Sorry, Amma

I Love You, Thank You and Sorry. These are the 3 most precious phrases that I love to hear from my kids. I'm glad that my kids are quick to say all these phrases and most of the time without telling them to say so.

I especially find it so cute when my toddler who still can't speak with clarity utter those phrases which sound more like .. I wove you! Thanchu! and Sowi! So cute!

Anyways, when someone is at fault, it's always a must to say sorry and be forgiven. But in legal matters, sometimes it's not enough to say sorry. There are consequences for certain actions and that's why a lawsuit is being filed. Let's just say for example the Accutane Lawsuit or Trasylol lawsuit . The severe injuries or damages could have been avoided if the companies were just more careful.

Independence

I completely forgot. I was trying to recall and think when is Thailand's Independence day when I saw a lot of flags lately, but only remembered that Thailand doesn't have one, since they were never conquered by any country in the first place. How silly of me! Now, I remember why this country is also known as "Land of the Free".

So, their national day actually falls on the King's birthday which is on the 5th of December. This is one of the most awaited and most significant occasions in the country. The Thais really respect their King so much. They are also quite patriotic and proud to display their national flags like car flags or stick flags any time of the year.

Anyways, my hubby and I together with our kids have been in this country for several years now. I've grown to love this place and its people. As my Hubby says, this is more like a home to us than any of our own respective countries since this is where we spent most of our time as a couple and as a family. Praying that indeed God will bless this nation with His presence and His grace. God bless Thailand!

Phases

Our life is a journey in which we enter different phases or time. As the wise man in Ecclesiastes says, there is a time for everything.

My Hubby and I feel that we are entering a different phase in our lives and ministry at this moment. We just need more of God's wisdom and grace to pass through this phase in our lives with victory and the main objective that is to glorify His name.

5 Minutes

I can't remember the title of the movie, but I remember the part in which the man says that you will know what matters most to the person if he only has 5 more minutes to collect his belongings and he will surely take all those first. So, the girl tested her fiance by putting on the fire alarm, and true enough her fiance took all his material possessions, not sure though if gold bullions included and even forgot all about the girl. And surely, the girl knew that she didn't matter to him at all and left him.

What about us? What are our precious belongings? Would it be material possessions, our loved ones or other stuff?

When They Grow Up

My friend and I were just talking about our kids. She told me of how her boy has grown up so fast and now refuses to be hugged and kissed by her in public. I now boys will really have to grow in that stage where they will grow up and be embarrassed to be seen with the mom. These will also be the times when they will be so conscious about their looks and buy all the promotional products available.

The reality that my boy will grow up to be a young man has somehow led me to always cherish these times when he is still small and enjoys unlimited hugs and kisses by me. Though sometimes I wish that he will grow up fast and independent but now part of me wants to hold on these times when I can cuddle him to the maximum.

Reading All the Letters

I'm very much into "Letter based" movies now. A few nights ago, I watched the "Letters to Juliet" movie, followed by "Letters to God" and lastly " Dear John". I would have to say that all these movies are very nice with "Letters to God" leaving me crying and truly inspired. The other letters were feel good movies too but more on the romantic side. I was relieved that "Dear John" ended happily as I've always been left teary eyed with Nicolas Sparks books' based movies.

As I'm writing this now, my kids are watching "Letters to God". I would have to ask a feedback from them after watching the movie. :)

If you haven't watched this movie yet, I suggest you grab a copy and be inspired.. " You are a letter... not with pen and ink but with the Spirit of the Living God." 1 Corinthians 3:3

The Healthy Drink

I've read a lot of articles and reviews about the benefits of drinking Green Tea. After being convinced of those articles written by the so-called experts, I bought a box of green tea that same week. But the days have passed by and so have weeks, but that box of green tea packets remained unopened and untouched.

For a few days after buying the box of tea, I was always deciding which one to drink for my morning breakfast, Tea or Coffee.. tea or coffee ,.. tea or coffee.. COFFEE!! Obviously, as a coffee lover, the benefits of green has always been shunned over my preference of that delicious cup of coffee.

