philippine paypal accounts can now receive money! woohoo!

hey! i just got the good news, paypal accounts from the philippines have both send and receive functions already!! i read it from another blog, yugatech. this is really good news for pinoy bloggers! although you still have to withraw money to a us bank account... hmmm. another option is Xoom. i think you can withraw funds from paypal and have deposited to your local bank account, or just get your money over the counter. =)

good, good news indeed! no more need to bug family and friends from the US just so we can ride with their paypal account =)

photo hunters:: original

our family on my mother's side call ourselves "pamilya ganda" (the beautiful family). hey, love your own right? lol! this is a pic of one of our family reunions years ago. it includes some of the original members of the pamilya ganda, (we've added more cousins, husbands and babies since then) this pic is really special to me since it includes my grandfather and mom who both have passed on. my being thinner then is another big plus in my book! lol!

that's me on the left side of my grandfather =)

Feast One Hundred & Sixty Two

Appetizer

How are you today?

i am happier than i've been the past few days. more tired though since we're still adjusting to our new nanny setup...

Soup

Name 3 television shows you watch on a regular basis.

recently none, since i can't even turn on the tv because usually i'd be too tired... but before, i regularly watched desperate housewives, house and grey's anatomy.

Salad

What’s the scariest weather situation you’ve experienced?

it happened a few years ago, when Manila was directly hit by a typhoon named Winnie and we had non-stop rains that the river near our place eventually overflowed causing tummy-deep floods. and the scary part was that the water rose at around midnight, when almost everyone has gone to bed already, not noticing the danger we were all in. good thing the water didn't reach inside the house since our house was a bit elevated, sadly some of our neighbors were not as lucky.

Main Course

If you could wake up tomorrow morning in another country, where would you want to be?

italy, tuscany to be exact. recently i've re-watched my fave movie Under the Tuscan Sun with diane lane, and every view from that movie was just so enchanting!

Dessert

What do you usually wear to sleep?

hmmm... some times tshirt and shorts, other times a night gown =) depends on whatever i pull out first from my closet.

an answered prayer...

"jesus' blood never failed me yet..." this is from a song of my fave jars of clay.

yes, my God has again manifested His infinite kindness... as found in the Bible: ask and you shall receive. we now have a nanny, and today was her first day. so far so good. hubby gave her instructions regarding bea's complicated feedings , and i'm keeping my fingers crossed (and my eyes lifted to the heavens). i hope she understands bea's condition and patiently take care of her. i kept on asking her earlier how was her first day of work... she just kept on smiling... i don't know if she is just shy, or if it is a bad sign.. i choose to stay positive and hope for the best.

our nanny nightmare

we are officially nanny-less. last friday, our nanny of 10 months walked out on us. she previously asked our permission so that she can go out and go to the local courier (LBC) to send some money home. before that, she asked for her full salary, under the pretense that her younger sister was sick with dengue and that her parents were asking for money. i tried to be considerate and even though my budget was really tight, i gave in to her request. stupid me, because i had no idea that she was planning to leave already, i gave her another P500 and asked her to buy bea's milk on the way home. that is what i resent the most. ok, so she didn't want to work for us anymore, i can understand that, but she knows that the P500 was my last money (because i told her so) and she knows that bea's milk can will be empty by afternoon, and yet she still had the gall to take the money and walk away. i mean, she could've bought the milk first, drop it off and then leave... or make up an excuse not to do the chore since she has no intention of returning anymore... if she had any consideration for my daughter. =( good thing lolo was there, when it was snack time already and still no nanny in sight, he volunteered to go to the drug store and bought a can of milk. =)

it was carefully planned. earlier that day i saw her carrying a blue plastic bag and brought it outside, she said she was just taking out the trash... later i realized it probably contained the belongings.

so now hubby and i are taking turns taking care of bea. i took care of her for 4 days straight, (thursday to sunday) because hubby was busy. earlier, i had to go to work already, so it was hubby who stayed home with her. we really need to find a nanny soon!

i'm trying to look at the bright side. i'm thinking it's better this way. lately, we noticed that our nanny is more irritable than usual, (she used to be so patient with bea), then last wednesday, when i called home to check up on bea, lolo resty told me that bea vomited her lunch. he said that during lunch, bea was so cranky already that she was crying and still the nanny kept on feeding her... until she threw up. i felt terrible. i specifically told her that once bea starts crying, that she should just stop the feeding. i mean we are spending so much money and effort just so bea can get over her food aversion and eat normally and then she does this. grrr...i am so afraid that bea will be reminded of the yucky sensation of vomiting and associate this with food again. (we went through therapy and tons of meds just to help little bea get better). good thing though, so far she's showing no signs of it affecting her progress... =) thank God!

