Baby Brain: Baby Clock

Mr. Rogue came home from work today, Mr. Fruit, Mrs. Fruit and I were all busy making dinner and Mr. Rogue, my kind and wonderful husband, scooped up Baby Fruit and started making her squeal with delight. I turned, stir fry forgotten on the stove and stared in awe. My heart flipped over in an erratic beat and as I was looking at them through the lens of the camera I felt the most profound sense of joy at seeing a baby in his arms. A happy little cherub and a look of contentment on his face, I felt in that moment complete. Baby clock is ticking. There is just something about the man I love holding a tiny little baby that makes all these funny reproductive stirrings in my brain go off. Synapses are firing and I have no control over the need to fill the house with as many babies as I can.





And no mom I am not pregnant.

Settling into a Different Kind of Household

We are all getting used to having two new people in the house. Mrs. Fruit and Baby Fruit are settling in nicely and already Baby Fruit is delighting us. She is the central focus of the home, of the day, of our dinner table. Like an elephant in the room she cannot be ignored and we all pitch in to help keep a smile on her face. Simply adorable.

Mrs. Fruit is making my life a little bit easier and she is learning so fast. Today she did laundry, mopped the floor, helped to cook dinner and even did the dishes which is my ALL TIME FAV PART. I find myself with more time to sit back and relax or to entertain Baby Fruit.





The thing that has changed the most is that my refrigerator is now holding some unique items; items that I normally do not purchase. I took Mrs. Fruit to Mitsuwa Marketplace, an Asian grocery store near my home where she managed to find all sorts of unique things. The food in this house is defiantly being influenced and we are all sharing our favourite foods with each other. We have agreed to disagree with some things but for the most part she is broadening my food horizons.

New Business Plan

So between being in a third world country for two weeks, not loving the Asian food, sweating so much that I just don’t want to each much of anything AND getting a cold that has been lingering for a week I managed to lose 10lbs on this trip. I was ecstatic when I got on the scale in my bathroom at home and good news is (I think, well at least for weight loss) that I am still sick.

My weight loss got me and Ms. Ivey League jokingly discussing a few options for loosing weight.

New business model for weight loss - pick your poison:

1. We will have a clinic and they inject you with the flu for two weeks. You will get a luxury room with as much free cable as you can watch, an around the clock nursing staff to see to your every need, a team of doctors to monitor your flu and you are guaranteed to lose 30lbs in three weeks.

2. We will have a vacation resort where the food is infested with tape worm eggs. You will be monitored daily with a short appointment while the rest of your day is spent lounging in the sun and joining in the resorts activities. Once your desired weight loss is reached the worms are laparoscopically removed from your system and you are free to go home a thinner happier you.

3. We would have a Survivalist Adventure for those wanting a bit more challenge. Basically we would have various locations in the middle of nowhere and you would need to figure out how to survive. Basically it would be a cross between Survival man and Survivor. You would be watched to make sure a lion does not eat you and that you do not STARVE to death but other than that you are on your own until you reach your desired weight loss.

4. For those with no willpower and no want to have to DO anything there is the incarceration package. Basically you write down your goal weight (within reason) and you are caged with minimal food and water until you reach it. No amount of begging will let you out of the cage, the only way to unlock the door is to get on the scale lighter. Easy and simple.

5. For those rich and famous immediate gratification types we bring you the drug induced coma. Go to sleep, we feed you intravenously and you wake up 2 months later skinny. It would be just like no time had gone by at all and the ancillary price to reaching your weight loss goal is that you get to get caught up on your sleep.

NOTE: For those of you with only two brain cells please don’t try this at home it is only a joke.

BBBS 20: Bowling

Despite my exhaustion and my cold I decided to still stick to my plans to hang out with Mrs. Little today. Not only have I not seen her in two weeks, I decided when I signed up for this program that I was not going to let anything get in between her and I and me being tired and crabby is not enough of an excuse to cancel. So Ms. Little, her twin sister and her sisters new big (her adult mentor) all went out to lunch and then to the bowling alley.

