PhotoBlog: What's in the Bag?

The goodie bag AJ got from Nico's 7th Birthday Party. There's a Box of candies too. He won a xylophone and got a Star Wars sword as souvenir :) Whatta Party! Happy Birthday Nico.

One Hectic Saturday

I'm so glad Saturday is over. This means i survived the most hectic weekend I could possibly imagine. Why? These were the itinerary for today: One, Saturday means laundry day for me.Two, I had to defrost our refrigerator for the ice is starting to build up. Three, I have a kiddie birthday party and christening party to attend to in the afternoon. Four, we are going to Nasugbu to fetch our much awaited yaya con helper. In between chores not highlighted are: cooking breakfast/lunch, washing of dishes etc.

Laundry is such a tough task that my hubby doesn't complain when I ask him to do things for me after I'm finished with it. He knows it ain't easy washing clothes for 1 person for a week .. what more for 2 persons and 1 little boy?!! And with the other household chores to be done and the packing for stuff for the overnight visit in Batangas, obviously we were late for the Christening of Sari and the birthday party of Nico, but still AJ was able to enjoy the puppet show and the magic show. And not to mention the goodies and loot bags he was able to bring home.

Anyway, we'll meet the nanny con helper tomorrow for we already arrived here in Batangas around 10pm. I hope and I pray that she's kind, responsible,good with chores and patient with kids... I know its gonna be a tough job but someones got to do it. I'd gladly stop working in a heartbeat just to make sure that my child is safe but that will be selfish of me because this sacrifice is for his future to be secure. Oh Lord Please! Let this be the one!

For now I am signing off and hitting the sack, good night!

my ever reliable washing machine..pictured here with my yellow laundry gloves

PhotoBlog: hubby joins the bandwagon

my Hubby joins the Threadless bandwagon... of course its all for the additional Streetpoints so we can order more tees.
PS. He did all those poses on his own.. no one told him to do so :) hehe! so cute!

Photoblog: The color PURPLE

My Twitter bio says that I'm a lover of all things purple. Indeed I do. its my favorite color. But for the first time, I had my toenails polished in my favorite color. Courtesy of California Nails Spa.

PhotoBlog: We're at Threadless Gallery

Earned 4 points for these photo submissions worth $6. Humm.. Now time to browse for new shirts to order :)

Happy Wednesday!

Chili Corned Tuna Rolls

I enjoy watching cooking shows. I remember back in my younger days, Saturday and Sunday television is not complete with out watching 'Cooking it up with Nora' (Daza) and then became, Cooking it up with the Dazas' when it was her kid's time to do wonders in the kitchen. Since I'm young I just imagine how those delectable food taste like...Things have changed nowadays.

Since I now have my own kitchen, I can test all those recipies that they teach on TV. And here is one I saw last Saturday night on QTv (sorry I was just tv surfing and I end up watching the show, I can't remember the title.)

Chili Corned Tuna Rolls

2 small cans of regular or chili corned tuna

1 1/2 cup of cooking oil (for deep frying)

1 carrot chopped or grated
1 egg
1 onion finely chopped
2 tablespoon All Purpose Flour
Kinchay chopped
salt & pepper to taste
1 (16 ounce) package of spring roll/ shanghai wrapper

Preparation:

1. In a large bowl, mix the corned tuna, carrots, onion, kinchay, egg, flour and salt & pepper to taste. Make sure to completely mix everything. set asid.

2. prepare the wrapper by seperating each and every sheet and lay it on a flat surface. scoop 1 teaspoonful of your corned tuna mix and put it in the wrapper, securely roll it and seal it using water or egg white. set aside.

Cooking:
Heat the cooking oil in a a small deep pan. Fry the corned tuna rolls until golden brown. Drain oil in a kitchen paper towel.

Served with Sweet Chili Sauce or Ketchup.

Servings: 4-6 people (depends on their appetite too)
Happy cooking 'n eating!

xoxo.
S

Customer Service Matters

what makes me loyal to a restaurant, store or service provider? Its customer service. Even if I am just inquiring on something, the way the representative treats me is the utmost important to make me purchase or get a service.

One example is when I was inquiring on the tuition fee of a nursery student in our neighborhood Cathedral School.. the one who answered the phone was not only unhelpful, she also didn't have proper decorum on how to assist new clients like me. She sounded irritated of taking my call and asked me to call another number and put down the phone even if I'm still asking a follow up question. To think that was a Catholic School. Though I still continue to inquire, that school just went from 1st choice to last.

Another scenario that made we want to come back for more is when I complained about a online purchase that was not deliver to me. From previous orders, Threadless was able to deliver my orders in 3 weeks on the dot. But when I complained last January that my order last December has not arrived yet, the customer service asked me to follow up and check with the postal office. I knew our postal office is lousy and always late and all but I have to know my options if my orders didn't arrive. And so after more than a month of waiting, I requested a refund or a replacement order to be sent again. But this time, I asked them to send it to my in-laws' address in California (just to make sure it will be delivered). They did send everything for free plus a $10 coupon that I can use in my future order (cool!) Unfortunately, when the replacement order was made, they send it again to my PH address. So again I complained that I requested it to be delivered to a US address not PH. But the order is already in transit and cannot be cancelled anymore. But since it was their mistake, they sent another batch of my order to the US address all for free. And so, all in all, there are 3 packages for me in transit somewhere in the Pacific.



