VBS

Today was the first day we made it to Vacation Bible School.  Four of us were sick with the stomach virus.  I am one of the first grade teachers, so it was not a good thing that I missed the first two days.  Each day of VBS the kids learn a lesson.  Monday it was, "No matter what, trust God."  Tuesday was, "No matter how you feel, trust God."  Today was, "No matter what people do, trust God."  They taught that people might do mean things to you, and you need to trust God to take care of you in that situation.  They talked about Judas betraying Jesus, and how Jesus didn't retaliate but trusted God to help Him with the situation.  They told the kids that when they were in a situation where someone was being mean, they could say a prayer or tell their mom or dad, and so forth.

Fast forward to getting home immediately after VBS.  

Marley had to poop.  She wouldn't do it at VBS, so I rushed home and put her on the toilet.  She went and started screaming that she was done.  This is what she normally does.  Someone will go clean her up, pull her pants up, wash her hands, and then she'll say she has to go again.  So when she called me and told me she was done, I waited a bit.  She kept screaming and screaming to the point of upsetting Logan (which isn't hard these days, but that's another blog).  I went in and cleaned her up, pulled her pants up, and then she said she had to go pee.  I put her back on, and she started pooping more.  (sorry to be so graphic about it)  When I wiped her this time, she complained that her bottom was sore.  I told her that if she had just finished the first time, she would've only had to be wiped once, and that I guess she learned a lesson.  She said,"You're being mean to me.  No matter what people do, trust God.  Dear God, please make mommy stop being mean to me.  Amen."

It was hilarious, and I think I scared her because I just started laughing really hard.  She might have thought I'd finally lost it.  She's such a cutie!

Philippines...continued

On the second to last evening, we went to my Kuya Anju's house.  He made us dinner.  My Tito was there.  He looks like the man in the movie Up.  These pics aren't close enough for you to see it well, so just take my word for it.

 On the last day, we went shopping...again.  We were going to get my hair rebonded (straightened).  They use some major chemicals, so they insist that you haven't colored your hair.  I had just colored mine before going on the trip.  I can't stand the gray.  The salon did a strand test with the chemicals for five minutes, and it wasn't pretty.  :(  I don't understand why people with curly hair want it straight and vice versa.  My hair did not like the chemicals.  The salon people said that if I insisted on getting it done, then I would have to sign a waiver.  I didn't want to pay for something that wouldn't turn out how I was hoping, so after much discussion and translation from my cousin, I left the salon without getting anything done.

Since the rebonding was going to take 4-6 hours, we had some time to kill.  Kaelyn and I still had some souvenirs to get.  We shopped.  We ate at Shakey's...more pizza and noodles.  :)  When we had enough of shopping, we decided to get a taste of the Filipino Jeepneys and Tricycles.  I'll get you some pictures of that part, but I don't have them right now.  We went on their metro rail.  I can't remember what it was called.  Mrt?  We got off and took a Jeepney for a little ride.  We got off the Jeepney and took a Tricycle to my cousin's house.  I rode with her daughter, Steff, and my cousin rode with Kaelyn.  It was supposed to be 18 Pesos.  When we got there, the Trike driver told Steff it was 30 Pesos.  Yes, I got ripped off.  We went and got my Kuya Kenneth, and he drove us back to the hotel.  

 This was a Church in the center of some malls.  It's hard to explain.

The chandelier in the shoe dept. of the mall.

 On the Jeepney

While we were walking around the mall, we saw a sign for MacDonald's ice cream.  They were cones with vanilla ice cream dipped in chocolate, Strawberry, or Ube.  The chocolate was a brown coating, the strawberry was hot pink, and the Ube was purple.  Kaelyn wanted to try one, and we were supposed to go through the drive through on the way to the hotel, but everyone forgot.  By the way, MacDonald's in the Philippines is the only MacDonald's that sells spaghetti.  Anyway, we ate dinner with my parents, and Kaelyn asked if we could walk and get one of these cones.  We first considered asking the concierge at the hotel to walk us.  They told us that the closest MacDonald's was right across the street.  We asked if they thought we (my mom, Kaelyn, and I) would be safe walking there.  They looked at us like we had three heads.  And we were off.  We went to the mall next door and to the MacDonald's.  They didn't have the ice cream cones there.  They were down the street at the MRT station.  We decided to try it.  Kaelyn got the Ube purple one with krispies on it.  It looked visually disturbing to me, but you be the judge.  Sorry...it's a little out of focus.

 I'm a bit upset I didn't try one.  Next time, I guess.

