Ever Wondered "What If There Were No Tow Trucks?"

I've witnessed some pretty bizarre things when it comes to Philippine traffic but one that always get a chuckle from us is the lack of tow trucks. Come to think of it I'm not sure I've even seen one over here... ever!? So what do they do when a vehicle breaks down, you're asking.... well, they do this:

Yes that is a tricycle (motorbike and sidecar) pulling a taxi with a rope... and no, it just can't get any better then this :)

Newest Addition

I went to the pet store yesterday to purchase a small plastic aquarium for our new frogs
(2 of our 4 tadpoles are now jumping around!) and came out with a different animal all together! I was quickly able to aquire a great tank, a filter, air pump and rocks for a couple dollars when I noticed a tank full of little turtles. They were only $3.00 so I thought rather impulsively "why not!?" The guy helping me thought that the tiny new frogs would be safe in the same aquarium as the turtle and I figured if not, no harm done we can always go out and catch another, joke... well, kind of. So far they seem to be co-existing fine together! One of the little frogs likes to hop under the turtles tummy to hide from the kids when they start peering over the aquarium, kind of cute in a reptile sort of way!
So far SHE has no name, help me name our new friend!!

Round and Round

Since we brought no toys with us to the Philippines my children have been forced to be very resourceful when it comes to play time. They mostly run around outside like wild beasts which is much better then them running around inside the house! Today they were playing with their friend Matthew and I went out to check on them and they had salvaged some old tires in our yard somewhere and were having a great time rolling them down the streets, running after them, and using them as hula hoops. I really miss those carefree days when anything was a toy and my biggest worry was getting wet when the rain would start to poor. *sigh*

I'll Never Know

Madison sleeps in a playpen that is covered by a large mosquito net since the mosquito's seem to know how to find her. Today I go into her room to get her from her nap and I find that she's mysteriously wrapped up in the netting... how she got it down I'll never know but when I went to pick her up she looked so proud of herself I couldn't resist the picture.

Science 101

As you enter into our subdivision you have to drive around a little pond the kids love to walk to. Sometimes you can feed the fish they keep in there and it's quite the fun time for Brayden and Sydney. On one of our walks to the fish we noticed that there were dozens of little tadpoles lining the perimeter. I promised the kids that we would come back during the week with a bucket and catch a couple so we could watch them turn into frogs. They seemed pretty excited about it and of course have been mentioning it everyday since.
Today was the day we took of with tupperware in hand to catch us some baby frogs! Brayden got right in there and scooped up a tadpole in no time. After a couple minutes we left satisfied with 4 little guys in our batch and set off home to make them a cozy habitat.

From last week to this week most of the tadpoles had already popped out little legs and we were even lucky enough to catch one that had arms also. We were able to set up a make shift home for our 4 new friends (1 with arms, 3 without) in our tupperware container along with a couple little snails and some rocks. Hopefully they last through the night... so far so good.

Diaper Run

IF you are ever going on a little vacation that would include a 3 1/2 month old I would suggest to NOT forget the diapers. I guess it has been so long since I've had to worry about packing diapers that it was one of those things in the back of our minds. It wasn't until we were done the slow very bumpy swerving road off the highway to the resort that we realized we had not packed diapers for our stinky little girl. Thankfully we had our backups in the glove compartment of the car to last until the next morning when, we decided, we would make a trip down to Sipalay to buy some.
Sipalay is a very small town with no grocery store or real restaurants by American standards. It does have one nice long strip with a bunch of make shift shops, a market place which of course is inclusive of the fish market. This is where we went one of our very first drives after we got our vehicle after being in Bacolod for 2 months. We drove down the 3 hours and spent a couple hours on the beach and drove home. The best part about the whole trip was all of a sudden these 3 guys come running out of the water carrying this huge swordfish Blue Marlin. It was so huge it took all three guys. They were running as fast as they could to the top of the beach where the fish market is. It happened so fast and we were in such shock after seeing such a huge fish come out of the water that we totally missed it with the camera. Very upsetting!
SO, this time, no swordfish BUT we were able to dip our toes in the water.
It was Madison's first experience really in the water. I've only taken her to the pool one time prior and the water was so much cooler then this, she really seemed to enjoy watching the waves roll in and out covering her chubby little toes with the warm water!

It was nice to take this trip after being gone for so long because I was able to see a lot of things through new eyes for the first time again. After 2 years it seemed that there was very little that would shock us enough to whip out the camera and take a shot. The different types of plants all seem to blend into one colour of green (except my favorite shade of green... rice field green, right as the stalks are starting to go to seed, absolutely the most brilliant shade of green) and I had forgotten how amazing it all is. I was also reminded that I have never ever taken a picture of bamboo before! This realization shocked me and then to see how abundant it was on our drive I couldn't believe after all the time spent here I hadn't yet captured it, well I obviously got on that one!
On the way to Sipalay we had to drive through the bumpy dirt road to the main highway. We've done this road a couple times before during our stays at Punta Bulata and I think that on one of our first trips I took a picture of a Caribow standing alone in some rice terraces. Well I think this weekend we were able to take a snapshot of the exact same caribow, only this time he was instead of standing in the beautiful green he was chilling in some mud.

