Wohoo, I was so happy when I finally got a confirmation form Howell last Friday that Cobi and my mom got their US Visas. I have been preparing for this interview for months now. We have to delay the scheduling of appointment as we have to apply for Cobi’s passport first. Hubby tried scheduling online and the earliest that he was able to book was December 29. Thankfully, I have a good friend who works at DFA so we were able to use the courtesy lane and we were able to apply for Cobi and our passport (as we need to renew ours also), two weeks earlier than our initial schedule.

The scheduled date of release of our passport was January 5 but it was only last January 13 when we received our passport. I paid for the visa fee at BPI as soon as I got hold of Cobi’s passport. Luckily, schedule for interview is not that tight so I was able to get a schedule for my mom and Cobi last January 21.

Howell was with my mom and Cobi as one parent is required if a minor is applying. Their schedule is at 7:45 AM and by 8:15 I got a text message from Howell and he told me that my mom was denied and only Cobi got a visa. I was shaking and called him right away and Howell explained that my mom lacks financial documents. I was fuming mad as it was indicated in the DS-160 appliaction form of my mom, that Howell and I will pay for this trip and I provided all our financial documents – bank certificate, history of bank transactions, land title, credit card billing, employment certificate, and even a summary of my Pay Pal Transactions. When Howell noticed that I am really serious and worried he laughed and admitted that my mom and Cobi both got a US Visa (crazy Howell. LOL).

So it is a really a go for our US Trip this May. I am so excited, especially for my mom and my kids.

I still have cough after two weeks. But I am use to this as it always last this long every time I have cough. My doctor says it can be allergy and that is the reason why cough medicine is not working for me. That is why I am thinking of getting home dehumidifier to keep the air we breathe clean and healthy and maybe it will be a big help for my allergy.

But I am glad that my mom, Bela and Cobi are all doing well already. We passed on the virus to each other and so everybody in the household, except hubby, got sick. But I am really thankful as they are all doing well now. Sometimes it makes me really paranoid every time my kids get sick, especially Jacobo.

And Bela better get well as it will be her Field Trip on Wednesday and she is just so excited about it and she has been talking about it for days now. And so not being able to attend the fieldtrip because she is sick is really a big No-No.

Oh my, in just a few days, hubby and I will celebrate our 6th year anniversary. I can still remember our wedding day. It was one of the most memorable days in my life as everything is just perfect because I am saying forever to the man of my life. As what they always say, all brides look really pretty on their wedding day so I must say that my wedding day is the day that I really look prettiest and I hope now that I can be like that forever. LOL.

I believe that inner beauty is more important but it wouldn’t hurt to try to put a little make up or sport a nice hairstyle right? So after learning about Regency Beauty Institute, a leading Cosmetology school in the US, it gave me an idea to enrol in one of their beauty course. I saw the photos of the works of their students and I know that I will be a good hair and makeup artist too if I get my training from them.

I am not getting any younger and learning how to style myself up would really help to boost my confidence and help me feel good about myself.

This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com or contact Regency Beauty Institute – 7100 Northland Circle, Suite 312 – Brooklyn Park, MN 55428

The Rolex GMT-Master watch is among the Rolex timepieces which is extremely good-looking and highly functional. It has a modest appearance despite its sophisticated design. The founder of Rolex, Hans Wilsdorf actually intended the GMT-Master for the use of the Pan Am pilots during the 1950's. At that time, The Pan Am pilots desired a watch that will give simultaneously the local time where they are currently located and the GMT time. The GMT-Master was the answer to their desire. However, the later models of GMT-Master were designed to include the date.

GMT-Master's unique features include among others the automatic movement. It has a twin-lock crown with date display glass window that magnify the date. Similar to other Rolex watches, it is also water-resistant. Rolex GMT-Master also has a solid stainless bracelet and luminescent hand and hour markers for better time viewing. The lock for this watch is the flip-lock system. Most people prefer this model more than the other Rolex watches because of its movement. The GMT movement is easier to use and very flexible. People wearing this watch can track both the local time and GMT simultaneously. They can also make their own adjustments by moving the hour hand and date according to their need with out losing the actual time. GMT-Master is the only watch that can deliver this function.

GMT-Master Cosmograph Gold counterpart watches are also the clone timepieces
that people frequently buy. Among the Rolex replica watches, Cosmograph Gold doublet watch is also the most reliable when it comes to giving GMT and local time simultaneously. People buy this model because they know that they can get their money's worth. All they need and desire in a watch, they can get from the Rolex GMT-Master watch. Whether it is about design, durability, reliability, or economy, Rolex GMT-Master has it.

I have no plans actually of taking a day off on my birthday as I am saving my leaves for a possible long vacation on May. But then I have to attend a meeting with Bela’s teacher tomorrow and so I thought to just take the whole day off so I can spend my birthday with my family.

It was a last minute leave that it was only after lunch when I decided to take a leave and asked my boss to sign my leave form.

