Simply Belle

Last Monday when I came home from work, I was greeted with this sight in my living room. My husband hauled all these stuff from the garage to the living room for me to pack to send to the province. I am also packing my not so old PC to give to my nephew who is going to be a freshman in high school next year. Huh? When will I ever have a chance to rest or have time to catch up with my blogging even? My last entry was from over a week ago and I am way overdue for a new post.

These are, by the way, the school supplies that my daughter, Lexie, had collected during the Key Club’s Donation for Education drive at school. This is supposed to be done last summer but I have been extremely busy entertaining so it has been neglected for a while in the garage. My husband thought that by bringing it to the living room, it would prompt me to pack it in the box. Gosh, I hate clutter so I guess his strategy works. Don’t you just love husbands? He thought that it would make me happy if he hauled it to the living room, where it is nice and cool as opposed in the garage, where it is uncomfortably warm. I suppose, it makes sense. But you know the real reason behind all these? Those stuff have been in his side of the garage for quite some time and he wants to claim his space back. But, right now, blogging comes first. As long as I started the packing today, even if I don’t quite finish it, it should make my hubby happy. Geeesshh, I still have to go to the post office to mail some cookies to my darling daughter, and ohh, I just remember, I have yoga class this afternoon. Oooppss! I better get going….

Remember the days of beanie babies? I got hooked on it for a while. I call it my beanie baby fever days. I wouldn’t let a week pass without buying 2 or 3 of these babies to add to my collection. They said that the price of some of them would go up in value over time so I got addicted even more. I also bought it to reward my daughters for getting good grades at school. My eldest daughter enjoyed receiving them. She consistently got straight A’s as a result.

Recently though, when she cleaned her room this summer, she got rid of these babies and shoved it off in the garage. She doesn’t hang on to her stuff forever unless it has sentimental value. Her room is very organized and clutter-free. I don’t want to take those babies to the Thrift store because I spent money on them. I believe I paid $5 or more on each. I thought I would send it to my nephews but what will they do with it? Will they appreciate it? I wonder if I should hang on to it hoping that it will go up in value??? Hehehe, I am dreaming again. Who wants one?

It is now 10:40 AM, and I better get on with the packing.

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My dear blogger-friends, please help my daughter decide which version of her song entitled “At The Edge” is better. You can listen to it here.

She just put up her latest song, “You’re Not There.” which will be recorded next. Please listen to it and give us your feedback.

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Today, my husband and I went to a Rodeo in town. Payson Rodeo is the oldest continuous rodeo in the United States. People from neighboring states like Colorado, Nevada, Idaho, Texas, California, and New Mexico come to Payson to compete.

We had to sit in open bleachers and it was scorching hot. I sat in Steve’s shadow but not enough to cover my whole body. I survived though because once in a while the sun went behind the clouds.

When we got there, I noticed that someone got hurt. Immediately, the paramedics appeared on the scene. It took a while for the paramedics to transport the victim to the nearest hospital so while waiting for the next event, my husband and I wandered off in the concession area. As we were checking out each stall, the rock climbing wall caught my attention. I immediately approached the guy and asked him the cost to climb the wall. He said $6.

Without hesitation, I said, “I will do it,” even though I haven’t done it in my lifetime. It is about time that I should go for reckless abandon. Right amiga, Eden? Why not? I didn’t feel nervous at all. Here are some pictures to prove it.

The guy was giving me instructions.

When I reached the half-way point, I almost gave up. I couldn’t reach the next stone for my hand to grab on. My husband urged me to keep going. The guy said that if I stepped on the next rock on the right, I should be able to gain the ground to hang on to the next rock. It worked! And suddenly, I was at the top. I have never felt so good. Who says 40 something is going downhill?

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Ahhh, I thought I would be spared from this circulating meme. Thanks dear Julie. This is tough as I don’t have that many pictures of myself that haven’t been posted here in my blog because it is usually me who goes behind the camera. Besides, I am not keen in posting pictures of myself because I am not that pretty and I recently gained weight. I am 10 pounds overweight. Que horror! I have been trying my best to lose it by walking 3 miles a day after I get home from work, rain or shine. It has been a week since I started walking, and so far, it hasn’t made a dent yet. But, that will not deter me from continuing. Besides, the weather has been nice lately and I get to say hi to people and get teased by some.

I wanted to post pictures from yesteryears but my mama didn’t document my childhood years. Sad huh? Or if she did, it may have been ruined by many super typhoons that have ravaged our little island. I remember seeing a picture of myself in Hawaiian costume and some high school graduation photos but those seemed to have disappeared, too.  It is sad because my kids wanted to see what I was like when I was little. What can I do?

