Our First Garden

Ryan and I decided that we should try our hands at gardening since we're in a climate that can grow all year round. Luckily we have an empty lot right beside our house which is owned by the same family that owns our house. They gave us permission to plant and grow us some veggies. The ground was hard and covered with growth but we were told that they have used it to grow tomato's before and the soil is very good. We hired a guy to come clear and plough the land for us. Wow, did I ever feel so bad for that guy. It was so hot and sunny everyday he was out there and he stop every 5 minutes for a smoke break and to burn all the growth he cleared while the kids would watch his every move so curious about what exactly this guy was up to. He defiantly earned every peso he was paid!

Yesterday after dinner we went there as a family and started to sow our seeds putting the kids to work raking, planting and watering. Sydney couldn't be talked out of gardening in her princess shoes, Brayden was excited to go barefoot and Maddy just sat under the tree on a blanket watching the rest of us trying to eat my packets of seeds. So far we have planted yellow onions, red onions, lettuce, red radishes, broccoli and cucumbers. Tonight we'll get some potato's in the ground and we are thinking about trying to grow some peanuts. Our landlord mentioned they are really easy, low maintenance and they do really really well in this climate. Ryan also started some tomato's that we'll transfer once they are a decent size. When we woke up this morning the kids were so excited to go and water the garden and see if anything has started to grow yet. Hopefully they won't loose their interest before the radishes start to sprout!

Hair Rebonding

So living in a humid climate can really suck when you have a slight curl which causes frizz when worn straight and not enough curl to get a good bounce when left alone. I have tried many different types of hair products, gels, shampoo's, conditioners and I just couldn't get my hair to stay straight. Every time I went outside the moisture would frizz it up all nice and ugly. I decided that I would try hair rebonding. It's a chemical treatment that you apply to your hair that permanently changes the natural hair structure into something straight, shiny and sleek. A friend of mine referred me to her sister who used to work for a Philippine wide salon chain until she became a mom. Now she does the rebonding on her own time and she came to my home so I didn't have to find a sitter. The whole procedure took 6 hours! Could you imagine sitting in a salon chair for 6 hours, awful. First she applied the cream that changes the hair's structure, we rinsed it out after a while and she spent so much time ironing my hair to make sure every strand was perfectly straight. Then Shirley put in a cellophane treatment to treat my hair and give it some protection followed by a hair spa treatment.
So off she left me reminding me not to get my hair wet for a couple of days and to not put anything in my hair that would leave a kink (hair elastic or band) for 2 weeks. Well today was the true test.... shower day. I finally was able to get my hair wet and see if all that time was worth the effort! I got out of the shower, towel dried my hair, brushed it and let it dry.... to..... PERFECTION!

If any of you are here in the Bacolod and want someone who knows what they are doing for less then the salon fee let me know and I can let you know how to get in contact with Shirley. Like I said, she came to my home so I could watch my kids and have something to do while she worked her magic :D Thanks Shirley!

Happy Valentine's Day

This year for Valentines Day we kept it pretty simple. Ryan had bought these beautiful calla lillies and had them wrapped in blue because they were our wedding flower and blue was our colour. We went to church, ate some great BLT's for lunch and then went on a motorbike drive into the Island while the kids stayed home and played with some good friends of ours, the Regodos Family.
It was a hot day and since I know in the city it is now illegal to wear shorts and slippers (what they call flip flops) while on a motorbike I thought I'd ask Ryan if he thought it would be okay for me to wear whatever I'd like in the country. So off we go in our shorts and T-Shirts in the heat of the day to enjoy our scenic drive. Usually it's beautiful and green all over the place here but right now we are dealing with el nino (a HUGE drought) so all the rice fields were dried up and brown and the sugar cane also was looking a bit dry and not so green. Ryan mentioned that the Island directly north of us has small towns on it that are almost in a state of emergency because the wells are drying up and it's not even summer yet. The rains won't come now until the end of June/July. SO, maybe it's time to start buying up your sacs of rice now because if it's like this all over the Philippines or in other rice exporting countries there is going to be a big shortage this year and the prices are going to jump up. Apparently they are rising here already and I've been hearing people talking about how expensive it is.