Last Minute Vacation

Friday night Ryan and I were on our way home from the late showing of Transformers when we decided that it was time for us to get our toes in some sand. Since it was midnight we were limited in choices but decided to head to one of our favorite destinations; Punta Bulata. It's a white beach resort and spa just north of the town Sipalay. It takes about 2 1/2 hours (when Ryan is driving) and the drive is really beautiful once you get out of Bacolod and it's surrounding municipalities. It's filled with jungle, rice fields, sugar cane, bamboo trees and a lot of smiling faces. Nearing the end of the drive you follow the coast line up the mountains for some amazing views of the water.
We didn't end up doing too much other then our quick trip into Sipalay but it was relaxing and defiantly nice to get out of the city for the weekend. It was extremely quiet and I think for the majority of the time we were the only people other then the resort employee's. The rooms are amazing and view from the balcony in our usual room is fantastic, especially when the sun is setting over the water!

The weather was nice and so we were able to spend some time on the beach dipping into the warm water.

We were also able to capture our very first family picture since Madison joined us!

My Bestfriend a.k.a. Coackroach Killer

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Rumour has it that these spiders kill coackroaches! They are defiantly big enough to do the trick! This isn't the first time that we've seen one of these spiders and from what we've been able to gather, they are quite common but I can't help but let out a yelp every time I see one of these suckers crawling along our floor! I decided to try out my new camera (thanks Dad and Peggy!) and get some good pics of the guy which nearly gave my kids a heart attack. I think that they were genuinly afraid it would take my life... "ok, mommy, I think that's enough pictures now!?" "mommy, come on, kill it" "MOMMY, he's going to BITE you!" After I carefully explained that these spiders eat coackroaches they really seemed to settle down and actually show some respect (Sydney is very very afraid of coackroaches, especially after being locked into a bathroom with one at Focus. She was literally screaming and clawing at the bathroom door). So... for now he lives in our "dirty kitchen" helping me out with the roaches!

Ready, Aim, Fire

So last Saturday Ryan was able to get out for some "man" time. I could not imagine a better way to bond as a group of males then getting together, driving out into the jungle with a bunch of weapons, camouflage and meat on a stick to eat together and shoot at each other.
Apparently these airsoft guns that they use are weight to weight and inch to inch to the real gun that they are modeled off. You also need to obtain a special permit in order to carry one of these airsoft weapons that costs around 1000php ($20ish) which makes sense since they look a little to scary for someone like me who has only shot off a gun once in my life in Utah (you American's and your guns!).

Now Ryan just needs to figure out how to get one of these guns across the border!?

Yay For School!

Monday marked the first day of the 2009/2010 school year for The School for Creative Beginners and so of course we had to get the traditional "first day of school pictures" in front of the house to mark the occasion:

All Dogs Go To Heaven

Well. There are so many amazing and beautiful things in the Philippines but like most things, there has to a balance; ying and yang, good and evil (you probably get the point). So to equal out the beauty the Phlippines has to offer they have their nasty nasty dogs.
Now not all dogs are shudder worthy, but those dogs seem to kept from wandering the side streets where you don't really see the. One example would be our old retreiver Kula who now lives in a much happier place (no... not doggy heaven but sort of down the road from us with a new more worthy owner) but Kula's opposite I fear has made that trip to doggie heaven, R.I.P. Pinky. It was our favorite nasty dog, covered with pink sores, walking with a limpy sadness that screamed malnutrition. Unfortunately Pinky disappeared before we were able to capture his unique beauty on camera... that and I was afraid to get even a little close to it. Sometimes though, even if the dog has great owners who love him and care for him things happen... and he starts to look like this:

I really wanted everyone to appreciate the true beauty that these dogs hold so I've saved these close ups for your pleasure... enjoy!

