Snapshots of my Life

I have a good friend at work who is pregnant with their second child. Their first born was a girl and since they are only planning to have two kids, they have been really praying and hoping that they will have a boy for their second child.

The gender of the baby is just a second priority as all they prayed for is for God to give them a healthy baby but of course they would even be more thankful if they will be given a baby boy. And so she was so excited when she told me the great news and they were finally able to confirm via ultrasound the gender of the baby and they are having a baby boy.

I am so happy for them. They say that the dad should give away cigars just like CAO cigars and Padron cigars to his male friend as a sign of gratitude for having a son. So as my first gift to them, I have searched the site of Cigar Place to get cigars that I will give to the husband of my friend.

Cigar Place sells all kinds of cigars and accessories too like cigar humidifier, so I am sure I will be able to find quality cigars that I will give to my friend as a congratulatory gift for having their wish come true.

On Monday, August 1, will be the birthday of my boss. She is not only my boss but she is also a good friend too. She is the best supervisor that I ever had in the entire decade of my working career. Even though she is my superior, I feel so relax to confide to her. She is my partner at work and I know that she will always back me up whatever issues and problem we face at work.

That is why on her special day, I want to get her something special. I actually still have no idea what to give her because she has everything already. LOL. But at least I am ready already as I already bought special gift boxes and gift wrap from Papermart so no matter what I will be able to get as my present, it will look extra special because of the special wrapping that I will do with my gift.

I always buy all my gift wrapping supplies from Papermart as they have a wide range of selections of boxes, ribbons, organza bags, plastic bags, paper bags and many more. They ship fast too as they process orders on the same day.

So all I need now is to find the right gift for the special day of my boss, my good friend.

For Day 2, I have to post a picture of the person whom I have been close with for the longest time. Well I can put pictures of my family here since they are really the closet person in my life since I have known them since birth. LOL.

But next to my family, the next person or persons that I have been close the longest are my Twitter friends.

I talk to them almost everyday and we discuss different topics from parenting, motherhood, shopping and even our rants and issues in life. They have been my support group and I can share with them any problems I have without fearing that they will judge me or that they will get tired of all my stories.

I am lucky that I have found true friends in them and I am thankful to God for giving them to my life.

Last night, we visited the house that we bought and we just spoke with the seller and we can move in anytime after August 5.

My husband and I are really excited as we can't wait to start fixing our new house. One of the things that we will deal when we move to the new house is storage space and we are looking at getting metal storage cabinets from Durham Manufacturing.

Durham Manufacturing is an online store where we can order durable and heavy duty storage solutions like steel cabinets. Their products are durable and can withstand even heavy stuff and so this is what we want so it will be a good investment for us as we start to organize our clutter at home. We sorted through our stuff and there are things that we will just leave behind or we can just donate to charity but for the things that we will still need in the future or stuff that we can't throw away, these storage solutions will help us organize our things.

Organization is one of the major problems that we have in our old house and so as we move to the new house, we have to keep everything organized and this steel storage cabinets will definitely help us accomplish that.

My husband and I are so excited because in less than a month, we will be moving in to our new home. This is our first major investment as a couple. We actually have no plans of buying a house for us but I guess this house is really meant for us as everything fell into place when we applied for our housing loan and when we negotiated our offer to the seller.

The house is not brand new but it is just five years old so little repainting and flooring work will make the house look new again. One of the major things that hubby wants to do is to get carpet removal tool so we can remove the old carpet and replace it with a new one with a color and theme that will blend in the overall color that we want for our house.

We will also need concrete polisher for the roof deck, as we want to make it as the common meeting place for the family where we can have breakfast together or do star gazing after a long day at work.

Thankfully, we discovered the products of Innovatech like their concrete floor grinder, floor polisher, scarifiers and many more that will make our floor renovation project easy.

Finally, we now have a house that we can call our own and so hubby and I are really happy and contended.

Yay, this is my first post for Day 1 of my 30-Day Photo Challenge. For day 1, I need to post a picture of myself with fifteen facts about me so here it goes:

Most people say that I live a very busy lifestyle. Imagine, I have a day job and then I still work at home to earn extra money. Then I also have responsibility for my husband and my kids as I have to make sure that all their needs are met before I start working at night so I always end up working up to the wee hours of the morning as I don't get to start with work, not until my kids are already sleeping.

