Our Family Equation

Ian+Manel=Inigo

I am passing this tag to all my blog friends. Let me know if you are already done with yours! I would love to see your family equations!

Have fun!

Portraits

I so love taking pictures of my two boys and myself, of course!

Lucky me, I have a friend who is very supportive of enhancing the pictures I took to make it more classy! (Thanks Gail!)

Ian.Inigo

Manel.Inigo

I'm back!

After a looong break from the blogging world, i'm happy to say that I AM BACK! Yiheee!

Just an update on what has been keeping me busy for the last few days:

1. Scouting for a house in Makati
2. Holy week vacation at Silang, Cavite and San Pablo, Laguna
3. Yaya-hunting
4. Job-Hunting

Oh well. We are very excited and looking forward to transferring to our new condo in Makati by next week. Yeba!

Around the W-O-R-L-D!

1. Place your link after the list. If you have more than 1 blog, feel free to add them all here!2. After placing your blog’s address/es, you must tag 5 or more bloggers that is not yet in the list, this is to keep the ball rolling.
Links around the world tag (update as of Mar. 18, 2008)
1 - Momhood Moments 2 - Business Mars 3 - Pinay Mommy Online 4 - OnlineBiz and Resources 5 - A Simple life 6 - moms….. check nyo 7 - Mommy’s Little Corner 8- Princezz 9 - Princess 10 - Random Thoughts 11 - Paradigm 12 - See Me For What You Will 13 - Pamp’s Blog Corner 14 - Pampered 15 - HappyHeart 16 - Qtcotzkie and Baby 17 - A Sorta Fairytale 18 -tragicseven 19 - Listen to the Beat! 20 Just Saying 21 Tipsy Tips 22 Different Angles 23 Delicious Corner 24 I Care 25 Blog Blag Blog 26 Daily List 27 - Life’s Journey 28- Welcome to my Crib 29 - Hearts Desire 30 - Island Paradise 31 - Texas Life 32 - Long Journey 33 - D’ Cooking Mudra 34 - My life 35- Swept Away 36 - Winged Words 37 - Rainier and Katrina 38 - Life! Learn it. Live it. Love it. 39 - Colour Our World 40 - The Next Chapter 41 - Painted Life 42 - Jannesse 43 - Shopaholic Pat 44 - A Matter of Perspective 45 - Ang Therapist 46 - Endometriosis & Fertility Resource Page 47 - Freebies Australia 48 - Abstract Musings 49 - Thinking Box

I'm tagging Morrise, Nancy, Mommy Ruby, Arlene, and Donna

Hibernating....

have not been blogging for 3-straight days now due to my hectic schedule :)

to leah and anna, will work on the tags hopefully early next week! am super busy talaga.. ;)

got to go now!

Linky Lurvh!

ntis....the title was supposed to sound like how an Aussie-girl pronounce love.. ;)

I was Link Lurvhed by Happy!

Rules:Cut and paste the following starting here. I have randomly selected 5 of you below to be tagged and I hope that you will similarly publish this post in your blog. You will have to tag 5 other bloggers and just keep adding on to the list. (Do not replace, just keep on adding! Yes we hope it will be a long list!)It’s real easy! Tag others and see your Technorati Authority increase exponentially! The benefits of Viral Linking:- One of the fastest ways to see your technorati authority explode!- Increase your Google PageRank fast- Attract large volume of new traffic to your site- Build your community- Make new friends!The Strategist Notebook, Link Addiction, Ardour of the Heart, When Life Becomes a Book, The Malaysian Life, Yogatta.com, What goes under the sun,Roshidan’s Cyber Station, Sasha says, Arts of Physics, And the legend lives, My View, My Life, A Simple Life, Juliana RW, The Callalily Space, Petra Summer in Blue, Confessions of an Army Wife Bless’ Sanctuary Happy Life, http://bless519.bravejournal.com/, La Place de Cherie, Chez Francine, Le bric a brac de Cherie, Little Peanut, Pea in a Pod, The Creative In Me, Me and Mine, Pinay Mommy, Expressions from the Heart, TeacherJulie, Sweetbites by Bang, Paul, Toni and Lance - Bridging the Distance, Our Growing Family, The Uncensored life of me, My Untamed World, Something Purple, A Detour, Something Purple, Wifespeaks, Changing Lanes,Bits and Pieces , Life Together Starts , A Housewife%sq243%s Journal, Joey M.D., The Working Mom, Online Raket, Idle in Makati, Thinking Box

I am passing the love to liza, concon, jenny, kaye, rhoda

Of Filipino Beauty Pageants...

