Happiness is...

Happiness is...

simply playing silly with loved ones!

Shotgun Proposal

Married? Tell us the story of how the question was popped.

Wooh! Such meme from Mama Kat suddenly transported me back ten years ago at my engagement moment. So how was the question popped? Sorry to frustrate you guys but our story was not that romantic. For starters, I'm not even sure if the question was popped at all. I think it's kinda funny. The question should be, was the question popped? Hahah, please read on.

I was on my sixth year with my veterinary medicine course when I found out I was two months pregnant. Yes, two months pregnant at the beginning of my senior year. How great was that. Pregnancies out of wedlock are frowned upon by our society. Our parents and families would surely be devastated. I was beyond horrified. Confused and scared, I informed my boyfriend of my scary condition. His answer was simple "then let's get married!" That was a declaration! He didn't even pop the question. He didn't even asked me if I wonna marry him. It's the feeling of having a shotgun pointed at your face and you have no other option but to accept the proposal.

See? Told yah, not at all romantic.

With his statement, the more I got scared. I'm not yet ready. I love him but we're still kids ourselves. However, my soon-to-be-hubby was sure of his decision. He was to marry me if that's the right thing to do. He's kind of mature beyond his years. Our friends used to tease him that such was his strategy of not losing me, hmmm.

But hear me out. The problem then was how to divulge such news to our parents. A role model daughter as I was, I was scared to break the forbidding news. So I left the noble task to my poor hubby. For three days I was gone for a field trip on an island with my colleagues, an overnight ferry ride away from home. He was left to resolve our grave problem alone (he's the sweetest and obviously I'm the meanest haha). When he told his parents about  our serious problem, surprisingly, they took the news calmly and understood our situation.

Then they visited my parents and dropped the bomb themselves. Imagine how my mom reacted. She was hysterical. My father was speechless. I can't imagine how awkward the situation might be. It's their first time to meet each other and what a great way to finally meet, huh? However, my parents managed to survive the blow. They believed that everything will be alright. That their daughter will surely finish her studies and become a veterinarian someday. That we will survive such sudden transition in our lives. Knowing what everybody had gone through (and I was a coward), I was really touched and kind of felt at peace with the situation and less scared of getting married too soon.

In our Filipino culture, we have the stage before marriage called "pamanhikan", where the groom-to-be formally asks the hands of his wife-to-be from her parents for marriage. My boyfriend's family and relatives invaded our home few days later and the wedding date was set. Hence, we were officially engaged. I was then 21 and hubby was 22 years old. The wedding was held two months later in our city's cathedral  followed by a grand reception at the hotel. And the feeling? I was like floating all through out in the midst of a whirlwind, from the wedding preparations to the wedding ceremony. I survived.

Overall, though the marriage proposal was not at all that romantic, we ended up so inlove with each other. We made the right choice. And now, we got two beautiful daughters who further strengthened the bond. Though our relationship has its ups and downs, we worked it out and maintained the romance in our lives. Last month, we celebrated our tenth year wedding anniversary. Yes we did it and pretty survived the odds. As for the romantic part? I'm still waiting for my diamond ring, wondering when my husband can finally afford it lol.

This post was inspired by the fabulous Mama Kat's meme.

My blog is great! Yey!

Yay my blog is great!!! 

Thank you so much Judy for the affirmation and for granting me this award. I'm very honored. Please come and visit my new blogging friend Judy on Judy H-J's Thoughts - A Twinless Twin and join her as she reminisced her adventures with her beautiful twin Janine. I really love her blog. It gets me teary-eyed at times as she celebrates her twin's well-lived life.

Here are the rules for accepting this award:
1. I must tell 7 things about myself.
2. I must pass it on to 15 other bloggers.

Hence, these are my seven confessions:

1. I never make it out to the door without forgetting something. I don't know, maybe some early manifestation of Alzheimer's disease? I hope not.

2. I got two sweet hyperactive daughters whom I love so much but both delivered through Caesarian sections. My first baby was intended for a normal delivery, but she just won't come out so the doctors decided to open me up. My second baby I guess was fated for CS delivery after everybody got traumatized with my first emergency CS operation. Thus, my ugly CS scar on my no longer flawless belly lol. However, this scar and the continents of cellulite along with it were worth my precious girls.

3. Library and book stores are my havens! I don't mind spending my whole day and sometimes buying loads of books for me and my kids.

