I received an SMS message from my high school friend yesterday and she is asking for help and some inputs and suggestions for the birthday party celebration of her twins. Yani and Yori will be turning one this coming June 12 and they will be having a birthday party on June 14 so her mom is now busy preparing for it.

Birthday party preparations really get my adrenalin going. I love to prepare parties that’s why for the first two years of my daughter, we had a party for her. If only I can afford to splurge on a birthday party for my daughter every year, maybe I would. But for this year we decided just to have a small party for her and just have an out of the country vacation.

But I still miss party preparations. I miss the fun of conceptualizing invites, going to divisoria to buy toys for the game prizes and items for the loot bags, and I miss selecting from a wide list of party entertainments. So when I received the sms from my friend and she is asking me to help her, I got excited. At least if not for my daughter, I can get to plan another birthday party again and this time it will be for my god children.

Every time we are in our family room, Bela would always play with Howell’s collectables. You see, my husband loves to collect all sort of things. He collects NBA action figure, SPAWN action figure, NFL action figure and many other Mc Farlene toys. He also loves to collect coins and part of his collection is the US coin for each of the US states. He also has an antique coin collection.

Bela would love to play with my husband’s coin collections as he loves to identify the shape and the images printed on the coins. As she was playing with my husband’s coins I noticed that there are some coins that are different from Howell’s ordinary collections. And when I look at it, I realized that it is Howell’s certified coins.

Certified coins are my husband’s new investment. He said that he has been doing some research and because of the weakening of the US dollar and the drop in economy of most countries, he said that a tangible asset such as certified coins is the best way to expand our assets and protect it from inflation.

And what’s best about these coins is that he gets to still enjoy his hobby of collecting coins and at the same time he is putting our assets to good investment.

Share with everyone the fondest memory you have of you and your family.

Our family is what you can consider as a typical Filipino family. When my mom got married, they lived near my grand mother’s house. When her sister and brother got married, they too lived in a house near their parent’s house. And it has been a tradition in our family, that all of us will have our lunch and dinner at my grand mother’s house. This is our time to share stories with all the family members and just to spend some quality with all my relatives. It is also a tradition that all birthdays, and all other family occasions and events, should be celebrated at my grand mother’s house . So I can say that we are really one close family and I consider every gathering like this to be a fond memory of my family.

But there is one occasion that I would really consider as my fondest memory of my family and that is our first out of the country trip. All of us, except my uncle and my grand mother, had a 3 days vacation in Hong Kong. Our group is composed of 14 adults and 6 kids so you can just imagine how fun that trip was. Plus it is the first time to go out of the country for majority of my relatives so it is really one big experience for them.

I want to share a slide show that I posted here before and let the picture speak on how fun that trip was.

July 1 is Canada Day. Every year, we celebrate Canada Day with a big gathering where all the mission contacts and employees are invited to celebrate. This is a big event in the office. All sections participate in preparation for this big day. Thousands of contacts are also invited and so all the section secretary maintains a big list of invitees for the said event. They have a database where they save the contact details of the contacts as well as the contacts' reply if they will be attending or not.

Last year, this database became a problem since all secretaries have editing permission for this database, and one of the secretary unknowingly made a mistake and overwritten the updated list of invitees. This became a big issue since it takes a lot of time for the secretaries to updated the list. And so for this year, in preparation for the incoming Canada Day celebration, we looked for a Data Protection Software that will address all the issues encountered last year.

And that’s when I discovered the Data Protection System of Tilana. What Tilana does is monitor all files and folders that have been marked as protected and all changes made to this files as well as new files created under a protected folder will be uploaded to Tilana’s Data Center. This is all done automatically and no user intervention is required. Deleted files are archived and all versions of the files are saved so any time a client needs to restore or needs to revert to an old version, they can easily do so.

I’m sure this data protection solution of Tilana can address all the problems they have encountered before and it will definitely help in the smooth flow of the preparations for this year's Canada Day celebration.

I didn’t realize that we will be on holiday this coming Thursday. I worked for a foreign mission and we follow a different set of holiday and every year, we always have to go to work every May 1. I just found out that we will be on holiday when my officemates were talking about their long weekend plans.

Oh well, so we will have a short week. I’m not sure yet if hubby has made plans already since it is the wedding anniversary of her sister. But I’m hoping that we will just stay at home. I don’t know I feel so tired since we are always busy during weekends and so I’m really longing for a nice long day at home, just sleeping, watching TV, chilling and just playing with my daughter.

Hectic but productive. That’s how I would describe our Saturday. Howell has to work overtime (again!!) and he promised to be home after lunch. But he was not able to go home to pick us up since he was caught up with work and he needs to finish it before he can leave. So wowo Ben drove us to Ace Water Spa and we will just meet Howell there. Howell arrived a few minutes after we arrived and so they were still on time for Bela’s class.

