Monthly Archives: July 2008

all-around blessing

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Ever since we got Mateo a yaya, I realized how extremely difficult it is to find a good one. His first yaya was really good with him. She knows how to play with him and even teaches him a lot of things. She’s not too motherly though, more like a playmate to Mateo. Unfortunately, she’s not very good around the house. I’ve had more than a few stressful moments simply because she ‘forgets’ to do things and when she remembers them, she doesn’t do them according to my instructions.

The next yaya was better around the house. She cleans everything even better than I do. She cleans things that I don’t even tell her to clean. However, she’d often just carry Mateo and wouldn’t say anything to him. Since Mateo is more important than the house, she had to go.

We had two more yayas after that but lasted only for several days. Both of them had to leave due to some family problems. The yaya that Mateo has now has been with us for a month already and she’s such a blessing (as far as I know and have observed). She’s good around the house and good with Mateo too! She even reminds me about things that I tend to forget like buying bathroom lighting. I’m very thankful that we got a good, well-rounded one this time. I just hope and pray that she’s also happy with us and that she stays with us for a long time.

a more secured future

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One of the things I am planning to get for Ramil and me are life insurance coverage, even if we only get term life insurance. Having worked in the insurance industry before, I know how important it is to have yourself covered. Now that we have Mateo with us, I feel the importance all the more. We would want to be sure that Mateo will be taken care of if something bad happens to us. Hopefully, we’d be able to get ourselves covered by next year. I just need to save more and to budget it.

back to work

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We’re back to the grueling everyday life of teachers. After midterms week where students only take the exam and then go home at lunch time, and the no classes announcement yesterday, I had extremely difficulty getting my groove back. I had difficulty waking up this morning because there was still this cold, rainy atmosphere and it felt too good to cuddle with my two boys. Even Mateo woke up later than usual. I was even sad that my double periods had to be on a tuesday. Oh well, I don’t think I’m up and running already. Hopefully before the week ends I readjust to my daily schedule.

looking for junk

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My mom did some cleaning at their house last week. She found a lot of unused items at the back of our house and asked me to look at them before she disposes of them. I was pleasantly surprised to find my old books from my teenage years like Christopher Pike, RL Stine, Sweet Valley Twins, Sweet Valley High, Sweet Dreams, Babysitters’ Club, and my Archie comic books. I told her to just let them be because I will be getting them once we get another bookshelf for our house.

Aside from books, she also found a lot of shoes. I was sad to find some of my old shoes unwearable already. She even discovered several steel toe boots that my dad would often wear for work. Unfortunately, shoes don’t withstand a long time in storage unlike my old books. She was quite happy because she got to give the old shoes to the garbage collectors. They were only too happy to rummage through the pile and find some things that might still be useful. Maybe next time we’ll have a garage sale.

no kids = bliss

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There are no classes tomorrow!!! Yipee!!! I don’t think any number of exclamation marks can accurately express my giddy happiness upon learning of this great piece of news. Although teachers are still required to report for work, our official time tomorrow is from 8am to 2pm which is still so much better than a regular class day.

There are currently three teachers in our house: me, Ramil, and my sister. All three of us were working by checking test papers and doing lesson plans when we found out about the no classes announcement. We dropped everything that we were doing like a hot pancake and proceeded to do other things like watch tv, read a book, surf the net, and blog! :D

stem cells technology

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One of the most controversial issues in the field of science and medicine is the issue of stem cells and their promising use in curing serious illnesses and life-threatening diseases. I first heard about this a few years ago and it got me researching about what stem cells are and what it is about them that makes them so promising and controversial at the same time. I consulted my biologist husband and he was very helpful.

Stem cells are found in almost all multi-cellular organisms. What makes them promising is their ability to renew themselves into different cell types. The key word is ‘renew’. My mind automatically shouted amazing! Imagine having a disease and having the capability to ‘renew’ cells in that part of your body where you have the disease, or something like that. Since they have the capability to renew into almost any type of cell, that pretty much covers every cell in your body. So if you are able to get you own stem cell, they can actually be grown into whatever cell type – your own cell type. It’s like being able to get a part or a stem of a plant and growing it into another plant. The problem is directing it into renewing into a specific cell that you want and I think most stem cell research revolve around this dilemma.

