Zoom In

When RD surprised us with a visit last July, I requested that they pose for this picture. The picture in the frame on the bookshelf is currently the wallpaper on my phone.  

JULY 2023

This is the bookshelf photo found in the white frame.  It was taken at our first rental when GI came over to celebrate his birthday.

SEPT 2018

The 2018 photo was taken to recreate the photo on the bookshelf at the time.  The bookshelf photo in the brown frame was taken at Cebu Avenue when they were still very young.  

This is one of my favourite pictures of the kids.  

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

MacGyver picked up GI this afternoon.

Lockdown restrictions have eased so we are able to spend Christmas together.

May you have a blessed Christmas!

Tulips For the House

The kids know I love tulips.

When MyGirl was choosing paint by number projects to work on for her school break activity, she included one that had tulips.  

She finished it last 25 Aug. She framed it and we hung it up.

Now we have another good background for pictures.

This was taken to mark Stay@Homecoming 2021.

Then and Now

Facebook flashes MEMORIES of pictures or posts people have posted from years back.   We managed to recreate two of these photos.

First one was one of MacGyver and the two younger kids.  The picture came up as a memory in May.  When I posted the 2010 photo on my FB feed, I added the caption was "I want to recreate this picture!"  Luckily the kids and MacGyver were willing to pose and it turned out great.  (RD even changed his clothes to match the original photo.  MyGirl is now holding on to an iPad.)

2010 and 2021

Then June came around and FB flashed a picture of the two of us taken at Hungry Jack's during his birthday ten years ago.  HJ is MacGyver's favourite fast food place.  So HJ is where we ended up this month to celebrate MacGyver's birthday when the restaurants at the nearby mall were jam packed.  

2011 and 2021

Easter Monday

MacGyver and I had no definite plans for Easter Monday.

GI slept over and would be heading off by the evening.

RD had lunch and dinner plans.

MyGirl had work from 12nn to 3pm.

I wanted to get a family picture before the kids flew the coop.

 

La Perouse

We picked up GI at about 4PM then headed to La Perouse.

It was a beautiful, memorable day. 

Yes it was.  It was yes.

 

Christmas Then and Now

This picture was taken in 2009.  It was our first Christmas here in Australia.

The kids were between 16 and 8.

This was the picture from last year.  

The young adults are now between 27 and 19.

 

Who's the Good Boy?

Haven't seen GI all year so I decided to post these pictures he had sent through last year.

Selby is one of the reasons GI prefers reporting to work at the office instead of working from home.

 

Precious Commodities

I caught Mother and Slash-M on Skype last Tuesday.  It was the first day of my leave so I was just chilling and trying to get some things done in the kitchen.  

Z and Liana popped into the screen so I called MyGirl over so that we could take a screenshot with our daughters.   When I sent it out to the family, my caption indicated "with our bunso daughters" (bunso  means youngest.)  Z is the youngest of Mother's eight daughters but Liana and MyGirl are unica hijas (only girls).  

Mindy's reaction was that daughters are precious commodities in our family.  It is true, all the girls in MyGirl's generation on our side of the family are unica hijas.  

I hope the cousins are able to form tight bonds with each other or are able to find good 'sisters' among their girlfriends because I don't know how it is to be an unica hija but I am 100% sure that having a good sister is definitely a blessing.

Room With a Zoom

We set an appointment to get together on Father's birthday in May.

Catching everyone at a reasonable time is always a challenge.  

Our two extremes are Arizona and Sydney but the real challenge is making sure that Mother was still awake considering that she wakes up at 3 AM and sleeps at 7PM.   

I was hoping for a 5 AM Arizona / 10PM Sydney schedule which seemed more reasonable for everyone however Mother requested 7PM Manila time because my suggested time translated to 8 PM Manila time which was already past what Mother called her "Shrek time."

Anyway, I sent off this screenshot a few days before our scheduled meeting but mentioned "just add 12 hours."  I usually know whether Sydney is two or three hours ahead of Manila.  At the moment, we are two hours ahead of Manila.

Before 9PM. we started the call using FB messenger.

I thought we were doing ok.  I took this photo and waited for Mother and Sister Deer to join.  

I went upstairs to enable the kids to greet their aunts and uncles but my connection got cut off.

While I was out, Mother and Sister Deer joined the call and I was left out in the cold.

Apparently, FB messenger only allowed eight (8) simultaneous connections.

(Yes, that was my ear in Slash-M's mobile.)

