Weight loss has always been an issue in this country and I know a lot of people who have been trying to shed some pounds. I am sure it can be frustrating when you push yourself too much and expect yourself to get rid of the excess weight and it is still there. Well if you have tried everything such as exercising, dieting and so on then you should check out the LAP-BAND system. What’s great about it is you will never feel that you are trying to lose weight alone because they are with you every step of the way. Journey Lite is there to evaluate if the LAP-BAND surgery is right for you. They will be with you to assist you in looking for an experienced lapband surgeon. Follow up and even aftercare. When you have all the support you can get, you have nothing to lose but your weight. 
Since Frankie was a little baby we have always bathe him with the Aveeno calming bath and immediately followed by the Aveeno calming lotion especially before putting him to bed. I just love the smell of this product. This rich lathering cleanser contains lavender and vanilla — natural ingredients known for their calming and relaxing properties. Combined with natural oatmeal, known for its skin soothing benefits, this bath helps retain moisture and gently soothes baby's delicate skin, leaving skin feeling clean, soft and healthy. Its even gentle enough for babies with sensitive skin. When combined with a warm bath, this product is clinically shown to calm and comfort fussy babies, helping to improve their well-being so they can sleep more restfully. This is surely one of the baby products I love.
So what is the brand of your favorite pants? There are a lot of brands out there but it is with a pair of Dockers pants that I fell in love with. Besides I like the idea that I can wear it anywhere. Plus pants don’t really have any maintenance as I call it. It is just wash and wear. Have you ever thought of asking yourself what would a day in the life of your pants be like? Well, when I was working before, my pants gets up with me at 5:00 a.m. It is usually ironed the night before so all I have to do the next day is wear it. Sit in the car for 10 minutes on my way to work and the rest of the day will be spent walking, bending, reaching and sitting. I get off work at 3:30 p.m. and I usually let it relax when we get home.
Ryan was so funny yesterday. He was sitting right next to Frankie while watching his favorite teletubbies. I was sitting in the chair by the dining table when I heard him made this comment. "Sweety, soon Frankie will have a British accent". I looked at him smiling and asked why? He then said, "because most of the kids that they feature in teletubbies have British accent and Frankie might catch it". I then smiled said, "that would be lovely". I have always loved the British accent. I have students before who were British that migrated to the Philippines and it is so fascinating listening to them. My close friend and co-worker before Dauph also is British and I can listen to her everyday without getting tired of it and if Frankie will happen to have an accent, it wouldn't be a problem. 
When I first created my blog about three years ago, marketing and promoting it was the last thing in my mind. After all I made it for the main purpose of my family back home catching up about the things that I have been doing here but then again this was way before paid blogging existed. I wasn’t even concern if some of my readers will come back and check. I didn’t even care less about rss feed. All I was after was to keep my family updated.
Now with paid blogging everything seems to change. I need readers and a way to drive traffic to my blog. Some bloggers would go to the extreme to drive traffic to their blog. Sometimes they ask someone to review their blog and of course the popular blog hop just to mention a few. You might ask if there is an easier way out there to promote your blog, well there is and it is through Zookoda. So what is Zookoda, you might ask. It is an email marketing application for bloggers and most of all, it is free. Zookoda allows your blog audience informed by letting you create a newsletter that enables you to send daily, weekly and monthly summary of your blog post directly to your visitor's inbox leaving you in complete control of it. You start by creating blog subscription forms then an email newsletter containing your latest post and it will be sent to your respective visitors. You can also control when you want it broadcast and get up to date clear report of your email marketing and see progress and even unsubscribe statistics. Zookoda is the answer. 
Most Filipinos that are residing and working abroad never failed to send money to the Philippines. If my sister is not in college I probably won't be sending any except for birthdays and occasions. When Ryan and I were still corresponding Ryan put all the money in the mail. Yep it was scary especially when we know how bad the mail systems in the Philippines. He used to send me some over there to open an account so that he will have some money to spend during his visit. He also sent money when I was preparing my papers to come over. When I got here we both didn't feel comfortable anymore mailing the money. So we chose to go to a bank in Chicago to send it. It was a very long drive and I used to hate how busy it is up there. Then a new Filipino store opened in Steger and that is how I have been sending money but during winter I send it online since I didn't like dragging Frankie around. Here are some of the places online.
