One of the highlights of our Christmas Eve Celebration was the Skype live video chat we had with hubby's siblings and nieces and nephews. Boy, was it so much fun. We stayed up until 6am of the next day. The skype chat started around 2am of December 25 at hubby's Aunt's place and we had to continue it by 3am at our own place as hubby needs to talk about certain family issues with his siblings. I miss my SILs a lot, I was not really concerned about the family matters but more of catching up with our girlfriend chats :). Anyhow, one of the things we talked about was about a relative whom they planned on sending to a Nursing School. Needless to say, one of the most sought-after and lucrative jobs is that being a Nurse and they thought it would be best for this relative to pursue her nursing degree. Speaking of nursing degrees and jobs, if you have a nursing degree and is looking for Travel Nursing Jobs, travel therapy jobs, per diem nursing jobs, and permanent jobs to healthcare professionals in prestigious hospitals nationwide, check out FiftyStates at 50statestaffing.com. They say that travel nursing job salary are far far higher than those of regular nursing jobs. Also, their benefits include free private housing. So check out the site now and join in the ranks of traveling nurses, physical therapists, respiratory and occupational therapists working in prestigious hospitals nationwide.

I think we would have another Skype chat with them by New Year's eve. Hopefully this time, there would be no more serious talk and we would end up chatting girly what-nots :).

This is going to be a quick WS post. I am catching up on some expiring blogging tasks, as usual hee hee. 

Anyhow, I think I failed to make a Christmas greeting entry here so I hope you had a good one :)

Just sharing some Christmas Photos. We had a blast but the little one was the one who enjoyed Christmas the most, thanks to Santa for giving him what he wanted. He has been a good boy so far...

And he greeted baby Jesus with a loud 'Happy Birthday' on our Christmas Day mass.

More Christmas stories later. Enjoy the last week of 2008!
...and just in case you haven't completed your Christmas shopping (still), check out these replica watches.

With the size of my tummy flabs now, people would really suspect I am preggo and someone would even be kind enough to offer me a Pregnancy Massage LOL! No kidding, I need to do something with these fats! I have to workout and diet after all these feasting this holiday season. Speaking of Pregnancy massage, I missed out on this during my pregnancy. They say it really does help pregnant women cope up with the stress of pregnancy and delivery. If you are interested, check out these Pregnancy Massage Techniques or might as well purchase Pregnancy Massage DVD for yourself.

What a better way to start my Christmas week other than searching on some elegant and beautifully unique bed frames was a popped email from my Professor sending his Holiday wishes and that our Final Grade is ready for viewing!!!

I nervously checked our online portal because dang! I deserve to have an A this quarter but was not quite confident on getting one. Then voila, it's 91.1% grade and yes its an A!!! Frankly, I did not expect it but basing on my hardwork and sleepless nights, I do deserve to have one. I am more determined to take 2 subjects each quarter next year and will complete these grueling master's degree by early 2010 or if I get lucky by end of 2009.

Thank you Lord!!! (and happy 58th birthday to my mom who deserves a separate entry but since it is officially December 23 in Pinas, Happy Birthday mom! I LOVE YOU and I MISS YAH! LV bag este pizza coming your way mwah mwah mwah!)

Finally photos of our tree. I actually have more photos to share and will blog more about this HERE. I just need to post this quick Weekend Snapshot entry before putting the little boy to sleep. You see, this would be our first time to experience what it is to have a real Pine Tree as our Christmas Tree. So far, we are loving it and plan to get real trees every Christmas. The townhome smells so good :). Never mind the constant checking of fallen leaves or whether it has enough, it just feels different!

Hubby added more greatness to this tree by getting bigger bulbs for Christmas lights. See the difference?

Contrary to what people said that real trees come out much expensive than faux trees, we got this tree relatively cheaper in Walmart :). We had a great time putting this up for weeks!

Here's wishing all Weekend Snapshot members a Blessed and Happy Christmas!!!

Easy on the feasting or we will end up getting the best diet pills after the holidays lol!

Moving on from my non-stop whipping of pastries. I have to be away from my kitchen even for a short while or I'd badly need a diet pill ASAP!

Anyways, my weekend was planned to finish all blogging tasks and pending photo uploads. I wanted to finish them asap by hook or by crook because I still have a lot of greeting cards to be sent out. Also, hubby and I need to rush on some gift buying task on this last weekend before Christmas. However, my other Personal Blog's template went caput and I had to attend to it asap because my SPs will suspend me for having a barely readable blog. It took my 4-5 hours to comprehend the CSS codes and by the time I was free to blog, I was too tired and wanted to just sulk into TFCing (pretty controversial The Buzz this week huh!). It was actually a blessing in disguise because I wanted a 2 column blog and I was able to decipher it. Also, its header is much much better now than before :). Less sunshiney lol!