4. At present, I'm a PhD student (veterinary medicine). However, I'm not so sure anymore if I'll finish this degree. Life with it often gets too stressful and miserable.

5. I was once casted for an extra role on a Hollywood movie (in 3D to be released on December 2012) directed by the famous Brokeback Mountain's director. My part was a nurse, a good friend of the protagonist's mom. I was called twice for costume fittings and I saw my own star for Hollywood walk of fame coming lol. But nah, I canceled the said event since I'm crazier about going home in my country and chose to spend my long-awaited vacation with my family.

6. I once got a scary biking accident. A reckless student on a scooter bumped my little bike from behind one night sending me flying upward like some trapeze superstar (as recounted by my traumatized best friend). I was lucky my face landed on my bag (with a jacket inside) and not on the hard pavement. Ouch! otherwise, I don't wonna imagine! Got some bearable scratches on my knees and a small but deep bloody cut on my chin. As for the culprit, she was sent to jail. Nah not really. She just paid for my hospital bills and for my Romanian friend's trauma for witnessing everything lol.

7. I once won our college beauty title but got stripped of it when I was discovered being two months pregnant. Hahaha, not really! Thank goodness I was just a first runner up. Otherwise, that would be a huge scandal, isn't it? LOL.

That's it guys and my apologies for my usual craziness. Now, I'm passing on this award to fifteen other great blogs. I love these blogs and hope you will find time to visit them and you would know why (in random order).

Say It With Roses
Perspicacity
Jo's Precious Thoughts
Scientific Nature A Whammy
My Photo Meme Blog
A Go-with-the-flow Mama's Blog

Spice Up Your Life
Just Another Mom of Twins
My Little Angels in America
Someday Somehere
Rolled Up Pretty
Pinay Mom in Germany
Write in Motion
Belles Roses Romantiques
Climbing the Digital Mountain One Step at a Time

Congratulations guys! Your blog is great so tell us about yourself!
Cheers!

No strings attached

The new school year is out here and the kids were screaming out for new school supplies. Mommy Kate, in her desire to teach the value of frugality convinced them to get contented with their slightly used stuffs. However, the kids squealed more for an updated school supplies. The Mommy, then remembering her own childhood days of course understood how it felt.

Everybody hates to end the vacation and having new stuffs to parade around at school is fair enough to get excited LOL. So the Mommy, as not to upset the Dad, sneakily bought her kids new sets of clothes, shoes and school supplies.

When the Dad found out later, he was not so thrilled especially upon knowing the total not-in-the-budget cost incurred. To diffuse the situation, the Mommy revealed she received some bonus, more than enough to cover all her shopping expenses. So the Dad, satisfied with the news, just let the issue go.

Three days later after the classes resumed, Mommy received a big blow. The kindergarten school that took her little girl in told her their mistake. They said they just realized that Mommy's daughter is a foreigner, hence she needs to pay an additional 5600$nt more for the tuition fee. Ouch! Mommy was flabbergasted.

Mommy was indeed beyond pleased when she received an extra amount of money falling from air, but then in a blink of an eye she would have to see it drained down the hole. Isn't that ironic! The problem was ~ there's nothing left to drain. *sad*

When the Dad learned about it, then goes the familiar word "I told you so". So the sad Mommy once again realized~ some money comes and then it goes. It lingers for a while, but still it goes. No strings attached.

Hi! Just dropping by! Bye!

My daughter is a video game pro

My daughter is supposed to study Chinese today through Rosetta Stone program. However, after waking up from my afternoon siesta, I found her ogling on the computer – not with some Mandarin but with some online video games. Looking at her, playing like some pro, hitting the keyboards at the right places, I now can see her future, and it spells D-O-O-M.

I know what she’s doing isn’t right. But I just can’t help myself from smiling, from admiring her ability to learn such game by herself. I am no fan of video games or rather I don't wanna waste my time with such. Well, a waste of time, a conclusion from scary stories I heard from some nocturnal friends getting addicted by such, sleeping late or rather not sleeping at all, ending up like zombies on class, stoned and learning nothing.

Okay, fair enough, I had my share of confession too. I got addicted with plants vs zombies once. I felt like a zombie myself, can’t wait to wake up and kill some zombies first thing in the morning. I found them too adorable to resist. Discovering my vulnerability on wasting my “precious” time, I am now dodging away from video games. Well, ironically I often ended up equally wasting my time on Facebook. In fairness to video games, its benefits can't be ignored too. As my husband used to insist, video or computer games are said to improve the players’ multi-tasking/hand-eye coordination skills, as well as their problem solving, motivation, cognitive and decision-making skills. Hmm sounds interesting.

