ITS A BOY!

Jim and I are having a boy. Little Parker.



Introducing the new addition to the Frank Family - James "Parker" Frank.




That's his "manhood" between his knees.

"sucks to be the new gal"

coming home from the thousand islands in the PI w/ my cousins.

Year 1997, my arm is sore from all the immunizations shots I got yesterday. My Tita had to take me to get them before I can start attending Costa Mesa High. I was already a sophomore back in Pampanga High. We don't have junior high in the PI. After 6th Grade, you go straight to 1st year college and you graduate high school at age 16. I had to take aptitude tests to see "what grade I fall in" They came back with results and they gave me the option - I can either be in eight grade or freshman. I chose freshman - in my head I thought I was going backwards. Why am i going back to 1st year when I was already a sophomore?! But its alright it turns out I'm one of the young uns to graduate highschool at age 17.

It was a little nerve racking, I was not used to speaking English - at least with an american accent. Much else speak it 24/7. My family even tried speaking english only at home my first year in the states so I can get used to it. I just giggle and laugh when I speak english to my family b'coz I wasn't used to it. Its interesting learning the english words. utot=fart or my lola called it flatulenece but who says I have to flatulate? u know u say "I have to fart or pass gass", kulangot=booger, wedgie=when you're underwear gets stuck in your buttock cheeks.


my sister and I w/ my uncle, aunt & cousins

The first year if you had a bubble above my head, you could literally see me writing out my sentences in Tagalog and converting and translating them to English. By the end of highschool, English came to me more naturally that I didn't need to do the translation thing. Its funny - I wonder when I started to dream in English coz when I was younger everything was in tagalog. By senior year, I was a chatterbox. Everyone said "we thought u were quiet, shy but we were wrong" oh well - I just told them i had to get used to english. Its funny coz I remember on my drivers ed class my freshman year (the teacher spat while he talked-sucks if you sit up front), this "cholita" girl was talking to me. Being the "foreign kid" or the "girl from the Philippines" she was all how did you learn english and i told her that Filipinos learn english ever since kindergarten its like our 3rd language. And she's all "that's bad" and seriously this happened. I'm like innocently "why?" and she started laughing and she's all I meant that's good u know cool - like bad as in bad ass. At the time I didnt' get it but I just shrugged and took mental notes. And of course I got saying "sick" from Gregory Lontok in college.


Sailing w/ Boracay's fastest sailboat - Cutty Shark

It's crazy how there's so many nationalities here. My first week in school every asian kid I saw I thought was filipino. I was always asking them "are you filipino?" hoping they are and they can speak a little bit of tagalog and that maybe I'll make friends, and I'll feel more comfortable and I'll belong. But no they always answered something else. Seriously there was like 5 or 6 filipinos in my highschool and most of them were "white washed" The dominant asian race in my school was vietnamese since costa mesa is so close to garden grove that a lot of them went to my highschool. Shoots even the vietnamese girls forgot I was filipino sometimes when I hung out w/ them they will turn to me and start going off in vietnamese and realize I'm not one of them. Time moves on and I can finally distinguish who's korean, japanese, vietnamese, chinese, etc. etc.


Jim needs another tanduay w/ pineapple & sprite - sorta like a mai tai :)

I just remember the first week of school was tough. I didn't know anybody. As usual, cliques were already formed and hung out during lunch in their specific areas. I was smart enough to figure out to not sit down and eat my lunch - b'coz I'd rather be dead than be seen being a loner sitting all by herself. So the first couple of days I walked and walked around campus - and our school is not that big so pretty much I could be circling 3 or 4 times but I found a quiet corner away from the "quad" where I can quickly scarf down my lunch that my lola packed me. The third day was horrible. I got desperate that I went to the furthest pay phone on campus by the parking lot and called lola during lunch. She answers the phone. I'm like "lola, talk to me for a little bit while I eat my lunch at the payphone." she talks for a while but pretty soon she's like "i'm cooking something gotta go" so I hang up. pack the rest of my lunch and wait for the bell to ring. What saved me that first week - MY DISCOVERY OF THE LIBRARY - hurray! Now I just eat my lunch - I go to the library and I checked out some of the magazines and maybe read a book on a table or in the corner. At least I was away from prying eyes and I can just pretend i was doing homework or whatever.


