Random Thoughts

After checking out some cable ties which were not working for the past few days now and a couple of errands, we went to our friends' house in Pasig to celebrate Christmas. It was the second weekend of December and we brought the kids with us. It was also the day of Ate A's Christmas play but even if we were tired, we were still excited and we knew that it would be fun, fun, fun! Everybody from CFC household was there plus the kids. Before the party started, each family a few photos taken by the Christmas tree.

We loved the food so much - spaghetti, chicken, hotdog, cheesesticks, and dessert! Both adults and kids had fun eating. While the parents were talking, the kids were playing...

After they were playing, the kids had their exchange gifts.

And guess who arrived after that!?

YES! Santa arrived with a bag of goodies for the nice girls and boys. :D Now, I can't forget how they looked when they saw Santa. At first they were shocked and tongue-tied and then they were ecstatic!

It was definitely a FUN Christmas party that I'm sure the kids won't forget. (*grin*)

I realized that this is our only third get together with my high school friends for this year. Yes, ONLY! If not for our other friend Terry (who came home from the States), we would only be seeing each other ONCE a year.

Are we that busy girls? LOL!

We drove all the way to Binangonan to visit our highschool friend Joy and her husband Louie. It was Sunday and the traffic was not too bad. The weather was cool and in Joy's place, it was perfect! Not too cold that you would need an electric blanket and not too hot that you would need an air conditioner.

PERFECT.

We did our traditional exchange gifts and ate pansit, lumpiang ubod, Louie's specialty - Menudo, and Norin and Gian's specialty - pasta.

It was just a simple Christmas celebration but we all had fun in spite of the long drive. We even want to visit the Marcelinos again this year and who knows it will be a yearly tradition from now on! Right, girls?

Check us out!

Ate A Dancing Nobody with Ate J


Joy, myself, Jan and Norin


With the Hubbies and kids!

Thank you Titas and Titos for the nice gifts! The girls loooove your gifts.

Hubby's College friends are actually my friends now too. Since Hubby and I meet them every month or two, I became friends with them after all those years. Hubby loves to sing and so are his friends so they decided to meet for a videoke night in Makati. Good thing they are my friends now because if not, I wouldn't dare sing in front of them. If you hear my voice, you would understand. (*grin*)

It was a fun night! But I tell you, after drinking two bottles of San Mig light, I blacked out. Ha! I know, I was surprised either, and suddenly realized that I was currently drinking an antibiotic during that time. I don't know if that medicine has something to do with my dizziness. But one thing I'm sure of -

BEER + ANTIBIOTIC = NOT A GREAT COMBINATION.

Check us out.

This was taken before I got dizzy. LOL! We finished a bit late that night so I decided to put some acne solutions to cure my acnes. It was quite effective.

It was definitely a fun night and I hope we could do this again sometime.

I have over-due posts about our Christmas get together so in my next few posts I will be sharing our fun Christmas get together with friends!

My friend Ercs and her husband Cesar came home from Bahrain so we immediately grabbed the opportunity to see each other. Since Ercs just gave birth, we decided to have our get together in my place to make Baby Sofia comfortable. I just cooked a couple of dishes well, to be honest, it was only one chicken dish and buttered vegetables! LOL! It was a simple dinner but a fun night of chismax and reminiscing about the good old days. Ercs and I had mommy talks of course. I can't believe that our last conversation was about prenatal vitamins when she was still pregnant with Sofia. And now, we are into breastfeeding and babies!

It was good to see you Ercs, Cesar, Farrah, and Erik!

Baby A lost 1 kilo last month so she is a bit thin now. Can you still recognize her? She has grown though and walks very fast now. Yes, she walks on her own now. I can't believe that she will be 1 year and 2 months in 6 days. She says "Mama" and "Baba" all the time and calls everybody "Mama". Unfortunately she still doesn't have hair that I feel like giving her a hair loss treatment already. LOL! She eats in small amounts but good thing she still drinks a lot of milk especially when asleep. She still doesn't sleep through the night though and cries when she wakes up. It happens EVERY night. Bad dreams perhaps? I have no idea. She loves her Ate so much that when her Ate tries to make her laugh, she laughs as if Ate is her idol. (*grin*) Ate A and Baby A are now fighting over toys. Is this the start of an unending headaches of quarrels? Ugh!!

That would be my motto for this year. After the whole family got sick last Christmas, Hubby and I vowed to take care of ourselves more and be healthy this 2010.

Just this morning, I started exercising. I'm eating right by having oatmeal and fruits for breakfast. I checked on some supplements from quick trim reviews and see which one can improve my health.

There are so many things that I can do to be healthy. Eat vegetables and avoid meat are one of the things that I make sure we will do for the rest of the year. And also, I will schedule a few visits to my Doctors too! I vow to be healthy this year because I know that Health is definitely Wealth.

That's what I'm looking for now - the best acne medication for my cousin. You see she had gone to a lot of dermatologists already but she hasn't really found the medication that she needs. I suggested that she tries the natural medications. Who knows it might work. Nowadays, things are just more effective if you do the basic things. But, if this won't work, any suggestions which one to get for acnes?