After Bela’s class, we had merienda at Café Monaco. I had California Roll (very yummy, better than Tokyo, Tokyo’s) while Howell had Tapsilog and we ordered Beef Ramen for Bela. Bela was able to finish her milk when we arrived at the restaurant but she still had a few bite of her dad’s tapsilog and she even finished her small bowl of ramen.

After eating, we went to Mc Donald’s Retiro to enroll my niece to their Kiddie Crew program. Then we went to SM San Lazaro to buy a gift for Pheng’s Djuan. We will be attending Djuan’s first birthday party tomorrow. And finally we we’re able to do our groceries also.

We arrived home around 9:00 PM and Howell and Bela immediately fell asleep after eating dinner. We really had one hectic day but I was happy as we were able to accomplish a lot today.

Got this tag from Jhona. Thanks sis!

Here are the rules:

1. Mention the person who tagged you and create a link back to them.
2. Copy-paste the traits for all the twelve months (see below).
3. Pick your month of birth.
4. Highlight the traits that apply to you.
5. Tag 12 people and let them know by visiting their blogs and leaving a comment for them.
6. Let the person who tagged you know when you've done it!

Now I'm going to pass this tag to my freinds.

Aggie, Apols, Apple, Thea, Jacqui, Jane, Jody, Joy, Kelly, Mich, Peachy, Em and Val

There. You 12 are tagged

JANUARY: Stubborn and hard-hearted. Ambitious and serious. Loves to teach and be taught. Always looking at people’s flaws and weaknesses. Likes to criticize. Hardworking and productive. Smart, neat and organized. Sensitive and has deep thoughts. Knows how to make others happy. Quiet unless excited or tensed. Rather reserved. Highly attentive. Resistant to illnesses but prone to colds. Romantic but has difficulties expressing love. Loves children. Loyal. Has great social abilities yet easily jealous. Very stubborn and money cautious.

The Twelve Months

JANUARY: Stubborn and hard-hearted. Ambitious and serious. Loves to teach and be taught. Always looking at people’s flaws and weaknesses. Likes to criticize. Hardworking and productive. Smart, neat and organized. Sensitive and has deep thoughts. Knows how to make others happy. Quiet unless excited or tensed. Rather reserved. Highly attentive. Resistant to illnesses but prone to colds. Romantic but has difficulties expressing love. Loves children. Loyal. Has great social abilities yet easily jealous. Very stubborn and money cautious.


FEBRUARY: Abstract thoughts. Loves reality and abstract. Intelligent and clever. Changing personality. Attractive. Sexy. Temperamental. Quiet, shy and humble. Honest and loyal. Determined to reach goals. Loves freedom. Rebellious when restricted. Loves aggressiveness. Too sensitive and easily hurt. Gets angry really easily but does not show it. Dislikes unnecessary things. Loves making friends but rarely shows it. Daring and stubborn. Ambitious. Realizes dreams and hopes. Sharp. Loves entertainment and leisure. Romantic on the inside not outside. Superstitious and ludicrous. Spendthrift. Tries to learn to show emotions.

MARCH: Attractive personality ( Ehem) Sexy (Ehem) Affectionate. Shy and reserved. Secretive. Naturally honest, generous and sympathetic. Loves peace and serenity. Sensitive to others. Loves to serve others. Easily angered. Trustworthy. Appreciative and returns kindness. Observant and assesses others.
Revengeful - Mmm,Nah! Loves to dream and fantasize. Loves traveling. Loves attention. Hasty decisions in choosing partners.Nah! Loves home decors. Musically talented. Loves special things. Moody. BINGO!!! Most of these traits are true for me .

APRIL: Active and dynamic. Decisive and hasty but tends to regret. Attractive and affectionate to oneself. Strong mentality. Loves attention. Diplomatic. Consoling, friendly and solves people’s problems. Brave and fearless. Adventurous. Loving and caring. Suave and generous. Emotional. Aggressive. Hasty. Good memory. Moving. Motivates oneself and others. Sickness usually of the head and chest. Sexy in a way that only their lover can see.

MAY: Stubborn and hard-hearted. Strong-willed and highly motivated. Sharp thoughts. Easily angered. Attracts others and loves attention. Deep feelings. Beautiful physically and mentally. Firm Standpoint. Needs no motivation. Easily consoled. Systematic (left brain). Loves to dream. Strong clairvoyance. Understanding. Sickness usually in the ear and neck. Good imagination. Good physical. Weak breathing. Loves literature and the arts. Loves traveling. Dislike being at home. Restless. Not having many children. Hardworking. High spirited. Spendthrift.