And since it's accepted that I can never have tea with my morning breakfast, I'm now changing a little bit and have decided to drink my green tea before going to sleep. I've been drinking a cup of green tea for a few nights now. So, hopefully, I can still gain all the healthful benefits of green tea everyday.

And with this, I'm desiring to get a Christmas tea gift set, so my family and I with friends can enjoy Christmas tea during the holidays. It'll be nice to have those beautifully wrapped tea sets as a present. :)

Yummy Sunday - Bigby's

I miss Bigby's. This is one of my favorite restuarant in our city. Though their prices are not very cheap but they are indeed reasonable since everything is just delicious with a hefty serving.

Above is a photo of one of the dishes we ordered when we went there last year. I apologize for forgetting the name of this dish, but I think these were chicken fingers. :)

December Gift Giving

It's going to be Christmas in few months time. Well, I'm always excited about Christmas. One thing I'm excited about it is the opportunity for us to show the love of Christ through gift giving. Every Christmas, our church has this gift giving time for all the neighbors and the less privileged. I remember taking part of the other years, gift giving program and it was indeed a blessed time.

I also remember the fun everyone had when it was time for them to choose second hand items like men's clothing, women's dresses, bags and etc. that has been collected from every church member. At the end, everyone went back home bringing so many things, gifts, grocery bags and the second hand items they got. Everyone sure went back with a big smile on their faces and the experienced of receiving Christ love together with all the material gifts.

My Cool Mom

My Mom ( Nanay) is turning 70 years old next month. But when you see her in person, you'll never believe that she'll be in her 70's. She doesn't have any beauty secrets at all like hgh releasers or such but one thing for sure, God has been her strength and support all through the years.

Aside from my Mom being young looking, she's also internet savvy as she has an active Facebook account, a blog and has much knowledge on internet activities and transactions. Didn't I say I have a cool Mom, and I'm proud to have one. :)

Click on people's faces in the photo to tag them.

My mom at the middle

No More Breaks

After declaring a break from my 'diet' and exercise, I also stopped taking my health supplements. I know, I should never take a break from a healthy lifestyle, but I think I still have this 'crash' diet mentality that I treat "healthy diet" as one of the fad diets. Sigh!

I will have to always remind myself that I aim to be healthy not just to lose these extra weight but so that I can glorify God by living healthily and thus preserving and taking care of the gift of LIFE that he has given me. So, there must be no more 'breaks' for me.

And by the way, speaking about health supplement, does anyone knows what are the hgh supplements for?

The Sleeping Habit

My li'l boy has this new habit before going to sleep. Apart from drinking his milk from the bottle, he wants to touch my face. At first, I liked this gesture because I found it so sweet. But later on, I found it disruptive since after touching my face for a few minutes, he will then be pinching it so hard! Ouch! But sometimes, I just couldn't resist letting him touch my face before sleeping because with his sweet voice he would ask me, " an I tash yo pace? " ( Can I touch your face?) .. Awww.. so sweet of him, but only if he doesn't pinch my face so hard that I would need some kind of treatment or some type of acne products after he does so. Haayy.. this is my li'l boy...

Starting All Over Again

Finally! After weeks and days of planning to get back to my exercise routine, I've finally done Day 1 today. It really feels great to exercise. Hopefully, I will this will go on until I'm totally fit and healthy and won't think about getting the best weight loss pills anymore.

It's so obvious that I haven't done my exercise for quite a long time because once again, I feel breathless everytime I do the cardio exercises like jumping jacks in the exercise video I'm following.

Pasalubong List

I'm already excited for my Mom and Sis' family's coming in November. I know that it's still more than a month to go before they come but I'm already mentally listing the things that I want them to bring for me from the Philippines. I hope that the best acne product can be found there but I guess, I havnt tried any product yet that really suited me. But anyways, I will surely ask them to bring a few of my favorite food, cologne and other stuff. :)

Growing Taller

I'm so amused to know that my li'l boy has grown so much taller now. And aside from that, he seems to be losing a bit more weight too. I haven't checked his weight yet but it does seem that his tummy and legs are a bit smaller. Of course, I didn't have to check the fast weight loss solutions for him but I think he is slowly losing his baby fats. I hope the Amma ( me!) will follow suit too. LOL!

