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After Christmas -- another survey

Yaya's on vacation....

That is the main reason why I hardly have time to myself. My little 27 month old son, it seems, has turned "terrible" and without a yaya, we have to look after him almost full time. I really need to have another yaya (or hopefully yaya comes back, she isn't sure at this point) before my brief vacation is over. Today, I already have to go to clinic, and my husband is dreading taking care of him alone while I'm away (for half a day). You see, my son has always been difficult to feed and the easy way out has always been to let the yaya do it. He's also very active, and being an older parent means that my 37 year old body just can't keep up with his 2 year old "Energizer bunny" one.

I really admire full time moms. I do know that this is just a stage, but really, I can't get anything else done. In fact, this is the first time I've blogged since yaya left, and that's just because the kid is sleeping and I find myself awake! :)

Choooo Choooo Train

Nice invited me to come ride the train. I was going to have a break from blogging (since I'll be away for a few days and I just peaked in) but I couldn't resist this one --I am thankful because i would love to get some links up and going for my other blogs as well as this one.

Like Nice, I’m also tagging everbody in my blogroll. Cmon guys and join the fun, it’s a great way to earn some linky love.

The rule: When you get tagged, you have to add your name below the person who tagged you and by doing so you are letting the list grow.

choochoo.jpg

Limadang.com
RamblingMoo.com
blogginginmypyjamas

Chinneeq
Dora-zooropazoo
Babyshern
HiPnCooLMoMMa
Rachel’s Soulful Thoughts
When Silence Speaks
Dancing in Midlife Tune
Underneath it All
I am Dzoi
Hobbies and Such
moms…..check nyo
Choc Mint Girl
Amel’s Realm
My Thoughts
Rusin Roundup
Juliana’s Site
Max
Rooms of My Heart
Mariuca
A Great Pleasure
MondayMorningPower
LadyJava’s Lounge
Colin aka Cotojo
NafaSG
Hanna
My Life My World
Mommy’s Gibble Gabbles
Author’s Sweet Life
A Window To Our World
Jenny’s Wandering Thoughts
We are Family
Momma Stuff

The Working Mom

Online Raket

Christmas / Holiday from dNeero respondents - another survey!

My son the party animal!

In an earlier post, I mentioned that we are making the rounds of Christmas parties. In a few of those, my son was also invited. After an initial getting-to-know-you-and-warming-up stage, he pulled quite a few antics!

During the videoke session during my aunt's party, he sang louder than the person wielding the microphone! It's a pity we didn't have our camera with us at that time. I'm hoping my uncle took some pics so that I can ask for them.

Last night, at another party, he suddenly danced to the strains of a popular dance song! Everybody was surprised, us included! He was the one who started the dancing! Pity we didn't bring the videocam, but my husband did take some stills. I'll try to post them later. :)

Oh, for those who don't know yet, my son is 2 years old!

Jamie Lynn Spears ... OK now...! (A survey on teen pregnancy)

Here's a new survey. As a mom, I'm afraid that my son will get a girl pregnant before they're ready for a baby, or a daughter (which I don't have yet) will get pregnant before she's ready. What are your thoughts on this? (N.B. To have an idea on how to join surveys AND getting paid for it, please click this.)

Jamie-Lynn Marie Spears (born April 4, 1991) is an American actress and singer. She was best known for starring in the Nickelodeon television series Zoey 101 and as the sister of Britney Spears. Spears also has a older brother Bryan Spears and is the youngest of the Spears family. Now she's acquired some fame for getting pregnant -- that's right, she's 16!


The Christmas Party Rounds....

The past few days have been a whirl of Christmas parties. I am a visiting consultant in 2 hospitals and an active consultants in 2 clinics, so that's already 4 parties that I have to make an appearance in. That doesn't include the parties by family members and friends. :) Oh, and of course, there's the n@w Christmas party, which is actually the first Christmas party I've attended this year.

Together with my (still) regular clinic schedule, that does not really leave with too much time to do blogging lately. :)

Next week, my son's yaya is going for a vacation -- and I'm not sure if she's coming back. Good luck to me if I can squeeze in the time for blogging...I'm sure I can, but that will probably be in the wee small hours of the morning, when the boys (little boy and his daddy) are already asleep :).

