Hello September

I seriously wanted to start September by blogging. I opened the page thinking of the many things I wanted to blog about but the day ended without a new blog entry. Nothing new. I don't know how I was able to blog a few years back. It seemed easier back then. Now with many things needing more attention, I have less time for blogging. I'm happy to be able to spend lots of time with the little boy though as he is growing up so fast. I wish I was able to blog about all his milestones and share more pictures of him.

Hopefully I get to finish my birthing story before he turns one (which is coming real soon). Party planning is keeping us busy and a little boy who is trying to stand up on his own and walk is keeping me on my toes.

Goodbye August, Hello September but honestly, I can't wait for October.

MIA

That was me.

But I am back. We are actually back. We've been gone for more than a month and it has taken me about 2 weeks to settle back in. We had a great vacation but I wish we could have stayed longer. "Tornado" definitely enjoyed his vacation and it was nice for family and friends back home to finally meet him. The idea of having his baptism in the Philippines was also great as it served as a welcome party for him.

I have so many more stories to share and pictures to upload. I hope I get to do that soon.

Vacation was great but it's also nice to be back home.

Tiring Saturday

Today was a tiring day as we were out almost the whole day. I woke up really early as the little one decided he didn't want to sleep anymore at around 6am. Luckily, he took a nap before 8am so I got the chance to nap also. He woke up again 30 mins later. We then decided to go out to have some breakfast. Then we looked for a receipt printer and some other gifts to bring back home. We went home to rest for like an hour and then went out again to go to the mall and then have dinner. The little one's schedule is all messed up as his naps were really short but we took the chance of going out today as T is going to work tomorrow. I'm just glad little one is now sleeping and I get the chance to finish my online tasks.

Time Flies

I was cleaning up my hard drives, backing up pictures and deleting files I don't really need. I was looking at the pictures of my niece and nephew and in just a year they have changed a lot. I'm not going to be surprised if the same happens to my little one. I myself have changed a lot. All that pregnancy weight I have to lose. That's my goal for the next 2 months. I'm not sure if it's something I can achieve but I will try. sigh!

Jobs

A friend of mine who has recently migrated here in the US has been lucky enough to land a healthcare job in the first month of being here. I say lucky because I know that not everyone gets to land a job that easily. For some it takes months of looking and waiting. It can really get frustrating. I was just watching the news earlier and they had a feature on an ongoing job fair and the lines to get were really long. Some of those in line have been jobless for months now. Who ever said life in the US is easy is crazy because it's not. It's a lot of hard work and you should learn to not be choosy. You accept what ever is given and do your best in it and move up from there.

Thankful

I'm thankful that we are back home. One month of staying in a hotel was just too much. I missed our fast internet connection and cable tv. The one they had at the hotel was really crappy. I missed our Samsung LCD TV. I missed having a kitchen and not being locked up in a room. At least here in the house I can move from one room to another. I'm thankful we didn't have to bring a baby home to a hotel and that the house is 75% ready when the little one was born. Life is full of wonderful blessings!

Busy Week

The home renovation is in full swing! After months of procrastinating, looking for people to do the job, looking for tiles and furnishings. It took us months to start this big project and I must say I am might proud of T for all the hard work he has done. I believe we are also blessed with wonderful contractors. They did the kitchen demolition in less than 30 mins. It was really fast--well we do have a small kitchen but still I didn't think it would be that fast. How I wish we have installed wireless cctv cameras though so we can see them while working without staying in the house. I've been busy doing errands since Monday but looks like I'm getting some rest from that today. I would still need to go to the house to clear out a few things but after I get to go back to our temporary home. Will post pictures soon.

Adobo

I was craving for adobo the other day and lucky me it's so easy to cook adobo. One of the easiest dishes to cook as all you need to do is put all the ingredients, let it simmer and then your done. The thing with adobo is I don't really have a standard measurement for the ingredients. I just make sure I put in the same amount of vinegar and soy sauce. I sometimes add a bit of sugar or oyster sauce in it, sometimes I don't. Depends on my mood but surprisingly every time I cook adobo, I do a pretty good job at it. Love your own cooking of course.

