the royal wedding

nice wedding.  for a moment there, i almost got teary-eyed as i watched the princess-to-be waving at people from inside that 1977 rolls-royce phantom iv with glass panels.  took me back to the first royal wedding i witnessed back when i was a kid (yes, i was just a kid then!) of then prince charles and lady diana.

the people on the streets overwhelmed me.  made me happy for the couple to see that those people actually love them and are happy for them.

the wedding dress by sarah burton at alexander mcqueen was pure elegance and the wedding bouquet was simple but classy.

nice trees inside the cathedral.  and man, westminster abbey was BEAUTIFUL.  made me tell the hubby to bring me there someday when we become rich, to hear mass.  only to find out they're not catholic.

simple wedding rites with no mushy vows.  but bordered on boring.  i was actually waiting for the groom and bride to do something quirky to make it a little less serious.  but well, what did i expect from a royal wedding, right?  they did exchange a few quick glances and grins which was enough for me to say "awww..."

yes, harry was cuter than william.  but hey, when william put on his hat after the ceremony, he WAS CUTER.

too bad i missed the royal kiss on the balcony coz i got up from in front of the tv to call my mom.  but well.  googled pics just now of the kiss and found them quite satisfactory.

so there goes my evening.  what to do now but wait for hubby having a royal night out.  yes, just outside in the terrace with the boys.

so there.  i just had to blog about this wedding.  good night.

boyfriend

i worry a lot about my kids.  i worry if they don't eat enough, sleep enough, have fun enough.  about why the two of them argue a lot.  i worry about what kind of person they will grow up into.  about what they will wear to that next children's party.  about their tuition fees for the next school year.    that the little big man's teeth are getting a little yellowish.  i worry about his skin and her height and her hair and his mannerisms and his allergic rhinities and her urinary tract infection.  and what the heck is that bruise doing on the little girl's knee again?  and how in the world did the little big man lose that last tournament again?!

a mom i know is worried about her 3 kids.  she is a full time employee while her husband who supposedly works too cannot support her financially and comes only to visit her and her kids at least once every two weeks.  she knows he has women (yes, plural) but probably denies it to everyone and to herself.  when she goes to work, she sometimes leaves her eldest (if he's not in school) at a relative's house, her second with the nanny at home and her youngest with another relative.  she has loans everywhere to make ends meet.  recently, she's been informed that she has to evacuate her apartment for lack in payments.  she gets by with the help of relatives but at night she's usually on her own.

oftentimes, i feel i'm the most burdened mom in the world.  only to realize what a great gift i have in my husband and children.  we are not always ok.  we got problems here and there.  but we got one another to keep us strong and secure and looking forward to the future.

just last weekend, the little girl, who is now 5 years old whispered to me as she watched a justin bieber video, mommy, i want to have a boyfriend.

i say calmly, ok, but when you're 18.

and she goes, how about when i'm 14?


and i of course say, no, 18.


to which she contested, but justin is only 16. so can i have a boyfriend when i'm 16?


i stood firm. 18, sweetie. when you're 18.

i'm not worried at all.  well, except for her crushes and lady gaga.

staycation over

staycation is over.  it just passed by in a jiffy.  i won't complain though, coz even if it wasn't my ideal vacation, it was still a good one.  our little family did not go anywhere, we just stayed home and ate, slept, watched movies and played games. 

oh, did i mention our little family was joined by my brother's own brood?  it was chaos with every meaning of the word, but it was fun.

the prize

he had the most maangas na hairstyle at the  Region 3 Age Group Taekwondo Championship.

but it was  all he had to show.  on the first round of his first match with an opponent he beat at his last tournament in nueva ecija, he was a hesitant, blundering, clueless little big man.  first round, the score was tied at 1-1.  after the time-out, he came back with a little fire hitting 4 consecutive points but got head kicked and ended the second round with a 4-4.  

so it was sudden death.  (for no-tkd-background readers, it's the tie-breaker.)  coincidentally, my videocam ran out of disk space (note to self:  clean out memory cards before games!)  so i watched in frustration as i saw my champion son backing off the whole time instead of attacking his opponent.  everyone -- me, hubby, teammates, parents, coach -- were literally screaming at him to attack, but he did nothing.

i can still hear our teammates and the parents' sigh of disappointment.  i can still feel my hand touching hubby's arm to calm him down as he lashed in dismay at the son.  i can still run over and over in my head the look on the little big man's face as he broke into tears when the referee declared his opponent the winner, his coach patting his head.  while i walked away coz i didn't know what to say to him that would comfort him.  that would comfort me.

the hubby was most frustrated.  he commanded us to pick up our stuff and stormed out of the gymnasium to head home.  i knew how he felt:  all the training and hardships they went through gone to naught.  his first game as a red belt playing in novice2 went kaput.  how we waited for two months before he could play again only to end up with a severe loss that could've been a gold if only he had performed his regular game.  what happened really, we couldn't tell.  he just cried and cried on the way home.