Just in case, I don't get to greet you all on the day itself, I'd like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year!

"Run, run as fast as you can" - US Presidential Politics 2008

The US elections are coming!

Whether or not you are in the United States, it is no secret that anything that happens in the US would affect the rest of the world. What are your opinions on the following US issues?



To my blogfriends -- I'm a bit busy this weekend. Will try to catch with my bloghops and tags in a while! See you soon!



Gift from the hubby -- New Shoes!



My husband bought me this pair of shoes. He bought it himself, guessing at the size and just brought it home. :)

It's just the right size for me, it's comfortable and i think it really looks good on me! What do you think?

Easy Pesto Pasta

This is a slightly modified version of a recipe I found on the label of my Nestle Cream :). Enjoy.

Ingredients:

PESTO
38 g fresh basil leaves (approx 5 cups)
2 tbsp chopped and lightly fried garlic
1/2 cup walnuts
1 1/4 cup olive oil
3/4 cup grated parmesan chese
1 tsp salt
160 g cream

400 g cooked pasta

Procedure:
1. In a blender, mix all ingredients for pesto until smooth.
2. Saute pesto in a pan then stir in cream. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
3. Continue to simmer until slightly thickened. Serve with pasta, crusty bread, and/or grilled meat or seafood.

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 5 minutes
Servings: 4-6

Wedding thoughts

I love weddings. They are so full of promise, of love and of hope. Attending a wedding is witnessing the beginning of a new family.

I will always hold dear the memory of my wedding 3 years ago. I know that whatever happens, I always remember the moments of that day when I finally marry the man I love.

Best wedding gift? All gifts were appreciated, but the cash gifts truly helped. The rest are still in storage even after 3 years. That's what I give nowadays, coz I know that's what the couple really wants and needs but are to shy to say so.

Why the sudden sentimentality? My brother is getting married soon!

My advise? Create a memory that would make you smile when you remember the happiness and love you felt that day. :)

What would YOU advise? Check out how mylotters answered that question.

I got accepted at Payperpost!

Blogging is a good medium of expression for aspiring writers like me. You get to share your thoughts with other people since blogs are available online, unlike the traditional journals or diaries. And I’ve found a virtual community of mothers like me who also blog regularly. It is from these other mommies wherein I’ve first heard about paid blogging, specifically Payperpost.

Even without any monetary reward, blogging is fun! Now that there to make money through blogging, well, it’s double the fun! With the rising cost of living, any additional means of income is VERY welcome! It will certainly increase our present income!

Payperpost is supposed to be the biggest paid blogging site with the most number of advertisers. I am so glad they accepted my blog! It is an affirmation of my blog., and that’s quite a gift! It’s quite simple to just join payperpost, but in order to be a full fledged postie, your blog does have to fulfill certain requirements. In fact, I’ve already tried submitting this blog before and was rejected because I didn’t fulfill some of the requirements. But now, I got accepted! I feel so great about this!

Another good thing about this is that you can actually choose which of the opportunities you want to write about! You do not have to talk about the things you don’t want to, or don’t know anything about. So, that also fulfills MY ethical requirements. Coz, honestly, it’s hard to talk about something you know little to nothing about, or feel strongly against.

If you are an avid blogger, I do suggest you try looking up Payperpost. Make your blog earn a little something for you by talking about the things you love!




Work vs Stay at Home

There's an ongoing discussion in my mailing list with questions directed to the Stay at home moms. Questions like what made you decide to be a SAHM?

The discussion elicited quite a lot of passionate responses from the SAHMs about why they chose to be SAHMs and what adjustments they had to make.

Although being a stay at home mom with dad being the only breadwinner is the traditional way to go, the reality is that some women are not comfortable with the traditional role. Like me.

My husband and I have a different arrangement which allows us a little bit of both worlds -- working and staying at home. It helps that we are both doctors, with the same specialty (ophthalmology) and in private practice. This means that our schedule is pretty flexible compared to the average Joe and Jane.

