My new dining table!

Finally, after 3 weeks of waiting for our order to come in, we went to pick up our new dining table last Saturday. But we were simply too tired during the weekend that we only assembly it last Monday night.

I am so in love with my new dining table! It is so heavy due to the rock design that we had to ask our kids to help us while assembling it.

It's a 6-seater that can be extended to accommodate 8...


I also ordered a matching coffee table, but the order hasn't come in yet. Once we pick that up, I will be ready to show you my dining/living/kitchen area.

Weekend Snapshot #7: BBQ in Winter Time

Last Saturday, we helped a family friend buy their BBQ grill and they invited us for a BBQ dinner on Sunday.

I marinated some pork bbq, but in my mind, I never thought I'd be the one to cook. I wore my wool coat that day because the temp is somewhere in the -20C. Yes, it is very, very cold. And because I ended up being in charge of the cooking, I wore my son's winter jacket. Yes, he is almost a grown up in size but not mentally.

The other picture will show how much snow we had since December. Too bad its already dark, or I am prepared to have my kids make a snowman and snow angel.



We also had salmon, pork ribs and chinese tikoy [rice cake] to welcome the year of the Ox.

Friday Fill-ins #8

1. Oh I am so excited for our upcoming vacation in Orlando... 16 more days to go.
   
2. Embrace changes, big and little.
   
3. During daytime when I don't have to work [like today], I feel more relax coz I am have an alone time with myself while the kids are in school and hubby's at work.
   
4. Which of the following is the largest? A. peanut, B. elephant, C. The Moon and D. Hey, who are you calling large?... The answer picked by "Who wants to be a millionaire?" contestant, Kathy Evans of Idaho is elephant! That is after using all her lifelines. And this is a $100 question!; are you kidding me??? But it's true!
   
5. Right now I'd like to be in bed, staying away from the cold, cold winter. It's about -30C outside with the windchill factor.
   
6. My laptop and my DLSR are is my favorite gadget.
   
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to movie night with hubby and the kids, tomorrow my plans include going to Ikea and look at bar table for our bedroom and Sunday, I want to relax but can't coz I got to go to work!

Litratong Pinoy: Kahel [Orange]

Ito ang pinaka magandang regalo natanggap ko nitong nakaraang Pasko. Hindi kasi nabubuhay sa akin ang mga halaman... ito ang puwede sa akin para magkaroon naman ako ng bulakbak sa loob ng bahay.


This is the best gift I have ever received last Christmas. I don't have a green thumb, plants just die on me... so this is the best alternative for me to have flowers around the house.

Patrick's birthday bash!

This is a week's late already... but Patrick had a fun birthday party. I invited 5 kids to come and play. And his party lasted from 12 noon till 9pm!

Patrick isn't too happy with the pink candles but that was part of the pack of 12 candles that I got...



I taught Patricia how to play the birthday song the night before, and she knows how to play it after 4 tries... but she didn't want to play during the party itself. So Juan, Patrick's classmate, volunteered to play for us.

Books, books and more books

Whenever my kids celebrate their birthdays or during Christmas holidays, they would always get plenty of clothes and toys. But rarely would they receive books as presents. To me, reading books are a great source of wisdom and knowledge.

So since I’ve had kids of my own, books and activity books are my favorite gifts to my friends’ children. To me, one can have too many toys or too many clothes... but one can never have too many books, whatever the age maybe.

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What to do with Julian?

We are going on a trip! We are going to Orlando, Florida next month for 9 days.

I will be using our mileage to get free tickets for all of us. So the airfare is technically free! Woohoo! My kids and I are very excited! We will be meeting my in-laws from New York there and my MIL is also coming for a visit. We will be renting a house since there's 9 of us altogether.

Next, I need to book a rental car and find us cheap theme park tickets. So I will be busy again this weekend surfing the internet and hopefully be able to find us some good deal.

Anyway, Friday is the day we have set to clean Julian's tank. So tonight, while cleaning the tank, I ask my daughter: "Who's gonna take care of Julian while we are in Florida?" She said we should bring it along. Of course we can't!

After a few more minutes my daughter said: "If we can't bring Julian with us, then we are not going to Florida!" You should see the expression on her face and hear the tone of her voice. She is determined to stay behind just to care for her beta fish.

So I just said that we will ask a friend to take care of Julian while we are away.