Some people ask me how I manage to cope. My answer is simple. It is just a matter of discipline, time management and my secret weapon, natural vitamins.

I have to make sure that I take the right vitamin supplements to give my body the immunity and added energy that it needs to survive my busy life. Thanks to Naturally, an online store where I can buy all kinds of natural medicines like nitric oxide supplement, food intolerance products, targeted nutritional products, fizzy effervescent products and more, since I can have easy access to the vitamins that I need. I just need to order from their online store and my supplies will be delivered at my door step.

I need to work as I need to earn for my family but I should not be abusing my body as well and I am taking good care of my health by taking natural vitamins from Naturally.

Coffee has been my companion lately to give me the energy boost that I need to last the day and night as I have a lot of things to finish. So everyday before going home, I have to drop by a coffee shop to get my coffee fix.

I realized after doing this for more than a week that it is not cost efficient as you know how expensive commercial coffees are. And so this gives me an idea to just get a coffee maker for the home.

I have been reading reviews and I found good reviews for Bunn stainless coffee maker. What is nice about Bunn coffee maker is that it manages well the water to coffee contact time so coffee is never bitter because it is never over extracted. This makes possible making a perfect cup of coffee even when I am just at home.

Having a stainless coffee maker at home will allow me to have coffee anytime I want without hurting my budget. Now I will surely be able to finish a lot of work as I will have all the energy that I need now that I have instant access to a cup of freshly brewed coffee.

I was browsing through the blog of my sister and found this very interesting post of hers that is perfect for my Photography blog. It is about the 30 day photo challenge.

The rule is simple. Just post any pictures base on the theme for that day to complete the challenge.

Below is the list of the description for the 30 day Photo Challenge.

Day 01 - A picture of yourself with fifteen facts.

Day 02 - A picture of you and the person you have been close with for the longest.

Day 03 - A picture of the cast from your favorite movie.

Day 04 - A picture of your favorite night.

Day 05 - A picture of your favorite memory.

Day 06 - A picture of a person you'd love to trade places with for a day.

Day 07 - A picture of your most treasured item.

Day 08 - A picture that makes you laugh.

Day 09 - A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most.

Day 10 - A picture of the person you do the most messed up things with.

Day 11 - A picture of something you hate.

Day 12 - A picture of something you love.

Day 13 - A picture of your favorite band or artist.

Day 14 - A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without.

Day 15 - A picture of something you want to do before you die.

Day 16 - A picture of someone who inspires you.

Day 17 - A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently.

Day 18 - A picture of your biggest insecurity.

Day 19 - A picture of you when you were little.

Day 20 - A picture of somewhere you'd love to travel.

Day 21 - A picture of something you wish you could forget.

Day 22 - A picture of something you wish you were better at.

Day 23 - A picture of your favorite book.

Day 24 - A picture of something you wish you could change.

Day 25 - A picture of your day.

Day 26 - A picture of something that means a lot to you.

Day 27 - A picture of yourself and a family member.

Day 28 - A picture of something you're afraid of.

Day 29 - A picture that can always make you smile.

Day 30 - A picture of what you wore today.

This will be very challenging but a fun way to take pictures. At least I have a theme to accomplish so it will not be difficult for me to look for a nice subject to complete this photo challenge.

Last December 31 2010, we welcomed the new year by going out of town and staying in one of the resorts down south. We just discovered the resort via their Multiply site and we did not even do an ocular inspection of the place before booking them. But we are glad that they did meet our expectations.


It was not really a fancy resort as it just have the basic amenities that we need. It is actually like a typical vacation house with a pool. But what we like about the place is that it is well maintained and clean. We are also sure that the pool water is clean as they use pool filter replacement cartridge to keep the water sparkly clean.

We are thinking of going back to the resort for my aunt's birthday party this coming August and I heard that they upgraded and they now have a spa which uses replacement spa filter which again will help to keep spa water clean. I am sure the owner wouldn't mind investing in spa filter cartridges, as this will ensure that their spa facility is clean and germ free.

