24 Weeks and It's A She

I have been daydreaming lately. A beautiful girl that I can bond with. I can dress up, buy clothes and celebrate with. We are going to welcome a baby girl soon!

Life has been a bit of a struggle lately. We dismissed our househelp because she forgot that we are the one paying her salary,not the other way around. She wants to lay her own rule in our household. And I don't allow that. She has to go.

We are lucky to find a replacement. She is younger but better than the dismissed maid. I am happy to have her even if she sometimes spend lot of time watching television. The other day, my MIL helped her declutter our "catch-all" room. No photo though. I am not yet sold with the idea of baring our still cluttered room. And because they tidied up the room, I have to decide on my own clutter. My calculation is that I will still wear my maternity dress for awhile. Maybe at least on the 4th month of our baby before I lose all the added weight. But I have been thinking of looking for great shoes and outfit in preparation for my post-maternity activities. I have been eying this winter boots. Never mind that there is no winter here, but with lots of opportunity abroad I have this foresight that I will be needing it soon.

How about you? This is actually on sale and you will be saving lots of money. If I have the budget, I will probably buy this one.




Are you having a great week so far? I do.



Boxing and Baking

Weekend passed by swiftly. I slept the rest of the afternoon yesterday and woke up around seven in the morning today. I never felt well rested for years. 

We took the opportunity to buy some stuff at the grocery as people settles on their seats (at their home) to watch Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito's fight. Courtesy of our city government (every Pacquiao fight), people in this city with cable access was able to watch the fight live. Knowing that we will be having the street for ourselves (read: no traffic) and the grocery as well, we dash off to the store and get the grocery done. 

I was able to buy to flat containers for our clothes that no longer fit me and other things needed in the house. 

Hubby baked brownies but we realized that there is something wrong with the oven. I offered my sewing machine money to buy him a new oven but he refused, so let's see how long can he keep this oven. 

Here are the projects that I want to do in the future, when we have the new house:

1. mini scrapbook

scrapbook. mini-scrapbook.

{via a beautiful mess}

I made one before and can find time to do now, but being free from any reading materials and writing assignments make me a real bum. 

2. Little Birdie Plush

 

plushies! 

 

 

 

{via a beautiful mess}

3.Baking

 

{via dainty squid}

 4. Online Biz

 

alright, not exactly etsy, but more like etsy. (Note: I do not live in the US, so etsy-adventure is not for me)

 

There are lots of things to do,now that school is over. 

Hope you had the list of things to do as well.

Great Sunday!

Little Sunshine

I warned you about my two weeks absence. Probable absence from blogging. But I can not just ignore this space. 

Here is an update about my going ons:

This is not new but just so you know, here in our rural home of a place (South of Metro), stores from the Metro are now coming us much to our joy...well my joy since I am basically a city-born gal. 

And the not so newest but one of those who opened their doors first (and I got some photos as well) is Red Ribbon:

my new favorite from their menu, grilled ensaymada with farmer's ham and egg. Perfect with coffee. real coffee, not instant.

our contrasting cakes: black forest cake and white forest cake. yum. 

and here are the things that the hubby bought from his work related trip on one of the provinces in the North:

a local version of macaron:

they call it here meringue:

and macaroons (we love sweets, remember?)

a closer look:

here is the photo of the whole loot (i think there is a photo of other things that are not sweets like dried shrimp and fish but i cannot find it)

another goods from another out of town trip (by hubby), this time its Davao City.

.this is mine. the other one will be given to a family member.

Sunday celebration for my birthday is lunch out and the traditional cake (bought from favorite local cakeshop, not Red Ribbon). sorry no photos.

I remember asking Hubby ages ago to bake me a pizzookie but did not get any. This is the closest thing I got (from Shakey's) and it is not a huge cookie but more of a brownie (according to the menu) but when I tried it it taste like some cheap muffins from local bakery. but the ice cream is good. 

 I would love the real pizzookie though. like this one:

pizzookie from a-froggirl

and finally

this is my working table:

look pretty busy huh?

Life is great. Have a great day ahead.

Grill

It was a fun filled day.

Since finally I am not on the denial stage (re examination this August), things will be more busy around here. I am  not sure though if I will be able to squeeze everything in but my priority now is to cram in every lessons missed and finish at least half of my paper. I should not be discussing it here since I have a blog about school but just to let you know what have been keeping me from bento this day. 

