Kids

More on catching up

I am cleaning up my Digital Scrapbooking Links and it is taking so long to go through the list.   I realize that I have missed out on a lot of news from blogs that I used to visit at least twice a week.  It’s nice getting re-acquainted though.  It’s also very inspiring to look at all the lovely layouts showcased in many of those blogs.  And of course, i’m happy to see all the freebies available 🙂

One particular designer blogger I was glad to have visited again is Vicki.  She now sells at a new store with some of her friends, and that is amazing.  One ad from her blog caught my attention, it was for Photobook Philippines! I checked out their website and things look promising.  Kodak stations and Digiprint offer printing for photobooks and albums but if you choose bound ones, I don’t know if the photos will line up for two-page layouts (not that I have those).  Photobook Philippines has a software that will probably help you figure that out.  I don’t intend to have a book printed anytime soon, I don’t have enough layouts for that, but it’s nice to know what my options are.

OOohhh and looking at the various digiscrapping blogs have got me to thinking that I probably should be using templates more.  Just a thought.

I still have a lot of mail to catch up on, but I’ve decided to stick it out with cleaning one particular mailbox for now.  I have two email accounts that receive shares through sharing groups and I don’t get to see to them everyday.  There are so many lovely graphics sent through them and it’s such a waste because I don’t get to see them right away.  I probably should think about delisting from either one or both of those groups…


 

I’ve also tried to catch up posting Project 365 photos on DigitalMe.  I’m still far from being caught up, but I know I must do this otherwise I will just forget why I took those photos or what they represented to me at the time.  I wonder if I’ll ever scrap pages for those? Hah, I don’t want to say I’ll find time, that somehow jinxes things for me.  Anyway, here are the photos I’ve added to the gallery:

    

You’ll see a photo of my big brother (who could be an Ely Buendia or John Lloyd look-alike depending on the angle haha), taken on January 16 at the entrance of San Benissa Garden Villas.  We visited the site of our condo units to sign our contracts for the unit improvements.  He and his girlfriend were actually back there yesterday to submit the signed contract for the property management office to take care of renting out our units to interested parties.  I hope they find renters soon.  That would definitely ease a bit of my financial woes.

There’s also the photo of my nephews and niece from my father’s side of the family (the other half of my family that hardly gets mentioned on this blog).  The only girl in the photo is the beautiful Samantha or Sam as she is fondly called.  She is so sweet, but also a handful! The whole time during the wedding ceremony, she couldn’t keep still. So endearing really. 🙂  Bench is the big boy here and he’s the same age as Sam.  He talks a lot too and together, they can be a tough pair to care for.  I have not seen these kids in a long time and it was good that they were there on my cousin Bryan’s weddin on the 15th of January.  The baby in the stroller is Bryan’s little boy. He was christened right after the wedding ceremony.  I don’t think I wrote a post about the wedding did I?  Honestly, I think I kept myself from writing about it at the time, because I didn’t want to say anything nasty.  But until now I can’t help it.  I didn’t like the bridesmaid dresses! Haha. It was in bright green satin, a material that should never be used for such a purpose.  I’m sorry, I really just don’t think it flattered anyone. The motif was green and yellow/gold.  To be honest, the green and yellow combination in the linens and decor used in the reception turned out better than the bridesmaid gowns did.   The bride was lovely though, no contest with that.  And the wedding reception was held in a nice cozy place.  Food was excellent too.  Too bad we didn’t get to chat with my cousin (who is actually US based and only came home for the wedding) and his mom since we had to drive home already.  We had to sleep soon since there was work in the evening.

The odd photo in the group is my March desktop.  Both photos used here are ones that have me and my brother together.  We’re six years apart.  If you look at us now, you wouldn’t notice that age gap.  Oh and I have to say this, I love that cute dress I had on in the bottom photo.  My Lola Maggie (grandma) did that.  She made us (me and my cousins) many lovely dresses while we were growing up, and she made some for my eldest nieces too when they were very small.  I wonder if we have pictures of those? I hope so.  They looked like dolls in vintage dresses. Seriously. Hehe 🙂

The last P365 photo is a very bad photo of my leg, to show off my ballet flats that I always wear to work.  To be honest, I forgot to snap a photo for that day, January 17th, so I took a photo of the first thing I could think of. Hehe.

