What Does My Birth Date Mean

Your Birthdate: January 5

You have many talents, and you are great at sharing those talents with others. Most people would be jealous of your clever intellect, but you're just too likeable to elicit jealousy. Progressive and original, you're usually thinking up cutting edge ideas. Quick witted and fast thinking, you have difficulty finding new challenges. Your strength: Your superhuman brainpower Your weakness: Your susceptibility to boredom Your power color: Tangerine Your power symbol: Ace Your power month: May

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

At Home, At Last

My heart was sad
He was not in sight
Missed him so bad
He's on his flight...

Six long days
I couldn't fathom
To live without him
My world just stopped in time...

Tonight is the last
Of the nights he's gone
For tomorrow he'll be at home,
My heart will be glad.

Meme Sunday

4 Things

This is a tag from josiet.
FOUR JOBS I HAVE HAD
1) Administrative staff (Philippine Valve Manufacturing Company
2) Road Designer/Draftsman II (Department of Public Works and Highways Region 13)
3) Environmental Impact Assessment Preparer (DPWH Regional Office)
4) Researcher/English Teacher (ACWM, Phuket, Thailand)
5) Sorry I have to add this: SAHM - present job

FOUR MOVIES I WATCHED OVER & OVER
1) Lord of the Rings Trilogy - all extended versions
2) Khabi Kushi Khabi Gham - Hindi Movie
3) Pride and Prejudice
4) Winnie the Pooh Movies - I watch with my son.

FOUR SHOWS I WATCH
1) Martha Stewart Show
2) Venus
3) America's Home Funniest Video
4) Used to watch One in a Million - Malaysia

FOUR PLACES I HAVE BEEN
1) Singapore
2)Thailand
3)Bali, Indonesia
4) Philippines

FOUR PEOPLE WHO EMAILED ME (recently)
1) Modern Mom update
2) Christian Woman Online for Encouragement Daily
3) Shelfari
4) Loud Launch for notification that I have opps waiting for me (which I never grabbed... sad)

FOUR PLACES I WOULD RATHER BE LIVING
1) Cameron Highlands, Malaysia (craving for a cool place to rest and relax with my hubby)
2) Butuan City, Philippines (esp now that hubby is away, just wanna be with my family and i wished i was in butuan especially when hubby and i were invited to go to US... I would have decided to go with hubby coz I could leave my kids with my parents)
3) I always dream of going to Greece
4) England (especially the countryside)

FOUR THINGS I LOOK FORWARD TO THIS YEAR
1) Schenker has finally started going to school. This was one thing I looked forward to this year.
2)

FOUR PEOPLE TO TAG

1) Still thinking...

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I am grateful for:

God who had been faithful in everything He does. He's such a great God no one can fathom His greatness... for His provision in everything I and my family need... for giving me the desires of my heart...

My hubby - for his love for me. His love is enough to get me going and aiming to be the best wife one could ever be.

My kids - I have two wonderful and lovely kids. Sometimes they can get into my nerves but I am grateful to be their mother.

My family back home in the Philippines for their love, support and prayers for me.

My old friends - who remain friends with me even though I am far away...

My new friends - most of them are online (blogging) friends. It is, I think, better to meet friends this way... you know them right to their bones right away coz... well, if you're a blogger, you would know what I meant.

Mian and Alve for coming to stay with me at home while hubby is away. This morning, I was surprised to wake up with a spic and span home... and that included our study room which has been in the mess since we moved in. They cleaned my house last night until 1:30 am while I was happily, soundly asleep in my room. I couldn't ask for better friends.

I was tagged by ruby and mitch

*Start Copy*

In order to be able to achieve and maintain happiness we need to, actively, be able to do two things: Complain and then let go (Dump the baggage, the roadblocks to happiness.) Express Gratitude (The open expression of gratitude promotes happiness.) After all everyone has something to be grateful for and/or something to complain about. If you would like to share, please follow the appropriate link and do so: "Are You Grateful?", "Complain Complain Complain."

Add your name to the current List of Contributors: 1-Attitude, the Ultimate Power 2-Max 3-DianaCA's Metamorphoses 4-Mental Poo 5-My Thoughts 6-Baba Doodlius 7-Wake Up America 8-Life is a Roller Coaster 9-Life is beautiful 10-Pinay Mommy Online 11-Pinay Mommy's Love Blog 12-janet
*End Copy*

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7 Weird Things About Me

Tag by Aisha

Here Are The Rules:
1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person that tagged you.
2. Post THE RULES on your blog.
3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 people and link to them.
5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

1. I love buying souvenirs for friends when on travel but never get to give it to them when I come back.

2. I never in my life, ever followed a recipe. I think I'm not good in following instructions (in cooking). So all the dishes I cook are all modified. Once I start following the recipe, it usually turn out bad. And usually end up in the rubbish bin.

3. Same goes with beauty regimen... I always modify recipes for facial care, skin and body care.

4. I am seasonal. There's one season that I kept checking and buying from e-bay then I just stopped. Then I got hooked with spa thingy for awhile and stopped. Then I turn my attention to something else and stay there for awhile until I get bored and move to something else.
5. I keep saying I'm not into sweets. But I love drinking coke. How contradicted could I be?
6. I work well under pressure.
7. I don't like using mobile phones. Hubby is the one that's always recharging my phone batteries.

