Under One Roof

I have been seeing this meme of sorts in various blogs so I thought why not do it as well. But instead of it being about me, I thought I’d list down 25 Random Things About My Family.

1. We are a large family. My parents with 6 kids.
2. We live in a house that my dad inherited from an old neighbor who passed away and had no relatives to speak of. My dad and my mom took care of him when he was sick and dying.
3. Two members passed away already. My brother died of leukemia when he was 15 in 1998. My mom died in 2005 from a kidney disease.
4. I am the eldest, then two sisters followed after, then my brother who died of leukemia, another sister and the youngest, a boy.
5. There are two accountants in the family, two teachers. Three are licensed and one has yet to pass the board.
6. We have lived in the same place since my parents were kids.
7. We are a loud family. We love to laugh out loud, discuss things loudly, and unfortunately, argue loudly as well.
8. Eating out versus eating at home? We prefer the latter. But we also love eating out, preferring to eat at a restaurant we trust and we are comfortable at. Read more… »

I love taking photos of Hazel. The little girl loves to strike a pose and she’s just the most adorable kid this side of the planet for me. I make sure I have an extra micro sd card for my digicam whenever we go out. Because you never know when you might need extra memory capacity if I take a video of her doing something hilarious! Like this one time we went to my mom’s grave. She has children’s books courtesy of her Miming. She brought one and took it out, pretending to read something from it. We caught that on video and it was really funny! Until now, whenever we view it, we laugh so hard. Hazel really makes our day!

When Gelliane sent me a text message about Francis Magalona’s death, I must admit I was affected. Aside from being a long time fan, I saw my brother in him. FrancisM died of leukemia, the same sickness that took the life of my then 15-year-old brother.

Cancer is like a thief in the night. It’ll strike when you least expect it. When my brother was sick with it, there were days when he’s showing signs of getting better. Then all of a sudden, he’ll turn for the worse. It broke our hearts seeing him like that.

One of FrancisM’s last photos posted in his Multiply account.

You know the photo above (where FrancisM was already bald due to his chemo sessions)? He looked so much like my brother when he was also bald already. FrancisM’s death just triggered this deluge of memories to resurface. At least FrancisM reached his 44th year on earth before His creator took him back. My brother was only 15.

Both gone too soon.

Sometimes, no matter how hard you think of a reason that will make sense of everything, it is just so elusive. No reason can be enough to justify why people die early. We just have to console ourselves to the fact that there is a bigger plan for us in the end.

Last Sunday, some relatives of my dad came by to visit. Whenever there is a gathering in my dad’s side of the family, my eldest aunt would be there with her husband. I love my aunt so much. She’s like a second mom to me already. She’s the one I turn to when I have a problem or something’s bothering me. She would, in turn, call me up when she needs someone to talk to. In a way, she’s like a mom, aunt, sister and bestfriend all rolled into one.

But her husband is a different story. I like the guy but then I don’t like his drinking habits and his bossiness. My dad is all for pakikisama and would always go out of his way to welcome everyone. My aunt’s husband cannot sit down and have a decent conversation without bottles of beer in front of him and the men around him. I’ve told him and my other uncles (my dad’s brothers and brothers-in-law) that my dad almost suffered a heart attack a few months ago. Had in fact a soft stroke. And that I don’t want him drinking, even on those occasions when there is a gathering. It doesn’t matter if my dad will stop at 1 bottle. No, not for him! If his drinking buddies are still drinking and would offer him another bottle, he won’t say no. Nakikisama na naman.

Anyway, last Sunday, the visit was supposed to be a short one and the reason why the relatives visited was to see my grandparents. My dad went there while my sisters and I were having our siesta. When I woke up, my other sister told me my dad went there and that my aunt’s husband started the rounds of drinking again.

I ended up shouting at my dad over the phone telling him to go home or else…

I always end up being rude in an attempt to get my dad away from temptation. And I hate it! I don’t want to be the adult always but I have no choice because nobody’s stepping up. I don’t want my dad to get sick, have a heart attack or worse, get paralyzed. I don’t want to end up saddled with a sick person 24/7 again. I don’t like sickness in the house. I don’t want to lose my dad when we just lost my mom more than 3 years ago.

My dad can be a child sometimes. Those times, being the eldest, I need to be the parent. If I have another choice, I don’t want this responsibility at all. I truly hate it!

When we were kids, my sisters and I sleep in a big customized bed. All four of us. We would gossip at night, when we were all lying down, attempting to sleep. We would talk about the future, particularly our desire for a bigger house and separate bedrooms. Little dreams from big hearts.

We never really wanted a big house, to tell the truth. We want a simple house that is cozy and warm. No need for a big garden or wall fountains or a big LCD tv. All we need is a place where we know we are secure, the family is complete, and every one has his/her own separate space when needed.

When you come from a large family like me, one of the common occurrences is squabbles. A squabble is defined as a noisy quarrel, usually about a trivial matter (ref). In our family, we have this almost every day.

My brother is always the source of squabbles in our family. It is my fault (and my mom’s) actually. My brother grew up spoiled and pampered. This is the reason why he is hardheaded, to the point that he feels like his way is always the right one. He won’t listen to anyone unless you shout at him and unless he feels like I am truly angry already. I hate being angry because I feel like I would explode every time I feel that way. But he really tests my patience most of the time.

Just a few minutes ago, he was asking our sister to iron his school uniform for him. He just realized then that he forgot to tell our laundrywoman to prioritize his pants. He doesn’t want to wear the other ones for some reason. I told him that the laundrywoman will only do the laundry on Monday. He was irritated about this. He is asking me to call up the laundrywoman. Of course I won’t do that. I scolded him about his habit of doing things at the last possible minute. He stormed out and went to his room to show his displeasure.

This got me so angry again that I started a litany of his “mistakes”. I was so darn angry that I felt like my head will explode. And all because of his pants that he forgot to ask our laundrywoman to wash right away.

I really hate squabbles. I am normally the one who puts a stop to it. But when I am directly involved, expect it to turn into a full-fledged tirade. I hate being angry!

Take care everyone and God bless!

Three years ago, when my mom died, we really thought life will never be the same again for us. It was a terrible thing to happen, too close to Christmas. But then a little girl came into our lives. She is the daughter of my dad’s second cousin. She lives a house away from us. Because my dad was lost that time, he turned his attention to the newest baby in the neighborhood: Hazel. She started spending time at home. We took turns taking care of her. She went home to be breastfed and to sleep at night, that’s it. The rest of the time, she spent here with us.

About a year ago, when her little sister was born, she started living here at home. Up to the present, she still lives here and has no plans of going home

For the past three years now, Christmas is all about Hazel. Having a little kid at home made the occasion more colorful for us. If it’s just us, with James, our youngest, already 17, well, we won’t really bother that much with the decorations or with the gifts. But since there is a little girl whose face lights up with the mention of gifts and Hongkong and Christmas… you get my drift.

The weather has gone cold now. I always feel sleepy and hungry. I will not be surprised if I gain a few pounds even if I don’t eat that much now. The diet pills will not make a difference now. My metabolism as surely slowed down. I don’t feel like moving that much that’s why I take advantage of invitations to go out. If not, I will be contented to stay at home and sleep when I feel like it.

My sister, Meng, already gave me a Christmas gift. And it’s a watch!

It’s a simple, practical and affordable watch. I have an old one that I don’t use anymore because I got tired of it hehe… I saw this one when my other sister, V, bought a watch for our youngest sister, Grace. Meng asked me if I wanted it and I said yes. She told me that she’d just buy it for me as a Christmas gift. So when we went to the mall again two week ago, she already bought that for me. Yey!