Im sorry for spacing out on you for most of the week: I have perfectly perfect reasons for doing so

1. Im on my own. Well, we are on our own - me, and two kids under age 7. I let my maids go last Monday (it was a mutual decision), so my me time has been severely compromised, especially with our router taking the perfect timing to die. (Bad CD-R King!) Before you sing me praises, let me add a disclaimer: Im so scared of mumu and robbers and with me and the two kids in a big house, we bummed at my parents’. Im sharing internet access with my youngest sister who is severely obsessed with Japanese actors so yes, internet time is compromised too.

2. Martha got sick. She was poo-ing around 5-10 times a day for three straight days (started on Monday). She lost a lot of weight but did not get dehydrated nor had a fever, thankfully. I made sure to keep her hydrated and stuffed food into her mouth every chance I can get. Buti na lang likas na matakaw tong anak ko. She was still active the whole time too. Yun nga lang, tambay kami sa bathroom lagi (I would have blogged in the bathroom if we had the router, grrrrrr.)

3. Since we have no maid, I have been preparing Matthew for school. I still wake up at 4:30AM but instead of me turning on the laptop to start my day, I head off the fridge to think what would Mato’s breakfast be. Complete lifestyle change I tell you. Hahaha. (And no I still havent been cooking, I have the toaster to toast bread, make hotdogs and the micowave to reheat rice and leftover food from dinner)

4.If most of you have visited my food and health blog (naks, kunwari), you might remember I blogged about joining an online version of the Biggest Loser among my digiscrap friends. Week 1 I did good but Week 2 has had me groping for control. Staying at my mom’s is not helping because we have great food and I have a Dad who loves to eat. Isang aya ko lang nun kumain, lalabas na kami. Either that or sya ang magaaya. Im trying to psych myself that I can still bounce back so holding myself accountable has helped me a great deal (so does drinking liters and liters of water). You can view my chronicles here.

5. I blogged about a big secret two weeks ago, and I consider it such a great accomplishment to be able to keep it for two weeks. Hahaha. Glo had known it since its planning stage and the MBAPs (and Jen) knew it just this week. Nope, no pregnant. Nope, Edil didnt resign and transfer work (we are not that crazy YET). Nope, no work for me too. See my secret here.

6. Lastly, I just love this month: 08.08. July has got to be my least favorite of all months (bad memories) but August is among my top five favorite months. Since I just love the number 08.08 and my 365 Project never saw its fruition, Im going to be doing my own Photo a Day for 08.08. I have always wanted to be able to capture everyday life - in its truest form, and I want to be able to capture the nonsense things that happen to us everyday. I have steered away from months that have celebrations of some sort, so August will be perfect. I know I can do it — because I did my Christmas Album for 31 straight days and didnt miss a day! Matthew and Edil still look at the album from time to time. Im not going to go Shutterfly this time but will be doing it simpler. You can read about my project here, I hope you can join!

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(July 20-27)

Im getting so bad at taking pictures lately. It doesnt help that it is always raining (so hard, I might add) lately. Days are always blah and grey.

The only highlight of the week was cutting Martha’s hair and Edil approving it (She looked cute but extremely naughty daw). I guess lalo na kaming di pupunta sa Cuts for Tots nyan (Hehehe)

We have been experiencing loooooong brownouts lately. One started at 6AM and ended at 5PM. It’s a good thing my Mom is just a ride away I got to bum and talk with her all those hours. Plus hindi naman mainit so taking care of the princess wasnt a problem.

We were also busy with construction of the secret Im keeping. Nope, it’s not a business nor our own house (I wish it was). You will find out soon. I will be busy with everything this week plus our router broke so Im stuck at one place again (lesson learned - invest na talaga on a Linksys. LOL).

Blogging wise, I think there is always a commotion every time Google updates PRs. I was hit, but as always, couldnt care less. Im proud to say I earn while blogging ~ it feeds my family and lets me stay home. How big or small isnt going to matter anymore ~ I just pray it will always be enough. So far, so good.

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I guess I already have given you a weekly recap of last week with this post, just imagine that being replayed day after day last week and you can see why I was thisclose to losing my mind (I lost my patience a hundred times actually).

The weekend was quite relaxing. Watched two Disney movies: Ratatouille and Kung Fu Panda. We were supposed to go to the mall so we can do groceries but the brakes of the vehicle was being wonky so we just bummed around my parents’ place. Pigged out (as usual). Went to mass. And worked. Toink. THAT will never happen again.

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The weekend was fun nice but tiring, majority of which was spent where my parents stay.

Saturday we went swimming. There was a private pool resort just opened to the public (and which my mom is going to partially manage in case of bookings). I need to take pictures of it as we will advertise it soon. Anyways, my son has been constantly bugging me for a swim but the past few weeks have been rainy so we werent able to push through with our plans. Now, come Saturday morning with sun up, the kids were awake as early as 7AM. I normally sleep in Saturday morning because Edil is home and there is no school so imagine how irritated I was hehehe.

