where the moon shines

I have so many photos to edit, and to share, and many stories I’d like to tell. There’s also the boyfriend’s blog that also needs updating. My Photo blog, and the new photography blog that I haven’t even started cooking up. Yet today, I’ll sidetrack all of those projects to post about FERC.

It would be best if you viewed the videos prepared by its members, because they own this story, and they are sharing it with everyone. Once upon a time, we were part of this congregation too, since we attended Church there while we lived in Fairview. My parents still sometimes go out there.

I share this with you today too because they’re story is so inspiring. It is a story of how a Church is a community of people. And how no Church can stand without the support of its people. That seems to be the story of our Church, The Episcopal Church in the Philippines.

Many of the faces you see in the videos are our friends and relatives. A lot of them I grew up playing with, or calling auntie or uncle.

Where am I in all these?

I still don’t know.

After walking to McDonald’s to meet up for brunch with the boyfriend, we walked to Hi-Top a block over to buy dog food and some brown sugar. I felt like making chocolate chip cookies and though I didn’t look at the recipe I wanted to try, I knew I’d be needing brown sugar.

On the way to the grocery, I saw that the House of Praise was already open. Though I was across the street from the open doorway, I saw the rack of Kids Praise and I was drawn to it.

We went in, then out five minutes later with this:

As a kid, I grew up listening to and singing along with Psalty. How many albums were there? I forgot. But we must have had all of them! Everyone at Sunday School knew the songs and we’d often perform them in the annual shows we’d mount.

I must admit, I still could not help but remember my Aunt when I started listening to this album, but that need not mean sad thoughts.

One of the dreams I’ve had, or one of the things I listed as stuff I’d rather do, may soon start to happen.

I intend to start teaching my nieces and nephews the songs in this album, and if they want to, we’ll mount a mini performance for friends and family. What a wonderful way to learn about Jesus, and cultivate their talents right?  Today our kids, tomorrow Sunday School. Haha.

And what a coincidence too. While I was baking cookies today, I heard the kids singing outside. And they weren’t singing their usual picks – Love Story, Jai Ho, etc – they were singing tunes they learned from Vacation Bible School. Yay!

So I can’t wait til we can start doing this, but I’ve got to map it out first, have some sort of schedule. I hope they’d buy into this, the big girls too.

I am doing something I don’t think I’ve ever done anything before. I am asking for donations.

But it isn’t for any cause or charity. It is something that will benefit me, and well, you too. Wouldn’t you like to see me post even better photos?

Well the gang at JessicaSprague.Com is celebrating their second anniversary in DigiLand.  And one of the surprises announced today is a special summer offering of one of their online classes that I’d been anticipating:Candice Stringham’s Oh Shoot! Beginning Digital SLR Photography class.  I’ve wanted to sign up for this class since I saw it on their store, but I just couldn’t justify the costs. But now… I really really want this.  There are other classes available here that I can physically attend, and would cost a little less (though with transpo and food expense, maybe it will cost more after all). But if you read her class description, you’d understand why I want to sign up.

The thing is, the registration will open in a few days and I only have about 70 USD in my Paypal account, and the class costs 126 USD. So what I’m asking is — could you help me make up the difference? Please? I don’t know if anyone will actually donate, but it wouldn’t hurt me to try would it? Click on the button to donate! And don’t forget to leave a note so I can thank you properly

*The Paypal website seems to be having problems. If so and the button above doesn’t work, please try to send your donations to verabear (at) msn.com. Thanks again!

Ohhh… I almost forgot about posting pictures! I decided to join in for a picture meme called You Capture:

This week’s theme is SUMMER.

It’s my favorite time of year.

First off – our beach side photo from Baler. My niece Hannah snapped this for us at around 8 in the morning.

Later that morning, we hopped on a tricycle, just the boyfriend and I and we were taken to this wonderful place. The water was so cold! A welcome respite to the heat of summer.  This is about 45 minutes away from the beach.

