happy 7th birthday, justin!

today we celebrated my nephew's 7th birthday. justin's bday is not until december 2 but since my sister couldn't find a better place for the party on the exact day (cramming, in short! hehe), she settled for nov 30 instead. it was supposedly a nice date coz eventhough it's a friday, it was a legal holiday. however, since it made the weekend long, a lot of invited guests went out of town or out of the country. only around 70 guests came. actually around 50 only came coz our family is so big, we're almost 20 already. hehehe.

the party was held at kamayan edsa. we had merienda buffet. i actually got this buffet idea from newlywedsatwork egroup (really a great resource for party planning!). at first we thought only megamall (function room too small), glorietta (near g2, scary), and atc (alabang town center, too far!) offer merienda buffet for a party. but then fellow n@wie aline (thanks, girl!) recommended kamayan edsa. i believe it was the best among the branches i've mentioned. function space could accommodate up to 200-300pax, ample parking space (with valet if no parking is available in front of the resto) and not much walk-in guests so ingress and egress are not much of a hassle. so kamayan edsa it is. i shared this good find with my sister and my sister in-law. now we have three parties here. first one is today which is my nephew's 7th bday. second is djuan's first bday on april. then my niece's 7th bday on july. we really liked the idea of having a buffet at a very affordable price. even the drink is bottomless! i hope it doesn't get boring after having three parties. hahaha.

the party was fun. my sister came up with all original games. i actually got some ideas from her for djuan's party. not that i'm copying (pride!). hehe. but really, the idea of having a game that involves some info about djuan and the family got me. why didn't i ever think of that?! oh anyway, i will for sure make a similar game. read: similar, not same. hahaha! oops, this is too long already. will just share some of the pics from the party. go check 'em out! :)

the bday boy


my sister and her family


me and djuan. i was wearing my new BE makeup. ok ba? :D


and the best picture of all... djuan and kuya ash, the bday boy. :))

carinsurancerates.com

my friend who's in the US is planning to purchase a brand new car. it's going to be his first car so he is really excited about it. i told him that since he's new in driving he should get a second-hand car instead of brand new. oh well, based on experience, people tend to get more accident-prone when they are first-time drivers. but he really wants to have a brand new car so i just told him that he should make sure he gets an auto insurance.

i believe a car insurance is a must if you're purchasing a car. it's like an added safety feature to your vehicle. if you get yourself involved in an accident you could file for a claim for the damages done to your car and in most cases, also to the damages you may have done with other cars involved in the accident. so i advised my friend to check out as well car insurance quotes. i told him to visit carinsurancerates.com. it's a great website for car insurance. they have this car insurance portal wherein they could give you several quotes from top insurers in just 5 minutes. my friend no longer needs to go through several car insurance agents to study the different quotes. cool!

half-day today

i arrived past 11am here in the office today. i was supposed to come in early coz today is the official start of our new work schedule. from the full-flexi i've been enjoying for the past months, we now have 9-6 fixed schedule. amazingly for the past few weeks i've been coming to work early. probably coz i had a lot of trips to our client's office in batangas. but today i had to come in half-day. since monday, djuan was having loose bowels. yesterday it got worse. everytime he farts, he poops. he consumed around 10-12 diapers yesterday. last night before he went to sleep he finished his 5oz milk. but when he tossed and turned around he threw up. :( it made me worry a lot so i was really observing his condition and behavior last night until this morning. yesterday my mom brought him to his ninong doc (donar's in a much farther hospital). no amoeba nor parasites were found on his stool. many bacteria though. donar's wishing it would just go away without meds. we just give djuan glucolyte drink everytime he poops. this morning i cleaned up our room. i changed the beddings and pillowcases. i gathered all his plastic and plush toys so they could be washed and boiled. hay hirap esp now that djuan is at the stage where everything, as in everything, goes straight to his mouth. oh i just hope he gets well soon. pumayat na tuloy agad. wawa naman. :(

tarp and invite LOs for justin's 7th bday

justin, my nephew, is turning 7 on december 2. we'd celebrate his bday in advance on november 30. and as usual, when we have parties like this in the family, i am assigned to do the invites. recently, coz it's becoming a fad already in parties, i've been doing tarpaulin layouts too. the party theme is racing cars. my nephew just loves cars so much that after presenting to him all the bday theme options we still ended up preparing for a racing car themed bday party.

below are the front and back layouts of the invite they sent out to the guests. the layout was not really mine. it was designed primarily by the bday celebrant and his kuya jan. galing nila no? mana ke tita. hehehe. i just changed the fonts in these layouts. it was a simple postcard-like invite.




below are the layouts for the stage (main tarp) and welcome tarps. my sister just gave me some of the pics she downloaded from the net and a few ideas she had in mind. i enhanced the idea just a bit and ended up with these ones. i'm glad she liked them. :) honestly, i don't like these LOs that much. oh well, i should give up being oc coz i don't have much time doing this stuff. i only did these LOs last night and it was just a quick one-hour photoshop session.




