~*TiNGToNG*~

... I AM ME ...

My 10 little secrets which won't be so little anymore after this. ENJOY!

• I eat all meat and fish dishes with ketchup! From pizza (it has meat toppings) to fried chicken to kaldereta to sinigang...

• I'm very anal about the positioning of my food on the plate. The rice has to be centred in the bottom part of the plate, my ulam (main dish) has to be on the top right and my ketchup on the top left.

• When there's only one bite of food left on my plate, I'm all of a sudden too full to eat it. (I got it from my Mom- don't deny it, Mom!)
  

• I'm a picky eater. I DO NOT eat vegetables. The only leaf I eat is lettuce... with Thousand Island or Caesar dressing. I also DO NOT eat fish in sabaw (soup).

• I am absolutely terrified of insects. If anything that crawls and flies come near me, I will scream from the top of my lungs and hyperventilate (Ok, I'm exaggerating-except the screaming part- but you get the point)- yes, including ladybugs.

• I can't go swimming on my own. I get scared looking at an empty pool especially from underwater.

• I hate that 'tummy feeling' you get when you're on a roller coaster or any rides that 'drop' you.

• I love the smell of my hubby's deodorant... on his armpits!

• I swallowed a pebble when I was little to see if I would poop it out and to see what it would look like if I did- but I never did :-( not that I saw, at least.

• When I was about 4 or 5, I found my Uncle's razor in his room and got all curious on what it was for. So I decided to run the razor on my lower leg (just the centre part)- then... *gasp* I figured I should do the same to my other leg hoping my mom wouldn't notice- but she did. I had to live with monkey legs until I was 13!

• I've never gone to mass and not have my mind wander off for at least a few minutes- not even on my wedding day!

Wow! I wish I can just sit infront of the computer and do this all day!

Oh, and one more fact about me: I was never good in Math- 'guess that explains why I ended up listing 11 things instead of 10! I'm not about to delete one because it took me a while to think about them! :-)

AND THE WINNER IS... ME!!!

Wow! It feels good to have your blog considered a favourite* by somebody especially when you're new to this thing. Now it's my turn to list and link 7 of my favourite* blogs. But since I don't really have 7 friends who blog (or not that I know of at least), I went ahead and added some of the blogs that I enjoy reading.

This Randomness - She is one of the few people who inspired me to start my own blog and the reason why I'm doing this post. She showed me that blogging is not just about writing about 'your life' but also about any random things that come to your mind. Thanks, Tita!

Girl Talk - My bestfriend's blog on anything and everything about her world.

Kalidadis - My godmother from Michigan. Her blog is one of the ways I keep myself 'in the know' on what's new with them down there. She also keeps another blog that is very inspiring called, An Angel's Whisper.

Daphne's Diary - A Torontonian who moved to the Philippines several years ago. She got married and started a family there. She hosts one of my favourite* TV shows on interior decorating called UZ (Urban Zone).

GOOP - A 'lifestyle' blog by Gwyneth Paltrow. A little taste on what it's like to be rich and famous!

Best Parent Ever - Ridiculous and funny BUT oh-so-true!

Picky Palate - Need I say more?

So now...
1. The receiver is entitled to post the nifty icon on top.
2. Inform your chosen blogs (by leaving them a comment) that they were prized with the "Honest Scrap Award."
3. Finally, the receiver should enumerate 10 honest things about themselves. (YIKES!)

*Favourite- No, it's not misspelled. I'm Canadian so I spell it with an OU.

KEEPING MYSELF WARM

WISHING I WAS BACK HERE RIGHT AT THIS VERY MOMENT...

*Photo taken by MOI @ the Paradisus Princesa del Mar Resort, Varadero, Cuba

JUST WONDERING...

The hubby and I had this conversation before: Being an immigrant here in North America, when do you know you truly are 'North American'?

Being our silly selves, we came up with two things.

a) When you think in English.
b) When you dream in English.

HA-HA

How about you? What do you think?

ANNOYED

One of the things that bother me is when you lend your stuff to somebody and they let somebody else borrow it without your permission! Is it just me or is there something wrong with that?

For example:

You lend your newly-bought DVD to somebody. You've promised your family that they can borrow the movie next time they come over. Your family comes over but the DVD hasn't been returned yet. So you call that somebody and tell them your coming by to pick up the DVD. But that somebody tells you it's not there. Why not? Because somebody lent it to somebody else WITHOUT your permission. And you don't even know who this somebody else is!