Now going back to my daughter, crawling out of my bed, I hugged and kissed her. She’s just like her father, a cute smarty video game addict.  Then just in time, I saw her score printed on the screen, and I can’t believe what I saw, O points!  That’s right, zero points. Gosh, this is so hilarious. Judging from the way she raced out from her enemies’ reach, I thought she was some gaming pro. The gigantic silver screen on my head printed with some soothing words of “It’s alright, I have a video game addict but smarty kid” was slowly shattered into pieces. My daughter after all is just a normal curious 9-year old little girl, far from being a video game addict. As to how she fared with her gaming skills, fair enough, she’s got my genes, a video game slow learner hehe.

Sour-graping it may sound, this is good, she should be better off concentrating her way on learning Mandarin or Mathematics, than with such well they said, brain-stimulating video games, but I call it, life-wasting games LOL. Nevertheless, I can’t disagree, a video game played in moderation may not be that bad.

Nightmares at work

Summer vacation is finally here, no more schools till 6pm for my kids thus both of them (9 & 5 yrs old) are staying at home. Unfortunately for me, I have no one else to leave them with when I will be working in my lab. My husband is “busy” (or pretending to be) working in his lab, thus can’t be disturbed. So I have no choice but to bring my kids over at work with me.  

The first time was a disaster. I had no problem with my eldest daughter though. With laptop and headphones, there she was quietly playing games with Dora or Sponge Bob. I got headaches with the younger daughter. She easily got bored with games and movies. She wanted to play actively, like running or crawling or jumping all around. Before bringing them at work, my daughters fully agreed and promised me to behave well. But lo, after observing them in the lab for a while, I then realized the 5-yr old can’t keep any promises (I'm doomed I know!). So to keep a good eye on her - keeping her from breaking any glass wares or from tasting toxic chemicals, I brought her with me wherever I was working, may it be in the office, or in the lab, or in the next door lab.

While I was busy mixing some chemical buffers, there she was, still sitting on her assigned high chair but was busy tapping the ELISA reader machine as if it was some computer keyboard.  I asked her to stop and moved her chair away from any reachable fragile stuff. I dragged her chair towards the middle of the aisle. But when I got busy again, I heard the same tapping noise again, just in time when my professor came in the room and caught her in the act. I was so embarrassed and mortified.

I told my little girl to sit still in her chair as I got busy preparing antibiotic samples for CE analysis, which she reluctantly did. However, the moment I got engrossed with my work, she was gone. I found her sitting in the office with her sister complaining that she’s tired and sleepy.  My labmate was kind enough to give her a pillow and blanket to sleep with on top of the desk. But alas, this just gave her an idea for her next stunt. She went up in the desk then jumped down onto the floor like some power puff girl.  I came in with my professor just in time she was enacting her second stunt. I was so embarrassed. 

my chemical filled laboratory

To further restrain her, I brought her with me to the Capillary Electrophoresis room, gave her a pen and paper to get busy with and to practice her writing skills. While I got busy keying in methods for analysis, she also got busy writing all over the pearly white desks in that lab, not with a pencil but with a purple marking pen that she somehow smuggled from some corner of the room. Now I am on the verge of crying. My husband came in to my rescue but not until 6:00 pm. He gladly brought them home with him while I got busy cleaning up the mess my daughter left behind. Thank goodness we have good bleach in the lab to wipe out all her vandalism and sense of art.

For two weeks they stayed with me in the lab and for that two weeks, my cute 5-year old little rascal never failed to exhaust me, pushing me to the edge of my sanity. She never took her promises seriously nor my pleads nor my threats. She always slipped quietly from her chair and out of my sight. We brought their toys over to play with but she always got bored easily. We brought all sorts of snacks to keep her busy but she’s not that interested. She preferred running around with paper towels and pretending to be some winged cartoon character in the midst of my chemical-filled laboratory. One time, I bargained with my husband to take the little girl with him in his lab so I could concentrate on my work.  Oh, that was the best day ever for me. Indeed, my little girl was well-behaved with her father around. But while he was in the middle of bacterial isolation experiment, she blurted out that she needed to pee and few seconds later, she urinated on the floor, much to his embarrassment. Ahhh, those two weeks at work were a nightmare. Thank goodness it’s over. 

