Trip to Baguio City Philippines

Me and my husband went to visit Baguio City Philippines a couple of weeks ago. I hadn't been there since I was a kid and my memories were very fond of the place. I remember it being cooler there as Baguio is located in the mountains. I also remember taking trips there with family and us packing the car and taking a long road trip. I'm not sure how long it took us before to get there but I would imagine that it had to be longer than the 6 hour bus trip that we had taken to get there a couple of weeks ago. Since then the roads have improved and even though there's not really a highway so speak that you take to get there the bus was going at a constant speed.

I was really surprised though at how those bus drivers are able to maneuver through the winding roads as we were literally going up these tall mountains and the roads were narrow and only with one lanes. We had made quite a few stops though on our journey because apparently there are a lot of people that go to Baguio, so as the bus driver saw someone waving him down then he stopped to pick them up. We stopped at two rest stops to stretch our legs and get snacks to eat. The majority of the time going there me and my husband listened to music on our iPod's. The time coming back was spent sleeping as we were tired and it was a very long day.

It was just a day trip for us as we did not plan on staying there for awhile. My husband just wanted to see the place and get a feel for it as he had heard a lot of nice things about it. He absolutely loved Baguio!! He enjoyed the weather first of all and he also liked the people there, they were very friendly and nice. I was not used to the cold weather though and although I was wearing my jacket I was still cold!! I had even started sniffling and sneezed here and there. It must have been around 70 degrees and if anyone knows me that is too cold for me!

We left around 8 in the morning and arrived in Baguio around 2 p.m. We walked around the park that was there as well as went to SM Baguio City which is the Super Mall over there. We had something to eat at the mall and took some pictures on the second floor overlooking the city. We only had a couple of hours there which was enough as like I said before this trip wasn't really planned. Besides we didn't have any other form of transportation besides us walking and with walking we could only go so far especially since I was cold. We didn't take too many pictures so it's really not worth posting a link to Kodak Gallery for them like I usually do with my other photos but I will post a few here.

My husband really liked it there and actually went back another time before he left with one of his friends as he had a music contact out there that he had to meet with. We talked about having a getaway place there to come to relax when we needed a cool place to stay. Next time when we visit we will definitely check out some places:)

Leon's new hairstyle

When my husband was here he had decided to lock Leon's hair like his. Although Leon's hair is a different texture he was able to do it but now it's my duty to maintain it which takes time. Lucky me! I have to do it every other day now.

Leon actually wanted his hair like daddy's for a long time now. He always liked it long, that is why we never cut it. He used to wear it down when it was shorter as he always loved the comments he would get from people everywhere we went. I also liked his hair down as he had some amazing curls, even better than Leanna's. There were a lot of people that would think he was a girl though but that didn't bother him any because the people that could tell he was boy just adored him and especially his hair.

When it got longer and especially when we moved here to the Philippines where it's really hot he always wore it in a pony tail. A lot of the kids from school liked his pony tail and admired that he had different hair than the rest of them. We finally locked it up a couple of weeks ago. It's still in the beginning phase and it's going to take a while for it to permanently lock up but eventually it will. Right now it just looks like he has a bunch of just bigger curls. As you can see from the pictures it still looks nice. He still keeps it in a pony tail though. We'll see how it turns out in a couple of months:)

Enchanted Kingdom

I have really been slacking on writing on my blog. I guess it's because I've been really busy with my husband being home. He has now left though so I have time on my hands now to work on this.

In my last post I had mentioned blogging for profits but I have not even heard back from Google about my Adsense campaign that I want to run on this blog. I knew it was going to take a couple of days but I didn't think it would be this long. I guess I should contact them huh? I'll do that and see what they say.

Meanwhile I hadn't posted these pictures up so I thought I should. These pictures are from when we visited Enchanted Kingdom the first weekend in February. The kids really enjoyed it. There were not too many rides geared towards adults and Levar was sad about that as he thought he was going to ride some rides. We opted for just letting the kids ride the ones they wanted and joined them for some of the rides as well. The water log was as usual really fun and we got a little wet which we wanted to do as we wore our bathing suits underneath. To my surprise they didn't have any other water related rides besides the water log. The kids were disappointed as they really wanted to soak in the water.

There were some rides in which the lines were really long. Particularly the huge ferris wheel that you'll see in the pictures. Unfortunately we didn't ride that one but it was nice to see. We had arrived around 11 a.m. and good thing we did because as the afternoon rolled around especially around 4 p.m. it started getting really crowded. Mom didn't ride any rides at all. She was in her own little world, walking around the whole park and admiring the landscape and the different types of rides they had.

Overall it was a fun-filled day with the family and one where we could say that we've been to Enchanted Kingdom in the Philippines. We would like to take the kids to Disney Land Hong Kong so we will be planning for that sometime this year.

Enchanted Kingdom Pictures

Work At Home or Get a Job?

I've worked all my life since after high school when I started as a bank teller. Ten years in the banking industry has been good to me. I've gained a lot of skills including leadership, management, & social skills. Not to mention good pay. I have been fortunate to have a job to help sustain my family and live a lifestyle in which we didn't have to struggle.

Being in the Philippines for five months now it feels weird not working at a JOB but don't get me wrong I definitely do not miss the stress of having a job. I have been keeping myself busy with writing three business plans actually and another two business ideas that I have also. Which leads me to think about if I really want to stress myself out again by working. I knew that I didn't come to the Philippines only just to work for someone else. Unless you have your own business or you have a high status job here then you are likely to make enough money to just barely get by here. It's a sad truth that many people experience here but that is how it goes.

