Dealing With The Big "C"

Having dealt with two cancer cases in the family, I feel there is a need to share my views about what people should do when there are relatives or close friends who have contracted the dreaded Cancer disease.

First of all, Cancer, according to wikipedia, is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth (division beyond the normal limits), invasion (intrusion on and destruction of adjacent tissues), and sometimes metastasis (spread to other locations in the body via lymph or blood). These three malignant properties of cancers differentiate them from benign tumors, which are self-limited, and do not invade or metastasize. Most cancers form a tumor but some, like leukemia, do not. The branch of medicine concerned with the study, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer is oncology.

As there are no sure medical treatments yet developed in arresting the disease, a lot of people who suffer from cancer are left, most of the times, hopeless with their cases.

If you have a relative, a family member, or a friend, who is suffering from Cancer, my simple advise is this: Be Physically, Emotionally, and Spiritually Present on their side.


1. Cancer patients tend to decrease their strength and immunity. Cancer tends to paralyze the body, and so it is but necessary that there is always somebody to assist the patient in almost everything that they do.

Assist the patient with delicate concern.


2. Due to the fact that a cancer patient thinks he/she already has a hopeless case in surviving the disease, his/her emotions will definitely be unstable. Always be there to support him/her. Strengthen his/her emotions and don't get affected when he/she turns his/her bad moods toward you. Be an understanding listener and advisor whenever a patient needs somebody to talk to.


3. There is hope, even when there seems to be nothing more! I like the saying:

God is too wise to be mistaken.
God is too good to be unkind.
When you don’t understand,
When you don’t see His plan,
When you can’t trace His hand,
Trust His heart.

There are things that our minds and our eyes could not understand. But the Lord is giving us an assurance that there is hope. We just have to rely on Him because He knows what's best for us.

Be an encourager. In times when you have to deal with Cancer patients, be the one to send the message that there is hope, because all things are possible with Jesus.

Change Address

I felt a little sad over the weekend when I found out from one of my relatives in my hometown that our address is being changed courtesy of an ordinance recently passed by our local village leaders. Needless to say, the local government has collected a fee for the purchase of address plaques that will be distributed to each house bearing the new address numbers.

Now I just don't think it is a good idea that they still collect a fee because it is on my understanding that they already collect taxes out of people's income and businesses. What's more, I am just sad because our address which has been our address since I was born has been changed. It is just that I felt that a part of my childhood has been taken away from me.

Anyway, the new address plaque was delivered to us last Monday containing, of course, our new house number which is now #202. The plaque is made of tin can and painted white. So you could just imagine that what they delivered is only a basic type of plaque.

My mom doesn't like the idea of placing that plaque in our house post for fear that the tin can-made address plaque will easily accumulate rust. Further, the basic address plaque looks awkward when placed in our house post.

We made contact with the village chief to ask if it is alright that we just purchase our own customized address plaque (bearing our new house number), and he said that it is fine with them. We just have to make sure that the address number is the same. We have decided that we shall put the new address plaque in our lawn garden so that visitors and postmen can easily locate our house. With this, we also need to ensure that we buy one that is rust-proof and does not easily depreciate due to changing weather conditions.

I hope we find the best plaque, and hopefully I will begin to love our new house number. After all, no matter what our address is, I still have my family to share our new memories together in our new address.

The Perfect Gift

Are you looking for a nice christmas present or a birthday gift for your mother-in-law?

Well, I hope this story will help you.

Have a good laugh, everyone!

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Two guys were talking at work.

"I've got a problem," said the first one.

"What is it?"

"My wife has done it to me again. I'm supposed to buy my mother-in-law a present for her birthday, from the two of us. And I am fresh out of ideas. I mean it's HER mother, why can't she buy it?"

"What did you buy her last year?" the other one asked.

"Last year I bought her a VERY EXPENSIVE cemetery plot."

"Hmmmm, hard to top that one," said the other.



The two guys couldn't come up with anything. So the son-in-law didn't buy his mother-in-law anything for her birthday.

When the big day arrived the next weekend, she was a bit upset. At the family gathering for her birthday, she announced out loud to everyone, "Thank you all for the wonderful gifts. Too bad my daughter and son-in-law weren't so thoughtful!"



Thinking quickly, the son-in-law responded, "Well, you haven't used the gift I gave you last year!"

Cry Baby

Tiring but Fun.




That was how I felt last Sunday when we brought our baby to the mall for her first photo shoot. We brought her to Pic-a-boo, a photo studio that specializes in taking child photos.



I am not sure how many branches they have here in the Philippines, but they have one at The Block, SM North EDSA, and one at The Atrium, SM Megamall.