Now that I have that posted, here is my Friday Fun activities:

Today is the last day of one of our staff so we had a lunchout instead of the usual crackers/ramen in the pantry. 

Sorry, no photos. my bad. 

We had a "scramble". That sweet pink colored crushed ice (and milk) with powdered milk on top that we used to buy when we were kids. We bought it at the mall and happy to be eating the street food with an assurance that it passed quality control. 

Then I had fun printing some Ta Da list. I will post below the links on this "to-do-list"and much more.

My classmates came and visited me since I have not been attending their review lately. I am happy to see them as well.

I started working on the data of my paper.

Cancel meeting next week (Agency Directors) and happy to plan of skipping work on Monday. Unfortunately I have to go to work since we will be transferring on the other office.

Found the tea that I have been looking for: Twinnings Four Red Fruit. 

In addition to that I also bought a jar of nutella and a bag of oatmeal (with raisin, banana and pineapple). 

I promised to blog more. even if I am busy.

No photos today. I will try tonight. 

Have a great weekend.

***

A DOZEN LINK FOR YOU

List of downloadables and organization link (+ some for home management)

1. Living Locurto
2. I am an Organizing Junkie
3. Get Creative with Pink
4. My Daily Randomness
5. The Blog Train Blog
6. Little Paper Dog
7. I am not sure what is the name of this flickr account but on blog referred this account and says the photos there are free (for wallpaper).
8. Daisy Jane
9. Creating Keepsakes
10. The Small Objects
11. June Pfaff Daley
12. Creature Comforts

and one more blog for Mom's out there:

IXL for online lessons for kiddos

Bubbling Brook

I remember being told few weeks ago that I should love my job. 

That was coming from my boss.

Don't ask me. I am still trying to figure out what's going on when he told me that. 

Let me whine a little about my job. 

image via Willkommen to Marnie's house on the interwebs
First,

maybe, i do not love that job much that choosing it over my class is not worth considering.

or 

maybe, being there even if all of the other scholars are already home browsing their lectures for the upcoming exam is not love enough.

i actually have something to say about that during the time he voiced out that suggestion.

but i have to stop myself since it seems i pissed him off already when told about one of his most favored agency can not update their own database.

its not my fault if they are not able to keep up with the expectation, right? or if i can see how slackers they can get, most of the time.

i am whining now, after few weeks of keeping it quite because i want to understand the situation. but it seems the longer i try to reason it out to myself that maybe he is right, the more angry i am.

the more convinced that it is not my fault. 

biased opinion irates me the most.

and i am convinced that i have enough.

alright. done with the ramblings. 

a new leadership is on the way. 

i will stay awhile. 

like before.

then maybe, i will settle permanently somewhere.

image via  Ma Boys' Illustration Blog

and this brought me to some sites.

wonder what is close to my heart?

aside from bento?

i buy art supplies when i can.

lots of them.

painting materials.

sketch books.

pencils.

colors.

they attract me like magnet.

i get drawn to them.

even if i avoid the school supplies.

i am adding art-related links on my blog. if interested, look at the sidebar.

image via The Draw and Cook

 image via Gennine's Art Blog

 image via Happy Doodle Land

it makes me happy.

even if work is a little bit demoralizing.

it makes me sing.

now, if only i can start working.

stamp.

doodles.

doodles on paper.

paint.

bento.

it's art.

maybe, it is even my destiny.

heck. mathematics is an art. believe me. 

know the laws and rules of math.

then apply them without the restriction of following everything by letter. 

its art. you will  love it.

singing my heart for a Happy Monday.

Tomorrow, we will try to be earlier. the hubby was late again.

i will be buying this:

i have to choose where, though.

a multiply seller (bought there my camera last summer) is selling it for 9k. cash basis.

an electronic/gadget store sells it for 14k (12 mos, 0% on credit card)

let me think about it. 

but it is definitely on my list.

a reward or something.

maybe for reviewing hard for the coming exam, perhaps?

i need inspiration. 

this one will do.

Sandwich Bento Lunches

As promised....

Here are the promised photos of my bento accessories:

Bento #1: PB and Mango

 Bento # 2: Cheese Sandwich with fruits, sausages and grapes

Here's mine:

His Bento:

Bento # 3 : Chicken Nuggets and rice (eaten at home)

I have been obsessing on bento since 2007 and have accumulated lots of rice molds but I can not use them because rice during lunch is something we avoid. 

