The Odyssey

I wanted my hair cut shorter. Why? Because I get antsy when my hair is one length for a long period of time. I told Dwayne who said "Get it cut. It's just hair." He now recants that statement. So, my dumb butt decided to allow these folks to EXPERIMENT on my hair. I'm too embarrassed to take a picture of myself but it was a little like this: I was so embarrassed during my walk home. I'm always stared at while out and about here but it was a little extra today. I sent Dwayne a text letting him know how unhappy I was. He laughed at me. When he got home to see me, he said "Yeah, you do look like a hot mess." I explained that I really needed a little positive affirmation. Tell me my eyes sparkle, my baby toe looks nice, something. Needless to say, I will be working on my mane tonight. Tomorrow, it will be fabulous...I hope. If not, somebody please tell Brandye I might need to fly her out here for a quick trip. Oh yeah, I also found my first gray hair. I was ...

We're back from our fabulous trip to Hong Kong. Of course, I will blog about it later. For now, I have questions for y'all. A white South African woman said to my Black American husband "I'm more African than you are." How would you reply? Danae wants her hair to look like the Filipino people or even like her mommy. I want her to have a healthy self esteem. I always tell her that she is beautiful and especially focus on her hair. But, her texture is different from mine. And, there are few black people here and no one who wears their hair naturally. So, she wants long, straight hair (should I be offended that she doesn't want shoulder length curly hair like her mother). How would you handle that? By the way, the only thing I have that might do the trick is a flat iron. But, we live in a tropical climate which means a lot of humidity. Our nanny asked me today if we would consider taking her back to the USA when we leave. She desperately wants to improve her life...

My baby girl turns 3 years old on Monday, January 21, 2008. I can't believe it! To celebrate, we are going to Hong Kong Disney. She is so excited about seeing Mickey Mouse. I really hope this birthday is just as wonderful to her as she is to us. Here's a little walk down memory lane. The first picture is from her actual birth day. These pictures were taken on her 1st birthday. I couldn't choose one to put on the blog. This picture is from her 2nd birthday. And, next week I'll have pictures from her 3rd birthday. Now, I have a question for you. Danae wants to be a big girl and wear fingernail polish and lip gloss. There is no way she'll have any of it any time soon. But, I was wondering, ladies, when did you start wearing nail polish? If you have daughters, when did you let them wear it or when will you? I don't remember when I first used nail polish. I remember that I could only have pale colors.

We're about to go on another exciting vacation and I just realized I never told y'all about the last one. December 7-10, 2007 - Boracay Island in the Philippines Since we arrived in the Philippines, we kept hearing that we should go to Boracay because of the beautiful beaches and the nice resorts. So, of course, we decided to try it out. We don't know if we'll ever get back to this side of the world again so we're going to see as much of it as possible. Boracay is on one of the smallest islands in the Philippines. On the map, it's just a dot you wouldn't even pay attention to. We had a wonderful time there. The water was nice and clear like in the Caribbean. The sand was almost white but it was the softest sand I've ever felt in my life. It was like cake flour after it's been sifted. While there, we chilled a lot. Laid back on the lounge chairs by the beach. Played in the sand with the kids. At least I did. Daddy didn't want sand all over him. Sl...

Today, I was looking through our pictures because I have to send a pic to school with Danae for them to put on the wall. These made me smile. They're from Easter 2007.

Pollution can kill ya! Dwayne, Brayden, and I have been sick for a couple of weeks now. Finally, we received the correct diagnosis. We have infections in our throats that resulted from pollution. I didn't know it would be that serious. Apparently, the number one cause of expats getting sick is pollution. They had us worrying about malaria and dengue fever. This is reason #367 why I'm ready to go home.

I've been accused of showing favoritism with my son. I don't love him more than Danae. He's just different. He loves to take pictures and to be the center of attention. Danae prefers to be in the background most of the time. As you can tell, she didn't want to take the above picture. She would only take it with the sticker on her forehead and if I promised to take the picture all the way at the bottom of this post. Of course, she has superstar moments too but not as much as him. So, he just provides more material for my blog. Anyway this entry is all about her. Danae is in school now...kind of. She attends Gymboree's GLLP Program. This is like a preschool. It's 3 days a week and lasts 2 1/2 hours each session. This is only her second week but it's going well so far. She really loves being with other children her age. She's the only American and the others are Filipinos. Dwayne and I looked at other schools but chose Gymboree. It's in walking distance...

