Prinsesa’s Anatomy

Today wraps up 2008, another year, another calendar to burn and a new one to buy. In retrospect, I think I’d name 2008 as the year of the chocolate, if my term applies. To me, this year is like me happily eating tons and tons of chocolate but only to have the most terrible migraine after.

2008 was a tough year for me. My character took a really bad beating from the events that had happened this year, and if I could remember properly, I had felt the most pain this year than any other year I could ever remember. It was a case of a fatal migraine, one more ounce and I probably would be recorded as the first ever dead casualty from chocolate overdose.

It was one blow after the other, the first half of the year left my eyes shrunken time and again for different, sometimes the same, causes that has left me dehydrated for a very long time, my peanut size brain reduced to the size of a mustard seed because of cellular dehydration. Disappointments and heartaches came one after the other and I started to wonder if I possibly had a birthmark on my butt that I haven’t seen before, because really, I could not explain why everything did not fall for me.

But then after some time, things started to change, and I was lucky because even when my character was beat up, all the blows only made me stronger, and wiser, I am very thankful for that. There came the point where all the PEA and endorphins from the chocolates I have consumed started to work its magic after the horrible migraine had fried my brain. I started to see the purpose of the troubles, and I began seeing how good I have come out of the strife.

I became a very happy, productive, and mature person this year, partly because of all the missess I have had, and partly because of all the love and wisdom I have gained from them all and those given to me by the people around me. I was happy. I am happy, very happy. If someone would ask me to trade everything that has happened to me this year for all things bright and shiny, I would never budge. This year is the hardest, but definitely the most beautiful. I felt every inch like a flower petal, crushed and ground only to extract the most fragrant perfume of all. If you want to buy I sell it by the bottle, limited edition so hurry. LOL.

I cannot count how many good things transpired in my life this year because they are so many, if not equal then much more than the pains I have felt. After all the trials there is a reward in the end, I saw that clearly, and believe it or not I am really thankful for all the disappointments and heartaches I have had because if not for them I would not be appreciating all the joys I have right now. I am a very blessed girl to have come to grips with all that because I became a new and improved me, which is very important if I am to share myself with others, especially to the ones I love dearly.

I feel that everything around me has improved a thousand times better, and I know it is partly because I have improved myself a thousand times better too. All the migraine from the chocolates I have eaten were worth it. But if you’d ask me to eat that much again next year, I’d say maybe I’d take it but less than two tons please. LOL.

Have a happy new year everyone. A blessed one to come for all of us. I’d also like to take this time to thank all of the people who love me and who have touched my life in every little way, hugs to everyone, thanks a lot, everything meant a great deal to me, including you all my blog friends, thank you.

See you all in 2009! It is going to be the best year of our lives.

Today is the 24th, meaning Noche Buena feast later at midnight! Yum! I can hardly wait. For me and my family, Christmas is an important time of the year. We really get to be filled with the holidays spirit though the whole family managed only once to attend the four a.m. Misa de Gallo! LOL. I am also starting to wonder what kind of games we will play at midnight after eating. See we are your typical happy family, celebrating the holidays together. And don’t even get Kulot started on the possibility of celebrating it with somebody absent. LOL

Tomorrow all of my nephews and nieces from Don Domeng’s side of the family will be here. I do not see those kids a lot and seeing them running and playing around the house each Christmas day makes me feel warm.

This Christmas is also special for me and My Man because last year we did not celebrate it at all because we were fighting so much! But that fact  just makes it better this year, and we are very happy.

And to make matters more interesting, I am posting my Christmas gift for him after challenging him to guess what’s inside. LOL. I’m sure he’ll never figure it out. And I hope he likes it!

Yesterday he was so tired from last minute shopping, going round and round the city trying to figure out what he’ll give me! LOL. He said he started hunting at around after lunch and ended up buying something at seven p.m. Now that was serious effort. LOL.

He e-mailed me the photo of his gift for me, just so I can guess. But I don’t have a clue too!

It is hard to say who will end up having the best gift, but I am kepeing my fingers crossed.

Happy holidays everyone! All the love from me and Jin’s heart!

Most of us are really busy these days with Christmas just around the corner, but here in our house things are generally okay with all the gifts wrapped and ready to go!

I really enjoy Christmas because of all the giving and wrapping, not to mention all the food! I can’t wait really.

But all the cheery holiday spirit isn’t only in the real world for in the virtual place my Man and I inhabit, it is also Christmas! Of course you remember we play an on line game right, ROSE on line?

Aren’t the reindeer costumes so adorable? You get that from the christmas Event quest, by helping Santa Claus fix his reindeers. And all the towns have huge Christmas trees just like that one on the picture. It is really so cool.

Oh, I’d like to share with you our other pictures because I really think the equipment and clothes of our characters are really very nice.

So there what do you think?

Happy holidays everyone!

Don Domeng has a vegetable patch. I think piapot has blogged about it many times in the past. There are all sorts of chili, tomato, eggplant, okra, raddish, and pechay there, and mustasa too, but I don’t know what is mustasa in English, do you know?It is a green leafy vegetable that they tell me has a somewhat bitter taste that is perfect for salads.

It looks so good to the eye. But only to look at for me really because I don’t eat vegetables, but I’ve been trying lately. LOL. Vegans shoot me.

We are really very proud of this veggie garden, for a hobby it does pay a lot LOL. We tease Don Domeng that he is now a maggugulay [veggie seller] and he would laugh back telling us that he will be known as Pechay King soon enough. And did I mention that his veggie patch is located at the back of his beach resort here in our place? LOL. You are all welcome to come if you like, we are here in Bataan, next province from Pampanga in region III.