I only get to use my molders during weekend where we indulge on some rice because we allow ourselves to be convinced that we can lose the extra calories with all the organizing and computer activities we have on Saturdays and Sundays.

The hubby surprised me with a chocolate muffin when I woke up Saturday morning:

YUM!

We had a blast this weekend. Hope you had a great one too. 

Happy Father's Day to all Daddy in the world.

Obento overload

we went to the metro today for a dentist appointment and guess what we tumbled upon? 

new branch of japan dollar store! not Japan Homes or Daiso... 

Saizen! 

Imagine my delight when I found the cute food picks...and the small sauce container? and the mayonaise container with its cute banana spoon...the reusable food cups...sigh. 

Photos will be up tomorrow. 

I am so tired.

Bento Making, here I come. 

I will leave you this photos from great bento sites:

image credit: Biggie's blog, "Lunch in A Box"

- you can find all bento-related topics (which includes food safety and recipes)

image credit: Kathy's blog, "O'bento Lunch"

- according to her blog, it is for kids. I assumed ( i did not read her entries but ogled at all those photos she has) the posts are about cute and kid-friendly food layout designs of bento.

image credit: Andrea Peach's blog, "Obento Obsession"

-simple, easy to prepare lunch/bento. I'll probably visit this site more often.

image credit: Kaoko's blog, "Kitchen Cow"

- she's one of my favorite. She's from the Philippines too. And she once did me a favor, bento favor: she bought (since I can't go to Makati Area) me my first bento accessories/utensils and even sent it to me at the office (of course I paid for it but going through the hassle of buying it for a total stranger is almost a saint to me). 

image credit: Mrs. Pikko's , "Adventure in Bento Making"*

( I call her such because she refers to her husband Mr. Pikko, and can't find her name anywhere as of writing this entry)

-I wanted to join the contest for this one but I think its impossible, living far far away from her place. Glad to have at least few from that loot earlier. Great blog, plenty of practical tips.

That's all folks. 

If you want more sites, just visit their blogs and look into the blogroll.

Plenty of sites there to visit and learn from. 

Good night.

What Brings You Joy?

For me, it can be a cup of coffee

Image credits: coffee 

A simple gesture such as holding my hand

Or

 Sweet embrace 

Sometimes, accomplishing simple things like banner for my blog and "grab my button" widgets.

Finally. It was done. Had me test my patience for a night. Thinking what went wrong with the button. I am excited to post the tutorial. But I will give it a rest for now. Promise I will be posting it tonight. 

It's Monday. Smile to the grouchy person next to you, Who knows, you might brighten his day.

Fun and Finds

Here are the wonderful things about my week:

Sunday morning, I woke up with the smell of coffee and my favorite breakfast prepared by the husband

I could not resist a frugal find: 50% the price of this bag (cost: P650) and this one:

cost: P400

 

cute/recycled to-do-list pad from papemelroti (cost: P 15)

 lotions and clear mascara from Avon 

Cost: Lotions- P145 and P 179

Clear Mascara -P 129

 

 free print download from erinvaledesign

I had a wonderful week. My blog button will be posted sometime tomorrow. 

Have a good night sleep.

Coffee + Blogs = Happiness

I am making my daily rounds and its about time to start doing some changes on mine. There are widgets that are not working, links that posted twice. I have been neglecting my writing space.

There are many things to do but this week seems to be a very lazy week for me. Maybe I am just tired from too many activities in school.

Will get back to you later. Time to clean up this area.

Hello World

I had a tiring week and was glad to see the weekend without pressing deadlines, so I literally cut all ties to the world: no cellphones, no social networking (altho I logged on to check with friend's update but did not go online in chat).

We went shopping for few hours in the Metro, spent more time on the public transpo than the actual shopping and went home with a migraine. In fact, the moment I stepped inside the bedroom I zonked out. Woke up around 8 in the morning so we missed the Sunday Mass again. Bad for the soul. Naughty Migraine (and ugly public transpo airconditioning unit. ugh.)

Surprisingly, I relaxed the whole Sunday. Maybe because there are no papers to submit, no books to read and no schedules to follow. Although my brain is still buzzing from too much activities for the more than a year of studying for my degree, I am now trying to slow it down a bit and getting more focused on the examination and paperwork for my special paper (re:thesis) ahead.

