Thursday Thirteen: Movie Marathon

If you haven't known before, I am a movie addict... but I don't buy DVDs nor do I watch it in the big theaters... I am so cheap that I just download them for free... it takes time... but I still get to watch them.

Last 13 movies that I've seen and my rating

1. Serious Moonlight *****
   
2. War *****
   
3. It's complicated **
   
4. Michael Jackson's This is it ****
   
5. Time traveller's wife ****
   
6. Up in the air ****
   
7. House Broken ***
   
8. New Moon ***
   
9. A dangerous man ***
   
10. The Other Man *
    
11. Falling up ***
    
12. In the valley of Elah *
    
13. Lakeview Terrace ***

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Related entries: Please click here.

Starting a new chapter

My friend and her family just migrated to Canada 2 weeks ago. I gave them tips on how to get started, applying for child's allowance, enrolling the kids in school, and finding a community center near their place. I also advice them to get term insurance quotes and temporary medical insurance since anything can happen and they need some peace of mind. That's what we did when we first came here.

New bundle of joy

My friend is requesting me to take photos of her new born. I haven't really tried taking portraits of new born yet, but it's going to be exciting for me! It is time to put what I learn into practice. Or I might forget it all.

She wanted a picture of her baby for the baby announcements cards that she plan to mail to her family and friends.

Congrats to K and V for their beautiful baby girl.

Ice Magic Festival @ Lake Louise

My personal favorites made the top 3!

First Place -- Victory Dance by Carveamus Prime, USA



Second Place -- Catching a Dream by Frozen Art, USA



Third Place -- Hope by Team GB, Manx to Machem, UK

More Wordless Wednesday here

Chateau Lake Louise

It's pampering time! Thanks to a friend who got hotel discounts, we were able to book a room at Fairmont for 60% off last weekend for the Ice Magic Festival. This is our room with the view! And can you see how cool our bathroom is?

The ice castle in the background



What a view!!! Simply breathtaking!



More pictures to follow...

Car shopping

Yesterday, we went for car shopping! Nope, it's not for me, but for a friend of mine. She decided to get Toyota's RAV4. I've always wanted either a RAV4 or CRV before, but have to settle for a Civic to save on gas.

Hopefully she'll get her financing approved before lunch today and all she had to do is get an auto insurance quote, finalized it, and she can drive it home tonight! It's as easy as buying eggs in the grocery.

Now, I'm thinking of trading in my Civic for a CRV, what do you think?

Finding the right one

I should really stop procrastinating. Our term insurance is about to lapse and I need to get life insurance online quote as soon as possible. Because as we all know it, the older you get, the higher the premium is! But with so many companies and options and benefits available, it was just too hard for me to find the right one.

Celebrity Sighting: Alec Baldwin

January 17. I had the chance to come face to face with Mr. Alec Baldwin. I was in charge of checking his carry-on bags. It was about 4-5 minutes that we were face to face. But I was too shy to say anything, though I know that he knew that we did recognize him.

No, I don't have any pictures nor autograph, we're not allowed! Bummer!

There were other celebrity that came through that day, but I didn't get to see anyone else... or maybe I just didn't recognize the others.

Wordless Wednesday: Olympic Flame

The Olympic flame is once again burning bright in Calgary... January 19, 2010.

106 days... 45,000 kms... 12,000 torchbearers...



Above pictures were taken at 7:30am...







Passing the torch at 10:30am...

Check out other Wordless Wednesday entry here.

Do you recycle gifts?

During our last Christmas party, we were ask, on a voluntary basis, to bring in a gift for raffle. Raffle for adults or for kids.

Somebody decided to wrap 2 chocolate boxes not knowing that one box was already expired in 2008. While the other box got 4 missing pieces and a half eaten one. Prank? I don't think so. I believe it was just an honest mistake.

I was cleaning out my kitchen cupboards the other day and I can't believe I got some stuff in there that already expired!

I recycle gifts, I won't deny it. Sometimes, we just need to be practical. Why keep it when you know you won't need it, or you already got something similar. But with food/chocolates, its kind of hard, because you need to be careful that it hasn't expired when you decides to give it away.

8 Things

Nobody tag me for this one, but I decided to grab it from Denden's blog.

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To:

1. Wedding photography class every Saturday
2. Intermediate photography class every Thursday
3. Upcoming trip to Lake Louise for the ice sculpture
4. Staying overnight at The Fairmont - Chateau Lake Louise
5. Updating my family website
6. My BFF coming back from her vacation next week
7. 2 birthday parties next month
8. Upcoming tax season

8 Things I Did Yesterday:

1. 3 loads of Laundry
2. Cooking
3. Clean the house
4. Watched The Time Traveller's Wife
5. Sort out my closet
6. Sort out all the papers on my desk
7. Grocery
8. Photography intermediate class

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:

1. Stop drinking coca-cola
2. Eat more healthier food - like vegetables
3. Do lots of walking and/or exercise
4. Learn how to bake and decorate cake
5. Have the liberty to buy more lens
6. Take more "professional" photos
7. Be a professional photographer in the near future
8. Go home for a cousin's wedding in June

8 Shows I Watch:

1. Grey's Anatomy
2. Private Practice
3. CSI Las Vegas
4. CSI New York
5. Chuck
6. Heroes
7. Desperate Housewives
8. Brothers and Sisters

Feel free to grab this tag... Enjoy your weekend everyone!

