Was that McDonalds or MacDonalds?

I the biggest hint that it's time to come home for a substantial amount of time is when your kids speak english with a Filipino accent rather then a "Canadian" one. Brayden has gotten into this horrible habit of talking about 75% of the time with this accent. I guess when you're surrounded by your classmates, friends and church members all of who speak with this accent you tend to pick it up and mimick it. Well.... I am so annoyed by it, no offense to those of you Filipino readers, that I can't talk to him unless he speaks like a "Canadian". This has lead into many conversations about the differences between being Canadian and Filipino especially when all he knows is the Philippines. I have had to correct his before near perfect grammer which has all of a sudden transformed into broken sentences or one worded responses that are known to me as "English as a Second Language" and the problem with this is that Brayden does not speak Ilonggo so English is NOT a second language.
The other day in the kitchen he was pointing out the words that Filipino's say differently then Canadians and he asked why they say "MacDonalds" when we say "McDonalds" and although I had no answer I just told him because that's just how we say it. So Ryan took Brayden out this week for some man time and they had a cheeseburger at McDonalds. Apparently Brayden is pointing to the table next to them saying "you say MacDonalds, we say McDonalds." I think maybe I should refrain from correcting him further until we get home in 2 weeks before he starts getting into it with his classmates and teachers?

It's a Small World After All

Today at Brayden and Sydneys school they had the Filipino equivalent to Halloween; Pretend Day. This year the theme at school was It's a Small World After All and every class was a different continents. Sydney was Australia and so she was able to dress up like and Australian animal, and Brayden was African and was assigned to dress up as an African. Other places were Asia, North America and Europe. Each class set up a booth which included a stamp for their passport, a game and prize for their completion of the game.
I was a parent volunteer for the Gummi Class (Sydney) and helped out at the booth during their 2 hour class with a couple of the other parents from Syd's class. We had to be their early this morning which meant that after I was done icing the cupcakes Ryan made the night before and the cookies I had cooked at 6:30am I was on my way to set up while Ryan was in charge of getting the kids ready and out the door to school. Sydney ended up being a great white shark which was an easy costume we bought a local department store and Brayden... well I have to say that Ryan really did quite the job with Brayden! When I say quite the job I mean Brayden really looked the part! It was perfect and of course I wouldn't expect anything less from Ryan.

The bonus to being a parent volunteer meant that I could follow the kids around a bit when there wasn't anyone at our booth and take some pictures of them playing their games! When the day was over they were able to accumulate quite the stash which defiantly makes up for the lack of trick or treating this year!!

MassKara Parade

This year we were in town for the big MassKara/Charter Day parade. Last year even though Focus had a float in the parade we were on our way home to Canada and missed the big event. This year we had to make up for it by all participating. We all got fancy MassKara Focus shirts which were black (thankfully it was cloudy so the sun didn't roast us in the dark shirts). Brayden loved his and Sydney needed some convincing about how "cool" they were so we made hers into a dress and put a belt around her waist (which is a VERY Asian look) but somewhere along the way the belt came off and she like her usual orphan self.

The float and shirt designs were made into a competition at Focus so both were designed by Focus employees which to my understanding were rewarded with some type of incentive. Ryan mentioned how many talented people were working at Focus and was really impressed with the different designs that the Focus gang was coming up with. This was the finished project for the float:

Focus employees that owned motorcycles drove those along with the floats, including Ryan who took the kids with him. They seemed to be getting a lot of attention and people were somewhat attacking him on the bike so after Sydney started to fall asleep Ryan switched off the motorbike to someone else and walked with me while we pawned Sydney off to a friend on the float. The walk took almost 2 hours in total which was slow and uneventful until we got to the Plaza which is where most of the MassKara festivities (dance competions) took place. It was insanely busy and Ryan thought it would be fun to play a "Where's Meghan" version of the famous Waldo books so here you go... find Meghan (click on the picture to get a larger version):

After the parade was finished everyone met back at Focus for some foods, relaxation and pictures. The families were invited to sit down, eat some pork BBQ, drink some Coca Cola and let their kids sit in an air conditioned room and watch some TV (which my kids were loving!).

