The Lounge of Sandy

Until I started gardening just before summer officially started this year!  It’s fun and it helps take away all my stress for the day.  It gives me joy especially seeing flowers and fruits from what I planted.  I have several tomatoes (cherry, jet star and california wonder), peppers (green and red bell), basil, peppermint, pansies and marigolds.  It’s always a joy for me especially when I started seeing blossoms from my plants!  To this day, I have already harvested quite a few from my tomatoes, basil and bell peppers and more to come in the next few days.   It’s fun and it delights me every time I see the fruits of my labor, haha!  Anyway, I’m now thinking of making some stuffed peppers in the next few days as I expect to have quite a handful of peppers.  I’m just not a happy camper lately because our temperature at night would sometimes be in the 30’s and I hate to lose all of my plants especially when fall starts and the dreaded winter comesL 

Literally.  A lot of things happened in the past months that I know some of you may be wondering why I haven’t been updating my blog.   One thing right after another happened and they were kind of stressful on my part and so thus the reason why I have been so quiet and aloof.

First, we moved to a new place.  I thought it was only going to be easy but I was wrong.  It takes a lot of work to move especially if one in your family is a pack rat (in our case it’s my husband).  I have to deal with a lot of papers that he doesn’t like to throw or shred because he was afraid that one day we’ll be randomly audited by the IRS.  I was like “hello, they’re more than 10 years old crap; they won’t be going after us for that!”  But then, he still won and the files of paper stayed.

Second, our management changed at work.  Our executive director just walked out on us one day and we were all left behind in a limbo.  The corporate office took over for more than a month until they found someone to replace our old ED.  Corporate bosses lay off several supervisory positions and I thought I will be one of them.  Well, it didn’t happen because eventually I was announced the employee of the year (2007, it was announced late because of all the problems we had) and employee of the first quarter of 2008.  Come on; give me a hand, people!J 

Third, two of my nieces came to visit us along with 2 kiddos.  It was fun and both I and my husband really did enjoy their company.  Everyday we were doing some serious shopping here and there.  I was able to drive in places where I didn’t usually go before because I just wasn’t feeling confident then.  I just realized that when you have passengers with you, your confidence just soars to the highest level, haha! 

Fourth, my husband finally underwent to a knee surgery just recently after postponing several schedules he had before.  Man, it was the most stressful of all time for me.  Just imagine having to juggle between job and looking after my patient.  It wasn’t fun at all but we’re able to survive.  My mother-in-law stayed with us for more than a week; bless her heart because she was really a big help to both of us.  I got so spoiled; she did most of the house work and every time I arrive home from work, dinner was always ready!   God knows how we both miss her after she finally realizes that she’s been spoiling both of us and went back home, haha!  But kidding aside, she really did a lot here and we were both concern that she was doing too much she can handle.  Anyway, thank God husbandry is now doing great after the surgery.  He was a star patient!  He literally followed the doctor’s advice and was very diligent on his physical therapy sessions.  He worked really hard to be able to achieve such a successful turn-out on his surgery.  His walking prior to the surgery was really bad because his knee has been bone on bone for years after he had a motorcycle accident in the early 80’s.  It’s funny because he dreads being my passenger on the car before the surgery.  Whenever we go out or go to places, he’s always the official driver no matter what.  But after the surgery and with him being on medications and unable to drive; he didn’t have any choice but to be my passenger!  He got used to it though, and felt confident enough to finally be on the passenger seat and let me do most of the driving, haha!

Fifth (and last I hope), I have been diagnosed recently with endometrial fibroids and polyps again.  The fibroids and polyps are still very small and not harmful but they’re causing me to have longer periods than usual.  I thought I was going to have a surgery but my OB Gyn suggested to try to have them dissolved with medication first since the biggest was only like 7mm.  Then, if the problem still persists we need to do biopsy and probably decide on the next to follow.  But I’m hoping that the medication that she gave me helps and I don’t have to undergo any surgery.  Last thing I wanted to be in is being hospitalized because it’s never fun spending all your saved money.  But if it’s really something that needs to be done, then, we don’t have any choice but to do it.   

