We don’t really celebrate Halloween or whatever you may call it. I only like the fact that kids can wear their costumes and they can get lots of goodies. Trick-o-treat is I guess the best part for the kids to enjoy this time of season. And for your information, we do not celebrate any evil activities. This is only for fun, so to those KJ (kill joy) out there just keep it to yourself whatever you want to say against Halloween.

Moreover, I personally did not enjoy this year’s trick-o-treat because the weather wasn’t cooperative. It was a chilly night so we went home early. We were still able to get tons of candies and goodies, though. You can really feel the recession this year cos there was not much of Halloween decorations and not all the houses took part in this years event. I guess there’s no Halloween decor contest this year. For the 1st time my kid said to me that she wants to go home already. Usually, I’ll be first to ask if she’s ready to go home. I’m telling you, we were freezing to death last night.

My eldest dressed up as an Adorable Witch. At first, she said, she wants to have two costumes. A Princess costume to wear for trick-o-treating and an Adorable Witch to wear at school. I just said no cos I cant spend for two costumes for a one time event. Expensive for me so I let her chose just one costume and she chose to be an Adorable Witch. My youngest was a cute puppy. I chose the warm costume for her cos I know it would be a freakin cold night which I guessed right.

I hope you enjoyed your Halloween nights guys! Happy Kalag-kalag/Araw ng mga patay (All Soul’s day)  to my kababayan in Philippines.

My Adorable Witch

My Cute Puppy

I wore costume too. I was a vampire nun. Next time I wont wear too much makeup again lol

Just wanted to greet you guys and I hope you enjoyed your trick-o-treats with your kiddos. Also, I hope no one was hurt during the Halloween nights.

I will post entry about my kids costume this year and how their trick-o-treat went out tomorrow.

For now enjoy this Halloween photos of me

For 2 days of thinking after I saw Annie’s kids who also got lucky to be part of the Gap Casting Call, I’ve decided to enter my two girls as well. Freya only took overnight to be approved while Yuna’s entry took 2 days. I thought Yuna wouldn’t be in. Well, I’m glad that they both got in and I hope they will be part of the 20 Finalists. Who knows, maybe they will be lucky enough that they’re  the faces that Gap needs. Though we don’t expect anything, we’re just wishing

Part of this event,

Members may vote for a Fan Favorite winner (”Fan Favorite”) once per entry per day per person/valid email address (”Address”), regardless of whether one person has more than one Address or more than one person use the same Address. Votes for separate Submissions of the same child will not be combined.

I’m calling all my friends and family who live in the United States to please vote my daughters’ entries for a Fan Favorite winner. I just wish that my family and friends who live outside US can vote but unfortunately can’t because when you register they will ask for the state and zipcode of your home address. So that means other countries can not vote.  Also, please be reminded that voting ends on November 17, 2009. Please cast your votes now!

Here’s my section in Gap Casting Call. Bookmark this URL so you can easily vote everyday.
http://family.go.com/gapcastingcall/entries/frena1009/

You need to register in order to vote. Registration is just easy – Name, Email Address & Home Address..

To register, please go here;
https://family.go.com/accounts/login/gap/?redirectUrl=http://family.go.com/gapcastingcall/

HELP ME SPREAD THE WORD and THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

I will really appreciate if this will be added in your daily internet surfing

DONT FORGET THE 20% OFF FOR GAP ITEMS. COUPON ARE POSTED ON THE RIGHT SIDEBAR. Print my Gap Casting page and cut the coupon.

As promised in my previous post that I will share some tidbits about how my hubby and I celebrated our 9 years together last Oct 9. Well, nothing fancy just a little lunch date in our fave Chinese restaurant. We exchanged presents to ourselves too. He purchased the Coach woman boots that I’ve been eyeing for a week (he knows how I love shoes) in DSW. As for himself, he purchased a new Wool coat from Gap and the new release PS3 game. I keep saying this that I’m one lucky woman to be his wife and I know some of you know WHY especially my family whom am pretty sure will read this. I’m not saying I’m lucky because I’ve married a rich guy but because he has the kindest heart that no other man has. He’s not rich but he can provide good stuff to me that I don’t need to ask or bribe for. To be in a relationship, understanding is very important and also put away your ego and pride. Treasure every moment you have each other. Don’t let it go to waste by just one simple mistake. Believe no one but your partner. That’s what I’ve learned in this relationship of ours. But to top it all I’m just really lucky to have him. I’m grateful and I’ll always be…

Photos of Young lovers ▼

No, that's now Val's BF. That our friend Julius, Yuna's godfather. This was taken at Magician Evangelista Makati.

