A must first.

Stuff are starting to be delivered so we brought the kids to bring in the must firsts to be brought inside our home.

On Omar's way to bringing Summer to school, Winter and I joined them and dropped by at the site to bring in our Holy Family, water, rice, salt and candle.

Please bless our home.

Why o Why

Bakit ang mahal mo?

Pangarap ka na lang ba? Kailangan ba talaga gumastos para makatipid?

Tax.

My mom used to bring me with her every time she pay property tax at Paranaque until I took over the assignment of settling the taxes on or before December 15 to avail of the 20% discount.

This time, I brought Winter with me. We started early so there was shorter line. Do you think it's about time he learn how to do it? But I think it's best that he learns how to talk first =).

It's always better to start early.

Step 2.

Brainstorming.

With Kuya JB and Kuya Dojoe at Starbucks.

Excited! Scary!

Step 1.

Went there.

Asked about it.

Got the requirements.

Will think about it.

Cleaner!

Winter happily helped me sanitize the room due to his virus for Summer's sake.

Clean up! Clean up!

The story of Basyang.

Omar went to play basketball. The wind started howling and I can hear small twigs of trees flying and hitting the roof. Lights were fluctuating. I started texting Omar. It was a bit scary and I want him to come home fast. He was using the corolla so I know it's not safe with the rain and the wind.

Until he knocked on the window and I went out to open the door for him. And just when I was at the dining room, on my way to the room, the lights went

out for good. Thank God Omar's home already.

The wind was so strong. Omar went out of the room to check on some stuff in the living room that might fall down. And as he was just peeking out of the window, we heard a loud fall and Ate Elsie shouting from the next door that the big mango tree in front of our house just fell down. There was no light and the wind was still so strong so there's nothing else that we can do.

We tried to pull Omar's bed mattress next to the window so Winter and I can sleep next to it but the drizzle was so strong, it can reach the inside of our room. We had no choice but to close the window. Winter was so scared and won't let go of you, though he's not crying. Summer was dead to the world, sleeping the whole time.

Good thing it was pretty cold so we were all able to go sleep. Come morning, we saw the tree in front of our house.

Lights are still out. Good thing Summer doesn't have school because of the Parent's Orientation but did not push through because of the weather.

Kuya and his family went to Bulacan. We have generator set there. We can't go there. It would be too early for Summer's school and Winter would have to go with them too so Cory and Winter can go home and wait for Summer to go home from school at lunch time. I can't go home early since I have to do the payroll at the office the following day. We were offered to stay at the hotel together with Omar's brother but I do not want to hassle them with us moving around too early in the morning for Summer's school.

Jenny and I just went to SM Bicutan to buy rechargeable lights and electric fan. I bought 2 - 1 for the night and the other as reserve when the battery of the first one run out. The kids and I were able to go to bed soundly. Omar had to wake up in the middle of the night to change shirt since the only electric fan is on us.

It's a battle of survival. I just thank God we're all together at times like this and we survived.

House pet.

We had Bob before at Karcraft but died last year.

Mommy has a bowl of fish in her dining area from her fish pond from the grotto and Winter just loves it so we had our own too.

Hanggang fish lang ang pwedeng pets sa bahay, 2 kids are more than enough.

Ondoy

How did the super typhoon Winter hit you?

I was at Bulacan with my babies the whole time. Omar, on the other hand, has a story to tell.

Omar went to Pampanga to purchase parts for the shop. He was bound for shop at 10am along the NLEX approaching Balintawak. Traffic was starting to build up. He reached the ramp heading to Monumento at 11am, and seeing the water starting to rise, he decided to go to that direction instead just to avoid the water rising. He had to take a U-turn to be able to go to the shop. He was able to make a U-turn and back at Cloverleaf at 6pm. He made it to the shop at 9pm - without food at all, without water, and without company. What used to be a 20minute drive turned into more than 10hours drive.

At 12mn, he decided to go home to us at Bulacan, seeing that EDSA was already light in traffic. But he wasn't expecting what was waiting for them at NLEX. It was still flooded and water was subsiding so slow. At 4am, he was still at Marilao. He decided to go back to Manila and was able to make a U-turn at 5am. He was home at Paranaque at 6:30am.

Our home in Paranaque was not spared from Ondoy. Good thing Ate Nenet and Ate Elsie was able to save some of our stuff from getting wet. But they do not have keys inside our room. Omar cleaned our room after resting for a few hours in my inlaws place. Water was around 4-5inch high in our room, based from the markings on our dresser.

It's not as worse as what others went through and I'm so thankful we were safe and we still have our home and cars with us.

Moving Day

August 5, 2004 we slept at our second home.

The house was renovated, thanks to my brother and sister-in-law, and of course to Mommy and Daddy. It was the training ground for starters like me and Omar. Both my brother and sister started their family there. I thought I will be skipping the tradition since Omar provided our home at Mandaluyong. But due to some circumstances, we have to leave our first home and move to our second home.

Finally, home sweet home!

Last Day at Home

Just as we were getting comfortable at our own home, sadly, we have to leave our home.

After playing badminton with my brother and sister-in-law, my husband and I went to Sta. Ana to attend their fiesta. It was May 12, 2004. When seated to have our dinner, my husband's phone rang. It was her mom giving us the bad news. Our home was robbed. The caretaker of my husband's apartment called his uncle who called his mom who called us to inform us of what happened.

We did not eat our dinner anymore and went home right away.

Omar's relatives are there waiting for us to comfort us. I was shaking when I saw our bedroom. More than what was lost, it was the thought that a stranger intruded our home, rummaging our personal belongings with his hands!

Jewelries, watches, and cash were stolen. Our neighbor next to us heard our gate open late in the afternoon, thinking that it was me since I usually arrive at around that time (imagine if I was already home and somebody will sneak into our home, so creepy). Early in the evening, they saw our lights from the bedroom switched on (so the burglar stayed from sun up to sun down). We even saw drippings of juice at our kitchen floor (the burglar even managed to get juice from our ref to cool him down, he must be so stressed). They did not bother to get some of our appliances anymore.

That same night, we did not sleep in our home anymore. We stayed at my brother's house. The following day, we packed our things and went home to my parent's house again to stay.

It's so sad to leave the place, not because I came to love it already, because that's where Omar and I started to have our life together. We will have to start all over again - this time securely.

First Day at Home

After weeks of preparing our apartment at Mandaluyong, we finally decided to stay for good!!! We usually stayed for a day to fix things and go home at the end of the day. We even served lunch to my in-laws during the Edsa anniversary as our house-warming, more of like a dry run to know which things we still need for our home.

It was Omar's uncle's and aunt's wedding anniversary on Feb. 28, 2004. It was celebrated at Discovery Suites. And after the party, we went to our home.

We slept at the bed foam - bed frame was not yet installed. We prepared our own breakfast. We had fun.

It was nice having our own for the first time. Our own home, our own time, just the two of us.