Finally, all 6 boxes full of  presents were picked up by a cargo forwarding company managed by a friend.  One box will be by air cargo which will take about a week and the rest will by sea cargo- expected approximately 45 days to be in transit.  I am pretty sure it will be worth the wait for my relatives , because all their Christmas presents are there.  Actually, I wasn’t able to send it on time because we were caught up in the Christmas rush and were busy attending gatherings and so I thought of sending them after the holidays.

Aside from shopping,  labeling and preparing the boxes was also tedious .  It gave my husband some sort of back pain just wrapping the whole box with package tape.    We used to do it that way to protect everything inside against water damage and to make it sturdy and durable.   Masking the box will help survive the impact of being hurled into container vans and also protection from mishandling which oftentimes cause boxes to rip apart.

So, I hope they will come to like our presents… t-shirts, shoes, soaps, lotions, and all sorts of knick-knacks.  Now, that it had been picked up,  my storage room is now devoid of clutter but  soon , I will be saving things again for the next Christmas season.

That’s our life as overseas worker, we work, we earn and we share our blessings to loved ones back one!  Good deed, isn’t it?

My cousin Suzy and her family have every reason to celebrate as Year 2011 ushered in.  I was told that my nieces surprised their parents with Certificates of Math Excellence which was awarded to them few days before the school closes for the Holiday season. The girls handed it to them, thought to be  the  best Christmas gift they can give their parents who were for the longest time suffered anxiety attack because both girls were “math phobics” and in dire need for Math Homework Help. “

A mother will always be to the rescue! .  My cousin was desperate and frustrated over the seemingly crippling Math fear of her daughters that she sought the help of a friend.  To tide them over of their ordeal, Suzy enrolled them without any hesitation to a highly recommended online tutoring company named Tutor Vista; proved to be of great assistance to  countless of students who are in need of Geometry, Statistics and Calculus help.

To Suzy’s family, the company was heaven sent because it was amazing,  for only few weeks of tutoring, my nieces had reaped all A’s  especially in their Algebra 2 subject. Well,  the Certificates of  Math Excellence awarded to them are affirmation of how effective on line tutoring is.

The wonder of tutorials…  Time to celebrate, indeed!

My kin loves chocolates!  I used to often send them these sugary- laden candies as a treat because I knew well they are sweet toothed and I want to make them happy!  However, this well meaning gesture of mine seemed to have added to the chocolate addiction of my relatives and I was bothered for quite sometime because my brother sent me an e-mail asking me to buy him a blood glucose monitoring apparatus  because lately he was suspected to have diabetes.

As I have done my research,  these are the different myths about the cause of diabetes:

• Eating sweets or the wrong kind of food does not cause diabetes. However, it may cause obesity and this is associated with people developing Type 2 diabetes.

Stress does not cause diabetes, although it may be a trigger for the body turning on itself as in the case of Type 1 diabetes. It does, however, make the symptoms worse for those who already have diabetes.

Diabetes is not contagious. Someone with diabetes cannot pass it on to anyone else.

I wonder if there is any truth about the presumption that if you urinate on the ground and ants are attracted to the spot because of the sugar in your urine, then you have diabetes.   They say that diabetes is hereditary but I have not come across any of my relatives to have this kind of problem.  So, maybe my brother is only over acting and thought he had acquired the disease because of some symptoms he might have thought to be diabetes.

To be sure, I bought a glucose monitoring apparatus and box of  glucose strips so he will be able to check if there is really a need to worry.  Since they still believe that sweets are the culprit for diabetes, I will just go easy in  sending them chocolates so I will not be getting the weight of the blame just in case.

I will just keep these yummy chocolates at bay till they have the cravings again and the diabetes scare is gone!.

We  received numerous invitations for Christmas get together and it started as early as the first week of December and it seems  that every weekends we will be out socializing with friends. 

