Tuesday, November 30, 2010

A bit frustrated!

I was kinda frustrated when we went to see the doctor yesterday. I was hoping he would tell me something new. I don’t know maybe I was hoping he’d tell me I could have the baby that day or something, lol! The waiting is killing me! The closer I am to my due date, with no signs of labor besides the irregular contractions every once in a while, cervix has not dilated nor effaced, baby is still riding up high and being told every time that my narrow frame/pelvis might not be able to accommodate a big baby, I am quite certain that I may have to take the CS route. I don’t like it of course, but whatever, lol! I just want some developments in this pregnancy. It feels like I’ve been pregnant forever. I want to see and hold my baby already. Anyway, he told us to come back in his office on Friday. So until then I really don’t know what could happen. To take my mind off the stress of anticipation, we went to Walmart right after the appointment and bought more baby stuff. I need a messenger type diaper bag and I saw one in Walmart that I like at an affordable price. We got some more baby wipes, diapers, Aveeno baby wash and fragrance-free Aveeno Baby Daily Moisture Lotion. I stopped by the skin care section and saw all different kinds of acne body wash and facial products but had to remind myself that I don't need them anymore since my face is actually clearing up on its own.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Uniforms don't have to be plain and boring

I may just be the only one among us three siblings that hasn’t worn scrubs and probably wouldn't ever have the chance to. Our youngest sister is in 4th year Nursing now and she has been wearing nursing uniforms since freshman. It won't be long before she'll start wearing nursing scrubs, God-willing. My other sister who's currently in the dental field has been wearing dental scrubs as her everyday get up for work. I find that some scrubs have cute designs and fit that would actually make it less boring to wear them.

Many would go for cheap scrub sets, which I think seems practical. But some are more concerned with the fitting and style so they wanted a set that would make them feel good about themselves while wearing them on a day to day basis. Well, BlueSkyScrubs is the perfect place to look for both. They sell all different kinds of medical scrubs for all different types of health care profession. So if you're looking for cheap but great looking scrubs, check out their website and enjoy the variety of attractive and colorful looking medical scrubs in the market today.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

No tree for this year

Christmas is just around the corner. Many have started setting up their artificial christmas tree to create a festive and holiday spirit at home. On my first Christmas here in the U.S., hubby suggested to get a real tree and decorate it to our liking. But I liked the idea of an artificial tree better so we ended up getting a 7-foot Christmas tree instead. We had fun decorating it. This year, I am not that eager to put up a tree since it takes effort to do it and as you all know, I’m ready to pop anytime now and we’ll be so busy attending to our newborn by the time Christmas comes. But hubby insisted that we should still put up the tree and he will decorate it himself, hehe. Hmm, I’m not really sure about that! I still think it will be easier on us both if we skip decorating this year.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

It's not the end of it all

In the past, I had a long time struggle with keeping my acne problems at bay. Just when I quit caring about it because I can no longer use chemicals when I got pregnant, a little miracle happens. My face started to clear up on its own. I’m sure there are more people out there who are dealing with all types of skin issues besides acne, like eczema for example. I don’t have enough knowledge about this skin disease but I had a cousin who suffered from it before. It made her life miserable. So even back when I was at the height of my own acne problems, I still felt lucky that I didn't have to go through what she went through with her eczema problems. But thankfully, every problem has a solution. Eventually, she found the perfect cure and now is enjoying a life free from skin troubles.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Another First: Making our own Thanksgiving memories together.

Since any day now I could possibly go into labor, we decided not to spend Thanksgiving dinner with Jeff's dad and relatives. For the past 2 years, we've always celebrated Thanksgiving with them. I find it convenient since we didn't have to cook or prepare anything which was cool, hehe! It was a long drive to their place though which I really didn't mind at all back then since we love road trips. But that has changed because of my condition. I am now 39 weeks far along and we couldn't risk taking a 4-hour drive. So we thought of just making our first Thanksgiving memories together in our home. We didn't have guests but still we prepared a little something for us to enjoy together. We have so much to thank for this year. A grand wedding of my dreams was made into reality on the early part this year. I went back to the PI for the first time and see my family again after 2 long years of being away from them. Apart from all the material things that we get to enjoy, the most precious gift of all is having our future bundle of joy in the next few days or so. Life has been really treating us well and I thank God for that. The cooking and baking part was kinda tiring but it was a whole new experience for me and we had fun spending some time together in the kitchen. The kitchen was a mess after the preparation but it was all worth it. We had another wonderful "us" memory that we could look back as we get older. Happy Thanksgiving!!!





