Plans for our future house

Recently, I've shared to you that finally we're moving (again!) to a house which has cheaper rental fee but looks more decent than the current house we're renting. The first time we took a look of the house, we fell in love with it. The outer feature looks inviting already. On the side of the house, there's a big space for garden. It would be suitable for my hubby's plants and orchids. Hubby laid out his plans with me that he's going to turn the vacant lot into a flower garden. Isn't it a fabulous idea? At the backyard, there are mango tree and tambis or water apple tree which are both bearing fruits. They provide shade in the backyard. It's a very ideal place for an afternoon nap, meditation and even grilling/barbecuing with families! We could also host supper out there under a starry, starry night. What do you think? Maybe we'll install an outdoor lighting , something that looks like the Hinkley lighting fixtures I've seen online and something that will meet all of our decorative lighting needs.

Tomorrow, we gonna check the inside features of the house . I hope it meets our expectation as it meets our expectation for its location and surroundings.

Guess who's moving?

What an interesting thing just happened today! Our friend called us that a house in front of them is open for rent and she asked me if we are still interested to move. I replied that if the house's rent is cheaper and nicer than our present place, then why not? It's also nearer to the place of Hyzyd's nanny. I then called my hubby and relayed to him the information. He was interested and we stopped by this evening to take a look of the place. We can't believe that the rental fee of that big house with 2 bedrooms and a large space for garden is cheaper than our current place. We didn't get the chance to peek the inside coz the owner's not around yet but the caretaker assured us that it's beautiful inside. They just need to repair the leaking upstairs, buy a new dining table and ceiling fans both the rooms and in the living room. If ever we'll decided to move, they will only collect a fee good for a month instead of the usual collection of 1 month advance, 1 month deposit scheme of rental here in the city. The caretaker is really a good person and I felt at home with her.

So are we going to move or not, you may ask? Absolutely YES! We feel in love of the place at first sight. More details and photos will be posted here once we settle in that new place. I can't wait any longer and I'm so filled with excitement right now. I still have to research about Asbestos cancer . As far as I know Thailand doesn't ban the use of asbestos completely like in the western world. In fact, our current place has lots of asbestos . The reason why THailand still used asbestos : it strengthens construction, and it is cheaper than substitute products that are available now (some substitute products are actually already produced in Thailand).

So, whether you stay in Thailand for a holiday in a hotel, or reside here in a condominium, you can be quite certain that most likely the building you are in, contains chrysotile, a form of asbestos. Probably not necessary to panic, but maybe you should not drill too many holes in your walls, and let the stuff escape into the air you breath.

an open letter to my 20-month old boy

My everbeloved baby Hyzyd,

Happy 20 months baby. You're already 20 months old and soon you'll start exploring the life of a kindergarten. I'm grateful to God that He gives you good health though sometimes rashes disturbed you during hot days. I was worried before when you're still a month-old to eight months old because your face was always covered with rashes and I suspected that you have allergies. I even see a doctor and let her examine you and she ask me lots of questions. Thanks be to God that it's just mild and was healed with the recommended ointment. It's the reason why I constantly changed our beddings every other day to avoid the rashes. How I wish I could find an allergy bedding especially for you my son as soon as possible to give you a healthy night sleep.

Now that you're 20 months old,you love to run a lot. Everytime we go to the mall, I end up chasing after you. You don't want to be carried anymore. Instead you run and run for hours! You love balls-small, big, soft, hard and various kinds of balls. Recently, your dad bought you a soccer ball for baby and you know how to throw that ball underhand! On blowing bubbles, you've already mastered it. You already know how to use spoon but is still struggling to use the spoon in eating...LOL! Patience son and soon you'll learn to use both the spoon and fork. I'm sorry that sometimes Mommy won't allow you to play with them while eating because cleaning up your mess is a great challenge for me..LOL! Thank you son that you now enjoy helping your mom around- putting away your toys after playing (when I told you to do so) , throwing your diapers in the trash can when I told you so and getting something for me when I ask you to. You now understand as many as 200 words because when you watch Mommy and Me, Dora, the Explorer or Mickey Mouse Club House you nod when the answer to the question is YES and shake your head to say NO. You get excited when there's racing in the movie and you cheer for the winner. You wave your arm when Dora says goodbye, laugh out loud when Patrick tells a story to Spongebob about the Ugly Barnacle and makes a face at the end of the story and you recognizes when something is wrong in the movie- you either shout or run to us and point to the TV screen as if you wanted us to rescue Boots from the snapping turtle or Professor Van Drake from being stucked...lol!