Once we got to the top of the mountain things started to become vibrant again and we enjoyed the view and all the waves we received. I think one thing I love is watching the faces of the people as we drive by, the absolute shock, open mouth and big eyes and then when realization hits them that yes, there are in fact 2 young white people on that motorbike, a HUGE open grin appears on their face and a hand shoots up to wave and greet us. It's contagious and you can't help but return that huge grin with one of your own, especially when it's from a little child. We stopped at one point for some water and the view and then got back on for the trip home. There was one point when we were at the top of the mountain and the sun went behind the clouds that I really was wishing I had brought some pants. It was so cold I'm sure my nose was pink. OH! One thing we can't forget about was the crazy monkeys we saw just chained up on the side of the road at the side of the mountain. Two of them just hanging out.

Year of the Tiger

February 14, 2010 was the first day of in the year of the Tiger. Here in Bacolod there was a weekend celebration to bring in the New Year which included parades, fireworks, street dancing and of course a New Years Eve program. At the Lagoon, a city park with a huge Talapia pond, they had each of the 12 Chinese animals which represent a year all lit up with an explanation of personal characteristics a person would have born in that year. For example, I was born in 1980 putting me in the year of the monkey so I obviously am lively, likeable and witty. If you are curious about your Chinese animal sign you can always go here. You just have to find your year adn it will let you know your animal and from there you can read about your characteristics you have based on that animal. Not only are there 12 different animals that go in rotation but they alternate the different elements, for eg. earth or metal, to narrow down your personality. Have a look and see how well you match with your animal!

Being interested in how exactly they determine when the new year will occur (it has a different date every year) I ended up doing a bit of research. The Chinese New Year occurs on the second Full Moon of the Winter Solstice. Winter Solstice (according to Wikipedia) is when the earth's axial tilt it at it's furthest point from the sun and commonly known as midwinter. Well for midwinter it's feeling pretty warm and i'm defiantly not shovelling snow off my sidewalk.
Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

Why We Love Punta Bulata

On our Island we have a nice white beach resort that we repeatedly go to named Punta Bulata. It's only 3 1/2 hours drive south along the coast line which is really a beautiful drive filled with ocean views at times, sugarcane, rice fields, mango trees, banana trees, so many beautiful shades of green (am I making you jealous yet?). So when we needed to get out of town for a beach trip and we only had the weekend Punta Bulata it was. The staff is always so friendly and great with the kids, it's not busy at all and so we usually have the pool and beach to ourselves and they have this most yummy mushroom garlic chicken with rice dish that is making my mouth water now just thinking of it. The resort is a little out of the way so once you are there you don't really have much to do but relax and enjoy the sun.

So what do you do when there is nothing to do!? WELL, lots. The kids spent almost every waking moment in their swimsuits splashing around in the swimming pool or playing in the sandy beach. We were able to run after some baby crabs and catch them which Brayden would put into his sand bucket and watch it try to crawl out of his sand castle. You take strolls at night looking for and catching fireflies while looking at how bright the stars are up in the sky. You almost scream out loud when a massive bat dives at you from a tall coconut tree and you mistake it for a coconut about to land on your head, or you just lay around and take a catnap using the sun as your blanket to stay toasty warm.

In the mornings when the tide was out we would go for walks in the shallow water and look to find treasures. Usually all we would find would be sea urchins and star fish but for some reason things like that just never get old. Ryan went out snorkelling and got attacked by tiny jelly fish that left him stinging and one HUGE jelly that got him started home. Unfortunately during this snorkelling excursion our car keys were damaged and we were stuck at Punta Bulata an extra day. Poor Ryan had to squish into a hot bus to get home and get our second set of keys and drive back on his motorbike the next day to unlock our car so we could get home. Needless to say he more then enjoyed cruising at top speeds on his bike making the 3 1/2 hour trip in 2 hours! It was a nice trip and the sunburns were totally worth every second!

Sinulog Festival

On January 17, 2010 we thought that we would drive south on our Island a couple hours to Kabankalan for "A wild street party in La Carlota, Negros, in which dancers are daubed in black in honour of the island's Negrito people and a feast is held to honour Santo Nino (the child Jesus)." - The Lonely Planet WOW! Did the people there see our white faces as an excuse to smear their charcoal & oil mixture all over our faces, even poor Maddy was a target. By the end of the afternoon we all loaded into the hot car for the drive home after being physically harassed for hours by mobs of fans. We were so black the car seats were stained, the clothes were stained and Brayden was absolutely thrilled to be covered in dirt.

