Henle Latin, Lesson 1

I get to Exercise 2 and feel like I’m missing something here…

original recipes!!!!

i am very proud to say that i have come up with SIX!!!!!! original (meaning wheat-less, egg-less, dairy-less) allergy-free dessert recipes. *bows*

hahahaha!!! *wink*

the best part about coming up with these recipes is when the people in my family who suffer from food allergies LIKE it!!!! and i can totally understand how it is for them, because i happen to be one of them, and so, i can sympathize.

my original recipes are as follows:

Allergy-free Lemon Cakes
Allergy-Free Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
Allergy-Free Chocolate Honey Cake
Jumbo (Allergy-Free) Oatmeal Chocolate Raisin Cookies
Allergy-Free Chocolate Cinammon Sugar Cookies
Allergy-free Marbled Chocolate Strawberry Brownie-Cake

Valentine’s Day and Youth Camp

So…

Thursday night, daddy came home. WHEEE!!! Mom went to pick daddy up, and then they ate out, so we kids stayed home and watched movies (and I made pork chops)… until we got a call! from mom to be ready to go as soon as they got there. So… we got ready to go… and their surprise for us was that, we slept at Holiday Inn! It was mom and daddy’s gift to us for Valentine’s day. So we watched TV and ate chocolate… watched the food network and the history channel. So I got in about an hour and a half of science, and then nearly three hours of history (I stayed up till who knows what time watching the history channel with daddy; learned about Kennedy and Nixon). School work!!! WOOT!!!! Ain’t it great? HAHAHAHAHAHA.

We got up early and ate breakfast downstairs, then we went home and I started cramming my talk. Hehehe. It wasn’t hard; I didn’t have to do any research besides looking up a couple Bible passages. I just used stuff that I’d learned already from The Great Bible Adventure, Life of Grace, and from reading the footnotes in my Bible. I took a break and chatted with Ate Mary for a bit, and that was heartening and encouraging and all. I wish she’d been able to come, but it’s ok. There’s always next time… Anyway, I finished before lunch (Salamat sa Diyos!!!), and I went sledding with daddy and the kids for a bit afterwards. Daddy and I took turns with the camera, and I got to go down with all the kids. AND THEN I WENT DOWN THE HILL WITH DADDY!!!!!!!! which was pretty awesome, hehe!!! Woulda been fun if we’d wiped out, but we didn’t… but it was still awesome. LOL.

Paco and I got dropped off at Tito Leo’s house at around ten to eight. On the way… Oh, I dunno… deja vu, I guess. I saw Wilkes-Barre and Italy. Our service team meeting went very well… ehm, for the most part, anwyay. Gabe explained our duties, Paolo went over the sched with us, Ate Candice gave us a quick summary on speaking God’s Word, and we had our tongues’ workshop. So I learned about being what I was expected to do as a facilitator and we had mock pray-overs just to get things straight (which was where things got a little… awkward and uncomfortable in some places, but I shan’t go into that). Paolo stressed the importance of EATING QUICKLY during breakfast and lunch and breaks, so that we could have a LONG DINNER. And I forget the rest of it. Because that was the only part that was MAJORLY stressed, and so it was all that stuck with me. I ignored the rest of the schedule except for the part with my talk. LOL. And then, the tongues’ workshop, which was more for Gabe and Mariel’s benefit; we who’d been able to attend had already had a mini-workshop the week before during CLP. Overall, I suppose it was a very satisfying night. :D

Mummy had packed the bento box for me, and so while everyone was having doughnuts, I had… SUSHI!!!!!!!! a-WOOT!!!! That I’d prepared myself. *sigh of contentment* Then, Tito Leo drove us girls (except for Kim; she went home) over to Mariel’s house and we got some sleep (definitely less than ten hours ;-).

So, yeah; me, Gabriella, Candisse, and Mariel… HAD FUN!!!! and missed Kim a LOT… We recorded ourselves… having fun. LOL. We were singing/dancing to High School Musical, Avril, and Kuya. We were being really really really crazy. ‘Course, the videos aren’t going online; they are only for our personal documentation. But they were great. We were jumping up and down and yelling (with consideration for the others in the house, so I don’t suppose you could really call it yelling, because we were just… yeah.) and dancing and rolling around and falling over on purpose and begging Gabriella to join us in front of the camera (which, girls, turned out to be not in the frame of the camera; I was too low) and saying random names and diving all over the place and… yeah. Great night. Haha. And then we went to sleep and woke up at like 6, but went back to sleep and woke up again to get up at around 6:30-ish.

Paolo had, the night before, STRESSED the fact that we NEEDED TO BE THERE BY 7:25 AT THE LATEST!!!!!!!! So, yes, we were there on time. We had breakfast (all of us together), and while the others ate more doughnuts — among other things, but that’s what stuck with me, lol (pero hindi naman nakaka asar masyado) — I had RICE and the pork that mum sent with me. *sigh* One simply cannot live without rice. Doughnuts are just… NOT filling. :P Hahaha. Oh! Unless. UNLESS. They come FRESH and WARM from Krispy Kreme. (I MISS KRISPY KREME!!!!!!)

We went downstairs and had our morning prayer and worship. Gabe on bass, Mariel on electric, me on acoustic… and I think Paco and Candisse and Kim joined in eventually? I mean, while we were practicing first. And then we went on…

Participants arrived in the middle of it all, I gather…( don’t know; I was just downstairs until all that came before everything started were there. there were a couple that came in the middle of the first talk…) we had a total of six participants; Gloria, Gwen, Morgan, Frances, Alexis, and Karen. So… I got introduced to them (by Gabriella and Kim) and we were all screaming with pleasure (well, not all of us…) because there were a total of seven homeschoolers at that camp….. WOOT!!!! Me, Paco, Gabriella, Kim, Morgan, Gwen, and Gloria. AWESOME-NESS!!!!!!!! We brought them down and taught them some songs for worship, and then we sang…

Then, the intro was given… and then Kim gave the first talk, with Gabriella sharing. Ehm… a bit emotional. (Which wasn’t at all bad, of course; it really… I don’t know… but it had a really good effect, I think.) We had our discussion, which went well…. I took Gloria and Gwen and Karen, and Gabriella was with us. Mariel took the other three. Now that I think about it, I think we were split up by age… but I can’t be certain, because aren’t Gwen and Alexis the same age? I think.. Ahem.