You now learn to wash and dry your hands with help. You point to picture or object when we call it by name but you never repeat after me. We're just amazed that after few days you'll just point it and blurted the name of it like number 3 which is our house number, "heart" when you see hearts decor in the mall,"moon" when you see the moon outside the house and "bird". "Fish" when you saw your Aunt Nona eating fish. You already identify where's your eyes and nose. I'm just concerned about what they say that at your age you should learns words at a rate of ten or more a day but you never repeat after me. You'll just laugh at us and just clap your hands as if you're the one saying "good job mommy!"...LOL! When we count from 1-5, you also count your fingers but start with number 3, 4, then 5. How about numbers 1 and 2, son?...LOL! You say "OUCH" perfectly with emphasis on "ch" when your hurt, can say "fish" with a perfect "sh" sound! I'm so proud of you son. I'm happy that you meet the milestones for your age son . I don't need to worry about the area in language because I know that at the right time you'll just surprise us. We'll just content ourselves first with your out-of-this-world baby talk with facial expression. We enjoy it son especially when you wanted to tell us something and you noticed that we're not listening, you'll hold our neck and forced us to face you so that you can look into our eyes and forced to understand ywhat you're saying..LOL! We love you so much son.

Loving you with an undying love,

Mommy and Daddy

My childhood in the kitchen

with my grandma and younger brothers, Bjoy, Rijn and Zene

My father used to work as a field manager in a Palm Oil Company in Agusan del Sur. I grew up in one of the houses provided for field managers where it's equipped with everything you need- household and kitchen appliances ,modern furniture, garden and gardener and maid service. What I missed about my childhood aside from my grandma (the one carrying a baby) who used to visit us with farm products (lanzones, sunkist, peanuts and various fruits and vegetables), I missed our kitchen. I could still remember those times where my father hired his brothers to renovate this place so that our mom could have larger space . Our afternoons were always spent on watching our mom baked cookies and breads. We're there with her ups and downs in the kitchen. We're her trusted "tasters" and it was in there that I learned to wash our dishes and cook my favorite champorado (chocolate rice pudding) at age 6.

an entry for :

Blog Review for a Cause

Isn't she a cutie? She's Baby Bella and she needs our help for her Hernia Operation. A hernia is the protrusion of an organ through the wall of the cavity that normally contains it. When a hernia is not repaired, it may become strangulated. When strangulation occurs, there is a danger that part of the intestine be caught in the hernia cutting off blood supply to the tissue. Also, when a bowel obstruction occurs, it leads to severe pain, vomiting, nausea and inability to have a bowel movement or pass gas. Although Hernia happen to boys mostly, girls can also experience it.

We can help raise the expenses needed for Bella's operation by purchasing a blog review from her Mom, Mommy Rubz. A blog review from her PR3 blog. The review is consist of 150 words (all positive) with 2 links (home page link) and an image of the header or screen shot of the blog to be reviewed. One link with the blog title as the anchor text and the other link is on the image. Please send me an email (pehcats@gmail.com) with the url of the blog you want Ruby to review.. and will reply with the url of the post and the paypal id where you can send the payment and if you are generous enough, you can even add more to the $10 price... we'll be waiting for your email!

(post content courtesy of Bee Mommy)

Tuesday Couch Potatoes: The Island

So considering that there was nothing else out this weekend I decided to give "The Island" a chance.

"The Island" is basically about the end of the human race or so we think. The movie's basic storyline for the film is this: the human race gets contaminated and there is this compound that rescues people and decontaminates them. So all of the world's survivors live in this compound with the ultimate goal of going to the Island, where everyone can live a safe and happy life. However, Lincoln (Ewan McGregor) finds that this compound doesn't make much sense and begins to question the whole idea of the island. It isn't long before Lincoln finds out the truth behind the island but just when he does his best friend Jordan (Scarlett Johansson) gets selected to go to the island. It is now up to Lincoln to save Jordan and the rest of the people in the compound from going to the island and ultimately finding out the truth of their existence. An intense and action packed film ensues…

I thought "The Island" was fantastic and just was a movie worth watching. Ewan and Scarlett were just great together in this on the seat thriller, the story was just very exciting. Especially since cloning is such a huge debate right now, I know that it is going to get more intense in the future. That's the story's main plot, cloning and how wrong it is to play God.

