Take it! Take it!

No, this is not about the scam that made Gabby Concepcion fly to the US. It's all about the rollercoaster ride that I am having at work.

I have been tapped by supervisors from my account to train for a new LOB (line of business). To be honest, I was elated by the fact but then I was also in fear of this fact. Elated because I can't even be considered a veteran in the account but opportunities seems to come by. In fear because being the non-technical person that I am, this are all new to me. Few months back I don't even know what nameservers are or what how a website makes its way to our computer screens. The LOB that I was told to handle would be one of the hardest in this account. And yes, I admitted that this is one of my waterloo. But then, being the open-minded person that I am, I am looking at all the opportunities as additional knowledge and I would like to grab them as they come my way. (Blame it on my high school teacher who embedded me with the notion that "opportunities only knock once." and they should be taken or they will be gone in a matter of time.) So there it goes, sooner I will be under training again. Whatever happens with the training, I know it will be to my advantage.

And oh, I almost forgot to say, chances are I will have my own domain name and hosting package for free. Yeey!

New Year's Feast...New Year Feat

Exactly eight days to go before Christmas and fifteen days before New Year, hubby and I are still debating on what to have on our table for the special occassion. I have been suggesting that we go for an all-Filipino feast for New Year, except for the addition of the Spagetti (which I am planning of Filipinizing as well). Hubby wants to have an Asian inspired feast on the other hand. He was even telling me that the Paella and the Leche Flan are not actually Filipino dish iin nature and that there are actually no such thing as authentic Filipino dish because dishes of the Philippines are actually a fusion. But since I do the marketing of the groceries and other stuff, he can't say "No." if I already have them on the pantry. I want an all Filipino menu because my two brothers who are from Singapore and Japan will be here. I know how hard it is to find authentic Pinoy dishes cooked the way it should be when you are far from home. Besides, it is only during this time that my brothers are here. So,here goes the menu for the New Year's Eve feast.


Appetizers:
Lumpiang Prito
Main Dishes:
Seafood Paella
Pork Hamonado
Pochero
Pancit Palabok
Herbed Chicken Inasal
Spagetti
Desserts:
Ube Halaya
Leche Plan
Sapin-sapin

For sure my younger brother who adores my mom's Dinuguan will be asking me to make my version of it and the other brother will be asking for Kare Kare. This means that I might spend most of my time in the kitchen before the countdown. For sure the New Year's feast will be a New Year's feat for me but I really don't care, as long as I can suffice their cravings. The smiles on their faces will be more than enough to repay the day's hardwork at the kitchen.

Downtime at the office

A lot of things have been changing these past few days. The volume of calls that we are receiving suddenly dropped down. I know that for the management this is not a good sign. But, hey I am only an agent (a normal one at that!) who simply adores those avail time because it means catching up on the latest chika at the office or even from the life of my seatmate.

Avail time is a gift for us. This basically means time to spend chatting and to me it means being able to update this blog that I have neglected for the past few months. It is not that I do not have anything to share but I just cannot find the time to update my site. I bet right now you could already imagine the feeling of being gifted some minutes to make this entry.

I hope that the following days will be the same as today (and the previous days), that way I take some time to make more updates.

Mommy Moments: Hat Day

I have been absent for a bunch of fridays already but I still wish that my fellow mommies will take time to read my Mommy Moments entry for this week.

Boys have always been fond of accessorizing themselves with hats and my Jian is of no difference. He had always been wearing hats eversince he was a toddler. Hubby always completes his attire by buying a complimentary hat. Jian seems to like wearing them. But what I am sharing right now are fun shots we had when we went shopping one time. We bumped into a collection of different hats from the Toy's Section. And just look how he had fun trying them all.




These are actually some of my favorite pictures of my toddler then. If you want to see more kids wearing all hats possible, please take time to visit Mommy Moments.

Thanking the Heavy Rain

It has been a long time since I have been able to write anything here. I have been too busy with the recent movement in the office. With my new account comes a lot of new learnings as well. It's like taking a crash course in computer terminologies and it feels most of the time that my head is about to burst with the new knowledge. The hardest part of it? well, it's not the learning but the unlearning of all the process that have stayed on my system for almost three years.

I must admit thanking the heavy rains that poured over Metro Manila for the past few days. It makes me stay home for almost five days. Yes, I was not able to come to the office last night because of the heavy rains. It felt bad but it also felt right. I had the chance to revisit this site and saw how I actually neglected it over the past few weeks.