Okay, I think I’m already boring you guys.  I will go now and make my papi’s sandwich for tomorrow (yes, he’s working thrice a week now!).  It feels great to be back blogging again.  Have a great week all!

I visited Rhebs’ blog this morning and I had the shock of my life when at the end of her entry she asked four of us to show what’s in our kitchen.  After reading her entry my reaction was “uhuh.. I have to do my act here in cleaning my fridge and cupboards so it won’t show how messy it is”, LOL!  So since today is my day off and we’ve been having severe weather once again (remember I wrote in my previous entry we’re having a bad weather every other day, well, today we have it again!), I just decided to stay home and clean our kitchen for almost half a day.  You see, I’ve wanted to clean our fridge long time ago but I always keep on procrastinating, so it has been so messy for a very long time.  So okay, since I have cleaned our fridge and pantry today, maybe it is good enough to show it here, so here are some of our healthy and not so healthy stuff in our kitchen cupboard/pantry and fridge:

I do my grocery every weekend or at least every other weekend when our supplies are getting low.  I always make it a point that everything that I buy are nutritious because obviously we both need to eat healthy.  Typically, what’s most in our freezer are chicken, fish, ground turkey, frozen vegetables (i.e. mixed veggies, brussels sprouts, green beans and corn) and frozen fruits (blueberries and strawberries).  We rarely have beef and pork but we sometimes buy it especially when there’s a good sale at the store.

When I was still in the Philippines I don’t actually care what kind of bread I buy for as long as it can be eaten. Lorin taught me to eat whole grain breads and to forget about the usual white bread that I have get accustomed with back in the Philippines.  Our milk has always been skim (non fat milk), we always have grape juice in the fridge for papsy and meJ.  Well, he was advised by the doctor to drink red wine but since he’s not fond of alcoholic drinks, he just opted for grape juice.  I always have yogurt for our smoothie every Saturday morning and I use them sometimes for my breakfast with blueberries and a piece of medium banana and a coffee.  I always have different kinds of cheese handy for my cooking or for eating.  I love pecorino romano cheese on my pasta, there’s the ol’ parmesan cheese, low fat shredded cheddar cheese and my newly found favorite Laughing Cow Light Swiss cheese which I often pair with a few pieces of wheat thins for a snack when my stomach is grumbling and asking to be fed.

As usual there’s the eggs and also egg substitute.  We rarely use butter and if ever we need one we always grab for the ever reliable Smart Balance.  Orange juice is for Papsy’s breakfast, I rarely drink it because it’s sugary.  There’s got to be always fruits in the house for another easy grab when hungry or for my Saturday morning smoothie.  Lunch turkey breast meat is always present for box lunches, Low Fat Mayo, Canadian bacon (lesser fat than the usual bacon), turkey bacon (when papsy misses the good ol’ fatty baconJ ).  There are different kinds of vegetables in the crisper and always present are broccoli, celery and carrots (the three of them are always a must, I don’t know why). Ready for serving salad greens are also always present, but I have other veggies there right now that were on sale in the store the other day so I bought them.  On the door side of the fridge are my salad dressings, jellies for breakfast toast, medium cheddar cheese, tofu, tableya from the Philippines that I still have to use (if it’s still usable, LOL!) and different kinds of cooking spices. 

For breakfast cereals, we always have an oatmeal in the house, ready to eat cereals like cheerios, honey bunches of oats, grape nuts flakes (we’re out of it, I don’t like to buy it when it’s not on sale), shredded wheat, etc.  That Quaker Oatmeal Weight Control is a new found favorite of mine because it only has 1 gram of sugar and 7 grams of protein (3 pts. for my WW).  The regular oatmeal is always added with frozen blueberries and milk.  When I am trying to save my daily points for WW, I always opt for that as a meal for breakfast because it’s 0 pts. (paging, Geri).

As usual canned goods cannot be missed out.  What we always have for canned goods are tomatoes, beans (pinto, kidney, black, etc.) and tuna in water.   Lorin loves all kinds of tomato based dishes, so I always have them ready.   Others are just for the heck of it.  Several spices are also present plus the usual, vinegar, low sodium soy sauce, extra virgin olive oil and such.  Present also are my different kinds of teas and other drinks.  Maybe some of you are looking for the rice, of course we do have it but we only have brown rice and white is rarely used and I don’t think I have it right now.  Also, potatos are always handy for baking.  They’re not shown here because I’m already getting tired

Anyway, Rhebs, thanks a lot for asking me what’s in our kitchen because you made me clean it and now our cupboard and fridge are both roomyJ.