One thing that I have promised to post are the drunk tanks I've previously mentioned in my blog. They are just big shipping crates from boats with holes cut out of them (Negros Navigation is the biggest shipping company in the Philippines). They had 2 of them set up at the Plaza this year and when you get a little too drunk and start making a scene the security will put you into one of these tanks to sober up. We've heard that if you drive by around 5am you will see hands poking out of the holes. The other thing we've heard about these tanks is that they are one big CR (Comfort Room = Bathroom)! Too gross. I just could not resist sharing this wonderful thing with all of you readers. The other picture is of the insanity of Masskara. This is one road that is filled with vendors selling cheap trinkets, clothes, chicken BBQ and blow up toys for kids (such as Power Rangers). It is so busy with so many people all squished together and you seriously can't move. It's 30*C+ outside increased by all the hot bodies you are mashed up against, you get so sweaty and disgusting, I just couldn't understand the fun in it! Ryan on the other hand loved the business of it all!

Happy 4th Birthday Brayden!

So on Thursday Brayden felt he had decided he was a big boy now because he was 4 years old. In his birthday excitment we were all up at 5:30am which is 30 minutes earlier then normal, we usually sleep though the intial call from the roosters. Mom, not so excited to wake up so early! It was a good day and Brayden finally got a much needed haircut just in time for his party the next day!

Friday was party day. Again, so excited to have our friends come over we were up at 5:30am, again I was not so excited about this. We decided to invite a couple families from church who Brayden really enjoys playing with. The couple of days before were spent making fondant for the cake and the kids and I making a horrible mess on the floor in our attempt to make a pinata. Brayden decided that he wanted a Power Rangers birthday cake which was a shocker to me since I didn't even have a clue he knew what a Power Ranger was and I had no idea what they were other then fighting characters on TV. I guess it's the begininning of peer influence. So Brayden and I searched the internet for pictures of Power Ranger cakes until he found something that he was excited about. I did the best I could and I figure I've come along way since his first birthday cake of a smeared soccer ball.

The festivities included a treasure hunt, pinata beating, food and cake and the kids took care of the rest playing outside, running after eachother and burning off all the sugar they were eating. We were able to feed the 30ish guests with our assortment of goodies including 200 Lumpia (spring rolls) made a church member for her favorite customer, Ryan.

Unfortunately we don't have too many pictures since most of the party was recorded on video instead of camera but i've rounded up a couple of the kids playing outside. It was kind of a nut house with the 13 primary aged kids and then some of the older kids Brayden really loves but Brayden had a great time and I think Sydney felt the party was just as much for her as it was for Brayden.

Siquijor Island

Sunday morning we got up and took the ferry to Suquijor which was about 1 hour long. We didn't really do to much but spend the day relaxing at the swimming pool and playing around together. It had a great slide which the kids loved and I got stuck on. It was pretty warm and deep and so they loved jumping into the water and swimming around together. It also had a shallow section of the pool they could stand in and jump around splashing without worry. The place we stayed was designed and landscaped really nicely. It was situated on a white beach but unfortunately they weren't maintaining it daily so there was a lot of reeds on the shore :( Finally on Monday before we left someone was out there raking up all the reeds and cleaning up the beach. We took a stroll along the water and played on a tire swing they had haning from a coconut tree but we had no desire to swim in the sea with no where really open to lay on the beach.

Monday was a cloudy day which brought beautiful clouds up in the mountains on the Islands in the distance. It was calm and peaceful to watch, a great way to start the day!

The way home seemed to go by pretty quickly. Ryan found some sound competition in a vehicle in front of weaving through the mountain as quickly as he was. It became a competition and helped us get home in 4 hours after our lunch stop in Dumaguete and taking a couple of pictures I've wanted to take since we arrived here in the Philippines.

On The Way To Dumaguete City

This past weekend we decided to take what will probably be our last family excursion in the Philippines. Well the last one for a while at least. Now that Ryan has technically started his MBA I don't think we'll many free weekends where extra reading and catching up on assignments and work won't take over.

On Saturday around noon we started our journey to the opposite end of the island that we're on to the capital city of the only other Province which occupies Negros Island; Negros Oriental. The city is named Dumaguete and there a couple of different routes on the Island. One, all coastal, Ryan took when the kids and I were home last Halloween so we decided this time we would drive through the mountain. The map here is a little on the not so hot side but it was all I could really find that showed where we were going and how we got there. So I hope on the North you can find our starting point of Bacolod and on the Southeast part of the Island you can find Dumaguete. Well if you look a little bit more south and to the east you will see a smaller Island named Siquijor and was our final destination... more on that later.

