The Angry Birds theme birthday party - the preparation

I'm just trying to steal time now to update you about my son's 7th birthday party because I'm afraid if I don't document everything I have done now, it will be expired and the story won't be valid anymore.

So, to continue the story from my last post, I have decided to hold a slightly bigger than a normal birthday party by end of this month, but I still keep it as simple as I can considering I don't have a lot of budget for this party. There won't be any famous magician or a clown, no food carts either. I think it will be the simplest 7th birthday party in the Philippines. I have many discussions with my son to help me cutting down the budget by not inviting all his friends but only those he knows best. But this tight budget actually has a blessing in disguise as I'm forced to become more creative and more resourceful to make my son's dream come true.

My son has chosen to invite about 20 of his school friends, plus another 10 friends around the neighborhood. These 30 friends will come with their parents or their nannies. So I really have to prepare food & souvenirs for at least 70-100 people. Honestly, this is my 1st time holding a party which will have more than 70 people attending. Even my wedding party was attended only by 10 people! :)The food business I leave it to the professional caterer who is more familiar to serve food for more than 70 people. I will do the decorations, the loot bags, the birthday cake, and the finger food for the children.

Since the party theme is Angry Birds, it's easy for me to find many things Angry Birds. One website that I'm stuck quite a long time to get some ideas for this party is http://www.thepartyanimal-blog.org/angry-birds-birthday-party-theme/This website is so great and has all information and ideas I need.Since my last post, I have completed making 5 green pig piñatas using the 4-layer papier mârché technique. I have this idea of building a life size Angry Birds game to add the fun in the party. So, I collected many old boxes around my house; from my daughter's milk carton boxes, toy boxes, until my stove box. I also asked from my friend to donate whatever used boxes they have. I got many combination of boxes: big, small, long, short.I wrapped each box using a brown paper wrapper to look like a wooden block.

Then I painted my son's 4 bowling pins that usually just sit on the corner of my son's toy room. The pins now have 4 angry bird faces. These will be the beaters for the piñata. But my son has tried to shoot the pin using the slingshot instead...:)

Next project was to design the invitation. Again, my visit to The Party Animal website gave me some ideas for the invitation. At first I wanted to make a 3D iPad invitation. I have completed the design & tried to print it in the printing shop. But then, it used a lot of ink and paper, so 1 invitation costed me nearly P100. If 30 invitation, I had to spend P3K! Too much for my budget. Besides, I would need to spend sometime to fold it one by one, insert the styrofoam for the inside to make the 3D iPad looks more real, another cost for the styrofoam, and I have no time as I still had to fly overseas for 2 weeks. If the guess was only 10, I would go with this 3D iPad.

So, I changed the design. I didn't really think of using the 3D iPhone shape as I think the words written on the invitation would be too small and hard to read. But still I can't completely eliminate it. I just had to try it first. I tried to fit the design for 3D iPad into the 3D iPhone instead. With iPhone shape a lot smaller, I can afford to print 2 pictures in 1 paper. I also tried to print it at home since I finally found a shop which sells a glossy photo paper for only P99 for 10 papers. Still, if it is 3D iPhone, I had to fold it and insert the styrofoam, blah...blah...and I'm running out of time as the invitations needed to go out at least 2 weeks before the D-day. I also need to get the RSVP replies as soon as possible so I can inform the number to the caterer. So, I chose the 2D iPhone invitation instead. But, I made a stand for this iPhone shape invitation so that the invitation can be displayed and people won't forget to attend the party. I got the idea for the stand from this website: Dessine moi un objet - iPhone paper dock by Julien Madérou.

I thought when I was overseas, I could work on the invitations, but I was wrong. I was so busy overseas, I could do nothing for this birthday party preparation. So, when I returned to Philippines, I continued working on the invitations day and night sacrificing my sleeping time and neglecting my children a bit. The result? My daughter fell sick! D'oh! She had high fever just when I really needed to deliver the invitations to the school. 

I'm doing all these alone, by the way. My helper helped me in cleaning the house and doing other thing in the house. I still have to cook and take care the children while doing the things for the party. My husband? He only wants to be the guest in the party. Nevermind...I'm used to do one-man show anyway...:)

So, I had no choice. I had to stop doing things for the party and take care my children first. It's God's way of reminding me what should be my priority, isnt' it? Thank God my daughter recovered in 1 day. I geared up to deliver the invitations and texted the people about this party. 

Next, the loot bag, the party peripherals, and the decorations. I had to do major shopping. And, since my budget is limited, the only place I can think of is Divisoria in Manila.

I have never gone to that place before and I heard not many people can 'survive' shopping in that place. Many of my friends fell sick after coming back from shopping at Divisoria.

But I had no choice. I had to go there to keep my budget low. No fancy shopping at high class malls! 

Praise the Lord one of my good friends was nice enough to drive me to Divisoria. She is such an expert in shopping she really helped me a lot buying and choosing things in Divisoria. That place, by the way, was not as scary as what I thought. In fact, it was really a place to do shopping as Divisoria has everything. Literally, everything! And the price is wow! Honestly, you will drool and can't stop shopping. Suddenly you'll need everything...:) I shopped and shopped and shopped from 7:30AM till lunch time! I came home looking like pretty woman with bags full of things, all Angry Birds!! The best part was I still had some money in my wallet and I survived! :) In fact, I think I'm addicted to shop in Divisoria. Ha!..:D

Then, my helper helped me to put things one by one in the loot bags while I did the design for the backdrop decorations. I also bought an Angry Bird bedsheet set. I plan to use the bedsheet as part of decorations. Lucky for me, my neighbor gave my son a birthday gift: an Angry Bird towel. So, this towel will go to the wall as a decoration as well...:) 

I also made special buckets to serve the finger food. I wrapped each bucket with an aluminum foil to cover the inside and wrapped the outside with colorful Japanese paper to pretend that each bucket is a bird-nest. It's very beautiful and cute too. I'm also surprised with how beautiful it turned out. I put a sticker of angry bird in front of the bucket.

So, the loot bags, party peripherals, and decorations are sorted out, except the balloons. I need to blow the balloons only a day before.

So, next to plan is the games and the birthday cake.

I have listed many games we plan to play including some quizzes on Angry Birds and the birthday boy. Since I made too many piñata pig head, I'm going to use 1 to play "Pass the pig head". 10 children will play this game. They will sit around and pass the pig head around while the music on. Since the pig is the most hated character in the Angry Birds game, who ever gets the pig head when the music stop, he/she will have to get out of the loop without any prizes. The last one gets the pig head will win the prize.

Another game is "Save the egg birds". In this game, the children will be divided into 3 groups consist of 5 children. Then the 1st in line has to bite a spoon with an egg on the spoon, then carries the egg to the end of line, then turn around and walk back to the group, then pass the egg to the next player in line without touching & dropping the egg. The group that completes the line first will be the winner. 

Then, the biggest game will be the life-size Angry Bird game. In this game, all big children must line up to take turn to beat or to shoot the blocks so that the pig head piñatas will fall down and then the children can take the candies. My son has tried this game before and he really had fun and sweaty all over...:D He likes it so much but it was very tiring. My son said the real Angry Birds game is more tiring than the one on my iPhone because when playing on my iPhone he only uses his 1 finger. But playing the life-size Angry Birds need him to move all of his body parts, running around to rebuild the blocks. Good exercise for him!...:D I hope other kids in the birthday party will have fun too playing this real Angry Birds game.

