It is a momentous achievement for the whole Davao Occidental Medical Society. This is another reason to do more and be more. Congratulations to all the officers and members.

Dr. Alain Kintanar receiving the recognition for Malita District Hospital.

Yours truly receiving the recognition for Davao Occidental Medical Soceity.

The Burden of Dental Cavities

For the past 4 years and more, I've seen children crying as they are forced to go inside the dental office.  Believe me I've had my share of those times. I didn't have the perfect teeth as I was growing up. If you force me to show you my molars, you'd easily the dental works that I've had. 

Back to the dental office, children cry as they are forced to enter the office. Parents and even grandparents are tested to their limits. How to encourage the children to get their teeth checked. Good thing our dentist have very good manners. I saw a dentist once who was so arrogant. I think I've blogged about him before. So arrogant. If I didn't need him to check my kids' teeth I wouldn't sit in his office listening to his lectures about how bad a mother I was.

I don't wanna tell you that we should be sure that our kids' teeth are always clean, or that they should be brushing their teeth after every meal. I'll let the dentist do that. But I'll tell you this... Whatever we fail to do with our kids, we should except the outcome of our actions. And that we should not blame them for our negligence. Kids are kids. They will be kids. They do not know what we know now. So don't expect them to do what you expect of them. Have patience.

Sometimes I tend to forget that myself. I admit that. That's why I don't regard myself as a perfect mother. But i do what I can and try to be the best that I could for them. So the next time you bring them to the dentist because of cavities, please try to remember my words. Have a wonderful week ahead!

That's Just How It Is

I don't know if you have these same feelings. It's like this. When I was pregnant with my kids, I spent the first 4-5 months in bed. I always have hyperemesis. I vomit a lot (forgive me for the word). When I say a lot, about 17 times or more per day. I eat a lot when I can because I know, everything will just go back out. And I was always concerned about the nutrients I was getting for my babies but I cannot help it, even with the meds that I was given. I hated the smell of garlic, whew... Terrible smell. Even colognes and perfumes. I had to tell everyone at home I didn't like their smell, yeah thats how bad it was. 

So I spent most of my days for the next 5 months, in bed, watching television, looking for any feel-good movies or series. That's how I saw the Baby series, My Fair Wedding with David Tutera, The Holiday movie and a lot more. They got me thru the most dreadful days of my pregnant life. I have a lot to be thankful about.

Now when I saw these series and the movies, I feel nauseated. It's like I'm having those feelings and emotions and morning sickness all over again. That's why even if these are really good movies to watch, I'd rather not look at them. Silly isn't it? But that's how it is. Have you had these feelings?

Draft Sketches

It has been a stressful week and everyone is sick. And if you know me that well, you know what I do with my past time. Been sketching a lot. I use the app Paper by Fiftythree on my Ipad Pro with apple pencil. It's a good app actually, have made a lot of sketches with this app. Here are my draft sketches:

Here I'm trying to draw a leaf, a different kind of leaf. The one in Lord of the Rings movie worn by Aragorn and his partner, the princess elf. Gosh I'm so bad with names.

Here is a butterfly.

My daughter thinks that she's the woman in the picture 'cuz it looks like her, so I might as well call this "Kate".

Here is an infinished sketch of a turtle.

I'll be using the Procreate app next time. I'm hearing so much about it. Will talk about it soon.

Stationaries, Pens and Papers...

For those born in the early part of the 80's, don't you miss stationaries? First off, have you ever tried collecting them? I remembered me and my sister collecting different paper products. There were cartoony ones and there were floral ones. We'd barter all sorts of stationaries, with all sorts of sizes depending on the designs. We used to have a box full of stationaries. My Ama used to sell them, my mother used to sell them as well along with Parker pens which I secretely take when she's not around. I used to send notes to my classmates using colorful paper products. Now I wonder where all those are. Maybe it's time to open up Ama's boxes again, hmmmm...

I see a lot of paper products these days, with different designs and with different gsms, acid free or non-acid free. I didn't really care much of those during those days, it was all in the design. But with the advent of watercolors, calligraphy, fountain pens and all other colorful pens and papers, one is very much critical on where each type is used. Although I'm not complaining since I'm a hoarder of all of the above, I just miss the simplicity of writing a simple letter to a friend or a loved one. I miss the exchanges of notes whether it be a one-page letter or a 5-paged letter.

Let me also include the advent of stamps which can easily make a plain paper into a well designed paper product. Ahhh... You should see the transformation... A sight for sore eye. 

What other paper products have you tried?