So we went swimming right in the middle of sun at its brightest - 1PM. We had the entire pool to ourselves so I was able to swim (in my swimming suit, bwahahaha). Too bad I was busy enjoying swimming that I forgot to take (many) pictures.

Martha miraculously enjoyed the water. (Maybe because the sun made the water lukewarm) - she didnt scream “Lammmmid!” and in fact was in and out of the water all the time. She would go out to pee and even, as she say, “rest lang Ma-tha ha, wait.” and then shed go up the kubo to get coke. My baby is now a little girl na talaga, bulol lang.

Matthew was his usual very makulit self. I am at this point where Matthew’s tantrums are not cute and understandable anymore and he is at the point where he doesnt know if he wants to be babied or treated as an adult. When you do it one way, he goes the other way. Argh, signs of pre-puberty I know. It’s causing me and Edil a headache.

Anyhow, it was enjoyable nonetheless. The kids were burned and were dead tired that Martha slept right after taking a bath and woke up at 10PM! (Aba eh, tinulugan ko sya, hehehe, andun naman ung tatay!)

Sunday was spent at my parents again (Masarap food dun eh, LOL) bumming around. We heard mass, made pasyal around the grounds at the Shrine and took pictures of the Retrievers we will help on selling.

More pictures at my Flickr.

Good weekend. Sa uulitin

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(June 30 - July 4)

*Please click on the image to view larger.

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In this case, it happened on a rainy cloudy and cold day.
And we went ice cream eating at the LakeHouse after

Steak. Spaghetti. Potato Balls. Salad.
Church. FIC. DVDs. Pictures.
Priceless.

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*My titles seem boring these days.

Since the maids took the weekend off and they were gone since Friday morning, I was so tired by Friday night. Edil was kind enough to give in and get us all out the two days of the weekend (He also got his bonus kasi, hehehe).

Saturday was spent at the mall, we took the kids out, ate pizza, pasta and fries. Edil got me the router. Matthew got new PJs (the kids need to be in PJs when they sleep, it’s sort of tradition already here in my house. Matthew’s PJ’s were looking like capris already, LOL). He also got new undies which were printed. Martha got a potty training seat. So far, she has been staying in undies all day save for the time we go out, but she still tells me she needs to go. It’s a pain because she still wants to make wiwi on the toilet when she has diapers on - I think Im not ready for the busy-ness of potty training, hehehe. But yes, girls are easier to potty train - Martha was so effortless to train. In fact, I dont even tell her she goes straight to the potty when waking up after coming to me to take her pampers off! Once she does number 2 on the potty, wooohooo, Im going to be one proud mommah! She also switched to NIDO full time and we havent had any problems (We save at least 50% of our current milk expenses. Salamat anak, hahaha).

While Edil was paying bills, I checked the kids in at the playhouse. Walang kapaguran. Matthew was all over the place. When I went out to withdraw some money, the one in charge reviewed the slips and panicked when she saw Martha was just two and she had no listed guardian! She was busy riding the different toy horses with saddles! Matthew told her, “Matanda na po yan magisip eh” Hehehe. (Im sure Id get raised eyebrows here but believe when I say that the ATM machine was just on the next store :P)

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June 15 - June 22
(I think this might be a regular post from me from now on)

** You can click on each picture to view it on a larger screen (my Flickr)

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Typhoon Frank has switched paths and is now going to hit the Metro, with a strength that can be classified as Signal No.3. I hope you stay safe everyone.

It has also been raining non-stop since last night here. What has been nice bed weather at the start became frighteningly cold. At least for Edil. (He is in a jacket now, while I still managed to take a cold shower last night :P). The kids are stuck at home and they are close to freaking out - they are used to seeing the sun at 5AM here and everything here is gray.

What I would give to have hot champorado right now - but we dont have it here, and I think we dont even have an umbrella to go out. We dont even risk going to the market yet as the roads to Silang is very curvy and slippery.

Anyhow, what did we do yesterday?

I slept the whole afternoon. Oh wow. It’s a first, especially with the kids awake. Edil let me sleep in because he slept the whole morning, hahaha. He took the TV out of the room so the kids are not noisy and just let me sleep. Nice, eh? I also managed to scrap!! I scrapped three pages and would have done more if I didnt check myself and forced myself to sleep last night.

We also had a light discussion on the expenses this month. We have a higher electricity bill than last month and we know it is because of computer usage. Im going to have to start turning it off at night. Edil has also made the decision to accept the car plan his company has been offering him so he can just leave the owner jeep stay here. Hopefully, their transportation allowance goes up too so he can use it to go here - otherwise, he’d have to commute going home and I would just have to pick him up at the terminal (Id have to learn how to drive I Know). I think the offer will be made on the last quarter of the year — so keeping my fingers crossed It is better than us getting our own - we would need to apply for Auto Loans and I dont think, at our current standing, we can afford to pay for it.

I never thought I would even talk about needing a car - but where we live at, we really need it to go around otherwise it will be doubly hard. And even if we commute, transportation prices are so high! For example, when I go to the grocery, I need 50 bucks to commute BY JEEP! (That’s how far it is, LOL). So yes, car=necessity.