Yesterday my mentor together with some American peace corps volunteer visited us in the resort. Of course we had to take them to the veggie patch,  and I think they had lots of fun.

All was well actually, hmmm… maybe until I scratched my thigh on a piece of wood.

Oh my, I think my thighs look so huge in that picture! LOL. The wound is a day old today and it is very painful. When I got home last night i immediately showed it to my man, oh it’s so dramatic. LOL.

But still I had a lot of fun. I will post the pictures of yesterday’s sunset another time. It is breathtaking. You’ll get to see it, no worries, maybe tomorrow.

Now the only thing on my mind is this, can I send you pechay by mail?

I thought we can change positions for awhile, this time, you do the talking in my blog. I have here three pictures of my cat Jin and his friend Clifford. It is up to you to supply in the dialog guys. Don’t disappoint now! I know you’ll be able to chain a good story line, go, go, go!

And oh, I was wrong with the counting cat thing! I’m sorry LOL! There are 11 cats, 11 not 10. And yey, yey, yey to K for still trying to count though philos and I had already said 10. And K really insisted on 11 and even magnified the image for me to check again LOL so there you go, there are 11 cats, yey to K!

To us Filipinos, nothing beats a hot bowl of nilaga [I think nilaga is stew?] anytime. We are suckers for this, and sinigang [sour pork tew] too! But to put a little twist to our old fashioned, oh-so-tasty nilaga, how about this new recipe?

Potatoes, cubed

Pechay leaves

fish sauce and pepper to taste

and… a huge cat for the meat!

LOL

That is Kulot’s cat, Tudder. He really sleeps in that bilao [it's like a thin wooden plate, a huge one!] beside all of Mother Goose’s vegetables in our dirty kitchen. He is a fat cat too right? LOL I think all of our animals at home are huge! But Tudder is huge primarily because he is very fond of eating carbohydrates as opposed to the usual common carnivore diet of cats. He likes to chow down on bread, usually pandesal and rice! LOL. What’s more funny is that he is able to use his paw as actual human hands do when getting food inside a plastic bag or on a plate. I guess that’s talent!

COUNTING WITH COUNT PM UPDATE: yey to philos for being the only person to get the number of cats right! They were 10 cats there blog friends. You see half a face of a cat at the end of the line. And they are all our cats, and not all of our cats were present on that picture still, so you can imagine how many cats we really have. But good job to everyone who tried to count!

Okay so it’s Christmas and not really Halloween but I really, really  like The Count from Sesame Street. I think he is a fun character though I am not as fond of counting as he is. I am poor in math LOL. And for joyfulchicken, it says a lot about how I really adore your site, even when there is a math thingy at the bottom for comments I still frequent it. LOL.

Since everyone has been counting the days till Christmas or the days till the New Year arrives, I think we should do a little counting of our own.

Tell me how many cats do you see? Have fun counting blog friends!

When I was a kid, I remember growing up reading and watching fairy tales. I was the eight dwarf in Snow white and the Seven Dwarfs and I was Genie in Aladdin. I really like the idea of a happily-ever-after when I was a kid, though I appreciate tragedies more these days LOL.

So I guess we have all heard of the poison apple, the one the evil witch used to dispose of Snow White right? Well how about a poison orange used to dispose Kulot?

This was Piapot’s idea actually. It is fun, fun, fun! I think this fairy tale has animal lead characters though. LOL!

This can be the one talking behind the magic mirror. LOL.

We went to SM Pampanga for a little shopping for the holidays. We had so much fun though there are so many people doing their shopping too! The whole family split up for awhile to attend to our own needs and it was one of the best shopping runs we had to think there were tons of nauseating people around, such a crowd!

This is an ad in Nike and Kulot and I thought it would be cool to pose in front since she did the same thing before with Kobe Bryant on the same store. LOL

But what’s funnier is this: when we split up, Don Domeng and Mother Goose lost us and was in no way to reach us because both of them had zero prepaid credit on their mobile phones! LOL. They said they were going in circles around the mall for such a long time already, trying to find us and trying to find a loading stall!

We were able to find them eventually though when they were able to reach us after getting mobile load. They were exhausted from trying to find us! LOL. We were teasing them because the whole time we were having fun and they were no fun at all, not to mention lost!

I had my second day of teaching last Thursday, and what can I say? It just keeps on getting better. I wish I had two, no, three hearts just so all the happiness, satisfaction, and contentment I am feeling would have somewhere to go to and be stored. That’s how happy I am teaching.

Don’t get me wrong. It is very hard work, plus the environmental conditions can be classified as torture but that is how I know I have found my place. Though to teach is very tiring and tasking, I still put all the effort I can muster because it really, really makes me happy.

Last Thursday I administered three sets of exams to my students in three different sections after finishing our lesson. I said I’d take pictures of them and post it on my blog so blog mates, may I introduce you to my students at the university.

I really, really think I am not a bad teacher, LOL. The results of the exam were good, some even were able to get a perfect score! That made me happier. My critic teacher is also very nice and helpful to me. I think I am starting to learn and study seriously LOL. I was very overwhelmed when he said his students do not miss him and his teaching because of me.

But the best thing so far was this: there are actually three sections to which I should be teaching but my critic teacher only gave me the two and he handles the last one, the class of 1-B, but last Thursday I attended the class of 1-B to administer their exams. I introduced myself and established rapport with the students and gave them their exams. As I was about to leave, my students said, “Ma’am nakakatuwa ka naman, sana ikaw na lang ang teacher namin araw-araw! [You are wonderful teacher, I wish you are our teacher everyday!]“

I am tired. I lack sleep. I study my own lessons and the lessons that I have to teach at the same time. I rack my brains so hard for ideas and strategies for teaching. But you know what? I dream of doing nothing less.