Short-term goals for this year

I stumbled upon my college classmate K's blog and got so inspired with her post about goals and now I'm posting mine too which also turned out to be somewhat similar to hers. I didn't make it to 10 so I'm only posting 9 (isa na lang noh!). Here goes..

1. Get fit. Remove my baby fats a.k.a. postpartum belly fats. They said that it took 9 months for your tummy to grow while you're pregnant so it will also take about 9 months for things to really go back into place but it's been almost 2 yrs and I still have that squishy tummy from it.
   
2. To learn baking and cake decorating. I can't make it in a formal class as I don't have the moolah for it. I'll just try to learn on my own by researching from the net and by baking at least one cake or other pastries every month.
3. Print all the pending photobooks of my son which I have mentioned here before.
   
4. Teach my toddler how to read. I already have gathered some materials from the net but haven't really started.
5. Take a family vacation. We're supposed to have it this month since I have some expiring miles but H won't allow the toddler to go with us if we have to take the plane so we postponed it. H said that he's too young to fly and it's not so safe for him.. oh well.. pero sayang ang miles noh!
   
6. Have a business. Maybe something about clothes..
   
7. Read the Twilight saga books. This is so overdue, I know.. Have started to read the first few pages with Jared and I think he's liking it too hehe!
   
8. Join a marathon. This will also help me in my goal #1 but I still need to find running mates for this.
   
9. And finally, my main goal which I am not yet sure if it's short-term or long-term.. to live on our own. Still saving up to buy a house. Hope we'll get there soon. Just need to save! save! save! and earn more! OK, to earn more, I think I need to pursue goal#6.

Soft Copy vs. Hard Copy

I was looking through our old photos here in my mom's house to find a certain photo with my childhood friends. I'm supposed to post it here in my blog.

There were photo albums of my birthdays and also my siblings, our out-of-town family trips, photos with my highschool friends, albums with H when we were still in bf-gf stage and so on.. It made me realized, suddenly, that I hardly had any hard copies of Jared's photos. Aside from his baptismal album which I have printed, I only had 4 or 5 photos printed when he was barely a year old and that's it.

Then it hit me that my son's life is shown on purely soft copies. I have digitally scrapped his photos from birth to 6 months which I was supposed to have it printed as a photobook, created and finished his first birthday album but all of it are still buried in my hard disk. Then a sudden thought came to me.. what if my computer crashed and the back-ups that I've made were ruined? He wouldn't have memories of his babyhood or childhood. Oh my! I wouldn't know what to do.. I better go in a photo printing shop a.s.a.p.!

Face-lift

I was supposed to give my blog the "face-lift" at the beginning of the year but didn't find time for it. But anyway, here it is! I tried to purchase some templates from the site where Cel got hers but I realized I don't have a paypal so I just searched from different sites with free templates to download. Thanks to Marten from open media who was so kind to share his template. I just made some minor revisions just to give it a girly look. The problem is my blog photos were all cropped from the right. I think it has something to do with the column size but I don't know how to edit it. Can someone help me? I'm totally clueless in xml. And I still need to update the links on the upper part of the template and maybe add some "gadgets" on the side bar. Thanks for looking!

Busy weekend

Last Friday, I installed the AVG antivirus on my computer. After the installation, I scanned right away before I finished updating the antivirus. It had detected 3 viruses and I immediately clicked HEAL then it was healed I guess. I left the computer for a while since the antivirus was not yet fully updated and when I came back to check.. the blue screen kept on appearing and the system kept on restarting. I was so pissed of.. with the virus and the antivirus grrr! I don't know what to do with it so we decided to bring it to the repair shop.

Went to the computer shops on SM Fairview but none of them accepted it for repair since they don't carry the MSI brand.. another grrr! The following day we decided it to bring it to where I bought it (SM city Cyberzone) since it's still under warranty. We went to the new annex of SM city north since the cyberzone has already moved there. When the computer was checked, the technician told us that the problem is the software and it is not under warranty so we had to pay for that service. We were also told that it will take for about 2-3 hours so while we're waiting, we looked for a resto where we can have lunch.

Since the place is just newly built, there were only a few restaurants that were already opened, so we just chose TOSH. At first, we were hesitant to dine there since my mom and sisters told us that the food there especially the pasta is just so so.. With that, we decided to just order the rice meals, Parmesan crusted fish fillet and American baked spareribs plus the Cream of Spinach soup. And for me, the food tasted good. The only complaint of H is the small serving size, well it's because he has a big appetite but for me it's just OK. My only complaint is the place being not so kid-friendly since they don't have highchairs for kids. I hope they realize the need for it.


Then we went back to the computer shop to check the laptop and good thing the problem was solved and it was already ok. Now I'm back to the online world! :)

When we got home, we went straight to our neighbor's 7th Birthday party. It was a food-and-fun-filled party.

