Finding love for reading

So, I finally opened my Book of Mormon yesterday and started in the beginning, again! I must have read the beginning a zillion times but seem to fade after awhile (except that year that President Hinckley challenged the members to read it through by a specific time frame and when I was new to the Church). Anyway, I included "read the scriptures" to my son's "chore list" and we're doing it together. So far it's working! I know it's only been two days but I feel so motivated. This way, I'll be reading the scriptures daily and my son might come to like reading the scriptures (my hubby and two other kids are in the vicinity, so blessings will shower them too).

By the way, let me explain about why I fade in reading the Book of Mormon. It's not that the book is boring or hard to read, but it's all me! Reading books in general is not my thing! I don't know why because it can actually be fun. I read a lot in my early teen years then less and less after that. Pretty sad, I know. I'm missing out. In fact, just today while having lunch with two girlfriends they were talking about books they were reading. Felt awful at being left out of the conversation (though I was tending to my kids) because I haven't read a book since the Twilight series and couldn't jump into the topic!! So, I'm going to get myself a book and start enjoying to read again. So if you've got a great book you'd like to loan me, please feel free to contact me; or if you've got a book suggestion that would be great too. Oh, you might be wondering what kind of books I would like ... well, I'm open to suggestions right now because I'm looking to broaden my horizons.

Steven's stats

This active 29lb, 32.5in cutie pie sure has had quite a month! A trip to the ER, 4 doctor visits, 2 shots, 2 fairly major asthmatic attacks, and a bizzillion minor falls and bumps! At 19.5mos none of those slows him done (okay, maybe the asthmatic attacks). He continues to climb, run, and tinker at everything in sight! His bowleg is straightening out, his speech is improving, and he is incredibly more lovable! Knowing this sugar booger will want you to have kids!! He's still in a stage where his active antics does not irritate, but find incredibly adorable. I want 10 more of him again! Love you my darling!!

The girlfriend count is on!

To family who's reading this, you must promise not to tell him that I wrote about this or you may not continue to read this!!! Actually, everyone who reads this ... sshhhhh!!!

I had a very cute conversation with my almost 8yo nephew as we were waiting for David to get out of school. There, parked in the car we had small talk and then got into a conversation about girlfriends. I asked him if he had any and he replied, "I had 3 girlfriends but I lost it, I lost it!!". Funny, he kept referring to the girls as it instead of them. You might be saying that he meant "it" as something else like his mojo. No, the conversation was clear that he was indicating the girls. Anyway, he preceded to tell me that he had his first girlfriend in pre-school and they were together until kindergarten. In first grade he had his second and third girlfriend. I'm going to jump into the conversation about the last two girlfriends because it was one of those moments that you had to be there! So, I asked him what they do together and he replied, "Nothing. I hardly see them." " What do you mean?", I asked. He then told me that he met each of the girls during recess and that's the only time he would see them if he saw them at all because "It's a big crowd! There's tons of people everywhere!". He also doesn't remember their names! With giggles, "I forgot." So now in second grade, he does not have a girlfriend ... YET! He doesn't like anyone from his class and it's too big of a crowd to find anyone at recess. The boy's adorable! Maybe he did lose his mojo.

Rainy days

It's been raining cats and dogs this week! There was even a tornado warning. What, in sunny southern California?! Anyway, rainy days means a lot of indoor play and a good chance for blackouts. For David's case, a lot of picture taking! He got a hold of my camera a couple of days ago and captured these moments. He took much more but downloading to Slide takes forever! I can't figure out how to download multiple pictures at once! Oh, rainy days in this household also means lots of movie rentals, soup, snuggling, laughs, 24hr heater, etc. I love the rain! The smell, the sound, the nostalgia for my Philippines days, ... Of course, this said while I'm comfortably indoor! I must say, I use to love playing in the rain! I think I'm overdue ... maybe I'll go out and get a taste. --Be safe in the rain, everyone!!

Optimus Prime saves Buzz

Tea time for Buzz and Woody

"My cup runneth over " day

Church meetings today was great! The sacrament talks about public affairs were interesting ... like that some people have incorrect views about The Church and individually we ought not react in defensive mode but rather answer based on basic principles; also that people's incorrect views would change if we simply live the gospel ... then people will see the truth. Moving on, Sunday school was fascinating! I like this teacher because he gets his students involved a lot and not do all the talking; plus, he seems to naturally bring in the Spirit. Then I felt the Spirit in Relief Society even with the brief time I was there (Nursery brought Steven back to me, so I spent most of the 3rd hour in Nursery with him). I forgot the opening song but I was privately in tears from the warmth I felt of the Holy Ghost testifying to me that I was in the right place. Anyway, at home the happy feeling continued. This evening I read an email from the Visiting Teaching coordinator saying nice things about me. But the fact is, I was guilty of being a hypocrite ... trying to motivate the sisters to do their visiting teaching while I was doing badly in mine (btw, I'm a visiting teaching supervisor)!! After reading her note, I went to a visiting teaching website and found myself reading addresses from prophets about the program and tears began to flow again! I was reminded of how important and wonderful this visiting teaching program is and can be to me personally. I also was reminded of my eagerness for this new year ... a sense of starting everything anew and getting my life organized. Like in this case, I want to be better at my calling and to do that, I need to become a good visiting teacher! And already I'm getting Heavenly Father's help ... I finally cornered one of the ladies I visit teach and have an appointment to visit her this week! More importantly, I'm feeling overwhelmed at how much He really cares for us to establish this program for each of us to take care of one another. I'm called to attention again that The Church is truly under the leadership of the Lord. Truly, a very "my cup runneth over" day!

