jessica's BUB pics

We got jessica's pics last saturday, and I can say i'm very happy to see the pics! hehe... of course, my daughter is really very photogenic. Seriously though, isn't she adorable?

i'm back

I miss blogging. Haven't blogged since I got back to work. I don't even have the time to write paid posts. Well, actually there's not much opps to write about so its ok. Unfortunately I can't log in to my blog because its restricted in the office. I'd have to post my postings at home.

Work is relatively easy (read: manageable) these days and I haven't felt this Unstressed since I got into this company. But usually at night I feel so stressed already more because I want to spend quality time with Jessica when I get home. If she's awake I usually get her when I get home and then cook dinner. Dinners are usually very early (around 7) and when Jessica is awake I spend the time carrying her around and talking to her. Normally she'd be awake till past 9 so after that I have to pump some milk first. I realize I need to buy natalac to increase my milk supply since I don’t want to stop breastfeeding yet. I really am thankful that we live very near to our offices so I get to spend as much time as we can with Jessica. We leave for the office before 8am and we get to the office in around 15minutes. So in the mornings I still get to hold Jessica as long as she's awake. At nights she wakes up somewhere between 12 and 2, and after that at around 4 am. Sometimes she doesn't ask for milk at 4am and wriggles around half-asleep till 5:30. At her young age, Jessica sleeps like her dad, moving around a lot. I'm actually contemplating asking hubby if its ok to put jessica in the middle of the bed (I'm at the middle now), but then, I'd be half-awake checking up on her so her dad won't crush her, and I'd hear a lot of complaints from hubby about feeling unimportant. I hear quite a lot of drama already from him as it is.

BTW, last Monday, we went to Blow-up Babies for Jessica's first photo session. We chose the egg set-up and the shoe set-up and we wanted a family portrait. Midway through the egg session (where Jessica was wearing yellow hooded onesies), she started to cry because she was already sleepy. We had to pull her through the rest of the photo sessions. I admire that their photographers and assistants try their best to make the babies laugh. There were really some instances when Jessica was already crying, and they would talk to her or pull up props to catch her attention. In the end we ordered prints for the egg session in collage (since Jessica had more nicer pictures in this session) and 1 in the egg session. I decided against the family portrait because I felt fat in the pics. Hahaha. The pics will be out by this coming Monday. Can't wait! I'll definitely scan those pics after I get them so I can give it away to our families when we meet next weekend. I'm really very glad our best friends (Jessica's godparents) gave us the free membership as a gift. I think its really worth it considering we're getting these for free:

- 1 8R print - worth 800
- 1 upgrade to collage - worth 800 also
- 3 birthday GCs - 1 for me (March), Hubby (December) and Jessica (May) and a 5R print upgradable to an 8R print for 300.

- other discounts which I might not use, except for the membership next year which I'm really contemplating, so I might buy their free membership GC at 20% off.

I'm kinda hoping we can have pictorials at least every other month, but I figure I'd have to negotiate this with my hubby first. Hehe… Pending the outcome of the pics, I'd say I'm quite satisfied with BUB's service. Even if it’s an expensive investment (with prints at 800 per 8R page), I figure that our baby will be a baby only once in her life. After she's passed the infant phase there won't be any turning back so I want to have as much memories from her childhood as we possibly can. :-)

