I got this tag from Lola Tekla and as a good follower, I am doing what she commanded me to do, LOL!

Instructions: Each player starts with 7 random habits/facts about themselves. People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their seven things, as well as these rules. At the end of your blog, you need to choose 7 people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged and to read your blog!

* A - Age – 36/2= 18 nyahaha!!!

* B - Band Listening To Right Now: none

* C - Career: career free

* D - Drink or Smoke: neither of the two

* E - Easiest Friends To Talk To:

* G - Gummy Bears or Gummy Worms: First

* H - Have a Boyfriend: happily married ang lola nyo!

* I - In love: with my papsy

* J - Junk Food You Like: Tortilla chips with bean dip and hot chunky salsa

* K- Kids: Nada

* L - Longest Ride Ever: Manila to OR

* N - Names For Your Future Kids: Dayunyor or Dayunyura? LOL!

* O - One Wish You Have Now: To be a millionaire,LOL!

* P - Phobias: earthquake

* Q - Favorite Quote: "Happiness cannot be travelled to, earned or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experiences of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude”

* R - Reasons To Smile: when I think of something funny

* S - Sleeping Hours: 12MN, 1AM, 2AM….

* T - Time You Woke Up: 7:15AM

* U - Unknown Fact About You: I don’t know

* V - Vegetable You Hate: none

* W -Worst Habit: My being a procrastinator

* X - X-rays You’ve Had: chest, dental, mammogram

* Y - Yummy Foods: everything that I fix, naks!

* Z - Zodiac Sign: I’m a Capricorn, mwehehehe!!!

Seven things about me: 1. I’m kind of irritating and a pain in the rear end sometimes (LOL!), 2. generous, 3. others tend to misunderstand me sometimes because I don’t talk much (I’m a very quiet person), 4. I love to start a project and never finish it (like my cross stitch, crocheting, etc), 5. A spiritual person 6. Compassionate 7. Loyal person

Fall/Autumn officially started last Sunday (Sept. 23) and it’s getting cold over here at the neck of our woods!  Summer and sunny days officially bid farewell and we’re here again for the cold mornings and night time.  It was only today that I recognized the leaves turning orange and in the next month I’m pretty sure that trees all over us will look like they were dead again.  It’s funny because when I first got here (I arrived winter of ‘04) I thought those trees without leaves were really dead and I was even wondering why they kept it standing and why they don’t just cut those trees off since they looked dead to me.  Only to find out in the following spring time and was also kind of surprise to see the leaves growing back again and that they were not actually dead as what I thought J.

While driving down to the fitness center this morning, it was raining like cats and dogs and was tempted to finally turn the heater on because I was chilling inside the car.  Anyway, the whole day today has been cold and we’re expecting some rains and possibly precipitation of snow in the next few days.  Finally took our sweaters and jackets out today because I know for sure that cold days are here to stay from here on.

Time flies so fast.  This coming Monday is October again and I really dread the coming of November and December because that surely will be a busy months for most of us since we’ll be preparing for Thanksgiving (for some of us living here in the US) and Christmas again.  I already did my shopping for our shoe box gifts to Operation Christmas Child. Hubby and I always look forward to it because it has already become a tradition for him to send shoe boxes of gifts to Samaritan’s Purse for needy children in the third world countries (including Philippines).  I enjoy the shopping part and I always make sure that the gifts we are inserting in every box are something that a child can use and not just something that are kind of trashy or junk. 

Hokei, can’t think of anything to write anymore so I won’t keep much of your time again.  Have a great weekend, all!

Don’t count me in because I love it, lol!  Yesterday, we went out for dinner with my husband’s cousin and her family who are in town from Seattle for a late summer vacation.  We went to Applebee’s; actually, it wasn’t our first choice to meet up for an early dinner, we were on our way to the original place we’re supposed to meet up when all of a sudden my fickle minded husband asked me if it will be alright if we’ll head down to Applebee’s instead.  Of course I did not argue because I also love Applebee’s especially their WeightWatcher’s menus (I had the Cajun Lime Tilapia, it was soo good!).  Our only dilemma then was if Cheril and her family’s already in the restaurant waiting for us.  Good thing we arrived first and so we just called them and asked Cheril if Applebee’s sounds alright to them, they approved the idea and so we just met down there.

