Snapshots of my Life

I have a new bag and nope it is not a designer bag but I really love it. Presenting my recycled bag made by Gawad Kalinga members:

I saw my officemate carrying this bag one day and I got really curios because I read from Ruffa (LOL) that this type of material is one of the “IN” thing this 2010 and I was really surprised when I learned that this bag is just made from recycled materials.

This is one of the newest projects of Gawad Kalinga in cooperation with Zesto Food Corporation. Instead of using the front part of the Zesto tetra pack, they use the inside of the pack to make these cute bags. And what is nice about these bags is that every purchase can help Gawad Kalinga with their projects and at the same time I am doing my share in helping protect the environment by Re-using and recycling. And these bags are really cheap. Let me know if anyone of you are interested and I can hook you up with my officemate who sold me this bag.

I have been blogging since 2004. I started blogging when we were still preparing for our wedding and I kept a blog to document every step and every preparation that we did for our dream wedding. Then after the wedding, I created another blog where I share my thoughts on being a wife and a mom. Since then, I continue to love blogging and that is when I started creating blogs about my passions such as shopping and photography.

All of this I enjoy because of the Free Blog hosting service like okayblog.net. With okayblog.net, I can get free Thoughts.com blog hosting service which is powered by Word Press blogging software. All I need is just to sign up for free and I can enjoy the many benefits that Thoughts.com has to offer. Services like free blog, a site where I can upload my pictures and videos, join forums and express my thoughts as well as read about other’s opinions on many different topics, chat and connect with friends and even create free polls.

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I am a fan of social networking and social conversation sites which offer ways to communicate with my friends and share with them pictures, videos, and even my thoughts. I have an account where I upload all my pictures to share with my family and friends, an account where I can upload and share my videos, I have a separate account for chat, another separate account for my blogs and another account for the different forums that I join. Though I enjoy the features that each of this sites offer, sometimes I wish I can find a site that offers all of this.

And that is when I discover the blog site, Thoughts.com. What I like about Thoughts.com is that they are a one-stop shop. I can create a free account from them so I can have my own blog where I can create posts about anything that I like to share with my family and friends. I can even customize the settings so I can choose if I wish to make the post private, to be shared with family and friends only or for public viewing. Then they have a feature where I can create albums so I can upload pictures and videos. They also have a chat feature where I can chat with my friends or with any member of the community. I can easily connect with my friends since I can invite my friends who have a gmail and yahoo account and I can easily add them as my friends in Thoughts.com. They even have a forums section where I can discuss my thoughts and opinions with the members of the community.

The features that this site offers are really endless and I am glad I have discovered them so I can start consolidating all my social conversation site accounts into one using my Thoughts.com account. So what are you waiting for, sign up for your free account too like me so we can all enjoy the benefits that this social conversation site has to offer.

I still have a lot of work to finish but instead of working, I busied myself browsing this book. I got this a few years ago when I was still not pregnant and I was so excited when I saw it on my book stand last night that I started browsing through it.

We still don’t know the gender of the baby yet but I don’t know why for some reason I was looking through the boy’s name. Could it be that maybe, deep inside I am expecting a boy for our second child? But honestly, I wouldn’t mind having another girl. I was watching siblings Margaux and Bianca, daughter of Jody and Dicky, and I find the sisters so cute because they are so close and sweet to each other that I am imagining too how nice it would be for B to have a baby sister. But B is already set in having a baby brother and she even already has a name for her sibling.

We will have our ultrasound next month. I hate surprises so I really want to know the gender of our baby. At least if we know the gender, we still have at least three months to think really hard about the name that we will be giving our child.

It was a very tiring day today. I have to read about Mesothelioma but my eyes are already closing and my mind is no longer working.

I still need to finish a lot of things since I will be really busy this weekend and I am not sure if I will have the time to go online to finish all of this but really, my body is already giving up and I need to log out, shutdown my computer and sleep.

But I am really looking forward for tomorrow as I will meet up with my twitter friends especially Trin and Glo whom have travelled thousand miles to be with us. I really haven’t met in person most of the attendees tomorrow so I am really excited. I might go there after office and will just take a cab but it all depends on my mood tomorrow (if I am lazy to take a cab, I might just wait for hubby until he gets off at 4:30 from work so he can drive me to Astoria. LOL.)