dsl/landline bundle of horror

like i said 2 postings ago, i had a horrible experience with my service provider: Globelines/Innove. and till now i can't seem to let go of the fact that their continued negligence led the matter this far. I mean, I'm pretty much not a noisy/uncontrollable bitch when it comes to these things but this last encounter with them really,really tested my patience, not to mention my sanity. ok, it went like this:
we had the landline/dsl bundle installed last may 2007. prior to this we had their data only service, which was really ok, very few downtimes, i can't remember an incident where i was pissed off with them. now, when the landline was installed in may, they put in a different modem, actually now its a router, which was faulty in itself. They had to replace it 3x because it kept crashing and we kept losing the internet connection. i was ok despite hubby's protests that the service sucks. they always came whenever i called in the problem, anyways. but then, after this, now its the landline or internet that crashes. I had to call every 2 weeks (at most!!!) to have the phone repaired. worse, when the phone is repaired, we lose the broadband after. it was so frustrating. every two weeks i would call their hotline, request for them to repair the landline, then they would repair it, i lose my broadband, and i'll call their technical support for broadband, and then they fixed it. It has become routine. i hated it, but what was i to do? i don't like the situation, but at least they reacted within their 24-48 hour window.
then on august 9, evening, no dial tone again. called up their customer service and requested for repair. august 10, early morning, the dial tone was restored. surfed for a while, then come lunchtime i lost both dial tone and dsl access. called it in again. hubby of course, will be mad since its a weekend and weekend nights are spent playing DOTA. saturday, no show, no access, no repairmen coming in, followed it up, its supposed to be lined up for repair. sunday, i was already mad, followed up again 2 or 3 times. asked them to call me for feedback on the status. nada.
monday morning, i followed it up again, the csr (customer service rep) tells me the request was closed already.... huwaaaat???? how can they close the request without checking if the line is ok??? i didn't get any phonecall or visit from them checking if its ok. asked them to expedite the new (??) request.
to cut this long story short, this happened 3x for the next few days. i would call, they tell me that the request is closed, i'd get mad and i'd nag their CSR. i even asked for their supervisor, who was kind enough to provide feedback that she's coordinating the case already, this was tuesday, but after this no follow-up or resolution was still done. you can only imagine how mad i was already. i was mad at their technicians because they KEPT ON CLOSING MY REQUEST WITHOUT CHECKING IF MY LINE WAS OK. They kept going to the cabinet, a few blocks away, i suppose, checking the line there and changing this and that part. they could've visited my house, checking if the line there was the problem, RIGHT??? and i was angry at the CSR's because whenever i'd ask them to call me for feedback, it came unto deaf ears. I made 34+ calls to them from August 10 to August 16. Each call ranged from 10-30minutes. I even had an instance when I was put on hold by a CSR named Sam, for more than 30minutes! I used the second line on my cellphone to call them again and ask what the hell was their problem putting me on hold for sooo long!!!
august 16, i was at the end of my sanity. despite soooo many follow-ups, still no repairman, still the same old answers from them, still no feedback at the very least. i went to their globe business center. told them that if they don't repair the line that day, just cancel the request and terminate my account, i'd get service from another service provider. This was around 3pm. The Account officer there tells me again they will prioritize this request, that he will directly handle my case, and give me a call to update. NO ONE CALLED. THE LINE WAS NOT FIXED.
august 17, i called them again, this time i was calm enough to tell them to just get their modem and telephone and cancel my subscription. i hated them sooo much already. they fixed the line after lunch. apparently it took them only a few minutes because the line inside our compound was cut (or something to that effect). a few minutes. it took them 7 days to get here, 34 phone calls and follow-ups. they could have gone here a few days earlier and the situation couldn't have gotten this bad.
right now i'm testing the waters, i want to file a formal complaint with their customer care but i'm still really feeling so much anger so i'm delaying it a bit.I dunno, I mean, I did my part, in all angles, I can't see why I should be blamed for this. They really disappointed me, which is an understatement, because I can't imagine, for the life of me, how they could be this negligent.
hay, my ranting won't stop if i continue to write. this is just a warning to whoever is out there contemplating about getting them, I know there are satisfied subscribers. Good for them. But for me, the experience was definitely traumatic.

