I’ve been meaning to write a post about my dear auntie Aning here a few months ago to honor her for what she had done for us but it was postponed and my laziness set in until I forgot about it. Now, I can’t help myself but cry whenever I think of her. Auntie Aning went to be with the Lord yesterday around 1:20 PM due to cardiac arrest at Baguio General Hospital. She’s 78 years old.

My auntie Aning is the only sibling of my late mom and 3 years her junior. She was an old maid and she was the one who took care of me and my siblings (we are 4) when our mom passed away in 1978. My father had no permanent job so it was my grandma who was receiving her monthly pension and my aunt who supported and raised us. Auntie Aning cooked for us, wash the dishes, took us to the doctor when we were sick, massaged my back when I needed it, borrowed money from our neighbors when we needed money for our tuition fees when were in college, everything we needed she and my grandma provided. When grandma and my father passed away she was alone in taking care of us. When I was stricken with the big C, she was my prayer warrior and she went with me in the hospital when I had the surgery and chemotherapy. When my youngest brother had undergone knee replacement surgery 7 years ago, she went to watch him in the hospital. She was there during those lowest moments in our lives and when my siblings and I got married, she was there to witness and celebrate with us. When I left for the US in 2003, she told me on the phone that she missed me so much. I told her not to think of me so she won’t be missing me but she said she can’t help it. Until about 3 years ago that I was told by my siblings that auntie had Alzheimer’s disease and she can’t do the things that she used to do like cooking and washing disease. I cried and bawled like a baby after I learned that. Last year when my hubby and I finally came back here in my homeland, auntie can’t remember me no more. She don’t know my name nor my siblings names. Her memory had left her, it’s the effect of Alzheimer’s disease. But one thing that amazed me about auntie is that she didn’t forget her name and to pray. Everytime before we eat, she always said the blessing. I’m thankful that I was able to spend a year with her before the Lord had took her home.

If I were to write everything that my auntie Aning had done for us, this space is not enough. Auntie Aning, I love you, I told you that many times when you were still alive and you just smiled. Forgive me if I did something wrong doing some care giving duties to you because sometimes my patience became short due to your child like attitude in your later years but deep inside I really love you and I appreciate all the things that you have done for us. I thank God for giving you to us and for all the times that we shared together. You’re the best auntie in the whole world, you spent your life taking care of us and your loving memories will always stay fresh in my heart and in my mind. Auntie, I know you are saved, see you in heaven someday where there is no more pain, no Alzheimer’s, no more tears and no more problems. Until then…

It's been a while since I posted in this blog of mine. Now after a long absence I've found time to update it and at the same time changed my blog's layout. My old layout took time to download and I hate waiting because it took ages to wait. So I got this new layout for free and I really like it. I noticed also that it doesn't take long to download my blog with this new layout. Hopefully I can update this blog of mine more often now.

...today since hubby and I arrived here in the Philippines. I vividly remember, we left the states January 5th and arrived at NAIA airport at around 11 PM on January 6th. I was so excited to see my family after 5 long years of not seeing them. They told me on the phone that my siblings will meet us in the airport using my sister's van. When we were already on the waiting area, I kept looking at those people waiting but I didn't see my siblings. We've been standing there for an hour already and my hubby and I felt so uncomfortable. We started to sweat because we were wearing thick clothes. It was winter in the US where we came from and then it was hot in the Philippines. Besides I already got worried why my siblings who were supposed to pick us were not there. We had no cellphone to call them. It's good I had some peso coins ao we tried to use the payphone. I had trouble using it and I was not able to connect. Hubby tried a few times and after a while he was able to contact my sister's cellphone. We learned that their van broke on the way to Manila. They were in Pampanga and their van had to hauled to a shop and had it repaired. We had no choice but to hire a taxi and spent the night in a hotel. The taxi driver asked us to pay him Php300 to take us to the nearest hotel but when were on the way, the driver told us that we should pay him an additional Php100 because we had plenty of luggages. Filipinos take advantage of balikbayans and I was not delighted. I paid the driver a total of Php400 in taking us to the hotel that he recommended. I know he also got a percentage from that hotel for referring customers there. Most of the customers who checked in that night were foreigners. When the bellboy took our luggages to our room, I asked him if I can use his cellphone to text my sister so she will know where to meet us in the morning. He said his cellphone had no load so I gave him Php150 to buy a load. I called my sister's cellphone and gave her the name of the hotel where we checked in. We were not able to sleep the whole night in the hotel because of jet lag. It was night here and it's suppose to be daytime in the US.