There will be a 7-thing ceremony as well. I plan to ask 21 of his friends to give him 7 candies to symbolize that my son will always have a sweet life, 7 books to symbolize that my son will always have a good career, 7 oranges to symbolize gold (in Chinese - as my son is half chinese) so that my son will be wealthy in the future. This 7-thing ceremony is the Philippines tradition for 7th birthday.


As for the birthday cake, I plan to make the giant birthday jelly. I'm still designing it and I still need to practice on creating the angry birds characters for the jelly decorations.

When I have some free time (which is very hard to get), I try to complete the video of my son growing up from he was born until he is 7 years old. It will allow him to walk back down the memory lane and remind him how exciting his life is and will be.

So far, these are the things I have completed and still preparing. With God's help, I really hope I can fulfill my son's dream to have a great birthday party even with a limited budget. Please pray so that this party will be a successful one. I will update this blog again most likely after the party.


I'm working on one surprise for the children. Hopefully they'll like it...:)


UPDATE: 
The dress code for the party is Angry Birds T-Shirt. So, every one in the party needs to wear Angry Birds T-shirt. I bought an original DVD of RIO - The Movie to be shown on the LCD projector during dinner so that the children will sit down nicely and enjoy the meal. I had to eliminate the 7 things ceremony because of time constraint. The party has to finish in 3 hours. 

The green pig (Angry Birds) piñata

My son's 7th birthday is coming in 2 months. Yeah...I know...still quite long. But I'm already feeling nervous since a month ago because my son wanted to have a big birthday party like his other friends who have invited him on their 7th birthday parties. 

In Philippines, the 7th birthday is a very important event. The birthday is special and it has to be celebrated as much as we can. I learn about this culture now that I've been staying here for nearly 3 years. This year particularly important since most of my son's classmates will turn 7 years old. So, since beginning of the year, my son has been invited to many birthday parties; big, grand, expensive birthday parties.

We are not Filipino, but my son really really wanted to have his 7th birthday celebrated as big and grand as his other classmates. He keeps on asking me when will his turn to invite his friends. That's why I am very nervous since a month ago, especially thinking about the budget...:) Holding a big and grand birthday party isn't a cheap business. I have to think about so many things; from what's inside the loot bags, the food, the games to add the fun in the party, and the piñata (the thing that's filled up with many candies and the children take turn to hit it until it breaks so they can take all the candies).

So, in trying my best to keep the budget low but still meet all the standards for a 7 year-old birthday party, I get my hands dirty and started to make things myself. At first I wanted to serve the food from my own kitchen complete with my own idea of presenting the food "The Angry Birds"-way. I have trained myself and tried many combination of food so I can get the shape of all Angry Birds characters on the plate. Oh by the way, my son has chosen Angry Birds as the theme for his birthday party. He loves the Angry Birds game by Rovio. But then for the food business, I don't dare to take it myself. My son has planned to invite more than 40 children, not to mention their parents and their yayas (nannies)!!..:O I can't imagine myself creating 50 Angry Birds Bento though I know it will bring down my budget! I just take the decoration, the games, and the loot bag parts. I plan to engage a professional catering business to help me to serve the food.

The first thing came into my mind was to make the Angry Birds Piñata. I checked on the internet and browsed so many information and pictures about it and how to make it. I tempted to make the Red Angry Bird for the Pinata, but I think it's not the Red Angry Bird that should get beaten, it should be the green pig just like the game. So, I started making the pinata using the 4-layers papier-marché. It took me 5 days to complete it because I have to wait for each layer to really dry in 24 hours. The 5th day was to paint it.

If you are interested in making it also, I'd be happy to share with you how to do it.

What you need:

1. 1 medium size balloon. Blow it to the desired size. The size of pinata depends on how big the balloon is.
2. Old newspapers. Tear by hand; half, then tear vertically about 3cm each. Don't use scissor because the paper will hold well when it's torn by hand.
3. White paper or paper hand towel. Also tear by hand the same as the newspaper. 
4. Glue solution. You can use flour mix with water (1:2 =  for every 1 tbsp flour you put 2 tbsp water) or you can dilute a white glue with water until you have a smooth paste but not too watery.
5. Vegetable oil 
6. Masking tape
7. Poster paint and the brush
8. A medium size bowl for the balloon to sit while you do the papier-marché on it.
9. Cardboard for the crown and the cover of candy hole.

How to make:

1. Blow the balloon to the desired size then tie up the end.
2. Sit the balloon in the bowl. Start by covering the whole area of the balloon using the vegetable oil. This is done to prevent the balloon from sticking to the newspaper. So it will be easier to pop/to release the air from the balloon later leaving the shape intact.
3. By using papier-marché technique: dip the strips of newspaper 1 piece at a time in the glue solution. Then paste it to the balloon until you cover nearly all area of the balloon, except the top part that you have to leave it uncovered by newspaper so that you can put the candy inside. Try not to cover the end of the balloon where you tie up the balloon so that you can release the air from the balloon later.
4. Keep on pasting strips of newspaper 1 layer at a time on top of each other until you complete all the area except the top part.
5. After completing 1 layer, dry it up inside a warm room for at least half a day. It took me 24 hours to dry up completely each layer because it was raining for the whole week here in Philippines.
6. I use 3 layers of newspaper strips. Then the last layer I use the white paper strips mixed with paper hand towel strips. But actually, if you want to paint the pinata, I prefer to use only white paper strips because the paper hand towel will absorb the paint and mix the colors on the pinata. But if you want to cover it with some paper crepe, then it really doesn't matter, even if you don't use the white paper layer.
7. While waiting for the white layer to dry up, I started to create the nose and the ears by using the leftover newspaper strips that I crumpled together and secured with masking tape, then I shaped the pig nose and the ears. Then I do papier-marché again on the nose and ears, dry them up. After drying up, paint them green.
8. Next I made the crown out of leftover cardboard from my grocery shopping bag. I told you I'm trying to keep the budget low. So, recycling things around the house is the best thing to do...:)
9. Once the white paper layer all dried up, you can start to decorate your own way. You can paint it or wrap around with crepe paper. Oh, before you decorate it, pop the balloon first or release the air by untying the end of the balloon. Hopefully the shape still holds.
10. I started to draw the eyes, eyebrows, and nose with pencil. Then I painted the whole area green except for the eyes and eyebrows. Don't forget to paint the eyes and eyebrows black.
11. When the paint covering the pinata dried up completely, attached the nose and ears with glue and masking tape to hold until the glue dried and the nose and ears attached nicely. Paint 2 nose holes black and paint the ear shade black like in my pinata picture above. 
12. The small whole where the end of the balloon was is used to hang the balloon while the open part that I have created earlier by not covering the balloon area with strips of newspaper, will be used to fill up the pinata with candies. After the candies are in, you can cover the whole with a hard cardboard and paint it the same color green.
13. There you have your pinata...:)
14. You can actually shape the pinata in any shape you like by attaching things on the main shape. Make sure you don't destroy the main shape...:)

My next project will be creating the beater. I plan to use a plastic bowling pin that I will take from my son's toy box and paint it with Angry Bird face...:) Hopefully the children will have fun beating this green pinata pig using the Angry bird beater...:-D

In the mean time, I still have to arrange everything else to make sure I meet my budget to hold my son's 7th birthday party. I will update this blog again as and when I have time...:)

Summer Vacation 2011 - Part 2 (Singapore - Ipoh - Manila)

From Budget Terminal Changi Airport, Singapore, we had to take Firefly to fly to Ipoh, Malaysia.