We arrived in Applebee’s around 5:30PM and our orders were taken immediately.  We got so busy visiting and we didn’t realize it was almost 6:30 and our food hasn’t arrived yet.  We just let it go but I was kind of anxious because I had an appointment at 7:30 and that’s the reason why we scheduled that dinner earlier than normal dinner time.  After a few minutes, the manager approached us and was looking very apologetic only to find out that our server forgot to give the orders to the cooks!  We actually did not say anything nor complained about it but he immediately told us that EVERYTHING WILL BE FREE FOR US INCLUDING DESSERT!  Sweet!!!  He even offered to give us mozzarella sticks while waiting for our dinner, and of course, we did not say NO!   Heck, I wasn’t even planning on ordering any dessert but who can refuse it when they’re pushing you to have it?  I love their sizzling apple pie with ice cream so I ordered that and split it with papsy.

Anyway, everything turned out really well and we enjoyed visiting and of course our free dinner courtesy of Applebee’sJ. 

Silent Auction for the troops in the Middle East

The reason why I was so anxious about having our meal delivered soon was because of the closing of our week long activities at work which was a silent auction of different donations from local businesses intended for the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.  I wasn’t really planning on auctioning anything except for the Thomas Kinkade painting that was so awesome.  I realized that it would be impossible for me to get it because the original price of the said painting was actually $600.  I wasn’t willing to shell out that amount because I told myself that I would only go up to a maximum $125 if ever I will spend on something.  After I realized that it will be impossible for me to get the painting, I just scouted on something interesting around and bid on different stuff.  Well, I did not go home empty handed last night because I got a 6 months free gym membership for Aspire Fitness worth $250 for only $60.50.  It wasn’t bad at all and with the $60.50 I spent for that gym membership, I feel so happy to be a part of those who are donating for such a good cause….

Mel tagged me to do this and to be honest with you guys, I am so shy to share in the World Wide Web about the weird side of me.  But I have to do it since it’s Mel’s request.

Okay let’s start….When I read the message of Mel about writing 6 weird things about me, I immediately asked my husband and he said “you don’t know what your weird traits are? That’s easy!”  The following are according to my husband’s opinion of me being weird:

1.      I kiss his armpits and it’s a ritual, this really drives him up the wall he think it’s crazyJ.  I don’t know, but I just love to do it especially after he comes out from the shower.  Well, even if not, I just love to kiss it.  GROSS!!!

2.       I love to bite his arms.  If I bite the right one I should also do the other one and sometimes he would just offer the other arm automatically when I do it on the other side.  Talks about getting used to it, huh!

3.      This one is something that he really hates, ever!  Whenever he’s already in bed after shower and almost asleep I would storm inside the bedroom and lie beside him and do another pesting again.  He calls it sniffing like a dog, LOL!  Anyway, what I would do is sniff his arms and back.  I love to do it because he smells good and his back is so soft and I would always rub my face on his back.  This one is something that he really hates especially when he’s already asleep and I start doing this crazy thing.   He’s not a night owl like me, after 8PM, he’s no longer coherent, so he goes to bed way much early than I do.  So just imagine being disturbed by all the sniffling all over him.  But sometimes he would just oblige to it because he knows that it’s already a ritual, hahaha!

4.      Taking a full shower at night before I go to bed and taking another full shower again in the morning before I go to work or before I can go out of the house.  This one is also driving my husband crazy because he can’t believe that I can do this even when the temperature outside is negative, lol!  He thinks it’s so weird because what they usually do is they take a full shower at night and in the morning is “wisik-wisik lang” and change underwear or whatever.  Sorry but I don’t do like that.  I’ll take a shower at night; shampoo my hair and all sorts but the next morning I have to do it again no matter what the weather is outside because I don’t like my hair to be oily.  And I can’t imagine going to work without taking a full shower, ewww!!