I do hope that the end of my training ( which will be in two weeks time ) will give me more time to do what I really love to do. And yes, Blogging is surely one of them.

TCP:Favorite Husband and Wife Movie

This is my first time to actually get involve in this Tuesday meme. My family always enjoyed watching movies, which made me decide to share in some cents of my thoughts in this Tuesday thing.If there is one movie that Hubby nad me enjoyed recently it would definitely be ¨Il Mare¨. This is actually the Korean movie from which the american movie The Lakehouse was adapted from.



This is one movie we will not get tired of watching over and over again.

Mommy Moments: I Gotta Wear Shades

Jian has been a kid who loves to sport different get ups every now and then. As Hubby puts it, blame it on me being his mom. But, hey he actually looked good in whatever I asked him to wear. The sad thing is that even if I entice him to try his hand in the entertainment business, he just does not want to. Well, this mom is no differnt from other moms. Pardon me, but bragging about my cute son is actually one reason why I am keeping this blog.

Jian at age two, wearing Lola Adela´s big sunglasses.

Jian at age four. Kahit pango, bagay pa rin ang shades.

Well, just look at where he got the idea of wearing shades.

If your kid loves to wear shades, you better head to Mommy Chris´ site and share your pictures with us.

Mommy Moments: Part of The Family

I am so sorry I was not able to post an entry to last week´s Mommy Moments. I have been really busy on my son´s birthday preparation and I know I still owe you an entry about that celebration plus I have my heads full of all the new knowledge I am trying to absorb from my training at work. i just could not pass on this week´s theme that made me write a really quick post.

Jian has always been close to my side of the family. It is because we live with them and we get to see most of them often.

These are my brothers and my sister-in-law.
Jian being the only nephew that they have as off the moment is very close to them.

This is Tito Dandrie, my cousin who is four years younger than Jian.
Jian calls him Tito and Ayey calls him Kuya.

Well, nothing beats Mommy, my mom. She will always be special to Jian.

For more Mommy Moments, please visit Mommy Chris´ Mommy Journey.

Mommy Moments: First Steps

This week at Mommy Moments the theme is all about first steps, be it the literal first step or whatever firsts that we might have in photo for our kiddos. I know I was not able to capture Jian´s first real step (it could be because we still don´t have the digital cam before). But luckily I was able to dig into my mom´s treasure chest of memorable photos. I was not even thinking that my mom was really that sentimental about his only apo that she kept this picture.



So there goes my Jian´s first wobbly steps captured in photo by my mom. ´Twas like just yesterday, but then a few days from now he is turning seven. Makes me think seriously about trying-to-conceive again real soon.

More mommies are bragging about their little ones firsts here. You can join in the fun, too.

Jian´s 7th Birthday Party

If my mom was still alive, she could have been very busy by now. The reason? his one and only apo is about to turn seven more than a week from now. I remember her telling Jian that she will do any means to have it done in Jian´s favorite food chain, Jollibee. But then, Mama is no longer here. So, I am left will all the tedious work of preparing for the party. The party will not be held in Jollibee. We decided to do it at our house. We have a spacious backyard (with a bahay kubo at that!) which perfectly fits the Safari theme that Jian wants. Yes, it could be more tedious this way but we can invite more if we do it at home instead of a food chain. It´s more of a do-it-yourself party as almost everything are being done by some members of the family. Good thing that I have 100% support from my husband about this. Let me just share with you the invitation which I made over the weekend. This will be printed by my cousin from one of the internet shops he normally frequented.


I just logged into an online scrapbooking site and have it done there. Ain´t it wonderful?

Mommy Moments: Playing Time

For a child, what could be more fun than playing. Be it by himself or with other kids.

As you know, Jian is an only child, at least as of this writing. Well, we do hope that in the near future , he will have a sibling. Since he is the only kid in the household, he does not have much of playtime with other kids. We normally go to his uncle´s house at least twice a month, so he can enjoy playing with his cousins. At home, he satisfies himself by playing with his favorite buddy, his bear. He even named that bear. Most of his toys are being given to other kids when he no longer wants them, except for this bear. I don´t think think that the bear will leave the household. Jian even mentioned keeping him so he can give it to his sibling when the time comes.



During summer, we nomally have ¨vacasionistas¨ in our house.Jian grabs the opportunity of playing with his titos and titas. Summertime is always the best time for playing. The weather permits most of outdoor fun. Jian loves summer, just as shown in the following picture.



And yes, the mall is also a place of freedom for my little guy.



If you want to join the kids at play, visit Mommy Chris.

