--Our little Amber

It's been such four years since we have a little baby coming out in the family. My younger sister, Apple, gave birth to baby girl,Kayelie Amber, born 7.4 pounds through a normal delivery. She was a little worried going through normal because she has thyroid problems. Her OBGYNE was anticipating it to be a CS Section, yet , she was able to pull through.
Well...here are the pictures..
My name is Amber: all features like Dad.


My Tita's: Cess;Heis;Waks


Tita Heis


Mom and Dad + Amber

---My Asian tongue.

When it comes to food, my taste is a little bit conservative. I grew up eating very simple Asian dishes mostly cooked using coconut milk, soy sauce, fish sauce and very basic herbs. At the rural areas, my parents barely knew how it is to use basil, or thyme or even the common oregano leaves dominantly found in our backyard. My original orientation of it was to aid our minor headaches and even cough. I remember how bitter it tasted when my mother would medicate my cough when I was younger. I didn’t even realized that it can spice up pastas and meat dishes surprisingly. So, to the many spices all around us and to me --just didn’t get quite acquainted properly, up until I got married. I learned how to use them, where to put it, and of course, Google is my main reference.It's certainly far from the level of a connoisseurs, my husband's judgement matters. Whenever I get a chance, I always make it a point that I prepare something for my husband. It could be a mouth-watering dish I saw while browsing in one of the recipe sites or one I meet at a restaurant.
Yet, even if I have gone wider familiarity of its individual taste, I still kept my regular conservative taste. When it comes to pasta, I don't like it sweet or either sour. The absence of salt makes it unappealing to me. Either, my pasta would be cheesy when there's tomato sauce in it or creamy with lots of parmesan cheese.. Just recently, we ran out choices of where to eat. In my attempt to lose a little weight, I try not to go to restaurants or food chains where I couldn't say no to any food served. Then, we bumped into "World Chicken". We got curious because of the long queue of customers compared to the other counters at the food court. For Php 158, you get a quarter of deboned chicken inasal, sauces in 5 varieties, a choice of pasta or any rice mix, and a side dish. This was what we got.

Myk: chicken with barbecue + bacon rice + carbonara + Large Soda
Me: Chicken with farmer’s cheese + mashed potato + pasta in pomodoro






We were surprised that the taste was really good. The chicken was roasted perfectly, the serving was more than enough and the pasta was good. I forgot to mention that my fetish on pasta (noodles) : I want it a half way to overcook. If the cooking direction would say 8 minutes, I prolly would do it 15 minutes cooking time. I hate pastas when it's al dente. I feel like I'm eating it raw. We spent a little over what we plan to but it was all worth it. One thing I just would like them to improve is the presentation. They had them placed in a big oval plate, where sauces of this and that mix with the other. I hope they can think of a better plate. Is it because they don’t' want to spend additional expenses over purchasing dozens of nice plates?-I'm not sure...but one thing I know, I'll keep coming back here, occasionally. :P

{. it's my conscience telling me to watch out for my diet.}

--V-Day

---Where's my Wilson?

Sometimes as we go along, as we grow old, we tend to develop that sense of independency. Our attention span shortens for a period of time until at least you haven't landed the retirement age. The reason behind is that the friends we have made while you were in school slowly loses the time you spend together, the way you used to. We have our families, kids to attend to, work to keep up with and then the friendship becomes the last options.

I feel a little bit in the denial stage because I am a people person.The other week my Wilson came for a one month vacation. She ventured a job in Qatar, in exchange of her work at RFM,and her other way {I guess} of making a life alone. Back in the days, we are the yin-yang, though nothing bad really comes out of any of us. She's been able to help in times I'm in dire need, financially mostly. We get this endless talk of reminiscing childhood shenanigans, as I help her finish the laundry. I would be her constant companion whenever she needs to run an errand, she would always pay for the meals, since she had the job first...and a lot of things. She smoke and drink occasionally, something I didn't acquire anyhow. My stand is simple. I get no pleasure in it, so why do it. Her existence too,was my only path to finding my husband now, of which I kept it from her since she will disapprove it. and that's another story of course. She only found it out when I was alrady pregnant and naturally became the godmother of my eldest daughter, who calls her mommy too.
And yeah, our age took off the calendar days..and as it flew, we've grown that common disease: lack of communication. and isn't tantamount to oblivion though. I just wish we could have more time together again.

While watching House MD,Wilson and House reminded me of our friendship...and please no one is far similar to the arrogance, cynicism and sarcasm Dr House harbors.In some simple ways I found kinship in between.We all have our own "Wilson" whom we can rely on when you're down in the dumps without judging for who you are.I suddenly realized that,currently, no one ever holds her position of knowing me inside and out...and I got practically sentimental. She came home going straight to her family, unlike our days.

But this is the truth. We cannot hold up a person responsible for nurturing a relationship no matter how much we convince our selves that most bonds are communion of kindred spirits..of likeness and differences. The fact remains always the same. Acceptance.

