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The Designers Chic

Thursday, January 28, 2010

FINISHED BUT NOT DONE

It's been over 2 months since our last mini kitchen renovation got done. Ralph wanted it done as soon as we moved in this house but due to financial reason we had to wait. Finally late last year we were able to get everything done. We shopped around at first at different places and getting quotes for our kitchen counter as well as the flooring. It was good that Ralph and I agree on the new flooring we were going to get and he was gracious enough to give in about the color paint in the kitchen. We had a rough time looking for ceramic tiles to use for the back splash. There was just not enough selections, or so we thought. He was looking in the wrong section. I didn't give up and kept looking and looking at this one store until I finally saw something we both liked. A lot of things like little knick knacks here and there still need to be added in the kitchen but we will get there. The important thing is that the major overhaul like the kitchen counter, flooring,painting and the back splash has already been done.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

" I LOVE YOU"


Rodliz’s Nest


I was never the type of person who was so vocal about saying " I love you". That all changed when I married my hubby of almost 3 years now. I say the Word " I love you " not just to my hubby but to my family members more often now. Ralph and I talk more than 3 times a day on the phone when he is at work and It always ends with I love you. Before he goes out the door to work we kiss and say the the same thing. It's like ritual for both of us now, I don't want to miss a chance to say I love you to him. His work is dangerous and I don't know if its the last time I'll see him so I say I love you as often as I can.

Our Anniversary is coming up and he teases me that its a long and torturous 3 years married to me. And I would say the same thing to him. Its important not just to say those words to your spouse but to also show them how much you care and make them feel special. For more of couples corner click the badge...

Monday, January 25, 2010

BULAD FOR SIOPAO

At last my friend Biyaw has finally taken the hint that I want bulad, heheheh.. She keeps forgetting to send it. She called me yesterday laughing and told me they will be coming on Feb 27th. She will be making a list of what to bring and requested something in return. That I make her something to eat. I guess I will have to make my famous beef ginaling for her again as well as make her siopao. A few of my friends have already offered to send me Bulad but all I was waiting for was BIYAW.. You better make good on your promise girl or your siopao is going to be history,heheheh.

Hopefully if my vacation pushes through, I will set aside some money to buy bulad so I can bring it back. As to the suggestion of Lulu I have already asked my family to look into sending me some bulad.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

BULAD NEEDED

To all my pinoy readers here in the US:

I need donation for BULAD! Kidding aside, I miss eating bulad and I am willing to buy your bulad and pay via paypal. That is how desperate I am. Our pinoy store near our house doesn't have much of a selection when it comes to bulad. To those kind hearted filipinas thank you in advance,heheheh..Seriously I will pay for it..

Saturday, January 23, 2010

I GOT TAGGED

I normally don't join and follow thru with tags. But today, I am doing it. I got tagged by Gen of Life's Journey. If you want to join in the fun you can just grab the tag and pass it along to 8 of your blog freinds. So here goes nothing :

8 TV Shows I like to watch
  1. CSI : Crime Scene Investigation
  2. CSI : Miami
  3. CSI : New York
  4. Ghost Whisperer
  5. House
  6. NCIS
  7. NCIS : Los Angeles
  8. Nickelodeon ( Kayla and Kaitlyn's show)
8 Favorite Place to Dine-out
  1. Chinese Buffet
  2. Chinese Buffet
  3. Red Lobster
  4. IHOP
  5. McDonalds
  6. Italian Bistro
  7. Olive Garde
  8. Chinese Buffet
8 Things I look forward too.
  1. Our 3rd Wedding Anniversary
  2. Valentines
  3. Vacation to the Philippines
  4. Snow
  5. Spring
  6. Having another baby
  7. Summer
  8. My birthday

8 Things that happen yesterday
  1. Walked Kayla to the bus stop
  2. called my grandfather to wish him happy birthday
  3. babysitting
  4. cashed a check in the bank
  5. went to Acme
  6. Ralph dropped of Kayla in Baltimore
  7. cleaned the stove
  8. laundy and laundry and more laundry


8 Things I love About Winter
  1. Snow
  2. Snow so the kids can play in it
  3. More snow to go sledding
  4. sound of fresh powder when you walk on it
  5. looks clean
  6. feels quiet
  7. want to make a snowman
  8. just wants to see my kids reaction to snow


8 Things I’m Passionate About
  1. My family
  2. My Husband
  3. My kids
  4. My family back home
  5. My blog
  6. My cooking
  7. My computer
  8. My games,lol


8 Word/Phrases I often Used
  1. Langga (term or endearment for Kaitlyn)
  2. Manang (big sister)
  3. Daddy
  4. Sunny (screaming at our dog)
  5. Mom
  6. Oh my Lord
  7. What the heck
  8. NO!