the invites were already done and distributed a week ago. now i just have to send the tarp LOs to my kuya who's working for a color separation company. kewl! i think party planning and desktop publishing would be a good career for me next to software development. whatchathink? :))

i wanna BE beautiful

actually it should be i wanna be more beautiful. hehehe. it's not about my beauty per se (ahem!), it's all about this makeup i'm raving of. i first learned about bare escentuals through fellow n@wie, jody. i inquired for some starter kits from her but unfortunately she had no stocks. apparently she ended up using all her goods! hehe. she said she have some stocks arriving this december so i told myself i will just wait for those. but just this afternoon, out of luck i came across one multiply site of a n@wie (forgot her name though) where i found this user who's selling bare escentuals stuff too. kewl! we've been exchanging sms for the past hour. i hope i could close the deal with her later or at the latest tomorrow coz i'm planning to use the kikay stuff come friday (my nephew's 7th bday) and saturday (our office Christmas party themed fab 'n glam, sakto di ba?! hehe). if i get addicted to this new kikay find, it's definitely my Christmas gift to myself. yey! at least this is much more cheaper than my nikon d80 and hp pavillion wishes. :)

disability insurance

my pension plan payment is finally over as i've shared in my earlier post. i also mentioned about my interest on getting a new insurance so i've been reviewing different insurance policies lately. one thing that interests me recently is the disability insurance. i came across protectyourincome.com and i must agree with them that disability insurance is something not to be put off until later. one should take advantage of getting this kind of insurance while still young and healthy. reading from the disability insurance information at protectyourincome.com, based on statistics, at my age (i am under 35), i have a disability chance of one in three for at least six months while working. too bad to be true but i think it is possible. so better be safe than sorry. i must go check out for disability insurance quotes now.

happy birthday lisa marie!

i just love calling lisa by her first names. hehehe. i'm also fond of calling her lola just like my other girlfriends. lola is my word of endearment for my super duper close girlfriends.

today is lisa's birthday. as much as we'd like her to treat us on her special day (hehe), she won't coz she's already in the US. i don't have a gift for her so i just made this post especially for her. *drums rolling* ladies and gentlemen, on the carebears corner wearing a gray nokia jacket, the superhero of all times, ms lisa marie de guzman! :D
i know you'd kill me for posting this pic. hahaha. i just love it! it shows the little kid in you. and the care bears on the background add more to it. cute di ba? :) cge, bawi ako sa next pics. hehehe.



ang saya! those were our happy days in europe. i hope we could be that happy again. sana sa US naman. :) and look what i have unearthed from suy's archive...

ngyaaaah! i wonder what we were up to that time. shopping? travel plans? hehehe. definitely not work coz it was a friday. hahaha! happy birthday, lola! miss you na. hope to see you soon! mwah =* from me and chukoy.

in-house projects

good evening friday! today is djuan's 7th month. no pictures yet coz i went home late and djuan was already sleepy when i came. my car's battery got discharged so it took me longer to come home. will post separately about this one.

weekend, as usual, is as busy as my weekdays. i call it family time. for the past two weeks, we've been attending baptism and birthday parties. and almost every weekends, we go to church, to my in-laws' place and of course, to the mall! for a change, we're just going to the church and my mil's house tomorrow. donar said he wants to stay at home longer. he needs to seriously review this time coz his ielts exam is already next saturday. so please pray for my hubs to pass that exam. it's supposedly the last exam he need to take before he could finally find an employer in the US. so wish us luck. and while my husband is busy on his review, i as well will be busy on my so-called in-house projects. these are stuff that i need to do for my family. here's my checklist for this weekend:

• my mom's Christmas invite for her organization's party - actually she already cancelled this one. i still wanted to do this though coz i'm getting oc that she erased the date on the old invites with liquid paper. oh i just really hate erasures on invites! gggrrrr.
• tarpaulin LOs for my niece's 7th bday - i got this job from my ate sometime last week. and she was expecting i'm already done with it. what the heck?! as if i don't have work in the office. how i really wish i don't have work. hehehe.
• djuan's baptism album LO - i just need to do finishing touches on this one. yey!
• djuan's 3D model of his hand and foot - the molding kit i ordered from the US already arrived the other day. donar and i are creating a 3D mold of djuan's hand and foot. this is just one of the ways we like to preserve and remember djuan's infant days. :) will post separately about this once we're done with the project.
  

long list eh?! i hope i could finish all of these. i don't like these things to add up on my backlogs (i already have tons in the office!). let's see...

something long: an alarm clock???

i just don't get it. the traditional monito-monita here in the office started last week. the first gift was something long. i was absent last friday so i wasn't able to get my gift then. it was just yesterday that i checked out my supposedly something long gift. and what did i get? an alarm clock. like duh! i really don't get it. what is something long in an alarm clock? the short-hand and the LONG hand? or the irritating LONG sound of the alarm? whoever is my mommy (if you're reading this, of course you now know who i am), you have to explain this to me on the revelation day. oh i just hope it's not my boss. hahaha! i was still actually giving my mommy the benefit of the doubt last night. maybe it was meant for the other gifts: something cute, something soft and something red. but no, it doesn't fit anywhere. i wonder what's on the mind of my mommy when she (or he) bought this. scary. hehehe.

insurance: way to ensure my 13th month pay's worth

i was so happy last week. i received 20k for this expensive item i was selling in ebay. i was really looking forward to this because i planned to use the money to settle the last payment of my pension plan. i missed the due date of the last payment. and to my disgrace, i also missed the 60-day grace period. argh. remember that we were in hongkong at the end of july? instead of paying my insurance, i used the money as pocket money to our trip in hongkong. my bad!

now just because i'm already over with the payment of my pension plan, it doesn't mean that i won't get another one. i really believe i could save money on insurance. knock on wood but if ever i die and (of course) i have to leave my family behind, i am confident that i won't leave them in debts. right now i'm thinking of a family insurance. this should be a great idea because i am now married and i already have a baby. and i think it's also a good time for me to avail of a new insurance. Christmas is fast approaching and that means our mandatory 13th month pay is fast approaching too! oh, i should better ask my agents now for some insurance quotes.

