Rest in Peace

My Step Grandma passed away a few nights ago. I haven't seen her in years - since high school. She and my Grandpa moved to California, and never came back.
 
My Grandpa was a Christian Scientist, and she was a Catholic. She was from the Philippines. An odd mix for sure. They met through mail. She was a mail order bride. In this day and age people meet over the internet.
 
My Grandpa had been married 3 times, but she's the only Grandma I knew on that side. My parents encouraged us to call her "Nita" even though all of her family called my Grandpa "Dad". My Grandpa didn't get married to her until after my parents were married. It had to be awkward to them to have someone in their lives that wanted to be called, "Mom". Especially when my Dad had two Mom's before that - one that birthed them, and one that raised them. Culturally in the Philippines they make everyone family. Here it's not that way.
 
My parents were always really nice to her. Accepting, but didn't think of her as, "Mom" and didn't want us calling her, "Grandma". 
 
She played the roll of a Grandma. She gave us rice candy. We thought it was so cool to be able to eat a wrapper.
 
I've always missed her homemade egg rolls and fried rice. Once she made purple sweet potatoes that we joked looked like play doh. We were kids. We weren't culturally exposed very much - except when we were with her.
 
I loved her ornate shirts, and her skin that never seemed to age. I was amazed at how fast she could talk in her native language.
 
We went to ethnic festivals because she had friends that were in them. They had pretty dresses that would twirl around. At their parties they would roast a hog with the hairs still on it. My Dad couldn't get over that one. The craziest memory I have of her was a get together where one of her friends taught me how to hum, and pluck my nose to make notes come out. 
 
My Grandma has been on bed rest, and was only alive because she was given feedings through a tube. It's good that she's at peace now. ‪
 
Even though my Grandpa and Grandma had their differences they did love one another. They both had pretty full lives.

Sing, Sing a Song Saturday

I started doing what I call Sing, Sing a Song Saturday.  I'm going to post one song on Saturdays that the boys or I like. 

The song may be part of a movie, a kid's video or just a song we like. I'll try and include why we like it and/or the history of the song/singer.

My Step-Grandma is from the Philippines. She's the only Grandma I knew on my Dad's side. She's really old now and lives in California. I grew up with her living right here in Omaha, Nebraska. Things I remember about her:

• The cool candy she gave to us that was covered in rice paper. My older sister and I loved that we could eat the wrapper!
• The egg rolls she made. They were good.
• Listening to her talk on the phone in her native language Tagalog.  I was always amazed because it seemed like she talked so fast!
• Their dances and parties. Once someone was trying to teach me to play music with my nose. You heard that right. You hum out of your nose, plug your nose and unplug your nose. You hum to get different notes, and pluck you nose like a guitar is plucked. It's so odd, but kind of fun when it's not allergy season. LOL

I looked for a band from the Philippines.

Source

I ran into a band called Kadangyan. It starts off slow and then gets faster.

Here's a video where they talk about the insterments they use. 

Check out their website.