Philippines - Tagaytay

We went to see the world's smallest volcano on Monday.  It is the Taal Volcano.  It is in Tagaytay.  It was a beautiful day, so that was good.  It's rainy season in the Philippines now, and all we had that day was a lot of wind.  It was quite a drive to get there, and I'll just say that my Kuya Kenneth is an excellent driver.  :)  

We took some pictures and did some shopping when we get there.  My Ate Bing has this thing for wacky pictures.  You take a couple normal ones, and then she says, "Wacky!" and you pose...well...wacky.  She also has a thing for jump shots.  You jump up and she takes your picture.  Kaelyn got the hang of it pretty quick.

I'm going to roll pics and comment along the way.

 Pineapple Fields

Taal Volcano

It was really blowy

Kaelyn and Steff demonstrating the jump shot.

This guy was walking around carrying an alligator like a baby. 

Ate Bing mentioned that they had a Zipline where we were and asked if we would like to try it.  Kaelyn said she would.  I don't know if you know this, but (whispering) I have a fear of heights.  Kaelyn said she would do it, so I thought about it.  When would I be in a foreign country with a zip line again?  So....

I did it.

We went to the other side where you can get off and walk back or zip line back again.  We zip lined back again, but the guys there had a tip jar.  Kaelyn and I didn't bring any money with us on the zip line, so we told them.  When we started on our way back, the guy pushed my legs so we SWAYED the whole way back.  It was even more terrifying, and I firmly believe that if I ever zip line again, I'll have money to tip.  I don't think that would've happened if I had.

My Kuya Kenneth and Steff went too.  They actually help their arms out.  I made Kaelyn hold my hand.

We went to eat pizza at Yellow Cab, which there is a pizza joint and not an actual Taxi place like it is here.  My mom said she wanted to see what a pineapple looks like on the plant before it's picked.  Here it is folks.  My Kuya Kenneth walked around before we sat to eat and found a field of them right behind the Yellow Cab place.  

Next up was Our Lady of Manaoag.  It's a carving in the side of a mountain.  It was beautiful.

I made a wish here.

This bird is saying, "What's your name?"  It was hilarious!

This sign says, "Slow Down.  Accident Prone Area."  In my opinion, they should've had these signs up EVERYWHERE.

More to come, but for now, this will have to do.  It's 10pm my time, which is 10am my old time, and my body hasn't figured out which it wants to go with yet.  I'm going to bed to help it along.  Special thanks to my Ate Bing, Kuya Kenneth, and Steff for a wonderful day!

Philippine Reunion

It has been interesting here so far.  I feel like I should blog my eating every day because that will tell you how much I'm starving!  I had pizza last night from Pizza Hut.  Every one wanted to know why I came all the way to the Philippines for pizza.  My cousin called from Pizza Hut to say they did not have pepperoni.  That was fine with me because I wanted only cheese.  Then he shows up with a pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut.  I took the pepperoni off because I thought it was a little sketchy to tell me they don't have it and then show up with some.  It was ok, but it didn't taste like our pizza.  I've been surviving on breakfast alone so far.  My parents actually asked the wait staff if we could take some croissants for later.  Luckily they let them, so I have something in case my dinner tonight doesn't go as planned.  

Today was our reunion.  We went to Mass first.  Kaelyn was sick during church, so we sat outside the whole time.  I got eaten alive by mosquitoes.  She was complaining about her stomach hurting.  For your information, she had the pepperoni on the pizza.  Anyway, we left church early and came back to the hotel for her to rest some before the reunion.  She seemed fine and came to breakfast.  Then we were off.

We traveled an hour and a half away to a place called Laguna.  I'm glad they seat me in the back of the van because my Tito Raffe is a CRAZY driver.  I can't even begin to explain what driving here is like, so I'm not going to.  We got to the reunion which was a house that was rented.  It had a pool, picture machine, and karaoke machine.  There were A LOT of people there and only a few I recognized from when I was here in 1990.  My cousin, Ladybird, was there with her family.  They were around Kaelyn's age.  My other cousin, Kenneth, was there with his two kids also Kaelyn's age.  They all went swimming for most of the time we were there.  

We were there from 1130a-630p.  We're back at the hotel and trying to get something for dinner.  I've ordered plain pasta.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.  It's about 730p our time, which is 730a your time.  Happy Father's Day to Kevin!!!!  Here are some pictures.  I don't have many because I was in a lot of the pictures, but my cousins will be emailing me all theirs which I will share with you.  

 My cousins Ladybird, my cousin's friend, Ronald in the middle, and my other cousin, Anju on the right.

 This is my cousin's daughter, Stephanie, Kaelyn, cousin's son, Jerome, and his sister, Jaime.

