Papaya Dance on Good Morning America

Watch the hosts of Good Morning America dance to Papaya, including the very respected Diane Sawyer...with the same dance steps popularized by Edu Manzano on Game KNB? They even acknowledged that the papaya dance craze started in a game show in the Philippines. Wow! Nakaka-proud! Sikat na talaga ang papaya worldwide! The original singer from Poland Urszula Dudziak was just as amazed how her song 30 years ago could be such a huge hit all over the world. She said she has seen video clips of people dancing to Papaya on YouTube. How about seeing her dance to Papaya with Edu Manzano...haha that would be a blast!



Check YouTube for more videos.

my Rockstars

my superboys rock!


found this photo in my file...i think this was taken inside Eastwood mall last november. will have to add this in the "dad & son series" album that i am compiling for my boys.

rock on guys! i'm your biggest fan and stagemom! by the way, raphael wants to take music lessons this summer, he wants to learn how to play the musical instruments. haha! a singing idol in the making, right dad?
he wouldn't be best in music for nothing...:)

i'm giving my laptop a rest to enjoy our short beach getaway...will post pics soon! happy easter!

A LIFE OF VIRTUE

I attended a parents' recollection in Raphael's Pre-School a few weeks back officiated by Rev. Msgr. Claro Matt Garcia.

And i would share with you what he imparted to us- Yes i took notes...He said he posted this in his room so he's always reminded. I think it can also be our guiding principle in life.

A Life Of Virtue

1. Live a good and honorable life.

2. When you lose something, please do not lose the lesson.

3. Follow the 3Rs: Respect for Self, Respect for Others & Responsibility for all your actions.

4. Not getting what you want is sometimes a strike of God's grace. (I've proven this a lot of times, i swear! which coincides with what I've always believed in that there's always a REASON for everything)

5. Learn the rules of life but never break it.

6. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship. (Sometimes you have to swallow your pride and take the first move...or allow time to do the healing.)

7. When you realize your mistake, take immediate action to correct it. (It's never too late to make up for our mistakes.)

Have a meaningful and blessed Holy Week everyone!

food for the season (Lenten Season that is)

This is that time of year when we don't feast on food but fast instead. No meat, and less eating talaga.

Here's what we had on a Maundy Thursday!

Ginataan Halo-halo

Pako Salad : fresh pako or ferns (from Baler)

blanched in boiled water, tomatoes, onions, itlog na maalat,
tinapa or fish, and fish sauce.

getting ready for the ROAD TRIP

we're staying in manila until holy friday...at least we can go to church and spend the Holy Week more meaningfully than heading for a vaca right away...instead, we're going to Batangas this weekend for a short beach getaway.

as usual, for safety reasons, before a long road trip, the car has to be checked...we availed of the free checkup at Petron Greenhills...time for change oil na rin.




while in Petron, we saw this little car, ang cute! na-typan ni ronald and most likely if we brought along raph, he would love this car!

it's brand is smart, 2-seater, and run daw by a Mercedes Benz engine, owned by the gas station's owner.

kakaaliw noh! imagine if you're driving this car, you can probably park anywhere...no big space needed. and like motorcycles in EDSA, pwede ka nang sumingit kahit saan. haha!

ronald couldn't resist...he wanted to try riding in the car, the Petron guys allowed him anyway...sakay lang naman kasi under repair daw ang car, in other words sira! hehe



so ayan...bagay ba? parang mas bagay sa height ko... hehe!

what does LOVE mean?

I came across this article on the net….

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8-year-olds, "What does love mean?"

The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined.

But wait, before you read on…guess how Raphael answered when I asked him the same question: “Raph, what does love mean?”

First he said, “I don’t know”… and then I repeated the question, "what does LOVE mean to you?”

And he goes: “Love is when you have a family and you kiss each other and hug each other a lot!"

Aaaawww….:) That really put a BIG SMILE on my face!

