First Communion and First Suit

 Doesn't it look like we are preparing for a passport photo?  But his passport is still up to date.  I think it's valid for a few more years yet.  The photo shows how clean the house is.  Friday and Saturday were major get on your knees and spray cleaner and wipe off the dust, crumbs and sticky floor.
All for just one of the big days Kieran will experience.  Somehow I don't recall my first Communion being this much of a fuss. But then again. They didn't have the Mandarin Buffet yet.

We were getting dressed to go to Kieran's first Communion.

We both had dress codes imposed on us.  He had the purple shirt and I had the pink one.
He wasn't too happy to be wearing a suit, let alone a colourful shirt and tie.  He doesn't know it yet or appreciate it, but he's dressed pretty sharp.
The Euro taste of mama for the both of us, that he is taking for granted.
I looked so good people were thinking I was going for first Communion too.  But that was many moons ago.

I then told him that after today, he is done for classes on Sunday mornings.  His 7 days a week of school was coming to an end (at least for another 4 years when he goes for Confirmation).

After this bit of info, he had a jump in his step and broke into a dance like he was buying a new Toyota and finally I got a smile out of him.  He's been a trooper.  He goes with no complaints.  He enjoys going to mass and learning.  He's rekindled my enthusiasm for the sacrament of mass and appreciation for all things related to the church.

For years we are immersed in careers and the workforce and the day to day.  To what end?  For something better.  The church also offers us a way for something better.  Better for our own souls. A vehicle for enabling us to help one another and ourselves.  To be kind to each other and ourselves.  To give to each other and ourselves.

I may not have sat through his classes, but every time I picked him up I paid more and more attention to the surroundings, the activities, the people and actions.  It made me realize I shouldn't sweat the small stuff.  Keep focused on the big picture.  Whatever that means?  For me I think it means don't stress over little things.  But maintain your goal in life. 

God won't make you win the lottery, but He can help you see the riches right in front of you.  What more could you want?  Will having more material things make life that much better?  Or does it create a vicious cycle?

We've been lucky to have a great family and fantastic friends, that are really extension of our families.  That aren't just for hanging out with, but for helping out.  It's resulted in a special network that we don't take for granted.



There's always more stuff you can get, but all it means is more to clean up after.  More baggage to carry that can weigh you down for a long time.

After the ceremony, I was pretty hungry, I wasn't starving but my appetite was sure there.  It was close to 1pm and we'd been at the church since 9:50am for individual and group photos and more last minute rehearsals.  The kids all look lost, but when it came time, they got it right.  They don't sweat the small stuff.  It is so cool.  I'm not sure what happens as we became adults.  I blame 90210.  One thing is for sure.  TV is not real life.

We had an incredible meal at Sagra, just two blocks west.  It was so convenient.  It was meant to be. Tresa noticed this place driving along Annette from the church one day.  The place isn't even open yet, but was available for private bookings. There was a phone number on the window and she called.  Timing was perfect. It's an Italian place with a wood burning pizza oven where they cooked practically everything. It was so good.  The service was amazing.  And we were lucky to have arranged it.

We were lucky too for the weather.  It's dumping right now and tomorrow forecast is for rain.  But today... the weather was just right.  Everything just worked out.  There was a lot of 'small stuff' that had to get sorted out, but whatever small stuff there was today, I didn't notice.  It was a great day.  It just felt great.

First Communion + Sagra pics

I confess

Can't have 1st Communion without 1st Confession.  So off to church we go.  Well that and a rehearsal for tomorrow.


I dropped them off to find parking and when I walked into the church I thought, wow they spiffed things up with bows and a white carpet down the center isle.
Then I realized there was a wedding going on.



Apparently this wedding was booked after the 1st Communion group had it already.  But no big deal. We were relegated to the basement to meet and do the rehearsals.








Kids rehearsed while some parents texted.

Once the wedding party was over, we moved upstairs to rehearse for real.  And after the 1st one, Father Joseph did the 1st confession mass for the kids.
They had 3 groups of kids for 3 areas where confession was being done.
Kieran went in. And we waited.



And we waited.

And waited.





Then he was done!
Well he still had to do his penance.
And it was free for any adults.  Not sure if any went.
But one parent was in a hurry to go so he could head to the Leaf game.

