kids say the darndest things

Photo Credit: E3 Studios

That's me and my niece, Angelika, she often gets confused as my daughter... I think it's our strong Mendoza genes.

We are about 20 years apart and it's funny how sayings and such have changed since I/we were kids. Recently on one of her field trips I played the Stella Ella Ola clapping game with some of the kids and the words have evolved to something with "cheese and macaroni"!

And just the other day, Angelika had said a variation of the saying for determining North, East, South and West. When we were kids it was either Never Eat Soggy Wheat/Wieners... yesterday she had said Never Entered Shreks Washroom!

bahahahahaha! Kids are too cute :)

Chrismas 2009

I know it's kinda late, but in the attempt to make room on my camera for more debauchery here are some family pics from Christmas 2009

*mom n pops*

*me n derek*

*kuya and his family*

*justin*

*angelika*

Happy Halloween... I just saved some kids LIFE!

Happy Halloween!!!

So I’m pretty sure that Derek and I saved some kids lives today… but before I get to that story I must tell you the sad tale of how I know my nephew is getting older and TOO COOL to hang out with me :(

So I’ve been taking my nephew trick or treating, ever since I first met him… when he was two, if that sentence confuses you – I’ll have to fill you in another time – year after year it’s something I look forward to, especially now that the kids are a little bit older and we’ve been hitting the neighbourhoods rather than the malls. I’ve been in residency for the past couple of days and not really answering any texts or phone calls, that’s neither here nor there, so I as I’m receiving my marks from my papers and presentations I noticed I had a ton of missed calls and voice messages. There was one from my eleven year old nephew, Justin, which sank my heart a bit…

“Hi Auntie, I was just wondering if it would be ok if I went to a party tonight, Ace invited me over… there’s no sense in your picking me up from there… so yeah.”

Oh GAWD!!!!

I didn’t want to be that aunt, that’s a kill joy… “No, sorry Bud, I don’t think you can go to that party... you have to come with me, around the block and trick or treat…” yeah highly unlikely. You’re probably wondering, ‘what about Angelika?’ yeah she’s got the flu and has been at home from school for a week! So what do I do? I call Justin and tell him that I’m SAD, but he can go to the party and that it’s ok, then… I call Derek crying… I couldn’t help it! I’m an emotional person… ca’mon you didn’t know?!?!? Derek of course made fun of me and went over to my brothers and the trouble maker that he is, told Justin that he made me cry. Meanwhile; I’m still at home on the internet, with my phone still on silent from residency, Justin’s been trying to contact me on my cell phone then decides to just come on over and talk to me, apparently he asked his mom to drive him over. He walks into the living room and as I’m greeting him he says…

“I’m sorry; I don’t want you to be mad! But I’ve never been invited to a party before…”

I gave him a huge hug… and started to cry, just a little bit this time and said, “it’s ok Justin, you can go… it’s just your growing up now, and that’s something I need to get used to” with that he got up and left for his party.

I later got a call from my niece telling me that she’s just a little bit sick and that she would really really REALLY like me to take her trick or treating, inevitably I took her up on that offer.


So… back to the highlight of my Halloween. My parents are ultimate Filipinos that don’t like wasting anything! When we were kids that candy we didn’t like they would hold on to until the next year and would give it away to some poor unfortunate soul. The little kiddies started to come around our ‘hood as I was getting ready to leave to take Angelika trick or treating, mom ran to the door and handed out so candy to the first bunch then went back into the kitchen. I know how my parents are, so after coming upstairs I decided to check out the goods (or is it that bad?).

On top of newly purchased, unopened box of Doritos chips; there were some random mints from restaurants, candies from recent birthday party give a way, and candies I’m pretty sure were from last year… oh and how can I forget chocolate liqueurs!

Me: “MOM!!!” Rushing in to the kitchen/family room (where Derek was watching TV), “You can’t give these to kids” while passing it to Derek… Derek’s face priceless.

Mom: “What?!?!”

Me: “mmmm these Chocolates have liquor in them…?!?”

Mom: “Oh really!?!? That’s ok…”

Derek: “You didn’t give these away did you?”

Mom: “No… oh well, I can give them to the parents!”

So as Derek and I are, literally, walking out the door, three little girls walk up to the house; I opened the door to greet them and Derek frantically broke open the box of chips and hooked them up!!! As they were saying their thank you’s, I said underneath my breath,“we just saved your lives”.

I think the best part is Derek gripped some candies and stuffed his pockets, as we’re driving away from home he shows me his stash; one pack of twizzlers – rock hard, a chocolate that was smushed oozing from its package, and funny Filipino candy’s ube flavoured... Derek likes to think he saved a few more children ;)


I hope your Halloween was as memorable as mine.

Just a Girl

I’ve been a busy bee these past few days… er weeks! So to keep you in the loop here’s what’s been going on the past couple of days.

I got my results back for my video assessment - - I PASSED!!! Yipppeeee for meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Went to see No Doubt in concert… Gwen Stefani, how I love thee! I can only wish I too could look as stunning as you after having my two kids… my planned two kids in the future, don't get it twisted people.

And I must mention the biggest jack move of all time, happened to one of my closest and dearest friends Cristelle. It’s a story that must be told not written for the full effect… make sure to ask me about it, next time we meet!