We went at about 3 in the afternoon but were told to return by 5:30 pm because they have a lot of customers (so if you are planning on taking your child for a photo session, be sure to come earlier).



It was a tiring experience because we were on the streets as early as 10 am, coming to church first, then we had lunch at a nearby food and bakeshop, before finally proceeding to the mall.

The real fun came when we finally proceeded to the photo studio because our baby started to cry when we put on the costumes. So you could just imagine how the photographer tried her best to capture the best pictures out of our baby.



Anyway, she finally succeeded taking beautiful shots even if our baby kept crying.



But you can't blame babies from crying, anyway. They just cry because they want (and need) to cry. You can't force them to smile when they don't want to. All you get is the real expression of what they feel at that particular moment.

Big Is Beautiful

I have been celeberating christmas with my family for over thirty years now. Each year, we return back to our hometown in Nueva Ecija, Philippines at least three days before Christmas day.

One will have to understand, of course, that in the Philippines, Christmas season begins on September 1 (start of the ber months-September, October, November & December) and ends on the first Sunday after New Year (where catholics celebrate the Feast of Three Kings).

This is so because the moment the calendar turns to September, shops and boutiques in the malls start to decorate the establishment with Christmas trees and hang Large Christmas Ornaments on the ceilings, while Christmas carols continuously play on radios and CD players.

Even in the respective houses, the people begin to clean up and hang lanterns and christmas lights on the windows. No matter how festive the celebration is, I have to admit, though, that these types of decorations put in houses become so usual that you can't find any more excitement in seeing them.

Today I am thinking that maybe I should ask my mom if we could somehow change the way we decorate our house. I think that maybe we could get the idea from those malls and decorate our house with Large Christmas Ornaments for a change. But instead of putting those on the ceilings, we can try putting big decorations outside in the garden.

I am sure the idea would be a big hit especially when one would want to impress his neighbors and visitors during Christmas. You could just imagine if you have life-size, Large Christmas Decorations just like what is shown below:

Or maybe a big snowman standing near your frontdoor welcoming your visitors:

Kids will definitely love to hang around with dear old santa:

Let the fun and excitement of Christmas be seen in your house decorations. This year, you can show to your visitors and neighbors that Big is Beautiful on Christmas.

But above all, still the most important thing is, may we always remember that Christ is still the reason why we celebrate Christmas. It is on this day that God our Father has given his begotten Son unto the world to save us and give us eternal life.

Happy Christmas everyone!

David Letterman Apologizes

David Letterman apologizes to his wife on Monday's Late Night Show following the recent controversy whereby Letterman revealed on-air that he had sexual involvement with women from his television program.

Letterman says,

"if you hurt a person and it's your responsibility, you try to fix it"


Tom Keaney, Letterman's spokesman, however, noted that those relationships happened before Letterman's marriage with Regina Lasko, to whom he had a son, Harry, born in 2003.

Remembering Our Families

We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together.

~Erma Bombeck

(quote from here)

A Touch of Elegance

I got a surprise email from my former boss whom I haven’t heard of for about two years. Her family had migrated in the United States in 2006, and they have not come home in the Philippines since then. She informed me that her family has acquired a decent lot in the United States and they are on the process of building a house of their own. Knowing her, I’m sure the house, including the garden landscapes would be meticulously designed.

As I used to handle the purchasing office on her company, my work extends to finding materials and things for her personal use. Anyway, she has tried to contact me and ask if I will be able to help her in finding and procuring an ideal address plaque for her new house.

I did a research on the internet and found out that there are loads of companies supplying address plaques. Among those, I found that a Whitehall Address Plaque would be the most suitable for my boss’ needs.

Elegantly crafted and designed, Whitehall Address Plaques are made of fine grade, rust-proof materials, so consumers are ensured that their plaques are perfect for use, whether they are mounted on walls, or whether they are put as markers in the garden. Much more, the materials used can survive even the harshest weather conditions.

I have also found out that there are lots of Whitehall Address Plaques that you can choose from. You can select from a wide variety of color combinations that will best suit your house motif and design.

I have downloaded five sample designs and emailed the copies to my boss. She has initially sent a response that she’ll be having a wall mounted address plaque, and is asking if I could check on a good lawn marker as an additional purchase.

Prices vary, of course, depending on the designs, but I think they are very much reasonable. I still got to check, though, concerning shipping fees agreements, and how long we expect to receive the items, but seeing the sample products, I am sure my boss would approve the purchase.

