Under One Roof

One of my cousins is a big fan of fast cars! He collects miniature versions of his favorites. Ferrari is his all time favorite car brand. He is saving enough money to buy one. Even an old model will do for him. A friend of his offered an old model to him but he had to decline because his savings wasn’t enough. He can afford Ferrari parts right now. But the car itself will have to wait.

I am a fan of fast cars, too. When I was younger I wanted to join karting. I just didn’t have the resources to support that dream.

Education on birth control is really needed in the Philippines and in other countries suffering from extreme poverty. Imagine a couple living under a bridge with the creek directly under their make-shift house… and a baby! Can you imagine the number of diseases the baby is exposed to not to mention the fact that the baby is prone to falling over the creek?

I just can’t understand why the government is hesitating about rolling out a program to educate the masses about birth control. It’s a simple rule: if you can’t feed yourself, don’t dare producing a baby! Condoms and other kinds of birth control should be given to depressed areas. These are the places where baby boom happens every single day. Teach them not only how to use the birth control tools but also how to think properly. Selfishness makes them daring enough to produce a kid even if they already know they can’t afford to raise one. Some are even selfish enough to produce as much as a dozen kids!

I am really praying the government starts their birth control program. Our country needs it. I pity the kids born to parents who can’t even feed themselves. How can they give the basic needs of their baby if they can’t even meet their own, right? Just think about it.

And please, the Catholic church should stop interfering with the health department’s efforts to educate the masses about birth control! Babies should be born to a joyous world. Not to a make shift house under a bridge and directly above a creek!

A cheap car insurance will do. That’s what my uncle told his friend who bought a second hand car last week. My uncle bought one, too, a couple of years ago. He set aside getting car insurance for it. When he figured in an accident (thank goodness he suffered minor bruises only), he had no insurance to turn to.

Since then my uncle became a sort of an advocate for insurance. Car insurance for him became a must. He is also telling everyone who has a car to get one. When he heard his friend had no intentions of getting one for his second hand car, he immediately called him up to give him unsolicited advice.

I bought a brand new cellphone. It’s actually my sister’s gift to me. I’ve been thinking of getting one a couple of weeks ago so when I told my sister about this, she said that she would just give me one for my birthday. So two days before my birthday, I read cell phone reviews and made sure that my choice is the right one.

There were too many cell phones to choose from. But I managed to narrow it down to two. In the end, the cell phone price really decided it for me.

In our family, we usually get relatives who are close to us as godparents to the little ones. It makes sense considering the godparents act as second parents to the kids. Imagine getting a co-worker as a godparent. And then two years after, you resign from work and hardly ever see your co-worker again. What then?

I only have three godparents (as opposed to the norm in our country where godparents usually go from five to as many as twenty). My only godmother is my favorite aunt, my sister’s dad. My two godfathers are my dad’s bestfriend and his younger brother. They saw me grow up. My aunt is actually a second mom not only to me but to my siblings and cousins, too. My dad’s bestfriend is a permanent fixture in almost all special occasions in the family.

My parents got a few of my dad’s co-workers as godparents to my sisters. They have never seen them since we were young, when my dad resigned from work.

Sure, there are some who keep in touch and manage to remain friends even after work. But I still feel it’s best to get relatives and really close friends as godparents to your little ones. That way, should something happen to you, there will be people who really cares who can act as surrogate parents to your kids.

When I went to visit my grand-aunts the other day, I noticed that they are in need of a brand new Saniflo toilet already. The reason is that theirs was an old one and I don’t know, I just feel like a new one would look good in their oh-so-clean house!

So I will order one for them. I just have to tell one of my grand-aunts about it because she’s very particular about the things in the house. Of course, I know she will approve. But better tell her first.

The students are happy with the new kind of exam table they will be using come preliminary exams period. They will no longer use the old one wherein they find it hard to write with their extra large papers.

I remember the same thing happened in school back in the days. It’s like Christmas in August for us! And just because the school bought new exam tables for us to use in the coming prelims. It was funny and joyful at the same time.

When my mom died, we learned the relatives who really care for us. It was not a sudden death but it was still devastating for us. Who found it easy to lose a mother, anyway?

But those who really care for us made it easier to move on. They made it a whole lot easier for us especially during my mom’s wake. One of those relatives was my uncle’s wife (my dad’s sister-in-law). She was of tremendous help to us during that time. And even after my mom was buried, she helped my sisters and I until we could already take over the role my mom left.