I had my nails polished and happy with the magenta color. And the reason why I am here is that currently my beauty conscious self seems to surface and angry at how my wardrobe seems to filled with clothes that wont fit. I have two choices: trim down to my size two years ago or buy more.

I'll try the "Trim Down". If it doesn't work, I will try the "buy More".

That's how happy I am with my life now.

And I have to update my sidebar. It seems that I do not read fashion mags anymore. Few links will be up in few minutes.

Have a great day ahead.

***

I am tempted to include a new label here but reluctant to do so. If ever it will be a "fit" label.

Let me buy that weight scale first. Then spend more time with my Wii Sport.

Mind Dump

This is a very surprising day for me. First of all, I was able to exercise for few minutes before preparing for work. We are early and well, that is the best thing so far. I am early at the bus terminal. The traffic is at its worse on Monday mornings and I arrived at work around 7:50AM. And there is more. It was not just a humid day. I get to ride with the best passengers on a Monday morning.

Here's the story:

  Two women board the jeepney bound to the area of my work. Both have kids in tow. One of them sat beside me, the other woman with a baby boy sat beside the woman next to the woman with a little girl sitting beside me. I knew then that the woman beside me do not know how to handle her kid...and I prepared myself for worse...the kid threw up (she got motion sickness)...fortunately (unlucky girl in front of us) not on my feet. The unlucky girl was cool about it and just wiped it off her feet. Imagine the expression of the other passengers face.
Then the baby boy did his part. He cried, bawled and screamed at the top of his lungs. The girl holding him is getting embarrassed so she started shouting at him. To make the story short, she is not the mother of the kid. Then the driver of the vehicle gave her a fan to cool down the kid but since she has been shouting at the baby boy, he keeps on struggling in her arms and screaming at the same time. Someone gave her a feeding bottle and the boy refused. Then the unlucky woman in front of me took the kid and cuddled him. He stopped. Just like that. Then he drink the milk that he refused earlier and drink some more. Everyone on the vehicle were relieved to see him stop. Honestly, I want to throw the woman (who is with the baby boy) for shouting at him that way.

Nice ride we had there.

I announce that tomorrow is Final Examination. Then problems in the office starts popping up and I have to intervene. Sigh.

My Aunt called and told me about the going ons of my Mom's family. Now I am worried again.

The good thing about today:
- I was able to control my diet.
- Finally, since 5 in the morning no coffee intake. I switched to tea recently and hoped to carved my coffee consumption a bit ( to let go of the creamer and sugar)
-I have a complete set of powerpoint presentation for my exams tomorrow. complete. :D
-Printed  my school proposal for funding.
-Got to talk with my Aunt. It's nice to hear a relative's voice once in awhile. I missed her. and she knows when I do. :)
-Will be able to print my copy of lectures since I came in for work.
- My friend Teny gave us a coaster...very cute.
- I had P's vitamins here with me. Bought at the generic drugstore at the office.
-I am about to take my second cup of tea. :)
-My Uncle who will be incharge of the construction of our house arrived from a vacation. It is about time. 

Tomorrow, I will be posting my newest purchase. We are starting to buy things for our new home. I know that there will be lots of things to consider when building the structure started.

T.G.I.F.

I woke up late and missed my Friday Class. So I head straight to the office to stare at my computer and try to keep myself awake until 6PM.

Here's a photo that I have been staring at for the past 10 minutes:

Liz Wolfe works. Wonderful. Sweet and Gross. Sometimes I wonder if there is still an artist left in me. For now, I stare and get curious.

Our home development plans is moving. Got the first print of my house plan. Just the exterior since the originals are still lacking in signatures so we have to wait for another week. The hardwork follows. Negotiation and endless accounting. With hubby not enjoying and making any progress on personal finance, I am taking the full responsibility on handling whatever funds we can raise to build that home. I want my own place and even if it means another ball to juggle on my already full hands, this is something that will be taken without grudge.

My Bungalow with Mezanine home will be up soon. Although I prefer to see it on its more natural/original form: the cabin style that I fell in love with. The architect gave me a Jap design plan but the interior are quite the same with the original. The Jap design is appropriate to the Asian part where we live so one have no complains about it. But maybe we can work it out. Maybe.

