I got an email and I would appreciate you guys help and comment. I think another one of those scams is going again. The problem is the guy still believes in the lady. Not sure what to say more to the lady that wrote me the email though. I had a similar email before and I had posted about it here. I will just give her the link to that I think.

“I am a lady from the US. I have been reading you and your husband’s blog when I can. I happened to come across your blog just because of my brother’s dilemma. He was married before to an American lady. They got divorced. He befriended a co-worker who happened to be married to a Filipina for a long time. To make the story short, the friend advised my brother to find a bride there in your country. Just talking to the friend and meeting them, they seem very happy. So my brother went online and chatted few ladies until he finally met the love of his life. The lady was from somewhere in Cebu he told me. They were emailing and talking on the phone. My brother also sent money to her often for her daily needs and also bought cell phone.

Is it a scam?

The lady emailed my brother that she needed money for family emergency. I did not bother to asked my brother about it. None of my business. He sent money for that family emergency. Just a couple of weeks ago the family emailed and called up my brother and said that the lady was in the hospital. She got in an accident. I guess she was riding a scooter. She was badly hurt, that’s what the family member told my brother. My brother was so worried and sent $2000 for the lady for her hospital bills. I don’t really know about hospitalization in your country, I don’t really know if she has insurance. Maybe she had insurance since my brother just sent $2k.

I met a lady in our church. I didn’t bother to know her origin, I just know at that time that she’s Asian. But later upon knowing that my brother had a Filipina fiance, I then asked my friend in the church what country was she from. When she told me that she’s from the Philippines I was happy,  at least when my soon to be sister-in-law comes to the States she will have a new filipina friend. That filipina friend that I knew from church she’s really nice. She’s in her mid 50′s. She came to the US 30 years ago. I was talking to her about my brother marrying a Filipina. She’s excited to meet the fiance of my brother just like us too. I’ve been learning a lot about your country through her. She let me taste some of the filipino foods during church get together. Very good. I can’t wait for my brother’s fiance to come. For me and my family to learn some of you guys culture and foods. Anyway, my friend was telling me to contact the hospital that the fiance of my brother was brought. Since I didn’t know anybody in your country my Filipina friend volunteer to let one of her family do it. She did let one of her family contact the hospital for me, the bad news, nobody with the same name of the fiance of my brother was hospitalized on any of the hospitals there in the area where his fiance suppose to live.

Me and my Filipina talked more about the matter and she told me that she heard of so many stories now. Scams that so rampant on the net. She told me that she was spared by that since she went to the States before internet was born. She also told me about a lady with multiple guys on the net to chat with. Some were even gay posing as a woman. She also said that guys from abroad also had many girlfriends in the Philippines. So I told her it goes both ways then. Don’t you think? My friend said that the ways of the girls now in the Philippines is totally different than she was growing up. Why is that? I told her same here in the America too.

My brother still believes in his fiance. I hope that he is right on believing her. I hope my brother is spared by the scam. Thank you for entertaining my email. I hope to hear from you! Ellen”

Cheers!

Wow, it was indeed a good celebration for us. As you may know we celebrate Thanksgiving 2 days after the Thanksgiving Day in the States, since Thursday was not a holiday here and we want the kids to be around for our celebration. Never thought we would invite some other people for this Thanksgiving, but we decided to let each of our kids invite one of their close friends. Aaron invited his schoolmate, Marie. Jared invited his best friend in 5th grade, Roberto. Jean invited her best friend since freshmen year, Hennesey. Chris & Glenda  invited their cousin from Kidapawan, Bebe, she’s studying medical technology here in Davao City and will continue on her studies next year to become a doctor. Glenrose and Nicole’s friends didn’t show up for the occasion. They had some other things going, I guess.

Thanksgiving Masterchefs

Me and Glenda, my niece, were the cooks in the house. We started preparing that Monday before thanksgiving. We’ve been buying the ingredients first for our pies, the cookies and pumpkin shakes. We decided to make more pies and cookies. We want our guests to enjoy the evening. We ended up making 6 pies all together. 3 pumpkin pies and 3 chocolate chess pies. We bought our 6 chickens on Friday, the day before we celebrated our Thanksgiving. We bought it in the wet market, since they had bigger chickens there than any of the grocery mall here in town. We were so happy to find some big birds there.

