Christine_de_Cricketeeeeer's Xanga

Friday, June 08, 2007

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 17:02:52 GMT

Babies Galore!

I guess it's that time of life stage... exciting times really! it's amazing, almost unexplainable (or is it in-exp...) the joy and happiness that comes seeing new life born from close friends. I'm not talking about the actual process, 'cause I'm not that "close" to have observed the coming of the baby! haha...but I'm coming from the perspective of observing the little child amazed at how he/she resembles my girl friend or guy friend and how this is their child. mix bag of emotions really. And how this child alters their once carefree, very social lifestyle to one time; babytime. The changing of diapers, the soiled t-shirt from milk spit-up, the sore forearms, not to mention sleep depravity yet the love and the pride they have in their little one seems so intricate and a bond so deep that....they would pretty darn well do anything for this child.
A recent Mom said that this how God loves us, I would expound to say no matter how much we cry/scream, disobey, turn away, be angry, and even offend God, He's always there and with open arms welcomes us back (pride worn off).

This whole parenthood thing seems very selflessand maybe I'm still in that selfish stage and still not quite ready to go through that gate. But maybe, ever so slightly, God's working and so we'll see what God has in store.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 16:02:07 GMT

it's exactly a month now, being march 1, hearing altering, life changing events. things still haven't settled and in fact new issues arise...it's tough. (to say the least)
i do want to personally thank all those who asked what's going on or how things are. Even if most of you didn't know what to say. Sometimes asking is enough.

so lately i've been listening to all sorts of music but with my mood I find myself listening to the Garden State soundtrack and John Mayer's Continuum album....hey it's better than the week of lincoln park & jay-z combo.

anyhow i hope you guys who are believers in the trinity, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ would keep us in your prayers. And for those who aren't, do keep us in mind.

More is yet to come...

(I better go for my run and head to work...nice to have a flexible job. )

IT's SNOWING outside!!!

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Sun, 04 Feb 2007 01:29:11 GMT

crap just hit the fan... worst case scenario. all efforts down the drain... time taken from me, can't be rewound, gone. respect has been stripped and scattered into air like pollution; blown away by crosswinds of anger and numbness.

hope...things can always be worse than they are right?...eer, yeh.

onwards.

Friday, January 12, 2007

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 17:41:02 GMT

Happy New 2007!!!

2006 started out to be a difficult, sad time having to take 6 months off work (sad, yes, ironically it was in many ways), and moreso being away from close friends. Only to be misunderstood by family upon our landing in warm, balmy Manila, as to our reason for staying with them for an extended period of time. There were bottomless helpings of family conflicts mixed with laughter; as well as exercising patience, cramming into an unfamiliar social scene. Lots of lessons were learned. The time was also fulfilling in that despite the hardships we were able to spend umpteen quality hours with my mom, bro, sis, and cousins.

We are very blessed that we were able to take time off...And our time in Western Europe for 3.5 wks was a very memorable one with friends and has deepen friendships in ways that would take years or just the kind of relating only experienced through living in community in a foreign land. I miss London, Paris, Spain, Italy and travelling camraderie.

Coming back to Vancouver late July was a breath of fresh air. Realizing that this is where God calls us to be and experiencing Christian love from brothers and sisters was a comforting experience.
This comfort however was easily shaken by the instability of our church politics. This unhealthy/unfair treatment on our serving brothers and sisters were breaking them down emotionally and/or spiritually...It was alright in some ways initially because despite the chinese congregation deameaning the English congregation, we as the English side was still very united in mind and will and wanting the best for the church, having God in the center. However, months later...from what involved people in the line of fire have gone through, it seems like the wounds have gone beyond superficial and will need time to heal. This translates to leaders of the church taking time off. I feel torn because I do understand that these people need time to recuperate, and re-focus on God. Now what seemed like a united English congregation is dispersing into their own pockets of haven or in search of one. Can healing and resting not be done by stepping down from leadership yet staying around supported by other fellow members and friends? This to me is vulnerable, unstable time in a life of a church. What happens to the ones who are left behind? Those who aren't church hopping eventhough they would possibly like to? One glimmer of light I suppose is, a lot of these people have, in fact, have mentioned that their leave is just for a few months, or 6 months or just in the mean time...

AFter 3 months or 6 months, I wonder if these people will in fact be back and their hearts be healed and ready. Uncertainty. It'll be curious how events unfold in 2007.

Looking forward to the good times to be had and going through life events with friends and family who care. Here's wishing you a blessed 2007.

By the way, the Sergio Mendes Timless cd is pretty fun! Lots of black eyed peas and bumpin' beats. check it out.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 07:41:18 GMT

Brrrr...it's been very cold here lately in vancouver! It's officially November 1st, 2006, 22 min. pacific standard time i guess.

What is new? hmm, something new but not really significant ...

Well, lately it was pointed out to me that I was in 4 sports pools amongst friends and/or family! i even outnumber my husbands sports pool participation by 1. Most recently I've joined a basketball pool, and man am i glad i got dwayne waaaade. *sigh* and prior to that i joined 2 hockey pools, 1 with friends and 1 with family! (And i'm not last in either, last time i checked!) *yippee* And the 4th and most long-standing pool i've been a part of (3 yrs. atleast in age) is NFL pool with family. That one is the least involved in some ways 'cause you pick teams instead of players and you pick weekly winners instead of picking your roster at the beginning of the season.

So why the involvement in all the pools?!