1. Xoom.com - Exchange rate is a few cents lower than the other two but their fee is also way lower than the other two. It is so reliable, fast and dependable.
2. Luckymoney.com - fee is a little expensive than xoom but very secure. From the time I started sending money through them, they have called twice already for verification to make sure that I am the owner of the credit card I am using.
3. emoneygram.com - 14.00 flat rate for the fee regardless how small the amount but it is better if you are sending as much as $400.00. Unfortunately, there is no direct deposit to the bank (you have to apply for something that takes days) so the recipient has to pick it up in the sender's chosen bank or pick up center. Can be a hassle because you pick up the money and had to go to the bank and deposit it again.
Well now that it is summer I am sending to the Filipino store because they have 10.00 flat rate on money up to $2,000.00. So where do you go?
Maybe by now you have heard about SocialSpark especially if you are also a member of PayPerPost. If you are trying to make money using your blog, SocialSpark can be another great alternative for you. However, if you haven’t checked out SocialSpark then let me tell you a little about it. SocialSpark is not only a place where you can monetize your blog but also a place where you can build a community and with that drive traffic to your blog(s). You sign up and create your own profile for other members to read just like the one below.
In your blogger profile you have an option to share things about yourself and about the things that interests you. You will also find a list of your network of friends, comments and recent opportunities you have taken. Not just that, below is a list of opportunities. The common question I always get from friends is where we can find the opportunities. By clicking market place on the upper right corner of the home page and click browse opportunities, that is where you will find all of them like the one below.
The best part is when a multiple opportunity opens up you can reserve more than one and you have 12 hours to finish it. So you have enough time to take care of things or on long overdue chores that needs to be done. And if in case the slot is already full in an opportunity, you can click to wait a slot and as soon as the advertiser opens up again, SocialSpark will reserve it for and notify you through email. SocialSpark not only allows bloggers to earn money but it also offers advertisers the following:
-100% Audit-able In-Post Disclosure
-100% Transparency
-100% Real Opinions
-100% Search Engine Friendly
So what are you waiting for? If you are a blogger, join the SocialSpark community now to make money and meet new friends and if you are an advertiser let us do the job in bringing your products and services out there.
I am so exhausted and I am really to fall asleep. There were so many things that needs to be done today. I am just glad that the weekend is fast approaching so that I can relax. Ryan wants us to go the Botanical Gardens this Saturday but I told him that it is the day before Mother's day and it could be really busy over there. Dad said it is so beautiful in there that we need to go and check it out. Honestly I haven't been there and I am dying to go but maybe next week we can finally go.
I have been to so many weddings back in the Philippines and here and I have to say that wedding flowers always add so much beauty to the wedding although they can be very expensive if you don’t know where to get them. At www.fiftyflowers.com you can get flowers at a discounted price allowing you to save 75%. Why so cheap? It is because there is no middle man that usually adds more to the price. You can also check out their wedding flowers packages to save even more. The flowers are freshly shipped to you overnight and with free shipping. Choose from the selection of flowers they have and save.
Whenever we are invited for a party I don't know it always makes me so excited. It only means we are special to be remembered. It will be a birthday party/get together of Allona's husband, another friend of Rosit and I, that I met through Rosit. She is really nice and we have eaten together whenever I am over there. Also she is from the same University that I went to in Cebu so it was fun talking about the people that she knew and I knew. I can't wait for this Saturday but Ryan has to work overtime so Frankie and I will only be the ones going. Rosit and Charles will be waiting for us in there house and we will go there together. Excited... excited... excited.
The market is down and it is not advisable to sell your house because you will most likely not going to get your asking price. Although it is a great advantage if you are planning to buy a house or a piece of land. That has been keeping us busy lately looking for a land and researching for their land taxes before they go up again. I can feel and see the effect of the market because we have neighbors who have been selling their houses for almost a year now. One house always have an open house but still they didn't sell it. One house is actually bank owned. It was repossessed 9 months after the previous owner moved in because they couldn’t make the payment. Now someone has to sell that repossessed property for the bank.
Real estate agents are not doing too well either with the market down. Unfortunately real estate agents can’t just sell it for the bank so this is where REO agent training will come in handy. REO also known as Real Estate Owned are properties by the banks and they need someone to sell it for them. The REO home study course allows you to learn step by step procedure in selling foreclosure properties and how to do REO Bank Owned Properties. Imagine what an advantage is this going to bring to your business when you can sell both regular and foreclosed homes. You should check them out.
