Awake at 2am

So I've been sleeping but apparently, my siblings were not (it's day time in what Gabriel now correctly refers to as the "Eastern Hemisphere"). So they decided to give me us a call through Skype. Jojo answered this time (I answered 2 previous calls sometime during midnight). I do know when it's my brother calling me coz I can't seem to hear him at the end of the line. He says he hears us fine though. Too bad.

So after 15 minutes of not being able to get back to sleep, I logged in. And there they are, my siblings chatting. After about 5 minutes though, they suddenly had something else to do, and so I am left here... online and alone. How about that?

Well, let me instead write down how the week has been. Gabriel turned 8 last Thursday, he was really happy as his classmates gave him handwritten birthday greetings, tons of bookmarks, and $1. They are so sweet, he was really happy. For dinner, Gabriel wanted to go to Chick-Fil-A and as it was his day, he's the boss. Definitely, low key.

Friday night around 6pm, we went to Dealey movie night featuring "Kung Fu Panda." It was my first time to watch the movie from beginning to end and I realized that I missed the middle half of it before. And yet, I have put it down as 3 stars in my list. Oh well, the rating didn't change even after finishing the movie. Once again, we sat with Margaret although this time, a few of Gabriel's other friends joined our blanket: Gabriel and Dominic; Olivia; and Andrew.

Earlier this week, we dropped by Vera's Bakeshop to reserve Gabriel's birthday cake for his party on Saturday. He chose a dinosaur-themed one and I hope I remember to take a picture before it gets eaten. We also went to Party City for his goodie bag stuff. We hope it's a success, and at last count, 28 kids are coming.

The other day, we saw the trailers for Twilight. Looks great, I can't wait to watch the movie. These past few months, I would rather wait for the dvd to be available on Dvdplay kiosks, but I don't think I can wait for this one. So we probably will watch it in AMC. As we will be in Houston when they open, we might go out one night while we're there and catch it. If not, definitely when we get back.

Some friends of ours are planning to have a "bowling night" and I just hope that with our schedule, we'll be able to make it. So far, we're booked for the weekends through Dec 13. Mostly chess tournaments and parties.

We also had an early Thanksgiving Potluck at the office. Good times, good food. And what's even better, I was able to carry out a bag for dinner. My family enjoyed it.

Cyndee invited Gabriel to join Julian's indoor soccer games, and so he now has soccer practice from 6:45 to 8:15 every Tuesdays and Wednesdays. He'll be exhausted but we imagined this will be good for him as it is getting to winter and he won't be able to play or even stay outdoors at all.

Wow, so much has happened this week. And more tomorrow. See you later.

Fall back victims

Monday night, I slept with Gabriel in his room. We both woke up at around the same time the next morning to go pee, and realized after looking at the clock that it was already 7am. So Gabriel said It was time to take a shower and prepare to go to school. Jojo on the other hand was still snoring.

While Gabriel was in the shower, I prepared his school uniform and then went on to our bedroom. I checked the clock and it said 6:15am. That's when I realized that the clock in Gabriel's room was not updated to reflect the standard time.

Oh well, we all had a laugh. It was great waking up so early.

Gabriel won first place in a chess tournament in Dallas

Last October 11, 2008, Gabriel won first pace in the K-2 division Chess Tournament, here in Dallas. We were ever so proud. He received another trophy and we're seriously running out of table space to hold them. He's been very happy though, and so have we. The next tournament will be in his school, Dealey Montessori.

After the tournament, Andrew, Gabriel's friend from school, joined us for lunch and stayed with us until half past 7 that night. The boys practically spent the whole day together, and just the day before, Gabriel was over at Andrew's after school for his birthday celebration. So, not just one day, but 2 whole days together!

Permanent residency

There's so much to say, so many good things have happened. But let's start with the obvious (based on title alone). We finally got the green cards. After only 9 months from submitting the application, we received the notice last Sept 11, and then the actual permanent residency cards a couple of days later. Life is sweet.

And then more good news for Gabriel - as he prepares for first communion (and subsequently first confession). He's quite the American boy now, when just the other day, he mumbled something that I didn't understand and so I asked him to repeat. He told me politely, "It's nothing, mom. It's just a random thought."

Gabriel also made the Dealey chess team, where only 24 students get to represent the school. Awesome. After having enrolled him to the United States Chess Federation (USCF), we only hope he can play tournaments and improve his rank. We're definitely excited for him.

And then there's soccer and orchestra. This year, Gabriel switched from violin to cello, and his music teacher says this is good for him. If he's dedicated enough, he can apply for scholarships for college later on. Gabriel gets to practice his craft with the 4th graders as the other 2nd graders are all violinists. I think this is a good thing, him playing with older children.

