Random Thoughts

I woke up early today because I wanted to drop by here just before we leave again for another trip later. Thanks everybody for dropping by and for the Christmas greetings. I won't have time to go online anymore after this so I will be visiting your homes when I get back. ;) I would also like to take this opportunity to greet everyone a Happy New Year!

How time flies so fast, it seems like yesterday that Hubby and I got married, Alex was born and then 2008 is coming in a few days. So many things to look forward to this year. There's our Anniversary trip on February, Alex's 2nd birthday celebration at my hometown (yes, it is now official! But will have to start the preps after the holidays), this year, Hubby and I will be 30! Such an exciting year and I can't wait for the year to start.

But for the mean time, I will leave you with a glimpse of how our 2007 went. Some highlights of our year 2007 and check out how fun we had this year!

Thanks for dropping by and hope that everyone will have a fun and great new year! (*wink*)

Hubby, Alex and I just arrived yesterday from a long travel which is the main reason why I'm having backaches. It makes me want to buy a seat with recliner to help me relax a bit and use while watching TV. Although I still don't have time to watch TV because we are leaving again later for another trip this time with my family. It's a bit tiring and we were just unpacking our things to pack again. But we are happy. Happy because we get to spend a lot of time with our families. I love holidays!

So far so good. I've packed all our things and sent the things and gifts to the in-laws, gifts for my family were sent as well. I also had my haircut and pedicure yesterday.

Since Alex is still sleeping I grabbed this opportunity to go online and greet everyone a Merry Christmas! It's going to be a fun and exciting week for us! Aside from the Christmas day we will be meeting Hubby's relatives for their reunion and I'm sure it's going to be fun. I will be back with my stories and photos.

For the mean time, I will leave you with this...

Credits here

Merry Christmas everyone and God Bless! (*wink*)

I was tagged by PrettyLifeOnline. Thanks girl! ;)

Your Love is Represented by a White Rose

While you may or may not be totally naive, you do approach love with an eternal innocence. You love like you've never been hurt. And you put all your faith in your partner. Your philosophy on love is: be honest and be yourself.

Four more days to go and it's Christmas already. I've finished my Christmas shopping and I've wrapped all the gifts. Wuhooo! Now, I'm starting to pack for our trip on Saturday. I still have a loooong way to go. Later Alex will go to a Jollibee party with Lola at the Fort. Tomorrow we will all have lunch at my Mom's and then go straight to Hubby's Office Christmas Party. So, I don't know if I could still go online but I will do my best.

Anyway, just want to share some photos taken last Sunday during my Mom's Christmas Caroling at the in laws. Ha! They prepared 5 songs with matching dance pa. They wore red shirts, red Santa hat and they had so much fun! :)

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Last Monday, I had dinner with my long time friend, MM at Gateway. The mall was so convenient, I just had to take the MRT then walk a couple of minutes then I was there! I had to buy a shirt for our trip so since I was early, I was able to buy at Kamiseta. But, boy, I had to warn you, riding in MRT during rush hour is a RIOT. LOL! I was squeezed inside the train and could you believe that I can already smell the other guy beside me. Yes! It was hilarious! Of course at that time, I didn't think it was funny... LOL! Anyways, it was quite an experience once again.

I remember my last ride in the MRT was a couple of months ago so I missed those kinds of experiences. Those were the things that you would miss if you work from home.

Anyway, we had dinner at Cafe Bola because for some reason I wanted to eat rice. After dinner we just strolled a couple of minutes then decided to have coffee at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, since ALL starbucks were full. MM and I were even laughing because we were thinking that Starbucks is full probably because of the planner!?

Well, it was a short but sweet reunion. MM's birthday will be tomorrow and I just wish her more happiness, peace of mind, and love in the coming years. Mwah and hope to see you again kapatid.

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Another get together we really looked forward to was last night with my highschool friends. You see, we were only five in the group and Terry, my friend went to the US so there were only four left. And we hardly see each other because everyone is so busy and probably lazy to set up a get together. LOL! So finally after setting the party date for 100 times, we were able to come up with Wednesday, December 19.

It was a simple party. Gian prepared Lasagna and chicken and I brought brownies. Joy and family were late because of a bad traffic. In short we were able to start dinner at 9pm and then had our exchange gifts, took some pictures and then everyone call it a night.