See you all guys tomorrow.

Hubby will have a training at South Carolina this coming June. South Carolina is just a few hours away from Florida so hubby immediately checked for Orlando vacation packages when he learned that his training got approved.

Sadly, it is almost my due date by June so traveling with hubby during this time would be really impossible. He was actually thinking of just bringing B and my mom with him so at least they can visit Disney World but he changed his mind because they don’t want to leave me especially I am already near my due date.

So hubby decided to just give up his training and will just apply again for the same training next year. At least by that time B and our second baby can travel with us. It is our long time dream to bring our kids to the US so hopefully we will have a chance to fulfill that dream, next year.

February is a memorable day for Manileños because during this month at 1945, Manila was completely destroyed after the battle between the United States Armed Forces and the Japanese Imperial Army.

2010 marks the 56th Anniversary of the Battle of Manila and to commemorate this event, the Intramuros Administration, Manila Memorare and Carlos Celdran will present the 2nd TRANSITIO MANILA 1945.

Activities for the said event include:

1. Fund Raiser sunset tour of Intramuros which will start at 6:30 PM hosted by Carlos Celdran. The tour will last until 8:30 PM, and a party follows at Fort Santiago after the tour where tour ticket holders will get a free entrance to the party and will receive a free glass of wine. Assembly point for the tour is at Plaza Roma in front of Manila Cathedral. Proceeds for the tour will go for procurement of scooter bikes for the Intramuros Kabayan Security Force. Cost for the tour is P1,000.

2. MANILA TRANSITIO 1945 ART EVENT which will start at 8:30 PM (but gates open at 7:30 PM). Activities for this art even includes readings about the Liberation of Manila curated by Mabi Davi, performance by Donna Miranda in the Almacenes (Royal Treasury House), musical performances by Caliph8, Malek Lopez, exhibition of art installations by Reg Yuson, Kawayan De Guia, Tad Ermitano, and Pilipinas Street Plan

Entrance fee for this art event is P250 but guests can bring picnic baskets and have a picnic in the grass as they watch the different performances. If you don’t want to go to the hassle of preparing a picnic basket, Ilustrado Restaurant will be serving buffet for only P450.

For reservations, you can contact Lesley at 0920 9092021 or email celdrantours@hotmail.com.

My husband is really a sports minded individual. He plays basketball, volleyball, tennis, bowling, and even paint ball. But one of his dream sports that he wishes he can play someday is golf.

He has friends who are into golf and is convincing him to join them play. Well he is really quite busy now so he is always saying no every time his friends invite him and of course before he can play, he needs to invest on golf equipments first like golf bags, clubs and shoes.

I was checking the site of Shopwiki and found their Buying Guide page for Golf Clubs. It is interesting to read and learn how different clubs can make a difference in your game. I showed the site to hubby and he got really excited and vows that he will really take time to read it before he shops for his Golf stuffs.

I hope he will really find the time to relax and enjoy sports because it is really one of his greatest love.

At 21 weeks, this is how my baby looks like (I snagged the picture from Baby Center’s website and I can’t wait to have a real picture of my baby in a few weeks when we have our 3D/4D ultrasound):

My baby now weighs approximately three quarters of a pound and is about 10.5 inches long. Though this is the most comfortable stage of my pregnancy, I can experience a few glitches like acne problems because of the increase oil production. But I can’t take any oral acne medications as it is bad for my baby but they suggested that I use face moisturizer twice a day and I should make sure that the make up that I will use is oil free (though this is not a problem since I don’t wear makeup).

My friends are surprised every time they see me because they can’t believe that I am that big already. I find my tummy a little heavy also so I feel so exhausted at the end of the day after going to work. But I only have 4 more months left and I know that time really flies and soon we will be able to see in person our new bundle of joy.

It is February again and during this time of the year every year, the Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA) is sponsoring a Travel Expo. In this expo, travel agencies and even airlines are offering great package tours and airfare at discounted prices if you book during the travel expo.

