Mauie Flores

Today is the last day of the Fire Prevention Month. Today, I have also read news about a fire that turned out to be one that was owned by the mom of a blogger friend. I felt the sudden panic that made me reassess the precautionary fireproofing measures that our home has. One of those that I have noted is our firewall. The firewall is the part of the house that separates it from the houses of the neighbors. Just in case a fire starts from the other house, it will prevent the fire from spreading into yours.

Firewalls are common sights in apartment buildings, townhouses, and duplexes. Asbestos is the material in house firewalls that make it fireproof. It is a metamorphic mineral that has been used for the same purpose even in the ancient times. In 1972, the United States started banning the use of asbestos in construction because of the danger that it poses to human health. One of these bad effects of asbestos inhalation is mesothelioma, a type of cancer that strikes the membrane surrounding the body's vital organs.

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A few days ago, I found myself in the emergency room of The New Medical City accompanying my husband who was suffering from another urinary tract infection. We assumed that he was having an infection judging from the fact that he was feverish and that he was passing blood in his urine. The following day, armed with his laboratory test results, we visited a resident urologist in the same hospital and he was diagnosed to have a stone in his right kidney. The stone is relatively small at 0.38 centimeters. He will undergo extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) to blast the stones so the blasted particles can easily pass through his ureters and out of his body.

My husband's doctor told us that stones naturally form in our kidneys because of our diet. However, these stones should not grow big enough to block the ureters and cause infection and pain. The best way to prevent kidney stones is to stay away from salty food and drink lots of liquids.

Back in 2006, when I started my battle with the bulge, I started to drink four glasses everyday before breakfast. This method is known as the "Four Glasses Therapy". It was not easy at first and I felt like throwing up but it got better once I got used to it.

The ultimate goal of this therapy is cleansing and detoxification. Weight loss is only one of the effects of this detoxification process. If you are trying to lose weight do not have enough budget for a weight loss product, then this may be a better option for you. My mom, who also did this therapy and is still doing this up to now, noticed that it helped regulate her blood pressure and blood sugar.

Nature has blessed us with organic materials for our general wellness. Water is the most common and, yet, the most overlooked among them. Maybe it's time you try water therapy too.

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My most-awaited phone call has come. Teacher Melba, my son's class adviser, called us up yesterday morning to tell us the good news. Ralph has finally bagged the gold this year. I am so proud and happy of my son. He has managed to go up one step even without my full supervision on his studies.

So on March 30, my son will be awarded the Gold Medal for General Academic Excellence for Grade 2. He will also receive a Gold Medal each for the Math and Computer quiz bees he joined and a Silver Medal each for the Reading Competition and the Search for the Young Environmentalist. We are ecstatic because the entire population of his grade level is around 230 pupils so being Top 1 among that number is not that simple. We will be having a dinner buffet with our relatives on Monday night to celebrate this event. Actually, one of my father's motivation to walk again after his major stroke last December is to be able to attend his grandson's celebration. Yes, my father will be walking and celebrating with us this coming Monday. Isn't God so good?

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Miss Melba Rendon, my son's adviser, for supporting him and guiding him to the top. I know that she really made it a point to always assign Ralph as the representative of his class to their quiz bees and extra curricular activities. These helped boost his grades this school year.

We still haven't bought the cable TV satellite that Ralph has requested as a prize but we will for sure since he will be on full scholarship this coming school year.

All the anxiety of waiting for the big news is all over. It's time for me to just rest my back on some of our outdoor cushions by the veranda with a glass of iced tea.

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Reality sucks but, yes, it still is nice to be back home. The vacation was both tiring and refreshing. It was our first time in Vigan and, although we can be considered as regular tourists of the City of Pines, it was our first time to visit Tamawan Village. I will be writing about our trip in the new travel blog that I recently set up. I will probably share a slide show and some short notes here. I have just finished watermarking the photos with the watermarking software that my my sweet blogger friend, Jennie, sent me and I am just starting to upload the photos to my Friendster, Facebook, and Multiply sites.

Since it's already vacation time for my boy, I am also busy planning a fruitful and educational summer for him. He will be going back to his Taekwondo classes at Footworx, Sta. Lucia East and I will enroll him too at Ryan Cayabyab's music studio in Robinson's Galleria. Both of these schools are inside shopping malls so I now have an excuse for being a mallrat the whole summer season. I will now have time for a salon treatment or maybe a short relaxing time at an express spa. Before my husband goes into panic state after reading this, I would like him to know that I will not get a microdermabrasion because I do not need it but a regular facial cleaning will do. *winks*

So there. I need to end this post now so I can get back to my photo uploading duties. Just stay tuned to see the slides! :)

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Another milestone has happened this week. My dad, who had a stroke in December 22 last year, started to walk on his own last Saturday. I am truly thankful to the Lord for helping him recover. I know that he will walk again in God's time. I already blogged about how thankful I was that he survived the stroke and when he was able to sit up with the help of my mom and brothers. I am thankful that I was there to see him walk for the first time, after two months of being bed-ridden and paralyzed.

My mother was attending a spiritual retreat over the weekend that was why I had to go to my parents' house last Saturday to take over. I brought my dad some breakfast and even brought my son along to cheer him up a little. True enough, when we arrived, he was crying his heart out because he misses his grandchildren. How I wish my nephew could come visit him soon. After he had eaten his breakfast (he fed himself, thank God!) and I gave him his medications, he told me how he felt while watching 700 Club on TV the night before. Then, he said that he thinks he can make himself stand up and he did after a while. He was wobbling a little so I told him to take it a little easy. I needed to go out to the garage to check on something but when I came back, he was already walking towards me, out of the front door and towards the gate. He was supporting himself with one crutch that he slipped under his right underarm. Apparently, he asked my son to give him the crutch that he uses whenever he has his arthritis attacks. He went out of the front gate and sat by the mango tree in front of the house.

I am also thankful that our neighbors who saw him already sitting outside the gate approached him and were also happy for him. It surely made him feel a lot better and I felt so happy seeing him laugh and exchange jokes with his friends again. God is really good. Truly, everything was resolved in God's time.




thankful thursday

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You cannot imagine how busy I am lately. It's the most toxic time of the school year with ALL of our student clients having their final exams either this week or next. I have to strictly impose a blogging hiatus. I have not bloghopped and EC dropped lately. It is heartbreaking for me to see my web site traffic go down but I know that this is but temporary. I have to focus on finishing piles of reviewers for my students and for my brothers' students as well.

Things will get better after the 11th although I promised my mom that I will help her write some of her assigned articles. On the 14th we are off to Vigan where we will just stay for a night then go to Baguio for a 4-day vacation at the husband's company vacation house. I will go full-blast on my writing assignments after that. Gawd! I am so excited to go back to being a work-from-home mom again!

So my dear readers and friends, I am so sorry for having to write a rather boring post today but I promise to return with a vengeance. My 2 new blogs (travel and parenting) will be live by then. So long for now!

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