beautiful and sexy blogger awards

good morning thursday! i'm having a great morning. my car is on color coding today but i came in at the vicinity of makati around 7:30am already. God is so good, i've been praying to Him that i don't want to be caught today. hehehe. i'd rather spend the money with a cup of starbucks coffee (for the stickers!) than with the penalty fee. prayers answered so here i am now in the office drinking a tall hot caramel macchiato. yahoo!

i've been busy the whole week so i wasn't able to acknowledge all the awards i received from my so-called cyber friends. :)

thanks to eds for the star blogger and friendship awards. really appreciated this. :)

and to doc joey, who's been tagging and giving me awards these days, thanks a lot. of all the awards i received, i really like these two the most. for a first-time mommy like me who's still struggling to bring back the pre-pregnancy weight, this is highly appreciated. :))

paris bed and breakfast

a friend is asking me for some value for money tips in traveling. just like everybody else, she dreams of going to paris. so i told her if she wants to make the most out of her stay in that city, she should go for paris bed and breakfast. bed and breakfast means a room and breakfast provided at an inclusive price by a hotel. this is a great way of planning your holiday especially if you have very limited time. this means you never have to plan your morning meals. it saves you time and of course, money. so do you want to go to paris, too? try b&b paris.

happy 2nd birthday bela!

last saturday, we attended another birthday party. it was the second bday celebration of bela, daughter of abie, my schoolmate in college turned online friend :). thanks for the invite, sis!

i made a mistake for two times in a row. last week when we attended abrielle's baptism, instead of kamay-kainan we went to kamayan. hahaha. for bela's party, i thought it was at 3pm. when we were almost at the party place i checked the invite and found out it was 2pm! and it was already 4pm then! so, for those who are planning to invite me (and my family) to any party, please remind me to read the invite very carefully. i tend to forget things lately. geesh!

bela's party was held in philippine columbian association and the theme was luau. of course, my baby boy was in hawaiian outfit too! he even won runner-up for the costume. sweet! the polo and shorts were made by none other than djuan's super lola. when i told my mom that djuan is attending a hawaiian party, the next day she bought the fabric. the following day, the hawaiian outfit was already done. mas excited pa ang lola! hehehe. here are some pics of donar and djuan who was in hawaiian outfit. too bad we left his shades in the car. it should have completed the kewl outfit. hehe.


we really enjoyed the party even though we were late (as usual hehe). donar and i enjoyed the choco fountain. donar is so addicted with the choco fountain that from time to time he asks me if there's another bridal fair. he wanted to hop on the booths offering choco fountain. hahaha! djuan and i also enjoyed popping the bubbles from the bubbles show. it was really fun coz djuan was really trying to reach out for the bubbles. there was also a lilo mascot in the party. of course, i didn't let the photo opp pass. hehehe.

as expected, djuan got cranky again. hehehe. he was like this when he and his dad were getting the tumbler souvenir...

to abie (and howell), congrats for pulling off such a great party! to bela, happy birthday dear! may you grow up healthier and more beautiful. see you guys next on djuan's 1st bday party. :)

djuan's 1st birthday party planning

conceptualization actually started when i was still pregnant with djuan. i am an uber excited first-time mommy so bear with me. i even almost forgot that i should have planned for the baptism first before the first bday. haha. i seriously started planning the party when djuan was about 4-5mos. that was the time when he voluntarily weaned from breastfeeding (he bit me, i screamed in agony, he went on a nursing strike then finally gave up on bf). the bonding time lessened for mommy and baby so i took the chance of planning his birthday party. the theme was supposedly swimming or luau. djuan was born summertime so i thought swimming would be a good party theme for him. also, djuan loves to take a bath. it's his fave time of the day so i was assuming he'd like swimming too. besides, his cousins are swimming addicts so i thought it would really be a good idea. but i changed my mind after some time for a couple of reasons. first, i realized djuan gets so easily irritated when he sweats so it's a bad idea to have a party outdoor (even if there's a swimming pool). secondly, i had a hard time scouting for a venue within the metro. i really wanted a resthouse with swimming pool so we could just have a barbecue party. most of the resthouses i know are in laguna. definitely a no-no coz of the nightmare in logistics. when i finally found a resthouse in tandang sora, i already changed my mind. hahaha. lastly, the sesame street-themed birthday party stories in newlywedsatwork egroup got me. so sesame street it is.

when i finally decided that it would be a sesame street 1st bday party for djuan, aside from scouting for suppliers, i started acquainting djuan with the sesame street characters. i asked donar to buy him a sesame street dvd. i bought a LOT of sesame street items for djuan: sandos, shorts, briefs, trainer cup, feeding bottles, milk container, plastic bibs, softball, tootbrush (even if he has no tooth yet!). i know this is exaggerated but you know what, my hubby is so supportive of me (and my addiction). one time when he got home from work he brought djuan a new medicine dropper. and it was a sesame street! i wanted my baby get familiarized with at least elmo and cookie monster so he could enjoy and appreciate his party. if i get over my craziness over the chicco quattro, i'm definitely getting an elmo or cookie monster (or both stuff toys) for djuan on Christmas. by the way, the first sesame street item i bought was a set of bedding and pillow cases which i ordered in ebay. here's a picture of our sesame street-themed queen-size bed.

there's more about the party planning (and the sesame street addiction hehe). by next week, i'd be giving the 50% downpayment in the restaurant. will just post updates about the birthday party plan by then. need to rest now. i have a client meeting later in batangas. so, ciao!

comfort food tag

got this tag from vina. thanks, sis!

what is your favorite comfort food/drink and why is it so?

