Pinay WAHM

We had one great morning last Sunday. After months of working long hours 7 days a week, hubby was finally able to take a full day's off from work. Since it's uncertain when he's going to have another day off, we decided to take advantage of it. The weather forecast for Sunday though was not very promising as there was rain in the forecast later in the day. BUT a little rain wouldn't stop us. We woke up really early and was out the door by around 9 AM. We were at the Congo River Golf course around 10 [which is normally breakfast time on the weekend]. We enjoyed the place for about 3 hours and left happy. We swung by the Philippine store and got my 'supplies'. The rain started pouring as soon as we left the mini-golf course. Now that's what you call...PLANNING...or is it TIMING? Both, maybe.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Before the husband started his own business, he used to work for companies that offer health insurance. We all know how important it is to have health insurance coverage especially when you have a little one like us. I must say that we’ve been fortunate enough to have health insurance coverage from day one. I can only imagine how stressful it must be if one doesn’t have such coverage especially with a child in the family. It’s been a few years since his business started. Since it’s only him and his partner working there, they agreed that they will just have to pay for their own health insurance until such time that the company can afford to pay for it. So for the last few years, we’ve been shouldering the monthly premium of our health insurance. As a result, we’ve been on a constant hunt for a better but cheaper health insurance. Cheap or inexpensive health insurance is not easy to find. One needs to do extensive research in order to fin...

That's one of the things we did yesterday. That's a first time. We've been seeing this mini golf course a few miles from our old place but we never got the chance to actually go there when we were still living near it. Now that we're about 20 miles from it, we finally got the chance to visit it. Ha! The crocodile feeding was just one part of the attraction but the little one was all "gaga" about feeding them as well as the fish in the pond. Feeding the alligators was fun was a bit 'scary'...for me at least. I just can't help it when I see tens of them staring at us! Anyway, the little one had fun feeding them. Feeding the fish was not as exciting because they were not hungry. Fish food was floating around them so it was obvious BUT she had the throw in some more. Oh well... More pics coming....

Yep, the seeds that we sowed last weekend started to sprout late this week. That didn't take long, did it? The little one is the one tending to them so you can just imagine how excited she was when she saw the little sprouts. She's been watering them first thing in the morning everyday....sometimes still in her sleep attire. Now that we're seeing 'life' out of the seeds we planted, I have to worry about something...where to plant them. We have a big enough yard for them but finding a spot where they will actually thrive is actually tricky. I am considering getting those big planters and just plant the seedlings in them. I have about maybe a week to come up with a decision so I better start coming up with options before they get way too big.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It seems that no matter how busy they are at work, the husband still finds the chance to surf online at work. Nope, he's not slacking, far from it actually. He does it while having his lunch until his lunch break is over. Do you know what his favorite thing to search for online? Properties! Vacant lots or any properties...in the Philippines. Truth be told, he knows more about the geographical stuff in the Philippines than his wife [that would be ME]. It's no secret he wants to retire in the Philippines. Well, retire may not be an accurate word anymore because he wants to move like, right now. Obviously, we're not at our retiring age yet so if we move sometime soon, we would need to find something to sustain us while we're there, right? For now he says, he's just 'lookin'. He's checking everything though and not only properties. He already searched for things like auto insurance quotes as well as other insurance related matter...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ..at work. My work, that is. That's how it looks anyway. We had a fairly good amount of work the past few days and by the looks of it, we may be getting more in the days to come...thus, my short 'hiatus' [2 days?] from my blogs [& bloghopping]. Like I mentioned in my earlier post, we're having such gorgeous weather around here that I feel any time spent inside the house is TIME WASTED...but work has to come before pleasure. Or does it??? Hmmm... Anyway, wishing one and all a great weekend. Enjoy Spring as much as you can. Before we know it, it would be TOO HOT to even step out the door...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TGIF! Yep, another weekend is just a wink away. We are looking into a near perfect weather around here during the weekend so I’m one happy gal right now. The little one and I can spend our day out in the backyard again tomorrow. I’m thinking of doing some raking to clear the backyard of the dried leaves and twigs that fell during the winter season. I like to rake because it’s dual purpose to me. I clean the yard and I get some exercise while doing it. I am bent in losing some pounds in the next few months so much so that I already started by walking on the treadmill about 2 or 3 weeks ago. I'm doing it almost daily s0 hubby was asking me last night if I lost any weight yet. Sadly, it doesn’t seem to be since I still weigh the same. It will be great if I have a Futrex body composition analyzer so I know what’s really going on in my body. Hubby thinks it may have something to do with my thyroid problem so exercise alone may not cut it. I guess a visit t...