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What is Love

Tagged by Noemi

1> What does true love mean to you? –

2> How do you know you’re really in love? – you keep on loving inspite of... and not because of...
3> How many times in your life have you fallen in love? – Literary for the person aside from family - my husband
4> Have you ever fallen out of true love because you were mad at the moment? – nope

5> Do you feel love and physical attraction are the same thing? - nope

6> If your true love became ill or disfigured would you continue to love them the same way? – yes

7> Should anyone else be able to tell you who to love or not love? – nope
8> Do you believe people that ended up divorced were ever truly in love? nope
9> Would you give up something you want for someone you love? – yes.
10> If you truly love someone do you feel it should be unconditional? – yes

I know my answers are funny. Will have to find time to write the reasons behind my answers.

I am not tagging anyone at the moment... Will have to complete all these before I do so. Pls accept my apologies...

Home Alone

Hubby left for Phuket, Thailand yesterday morning. So I'm basically home alone with kids. So now I'm forced to use my laptop. I usually use hubby's notebook coz mine is so so slow. My guess would be due to the loads I have put in here... too many things inside. My friend Tram transferred all my photos in the cd's but it was still slow. So we bought an external hard drive (120GB) to put all our files and documents. Today, I took time to uninstall unnecessary files I downloaded from the internet. It made a lot of difference. My computer works faster this time.

While working on my comp and doing the cleaning up, I found this photo of my boy. I thought of posting it here. Have I told you he's a vain boy? He probably got the genes from his daddy. Hahaha. He loves wearing sunnies. I think this is the 3rd nice one we bought for him. The rest are cheapy ones which broke easily. The other two which were nice were lost somewhere. Took this photo in Subang Parade shopping mall. Got his sunnies from Toys 'R Us.

Best Web Hosting

I have bought a custom domain for my other blog. It's kind of a family blog and private so I'm not gonna tell you the link. Hehehe. Oh well, a few of my friends know about it already. I will leave it up to you to find out it for yourself. That was actually my first blog for blogspot which I set up last year in May. I have abandoned it coz I was trying to avoid something. But this year, when I started this get paid to blog business, I revived it and monetized it coz I realized it has PR2. But since I wasn't very careful, I lost its PR. And I decided to buy a custom domain for it, from Blogger itself. It's very cheap actually. It only cost me 10$ per year.

US Visa Approval

Last month, a group of people from the US called "The Passion" came for a meeting. They're going to have a world tour and Malaysia would be a part of their tour. They met with hubby and the rest of the key people here in Malaysia. (That was the time Deborah Priya Henry - Miss Malaysia World 2007 - contacted hubby. She wanna help out with the program).

And so... the team invited hubby to attend their conference in Atlanta in April. However, the invitation was exclusive of kids. Hubby wanted me to go with him. I gently declined the offer. Of course I would so love to go with him... but the kids would be left behind. I was torn between going with hubby and leaving the kids behind and letting hubby go while I stay with the kids and let opportunity pass by just like that. I chose the later. I don't wanna make the same mistake I did when two years ago, I went with hubby to Bali, Indonesia for a conference, leaving behind my son.

I was still breastfeeding him that time and when I left, he was weaned off from breastmilk abruptly. I assumed he got upset with me and when hubby and I came back from our Bali trip, my boy wasn't recognizing me. He was all "Daddy." It took me some time to get him back coz I got pregnant again.

I don't wanna make the same mistake again. My girl is still on breastmilk and there's no sign of weaning her off whatsoever. If I go with hubby, she would be weaned off abruptly... and I believe it is not a good idea at all.

And so... today was hubby's interview with the US Consulate for his US visa. Thank God he's approved. I've heard a lot of stories about applying for US visa. A lot of people's applications were rejected. I thank God for His favor. He's gonna collect his passport tomorrow. Hubby said he was interviewed for two-three minutes only. Right there and then, the officer approved his US visa application! It's a blessing.

And me? I'll be staying at home with kids. I think I'm so used to be staying at home now alone with the kids. Also, hubby is doing another trip to Phuket, Thailand on Wednesday. He'll be back on Monday only. He's gonna lead a team from Australia... to visit the project in Ranong for the Sea Gypsies people (If you remember the tsunami in december 2006, this people group was affected very badly). I just hope this team won't invite him to Australia... without me and the kids. Otherwise I would be pulling out my hair in despair. =<

Note: If you want to get Tips on Getting Approved for your US visa application, pls ask hubby. I'm sure he's all willing to share. LOL! Peace, Babes!

Weekend Snapshot 14

Two of our friends offered to take care of the kids so hubby and I could go out alone. We took up the offer since the last time we went out alone was last year in December. Also, it was a good time since this was the time of year where hubby and I (we were not married that time yet) prayed and fasted together for God's will for us - whether we should step forward from being "just friends" to "more than just friends" relationship. That was 6 years ago, during the holy week.

And so we went to Sunway Pyramid (mall) and had Tony Roma's for our lunch.

Had Bountiful beef ribs with french fries and broccoli. This, I tell you, is to die for. Really awesome.

Hubby wanted to surprise me to a spa, but it was a wrong time (first day of what women get once a month). So we went for a movie instead and took the couple seat.

Hope everybody had a great time, great food and at a great place with great people during the weekend. I just had. :)

Happy Easter!

I know, it's too early to be greeting everybody a Happy Easter. Today is Holy Friday and everybody (for those who believe, that is) is still culminating the death at the cross, the beginning of life. And soon, the rise of new hope.

For those friends that don't know yet, this week, all Christians in the world have been remembering the death of Jesus Christ on the cross 2000 years ago. I mean, we all should remember everyday. But this week marks the culmination. That death was the beginning of life as those of us in the dark suddenly has gotten hope. It was that death that caused everyone to live. It was that death that Jesus exemplified the true obedience to the call... to his purpose, to die for our transgressions. It was that death that God was glorified.