hmm, as of this writing i can't decide what really is my favorite comfort food. but i'm pretty sure with the drinks: iced tea and coke. recently because of so much backlogs at work, i had to overload myself with sugar. i remember treating my team members with a dozen of dunkin' donuts. and a couple of times i bought myself 3-4 bars of cloud 9. hehehe. i'm afraid i won't do justice to this question tag if i lack some visual effects. for today, i declare krispy creme as my favorite comfort food.


when i was still pregnant with djuan, i ate around 5-6 original glazed krispy kreme donuts in just 5mins (or less). hahaha. it's not really my favorite comfort food. i don't usually crave for it coz i know i just can't buy it anytime. it's not everywhere like dunkin' and mr. donuts. but when there's a chance to buy a box of it, of course i would. last friday we bought one dozen of assorted krispy creme donuts in megamall. we even got two free original glazed donuts straight from the oven before we left the store. it was still hot. yummy! sorry for making you drool, guys. i'm over this one. i just had three of it in my merienda this afternoon. hahaha!

i'm tagging anyone who now remembers (and craves) for their fave comfy food/drinks. cheers! :)

my newfound computer games

i just love playing computer games. i believe a person in the IT industry must really have that great interest in computer games to be considered very passionate with the IT profession. and so i went on with my passion and found midoritech.com, a great site to play pc and mac games. they have games like solitaire, mahjong and a couple of games for little kids. my nieces would definitely love this site because they have this manga style dress up game called beauty salon. i personally like the game called ladybugs. the colors of the game are extremely vivid. the game is challenging yet fun to play with. i really had a good time trying this game.

tgif everyone!

thank God it's friday. what makes it even better is that i'm not coming to work today. i finally got appointments with my dentist (to complete my root canal procedure) and my obgyne (to consult and complain about my unusual monthly period). djuan and i are leaving home early. we're picking up donar in the hospital so he could drive all of us to ortigas where my dentist's clinic is. aside from the planned visits to the doctors we also planned to meet up with djuan's ninang (Godmother) whose office is also in ortigas. it's gonna be a long day for us. still totally glad it's friday! :)

starbucks 2008 planner

and the craze started... i don't know what's with the starbucks planner that every time it comes out in the promo i am for sure one of those going gaga collecting stickers. could it be that the thing is more appreciated when obtained for free? it's not really for free coz you have to spend your hard-earned money for an overpriced coffee. come to think of it, i am really not a coffee person. i oftentimes upset my stomach drinking coffee. i am acidic and lactose-intolerant so i really don't like drinking coffee that much. i'd say, it's hard (and often than not, expensive) to keep up with the trend, much more with a craze. oh, i remember now. it's just so fun competing with my friends and colleagues who could finish collecting the stickers first. just so you could brag to everybody that you got the thing first ahead of everybody. hahaha. ok, i get it now. it's crazy. and i'm one of those crazy people. can i say eccentric? nah, i'm not rich so just stick with crazy. hehehe.

spaghetti for life! forever!

i can't believe i'm having spaghetti pangat (shortcut for pangatlong kain, means 3x eating the same food) in less than 24 hours. yesterday was my niece's 12 birthday. and as usual, we had spaghetti for dinner last night. we still have leftover of the spaghetti so i brought some today in the office for my afternoon merienda. and just before lunch time came, uh-oh i realized i ordered for spaghetti from our caterer today. i should be happy if i were roselyn. so addicted to spaghetti. ok, just look at the brighter side. it will make your life longer. like duh?! :))

make ends meet

today is the 15th of the month and for most people it means payday but not here in the company where i currently work. our payday here in the office falls on the 5th and 20th of the month. since it's still five days away from payday, almost of us here are already looking forward to the next payday because by this time most of us have already depleted our cash.

i remember one time a colleague borrowed from me some money so he could make it until payday comes. when i learned he needed some money again, i of course offered my help. he declined me that time because he was already embarrassed to borrow money from me again. so i thought maybe next time when this person needs emergency cash, i'd just tell him to avail of payday loans instead. payday loans are short term loans offered by several cash advance sites on the web. amazingly they don't do credit checks. the approval of the loan is based on criteria that most employed people meet like employment status, minimum income and active bank accounts. as soon as the loan is approved the loan amount would be sent via wire transfer to the applicant's bank account. so are you embarrassed to borrow money from your friends or colleagues? try having cash advance this way to save your face and make ends meet.

jumping djuan

djuan has new tricks now. a few days ago he remembered he could make wet razzing sounds. i think he stopped doing it when he was sick with pneumonia. now he's back to being so active. combined with the wet razzing sound is his newfound jumping skills. every time somebody holds him up by his armpits he would start jumping like crazy. it's strange but i'm the only person in our house who couldn't make him jump while holding him. i tried twice yesterday but i was unlucky. all i could do was tell him to jump and amazingly he would follow me. :) last monday night, donar and i were laughing so hard when we came home. donar was holding djuan and as expected he started to jump. he wouldn't stop jumping even if he was already tired. he would just pause for a while then he would start jumping again. hehe. donar got dead tired coz he was holding djuan all throughout. our baby definitely loves his newfound trick. i rarely video djuan's milestones coz i'm not really a fan of videos. but i think this trick is cute enough to make it on a video. so last night when he did that again to donar, i grabbed our digicam and encouraged him to jump until he drops. pasaway na mommy. hehe. check out the videos. he's literally "a bouncing baby boy". :)

star blogger award

got this award from joey. thanks, sis! it felt like i got myself a place in the avenue of stars. :)

now i'm passing this on to the people whose blogs i frequently visit these days: abie and jody.

