A need to DATE

When both husband and wife work, the stress of running a household and raising children can make life seem like an endless treadmill, with little time for each other, too little time together and too much to do.

I don't want the romance we shared and enjoyed as young lovers will slowly fade its light. So yesterday, when hubby fetched me at school around 5 pm, I asked him coyly if we could grab dinner first at our favorite steakhouse, Mr. Steak, before fetching Hyzyd with his babysitter because I'm famished already. The truth is, I miss my hubby so much. I miss talking to him without interruptions. I miss holding his hands. I miss just being together. I miss dating him.

My date, my hubby

Is it that obvious that I miss him that much?

I'm such a clingy here as if we don't live in one roof! (Har har!)

We ate braised lemongrass pork, crumbed prawns, beef steak and teriyaki ground pork and talked. We talked about what we did last week, about our plans for next week. We talked about our Hyzyd, our families, our work, our church and friends.

Hubby ordered Beef steak and Teriyaki Ground Pork for only ฿169 ($5.46)

I have Braised lemongrass pork and crumbed prawns for only ฿129 ($4.17)

It's nice to have this get-reacquianted moment once a week. It will surely help restore the electricity flowing and ignites a steady flame of love between us (not to mention the yummy food I'll get while dating...LOL!) .

Date your partner now! See the wonders it bring to your relationship.

Earning $1000 through blogging is possible!

I already earned roughly about $1000 just by blogging (inconsistently) in a span of a year and a half not to mention the cash prizes I won in blog contests/giveaways I joined. It's just now that I realized that I could earn MORE if only I have MORE TIME. This amount is already BIG for me but it's just a dime compared to other bloggers who earned this figure for a month and a nickel to those earning a thousand dollar in just a day!

If my hubby and my little bro happen to read this, they maybe flushing with excitement coz this may mean a pair of Dapper sneakers and 5 lbs GNC Whey protein for my sweetie and the guitar accessories my bro has been asking me for a couple of months now. As much as I love to give them what they desire, how could I when that $1000 has already been withdrawn and spent bit by bit.

How I wish I didn't know yet how to verify my paypal account. In that way I would be forced to just leave that money there and wait for it to reach into six figures (after a century, maybe)...Har har!

I started withdrawing my first $100 from paypal during my sis-in-law's birthday last year. I wanted to surprise her with large boxes of Crunchy Bacon Cheese Pizza .The next sweet taste of my blogging earning was last october when my parents came to visit us. I brought my mom to Swensen's Ice cream parlour and ordered the largest serving they could offer! Our next stop was at Tesco Lotus women's department where I let my mom chose blouses and dresses she likes and tried them all in the fitting room! We bought about 4 or 5 blouses on that day.

A portion of my blogging money were spent at FQ and L Fashion Store. It was my first time spending lavishly for clothes. It was my first time handing the store's clerk a thousand baht for just a pair of pants ! If you knew me , my favorite shopping center is the flea market where I could buy pants for only a hundred baht and 3 Tops for 100 baht! It was my first time to spend 900 baht for a soft-muted tops and 800 baht worth of shorts too. It was my hubby who encouraged me to shop something expensive for myself without feeling guilty.

For the past two months, no cash flows into my paypal account. How do you expect someone with a full-time work, no netbook on her own (if I have I could blog on my free time between classes coz we have Wi-fi) and disconnected from internet service (hopefully, they'll connect us this week coz I already received the telephone number assigned to us) to blog? My paypal account flashed $0.00 on its dashboard for so long already . How I wish I could see figures on it soon. I do have some pending payout from SocialSpark but I couldn't withdraw it unless it reaches the $50 threshold. I'm only $2.50 short but it's impossible to grab opportunities these days. I always received notification that I'm qualified for a certain writing task but when I grabbed it, I'm always placed in the waiting list. In Inpostlinks, I temporarily stopped reserving opportunities because the amount they offer are depressing. Imagine writing 200 words for only 0.50-$1.00 and some topics like welch allyn medical devices, Ferrari brut or car spoilers needs an hour or more for me to be able to come up with a post that relates them to my fashion blog or to my parenting blog. If I have enough understanding or good knowledge of a certain topic then I could write for 30 minutes (at maximum).