Jim hanging out by the boat in Boracay - love the turqoise water.

I finally made friends so things got easier in highschool. Never got too close to one group too long though. Well one thing I couldn't really socialize and go out w/ them outside of school. It was kind of neat "floating" from one group to another. Most of my good friends were acquired in college.

"There's Halo Halo Everywhere" - Rex N.

This is perfect ice to make "Maiz con Hielo" yumm w/ condensed milk.


View outside my office window.


Our front yard in our Grass Valley Office.

Random Thoughts - Daydreaming at work...la di da

Year 1998, I had a crush on this vietnamese boy. He sat 2 rows in front of me, 4 chairs to the right end, I was in the back left hand corner of biology class. Usually had his walkman on listening to garbage, smashing pumpkins, no doubt, face to face, nine inch nails, bush, stone temple pilots, pretty much the stuff they played on KROQ. Bangs his #2 pencil on our thick green bio book like his banging a drum. He used to twirl his pencil around too down from his pinkie to his pointing finger. I too tried it and have perfected it as well. Damn, back then I remember being invited to go see no doubt BEFORE they were big at some coffee shop in Anaheim. . . but the strict filipino family would not dare allow me to see a band during a school night much else w/ kids they did not know. Funny how having a crush on a boy opens my ears to "alternative music" I was the "foreign gal" in highschool - I came from an island that love rock & roll, POP, Disco. Remembering loving Debbie Gibson, Duran Duran, tiffany, madonna of course, ub40. Yah I guess reggae-ish music is always good w/ ANY islands. I remember when the song "opposites attract" from paula abdul coz they used to have this dance contest where couples dress up and do a routine to abdul's song. Oh and my first tape ever was Roxette's Danger - was that the name of the album? I just remember it had "she's got the look" and or that "little bit dangerous song" oh and the song "here comes the hotstepper, turn around from the lyrical gangsta turn around, still love it like that" Act like u know daddy,

What else yah and used to listen to Dr. Drew & Adam Corolla coz people called in about sex - whoaa for me that was the most action I got in highschool & even then I would have gotten in trouble for being up so late listening to my walkman but i had it tucked in under my blanket/pillow.

Hung out w/ vietnamese girls, at first - consider me the floater in high school. They introduced me to the techno stuff - but like the asian pirate cds - we used to hang out in bolsa chica in garden grove area - best dim sum I've ever been - loved the asian shops. Good place to get PHO!! I stopped hanging out w/ them when one of the "females" accused me of "copying her style" coz I started stapling my pants like her - I'm like dude I'm trying to fit in - so what if I copy her style.

Hung out w/ the basketball guys - had some crushes on the baseball guys but mostly younger than me - too immature.

My parents met at a discoteca bar - dad was probably around 22? and Mom was 20? somewhere around there. Mom loves Abba & disco music. Dad always listened to Freddie Aguilar, Queen - i rock out to Queen!! Always loved cuban, and salsa beats - must be the spanish blood. I just remember Julio Iglesias was big - its like EVERYONE in the PI lOVED HIM - he was like the Original Ricky Martin, Enrique his son just got lucky & got some of his Hot genes from Daddy. Daddy is still the better singer hands down.

Lola questioned why I needed a pager back in highschool. She's like "what you're not a doctor, you're not a drug dealer, people don't need to be paging you to get a hold of you" but in Tagalog/Capampangan u know. But look at the kids now - they have cell phones and freaking side kicks where they can "instant message" or "email" each other back now. Little did Lola know there was a secret coding like if u wanna say I miss you. You type in 1-177155-400.

Everyone is running late at work - snow - friday - must motivate myself to do some work.

My to do list - make plans to visit so cal. Jim's mom wants to throw a baby shower at a friends' house in Venice - that should be fun. I want to make eggrolls, and pancit, & stuff - have to call in some girl power to help me. gotta get my ass down to so cal to visit family & friends.

