Gotta meet some fishes too sometimes

Just bits of photos from our long weekend trip at Hotel H20. . .

So that's just bunch of photos. :)

Over all, it was a great stay. The place is very family friendly. Keahi had so much fun with the aquarium in our hotel room that he almost cried when he figured we were already back to our condo and won't be sleeping with the fishes anymore.

Keahi, ever since he first saw them, also admires jeepneys. He calls them 'cubao cubao'. I guess it's because he always hear drivers call out for passengers and say, 'cubao cubao'. He's very fascinated by it, he always jumps when he sees a jeepney. A pleasure of being able to 'drive' one during our stay in the hotel was heaven for him.

The choice of the hotel was solely for the purpose of Keahi having fun with fishes, and a little bit of an escape from Ortigas (place where we are both working at) for both Garry and I.

Garry had fun with the AC. As always, whenever we stay at a hotel. You know, because he can max out the temperature of the AC without worrying about the electricity bill! (The Chinese blood is such a strong blend)

I, on the other hand, had fun with the cozy bed. Also, as always, whenever we stay at a hotel. I always check out specific details of the bed in the room. It's pretty cool.

So yeah, we all had fun. And it was a great way to say, "Hi BER months!" :)

Beatin' the summer heat

Garry and Keahi had been spending some time in the pool lately due to the really hot weather. When I get home from work, I always drop by the pool area to check on them secretly just because I don't want them to be there too often because the pool of course is not that clean. Tonight, upon arriving at our condo, I spotted them by the pool. I quietly sat by the pool side trying to hide from Garry. As soon as he dipped his head in the water I tried to approach them quickly. Here's Garry's reaction upon surprisingly seeing me by the pool.

It was a priceless face, bahaha! CIA! But if the boys are having fun, what can I do, right?

It seemed to be a perfect night actually. We had the pool just for ourselves.

These two guys are getting so much alike in so many ways. It's pretty cool and cute. Love these two!

And it is so unbelievable how Keahi grew so quickly. No longer a little baby.

In Seconds

For the first time in my life, I felt how a second can mean so much.

On Friday, March 14, 2014, I was on my way back to our work office in Ortigas from a meeting in Pasay. This is a daily thing at work. I visit hotel clients in Manila every single afternoon. I was riding a taxi that day, listening to the radio, looking pass through the window, just about to fall asleep actually. I don't know how it exactly happened, but next thing I know is we hit the car in front of us. Upon gaining my consciousness (not that I really lost it, just sort off), I realized it was actually a row of cars that hit one after the other and we were on the tail end. It was a total of 5 cars. People started looping in. A traffic enforcer checked on me and helped me transfer to another taxi. I decided to head back to Ortigas still so I could let my office know that I'm okay. Then, I went to the hospital. I didn't get hurt or anything like that. I just hit my knees on the front seat. X-ray says everything is okay. No major contusions or any dislocated bones. I was cleared by the doctor on Saturday afternoon.

I still feel really blessed that that's all that happened. I don't know about the rest of the car passengers, but I don't think it was that bad either.

That moment I realized I was in a car accident was a total fear. That moment I realized I wasn't in bad condition at all was relieving. I was alone on my way back to the office from that accident, I had all the time for myself to contemplate on so many things. People I love started flashing to my mind. I even texted some of them. I suddenly had the feeling that I wanted to see all of them right at that very moment, and hug them, and tell them how much I love them. It was a very precious moment, when you realize a lot of things can really happen in a split second. It makes you realize how you should treasure each of those second that would pass by, because you will never know when the last one would tick. I thought it's crazy how things happened too fast in that particular moment we had an accident. It isn't actually. Things really do happen at this fast phase in our everyday lives if we don't treasure them. Let's make the most out of it by showing love and gratitude to the life we were given to live. I do love my life. Though people say you must always be ready to be out of it, it's not an easy letting-go. I love my life, and all the people in it, and all the memories in it, everything! I do.

Totally Random

When a French Polynesian man (who's got an Asian last name) meets a Filipina, then gets married in the US, then gives a Hawaiian name to his baby, now lives in the Philippines, it can get really crazy.

We've got quiet a lot of funny experiences in our lives with regards to this matter.

I don't know 'bout others, but for me it is still kind of weird that our passports are all different. Some people think it's cool, it's actually not all the time. It makes me go nuts to keep track of all the documentation. All this immigration and visa and citizenship stuff - they are just not my thing. But I had to make it 'my thing' or else our family would just probably end up being deported every now and then. It's when you have to assure you have the US version, and Filipino version, and French version of each and everyone's birth certificates, marriage certificate, and all that. Nah-uh! not cool!

Even simple socializing to new faces can make things really confusing:

"I'm Shereene. Shereene Mou Tham."

"Where did you get your last name?"

"Ahm, that's my husband's last name."

"Oh! your husband is Thai?"

"Nope"

"Vietnamese?"

"Nope."

"Chinese?" 

"Nope! He's Tahitian."

"Wow. Tahitian. What is that?"

"Ok, nevermind. He is a French national."

"Oh I see! And your baby's name?"

"Keahi."

"Is that a french name?"

"Nope. It's Hawaiian."

"?"

"We had him in Hawaii. We got married there.  We both studied there. We met there."

