project:weight loss now officially launched

i have come to face the truth. i am more than 40lbs overweight. i need to lose weight soon... my feet are already complaining ... varicose veins are threatening to set camp on my legs... not to mention the embarrassing bulges in embarrassing places...yep, getting too heavy for comfort.

need to do this...wish me luck!

my battle ahead:

Storytelling Outreach to Baranggay Escopa Q.C.

Wikipedia defines corporate social responsibility as a concept whereby organizations consider the interests of society by taking responsibility for the impact of their activities on customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, communities and other stakeholders, as well as the environment. This obligation is seen to extend beyond the statutory obligation to comply with legislation and sees organizations voluntarily taking further steps to improve the quality of life for employees and their families as well as for the local community and society at large.

As part of our ODP training, we were required to involve ourselves in corporate social awareness. we initially chose helping out in a Gawad Kalinga project, however, due to unforseen circumstances, this did not push through. we instead assigned to do a storytelling session with the kids of Barangay Escopa in Quezon City.

We prepared for the event. we bought goodies as gifts and prizes. of course we also bought books for the storytelling itself. the day before, we were busy wrapping up the goodies.

the next day, we were supposed to meet at 7:30 am at the office lobby so we can leave at 8am. however, one of our classmates felt sick that day and woke up late, so we had to wait for her. we left the office at 9am. we took pics while waiting....

no, we're not going to a greenpeace rally. we just chose green as our class color. why? i have no idea! actually i was absent when they took a vote... hehehe...

green looks good on me anyway, don't you think?

the saturday traffic to QC from Makati was light, and we arrived at our destination in no time at all. the day before, we joked that we should be having the storytelling under a mango tree, but our coodinator said no, we will be having it under a bridge. when we arrived, we realized that she was not joking. the venue for our story telling session was under the Katipunan bridge.



the kids were already waiting for us because we were one hour late. there was a baranggay representative who took care of everything from their end. we started with a prayer, then went on with the story telling. our class was grouped in pairs, then assigned a story each. my partner was joy, and our story was Ang Alamat ng Pinya. we agreed to divide the narration duties, while i played the mother and she played Pinang, the little girl. performance level! it was of course a success! the kids seemed to enjoy it.

After the stories, we distributed art supplies to the kids. we gave them the freedom to draw whatever they liked.

there were quite a few budding artists in the group! here's one of our kids, James, proudly showing me his masterpiece.

After the art activities, we played games. one group was in charge of the games. we were happy to note that all the kids participated, and they seemed to really enjoy the prepared games. of course we prepared enough prizes so that every kid went home with something.

Everybody had fun! of course all the shouting and laughter left us hungry. good thing though that the food we ordered from McDonald's arrived just in time. we feasted in McChicken and Coke! yummy! it was touching the way some kids did not eat their food, saying that they will just bring their share home since their family didn't have any food for lunch.... poor kids.

the rest of the kids however, ate their heart out!

by 12:30 we were done. our service brought us back to the office where we changed our clothes (we all smelled!) then crammed ourselves into 2 of our classmates' vehicles and headed off to the Mall of Asia. There we ate at one of the seaside restaurants and sang our hearts out in the videoke. we stayed there until dark.

since i was in a celebratory mood, yes i did sing, i sang 3 songs! yipee! no longer a videoke virgin!



what a day! it was really tiring but definitely worth it. spending the rest of the afternoon with friends was fun! i hope the next time we see each other, we will be as happy...(when we receive the ODP results....waaahhhh! pressure!)

Happy & Sad.

A tag from Alpha.

~Start Copy~

Here are the Rules:

1. List the things that make you Happy and those that make you Sad.

2. Add your Blog to the list. Feel free to add all your other Blogs.

3. Tag other online friends you know.Toni’s Attachments, Cecile2’s-Small and Simple Things, Lara’s Pinay dot US, Lara’s My Blog Entry, Lara’s Byaheng Pinay, Living A’ La Mode, Bits and Pieces, My Life in this Wonderful World, My Online World, Ozzy’s Mom, Me,Myself+2, Kidd Designs, FunFierceFabulous, Eds Mommy Life, Just Me.. Eds, My Precious Niche, I Am Mommy, All About The Memories, Enchanted Play, Just My Scrap, My life is Peachy , Celebrating life , belly, baby and beyond, Mommy Talks, Aggie Shoots. Aggie Scraps, All Kinds of Me Stuff, The Salad Caper, Winding Creek Circle, InkBabyStudios, All Things Me, Feels Like Home, A Day of Play, Because Life is Fun, Create a Good Blog, Growing Up with Bea, My Life...My Own Piece of Heaven, YOU



What Makes Me Happy?

• my family
• dates with my hunny
• watching movies
• bookstores (and books!)
• little girl's laughter
• being with my barkada
• shopping sprees
• magnolia mango iced tea
• john lloyd movies (hehehe)
• broadband internet
• out of town trips
• blogging
• scrapping
• daydreaming
• chocolates
• comments on my blog =)

What Makes Me Sad?

