Summer Plans?

Summer school break is almost near here in the Philippines. I bet everyone has started planning their summer plans already and perhaps even have booked their getaways. I have a friend who works for a travel agency and she told me that you can now hardly booked for a Boracay travel package (favorite local summer destination) for the period covering the Holy Week.

Right now, the family doesn't have a summer plan yet since we're all so into preparing for the coming of two babies: our dear Baby A who's coming out anytime soon and my sister-in-law's Baby Kylie who'll be delivered some time end of May. Perhaps, we'll postpone the yearly summer getaway and look forward of having a family vacation next year abroad. My Mother-in-law has been wanting for a HK trip. Well, let's see. If only we can afford, I'd go for a US vacation. Some relatives have long been inviting us to get there. Accommodation wouldn't be a problem since they're gladly offering their abodes. And if ever we'd visit Nevada where some relatives also live, they'd be able to help us score nice discount hotels Las Vegas. Well, let's see. Albeit our US dream vacation won't be realized soon, we'll get there in the future, I'm sure. :)

Baby A's Crib.

It is actually our plan not to buy yet a crib or playpen for Baby A. This is because I really intend to co-sleep with him probably on his first few weeks on our queen size bed. As for hubby, he'd be settling first with a separate comfy mattress that we bought last month. We've started canvassing though for a crib last weekend. Probably we'll be getting the Graco brand which appears to have the best quality there is and has a wide selection at SM.

Freebie Alert: Rustic

Isn't this kit by Marianne Wahlberg lovely? Go ahead and pick it up here.

My Simple Birthday Wish.

I'm actually getting a year older again in two weeks. As I look back on the year that has passed, I can't helped but be enamored of the greatest blessings I received...a stable and rewarding career, a loving and healthy family, lots of good friendships and of course, the greatest blessing of all...the coming of our darling Baby A. I am already contented with all the things that I have. If you'll ask what's my birthday wish for this year, I don't count on material things like luxury watches, perfumes, clothes, the latest gadgets like cellphones, cameras or any other fancies. Mine is just simple...that I may safely deliver to a healthy baby boy soon and that I may fulfill the new role of being a Mom well.

My Performance Appraisal.

You might have probably read from my main blog that I am already on maternity leave. I'll be out of the office for quite some time and won't be back until May. Since our Performance Appraisals are due to be accomplished by April, my supervisor and I already had mine finalized on my last day of work. I could say that I'm pretty satisfied, in fact, surprised of the overall rating he gave me. It's actually way beyond my expectation. I didn't get the highest grade possible, but the second best is actually more than enough. I even graded myself with an average level thinking that my 2007 performance was just so-so or should I say on the mediocre level. Not to degrade myself nor I didn't give my best, but I know there's still a lot of improvements to make.

Nonetheless, I'm stoked with the grade I got. I was even praised for the smart goals that I set and being able to accomplish them...goal setting and effective time management are actually the keys to such. With the high rating that I got, I am now even more driven to strive harder to be at my best. As I've said, there are values that I need to address and concentrate on..it won't be easy, but I'll definitely try.

By the way, there are some time management tips that I got from timethoughts.com. You should check out the site too to help you on your personal and career success.

Wedding Fever.

It seems that I'll be attending a lot of weddings this year and next year. I already have heard 5 wedding announcements, so far, and probably there will still be more. Among them are my sisters, one will have it on August while the other on January 2009. The other three are my High School classmates who'll have theirs on December this year, one on January of next year and one on December 2009. I'm really excited to see all of them finally tying the knot. I've been getting email inquiries from them as they've started already with their preparations. Having been a hands-on bride myself two years ago, I can't help but share with them the excitement of preparing for the big day. I'm also excited on their bridal showers. Perhaps, I now have to start shopping for nice shower presents like bridal lingeries, adult books on marriage, etc. Any cool suggestions?

Well, I wish them all the best.

This one...

...just made my day!

Check out the newly opened Weeds and Wildflowers Forum here!

Back Pains.

One of the pregnancy woes that I wasn't spared of are the chronic back pains. From the first leg of my pregnancy down to the last stretch, this is what causes me to grimace most of the time especially when I get up and start to work. My OB assured me that this is normal due to the pressure that my baby puts on my body but it's my dextroscoliosis that probably worsens the pain, she says. I acquired this in my previous work wherein my desk wasn't comfortable and my office chair wasn't ergonomically designed. It's just a mild case though and can be corrected with exercise and with the use of posture corrector. Hopefully, after giving birth, I could concentrate on the correction of my dextroscoliosis.

Why I Love Jessica Sprague?

1. Because of her brilliant scrapbooking ideas.
2. Because she's a Photoshop goddess! Check this out.
3. Because of her freebies such as these:

Technorati Tags:jessica sprague, digital scrapbooking, photoshop tricks

Cough Cough Go Away.

The husband has been coughing hard since the other day. He's actually annoyed that eventhough he's already drinking meds, it seems he doesn't get any better. If he's still unwell by tomorrow, I'd set up an appointment with their company-accredited doctor so he can further check and prescribed more effective medicines. It's a good thing that hubby has a medicare supplement on their health insurance, otherwise, my frugal husband would rather self-medicate himself. Hope he gets well soonest.

Free Paper Packs.

Check out what Digital Freebies has for this week...a set of 5 shabby papers with a crumpled, worn folded look to them. Grab the set here.

Be A Car Angel.

My heartstrings are tugged whenever I see or hear of noble projects and missions like that of Car Angel (www.carangel.com). It is a non-profit company based in US that make use of donations (like cars, boats, and other forms of donations) to help single mothers, homeless teens and kids, adults on rehab, and orphans. Among their notable projects are these videos that can be seen on youtube (they have given away over 2.4 Million Videos!). Yes, they do educational videos for kids and teens and their means of doing such are the donations they get from their ministry angels. So if you have that extra car that you seldom use or if you simply want to become a Car Angel, check them out, make that car donation and help them help others.

I'm Back!

I'm back and well!

It's Monday morning once again and I feel like lazying around despite having heaps of workload here in the office. Lolz!

I can't actually believe that I managed to survive the weekend without an internet connection at home. Our ISP bogged down last Thursday and until now, they said they're still fixing it. Arggh! Wrong timing actually since I received lots of email enablers from my favorite digiscrapping sites on sales, sweet treats, anniversaries, freebies and so much more..and wasn't able to snatch some. I'll try to grab some adorable new products that could still be on sale later.

It's a brand new week. The last one was pretty hectic and busy so this time around, hope it's not that bad. Except that I'll still be reporting to work (can't finalize yet when I'll start my Maternity Leave) and have my now-weekly-check-up this weekend, I still don't have any concrete plans to do over the week. We're almost done preparing with Baby A's stuffs but there are still some things that we need to buy. But then again, I'm just not sure when can I go to the mall since I'm still prohibited from doing so (probably in 2 weeks when Baby A's already in full term).

So there, I think I need to start doing "real work" now...gotta go. I'll try to be back around lunch time..but oh..I'll try to sneak in for a few minutes later since I have to go the bank and open a checking account..a joint one with hubby. See yah around.