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I think I have not even done a nice personal post this week. Lack of time does that to me - and sometimes, to be honest, when there is so much to do, I have a tendency to space out

So to recap.

(I dont even know what date it is today, have to go look and find a calendar. I so need to wear a watch already, it doesnt need to be a fancy watch like Patek world time).

June 6-8: Weekend
I went with my family (Edil had to stay at home to watch the kids) - and while my heart was torn leaving them behind (especially Edil who I wanted to take with me), I needed that weekend. It was the one thing I need to be assured, find my purpose, look towards the goal, and bear my crosses. It was doubly hard after the weekend but I will persevere.

June 9: Holiday
Edil stayed at home, we went to the mall to buy Matthew’s school stuff (additional black pants, sando, etc). I FINALLY had my Chowking Halo Halo (Hehehe). Then we went to my parents and visited the Shrine and stayed there until evening.

June 11-13: Tagaytay
We went to Tagaytay with my cousins and their kids and stayed at the resthouse where I celebrated my debut and stayed when I prepared for my wedding. Such a special house. If I had gazillions of money, Id buy that house in a heartbeat

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Buh bye April. HELLO MAY! What will you not miss about April? And what are you looking forward to in May?

I will not miss the stress, the frantic move, the tightness in money, all the useless catty fights I had with Edil because of stress.

Im looking forward to staying at home, taking care of the kids, focusing on my health (lose weight without the diet pills), Martha’s 2nd birthday, EXODUS.

May will be our EXODUS.

That’s my answer

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WOOOOOOOW!!!

Life gets crazier for us, since our plan is to move houses this month, and we havent even done anything yet! The house is semi-furnished already so we just need to move some things we can’t live without.

So March! Start of summer, Holy Week, and some big life changes!
1. I file for resignation.
2. We plan our move. We go with the move. Im just a little frustrated that we dont have moving companies like the New York movers in the US. It’s a good thing my parents can ask the help of some people to borrow big trucks (well, we dont even need trucks because our things are very few! LOL).
3. I finally send the BON CA application. I scout review centers online (reco’s anyone?).
4. Matthew finished first grade! One year done, with him being the top of the class. Only 9 days left of waking up early in the morning to cook for the finicky little boy! I dont who is more excited - me or Matthew, who doesnt want to go to school anymore! Hahaha!
5. We are on the second month of Martha’s treatment, yay! Four months na lang

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Highlight of the week:
(Yes, even if it’s only Thursday!)
Finally ordering G! It’s my biggest splurge to date (after my SLR) and I cant help but feel guilty - we might make use of the money in some other things, you know. However, as a friend nicely puts it, I have been working my a** off for a year now and it’s about time I get this. OK. So with closed eyes the purchase was made.

Im excited! G is bi. G can be a she when Im a good friend and G can be who-else-but when Im all hot and heavy for GY! Bwahahaha. Edil let me have his picture on his Vidal Sassoon endorsement as our desktop :D.

Lowdown for this Week:
Well, if you can see it in a way that I cant eat and still need to go to the restroom 10 times a day so I can lose weight, fine. But the cramping is killing me. Damn virus.
Edil is hot (not hot-hot, LOL) with fever since the other day too.

Im sorry pero we need summer already!

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That you were supposed to start the New Year in February?

It has taken me this long to recover from the holidays and this long to keep all chores and duties clear - it is still NOT done (far from it even) but I guess this year will have the same similiarities as last - insanely busy.

Let me recover some more and see if I can swing it by next week.

A quick update on our week(end).

Our best househelp to date needed to stop working, she has diabetes and last week, her blood sugar shot up to 375 and her blood pressure was 180/110. Her condition isnt ideal for working anymore.

Martha is staying with my parents again. Given the situation we have right now, it is highly probable that she will stay there until our move already :(. I could commute everyday, I really can but we have a schooler that needs to finish school. *sigh* The more kids you have the complicated it gets - and they have a wide age gap. So you mommies, plan your pregnancies together. They grow up together, go to school together! (In short, you guys need to get preggo this year! Haha!).

We are still scheduling Matthew’s operation. We want it to be done with this month so he can swim by summer. (He will have his heart broken if he finds out he can’t). He is an independent boy already. He gets by himself at the house for a few hours with food and more food (we live in a compound with relatives of course) until we get back from work. Most of the time Edil and I take turns sneaking out of the office earlier ;). We are living the American Life. *sigh*.

We do one load of laundry, iron, I cook in batches and do everything by ourselves already. We dont hire weekly help as Edil decided for us to learn the hard way. If not for Martha being a toddler, we could have gotten by easily. It is hard work, it takes discipline but it is doable.

Edil does the laundry! Yes, he does! I got lucky with him on that area. He also has gotten back to playing basketball once a week and lifting weights twice a week so he is beefing up again (Oh lala! LOL). Somebody suggested he take supplements with creatine ethyl ester to define and pump his muscles more but he declined. He just wants to get back into shape and not have bulges in the wrong places. Now if he quits smoking, Ill fall in love with him all over again, hahaha!

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