Snapshots of my Life

My mom was having a grand time when we first started our three-week vacation but now I can hear her complain. LOL. She said that now she knows how tiring a tourist can be.

I should have asked her to take hgh human growth hormone before our trip as it has been proven to increase energy so my mom will always be on the go.

But I could not blame her. Imagine, we are moving from one state / country to another with just one day or sometimes less than one day of rest. We move from Manila, to New York, to Los Angeles, Canada and our last leg Washington DC. But I told my mom that at least she was able to visit a lot and make the most of her North America tour so she has a lot of memories to bring back with her. And she can just relax, rest and sleep all she wants when we are back in Manila

My friend from Los Angeles kept on talking about Ross and I remembered the last time we went to the US, hubby and I were able to find a lot of great deals from that store like Nine West bags, A/X jackets and more. So when my friend took us to a Ross store, I went crazy shopping again even if I told hubby that I am done with my shopping already.

Even my mom went crazy too with how cheap the prices are compared to the Outlet stores that we have visited. Imagine, the Kenneth Cole shades that I bought for $30 in Las Vegas was sold for only $10 in Ross. If I was only able to wait and if only my EQ is higher then I could have save more.

Oh well, at least now I know. So next time I am back in the US, I will ask my friend to take me to Ross first before going to the big Outlet Stores.

If you will ask me how many outlet store I have visited, you might be surprise to hear that I did not visit not one, not two but four outlet stores already – the one in California, another outlet store in Las Vegas, then in Toronto and just when I said that I will not do any more outlet shopping in Washington, I still did not resist to temptation and gave in for another Outlet shopping in DC.

On Sunday I am so excited as we will be going to Woodbury Commons which according to my friend is five times bigger than Camarillo. Well I think I have done a lot of shopping for the kids already and none for myself so I am reserving that day for me. But I think I will need payday advance loans for that as my funds are already depleting. Unless hubby will give me extra budget for my shopping or I am thinking to sell one of my pre-loved bags if ever I find something there that will be really hard to resist.

I had a terrific day today as I went out the whole day with my family to explore Niagara Falls. It was a challenge carrying two kids for this trip but it was all worth it after seeing how my kids are having fun. No amount of money can ever replace the joy that I am feeling now every time I spend time with my kids. They are my life and my source of inspiration and I am willing to protect them all my life.

That is why it pains me after seeing a kid today with a birth defect called cleft lip. I feel for the mother, as I know how painful it is seeing your child suffer. I did some reading and I found out that this birth defect could be an effect of an anticonvulsant drug, which increased the risk for pregnant moms to have a child with birth defects.

Cases like this could probably have been avoided if physicians have ready access to information. Thankfully, because of the high tech world that we live in now, there are a lot of applications that have been developed like Doximity which is available in web and smart phones which allow physicians to exchange information, communicate each other by sending HIPAA compliant text messages, send faxes to each other directly to their iPhone, check physicians profile say for example the profile of Walter Knoll DO and more. With access to important information, physicians can give better diagnosis reducing the cases such as the one mentioned above.

A lot of fields are indeed benefitting from products of technology and one of them is the medical field, which is a big advantage to all the population.

This is what we got on out first night in New York:


We are staying in hubby’s friend’s house but they are out of town on the day that we arrived and so they just left the key of their house to us so that we have a place to stay even though they are out. Since we are tired from the long haul flight and hubby is busy watching the Pacquiao vs Mosley match, it was not until 1 AM New York time when hubby was able to go out to get food. We tried contacting the numbers of the Chinese restaurants from the brochures that we found on our friend’s house but they are already close at 1 AM so hubby has to walk a few blocks to get food.

So by 1 AM New York time and 1 PM Manila time, we are having Chinese take out for our dinner / lunch. Nice. At least we did not miss having rice on our first day away from Manila.

From New York to Toronto is 10 hours drive by bus. I would have opted to fly to save my family from the discomfort of a land travel or if only we have an rv that has an rv insurance, then that would have been a much better option.

But airfare cost is around $400 each and when I tried booking, it will cost us $1800 to fly from New York to Toronto while it will only cost us $200 to travel by bus. So hubby and I had some long discussion and we figured that we would just go by bus.

We picked the night schedule so the kids are sleeping and then we just slept the whole day when we arrived in Toronto so we were able to relax for a bit before another busy week to explore Toronto.

And we are glad that we made that decision as Megabus provide excellent service – clean bus, larger leg room, wifi service in the bus so it was a good ride for us at a very affordable price.

We are already here in New York City, the city that never sleeps. We arrived last Saturday evening and of course we don’t want to waste any time and we explored the city right away the next day.

We were still battling with jet lag but I think it is better that we are out doing something than stay at home as we might just end up falling asleep.

It was already 6 PM when we discovered the Apple store near Central Park. Good thing we are completely happy with the performance of our hp desktops, other wise we might just be tempted to buy upon seeing the gadgets on display at the store.

So we just cheeked out the cool store as it is made of glass with an elevator that looks like the flying elevator of Willy Wonka from the movie Charlie and the chocolate factory and we went out of the store empty handed.

There is a vacant space in the bed tonight as hubby left already this morning going to New York.