House Made For Wood

House Made For Wood- Is the title incorrect? We oftentimes hear and read the phrase “house made of wood” to refer to those country houses that are made of wood materials. I so love those types of houses which I often see on Hollywood movies whose settings are on the west side of America.

So much for that, because what I am blogging today is not “house made of wood”, but “house made for wood”.

During my most recent trip back to my hometown, I was surprised to see that my father is still using firewood as an alternative for gas in cooking. This is because there are still a couple of big acacia trees surrounding our ancestral house, so naturally we have an ample supply of wood for use.

However, my father is resigned to the fact that it is hard to keep firewood outside the house. The current firewood rack that he himself created about six months ago could not keep the wood from being wet, especially when heavy rains occur in the area. The firewood are being decayed as a result of being wet, especially when rains occur continuously for two to three days.

Also, firewood rack, or log rack, when kept outside the house are prone to bugs and termites; insects that destroy the wood by eating and rigging it. The ideal solution is to keep the firewood inside the house, but this will require a lot of space, and may even make your house to look untidy.

When I reported back for work, a co-employee advised me of what he has just browsed in the internet about a house that is made for wood that could be the answer to my father’s problem. And true enough, as soon as I saw the sample picture, I was awed at how the makers and designers of the firewood rack were able to conceptualize the idea.


The rack is perfect for my father’s need. It can store and endure as much wood because the material is made of metal. Further, it seems that it will not cover much space because of its sleek design. Additionally, there is a good cover that will help keep the wood from being wet.

I am now planning to contact the supplier and ask how about the price, and the shipping terms. This could very well be a very good early Christmas gift for my father. Thanks to my co-employee who let me know about this house made for wood.

Getting Over Postnatal Depression

Postnatal depression, or postpartum depression, is a clinical depression that can affect women after giving birth. Typical symptoms include sadness, insomnia, appetite changes, crying episodes, anxiety, and irritability.

According to recent studies, postpartum depression, it is more likely that it is due to the significant changes in a woman's hormones during pregnancy.

Also, it must be noted that after pregnancy, women typically feel bad about themselves because of the changes in their physical bodies. Thus, a woman who just gave birth tends to be jealous over the fact that her husband might go and look for another woman who looks better than her.

It is therefore, during these times, that a husband should always ensure to his wife that she is still and will always be the love of her life. And to further assure her, why not surprise her with a Mommy Makeover?

Mommy makeover includes special procedures designed to bring back a woman's body just like before pregnancy. Or, in other words, she can have the body just like when her husband fell in love with her. Isn't that nice to hear?

A common problem encountered by women who gave birth are stretches or strechmarks in their midsection, or tummy. This is due to excess fat deposits that are oftentimes not automatically removed after giving birth. A good treatment for this is the California tummy tuck. A tummy tuck (or abdominoplasty) tightens back the muscles in the stomach by removing excess fat and skin.

Another issue after pregnancy is having overlarge breasts. This can sometimes result to back pains and neck pains, and can make mothers to work and move uncomfortably. A sure way to treat this is by having the Los Angeles breast reduction. Of course, the physicians will see to it that mothers will get the results that will make women work well and feel well about themselves.

Women need not be depressed about how they look after pregnancy. And men need not look for other women, as well. With these new technologies, mothers can always look beautiful and sexy all over again- even after pregnancy.

Only The Best

Our family always looks forward on Sunday evenings because that is the only available time that we are able to gather together as one and eat together for dinner. Oftentimes, we indulge ourselves in sea foods, vegetable salads and barbecues. The kids, well, they just want hotdogs.

Barbecues, of course, are our favorite, the delicious recipe having been passed from our grandmother to our mother, and now, to us. There is actually no fuss with the recipe, because we just marinate the meat with soy sauce and citrus juice for about two hours before putting it on the grill. For an exceptional taste, a little ketchup is added on the marinate sauce.

We use the conventional-type grill, but later on, I noticed that conventional grills have very limited capacities. While browsing thru the internet one time, I was surprised (and delighted) to see a revolutionary-type Big Green Egg Grill that introduces a three-in-one outdoor cooker.

The Big Green Egg is a grill that can be used as a smoker barbecue, a barbecue grill, and an oven. It seems to me that this Big Green Egg Grill is the best choice during family gatherings because we can actually minimize space for three important functions.

Perfect for outdoors, the Big Green Egg will surely deliver the best-tasting fall off the bone, hot off the grill juicy barbecue that the family always loves. The grill can also be used for cooking our side dish vegetables.

As if that’s all, this ceramic-made Big Green Egg Grill also functions as an oven. Thus, you can also try using it in preparing baked pies, breads and even pizzas.