my Christmas wishlist

good morning, thursday. i'm early today in the office coz my car is on color coding. technically i should be in makati on or before 7am. since it's raining today and the traffic is already bad in quirino highway, i got myself in around 7:30am already. ok so let's not talk about how bad my day started because of the rain and the early heavy traffic on the road. let's start the day right! since i've been discussing about the Christmas wishlist of my hubby and my son (actually MY wishlist for my baby boy hehe), might as well share what i want. during elementary days i learned from my english teacher that you use the word 'wish' followed by a past tense verb if the thing is unlikely to happen. now if the thing is likely to happen you should use the word 'hope' then followed by a present tense verb. so should i just change this to a hope list instead? nah, forget about the english lessons. hahaha. for me, it's still a wishlist. it's unlikely to happen coz i don't have (yet) the moolah to spend for these things. (*drums rolling*) and so here's my wishlist for Christmas:

nikon d80 - i've been reviewing a lot of dslrs since i got myself seriously into photography. i checked out the review of a lot of canon and nikon pro cameras. this one really got me interested when i saw it's full review in dpreview.com. how much? a whooping 56k pesos.

hp pavillion dv2500t series - it has always been my dream to have my own notebook computer. i am still undecided to get one for myself coz i have two service laptops at the moment, a compaq which is my assigned laptop here in the office and a dell courtesy of our global client. how much moolah for an hp pavilion? hold on to your seat very tightly. it's roughly 90k pesos if bought here in the philippines. if you're interested for one, better ask your consenting aunt in the US who would be glad to buy this for you and even have this included in her carry-on luggage. this only costs around 50k pesos (or less) when converted from US dollars.

so that completes my wishlist. nice way of starting the day. :)

donar's Christmas wish: a new car

my husband has been bugging me for the longest time to purchase a new car. every time he sees a promo on the newspaper, he would excitedly show it up to me with all the convincing powers he could get in this world. i have nothing against buying a new car except that i still love our honda civic 1999 which has been with us for three years already. so just to get over with this issue, i finally gave in to check out some of the cars on his Christmas wishlist. i checked first the honda cars like jazz, city, civic and the ultimate dream car, CRV. then i stumbled upon the website carsblvd.com. it's a great website to check out the honda car prices. much more, it's a great site for car comparisons. so if you want to compare your honda car quotes with other brands like toyota, mitsubishi, nissan, just to name a few, this website is the way to go. i told donar that we could use this website as basis of our decision in purchasing a new car. he agreed and he's happy that his Christmas wish might come true at last!

friendship award

i got another friendship award from abie. you're melting my heart, sis! :) see you this coming saturday.

now, i'm sharing this award with:

abie. of course, i'm giving it back to you. you're such a sweet girl. you gave me a friendship award twice already. i'm enjoying our friendship even if it just started recently. :)

lisa. my kumare, my travel buddy who's now waiting for us to migrate in the US. keep on blogging, lola. it will keep you out of boredom. hehe. see you soon!

suy. my ex-ofcmate and special friend (me pagka-abnormal kasi to. hahaha. peace!). i miss having someone like you here in the office. you're one of a kind. thanks for always attending my celebrations in life. sa 1st bday naman ni djuan ha. :)

ivy. a friend i gained from traveling to finland (we both missed our flight from paris to helsinki!). no matter how far you are and how busy both of us are, i know we always find time to keep each other posted. enjoy mommyhood. just buzz me if you need help.

ela. a schoolmate in masci, we've been exchanging emails since we "saw" each other in the newlywedsatwork egroup. congrats to you and arnel for the new house. i hope and pray the baby would come next. hope to see you guys in the US when our migration finally pushes through. :)

all i want for Christmas for djuan is a chicco quattro

i've seen this toy first while surfing ebay ph one time. one ebayer is selling the toy by special order and it will be coming from uk. so i thought it's not available here in the phils. but then i saw it in sm. really caught my attention so we had it for a "test ride". we let djuan sit on it for a couple of mins. he liked it. he actually liked eating the maneuver. hahaha. kidding aside, djuan was happy when we put him there unlike when we put him on his stroller or high chair, in an instant he would yell at us to pick him up. what a small but terrible parents manipulator. hahaha. so i told myself that i'd get this for djuan on Christmas. but to my dismay the toy costs kwatro mil (four thousand pesos). probably that's why it was called quattro. darn. well, it's called quattro (four) because it has four play modes: rocker, push 'n go, push 'n walk, and sit n' ride. here are some pictures of the chicco quattro toy that i would like my baby boy to have for Christmas:

since it's expensive i already scratched this out from my shopping list for Christmas. i just planned to get either an elmo or cookie monster stuff toy for djuan coz i'm really determined at the moment for him to like the sesame street characters (it's gonna be the theme for his 1st bday party). but then when i went to robinson's last sunday to buy some carrots and a pack of diapers for djuan, i saw the latest promo for huggies. for every pack of specially marked huggies diapers you get points that you could use to redeem for free or discounted chicco toys. of course i checked out the chicco quattro and it was indeed there!

