In my daughters' old school where the annual parents' orientation is mandatory (former co-parents know what I'm talking about) there was one session when the nuns asked us, what were our hopes and our fears for our daughters. And I thought long and hard about that. I remember standing up to share that I hope my daughters grow up to be good, and ( Read more... )

If we had a good childhood, we want our children to have the childhood we had. As children, Mom would tell us about the huge lawn they had as kids and what fun they had running around and playing outside, and how she wished we had a lawn too. We didn't have a lawn but we had a garden, which was full of trees, vegetables, fruits, and flowers. My ( Read more... )

This is the part of the trip that's mostly just mine. As mentioned in Part 1, Mike actually had to work on this trip, and while he worked, I went to the museums. And when he went back home to Manila, I visted Carlo in St. Louis. Carlo went into hermit-mode earlier this year. And for weeks at a time, we wouldn't hear from him. We were very worried ( Read more... )

After we got back from Australia, we were so tired, Mike said, "Let's not travel anymore next year." I agreed, "Yeah, let's just go to Hong Kong with the kids as planned and no more trip for us." "Yeah." "Deal." "Deal." The very next week, he asked me, "If I go to South Africa, will you come with me?" I was all, "YES! Wait, what, like for good ( Read more... )

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This is the year of weddings. Destination weddings, to be precise! We attended one in the States earlier this year, and had just gotten back from attending another one in Australia. Whew! That broke this year's travel budget into tiny little pieces, I'll tell you that. But it was worth it, as both brides were very close and important people to me ( Read more... )

Years ago, long before her boyfriend proposed, Jo Elaine, my best friend from second grade, said to me, "Pag kinasal ako, pupunta kang States." To which I replied, "Basta hindi ako buntis. Or nagbe-breastfeed." Well I spent most of the last 7 years either pregnant or breastfeeding. I only stopped last year. And that was when she invited me to her ( Read more... )

This was all I could think last Tuesday as we all gathered at the crematorium, waiting for relatives before putting Lola in the incinerator. She used to be so big. And by big, I mean larger than life. Lola Yayang was a tremendous presence in my early childhood. Both our parents worked, and we lived with our grandparents. Lolo Fel mostly puttered ( Read more... )

Once upon a time, exactly 10 years ago, the day came during one of the breaks of the JVP orsem wherein members of Batch 23 decided that everyone in the batch had to confess their JVP crushes. You can't not have a crush, and the crush had to be JVP, and he or she had to be there in the orsem. I can't remember who started this, and what possessed the ( Read more... )

When Mike and I were planning this trip, he said, we have about 2 weeks. Let's see more of the UK than just London. I'm like, Ok. He asked me if I wanted to go to Northern Ireland because he got to go there during his 3 month fellowship in Wolverhampton. I said, what will I see there? He said, well, the pubs are good. So I'm like, pass. How about ( Read more... )