JUNE: Thinks far with vision. Easily influenced by kindness. Polite and soft-spoken. Having ideas. Sensitive. Active mind. Hesitating, tends to delay. Choosy and always wants the best. Temperamental. Funny and humorous. Loves to joke. Good debating skills. Talkative. Daydreamer. Friendly. Knows how to make friends. Able to show character. Easily hurt. Prone to getting colds. Loves to dress up. Easily bored. Fussy. Seldom shows emotions. Takes time to recover when hurt. Brand conscious. Executive. Stubborn.

JULY: Fun to be with. Secretive. Difficult to fathom and to be understood. Quiet unless excited or tensed. Takes pride in oneself. Has reputation. Easily consoled. Honest. Concerned about people’s feelings. Tactful. Friendly. Approachable. Emotional temperamental and unpredictable. Moody and easily hurt. Witty and sparkly. Not revengeful. Forgiving but never forgets. Dislikes nonsensical and unnecessary things. Guides others physically and mentally. Sensitive and forms impressions carefully. Caring and loving. Treats others equally. Strong sense of sympathy. Wary and sharp. Judges people through observations. Hardworking. No difficulties in studying. Loves to be alone. Always broods about the past and the old friends. Likes to be quiet. Homely person. Waits for friends. Never looks for friends. Not aggressive unless provoked. Prone to having stomach and dieting problems. Loves to be loved. Easily hurt but takes long to recover.

AUGUST: Loves to joke. Attractive. Suave and caring. Brave and fearless. Firm and has leadership qualities. Knows how to console others. Too generous and egoistic. Takes high pride in oneself. Thirsty for praises. Extraordinary spirit. Easily angered. Angry when provoked. Easily jealous. Observant. Careful and cautious. Thinks quickly. Independent thoughts. Loves to lead and to be led. Loves to dream. Talented in the arts, music and defense. Sensitive but not petty. Poor resistance against illnesses. Learns to relax. Hasty and trusty. Romantic. Loving and caring. Loves to make friends.

SEPTEMBER: Suave and compromising. Careful, cautious and organized. Likes to point out people’s mistakes. Likes to criticize. Stubborn. Quiet but able to talk well. Calm and cool. Kind and sympathetic. Concerned and detailed. Loyal but not always honest. Does work well. Very confident. Sensitive. Good memory. Clever and knowledgeable. Loves to look for information. Must control oneself when criticizing. Able to motivate oneself. Understanding. Fun to be around. Secretive. Loves leisure and traveling. Hardly shows emotions. Tends to bottle up feelings. Very choosy, especially in relationships. Systematic.

OCTOBER: Loves to chat. Loves those who loves them. Loves to take things at the center. Inner and physical beauty. Lies but doesn’t pretend. Gets angry often. Treats friends importantly. Always making friends. Easily hurt but recovers easily. Daydreamer. Opinionated. Does not care of what others think. Emotional. Decisive. Strong clairvoyance. Loves to travel, the arts and literature. Touchy and easily jealous. Concerned. Loves outdoors. Just and fair. Spendthrift. Easily influenced. Easily loses confidence. Loves children.

NOVEMBER: Has a lot of ideas. Difficult to fathom. Thinks forward. Unique and brilliant. Extraordinary ideas. Sharp thinking. Fine and strong clairvoyance. Can become good doctors. Dynamic in personality. Secretive. Inquisitive. Knows how to dig secrets. Always thinking. Less talkative but amiable. Brave and generous. Patient. Stubborn and hard-hearted. If there is a will, there is a way. Determined. Never give up. Hardly becomes angry unless provoked. Loves to be alone. Thinks differently from others. Sharp-minded. Motivates oneself. Does not appreciate praises. High-spirited. Well-built and tough. Deep love and emotions. Romantic. Uncertain in relationships. Homely. Hardworking. High abilities. Trustworthy. Honest and keeps secrets. Not able to control emotions. Unpredictable.

DECEMBER: Loyal and generous. Sexy. Patriotic. Active in games and interactions. Impatient and hasty. Ambitious. Influential in organizations. Fun to be with. Loves to socialize. Loves praises. Loves attention. Loves to be loved. Honest and trustworthy. Not pretending. Short tempered. Changing personality. Not egotistic. Take high pride in oneself. Hates restrictions. Loves to joke. Good sense of humor. Logical.

Want to be on top? This is what I always here from Tyra Banks every time I watched her reality TV show which is looking for the next top model. I love watching her show but I realized it is difficult to penetrate the modeling world. You have to go through a lot of trainings, a lot of sacrifice and you should have to be really beautiful and you should have an edge against the other models so the agents can take notice of you.

My sister is a supermodel wannabe. She even tried auditioning and submitting audition pictures to agencies so she can try her luck with modeling. But it seems it is really difficult to become a model.

