OINK

On our way from church yesterday the kids and I took a trycicad ... a bicycles with a sidecar. The kids love it and it's really a special treat for them. Me on the other hand find it rather annoying. It's a super bumpy ride and my butt is sore by the end of it. Every single jeepney that drives by slows down and yells at us some type of hilarious to them statement (like "hey Joe" or "you like that white boy?") while our kids copy them and yell "HEY JOE!" to all the people staring at us. Between the yelling, the staring and bumps my brain was exploding in my skull. Even Madison was getting into it and waving and saying HI to all her fans.
We successfully made it to the gates of our subdivision when we started to hear this crazy noise. I could have sworn it was a pig. All at the same time Brayden, Sydney and I looked towards the noise and saw this massive pig! I quickly paid our bike driver and we went over to the pig and took a few pictures. The kids just loved it! Later that afternoon Ryan and I had to run out quickly to the church and brought Madison with us. When she spotted the main gate she remember there was a pig there and started snorting away. Sadly the beast was gone. He was pretty amazing.

Meatless Bacon!?

To go along with some of the interesting things we find at the grocery I thought I would share something not gross, or shocking but more simply along the lines of not finding it in Canada.
Firstly I'd like everyone to know that Ryan seems to have this love for bacon that I don't understand. He could eat it everyday. I'm not talking about 4 pieces of bacon along with your breakfast but a whole package of bacon as a side to any dish. Usually it's rice, egg and bacon with spiced vinegar (sinamak and native to Bacolod, SUPER YUM) and soy sauce but he could eat it for dessert. So last week I was in the grocery store and found this snack Baconette Strips; a meatless bacon. I took a snap of it and meant to show it to Ryan but completely forgot about it. Yesterday afternoon Ryan and I quickly picked up a few things at the grocery store and walked down the snack aisle. He stops for a moment and says "hey! Look at this" while pointing to the Baconette Strips! I pull out my phone and show him the picture I took with the intention of sharing my find with him and he decides to throw them in the shopping cart.
This afternoon after church he rips open his bag of Baconette Strips and tries them. They look just like little pieces of bacon, baby bacons. He takes a few and doesn't really comment either way and puts the bag back on the counter and continues on with what he was doing. A few minutes later he goes back to the bag and admits "surprisingly they make me want more."
I don't think it's something I would ever buy again but it wasn't a failure like I was expecting either.

Who Can Refuse Those Eyes

You know puppy dog eyes. Those cute big eyes that look up at you at the pet store and say "Love me, please take me home" and they are hard to refuse. Or your kids ... sometimes they just give you this look and it's all in their eyes. They've done something wrong but they look up at you with their eyes while their face is sort of looking down, their forehead creased slightly. It's the secret weapon.
Well I saw those eyes today in the grocery store fish display ... this fish was looking up at me with his sad puppy dog eyes saying "Please don't eat me, I really don't taste that good."
So we listened and kept on walking:

One other thing that I wanted to share with you all is the love for Spam over here. It's a delicacy. Honestly I don't understand the craze but they even have fake spam... fake spam. What's spam? Fake meat. So what's fake spam? Fake, fake meat. YUM!

Maddy's New Trick

So Madison is going through the terrible two's right now. I have to admit that she's seems to be less stubborn and strong willed then Sydney which is a relief (knock on wood). She definitely has her moments though and we seem to have those day where I wish bedtime was immediately following nap time but we're making it out alive. Thankfully she seems to respond well to logical consequence and when told she needs to make a choice, for example give mom back her phone or go sit time out, she mostly chooses the better choice. Lately when I start to tell her she's making a bad choice she pulls one of these:

She gets this goofy half grin on her face and she shuts her eyes. Remember when you were really young and when you closed your eyes and couldn't see someone you thought they couldn't see you either (I hope i'm not the only one who thought that)? I'm pretty sure that's what she's doing. She's ignoring me and trying to disappear on me! She's 2 years old and already giving me the silent treatment. Is this foreshadowing? If so ... help me ... please.

Electrical Chaos

I took this snap Saturday evening on our date night because Ryan said "Isn't that a perfect picture with the sunset shinning off all the wires and onto the street."
I had to agree. It was really pretty. It also perfectly captures the chaos of the electrical wires that line every street in Bacolod City. Just a few days before this it was raining lightly and Sydney and I were on our way from shopping driving down the main road. To understand what I mean by main road it would be Mayor Magrath Dr in Lethbridge, Mcload Tr in Calgary or since it's also the highway the I-15 in the States (but 2 lanes each way that they make into 4 lanes each way). All of a sudden right in front of me a wire falls from the street and hits my car as I drive under it. I clench my fists and wait for some sort of electric shock to go through our vehicle, something, but nothing. Life went on as if I hadn't just hit astray electrical wire in the rain with my metal car. No big deal, right?
We've also seen transformers explode in the rain at night as we're driving down the road and watched everything go black as a result. We are definitely spoiled in Canada with wiring ... or lack of! Just one of the small things you should appreciate that you probably don't even think about.