National Election is on Monday. May God Bless Philippines.

Sunny Day

I can not think of a good title for today's post.And all I can think about is how great day it was, with the sun making the whole day bright and lovely. I am a sun person, love the sunshine over rain. But it did not stopped me to grab some sleep after 3pm. So I missed the plan of playing with the camera and try the different settings.

Not to bore you much with my unproductive day, here are some photos as I check our room for organization activities:

View under my table:

Finds: the surprising number of perfume and colognes around when I cleaned up my closet (they are everywhere. I think some are stashed on my crates/boxes of miscellaneous things):

new purchase that I love (it is small, can be wall mounted, squeeze on any space, produce cool air):

         ***

Great sites found today:

1. Sense and Serendipity- a Filipino food blogger. You will love her blog if you want to learn Philippine cuisine.
2. Keep Learning, Keep Smiling - Another food blog: fast and easy recipe with tons of photos.
3. RouxBe - online cooking school full of online cooking video.

 ***

I have been struggling to review for my upcoming exam so things has been pretty busy here. I hope you are having a great weekend so far.

Touch

Today, I feel sore. All over, down to my soul. It has been awhile when my sister posted her social network account her graduation photos. Even if I cut all ties, it has been part of me to check on them once in awhile. Somehow, as a sister it is important to know if they are safe and coping with the life without me and my mother. 

I did not see anything wrong with all the photos except my foster father (step-dad actually) have lost weight and looked older than he should be. Everything is pretty normal to me until I saw one comment from (supposedly) relative of theirs. She referred to my sister (the one after me) using my nickname. I understand why she took on the name, our name sounds the same except for the first syllable. and its fine with me, until I get into emotional mood. What happened to my past now that someone else is using my name?

The good thing about this sad news is that I found my friends (pre-life with Mother) online. Someone responded on my invites already and we have exchanged few words about life when we were kids. The wonderful technology, always bringing surprises to my life.

Anyway, I watched "Book of Eli"and found it okay with my taste but sort of dragging for someone who wants feel-good movie.

School is on and there are tons of reading materials lying around waiting to be picked up and read.

Currently, I am finishing all the works that should be done before Friday.

This week is great except for my feet that is bothering me since last week but they are healing pretty well. I have few photos on my pc at home but did not get into uploading them last night. Will do it tonight. Promise.

***

The plan for our house is supposed to be delivered today but there are some adjustments on the bill of materials so we have to wait until friday to see the final product.

I think it has been too much excitement on my system that losing track on what we want made me sad this past few days. Initially, it is just the desire to have a place on my own, regardless of size and loft-or-without-loft. Then suddenly its been all computation that my mind has been working on. I engaged hubby into a bout of discussion and we get into some arguments (most of them mine). But today I realized that my unhappiness is self inflicted. I only want a place, and from there we will adjust. that's my initial goal. Hence, i am reminding myself now.

I don't have time for sadness or similar emotions.

***

Have a hearty laugh today!

Night Cap

Before I go to bed, few episodes of True Blood will be watched.

Then, here is the promised photo of my home management journal.

It's very helpful, it got everything covered although its still on getting the hang of it phase. Our payment of bills was also scheduled. it was difficult to account everything when we were both thinking that someone is doing the accounting, apparently neither of us did. So we over pay or over drafted. I thought of the idea of coming up with the list of all the bills that we pay monthly and write them on a piece of paper to see what week of the month they usually have to be paid. With some adjustments, we finally have a  schedule of a one month (four weeks) list of bills to be paid! So, every first and third Sunday of the month we can set aside the money for the house expenses (groceries, everyday meal) and drinking water then the rest were distributed on the second Sunday (water bill) and third Sunday (electricity and gas bill, househelp, etc.). So far, it is working well for us. I am hoping that as things gets busy with the review for my exam, the hubby will keep up.

see that pocket there? that's where I put the voucher-like papers so that if the hubby is too lazy to balance it, he's just have to fill it up for me so i can update the list later.

***

On getting green, I re purposed this Ramen cup container into a toiletries holder. 

Hope you are enjoying your weekend. I still have photos here of foods that needs to be uploaded but have to go back to my True Blood series. it will be up tomorrow together with my Sunday breakfast. 

It's going to be a Weekend Fun photos from now on.