The drive down to Dumaguete took about 5 hours since we had to make a couple of stops on the side of the road to use natures potty and to get a couple of pictures. The kids were surprisingly well behaved in the backseat being thrown around by Ryans speedy turns through the mountains. We arrived in Dumaguete at dinner time, walked down the boardwalk, ate and headed to bed. Unfortunately I have no pictures from Dumaguete itself since other then there being a million motor bikes and half of them being driven by girls, there was nothing special about it (sorry Dumaguetians). But I do have a couple pictures from the drive up that are pretty nice.

*Just a reminder to scroll over the picture to find the description of what it is*

This and That

I know I haven't really been too good about keeping my website up to date lately but it just doesn't seem like we have too much going on worthy enough to talk about. BUT this week we had a couple of interesting things happen so instead of writing a post for every one I thought I'd just smash it together into one post and save myself some time and effort.
First thing, we had a pipe leak which started a couple months ago but got pretty bad lately. It started to get plugged so my laundry would never drain and just little annoying things like that. We deciced that it was time to stop procrastinating and get someone in to fix it. The downer to getting it fixed was that we had to shut our water off for the cement to cure so we filled our bathtub with water storage so we could manually flush the toilets, wash our faces, things like that. So with our bathtub filled we shut the water off and braved the next day. We had to take a picture of the bathtub so that you all can see the great water that we clean ourselves in, the water is seriously untouched, straight from the tab, no dirty kids have yet to touch it!!

Ryan is really good about bringing me home flowers on a regular basis and this time he brought a flower we nicknamed "The Brain" because we thought it resembled what we think a brain looks like. It's a really pretty flower that we've never seen before but think is quite interesting.

I got a new helmet for the motorbike which I love! I really get frustrated when Ryan drives really fast and the dirt, wind and bugs are flying into my eyes and mouth so I finally found a small sized full faced helmet. I have a pretty tiny head so a bonus is that the helmet not only fits me but it somewhat fits on Braydens head as well which he just loves. It is his helmet when he's on the bike and once we drop him off it becomes mine. It's a pretty good trade off although it kind of looks super huge on Brayden!
The last and most important of our weekly events was Ryan's birthday on Sunday. Saturday after work Focus threw him a surprise party with lots of food, cards and cake. That evening I whipped up some Chicken Parmesan which I have to admit was one of the tastiest meals i've ever made ;) Sunday Ryan was asked to speak in church, which of course was great, and after church we had our Bishop and his family over for Sunday dinner. It was a pretty relaxing day but it was really nice to spend the time together with the family before Ryan gets into his Masters/Work crazy schedule.

I'd like to end by putting a shout out to my dad who shares his birthday with Ryan!!

Sydney's First Field Trip

This week Sydney, her classmates, Teacher Summer, Teacher Inah and Ms. Charms were able to go on a little adventure to the local SM (Super Mall). It gave them a chance to get out of the classroom and go to a indoor playground for a while. She was able to drive around in those big plastic cars, slides, have a tea party and of course her favorite thing: play with babies. She loves babies and the one she has (cabbage patch doll from Auntie Kait) has survived a fair amount of abuse in her young existance.

Here are some pictures of Sydney and classmates:

There is nothing a little girl likes more then to play with some domestic mini's like a kitchen, tea sets and shopping carts. Personally I don't see the attraction, I prefer to stay away from those things myself...

The "ber" Months

I guess September officially marks the start of the "ber" months. I know in Canada September means back to school, cooling evenings and even the start of the leaves on trees turning yellow and amber. Here in the Philippines the kids have been back at school since June, the evenings defiantly aren't feeling any cooler to me and the trees are still the same brilliant green they always are. I guess here on Negros Island the sugar cane is getting ready to be harvested and is looking pretty tall in the fields! In Bacolod City it means that only 1 more month until the Masskara Festival starts. The bright flashy masks have made their way onto the displays in the department stores and I can't wait for those huge metal shipping crates from Negros Navigation Shipping tbe placed in the corners of downtown to act as the drunk tank throughout October. But here in the Philippines the one thing that the "ber" months mark is the beginning of Christmas. Who can do Christmas better then a people who celebrate it for 4 months of the year!? Back home I can remember feeling sick when I heard that first Christmas song on the radio in early November... I will have to start working on my gag reflex A.S.A.P. before I hear that first Christmas song any day now. Only yesterday at the department store I saw a display of Christmas tree ornaments although when I mentioned it to Ryan he said they were probably there all year round. Maybe this year will be lucky #3 for us and we'll buy our coveted Filipino Nativity set with the pig on a spit (or "Lechun" as they call it) that we've looked at over these past 2 Christmas' in the Philippines. I have to admit... I am looking forward to those cool December days of high twenties (that's *C for you Americans who still use *F). It will be a refreshing break from the heat of the rest of the year.
Here's a little early Christmas love from us Beatties:

