Last Day

... of the month, that is. Time flies so fast. Where has the three months of 2009 gone? I suppose I am so busy that's why time flies so fast.

Nothing much happening on the family department. Same old. Same old. Oh, I have some exciting stuff to look forward to in December aside from "Christmas". We've booked a week holiday to Sydney from Christmas Eve to New Years Eve. Yay! (Clap clap - what will Jens do.) We are ditching Cairns as the days that we want to go there is "stinger season". Not good. I would be busy organising our itinerary when we get back from the Philippines.

On personal note, aside from being busy at work, I'm also busy shopping for pressies. Not finished yet.

The most exciting part is on Jens development. He is a parrot now. He can say a sentence and can mimick a word that he just heard once. We try to be careful with what comes out of our mouth. I have so much to tell but for now it will suffice to "he is now a certified toddler and in the terrible two stage although he's 4 months shy". And it's not easy. I'm bracing myself of what to come. He eats non-stop too. If he's an adult, I might think of getting him an appetite suppressant. He is a bottomless pit.

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Hunt for Empty Eggs

Here's something to ponder for the Holyweek:

Jeremy was born with a twisted body, a slow mind and a chronic, terminal illness that had been slowly killing him all his young life. Still his parents had tried to give him as normal a life as possible and had sent him to St. Theresa's Elementary School.

At the age of 12, Jeremy was only in second grade, seemingly unable to learn. His teacher, Doris Miller, often became exasperated with him. He would squirm in his seat, drool and make grunting noises. At other times, he spoke clearly and distinctly, as if a spot of light had penetrated the darkness of his brain. Most of the time, however, Jeremy irritated his teacher.

One day, she called his parents and asked them to come to St. Theresa's for a consultation. As the Forresters sat quietly in the empty classroom, Doris said to them, "Jeremy really belongs in a special school. It isn't fair to him to be with younger children who don't have learning problems. Why, there is a five-year gap between his age and that of the other students!"

Mrs. Forrester cried softly into a tissue while her husband spoke. "Miss Miller," he said, "there is no school of that kind nearby. It would be a terrible shock for Jeremy if we had to take him out of this school. We know he really likes it here."

Doris sat for a long time after they left, staring at the snow outside the window. Its coldness seemed to seep into her soul. She wanted to sympathize with the Forresters. After all, their only child had a terminal illness. But it wasn't fair to keep him in her class. She had 18 other youngsters to teach and Jeremy was a distraction. Furthermore, he would never learn to read or write. Why waste any more time trying?

As she pondered the situation, guilt washed over her. "Oh God," she said aloud, "here I am complaining when my problems are nothing compared with that poor family! Please help me to be more patient with Jeremy."

From that day on, she tried to ignore Jeremy's noises and his blank stares. Then one day he limped to her desk, dragging his bad leg behind him. "I love you, Miss Miller," he exclaimed loudly enough for the whole class to hear. The other children snickered, and Doris's face turned red. She stammered, "Wh-Why, that's very nice, Jeremy. Now please take your seat."

Spring came, and the chidden talked excitedly about the coming of Easter. Doris told them of the story of Jesus, and then to emphasize the idea of new life springing forth, she gave each of the children a large plastic egg. "Now," she said to them, "I want you to take this home and bring it back tomorrow with something inside that shows new life. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Miss Miller!" the children responded enthusiastically - all except for Jeremy. He just listened intently, his eyes never left her face. He did not even make his usual noises. Had he understood what she had said about Jesus' death and resurrection? Did he understand the assignment? Perhaps she should call his parents and explain the project to them.

That evening, Doris's kitchen sink stopped up. She called the landlord and waited an hour for him to come by and unclog it. After that, she still had to shop for groceries, iron a blouse and prepare a vocabulary test for the next day. She completely forgot about phoning Jeremy's parents.

