The new year is what we make of it. I can say that 2010 sucked for me. We lost our mom and mom-in-law. But what do I know? Everything happens for a purpose. Had my mom lived, she would be suffering from the cancer. Had my mom-in-law lived, she would still be carrying all her childrens' problems.

This coming year is so unknown it's scary. Look at it another way: it's a clean slate, a fresh start, and whatever is in store, God will be there by our side. That's all I cling to.

I'm looking forward to more knitting, more yarn, more quilting, more sewing, more homeschooling. The worrisome and scary stuff, I will leave in God's hands.

Happy New year, one and all. Here's to prosperity!

Christina and Emily taken at the Christmas tree in Disneyland. We got a chance to pick up Christina from her dorm and take her around with us in LA/Anaheim. Poor girl hasn't eaten "real" food since she moved to LA. She's been living on Ramen and junk food. With no car to use, she walks everywhere.



Sunset view at Huntington Beach, the snobbiest and most unfriendly beach in CA. With nowhere to park, we had to park in between apartment houses near the beach. One guy stared us down as we trekked towards the water. Hey man, it's a public beach, ya know? I'll take the San Francisco beaches anytime.


Obligatory family picture in front of Disneyland. It was packed that day. We got to ride a whopping total of 6 rides. Spent most of the time lining up.

Have a Merry Christmas, everyone. May God bless you with His abundant blessing this coming year.

Tomorrow, I start knitting for next Christmas. I love to procrastinate and believe me, starting Christmas knitting in October never works. I never make it.

I will start with Christmas ornaments. woo hooo!

I realized that these past Christmases, I spent the few days before Christmas stressing out. Shopping for presents and stressing out over gift wrapping, cooking, baking, and running from one gathering to the next.

This is our first Christmas without my mom and it seems that I stopped caring about all the stress. I bought gifts only for the important people in my life. And this Christmas, I'm spending the day with my family and my dad. We don't have to rush off to go to the in-laws' party. My mother-in-law is gone too. Some of in in-laws will understand why we're not there. Others won't and will probably talk about it but... I simply don't care anymore.

I will spend time with the people I love.

4 days before Christmas and I still haven't gone shopping. I live on the edge.

I am completely addicted to Angry Birds. On the other hand, I quit playing Facebook games. I now have more time to knit. That is, if I'm not playing Angry Birds.

I've finished several shawls, scarves, and cowls (the new rage) but no pictures to show. Some of the cowls were given away as gifts, as soon as they're finished and off the needle.

must. upload. pictures.

It's Christmastime, my favorite time of the year. I wish you a Merry Christmas. It's Christmas-- not Happy Holidays. Of course, Christmas is a holiday, and if you don't celebrate Christmas, that's too bad. It's my holiday, a Christian holiday and I will greet you a Merry Christmas. I refuse to be politically correct and if my Christmas offends you, there's absolutely nothing I can do about it. Like I said, it's my holiday. 'nuff said.

If you celebrate Hanukkah, Happy Hanukkah to you. If you celebrate Kwanzaa, Happy Kwanzaa!

Sorry but those are the only other holidays I know.

Back to knitting.

$278 darn dollars for my allegedly speeding ticket and I never got a courtesy notice in the mail either. I had to go online and research it myself. What if I didn't research it? Then I'd have to pay the fine plus an added on penalty. And the State makes money off of me.

15 more days 'til Christmas! Usually, I have the chance of enjoying the few months, weeks, before Christmas but not this year. It's coming too fast and I'm not ready for it.

Today, 16 years ago, Joel and I got married. I woke up this morning to a dozen roses, a box of 2 dozen See's chocolates, and 3 potted indoor plants. He knows me really well even though I keep telling him not to waste money on roses that will wilt in a few days. But man, I love roses, and plants. I still have the plants he's given me through the years. I have a green thumb just like my mom. And Joel? I love him.

Dec 12th would have been my mom and dad's 51st wedding anniversary. We will celebrate too.

