My Daughter’s First Driving Violation

I heard it right when the Sheriff said, “ This is a serious violation”. And I said, “I’m scared!”

She just got her driver’s license the other day. Alas! She got into the hot water too soon.

Nathalie, Jaka (Nathalie’s daughter), Jun and I wandered around town after lunch. Jen drove the car. Jun sit in the front seat and the rest sit in the back seat. Personally, I have so much trust and confidence with her driving because she drives proficiently and skillfully.

We were traversing the heart of the city so everyone was cautious while she was maneuvering the steering wheel. We stopped amid crossroads to yield. We were as watchful as ever, watching cars that came and went by, trying to learn the traffic rules and regulations. When it was our turn to go, Jen stepped the accelerator slowly unaware of a handicapped person trying to cross the street. Nathalie reacted “Ate Jen somebody is crossing the road!” I was really shocked for a second! Jen said, “Oh sorry!” She didn’t hit the person but I knew that she made a big mistake. I looked behind us and I saw a Sheriff’s car! The light was not blinking but I was pretty sure it would sooner. It was an honest mistake but there is no such thing as honest mistake when it comes to traffic rules especially in this powerful country. If you are driving here in U.S. and you commit violation, a police car behind you will flash their light, which means you should stop to face the consequence of what you did.

I thought my mind went off that time. I was worried of Jen! Oh God, please help us! I heard Jaka said, “Mommy Beth the car is now blinking behind us!” Waaah! God, this is what I was afraid for! My mind was screaming out loud that time. Nooooo! Jen pulled over in the side of the road then she rolled down the window. The Sheriff looked natural when he came to us. Nathalie and I greeted him “Good Afternoon Sir” with matching fake smile on our face. Gosh! I wanted to die that time. Waaah!

The Sheriff asked series of questions to Jen. Such as “Did you know why I blinked my light?” “May I see your driver’s license?” “Do you have your car registration and proof of insurance?” “How old are you?” “How long have you been driving?” Jen answered all his questions and she showed her license, car registration and proof of insurance. The Sheriff said, “This is a serious violation”. “We need to give way to pedestrians most especially to those handicapped people.”

I said at the backseat, “I’m scared!” I have many questions in mind. What if Jen will be given ticket? How much are we going to pay? Is she going to be put in jail? I don’t know the whole process about the whole thing at all. While the sheriff was talking to Jen, I glanced at my bag thinking about my checkbook and cash in my wallet. At least, I have money with me whatever happens. Wow. Weird thinking.

Then I heard the Sheriff said, “I will let you go for now, I hope you will be very careful and cautious next time”. No ticket issued. As I heard it, I screamed and said “Yeheeey!” It was never in my wildest thinking that he is going to give Jen a consideration. Whew! What a relief!

After the incident, Jen said, “I deserved to be reprimanded and to get a violation ticket but I am thankful that the Sheriff was good to me.”

I was wondering if a policeman caught her not a sheriff, will he going to be mean to my daughter? Now, I wanted to know the difference between a policeman and a sheriff because I don’t really know, hehehe!

When I write this post, hubby is not home yet. I am still thinking how he is going to react about what happened today.

Lesson learned.

My Treasures!

Ever since I became a mother, I have gotten two treasures. I’ve got an adorable daughter Jen and a charming son Jun. They are God’s foremost blessing to me. They are both grown-ups now. I couldn’t believe that I’ve raised them pretty well. There are times that I would ask myself how did I get through all the obstacles I met while struggling a hard life and while raising them at the same time.

Jen is a big sister to Jun in the truest sense of the word. She always takes care of her younger brother and spends time with him. She talks with him anything under the sun. She even talks to him about boysJ.

Jun on the other hand, is a dependent brother to his big sister. Whatever ate Jen says to him, he always believes in her. He valued her opinion on foods, on clothing, on movie, on a song, etc. He talks to her about girls tooJ.

They watch TV together. They laugh together. Sometimes they play musical instrument together. Jen got a set of drums and Jun got a fancy guitar. They got them from their daddy as rewards for being good kids. Sometimes they also play any of more than 10 kinds of guitar their daddy have. I have never seen them fighting with each other over a thing.