Today I was a little disappointed because my cell phone was stolen again. This time it happened at church. Actually, my cell phone holder was taken out of my purse in the kids sabbath school class. The key to our apartment was in there too. But, we've already had the locks recoded so no biggie. I was just very disappointed. Of course, Dwayne reminded me that we are in a country where most of the population is very poor. And, theft is common, especially cell phone theft. When we first moved here, my cell phone was stolen. And, the person downloaded all kinds of movies that I had to pay for. Cingular/AT&T had no pity on me. But then, just a few minutes ago, Brayden said "boo boo" and then he said "hold it" while going in the direction of the bathroom. So, he sat on the toilet seat that Auntie Crissy bought us and used the toilet for the first time. We were so excited! And, my day just got better. To the person who said I act like Brayden is my favorite child, ...

Like most places in the world, there are a lot of homosexuals here. A lot!!! Doesn't matter much to me as long as they don't bother my husband. However, there is a little someone that works a kiosk in the mall who likes to make googly eyes at Dwayne. Needless to say, he is not impressed or flattered or entertained by that at all. But, one thing that is not common here is the down low concept. The gay men here are gay and proud of it. You don't really find many manly looking men with a gay guy either. You see two feminine dudes together. They don't have the problem of women married to men who are sleeping with other men. Why? Because being gay is not stigmatized here. People won't look down on you or ostracize you because of it. So, you see a lot of men with gorgeous hair, flawlessly made up skin, perfectly fit bodies proudly walking around. Sometimes, you can't tell if they are a man because they're just so....well....beautiful. I rather prefer it this way. ...

I think I'm a chameleon and here's why. When I've traveled to Mexico, people would come up to me and speak in Spanish only. They thought I was Mexican. When we first moved to Houston, the maintenance guy there would only speak to me in Spanish. I thought he didn't speak English but it turns out that he spoke to Dwayne in perfect English. He, too, thought I was Mexican. As far as I know I ain't got one bit of Mexican blood in me. In the Philippines, when I'm out alone people speak to me in Tagalog. They think I'm Filipino...except when I wear my hair in its naturally curly state. Then they don't know what I am. In the USA, people would ask me all the time what country I was from; what was my ethnicity. White people, however, always thought I was Black. Interesting, huh. For a portion of elementary school I attended an all-white school and everyone there said I was black. No questions asked. In fact, in my childhood years, people didn't really question...

Last week, or maybe the week before, Danae and I watched a movie. I have no idea of the name of the movie and don't really feel like looking it up right now. It starred Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts. Susan was dying of cancer. Julia was living with Susan's ex-husband. Susan and the ex had two children. Susan had to deal with allowing another woman into her children's lives and resigning herself to knowing that she was dying and another woman would continue to raise her children. I cried like a big old baby. Danae gave me a hug and a kiss and told me it was okay. She will be 3 years old in 18 days and she's already a nurturer. After that, I thought of my own mom who succumbed to cancer when I was 16. I wonder if she had some of the same thoughts as the lady in the movie. I wonder how she dealt with it all. And then, it hit me. I couldn't remember her laugh. That hurt so bad. She died on April 7, 1994 and I can't remember her laugh. I have an idea but I can...

Hey Y'all! Christmas was very nice. We even had a pretty good meal. It was hard to find all the necessary ingredients for us to have a truly country Christmas meal but we did have turkey, stuffing (as in Stove Top), mac and cheese, broccoli casserole, cornbread, dump cake, and maybe something else. I can't remember! I was craving my auntie's collard greens and dressing though. For New Year's Eve, we went to the celebration near here. They had live performers, food, a lot of noise. We left by 9:00, went to eat, and then headed home. Danae stayed up until about 1 am because she was scared of the fireworks. They were EVERYWHERE! They have no laws against them here so we just looked out of the window at about 100 displays all around us. You know how the people put on shows for the 4th of July. Well, that's what people were doing at their own houses. Madness! It sounded like a war was going on outside. Danae sat in her dad's arms, wrapped under the covers, scared to ...