The story itself just keeps you guessing and thinking with some very great effects. I would without a doubt recommend "The Island" for your viewing pleasure. It's a lot of fun, it's got excitement, romance, action, and a plot that actually worked coming from Michael Bay. My only complaint is the ending, which I choose not to give away, but it leaves some room for questioning. Other than that, enjoy!

an entry for the theme, Genetically Engineered:

My thoughts on Search Engine Optimization

If you still visit and read my posts in here, thank you so much for spending some time. I felt a bit guilty of not writing much in this site and not bringing you some fresh and informative posts. Aside from having hectic schedules in school, my hands are also full in building up my other four new blogs! Sometimes, my brain drains already after updating those blogs that I'm left nothing to say on this site. No wonder I lost some of my best readers, commenters and followers. The quality of traffic in this blog doesn't improve and doesn't receive back its page rank after Mr.Google stripped it off a year ago. Thus, only few online opportunities were received by this blog.

I've shared this concern to a friend and she advised me on optimizing my pages for search engines . It is vital if I want people to find my pages. There are millions and millions of pages on the Web, and the chances of ever finding my pages is very slim unless I work on optimizing my site.

Now here comes my ignorance with some internet terms, I'm not really familiar with Search Engine Optimization so I have to dig in the net to know more about it. Thanks to Mr. G who's always just a click away.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site or a web page (such as a blog) from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed to other forms of search engine marketing ("SEM") which may deal with paid inclusion. The theory is that the earlier (or higher) a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence.

Now, I'm enlightened on how important SEO is. It's very important especially for those building websites for business purposes and only rely on search engines to get readers. But it can take a lot of time and effort on a continuing basis to optimize websites for search engines, isn't it? So it's a good idea to look at search engine marketing firms. I've been told that you could easily saved a lot of money if optimization companies were involved from the first stages of your site's development.

Would I pay a site to optimize my page? I think I'm not ready for that. I'm not yet earning much from this site so it's impractical for me to pay a site to optimize my page. I would only do so if I could establish a business online in the future. That is "IF I could..." only. As of now,I need to know how to make my website search engine friendly, and then submit my URL to all the major search engines if I want more readers to visit my page. I believe joining memes will help much, too. What do you think?

Zizah and me

I miss my sisters. They've grown so fast and I'm amazed that the babies became ladies now especially the sister who's the closest to me, Zizah Neiel. She slept with me until I finished college. It was only stopped when I worked far from home. i could still remember that she won't sleep unless I'll go to bed. She'll wait for me until I'm done with my homework until even until 12 midnight!

She's Grade 1 in the photo above but now she's already 13 years old!

an entry for:

3-in-1 entry for Tuesday Couch Potatoes

It's been a while that I've joined Tuesday Couch Potatoes. Nasobrahan yong pagiging Couch Potato ko Marce Kikamz kaya di ako nakagawa ng entry. LOL! My apology. Kidding aside, since class started I couldn't find time to blog unless I'll wake up as early as 3:00 am or if the internet room in our school is available (with it's uber slow connection).

If I've joined the previous themes, my choice for the movie that starts "A" would be Amour Interdit translated as Sleeping Dictionary starred by Jessica Alba. Just click on the link to know how their forbidden romance ends.

Last weeks theme is all about Computer Geeks 101. My first choice would be Untraceable and the second would be Die Hard 4 which was featured by other entrants so I'm hoping to join last time with Antitrust as my entry. I love how the movie ends. The young computer genius was able to take down publicly the CEO of the world's largest computer company.

For this week's theme The 3D Experience, I don't experience 3D yet. Poor me! But if I'll get the chance to watch any movies in 3D I love the Jonas Brothers - The 3D Concert Experience(2009) good for 76mins. I will tell you then my experience*grin*.

More 3D experiences are shared at:

Do you self-tan?

Do you tan yourself? Well, in my opinion most Filipinos (and even Thais) want to have fair skin. This is the reason why you'll see lots of whitening lotion and other products to attain and maintain fair skin. I noticed that tanning is so popular for westerners but because of the possible risks and damages from sun some prefer to use tanning lotion.


Many popular names from Hollywood usually sports a tanned look. Why do they like tanned skin? The first and probably the most common reason why a deep, dark tan is wanted by many is that the bronzed effect instills a high sense of beauty in the person that has it. If you acquire a beautiful tan, you will quickly see that more and more people notice you. Your gorgeous skin will reflect beautifully in any type of lighting, and it is highly likely that you will be the center of attention, regardless of where you are. Not only will you look great with a gorgeous tan, but you will feel great as well!

When I see pictures of Lindsay Lohan I do not think she looks hot. I think she looks as though she has that disease where you eat too many orange things and then you turn orange. If you want to not look like that and still apply self tanner, be sure to use the best self tanner 2010 and have a professional do it for you.

