Acceptance

Eight years ago, i accompanied my mother here in Germany for an eye operation. She lived here before for almost 15 years with my german stepfather. They're now both happily settled in heaven.


It is while vacationing here that i met Dirk, my partner for eight years. He is the one who supported my studies (MBA) at FachHochschule in Gengenbach and the German language course. He is really one of a kind for he acceptted not only me but my family as well. He showed me the world and give me everything. We really had lot of things in common, probably he is my soulmate (not soilmates) for despite his weight, he had a clean bill of health. In a few hours is already the love month, and i still have two weeks to think of a nice valentine gift for him. Thanks God i found a second chance at happiness.

Rewards

I remember my late mother giving us rewards when we got high grades in school. Even if she's busy tending to our stores, sunday is our fun day. She treated us for a picnic& play at Rizal Park and Fort Santiago. When its my turn to be a mother, i do the same with my children. I give them rewards if they perform well in school by buying their wishes with a condition that it should not be expensive. Giving rewards is a good motivator for a child to strive harder.

For the third generation in our family, my daughter Ybelle is also doing the same to Kim, a prep 2 student at Mater Ecclessiae. She just makes promise that they will eat at Jollibee or McDonalds, if he is good in the class. So far it works because he is on the top three, and hopefully he can maintain it till school closing in march. As his doting grandmother, his PSP , Lego sets and hot wheels already prepared as his rewards for his good behavior and outstanding performance in school.

Sibling Rivalry

During our vacation in Pattaya, Thailand in 2005, i have an opportunity to have a picture taken with trained chimpanzees. They acted as if they are my own children. Both of them wanted my attention and seems to argued on who's going to sit on my lap, the small one wins.


Looking back with my own kids, i didn't realize that i started being a mother at an early age. I had to go through parenting issues as each child is different from one another. In a family, sibling rivalry cannot be avoided as each child has its own personality. Young as i was before, my mother guided me on what and what not to do. In raising my children, i sometimes make decisions and actions that is either a success or a failure. But as the time pass by, i learned the art of parenting which is always a shared responsibility.

To deter sibling rivalry, here are some important D & B points:

1. Do not play favorites
2. Do not compare the children
3. Do not typecast
4. Be observative
5. Be cooperative
6. Be fair

Snow White and the Seven Rosas

Since our returned here last month from a 5-week vacation in the Philippines and China, its only now that i checked my things. I am in the process of organizing my junks and i remember that my daughter gave me a big envelope with christmas cards inside. The yuletide cards were from my children and my godchild tara kaye. Part of kaye's letter said that she's going to graduate from high school this coming march and she wanted to continue her studies but her parents had no means to send her to college. I will just encourage her to apply for scholarships in state universities and i will just help her with her school needs. Poverty is not a hindrance to success, all you need is a strong determination, patience and PRAYERS.

Also in the manila envelope is my picture as snow white and my seven children in their birth order as the seven dwarfs. It's so touching that my daughter Astrid prepared this for me as a christmas present. It portrays me as a single parent supporting seven children. Thanks God i was able to raise and educate them. My seven dwarfs are now giant dwarfs because they are all bigger and taller than me.

Weekend Activities

Last saturday we were invited by maureen and peter to have dinner with them. Its my first time to visit their place since they moved in last year. The place is cozy and nicely decorated. They have a very nice collections of oriental pieces mostly from asian countries. Maureen is a good homemaker and Peter is a very good host. A perfect couple where age and race doesn't matter.

Sunday is the 60th birthday of Helmut, our good neighbor and the 30th birthday of his son, Markus, thus 90th bday celebration. We were invited for a Brunch at Schwarzwald Hotel in Gengenbach along with close family and friends. The foods served were a combination of german and asian foods because of the fish and rice. I am the only asian guest there but at that time i didnt eat rice but the germans do.

Four Roses

I have four daughters all named Rose but with second name. On the left side of the picture is Rose Belle, she is a BS Computer Education graduate at TUP and presently managing her co-owned computer shop and a part time insurance underwriter.

The second is Rose Arianne Criselle, she's the reason why i included their picture in my blog, its her birthday today(its already Jan. 18 in the Phils as of this writing), she finished BS Computer Science and like Rose belle, she is also a state scholar, just like me before where i finished my bachelors degree in business at PUP. Ayan as we fondly call her works at Mercury Drug Corporation, the biggest drug chain in the Philippines.
Birthday message from remote mom
Yan, i know you're reading my blog, i just wish you a happy 24th birthday anak and wishing you all the best. I may not be there to celebrate with you, but i know all of you understand that I'm doing a big sacrifice just to give you and your siblings a bright future.

The second from right is Rose Aizza, a computer science student at IETI and the farthest right is Rose Astrid, a 3rd year BS in business administration student at La Consolacion College in Binan.

By the way, my four roses family name is ROSAS. I will feature in my next blog my thorns among the roses, my three grown up sons. The boy in the picture is Kim Jeremi, Rosebelle's son.

Feast of Santo Nino

Yesterday we celebrated the Feast of Santo Nino at Saint Martin Church in Offenburg. Its already the fifth year that we're celebrating the Sinulog Fest and I'm proud to say that I never missed a single year. Fr. Louie Collantes officiated the mass, followed by a short procession of our Virgin Mary and images of Santo Nino. The highlight of the fest was the coronation of Little Mr. and Ms. Santo Nino. There are also some production numbers and the talents of the children were also presented.