Thursday, November 25, 2010

Let them take care of your leaf and limb problems

Trees do not only provide beauty, shade, a feeling of tranquility and serenity to people and environment, but they also provide environmental benefits by moderating climate, improving air quality, conserving water and harboring wildlife. There are so many different tree species that are native to the U.S. As a matter of fact, I always find it a pleasure to visit arboretums whenever we travel to other states. While most people like to have trees in their back and front yards, some might find it more of a nuisance than an asset.

Some trees need care. Proper trimming and pruning are essential to increasing a tree’s health and strength. That’s why in North Carolina, there are companies which provide great tree services for everyone to enjoy. One good example is tree service Durham NC, which basically offer trimming, pruning, or even stump removal and grinding. Like some states, North Carolina experiences a wide variety of damages from varying inclement weather conditions so it might be a wise decision to acquire professional tree removal Raleigh NC services to avoid the nasty possibility of a tree falling down in your yard, or on your car. If you live in Cary, NC, don't you fret none because you can also get an equally efficient tree removal Cary NC service from the same reputable company. I know tasks like these are time consuming and requires skills and expertise, but there's nothing to worry anymore. You don't have to do it yourself, hire someone whose an expert. It will give you some peace of mind.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Surprise visit from friends

I remember somebody told me before that wherever you are in the U.S., you can always find a Filipina. This is true! For the past 3 years, we've lived in small towns with a population of 3,000 or less. I was so sure back then that I'd be the only Pinay in our area but I was wrong. Filipinos are everywhere. I'm glad that I have my own circle of friends here in our area and most of them are Bisaya. Cool!

Last month, they gave me a surprise visit at home. They brought lots of food and some baby stuff. Hubby and I thought it was so nice of them to do that for me. We actually don't entertain much because both of us are shy so they are the first group of friends that we've had in the house. I was quite nervous but I really had a great time. We ate, chatted a lot and watched a Tagalog movie. I've met and bonded with them before and I feel like we've grown much closer after the visit. I am happy to have found a group of Pinays that get along well.

Pinobre style na kaon...gutom na kaau ug mga hitsura ay, hehe!

Pasensya na, unsaon gamay ra kaau amo payag, hehe!

Picture-picture dayon kay busog na man...

My favorites

Desserts

Never had this much vehicles in our driveway before, lol!


Below are some photos back when I first met them. Thank you so much guys for the wonderful friendship!!!




Friday, November 19, 2010

Advance holiday shopping

Have you done your Christmas shopping yet? I think Thanksgiving weekend would be the perfect time to start looking for the perfect gift for your loved ones. Most stores have wonderful Black Friday deals and you can get huge discount savings on your favorite items such as ipods, laptops, video games and so much more. We want to do our shopping before Black Friday though. I don't want to join the huge crowd in the malls because of my condition so we're driving to Battlefield Mall in Springfield this weekend and do our shopping there. This might be my last mall shopping for a while as we will be taking care of a newborn real soon. So I should make the most out of this, besides I need the exercise, hehe!

Monday, November 15, 2010

Packing my hospital bag

I am really getting closer and closer to my due date. Wohoo! Today, I am 37 weeks pregnant. Yep, that's right. In 3 weeks (a week after Thanksgiving), we will be welcoming a precious addition to our household. We are very excited and nervous about it. There's so much to learn but I guess our parental instincts would just kick in once we have him in our lives. I know it's going to be a big change and we're willing to make sacrifices for the little one.

Anyway, the last few weeks will be spent preparing for his arrival. The baby's room is not quite done yet, although I'm pretty sure we're gonna have that covered in 2 weeks. We pretty much have everything ready. We just have to do a little bit more tweaking as far as arranging, getting rid of some stuff in the room and probably making the room a little bit more colorful. My sister recently purchased a very nice Graco baby swing for the baby and some diaper organizer depot and had it delivered site-to-store in our Walmart branch. Thanks a lot, sistah! Then last weekend, we finally bought a much-needed swivel glider for feeding times. We have enough newborn diapers that would last us at least a month. I know we need more but I want to compare first whether Pampers Swaddlers Dry Max is better than Huggies Little Snugglers with U-shaped umbilical cord opening. Both have earned very good reviews but still I wanted to test them on our baby as far as softness, comfort, less leakage are concerned and decide which one to buy more.