We arrived at the airport about an hour before the check in desk was opened. So, we had to sit down and had our breakfast at the McDonald inside Budget Terminal.
At around 8am, we checked in our luggages and proceeded immediately to clear immigration and go to the waiting area. In the immigration desk, we had to clear one by one. But since my 2 children are still too small to walk and present the passport by themselves, I cleared together with them.

After that we just waited to board the plane in the waiting area. The kids were busy playing in the children playground. My dad checked his Facebook and email while my mom watched television. I had to monitor everyone... :) About an hour later we boarded our plane to Ipoh.

The flight to Ipoh took about 1.5hours from Singapore. The kids dozed off right away inside the plane because we had to wake up too early for this trip. I enjoyed the fruit juices distributed for free plus a piece of bread and a sachet of peanut. It's quite a straight forward flight.

When we landed in Ipoh, it was nearly noon already. We had to open all our check-in luggages to be check by the immigration in Ipoh Airport.
After we were clear to go, we took a taxi to go directly to my house in Ipoh. My house was quite far from the airport. It costed me RM55! I never expected to pay that much though. This trip was my 1st time to stay in my own house in Ipoh. The house was completed last year but since we live in The Philippines, we only got a chance to visit the house on this trip.

At around 1pm we entered the house. We were so sleepy, tired, and very hungry. The house is still empty. There's no food also. So, we took the same taxi to take us to Tesco so that we could have lunch and buy our necessities to stay in my house. We missed the food here in Malaysia. The kids were super excited again. They run here and there. They were charged during the flight, so they were full of energy to run around Tesco spacious aisles.

For a month, we stayed in my house in Ipoh. I had a duty to monitor the minor renovation of the house. My mom had to cook everyday because my house is far from the city so there is no McDonald delivery. No Pizza hut delivery either. Even Domino's Pizza doesn't cover our area for delivery service.

Every weekend we went to church in the Ipoh downtown. We booked a taxi that has become our regular. We used this opportunity to buy more food supply. We also used this opportunity to enjoy the food in downtown Ipoh. From the church, we walked to the Greentown Corner food junction to have our favorite char kway teow and wonton noodle. Sometimes we took a bus from the bus stop in front of Ipoh Parade Mall directly to Greentown Corner.

Since we didn't have a car, we learned to take bus to go to Ipoh downtown from my house. It was a very interesting journey riding the bus. On our 1st trip to take bus to Ipoh, we had to ask the bus driver where we had to stop if we wanted to go to Ipoh Parade. The nice bus driver told me that he would send me directly in front of Ipoh Parade and he even asked me what time I finished shopping so that he could pick me up and took me back home. Huaaa!!! What a nice bus driver!

Finally, after a month and all the renovation works have been completed, we had to go back home. My parents had to fly back to Jakarta, and the kids and I flew back to Manila.
My parents took Air Asia and the kids and I took Cebu Pacific. Both flights departed on the same day from LCCT, Sepang. I'm glad the summer holiday went well. Everyone was healthy and happy. We definitely look forward to have the same happy and healthy vacation again together with my parents. Thank you God and please listen to our prayers...Amin

Summer Vacation 2011 - Part 1 (Manila - Jakarta - Singapore)

Are We There Yet (Backseat Books) Kids Travel

My children and I have just come back from our lovely summer vacation this year. We spent 1.5 months traveling from Manila, Philippines, to Jakarta, Indonesia, then we spent a night in Singapore before continuing our journey to Ipoh, Malaysia. It was a great vacation because no one fell sick and no trip to doctor or hospital like last year. Praise the Lord for our tip top condition during the holiday.

Unlike last year, we didn't actually plan to visit Jakarta this year. We wanted to fly directly to Malaysia and spent our vacation there. We planned to visit Singapore while we were in Malaysia. But then I had to renew my Indonesia driving license and my Indonesia IC for they had expired this year. So, we diverted the plan to include Jakarta in our vacation. Since we had to include our stay in Jakarta for 12 days, we had to carefully budget ourselves. Unfortunately, the ticket price for Cebu Pacific direct flight to go to Jakarta from Manila was already very expensive. So, we had to look for another way to go to Jakarta. We were lucky because at that time Cebu Pacific had a promotion for Manila - Singapore vv ticket. So, we quickly opted this option. From Singapore, there were so many flights to Jakarta. We chose the cheapest one by Air Asia Indonesia. We were lucky also to be able to get the cheap ticket. We didn't really think about the long transit time from the time we landed from Manila to the time we departed to Jakarta. We didn't plan to go out of Changi Airport to save our money. We planned to stay at Changi Airport transit hotel.

So when we landed in Singapore (at Budget Terminal Changi Airport) at around an hour passed midnight, we just hang around at Changi Airport moving from Budget Terminal to Terminal 2 basement by taking a free transfer bus. We found out that we could not stay at Terminal 1 transit hotel because we had to check-in first to be able to access this hotel. We then walked and took the skytrain to go back and forth from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2. We didn't visit Terminal 3 because Air Asia Indonesia would depart from Terminal 1 at 10 o'clock in the morning. 

It was at 3 o'clock in the morning when my children found the children playground at the departure area in Terminal 2. The kids suddenly got so hyper and run around in the playground, screaming and disturbing other passengers who were trying to catch some sleep. I was already like a zombie. I was extremely tired and sleepy but I still took turn with my husband to watch the kids. 

At around 5am, the kids started to get tired and sleepy. We all walked to the Terminal 1 wanted to check in. But unfortunately, for Air Asia flight, we can only check-in 2 hours before the departure time. So, we had to wait for another 3 more hours before we were allowed to check-in. We all tried to catch some sleep by sleeping on the chairs at the departure area Terminal 1.

Finally, at 8am, we checked-in and we quickly went up to the passenger area. We found an empty spot with many couches. All of us were able to nap there until the boarding time. 

On our first day in Jakarta, all we could do just to catch our lost sleep. We tried our best to rest our body as much as possible. It was highly important for me to keep the children in tip top condition. I definitely didn't want last year bad experience to happen again (read here). 

Renewing my driving license and IC was my top priority. So on the 2nd day in Jakarta, I did just that. My dad accompanied me to go everywhere by motorbike. It was a good day for me because I could complete everything on that day. Jakarta is a lot better now in processing these things. Everything is computerized now and quite transparent. I'm very proud of the positive changes.

The rest of the days in Jakarta we spent with my beloved mom and dad, our family and friends, my nice  neighbors who cooked special dishes for me. All I did everyday was just eat and eat and eat all kinds of food that I always miss when I'm not in Indonesia. As the result, my body ballooned so fast and I gained 5kg in 12 days! 