Here's one of the jokes I got from my daily dose of 'funnies' from Joke of the Day . Enjoy! One For You, One For Me... On the outskirts of a small town, there was a big, old pecan tree just inside the cemetery fence. One day,two boys filled up a bucketful of nuts and sat down by the tree, out of sight, and began dividing the nuts. "One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me," said one boy. Several dropped and rolled down toward the fence. Another boy came riding along the road on his bicycle.As he passed, he thought he heard voices from inside the cemetery. He slowed down to investigate. Sure enough, he heard, "One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me." He just knew what it was. He jumped back on his bike and rode off. Just around the bend he met an old man with a cane, hobbling along. "Come here quick," said the boy, "you won't believe what I heard! Satan and the Lord are down at the cemetery dividing up th...

Definitely! It's OFFICIAL! Spring is HERE! Woot woot! A lot of people love this season more than the other 3. I can only agree since it's the time of the year where we see lots and lots of 'life' starting over again. The trees/plants we planted in the summer of last year are now starting to bud. The maple tree was the first to spring back to life. Hubby clipped the bottle brushes the weekend before and we're hoping that would 'jump start' them. The blue berry trees are also budding..yeah! The little one and I also sowed some seeds over the weekend. We have some veggies like eggplant, okra, greens & tomatoes as well as some flowers seeds buried in those neat little sowing containers. The little one is very excited to see them sprout. My only problem now is WHERE to plant them in case they make it. Hmmm... Anyhooo....have a great week everyone. Let's hope and pray this one will be better than the last!