Then, we had an ice-breaker… ‘over the mountain’? Wheee it worked. Pretty much the same concept as ‘do you love your neighbor’ just a little different. I think it was mostly the service team that ended up in the middle, but… eh, it wasn’t bad. Only… Paolo kept on saying his name and the last name was kinda starting to get old… HAHAHAHA. Eh, it was fine. :D Masaya naman, so.. that was good.. and then.. well, we had a break, at any rate. I was anti-social and went over my talk… and then I was prayed over and then I gave my talk… here it is…

I. Intro -

Living a Christian life on our own is impossible. Only through the strength that we have in God, the strength that we have in Jesus, can this be possible. When we hear of how great God’s love is for us, I think, many of us genuinely want to respond to Him by loving Him back and living a live that’s pleasing to Him, but it’s difficult to live a life that’s pleasing to God, if we don’t have a personal relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. And so, like any relationship that we have, with friends, with family, to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, we have to know who He is. So, who is Jesus Christ? Well. What do we know?

II. Who Is Jesus -

A. impact in history

Well, first, let’s take a look at His life, and how He has affected our history. First of all, we know that He was born in a stable some 2000 years ago in Bethlehem, in Judea, which is in what is now Palestine. So the first glimpse that we have of Jesus is in a stable. Ok? A stable, a place where animals live and sleep and eat and do everything that they need to do. This is where our Savior was born. In a stable. Take Bethlehem next. Bethlehem was a very small, poor, unimportant town. In the Bible, where they list the territory of the twelve tribes of Israel and how the land was split up and everything, Bethlehem didn’t even make it on the list, because of the fact that it was so small and so unimportant; it wasn’t even worth mentioning.

Then, there’s the fact that Jesus grew up trained as a carpenter. He was not a king as other Kings were; ruling their people from a distance. There’s something that separates a king from his people; because a king grows up rich and wanting for nothing, he can never fully understand what his people go through. Jesus isn’t like that. He is a King who totally understands His people, both the poor and the rich. He is God, and that is power at its highest point; no human could ever reach that high, and nothing can go higher than that. But He also understands what it is to be poor; when He became Man for our sake, He did not choose to live in pomp and splendor and riches. He truly Lived! among His people. He lived in a community, knew his neighbors, the way you and I do. And so He understands our needs, our hopes, our fears, our dreams. He truly became one of us.

Around the age of 30, Jesus’ public life began. For three years, he traveled, preaching the Love of His Father. He genuinely cared for those who were lost, for the sinners, for the sick, for those who were unclean, for the ordinary people.

Jesus was charged with blasphemy, and was also seen as a political threat at the time, and so He was crucified as a criminal at the age of 33.

So you’d expect that like any religious or political leader of the time, Jesus would have been forgotten, faded away, maybe? But He hasn’t. After 2000 years, He’s still being talked about, argued over, sought for in terms of understanding, respected… 2000 years later, for us, for we who believe in Him, look at us, 2000 years later, we still call Him our King. No other person has had so many books and stories about them. The book that we accept that tells His story, the Bible, is still the #1 best seller of all time. Then there’s how History has been split up into B.C. and A.D. We’ve all been taught historical dates with B.C. and A.D., haven’t we? B.C. stands for Before Christ, and A.D. stands for Anno Domini, which is Latin for In the Year of Our Lord; we’ve been taught historical dates that have been split up according to His life, it’s just been recognized that that’s how dates are split up.

So, yeah, Jesus is… everywhere. Literally in every sense of the word. So, you know, there’s just so much that’s said about this guy, so what was He really like?

B. misconceptions

I mean, there’s just so many misconceptions, people portray Him in so many different ways. So let’s take a look at some of the things people have to say about Him.

Some say he was a weirdo, a freak, even. I mean, really, some guy just starts telling you, “Love your enemies.” and “If someone slaps you, turn the other cheek.” I mean, really, if we’d lived back then, ‘course there’s more than just a small chance that we would’ve been weirded out.

But, obviously, weird as some people might think Him, there was something about Him that attracted people. Mark, Chapter 1: 16 – 20, reads, “As he passed by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea; they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Then they left their nets and followed him. He walked along a little farther, and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They too were in a boat mending their nets. Then he called them. So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him.” And so, for them to just get up and leave their life behind; because, I mean, they were fishermen. This was their trade, this was their life, everything that they knew. And they left it behind to follow Jesus.

Some people call Him weak, because He allowed Himself to be tortured, gave in to all the persectution.

But let’s think about that. First of all, what got him there? Obviously, there had to be some reason for people to think Him worth torturing. So He must’ve done something that some people thought was bad. And Jesus openly stood up against the known authorites of His time. In Matthew, Chapter 23, which I’m not gonna read, because it’s quite long, but Jesus criticized the scribes and the Pharisees, calling them hypocrites. And now, the scribes and the Pharisees held a great deal of power at the time. These are the people that brought charges against Jesus that resulted in His death.

Now, does this make Jesus weak? Well, first of all, who said that He had to criticize those people that were in power. It takes a great deal of boldness and courage to openly criticize people in positions of power. He didn’t have to do it. But He did. He preached and stood up for something that made these people angry, because they felt that His teachings threatened their position. He didn’t have to do it. He is certainly not weak. There were many chances for Him to be weak, but he proved to be strong, in that; He chose to preach the Good News, even though He knew very well the dangers of doing so. He did NOT lie his way out of the charges. And who can call a person weak, for having a chance to get out of a brutal death like that, and didn’t take it. He ACCEPTED it, He accepted His death. Willingly.

Some say that Jesus was confused or unsure of Himself. But He wasn’t confused. He knew exactly where He was supposed to be in any given moment. He knew where and when He was to be captured and sentenced to death.

Some say that Jesus was an unsuccessful leader. But, like I said, after 2000 years, He is still our King. What King has ever been known to reign 2000 years, and then some. He’s not done. Christianity’s thriving.

C. the best way to know Jesus

So, if we are finding it difficult to know what to believe and what not to believe about Jesus, why don’t we focus on what He tells us about Himself.