50 pts - 50% discount on any of the ff: Quattro 4-in-1 car, folding slide, play n ride car w/ lights n sounds.

kainis! now i'm contemplating if i would buy lots of huggies diapers for djuan just to get this 50% discount for the chicco quattro. it's crazy. if i'd seriously collect the 50pts, that would mean djuan will have a year-long supply of diapers! whatchathink, is it really worth it? i already told hubs about this and he already gave me the go signal. kunsintidor! hahaha. he told me it's like buying the chicco quattro with free one-year supply of diapers. to add more confusion to my shopping decision, i saw these awards of the toy from the chicco website:

• "Mom-Tested Toy of the Year" from Parenting Magazine
• "Best Toy of the Year" from American Baby Magzine
• "Toy of the Year" from Baby Talk Magazine
• "Toy of the Year" (Baby / Toddler Category) from Creative Child Magazine
  

*sigh*. i have to do something to get this off my mind. and blogging of course didn't help. it's really a crazy thing to do. waaaaaah.

brand tag

i got this tag from joey. thanks, doc! :)

1) what's the brand of your wristwatch?
tommy hilfiger. i got it as a first wedding anniversary gift from hubby. coz i complained i'd been using my guess watch for ages. :D

2) what's the brand of your bracelet?
me brand ba ang bracelets? hehehe. i usually wear the fancy ones and i'm really not after the brand so i can't remember.

3) what's the brand of your cell phone?
motorola

4) what's the brand of your computer?
dell and compaq

5) what's the brand of your bags?
uh-oh. addiction itu! esprit, ucb, girbaud, mango, samsonite. hahaha.

6) what's the brand of your undies?
triumph, victoria's secret, hygeia (hahaha, sinilip ko pa talaga to sa pants ko now, di ko maalala eh!)

7) what's the brand of your flip-flops?
havaianas

8) what's the brand of your shoes?
right now, i'm wearing gibi. kelangan ba sabihin lahat? syet, addiction ko din itu! hahaha.

9) what's the brand of your wallet?
sisley. i also have a mango which was a gift from my girlfriends.

10) what's the brand of your shirts?
kamiseta mostly

11) what's the brand of your tv?
sony

12) what's the brand of your cars?
honda

13) what's the brand of your mp3 player?
apple ipod

14) what's the brand of your make up?
mostly maybelline (yan ang nasa kikay kit ko ngayon), can't remember those i've kept in my kikay box

15) what's the brand of your shampoo and conditioner?
shampoo - pantene and sunsilk summer fresh
conditioner - pantene

16) what's the brand of your jeans?
right now, i'm wearing guess. i also have kamiseta, esprit! (love ko to grabe).

17) what's the brand of your laundry soap?
surf tawas. but from time to time we switch to other brands like tide and mr.clean. depende sa trip during grocery shopping.

oops, finished na. hehehe. i really enjoyed answering this. now i'm tagging lisa who has finally joined the blogging world. you'd surely enjoy this, lola. i'm also tagging my newfound blogging buddies from w@w/n@w: gracie and jody.

hotelreservations.com - your one-stop shop when planning to travel

if there’s one thing i couldn’t have enough, that would be traveling. here in the philippines, we have a saying that if a person has a mole on his feet that person is said to be el lakwatsero (a wandering person, also means a person who loves to travel). i do have that mole and i’m a certified wanderer of this world.

want to be a certified traveler, jetsetter, wanderer like me? it’s so simple. you just need a website like hotelreservations.com which offers almost everything that you would need when you’re planning your vacation or your business trip. this website could help you book your hotel accommodations, flights and car rentals. you could save up to 70% when you book your hotels, motels or resorts at hotelreservations.com.

if you’re the type of person who wants everything to come in packages, you might want to check out their vacation package service. it’s so easy to use this service. first, specify if you want to travel in one or two destinations. then specify if you want any of these included in your package: flight, hotel, car. next, enter your departure and arrival details: city, date, and time. lastly, specify how many people are going on this trip and how many rooms you like to have. voila! you now have a list of recommended bookings, packaged with everything that you specified.

if you want value for money on your vacation, you might want to try hotelreservations.com’s vacation rental. what is a vacation rental? the services and amenities are basically the same with that of hotels. the big difference is the pricing. in most hotels, the pricing is per person. in a vacation rental the price is set for the entire rental with just a maximum number of persons allowed. one more good about vacation rentals compared to hotels is that most have fully equipped kitchens. that makes you save more money because you get away from buying take-out or ready-made foods.

the best service that hotelreservations.com offers is their special internet rate price guarantee. if you found a lower rate available for the same dates and the same hotel, you just need to contact hotelreservations.com within 24 hours for your special internet rate reservation. after verification of the lower rate, they would either match the lower rate or cancel your reservation free of cancellation fee. so what are you waiting for? be an el lakwatsero like me!

another tag

i was again tagged. this time by jenny. thanks, girl. :)

1. are you good at hiding your feelings? no. it always shows up on my face. i’m so transparent and i can be very very frank.

2. how can we tell that you're already irritated? oh well, just look at my face. hahaha.

3. how do you treat the person that obviously doesn't like you? i just ignore the person.

4. what usually ruins your mood? not what but who. my husband! hahaha. he just loves to ruin my mood coz he knows at the end of the day we’d still cuddle. hehehe.

5. who do you see everyday that you wish you just wouldn't at all? those punas-salamin kids along nagtahan when i pass there everyday. i hate them and their parents.

6. when was the last time that you had a good cry? my church wedding day? oh, blame it to my wedding march, the prayer. hahaha!

7. how often do you shop for clothes? not that often since i got pregnant.

8. who's your long-time crush? bamboo francisco manalac. way back rivermaya days. hehehe.

9. someone you just had a crush on? vocalist of nickelback. haven’t seen the face but i so love the voice. i love nickelback’s far away song.

10 . do you have something that you wish you just don't? wedding gifts that are not useful. give cash or gift certificates, for heaven’s sake!

11. do you sometimes crave for something that isn't there? yeah, most of the time. i think that’s what makes it something to crave for.

