Crazy Busy Week

This week, I started taking care of my boys full-time again. Yup, me and my ex-hub are trying something new to help with daycare costs. I am compensated, but it won't be as high as what the daycare asks for. And since I have never been too crazy about taking them to daycare, I think this set up will work for everyone. So let's see how it goes.

One thing that I hated most about my kids being in daycare is that they seem to catch every single germs and so they were sick all the time. I have given up on working out of home full-time because I did it three times it never worked. I end up quitting the jobs because every single week, my kids are sick- either one of them or both. It wasn't worth going to work everyday and worrying if they're okay in daycare, if they're eating fine, or if they're going to get sick again the next day when they weren't. Gosh, it was such a real pain. Also lately, my little Jaden hasn't been eating well too since he caught that on and off coughing and cold from where else- the daycare. He used to never been picky with food and he always has good appetite to any food we give him. Now it's like an ordeal every meal time. So tomorrow I am taking him to the doctor about that and also ask about the lumpy bruise on his left elbow that hasn't gone away since two months ago. Ugh. It is worrying me.

Anyway, I got too much to say but too little time. I am off to the kitchen to make dinner now. Our Shih Tzu dog Gibson, is also barking and I think he is hungry too. Dan took him to a vet last week too for some tummy problems. But he is okay now and maybe this weekend, we'll take him to one of those indoor doggy parks with dog ramps. Dogs do grow on you and sometimes they do act like babies. :D

How is your week going?

Super Busy

Once again, I have had a super super busy week. So pardon my absence on this blog for a whole week. :(

First, our airconditioning wasn't working since last Saturday which had us spend our last weekend in a hotel. It wasn't a bad place- one of those Sheraton 4 star ones with nice, clean rooms and a swimming pool. Anyway, the AC finally got fixed yesterday but before that we had to stay at Dan's parents' basement for 3 days. I mean, his parents has a nice house. The basement is like a whole new floor with its own kitchen, bathroom, living room, etcetera a whole family could literally live there! :)

Still, it is an inconvenience when you have to live out of a suitcase and can't have your usual things and the comfort of your own home. So last night was our first night back in the house and what a relief! So today was spent mostly cleaning and doing the laundry that piled up for two weeks. Ugh. Good thing I still managed to write a post on Hip Mama's Place earlier and here for the suppose-to-be topic on POS systems.

Anyway, I hope you all are having a peachy Friday. The weekend will be busy again. The boys will be with their dad and Dan and I will be attending his son's soccer All-Star tournament Saturday and Sunday. It will be fun, I'm sure! :)

How's your plan for this weekend? Anything fun? :)

Back!

Wow, can't believe I haven't been on my personal blog for almost a month. This has been the longest time I have been absent. Sorry dear friends.

Anyway, between dealing with a fairly recent divorce, moving to a separate place, arranging visitation schedules for my boys, etecetera- life has been VERY hectic. Nobody ever said divorce was easy. But so far, I'm managing fine. I thank God everyday for the strength He gives me amidst all the challenges of a newly single mom. My boyfriend of six and a half-months Dan is just the most wonderful person I've ever known. I can never thank him enough for all the encouragement he continues to give me. He cheers me up whenever I'm feeling the blues, takes me to new places, and never fails to make me laugh every time. Him and I are just two crazy-silly, loving, and warm people.. and we really click- almost unbelievably. :D

*Dan and I spent our Valentine weekend at this breath-takingly beautiful beach resort in the Cozumel Island, Mexico

So anyway, before I lay out all the details of my personal life, I want to thank you my dear blogging friends for continuing to visit my nice blog and leaving me your sweet comments. ;D

I will be sure to come visit yours again soon. I know that blogging can take up time from our busy days, but believe it or not it's been therapeutic for me- a mental getaway of some sort. Plus the fact I can write for a little pocket change so I can still afford my monthly spa pedicures is a bonus! (Okay, off to writing about Las Vegas hotels, lol). :D
Hmmm... or maybe because I love writing. I don't write perfectly, but I think I write well enough. Anyway, so much about me...