See, Jesus claimed to have qualities that belong only to God. Matthew, Chapter 28, verse 18 – “Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” So, He claimed to posses all authority in Heaven and Earth. Only God has that authority. We see that nature reconized this authority that Jesus claimed to have, when in Luke, Chapter 8, it tells of how Jesus was in a boat out on the lake, and there was a storm, and the waves were tossing the boat around… and He calmed the sea. He rebuked the wind and the sea, and they were still.

Second, Jesus forgave sins. You have to understand how strictly people in that time believed that God alone has the authority to forgive sins, which is perfectly true. And so Jesus claimed to have this authority also. (Luke 5: 17-26)

Jesus claimed to be a judge. That is a right that is exclusive to God’s supreme authority. (John 5:21 – 23; 27)

Thomas worshipped Jesus when He saw that Jesus had risen from the dead. (John 20; 24 – 29) Worship is for God alone, as we know from the First Commandment.

Lastly, Jesus claimed to give Life. (John 5; 26) Only God has that power. It’s all about power and authority. Jesus claims to have the power and authority that we know belongs only to God, and so if we are to believe in these claims, then we accept that Jesus, while He was fully Man, He was also fully God.

III. our response

So now that we have a basic idea of who Jesus Christ is, through what we know of Him through the Bible and the way He has affected our world for over 2000 years, how do we respond?

Jesus Christ claimed to be the Son of the Most High. The Son of our Creator. The Son of God. That is a majorly serious claim. It’s either blasphemy, or it’s the Truth. Jesus’ claims are so different from the claims of others; for example, Buddha, Mohammed, they never claimed to be THE Son of God. And so, Jesus’ claim being so serious, we need to honestly consider if we truly accept them, or if we reject them. Because that choice, if made in the depth that it needs to be made, will affect our whole lives. It will affect everything that we are.

And while we’re on the subject, the one thing that we cannot do, is to not accept that Jesus is the Son of God, but STILL think that He’s a good person. You just, you can’t. Either you accept that He’s the Son of God, and a totally wonderful person altogether, or you don’t. And if you don’t, if He is NOT the Son of God, then He is a blasphemer and you can’t get any worse than the claim that He made, so if He’s not the Son of God, then a good person is the last thing that He could possibly be.

So, if we believe that Jesus is indeed the Son of God, that He IS God, was fully God and fully Man, we cannot just… leave Him in the corner of our lives like some people do. Jesus, ultimately, God, CAN relate to us. He understands what we go through in every aspect of our lives. And so, knowing that He can relate to us, to follow Him as our Lord and Savior, we need to accept the personal relationship that He offers us every day of our lives.

IV. personal testimony – hand it over to Candisse

V. conclusion

THE WORLD’S GREATEST CHARACTER

Jesus and Alexander died at thirty-three,
Once lived and died for self; one died for you and me,
The Greek died on a throne; the Jew died on a cross;
One’s life a triumph seemed; the other but a loss.
One led vast armies forth; the other walked alone.
One shed the whole world’s blood; the other gave his own
One won the world in life and lost it all in death;
The other lost his life to win the whole world’s faith.
Jesus and Alexander died at thirty-three.
The Greek made all men slaves; the Jew made all men free
One built a throne on blood; the other built on love
The one was born of earth; the other from above
The one won all this earth to lose all earth and heaven;
The other gave up all that all to him be given.
The Greek forever died; the Jew forever lives.

So… God Loves You. He loves each and every one of us and calls to each of us by name, because He wants to be friends with us, He wants to have a personal relationship with each and every one of us. He knows the depths of our souls. He wants us to know Him.

And then we had our discussion… oh, wait. I can’t remember if we had the angel game before or after my talk…

TAPOS!!!! Hehe it was shorter than I thought it would be. Ok, anyway… another discussion… same people, ‘cept Ate Candice was with us this time around. Which was good; her sharing was very inspiring, and I love how she illustrated her relationship with Jesus. Lovely. I need to remember that..

Another break. Well, lunch. I had chicken. And I was anti-social again and sat in the dining room talking to Tito Herman, Tita Laura, Tita Doris, Tito Leo, and Tito Joe. Oh, Kuya Mico was there, but he didn’t say much… and I think he’d already eaten. And then Paolo left. *wah* Oh, I think we taught more songs somewhere in the middle of it all. And all the participants learned easy, so it was fun. It was mostly fast songs… only a few slow ones here and there.

Kuya Vin gave the third talk (WHICH WAS SUPPOSED TO BE PAOLO’S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ahem. lol. he went to a bowling tournament. no one blamed him. wel… kinda. jk jk!!!) and then, instead of discussion, of course, they did the letter-writing, and some went to confession at All Saints. (Oh, Mariel and Gabriella took the ones ten and under upstairs and gave them the talk separately because some of the stuff we were dealing with was a bit too heavy for them. And then they joined in for letter writing.) I stayed behind (most of the girls [girl service team] stayed), and I had the time to conduct a one-on-one, and also to have a nice long talk with Gabriella. Mariel also did a one-on-one at that time, and then I jammed for a bit with her and then by myself… Having a talk with my sisters and jamming other stuff was a good break from everything… and the younger ones were downstairs playing 8-ball I think? So they were fine…

Everyone came back from confession, and Mariel and I conducted two more one-on-one sessions, jammed with Kuya Vin (once he’d gotten back from.. buying guitar strings? with Gabe), checked that participants were doing their letters, and handed out the sheet-thingies to-be-filled-out… what were they? oh right! contact… info. er… yeah. And hung out with… ppl. We were on break. I think Gloria and Alexis were building a two-foot high snowman. :D

We had some games… the fruit game was awesome!!! APPLE!!!!!!! And Morgan and Gwen showed us the Tornado… (“Hurricane” – Paolo)

We started working on our programs with our teams. AHHHHHHHH that was SO much fun. It was Karen’s idea to have a sort of charades-with-sound. And then we had to think up movies. THAT took us a WHILE. Haha. But that was a good thing, because by the end of it, we were all much more comfortable with each other (my team was the same as my discussion group), and we were all cracking up and just having a heck of a good time. We were all rather… hesitant… and a bit rebellious.. about having to give a presentation, but in the end, we just had SO much fun. I’m glad we did it.