8 Things I learned from the past
  1. Faith
  2. Hope
  3. L ove
  4. Patience
  5. Be self sufficient
  6. Honesty
  7. Kindness
  8. Understanding

8 Blog Friends I want to tag
  1. Lea of My Life and People
  2. Jenn of My Sweet Haven
  3. Rosarie of Chrissaire
  4. Adin of Mommy's Gossip Corner
  5. Rose of Rose's Obstacles and Glories
  6. Shy or Worth's Road
  7. Rachel of Vantage point in Life
  8. YOU!!!!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

A TOW AWAY

One more day and its the weekend again. Tomorrow, we will go with daddy to drop off big sister at Baltimore for her mom's regular visitation weekend. I don't enjoy taking a drive going there specially when Kaitlyn is in a cranky mood. MIL and I do get our share of driving Kayla to Baltimore when Ralph is working. Let me just say my MIL is not a happy camper specially when its raining, snowing or just bad. One time we got stuck in traffic so bad that we were on the road for literally 4 1/2 hours, a ride that usually takes only 1 hr 50 min. We stopped somewhere to eat so the kids could get some grub and play a little bit. That was one of the worst travel we have had so far. In the 3 years that we have been doing this we have not had a problem with our car not even once, Knock on wood.. If we ever did 24 hour towing should be available in our area. And if for some reason its not, then we will have to call Ralph to come and get us.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

EXTRA CASH FOR USED BOOKS

In my previous life before I got married I use to enjoy reading paperback novels, its was mostly romantic books though.I stated reading novels when I was in 5th grade and I got hooked. I got so addicted to reading that I almost neglected my studies. I would bring a novel to school and read it while the teacher was giving lectures, I forgot to eat and I would not go to sleep until I finished reading it. That's how bad it was before but now that I'm a mom I slowed down. The last books I read was the Twilight Saga and went back to my old self,lol.

I'm not the only one addicted to books, my MIL has to have a book to read all the time. She has tons of books downstairs. Books that she only read once or twice and is still in very good condition. Since she has a lot of books that she already read we tried to bring it in at the farmers market to exchange her old books for new one. We only did that only once, since it was inconvenient and they only do business on certain days. She would love to sell her used books for extra cash. It's a good thing I just recently came across selling books online a site when you can sell your old books without having to drive down to certain place and lugging them around. I bet she would love this site since she has been looking for an easy and convenient way to sell her used books. I have already looked up the site online and it looks very easy, convenient and fast with instant price qoutes . All she has to do to check how much her used books would cost to sell is to enter the ISBN number ( International Standard Book Number ) that is usually found above the bar codes in books. And you get a Free Shipping with Pre-paid Postage Label plus fast payment via Paypal or Check. I can't wait to tell MIL when she gets home. Now she can get rid of the used books she has and have extra cash in return.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

FOLLOWING THROUGH

Its almost the weekend and I just can't wait. Tomorrow morning is going to be spent at the supermarket to stock up on food and paper supplies for the house. Its been more than a month since the last time we went food shopping. This time I am going to include a lot of healthy stuff not just for the adults but also for the kids. After the Holidays we made a promise that we were going to start loosing weight, exercising and eating healthy. Its not easy mind you but we have to start somewhere. Ralph wants to go back to the gym at work and start lifting weights. His brother, who is a little bit of a health freak told him about protein powder. I don't know about my husband but one of our biggest problem is we don't follow through with what we start. It's so easy to say that we are going to try but taking the first step like starting and sticking to it is hard.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

68th AND AN ANNIVERSARY

It's been boring around the house with the Holidays over. We only have 2 special occasion to celebrate next month. Our 3rd wedding anniversary which happens to be on Valentines day and my MIL 68 Th birthday. I have no idea yet if we're going to be celebrating here at the house. It would be nice to have the Schifano clan in one roof again. I miss seeing the newest addition to the family which is the first great grandchild. He is such an adorable little tyke with big brown eyes and peaches and cream skin. I hope he doesn't inherit his dads genes and have lots of acne and breakouts when he becomes a teenager. I hope Andrew, Ralph's nephew will see a Dermatologist for his skin and also if the dermatologist could also prescribe back acne treatment as he has bad ones. Seeing him reminds me of my cousin back home who has bad skin problem. Our skin is our first defense and we should take good care of it. A friend told me that taking care of our skin and face early will be beneficial in the long run.