I guess it is really different nowadays compared when we were in Highschool and College since everyone is married and both Joy and I have kids already. Before we used to stay until 3am just talking, laughing and reminisce about the old days. But now, we couldn't stay up late and we need to go home before midnight. LOL!

But, it was nice seeing you guys, finally! Merry Christmas to you and hopefully we get to meet again by January for more stories and reminiscing... (*wink*)

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Just a couple of minutes ago, Alex had her first haircut in the parlor. First because when she was a baby I would cut her hair. LOL! Anyways, I was so proud of her she was not malikot. She just sat there smiling, observing, listening to the music and not moving a bit! Except for the last cuts which made her a little bit uncomfortable. Anyway, I'll just let the photos speak...

Remember I had my "Me" time last November while Hubby and Alex swam at the in-laws? Well these are the photos which I was supposed to post waaay back but just didn't have time. Enjoy!

Alex really had a great time swimming at Lola's. Maybe after the holidays we might swim again just before I go back to work.

Miami Heat Tickets that is. There's a company called Premium Seats USA that solves the nuisance of lining up and buying the tickets yourself for NFL, MLB, NBA or NHL. This is by providing a huge selection of first-class tickets to all concerts, sports and theater events nationwide. And you can even buy it online! When I discover things such as this I can't just help but appreciate the internet more and how it has make things easier nowadays. I'm checking out their website as I write this and guess what, they are selling tickets all over US and all you have to do is click on the city or state and you are guaranteed to get good seats!

Tagged by Mitch.

Here are the rules:

1. Make a paragraph next to the last paragraph in the tag is passed to you of “What is Christmas to you” and put your name at the end of it linking back to your site, or the page that answered this tag.
2. U can use a title that will suit your Christmas idea.
3. Then tag as many as you can.

Christmas to me is a special time to ponder the great love God has done to us by giving us His Son to be born in Bethlehem long time ago. So, this season is a time for sharing and giving love to everyone. I feel that everyone is happy on Christmas time. Yeah, pressures on holiday expenses may bother us but if you have to remember the true essence of Christmas - you just can’t help but feel happy to know that you have made your loved one, your next door neighbor, the inmates, the homeless, the orphans, or anyone happy because you give love on Christmas day. — Sunshineforlife.

o O o

Christmas is an annual holiday that makes my little wishes come true. A pair of new shoes, new dress and gifts from my Godparents. That’s how I defined Christmas years and years ago until… I came to Bahrain. That’s when I realized what it really means. A special day to commemorate the birth of Jesus. Here in Bahrain, Christmas is nothing. It’s just an ordinary working day for almost everyone, unless your boss is considerate, he’ll give you at least a half day to celebrate, if there are celebrations happening. But in my case, there’s nothing to celebrate literally. Everyone is at work, that includes my husband and myself. We attend the midnight (Christmas Eve) mass and that’s it, go to sleep and get back to work the next day, on Christmas day. My first Christmas away from home happened in 1999. I came here in October and had the most loneliest Christmas ever in my life - without my family. That made me realized their importance. On how meaningless celebrations would be without them. To cut the story short, for me Christmas is all about Jesus and family. If you have friends to celebrate this special day with you, that’s a bonus! -When Silence Speaks

o O o

Christmas for me means giving and sharing. It's more of expressing what you feel and making the people you love feel that they are loved. Of course you can do this everyday but having a special day to do this is one thing. Christmas is not only for kids but also for those who have faith like a child. It's more of creating traditions and keeping it for many, many, many years. -Random Thoughts

I'm tagging, Kelly, Thea, Apols, Joy, and Jane.

Again, I'm thanking the following for these wonderful awards. I really appreciate it and it gives me inspiration to blog more.

Thanks to Juliana, Dorxie, Vina, Jacqui, and Kelly for blog buddies award!

I'm passing this on to all the bloggers in my blogroll. You deserve it guys! :)

And I got another BTB award from Thea! Thanks girl! ;)

Since my friend Ercs is getting married next week we can't help but talk about flowers when we had our dinner last Friday. Flowers are one of the things that you splurge, yes, I'm actually saying this now because during my wedding we didn't really take time to explore more options. I just learned that bulk flowers are now available over the internet by FiftyFlowers.com. FiftyFlowers provides wedding events with premium roses, calla lilies, rose petals, gerbera daisies, hydrangeas, peonies and many other flowers and greens. They deliver at a below wholesale cost and a minimum of fuss. That's the key word for the bride there - they deliver so meaning flowers will be at your doorstep at your wedding day! :)

For including this blog as one of the blogs that you like! I'm flattered and I really appreciate it. Here's what Eds said about my blog...