Going Aussie

One of the places I would want to go to, given the opportunity, is Australia. I want to experience the laidback life there, even for a moment. Of course, it would be fun to experience the holidays in Australia as well, to give me an idea of how their life is and what's important in their culture. There are a lot of flights to Australia, and one of the ways to get there is through DialAFlight. They offer flights to Australia at a cheaper rates, and there are holiday offers for those wanting to experience their culture. There are a lot of places to go to in Australia, such as Perth, Adelaide, Cairns, Queensland, and the Gold Coast. It would be a sure fun way to spend a vacation (or two). There are also a lot of Filipinos in Australia and its not uncommon to find some friends residing there. Another great way to spend the vacation: with friends or long-lost relatives. The good thing about using the Net to get info and tickets to other places is that they offer solid information, complete with pictures, so its easier to imagine where one would be going. And its a lot more hassle-free than looking for travel agencies and getting several quotations to find the lowest rates. So why not DialAFlight on your next trip to Australia?

repaired at last

i had the most horrible telecommunications issue since last week, which accounts for my not being able to blog at all since friday last week. i mean horrible.... the internet connection and the phone line just got repaired today. i'm not much in the mood to blog about it yet because my anger hasn't subsided so much, so I'll deal with that later. Just wanted to let you guys know I'm alive.
and I'm back to work.... :-(

holidays are coming

In a few more weeks we enter into the -ber months already. Hopefully this Christmas will be a bit lighter for our small family as we are both working already. Hubby has a good job and well, I have the bonus. hehe... plus GC's... yey.... in 2005 we were a bit broke because we just got married, and then in 2006 tabs was starting out with the onesnap business so we were also broke. hopefully 2007 is a lot nicer to our pockets.
I need to scout already for gifts for family and friends, I don't want to join the Christmas rush anymore because I realize one tends to spend more with all the panic buying. There's this great site in the net, Coupon Chief, that gives out coupons when you shop in stores. Stores such as The Children's Place, where one can buy gifts for the kids (like my nephew and nieces), and Old Navy, to buy gifts for dads and hubby and bros-in-law.
I therefore promise to myself: This year I'll start Christmas shopping early. Well, at least I'll start planning early.

classes suspended

Funny how it is that whenever PAGASA declares suspension of classes, the rain stops and the sun shines. Really, not that we don't trust that they are doing their job preventing any untoward incidents with the kids, flooding along the major thoroughfares and all, but then, its kinda funny. When we were college students we took advantage of the suspended classes to go to the malls, especially when the suspend it midday. hahaha.... brings back memories... i do hope the arrival of the second typhoon this august will help ease the dry spell in some of the provinces in luzon.

online goth dating

Online dating is already common these days, and its not uncommon either to learn of online affairs that lead to the altar. I personally consider it fate, that a couple can end up with each other after a long-distance affair. It takes a lot of trust to make something work out from nothing, right? Would you believe there is also an internet side that has real gothic personals where real gothic members are looking to meet other like-minded goth friends? Goth dating for people into the goth scene has never been easier, and it seems fun, of course, for gothic minded people. Interesting, eh. Goth singles can look for their special goth someone in this site, and they can end up happily ever after.

last 5 working days

time flies so fast, before I know it, my maternity leave is over in about a week's time. hay. did i get some rest? well, some, the time's i didn't, i know it was well-spent with my daughter. did i get to do everything I should have done? Well, NO. There were a ton of stuff I wanted to be able to do while I was on leave, be it personal stuff, having to go to places for some documents (transcript, PRC ID, Driver's license, NSO, etc.), but when my yaya left just as jessica turned a month old, well, I sorta lost the drive to do those things because I needed to stay at home. But I can truly say I spent as much time as I possibly could with my baby, so no regrets there as well. One thing I'm proud of, though, was being able to cook up new dishes, I didn't have time or the energy before to do them. Makes me feel like an accomplished mom. haha. i was able to cook lumpiang ubod, baked macaroni (which garnered a lot of good compliments, btw), polvoron (i stumbled on the first batch i made but the second one was good na!), mocha ref cake (ok lang, but nakakasawa), and finally, blueberry cheesecake. I always loved the BB cheesecake of Red Ribbon (because it tastes good and is cheap too). In fairness to my cheesecake, it tastes good, just like Red Ribbons'. The only difference is that I had a hard time topping the blueberry on the cake so it appeared like a blueberry cheesecake pie of sorts, hahaha, or you can call it blueberry cheesecake swirl (because the cheesecake went above the blueberry. waaah! its ok though, because it tastes good! I made it on Monday and by Wednesday evening we finished the whole cake, the three of us at home! hehehehe.... :-)
hay, if i had more time and budget I'd surely love to test a few more dishes, and learn to bake!!!! hmmm... someday... someday.