COOLD WEATHER AND MY MOM

Tomorrow will be the end of my reprieve from walking Kayla to the bus stop. You see Ralph takes the car even for a short distant due to the weather. Since I don't drive I guess Kayla and I will have to bundle up and brave the cold weather and walk. It's not like we haven't been doing that, its just a pain getting all bundled up. The cold weather does terrible things to my skin, dries it out like a raisin. I feel like I look older than my age due to the dryness of my skin. I know one person who would actually benefit from the cold weather, my mom. She has a heart condition and she can't get to warm or hot or else her blood pressure will shoot off the roof. It doesn't help that she has almost no hormones left ever since she had the hysterectomy. What she needs is HGH ( Human Growth Hormone ) to help slow down the process of aging. I probably need to look into hgh releasers and find out more about the benefits and side effects before I tell my mom. I know there is no stopping aging but if a way to slow it down is out there, by all means we should know more about it.

HOPING FOR ANOTHER ADDITION

Finally its another year full of promise for all of us. It's an exciting year for me since I have been planning my upcoming vacation in a few months. Not only that but we are also hoping to conceive and keep our family growing. We haven't really tried the past month since I would not be able to have my vacation if I was over 7 months pregnant. Hopefully in a few months we will be able to conceive. We didn't really plan to have our kids so far apart but it looks like its happening that way. I miss being pregnant, feeling the baby kick inside of me, taking daily prenatal vitamins. On the other hand I do not miss the nausea, throwing up and the crazy food cravings and everything in between that,lol. Who know maybe the next time around it won't be so bad for me, at least back then when I reached my 2nd trimester it got better. I just can't wait to have another baby again. It's all in God's hands now.

BREAKOUTS

One of the things that I am proud of my teenage years was I had nice skin. I however had some breakouts when I was in my college years. Thankfully it wasn't as bad as some people had it. My cousin had terrible acne on her face. She had it taken cared of when she went to college and saw a Dermatologist. She was given the right acne solutions that fit her skin type. It made wonders for her face and cleared it up in no time. Hopefully my kids will get the genes from either of us and not be plagued with acne, pimples or any other breakouts that most teenagers go through.

Friday, January 8, 2010

HOPEFUL PLANS FOR NEW YORK TRIP

A few more months and hopefully I will be seeing my family back home. I have wanted to go home for a vacation since last year but money was tight back then, still is now. Hubby has set aside money for our trip this coming June or July so I'm really crossing my finger and hope nothing will come up to change our plans. My friend in New York wants me to visit before I go for my vacation so she can send some stuff for her family. If we do visit her we will have to stay in a hotel since they live in a one room apartment. She did tell me that its easy to look for new york hotel deals online. If that plan is going to push through I will finally be able to gaze at the beauty of the Statue of Liberty and stand in Time Square. But for now I'd rather stay holed up in our cozy home and stay warm....

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

MINI KITCHEN MAKE OVER

Before this year ended we finally finished our mini-kitchen renovation. We started our kitchen makeover last October.It was a stressful month for since it was Kaitlyn and Ralph birthday and I had planned a party. I had no idea that our kitchen counter won't be in until the the end of October. The party went off without a hitch even though we had no kitchen counter and most importantly sink. Our kitchen was finally finished before Thanksgiving. We bought a new dishwasher, stove, new flooring, backsplash and a new fresh coat of paint. We also had a little bit of difficulty choosing the back splash for our kitchen to match the new counter. One of our other option was stainless steel backsplash or tiles. It the end the tiles won hands down, we did use a little bit of stainless steel backsplash on a part behind our kitchen stove. I didn't really want to at first coz I thought I looked tacky and cheap but it actually looks very clean and chic. At least we are done with everything.

Friday, January 1, 2010

HOW I SPENT MY FIRST YEAR 2010

Happy New Year again everyone!!! How did you guys spend your first year? I spent has of it folding tons of socks, a mountain of our clothes. What a way to spend the new year huh, to each its own,lol. We did have a New Years dinner here with just my BIL and his family plus the two other dogs. After eating we just hang around the house and watch a couple of movies and some shows on how building are made, the structure and the design. With the heavy machinery and our technology today building can be either made entirely out of wood, stone, brick or even metal buildings. In the coming years I wonder what engineers can come up next. After those shows we talked a bit and had some desserts and then it was time for my BIL to head on out the road. Hopefully this year will bring it lots of blessings for all of us..

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, WELCOME 2010 !!!

Just a few minutes ago it was still 2009 then the countdown started to usher in the New Year 2010. It's a quiet celebration for all of us here since its just me and MIL, Kaitlyn tucked in bed and Ralph at work. However, Ralph was on the phone with me when the countdown started and we got to greet each other. I miss my husband but I know he is out there working to provide for us. MIL got teary eyed as always and we gave each other hugs and kisses. We shared some brownies that I baked for sweetness in the New Year while watching the rest of the 2010 countdown on our HDTV that we got a few months back. MIL loves and hates HDTV, she said it makes some of the people look fat. Oh well, as long as its colored and I can watch my favorite show I could care any less what it is,lol... Happy New Year again everyone!!!
 

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