Dinner with friends

I had dinner with my friends Andeng & Janice (my childhood friends). So nice of Andeng to come all the way to Fairview from her apartment in Pag-asa. We dined at Napoli Pizzeria and they didn't like the food (my bad!). I was the one who suggested the place and the food.. we had pizza, seafood pesto and chicken and luckily they didn't like the pesto so I had more for myself hehe! They said that it tasted like grass (hmm..) Well, I was not aware that it's their first encounter with pesto. Had I known, should have ordered other pasta. . After dinner, we went to Janice's house to see her kids. Man, they're really big kids. I wonder how much food and milk they consume. They're all so cute and huggable.

It was really great to catch up with them. Some photos..

Banana cake

I baked again! This time it's a banana cake with butter frosting. I still don't know how to do the piping so it looks a bit messed up :) Anyway, here's the recipe:

Cake:

125g butter

1/2 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 4 medium)

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup milk

2 cups self raising flour

Butter frosting:

125g butter

3/4 cup icing sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to moderate 180C. Brush 20 cm round cake tin with oil or melted butter, line base with baking paper. Using electric beaters, beat butter and sugar in small mixing bowl until light and creamy. Add eggs gradually, beating thouroughly after each addition. Add essence and mashed banana, beat until combined.
2. Transfer mixture to a large mixing bowl. Dissolve soda in milk. Using a metal spoon, fold in sifted flour alternately with milk. Stir until all ingredients are just combined and the mixture is smooth. Spoon into prepared tin; smooth the surface. Bake for 1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into center of cake.
3. Leave cake in tin for 10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack.
4. To make Frosting: Using electric beaters, beat butter, icing sugar and lemon juice until smooth and creamy. Spread onto cooled cake.

Tip: Very ripe bananas are best for this recipe as they have the most developed flavor.

22 months

...His vocabulary has improved a lot although he still speaks in really short sentences.

...He knows how and when to say "thank you" and "sorry" at most times.

...He can recognize almost all the small letters except for l, q & t. He gets confused on the letters b and d while he sees the small letter l as the capital I.

...He can sing ABC (sort of) and it goes like this.. "a, b, c, e, f, o, p, u, v, w, x, y, z, Now abc now abc.."

...He can recite one, two, tee, por and after "por" he'll go back to 3, 4, 3, 4..

...He can take simple commands like when I ask him to get the remote control and give it to mommy, to close the door, to fix his toys, etc.

...He tries to walk up the stairs by holding on to the railings because he cannot balance yet that well.

...He loves playing his MegaBloks toy. One time he's playing, he showed me what he did and said "noark" - for Noah's Ark, which means that he made a noah's ark out of those blocks and yeah it sure looks like it! :)

Happy 22 months my baby! :)

Another day at the mall

We left home early in the morning to pick up the free toy from Huggies in exchange of Huggies diapers packs, the contest which I've mentioned here before. I was so happy I still got the chance to claim it even if it was so over due. Supposedly, we will claim it at SM North but since the promo has ended, we were asked to claim it at their office in Cubao. Good thing H agreed to go all the way to Cubao just to claim a toy. Thanks papi! :) Btw, we got the Megabloks building blocks which Jared really liked. He's playing with it as I write this.

We headed straight to Trinoma and had lunch at the North Park. We had delicious but msg-packed lunch. Talk about how chinese restaurants use msg extensively in their cooking.

We also went to powerbooks so that Jared can see and "read" some books and so we can rest for a while. I know taking photos inside that bookstore is prohibited but I was so "pasaway" I still snapped some photos secretly. :)

For merienda, I finally got to try the Razon's halo-halo. I didn't know they have a branch in Trinoma. Hubby said that the Razon's halo-halo in Pampanga is better than the Trinoma branch. Anyway, I still liked their halo-halo. Even if it has less "halo" compared to others, it's still the creamiest and tastiest. I wonder what milk they use..

Weekend in batangas

Last Saturday, we went to Batangas with my in-laws to attend the debut party of Ryan's cousin. It was a long trip due to the very slow traffic in EDSA. We reached Bauan at 6pm, changed clothes and went straight to the party. The venue was so nicely decorated. I didn't realize that a basketball court would turn into such beautiful place.

It was Jared's first time to attend such party. I know it's not good for toddlers staying up late but what can I do, we all thought that we will just stay there for a short period of time and we didn't know that the program before dinner will be that long. It was a really nice and fun party. Anyway, we then left few minutes after dinner as Jared needs to sleep.

Jared with his lola Mayet

We slept at my In-laws’ house in Agoncillo that night. Come morning, went to the Jolly beach so that Jared can play and swim.

Jared with his Tita Kimberly and papi

We reached home at around eleven in the evening. We were all so tired but definitely we all enjoyed our little vacation.