My professor asked me if I wanted to work full-time in his lab this summer. As tempting as the salary can be, but at the cost of my sanity and my daughters’ well-being, I declined the offer.  I preferred to stay at home and be a mom for once, to enjoy the vacation with my kids, and to simply play in the park or bring them somewhere else special and fun.

Travel bloopers

On my travels even on the nth time to a destination, I would always not miss any mishaps. I was always been so sloppy (sigh*) especially when I was so stressed out. Let me recount on my carelessness with my latest trip ~ bound home to Philippines.

1. We rode the wrong bus on our way to the airport.

On our way to Taoyuan International Airport with my eldest daughter, I bought the wrong bus ticket. Instead of going straight to the airport, I carelessly bought one for Taipei City. The scary part was, that ticket was supposed to be for the last trip. Oblivious of my mistake, I got into the bus, arranged everything and closed my eyes to relax. While recollecting on what happened earlier, then I realized I got on the wrong bus. With my heart wildly racing, I called my husband to let him know of the disaster and went on to talk to the driver. Guess what, I was never been so lucky. The driver could speak in English and reassured me that all will be fine. He dropped me to the last available station, helped me out for the changes of our tickets, and assigned some staff to assist me to board the last bus to the airport - that will arrive in 10 minutes. Phew! thank God for this angel and thank God for this early realization, otherwise we would miss our bus or worse our flight.  

2. I forgot to bring my daughter’s ID for the flight.

Twenty-five days of vacation was finally over. I am bringing my second daughter to Taiwan with us. With a 6:00 AM flight from Cagayan de Oro City to Manila, I woke up at 4 AM to prepare everything and ensured all documents and luggages were ready. Halfway to the airport, then I realized I sent my second daughter’s passport to my sister in Manila for visa processing and that I failed to bring any other identification documents (birth or baptismal certificate, etc.) for her - meaning she might be denied the flight with us. On the verge of crying, I spilled the bad news to my family in the car. Everybody was aghast but my mother-in-law tried to keep me calm, called my sister if she could possibly scan a passport copy of my daughter and send via email ASAP. Nevertheless, everybody prayed for the airline’s consideration on the matter. Inside the airport, indeed the personnel asked for my daughter’s identification. Using all my charisma, I explained to them the whereabouts of the passport and that I accidentally left her birth certificate at home. God is still so good. After consulting higher authority and probably checking out if my daughter couldn’t be a possible terrorist threat, they finally granted her a pass. I was overjoyed, went back out to my waiting family and kissed and bid them goodbye. My mother-in-law by the way was  then crying hehe.

3. We almost missed our flight bound to Taipei by 10 minutes.

Having fourteen hours to wait for our next flight, I used it to meet with my sister, her kids and some friends. We went out of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and went to  have fun at the  “Mall of Asia”, dubbed as Asia’s largest shopping mall. We ate, we shopped, we played, we ate and played all over again. In short, everybody had fun especially the kids. My husband (in Taiwan) on the other hand kept on calling me, reminding me to get back to the airport early. Heeding his advice, we went back 4 hours earlier than my flight. Then again we enjoyed chatting and eating at the airport’s cafeteria while waiting for the boarding time. But to the last minute, my two daughters kept on going to the toilet either to pee or to poo and the younger one sometimes peed on her pants much to my dismay. Then I realized I barely got one more hour to board the plane. After filling up many forms, dealing with the inspection and my naughty kids running, crawling and shouting all  around (drove me crazy), the three of us finally  managed to get in. However, while in the hallway, we were met with a scary announcement for the “last call” for all passengers bound to Taipei and that the plane will leave in 10 minutes with or without us. With my adrenaline pumping, I told my kids to RUN with me as fast as they could.  Running towards the very far end of the airport with my hand-carry and dangling items while dragging my 4-year old girl was such an agony I'm telling ya. Finally, we saw the airplane’s doorway with its stewards now impatiently waiting for us. But just like in the movies, Joey who was running behind us suddenly tripped, stumbled and cried. I can’t believe her! Not now! I just ignored her cries and went back to drag her inside anyway (which later on she complained about it). Thank God we were still very lucky!

As my Romanian best friend told me and I quote, “thank God HE is there, taking good care of some  careless people like us. LOL.