Pouring

And yet again the saying that "when it rains, it pours" is proving true in our home.

Yesterday, I made an appointment w/ that Nice Guy Handyman come over to check out the repairs that needed to be done in our house:

- vent replacement (the leaking vent in the bathroom exhaust)

- vent replacement (the dryer vent w/c is still made of plastic, hence, a fire hazard)

- cut out the rotted part of the ceiling & cover it up, apply swirly-textured finish to match the rest of the ceiling and then paint it

- replace the spout & showerhead in 2nd bath, this includes cutting out existing pipe & soldering a new piece in to match the length of the new spout

- fix cracked mechanism in 2nd bath toilet

But before the guy arrived, the bldg superintendent was knocking at my door. Yes, there was a leak again. And before he even started checking things out, he was already explaining to me that if it were my responsibility, I should do the repairs quickly while the damage in the unit below (same unit that was damaged by my leaking windows) gets any bigger.

The next hour was nerve-wracking. Superintendent cut holes in my ceiling and my wall and we started turning faucets/showers in the 2 upstairs bath on and off. Water started pouring down the drain - unfortunately, water poured IN and OUT of the drain (both surfaces).

Luckily, the leak is NOT our responsibility. Super just came back today to fix the broken pipe. Sad lang because he had to cut a hole in my red wall and when he comes back to close the wall, he will just patch it up - no paint job included.

But here comes the next part, while checking out that huge leak, they (superintendent and the unit owner below) happened to notice a water stain in my ceiling a few feet further but didn't see any leaks coming out. Last night, hubby stared at the pipes while I turned things on/off and that's when we found out that there is a leak in our shower.

*sigh*

Ayoko na.

I guess we were lucky, in a way, that things didn't start breaking down until now. I've been here 7 years already, after all.

Ah. Teka.

7 year itch kaya ito between me & my home ?

Costco

We finally received our Costco coupon book in the mail, this is the first since we got our membership last October. I've been bumming coupons* from my sister for the last 2 (or was it 3 ?) years because I wanted to make tipid and didn't want to pay for our own membership so we shared w/ a friend's.

Friend eventually moved and found a different warehouse club that was more convenient to their new place so we had to get our own membership na. So far, it (the fee we paid) doesn't seem too bad. But then again, last year, I had that part time thing.

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* Sis and I had a good method, I'd check out the costco coupons as soon as they get posted online on blogs and if there are items that I'm interested in, Achi clips coupons from her coupon book and sends me some. Fortunately, all the coupons for all products have the same code so it doesn't really matter if you hand in the actual coupon for the product or for something else (in case there are items that we both want).

Home

We flew to California (the trip was a last minute decision, hubby was asked to go on a business trip at work and I didn't want to be alone w/ Swe-cha all that time) a few weeks ago and were able to spend Swe-cha's 2nd birthday and Christmas with family.

Ang saya!

While we had a blast being with family, especially during those important events, I will not deny that it does feel good to be finally be home and be in our own space again.

But spending some weeks at Achi's has made us feel cramped in our condo. We can't wait until we are able to move to a house - ideally, we'd love to have 4 bedrooms and a home office. Imagine all that space to run around in (and wrestle giant teddy bears*), Swe-cha will love it for sure!

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* a great aunt gifted Swe-cha with a teddy bear that is bigger than him, we had to leave it behind in California as it didn't make sense to lug it all the way to NJ.

All is well

Once again, God has shown me that things that go according to His plan always turn out well in the end.

This morning, I was ranting about how stressed I was and as it turns out, it was for the best!

1) Swe-cha waking up for almost an hour a 7 meant that he was sleepy enough to fall asleep on the way to CT (no tantrums in the car)

2) Picking up the lechon from the faraway place made us late but it also meant that we were late enough to get warned by friends about the heavy traffic on the Merritt Parkway - we picked an alternate path.

Ang galing!

Swe-cha only cried for 1 hr (yes, 1 hr, sigh!) at our friends' place, but that is another story. At the end of the day, we had a great day with friends. B & M are wonderful hosts and we enjoyed ourselves immensely!

My boys

Grabe. It's only 10am and I'm already *this* stressed [raises hand to shoulder level].

Hubby fell asleep last night and would not wake up so I had to clean up in the kitchen (this is his usual chore). I started cleaning past midnight. After I loaded the dishwasher, I decided to wash the teakettle and that pot filled with oil that I usually use to deep fry (ewan ko why he leaves these to stand on the stove top, edi nadudumihan lang when you cook other foods).

I was going to stop there but the stovetop needed cleaning too. I was going to go throw out the trash but I was too tired. Maybe I should put a smelly diaper in the trash so hubby will throw it out right away, otherwise, he's okay letting it accumulate.

