No Household help

Last week, my household help asked my permission to go to Quezon Province. She said she would be gone for one week, from Dec 20- Dec 27 since she has to visit a friend who is very sick and one of I guess her friends wish before she pass away is to see her. I do not want to inconsiderate so I allowed her to go on vacation even if she just had a vacation last August for one month.

I guess I should have seen the signs for disaster:
1. Instead of leaving Sunday, Dec 20, she left Saturday, a day earlier, unfortunately, I no longer have work on Saturdays so it is OK.
2. She did not arrive Sunday, or the Monday after.
3. From the looks of it, it looks like she is not coming back after New Year's.
On the other side, she left some of her things, which should be a sign that she is coming back.

But to tell you honestly, the only reason why I retain her services is because it she is better than none. Her only talent that I can see is her gardening skills (which to tell you honestly is actually not my priority). She is not very good at cleaning the house, so-so cooking and her intonation while talking is really not a good example to my daughter. I guess her washing our clothes (we have a washing machine) and ironing are at acceptable levels.

Of all the Yaya's I've had, she is the only one that goes out once a week, and I goes for long vacations 2x a year, hay.

Hmmm, should I get a new Yaya? The question is where?

I want to post more pictures

This past month, a lot of events has happened...KC's field trip, birthday and Christmas party (my world revolve around my daughter :).

And I would have wanted to post pictures of these events...unfortunately, we are just borrowing the camera so I do not have it accessible every time I blog :(.


I hope I can post pictures already because, as the song says, a picture paints a thousand words.

Hopefully, next time I blog, it is with some pictures already.

CCC Recognition

Today, I received 2 awards (It was supposed to be awarded last Saturday, Dec 12 but unfortunately, I was not able to attend the awards night which coincides with our Christmas party due to KC's birthday)

The two awards I received are Perfect Attendance and Agent of the Year, both for the year 2009. I was not really expecting the awards, as I was not even aware that such awards exists :).
But it is a great honor to be given recognition for what you do.

For prizes as the Agent of the Year, I received a framed certificate, one small fan, blender, toaster and a rice cooker. For the Perfect attendance, I received a Parker pen and a post it set.

I wish I can start posting pictures here to show you.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who made this possible. To Team Jaguar (TL John, Archie, CJ, Egay, Ge, Jac, Kirby, Lyn, Mark and Zosi), to whole BS team TL Mavic, James, Daisy, Merick, Cal, Pedro, Jingle, Christy, BJ, JC and Reinan), Sr TSE and training, Jonathan, Judy and Maki, to our QA's Linette and Sheila, to all the core team members, to the whole CCC team ngaun at dati.....Maraming Salamat

Pancake House's Gambitos Pasta

Last weekend, we stopped over Pancake house in South Luzon Expressway for a "quick" lunch enroute to a birthday party in Quezon City. One of the things we ordered is the Gambitos Pasta. It is spaghetti with shrimp and tomato sauce covered in Parmesan cheese.

My husband and daughter loved it so much they are requesting me to try cooking it. And so I looked online and found this recipe http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Linguine-Pasta-with-Shrimp-and-Tomatoes/Detail.aspx

I would love to try this out for my daughters birthday but the ingredients, particularly the shrimp is so expensive.

It might be a good recipe to try on Christmas though, so wish me luck.

Free Movie Passes Promo from Citibank

Citibank has a promo for all its credit card holders. For every P1500 single receipt purchase using your credit card, you can get 1 free movie pass for the top movie houses nationwide.

I have been keeping all my transaction receipts ever since way back August and last Sunday we were able to use 3 of them. My husband (Ramir), daughter (KC) and I watched the movie New Moon in Robinson's Dasma for FREE :).

The movie was OK, but my daughter wanted to go home halfway thru it.

But since I still have 7 movie tickets worth of transaction receipts, if schedule permits, then we would watch other movies that is more kids friendly. Maybe we can bring along KC's cousins also so she can enjoy it more.

The promo is extended upto Dec 31, 2009 and you can redeem the the movie tickets upto March 1, 2010 so I would just keep on using my credit card for my purchases above P1500.

If you are a citibank card holder and has not availed of this promo yet and I suggest that you do so.

Ocean Adventure Field Trip

It was my daughter's field trip at Ocean Adventure in Subic last Nov 25. I am not really that excited anymore since I have already seen the place but my daughter's excitement is contagious so that got me excited also. Since we are coming in from Cavite, we have to leave my daughter's school at 4:00am in the morning. What amazes me is the ease of waking up my daughter at that ungodly hour which is a rare occurrence.

We watched dolphins, sea lions, aquarium fishes, etc but for me this was not why the field trip was enjoyable for my daughter. It seems that spending time with her classmates outside of the school made this trip memorable for her. KC was always with her friend Iris and they would walk holding hands. She also enjoyed swimming in the beach and playing with the sand.

As for me, it was really tiring for me...I guess I am getting old already, hehe.
And I usual my daughter and I again got into a discussion on some trivial matters and I lost my patience again but thankfully that did not affect my daughter, although again, I would have to work on my patience.

Would I recommend Ocean Adventure as a must see place? Not really...It is good but is more expensive than what it is worth.