I want my Satellite TV

My family had always been a TV fanatic. Back when we were younger, we have always been motivated by the fact that the first one who handles the remote control will be the one to dominate the TV screen for that particular day. It´s a good thing that when I got married, my husband have always stayed away from holding on to the remote control, or at least not when his favorite anime series is on air. I actually envy people who can enjoy the luxury of a Satellite TV Service without them being burdened by the price. Do you think nothing can be better than getting them installed by proffessional installer? I bet you haven´t heard that DirecTV is actually giving away all the equipment for free and yes, this includes either a DVR or an HD-receiver. If I could move in to California to take advantage of all these freebies, I would easily do. Apart from all of this, they also offer the best programming amongst all Satellite TV provider. Perhaps there will be never be a dull moment for my family if we could have DirecTV installed in our household. Jian would surely enjoy having his favorite cartoon all day long, oh and I would probably don´t have to wait until the wee hours of the night to watch the news from all over the world.

Will there be anything more relaxing than that? I bet none.

Blogging Awards from here and there

I have always believe that blogging awards are given not just to keep the ball rolling. It is more of saying thank you because someone has touched your blogging life in one way or another. From the time that I received my first blogging award, I have promised myself that I will be posting any awards that will come along the way. I apologize for not being able to post it right away but I promise I will do my best to keep up with you guys.

These two awards are from A Woman Remembers.






One Word Tag

Here’s how it works: Use only one word! It’s not as easy as you might think. Copy and change the answers to suit you and pass it on. It’s really hard to use only one-word answers.


1. Where is your cell phone? headboard
2. Your hair? brown
3. Your mother? outstanding
4. Your father? jolly
5. Your favorite food? fruits
6. Your dream last night? mom
7. Your favorite drink? water
8. Your dream/goal? travel
9. What room are you in? bedroom
10. Your hobby? blogging
11. Your fear? loss
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Singapore
13. Where were you last night? home
14. Something that you aren’t? backfighter
15. Muffins? corn
16. Wish list item? oven
17. Where did you grow up? Valenzuela
18. Last thing you did? drink
19. What are you wearing? nightdress
20. Your TV? off
21. Your pets? dogs
22. Friends? many!
23. Your life? lovely
24. Your mood? grateful
25. Missing someone? mom
26. Car? wish!
27. Something you’re not wearing? eyeliner
28. Your favorite store? SM
29. Your favorite color? red
30. When was the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? week
32. Your best friend? Hubby
33. One place that I go to over and over? park
34. One person who emails me regularly?Friends
35. Favorite place to eat? Icebergs

Award Rules:
1. Copy the badge and put it on your blog.
2. Link back the person who passed you this award.
3. Spread the love to other bloggers.

I am sharing this award to the following blogs: Sweet Nothings, The Mommy Journey, Pensive Thoughts, Make or Break, Mommyhood Moments, Josieś Window, and My Son And My Life.

On the other hand, Mommy Enchie of Sweet Nothings gave me this award a few days back. Thanks so much , dear!

~~Begin Copy~~

This is the easy way and the fastest way to :

1. Make your Authority Technorati explode.

2. Increase your Google Page Rank.

3. Get more traffic to your blog.

4. Makes more new friends.

Rules :

1. Start copy from “Begin Copy” until “End Copy” to your blog.

2. Put your own blog name and link. 3. Tag your friends as much as you can.

1.Picturing of Life 2. Juliana’s Site 3. Hazel-My Life, My Hope, My Future.4. Jeanne-The Callalily Space5.My Family is my Life 6. The Simple Life of a Baghag 7. On A Wonderful Day Like Today 8. House Everything 9. The Creativity in Me 10. Travel and Photography 11. Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 12. You Are My Sunshine 13.Song to Remember 14. Super Blog 15. Philiippine Tv Marathon 16.Simply Blue 17. Breaking the Boundaries 18. Top Five 19. A Simple Life 20. Simple Happy Life 21. A Great Pleasure 22. Glossa~licious 23. Time Goes By 24. Sweet Nothings 25. Mom from Manila 26. You are next!

~~End Copy~~

The Friendship Chain is for the following blogs.
Mommy Journey
Pensive Thoughts
Mommyhood moments
Smart Mommy
One Proud Mom. One Proud Wife
A Woman Remembers
About a Boy

Online Shopping, Anyone?

