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.

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.

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....

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.

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!!!

MORE PRESENTS

Yesterday the girls got more presents from their Uncle Larry. He got Kaitlyn a big stuffed bear which is bigger than her, a Zhu-zhu pet, Spongebob soap bar, a clothe tiara, mirror and a wand.. She got so shy when she saw the big bear but she did gave her uncle and aunt a big hug and a kiss. We all converged in the kitchen while we caught up with everyone, as if we haven't seen each other for ages,lol.. My niece said that our kitchen faucet looks weird but nice, she has never seen a faucet like ours before. I told her it looks unique, simple and elegant. She said it looked like something from Kohler faucets line. When our faucet is compared to Kohler it must mean it looks elegant. They also mentioned that our kitchen floor looks very nice and according to my BIL it made the KITCHEN. I'm just glad I got a kitchen to cook, wash from the holidays.

BEING TOGETHER

Christmas is over and the New Year is coming. We don't have plans for the New Year since Ralph will be working the midnight shift,It means we will be ourselves. There are times that I get paranoid when we are left alone. It's those times that I really wish we had some sort of a wireless security systems in our house. Thankfully we are in a pretty safe development and I have not heard any break-ins or anything. It still pays to be careful and vigilant so thats why I always make sure the doors and windows are all locked before going to bed. At least when Ralph comes home on the January 1st we will all be here in the house.It comforts me about the thought of just being together on that day. I wish I was back home to celebrate it with a loud bang, maybe I will be able to....

CROSSING MY FINGERS

In a few hours Christmas will have come to pass paving the way for the New Year. This year I got more into the spirit of Christmas, its all because of my kids. I'm am looking forward to the next year and await what it has in store for all of us. Hopefully my trip going back home will push trough since I have been wanting to go home for a visit for almost 3 years now. I am scared of traveling since I will have my 2 year old daughter with me. MIL wants to come since she worries about me traveling alone with the baby and she also wants to see my home country. She worries about how big the airports are. I remember the first time I arrived here I was in culture shock.. Everything was all so new, shiny , different and big to me. The airports was a little bit scary when they are huge,lol. Makes me wonder how many philadelphia airport jobs are filled in or vacant. With the recession still looming over our heads like rain clouds I hope that the economy will turn around for the better in 2010. I'm crossing my fingers will hope and pray that will everything will go smoothly for my trip back home next year.

CHRISTMAS 2009

FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS

MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS.. LETS NOT FORGET THAT THIS HOLIDAY IS ABOUT THE BIRTH OF CHRIST AND LETS CELEBRATE WITH HIM IN MIND.

TIME TO MEET SANTA

Every Christmas it has been tradition for many kids here in America to be able to see and sit on Santa Claus's lap and have pictures taken at the mall. With that said we took both the girls last Tuesday to Christiana Mall for see Santa. I was so excited since this will be the second year that Kaitlyn gets to see Santa. We also wanted to see if she gets scared of Santa. We dressed them up in their Christmas finery and head on to the Mall.
Thankfully there was not a long line so we didn't have to wait long. It seemed that I was going to get my wish to have another Christmas photo of the girls with Santa. How quickly it changed, Kaitlyn got terrified of Santa and screamed bloody murder when I tried to put her on Santa Clause's knee. She clung to me with vice like grip and would not even look at him. No matter how I coaxed her into cooperating she had other thoughts. I was sad but I didn't force the issue since there will still be other Christmas. Kayla on the other hand was a pro. She was so excited to see Santa and just hopped on his lap and smiled for the camera. She asked him for toys and other stuff but I really didn't get to hear coz I was trying to comfort her little sister. After that we had dinner at the food court and took the kids to the fountain.


It was a good thing that I brought about two handfuls of pennies for the girls to throw in the fountain. Even though Kaitlyn didn't get her photo with Santa we still had a wonderful time at Christiana Mall. Hopefully next year she will be brave enough to sit on the big guys lap.

HIS NEW LIFE

The year is almost coming to an end and with that we count all our blessings. We pretty much had a smooth year and we have just been blessed. Sure we have had rough patches here and there but who hasn't? This year is very special to Ralph nephew since he became a father last August. Andrew has come a long way from being an addict to now being a responsible father. Getting the help he needed by drug rehab made him realize that he has to pick up the pieces of his life and start anew. Its always a joy to see your loved ones overcome adversaries and come out as the winner. Hopefully the coming new year will be more fruitful for his family as well as for all of us.