a sane business advice

Last year my friend and I thought of putting up an online store. She will provide me with the merchandise from the U.S. and we will be selling it here. I had to research what products are more likely to sell online and came up with baby clothes, women's apparel, bags, etc. It was tedious at first, especially designing the website and uploading pictures, putting the prices and sorting them out. Since it is an online business, we need a reliable merchant account provider. There are many merchant accounts out there, but we had to find one that will cater to our business' needs. Good thing I found out about Free Merchant Account Advisor and it only took me 3 minutes to answer an online interview and I got the answers and advice I needed. What's best about it is it's for free!

I know that Paypal is a very popular merchant account provider and with the Free Merchant Account Advisor, I learned about other Paypal Alternative which could also be used in our online business. And now we are looking into an option to accept credit cards so that our customers will have an option to pay thru credit card. We were hesitant at first, but after a thorough research of the credit card processing companies offering credit card processing services, we are finally on our wary to making an online credit card processing. I really do hope that this will work out for us. With the financial crisis going on right now, it definitely helps to have an added source of income and I would definitely have to thank the internet for giving us the opportunity to have one. Now, that is a sane business advice.

first day in kindergarten

I think this blog hibernated for a week. It's because last week Joaqui started Kindergarten and I had to adjust my schedule, prepare the things he needed for school and ease him into going to school again. You see, my son is not that excited to go back to school again...hehehehe. Anyway, I had to label and cover his books and notebooks (yes, they already have 5 notebooks, 1 for each subject--can you believe it?), prepare art materials, personal box, fill up student information sheets, etc. Thankfully now he's kind of settled in our routine.

I took a lot of pictures last year when he started Nursery and I made a photo book from Artscow. Now I'm planning to do another photo book at the end of this school year, so I'm taking more pictures starting with his first day of school.

Before going to school:


Inside his new classroom. Parents and guardians were allowed during the first day. Joaqui seems to be talking to his new classmate here. It's only the first day and he's already being talkative. : )


Joaqui has matured since last year. I have a feeling he will do well again this year.

Mommy Moments - I am a Daddy!

After our wedding, hubby and I at first decided that we would not have children until after a year of our marriage. This was to give us both time to enjoy the first year of our lives as a married couple. But once while inside the sauna after a gym workout, I had spoken to a woman who said that we should try to conceive as early as possible because what if there was a possibility that it would be difficult for us to have children? She said it's better to know now than later. It had me thinking, and so Mother's Day of 2006 was a very special day because the pregnancy test kit showed a positive result. Hubby was elated and he was very supportive, always accompanying me to doctor's visits and took care of me after I gave birth via C-section. He was a very hands-on Dad and I must admit that I've learned a lot from him. He was even the one who taught me how to carry our baby properly! Up until now, he is still very hands-on with taking care of Joaqui, and an affectionate Dad to our little boy.

I'm glad to share my Daddy Story today at Mommy Moments. Read more of wonderful daddies here.