From Jakarta, we booked Air Asia Indonesia again to fly to Singapore because this time I wanted to enter Malaysia from Ipoh, Perak. My parents joined me and the kids to continue our journey to replace my husband who had to fly back to Manila. I didn't choose Kuala Lumpur as our entry point this time because now there is Firefly plane (subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines) that serves the route from Singapore to Ipoh directly. Since Firefly only has 2 flights a day from Singapore to Ipoh, I had to book a room in Singapore so that we could catch the first flight to Ipoh the next day. I booked a deluxe room at Costa Sands Resort Downtown East. I chose this place because I wanted to take my parents to walk down the memory lane. 

Everything went smoothly when we landed in Singapore. We checked-in to the resorts and got shocked with the changes my parents and I saw there. This was our 2nd time staying in this resorts. The last time we stayed in this place was 11 years ago on my wedding day... :-)

I was super excited to walk down the memory lane with my parents. I explained to my kids everything about my life before I met their father. They got so excited as well. They love Singapore. Too bad we only stayed in this country for a night. We couldn't do much of sight seeing. For my parents, they slept most of the time. Oh well, I couldn't force them. They are aging and not as strong as 11 years ago.

The next day we had to check out at 5am. I booked a van taxi to fit all our luggages. The van took us to budget terminal Changi Airport because Firefly will depart from there.

Since this story is already very long. I have to end it here. 

Please continue reading my very exciting vacation in Ipoh, Malaysia, on the part 2 of this story.

Little swimmers

Hello everyone! How are you doing? It's been ages I never update my blog.

Before I continue writing this blog, I would like to give my 2-minute silent to pray for the victims of recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan and other countries affected by the tsunami...

...

In this post, I would love to share with you all my two beautiful children swimming together to welcome summer in Philippines. For my 2 years old daughter, it was her first time swimming independently without me by her side. Usually she's always so afraid to swim by herself. But on that day, the moment I finished putting on the armband floaty, she run to the pool together with her 6 years old brother. The weather was beautiful and the water was warm. There were no one else swimming in the clubhouse swimming pool. So, it was like our private swimming pool... :-)

On this coming May, it will be 2 years for us to live in Philippines. Wow! 2 years already! Time really flies! Praise the Lord! We have celebrated 2 Halloweens, 2 Christmases, and going to celebrate 2 Easters here. I think we have found a place we can call 'home'. So far life has been treating us well here in Philippines. We met more and more friends and we are a lot more welcome now that we can understand and speak Tagalog pretty well.

I hope this will last a little bit longer because my husband has a habit of moving house every 2 years... :(

As you can see from the video, my children seem happy to grow up here. they have many friends too. They've been attending so many birthday parties, from the most simple party to the most extravagant birthday party... :D

I often ask my son if he loves his school and his friends. He really does love everything here. He adjusted well. He has learned to speak Tagalog for a year now. He can go to his school canteen to buy something using Tagalog. I'm proud of him. I'm glad that he is able to adapt to many changes without any difficulties.

My 2 years old daughter is growing up well too. She speaks very fluent English (and some words in Tagalog because my helper speaks Tagalog). I haven't introduce my mother tongue which is bahasa Indonesia to her. I will do it soon though as she has been visiting my home country too. I'm sure she won't be too confused anymore. She is like her daddy who is capable in learning foreign language pretty quickly. She grew up to be a very beautiful little girl, very talkative, very brave (like G.I. Jean - this is how my friend calls her). My little girl is witty too. Her face is like her daddy, but her behavior is just like me... :) We are very blessed to have her to complete our family.

I hope you enjoy the video. I'm glad I'm able to capture this moment.

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallow Part 1

I sit alone at the corner spot of The coffee bean & Tea leaf, trying to gather my thoughts with a glass of caramel ice blended and a ham & cheese pandesal in front of me. My hands are shaking and my heart beats so fast as if I just got the effect of caffeine when I haven't even taken a sip of my caramel ice blended. I feel so warm and my brain can't think right. I felt numb all over my body when I ordered my drink just now. I couldn't even mention my order correctly. I thought I was about to get a heart attack or something. These all happened to me because I just came out of a cinema. I just finished watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow Part 1.

I know you think I'm ridiculous.  Unless you are a big Potter fan like me and have watched the movie, only then you would understand why I'm like this. My hands are still trembling by the way. I am still struggling to compose myself and type this post even when my iPad touch keypad is big enough for my fingers. I am trying my best to calm my self down by slowly chewing my ham & cheese pandesal and take a sip of my caramel ice blended.

I'm supposed to write a review of this movie for this post, but honestly, I AM SPEECHLESS. I wanted to tell you how the movie was but what comes out from my mouth is just aaaaaa....uuuuuu.....aaaaa....gaaagaaa...

I definitely lost words to describe the movie. That movie has just blown me away!  
I tried to just write it slowly, taking my own time while calming myself down. 
And the first thing that came out of my mind was thanking The Lord for giving me the opportunity to live through the Potter era. I thank Lord for giving the world J.K. Rowling and her wonderful imagination that she shared with us. I have gone through so many ups and down in my life, happy and sad moments in life, moving house from one country to another, and I am very...very grateful that I have always been lucky to be able to follow the magical journey of Harry Potter in books and in movies. I have always had a personal connection with him and his magical world through these years. 

The feeling that I had when I sat in the cinema half an hour before the movie started, is very hard to describe. As the movie started with the very familiar tune, my brain was rewinding itself to the first moment of my encounter with the most famous wizard boy. I had trouble concentrating to the movie because my brain was busy presenting me flashes of my memories I have kept since the day I watched the 1st movie of Harry Potter, Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's stone, 10 years ago. I actually had to wear my sunglasses in the darkness to keep my eyes focus to the movie playing in front of me. I am sure those who sat next to me wondering there must be something wrong with my eyes... :)  

Oh God...I'm supposed to write the review about Part 1 of the last installment of Harry Potter movies, right? But I believe you don't even have to read my review to decide whether you should watch this movie or not when you have read how my body reacted after I finished watching that movie. Anyway, just in case you still want to know what I think about that movie, I have. one word to say about that movie: SPECTACULAR! 
There...I am finally  calm down...at the same time I finished my ham & cheese pandesal together with my caramel ice blended... :)
I hope I will be lucky again to be able to watch the last & final installment of the Harry Potter saga.

  

Happy Halloween 2010

Halloween is very famous in The Philippines. It is a yearly tradition that children are looking forward to because they get a chance to collect candies/treats as many as they can during the trick or treat.

Our house subdivision always holds the Halloween party once a year. This year's theme is "Villains in the Village". We had to dress up like villains in Disney movies/Batman/Superman.

Before the party began, the children from the subdivision would go around the complex for trick or treat, then we would continue with the Halloween party. There were many competitions held during the Halloween Party; such as the best costume, the most original design, and the scariest. There was also a competition for the best decorated house.

I like to make and design everything by myself. I always try to minimize the cost as much as possible. I really enjoyed making the Halloween decoration and costumes with any recycled materials. I halfway made the trick or treat loot basket from the old newspaper, but my son preferred to have the big green pumpkin basket he saw at the mall. That pumpkin basket was the only expensive thing in my budget. It cost me 99 Pesos (= USD2.2). All other materials cost me nothing to less than 90 Pesos (= USD2). 