Being an entrepreneur is not easy either. It takes time, dedication and the will to work like you've never worked before. There is however, different types of things you can do as an entrepreneur such as working from home in the comfort of your own home or starting a brick and mortar business. The business plans I had written were in fact for brick and mortar businesses and I'm starting to think that it might not be something that I don't want to pursue at the moment. The reason why I'm saying that is the fact that I will be taking time away from the kids and the time that I spend with them in studying with them for school.

While I know I could hire people to do the work, it's not that easy to do that here in the Philippines, I don't think it's easy to do that anywhere. The labor costs are real low so it wouldn't be hard to find people looking for work per se but the difficult part is finding the right people that will do the work and people that you can trust. On top of that since I don't speak the language it's harder for me to really trust someone and know if they are really on my side or just out to con me. It's not good to think about things like that but if you don't then you will not be prepared if something bad does happen.

I know that if I do start a brick and mortar business I will be spending a lot of time getting it up and running and not dedicating the time to my kids and that was the main reason that I liked about being here was the time with my kids. For the last couple of days now I've been online trying to think of things that I could do from the comfort of home and not compromise the time with the kids. Of course the main thing that I found was internet marketing. There are a bunch of different ways I can make money online, some that are just flat out scams but some that are legitimate and worth it and will actually make me money. One thing that I have already established is this blog that I'm writing in right now. Although I started this blog to keep in touch with friends back home and for them to keep track of what's happening with my life here in the Philippines I didn't realize that I could also make money from it also. It's a natural progression that I think would be good for me. I don't consider myself a great writer and I know that it will take time to hone my skills but I think I could write some stuff that people will be interested in.

One last thing before I close out this post (I know, this post is long already) is that I actually applied to be a Foreign Service Officer otherwise known as a Diplomat. I know I just posted about not getting a job but after learning about what they do it sparked an interest in me and being curious I decided to just go through the process to see where it would take me. On top of that I thought it would be some good experience for me. Being a Foreign Service Officer means being employed by the US Department of State and being dedicated to representing America and responding to the needs of American citizens in other countries. I will be taking the test in March at the Embassy in Manila so I will keep everyone updated on that.

I miss my parents

It's been six months and counting that I've been here in the Philippines and am feeling somewhat home sick. I guess you don't realize how much you miss people, especially family, until time passes by and you start thinking about them a lot. Although I talk to my parents on a regular basis it's still not the same as seeing them face to face especially seeing them interact with the kids. I'm sure they miss seeing Leon and Leanna and spending time with all of us too.

Mammang Lou gave me an old picture of mom and dad the other day that was hand painted by some painter back when they had lived here in the Philippines. Don't ask me what year the picture was painted but it had to have been some time before 1991 because that was the last time that we had lived in the Philippines. Also judging by the picture dad was a bit skinnier so it definitely had to be in their younger years because dad has gained a few pounds since then. They both look so cute and so young, two lovebirds in love. They have been married now for 41 years and their love gets stronger and stronger as the years go by.

Having raised 4 children, all with different personalities, must've been hard but they have done it and speaking for myself they did a good job:) I owe everything to mom and dad and am very thankful everyday for the many blessings and the things they have done for me in my life. Their love for each other is a true example of what love is. They have been through everything together and they have each other's love and commitment to keep going for the rest of their lives. This is an updated picture of them. Aren't they still so cute? Thanks mom and dad for everything, I truly love and miss you guys:)

Me Pictures

Finally getting the chance to post some pictures that I had taken of myself. These pictures were actually taken back in November but did not get the edited pictures until the beginning of this year. The pictures were taken by a very talented young lady named Raleene Cabrera. I found her online. She is only 19 years old and is currently going to school for interior design but she loves taking pictures on the side. It is her hobby and she said that is actually her passion. She does photos for different people when she can and she also does some professional shoots for magazines and various models as well.

My hair as you can see from the pictures was not cooperating with me. I had taken the pictures in Manila which is about an hour and a half away from where I live in Pampanga. My set time to meet with Raleene was at 1 p.m. so I left around 8 a.m. which would be give me time to travel there plus find a place that would curl my hair for me to give me some volume. Everything was going according to plan but unfortunately when we got there we had a hard time even finding a place to do my hair. I didn't want to just go to any salon that I saw so I had to do some searching for one. Of course the taxi driver was no help as we were in Makati and he didn't know where a good place was and on top of that he was a guy so he didn't know much about all that hair stuff. I finally found a place called Ystilo Salon that I thought would be good but boy was I wrong. I had my hair curled alright but it was definitely not what I wanted and I was crying because of how bad it was! By the time the hairstylist was done and another hairstylist had tried to fix it, it was already close to 2 p.m. I didn't have any time to argue with them so I left with a bad do.

I didn't even want to take the pictures anymore but I didn't want to bail out on Raleene so I just sucked it up and took them. She helped me with my makeup and for my hair I just put water on it and that is why on the pictures it looks flat and just outright ugly. In the end, although I was not happy with my hair I thought the pictures turned out o.k. Next time I definitely will make sure my hair is right:)

Having fun with hubby being home

I haven't blogged in a week as I am busy spending time with my hubby. I can't believe he's been here for a week now, my how time goes by!! It took him a long time to adjust to the time here and he still is feeling a little sleepy during the day. I keep telling him that he needs to stay awake the full day without taking any naps in order to have a good nights sleep but he won't listen.

We have just been hanging out at the house and spending lots of time with the kids, when they're not in school that is. The kids were off yesterday and today so they have an extended weekend. We have decided to go to Enchanted Kingdom tomorrow. Enchanted Kingdom is the Philippines' version of like a Disney Land. We're taking Gerlie and mom so there will be total of 6 of us going. What fun!! Can't wait and as always will post the pictures as soon as possible!