5.      I collect shoes.  Yes, you read it right, I’m becoming an Imeldific!  I hate to admit this, but yes, Imelda Marcos and I came from the same province of Leyte and her hometown which is Tolosa is only a few miles away from my hometown Tanauan, actually they’re neighboring town.  I really hate it when husband calls me Imelda F_ _ _ _ _ instead of my real name.  I don’t know, I think shoes are just women’s best friend and there’s no denying to that, umamin na kayo dyan, LOL!

6.      I snore.  I hate to admit this but yes, I do, especially when I’m so tired and my asthma is attacking.  Well, I haven’t had any asthma attack though ever since I got here in the states but when I was still in the Philippines I would usually have asthma attacks every now then and I was always a “suki” of Makati Med.  I am so thankful though that the place where were living right now is so blessed with a lot of things especially the air that we inhale, it’s so fresh. 

So okay, ayan, ipinagkalat ko na ang aking mga pinakatatagong weird secrets.  I don’t know who to tag, but anyone who’s interested in doing this is so welcome to try it.

Have a great weekend everyone!

I love Columbia Sportswear!

Why?? Because I shopped (‘til I dropJ) at their factory outlet store and got a very good deal from them yesterday for the Labor Day Weekend Sale.  I had fun going to that store and boy, I feel like I won millionsJ.  I got one capri pants on sale for 3.73 (original price $40), nice!  I also got two polo shirts for my papsy for $4.99 each.  Original price of the shirts were @ $40, such a good deal, diba?  Well, I didn’t stop there because aside from those items, I also got two slip on for moi.  I can’t resist the temptation; I just fell in love with them.  And besides, they were on sale also at $39.99 and also took additional 75% off from sale price (original price were $60 each), so I ended up paying $9.99 for each slip on and added 2 more buys to give as gift.

Haayyyy… sometimes it feels good to indulge yourself to something like this.  Have a great week all!

Dang!  I just realized I’m hooked to Lea Salonga’s songs since last night.  This actually started when a friend of mine e-mailed me a link to one of her stage performances in you tube last weekend.  Anyway, after watching that one performance where she was singing one of her many songs for Les Miserables, I watched some more of her in youtube.  After that, I decided to buy in amazon.com her new released CD and found out that she’s got a multiply account that was set up by a fan (I’ve also been to her own multiply account and been reading her blog over there).  Anyway, in the fan set-up multiply account, there was a link for music and several of her songs were there and free for downloading.  So as usual, I took advantage of it!   All the songs I’ve downloaded were all burned in a CD last night and it’s playing over and over while I’m writing this, I just love all of it! Anyway, had I known that there were several songs of hers I could download for free; I should have not bought her new CD at allJ. But I guess I will enjoy her new released CD “Inspired” and I’m so anxious to get it in the mail any time soon.

Tomorrow is this lola’s de-op (day off, lol!), so I have the house on my own for half a day since papsy’s gonna be working as usual.  I’m planning to do some serious cleaning in here.  Last weekend, all I did was lazed around; watched tv, surf the net, read magazines and complained to my husbandry that I felt so tired to do anything.  For more than a week I did not do anything physical at all because I just felt awful (I think it was stress).  We went out for some outdoor activities last Saturday but I just got so disappointed because what I was expecting to see in the place where we went to was not actually what I expected it.  This weekend’s gonna be a long weekend but I have to work Sunday to do the “walang kamatayang payroll.”   Monday I have to be off because the company cannot afford to pay me overtimeJ.  I like it though because at least I could do something fun that day (shopping maybe?).  Hehe, let’s see if they have good sale this Labor Day weekend and let me think about it…

Hokei friendsters, have a fantastic long weekend to you all!

Thanks to Lola Tekla and Mel for this tag.  I tried my best to answer them and here they are:

What is your favorite..

gum: Extra ( I always have a stock of it, it’s like a cigs…I’m addicted to it!)

restaurant:  The Pine Tavern

drink: Arizona Diet Green Tea & Diet Snapple

season: spring and fall

emotion: when I’m happy

things to do on a half day: surf the net, clean the house, do some walking or work out in the gym to take some of my fats off, LOL!

late-night activity: surfing the net, watch tv, read

sport: badminton

city: Bend

store: Macy’s, VS and BBW (hubby said the last two are my favorite stores to go for my all kinds of body oils, lol!)

