I admit, I really had no idea who is behind those Red Chair Confessions videos. I was practically clueless! I wracked my brain trying to figure out the mastermind behind those intriguing and mind-boggling ads. I knew it had something to do with women, so I thought of things that women love. I initially came up with chocolates and perfumes, but I never thought about shoes and clothes. Would you believe me if I tell you that the advertiser releasing those videos is Talbots?

Yes, you heard that right! Talbots has come a long way from being just a store for our moms. Talbots now offers hip and modern women’s apparel, shoes, and accessories. Their shirt and blouse collection is a must-see. The pieces are chic and elegant and priced just right. They have very nice skirts and pants, too, and their handbags are absolutely gorgeous! Check out their website to see what other items they have. You can leave a comment on this post about what Talbots' product you like best.

Now that you know who sponsored the Red Chair Confessions videos, I’m sure they make more sense now. Who would have guessed that Talbots was behind all these?

Opposition Senator Chiz Escudero is appealing to Malacañang for an early release of the 13th month pay of all government employees and pensioners to help those affected by typhoon Ondoy.

He said, "The practical thing to do at the moment is for the employee to receive an early Christmas gift from the government. Even if Luzon was the hardest-struck areas, government civil servants and the military from different parts of the country will be able to provide financial assistance and improve the horrid conditions being experienced by their relatives in the different provinces and cities."

When I heard this news last night, the first thing that came to mind was “Filipinos will not celebrate Christmas this year.”

Last June, I already asked my employer to release half of my 13th month pay to help with our family’s expenses. Summer months in the U.S. (May to August) are lean months for us here work-wise, so we’re earning only half of what we usually receive in one semester. That made me sad because that means I won’t have as much to spend for gifts and whatnots this Christmas.

I realized now that I’m luckier than most because I still have half of my 13th month pay intact and our family wasn’t ravaged by the flood caused by typhoon Ondoy. I hope and pray that our kababayans will recover from this tragedy soon.

What’s good about modern technology is that you get to meet people from all over the world without ever leaving your home. Some even find their future partners in life through the Internet. Now, that’s an interesting way to meet your Lady Love or Prince Charming. At Tennessee Chat City, you’ll have a chance to interact with some of the friendliest people in the world. Registration is absolutely free. All you have to do is fill out their form and you can chat right away. Register now to gain access to free Tennessee chat rooms and live streaming webcams.

I don’t feel like working today. In fact, I don’t feel like doing anything at all. I came down with a bad cold, which I got from my son (he’s recuperating) which he acquired from his Dad (he’s fully recovered) which he got from his officemate (I hope s/he’s okay now). I feel sick and feverish, but I have no fever. This is the first time in years that I have experienced a cold this severe. I take pride in having a strong immune system, such that colds, cough, and fever don’t really bother me, but not today. Geez! This reminds me, I’m human after all! Can I be excused from work now?

Blame it on typhoon Ondoy why I cried buckets of tears yesterday. It’s been raining nonstop since Friday night, and there’s nothing we could do but stay inside the house to keep us warm. But I have to go out to do our weekly grocery shopping. I know my husband was getting restless, too, just staying at home, so I urged him to go with me, so we could also watch a movie.

We took advantage of this chance to go out together since Justin’s lolo and lola (my parents) were there to take care of him while we’re gone. And so off to the cinema we went. We had different movies in mind, however, so we decided to go our separate ways and meet up afterwards to go to the supermarket. He went to see Surrogates, and I went to see Ate Vi’s movie In My Life.

I was glad I watched this flick. What I want most in this movie aside from Ate Vi’s and John Lloyd’s superb acting (Luis’ portrayal of a homosexual was fine, too) is that I went home with wonderful lessons about motherhood, such as:

1. What we tell our children can make or break them. When we tell them they aren’t capable of one thing for one reason or another, they think that’s the truth and they may later end up not believing in themselves, so we should be careful with our words.

2. We should allow our children to live their own lives. We can only nurture them and guide them, but we can’t mold them into the kind of persons we would like them to be. They are thinking individuals, and they know what they want for themselves.

In My Life is a story of a single mom, Shirley (Ate Vi), who works as a school librarian. When she learns of her daughter Dang’s plans to leave her to go to Australia, she opts to stay with her gay son, Mark (Luis Manzano), in New York. Mark’s lover, Noel (John Lloyd), helps her start a new life in the Big Apple as she also tries to recapture her lost relationship with Mark. She feels shortchanged when she learns that Mark and Noel are keeping a dark secret from her.

Can you believe it’s already the last Friday of September? This week’s Mommy Moments theme is “That’s My Favorite,” photos of your kids with any favorite. I’m posting my entry early because I intend to work tonight, and I might not be able to do this later, so here goes…

Justin’s first love is Barney. He learned his first nursery rhymes from watching Barney VCDs and DVDs. Look how he’s swarmed with Barney things in the photo below.