But after a few days from confirming that my replacement order will be delivered to the US, the original order came.. yes!! after 2 months and 7days.. (did I mention delivery should only be with 3 weeks?). And so I informed them that my original package has arrived and told them to cancel the order due for US delivery.
So even if there have been some human error involve in my replacement order. I'd definitely go back and purchase more tees from threadless because, they were willing to send me a replacement order of my considered 'lost order' even if its not their fault that I didn't receive my order on time. And even gave a $ coupon to compensate for my inconvenience.Thus, they just gained one happy and loyal customer. :)

Visit Threaless tees at Threadless.com

Here's some of our pics wearing the awesome tees.

No one's perfect

A nice read sent by our CEO.

 

 April 6, 1976. Cherry trees in full blossom, soft sunlight. A gentle day.

 A baby came squalling into the world. A bouncing baby boy. It was an ordinary birth to an ordinary couple. Except for one thing: the boy had no arms or legs.

Congenital tetra-amelia: the condition of being born without arms or legs. It wasn't due to a difficult birth, or the drug thalidomide, whose harmful effects were in the news at the time. The cause in my case is still unknown. For whatever reason, I arrived with an ultra-individual appearance that startled people. How many people get a shocked reaction just by being born? Probably only Momotaro, the fairytale boy who was found inside a peach, and me.

A birth is supposed to be followed by the joyful moment when mother and child first see each other's faces. But my father thought over what might happen. If my mother found out right after the delivery, before she'd had any chance to recover her strength, wouldn't the shock be too much for her? As she lay in bed, he said to her, "I'm afraid you can't see the baby right away--he's a little weak."

Two or three days passed. My father resolved to keep the facts hidden until my mother was fully recovered. It must have been a lonely struggle. It took strength.

"They say you can't see him for a little while longer because he has severe jaundice," he told her.

It's only very recently that concepts like "informed consent" have begun to be taken up in Japan. The situation back then, in 1976, was that a doctor's word was final. Even though it was their own health and happiness at stake, patients had no choice but to leave everything to their physician. And so my father took the stance that he was simply following the doctors' orders.

Although she hadn't wondered what was going on at first, naturally my mother was worried and perplexed when she still wasn't allowed to see her own child after a week. She realized something serious must have happened, but at the same time there was an atmosphere that made it hard for her to come right out and ask anything. Of course she wanted to see her son, but she sensed this "something." She put her trust in my father.

The day of our first meeting arrived at last. Three weeks had gone by since I was born. On the day before she came to see me, my mother had been told that the reason she hadn't been allowed to see her son was not because of jaundice, but because of a disability. My father couldn't bring himself to tell her the exact nature of the disability, but what he did tell her was enough for my mother. And she prepared herself.

The hospital, too, had done what it could to get ready. An empty bed had been made available in case she fainted on the spot. The tension grew, for my father and the staff, and for my mother.

The big moment arrived, but not in the way people had expected. The words that burst from my mother's lips were "He's adorable." All the fears that she might get hysterical or keel over turned out to be unnecessary. For nearly a month, she hadn't been able to see the baby she'd given birth to. The joy of seeing her child at last was greater than the shock of his missing arms and legs.

I think the success of this first encounter was especially meaningful. First impressions tend to stick. Sometimes you're still carrying them as baggage years later. And when it's a parent and child, that meeting is a profoundly important one.

The first emotion my mother felt toward me was not shock or sadness, it was joy.

 At the age of three weeks, I was born at last.

The Road to Independence

starts...now! I moved back to our family house when I learned that my pregnancy (almost 4 years ago) was complicated. And so me and my husband (of 3 months at that time) decided to leave our single room pad and live with my family. Fast forward >> to today. We are now living in a 2-room apartment and for 3 years and a half my mom lived with us to look over my son. She has been great with him and though there are times when we argue and disagree with how she spoils him, I still would not trade my son being looked after a yaya. There's a sense of security of having my mom around during his growing up years. I was able to work not worrying every single day if my son is safe. Yes I felt safe. Mothers should always make their children feel safe, even if they are married and have their own family already. But where and when does it end?

For us, for me, it is today. As she left the house to go back to the province, I didn't shed a tear. Maybe because I am in denial. Thinking that she's just out for a vacation and will be back soon. Or maybe I no longer have tears to shed for I have been crying the whole week. Or it could have been acceptance of the reality that if not now, when will I stop depending on my mom?

And so hubby and I started the weekend with household chores. He went to the wet market to get some fresh meat, fish and veggies while I started laundry after feeding AJ.We had a squabble because he wanted to wash clothes with me.. I let him for a while but then I was getting delayed with it. He just want to play with the water and detergent soap. So I had to stop doing the laundry to get him inside but then the screaming and crying (aka tantrums) started. Even during the time I'm giving him a bath was has agitated. While all this was happening, Hubby was checking out the internet for a recipe he was about to cook. Suddenly, AJ went berserk and broke 3 keys of the laptop's keyboard. And there goes the chain reaction...Hubby slaps his hand- AJ runs to me for cover- stopped hubby from going after him for another round of spanking - more crying -  I tried to pacify him but he still insist on playing at the laundry area. It felt like it will never end. It lasted until he got tired and fallen asleep on the couch.

Finally some peace and quiet. I was able to finish my laundry while AJ snoozed and ate lunch around 3pm. The afternoon went better than the morning, it was less chaotic . I was able to clean and re-arrange the kitchen while Hubby and AJ went to the grocery to get some last minute missing ingredients for the Tanigue Steak. Finished the night watching CSI with Hubby and slept with an aching hand and lower back.

Independence is hard but I survived my first day.