Missing You…Still

Remembering my brother Alden whose birthday falls today. Had he been alive, he could have been 62.

Missing you still brother dear. Thanks for the memories. I feel like crying again.

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Busy, Busy

Aside of course from being hit by the lazy bug to make a blog post, I was busy.

Finally, we got to meet again after several years. What a lovely time with the family. We had a mini reunion last November 1 when Noel and Lanette were here. A late celebration for my birthday. I just ordered food online so we had enough time to exchange news. We invited my oldest brother Kuya Roy and my sis-in-law, Nissa’s family too. They brought with them lots of goodies for the family. Nissa and Noel took a lot of photos. I am compiling them in an album at Facebook.

At first mom could not recognize Noel but when he embraced and kissed her, she smiled and shouted “Oweng”, Noel’s nickname.

A family pic but the others were busy with lunch. (Josef, Noel, Nissa, Nate and me).

Ang maglolo.

With Noel and Lanette

Look at how old my mom is now. She’ll be turning 94 by April next year.

Nate’s legs are so heavy😘

They spent four days in Mindoro with Lanette’s family, then yesterday, they were off to Pangasinan to visit Alden at the cemetery and a quick visit to my niece and sis-in-law and some cousins. Good thing one of Lanette’s brothers was free to drive them around. They’re coming back today and on Saturday, Nissa and Obet will bring them to Tagaytay to enjoy another tourist attraction.

Mae is Alden’s only child. She said she looks more like his tito than her Papa.

Just a hectic two-week visit.

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Birthday Gifts

Early this morning, I received a bag of groceries and an umbrella from our town mayor, Mayor Elen Nieto, wife of our former mayor.

It was a nice surprise. Last year, I had to go to the municipal office to get it, this time, two of their staff delivered it. THANK YOU so much.

I love that cute coin purse, a change from the one I had last year. It is nice to be remembered.

I have lots of umbrellas now, sent some to my sis-in-law and cousins in the province. Every year, an umbrella is included in their gifts 📦.

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Birthday Gift

Yesterday, Jovy gave me an advance birthday gift 📦. A beautiful night light with embossed prayers and a figure of an angel. It is so lovely lit at night 🌃.

I received another greeting, from Union Bank this time, the first was from Bank of PI. My birthday is eleven days away yet. I’ll just wait for Lanette and Noel to come home so we could celebrate together.

Isn’t it just lovely?

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Happy Family

I can’t resist posting these from the lovely photos on Nissa’s birthday 🎂 . They celebrated at SOFITEL MANILA. I am saving on space hence these two.

Look at those lovely smiles ☺

SOFITEL’s way of greeting a birthday celebrator. In other high-end restaurants like Vikings, the staff often serenade one with birthday greetings.

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2021 Is Almost Gone

Here I am again posting my year-ender blog. Every end of the year, I try to summarize what happened on the months and days gone.

December 28, three days to go before the calendar changes again. Except for Obet purchasing a new Ford Territory last January, nothing much happened. Nissa and Obet spent the latter’s birthday lunch with us end of January. Middle of March, Nissa was hospitalized for a week because of Covid. Nate and Obet stayed here with us for four days. We survived on video calls with Nissa during mealtimes and evening rosary prayers. The four of us here at home including my 92-year old mom had Covid during the first week of May. For me, it was almost a month-long recovery. Thank God we got well.

Birthdays were spent quietly but I was glad Nissa and Obet surprised me with their presence during my birthday. They went on leave from work. The rest of the months, we survived on audio and video calls, messages, texts and occasional chats with Nate. Those “hi”, “hello”, “I love you Nonna” made me smile.

We were not able to see each other last Christmas day because Nate and Obet had fever. I thank God they are okay now. They are coming over on the New Year. Looking forward to it.

I really miss these two.

Would you believe, I was able to read 143 books this year? I am on my 144th book at the moment.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 🍀🍻🌝🎉🎈

May we all be blessed this coming 2022.

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Monday Musings

Finally, finally. Our guava tree which I nurtured for many years is now bearing fruits, they are almost the same in sizes. I didn’t even see flowers bloom. Silly me but I counted them all. There are fourteen of them🙂

It’s my unica hija’s birthday tomorrow. She’s turning 39. I guess Nate would be their only child. I would have wanted another grandchild, a girl if possible…hehe! It’ll be a second pandemic birthday for her and the last time we saw each other was last January 29 on Obet’s birthday although Obet and Nate stayed here with us last March when she was at the hospital because of Covid.

This pandemic changed everything even family reunions during special occasions. We just have to rely on Messenger to see each other. Nissa works from home and supervises Nate in his online classes. She is busy even during weekends because they no longer have a househelp.

If not for my books and e-books I’ll probably get bored staying at home. They are my constant companions.

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Add To Cart

Lazada.

Lazada Philippines is an online shopping site for electronics, fashion, appliances, baby needs, books, groceries and what have you. Even S &R is in Lazada too. Because of this pandemic, almost everyone is trying to avoid going out to shop, online shopping is better. Lazada is joined by several sellers, they have a minimal delivery charge for any item that you buy except cold cuts, meat and poultry which have higher charges because they deliver them on the same day that you ordered.

You can earn points buying at Lazada, for three times, I got three deliveries for free. They will be on sale again this coming September 9 (9-9 sale). Yesterday, I looked at the items that will be on sale come September 9. I m trying to find a gift for Nissa for her birthday this month and gifts for Nate on his 9th birthday in November. I have started listing items for the family to give as gifts come Christmas. You can drop them all at your add to cart then select later which to buy. There is that buy option which you can click.

Early this morning, I received another delivery which I ordered two days ago. I told the messenger, “malapit na September 9″. Really looking forward to it. He answered, “Christmas ma’am, malapit na rin”. We laughed.

Yeah, CHRISTMAS is just around the corner indeed.

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Friday Thoughts

Yeay, it’s another weekend. February is running fast.

I’ve been remissed in my blogging updates again. I talked to several friends yesterday through Messenger. I met Maria Luisa several months ago when Sambuhay Interaktib started last year. She is living in Australia with her family. She took these photos of us while we were talking. We touched on so many subjects especially our families and the political situation here in our country.

It was so really nice to catch up with friends online.

Today is my adopted son’s birthday (anak-anakan in Tagalog). Fr. Lovell is still assigned in Iloilo and he does not go online often so we rely on texts which is easier.

Got this photo from their Dominican site. A former classmate in high school saw it and asked me to ask Fr. Lovell if he knows the parents of her son’s in-laws who she thinks are neighbors with Fr. Lovell’s family. The latter confirmed that they are close friends. What a small world!

By the way, I’m done with my 21st book for this year’s Goodreads challenge. Discovering new books and gifted authors in the process.

Have a happy and fruitful weekend.

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Maligayang Kaarawan Kapatid

If you’re wondering about the title, it just means, “Happy Birthday Brother”.

This is my youngest brother Noel. BTW, there are three of them and I am the only girl. They live in Tulsa. We get by thru Messenger and Viber catching up on each other’s lives. Today is his 57th birthday.

I told him in jest if he could cook Tupig for me, a native delicacy in our province. When it comes to dessert, he is a better cook than I am and he knows how to prepare our native desserts. He is the most loving, thoughtful and responsible brother. He is very supportive of my writings, a memory keeper, he has all the pictures of the earlier years. He is a computer whiz, assembled our first PC back in the mid-nineties bit by bit. He would bring home materials for the CPU and assemble them at night. When Multiply closed shop, he saved all my published photos there.

Happy birthday bro. May you have the best of birthdays despite this pandemic. Keep safe always. We miss all of you.

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