Three Years Later...I'm Still Here!

I can't believe that three years had gone by that quickly. I had intended to update this blog at least once a month, unlike before when I only had updates once a year; however, unexpected life events got in the way...again. A lot of positives though, which is great!

 Below is the summary of the past three years.

  Year 2011- Since early December of 2010, Jessica and I started baking. Along with my love of cooking, she and I started bonding while making sweet treats to eat and share with others. The recipients were happy and they gave us great feedback! Then, in early January 2011, Jessica and I had an idea about baking for charity. JessiCakes Project is the name coined for this non-profit project. Jessica and started this while she was in high school.

The responses were great and we found ourselves taking orders not only from family and friends, but those who are friends and families of our family and friends. JessiCakes Project was launched on Facebook on January 4, 2011. Naturally, as we took on more orders, the more we got busier. I was still able to do my writing gigs, but not as much as I used to. The baking gig was doing much better in terms of income and it also served its purpose in helping others; therefore, it took precedence over writing. So, while I took on fewer writing assignments, the money was still coming in at a stable pace with baking.

August 18, 2011, my youngest brother's son-- Matthew, was born.

More on writing versus baking later on...

 Although, I provide the foundation and the backbone that JessiCakes Project was built on, it's Jessica who is the heart of this non-profit organization. She's the CEO, so a lot of her input counted. She also had a lot of say on the design and taste. My husband, Patrick, was a great help as well. He helps make the delivery boxes for the cakes that don't fit in the normal boxes available in retail shops. He is also helps in the shipping and delivery of the goods. More importantly, he is a taste-tester. He's offered constructive criticisms that helped us hone our skills to make our baked goodies not only look better, but, more importantly, taste better.

 In December 2011, Jessica applied at 5 different colleges and universities.

  Year 2012 - This year started off with a bit of joy, which turned into sadness a few weeks later. We've done our usual New Year celebration by turning on the lights in each room at our Oakley home. Then, proceeded to greeting our dogs in the garage. Little did we expect that the New Year 2012, would be the last time we will have with Angel, our dearly beloved female mixed black lab. She has been with us since 1999. She had moved to several homes with us. Oakley, was her last home.

 It's sad that, on the morning of January 28, she was still okay, and then she died that late afternoon. I remember crying a lot. She's been a friend. I also felt bad she had to stay out in the garage because she had been messing up inside the house due to old age. We cannot have that kind of "mess" while baking at home. So, I felt bad that she had to die in that kind of condition-- in a cage that she hated so much. That time that Angel died, Jessica also preparing for her finals. She felt bad about not paying too much attention to Angel that day. She often interacted with her and played with her, but she had just be so busy...and nobody, no one ever thought this would happen that day. I think that's how death is...it comes like a thief in the night...when you least expect it. I also felt bad that I had not interacted with her that day. It was Patrick who interacted with her that morning and he was also the one who found her lifeless body that early evening. We took her to the Vet, where her remains was taken cared of and sent to Napa for cremation.

Angel's ashes are now in a box displayed in our family room.

 Life goes on...

 Jessica passed her tests with flying colors. She also received acceptance letters from the colleges she applied to. Saint Mary's College, Mills College, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, and University of the Pacific. By late March, she opted to go to UC Davis for her pre-med-- majoring in Genetics. The UC Davis Biological Sciences was ranked 9th in the nation in 2012, and ranked 8th in 2013.

In March, my youngest brother, Erwin, was ordained at Paco, Metro Manila. It was the best day ever for the whole family. I couldn't attend, but alll of my other siblings were able to witness this joyous and blessed occasion.

On May 24, Jessica graduated with Dean's High Honor list from California Virtual Academy. The graduation was held at the Vacaville Performance & Arts Center. It's funny, before she graduated from High School, we signed our contract for our new place in Vacaville, where we decided to move to while Jessica attends college in nearby Davis, which is only 18 minutes away. She did not want to stay at the dorm, and, frankly, nor did her dad and I.

 The move...

 By mid-June 2012, our new home in Vacaville was ready for final walk-through. Luckily, we have already had a signed lease agreement with our tenants in our Oakley home. We plan on returning since Patrick's family are all in Oakley, besides, who can sell those days? The market value of our Oakley home is under water since the market has not fully recovered yet. Great news though...our tenants are awesome!

 We also sold a lot of our properties. Moving from 4,200 sqft 5BR/4.5BA/3CAR home to a 2,340 sqft 4BR/2.5BA/2CAR home has its disadvantages-- all our stuff wouldn't fit, so downsizing was inevitable. We held a series of weekend garage sales to get rid of a lot of our stuff. I sold some items on Facebook that generated a lot of interests from my friends. I used Craigslist too! Those that we could not sell, we donated to Goodwill and some were handed down to friends and family. We made money that helped in our move. Our tenants' lease started August 1st, but we let them move in a week before.

We started moving late June, so moved our stuff little by little in July and had a big move 2 weeks before we turned over the keys to the tenants. New home new beginning... As always, a new move is both exciting and stressful. Loads of items to unpack. Our boxes remained unopened for a couple of weeks. Then, Jessica had to prepare for College life. It was to be her last summer, but she spent it moving and helping us prepare our new home. It's okay for her because all of these are for her. This is Jessica's home.

 Fast-forward to Fall of 2012, when Jessica officially became a college freshman. Lots of challenges compared to High School. She had some adjusting to do. It's her toughest quarter, but she pulled through with God's help. She continued as a choir member at church and helped as much as she could with JessiCakes Project, which we continued at our new place. In 2012, I probably only wrote one article per month, mostly doing Yahoo articles only. November 2012 was presidential elections. First time that Jessica voted after turning 18 in November.