For this year, the travel expo will be held at SMX Convention Center Halls 2,3 and 4 on February 19 – 21, 2010. Entrance fee is P50 for general admission and P20 for senior citizen

I actually check out this expo every year and I must say that there are really a lot of offers that you won’t be able to resist. SO even if I have no plans of traveling, I always end up booking either a package tour or an airline ticket because of the unbelievable discounts that they are giving.

I won’t be attending this year’s expo though as I can’t travel for now as I am pregnant. (Maybe next year…) So what are you waiting for, plan you trip now and go to the travel expo to get great discounts on hotels, tour packages and even airfare.

Aside from shopping and travel, house renovations have been one of the hot topics among my good of friends in Twitter.

I am really envious because hubby and I have long been dreaming to re-model our house but we are still finishing our housing loan for the purchase of the house and lot before we can get a house renovation loan again.

I am not really into cooking but my dream is to have a nice kitchen if we ever renovate our house. I was checking the site of MR Direct and I saw some nice stainless steel sinks that will really go well with the modern / minimalist style that I am envisioning for our house. What I like about MR Direct is that their price is really low and they even accept PayPal as mode of payment. They even offer same day shipping of stainless steel sink so I will be sure that the house renovation project will not experience any delays and will be finish on time.

We still have a few months left for our housing loan and hopefully we will now proceed in obtaining a house renovation loan after that so we can proceed with the remodeling and renovation of our house.

One of the reasons why we went to Binondo last week, aside from looking for testosterone cream and shop for amulets and talisman is to go food tripping.

The last time I went there with my parents a couple of weeks ago, we saw the newly opened President’s restaurant in Ongpin. We went inside to check it out but since we are still full because we just ate lunch, we decided not to try their food.

Binondo is known not just for jewelries, fruits and talismans and amulets but they are also known for good food. From the small restaurants that you can see along the small streets of Binondo selling their best quality dumplings, to the famous hopia and tikoy of Eng Bee Tin. That is why when Peachy invited us for Binondo trip, I got really excited as we will get to try the menu of President’s Restaurant.

We ordered sizzling oyster (which is our group’s favorite), fried pigeon (a hit to the boys), fried squid and hot seafood salad. We are planning for another Binondo trip so we can try the other restaurants in the area. Thinking about it makes me so hungry already.

When we had our first child, we had a 3D ultrasound at the Medical City and it was such a wonderful experience of having a first glimpse of your child even before she is born. That is why for our second child, we plan to do the same thing and it will be double the joy this time as our four-year old daughter can join us during our 3D session so she too can get a glimpse of her sibling.

I saw a clinic in SM San Lazaro named “Baby Ultrasound Company” and inquired of their packages. Their lowest package is only P1500 which includes a 10 minutes 3D ultrasound session with 3 pieces of Colored photos of the baby.

My OB already gave me a go signal that I can have my 3D/4D ultrasound by third week of March so my husband and I are really excited. We plan to have it at Baby Ultrasound Company as we are just near their clinic at SM San Lazaro and we plan to get their Gold 3D/4D package which includes:

• 30 minutes ultrasound session
• 6 pieces colored photos of the baby
• 1 CD ROM of 3D stills (25 – 40)
• 1 DVD recording of the scan (10 minutes average)

My doctor also asked me to have a Congenital Anomaly Scan which I will also have on the same schedule as my 3D ultrasound. They even have a promo of P500 off for the CAS if we avail of their 3D ultrasound package.

I am so excited already and I can’t wait to have a first glimpse of our second baby (and we are hoping to know the gender too).

Last night, I had this for my midnight snack:

Health don’t you think? But what if I smothered it with sweet condense milk. Good think my doctor prescribed me with womens vitamin so I will have supplements for whatever nutrient is missing in my diet which is really important now that I am pregnant.

I read from the book “What to Expect when you’re Expecting” suggestions on how to maintain the best diet during pregnancy but I don’t seem to keep up with that diet. I eat what I want to eat. I used to hate sweets during my first trimester but now that my appetite is back, I am back to eating my favorite food which are desserts and sweets.

During my last checkup a few weeks ago, I already gained 15 pounds but I did not hear my doctor complain about it so maybe I am still within the average weight gain for second trimester of pregnancy. But I promise to be on a diet and watch what I eat on my third trimester as I am hoping to have a normal delivery this time.