In preparation, I tag along with me my daughter on a salon appointment.  It was a long day, we stayed for almost 8 hours because, we seized that rare opportunity of having that much needed make over.  Both of us had our hair cut, hair colored, hot oil, foot spa with manicure, eyebrow threading for my daughter.  Whew!  It was a relaxing day!    We came out of the beauty shop with hope that our impatient Papa will be impressed.   He did not say anything, affirmation that he loved our looks.  If not, for sure he will really comment on it.  Or maybe he was busy  mind calculating on how much we spent for that 8 hours stay inside.  He should not worry about the bills because I paid for it! 

We are ready to party!

What would you expect?  This holiday season, everybody seemed to be in a rush and in a shopping frenzy.  Shopping is done left and right… invitations for parties, exchange gifts, gift giving, food galore are all part of this Holiday season!  Although shopping really excites us no end but shopping for oneself is different from shopping for another person.  If you are going to buy a gift for a friend, there is much thought put into it like you have to carefully consider the receiver’s personality, likes, lifestyle.   But  first and foremost is to consider your budget. 

 Just a wishful thinking-  how simple and meaningful it would be if we could  just blow kisses into a box and wrap it.  Also gifts can be in a form of good deeds- a hug and a kiss, opening a door for an elderly, baby sitting for a neighbor, visiting the sick, giving love and cheers to those who are in prison , in the home for the aged.  Simple things count a lot.  But let us face it, we can no longer get away or others are unwilling to do away entirely with the gift giving tradition. 

Gift giving dated back in our ancient times but during those days gifts, were simple and non-materialistic.   But  gift giving  was no doubt transformed into a modern Christmas celebration with too much commercialism.  There is no disputing that Christmas giving has become a very big, brisk business because there is no stopping people from shopping to give away gifts.  It became a tradition.  Somehow it became a ” SEASON TO BUY”.   To most it brings happiness but disappointments to those who can afford very little.   Our culture changes but the spirit of Chrismas and the giving associated with it, is affected by the modern consumer culture in which we live. 

Well, we all have different viewpoints here.  Actually it is our choice…. let us not overspend…. let us not be a millionaire for a day.  While it is true that it is better to give than to receive,  however, let us buy gifts that is within our means.

I love giving and receiving gifts…

Another casualty in the family!  My son alarmed us no end when in the middle of the night, he woke us up complaining of non-stop vomiting, loose stools and headaches and was already having numbness in his arms.  I know that was something that need to be dealth with professionally and so we brought him to the Emergency Room of a nearby hospital.  He was given IV fluids as replenishment and laboratory tests were done stat (at once).  And the result was mild case of food poisoning.  We traced back what he ate the night before and we really suspected that it wast the fish balls that my husband bought from a Filipino store which he cooked and shared with my son.  Time and again I have been reminding my husband to minimize buying frozen foods and to always check labels.  And the unfortunate incident happened. 

The attending ER physician told us my son is for confinement, however we signed a waiver for ”against medical advice” because we opted to take him home with prescribed meds.  I believe I can take care of him while at home since they wanted him to be confined only for observation.  I guess, I wanted to rely on my self as someone who can give him the best motherly love and care.  

The main reason was, it was a month ago when my son was already deleted from the list of my husbands dependents eligible for medical insurance.  And no medical insurance will mean jacked up hospital bills!   It was too hard to decide that time knowing that room rates per day would surely drain our pockets.  So, having medical insurance counts a lot! 

With God’s grace, my son healed and recovered fast!  And it was because of patience, TLC (Tender Loving Care) only a mom can give!

We were privileged to have a 10 days Haj holidays so we thought that the house needs to be cleaned to make wise use of our idle time.   We’re almost halfway packing the boxes and are ready to be shipped anytime this week but I know it will be past Christmas time they might receive the cargo.   Anyways, it will be worth the wait!

Excitedly, I woke up early today and started my project clean-up but the problem with me is, I always find that once I’ve started to clean, I won’t stop until I’m done.  Oftentimes, I will be engrossed in de-cluttering the room that I tend not to mind other members of the family because I am all set in finishing the work that I have started.   I will just give detailed instructions to my children and they will carry on.