So you can barely see this one, and I'm not going to name everyone.  Could I just point out that I felt really tall in this group?  Considering I'm probably going to be the shortest in my family when all the kids are grown, I got a little "lift" from being one of the tallest there.  Get it?!

My dad is in the front row sitting next to his sister.  They are the only ones left out of 9 kids.

Her name is Amanda, but we call her Manding.  I call her Tita Manding.  We joked around a lot today, and it was nice getting to spend some time with her.  She's a picky eater like me.  :)


My food it here now, so I'm going to go eat.  The noodles are plain!  Yay!

Philippines so far....

Do you guys feel special?  I'm blogging from the PHILIPPINES!  I thought I would check in and let you know how our trip here went.  It started off rocky.  My parents got put into on security line while the people told us to go to a completely different one where there was no line.  We ended up at the gate before my parents because they were actually waiting for us.  This did not go over well with my father.  *shocker*  We got on the plane and were delayed on the runway for about 45 minutes due to a mechanical problem.  They fixed it, and we were off.  For the next 14 hours, we flew from Dulles to Tokyo.  We went up to Canada, over Alaska, and into Asia.  I don't know why we didn't go in a straight line, but that's why I'm not a pilot.  :)

The place was AWESOME as far as entertainment went.  They have screens on the back of all the chairs, so we got our pick of movies, TV shows, audio books, the works.  I watched The Vow and Before Sunrise.  One I had seen, the other I hadn't.  I read my Kindle a lot too.  I told Kaelyn we had to stay up the whole flight because we were getting into the Philippines at 9p their time.  Then we could go to bed and be on their time which is 12 hours ahead of us...in case you're wondering.  They served a meal of beef, chicken, or vegetable stir-fry.  I don't know what I was thinking, but I got the vegetable stir fry.  I should've gotten the chicken.  :( 

We got into Tokyo and were delayed again.  This time for about 20 minutes.  I did NOT care for the flight from Tokyo.  The soda tasted weird.  Their meal option was Korean or Japanese.  One was noodles, the other was some sort of seafood something that had eyes looking back at you.  BLAH!

We got to the hotel, and my parents ordered food because we hadn't eaten.  I didn't really like anything, so I had a roll.  They had a butter dish with some packaged and some out on the plate.  I remember thinking, while I was spreading the butter, that it was really soft, but I thought it was because our room was so hot.  The AC isn't working too well in it.  Anyway, it took me two bites to figure out I didn't like the butter.  Do you know why?  It wasn't butter!  It was MAYONNAISE!  Ugh!  Can you imagine?!?!  Anyone who knows me and my dislike of all condiments not Soy Sauce knows that this was a truly terrible experience for me.  I downed the rest of my soda and went and brushed my teeth.  I'm mentally wounded from this, and I honestly don't think I'll ever get over it.  That's how much I HATE mayonnaise.  

Well, it's 830a here (meaning 830p you time).  We're about to get breakfast.  It's sunny and hot outside.  I don't know if we're getting out of the hotel today.  My dad has relatives coming for lunch and dinner.  Take care and I'll try to keep this blog up with happenings.

O Canada!

So I'm finally getting around to my post about my Canada trip.  I know you all were on the edges of your seats waiting, so without further ado....CANADA.

 This is my godson, Dayce.  That's my iPhone he has in his hand because...he had never played Temple Run.  It's true.  My sister had never heard of it and didn't have it on her list of games on her blackberry tablet.  Isn't he adorable?  It was his birthday while we were there, but we celebrated it on the day I got there instead because his other grandparents had to leave early.  

 Here is his Angry Birds cake.  My sister was dreading making one, but her Canadian sister (as she likes to call her) looked at some pictures and figurines and made this one for him...nut free so his brother could have some.  :)

 This is her eldest son, Dale.  I became his Confirmation Sponsor and got to witness his First Communion.  Don't ask about the boots.  They were his dad's.  'Nuff said.

 See? Dale's turn with my iPhone and Temple Run.  By the time I left, Dale's score was in the 300,000!  He didn't even get to play it that much.

 My sister and her youngest, my newest godson, Drake.  What a great picture!  Just so you know, he wouldn't look at me and kept turning his head.  My sister turned around real fast and I snapped it.  Bellissimo!

 This is some song that my dad has on his iTunes.  Apparently Dayce knows it very well.  Can you hear him singing it?  SO CUTE!  And...Ahem...he's playing Temple Run.  

It was a great trip and too short.  My sister and then are driving here for a visit this summer.  I don't know how they do it.  It'll take four days.  Then we're off to the beach together because we love torture!  :)  Just kidding (kind of).  It's going to be the six of us and her and the three boys for a week in a 2 bedroom cottage.  We're a little crazy.  That's how we roll.