I was unable to post anything for the past week. Busy and stressedwould be an understatement for the state I am in right now. A lot of things are coming up and I don´t know which one to prioritize. Jian´s birthday will be a couple of weeks from now; me training for the new account to handle; and Hubby bugging me to finish the documents for his business requirements, not to mention the little things that I need to look after for my two brothers and my dad as well. Yes, it´ś kinda hard because it appears that my hand is always full and I am actually surprised that I am able to cope despite of everything.

But then, first things first. It´s nice that we live in a very high tech era. I love this online shopping thing that we have right now. I am sure that the ladies out there will agree that we save more shopping online because we tend to think about it first before really buying the stuffs. My kid and my hubby will both be happy because they no longer need to spend a lot of time accompanying me while I look for that Kobe Bryant jersey that my brother have been bugging me about. I was also able to get a pair of volleyball jerseys for myself without having to deal with the weekend traffic.

My kid is asking that we have his birthday themed as a basketball party. I might as well look for the right stuffs online. It will not only save me time but it also helps me decide better.

Have you had the chance to shop online? Did you like the idea?

Mommy Moments: Pouting Face

I have been lax in keeping this blog for the past few days. The reason?I am back to work after almost four months of staying home. I started training for a new account to handle in my work last Monday. I just could not pass on the chance of sharing these two photos of my kid for this week´s theme though. I promise to visit other mommyś blog this weekend.

This one was taken at a lifeguard´s station in one of the resorts that we normally visit every summertime. He was barely two years old here.


My kid really loves making faces when he knows his picture is being taken. This is actually my mom´s favorite picture of Jian. She even had it enlarged.


Now, pardon me but I really have to run to the office now. See you this weekend!

Used Cars on Sale

I have been asking my husband for the longest time to get me a car. I know that we still dont have enough budget to buy a new car, so we settled to look for used cars for sale. I was in awe when I saw some used Mercedes Cars up on sale at very affordable price. I practically spent a lot of time checking out on their used cars sections. It was also great to know that they also do car lease for new cars. They also have the best price amongst the sites that we have looked into.

I am hoping that by the end of this year we will be able to get a car of our own. And when that time comes, I will surely check back on BuyYourCar.co.uk.

Mommy Moments: Encounter with Pets and Animals

I have always lived in a house with a pet dog. My mom believes that having a pet inside the house teaches us to be compassionate. All of our dogs stayed with us until their dying years. We have learned to love these dogs as part of the family and have always thought of them as companions and not just pets. The first two pictures show my kid having a grand time with one of the puppies of our six year old dog, Chinkie. Jian is only two years old in those pictures.





Unlike some households that discard their pets once a new baby is about to be born, we are different. We managed to keep our pets even when I gave birth to my son almost seven years ago. I could say that he have been exposed to animals since then. Jian was very fond of one our dog named Luthor (a showtype pit bull) that he cried when the poor dog died of heatstroke. To think that Jian was only four years old then. Too bad, I was not able to get a picture of them together.

Jian also enjoyed our trip to the Manila Ocean Park.

That is a spider crab and he would like us to get one on his birthday.

He wants to ride a horse, but we haven´t had the chance to ride a real horse so he just confined himself with this.


So you think kids and animals don´t mix, think again. Visit more kids enjoying their encounters with animals in Mommy Moments.

Goodbye, MJ

Michael Joseph Jackson or Michael Jackson to the millions of fans that have loved him died June 25, 2009. I am not a Michael Jackson fan although I grew up with his songs being played on most radio stations. The artist in him is undoubtedly one of the finest. A male soprano (too rare can a male sing in fine falsetto the way he does), a songwriter and a record producer rolled into one. The world might not be able to see someone like him again. He is legendary. It saddens me though that even his death is being haunted by controversy.


There have been rumors circulating that he died due to drug overdose, perhaps a sedative as his nutritionist is claiming. His father is also asking for another autopsy. Another controversy is the custody of his children. The Jackson family expressed that they will not let the custody of the kids be given to anyone else but them. The whole world is still awaiting for the place where his remain will be buried. Hollywood news are pointing to Neverland Ranch although the family said they still don´t have any decision.

In our household, we grew up hearing his song eventhough no one really adores him that much. Growing up in the 80ś, you can´t help but listen to his music. I mean , they are everywhere. Even those brightly colored buses in Edsa are showing his concert in Bucharest. And yes, let me admit, I have a very special liking to three of his songs; Man in the Mirror, Heal the World and We are the World. Yes, MJ is already dead but these songs will always echo his advocacies. Everyone is a sinner so let us stop throwing stones at him and start working for a better world.

May his soul find the peace that he was not able to get her on Earth.