Bayani for VP

Today is the last day of filing for candidacy for the Philippine National elections on May 10, 2010.

Bayani Fernando filed his COC for Vice President of the Philippines today. I would have wanted him to run for President but I would still vote him for VP.

There are a lot of candidates out there, most of them more popular than him, or more intelligent than him. But I like him because I feel that his political will is what our country needs most today. I like the way he enforced discipline during his term as Marikina Mayor and as a MMDA chairman.

I have watched some parts of his debate with Gibo during the selection process of the Lakas standard bearer, and admittedly, he is no match with the intelligence of Gibo but we've had intelligent presidents before, we also had very popular president, we also had a kind president but the Philippines is still a country that is poor and famous for corruption.

I do not know yet what the Gordon-Bayani platform is, but if they would handle the country, the same way they handled their areas as mayors, then I think that is a good start

My Birthday

It was my birthday yesterday. I took a day off from work so I can spend my this special day with my family.
My daughter and I went to SM Dasmarinas for shopping. My daughter is not really used to riding the bus since most of the time that we go out we just ride the car but since my husband has work that day, we have to commute. She was pretty excited about riding the bus but she was still well behaved.
Before we went to the mall, we said we were buying some clothes, but since we got to the shoes first, my 5 year old daughter decided she wanted shoes. So we bought a Hello Kitty shoes for her. It is really a joy to see kids so happy whenever they have something new.
I guess that is my greatest gift for the day - seeing the happiness in my daughter's face.

Only if we can keep it up for a long time. I hope God with also give me a gift of patience.

My First Baking Lessons

I was able to finally to bake my first non-mix brownie. I got the recipe from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/best-brownies/Detail.aspx and I chose that recipe amongst all the recipes posted on the internet since the ingredients are relatively easy to find and the reviews are relatively good.

It did not really turn out the way I wanted it to but the brownies are edible and everybody in the house liked it so I consider it a successful first try.

Here are the areas for improvement:
1. I made a mistake on the quantity of baking powder, instead of putting in 1/4 tablespoon, I put in 1/4 cup....my brownie became so soft you have to eat it using a spoon
2. It is too sweet for my taste, so I would have to decrease sugar by 2 tablespoons or I think I will try to use brown sugar instead
3. I also forgot to put in salt.

I will try this again next week and if they turn out good, I will take pictures and post it here :)

Field Trip

My almost 5 year old daughter would be having her 2nd field trip on Nov 25, 2009 in Ocean Adventure in Subic, Zambales. This is actually her second field trip already but the first one parents are not allowed to come, so this is the first time that we would go together.

The initial date that was set in their school was Nov 26, 2009 which was great for me since Nov 26 is a company holiday and I would just need to file a vacation request for Nov 25 (since I work nights) but then it was moved over to November 25 so I had to file for an extra vacation but that is OK as long as it is approved...Yey.

This should be a great bonding time for me and my daughter. I am not sure though what preparations I should be doing to make it special. For the trip itself, we are coming from Cavite so the trip might take about 5 hours, I guess the best thing that I can do is bring a pillow to make our trip more comfortable and of course lots of foods...I will allow my daughter to eat some junk foods for this day. :)

Stormy Holiday Weekend

It has been 2 hours after 5am (the time my shift ends), and I am still stuck here in the office, not because of stuff that needs to be done but due to winds of typhoon "Santi" currently wrecking its havoc over our province here in Cavite. But after the tragedies brought about Ondoy and Pepeng, it is better safe than sorry so to speak, so I am staying put until the storm passes over.

While I am writing this blog to pass away the time, I realized that I should be praying, pray that when this storm stops, our country would not be as devastated as what happened after Ondoy and Pepeng. Thank God that instead of me being stranded in an unsafe place without any food and shelter, I am at the office safe and sound and still has the ability to communicate with my loved ones. So here goes...

Dear God,

I pray for:
- my family, my friends, my loved ones that where ever they might be right now, that they would be always safe
- the whole country, specially those are still recovering from Ondoy and Pepeng, that they would remain strong and that may they see the "sun" soon
- for the people who are continuously helping all those who are in need, may you continually bless them

And again, thank you for the all the blessings that you have given me and my family

In Jesus name,
Amen

Business Options

I have always wanted to have my own business but I have never had the guts to do so. One, they say that your business should be something that you love to do, like a hobby. And I am not really sure what would my interest would be.
I love to eat, but I have no real skills at cooking nor baking but I am willing to learn, for me to learn, I have to have time to study. We already have an oven at home, so I guess that is a start.
I just would have to buy other cooking gadgets which I do not even know what.
I guess I will start off the web for now. I will be searching for brownie recipes for now, the easiest one I can find.
I will let you know the next time I blog how that goes

First Crack at Blogging

This is my first try at blogging. What do I know about BLOGGING?

I looked up the meaning online and found that is a slang language that means "To write entries in, add material to, or maintain a weblog"

Offhand, I think blogging is a form of expressing oneself online. Or maintaining a diary online. I read other peoples blogs and different blogs get different reactions from. I get inspired on some, I also disagree on some blogs.

In addition to expressing myself and inspiring other people thru my blogs, I hope this would also be an instrument for me to get to know myself more, if you know what I mean.

I am not really a writer but I do hope I get better. :)

Thanks