So all in all, this is looking to be a good year for Gabriel.

In church the other day, Gabriel was being friendly with the baby who was seated in front of us. He would make faces, and managed to get a couple of peek-a-boos. I remember my dad. When I was little, no more than Gabriel's age, I would remember him being friendly with kids in the church too. I bet my dad would be happy with all these good news.

Planning a trip

Planning a trip for business has suddenly become regular. I just booked and reserved flights and hotel for Phoenix for a couple of days in less than 10 minutes. Perhaps I have become so used to doing it.

On the other hand, our trip to the Philippines is drawing near. I am excited and although I have not really had the chance to prepare for it, like what to bring back or what exactly to do while I'm there, I'm sure it's going to be a blast! I just want to go to Boracay although with the ferry sinking and the typhoon season still very much present, maybe not. We'll find out when we get there, as soon as we have our visa appointments sorted out.

Gabriel got another trophy for chess as the camp closed today. He told me he could play me and his dad at the same time, so once I get some spare time, we could do that. I'm not sure anymore if it was chess or boghouse he was referring to.

We had buffet lunch at Maxim's and we've decided we won't be going there for buffet lunch again. Their dimsum remains to be the favorite though (especially since we don't know of any other place that serve chicken feet and spare ribs).

Leon and Blue

Have you met Leon and Blue? Blue is Gabriel's code name for the radio while Leon is Jojo's. There's a story that goes with Leon's name (for sure). So when we were thinking up of names to name our bikes, I picked Valentine (because it's red). Well, Jojo insisted to call his Schwinny de Leon. His bike is a 21-speed Schwinn. Haha. Come on, I know you're laughing too!

So while thinking of a code, we were in our bedroom where the bikes are propped against the wall. Jojo couldn't think up of a name, so Gabriel volunteered, "How about Leon, Dad?" And you should hear Gabriel say that, it's sounds like Lee-Yon. And Jojo definitely did not pronounce it like that, but your rather typical pinoy pronunciation.

Which brings me to another story. One day, Jojo and Gabriel were talking about watching Kung Fu Panda. Naturally, Jojo pronounced Kung Fu like koong foo. So Gabriel was beside himself with laughter... I asked him why. He merely said, "Dad, it's not koong foo. It's k-ugh-ng foo (or kang foo, I'm not sure what spelling is more accurate)." The three of us laughed so hard after that.

We're raising an American.

Not just April, also the weekend

Happy birthday, Ate April!

Wow, I have not blogged for quite some time. That wasn't a plan, it just happened like that. And in the meantime, there's so much that has happened so let me tell you before I forget.

Last weekend, Friday night, Vangie and the kids slept at our place. Jan had to go back to get intensive care and so we tried to make it up to the kids and have them play the Wii. We also sampled Diana's macaroni with ham and cheese, and it was ok. Not as tasty as I would have liked though.

Saturday, Gabriel had another chess tournament and he won second place. Another trophy for him, yehey! He's really doing a good job, and we certainly know now how serious a player he is. Even with the knowledge that there are 4 kids in our house whom he can play with the whole morning, he chose to compete. We're so proud of him. He knows his priorities.

After the tourney, we went to his soccer game. They lost but no biggie. I'm just glad he's enjoying himself. And because he's been wanting to go watch Horton Hears a Who forever, we went to Studio Movie Grill both for the movie and the food. I liked the ribs better than the movie, is all I can say.

Sunday, after hearing mass, we accidentally bumped into Anne's family in Linens N' Things. As we were on our way to lunch then, they decided to join us in Best Buffet. Then, we talked about trying out the bike trail in Rowlett Creek Preserve while the kids play Wii. I liked the trail, at least what little I saw. I only did Loop 1 because Aileen wanted to go back feeling that her bike is not up to par to mountain biking. We went home after dinner and had a wonderful time just spending time with them.

Rainy day on Tuesday

The weather is awful. It's been raining all day and a few thunderstorms broke out. We even had a few seconds of power outage, but that has been managed rather quickly. I'm glad. I don't mind the dark at night, but when you expect light during the day and you don't get it, I feel rather ill at ease.

Today, we go to Gabriel's school to talk with the teacher in one of those one-on-one meetings. We just received Gabriel's school card, and I must say the grades are pretty familiar. Hahaha. All rated sections are E [for excellent], and there doesn't seem to be any trouble in school at all. I'm a proud momma.