It was already 3:30 PM and I am still catching up with work as I have to finish my pending work before taking a day off so I was really busy and was running around. I was on my way to the HR section to submit my leave form and I happened to notice that there are a lot of people in the pantry. Of course the gossiper in me took over and got curious as to why almost all my officemates are gathering up at the pantry. So I peep in the window and everybody got surprised when they saw me, especially my boss. It was only then when I realized that they are preparing to surprise me for my birthday. Boy I was really surprise but I am sure they were more surprise than I am.

My boss is really a super woman as I don’t know how she was able to pull off an impromptu surprise party complete with a birthday cake from our favorite cake maker, Costa Brava, with text which says “Happy Birthday Abie.” There was also overflowing ice cream.

I was really touched and I feel so blessed for having great colleagues like them. Thank you very, very much, especially to Michelle, who never fails to organize a surprise party for me every year. Mwah!!

Hubby’s friend from Indonesia was here last week as he is attending training. We met up with him last Friday so we can treat him for dinner before he leaves. We picked him up at his hotel and we decided to take him to Yakimix. He said he loves to eat shabu-shabu and seafood and so we thought that Yakimix is our best bet.

It was only 8 PM when we arrived and lo and behold, there is already a long list on queue. We are number 13 on the list and who knows how long can be the waiting time. And since we are all so hungry already, we decided to just eat at Trinity Dampa instead.

We ordered buttered chilli crab and shrimp and baked oysters. Hubby’s friend was overwhelmed when the food arrived that he is asking for best weight loss supplement as we will surely need one after eating dinner.

We were so full after eating that we have no more room left for desserts. We were able to finish all the food that we ordered, no left overs. Glad we just decided to dine in at Dampa instead as it never fails to wow its customers with the great food that they offer.

Tomorrow will be my birthday. I have no definite plans yet on what I will do tomorrow to celebrate my birthday. If I will have a small get together at home with my family, I might need to buy phentermine as I will surely gain weight since two days after my birthday will be Cobi’s 7th month birthday so we will surely have another small party at home. So I am really thinking to just move my birthday celebration on the 21st so I will celebrate with Cobi.

The only definite plan I have is that I still have to wake up early as I have to go to Bela’s school as I have a meeting with her teacher (which is making me really nervous and anxious and I think I will not be able to sleep tonight until the meeting is over) and then I will bring my mom to her doctor for her follow up check-up. Then who knows where our feet will take us.

Looks like I will need to read about the best acne treatments here as I am starting to have acne breakouts again. Why you may ask? Well it is because I am s addicted in watching the second season of Project Runway.

I was able to download the whole season and saved it on my iPhone. I love this show but I was not able to watch the whole season as I always miss it as my daughter won’t give me a chance to watch my favorite shows as she is as addicted to TV as I am. So when I was able to finally watch it episode by episode, I got hooked.

The 16 finalists for season 2 are all very interesting. They each have their own personality and they are all so talented that I can’t wait to see who will get eliminated next. That is why even if I have tons of work to do, I would prefer to stay up late watching Project Runaway than working (my bad).

I am already on the seventh episode so I am already halfway through. So I have to go offline for now so I can finish watching Project Runaway.

After midnight and after eating our Media Noche, some called it a night and went to bed already while the younger ones stayed for a few more hours before finally calling it a night.

Even if we stayed up late, everybody was up by 8 AM and the kids started swimming again. Our check out time at the resort is 2 PM and so by 11 AM, we started dressing up and then we had lunch before finally saying goodbye to the resort.

Just like last year, we wanted to hear mass together as a very good way to start the new year and so we decided to drop by in one of the church near the resort (I forgot the name of the church but this is the church right across the house of Dr. Jose Rizal in Laguna). The mass is at 3:30 PM so we were able to go around the church premises while waiting for the mass to begin.

After mass, we finally bid goodbye to each other and we head back to Manila.

It was really one fun and memorable way to welcome the new year. Hope we can do this every year, guys.

Tory Burch shoes
Coach bags
iPad
iPhone and iphone 4 cases
Old Navy and gap clothes

This is my shopping list if ever our US trip will push through. But I know that I am just day dreaming as I am aware that I won’t have a budget left for shopping as the money that we were able to save for this trip will all be for our airfare, accommodation, park entrances, and food for our two weeks stay in the US.

Actually nothing is really definite yet as Cobi and my mom will still have to apply for a US visa and the go signal for this trip depends on the result of their visa application. I am still not confident in travelling with Cobi, especially if it is out of the country, so I would really love that my mom will join us. So if she will not get a visa, I am sure I will really think twice if we should push through with this trip or not.

But I am really praying hard that there will be no problem with their visa application. Aside from the fact that I needed my mom as for moral support as we take Cobi with us of our first US trip as a family, I would really love to treat my mom and bring her around to the really nice places that hubby and I have visited before in the US. This will be her first trip outside Asia so I am really excited for her.

So far, our IT includes Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and New York. We will iron out the details on the dates and specific IT once my mom and Cobi secured their visas.