I thought it was common courtesy to return borrowed stuff? Better yet, shouldn't you ask the owner's permission first before you hand out your borrowed stuff to other people, much more to people the owner doesn't even know? How hard is it to ask, "Hey, so and so wants to borrow your whatever-it-is. Is it okay if I lend it to him or her?" Then you either get a YES or a NO- Afterall, owners should have control over their stuff- even if it's just a DVD.

*Situation cited above is for sample purposes only. Any similar situation may just be a mere coincidence.

KUNG HEI FAT CHOI!

Being married to a Filipino-Chinese, I've gotten used to sorta-celebrating Chinese New Year. We usually just eat out, watch some live Chinese entertainment at either Pacific Mall or Market Village (ie. lion dancing, dragon dancing, etc.) and distribute ang pao's- the red envelopes (with money)- to the kids.

This year, we received an early present from Brice's parents- a golden Buddha. It's supposed to be very lucky. Not only is it sitting on the three-legged toad (very lucky symbol in Chinese culture), it's on lots and lots of money! Oh, I hope it really brings us luck this year! HaHaHa. That's what I say every year. I wonder though, will it still bring you luck even if you don't believe in it? What if I pretend to believe it'll bring me luck? Will it... or he... or she... know? Oh wellz... Brice was brought up believing in all those Chinese stuff so I guess as long as one person in the household believes that the Buddha will bring us luck, then that should be good enough.

But it seems like Brice isn't the only one though. Kaelene has been showing a lot of interest in Buddha. She loves looking at it and she laughs every time she sees it. She even rubs its head and tummy when we put her right beside it.



Anyway, KUNG HEI FAT CHOI everybody!

CINNAMON VS CHOCOLATE

About a year ago, McDonald's came out with a new dessert- Cinammon Melts! After trying it for the first time, I stopped buying cinnamon buns from Cinnabon and St. Cinnamon. The McD's one tasted better and it's only $1.79!

Like that wasn't bad enough, just a few days ago Brice introduced me to another new dessert McD's came out with- Chocolate Melts!

Both these desserts are to die for! Forget the calories, forget any diets! Go WALK to your nearest McDonald's right now- that's the least you could do.

I WANNA BE RICH!

Do you dream of becoming rich? I know most of us will answer a big "YES" to this question. Some of us work hard to try to become financially well-off, while some of us leave it to Lady Luck.

Winning the lottery is what a lot of us consider a 'fast way' to getting wealthy. The past few days, lottery kiosks here in Ontario have been jam-packed. Everyone is buying their tickets for tonight's big 649 draw- $43,000,000! Wow! What do you do with that much money?!

I, personally, can think of millions of ways to spend that money. HaHaHa. Every time the jackpot is more than a couple of million dollars, I get so excited and start daydreaming about what I would do when I find out I'm the BIG winner- the ONLY winner. But guess what? I never buy lotto tickets! HaHaHa. I hate the line-ups and I sometimes get confused filling out those cards. I leave that job to the hubby. I'm all talk when it comes to lotto- but I know I'm not the only one.

How easy is that though? All the hubby has to do is make sure he gets our numbers in- and gets it right- because WHEN we win, it'll be MY turn to worry about the spending.

CONFESSIONS OF A SHOP-A-HOLIC

Ever since my bestfriend, Tiara, got me hooked on the Shop-a-holic series a few years back, I wished and hoped that they would make a movie out of the books. And they did. Finally! It will be officially showing on February 13th but since Tiara has crazy hook-ups, we got to go to the pre-screening earlier today at the Scotiabank Theatre.

The movie was pretty well done considering that it was based on a novel. It was a little different from the book but it worked out pretty well. It wasn't disappointing like most of the other movies based on novels. Isla Fisher was perfect for the part of Rebecca Bloomwood- the main character.

I cracked up so many times since I can totally relate to the character. You guys have to see the movie to understand what I'm talking about. HaHaHa. But I'm sure those of you who know me pretty well will understand just after watching the trailer. Enjoy!