The service team had a quick worship and meeting, and then we prayed over Gabe. We had dinner (a LONG one, just like Paolo wanted), and then we practiced a bit more. Oh, Mariel and Gabriella and I took the participants aside for a bit during dinner… After dinner, we all hung around, and practiced a bit more and finalized stuff, and then while Gabe and Paolo were practicing their performance, I hung out with the girls (service team; participants were downstairs having fun) and some of the adults, and we were just talking about music and stuff.. good times. “… so, darling, save the last dance for me…“

We came down, I think we taught a few more songs, and then Gabe gave his talk. We didn’t realize that Karen was missing until the middle of it, so Gabe just contuned and some of the service team went on a search for her… search found her asleep. (I guess she was knocked out from all the excitement.) So Gabe finished his talk… and that was where things stopped going… as smoothly as they had been. Shan’t go into detail… but we sorted things out… and there was a lull in action and it was a bit awkward, but we got it all right in the end. A few more personal talks, pray-overs were conducted, and then came the PROGRAM!!!! Which was awesome.

Kim, Mariel, Alexis, Morgan, Frances, and Candisse did a silent skit. It was good! Their skit was related to the talks and how we cannot do much on our own, but with God’s help, nothing is impossible. It was very good. Morgan and Alexis were the ones that needed “help” and Kimberly was trying to “help” them on her own, but it didn’t work, and then Mariel came along with “God’s Message” and the ones that needed “help” were “helped.” And then, yes, Kim explained how the idea behind it was that we cannot do anything by ourselves, but with God’s help, nothing is impossible. (Sorry to sound repetitive; I just thought it was SO good.)

Then, Gabe and Paolo performed two songs as a sort of intermission. I recorded the first one, but not the second. The first was a “sort of tribute to YFC” and then.. I dunno exactly what the other one was supposed to be. But it was good, they were both good. Hilarious. (Did I mentioned that Karen’s parents were watching? They’d come to pick her up.) LOL.

Paco went and performed Jin Do, which I recorded (counts as P.E.!!!! and my talk counted as Speech… HOMESCHOOLING ROCKS!!!), and then it was our turn…

So the first one scene that we “charade-ed” was from LotR, where Gollum was arguing with Smeagol… and then the second scene was not exactly a scene. The five of us just kinda stood in a line and I started singing “you must be swift as a coursing river…” and we had this hand action thingy, and then they (the audience) guessed it before I could go on. Hahahaha. And then they simply would NOT do the third scene until I sang something, which drove me nuts, so I was cooperative and indulgent and sang the Reflection song, just the first stanza. Which satisfied them, and then the next scene was from Titanic. Karen was kneeling and Gloria was standing behind her, and Gabriella and I sang My Heart Will Go On, and we hadn’t gotten past the first line when it was guessed. Eh, I guess we picked easy ones, eh? Hehehe. Anyway, fourth scene, Gloria and Karen held Gwen tight (they were soldiers), and Gwen goes and says, “WEDDINGS! I love weddings!!! Drinks all around!!!!” and then she would have gone on, and I was supposed to be Norrington… but, heh, yeah, it was guessed pretty quickly… Eh, it was fine. I had fun.

And then… did we teach more songs? or something… but, yeah, whatever we did, we had our Praisefest and just let ourselves go and… yeah. No words to express the feeling. Just.. beautiful.

And then we hung out until bedtime… and that was interesting… Jon was paying me compliments left and right and it was freaking me out… I was beating on people as usual… Gabriella and I had a talk… Paolo ‘apologized’ for something but then when we shook hands it turned out that his hand was freezing cold and wet from the snow so I went and got him for that… Gabe was running away from me/helping Jon with compliments… yeah.

Oh, compliments from Jon; “You’re beautiful.” (about six times over. Yeap… that was just.. .wrong… ahem.) “You’re hair shines like the hair of the magical unicorn in Terabithia.” (whoa?! Besides. It’s not like he’s read the book or even watched to movie. That was pathetic. But hilarious all the same. And just plain freaky.) “Your eyes are as clear as the water in my toilet bowl.” (now, THAT was so Jon, so it wasn’t freaky at all. It was somewhat relieving because the other compliments were just so freaky.) Oh, and he apologized to me for all the times he was mean or hurt me. (WHAT?!)

And… yeah. We had fun. Recorded stuff. Lotsa Stuff. Took Pics. Good times.

And then Alexis, Candisse, Gloria, Mariel, and I went to Mariel’s house… and slept there… tried to. I ended up sleeping in the other room cuz I couldn’t sleep. Alexis was scaring everyone. I was half-asleep and all of a sudden I hear “CANDISSE!!!!!” and screams and squeals of “DON’T DO THAT!!!” and such.. but eventually I fell asleep… they were all still scaring each other. Oh, Paco had come down to say goodnight while I was taking a shower (Paco slept upstairs with Gio; Gabriella, Kim, Gwen, Morgan, and Francis slept downstairs at the De Velas; Paolo and Jon and Gabe slept in Gabe’s room, I guess), and when I came out, everyone was going on about how I just HAD to love that kid!!! cuz he came down to say goodnight to his Ate (they were all majorly impressed with the “ate”), and he gave them all weapons to protect themselves, and left one for me.

So… we got… even less sleep than the night/day before. About six hours. I guess it was alright. We had breakfast… and Mariel was talking about how Paco’s alarm clock didn’t wake him up and so she had to go wake him, and Paco protested, “I was sleeping like a dead man!!!” and after further questioning, “A dead man still twitching!!!” which just made us all… crack up. LOL.

We had morning worship at the De Velas, and then Mariel gave the fourth talk and Ate Candice shared. Mariel did great!!!! We passed out identification cards and letters from parents next. (Hmm, off to the side, there were a few things that came up that were somewhat… amusing. I suppose all these “shan’t go into detail” things that I’m mentioning are just notes to myself so that I won’t forget.) Then, we had break, and hung out and ate and stuff… Gabe got his ID, too. (He didn’t get one last year….!?) and Paolo printed out names to glue on and everything… (muttering something about “wasting trees, should just do this all on one page…” so on. All in good fun, of course. [Correct me if I'm wrong??? :D Salamat...] And then.. yeah.) and we all had fun… until the parents arrived and we had our closing prayer and worship and everything.

Mass was at Good Shepherd’s. It was perfect, too; Paolo and Tita Flor gave us Holy Eucharist. We all sat together in a section.