The grills come in different sizes, so you can choose the most suitable for you. Whether you need to cater for a small or large group, there is always a convenient grill package for you.

Indeed, for families such as ours, the Big Green Egg delivers what’s best, because we deserve only the best.

Yellow Shirt

A good read....

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The baggy yellow shirt had long sleeves, four extra-large pockets trimmed in black thread
and snaps up the front.

It was faded from years of wear, but still in decent shape. I found it in 1963 when I was home from college on Christmas break, rummaging through bags of clothes Mom intended to give away. "You're not taking that old thing, are you?" Mom said when she saw me packing the yellow shirt. "I wore that when I was pregnant with your brother in 1954!"

"It's just the thing to wear over my clothes during art class, Mom. Thanks!" I slipped it into my suitcase before she could object. The yellow shirt be came a part of my college wardrobe. I loved it. After graduation, I wore the shirt the day I moved into my new apartment and on Saturday mornings when I cleaned.

The next year, I married. When I became pregnant, I wore the yellow shirt during big-belly days. I missed Mom and the rest of my family, since we were in Colorado and they were in Illinois But that shirt helped. I smiled, remembering that Mother had worn it when she was pregnant, 15 years earlier.

That Christmas, mindful of the warm feelings the shirt had given me, I patched one elbow, wrapped it in holiday paper and sent it to Mom. When Mom wrote to thank me for her "real" gifts, she said the yellow shirt was lovely. She never mentioned it again.

The next year, my husband, daughter and I stopped at Mom and Dad's to pick up some furniture. Days later, when we uncrated the kitchen table, I noticed something yellow taped to its bottom.

The shirt!

And so the pattern was set.

On our next visit home, I secretly placed the shirt under Mom and Dad's mattress. I don't know how long it took for her to find it, but almost two years passed before I discovered it under the base of our living-room floor lamp. The yellow shirt was just what I needed now while refinishing furniture. The walnut stains added character.

In 1975 my husband and I divorced. With my three children, I prepared to move back to Illinois . As I packed, a deep depression overtook me. I wondered if I could make it on my own. I wondered if I would find a job. I paged through the Bible, looking for comfort. In Ephesians, I read, "So use every piece of God's armor to resist the enemy whenever he attacks, and when it is all over, you will be standing up."

I tried to picture myself wearing God's armor, but all I saw was the stained yellow shirt. Slowly, it dawned on me. Wasn't my mother's love a piece of God's armor? My courage was renewed.

Unpacking in our new home, I knew I had to get the shirt back to Mother. The next time I visited her, I tucked it in her bottom dresser drawer.

Meanwhile, I found a good job at a radio station. A year later I discovered the yellow shirt hidden in a rag bag in my cleaning closet.

Something new had been added. Embroidered in bright green across the breast pocket were the words "I BELONG TO PAT."

Not to be outdone, I got out my own embroidery materials and added an apostrophe and seven more letters. Now the shirt proudly proclaimed, "I BELONG TO PAT'S MOTHER." But I didn't stop there. I zig-zagged all the frayed seams, then had a friend mail the shirt in a fancy box to Mom from Arlington , VA. We enclosed an official looking letter from "The Institute for the Destitute," announcing that she was the recipient of an award for good deeds. I would have given anything to see Mom's face when she opened the box. But, of course, she never mentioned it.

Two years later, in 1978, I remarried. The day of our wedding, Harold and I put our car in a friend's garage to avoid practical jokers. After the wedding, while my husband drove us to our honeymoon suite, I reached for a pillow in the car to rest my head. It felt lumpy. I unzipped the case and found, wrapped in wedding paper, the yellow shirt. Inside a pocket was a note: "Read John 14:27-29. I love you both, Mother."

That night I paged through the Bible in a hotel room and found the verses: "I am leaving you with a gift: peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn't fragile like the peace the world gives. So don't be troubled or afraid. Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again. If you really love me, you will be very happy for me, for now I can go to the Father, who is greater than I am. I have told you these things before they happen so that when they do, you will believe in me."

The shirt was Mother's final gift. She had known for three months that she had terminal Lou Gehrig's disease. Mother died the following year at age 57.

I was tempted to send the yellow shirt with her to her grave. But I'm glad I didn't, because it is a vivid reminder of the love-filled game she and I played for 16 years. Besides, my older daughter is in college now, majoring in art. And every art student needs a baggy yellow shirt with big pockets.
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How encouraging it is to realize that even in simple ways, God speaks into all of us. His ways are higher than our ways; and His thoughts, higher than our thoughts.

May we always hear Him speaking in our daily walk.