The Journey. It’s Mine. [My personal take on love, life, parenting and blogging.]

Raine and I finally made it back home on Friday morning. Our supposedly 3 days in Los Baños turned out to be an 8-day stay. I went down with low electrolyte levels while Raine was bugged down with typhoid fever. We didn’t get to see and meet those we were supposed to see and meet, but ended up confined at St. Jude Family Hospital instead!

Though the past week has been rather ‘unpleasant’, it was an opportunity to bond with friends and family that took care of us. You know who you are and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. My mother even had to go to LB as well to bring us home.

Tomorrow, Raine is going back to school. I’m still a little light-headed but Raine and I are taking it easy while getting back to our normal routine: school for Raine and work for me. I just hope the next time we try to visit LB, we won’t get sick anymore. Next time…

Raine and I are still in LB. We both got sick and were both confined in the hospital. We’re being discharged later today though. Thanks to everyone for all their love and support.

Raine’s last visit to his birthplace was in January 2008. At least I went there alone last year — a side trip to one of my job hunting prospects. Anyways…Raine is more excited than I am. He’s counting the days before we leave (3 tulog na lang!).

Of course I’m too excited as well. I already packed our bags! He he.

Well… our weekend is already fully booked. I just can’t wait to see dear friends again.

Fathers’ Day is special to me too. I’ve been a single parent and for years some friends of mine greet me on Fathers’ Day as well.

One advantage of being a single mom I guess, you get to be honored not just on Mothers’ Day but on Fathers’ Day too.I have a lot to say to Raine on this special day, but I’ll leave it for now and just include it in the LTR series one of these days.

Meanwhile.. I’ll just express some of my thoughts in a song.

Corny I know (Raine will probably say ewwwww! when he gets to read this!), but what the heck?! It’s my life… di ba?

(more…)

I’ve decided to add 2 new categories to this blog that hopefully will take this blog to a new direction.

1) Letters To Raine (LTR)

It won’t be long that Raine is going to discover and read this blog to the letter. While he is mainly in 99% of the archives, I want to write blog entries that speaks directly to him. After all, he was the main reason this blog was created in 2004.

Letters to Raine will range from the mundane of stuff to life lessons I wanna document for him. I guess it would be nice that aside from talking a lot all the time to Raine, I have something in black in white to show him.

2) Glo’s Life Goals (GLG)

For somebody who has not been into resolutions and checklists, I wan’t to create a list of sorts for myself. Something I can tick off as I accomplish them. There’s just too much thoughts going through my head enough to keep me awake at night that I want to write them all (if possible!)  before I forget about them in the mornings.

So there…I hope you’ll watch out for it.

Happy weekend everyone!

My money ran out so I am not yet done with Raine’s back-to-school shopping. I left out the big items such as trolley bag and a new rubber shoes. (Good thing that briefcases are not included in Raine’s shopping list!). Also.. small items like new white sandos and the likes.bMaybe in two week’s time (when the next pay arrives) I’ll be done with it all. I just needed to prioritize to stretch the budget.

On the other hand, we can wait 4 to 5 weeks more for my brother’s arrival. Raine was chatting with his Papa G yesterday and my brother promised to cover the items I haven’t bought (but Raine needs) when he comes home. Thank God for thoughtful brothers!

So Raine started a new school year today (like the rest of the Philippines). Thankfully without fuss and with an excited positive outlook. First days in school are truly special so I personally took him to school this morning and lingered awhile to chat with the other parents whom I haven’t seen in the last 3 months.

In typical Filipino fashion, I got various comments like tumaba, bagay sayo straight hair mo and blooming ka today. He he he. Outside the classroom door was the printed rooster of students in the said section. Many parents were delighted that the obnoxious kid in class was nowhere to be found on the list. (Raine are I were over the moon! Yes! It was more like malignant Mesothelioma that went into remission. In short, nabunutan talaga kami ng malaking tinik na mag-ina!).

Later on we found out that the said kid transfered to another school. The reason? Who cares! Ha ha ha.

Anyways…there was supposed to be an 8-hour brownout in the city today. For some miracle unknown to humans, the brownout didn’t happen. I particularly got up at 4 am so I can get online early in the day to take care of some stuff already before the said brownout happens. It’s past 2 pm and I’m still online. (Less than 2 hours na lang, 12 hours na akong online!)  ;)

Life is good!

Spent the day cleaning the house, fixing our ‘bed’, ironing Raine’s uniforms and shopping for grocery items (mostly Raine’s food!). Good thing there were no patio cushions to clean. That would have been a total waste of my time!

But I was able to insert some time for a much-needed pedicure (yey!) and published a few blog entries. I now have the evenings for blogging as well, as we are now housed in the city. Weekends only in the barrio for the next 10 months, until the school year wraps up.

