originally posted on http://threesillyducklings.blogspot.com

Like most mornings when Curious George wakes up first (which happens 95% of the time), he crawls into our bed and 'wakes' us up. By 7am, Daddy and I finally woke up. We cuddle/wrestle/tickle with Curious George until we all finally make it downstairs for breakfast. The girls sometimes joins us.

This morning, I decided to make up a story and asked what name we'd like our hero to be. Daddy said "Machupichu" (from some of my Filipino relatives' pronunciation of Matthew - ma-chu), and Curious George suggested "Marcaroni".

Macaroni Machupichu is a seemingly normal little boy who goes on wild adventures. Today, he was called on by the fairy people to save their Fairy Princess who was kidnapped by the tribe of Farting Frogs (thanks to Daddy for this villainous frogs who use toxic gas to fight their enemies) in the jungles of Mexico. To make the long story short, Machupichu rescued the Princess, who then granted him one wish as token of appreciation. Thanks to Curious George's contribution to the story, Machupichu happily ate/swam in the giant bowl of orange icecream.

Curious George wanted another story, so it was Daddy's turn to make one up. Daddy brought Macaroni Machupichu in space where he had to rescue his whole family from an evil empire. After braving through bad guys and obstacles, Machupichu Skywalker (as Macaroni was also known in space) was able to free his mother, and his two sisters, Kitty Wan Kinobi and Jojo Binx. But his father was nowhere to be found. In the end, Machupichu battled with Darth Vader (I can't quite remember if this is the evil dude's name that Daddy used) and defeated him. Of course, Darth Vader confessed that he is Machupichu's father. (By this time, Curious George had a very sad face and was about to cry.) But then Daddy turned the story around at the last minute and Darth and Machupichu ended up happily together with the rest of the family.

Oh where will Macaroni Machupichu end up next.

Here are the girls playing with their big brother's collection of little rocks.

And for the bad time:

Though I am still working behind the scenes on Minti, my public persona is not quite so visible. My family is going through some major life changing event - as in, my husband's company closed down last week and so he lost his job (along with thousands of others). This is wreaking havoc on a lot of people's lives.

My husband and I have decided to clean up the house to get it ready to sell, though it's looking like it could take up to a year to sell houses over here in our area. Then we will move in with the in-laws a couple of hundred miles away while the hubby scours the country for a job. By living with the inlaws, at least we won't need to worry about utility bills.

Keep coming to me for any help, but please be patient as the turn-around is not going to be speedy.

Regards, everyone!