Every once in a while, when you hear a story about death, you tend to stop, look back, and evaluate what you’ve done with your life.

You see, a month ago, my dad told me that my aunt has cancer. She’s undergone hysterectomy to remove a myoma, but a few tests after, doctors have confirmed the presence of leftover cancer cells in her bloodstream. All of a sudden, fear of death hits closer to home… not only because she’s one of my favorite and closest titas, but simply because I know her and I love her.

Death seems more real when it threatens you, but it’s even scarier when it threatens your family. Death makes you asks questions you don’t regularly consider asking yourself. Have I done everything for my family? Have I ensured a stable and comfortable future for them? Is it time to consider getting Blue Advantage insurance plans or other plans to make sure they’ll be okay if and when something untoward happens? Have I done everything I wanted to do? have I ensured a worthy enough legacy for my family and loved ones? Has it been a well-lived life?

Scary, right?

I love dogs. Ever since I was small I’ve always been fond of them. In fact, I’ve had more than twenty individuals as pet (one to two individuals at a time) since I was five. But, all of them are mongrels.

Aria, our golden retriever, is my first purebred dog. She’s also the one with the thickest hair so far. I’m sure of that because my dad has a thing with fur. He’s not very fond of thick fur because of ticks. Now, I understand why.

You see, for almost 2 weeks straight, we’ve been treating Aria for tick infestation. Her parasites have grown so much in number that they’ve already invaded the garage walls, floor and ceiling. Andrea and I have been so worried about the ticks that we’ve even considered Ladybug steam cleaners to kill those that might have gotten inside our home.

Aside from being yucky, ticks are also not the easiest pests to destroy. They are prolific breeders and persistent survivors. If we don’t find a way to solve Aria’s tick problems, Aria might probably be the last dog we’ll ever own.

Preschool end-of-the-year culminating activity is one of the most anticipated events in the school. What, with cuteness and silliness combined in the 3 to 5-year-old kids, it’s enough to warm anyone’s heart for the whole season.

This year, however, this event is going to be more special for andrea and me because mateo will be in it. I can’t wait to dress him up in his costume, whatever that may be (because I don’t know what theme is assigned to them yet). I just hope  it’s not too exotic because we don’t have much choice on where to get them.  I mean, if he’s asked to dress up like an equestrian, a caveman, or a reporter, it’s not too problematic, but if he was to look like a japanese samurai or a highlander, then we might have to dig a little harder. After all, glasses, tiger-striped clothes, and equestrian apparel are easier to acquire than bagpipes or samurai armors.

But, costumes aside, the preschool culminating program has always been one of the school’s highlights and I’m sure this year’s is not going to be an exception.

Exam time is almost here. For my students who have lost copies of their activity sheets, I have uploaded some of the them here.

Mechanics I : Problem sets on Acceleration 1, 2, and 3

Chemistry 5:

• AS on Quantum numbers 1 and 2
• AS on Chemical Bonds
• AS on Mixtures
• AS on Acids and Bases
• AS on Organic Compounds

The only problem is that these files are of 2007 office format, meaning they’re all in docx extensions. You may be able to open them without a problem if your office at home is of the same version or if you have a converter.

Wiki sites are adequate sources of review materials and definitions but I also get some info from about.com. Make sure to visit these sites if you have time.

I’m still in the  process of building a few more resources and I will upload them as soon as I’m done. While waiting, you can start reviewing the old materials I gave you. Good luck!

Andrea and I have started a new exercise routine that we’ve been faithfully following for some time now. You see, every night an hour or two after dinner, we would run a couple of times around a few blocks in the subdivision.

According to andrea and the ever-so-helpful Google Earth, each round we cover in this route (that andrea chose) is equivalent to a kilometer. And for the past few runs, we’ve averaged roughly 3 rounds every night, sometimes alternating jogs and brisk walks.

Is this a new fad? Nope. And it’s not just for weight loss either. You see, after losing the second baby, we vowed to be physically fit for the next one. After all, we’re not exactly getting younger so it’s only practical and healthy to start preparing for the our babies and our graying years.

