Sun and Sand

What an amazing week we've just had. It will be a good way to say farewell to this beautiful country we've called home for the past 6 months!!

We have so many pics, so you'll have to go to our website to check them all out, but get the stories here first.

We've only eaten at Ting Ting's twice, but it was amazing both times. They don't have AC seeing as they are an open air eatery so we had to go there on nice cool days and those are few. They have the best buko (young coconut meat) shakes in town! We had to go to FedEx but had some time to kill around lunch time because offices close down here for lunch... crazy huh... so we decided to partake of their wonderful atmosphere and food one last time.




We decided we'd better take one last mini vacation before heading off to the land of the lost, so we headed down to Punta Bulata Resort and Spa near Sipalay. It was around a 3 hour drive, and the last 4km were bumpy, rocky, dirt roads so that was fun :-P It is a lot more mountainous down south and as always AMAZINGLY beautiful!!!

The beach was fun. It was covered in coral, hermit crabs, and shells - many of which we collected (the shells, not the crabs) - but when you stepped in to the crystal clear water the sand was as soft as a baby's bum. It was the perfect day, overcast but not raining so we stayed out as long as we could. When it got dark, we went for a swim in the pool. We were the only guests that night so we had the entire beach, pool, and grounds to ourselves! It was so calming and peaceful. It did sprinkle on us the 2nd day, but that didn't stop us from playing on the beach and swimming in the pool again :) The kids got to play with more starfish and we got to see a sea urchin which was fun. All in all, it was a great way to start our weekend away.



























The second half of our weekend was spent in Pontevedra, Brandon's first area of his mission. We tracked down Walter Pobledor who was the Branch President when Brandon served. He helped us drive around and we were able to meet up with some old friends and just hang out in their little neighborhood. The kids are amazing out in the province and just had smiles and giggles to share the whole time we were there. Ærowyn found a chick to carry around and was extremely sad when we wouldn't let her bring it home with us. We stayed that night at a little beach resort in Hinigaran. We got there late at night so we didn't get to do much that night other than swim in the pool, but that morning when we went down to the beach we got to see some fishing boats and the men fixing their huge fish nets. We chatted with them for a while and then it was off to church. The branch there is small, but the members are strong and so loving. Ærowyn (as always) found some little creatures to love - this time is was a little frog and a tiki.








To end our wonderful weekend away, we visited an old friend of ours here in Bacolod. Medley Caspe was a sweet lady who picked us up in her car one day because she was afraid we were lost and didn't like seeing Wrævn and Ærowyn in the heat. Anyway, we went to say hello and ended up staying for lunch and chatting most of the afternoon while Ærowyn played with her cats and puppies (the only animals she's been able to play with here). We're glad we got to see her again and say farewell for now. It was a great weekend away. Hopefully we will be able to come back and visit all of our friends again some day.

A Weekend of Friends, Food, and Fun

Wowzers, what a crazy busy weekend!

Friday: our friend Pinky came over and taught me how to make buko salad and beef lumpia.
Saturday: our friend Cheryl came over and taught me how to make buko pie - Pinky and the kids came over for dinner
Sunday: we invited our neighbors, the Bacolod Mission president and his wife, and the local missionaries over for a feast!







The following pics are of the primary kids at church, the nursery kids, some wonderful sisters in our ward, our good friend Ellen with Wrævn, and Brother Padol from church.






The first pic of the kids they were posing, so we tried to get them to just act normal for the next one, but when we told Wrævn we weren't taking any more pics he showed us how he felt about that in the 2nd pic. The birds of paradise grown in our backyard - they are so beautiful!!

The Job Hunt

So, here is my job hunt last week in chronological order (mostly stolen from my Facebook statuses).

First, read these blog posts:

Fasting This Weekend

Last Weekend

Sept. 7, 2009:
Note to self: don't sing 'Leaving on a Jet Plane' to the family just before you leave on a jet plane.

Sept. 8th, 2009:
All checked into my hotel. Connected to the internet. Bored. Gotta find some food here in BFE.

Sept. 9th, 2009, 7:30 AM:
I'm about to freaking BLOW THE DOORS off of this company! They won't know what hit them. By the time my 8 hour battery of interviews, tests and presentations is over they're gonna be all like - OMFG WTF? (that's 'frak' and 'gosh') Who was that shiny, smiling, bald-headed young man? Can we add another zero to that offer we were going to make him?

Sept. 9th, 2009, 7:00 PM
I'm sitting in a conference room after 11 hours of interviews, tests, puzzles, code review, code on the fly, math, thought probes, process discussions etc. It's been 20 min. I should know yay or nay soon. I did pretty darn well I think - we'll see soon enough!