Meet Baby Rafie ...

... Philippines' newest and cutest baby! Formally, she's my first cousin once removed but that doesn't sound fun ... so she's my niece and I'm her Tita Jinky!

Congratulations Che and Jay! I'm waiting on the stats ... formal name, birth date, weight, length, ... the whole baby story! No rush, a cesarean recovery is rough. --Praying and sending love your way!!

ER adventure

Steven has been suffering some of the normal cold symptoms ... runny nose, stuffy nose, coughs, and low grade fever for a few days. Yesterday evening he was showing signs of labored breathing. Initially he was short of breath from a stuffy nose and active play. I gave him Motrin for his fever and he fell asleep peacefully, but checking up on him often. In the mean time, Sophia also suffering from a cold, added the complaint of ear ache. By that time Dave was getting ready for bed since he had to wake up early for work; gave Sophia to me to tend. Shortly Steven woke up asking for milk. Dave tended to his needs. Dave told me that he was breathing heavily. I took Steven to lie with me and Sophia. There lying with my two sick little ones around 9pm I saw that Steven's short of breath had progressed enough that he was using his accessory muscles to breath. I took my stethoscope and took a listen to his lungs and heard wheezing and rales. I carried him in my arms and told Dave that he needed to go the the hospital. Dave said to take Steven while he stayed with the other two. Before leaving we asked Sophia if her ear still ached because I might as well take her too. She denied anymore pain so off Steven and I to the ER. There, we were quickly seen after the triage nurse had assessed Steven. It was the wait in the room for a doctor that actually took awhile (20-30min) and at that time Steven was wide awake happily wanting to get into stuff. When the first doctor finally checked on him, she had ordered treatments and tests. The next couple of hours was spent getting those orders carried out. Oh, when staff started to approach him, ER was no longer fun! The pulse oximeter bothered him, he cried through the mask breathing treatment (at that point, I was feeling as if he's saying to me, "Mom, why are you helping them do this to me?" --horrible feeling!!) and oral steroid medication, no picnic at the nose swab either, but the chest xray turned out to be alright for him ... I told him to look at the light and say cheese as if posing for a picture (just wasn't the kind of picture he thought). In between treatments he was restless so the staff brought in a soft toy monkey, coloring book/crayons, and baby talk but they didn't satisfy his need to want to get into all those medical gadgets around him! Then, the final doctor assessed Steven, read results of the tests, and gave discharge orders. Steven was diagnosed with acute bronchitis. So the final ER adventure was the wait for discharge instructions which took a little over a half an hour later. During that wait, we resorted to watching TV to make the wait bearable. Finally, with discharge instructions provided, we headed home! But the adventure wasn't quite over. I had to find a 24hour pharmacy to fill the prescription. So, I dropped off Steven home to Dave and off I went to the pharmacy only to have to wait another half hour while the pharmacist's took a lunch break (12:50am-1:20am). I browsed the store (CVS) to kill time. Then finally with medications at hand, I went home and prepared the "stat" one for Steven to take. Finally, I got to bed just before 2am ... only to awaken again an hour and half later by Sophia wanting a drink. Took a quick admiring look at my 2 little ones in bed with me and dosed off for almost 4hrs ... awakened again by Sophia telling me, "Mommy, I'm hungry." My new day then began!!

Testing the YouTube waters

Stumbled into working my way into embedding a video into Blogger. It was in my to do list awhile back ago and now I can check it off unexpectedly!! Anyway, here's a video of David blowing his birthday candle ... captured by my sis-in-law's camera; thanks Tish! We threw David a birthday celebration for a small family gathering because I got so busy with Christmas and other stuff that I forgot to invite his school mates (winter break was in the middle of December and I forgot to have invitations ready for them) and I also neglected to invite his church friends. Yeap, I majorly dropped the ball this year!! But, family gathering is also fun even at a cozy turnout!



Here's a picture collage of David's 7th birthday celebration.



By the way, David did have a birthday party at school along with a couple of his classmates that had December birthdays, so he had the opportunity to celebrate with his school mates. Also, his church friends did sing and wish him happy birthday as well ... so in actuality, David's birthday celebration lasts for days!