Every other day since last Sunday, we’re having a snow storm and it’s getting to be a pattern.  I wasn’t expecting that we will be accumulating heavy snow last Sunday (the weather forecast said it’s only going to be at least 2"-3"), to the point that I was forced to shovel our walkway and part of our driveway at work.  Yes, shovel snow at work, you’re reading it rightJ  Well, that day we have accumulated at least 6” of snow in a few hours of heavy downpour.  I have no choice that day but to do it because we don’t have maintenance or housekeepers on Sundays.  Visitors and families of our residents were coming and going and I was the only one who can possibly do it because the receptionist can certainly not go out of the front desk because she has to answer calls and attend some of the emergency situation that may arise from our independent residents.  The caregivers cannot also lend a hand because they have residents to attend to, so, I had to do it to avoid any accident.  Anyway, that was the first time I ever shovel snow and it surely wasn’t an easy job to do.  It was so cold out and yet underneath my 3 layers of clothing (plus the jacket) my sweat was flowing.  Every time I finish plowing the snow from the other side of the walkway, I had to go back to the other side again because there was an accumulation of snow again. It was a pain in the rear end, that the next day all my muscles were strained! L

So okay, last Monday the sun showed up and I was so happy, but in the afternoon we had some flurries again.   The next day (Tuesday), another snow storm came AGAIN and accumulated several inches of snow.  Good thing I didn’t have to shovel the snow that day because our maintenance took care of itJ

Anyhow, today was quite a challenge and I was almost in tears because my car got stuck in the snow and it wouldn’t run!  I was able to back it up from our apartment’s parking slot but when I was ready to drive it to work it wouldn’t run because those darn tires were stuck in an almost 8” of unplowed snow! I was wondering where those darned apartment maintenance were hiding and why they cannot clear the driveway, I was already panicking because I was late to work and the car was blocking the driveway.  Good thing there wasn’t a single car behind me and I was able to ask some help from the contracted personnel the apartment complex have hired to clear our walkways.  Bless his heart he tried everything to help me just so I could have the car running but I can’t get it to work.   So I decided to give the key to him and just let him park it again in our spot and I walked to work!  I am so grateful that my work is only a crawl away from my house ‘cause if not, I will surely be calling in. 

Yes, I admit it amazes me to see all white in my surroundings during this time of the season, but if you come to think of it, it’s quite a hassle especially driving.  When I am on the road, I always make sure to be very careful and look after some of the looney tunes around me.  When I feel like they’re in a hurry for their life, I would usually just stop on the side of the road and let them do whatever they desire to do with their life.  Yes, snow is pretty………..Pretty scary especially when it melts down and turns into ice.

Ciao now ’cause I have to work my way to bed.  Have a great weekend all!

As you may have known, I celebrated my birthday last week and I am now one year older but getting younger, LOL!  Kidding aside, I had a very good birthday.  Since it was my day off that day and the weather was not as bad as previous weeks, we both decided to travel down to the valley and spent the weekend with my mother-in-law.  We were supposed to have a birthday dinner on my birthday, but since we arrived quite late, she just suggested that we have the dinner the next day.  Sure enough we had it the next day and instead of us paying the bill, she paid everything!  She said it was my birthday, so she had to treat us instead of us treating her for my birthdayJ  I tell you, I really consider myself lucky having a mother in law like her.  I know some of of you are also as lucky as I am but I feel so blessed to have her because I grew up without a mother and having a mother in law like her is considered a jackpot for me.  Just look at this card that she gave me; it just melted my heart to read what she wrote and was also kind of surprise that she again inserted some cash on it.  I tell you, it’s quite hard to argue with her about these gifts that she gives us on special occasions; we would always tell her not to give us anything but she always does it anyway.

