Ayie

Remember my post about deciding on getting an Acura or Honda Pilot? Oh well we've come down on a decision just a week after that post. We happened to like the Pilot better so we ended up finalizing the deal in Autometrics, a car dealership in El Cerrito. Of course we checked out Honda dealers and other places but none beat the offer Autometrics gave. There's one which has lower offer but it's a Honda dealer in Chicago. For us El Cerrito is quite far already so there's no way we're going to Chicago or any other places farther Bay Area.'


I made a call on a Saturday and made an appointment to see the car on Sunday. After inspecting and the test drive me and hubs nailed our decision to purchase the car that same Sunday. It comes with certain warranty which is a plus factor with our purchase. The Honda Pilot EX 2003 (SUV) is a 4WD, automatic transmission, V6 engine and best of all 8 seater! We had to leave the car for a week to have the paperworks done first and the check to clear before driving it home. After a week even if it was a stormy Saturday me, hubs and baby picked up our car and convoyed home.

Baby J really loves the car because he was so happy and comfortably playing inside when we checked out the car. While he was enjoying playing, I was happily snapping photos of him. He's outgrown even our small Datsun 200SX since his car seat needed an upgrade too. Baby's using the 2nd stage car seat now and we already hooked it in our Pilot.

Ayie

I mentioned in my previous post we filed our taxes for 2010 early this March. Thanks to Milu who patiently worked on our tax papers and discussed with us thoroughly how the system works. We'll have more knowledge of our tax filing for 2011 with more detailed tax deductibles which we missed to add for our 2010. It's our second time dealing with Milu for the taxes since hubs used to do it with her father who already retired and turned over the business to her. Although there are options to do taxes anywhere near where we live or even online, we still like the personal touch of Milu's Tax.



Milu's Tax has been serving the bay area for the past years under Eduardo Maggin who also partially worked on my immigration papers. I did have the chance to meet him when we filed taxes last 2009, the last year of his service. Unlike Milu's Tax which has been up and about all these years doesn't need any advertising anymore compared to our home business is still a baby which needs much care and attention. We were advised to do some advertising to help boost and broadcast our services.


Milu told us that if we used any advertising campaign or even print business cards it can be a deductible for the taxes. Good thing that she made it clear so if we decide to get an advertising agency to do the necessary advertisements for our business it's something we can take out from the tax. We can start looking into advertising platforms offered online and check out what That! Company has to offer. Getting professionals to do our advertising and marketing deals can be beneficial for us and our business' growth.


That! Company has strategic and direct online ad campaigns for the consumers in every industry to attract the customers every business needs. That! has a team of highly skilled advertising specialists who work on creating mixed media marketing experience by combining old and new media, this way advertising can keep up the with current advertising norms. That! doesn't only work on advertising promotions, it also offers public relations, media buying, search optimization and event promotions. Rest assured That! will do the hard work to keep the business advertisement rolling.


Ayie


Have you been waiting for the next update of our Manila trip? Sorry about that, me and baby got sick and on our way to recovery. I won't be blogging about our Manila trip this time (again, I know) because I still need to transfer the photos. Anyway I will be on the Manila trip again once I finish transferring and arranging all the photos. The next series of posts has a lot of shots from 4 different cameras that's why I have a lot to organize first before I can proceed with that episode.




A week after coming back from Philippines we had to go to San Francisco to work on our taxes. It's the first time we officially filed also for our registered home business. After our tax filing we drove our way to Embarcadero in San Francisco to take baby for a little adventure. It was a rainy day but that didn't stop us from enjoying the bay area. Last time we went there looking for parking was quite a challenge but this time around I did local search for public parking available nearby Pier 39. The local yellowpages online was efficient enough for me to locate local restaurants and attractions. We went to Pier 39 to have our lunch first in Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Market before doing other things there. What a great place to eat overlooking the bay! What's best to eat there? Of course shrimps!!



We enjoyed the foods there, the shrimps tasted so good! The garlic breads are excellent and you can't complain with their service. We also enjoyed the Forrest Gump trivia Q&A with the server there, we got most of the answers right. Hubs loves the movie so he knows details about the story. It's perfect that foods came so quickly, it's way past lunchtime when we got there therefore we're starving. After finishing up all our courses we decided to try their desserts. We chose pudding since that's the only one which doesn't look too sweet. It appeared to be as a great choice, delicious! We were so stuffed after such scrumptious meal but much to our delight, our server gave us the shaker and lighted tall cup as souvenir upon giving us the check.


Ayie

I am ever thankful to my mom who's always been supportive to me and helpful in all ways possible. Dad is also the same but mom has this push to make things happen. She knew how much we've been wanting to expand our home business with some online store selling native products and other stuffs, that's why she's been so enthusiastic about me selling those items she gave me for a start. Though we have some trial items to sell there are certain things to consider like where to sell, though a blog site? social network like facebook? webhosting? We even thought of giving the Sunday farmer's market a try just to see the feasibility of the products.