So when I found out that Look of the year is having an online Beauty contest, I really got interested since this will be a perfect avenue for my sister to make her dream come true. The contest is open to everybody, young and old and to all model aspirants all over the world.

All those who want to join just need to sign up so they can submit their profile to the Look of the year site and then spread the word since they will be judged base on the online votes they will get. And the best part is, even if they don’t win, there is a chance that model agencies would take notice of them since Look of the year will be inviting them to check out the profiles of the contestant.

So if you want to be the next model strutting your stuff in Paris, New York and Milan check out this online beauty contest of Look of the year.

for my evaluation that is. I submitted my performance appraisal report to my manager two weeks ago. And before he went home yesterday, he aid that he is finish with my appraisal but did not find the time to discuss it with me.

I have mixed feelings. I don’t know if I should be scared or excited. Last year I had a good performance appraisal and I was so happy that they were able to notice my skills and what I have been doing for the department. I even received a good feedback from the big boss too and I was shocked because I never really get to work with him directly so I did not know that he notice my skills and strengths too.

Hope it will be the same as last year, or maybe better. Wish me luck. It’s 1 AM already but still I’m blogging since I really can’t sleep because that is what is in my head right now. Hope everything will be good.

My husband received a confirmation from his boss last week that he will be going on temporary duty to Micronesia for three weeks. I really would have wanted to go since I haven’t been there but I was surprised to learn that the airfare is twice or thrice as much as the airfare going to San Diego.

If budget permits, we plan to go to US this year to celebrate my daughter’s birthday and San Diego is one of the places listed in our itinerary. My friend there has long been inviting us to go and visit them and since they know that we are beach lovers, they promised to take us to a vacation at the beaches of San Diego. They said that they already found a San Diego beach house where we will stay during our vacation to enjoy the beach.

Just like us, my friend and his husband really love the beach and I heard that they are looking for a Mission Beach Real Estate or San Diego Beach Real Estate where they can move so they can have a nice beach front house and they can get to enjoy the beach everyday. My friend even showed me the website of San Diego Realty Consultants and so I was able to view the properties that they are considering.

I’m hoping that all our plans will push through this year. I’m excited as there is a possibility that they have already move to their new San Diego or Mission Beach Real Estate by the time we get there so we will be their first visitor to their new home.

Expenses, expenses, expenses. I don’t know when it will end.

Our car’s aircon broke down and we have to send it for repair. Since it is not a planned expense, we really don’t have a budget allotted for it. And so we have been getting money form our savings account (which I really, really hate doing) every time we need to pay something for the repair. But looks like everything’s ok now as they where able to use it to take Bela to class today and my dad didn’t mentioned any complains about the aircon.

Another expense was we purchased a license plate that will give us an exception to the color coding scheme. We really need it as Bela’s class is every Tuesday and Thursday and we are on color coding every Thursday. This means that my dad has to borrow my brother’s car or they will take a cab to school (which is really very inconvenient for Bela). So when my mom’s friend offered it to us, I immediately said yes, even though it is not a planned expense again. So we have to take it out again from our savings account.

We initially wanted to upgrade our Cable subscription to Platinum since the Gold Plan don’t have the sports channel that Howell usually watch and Playhouse Disney which is now Bela’s favorite channel. But since all of our money has been used for the repair of the car, this should be postponed again for another month.

This week has been one of our most expensive weeks. Everyday, I have to go to the ATM to make a withdrawal. Hope all of this unplanned expense will finally end.

Are you a coffee drinker? I’m really not into coffee that much but I have officemates who really can’t stand a day without their cup of coffee. It is their morning energy booster. So when I received an email about Starbucks’ participation in Earth Day 2008, they are the first thing that came to my mind.

This coming April 22, 2008, Starbucks will be giving a P40 discount for those who will use their own tumbler or mug when they purchased any of their favorite Starbucks beverage. This is Starbucks way of participating in earth Day 2008. Isn’t great? You will get to do your share in the conservation of the environment and as an added bonus, you will even get a discount. That’s a good deal.

Below are just some of the reminders from Starbucks for April 22:

• We recommend customers participating in this campaign to bring tumblers that have the proper insulation for either warm or cold drinks.
• Bottled water and pre-packed juices are not included in this campaign.
• Transactions with Senior Citizen, VAT Exempt and Handicapped discounts are qualified for this promotion. However other marketing promotions (ex. coffee passport), complimentary vouchers and other discounts (ex. Rustan’s discounts and partner discounts) are disqualified to join this promotion.

My daughter started her summer class at Toddlers Unlimited last week. Her class is at 10:30 Am and since my husband and I are both working, our set up was my mom and my dad was the one who will bring my daughter to school.