Anyway, I have a magazine to read and a letter to the editor to compose (haha).  I really should go to bed instead, but it’s so darn hot!

UPDATE: I just remembered something that I tried catching up on today – Les Miserables, the book.  Oh my god, I forgot exactly when I started reading this but I know I’ve finished at least two books since. And I don’t like doing that, picking up other books while I’m in the middle of another, which is why my to-be-read pile is just growing in number.  It’s just that Les Miz is quite draining to read, with all the history and study of that time’s Paris society.  And all that talk about the gamin of Paris is a reminder of the street children of Metro Manila at present day.  And all the injustice in their prisons? Don’t those still exist today in prisons the world over?  That’s sad.  All I knew about Les Miz was a romanticized version of it I guess, and I wasn’t prepared to read all about the history of France or a study of it’s society.  But it is a wonderful piece of literature, and I will finish the rest of the book someday. Haha 🙂

Remembering Sharpay

Because I was trying to listen to Eat, Love, Pray, I could not concentrate on anything much except mindlessly browse through blogs and other websites. I was trying to scrap a page about photos I took on January 11, but I didn’t get anywhere. Now I figure that the inspiration for a layout would come after I tell the story behind the photo/s.

january11

It’s been over a month since I took this photo but I can still remember being surprised that morning when I arrived home to see these flowers here. This is right outside our home, by the street side. When Sharpay (my nephew’s 2-month old puppy Shih-Tzu) died on New Year’s Day, there was a much tearful funeral and the kids gathered round to bury her here in this piece of land right outside our home. I guess putting flowers right there was the kids’ way of saying that they remember her – specially because she was so affectionate when she was around (not to mention that she bit three of them in her short life!). I thought it was sweet that they remembered her and finding these flowers probably required a bit of effort – we don’t have a lot of flowering plants around here. 

Some time later, coming home from work, I saw my niece Hannah, with nephews Esban and Adam hanging around this spot. They were putting flowers there again, and sort of cleaning up that slab of concrete. Sweet.

On other news…

Two people are going to split the lotto pot that was elusive since December 2008. The draw last night will eventually change the lives of two people and their families. That’s a whopping 340 million pesos that they will be sharing, at 48 pesos to a dollar, see how much money that is? My dad got two tickets, but we only got three numbers at most. Only enough to get back the money he paid for the tickets. Haha.

Alfred and I were talking about how we would spend the money, had we won. 

We have to secure our future financial freedom of course by investing, or going in to our own respective business ventures. I’d start with investing in a really sturdy and big oven, plus baking courses. We would travel the Philippines and the world – Europe tour, Asian tour, visit Australia and NZ, and then go on a US tour as well. Alfred isn’t too keen on a US tour but there are so many beautiful places to see there, and if we’ve got the money anyway, why not go visit? I mean I’ve read so much about families enjoying Disney World, and having a blast at Vegas vacations, and even my parents have treasured their trips there. I also have relatives there that I would love to visit. Like I said, if you can pay for it, why not go?

We’d also give to charity, of course. And help out the rest of our families. 

But all that is a dream.

Dad’s guests

I tried posting this via email, also to test if that feature really works. But I’ve waited more than 30 minutes and no new post has arrived.

Anyway, here’s a (bad) photo of Dad with his birthday guests.:

 The kid up front, and the on the right-most are neighbors’ kids. The one on the left with the cutest smile is AJ, Esban’s right in front of dad, and then the remaining one is Adam. Cute boys, always up to no good. Haha. 🙂

Can you identify Zune at the back, behind his gate? He was jealous like crazy.

Anyway, did you see the Annular Solar Eclipse this afternoon? I didn’t. It could have been a good activity with the kids. Oh well. 

