Pinay WAHM

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One of my nieces is expecting her first child in a few months. When I sent a box a few months ago, I included some baby stuff there like a bouncer, infant bath tub and some baby clothes. I totally forgot about the mother of the baby. Well, not totally since those stuff are for HER baby. Still, I feel guilty because I should have sent something for her like prenatal vitamins or some other kind of vitamins to help with her pregnancy. My niece said that she has vitamins anyway and not to worry about it. She's grateful for everything I sent for her baby and that it'll help her a lot. But I can't help but feel bad for not sending her anything. I'm now thinking of getting something just for her to make up for totally overlooking her last time. My only problem is...I have no idea what to get her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I watched as cars upon cars arrived at our neighbor's front yard. It looked like they're having a grand barbecue party and they invited quite a number of people. Their front yard is not that big so they occupied part of their neighbor's yard. That's fine as long as they don't run over their garden. As for us, we decided to spend this day at home...obviously. The husband hasn't had any decent time off from work so staying at home is just what we want. Besides, we're planning in taking a 'big' trip before the year ends so we're trying to avoid unnecessary spending and the best way to do that is stay within the confines of home, right? We lazed around the house for 3 days. Meaning? Ate, ate and ate some more. Ugh! I tried to eat more fruit than anything though because I know I'll regret it big time if I don't do that but it's kinda' hard to resist junk food especially when we're all home. I'm actua...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LOST! I think anyway...and that's without taking apidexin or any other diet pills, mind you. I'm pretty sure though that I'm going to gain it back in no time since I'm back to my regular appetite. I kinda' know how I lost those 2 lbs, well, beside to not having the same appetite. It's one of the effects of me being worried the past two weeks. It seems the 2-week ordeal I just went through had quite an effect on me. Aside from what I already mentioned other factors such as not being able to sleep, etc. resulted to my mini weight loss, I also have pimples on the side of my face that's hurting like heck and some on my scalp which makes combing uncomfortble. Obviously, worrying has its good and bad effect to the body. Sadly, the bad outweighs the good so I still don't recommend it. Ha!

Right in our backyard. It's fun to watch them grow and bear fruits especially to me and the little one because we're only used to seeing them in stores...cleaned and ready to eat. We also have some blueberries but the pictures I took turned out to be blurry. Aside from the fruit trees/plants we have, I also planted some veggies in pots like this one.. ...tomatoes. Two of them have flowers already. It's my first time to plant veggies so I'm excited about them. Too bad my eggplants didn't pull through. Maybe next time....

Time to hit the hay. My allergy is acting up again so I better go before I sneeze my head off. It's been a productive day today. I was able to do some work. The back porch is all set for some summer relaxing. Yeah! The little one is very happy because we put cushions on the chairs there as well as a new table to go with the set. She even suggested that we should sleep in the back porch tonight because it's comfy. Ummm....not quite. There is only one lounge chair and she already claimed it as hers....so where would Daddy and Mommy sleep? Apparently...on the other chairs. Anyway, time to go night night....see you all next time...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What's a wise investment anyway? I can still remember when I first started working. Several of my older co-teachers had some sidelines going on. One of their sidelines was selling different pieces of jewelry. They were mostly gold jewelry like necklace, earrings & bracelets. Most of us would buy a piece almost every month because it's common knowledge that investing in gold is always a good way to prepare for the future. The only thing is I'm not really into wearing jewelry. I'm fine with just a pair of earrings and a watch. So the jewelry I bought then were either given to my sister or to my mother which was fine by me but that also meant that my 'investments' were given away. Today, gold is still one of the better ways to invest. Its value does not go down as quickly as other investments and it's easy to sell because it's something that everybody likes.But if ever I decide to invest in gold, I'm going to buy gold...