I will contact them tomorrow to inquire for their rates so I can finalize our surprise birthday plan for my aunt.

I was browsing through the Facebook page of one of our friends and I saw this:

Pictures of hubby and his friends back in the days when their lives revolved around rifle scope, paintball, and competition.

I can still remember during those times when hubby was so addicted to the game of paintball. They will play 2-3 times a week and they will even go out of town to join competitions and meet other paintball enthusiast like them. It was good as this is one of hubby’s forms of exercise as they will really perspire a lot and do a lot of physical activities every time they play and compete.

Now that we have 2 kids and after hubby got promoted, he barely have the time to do his old sports. I know how much he misses them so I hope one day, he will be able to find the time again to play and have fun as I know that he needs to take a break once in a while from his busy and hectic life.

I thought that Shakey’s giant pizza is the largest pizza in the world, but I was wrong when I saw El Buono’s 36” giant pizza:

There was a farewell party at the office and they ordered not one, not two, but three 36” El Buono pizza. They say that they are the world’s largest pizza. Their pizza is so big that it was a big challenge to figure out how they can bring the pizza inside the office.

The pizza was so big that it was able to feed more than 50 people (two departments in the office).

And if you need to fee around 150-200 guests, then you can order their 65” pizza, which have 600 slices of pizza.

And mind you, the pizza was not only big that it was tasty and yummy too. Now I am thinking of an occasion where I can have a pizza party so we can try El Buono’s Pizza.

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I was cleaning my files the other day as I will be selling my laptop and I stopped when I was in the album of our Europe trip a few years ago. The pictures brought back memories of that Europe tour and it made me reminisce the time that my husband I spent in Europe as we explore Vienna Design, fashion in Antwerp, food in Valencia and more. It is indeed a dream vacation for me and I am thankful for my husband for making that dream come true.

How I wish I can go back again in Europe. We spent three weeks going to different cities but we know that there is still a lot to explore. If I will be going back, I will definitely check out Cool Capitals to help me plan our itinerary.

Different tourism offices have join hands in making this website. It is here where you can find everything there is to know about Europe especially five of Europe's most stylish cities: Amsterdam, Zürich, Vienna, Valencia, and Antwerp. They have inside information about Valencia Art, shopping in Zurich, restaurants in Vienna, and many more. They have tips on where to go and what not to miss like Zurich design, so you can make the most of your stay in Europe.

I am not sure when we can go on another Europe tour but I will definitely keep Cool Capitals in mind.

Hubby just came home last night from a remote work for one week in Baguio. He brought lots of treats for me and the kids and so I am a happy camper. But since it is a busy week for me since I have tons of things to finish and he knows that I was not able to do much while he was away since I have to take care of the kids, he gave in when I told him that I want Starbucks to keep me awake. I was actually joking but I was surprised when he got up, dressed up and drives to Starbucks for my Caramel Macchiato.


This was one perfect way to end the day. I thought that I can stay up late after finishing my tall cup of coffee but as soon as I am done, I got so sleepy already that I just shut down my laptop and joined hubby and the kids in bed. LOL.

If there is one reason why I am excited to move to the new house, then it will be because I will have a chance to decorate our home. Since we are only renting when my husband and I got married, I did not find the drive to decorate our home with led lighting fixtures and paintings and home accents because I feel that I should not spend time and money for it because in time, we will need to leave this house as this is not ours.

But since we finally were able to buy our own dream home (that comes with 20 years of mortgage. LOL), I know that I should make this home something that reflects our personality so I would like to put a little touch of ourselves to our new home with the interior decorations.

I am planning to start with discount ceiling fans first as we actually don't have that much funds left as we paid for the down payment and processing of the loan so we have to start with the essentials. Then I will look at fluorescent lighting fixtures for the rooms if there is still some money left. And hopefully, God willing, before December we will be able to afford to buy furniture so our house will be ready for entertaining guests during the holiday season.

I am so pump and I can't wait to move so I can finally start my decorating project for our dream home.

Many parents would agree that dealing with a troubled teen nowadays could be very challenging. But parents need not worry, as there are steps that they can take to help their kids and start having a happy relationship with them again.

