And so it begins

Just recently Adriel learned the word: Why?

And so the next phase in our life has begun. We are now subject to why questions. A truck was stopping on the side of the road.

(I'm driving and Adriel is sitting beside me in his car seat)
Adriel: Look Momma, truck stop.
Me: Yes, Adriel.
Adriel: Why?
Me: Maybe it's broken.
Adriel: Broken? Why?
Me (in an attempt to stop his stream of whys): Well, maybe it's broken because it hasn't been taken care of. If you don't take care of your things, it will break easily too.
Me (before he has time to ask another question or more specifically another why question): Adriel, will you take care of your toys?
Adriel: Yes.
Me: Good, because if you don't it will break just like that truck.

And so his thoughts have turned elsewhere and no more whys. Whew... that time I was lucky. At other times he's more pressing with his whys. It's just gonna take my creativity to divert him :D

The first five minutes of my working day

I should say that the first five minutes of my working day is spent hitting the snooze button on my alarm. But I guess that doesn't count.

After I've finally managed to pull myself out of bed each morning, I fill myself a glass full of water and force myself to drink it. I read somewhere that drinking water before you do anything else, even brush your teeth, is good for you. It couldn't hurt, so I force myself to finish that glass of water, even sometimes nearly gagging myself while trying to finish the last drops of water.

Then I spend the next few minutes heating up leftover food and packing it up so I can eat it for lunch. Sad huh? But when you have to wake up at 4.30 am each morning to get to school by 6.45 am, that's all you have time to do. I'd usually cook more than enough for dinner, then save the rest to eat for lunch the next day. Then all I'd have to do in the mornings is heat up the leftovers and pack it up. It sure beats having to eat the same thing over and over at school. We don't get much variety, and I'm sure all of you who always have to buy lunch know what I'm talking about.

And that is how I spend the first five minutes of my working day. Now, FuelMyBlog and TSheets, can I get an Ipod?

My sweet hubby

No matter how many times I hear him say it, I never quite believe it when Frank says "I love you." "I love you"s are a part of our life. I say it to him countless times, I say it to Adriel with almost every kiss. And even though people say we should always say it to our loved ones "just in case", after the n-th time we often get used to it.

And Frank thinks he is a romantic. But I'll tell you a secret... he's not. He doesn't do flowers, he doesn't do chocolate, he doesn't do candle-light dinners. But there are so many little things that he does that tells me he loves me.

I'm the one driving the car. And he SAYS I have to be the one to take care of it. To wash it when it's dirty, to bring it to the garage when it's broken, to change the oil when it needs it, etc. The other day he found out that the turning signal wasn't functioning. I knew it was broken after I had taken it to the car wash. I just kept quiet about it cause I knew what he'd say.

When he did find out about it, he said exactly what I knew he would say. "You've got to get it fixed, take it to the garage. It's important you know. It can be dangerous if you don't get it fixed... blah-blah-blah..." Yeah, I knew that. It's just that me and garages don't mix well. I never know what to say, never know how to ha-ha-hi-hi with those mechanics.

So when I had to help out my parents and spend the night there, you know what my sweet hubby did? He took the car to the garage and got it fixed. And I knew, it was just one of his things. This is the sweet side of him that I love so much. He did it for me cause he loves me so much. He doesn't have to say it, and I know it.

Not only that, he also knew I was griping about not having a working computer at home. He knows how important it is to me to get ready for the next academic school year. So, sweet man that he is, he also took our old and ailing computer to the shop and got the processor replaced. Yeah, it's old and ailing, but it is still capable of functioning. It just needed a little attention. And my man provided it.

So ladies, if your man is just not the Romeo-sweet talker that you dreamed of, don't worry... find the other things that he does that lifts your spirits. Because you know, men aren't made out of cardboard that we can play with. They're not actors that can memorize lines. And maybe their brain is just not geared the same way we are. But if you pay attention to the things he does, you'll know how much he cares. Then you'll be happy, just like me and my man. Love you dear hubby.

Meeting the Giants

You see them on TV, you see them in the news. You see her anchoring the news. But you don't really get to know them personally. You don't know their personal thoughts and opinions.

Well, since some of the giants started blogging, you can actually get to know them a little bit more.

I was watching TV a couple of weeks ago. Haha, I know, Martha has time to watch TV. Usually Laela, our helper, has full control of the TV. But somehow there I was flipping the channels and started to watch the news about Desy Anwar being accused of being an accessory to the assasination attempt of Ramos Horta. It was quite intriguing to watch. Of course it was ridiculous how Ramos Horta first accused Desy Anwar and Metro TV quite blatantly then go back a few days later and have his PR people say he did no such thing. Okay, and those recorded proofs are what? But Desy, much more polite than myself handled the whole affair very maturely. I was impressed actually.

But today, I stumbled upon the personal blog of Desy Anwar. And to know her a bit more, by her response to the whole situation, by her blogging, by her writing, I am even more impressed. I can actually say I've met a real giant.

Comfort for teachers like me

It was about a week ago. I was generally feeling down at school. I felt like avoiding everyone. Then we had the ascension service. At that service I heard a statement from the paster that hit home and cheered me up.