"Ah cool! So why did you guys come back here in the Philippines?"

So when that point comes. I almost just want to scream and say, "As far as I know I have all the rights to be back in my home country.", or maybe say, "It's a thing called inter-cultural marriage. Something, you might not want to talk about right now.", or maybe just walk away and say, "Nice meeting you!"

It's really crazy. But it's fun. I like how Garry looks so much like most Filipinos. So we usually overhear French tourists conversations and they all would not even think that Garry actually understands all of it. Happens all the time, and most of the time it really cracks us up.

The best part is all 3 of us can walk around without getting weird stares, because we don't look like we're from different races. Not unless Garry starts talking in English, then people looks at him from head to toe and be like, "Gosh! This Filipino is so show off to be speaking in English!" He gets it all the time too. Haha. Poor guy.

Anyway, I just wanted to share something on my blog, and this is what I thought off. :-D

Homemade Banana Ice Cream

We always skype my in-laws every Sunday, and it is also very common to exchange recipes during our skype sesh. Garry's mom and his brother Jean loves to cook, and they are the ones who would often give me recipes. Whenever a dish fails after I try to make it, I blame it on Garry and his French to English translation of the recipe. Sounds just fair. But there's this one that I totally nailed (at least I think so). The most recent recipe that Mom shared was a Banana Ice Cream. It was the simplest recipe she ever gave me (probably the only simple one, she has a lot of complicated cooking and baking habits). I loved all the ice cream that they had me try when I was in Tahiti: coconut, taro, banana. That's why I was very excited to try this recipe out!

screenshot of Garry's notes when mom was explaining the recipe to him. very unreliable

in other words. . .

Ingredients:

4 Banana

4 tbsp Heavy Cream

2 tbsp Sugar

1/2 Lemon (pressed)

1 tbsp Caramel

1. Mash the banana

2. Mix in all the ingredients

3. Freeze overnight

That's it!

I think it tasted really good because we have good bananas here in the Philippines. ;)

will always be a special day - January 1st

We always love new year! We celebrate another year's beginning together with Garry's birthday and our engagement anniversary. Personally, new year is the perfect time for earnest reflections. Every new year I  look back and count all the blessings I received from the previous year and start planning ahead for another year. It's a really good time to be sentimental and be excited at the same time :)

January is supposed to be cold, but it never is for Keahi and Garry. Started the year at the pool, here's our smokin hot baby in his swim wear. soooo sexy!

we also visited the zoo

and then we went to MOA at night

fireworks display

cake for our engagement anniversary, only to give both of us sore throat after a week. haha

and of course my hubby's birthday. we are so happy mom and tito allan came to visit us for the new year. we had more company and food :)

My thoughts on new year always revolve around my favorite scripture verse found in Proverbs 3. Verse 5 tells me what I should do as I plan for the new year ahead of me. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding." It feels good to know that there is a great source of strength and guidance that you can always rely on. It keeps you motivated in pursuing another 365 days of your life with joy and happiness. Verse 6 also tells me what to do as I look back on the year that just passed. "In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy path." Gratitude changes everything. You know how special you are if you know how to count your blessings. Life is good! I'm very excited for this new year.

Mou Tham's first Christmas in PH

I've been waiting for this since we arrived here in the Philippines on April. I was away for 3 years, and this year I am glad I finally was able to celebrate Christmas with my family as well as with Garry and Keahi. Here's how the Mou Thams celebrated their simple yet very special first Christmas in the Philippines.

Started it out with the breath taking beauty of the Manila Temple at night with Christmas lights and decorations. It was such a wonderful visit. While waiting for the session to start I was staring at the name of the person I am doing the proxy for. The lady next to me suddenly grabbed my hand and with her teary eyes said, "That's one of the names I submitted. That's one of my ancestors. Thank you for doing this."

And then we attended our Ward Christmas Party which had a Filipino Kapistahan Theme. The primary kids decorated each family's picture with a frame, and they hang it on our Ward Christmas Tree. Here's ours.

Keahi and his friend during the ward Christmas Party.

And yes! I was able to get Garry to dress up in Filipino attire too.

The Sunday before Christmas my boys decided to go purple

And we arrived at Tarlac on the 24th. Here's my mom's Christmas tree. Of all those gifts I found 1 for me, 4 for Garry, and probably half of all of it for Keahi. haha. (Mom's been giving more gifts to Garry than to me since we got married, I don't understand)

Our little family Christmas eve celeb was simple. We had lots of games for the kids and some flashback moments like on these photo mom and grandma are going over the ancient photo albums of the family and showing them to Garry. It was fun until they started showing Garry my childhood pictures, not cool! :)

And of course, FOOD!

On the 25th we had a family reunion together with the whole family on my mom's mom's side.

We've been doing this every year for many years now. We dedicate the party to Lola Puti (my mom's grandma). I call her Lola Puti because she has white hair ever since I was a kid. She is 89 years old, she's the one wearing purple with, guess what? haha. white hair. This picture is of my family alone. There's four others of about the same size from my grandma's siblings.

Keahi enjoyed all his gifts. It was heaven seeing him that way. Every time they call out his name and say, "TO KEAHI." He would clap his hands and say "Wow!"