Aside from Chinese New Year coinciding with dad’s birthday this year, I should mention that Daddy Abueva, or National Artist Napoloen Abueva, is also celebrating his birthday today. Happy Birthday Sir! 🙂

Project 365 – Day 1

I have decided to jump in and do my own Project 365: A Photo for Each Day. Who knows, this might even spark 365 layouts for this year. Or not. 🙂
Here’s my first photo, taken January 1st:

Those are hoops that are part of a set, the missing part is the pole. It’s a toy that teaches kids to aim accurately. These hoops gave us hours of fun during our Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations. We made a contest out of how many hoops we can successfully land on the pole. I think that the most one person got that night was five out of eight. Everyone enjoyed playing – the kids did well, and the adults had fun too!
Because I was game master at Christmas, I didn’t really get to try this out. Come New Year’s Day, I seized the chance to try my hand at it. I didn’t do to well, haha! Just one out of eight!
That’s what really makes our Christmases and New Years fun, just hanging out with each other and playing all sorts of games for the kids. I don’t remember when this started; we used to just eat, open gifts, and do our own thing. But this new tradition is way more fun of course.
I heard that they played a new game on New Year’s Eve. It was something that 8 year-old Adam came up with, using something that he got for Christmas. I don’t know what it was, I’ll ask around and find pictures.

This post reposted from my blogger blog.

Happy Somebang Christmas!

Merry Christmas! 🙂

Christmas in the Somebang Compound was very simple this year, but also very happy. Who can help being happy when there are kids around?

When I was little, we would sleep on the afternoon of the 24th so we could stay late for Christmas Eve. Papa used to dress up as Santa when it was time to hand us our gifts. There was a time that Lola dressed up as Santa too. Last night, it was my turn again to call out the names and hand over the gifts. No, I wasn’t wearing a Santa suit, but I was wearing a red shirt. Haha 🙂

The food table last night wasn’t as filled as Christmas 2007’s table was. But it was good food, and everyone had their fill. There were still some leftovers by the time the party was over.

The kids had a blast with the games we had all night long. As usual, I was game master, with help from cousin Ton. Apart from the games, they also enjoyed singing – even AJ was trying to hog one of the Magic Sing mics! 🙂

We brought down the TV from my parent’s room, and my brother also setup our stereo with the speakers, so we can have Magic Sing fun.  Like in previous years, we spent hours singing along! As a Christmas gift to my parents, I gave dad funds to buy a chip for additional  songs for the Magic Sing yesterday. They had been wanting to buy one soon after they got it, Christmas was a good time as any. It was perfectly timed because the songs that everyone wanted to sing were mostly found in that new chip. Although Adam (8) was quite disappointed that Evenascence’s Bring Me to Life was not on the list. 

In reality, the cash donations for the prices wasn’t huge,  I just had most of it changed to 5 peso coins so we could enjoy them longer. That was a great idea! 

Near the end of the evening, I was complaining because I did not get anything – having been the one facilitating the games and not joining any. At that point we passed along a cup for everyone to chip in for a raffle. We put everyone’s names and one lucky person would take home the pot. The donations came in coins, so there wasn’t much, but it was the spirit that more important. 

On the first draw, we found out that not everyone’s names were entered. Butchik would have one but we had to redo the whole thing. Guess who one eventually? I did! Hahaha. All 140 pesos of it was mine! Hehe. 

The last draw was strictly for the 8 kids. The funds were from Esban’s dad, who had won 300 USD from a raffle at a Christmas party. We had been teasing him all night to give away 10% of his cash. He gave away only 300 pesos though, hehe. I added a few more to the pot so all the kids would have a price, rather than just three. 3 received 10 pesos each, 2 got 20 pesos each, and three more received 100 pesos each. Again, that doesn’t sound much, but it shouldn’t take much to keep everyone happy 🙂

It was a great family night that ended at 5am for me. I am going to miss this on New Year’s Eve.

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