looking forward

Today is the day before Christmas and I am filled with hope that next year will be a much better year for us. I am looking forward to 2012 because that is the year that we will be almost debt free. Yes, one of our major loans will be finished by December 2012 and we are doing the best we can to keep our financial status intact. 2011 has been a difficult year financially because of the economic regression, the U.S. recession and the calamities our country has encountered, and to be able to look forward to 2012 gives me hope.

Next year we will also be considering decisions with regard to our financial status, like there might be ways where we can cut off on our bills including credit card payments. We have been doing great and only using our credit cards for emergency purposes or much needed items that we need to buy. Since we are of very good credit standing, credit card companies are offering us balance transfer credit cards, which would allow us to transfer our balance from our existing credit card to a new one, at a much lower interest rate. I think it is a good enough deal to minimize our credit card debt.

I have been reading a lot of articles about money management and doing analysis on how we can pay off our debt early. I am very hopeful that it will not take long. We are working very hard and doing our best not to waste our hard-earned money and be on the road to financial freedom. Even though Christmastime means having to spend on so much, we were still able to stay within our budget and what I am really proud of was that we were still able to give to the victims of typhoon Sendong in Mindanao. And I think that is the true meaning of Christmas.

what little boys are made of

Even though little boys are made of snips and snails and puppy dog tails, they can be the sweetest at the same time. My heart was filled with joy just the other day during one of my conversations with our son. He was standing on the bed as I was helping him get dressed when he clasped my face with his hands and told me, "Mommy, you are very beautiful!" I smiled (actually I grinned ear to ear) and said, "Thank you!" Then he added, "You're pretty!" I replied, "Awww...thank you, you're very sweet!" He was silent for a while and said, "You're also very nice and I love you always!" This time I hugged him tight and told him, "I love you always and forever."

I realized that he may be up to hundreds of roguishness each day and sometimes drives me crazy, yet at the end of each day he is a very sweet little boy and my heart just overflows with love for him.

E

My mind is blank of what to contribute for today's letter. You see, my son's school lesson is about the letter E and we are studying words that starts with letter E, so I can only think of preschool E words like elephant, engine, eyes, ears and eggplant.

Now why don't I share with you some unusual words beginning with E....

eigne - first born
emetology - study of vomiting
enosimania - pathological belief that one has sinned
eellogofusciouhipoppokunurious - good
ebriection - mental breakdown from too much drinking
encomic - having closely curled hair
epeolatry - worship of words
ergophobia - fear of work
exspuition - spitting
eudaemonism - ethical belief that happiness equals morality

I hope to educate my readers with these E words. Now I'm done and have an eellogofusciouhipoppokunurious day!

This is my entry for ABC Wednesday.

D for Dinosaur

My son has been preoccupied with Dinosaurs after watching this film. It is about an orphaned dinosaur who is raised by lemurs who then joins an arduous journey to the nesting grounds after a meteorite shower destroys his family home. His favorite dinosaur here is the T-Rex, and so since then, my days are quite filled with questions about Dinosaurs.

Did you know that.....

The word dinosaur comes from the Greek language and means ‘terrible lizard’. The word was coined by English paleontologist Richard Owen in 1842 and was meant to refer to dinosaur's impressive size rather than their scary appearance.

Dinosaurs lived and evolved for over 185 million years until they became extinct. The cause has not been proven yet, but many believe that an asteroid Over 9 miles wide hit the earth in the Gulf of Mexico.

For almost 90 years, T-Rex was the largest known predator to have ever walked on the Earth. It was not until Giganotosaurus was discovered in Argentina in the 1990s that T-Rex was beat by a larger discovered predator. Tyrannosaurus was one of the last Dinosaurs to die out.

Birds descended from a type of dinosaurs known as theropods.

Source: Fun Dinosaur Facts for Kids

I'm also looking forward to read to him this book about dinosaurs....
Image source: amazon.com

This is my entry for ABC Wednesday

Mommy Moments - Superhero

I remember the first time Joaqui wore a super hero costume which was Robin of Batman and Robin. It was his first time to attend a super hero costume birthday party and at that time, he had no idea what a super hero is.

When he saw the movie Superman on HBO, he was hooked. He started to pretend he was Superman and asked that we buy him a toy Superman and then a Superman costume. So last year during their school's Family Day with a theme about heroes, he was no less than....