Lucky

We were cleaning the house one Saturday afternoon when I accidentally bumped into T's box of coins. I had to pick it all up of course and saw four pieces gold coins while doing so. I immediately told him they were now mine since I found them. He just laughed and told me that to just make sure to keep it safely and since it was only four pieces that he thinks I won't be able to buy much with it anyways. Of course I ended up giving him the coins. I just told him to buy me ice cream in exchange for the gold coins.
On that same day, I was told of a good news from back home. The good new totally made my day of course. And I do feel lucky or should I say blessed for all the good things coming my way. I bet you little "tornado" is my lucky charm.

Always Sleepy

T has been saying that he feels like I have been drinking sleeping pills as I'm always sleepy. By 9PM I am already ready to go to sleep. This is really something new to me since I have always been a late sleeper and a night person. I use to sleep really late and but for the past month or so I can't seem to stay up late. It's not that I get tired for the whole day since most of the time I don't really do anything in the house other than household chores. I now get my 8 hours of sleep which I think is good but the only downside is that less time to spend with T.

Random Thoughs

~It's going to be one busy weekend with parties tomorrow and on Sunday. We are pretty much clueless on what's going to happen tomorrow as it's a party hosted by our families.

~It actually has been a busy week since it's my bday week. My sister is also here visiting so we have been out practically everyday. Their goes my diet too as we have been eating out a lot!

~We have exprerienced a lot of rain this week. It has been raining the whole week and I do hope we get some sun tomorrow. We were at the mall last Wednesday and they had to close portions of the mall because of flooding. The rain was nothing like Ondoy but that goes to show how people here are so not used to rain and so not prepared for it.

~I missed my family and friends in Manila as I am so used to celebrating it with them but had a wonderful time still. Wonderful new memories on my bday. More special than loose diamonds or anything else that money could buy

~Life is good!

Coming Soon

Soon we will launch the "new project" we have been busy with. It was almost 2 months back when my cousins and I thought of this project. It sounded so good and we felt it was really promising that is why we gave it a go and spent weekends planning on how we would go about with this "new project". We had to make sure we had all our options covered just like when getting a life insurance quote. Im pretty excited with this "new project" and I just hope everything goes well. We are ready to launch it before Christmas and its something we are all looking forward to.

Thank God

Im blogging from Rm1113 of Manila Doctors Hospital. We are set to go home later, before lunch I hope. My dad just needs to do an ultrasound and then we can start working on settling our hospital bill. He was confined due to high blood pressure and was diagnosed to have bell's palsy. Bell's palsu is easy to manage but the reason for his confinement was his BP which was at 230/130 when we first got here. Im sending love and thanks to all our relatives and friends who prayed for my dad. We are thanking and praising God that it was not stroke. Bell's palsy was a blessing in disguise as the doctors were able to diagnose my dad's BP which if left unmanaged could end up to stroke. His doctors are all wonderful! Dra Lara my dad's cousin who is a resident at PGH has managed to hook us up with good doctors here at MADOKS. Now other than knowing the importance of good diet and exercise, we have come to realize the importance also of health insurance. My dad does not have one right now but im already checking for insurance online. You'll never know on when you'll be needing it. Thank God really for all the people He used to help us and assist us and for making my dad well.

More hospital kwento later.

Happy Monday

We all have to start the week with a smile. It has been a hard one last week for a lot of us. Lots of depressing news and not so good things on TV. The typhoon scare over the weekend was not a good way to end the week as well. So let us all look forward to this week with a smile and a prayer that all things will go well and that life is to continue and move forward. Let's all try to be optimistic and hopeful that one by one, little by little everything is going to be ok.

Im hopeful too that things will go well for us with regards to some papers we are having processed. I pray to get that email we have been waiting for more than a week now to just get everything started and hopefully put an end to all this waiting we have been enduring for the past months. God is good and I know he answers prayers so I trust and believe that he will grant the desires of our hearts. I will try to get access to a live chat later to check on the status of things and keeping my fingers and toes crossed that all is well.

Everyone let's start the week right!

Count Your Blessings

I for one would have to admit that I most of the time ignore the blessings I receive. I always tend to want more and I guess this is human nature. But with what happened last week and seeing how many people suffered, I just woke up from deep slumber and realized how much blessed I am and how God is so good not only to me but to my family as well.