This is one of the event that I'm always looking forward to because i'm excited to see once again my friends. I'm just communicating to them on the phone but its much better to see them personally. It's a sort of reunion after the holidays and updating on each others activities. There is a tombola at the end of the program and as usual i don't have luck, maybe next year.

Costume Parade in Offenburg

After christmas and new year comes the karneval in Germany. It is participated by lots of people in all walks of life, young and old. The colorful costumes and masks used by them were really fascinating. Although it rained, it didnt stop the costume parade. The kids watching the parade are very happy because they can collect lots of goodies from candies to toys.

Househelp from the Philippines

Everytime i have my vacation in the Philippines, i bring with me some househelp. In our country , we can afford the services of a housemaid to do the household chores. Here in Germany, to avail the services of a putzfrau (the term for cleaning lady) you need to pay between 8 to 12 euro per hour. Thats already an income of an ordinary worker for two days excluding transportation, meals etc.

Today, i trim the hair of one of my househelp and put a white band so that the hair will always be in place. I'm referring to my ever dependable broom and broomstick. I'm still using the vacuum cleaner once a week but i used the broom most of the time. I used my broomstick to remove the dry leaves from our driveway amidst the curious look of our german neighbors.

A Day in the City

Today we did drive to the landratsamt to get an environmental stickers for our cars and to change my driver's license as well. Dirk dropped me near the city to buy something at Asia Shop. I'm going to prepare Lumpiang Shanghai for the Sinulog Fest on sunday.

On my way to Oratay's Thai shop, i came accross a house decor store. I was fascinated by the beauty of this hand-painted oriental vase, a combination of blue and yellow. I'm thinking of including the item in my balikbayan box because it matched the color of my bar in the third floor of our house in the Philippines. So I bought two flower vases, the other one matched the color scheme of our house here in Appenweier. The saleslady wrapped the vases in an old newspaper to secure it.

With my vases on the right hand and my asian goodies on the left hand, i decided to buy some bread in the nearby bakery. When I'm about to pick up my junks, the plastic bag containing my vases hit the wall and it breaks. I'm really so sad because the handpainted vase is the one that is kaputt. Then I decided to call Joy to give me a lift to avoid further breakage. Thank God she's on her way to the city parking lot when i reached her. We then decided to have lunch in a chinese restaurant where elena joined us later. Oh!!! what a day.


My day has had its ups and downs, but the most important thing is that i manage to survive. Moral lesson of the day- be careful in carrying breakable items and avoid spontaneous shopping. I know shopping is in my genes probably i inherited it from my late mother. Next time, my shopping will be well-planned with shopping list and most important, i will bring my car.

Water Supply from France

Eventhough its raining, we still drive to Auchan in Strassbourg, France to buy our supply of water. Its more cheaper there compare to Germany. We have two cart full of water and some foods that are only available in France. You can just imagine how hard for me to push the shopping cart full of water. But dirk helped me after loading the content of his cart in our car. God is on our side because the sun shines when we finished our water shopping spree.

Saint Martin Meeting

Dirk participated in a golf tournament today eventhough the weather is not nice. He did skipped the grill party after the game because he is so wet and tired. Today is the last canvassing for the search for Little Miss and Mr.for the Sinulog Fest on sunday, 13th of january. We started the meeting by praying the Rosary followed by the final canvassing of votes. Lhieza, daughter of carmen from kinzigtal is the little miss and Ramon, son of Nene from Kehl is the little Mr. Proceeds will go to the charitable institutions in the Philippines.

Bulad

We have a bad weather today, its raining the whole day. Back home, when its raining like this, its good to eat tuyo, daing, pusit, etc with warm plain rice or fried rice. Joy and me planned to eat in a chinese restaurant but changed our minds in the last minute. Since the weather is not nice, we decided to have lunch instead at Joy's place. She suggested that we will eat Bulad, a visayan term for dried fish. She then cooked danggit, pusit, dilis, daing and we matched this with vinegar and tomatoes. We also tried the ready to eat dinuguan from goldilocks. We enjoyed our lunch very much and planned to cooked again bulad in the next days with madam jo, joy's sister and other friends.

My other Angels

Daphne Antonette is my other angel. Before, she is the center of attention among her titas and titos, but with the birth of baby Lyka, she started to feel insecure. Of course, my family assured her, that she's still the apple of our eyes.

We also welcome the birth of Annika Kriz, daughter of Thomas and Mabel. An addition to our growing family. She was born on December 3, 2007 at 12:23 in Ortenau Klinikum Lahr. We visited them on christmas day and you can see on the faces of the brand new parents their happiness.

Dinner at Rammersweier Hof

Wednesday, the 2nd of January, we decided to to have dinner at Rammersweier Hof. That serve as a farewell dinner for Johanna, the other daughter of Elena who lived in Austria. The last time we saw her, she's still a small girl, but now she's grown up. At least there's some bonding moments for mother and daughter who didnt see each other for two years. The foods served in this restaurant is one of the most delicious food i ever tasted, thanks to the expertise of our chef, Herr Ullrich.

Little Angel

Dale, the partner of my son andrew gave birth today January 1 to a baby girl. Her name is Lyka Anjanette. She is my second little angel, the first one being Daphne. My family is growing fast, the number of my grandchildren now rise to 5. Last month when we're still in the Philippines, i have a wonderful moments with my grandchildren. How i wish i could spend longer time with them.