The girls had never been before and we laughed at the antics as both girls tried to work out how to throw the ball down the alley. Of course we used bumpers which helped out so much and everyone managed to get decent scores. Having spent so much time at the bowling alley when I was young leaves me a decent scoring adult but man oh man what a difference bumpers make.

Bowling was expensive but defiantly something we are going to have to do again in the future.

Photo Phriday: Philippine Vegetation

I did take a moment from taking photos on this vacation I swear I did but there were over 1700 to choose from. Let me tell you it took QUITE some time going through EVERYTHING and trying to narrow it down into just a few topics. I decided to showcase some of the plants that I took photos of. Their vibrancy reminded me a lot of home and I still say that still life is the best way to learn and make yourself into an even better photographer.

And Then She Collapsed Into a Puddle

All our company has finally gone home, the house is clean, and I slowed down a bit just to collapse into my husband’s arms. My body has thankfully made it to this point cold and all but I think after I let my guard down my body gave up and passed out for 15 hours, I am now still struggling to get back on the correct time and get rid of this cold and I am not really making progress on either. Too much traveling and too much going on I must rest.

Wishful Thinking

I remember as a kid watching full house and thinking it was the coolest thing in the world to have so many people living in the same house, there is always someone to blame all the dirt on, and someone is always there with a helping hand. I grew up with a large family all relatively close to each other and I just miss the days when I could see my mother whenever I wanted, or had holidays with all 30 of us crammed into a too small family room. As I get older I miss the fact that we cannot have Sunday dinner with our extended family, or enjoy holidays without some major traveling fiascos and as Mr. Rogue and I talk more seriously about starting a family we cannot help but constantly brining up moving back east so our “hopefully in the future” children can grow up with grandparents and cousins. It is a constant cyclical conversation that never really nets out anywhere but with family getting on the plane tomorrow to travel back home we know that they will be missed and we cannot help but feel the pull AGAIN to move.

We made a large Thanksgiving meal for dinner and as we sat around the table with chairs squeezed in tight to accommodate everyone I looked around the room and felt the rightness of having everyone together. At least for now we are doing nothing but I had a lot to be grateful today, I got to spend time with my mother and father-in-law and I really got to spend time getting to know Mrs. Painter and Mrs. Fruit. I love how my family has grown and I cannot hope but wish that one day we will all be near each other to have dinners like this more often.


MR. & MRS. FAITH


MRS. FRUIT


MRS. PAINTER

Pancake Pillows

We managed to all get up, the in-laws were picked up, and a reasonable breakfast on the table without anyone loosing an eye. We are all sleep deprived but desperately attempting to get on some sort of schedule as quickly as possible. Like a band aide you must take a deep breath, look the other way and rip quickly squealing that high pitched yell a moment later once you realize that there are 30 little hairs and 7 layers of skin dangling from the offensive bandage. So we all ripped, I cried in the shower and we are all sitting at the breakfast table in various states of dishevelment. I can barely keep my face from planting into the middle of my pancakes, they are fluffy if not a little bit sticky. I think that they would make a very nice pillow; in fact I am positive they would. The only thing stopping me is my pride, well my pride and the fact that I don’t want the folks to think I cannot keep it together. So I focused on breathing and nodding my head.

A ritual I like to do when getting off a long plane ride is going to the spa. It is pretty much the only thing that keeps me going on those flights, the idea that once it is over I can treat myself to warm scented towels and hours of pampering. As a belated birthday gift to Mrs. Painter and as an early birthday gift to Mrs. Faith I took them along with me and we girls got to float in heaven for the next three hours.

