Thanks to these bags and school uniforms, our problem has lessen a little because, now, we are only going to worry about other school supplies like notebooks, pencils, papers and others. Money for tuition fees is not going to be a big problem because Rodymel, Romelyn and Rain are all attending Public Schools but we still have to pay for miscellaneous expenses which can be very high.

Well, with this many bags, I don’t think the kids will be able to use all of them. I’m sure they are going to pick one and use it for the entire year (or until it becomes worn out). Of course, the Spongebob Squarepants bag belongs to Rhomiel already because she likes Spongbob Squarepants very much and I don’t think she will let anyone take it from her.

Again, thanks to Ms. Twinkle de Leon for all of the bags and school uniforms. The kids love them and appreciate them very much.

This year’s Good Friday Procession was very special because there was only one big procession featuring all the carriages in the City. I think San Pablo City has the best carriages in the country and the carriage carrying the Last Supper Scene was once the biggest before it was cut down to size. The Last Supper carriage used to span both lanes of Rizal Avenue and turning it was a very hard task for the men pulling it.

Unfortunately, we didn’t actually watch the procession because there was too many of them and it was also getting dark already. What we did was, we went to each carriage as they were parked at the side of Rizal Avenue and looked at them while they were getting ready for the procession.

I took some photos of the carriages but I haven’t yet uploaded them but below are a couple of pictures of the family.

Because it was a Street Senakulo, the audience also had to follow the group as they perform or they won’t see anything. Did I follow the performance? Nope. It was very hot that day so I just waited at the City Plaza where the crucifixion took place. Of course, no one was actually crucified because the performers in this Street Senakulo were only kids. In fact, Rain asked us if they were really crucified on the cross. We told him that they were not really crucified and that they were only re-enacting the scene of Jesus Christ’s final hour here on Earth.

Below are some pictures of us and the Street Senakulo.

Ritchie left a wife and two very young children. They’re currently residing at Barleta Subdivision. I just wished I could have helped them more but, unfortunately, I have problems of my own. Contrary to what you see here on our Family Blog, we are also not doing very well but we do try our best to make our situation work for us. Feeling sorry or down will just build up more negative energy.

I never looked at him in the coffin, simply, because I don’t want my last memory of him to be that way. He is a very fun and lively person with lots of energy and I want to remember him that way.

He was interred at San Pablo City Memorial with my father who died many, many years ago. The funeral was attended mostly by friends and families.

Below are some pictures from the funeral.

I just hope those people who takes drinking and driving for granted will learn something from this. No one wanted this accident to happen but, the question is, could it have been avoided if the two were not influenced by alcohol or if both of them were wearing helmets? Maybe but we will never know.

She received a couple of Full Scholarship Grants from two Private High Schools here in San Pablo City but she wanted to enroll at San Pablo City Science High School where she just recently passed the entrance exam and interview. Too bad those Full Scholarship offers can’t be converted to cash because both she and Rodymel could use the money on their schooling.

Romelyn with her Mom. Only one parent can accompany a child inside, so I took many of the pictures from a distance. You’ll notice that most of them are grainy and blurry because of it.

In the picture above, Romelyn was delivering her Valedictory Speech which was written for her by the school.

The man on the far right of the picture above was one of my Social Studies teacher back in High School. I think his name is Mr. Flores. The lady next to him was the Guest Speaker and she also finished her Elementary studies in Dapdapan as a Valedictorian.

Rodymel kinda looked uncomfortable. It’s either because he was still sleepy or he was still afraid to move his left arm around. He recently broke his left wrists and his cast was only removed very recently. After weeks of having it on, he must still be getting used to not having something heavy on his left arm.

Rodymel will be in college next school year and he will be enrolling at the Dalubhasaang Lungsod ng San Pablo. He plans to enroll in Information Technology and continue playing Table Tennis in college.

I kinda forgot why but I wasn’t able to attend her Recognition Day. Her Mom was there to award her medals. This picture was taken at home, after Romelyn’s School Recognition Day.

In the picture above, we see Romelyn (left) with her classmate. This was taken at home before the left for their School Recognition Day.

Here we see Rhomiel wear two of her Ate Romelyn’s medals. I’m sure she’ll be getting some of those too in the future when she starts going to school.

Romelyn is currently a Grade 6 student at Dapdapan Elementary School. She will be graduating from elementary school this year with the honor of class Valedictorian.

A few hours later, Rodymel and Dang came home. What happened was, Rodymel slipped and fell on his left arm. He was brought to the hospital to have his arm checked and to get some first aid. The next day, Dang brought him back to the hospital and had his arm X-Ray’ed. There was a very minor fracture somewhere on his left wrist . It wasn’t serious but Rodymel still had his left arm casted.

Rodymel’s cast covered his left hand (excluding his fingers) and all the way below his left elbow. He will be wearing it for a few weeks. The casting, check-up and x-ray cost less than 500 PHP, I think, but it did come with a Free Blue Sling.

The message from Rodymel’s classmate really scared us. We thought something terrible had happened to our son that required the school to bring to the hospital. We were so relieved when we found out it was just a minor accident. I’m sure other parents would feel the same.

A few weeks from now, we will bring him back so the doctor can check his wrist again. If it’s healed by that time then the cast will be removed but if not then it will be replaced with a new one. Hopefully, it will be already healed by the time we have to get back to the doctor.

(Dang prepared a little something for our Media Noche)

We also had our exchange gift on New Year’s Eve. We’ve been having a family exchange gift for a few years now and we usually do it on Christmas Eve but this year we did it on New Year’s Eve. We spent New Year’s Eve together as a family. We didn’t have an extravagant feast, we didn’t have any firecrackers nor fireworks but, still, we did enjoy the evening because we have each other.

Here are some pictures of everyone in the family that were taken last New Year’s Eve.

(Here we have our gifts for the Exchange Gifts. Spongebob Squarepants was guarding them.)

(Here we have Mommy Dang slicing some vegetables while Pauline looks on. That is me in the other picture. I covered my face with Play Money.)

(Kuya Rain spent some time playing games on Miniclip.com. His favorite game in Miniclip is Need for Madness. It’s the only thing he plays everytime he uses the computer.)

Later that morning, Rain and Rhomiel found their gifts from Santa Claus. Rodymel and Romelyn didn’t get anything because they already know the secret behind the whole Santa Claus thing.

On Christmas Day, I spent the whole day at home while Rodylyn and the kids visited nearby relatives. Visiting relatives like Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, etc. on Christmas Day to greet and wish them a Merry Christmas is an old Filipino Christmas Tradition. In exchange, children are often given gifts in the form of toys and/or money. Godparents (Ninongs and Ninangs) are also visited but I don’t think Rodylyn took the kids to any of their Godparents this year.

This year, we were able to buy the kids some new clothes and new pairs of shoes. We were also able to buy them some gifts. Rodymel got a guitar, Romelyn got a cellphone, Rain got a bicycle and Rhomiel got more new clothes. Also, Rain got a remote controlled car and Rhomiel got a Spongebob stuff doll from Santa Claus.

Christmas 2010 was very enjoyable for all of us and I’m hoping that next Christmas would be even better.