"The Martian" Is A Story Celebrating Human Perseverance and Ingenuity

We watched the movie The Martian last night.  I was initially hesitant on going.  I thought I shouldn't be spending money on a movie (given that we are on a "budget").  However, I decided to go and I am glad I did.  It was great to watch this movie with family and friends.  It's a well done inspiring story - a perfect balance of fiction and fantasy.  Watching The Martian was a great way to end our weekend and get psyched for the week ahead.   We can do this. Happy Martian Monday to all! :)

"The Third Shift" is Evolving

I could have written four or five different posts
on "the third shift" in the last two weeks.

A new thing has sprouted
And this thing is growing fast

It is evolving
It is developing

And the great thing is
Resources are appearing

Support is available
Encouragement abound

One last leap,
One major step,

One daring act is all I need.
OK, not all but an important and urgent need.

Need the courage to assert
Need the courage to take the blame when I fail

Life is too short to waste on a "wish"
to waste on an unfulfilled dream

without taking a step
without even trying

Don't be downcast oh my soul
the rising is near ...

Family Time At The Ritz

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We were blessed to stay at the Ritz Carlton Kapalua for 3 days and we are thankful for it! I thought I should share some photos here:

The Making of the Gingerbread House 2009

N Danced Ballet at the 2009 MAPA Spring Extravaganza

G Danced Hip Hop At The MAPA's 2009 Spring Extravanganza

We just got home from the Spring Extravaganza and I want to share some of G's photos. Their group did well. The whole show was spectacular!

It was so much fun!

Tomorrow, we will be watching N dance ballet..

These shots did not come out as clear as I would want it to be, but I am still submitting this as my Weekly Winner Photos, because my son is a winner to me :) Visit Sarcastic Mom Blog for more winners.

Childhood Christmas Memory - How About The Aluminum Christmas Tree?! :)

I have so many childhood Christmas memories. I was planning to put them all in one post but that would be too long! So let's do it one at a time. Let me start with a Christmas tree.

For I think I was in Grade 4 when we had our first artificial Christmas Tree. Prior to that, my family used to create Christmas Trees from strings, papers, etc. because a Christmas tree was so expensive.

One "a week after Christmas" morning, my mom saw one of our "well to do" neighbor about to put their old Christmas Tree in a trash. My mom asked if we can have it, and she said "yes"! And so the next year, we had a Christmas Tree. Oh, I held off on telling you what kind of tree is was - but you probably already have guessed (the title said it, duh!) - Yes it was an Aluminum Christmas Tree. Oh we loved that tree. We had it for many years! It was just a 4 ft tree but we always put it on top of a dresser to make it taller. One year we placed cotton around it so that it will look like snow :). Oh there are so many memories associated with that old Aluminum Christmas Tree!

When I Googled the word "Aluminum Christmas Tree" a lot of interesting articles came out. !ere's a few good one:

1) There is actually a Museum for the preservation of the Aluminum Christmas Tree. Check it out here.

2) Beyond 50 has an interesting article. It mentioned Charlie Brown and I found that amusing because last night when we were watching the Charlie Brown Christmas, I remembered chuckling when the aluminum Christmas tree was mentioned.

3) And here's another article from Kansas Museum :)

This post is participating on the carnival "Sincerely fro me To You" at We Are That Family Blog :)

Gingerbreadhouse Making - The Costco Pre-Assembled Houses Worked For Us!

This is another Wordless edition of Works For me Wednesday. For more Works for us Wednesday Posts, visit Rocks In My Dryer. For more Wordless Wednesday posts, visit 5 Minutes For Moms.

N's Birthday Party - I Can't Believe She's Ten (10) !

These are my Weekly Winners this week :)
For more Weekly Winners, visit Sarcastic Mom Blog

Zippys on Maui

N doing a "spoof" of my header :)

Yes, G ate them all

Got Chili?

* To those who are wondering - Zippy's just opened on Maui, about a month ago. That's why Maui poeple are still very excited about it :) - something new in this small town of ours :)

* Updated Saturday Night - I think these will be my WEEKLY WINNERS for this week. For more winner photos, visit Lotus at Sarcastic Mom Blog.