I realized that we do not have the equal number of magnets (on the fridge) as the shotglass on the shelf. This is due to the fact that I stopped buying fridge magnets when we decided to collect shotglasses. Now, I'm thinking maybe continue on with the magnets as well. We'll see how the budget goes. Perhaps we're at the stage now where we have most shotglasses anyway, so that means I only need to buy magnets.

We played Friends Scene-It dvd game yesterday (yes, the 3 of us including Gabriel). I won, of course.

We've also collected quite a few dvds, and I saw some unopened ones which I will want to take a look at in the next few days. I'll get to that later, and perhaps add a review section here (I've always wanted to be a movie critic).

Date on Friday and the rest of the weekend

Last Friday, I decided to take some personal time off and went out with my husband. We first went to a couple of Borders Music Store to look (and buy) some board games that were on sale. Then off we went to watch a movie, Vantage Point at Cinemark. The movie was not bad but it wasn't good either.

We had lunch at a chinese buffet restaurant nearby, and although we probably won't be going there again, it wasn't bad. We certainly had worse (read: Loop 12 Buffet in Dallas). But the Best Buffet in Plano have already set the bar for us as far as chinese buffets go. There was a time when we pretty much go there every weekend for the crabs. We don't anymore but this year alone, we've probably gone 4 times already. So it's getting to be a trend again.

We picked up Gabriel in school and headed towards Dick's Sporting Goods to go looking for heelys. Unfortunately, none were available so while I took a quick nap in the car, Jojo drove by Best Buy to buy extra dance mats for DDR.

The weekend was pretty much uneventful for us. We stayed home, bonded, and I made blueberry cheesecake again. We visited with Aileen's family Sunday night (Gabriel practically begged us to go). So even though I've already had a glass of strawberry margarita, we still went. We ended up staying till almost 11pm and because it was the kids' spring break, it wasn't a biggie.

St Bernard

I keep forgetting to tell y'all about the time when I told Gabriel that I like St Bernards (yes, the dog). We were on our way to the Grand Canyon when we stopped for a quick snack in Mickey D's. I saw a girl with a St Bernard and hastily pointed out to Gabriel that it was the breed that I really liked. He looked at the dog and then at me, and said, "That's a pony, mom."

Well, it was huge. Hahaha.

Headache

I still couldn't sleep and I still have the headache. We were out last night drinking and didn't go home till the wee hours of the morning. It was a great night though, a lot of fun. Meghna and Jan combined is just a riot, and with Jojo with them... pure entertainment! The highlight of the evening was when everyone started talking about a monkey's digits. You should have been there, it was hysterical.

Then we all had to get out of bed earlier than I would have wanted for Gabriel's first soccer game for the spring season. As Gabriel said, "I can't be late, mom. Wake up!" He's really focused. They won, yahoo!

I had to call Patrick to cancel because I was in no mood to socialize, but couldn't get out of Joel's birthday party so we went. We did make it back home early.

The past couple of days is tiresome. I hope I get to slow down a bit tomorrow.

White Rock Lake Bike Trail

We spent most part of the weekend by the White Rock Lake. Remember I told you about the mountain bikes? Well, we finally got a good break from winter, so we headed off to the lake. Saturday, Alan joined us. Gabriel still had his training wheels on at that time as we weren't sure he'd be able to do it without, but we were quite mistaken.

Sunday, more friends joined us and without Gabriel's training wheels, we made it all the way around the lake. Yup, all 9.2 miles of it. It was fun! I truly enjoyed it. The bike trail was very family-friendly, and the view of the lake was just awesome. There were geese, swans, and I'm sure there were other aquatic creatures that I did not recognize.

This spring, I'm seeing that we'll be spending a lot of time at the lake. Make good use of the bikes, and really, just spend the day outside enjoying the lake breeze, birds chirping, smell of the grass, and great food (that we'll tote with us in our picnic baskets).

In the meantime, it looks like the coming weekend will be cold. But we have made plans to be indoors already so it should not be a problem.

Good words for the boy

Sometimes, you hear good things said about your son and it makes you feel like the greatest person in the universe. Just yesterday, my family had lunch with Meghna and afterwards, she commented that spending time with Gabriel always makes her wish she has a kid of her own. Now ain't that something?

I felt the sincerity and the warmth of her words. Thank you, Meghna. You certainly know how to make a mom very happy.

Grand Canyon, Arizona

First things first, so I'm gonna talk about Saturday.

The general direction was Grand Canyon but there were stops along the way. First stop: Sedona, Arizona where we had lunch and enjoyed the view. This city was billed by 1,000 Places To See In The USA and Canada Before You Die as probably the most beautiful city in the country. We got there, and I thought, it was okay. It was different but to be billed as the most beautiful city? Maybe not for me.