And so... there came a resurrection and we call it Easter. Not sure how Easter eggs came into picture though. I may have to bloghop and hope that somebody outhere has made a research about it. (probably raq?) She's very good in explaining all these holiday reasons.

Why am I talking about Easter eggs? Ahhh... The memories. I used to live in an Army Camp coz my father was in the service last time. We had a Christian community there too. So every Easter Sunday, our church would organize a Sunrise service and it would always be followed by Egg Hunting. We used to look forward to egg hunting. I just loved those moments when I saw hidden ones. Among the grasses, tree branches, holes, etc. And of course, those eggs would be filled with verses and those who found the most eggs would have a reward. I never won... but I had a real good fun during the Easter Sunday.

When the kids grow up... I wanna do that for them as well. It had created a lasting memory for me. I am hoping to create it in them.

And of course, the best thing in Easter Sunday is that we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In that resurrection, we find hope, peace and above all... LOVE. And not forgetting... the Eternal Life after repentance and belief. May we all put our hope and trust in Him. May we find peace, love and life. Let us believe...

Happy Easter everyone!

My Brother-in-law's Wedding

I've been blogging about my brother-in-law's wedding to his fiance a few times already. He's actually getting married in July this year. I met one of our common friends from Thailand yesterday and we started talking about the wedding again because my friend received a wedding invitation from him through email. I am very excited for this event because we've been waiting like forever for him to find the love of his life. And finally, last year, after his friends introduced this girl to him, he finally felt that this girl would "complete" him. If you saw the movie Jerry Mcguire acted by Tom Cruise and Renee Zelweger, you would know what I meant when I said "complete him."

They haven't finished their "real" wedding invitations yet. I'm sure it would be very pretty. I know Axcell has a good taste in all these things. And also, they're gonna have their wedding reception at my favorite place, the place where my hubby and I had our wedding... at Cyberview Lodge in Cyber Jaya. I'm indeed very excited.

My boy is going to be a page boy. Hmmm I wonder if he would be able to do it. He's quite shy. Probably we give time for him to practice. We actually attended a wedding last month and when we saw the page boy down the aisle, we told our boy that he would be doing this to his Uncle Axcel's wedding. I or his daddy would probably end up walking with him. Hopefully not.

P.S. I can't resist this "offer" so I'm writing again. :)

Elizabeth - The Golden Age

I watched Elizabeth - The Golden Age movie the other day. I like History so I appreciated the movie. It's a story about the Virgin Queen, Queen Elizabeth 1 of England. The story revolves around her reign as a courageous Queen who led her people to a victory over the unwanted but expected invasion by the troops of Spain. Spain that time was so powerful they wanted to conquer the world, including England. Queen Elizabeth 1 was known to love her people so much. (Spain used to send priests or missionaries to make converts to other countries and then later conquered those countries - including the Philippines). They were known to use 3 G's; God, Gold and Glory). She even stepped down and armored herself as a warrior just so she could be an inspiration to her people amid the war.

Also, there was this Mr Walters Raleigh who had caught her attention. He was a pirate and most English people hated him because of that, but not the Queen. She welcomed him into the palace and into England. That time, Mr. Walters just came back from his journey to the New World (as what we call now America). It was fun when he introduced potato to the Queen. And the most interesting of all, he named one of the states in honor of her. It's called Virginia. She was a virgin queen, have I said that yet? She liked Mr. Walters but because he was a commoner, she couldn't have him. However, this Mr. Walters fell in love with the Queen's favorite, Bess. They got married without the Queen's consent (she got pregnant before they got married). It made the queen so furious she sent Mr. Walters into prison. He was released to help with the war against Spain. The war was so strategic. They have won inspite of the Spain's outnumbering them weapon wise and people wise. She was a very wise queen.

It was indeed an encouragement to the England troops when she said: "Let tyrants fear, I have always behaved myself that , under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects." She so loved the people that she was willing to die with them. In the end, they won the battle. That was the fall of Spain. They spent so much in building those war-ships they thought they could invade England. Opposite happened.

I don't mind watching it again. I like watching vintage-setting movie. In the photo above, her headpiece reminded me of the wedding I attended last month. The bride was not tall (the groom was) so she used that kind of headpiece. It was perfect.

Anyways, looks like I would be writing movie reviews more often now as hubby and I started buying dvd's again. :) Hoping to get new ones. I am so outdated. I wonder what's the latest now.

Elizabeth by the way was acted by Cate Blanchett and Clive Owen did Mr Walters Raleigh.

photo courtesy: www.imdb.com

Regarding Schenker and Samantha

I haven't been blogging about my kids lately. I've been so busy with other things not necessary. ;)

My son is enjoying his school, and his friends. He's okay with his reading. I can't say that he's very very good at it now. He's only three years old and it's his first time to attend a pre-school ever. Hehehe. But now he can recognize all the letters in the alphabet and knows the sound of each letter. His writing skill (and drawing) is also improving. I used to get a complain from the teacher of him not doing his work at school like drawing and writing. I told the teacher to do what was necessary since I didn't wanna pressure him at home. I just wanted him to enjoy school and his friends, that's all. Of course, I appreciate what he learns in school.

He goes to school by cycling sometimes, especially when we still have enough time to do so. He just loves to cycle to school. He feels so happy and proud everytime he does that.

Sometimes though it's a challenge to wake him up in the morning. And sometimes, it is for me, too. This morning was the funniest one. None of us woke up early. We got up only at 8:22am! And his regular class starts at 8:30am. So we decided not to send him to school. Me and my tardiness. So tonight, I'm not gonna be up to take the challenge of the 50$ opps. I always miss it... sometimes even by just seconds. They are taken easily.