When was the last time you..

cried: can’t remember

played a sport: almost three years ago

laughed: just awhile back

hugged someone: a few minutes ago

kissed someone: see above

felt depressed:  few weeks ago (can’t remember why, but it was one of those days when time of the month was coming) 

felt elated: a week ago when I read the comment of my boss about my job evaluation performance

felt overworked: these past few days, man!

faked sick: no way!!

lied: hmmm….last night, signed up for e-bay account, was asked for my date of birth I made myself younger and changed the date of my bday

What was the last..

word you said: "night paps!"

thing you ate: sweet & sour pork loin that I left in the slow cooker this morning.  It was good, thanks to Robin Miller of Quick Fix Meals on Food Network.

song you listened to: Lea Salonga music that I just downloaded

thing you drank: water

place you went to: had a few rounds in the tracks tonight before I did this

movie you saw: none

movie you rented: ohh…history, LOL!  I rarely rent movies

concert you attended: can’t remember, LOL!

Who was the last person you..

hugged: husbandry

cried over: ????

kissed: papsy

danced with: papsy with our stupid dance

shared a secret with: papsy about something

had a sleepover with: none

called: friend/co-worker (Sadie)

went to a movie with: husbandry and another friend couple this coming weekend.

saw: a dog running like crazy because of the lightning

were angry with: papsy, he turned down the cake that he’s supposed to receive as a gift for his bday at the place where we went to for his birthday dinner.

couldn’t take your eyes off of: stack of magazines that I need to sort out and toss.

obsessed over: none

Have you ever..

danced in the rain: I bet when I was a kiddo

kissed someone: definitely, just a few minutes ago!

done drugs: NEVER!

drank alcohol: yes, but I’ve been sober for many years now, LOL!

slept around: nope!

partied ’til the sun came up: yeah

had a movie marathon: can’t do it, I’m not into movie that much

done too far on a dare: nope, can’t remember

spun until you were immensely dizzy: nope

taken a survey quite like this before: yes, several times.

I got my job evaluation report this week and I’m so happy to report that my boss gave me the highest rating except for tardiness!  I was given 5 on everything but one 4 on the tardiness issue.  I was kind of upset about it because I was actually expecting a straight 5!J  Oh well, I can accept that 4 for as long as she gives me my salary increase. 

Work is always busy as usual.  This week I feel like I was so swamped with a lot of things to do but I’m so glad it’s my day off today and was able to finish everything for this week. 

We’re having a LUAU celebration at work this Saturday but I won’t be able to attend it because that same day is also the family reunion of my husband’s mother side family.  Last year I was not able to attend the annual family reunion because I was in the Philippines then having a grand vacationJ.   So today, we’ll be off to Roseburg again and I’m pretty sure that I’ll be so beat up once again on Sunday. 

Not Afraid to Die….

Yesterday while I was busy doing my reports, I heard someone said to me “are you working hard?” so I replied back "nah, I’m just hardly working!"  That same question and answer is always what this old lady and I use everyday as a conversation starter whenever this lola is passing by to go back to her apartment or if she’s on her way down from her apartment.  I always make it a point to at least give a minute or two of my time no matter how busy I am every time a resident stop by at my office to give me a holler because for me they’re all special and they need all the attention they can get from us.  Anyway, this lola has some form of a cancer on her left eye.  It was found out last year and she can actually go through a surgery for it but it will take 3 to 4 years to heal and she will be in a lot of pain.  She’s 93 and according to her she doesn’t like to wait that long and suffer more.   Her children doesn’t like her to have it too because according to her they don’t like her to be in a lot of pain. 

She’s been to her doctor yesterday, so I asked her what happened at her doctor’s visit.  She told me that her doctor gave her 5 to 6 months to live because her cancer is now spreading (and she still looked as upbeat as she always is while she was saying that to me).  I almost choked when I heard that from her but she immediately told me that she’s ready to go.  I said to her that dying is not really something to be afraid of especially when you know where you’re heading to.  She said “honey, I’m waiting for the day to come and I know that I will be going there and He’s eagerly waiting for me up there in heaven.”  I got so emotional but I didn’t really like to cry in front of her, so I just gave her a big hug. 

This entry is taken from my main blog which is somewhere in the web…..