I have a visitor today. She is my contact in HQ when she was still working for the IT department and she has always been my contact person for all IT related issues that I need to course through their department. Since she is a Filipina like me, we instantly became friends and we constantly exchange emails.

She is here in Manila since January 31 for a three-week vacation and this week is her last week before she goes back to Canada. She decided to drop by at the office to pay us a visit and she even brought me my favorite chocolate, Clodhoppers. (Clodhoppers chocolate is really a big hit here in the office as it is really different compared to the usual chocolates that we see at the mall. We don’t have it in Manila before but I think Landmark now carries this brand of chocolate. I am sure I will finish these two bags in just a couple of days, so hello acne for me. Good thing I have acne pills as a defense. LOL).

This is the first time that I actually met her in person. Its been years that we have been in constant touch through email so I am really glad that we were able to meet finally. We invited her for lunch but she is not sure if she can still squeeze us in her busy schedule since this is her last week in Manila.

But I am really glad that you paid us a visit and it was really nice to finally see you in person. Have a safe trip back to Canada!

Kung Hei Fat Choi everyone. Last Friday, there was a Chinese New Year celebration at my daughter’s school. Hubby and I can’t take a leave from work so my husband just taught my mom how to use his camera so she can take pictures of B during the celebration.

To celebrate Chinese New Year, they had puppet show where the story is about the animal zodiac. My mom said that B had fun watching the puppet show because the characters are all animals and B just loves animals.

They also had a dragon dance. I was conditioning B days before the celebration that she will be seeing a dragon because I thought that she might get scared if she sees one. But my mom said that B really had fun watching the dragon dance. She even went in front to take a good look of the dragon and she even posed beside it for a picture.

They also had fireworks and Mommy Emy, the school’s directress, even gave each kid angpaw. B really had fun celebrating the Chinese New Year.

Almost every Friday, there is a food feast at the office because there is always somebody among us who will treat the whole section for lunch. Last Friday, my supervisor treated me for a North Park lunch but when my parents and B fetched me from the office at around 1:30, I still feel hungry and I am really craving for Conti’s Baked Salmon so I asked my dad if we can drive to Serendra after fetching me. My dad was in a good mood that day so I was able to convince him to drive us to Serendra.

It was already 2 PM when we arrived in Conti’s and the restaurant is still packed. We ordered Baked Salmon, Chicken ala Kiev, Moist Chocolate Cake and fresh fruit shake for our drinks.



I read from Baby Center that my appetite will really increase now that I am on my second trimester and during my last checkup, I already gained 15 pounds so I am pretty sure that I will need quick trim fast cleanse as soon as I give birth to help me get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I was able to finish my baked salmon and even shared with my dad’s chicken ala Kiev. I even ordered extra paella rice and finished half of it. I was also able to finish the moist chocolate cake that I ordered. I was really so full after that heavy lunch….

What do you often do when you are having a bad day? Like if things don’t go as planned or you had a misunderstanding with your husband or things are not going well in the office?

Instead of getting headaches from thinking all of the bad things that happen, this is what I usually do

1. I will just sleep the whole day. Don’t you think this is a perfect solution to just sleep it all off and so I don’t have to think about it.
2. Go shopping – to divert my mind and get something that will make me happy like a new bag or shoes perhaps.
3. Eat – Just like what I did last week. I had my me time and went out for dinner by myself. I went to Pizza Hut and ordered my favorite pasta, three cheese ravioli.


I even had a Caesar Salad and their Caribbean Smoothie. When I am already full, I already feel good and went home with a smile on my face.

4. Watch a feel good movie

How about you guys, what do you do when you are having a bad day?

As defined in Wikipedia, talisman is an amulet or other object considered to possess supernatural or magical powers. Talisman and other lucky charms has been a hot topic among my twitter mates the other day. My good friend Jacqui went shopping in World of Feng Shui for bracelets, talismans and lucky charms to bring her and her family good luck as they welcome the Chinese New Year.

Of course we all want good luck right so I joined Peachy yesterday and we went to Binondo to buy talisman for us and our family.

We went to the same store where we bought B’s cheongsam last week. The owner of the store is very accommodating and he entertained all our questions. He even computed for my husband and my animal zodiac since our birthday falls before the Chinese New Year.