Then, Justin learned about Thomas, the tank engine, and he got hooked. In the next photo, Justin and his current favorite cousin, Ate Ayie, are busy forming Justin’s Talk ‘N Action Magic Rail Set, which his Daddy bought for him.


Last but not least, Justin’s favorite thing to do after Mommy is done with work is to take over the computer and play online games or watch his favorite characters on YouTube.



Click on the badge above to see other kids’ favorites.

I would like to thank Mommy Jac of Mom’s Special Diary for giving me this award.


The award implies:
Green: symbolizes the new buddies
Yellow : represents the guys who are always active
Blue : symbolizes the bloggers with PR
Platform Red : symbolizes that we are all equal and that we are brothers and sisters

I'd like to pass on this award to:
Evan’s Mom of A Little Boy’s Blog
Eden of Moments to Remember
Karen of My so-called world
tejan of Insights
Maritz of Amazing Grace

In celebration of Grandparent’s Day, Justin's school invited all grandparents (whose grandchildren are studying in the same school) to come to their school during class hours to spend time with their grandchildren. Grandparents and grandchildren were treated to a bowl of heartwarming homemade soup.


Our souvenir photo: Justin’s lolo, Mommy Tetcha and Justin

I recently came across this charity project at Niko’s Blog, asking for donations for George Daniel Arevalo Samson.


George Daniel Arevalo Samson, 5-month-old son of Niko’s high school friend Clarisa, has biliary atresia with cirrhosis and is in immediate need of liver transplant. The operation has never been done in the Philippines and the doctor’s advice is to go to Taiwan for the cheapest operation which will cost roughly 3 Million Pesos ($60,000).

All donations to Daniel can be sent to Daniel’s mom's bank account, Bank of the Philippine Islands under the account name Ma. Clarisa A. Samson, S.A. No. 3536 0445 53, or at Niko’s Paypal address, leonytimbas@gmail.com.

Let us help spread the word about Daniel’s condition. Our $3 can help save Daniel's life.

Thanks to Onlinemommy of Online Mommy’s Corner for giving me this tag.

What are your middle names?
I’m not telling.

How long have you been together?
We’ve been married for 13 years.

How long did you know each other before you started dating?
A few weeks. Haha!

Who asked whom out?
He asked me out, of course.

How old are each of you?
Secret!

Whose siblings do you see the most?
Mine.

Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
Finding the perfect nanny for our son.

Did you go to the same school?
No.

Are you from the same home town?
No.

Who is smarter?
He knows Math and other technical matters better than I do, but I’m better in English and running the household.

Who is the most sensitive?
I am.

Where do you eat out most as a couple?
Chef D’Angelo because he likes it there.

Who has the craziest exes?
None.

Who has the worst temper?
He has.

Who does the cooking?
I do.

Who is the neat-freak?
Me.

Who is more stubborn?
We are both stubborn.

Who hogs the bed?
He does because he’s bigger.

Who wakes up earlier?
I wake up earlier on weekdays, but he wakes up earlier on weekends.

Who is more jealous?
Nobody because we don’t give each other reasons to be jealous.

How long did it take to get serious?
We started with a serious commitment.

Who eats more?
Me.

Who does the laundry?
Laundry shop for work clothes and our helper when we still had one.

Who’s better with the computer?
He is.

Who drives when you are together?
We don’t have a car.

This tag is open to all those who want to grab it. Have a great weekend, everyone!

I can’t believe one week has passed since I posted my last Mommy Moments entry! Anyways, the theme for this week is “Treasured Pictures,” photos of our kids that we truly love and cherish. I have already posted most of my treasured pictures in my other entries for Mommy Moments, so I looked for a few that I haven’t used yet.


My husband and I simply loved this photo of Justin. This was taken when he was just 2 months old. He looked so young, so sweet, and simply adorable.


Don’t you just love to hug a chubby baby? Justin was 3 months old in this picture. That’s his Tita Meme, my younger sister, beside him.


Even when he was only 4 months old, Justin already loved his Ate Ayie, my niece and Justin's older cousin.

Click on the badge above to see more treasured photos.

I’ve always been wary of companies that offer products or services for free. It is tempting, yes, but of course, there’s always a catch. Take free business cards, for example.

Did you know that free business cards come with increased shipping charges? You will also have to pay extra for any improvements you want done in your free business cards. In the end, you actually pay more for your business cards (when they’re supposed to be free) than when you order them somewhere else. It doesn’t help, too, that you only have a few designs to choose from. And worst, the companies that offer free business cards will place their company name and logo on the back of your business cards.

Your business cards should make you stand out from the crowd. Free business cards won’t accomplish that purpose. You might want to give 123Print a try. 123Print offers thousands of business card designs that you can customize. You can also upload photos and logos to your business cards for free. You get a set of 100 business cards for as low as $3.95.