Then, lunch/service team meeting at Kenwood Mall. Pictures and fun… We discussed what we’d been through and plans and suggestions and improvements for future… Covenant Orientation is to be sometime in May, or earlier. Next Youth Camp tentatively first weekend in August. Our next household is this Sunday during CLP. Mariel and I are to head two lower households. We have yet to discuss how the new YFC-ers will be split up. Week after that, we’ll have our first household with them. All of us together for the first one, and then we’ll be split up thereafter, I gather. YFC GAs are to begin… sometime. Households will be every week for me and Mariel. High household and lower households to be alternated week by week.

After it all, Gabe left for practice (at Evan’s? I guess) and Mariel and Kim and Gabriella and Paolo went ’round the mall, I think, and Kuya Vin joined us for sledding. We had such fun!!! I went down with Ate Candice and Baby Rain by turns, and Rain just had so much fun playing in the snow!!! I recorded mum and dad sledding, and then mum recorded me going down with daddy. Aaackk my legs were hurting from climbing up the hill so many times!!!!!!

The Tolentinos joined us for dinner at our house. We jammed and talked about YFC plans and the Pinas and stuff. Yummy dinner by mommy!!!

The Tolentinos left, and then we spent some family time together. We had our prayer and laughed over stuff. Good way to end the day.

And I thank the Lord for giving me what I need right when I need it. I had glanced at the time, and I realized that Gabe and Mariel and Paolo were all at the concert… and then we went and prayed and Mum said thank you for me and Paco choosing to stay home and be with the family. And I was ready to break down, I was just so happy that I made that choice. Goodnight to everyone, and then I went downstairs to use the laptop…

and ended up chatting with Devin!!!!!! WHEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was just a totally wonderful weekend. Dev and I played 8-ball until I had to go and sleep. *another long sigh of contentment*

So.. here we are. All caught up on blogging and I think I’ll go have some chocolate. LOL!!!!

the past couple daysssssss

well… so… i left off with baby rain’s bday partyyy.. well, this past week has been alright.. choir practice went well.. oh haha sunday we were doing “soon and very soon” and dan said that it was a gospel piece, and we should try to sing it more like a gospel piece. so we practiced and when we’re done, he goes, “look, i hate to say this.. but it sounded.. white.” we laughed our heads off. so he goes and starts the song over, and right before we start singing he goes, “darken it up, now…!!!” which gets us all laughing again, we could barely get the first few words out. and then practice on wednesday, we were saying we ought to just put the recording of the hallelujah chorus from handel’s messiah on and then we’d just mouth it. i mean, really, we must be crazy to do welcome jesus our redeemer and hallelujah chorus in the same night!!! as soon as we finished running through hallelujah chorus, two sopranos looked at each other and said, “we’re altos!” and everyone in our section just burst out laughing.

thursday was lovely… happy thanksgiving everyone!!!!!! good timesssss…

friday, i changed the air filters and then daddy showed me how to change the oil.

took a walk around the neighborhood with the kids. :D oh, we’d gone to get a christmas tree… wheeeeeee…

today, well… just got back from practice at gabe’s house… seven songs… though i’m not sure what order we’re doing them in.

baseball… and households… and sister talk.

We went to the Cinci Reds game on the 10th. That was sweeetttttt… Reds won yahooo!!!!!! It was raining a bit tho, but that’s ok. Saturday, we had the Nadermans over. I made brownies, check Baking on the Sly. Yesterday we were over at the Dalisays after church; Mariel and I took care of Gio, Paco, Migi, Yena, Terese, and for a tiny bit, Rain, down in the basement while the adults had their meeting upstairs. I’m going to be sorry to miss next weekend’s household because we’re gonna be in St. Louis… but anyway, Mariel and I played billiards downstairs while the kids were busy… We helped them make bookmarks for all the moms. Anyway, that was a lot of fun, and we got to talking about the most interesting and hilarious things… like what would it be like to die laughing? And then we were just being totally silly about well at least you’d die happy, and then would you slowly lose breath or would you suddenly stop laughing and drop down dead? Yes, very interesting conversation… and we talked about the Philippines and Life in general and we talked about that book, You Know You’re Filipino When… blah blah blah and we were talking about having rice on your shirt and stuff… rotfl. And she showed me more drawings and we got to talking about music and websites here and there… and then we played upstairs with the three little girls after dinner.

my PASSION!

Here’s a pic of what I stayed up until 1:30 baking this morning…

and here is what happened!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2 birthdays and an anniversary

We left for St. Louis on Friday the 21st at around 4 or 5 PM. We got to St. Louis at around 10:30, their time. We went to sleep at around 11:30, again, their time. I'd brought my guitar, so I was practicing Time of Your Life before going to sleep.

Woke up early on Saturday, because I looked at my watch and it said 8:30 and I forgot that they're an hour behind, so I got up and had breakfast, and found out that it was 7:30… argh. LOL oh well. Mum and Dad went to the condo to pack up the cookbooks, so I went online and the kids watched Narnia once they got restless. Ninong joined us. When I got tired of watching Narnia and the kids were alright anyway, Ninong and I went and jammed a bit, yahoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL it's so much more fun with both us playing instead of having to share and take turns. We worked on Time of Your Life and Blue Moon/Earth Angel a bit more. He taught me another song, I forget what the title is… the chords are just C D B C over and over… Mum and Dad came home and took a nap, and dad went to get something for the car.

We left for the party at Tito Nato's sometime after 5. As soon as I got there, I was greeted by Tita Mema and Henry. Carried Henry for a bit, Mum wanted a turn, so she got Henry for about… LOL some 2 or 3 minutes, and then I took him back, haha. Tita Mema borrowed Ninong's guitar and Ninong borrowed mine, so I danced Henry around while they jammed a bit. Vanessa and Archie showed up; Aster was sleeping. When ABong came in, I gave Henry back to Tita Mema and we went outside to jam yessssssssa!

