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.

Graduation Day

Kaelyn graduated high school today.  Let me repeat that...Kaelyn GRADUATED high school today.  It was exciting, scary, happy, sad, joyful, leveling, surreal...I could go on and on.  I never really listened to people who said, "It goes so fast."  I get it because Marley is now three, and it feels like she was just born. (I'm sure the fact that I've been lazy enough to get my post pregnancy body back without the baby isn't helping)  I'm excited and apprehensive to college.  Part of me feels like it's going to be just like high school, but the other part of me is wondering if I might be in for a rude awakening.  Regardless, here are pictures of today.  I meant to use my video camera for the walk across the stage, but an unnapped Marley had me running on fumes, and I forgot.

Hi.  My name is Nora, and I have a high school graduate.  :)

 

Quick Takes for Wednesday

• Trying to put my hair up in a towel after a shower is painful.  I have to lift it over my healing right ear while water drips down to places I've already dried.  It is a HUGE pet peeve...I liken it to Chinese water torture.  
•  While loading into the car on Sunday for Church, Rory told Kevin that she had something stuck on her finger.  It was the handle to a jump rope with no rope in it.  It was on there pretty good, so Kevin took her back inside the house while I buckled Marley up.  We were waiting a while, so I went to check on things.  Kevin was in the kitchen cutting the jump rope handle (still on Rory's finger) with a bread knife.  After a while longer, I unloaded every one from the car, and Kevin and Rory headed to Urgent Care.  They waited for 45 minutes before being seen by the doc who proceeded to tell Kevin he was going to numb her finger and pull it off.  As he was explaining where he was going to inject the needle, Rory started freaking out.  In her fear and adrenaline she pulled the darn thing off herself...and we still have to pay for it.  *sigh*
• Last night was my first night back at the gym.  I did an hour Zumba class.  It went well, but my neck was sore afterwards.  I went back for my Tae-Bo class today.  I talked to the instructor about doing the class, and she told me not to.  :(  I was sad, but when I thought about it, it made sense.  There's a lot of head turning and neck muscles needed.
• The dentist confirmed today that Logan needs a root canal before his trip to the O.R. to do his teeth.  They're trying to fit us in and has him on an emergency, priority wait list.  Prayers are greatly appreciated. 

My Life in Instagram

My friend told me about this new app called Instagram.  If you haven't heard of it, download and play.  Once you take a picture, the app gives you options to enhance it.  Sometimes this is focusing on one thing in the picture and blurring everything else or changing it to black and white.  Here is a little gallery show titled, "My Life in Instagram."  I hope you like it.