Since I am born in the year of the Snake, the owner suggested that I buy a blue rhino for protection. The rhinoceros and elephant are powerful symbols of protection against robbery and accidents and I need to carry it with me everywhere I go to protect me against harmful energies and individuals. I also bought the amulet of wealth and this has been specially designed to attract good income and wealth luck.

We all had fun figuring out what amulets to buy. Of course I still believe that prayer and faith in God is still the most important even if I went crazy and bought all the amulets that I think will bring us good luck.

To celebrate my birthday, hubby treated me and B for a fun day at Ocean Adventure. We initially planned to go to Tagaytay and stay there for overnight so B can enjoy horse back riding (especially she has a new equestrian apparel) but then we realized that every time we go out of town, we always go to Tagaytay so we thought of going to a different place this time.

It is actually our first time in Ocean Adventure. I posted stories of the shows that we watched while we are there on my travel blog and B surely had fun. Before going home we checked out their souvenir shop and hubby got this as his birthday gift for me:

When he saw it, he already knew that I will really love it because I have a dolphin collection. My first was the one I bought when we went to Boracay and had a stop over in Romblon and since then I love collecting dolphin figurines.

When hubby when to Baguio, he went home with this dolphin wood carving:

Then when he went to Majuro, Marshall Islands, he went home with this as his souvenir for me:


And this is my entire dolphin collection that I have on display in the office.
Thank you dad for your wonderful gift and for a wonderful day at Ocean Adventure. You truly made my birthday extra special. I love you very much!!

The first Friday after I came back to work, my colleague’s who are celebrating their birthday in January like me decided to have a joint celebration as our treat for our officemates. Of course we ordered from our favorite supplier of home-made food, CCME. This is our menu: roast pork, fish lumpia, lengua in salsa Blanca, chicken curry, spaghetti, and fruit salad for dessert (we will surely need hydroxycut to help us loose weight after this food feast. LOL).

I took some pictures of the food and look at how yummy it is.

Everybody was so happy with the food and we had enough food that they we’re able to bring some home for take out. The food from CCME was really delicious and is really a big hit to my officemates that we are actually frequent customers already of them. And you can’t imagine at how much we paid for all the food that we ordered because it is really so affordable.

I can’t wait for next Friday as there will be another food feast from CCME at the office.

I was checking the Flickr account of my good friend Joy and Litzie and I can’t help but be envious of their recent Hong Kong vacation.

Hong Kong is really one of my favorite cities to visit. Well one, the airfare is affordable especially if I book it via Cebu Pacific’s promo. Second, it is relatively a cheap city as compared to the other countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, etc. And thirdly, B’s favorite place on earth is there, what else but Disneyland.

Cebu Pacific offered a lot of promo fares lately but I did not even check it out since it is really impossible for my doctor to allow me to travel since I was put on complete bed rest last month. I am hoping that on B’s birthday this November, we will have the budget to go back to my favorite city, Hong Kong.

This time, since we will be travelling with two toddlers, my plan is that we will just stay at Disney Hotel for three days so the kids can enjoy Disneyland. We won’t go to the city this time as I know that having two toddlers in tow can be really a handful. I am sure B will love to go back to Disneyland and play with her favorite Disney characters again especially since her sibling can join us for this trip this time. So I am really hoping and praying….

One of the reasons why I am so excited for the coming of the second baby is that I can have a reason to go shopping again for baby stuffs. I was just chatting with my kumareng Peachy and I asked her for the list of items that I need to shop for my baby. As soon as I got the list from her, I went crazy window shopping online and added loads and loads of stuff on my shopping cart just for the fun of it.

I know it is still too early to go shopping since I still don’t know the gender of the baby and the oldies believe that it is really bad luck to do these kinds of stuffs especially if the baby hasn’t arrived yet. But boy I was really surprise by the total amount after I am done browsing and I am not even through with my list. LOL. I just realized that baby stuffs are really expensive nowadays.

So I told myself that I will really hold off with my shopping and I will wait for clearance sale so I will get big savings. I am not in a hurry anyways and I still have stuffs that were used by my first baby that I can still use for my second. They just need a little cleaning and I am sure they will work like brand new again.

