Mabuhay kaibigans! (A Filipino greeting which translates to ‘be alive’ but can also mean ‘cheers friends’) Welcome to my very first blog!
If you KNOW me, you know my adorable 81-year-old mother, Tessie Agana, was a former child actress and my grandmother, Consuelo Agana (known as Linda Estrella) a leading actress from the 1950s in the Philippines, the first mother/daughter duo in Philippine cinema. Throughout the years, we had many real conversations, talks that we never used to have, and we wrote a book together! More juicy details to come on that.
This blog will discuss all things that brings joy as a wife/mother/daughter/sister who happens to be raising two mestizo teenage boys and keeping the Filipino culture alive.
You would think living in Arizona with the intense summer heat would get a little easier after the 5th summer here. But coming from the Midwest, it’s still a shock to burn your legs on the car seat and use pieces of tissue for the first 2 minutes on your steering wheel. The struggle is real, crew! But, then I recall, we just had an amazing 9 months of pretty great weather.
While I scrolled on FaceBook watching almost every family vacationing in Greece this summer for some reason, I remember watching Jim Gaffigan on his non-existant plans for the summer and annoyed with everyone asking him ‘what are your plans for the summer?’ I can relate to Jim’s witty thought bubbles, “Why do I need a plan for the summer, I thought summer was a time to relax. Wait, are we supposed to schedule when we relax, that sounds stressful, I relax by not having a plan.”
So without a plan, here’s my 5 summer hits with my Richardson crew:
- Water park with my hubz, Andy, my two boys, and first time they each got to bring a friend – gamechanger! I love my boys but when was the last time you felt ‘relaxed’ at a water park with your kids? Hubz and I just hung out all day (and of course ate every 90 minutes with their meal plan)
- Ube crinkles cookies – Filipino purple yam was so delish!
- Boys swim meets
- Pickle Ball newbies – first time playing
- Of course, great quality time spent with my mom
We are psyched to spend almost two weeks and head back to our stomping grounds in the Chicago area for my family reunion and see other family and our Chi-town friends.
What are you loving this summer?