Taken at Greenbelt 3 Makati. Year 2002. Almost the same outfit lol

From Luvski with love ▼

All the good things happening right now is a dream come true like having beautiful kids. The time I first met him I knew that he is the one because you can feel that he is so sincere to his every words and promises. He is the kind of guy who keeps his promises. He’s very responsible and a loving father to our kids. I’m so proud of having him…

Wow, its been almost a month that I haven’t update my blog. There are many times that I thought I would quit blogging but since I’m into paid blogging, I always end up updating my blog no matter what my mood is.

I’ll just put it this way, I’m updating this blog for my family and friends who live far away from me. If you have internet, I’m easy to reach. I’m everywhere in the world wide web. Just drop me a line and I will get back to you no matter what your intention is… just be patient cos I’m a busy mom like most of you!

Heading on to my topic, I wanted to post about our lil Freya who just turned 18 months old and about how my hubby and I celebrated our 9 happy years together last Oct 9. But like I always say, I’m just so busy with my offline life and my farms and restaurants in Facebook (Kidding… Well, that’s part of my busy day) that’s why I’m posting this very late.

Lets begin with our lil Freya:

I’m thankful to God how our lil one has grown so healthy, smarter everyday and also a very active girl. The first thing that you’ll notice is that she’s very sneaky and she’s a climber. If she sees something above her she would make a way to climb up, like grabbing her mini ride or her big sis old bike and pile them to make stairs. She can say a lot of clear words too like milk, water, juice, book, daddy, Ate, nose, eyes, teeth and etc… except mommy That’s the first word I’ve heard from her when she was still tiny but now I never hear her calling me mommy. Maybe because I’m always around her so she doesn’t need to call me

Here’s a video I made for you to watch and see how our lil one has grown. I have plenty of photos and videos of her but I just chose most of my favorites.

I created and edited this at Onetruemedia.com. I like that online video editing tool. It so convenient and I’m planning to get a DVD copy of all the videos I’ve created from them one of this day.

Opps, I’ve decided to cut my entry right here cos I think my boring entry is too long for you to read. I don’t want to waste more of your precious time so I will blog about me and my hubby’s 9th anniversary on my next entry with never-be-seen photos. Alrightee?

Busy week ahead, lots of shopping for winter clothes and shoes. It’s also me and my hubby’s 9 years anniv  and our youngest will turn 18 months old this coming Friday. Yup, double celebration. We are planning to have dinner or lunch at our fave resto. My hubby wants to watch his new basketball team, the Chicago Bulls live but we don’t know where to leave our kids.

Anyways, here’s my entry for . This the easiest way to go around Chicago. It’s a Hybrid bus since living Green is encouraged here in United States all the old buses are now replaced by this hybrid bus. Click image to enlarge. Have a great Monday

151 CTA Bus. We were going to Devon and Clark that time.

On the other hand, I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank my EC Droppers. Thanks guys for always visiting my blog. My domain is new but it gained more hits just in a month. I usually do this every month before but I just stopped cos there were times when I was inactive in blogosphere.

My Top 10 EC droppers. Thanks all

1. Mother by Design
2. Momspective
3. If Dogs Could Read
4. Nita’s Random Thoughts
5. Fatherlyours.com
6. Learn Affiliate Marketing
7. share free tutorial
8. body health information
9. wiredpnoy
10. Life’s Journey

For awhile I will stop blogging about my own stuff to give a way this important message…

My other way to help is to spread out the word… I’m asking all of you to please spare some time to help my fellow countrymen in the Philippines. I’m also calling all my fellow Filipinos who works and reside abroad and to all my fellow paid bloggers, you can now easily donate to the Philippine National Red Cross using their official PayPal account. Click the banner below to donate online securely or go directly to www.redcross.org.ph. Even a DOLLAR can help a lot!

