Last year wasn't so pleasant with our car and just right after having the routine maintenance still another problem again last week. Auto repair here is quite expensive most especially when you don't know exactly what's the problem to troubleshoot. Repair centers tend to do more than needed (some) and of course that's to their benefits. It's good if you know some person or a mechanic who can do things for you without much hassle. Our car had to be brought in for a check up after having the problems fixed with the starter and to check engine light. Last time this gave trouble to us too.

Soon my in-laws will be moving out of our place (yipeeeee!!!) and that means if we'll have car problems it won't be as immediate as now that papa can attend to it. He just always sees to it that we have a good running car most especially for our little boy. It's very important that we can be mobile anytime. Later on we'll have to rely on other repair service like which has various locations like san jose, san francisco, texas, chicago auto repair and so specializing in nissan sedans, toyota camry, honda suv, etc.

Last week hubs surprised us coming home during lunch time and of course me and baby were so happy but something came up last Tuesday that gave him quite a trouble going back to office good thing it's only about 10-15mins walking distance from home. As h waved bye to us from the window I noticed I haven't heard the car start and leave so I checked on him and he said the car won't start! The day wasn't so good as it was raining and very windy. My poor husband had to walk to his office. We don't know what went wrong because the battery has been changed and he even went to places before going home. Later on in the evening he told the issue to his father and as soon as it was checked, the trouble was known to be the starter. It already broke down and has to be replaced already.

It was pretty much frustrating since we were starting to enjoy nice lunchtime all together here at home and him having a little extra time being with our little boy. We have been planning to get another car but due to economic circumstances it's been delayed for a while. We are trying to secure everything first before taking the plunge with another big expense. That day I decided to look up once again for some car models like toyota corolla, honda crv, isuzu rodeo and came across chevy cobalt, mercedes benz cl-class, bmw 5 series and other high end cars. Of course not going after those pricey rides but boy...those are good looking cars!

Remember my box package for my family? It finally arrived but this post is not really about the box itself but the poor service we got from the cargo forwarder that we tried, we will never send any box package with them again!

What happened? We sent the package after new year and it should come within 30days more or less. That's the usual shipping time for ocean freight cargo. We tried this Alas Cargo as suggested by a friend who's been using it for such a long time already. So far all their packages come on time and they never experienced troubles with them. The box was impressive, looks so sturdy and heavy duty also the strapping is very well done. We were convinced to try it and so we bought a box from them. After filling up the box we brought it to the nearest branch for shipping but it was already a turn off. Why? It's just a concession within a water refiling station and run by a Chinese lady who wasn't helpful enough and not too "pleasant" with clients. No choice but to leave the box there because we decided not to go to the other branch as it would require longer driving time and we were set to buy baby furniture that day. No time to waste.

Last week or two, I received a call from a lady (Philippines office for Alas Cargo) saying the package has been delivered to my place last Feb. 9. I was like damned with what she said and very doubtful since I received an offline message from my sister saying the package hasn't arrived yet before that call. What the hell was that? Later I got to confirm that they haven't received it and the cargo personnel lied to me! For us first impressions last and they gave us such bad as in very bad impression with their delay and more so with their lie! We could've appreciated it better if they told me they are delayed with the cargo and it will take some time for it to be delivered. Honesty! But what they did was to cover up and tell a lie! Bad, very bad for business. I spent big doing all long distance calls to verify about the box and even if I asked them to call me instead, nothing! So disappointing.

It's not the package that came so late but also the Christmas card I sent to my bestfriend. I can't believe that she got it from her mailbox almost end of January. She texted me that day and told me my Christmas card is too late for the holidays but too early for Valentine's. I thought it was just lost among the mailboxes in her condo since she just moved in there. I think MIL also had a delayed or misplaced parcel for her sister, instead of having the parcel placed in the mail boxes it was left there by the shed or garage. Call it lousy mail service systems for the holidays when people expect more important things from their loved ones. Too late, everything just came too late! (but still thankful it all came)

BIL got SIL Nintendo DS for her birthday and he said it's good not only to entertain her but also to improve on her vocabulary and math skills. I agree, it's a pretty cool gift for kids nowadays but on;y if you choose wisely the games you intend to give them to play too. I agree on his idea of teaching her through the gadget and he even bought educational games for her. SIL has been practicing her vocabularies and math stuffs there whenever she doesn't have much homeworks and of course other cool games on the side.