He used to wear this costume all the time, even when playing outside our unit. The people here in our condo area calls him Superman because he is always seen with the red cape on. He used to watch the Superman DVD everyday and his favorite was the helicopter scene. He has watched Superman 1-5 for countless number of times. He knew the main characters from Lois Lane to Mr. Perry White. It came to a point that when someone asked what his name was, he would reply "Clark Kent" and even asked me to buy him a pair of glasses and he wanted a hairstyle like Superman with the curly hair on the front!

This Superman phase lasted for quite a long time, and it slowly faded to be replaced only by Dinosaurs.

Click on the badge to read more about kids and super heroes.

B for Bagyo and C for Childhood

Bagyo means typhoon or storm in Filipino and since the letter for ABC Wednesday is now in letter C, I just thought it would befitting to associate childhood to bagyo or typhoon.

Last week we have encountered the 6th tropical cyclone for the month of July alone and when heavy rains pour, it can only mean one thing among students....no school!

I saw this boy playing in the rain and reminded me of my childhood days, which also led me to put this poem here:

It would be good to give much thought, before
you try to find words for something so lost,
for those long childhood afternoons you knew
that vanished so completely -and why?

We're still reminded-: sometimes by a rain,
but we can no longer say what it means;
life was never again so filled with meeting,
with reunion and with passing on

as back then, when nothing happened to us
except what happens to things and creatures:
we lived their world as something human,
and became filled to the brim with figures.

And became as lonely as a shepherd
and as overburdened by vast distances,
and summoned and stirred as from far away,
and slowly, like a long new thread,
introduced into that picture-sequence
where now having to go on bewilders us.

Childhood by Rainer Maria Rilke

This is my entry for ABC Wednesday.

Mommy Moments - Family Trips

We have had quite a few family trips and this one was not our last, but it seems to be the most memorable for Joaqui right now because he keeps on telling us that we should go back here. This was during the 16th Hot Air Balloon Festival in Pampanga where we also celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary.

We stayed at The Oasis Hotel. It was a quaint cozy hotel and we enjoyed our stay.


Joaqui's chillax position...a proof that he really liked it there.


After watching the early morning take off of the hot air balloons, we spent the rest of the day watching flying airplanes and helicopters, kites up in the air and just relaxing on the lawn.

We're looking forward to more family trips like this soon. Join us at Mommy Moments.

A is for amusing

Seeing little children in food costumes is really amusing. This is our second time to participate in our preschooler's nutrition month program and every time I look at this picture, I am sometimes amazed on how far my creativity can take me in making a food costume.



If you have seen my previous post, you'll probably know what kind of food he is. It's actually his favorite....frozen yogurt. Enjoy!

This is my entry for ABC Wednesday Round 9.

our froyo boy

If you have a preschooler here in the Philippines, you may very well know that July is Nutrition Month, the time when our little tots will don on costumes from the different food groups. Joaqui's school had their Nutrition Month culminating program last Friday and since he is now in kindergarten, he is supposed to wear a costume from the Grow Food group. Last year he was a pizza from the Go Food group. I thought about what food he will be and decided on him being a frozen yogurt. His school encourages parents to make their own costume and this is what I have come up with.

I'm happy with the outcome and he looks really cute as a frozen yogurt boy. I never really thought that I could make a costume like this. I don't consider myself creative, but I guess when it comes to your own child, a mother's creativity will naturally come out.

a penny for your stocks

I have noticed that lines for those buying lottery tickets get longer and longer. Well, who would not be enticed to try their luck on the lottery when the prize money is so huge. People who buy lottery tickets are just waiting for their luck to strike and winning in the lottery is one of the easiest ways to get rich. Another way which seems easy is trading stocks. When I read about this, I thought that it is so hard to understand and such a big risk to undertake until a friend explained it to me. She got started in this endeavor by self-learning and she said that if I just read about these penny stocks, I would be able to learn the ropes of it, too. She is now earning from her stocks and all those money she initially spent on DVD guides totally worked out for her. Isn't it amazing?

My insurance policy segregates a portion of my premium payment for the company's investment called a flexifund and so far, so good. I have acquired a small amount of money from the insurance company's investment, but I guess if I get into trading stocks, it would be all a different story anyhow. They said that it's a big risk to take, but money will not grow if you just put it in a bank. There are now a wide array of options for those who wish to invest and I'm studying my options regarding that route. My friend who got into trading stocks said that at first it was really difficult, but when she developed her own strategy on how to trade, she got the hang of it. It is not a bed of roses for her and there were quite a few times that she lost, but her overall experience with stock trading is a pleasant one so far.