Glenda, Chris and one of our helper went to the market also to buy the other ingredients for our menu. We really made the typical American foods for Thanksgiving. The only non-American menu was added was the rice. Same as what I had experience in the States before. Well when I said typical American Thanksgiving menu that would be turkey/chickens, gravy, mashed potato, beans, stuffing, pumpkin pies and other pies, eggnog (we substitute it with pumpkin shakes), soda and rice of course.

Article continues below pictures. Click on the picture to see a larger view!

After Bob said the grace, we then started eating our dinner. While eating we then let each person say what they are thankful for the whole year. Started with one of our kids. They were a bit nervous since saying in-front of the table with other guests listening. We let our guests join in too. I know our maids were dreading for the occasion because of that. So we just skipped the maids for that. I don’t want them to be uncomfortable while eating. Honestly it was nice hearing what the kids and our guests said.

I don’t think one of the person in the house was hungry until morning the next day. We really are so stuffed. We did joke after dinner we should walk from our house to the new SM Lanang. It was quite a ways. Nobody did it. The kids were walking and others were biking in our neighborhood area. Really the next day I was a bit exhausted because of the preparations that we made prior to the occasion. But in all honesty, it was all worth it. I talked to my niece who assist me in everything we did from the start. She’s also happy what we did and the end result was fabulous. Same style for us again next year. Not sure how many guests will the kids invite then. Ha ha ha.

We sure were glad we rented some tables and chairs. We did have long tables that we brought from the States before, somehow the boards of it got damaged. I have to wait for my brother-in-law to come here for him to fix that. Our chairs could have been enough, only thing is we hang out from one area to the other. So we did need some chairs that no one would keep hauling it for us. We did use chairs outside in our backyard while cooking our chickens there in the MindanaoBob grill. We also put some in-front in our porch. It was worth it renting those furniture’s for the party. Honestly it didn’t cost that much to rent the tables and chairs though.

Anyway, I hope you guys did have a good Thanksgiving Day with your family. We sure did. Now we are looking forward to our LIP Drive Family give away here.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL LIP FAMILY!!!

It’s another time of the year again for all the Americans throughout the world to celebrate the Thanksgiving day today. I am wishing everybody a very Happy and wonderful celebration. May it maybe simple or lavish or fancy or whatever you and your family celebrated.

As for my family we will celebrate Thanksgiving the way the family of Bob were celebrating. I first celebrate with them 21 years ago. It was really an eye opener for me. As you know I came from a big family here in the Philippines and when they celebrate there it just Bob, me, Chris and his parents and his brother and his family. It was really intimate. I did enjoy it. It was the first time for Bob’s family to have rice included in the menu for thanksgiving or any occasion afterwards.

Happy Thanksgiving

I did really study the way Bob’s family put the whole feast together. Me and Bob wanted to follow the tradition of his family so that we can pass it along to our children. As you know we moved from the States over 12 years ago. Our youngest son Jared was just barely 1 months old. Since he never saw the way we celebrated in the States, Bob and I made sure that he knows about a lot of the holidays in the States and how they are celebrated. Since the time he remembered, we did celebrate the Thanksgiving the way his grandmother in the States did. During our first year here we bought a live turkey from our neighbor. They found out from Jun my brother-in-law that we wanted a turkey, so they offered their turkey. I can’t remember how much we paid for the 2 turkey. I had Jun roast (lechon style) the turkey outside in our yard. When it was done, when tasted it was not the same as the Butterball or the Norbest turkey like in the States. It was tough. But it’s okay, we couldn’t get brand of turkey that we want. The other food that were prepared were good anyway.

After 2 years of living in GenSan, we then moved to Davao. A few years of celebrating Thanksgiving here in Davao we usually bought our pumpkin pie from the restaurant here. It cost a lot. I still bought yams in a can from the grocery store here. Even the croutons were still from the grocery stores.