While I was busy fixing the glitch, I had to come up and check mini-Stripe in his room, guess what I saw. Mini-Stripe was busy putting Spidey to sleep hee hee. He told me that the big bear was me to which he shouted, big mama!!! Yikes!

Then the other day, Stripe went looking for his car keys. Guess where we saw it:
 

Look Closer :) He said he needed keys to start his tricycle engine as well  LOL!

Goodness! I am not helping myself. I have been whipping pastries here and there since my school break and both of my boys are not into sweets lately. So, I end up finishing everything tsk tsk! I made a promise to watch what I eat in 2009, but should I wait for that time and have a hard time shedding off more pounds accumulated yay! Anyhoo, just to share you what I have been whipping, check THIS and THIS.

• Upload Photos: Halloween, D.C., VA Beach Photos, Williamsburgh and December 08.
• Photo blog all of the above events
• Fix filing cabinet and make labels
• Start with DigiScrapping project
• Make my daily schedule for 2009
• Print photos and send to relatives and friends
• Up 2 domains.

These are the things I like to accomplish at least before I start with my Winter Class on January 12. I really need to maximize my time diligently and wisely :).

One do not need to go to a Beauty School to define the true meaning of beauty? And Yes I agree with the Little Prince's book definition of beauty that it is in the eye of the beholder. Beauty is such a relative term and people will always have reasons to say whether a person, place, or thing is beautiful or not. However, when it comes to applying make-up, there are standards of what is beautiful, what is trendy and what is fashionable. While I do not really believe that beauty schools can create a make-up artist (as opposed to my belief that it could only enhance), you might find this website: findabeautyschool.com helpful in your quest for that make-up career. They have the most comprehensive and wide listing of beauty school. In the end, one must enjoy beauty in itself to be able to penetrate in this kind of industry.

My mom used to tell me that I love gifts so much! Too much she could not relate with me LOL! and then I heard Kris Aquino yesterday that she loves gifts as well, I mean who wouldn't? Surprise me with anything, even the smallest and cheapest things, that would make my bad mood swing 360 degrees and be all giddy and happy. Call me 'mababaw' but I am! What makes gift giving and receiving exciting here is that most of them I received through mails/parcels and I swear for the past 2 weeks, Fedex, UPS and USPS agents are my frequent visitors hee hee... However, last week, I was surprised with  gifts straight from my bedroom.
READ MORE...

Do you still remember My Quest for the 2009 Planner? Guess what, I have been really blessed with good friends and gave me 3 2009 planners, A BDJ, A STARBUCKS PLANNER, and A MOLESKINE! I did not even requested for it and no I did not get these planners from my Twitter mommy because she had to give me a Target Gift card. Instead, these planners were Christmas presents from friends. Will blog about this on a separate entry... For now, let me thank YOU! You know who you are and most of all thanks for the gift of friendship. Merry Christmas!

Four of my Christmas Presents for myself included some precious jewelries from Etsy! I was pretty happy that all the shipments came in this week and everyday I just need to try them out :). Anyhow, hubby was joking if they would pass up for precious metals as some of these vintage accessories have semi-precious stones. Apparently, he has been reading about Monex Precious Metals and was able to view their video at yahoo. I wrote about this before and hubby who is into investments and stocks was interested and researched some more. If you need any information on how you could make your silver and gold coins and other precious metals into huge investments, click on the link and watch the video.

Moving on to my previous and very UnChristmassy Entry. I really could not come up with a decent personal update in my other Personal Blog, so I just sat down and watch Jack Frost with mini-Stripe. He has been watching this since November and was telling me the story from time to time but it was only now that I sat down with him and watch it. Guess what, I was pretty emotional for the film and I cried buckets and buckets! Of course, I have to hide it from the little boy but the movie hit my heart rock bottom. Now, I know why he adored the film, it was a story of a very busy father and a son. 

The Holiday used to be my favorite Christmas movie but now, it would have to be Jack Frost!

Have you ever been in a situation where you have so many things in your hands and you do not know where to start? You end up getting distracted or shall I phrase that with you allow yourself to be distracted by little things and you end up disliking yourself because you lack the focus? I am that this week.

