on growing up so soon

sometimes as we see our kids grow up so soon, we realize just how fast they do actually grow up.
just last week i've been constantly groggy from lack of sleep because jessica wakes up several times during the night. we realize later on that she may have "pilay" so maritess had her checked and apparently there was something there. we though we fixed that but on thursday night she was just as frantic and clingy and I can't tell you enough how tiring that is.
on friday night I happened to realize that after all, jessica just wanted to have the bed all to herself, so I had her sleep in the couch in her room, while I slept at the floor. magically she slept so much better. I finally realized this is how she wants it, to be alone in bed, so saturday night I laid out the mattress from the pullout bed underneath her big bed, and had her sleep there instead. it worked well! she slept nicely, though she woke up in between to play. yey! so tonight after a lot of rearranging the whole house to make things fit, jessica now has her own bed, and she seemed happy about the idea. she's sleeping there at the moment, i do hope it works!!!
on the contrary, it makes me sad that jessica is already on her own bed.... makes me think she's all grown up already!

moving forward

i did it. happy!!! i'm finally moving forward with my career.
i got the email earlier from my new employer and everything is now as it should be.
funny how things fall into place when we least expect it. this morning I was thinking that I should call the headhunter to follow up drastically, but before that could happen, I got the pre-employment requirements in my email. yey!! and what's more, I got the results of the CBC and Urine test and both results were quite good! double yey! i need that to be ok because I want to ensure I won't have any problems with my medical pre-employment exam. so immediately after I I got back to the office, i tendered my resignation. and I'm feeling happy and light ever since. it really feels good to look forward to something.
will update you once I have more details.

my new toy

I just got my year 2009 present from hubby. year 2009 meaning, it probably represents all the gifts I am supposed to receive from him the entire year. not that it matters, this one is really to die for, and brings out the geek in me. hahaha... kidding.

Anyway, hubby and I just bought a notebook, the ultraportable and cute MSI Wind LX100sp2+. Pardon the numbers, its basically an MSI Wind. The specs are the best, as far as we have looked around, and the laptop itself is pretty handy to take anywhere. Here are its specs:

• Intel® Atom™ N270 Processor, 2 GB RAM
• Genuine Windows® XP Home
• 10” Wide Screen Display
• Convenient Magnifying Capability
• Ergonomic Big-Size Keyboard and Touch Pad
• 160 GB hard disk drive
• Built-in 1.3 Mega Pixels Webcam
• Built-in High-Performance 2 Channel Stereo Speakers, and Microphone
• 802.11b/g/n Wireless Lan


We've looked around for similar models of a mini notebook that can match this size and specs, and we've really not found one that matched, at least in terms of speed and the price. There are a lot of similar priced notebooks, but most of them only at 1 GB speed. The beauty of having 2GB, for me, is that it will allow me to go back to my hobby of creating digital masterpieces (also known as digiscrapping. And since its soooo portable, I won't have a hard time carrying it about. plus, we don't have to worry about sharing it, since we now have 2 laptops at home (well, we did since I have an office laptop, but I barely use that at home, just for work and the usual web browsing --- the photoshop version installed was really ancient).

I'm just too ecstatic about this one, I really, really, really love it.
Thanks sweetheart! Love you!!!!

turnovers

One thing I don't look forward to having to turnover work. And with my upcoming resignation, its needless to say that I would have to plan this part and turnover well to the person who's going to handle my work. seriously. It would be such a hard job because I handle so many things! It may seem trivial, but since I handle the biggest brands its going to be a headache both for me and for the new one to handle it.
There's just too many projects and too many stuff to do.
Plus I would need to inform my suppliers that I will leaving them soon, and for good! Its sad for me too, but its something i need to do too. I've made real good friends with a lot of my suppliers, and its just so sad to have to leave them all so soon and so suddenly. I'll truly miss all of them. :-(

Keeping tab of memories

I've been considering getting a camcorder for us. That way we can take videos of all the important memories of the family. Some we already have on pics, but the future ones, it would be nice to record them and get to watch them a few years from now. Its going to be a while still, I have so many priorities at the moment, but even so, its one of the things on my I-want-to-buy list. Hope in 2 years time, at least before Jessica goes to school, we can have one already. Hmmmm. I still do have a lot to buy in my wishlist though. hahaha.

back on track - jenn's comeback

just when you would have thought that i have abandoned my blog(s) forever, well' here i am, back to the blogging world. and hopefully for good. Pardon such a long hiatus from all this, there has been so many things that happened in the past few months I have not been able to update for the longest time. For instance, we went to HK, baguio, and last month I went to batangas. And I haven't been able to blog about any of it just yet. so ok, I owe everyone, big time.

but just the same, a quick update, hopefully I can get back on the rhythm in the next couple of days as I slowly unwind. Because, and here comes the news.... I'll be leaving my current company and joining another one.