In addition to preparing for the baby's immediate needs, I am also trying to condition myself for the upcoming challenge of labor and birth. While I prefer vaginal delivery anytime, I try to be flexible and open-minded on the possibility of having a C-section. Considering the size discrepancy between mine and hubby's, my doctor always forewarns us of a possibility of a big baby. We're not gonna force a vaginal birth if it will put the baby's life and mine at risk. When crunch time comes, we trust that our doctor must use discretion to decide whether a caesarean is necessary. All I could do really is to hope and pray that everything is going to turn out fine. From our last week's appointment, doctor told us that I'm still carrying high and that the baby hasn't dropped yet which he said usually is a sign of a big baby. He has moved into the head down position though. Next Friday, he will conduct an ultrasound to check how much the baby weighs right now and see if everything looks healthy and normal.

I just recently packed our hospital bag. I should have done this a while back but I'm such a procrastinator, lol...so anyway, uncertain how many days will my hospital stay be, I packed a few sets of newborn clothes and receiving blankets. In our birthing class, we were told that the hospital will basically provide everything for the baby...from blankets, hospital gowns, diapers, clothes, disposable undies, sanitary pads and more, but I still wanted to bring my own just in case. I definitely would just use the hospital gowns because I don't want to bleed on my favorite night gowns and undies, but it wouldn't hurt to still bring my own stuff, hehe.

The empty side is for my personal stuff
(gowns, socks, robe, nursing bras and going home maternity clothes)

I'm having second thoughts about bringing these nice, striped comfy socks for fear of getting them dirty and tinged with blood, hehe, so I might just leave them home and bring those cheap white socks instead.

sanitary pads, disposable breast pads and
lanolin breast cream
(the hospital might provide for these but like I've said, it wouldn't hurt to bring my own stuff)

Fluffy pink slippers for walking during early stages of labor and my nursing pillow

All packed and ready to go!

I still have to pack a separate bag for Jeff (just a few set of clothes and essentials) and of course some toiletries. I might have to double check my hospital bag list, just to be sure that I got everything covered. And now...the real waiting game begins!!!

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Finally I bid goodbye to acne

One of the good effects that this pregnancy had on me is an end to my seemingly futile battle against acne. I had acne problems pre-pregnancy and it even came to a point where I needed some aesthetic care intervention. I had tried all different kinds of acne products but to no avail. Although they had controlled mostly the problem area but they still keep coming back no matter what I did. I was amazed when I noticed that on my second trimester of pregnancy, my face started to clear up even when I had stopped using acne medication. Could it be the pre-natal vitamins I am taking or just simply the pregnancy hormones? I don’t know for certain but I am really glad that my face has taken some break from acne flare-ups. I hope this would be a permanent thing already because it sure feels wonderful not having to worry about constant breakouts anymore.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Locked myself out

Something crazy happened to me today. I went to check on our potted plants which I placed in the back of the house. These are not indoor plants and I figure they will eventually die anyway because of the cold weather. But still I wanted to see for myself, maybe I could water them a few more and help them survive for a few more days. But anyway what happened was, I locked myself out of the house. They use one of those cheap door lock accessories in the back screen door and for some reason, it just locked on its own leaving me stuck out in the cold. Grrr! I can’t use the front door either because we always keep that one locked as well. Then I thought about using our garage door opener inside our car which was parked in the driveway. It was a blessing in disguise that hubby forgot to lock the car doors the night before or else I would have been stuck outside until he comes home at 5:00 p.m. That would have been a disaster huh!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Make the most out of your iPhone

I must admit I don’t keep up with the cell phone technology. We have a very efficient landline with great features so I don’t see the need of paying monthly cell phone bills since I stay at home all the time. Hubby calls me from work during break times using landline. I communicate with friends and family through instant messaging, Facebook, and of course landline phones. So the only time that I would probably need a cell phone is when we travel. And for those few occasions when we have to leave home and go someplace else, I carry a prepaid cellphone with me. I bought it at Walmart at a very cheap price. I’ve been keeping it for 2 years now. I can only count with my fingers how many times I have put it to use but nonetheless, it had served the purpose when we’re away from home. I still have plenty of minutes left and to think it’s been like almost a year now since I bought a $25 dollar prepaid load, hehe! That’s why I really don’t care much about the fancy cell phone updates and stuff. But of course I have heard about Droids, iPhones, Blackberry and the like. To keep up with the stiff technology competition, they seem to have new product features and updates every single week. Okay, I’m probably just exaggerating but yeah it drives me insane watching all those fancy cellphone commercials. Recently, I have heard about this iphone recovery spy data stick. It looks like an ordinary USB flash drive that can recover deleted text messages, calls, contacts, appointments and pictures. At first glance, it seems promising but as I’ve read on, they talk about popularly using it to catch cheating spouses and monitoring other people’s cell phone activities. Whoa! Isn’t that scary? That’s completely invasion of privacy, right? But anyway, it probably depends on how a person uses it. Generally, I guess it’s another wonderful product feature that you can use on an iPhone.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Stop the junk mails please!