The long and short of it is that one of us always stays with our son. We only work part of the day, and on certain days, our work hours are different. Meaning if I go to work in the morning he stays at home. Then I come home for lunch and stay...he then goes to work in the afternoon. We also have days wherein we bring our son with us to the clinic, when we both have to be there.

In our modern society, there is really a lot of variation on the family, work wise. There are also families who mom goes to work and dad stays at home. Or families who only have a single parent who needs to work. There is also the phenomenon of the absentee parent, wherein one of the parents is always not there, because of either work in a foreign land or some other reason.

I think that the decision on who's working and who's taking care of the kids should be a decision reached by both the husband and the wife. It should not be just because that is what one party wants, or just because it's tradition, or because of what others say. We all have our unique situations and we are the best persons to judge on what works well for us.

What rose represents your love?

Tagged by wersp....Thanks so much!

Your Love Is Represented By a Red Rose

You love passionately and fully, without any reservations.
And while romantic love comes easily for you, you also love many people platonically.
You are a true romantic, and you always can see the best in people.
What Rose Represents Your Love?

I'm tagging my new friends Julia, Juliana, Maybelle, Chelle and Scotty's Princess.

Blog Buddies Award


I got this award from Norms! Thank you so much! I am very happy to find friends like you on the blogosphere! I'm passing this award to the fellow bloggers I met at the n@w Christmas party: Mec, Meng and Pheng! Hope I didn't miss anybody.

ronito/ronita

Got this tag from Pheng. :D

(excerpt from 'all you need to know about ronito, ronita!' of ironnie)
"ronito, ronita!" is adapted from monito/monita. the goal of this activity is to foster camaraderie and to be acquainted with other bloggers we have still not met. this will be done as participants will be assigned a blogger whom he has to send a wish or a prayer on christmas via e-cards.

*** copy starts here ***

how to join?

[1] fill up and submit the details of this form.
[2]copy and post the rules to your blog. include the “backward list” (a record of how the tag reached you) and add your name.
[3] recruit for participants. be sure to get their consent.

should they agree to join, add them to your “forward list” (bloggers you’ve convinced to join).

remind them to do item #1.

** participants will be accepted until december 16 (phil. time) only. on december 17, the organizer will email to you the details of your ronito/ronita. send him/her a christmas greeting via e-cards preferably on december 25.

should time be a constraint, you can send it earlier.

my backward link list:ironnie, jeff, bluepanjeet, thess, gbex, liza, liza 2, rems, eds, abie, pheng, joey

- add your name here: Joey

please join us in the internet way of feeling the spirit of Christmas: Norm, Jerlalou, Texas Sweetie, Scotty's Princess, Prettylifeonline, Eds, Garf, Denz, Wersp. :)

Common Mistakes in Writing...

Tagged from Norms and Prettylifeonline....

Start copy paste the instructions: To play this game, all you must do is explain what your most common writing mistake is. Then, simply tag 5 people for the meme. Those 5 will, in return, tag 5 more people. Ultimately, readers should see a tapestry of common grammar and spelling mistakes. Therefore, anyone who feel ashamed of their errors will feel a bit more confident and secure.Copy the person and persons' names that sent it to you and add your own at the bottom of the list. It really helps build community.

