Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
First of all, I brushed up on my little Photoshop skills to create this banner. I'm glad that I've still got it. I mean, I don't do as much graphics as I used to. So it's simple. I just played up with the colors of her uniform. :)

On April 2nd, Celestine officially finished Kindergarten and was deemed ready, along with a hundred others, to move up to 1st grade.

While waiting for the Processional, I took these photos. It was a sweltering day by the way. Summer is here! She's looking lovely and excited on these photos. She decided beforehand that she wanted braids and a butterfly headband. Her Tita Jeny did her hair. I put some light makeup on her and just dabbed a lip and cheek tint for a hint of color. I also pinned that pink ribbon corsage on her. I noticed that no one else did that so maybe it's not a thing here in Allen. But growing up in Burauen, I always had a corsage on during Recognition Days so it's a tradition. Anyway.


Hot outside, and also hot inside the venue with hundreds of warm bodies all crowded up to witness the sea of yellows, marching up to get their awards. But we didn't mind at all.
No, we didn't mind. Especially if we came here to rack up a few awards. She got the Dancer Award (really?!), Golden Heart Award, Mathinic Award and Star Reader Award.
She also played a part in the Program. She delivered the "Pasasalamat" or "Thank You". It's funny, she wouldn't even start her speech until I came up front to take the video. I'm glad that she did well because we practiced a lot. I also reminded her to not fidget around so you see, she's well behaved onstage.

Here she is with her adviser, Maam Mary Jean. This one's really special because she really adores her teacher. We also have a photo here of some of the teachers and administrators of Allen Central Elementary School headed by Ma'm Maribel A. Formaran.



And here's our family photo!

Getting into the first grade will be  challenge for my daughter and I promise as a mom, ka- career -in ko and pag support kay baby girl.
Go go go!
She did say that she's ready to be a Grade 1 with full conviction. Aja!

XOXO,
Carissa
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Happy New Year!
Until recently I have postponed controlling my food intake because it's kind of pointless when you have all of these food screaming "eat me" on your tabletop.
In honor - or more like, in memory - of all the wonderful food that we have consumed over the Hew Year Holiday, I decided to feature them on my first blog post for 2018. :)
This is also my way of sharing and showing the Filipino food culture to the world. 
The Philippines has been a colony of Spain for more than 300 years so you can see the Spanish influence in some of our dishes. It's also been Americanized a bit because of the American occupation. But prior to that, the Chinese has already been doing trade in the country.
So what we have here is a mixture of all those influences - plus a few twists.
Here are some food and dishes that we Filipinos love to prepare on New Year's Eve.

The Fruit Basket

Sweets and Desserts 
Chocolate coins and whatnots. My dearest loves, Ferrero,Cadbury, Toblerone and Hershey's. :)
Home made Mango Float, Fruit Salad, Pudding and Chocolate Overload Roll from Red Ribbon.
Chocolate Mousse Cake from Red Ribbon - yummy! 
Filipino Style Spaghetti
It seems that the standard for the Filipino Style Spaghetti is the one from Jolibee. Well, that's how it's made here. More sweet than sour and has loads of hotdogs.

The Viands or "Ulams"
The word viand may have a different definition in other countries but in the Philippines, a viand is an item of food, a meat, seafood, or vegetable dish that accompanies rice in a typical Filipino meal. en.oxforddictionaries.com
Chicken Roll or something like Chicken Cordon Bleu. I used to make these stuff but it is kind of time and energy consuming so mama just orders 'em now. Still yummy, specially when you get to the gooey cheese.
Ham! But not like the  real beef or pork leg kind of ham, more like a loaf.
Shrimp sauteed in ginger. I dunno what else is in there, my brother made it. Yummy too! I'm not really a big fan of seafood but I am willing to make an exemption for shrimp.
Pancit and Beef Steak - both staples in Filipino meals. I love them both! They both look very oily but they're kind hard to resist. Like, gosh I don't even wanna try. 
Roasted Chicken. Since we are not big pork eaters in our household, chicken is always our preference. My brother made this. Chicken was marinated overnight with some special sauce and it was stuffed with "tanglad" or lemon grass. 

Looking at these photos just made me feel hungry.
XO,
Carissa
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Because baby was looking lovely today. :)
Thank you uncle IJ for the dress! Celestine had been so excited to wear it for the longest time.
The metallic pink sandals and over-sized bow headband were her choice of accessories. I would've picked a different footwear or hair accessory but once Celestine makes her sartorial choice, it's usually difficult to sway her. So here we are. :) 
Big hair, big skirt. 
Go big or go home, they say. LOLs.
Fortunately, she wore the dress, instead of the dress wearing her.
Work it, girl.
For what's a wonderful day with a wonderful dress if you can't spend it with your friends?
Celestine with her friends during their Christmas Party.
The mommas squad. I took this photo so I'm not in it. See you at the end of this post.:)
My beribboned girl stands next to teacher MJ (in gray shirt).
The face of excitement. Ecstasy? Elation?
Or maybe someone else is more excited to open the gift?
The  party ended quiet early though. We owe it a day-long power outage. Otherwise, the kids (and moms) would have been gyrating to Despacito until 12 noon. But that didn't happen. Instead, Celestine and I found ourselves heading to the Gabaldon Ruins which is located inside the Allen Central Elementary School.