Yesterday, I had another birthday celebration again.  My friend Marilyn, who always stood up like a mother to me, called before my birthday last week and told me that we’re going out along with her sister Sue and our common friend, Trish, for my birthday.  But since we spent birthday weekend with my MIL, we just decided to have the celebration yesterday.  She treated me to a Mexican Restaurant over here in Bend and I did receive gifts again from them (oh what a lucky girl I amJ).  As I was telling them yesterday, I feel so loved and it’s such a great feeling!

To my family, relatives and friends who greeted me happy birthday, thank you so much and it’s really a blessing to have you all in my life.

FITNESS ADVENTURE…

To keep myself fit and healthy is always my goal all these years, so I always try to exercise and eat healthy foods.  My problem is even if I eat healthy foods and sometimes cheats on the side with my sweet treats, my weight hasn’t been going down, and instead it’s going up!  When winter started, my energy level was very low and I was always tired to do any exercise or go to the gym, in short I became a lazy bum.  But anyway, before the New Year, I became hooked to watching the BIGGEST LOSER and that show became an eye opener for me and realized that I certainly don’t want to be BIGGGGG!!!  So even if I felt so tired after work, I always make it a point to drive over to the gym or do my exercise at home using my weights, ball and my Turbo Jam DVD.  But no matter how hard I exercise, my weight wasn’t going down at all.  So 3 weeks ago, after I was inspired about Geri’s weight improvement by joining Weight Watchers, I also decided to join Weight Watchers just for the heck of it (just kidding).  Good thing about weight watchers is they teach you how to eat the right way and you’re allowed to have treats (but I don’t really abuse itJ).  Anyway, after one week of watching what I eat with the combination of my exercise, I lost 5 lbs.!!  That was considered a milestone for me and I was really happy about it.  On my second week though (which last week), I only lost 1 lb.  But still, I was so happy about it considering that when we spent the weekend with my MIL, she was feeding us like hogsJ.

I am hoping to reach my weight goal in 3 months and that means more exercise, portion control with everything that I feed myself and no slacking!!  Also, having an online fitness buddies like Ger, Rhebs and Mel will make me inspire more to reach my goal.  Good luck to us, ladies!

Have a great weekend all!!

Whoa!  How’s everyone doing nowadays?  At the neck of our woods it’s cold and snowy as usual.  Our Christmas and New Year surely was considered a silent one; we didn’t spend it with my in-laws because the mountain passes were not safe at all for travelling.  So as expected, we still have to open Christmas gifts from my in-laws and we still have our gifts for them with us.  We’ve always been planning to travel and visit them especially my mother-in-law, but every time we’re supposed to leave on a certain day, there would always be a severe weather warning and we really don’t want to risk it, except of course if there’s an emergency and we really need to travel.

Santa Claus aka “papsy” has been very generous as always with his gifts.  I got my new digital camera (of course!), a Jack La Lanne power juicer, a very nice top and several other stocking stuffers. 

We had a white Christmas on Christmas day and it was great because in my four Christmases over here in the US, and three of them being spent in the valley (where my in-laws are), we never had a white Christmas over there. We were invited to a dinner at a close friend’s house on Christmas Day.  It was good because I didn’t fix anything and the hostess firmly told us to come hungry because she was having a prime rib steak for dinner.  After we had our dinner and opening of gifts, we all decided to drive all the way to the cinema house and watched “The National Treasures” of Nicolas Cage.  The drive from our friends’ house to the cinema was such a pain in the rear end because the snow was pouring so heavy.  The most painful of all was when it was time to drive back home because our wind shield was so icy and poor papsy had to do the scraping and unfortunately we didn’t have a de-icer in the car!  But anyway, it was fun and we have arrived home safely and stuffed from the Christmas dinner and the bucketful of pop corn in the cinemaJ. Christmas Dinner with the Rowland’s and the Goddard’s scraping the ice from the wind shield

New Year’s Eve was as usual nothing compared as to how it is celebrated in the Philippines. I just fixed a special dinner for both of us, baked a pumpkin pie as our dessert and gathered all the round fruits that Ate G reminded me to have for New Year.  Around 7:00PM after our dinner, I went to work and joined my well loved lolos and lolas for their New Year’s Eve Party.  By 9PM I was back home and waited for the ball to fall in NYC and woke up after I heard a few revelers with their phyrotechnics.  I did not bother to go out and see how it was because I know it wasn’t as fancy as it is when it’s the 4^th of July.