Stuck

My brain is kinda stuck. I'm just been staring in the computer monitor for so long already but I still I don't have any 'creative' ideas on the articles that I need to write for car insurance companies and the like. I think my mind is so occupied with the things that I have to finish this weekend and at the same time wondering whether I will have enough time to finish them. Oh, I pray that I will have the time and the wisdom to do all these this weekend apart from doing my household chores and homeschool for my girl.

Vegetables and Veggie Tales

Our kids love watching the Veggie Tales. They actually saw their videos a few months ago when we went to visit our friends in Malaysia. Ever since, they've grown to love Larry and Bob. I myself, can't help but be amused by these Veggie friends. They're just so cute and funny! I hope that watching these vegetables can help me and my kids love to eat vegetables too, especially those that had grown through hydroponic systems . :))

English Classes in the Province

Time really flies fast. Another 2 more weeks and then the English courses that we're conducting in the province will be over. I'm sure the teachers are going to miss the students. I myself only taught the students a few days and I grew to like them and appreciate their attentiveness and interest in learning ( except maybe for one or tw0).

Blogging about this also reminds me to continue to make the student's workbook that they will be using next 2 weeks. we've been kinda busy developing the curriculum for this specialized English class for resort, hotel, restaurant, travel agencies' owners and staff. And I just thank God for the various materials and resources to be found in the internet. If not for the internet, it would be very difficult coming out with a curriculum for this.

I think I could have taken Education as my degree in the University. I'm finding out now that most of the work that I do these days are in that department. Though I'm not so keen in teaching, but I like developing curriculum, activities and materials for any English course. Hmm.. I could have research degrees before I took mine. But then, interior design was interested me so much in the past and still no regrets about it because I know that experience wasn't wasted.

Proud of My Li'l Girl

Click on people's faces in the photo to tag them.

Hubby just had a chat with the school principal yesterday as he fetched our girl from school. I'm so happy with the report of Tricia's teacher about her performance in class. The teacher seemed to have told the principal that Tricia is a very good student and learns very fast. And even if she's not a local Thai, she is even better than many of her Thai classmates especially in Thai reading an writing. Wow! I was so happy with that report. I've always thought that Tricia's on the average side when it comes to her Thai subjects since I don't expect her to fully understand her class. You see, she's in a local Thai school and the medium of instruction of all subject is Thai except for her once a week English class. I myself don't pressure her when it comes to her homework and stuff since my real 'goal' for her Thai school is for her to socialize with other kids and for her to learn a bit of Thai. And since I consider her Thai school as supplementary to her home school, we also don't send her everyday of the week. In a week, she will at least miss a class or two. Opppss..

But all in all, I thank God for our li'l girl. I thank God for giving her wisdom in everything she does and especially the joy to go to school even if she's the only 'foreigner' in that local school.

Congratulations 2010

This month is the Graduation month in Thailand. Everywhere you'll see the signage ' Congratulations 2010' as a wish to all the newly graduates. Most of the fast-food chains and restaurants will also be filled with families and friends who come in groups as they celebrate.

Just last night, when we did our groceries at Carrefour, we were so surprised with the big crowd of people. It's not the usual weeknight crowd in Carrefour. It was only when we remembered that it's the graduation month. We saw some girls with bouquet of flowers and gifts. It's really a big celebration for them.

And speaking of celebration, I'm already trying to think of how to celebrate my li'l boy's birthday. It'll be nice to have a 'fair-like' themed party with popcorn machines, cotton candy machines and ice cream maker everywhere and where kids can just line up and have popcorn and all these goodies. But then, it'll be expensive to have these kind of parties and not to mention we're not inviting a lot of kids on his birthday too. I'd better make our li'l boy's celebration simple yet fun and a lot of fellowship with friends.

The Silver Crown

My li'l girl's root canal has already been done! Praise God because she was indeed brave enough to go through the whole procedure. Of course, she cried when they were giving her the injection but after that she was okay.