Anyways, back to our boy... you would laugh at this but one day, he and I were having a conversation again, about where he and his sister came from. He asked me whether Samantha came from my tummy and he came from his daddy's tummy. He probably thought he and daddy had the same gender so he thought he came from daddy. So I explained to him that both of them came from my tummy. And then suddenly he asked me whether I could eat Samantha. Had to ask a few times whether he really was asking me that question. And I asked him why would you want me to eat her. He said "So that Samantha will be in your tummy because she's disturbing me." Hehehe.

Samantha by the way is an ever curious girl. She always wanna put her hand into everything. And yeah, she disturbs her Kuya (older brother) a lot by taking whatever he's doing. And they end up fighting. Yes, you heard me right. They do fight. She already knows how to fight back. But they play a lot together too. She learns a lot from her kuya. That's what I appreciate about a 2-year age gap, not too close, not too far either. Whatever he's learning now, my girl could learn too.

He's such a responsible Kuya. Everytime I leave the two of them together so I can do something else... and when she does some cheeky things like climbing the table and all that, I would know coz the boy would be calling for me. "Mommy, Mommy, the girl! The girl!" Everytime he does that, I know there's some cheeky things my girl does.

It's fun. Samantha is at the age now where every thing she does is cute and adorable. She just melts our hearts. Both of them are truly a joy and blessing from the Lord.

Note: Schenker is wearing Kurta, an Indian Costume.

Janina San Miguel

Just want to let you know guys that I have nothing against Janina. She doesn't deserve to be called an embarrassment. It was the judges' decision that was an embarrassment. Janine had all the right to be nervous (she's only 17 years old and it was her first time joining a beauty pageant ever - hehehe) and she has all the right not to answer the question properly. Not all that join beauty pageant can be so witty in front of the people. It's the standard of the Beauty Pageant I was questioning about, the judges' scoring, etc. It's them that's an embarrassment, and not Janina. It's not her fault that she won. She's merely joining a competition and "lucky" enough to be noticed. I hope people will stop ridiculing or mocking her. My sympathy really goes to her.

Janina San Miguel - Miss Philippines World 2008

I was chatting with a friend and she asked me if I saw the Bb Pilipinas 2008 Beauty Pageant and I said no. So she gave me the link. The Q&A portion with Janina San Miguel. Honestly, I couldn't help but laughed until I got tears in my eyes. I'm not gonna put the link here (save-face), sorry. After seeing the video... I just couldn't stop wondering why she won the title. It's pretty obvious that she didn't answer the question well... with wrong grammar and all that. Of course, no question about her having the 2 major titles, the Best Gown and Swim Suit. I kept thinking some reasons why she got the title.

1. Could the Philippines Beauty Pageant standard gone low?

2. Was she backed up by a very influential person? but then, let's not question our judges' integrity)

3. Was there a miscalculation of points?

4. Was it her attitude in answering the question (inspite of her nervousness) and not the sentence structure and grammar that impressed the judges?

Actually with #4, I was reminded that a lot of beauty pageant contestants went to the top even without knowing how to speak English... hence, the translators. But of course, they have answered the questions properly and some even made punchlines. But with Janina, she didn't even answer the question!

I thought of a lot more reasons... none could come up with why she got the title.

I liked what Ruffa Gutierrez said though. Although she gave her "honest" opinion but she also gave a very helpful tip. "Janina has 7 more months to practice her English-speaking skill and brush up her confidence..." Well, some people think she could be the next Melanie Marques who was known to be a beauty but no brains and she got the Super Model title.

Anyways, whatever the reason... it may be an embarrassment... but hey, she could still do something. Like what Ruffa said, she could rise up and shine. Hopefully she does. I hope we could do our part also in encouraging her instead of mocking her. It's not her fault she won. It was te judges' decision. She's only 17 years old and she has a bright future ahead. Heads up, Ms Miguel. Not all people can be so lucky and win titles like that. :)

Weekend Snapshot

Weekend is all about fun. There are three major categories I could draw up basing on my weekender buddies' ws...

1. people
2. places
3. food.

We are into food this time.

I had Curry Laksa - Chinese Noodle soup, curry flavor

Hubby had beef balls soup, Indonesian style.

Had ABC special (Malaysian version of Halo halo) for our dessert. Yummy!

Hope everyone had a fun weekend.

Spending Time with Hubby without Kids

Had a good dinner with Neal and Yvonne the other night at TGIF Subang Parade. I had smothered steak and tried medium rare this time. I always go for well done but I felt like being adventurous and tried it medium rare. It wasn't bad at all. I just couldn't finish it up coz it came with a HUGE serving. Of course... it goes without saying... the kids were with us. You know when you order a main course in TGIF you can have free meal for kids too. That's why we love going there.

It was nice hearing stories from Neal and Yvonne. They're on their 70's and yet they're still very sweet to each other... still holding hands. Yvonne was telling me when they were young that Neal loved surprising her: call for a babysitter and get her in the car with him without telling her his plans. She pointed out how important is was to spend time with hubby without kids.

But it doesn't necessarily mean that to date is to GO OUT. You can do so at the comfort of your home. Which of course, an affirmation for me because hubby and I do a lot of "datings" in our home, after the kids went to sleep. You see kids are not a hindrance at all to build and keep that intimacy with a spouse.