My blogging day won't be complete if I haven't paid her blog a visit. I love reading her posts about her family, especially about baby Alex and her LO's. She is btw, one of the most friendliest blogger I've known here in our blogging world. :)

Thank you, thank you!! (*double grin*)

We woke up early to have brunch at home then headed to the church to hear mass. I planned this day very well. Hubby and I would leave Alex to her Lola and Lolo's after mass while Hubby and I will shop for his Christmas gift to me. (*grin*)

I was so excited although kind of sleepy after hearing mass. But I still insisted of going to Karl Edward's Bazaar. This is our second time this month. I know, sayang entrance fee but for me, this is the bazaar that has a lot of blouses and stuff that I really liked. But actually I ended up buying 1 blouse which was on 50% sale, a nice scarf, some chips and salsa, and guess what, another nice red dress for the little girl! Hubby was insisting that I buy the budget for myself, but well, I couldn't help it. The dress was too cute to ignore. Alex loved it by the way so I'm happy that I bought it.

After the shopping since I promised Hubby that I treat him for snacks so off we went to Serendra. He chose Mary Grace since their Apple Cinnamon Iced Tea is his fave! We got the Pasta Scampi with Keso de Bola, Ensaymada, and Mint Hot Chocolate which was heavenly!

I wasn't able to watch my diet anymore. (Who would watch diet this Christmas season, anyway?) I guess I just have to check on that again next year. LOL!

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! (*wink*)

7 days to go before Christmas!!! I can't wait!!!

Have you ever heard of kratom? I haven't until now. This is the coveted "Red Vein" Korth strain of Kratom leaves. There are actually different kinds of Kratom that is offered by IamShaman.com. These are organic herbal leaves that is grown on their own land in the United States and India. They have very limited quantities. And since they discovered that many people struggle to find alternative ways to sustain both their culture, communities and forests, IamShaman.com is here to help. They also want people not to resort to things such as cutting down their trees to make room for cattle farming for the beef industry or whatever is undesirable just for the sake of surviving. Check out their website now to know more about their unique and interested products.

I would like to thank Era, Jona, Vina, Abie, Dzoi, Jesse, and Kitty for tagging me! So sorry ladies this took sooo long!

I had to tell our helpers this morning that we need to do all our laundry before the week ends so that we won't have a hard time when it's time to pack our clothes for our trip. It's a good thing that we are using a good washing machine that has a built in dryer, because with that our clothes would be dry probably within the day. Just like Kenmore Dryers. These type of applicances are distributed by Krillion. Krillion delivers local search results that combine very specific product information with very specific locality information. As their CEO would say, "These results truly are ‘actionable’ meaning that when consumers have completed their Internet research, they can grab their keys, hop into the car, drive to the store and buy the product."

Our weekend was dedicated for my last shopping (of the week as Hubby would describe it!). This time, I planned to shop for myself.

Saturday we brought Alex to her Pedia for monthly checkup and monitoring of weight. Thank God she gained 0.5 kilos after 2 months and her Pedia was happy. Alex was so at home this time at her clinic probably because of all the toys there and the huge Christmas tree. Although we waited for 2 hours, Alex was so cooperative (take note: Yaya was not with us). She was just walking along the hallways and just looking at the toys sold at the mini store there. She keeps on pointing at SpongeBob and then she would shout, "Babaaab!". She then would point to Cinderella and shout, "Barbie!". I guess she was still confused since she thought that since Cinderella was a princess and we watched Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses a couple of weeks ago, she thought that Cinderella was Barbie.

Anyways, after the checkup we went to the mall to buy the DVD that we wanted to give for my FIL. Sale was on-going at the mall so there were a lot of people but not much to make me irritated. LOL! I don't know, I just don't like shopping with lots of people anymore. I get dizzy and then would dampen my mood that I would end up not
buying anything.