Long weekend for us. The hubs will be home for the duration of the 3-day weekend. Guess who's the happiest about that? The little one, of course! She never fails to ask Dad every Friday if he'll be home for the weekend so when the Dad said yes this time around, she was over the moon. Anyhooo....have a great weekend everyone....and have a safe Memorial Day!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As a result of my recent health scare, I have been thinking more and more about getting a life insurance for the family. I used to have multiple life insurance but when I moved here, my policies elapsed because I didn't have the chance to attend to them because my move was rather sudden. Anyway, the husband and I talked about getting life insurance a long time ago. But that's all it was...talk. It's not that we're not serious about it. We just got busy with other things so the plan of getting life insurance was put in the back burner. This time around, I am going to look into term life insurance rates first before I bring it up with him again. I know that's the first thing he'd ask me anyway. Like I mentioned in my earlier posts, life is so fragile. We just never know what the future holds. Unfortunately, most of us only realize this when something unexpected happens. But that's human nature. We all need a good jolt every no...

I thought it was Friday yesterday! Seriously! I guess I was in a hurry to get to the weekend...but who's not? As always, our weekend is 'free'. That means...we can do whatever we want to do. It can be staying at home or running some errands or going somewhere to have some fun. I have no complaints whatsoever....I'm just glad that after some nerve-wrecking couple of weekends, I can now just sit back and relax with the family...and for that I'm thankful. Have a great one everyone!

Finally, I was able to sleep fairly well last night. I still struggled a little bit to fall asleep but once I did, I slept through...well, until hubs left for work early in the morning...then I went back to bed again to sleep a few more hours. I'm sure I'll be able to sleep a lot better now that I'm no longer worrying about my health scare. One thing good that came out of this recent experience of mine is a better 'appreciation' of my life. Dramatic, eh? But during the 2-week waiting period for the test results, I kept on thinking how fragile life is and I've actually written about it a few times in the past but that's based on what's happening or what happened to some people close to me. This time, it's ME. Everytime I looked at the mirror the past 2 weeks, I tend to think of the 'what ifs'. I started thinking about the more important aspect of life. How I almost obsess about my weight and how much time I spend reading things like acnepril r...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Those that know me personally are aware that sleep is precious to me. My room mates when I was still in college and when I was still sharing apartments with colleagues knew that when I'm sleeping I shouldn't be bothered unless it's really important. Then I became a mother. Everything changed after that...as expected. No regrets though. I'll give up sleep anytime for the little one. But the little one is now at the age where I no longer need to wake up in the middle of the night to attend to her except on some occasions. Believe it or not, even if she no longer needs me to wake up in the middle of the night [for feeding or diaper changing or whatever] I still don't sleep as soundly as I did when I wasn't a mother yet and no, the mattress we have has nothing to do with that. I think that's just the mother in me. It seems I am always listening in case she needs me for something. That's what mothers are for, right? Sleep is still some...

Lee Dewyze is season 9 winner in American Idol. Surprising? To some it was. I didn't sit down to watch him and Crystal sing it out on Tuesday because it's also the season finale of my favorite show...NCIS! And yes, I'll watch NCIS over any other show out there. Anyway, the husband watched the showdown and he was convinced that Crystal would win. From what I've read in the news on Wednesday morning, it was clear that, yes, Crystal out sang Lee in all the 3 songs they did. BUT...Lee is more popular to the fans. I actually told the husband that I think Lee would pull a surprise win...and he did. In fairness to him, I don't think he was ever in the bottom 3. I may be wrong but that's what I remember. Crystal was in the bottom 2 when Michael Lynch was eliminated. Also, Lee was consistently praised by the judges before Tuesday's show so much so that Simon actually picked him to be this year's winner before the last showdown. He won and that's all that mat...