The answers:
Shine with Grace : Mixing the word 'from' with 'form' all the time.
Trinity : I sometimes feel confused to use past tense or present tense when I share my stories.
LadyJava : Typing too fast that sometimes I miss words in between.
Genie King : I type too fast too... always end up with 'tot he'... when it should be 'to the'.
Spiff : I type too fast that I end up with sentences that have no spaceinbetween... LOL!
Nessa : Mostly grammatical mistakes... but it doesn't really bother me as long as my readers understand :)
Choc Mint Girl: Obviously grammatical error due to lack of vocabulary…but getting better and better and better…he he he…
Liza : I type too fast too that's why sometimes my spellings are wrongf... see. Lol ;) And same with Grace, mixing the word from and form at times. (I'll be posting this tag to my other
blogCecil: errors on grammar and sometimes I don’t know where to place my comma or when to use colon or semi-colon :( too.)Nancy: I'm always trying to use every function of my fingers but can't really help but slip which resulted to pressing the wrong key most of the time.Darlene: I always made a mistake by typing HELATH instead of HEALTH. Sometime the FOR is FOT because the R and the T are very close to each other lol! Anyway i always do mistakes when i type, everybody does i guess no matter how good you are in typing you always make some mistakes.Bisdak Footprints I usually have wrong typo when I am in a hurry typing entries during PPP time because need to be fast so I can grab as many opps as I can.For that,wrong typo making my english look worse to others.They read it before I can do some editing..they might think my english is so bad..ahhermmm...but i edit it anyways...
Twerlermz : I'm using basic or simple english most of the time so i think my most common mistakes are : redundancy, spelling and grammar (toink!)
Thira: I type too fast too, sometimes my mind is way ahead with my typing so I miss out and misspell words and I have to go back and read again and correct it. Sometimes using the past and present tense in writing, and using the hyphen properly,wehehe:)
Juliana: I always mis-spell "you". More often that not I type it as "oyu" because I'm typing fast and because it's a three letter word, it's prone to get typed incorrectly. It's good there's a spelling checker hehe, I always catch the mistake before it is published.
Teebob : If I write an article about a male person I often use her or she instead of him or he.
Norm : Sometimes I'm confused of the grammar and right spelling. Then I'm typing so fast that usually miss-spell taht instead of that and many more.
Pretty Life Online : Overusing dashes for separation, this interrupt the flow of my words. Typing too fast so sometimes I miss out and my fingers end up misspelling the words.....LOL!
Joey: I usually type while I'm thinking. But sometimes I haven't organized my thoughts yet before typing, hence I end up with a lot of grammatical errors and/or spelling mistakes.

I'm passing this to Joy, Jane, Jody, Peachy, Toni -- girls who have a second blog with their own domain :).

You can earn by posting surveys on your blog!

If you are looking for more ways to monetize your blog, this is one site that could also increase your chances for earning. The earnings may not be much, but hey, it's not difficult to do at all! Click here to join: http://www.dneero.com/invite.jsp?referredby=2175

What you basically do is you answer surveys and embed the code of your answers (a widget) into your blog. The more hits and the more respondents the survey has, the more you earn!

Another good thing about this is that you can also earn a percentage of the earnings of your referrals, up to 5 levels deep! Try it out! It's free to join! And, please do use the link above so that I could get credited for it.

Here's a sample survey, very timely for the holidays!

The N@W Christmas Party :)

Yesterday, the four of us (hubby, little boy, yaya and me) all went to the N@W Christmas party. This is my first time to attend a N@W party and we really really really had fun!

The food was plentiful! Since it was potlock, many brought in different foods, from rice to ulam to desserts to drinks. May balut pa nga! Galing! There was even a dessert bar by Sweet Tooth and and 2 Alex Franco cakes! Yum, yum!

Oh, and there was the squid ball/kikiam cart by Apple and Adrian! They had to leave early though, so the ones who came later probably didn't get to taste their treats.

There were prizes galore! In fact, I think everyone gets a prize, whether or not they joined the games. Sobrang dami talaga!

Oh, and 2 photo stations! 1 is by the wishing well with John Aguas. Gosh! I've heard of the man but I've never actually met him so I didn't know that the one taking our pictures was actually a well known photographer! The other station was the Fotoloco booth by Meme of Konsepto. Our family had a blast having our picture taken with Santa hats from Bumblebee! Well, actually, only my husband and I wore the hats, Ethan didn't. The pictures were instantly printed out and made into a nice bookmark! What a nice memento! The photographer who went around taking pictures of everyone was Nald, Neri's hubby. Neri has the link to the pics. We enjoyed ourselves too much to take our own pics! :D

The place was just right for the number of people who came. It was at the Pavilion at the McKinley Park of North Greenhills. The Pavilion was just beside the basketball court and the garden with a koi pond. The kids kept going back to the pond to look at the fishes and the turtle. With the cool December breeze, it was not hot at all, even if there was no aircon. It was decorated with balloons like a Kiddie Party :). I think it was Pepel who made the decors. She was also the organizer AND the host for the party.