One of the first steps to help a troubled youth is to acknowledge that there is a problem. If you just ignore the problem, tendency is that it will only worsen and you might be too late already in helping your kid. Accept the fact that your parenting skill or the time that you spent with your kids is one big contributing factor to the attitude of your kid.

Once you acknowledge the problem, then it is time to take the proper course of action by seeking the help of experts like enrolling your kid to a residential treatment program. There are a lot of centers that offer this service and one of them is Shelterwood.

Shelterwood is one of the leading schools for troubled girls and boys and they offer therapeutic treatment for teens to help them rebuild their lives again. Their residential treatment program includes one-on-one mentoring, recreational activities, small group discussions and a lot of activities that is centered on love for Jesus.

What sets Shelterwood apart from other therapeutic boarding schools is that it also provides topnotch academic schooling for their students as they stay in the center to rebuild their lives. They have the best facilities like high tech laboratories and computer centers, gym, swimming pool and many more so they can very well compete with the kind of education that traditional schools offer. This will give the teens an opportunity to get their diploma even if they are staying in Shelterwood to receive treatment and counseling.

No matter how worse the problem is, there is still hope and Shelterwood can indeed help.

This has been one hell of a weekend for me. I have been dealing with a lot of issues right now that most of my Twitter/Bebot friends know. As I was telling them, if I will take my problems seriously, I would have gone crazy already because in all honesty, I already don’t know how to deal with the situation.

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Communication is very essential to any business. Supervisors have to talk to his subordinates. Managers need to be able to respond to clients' inquiries to gain business. Colleagues have to collaborate to exchange ideas that can help them improve their work.

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Some of my favorite images of New York:


1. Statue of Liberty. The cruise going to Liberty Island is a treat already as you cruise along Hudson River with New York’s skyline as your backdrop. When you reach Liberty Island, you can go around the island first where you can have a great view again of the river, the skyline, or just sit down and relax in the grassy meadow just below the statue.
2. Empire State. The view at the top is simple breathtaking. We went up after the sun has set already so we saw New York’s Skyline at night with all he buildings’ light turned on so we really felt what it is like to be in the city the never sleeps.
3. Brooklyn Bridge: I often see it in movies and so I was happy when I was able to set foot and cross this famous bridge. We were not able to cross this bridge though the last time we were here as our two kids in tow were already sleeping when we reached the Brooklyn Bridge.

Admit it or not, I believe that every woman will really feel honored and elated if they received a special flower delivery from someone close to their heart. Flowers can mean a lot of things. It can bring love, joy, forgiveness, repentance, care and a lot more. Flowers are the perfect symbol to give to someone if you want to spread out some love and positive vibes and thanks to EZBloomers, getting custom flower delivery for your special someone need not be expensive.

What is nice about EZBloomers is that they eliminate the middlemen and service fee, which adds up to the cost of your flower delivery. When you order flowers from them, your order goes straight to the florist who will create a special flower arrangement for each of their client as flowers from EZBloomers are made to order.

So do you want to make someone feel extra special? Then check out the site of EZBloomers now.

I love to shop and one thing that attracts me to buy big ticketed items is if the store is offering options to pay in installment and I just have to issue a post dated check.

Since we will be needing to buy a lot of things for the new house like furniture, appliances and many more, I find this the perfect opportunity to open a checking account and order my designer checks so I will have enough checks that I can issue to buy all those stuff in installment terms.

And because of this, I began my search for a site that has a check ordering facility and that is how I discovered Super value Checks.

They have a wide variety of check designs to choose from for a more personalize check that I can order from them. Their checks are also so affordable that it is even cheaper as compared to getting it direct from a bank. It is also of high quality that it is accepted and will work in any bank.

We will be moving to the new house next month and we will need to start shopping for the things that we will need for the new house. And so I must order my check now so I can be assured that I have enough checks that I can use for my shopping.

The last time I upgraded the OS of my iPhone was a disaster. I lost all my contacts, notes, pictures and videos. It is the first time for me to do it and since I am not used to MAC, I guess I did something wrong that it erased the entire contents of my phone.

So I vowed that I would never upgrade OS again. But then I realized that it is not possible as new applications are no longer compatible with the old OS version that is why I need to upgrade my OS eventually.