I have been attending the same spa for the past three years or so and was completely in love with my girl that I always requested, that is until the brat got knocked up and married. Now she just works at the front counter and I was left again searching for that perfect masseuse, one that understood my muscles, my body, and talked to my soul with her hands. It has been a frustrating journey filled with this one’s too hard, this one’s too soft. I could never for some reason find one that is just right. I feel like the Goldie Locks of massage artists. And then today it happened, within the first three minutes I KNEW she was the one I had been looking for. It was as if God had opened the sky and personally handed me the best present ever, a tiny woman with her hands full of magic.

Talking with her on the way down the stairs afterwards I told her how delicious she was at her job and asked a few questions about her schedule, wouldn’t you know she is from the PHILIPPINES of all places. I felt that someone was laughing, oh no wait that is me crying, crying at the irony of it all.

After floating home on a cloud of bunnies and cotton candy we arrived home in time to throw Baby Fruit a small family birthday filled with lots of adorable baby gifts. Let me say wandering around Target throwing adorable little clothes full of ruffles and pink was one of the highlights of my week. The loot this kid made out with was incredible. I cannot wait to have one of my own.

Philippines: Finally Here

The day has finally come, one and a half years in the making, when Mrs. Fruit and Baby Fruit get to officially move to the USA. Although all of us were more than a little worried taking a one year old on a 27 hour trip, especially me. I was terrified that the karma of all those evil looks, some intentional, some unintentional, that I have given to people who didn’t remove their screaming child from my hearing range would come back to haunt me on this trip. Alas there was nothing to fear she blessedly slept for a good majority of the trip and when she was awake we had 5 laps to pass her back and forth to.



On another note I am reminded why in the Philippines I do not blend, other than the fact that I weigh a good 100lbs more than anyone here, that I am at least two feet taller than everyone here, that I have super pale skin it is the height thing that always gets me. I walk into the rest rooms and have no problem looking over the divider wall to the stalls. Not that I want to look, I am just toooooo damn tall here. Mrs. Fruit even went so far to ask me “Why don’t you like high heels.” SERIOUSLY did she just ask me that, I swear I did a double take because NEVER in my life has anyone had to ask that. If you just happened to stop here for the first time I have a small, ok a very large high heel shoe fetish. When she arrived in my home and saw my closet full of neatly labelled boxes filled with shoes she laughed. Dude I don’t wear high heels in the Philippines because I am a GIANT. I am trying to blend here. Any taller and they may start shooting me with tranquilizers.

When we arrived home, exhausted but mostly in tact I found out that Mr. Rogue’s work had blown up which meant that the list of things that I left for him to do was for the most part ignored. He did manage to feed the animals and water MOST of the plants which was really the only things that HAD to be done but the cleaning and the grocery shopping list for the meals planned over the next few days just did not happen. So after visiting for a while I took the in-laws to the hotel and went grocery shopping at two in the morning. I then managed to come home and spend another hour scrubbing and cleaning. Even with that it still took me two days to get everything back in order, Mr. Rogue just rolled his eyes and told the family that I have just a little bit of OCD. I can’t help it, I just like things clean.

Philippines: I Think I May Cry

One thing I love about the Philippines is that it rains almost every single day for about an hour and it creates some of the most wonderful fluffy luscious skies I have ever seen. EVERY SINGLE DAY I poke my head out the nearest window to me a million times to see how they have swirled and changed across the sky. Seriously I wish I could bring them back with me however they would defiantly eat into my beloved rays of unblemished pristine sunshine.

Philippines: I Am Ready to Go Home

I am sick, it is a million degrees outside but any sort of air condition sets me into a coughing fit so bad that I almost cannot breath and there are creepy crawly things everywhere that all want just a little bit of me for a snack. There are mosquito bites everywhere, three are baby spiders all over the room, cockroaches, crickets, and beetles have at some point in time been found in my room and I just don’t know how much I can take. Ok whining over, I am going back to bed and I am SOOOOO READY to go home tomorrow.

At least I have a photo of one bug that I don’t mind.



And a photo of a pretty bug that at least was not in my room.

