BACK TO THE GRIND

It has been e weeks since that start of the new school year 2011-2012. Things are kind of slowing down as I got both girls settled back into a routine. Since I am not baby sitting anymore, my day is spent trying to clean up the house and teaching Kaitlyn as well. We are very hopeful that this year Kayla will do excellent in her academic endeavor. She has already told us that she wants to get on the honor roll. We encouraged her to reach for that and told her to do her beast no matter what. Every 3 months their school has this student day where trophies and awards are given to special kids that work extra hard. It would be nice to see Kayla receive any award but we are not putting pressure on her. We just tell her not to give up and to keep trying no matter what happens. I can see the big improvement in my oldest and I know for a fact that is she keeps studying hard she can do and achieve whatever she wants. All she needs is encouragement, love and patience.

SCHOOL READY

With everyone gearing up for school its safe to say that you can find amazing deals on laptops,desktop computers, school supplies and of course back to school clothes. We are still on the lucky end that we won't need a new laptop since our oldest is only in the third grade. However, I have been looking into buying a new laptop or netbook for my sister in the Philippines. They have a desktop computer and a very old laptop but my mom is currently travelling from two different cities to take care of her mother. She needs something to use so we can keep in touch. Hopefully I can save enough to get them a new laptop. As for other school supplies we can forgo it this year. I found a whole bunch of pencils, erasers, marker, notebook, and crayons to last us about 5 years. If my husband buys another pack of pencil, I am going to stab him with it, lol. But seriously I don't think we need to buy any school supplies for Kayla this year. As for back to school clothes, that is another story.

CAFFEINE BUZZ

To all coffee drinkers I don't have to tell you what this is, lol. I am not a big coffee drinker. Even way back home, I wasn't really into drinking coffee, going to cafe. I do drink coffee but very very rarely. Since being here in the US for almost 5 years I have only had 2 cups of coffee and I didn't even finish it.

So what got into me when I asked my husband a few days ago to get me a Dunkin Donuts Iced Coffee? I just wanted to find out for myself what all the hype was about this kind of coffee. I like my coffee very sweet, I added about 1/2 a cup of sugar plus caramel syrup. It was so good that I didn't stopped moving from 8:30 in the morning until about 5 p.m. I kid you not, I was so buzzed I did a lot of things in the one. It was a good thing but it was also a bad one. I am still recovering from surgery and all the moving around and doing chores due to caffeine made me start bleeding heavily and I started cramping up again. My MIL couldn't believe her eyes when she saw me drinking the iced coffee. It was good and I am planning on getting more. And I didn't not have a hard time sleeping at all. I can tell that this will be one of my guilty pleasures. Whats yours?

COMING BIRTHDAYS

With everything that has been going on I just wanted to say how thankful I am for everything. Its already a start of the new months and with that I have to think about the last birthday celebrants in our family. My husband and youngest are celebrating their birthday in October. They have the same birthday so we get to save on throwing a party for them, lol. Ralph knows that with the birth of Kaitlyn on his birthday he has forfeited his right to his birthday. It will be all about Kaitlyn. I didn't let him know that I have been thinking non stop about what to get him for his birthday. He is not really keen on getting anything or how expensive of a gift I will get for him. What he likes is the thought behind the gift that he will be receiving. With that in mind I just checked out facebook.com/PersonalCreations to see what goodies they have. I know my husband would appreciate any personalized gift. Now all I have to do is talk to the girls and get their opinion on what to get Daddy for his special day. Even though I told Ralph when I was in labor almost 4 years ago that Kaitlyn will be my gift to him for the next 18 years, I think he deserves to get something special for putting up with his girls, lol. So I will get him something to say we love him and appreciate all his hard work.

IRENE AND US

I never did get the chance to write about the hurricane we just had. With me recovering from surgery still its hard to really sit down in front of the computer while my stomach area is still tender.

