Tuesday, September 30, 2008
What could be the best anniversary gift for hubby?
Countdown to Christmas
I was blogging and EC dropping while watching tv when I heard Mel Tiangco ended her news program with a countdown to Christmas. I didn't realize until after I heard from her that it's actually only 85 days more to go before Christmas. Well, there's still a little over two months from now but part of our culture is to kinda feel the spirit of Christmas by playing Christmas songs in the shopping malls and doing countdowns in tv shows as early as the month of September. Oh boy, how I miss Pinas especially during this season!
Foggy Morning
Our mornings here in Arkansas is starting to get chilly and foggy. I can already feel Autumn ready to visit the country once again. It still does get warm in the afternoon but it wasn't as bad as it was at the peak of the summer season. I must say I love Autumn because of the effect that it brings to the color of the trees around us. But of course when Autumn comes, Winter will follow next which is not really my favorite time of the year. I don't like really cold cold weather. Probably because I came from a tropical country, I welcome some level of cold but when it goes down as low as 60-65 degrees, brrrr, that ain't fun!
Monday, September 29, 2008
Tired but I'm still blogging...
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Melts in your mouth, Not in your hands
That is the famous M & M trademark. And it's quite true. I was worried a lil bit last night that I might have chocolate stains in my fingers while I was using my laptop but true to it's slogan, it literally just melts in my mouth but not in my hand. Obviously, I was blogging and munching on a bowl of M&M peanuts and chocolates last night. Jeff grabbed two small packs of M&M yesterday while we were at Walmart doing our grocery shopping. Usually, we would buy Hershey's dark chocolates with almonds 'coz we both are crazy with dark chocolates but I don't know what came to our minds yesterday when we grabbed 2 packs of these candies. Apparently, it's yummy and before we knew it, the bowl was almost half empty after an hour. Yikes!
Translate your thoughts
As we all know it, the internet is an effective tool in learning nowadays. Back in highschool when there was not yet any internet access, the books in the library are our only resources. Today’s generation is lucky because not only do they have books to aid them in their learning but the easy access to the internet makes their life much easier. Learning is just one click of a button so to speak. I have exciting news to share to all of you. This is the birth of WikiTranslate, a site that brings the collaborative power of a community of users to the art of language translation. You will learn different ways of saying things in another language as easy as 1,2,3. Take the time to check out this new addition in the world of internet education.
Below is the site's press release.
WikiTranslate - Collaborative Language Translation Despite years of research into automatic language translation, even world-class software fails to capture the grammatical peculiarities and idioms of human language. While Google Translate and Babelfish can give a rough approximation of a translation, only humans can consistently and accurately translate from one language to another. WikiTranslate allows users to input text to be translated to and from English, Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish (with more languages to come). The text is first run through the Google translation algorithm that provides a rough translation. This rough translation is then presented to the WikiTranslate user community to tweak, wiki-style, into a complete and correct translation of the original text.
Vina Morales, Pregnant?!?
Well, I didn't believe it until I saw her interview with Christy Fermin on The Buzz this afternoon. Celebrities getting pregnant even before they got married is not something new but it still did surprise me now that it happens to Vina Morales. I haven't heard that she ever got married at the age of 32 and she's also not very vocal about her non-showbiz boyfriend, Cedric Lee so it came as a shock when I first learned about it. She confirmed that she's 2 months pregnant and that they consider it a blessing. Goodluck to her and hope she'll have a healthy pregnancy.
Life is Good
I can't believe it's going to be Monday again tomorrow. Haay! I always have Monday-itis at work. Well, who doesn't? It's always a double drag to get up for work on a Monday. But what can we do, that's life, we have to work and do something with our lives. Anyway, I can't get myself to get away from my laptop on weekends. Actually, I'm multi-tasking. Filipinos are so good with that. I am blogging, washing some clothes and watching ASAP and SOP interchangeably. I love both shows. GMA Pinoy TV and TFC both rocks. I didn't regret at all that we subscribed to both channels last year. It was so worth it. It brings me closer to home.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Weekend blessings and more
On a different note, I got some good news from my very good friend in Massachusetts, Lou. She left a message on the answering machine letting me know that my blog, My Sweet Haven now have a Google Page Rank of 1. Wow! I'm happy and thankful to Google that after 7 months of blogging, they finally gave me a rank. Though honestly, I am not sure how will this affect my blogging opportunities but I'm grateful for the small recognition. Also, another gift from blogging is from a very good blogger that I always take time to visit and read, MamaFlo's Place. She sent me 25 worth of EC credits for advertising on her blog. I appreciate that a lot.