Another reason why I am excited for this trip is that we will be travelling with my best buddies from work, Dennis, Dale and Carlo so I am sure this will be one riot and fun trip.

I know more than two weeks has passed already and I still haven’t uploaded our New Year’s celebration pictures. So I will just snag pictures from the facebook account of my cousin so I can share here how we celebrated New Year's eve with a bang.

We all agreed that we will go out of town again to welcome the new year. So a week before December 31, my cousin, my sister and I contacted a number of resorts where we can stay from the 31st to January 1. Luckily, we found a nice private resort in Pansol, Laguna via multiply and after confirming that they are available, I paid for the 50% down payment right away to book the resort.


I still have work that day and so hubby just fetched me from work together with yaya, Bela and Cobi and we just met up with my family in SLEX. We reached the resort around 2:30 PM already and the kids jumped in the pool as soon as we settled down. While the kids are busy swimming, the not so young at heart are busy with the karaoke machine while others started to enjoy the food that we have brought for our overnight stay (the food was by the way care of food delivery as we don’t want our aunt to spend so much time preparing for the food that we will need for two days and so we just ordered food for take out).After swimming, we all dressed up for dinner and to prepare for our white elephant game. It is the first time for my relatives to play this game and they are so excited and I think everybody had fun. After the game, it was the photo-op per family and we have one group picture. After the photo-op, we all went down at the garden so the kids can enjoy their sparkles as we wait for the clock to strike 12 to welcome the new year.

I thought hacking just happens in movies and I never really thought that one day I will be a victim of it, but I was wrong.

Friday, around 1:45 PM, I got a text from HSBC asking me to call them as they noticed suspicious transactions in my account. I got nervous right away and I quickly checked my wallet to see if my credit card is still there as I know that I haven’t used my credit card for days now so I know something is really wrong. My credit card is safely tucked in my wallet and so the first thing that came to my mind was, it is for sure an online transaction and my credit card details have been hacked.

I called HSBC and I was in shocked when I learned that almost P48,000 has been charged to my card but they can’t really verify the complete details of the transaction as the account is still floating and it hasn’t been posted to my account yet. All they can tell me that time was the transaction was from UK.

I was still in shock when I put down the phone and I can’t think of anything else but to just go home so I can see Bela and Cobi as I know they are the only person who can take all my problems away.

Surprisingly after the situation has finally sunk in, I did not feel any anger or worry. I told myself there is really nothing that I can do about the situation and all I can hope for is that HSBC will find in their investigation that it is not really me who made the transaction and they will accept that my account has been hacked.

As I told hubby, I don’t want to waste my time stressing over it. I will just pray and hope for the best.

Wouldn’t you be furious when all you want is a medicine to help you with your problems in dealing with diabetes and then you will learn that you are at risk of getting heart attacks, heart failures and even bladder caner? These are some of the side effects that is being link to Actos.

Actos, which was also sold in the market under the names ActoplusMet, Competact and Duetact has been pulled out from the market in France and Germany because it has been proven to increase the risk for heart attacks, heart failures and bladder cancer.
Thankfully, victims of Actos can file an Actos lawsuit with the help of the expert and highly knowledgeable lawyers of O’Hanlon, McCollum & Demerath.

Let’s face it. Filing for a law suit is a very complicated and timely process but victims also deserve the right to get a claim from the makers of Actos to at least help them with their medical bills. And in this kind of situation, getting the best lawyers who know the ins and outs of filing for a product liability claims is the key to getting a just claim.

Happy New Year every one. I am really excited for 2011 as according to my zodiac sign, my dreams will start to materialize this year. And I think it is true because by mid of 2011, we will be moving to our new house. This is a big leap that my husband and are taking for our family. We are only in the planning stage of getting a new house for our family but then an opportunity knocks when hubby found out that his colleague is selling their house. We checked out the house and we really fell in love with it and we both agree that it is the house that we are dreaming for our family and so we decided to get a loan and purchase the house.

All of us are excited for the move but then it suddenly hit me that even though it is a very exciting event for our family, this will also be stressful as we have to move a lot of our stuff. But we know that moving can’t be all that stressful. Here are some of the tips that I think can help us make our move easier:

1. Start early. This is the second time that we will be moving already and on our first move, I learned that moving is very time consuming. We won’t be moving until mid of 2011 but we can start packing at least one or 1.5 months in advance so we won’t run out of time that we will just end up stacking and throwing everything in one box which will make our stuff very disorganize.
2. Make a Checklist and Inventory. It is very important to make an inventory and list of all our stuff so that we will know if we loose anything during the move or not. It will also be very helpful to make a To-do list so we will not forget anything that needs to be taken care of for the move.
3. Hire Professionals. Getting a professional help will definitely be a big help. I checked the site of moving quotes and they have a list in their network of reputable local movers that can help us with our move. They will even send a representative to help us organize our stuff before the move, giving suggestions on how to pack our stuff to keep it safe and secure during the move.

We still have a few months before we move and I better start organizing our things now so that it will be a less stressful move for us and we can just concentrate in anticipating our move to our dream house.