The next morning, 19 children came to school, laughing and talking as they placed their eggs in the large wicker basket on Miss Miller's desk. After they completed their Math lesson, it was time to open the eggs. In the first egg, Doris found a flower. "Oh yes, a flower is certainly a sign of new life," she said. "When plants peek through the ground we know that spring is here." A small girl in the first row waved her arms. "That's my egg, Miss Miller," she called out.

The next egg contained a plastic butterfly, which looked very real. Doris held it up, "We all know that a caterpillar changes and grows into a beautiful butterfly. Yes that is new life, too." Little Judy smiled proudly and said, "Miss Miller, that one is mine."

Next, Doris found a rock with moss on it. She explained that the moss, too, showed life. Billy spoke up from the back of the classroom. "My Daddy helped me!" he beamed.

Then Doris opened the fourth egg. She gasped. The egg was empty! Surely it must be Jeremy's she thought, and of course, he did not understand her instructions. If only she had not forgotten to phone his parents. Because she did not want to embarrass him, she quietly set the egg aside and reached for another. Suddenly Jeremy spoke up.

"Miss Miller, aren't you going to talk about my egg?" Flustered, Doris replied, "but Jeremy - your egg is empty!" He looked into her eyes and said softly, "Yes, but Jesus' tomb was empty too!"

Time stopped. When she could speak again, Doris asked him, "Do you know why the tomb was empty?" "Oh yes!" Jeremy exclaimed. "Jesus was killed and put in there. Then His Father raised Him up!"

The recess bell rang. While the children excitedly ran out to the school yard, Doris cried. The cold inside her melted completely away.

Three months later Jeremy died. Those who paid their respects at the mortuary were surprised to see 19 eggs on top of his casket, all of them empty.

http://www.inspistories.com/story/JeremysEgg.php

Have a great weekend guys. Have to dash to check this cad drawing and know if Jens is up to going to the park.

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What Can I Say?

I’ve been working hard lately that when I got home, I am very tired. I’m in the middle of a project and as a first time lead consultant, it is taxing.

I can’t wait for our long awaited holiday to the Philippines. Less than three months to go and we’ll be off. Although on the organisation and presents side of things, I want the days to last. We’re not even half way yet. Good thing, I don’t have to book to several hotels (like New York City hotel) as most of the time we’ll be staying with my parents’ place for Jens to get to know them a bit as well as my nephews and niece.

With my driving lessons on weekend, doing household chores, having a rest and taking care of The Tatapilla, slotting-in time to shop for pressies is difficult. I think, I would need to schedule Mcj to take care of Jens one Sunday so I can go to the shop alone and accomplish more.

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A Grim Weekend

For lack of a better word to describe how I feel or most of my co-workers, I use the word Grim.

We were called in an un-scheduled meeting this afternoon by our managing director. Not everyone was invited. I thought because we need somebody to man the fort. When everyone was seated in the boardroom, he dropped the bombshell. They are letting go two of my co-workers. Just like that. No more preliminaries or warning or sign or whatever. It was very abrupt. We were dismissed before the message even sunk-in – well for me that is.

One of the retrenched employees was from our team. We didn’t see any sign at all. We didn’t see it coming. It was just sad.

My first thought was, it should be me. I am the newbie in the group, apart from the two developers who belongs to the Dev Team.

The reason we were told was, the company can’t afford seven people in the dev team and I think, it has something to do with revenue generation.

I feel a bit responsible for losing my team-mate. You see, I’ve been doing some testing on the new release system which was her task. One time, she even said, that she might not be needed at all in the future.

I have something to mull over this weekend apart from considering if I’m going to buy some Luminox watches for presents.

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Getting Active

I never owned an exercise machine ever though at some point I wanted to own a treadmill. And when I think of the reason why I want it is that, I just want to do running and walking stationery. Hahaha. Silly reason but true.

Now, I desired for something that will help me widen my hips. Giving birth hadn’t helped at all. I have an idea what to buy but as usual, I am not sure as I really know me, I don’t do routine so it would be pointless buying anything to do something routinary.

I get plenty of exercise just going to the office everyday. That'll do.

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