So…here we go first day of school!

Today I went to the city alone. In the last five weeks Raine’s been with me because he was attending summer classes. Now that that’s over, he gets to stay home and need not get up early in the mornings.

It’s weird I have all day to myself. This time I need not get off my computer at 1130 to fetch Raine in school. Today I have lunch breaks to myself.

It’s been 2 weeks that my sister-in-law and nephew are here on vacation. Since our plans to go to them this summer didn’t pull through, I decided to let them come here instead. We’ve been to the beach once already, on my father’s would-have-been 64th birthday. My nephew Glenn is raring to go back to the beach. We might actually do this weekend.

Classes resume on 14th June, so Raine still has enough time to do whatever he likes.

Last night I can’t sleep…the last time I looked at the clock, it was 230 am. Then I fell asleep eventually. Then my alarm was ringing at 530 am, today is Raine’s first day of summer class! Gosh.

Times like last night, it’s a bad thing that my work station is in the city. Normally I go online on sleepless nights. My eyes get tired easily than wasting time watching TV just so I’ll get sleepy. The only thing I get from watching too much TV is a huge headache.

Anyways…real jobs (not even Philadelphia jobs) are still out of my reach. In the meantime, I have more blog assignments. Maybe that’s one way of fate saying that I should stick to blogging? Either way, I’m still not complaining. As long as the $$$ come my way in blogging, I’ll be just fine. He he he.

While vacation is already here, Raine will have summer classes for a month, in 3 weeks’ time. That is because he has to take remedial classes for reading and Math.

That been said, we are on the verge of losing our planned summer vacation all-together.

Well anyways…we”ll probably just hit the nearest beach in town anytime soon and during the summer for some much needed R&R. I just feel bad I won’t be able to see my friends in LB. Oh well…there’ll be a next time for sure.

Raine thinks I have eyes behind my back and beyond that I can actually see what he’s doing at school. What he doesn’t know is that I have a spy in his class. His classmate (a girl) and former seatmate.

Until I am allowed security cameras, that will have to to.Well the girl isn’t really spying. I just get irregular reports, mostly whether Raine is pasaway or not. He he he. Or if he got into fight, who started it and whether it is Raine’s fault or not. Things like that.

I just don’t know how convinced Raine is, but he thinks it’s kinda cool. At least he thinks I’m cool. Ha ha ha.

There’s nothing like a 1st grader who didn’t want to get up at 6 am and consequently doesn’t want to eat breakfast, to ruin your day.

Hayyyy…

Thursday na kasi, naipon na ang pagod nya.

But I am tired too. I get up at 530 every morning while I struggle to sleep at night.

I am more tired than you Raine. So suck it up and get up. Ayun bumangon din.

Raine and I just got back from a another long weekend. No classes last Friday in Raine’s school as it was the high school students’ turn for the DAT (Division Achievement Test). We went home Thursday early evening and just got back in the city this afternoon. Done cleaning, grocery shopping and ironing Raine’s uniforms. Thankfully I didn’t have to look for joint pain relief.

It was another weekend of pigging out and oversleeping in the mornings. The weather was beach-ready and I was raring to hit the beach. But everyone was just so KJ that my plan didn’t pull through.  Anyways….better luck next time. There will be a lot of next times anyway.

Today is the last day of February and marks what remains of the school year — 3 weeks na lang. Then it’s summer time. He he he.

While I’ve been popping meds like prenatal vitamins, I pigged out this past weekend. It was hard to resist adobong pusit, stir-fried fresh shrimps and pork sinigang among others. Low carb diet my foot! Everything was best with rice. You get the picture? He he he.

Anyways, Raine and I both needed the break. While I feasted on my mother’s cooked meals,  Raine had a blast flying a kite (Tito Kambal made it for him) outside in the sun. I’ve never seen him that happy and free in the last couple of months.Kids should really run around at times and burn all that energy. At night, Raine even voluntarily goes to bed and he’s out the moment his head hits the pillow. He was that tired. But really happy.

I bet Raine too can’t wait for summer vacation.

Speaking of summer vacation…this time I’m not going to resort to books (like I did during Christmas vacation).

This time we are going places. Raine and I will visit my sister-in-law in Meycauayan, Bulacan and then we will head on to Subic to visit Ninang Gemma.

For sure we will hit the beach and do more fun stuff that Raine will enjoy as well.

My mother will tag along too. So it’s going to be fun!

In a few minutes I’ll be taking Raine to school. Gosh it’s Monday again and we barely had a weekend. It’s just 634 and I’m already dead tired. Raine just wasn’t cooperating this early. I have to do some ’shock and awe’ moments in order for him to move from the bed, to the kitchen table and then to the bathroom.