I am not an avid viewer of each and every Filipino Beauty Pageant there is that is why I was not able to watch the coronation night however, I would like to pick up the controversy as they say, on the last Bb. Pilipinas Beauty Pageant. A friend forwarded a Youtube link in my yahoomessenger and I was so shocked when I saw the video.

I truly believe that sending the candidate in the Ms. World pageant will be a misrepresentation of a true Filipina. WE ARE BETTER THAN THIS. What happened to the judges?! I would understand if the decision was through text voting. Tsk. We really are better than this.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=xKwmseoKFCo

PLEASE HELP US FIND THIS YAYA (NANNY)!

I am re-posting this to help Mommy Carol in her hunt for this BAD YAYA..

If you happen to encounter this person, please let us know where you found her.

HELP US FIND THIS YAYA

Posted by carol on Mar 7, '08 7:26 PM for everyone

I am still in shaken up. I am actually struggling writing this down.

But here is a story I have so often read about, but never thought would happen in my own house, with my children at stake. Here are the events, just to update the details from my brother's email. I obviously did not get to give him clear details for we were so preoccupied with all the nitty gritty that has to be done to respond to this particular incident. Nonetheless, I, of course, thank Carl for taking the initiative to inform everyone he thought should know.

March 3, Monday - Ken and I got home and saw Ricci's arm with bruises that appears to be a mark from a tight grip. Usually, Ricci tells me how she gets hurt, but when I asked her this time, she just said she doesn't know or tried not to answer.

March 5, Wednesday - Ken and I got home and again saw a small wound on Ricci's forehead. Again, we asked her of what happened and we got the same response.For these two incidents, I kept asking the yaya how the bruises and the wound happened. Fishing out, not showing her that we suspect her of hurting Ricci. On both occasions, the yaya just responded with "Hindi ko nga alam e. Hindi ko napansin. HIndi naman umiyak..." and so on, the typical defensive answers. But despite her sounding guilty, I told myself that it could be one of three things: 1-di nya binabantayan mabuti yung bata; 2-wala syang pakialam kung masugatan since she doesn't seem to know (daw) how Ricci gets hurt; or 3-sya mismo ang nanakit sa bata. Ken and I were getting ready to pin these on her, though, but we needed concrete evidence. We talked about getting a cheap surveillance camera and all that. We were actually trying to be patient (and you have no idea how hard it is to wait on this if you are the parent of the child being abused), and we wanted to do the smartest thing for the situation. I took pictures of the bruises and the scratch.....

March 6, Thursday - Ken and I arrived about 9 pm with Manang Linda, our long-time helper who is based in my brother and sister-in-law's house (Carl and Rox). The front door was unlocked, which caused Ken to worry. He opened the door to the garage for me and ran up to our room immediately to check on the kids.
Here's the usual scenario when we get home: Yaya Josie would be in the room and the kids would be in a corner somewhere hiding and waiting for us to look for them.
The scene was different on March 6, though, as the yaya was nowhere in the room. The kids were hiding, but without the yaya to be seen, that caused panic to us. And then there were cheering and jumping when we found them in the bathroom of the master's bedroom. Then Cushie said, "Ate just bought something." I said, "What? She left you here?" Although Ken already had already thought that the yaya was gone, he hurried to the maid's room to find that her things are no longer there - a confirmation. I asked Cushie if he knew the time the yaya left, he responded, "7". He's 5, but he can tell time, so it's highly possibly that the yaya has been gone since 7 pm that night. That's 2 hours of my children being by themselves!

