A Sad News This Christmas ...

Christmas is just a few days away. You can now feel the cold breeze of December, people buying and shopping for presents, you could see Christmas lights and nice decors all around. What a wonderful sight. But to a close friend of mine, their Christmas would not be as good as they wanted it to be. Here’s his story:

His dad is badly needed to be rehabilitated (again for the nth time) for drug addiction and should be brought to a rehab facility to receive his non-12 step addiction treatment. So they brought him there just early this year and just yesterday they received news that his dad got out of the rehab facility without permission. They haven’t broken the news yet to their mom who is sick and bedridden at the same time. The fact that they still have to pay rehab dues for the recent MRT (moral reconation therapy) that they are doing on their patient, they badly need again enough money to hire someone to look for his dad. My oh my … tsk, tsk, tsk! (I wonder what was done to him during his previous 12-step addiction treatment.

I just pray that they find their dad fast just before Christmas or else his mom would look for their dad since they regularly visit the rehab center twice a month.

Family Portrait ... Done!

Hooray! At long last, our dream of having a formal family portrait has come to reality! Of course, thanks to the ever reliable “crazy online deals” again, I got an unlimited 1 hour portrait session that comes with one 8x10 and two 5 x 7 prints. Too sad because I need to pay for a certain amount for them to give me the softcopy hi-resolution photos of our shoot. Well, I’m not financially prepared for that so we just have to say pass for the moment.

The experience was all worth it! Though it was really very tiring, with the kids running around since there were so many toys all around them. But it was fun indeed! Yey! With photographer Gordon to assist us all throughout the shoot everything went fine. But while waiting for our turn, activities at home for kids and toys were available at the studio lobby, so the kids we’re busy as a bee.

Thanks to the photographer North Shore people. We had a great time and produced great pictures too!

Useful Tips Part 2

Just a friendly reminder to all! Proper Handwashing to prevent diseases ...



HAPPY HANDWASHING!!!!

Wanted: Working Mom!!!

This is exam week already before my kids go on a semestral break from October 27 to November 7. One thing I realized is that it’s really very hard to belong to the Working Moms world. Having an eight to five job most of the time eats up so much of my energy. Well, I wish and I could have plenty of time and energy to watch over my kids, do all sorts of things with them, play with them and most especially look after their studies. My patience tends to wither after a long day at work. Seriously, I get mad and frustrated very easily when my kids do not want to study or review for their test or even just do their assignments. So I tend to shout at them and bring out the monster mom in me. I feel sorry for my kids and my heart breaks when I see my children almost teary-eyed after I reprimand them (though they really didn’t do anything bad).

At times, there are instances where I wanted to be just like those Work at home moms. It’s amazing how they do encounter employers or employment opportunities where they can enjoy their homes with their kids and at the same time earn from it. But I believe, you have to have the same patience and you must have a good tick on home management for one to be a successful work at home mom.

So, for now let me just enjoy what God has given me now since everything is still manageable. I just have to learn to manage myself in terms of my actions towards my kids. Of course, I have to be very, very careful with the words and the reactions that they see in me … for I could make an impression that it’s okay to be that way (be hot-headed).

For Shoe Lovers Only!!!

Hey, hey, hey ... All Shoe Lovers out there!!!

Here's your chance to join and witness a one-of-a-kind experience in shoebusiness ... Join us in Marikina's 2011 Sapatos Festival from October 3 to November 18.

Lot's of activities to look foward to ...

Shoe For A Cause: October 3 (Marikina City Hall Quadrangle)
Shoe Caravan: October 3 – November 11 (17 LGU’s in Metro Manila)
Shoe Exhibit: October 8-9 SM Masinag
October 15-16 Eastwood City
October 22-23 SM Marikina
Feast of St. Crispin: November 14 (Marikina City Hall Quadrangle)
Re-Launching of Shoe Museum: November 15 (Shoe Museum)
Jazz-Up My Shoes: November 17 (SM Marikina)
Fashion Shoe: November 17 (SM Marikina)
Tour de Takong: November 18 (Teatro to Cityhood Park)
Shoe Float Parade: November 18 (Cityhood Park – Citywide)
Gabi ng Parangal sa Industriya ng Sapatos at Konsyerto sa Plaza November 18 Kapitan Moy Plaza.

The Shoe must go on!

Let's Try to Increase Page Rank

In my two years in the blogging world, I realized that it is a bit hard to increase page rank of my blog. Since I consider myself still a newbie in the blogosphere world, there are a few things that I really have to study on and understand terminologies that are needed to successfully achieve my objective – increase page rank. So, I researched on tips on the net and I hope you guys would be able to benefit from this too.

