FAM IN RED

My mother-in-law celebrated her 50th birthday this week. For the party, the immediate family were asked to wear red. In the Chinese culture, they believe that the colour red will bring long life and lots of good luck.

While we were getting ready, Kyla asked why we were all wearing red. So the hubby told her about the long life thing. Then she picked up my phone and started dialing. As it turned out she called my mother-in-law and this is what she said:

"Ama, I just want to let you know that you're really going to have a very long life because all of us are wearing red- EVEN MY UNDERWEAR IS RED!"

*Ama is Chinese for grandma.

MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!

While helping out at the store, a very well-dressed lady came in. She was looking at the magazines and started talking to me about random celebrities. She seemed very nice and friendly. There was nobody at the store so we started talking about random stuff- including family.

I mentioned to her that I have 2 beautiful girls at home. Then she asked me how old I was. I told her I was pretty young when I had my 1st one but everything turned out well for me. Then all of a sudden, she changed from this sweet, pretty lady to this horrible, monstrous witch (with a capital B)!

She started lecturing me about life and about being a young mom. The whole time I was thinking, "Mahn! The words coming out of her mouth are worse than what anybody else (my parents included) has ever said to me. Who the heck does she think she is?" And her tone was very condescending.

I just stood there speechless and pissed beyond pissed. She kept on going on and on until she mentioned that she was 45 when she had her first child and that she wouldn't have changed a thing. She said she's done everything she wanted to do- get a job she likes, travel around the... not the world... Caribbean, go on cruises, had a nice white wedding, etc...

I honestly don't care how old anybody wants to be when they want to have children. If they wanna have it when they're 20, 50 or even 80... I DON'T CARE! That's their own decision. If they don't wanna have any children, that's up to them too. I don't think I'm entitled to judge anybody for the decisions they make.

So anyway, back to the female dog, she said to me that I must be so ashamed going to my daughter's activities at school since the other parents and even teachers may be talking about how old or should I say, how YOUNG I am.

This is when I decided to stop biting my tongue. I turned to her and said...

"I actually like volunteering at my child's school. I don't care what others say about me. I WOULD RATHER HAVE THEM TALK ABOUT HOW YOUNG I AM THAN TO BE MISTAKEN TO BE MY CHILD'S GRANDMOTHER! Oh, and about the stuff you've already done... getting a good job, touring the Caribbean, having a nice white wedding... I've done those too! Not the cruises yet though. I'm waiting til I'm YOUR age to do it. Anyway, you should get going ma'am. You're grandchild... I mean, your child must be waiting for you at home. BTW, I'm 25 and my mom's YOUNGER than YOU! Have a great day! "

*For the curious ones, I was 18 when I had my first child- not that it's any of your business.

MY PAID DAYS OFF

I've been on maternity leave for 8 months. It's been great so far although there had been so many times when I get so bored at home, especially when Brice is on duty at the hospital. I started thinking about what I could do to help with my boredom but nothing good enough came to my mind (nothing that doesn't involve spending money, that is).

Then one day, my mother-in-law asked me if I wanted to help out at her store. I was kinda iffy in the beginning but the hubby reminded me about my childhood dream. And he said I was gonna get paid, too! So I went and tried it out... and I loved it! I was living my childhood dream but I can be sitting down doing it and read all the magazines I used to spend lots of money on- FOR FREE! Plus, my boss is not really a boss. I don't really do any heavy work cuz the hubby or the brother-in-law are always there.

How cool is that? I get some time away from the kids (I love them but I need a break once in a while), catch up on my mags, spend time with the hubby all while GETTING PAID!

The only bad thing is, I've been munching on a lot of junk that we sell at the store.

KUNG HEI FAT CHOI!

Being married to a Filipino-Chinese, I've gotten used to sorta-celebrating Chinese New Year. We usually just eat out, watch some live Chinese entertainment at either Pacific Mall or Market Village (ie. lion dancing, dragon dancing, etc.) and distribute ang pao's- the red envelopes (with money)- to the kids.