Oh, one of the joys of parenthood…(especially for a shopaholic mom like me. LOL).

My friend used to work as a real estate agent but then he decided to quit his job to establish his own business of selling mortgages and insurance. Since he is just a newbie when it comes to this business, he did some research and he discovered that he can do well with his new business if he got the service of Equileads.

Equileads can help him find prospective clients as they provides services like providing financial services leads and mortgage leads. They use a very sophisticated cherry-pick system so they can provide their clients with the most accurate and comprehensive information about their prospective clients who are really serious and is really on the look for the best insurance and mortgage offer. Equileads also have flexible terms as their clients can choose to buy any number of leads they want (from 5 or 10 or even 500 leads) and their prices are really affordable. For website owners, Equileads even offer program for affiliates so do check their site now.

My friend is really happy as he knows that with the help of Equileads, his business will soon proper. Good luck to you my friend.

This is what I had for lunch: cheeseburger deluxe with fries and mayo from Hot Shots Burger, chocolate cupcake from Dessert Station and Guyabano shake from Fruitana.

I was really surprised when I went out for lunch Monday. Since I was away for more than a month, I did not know that a lot of new establishments has opened at the 3/F of the RCBC Tower where my office is. Before we were only limited to 7-11, Tapa King, Tsoko Nut, Pasta Works, Mongolian Barbeque, Kitaro, Piquant, Subway and Oliver’s Super Sandwich. But now they converted the old food court style of the building and opened it for new establishments like Hot Shots, Soup Kitchen (which is the current favorite of my colleagues), White Berry (I haven’t tried it yet but my colleagues said that they have the best frozen yogurt), Inasal Joe, and there is even an Outlet Store of Tomato. How cool is that? But I will love it even more if Mc Donalds or Jollibee put up a small restaurant also at the 3/F.

I will be having lunch out again this week as I still don’t have a yaya so no packed lunch for me for the whole week so I am sure I will be able to try out all this restos.

In just a few days, we (Lynx Rayvens - my high school group of friends), will be celebrating our anniversary. Numerous email exchanges have been sent already on how we will celebrate our anniversary:

1. We will have an overnight trip to Subic (this was actually my suggestion). Since hubby and I can get 50% discount at Ocean Adventure (this is an on-going promo of Ocean Adventure for embassy and airline staffs), we can bring the kidlets and have a fun day at Ocean Adventure, then we will stay at the nearby Camayan Resort so we can enjoy the beach as well.
2. Issa suggested that instead of going to Subic, we can try out the resort of her brother-in-law in Batangas. I checked the website of Shercon Resort and it looks promising. It has 3 adult pools, 2 kiddie pools, a view of the Tagaytay Ridge and Taal Lake, and the rooms are big and affordable too. My favorite is their Blue House Suites which is located in a more secluded part of the resort. It is a studio-type room with granite tile and capiz shell windows. It can accommodate a maximum of 8 persons for just P3,500 for an overnight stay.
3. There was also a suggestion that we will just have a party in one of our houses and order food from CCME. Then we will rent videoke machine (as this was really a hit to us when we went to Music 21 for Lala’s shower party that our bill reached P12,500. LOL) and we will just buy beer for those who want to drink.
4. Or we can just have a simple dinner and coffee afterwards.

Of course, knowing us, nothing has been decided yet. Even the date hasn’t been set yet as we can’t find the perfect date that will fit to all our schedule. So we might have a meet-up this Friday to discuss the details and hopefully everything will be finalized after this meeting.

Do you know of a cheap life insurance for senior citizens because I feel like I am getting older and older everyday because of stress? I hate this feeling. If only I have the choice to live a very simple life without stress….

The thing that I hate the most is that the stress that I am getting is cause by other people. We have our own problems and I don’t know why they have to be insensitive to let us or force us carry their own baggage. Especially now that I am pregnant, they could have been more unselfish and let us out of their problems but instead of doing that they are the number one source of my stress. I can’t help thinking about it because my family is the one being affected. If only my family is out of this, then I will not even bother whatever he decides to do (anyways, he did not involve me in the first place).

I am so mad right now. I hope I can just sleep it off and tomorrow all of my problems will be gone. This is one bad day and I really hate it.