Having the items doesn't mean we're good to go right away if we're going to do things online. We have to prepare packing and shipping materials for each and every item and research for the rates ahead. This way we won't cause delay to the shipment having to figure it out by the time an order has been made. Another factor to consider is payment method. We have still to figure out how do we work on the payment system, it should be the most efficient way possible and easiest too. Having to think about all these makes me think that Sunday farmer's market seems easier but it's more time consuming. Right now we're not rushing on it since our hands are full with works here and there. I bet mom will understand that and thanks to her push we're trying our best to get on top of things.

Ayie
AdWords can do wonders when it comes to business advertisement success. Through this you can create your own ads, choose keywords in relation to your business. This way your business site can have specific target audience just with the help of the keywords pertaining to your business. AdWords is Google's main advertising product which offers pay-per-click, cost-per-thousand in local, national and international distribution. Having proper AdWords management can boost up your business searchability making people's searches more likely to locate to your site.

Do you think you can handle and work on AdWords management yourself? If not then leave it to Philly AdWords, an AdWords management company which is a qualified and certified Google partner company. Philly has professionals who are trained and know the standards of the system. Guaranteed that their expertise can contribute to the success of your campaigns therefore maximizing the return of your investment while you save yourself time from doing the works.

Ayie
c/o internet image

Miraculous indeed how this strong baby girl in her pink bear suit survived the tsunami when she was swept away from her parents' arms. If not because of her cry she could've never been found and because of her rescue there's a new hope to find more survivors. The baby was shortly reunited with her mother and father who both survived the tsunami.

c/o internet image

Japan's all over the news whether it's online or on television. I feel bad whenever I see the devastation and learn more about the impeding danger of the failing nuclear plant. It literally breaks my heart seeing all the chaos out there, nothing much I can do but pray and probably contribute even a little donation for the relief operations. Right after seeing this headline online I quickly read the full story and finally I found myself smiling for this great news.


Our Lady of Perpetual Help,

you have been blessed and favored by God.

You became not only the Mother of the Redeemer

but the Mother of the redeemed as well.

We come to you today as your loving children.

Watch over us and take care of us.

As you held the child Jesus in your loving arms,

so take us in your arms.

Be a mother ready at every moment to help us.

For God who is mighty has done great things for you,

and His mercy is from age to age on those who love Him.

Our greatest fear is that in time of temptation,

we may fail to call out to you, and become lost children.

Intercede for us, dear Mother, in obtaining pardon for our sins,
love for Jesus, final perseverance,
and the grace always to call upon you,

Our Mother of Perpetual Help, pray for us!

Amen.

Ayie

Who wants pests in their homes? I don't and I believe you don't want it too but those little buggers can be quite a headache to get rid off most especially if you are living in warm / hot places. No wonder every summer here bugs are more evident than any other seasons.

Now that we have a baby here at home we have to be extra cautious with pests. Pest control services are highly advisable at least yearly to make sure your home's protected. That's one thing that we need to bring up with the apartment manager here because we noticed he hasn't ordered any commercial pest control service for the entire apartment complex all these years. Good thing we always see to it our home's clean to avoid pests from breeding here.

Here are some bug facts quoted by a Las Vegas exterminator just to share here. This Las Vegas pest control company has a good and helpful website for those who need such service. They offer complete pest control services for residential and commercial establishment using products which are safe for children and pets.

  • Mosquitoes are attracted to the color blue twice as much as to any other color.
  • Butterflies taste with their hind feet.
  • If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death.
  • Pregnant for life? It doesn't sound like much fun, but some female cockroaches mate once and are pregnant for the rest of their lives.
  • No food for a month--not even a crumb? Roaches can go without eating for a month but will only live a week without water.

You may check out the following links Pest Control Services Nevada or Pest Control Company Las Vegas for more details. Elite pest control caters services within Las Vegas areas and if those bugs are bugging you, don't hesitate and make the call.

Ayie
We didn't expect car hunting to be quite stressful. For the past weeks we've been searching for the perfect SUV for us even checking car dealer sites and car classifieds for options. After narrowing down our preferences with the specifications we finally get to weigh out the car models which can be good candidates for our search.


Hubs and I agreed that we'll stick to used car for practical reasons. Definitely SUV and 4WD, preferably leather interior, 7-8 seater, automatic transmission, oil & fuel efficiency, good tires, safety features, car value and of course in very good condition. From there we compared various SUV models and came down to 2 major choices, Acura & Honda. We both like the over-all look for the two options but after checking out reviews for both we finally nailed down what we want to buy soon. Wanna guess? Given all the considerations we have in mind you'll know which car got our approval =)


Location also played a big part in our decision, it wasn't easy finding the car we want with the price we have in mind in nearby places. Only if we can easily go to far places and get used cars in West Palm Beach, East coast or Arizona then it would have been a lot easier. Apparently cars here in CA just like the houses are more expensive than other states. What's important now is that we are closing our car deal soon and off to our next goal. I will just reveal our choice later when we're done with our purchase =)
Ayie
...I made this for his blow-up photo concept, what do you think?...

