Home Insurance a Must

My parents' house back in the Philippines don't have a home insurance. They have that house ever since I can remember and they don't get insurance for it. I am thinking recently that it should be best for them to get one in case something happen. Most of the houses in our area back there don't have insurances and only few I know who have one, the rich people and those living in new subdivisions. But here in the US I know it is a must for family's to insure their properties. Even us living in an apartment we have a renter's insurance. This is really a great help when something happen. We just renewed our insurance earlier this month along with our auto insurance. I have a friend that just got their new home in October and I told her she can get home insurance quote online to make her aware of the different rates insurance companies have. A quote is very helpful in order for home owners to compare premiums from different providers. I hope I was able to give her some insight coz I know shopping for insurance can be a tedious one.

Holiday Feasts

Now that holidays are coming it also mean more feasts; food and fun. This time of the year most people are likely to gain extra pounds. Well, I mean based on experience as well as my friends' and relatives' testimonials. Starting off during Thanksgiving holiday. I know there are lots of invitations for Thanksgiving breakfast, lunch and dinner :-) Me and our DD were already invited over at friends houses for Thanksgiving. We have three invitations so far and I am not sure of going to three of them. I would love to but the weather really is making me tired to drive around. Then come December there will be celebrations as well that we're already invited to go to. For sure foodies will flood and holiday preparations are really hard to resist :-) Adding extra calories is inevitable this holiday season so might as well check out best weight loss pills for the coming new year. I know losing weight is always in the list for new year's resolution but seem like it's hard to keep it. But I know some friends that are so dedicated to maintaining a healthy lifestyle that even holiday feasts do not deter them from losing weight. I am hoping that I will be able to have such determination and perseverance as well.

I Need to Clean My Car

Going out for me is so hard at this time. It's very cold and always raining here in our place. Right now I am still battling with colds and so congested during night time that sleeping is hard to do. But I need to clean my car especially the insides. It needed vacuuming. My friend mentioned that she needed to vacuum her car too. She also need to clean up some of the car accessories inside since her kids made a mess once they're eating inside the vehicle. Ever since hubby left I haven't cleaned the car yet :-) I know shame on me. But it's always raining so washing will only be useless. Hopefully when we experience straight rain-free weather then I will decide to go out and vacuum the insides. It's no near to gross anyway so it's still fine as of now.

Our Sweet Little Girl

Everyday our DD expects to talk to her Daddy online. Her routine in the morning after we got out of the bedroom is to boot the computer. She now know how to turn it on. If she wake up and see that the computer is on she will turn it off and then turn it on again by herself. So what I do is wait for her to wake up and let her do the task. Then she will ask "Daddy online?" and "Talk to Daddy on skyte (skype) :-)" If her Daddy is not online yet I will tell her so and she will ask again "Daddy asleep?" that I will also answer "Yes, Daddy is still sleeping", or "Daddy is still at work".

As soon as she hear the video call from Daddy she will run to the computer and look at the webcam waving "Hi daddy, hi Daddy" and "Love you Daddy" over and over. She get excited to see her Daddy. I am just glad that in her young mind she never forget about her Dad and she is showing her happiness just to hear his voice and see him online. I am grateful that we have this communication right now that still bridges the distance between us.

The pictures above are the video snapshots that Daddy took while we were talking through skype. The first snapshot, she was clapping her hands after she recited to her Daddy her full name. The second one, her Daddy asked her to kiss and hug Mommy for him to which our sweet little girl obliged. She is such a darling.

Travel To Mexico

One of the places that I really love to visit in the future is Mexico. Before I came here in the US our family friend who is living in California told me that he always go to Mexico when he has the chance to. He just love to stay at the beach there and experience the richness of Mexican culture including of course the food. I also have lots of friends that already visited the place and they said the same thing. Even my husband is wanting to go there one day. We were planning then to travel to mexico for a short vacation but we just don't have the time. Then deployment came so we may be able to pursue the plan when we have ample time. But it is for sure that we will go there one day and experience the beautiful and scenic beaches.

