Let's all hug our kids

Last weekend, my hubby and I had the opportunity to attend a retreat in Tagaytay. It was very refreshing and we really learned a lot from the speakers.

I missed the first talk because I had to attend Faye's activity in school; my hubby just went ahead with the rest of our group, and Faye and I just went to Tagaytay after lunch. The first talk, I was told, was very striking and relevant to everybody who attended the retreat. The second talk was just as relevant and when the speaker shared about his experience with his son, not a single eye in the audience was dry. He shared the struggles that his family had when his son was diagnosed with Sarcoma (cancer of the connective tissue) at the age of 10. The doctors wanted to amputate his leg, but through prayers, they were led to a doctor who opted for surgery and medications. The boy recovered, and he was very active in sports, but after a few years, the cancer metastasized to his lungs where they found nodules during a routine X-ray examination. The doctors said he would only live for six months unless they operated on him by removing half of his lungs. The boy didn't want to undergo the operation. They stormed the heavens in praying for his recovery, while at the same time undergoing medications and chemotherapy procedures. Through all this, the family has remained strong and has drawn strength also from the support of their brothers and sisters in the community. The boy was also very strong and was even able to finish his High School despite having to stop twice due to the treatments that he had to undergo.

Through all these trials, the family has leaned on the promise of the song, God Will Make a Way --- when there seems to be no way. They sung this song when their son was in pain; the father sung this song when his son went into comatose after a collapsed lung; he was singing God Will Make a Way while the doctors were trying to revive his son, and until his son died in his arms.

We have always believed that in everything that happens in our lives, God has a reason, and though we may not understand it during the time that the crisis came into our lives, in His time, He will reveal to us His purpose for all of these.

The father also shared that whenever some people talk to him complaining about their kids, like having rebellious teens, disobedient kids, kids who ran away from their homes, he always tell them that "it's OK, don't worry about it, at least your kids are alive, that stage will pass, what's important is they are with you and they are well, and are alive." He even joked, "if you want, let's exchange our kids."

What he said is true, it was very striking for us. It hit us right where it matters. We don't always realize that our kids are God's gift to us, and that He can take them back whenever He want to. Sometimes, the pressures of our everyday lives take its toll on our relationship with our kids, they can easily get to our nerves whenever they are being naughty, or whenever they are in constant bickering with their siblings. We easily ran out of patience and we sometimes think that they do it on purpose just to get our attention. But after hearing the sharing made by our brother in the community, we suddenly realized that we wouldn't trade this for anything else; better to have to undergo trials of sibling rivalry or disobedient kids, than to see your kids being withered away by incurable disease. I think that's the ultimate fear of every parent: to see your kids slowly being eaten by cancer.

Let's all kiss and hug our kids, and thank God for giving them to us, and never stop in praying that they will be protected from any sickness and that they remain healthy and playful.

thank you for the support

Faye won in the 3rd Quarter Battle of the Brains for Spelling, so she made it to the Championship round, where the winners from the 1st to 3rd Quarter will compete.

The Championship Round was held last week and she was so nervous, but I told her that it's OK if she didn't win and that she shouldn't cry, because it just means that it's not yet her time to win, what's important is she did her best.

So, the D day came, but after convincing her that everything will be alright and that that it wouldn't matter whether she wins or not, I guess, I was the one who was more agitated and nervous than her.

Good thing that I was able to tell her to just pray and let God decide whether she will win or not. She didn't get the 1st place, but I think she just took it lightly, because she just told me, "Mommy, it's not yet my time". I assured her that it was alright and that she really did her best.

After her classes, she asked me what prize I was going to give her. I said, OK let's go to SM and buy something for you. Since she loves books, we went to National Bookstore to add to her collection of pocketbooks.

It was when we reached home and we were already relaxing and having a good time, she was reading her new book, and I was trying to get some sleep, that I got a very touching moment with her. She told me, "Mommy, thank you". I said, "You're welcome". I was thinking that she was thanking me for the book that I gave her. But then, she said, "Mommy, do you know why I said thank you?" I said, "Yes, for the book that I gave you." She said, "No, Thank you for the support that you gave me."

Whose heart wouldn't melt with those words? More so, whose mother's heart wouldn't melt with those words? I was just utterly speechless. After about a minute, I just assured her that her Dad and I will always be by her side and will always support her.

Yoga, Anyone?