After two weeks of not breathing normally, I finally had that first sigh of relief yesterday afternoon. Without getting too much into it, I had some kind of a health scare which I've been hinting here for the last several days. My doctor called yesterday and it was good news so...yay! As a result of this scare, I stopped doing what I started about a month ago...my walking regimen. I know I should have kept on doing it but I didn't have the willpower to do it. All I wanted to do was sit down and mope. But guess what? I won't be needing a Lipofuze or any kind of diet pill for that matter because even if I stopped my walking regimen, I think I may have lost a pound or two. Blame it on the loss of appetite and lack of sleep as well because of this ordeal. Mind you, even if I lost some weight without even trying, I don't ever want to go through such ordeal anymore. I would rather do the hard work of exercising to lose weight instead of going through another health scare lik...

I hate it. It doesn't matter whether it's waiting for a good news or bad news, waiting is always something I dread. I just don't know what to do with myself when I am waiting for something or someone. This is also the reason why I always try to come early to my appointments. I don't want other people to feel this way. Right now, I'm on pins and needles. I just hope that when everything is over, I won't have to seek depression treatment for all the waiting I've been doing. All this waiting is making me a nervous wreck. The little one and I have been singing karaoke for the last few days just to keep my mind off things...but we can only sing so much before our voices give out. Anyway, it's about to rain here. The sky is all dark and gloomy right now. I can even hear some thunders already so I better wrap it up. I'm not sure if I'm going to hear anything today but I'm hoping I would. I've been sleeping really poorly the last few nights and ...

My home away from home when I was in college. I was so at home at this place that I never wanted to leave. I stayed an extra year after college graduation because of that. When I started teaching, I didn't have a choice but to check out of the place because my work place was way far from this 'home'. But everytime I would pass by the UN Avenue LRT station, I never failed to look down the road leading to this place. I guess I was destined to live in this place. Two weeks into my college life, my father probably noticed that I wasn't happy renting a room in his friend's house. He went to look for a place for me to transfer and Pope Pius XII Catholic Center Ladies Dormitory became my home for the next 5 years after that. The place is being run by nuns so we had to abide by some strict rules. We had curfews and mandatory rosary recitations every night at 7 PM. No one but us could go inside our rooms and 'neighboring' was not allowed. Of course we defied that r...

... and I've been like this for almost 2 weeks now. I guess it's human nature to be worried about something even if we know it's totally out of our control...[read: Serenity Prayer]. One minute I'm thinking that everything will be okay. The next minute I'm back with 'what if'... I've been trying to do other things to keep my mind off it. Sadly, it's not working. I would start something only to be stuck in the middle of it because my mind will be wandering off....like right now. Sigh... Aside from some sporadic blogging, I try to surf online to divert my attention. It helps a little bit especially when I'm looking for something definite like postcard printing companies for the hubs business need. They need some new business cards printed out in the next few weeks and I volunteered to search for them. Other than that, there's not much I can do since work has 'surprisingly' slowed down again even if we're told that we have a bunch o...

So be it...

A challenging week for me, I guess. I haven't had the chance to really blog the last few days because of some things I'd probably divulge some time soon. For now, things seem to be ok. Hopefully, I can still say the same thing sometime next week. Fingers crossed...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is another Mother's Day related post so bear with me. Because of the 'impromptu' driving lesson I had on Mother's Day, the little one's original plan of going out with Dad to get me something 'special' for Mother's Day didn't pan out. It had been their little 'tradition' to go out before or on Mother's Day itself to look for something to give me on MD. This year, that tradition was somewhat broken and she wasn't thrilled about that. She was apologetic so I had to let her know that we had a great day together and that's a great Mother's Day gift in itself. Every year though, she always makes me little cards. This year is no different. As soon as we got back home, she went in her bedroom and started making this card for me... Cover [like an envelope, eh?] Inside of the Card Yes, I have the BEST little one and she is the sweetest little one on the face of the earth.

That's what I did. What did YOU do?

To all Mothers Out There...