After I completed and finally passed my grueling final exam, my mind is set to relax, enjoy and have fun, finish writing off greeting cards, wrapping gifts and uploading photos but no, I am swamped with work/blogging tasks. I am not complaining because it gives me dough and this dough makes me happy because it allows me to afford the little luxuries in life. But, how do I shut off myself from my blogging mode when I have no choice but to do it or else my SP sites will ban me? 

Do I even have the write to complain and blog it here?
Forget you read this lol!

You might notice that I have been commenting in most of your blogs. The reason being is that my google reader is now updated. I almost zeroed my google reader feeds not because I have read them all but because I accidentally marked all as read one category. Sucks big time, really. Anyhow when I was scanning through one of the feeds that was left, I chanced upon a very unfortunate incident a blogger friend has with a Collection Agency. To make the long story short, it was a very unfortunate incident that made me think whether hiring a 3rd party collection agency will do good to a company, say a bank or a credit card company or it would just worsen the company's image? I still have no answers to it as I am no expert when it comes to this. Nevertheless, I chanced upon this site: controldatainc.com. They are the leading Florida collection agency that is initiating an active campaign for clients to literally save companies hundreds to thousands of dollars. Check out the site for more collection agency information. And if you are a collection agent, think twice before uttering that demanding or collecting voice and words. You do not know what are the reasons behind a person’s delay in payment.

Oh Well, this entry was almost done until I accidentally deleted the paste button and voila everything was gone grr! Enough of LJ. Anyhow, I wrote about our summer plans and how I am pretty excited about it because we have sports plan for the little boy. By that time, he would be four and it would be a little practical to enroll him in sports classes that would be a venue for him to release his endless energies. We are thinking of enrolling in a swimming or soccer class. But, I bet if he was to be asked, he'd choose soccer anytime, or any balls sports for that matter. You see, he is really good when it comes to pitching, kicking, throwing and shooting balls. One time, I was feeling a little sporty and played soccer mixed with baseball with him. Boy does he hit and kick ball with all his might. He was so strong and fast, I almost got hit by the ball. Hubby said he has potential when it comes to ball sports so I guess we better hone him. Anyhow, I chanced upon this NFL Merchandise online store where it sells jerseys for both kids and adults. I might order some for my son to ready him with his summer activities.

Every year since I moved here, my friend, Mia never fails to send me small gifts from Manila and almost every year, her greeting cards and gifts are the very 1st gifts/cards I receive for each Holiday. Let's see what she gave me this year: (she was my constant buddy back home, we used to live in the same village and worked for the same embassy)

This cute greeting card with a lengthy heartwarming message and a bag hook I so badly need :).

A few weeks ago, Neiman Marcus was giving away free bag hooks/holders for a certain amount purchased. I don't need one :). It can carry both big and small bags:

This is a nice and affordable gift for your baghag friends. Again, thanks Mia and I miss you sorely!!!

I am happy and (a bit proud) to share with you that my case study got an 'A'! Yahoo! You should hear how loud my yeheys and yahoos were when I checked my grades online yesterday. You see, I was too scared about this semester's course, not to mention my prof hee. I find him really challenging. PAD500 is my first major subject, taking Public Administration here makes it so hard because all discussion forum topics are focused on the government here (what do you expect)... So I had to do an extra mile and be wary of the current events here, which I am not really fond of. I'd rather sulk myself with TFC and TV patrol news. Anyhow, when I submitted my case study proposal, Prof T was kinda hesitant to accept it as it was more focused on my home country. When we made the revision, it included a citation of the American tourism governance. Oh well, I don't want to bother you with the details, to make the story short, I was not really confident on getting a B, moreso an A... So I was really surprised to get a grade of A!!! My hardwork, sleepless nights and crankiness paid off. I realized that sometimes I am too hard on myself, I am such a perfectionist when it comes to my school requirements, I think I need to loosen up... a bit.

I have been slacking off the past days, yes I am, even if you think I don't. I have a lot of things lined up to do but I end up snoozing and snoozing, hence more fats accumulated. All I want to do is sleep and rest. I was probably tired from all my hectic to do list the past weeks that made me miss my bed so much. I have been dreaming of vacation, particularly that of a weekend getaway at  cancun hotels. I would love to visit Mexico especially after hubby's BFF's K told us he had truly a blast when he got to visit the place last Summer. Anyhow, the 1st thing I need to do is get back in shape. I do not want see myself wearing 2-pc with all these fats tsk tsk.