The set up was okay since we are assured that my daughter is in safe hands and it means that neither me or my husband has to take a leave from work to take my daughter to school. But having this kind of setup means we have to leave our car every Tuesdays and Thursdays so they have a car to use to take my daughter to school. For now that is okay, but come June I will enroll her to a three times a week schedule so it means that we won’t have a car to use to go to work three times a week.

So my husband and I have been thinking if we should buy another car so we have another car that we can use every time we have to leave the car for our daughter. Honestly, I’m really not sure if we can afford to get another loan to purchase a new car. Our housing loan won’t be finish for another year so getting a loan for a new car means an addition to our monthly budget. I told my husband that we should study our budget first before finally deciding if we will get another loan or not.

Good thing I found an online loan calculator so help us analyze the loan that we will avail and if it will fit our monthly budget. I tried using it and it very easy to use. I just need to enter the loan amount, loan term, interest rate, and the first payment date and it will show me a table for our amortization either by year or by month. It will give me an idea on how much is my amortization per month or year and my running balance. This will definitely help us decide if we will get a car loan or not.

They finished another album lay out again for another client. My uncle was the one who did the lay out this time. He is a graphics artist and he is really good with Adobe so we hired him to do the lay out for this client since Howell is really busy with work.

Howell uploaded the pictures at their multiply site. You can check it here: http://fokalente.multiply.com/

I was so busy (and lazy) last week that I missed last’s week’s coffee break.

And so to answer this week’s coffee break question:

How committed are you to health and fitness?

My husband and I are both suckers when it comes to health and fitness. We are never conscious about what we eat; we eat just about anything specially those foods that they say is bad for you like junk foods and fatty and oily foods. But my soda consumption has lessened now compared to before when I can’t survive a day without drinking a glass of soda.

I don’t even do exercise. My only exercise is running after my little girl. Hubby is a little good on this aspect as she does some sports like basketball and paintball. I on the other hand am very lazy to go to the gym and I suck too with any sports.

But like what you said we should never be a victim. We should start to live a healthy life although I’m not definite yet on when should I start with this new resolution of living healthy. LOL. But it better be soon.

I have been blogging for about four years now and I can say that it is one of my favorite past time. I started blogging way back in 2004 when we are preparing for our wedding. I created a blog to create an online journal about our wedding preparations from the selection of our suppliers, to searching for the best caterer and designer, to looking for the church and reception venue and even my ranting when I’m stressed out.

Then I gave birth to my beautiful daughter and that’s when I created a second blog dedicated for her to record her milestones, her experiences and her day to day antics. I never imagined that I will be able to maintain two blogs because of my busy schedule, but I did.

And so when my friends started to buy their own domain name for their blog, I joined the bandwagon and bought a domain name too for my third blog. This blog will be my own personal space on the web. It will just be about me. So I want it to be a little something special compared to my other two blogs.

So I was doing a lot of research on how I can customize it like changing the template, putting some banners and logos, so it will reflect my personality. Good thing I found the website of stylishdesign.com. It is a web design blog where I can get a lot of tips and information about web designing and even the technical aspects of web designing like search engine optimization techniques, the tools and software that I can use for designing my blog and even an explanation on how domain works.

This will be a really good read for me and for sure I will learn a lot from it and will help me in customizing and designing my own blog.

It has been a busy month for me to think that it is only the middle of the month. I haven’t got the time to really take a break and rest. But I’m happy that I was able to accomplish a lot. There is still a lot to be done but at least I’m making progress.

* I was able to finish my performance appraisal report and have submitted it already to my manager. I’m just waiting for his inputs so we can finalize it and submit it to the big boss.
* Bela just attended her first week at school. She did well and she really enjoyed her first week. Hope she will enjoy it more as she spends more time there and hope she won’t get bored.
* I was able to start on my new project, my new baby. Hope I will make more progress with it but for now I will keep it as a secret.
* I was able to help my friend look for an online medical equipment store. I already gave her the site of Allegro Medical and she can easily shop for the things that she needs here by just checking on all the items either by category, brand or condition. And she can even set an auto re-order so items will be automatically delivered to her based on the intervals she set.
* We were able to finish the invitation, tarpaulin and souvenir of Joaqui just in time for her party.

There are still a lot of things to be done, like I have to go to a salon for my much needed hair treatment. I have to bring Bela too for a haircut. Plus I have to enroll Bela for her swimming lessons. The list will just go on and on. But I know one a time; I will be able to accomplish all of this.

Still was not able to get a massage this weekend. Our schedule was so full that I was not able to go to a spa for a much needed massage.