SALE

I used to be a shop-a-holic. When I went to school downtown, my friends and I would walk to the nearby mall during our breaks to "see what's new." But there was never anything new because we never gave the stores a chance to get something new. We were there almost every single day- and every single day, I never came out of the mall empty-handed! Be it a new pair of shoes, a pretty top or even underwear, I always came home with something new. I would even buy Kyla random stuff that she probably didn't even need. Don't worry, I never bought anything that wasn't on SALE but it came to a point where I had to stuff my purchase(s) in my schoolbag so no one will bother me about it when I got home. Even though I only had a part-time job then, I didn't find it necessary to quit my not-so-bad habit.

Fast forward to the present.

I can say that I have a pretty good and somewhat secure job but... I DON'T GO SHOPPING ANYMORE. Every time I go to the mall and attempt to buy something, I'm like a new immigrant converting how much it would really cost me- but this time it's "how many hours do I have to work to pay for this?" Most of the time I could never justify working a full 8-hour shift just to pay for a pair of Aldo shoes. So now I've been walkin out of the mall empty-handed.

Now why didn't I have that mentality before?

*I finally bought me a couple of tops last week- only because they were 2 for $10! YAY!

BBBrrr... IT'S COLD IN HERE...

I AM NOT A BIG FAN OF OL' MAN WINTER!

I hate driving in the snow. I hate scraping off ice on the windshield. I hate shoveling. I hate getting slush on my boots. And most of all, I hate the frigid temperatures!

The thing is, I AM CANADIAN, so I am forced to deal with all these.

I've already thought of a couple of ways to get away from this winter wonderland: get super rich (maybe by winning the lottery) so by the time winter comes, I can go off somewhere nice and warm- Cuba, anybody? OR just simply move somewhere down South where it's always warm and sunny- Florida?

But until any of my solutions become a reality, I have convinced myself to LEARN A WINTER SPORT! By doing this, I'll hopefully find something to look forward to every winter instead of sulking and complaining about the cold weather. I've always wanted to go to a Ski Resort, rent a chalet, go skiing/snowboarding and have a cup of hot cocoa afterwards while relaxing by the giant fireplace. MMMmmmm.

So... Mont Tremblant, anybody?

A LITTLE GIRL'S DREAM

As a little girl, every time my mom would take me to the mall, department stores or grocery shopping, I've always felt envious about these ladies. I told myself that when I grow up, I wanna be just like them.

I wanna wear those nice little dresses, put on some stockings, slip on those high-heeled shoes and have lots and lots of money. They sit pretty, chat with their friends and people line up to give them lots of money. But the good thing is, they also give back- sometimes food, clothing, etc. and sometimes even money! Yet they still get to keep loads of cash in their little boxes. How awesome is that?

I could be in the mall ALL DAY LONG- Perfect!

I could NOT wait to be a grown-up.

I could NOT wait to be a CASHIER!

BE CAREFUL

I am a swiper. What does that mean? When I purchase stuff, I like swiping my debit card to pay rather than give cash- my 'spending money' is with President's Choice so I have unlimited transactions. I don't know why but I don't like having too much cash on me. I find I spend less when I use my debit card- I know a lot of you would think the opposite (including my hubby) but that's how my crazy mind works. But for the past several months, it's been more of a hassle to use my debit card than a convenience.

You see, for the past several months, my debit card had been cancelled a few times already. Why? Because of suspicious fraud activity. Meaning... I've been swiping my card somewhere where they think the debit machines have been tampered on or some place that they suspect to have been copying debit cards. It really sucked every time they did this because they never called me to at least let me know that my card had been cancelled. There'd been a few embarrassing moments already where I tried to pay for something and my payment would be declined. Every time I called them, they would give me the same explanation about the suspicious fraud activity. And the most frustrating thing was that they won't even tell you which suspicious place you've used your debit card that caused it to be cancelled due to investigation purposes- so they say. So I've changed my PIN quite a few times, I've even changed my debit card a couple of times. Everything was good until a few days ago when $500 was actually taken out from my account!

For the first time, I appreciated those times when they inconveniently cancelled my card to protect me from these fraud crap. But what happened? Why wasn't my card cancelled this time? Until now, I'm still waiting for my money to be put back in to my account. Waiting. Still waiting.

I've told myself that from now on, I'll do what Dora the Explorer always says: "Swiper, no swiping!