Since their computer is up in the Philippines I have been talking with them for almost everyday but I hate their microphone. The background is too loud but not their voices. I told my sister so many times to get one so that I don't need to buy a calling card and I am glad she listened. Last night was the first voice chat we have with the new microphone and I can hear them really good although not as good with me to them because their connection was so slow. They have dial up and still waiting for broadband. They were promised that they will open a line around where they lived so hopefully that pushes through because then we can enjoy our conversations free.
To be honest with you, I didn’t know that you can actually get into gold investing before. I thought gold is only what we see in treasure hunting movies and not in real life and I was wrong. At monex.com you can buy precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum and palladium for investing purposes. You can always arrange a place where you want it stored at one of the secured banks and depositories of your choose. This will also be a great investment for the future of your children as its value keeps going up. Always get your precious metals from a reputable company like Monex who have been satisfying their customers for 30 long years and counting.
Two days ago I put Frankie to bed. I know he was already tired but after a while he gets up and sat down and started crawling on the edge of the bed to get off. This is the first time that he had acted like this as it has always been so easy to put him to bed. We got up 3 times and still he was sleepy but I can tell that something was bothering him. He is not crabby or anything but he was just super up even if I know that he is tired. I laid him down to touch his teeth and I was right 2 from the left side and 2 from the right side and most of the gums were swelling. Good thing I was able to get him baby orajel and 5 mins. after that he fell asleep. I am sure he is in a lot of pain. Poor baby but everybody has to go through this.
You haven’t seen extreme violence and sadistic gore until you’ll watch the movie Frontier(s). That is the reason why they will be out in selected theaters only for a week starting May 9 before the release of their DVD on May 13 because it's uncut, uncensored and unrated. Most unrated movies usually don’t get shown to the public or in the theaters until they change something in the movie that conforms to the standard rating but not Frontier(s). It was meant to be the way it is, therefore it will be seen the way it should be.
So have you seen the trailer and visited the website yet? It’s really cool. In the website you can navigate and watch clips from the movie so you know what to expect. As a background, a gang of robbers planned a robbery that went terribly wrong. To keep themselves from being caught by the police that were after them, they split up and some ended up in a hostel owned by cannibals. Soon the gang members were mutilated and tortured one by one. I guess they deserved what they got huh? Are they going to make it out alive? You have to see for yourself. Check out select theater listings to see if there is one in your area and prepare to be scared. 
I was in the Filipino store last Wednesday to send money to the Philippines and I overheard the owner of the store and another Filipina talking about the supply of rice. Apparently she just came from Costco and Sam's Club and they are not selling rice and her last hope was the Filipino store. The Filipino store still have sacks of rice. I even told him that he can have the rice we have at home. I bought one sack of rice before but I stopped cooking it when I realized that we sell grits here in the US. I grew up eating grits because we used to have a cornfield but we don't cook it soupy or fried like the south but we have it cooked like the rice. So now I don't cook rice (it has so much starch in it too) but I cook grits and I am loving it. Another alternative for rice.
Ryan bought me a supply from his shop. My mama is also happy that we have grits over here because rice is not good for diabetics.
There are so many kinds of cruise vacations out there. There are senior cruises, family cruises, romantic cruises for couples, luxury cruises, the famous celebrity cruises and now Christian cruises. People pick the type of cruise according to the kind of adventure they want to go into. Among the lists of cruises, it is the Christian cruise that I find so interesting. I read the bible regularly and a history fanatic so it would be nice to be able to visit the places that I read from the bible. With the beautiful chartered luxury yacht you will enjoy first class amenities and on board activities making this your cruise of a lifetime. There will also be bible teachings on board. Imagine visiting the place where John received the book of revelations right there in front of your very eye. Kids can also enjoy a navigational session with their very own cruise captain. There is always fun stuff to do on board for both young and adults a like. You can also visit the beautiful island of Santorini. If you think it is hard to be able to visit those places that you only read in the bible, not anymore with the Christian cruises.