Please take time to visit her blog. Just click on the widget below.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
My Missing Bowl
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Bad Day
Monday, September 22, 2008
Home Sweet Home
Saturday, September 20, 2008
My Stinky Little Friends
I don't know about your hubbies but my Jeff isn't wild about the smell of my "stinky little friends." That's how he calls them, hehehe. We agreed that I can cook them outside through the side burner of our grill but he was taking a nap this afternoon and I didn't want to wake him up just to prepare the grill outside so I took the liberty to cook it inside. As you can imagine, it was a HUGE mistake! The smell wake him up. Ooops! Soweee!!! He opened all 6 windows in the house and we didn't eat dinner together 'coz he chose to stay in the next room 'coz of the smell. Huhuhu! He said he still love me of course, he just hates the smell of my stinky little friends. I dare him to kiss me on the lips while I was eating just to prove that he still does love me, thank God, he did kiss me but with nose shut, hahahaha!
Friday, September 19, 2008
Thoughts on a Fine Friday
On a different note, after 3 nights, I was able to finish watching "The Promise", a timeless love story of two young hearts that blossomed into an undying love. This movie which starred Angel Locsin and Richard Gutierrez was shown on Philippine cinema as GMA Films' 2007 Valentine's Offering. I would recommend this movie to everyone who likes to watch Tagalog films. There's nothing corny about this movie. Both the lead characters were so good in their acting and the plot can be considered a masterpiece in it's own right. Check out S1kat's Multiply if you're interested to watch this movie along with other good tagalog movies that you missed watching in theatres.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
How long do you think you'll live?
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Grilled Pineapple Chicken for Dinner
A couple of days back, Jeff and I tried a brand new recipe for dinner. We got it from a small chicken recipe cookbook sold in an antique shop in town. We feel kinda adjusted to our new routine since I started working. We no longer eat later than 8:00 P.M. We decided to prepare food that's easy to cook and something that's not gonna take much longer time to prepare. The food above is nothing fancy but it turned out great and delicious. Not to mention we grilled it which makes it all the more mouth watering. I'm still not an expert when it comes to cooking but at least I know of some good recipes now that I'm here in the U.S. Everytime I tried something new and liked it, I would always tell hubby that I'm going to try it when we go back to the Philippines so my family can see that I eventually learn how to cook. Like so many people, I didn't cook back then. It has always been mom or dad who does the cooking so I really struggled when I got here but with Jeff's help, my sister and of course the cookbooks that I used, every now and then, I've cooked decent meals for hubby and myself.
Monday, September 15, 2008
My New Laptop
Friday, September 12, 2008
Remembering my 1st Year in the U.S.
I'll have to say that my 1 year of staying in a foreign land had been a memorable journey. I'll be a hypocrite if I was gonna say that I didn't feel sad, lonely, depressed, and melancholic within the first 12 months that I was away from my family and country. I was just one of the millions of Filipinos all over the U.S. who misses their loved ones back home and still think that PI is a country like no other. But my husband makes things a little bit easier for me as far as my adjustments here are concerned. He has done countless ways to show me that my personal sacrifice of leaving everything back home just to be with him is not futile. He's definitely worth it and not even once did he fail to be very supportive with everything that I had to go through in relation to my being here. It wouldn't be this wonderful without him.
Some of the highlights of my first year in the U.S. are the travels that we made and of course our wedding. Our wedding might not be grand but it was the best thing that happened to us. Within a year, we've been to 5 states in the U.S. namely Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and a couple of times in Illinois. It wasn't really as much as a goal but it did make me feel happy and proud that within a year I did learn how to drive and got a driver's license, got approved with the immigration process and the best part was finding myself a good job. What else could I ask for? I feel so blessed and lucky that I have all these. I am so grateful to God for everything that He has provided for me. I definitely don't have the right to complain. It has been a year of blissful marriage, memorable journey, worldly blessings, happiness and contentment. It'll surely get better as years go by. I can't stop thanking Jeff for the steady love and support that he has given me on this journey of life that we both chose to live.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Bits and Pieces
On a different note, I was glad that one important requirement for our Philippine wedding has been taken care of yesterday. I was a little worried that we might not be able to secure a copy of Jeff's baptismal certificate 'coz aside from the fact that he didn't have any copy of it with him whatsoever, he was born and baptized in California. But thanks to my DIL, he was able to request a copy of it from the parish church in CA. It was fast and easy and I am again amazed of how organized some of the processes here in the U.S. I remember when I had to get my baptismal certificate at San Nicolas Parish as one of the papers that I prepared for immigration purposes, I had to go back to the church physically 3 times and spent a couple of weeks to get it done with. The fact that the spelling of my name in my Birth Certificate differs from my Baptismal Certificate makes it more difficult. I had to go to the Chancery Office and went through a lot of stuff for a name spelling change. Only to find out in the end that the church clerk still typed in the wrong name when I went back to claim it. Haay! Anyway, I'm rattling on. I had to end it here. My eyelids are now starting to droop. Earlier today I planned on going to bed early but as usual blogging and EC dropping prevent me from doing so.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
21 Tag Questions
::START::
RULES:1. Add your blog/s to the list. Feel free to add all your other blogs. It’s okey if you only post this questions in one blog as long as you answer them.2. Get back to ME and I’ll add your blogs to the master’s list HERE {Note that you are not ALLOWED to change this links and make sure to leave the exact URL.}3. Copy from Start to End.4. Tag as many friends online you know. But you don’t need to be tag in order to join.