Before I am disappointed when Payu2blog failed to give me tasks for the week but since we moved and with no internet I just felt alright even I don't have tasks from them in consecutive weeks. It's better that way than failing to submit my entry before the due date. It could mar my reputation and may lead to lesser opportunities in the future.

When I could get back online (hopefully soon as I expected), I hope to grab more writing opportunities and earn more for a cause. I will not disclose my project yet. I can be pertinacious and single-minded in the pursuit of this goal though it may mean waking up again as early as 3:00 am!

Wishing to see my next $1000 in less than a year.

What's up Gene?

Internet Update

Few days from now we'll definitely have our internet connection. We're already given the telephone number assigned to us last week and I paid the $200 baht fee for the transfer. That's what they termed "transfer fee" but they gave us $200 worth of prepaid card where I could use for domestic and international calling. Not bad, eh?

My previous account with TOT (Telephone Organization of Thailand ) was cancelled when we moved in our present location so we apply for a new account. It took more than 2 months before our telephone number became available. We are that willing to wait rather than to wait for 6 months in another telephone company. With an existing phone line, a high-speed internet service by ADSL technology (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) comes next. It has a maximum of 4 Mbps download speed and 512 Kbps maximum uploading speed in always-on connection and unlimited internet access for only 590 Baht per month.

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Starry night with KBS

We already have cable TV at home (it's free connection from our landlady) and I'm glad that finally I could watch some English news-Fox News, Aljazeera, and Channel NewsAsia, English movies from Syfy and Universal Channel, documentaries from Granada TV, Australia Network and AFC, sports from Eurosports and entertainment from Channel V. They have cartoon networks but most of them were dubbed in Thai (the voices used are always the same tone, and just doesn't match the programs. They made Scooby Doo , Barney or Sesame Street launch fail:( ). They have handful educational show but they used the Thai language. Oh, my night will be more romantic again with the Korean love stories:).

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Teachers need to be appreciated

I already finished my final examination for my K-2 learners except for three sections. I'm done with the grades, too. It's time to plan my lessons and draft my worksheets for our English camp that will commence on October 4 and ends on October 15. The K- 1 teacher told me this morning that most of her students enrolled because they love to have me again on English camp. Am I that good? Oh how I love my students. They really made my day so colorful today. It felt great to know that you're loved.

For teachers like me, appreciation means a lot to keep us going.

Savoring Simple Pleasures

Last Saturday morning while Hyzyd took his nap, I busied myself folding our clothes and preparing laundry for washing and drying. While my hands are occupied, my minds wandered to all the things left to do before our little hideaway will be the way I wanted it: kitchen cabinets, wallpaper in our kitchen , new carpet for the living room and bedroom, new mattress , and pretty curtains for the windows. Of course, it would also be nice to buy new sofa and some kitchen dishes and utensils and pictures for the walls and...my husband's call from downstairs pulled me out of my fantasy. I left what I did and came downstairs, and there on our old sofa, my hubby's smiling at me with his eyes bright.

"What's up?" I asked him.

"Not much," he answered. "Let's try the microphone that I just fixed. I want you beside me as we have a karaoke."

A little shiver ran down my spine as he sang love songs to me. He chuckled and I giggled everytime I'm out of tune. He may not knew it but that simple gesture took my breath away and brought me down to where I ought to be. We didn't have everything in place but we have each other. We had that pleasurable day.

Last Sunday I wasn't feeling well- my head and back aches so badly. My hubby's simple touch in the form of massage did several things: transmitted reassurance, eased my sore muscles and created a feeling of pleasure . He doesn't need to be an expert in massage (but it's much better if he could view some available massage training video on net) to make me feel better. His simple touch makes a big difference. My back pain didn't completely vanished, but romance was intensified. It's amazing what a little romantic touch can do!