Early in the morning, my siblings, my BIL and my 2 nephews came in our hotel. The van was fixed and they told me they slept inside the van that night with all the mosquitoes biting them. They looked so haggard because of what happened. They showered in the hotel and I gave them chocolates to eat. The van was color coded that day and it can't be driven in Manila on that day until 6 PM. We had to kill the time until 6 PM so we rode a taxi and we went to SM Mall Of Asia and did some shopping. Then we went back to the hotel and got the van and my BIL drove it going back to our hometown.

We left Manila at 6:30 PM and before we exited Manila I drifted off to sleep. Then I was woken up because of a very loud voice. Two highway patrol officers had chased our van and my bro-in-law had to pull over. My bro-in-law was surprised what was his violation and one of them said that he was on the wrong lane. He spoke so harsh and he then asked for the driver’s license of my bro-in-law. The van’s window was open and the officer had seen my hubby in the window. My sister got off the van and approached one of the officers. She pleaded to excuse her hubby and not take his driver’s license. He didn’t listen so my sister went inside again. Then I can’t help myself but plead too. My bro-in-law said he will just pay right there and then because it’s a lot of hassle to go back again to Manila from Pangasinan and get back his license. Besides he’s working and he can’t drive without it. So he offered to pay a thousand but the officer didn’t accept it. Would you believe he wanted P3500 as under the table payment. He had seen my hubby and crooked officers here in PI thought that all Americans got lots of money. How disgusting! My bro-in-law made a bargain and ended up paying P2500. He said “nakibalato lang ako”. It’s a shame how those crooked highway patrolmen operate in Manila and that was the second time my hubby had witnessed it. The first time was during his first visit to the Philippines. I had to replace the money that my bro-in-law had to pay so he can concentrate driving. It was really a bad experience for him. Their van broke off in the express way and then got fined by 2 crooked guys in uniforms. Made me wonder if they're really highway patrols or they might be counterfeit.

My bro-in-law apologized to my hubby for the bad experience that he had seen there in Manila regarding the crooked highway patrolmen. My youngest brother had observed that they covered their name tags so it can’t be seen. What a way to make a living and what an experience we encountered on our first 2 days in the Philippines!

It's been a year today since hubby and I vacated our house in Wichita Falls after we had sold it. I still remember, before hubby and I left, I can't help myself but cry. We lived in that house for 4 years and there were many memories there. Hubby and I worked hard to improve that house. That house was shabby when we bought it. We did some work on that house to make it look better. At first hubby didn't want to buy it because it was situated in a busy street. But the advantage was it's only a few minutes drive to all the leading stores and restaurants in our city.

When we left that house on the 20th of December last year, we went to stay with my step-kids in Alvarado and spent Christmas and New Year there before flying here in my homeland. I'm so glad that hubby and I will be spending Christmas here with my family after spending 6 Christmases in the states. Home is where my heart is.

...is courtesy of Femikey of Femikey Designs. This is the 2nd time that she did a free makeover for my blog. I like the color and design of this layout and when she said she's giving it away for free, I requested it right away for this blog. She granted my request and she installed the layout in my blog. So this is now my blog's new look. If you want a blog makeover, visit her site because she give away free layout every now and then. She also sells her designs for a very reasonable price. Once again, thank you Femikey for my new layout.