My House Infestation

We have termites in our house. Well, thankfully it's not our house but the house we rent. They've been there for a little while now, maybe 5 months. At first we notice a dirt line along the floor board and I would scrape it to find lots of little termites. I would go and spray the crap out of the floor boards and scrub them down and we wouldn't see it again for a few weeks. One night I went to find something under the bathroom sink in the kids room. I never really go under that sink, it just has some light bulbs, bug killer refills, things I don't use often. So I go and I'm trying to be quiet because Brayden is sleeping right outside the bathroom door and I pull out what I'm looking for and it's moving, literally moving. I FREAK out. I throw the box and take some deep breathes trying not to scream. I slowly go and look into the cupboard and find the termite dirt all along the back of the cupboard and ALL the cardboard boxes from the lightbulbs, my leg wax strips, the medicine, all eaten. It was so disgusting. I sprayed the crap out of there and spent the next hour and a half cleaning all the dead termites out of the cupboard, salvaging all the lightbulb and other things from their skeleton boxes and trying to get myself to stop itching.
We told the land lord about it who mentioned it to the home owner. We ended up discussing it with the home owner when they were in town from the States on a visit a month later. At the time since I hadn't seen any evidence of the termites in a while we decided it wasn't really that big of a deal and left it at that.
This week I started to go through everything deciding what needed to be packed, trashed or given away and I knelt on the base of the cupboard and my knee sunk in. There was no more wood there, just the paint! The termites ate all the wood from that chunk of the cupboard. Good thing pretty much the entire house is made of cement! I just kind of brushed it off as it happened when I had cleaned the cupboard out before because I looked around and cleared everything out of there and didn't see anything termite.
I moved from the cupboard under the sink to the closet. I started with the top of the closet because we never use it and new I could pack whatever was in there or throw it away and it wouldn't be missed in the next 5 weeks before we move home. Well I opened it up and reached up (it's higher then what I can see) and tried to pull down the Uno cards I could see lingering barely over the edge. Yup, the box started moving!!! This time there were no sleeping kids so I called for reinforcement! "RYAN"

This is what we found:

It's like an actual termite house in my closet. Too disgusting. All I keep saying to myself is: 35 more days, 35 more days, 35 more days. In 35 more days we'll be out of here and they can treat the house, tear it down, I don't care... because I'm Canada bound and I'm not coming back!

Got Fish?

Today's find at the grocery store:

Only In Disney Movies

You know when the princess in the Disney cartoon, like Belle, Snow White or Cinderella, starts to sing while she's out in the wilderness and all the forest animals start singing along and landing on the princess. These types of things only happen in Disney movies. So much so that Dreamworks makes fun of it in Shrek when Princess Fiona starts singing with the little bird until it explodes and she cooks it's eggs for breakfast.
Well yesterday the kids are playing outside and some random 'brown worker guy' comes by and gives Sydney a bird with a leash. Here are my kids, outside, with some random bird with a piece of string tied to it's leg. They are holding it, petting it, loving it to death. I'm not too sure what to think. A little shocked and a little annoyed. Why would this guy give kids a bird like that!? Seriously. What are we going to do with it. We've had a dog ... we've had a cat ... we've had a turtle. Do you notice the common factor? HAD. We don't do pets. Especially not birds. So we take some cute pictures and tell the kids to get rid of it. Not mafia style "get rid of it" but more go ditch it by a tree get rid of it. So that's what they did. They cut the string off it's foot and made it a nest on the side of the road by the tall grass and we forgot about it.
Please, in the future, don't give my kids random animals because they will not be allowed to keep it and feed it.

I Have Fun Days Too

Even though Ryan is the fun parent as discussed here, and again here... I would like everyone to know that I do have my fun moment too:

When You Gotta Go, You Gotta Go

I think that one of the most disgusting things I see ALL the time in the Philippines is men peeing. They pee anywhere, anytime. Side of the buildings, side of the road, into a bush, onto a flower ... whatever. I think I would be more shocked if I went out and didn't see some random guy relieving himself at some point. I guess the bonus of this is that when you're potty training you don't feel any guilt whatsoever when your kid says he has to pee and you let him, no matter where you are.
Just a little bit ago we were on our way into SM Bacolod (one of the local malls) and all the kids were with us. In the front entrance of the mall is a taxi line so we are walking past, taxi, taxi, taxi, little girl with her pants down peeing! Seriously, right in front of the door. Nothing could hide the horror on my face, or Sydney's. Sydney even had to make sure to point it out quite loudly that I'm 99% confident this child's mom could hear Sydney's absolute confusion and my disgust. In the very least you would have thought the mother would take her child (at least 8 years) to the parking lot so she could have hid in between cars, not in the front entrance for everyone to witness.
Ryan and I saw this painting and this is probably not legit to post this as it's someone else's art but this picture at least gives me the impression that Filipino's are at least aware that they pee everywhere at anytime:

Who Eats Who?

