GT#7: Best Birthday

It's time for Girl's Talk. For this week, the girl will be sharing their best birthday celebration.

So, here's mine. My 18th is my best and most memorable birthday. No grand party happened but I was surprised by my mother and siblings who arrived from our hometown few days before my big day. I was staying in Laguna then, and was busy completing my college entrance requirements. I celebrated my birthday at my Aunt's rented apartment. Mama cooked my favorite Filipino delicacies. I had only very few guests which include my three older siblings, my aunt's family and my brother's co-workers but it was one of my happiest birthdays. 

How about you, what's your best birthday??? Care to share, join us here:

Unannounced Blog Leave

Though I've been offline for just a number of days, I feel like I've neglected my blogs for a long time. I was busy during the last few days due to a series of  personal and work-related events I attended.

 July 16 - Children's Thanksgiving Worship Service in our Church. I accompanied my children in this special occasion. I've been busy looking for perfect outfits for them, too. 

July 17-22 - Makati City celebrated the 2nd Gender and Development Week. I helped my colleagues in the activities which included a mass calisthenics, exhibit, and free medical check-up. It also marked our  seven (7)  fruitful years of promoting gender equality in Makati. 

The New DinneRevolution e-Cookbook

One of the best thing that I love to do at home is to cook for my family. However, being a working mom sometimes hinders me from preparing healthy and sumptuous dishes for them. I usually arrive home an hour before dinner time. So, fast food take-outs is one of the easiest alternative but I know eating such food is not healthy especially for growing kids. 

Thanks to DinneRevolution by Chef Jeff which provides a variety of healthy and modern Recipes,   grocery store savings guide, and  weekly menu plan in one e-cookbook. With the help of the cookbook, I can cook delicious and healthy dinner for my family easily since most of the recipes in the cookbook has 10 ingredients or less and can be prepared in less than 30 minutes.

Hey moms, do you want a complimentary copy of the DinneRevolution? Head on to this LINK to grab the offer.

GT #6: My Birthday Wish

Too bad, I was not able to submit an entry last week with the best birthday gifts as the topic. So, please allow me to share the best present I have received during my 34 years of existence, hehe.  I gave birth to my eldest  one month before my 29th birthday. She's the most precious gift that God has given me. 

For this week, I'd like to share the things I wished for my birthday last May 2010. I've been blogging for several years. Through the years, I found blogging through Blogger platform easy because of its readily available gadgets aka widgets and this blog was my one and only active blog. I attempted to transfer this to WordPress (WP), but I'm not happy with the results. So, I set aside the idea of migrating the whole blog to WP. Few weeks before my birthday this year, I declared my wish online (through social networks) that I am wishing for a WP blog with own  domain and hosting. I really worked hard on putting up my first WP blog. I asked around what could be the best niche or topic for my new blog. A friend said that I should blog about the City of Makati since I've been here almost half of my life. And that paved the way of putting up my About Makati City blog last May 15, 2011. Through prayers, hard work, and friends' support, my wish was granted.

Hey Moms, Lose Weight Now!

I need a lot of determination motivation and I am sure Fitness First’s Lose It! program in partnership with Mom Center will really help me get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. So, I joined the contest and I  hope I'll be the lucky mom! haha

If you want to join, click the image for contest mechanics:

Cheers,

Green Living Monday: Summer Vacation in Bicol

I lived a happy childhood in my hometown. During my elementary and high school days, summer is usually spent in the our house near the river and rice fields. Having kids of my own now, I want them to experience life in the countryside,too. My eldest always spend her summer vacation there since she was 1 year old. That's 5 summers already. 

These photos were taken last April 2010. 

That's my daughter Yasmin wearing her grandma's hat :), infront of my brother's house. 

with her cousins

lying in Lola's antique sofa. :) 

#PilipinasBestBuys!

Group buying sites is becoming more familiar here in the Philippines. I have several friends who have enjoyed a day of pampering in a spa using their discounted vouchers. A friend and her barkada booked a super discounted dinner cruise at Manila Bay. Want to try it, go and log-in to Pilipinas Best Buys. And here's an awesome treat for you. Belt it out with family & friends at Music Match Family KTV at 50% OFF, thanks to #PilipinasBestBuys!

Google+ vs. Facebook

A couple of days ago, two of my circle of friends have been asking who wants Google+ invites. One circle are my fellow bloggers and the other, my fellow IT enthusiasts. I guess you noticed that I keep mentioning the word CIRCLES. By the way, Circles is one of the interesting features of the recently launched Google+ project. 

The Circles feature in Google's new social network lets you neatly organize your friends in specific buckets. Too bad people don't really want to do that in a social network. (pcmag.com)

Red Hot Mondays: Green and Red Rubber Mat

That's my 8 month old son Yohan playing in the red and green rubber mat. He is an active baby who loves to play with my mobile phone, stuffed toys and anything his tiny chubby arms can reach.

Green Living Monday: Walking in the Rain

My daughter Yasmin experienced walking in the rain for the first time.