Hubby will be attending a four day training this June in South Carolina and we will be having our first ever vacation as a family in the US before his training. Since his training is funded by the mission, he has no choice but to use Delta Airlines as his office will just use their miles earned to purchase for his ticket. Because of the furlogh, his training only got approved two weeks ago and so they were only able to get him a seat for May 6, instead of May 7.

But all is good as at least hubby has a day to get to know the area where will be staying so he will not get lost when he fetch us at the airport the next day.

I was already checking out the hotels where we can check in for our stay in Las Vegas and I was surprise to find out that rates are not that bad for hotels along the Strip. It is even cheaper compared to 5 star hotels here from my side of the world.

Just look at some of them:

Caesar’s Palace for only $99 per night.

Paris Hotel for only $75 per night.

Venetian Hotel for only $145 per night.

I am already tempted to book Venetian hotel as for sure they offer great amenities. In fact I am already imagining myself opening the hot tub spa covers to enjoy a relaxing spa after a long day at the strip. But then my best buddy who is coming with us on this trip offered that we stay in her aunt’s house. And who am I to decline a free stay, right? At least I can use the money that I will use to pay for the hotel for some shopping at the Outlet stores in Las Vegas. And I am sure we will not be able to enjoy the hotel as we will be out the whole day.

So I guess I will not be able to enjoy a luxurious stay at the Venetian Hotel for now. Maybe on our next Las Vegas trip.

Pictures snagged from Agoda website.

From east to west and then back. I guess this sum up our vacation Itinerary:

• We will be flying from Manila to New York and then explore New York for 3 days.
• Fly from New York to Los Angeles and explore LA for 5 days.
• From Los Angeles, we will drive to Las Vegas and will stay day for 2 days before driving back to Los Angeles where we have to catch our flight back to New York the next day.
• With just one day of rest, we will move again and go to Toronto where we will spend 5 days.
• From Toronto, we will move back to New York and after one day of rest, drive to DC which will be our last leg before going back to New York where we will catch our flight back to Manila.

This is like an Amazing Race itinerary so I am already reminding my mom that she should take human growth hormone supplement to give her enough energy so she will enjoy this trip. We actually planned our itinerary so we will be able to visit the most states so my mom can maximize her three weeks vacation to the US (which is her first time by the way).

I am excited not just for my kids, but for my mom too as this is a dream come true for her.

Yay, I had a very stressful day today. Things are a little busy at work and knowing I only have four days left before I take more than three weeks leave makes it even worse.

Then I received an email today that all performance appraisal (which is a requirement), should be finish by May 30 and since I won’t be back in the office until June 2, I was informed by my boss that I need to submit it to him this week. Gosh, talk about major stress.


But instead of feeling down, all I do now when I feel that I am at my breaking point already is just look at my Organizer and turn the page to May 9 so I will always be reminded that I will start to be off from work on that day and after that will be three weeks of quality time with my family.

I can’t wait.

Do you have tips on how to remove dark circles under eyes? I will probably need those tips as I have been staying up late almost everyday for the past weeks as I have been cramming to finish all my pending work so I will not leave any pending job while I am on vacation.

But I think that it would be impossible as work is continuously coming in. But I am not complaining as at least I will have extra money for some shopping on our vacation.

And another positive note: Even if I have been staying up late, I was able to book some more package tours and tickets for our upcoming vacation:

I was able to get a good deal and was able to save $100 because I found a Combo Pass Ticket that will allow us unlimited entrance to Sea World in San Diego and Universal Studios in Los Angeles. I was also able to successfully book our tickets to Disneyland so we can cut the lines and go straight to the entrance as for sure that is what my daughter would like to do.

The only thing left for me to book is our tickets for our bus ride from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and our City Pass for our tour in New York and we are all set.

Last Wednesday, the whole gang which includes my brother, my sister in law, my sister, my two cousins, my tito, hubby and I and including B and Jacobo (we are yayaless that week and so nobody will look after my two kids if we leave them at home), troop to Araneta to watch Game 1 of the PBA finals between Ginerbra and Talk & Text.

We are lucky because my brother has connections so he was able to secure tickets for all of us because this is what I saw when we arrive in Araneta on the day of the game:

As I published in my recent post, I have already booked our tickets for the Statue of Liberty tour. Unfortunately, I booked it a little late already so we were not able to get the slot for the morning tour.

I still have to book the following for our trip:

• Empire State tickets
• Universal Studios tickets
• Disneyland tickets
• Sea World tickets
• Bus tickets from Los Angeles to Las Vegas

We will be leaving in a week so I have to book our tickets as soon as possible so I will be sure that we will have tickets in time for our visit. My only problem is I am still waiting for my payday this coming week before I can buy the tickets and my fear is if I wait a little longer, I might not be able to buy tickets again for the dates that I like as I know tickets can get sold out fast.

That is why I have been checking the site of Pacific Advance, a payday loan direct lenders, and if I get approve, funds will be transferred to my account overnight. Applying is just easy as I just need to fill up an application online. The requirements to qualify are also not hard to meet as they only require that you are employed, have a bank account and have a steady income of at least $800 per month.

So this means if I apply today, I might have funds by tomorrow or the latest Tuesday so I can finally purchase our tickets to secure our tour.