Since at this time in Philippines is the typhoon season, I decorated my house with Halloween decorations that can stand the rain and the wind. Although my house decoration didn't win, I'm quite happy with it. I have a witch made of garbage bag guarding my gate..:)

As for the costumes, I made my son's Chernabog (from Disney movie Fantasia) costume from garbage bag, leftover wire, and old newspapers. For my daughter's Queen of heart (from Disney movie Alice in Wonderland) costume, I made the skirt from plastic string and from what ever I have in my storage room. 

As for me, I chose to dress up as the evil Queen from Snow White Disney movie. I made my cloak from garbage bag combined with what ever I have in my closet...:)

And for my husband, since he refused to wear anything weird and scary, I asked him to dress up as Lex Luthor from Superman which required him to dress up like what he normally wears to go to work. My husband is balding, by the way, which was another reason why I chose Lex Luthor character for him... :)

The Halloween party started at 5PM but the trick or treat started at 3PM. It was raining so heavily just before 3PM. I was in doubt if I should send my children out for trick or treating. But then the rain stopped. So, I accompanied my daughter first joining all other children to walk around the subdivision collecting the treats. My son was still taking a nap. We went from one house to another house. Candies were not the only thing to be given as the treats. There were many different kinds of treats my daughter got. There was a cotton candy (with the cotton candy guy made it in front of the kids) given out by one of the house in our subdivision. There was a barbecue sausage, a cup cake, and some juice that were also given out by a different house. There was also a cup of nice lemon tea and a balloon for the children given out by another house.

After an hour and a half going around the subdivision, my daughter and I were exhausted. My left hand was aching so much because I had to carry her all the time. She refused to walk when she was afraid to see any scary figure she met on the street. It was our first time to join this kind of activity so I didn't know that we were allowed to drive around the subdivision instead of walking. I saw many parents drove their kids around subdivision. Lesson learnt...:) Next time I will just drive my kids around for trick or treating...:)

When I entered the house, my son just woke up. I quickly asked him to catch up with other kids to collect his treats, but unfortunately, the rain came back. So, he only managed to collect some candies from my neighbors. I was ready to drive him around to catch up with other kids when I realized that we already had to get ready for the Halloween party in the clubhouse. 

So, every one took shower and quickly wore our villain costumes.Within half an hour, we were already in the clubhouse. There were so many people attending the Halloween party. It was full house at the clubhouse.

When we arrived, I saw every head turned to see me. Their facial expressions were so stunned as if they just saw a ghost! They said I looked exactly like the wicked Queen in Snow White, beautiful but evil...whahaha... :-D Many people took an opportunity to take picture with me. Everyone also asked me to join the Parent-child Best costume competition. They were so sure that I would win the competition.

So, when the Parent-child competition was announced, I went up to the stage with my son. He was all black just like Chernabog from the movie Fantasia in 1940. Every one cheered and took many photographs of us. Honestly, for a moment, I felt like a movie star... :-D

After dinner was distributed, came the announcement for the best costume. I was so surprised when my son's costume won the Most Original design costume for his age category. I never expected that his costume was going to win. But every one told me that his costume was very unique because it was the only one that was hand made and was made out of recycled materials. He won a bookstore voucher worth 200 Pesos...:)

Then, I had another reason to smile, as every one had told me before, my costume won the best costume for parent-child category.... :-D My son and I won a dining voucher worth 250 Pesos from a very nice restaurant. So, total winning prize I received was 450 Pesos. I got back all the money I spent for the costume and decorations... :-D

I felt so grateful that every one was so supportive of me. They acknowledged my creativity and design. I was very happy that night. Wow! I really could not stop praising the Lord for helping me to make all these happened. I always believe in Him even on Halloween. My son and I were already quite sick during the process of making the costume and decoration. We recovered just in time for all of these.

Everyone was very happy. We all had a blast, especially my children who managed to collect 2 big pumpkin basket of candies and toys during trick or treat and during the party. We certainly look forward to attend the same party next year with a different theme... :)

Building a better communication with your children

In the past 2 weeks my husband and I really have a hard time talking and educating our son. We see that the older he is, the stronger his rejection towards anything we say and the more difficult to deal with his emotion. Instead of getting him to do like what we want him to do, we would end up fighting or arguing with him because we loose our temper and our coolness. 

We love our son very much and we want the best of everything for him. We want to raise him to be a better person than we are. But then, we were so clueless and hopeless. I always ended up crying at night because I just feel so bad if I have to scream at him all the time. I loose my voice and he will still not listen to me and even resist me stronger. 

As usual, when I am loosing my hope, God comes to the rescue. I received a small booklet today from my son's school about how parents can improve the communication with their children. The booklet uses the book How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish as the reference.

Oh thank you, God! This is exactly what I urgently need for I have completely lost my way to talk to my son. The booklet has every information I need and it is presented in funny pictures that makes it easy to relate to each situation I experience. The language is very simple too. The examples are real so I can understand easily how I would react the next time I am faced with the same situation. There is a practice section too in where I can fill in the blank with the right and proper word to say to make sure that my kids will listen to my words.

I am really grateful that I got that booklet today. That means I can start to learn to build better ways to communicate with my son before the anger and the emotion destroy everything. I think every parent should really know the way to properly communicate with their children so that they can have a wonderful relationship with their children all the time. For the children, they will have a very good memory about their parents because their parents have become their best friends too. I recommend to every parent to read How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish. As parents, we need to have a clear guideline on how to win over our children. We have to initiate the good and proper way to talk and to listen so that our children can see and follow our path. This is important because just as James Baldwin said,

"Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them."

Nama untuk warga dunia

Keluarga kecil saya terdiri dari berbagai macam kewarganegaraan. Saya orang Indonesia yg menikah dengan orang Malaysia keturunan cina. Ke 2 anak kami pun berbeda kewarganegaraan; yang besar berwarganegara New Zealand, dan yang kecil berwarganegara Malaysia.

Seperti umumnya orang Indonesia, saya tidak punya family name. Family name saya dapat dari family name suami saya setelah saya menikah. Nama asli saya (given name) pun tidak berbau Indonesia.

Sedangkan suami saya, meskipun dia keturunan cina, dia tidak memakai nama cina. Namanya lebih berbau international seperti kebanyakan nama orang America/Eropa. Cuma family namenya saja yang menggunakan nama cina.

Anak-anak kami dinamai berdasarkan film yang kami berdua suka. Supaya adil, kami berdua memberi nama anak2 kami. Anak pertama , nama pertamanya (first name) saya yang kasih. Namanya sama dengan bintang film ganteng idola saya...:) Nama tengahnya (middle name) yang memberi nama suami saya. Berhubung dia tidak terlalu kreatif dan tidak siap, dia ambil dari nama tengahnya sendiri.

Untuk anak ke 2, kebalikannya, first namenya yang kasih nama adalah suami saya. Suami saya mengambil nama leading lady di film kesukaannya untuk first name anak kedua kami. Middle namenya saya yang kasih. Nama tengahnya saya ambil dari nama karakter di film kesukaan saya.

Nama keluarga harus diberi mengikuti nama keluarga suami saya.

