Chuck E. Cheese!

Since the parents and brother are already Manila bound on Saturday and Joaquin's Birthday is still a few weeks away, my sister decided to have an early celebration. We went to Chuck E. Cheese this evening! :)

We had pizza and salad and bottomless soda and lotsa lotsa fun! We got tokens bundled with our food order but Mommy and Daddy had so much fun playing that they ended up buying more tokens for all of us! Read: 200 tokens more! Hihihihi. See, each game requires only one token in exchange for tickets everytime we win. So we were there for about three hours and we were able to collect more than 2000 tickets! It wasn't tiring as the crowd was just few and the music wasn't too loud. The manang in me thought I won't be able to take it (you know, am not too keen on arcades such as CEC and Timezone).

Joaquin went home (in exchange for our winnings) with a CEC shirt, 5 mini-pirate toys and a bag of cotton candy. While we, the adults, went home grinning from ear to ear. I would gladly go there again :)

Same old picture

A few months ago, my Mom slept over at our house and noticed something about our bedside picture frame. I was totally guilty of something. The picture frames hold pictures that are exactly the same as that of the pictures in the frames I have had in my old room. The pictures are about 2 years old! Up to this day, the old pictures are still there. Maybe I am too lazy to change the pictures. Or maybe I am too stingy to have all of our pictures printed (there are a lot! Our wedding pictures alone counted to thousands!). Whichever the reason may be, I realized that I need to do something about those boring frames and pictures!

It's good, especially for a techie person like me, to find out about a digital picture frame that may be purchased online. I have yet to ask my darling husband to buy me at least the 7-inch one. Digital photos are in, and so are digital frames! Wouldn't it be cool to constantly see pictures being showcased in a digital picture frame? It's like displaying a slideshow minus the computer and/or the projector.

Less work, less cost. Sounds good to me!

Friendship through the years...

We met one of Mommy's old friends today. Tita S has been in the US since 1978, this is already where she got married and bore two girls. We were invited to her house located at one of the high end communities in San Jose. You can just imagine how awed we were when we got there. Tita has gone a long way since she arrived here, for sure.

Mommy and Tita S were HS buddies, riding the bus together to school and spent their entire secondary schooling as very close friends. The last time they saw each other was also the last time Tita went home to the Philippines...which is about ten years ago! Definitely much has changed. Mommy was even shy to call her when they got here. But guess what, Tita, upon learning my parents are here, called her relatives in Bulacan to find my brother so she would know how to contact us here. Now that's determination!

So we went to see her for lunch at their home. She even filed for a Leave from work just so she could spend time with her old friend. How sweet can she get? Mommy had a blast talking and catching up stories with her. Tita even has a collection of old photos, that she even has a lot of pictures of Mom too!

Not only the two were able to take a walk in the past, my parents are also assured that my sister and her family has found a new family here. :) I really admire friendships that last and survive the times. :)

There's money in blogging :)

I joined an online Filipino community where we were bonded by two things: a hobby and another thing. We all love digiscrapping and most of us blog for money. I never realized that staying in front of the computer, spending time in the internet and blogging (which I do almost everyday!) can earn me a few extra dollars.

I came across Smorty and getting approved was easy. I had a problem initially with my account but right after I sent an email regarding my concern, everything was fixed and my query was answered immediately. Smorty is a service where advertisers can be connected with bloggers like me. Advertisers can pay me to do a review of their site/services. This is the first time I am blogging to get paid and Smorty is making things easy for me. Links are already provided for me to include in my entries and it is as easy as it gets. Blog advertising is the "in thing", no wonder a lot of my friends are raving about this online business.

Not bad for someone like me who needs the extra money for things I want to buy.

Blogging while doing the laundry...

Yep, I am in the middle of doing laundry. I have to finish about 9 (nine!) batches today. Everything just piled up since we only did the laundry once last week. But then again, I don't mind doing it here because the machine makes things easier for me. Hehe. See I can even blog or watch TV or read anything I can get hold of or do another chore while doing this chore. :)

In the span of two weeks that we are here, I have learned so much about myself and my family - both good and bad. Sometimes it makes me sad that we are a not so perfect family but when I see or hear about other families, I realize that we are more lucky and fortunate than others. Family here is referred to as my biological one, my now extended one. My immediate family now is my Ane who keeps me focused and continuously makes me realize that whatever happens, I have him to hold on to. Wow, mushy.

I have been experiencing a lot of new things. I specially love that large strawberries are abundant here! Woot, woot! And that I always have fun playing with Joaquin (until he gets cranky! hehe) But I do miss home. I miss Kuya and Kei. I miss Flory, the one who does my pedi and Afey or Julie who do my facial! I miss the E's! I can't wait to be home again.

100% Free Calorie Counter

I have been here in the States for more than two weeks now. In a month, Hubby and I will be back to our normal life in Manila. My fear right now is hearing people tell me that I have gained weight during our long break. That is something I should be worried about since most of the time, all we do here is EAT! The fact that I do not sweat a lot here, does not help either. I should start watching what I eat just the way I used to.

I am glad that I heard about My Fitness Pal, a site that may help me do just that. It is a free site (no need to use credit cards!) that will help me track my meals with the free diet journal that comes with the membership. It is actually a site with free calorie counter. It is important to lose weight but the tools that I also get from joining will help me keep the pounds off!

One time, a friend asked me how much calories should a dieting person consume in a day. I told her the value. Now I can tell her to just go to this site so she will be more informed, of not just the value, but also the right food to eat, because the site boasts of over 6,000 items in the food database.

Monterey

I am so glad we headed to Monterey today. It's like seeing old California as we walked along Cannery Road. Gi was so excited to know that John Steinbeck happen to come from Monterey. We even saw his bust right at the boardwalk and most areas are named after him.

This is also where I thought I saw Hulk Hogan driving an MB convertible. I thought I saw him but Ane pointed out that it was just someone who looks like him! I insisted it was him...it's that hair and beard and mustache that led me to believe it was him. But then the guy drove by again and we figured that yeah, it wasn't him. I was fooling myself hahaha.

Afterwards, we drove towards 17 Mile Drive where all the houses are gorgeous! I could only dream to have a house there! The road leads to the Lone Cypress and Pebble Beach. We didn't stay for too long coz we wanted to drive by Carmel Mission. We said we wouldn't go off the car anymore but when we got there, I was mesmerized that I just had to go and see the church. It is so beautiful, I told Ane I would want to get married all over again and we'll do it there! :)

Flooding

Hehehehe...I flooded my own blog. I just had to write about what happened for the past week. I hope you will check out my entries which i just back-dated :) Hay, I really hope I could post the pictures soon enough!

Disclosure Policy

Pack-Unpack

The last few days were spent packing and unpacking stuff. Ate and her family moved to a bigger apartment. They must be glad we are all here to help out :)

We haven't done the laundry as well, and just thinking about it makes me scared coz am sure dirty clothes will pile up again once I start sorting them.

It's our 11th month today. Time sure flies so fast! We are celebrating our First year Anniversary next month!