It's almost Christmas

And nothing like listening to Christmas songs while wrapping Christmas gifts can make you feel the spirit of the season.

My work desk - at home

I haven't been out to my "real" office this week - on my 4th day running.  So I thought I'd share what my work desk looks like at home.  It isn't much, but for some reason I very much rather like working at home more than I do at the office.  Although on hot summer days, I'd rather freeze at the office than fry in my own oil at home.  Anyway...

My very messy work desk at home

I've converted our old dining table into our work desk.  This is where the hubby also does his OT work or online "window" shopping :D  I do lots of things here, like work, blog, facebook, tweet, pay bills, online banking, skyping, scrapbooking, gift wrapping.  You name it, this table has seen it all.  And more, in fact :D

To my right is a window where some birds take refuge on rainy days.  To my left is the flight of stairs and where we also put the towels to dry - dual purpose.  In front of the desk is a small window and a blank wall.  I'm still thinking what to put against the wall.  I'm thinking bookshelves or paintings.  We'll see how this progress.

My trusty Blackberry and Ipod

I can't live without both.  I even sleep with them under my pillow.  I get in touch with people from work, the hubby, family and friends through my blackberry.  For me, BBM is LOVE :D  My Ipod gives me music (listening to Miss Saigon sound track at mo, and yes, I love musicals).  I'm a huge fan of Plants vs Zombies!  I play PvZ before going to sleep.  If I get stumped at an issue at work, I play PvZ to give me a short break.  I play it while waiting in line.  It's my daily doze of relaxation hehe



Blackberry earphones

 I need this for those quick calls with officemates or clients.  It works great as it takes out all the ambient noise and I get to hear clearly what the other person is saying in the other line.  And they won't know where I'm at!  Plus very convenient coz I'm hands free.

Landline with speaker phone

There are times when the wireless signal go haywire, like you know, last night, I have my speaker phone to use during conference calls.  The unit actually has a handphone, but for the life of me, I can't find it.  So all my landline calls are on speaker, even when I order our gas or set an appointment with our suking Spa LOL

External drives

Let's just say that I have lots of files, both work and not work related.  So I have lots of external drives.  There's even a red one, but it's plugged into our media drive downstairs.

I'm a fan of CD-R King

And because I have lots of stuff attached to my laptop, I need a USB port.  Hence the blue USB port from CD-R King.  And I when I need to upload pictures, I have the CD-R King card reader.  Both are really cheap and work well.  My card reader is already as old as my son and even survived about 2 other card readers.  My USB port is quite new, but so far, it's doing it's job really well.

Fan-ny han-ny

There's a small fan for my laptop.  And then a desk calendar, to keep me updated hehe!  And an well, an extension wire for the power cords.




To file and pay

 At the other end of the table, I keep the things to file, fill-out and pay.  I keep it in a separate corner where there's space for writing.

So, that's my work space.  What about yours?

To red or not to red

I'm not an expert in make-up, in fact, I don't do a lot of make-up.  I have to attend a close friend's wedding, so I had to practice putting on make up.  So I did a couple of experiments and had my boys judge.  Here's what I did:

The hubby thinks the pale pink is better.  He likes the natural look.  The little one loves the red.  Coz red is nice, right? LOL

So what do you think?

Small talk

While driving towards Laiya last Wednesday night with friends, they commented that I wouldn't last a minute without talking.  I really think that I would.  I mean, there would be moments when I'm with the hubby that we don't talk.  And not just when I don't "feel" talking to him, but those moments when we have coffee and just relax.  But then, my friends proved me wrong on that very night.  LOL.

Last night hubby and I were waiting for our take-away dinner.  We both just had our hair cuts.  And I was still mourning the loss of my long curly hair.  It was just getting too dry, so I had to chop off the dry roots. 
Anyway, the conversation went like this:

We converse in Bisaya so I've added the English transaction
Me: Ganahan ka sa akong mubong buhok? (Do you like my shorter hair?)

Hubby: Yes.
Me: Mas ganahan ka sa akong mubo or taas na buhok? (Do you like my shorter hair or my longer hair?)
Hubby: Mubo (Shorter hair)
Me: Mas ganahan ka sa akong mubo na straight or taas na kulot? (Do you like my shorter straight hair or my longer curly hair?)
Hubby: Mubo (Shorter hair)
Me: Dili diay ka ganahan sa akong kulot na buhok? (You don't like my curly hair?)
Hubby: Dili (No)
Me: Nganong ganahan man ka sa akong mubo nga straight hair? (Why do you like my shorter straight hair?)
Hubby:  Daghanang pangutana sa buhok oi! (Too many questions on hair!)
Me: hehehehe

Long Weekends are LOVE!

