The Journey. It’s Mine. [My personal take on love, life, parenting and blogging.]

It has been awhile that I haven’t talked about nor taken a picture of our house, where bulk of my blog money went into at that time when blogging money was at a sky high and we’ve been struck by several typhoons. There was no choice but to build and reconstruct.

We’ve been living at the said house even though it isn’t fully polished yet. Different storms struck us, the boys went back to school and Raine started the big school. The American Recession came and blog money went into a plunge. We had to tighten our belts. Besides, we just gotta eat and send the boys to school.

Miracles happen. After a series of trainings and loans my seaman brother is now a 3rd mate. That wasn’t easy, my mother has to suffer no allotment for six months. Angels came into our lives and helped us survive the trying times. We paid the loans (some we are still paying, but we’re getting there) and tighten our belts some more.

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Speaking of summer vacation…this time I’m not going to resort to books (like I did during Christmas vacation).

This time we are going places. Raine and I will visit my sister-in-law in Meycauayan, Bulacan and then we will head on to Subic to visit Ninang Gemma.

For sure we will hit the beach and do more fun stuff that Raine will enjoy as well.

My mother will tag along too. So it’s going to be fun!

In a few minutes I’ll be taking Raine to school. Gosh it’s Monday again and we barely had a weekend. It’s just 634 and I’m already dead tired. Raine just wasn’t cooperating this early. I have to do some ’shock and awe’ moments in order for him to move from the bed, to the kitchen table and then to the bathroom.

Hayyy. My only consolation these days is that summer vacation is on the horizon. I can’t wait!

Soon enough I’m gonna be needing the best best face cream.

What with all of Raine’s pasaways…

His school is pasaway too. They aren’t contented that the kids have classes all Saturdays of January, they included all Saturdays of February as well.

No wonder Raine’s been grumpy lately. He is tired and stressed out. If he is tired and stressed out, then what do you call me?

Now both of us are grumpy…

I might as well remove my blog roll.

Blogs are either not updated for ages.

Or has totally disappeared.

Where have all the bloggers gone?

I hope they have found a better life outside of the internet.

FOUND.

Kung hindi?

Raine will have:

no watching cartoons

no computer games

no playing with playmates.

This jacket that Raine is wearing is his only decent jacket.

This wasn’t cheap.

I got it in early January 2009 as a belated birthday gift to Raine.

We were just lucky that the only real department store in the city had this in stock.

It’s a shade of green because green is Raine’s favorite color.

Now I am both angry and sad.

Because today, Raine lost it in school. He had to come back this afternoon to search for it. With no luck. He’ll search again tomorrow, he said. But I’m not very optimistic.

GRRRRRR. I’m so angry at you Raine! You don’t seem to care about your stuff. But I do. I do care a lot. And it pains me. Because you think I can buy another right away. I just can’t Raine. Not right away. And whether we get another one some time later, it just won’t be the same. The face towels, pencils, hats and what-nots that you lose everyday…I can let those pass with a shrug. But not this time Raine.  When it rains tomorrow and every day after that, you’ll be reminded that you lost this nice jacket of yours and it’s completely your fault alone.

Galit pa rin ako. Kainis talaga.

Blogging sometimes involve the review of promotional products. You will usually get a sample of the product for your own use. I’ve had my own share of such kind of blogging (in my problogs). PR people were kind enough to send me their products even though I am not based in the USA or Canada.

Always, I made sure I gave an honest review — whether or not I find the product favorable to my taste. Besides, I am always entitled to my own honest opinion, right?

However, when you do one? They all keep coming. One day your inbox will be flooded by these PR people. So I just took the liberty of picking out the really good ones that are related to my blogs. Sometimes the items don’t arrive in the mail. Then I’ll completely forget about it. Then I’ll get a follow-up email. Crap. Ha ha ha.

It’s time to edit once more and send out resumes. In March, it will be four years that I am outside of the employed world. The freelance world, while lucrative in the first two years has turned sour and really boring for me. I need something that will activate my brain in a different way. Or just a job for security’s sake.

Also, I miss dressing up for work and having a rather structured day as far as schedules are concerned.

So it’s time to really get serious in job hunting. I really wanna be employed once more. Any leads?