We learned our lesson and set another virtual family gathering for June.  We set it for the 2nd weekend in June.  This time, we would do it in Zoom.  Zoom allows more than eight simultaneous connections.  Perfect for large families such as ours. 

 

By the time June came around, the restrictions on the number of people visiting a household were revised.   Starting 01 June 2020, up to 20 visitors were allowed to visit a household.  That was a whole lot more people that could gather together in a long time. 

 

Family here decided we would get together for our previously regular Saturday dinner.  The last time we'd seen each other was in February.  However since there were more than 20 of us all together, it was arranged such that the adults would meet at one place and the "children" (young adults, really) would gather in another. 

 

So at the designated meeting time, I excused myself to joined the rest of my family for our Zoom call.

One of the major topics for this call was how to wear a surgical mask properly.  (Thank you, Eldest Sis for the online tutorial.)

For the moment, this is what our family picture look like.

It was good to see everyone!

One Day, Two Boys, Three Continents

I am usually able to catch Mother on Skype or FB Messenger with Slash-M and Sunshine on Sunday afternoons however today was special and I was hoping to catch J as well. 

I was happy when J initiated the call.  They had moved the FB Portal downstairs so we could be part of the celebration. 

I don't remember if everyone was already in the call when I joined but I managed to get this screenshot. 

Happy Birthday, Brothers!

My Three Caballeros

Always Something There to Remind Me

We found a  Pie Face stall at NAIA when we were about to fly home.

We'll see you soon, MyGirl!

GI at Work

GI sent us this photo.  The caption says it all :

When 6pm hits the sanity goes out the window

Off to Makati

We headed to Makati early so that we could visit some relatives before we went our separate ways for lunch.  I was meeting my former boss, MacGyver was meeting one of his KC brothers, and the boys were off on their own adventure (GI wanted to introduce RD to the fish tacos at El Chupacabra).

We went to Aries first but my uncle had been rushed to the hospital the night before so my aunt was not her usual picture ready self.  It was quick hello and goodbye.

We headed over to Libra to say hello to my cousins and my aunt. No picture with my dentist cousin because he was with a patient when we passed by.

  

Then we went to the next village to see my other aunt at Saturn. We could tell she was extremely happy to have visitors.  If we did not have lunch commitments, am sure she would have wanted us to stay longer.

When we finished our rounds, GI commented that he now appreciated the effort we had made by visiting the grandparents every weekend while they were young. (We would make the weekly trip to Quezon City from Makati when we still in the Philippines.)  I think GI could see what a wonderful opportunity these visits were to reconnect, and perhaps he really got to feel the sense of joy our dropping by had brought to our relatives. 

It's Gami Time

To celebrate MacGyver's upcoming birthday, we went out for dinner.

We went to Gami for Korean fried chicken at the local mall.

I Do! I Do!

Yes, you do!  You do look good all dressed up.

I wanted to make sure to get a picture of the kids 

after attending a wedding shower at Stonecutters Ridge Golf Club tonight.

Back In The Day

MacGyver and I are one of four sets of couples from our batch that ended up marrying each other.

In this photo from high school, MacGyver is behind me in a red shirt.

One of the other couples that ended up together are right beside me.

I Want To Hold Your Hand

I found this video so cute that I posted it in FB.

Eldest Sis added the comment, "Just like you." 

I replied with this picture which I grabbed from MyGirl.

Over the years, MyGirl has taken so many pictures of me and MacGyver holding hands while walking that she has created a folder to store them.  Naturally, when she saw my FB post, her aunt's comment and the above pictures, she pulled out the big guns and posted four more pictures in reply.  

I replied to her barrage of pictures saying I thought she had proven her point.

Apparently she still had one more up her sleeve.  She posted this one she had taken last July during our vacation.  She said this was the one most relevant to the FB post (because it was taken on the beach).

I thought she had ran out of ammunition but I soon found out that MacGyver and I are easy targets.  

Twinning

Call me crazy but I really find it so cute when the kids are wearing similar shirts.

When they were younger, I could get away with dressing them up so they would match.  As they grew older, each of them had their personal preferences.  Plus I promised I would not make them wear matching shirts once they were taller than me. (And they really didn't have to wait too long for that to happen.)  So I was thrilled to find these old photos.

I had green shirts that matched the ones the kids are wearing in the last two photos but the question is whether I've got pictures to prove it.  These days, the only chance for matching shirts would be if we all happen to be wearing black, white or grey.