A few years back, my husband and I found ourselves in dire financial condition. We had a family emergency, and we badly needed cash. We didn’t have life savings then, and there was no one to turn to for monetary help. We both had life insurance policies, however, and we knew we could surrender these policies to our insurance company for cash, and that’s exactly what we did. To our dismay, we only got a small percentage of our accumulated insurance premiums.

We didn’t know back then that we can sell our life insurance policies to a third party and get 200-500% more than surrendering our policies to our insurance company. Life settlements or life insurance settlements refer to the amount of cash insurance policy holders receive when they sell their policies to a third party. If you need money for hospitalization or medication expenses or even to finance your child’s education, you can now sell your existing life insurance policy for lump sum cash. Like stocks or bonds, life insurance policies are considered as assets, items of ownership that can be converted into cash.

Amrita Financial is an established life settlement company that offers policy holders a fast and convenient way of turning their existing life insurance policies into that much needed cash. With Amrita, life settlements can be done online. Through the use of the Internet, policy holders are given direct access to the financial institutions who are interested in buying life insurance policies. This means policy holders can choose from a number of life settlement bids to obtain the best value for their insurance policies.

Selling your life insurance policy is a crucial decision to make. That is why you need a trusted life settlement company that will make things work for you. Contact Amrita Financial now at (888) 539-8885 to know more about life settlements.

When I fetched my son from school today, I was surprised to see him holding a milk bottle, which was given to him by one of his teachers. I would later find out that Justin’s school has started their annual Christmas Drive for their adopted pre-schools in Quezon City and Batangas.

Since the year 2000, Justin’s school has adopted three pre-schools and provided for their food and school supplies year-round. With the help of the school’s families and friends, they are able to help over 120 children each year.

The students will fill their milk bottles with as many coins and cash, and all the money collected will be used to buy milk for students enrolled at the three adopted pre-schools. This project gives families an opportunity to share their blessings and teaches kids about kindness and charity.

My son Justin hasn’t been his old self lately. It all started when my 21-year-old niece and Justin’s older cousin, Ate Ayie, who took care of Justin for almost three months, had to leave us last August to prepare for the nursing board exam this coming November.

You see, Justin loves his Ate Ayie so much and misses her terribly. Ate Ayie had actually been my son’s second mom when she was with us. When Justin was with his Ate Ayie, I could work in peace because my son is content just having Ate Ayie around to care for him when mommy is working.

It also didn’t help that Justin got sick in August, which made him miss two weeks of school. That coincided with Ate Ayie’s absence, and now, we’re back to square one as far as Justin’s schooling is concerned. He’s been crying since last week when I drop him off at school, and he doesn’t want mommy to leave his side. Poor thing! Before he got sick, he had been enjoying school already.

Then, we had to change Justin’s yaya (nanny) three times after Ate Ayie left, which created even more problems. Why? I just wanted to make sure that Justin will feel comfortable with his new yaya like the way he was with Ate Ayie. Apparently, this hasn’t been the case. He wouldn’t let any of them go near him when he’s taking his afternoon nap. He’d rather stay with mommy. This is why I’ve been having a hard time finishing my work.

I know that my son is undergoing a lot of stress right now (and so do I!). I’m trying my best to assure him that everything’s going to be okay. All I want is for him to be happy. I hope things will go back to normal soon.

It’s Friday once again. Time flies so fast! This week’s theme is “Hat Day.” Here’s my son Justin wearing different hats, from a bonnet to baseball caps to party hats.


Justin with Mommy at the mall


8-month-old Justin with Daddy


Justin wearing an inverted baseball cap courtesy of his Ninang Mildred


Justin with Daddy at Pizza Hut Bistro, Robinsons Galleria


Justin with his favorite uncle, Tito O., at Mall of Asia
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For a few weeks now, I’ve been reading about LinkFromBlog in various blogs I visit. What got me interested to see what the hype is all about is the opportunity to earn $1,000.00 a month by working at this site. That’s what their banner proudly claims. I really need to find out if this is true, so I registered my blog. Who can resist an offer to earn more?


All I have to do now is wait and see. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Last Friday, I attended my very first Parent-Teacher Conference at my son’s school. The parents were given 20 minutes to meet and talk with their kid’s teachers for any school concerns, while the teachers discussed the student's performance in school for the first trimester.

Justin’s school has a different term for a report card. They call it “Developmental Portfolio.” Students are evaluated based on the following areas: Physical Development (Large Muscle Coordination and Small Muscle Coordination), Personal Development (Emotional Development, Work Habits, and Self-help Skills), and Readiness Skills (Speaking and Listening, Reading and Writing, and Math).