Last Sunday, was her 2nd session for the treatment and also the fixing of her crown. The crown was 'silver' in color. Of course, they didn't fix the porcelain crown ( thank God!) because her tooth was still a baby tooth so, it'll go off when she turns 12. Our li'l girl didn't expect her tooth to be silver too. And she was worried and cried after seeing her treated tooth with a different color. I had to console her and tell her that it's cool to have a silver crown. I convinced her more by telling her that I even love to wear silver jewelry so, it's okay to have a silver tooth. When her Appa came to fetch us, her Appa jokingly told her too that whenever we don't have money, we will take her tooth out to exchange her silver tooth with money because her tooth is expensive..LOL! It's almost like we buy gold as an investment huh? So, after that, our girl was already happy with her silver tooth and was showing it to everyone. Whew!

Yummy Sunday - Phat Pung Kalee Puu

Click on people's faces in the photo to tag them.

Phat Pung Kalee Puu or Stif fried Crab curry is one special dish that we like to order whenever we go to Ton Tarn Restaurant. The seafood shop at the Fresh Market cooks better Crab curry but then, we rarely go there since it's just on the street and we're afraid that the kids will just be running around the streets. :)

Anyways, if you love crabs, better try to order this dish and I'm sure you will like it!

A Relaxing Weekend

What's a relaxing weekend for me? It's actually just lazing around the house and playing with the kids without thinking about the laundry and the food to cook. During these times, I also get pampered by my kids as one of them will 'massage' my legs while one plucks some of my 'white' hair. They love doing these for me and maybe next time I will get one of those massage tables to complete the pampering. LOL!

Kidding aside, it's nice to just laze around once in awhile. Hmm.. this is truly a nice and relaxing weekend. :)

Intermission : SSD

It's just now that I'm aware of SSDI in the US or social security disability insurance. This is some kind of an income for their citizens who are unable to work because of disability. Whether or not the condition of the citizen improves, it is assured that they get the income.

So, how do you qualify for this benefit? A person qualifies if they

* have a physical or mental condition that prevents them from engaging in any "substantial gainful activity", and

* the condition is expected to last at least 12 months or result in death, and

* they are under the age of 65, and

* generally, have worked 5 out of the last 10 years as of the determined date of onset of disability

Being A Blessing

My Hubby just arrived after visiting Center's neighbor who got sick and is admitted in the hospital. This man's sickness has actually worsened over the weeks and even the Doctor already put a 'time limit' for his life.

When Hubby and friends went to the hospital to visit him, they can't help but feel for the man. The man was in tears as he saw them. He was touched by their gesture to visit him. He said, all his other neighbors and friends never visited him but he was surprised to see them there. Hubby and friends prayed for him, comforted him and told him that they will visit him more often. Please help us pray for his man, that God will heal him not just physically but spiritually too. That no matter what happens, he will be assured to be in God's loving hands.

The PO Box Key

Oh, our PO Box key is lost again. It was with the motorbike key and that is also missing. I just don't know where they ran off together. :)

But seriously though, Hubby just had that PO Box key replaced as it has also been misplaced last year. And to replace it, we had to pay some kind of a 'punishment' fee as I would call it that is so expensive ( for me). Hmm.. maybe we will just have to give up our PO Box. Anyways, we can use our house address now to receive mails and packages. And with more people using the internet, we mostly communicate through emails, Skype, Yahoo Messenger, Facebook and the like now. So, sending letters, postcard mailing service and cards are slowly getting to be obsolete. Even real gifts are being replaced by virtual gifts now. Yeah, and some of these virtual gifts are actually being bought with a price.

Anyways, back to PO Box key. I still hope that we can find that. We have to return it to the post office whether or not we want to continue with our subscription.

Baby Photos

We've finally have printed our li'l boy's baby photos. My next project is to make a his Baby photo album. Our boy is actually quite amused looking at all his baby photos. He will also be wide eye and curious as my Hubby and I relates to him his birth story. Our kids just love to hear their birth stories. Both of them will be intently listening with millions of questions fired from our li'l girl after their respective storis.

