Two quarters to go

Apparently, I'm not a good blogger. I also tend to think that blogging about everyday life is boring unless you're a really good writer and can turn an ordinary experience into an extraordinary experience. If I thought long and hard enough and used my imagination, I might be able to pull something out that would be admired by my 3rd graders, but beyond that... yeah. So here is my gift to you -- the boring.

Second quarter ended on October 25th. On the 21st and 22nd, we all went to an ACSI Conference which was an interesting experience to say the least. The plenary speakers were outside of ACSI and they spent about 6 hours of both days preaching a drama-filled health/wealth gospel in either the style of a raucous game show or the style of a Philippine telenovela. It was the talk of the town... or at least the school... and the source of many jokes in days following. We also went out to eat as a department and threw a surprise baby shower for the art teacher. The baby was due Nov. 11th, but she was born on Oct. 27th I think.

Survivor came to an end and I gave the surviving kids a brownies and ice cream party. Only 7 out of the 15 were able to come, so that meant more brownies and ice cream for the teachers. :)

October 26th to November 1st was the much-anticipated visit from the tunafish herself, Keena! We got to see "The Sound of Music" stage musical, courtesy of my parents, did a whole lot of nothing, pretended to do schoolwork (we did do some), and went to Lucena.

Lucena -- initially we had planned to do dinner here on Monday night (Nov. 31st), but then the newlywed lovebirds decided it would be fun to go to Lucena and swim at Manasa Farm (a spring water resort in the provinces). We were able to rent a van from DJ's family and all left together Sunday night after church. We arrived at a house that belongs to Kemi's mom's side of the family around 10pm. Some of the girls had brought donuts as part of their food contribution but the donuts got squashed en route, so rather than leave the poor things squashed... we ate them. :)

Family Devotions

More pics can be found on FB or Google+

Monday morning, our daddy on the trip, Gian, led family devotions on Ecclesiastes 1. It was very good and a good start to our day. Manasa was only about 30 minutes away, but people were already taking naps in the van on the way. I have reached the conclusion that we are all old and boring because we swam for a few hours and then ate a lot and swam a bit more, but mostly just took pictures. The boys wanted a photoshoot of all their jumping-into-the-pool poses. (See FB or Google+ for some of the pics.) They also wanted me to take a video of themselves trying to swim like mermaids. Yes, in some ways we are mature, but in many ways, not all of us are that grown up after all. :) We even left earlier than scheduled because everyone wanted to take a nap. :) We took about an hour nap at the house and then left and most people slept for about another hour a half. I noticed on Facebook that some of the teens from church had their own swimming outing and went wild playing water games. Conclusion: don't get old and boring.

I was convinced that the faculty and staff retreat was Friday-Saturday, but thankfully, in God's providence, a teacher texted me on Wednesday night asking me to get her Bible at school when I go by to get my ride to the retreat. I was like... wait.. WHAT?!?!? I knew the dates, but forgot to look at a calendar. Whew!

We had our retreat in Tagaytay at the CCT Retreat Center. It was very, very nice. I think we should have a REBAP Camp there. :) The retreat was very... wet. It was cold and wet the whole time. The retreat itself was very good. World Vision were the facilitators of all the sessions and we studied the Lord's Prayer. We had also extended times of "solitude" where we got away from everyone else and just had peace and quiet to commune with God. It was very refreshing and "retreat-y". :)

Each set of houses has a little conference room as well. There is another whole set of houses on the other side.

Teacher picking on teacher.

Dining hall. On the left side of the dining hall was yet another large function room.

Jumping teachers.

We tried to leave a bit earlier because we heard the weather in Manila wasn't all that great, but we still left at 6, which was the original schedule. I had driven to school on Thursday and left the car at school, which was both good and bad for coming home. It was good because it would have been a nightmare to commute home on a Friday night in the rain. It was bad because it's very hard to drive at night in the rain on poorly lit streets and with motorcycles driving towards you in between the lanes like maniacs. Ridiculous.

And that, my friends, is the conclusion to my lovely stories.