Ely - Got Sick

I have been a bit busy since my last post last week. Also, from what I remember, it was Friday when we had to leave the dogs (Ely and Kiko) at home so we could pick up groceries and pay our utilities. When got home, it was the usual scene. Ely as a puppy would always play with whatever he can when I leave him. Thus, leaving his food container to be wrecked for the nth time. Since this usually happens weekly I didn't bother and just cleaned the crime scene. A day after, his poop were still normal though I found small traces of red blood and some wood strips from some of his poops. I started worrying but I was still hopeful it's nothing serious.

Monday morning after my shift, I brought him out for a walk, which we always do on a daily basis. I slept for a couple of hours and when I woke up, I noticed that Ely was not that happy, not his usual self. I thought it was just because of the extreme heat that day so I just gave him water. He made his first poop around 10 AM, it was the usual poop but no traces of blood. Around 12, I was preparing their lunch when Ely didn't show any sign of interest (not his usual again). He was always the excited one when it comes to lunch but he didn't even bother smelling the food. After a few minutes I found him pooping, it wasn't his usual poop and it was extremely smelly. I immediately went to my neighbor since hubby's not home that day. Our neighbor said to give him a short bath and diatabs (as he probably has diarrhea). I did give him a short bath which probably eased out the extreme heat for a bit. He rested for a couple of hours while I'm checking him constantly.

Since I needed to sleep for my work schedule that night I cleaned the house a bit but noticed Ely not responding to me at all. Then I smelled that foul smell again and found him pooping while he's lying down under the table. I immediately went out and asked for help. I was in shock and didn't know what to do. They said I need to bring him to the hospital. Since I don't know how to drive, our neighbors were kind enough to get me a tricycle and kuya Leo with me to the vet.

I was so terrified losing my baby. And he's just 7-month old.

Thankfully, the vet was nice enough to accommodate us even it's a bit late. She gave Ely some meds and immediately put dextrose on him. I had a hard time working that night knowing that Ely is not  beside me and worse, sick. After my shift, I tried sleeping so I could get the energy to face whatever the vet has to tell me. Around 10AM I asked her about Ely's condition and she said that Ely's doing better and he hasn't pooped since the last time he did in the clinic which was around 7PM that night and that I could picked him up around 5PM that day.

When I saw him, he's still not that recovered but at least he is walking and can recognize me. I was so happy to bring him home. He was given several meds to ensure his recovery.

 He also needed the dextrose since he hasn't eaten for two days. When we brought him home, I prepared the sala for him to sleep on.

Now, Ely's doing a lot better. He got his appetite back, and his poop is back to normal. We also got the CBC results from last Tuesday's and upon talking to the vet, he advised a three week medication for Ely. It's a bit hard to give him his pills but I'd rather have problems with giving him pills that not having him at all.

Thanks to everyone who prayed for my Ely. Thank God. 

House Plate - Done

After a good 10 days wait, house plate finally arrived. Feels so good to finally have this on our fence. It's like a whole new gift from God reminding us to work harder so we could finally fully pay the house so we can call it ours.

It really made my day. Thank you Lord.

Videoke Madness

I maybe your typical working house wife but honestly I've always been a videoke addict. Yes people, when I'm alone, which happens only every Sundays, I always get my Mac on, my S2 and my ever reliable favorite site for video, youtube. I used to just record it in my phone but when I listen to it, it ended up very distorted. Until one day, I chanced up on a great site to record my song covers online. Meet Sound Cloud. Sound Cloud has helped me record good quality covers since I started this months ago. I probably have around 20 recordings already which I really enjoyed listening to when I'm alone. 

I'm the shy type so I don't allow every one to listen in but you may check out one of my covers. 

http://soundcloud.com/joan-dizon/cover-true-colors-1

Blogger doesn't have a utility yet to post it here so just click on the link and be hooked as well. 

House Progress

This post has been late for months but I would still like to show you guys how our house progressed for several months during construction. We ended our 1 year DP last December 2011 and so the construction began I believe in the latter part of the month. We tried to visit the house every two weeks to ensure that our presence are known to the developers and workers that we are overseeing how things progress and if they are indeed working on the details correctly. 

January, First week

January, Third week

February, Second week 

March, First week

Finished, March, Second week

Right now, there had been some minor changes in the house, we've added fence, gate and a few other things. Though our plan has not been completely done yet but we're getting there. I'll probably post additional pics on the succeeding weeks or months. We have already moved in last August 10, 2012 and we're really proud home owners. 

Bullying

Bullying... The most common form of negativity nowadays. Most people recognizes that bullying starts in school. But no, I don't believe that, I believe it starts from home, the basic unit of society. If the kids were brought up in a family where bullying is tolerated, kids will most likely bring it to school, their second home. 

I was a victim of bullying even in grade school. Though I was consistently in the cream section and was almost always at the top 10 of the class, I remembered being called names because of what I look like. I was a bit on the big boned side when I was younger and most kids see that as being fat. Some mean girls in class would call me pig, fatso, etc. I also have a very sensitive skin that even a single mosquito bite would turn up to be an open would thus causing me to have more tiny scars on my legs and arms. This triggers the mean girls in class to call me piggy bank etc. I was hurt, yes, but it didn't stop me from studying harder and I just didn't mind them until they stopped. 