Beauty Regimen

Do you have a beauty regimen? This is the question my friend asked me the other day. She is now venturing into a business of selling beauty products and she asked me if I am interested to buy one of the products they are selling. Honestly I don't wear make up when I go out of the house. As part of my taking care of my skin I only use the usual products you can find in department stores. After I wash my face I apply toner and then moisturizer then that's it. I admit I need to start having some wrinkle treatment since I already see fine lines especially on my forehead and at the side of my eyes. I am not getting any younger and the soonest I start taking care of my skin the better. My only problem is that I am very lazy to do the task :-) But I know that if I will not be diligent on it then I will not get a good result. So now I am thinking that I may have to check my friend's products and see if any of those fit to my needs.

Back to School

Early this month hubby signed up for a class online. He is currently deployed but he said it will not deter him from signing up for classes online since he is determined to finish his bachelor's degree. So he did signed up and at first he was told that VA covers his tuition. Then when he register for it he was advised to pay for it first and then he will be reimbursed. We paid the whole amount early this month and I am hoping he will be reimbursed soon.

This is what my husband always wanted, to go back to school. His long term education plan is to pursue graduate studies after getting his bachelor's degree. His field is in information technology and I know he can get an Online Masters Degree Information Security that he is always telling me about. I told him that Lewis University is offering such degree. The convenience of taking it online is great so even if he's anywhere working he can still take classes. They designed their program to cater to the needs of the booming new technology. We are now in computer age and information and data are stored in a database and the internet. With it, security is very much important to protect the illegal dissemination thus the program is designed to address it. My husband will surely like it and I will always be here to support in all his endeavor.

PCSing After Deployment

Earlier I was talking to my friend whose husband is also deployed. We were talking about future plans when our husbands comes home. She told me that her husband planned of moving to another duty station after his tour. He is looking of going to the east coast. To which I understand since his family is from there. I know when that time comes it will be very sad for us since our bonding will be cut short and we don't know if somehow down the road our paths will cross again.

This is a sad reality for every military family. You will leave good friends behind or your good friends will leave you behind. But we accepted this fact and just treat it as a way of life. This is why we are kind of toughen by the situation that when moving time comes, there is less drama already. This will be the first move for my friend going to another post if ever and so I told her that she need not worry with their things since there are cross country moving companies that the Army will hire to ship their stuffs. For us, I am hoping that we will no longer move but I can only hope for that. We still have to abide what the Army will say.

Almost Christmas

It's almost December but I haven't started buying my Christmas list yet. I am also debating if I have to put up our Christmas tree this time. If I will then it will be on me solely since hubby is not here to help me put it up. Our tree is seven feet tall and right now it's still in our storage. I will have a hard time taking it out from there since it's all in a big plastic boxes. But if I will not put up our tree it will be so lonely without even Christmas lights on inside our unit. Me and my friends are thinking of celebrating this season together. Just like what we always do in the Philippines we will have an exchange of gifts. The kids will surely love it. I am looking for possible gifts online and really there are tons of gift ideas I found. It's just a matter of knowing what will fit to the one I am going to give the gifts with. For gadgets, there are MP3 players, portable DVD players, PSP's, ipods, and other electronic gizmos. I better start getting what I needed because days fly by so fast. Without my knowing it's already Christmas time.

Happy Veteran's Day

I would like to give a shout out to my friends who are also military wives to give thanks to our dearest soldier for their service to the country. Their unselfish sacrifice and duty to the country is very much appreciated. To all the military service members, THANK YOU for your service and keeping us and our country safe. Hats off to all of you!