The second floor of the house was upside down - my mom's closet of curtains, bedsheets and blankets, my closet -my bags, hats, clothes, the playroom (can you believe it?)...every room in the 2nd floor!!!! She tried to get anything of value that she can trade for cash. She got my cellphone (which is already deactivated), my Sony Cybershot digital camera (with pictures from Gael's birthday, Ken's birthday and more of family's), about 400++ cash, groceries (fresh meat), Ken's charger. So far, these are the items we found missing. We haven't had the time to check the entire house yet because we preoccupied with laying down options for the next steps we should do.We called ferry transits and asked when the next trips to Cotabato (her hometown) are. We have printed photos of the yaya (thank God, Carl has copies. I had some, but, yun nga, my camera was stolen. So the pictures I took of Ricci's bruises and scratch are also gone). We have had the yaya blottered already.

We're really serious about this. I am asking everyone for whatever help you can give to find her. I now realize that when people send emails with this could happen to you's, you should not take the warning for granted. This, something so prevalent, happened to us, to my darling Ricci. Please help us, even by just disseminating this information.

Thank you,

Carol Bustos-Santiago

Information about the yaya:

Name: Josephine Gatan
Age: 43
Skin color: somewhere between fair and kayumanggi-ish
Hair: dyed-brown long, curly
Contact number (if she hasn't thrown her sim card yet): 09203740311

Please contact us if you have any information about her:

029620547

09162219352

029249542

029203319

Awards: Lots and lots of them!

I was too happy to be receiving these awards from leah. Such a sweet person, doesn't she?!

Thanks much much!

Shareapic

A picture freak that I am, I store tons and tons of pictures in our laptop at home. Sure I have created an account on every free picture posting site I can encounter that is why my pictures are somewhat cluttered as I failed to update each of my account every now and then.

And since I am learning the ropes of paid blogging, I came accross this site:

Shareapic is a free picture-posting site that pays you at the same time. Now tell me how cool it is? All you need to do after signing up with them is post all of your pictures and send the link to your friends or post the link to your blog (and i'm pretty sure your friends will more likely to click on your link) and whoalah! you are already rewarded!

And yes, I swore to myself that I will be posting and updating my galleries on this site. Teehee!

Click here to join!

Then and Now

Snagged this tag from Alpha. Thanks, sis!

Here’s the drill started by Mitch of When Silence Speaks:
If you still keep your baby’s first 3 days photos, We would love to see them. Label them as 1st, 2nd or 3rd day (as shown below). After that, please post the most recent one, one photo will do. You can post as much as you want though. I’m sure you will realize and tell yourself “seems like yesterday“.

Day 1.

Day 2.

Day 3. (err.. Day 4 actually, teehee! we we're not able to get a pic of Inigo on his 3rd day.. :P)

...and now

...already 2 months and enjoys playtime with mommy, daddy, and mama!

In the picture is his toy whom we named, Bitoy :D

The Friendship Chain

Another tag from Sheryll. Thanks again, sis!

~~Begin Copy~~

This is the easy way and the fastest way to: 1. Make your Authority Technoraty explode. 2. Increase your Google Page Rank. 3. Get more traffic to your blog. 4. Makes more new friends. Rules: 1. Start copy from "Begin Copy" until "End Copy" to your blog. 2. Put your own blog name and link. 3. Tag your friends as much as you can. 1. Picturing of Life 2. Juliana's Site 3. Hazel-My Life, My Hope, My Future.4. Jeanne-The Callalily Space5.My Family is my Life 6. The Simple Life of a Baghag 7. Something Purple 8. A detour 9. Our Family Adventure! 10. Thinking Box

Now i'm passing this to alpha, gem, and jenny.

I signed up for Pay-Per-Post (PPP)!

Hooray! I am now a Postie!

What could be more fun than blogging and getting paid at the same time? Lucky me, I discovered PPP wherein I can blog and get paid. What I also love about PPP is that joining is so much easy. You just have to visit their website and register your blog, and whoalah! you are already a postie.

I have been reading a lot about paid blogging and have seen people make money through it and that is why I tried to learn it and decided to sign up with PPP. I was blog-hopping and was able to see a blog with a link through PPP. I have made friends in my quest of learning paid blogging as I leave comments in their blogs and ask people about PPP - those who are already Posties! From it, I have learned that I can also earn and blog and all these were made possible through PPP.