Have you been getting junk mails in your mailbox on a regular basis? We have, and I’m too lazy to sort and toss the mails right away so I end up with a pile of paper crap cluttered either on our kitchen table or Jeff’s computer desk. I finally had the motivation to take care of them the other day, and I was surprised on how much paper junk mails we have accumulated for the last month or so. I am not an environmentalist or something but when I throw a whole bunch of paper junks like that, it made me think these businesses were just wasting their time and of course they’re not helping for a clean and green environment either by using so much paper and randomly sending them to people like us who sometimes never even bother to read what they are selling or advertising. Some advertisers get even fancier with their advertising by using door hangers which I must say look good but like what I’ve said, we don’t usually get sucked in by those product advertisements especially pre-approved credit card offers which we have been getting every week, so I think they are just wasting both their time and ours.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Three years of a blissful marriage

This was taken last October 27th at our 3rd Anniversary dinner date. Yes, we have been married for 3 wonderful years now. We've known each other for 5 years if we were to count the first time we've met online. It took 10 months before we finally met in person. Then he made 2 trips to the Philippines to see me before he proposed. And the rest, they say is history!

A lot of great things have happened since then. We were married twice. One wedding was a simple church wedding in the U.S. Two years after, my dream wedding was made into a reality when we had a grand Catholic church wedding in the Philippines. And now as we continue further on our journey together, we're expecting a baby boy! We feel so blessed and everything just seems to fall into place.

Marriage is a continuous adjustment process. You learn both good and bad things about your partner each day. But I think that's what makes the whole relationship exciting. It would have been so boring if both of you were created perfect, or if you share ALL the same interests in life. Of course we have some common interests and quite a few differences, but I'd say we're very much compatible which makes it so much easier to adjust to each other's individuality. As long as both parties are willing to put forth the effort to make the marriage work, there's no strong storm in life that you can't face. After all, you have God and each other to lean on and draw strength from.

I'll leave you some photos from our 2 weddings. Enjoy!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Auction sites for cigar users out there

I find it strange to talk about smoking on my blog for two reasons. First, because I don’t smoke and second is I am pregnant and it’s a definite no-no, but of course, I have known people that smoke. I’m not going to talk about the hazards of smoking because it’s really a personal preference. To each his own. It’s just that a friend of mine happened to mention that she sometimes visit cigar auction sites to find the best cigars in the market. She obviously likes to smoke and she’s into cigars lately. I bet cigars are more expensive than cigarettes. There must be a big difference between the two because she seems to like cigars better.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Her efforts yielded good results

When a person desires to lose weight, she would try anything possible in this world to achieve just that. Some are lucky with the type of fitness and diet regimen they’re using but others might find it hard to find the one that works for them. I have heard from people who get frustrated because there seems to be no effect on their battle against weight loss. I guess a friend of mine just got lucky because after just a year of using a certain pill, it had worked for her immediately. It probably takes more than just a pill though to achieve that but she was quite happy to share her diet secret. You can click here to learn more about it.

Great Christmas gift ideas

Looking for a perfect gift this Christmas? Check out some ncstar binoculars for sports, marine, and hunting enthusiasts. NcStar had been around for 12 years and has provided excellent optics options for a number of leading brands. Binoculars come in handy when you need superior depth effect, allowing the viewer to use both eyes when viewing distant objects. There are a few important things to consider when you look for binoculars. Optic Sale website would be the perfect place for that.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Reunited with an old friend

Facebook is really a great social networking medium to reunite with old friends and relatives. Just recently, I found an old friend’s profile and added her to my friends’ list. It has been a while since we last kept in touch and it was really exciting to catch up and communicate again. I was totally surprised with how much different she looks right now though. She lost so much weight which actually made her look very sexy and good. Asked about her secret, she was quick to tell me she’s been using phentermine diet pills. Well, I’m glad it worked for her. She said she’s too lazy to exercise so she chose the easy way. I didn’t probe more since I’m not really interested with diet pills anyway, but it was really good to see her back.