This year, we received an early present from Brice's parents- a golden Buddha. It's supposed to be very lucky. Not only is it sitting on the three-legged toad (very lucky symbol in Chinese culture), it's on lots and lots of money! Oh, I hope it really brings us luck this year! HaHaHa. That's what I say every year. I wonder though, will it still bring you luck even if you don't believe in it? What if I pretend to believe it'll bring me luck? Will it... or he... or she... know? Oh wellz... Brice was brought up believing in all those Chinese stuff so I guess as long as one person in the household believes that the Buddha will bring us luck, then that should be good enough.

But it seems like Brice isn't the only one though. Kaelene has been showing a lot of interest in Buddha. She loves looking at it and she laughs every time she sees it. She even rubs its head and tummy when we put her right beside it.



Anyway, KUNG HEI FAT CHOI everybody!

I WANNA BE RICH!

Do you dream of becoming rich? I know most of us will answer a big "YES" to this question. Some of us work hard to try to become financially well-off, while some of us leave it to Lady Luck.

Winning the lottery is what a lot of us consider a 'fast way' to getting wealthy. The past few days, lottery kiosks here in Ontario have been jam-packed. Everyone is buying their tickets for tonight's big 649 draw- $43,000,000! Wow! What do you do with that much money?!

I, personally, can think of millions of ways to spend that money. HaHaHa. Every time the jackpot is more than a couple of million dollars, I get so excited and start daydreaming about what I would do when I find out I'm the BIG winner- the ONLY winner. But guess what? I never buy lotto tickets! HaHaHa. I hate the line-ups and I sometimes get confused filling out those cards. I leave that job to the hubby. I'm all talk when it comes to lotto- but I know I'm not the only one.

How easy is that though? All the hubby has to do is make sure he gets our numbers in- and gets it right- because WHEN we win, it'll be MY turn to worry about the spending.

FOREVER YOUNG

Browsing through some old pictures in the computer, it reminded me of what Kyla told me when she first started school. I believe it was her first few weeks at school and at that time, "Apa" (Brice's dad) would pick her up when she got off since Brice and I would be at work. As time went by, Apa made friends with the other Filipino dads who also picked up their kids. One day, when Apa wasn't there to pick her up (I went instead), she said: "Mommy, my friends' dads said to say hi to my dad but I think they were talking about Apa. He's friends with them you know cuz they're the same age." So I asked her what she said to them. And she answered, "I told them Apa's not my dad- he's my Grandpa! MY MOM AND DAD ARE TEENAGERS!"

*Until now, she still tells everyone that her parents are teenagers. Her reasoning? Because we don't look like her other friends' parents. The other parents look more like Apa and Ama OR Papa and Mama. Oh geez!

MY LITTLE SUCKER!

Baby Kae is a big thumbsucker! I don't know if it's because she's teething but we've been having a hard time taking her little thumb out of her mouth recently. We've made it to a point to try to take her thumb out every time she starts sucking. We've also told big sister, Kyla, to do the same. So just a few minutes ago, Kyla was watching Kae and she was surprisingly quiet. We figured, "She must be sucking her thumb again." Boy were we wrong! She was sucking something even better...



And Dadddy was there to capture the oh-so-yummy moment! Kyla was just sitting there letting her little sister nibble on her baby toe- it's keeping her quiet.

*Notice how we managed to take a picture? Instead of taking Kyla's toes out of Kae's mouth, I got Brice to take pictures while I started writing this blog!

L-A-Z-Y

There are so many things in my head I wanna blog about right now but I've been so LAZY ever since we got back from our mini-getaway in London. Since coming home, Brice and I have cleaned up the place and...WATCHED OLD MOVIES NON-STOP! So instead of me blogging about shtuff, I've been sitting infront of the TV, coke and popcorn in hand.

I guess I'll start my blogging when both Brice and Kyla go back to school tomorrow... 'til then...

Now where's that remote?

BACK TO REALITY

(above: bumming around, karaoke-ing, eating, chatting, and more... all at the same time!)

Spending the New Year with our closest friends and families was the BEST way to start the year!

It was only a couple of days ago when we left for London (ON) to ring in the New Year at the Gonzales' but it seems like we were on vacation for a long time. It was nice just sitting around, eating LOTS of GOOD FOOD and just catching up with everybody. It was almost like the good ol' days back in the Phils although now I didn't know if I belonged in the Kids section or with the old... i mean, cool moms... oh my! I mostly spent my time with the mommies since all the cool young'ns were mostly chillin' in the basement which I found a bit too cold for me (I guess I AM getting a little old- yikes!). But I had tons of fun discovering a lot of VERY interesting things about my titos, titas, MOM and etc. I also introduced them to my buddy Happyslip. Maybe Happyslip will be invited next year as Tito Bong's new friend. HE-HE-HE. KIDDING! I'm sure she's not a homewrecker! BUWAHAHAHA!