Dec 13th is my oldest daughter's 21st birthday. We're celebrating Danielle's bday with a party tomorrow, combined with the anniversaries.

On the knitting front, I'm knitting Stefanie Japel's Alexandra ballet sweater from the book Fitted Knits. There were some errors and I was able to dodge them. But, I'm making adjustments and some changes. Just like a knitter.

Thanksgiving has come and passed. The family has become smaller. Our first Thanksgiving without mom. Christina did not make it home. She decided to stay in LA for the 4-day weekend. But, we know she'll be home during the Christmas holidays.

My sister and her husband also decided to go on vacation to Mexico during the Thanksgiving holiday.' nuff said.

My oldest daughter, Danielle, was here though. She got to spend some time with my dad, watching football on the big 3-D tv my dad bought. Have I said that he loves 3-D movies?

I cooked a smaller turkey this time, well, actually, it was just huge turkey breasts. Everything else gets thrown away anyway. No one here eats red turkey meat.

My husband got to spend a few Thanksgiving hours with his family. He really wasn't motivated to go with all the strife going on but I told him that his mom wouldn't want the family to break apart. It wasn't the same though, without my mom-in-law there. I'm glad he went. While he relayed some news about the goings-on with his family, I found myself asking , "So, what did mom say?" not realizing that she wasn't there. That just made me sad.

Up 'til now, I still question God as to why he took both our moms on the same day. I may never know the answer.

We went to Sutter Gold Mine, up towards the hills of Amador County and Sutter Creek, here in the foothills of Sierra Nevada. It was quite a field trip for the kids and even hubby was quite impressed.

Being a miner is not a job for most people. Our tour guide was Charlie, about 5'6" or so, with this long gray beard halfway down his chest and long shaggy blond hair. I think he's about sixty but hubby says he could be younger. He looked so much like a typical miner, wizened and wrinkled but he was adorable.

We also found out that aside from being a historical mine, Sutter was still a working and very rich mine. During the tour down the depths, there were these huge streaks of quartz that carry the gold. Our guide pointed to some spots on the ceiling where you can see small nuggets of gold.

He says one way you can tell real gold from fool's gold (pyrites) is that real gold shines while pyrites sparkle when light is shown on them.

I was hoping to see some gold, red and yellow trees but the hillside was covered with evergreens. Darn!

I got a speeding ticket today. Cop claims I was going 59 on a 45 zone. I think it wasn't that high. I say I was going 50 because I slowed down when I saw him from afar, sitting on his bike . And I glanced on my speedometer when I saw him, sitting on his bike. He clocked me way before I saw him ( I think). This is where the doubts come in.

Was I really speeding? ( But I don't speed. I'm a careful driver. My daughter says I drive like a grandma. so How can I speed?)


Should I contest it? ( It's his word against mine, so, guess who'll win. And how do I prove that I wasn't speeding. The fact that I haven't had a ticket in 11 years doesn't make any difference at all. What chance do I have that he won't show up?)

One thing I know for sure is that I will go to traffic school. They offer that online now. I've checked.

I am so DISGUSTED.

Scotts Flat Lake in Truckee, CA
This is where our church holds the Annual Family Camp. This is the view we see when we wake up in the morning, as soon as we open the tent flaps.

Imus, Cavite, Philippines
This is the backyard to our house in the Philippines. To the left is the garage/carport. Notice the still young mango tree in the center. To the right is a couple of coconut trees and some citrus.
Best Friends Forever
Today was the day we have been dreading. My niece, Christina (on the left), left for college in LA, to AMDA ( a real expensive performing arts school in Hollywood). Emily cried, I cried, everybody cried. She and Emily have always been best friends, started when little Em was born. There's a particular and special kind of closeness between these two. Emily is closer to her than to her own big sister. I can say the same thing with me. My oldest daughter and I have gone through hard times together, lots of strife and disagreement. Like two hotheads clashing.

