My father died when I was 13. I was starting High School then. During the first year after his death, I swear, there were a few times I would smell his scent and I would hear his distinct coughing from the location in backyard of our house, where he usually hangs around when he was still alive. The thing is I could see from the bedroom window that there’s nobody there.

Also, there were those night I spent studying at the dining room as late as past 12 midnight, when I would have that feeling of a heavy hand in my right shoulder, eventhough I am the only one still awake in the entire household. And I would have the same feeling as when my father scolded me and told me to go to bed when he was still alive. This usually is my cue to start going to bed, ’cause at that time I’m too scared to stay awake. On my way to the bedroom, all my actions are calculated. I am focused NOT to glance to just anywhere, especially at the dark areas of the house, for I am scared that I might actually see something. This went on until I graduated High School. (By College, I wasn’t living at home anymore.)

Those are the most ghostly experiences I’ve ever had. Although I didn’t see my father face to face or in a ghostly apperance, and it could easily be just my mind playing tricks on me, I just had that strong feeling that he was there each time.

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For the Catholic Community, Nov. 1st is All Saints Day and Nov. 2nd is All Souls Day, a.k.a. Feast of all Souls, or Day of the Dead. It’s this time we commemorate the faithful departed.

For my father, a good man, faithful departed
Eternal rest grant unto them him, O Lord.
And may perpetual light shine upon them him.
May he and the souls of the faithfully departed
through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.

Aloha Friday originated in Kailani’s An Island Life. If you would like to join in the fun, simply answer the question as a comment then visit Kailani’s An Island Life for more details. However, your answer and comments are welcome even if you do not want to participate.

I came upon this TV show while flipping TV channels. It talks about urban legends that are mostly funny but some are scary. One of them disturbed me a lot. I think it’s because when I watched it, and heard the story for the first time, I was pregnant with Matthew and overwhelmed with maternal instincts. I was, at that time, in the peak of preparing myself to become a parent for the first time.

Anyway, the story goes like this:

There was a girl and she was babysitting. The parents had gone out to a party and had left their infant at home with this sixteen-year-old girl. So she was babysitting and they phoned just to see if everything was all right. She said, “Oh. Fine! Everything’s great! The turkey’s in the oven.” The mother went, “Oh, okay. Fine.” and she hung up. Then she looked at her husband and went, “The turkey’s in the oven? We didn’t have a turkey!” He said, “What’s the matter?” So they decided they had better go home and see what was the matter. Maybe there was something wrong with the babysitter.

They excused themselves from the party and went home. So they walked in the house and saw the babysitter sitting in the chair freaking out. She had put the little infant in the oven and had thought it was a turkey.

- Reference: Wasted and Basted, Snopes.com

There are other variation in this story. Sometimes it is incorporated with the babysitter being high on drugs. Knowing that it’s an Urban Legend, it’s suppose to have not happened at all in real life. But it still gives me the chills. It makes me think about real life dangers that could happen to my child. I cringe at the thought of them.

And then, I watch the news. There are so many cases worse and scarier than this urban legend. Little kids or even babies as young as a month old in real life are being killed. Crimes against innocent children are bad enough. What could be worse is that some crimes were committed by the children’s parents. Cases of shaken babies, for instance. Or when babies are left forgotten in the hot car by their own parents deliberately. I have also read about mothers cutting off their babies hands to elicit sympathy from people. So that they will get more when they beg for money and food. And how about those parents who kill their newly born baby because she is not their preferred gender. As a mother, these acts – I just can’t understand. When the parent, who are suppose to be the child’s protector and the ultimate caregiver, becomes a child’s nightmare, it’s disturbingly sad and scary! And if they could do harm to their own children, what’s going to stop them from harming other people’s children? What’s scarier is they could be the next door neighbor, the school nurse or the postman.

Bro-IL Tom, Matthew, Hubby Michael and Mom-IL SallyPhoto taken on Oct 18, 2008

It’s always nice to have family come over to visit. Tom, who has relocated from Hawaii to Florida, and Mom-IL took the 8-hour trip from Florida to Alabama to spend the weekend with us. I’m glad they did ’cause I sure had fun having their company. A little change in our weekend routine and a lot of gushing of love over Matthew by Grandma and Uncle Tom are always welcome.

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Marching Time, Hubby and the students

If I have to blog about everything that has been happening around here, then I will be bloggiing a lot more than I am blogging right now. I don’t mean those that Matthew are up to or what we ate every meal. I mean all those happening with the people around us, pertaining hubby’s job and the students under his charge, because there’s always something going on.

I have mentioned before that we live in an apartment within the campus of a military boarding school for boys. Hubby likes his job and that is to take care of 20 or more boys in their teens, who are sent here to study and whose families are far away. He takes care of them in a military fashion. Most of these students have difficulty concentrating on their studies for varied reason when they were in a traditional school, so their parents sent them here hoping that the military way of handling their kids can somehow keep them in track.

As you can imagine, most of these kids are not too willing to be here, far away from the comforts of their homes. For them there are no TVs on weekdays, strict curfew and regulations to follow, tons of school activities and very low tolerance and appropriate discipline to every bad behavior. But even with all these, boys will be boys! Somehow they still manage to keep hubby busy in a not-so-positive light. Their little mischiefs that are silly stupid and sometimes funny to heavy serious misbehavior are always dealt with. And that is when hubby’s job becomes a lot more interesting and blog worthy. Hubby doesnt’ have to tell me anything. All I need is to see a variation in his routine or a few more calls than usual to know that something’s up. Actually he very seldom tells me anything, but the little he tells me, understandably, with no details and no particulars and with my limited observation, are still - blog worthy but what I can’t blog about.