KYLA'S VLOG

Kyla's been watching this show called iCarly. I don't exactly know what it's about but I know the main character, Carly, has her own "webcast" or "video blog." So recently, Kyla's been wanting to do her own v-log and today, she started with her first one. She sat infront of the macbook doing her thing (she had her own script) while Brice took pics of her. Kae and I just watched. It was the cutest thing! Seems like she's gonna be the next happyslip.

As of the moment, her video's being edited by Daddy and I will be posting it up on her own page as soon as it's ready. So stay tuned!

AAAAAHHHHHH!!!

Every other Tuesday is my payday for being on maternity leave. So every other Tuesday, as soon as I wake up, the first thing I do is get the laptop and make sure MY money did come in. Since the beginning of my maternity leave- the money always comes in!

So today is one of those Tuesdays. I woke up, took the laptop and logged in to my bank account and froze... "What!? Why would they only deposit that much- or little (in my case)?" I clicked on account summary and guess what I found?

January 13 ABM WITHDRAWAL $500

WTH?! Somebody took out $500 from my account TODAY! I knew it wasn't my hubby since he only has a couple of hundred withdrawal limit from that account per day. So I called my bank and as expected the wait time was less than a minute. I spoke to a customer service rep and told him and he said that "...it was taken from MY bank card 50 minutes ago! Well, kind of impossible. 50 minutes ago, I was still in la-la land dreaming about my next vacation (with matching sound effects- ZZZZzzzzz) and secondly, my bank card was right infront of me and it's been in my purse ALL NIGHT! So I've filed for a Fraud Report and a supervisor is supposed to call me to confirm that I wasn't the one who withdrew that amount. UGH!

So now, I have a cancelled bank card (again- this is another story) and worst of all- I am $500 poorer. What a way to start the day!

*And to whoever it was who stole money from me, "May karma bite you HARD in the butt."

SIGNS 1

See anything wrong with this sign? I took this pic inside one of the malls in Chinatown while out Buddha-shopping.

Who needs to eat flied lice when you can just KAYAOKE!

FOREVER YOUNG

Browsing through some old pictures in the computer, it reminded me of what Kyla told me when she first started school. I believe it was her first few weeks at school and at that time, "Apa" (Brice's dad) would pick her up when she got off since Brice and I would be at work. As time went by, Apa made friends with the other Filipino dads who also picked up their kids. One day, when Apa wasn't there to pick her up (I went instead), she said: "Mommy, my friends' dads said to say hi to my dad but I think they were talking about Apa. He's friends with them you know cuz they're the same age." So I asked her what she said to them. And she answered, "I told them Apa's not my dad- he's my Grandpa! MY MOM AND DAD ARE TEENAGERS!"

*Until now, she still tells everyone that her parents are teenagers. Her reasoning? Because we don't look like her other friends' parents. The other parents look more like Apa and Ama OR Papa and Mama. Oh geez!

SCARY MOVIE

When you're watching a thriller or a horror movie, do you ever find yourself covering your eyes when you think something frightening is coming up?

I DO! I cover my eyes but most of the time i leave a little bit of space in between my fingers so I can still kinda see what is happening but not totally. Does that make sense? I just wanna see a little bit of the screen then I use my imagination to fill in the missing pieces. I figured if I don't see the (for example) scary face- the whole face- I won't have to worry about seeing that face everytime I close my eyes.

Anyway, I'm blogging about this because I find it interesting that not all the "scaredycats" cover their eyes- some actually cover their ears! Like my hubby! I never understood- and I still don't understand- the reasoning behind this. He barely gets scared watching horror movies, but when he does think something is frightening, he covers his ears! Forget all the scary faces! According to him, the real scary stuff is the sound. Dun-Dun-Dun. So as long as he doesn't hear anything, he can watch any scary thing there is!

I guess we really ARE different from each other. Oh wellz, I stopped watching scary movies anyway cuz those things are gonna end up giving me a heart attack- especially with my super wild and active imagination.

MY LITTLE SUCKER!

Baby Kae is a big thumbsucker! I don't know if it's because she's teething but we've been having a hard time taking her little thumb out of her mouth recently. We've made it to a point to try to take her thumb out every time she starts sucking. We've also told big sister, Kyla, to do the same. So just a few minutes ago, Kyla was watching Kae and she was surprisingly quiet. We figured, "She must be sucking her thumb again." Boy were we wrong! She was sucking something even better...