So then they did the rehearsals for the song and readings. One last time to get it right for tomorrow.

And they got to taste the bread.  Pop Quiz! Why wasn't it the Host yet. Because....
it hasn't been Consecrated.
And then we were allowed to leave.  Shoulda taken a pic of that parent with Leaf tix.
He was anxious! The Leafs lost bad.
All because that parent disrespected God in his house.

1st Confession pics
Rehearsal vid

Lego my Star Wars bday

Is it me or did he stretch?
Not sure what size those pj's are.
8 years old today.  Disregard how many fingers he has up. Math might not be his strong point.  Other than that. Lots of accomplishments this year.

1st year of violin under his belt.
Working towards a yellow belt.
Nearly got all the ribbons from 6th to 1st in swimming.
1st Gr Slovenian school.
1st Holy Communion.
1st ever lottery scratch card and he won 6 bucks!  Tried to explain that odds of winning anything are very low.  And that the Gov't uses the money generated by lotteries to fund many city programs.  But you have a better chance of creating your own dreams than relying on a lottery ticket.

Finally Lego.  Star Wars.  At first it was just lego.  But now it's full on Lego Star Wars.  He never liked Star Wars before but he's now grown to like it.

However I think Pokémon still trumps it.
We had his birthday this year at e-Zone.  It was glow bowling and laser tag.  I didn't take too many photos because I was defending my honour in the laser tag arena.

E-Zone birthday

Wax on, wax off, hair gone.

I didn't think I would ever do this, but I got talked into it by Tresa since I've been cycling a lot and it seems like many cyclists do this.  More for the reason that if you crash, the road rash stuff is easier to get out if there is no hair.  And the skin heals better.  Not that I am intending on crashing.  I thought that I would give it a go since my leg hair was always kind of wiry and prickly.  She often asked why I had so much hair as compared to my brothers and other asians we knew.

I didn't know why.  It is what God gave me.
Hair that can scrub pots clean.


So after some due diligence and deliberating, I finally decided to do it.  I went to the place that Tresa goes.  Eva from Europe.  She is so nice, I am glad I went to her.   Eva was very encouraging, I had spoken to her before just to inquire what it would be like.  And when I made decision to make the appointment, she told me what to wear (no cotton, and something loose), and possibly drink before (alcohol and/or advil) just to prepare for the procedure.  Watching the 40 year old Virgin is not a good thing to watch before a first time hair removal procedure.

When I first came in, she checked my legs, and said it wasn't too bad at all.

She is a chatterbox, for which I am glad, because it distracted me from the ripping of my hair off my legs.  I am surprised the magazines beside the treatment bed are in such good condition, I initially was reading the Zoomer mag, but once she started the hair removal, I using it to cover my face.  I am surprised I didn't gnaw on it.

The first few rips at it felt ok.  They were on my quads.  Not a lot of hair there so I'm thinking ok, not so bad.  Where it stung the most was the inside of my thighs.  Thank God there wasn't much there.  I thought my lower leg would feel ok because they're bony and not a lot of meat.  But the hair was longer and more predominant there.  So I was unsure if it was going to hurt or not.  I found out that it hurt.  I'm glad she works fast.  But there was still another leg to do.

It was over in about 45 mins.  A far cry from the 3 hours she spent on a man-bear, the other cyclist client she was telling me about.  She said she was unprepared for working on someone with so much hair.
The wax was hotter than I had anticipated, then she quickly puts the white strip on and rubbs a few times quickly to press it into your skin and then yanks quickly. Like ripping off a bandaid. It kind of stings for a second or two, but then goes away.

Final product looks great! Looks clean, also looks lighter for some reason and the skin looks more even in colour except for all my battle scars.  It was snowing today in TO, and I was wearing a pair of light nike pants.  So it seemed like my legs were colder, probably from the lack of hair and the heightened sensitivity.

I'm just wondering if it'll burn when I jump into the pool on monday for my swim class?

Evolution of the Swansea Cave people

It was like watching the Discovery Channel on how cave people foraged for food long long ago.

I had brought Kieran to Rennie Park because every Friday is park day at his school.  Unless it's raining.  Then it becomes Library day.

So here these three are perched up on this medieval looking wall like they are birds looking for bugs to eat.