Buff at 30 or 40? Not bad for a motivation right?

The holidays are fast approaching and as always, most people’s houses will be teeming with holiday feasts. Naturally, there will be a lot of eating as well. Combine these with the numerous events like weddings, birthdays, and baptismals we have to attend this coming December and Andrea might start reading some adipex reviews soon. As for me, I look forward to enjoying ourselves this holiday season. Hopefully, we’ll also have enough to make our own small family feast.

Andrea and I have been married for almost 4 years now but it seems like ages since we said our vows in front of all our families and friends, and even longer if I think about all the preparations we put in assembling the whole ceremony.

We were 24 years old when we decided to tie the knot, about 3-4 years younger than we imagined ourselves to be when we got married. It was a conscious and mutual decision we made after finding out that andrea had polycystic ovaries. We realized that we love each other so much – so much so that we were ready to start living our dreams of being husband and wife, of starting our own family, so much that we were not about to take the risk of letting cysts get in the way of creating a perfect family.

And now four years after, we’re happy to have made that decision. Now, four years after, we’re 28 (the age we imagined ourselves to be when we approach the altar) and although we’ve lost our supposed-to-be second baby, we’ve managed to build ourselves a family that we’re proud and lucky to be part of.

Now, four years after, it’s time for our friends and batchmates to tie the knot. It is, at least for our generation, the age of weddings, the age of tuxedo vests, barongs, white gowns and formal dresses. Now, 4 years after, it is our friends’ time to feel what it’s like to make the decision we’ve made 4 years ago.

Part of our strategy to keep mateo busy (while we make exams or other work-related chores) is to allow him to watch movies every once in a while (I call it the movies for babsy strategy). The only hesitation or concern we have is the content of the movies he gets to watch. This is why most of the films he gets to view are either Pixar collections or movies of popular TV animations like Backyardigans.

This strategy, unfortunately, is a very costly one. First, movies don’t come cheap. Original DVDs cost 300 bucks a piece. So in order to go around this hurdle, we had to resort to downloading torrents of his favorite films – Up, Ice Age 3, Shrek, Mulan, etc. Second, because torrents have to be either played by our laptops or be burned in a blank DVD, it would still cost us a few hundreds to a few thousands of pesos to continue doing. This is due to the fact that our laptops (netbooks to be exact) don’t come with an optical drive. So we either buy one in order to transfer the files to discs or start looking for a new DVD player that can play thru USB drives.

I wish the new Samsung HDTVs come with such features. That would surely be a nice Christmas gift. Haha!

It’s less than a month before the annual Bataan field trip. Me and andrea are still to get in shape for the grueling trip that I refuse to call an excursion.

You see, wisdom and more than 3 years of experience with the said tradition have taught me to prepare and to be in top physical form for the said activity. With beach patrolling (or 4-6 hour of walk on the beach from around 10 pm to 4 in the morning) and coastal cleanups, relaxing is the last word to come to mind when describing this particular immersion experience.

Unfortunately, unlike us teachers who have seen the worst of it, freshmen (the largest batch of which I’m handling this year) are immune to the fear of the horrors of Bataan. Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate all the work, research and effort that goes to the whole conservation program. I’m a fan and a firm believer of it. But the whole thing is no walk in the park. And to think that is is, is sheer foolishness. The freshmen (and not just this batch I’m currently handling), unfortunately, always come with such foolishness in their heads until retrospect dawns on them.  That’s the horror I’m talking about.

Beach activities are not always leisure-filled. It’s a hard lesson to learn.

Andrea has been bugging me to go running with her. She has been running/jogging before she got pregnant and after the miscarriage, she’s determined to get back to it. According to her, she has no immediate plans of looking for the best fat burner pills so we might as well exercise to burn the fat. Well, I’ve agreed to go along with her plan especially since I also feel the need now to be fit and healthy. So in a few weeks’, once we get clearance from her doctor, we plan to run thrice a week and hopefully, we become fit again soon to join runs and marathons.