I just want to finish by mentioning that this dog truly is loved and comes from a great family. The dog only looks like this because of their desperate measures to cure him from ticks that were huge and pratically eating the dog alive. I also won't mention their names for the protection and privacy of the pup! Thanks for letting us take the pictures :)

Green Lagoon

Sometimes you make plans, get excited about them and then these plans are thwarted leaving you momentarily disapointed and discouraged. Well I had one of these experiences 1 1/2 weeks ago where we were invited to join some families on a small white beach island just north of us. Excited for the obvious reasons... white beach and new sand for me collection... and because we decided to take with us our family away from family, the Regodos'. We packed our BBQ along with yummy pork and other snacks, filled our backpacks with swimsuits and stopped off at McD's and picked up 15 orders of extra rice (you can't have a Filipino meal without rice and I forgot to cook some before we left). We were on our way.
Not long after we arrived at the spot where you take the boat to the island only to find that we were about 500php short ($10). Very frustrating since we weren't exactly in a location with bank machines available. So off we went to what we were told was a beach close by. Well... it was close by but not what I would define as a beach, more as a marsh with a swimming pool filled with chemical free water (the owner made a point of mentioning this many many times).

We got some charcoals lit and started to cook our lunch while the kids ran off the pent up energy from the 12 of us crammed into our car (got to love the lack of Filipino road laws, heehee). Lunch was cooked to perfection thanks to the Regodos family and the rest of the afternoon was spent exploring. I stayed pretty close to our bamboo cover with Madison but Ryan was able to find some sea friends while the kids spent the whole time with Nonoy (Edgar) in the pool (seriously, if he wasn't starting University I would hire him as my care provider, the kids LOVE him!). I think the most bizarre thing was the amount and size of the jelly fish just laying around stuck when the tide went out! There were dozens of jellies just dying!
Along with the jelly fish Ryan was able to find what looked like a puffer fish (deflated), an eel and some squid.

Another interesting thing was the picture Ryan took of the fish that died when the tied went out leaving them stuck in the fishing nets, poor guys, that's just got to be an awful way to go!

Thankfully, it ended up being a great day! The kids had a blast, Ryan explored and Madison was content for most of the day. Who knows what would have found us on the beach but I'm really glad the day turned out the way it did... it just saves us an excuse to get the Regodos' to the beach another time ;)

Time Flies

I can not believe that Madison is already 3 months old. The time has flown by so quickly and almost seems like such a blur. With Sydney I can hardly remember anything I was in such a crazy state and I’ve really been enjoying the time and experiences with Madison. I’ve tried to put the worries of life aside and focus on the kids more since I’m a “what if” thinker and sometimes have a very hard time shutting that part of my brain off. It also helps that Brayden and Sydney are older and so close in age that they love playing together and don’t need my constant attention. Madison has been able to get a lot of the “mom” time and attention I wasn’t able to give Sydney since Brayden was only 18 months. Both Brayd and Sydney are amazing with Maddy and always trying to make her smile and giggle. She is defiantly spoiled with attention (if you could spoil a baby). She’s starting to pull some tricks out now with her age... starting to roll from her tummy to back which makes tummy time almost impossible now, and she’s starting to giggle when we play with her. One of my favorite sounds is the first couple of times one of my babies laughs, such a happy sound!
I was really worried about bringing her to the Philippines. It was mostly the long flight that freaked me out but I was also nervous about her response to the heat and humidity. Thankfully an airconditioning unit was installed in our main living space before we arrived and so she’s been able to stay cool for the time in the house. She seems to have adjusted just fine to the change in time and temperature which has been such a huge relief to me and helped me to relax and enjoy being back here in Bacolod. The only thing that seems to bother her is amount of attention she sometimes gets from large groups of people. She can handle be outnumbered 3 or 4 to 1 but when people start poking her and screaming, or talking quite loudly she starts to get a little freaked out and fussy. BUT in her defense I can remember how it felt when just moving here and adjusting to the cultural changes in personal space. I’m sure she’ll get used to it a lot quicker then I did and soon will love the attention.Even Brayden seems to be okay with the attention, not hiding behind my legs every time someone tries to talk to him. Sydney is just too cute, knows it and eats it up ;)

Back in the Land of Palm Trees

Well,
Here we are again in the Philippines. Work was really picking up for Ryan in a hurry and he wanted to be out here to make sure that the growth would be healthy and controlled... so here we are drowning in our sweat and loving it :) It’s only for the summer (the Canadian summer) and we were able to get settled into our old house so it’s almost like we never left and feels comfortable and right.
The kids are so excited about being back so they can visit with some of their most favorite people and attend school for the couple of months that we’re here.
We’ve only been here a week but already things seem to be back into a familiar routine. It only took a couple of days for everyone to be into a night/day sleeping schedule and although my days are starting a lot earlier t hen I’d like (5:30am) at least we’re not up during the night. Early to bed, early to rise I suppose.
The kids will be starting school next week which should be good times for them. I have them attending in the late morning for 2 hours Monday – Friday. This way everything will be open while they are in class and hopefully i’ll be able to get the groceries and chores completed while dealing with only Maddy instead of all three of the kids. I’ve learned though that things don’t always go as planned so I’m not expecting too much to get done.... here’s hoping!