ICY ROADS…..

I know it’s the time of the year for icy roads and I should not be complaining at all because it’s expected anyway.  Yesterday, when I went to the library to pick up my reserved borrowed books, my car slid before I was able to park it.  Good thing I was the only one on that side of the parking lot and I really felt grateful that I did not hit anything at all.  I was suppose to go to Victoria’s Secret after picking up my books because they’re now having their Semi-Annual Sale, but after I had that incident of sliding, I chickened out and decided to just go back home and read my books.  Unfortunately, after I turned left on a corner from the library on my way back home, my car slid again and it was so scary because I thought I was going to crash on the post.  I was only driving about 5mph on an icy road (that road hasn’t been sanded at all and the ice was I think 2 or 3 inches thick all over) and I was able to maneuver my steering wheel as hard as I can to my right without using my brakes.  After the car had stopped I felt like I have grains of sweat flowing over my whole body, LOL!  I know it wasn’t funny at all but it was such an experience and papsy reminded me once again never to be driving at all when roads are slick and icy.  Well, I surely did learn my lesson and will never do it again.

Have a great 2008!!!!

This is what my papsy asked me last night and I quickly replied “a 10 megapixel digital camera, diamond earring and a brand new 2008 Toyota Sienna Limited (of course the latter is very impossible to be grantedL)…”  He immediately butts in, “is it alright if I’ll just buy you an 8.1 megapixel?” And I said, “heck, no! That’s what I want and no compromising, good thing I didn’t ask you a 12 megapixel!”J 

So you think I’m a Queen_Bee_atch?  Of course not, I’m just trying to be upfront and honest. And besides he was asking me, so he got the best answer from meJ.  What made him pop up the question?  Well, I was surfing the net last night and looking at cameras and I think he got the hint that I wanted to replace our historic 3.1 digital camera, LOL!

So have you guys done some of your Christmas shopping?  I am planning on it day after thanksgiving (Black Friday Sale) but I don’t know what I’m gonna get because we’ll be in Roseburg thanksgiving day and some of the stores I’m planning to visit doesn’t have branch there, bogger!  But anyway, I’ll be watching the ads in the paper this coming week and I hope there will be good buys in store for me. 

Got to go for now, have to run for some errands and it’s my de-opJ, so I’m going to scout for something interesting in the stores today.  Happy weekend all!

This tag is simple. If you feel comfortable and your better half does too, you can post a picture of him in your blog (but if not a description will do).

In-in instructed me to do this, so In, here’s what you requested and hope you don’t get bored, LOL!

Okay, my bitterJ half’s name is Lorin aka “papsy” or “papi”.  We met online (where else?) in 2002, met in person in 2003 and finally got hitched in 2004.  Papsy is the kind of guy who takes baby steps (not because of his knee problemJ); I mean all decisions are being thought of and planned really well before he jumps into something.  Yeah, it took him quite a while to decide whether to get hitched or to just stay single all his life.  He told me that he’s really having regrets not meeting me 10 years ago and be as happy and always being fed well as he is right now.  Yeah right! 

Papsy and his 3 other siblings were brought up really well by two amazing parents.  Too bad I wasn’t able to meet my father in law because he died several years ago.  Papsy is the kind of guy who is very spiritual and gentleman (pero medyo bastosJ).  He’s a very good provider but he can be so frugal in a lot of ways.  For him, it’s not important to impress other people with what you have (the fancy things) but instead he has this belief that he would rather have some saved money for the future and for rainy days than to be paying all these expensive things that you can see around.  In short, simple living ang dating, LOL!

Plans 20 to 30 years from now, I cannot say anything about that but hopefully by that time we’re still both alive and kicking and healthy as we can be, LOL!  Kidding aside, we cannot really plan ahead that long but instead carpe diem!

For me it’s really a blessing and I thank God that He has given me the right person in His time and not the timeline that I planned for myself when I was still younger.

I not am tagging anyone because I’m pretty sure that most of the person I have in mind has already been assigned by In-in to do this assignment, LOL!