The year that was!

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Last year, 2005, proved to be a very busy year for us; full of travels, new experiences, family reunions and personal accomplishments. Through the grace of God, we lived through the year in good health and a happy family life.

The year started off musically with Erin playing the cello with the 9th and 10th All State Orchestra held during the first week of January in Tampa, FL. She played with 11 other cellists who were selected from all high schools with a music program in the state of Florida. She was the only high school cellist from Brevard county. Erin has become quite an accomplished cellist in her own right. Last year was also her second year playing with the Brevard Symphony Youth Orchestra where she plays principal chair for cello. She made it to the local section of our newspaper when a photographer got a snapshot of her playing during their first concert at the King Center for Performing Arts in Melbourne. In July, she spent the month up in the mountains of North Carolina to attend Cannon Music Camp at the Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. They stayed in the dorms usually used by college students and they essentially lived the "college" life, complete with a junk food diet and heaps of laundry waiting to be washed when we picked her up. She enjoyed it very much and is planning on attending another camp this summer. Of course, music is not all that has occupied her time last year. She has continued to take AP and Honors classes in her drive to get accepted into her schools of choice. She was also inducted into the National Honor Society and received an invitation to attend a Leadership Conference in Medicine in Washington, DC. She had to decline the latter due to a conflict with her summer camp schedule. She also spent the year learning how to drive and just the thought of her behind the wheels is making her parents a little nervous.

Ralph opened the year in San Diego where he attended the annual SICB meeting. This was followed by a trip to Honduras and Guatemala to help form an NGO that aims to alleviate the poor living conditions of both countries. He also became involved with another NGO, funded by the Dutch government, to help improve the lives of filipino fishermen. This project had him traveling to the Philippines twice last summer! He became an instant local celebrity when he found his way to the front page of our local paper, Florida Today. His research involving the reduction of mortality of aquatic organisms caused by nuclear and electric power plants that draw oceanic water into their cooling systems was featured. He also became a member of an elite group of professionals having been awarded a Fulbright scholarship for 2006-2007, to teach a semester course in marine biology at our Alma Mater, the University of the Philippines in the Visayas.

Joy started working towards her doctorate degree in Science Education from Florida Tech last August. She has been teaching Biology at a local high school for the past five years and decided that there's better opportunities for career advancement by teaching at the university level. With Ralph's support, she took the plunge after two years of indecision. It wasn't easy to convince herself that this was not a bad thing and that the kids will be okay even if school will take away time for them. Of course, there was also a lot of anxiety about becoming a student again and the pressure of performing well because your professors are you husband's colleagues. The last time that she was in a classroom was over 13 years ago when she worked on her master's degree. So sitting through an entire course for a semester was quite an experience. She did manage to keep her head above water even while teaching during the day and attending class two nights a week. In June, Joy traveled to LA and Las Vegas to visit her dad's sister who had just arrived from the Philippines and finally meet her cousins who lived in the west coast for a while now. She enjoyed the trip very much, especially Las Vegas. But, she's not telling - whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas:)

Megan celebrated her first Communion in May. She was quite excited about it and so were we. This is quite a religious milestone for her. She always wondered what this white "thing" tasted like. After she went up to the altar to take the host and drink the wine, she told me that she liked the taste of the wine better than that of the host. Go figure.. I hope this is not a harbinger for things to come when she's older. Not to be outdone by her sister who won first place in the science fair 8 years back, she also won first place (Environmental category, third grade level) in their school science fair last December. She studied the growth of tomato plants that were planted in three different substrates. This April she will represent her school in the county science fair. Ralph drives her to and from school everyday - maybe his "scientific" mind is rubbing off on her. She has expressed a desire to become a veterinarian. I don't know if this is what she really wants to be or just wants to convince us to get a pet in the house.

The year was capped off with our trip to the Philippines last December to celebrate the holidays with our respective families in Tacloban and Tuguegarao. This also happened to be the 25th high school reunion at Ralph's high school and the Centennial celebration at Joy's alma mater. We were able to kill two birds with one stone. This was the girls' first trip since we went home in the summer of 1998. They were able to celebrate Christmas, pinoy style, and they had a blast.