I totally believe in spending time with hubby alone. It's just that we don't go out often. When the kids are asleep, hubby and i would sit together, have tea or movie or just talk. In a place where everything and everyone is foreign, it's hard to trust people to take care of our kids. Especially when one time, I have a close encounter with this lady who's been taking care of her grandchildren because both the parents of the children were working. The child was crying and had been asking for Mommy. This lady just said... why are you looking for Mommy, Grandma is here. And if that wasn't enough... she said, why Mommy. Say Daddy, Daddy, Daddy! She was literally imposing on the child not to call Mommy but Daddy or Grandma. It was such a horror to behold and hear, especially as a mother. It got me to thinking... Do I trust this woman to take care of my kids?

Anyways... kids do grow up fast. Before we know it... they're already on their own, leaving us behind. And who do we spend time with? Our spouses. So when kids grow up, we'll have time in the whole world to go out alone. For now, dating at home seems the most convenient way. The best thing is: you can "romp" anytime you want. ;)

How Friendships Develop

No, it's not about grown-up friendship. I'm talking about kids' friendship... of a preschooler... especially of Schenker's. I send my boy to his school everyday... right into his classroom. So from day 1, I have seen how his friendship with his classmates develop.

Level 1 - Leave him alone with his classmates. He becomes very conscious of being alone rather than being with other kids.

Level 2 - He becomes conscious of his classmates but never looks at them.

Level 3 - Starts looking at his friends, observing what others are doing.

Level 4 - Starts getting interested with what his classmates are doing, thus, wanting to play with the same toys his friends are playing with.

Level 5 - Starts recognizing his friends and their names. Comes home, tells mommy Sanjay cried in class today. and that there's a girl named Janet in his class.

Level 6 - He comes to school, looking forward to seeing his classmates and when they part, starts to say bye bye. There's this one particular girl that wants to shake hands with him everytime they leave school.

Level 7 - He gets excited to go to school to see his friends. He comes to school, some kids in the class notice him and announce to all that "Schenker is here! Schenker is here!" And when they leave school, they say bye bye to each other like they're not going to see each other again. Throws kisses until they cannot see each other.

Level 8 - the evolution continues...

It's fun to see how kids develop relationship with other kids. It's very simple, so uncomplicated. It's so unlike grown-up relationships, don't you think? I hope that he'll continue to develop friendship with his classmates in school. I am glad he's doing well in this area already. This was one of the main reasons why we send him to school at an early age... to have a social interaction with kids his age. It's worth it.

A New Challenge - How to get my PR back

It took awhile to sink in that I no longer have my pr. It was a one-week affair. I had a great time in my blogging life. Now that it has finally sank in, I feel disappointed and frustrated. I haven't even gotten over wit having PR3 yet and just like that, it faded away. I have read Ruby's blog and her post State of the Bloggers Address (SOBA) cracked me up. But it's true. We all have to move on. For a couple of days after it has finally sank in, I felt a bit unmotivated to blog. But I had to do my draw for My Giveaway so I needed to blog. But after awhile, a feeling of new challenge creeped in. Why has google sacked my PR? The challenge is to bring back my PR.

Had done a little bit of reading around on how to get my PR back. I found a lot of bloggers who have lost their PRs just because they started monetizing it.

Here are a few reasons why our PR had been penalized:

1. writing paid posts
2. text link ads or linkworth
3. exchange links schemes/ viral linking
4. broken links (i have to find out what this means though)

I have been doing these except the no. 2.

So what have I done so far?

1. clean up my blogs from all paid posts (encoding the rel=nofollow thingy)
2. will have to delete the viral linking tags (my apologies to my friends who tagged me with viral links. i am experimenting on this one). I still accept other tags/memes/awards.
3. maybe take a break from writing reviews.
4. request for reconsideration from google.
If you have some more to add, pls let me know. I would be happy to hear from you. You will definitely know once these work.

And the Winner is....

Because I love to give...

As promised... today is the day to announce my two lucky winners. But first, I wanna say thanks to all who joined. You all made this a fun one. As I've said, there are only two winners and they will get these two items: authentic thai silk scarves from Northeast Thailand.

The first one to contact me gets to choose which color she wants.

Congratulations to the two winners. I'm going to contact you guys and please respond within 3 days... if not, then I will have to do another draw to get another winner.

And to all who join, thank you so so much. and I'm sorry i cannot give to everybody...and please drop by again. I'm posting my new giveaway later.

TeleMarketing

There are a lot of ways to introduce products to the people. You can do advertisements on television, radio, internet and some others. If you happen to have a business, then I'm sure you'll find yourself selling products, introducing them and so on and so forth. This is called marketing. One has to know the tricks and the trade in order to be successful in their business, regardless of the size i.e. small scale business and even larger ones. When we do marketing, we have to know our target market. Is our product for high-end people? for youngters? mothers? babies? Then we have to know our competitors market. Well, it's kind of tricky to get into business. There are just so many things to do to lay out the ground market.

When doing business, one has to have what it takes to be successful... good press relations (pr), good personality, good charisma, patience, sharp and you could go on and on. But what really makes a business successful? Successful marketing. One of the ways to do this is by Telemarketing. You don't have to go out and meet people. You just need to dial that phone and you can introduce and discuss your products. Of course, there are people that are just too busy to hear what you have to say, but there are people who would love to listen what product you have to offer. I think this is the easiest way to reach our target market.

My Giveaway is Officially Closed

<-----------This Giveaway is officially closed.------->





Because I love to give...

I am giving away. Since I cannot give to everybody, I wanna give away two things to two "lucky" friends... for now. Authentic Thai Silk scarves I bought from Northeast Thailand.

I will pick out the two winners by random, today. Will announce the two winners tomorrow. So Pls come back and check out the two who will get this nice authentic thai silk scarf.