I think it's time that hubby and I had a talk about chores. He does them naman and is so guilty about falling asleep last night before getting a chance to tidy up, but the thing is, there is a flaw to his method eh. Tidying up is the last thing he does before going to sleep, uunahin pa ang TV, games at kung ano anong babasahin w/c is really optional. I don't usually mind him doing that, my principle has always been "your work, your way", I won't complain about your methods so long as you get things done. Yun nga lang, this isn't the first time and I'm sure that it won't be the last time that he'll fall asleep and I'll have to pick up the slack.***

Anyway, by the time I was done, it was 3:30a. I was so tired that I just fell asleep, forgot to check Swe-cha's diaper. Normally, we change his diaper in the middle of the night because he pees so much while he sleep and there's a tendency for the diaper to leak. True enough, I woke up to screaming at 7am. I was startled and couldn't function right away and the longer it took me to respond, the louder the screams.

I thought it was gas and kept trying to put manzanilla on Swe-cha's tummy. Swe-cha kept swatting at the manzanilla bottle and pulled on my hands, I should've just let him have my hands from the start because as soon as I stopped fighting him, he touched my hand to his wet pants & shirt. The leak was in an awkward spot so I didn't find it right away when I first did a spot check.

After I changed him, he still screamed at me every now and then - para bang nanininisi (haha!) - and finally fell asleep again (in my arms) by 7:50a but I couldn't put him down on the bed and lie down myself until around 8:15a (he would whimper and cry and I was so scared that he'd wake up na so I just sat and held him), he eventually woke up for the day at 9a.

Normally, when I'm too tired to get up, hubby would pitch in & help w/ Swe-cha but there's that lechon that needs to be picked up (that lechon better be so good so it's worth it). Hubby calls me up after he picks up the lechon to let me know that he's on his way home.

"You got the lechon sauce, right ?" I asked.

"Bumili ka ba ? nag order ka ?"

"Kasama ang sauce pag bumili ka ng lechon, dapat meron, did you check ?"

"Di naman tayo nagbayad ng sauce eh"

"Meron dapat, check mo. Hingi ka kung wala."

"Kung wala, bibili ako ?"

"SHIT. BINAYARAN NATIN ANG SAUCE, ANG MAHAL MAHAL NG LECHON TAPOS SASABIHIN MONG WALANG KASAMANG SAUCE ? MERONG SAUCE DAPAT. KUNG WALA, BUMALIK KA. FOR YOUR INFORMATION, PARATING MERONG SAUCE ANG LECHON. HINDI PA AKO NAKAKITA NG LECHON NA WALANG SAUCE."

[Siguro, if I looked into a mirror at this point, I'd scare myself. Nanlilisik siguro eyes ko. Ang kulit naman kasi eh.]

He must've still been in the parking lot at that time because it didn't take more than a few seconds before he said "ah, meron nga, nandito sa loob."

I love my boys kaya lang when they tag-team me like this, nakaka-ubos ng pasensya talaga. Gusto kong mag Frap or iced coffee, pang recharge man lang.

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*** I'm not usually so annoyed when he does this and I'm okay to pick up the slack, it's just that I've been so so tired for days and have had no rest pa. Teka... why am I even explaining ?

Blackeye

Swe-cha is very affectionate. He liked to be hugged and is very touchy-feely and he likes to sit on our laps while watching TV.

Bedtime is a long drawn-out process too because he will want to hug, wrestle and use us like a jungle gym by squeezing through tunnels he fashioned out of our legs and arms, he would roll us back and forth, dive over us, tumble - basically, a lot of gymnastics!

Tonight, he is unusually affectionate in the sense that he's been kissing us too. Kaya lang, he kissed me twice but kissed his Dad a lot more times. I asked and asked, "kiss Mommy, please" but he wouldn't pay me any attention. His dad was more interesting.

So I decided to tickle hubby. I figure, if he got more kisses from Swe-cha, I might as well as bother him :P I told him that I was going to keep tickling him until I get a kiss from Swe-cha.

So now, both of us were begging Swe-cha to please kiss mommy.

Still no kisses, though.

Hubby then hits upon an idea, "cover your face w/ the pillow! Swe-cha will find that interesting and will want to play with you."

So I did and sure enough, Swe-cha comes to me, screeching with excitement all the way. He pulls the pillow off and bam! head-bangs me right on my cheekbone.

[silent screams and curses going on in my head]

I went down to ice my face & left Swe-cha w/ his Dad. Hopefully, he falls asleep soon.

As for me, if you see me in the next few days sporting a black eye, I'll tell you that it's hubby and that will be true... sort of.

Eep

I was able to do a Costco run today - finally! Picked up some eggs and the rib-eye steaks that hubby wanted to have for Thanksgiving. [ We're obviously not turkey people. ] I also scored some boys' pajamas that are so comfortable and fit me just right.

After Costco, I decided to drop by the pharmacy to pick up the refill for my son's prescription, then I dropped by the grocery store for some basics, Dunkin Donuts for a sandwich and then the bank to deposit some checks.

But that's not the point of my post.

You see, after all that, it wasn't until after I got home that I realized that I was running around and doing all those errands in my sleepwear.

Sigh.