What I can blog though is that in the little interaction Matthew and I have with these students, they have been respectful to me and Matthew. Sometimes the friendly ones nod or smile and greet me and a big wave ‘Hi’ for Matthew. They open the door for us at the cafeteria. And they don’t talk as loud as when they are just with each other when Matthew and I are around.

–
The photo above was taken by Lori. Lori, thanks for the cool photo!

A few weeks back, I learned how to fish. I thought, there is nothing to it but I was wrong. I have never gone fishing before. Although fishing in the Philippines is taken seriously since it’s a livelihood, I have just never really seriously thought about it before, how it is done or sort. I have imagined myself fishing though, in a fishing khaki outfit, holding a fishing rod by a river at a really nice place with a really nice scenery. Beyond that, I am so clueless.

At Matthew's Background: the Fish Pond Live Worms for Bait

So we got the fishing rods, the colorful bobblers and the hooks of different sizes. We know where we were going to fish. There are two ponds within the campus. They are located in the woods beyond the soccer field. They are small sized and most importantly, hubby was sure there are fishes there. As for the bait, hubby bought live worms from the nearby shop. I have never thought you could actually buy a plastic container filled with dirt and live worms wiggling around and intertwined together. It was the first time for me to see something like that.

We got all the materials and we are on the location. The next steps are the things I just had a hard time doing myself – setting up the fishing rod for  fishing. This step includes holding the worm and attaching it to the hook. I figured this is what men are for. Just the thought of it right now gives me that awful icky feeling I had when I tried doing it myself. When I felt the worm wiggle in my fingers, it felt like spiders crawling on my skin. I screamed! Hubby will just have to do it for me. It will be a long time before I’ll try it again if I ever would.

Daddy and matthew

When the fishing rod was set up, it’s time to cast the line. This was hubby’s instructions, “Throw this end (the one with the worm on it) to the water. Make sure you don’t throw the whole thing.” As simplistic and idiotic as that sounds, casting the fishing line, thowing the bait to the water is actually not that simple especially while keeping the other end (the fishing rod) in my hand. There is a certain swift wrist motion involved and it’s actually challenging to do this without smashing the bait on the ground or the bait ending up just across the shore. With my failed attempts, I haven’t actually thown the whole thing to the water, but most of the time, either I lose the worm when it hits the ground or it didn’t go so far. So then again, most of the time hubby has to do it for me.

My sort-of First Catch

And then we wait for the bite. This is the part where I sit back and wait while sipping drinks and eating chips, enjoying the cool air and watching Matthew having fun running around and chasing grasshoppers. This is my favorite part of fishing, however this is also the frustrating part because I keep losing the worm but not catch any fishes. Supposedly I should keep my eyes on the bobbler ’cause when it moves, it’s when a fish is around playing with the bait. It’s when I should pull it somehow to hook the fish. When I feel a opposite pull, the fish is hooked then I should start pulling in the fish by reeling. But that is easier written than done. For one thing, I can’t concentrate on keeping my eyes to the bobbler while keeping a constant glance at Matthew to make sure he is not eating dirt. And when I actually see the bobbler moves, I tend to panic and reel right away. Hubby, however, is such an expert. He has caught fishes a few times. At one time he let me reel one of his catch and we pretended it was my catch. We didn’t really plan to eat those fishes we caught so they are all catch and release.

We’ve gone fishing a few times already but mostly to watch hubby fish. And on his spare time he goes there and go fishing by himself. I can’t blame him, the quiet is soothing. As for me, the only time I can thoroughly enjoy it is when I have overcome that icky feeling of having to hold the live worm and when Matthew is old enough to be fishing and enjoying it as well.

Click photo to enlarge the photos. Click here to view more photos.

I got this recipe from a magazine. Of all the cobbler desserts, this is one of my favorites. It has a tangy taste to it and it’s not too sweet.

Tip: Frozen rhubarb can be used but they have to be thawed thoroughly to minimize excess water.

Makes 8 servings, Preparation Time: 15 minutes, Cooking Time: 50 minutes
Ingredients:

• 6 cups sliced rhubabrb (about 1.5 pounds)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 package (3 ounces) strawberry flavored gelatin
• 1 package (0 ounces) yellow cake mix (such as Jiffy)
• 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 2 teaspoon confectioner’s sugar, for garnish
• 3/4 cup water
• whipped topping, optional

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°. Coat an 11×7x2 inch baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Place rhubarb in prepared baking dish and sprinkle with granulated sugar and then with gelatin. Sprinkle the cake mix over the gelatin andd then drizzle with water. Stir in melted butter.
3. Bake at 350° for 50 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack for 10 to 15 minutes.
4. Serve warm or at room temperature. Dust with confectioner’s sugar and serve with whipped topping if desired.

Contents Per Serving: 275 calories, 8g Fat (4g Sat.); 4g Protein; 50g Carbohydrates; 2g Fiber; 235mg Sodium; 14mg Cholesterol