I am proud to tell that my children were taught early the importance of helping out with chores at home.   We made them learn how to do the dishes, make their beds, set and clear the table and do simple house cleaning.   We do it on rotation basis and so far, till today, they are doing their chores without being reminded or bribed which sometimes most parents do.  They have learned their responsibilities and that started at home so now that all 3 of them are living together in a condominium by themselves, we never worry because we have already taught them  basic life skills which they are now putting into good practice.  We have instilled into their minds the importance of learning to help out , team play and the pride in every work accomplished.

I always work with attitude….  Doing chores with music makes the time goes by fast and before you know it, you are almost done with work.  I never see it  as drudgery so as not to give wrong signals to my children and they might pick that attitude and carry it on with them.   They too learned the art of working with a smile, sorrounded by music.  Every heavy work becomes light because we are happy doing it.   That’s attitude!

So, let us adapt the “let’s whistle while we work attitude”.  It works!

It is on the plannning board now!  The plan for an Asian trip will be mid year 2011 but booking should be done earlier to avail of the promo fares which are 50% off.    However, yesterday when I tried to arrange  for June or July flight,  all promos were already fully booked.   HOwever, I am still hoping that we can chance upon a good date so I am checking CEB site from time to time.

We are planning to go to Singapore, it will be a group tour again just like what we did last December 2009 when we went to Hongkong.  We were 15 in a group and we had a good time!   My children (and relatives too) are looking forward to the planned trip and hopefully I can already have the early booking confirmed.

This time it will be a Singapore tour, actually our second time in the city and first time visit of my Mom, siblings , nieces and nephews.  I know that they will find the city interesting as much as they enjoyed our Hongkong trip last December.   The Universal Studios is a big come-on and for sure they are going to enjoy the many rides and attractions it offers.   I will also arrange for Malaysian tour while in Singapore.  It can be travelled by land and I would love to try again the steep cable car ride to reach Genting highlands.

I hope all  of these plans will materialize.   It is a family bonding time we hope to do yearly… we want to  go on group trip while we still have the means to do it, while we have a job good enough to support our trip and while my husband and I are not still afflicted with arthritis and rheumatism.

Anyways, we make sure that even our extended families will enjoy the many blessings we are receiving by sharing it to them in many ways like  including them in our tour plans.

Yeheyy… I know that they are smiling from ear to ear because of the free trip.  Oh well….



The image of a stork bearing an infant wrapped in a sling held in its beak signifies childbirth

A baby girl finally came to the life of happy couple Jimmy and Trixia Andaluz.  The baby saw the light of day today, 14 October 2010.   It was a long awaited moment they will both cherish because after 5 long years of union, the couple were finally blessed (for the first time ) with their new bundle of joy.  The baby is a precious gift from the Lord.    We were excited hearing the good news so we trooped to the hospital and there we saw the proud Dad, tired but fulfilled Mom and the cute baby girl just brought in by the nurse for rooming-in.

We can feel the excitement of the first time parent and we are here to guide them and give some parenting tips if needed.

Babies are such adorable creatures!

The travel bug has bitten us once again and really, it has started to bother us.  This time we are “itching” to visit Singapore.   We heard that the Universal Studio is operational and we think it is about time to revisit the place since it was year 2002 when we’ve been to that beautiful city.

While on board our car going to the airport to meet a friend, we were able to weave our next travel plans and it thrilled our children no end.   They were giving endless inputs and thoughts on how they will enjoy and appreciate more the sights and sounds of Singapore.   Their minds were on fast forward mode and they were talking as if the following day will be the big day.

So, this early we are mapping out every plans as:

1. made early booking and to purchase online tickets  ahead of time to avail of promo discounts
2. call my sister and asked whoever family members are interested for a group tour
3. call my son to find out if our choice dates will not in conflict with their school calendar
4. block our vacation schedules in the office, file and get leave approval
5. remind my relatives that they need to save for the trip (pocket and shopping monies) if they are really interested to join
6. inform our Mom about the trip so she will strive hard to be A-okey and that her high blood pressure will be maintained to its normal level to avoid hassles because of her health problem
7. make arrangements or compromise with other family members  like those who were not able to join last December in Hongkong will now have their turn for a Singapore trip
8. most important- we will  continuously pray that the trip will push through as planned

Wow.. we are dreaming big again!  We will go for it!  Yehey!!!