And here’s how the other kids answered the same question. See what you think:

_____

"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love."
--Rebecca - age 8
_____

"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other."
--Karl - age 5
_____

"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs."
--Chrissy - age 6
_____

"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."
--Terri - age 4
_____

"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK."
--Danny - age 7
_____

"Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss."
--Emily - age 8
_____

"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen."
--Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)
____

"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore."
--Cindy - age 8
_____

"My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night."
--Clare - age 6
_____

"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken."
--Elaine - age 5
_____

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Brad Pitt."
--Chris - age 7
_____

"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you." (what an image)
--Karen - age 7
_____

"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget."
--Jessica - age 8
_____

And the final one -- Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge.

The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child.

The winner was a four-year-old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,

"Nothing, I just helped him cry."

don't you just HATE. . .?

- people who keep you waiting and you wouldn't even hear a thing from them after not showing up

- people who disrespect you, trying to make you feel unreliable and worse...unworthy!

- conceited "know-it-all" people but act stupid anyway, when in fact, you're way too smarter than them

- people ignoring your text messages or calls and wouldn't even get out of their way to explain or tell you what's wrong

- liar! liar! liar! excuses...excuses!!! repent NOW for Christ sake

- people who don't respect your opinion, and would rather not listen because of their
"hey-i'm-the-boss-here" attitude.

- people who are sooo selfish!!! but user-friendly... you know the "i'm-good-with-you-because-i-want-you-to-do-this-for-me" kind.

- people who don't respect your time, and would oblige you to listen to their endless boring and WTF stories
about themselves and their past

i know, i know...it's holy week and it's quite off key to write about these things...forgive me, i just want to get it off my chest...hoping later i'll be more focused reflecting about my life and my faith.

a DEEPER experience

love the sea and the marine creatures?




then visit the manila ocean park's oceanarium... quite impressive! adults and kids especially will enjoy the huge aquariums and enormous marine species.

going there wasn't originally in our plan as we celebrated ronald's birthday last saturday but at the last minute we decided to go anyway...after we had lunch out, and had gone to pet shops to buy stuffs for DACKI...we headed to roxas blvd.

if you've seen the long queue last saturday...you might have backed out! but in fairness mabilis lang ang movement ng lines...may express line pa when buying your tickets. there's also a separate line for manila residents and senior citizens because they both get to purchase the tickets at discounted rates.

but when we got inside...horrendous crowd! the first part of the tour which is the rainforest is ideal for daytime viewing only, at night you can't enjoy it and you have to be careful going up the stairs because it's poorly lit! as we proceeded with the tour, you couldn't hear a thing from the voice narration. and worse, it was getting hotter and hotter because of too many people! the temperature just got better upon reaching the bigger area in the middle of the tour...pero crowded pa rin! so ang tip don't go there on a weekend, at mas konti siguro tao early in the day. we were there around 7pm. they're open from 9am to 9pm, but their cut-off in admitting visitors is up to 8:15 pm only.

as you've seen on tv, there's a beautiful and long tunnel, but because of the crowd, we couldn't enjoy as much... still, that didn't deter us from squeezing in ourselves for some photos...

(L) a lion fish up close...(R) sting ray right behind us

(L) raph thought of this pose.... (R) my boys were both in awe

what's important is... raphael enjoyed his first ocean adventure, a deeper experience for him indeed. we weren't able to bring him to ocean park when we went to HK and we haven't been yet to ocean adventure in singapore.

and looks like the birthday boy had fun too! look at the pic below! my boys--they're just soo funny!

oh by the way, strictly no pets allowed, so ate josie and yaya jessa had to stay outside to take care of dacki...buti na lang, there was a concert at the open area down the entrance so they had fun as well!

(ps: jilm thanks for the beautiful photos)

back with my heeled shoes on

finally! after suffering (YES it was really excruciatingly painful) from a sprained ankle for a month and a half...i can now wear my heeled shoes. di naman siya ganon ka-big deal pero nakaka-miss din noh!

when i had my left foot examined at st. luke's, isa yon sa binilin ng dr. sa kin, "no heeled shoes until it has completely healed" and hindi talaga possible kasi super sakit! although now, there's still a bit of imbalance somewhere, i can manage.

