Planning for 2011

It's the final month of the year and two more weeks to go, we'll be saying goodbye to 2010. What a year it has been. A lot of ups and downs but definitely another year of learning. I'm really hoping for a better year this coming 2011.
Ok, enough of my sentiments. I have been browsing the net for cool  planners when I stumbled upon the blog of Brenda Arnall. Ok, so this is not the first time I've seen her blog but this is the first time that I have seen her planner. I was so inspired but her planner that I have finally decided to make one for myself. It's really a customized planner for a scrapper or any hobbyist for that matter.
Once I finish putting it together, I'll be posting it. Thanks Brenda for the inspiration.

A Day for Play

Alex had his field trip last October 21 at Paradise Activity Park and Resort at San Jose del Monte Bulacan. Since my tita is visiting here in the Philippines, my mom can't accompany him. It as first time to go with him in his field trip. He was so excited and had been looking forward to this day.

There was a lot of activities lined up for that day, not just for the kids but for the parents, as well. I didn't pass up the chance to try my hand at rapeling. It was a fun experience for me but I think Alex enjoyed it the most. He also did rapeling and enjoyed it so much he even wanted to do it the second time.

The last activity we did was the zip line. We had to do it together. Alex enjoyed that activity the most. He experienced an adreline rush that he was begging to do give it another go.

It was a very tiring day but an enjoyable one. My son and I had the time to bond with each other.

Exam Week

Finally, exam week for Alex is over. You wouldn't believe how tired I am. I had to beat the rush hour traffic to be able to tutor him for his exams. Now that it is over, we have his field trip to look forward to. This time I'm going with him. Mama went with him for the past two years. I know I'll be enjoying it as much as he will.
 I actually haven't touched by scrapbooking projects this past week. For one, my printer's colored cartridge is having a problem printing yellow. Another reason is that I am too tired from work.                                           

A case of Sore Eyes

My son has been infected with sore eyes. His school called us at home last Monday to inform us that he would need to go home because of his sore eyes. My mom went to his school to pick him up. He has been staying at home for 3 days now with nothing to do. As expected, he is so bored, that he picked up this habit of calling me in my cellphone just to ask if he could play with his PSP. Of course, I will not allow him since he has to rest his eyes. Left with nothing to do, he shifted his attention to the chewable candies my mother-in-law gave him. He almost finished the whole pack!

Hopefully, he'll get better by the end of the week. He'll be having having his second quarter exams next week and we can't afford to miss it.

Get well soon, baby!

Amazing Prizes at Get Picky

While browsing the net, I discovered this site with an amazing RAK giveaway. It'sreally pretty to win this prize. For more details, click here.

For all those scrapbooking fanatics like me, I would suggest to check out Get Picky blogspot to win this amazing prizes.

My Very First Mini Album

I love browsing the net for inspirations for my scrapbook projects. One that really caught my attention was the acrylic album that was featured in scrapbooks etc. website. I decided to create my own and my theme is the summer of 2009. I would like to share the acrylic album that I made.The acrylic size that I used is 4 x 6.
I was able to document the special moments that my family shared that summer. I really had fun putting this album together. It made me relive the fun times and the laughter that we had. I also used hidden journalling for this album.

Happy Birthday!!!

It's my son, Alex's, 9th birthday today. Since last week, he has been counting down the days until his birthday. I am so happy as to how simple his request was for his birthday. He just wanted us to set up his inflatable pool and a cake. He invited his friends from his old school and they had a swimming party yesterday. Unfortunately, it rained really hard but that did not deter the kids from having fun.

After playing under the rain and on the pool, it's time to blow the candle on his cake.

Since today is his actual birthday, we attended mass and had lunch at Shakey's P. Tuazon. He ordered his favorite combination of Pepperoni pizza and chicken. With us are my in-laws (minus my father in-law, who's in the U.S. right now as part of PNoy's news crew), my mom and my sister. Though it's just a simple lunch, Alex had fun. He's starting to appreciate the meaning of family and friendship.

Challenges...

This school year, Ritchie and I decided to transfer Alex to a different school. Ritchie felt that Alex is being babied in his old school and that he needs to be taught how it is to be independent. Agreeing on my husband's point of view, we had our son take the entrance exam which he passed.
So came the challenges...
#1. In his old school, his teachers would check daily if he was able to copy his assignments for the day. Here in his new school, the teachers would not check their dairy if he has copied his homework. I would just see his notebook marked with " NO ASSIGNMENT" at the end of the day.
#2. He was so overwhelmed with the number of kids in his class (his old school used to have 15 students per class, now they have 48), that all he could think of is playing. Talk about being deprived.LOL
#3. He has to write down his seatworks now before he answers them. Again, he is so lazy to copy it that most of the time, he ends up with no seatwork.
#4. The teachers in his new school would not give you any idea if there's a problem with your child. I think it would just be guess works then.

Funny, I got his report card and he seems to be doing ok. I mean, he got a fairly good average.
I guess I just have to play it by ear and be a little more patient with him. I'll just wait it out till he has adjusted to his new school.

My Life...the way I live it.