...and yesterday, and the day before that. I've been trying to keep my s0-called walking regimen but it's been a bit hard. This week, I feel exactly like that image up top....a walking zombie. It's my fault though because I've been staying up late again. Tonight I'll try to hit lalaland much earlier than the previous nights. My head feels a bit light and I blame my lack of sleep for that. So far today, I was able to walk a bit. I'm actually sweating as I type this but that's probably because of the heat. It's in the 90s again today so our AC is going on non-stop since this morning. Looks like it's going to be this hot in the days to come. Actually, it will get even hotter as the days go by. Tomorrow, I'm hoping to be back to this

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oil spill. Botched bombing. These 2 are hogging the headlines for days now. One is an ongoing disaster with no end in sight as of yet while the other could have caused a major disaster if the bomb actually went off. Is there any good news out there? Not much unfortunately. The economy is still struggling and many people are still out of work while others are on the verge of losing everything. Sadly, it doesn’t seem that things are getting any better in the job market. Case in point…a friend’s husband just lost his job of 5 years. I am afraid for my friend and her husband because they live in a state where the cost of living is almost 3x as high as our cost of living here in our state. Can they relocate here? No. They bought a house a few years ago and they don’t want to lose it by relocating. Their solution to their sudden loss of income: tightening their already tight budget. I even suggested payday loans to her in case they get into a really tight spot espec...

....Or shall I say: WHERE IS SPRING??? We barely said: ...and now it's GONE? Seriously? "Technically" Summer won't be here in over a month but our temperature is saying otherwise. It's only the first week of May and we're already hitting the 90s in most days. Right now, it's 85 degrees already. Hot, hot, hot, eh? But I shouldn't be complaining because it can be worse. So, I better stop here before mother nature decides to give me an upside down slap. Whoopss....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The past few months have been crazy as far as the husband’s work schedule is concerned. They’ve been putting in a lot of hours finishing up a job that’s almost done, I think. Last week, they started taking days off again and he’s been coming home at a decent time on weekdays. But I’m not expecting it to last long. He just told me last week that they’ve been approached by a sales representative who suggested that they should try trade show booths in order to promote their business. They think it will be a good idea to do it but I’m not really sure about that. First, it will be done out of state. If that happens, the husband may just be the one to go and I don’t like it when he goes out of town….but if it’s for his business then what can I do, right? Anyway, if they decide to participate in this trade show I’m guessing they will be needing help in looking for things like Pipe and Drape and table skirts to set up their booth. I’m not sure if I shoul...

I should have done it earlier today but I didn't have the chance and the energy to do so. I'm actually feeling wee bit tired at the moment and I don't have a clue as to why that is. I went to be earlier than usual but it didn't seem to do the trick. Anyway, I better start my 'walking' before I run out of time to do it. I only have a couple of hours to do that then make dinner...and back to work again.

This is me when I was about 5 years old. If I am not mistaken, this was taken just days after I had my last haircut before my father decided to let my hair grow long. Why do I remember it? Because my next haircut after that would be during my college picture taking. I was almost 23 years old. I remember the day when I went with a friend to her friend who would do my make-up and my hair for the pictorial. My hair was way down my behind that he suggested to cut it so he can style it the way he wanted to. It was a hard decision for me because my father didn't have any idea that I would have it cut. Anyway, I agreed and the transformation was unbelievable. Not only did I have a shorter hair after a couple of hours, but I was also fully made up. I almost didn't recognize myself in the mirror. I was in awe of the magic the beautician did to me. That day started my fascination with make-up and hairstyling. I tried to replicate what the person did to my hair and my make-up but with ver...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Growing up, we used to have several fruit trees in our backyard. From what I can remember we used to have the following: guava, cashew, pomelo, caimito, santol and some others that I can no longer remember. There was even a time when I refused to eat some of their fruits simply because I've had enough of them. But as the years went by, one by one, those fruit trees were cut down. Today, we don't have any of those fruit trees in our yard anymore. Last time I spoke with my brother who loves to plant, he now has a mango tree and a lot of vegetable plants. It's kinda' sad because our nephews and nieces will never experience having those fruits fresh from our very own backyard. Here in our little haven, the husband planted some berries - blackberry & blueberry trees. He also has a couple of green grapes that are still in the pots. Yesterday when we went to the Philippine store, I got me 3 mangoes. He suggested that we should try and grow a m...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It's almost unheard of especially nowadays when jobs are hard to come by...but that's what I did today. It's only one of the seasonal jobs I get offered almost every year but every little helps so I'm always thankful when something like that comes along. So why did I decline the job? I didn't at first. I started training this weekend but as I was going through training process I realized it's not worth it. The pay is not that good but it's not that bad either...but in the end, it's the pay that made me bow out of the training. I haven't done it in a couple of years so it meant a lot of refreshing is needed on my part. I felt overwhelmed as I was doing it last night. I went to bed unsure if I wanted to go through with it or not. This morning I went back to continue my training. Halfway through, I realized it's not worth my time. I decided to let them know I'm not pushing through with it. Hopefully, someone who needs...