Mother . . . May I?

taken back in November '05 - Waipio lookeout (Hawaii)

"Motherhood: All love begins and ends there." - Robert Browning

It's hard to imagine that the photo taken above I was 6 weeks pregnant - Yes everybody the word is out - I am pregnant (currently 4 months right now). Plenty of firsts for me.
first baby
first time I got my pap smear from a man (always had a female nurse do it)
first time I've actually cared and looked at what I'm eating since "everything" affects the creature inside me
first time I've ever weighed this much in my life
first time I'm starting to feel things on my body "rub together"
first time seeing a sonogram much else mine
first time feeling the baby sucking especially right after I eat (its weird)
first time shopping where I look at an article of clothing and think this would fit me and I go to the dressing room and realize it does not even zip up or remotely "cover me up enough"
first time people actually look down way below - at my tummy instead of my breasts
and the lists goes on and on. . . I've never been "so aware" of my body changing ever since I got boobs & my monthly "visitor" since the pubescent stage.

I freaked out a bit when I first found out. I had been in Hawaii vacationing in NOV - u know drinking and smoking and I thought oh shit my kid is gonna be retarded but so far, after all the tests, my baby's gonna be alright, the only thing we have to worry about is whether its gonna be a girl or boy. I'm over the nauseousness now and my sinus headaches come less frequently and all is well. The new discomfort is the middle of the night cramps on my legs and calves because of the "extra weight" I've been carrying around. Must be better about doing my walking and prenatal yoga.

As my tummy expands, Jim and I talk about how we should raise our kids and I think we'll do fine. I mean I've seen worse parenting from others and I'm like "shit I can do better" - no sweat there. I sure do hope I can get along w/ my kid very well. That my kid can talk to me about anything - something I didn't have growing up. I want to be a cool hip mom but at the same time unleash full terror and fury if you disobey. I mean not that I want my kids to fear me (maybe a little) but I want them to understand that everyone deserves some respect and theres no one else you should respect more than your parents.

I think kids nowadays are SPOILED ROTTEN. I've met parents who are like "oh no, we never spank our kids" but I think some of them need it. Sometimes it only takes that first time and never again. We had a friend that was like yah I was spanked when I was little but I dont' think I benefitted from it - it just made me hate my parents more. And I replied well with me I totally understand why my parents did what they did. I think the crucial thing is when you discipline a child - YOU REMEMBER THE LESSON. I'm not gonna spank my kids just b'coz - I'm gonna spank them b'coz they did something wrong and they need to learn a lesson from it. Now that I'm an adult I don't look back and go "shit i was beat as a child" I look back and go "oh my family was really looking out for me" and thank god I turned out alright u know. If someone realized in their adulthood that they were treated badly when they were little, coz they were spanked, then their parents didn't do a good job then. I think its important that children understand and realize facts of life.

Another thing is kids need boundaries. They will push and push and try to cross the line and you have to tell them no. coz the second you let them - they would think they rule over you. I see so many parents nowadays that are trained well by their kids. Funny thing, one night one of our couple friends said "oh yah seriously our kid won't go to bed until he's had his bowl of ice cream, it really puts him to sleep" and I'm like oh you mean his glass of milk and they're like no ice cream. And our other friend goes "damn, your kid's got you programmed well" and I just started cracking up. But its very interesting watching other parenting styles - it truly puts me in perspective watching other parents "in action" coz then I can go to my husband and be like "oh yah we can do it this way w/ our kid" or like "hell no are we letting our kid get away w/ that" u know stuff like that.

Having a child definitely enriches one's conversation w/ their spouse - another topic to talk about which is a good thing.

My highlight of the day - its snowing up at work - its pretty I should have brought a camera. And my husband calls me today and tells me he was lying on the bed with our dog Kodi watching him sleep. Kodi slips out a fart (we gave him bones the previous night) - woke himself up he looks around and sniffs at his own butt and just gives Jim the most perplexed look. It cracked Jim up that he called me at work and told me all about it - made my day. Truly the most simple things in life can bring you joy - and that includes your dog farting :)