Litratong Pinoy: Asul [Blue]

Waterton Lakes National Park

Sinilaga!

I had chicken sinigang and chicken nilaga left over at the fridge. Both were my kids' favorite Filipino dish.

I decided to boil more potatoes to add to the leftover nilaga... But as it turn out, I accidentally added the leftover sinigang instead! I didn't realize my mistake until I was serving my kids' their lunch. I notice that my nilaga suddenly have spinach when I added bok choy??? And so a new dish came out - sinilaga! hahaha!

My kids ate it with no complain even though I told them mommy made a big boo-boo! My daughter gave me a big hug saying "mommy, you are not dumb!" And my son compensated it by finishing his food! He said it taste funny but he liked both dishes so its okay. Such nice kids eh?

Hubby didn't even taste "my new dish" and so I had to throw everything out.

Today is Patrick's 12th birthday! And I'm off to prepare for his playdate with some friends this afternoon. I hope I will be able to manage all the kids. I'm expecting 5 guests plus my own 2 kids, so that makes it 7.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PATRICK! MWAAAAAH!

Buy.com

The Thanksgiving weekend sale in the US is a big, big hit even for the Canadians. It is called the Black Friday weekend sale. I’ve never been to one yet, but my sister-in-law did it once and she said it wasn’t worth it at all. They had to line up as early as 6am and somebody ahead got the last item that they wanted. Buy.com gives you the chance to skip Black Friday. Their site offers the biggest deals , all year round.

Memory

I am so happy my new laptop with its 4GB computer memory. It’s fast even with our wireless internet connection. My old PC has 2 GB memory and I was quite happy with that one before. Now that I tried the 4GB memory, I’ve been telling my friends to upgrade their computer memory as soon as they can. The difference is really huge.

Tankless Water Heater

Having a new home means more responsibilities and more things that need to be considered before a decision is made. A friend of mine had trouble with her water heater and it needs replacing. And she is now considering purchasing a tankless water heater which would enable her to run 3 simultaneous showers at the same time with no fear of losing hot water.

Litratong Pinoy: Pula [Red]

Red and Gold is the motif of my Christmas Tree.

Meet Julian

Julian is my daughter's Beta fish.

Every Christmas I would ask my kids to make their Christmas wish list. They would usually give me 5 to 10 toys that they wanted. And from that list I would buy at least 3 so they have more gifts to open on Christmas day.

This past Christmas was different though. My daughter's only wish is to have a pet fish. She even wrote it in her journal. She claims she has everything she ever wanted. And all that's missing is a pet.

So I went to the pet store on the 24th of December and ask the people there to educate me. I bought just the fish tank then and on the 31st of December, I took her to the pet store to pick the color of Beta fish that she like. And she said that she's the happiest girl in the world!

Branson, The place to see

What would you do if you won a million dollars in lottery? For me and my family, we would spend some on traveling and visit as many theme parks as we can. We all enjoy and love the thrill from theme park rides. And my list would include a trip to Branson Missouri and visit their theme park, Silver Dollar City.

Branson Missouri is also known as the “Live Entertainment Capital of the World”. Branson’s main attraction also includes museums like Hollywood Wax Museum, Ripley’s Believe it or not, World’s Largest Antique Toy Museum and so much more. They also have Go Kart Track , Water rides, and Miniature Golf Courses for the whole family to enjoy. If you love shopping, you’ll enjoy their outlet malls plus several unique Ozark Mountain craft malls.

BransonGetaways.com can provide you with vacation packages from lodging and accommodation as well as tickets to over 70 shows and attractions. It is truly a fun place to be with your family and friends.

Weekend Snapshot #6: Car Accident

Not my car... but this is the car that I hit last December 19 on my way to my daughter's recital...

Read more about my first car accident here.

Email problems

Some of you might be wondering I am sending you emails with attachments or junk mails. Well, I'm not. But somehow, somebody is being able to send junk mails and the sender is from jo@arduo.ca. I, myself has been receiving junk mails from my own email account. Please be informed that I do not forward emails, including chain letters.

I did not even send any Christmas e-card this time. I did the traditional way of mailing Christmas cards. As for emails, I only send personal emails. It's very rare that I would forward something I received through emails.

One of the reason why I created One Friend is to posts and share the wonderful emails that I have received instead of forwarding them to my contact list.

I have been asking my hubby to fix this problem but he is just way too busy. Can anybody offer any solution to this?