Garage

Having a nice garage is important when building a house. It simply gives your house an impression. Everytime I look at the houses, I usually look at how the owners keep their garages. Some garages are too small, some can be so big it can fit 3 big cars! I and hubby like going to USJ 17 to see the nice and big houses there. Just for a joyride. Then we get to see which house has the best garage. It's actually nice to have a spacious garage if you have more than one car. At least you can park your other cars and at the same time, have your garage decorated. You can also put a garden to make your garage look nice. The best of all garages is the one that has plants around it. It gives you a refreshing look. We have a small pond on our garage and we put water tube to make the water flow. Sometimes though I'd feel guilty coz I'm not taking care of our garage well. And I only remember to water the plants when I see that they are dying already. Not a good housekeep, I know. But I tend to get busy because of the kids. So sometimes I can't keep it clean.



There are companies that offer to do nice Sectional Garage. At lidget, they have a pent and concrete sectional garage that is most popular and best selling garage range that provides the customer with a quality fit for a purpose concrete sectional garages. They also have a range of optional extras for your garage.

Sudoku

I had fun with Blogthings again today. Here's what I took: What kind of puzzle am I?

You Are Sudoku

You are simple, modern and elegant. You're not that difficult to figure out, but very few people truly get you. You approach the world with a pure logic that most people will never grasp.

What Kind of Puzzle Are You?

If Sudoku is simple, how come I still have a hard time with it? Maybe I try the simplest one next time. I tried playing this game and it gave me a headache.

What Cup Size Are You?

It has been a rage ever since this cosmetic surgery came into action. A lot of women are going for it, especially if they're not happy with their sizes or shapes, or simply do it if they wanna impress their men. This could also happen to women who got pregnant. You know when you get pregnant your chest tend to get bigger... only to have it sag post-pregnancy time. Some worry about it when they breastfeed their babies. Naturally, when you breastfeed your baby, your chest will naturally sag no matter what you do. Because of these tendencies, women would go for Breast Enlargement only to realize that it's too big and go back for a surgery to make it smaller. Now that sounds funny and scary at the same. Well, this is what money could do. You can actually do anything if you have more than enough cash.

There are a lot of surgeons though that do well in this area. All you need to do is look around. The procedure is quite safe and simple, I heard. You just stay at the hospital for a night for a monitoring then the next day, you will be discharged. But of course, if you're working, you have to take leave coz it takes one week to heal the surgery. Then your stitches will be taken off. I saw a lot of women, especially celebrities do this. Do I wanna do this too? I don't know. Have to ask my husband first. You know, when it comes to cosmetic surgeries and such, husbands are the best judge.

PR Slap

My PR3 just got slapped by google. No I'm not upset. When I got PR unexpectedly, I already prepared myself for such things to happen, knowing that I'd be writing reviews and earn money from writing. I was very careful though. But today, my friend told me my PR was gone. I checked and rechecked and she was right. It made me sing the song Here Today, Gone Tomorrow. Actually, the song should be here for a week, gone today. LOL.

What's the PR (page rank) catch anyway?

When bloggers want to earn money from their blogs by writing reviews, they have to apply to companies that offer to pay bloggers to write a product review. Some companies need a Google PR in order for the bloggers to be accepted. So bloggers work hard in earning PRs. They submit their blogs to directories, exchange links with other bloggers, and try getting that backlinks. Some go to the extent of giving freebies to get attention from readers/bloggers (like what I just did). So once we get that much desired PR, our application gets approval and we start writing reviews. Here's the twist though. Google doesn't like small-scale bloggers like me to monetize the small-scale blog like mine. So when bloggers start writing reviews and Google notices it. Wham! We get a PR slap. It's like there's nowhere to go.

So now, I have two blogs that fell so hard. The higher PR you get, the harder and more painful it is when you fall. My wordpress blog used to have PR4... until I started monetizing it. Now it's 0. It was hard. I almost cried. Now this blog had PR3. But only for a week. I think I'm used to having a PR slap that it didn't matter anymore. I'm still with PPP and they still give me opps for PR3s. SO it should be okay.

If not, I don't mind at all. I know I have done my best. And if my best doesn't take me anywhere, it's fine. At least I have tried. But for 3 months of writing reviews, I got earnings up to 500US$ (I started on December 20, 2007). No regrets. If of course, offers still come in, I would be happy to continue what I do. If not, then life goes on. Normal blogging goes on.

Anyway, I gained a lot of friends by just blogging. It's worthy to have found friends. So... we go on. My heart will go on...

Are You Assured?

I used to be very skeptical of insurance policies. I thought that some companies just wanna make money from you. So they sell all these kinds of insurances like health, life, accident, house, car and even HGV Insurance. When I started working in a government office when I was still in the Philippines, insurance payment was automatically deducted from my salary. I was a bit frustrated because I thought I didn't need insurance at all. But inspite of my skepticism of insurance policies, I still bought one for my sister, the educational insurance. But due to a career change, I wasn't able to pursue it. I have canceled the payment. And to my disappointment, I wasn't able to get the refund back.

When I got married, I realized that my husband had one for himself. He was also trying to convince me to get a policy of my own. But I was strong in my opinion and told him I didn't need any. Until one of my friends got sick. She had cyst in her ovary and she needed a surgery. She hesitated at first because not only she didn't have money, she also didn't have any insurance at all. From then on, I realized that one must have at least one insurance policy. I decided to buy health insurance and the plus point is that my kids are fully covered as well.

Now I am assured that whatever happens in the future, I don't need to worry coz I am insured. Are you?

The Alphabet Meme

I was tagged by June.