Nama anak-anak kami pun tidak terlalu aneh-aneh dengan pertimbangan karena kami keluarga United Nations dan kemungkinan untuk travelling keliling dunia cukup tinggi. Jadi, nama anak-anak harus mengikuti template nama di passport supaya mudah dibaca dan diterima di seluruh dunia.

Sebagai orang Indonesia yg tidak punya family name, saya sudah tahu bagaimana repotnya kalau berurusan dengan imigrasi terutama di luar Indonesia. Ditambah lagi nama saya sama sekali tidak berbau Indonesia. Kalau sudah keluar Indonesia, tidak ada orang percaya kalau saya orang Indonesia. Orang asing mengira saya orang Fiipina karena nama dan wajah saya yang seperti kebanyakan orang Filipina.

Sebelum saya menikah, agar saya dapat membuat passport, saya harus menciptakan nama keluarga (last name/family name). Tapi berhubung di akte kelahiran pun tidak ada nama keluarga, jadi yg ada nama baptis lah yg dipakai untuk last name karena kebetulan saya menempatkan nama baptis saya diurutan belakang.

Setelah saya menikah, saya harus mengganti susunan nama saya agar sesuai dengan template passport di seluruh dunia. Suami saya yang membantu menyusun ulang nama saya agar saya punya first name, middle name, dan family name. Akhirnya, sampai sekarang saya memakai nama yang baru tersebut.

Berdasarkan pengalaman pribadi, saya tidak mau anak-anak saya mengalami kesulitan di masa depan dengan nama mereka. Jadi saya dan suami saya sepakat memberi nama yang mudah diterima oleh masyarakat dunia. Saya dan suami pun sepakat untuk tidak menambahkan nama cina untuk anak-anak kami dengan pertimbangan yang sama. Kami berharap agar anak-anak kami dapat memiliki kesempatan lebih luas di bagian negara manapun tanpa harus pusing dengan nama mereka dan kami juga tidak ingin mereka dikategorikan dalam salah satu kelompok masyarakat di dunia.

Bagaimana dengan anda? Pertimbangan apakah yang anda ambil ketika memberi nama anak-anak anda?

Preserving the tradition in foreign land

On my birthday I woke up so early exactly at the same time when the sun rose that day. I felt so fresh and so full of energy I could run in the park longer than I usually do. Then I heard my cell vibrated indicating that someone was texting me. It was from my friend wishing me Happy Birthday. I was so surprise that he woke up so early but it turned out he was on his night shift at work so at that time he was still in the office.

I went downstairs and called one of my maids to accompany me to go to wet market. I never got a chance to go to wet market so early like that day. When I arrived in the market, I was so happy because all the vegetables were still complete and very fresh, and so were the fishes and everything else. Suddenly I saw a big round rattan tray like the ones the Indonesian always uses to make nasi tumpeng. In Indonesia it's called tampah but in the Philippines it is called bilao. So I bought the biggest one. I thought of making nasi tumpeng for my own birthday party. It would be great surprise for everyone because I never tried to make this thing before and no one in the house has ever seen a nasi tumpeng. I have bought the other ingredients a day before. Oh, before I forget, nasi tumpeng is an Indonesian yellow rice (turmeric rice) cone shaped buffet style dish served on round rattan tray. The cone shaped yellow rice is usually surrounded by 7 kinds of side dishes that represent the wealth, dedication, and the glorious time. The side dishes usually are chicken, prawn, perkedel (mashed potato with corned beef fritters), mixed vegetables, eggs, mixed fried peanut and anchovy, and some kinds of tempe (soya bean cake) dish. But there is no tempe in Philippines so I didn't cook that one item.

With the recipe from my beloved mother that she sent through smses, a picture from an old Indonesian recipe magazine that I brought to Philippines, I was determined to complete this nasi tumpeng for lunch birthday for me and my family.

At 7am, I started the work together with the maid I took to wet market. I chose her because she has passion for cooking. She is a Filipina and never knew and never saw a nasi tumpeng before. I had to give her very clear instructions and had to make sure that she could follow through properly so that the result would be just like the picture.

Since I didn't plan ahead, I didn't do any preparation nor making any decoration for the tampah for this nasi tumpeng. I understood that nasi tumpeng is a very complicated Indonesian dish. It was an elaborate complete Indonesian dishes in one tray but I still wanted to do it. My mom was a champion of nasi tumpeng creation. She won an award for making the most beautiful nasi tumpeng in the competition of nasi tumpeng during one of Indonesian Indepence day celebrations when I was only 10 years old. I witnessed how she created all. I wanted to be like her. She was so excited too when I informed her about it. She kept on texting me with so many tips.

Finally, at around 12.30pm, everything was completed and fully decorated. I had done my magic in the kitchen and it was time to show off the result...:)
Everyone was so surprised, especially my husband. Everyone said the nasi tumpeng was very unique and beautiful. The candles were lighted by my husband. He gave me 2 dozen of red and pink roses for the birthday gift. He also bought 2 boxes of Collete's buko pie to compliment my nasi tumpeng. My Tagalog teacher and my 2 maids were present too. After we sang happy birthday for me, I blew the candle with the help from my beloved son. Then I gave the honor to my husband to cut the peak of the cone rice. Everyone said the nasi tumpeng was a blast. The dishes were delicious and beautifully presented.

I was so happy and satisfied with the result. I could not believe I did it without any preparation. I know that my first nasi tumpeng is far from perfect but the pride I got from being able to preserve the tradition in the foreign land for non-Indonesians to enjoy was hard to describe, especially tomorrow is the Indonesian Indepence day. In fact, this nasi kuning was not the only tradition/culture of Indonesia that I carried to Philippines, I also introduced batik attire. I wore batik once to the Parents and Teachers Association meeting and I had many compliment from my filipina friends that my batik dress was very beautiful. I felt so heroic for I managed to introduce my Javanese tradition in The Philippines. No matter how far I am from my country, I still love my Indonesia. Although in my family, I am the only  Indonesian and I do not live in my country for many years, Indonesia is still in my blood and my way of life. Merdeka! Happy Independence day, Indonesia! Selamat Hari Merdeka Indonesiaku tercinta!

To end this post, I would like to write down the lyric of the beautiful song that always reminds me of Indonesia that was composed by Ismail Marzuki:


Indonesia, tanah air beta (Indonesia my homeland)
Pusaka abadi nan jaya (greatest long lasting heritage)
Indonesia, sejak dulu kala (Indonesia since a long time ago)
Tetap dipuja-puja bangsa (is always be praised by other nations)

Disana tempat lahir beta (it was the place I was born)
Dibuai dibesarkan bunda (raised and sang lullabies by mother)
Tempat berlindung di hari tua (it is the place for my retirement)
Tempat akhir menutup mata.(it is the place for me to rest in peace)

Sungguh indah tanah air beta (What a beautiful my homeland)
Tiada bandingnya di dunia (nothing compared to it in the whole world)
Karya indah Tuhan Maha Kuasa (Beautiful creation of God the Almighty)
Bagi bangsa yang memujanya (for the people that praise His Holy name)

Indonesia ibu pertiwi (Indonesia the motherland)
Kau kupuja kau kukasihi (I adore you I love you)
Tenagaku bahkan pun jiwaku (My energy and even my soul)
Kepadamu rela kuberi (I give them to you all willingly).