I just received an email reply from a friend whom I sent updates about baby Jariel's arrival and she said "time flies so fast, we were just in school before and now we are all getting married and having babies". I cannot contest to this statement, indeed very true. I came here January 26, 2009 and now I even have my baby. It was just like a year ago when I was so busy packing my luggage for my migration.


Speaking of luggages, I had fun browsing over LuggageOnTheWeb.com seeing so much varieties of designs there. I am not that picky when it comes to those things but quality of course comes first. Another consideration is having a unique design, something when you see it you know it's yours. Not the very common style you see everywhere. That makes my baggage claim an ease because I need not to be confused with all the similar looking luggage. I checked on Delsey Luggage and that one struck me...well the color is my favorite and it comes in a set same as Tumi Luggage but didn't appeal to me as much because of its black color. Hartmann Luggage on the other hand is very nice but I feel "old" about this one. It has a nice sets of bags but I think this suits best people who have more of a formal perspective when it comes to luggage.


If things push through next year definitely I'll need another luggage because 1 won't be enough for me, baby and hubs anymore. We're planning to visit back home and celebrate baby's 1st birthday there. I know too early to plan things out but we're sorting out options so we can prepare better. Time flies by so fast and you won't even notice another year has passed.

There are days when hubs will bring home some paper and make me choose a team or so and even completely fill it out. I didn't mind at first then later on I got curious what was it all about and he told me it's the sports bet they used to have at work. They just do it for fun and for the past 3 yrs that he's been doing it, he never won yet! lol


At first hubs was shy to reveal to me what was it all about because he thought I might be mad thinking he's splurging money on those things. Well it's not an everyday thing and it's only between the office circle so that's fine by me. I mentioned above that he never won all these years but we were lucky enough one time he asked me to choose for NBA teams. We won!!! I think he got like $300 more or less and spent some bucks to treat the guys for lunch out and the rest he gave to me. He couldn't believe we really won. If I'm not mistaken there will be another one for the Super Bowl. I wonder who will be lucky enough this time =)

Since baby came earlier than expected I never had the chance to blog about the promised baby shower I had. I didn't have just one shower but two! One was hosted by my husband's office secretary in her place. It was last January 22 dinner time and we were so overwhelmed with the number of people who came. Only a few missed it but they were so thoughtful to still give baby something. It was the usual office pot luck but being the celebrant we weren't required (and I was specifically told not to bring anything) to bring anything for the pot luck. We all pig out that night, it was such a feast with all the delicious dishes prepared, pastas, salads, breads, sausages and tons of drinks. The affair started with dinner and had a little break which gave room for some chit chats then later on gift opening preceded and finale was desserts. I think it took me and hubs an hour to open gifts, for such a number of people we surely got so much stuffs! We are very thankful for everything, up to now thinking of that great night makes me all smiley. =)


The other baby shower was just last February 7, Superbowl! We didn't announce to anybody that baby came out already and just decided to show up there with baby. Everybody was like "Is that your baby? OMG, you gave birth already!" At first we hesitated about going and thought of canceling it because baby's still so fresh at 7days and traveling that far might not be a very good thing for him. After so much thoughts, we just went for it considering people already committed their time for that day as invitations were already sent out to them. The baby shower was held in Round Table Pizza and the food was just great! Weeee, i was able to eat without having to check my blood sugar anymore. No painful finger pricking and food measurement!


You can tell from my title how blessed our little boy is. He was really showered with so much blessings. We can't thank these people enough for the love and thoughtfulness. One of my favorite gift is the knitted blanket given by the party hostess. I feel so much love with that gift! Of course we love everything and baby really got a lot of clothes. I am also thankful to my parents and bestfriend who sent us packages for baby's stuffs. Too bad I don't have much photos to show all the great gifts we got for baby right now but for sure you'll get to see all those clothes and things on my next posts.

Students nowadays are so lucky to have everything available online via the internet. Yes the wonders of using computers! Compare to my school days things are more limited though i didn't live through the barbaric age where technology wasn't so evident. I can remember those times when I hated doing math and other homeworks with any calculations involved.

Speaking of which did you know that Tutorvista offers such statistics help providing statistics tutor to aid your statistics questions and statistics problems? The free statistics help is really nice without having to flip bunch of book pages to come up with the statistics answers. Very convenient, right?