Thank you Daddy for your service. We love you and we are very proud of you.
We miss you very much :-)

Job Hunting

Right now I am so wanting to go back and join the workforce. I started to get feel the boredom of just staying at home. I know that if I have a job I also have to sacrifice a lot especially in taking care of our daughter. She is still a toddler and haven't been left in a day care. I just don't know how she handles it once I will leave her in the care of others for the whole day. My friend babysit her when I have appointments that no kids are allowed. But it's only for few hours. When I am online I always search job listings around our area. My friend in Philadelphia told me that she recently found a place to work at a pa job listings site. She wanted to work some place else that is why she's looking around. She is already working as a nursing assistant and currently in school to pursue her nursing degree. But hopefully I will have a clear decision on what I really want to do; find a job, enroll this winter quarter, or do both.

Trick or Treaters

We sure had a fun Halloween celebration yesterday. We attended a mass at five in the evening. After the mass we had dinner at a friend's place then around 8pm we drove to the neighborhood of another friend to trick or treat. It was my first and our DD's to go house to house so we were very excited. Even if it was cold we still enjoyed it. After few houses my other friend who was carrying her 9 month old baby said that she will just follow us with her car since it's getting cold. She don't want her youngest to catch cold. We told her she could and we will just watch her other son. It's better that way rather than have her little one get sick. It's flu season and the danger of the swine flu is just scary to think. Apart from that, getting sick is very expensive. For those that are working and always out of the house, make sure that you be prepared. Get an affordable health insurance and most of all practice hand washing all the time to prevent the spread of any disease.

Anyways, going back to our trick or treating, my friend wasn't able to part with her son since he wanted her to be with him. So we did not go far to another block. After 20 houses, I think, we decided to go back. The kids' baskets were full of treats already and it's beyond 9 in the evening as well. In totality, the night was fun and everybody enjoyed it. It was a great experience for the little kids.

Snapshot from Daddy

Early this morning I was chatting with my husband. He was able to set up a web cam with his laptop. We chatted and was able to see each other. Our DD was able to see Daddy and she got so excited. Her Dad played peek-a-boo with her and she gave out a hearty laugh. It feels like Daddy is just here. She keep saying "love you daddy".

About few minutes ago we just finished talking to hubby through Skype. This time we were able to talk and see each other. Our DD was asleep but hubby wanted to wake her up. When she heard her Dad's voice she woke up right away. We were able to talk for few minutes then he logged off since it's time for him to go to work. The picture on the side was taken by our Daddy using the snapshot through skype.

Head Bump

Yesterday we had fun because we went trick or treating. Our day started very early. I was driving around after lunch. I went to two different stores just to look for one thing, trick or treat basket for our DD. Unfortunately I wasn't able to buy one. It was all sold out at Wally world and Safeway had one but I don't like the design. So I decided to just let our DD use one of my small cloth bag. It worked out well :-) and I saved money. Our destination for trick or treating was the neighborhood of our friend. They have lots of Filipino neighbors and they've been trick or treating there ever since they live there. We were at their driveway and my friend C told me to just leave my purse in her trunk so I will not carry it all around. She opened it using her remote. I was thinking it was high enough and when I stoop down to put my purse in I bumped my forehead unto the trunk door. Until now it still feel a little sore and tender. I thought I will pass out due to pain. I told my friend the incident made me think about checking out for my term life insurance in case something happen to me. Of course it's only a joke but in all honesty it was very painful. Then this morning when I saw my friend I saw that she also have a bump on her forehead. I asked her what happened and she laughed because she was also victimized by her trunk door.

Cutting Cost

Our main goal right now since hubby is away is to save more and pay our debts so when he comes home we will be debt-free (crossing fingers). Before he left we already talked about our priorities. We are both positive that we will reached our goal. With our attitude towards our finances as of now I am pretty confident that we can do it. For the past two months we were able to paid off three of our credit cards and we only have one left to work on. We have two vehicles and I am only using one so we talked of asking to lower down the insurance of the truck since I am not using it. A friend of ours who is also on deployment said that they were able to lower the premium of their rv insurance because his wife will never drive it. Hopefully my husband can call our insurance company and ask them about it or he can just request it online. This is just one way of cutting cost on our expenses. I was able to lower our utilities as well like energy, cellphone and cable. I know if we are determined and work well with what we can afford then everything will be golden.