Recovering From Memorial Day Weekend

First of all, Happy Belated Memorial Day to all those that gave their lives defending our freedom.

And with all that comes family get togethers, barbeques and food. Lots and lots of food! So the weekend started on Friday with a prayer service and family dinner for my mom's uncle, who died a week or so ago. Then, Saturday started with a bit of spring cleaning in the garage. My aunt and uncle came up to visit from L.A. so we all went up to Tracy to my other aunt's house for a little family get together dinner. It was a night of lots of food, the Laker game and some old family photos. A good night to hang out.

The next day was a friend's barbeque. That was night of lots of food, lots of booze and lots of laughs. I think it was too much food, booze and laugh. Especially the booze. I don't usually drink a lot but...that brought me to Monday. Where I spent all day nursing a good ol' hangover.

Oooh, my head...

But I'm all better now.

Merry Christmas!

I'd like to wish everyone, everywhere a very Merry Christmas! I can't believe Christmas is already here. This year's a bit different, another year without my grandfather, and a year of not being with my aunts, uncles, cousins and other family. I definitely miss not opening the presents at midnight with all of them. But it's all good, we should be all together tomorrow. Anyway, it's one more week and it's gonna be the start of another year! Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'd like to send my happy thanksgiving wishes to all of you out there! This is definitely a time to give thanks for all that we have in our lives. I am truly thankful for my family and friends and all the things that I have and the things that I am able to do. We should definitely be thankful more often than we do but at least there is a day that we can sit down and remember to be thankful.

Back from L.A., again

Just got back yesterday from a little getaway to L.A. We had people from the Philippines over our place for the past couple of weeks and a trip to L.A. was on their agenda so we decided to drive them down there. We also got to see my nieces and nephew again before they headed back home to Maryland. It was a very nice weekend.

It started off with a nice late afternoon on Saturday at the ballpark with my friends watching a little minor league baseball. And right after, we drove down to L.A. at about 10:30 at night. We arrived at 5 in the morning. It was a nice stressfree drive without the heat and traffic. After a good day of sleep and relaxing, Saturday found its way into Sunday, where we visited my mom's aunt and had some great BBQ and one of my favorite Filipino dishes, kare-kare. It was delicious!

Then, Monday was fun day, we drove down to Port Hueneme, where my cousin, who is in the Navy, is stationed. We got to spend the day with the kids by the beach. Oxnard is a quiet little agricultural place with a pretty nice quiet beach. It was nice to just lay back, fly some kites, build sandcastles and play around with my nieces and my nephew.

We got back yesterday after a nice, hot drive back home in the afternoon.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy belated 4th of July, everyone! I had a pretty good July 4th weekend, lots of eating! haha The weekend started with a BBQ/poker night for my friend's birthday. Then the 4th was full of BBQ's starting with a friend's little party, and then off to my family friend's BBQ. It seems like the economy has definitely affected the fireworks everywhere! There were cancelled fireworks displays and the ones that went on weren't as extravagant as they used to be. But I did see fireworks going off all over the city. It did make me wonder if all the cities around here thought it was worth it to save money but have a higher risk of burning someone's house. I don't know but we'll have to see how it goes for future 4th of July celebrations!

Happy 4th of July!

Remembering My Grandfather

Today, May 1, is the 2nd year anniversary of my grandfather's death. It's been a tough couple years for me and my family, but we all have gotten through it together. So now, we start another year without him here with us physically. But he is always going to be with us spiritually. I went to mass last Sunday and was praying and talking with my grandpa after receiving communion, then all of a sudden I smelled a whiff of his Old Spice smell. It hit me quick but I knew he was there with me. Anyway, I wanted to leave you all with something that I wrote for my grandfather for his memorial service two years ago.

R.I.P. Lolo (July 2, 1916–May 1, 2007)

Simple / Stubborn / Old-fashioned / Old-school / Giving / Gentle / Thoughtful / Full of thought / A worrier and a warrior / A man's man / A gentleman / He taught me to be the man that I want to be / And the man that I didn't want to be / We all have both sides / The good and the bad / But no matter what any of us thought / He always wanted the good / The good inside all of us to shine through

Betrayed by his body / His mind like a steel trap / But for his nine decades / He was taken too soon / For his nine decades / He had nine lives / From the battles of Bataan / To the battles of broken hearts / To the battles with his hard-headed children / He went through it all / Let us hope / Let us pray / That we / Get to live a full life as he

He was personable / He was charming / Before getting to the point / He would tell you his life story / or at least the story of his life at the moment / Oh the stories / The stories he could tell / Were simple / Yet that was his life / He was content with his big ben clock / His flashlight / His gold casio watch at his side / He made sure everything was in order / How he wanted things / How they were supposed to be / So let us live our life like he

Let us go forth / and go home / Lolo's gonna get worried because it's starting to get dark out there

Love you Lolo,

Albert

Happy belated Birthday to my mom!

I had a super busy weekend...it was my mom's birthday yesterday and Easter today. I didn't have time to wish my mom a very happy 60th birthday yesterday! We had a nice little family get-together dinner for my mom and my uncle, who share a birthday, along with my mom's twin sister. Happy Birthday momma!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to everyone! We had a very nice Easter today, went down to the Monterey Bay area! We all went to church at Mission Carmel, it was packed! Then we went around Monterey, to the Aquarium and down Cannery Row...I love that place! 

Good Friday Journey

My mom, dad and I went on our annual Good Friday 'Visita Iglesia' where we went to 14 different churches, one for each of the Stations of the Cross. It was a nice, quiet day with my parents. It was a nice, easy little trip too, I spent a good amount of time last night planning our route. Here are a few of the churches we visited:

Church of the Ascension

St. Justin Church (the grade school that I went to)

Mission Santa Clara

The Fight For Cookie Monster

Recently, my little cousin and I have been arguing over who is a bigger lover of Cookie Monster. It started when she was going over my mom's Avon booklets (my mom's an Avon-lady) and saw the stuffed-Cookie Monster. We argued about who should get it because it can only belong to one! haha

Anyway, Cookie Monster arrived last week and I took it hostage...

well...over the weekend, after very clever sting operation, my cousin "Cookie-napped" him back and Cookie Monster is nice and safe...for now!

Family Tree

Last week my mom was organizing some of her papers in her guest room and found a folder of the family tree notes that she had been working on. She gave it to me to look through and I became really interested in my own family history. It was interesting to see the names  of my grandfather's mother and father and their mothers and fathers. My mom's research went out to at least six generations of our family. As I looked through the different trees and lists, I thought it would be great to see how far I could expand it. It would be fun to not only find out about my great-great-grandparents but also their family, their brothers and sisters and cousins. This family tree project has definitely been added to the long list of other projects that I'll be working on. 

Family is definitely important to me. About a year and a half ago, my grandfather, my mom's father, died. I was really close to him. I have a box full of his little writings, his journals and notes. I haven't looked at any of them since I put them in the box. I'm not sure, but I have the feeling that finding more about my family and its pasts, I can delve back into my grandfather's words and find more about him.