Here is one that I found after going through my files. This was taken 5 years ago when I was 40 years old.

Here’s another one which was taken two years ago while ordering food in a restaurant. I made this picture into an avatar in PMN so for some of you, this is not new.

And last but not the least, a picture taken two years ago at a wedding on a beach. Let’s see if you can find Waldo, I mean negrang Belle in this picture.

To know more about me, all you have to do is scroll down my blog. I posted my humble beginnings and that tells pretty much about myself. I am basically easy to get along with but I don’t want to be a victim of favoritism. I will fight back. I work hard at what I do and I deserve to be treated fairly and squarely regardless of my color, decent, and background.

I love cooking but am not much into baking although I love to indulge in sweets now and then. It is so easy to gain weight now that I am in mid 40′s. When I was in college, I had to take an apetigen pills in order to gain some pounds, but nothing happened. It proves that you shouldn’t tamper with mother nature. Imagine, I weighed only 97 pounds then and that included clothes. I was often ridiculed for not having a rump in my butt. Hehehe…I got one now, a J-Lo look alike butt. I just have to make sure it doesn’t grow bigger and bigger.

If you like to do this meme, consider yourself tagged. For the mechanics of this meme, please go to Julie’s site . I haven’t really perfected the art of linking.

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I have been bestowed with several awards:

First, from Chats of IMoM:

She is such an inspiring woman. Her story of how she rose above her circumstances, her generous heart for the needy, and the awesome job she’s doing with raising two beautiful and brilliant girls inspire me.

Second, from Eden of This Garden of Eden:

Belle - another sweet friend … blogging away from Arizona. The mastermind of my invasion of the blogging world. Esta amiga mía y yo tenemos muchas cosas de que poder hablar. We both like the Spanish language. We both adore our children. We have been attempting to practise the old tradition…. yong maganda niyang anak at ang aking matangkad ang guwapong anak.. She and I can talk too about “poor and poorness”. I admire her struggles to better herself. I salute her for her community projects. ¡Usted oscila, mi amiga!!!

Third, from Elyani of Elyani’s Place:

Her blog was one of the early ones that inspired me to want to blog. A blog site with great story and photography from the first post to the last – enjoyable feast for eyes and senses. Congrats, Belle, I love your work!

And from Verns of TheWalk of My Life-Shlife:

Belle- the one with the heart of gold.

And Verns gave me another award, the Thoughtful Blogger Award for making visitors feel at home in their blogs, kind and courteous, heartwarming entries about thoughtfulness, charities and fundraisers

Ohh, how lucky could I get getting multiple awards. Thank you! Thank you! from deep inside my heart.

And now, it’s time to pass this award on to others who truly rock.

It is time that I pass the award back to Eden of The Garden of Eden . E, as I fondly call her, is a great cook, has green thumb, and is a loyal friend. I talked her into creating her own blog and I am glad she did. She writes interesting articles that make me want to keep coming back to her site. Wait until you see her awesome poems.

And the second person that I like to give the award to is my kababayan K. First, I am going to do something that no one has ever done yet (at least not that I know of) and that is to change the name of the award to Rockin’ Male Blogger. K is such a nice guy. He always has time to reply to the comments made by her blogger-friends. He is forthright with the way he writes. And he is hilarious, too. I tagged him for 10 random facts about his mom and I couldn’t stop laughing as I was reading his entry. What a great sense of humor. You can read his entry here: All About Kathleen

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The last two days were extremely busy for me preparing for my daughter’s concert. My UP XDS family from Virginia and California came to help me with the fundraising. The day prior to the concert, my daughter got really sick and I was so worried that she would not be able to perform. I spent the whole day tending to her, making sure she was alright. The thought of canceling the show immediately popped in my mind.

Later in the afternoon, she started showing progress. She wasn’t as pale as few hours earlier. By 4 PM, she started rehearsing. I felt a sigh of relief. The show would go on as scheduled after all. By 5 PM, Tepsie, my husband, and Jake went to the venue and set up the sound system, which took about an hour. She went home to get ready and by then, it was 6:30 PM. She only had half an hour to dress up and to apply the make up. We headed back to the location at around 7 PM. It is a good thing that we only live within 5 minutes from the venue. It gave S the time to practice some songs with her sister.

The concert started on time. The president gave a brief speech right before the show. He talked about the Association and its objectives. He also noted that there were items for silent auction. The five of us had to walk around the stage and showed each items off to the audience. Too bad though, not too many people came. Well, for a town where Filipinos are few and far between, I couldn’t complain with the outcome. We auctioned off all our items. The Thai boat that I wanted so much, initially priced at $20, sold for $85. Not bad eh?