BUT these stilletos?...NA-AH! i don't think so! not yet...kinda traumatic matapilok ulit! especially when you're right in front of 100 mob and more who were in the studio when it happened! huwaaaah! kaya nyo yon?

as glenn said in his text to me when he learned about my "accident", di lang physical therapy kailangan ko (which i did) emotional din! hehe! now i can say that not only have i gotten over the pain but the "kahihiyan" as well! :)

mochi balls instead of a cake, why not?

Instead of the usual birthday cake, I uniquely gave Ronald 2 boxes of Mochi Balls for his birthday- they are Japanese glutinous rice cakes that are traditionally given as gifts on New Year's Day in Japan. If that's the case, they must bring in some good fortune! :)

Here's my recent discovery...
Dezato's Chocolate Trufle Filled Mochi. A box contains 12 different flavored mochi balls. What we had were milk chocolate, white w/ walnuts, dark chocolate, choco peanut butter, white choco with green tea which I super like! And of course I’m biased with dark chocolate! Yummy! Hubby liked them too. Truly mouth-watering!

nice packaging! (got these photos on the net)

It was Kris A. who introduced me to mochi balls… she immediately liked them when a friend who came from Japan gave her that as pasalubong (which she shared with us). From then on, her showbiz friends who knew of her liking for mochi balls, would bring her some whenever they’d have shows in Japan.

Buti na lang I didn’t have to go to Japan anymore hehe…Lani, my kumare, texted me that she saw on Boy & Kris that mochi balls are now available in Manila in a place called Dezato. She ordered for me, along with hers, and we went there last Friday to pick up our orders. Thanks Mare!

photo taken by jillmer on the eve of Ronald's birthday...
with our newest baby, chocolate-colored DACKI -

raph's/mom's special birthday gift for dad

A New Baby for Beh's Birthday

There’s a welcome addition to the family…another baby boy!

It's a birthday gift that hubby had earlier asked for.
How can you not grant such a wish? A new baby is definitely a blessing!

Meet DACKI, just 2 months old… his name short for his breed dachshund was given by the birthday boy of course...that's how i wanted to call him too.

Beh originally asked for a pug, and I too like a pug for a pet. But after a little research, I found out a pug is notorious for being a heavy shedder (not quite ideal when you have a little kid who’s prone to acquiring asthma).

The first time I carried Dacki in a pet shop at Tiendesitas, I immediately liked him. I felt I was carrying a real baby…he’s so malambing and lovable ! I never had a pet dog my whole life and I was actually bitten by a dog when I was a child, hence my fear of big dogs or dogs in general. But this time, it felt different…basta!

And more importantly, Raph liked him too…he's afraid of big dogs too. Dacki's small size and proportion make him so cute and unique! And because of his short hair and good temperament, low maintenance pa. Definitely bagay for us first-time dog owners and for our lifestyle. We stayed quite a bit longer in the shop, observed him well and read about duchshunds first before I went on buying. Research says they are quite independent, affectionate and good with children.

But would the birthday boy like him? Definitely! He was surprised to see Dacki on the eve of his birthday. This photo (and supposedly more) can tell that they too clicked! Excellent! A great birthday gift indeed! Happy birthday my Bebeh love!

(Encountered a problem/error while uploading more photos for this entry…that’s why it’s bitin, there has to be a full shot of Dacki, photos of Dacki with Kuya Raph, with me and us together as a family…will post more soon. Thanks Jillm for the great photos.)

Best Bora Moments

First Family Trip to Bora
Feb 15-18, 2008

first dip...he goes "this is so cool!"
definitely happiest at the beach...

his first Bora sunset

enjoying the white sand

best moments tatooed on our minds...

sweetness!

post-valentine's date?

dedma na kahit hindi kaseksihan!

mom, sali ako diyan!

le soleil de boracay hotel at the background where we stayed

my boys enjoying the cool breeze under the sun

weeeh....:) again dedma na! basta sexy daw ako in raph's eyes hehe

at boracay peninsula, waiting for dinner to be served

seafoods galore!

in our hotel room, our last night in Bora :(