You must be tired of reading my posts about the tiring work days we had since we arrived in Manila. All those days we had to move here and there, do this and that. Now enough of that and it's time to reveal one of the reason for our trip in the Philippines. Any vague idea? Oh well, our little boy has finally turned one and my family made a big celebration for him there.

Since baby's born we had things planned ahead how are we celebrating certain occasions here and there. We did his baptismal here, baby celebrated Thanksgiving, Halloween, Christmas and New Year here for his first 11mos so we decided it would be just fair to have his first birthday celebrated in Manila. Technically that's the idea though we still kind of made a pre-birthday celebration here days before we left for Philippines. Truly his first is something memorable because officially baby turned one during our flight back home. We left US on Jan 31st at night and arrived in the Philippines on Feb 2 already. So over the Pacific while everybody's (most people) sleeping in the plane we patiently waited for 6:47am US time to greet our boy.


Baby's birthday was celebrated in SHAKEY'S with a few of our close friends and relatives and a lot of the neighbors. Mom practically invited the whole neighborhood saying that it's hard if they will miss some people who might feel bad not being part of it. That celebration also served as a reunion or get together with our friends because we knew our vacation time is limited and we won't get the chance to see them all again after that. It was a big party and so many kids. I admit it ended up to be pretty tiring since I had to carry baby almost the whole event! I was already getting cranky at some point when baby's already getting hungry and so as mommy and daddy! *lol*


The venue reservation and the whole party were my mom and dad's gift, the grand cake from my sisterand additional loot bags and giveaways from my brother. I just hired a photo-video service to cover the birthday so we don't need to worry about the cameras and all. Mom opted for the clowns rather than getting mascot appearance which is usually just few minutes after the candle blowing. The clown kept the crowd entertained the whole event with the games and the magic tricks. My sister also pre-designed the tarpaulin which I finished and redefined and dad had it printed.


Baby loved it when the kids circled around him and started singing happy birthday. He was walking around looking at everybody while giggling and smiling. He also loved it when he was about to blow the candle (though mommy did it) because he got to be near his very nice cake and again surrounded by kids singing happy birthday. He became familiar with the song because days before his birthday I started singing it to him, he was even singing it during our flight. Don't think everything was happy for mommy, I scolded the clown for breaking the candle. Yes, he broke the candle in half!


The party was great and thanks to my family, relatives, friends and other guests who came. You all made it memorable for our little boy. Baby received many gifts mostly clothes, some toys and cash. He has a good new set of clothes even good for his later years.

Ayie
Calling internationally is so easy nowadays, callcards are everywhere which has good number of minutes in an affordable price or even better call free using Yahoo Messenger or Skype. Technology has truly bridged communications all throughout the world. It's fast and cheap unlike before when all you can use is a regular phone line connecting through an operator either direct or collect call.

Given these cheap and free options these are just recommended for personal use. Of course if you are doing business calls and other important transactions it's better to have your own international call forwarding. If you are thinking global when it comes to your business then a toll free forwarding is just what you need to be globally competitive with all other businesses. This can promote flexibility and convenience between you and the clients being able to converse without thinking of staggering phone bills after each transaction. It gives a more professional feel to the business too when you buy toll free number. With that you can be virtually be all over the globe!

Ayie

We're up early on a Saturday to bring mom to work and then pass by the hardware to get the materials needed. We're so lucky that dad got everything settled in the hardware and we even got discounts because of him. We had to head back home though to change car and haul all dad's equipment and tools.


I went with them even if I can't really be much of a help since I had to take care of baby. Just a little sweeping here and there, that's the most that I could do that time and also dealing with the pump and tank installer. Dad, hubs and uncle on the other hand were so busy trying to finish as much job as possible. They were even stalled because the materials had to be delivered at home around lunch time and we had to go back for that and also eat. Since my work's done there already me and baby stayed home and just let the guys go back to continue working.


After a whole day's work hubs got a bit sick. He was pretty much exhausted doing so much labor that day. We had to make him rest good so he can be good for baby's birthday celebration on Sunday. Seems like work follows us wherever we go. Who would've thought our vacation will require so much other things here and there? Well we had no choice, things had to be done and we wanted to accomplish things within the first week of our vacation so we can enjoy the rest of the 2wks to come.

Thanks Dad & Kuya Glenn so much for all the help!
Trailers of movies we have seen on the big screen!
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