"And so this is Christmas, What have I done?"

Today is the day before Christmas, December 23. We went to Victory today, but this time to preform our Christmas play (Christmas in Egypt) again. Well if you don't know (since I haven't been blogging) I was chosen to be the narrator of the play. Time goes by so fast... Wouldn't you believe my  last post was October? And just to answer the title of this post, I'd be pleased to plate you on the things I've done in the "ber" months.

Probably the very highlight of the ber months was the death of my grandfather , yes, Lolo Doc. You've probably seen most of my posts about him on my posts, and it hurts for me to posting this, but  I've fully recovered from my grief. Although,  there are times wherein I think about him. An example was today, when at the garden I realized the cool Christmas breeze, when I suddenly thought of him coming to our house to maybe grill out. This leads to the story of  my parents in the conversation of buying a new charcoal grill for that led to my dads sad remark of, "Huwag na natin bilhin, Hindi naman natin mapapaimpress si Pa kasi wala na sya." 

So it was my moms Birthday recently, and amidst the funny thought that her birthday celebration was doomsday, and the various games me and my friends played, there was always that singing of Lolo Docs version of Happy Birthday, with or without him was present.

I will miss not having Christmas without Lolo Doc but thank God for many great memories God has allowed to me to experience with him. I know that I should be happy and not sad because I definitely know that he's face to face with his Creator. 

To keep you happy (and me ) let me tell you what happened in the party.  So we were in the study       room: Me, Chessa, Colin, Camerin, Josiah, Joshua, and Kuya Theodor (Josiah's cousin who rents one   of our rooms). We were playing taboo, I was ahead with points and the rest were catching up with me. Kuya Theodor was next. "Ok so this is very famous person in Greece" he says. Mentioning Ceasar Agustus, Homer the poet, and many others, Gelo ( the twins friend) comes in and with a firm answer, says, "I know, I know..." With our attention on his answer he says, "Obama!" Busting with laughter, we fall to the floor.

Watching the Christmas in Egypt Play

Merry Christmas Everyone! And don't worry 1 more day till a pile of Christmas wrappers! 

Another Day

For the past few days I've been extremely busy... In all aspects which ranged from, memorizing Shakespeare poems, finding the slope and intercept of lines, teaching while my mom couldn't teach(which was due to her thyroid operation) and much, much more. As for today moms's gone again which means more responsibility, but thankfully my grandma, who we call Mama Ganda, is here to help out. I learned from her that her step brother actually died from... No not a car accident, no not naturally, but from being one of the rare to have died(or if you may call it, disappear) while working for a Spanish ship in the Bermuda triangle. To me that was amazingly freaky. That led both of us to watching bermuda triangle videos. I also learned she baked in high school...cool!

We weren't be able to go to church, so I watched the service thought the Internet. You can actually watch it yourself though this link:  http://www.ccf.org.ph/the-middle-east-in-bible-prophecy/   
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Today was also that day mom was gone to go to the wake of my grandpa's best friend, Uncle Lory. He was with us most of our trips in Bicol, and we stayed in his resort every time we visited. 

These occurings today remided me to use my time wisely,to live each day as if it were my last, and to start spreading the news of salvation because there are so many people who need God's love. 

Las Casas Filipinas De Acuzar

For Happy and Lolo Doc's Birthday, Feb 21 and 22, we went for a trip to Las Casas Filipinas De Acuzar in Bagac, Bataan. I didn't have much time to blog about this, since I was reviewing for the test, so I decided to fill this post with pictures, since a pictures worth a thousand words, so be ready for a picture heavy post of Las Casas. Enjoy!

Another Year End Test (ELCOM)

Today I took another year end test, but this time it was a mixture of all the subjects (Math, Filipino, Language Arts, Science).  This test is what me and Mom have been reviewing for the past two months and I got to say that  last week, I wasn't feeling too well. I had coughs, headaches, and the sniffles. The cold really bothered me that week but I was determined to get a high grade.  The twins had a cute conversation the other day  and it went like this:

Brenner: I'm gonna get 3 A+'s in my test!
Teacher: How about you Brandon what will your grade be?
Brandon (thinking)...: Ahh! I know I'm going to get 4 A+'s in my test! 

After reviewing It was a great joy, me and Mom were just so much confident that I would not just pass the test, but I would get 10 A +'s!