Hubby and I got hungry and decided to try Roma Mia. We tried their Four Seasons Pizza, Chicken Wings, and Pasta with Pesto. The food was just ok for me (except for the Pasta which I really loved), but Hubby loved everything. While we were eating Alex was sleeping in the sofa. She must have been so tired of waiting and walking along the hallway. But the moment she woke up, she was refreshed and started walking and running again. Ayayay!

After we went to the mall, we bought some groceries for our dinner and then headed home to rest and recharge for another big day the next day.

This is what you typically hear nowadays from your friends, "I'm busy.", "I don't have time to meet up.", "Can we move the party next weekend because I'm waaay too busy?", "Sorry, I'm late because the traffic was soo bad!". Well, I guess this is so typical when we are already in the Christmas season. But why do we really celebrate Christmas and meet up? I guess we keep on forgetting that we love our friends that's why we take time to organize meet ups, we brave the worst traffic in the world just to be with them, we really do make time to catch up and reminisce about the good old days. Anyway, why did I end up writing this post when I was supposed to blog about the North Carolina land for sale? Oh well!

Friday night was a big night for us. It was the night that we get to meet Ercs' fiance for the first time and they are getting married on the 26th. It was also a night that we celebrate our friend Mage's birthday (which was on the 12th), and our Christmas party.

As you all know, traffic was so bad last Friday that we started a little bit late. We were supposed to meet and start around 630pm. But everyone started arriving around 8 - 9pm. Everyone bought food and it was all yummy. Tuna c/o Cesar and Ercs, Pansit and Bbq c/o Me and Hubby, Fried Chicken c/o Rica, Lechon Manok c/o Mage and yummy banana cheesecake c/o Farrah and Eric. Boy, it was all great and we were so full after dinner.

We gave gifts to each other and I guess this has been our tradition for years already. Thanks to Mage, Fars & Eric, and Rica & Jon for the wonderful gifts! Alex also looove the toys. :) Thank you, thank you! To Ercs and Cesar, can't wait for your wedding guys! See you on the 26th! ;)

I recently checked my files especially the digital kits for my digital scrapbooking and realized that my hard drive is almost full! I know I can't just let go of everything on this computer, thus I need an external hard drive to keep all my important and precious files. Not to mention the Grey's Anatomy and Heroes series which were in my hard drive. I just hope I'd be able to convince Hubby to squeeze his into our budget. After all, these files are important too right!?

Well, this not our Christmas tree since I've already posted our tree yesterday, but this is definitely my IDEAL Christmas tree. It's HUGE! It's more or less 8 ft tall. It reaches over my in-laws' ceiling and the ornaments are just wonderful! You see, they've been using it for I think four years already (or maybe more) and the interior designer would just re-use but re-design every ornament in the tree and the rest of the decors in the house. Check it out.

For some reason, Alex doesn't want to touch it. Maybe because its so huge. And she gets overwhelm when she sees it. LOL!

This is my IDEAL Christmas tree. Maybe in a few (or more) years, Hubby and I would also be able to put up a tree like this. (*smile*)

When I was in my first year in college, I worked for a transport show for one company. I wasn't into cars then but when I saw all those nicely dressed up cars, I didn't exactly fell in love with them but I instantly understand why guys just spend so much time dressing up their cars. I saw almost all the accessories there from push bar, step bars, mags, to spoilers and any other major accessory. Everything is just there. Buyautotruckaccessories.com always has a great deal on a push bar also called grille guards or bull bars. This company offers the best quality push bar manufactures like Steelcraft and T & H. Steelcraft offers a European style in a high quality one-piece construction. They also offer big discounts depending on which part you are living in the US. I guess this is a nice gift that you give to your Uncles or brothers who likes trucks and cars.

Well, we didn't really plan of putting up one this year because of budget constraints and unexpected expenses. But my Mom offered to lend us her Christmas tree since she doesn't have plans of putting it up in her house. I was ecstatic. It was a little bit small though for the house that's why we call it - Alex's Christmas Tree. She loved the tree! The moment we placed the tree (without ornaments) in our living room, she was smiling like crazy! And then when we were putting the ornaments, she got ecstatic!

Oh, it was worth the effort. She was shouting and jumping and dancing at the same time. She just loved it.







Even when I was still pregnant with Alex I really wanted a tree with stuffed toys in it. I bought these stuff last October. They were pretty nice. Thanks also to my Tita who added more stuffed toys. It was perfect for us! I guess we love the tree so much that we will have it until January or February next year. LOL!