Saturday, we attended Joaqui’s 2nd birthday party at SM Storyland. Howell was the official photographer too so I was the only one taking care of our active little girl. After the party, Howell and Bela did some DVD shopping before proceeding to Intramuros to meet with my husband’s business partner. After that, we went to St. Jude to hear mass as Howell will be covering another birthday the next day so we won’t be able to attend mass. So we decided that we just attend the anticipated mass at St. Jude. Of course, Bela was still so active and looks like she is not tired at all. While Howell and I are already out of energy.

Sunday was Bela’s show day at the Little Gym (I will make a separate post about it on Bela’s blog). After the show day, we had lunch at Racks. Good thing Bela fell asleep so we we’re able to have some decent lunch. Right after lunch, we left Lolo Ben and Yaya at Racks because I wanted to buy some new school clothes for Bela. So Howell and I went to Podium and had a quick shopping at Gingersnaps. Then we dropped Howell at Jade Valley in Quezon City for the event that he will be covering.

We arrived home around 4 PM. I was able to lie down for a while but I still feel tired from the very busy weekend schedule we had.

Eds and Aggie tagged me with this meme.

You can get more web traffic.
* You can increase your blogs' Technorati authority.
* You can increase your blogs' feed subscribers.
* You can get more back links.
* You can gain more friends around the world.

Here are the Rules:

Copy the list below.

Place your Blog's FEED Link (i.e. You blog's link for its RSS/Atom feed, not the actual site) after the list. If you have more than 1 blog, feel free to add them all here!

After placing your blog’s feed address/es, you must tag 5 or more bloggers.

Also, you must that is not yet in the list, this is to keep the ball rolling.

Subscribe to the feed of the blog who tagged you. You may include subscribing to another blog of your choice from the list.

1. Kenneth - A Stellar Life
2. filipinolifeabroad
3. Tina
4. Dabawenyang Iska
5. Bestfriend's blog
6. PinayLoveStories
7. Allen's wifey
8. allen's darling
9. allen's sweetheart
10. filipinolifeabroad
11. Sweet temptation
12. In the life of..Mine
13. Mommy Joy of two
14. Pinay Mommy Online
15. Pinay Mommy's DigiScrap
16. Online Biz and Resources
17. DeCaFFeiNaTeD
18. BaReFooTeD Me
19. Euroangel's Complicated World
20. Precious Diamond
21. My Personal Journal
22. My Euro Travel and Adventure
23. My Daily Nourishment
24. Euroangel Graffiti
25. The World Wide Web Addict
26. Simply The Best
27. My Beautiful Life
28.. My Precious

29. Mommy Talks and Wife Stories

30. Aggie Shoots. Aggie Scraps

31. Pink and Brown Diaries

32. Winding Creek Circle

33. My Money Diet

34. Journey to Wellness

35. Pinay Nars

36. Women Xplore < -- my Feed

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39. My Planet Purple <-- my Feed

The best part now is tagging my wonderful friends namely Big Eyed Gal, Vien, Farah, Thea and Em

** Don't forget to subscribe guys! :) **

Be careful of YM Hackers. My friend and I almost became a victim of them. Good thing I don’t easily trust people specially if I can only talk to them online and good thing I trusted my instincts. Those hackers are really trying different ways on how they can get money from other people.

Read my full story on My Planet Purple blog.

It was the first time that I went to the gift wrapping section in SM San Lazaro and there is no long queue of shoppers availing of the free gift wrapping service (which really rarely happens).

I went to SM after work today to buy gifts for the two parties that we will be attending. And since I’m lazy to wrap the gift myself, I always avail of the free gift wrapping service and every time I avail of their service there is always a long queue.

The problem with SM’s gift wrapping service is you can’t leave your items to be wrapped with them. Unlike Rustan’s where you can leave the items, get a number and come back for it after an hour or even the next day, with SM you have to wait in line until your gift will be wrap. And if there is along line, it means you have to stand there and wait for like 30 minutes before you get your turn.

And I really hate it since there is always a long queue. If they are really serious with customer service, then why not maximize giving their full service to their shoppers by having a systematic process in the gift wrapping section that is convenient for the shoppers. But since it’s a free service, I can’t complain. Unless I want to do the wrapping myself.

I badly need a massage. We have always been busy every weekend and we have been running here and there that we almost don’t have enough rest during the weekends. Add to that my lack of sleep since I’ve been busy with something these past few weeks that I always sleep late.

And now my body is complaining. All my joints are aching and I feel really weak. I really, really wanted to have a massage but I don’t think that we can do that this weekend since we will be busy again with a lot of events.

Hope I can finally get a good massage and a good rest. Hopefully soon….

I am no cook. But my family loves to eat. I remember, every time we have a family gathering, food should always be the number one priority. So I highly rely on food delivery if ever I need to bring something for a gathering.