Anyway, we really had so much fun the past couple of days and I wish we could get together like this more often. They are MY FAMILY here and I can NOT wait til NEXT NEW YEAR! For now, I need to burn off all the 'excess baggage' I brought home with me from London! And what?! I actually have to cook our meals now?! *sigh*


**Thanks to Tito Erv for teaching us yet another English term of a Bisaya word I haven't heard in a while- very FLATTERING indeed!

KIDS LOVE CHRISTMAS!

Looking at all the presents each of my girls got, I realized that not in my entire life did I ever get that many presents for Christmas! At the "Annual Tan Family Christmas Party," during the distribution of presents, we needed 4 garbage bags to put all of the girls' presents into! All the kids there had such huge smiles on their faces- so happy to get all those gifts and so excited to open them. But the most excited out of all them was my beautiful, Kyla. She wanted to go home ASAP to open up her presents and to see if Santa had already dropped by to bring what she had asked for. So we left the party as soon as we could and dropped by at my sister-in-law's place to... yes, GET MORE PRESENTS! -at least they got to open them right there and then. But Kyla still wanted to go home already to open up the rest of her presents. So we did. She had to change into her pj's first to get comfy (actually, I didn't want her dress to be ruined- such a mom!).Anyway, after all the presents were opened, we finally got her to go to bed. Then Brice and I had a conversation about how Christmas is really for kids. Aside from celebrating the birth of Jesus, it's also something that children always look forward to. When you're young, you look forward to getting lots of presents from your family and friends. But once you get older, those presents seem to slowly disappear and you find yourself the one to be giving out presents instead. Mahn! I'm really getting old! It didn't matter that we didn't receive many gifts as long as the kids were happy that's all that matters.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

X-MAS SHOPPING NIGHTMARES

I was at the Scarborough Town Centre this afternoon to do some last-minute shopping. Mahn, oh mahn! I totally forgot how hectic it gets in the malls around this time of the year. My Christmas shopping is usually done by the end of November since we always go south of the border during their Thanksgiving weekend to take advantage of the Black Friday deals. But this year, thanks to the low exchange rate, it was bye bye Black Friday shopping for me :-(

So as I was saying... I went to the mall today with the hubby and the girls. Just turning in to the parking lot, I already knew I was gonna have a bad day! Even the farthest parking spot was taken. But I still decided to see if the Customer with Child spots were all taken. As I was nearing the spots, I saw the spot nearest to the entrance empty. I signaled to make sure other drivers knew I was turning into that spot even though I was still a few metres away. I was almost there when this car turned in and parked in MY spot! HELLLLOOOO?!?! I SIGNALLED FIRST! But he wasn't gonna give up the spot. He turned first! *rolling my eyes* UGH! $%#^%$#! Fine! Then there was another spot on the other side. So I hurried but again, somebody got there first. The pretty Asian lady got out of her Honda Accord and... ran straight to the mall entrance! Wait a minute. Why'd she run off?! She parked in the 'Customer with Child' spot but she ran off without a child! What the...?! That's when I lost it... I couldn't even scream at her cuz she ran in to the mall so fast since she probably knew what the other drivers would do once they realized she didn't have a kid with her. But I was sooo pissed off that... I RAN AFTER HER! Yes, I did. I put the car to park, turned on my hazard signals and RAN AFTER HER. She was still walking so fast even inside the mall. I was a few metres behind her but I didn't wanna scream, "Hey You!" So I followed her... to the BATHROOM! I thought, "Perfect!" As soon as I went in, I said, "Excuse me? Was that your Silver Honda Accord parked just outside the entrance?" And she replied, "YES." I smiled and said, "You know that's a spot for 'Customers with Children,' right? It doesn't look to me like you have any AND I have 2 with me! Guess what this lady did?! She shrugged her shoulders and went inside the bathroom stall! Like, really! GGGgggRRRRRrrrrr... *&%$$#%$&^*&^(*%^%$@#$!^&^*&(* !!! My heart was beating so fast that I thought I was gonna explode. I went back to the car, dropped off the kids to the closest entrance and left to find a parking spot. I ended up parking in an uncovered area and as soon as I got off, it started to snow! (It's just my luck, eh?) But oh wellz... At least I got a spot.