This boy was with us in the trip. He’s the son of one of my childhood friends! Isn’t he cute? He loved swimming in the kiddie pool at the resort!

Summers are the perfect reason for team outings. And what are summers if not for goofing around?

The boyfriend and my nephew Esban are perfect companions for outings like this!

Every summer we realize how fearless E becomes when in the water. Because he knows how to swim now, he wasn’t afraid of tackling the slide! Alfred was waiting to catch him of course. Hehe

And here’s one more photo from Summer of 2009:

Happy birthday Ma! (today’s her birthday!)

Go visit the other participants to You Capture:  Summer

If you’ve been following my Tweets, or my Plurks (see the widget on my sidebar), you know that I’ve been pretty much under the weather. Okay – a lot under the weather.  And today, well, the visit I’d been anticipating (read my second and third posts down) has already arrived. So there are two things causing my body aches and pains – acute upper respiratory tract infection (it’s not the flu, doc says) and menstruation. Ugh.

So after the doctor’s visit yesterday morning, I walked home. Good thing there was only a drizzle, so my teensy little umbrella gave me enough coverage. I arrived home and found my brother cooking lunch. I had thought he’d have gone by then, but his plans changed apparently. He was cooking an all-time favorite – Chicken Cola. The weather was perfect for having tinola but we didn’t have ingredients for it so kuya opted to make this other comfort food.

Yes, I consider Chicken Cola as one of my comfort foods. We all love it here. Perhaps not because of its sweetness, but because of it brings us back to our childhood. At least it does that to me. No, I don’t have images from the past going through my mind when I eat it, but the feeling is there. The simplicity of life, and the love of family. So when I don’t feel well, chicken cola can help pick me up.

This photo does not do chicken cola any justice. I’m guessing my brother didn’t add enough ketchup to make it redder. It looks quite pale doesn’t it?

Anyway, another comfort food I had yesterday was banana with cheese spread. Ahh. Simple pleasures.  Who does not love cheese or cheese spreads? I mean even dogs love them right? And we’ve had Cheese Whiz on bananas since we were kids. I never get tired of it.

I realize now that the photo has some R-18 likeness to it, sorry that was never intended. Haha.

Eating gave me a temporary comfort, but the headache still came in the evening, causing me to miss out on AJ boy’s birthday dinner. I had all intentions to take photos of his well-wishers, his cake, and all his cuteness. But I slept through it.

I do have a photo of this sweet little boy from earlier that afternoon:

Mom decided to brave EDSA and drive herself to pick up Dad from the airport this morning.  I decided to go with her, I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy drive. She only drives from home to work (and back), and that’s not even daily – only when Dad’s away and the car’s free.  

From the passenger seat and with the belt safely on, I could sense that Ma was somehow nervous and of course we were going at a very safe speed  

So with Dad back from his business trip from The Netherlands, there’s something for everyone in his bags.  He got me a violet Ruth-Robin bag with Amsterdam written all over it, and I picked out this cellphone charm from the handful that he brought back:

Of course I’d take a photo of it and display it on my blog – this is my blog after all and I can talk about the mundane if I want to  But as soon as I looked at the photo I took, I wasn’t happy.  And just as I’ve done so many times since January, I took shot after shot until I captured it the way I really liked to show it off. 

I tried it this way:

But that didn’t make me happy so I tried another angle:

I didn’t like the edge of the table there though. I did like how the charm itself looks so defined.  Still, I wasn’t satisfied so I tried another way:

Now that, in my eyes, was promising.  It was clear.  But the mini havs totally upstaged the Amsterdam building.  That cannot be. 

So try again I did:

That one’s close enough, me likey.  I am almost done then?

Even with the floor showing through, this is my favorite from the bunch.  I love h0w the colors came out. I used a trick that Walter (an OM from work) showed me last week, it was using the internal flash (is it called internal?).  The colors turned out softer and more natural than when you just use the flash like normal diba?