Fast forward to the future, I plan on saving the money I will earn for things that I like to buy online. Be it a signature bag for me, a new toy for my son, or a new set of tools for my hubby.

That is surely a wiser way of acquiring things that we want..So what are you waiting for? Have your blog register and enjoy the benefits of becoming a Postie!

Job-Hunting 101

Since I am one of the many who is looking for a decent job nowadays and having been in the field of HR especially in Recruitment, I have decided to give some tips on how to be an "A" applicant.

Disclaimer:Please be reminded that ALL that I am writing here is based on my PERSONAL knowledge and experiences and I do not claim to be an EXPERT on this as I just wanted to SHARE MY THOUGHTS and KNOWLEDGE on the given topic :)

1. Decide on what field or career you want to pursue. This is very helpful to newlygrads who have not yet started their career. It is very important that you know where you want to go as far as your career is concerned. However, there is an advantage of trying different careers. But, more often than not, you will just find out in the future that you have just wasted a big amount of your time if you came to realize that you are not happy with the career you have chosen and wanted to shift.

2. Compose a very good resume. Applying for a job is the same as marketing yourself - your skills and abilities. Remember that your resume is the first thing that a company sees. It is your resume that will determine if you are worth interviewing. But always keep in mind that it should also be truthful. A smart recruiter will find out sooner or later if what you have written validates your skills and abilities.

3. Come to your interview schedule ahead of time. Personally, I like applicants who arrives on the interview location ahead of time. It shows what kind of employee that applicant will be, if hired - comes in on time. Of course, you would want to have good impression with your interviewer. Although I have to admit that I myself is guilty of sometimes being late, I make sure that I inform the interviewer ahead of time. Puncutality matters.

4. Answer the questions straightforwardly. "Kung ano ang tanong, s'yang sagot. " (Answer what is being asked). You should remember that most interviews are timed for the reason that you are not the only applicant for the position, so make sure that you answer straight-to-the-point. If the interviewer asks you a question, for example, a specific skill, and you are not knowledgeable about it, acknowledge that you do not have any experience about it. It's better to answer honestly than to pretend to know everything.

5. Be inquisitive. Job interviews are a two-way communication. As an interviewee, you also have the right to ask questions - about the company, position, salary, job responsibilities, as long as it is related to your application. But, hold your horses until the last part of the interview session. It would not be nice to ask questions if the interviewer is not yet finished evaluating your qualifications. Most of the time, the interviewer asks the interviewee should he/she has questions.

6. Thank your interviewer. Being polite is very much appreciated from an applicant. Thank your interviewer at the end of the interview session and let him/her know that you appreciate a feedback be it positive or not.

7. Accept or decline a job offer politely. Whether or not you have decided to accept moreso in declining a job offer, please do it politely.

There! I hope that I have helped (if not confused) my blog guests who decide to become my reader on this topic. :D

Thanks Joey for this award! :D



Now i'm passing it to Rhoda and Nancy.

6 Quirky Things About Me

I would like to thank Sheryll for this tag!

The rules: Link to the person that tagged you. Post the rules on your blog. Share six un-important things/habits/quirks about your self. Tag 6 random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs. Let these random people know that they are tagged by leaving comments in their blog. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

Six Unimportant things/habits/quirks about my self.

1. I can do the "Maricel Soriano" eye-brow rise. (haha!)
2. A hustler of the game chinese garter when I was in gradeschool. (Ask my gradeschool friends and they will agree! hehehe!)
3. I used to wear really big eyeglasses up until I was at 4th grade. (Talk abut nerdy-looks!)
4. I like the smell of a new pair of slippers! (The 'Spartan' brand!)
5. I like eating rice with sugar when I was still a kid. (Served as my midnight snack during those times...)
6. I like my hot chocolate together with half a teaspoon of powdered coffee every morning.. (My own version of hot moccha!)

Now I'm tagging Morrise, Jade, Jessie, Kaye, Maia, and Pat. Enjoy the tag!