i'm now a postie

i finally got my blog approved for Payperpost after 5 days or so. Been checking every so often because i already finished the 20 posts requirement last week. Just got the email today and I'm happy I finally got approved. See, I need to work on some extra income and since I like to write anyways, then one good part-time work is to get paid to blog. A lot of the blogs I visit now are also PPP posties, and its good to know there is a community of posters right here. Anyways, blogging is good therapy, so why not earn from it at the same time. Well, I was almost good at it with my previous WP blog, which is not archived, I guess. Howell, that's some dollars already lost, but then its ok, I at least learned my lesson already. teehee.... I guess blogger isn't so stringent about sponsored posts, which is a good thing. When I'm earning enough I'll be working on a new blog, just for me, to increase further my income. hope it'll help at least with some of my personal expenses, and some internet shopping as well! teehee!!!! seriously, I'm hoping this new hobby/part-time job will work out, tried applying for some online work earlier this year, but it appeared to be too tedious and time consuming, something I'm not ready to rack my brains out what with my baby and my day job. :-) Congrats to me, I'm now a postie!!!!

jessica's baptism kwento & suppliers rating na rin

Finally! Last Sunday, August 5, Jessica had her baptism at the Edsa Shrine. Its nice to have a simple celebration witnessed by our family and closest friends. I never dreamed of a grand celebration for the baptism, I really wanted it to be an intimate celebration witnessed only by the people closest to us, the ones who really, really care for our daughter and our family. We didn't have the budget for a big celebration only since we're just yet recovering from a difficult start of the year. Anyway, we'll be inviting the rest of the people na lang on Jessica's first birthday.

The day started out fine, the baptism was scheduled for 3:30 pm so in the morning we were free to do things pa at home. A week before I attended the seminar/sharing that was required for the baptism, a good way to remember the Catholic concepts that we sometimes forget as we grow old. hehe....

Anyway, Saturday night, we got a call from Mark, the guy from the Parish office, confirming the schedule. I asked whether its ok to have a cream/ off-white colored garment but it was disapproved. hay. had no choice but to buy Jessica something else.


And so we left home before 2 since we needed to buy her a white skirt. I got a white blouse for Jessica as a parting gift from my boss before my maternity leave so just wanted to buy a white skirt. I didn't really want to buy those white gowns because she won't be able to use it. Sayang lang after. luckily after a bit of panicking, we were able to get a white skirt from Gingersnaps. It was too large for her so mukhang gown na rin. hahaha.... it was size 24 pa, she can still use it a few months from now. I just bought nappy clips para sumikip sya. hahaha... di naman halata sa pics noh!

So ok, the ceremony was really a nice and intimate one. There were only 3 kids to be baptized so di ganun kadaming tao. The priest was also nice and made some important reminders in bringing up the child in our faith. Nice. The ceremony ended around 4:15, most of the godparents were there: Charles, Jordan (Tabs' best friends) and Noge (Tabs brother), Grimi, Fran and Helen (My MBA best friends), and Marione (my HS bestfriend). Jeff (HS bestfriend) was not able to attend the ceremony since he was coming from Davao pa, while Francis (Tabs' HS friend) is in the hospital naman and wasn't discharged yet. Irene (Tabs sister) naman is in London already.

