Sorry...I need to park this first

Sorry but I need to park this blog first because i'll be concentrating on my other blog http://myjourneyinconceivingababy.blogspot.com.

Come and visit me there if you have time :)

Back from A Very Long Hiatus!!!

First of all I apologize to all my readers, people who has been leaving messages and those who wanted to exchange links. Unfortunately, it was a very long hiatus for me. Yes, I actually hibernated for such a long time for unknown reasons. I didn't even bother to check on my blogs.

Anyway, again for unknown reasons, I decided to visit my blog and write again (WOHOO!!!).

Some updates, let me keep it short because I don't want to bore you guys with endless details.

1. Changed my cook again and she has been with us for almost 5 months. So far so good (crossing my fingers!!).

2. Just came from a shopping trip in Bangkok a week ago. Unbelievable shopping!!! Highly recommended if you want household stuff, clothes, etc. But beware of the weather, it is hotter than ever (I believe worst than Manila). Ended up having coughs and colds from that trip (HMPH!!!).

3. Had minor renovations in our house. Had bookshelves and cabinets made.

4. I am currently in the process of weeding out old clothes. Believe me this is the worst thing that I can ever imagine. It is so taxing, tiring, irritating among others and above all, it really, really takes a long time to finish.

5. Had a major hair cut, went from shoulder length to chin length hair. Oh my, what a relief. It feels so much lighter!!!

6. Current obsessions are korean dramas and a variety show. Believe it or not despite the fact that I don't understand a single thing, I bother to watch this variety show (We Got Married) live via on-line streaming. Yes, I am that addicted (ha-ha).

7. Another obsession right now is playing all "hidden objects" game in the computer. Yup, I love those games.

8. Shopping is still a must but I sort of got guilty recently knowing times are really hard right now especially the rising cost of gas.

So far those are the major stuff going on in my life. I'll share some pictures next time.

It feels so good to be back again :)

Bring It On!!!

I am so stressed!!! Its been a friggin week and I think there will more this week. I hate this!!!!Waahhhhhhhhh!!!!

Why???

1. The guy who bumped into my mother-in-laws car is so friggin slow. Its my problem because I was the one using it on the day it was bumped in the parking lot. It was just parked and minding its own business when this stupid guy who was about to leave his parking space, backed up into it. His excuse, he didn't see the friggin car!!! Man, how can you not see a parked car. Anyway, this happened during the holidays and until now his insurance company has not completed all the required documents. Meaning, the car is still not fixed after more than a month. My mother in law, meantime keeps on following me up about it. I do understand why she's doing that but its really stressing me out. What can I do????

2. My mother in law asked for my help to look a maid for her. I have an aunt in the province who normally sources maids for us. So I asked her if she has 2 maids available and she said yes. So I started coordinating this since Christmas and guess what, the maids are still not here. I already sent the money for their plane fares and everything has been set and they were suppose to be here Monday. By unfortunate circumstances, one of the maid needs to have her teeth pulled out and because she had her period they had to postpone the trip again. Waahhhh, so again my mother in law has been following me up about this. What can I do!!!! I hate having problems about things that are suppose to be simple.

3. Our water bill arrived and imagine my shock when I saw that it increased by a 100%!!!!!What the f*** happened here?? Since I don't know any plumber, I had to call my mother in law for her plumber. Of course, I had to tell her the reason. This other maid of mine then told her that there's something wrong in our guest bathroom. So, I told why didn't you tell me. On the other hand I felt so guilty and mad at myself, if I was a better housewife and if I had taken the time out to really check on things, I would have found out about it sooner. Anyway, this problem has been sold but then again it added to my stress.

4. My maid of almost 4 years is leaving and going back to the province. She will be helping out her sister's food stall that's why she wants to go back there. So here I am again on the look out for another maid. Hmmm, I wonder sometimes if my life will be simpler if I didn't have maids :(

5. Another thing that really pissed me off was when I started checking and seeing the quality of housework I'm getting from my maids. Since I am home most of the time, as a housewife I should be able to monitor how they are doing their duties. I saw the guest bathroom and it was so full of dust. So, I had to talk to my maid again and supervise her duties.

There goes my harassing week!!! Dealing with domestic problems is more difficult than dealing with work stress. Household problems will hound you 24 hours a day while stress in the office can be turned off and on once you get home.