Sept. 9th, 2009, 8:30 PM
I'm about to crash. Jet lag and staying 'peppy and fun' for 11 hours of interviews is taking its toll. Gotta rest. I'm 99% there! Almost got it locked down. I have 1 last design to present to them before the PM will sign off on me like QA, Tools, Architecture, Engineering, Management and the CTO all have already :-)

Sept. 10th, 2009, 9:30 AM
At the **** airport, started on my new design homework.

Sept. 10th, 2009, 11 AM
Fly from **** to Portland, OR, Portland to Oakland, CA, Shuttle from Oakland to San Francisco

Sept. 10th, 2009, 9:30 PM
Finished up my first design iteration, sent it to the powers-that-be to review. Fingers crossed!

Sept. 10th, 2009, 11 PM
Fly from SF to Manila

Sept. 11th, 2009
Sitting in the Manila airport. Finagled my way into the business-class lounge so I can actually have some internet access. I read their comments on my design and adjust, redo my design accordingly, then re-submit it. Fingers crossed again.

Sept. 12th, 2009, 11 AM
Arrived home safe, sound and tired. Go shopping w/ the family for our big dinner tomorrow w/ 15 est. guests, including the mission president.

Sept. 14th, 2009,
Received some additional feedback. Finish up all my redesigns, adjustments etc. for mockups v. 3 and 4, then resubmit. Hopefully we'll know by tomorrow.

Sept. 15th, 2009,
Received an offer! I'll probably start working for them remotely next week.

It's been a crazy couple of weeks - but rewarding! Thanks to everyone who supported us with thoughts, prayers and any other sort of good mojo you were throwing our way!

Bacolod Bird Sanctuary, a tiki, a hat, mush and a stick

We visited the Bacolod Bird Sanctuary recently and got to see and learn about some endangered animals-not just birds-here in the Philippines. It was a good educational visit for all of us. Brandon's favorite was the Visayan Leopard Cat. He even asked the caretakers if we could have one as a pet :-P

This was a pretty cool bird that we probably won't get to see anywhere else. It's called the Rufous Hornbill.


So Ærowyn caught a tiny baby tiki the other night and they decided to make a little "home" for it. At least they don't do this with spiders. It's so tiny, you have to look really close to see it in the pics, but it's there.



After we went grocery shopping the other day, Ærowyn made a hat out of a small grocery bag. She wore it for 3 days before it was totally ruined.


Last Saturday my friend came over to teach me some more yummy Filipino recipes and her daughter, Jamie, came with them. She is 6 years old and is friend's with Ærowyn. They decided to create some of their own recipes... ahh those were the days.













Every time we leave the house to go somewhere, the kids pick up little bits of sticks and flowers along the way. Ærowyn likes to give here "collections" to the guards and Wrævn ends up stashing his in the bushes before we get on the jeepney. It's been a fun ritual lately. Because we always take an umbrella with us, Wrævn has also liked wearing it on his back. It's a perfect fit.













Don't forget to visit our Family Website for more Philippine pics :)
(you can click on all the above pics for a closer look)

2 Princesses

Though it's not quite what The Spin Doctors had in mind, the other day Wrævn came running in and says "Daddy! I'm a princess!"

Ærowyn came in shortly thereafter to admit it was all her doing.

These are the pictures that correspond to Wrævn's proclamation.

Last Weekend...

THANK YOU, THANK YOU THANK YOU to all of you that sent us your prayers, fasts and positive thoughts!

I just interviewed with a company on Tuesday morning. It went so well they immediately set up an in-person interview following. I'll be flying to the US next Monday for a battery of tests and interviews, then flying back here to the Philippines on Thursday.

It's just a 2nd interview, but it looks to be a solid opportunity - and they wouldn't be footing such a bill if they didn't think I had what it takes. Even if this doesn't turn out to be the right job in the right place at the right time, I know with your support, thoughts and prayers we'll be just fine.

We'll all be flying back to the US into LAX around the end of Sept, beginning of Oct. I'm going to try to attend a conference put on by Adobe, and then hook up w/ my nephews for a bit. Then it's off to Huntsville, UT to fetch our beloved cat Fæd, then to Newdale, ID to fetch our beloved car Fit, then if the interview goes well... to where the job is (I'll save that part for next week - if when I get it.) At some point we'll have to go to Seattle to get our stuff out of storage (so you know it's not in Seattle) and hopefully pick up our stuff from the Philippines that we're trying to ship over there.

Anyway - a battle has been won! Help us win this war by continuing to channel your thoughts and prayers our way. For all the Mormons, Next Sunday is Fast Sunday, so we'd ask that you include us in your family's fast as well.

Thanks for your help!

Brandon, Kristy, Ærowyn & Wrævn