Why blog about it? Well, it was an extraordinary story. Believe me. It came and went just like that, and just as unexpectedly, I never realized that my life, and my future, could change as fast as it did last week.

What happened? Thursday morning I got a text message from a headhunter, inquiring if I am interested in applying for an opportunity at this large FMCG company. I said yes, of course. He asked me to apply to the job at the company's website. Went there, found out I've already applied for it sometime in December, I think. After a while he says ok, then texts me again asking what time its convenient for a phone interview. So I said 2pm. He calls me up, interviews me. After an hour or so he sets up another interview, this time with the hiring managers, and after a while tells me that they will call up at 4:30. And a few minutes before 4:30 they already called up, apparently they are in a rush, and interviews me for a while also.

A few minutes after, they call up to ask if we can meet up after work to further discuss. So I said ok. Left early from the office. We get to talking in Sta lucia, and they tell me about the job, the details of it, and asks a few more questions. They told me frankly what the offer amount would be, and in a number of words, offers me the job. Well, it was somewhere between an offer and a please consider. They did tell me most of what I needed to know, where they would want to take me, as part of for a future with the company, the benefits of working there. The promise of a challenging future, and possibly as part of succession planning. They gave me a few hours. Well, it was 8pm and I needed to decide before lunch the next day.

When I got out, I immediately called up good friend Jerome, told him what happened. He encouraged me to take the offer. The position was good and promising. One vote for the new company. I asked my ex-boss for advise. Another vote for the new company. Hubby says go for it! so that made three. I thought about it in my sleep even, I had a headache when I got up. Geez. Part of me (the bigger part of me) wanted to take this job. But part of me, while not denying it, must be in shock with the way things went! A day ago, I was worried about all the pending items in my inbox, the unread mails, and the pending projects. The next day I was considering my future in a new company.

At around 9 am my mind was made up. I called my would-be boss and told him I would accept if they would choose me. And asked for a few concessions. He said they will decide by 2pm who would be offered the job. Ok that's good. I decided to inform my boss, as an FYI. I explained of course, about the urgency of everything. She was shocked. Can't blame her, I was in shock myself. After a while, during lunch I learned that she had spoken to the Purchasing Head about it already, even if I had informed her that I was not sure yet since they were due to decide that afternoon. She was leaving after lunch so I figure she just decided to let everyone know anyway.

At 2:10 I got the call from my would-be-boss, inviting me to go to the office in the afternoon. To sign the offer. Wow. I said: "Does this mean its me?", hehe... I had to clear it up, I wouldn't want to have any misconceptions, you know. And he confirmed it. so that's it. I landed a new job, in a record of 2 days with job offer signing. I thought things like that didn't happen to people like me. I heard it happen to other people, but not to me. But it did. And yes, it makes me happy, and important.

What I like about my new job:
- The position was what I was aiming for for the last few years since I graduated MBA.
- I will be having direct reports, 6 of them, I think.
- The company is respectable, the brand is number one in terms of its market share.
- The exposure was different from my current one, allowing me to expand my knowledge and growth.
- Job offer was above my current, which is great for us financially.

What I will miss:
- My friends! The two closest to me: anj and jerome. They were already like sisters to me and knew everything about me. It will be such a loss for me.
- The office. I love my current office. I love the benefits. I like most of the people in my department, and apart from the ups and downs, I believe I have already made a lot of contributions, and would at least be remembered as a good member of the team. Well... things do happen without us realizing it, and there are leaps of faith that we sometimes have to jump to in order to survive.

PS. A few years back, I put it in my long term goals that at 30, I should already be a manager. Its heartwarming to know that I will reach that goal, almost exactly as I turn 30. :-)

Stock trading

There has been so much news regarding the US recession, it gets scary at times when you wonder if the same economic crisis will get to our own economy. I'm not an expert on trading, I've only some slight background on stuff like futures trading, hedging, etc. I don't even understand much of it. I tried something like a stock market online game, and I think I did fairly well, but is it something I will look into in the future? Probably. I think the stock market is still a good way to augment income and savings, better than a bank account that is. But the saying still goes, the bigger the risk, the bigger the loss or the gain. I'm hoping when I do try it, its going to be a gain.