The imported items before were not as wide of a varieties as now. Luckily overtime Gaisano Mall here in Davao stocked up more and more imported items over the years. Few items they had were yams in the can, white marshmallows,  crouton’s and other Thanksgiving stuff. So I bought a few cans and it was good. At that time I didn’t make any pumpkin pie, I just bought different desserts then. Made mashed potato, Bob made the gravy. I am not into cooking at that time yet.

Until one Christmas Bob bought me a stove with built-in oven in it. I guess he is hinting for me to start cooking. . LOL. So I started to be the cook then. Lots of trial and error. Thank God for the internet, surfing the net was my safety blanket then. Ha ha ha. Really I am searching the net for the new recipes and substitution for the ingredients that I can’t find here. Still this day we still have more ingredients that so hard to find here. Bob really was the one encourages me to try to make the pumpkin pie out from the squash. I was so happy that he really showed confidence in me on everything I do especially the cooking. I don’t like cooking before. He really gave me the boost to do it. Now, I am so confident on how to cook and make something even using the substitute ingredients. I make everything now from scratched, from the stuffing’s I made my own sausage and croutons. Yams from the local sweet potato here in the Philippines. Pumpkin pie from the local squash from here.

Since we don’t have the off day of the kids on Thursday (the day of Thanksgiving, it’s not a holiday here), for a long time now we do our Thanksgiving on the Saturday, it’s just 2 days after the Thanksgiving day anyway. So Thanksgiving Day for us will be on Saturday the 24th. Which means a busy week for me and my niece Glenda preparing our food for Saturday Thanksgiving Day. New recipes to be added on our menu for Thanksgiving this year it will be a pumpkin shake. It will be replacing the eggnog. Bob and the kids like the pumpkin shakes better than the eggnog. So pumpkin shake it is.

I hope you guys have a good Thanksgiving Day with your family. Happy Eating.

Happy Turkey Day!!!

As every one of you knows that we’ve been having a Christmas drive every year here for 11 years now. About 2 years ago we also sponsored 4 kids for their food for lunch everyday until that school year end. During that summer we also gave those 4 kids part time jobs here at the house for them to earned some money for their school needs for the next school opening that year. It was really a great feeling giving something for those kids and seeing them appreciate what we did for them. Those kids were not related to me in anyway, they were just recommended by Bob’s Bisaya teacher, Bebe.

What we did for those kids caught the eye of Bob’s friend. His name is Brian. He lives in New Zealand. A few months ago he contacted Bob and told him that he would really like to sponsor kids here in the Philippines from a less fortunate family. So after hearing what Brian wanted, we then set a meeting with friends that we knew that had contacts with kids. First we contacted Bebe since she’s a teacher and knows some kids that needed some financial help. She told us that she would help us out on that. She also suggested to contact the wife of a friend (common friend actually) his name is Randy. He got married to a Filipina from here in Davao just recently, her name is Amelyn. Amelyn is a grade school principal here in a public school. So definitely she knows some kids that struggle financially. So after a few emails and texting between Bob and Randy,  Amelyn gave Randy a name for us to contact. The girl that she recommended just graduated from the school where Amelyn is the principal. She gave us the cell phone number of the parents of the kid. I immediately got a hold of the parents through texting. Within like an hour the mom of the kid text me back. She apologized to not texting me right away because she had to go to the nearest store that sells load in there area. I was already thinking the same of what she told me anyway. I totally understand that. Not easy for them to get the load too.

Bob with Junalyn and her family

So after exchanging several texts, we decided to meet up at their place in a couple of days. Reason for that her husband and the her daughter that will be sponsored will be off on that day that we agreed to meet. Bob and I  wanted to meet both parents and the kid so that we would know who they are and so that we could decide if they really are the people that will be good to sponsor to. So on the day of the meeting, Bob and I went to their house. It was a little further from the city. We rode the jeepney from the street near our house. When we got to their house, we immediately saw the flower garden of the mother of the kid. That’s her business selling flower seedling. The dad was already waiting for us outside. We exchange greetings and then they ushered us to come in at their house. They had a one level house. They lived in a compound, with 3 other families in a separate houses. They really are so hospitable and very nice to us.