It all started with the football (NFL) pool i joined with my husband and his family. And at the time i guess it was just another thing to do, another topic of conversation with family members... and it even got cumbersome at times to pick weekly that i even had to choose teams during a sermon at church....i know, i know! but anyway i would stop participating if i was discouraged by finishing last but lo and behold i even won it the first year; maybe not regular season but playoffs still count!

And i've never been a hockey fan really but everyone knows my husband is so this year he thought maybe i should try and join the family pool..and that was quite fun, eating pizza, listening to the barrage of comments thrown at cousins, picking players based on their appearance and forecasted numbers "points" which lead me to participate in our church hockey pool. Yes, I was the only girl there but from my experience it wasn't like the guys' testosterone were flying across the room and made me uncomfortable, in fact, they were pretty good about it. I guess to me it was more entertaining than watching Greys on TV...(no offense to greys fans) so why not give it a try with my husband's help along with a hockey draft magazine at hand.

So i guess for a short answer it's purely entertainment why i ended up joining these pools. And i'm glad to say that out of the 4, only 1 has a trophy. Yep, that's right, we can still have fun and incentive enough to join these pools for no other prize or trophy other than bragging rights.

Ask me a week ago and I would have never thought that I would write anything to do with sport pools but here I am. I guess it's just something to talk about while waiting for my photos to upload...

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 19:48:41 GMT

Hello world!

Since last entry I've been:

happy to be back in Vancouver, working, hanging out with friends!

pleased to witness my good friend Gamoon get married in eclectic Montréal

blushed to see some old classmates from highschool and gr.7

sad to see our good friend jon leave for scotland

bummed at realizing that we need to get a new car sooner than expected

excited; we're gonna get a cool car!

surprised by hubby w/ a big bouquet of flowers for our 3rd anniversary!

curious about looking for a new position

thankful! (what's a thankful emoticon look like?)

Saturday, May 20, 2006

Sat, 20 May 2006 12:27:35 GMT

Shanghai 05.09-05.13

we were very weary about missing our flight this time so we got a wake-up call for 330am, and had 2 sets of alarm (flight was at 7am, which meant we had to be at the airport at 5am)! we thought it'd be smooth sailing through customs but lo and behold, the line-ups were lengthy & switch-back! not a pretty sight so early in the morning. Good thing people were still in their zombie-state, not so aggressive or snotty.

It seemed like we traveled through time through architecture.

Pic below is view of a canal going through Su zhou city (might look familiar if you saw MI:3 where tom cruise was running along side a canal chest out, elbows 90 degrees!) This town is also associated with Venice, yes, because of the canal & they have gondolas (chinese-style ofcourse)

And somehow the kings & prominent people back in the ming/ching/ dynasty were into these rock structures from Tai Lake...they display it in their gardens & palaces. Do you see Lions?!

The cute couple above is my parents-in-law. Below is a pagoda.

A leaning pagoda, once again compared to Italy...leaning tower of pisa.

No, it's not a celebrity, it's keith's mum...

And now fast forwarding to the mega structures of shanghai

World's 3rd tallest tower. The pearl orient (?)

Another MI:3 scene! The bank of china building

Shanghai overall was an okay city to visit. But it was way too big, too traffic, kinda polluted and the washrooms were still a smelly, pants-hiking ordeal.

Monday, April 24, 2006

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 05:25:46 GMT

Palawan april 7-11,2006

missing an hour flight turns into a 45 min. plane ride and a 10 hr. boat ride...

good thing we met some friends to make the time pass by: Euveen & Jon Adrian

Here's Euveen at the deck when it was near docking time...for him it was a 24 hr. ride:

This is the welcome band:

The next day we enjoyed an island hopping tour...

The water looks dark but it was actually really warm, clear, and home for plenty of corals and many tropical fishes. too bad i don't have a digital copy at the moment.

We met more friends and had fresh seafood lunch at the beach:

Here's a sample of what they can catch in the waters (pic from the wet market):

Next day was a special visit to our sponsor child's home and Compassion Int'l:

Here's john paolo's family:

The little boy in white is his stepbrother kenneth, and the girl in white is their aunt, and the lady in pink is his Grandmother (!! we couldn't believe it, she's only 44)

This is their kitchen. The white between the bamboo slats under our feet is water/sand.

we took them to eat Jollibee (filipino burgers, fries, spaghetti...) and then off to the butterfly garden:

Then Off to Baker's Hill:

Well, i happened to max out the photo upload capacity. so i guess that's it for now. If you guys have a sponsor child, it'd be nice to visit them once in your lifetime! And if you don't have one, check out Compassion Canada, World Vision, Unicef... Make a difference in someone's life positively!

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Thu, 23 Mar 2006 07:32:42 GMT

Cagsawa ruin..what's left from Mt. Mayon's explosion in the early 1900s (?)

Feasting Bicolano style

The exterior of this church is made up of coral. there are steps by the window so the soldiers can be on the lookout.

Majestic Mayon volcano in the background.

Giant leaf! :)

"There are people who recognize and say "that man/woman is a dedicated, loving person" and there are individuals who perceive " I have contributed enough" ~christine tam

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Sat, 11 Mar 2006 12:02:58 GMT

Thanks joflyboy for stopping by to visit us. It was a breath of fresh air! One more event down in the memory banks! Pagsanjan Falls was a blast; i'm really glad we went to experience swimming under the water fall, shooting the rapids, synchronized swimming in the "spring water" pool and jumping off a cliff was exhilarating!

ANN-YEOO! *giggles*

ps. you left your ensaymadas (cheese bread)