The mall was so crowded and a lot of people were rude and impatient- including mall employees! Geez... Now I remember why I HATE doing last-minute shopping. For next Christmas, I'm starting my shopping on Boxing Day this year! I'll be done my Christmas Shopping even before this year ends! And... I'm taking the TTC! TAKE THAT!

3 MORE DAYS!

I've had the biggest headaches these past few days. Brice and Kyla have been suffering from bad cough for the past week or so and Kae is teething! It's been very tiring. Last night, Kae had a bit of a temperature and was tossing and turning ALL NIGHT! Kyla woke up screaming and crying around 3/4 am complaining about how much her throat was hurting. It was a challenge getting back to sleep after that knowing that I had to be awake in a couple of hours.

As soon as I woke up- HAD TO wake up- I got everybody else up and ready to leave for Kaelene's 6-month check up. Kae was just sooo cranky the whole ride to the doctor's office and as soon as we went inside the room, she started CRYING! (She never used to- but I guess she's at that stage where she recognizes what being in that room with that lady meant!) And to make things better, she ended up with 3 vaccines- 1 oral and 2 shots (1 on each leg). Brice and I had to hold her down while she was getting the injections. My poor Kae. She screamed and cried like I've never heard her before. I thought I was gonna cry, too! She did not stop crying until we got home.

Now, she's been sound asleep for the last few hours while big sister, Kyla, is just wastching TV. Brice already left for work again and here I am wishing, hoping and praying that everyone will feel better just in time for Christmas... 3 more days...

CONDO LIVING

I never thought I'd actually like living in a condo but now... I'M LOVING IT! Here's why:

• The maintenance fee pays for pretty much everything- including cable TV!
• Our unit is on the 2nd floor- very practical for us, especially with the two kids. In case of an emergency, it's easy for us to get out (the stairs is right infront of our unit). No elevators needed- especially when we're running late for work, appointments, etc.
• The party room, squash courts, billiards room, SWIMMING POOL and the GYM are just a door away from us. Our unit is the closest to all these facilities. Oh, and the entrance to get to the 'rooftop' park and tennis courts is just right there, too! No more excuses of not exercising- everything is FREE!
  
• No need to MOW the lawn and/or SHOVEL snow!
• 24-hour security. We can contact the security guards directly through the alarm system.
• We're back in SCARBOROUGH! What's the big deal? Everything is here! Lots of Asian grocery stores to choose from, lots of Filipino stores/restaurants and TONS OF CHEAP restaurants (i.e. Dragon Centre- Brice, Kyla and I can have a meal for $5! #44, please!- that's Chicken Fried Rice for those who don't go there enough). There's also a grocery store, McDonalds, bakery, Chinese restaurant/take-out, hair salon, nair salon and a convenient store in the plaza right infront of our building.
  
• Work is only 5 minutes away!
• We've been good on gas- everything is close by!
  
• and... Kyla finally stopped asking for her own room!

Oh yea... I also learned how to cook, clean the house and BUDGET! It's already been 3 months since we've been on our own and so far... so good...

SMIIIIIILLLLLLEEEEEE :-)

My sister got braces! Am I jealous? Yes... a bit... Maybe if she had it 18 years ago (not that she was born yet), I would be SUPER JEALOUS! As a little kid, seeing people with braces made me want to get my own. It seemed like the cool thing then- pretty much all "cool" kids, or should I say "teenagers" I knew, had them. This was when I decided that I will get them NO MATTER WHAT. I wanted to be one of those cool chicks with multi-coloured braces. I would change the colours whenever I want- from hot pink to blue to yellow to whatever! I heard about all the pain these cool "braces-wearers" had to go through but I didn't care. I will go through whatever I have to go through to have shiny, colourful things on my teeth. But the problem was... MY TEETH WERE FINE! The dentist told me I WILL NOT BE NEEDING braces- not even retainers (which I was willing to settle for- they're still shiny)! "Oh no! What do I do now?!" I thought of ways to make my teeth "not fine" so then my dentist will eventually change his mind and give me the braces anyway. "I GET WHAT I WANT." So I put my oh-so-BRILLIANT plan to work:

EAT LOTS OF CHOCOLATE, CANDIES, CAKES- ALL THE SWEET STUFF that's supposedly not good for you, especially your TEETH... THEN... DO NOT BRUSH YOUR TEETH AFTERWARDS! HE-HE-HE...