  Year 2013 -

The year started off well. We attended the special worship service held at the Billy Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco along with thousands of faithfuls from near and around Northern California. Bro. Eduardo V. Manalo, the Church of Christ's Executive Minister, officiated the special service. Receiving this wonderful blessing at the start of the New Year was one of the highlights of 2013.

On January 4, only few days after the special gathering, another family pet had left us. Rex, a mixed German-Rottweiller, who we adopted from an SPCA in Suisun, died barely a year after Angel's death. He was almost 12 years old. Rex was the gentle giant. He was a very good boy. Never gave us any headaches and was an excellent guard dog. We had him cremated in Suisun, near where we adopted him. It's like he just went home. His ashes are in a special box near Angel's box that we keep in our family room.

May 1, my youngest brother, Erwin, earned his master's degree in education, (M.A.Ed), from New Era University. He graduated with a flat grade of 1.0, which is the highest score, and received the Best in Thesis award.

May 5, JessiCakes Project received its permit from the County of Solano. It's also registered as a business under my name. JessiCakes Project is now a for profit business, which is operated legally in our home's kitchen.

June-August, Jessica attended her first Summer class at UC Davis. September, Fall Session sophomore started for Jessica.

In September, my husband's Uncle Pert gave Jessica his 2004 Mercedes Benz E500, which was the same car we leased from Mercedes Benz years ago. He paid off the balance in 2006 and took over its title. He wanted Jessica to have a nice car. He was so proud of her and wanted her to become a full pledge doctor. We sold the car to Carmax in Fairfield for $7000 in early November. We used to money to purchase tickets and pocket money to the Philippines. We got Jessica a 2008 Cadillac SRX from Mercedes Benz of Fairfield after we got a pre-approval from our credit union to reconstruct the Ford Expedition and Cadillac to equal the monthly payment of Ford Expedition. It allowed us to get Jessica a newer car that is easier and cheaper to maintain. Uncle Pert passed away three months later. 

December 13- December 31 - Jessica and I went to the Philippines. I had not been back in 10 years. I've been trying to for several years; but, due to many expenses incurred in moving and Jessica's tuition fees, the trip never happened. Thank goodness for Uncle Pert's generosity and for Jessica's kindness in letting go of a car in order for us to make this memorable trip. It was truly priceless! 

We took Asiana Airlines, which was the cheapest available at $1267 pp in economy. They have excellent service, no wonder they were voted Best Airline for the last 5 years now. The food was great. We enjoyed our stay at the Transit Hotel in Seoul. South Korea. We stayed there both ways. 

Our stay at my family's home in Alaminos, Laguna was memorable as well. Jessica was able to bond with her cousins, uncles, and aunties. We had so much fun. We also stayed with my brother Erwin's condo near Templo Central for a few days. We had our Pasalamat (Year end Thanksgiving Service) at Templo Central in English (11:00AM). What a blessing to attend it there. Jessica was in such awe. 

December 27, for Erwin's 35th birthday, I treated the family to a nice restaurant in MOA (Mall of Asia). My younger sister, Beh, found this nice place with the view that became more spectacular at night because we had the front seat to the fireworks! Too bad, Kuya Rommel was tied up in a meeting; therefore he and his family could not join us. Joseph was infuriated because he wanted us to be together and take a family portrait. 

I was able to spend an hour with my best friend from High School, Jane Bleza. We exchanged gifts. Glad she was able to join us for dinner, if only for a short time. We haven't seen each other for 28 years. A lot of my high school friends were a bit disappointed for not seeing me. But, what can I do? Jessica and I were sick the first week of our stay and I had to leave Erwin's place a day early.

During the trip, we finally got to meet Erwin's cute son Matthew, who we all fondly call-- Matthew the Destroyer. That boy loves Barney! He always has a smile on his face. What a happy baby! Glad to meet him at a tender age of 2. He loves to sing to Barney songs and he answers to "Sino ang guwapo?" with "Aku". 

Kuya Rommel's youngest son, Felix, is another adorable kid. A new addition to the family, a year and a half older than Matthew, but a lot smaller. He is the Hulk and Spiderman rolled into one Smeagol (his dad's pet name for him). 

During this trip, we met our soon-to-be addition to the family-- Angel, my nephew RD's fiance. She's lovelier in person than her photos on facebook. I'm so glad that I was instrumental in fixing some misunderstandings between her and some of my siblings. A wedding is set...August 2014!

Got to see Ate Adi, Kuya Toti, Adrielle Marie, Jeena Dae, and Anita. They brought some food while Kuya rommel made some bulalo and ate Macy made some bloodless dinuguan...haha .

Speaking of food, we were pampered at both houses. Ate Cora's cooking was so identical to my mother's cooking that every bite brought me back during those times she was cooking for us. They were delicious! Ate Cora is my mama's protegee. Erwin's wife-- Joan, is also another great cook! She made everything from crispy pata and lumpia to kare-kare, etc. Jessica and I were so pampered!

December 30, Leaving my family back home was so sad. We had it in two parts-- bye to Erwin and family at MOA after his birthday celebration, I cried a river there. We did not get to say goodbye to Mickey (performing as organist), ate Macy, Marc, and Felix, they had to stay home while Kuya Rommel took us to the airport. At the airport, everyone else saw us off, including Angel. I will never forget my last glimpse of them...the last time I looked back and saw them all lined up, next to each other, looking at us...with tears rolling down their cheeks. I LOVE THEM ALL!

December 31, we arrived in SFO. We're back home...Papa picked us up. Missed Cloud, he stayed home. He was soooo happy to see us back home! Happy that we're home on New Year's eve as planned, but my heart still aches and longs for my family back in the Philippines. Jessica and I plan to go back in 3 years-- 2016!