Who played along:
1. Music of my Heart 2. Me and Mine 3. Creative in Me 4. For the LOVE of Food 5. Little Peanut 6. Pea in a Pod 7. It’s Where the HEART Is 8. Around the World 9. FunFierceFabulous 10. Ozzy’s Mom 11. Me,Myself+2 12. Kidd Designs 13. Complex Life 14. My Little Home 15. Reveries of simplyJACY 16.My Sweet Haven 17. Your Blog
Questions and Answers:
1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line 4. Write down what it says:……“I have money," she gasped. "Who cares."
2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What do you touch first?…… Empty seat!
3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?…… Pilipinas, Game Ka Na Ba?
4. WITHOUT LOOKING, guess what time it is:…… 7:30pm
5. Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?……7:28pm
6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?…… Jeff frying some pork for Adobo
7. When did you last step outside? what were you doing?…….8 hrs. ago...went to work
8. Before you came to this website, what did you look at?……PayPerPost
9. What are you wearing?…… Shorts and Sleeveless Tank Top
10. Did you dream last night?…… Yes
11. When did you last laugh?…… Earlier at work
12. What is on the walls of the room you are in?…… Nothing.
13. Seen anything weird lately?…… Hmm. Nope.
14. What do you think of this quiz?……Fun!
15. What is the last movie you saw?……"The Lucky Seven"
16. If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy first?…… Glasshouse in Malibu or Aspen, Colorado.
17. Tell me something about you that I don’t know:…… I'm so emotional.
18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?……. I would eliminate hatred and pain.
19. Do you like to dance?…… Yes
20. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her? a boy?…… A girl- Venice Margarett… A boy- Undecided
21. Would you ever consider living abroad?……Yes!
Monday, September 8, 2008
Morning Thoughts
Sunday, September 7, 2008
I.T.A.L.Y (I Trust And Love You)
Below is the full trailer of the upcoming movie of GMA Films entitled, I.T.A.L.Y (I Trust And Love You) which stars Jolina Magdangal, Rufa Mae Quinto, Eugene Domingo, Dennis Trillo among others. It's a comedy that tackes the lives of Filipinos working onboard cruise ships. This film was filmed in three different continents: Asia, Europe and Africa and was directed by Mark Reyes.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
My Work Haven
Another thing that I liked about my workplace is it's proximity from our house and places to eat at lunch. I usually bring sandwich to work and eat it in our fully-equipped break room but during the times that I don't bring anything to eat, there's really nothing to worry about because a grocery store is just beside the building to the right, Sonic across the street and Dari-Delite (small local restaurant) beside the building to the left. Moreso, I have the option to eat lunch at home since it's just a 2-mile drive from work. Convenient, isn't it?
I'm going to share with you some photos of my workplace. It's not much but just to give you an idea of my everyday haven, I posted a few below. My apologies for the paper clutter...I'm just learning so much stuff so I had to write a whole lot of them and pinned it all over my workplace so it's easy for me to retrieve them.
Some units that we were trying to run some test on
A male co-worker's clutter-free desk (He's comfortable using the E-files of our Handbook so he doesn't have any paper on his desk...Do I sound defensive? Hahaha!)
A view of our new building in construction
The main bank which is across the building where I work
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Jolina's Destiny
One of the talented artists in Philippine showbiz, Jolina has long been destined to find her spot in the recording industry. Coming out with a third album under GMA Records, she proved once more that she's still a force to be reckoned with. Having been in the industry for 20 years, she does venture into a lot of different things - actress, host, judge, entrepreneur, singer and most of all a normal woman who fell in love.
Her new album, entitled "Destiny" contains 10 unforgettable love songs ranging from soothing ballads to electronica-sounding upbeat pop songs. The carrier single, "Will of the Wind", is also the theme song of her upcoming movie I.T.A.L.Y. which is gonna be shown on September 17th. Go grab a copy of Destiny now!
Monday, September 1, 2008
Our Christmas Family Tradition
Last December of 2007 was my first Christmas away from home. I missed my family and the traditions on this season but the photos of them made me smile and remember how is it like to be there with them. Every year, we picked a color motiff for the Christmas Eve. My last December with them which was 2006, we wore something Orange. Hehehe. Kinda bold huh! Then on 2007, their color motiff was Red. Too bad I was no longer there but looking at their pictures made me happy. I so miss my family so much. I'm looking forward to seeing them again Christmas 2009. I wonder what would be our color motiff for that year?!?
Christmas 2006 (Orange Motiff)