I swear! I was sooo smart! This plan was surely gonna make my TEETH "NOT" FINE anymore. Then, I'll get what I want- BRACES! buwahahaha...

So... that happened when I was about 6 or so. I'm 24 now and I NEVER got braces (not even retainers)- never NEEDED them, so the dentist tells me! But guess what I got instead: CAVITIES galore and ROOT CANALS!

hmmm... can you say, BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR?

**I now brush my teeth as much as I can.
**I think... no, I KNOW... my dentist is wondering how I could have done such damage to my teeth? (sigh!) If only he knew!

And to my sister, Issa... I AM STILL SO JEALOUS that you have those PINK and SILVER stuff on your teeth! Whenever you feel like complaining on how uncomfortable or painful it is, just think of me. Tell yourself you have them on for me since YOU WERE BLESSED with the NOT-SO-FINE TEETH I'VE ALWAYS WANTED!!! ENJOY THEM! :-D

F-O-B

I am currently in Ajax at my parents' place and I don't know how it all started but we started talking about random stuff- including MY FOBBY moments. And now, my MOTHER AND HUSBAND wanted me to share my VERY EMBARRASSING moments to the whole wide world!

-I was on my first few shifts at McDonald's (my very first job) and a customer asked me for something... I couldn't understand what he was saying at all. It sounded like pure mumbling to me although that 'something' he was asking for sounded familiar. After he repeated himself so many times, I started to panic- I still had no idea what EXACTLY he wanted and he was getting really frustrated with me. And I was already trying my hardest to lip-read! I thought I was gonna cry but since I thought I knew what he was asking for I said, "Oh, that!" I can see the relief on his face while I started to walk to the side- going to the ice cream machine getting his 'something.' I walked back to the customer with a huge smile on my face and handed him the MOST PERFECT VANILLA CONE I was capable of making. The customer looked at me like I just did the STUPIDEST thing and said, "What's this?" I said, "You wanted *me mumbling trying to make it sound like whatever he said*, right?" At this time, a good friend of mine (who happened to work with me and was working on the next till) was looking at us trying to figure out what was happening. When the customer shouted, "I want some S**V****ES!" I was almost in tears, then I saw my friend walk outside to the condiments counter and got him a whole bunch of napkins. She then walked up to me and said, "He was asking for SERVIETTES!" (To all you Filipinos out there: get it? SERVIETTES? SORBETES? And I wasn't even sure what SORBETES meant. I just remembered seeing that word on some ice cream container in the Philippines so I assumed it meant ice cream!).

-Same setting: McDonalds. A man came up and asked for some 'chips.' I was very apologetic when I said, "I'm sorry, sir. We don't sell chips here. This is McDonalds. The convenient store is just around the corner." He looked at me and pointing to the fry machine he said, "What are those then?" FRIES!

At least when the incident above happened, I finally realized that it was okay to order 'Fish and Chips.' I never wanted to order it before cuz when they say 'chips," it's usually Lay's or some kind of potato chips which I don't really appreciate much. And besides, why would you eat fish with CHIPS? Fish and Fries sounds more appetizing!

-I was doing some shopping and when the cashier handed me the receipt I looked at it and looked at her in shock. I walked back and said, "How'd you know my name? I never told you my first name, did I? By the way, it's misspelled." Then I left staring at the receipt that said, "THANK YOU, MERCI!"

And lastly...

-We were at Fairview Mall earlier this evening and I volunteered to order the food. Brice wanted something from Grill It Up so I decided that I'd get something from there too to save time. I ordered Tandoori Chicken and I specified that I wanted it mild. When the guy handed me my order, I stared at it surprised (again!). On the container was scribbled, "TAN, M"- my last name and first initial! I guess the guy saw my expression cuz he then said, "That's what you wanted, right? TANdoori Mild? I just smiled like an idiot and left.