This is the way we celebrate Teacher's Day in Thailand

Last June 10, Thursday the schools here in Thailand celebrated Teacher's day or Wai Khruu . I've blogged in Teaching Moments and Away from Home how we celebrated Teacher's day. You can head over there and more details and photos I laid out for you (indirectly, what I'm trying to say is that my two new blogs need your precious visits ) .

How we wish these are ours.

These are just few of the elaborately decorated “paan,” golden containers filled with flowers that the students in the class helped to create.

Nostalgia: My IMSF students

It's me with my first year college fishery students. It was taken last October 5, 2005 while we're holding a speech contest as part of my final test in English. It's also my last day with them because I'll be flying here in Thailand. I wonder where are they now? I used to be close to them but mind you I'm a very strict teacher in the classroom but I see to it that they can confide to me whenever they have troubles and problems outside the classroom.

Any flashback that you wanna share with us? Join us here:

By the way, I would like to take this opportunity to greet the hostess of this meme, sis Rose a happy birthday! Hope you have more bountiful years to come with the love of your life .

The heat is killing me!

(photo courtesy to rachelwithdoodles.tumblr.com)

This week after dancing, leaping, singing and almost doing cartwheel in the class I experienced excessive sweating, nausea, uber tiredness, headache, muscle cramps and I felt llike I couldn't breath and like going to faint! Oh no, I experienced heat exhaustion due to the temperature across the country hitting 40 degree Celsius!

Fortunately, heat exhaustion rarely causes serious problems and can be treated relatively easily. What did I do? I just rest in a cool place. I went to the school's office which was just air-conditioned. I sip cold water. It's ideal to sip drinks especially designed for rehydration (e.g., electrolyte replacement sports drinks). They're useful because they contain a good balance of different salts. Fortunately on that day I bought extra blouse and towel. I took a bath and this helps me felt better .

I shared what happened to my hubby and he told me to be extra careful cause what I experienced may lead to heatstroke ! The Public Health Ministry of Thailand issued a warning advising people to stay indoors and avoid getting a heat stroke - a life threatening condition that claimed seven lives over the past two years. We need to do the following:

• Stay in the shade as much as possible
• Drink lots of cool drinks
• Avoid alcohol or caffeine which are dehydrating
• Take it easy on hot days - don't overexert yourself ( a reminder to myself )
  

House project 101

After 5 long months of waiting, we finally got our water! It means moving is not an option anymore and we'll stay in this house as long as we want. It's time to unpack things and proceed to our plans and desire to beautify the house and purchase the things we need one at a time. First we need to buy a Dining Room Furniture specifically a dining table. How I love to host a casual Sunday family dinners! We opt not to buy the expensive one because we'll not stay long here in Thailand. We're scouting for something cheaper but durable. We've seen dining room furniture near our residence and we plan to buy the dining table with dining chairs for only 5,000 baht. It looks like one below:

If I'm not mistaken, the table's dimension is 36″-54″W 54″D 36″H and it's made of wood. The photo above shows almost the same feature minus the intricate wood carvings on the legs. It's easy to clean durable finish.

Next, we'll purchase a portable sink in our kitchen area (most Thai apartments don't have sink in their kitchen area ) My hubby who is also our handyman promised to install sink in our kitchen and cabinets. I'm excited for that improvement in out kitchen area. I will be more motivated to cook and try new dishes everyday.

Our bedroom needs some floor mats and curtains. I'm excited to do some makeover of our bedroom. I just hope that the landlord will put screen in our windows as soon as possible because mosquitoes are attacking us!

What else? We'll buy new refrigerator next month so our old one will be given away. Do you want it? Then you can have it if you want. Just pick it up in our house by the end of this month.

I just hope a month from now we can have our new dining furniture, bedroom makeover as well as the kitchen makeover! I can't wait!

with the "Samanen"

Nostalgia is Nostalgic Marveling's meme where we could post anything that reminds us of a place, somebody, or something such as old pictures, souvenir from friends, family, or place that we visited, experiences or stories. There will be no theme for this meme (your options are unlimited) so it is up to us to choose what kind of entry we want to post as long as it brings back some memory or a flashback from the past. The rules are simple:

Make an entry every Thursday (I'll post mine on Wednesdays). Include the Nostalgia badge , link your post and make a comment. Please make your comment as relevant as possible on the post. Visit other participants and have fun!

I salute Mom Rose of creating this meme to give us a chance to share to the world important things that ever happened to us.

Here's my first entry:

It's my first year in Thailand and I taught at Mahapanya Vidayalai where I taught English to "Samanen" (monk novice). I missed these students. They were good and respected me so much and I missed the food they brought to me everyday.