----------------------------------------------------------------

I'm sorry if the English translation is not perfect.

Learn to appreciate your other half

It is four minutes to 10 o'clock at night, my husband is still outside for some office work and my 2 children have been asleep for more than an hour. Not every night they go to bed so early like right now. They must be exhausted for I took them for swimming this afternoon for 2 hours. So, now I am having my me-time all alone in this cold quiet night. I have many things I want to do now that I can concentrate fully on what I do, such as reading the novel, continue writing my blog, watching TV while munching some Ipoh peanuts I got from one of my husband's colleague who visited Malaysia, or I could just play game on Facebook. These are things I would not be able to do when the children are awake. Let me start by continuing on writing my blog so that I will have a new post. Let's see if I can fight the temptation of playing games, especially playing Bejeweled Blitz that I love very much...:)

Yesterday one of my contacts in Facebook wrote the status like this, "Thanks to my wife.  Love you full!" Apparently they just finished moving house and this friend of mine felt grateful with all the help he got during that period, especially the help he got from his wife who has done the sorting, packing, and taking care of everything else including their 3 children all by herself.  He himself had to take care of his work in the office most of the time. He knew it was not easy for his wife to handle things by herself and the fact that she managed to complete everything and has made the transition to the new house as smoothly as possible was something great that he really need to appreciate.
Nearly a month ago I moved house too. This was my 8th time of moving house. Among the 8, this was quite the easiest one because I didn't have to move house to a different country across the sea as in the other 7. Also this time I had some help from my 2 maids.  The previous 7 times, I had to do the complete set of moving house procedures all by myself.  The hardest was the 5th when I had to move house from New Zealand to Kuching, Malaysia. At that time, I also just gave birth to my first child and was all alone. So, compared to the 5th, the 8th transition to the new house was the easiest one.

Even though it was the easiest one, still, the complete set of moving house procedures have to be followed. Since I had 2 maids, they were the ones to do the packing and the moving for me while I took care of all important stuffs such as dealing with the house owner, making sure the new house was livable, and buying the furniture since the new house was unfurnished. I also had to take care of the children. As usual, my other half could only take care of his work in the office. Even this time, he was overseas for a month. So, I tried my best to work together with the house owner to make sure everything was fine in the house before we started to move or at least, before my husband came back. Every single thing in the new house that didn't work properly, I would point out so that it could be fixed. Praised the Lord the house owner is such a wonderful man. He was very helpful and cared about my requests very much. I felt great that he was willing to listen to me and he made sure everything was done properly.

Finally, when my other half came back home, things in the new house were ready and everything has been moved to the new house, except for the TV and the stereo system. My husband was very surprised that I managed to take care of everything by myself. He was very satisfied with the new house. He said he liked the new house better. I told him that is because I have made sure that the new house was ready for us to stay. I have learned my lesson from the experiences of moving house many times; especially the fact that I always had to do everything by myself. Thank God, my husband understood that all these moving things are never easy for me. He gave me a hug and kissed me. He said, "Thank you very much, dear. I know I can count on you." He didn't announce it on the Facebook though and neither did I because I think that is enough for me to see that my husband has appreciated my hard work and my support for him. I felt really good and I remember that every time I enter the house. Many times my husband asked me why I always smile when I enter the house. I told him that's because I remember the time when you hugged and kissed me and said Thank you to me. He said I'm crazy…:) Oh well, he may not realize that his simple act has done wonder to lift up my spirit. I know it very well that appreciating someone's hard work always brings a positive energy to that person and to the relationship with that person. So, I am also trying my best every time to appreciate what my husband does to me. I believe that a simple word like 'thank you', especially when it is added with an act of love such as hug or kiss, it will help to maintain the relationship. This is important for our marriage. So, yeah, start to learn to appreciate your other half. It will do the magic to help you to bring her/him closer to you.

When being paranoid is a good thing

I am a very paranoid person. In my life, I always think about the worst case scenario, especially if I am faced with the unknown situation. Very often my other half think that my paranoia is excessive and very disturbing. He can't understand why I am like that. He finds it really unnessary to be so paranoid about everything.

But to me, my paranoia really helped me to prepare myself especially on Wednesday night when the first typhoon of the year, typhoon Conson (or Basyang in Philippines) made a surprised landfall and directly hit the area I live. Many people were not prepared as the earlier track shown that it would not hit our area directly and the warning signal given was only signal no. 1.

When my husband informed me on Wednesday morning that there was a typhoon heading our way, I made sure all the emergency survival kits were within our reach and ready to be used anytime. My emergency light and torchlights were fully charged, my candles and matches were ready too. I also have full stock of emergency food. The last year typhoon experiences have taught me never to underestimate the power of a typhoon.

On that day, we didn't see the sun at all the whole day. It was very dark, wet, and cold. But since no one expected to be a direct hit, life went by as usual. Tree branches were not cut, and I even got my new satelite disc installed :)

At 11pm when everyone was already asleep, the wind has become very very strong. I haven't been able to close my eyes since 9pm when I put my kids to sleep. My six sense telling me that the typhoon was going to stop by our area. I started to feel scared and nervous especially when I saw the tree in front of my house swaying violently left and right. The sound of the strong wind pierced my ears. I had a strong urge of checking the typhoon path at www.typhoon2000.ph and when I did, I was so surprised to see that the typhoon was heading directly to our province and at 2am, it would make a landfall with strong wind and rain.

Oh my God! I was paranoid again. I was afraid that my emergency preparation was not enough. I quickly woke up my husband to get ready the emergency light. But he was too sleepy to care about my paranoia. So he just continued sleeping. I got up and went down to get my emergency light. I put all candles and matches on the table, and I even had time to update my status on Facebook informing everyone that Conson was here already. Just when I completed everything, the electricity went off. I opened the curtain in my bedroom so I could see the situation outside. And it was getting worse with the wind blowing so hard. Never in my life I saw how strong the wind blew it could bend the big mahogany tree in front of my house. But that night I saw it happened in front of my eyes. I was very scared my heart bumping so hard too. I was afraid that the mahogany tree root would loose its grip and the tree would fall to my house. I literary screamed everytime the strong wind came and swept away everything outside my window. My husband woke up and asked me to close the curtain and return to sleep.There's no way I would be able to sleep in a complete darkness knowing that outside, a violent wind swept accross our region. Then at nearly midnight, I received a text from my neighbor informing me that the warning signal has been raised to signal no. 2 and there would not be any classes on Thursday. So my son would not go to school.

Just before 2am, the rain came down together with the strong wind. I never stopped praying asking protection from God the Almighty for my little family that I love so much. The rain and wind, plus many mahogany fruits that dropped down on my roof made so much noise. My son and my daughter woke up, screamed, and cried because they were frightened by the darkness and by the sound of the wind. My husband hugged and comforted my son while I sat down rocking back and forth to comfort my daughter who held my shirt so tightly. I tried to sing for her but my weak heart didn't even want to stop thundering. My daughter could feel it and she got even more frightened. With all my might I tried to calm myself down so that my daughter would not feel how scared I was with the situation. My daughter and my son finally went back to sleep. Not long, my husband also snored; but not me :( Although my eyes were extremely heavy, my mind didn't want to rest. I prayed and prayed that the typhoon would be over soon. But it worsened instead. I stood up near the window and tried to see the situation outside but I could not see a thing. The rain and wind blurred my vision. I gave up and tried to sleep. I kept on teeling myself that God never leaves me alone. He is always there at the right time and on the right moment according to Him.