ABong was playing lightsaber fight with the boys, and Ninong taught me to play Dreams by the Cranberries. So that was great fun, and that's Electives right there… ABong came over when she got tired, and I stopped playing and started singing; Ninong gave us some Green Dayyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL yeahhh we were going a little more than nuts there, haha… And then ABong said that someone had said that I'd turned Punk while I was in the Pilipinas and I'm like, alright, who said that?!?!?! and no one answered me. Or rather, Ninong was like, nu uh not me, and ABong said it was Deni or something. *grin* ok, whatever… and then they were just teasing me, Ninong was like, where did you get that punk belt and stuff and we were just… laughing.

Went inside to say grace and EAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hay sarap. ABong and Yena and I went upstairs to eat, and Tita Mema asked us to listen for Henry since we were up there anyway. When we were done eating, we went downstairs. I found the guitars outside with Ninong and Tita Mema, and then when Ninong went inside, his guitar went to Tito Jarrett. Tita Mema went inside to sing, so I got my guitar from her. Hung outside with Tito Jarrett for a bit. Hmm… who else was out there.. Tita Emily, Mama, Tita Malou, Tito Regie, Tito Romel… Can't remember who else was there. I went inside after a bit, and found Ninong and ABong singing, so I joined them… So yeah we sang a bit and then, guess who showed up after all? Tita Minnie!!! and family. So Mikka and Sarah and Michael and I went outside to chill a bit.

First, however, we had to pass by everyone in the living room, so naturally we were asked questions, how were we, hugs for Tita Minnie and Tito Noel (I'm so glad they came after all!!!!!!), questions on how my trip to the Pilipinas was, and Tito Nato asking kung sasama daw ako kung umuwi siya sa isang taon… which Sarah and I went berserk about and answered quite enthusiastically yes please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL tho' ah dunno how tha's gonna turn out… HAH and then Mikka and Sarah and I started talking about going home in '09 for like 3 months or something, haha! With Ninong Alvin, yeeaaaha, that would rock!

So that's where the whole band idea got serious, and we talked about hey, all we need is me and Ninong on guitar, Unc on bass, Pao on drums, Mikka dancing, and maybe Michael rapping if it came to it, and all of us singin'! So yeah, Sarah and Ninong and Mikka and I got serious about that… and we're seriously hoping to take it somewhere… Anyway, I chilled with the girls and Michael for a bit. We went to hang out on the street, and meanwhile,Tita Minnie borrowed my guitar and she and Ninong were playing Wonderful Tonight and stuff. Mikka's so good at dancing! When she and ABong and Michael went inside to watch Narnia or something, Tita Minnie gave me back my guitar and Ninong and I started playing again. Wow I learned a lot in just one night…

I ended up sleeping at Tita Alma's; Michael, Vanessa, Mikka, Sarah, Ninong Alvin and I all slept downstairs. We watched basketball a bit and listened to some music… we were talking about pranks, and how at previous sleepovers, the person who fell asleep first was the one who waspranked (sumptin about Mark having slept over once and they did somethin' with ketchup?????? and something about Ate Baby and baby powder… I won't elaborate on that one) and so Ninong said the first one who went to sleep would wake up with their head shaved. And Michael said, Ok , he'd be the first to fall asleep. "Hey, that's a free haircut!" So I said something like, "Michael, I admire your optimism." and then… we sorta cracked upcuz he asked, "Um, what is… optimism?" and then ABong starts going, are you sure you're in advanced reading and everything, and Michael's saying that yeah, he's in advanced reading, but not in advanced english. Apparently there's a difference… HAHA and ABong asks if he knows what pessimistic means. "No." Hay nako. NVM! ROTFL all in good fun, of course. And so I answered that question.. about optimism, I mean. A little later Mikka asked me what preparation meant, so I defined it as to prepare, get ready, blah blah blah, and somehow it turns out that she meant "the word Sarah said earlier" and so ABong was like, "Wait. The word I said earlier was pessimistic…" and Mikka's like yeah, that's what she meant, and ABong starts cracking up and we're like how do you get preparation out of pessimistic??? All in good fun of course, and besides that, we're pinoys, so the humor is… different.

Then we got into a discussion about what we missed most in the Philippines and stuff, and all of us expressed our desire to go back, and we started talking about being proud of where our roots came from, and having genuine love for our homeland and so on… And somehow that turned into stuff about school and politics and papers that they had to write and such… Teenage stuff, middle school papers, that sort of thing.

Then ABong and Ninong were having their own conversation, and Mikka and Michael and I went on to religion, the Catholic faith, the main argument agains Protestants, and we were talking about the Seven Sacraments, and about Sacramental grace, and I asked Michael if he was Confirmed yet (he's going on 14 in July so I figured he was) and he wasn't, so that led to more questions, what is Confirmation and so on… Very interesting… and that's what we went to sleep on.

Tita Alma woke me up early, and said that Mum was coming to pick me and Ninong up, so I got up and got ready and went upstairs, but it was early yet and Tita Alma was on the phone again, and it turned out I wasn't gonna be picked up until like 10:30… so she told me to go back to sleep, but by this time, Ninong Alvin is up, and he wanted to go ahead and go so that he could change, so I just went along, instead of Tita Alma just dropping him off and Mom would have to come by for me anyway… so I went downstairs and said goodbye to everyone; they were still asleep, or at least Mikka and Vanessa were, so I said goodbye to Sarah and Michael.

We went to church, and then on our way to Tita Alma's, we met Tita Alma and everyone coming back from church as well, so we met them at some intersection, so that was cool… and we went to Tita Alma's so that ABong could change, and apparently the adults went and got some stuff or something… so ABong and Mikka and Michael and I chilled for a bit over by our car… and I showed Sarah my sweater yeahh that I'd gotten embroidered… And Mikka started dancing and Mum and Mama and Tita Minnie were standing there watching us having our funn…

Everyone followed Papa to Tachibana, which turned out closed.. so we ended up at Happy China. Hah! I made the girls eat their vegetables; actually, it was their own fault, they reminded me, "Are you going to make us eat our vegetables like at the wedding???" so of course I did, though I think Sarah didn't after all… But Mikka did, and haha! she liked the green beans. HAh, I'm good. Hey, I had green beans and snow peas… Anyway, the crab rangoon was delicious though somewhat on the greasy side; when I bit into my second one, some oil actually spilled out… but it was so good and I had 3 or something… I had hot tea with that, and Michael actually tried it and he was like, um, this tastes.. hot… and… weird… and I was like well… it's hot tea. Without sugar. What exactly did you expect… and he's like well I thought it would be cold…