Bob with Junalyn

When inside we talked and told them what Brian wants to do. We kinda interview all of them about their lives and about the interest of the kid. Just by talking to the kid, she’s really smart and a little shy too. We found out that she’s an honor student. She’s been in the first section all her school life. See here in the Philippines they have now special sections for the smart kid. That kid belongs there. We saw her grades and it’s all 95 average or over. Really impressive. Just by looking and listening to her she really is interested to study all the way. I’m just hoping really that she will be in the circle of good friends (we call barkada’s here). Hopefully she will not waste her effort, her parents, mine, Bob and of course Brian. It will really shock me if she falls for the wrong crowd.

She is schedule now to come to our house once a week to get her allowance and to bond with us. She kind of likes it too that we are inviting her to use our computer if she had some research to do on the net. She can surf at our PC in the house for free. The parents were ecstatic.

She just came here yesterday to get her allowance. We spent time talking to her and her mom. They were excited for me to go back to their house because the mom promised me a bunch of flowers when I go there again. I told them that I am just waiting for my sister to come for a visit here in Davao from Gensan, since my sis knows more about flowers.

Anyway, another family that we made friends with this holiday season. A BIG THANK YOU to Brian to make it possible for this kid to have a better future. For Bebe for recommending Amelyn to us.

Looking forward for the LIP DRIVE now!!!

Cheers!

It’s just the beginning of November but it’s already decorated Christmas here in our house. Before I mostly decorate the house the day after Thanksgiving. I know most people here in the Philippines decorate their houses during the beginning of September or late August. I guess I just went with the flow with the style here in the RP. I am decorating the house early now. I decided to decorate the house early November. I want to decorate at this early because during this time the kids had semestral break for a few days. In honor of All Souls and All Saints Day. See our kids here especially college students have sem-break during end of October until mid of November for college. Some high schools and grade schools, they maybe have like a week off. But Ateneo grade school and high school just a few days off though, just the 2 days off not including the weekend.

So while my niece who is in college is on the sem-break I have to get the opportunity to let her helped me decorate the house. She already knew from years of living with us on how I like to decorate the house. While in the middle of decorating and all of a sudden I had to go somewhere to meet up somebody or had some activity to attend to at the kids school, at least she already had an idea how and where to put the decor into. When I come home from somewhere I just had to make a small adjustments of the arrangement or something. She’s been a big help to me together with our helpers.

The Christmas Village

We decided to lower the amount of Christmas lights that we put in our tree now. We did put like 5000 pieces in our tree before. But the lights went off because of our good and friendly cats. They like to play under the Christmas tree and climb on the branches. Of course some of the bulbs of the lights fell off. One Christmas all our lights just went off, to find out our kitties were pulling the wires of our Christmas lights and the Christmas tree garland. Gosh, I could have strangled them. Ha ha ha.. But I love those cats that we have. So now I got lessons from the past. Better not put that much decor at the lower part of the Christmas tree. For the past few years I had just been decorating our Christmas tree only. But the kids wanted me to decorate the whole house now. I did and they liked it a lot.

This is the first time that my helpers saw the Dickens Village decors. They really are in awe of all the decors I had in the house. It’s new to them to have so many Christmas decors. It fascinates them that I also had trees and snow with it. That’s also something that made me decorate more with my kids love the spirit of Christmas when the house were filled with decors and also seeing the eyes of my helpers sparkle looking at the new stuff they are seeing at our house. Plus its really nice watching in the evening the decor that we had put in the house. It’s all worth the while.We also decorated with Christmas lights outside in our pine tree that I had planted 12 years ago in the big pot. It looks like a big Christmas tree outside. Pretty cool.

So are you itching to decorate ladies? lol… Nah… It’s not the typical style there in the West. For you Filipina’s that lives abroad just enjoy and watch the shows on the Filipino Channel there. Artists here already singing Christmas songs. You will also see the studios or places they featured already had lots of Christmas decors.

Have fun decorating you guys!!!

***On the other note: We had other excitement this year for Christmas too. I will tell you more about it next week!***