12 . do you wish to live in a faraway land where nobody knows you? no coz i’ve done that already when i was in finland. i practically just met everybody the first time i got there.

13. have you kissed a total stranger? so embarrassing but yes. argh, it was because of my addiction to snowglobe. yikes! (remember, lola lisa? ngyahahaha)

14. what do you want to do at this moment? sleep with my baby. this is my third post for the night and i still have one more to go.

15 . the worst feeling? when djuan got food allergy. it was horrible to me. i thought he won’t recover from it. pneumonia didn’t scare me but that one really did. guess i was just really afraid that my baby would live forever with those red marks.

16. how about the best? everytime i go out with my two boys, donar and djuan

17. ever given your number to someone you dislike? nope. never!

18. what will you say to the one reading this right now? i hope you’re enjoying my answers. read on. i’m about to tag you. haha!

19. what/who do you need right now? my husband. it’s almost 11pm and he still hasn’t got home. ggrrr.

20 . happy with your life? yes, with my family life. i have one aspect in my life that i’m really not happy with but i’m working it out. hopefully soon enough that i would make a very happy announcement in this blog.

now, i’m tagging my newfound blogging buddies, joey and vina. i hope you haven’t answered this tag yet, girls. but i think you haven’t coz i checked out your posts archives. hehehe. ciao!

happy 1st bday ylian!

this is such a very busy weekend. yesterday, donar, djuan and i were in a baptism. just awhile ago, djuan and i went to a birthday party. today was ylian's 1st bday celebration. ylian is donar's nephew from his first cousin. that makes him a second cousin to djuan. he's the one i bought the pair of red enfant shoes for. the celebration was held at jollibee retiro (made me think of lisa while driving in retiro and passing by isarog st. lola, i must really have missed you coz i mentioned your name in three of my recent posts. hehehe). here's ylian and his family:

as expected, djuan got so cranky in the middle of the party. everytime we attend parties like this he gets overstimulated with the sounds (i should say noise) and the hustle around. so i took him out of the party and introduced him to jollibee (not the mascot yet, just the statue hehe). he actually liked jollibee. he touched jollibee's face. he even wanted to eat him! hahaha. everything that interests djuan right now goes straight to his mouth, and that includes my wavy hair. hehehe. when we got back to the party, he was all smiles to me when i put him on the high chair and started to click away...

when i learned we were attending yet another jollibee party (this was the 2nd jollibee party djuan attended), i thought i wouldn't enjoy it. to my surprise, i was actually happy when djuan and i were dancing to the tune of itaktak mo (just to entertain him out of boredom haha). much more, when the real jollibee came (ok, it was the mascot hehe) both djuan and i paid attention to his dance number. i was so proud with my baby boy coz he didn't get scared of jollibee, compared to the 5-year old kid who hid under one of the tables. of course, i didn't let the photo opp to pass. i asked my bro-in-law to take our pics with jollibee. hehehe. too bad, djuan was cranky again when we had the picture taking. there was too much commotion. everybody wants to get hold of jollibee.

of course, the lola would like to have a picture with djuan and jollibee too! :)

welcome to the Christian world, marc abrielle!

yesterday i attended the baptism of the first-born baby of abegail, my good friend from college. as usual, i was again a fairy Godmother. hehehe. come to think of it, the last three baptisms i attended i was all ninang (Godmother). i'm so flattered that my friends and colleagues entrust to me their children. i hope i could keep up with the expectation that i would be a role model to them. so help me, God! :)

abrielle's baptism was held at twin hearts of jesus and mary, the very same church where djuan was baptised. the reception was held at kamay-kainan west avenue. it was funny that when we left the church for the reception, i brought donar and djuan to kamayan west ave instead. hahaha. probably i was preoccupied of the thought that we went there last time to inquire for djuan's 1st bday celebration. of course, you'd agree with me that kamay-kainan and kamayan could always be mistaken as one. di ba? actually, it was the receptionist in kamayan who told us that probably the baptism reception we were looking for was in kamay-kainan. ngyahahaha. so embarrassing!

an hour after the lunch buffet started, our friend allan came. he's one of the ninongs (Godfathers). we were actually not expecting him coz he told gail he'd be in bataan for a client meeting. it turned out his client didn't show up in the meeting so he was able to come back to manila in time for the baptism reception. it was nice that allan came coz i got to meet a friend again after a long time. of course, gail and mark were the hosts so i didn't expect them to sit down and hang out with us. allan and i were so amazed how things are different now. i already have a kid. gail has her own too. allan's trying to make his own (though his wife has no idea about it. sssshhh! i hope his wife won't get to this page. hehe). the pictures below are the proofs that things are really different now:





but djuan and i were no different here...

mission: college education

the unexpected downfall of college educational plan providers here in the philippines left the dreams of thousand of parents and their respective children in shatter. and one of those many affected parents is my brother who's sending his son to college next year. i would like to help but my income right now can't support an additional college dependent. so i just told myself that once our plan to migrate to the united states pushes through i would definitely help my siblings send their children to college.

one of our options right now in the migration is california because my husband's friend who's helping us with the migration papers processing is staying there. out of curiosity and with my future mission still in mind, i surfed the internet for a california college. then i stumbled upon westwood college. this college has campuses in anaheim, south bay, inland empire and los angeles. in westwood, they offer several degree programs within four institutes: business, criminal justice, design and technology. i was thinking if we choose to stay in los angeles, we could checkout westwood's LA college. it made me interested to go back to college too because they're offering there the game software development program. oh i hope our migration works out smoothly so i could fulfill my college education mission for my nieces and nephews.