Fast forward to present time… she still helps us whenever we call for help. She was the one who took care of the food during my grandma’s wake. She was the one who helps us with the laundry when our laundrywoman is not available to do it. She helps us with so many things even without anything in return.

So when my uncle came home from working abroad, we really welcomed him. We know how much our aunt and cousins missed him. When we learned that he went home broke because of credit card debts, our whole family immediately offered help. We are still thinking of a way to help them get back on their feet.

This is the time when I pray I have more than enough to spare. I will really give it to my uncle and aunt so that they can start anew. My uncle is already over the age limit set for those who want to work abroad. So we doubt if he can go back. We are praying he can because his eldest, our cousin, will be entering college soon.

I just saw two of my neighbors getting Duramax Garden Sheds. I want one, too, for my dad and his garden tools. A few years ago, when my mom was still alive and my dad stopped going to the office, he discovered his love for gardening. Since then, you can always see him tinkering in his pocket garden.

I don’t want anyone injuring themselves over his garden tools so when I saw the neighbors with their garden cum storage sheds, I thought I might as well get one for my dad, too.

The right time to invest for your future is now. You have many options. There’s short term money market investments as well as long term like time deposits and trust funds. And then there’s investment in gold. You can get it in the form of a gold bullion or gold coin. Whichever, gold is a good investment, I must say.

I am always of the opinion that planning for your future is the best way to be prepared for it. There’s nothing better than have something to tap into when you are faced with an emergency situation, right?

Do you actually tolerate a 16-year-old girl pole dancing? I mean, what kind of a parent are you if you can look at your underage kid dancing like an adult woman enticing a man?

A celebrity family got a lot of flack from different sectors of society for letting their popular teenage girl pole dance in an equally popular awards night. Can you imagine what message it sent to the millions of underage fans of that teenage star? The message was “it’s okay to pole dance especially to the beat of my song!” and that parents should be fine with it. Anyway, a popular kid is doing it, why not their own kids?

Whether they like it or not, popular celebrities have a moral obligation to the underage fans that they have. That includes the underage popular celebrities, too! You cannot act like a stripper when you know you have fans ranging from 4 years old up. You cannot just wear clothes without a bra on because you know your fans have a tendency of emulating you. It doesn’t mean also that you have to act like a saint. You just have to be more aware of what message you are sending out to the millions of underage fans that you have.

I don’t claim to be religious but I am a prayerful person. I turn to prayers everytime. It can be a simple “Thank You, Lord!” or “Please, Lord.” but it’s always at the tip of my tongue. I say thanks or I lift up the worries and hardships to Him.

Of course, I am not perfect. I still have to be reminded sometimes that I need to tell the Lord in more than 3 words what my heart is saying. I make sure I go to the Pink Sisters convent whenever I can. There’s one in Tagaytay City, another one in Baguio City, and I learned from my sister that the church I always looked at when going to Libis was actually also the Pink Sisters convent in Hemady Street.

I write down my requests so the nuns can include it in their prayers. I spend some time inside their chapel to say thanks and to lift up to Him my worries.

It just might be psychological but when I go out of the chapel, I feel lightness in my mind and my heart.

I don’t drink vitamins but I know I should. I’ve been keeping odd working hours so I know I need the supplements or my immune system will go down. I will probably check out what’s good for me but for now I am fine with the fruit juices that I drink daily.

It’s not enough but it will do for now. I easily get sick these days, cough and colds and flu. So I know I need to help my body fight the viruses spreading in the air.

My dad cannot do heavy work anymore. He is afraid of getting hernia or hemorrhoids. He is prone to it because there’s history in his side of the family. My grandfather, his dad, has hemorrhoids. Two of my uncles, his brothers, also have it.

So whenever there’s something to be done at home, my dad calls his distant cousin to come help him. We call him to clean rooms and to just help my dad carry things around.

I wrote this entry because I just want to share with everyone that we are lucky to have people around us whom we can call to help us out in our daily lives. Be they relatives or neighbors or people we’ve known for a long time now, especially friends of my parents.

Spending time with the family is a must for Mr. Roberts. He is a sales director of a multinational company in the country. He often travels to the headquarters and would even spend some of his weekends entertaining potential big clients. But even though he spends so much time away from his family, he makes sure he spends two hours each night with his kids. If he’s away, they communicate through Skype. He helps them with their homework. He plays with them, watches cartoons with them, and talks to them about their day. It’s like he’s always there even if he’s far.

And every year, he takes the whole family on a vacation. This year it will be an Orlando vacation for them.