So I love this picture. I think i'm going to start a new series in my blog about the cool things I see in the local grocery stores. I think that for my Filipino readers these are just every day scenes but for people who have yet had the privilege of grocery shopping in the Philippines I thought you'd enjoy it. This particular picture was shot 1 1/2 weeks ago when my dad was here visiting us at SM mall in Bacolod. They usually have a pretty fish display on the corner but this one was by far my favourites so far.

The one picture I'm sad I never got was the mouse sitting on the spaghetti noodles at a Gaisano City grocery store. By the time I pulled my phone out of my purse to snap the shot he'd run off onto the other side of the aisle. Hopefully next time I'll be faster on my feet and not so shocked.

Big Spiders Never Get Old

Especially spider pictures with my 2 year old sitting inches away... granted there is a screen protecting her, but seriously; she's fearless!

Tumba Patis

Tumba Patis is an Ilonggo street game. All you need are your slippers (flip flops) and a can or bottle. There is the one person who is 'it' and they stand facing all the other players with the can close by. Balancing on the can or bottle is one shoe. As a player you want to throw your shoe at the can knocking the balancing shoe off. If you throw your shoe and miss the miss the bottle you have to run and try to retrieve your shoe before the 'it' person can tag you. Once tagged you replace the 'it' person. IF you are able to knock the shoe off the bottle with your throw then everyone can run and grab their shoes. The 'it' person must quickly replace the shoe onto the bottle before the thrower can grab his/her own shoe. If the 'it' person can replace the shoe in time then they get to go enter the game and the thrower will then become the 'it' person.
Does this make sense? It doesn't so much to me but I'm more a hands on learner. I had to play the game before I could understand what was going on.

Tuesday afternoon we had the missionaries over and a family for a Spiritual message provided by the Elders, some food and some games. One of these games we played was Tumba Patis. The Elders hung out on the road doing what they do, talking and sharing the good word some people walking by and the rest of us chucked our shoes around screaming and running around like crazy people. Even though Brayden and Madison had no idea what was going on they were running around throwing their shoes like they were in the know unwilling to be left behind. Shoes were flying, people were charging and I felt like I was dodging football players while I tried to capture a few of their genuine smiles. I think that although tumba patis is meant to be a fun high energy game, it can be pretty full contact if played with the right people.

It was fun and of course even though I hardly played I was sweaty and gross and all these pretty Filipina's that were running back and forth giving it there all were completely dry. How does that happen!?

WOW! Negros

Of course when you go on holiday the time comes when you have to return home. Bummer. Tuesday morning we packed up and took the boat back to Negros Island. We followed the Eastern coastline north before turning inward towards Bacolod. I love Negros Island! I think it is the most beautiful place. It's so re-energizing driving through it and reminding myself of how breath taking the earth is. Negros Island has it all! We pretty much covered most of the island on our trip. Our way from Bacolod to Siquijor is red and the route we took home is blue. The red is faster by about 45 minutes but the blue is way more breath taking! Also being able to take two different roads breaks the drives up a bit so they aren't so boring. SO, Negros Island. Here is a glimpse into the island we've spent the last 4 1/2 years on and all pictures I took on our way home from Siquijor.

Amazing rice terraces:

Spectacular views from the mountain tops:

Lost white sand beaches lurking along the coastline:

People using their livestocks with the vibrant greens int he background:

And of course piling as much as they can on their vehicles whether it be supplies or people:

I think one of the best parts of getting out of the city and into the mountains is the lack of people. Bacolod is about the size of Lethbridge but with 300% more people. It's so heavily populated there is always traffic, long lines at the grocery or when you just want to roll down the window and take a quick picture there is usually a head that pops up in the way. I love being away where it's quiet and peaceful, where I can quickly snap photo's like these without trying to dodge the crowds:

I love Canada. I really truly think it's the most beautiful place I've been with the clear oceans, Rocky Mountains, Shushwaps and golden fields. After being in the Philippines when we go home I'm in awe of Canada. BUT if I'm not going to be in Canada, being on Negros Island is a close second.