So what have you been up to lately? Thank you all for reading and leaving me a comment. :D

Later!
J

Good Thing I Don't Have A Ferrari

I got you with that clever title, didn't I? LOL. :D

Well, about a few weeks ago I backed up on my friend's house mailbox so it broke one of my car's tail lights (ouch!). But anyway, I was stalling on getting a new tail light replacement until I got pulled over for speeding about three weeks after that incident. I was apparently doing 50mph on a 25mph limit. Ugh. Just my luck. Anyway, the cop who pulled me over was nice. You know why? He was our neighbor. I mean, I didn't know that he was until I gave him my driver's license and he told me that we are neighbors. He must have looked at my address when he said, "So you live in my neighborhood too. Well, guess what. Consider this a hookup. With your speeding and tail light broken, it would've cost you what.. around 600 bucks? You would rather spend that on other things, right? So since we're neighbors and I don't want to make enemies with my neighbors, I'll let you go this one time. Just be careful next time. You cannot drive like that here, okay?". And that was it. I was a little dumbfounded. I thanked him. Profusely if he would have let me. But he's one of those guys who talk so fast and moves so quick. So before I could even finish saying "thank you, Officer!", he was lightning fast gone, LOL.

Anyway, the reason why I said "good thing I don't have a Ferrari", because my tail light cost me only a $120 to replace it. Imagine if I had a Ferrari. I would have to search all over the internet and the car dealerships for affordable Ferrari parts like a broken tail light and it would probably cost me five times or more that amount! So on that note, I'm happy I have a Nissan Xterra and not a Ferrari. ;D

Frugality

I was watching the news this evening and one segment that interested me is about this really young mom with 6 kids and pregnant with her seventh child. They were showing the ways that her family stays frugal and the way that they spend money on their daily necessities such as food and clothing. Like, she goes to thrift stores for clothes and makes her own flour to bake bread. Wow! Very interesting. I guess I don't have to feel too bad about myself giving up a recent health care career to stay home and take care of my two kids. The whole time I was watching the feature I kept thinking how she manages her household with 6 kids and pregnant at the same time. Gosh, she must need a lot of caffeine to keep her sanity. I know I do. :D

I mean, I have nothing against women with tons of kids. In fact I do admire them. But keeping it real, people. I know I won't have the energy or time to make my own flour with 6 kids and all. Honestly... would you? ;D

How's the Weather?

I can't wait until the weather gets warmer again. I am beginning to feel really tired of wearing thick, heavy winter clothes.

Yesterday was actually nicer here in Virginia. It was like in the high 60's and we didn't have to wear our thick coats. The boys had a lot of fun running around the community park. It's such a blessing to be able to go out, breathing fresh air, enjoying the cool weather and just being outdoors and seeing the sights.

It would be really nice to go to some nice vacation spot and rent a private place in the Outer Banks (sigh). But of course, we had to look at the family budget, although Joe is thinking of taking the boys again to the Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg next weekend. We enjoyed it there the last time so it wouldn't be a bad idea. Certainly much better than being cooped up in the house.

Shoes

Winter is the time of year when I go easy on my feet. No crazy high heels for me. I just like wearing soft, low-heeled winter boots or good old Clarks mules with my jeans on casual days. Comfort without sacrificing style.


In the summer, I like wearing sexy-looking sandals and slides, like this one by Manolo Blahnik. Oh wow, I feel like Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker's character on Sex and the City) talking about sexy shoes! (LOL).

I love summer and wearing shoes like these. The only downside is that I have to keep my toes looking pretty all the time to wear open-toed summer style shoes. Not that I don't like to keep my toes pretty. It's more the lack of time to go to the salon...y'know what I mean?

How about you? What favorite style of shoes do you like wearing in the summer.. or winter?

My Weekend

This is the last weekend before Christmas and honestly, I am still catching up on my card-sending and gift-shopping. So tonight I will sneak out and shop for the last few things I need, wrap the gifts up when the kids are asleep, and I should be good to go.

Today will just be finishing up with laundry and chores around the house, responding to emails, and maybe write a couple more reviews for Hip Mama's Place. Ugh. Some days I wish I have more time, or that I have four hands, or that there are 48 hours in a day.

Tomorrow is a new week, and both my boys are still a little bit weak from the flu. Thank God Joe stays home tomorrow. He can take care of the boys and I can go to work with my peace of mind. Hopefully Tuesday is so much better. I will be off work Christmas Day and will work only 6 hours the day after Christmas so this week wouldn't be that long at work.

So how was your weekend? And how will your new week look like?

What A Week

This week was just unbelievably disastrous.

It started Monday morning when I had to leave my new job early because my little Jaden was throwing up sick at the daycare. Yes, it was the first day for all of us! Me at my new job and my boys at their daycare. Ugh!