The festival consisted of people running up to you and smearing you with black paint, street dancing done by groups in beautifully coloured costumes and people trying to get your kids to buy a balloon, candy or toy. It was such a hot day too and we were still fresh off the plane and not ready for that kind of assault from the sun so we decided to head home soon after we went into the HOT HOT open field where the dance competition was going to be held. Plus Maddy was having a meltdown trying to deal with all the people in her personal space. Maybe now that we've been here a little bit now and summer is starting to show it's head I'll be able to last longer at our next festival adventure!

The New Scooter HOG

One of Ryan's most anticipated joys of returning to the Philippines was buying a new bike. He sold his old one when we left last year back to Canada to have Madison and as soon as we made the decision to come back I could see that faraway look in his eyes as he daydreamed of weaving in and out of the busy traffic breaking all road laws. It's almost as he see's himself as the motorbike version of Knight Rider and his bike is Knight Industries Two Thousand aka. KITT. Hmmm, should I be worried? Next he'll be buying a helicopter and calling himself Stringfellow Hawke.
The kids were just as excited as Ryan was and could not wait to hop on have daddy take for a ride around the block. Thankfully Ryan bought a kids helmet even though they aren't being worn in the following picture the helmet has been worn from that point on so grandparents don't worry, we're being responsible parents.

New Year = New House

So after some A LOT of thought, discussion and compromise we decided to move back to the Philippines. Thankfully one of the biggest factors in us returning to Bacolod was that another adventurous family moved with us to join us. How great is that!?
So after the flight of death (seriously even with amazing well behaved children it still nearly killed me) we arrived to the warm familiar air of Bacolod, Philippines. As I mentioned all 3 kids were so well behaved on the trip and it only took a couple days until all of them were on a normal night/day routine and sleeping like angels. We settled really quickly into our new house which is a subdivision we were in before so the area is familiar and we have friends close by. The house is so great. Ryan picked it out when he was here in November so all credit needs to go 'the man.' Lot's of room so when people come to visit us (hint hint) they'll have their own space, the yard is a good size and the Jarman family (the family that joined us) is only a block away which has a path cut right through the empty lot separating us. Also another bonus is that we finally got some tint put on our vehicle so I can drive around like a maniac and no one will know it's that crazy white lady! YAY for me.

Now here we are right back into the swing of things. Ryan is constantly climbing up tree's chopping down coconuts for us to snack on, the kids are incredibly happy to be able to play outside everyday chasing stray cats and finding squished frogs all over the roads (so gross I know, but it's true). We are back into our 'home' ward (our location in the city determines the building and time in which we meet for church and we call that placement our 'ward') here in Bacolod and they are sure keeping us busy with the youth which we love!
It's amazing how quickly it felt like we never left, it surprised me at how quickly our house felt like home and the comfort I immediately felt in being back. Not that I don't love my home in Canada, but for now I'm totally OK with Bacolod being my home and I welcome it and the challenges it is going to bring us. I guess it's that calm reassurance that I know we are where we need to be for the moment, the knowledge it will be amazing and extremely difficult but knowing I'm ready for it.

So 2010.... let's see what is in store for the Beattie Gang!

New Beginnings

Wow, okay! So after wiping my old site clean multiple times and still not getting rid of the malware warnings I decided to just start up a blogger site and slowly learn how to manipulate the code to get the site how I like it. With that said it will be a slow process and the look of the site will be changing often while I test the waters.

SO here we are! February 2010 in the Philippines with our 3 super sweaty children just heading into the heat of summer. Thankfully we are only a block from the pool so those refreshing jumps into the pool will be frequent and easy especially with all 3 of those kids really enjoy a good swim.

We've really been busy and up to so much and slowly as I find some free time I'll be constantly updating the 'going on's' of our life so far this year starting with our return to Bacolod, Philippines. So I hope you are ready for the emotional up and downs and hilarious events that form my life.