Where's my Wilson? I soo miss her. :{

--Family Time

Im now hooked up with watching Vampire Diaries to the point of awakening my interest to read books about vampires. Honey downloaded a pdf file of Ann Rice so I can put them on the ipad for easier reading. Lately, I have begun dreaming while asleep, and I have not gotten any in such a long time. I know that we do get a thousand dreams while in slumber but only a few of are remembered in the waking moment. I sometimes hated that you cannot choose the dream you want to dream.

At work we celebrated the Chinese New Year coinciding our Q1 Rec Event. Four members from my team will receive an award, which makes me a proud TC. The entire floor was filled with Chinese decors, pseudo dragons etc and my team was just donned over red shirts. After the shift, we brought the kids to the mall and had dinner.

---Achievement Letter

Finally, my daughter handed over the letter coming from the principal that she qualified to get an achievement award this school year after of course passing the exam. I wasn’t really surprised because her adviser gave me a notice the last time I came to pick up her school card. The school only notifies pupils whose grades on each subject were not lower than 90%, to undergo an examination and identify pupils qualified for the so-called a "Diligence Award". Being a transferee, she ended up on the second section, I am really pleased of her performance and the grades she is getting are merely a product of her personal diligence, motivation and natural common sense. I know that this may not guarantee a sure medal, but the fact that she is doing well at school on her own with the new school is so much for me to know and believe that she can bag the award. At times, I feel some sense of guilt that I cannot own the merit she is getting which is good,knowing that she can work independently. I always encourage her to do her own homework’s and approach any of us when she is confused. Most of the time she’d come to ask her dad, while I’m past asleep. I’d probably take accountability if it was an artwork or something else. The best that I can give most of the time, is the presence of a mom during meetings and school activities that sometimes I get to feel awkward around old people talking about family agendas. I'm so proud of her, that she's turning to be a really good child to us, though; sometimes she acquires her Dad's silly penchants...corny jokes and the way she rationalize things. I don’t think it's annoying yet I want her to find her distinct way of being her. She is not outwardly sweet but she is very close to her father. When she leaves for school, she'd call me out and say "Ma, catch!", I'd go out and catch the flying kiss with my hands., and that means a lot to me.
She's just 9 turning 10 and I hope she gets to keep this within her to better all school activities and become a decent person as she grows. I love you Xy!

--Interesting Dreams

It's the second day of February and the weather has been nice. For three days now, we have not used our air conditioning unit which is good...and a lot of savings.

---Unlimited catch

My entire week of January was spent watching House MD, the tv series. This show quite got into me. It's challenging,the medicine part is interesting and the sarcasm of House is irritatingly good.
Most of my rest days, and as soon as I get home, I turn on the pc and watch it..or even as I prepare for work. I have completed watching the full 6 season and now I'm updated. Honey and I, would sometimes sleep past over some episode and watch it again. NOw, I'm waiting for Vampire Diaries to finish downloading.

We had a dinner earlier and tried a new resto, Mr Chow, where they serve 99 pesos of rice toppings and unlimited yangchow rice.It's like the usual chinese mini fast food store. The crew and the quality of service and the food sucks. The rice is not tasty, even the Lechon-Macau I ordered didn't taste good. Myk tried two rounds of rice while mine wasnt eaten. On our way home, I feel a little nauseated and I want to vomit. And yes I gave in. I puked the entire food I ate, and made me feel dizzy. I never wanna come back there again. I know..there's always a catch on "unlimited" food.

Charging to experience.

--Jumpstart.

I'm back again. I promise myself to blog a little often than usual.Now that I'm completely floored by the House MD series, a lot of things in my head a rushing to be written without ado.

Life has been just quite well. I'm slowly managing how to stop stalling paper works. I'd be honest enough to admit that I am awful at it. Everyday I pull up my little tracker and cross out the stuffs I am supposed to do. Now, my team is on a training, learning cultures, mores and tradition we have not really experience first hand.This initiative is done to be able to bridge the gap between how it is knowing how Canadian culture goes comparing to Filipino culture. They've set up different workshop such as Amazing Race game, classroom activities and watching a TV series called "Outsourced: One thing I have noticed is the natural bonding that this workshop has developed between each members of the team. We got to find out little something from each of them, jokes they can share after and memories to remember as we go along. Working in a call center has been my longest job ever, and I found life and value in it. I have learned to transform each experiences into another with deeper meaning. A lot of people has allowed this industry to jeopardize their health, as they smoke and drink and loaf around sans sleep. Take coffee than water in every interval of break instead of drinking water or just take as breather. And when giving time to relax during team buildings, they would choose to prohibit themselves from coming because the guilt of spending time outside of family premise is an act of selfishness...which is not. Yet, when they go drink all night, smoke all packs of ciggies, it isn't at all an act of selfishness? Some have even gotten to wrong relationship, casual dating with sex and some to the worst.

It's approaching seven years now, and I am happy to be able to manage how to avoid acquiring these vices. I dont find pleasure smoking, and anytime I smell it, my head thumps,the pungent taste of liquor, coffee til you drop and the likes. I've other sisters who've found career in BPO, they have even managed to climb up to the promotion ladder without having to witness them turn into someone like those stereotypes.

I'm lucky that at an early age I was taught what self esteem and self worthiness is all about. To my parents, I love you the most!