Would you believe that Ryan and I haven't seen the complete Lord of the Rings trilogy yet? I have heard wonderful reviews about it. Well I have seen the first one and Ryan had seen the second one and I have seen bits and pieces of the third one. So all we need to do it rent all three of them and watch them in a day. We haven't pick what day that we can just laze around and watch it. I can't believe we missed this movie. We also watched the first installment of the Golden Compass and it was pretty good now looking forward to the next one.
There are a lot of things to consider when one person opens a business. Besides the location and putting together manpower, introducing the product to the public will be another challenge hence exhibiting the quality of the product through its labels is a must. This is where the help of www.labelworldusa.com can come in handy. They specialize in Custom Label, medical labels, wines labels and any other branding needs that you might have. You are guaranteed with high quality labels and they answer to your labeling needs big or small.
One of the things I truly enjoy every night is preparing Ryan's lunches and breakfast while they are in the living room together. It allows me to be creative and Ryan just love whatever I come up with. One of this favorite is the omelet which I stuffed mushrooms, or ham and even pressed and cooked sausage in it. Then when it almost done sprinkle it with love (cheese). I always get an astounding thank you from him. For his lunch is always a filling salad with deli meat sliced, cheese and garlic croutons and his choice of a salad dressing. So can you blame him if he gains weight a little? 
I have to say I am a pants person. If only we can wear pants to school rather than a skirt when I was in high school and college, I would love that. Even going to church I always wear pants despite my mother insisting not to. My favorite pair is the Chelsea Pants with tummy control picture below from Dockers that I bought when I first got here. You asked why tummy control? Well it surely helps after giving birth to our son and not being able to get rid of this pouch that I have right away.
If my favorite pair of pants can talk I am sure it will say it can feel the love. I don’t go out without ironing my clothes especially my pants. The creases have to be perfectly followed from the front and back. One of the many things I love about my Chelsea pants is I can wear it in almost anywhere from shopping, school and even when I was working before. I am not a purse person as I kept forgetting it so I place my money and the cards at the pockets. Now it is actually a little wore out after using it over and over again (poor thing!) and I may have to get another one but surely it will be exactly the same or just slightly different from the Chelsea pants that I love. So what kind of pants do you wear and love? Don’t you know that you can actually share your story/stories about your favorite pair of pants and submit it in a video for the Dockers contest? Yes, this is your time to show your pants some love and for a chance to win.
When Ryan is home this is how you usually catch them together. They are watching something that you think is very interesting. Well I guess it is interesting enough because they could be sitting on the rocking chair for hours and Frankie just doesn't move. They are watching either teletubbies or Barney. When that (sun) baby in teletubbies comes out Ryan would say, "There's the baby" and you just hear Frankie giggling. They can do this all day long and mama is happy.
It must be very challenging to be a doctor. Imagine all those medications they have to know such as the side effects if combined with other medications and have to carefully dispel it to their patients. Imagine how many medications that is out there right now. This is probably the reason why our family doctor carries a personal digital assistant all the time. I used to ask my husband why would he need it but it could be to access the internet and check out the website www.epocrates.com for medical reference or it may have been already added in his PDA. You see I take so many medications and one medication can interfere with the effectively of the other. Epocrates offers drug reference guide and free software for clinicians to be able to perform efficiently to their patients. What’s even better is you can add a free online drug reference tool for medical websites or even blogs. Now looking up for a drug has never been so easy.
This announcement was paid for by Epocrates.
Uncle Don is celebrating his birthday next week April 30. Although I remember it I was not able to get him a card right away and sometimes when I am in the store I kept forgetting until finally yesterday. I know it will get him late because he lives in Australia but the thought that we sent it is more important. I will give him a call anyway for his birthday and I will send some pictures of Frankie in the card. He always likes it. He thinks Frankie is the cutest and I completely agree. As they say it is better late than never.
I have always admired men and women in uniform because they always perform their duty regardless of where they are and what they are doing. Their dedication to their job makes them very special that is why they deserve to be treated special. So if you know someone that can use a new pair of Bates boots for his job, why not get him one? He deserves all the comfort that he can get and don’t forget the women in uniform too because www.lapolicegear.com also carry comfortable foot ware for her. And for sure expect an astounding thank you. Buy 2 now and enjoy free shipping. 
at my place for those sad, hurting, feeling alone and dealing with old wounds 
Happy Sunday... 
Bravenet Blog 
Blog Community
Get a Free Blog
Manage your Blog
bravenet.com