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My Family

Halloween Trick or Treat


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Halloween Trick or Treat is a tradition that my husband started with the kids when they were around four years old. As a kid, I never grew up in the Halloween tradition of the Western world but hubby did. Halloween Celebration through the years is a memory that my kids treasure because of the yummy treats and magical costumes.

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My two girls who were 5 and 4 years old then

Yes, happy childhood memories next to Christmas and birthday celebrations. Now that my kids are over twenty years old, they have their way of celebrating Halloween.

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It’s my first time in the US without my children during Halloween day, a first trick or treat here too. I enjoyed my day. The kids were so cute or scary in their costumes.

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There were not that many kids though. According to my brother-in-law, not a single candy is left after Trick or Treat. We had three huge bags left. I think the Giants game prevented some parents from driving their little kids around the neighborhood.

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Birthday greetings to the love of my life

And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. Abraham Lincoln

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Butch turned 51 years old today. He is two years younger than me. As in all birthdays in my family, I celebrate it with food. The more we praise and celebrate life, the more there is in life to celebrate. This time around, I feel bad for waking up late and not preparing a special menu as I used to do in the past before my life became so busy. I love that he did not complain though. He even bought his own birthday cake for lunch. It makes me think that birthdays are nature’s way of telling us to eat more cake. (kidding!)

We spent the afternoon at the resting place of our beloved son watching the pretty blue dragonflies hovering nearby as well as the white-speckled butterfly that fluttered by the flowers on the basket. Just watching the wonders of nature was enough joy.

Earlier, I bought bright orange and pink flowers to brighten our living and dining room. I added a pale violet orchid plant to add the final touch on my antique writing table. He loved the flower arrangement and I hope that made up for my laziness today.

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Is there life after high school?

The Groovies, my high school classmates (circa St Theresa’s College Cebu 1974) once again got into the groove of bonding moments. There were reasons to celebrate. Our class salutatorian, Deirdra came home from New Jersey for a visit. Birthday celebrants needed to make a wish and the groovies from Manila missed Cebu. You know, I look forward to these small reunions. Groovies remind me that we are still cool and awesome despite the passage of time. I draw inspiration from classmates that still manage to look good.

Marget Fernan-Villarica not only hosted the party but our stay as well in her lovely, comfy home. Our current president, Nerissa Soon-Ruiz gave this brilliant idea of auctioning off our give-aways to raise funds for our batch project. What fun!

Tess, the preceding batch president told me to write an article for our Coral reunion last year. It is only this year that I got to read the printed version of the STC Annual 2009.

Here it is:

Is there life after high school? To be honest, I was relieved when my high school graduation ceremony ended. In high school, I was a painfully shy, mediocre student with average grades (as in 81 to 85). I often felt intimidated by the smart and outspoken girls. You know how it is in high school – there are the popular girls and the invisible girls. I was one of the invisible girls but I was lucky enough to have a few friends who made me feel like I belonged to a group.

So do people ever recover from that intense high school social experience? Some don’t. They spend the rest of their lives trying to justify what they were, or were not, in high school. This is why high school reunions are so emotional, especially the first one. I declined to attend the 25th High School class of 1974 reunion because I was not ready to face that dreaded high school experience once again. Coupled with five deaths of family members in Cebu, I felt Cebu was just bad news for me and going home was not an option at that point.
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On second chances

A long marriage is two people trying to dance a duet and two solos at the same time. ~Anne Taylor Fleming

The news did not surprise me , that James Yap will fight for his marriage and even tells Kris not to give up . He read his statement in Filipino and in a humble demeanor ““I believe in the importance of having an intact family…That’s why I will fight to keep my family with Kris intact whatever happens.

““I know that every family encounters tests like these,” he continued. ““Kris and I have made it through such tests before and I don’t think that this would be the right time for us to surrender [to such tests].”

So why was I not surprised? I have told you before that just like Kris, I too gave up on my marriage. Really, I would not have taken a second chance if my husband didn’t work things out. Uh, he literally wooed me back.

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Kris Aquino, giving up on her marriage

““Remember that a successful marriage depends on two things: (1) finding the right person and (2) being the right person”

kris-aquino-james-yap-separateIt must be hard being both public figures. Only Kris Aquino and James Yap know their situation. I cannot count the times I, too, gave up on our marriage. Butch never gave up even at the time I gave up on our marriage.

That’s how our married life is. bati, galit, bati, galit and probably will always be, hopefully more good days than bad. The reasons behind some of our spats are immaterial. I believe that more marriages might survive if the partners realized that sometimes the better comes after the worse is hurdled. Then, again coping mechanisms vary among couples.

I pray for all those in the same marital situation as Kris.

Below are the videos and the transcript of Kris Aquino’s interview on “The Buzz,” Sunday (June 27) where she disclosed that she has given up on her marriage to basketball star James Yap.


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Dancing with the feet is one thing, but dancing with the heart is another

““You’ve got to dance like nobody’s watching and love like it’s never going to hurt.”

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I guess nobody is perfect. My husband is handsome, cute, romantic, passionate (hot-headed too), smart, crazy, weird…and that’s just some of the reasons I fell for him when he “drooled” all over me in 1978. When we were seated at the restaurant as the disco music played in the air, he’d sway his body left and right or shake his head. Wow, this guy can groove, I thought. When we were finally steadies, I brought him to “Birds of the Same Feather”, a small disco place in Timog ( it was Ozone a few years later). As I dragged him to the dance floor, he sort of stood there, with his left feet stuck on the floor. With a sheepish grin, he confessed ” I don’t dance, eh. ”

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No one can take away our love

He evoked in me a capacity for love I did not know I had. Those feelings did not die with him, nor will they, I pray, die with me.– Gordon Livingston

A tribute to Luijoe’s 10th angel year (May 27, 2000 – May 27, 2010)

Parents who have lost a child speak of the ““zero point”. Our lives are divided into the time before and the time after our children died. No event – no graduation, no marriage, no other death – so defines us. At one moment I was one person, then, suddenly, I was someone else. The task we face is to create with our new selves something that, in some measure redeems our suffering.

We see, always with longing, children who remind us of what our child was or would be now. (Gordon Livingston)
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