Mahn! Even after being 'Canadian' for a while now (over a decade already!), these things still happen to me! But now, I can finally laugh it off and say, "I AM SUCH A FOB!"

It's okay, you can laugh WITH me :-D

HA - HA - HA !

TIME OFF

It felt nice to have a few hours all to myself!

It is (or was... 39 minutes ago) Friday! Brice is finally working again after being off for a month or so for school purposes. He was scheduled to work from 5-9:30pm and I really wanted to come to the mall with him. But I realized how hard it would be going around the busy mall by myself with Kyla, who always whines about how tired her feet are already (and that shopping is sooo boring- thank God!), and Kaelene, who for some reason whenever we're in the mall decides she'd rather be carried by either me or Brice instead of sitting in her stroller. So I decided to stay home and just do some cleaning up (yeah right!). But everything changes when Kyla decided (last minute- as always) she didn't wanna stay home and she wanted to go to Brice's sister's place and play with her cousins. So Brice called up his sister and asked if it was okay for Kyla to stay with them 'til he's done work. She said it was fine and that Kaelene should come over too. When Brice told me that they wanted Kae over too, I thought, "hmm... maybe I should go to the mall..." Brice and I made sure that it was really okay for Kae and Kyla to stay there without either of us before I made my final decision: "YES! I AM GOING TO THE MALL!"

I got ready in less than 5 minutes and off we went. After we dropped off the girls, Brice and I drove to Yorkdale Mall. He was teasing me saying how I was all dressed up and my reply? "Of course! I'm going to be single for the next few hours!" :-) When we got to the mall, Brice got off and hurried to work while I had to go find parking- on a Friday afternoon! Thank God it only took me less than 5 minutes to get a spot- I've waited more than 30 minutes in the past! As I turned off the engine, I had butterflies in my stomach. Hahaha! I realized that I haven't been in the mall all by myself and all dressed up in a very looooonnnnnngggggg time!

I had 4.5 hours to kill. I told Brice I was gonna get soooo bored cuz I usually finish walking around the whole mall in an hour. He told me to just chill and finish reading my book. But whatever! I was gonna enjoy the few hours of freedom I have from being MOMMY. So I started walking around and I went inside pretty much every single store in the mall. I wasn't planning on shopping (cuz I'm broke as it is- haha!) but I NEEDED to find me and Brice something to wear for Christmas Eve... something CHEAP (at Yorkdale!). I went inside Mexx, Club Monaco, Dynamite, Zara, H&M, A&E, Gap, RW&Co., Aldo, Brown's, just to name a few. It was then that I realized how much different being there by myself was compared to when I have the girls with me. I actually got to see every single item the store had, I got to try on stuff (I would've gotten these really nice pair of jeans but they weren't on sale... ggggrrrrr...) and I didn't have to worry about Kyla complaining how bored she is and/or Kae crying cuz she's... well, take your pick: hungry, hot, wet diaper, or probably just bored too. Also, I finally got to go in the newly-opened Crate&Barrel. I finally got to go inside stores I've never been to even after the hundreds (maybe I'm exaggerating just a bit) of times I've been to Yorkdale. And I've discovered a few things, too! The 'Hudson's Bay' store in Yorkdale has 4 levels! I always thought that that 'Bay' store was boring. Boy, was I wrong! It was almost as big as the downtown store. And afterwards, I walked and walked some more until my feet started to hurt.

When I finally decided to sit down and read (I totally forgot about the book I wanted to finish reading), it was almost time to go home! Wow! I actually spent almost 5 hours walking around and shopping- a bit. I waited for Brice outside his work and when he came out, I showed him everything I bought and... NONE OF THEM WERE FOR ME! They were all for the kids! When he asked me how my 'time off' went, I said it was nice not having to worry about feeding Kae, changing her diaper and pushing the stroller around! Kyla wasn't there to repeatedly ask me how I could possibly find walking around the mall 'fun' and complaining that she's tired and hungry (and she'll only eat at Casey's at Yorkdale). Then I realized, I actually missed my two girls and I couldn't wait to come home and just do whatever we usually do at home- watch TV/movies, play Monopoly or just lie in bed playing DS or just simply talking about how our day went.

Oh... and I couldn't wait to have dinner... (all that "mall-ing" made me forget that the last meal I had was more than 8 hours ago!) Thank God for cheap Jap food take-out!