Right Into The Swing of Things

Well we've back in the Philippines for a week and a half now and things seem to be like we never left. The kids are back at school, Ryan is back full swing into work and we've been able to catch up with all our friends.
We all survived the 14 hour flight from Vancouver to Manila with minor complications. Air Canada lost our luggage in Vancouver but we were fortunate enough to get it delivered to our house only a couple days after we arrived. The kids were amazing travellers as usual and I learned something new... People import Cocks from Canada!! I don't know if they are for breeding or for fighting but when we started our decent down to Manila the Roosters were crowing like crazy! At first I thought I was imagining it thinking I must be going crazy hearing the Roosters already (this is how I have woken up every morning for almost the last 2 years!) but then Brayden noticed and started crowing with them. We see them all the time on domestic flights in their little cardboard boxes with holes all over the place but i've never seen them on an international flight before! So way to go Canada for breeding international Roosters.
I've mentioned this to our family but for other readers coming home brought one huge dissapointment! Apparently a week before we arrived back into the Philippines the country passed a law limiting the passengers allowed on a motorbike to two only!! AND they both must be wearing helmets. To make it worse if there is a child on the bike they have to be at least 7 years old!! This means that now when we take the kids to school we must be super sneaky and put Brayden in clothes that make him look 7. Unfortunately this rule really sucks for those who only can afford a motorbike and it's their only means of transporting their family members to school and to work. I'm sure that this will be hard on a lot of families now having to take other means.... gas prices are now at $1.50 US and jeepney prices on the rise and rice going up it will be more difficult for these family then it already is!
In other news it was my birthday and now i'm old! But other then that... things are all good, all the same and everyone is well!

Cardston, Alberta

We drove down to Cardston Friday night after Ryan was finished work to spend the night with Leslie and Dustin before we leave to the Philippines again and we went to the Cardston Rodeo. We didn’t end up staying for too long but for the little time that Brayden did spend there he’s been pretending to rope calf’s since.

The following day was the Cardston parade where Ryan’s family all collected on the side of the road to catch as much candy as we could. Unfortunately my kids weren’t quite as prepared as I had hoped and although we left with some good treats we just didn’t have the numbers that we could have ;) Brayden and Sydney seemed pleased with their collection of sugar!

Invermere, B.C.

For the August long weekend we went out to Invermere BC with my family. For those of you who don’t know where that is the best explanation I can give is that it’s inbetween Fairmont Hot Springs and Radium. From Lethbridge it’s normally a 5 hour drive but for us it took about 7 with stops to pick up Matthew; my sister’s boyfriend, letting the kids pee, blah blah blah it was a long drive. It was raining through parts of it but we were able to spot the brightest rainbow i've ever seen. Unfortunately this picture really doesn't do it justice! But thankfully the drive was rewarded with a tasty meal and great weather for the remainder of the weekend. It was really relaxing! We were able to go to the market where I picked up some delicious blackberries (yummy) which we ate on Vanila ice cream while everyone else was out, muahaha. The kids enjoyed the slip and slide and we set up the badminton net where Ryan and I kicked some serious butt. The boys also played a game of sepaktakraw which is a Malaysian form of soccer in the youtube clip below (I suggest taking the couple of minutes to watch it... they have some really amazing moves!). We also rented some canoes for a couple of hours and coasted out in the wetlands hoping to catch some otters and although we came out of the mission unsuccessful we were able to see a Blue Heron taking flight out of the reeds. Thankfully our ride home was much shorter with a dinner stop at the White Spot, mmm.

So for those of you people who have no idea what sepaktakraw is I thought I would add this youtube clib of a game. It's kind of older and long but it's got a pretty decent commentary so if you have a couple of minutes check it out!!

Waterton

Since the last time we came home to visit it was near deathly freezing temperatures we hadn’t been to Waterton National Park for a couple of years and so with Ryan’s family from Utah up and spending their visit at Waterton we were happy to take the excuse and spend the day. We went up with Jessica and her boys and spent the afternoon with a picnic, walking by the lake, playing at the park and hanging out waiting for the Porters to get back from their hike. It was a great day and the visit was good. Ryan was licked by a deer who must have thought he had food!?