I was browsing through the internet when I came across a free downloadable PDF file by Becky Higgins. I've been wanting to create an All About Me album but doesn't know where to start. I've been scrapbooking about my family for as long as I remember but haven't started anything for myself. So, I thought, now is the great time to start.
I'm quite excited about starting this one since it would be like going back memory lane. My next dilemma, how should I do about illustrating this life story. Should I make this one chronological or flashback style.
Right now, all I wanted to do is to finish the questionnaire of sort and then plan my next attack. I just know that I want this album to be a hybrid one.
I promise to post it as soon as I finish with it.

Another Tiring Day...

Today's a very tiring day. I had to get up at 5am to prepare Alex for school. I was planning on going back to sleep but unfortunately, I got hooked (again) on my game in Facebook and before I know it, it's time to take a bath and go to work.
We opened a new restaurant today and it's called The Loop. Actually, today was the dry run and only invited guests were present. The set up was really nice and the food... Man, it was GREAT! My only regret is that I was not able to order the chocolate symphony because I'm already to full for one. Well... tomorrow is another day.

A new beginning...

Week 1: Jan.1-3

Dec.31
As usual, I've been busy preparing our New Year's Eve spread. As early as last week, I've been preparing the menu for New Year's Eve. This would be the second year we would be celebrating the holidays without Papa. Ritchie and I decided to go to Robinson's Metro East to do some last minute grocery shopping.
For this year's New Year's Eve spread, we've decide to go light since it'll just be four of us whose going to eat it. Here's my menu:

1. Queso de bola
2. Salami
3. Pear shaped ham
4. White bread
5. Beer lyonner
6. Bacon and dill pate
7. Baguette chips

We also decided that it would go nicely with a bottle of ice cold champagne. We bought Alex a sparkling grape juice. And for dessert, we had a nice, rich and very refreshing root beer float.
The atmosphere in our house is lighter now than it was a year ago. It was a good thing that Mama was able to move on now and accept that Papa is no longer with us.

As the New Year approaches, Alex was so excited about playing with his fireworks. Ritchie bought him some sparklers that he was playing with since this afternoon. We had to remind him that if he played with all of it, he won't have any left for that evening. So as soon as he got a go signal from his dad, he immediately went outside the terrace and played with what remained of his firecrackers. My, what a blast he had.








Marianne was not able to eat with us since she had to go work. She wrapped some food instead and brought it to work. We had a nice little family picture before she left for work.

We slept at around 3 am and boy, was I exhausted having done some last minute shopping and cooking. We were all stuffed with good food anyways.

Jan.1
We woke up at around 11 am that same day and again, I prepared a nice New Year's Day lunch for us. My menu... Baked Ziti. So here's the recipe of my Baked Ziti.

Baked Ziti

1 pck San Remo Penne Pasta noodles
1 pck Traditional Spaghetti sauce
1 pck Tomato sauce
2 tbsp minced garlic
1 small white onion, minced
1/2 k ground pork
1 small can of button mushroom, sliced
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
Bechamel sauce

Bechamel sauce:
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1 c fresh milk (you could use non-fat)
1 pc egg yolk

Procedure:
Saute garlic, onion and ground pork Add spaghetti sauce and tomato sauce. Add water as necessary. Simmer for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Cook penne pasta according to package instruction.

For the bechamel sauce:

Melt butter, add flour . Mix until it forms a paste. Gradually add milk. Stir well until there are no more lumps. Simmer until sauce thickens.

Assembly:
Toss cooked pasta in meat sauce. Transfer in a Pyrex dish. Top with bechamel sauce, grated cheddar cheese and grated mozzarella cheese. Bake at 375F for 30 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Jan.2
Finally, all the holiday bustle has come to an end. I will definitely take this opportunity to rest. I'll probably take a nap this afternoon. Since everythung is back to the way it is, Alex has brought out his PS2 again and as usual, he will be playing the whole day. Talk about being a kid.


Jan. 3
The last day of holiday break. Tomorrow, its back to work and back to school for Alex. I'll be preparing his school things today. Check if its still all complete. We went to church this morning and like every Sunday, we went to Papa's grave. This has been our routine for more than a year now.

Time to take a nap now.

Never too late

Since I learned about the Project 365, Project 52 or Project 12, I've always wanted to start one for myself. I thought that it would be nice to document the things that happens in my family. But as usual, a lot of things get in the way. Mostly it's my laziness to finish what I started. I've started my 2009 album last January but unfortunately, I stopped at March.So I decide that for year 2010, I'll use this blog as a medium for documenting the things that happened to us on a weekly basis. So that if I wanted to start with the album, I have something to start with. So I guess it's never too late to start reminiscing and documenting.

Almost Free!!

Finally, exam week for Alex is here. It's been a very busy weekend for me since I have to make a few reviewers for his exams. 3 more days its vacation for us. I would have 2 months worth of free nights where I can catch up with my scrapbooking. I plan to finish a couple of pages dedicated to ALex's first grade and a couple more for my year in review album. I just hope 2 months would be enough for me to finish all my planned pages.

Proud Momma

My 8 year old son, Alex, had his teakwondo promotion test last Saturday. It was really heart warming as I watched him do his exercises (Taeguek). He has improved a lot if I may say so. Though we had to stay for the whole day, it was well worth it. They had their mini competition and he got a bronze medal. Surprisingly, he didn't cry when he lost. There's a lot of maturity in him now. He looked me in the eye and just smiled his cute boyish smile. That was when I felt how proud I am of my baby.