Right now, some stem cell therapies are already available. They use it for bone marrow transplants to treat leukemia. Stem cell therapies are also promising in treating cancer, spinal cord injuries, muscle injuries, and Parkinson’s disease. The issue revolves around its delicate connection to cloning.

The idea of cord blood banking lies in the promise of stem cell research. New research has also showed that stem cells can also be harvested from a woman’s menstrual blood. Every woman can now preserve her own stem cells from her menstrual blood! A mentrual stem cell service called C’elle provides women with a safe and easy method of collecting and preserving her menstrual stem cells. They have a C’elle kit that has easy-to-follow instructions and all other things needed for non-invasive collection and transport of the specimen. The specimen will be sent to their laboratory for processing, isolation, and cryo-preservation. Right now, there are no approved therapies using stem cells except for diseases involving the blood and immune systems. However, with the quick advancement of research in this field, it might not be long before they can be used for other diseases. Read on C’elle Client Testimonial if you are interested in getting yourself a kit.

woe to the red car

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For months now, we’ve barely used our beloved red car. At first, the car’s electrical system seems to be malfunctioning because we’d often find the battery drained of electricity even though it’s just a year old. Because of that, the car refused to start several times. So we didn’t use our red car for a long time. Good thing we have my dad’s Revo with us. After a few weeks, I took pity on her. Ramil and I took her batteries and brought it to a battery shop to have it charged. After that, the red car started without any hassle. What we resorted to doing is to remove the battery poles after every use of the car. Ramil and I would get weird looks everytime we’d open the hood, haha!

The strategy worked well unfortunately, the brakes started giving us problems last week. With the terrain here in the hills of Antipolo, a close-to-giving-out pair of brakes is not an option. We again decided to let her rest for some time because we don’t have the budget to get the car parts necessary to replace her brakes. Until now, she sits on the garage unused. I’m really anxious to do something about her. I’ve actually considered selling her. With the rising price of gasoline and her high cost of maintenance, it seems to be the reasonable thing to do. We’ll see, we get sentimental whenever we think of parting with her. She’s been with us through a lot of things and we have a lot of memories together. But she seems to be telling us that she wants a retirement already. Hopefully, we get to decide soon.

breeding athletes

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The school where I teach is very popular for its football program. Everyone plays football in that school, even preschoolers. We have students who are really great football players and as early as now, I can foresee their very bright future in this sport. Some of our grade 3 students can kick a ball really hard that it can knock a person off his or her feet. I’m not exaggerating and no, they’re not taking any legal steroids either. That’s why as early as now, Mateo knows the words ‘kick’, ‘goal’, ‘soccer’, and ‘football’. He watches little kids playing soccer in the field and he’d cry out ‘kick’ or ‘goal’, while scrambling to get out of his yaya’s reach so he can go out in the field too. Ramil and I don’t have definite dreams of bringing him up to be an excellent athlete. It would still be great if he does grow up to be one. Right now, we’re just happy he enjoys it even though all he can do is kick the ball and he doesn’t know exactly yet how to play the game. We know he’ll get to choose his own interests and we’ll just be there to support him.

medicine safety

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One of my many apprehensions whenever I need to take some medication is whether the medicine is totally safe for me or not. I know a lot of people who’ve had one too many adverse or allergic reactions to some medicines. These could have been prevented if the prescribing physician knows about the patient’s medical history and all the information about the medicine he or she is prescribing. This and many other problems like side effects, incompatibilities with other drugs, or drug dosing can be easily solved with a medical reference software. Unfortunately, not all doctors have this. Imagine the peace of mind it can bring a person if the doctor he or she consulted with has a handy reference guide. This would hopefully eliminate wrong prescriptions and such. After all, not all doctors have good recall.

This announcement was paid for by Epocrates.

crunch time

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This week is crunch time for my students because it’s midterm week in our school. Ramil and I had our own crunch time last week when we were rushing to finish the midterm exams for our respective classes. For two weeks, we had to stay up late. I’ve had to use my acne cream once again because I started breaking out from lack of sleep and too much coffee. This week, it’s the students turn to be stressed. I love exams week, all we have to do is to proctor the exams and check the papers afterwards. I just have to be better prepared as the trimestral week approaches so that I can hopefully limit rushing my exams and sleeping late.