It's that time of the year again in my office, when most of the people are very eager to join all the Clubs that are available. Why? To start-off the top New Year's Resolution in anybody's list, yeah, you guessed it right! To lose weight!

I've been planning to join our Fitness Club, but due to my heart problems, I was very hesitant and scared to even try the treadmill again. But after the clearance from my doctor, I decided to give it a try. But I didn't want to have strenuous exercises at once, so, I joined the Yoga Club, which focuses on breathing, and is good for the heart. I liked it, and I felt better after each session, but I sometimes find it boring and too relaxing and one time I almost fell asleep! So, I decided to also try our Slimnastics Club, and I had my first session last week. It has different session for each day of the week, and it was Taerobics day when I first joined last Thursday. The next day, my muscles were aching all over, but it was great! I plan to do the Yoga and the Aerobics every other day to keep me from getting bored. And hopefully, I will start losing weight....

One Proud Mommy

The Cheering Competition in my son's school is a much-awaited event every year, and parents usually take time to watch and cheer for their kids. This year's schedule coincided with my son's 16th birthday.

It was a competition among the High School students, from Freshmen to Seniors, and they really spend time and effort in making sure that that they will have a great performance. My son's batch (Seniors) placed second, the Juniors got the first place.

Although they didn't win in the Cheering competition, they were still very happy because they got the Overall Championship for the Intrams. I think they got the most number of medals and points that was why they were declared as the overall champion.

Earvin also contributed a lot because he got one gold medal, one silver, and one bronze for the swimming competition. So, the time that we spent in going to the Rizal Stadium so that he can practice prior to his competition was worth it.

Battle of the Brains

Faye was once again a candidate for the Battle of the Brains (Spelling) in her school for the 3rd Quarter. (Sorry the photo here is not so clear). Last year she made it to the Championship Round (please read my previous entry on this).

For this year, she made it again to the Championship Round! Hurray! because she won the Quarterly Round last week. I had to be late in going to work on that day so that I can watch and support her, but it was all worth it.

There's a problem with Spelling Contests that I noticed -- that is, if the teacher's diction and pronunciation are not so clear, the kids will get confused. For the Easy Round, I, myself didn't also hear the word correctly, what I heard was "Lat", even if the quiz master defined the word as Youth (which she pronounced as Yoot -- my goodness!), it got me more confused. It was only when she used the word in a sentence did I get the word correctly --- it was LAD. But Faye didn't get it. She wrote down LAT. Oh no! it was the first word and she got it wrong already. I really got nervous! --- a stage Mom --- just let me be, please :-). However, she got the rest of the words correctly. There were 7 words for each round, so, there were a total of 21 words for the Easy, Average and Difficult Round.

For the Easy Round, the words were: lad, coconut, vehicle, nervous, plaza, post, reunion. She got 6 points for this.

For the Average Round, the words were: array, survival, landmark, launch, automatic, cautious, authentic. She got the perfect score of 14 points for this.

For the Difficult Round, the words were: diesel, reindeer, committee, applause, squad, monstrous, robbery. She got 2 mistakes here (committee -- she missed one m; monstrous -- she wrote monsterous), so she got 15 points.

I was praying all throughout the contest -- to Mama Mary and Faye's guardian angel, and since I didn't know the name of her guardian angel, I borrowed my friend's guardian angel whose name is Ernest (see related post here). I wasn't looking at the scores of the other contestants, and although she was the only who got a perfect score in the average round, I really didn't want to expect too much, and just prayed for every word that was given by the quiz master. And again, it was all worth it, because she got 35 points and she WON!!! Thanks God, and thank you Mama Mary and Ernest!

For the Championship Round, that will be another post -- it's scheduled sometime in March, and hopefully, this time, she'll win.

Health Concerns - Part 2

My hubby and I went to St. Luke's Hospital last weekend for his Heart Scan and my Treadmill Stress Test. His heart scan was a complicated process which involved the injection of a medicine containing radioactive chemicals, that was why he wasn't allowed to go near pregnant women and children below 12 years old at least 6 hours after the procedure. It was part of the monitoring of his heart condition since he had a mild heart attack in 2006, and he is supposed to undergo the procedure every year, to make sure that the blockage in his heart is not worsening. His blockage was in the inferior vena cava part of his heart which was not a good candidate for an angioplasty, so, to prevent it from worsening, he's now taking medications and he's very careful with his diet, although he's still yet to start doing some exercises.