To make the long story short, I had to take Jaden to his doctor who later recommended that I take Jaden to the ER which I did. That night, he had to be admitted at the hospital pediatrics for further treatment. My little Jaden was actually being a god boy at the hospital the whole time. He had on his little hospital gown and he looked so adorably cute in it. I didn't feel too bad looking at him in his hospital bed. Except for the time when the nurses took him to another room to take his bloodwork and I could hear his little painful screams. I cried briefly, but at the same time I know it had to be done. When he came back to his room, he was fine again. At first, he was tring to take his IV off his little right arm. But eventually he was okay with it and seemed to understand the whole situation later. My baby Jaden is the cutest in the world even when he is sick!

Tuesday, I went back to my job and Joe (their dad) had to take the day off work to stay with Jaden at the hospital. Gabriel (our three year old) and I went home Monday night and I dropped him off at the daycare the next day.

Tuesday night Jaden was already home from the hospital. Thank God it wasn't that bad for him.

The whole day yesterday went fine. Until last night... Gabriel caught a flu virus at the daycare (we suspect) and today Thursday I had to call off work again to stay home with my boys. My manager at my new job is a very nice lady and was understanding of the whole situation last Monday. So hopefully what happened today wouldn't be bad for me.

I know. These are the days when I scream for help. I'm fine. But yes, it would be nice if I have my family and friends close by. But I guess we all have to make do of what we have. I am managing fine. I really do. But I just wish...

Knock, Knock

Don't you just get annoyed when you hear loud knocks on your door thinking it's the Fedex or UPS guy so you run to it only to open it for someone from a religious sect or someone promoting a new business on the block and you have to hear a ten-minute sales pitch?

Gosh, I mean.. can't they just leave a sticky on your door post with their name and number in it? Seriously. I prefer that than having to stop what I'm doing and having to open the door for them when I don't need to. I mean, I'm a big freebie fan so I actually won't mind if they're going to make me open my door and they hand me out free promotional products that I can really use. But handing me out a religious pamphlet or having to listen to some memorized sales pitch...come on, ya people! :)

How about you? Do you mind...???

To-Do List

Today is just going to be a "stay home and do my to-do list around the house" day. Sounds fun, isn't it? ;D

I wanted to actually check out this new play gym for kids to take my boys to earlier this morning. It's got all kinds of cool play things in it that I am sure my boys will enjoy. I've never seen indoor wooden swing sets as huge as this one we saw at this new play gym. But it's a little chilly out today and I really, really wanted to finish up working on my to-do list for the week. Gosh, I always wonder if I can even get half of them done. But I guess I just have to keep trying, right?

So how is your Wednesday? Anything special today or have you got a never-ending to-do list you gotta do like I do? :D

Is your computer becoming very much a part of your daily life?

Do you sometimes get amazed at how computer technology is becoming a part of our daily lives these days?

Take my nine year old nephew. He uses the computer to research for his school assignments. Wow, I was thinking to myself, when I was ten years old I don't even know how to use a manual typewriter, let alone a computer! LOL.

Then my sister was telling me about her daughter (my niece) who just got into college and taking courses for Nursing. My niece almost don't leave the house much to study, except for a couple days in the week- because she takes her online college courses
all in the privacy of their home in her computer.

Me? I only go online because I need MapQuest to give me driving directions of new places, or find the address of the nearest pizza delivery place, or write reviews of products that I get free, etcetera etcetera. :)

I know this isn't new to you all. But I just wanted to share my own amazement to this whole online business with everything around us nowadays.

I mean, look at all of us- don't we make nice money because we're online blogging and using our computer? ;)

Island Getaway!

Now tell me if this beautiful scenery does not make you want to pack up your bags and head over to the nearest island you can get away to! :)

Can you tell I am very excited about my homecoming to the Philippines? I am going there in less than four weeks- yes, less than FOUR weeks only! So now I am thinking of places that I can get away to. My sister just told me there's this beautiful island we can check out. I mean, who knows how much it's gonna cost me. But maybe, just maybe...we can find some island that looks and feels like St Thomas Island in the U.S. Virgin Islands and find some lovely villa somewhere to rent. Maybe villas like the ones listed on St. Thomas villa rentals. Oh wow, am I really daydreaming!

Craigslist is the way to go, baby!

If you haven't used Craigslist.org to sell your unwanted stuff before- you definitely should.

My husband and I started listing some of the furniture that we don't want to haul with us on our next move- just last night on Craigslist. I mean, just last night, people! Mind you- we sold almost everything TODAY! Yes, TODAY!

It's amazing. Just minutes after listing our items last night, we received tons of emails and phone calls- people just trying to get our things from us. So fast and so soon! (LOL). So today people are just getting in and out of our house getting our things out. I'm so sad the house is almost empty now. Can you all imagine? And hello, we still live here!!!! :)

Anyway, I'm not complaining. We made some nice money today selling our stuff. My husband and I went, "yayyyy!!!". It's amazing and it happened so fast!