He was talking about how Jesus throughout his teachings told his disciples about how he would die but rise again. How he was going to build a kingdom, but not on this earth. Then the preacher said but his students were stubborn and never understood. Later on, when I told Frank about this, he added on, "Yeah and they were with Jesus for what three years?"

And this is what gave me comfort, when I thought "I'm a failure!" I had these students for about three months, and I couldn't get them to learn Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Database, emailing and HTML enough to help them pass the practical exam!! But Jesus, he had his disciples for 3 years, and he, the greatest teacher of all time, couldn't get his disciples to understand him either. So there are just some things that a teacher cannot do. So there's my comfort. That the greatest teacher of all time had difficulty with his students at one point too. So much more for a teacher like me.

Yes, in the end Jesus' disciples became equipped and finally understood him after Jesus went up and left them. And soon, my students will go and leave me. I hope they took at least a little bit with them. To equip them for their next step in life. Wherever they go.

And Lord, thank you for the lesson. And although it is difficult, I know spoon feeding students is not the answer. You made your students figure things out for themselves. Getting students to think makes us as teachers look stupid sometimes. Especially when our students don't get it. So Lord, help me to get students, to get it.

Yacko Ring Back Tone

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hav a great weekend!

luvs,

Yacko

What white lines on the road?

I love my morning drive to work. And I know this sounds crazy, but especially when it starts to jam up a bit.

I love it when drivers start to try and push their car through in front of mine. I take it as a personal challenge to my driving skills. If I can help it, I will push them right back from where they came from. And I'm proud to say I rarely give way. And I'm especially happy when I beat those big trucks and buses.

Another thing that amuses me is when a road with three lanes becomes four and sometimes five lanes. It's like saying, those white lines on the road? They're there for decorative purposes only. We like to create our own lines.

I was trained in Driver's Ed. Arlington High School Summer School in 1990. They made us sit in those driving simulation things, listen to the rules of the road, where to place your hands on the wheel (at 10 and 2 o'clock by the way), and watch those movies about what reckless driving can do. It was all about defensive driving.

Well, I think I can only apply less than half of those rules now in Jakarta. Here it's all about OFFENSIVE driving. You gotta PUSH your way through. Stick the nose of your car in front of another, so that they have to avoid you. If they run into you, it's their fault man, they ran into you. No matter if it was you who was sticking your car where it shouldn't have been. Haha!

It's a jungle out there man. Every car to itself. If you can't push someone out of the way, you'll never get to your destination.

Blast from the past

Being a lecturer/teacher means having to have great memory. Which I don't have.

Today I got an email from a former student. I never really taught her, but I did talk to her. One day I emailed her about continuing her studies at my former workplace. You know, it was just a job. One of my responsibilities. Something I had to do.

But she responded nicely and we started to email back and forth. Not very often, but every time she is the one who pops in a note.

Today I read her most recent emails. It was long. It was her heart poured out. And I felt for her. Why should she email me if she had someone else to talk to? She's such a bright, promising young lady. Doesn't she have anyone to talk to?

Then a few minutes ago i'm talking to another former student. We chit-chat about this and that... mentioning this guy,that girl... and it strains my memory to have to remember all those names. It makes me feel guilty when I don't.

New vocab: bald

Yesterday I came home late. Adriel was already in his PJs and I was sitting at the dining table relaxing after the drive home. He was next to me, chatting me up. Don't know what got the idea in my head but I asked him, "Adriel do you want to go to the salon again to make your head bald?" He recently got it cut real short and was sorta bald. He didn't understand what we meant by bald, and he didn't understand that his hair was real short then. So we'd take his hand and run it through his stubbly hair. We got a good laugh out of that.

So yesterday, after I asked him the question he said, "Yeah! Like this?" And he ran his hand through his hair. It was so cute the way he smiled and did the hand through hair thing. Then he started to say, "Opa bald?" I answered "Yes" while laughing out loud because how did he know to associate bald with Opa? Hahahahaha. Then he said "Mommy not bald." And I thought, "Goodness gracious, thankfully no and hopefully never." Hahahahaha.

My road to riches

I've been living in Serpong for 3 years now. Every single day I've traveled through Serpong Raya. And I've seen them dig up that road, let's see... about 3 times a year.

So here's my brilliant idea. Instead of digging up that road every single time somebody wants to plant a cable, why doesn't somebody do some planning and instead install a tube that travels along the entire Serpong Raya road? I've seen somebody do that, but the tube thingy is only about 5 inches in diameter.

So, if I can get the government to give me the rights, and get somebody to finance me, then this is what I'll do. I'll dig up the road and make a huge mess, create traffic jams from end to end for about 1 month maybe. But then I'll install that tube thing, big enough for people to even crawl through. Then anytime anybody wants to install a cable, another fiber optic, another electricity cable, whatever. They have to go to me, pay me money, and I'll allow them to pull their cables through.

Brilliant eh? And after that? No more digging up, no more messes, no more new holes in the road, no more traffic jams due to people constantly doing construction work.

So, on to the next thing... anyone want to finance me? :)