It's been almost 3 months since my high school silver jubilee. We planned and waited for it for...ummm, 25 years? Well, we waited for it for 25 years alright but we only planned for it for about a year. The event was a success but the most important thing that happened because of this jubilee is the RENEWED friendship s . I wasn't physically present but I was very much involved in the planning -thanks to technology - so it was like I was also there and was very much part of it. I wish I can say it's all good but such is not the case. About a month before the event, one of our [seemingly healthy] classmates was rushed to the hospital because of kidney failure. He wasn't able to attend the reunion and he passed mid-January . Weeks before the event itself, we learned that one of our [former] teachers was diagnosed with cancer so she went on a sabbatical leave. She also was not able to make it to the reunion so my batch mates visited her. She passed 2 weeks ago . Exactly a...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To lose weight! If you saw me 10+ years ago you wouldn't think I would have this 'quest' now. As a matter of fact, my quest then was quite the opposite...to gain weight. I was told by my older co-teachers then that I just need to wait [read: get older] and I won't be wishing for me to gain weight. Boy are they ever right. I don't need to lose a ton of weight. I only want to lose 10+ lbs and be able to maintain it. Yes, I want to look better but the main reason for my 'quest' is my health. Lately, I've been experiencing 'shortness of breath'. The husband doesn't know so...shhh! I'm guessing it has something to do with my 'excess' pounds. Besides, I have diabetes in my genes so it will be better for me if I can stay in shape. I'm afraid that if I don't do something about it now, I will end up looking for the best cholesterol medications out there since high cholesterol seems to go hand in hand with...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So what do you do to pass time? When I was still single, I had a lot of free time on my hands. I used to read pocket books all the time. There was a time when I could read as many as 3 books in one day. Then there was a time where I would pass time by watching movies in VHS. The rental place was just across the street from my apartment so I would rent 10 movies at a time and would be done watching them in no time. Now it's different. I still find myself with some free time some days but I no longer spend time reading or watching. I browse the internet. Recently, all I've been doing is looking at old pictures that my niece uploaded in her FB. I don't have any of my old pictures with me so seeing those old pics brought back a lot of memories...good and bad. I am actually surprised to see 'me' during my teenage years. I didn't think I had acne when I was a teenager but now that I've looked at those old pics, I guess accutane would ha...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For my readers who are not familiar with it, Spring Forward is when we adjust our 'clocks' an hour 'forward' right around the spring time. This year, March 14 was the date to do it which was last Sunday. That means '9AM is the new 8AM'. Ha! So now we go to bed an hour earlier to wake up an hour earlier. Confusing? Tell me about it. For a WAHM like me who works at my convenience [for the most part anyway], the time change didn't really have that big of an impact to me...except this year. It takes my body about a week or two to adjust to it. As a result, I may need some eye cream for dark circles under my eyes since I've been waking up in the middle of the night for the last few days. Why? For one of my gigs, I committed to be on call at a certain time. That means I have to be up and about at that time. As a result, I'm afraid that I may oversleep so I keep on checking the time. But it's all good. I'm slowly gettin...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ And according to the news , it's not even a romantic kiss. Just a peck on the cheek between friends. But they did it in the wrong place...Dubai. Now they're facing a month in jail THEN deportation. Hmmm.... I guess the saying..'when in Rome, do what the Romans do' applies here then, eh? I totally don't agree with that sentence but what can I do. I guess I just have to remember not to touch, kiss anyone if ever we get the chance to visit that part of the world. Anyway, I'm just chillin' out right now. I'm again planning in heading outside to pull out some weeds since the weather is just too good to pass up. But before I do that, let me just post this song by Lady Antebellum called "Need You Now". I went to a site and the little one heard the intro and knew what song was playing so I had to look for the video because I also like the song...hehe. Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That's the husband...but not in a demeaning way. I'm talking about his weight loss. He's not in any kind of diet. His busy schedule is to blame for...or should it be 'thank' for since he needs to lose weight anyway? The first clue that told us he lost some pounds are his not so tight pants anymore. He jumped on the scale and we're right. He's off by 10 pounds already. Good, right? For him anyway. For me, not quite. I also want to lose some unwanted pounds. I only want to lose what he lost already. Unfortunately, what he lost...I found. Get it? I tried skipping meals but it's not doing good for my 'already' messed up digestive system. I ended up taking some over the counter meds because I started having some tummy aches. So here I am reading jenny craig reviews online to see if this will be a good route for me to take in order to trim me down just a wee bit. Maybe in a month or so, I can pull a 'Valerie Bertine...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sun-shiny day. It's a beautiful day so far. The sun is out and the sky is clear. It was the same yesterday although it was really windy. I couldn't pass up a good day without going out in the yard so that's exactly what we did...hang outside for a couple of hours. I'm trying to take advantage of the free time I have right now because it won't be long and work will be busy again. Our boss informed us last week that we just won a big contract that will keep us busy for months. I just trained for another position so I could do extra work as well. Woo hoo! Looks like I'm going to be one busy WAHM in the coming weeks. The hubby is still super duper busy with work. He still puts in 15-hour work days so I'm thinking of asking him to start taking his one a day vitamin again to boost his immune system. He stopped taking his vitamins a few months ago because he didn't feel like it was helping any. But that was the time when work was...

Yeah, let's! I may not always say it, but I am truly thankful for the life that I have. I noticed that I 'whine'...okay, complain quite a lot here in my blog. From things like the unpredictable weather we've been having lately OR about work being slow OR the neighbor's dried leaves in our yard OR ...ok, I know you get it already. Even though I try to somehow cover my 'whines' with statements like: "I know we're luckier compared with/to....", it's still complaining. When the truth of the matter is: I shouldn't be complaining , period. I have a healthy family. A hardworking husband and a [very] sweet little one. We have a roof over our heads. We eat 3 square meals everyday [and then some]. We're not behind in any bills...and most of all, we have each other. I am BLESSED ! This weekend, we had a perfect weather..and for that, I'm thankful. I'm also thankful that we were able to spend time together as a family even for just a ...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You read that right...we went out on a weekend...and that's yesterday. Woo hoo! We didn't go anywhere special or far or expensive, we just went to visit hubby's brother then we went to the mall to spend the little one's money. LOL. Seriously. She's been getting a dollar a week from Dad so she has about 15 bucks. She couldn't wait to spend her money. Aside from the cold hard cash that she has, she also has the Visa card we gave her...err...Santa gave her on Christmas and she's been bugging Dad when she could actually use 'her' card. Well, we did yesterday. She got 2 pairs of...guess what? Shoes!!! Girls! She definitely had a blast blowing all her money. Haha. Anyway, it's been a while since we've seen the in-laws. The wife [sis-in-law], has started teaching in college a few months ago. She's very excited to tell me about her new job because she knows I was a teacher in my former life. Since her degree is not re...

