Monday in Manila

I have been craving banana pudding for quite a while since moving here. Of course. Why do I crave the things I can't have? Just like good Tex-Mex! Anyway... the problem is that nobody here knew what Nilla Wafers were. And, you just plain cannot have banana pudding without Nilla Wafers. But, just by chance, I ran across a stock of them at a grocery store the other day. I was SO excited! So, I grabbed 2 boxes & all the remaining necessary ingredients to make banana pudding. I had to make it all from scratch, including the vanilla custard, but I am positive it will be worth it. I'll find out after dinner in a while. I cannot wait! (And, yes, that is a photo of my beautiful banana pudding!! I'm very proud!)

I almost talked the kids into going with another theme for their Halloween costumes this year. I was so excited! I thought I was going to have my way for atleast one more year. Samuel was on board... Sydney was on board... Nicholas was NOT! Of all my kids, I would have thought that either of the older two would be more opinionated & stubborn about their Halloween costumes. But, I should have known better. It was Nick. I wanted to have a Texas football theme with Nick as the football player, Samuel as the referee & Sydney as a cheerleader. But, Nicholas is determined to be Spiderman. He refuses to consider any other options. So, once again, we will have a Spiderman son for Halloween. Samuel has since decided he wants to be Darth Vader & Sydney will be a princess. Oh well... maybe next year.

Yesterday, I took Nick back to the doctor in the hopes of removing his stitches. The doctor peeled off his gauze, looked at Nick's thumb & determined that the stitches needed to stay on for one more week. He then covered his thumb back up with a simple Band-Aid, handed me my bill & walked me to the door. I ended up paying a little over $12.00 for 1 minute of his time & a plain 'ol Band-Aid. Ridiculous!

By the way, should I be worried about a doctor who stores his iodine in an old Gatorade container?

Dinner is ready...