Oh how I miss those times when my kids were still cute, li'l babies with their baby clothes and baby blankets. I remember receiving baby gift baskets when they were still small. We enjoyed buying a few of their tiny clothes. There were no baby boutiques here before they were born so, we bought most of their clothes from Tesco or Carrefour. Now, I've seen a lot of online sites where all of the baby stuff are sold. My favorite site to browse all these is dadababyboutique.com. They have a wide array of baby products and baby gift items.

Anyways, our babies are all grown up now but still they are cuter than ever. Of course, that's from their own mother's point of view. :)

The Stained Glass

Hubby just had a chat with our neighbor this afternoon. He is actually an interior designer and he was excited to know that I also have a degree in ID. He told Hubby that now he knows why our house is quite different with a nice stained glass door. Anyways, he also asked if I could help him out with his projects some time. But I politely refused and told him that I've already forgotten all I've learned in school after more than 10 years of being out of the ID field. It's true, I sometimes even forget that I'm an ID graduate. LOL! But anyways, now that I remembered, I'm also quite curious to know how it would be like if I go back to this career. But admittedly though, I don't think I'll do very well anymore unless I get to have some refresher's course or updating of the newest ID technology and trends. As far as I remember, I'm only aware of the Cheap Blinds, paints, wallpapers and other fixtures available in HomePro. Other than that, I'm already outdated and uninformed.

8th Year Anniversary

7th of September 12:00 Midnight. Hubby prepared Roti and Chayen on the dining table and gave me a bouquet of red roses. It's our 8th year anniversary as Husband and Wife. :)

Praise God for the wonderful 8 years of marriage! As we look back, we have seen how God has brought us together and been with us through the years. The 8 years have truly been beautiful! Yes, there were dashes of challenges and stresses along the way, but it was through those where our love matured and our commitment were tested.. and from there we learned more, understood each other more, loved more and now moving on to greater heights.

To my Hubby, thank you so much for such LOVE that you have for me and the kids. Words are not enough to describe such love and affection for us and all the things you've done. You are indeed one of a kind and I'm just soo much blessed to have you as my Husband, my bestfriend, my partner and my everything! I love you more and more as the years go by!

--

And as a part of our anniversary celebration, I'm thankful for my cousin who is willing to take care of our kids, so Hubby and I can have our dinner date. Yippee!

Not Alone

I was quite concerned that I'm lagging behind my li'l girl's homeschool schedule. We've been quite irregular with homeschool nowadays as my li'l boy's sleeping pattern has also been a bit erratic. But anyways, as I talked to my friend the other day who's also using the same curriculum as I am, she also told me that she's also behind the schedule. But as written in our Instructor's Guide Introduction, the schedule just serves as a guide and must never 'control' our lives. So, somehow I'm reassured that we're still okay and I'm not being negligent with my girl's homeschool. Our li'l girl actually loves her homeschool since it's very interactive as we have hands on science experiments, read alouds and interactive games and learning with the use of our computer with lcd monitor.

I just hope that we will be able to do a lot of catching in October as it's going to a month of school holidays in my li'l girl's Thai school.

Intermission: HCG

If you've followed my fitness blog, you could have already known that I'm trying to be fit and healthy and tried out a lot of things but failed. Well, I guess it's time to stop trying and start living a healthy lifestyle. But sometimes, I can't help but get excited over what other people do to lose their weight. Now, I've just heard about the hCG diet. I really don't know much about hCG but I've seen a bit of recipes and foods allowed on the hcg diet and it does seem like a healthy diet for me.

But anyways, I won't be doing this yet as I plan to simply eat healthily and stick to it. So, far I did start to eat healthily, ate a lot of fruits and vegetables but I didn't stick to it for a long time. So, I guess my problem is being consistent and being well motivated all the time.

I still have to continue with my regular exercise and now I don't have any excuses left since I already have all the necessary gadgets with the exercise video. Everything will have to start tomorrow since Hubby and I are still going to dine out tonight. I want to enjoy my dinner date with him and of course, enjoy the buffet dinner too. :)

So, tomorrow will be a start of a healthy and new me! LOL!! I will continue to write my updates in my fitness blog and hopefully, I will be consistent this time and won't give myself any breaks in between, because it's during the short 'breaks' that I fall of the wagon and start eating unhealthy food again.