Philippines: Last Day

So I am awake and although my fever is now gone my cold is even worse and I feel like the entire WWF wrestling team has taken a round at beating up my quazi conscious body. I was able to get some type of Chicken Noodle Soup for breakfast and I decided that despite the cold I was going to go to the mountains with Mrs. Painter anyways. Today is the ONLY day we can go because tomorrow we leave for home and I will be damned if a little cold is going to get in the way.

OJ took us up to the highest peak and we were able to get a 360 degree view of the surrounding countryside. Although the road was more than a little rough we managed to make it and the views, oh the fabulous views made me forget about my scratchy throat for a few moments.

Mrs. Painter and I ended up spending the two hour drive talking about photography and she spent the rest of the day applying what she had learned in that mini lesson. She became quite good and I could not help but be a little proud mama when she showed me some of her better shots.












MRS. PAINTER


A PHOTO BY MRS. PAINTER



Later that evening we went to Mrs. Fruits house to have a family going away party. There were many tears and Baby Fruit was passed from open arms to open arms not once touching her feet to the floor. It makes me sad how much love she and Mrs. Fruit is going to miss by moving to the United States. I cannot imagine what they are all feeling at this moment. I cannot even begin to think of ever wanting to move to another country and leave all that is familiar behind me.


ALL BUT THE FAR TWO RIGHT LIVE IN ONE LARGE HOUSEHOLD, I CANNOT IMAGINE HOW LONELY SHE IS GOING TO BE WHEN SHE GETS HERE WHERE WE VALUE OUR ALONE TIME (P.S. THERE ARE FIVE MORE MISSING FROM THIS PHOTO)

Philippines: I am in Hell

After the party yesterday today was an official rest day. Mrs. Fruit did swing by and take us out for an hour of shopping in town but midway through I started feeling a little hot and queasy. By the time we left and made it back to the hotel I had a ranging fever. All four of us got it we think it was probably a little mild food poisoning. Mine ended up being the worse case which ended with me going to bed at 3:30pm and sleeping for 15 hours. Unfortunately God decided that I was not being punished enough so he decided to give me a cold. My cough got so bad that Mrs. Painter (who was sharing a room with me) and I had to suffer without the air conditioning all night. So here I am, sick, stuck in a million degree room with a fever and a raging cold.

I do want to however formally apologize to Mrs. Painter for making you suffer with me. Not only did you not ditch me for our parents air conditioned room I kept you up all night with my coughing. You have passed the test, I officially like you.

Philippines: Baby Fruit Turns One

Today was Baby Fruits first birthday, an event celebrated in the Philippines as importantly as a wedding here. They believe that once a child turns one then they can be officially introduced to everyone. It is a huge costume party with over 25 children, their nannies and parents, friends and family. And I cannot tell you how ADORABLE these children were. I thought it was rather funny that they were wearing a lot of superhero costumes from the states.

This party, like the Fruits wedding two years ago, shows you how close this culture really is. There were so many people most of which have known each other from birth. Rarely does anyone move away from their family circle and it shows in how close everyone is.

One of the reasons that this party was so fun is because of the nannies. A child’s birthday in the states is a lot of work. Generally the mothers are scrambling after screaming children while trying to feed everyone, coordinate the schedule, and deal with the cleanup. Here the nannies take care of the children; the three party coordinators manage all the games and food for the children, while the mothers sit back and applaud. Food is served to the adults by the various helpers, each family usually has two or three, and the cleanup is handled by a separate crew. If I could throw a party like this in the states it would cost alot, here however it was just another party and they all have them.

I had a ton of fun photographing this event, trying to capture the candid moments of the kids and of beautiful Baby Fruit on her special day.

I give you Baby Fruit dressed as Snow White:














BABY FRUIT AND I

These are some of the other adorable kids:


HE IS MAKING THIS FACE BECAUSE WE ARE OFFICALLY THE FIRST WHITE PEOPLE HE HAS EVER SEEN