Deathmatch: Illinois vs. Philippines

I miss the Philippines today. Like, a lot. I'm having one of those glossy nostalgia days where all the icky stuff fades away and all I can remember is the stuff I liked.

I liked church. People always took time to smile and say hello.

I liked our huge bedroom with the octagon ceiling.

I liked traveling to Subic Bay and Boracay and the occasional foreign country.

I liked the malls. They were quite spacious (read: gigantinormotastical). And the movies with assigned seating that cost $2.

I liked the pretty flowers and our wonderful helpers and going to the Costco-type warehouse store and the Gingersnaps semiannual sale for the cutest little girl clothes evah.

I liked going to Chili's where half the people on staff knew not only our names but what we usually ordered. And they had valet parking!

I liked people selling goofy stuff in the middle of traffic, like fishing poles and steering wheel covers. And those fake-nose-and-glasses combos.

I loved Christmas in Manila. And the month of January, because it wasn't too hot.

I loved the amazing friends we made there.


Illinois gets pretty lonely sometimes. The winters are chilly (read: arctic), and the water is very hard. (We're renting a water softener to preserve the shiny new dishwasher dear husband installed this weekend.) People don't want to hear about your problems. The typical reaction last September when our basement flooded went something like this: "Your basement flooded? Yeah. So did a lot of other people's." I guess the midwestern mentality of picking yourself up and moving on is totally practical and sturdy and all that. No room for pity parties. It's just that sometimes I want to whine a little before I strap on the Teflon suit and get to work.

One thing I do love: the temp hit around 60 degrees here on Saturday. Glorious!

I'll sign off with a link I found today of a commercial for Fun Ranch, the big kids' complex near our home in the Philippines. Our boys spent 14 hours at the shoot for this commercial, and earned about $45 apiece. They ended up with roughly one second of screen time each. Their American friends from church were in it too. Click the link to play spot the white kids!