Rule #1

Copy all the links below and replace a single link under the appropriate alphabet. If your domain name, or even the title of your blog, starts with an "A," you'd replace the link under that alphabet and put the replaced link at the bottom. Also, don't forget to credit the tagger, or where you got the list from, at the end of the list with a full URL of the post so that a pingback gets generated.

1. A. AndrewJune
2. B. bloggingcents.com
3. chocmintgirl.blogspot.com
4. D. delusionsofgrandeur.com
5. E. enjoyingtheride-jenn.blogspot.com
6. F. flsam.blogspot.com
7. G. gotic-peach.net
8. H. happykeg.com
9. I. ipentimento.com
10. J. j3net.blogspot.com
11. K. kabalyero.com
12. L. ladyjava.javaura.com
13. M. mariuca.blogspot.com
14. N. notjustmama.net
15. O. originalmx5.net
16. P. patrickdevivo.com
17. Q. qweddings.com
18. R. ratusyura.blogspot.com
19. S. shirleysdelight.com
20 T. takfeng-lili.blogspot.com
21. U. utada-online.net
22. V. valmg.com
23. W. wickedbabylon.com
24. X. xaviermedia.com
25. Y. yimto.com
26. Z. zooropazoo.blogspot.com

Replaced link: julianarw.blogspot.com
Previous tagger: june

I'm tagging Ruby, Lalaine and Noemi.

Training Courses

As far as I can remember, the last training that I have gone to was the cross-cultural training before I was deployed to Thailand. It was a 6 month-course with international exposure (for free) to your target country. I enjoyed doing this short course so much. I have learned a lot, from understanding the different cultures to acquiring another language. It has helped me so much. Also, I benefited from it so much knowing that I'm in a cross-cultural marriage today. Hubby is Malaysian Indian (Malayali origin). Actually, short training course are a lot better coz you finish fats and can get the work fast. I have a friend who does care-giving course and she will finish her training soon. This will be very helpful once she joins her husband who is currently waiting for her to join him in the US.

That helps me to thinking to suggest to my hubby to do the Plumbing Training so we don't have to pay for other people to do it for us. LOL! He'll probably suggest back that I'm silly. But kidding aside, if you want to take training courses, you might wanna check this out:

This is a UK based training that caters to all your training needs. They have highly qualified staff and training centers all over. So you just need to fill up a form which is found in their website and they will find the nearest training center for you. Cool huh?

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus

I read this book a couple of years before getting to know Peter (hubby). I was so amused by how the author, John Gray, described the differences between men and women. Men are wired differently than women. They think differently. I read the book long time ago already so I forgot the detailed differences. All I know is that women are just different than men. Like men are from Mars, women are from Venus.

Example:

Last Christmas, we got two huge mugs as a present from my parents-in-law. We've been actually wanting to buy a couple for us so we were glad that we got those for Christmas. So we started using them right after.

Here's the differences of our thoughts:

Her thoughts (mine): Since we got this mug, we easily finished our Milo.
His thoughts: Since we got this huge mug, our breakfast has really been satisfying.

Here's another one which I noticed:

Men: They want something. They shower you with attention, time and gifts. They get what they want. They leave or ignore you for a while until they want another thing from you.

Women: They want something. They ignore you, giving you cold shoulders until you finally discover what they want. They get what they want. They shower you with lots of attention, time and gifts until they want something else.

Hehehe.

I wonder if the same holds true to others. This is just my personal observation.

Arcadia Apartment

Our Arcadia Apartment is just getting nicer and nicer. They just repainted the gate around it. The gazebo also at the entrance is quite attractive. Will post photos next time to show you. Sad to say we don't live there as of now. We have rented it out and renting a terrace house just across the road. We thought that we needed a bigger place because our family was getting bigger and we have a lot of friends staying with us. The good thing about this house is it's right in front of a playground/park. That's a real bonus for us, knowing that our kids can benefit from it. Well, we don't go there much nowadays. But if ever we wanna go, it's very easy. Just press the button, open up the gate and we're at the park already. Another thing is, my boy's school is just a few blocks away from our house. So that's another bonus.

Our apartment on the other hand is still not fully paid. Hubby is still paying for the

Mortgage at the bank. We have still a lot more years to pay. This mortgage is such that for the first 5 years, you cannot make an advance payment. You have to pay a month by month amount. But I feel that for the first few years, the only things you're paying is the interest and not the real loan. But after 5 years, you can pay it off by whatever amount you can pay... which means, you can lower down the interest and decrease the period of paying. I know of some banks that dont have this kind of policy. A friend of ours paid the mortgage within 5 years. I was amazed. But of course, it all depends where you are situated and how much loan you're taking. In our case, it's a bit higher... so we had to sacrifice for the first 5 years and pay for just the interest. Now, we're paying for more than 5 years. That means if hubby gets more $$$, we can pay off our mortgage in just a short period of time. Keeping my fingers crossed.

8 Random Things About My Kid/s

I was tagged by Ruby
8 random things about my kids:

My Boy:

1. My boy was born on the date his grandfather died. (October 27, different years). In Indian culture, when this happens, he could be a god. But of course, we Christians don't believe in that coz we only have one God.

2. He's a very seasonal boy. One season he would have rice and fish for all his meals. When he gets tired, he'd ask for another kind, rice and eggs. He would have this until he gets tired and would look for another type of meal until he gets tired again.

3. He likes making comparisons. Example, when we were watching a Hindi movie, he turned at me and looked at my eyes, then he turned to the TV... then he said, Mommy, your eyes not nice. Her (Rani Mukurji) eyes are nice. Uh-oh. I know I must keep myself beautiful for my hubby, must I kepp myself beautiful for my son too?