Hurricane Irene decided to hit the East Coast last August 27-28. I just has surgery a couple of days before that so Ralph did most of the running around buying emergency stuff that we may need like, water, batteries and just little snacks for the kids. For some reason I was not in pain, just a little sore inside and from my incision. I invited our friend Krista to stay with us and brave the storm at our house. The kids had fun playing with their respective Nintendo DS games and just basically left us adults by ourselves. I was worried about my husband, he had to work a 12 hour shift or longer depending on the orders from the Captain. I was so glad that Hurricane Irene didn't really hit us full on. We did get water in our basement about 3 inches. I was not really bothered about the flooding in the basement. I was more worried about the water reaching the outlet and the refrigerator, air conditioning unit and the hot water unit. Other than that I was not worried about the other stuff in the basement. Our sub-pump wasn't working. Even though it was just been a couple of days after my surgery I still had to do my part. Ralph got home after midnight and had to be up again at 7 a.m. With our sub-pump not working we decided to use the pool pump to get the water out and it worked.

We are just thankful that after all the weather reports Irene decided to slow down a bit. I am just glad its over and we are all safe. My heart goes out to all the family who have lost houses, properties and even loved ones.

ALREADY?

Its September already? Half the year is already over. We have officially stepped into the what we call BER months. When the calendar hits the BER month people in my country will start the countdown to Christmas and have Christmas songs blasting in the air specially in Malls.

For me, I don't particularly get happy when its after August. You know why? That only means the end of Summer and the beginning of Fall/Autumn season. And I for one am not a cold/winter person. My mind is going on overdrive thinking about how cold will it be this season. Hopefully it won't be as bad as I think it will.

SUMMERS END?

It has to be said, Summer will be coming to an end pretty soon. The temperature is not as warm as it use to be. My kids are the best temperature gauge, they have been swimming less and less. When my kids complain about it, its those time that I wish we had a pool heat pumps to keep the water nice and warm for them. If we had it, my kids will be swimming all year long and so would I. When we opened our pool this season Ralph really did think about getting a pool heater just so the kids can swim right away in the pool and not get sick afterwards. Knowing my husband, its something we will eventually own in the long run. If it will help with the kids enjoyment of the pool he will most likely get it.

SHOOK UP

It started off as uneventful sunny afternoon. I was just going to sit outside with my girls as they ride their bikes. As I was helping Kaitlyn get out of the door I suddenly felt the house swaying. Was it the wind that did that or a big truck just pass by? I knew it was an earthquake but I didn't want to think it was, i had no reason to think it was. Ralph has never mentioned an earthquake in Delaware. Just to make sure it wasn't the wind I went it and still the house was swaying. I took a hold of my youngest in our archway and yelled for my oldest to come to us right away. I held my kids until it stopped. I was scared. I immediately ran to my MIL room to ask if she felt it and she did. I rushed my kids outside and my neighbor was out as well. It was an earthquake and it shook me to the core. Exactly 5 minutes after it happened Ralph and his colleague arrived at the house on the Police Motorcycle. They didn't feel anything. We tuned in to the news straight away and found out that it was a 5.8 magnitude with Virginia as the center of the quake. Buildings and stores were evacuated for fear of aftershock.

I never realized that the fear, anxiety and stress level goes up when you have kids. You think about your children's safety. As soon as it was over I stressed to my kids how important it was to find a safe place when there is an earthquake. I told Kayla if she is inside the house she is to grab her sister and go under the table until the quake stops and run outside with her and not come in until it was safe. I am all shook up but thankful that it didn't last that long and it wasn't that bad. The quake made me realize that mother nature is wide awake and she wants us to take notice.....

COUCH POTATO

What has been keeping me this past few days? Why I have been sucked into new shows. I am embarrass to say that I have been spending a lot of my free time in front of the television. I fear its it just going to get worse when my shows come back for the fall season. Its no wonder when we went to an electronic store I was drawn to the samsung lcd tvs that were lining one wall. They had my favorite show on and I couldn't help but stare and get entranced by how clear my shows were. Ralph joked about me wanting to buy a bigger t.v. for the kids room as that is where I sleep. He didn't have to worry about that, for some reason I don't really watch television going to sleep. I am the total opposite of my husband, he can't sleep without the television turned on. So It is probably him I should be worried about getting a bigger and better television.