The 'Ruins' is one of the known landmarks of Allen. It is located on a hillside of Celestine's school. I'm usually out of breath by the time I reach the top whenever I accompany her to school. But lately, she's been insisting on climbing up all by herself.
I was a bit of a history junkee when I was still in school so I love being around this kind of stuff. No, I am not at all spooked. I see beauty here. Cracked pillars and moldy walls can only tell so much.
Mimicking the statue of Dr. Jose Rizal.
The abundance of giant trees also bring some fresh air to the area. To be honest, it's like being in a different world when you climb up to the ruins.
At the ruins with Dr. Jose Rizal.
Careful there. Dr. Rizal is looking down on you.
A photo with this cannon is a must when you climb up here. 
Here's a good view of Allen poblacion from up here.
Sorsogon is just over the horizon. LOLs.
Someone's rushing to go home 'coz she's excited to play with her new toy. 

Okay. To be fair, I will not end this blog post without showing you a photo of me.
How's this? :)
Happy holidays!
XO,
Carissa

PS. She's dedicated to wearing the whole outfit. The giant headband stayed on. Didn't complain about the giant skirt. Wore heels while climbing up the hills. Phew!
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Hours of roaming around Robinsons Place Tacloban brought us to DAWG HOUSE. We were 3 PM hungry (our legs were tired too) and my brother said that he'd like to treat  us to a Monster Burger. :) Who would say no to a burger of a monster?
The brother, looking all smug with my beautiful mama.
This is Dawg House's kiosk and you can probably deduce from the photos that the space is quiet tight. If all the seats would be taken it would be hard to move round but luckily we were the only patrons at that time so we managed to feel comfortable.
At the counter.
The Menu
Here's a closer look at what they're serving. They're pretty affordable. Sorry if the prices are a bit blurred but they're mostly on two digits and some are on three digits so you probably get the idea.

 Lemonade and Iced Tea were our choice of drinks.
My sister and my mama, btw.
And the infamous Monster Burger took center stage. It's as wide as a medium sized pizza! It's good for 3 to 4 moderate eaters. 
The Monster Burger//Price: Php 299.00 (USD 5.95)
I could make use of a thicker patty but I'm cool with this one. Those fries were also on the layer, along with some cheese, tomatoes, onions and cabbage. I think the bun made such a huge difference. It's not just a regular generic bun; you can tell that it's been specially made. It's soft and flavorful and I would gladly eat just the bun if it came to that. It was a filling meal so we were really satisfied.

Dawg House says that it has "Mean Dawgs. Nice Buns". Well, I can attest to the niceness of the buns.

I'm so looking forward to trying a dawg next time; maybe that Chili Cheese Dog or a Sloppy Joe perhaps.

XO,
Carissa
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We're in the year 2016 - that's three years after Yolanda ravaged the Philippines. We all know about how much of a deluge it was. So many lives lost. Too much destruction. I remember when the storm died down and I and my family went out of our home (what's left of it) and saw for the first time the unspeakable damage that Yolanda brought. "How do we rise up from something like this?", I thought. And we didn't even have the worst brunt. The Taclobanons and the residents other coastal towns in Leyte and Samar had it worse.

My home at San Diego, Burauen, Leyte a few hours after Yolanda left.
Flashback
On November 7, 2013, a day before Yolanda happened, the weather was gloomy but it wasn't even raining hard yet. Work and classes were canceled because according to the news, a very strong typhoon was coming and we all needed to prepare. The thing was, we Warays are kind of used to the idea of having typhoons every year, so some of us were easy to brush it off as "just another typhoon". Some of us actually prepared but since we have no idea of how strong a super typhoon could be, the preparations just fell short. Some of us were like me: was Facebooking all day. I've read on my timeline that said that the incoming typhoon's strength could lift a bulldozer. I thought it could also raise an eyebrow - mine. Apparently, there were so many others like me who didn't heed the warning.

It turned out that the warnings were true. Yolanda was unlike anything that we have seen in our entire lives. It was a nightmare and I prayed that nothing of its magnitude would ever happen again in our country. But there has been a juggernaut that entered our country every year thereafter; I've experienced Ruby in 2014 and Nona in 2015 and for this year alone, we've had at least 2 or 3 strong ones. And the year isn't over yet.