Both of them knew how to do the laundry, cook rice and know how to cook some dishes. I always trust them in cleaning the kitchen and the entire house. Jun is in charged to mow and clean the yard but he is too lazy to do it now because it is freezing out there. I understand him because I myself couldn’t stand the chilliness anyway.

Lately, they were the ones who prepared their daddy’s “baon” at work J since their daddy is working night shift. They couldn’t do it at all when their dad is working day shift so I am happy that they help me at what time they can be able to.

I just hope that when they go back to the Philippines to continue their college education, they would stay the same. And I pray that they would study devotedly, with fervor and most of all, with strength of mind. It would be very hard for me to be away from them but there is no way that I could help it. I should stay here in U.S. with their daddy and continue to work hard to support their needs.

Like other mom in this whole world, I dream to give them a good life in the near future together with their family of their own. It could only be realized if they finish college then obtain a good job or engage in business perhaps, because I always believe that education is beyond doubt the key to everyone’s success. And I wish they would become a successful individual as they could be.

Today is US Election Day

This is my first time to write a blog about politics and to write about my personal political views.

I am a politico myself. It runs in my blood. I was appointed as barangay official and served for 4 years back home and my late dad was a former Barangay Captain and was elected ABC President that automatically made him a member of the Legislative Body in the municipal government.

Today is a historic day of the U.S. They will elect for a new President and for Vice-President. They also elect people for other offices like Senators, Members of Congress and many others.

There are two political parties rival here: The Republican Party: John McCain/Sarah Palin and the Democratic Party: Barack Obama/Joe Biden. When I got here in U.S., it was the time when the Democrats are still choosing between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to represent the party. I was confused that time since I came from a different system of the government but hubby patiently explained it to me and by watching news on TV all the time, I was able to at least, understand its nitty-gritty. I witnessed the presidential nomination of Barack Obama. The Republicans, on the other hand, already nominated John McCain, when I got here.

I only have simple description on Republicans and Democrats. In my point of view, Republicans believed that less government, less government control. Democrats however, believed the “from the people, by the people, for the people” kind of government system. Again, this is just my point of view :)

As usual scene in every election, political ads have been posted everywhere; the candidates and supporters have been very busy in the campaign. Political views from prominent people have been solicited and featured on air in AM, FM and XM Radios and on TV as well. Presidential and Vice-presidential debates were held. I witnessed them all and I learned many things from it particularly about U.S. government.

While I am writing this post, millions of people are lining up to vote. I already have an idea on how the voters will cast their votes because two weeks ago, the ESL Class had toured the county courthouse. The county clerk discussed the political structure of the U.S. government with us and she taught us how to cast our vote in different ways: electronic or paper. We were given a chance to vote using the hi-tech voting machine. I voted for Benjamin Franklin :) I saw neither McCain nor Obama names in the choices :)

If you have poor hearing, the voting machine has a built-in hearing aide; if you are unable to use your hands, you could use your mouth by using a stick that looks like drinking straw for that purpose. If you don’t want to line up on the election day you can vote through mail, just make it sure that your ballots should reach in the courthouse before the election day. And also, you could vote early if you want, early voting was held last October 18 and ended last October 31.

There are different polling places in U.S. namely: schools, churches, malls and convention centers. You can bring anybody with you in the booth as long as you are comfortable with him or her, in fact, you can bring your children with you as well. By the way, Election Day is not a holiday here.

If I could vote, I would vote for Obama. I like his platforms and programs on 95% tax cut of working families, on war, on the economy, health care, veterans’ issues, energy, and education and on working women. Also, I think he got brains.

In fairness to John McCain, I like his sense of humor :) His stints at SNL are just plain funny and if you guys saw him in that charity event that he and Obama gave funny speeches, for me, McCain certainly won that round. His recent interview with Larry King was also funny.

Nevertheless, whoever wins, I am sure that the Americans will support him 101%.

And whoever loses, he will always be a part of this historic event of this country.

May the best man win!

Trick or Treat?

Halloween or “Trick or Treating” happened every night of October 31st here in U.S.