Christmas is in the air and it's the time of the year to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm glad that we're here in my native land so hubby and I will celebrate this Christmas with my family and loved ones. We had already decorated our house with Christmas decorations as early as last month. But I can't help myself reminiscing our Christmas decorations the other year in our house in Texas. Hubby was the one who put the Christmas lights in front of our house and I was the one who put the Christmas ornaments. Then I asked hubby to take photos in our front porch. I just want to capture in picture the Christmas decorations that we put. The pics didn't really turn out that good. It's kinda blurry but still I wanted to post it here. The batteries of my digicam were exhausted that's why. Anyway, here are the pics taken 2 years ago.

I just wanna post here my experience in eating lunch at Cracker Barrel restaurant sometime last year. My hubby had 2 gift cards from this restaurant worth $10 each which was given to him as Christmas present from the parents of the kids in their school. We used it for that day to pay our lunch. It was my first time to eat at the said restaurant. When we went in, the place was packed and we had to wait for 5 minutes to be seated. My hubby ordered his favorite chicken steak with fried okra and french fries on the side and I ordered chicken and dumplings with mashed potatoes and coleslaw on the side. I haven't eaten chicken and dumplings yet so I was curious how does it taste. To my dismay, it doesn't taste good to me, even their mashed potatoes. I will never order it again and I told hubby I will not try to cook chicken and dumplings because I don't like it. It's a good thing they gave us dinner rolls and corn bread while waiting on our orders so that filled me up. I just asked for a box and took home my order. My hubby ate it for supper. The foods at Cracker Barrel didn't meet my expectation and I doubt I will ever eat there again.

This is what I ordered, chicken and dumplings and mashed potatoes and it was not as good as I thought.

Last year, I had a health issue regarding the ringing in my ears called tinnitus. The ringing was so loud that I wasn't able to sleep and later on I developed anxiety and depression. I asked my hubby to take me to the park one Saturday afternoon to walk and unwind. I've been feelin' low and stressed due to lack of sleep so I decided to go out walking and feel the fresh air and sunshine. Lucy Park is just 5 minutes drive from our house. I like that park, it's so nice, clean, peaceful and serene. I went walking while my hubby waited on me in the van. He doesn't like to walk because he said his callous in his feet hurt. I took photos of the trees and the scenery around while walking. I love nature and whenever I'm at Lucy Park, I feel that I'm so close to the Creator with the beauty of nature that surrounds me. There were some people at the park and I saw a couple who was having their wedding pictorial near the pond. The park was a good place for wedding photos with all the green scenery and the ducks in the pond. After I was done walking, I called my hubby to come with me and sit at the swing. We sat there for maybe an hour just talking, looking at the trees and people who were there at the park. We talked about God, how He created that magnificent park with all the trees, birds and ducks. I love the feeling just being with my hubby out in the park, sitting on the swing and just appreciating the beauty of God's wonderful creation.

More than a year later, I still have a ringing in my ears but it's not as bad as before. Maybe I just got used to it that I don't think about it that much now. I just notice the ringing when it's so quiet at night and sometimes when I think about it, I suddenly hear it. So Lisa, don't think about it, okay?

During our weekend getaway October last year, we had the chance to see the pumpkin patch in Denison. I've seen some photos of pumpkin patch before but that was my first time to actually see it for real. I was just curious to see the different kinds of pumpkins that they have there. Well, they have different varieties of pumpkins there and maybe it would be good in making a pumpkin pie. I love pumpkin pie but I don't know know how to make it from scratch. I use the canned pumpkins from the store whenever I make one. At the pumpkin patch, they have the hayride there but I didn't want to ride because that's not new to me. We have those in the Philippines. We call it "kuliglig". Here are some photos taken there.

I had a huge garden at the back of our house in Texas. For the past 3 years I planted different kinds of veggies and I harvested a lot too. For now, I'm going to post the string beans and my bitter gourd from my garden last year. My veggies yielded a lot so what I did, I cut the string beans and blanched it. After that I put it in a ziploc bag and put it in the freezer. It lasted a few months. I didn't do that it with the bitter gourd though. I like to cook it fresh from the garden so it won't taste so biter. Whenever I pick some I cooked it right away with ground beef, tomatoes and eggs. My American husband love it. He said it tasted so good.

