My father was only 5 feet 4 inches tall. My mother stands at only 4 feet 11 inches. So, I’m not really surprised why I could not join beauty contests. As if I’d be qualified even if I get the minimum height requirement! Also, I don’t have the guts to wear a swimsuit in front of many people. But being tall really have its advantages. Like getting the luggage from the overhead compartment. There was one time when I was the last one to get off the plane because I couldn’t reach my luggage. I had to call a flight attendant to help me. I want Shaynna to have the height advantage. At least it won’t be difficult for her if she wants to be a flight attendant. But I’m not really sure if it is safe to let her take hgh supplements. If they are safe, are they really effective? With the help of such supplements or not, I just hope Shaynna would grow at least 3 inches taller than me.

Okay, the New Year’s eve is almost a month ago but the joy of celebrating it with my family is as vivid as if it just happened last week. We didn’t attend the New Year mass due to fear of firecrackers, but I tried to imitate what the others do to welcome the new year: spread coins and candies on the floor and have the children gather everything up. We weren’t able to prepare much but the two kulilits at home had a lot of fun.  I was able to convince Shaynna to take an afternoon nap so she was up:

Since I already lost hope of growing any taller, I no longer did my “New Year jump”. Some of my cousins also joined us and just sang the New Year’s day away. The last time my siblings and I had our photo taken was almost two decades ago so I took the opportunity to pose with them. Now, who do you think is the youngest?

It was really a joyful moment and I hope next New Year’s Day, I get to celebrate it again with my family.

I think almost everyone does some kind of preparations for welcoming the New Year. I don’t even believe that these things have some effects on how one fares in the coming year. At home, at least we try to fix what we can, like replacing busted bulbs. It’s far from those Hubberton Forge but we have a simple chandelier at home. All of its 6 bulbs had been busted for almost a year. My mother just decided to replace them on the New Year’s eve! Aside from fixing stuffs, we also try to at least up on basic commodities. I will write another post on how I spent my New Year’s eve at home. It was not grand but I had a lot of fun. Indeed, there’s no place like home.

Christmas 2009 vacation has been the longest time I’ve stayed at home since I took my 2-month maternity leave. Being there for quite some time again gave me the opportunity to sort things out as my mother prefers to just “set aside” unused things. I prefer to throw them out or give them away if someone takes them in. I’ve also noticed that our house needs another round of maintenance as a couple of door jambs are badly need of replacement and our windows really needs replacement. Same with our furniture. Our dining table has now only 4 chairs out of 6. When we visited the malls, contemporary furniture caught my interest but with the cost available space at home, minimalist is still the best. Hopefully, I could at least have some repairs made the next time I go home.

I was so much a grandma’s girl before going to highschol. I adored my Lola (grandma) Iyang that I often went with her to church, to her choir practice, and even when she sells those Filipino delicacies she used to cook. As much as I love my Lola Iyang, I love her older sister as well, Nanay Soling. She had this tisa fruit tree (sorry, I have no clue how to call this fruit in English). I loved visiting her and taste her corn tea. One of Nanay Soling’s hobby is to smoke tobacco. I thought that if a person wants to smoke, he either buys cigarettes or make his own cigar. I didn’t know of Black and Mild cigars and other cigar brands. Anyway, my Nanay Soling is already in her 80′s but she still does some farming and makes her own cigar.

If my mother and my younger sister were staying with me, I would have gained a lot of weight already and would have taken into consideration using one of those weight loss supplements. My family loves to eat. Yes, there’s nothing wrong with it, unless junk food is what they often dig into.

I really hate to take up the role of a discipliarian but that is just what I do each time I go home. Being in Japan for a few years has taught me a lot, and health awareness is one of them. I maybe considered the worst among my friends in personal health care. But my family is worse than me. My family is a big fan of soda and I want to change that. It is hard especially trying to impose that in a throng of stubborn people. But I will keep on trying. That’s why I brought my mother a box of green tea. I hope she will at least give green tea a chance and start forgetting about soda.

My art classes in primary school and highschool required us to make holiday cards for people dear to us. I usually made one each for my papa and mama. Papa was still working abroad at that time and I unceasingly followed my mother around until she mails it to papa. I also often sent hand-made cards to both of my grandmothers. I never gave a thought on how they felt when they received those cards. But now that I already have a daughter, I know that I had at least brought smile to their faces. My daughter already made two cards for me, one for Christmas 2008 and Valentine’s Day 2009. But I haven’t seen them as my mother forgot to send it to me. Worse, she forgot where she placed it! I look forward to finally seeing my daughter’s Christmas card this year. I also hope to receive her hand-made cards even if she learns of e-greeting cards.

My mother’s younger brother had lots of automobile experiences. Although he did not take a vocational course for it, his experiences taught him a lot and he was good at being an auto mechanic. So when my father was still working abroad and things were a lot better for us financially, my uncle suggested to my parents to put up an auto repair shop. Just the basic repair shop, not intended to cover rv breakdown. My parents agreed with it and put up the business. Some personal issues could not be resolved that my parents decided to close the shop. Later on, my father and my uncle died. Now, all those auto repair stuff are left just to accumulate dust. My mother agreed to sell them somewhere but we could not find a buyer. It is very hard to find one especially in rural areas. I’ll definitely work on this when I get home. The proceeds could definitely help us. Anyone from Iligan City interested?