4. He loves giving his own opinion. When he sees I wear nice clothes, he would tell me: Wow mommy, you look nice. But when he doesn't think it's nice, he would say something like: Mommy, you look like a dancer.

5. He loves talking/mumbling/singing. His mouth would shut only when he watches his video programs and/or when he's alseep.

6. He started walking at age 13 months.

7. He's a very careful/cautious guy. He thinks a lot before he does things which sometimes irritates me.

8. People say (including his parents) he's a very handsome boy. Ha-ha.

My girl:

1. She was born 2 years and 1 month exactly after her brother was born (November 27).

2. She started her mini-solids at 5.5 months old.

3. Her first solids at 7 months was Domino Pizza, extravaganza flavour.
4. She climbed up the stairs alone (following behind her kuya - older brother) at age 8 months.

5. Her receptive language is quite good that when she was only 6 months old, if i asked her to kiss mommy, she would do it also.

6. She started walking at 10 months 4 days old.

7. She likes to bang her head... not necessarily when upset. She just loves doing it. Her pedia assured me though that she's not autistic. She does this to stimulate her brain... That's what I was told. She hated it when I stimulated her when she was still a baby.

8. She's 15 months old now and still on breastmilk.

I enjoyed doing this tag. 8 is not enough though. Hehehe. Well... all moms would love doing this so I'm tagging:

Shopping Time

We just came back from Sunway Pyramid, my favorite mall. Now that it's bigger, it offers more branded products. It's actually the first time that we did shopping for almost one whole day with the kids in tow. It was fun. Hubby bought some nice new tops for me. Of course, I got to choose them.

When we got home and took out my new tops, I realized that almost all the tops I chose were red in color. Hehehe. I am soooo into red nowadays. It has been my favorite color since young and I switched to pink when I discovered that my skin tone do well in pink. But now my pink season is over... Red is coming back. Hehehe.

I love OshKosh for my kids. So everytime I have a chance to buy them, I do. Here's what we bought for my boy coz we realized that he has outgrown almost all his clothes. Hubby bought two shirts from Mark & Spencers for himself. He really deserved it... after working so hard just to keep up with our financial necessities.

Going shopping is really tiring. I had pain in my legs after walking around Sunway Pyramid. We don't normally shop like this. If I could avoid walking while shopping I would though. Oh by the way, I found that you can shop online and what's more, you can get bargains, especially on pre-holiday and post-holiday seasons. Like right now, it's a pre black friday holiday season so you can find a great deal shopping online. In fact, in www.blackfriday.info, it is a consumer friendly site that is very helpful in planning your holiday shopping. This site will let people buy blackfriday items without the hassle of standing in a long queue at 5:00 a.m.! You can shop with a leg-pain free.

Gold Card

You know, I am having a Gold Card paranoia. When I had this card, I spent till I dropped. Now I have decided to give it up altogether. It' a real temptation. So when Lalaine gave me this award, I wasn't sure whether I'd receive it or not. LOL. Kidding. Actually, I was amused with this award. How creative can someone get by using this gold card as a sign of friendship? Thanks Love.

I wanna pass this blogging friends forever gold card award to my online blogger friends:
Mitch, Ruby, Raq, Lynn, and June.

Bad Credit

I used up my limit using my credit card when I was in the Philippines. You know, when you're with your family and friends, you can't help but give them nice treats and presents from time to time. And so when I was in the Philippines for 6 weeks last year, I spent like crazy for my family and friends knowing that I won't be able to do it often... which led to a bad credit. Until now, my hubby is still paying for it. I don't think it's that bad though.


But for some people, bad credit is indeed a reality where it's hard to rise up from too much of debt. Some had even left with nothing else. With this kind of situation, will there be companies that would still accommodate these people? The answer is... yes. There are indeed lenders who would still like to give bad credit a second chance. They can give credit cards for bad credit which is really helpful to give these people a chance to be able to stand up again and begin sorting out their financial situation that could lead to a better life.

One in a Million Malaysia - Winner

Tonight was the night. The big night for Sarah, Shilah and Ayu. It was the grand finale for One in a Million Malaysia Season 2. Sarah, my top bet was voted out. She didn't do quite well for the last two weeks. Also, I think she became over confident with her standing, being the best of all. Yeah, I can say that she's the best singer of all three. But it's not her game. I think Paul Moss liked Ayu. He really empowered her through his comments. I noticed that for the last few sessions with One in a Million. Of course, I like Ayu also. She was my 2nd bet. I am glad she won. She is actually from Sabah, East Malaysia. Such great talent from that side of the country. Well, to Ayu, Congratulations to you, girl. May you continue to shine.

Time to Sleep

After getting my page rank, the new company that I applied for and approved has opened up a lot of offers for me to write. I felt so overwhelmed I didn't know which one to write first. But of course, I chose the one that has a higher pay. *wink*. But I have to write double because you cannot have a "post" that's subsequent. So every "post" must have a usual post in between.

Now I'm so ready for bed. It's time to sleep. I am so dreaming of lying down on a nice cool bed like this.

It is so inviting. It looks so comfy I think I can sleep there forever. You can see more of this at:
They have different kinds of beds which includes Leather Beds, faux leather beds, children's beds, wooden beds, french style beds and a whole lot more. The one in the photo is a french style bed. They have sizes that vary from single to double to queen and even king-sized bed! My family is using a king-sized bed because all of us sleep there. It's nice and cozy to sleep with kids. 179 The good news with buying beds from them is, they have free delivery service on orders that cost 499 Pounds. That's a cool deal. Now it's time to sleep.