325x325 banner. Click to donate and send your gifts to give@redcross.org.ph

125x125 Button

I made this banner/button for Philippine Red Cross. If you want, you can post this on your blog to spread out the official PAYPAL account of Red Cross Philippines link directly to their website. To grab this image, right-click and save it to your PC and upload it to your own server.

Click – List of Where to send donations for victims of Typhoon Ondoy

Click – You can also send your donations through the following ways ▼

Click – A video if you dont have any idea how bad the typhoon Ondoy brought to my home country ▼

And reminder to all my fellow Filipinos: Stop the nonsense internet fight. Ignore those people whose intention are to seek out publicity. If they want to insult the Philippines so be it. You’re not helping by fighting them!

Yesterday, Yuna and I went to my friend’s house. They invited us cos it her bro’s birthday. I ruined my diet cos I ate a lot. I just took the advantage of eating all the food. I can’t help it cos they cook so good . After that, we headed to downtown Chicago together with her family. We enjoyed walking at the Millennium Park and of course I took a lot of pictures that will soon be a series in my Flickr.

I have so many topics that I want to blog but I don’t have enough time… Oh well! Have a great Tuesday everyone!

one of the Subway station in Chicago

Outtake photos with my friend ▼

Got something RED that you’ve photographed? Join us on RUBY TUESDAY!

This afternoon was my 1st-grader’s school open house. John Salmons and some other unfamiliar players of the Chicago Bulls visited the school. According to the school principal, my daughter’s school was chosen as one of the schools that are being adopted by NBA Cares program because they have one of the highest percentage of students who passed the ISAT exams last school year. My hubby was a bit disappointed cos he was expecting Derick Rose will be there hehe. I’m so proud that this is Yuna’s school. My hubby was right, Yuna is in the best school here in Chicago… one of the best.

To those who asked me if Yuna goes to a private school the answer is NO. William C. Goudy is a public school. I don’t think middle class family would like to send there kids to a private school when there are lots of decent public schools here in the US. Well, some kids go to private schools but more like a day care center but its not a big community school. Big private schools here in the US are expensive and when I say expensive, we are talking about $18K-$30k per school year. Well that depends where you live but if you live in the city that’s the approximate range of rates. Also, majority of the students here in the US go to public schools cos they’re saving for college. Expensive isn’t it? Unlike in the Philippines, there’s lots of big private schools which are affordable. But like we always say, it doesn’t matter what school you go to as long as you never let it interfere with your education.

Moreover, I’m so glad that the school counsel decided to let their students wear uniforms starting this school year. There’s few obvious reasons why most parents agreed to let their kids wear uniforms. First, is because, it is much cheaper and 2nd is you save lots of dirty clothes to be washed. As for my own point of view, I prefer uniform because it looks more neat. Also, I think it’s nice to hear if some people will think that your kids goes to a private school like we always encountered because generally public school in the US don’t have uniforms.

Click the image thumbnail to enlarge.

School issued 2 types of uniform in 4 different colors. They have short and long sleeved polo shirt available in gray, white, light/baby blue and maroon colors. They also have separate P.E uniforms. The bottoms have two choices for girls. They can wear pants or skirt. School did it in purpose so students can still freely choose what to wear for the day.

Originally uploaded by Snapies

This was taken at Margate, the nearest park in our neighborhood. You can walk 5 minutes to get there. It’s always nice to have an accessible park cos you don’t need to drive. It’s also a nice place for you to exercise. The ground is rubberized so you can just sit there and do your crunches. I really like it a lot cos i don’t need to worry too much when my kids fall down.

This is my entry for . By the way, click the image if you want a bigger size.

On the other hand, I’m also done weeding out all the inactive links in my blogroll. It is now more organized and I like it. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have a new URL or if I accidentally removed you from the list. Furthermore, I’ve added and removed some plugins. As you noticed, I’ve added a paginated comments for the purpose that my guestbook page have a long list. I also changed my contact page. It’s now located on the left side of your screen. It will pop out when you click it.

Have a great week everyone!