• when someone in the family is sick
• little girl's feeding problem
• cancer
• weight issues
• fighting with hubby
• having no money
• work
• slow traffic in my blogs
• no opps
• zero PR (hmp!)

Tagging Apple, Arlene, Julie, Anna and Liza

Torn Paper Alpha

here's a freebie from mommy scraps. click the pic to go to her blog.

Ready for school?

is the little girl ready for school? look how well she holds her pen. i gave her a piece of paper and a pen, to keep her occupied while waiting for our order. i was successful in keeping her busy for a full....10 seconds! oh well...

photo hunt :: colorful

this is my entry for this week's photo hunters' theme, colorful. i was having some trouble choosing a pic for this theme because it was too late when i realized that the pic i posted last week is more appropriate for this week. hehehe...

anyway, i'm still lucky that i found this pic taken last summer. this is intriguing for me because a single bunch of flowers has both pink and white litte flowers. nature is so full of surprises huh?

happy weekend everyone!

A Visit at St. Pio Chapel

some time ago, i posted a story about our visit to the St. Pio Chapel in Libis. Guess what? a few weeks ago, i was contacted by their travel editor and asked if it's ok with me, they will run my article in the Pinoy Moms Network site. of course i agreed!

after some weeks of waiting eagerly for any word from the editor, i finally received an email saying that my article is up. here it is: A Visit at St. Pio Chapel . please check it out!

photo hunt :: dark

this picture was taken when we had our visita inglesia last holy week. we just came out of the Malate Church when we saw this fountain not far from the church. the colors and the water proved to be wonderful photo subjects against the dark night.

check out my other blog's entry here.

guess who?

who is this? click here to find out.

my love affair with pinoy movies and john lloyd cruz

hubby and i have a lot of things in common, probably because we practically grew up together. we have been together since we were 16, yep, that's half of our lifetimes already... =)

one of the things we have in common is our love for movies. back when watching movies was way cheaper, we'd watch movies at least once a week, sometimes even 3x a week. Wednesday was our favorite day because this was the day they'd change the movie schedules and show the latest movies.

but no matter how we loved to watch movies, we didn't really like to watcn pinoy movies. there were exceptions though, there was a time when we had our tita shawie phase, where we'd watch only tagalog movies with sharon cuneta, we also had our kris aquino phase, i had my iza calzado phase and i had to drag hubby along to watch sigaw, moments of love and quija (this came in consonant with my juday phase).

as to actors, we have only two favorites: aga muhlach and john lloyd cruz. i've loved john lloyd since tabing ilog, where he played Rovic, but when we watched Dubai, a movie where aga, john lloyd and claudine barretto played title roles, that sealed our fate... we, yep even hubby, became official john lloyd cruz fans! he is definitely one of the best dramatic actors around, and the cutest too... a young aga muhlach!

last weekend, having already watched the mummy III, we watched a special love starring john lloyd cruz and sarah geronimo. we loved it! read my thoughts about the movie here.

yep... jologs! =)

i hate these chores meme

A tag from Alpha.

This meme idea started out of the blue while I was staring blankly at the 2 weeks worth of washed clothes that I have to fold. I instantly want to resign on my household duties and just laze around. I miss my mom and yaya chona so bad!

~~~START COPY~~~This meme is pretty simple.Here are the rules:1.) List down the household chores you hate and why. Do you think you can survive without helpers and nannies?2.) Copy the image.3.) Tag as many girlfriends you want, the daddies and hubbies can also join.4.) Add your blog’s link in the domesticated divas linky love. You can add all your blogs.5.) Leave ME a comment and I’ll add you up in the masterlist.

DOMESTICATED DIVAS: Living the Healthy Life / Sripe&Yellow / Vanity Kit / Mind Bubbles / Something Purple / Em’s Detour / Me,Myself+2 / Kidd Designs / FunFierceFabulous / Ozzy’s Mom / Insights from the Grocery Cart / Living A’ La Mode / God’s Best Gift / MommyAllehs Up-Close And Personal / My Precious Niche / Just Me.. Eds / Eds Mommy Life / Mommy Talks Aggie Shoots. Aggie Scraps All Kinds of Me Stuff The Salad Caper Winding Creek Circle InkBabyStudios My Happy Place Iam Dzoi Suburban Sass To the Moon and Back Raising Sandy All Things Me Because Life Is Fun Feels Like Home , Growing up with Bea, My life... my own piece of heaven YOUR BLOG HERE~~~END COPY~~~

My List: I hate going to the wet market. it's not the smell nor the mud that i hate, it's the haggling, i feel pressured to ask for a discount, and when i am not given any, i feel like i'm being robbed. (pathetic i know) . i also hate the cleaning because i am allergic to dust. soon after starting with the chore, i'd get all teary and sneezy. one more thing i hate is the tidying up of the mess bea and i made. this is really a CHORE for me because i am not the most organized person in the world... hehehe...

Tagging: Arlene, Rachel, Apple, Liza, Julie, Wenchie

photohunt :: clouds

hmmm... what can you see in the clouds? well i can see a little rabbit, looking at a carrot!

=)