On beauty regimens

Funny thing, the other day I bought a facial cream (I won't say the brand) because I am almost running out of it, only to find out when I was already putting it on my face that I bought a facial foam instead. yikes. One thing I'm most thankful for is that my skin never required me to undergo acne treatment. I have fairly normal skin, and even though I have had my share of pimples, white and black heads, there was no real need to undergo serious treatments and facials. In fact, I'm not too fond at all of facials. Spa I like, facial, not too much. I only put some facial cream on my face for maintenance, and lately I'm lazy to put makeup on myself. When I'm 30 I think I need to put more serious thoughts on my beauty regimen, I can't wait till I'm 40 to do that.

fetish for cute stuff

Last saturday was Jessica's checkup. Poor girl had 3 immunizations done to her: Booster for DPT and BCG and her MMR vaccine. She cried loads, poor soul. Afterwards we went to Ayala Center and went malling the whole afternoon. Got Jessica her first pair of Minnie rubber shoes and they fit so well! Could have gotten her a pair of Crocs but I just can't bring myself to imagine that it won't fit her anymore after 6 months, and that costs almost 2k!
Blame it on mommy, whose just so fond of cute things, whether its just office supplies, or small, cuddly stuff. The fact that I have a little girl to buy those stuff to adds all the more fun to it (but dents the pocket, though). But then, having a kid smile at you over the cute thing you bought for her makes it all the more worth it.

Losing Weight

No, not for me. I don't need any weight loss pills at the moment. Far from it, actually, I need to gain weight! But hubby surely needs to lose some weight, but at the rate of very little to no physical activity for him, I'm quite sure its a long way to go till he sheds those pounds a bit! I don't think he'd resort to weight loss pills though, that would be so unlike him. But I might someday convince him to exercise, though that could mean I have to follow suit. Ewww.... We'll see, who knows, I might get into the Wellness craze much sooner than I'd imagine.

Beauty treatment

I love long weekends! It gives me a chance to do the stuff I want, and also do some beauty treatments for myself. For the past few days I've been able to take long, leasurely baths without thinking of time (weekdays I shower for 10 minutes max!). Which means I still get to apply lotion all over, and this afternoon I was able to apply a facial mask to reguvenate the skin. I don't need acne cream at the moment, as I'm not really acne prone, but I enjoy putting some stuff to help my skin look younger on occasions when I have the luxury of time. At least for the next three days for this weekend, I get to pamper myself, even for a while.

Investing in homes

A colleague and friend of mine is moving into their new townhouse this weekend. Funny how as we get older, we meet a lot people with quite the same priorities as we do. Liezel, for instance, is older than me and has 3 kids already, but its never too late to invest anyways. To cut the long story short, she must have gotten a moving company, like the New York Moving Company to help her haul her stuff in. Although, come to think of it, I think I remember she said she bought a lot of new stuff for her new home. Well, that's what you get when you have the money. Shopping!!!! I didn't have that luxury then, what with all the stuff we already have, and the stuff we'll be getting that was left by the owners. But hey, not a moment's regret for me, I'm sure if I have the resources, its so much easier to buy the things I want anyway.

financial freedom

Another dream I am yet to attain. So far I've tried and given as much effort as I can to being debt-free, but I'm far off from being so at this point. I have really set a target to be debt-free, but its been a moving target ever since, and probably till I start being good in my new venture or start on a new, higher paying job, then that would be the only time I can call myself financially-free. I have tried loans, balance transfers, and what have you, but I still have a huge debt and most of my monthly income goes to paying off credit card bills.... hay, ranting. I'll be setting 2010 as a target, hopefully we'll be out of the rat race and enjoying all the money and not giving it to interest. and on that note, jess might be starting school then so we really need to save up!

looking for furniture

I would so love to do some interior designing in our home. I mean, I know we don't really need it and can't afford it at all right now. But I would love to have something to look at, with sleek, modern furniture that would WOW my guests. Something as cute like these.