Anyway, we were talking and laughing about movies and such, and then Ninong said LOL and leaned back, and so I asked how many of you have said LOL in public? And Michael's like I say lol (like, not spelling it out, l-o-l, he pronounces it "lol" like it's a word) and then we got to talking about acronyms, and ABong was still cracking up about the optimism thing from the night before, so she was like, "Does he know what 'acronym' means?" and it got a little far… with questioning if Michael knew how to use the dictionary… cuz they were like, and I don't think this was still Sarah who said it, someone said something like oh yeah, he's gonna be looking that up in the dictionary when he gets home… So one thing led to another… and then it led back to our band. Sarah is so serious about us making a music video and sending it to Pao haha! Well, we can dream right? Maybe it will go somewhere…

Mikka and ABong and I escaped and they took me to the Grasshopper Studio, which is on the other side of the strip mall that Happy China is a part of, and it was a beading store! Now, Fire Mountain Gems is perfect, I have never been dissatisfied with it, but the difference is, they sell in bulk. This Grasshopper Studio had Swarovski Crystals that they sold individually or by the scoop. Swarovski Crystal heaven, their selection is beautiful. They sell handmade glass beads, made there in that store, and they sell Art Clay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! which I got really really excited about, and they have a nice stock of wire… from dead soft to full hard, square, round, half round, twisted… and the crimp pliers are cheaper than at Fire Mountain Gems. Beautiful wall dedicated to semi-precious gems, coral, turquoise, and pearls that range in grade and color and size. And also different cuts; rice shaped pearls, rough cut gemstone chips… Beautiful. Just beautiful. all temporarily strung and hanging orderly. The Swarovski crystals were on shelves just in front of the window, so the natural light made them look so lovely. Ahh I have to go back there…

We stopped by the Bubble Tea place for dessert, and Mikka and Sarah and Vanessa and I got a table and talked more about the band (wow now that we have that idea going, we're obsessed with it) and then we had to say goodbye once we got our orders, and then we just… left. Said goodbye to everyone. Kasi may pasok pa si Tito Romel, and ABong had something she had to go to at 4… it was about 2:30 when we left the Bubble Tea place. Went home, and Ninong and I found the chords to Danny's Song for Mum, and we jammed a bit before leaving. We took pictures outside before leaving. So, here we are, back in OH and I've done my Spanish. Time for a little math.

Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! to Ninong Alvin and Tita Dolly, and a Happy Anniversary to Mama and Papa!!!!!!!

More Ham Fried Rice, Tinola, Stations of the Cross, and the Passion of the Christ

I made ham fried rice again on the night of the 13th I think. Used the big wok for the first time because there was a lot more rice… Needed more garlic I think, but it had just enough salt. Ah well, I suppose it was better the way it was, because Migi didn't complain so much…

Everyone is still sick, but we're getting better… if slowly. But yes, they are getting better! I think. I hope. Ok anyway…

Ah I made tinola for dinner the other night. Mum sliced the onions and I peeled and smashed the garlic (5 big cloves) and the ginger (2 inches). Into the big blue pot with about 2 1/2 tablespoons of oil over medium heat (about 4 with me; I was using the power burner), garlic went in first and sauteéd until golden, then the onions until they were soft, then the ginger until it was fragrant… YUMmy smell. The chicken wasn't totally defrosted, so I put the chicken in, sprinkled with salt (estimating… I'd say a little more than a teaspoon), covered it, and left it for about 5 minutes. Kept doing this until I could pry the chicken apart. Mom came down and stirred it once; she was getting something for Yena. Once I could pry the chicken pieces apart, I left it for another 5 minutes, because it was still a little frozen, then I added the water (until 2 inches from the top, then Mum came down and said I should add a little more because the chicken wasn't fully submerged, so I added about another 2 cups I think…) and covered it, turned up the heat and waited for it to come to a boil, then lowered to a simmer and left it for half an hour.

Unfortunately, I'd forgotten Mom's advice to prepare the potatoes and spinach during that half-hour, so… Asked Dad to come down and help me de-grease it. Took the chicken out, held the strainer over the de-greaser for Dad while he poured it in. Daddy poured it back into the pot, and then I went and washed the spinach (heh, I went and did the whole bag… it was one of those pre-packaged I-dunno-how-many-ounces-or-grams-or-what bag) and peeled and chopped the potatoes (the 3 biggest in the bag lol to save time…). Put the chicken back in, along with the potatoes, and I left it covered for 10 minutes on simmer. Went back, added the spinach, and left it covered again on simmer, and was only supposed to wait 5 minutes, but I think I had to leave it for an extra 15 because the potatoes weren't fully cooked yet. When it was all over, the kids ate! Hay salamat. *grin*

We did Stations of the Cross yesterday, and we read that the Pope has asked Catholics to learn basic prayers in Latin again. So we prayed the Pater Noster after each station. There was a little meditation, and then a prayer, and Mom encouraged the kids to look at the pictures. Ahhh I still remembered the first 5 lines of the Pater Noster… I'd forgotten the rest. Shall I try it here? Forgive spelling mistakes…

Pater Noster, qui es in cælis;

sanctificetur nomen tuum;

adveniat regnum tuum;

fiat voluntas tua, sicut in cælo, et in terra;

Panem nostrum, cotidianum, da nobis hodie;

et dimitte nobis, debita nostra;

(umm……) dimittimus, debitoribus nostris;

et ne nos inducas, in tentationem;

sed libera nos a malo. Amen.

Ok, so I didn't do too bad I think.. just that one line that I can't remember the start of. Well, I'll work on it.

Mom and Dad and I watched Passion of the Christ last night. Wow. Just… wow. It was a wow movie. I don't think I can say much else… I managed the scourging, but had to hide behind Daddy when it came to the nails. Couldn't handle that. But I was peeking a bit, and I watched the flashbacks and the faces… I mean, when it would focus on Mary and John… Whew I don't think I can watch that again any time soon (Mom said something about Mama and Papa, they might want to watch it, they're coming here today, in fact, I think they ought to be on their way by now). Well, we'll see. But I'll definitely want to watch that again next year.