Tip Number One. I saw that listing your website or blog to a web directory would be very beneficial to increasing one’s popularity. Why, because this is where people would search on for everything and anything under the sun, thus increasing your traffic andincreased traffic means increasing your ranks up mainly because of the links. (Now this I still owe you – I’d be making another research on this). But make sure that the web directory that you’ll be listing your blog or site on is pretty popular itself. Especially if you paid for it … but if it’s free well, you don’t have to worry about it much.

There are thousands of FREE website directories on the internet! But if you are thinking about paying for listing your site, you should be able to check the following – Page Rank of the directory, where in particular you are listed on the page (the categories in simple terms) to check that the back-links that you are aiming for on you website will be given to you. Let’s take jasminedirectory.com. This is a business web directory, where people can list their websites to be reviewed by editors. This 100% SEO friendly, W3 CSS and HTML Valid, Automatic Thumbnail and has 5 deep URLs.

There are still several factors to consider on directory listing especially if you are using it for business related and income generating purposes. Since others based their search on keyword relevance, others by “editorial” meaning it is through editors ratings and for some, those that are “sponsored” are given priority or better business listing spot.

More tips to come …

Useful Tips Part 1

Here are some useful tips for all of you guys:



Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.







Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.






To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.



Watch out for more cool tips from The Sweet Life ...

Hospitalization No. 2

Oh my, oh my! Here we go again ... Round #2.

We were hospitalized again for the second time ... pneumonia. His previous confinement was March of this year and after six months another episode. First I blame it to our very poor weather. Kids and even adults as well suffer from the same dilemma of having to go through the "sudden change of weather" condition. It's like - morning sunshine, then severe heat by 10am till 3pm, then it will rain by 4pm to stop after thirty minutes or so ... what a weather we have now.

But, sometimes I feel that I haven't given him enough colostrum when he was still a baby, I only relied mostly on infant formula. Not exactly that I wanted it like this but I just had postpartum depression so I really had a hard time coping up with breastfeeding. Breastfeeding was really part of my plan ... I did impose on a no formula policy, but after a week, he had high fever and was not urinating. Pedia said that it means baby is not taking in fluids/milk that well. Some of my friends recommendations to let my baby take organic infant formula for they say that non-organic baby food has artificial coloring and preservatives that is said to have a non-healthy effect on babies' health which includes asthma (which he has now ... oh my), allergic reactions, and a lot more. Hmmm, do you think I could still give him organic formula now to boost him immune system. But the questions is ... are these organic formulas has good taste ... that's for me to find out. But of course, for now I do rely on loading them with vitamins - specially Vitamin C and Zinc to boost their immune system. I am praying also that they eat more vegetables since this is the best and the cheapest immune system builder of all.

Goodbye Oiliness!!!

I've always had oily skin ever since. There would be products, especially makeups that I'd buy and would just be put to waste because it aggravates the sebum on my skin more. There is a saying that Oiliness is next to godliness! And my oh my, I think this has been haunting me for so long a time now.

Now, searching and searching for the perfect oil control product to use to reduce and tame my so overactive sebum glands. I could not try all possible products since I really don't have that much extra money to spend for them. So, I try to find products that are effective but fits my budget.

I'm currently using the Acne Defense Clarifying Toner as recommended by my dermatologist for over a month now. It has an exclusive Salicylic Acid formula to balance oil production and take out pimples and stubborn acne. I'm using it also for my back which tend to over product big and stubborn acne. Here's it's active ingredient:

1. Salicylic Acid

Topical salicylic acid is used to help clear and prevent pimples and skin blemishes in people who have acne. It treats acne by reducing swelling and redness and unplugging blocked skin pores to allow pimples to shrink. It treats other skin conditio~s by)softening and loosening dry, scaly, or thickened skin so that it falls off or can be removed easily. (As grabbed from the Medline Plus website www.nlm.nih.gov

2. Clindamycin

Since Clindamycin is really and anti-bacterial medicine I think this is the one preventing the bacterial growth on your pimples (inflammation). '

3. Calendula Extract

A flower extract that has anti-aging, anti-irritant and moisturizing effect on the skin.

4. Potassium Azeloyl Diglycinate

Potassium Azeloyl Diglycinate is a new type azelaic acid with higher solubility in water and better effect of whitening and controlling the secretion of sebum.

So far so good, my skin has some improvement. Let's see what it can do after I finished the whole bottle. By the way, I bought this product for 550 pesos and let's see how this goes. Hmmm, I wonder if this product can be for skin tag removal too.