As a housewife, its like your pressured to always have an orderly, pristine, smooth, and organized household. Much harder than I thought :(

Hmmm, do I want my old life back????

Planning a Trip to Xiamen China

I don't know what to really expect in this trip. We (hubby and my in-laws) will be visiting Xiamen to attend a wedding. We'll be leaving on January 27 and be back on the 31st.

Firstly, I don't know what to expect in a traditional Chinese wedding. Most importantly, I don't know what should I wear. Here in Manila (not sure about the other parts of the world), whenever we attend a Chinese wedding we would wear semi formal clothes. Not to the extent of just wearing jeans and a t-shirt (some just wear really casual clothes). I refuse to be that informal though, so I'd normally opt for slacks and a semi formal blouse. In Xiamen, I really don't have an idea.

Since hubby will be wearing a suit and my mother in law does not really have an idea on what one should wear, I decided to have a dress made by JC Buendia (my favorite designer). It will be a long dress with some sort of jacket to fight off the cold weather. Seems like the weather will be around 10-11 degrees Celsius. I'm a bit apprehensive that I might be over dressed so I'm planning to bring one more dress that would as semi-formal.

According to my mother-in-law, the wedding will be a whole day affair. After reading some articles, I got excited because I will be experiencing something new with this trip. It will a first for us to be attending a real Chinese wedding :)

Another part of the preparation is what clothes to bring. Good thing I invested on some thick sweaters when I went to the US a couple of years back. What I just need to buy is a thick jacket, not sure if I'd still buy thermal underwear.

Hmmm, need to start preparing for the trip :)

White Elephant and Mooncake Dice

My hubby and I hosted the Christmas Party with our closest friends. So being the host and all, I had to come with a game and a unique way on how we can do our regular exchange gifts.

Last year, a friend already introduced the white elephant idea. Instead of buying a special gift for our babies, each person should just bring an unused item (anything) that he/she doesn't like or will not use at all. This way we get the chance to get rid of some of our clutter and at the same time hleping friends to get stuff that they need. Last year, it was just one item per year. This time I requested everybody to bring 6 items per person.

Items were classified according to value ranging from P20 to P300 pesos. Then we proceeded with the mooncake dice game (famous game among the Chinese during the mooncake festival). Each person had a turn to roll the dice, then we just followed the rules of the game. We followed this rule:

It was definitely a fun game for everybody. Each one wanted to get the best price but then there were really some items which were not really useful for anybody.

We will definitely be doing this again next year :)

I Cooked, I Cooked....

Hubby was jumping for joy when I said I was going to cook for him. I decided to try out this recipe my Tita gave and it was just for a simple corn soup.

We have this what you call "white corn" and this is actually sweeter than Japanese corn if you use it for cooking. I decided to try out the corn soup, I forgot the exact name of the recipe.

So with the help of my maids, they did the preparation. Basically, they just had to grate the corn. My Tita gave me about 10 pieces of white corn. After that, I took over.

I sauteed onion and garlic. Then added water, waited for it to boil and then added the grated corn. After a few minutes I added the chili leaves, salt, pepper and Chicken Knorr Cubes.

Voila!!! We had instant soup. Unfortunately I didn't get to take any picture. Nevertheless, hubby really enjoyed it :)
He had several helpings of the soup.

Hmmm, what should I cook next????

New Year, New Goals....

It was a busy, tiring, and fun holiday for me thus the long silence in my blog. I'll share what has happened the past two weeks in my succeeding posts.

Since its the start of the year and its my first post for 2008, what better way to start it is by setting my goals for the year.

1. Quit Smoking
2. Cook more often (started it right by cooking for hubby yesterday :))
3. Exercise at least 3 times a week
4. Fix the House
5. Set-up a new business
6. Eat sweets at most twice a week - major good luck to me :(
   
7. Eat more veggies
8. Stop drinking coffee and soft drinks
9. Supervise my household helpers regularly
10. Shop only twice a month - hmmm, why did I include this????

On hindsight, I think I've set up a tall order for me. Well, I have this blog to keep me in check.

I do hope that I'll be able to achieve my 10 goals for the year. Its a rough start but I think I'll be able to achieve it :)