Motherhood:-An-Eternal-Partnership

Motherhood:-An-Eternal-Partnership


This is a wonderful tribute to mothers and all that they do.

Danny's Quote of the Day

I'M THE GLUE THAT HOLDS THIS FAMILY TOGETHER!

A Lake within a Volcano within a Lake within a Volcano

The reason they call it a lake within a volcano within a lake within a volcano is because when it erruped in it created a creater that filled up with water around the volcano. Then, a later erruption created another crater within that volcano that then filled up with water and the top of the volcano was sticking out of that lake. This is still an active volcano that errupted in the late 1960's. If you look at the photo of the steam coming out of the ground you will see that the water down there is boiling due to cracks in the ground where the heat of the magma is felt.

The Volcano

Me, being the awesome person that I am, decided that since it was our first weekend here we should do something fun. So, I looked into some stuff and saw that there was a volcano about 2 hours away. The ride there was very interesting. Living in Makati city is very different from the countryside. No sky scrapers of course but there is lots of lush green trees and fields. We saw some rice patties and a lot of fruit stands. There was a lot of poverty there too. Many people lived in tiny aluminum shacks with livestock in our next to them. The people grew a lot of fruit and also corn 2 feet long. We didn't stop for any fruit but next time we go out on a weekend I want do that too. The drive was beautiful and at the end we had to go up and down a mountain to get to our destination. There were lots of locals holding signs for boat rides and the descended on the car and at times we almost couldn't drive without hitting someone. In order to get to the volcano we had to cross a lake. Then once across, we rode on horses up the very steep 4 km. mountain. Danny loved the horse ride and I was freaked out most of the time. I had some help balancing on my horse but on the way down, they switched people who were leading my horse and it was this tiny little girl instead of the man who we started with. Since we were going down hill she wasn't fast enough with the steep terrain and she let go of the rope and here is me, charging down the mountainside, leaning back trying not to fall off. It actually was a little bit fun because I felt like a cowgirl for a few seconds, then the fear took over and I couldn't wait for her to grab the rope again.

Our New Place

Our new home is very nice. All of the kitchen cabinets except for the one which holds the water heater were changed. Why??? I don't know. Our apartment used to be a 4 bedroom but recently they changed it to 2 and made another 2 bedroom next door. We've had several glitches, Sinks leaking, cabinets broken, the cable has issues, and most importantly, we don't have DSL. This is very annoying. We download at 1MB which is 20x slower than ours in California and half as slow as in Kuwait. Our Vonage still manages to work, however, I cannot make an outgoing call and the connection is spotty for incoming ones. Skype seems to work the best either with or without the camera. Hopefully, they are working on it. Our bathroom is beautiful and the tub could fit 4 people in it, 6 if they were Philippinos. Included in our housing is breakfast every morning which has waffles, pancakes, cereal, fruit and always several Philippino dishes with rice.

Also, we have a maid that comes every day and makes the beds, straightens up, cleans the bathrooms and washes dishes. It is so nice to not have to clean a bathroom. We also have a driver that takes us where we need to go. I'm glad that I can't drive. It is crazy here. Stop signs are more of an optional thing. Cars just turn whenever they want in whatever lane they choose to be in, not necessarily in a turn lane. Our driver, Noel, is very nice and always knows where he is going.
The church is about 3 blocks away and there is an English branch that was started up again about 1 1/2 months ago.

The only negative here is that the washer fits only about 2 days of clothes so I am washing the clothes every other day. The humidity is very high but the temperature seems to be only in the upper 80's. We are always sweaty but since Noel picks us up and drops us off we aren't in the heat for very long.

Woody

After a long day of flying. about 20 hours including the layover) we got home at about 1:30 a.m and we got unpacked and ready for bedtime. When Danny went into his room to brush his teeth Woody was sitting on his bed waiting for him. Grandma and Grandpa Hutzley got that for him right before our trip. I put it in our suitcase and shut it. I didn't think Danny would open the suit case because I told him not to and he is very obedient that way. I love that about him. Whenever he is playing Wii and I ask him to turn it off he does it immediately so I figured he wouldn't open it. I was fishing around looking for something while Danny was sitting on the floor near the suitcase and I opened it and he saw it. He had the biggest grin on his face and asked if it was for him. I told him yes but not until we get to the Philippines. Now he has a Woody and Buzz and he just loves them.


The other night I let him stay up late to watch Toy Story 2 so he needed to have Buzz and Woody with him.

At the Airport

We arrived at the San Fransisco airport nice and early. Because we were flying business class we got to go to the fancy-schmancy lounge. They served a few snacks and pop and some comfy seats to wait in till it is time to board. One neat thing was that there was a boarding Jetway right off of the lounge. Another cool thing about the plane was that it was a double-decker plane. We were on the bottom. I should have gone up but I didn't feel like it.
Including us, there were 12 people in business class, I don't know how many upstairs. The flight was 15 hours then we stopped in Hong Kong for a short lay over and then on to the Philippines. When we first got on the plane I had a panic attack. I don't know if you can see it in these pictures but each seat is in a pod. You are enclosed by walls in your own little area of walls except for a small opening. Thank heaven for Valium! From where I sat I could barely see Danny and only part of Justin's head. It was nice that the seats fully reclined into a bed but both Justin and I didn't get much sleep on the plane. It's been a few days and I still have Jet Lag. My body clock hasn't reset itself yet so I am going to bed late and waking up between 3-5 a.m.