shoe addiction

my close friends (that includes my sweet hubby) know that i'm a sucker for shoes, esp boots. oh think just about anything that you would wear on your feet. sneakers, boots, pumps, flip-flops, sandals. i even have anklets (donar is fond of giving me anklets). now i remember i used to have a collection of toe rings too. hahaha. just like other first-time moms out there i haven't been shopping for myself lately (except for books! will have a separate post on it). my trips to the malls recently would always have me end up with a shopping bag or two for my uber cute baby boy. last friday night i just realized that i'm passing my shoe addiction to my son. i was supposed to buy gifts for my new godson and for djuan's second cousin's first birthday. with those two gifts in mind, look what i grabbed first and firmly decided to include in my shopping basket...

a pair of colorful enfant shoes for djuan

ok, i would just like to justify that i was really intending to buy a new pair of shoes for my baby because his shoes right now don't seem to go along with most of his outfits. hehehe. it's just that it wasn't supposedly in my shopping list priority that night. oh i also realized it was barely a week when donar and i bought this one for djuan...

a pair of red baby company sneakers for djuan

ok, justification once more. hehehe. we bought this one coz he has already outgrown his red scooby doo shoes. it was a gift to him on his baptism. i really really love that shoes (coz it's red and my fave color is red and red was the motiff of my wedding hehehe) but it just doesn't fit him anymore. so sad. i really like that shoes so much that i'm planning to preserve it with djuan's 3d mold of his hand and foot. here's my favorite shoes for djuan...

my fave red scooby doo shoes of djuan

actually even before djuan was born he already got 4 pairs of shoes. courtesy of my loving sister, ate mayet. we're already using two of the four pairs. donar and i love these pairs too. we just find them hard to put on to djuan coz of the shoelace. so we opted for shoes with velcro closures. here are the two pairs of shoes from my ate...

left pair is an aqua blue winnie the pooh and the right pair is blue/white

now, look what i've got for djuan's second cousin...

another pair of red enfant shoes!

that makes me a certified shoe addict. hahaha. lisa, join me in saying this (borrowing globe's genx slogan)... are you one of us? :)

why travel to france?

when i woke up this morning i just realized that it has been more than a year since i last traveled to europe. looking back, it's nice to remember that i've already been to france, finland, netherlands, belgium, germany, spain, italy and sweden. i would say that among these countries, i really enjoyed the most my france travel. oh i really love to go back there. my friend lisa would surely agree with me on this.

so why travel to france? there's a lot of places to go to france. of course there's paris, the city of light, which is the capital of france. it's a dream destination of almost everybody especially of those going on honeymoon. in paris you would find the famous tourist spots like the eiffel tower, arc de triomphe, notre dame cathedral, and the louvre museum. paris is also fashion centre so it's a great place to do shopping especially if you're eyeing signature items like louis vuitton bags. if you're into wines you might like to visit the city of bordeaux, the capital of southwest france, also called the city of wine. if you're into movies, you might like to visit the city of cannes where the cannes film festival is held annually.

when traveling, of course it's a must to take note of the available accommodations. france accommodations could be an exciting and a new experience. do you want to stay in a farm? or a castle perhaps? or in a more relaxing place like a spa hotel? there's so much to choose from so it's just a matter of imagining how you like your dream vacation to be. i would definitely travel to france again. :)

a question tag

i was tagged by abie. thanks, girl.

what is the most memorable thing that your daughter/son has done for you?

i have two to share. the first one was when i got home from work one time and djuan was already asleep. he heard my voice (though i was speaking softly) and then he tried to wake up. he looked at me, smiled (ung parang kinikilig pa) and then went back to sleep. he was too excited to see me. too bad he was already too sleepy to spend some time with mommy that night. *sigh*. the last one was just a few weeks ago. djuan was recovering from pneumonia and he still had that cold. i was then bottlefeeding him elevated on one of our big pillows so he could breathe much easier. usually before he goes to sleep he would look at me intensely as if saying "i love you, mommy. good night." but that night there was this bonus touch of his hand. i was sharing the same big pillow with him coz i want to embrace him as we go to sleep when he suddenly touched my left cheek with his right hand. he was softly touching my face as if telling me "i love you, mommy. please don't go. i'm not feeling that well. good night". then he was asleep. awww. i may not be able to record these moments in video or in pictures but these things would remain forever in my heart. :)

i won't tag anyone at the moment. will start a new question tag later. tgif, everybody!

blow up babies!

as part of djuan's 6th month celebration, we had our first studio pictorial last monday, october 29 at blow up babies gateway mall. it was a holiday so i thought it would be the best time to have the studio pictorial done. our photo session was supposedly at 2pm. but since we ran late (as usual hehe) and we chose to check out first kamayan edsa for djuan's 1st birthday party (promise, will post abt the party planning soon!), we moved our session to 6pm. we arrived at bub around 4pm so we put djuan to sleep first so he won't be cranky when it's our turn for the pictorial. come quarter to six it was time for us to experience studio pictorial the blow up babies way!

first we had djuan's pictorial for the snowglobe. i love collecting snowglobes. so now part of my collection is my baby boy who's uber cute in his angel outfit.

next was the skin shot for the whole family. first studio family portrait. sweet!

next were shots for djuan's body parts collage (i'm making my own version of this. abangan!)

lastly, djuan inside the yellow shoe. he's in a very bad mood here already. hehehe. we actually had to take him out of the shoe immediately coz he was already munching the shoelace. hahaha.

and my favorite shot of them all... the face that could launch a thousand ships :)

here’s the free video we got for ordering 5 8R prints. cheers! :)