals and turns out - she just didn't like how it smelled at the zoo... sheesh!

Whirlwind...

I apologize for the lack of word from our end. New year came just like a whirlwind and it sure felt like that too. Last week, Pat pretty much spent most of the week in Idaho and now he is San Jose. Work has been quite a pain for him lately but I won't elaborate too much. I'll leave that for him to share on his own. On my end, I've been preoccupied with my class which started last week as well and of course with teaching and guiding my folks. Believe me, I think I am doing much better with my class than the later. Not sure if you heard but last week our car broke - this is on Monday at 7AM when I was going to take Shua to school. Fortunately, we have great neighbors. My neighbor next door helped me try to jump start the car but the battery was really dead at this point and so she then took me and Shua to school. Then for the rest of the week, we carpooled or more like hitched with our other neighbor whose kids go to the same school as Shua. I could have not asked for a better setup than having to take the bus to and fro to school. We have the car running again this week - Yay! Thanks to Pat of course!

So far, this week seems far less chaotic. I had to pull a late nighter last night to work on my class. I haven't been able to check on it too often last week and so it pilled up. I am enjoying my class so far but it sure can be challenging at times - guess it is more of the distraction that kills me than the class. As for my parents, well I think they are holding up just ok. I know my Dad is frustrated for not having a job yet and so are we too. Pat walked him through the job hunting process during the break and they managed to get an interview out of that but no word yet if he got the job. We were getting a bit frustrated with the lack of motivation to find work but we are doing our best to be patient (not easy but we are trying :) My Mom is ok, she's still busy with her knitting and crochet. I still have to setup something for her so we can post some of her work and see if she can make some money doing that. She did make quite a bit over the holiday but I have been too busy lately to design and teach her the other patterns. I'll post some of her crafts soon.
Shua is doing great, he is undergoing Wii Ski detox as of now but so far he's been very good with going back to his schedule again, not sure about going back to school though. YMCA basketball started this weekend and so that'll keep him active for a while. He too is fascinated with the Madscience club that he goes to every Friday - he is excited with his growing crystal garden. He calls his crystal garden - the land of Narnia :)

Lastly, Thank you all for the wonderful gifts you sent us. It's very much appreciated!