On my part, the treadmill stress test was also needed to check on my PVCs, or skipped beats. The last time I had the stress test was during my Annual Physical Exam in my office, but due to the skipped beats that the doctor saw in my ECG, she stopped the test and told me to go back to my cardiologist. I procrastinate and didn't schedule the stress test until last week, because I wanted it to be done in a hospital environment this time, and I wanted my doctor to be present during the test.

So, finally, we were able to schedule both tests last weekend.

My hubby's procedure was from 8:00am to 12:00pm, so, while he was in the Nuclear Radiology, I proceeded to the Treadmill Stress Test. I tried to relax and didn't think much of what will happen to my test. I tried to reassure myself that I was in a hospital and that whatever happens, I will have doctors coming to my rescue to make sure that nothing happens to me. During the test, the ECG results were really scary with lots of PVCs, but again, I kept on looking at the nurse who was assisting me, and she didn't seem to mind, she just kept on adjusting the monitor that was attached on my waist because she said it was very sensitive which tend to be affected by the hospital gown that I was wearing. As I was progressing, I even reached Stage 5 and was able to finish the required 85% of the test, the PVCs disappeared, which was good news according to the nurse. The initial result was normal but we still had to wait for the official results from the cardiologist.

My hubby was already very hungry when I came back because he wasn't allowed to eat --- his last meal was at around 3:30am. The machine didn't even cooperate and bogged down, so, he had to wait for the other available machine. When I came back from my stress test, he was also just finished with his own stress test, so, you can just imagine how he was feeling, hungry and all and had to do some walking and running on a treadmill at the same time.

Last Monday, he received a text message from our cardiologist telling us the good news. His heart scan results were the same as his last test, which was a very good news because it just means that the blockage didn't worsen, and that the medicines and his diet are working. The doctor also said that although I have PVCs, I can already go to the gym to do some exercises. That's good news for both of us, and that's what we've always been praying for.

I got several questions asking me why I titled this as part 2, where's part 1? Here it is => Health Concerns, Part 1.

Thoughts on being a working mom

It's only the first week of February, but i've already filed 1.5 days family leave (when my hubby and Faye got sick), 1.5 days annual leave (for Faye's field trip and Earvin's school intrams), 3 hours occasional absence (for Faye's Battle of the brains). But, what the heck! It was all worth it. I've always said that family comes first. Good thing that my boss is very considerate and understands how it is being a working mom.

My principle is simple: In case I miss my kids' school activities and opt to go to work, I won't remember the things that I did in the office on that day 2 or 5 or 10 years from now, but my kids will surely remember and won't forget that I missed their activities in school on that day.

Field Trip to Mt. Samat, Zoobic & Nayong Pilipino

For this year's school field trip, we went to Mt. Samat in Bataan, Zoobic Safari in Subic, and Nayong Pilipino in Clark. We visited all these in one day, amazing, isn't it?

Our first destination was the Mt. Samat National Shrine. We were briefed by the tour guide that it will involve some walking. It was good exercise and although it was really hot while going up the mountain, it was worth it, because it was cooler when we reached the top. We even rode the elevator and went up the cross which we were told was equivalent to 36 storeys. We also learned that it was rehabilitated in 1998 by Pres. Fidel V. Ramos. It was my first time to visit the place and I enjoyed the view from the top, and although the elevator was cramped and I slightly became claustrophobic, I set aside the thought and just tried to enjoy the ride. Faye didn't mind it at all, she was just so excited and so eager to reach the top.

Zoobic Safari was just a typical zoo for me, but what made it different was the Tiger Safari Ride. Faye was scared at first when she heard what the Tour Guide said, that we need a chicken to make the ride more exciting because the tigers will jump on the truck to eat the chicken. I had a difficult time assuring her that the ride will be safe, and that we will just sit in the middle. Up to the last minute she wanted to back-out, but when she saw the other kids who enjoyed the ride ahead of us, she finally agreed. And she had a grand time! Although she was covering her ears and her eyes at some point when she saw one of the tigers went up the roof of our vehicle.

After Zoobic, we went to Nayong Pilipino in Clark. We assembled in the Barasoain Church -- smaller version, where we were given instructions on the places that we can visit and take pictures. The place was still a work-in-progress but basically, lots of houses and areas were already finished.

Lost Generation

This is an awesome video from YouTube. It has already received over 1 million views. It placed second in the AARP U@50 video contest. For me, it should have won 1st place.