Because it has been raining really hard the whole weekend (parang may typhoon) Raine and I decided to stay in our city house the whole weekend. Saturday morning was Raine’s last day of 3rd quarter exam anyway. I figured we just stay on and rest the whole weekend away.

So Raine and I have been taking turns in the computer. To my own demise! Raine is using it 80% of the time. Anyways, I have the whole school week to go online to my heart’s content. (It’s not as if we are going cross country moving.)

While offline, I did the laundry and cleaned the CR. (Parts of the house too that Raine isn’t messing up with his toys.) Did some reading, overslept this morning and cooked brunch.

Hmmmm…I can get use to this.

There was a time in 2004 when my computer crashed. I lost 2 years of Raine’s photos. The photos were the first two years os Raine’s life in which I painstakingly took photos of him on  a monthly basis. Lame I know, but I can’t help it, I’m such a proud mom.

Anyways, I’ve since made back-ups in CDs. But then I found out that CDs don’t usually pass the test of time. I mean time will come that your CD will be unusable. The perfect solution is an online backup.

For our photos, I use Flickr. For my documents I use Google Documents.

However, there are photos that I cannot post online. So I still have to have another back-up such as in a CD. Same goes for documents, even if I can keep it private online.

These days I make sure that my computer is fully protected and secured. (A good, licensed anti-virus software is a must.) Nobody is allowed to plug in any USB stick (most probably infected with virus!) even for matter of life and death circumstances. My brothers are not even allowed to use my computers anymore. Why? They love going to websites laden with malwares and other scary stuff.

I know that there is no such thing as 100% protection and secured as far as personal computers are concerned, but it doesn’t stop me from taking measures to come close to it.

What about you, how do you deal with back-ups and protecting your computer?

Raine’s 3rd quarter exam - which starts today - is a huge sign that school will soon come to an end. Before I know it, we’ll be receiving graduation invitations in no time.

That means more than 2 months of vacation is in the horizon for us. Summer vacation anyone?

But since I have online duties, the summer vacation will pose a slight problem. Since all my online gears (computer, own internet connection) is in the city house, I’ll probably have to come here regularly during the week.

Maybe MWF? We’ll see. That’s more than 2 months away still and here I am making plans! He he he.

Indeed better days are over. Starting tomorrow it’s back to my daily grind of waking up very early and preparing Raine for school. Not that I’m complaining. It’s just funny how time flies. Our 3 weeks of vacation is finally over.

What did I do without getting bored you might ask? I read books, novels. IN BED! Ha ha ha. For me that’s just the most blissful thing to do on a vacation, not even staying in cancun hotels will lure me out of that particular “vice”. Finally I had the time to just  read and read without minding the time. As Raine’s been busy with playing and other stuff that kids does on vacation while my mother whips up food in the kitchen. For once it is good to not think of what to eat next nor whether I will prepare the said meal or just eat out.

The highlight of our vacation is of course Raine’s 7th  birthday last December 29. (Pssst mga ninong at ninang, mga tito at tita…wala pa kayong gift kay Raine! He he he. Puede namang ipadala na lang, o kaya email me, laging naka-ready details ng bank account ko. Ha ha ha!!)

But then the summer vacation is something to look forward to as well.

First of all, happy new year everyone from across the globe. Pardon the short hiatus here, simply because my computer and internet connection is in the city while Raine and I spent our holidays in the barrio.

Nothing spectacular with our holidays. It was a quiet time Raine and I spent with the family. Quality time with famiyl is the most important thing I think, more important than Christmas gifts and holiday feasts.

So there it is…I’m checking in here right now as I checked in our city house. A few days more of vacation left and then it will back to our daily grind as Raine’s class resumes on the 11th. ‘Til then, I’m still sleeping late and reading a book in bed. Ha ha!

Happy New Year again and here’s wishing you all the best in 2010. Cheers!

Today is officially Raine’s last day of formal school this year. Tomorrow will all be merry making: Christmas parties and stuff. He doesn’t even have to wear a uniform tomorrow. Just one of his casual clothes.

While this blog don’t get updated in the next three weeks (classes resume January 11, 2010), that means we are having fun having a quiet holidays in the barrio.

So if I don’t get to greet you, I’ll do it already: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all. All my best wishes through the coming new year.