Finally at around 3-4am, there was no sound outside my window. Everything went quiet as if nothing had happened before. I knew the typhoon has gone away. I closed my eyes at around 4.30am just when I heard my maid got out of the house. She told me that my neighbor wanted to borrow our candle and matches because they had none.I managed to sleep for 2 hours before my children woke me up at around 6am.

When I woke up, I saw the road in front of my house was in a mess. Tree branches and mahogany fruits scattered everywhere. I also saw everyone started to clean up the mess created by the typhoon. The black out continued the whole day. We were forced to finish 2 litres of ice cream that has melted and to cook all the chicken, meat and fishes. The electricity was restored at around 10pm. I really thanked the Lord for protecting us always. I thank Lord for I am so paranoid about anything and this makes me prepared always.

You have completed my life.

Two years ago every time I went to the mall, my heart ached. I saw there were many beautiful dresses for little girls. It was not easy to find great cloths for my little boy. Boy's attire was very plain and boring, not like those for little girls. I told myself, "If only I had a little girl, she would be very beautiful wearing those beautiful dresses." I felt that there was something missing in my life without the presence of a little girl that I could dress her up like a little princess.

Holiday tickets from God

I am finally back in The Philippines after nearly a month taking vacation in Indonesia. Even if the situation here similar to my home country, it is still Home sweet home :) and I have a wonderful story to share with you about this trip.

I truly believe now that God was the One to reserve the plane ticket for this Indonesia trip. It was the answer to my prayer. But before the departure day, I was not so sure if I should really go because I was so paranoid with the comfort and health of my children in my home country. I was so paranoid until the day I departed from terminal 3 Ninoy Aquino Int'l airport. I got a terrible stomachache, panic attack, nervousness, nausea, etc. I dreaded going to Indonesia. I really wanted to cancel it. But on the other hand, I also didn't want to miss this opportunity.

Happy Melahirkan

Sebagai seorang wanita, pengalaman hidup yang paling menakjubkan bagi saya adalah pengalaman mengandung dan melahirkan anak-anak saya. Ingatan saya segera meluncur ke saat saya mengandung dan melahirkan anak pertama yang sudah saya tunggu-tunggu selama 5 tahun. Meskipun peristiwa tersebut terjadi 6 tahun yang lalu, saya masih ingat segala perasaan campur aduk yang saya rasakan: rasa bahagia, takut, panik, dan cemas. Saya bahagia dengan kehamilan ini tetapi saya tidak terlalu PD untuk melahirkannya karena saya tidak memiliki pengetahuan dan pengalaman melahirkan karena ini adalah kehamilan saya yang pertama. Lagipula saat itu saya berada di negara orang, tidak ada sanak keluarga yang mendampingi saya dan saya sedang berusaha keras menamatkan sekolah. Selama hamil pun saya lebih berkonsentrasi pada studi saya karena saya tidak mau menunda kelulusan. Satu-satunya yang menjadi pegangan adalah buku tentang kehamilan dan melahirkan yang dikirim oleh suami saya. Saya juga berdoa tiap malam agar semua berjalan lancar. Puji Tuhan karena doa saya didengar. Saya melahirkan dengan normal tanpa ada komplikasi, tanpa C-section, dan saya pun tetap bisa lulus sekolah tepat waktu dengan nilai yang sangat memuaskan. Tiada saat yang lebih membahagiakan daripada saat saya menggendong bayi saya dan menyusuinya untuk pertama kali selepas dia dilahirkan.

Berdasarkan pengalaman tersebut, ketika Meidya Derni dan We R Mommies Indonesia menerbitkan buku ebook/audiobook yg berjudul “Happy Melahirkan”, dengan senang hati saya menjadi reseller karena ebook/audiobook ini berisi segala informasi komplit yang dibutuhkan oleh semua ibu yang hendak melahirkan, meliputi persiapan sebelum melahirkan (dari pertimbangan memilih tempat kelahiran dan ahli yang akan membantu kelahiran, bagaimana kalau posisi bayi sungsang, atau bayi lahir premature, sampai metode-metode melahirkan yang dapat mengurangi rasa sakit saat melahirkan) dan sesudah melahirkan (pemberian ASI, babyblues, perawatan selama 40 hari setelah melahirkan), termasuk juga informasi untuk sang ayah agar dapat berperan aktif dalam membantu mempersiapkan kelahiran si bayi yang sudah dinanti-nantikan.

Selain itu, terdapat juga sharing cerita dari mommies anggota We R Mommies Indonesia mengenai pengalaman melahirkan mereka. Komplit sekali kan? Rasanya semua pertanyaan bumil tentang melahirkan akan dapat terjawab oleh informasi yang diberikan di ebook/audiobook ini.  Selain itu, dengan menerbitkan ebook/audiobook ini, We R Mommies Indonesia ingin membantu pemerintah Indonesia dalam rangka menurunkan angka kematian ibu dan bayi saat melahirkan karena apabila si ibu yang akan melahirkan mendapatkan cukup pengetahuan tentang persiapan melahirkan, si ibu akan merasa lebih tenang dan kuat untuk melahirkan. 

Oleh karena itu, jangan sampai mom semua seperti saya saat melahirkan anak pertama. Kalau moms ingin PD saat melahirkan, langsung saja klik disini untuk mendapatkan informasi terlengkap tentang cara pintar persiapan melahirkan ini.

Audiobook Happy Melahirkan dapat didengarkan kapan saja, sambil masak, sambil kerja, sambil tiduran pun bisa mendengarkan. Kan lebih enak kayak dibacain buku cerita. Musik pengantarnya pun sangat menenangkan. Udah gitu si bapak juga bisa ikut mendengarkan kapan saja. Kalau malas mendengarkan dan lebih seneng membaca, buku ini bisa dibaca di computer atau di perangkat mobile lainnya. Tulisannya gede-gede, bahasanya pun tidak terlalu formal  dan kaku. Yakin seneng deh bacanya. Lah saya saja yang tidak sedang hamil pun senang bacanya. Jadi teringat masa-masa menakjubkan itu.

Harganya murah banget kok. Cuman Rp89ribu. Yang lebih asiknya lagi, bukan cuman dapat ebook/audiobook ini, tetapi juga bisa daftar jadi reseller. Lumayan untuk tambahan uang saku. Sang ayah pun boleh loh menjadi reseller. Kalo tertarik, silahkan langsung klik disini atau klik di banner Happy Melahirkan di halaman ini.


Kalau mau nanya-nanya, silahkan kirimkan pertanyaan anda melalui email atau comment di artikel ini. I’ll be very happy to answer your queries. Silahkan email saya di coffeeliqueur[dot]gmail[dot]com. I look forward to hearing from you all. Saya berharap semua ibu-ibu Indonesia mendapatkan pengalaman melahirkan yang paling membahagiakan.