Hayyy. My only consolation these days is that summer vacation is on the horizon. I can’t wait!

Soon enough I’m gonna be needing the best best face cream.

What with all of Raine’s pasaways…

His school is pasaway too. They aren’t contented that the kids have classes all Saturdays of January, they included all Saturdays of February as well.

No wonder Raine’s been grumpy lately. He is tired and stressed out. If he is tired and stressed out, then what do you call me?

Now both of us are grumpy…

FOUND.

Kung hindi?

Raine will have:

no watching cartoons

no computer games

no playing with playmates.

This jacket that Raine is wearing is his only decent jacket.

This wasn’t cheap.

I got it in early January 2009 as a belated birthday gift to Raine.

We were just lucky that the only real department store in the city had this in stock.

It’s a shade of green because green is Raine’s favorite color.

Now I am both angry and sad.

Because today, Raine lost it in school. He had to come back this afternoon to search for it. With no luck. He’ll search again tomorrow, he said. But I’m not very optimistic.

GRRRRRR. I’m so angry at you Raine! You don’t seem to care about your stuff. But I do. I do care a lot. And it pains me. Because you think I can buy another right away. I just can’t Raine. Not right away. And whether we get another one some time later, it just won’t be the same. The face towels, pencils, hats and what-nots that you lose everyday…I can let those pass with a shrug. But not this time Raine.  When it rains tomorrow and every day after that, you’ll be reminded that you lost this nice jacket of yours and it’s completely your fault alone.

Galit pa rin ako. Kainis talaga.

Because it has been raining really hard the whole weekend (parang may typhoon) Raine and I decided to stay in our city house the whole weekend. Saturday morning was Raine’s last day of 3rd quarter exam anyway. I figured we just stay on and rest the whole weekend away.

So Raine and I have been taking turns in the computer. To my own demise! Raine is using it 80% of the time. Anyways, I have the whole school week to go online to my heart’s content. (It’s not as if we are going cross country moving.)

While offline, I did the laundry and cleaned the CR. (Parts of the house too that Raine isn’t messing up with his toys.) Did some reading, overslept this morning and cooked brunch.

Hmmmm…I can get use to this.

Raine’s 3rd quarter exam - which starts today - is a huge sign that school will soon come to an end. Before I know it, we’ll be receiving graduation invitations in no time.

That means more than 2 months of vacation is in the horizon for us. Summer vacation anyone?

But since I have online duties, the summer vacation will pose a slight problem. Since all my online gears (computer, own internet connection) is in the city house, I’ll probably have to come here regularly during the week.

Maybe MWF? We’ll see. That’s more than 2 months away still and here I am making plans! He he he.

Indeed better days are over. Starting tomorrow it’s back to my daily grind of waking up very early and preparing Raine for school. Not that I’m complaining. It’s just funny how time flies. Our 3 weeks of vacation is finally over.

What did I do without getting bored you might ask? I read books, novels. IN BED! Ha ha ha. For me that’s just the most blissful thing to do on a vacation, not even staying in cancun hotels will lure me out of that particular “vice”. Finally I had the time to just  read and read without minding the time. As Raine’s been busy with playing and other stuff that kids does on vacation while my mother whips up food in the kitchen. For once it is good to not think of what to eat next nor whether I will prepare the said meal or just eat out.

The highlight of our vacation is of course Raine’s 7th  birthday last December 29. (Pssst mga ninong at ninang, mga tito at tita…wala pa kayong gift kay Raine! He he he. Puede namang ipadala na lang, o kaya email me, laging naka-ready details ng bank account ko. Ha ha ha!!)

But then the summer vacation is something to look forward to as well.

First of all, happy new year everyone from across the globe. Pardon the short hiatus here, simply because my computer and internet connection is in the city while Raine and I spent our holidays in the barrio.

Nothing spectacular with our holidays. It was a quiet time Raine and I spent with the family. Quality time with famiyl is the most important thing I think, more important than Christmas gifts and holiday feasts.

So there it is…I’m checking in here right now as I checked in our city house. A few days more of vacation left and then it will back to our daily grind as Raine’s class resumes on the 11th. ‘Til then, I’m still sleeping late and reading a book in bed. Ha ha!

Happy New Year again and here’s wishing you all the best in 2010. Cheers!

Today is officially Raine’s last day of formal school this year. Tomorrow will all be merry making: Christmas parties and stuff. He doesn’t even have to wear a uniform tomorrow. Just one of his casual clothes.

While this blog don’t get updated in the next three weeks (classes resume January 11, 2010), that means we are having fun having a quiet holidays in the barrio.

So if I don’t get to greet you, I’ll do it already: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all. All my best wishes through the coming new year.