Life, Day by Day

My little girl's nanny whom we call Tata' asked permission to go for a day off last Tuesday November 1. She never came back. I hate it when they do this...she has been with us since May and although I can sense that she was getting tired of taking care of my active 3 year old daughter, I thought she would at the very least inform me that she was leaving before actually doing it. Oh well. Our 2 other househelp are now taking turns watching my little girl during the day while I take over after dinner to put her to bed. It was different with my son because I was much younger then and he was basically a docile (not exactly true anymore, but that is a different story), obedient child, quietly playing with his toys as long as he can see me within his range of vision. My little girl is different...she is adorable but she needs constant attention, talks incessantly, is very curious and gets easily bored. There is one thing my 2 kids share in common though...both of them won't go t

This is one bad October. First I lost my job, then the person leasing our small farm for the last 25 years wants to bail out even though he still has one milling season to go, and then we lost a dear family friend to cancer and now...probably the most annoying of all, our little girl's nanny left without a warning!!!  That is enough to put one in a really bad mood. But, like the saying goes...Laughter is still the best medicine. There is always a funny side to bad things that happen in life...ALWAYS. I am not saying that my problems will go away with laughter but when we learn to laugh at our troubles, we feel better and our outlook in life becomes more positive.  Laughter helps me to move on, forget regrets and be thankful for the good things instead of the negative.  A priest once said that we like to waste our time thinking about the if only's and the maybe's when we should just live in and improve upon the present. The if only's cannot change the past...

I bought my little girl the DVD of the animated musical fantasy Tangled a few weeks ago and since then, it was the daily movie staple every afternoon......up until yesterday.  Why the sudden change?  When I bought it, I knew it was a Rapunzel story but I did not know that it was a musical.  Now, my little girl is three and very bright.  As I was trying to explain the relationship of Rapunzel to the witch by saying that the witch was not Rapunzel's real mother, my 3 year old disagreed and kept insisting..."No, she is her mama".  I then realized that in the song "mother knows best", Rapunzel was an adult and my daughter could not relate this young woman to the baby that was kidnapped by the witch. That song showed a loving, concerned mother who wanted to protect her child.  And so to a young mind, theirs was a mother-daughter relationship.  Where is my problem in all these?  You see, my daughter is adopted and when I said that the witch was not the real mama.

I do not know if the advocates of hormonal contraceptives for birth control have their information wrong or they just refuse to accept the fact that there have been many documented adverse reactions resulting from contraceptive use, the latest of which is The Lancet study that reported that there is a strong link between HIV transmission and the use of hormonal contraceptives, particularly injectable hormones such as Depo-Provera aka "the shot". In September 26, 2011, the US FDA has expressed "concern over the potential increased risk of blood clots” associated with the use of one of the most popular types of birth control pills. The pills in question contain the progestin drospirenone , and have in recent years been marketed to young women under such trade names as Yaz , Angeliq and Yasmin in the Philippines. There is also an increased incidence in breast cancer and increased risk of cervical cancer due to contraceptive use as reported by the National Cancer

Retrieved from http://www.savagechickens.com/2007/06/youre-fired.htm Last October 14, 2011, I received the arbitrary decision of dismissal without forfeiture of benefits after 29 years and  8 months of government service. Now I know how it feels to be intimidated, coerced and terrorized with trumped up administrative charges that is meant to dismiss, even though I have done nothing to deserve it. My conscience is clear.  So, I won't belabor this fact...except to say, I will of course fight for my rights.  Ok, what next? How does one deal with sudden termination? I did not get angry although many people who know me were.  But I felt it was such a useless emotion because nothing that I did or did not do would change the outcome...I now realize that it was already a given from the start. Besides, like I said my conscience is clear.  I think what I felt was more like disappointment because I thought better of the committee members assigned to hear my case, that they we

Last October 10, I was supposed to attend the Brillante Mendoza Film Festival at SM City Bacolod but it rained so heavily and I couldn't get out of my car. I then decided to go to another event I was invited to by a friend at the Business Inn. I was able to park at the basement and my friend was quite happy to see me, as there were only a few guests when I got there.  After I greeted her a happy birthday and some introductions, I was told that this event was about a new direct selling beauty company called Revere Beauty .  Their products are made of absolutely no heat cold processed virgin coconut oil (ANH-VCO) and selected essential oils and oil extracts from fruits and plants. Revere products are ABSOLUTELY FREE of harmful chemicals. They currently offer  the following: Herbal shampoo, Natural hair cream, Coco cleansing bar, Coco body scrub, Feminine wash, Lightening body lotion,  and Whitening deodorant.  After the product presentation, they announced that they will raffle o

After years of indifference, I decided to attend the 2011 Masskara Festival.  I have experienced only 2 Masskara festivities since this started in the 80's...the first time in the mid-80's when I was taking my MBA and classmates convinced me to join the fun in the Bacolod Plaza (at that time, that was the only venue) and last year, when my son dragged me for help with a project to Lacson St.  where it was raining on and off the whole evening. This year, I joined my fellow Negros Bloggers in attending some of the events we were invited to. First stop was the Electric Masskara which is now on it's 5th year.  My friends, and I braved the crowd and pushed our way in to get a good look at the floats. I have no idea which barangay is which but it was great to see the dancers and their beautiful costumes up close. There were still several floats to see but as the crowd was moving, we had no choice but to move along and eventually found ourselves in front of the