Last year, hubby and I went to eat at Grandy's on different locations three times. When we were on our way to Alvarado June last year, hubby and I stopped at Highway 287 to have lunch. We wanted to go to Dairy Queen but it was on the other side of the road so we opted to go to Grandy's. I've seen in their menu that they have a country steak meal and it was their special for that day. Special means the price is discounted. So hubby and I ordered 2 steak meals with 2 side dishes each. I ordered fried rice and coleslaw for my side dish and hubby ordered macaroni and cheese and French fries. I tell you, that was the cheapest lunch we had in a long time in a restaurant. We only paid $7.98 for 2 meals. Their steak was good and they even gave us 2 dinner rolls each. I was so full after that. It was my first time to eat at Grandy's and I like it there. The next day, we went to eat again at Grandy's in Alvarado and I ordered the same menu. But it was not the special of the day so we paid more. Besides, the prices in Grandy's Alvarado are higher than in Hwy 287.

On the way back home from San Antonio more than 2 years ago, we stopped by at Cabela's shopping center in Buda, TX. This is a sports store and they sell items mostly for recreation, sports, camping, etc. What impressed me most about this store is that they have a mini zoo of different kinds of preserved animals. They have lions, tigers, deers, bears, elephants, zebras and a lot more. They call the preservation of these animals taxidermy. Whoever preserved those animals, they sure did a good job. I was so amazed and I kept taking photos of those different kinds of animals. They also put some artificial trees in the mini zoo and painted the background with a beautiful scenery which added beauty to the mini zoo. It's amazing!

These are my roses that I planted in front of our house in Texas more than 2 years ago. I'm really fond of gardening and I love planting flowers and vegetables. I love planting flowers that are perennial because they always come back each year. During spring, my flowers bloomed beautifully and of course I took some snapshots of them as my souvenir. I planted different flowers but I will post their photos here next time.

Just looking at these photos made me miss my exercise equipments. I had been using these almost everyday when we were still in Texas. I like to exercise because it's good to my body. Most of the time, after I was done with my blogging I rode my stationary bike and bike for about 15 to 20 minutes. While biking I was listening to my subliminal CD for peace and happiness to remove my stress for the day. After I'm done with my stationary bike I ride my power rider for about 15 to 20 minute too. I set my timer so I know when it's up. I tell you, after I'm done with my exercise, I feel a lot better. I feel renewed and I felt I gained more strength. I also walk in my treadmill during cold weather because it's cold to go out walking this time of the year.

When we moved out of the country, I can't take with me my exercise equipments so I gave it away to my friends. I gave the treadmill and power rider to my pastor's wife and my stationary bike to my step-daughter Shelly. If only the shipping is not that much, I could have shipped it here. Anyways, I bought a new stationary bike a couple of months ago but can't afford yet to buy a new treadmill and power rider.

When I was in Texas, I tried to bake cookies for the first time. I've been baking cakes, muffins and bread but I never tried baking cookies. I thought of baking some home-made cookies because my hubby likes it. I baked oatmeal-butterscotch cookies and to my surprise they turned out good. They were not as good as those cookies that I've been eating though but they're still edible. Perhaps if I keep on baking cookies, I will get better. Good thing is, my hubby liked the cookies and he ate most of it.



Here's the recipe:

Sensibly Delicious Oatmeal-Butterscotch Cookies

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or grated peel of 1 orange
3 cups quick or old-fashioned oats
1 2/3 cups (11-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ TOLL HOUSE Butterscotch Morsels

Directions:

PREHEAT oven to 375° F.
COMBINE flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in oats and morsels. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 7 to 8 minutes for chewy cookies or 9 to 10 minutes for crisp cookies. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.