In High School, I remembered being bullied by this one guy. He's really mean to girls like me, who doesn't have that many friends, and the not so good looking ones. I remember one time before our class started, he slapped my behind so hard that I cried out of humiliation. The last thing I remembered, he was kicked out of that school due to a fight with a teacher. I was also a COCC (Cadet Officer Candidacy Course) and I guess part of the training requires to be bullied by the CAT officers. I've experienced several bullying incidents as well, but it didn't stop me from my goal. After our COCC graduation, I promised myself that I will never turn out to be a bully CAT officer. I decided that if I want change then I have start it with myself. It needs to end there. 

I feel that these incidents didn't come from school perse, they either experienced them at home or see incidents at home that triggers violence or they're also being called names by a family member. 

Please let's all stop the hate. Let's start it with ourselves. Love and respect!

Carl and Ellie

I believe most of you have seen the movie UP. It's the most inspiring movie for me. Not because I find Russel (the little guy) too cute (well, yeah, he is) but because of Carl and Ellie (the couple). Though the movie is just set as a cartoon but it captured my heart completely. Carl and Ellie reminds me of what my husband and I have; a relationship based on friendship and love. Like them, we're childless, in fact, 7 years TTC. Unlike other couples our age who now have toddlers or preschoolers or even high school aged kids, we're just a couple who have dogs and a house. Though, like Carl and Ellie, we're also hoping and praying that someday we will have our own babies (human), but in any case God has other plans for us, we're good with that.

So, cheers to other couples out there who wished, have wished, will wish for kids or just plainly happy to be together with their best friend and true love. Let us be like Carl and Ellie who embraces their own adventure in life... together.

(Picture, not mine, googled)

Habagat 2012

August 7, 2012. Just a day before we move in to our own home in Sta. Maria, Bulacan, we were submerged in flood waters again (yeah, remember Ondoy and other typhoons). This time, this is just a Habagat. We were about to purchase a new bed for our new home but since it was raining non stop for hours, around 7AM, flood water started rising. The water was already outside our house when hubby and I went out to my mom's house. We had to be fast because flood water was rising up really fast too. 

We stayed inside MJ which was parked inside Valenzuela Memorial Park. Thank God for MJ once again who keeps saving us from calamities like this. When we checked a day after (yes it took 24 hours before the water subsided), the water reached waist level inside our house. It drained all our stuff, clothes, etc. We had power outage for 4 days too. We spent August 8 and 9 in mom's house but we had to move to our own house already so we decided to move in at August 10. I've never felt relieved. 

I do hope we don't go through the same thing. I hope that 3 years of flood experience is already enough and that we can move on with our lives. Anyway, here are some of the pictures of what happened that day. 

Meet Up with High School Friends

These guys made my high school memories really fun and exciting. Fortunately, after years of no communication, and thanks to Facebook, we were able to find ourselves meeting up. Anna and Cris have kids, Rocel is still single and me, married. I love you guys!

Depressed... Again...

My months of July, August and September had been pure downers. Reason being is that our long running tasks had stopped giving us work, thus, leaving our wallets empty. My 1 consistent task had been our primary source of income since July, which is a bummer because we're just on our first year of  ten year - amortization for our house. So, we're practically living from paycheck to paycheck. Good thing we were able to somehow fund for our house improvement. There's nothing more to improve really as we got ourselves a finished type house but we still need to have a fence constructed that time. It took us around 70-80K pesos to have the fence and gate constructed which really drained our savings.

Even after moving in, I didn't feel happy. Probably because a day before our supposed original date for move in, we were submerged in flood waters (which is another story). But I guess it was more of feeling worried about how moving in to our very own house would make us more responsible to complete the payment and worried that if we don't finish it we would end up living in the streets (too morbid to even think about it now). I'm worried that we don't get another task soon, and this current one decides to kick me out, I'd end up cramming for some mediocre jobs.

Then one day in August, my husband made a comment that made me super worried about everything. He said "I would be surprised and happy to see us pay for this entire house and we're still working in Odesk". That made think everyday. I had so many what if's. What if the company I'm working for decides to just close like what it did a year ago where I didn't sleep for days just to be able to apply for a job in Odesk. What if hubby doesn't find a job soon and we'll start selling some of our stuff or pawn my jewelry again, worst, pawn our wedding rings. I thought that working from home was and is still the best job there is, but in reality, it's not a stable job. You can get hired in an instant yet be fired faster than you getting the job.

That's also part of the reason why I said yes when the HR rep from Dell Malaysia asked me if I would like to continue with the process of me moving to Malaysia and work for them. I took it after 2 days of rethinking though, but I'm still thinking if working abroad is really my thing.

Up until now, I feel depressed, sad most of the time and gets easily angry at anything. I feel unhappy at work, unmotivated to go out and I feel that I lack the inspiration though part of my dream to have our own simple house. I don't have the means to be happy and I don't know until when I'm like this.

Please pray for me.