Like every other year, I took the kids to Capital Ex… but this year I had taken the day off because the weekends are too crazy for lines and such. The kids went through all the rides in the first 2 hours that we were there but as the day went on the lines got longer and longer. We took a break from the long lines and went inside to check out the butterfly exhibit, I think it’s been a good 2 or 3 years that they started having this exhibit but this is the very first time that we actually went in.

This year I thought the kids a valuable lesson in financing… unlike previous years where I let the little buggers empty out my pockets for all I got, I gave them both $40.00 to use for food and games and told them, “… this is all you get. Use it for what you like, when you like but once it’s gone we’re going home.” The kids still had money left over but the bigger kid I had with me (my husband) had enough of all the fun that Capital Ex had to offer, so we head ’er home.

This is why I take the kids year after year…

slacky slack slackness - with good reason

I’ve been slacking on the posts… I know, but rightfully so, I think. The last few days I’ve been scrambling to prepare for a presentation for a course I’m in; in fact I just presented yesterday evening, it went ok. I get super nervous when reading or presenting in front of an audience… so nervous I have to practice deep breathing and it feels like I have to pee! I’ve been doing readings at my church for quite some time now, so you’d figure I’d be use to it… but I’m not, I figure it’s because I don’t read that often that I still get nervous.

Another reason for my slackyness is Derek and I just got back on Friday from a weeklong trip to Mexico. We went for his cousins wedding and like any other Filipino, of course, I had to bring back pasalubong…

Pasalubong is very popular among Filipinos as it keeps the bond with friends, family, relatives or someone who has a close relationship with you. The gesture of handing out "pasalubong" conveys that loved ones are being remembered while away. Pasalubong can range from food items such as fruits, imported confectionery goods and other sweets (i.e. chips, canned goods and the most common are chocolates). Pasalubong can also be other items such as shirts, novelty items, knives and toys among others. Pasalubongs are often not wrapped and given to someone as it is.

My pasalubong for my niece and nephew were sweet luchador masks… check it!

Fighter Profile Pics:

Toe to Toe:

*DING DING* - fight on:

my life...

I’m leaving in FOUR days for Mexico! ... and when I told my nephew that I would be missing his 11th birthday… to say the least he was upset and so I planned a whole day event to make up for my absence, which actually turned into a whole weekend celebration.

I kicked off our Saturday by making breakfast for my little monsters and Derek, the kids requested chocolate chip pancakes and I whipped up some frrrench toast for the hubby. Then we made our way to Justin’s Tae Kwon Do promotional test… (he's the one in the red).

His promotional tests usually last around 2 hrs... this time, however, it was more like three! I started to worry that we wouldn't meet our timeline and do all the things that I had planned on doing... we quickly grabbed a bite to eat and made our way to our first destination, the Edmonton TELUS World of Science to see the art of the brick

As you can see, everything was pretty sick, it's quite unbelievable that everything is made out of LEGO... I thought that there was going to be more pieces, but then again it was all made by one artist.


"Nathan Sawaya is based out of New York, his creations are constructed from nearly one million pieces they were built from standard bricks beginning as early as 2000… Sawaya’s art form takes shape primarily in 3-dimensional sculptures and over sized mosaic portraits…"



We then went to our city's famous tourist hot spot for a round of mini golf and to get the little guy some birthday presents... he's quite fond of reading so we let him pick up a few books to fuel his mind and expand his vocabulary. I'm all for the gifts that get used, I'm the aunt that gives clothes at Christmas and books for Birthday's, I've learned my lesson through the years... the TOY may get played with for a few days, but they get bored and a new and better toy will be released... clothes are my favorite gift to give because it'll get worn for a good year or two, and how can you go wrong with a good book? I had planned to also catch a movie at the mall but while we were playing mini golf... Derek couldn't resist to get a little competitive and wager a bet; it worked out that if Derek won, he could lay on the couch and watch the Oil game or watch a movie with us... to cut this story a lil short, Derek gave our hometown team some luck and the Oil had beat the Canucks 5-3... I didn't lose our bet that bad either... Derek had won by two points too!

The kids and I did end up watching a movie -

This 3D movie was pretty awesome with a star studded voice cast of Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Rainn Wilson, Kiefer Sutherland, and Stephen Colbert. Watch it... I promise you won't be disappointed!


So that kicked off our Saturday Events... Sunday was a little more relaxed with some Jesus time, a little indoor Soccer Mini World Cup action and some fantastic family dinner time at the Wokkery.


***
FYI - even with the lack of soccer skills I have... I think I could play for the women's Filipino team... my niece could too... they SUCK!!!! it's kinda embarrassing...

*personal goal... play on team next year, at least it'll be good exercise!

Dora is all grown up!

I have a precious 6 yr old niece and I can confidently say that I have dished out a pretty penny for some of Dora the Explorer themed gifts for her and watched hours upon hours of Dora TV programming and DVDs.

Mattel and Nickelodeon have announced that their fun-loving educational cartoon character, Dora the Explorer, will grow up, get a new look and become a tween while still staying true to her roots and maintaining her educational values through mystery-solving. The plot - Dora has moved to the big city, attends middle school and has a whole new fashionable look. The girls that she’s captivated over the past 8-9 years will be able to access an online world in which they can explore, play games, customize, and most importantly solve mysteries with Dora and her new friends. Adding to the play value, Dora’s online world is interactive with the new doll line, suggested retail price of $59.99.

I wonder if Angelika will once again gain interest? More so, if or how much this is gonna hurt my wallet… oh and more importantly, where's Boots?!?!?