My relationship with Christina is different. I treat her like my own daughter. She is easier to talk to, probably because she has a lower boiling point, a lot calmer than most of us and is very patient, specially with Emily. Since my mom passed away, we have all been hanging out a lot with my dad at my dad's house. I am really sad. We will surely miss her. Can't wait for the holidays when she comes back home.

The weather outside is cool. Actually, it was cold this morning when I drove my son to school. But during the day, it gets pretty warm. I love Fall, better than the other 3 seasons. Growing up in the Philippines, we only had two seasons, HOT and Rainy. From March to June, it gets really hot and humid. Come July all the way to September/October, the monsoons come and it's almost non stop rain, with thunder and lightning. Most often, there are typhoons.

There are some good months of perfect weather though: from November to early February, the holidays, Christmas, New Year. My favorite months. I remember sitting outside our porch, smelling the afternoon breeze, smelling the rice harvest. The rice paddies are long gone, replaced by housing and commercial buildings. The province of Cavite where I grew up in used to be a beautiful countryside of rice paddies and fruit trees. The little town of Imus where I lived, back in the 80s, had 2 high schools, one theater, one open air market and a few scattered mom and pop stores. We used to walk to school. We knew our neighbors. If you want some major shopping, you go to Manila.

Fast forward about 3 decades: the little town of Imus is now a major city. Every small space is now inhabited by people from other provinces. Lots of squatters. And the people I used to know have migrated to the US, to Canada, Australia, even Europe. The air is polluted due to the numerous tricycles and jeeps and buses. It's no longer as safe as it was before. And the weather? It seems a lot hotter and humid. The typhoons seem to be stronger and more destructive.

I miss my old homeland. I miss the old days. I'm feeling nostalgic since my dad is going back there for another visit. I wish I could go too.

What?!! It's October already?

Knitting: I've finished 2 cardigans, 2 shrugs, 1 lace shawl, and currently knitting another cardigan. I'm obsessed that way. When I go into quilting, I forget about knitting completely and have a tendency to quilt for one whole year before I go into something else.

I've discovered Zumba. eyahhhh! About 20 or so years ago, I was a dancer. I danced modern jazz and Filipino Folk dancing. We performed on stage and travelled quite a lot. Then, I had my first baby. For a while, I kept it up and taught folk dancing but it eventually fizzled out--my desire to dance and perform.

A high school friend mentioned Zumba, which made me check it out on YouTube, which made me try it out. Now, I'm hooked. But it's not the same of course. Not as young as I used to be. More aches and pains and groans and shortness of breath now.

But here in Elk Grove, I found a real nice and affordable dance studio that teaches it 6 days a week at $5 per class. Not bad.

ZumbaKim is the name.

Just revisiting some past work

I'm giving you some pictures, of handspun yarns, handpainted yarn, and some past work:


On the left is a huge hank of rustic silk lace yarn. The blue and green yarns are Merino/bamboo sock yarns.



Some handspun yarns, all Merino.



These are BFL fingering weight yarns, meant for socks but I think they're too thin and would be more suited for lacework.

Some silk hankies I handpainted as well.

I am so inspired by people who show their handspun yarns. I myself have spun several skeins these past few days. I still have several bags of raw wool that I have to wash, card and spin. And some yarns to hand dye. I've been spending so much time on Facebook and it's addicting games. If I didn't, I'd have more time to do the other stuff. I've finished some shawls and currently knitting a shrug.

What in the world is a shrug and who invented it? It's a tiny little thing that covers your shoulders. That's it. You can't even call it a sweater since it doesn't have a front, or a back, or even sleeves. Does it even serve a purpose except to keep your shoulders warm. Why not just wear a sweater?

Speaking of sweaters, I found a real nice one at Kohls and it was on sale too. My kids don't like Kohls. I like Kohls. I find some real nice bargains there. I even like some of the styles.

I promise I will take some pics of the shawls I finished. I'm just too lazy. And there's Facebook.