The first one is an ultramodern bed, the other one is a nice coffee table. Love them both! Can somebody please give me some money to buy these things???? Kidding.

accidents

I hear soooo many accidents happening lately. Around a month ago there was the accident along edsa where an ethanol truck crashed into the middle of the edsa underpass railing, causing a long, long queue of traffic on a monday morning. Boy, is that guy gonna need a good truck accident lawyer, because for sure some concerned individuals would probably want to file a case against the poor guy, though I doubt people would want to feel bad from him because of the huge traffic and delays he caused.

well, the justice system must work with things like this. more and more truck drivers are getting to be a pain in the streets what with their attitudes and their perfect disregard for traffic rules. something's gotta be done. and fast.

marrying age

More and more, we are approaching the age where most of our peers are getting married. Hubby and i got in the game quite early, at age 26, but that was after being together for 9 years, so its hardly a surprise nor is it unexpected. A lot of our friends are still unmarried at the moment, but in a year we do attend around 3-4 weddings already, so I guess that's a sign. I've also been part of the entourage a couple of times, the bridesmaid gifts also come as nice surprises in the wedding.
Seriously, I'm glad we got married at the time we did. Yeah, we may be the first in our own respective barkadas, but why wait, when we are both in it for the long term anyway. Now we don't have to worry about getting the things we want. Because we can work for it together.

home theaters

part of the big plan now that we have our own place is to personalize the look of the place, and quite frankly, one thing in my wishlist is a home theater seating system to go with a home theater -- take a 40" LCD TV mounted on the wall of our living room. And surround speakers that shake the place up when there's a load bang on the movies. Ahhh... bliss...
Well, of course, we are quite far off from this dream but hey, everything can change in an instant, or when we work for our dreams. Who would have thought we'd be on our way to owning the house of our dreams after being married for two years. So no, nothing is impossible, and sooner or later, we might just get all the things we want. All at the right time of course.

rainy sunday and baking

Ok its been a while again. Last time I blogged it was still about the typhoon frank. Now its another rainy sunday and I'm here whiling away the time. Well, I'm hoping I can make some blog entries, and later on I'm hoping I can work a bit. But really part of me wishes that the rains will continue because if it doesn't stop I can file for an emergency leave tomorrow!

Anyhow, I have quite a restful weekend now, at least as far as I think it is. no fuss, no long trips out of the house, had time to rearrange my closet, and I had time to practice driving (well, a bit), had time with jessica, had time to watch TV, and I had time to bake! yey!!!!

Which leads me to make kwento that ever since we got the gas range and the lpg tank, I've been more and more learning other stuff to cook. I'm proud to say I've already mastered pizza preparations, already tried roasting a chicken (rosemary blend+barbeque sauce), buffalo wings, and the latest addition: Revel bars!!!! For a first time baker, my revel bars were a huge success!!! If I can say so myself. Which makes me really want to buy a hand mixer (I don't really think I need an industrial type mixer anyways), for my baking needs. I intend to pursue baking of course, and in the course of time, I'm hoping I can up my skills and be able to work out a truly fulfilling hobby again.

typhoon frank

today we experienced the first flooding in our new home. well, not exactly in our house. it was down the street actually. hmmm... I'd say my weekend at home was eventful, to say the least. First, I short-circuited a switch which ended up burning a fuse, then in the afternoon we had visitors, hubby's parents and his aunt, who also came coz she wanted to see our place as well as to inquire re our loan. apparently when they applied for the loan for the balance of the condo unit they bought they did not get any mortgage quotes, and now, after three months, they are still waiting for loan approval. Ours came after 5 days, and I'm quite happy about that part, otherwise we probably won't be here right now.
Anyhow, the typhoon Frank came over this morning and decided to make a mess of Metro Manila. We all woke up around 5:30 because of the gusty winds, and then there was no electricity. and then around lunchtime, the flooded waters of antipolo came through the subdivision. There was literally water all over the streets. Good thing our house was really elevated so there was no worry on the mess it'd make to the appliances and furniture. The water subsided after a couple of hours, but well, seeing that much water outside was still scary. :-)

still searching for the prepaid plus

i've found a place near the office that sells the sim cards for the landline prepaid plus, unfortunately its still out of stock and I would have to wait probably for a longer time now. Its sad because I like the features of the sim, its like having a cellphone with a landline number. Really cool if you ask me. I still have an old SE750i with a micro sd that I can still use with the landline plus sim, plus some memory to catch some more pics. I sometimes use the pics for some office work, though I honestly don't know if my office laptop accepts the micro sd as a removable drive. And I haven't found any trick yet to access it. :-p nevertheless, I will still keep looking for the landline plus sim, something I really know I want.