When I got married, I started to learn how to cook so I can cook something for my husband. But I highly rely on recipe books every time I plan our meals. And since I just rely on recipe book ever since, I’m running out of meals to cook so I always end up searching for more recipes on the net.

So I was really happy when I discovered the site of foodconnect.com. I immediately signed up to become a foodie and I immediately searched their site for a list of good recipes. One of my favorites is the Beef Stroganoff.

What I like about their site is that they really help me prepare my menu each week. What I would do is I would search their site for the recipe that I like and I can just add it to my shopping list. And once I am done, I can just easily print my shopping list.

Another feature that I like from foodconnect.com, is that I can submit my own recipe to them and they will give me a nutritional analysis of my recipe for free. And all of the recipes from their site always come with nutritional facts so I can be sure that I will be serving nutritious foods to my family by simply checking the nutritional facts.

And what’s even cool is that I can share recipes, techniques, and ideas to my friends and other foodies. Signing up is free, so join now and be one of the foodies.

I took a day off from work Tuesday and Thursday to accompany Bela on her first week of class at Toddlers Unlimited. Read on her blog how her first week went and to view some pictures as well.

Careers in the medical field are very in demand right now. In fact most of my friends from high school are now working as nursing assistant in the United States and they are really earning big bucks.

I even have a friend who is a licensed physician and is currently taking up cna training so he can become a nursing assistant. He said that he will earn more as a nursing assistant than as a physician so he didn’t mind that he has to take cna courses again even though he is already a doctor. According to him, in the long run it will be more beneficial for him since he will receive a much higher salary if he will work in the US as a nursing assistant.

And since there are a lot of cna schools available, he will not have a hard time looking for good schools, so he can be a nursing assistant real soon and start earning big bucks.

Thanks Ems for this LOVE DNA test.

Copy here:
1. Take the test - Love Visual DNA.
2. Post your result by adding your name (linked to your blog), your love type (linked to your Love DNA result).
3. Tag everybody else!

Results:1. Aggie - Warm and Fuzzy 2. Thea - Warm and Fuzzy 3. SOMETHING PURPLE - Warm and FUZZY 4. A DETOUR - Warm and Fuzzy 5. Abie - Warm & Fuzzy

End copy.

I’m tagging Shimumsy, Pam, Eds, MM and Nice

My Results: Warm and Fuzzy.

About
It looks like you are someone who’s very down to earth when it comes to love. You tend to be pretty realistic about what makes a lifelong partnership work. You understand the value of forging a love based on friendship, respect and shared values. In fact, often your relationships develop out of friendships and your lover tends to be your best friend. Marriage and children are probably central to your life. As far as you’re concerned, a true relationship is one that matures with time and work. Just make sure you keep the spark of passion alive.

Emotions
You feel most comfortable in a solid relationship based on trust. Right now you’re not entirely sure where you stand. You probably want to clear things up fast - you prefer clarity in matters of the heart so you can throw yourself into it completely.

Perceptions
Home life is really important to you. It is the focus of all the love that you have to give. For you, love is about building a life together. You believe in embracing the potential of what two loving individuals can achieve when they come together. Your choice of animal shows that you’re a very devoted and loyal person. You cope well in difficult circumstances and can be very worldy wise in dealing with challenges in your life.

Aspirations
Love is cuddling up on the sofa with a glass of wine or lounging in bed with the Sunday papers. You like grand romantic gestures. Your heart leaps whenever your lover does something special for you. You dream of growing old with the one you love. A strong friendship is the secret for a true lovematch. You’re a caring soul. For you, a healthy relationship is one where you can lean on each other when the going gets tough. True love is about taking the rough with the smooth. After all, you’re in this together.

How to love a warm and fuzzy type
Bust out the cashmere blanket. You two are peas in a very cozy pod. If you want a loyal committed life-long love, then this one’s for you.. In fact you might as well start building a porch for your rocking chairs.

A lot of my friends have announced that are expecting their second baby. I’m really happy for them. As for me, I think the second baby has to wait for another year.

But as I read the stories of my friends about the joy that the new blessing is bringing to their lives, I can’t help but reminisce those days when I was pregnant too.

The first exciting experience for us as first time parent is our first ultra sound. The sonography technician was very patient with us as she explains to us what the different images are being shown on the screen. The sonography tech who attended to us must be really good at what she is doing because when my husband and I was looking at the images on the screen, we can’t seem to figure out what all of those images mean. But she was able to interpret all the images right away and she even explained it to us very clearly.

She must have got good education and training from a reputable sonography schools that’s why she is really doing a good job. I learned that there are a lot of sonography schools where anyone interested to have a career as a sonographer can get proper education. They can visit the site of medical-career-training.com for a list of those schools.