The reception was simple lang, we just ordered some food na by platter na lang instead of the initial plan to order per head (like the bunch of lunch meals) since I wanted the guests to be free to eat what they like. There was these family bundle meal ata yun, with one platter of spaghetti, one family size pizza, one family chicken (5-pc) and one pitcher iced tea. Since some of the invited guests didn't attend, there was a lot of food and we had a lot pa to take home. The staff of Shakeys were also very nice and easy to talk to. Overall I really believe we saved a lot and the guests seemed full naman.
I also gave out small tokens for the guests, I bought some round chocolates from Chocolate Lovers and then I made sticker labels na lang, its really cute. di ko pa pala nakunan ng pic. hmmm.

Jessica seemed to have fun naman looking at mommy opening up her gifts. hahaha... she was really staring e, she had a lot of gifts, nakakatuwa. next year sya na magbubukas ng gifts e. hehehehe....

My ratings:
Edsa Shrine: 10/10 - They are nice, easy to talk to, and I believe the ceremony was really solemn and intimate.
Shakeys Robinsons Galleria: 9/10 - They forgot to put the tarp banner because we were a bit early. Other than that, service was ok. Food was also ok.
Giveaways: 10/10 syempre DIY yun e!

scrapbooking?

I just finished organizing the pics of Jessica by her age. Something I should have done ages ago. And I'm kinda hoping I'd be able to start digiscrapping her very soon. Something I doubt I can start while I'm on leave, because I'm kinda lazy most of the time! hahahaha....
Howell, at least organizing her pics is a start. been meaning to start some photo albums but with so many pics, its so hard to choose. The one's I have printed, I haven't even pasted anywhere. geez.... lazy, lazy and lazy....

On the other hand, I was able to extract a channel 2 network from the tv in the sala, which made my housekeeper/yaya very happy. hehe.... that's the problem here in our area, without cable, channel 2's signal is too weak. and since I think its too premature to install cable when no one else is going to use it, well, we're practically forced to be Kapuso viewers. Now that channel 2 works, even if the picture quality isn't so good, my housekeeper can watch her favorite Kapamilya shows, specially Wowowee and those telenovelas at night.

somethings wrong with this blog

my postings aren't getting posted. so I guess something is amiss. huh!
i'm testing my yaya right now, she'll be with the baby the whole day, hubby has been insisting I do that already so the yaya can grasp the full extent of her responsibility when I get back to work.
hay, which makes me miss my little girl.... because I'll be back to work so soon, masarap sana to have her while I'm still at home.
hay....

4 days to go

4 Days to go till Jessica's baptism. This morning I already issued the reminder text to all my friends who I've invited, well, most of them naman confirmed, its only the older ones that we needed to invite. But the guestlist naman is quite safe pa at 40 pax, can go as high as 50pax naman, if need be I can just order an extra pizza or something for the guests. That's the good thing about having the food na lang by table. I do hope all is well. Hay. Excited na rin ako, everyone will see our little girl na ulit. Nga lang, everyone will probably say, bakit ang itim??? hahaha....

august already.... 16 days till I get back to work. huhuhu....

looking up career opportunities

true to my previous post, and perhaps driven by my constant lack of money because of so many bills and credit card debt, I've started applying to managerial jobs, some in my line of work, others just to test the waters. Not that I truly, truly hate my current company, I don't, I still love my friends there and I do enjoy the benefits. Its more because I find myself looking forward to where I'd see myself in the next couple of years, and the answer is, if I stay there, I'd probably be in the same supervisory position anyways. I'd be 30 yrs old in two years, and by then, I should really be in a managerial position. Otherwise my MBA degree wouldn't have paid off, diba?

so, I've updated my CV, started again my Jobstreet account, and hope I receive some interview offers soon. I've yet to look towards how I can pay back the car if ever I decide to move out, but that's not the biggest concern anyway. If I earn twice or more of what I currently earn then it would be easier to pay it anyway. I love that car, so even if I'll ask for a car where I'll work next, I'd still want to keep our Grandy (short for Grandeur).

Hay, I do hope I can get some interviews before I set of to work.... I can't take any leaves na kasi once I get back to the office. hehe.