STRENGTH AND GRACE

If it was possible to get pregnant watching this men dance, I would be pregnant in an instance. This is how real men dance,with precision, strength and grace rolled into one. The men look good enough to eat but its the way they move to the beat and execute all the dance move with precision. That dance must be brutal on the thighs and legs. If I ever go to Hawaii I want to see the Annual Merrie Monarch Festival. Where women dance so gracefully like watching waves after waves. I am bewitched by all who participated. So I leave you to enjoy....

ALL AROUND

It really is frustrating and stressful to a lot of my female friends getting pregnant. Everybody seems to be getting pregnant except me. I was going through my closet last month when I came across a few of maternity dresses. When I go to the mall I miss looking at maternity outfits. I really miss being pregnant and really want to have another baby. Two of my paternal cousins are pregnant and just a month apart. The other one that is here in America looks so gorgeous that she can a model for any maternity clothing. I swear she looks so great that you would say to yourself that if you would look as good as her, you would want to be pregnant all the time. She looks so serene, graceful and glowing. I didn't look to bad when I was pregnant if I may say so myself. I thought I was at my peak when I was pregnant with my first born. I guess I'll have to see how I feel the next time I get pregnant, lol. Hopefully I will look as good as I did my first time.

IT'S FUN

People have different ways to unwind, relax and have fun. My form of relaxing and my time is window shopping. I love window shopping, it doesn't bother me that I see things that I like but can't buy it. It gives the opposite feeling, makes me think if I really want it or need it. Once in a while I do give in and buy things that is purely a want. The one store that we frequent is Walmart, I love it. If you ask my 3 1/2 year old daughter why we always go to Walmart she will answer you " because its cheap!". Its not that its cheap and it mean of lesser quality, its not. Its just more affordable and very convenient for us. I'm loving my store more now that there is coupons for walmart. Now tell me, who is their right mind wouldn't want any coupons? With the recession still hot on our heels we need all the help we can get. All I can say is I am a proud Walmart shopper.

MY ANGELS AND I

The photo above was from our latest Summer adventure. We did the beach and we the adults didn't really have our hearts into it. Sand got into everything and the kids could not swim and be left alone due to the strong current and huge waves. As we were getting our stuff ready I told Ralph that water park is for us. On our way home we spied a Water park, I took note of the place and looked it up on my iPhone. Itwas times like those that I am so thankful for my iPhone.

Exactly a week from our beach adventure we head out to Jungle Jim's Water Park. We got there at around 10:30 in the morning.. It wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be and the park itself wasn't as big. Before we went in we just had to pose for a picture perfect shot with my angels. As for our experience in the water park that will be on my next post. It will be my review on Jungle Jim's Water Park...

WHERE TO?

I want to go on a vacation, a place where I can just relax with a beautiful panoramic view. My last vacation was last year when I went to the Philippines with my MIL and daughter. How I wish we could have stayed longer. Even though it was just a short visit we got to spend time with the people who are so very dear to me. My daughter got to meet her maternal Grandmother and she also got to meet her maternal great grandparents. Both my husband and I deserve to go on a big vacation with maybe just the two of us? When you have kids its kind of hard sometimes, you want to get away from them for a bit but you don't want to be far from them as well,lol.

If someone was to ask you where you want to have your ultimate vacation where would you say you want to go? As for me one of my top 5 ultimate vacation spot would be Hawaii. You wouldn't want to go to Hawaii? A place surrounded by beautiful island, white sand beaches and crystal clear waters. If we ever win the lottery I would not mind owning a property in Hawaii. I am sure there are Hawaii houses for a family of 5. I can dream can't I? It's always free to dream. For those who are looking for houses in Hawaii check out the link. Who knows you might find your dream house, a house where you can escape and relax.

WITH MY GIRLS

Here I am again with my two adorable princesses. We don't usually get a chance to have a picture with the three of us. Kayla is not really interested to be in the pictures. As you may have noticed I have a lot of picture with my youngest but not much with my oldest. She is getting older where she doesn't want to be bothered, lol. We just got out of the pool for a night swimmng, it was like getting into a warm bath. The water was literally like bath water. It was so warm and soothing to the body. When we got and drying on the deck, I got Kayla to sit on my lap. This was my chance to I immediately called the lil one over to take a a picture with the 3 of us. My kids are so beautiful, yes I can say that because I am their mom,lol.