And there was the amazing unicyclist, a Mr. Velasco (his first name escapes me at the moment) brought in by Jhoanne. Grabe! We were holding our breath and couldn't help shouting when it seems that he would lose his balance and fall...which he didn't :)

There are several rounds of exchange gifts. One for the yayas, 3 for the kids (classified by age group) and 1 for the n@wies. The last one was the most interesting, since you could actually GRAB the gift that somebody else already got. I got a bath care set from Raquel. Thank you, thank you! My son got a Tazmanian Devil towel set, which he really needs....too bad I don't know who to thank for that, but still, thanks! My yaya also got a mirror to go with her other prize (a comb), but we also don't know who to thank for that. I hope the recipients of our gifts also like what they got :)

There are 3 sets of lootbags - 1 for the kids, 1 for the yayas and 1 for the n@wies. We're very proud that we sponsored the natural insect repellant and liniment samples included in the lootbags. We hope that everybody finds good use for them. The other items in the lootbags (Unilab products like phcare and Celeteque) were sponsored by Lissa.

Of course, the most enjoyable aspect about everything is knowing the people behind the names. You see each other's names almost on a daily basis and now, here's finally a chance to really MEET them! Of course, special mention to Benz and John, without whom there would be no w@w and no n@w, the thriving online community to which we all belong to!

Here's wishing everybody a Merry Christmas! I hope we have another party like that next year and that more people join!

Link Love Chain

Mhay and Jean tagged me with this. Since I got this from 2 different sources, I sorta combined them into one coz some of the links are the same :)

The rule: When you get tagged, you have to add your name next to the person who tagged you and by doing so you are letting the list grow.

Limadang.com
RamblingMoo.com
blogginginmypyjamas
StylewithPassion
Chinneeq
Dora-zooropazoo
Babyshern
HiPnCooLMoMMa
Rachel’s Soulful Thoughts
When Silence Speaks
My Love. My life. My everything.
Our Journey as a Family
Married and Happy About It
Dancing in Midlife Tune
Underneath it All
My Charmed Life
Blueberry Cheesecake
Thinking Out Loud
My So-called life
The Working Mom

I'm passing this on to Denz, Jerlalou, Linsayhi, Melisse, Poray, Prettylifeonline, Texas Sweetie, Norms, wersp so you can pass them on and increase your links in the process :)

Catching up is a little hard to do.....

I haven't been around for only a few days, and I get a lot of tags already! I am very flattered, because I have friends who come and visit and remember me, even though I haven't been blogging for a long time. Thank you so much!

I would like to ask your forgiveness, though, if I'm a little slow on catching up. I'm trying :).

Blogging tips

Tagged by Kelly!

Here’s how it goes: When this is passed on to you, copy the whole thing, skim the list and put a * star beside those that you like. Write your own blogging tip for other bloggers. Try to make your tip general.

Tag as many people as you want.

1. Don’t let money change ya! http://www.therandomforest.info/

2. Look, read, and learn.http://www.neonscent.com/

3. Be, EXCELLENT to each other. http://www.bushmackel.com

4. Always reply to your comments. http://chattiekat.com/

5. Blog about what you know & love. http://sugar-queens-dream.blogspot.com/

6. Don’t use filthy language-buy a dictionary. http://shinade.blogspot.com/

7. Blog about something educational. http://climateofourfuture.org/

*8. Be yourself; others will follow. http://sfgirl-thealiennextdoor.blogspot.com/

9. Don’t have too many blogs that will become a chore to maintain.
http://cubicledenizen.blogspot.com/

*10. Keep it simple, user-friendly, interesting and organized! http://erishaling.blogspot.com/

11. Keep the blog simple and sweet!! http://www.leslieho.com/

12. Share with others your thoughts and don’t be shy! http://groovy-olives.com/blog

13. Never ask for link exchange. Blog hop to increase traffic. http://www.jessieling.com/

14. Don’t clutter your blog with ads all over the place. IT’S IRRITATING. http://oliviasy.blogspot.com/

15. Don’t comment for the sake of commenting. Some looked too fake and its a big turn off! http://sashablablabla.blogspot.com/

*16. Share something interesting and you will gain more readers. http://judychow.blogspot.com/