So if you want to get rid of things you don't want anymore, Craigslist is the way to go, baby! :)

Errands Day

I got to do some errands today, so I am quite happy. I am also trying to clean out our closets, get rid of clothes that we don't wear anymore or things that are just junking the house. I did a little Ebaying and actually sold my first Ebay item- which was an unused baby outfit. I'm happy. I'm not a very Ebay-savvy person but I think I'm learning. I got way too much toys, clothes, and things that we really don't use anymore so today I went to the local consignment store and inquired about what things they will accept to consign. I might bring some of the nice things we have there. I'm sure somebody else could put them to good use.

Some nice extra cash too, right? ;)

Happy Monday!

How was your weekend? Hope it was a good one.

Mine was nice and laid-back. Saturday we took the kiddos to the Easter Egg Hunt with my girlfriend Loyna and her kid and her mom. We were disappointed about the first egg hunt event we wanted to check out because we were late and the event was so short that it was already over even before we got there. There were no eggs or other activities to check out anymore. So we ended up going to a church-hosted egg hunt event close by and it actually turned out better than the first one. My little boys both had a fun time being outdoors in the beautiful weather with mommy and daddy. Gabriel, my toddler enjoyed playing at the bounce house with the other kids who were there. For some reason he wasn't that interested in the egg hunting yet. Hmm, maybe next year when he's a little older.

Sunday was laid-back and lazy. My husband and I just took it easy and stayed home all day, playing with our kids and watching Lifetime movies. We must have watched three of those movies! LOL.

So today I'm just picking up the chores. Before I got into the computer I did my Crunch dance home video exercises and it felt good. Gosh, I don't know the last time I did an exercise like that! I'm on a new mission right now: lose some weight already! :)

Happy Monday, everyone! Have you all checked out Hip Mama's Place lately, by the way? I got new contests going on there right now. You might like what you see. Thanks!

"Tackle the Closet" Day :)

Today, I vowed to finish up re-organizing and cleaning up our main closet in the master bedroom. Whew, I woke up early at 5AM and started folding up clothes, cleaning out a few of my purses and arrange them well again in the built-in shelves, vacuumed the floor. We have a huge walk-in closet so it's like cleaning a whole room, LOL. But wow, I was proud of myself. I finished it before noon and still have time to do other chores around the house. So while on break from all that I logged into PPP and here I am trying to make a little money here. Won't be too long on the 'puter today as I still have to run out do a few errands and finish up two more loads of laundry- talk about being a stay-at-home mom. LOL. Not complaining, though. Life is good. :)

Wow, is this Thursday already?

I can't believe I haven't written anything on here since Monday. I think if Hip Mama Blog could only scream, "Give me some lovin'!", I'd stop what I'm doing and give her some TLC and yes, love! LOL.

So how are you all my dear blogging friends. Sorry I've been just busy promoting my new shopping and product review blog I think I'm starting to neglect Hip Mama Blog and you all too- my blogrolling friends here. :(

So today I'm going to make it up to you all and try and visit each one of you all, starting today and who knows maybe even just today. :)

So I'm gonna go over to Carrie's at Rantings of A Woman since she just left me a comment and said that she has tagged me with a meme. I hope I can really do it this time...hmmm, I can only try, right? :)

Happy Thursday to everyone who reads my blog!

Nice Day Tuesday

Today was a nice family day sort of. This morning I got to go to the park with my hubby and kiddos. Hubby was off work today due to an appointment earlier this morning. After playing at the park, we went to get some hot good lunch at a Mexican Grill close by our house. It was a good meal. I had grilled chicken and sopapillas (yum!) for dessert. I love it! :)

When we came back to the house after lunch we noticed the lawn need some TLC- the weeds in the front lawn look ugly. But then we decided it's better we give it over to the professional lawn mowers who do our lawn in the summer. We thought they'd do a better job than us. LOL.

Overall, today was a real nice day. I got to write a nice review on Hip Mama's Place, got to write here a bit then still was able to spend nice, quality time with my family. :)

Today...

Wow, I thought the snow was gone. But today it actually snowed more than it did the other night. It looks cool. Actually something about the snow that lifts my spirits up. I think it's the pure whiteness, or how the snow flakes gently fall on the ground. It's so serene. Hmmm, now I'm being poetic. :)

Anyways, today I'm just being lazy. I couldn't go out this morning for our morning walks of course. But it's okay. There's always tomorrow.

How about you? How is your Thursday going?