It was storming while we watched, it grew worse throughout the movie. How appropriate. Very interesting how the portrayed Hell. Just wondering, the voice of Satan, is it really the voice of the actress? Ugh, I think the scourging was easier to watch than the demons tormenting Judas. Heh, good thing I didn't watch this on the big screen, Mum and Dad and I were all on the bed, and although I had my glasses on, I couldn't really see the hanging properly… A-M-A-Z-I-N-G movie. Period. What else can I say…

Ham Fried Rice

I made ham fried rice for lunch today and also dinner yesterday…

Mahi Mahi…

I made dinner. Fish. Mahi mahi? Interesting… cut it up and salted it, found out how hard it can be to cut the skin… anyway, let it stand for 15 minutes, and meanwhile cooked rice. Fried the fish in the cast-iron skillet, 3 minutes on each side, I think I overcooked it… but anyway, I only broke one. lol. So yeah, umm…. it turned out ok, I guess. It was fun. ‘Cept I learned it needs more salt than that. Heh, I’m not one for salt… so I only put a very tiny pinch on each one. Well, better not enough than too much. Mum poured some patis for me and told me to add lemon juice, so that helped. Ok dinner. LOL I took a picture of myself. Hey, that’s electives….

changing the starter

I cooked lunch for me and Pacs today. Helped dad with the car on the weekend. We changed the starter. Or rather, dad changed the starter, and I helped with little things… Helped jack up the car and I shone the light for dad, handed him tools and stuff. I got to go under the Subaru. Heh, 1993, I'm still older than that car… Anyway, it turned out that the new starter was a little longer than the old one, and other little things turned up… dad had to cut away some insulator, it wasn't necessary. So difficult getting the bottom nut off, so that was why I got to go under the car, which was fun! So yeah we changed the starter, and I took a little break, and then we rotated the tires on the van. So we jacked up the car, switched the wheels… got little pointers from dad on stuff, like loosening the nuts diagonally, in a star formation, and using your knees and not your back when you're loosening and tightening, and he compared it to karate, how there were things that depended more on technique rather than strength… so yeah, I know how to rotate the tires. Dunno if I could do it all by myself, but I know how… I had a lot of fun, rolling the tires up and down the garage, putting the caps back on, learning about the jacking points and stuff… and everything else I already mentioned. That was 1 1/2 hours of electives right there. Yay! Heh, how many girls know how to rotate the tires? LOL, that was fun, and I get a driving lesson this weekend. I think it's my 4th…? I like going under the car.

House Warming/ B-day and Adobo Fried Rice

I made cream cheese brownies on March 25th for Fr. Terry when he came to bless the house, and I saved more than half for the party later with the Dalisays and the De Velas. So much fun! But this is supposed to be a food blog entry, so I'll focus on the food part first…

anyway, peeled shrimp for mom the other day…? heh not much but there you go.

Today, everyone is sick, and mom isn't feeling too well, so she took care of Migi and Yena's lunch, and I heated up sinangag in the wok. Learned that you only need about a tablespoon of oil, and very low heat; I had it on 3 the whole time. Just dumped it into the wok, and added the leftover adobo bits, stirred it every now and then, adding the adobo a bit at a time. Paco and I finished it all. LOL. That was fun. And easy. Yum!

Now, about the party! The De Velas got here first, and then the Dalisays.

We'd been over at Gab's house for a make-up meeting for the CFC, so we kids were downstairs in the basement watching Little Giants. Gab wasn't there, dunno where he was, I know Kuya Mico said something, but I forget already…

Anyway, we left, and they probably left only a little after we did, but the Dalisays went somewhere first I think… So they got to the house, and I got birthday gifts, which I dunno how they knew about my birthday.. LOL but a big thank-you to them all the same! I got CDs and some lovely stationary. We had dinner, Malaysian menu I think? and the adults sat at the table and us kids sat on the floor around the cofee table. LOL we had such fun. It was me, Paco, Gab, Kuya Mico, Gio, Migi, Yena, and Mariel.

After dinner, I brought out the brownies, and we had some, and then Kuya, Gab, Mariel, and I went to my room and played Cranium at which I sucked haha but it was fun. Gab was playing my guitar, and we were listening to Evanescence I think… and the Bowling for Soup.

OMG. Literally ROTFL I took down the 2000-2001 BAE Yearbook, and we were looking at Mariel's second grade picture, and Gab, omg, Gab had tears in his eyes, tears of laughter… honestly, I don't think the rest of us were laughing that hard?! LOL such fun.

We got tired of Cranium and played our own game… where one person thinks of a word, and another has to think of a word in the same category that begins with the last letter of the word that the first person said. So we did it with food, and then with bands, and then we got a little distracted and talked about how you know so much, and then when you play a game like that and you're on the spot, you, like, forget everything… hahahahahahahaha which you do, honestly, after the game was over we were thinking over everything we could have said.. oh too late. Hah. W/e…

Jewelry

I think I’ll catch up on electives… here are almost all the pieces I’ve made so far:

more on The Experiment

Well my recipe worked… kinda. Ahem, here we go… here is what I learned.

First of all, I used 3 different kinds of chocolate, well 4 actually, but i mixed 2 together. I used semisweet chocoloate chips, white chocolate, and bittersweet and sweet chocolate mixed together. In my previous post, I said how the white chocolate was more grainy, and how the semisweet chocolate was more of a spreadable consistency, and the bittersweet and sweet chocolate resulted in a thinner, more drizzle-able, type, thing…. ok anyway, this

is of the one where the bottom half is bittersweet and sweet, and the top half is semisweet. This one

shows the one that’s all bittersweet and sweet. This

is half white chocolate and half semisweet. This picture

shows the tops, and as you can see, the semisweet looks like it was spread on (which it was), and the bittersweet and sweet is very smooth because it was drizzled on and it trickled into all the cracks and everything.

So now I know, I can use any chocolate I like on the bottom, but the top should be the drizzle-type, so that it’s sure to reach the chocolate on the bottom, because it’s the chocolate the holds everything together. I think next time, I’ll just mix everything together, rather than layering the chocolate and the dry ingredients. But it was really good all the same, and my favorite was the one that was all bittersweet and sweet. I think the boys liked the ones with white chocolate best.

new blog

I have a new blog, catseyes-butterflies.blogspot.com, and I’m going to put all of the jewelry that I make on there and see if anyone wants to buy them.