Justin scored highest in Work Habits, earning all G’s in this area. Letter grades were used to evaluate student's progress in various areas (M for Mastered, G for Good Progress, W for Working on Skill, and NY for Not Yet). His Speaking and Listening skills are also all G’s, except for his fluency in the English language.

These were his teachers’ comments on his Developmental Portfolio: “Justin is showing more appreciation for our class activities. He also enjoys sharing his thoughts with his teachers and can diligently work on his tasks. He is also becoming more familiar with the English language. Practicing at home will be very helpful.”

Many thanks to Seiko of Seiko’s Diary for this nice tag. Sorry, I wasn't able to post it earlier.

To do this, Create a New Blog Post, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your title as "Getting to Know Each Other!", then tag as many people as you like :) Don't forget to leave a message to those you have tagged so that they will know :)

1. What time did you get up this morning? 8am

2. How do you like your steak? Well done

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? District 9

4. What is your favorite TV show? Oprah

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? Philippines

6. What did you have for breakfast? Rice and leftover roasted chicken

7. What is your favorite cuisine? I love my own, so I’d say Filipino cuisine.

8. What foods do you dislike? I can’t think of any right now. That's because I eat anything edible.

9. Favorite place to eat? Bigby’s Café and Restaurant

10. Favorite dressing? Caesar salad

11. What kind of vehicle do you drive? I don’t drive.

12. What are your favorite clothes? Pants and blouse or pants and shirt

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance? Paris, France

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? 1/2 full

15. Where would you want to retire? Philippines

16. Favorite time of day? 5pm because it's the end of my workday

17. Where were you born? Manila

18. What is your favorite sport to watch? I’m not a sports fan.

19. Who do you think will not tag you back? Are the persons we tag supposed to tag us back?

20. Person you expect to tag you back first? None

21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this? All of the persons I’m tagging

22. Bird watcher? Not really

23. Are you a morning person or a night person? Night person

24. Do you have any pets? None

25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? My son did well in his first trimester in school.

26. What did you want to be when you were little? A teacher

27. What is your best childhood memory? Every time our family is complete during dinner time

28. Are you a cat or dog person? Neither

29. Are you married? Yes

30. Always wear your seat belt? Not applicable because we don’t have a car

31. Been in a car accident? Never

32. Any pet peeves? People who fart and pick their nose in public

33. Favorite Pizza Toppings? Cheese, ham, pepperoni, green bell pepper

34. Favorite Flower? I’m not fond of flowers, but I love looking at sunflowers.

35. Favorite ice cream? BTIC

36. Favorite fast food restaurant? Jollibee

37. How many times did you fail your driver's test? Not applicable

38. From whom did you get your last email? One of my tutors

39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Kamiseta

40. Do anything spontaneous lately? None that I can think of.

41. Like your job? I have no choice but to like it. LOL.

42. Broccoli? I’ll have it anytime.

43. What was your favorite vacation? We’re still planning for it.

44. Last person you went out to dinner with? Husband and son

45. What are you listening to right now? None

46. What is your favorite color? Yellow

47. How many tattoos do you have? None

48. How many are you tagging for this quiz? At least five

49. What time did you finish this quiz? 4pm

50. Coffee drinker? Not much

I am tagging the following: Juliana, Tejan, Ela, Pinaymama, Laine.

If my memory serves me right, Justin only wore costumes twice since his birth until the present. The first one was when he celebrated his second birthday last year where he donned a Chinese suit.


The second time was just recently when he wore a Filipino costume in celebration of Linggo ng Wika. He requested that Diego, Dora, and Alicia be included in this shot.


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The BER months are finally here, and soon we’ll be hearing yuletide carols everywhere. One thing that gets me so excited about Christmas is letting my friends and relatives abroad know that I do remember them on this joyous occasion. I send them personalized Christmas cards. 123PRINT.co.uk offers loads of customized card designs that help make this Christmas extra special. You get free personalized message and name in any color you want, and you can upload photos, logos, or images to your photo Christmas cards for free. You pay as low as £8.96 for a set of 10 personalized Christmas cards.

Here are my top 10 droppers for the previous month:
sharing information
Make Money Online | How to make money online from home
Beyond Horizons
Mom’s Place
The Cooling Stream
Parent Times
My Crossroads
Moments of My Life
My n95 Pictures
Through The Eyes of DJ
Thank you all so much!!!

Justin’s school is celebrating our Filipino culture the entire month of August. Students are requested to come in school in a Filipino costume every Friday of August. Justin was not able to wear his Filipino costume on three consecutive Fridays because he was sick on August 7 and 14, while August 21 was a special non-working holiday (Ninoy Aquino Day), so there were no classes on that day. Last Friday, August 28, was his last and only chance to don a Filipino costume, so I made him wear that against his will. What made him give in to mommy’s request? I told him I was going to take a picture of him with his Filipino costume on.