All the best to me! And hopefully next year, on this same date, September 7, I will be able to show you a new me.. LOL!

Excited to Teach

I'll be helping out in teaching the 'tourism' students this coming Wednesday and Thursday. Actually, the center has been asked to teach from the Department of Tourism in one of the provinces here. Praise God for the opportunity! Their Department has this program where they offer English Tourism to all the hotel, restaurant and travel agencies owners and staff. I'm quite excited yet a bit anxious with this opportunity. It's been awhile since I taught a class though I've been homeschooling my girl everyday.

Anyways, I pray that everything will go well and my students will be able to learn. It's actually a six hour class, and that kinda makes me scared whether I can hold the students' attention for 6 hours. But anyways, I'm preparing a lot of activities and practice, so hopefully the 6 hours will pass by fast.

So, now I'm just finishing up all my online work, so I can have more time to prepare for my class tomorrow. Which reminds me to send some materials for photocopy. It'll be nice for a xerox phaser 8560 to do this job, but we're on a budget, so a normal copier will do.

My Boys is Turning 3!

My li'l boy is turning 3 years old next month! Wow! I'm excited! I've already started asking him what he wants to do for his birthday and he said, he wants to invite his friends. Hmm.. I hope we can give him a small kiddie party. I'm sure he will be delighted. This will be our li'l boy's first party in Thailand. His first birthday party was in the Philippines and celebrated it with neighbors whom we were having an outreach. Then, his second birthday was in Malaysia with church kids. For this third birthday, I plan to invite Tricia's classmates since Lyle doesn't have much friends yet. It'll just be a simple kiddie party with games and food. There's no need to make it a costume party with super hero or pirate costumes. They can just come as they are.

I'm just thankful that God has blessed us with a son as our second born. Indeed, God has kept him healthy and strong for the past three years and I trust that God will continue to let our boy grow in His will.

The More Important Things

With the onset of technology, there seems to be a lot more distractions and 'urgent' things that calls our attention. I just remember Stephen Covey's book that categorizes these things as either as " Urgent and Important, Urgent but not important, Important but not so Urgent, Not Urgent and Not Important". We tend to immediately attend to the 'urgent' things but even if they are not so important.

So, for the next few days, I will have to wean myself off from doing the 'urgent but not so important' and Not Urgent and Not Important' activities. Hopefully, I will be able to refocus and do the more important things.

Bathroom With A View

I was browsing through Dubai's luxury hotels when I saw this photo.

You would think that this is Hong Kong's Ocean park, but actually it is one of the bathroom suites inside the the Atlantis Hotel, Poseidon Suite, The Palm ocean themed resort, Jumeriah in Dubai. . Amazing huh? I think this is the time when one feels like little mermaid swimming with the fish, dolphins and sting ray while bathing.

And to stay in the suite in this luxurious hotel, one has to pay a whooping £14,000!!! I've just done some calculations and that's more than 600,000 Baht! Wow! I think a house can already be built with a night stay in this hotel. It's quite absurd for a commoner to pay such a huge sum for a single night stay, but maybe it's not for the very wealthy.

Atlantis, The Palm is a 1,539 room, ocean-themed destination resort located at the centre of the cresent of the man-made Palm Jumeriah in Dubai.

The "Levantine" staircase inside The Palm ocean - themed resort, Palm Jumeirah, Dubai.

A Standard King Room inside the resort.

VIP Bath in spa, The Palm ocean - themed resort Palm Jumeirah, Dubai.

The Ossiano restaurant locaed inside the 1,539 room ocean - themed resort.

The bathroom inside the Poseidon Suite, The Palm ocean themed resort, Jumeriah in Dubai.

VIP Bath in spa, The Palm ocean - themed resort Palm Jumeirah, Dubai.

Would you want to stay for a night in this hotel? Hmmm..maybe even if I have the 600,000 Baht, I would not! I'd rather do something worthwhile with that huge amount of money than feel like a queen for only a night.