Is it summer already? It definitely feels like it is here in our neck of the woods. We woke up with a temperature in the lower 70s and it’s well over 90 degrees right now. So to answer my own question, yes it is…or so it seems. Hubby doesn’t like the heat. But guess what? He’s been scouting some properties in the Philippines [via the internet of course] because he wants to move there the soonest possible time. Seriously? He is well aware that the temperature there is a lot hotter but he still wants to try it there…so be it. He wants to buy a property there but he wants to see the place for himself so we may just fly there soon. Properties in the Philippines are a lot cheaper compared here. A few years ago, it would have a great investment. I’m not sure right now if it would still be a great investment. If you ask me I’d rather buy gold coins for investment since the price of gold has been rising steadily amidst this economic downturn. And if we really want to be secured with our inves...

Yep, that's about correct. It seems that is especially true on a Monday. It's probably because we tend to overdo it on a weekend making the first 'working' day of the week a day of struggle...sort of. Today we were able to go to the bookstore and got the little one some much needed workbooks. Aside from the WBs, she also grabbed some of the Magic Tree House books that she doesn't have yet. I was waiting for the next boxed set to come out so it'll be a little cheaper but she saw the books and Dad would never say no to her if books are concerned. Now she has about 10 or more books to read at her leisure. She's so much into detective/spy/secret agent kind of stuff so we got her maybe 6 or 7 Nancy Drew books as well as other detective books. Now she has the Magic Tree House books as well so she'll be busy in the next couple of weeks finishing those books. Anyhooo....it was a tiring day so I better head to bed already. In the meantime....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Whipped Cream. That's the reason why I baked a pumpkin pie today. Ha! Yep, I'm blaming the whipped cream. The little one put whipped cream in the grocery list...and Daddy got it. When I asked her why she wants it, she said we can use it for anything. Hmmm....like a pie, maybe? In fairness, she didn't actually say it's for the pie. But what else can we use it for? So here I am sitting on the couch still full from the 2 slices of pie [with whipped cream as topping] that I consumed maybe 2 hours apart. Ugh. Maybe I should start looking for diet supplements that work so I can just pop one everytime I 'veer' away from my self-imposed weight loss regimen. Anyway, I better call it a night. I'm afraid that if I keep on sitting here I might reply to that faint voice in my head [or is it in the fridge] telling me to take a bit of that yummy pie we baked this afternoon. Besides, we have long day tomorrow. We're going to the bookstore...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ And they happen often to older folks. Hubby's grandma [his stepmom's Mom] is well in her 80s. Eversince I came over, her health hasn't been the best. But she's still trying to be active and be independent. She and her husband still live in their own house but their children make sure to check on them regularly. Unfortunately, they can't check on them 24/7. Mom-mom, as she's fondly called, has slipped and fallen several times especially in the bathroom that they installed handles everywhere in all the bathrooms in their house. Our Aunts also started checking walk in bathtubs as well to make it easier for them to get in and out of the tub. Since they don't want to move to an assisted living facility, the only thing their kids can do is to make sure they are monitored closely. That's all they can for now.