We stayed safe and dry. My sister was stranded at SM North but thinking about it, it's the best place to get stranded in. At least she had access to food and was still able to go home after the flood has subsided. We also opened our home to a few of my mom's officemates who were stranded and were not able to go home. They were all trapped a block away from our home and had been there for close to 5 hours already when they finally decided to go to our house.

I remember complaining that we didn't have electricity for close to 24 hours but after seeing on TV what has happened around me, I have realized that I should be thankful that we only lost electricity because others have lost their homes and some even their loved ones. I feel ashamed for complaining and whining the whole day about when our electricity was to be restored.

The past week God has reminded us that He is good and the storm was a tragedy but is bringing out the best among the Filipinos. We can see how everyone is working together to help those who were affected by the storm. I pray that we can always be united even after the tragedy. May we not forget the lessons we had to learn from typhoon Ondoy be forever be remembered.

My heart is full of Praise and Thanks to our God who is good. Let us always remember that "In Christ there is no crisis!"

Thank God

I almost lost precious files and photos! I would have never done on what to do had I lost those files. For sure I would never be able to recover them and I would totally hate myself for not doing the free online backup. I have been having problems with the desktop computer and I have been delaying having it checked. I have totally learned my lesson and have now made use of the free online backup. The desktop is now ready for repair/reformatting.

So Lazy

That's me! I have been so lazy the past few days. I have not been doing anything productive at all. I have tried to do some readings, but I feel like I'm just reading for the sake of it but not learning or remembering anything at all.

I guess my laziness was brought about by all the stress I had last week. I had to work more than my working hours as I was trying to find an apartment in London for my boss. It was difficult as his requirements for an apartment and the budget he has was a no match. London is bloody expensive (teehee)! Other than that, I was trying to arranging all the documents needed by his wife for her Schengen visa. I had to prepare the Itinerary, Airline and Hotel Bookings. From scratch, I had to come up with a her 12 week Itinerary in Paris, Spain, Germany & Rome. Thank God she was given a visa. All the hard work paid off.

My boss has just arrived in London and that has given me a lot of free time as they are still settling down and adjusting to the weather and the time difference. I should have used the time to study. I tried and still trying. Hopefully I get my groove back when it comes to studying. I must as I have a schedule for the exam already. Maybe after my short vacation I'ld be more motivated to study.

credit cards

i have a few that i got when i was still working with a bank. we usually just get credit cards at that time even if we didn't apply for it. friends say i was lucky since they still had to complete forms and provide for financial documents before they actually got a credit card but i say not really so lucky.

i cancelled and paid off some of my cards already and i just have two now that i don't really use anymore. i decided to keep them for emergency purposes but since i have to pay for the annual fees i am thinking of just keeping one. i decided on keeping my citi card. why? bec their company offers Best Cash Back Credit Cards. at least if i do decide on using it, i still get a certain percentage back because of the cash back credit. it is very important for me to choose a company that offers me a better deal since their are a lot of credit card companies. comparing the companies with always land you a good deal.

i am a smorty

i have been doing blog advertising for a little over 6 months now and so far this is one of the jobs i have had that i love the most. having the chance to advertise on blogs has allowed me to learn more about the products and services that are available online and at the same time allowed me to earn extra income at the comforts of my home. with the blogging money i have earned, i get to do online shopping which i also love. and since i am currently not working, the money i earn from blogging i get to use for my everyday expenses. no more asking for allowance, woohoo. i hope to continue doing this for a long time. i have not only earned in terms of monetary but i have also met a lot of people online. i really enjoy reading their blogs. you get to learn a lot from them as well. the opportunities online are really endless. thanks, to smorty i don't only get paid to blog i also get paid to meet friends.

honda cars

when the idea of buying a new car, my dad and sister immediately went to honda cars in search of the perfect car. the red corolla that my sister was using was to be sold and in replacement a new car was to be bought. of course my sister was super excited. who wouldn't be? they immediately got honda car quotes and then compared it to the price that other dealers and car manufacturers were giving them. for the honda city that my sister wanted and comparing it to models of almost the same kind with other manufacturer's the honda car price was the most reasonable that they got. this is the first time we got a honda for a car and so far so good. maybe we should sell the van and get a crv soon, too.