And Dadddy was there to capture the oh-so-yummy moment! Kyla was just sitting there letting her little sister nibble on her baby toe- it's keeping her quiet.

*Notice how we managed to take a picture? Instead of taking Kyla's toes out of Kae's mouth, I got Brice to take pictures while I started writing this blog!

IMAGINE?!

Thank God I won't have to worry about this happening to me!!!

Can't wait to watch this movie...

GOT MILK?!

You guys probably know about this already but I just found out about it a few weeks ago.

Do you guys have one of those milk organizers in your fridge? I always had issues with it because not all brands of milk stamp the best before date on the individual milk bags so once you take them out from the actual bag it came in, how are you supposed to remember when they expire? So I've actually been writing out the best before date on each bags with a marker but then it gets wiped off when the bags get wet from condensation. How frustrating!

Then one day, the hubby saw what I was doing and being the smartass that he is, he asks me why I was doing what I was doing? So I told him why and I also told him how pissed off I get when they get wiped off. Then he laughs and takes out the milk organizer from the fridge and showed me...


There's a friggin' spot for that best before date thingy in the friggin' milk organizer! (See circled spot in the picture) And he knew all along but never bothered telling me- he thought I knew... Ugh! So how dumb did I feel?

PRETTY DUMB!

BORED?!

So I was bored earlier and decided to start another blog-> on my FAVOURITE PUZZLES! I may not be all that smart but I absolutely LOVE doing different kinds of puzzles, brainteasers, etc. Hence, I decided to share some of my favourites with you guys. Have a look at it if you want a little challenge or if you're simply bored.

CHECK IT OUT!

MMM MMM GOOD!

One of my favourite breakfasts: Champorado WITH NIDO! It has to be with NIDO or else... I won't have it. Regular milk just doesn't taste the same. That's why it took me almost a year (if not even more) to eat champorado again- it took me that long to find Nido again. I got lucky, I guess. And who cares if it's ridiculously overpriced?! As long as I can have my YUMMY breakfast again... that's all that matters.

MMM... SOOO GOOD!

L-A-Z-Y

There are so many things in my head I wanna blog about right now but I've been so LAZY ever since we got back from our mini-getaway in London. Since coming home, Brice and I have cleaned up the place and...WATCHED OLD MOVIES NON-STOP! So instead of me blogging about shtuff, I've been sitting infront of the TV, coke and popcorn in hand.

I guess I'll start my blogging when both Brice and Kyla go back to school tomorrow... 'til then...

Now where's that remote?

BACK TO REALITY

(above: bumming around, karaoke-ing, eating, chatting, and more... all at the same time!)

Spending the New Year with our closest friends and families was the BEST way to start the year!

It was only a couple of days ago when we left for London (ON) to ring in the New Year at the Gonzales' but it seems like we were on vacation for a long time. It was nice just sitting around, eating LOTS of GOOD FOOD and just catching up with everybody. It was almost like the good ol' days back in the Phils although now I didn't know if I belonged in the Kids section or with the old... i mean, cool moms... oh my! I mostly spent my time with the mommies since all the cool young'ns were mostly chillin' in the basement which I found a bit too cold for me (I guess I AM getting a little old- yikes!). But I had tons of fun discovering a lot of VERY interesting things about my titos, titas, MOM and etc. I also introduced them to my buddy Happyslip. Maybe Happyslip will be invited next year as Tito Bong's new friend. HE-HE-HE. KIDDING! I'm sure she's not a homewrecker! BUWAHAHAHA!

Anyway, we really had so much fun the past couple of days and I wish we could get together like this more often. They are MY FAMILY here and I can NOT wait til NEXT NEW YEAR! For now, I need to burn off all the 'excess baggage' I brought home with me from London! And what?! I actually have to cook our meals now?! *sigh*


**Thanks to Tito Erv for teaching us yet another English term of a Bisaya word I haven't heard in a while- very FLATTERING indeed!

HAPPY 2009!

If it is true that whatever you do on New Year's Day is an indication as to what you'll be doing for the rest of the year, then I am going to be soooo screwed!!!

bumming around in pj's all day... eating... gossipping... eating... sleeping... eating... playing video/board games... and did i say eating?!

shower?! pfft! who needs a shower?!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!