We passed by a park covered in snow so we had to make another stop. Gabriel totally enjoyed this. Enough to comment, "I'm so happy! I love the snow more than the Wii." So that's pretty big.

We made it to the Grand Canyon National Park just after nightfall so we decided to grab dinner and take a rest as our entire day passed rather quickly and tiresomely. We were up at dawn, and we covered quite a bit of land, so I wasn't surprised at all to be in bed and asleep as soon as I changed into comfy clothes.

On Sunday, we watched as the sun rose over the canyon at Yavapai Point. Now I know why they call it grand. And I'm ever so glad to share the experience with the two most important men in my life. Jojo couldn't stop taking pictures while Gabriel couldn't stop playing with the snow. And I would have sat there staring at the canyons if it weren't too damned cold.

We saw a couple of deers on the way to Yaki Point. And I conquered my fear of heights on The Abyss. The endlessness of the beauty of the canyon was truly majestic. And so it was with a heavy heart, and perhaps there was a bit of an empty stomach factor there as well, that we headed out of the park and into the nearest steakhouse.

It wasn't on the general route, but we passed through Sedona again on our way back to Phoenix. As the sun was setting and the light was playing the greatest shadows and color combination on the red rocks, driving through the quaint little town and even noticing the faint reflection of the rising moon, we made up our mind. This could be one of the most beautiful cities in the country.

I wished there were more time to spend here but all good times must come to an end - until the next good one starts. So until then, we'll cherish our moments and memories.

Falling into the water

So about 3 weeks ago, we were in San Antonio strolling along the riverwalk just before sundown. Gabriel was running around (what can you expect, right?) and so, just to be on the safe side, I pulled him aside and asked him what he'll do if he falls into the river. He said he won't panic and swim to the banks. Smart, huh? (I wasn't really that worried, I mean it's not that wide a river.)

Last week, we were in Houston and aboard the triple-deck sternwheeler. On the topmost deck, we enjoyed the view and Gabriel once again kept running around and looking over the rails of the boat to look at the water below. And once again, wait, here let me show you instead:

Me: Gabriel, what will you do if you fall?
Gabriel: Don't panic.
Me: And then what do you do?
Gabriel: (after tilting his head to the left and squinting as if in deep thought) Follow the boat?

We burst out laughing! Can you imagine that?

Road trip south of Dallas

I'm blogging from a room in La Quinta in La Porte, TX. We drove from Dallas this morning and went straight to Moody Gardens in Galveston Island where we tried the hour-long sternwheeler ride along Galveston Bay. It was freezing but we managed to have fun!

Next stop was Kemah Boardwalk and after braving the cold for an hour, we finally gave in and had dinner in Babin's Seafood Restaurant. It was a nice-enough meal, nice location, and great company syempre. As we were eyeing the dessert menu, the waiter asked Gabriel if there was anything he wanted. Gabriel answered him with this line, "No thanks. I'm watching out for calories!" The waiter quipped back with, "Now there's a modern child for you!"

The conversation did not end there, of course, because right after the waiter left, we told Gabriel that he really shouldn't concern himself with calorie-problems at his age. (Inside I was thinking, Man, if I only had his discipline!) In fact, we always encourage him to indulge in food as he is a bit in the smallish tip of the weighing scale.

So here we are, in a standard double-bed room, using the free wireless internet. Jojo's charging both camera batteries (we kinda abused them today, trying out b&w and sepia and other configurations). In an effort to keep our minds off of the digital SLR we saw in Amazon, we are re-discovering the features of our digital cameras (mine's at least 4-yrs old).

I'm not really that politically-inclined, but I just saw that in Des Moines, Iowa - Obama is leading the democratic polls while Huckabee is leading in the republicans race. It's only the primaries, right? (Here's how unpolitical I am, I don't even know who Huckabee is... hehehe).

Happy New Year!

Started the year '08 making noise with our close friends in Garland. We played Taboo and Platinum Cranium and had a lot of fun. By 2am, we were driving home.

Jojo and I managed to squeeze in 2 episodes of Arrested Development, we started a third but fell asleep as soon as it started.

Told Mom I wouldn't be hearing mass in the afternoon and I supposed that made her sad or angry, I'm not sure which one. As it turned out - there was no service in the evenings at St. Thomas Aquinas.

I need to get back to planning our trip to Houston - so I'll be back.

p.s. this '08 journal was Gabriel-inspired... he was writing his own journal the other day and I was really proud. Tata.