The long weekend almost came out a surprise.  Only was aware of it with less than a month to go, by then it was too late to plan something.  Plus, it is monsoon and typhoon season.  My cousin and I did plan to do something over the weekend - but it was not a concrete plan.  More of like lets-plan-something-if-we're-not-lazy-to-go-out.



Our weekend munchies

  So we spent Saturday holed up at home.  Watched movies, played PSP, filed out application forms, cleaned up my files. 




Photocredit: http://www.thinkhero.com/

And then after hearing mass on Sunday, we watched Cars 2 on Sunday.  My little boy was so excited to watch, but when we were watching, he lost interest.  The plot was too adult, I think.  Cars (the first movie) was a whole lot better.

Biking with my family at Nuvali

Thankfully, the rain finally let up last Monday.  So we were able to go out of the house and bike around Nuvali.  The little one was able to keep up with us, and biked with us for about 3k.

Now the long weekend is winding down.  But until night rolls in, I'm going to savour every minute.

All the talk about breastfeeding

Picture from http://www.breastfeedingproblems.org/to-breastfeed-or-not-to-breastfeedthat-is-the-question/

I’ve been reading about breastfeeding from a few blogs, such as Toni of Wifely Steps. It made it take a look back at my attempts in breastfeeding my little one, some five years ago. Getting pregnant at 28 for the first time isn’t really high risk yet. But unfortunately, I didn’t have an easy pregnancy. The first 3 months flew by like a breeze, I didn’t suffer any morning sickness at all, in fact, I didn’t think I was pregnant. I had polycystic ovaries then, so I wasn’t alarmed when I didn’t have my period for 3 months.

But then the 5th month rolled in and I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes and hypertension. I went to see the doctor every week for ultrasounds and other tests. And then I was advised to best rest with long hospital admissions until the 8th month. I had to take a leave from work and delivered my little boy a month pre-mature. Good thing my doctors were really cautious. My little boy has healthy thankfully, but he was on IV the first 2 days. I only got to see him on the second day at the nursery.

Before I gave birth, I was keen on breastfeeding him. Reading and hearing of all the benefits of breastfeeding made me decide to do it, plus it’s very economical. I bought a breast pump and prepared bottles to keep the milk for when I needed to get back to work.

So I gave birth and the first time we tried to breastfeed, he couldn’t latch properly but thankfully he got the colostrums. The nurses at the hospital were very supportive, so every 2-3 hours or so, I went back to the nursery and tried. He only was able breastfeed so quickly. When we got home, we had to mix formula and breastfeeding, as my milk supply wasn’t enough for him. In between trying to breastfeed, I pumped milk. Sadly after a few days, my milk just dried up  I tried all kinds of ways to increase milk supply – my mom cooked me soup every day, I had malunggay too.

I couldn’t breastfeed. Regrettably, my son wasn’t breastfed. Fortunately though, he’s been a healthy kid. Save for a few bouts of flu, coughs and colds. My pedia said that we shouldn’t worry a lot since there are a million kids of flu viruses, and we might encounter a couple of hundreds. If and when we are blessed with another baby, I will still try breastfeeding. Maybe my milk supply would be better then.

Random for a Friday

So it's rather been an interesting few weeks.  And my thoughts are kinda scattered lately, so I'll just put in random thoughts in bullet points.

• It was my son, K, first time to have first quarter exams.  And I was the nervous wreck!  I prepared sample quizzes and pushed him to study harder... hard enough that my husband, D, asked me to stop several times.  I just want him to excel, and I worry about his Filipino.  By the last day, I calmed down a bit since it's Math and it helped that K always told me the exams were easy.  Let's wait for the report card then. haha
• Bills keep piling up.  The thing is, money isn't always enough.  But we are spending for investments and savings.  It's just hard to scrimp, and want that bag or that IPad! :D
• Finding the right school for your kid is very hard.  And applying for that school is so competitive!
• September is my birthday month.  This is the year we try to get pregnant for the second time.  Hopefully, I'll be healthy enough.  More trips to the doctors.  Again.
• October is the month we'll know if our lives will change next school year.  Anticipation is so nerve wracking!

I take this Friday with a lot of things in mind, as we ease into the weekend.  Hope your weekend will be well spent!