That's what we see when we look out the window right now. Rain, rain and more rain. It's a far cry from what we've been having the last few days. Mother nature is really going haywire, eh? In fairness, the forecast for this week actually has rain in it so it's something expected. I just didn't expect it to be this much rain...and to last this long. Again....thank goodness I'm a WAHM! At least I don't have to deal with it out there....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Have you started your spring cleaning yet? I'm proud to say...I have! The spring cleaning though was not done in the house. I had to clean the garage. It is our 'dumping ground' so to speak because hat's where we store things we don't use as well as the place to put in empty boxes [imagine Christmas gifts]. So I had the work cut out for me when I decided dive in 2 weekends ago. I was able to do everything I wanted to do but I not everything that needs to be done. The garage is the husband's domain. If to me it's a dumping ground, to him it's a place to keep his 'prized possessions'. Aside from his tools, he has boxes there containing some car accessories. I am ignorant when it comes to car stuff so I called the husband to ask if I should get rid of them. His reply: a resounding NO!!!! Whooops! It turns out the spoilers , grills as well as the other car accessories in the boxes are worth a small fortune. He got them to...

...but I don't have to like it. It's not that I don't like it, I just hate how it triggers my allergies. I know that it's raining even before I hear the 'pitter-patter' on the roof or the pavements because of my mighty nose. But like I said, we need it. It's the dry season here and we need all the rain we can get. At least it's not freezing while it's drizzling. The good news??? It's THURSDAY already! And there's a chance that the hubby will be taking a day off during the weekend. Yippeee! It's not certain yet but it's something to look forward to....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I've only been active with social networking for maybe a year or so. I've been a member longer than that but I didn't really spend much time on them before. I would only go if someone told me to check out some pictures, etc. Lately though I've been on these sites numerous times a day. I am really close to actually making one these sites as my homepage but I've stayed strong and haven't given in. Frankly, I may not give in at all. I may even limit my visits to these sites. Why? Lately, all I see are advertisements of products that a friend [or an acquaintance] of a friend of a friend is selling. I've seen pictures of clothes, jewelry, perfume, etc. for sale. I won't be surprised if tomorrow I see an advertisement for Ferrari parts in one of my friends' page. I get it. We all need to survive and right now social networking sites are probably the most popular places to gain customers and do business. I just wish it doesn...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you're a show follower like me, then you know what season finales are. I used to only watch a couple of shows regularly every week. One of those shows, Monk , is already over for good so I tried watching the new shows that air in USA Network . What do you know...I got hooked in watching 3 shows all airing right before my bedtime. Ugh. Not good because it's kinda' hard to get in the zone of 'sleepy' after watching shows that leave a viewer hanging and wondering as to what's next. That's what happened last night in the season finale of White Collar . The same thing happened last week during the season finale of Burn Notice . Now I'm thinking if I should watch the season finale of Psych tonight. This one is a show that the husband and I both like so I watch it just because of that. The other shows I watch, he doesn't like much. He just doesn't buy some of the scenes so he'd rather not waste his time watching...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sent, finally! Yep, I already shipped my balikbayan box after weeks of letting it sit on the foyer because I couldn't decide what I should put in it. I had no plans of sending a 20"x17"x23" box back home but I did...and it all started because of a digital camera I was requested to purchase here by a niece. As it happened, the camera was only the first of the many things I had to shop for online. Most of my spare time the past few weeks was spent looking for deals on lotions, colognes, hip hop clothing , pounds of chocolates and a million other things so I could send that humongous box to its final destination. Honestly, it wasn't fun doing that [scouting the web for some things I can buy]. It's not because I had to spend money to do that but it's taxing to buy stuff for people I have not seen in almost 10 years. My nephews and nieces were just little ones when I left. Most of them are now teenagers, young adults and I have ...