*17. Show that we care to all bloggers, treat each other as friends. http://mummyinvain.com/

18. Pictures say a million words. Keep them coming! http://familyfriendsnfood.blogspot.com/

*19. Blogging should be fun or you’ll get tired of it pretty soon. http://justmyrambling.com/

*20. Don’t think people will come to your blog if you’re not willing to pay a visit to them. http://joshualai.blogspot.com/

*21. Everyone loves read short posting and best, illustrated with a picture. http://www.demoments.net/blog

22. Try not to publish more than 5 posts in one blog a day. Even if it’s from feed reader, it’s quite hard to digest and catch up reading everything. http://montessorimum.com/

23. Blog, the other window to peek into people’s life, minus the trouble. keep a certain level of privacy to yourself. http://www.babyshern.blogspot.com/

*24. Use simple words, not like the ones that require your readers to consult the dictionary. Girlie of http://www.hipncoolmomma.com/

25. Take time to visit your friendly links WITH OR WITHOUT SPONSORED POSTS, probloggers are required to update their blogs so expect they always have something new. Marie the Vanidosa http://mariegvergara.com/

*26. Be kind and appreciate your readers by taking time to really know them. Take time to read their blogs and comment with your heart. Even if you’re into problogging, don’t forget to blog with your heart not just for the sake of the money.
Emmyrose http://www.emmyrose.com

*27. Share your blog awards to blogger friends whose blog inspires you and open your mind to another perspective in life and even to less-visited blog which you think their blog and thoughts are unique. Arlene of http://sunshineforlife.wordpress.com

28. Be factual and do not rely 100% on gossips/hearsays especially if you are writing about sensitive topics. Back up your facts with links from reliable sources, if needed. Julie of http://www.teacherjulie.com/

*29. When you blog hop, leave sincere or witty remarks, the author would check you out for sure. Try to post useful tips for mommies, career women and students as well so you’ll have varied readers. And make lots of friends thru your blog. Rowena of http://www.thesweetlife-rowena.blogspot.com

*30. When you write posts, write something that is interesting, funny or educational, and share stories that will let your readers know who you are. Share some pictures. Blogging is a way to gain friends, when they leave comment be sure to reply to those comments. Get in touch with your readers. Visit those who visit you. When you leave comments in their blogs, be sincere and true. Leave comment as a friend, not just for the sake of commenting. Show them that you’re really interested with what they write and that you want them to be your friends too. Ann of http://annksantos.blogspot.com

*31. Interesting or not, just let your blog reflect the real you. It is always best for people to like you and befriend you for who you really are. But of course it is also better to leave the more personal things, personal. You don’t need to blog about them if you don’t want to. Remember, anyone and everyone can access your blog. ~ http://alphadf.11penguin.net/ ~

32. Update often — people are a lot more nosy and interested in your life than you might think! http://celluliticbliss.com/

33. Don’t forget the reason why you started blogging. Mine is to show Summer how she was when she was small when she grows up. I see to it that my posts are Summer-friendly. http://jadeomar.blogspot.com

34. Don’t forget to mention your sources or references. In using other people’s photos or infos, always ask PERMISSION first & give DUE CREDIT. Respect intellectual property of others. http://jesselai.blogspot.com

35. Always keep in mind that blogging is all about keeping memories in file. And do not do something because you want to have something to blog about. http://mich-magbag.blogspot.com

*36. Check grammar, punctuations, etc., before publishing your post. It’s always nice to read a well-written entry. http://100percentkelly.com

37. Make your blogs easy to read by having good contrast between your background and your font color. Of course, your blog contents should also be interesting for people to want to read :). http://the-working-mom.blogspot.com


Let's hear some tips from Joy, Jody, Jane, Norm, Peachy, Jesse. You're all more experienced bloggers than I am, so I'm sure you've got good tips.

Lakbayan tag

Norm gave me this interesting tag about how much of the Philippines that I have visited. Well, I am graded C- because there are lots of places in the Philippines I haven't gone to. Now, I'm passing this tag to Garf, Jackie, Jody, Mari, Nice, Peachy, Toni, Vina, and Pheng.


My Lakbayan grade is C-!

How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!

Created by Eugene Villar.