02.01.11 | A Present for Mom

Mothers always want to care for their children; to hug them and love them. Or simply just to be near them no matter what age they are. However, this was never the case for my mom.

She never had us with her all at one time while growing up most especially now that we're adults and have families of our own. It is also mainly because two of my siblings live in the other side of the world from us. Mom has to take an almost 24 hour plane ride to be with them for a short time until she has to go back home to the Philippines.

So, for her birthday this year my brothers, sister & I along with our respective partners planned a simple surprise for her. Nothing ostentatious, but very much from our hearts.

Here's one of the gift we surprised her with. It's a "Family Love Box".

It is 4 x 4 in box that explodes into a 12 x 12 in scrapbook page with photos of Mom, her children and grandchildren.

It also came with a coordinating card.

Now, Mom can be with her four children and seven grandkids anytime, all the time.

Happy Birthday Ma! We love you!

Friends: Old & New

I was so excited to see the kids come home from school yesterday. Since last week was spent mostly in orientation they only stayed in school for half a day therefore not giving them a whole lot of time to mingle with their classmates. So, after spending the whole day in school yesterday they had plenty of stories to share mostly about their friends. They were happy that they had a couple of buddies in their homeroom and proud that they made new ones, too.

And as I went to work in my craft area last night I was inspired to make some friendship cards.


Am sure like me you have different sets of friends whom you met along the different stages of your life. There are our childhood friends, high school friends, college friends, work friends, friends from the various organizations we've joined and many more.


However, like all things in life nothing is permanent friendships included. It is a sad reality that friends come and go in our lives. Nevertheless, there are those special ones whom we've remained in touch with for who knows how long. They are the ones who've stuck it out with us in good times and bad and vice versa. They've become a constant mainstay in our lives that even our extended family knows them.


And when life takes over and you don't get to see or talk to each other as much as you used to it's okay because you are both confident enough to know that you can count on your friendship anytime.