Sunny. Clear. Cool. That's how our day feels & looks like today. Hopefully, it will be like this throughout the week and if we believe the 7-day forecast from TBO.com , it will be. But we know better than to trust weather forecast...so I'm just going to enjoy the weather on a day to day basis. Another week. I am hopeful it's going to be a productive one for me. It's only Monday so there's 4 more days to wish for work to come pouring in. I was able to accomplish something on the weekend though and I'm happy that I was able to do something I've been meaning to do for weeks, maybe months now. That's one I can cross out my imaginary 'to-do list'. Yeah! Here's wishing everyone a good week ahead! Ciao for now!

March 8 - 13, 2010 Need I say more????

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I don't drive...that's why I work at home. Or is it the other way around? It's both I guess since one affects the other. Anyway, since I don't drive I only get to go out when hubby is free to drive us around. My in-laws are kind enough to offer to drive me if I want to go somewhere if hubby is too busy but I have yet to take them on that offer. Obviously, if I need to buy something, say a gift, I have to either ask the husband to drive me to the store or do the shopping online. The latter is almost always the winner...especially if the gift is for, yes, the driver...err, the husband. One of my 'rules' when picking out a gift for somebody is I want the gift to be personalized or should have some kind of a personal touch on it. This is the reason why I love giving photo cards to friends and/or loved ones on special occasions such as birthday, Christmas, etc. Proof? This photo card [which I posted here not too long ago] that I made for...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I am not a big fan of change. I don't like rocking the boat so to speak. If I can help it, I try to stay within my comfort zone. That being said...I so want to get out of my comfort zone [read: here] for a few days and stay in one of those Caribbean villas I only see in pictures. The weather here is so so unpredictable right now,we don't even have a clue what to expect next. It seems that every hour, there's a different forecast. Yes, our weather is much better compared to the other states but it doesn't make any more desirable to me, at least, maybe because I've been experiencing this kind of weather for a number of years already. Hubby is hoping to get a short vacay in about a month and I can only hope we can go somewhere away from here even for a just a couple of days. I guess the saying: Change is the only element of life that is constant is still applicable to someone like me who is not really fond of change, eh?

Weather. Today. Very windy. I can see the dust flying around by the dirt road. I can also dry leaves flying around. It's a good thing that the neighbor's tree has no more leaves or we would have a backyard full of dry leaves...again. Tomorrow, it may be raining or may be sunny. Who knows...thankfully I'm a wahm so I don't really need to deal with this crazy weather. Work. Sporadic. Because work has been so slow lately, I think some of my fellow "wahmers" have decided to branch out and look for jobs outside the home until our work-at-home jobs start to pick up [soon I hope]. How do I know that? There was a little bit of work released late last night. I did a few batches then went to bed fully expecting not to find anymore work when I get up in the morning. Nope...work was still there when I logged in to our server this morning. That meant nobody logged on after me last night and before me this morning. Lucky me because I got to snag most of the work. It's n...

Ah time...it flies so fast. Our little boy is now a man...a fully grown 43-year old man....hahaha. OLD is right...tee hee.... It's the birthday of the man of the house this past weekend. As usual, no big party whatsoever. He's been working like a horse...well, not quite...he's been working harder than a horse. As expected, he was working on his birthday...on a weekend. But since it's his birthday, he decided to take off work earlier than normal. We were able to eat out followed by a trip to the mall then to the Philippine Store nearby. Yeah! It felt like it was MY birthday...toink! Just like any other occasion, it seemed like it was the little one's birthday since she was the one who was very excited about it. She's been trying to hide from Dad that it's HIS birthday. H-U-H??? And because she couldn't keep a secret, I didn't tell her about the gift I got for Dad. I didn't plan in telling her either. My plan was just ask her to put her 'pers...