When my SIL texted me last week that they were inviting us for a dinner at Spirals (to celebrate my BIL's birthday), I felt excited since I know it would mean eating a whole bunch of food from the buffet. I would always look forward to special events such as this because obviously, I love to eat! And what's more fun is that it's FREE! (*grin*)

Ate A was VERY, VERY excited because we told her that there will be a chocolate fountain at the restaurant.

We decided to leave Baby A at my sister's so we could concentrate on the food. After all, she won't appreciate it yet.

We arrived at Spirals around 645PM and when we were seated with the whole family, we immediately started doing what we love doing - EAT!


Can't contain her excitement when she saw the choco fountain!

Unfortunately, Hubby is not a great company when it comes to eating at Buffets because he gets really overwhelmed just by looking at the food, that he ends up eating only 2 to 3 dishes. Me, on the other hand will make sure that I try all the food that I like even in small amounts.

We finished around 930PM feeling spent, full and very much happy with what we ate.


Look at our satisfied faces!

How I wish I could eat more but my head is spinning and my tummy is not allowing me anymore. LOL!

Again, thanks to SIL and BIL for the wonderful dinner!

Happy Birthday, Kuya Randy! (*wink*)

Well at least for the mean time. (*grin*)

You see, I'm not proud of this, but I wasn't able to save last year because I shopped a lot online and offline. So now, I promised myself that I would be good this year, save as much as I can and focus on my goals. Yes I have goals and I want to reach it before the year ends. That would be a family trip by December and (hopefully) I get to purchase another gift for myself. (*big grin*)

I realized that by having goals, I would not be tempted to look and buy without thinking. Just this morning, I came across those gorgeous Stuart Weitzman shoes online but I was able to contained myself since I do have goals for this year.

So I hope I get to stay that way in the months to come. Because I don't only plan on materializing those goals this year but I also make sure that I save, save and save this 2010!

Recently, an unexpected (and also expected) happened in my job so I'm looking for ways to earn and at the same time save money.

Honestly, I can say that 2009 was the best year so far because I splurged a lot by shopping online here and there. No savings last year but I was definitely happy with my purchases. (*grin*) But aside from splurging and shopping, I was able to start a small business too which I hope will pick up this 2010.

Yesterday, I was browsing some topics about frugality and saving money when I came across these 25 ways to save money and I thought of sharing it here because I found pretty useful.

Here are 25 ways to save money:

1. Make it automatic. Before I see my paycheck, a good portion of it is diverted to my 401(k) and savings.

2. Keep minimum funds in checking account. We make our money work for us by funneling extra funds into our savings account where it will earn more interest than in our checking account.

3. Don’t pay banking fees!

4. Use rewards credit cards.

5. Actively search out deals. It never hurts to try and find a better deal, or request a better deal from your service providers.

6. Use a programmable thermostat. Programmable thermostats save you an estimated 10-20% on your heating and cooling bills.

7. Use ceiling fans, floor fans, and space heaters.

8. Install CFLs to save energy. Compact fluorescent lights use about a quarter of the electricity of normal incandescent bulbs.

9. Drive smoothly.

10. Plan and research major purchases.

11. Buy quality products. Quality items may cost more up front, but they last longer and generally provide better results than cheaper, inferior products.

12. Buy generic where applicable. Yes, I just wrote “buy quality,” but you can save a lot of money on generic items for which the brand name product is essentially the same as the store brand. Food and medicines come to mind as items where generic products are good deals.

13. Use coupons and rebates.

14. Use store rewards cards.

15. Cook at home.

16. Eat leftovers. I grew up eating leftovers, and I still love them (as long as they are not leftover from when I was a kid! yuck!). I estimate I save a minimum of $20 a week by bringing my lunch to work. It is also healthier, and on the rare occasion I go out to lunch with coworkers, I enjoy it more.

17. Use the library.

18. Use parks. My wife and I love to go hiking. We have 2 great parks nearby that we visit often. We get great exercise and the only costs to us is the gas to drive there.

19. Take care of things. I treat things I own with respect and take good care of them. This includes doing things such as cleaning our house, washing our cars, and polishing shoes. Things last much longer when you take good care of them.

20. Buy insurance. Health insurance, home owner’s insurance, auto insurance, and other types of insurance are designed to save you money! Sure, you may end up paying premiums for years and never file a claim, but in the event you need to file a claim, your premium will likely be small compared to what you would have had to pay. You’ll be very happy if you ever need it!

21. Bundle cable and internet. You can save a lot of money by bundling these together rather than purchasing the separately. You can save more if you bundle your phone as well, but my wife and I actually save money by not paying for a landline.

22. Use cell phones – skip the landline.

23. Cancel subscriptions. We don’t get the newspaper or magazines. Almost everything we want can be found on-line for free.

24. Home improvement. Once upon a time I was an aircraft mechanic in the USAF, so I am fairly handy with tools. I am comfortable repairing most items around the house, and I always attempt to repair problems before calling a professional. However, I am not afraid to hire out anything dangerous or that I don’t have the tools to do. (usually electrical or plumbing).

25. Avoid debt.

Saving money would definitely be a great way to start the year right. (*wink*)

SOURCE.