It's been bad the past few days. I've been missing my mom again. I miss her everyday but the past 2 days had me crying a lot. One of my cousins in VA Beach made a comment on FB about his mom making him very cranky. After reading it, I broke down in tears. I made a comment that I'd take my mom's nagging anytime if I can hear her voice again. That was it! You just don't know how much you'd miss someone until they're gone. I treasure every moment we have with my dad. Sometimes, I worry about him. Since we can't spend every day with him, I worry when he's all alone. He lives just a few minutes away from us and I make sure I call him a lot. And 3 or 4 times a week, we sleep at his house.

On the knitting front, I finished a knitted lace shawlette and now finishing the Citron shawl. I will have pictures soon. I also visited Rumpelstiltskin, one of the first and longstanding yarn stores in Sacramento. Linda was the very first store owner who started selling my patterns and she still does.

I am itching to design something.

Another family picture taken with a view of Taal volcano.


This was taken at the Palace in the Sky, a vacation home for the Marcoses that never got finished because he was overthrown. It's not familiar to me since we had already left the Philippines when it was being built. I wish I had taken a picture of this structure. It would have been magnificent had it been finished. There were no walls, just a veranda running around a center support. The metal railings are rusted and falling apart but the location was perfectly situated on top of the mountain.

Lizard

Or should I say lizards. They're all over the Philippines, inside and out of homes, trees,just everywhere. Americans call them geckos but to us Filipinos, they're just plain lizards. I remember when I was growing up there, how they would just drop from the ceiling onto my neck and me running around like a chicken trying to get them off. They feel cold to the touch. My kids were fascinated but didn't dare to get any closer either.

Little red house
One of the fascinating things we saw in Manila was this red house (smack dab on the center of this photo). This was in one of the poorest areas along the Coastal highway. That is a 4-story house, only a few feet wide. I swear, if you stretch out your arms, you can touch both walls. It's in what we call the "squatters' area". Lacking land, they have to build up.

The yellow jeep is one of the famous passenger jeepneys, which seats 12-15 people, and can take you anywhere in Manila and the provinces.

Taal Volcano
One of the places I wanted to visit on this trip is the famous Taal Volcano which can be seen in Tagaytay. It's an active volcano in the middle of a lake. Last time it erupted was in the 70s but with the more frequent tremors happening recently, it's due for another eruption. Tagaytay has become ritzy and popular to retirees looking for affordable places to live in the Philippines. Tagaytay's climate is perfect .

Thunderstorm
This was what greeted us as while flew in to Manila. Massive thunderclouds, dark rain clouds and lightning. They shut down Manila Int'l Airport because of it. We later found out that heavy rains like this can shut down their radar/GPS thingies. No planes can land until the rain stops. The funny thing is, the 15 days we were there, it rained for 14 days, only in the afternoon, lasting for 15-30 minutes, and always in the afternoon. Guess what? A majority of incoming Int'l flights arrive in the afternoon and evening--lol!

We're home!! Actually, we've been home since Saturday.

I have a lot to say about Hawaiian Airlines. It's very convenient to fly Hawaiian since it's the only airlines, that we know of, flying from Sacramento to the Phils. But it's plagued with delays. Going to the US and coming back is a never-ending list of delays. We almost missed the connecting flight from Hawaii to Sac because of delays.

Some are unavoidable, I know, but what are the odds?

I miss my hometown but not the humidity and heat. I miss my cousins and aunts and uncles. I even miss the continuous noise of the the jeeps and tricycles even through the night and early hours. I don't miss the mosquito bites. I have 26 bites on my legs and arm. They're almost gone now except for the faint brown marks.

It was sad saying goodbye to my relatives specially my cousin Aris, who has Downs Syndrome. He is one of the sweetest people I know. He was crying when we left which made it even harder for me.

I will make an effort to visit more often and not wait another 17 years. My kids will want to come too since they told me they had fun too while we were there. I think it's the lizards.