..ooOoo..

normally, when we attend games, we are unable to go to sunday mass because it takes the whole day.  so we had the chance to go today.  normally too, we would be seated on the first few rows at the left side of the churh.  but since it was palm sunday, the church was already full when we arrived so we settled at the sidelines where we couldn't view the altar but it was presko and we had makeshift seats out of excess kneelers. 

halfway through the mass, i noticed this slightly obese boy, about 12 to 13 y/o with glazed eyes, looking harshly at my kids and other kids around.  his mom and dad were on both his sides, holding his hands each.  after a while, i heard him humming loudly -- singing actually, an unidentifiable rhythm.  his dad hugged the boy to him.  after a while, he was struggling to be let go as if he wanted to go somewhere but his dad kept him beside him.  his mom looked at him lovingly and wiped the sweat on his neck.  all of us around him knew he was special and were tolerant of his behavior. 

then i felt God talking to me.  here is a little family, much like mine, with much more to be disappointed about than me.  and here they are, in church, praising and thanking God for their special son.  they are not ashamed of him.  they are happy coz their son is alive and well.  i felt so guilty that tears welled up in my eyes.  i looked at the hubby and i knew he knew too what was going on in my head and in my heart.  i knew i had so much more to be thankful for because i had a smart, talented, healthy son whom i should be so proud of.  how could i be so ungrateful! 

walking home from church, i watched my son -- the little big man -- and whispered my thanks to God and my apology for being disappointed in my son.  talking to hubby later, he too had the same realization.  we know we wouldn't have our son any other way.  he's  our prize, our gold and nothing can take that away from us.

thanks, mike borja, for the photos.

random = perfect

i love how random last weekend was for my little family.  what we planned out to do, we didn't follow and ended up having a better time than we expected.

first, after the altar boys seminar (yes, the little big man is attending) we went to check out voice lessons for the little girl which we found not worthy of her time.  so we set out to go to that swimming classes my mom was talking about the other week.  on our way there, we found a EENT doctor, which we have been trying to find for the longest time who can cure the little big man's allergic rhinitis.  but we didn't check in with him yet and instead still headed for the swimming school.  which the little girl liked and we said we'd come back.

 

had an unusual lunch out at Ogo's Lugawan.  this was in the vicinity of the swimming school and decided on the spur of the moment.  it turned out to be a gastronomic treat.  definitely coming back.

at the EENT, we were explained that the rhinitis is something that the little big man will be carrying for the rest of his life and that all we can do is maintain that it doesn't hinder him from his daily activities.  

when we got home, my dad invited us to go visit the fish farm in paombong.  we had taekwondo training that afternoon but decided not to go and instead enjoy an afternoon in the provincial site.  after all, it wasn't often that the kids get to go to such places.  so off we went.  we had kamayan dinner inside a small nipa hut built right beside the fish farm.  the little girl fell in the pond coz she slipped from the coconut tree bark which served as bridge from the pilapil to the nipa hut.  i was at first alarmed but when i found her okay, we laughed together coz she had to stay in the car the rest of the evening without pants or undies which got all wet when she fell.

nipa hut and the fish farm

 fresh catch of baby sugpo, not yet ready to harvest

 the pilapil.  we walked all around it!

sunday morning was taekwondo training again which we skipped so we can laze around the house, the kids and hubby watched a chinese film while i read twitter feeds about willie revillame.  

after lunch, the long awaited chance to visit the coop came.  my parents accompanied us and finally, we had opened an account each for me and hubby.  heard mass at 5pm and bonded with my mom while grocery shopping still with hubby and kids.

 

i know all this may seem senseless to anyone reading this.  but to me, it was one of the best weekends of this year so far.  despite all my problems at work these days, this weekend came in to let me feel that i got this nice simple family to go home to.  EVERYDAY.  and at the end of the day, what matters most is them.  nothing else.

sunday morning

love it that they're playing bahay-bahayan instead of arguing.  sunday morning bliss.