There was a loose stone.  And like their prehistoric ancestors before them they were using primitive tools found loosely around the park to achieve their goal.  Whatever it was.

 They worked as a team, somewhat, analyzing, strategizing then smashing with another rock or a stick.  Sometimes accidentally hitting someone else's hand with the tool.  It makes me wonder how we evolved.

So we come to the park every so often because the boys in Kieran's class have been building forts out of sticks against trees, and he wants to come to put some additional time in.  As well as launch some objects with his catapult that was fashioned from a green sapling.

Good thing it doesn't work all that great.


We also went to the Jamie Bell castle park.  Also known as the  park a drunken teen burnt down, and the park that Mike Holmes rebuilt, better.
We are thankful for the new castle that Mike Holmes built.  He says there is less hiding spots than the old one.  But in this version, adults can make their way in without much trouble.

I was trying to recall what it looked like before. I couldn't find a pre-arson pic that showed the part that Mike Holmes rebuilt.  But this is what it looked like after the fire.



Not sure what this idiot kid was thinking.  But seems like so many are just irresponsible and think they can do whatever they want and act like an ass and feel like they deserve the world handed to them.

It doesn't work that way. I hope the teen has learned his lesson.  I hope.  Because sometimes from what I have seen. I am worried for the future.  I see laziness.  I see disrespect.  I see disregard.
And it's sad.  Because they aren't born that way.  They are trained to be that way, by the adults around them.




I worry about the world for Kieran and his friends.   But maybe his generation will help make the world better.  We can't hope that they will learn from our mistakes, it's too late by then.  We as adults need to learn from our own mistakes and teach them to make the better choices, by making better choices ourselves, today.

The mid-century mark

Pretty significant milestone was reached today.  And it's been celebrated since Good Friday.  That was the first cake and birthday wishes.  That one caught me off guard too.

Then it was into the middle of Easter weekend and bringing an ice cream cake has it's challenges.  Mostly because I was afraid of it melting.  Ice cream cake #1 made it to my sister's intact and i got the bigger one, simply because there's more people.  That one was devoured.  When you have so many little kids, it's easy.  They are like little ice cream piranhas, bring ice cream into a room and it's not leaving. By the end of the night I was tired from just driving around.  I even managed to squeeze in changing to my summer tires.  However it snowed on Tues.  Wasn't expecting that.

If you wanna know what it says.  It's "Chika-boom chika-wow wow Birthday Mama!"


Sunday, we had 2 cakes!  We brought an ice cream log cake, even though we knew there was going to be the usual strawberry shortcake there.  We just like the ice cream cake.  This was now our 3rd and 4th cake.  Whoosh!  I was getting full just recalling.  We still have the strawberry shortcake in the fridge, if anyone is looking to pad that layer or fat around the belly.  It's still chilly out you know.

But the day has finally arrived.  And we were surprised by something as we made our way to school this morning.  It kinda scared me, because in the city, racoons or skunks digging in your lawn for food isn't uncommon.  I just saw these things out of the corner of my eye, and I had to jump a bit, and said 'whoa'.  Then I went 'uh oh'.  This was done in the middle of the night. But then an earthquake could hit and we'd sleep right through it.  Good thing we are in the middle of the Canadian Shield.  Although we've personally experienced an earthquake.  One our neighbours called us in the morning saying he'd seen it when he arrived home from night shift at 6am.

So this is a gift from Rose and Helena.  I know it's from Rose because when she sends us a Christmas card that's how she spells my name 'Garcia'.  It's close enough I suppose.  I could always pretend I'm the Mexican flooring guy working for Joe. HA.  The other reason I know it's her, is she'd also sent me a photo like this a few weeks before, but I thought it was photoshopped. Tresa's sister Helena asked me for a photo of our front lawn and I thought she was going to just photoshop it and send it back to me.   I didn't think it was for real.  Now I know what those people who have a Stork sign on their lawn feels like, but this is a slightly different occasion, although a big milestone too.  Hey if you've made it this far...well..you've made it this far.  Sort of like that George W saying 'fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice...' well you get the drift.

Not sure how long this is here for.  But Tresa should be glad we are on the dead part of a dead end street.  The shoes and bags are correct, but Tresa doesn't bake.


Happy Birthday.





FYI.  It was gone this morning.  Like it was never here! ooooohhhhh!