At the start of the New Year we were in the Philippines. The day before we left to return home we had dinner with a good friend and she told us that it was her goal to get married in 2018. We counseled her not to agree to get married to the first guy that she meets and to really make sure that she chooses the right one for her and not worry about a deadline. So, you can imagine how surprised we were to find out that she got engaged about two weeks after we had dinner with her, to a guy we never met from Indonesia. In March, Matt & I flew out to attend the wedding; where I kind of played the role of the “Mother of the Bride” since her own mother passed away a year ago. With two days of activities prebooked and the use of Uber, we made the most of our time in Cebu, Philippines. And as an added bonus, we booked a tour guide for our layover in Taiwan, so it was like two vacations in one. This felt like a “second honeymoon” for us and we still really like being with each other after 15 years of marriage!

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4-6

8 hour layover in Taipei, Taiwan

As a new year begins and I reflect on the past year that just ended I find that I forget the good and bad things that we experienced. The purpose of this blog is to act as a family journal for posterity, and also share family updates with close friends and relatives. So here is a quick look at our 2017!

And finally, we spent 3 1/2 weeks in the Philippines to celebrate Christmas and ring in the New Year.

 

Our long lost relatives live on the beautiful island of Siquijor, and we have been spending Christmas with them every year since 2012. So this year was no different. Again we stayed at our “home away from home”, Coco Grove Beach Resort. We love the staff there who know us by name. (Having a staff member be Blake’s nanny while we are there really means everyone knows Blake and we are just his family) And word has spread throughout the International School of Manila about Coco Grove Beach Resort, so our kids saw their friends and teachers at the resort. Our agenda is more or less the same thing every year with what we do around the island. This year was a little different in that we are now scuba certified, so we had a day trip to Apo island where we ate lunch, did some snorkeling with turtles, and had two dives around the island (Apo is one of the top dive sites in the country).

… and don’t miss this compilation video Matt put together!

More photos of Siquijor here.

In October we had a date night to attend the American Women’s Club of the Philippines annual Hoedown. There we won a free two-night stay at the resort Eskaya. Since we knew that we were relocating the beginning of January, we only had one weekend when we could use this vacation. Our kids skipped the last day of school, which was just a half day, so we could catch a flight to head to the island of Bohol and use our voucher at the resort. The shuttle ride from the airport was about 20 minutes and the resort was nice. Each villa had it’s own private pool, plus the main pool and the beach front. This was the third time that we were at Bohol, so we didn’t do the normal tourist sight-seeing things. Instead we hung out at the resort one day and went scuba diving the second day. On the third day we went to Church and then flew home. We don’t have many photos of this vacation since we were using our GoPro…and on our last dive the GoPro broke off the stick and fell to the bottom of the ocean. Good times.

For the past three years we have employed Helen & Marliyn as our live-in household kasambahay and would like to now advertise a very strong recommendation for their services.

Why should you hire them?

• 100% Trustworthy – in 38 months we have never once experienced an issue with honesty. After the first year we were comfortable leaving our kids with them overnight. You could even say they’ve played a large role in raising our 18 month old baby.
• Safety – they have always kept our kids safe and exhibit a strong sense of safety.
• Work Ethic – both H&M have a very strong work ethic and do not shy away from hard labor; they’ve kept our condo spotless. When we wakeup Monday morning after they’ve been off over the weekend, the condo is already clean. They’re also very willing to go above and beyond their job description with miscellaneous tasks we delegate their way.
• Temperament – we’ve often heard of “maids with mood-swings”, but can honestly say we’ve never seen anything but a steady positive attitude from these two.
• Local Knowledge – if you’re new to the Philippines, they know the ropes so you don’t have to. One has handymen brothers who can help out as well.
• Stability – I haven’t met any other expats who have kept the same house help for 38 consecutive months. That says a lot about H&M.
• Self-Starters – We never have to tell either one of them what to do around the house.

 
Why should you hire Marilyn specifically?

• Marilyn’s primary responsibility is cooking and cleaning. She backs up Helen in regards to taking care of the kids as a secondary responsibility.
• Her cooking is amazing. See photos below. We’re often disappointed when we eat out because the food isn’t as good as what Marilyn cooks at home.
• She is 100% self-led in the kitchen: we never tell her what to make or how to make it. We’re just treated to a delightfully surprising variety of dishes every time we sit down to eat.
• She teaches herself new dishes on a regular basis. She watches YouTube videos and gets recipes on the internet and tries them out. Nine times out of ten they turn out great.
• Parties parties parties. We’re fond of hosting dinner parties with 10..15..20..+ guests of varying nationalities and tastes. All we have to do is give Marilyn a headcount and she does the rest. Photos of some of the spreads she’s put on are below. With Helen’s help, the two of them can facilitate an entire dinner party and we don’t lift a finger or manage anything.
• Weekly grocery shopping is done with little supervision from my wife. Marilyn finds the ingredients we need, and my wife just meets her at the cash register to pay the bill. (Warning: having a restaurant-quality chef in your kitchen can lead to restaurant-level food bills, but it’s worth it)
• Again, Marilyn is a very hard worker and does a great job cleaning and doing laundry in addition to cooking.

 
Why should you hire Helen specifically?

• Helen’s primary responsibility is childcare and cleaning. She will backup Marilyn in the kitchen as a secondary responsibility.
• Helen takes excellent care of our three children. Catering to the needs of an 11 year old, 6 year old, and 18 month old.
• She is familiar with the International School of Manila and helps make sure the kids are prepared each day and get to / from school.
• She takes great care of the baby, and has done so since he was born. Her level of safety and rigor is so high we do not worry in the least bit when she’s out with him. And as mentioned earlier, we’ve left all three kids with them for 2-3 consecutive nights.
• She is always present when workers are in our condo, and because of that we have never had any issues of damage goods or money stolen.
• Like Marilyn, Helen keeps the condo clean and tidy when the kids don’t need her. Zero hesitation when it comes to hard chores.

 
Other FYI’s:

• Their preference is to stay together at their next job, they work really well with one another.
• They both live with us, and probably prefer live-in jobs, but it wouldn’t be a deal breaker. Marilyn lives in Cavite, Helen in Pasig.
• Their schedule with us is Monday morning through Saturday afternoon.
• We started them at 12,000 PHP each / month, and have increased it 1000 each year. So 2016 would have been to 15,000 (includes SSS, Pag-Ibig, Phil-Health for their portion and our portion).
• We give them the standard Filipino non-working holidays.
• English skills are adequate, but not above average

 
We will be out of town Dec 23-Dec 27, so they will both be available for interviews during that window. Otherwise, we leave Jan 8 and they’ll be available to work full-time after that.

Helen can be reached at: 0905 678 1494

and Marilyn: 0915 670 4453