when i got home that night though, i did not reprimand her, because i am always trying to be careful in talking to her since she is SUPER SENSITIVE! whenever we call her attention because anything at all, she takes it personally... one time when hubby (a super hands-on daddy), told her calmly that he wanted a chore (i can't remember which one anymore) done a certain way, our nanny started to cry and told hubby that he should stop meddling with what she is doing and since he seems to know everything, maybe he should take care of bea himself! imagine the nerve! i know we should've looked for a replacement right there and then, but we couldn't find any, and we really needed a nanny since we were both working. *sigh*

anyway... i just wanted to share our nanny nightmare these past days... i sure hope God sends us a good nanny soon! =)

friday's feast # 160

Appetizer

When was the last time you visited a hospital?

two weeks ago, for my daughter's monthly checkup

Soup

On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how ambitious are you?

sadly, a six.

Salad

Make a sentence using the letters of a body part. (Example: (mouth) My other ukelele tings healthily.)

tongue - two of nine guests unexpectedly expired... (how morbid i know!)

Main Course

If you were to start a club, what would the subject matter be, and what would you name it?

a club of mothers having problems with their nannys. (there will be another post about this!)

Dessert

What color is the carpet/flooring in your home?

marble in the living room, orange tiles in the kitchen, cream vinyl in the bedrooms =)

photohunt::plastic

this pic was taken on our way to a pool party, which was to be bea's first pool experience. i just think she looks so cute with her pink plastic glasses on. she looks so summery!




this next pic was taken in a toy store. i just had to take a pic since this was the first time bea showed any interest in plastic barbie dolls. =)

movie:: 1408

a refreshingly old-fashioned film going for the suspense rather than the blood and gore. it is a film about michael enslin ( john cusack), an author turned ghost debunker. he goes to places that are supposed to haunted to try and find out whether it is for real or not... then he rates it according to just how scary the place is. it turns out that enslin is in fact jaded with is work since in all the places he's been to, he has yet to see an authentic ghost sighting. that is until he gets a postcard from an anonymous sender... a postcard from the dolphin hotel in manhattan, warning that he shouldn't enter room 1408. of course this intrugued him even more!

samuel l. jackson is also in the movie as gerald olin, the dolphin's manager, who's bent on stopping enslin from checking in room 1408, where it has been documented that no one stays alive for more than an hour... dan dan dan dan! the carpenters' haunting song is a nice effect to the already spooky movie.

hubby and i were very excited to watch the movie, being the suspense-genre fans that we are, and i must say it did not disappoint. there were scenes in the movie that were really scary, plus the feeling that there is that one-hour countdown in his life makes it all the more creepy. we watched enslin steadily descend from cocky cynicism to curiousity to self-doubt and finally fear...

as always, i looooved john cusack. subtle good looks, enough charm to forgive him for his cockiness, funny, shows vulnerability that even when he tries to cover up the hurt he is feeling by being brash, i tend to feel for him...

so, what did i think about the movie? nice spooky movie, great acting. will probably watch it again on video =)

feelin' a bit blue

i don't feel so well. i'm not in the mood. (ask my co-workers, they'll attest to that!) i've been feeling a bit under the weather... i'm down with the sniffles... so is hubby, and we got it from bea. =( she's been sick for a week now. she had a fever for a couple of days, good thing she responded to paracetamol, her cough is still there though. she's drinking ventolin expectorant. last time, she drank disudrin, but after a whole bottle, we couldn't see any improvement, so the pedia recommended a new medicine... after a week, her cough is subsiding... i hope she fully recovers soon. =)

i blame the ever-changing weather! it would be raining one day, then scorching hot the next! arghh! a lot of people are getting sick. i hope the weather stabilizes soon, maybe my mood will too.

Parenting Tip: How to Show Respect

one day, i will get a chance to teach my daughter good manners and right conduct... i will emphasize to her the importance of respect, both giving it and earning it. sometimes we wonder "what has this world come down to?" violence, drugs, teenage pregnancies, broken families...

i think respect, or the lack thereof, has a lot to do with it.

respect for one's self and for others is really important. and i believe this life lesson should begin at home...

so how do we show respect? here are some simple ways that will surely go a long way:

• look at a person's face when talking and listening to them.
• show up at events on time.
• say "please" and "thank you" and "excuse me" as needed.
• speak kindly.
• let them go first.
• apologize when you offend others. don't crowd people's space.
• wait patiently.
• keep your promises.
• take people's requests seriously.
• leave things better than how you found them.
• be mindful of other's property and privacy.

(from Lists to Live By)