Today as I took the Test I was ready, with hardly any sound of doubt in my mind. The test started with reading comprehension, I think to myself, " this pretty easy!", the next was math, "These are easy questions" (but I took long in each, just to make sure), the next in line was Filipino, in which I thought to myself, "Some of this is quite hard!", afterward I proceeded to the last subject, Perceptual Reasoning, in which some parts were tricky yet some easy. When I finished the test, I still had quite some time to review while my classmates were fooling around, so I changed some of the questions that I thought was wrong, and submitted the paper.

"I'm FINISHED!" I thought to myself as I left the room and was proud to tell mom that most of the problems were fractions, when all along I had thought I would encounter algebra. The next in the schedule was the picture taking for my Graduation from grade school. I was so proud of myself as I put on that toga and smiled for the camera. It was a sign of how much God has really guided me thought this homeschooling life of mine, and how I had so much opportunities in life that was to come.

 The feeling of finishing the test was like that of a marathon, going through tough struggles, but yet passing the finish-line and rejoicing for going through that struggle.

 This test is different from other tests because through  this test, God has really shown me of how to glorify Him in whatever you do. Because really, this test made me realize that what I was doing was just not a measure of the brains, but a measure of how much determination I had to glorify him.

We left  with a smile in my face, icecream, and a pair of shorts and a shirt from Mom. Thanks Mom for being patient, and understanding during the review, thanks a lot! :)

The Day of the Year End (Reading) Test

Today was the day I took the, what I thought was hard, reading test. It started in Victory where me and my classmates waited for the rest of the students, and me praying to God for His guidance. The rest of the students didn't come so we started the test without them. I took one big breath, prepared my pencils, and started. By two hours, I was finished with the Reading Comprehension exam. I was pretty fast in reading (thanks to speed reading classes) and I'm pretty confident that I would get a good grade in this test! I realized also that this was the same test we took last year! What a relief, Now I'm feeling a lot more confident! Today was a great day and   I thank God so much for giving me the wisdom to finish(and be confident) in this Test.

Year End Tests

Today I've been reviewing for the ELCOM exam (year end exam) tomorrow. Right now I'm feeling a bit nervous but confident that I'll do good ... hopefully. Here's some exam tips that I use in an exam.


1)Never EVER not review before the exam.
2) Do your best at the exam and God will do the rest.
3) If there's a question in the exam that you need to think about, go back to that question and move on so you'll  save on time. If you can't go back to the question cause you don't have time read it one more time and make the BEST guess you can make. 
4) Pray Before Starting. :)
5) Never let nervousness set in (at the Test). Relax and take deep breaths, and don't think of it as an extreme test but think of it as an easy quiz :)  

Can't wait till the exam is over... even if it hasn't started.

A Day in Villa Escudero

Right now i'm in Villa Escudero in Laguna and I'm enjoying the view of the waterfalls while eating lunch. When I mean enjoying the view of the waterfalls I mean standing right beside the waterfall while eating lunch at the flowing water right at the end of the man-made waterfall. Still don't get what I mean, we'll here's a picture!

Before actually eating by the falls, we went to the museum riding a carabao pulled trolley. It was just beautiful! There was so much stuff to see! It ranged from a vintage scuba diving suite, to old peso bills, to old shark teeth. I really did love it (considering I love vintage stuff).

Right after eating a wonderful lunch at the falls, we hung out with a  Tita Maricar at a hut nearby because she wasn't feeling well due to high blood pressure. After a while the "gang" aka Lolo Doc's visitors and Dad and the kids began hanging out with me, Tita Maricar, Mom, and Tita Jean. Just then we saw our ride coming in a distance that would bring us to the cultural dance show.

We hopped on the "carabao-mobile" and headed for the show. The seats we filled downstairs, so I headed straight upstairs, and found the perfect spot. The narrator spoke and I listened and watches the dancers sway and move gracefully. They did a variety of different dances that I liked, but my favorite was the Tinikling.

We decided to go stay for a while when lolo docs visitors left so the kids swam (but i didn't cause i was cold) and I discovered the free kayaking in their river. When the kids were getting cold we headed straight to the bamboo kayak booth, grouped up ( with me and happy as teams, and set off to the river in the kayaks. Because me and happy were teams, and because happy didn't know how to row we took a bit slow to get a hand of maneuvering the boat but we did well. :P

It was time to go, we said bye to Tita Maricar, Carl, and Tita Jean and waited for our ride to the parking lot. The trip was a long way home, but we got home safely with dinner served on the table and tita maricar and tita jean sitting beside us.