And thanks to my sister and her boyfriend, my OS got upgraded and all my contacts, notes, pictures and videos are still intact. I did not bother asking them how they did it as I will just ask them to do it for me again next time. LOL.

And because of that, I was able to join the bandwagon


and now I have Tweegram. Weee.

Things that made me happy this week:

1. My favorite online store which sells jewelry beads is on sale
2. I was able to go out of town with my family in hubby’s hometown for some time off and a much-needed break and hubby even agreed that we stayed in a hotel instead of staying in their house.
3. My boss did not force any of us to accept the temporary duty to India.
4. I got an email from someone in my past and she brought hope, hope not just for me but for all my friends too. So I am crossing my fingers that this deal will push through.
5. I was able to fetch B from school and I can see how excited and happy she was when she saw me at the gate waiting for her (simple joys of a mom).
6. Jacobo welcomes me with the sweetest kiss and hug every day when I get home from work.

I really had a good weekend and next week is even sweeter as hubby will be arriving after working for six days in Baguio and on the 14th, hubby and I will have a date as we watch Cirque du Soleil.

Behind the success of any event is a good marketing team who does all the promotion and advertisement for the event. Just like the Cirque du Soleil show, which is currently running now until July 24.

One of reasons for the success of this show is the good marketing campaign of the organizers. Everywhere I go, I can see big colorful posters about Varekai, which help in promoting the show.

I am sure they got a good and reliable poster and Flyer Printing service for all the printed materials that they need for the marketing and promotion of the show like my favorite online printing service provider, My1stop.com.

My1stop.com offers a lot of simple and full color printing services like Gift Card Printing, poster and brochure printing, and even plastic card printing. What is best about their service is that they offer Custom Printing so clients can personalize their designs and layout which thy can easily upload on the site of My1stop.com for ordering and printing. They even provide online quotes so you don't have to wait to know how much their service cost.

I am sure the organizers of Cirque du Soleil are thankful that there reliable printing service providers like My1stop.com because the full color posters and flyers about the show indeed helped in promoting Varekai.

When I learned that Cirque du Soleil is coming in Manila, I got really excited because I know that it is a world class and must see show. I told hubby about it but hubby said that we have to pass this time, as ticket prices are steep.

That is why when hubby called me in the office last week, to ask me to buy the tickets for the show, I did not hesitate and gladly obey to his request. LOL.

The circus tent was setup just beside hubby’s office and he got curious and attracted by its looks that he decided that we might as well watch the show while it is here in Manila than pay for the airfare to watch the show in Macau, which is the nearest location from Manila for the Cirque du Soleil show.

A lot of my friends have seen the show already and I heard nothing but rave about it so I am really looking forward for our turn on July 14.

My family just came back from our recent us and canada tours and though it was fun as hubby and I spend three solid weeks of quality time with our kids, this trip was the most challenging and tiring trip. LOL. It is the first time that we travel with two kids in tow so we really don't know what to expect.

Our greatest challenge was in New York. It is actually my second time in New York and third for my husband but we were still single when we went there and so we did not notice that the city is not actually child friendly. For one, most subway stations don't have escalators or elevators so it is difficult for us to move around with our stroller and big diaper bags.

That is why hubby told me that next time we try one of those asia tours, we should get the help of experts like Collette Vacations. They can help us plan an ultimate family tour that is stress and worry free. They have the best travel experts who knows the ins ad outs of the different city so they can give us the best insider tips and things not to miss for a particular city. They can help us book for our airline tickets, hotel accommodations and even travel machu picchu.

At least now I know that next time we go on a vacation, Collette Vacations can help us plan the best family trip.

My boss got this for us for our teleconference meeting last Wednesday:

Krispy Kreme Bacon and Cheese Pull Apart. Now I am so happy for the opening of Krispy Kreme store in our building. Pull Aparts are one of my latest favorites from Krispy Kreme. Hubby and I always try the Cinnamon Pull Apart and this is the first time that I tried a different flavor courtesy of my boss.

The Bacon and Cheese pull apart comes with Sour Cream dip adding flavor to bread. Yummy.

We have meeting every Wednesday and my boss always brings food to eat during the meeting so I can’t wait for the next meeting and I hope that it will be Krispy Kreme day again. LOL>