On Yolanda's third anniversary, I'm sharing some photos which were taken with our trusty digital camera, which luckily didn't get drenched or wasn't easily battery drained. I wish I'd taken a photo of my sister carrying those damaged GI sheets, just so we have an evidence of her strength when she is under adrenaline rush. But, here we are. :)

Lamp and electrical posts were down. A few weeks later, my sister and I took the time to touch the tops of the posts. Hey, it's a bragging right, being able to touch the top of the post, albeit a fallen one. ;)
Spot the big white clouds at the end of the road. There's going to be a great weather tomorrow. But how do we get to tomorrow with all of these? And how we dreaded the coming of the night. Photo taken on the afternoon of November 8, 2013.
My energetic grandma surveys the destruction. My brother may just be thinking about what we will be having for dinner. Wait, what?! We actually forgot about breakfast and lunch.
My high school, the Burauen Comprehensive National High School.
The Burauen Comprehensive National High School, days after Yolanda.
The Burauen North Central School, days after Yolanda.
Must have been taken by my father, somewhere in the Palo area.
My momma's school, the Burauen National High School.
The Burauen National High School,  days after Yolanda.
"We's havin'  a great weather", that's why my kid and my younger brother were relaxing on the floor. But remember....
...we still had no roofing.
We had our roof fixed about four weeks after Yolanda, just in time for the Burauen Town Fiesta. We wished we had a faster way to get things fixed but construction materials went scarce for a time., and well, it was just chaotic. After which, we took the baby steps towards the "pagbangon" or "pagtindog" process. We did whatever we could to have a nice Christmas and New Year, not without stories about Yolanda to keep us on our toes. We knew we would be talking about her for years and years to come. No matter how badly things went, Yolanda still brought out the best in us. There will be stories of bravery and courage, along with those that bring tears to our eyes. And that particular night when just about everyone I knew (and thousands more that I didn't) evacuated to higher ground for fear of a tsunami; that one was dangerous. But admit it, it was also funny from one perspective. 

We've come a long way from November 2013. We've risen up from the ashes. But I think we still have a long way to go. There is the issue of Climate Change and how it mainly affects us. 

This is in remembrance to all of those whose lives were lost. This is also in gratitude to those  who made great sacrifices to help their fellowmen.

XO,
Carissa
Tin adds the finishing touch to our tree. December 2013
P.S. 
I wish I'd found a way to  keep my post-Yolanda weight. (!,!)
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The National Heroes Day Holiday on the 29th of August gave Tin and me the chance to fly off (not literally though, we took land travel!) to our homey in Burauen. Thus we were reunited with the 'rents and the sibs. It sure is mayhem when Mummy Cassie, Skinny, Fluffy and Boots are together. Top that with a 'lil Crumptious and we could have a camwhoring sesh all day. Okay, if I may speak like a human being again, those are our nicknames for each other. I know, I know. Our nicknames could double as names of pet fishes, dogs, birds and cats. But hey, we adore each other that way. Ha ha. Now on to the photo diary.
My sibs Fluffy (standing and feeling the waterfall like it's nobody's business), Boots and Skinny, together with my daughter Crumptious Celestine.
Pines Farm Mountain Resort
Location: Brgy. Abuyogon, Burauen, Leyte
I've been hearing about this resort from folks back home and with the name 'Pines' I thought that there would be real pine trees in the area. Well folks, you won't be seeing any of that sort of trees. There would be coconut trees, bamboos, hard woods and all sorts of greens but no pine trees because 'Pines' is in fact the name of the owner daw. Haha. But I'm not sure ha, because it was just word of mouth. There is indeed a farm and yes, it is in a mountain (or a hill?) so you better pack up with your oxygen because you will do some walking from the entrance to the resort itself.

Fees
Entrance: Php 20.00 for Adults and Php 10.00 for Kids
Cottage fees vary depending on the size, we got a Php 300.00 one and it was in the elevated part of the resort and indeed had a better view of the entire place.
View from the top! Lovely place surrounded by greens!
If you haven't realized it yet, this resort seems to have been built on a river. So you can see where the huge rocks are left and where cementing has been done to cover up the river bed and to create different depths of the pools. So you have that one where the kids can swim in safety. But as you go along it becomes deeper and that last one in the end according to my brother could be up to seven feet deep. So parents, if you have kids coming here, be mindful, especially that there are no explicit signs written around about how deep the waters are. Those cement walkways could also be slippery so please be guided.

Meanwhile I took the time to take photos of the flowing river. I hope I brought them to life through these photos. :)
The waters..it's how our town got its name after all. Bura. Foam. Water foam.
At this stage though, I think the place is still in the process of being developed as you can see that it is still pretty much rough around the edges pero surely in time, it will be in a much more prettified state. I'm glad that we Burawanons no longer have to flock to coastal towns such as Tanauan or Tolosa whenever we feel like taking a swim. We finally have these resorts to call our own. And the water is reaaaaally cold, even at noontime. As is the breeze; it's not like in the sea where the wind can practically burn your skin. Being here is just refreshing!

Now on to the subjects of this shoot. Believe me, they are always trying to upstage each other.
The early birds. We arrived there 9 am-ish and it was cold, I didn't immediately take a dip.
Work it for the cam, guys. :) This falling water part is located at the very end or the other side of the last pool.
Uncle duties.
Gotcha!
Ham it up, sis!
Ahm, I guess you have  a burning question in mind. Like, where was the blog mistress the entire time and why are there no photos of her? Haha. Well I confined myself to taking shots of my manicured toes. ;)

XO,

Carissa

PS. This is the part where my daughter tells me to 'put the camera down and start swimming'. Kids.
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