Tackle It Tuesday: Da Car

My Daughter N couldn't stand the sight of my dusty car anymore so she washed it! Actually, she charged me $5.00 for it - but that's ok because my car is now a sparkling silver instead of dust carrier. Thanks for tackling "da car" N! Yes, she's my guest tackler for this week :)

For more Tackle It Tuesday, visit 5 Minutes For Moms.

Weekly Winners: G's Birthday Funhttp://www.lizas-eyeview.com/

What the heck is that toilet doing on that cake? ha! ha!
"toilet humor", G and his Dad told me.
We had fun decorating this cake inspired by our pool:

Nothing beats the heat like shaved ice:

Mom in a bucket! Our kids love sailing on our pool in this bucket.
In honor of G's birthday, I rode on it :).
Everyone had a blast watching me sail.
If you look back at the cake,
you'd see me there as Yoda riding in the bucket, on the pool :)

It was a fun cake indeed!

We brought the kids to watch Space Chimps as
part of the Birthday Party activities.
Here's what happened:
they turned into chimps!

Happy Birthday G - it's fun celebrating it with you.

For more Weekly Winners photos, visit Sarcastic Mom Blog.
Lots of awesome photos in there!

I Miss Having Tatay and Nanay Here

Mamang Sorbetero and the Ice Cream Truck

One afternoon (last week of school before summer vacation) while G and N were doing their homework, a familiar music played from somewhere. The tune of the "It's A Small World After All" keeps on playing, and it gets louder, and louder, and louder. G and N's neck stretched, like an ostrich, and looked out the window, then the three of us said in chorus "the ice cream truck!"

We were all excited ... and jumping up and down, running back and forth. Then I remembered I don't have any cash - yikes! Good thing N has cash. i told her I'd borrow it for them to be able to buy ice cream from the ice cream man and then I'd pay it later. Deal!

The kids came running down the cul-de-sac. The ice cream truck stopped and they happily chose their ice cream. G chatted with Mr. Ice Cream Man for a little bit and then off he goes.
That particular moment brought a lot of warm memories in me. As a kid, we used to get excited when we hear the bell of the ice cream man we called "mamang sorbetero". It was so much fun. I was so excited to see the same excitement my kids had when we all heard the "it's a small world after all, ice cream truck call" :)

I googled for a photo of a mamang Sorbetero, and sure enough I found one HERE. I am posting it here for you to have an idea of my childhood memories of the "ice cream man":


And then I googled to see if I'd find a video of the sentimental song every child and adult in the Philippines knows - the "theme song" of this post title "Mamang Sorbereto". Goodness, gracious, I found one. (Relly (my brother) and Gem, watch the video - there's something special there for Relly ;)

Here it is:



This post is my participating post for "Fro Me To You" at We Are That Family.

Mothers and Baby Poop

POOP HAPPENS
But do I really have to step on them?

This is one of our favorite family story. My daughter loves this story so much that she actually wrote an essay (in her 2nd grade class) about this. Yes, those are my son's poop I stepped on! Yikes!

Here's the story as told by my daughter (of course she did not spell the words correctly, but to make it easier to read, I did):

I remember when I was a baby and my brother was two, one night when I was taking a nap and my brother just got done taking a bath - he ran to the living room naked. Then, he sat down and pooped on the carpet! My Dad, Autie Laura and Uncle Todd laughed. My mom came running out of the bathroom to pick up my brother to dress him up (she did not know he pooped), she accidentally stepped on the poop! IT WAS GROSS! It was so hilarious, my dad took a picture of it.

The week after that incident, we ripped our carpet off and tiled our living room ;)

It's funny now, it wasn't funny then. However, I am so glad hubby was able to capture that moment ;)

*** This post was originally entered in the "Sincerely Fro Me To You" carnival at "We are that family". I decided to also join 5 Minutes For Moms' Motherhood Moments Contest going on :)