Americans celebrated it with a big bang.

As early as August, the stores would sell Halloween decors and scary outfits for kids and there were for adults as well. Jack O’ Lantern made of pumpkin is a common décor here. And as early as August, Moms are crazy looking for their children’s outfit too. Nathalie was one of those mommies J. She bought cute witch outfit for Jaka with matching devil’s horns headband.

As I go take long walks six times a week, I have observed how the Americans decorated their porches and yards with scary stuff. There were giant pumpkin balloons, giant black spider in web, skull with candles, giant ghost balloon, skeletons in a made it appeared grave with “RIP” in it, giant witch, different sizes of bats and other silly stuff.

Halloween Parties or “Spooktacular” Shows and Magic Shows are also common. Hubby won free two tickets from the mine and he was excited for Jen and Jun to watch it but unfortunately, we forgot it because we were too focused on the trick or treating.

Around 5:30p.m yesterday, hubby, Jen and I went to Wal-Mart store to buy more bags of chocolate candies, we already bought five big bags last September but they were yummy so we ate the two bags. We saw Nathalie and Amber, her stepdaughter together with Jaka and Amber’s kids: Michaela, Khody and Tristian in the parking area. I was so happy to see the kids with their outfits! Jaka looked cute on her witch outfit, Michaela wore her other version of witch outfit with its famous long triangular black hat, Khody was so cute in his pirate outfit but the cutest among them was baby Tristian, he was Nemo, the famous fish of Walt Disney’s. Each of them got a huge bag for the candies except Tristian because he got a small size pumpkin shaped canisterJ. They were indeed so cute!

I thought they were there to buy something but I found out that they were there for treat or treating! And I really went with them while hubby and Jen headed to buy more chocolate candies. The store greeter gave them candies. The saleslady in a witch outfit in the Jewelry section gave them candies too J. She took picture of baby Tristian sitting very cute inside the shopping cartJ. Wal-Mart employees wore their Halloween outfit too; I saw two fairies, witch, ghost, etc. I saw a long-legged lady wearing black mini skirt with matching red fish nets stockings and black boots, not to mention her Red velvet Dracula’s cape J. She was not one of the store employees. She was a shopper like me J. In fairness, she’s sexy and gorgeous! There was a whole family for trick or treating who really dressed-up! The mom wore a bluish polka dots dress (I couldn’t figured out what character she was trying to portray). The dad wore all white outfit with an ugly face and a long white beard. I couldn’t remember their children’s outfit J. Nathalie took picture of them maybe I could post it here later. There were more children coming in the store with different cute outfit. They looked excited and happy!

Nathalie and her group left ahead and they said they would go to Brenda’s house then to our house thereafter.

When we went home, they were already there! Hehehe! Jun had already given them candies but we gave them with what we bought earlier and we posed for a photo souvenir. I don’t have the picture yet as of this moment because we used Nathalie’s digicam.

It was already 7:00 o’clock and there was no second batch yet. I checked if the light on the porch was on, according to Brenda, if your porch’s light is on, that means that you allowed trick or treaters. It was on. Hmmm. I felt sad that time. I am afraid that nobody would come. I don’t want to keep a basinful (small size) of chocolates and candies. They were intended for the trick or treaters. Jen prepared the camera because her dad told her if somebody knock on the door and say “trick or treat!” Jen would say, “Before I will give you candy, may I take a picture of you first?”J Hehehe!

Few minutes later, the doorbell rang and I was the one who opened it and before they say trick or treat I already gave them a handful of chocolates, I was too excited JThere were two of them only, they were both girls. They ran towards their mom screaming because they got a lot of candies from meJ.

Afterwards, I stayed in the room with hubby watching TV and we heard our doorbell rang many times J. Around 9:00 pm I went out to the living room and I saw that the basin has still candies on it but only less. I smiled. When I checked the camera, I was happy to see few pictures. I was satisfied. I told Jun to turned-off the light.

Then we tried some of the remaining chocolates and candies. They were yummy!

I wished my nephews and niece were here to enjoy trick or treat and to enjoy chocolates and candies!