The arrival of my XDS friends: Tony, Raff, Jake, Nene and Sam.

Tony, Sam, Nene and Jake getting all the items ready for auction

Sam and Toni working on the poster in the comfort of my living room.

Jake presenting the painting for silent auction while president Raff explaining the historical significance of the painting

Tepsie singing her original songs.

Lexie and Tepsie singing a duet

As usual, the hard part was seeing my friends go. My husband and I had a really good time with them. Tony was hilarious. I have this high tech shower that baffled all of my guests. I was able to show how it worked to Nene but forgot to teach Tony and Raff. Tony went to take a shower one morning but couldn’t find the knob to pull for the shower to work. He gave up and lowered his head below the faucet instead and splashed water over his body. Nene and I laughed hard when we found out. I totally forgot to tell him. He jokingly said that I did it on purpose.

Nene is so sweet, cute and sexy. I understand now why she has done so well in her chosen career. Before the concert, she insisted that we make flyers and go door to door in the business part of our town, where I deliver mail everyday. I was so embarrassed to go inside the door yet Nene made it look so easy. She said, “there are only two things that can happen, they either say yes or no.” Wow, she is one great entrepreneur. I am pretty sure that if I hang around with her long enough, those entrepreneurship qualities of her would eventually rub off on me. Also, she has two beautiful and loving kids whom I adore so much. Sana maging balahe kami..hehe, (just kidding).

Raff, our dear president, was so kind, jolly, and adaptable. Since my house has only three bedrooms, he and Tony didn’t mind sleeping on the couch in the living room. They were going to sleep in the hotel but I managed to convince them to flop on the couch and in the sleeping bag in order to save a few hundred dollars. Hey, a penny saved is a penny earned, right? Worst of all, Raff gave my husband a heck of a fight in chess. My husband was simply blown away. I am sure he looks forward for a rematch.

Ahh, I miss them now.

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I have been tagged by Greymom for 10 random facts about my mom. Unfortunately though, my mother joined the creator about a year ago, a few months after I visited her in the province. She was 88 years old.

It wouldn’t be easy for me to talk about my mom without long sigh, furrowed brow, or occasional tears. Nevertheless, I will be fine. Thanks to Greymom for the tag.

• She only reached second grade as it was during the Japanese occupation in the Philippines when the natives spent most of their time hiding. Japanese were all over the province, cutting heads off if you didn’t give in to their demands. My uncles lost his head when he refused to give his pig.  So, instead of going to school, my mom and her family chose to live in the jungle for as long as the Japanese were around.
• She was a fashionista. Boy, she loved wearing nice dresses. I had never seen her wear pants except when she was doing dirty jobs like fishing in the swamp or tending to our kamote plantation.
• She loved strong perfume. Three years ago, I bought a bottle of Opium perfume as a present and boy, did she love the scent. Every after bath, she would dispense a couple of spray and the whole house would be saturated with fragrance. Whew, too strong!
• She had a beautiful soft voice. I can still vividly remember some of the songs that she often sang to us when we were little. Now I know where my kids inherited their singing voices, and of course, given by God,
• She was an excellent cook. She also made excellent desserts that I regret not taking lessons when I had the chance. Her signature dessert was cassava roll with sweetened coconut flakes inside. It was so good!
• She was a hardworking mother and a survivor. At a young age, she taught me how to survive in this tough and cruel world in her own way. She was at her best when faced with adversities and hardships.
• She loved all her children, grandchildren, and extended family. Truly, she epitomized a woman whose love extended far beyond her own family.
• She was very thoughtful. When I recently went home, she gave me php100 to buy caramelized pili nut to be split between my two daughters. Of course, my daughters were thrilled to receive the pasalubong from their lola even how small or little it was.
• She has an incredible memory. Here I am at 40 something, manifesting some signs of Alzheimer’s yet my mother had maintained her memory until her last breath. Why am I doing wrong? Not fair!

I am tagging K, Elyani, and Zherwin.

Me, my mom, and my daughters playing domino.

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Steffi is, once again, holding a concert on August 10, 2007 at 7:30 PM at Fireside Espresso in Payson, AZ. She will be singing mostly original songs like “At the Edge,” “Trust,” and “Room” to name a few. You can preview some of her songs here.

There will be a silent auction of Filipino handicrafts during the concert.

Donations are welcome and proceeds will go to the UP XDS scholarship fund for the benefit of the economically-disadvantaged students.

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