What happens when you combine Beatles song with Bossa Nova music? Great music, for sure.

We bought Beatles in Bossa Nova CD yesterday at Astrovision and this is what has been playing in our car stereo since Monday.

We like the combination of Beatles song with the Brazilian style of Bossa Nova. It is very relaxing and really good music to the ear.

I wouldn’t mind listening to it over and over again specially if the choice is between this CD and FPJ’s CD. LOL.

It’s a Philippine holiday again and almost all of my family is at home. But not me. I’m currently in the office right now as we have our own set of holidays that we observe. It feels like ghost town here in the building as there are a few tenants coming to work today.

Although, it’s a little quite today. Maybe all my colleagues are in vacation mode too even if they are physically present in the office that’s why I didn’t receive that much request for technical support.

But I can’t wait for the clock to hit 4:30. Bela and Howell will fetch me later so we can do some last minute shopping for Bela at MOA.

I don’t know what’s wrong with our laptop. It doesn’t run my yahoo messenger. I tried un-installing Yahoo Messenger then installed it again but it still did not solve the problem. Every time I double click on the YM icon, I will just get the hour glass for a couple of seconds, then nothing will happen.

So the whole afternoon, I have been using the messenger integrated with Yahoo Mail, which I don’t like the interface. For one, it doesn’t show the groupings that I have in the full version of YM. It also doesn’t show the chat box in a separate window but just tabbed versions. So the whole afternoon, I didn’t chat that much with my friends as I really hate the YM version that is available on my laptop.

I’m not sure though how I can fix it. The laptop has been acting up lately and I think a reformat is the only solution to fix all of its problems and I don’t think we will have the time this weekend to do that.

It has been a tradition in our section that somebody is assigned to treat the whole section for lunch every Friday. This Friday, our big boss is paying for our lunch as his way of saying Thank You for all the good work that we have done for the whole fiscal year. It was also his birthday last Sunday so it is his birthday treat for us also. It is also our farewell party for one of our officer who is leaving for his next posting.

Since there are a lot of things to celebrate today, our boss decided to treat us beer and pizza for lunch. We even have wine and a cake. This is one cool thing that I like in working in a foreign mission. The boss is really not that formal so they allow us to drink beer and wine during office hours. Isn’t that cool? LOL.

We visited my friend’s mom (who is also one of our godmother for our wedding) last night to pick up the “pasalubongs” that Jacq and Neil sent for us. We had a nice chat and she told us that Jacq already received her green card last February.

Yehey. I was so excited upon hearing this because my good friend Jacq has been waiting for it so they can finally go home and have a vacation here in the Philippines. I was able to chat with her also this morning and she said that they are just waiting for her husband’s visa to be released (she sponsored her husband so her husband’s visa will be release anytime soon also) so they can pack their bags and finally be able to have a vacation here.

They plan to have a vacation here next year. Hope their plans will push through as she is also 5 months pregnant now. I’m really excited and we would love to take them to Bohol.

So, Jacq & Neil just let us now and we will immediately file a leave as soon as you confirm it so we can all go to Bohol.

For this week’s coffee break question from Jan:

What was your High School
Graduation song?

Do you know the song with the lyrics “We used to be frightened and scared to try of things we don't really understand why….” I think the title of that song is “Farewell” by Raymond Lauchengco. That is our high school graduation song. I remember during our graduation, almost all of us are crying while singing that song.

High School will always be one of the most memorable days in my life. It is here that I learn to grow and learned things that helped me become who I am now.

It is ironic, because even though “Farewell” is our graduation song, we never really bid farewell to each other because up to know, I still have close contact and constant communication with all my high school friends. Almost all of us have our own family now but we always see to it that we still keep our communication and in spite of our busy schedules, we still manage to have a get together once in a while to catch up with what’s going on with each of our lives.

My husband covered an event last Saturday for the launching of the new building sponsored by our Congressman. This building will be a Training Center where constituents of our district can receive free technical and vocational trainings.

My friend attended the launching ceremony and she checked out the trainings being offered at the center. One of the trainings they will be offering is pharmacy technician training and my friend was really interested in taking it. She knows that pharmacy technician salary is competitive specially nowadays where there is a big demand for those in the medical field.

My friend is really decided in becoming a pharmacy tech. Hopefully, she will find the best training to help her become one.

After seeing Pheng’s post about mangga & bagong (green mango and fish paste), I have been craving for it that for the last two days, I always buy a plastic of mangoes with fish paste at the vendor outside our building. And I don’t even dare share it with Howell. I can finish the whole plastic all by myself.

And then at dinner time, my aunt gave me another piece of mango to go with my viand (tapa) and so I was really full after eating.

I wonder when I will ever get tired of eating it.