Last Saturday, I tagged her along to the meeting I attend in Quezon City. It was a rainy weekend here in  the Metro but despite the gloomy weather we had mother and daughter bonding. Instead of taking a cab, we had a short walk from the building where our meeting was held to McDonalds-Quezon Avenue. It was also her first time to pass be the green elevated walkway constructed constructed by MMDA. I thought she'll refuse climbing up the high overpass but boy I was wrong, she was even singing in the rain while walking hahaha.

My Top Ten Emerging Influential Blogs for 2011

I've been blogging for years but this is my first time to join the Emerging Influential Blogs writing project. So here they are, my Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs for 2011:

1. momwrites.com  - just one of the many blogs of a wonder WAHM. This blog documents all the happy thoughts and memories of her life. She calls this blog her Happy Blog.
2. mypaintedlips.com - as the blog title/domain name sugggest, this blog is all about a mom's love to lipsticks and cosmetics. Being a mommy of 4 adorable kids, me-time in the beauty salon is most of the time, the last in her to-do list. So, putting on lipstick is one of the easiest way to pamper herself and stay pretty while attending to the needs of her children.  
3. thebloggersjournal.com - Bloggers constantly look for ways to improve their blogs, so this blog will really help them learn new things as well as the basics in blogging. 
4. notepadcorner.com - a personal blog that focuses on the author's experiences, challenges, home, parenting, food, travel, and anything that concerns daily life.  
5. mommysurvival.info - Motherhood is a tough job but with this blog which serves as Mommy Survival Guide, our lives will become easier...It offers tips and advice on parenting, motherhood, personal care, relationships, shopping, home management, and others. 
6. mygreenlivingideas.com - I participate in the Green Monday weekly meme hosted by the owner/admin of this blog. My green living ideas tackles issues on eco-living as well as her thoughts as a wife and mother. 
7. pepperrific.com - This blog is about the inner thoughts of a single mother and aims to help parents by sharing tips and advice on parenting. 
8. totteringmama.com- I love this blog. Parenting toddlers, marriage and home management are some of the things that the blogger behind this blog talks about. 
9. certifiedfoodies.com - A food blog jointly owned and maintained by siblings Mhel and Ken. They share their passion of cooking and food adventures on this blog.
10. levyousa.com - The blogger gives credit to the levitation spell of Hermione from Harry Potter (the "Wingardium Leviosa"). This blog talks about the things that will somehow touch and inspire someone's life and things that will make us smile. 

You can also nominate your Top Ten Emerging Influential Blogs for 2011. Visit the link for more details. 

Thanks to the following sponsors for making this project possible: Cyber Monday Deals, TRIbeca Private Residences, How To Videos, Palawan Beaches for Sale,Green and Natural Lubes Philippines, Philippine data center, Philippine online shopping, Singapore Jobs, Pinoy Party Food, Apartment for rent, and Best deals tips. 

GT #5: My Birthday Trivia

 

Since Girls Talk meme host Kaye is celebrating her birthday this month - July 26 to be exact, topics for the whole month would be birthday-related. 

For this week, we're playing a simple yet cool game about our birthdays. Here's the instruction:

 1. Go to Wikipedia.org.

 2. Search for your birthday (without the year, only date and month, for more results).

 3. Share with us events, births, deaths and holidays which happened during the date of your birth.

My birthday is May 24 and Wikipedia says:

May 24 is the 144th day of the year (145th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 221 days remaining until the end of the year.

Green Living Monday: My "Green" Blog

Presenting my new layout for my travel blog, About Makati City

I can't think of an appropriate entry for this week Green Living Monday meme, so that's what can I share for now, my blog's new look lolz. I just love it's tangerine, brown and light teal combination.

Join Pinay WAHMS’ $800 Birthday Giveaway!

This is one of the coolest giveaways in the blogosphere ever!!!

Three work-at-home mom (WAHMS) namely Kaye, Sam and Ruby who are celebrating their birthdays this month are hosting a $800 Birthday Giveaway. When I read about the contest in Ruby's  blog, I logged in to my blogs and started composing my entry err entries. The lucky ones could win a combination of cash, domain and a blog makeover. How cool is that?!!!

GENEROUS CONTEST SPONSORS:

Baguio Girl · Filipina Blogger · Places and Plates · Vector Dad · Pinay Mommy Blogger · Tsinay Travels

Expressions and Thoughts · Delight My Appetite · Me, Myself and Jes · Fishy Talks · Oh Gosh Gulay · Mommy's InfoDose · Advocating Breastfeeding · The Oblepias Family Blog · Gowns and Heels · Nshima Servings · transforMAYtion · Pinay Mama · The Bloggers Journal · A Network of Entertainment · ZoWanderer · LEVYousa · {cherry} everyday · Dreamworld Traveler · Samut Sari Etsy Store · Her and History · Beauty and Fashion Diva · Mye de Leon · I Embrace Life · From Asia and Beyond · Jared's Little Corner · My Tots Exactly · Barbie Dress Up Games · Written by Mys · Hands Full of Life · The Life Encounters

Hurray, click that Pink Badge above for more details about the contest and start composing your entries, too!   Good luck!!!