The problem with having a Facebook and a Blog

Like millions of people around the world, I am hooked up on Facebook and blogging. But the foremost problem with having both, is that once people see your update in Facebook, they will no longer be interested to check out your blog.

Same thing for me, I rarely blog hop anymore. I just kept in touch with my blogger friends through Facebook.

So what's the point of maintaining both?

Sign of old age

Work at the airport is getting harder and more physical for all pre-board screeners. CATSA had the "temporary emergency measures in effect" since the failed Christmas Day attempt.

Not knowing what the effect on us will be, I sign up for an extra shift on boxing day. Bad, bad decision! My whole body was in so much that day! And I guess my body hasn't fully recovered since then. Anybody knows how to get rid or find joint pain relief?

I really feel old... my son just turned 13 and I have all these body aches that just won't go away. !

Still healthy

When I was pregnant with both of my kids, I had to take prenatal vitamins. For those who knew me, you know that I'm a meat lovers. I'm not fond of vegetables and most healthy food! Yes, that's me. But even though I'm a meat lovers, I have maintain a good health, as what my doctor would say in the past. Well, I'm due for another physical exam next month, and I hope that the doctor would say the same thing.

No Guarantees

There is certainly no guarantees in our job these days. You might have them in the morning and come home later already out of job. I knew a few people who had to give up their cars and home because the husband and wife both lost their job.

The good news is the economy seems to be picking up again. And FinancialJobBank.com is here to assist people in their finance job search and all other possible openings that may suit their qualification.

My son just turned 13!

Oh my! I have a teenager already! He just turned 13 last Sunday. And as a treat, we took him and 2 friends to Shakers.

Birthday boy enjoying the arcades....



Kids were happy with the number of tickets they won!



My daughter loves rock climbing...

Eczema no more

My daughter was born with eczema but it wasn't the worst type of eczema. And moving to a cold country didn't help her at all. I used to put some steroids on her, but then I realized that constant application of moisturizers will also do the trick.

Now that she's a little older, it was not that bad anymore. I totally got rid of the steroids.

Exposed Acne Treatment

The exposed acne treatment is an acne treatment that claims to give you the ONLY chemical free acne solution. It could be the right product for you, just click on the link and read the review. There's no harm done in being informed. And if you are still not satisfied, then do more research to get rid of those unwanted acne for good!

Effective yet expensive

A family friend of mine recently found the best weight loss products that suits her. Since she started 3 months ago, she had loss 5 pounds every month. That's a total of 15 pounds lost in 3 months. Not bad eh?

I've been meaning to try it myself, but since I'm not a veggie eater, following it's diet plan will make it harder for me. And I don't think I have $300+ to spare every month to purchase the whole "cleansing kit" as what she would call it.

Mixed nuts

Holiday is over! Now, back to reality... it's back to school for me and the kids! And it means back to pick up and drop off the kids at their bus stop. And back to doing assignments and projects...

My son is turning 13 this Sunday. Time flies! I can't believe that I'm going to have a teenager soon... Gosh, I feel old.

Work is still work! I am so glad that I only have to work there twice a week.

I just recently watched Michael Jackson's "This Is It". It's weird that I was never a fan of MJ, I mean I love some of his songs, but that was it. But watching "This Is It" makes me sad that he was gone too soon.

Road trip! We're going to Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise for the Ice Magic Festival on January 23-24. We got a big discount on hotel accommodation, thanks to a friend who works at the hotel. Hope the weather is not too bad on that weekend.

Tax season is coming up... so I am going to be very busy again for the next 3 months.

And I believe that we need a treadmill in the house... for me, for my husband, and for my son! We are all gaining weight!

Simply awesome!

A colleague of mine invited us to their new home for the very first time. And I was amazed at how they decorated their home, inside and out. They hired an interior designer to do all the decorating for them. I wish I have unlimited budget like they do so that I could hire a designer myself.

The best place of the house is their backyard. It got an outdoor fireplace and a fire pit with a gazebo. So cool and so cozy. I also loved their bonus room. It got a huge seating space for entertaining guests. Sad to say, I didn't have my camera with me at that time.

Boxing day deal

Finally, I got myself a really good deal during the boxing week! Just bought a 46" Samsung TV with Bose speakers for a really good price.

Before the boxing week, I went looking for the best deal online like at Circuit City, hubby wanted a more "powerful" computer to load all our movies. But I said enough is enough, we should just get an entertainment center for now and make use of the wireless media player that he recently got. And we did. Now, we can enjoy watching movies on the big screen rather than on my laptop.

This is my gifts to the family!

Family

"Your family is who you choose to hold in your heart... not necessarily those who share your bloodlines." - Chicken soup for the single parent

Ever since we decided to relocate to another country, we are not as happy as we could have if we could spent Christmas and New Year and other special occasion with our family. But we learn to adapt. And we found "new families" in our new place. They would invite us over for Noche Buena and any other parties or celebrations. And though they are not blood relatives, they are still family to us!

Originally posted in my other blog.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I feel sick today! Definitely not a good way to start my New Year! I got a headache and stuffy nose! Bummer!