Caroleen’s Treasures

Wow! Manny won over Clottey!!!!! Another victory for the Filipino boxing champ. With his winning, his family will certainly enjoy the hundred of million dollars that he bagged and one of the Branson vacation packages cost only some spare change for them. I am so proud and like his last fight, I am hoping he will consider retiring. I want him to retire while he is in the peak of his career boxing career. I don’t want him to see him loosing in a game before he steps down.

Anyway, the little guy’s eyes were glued on the tube while the wild cards are on the ring. He is really a boy. He loves sports and I think he will be a good basketball player in the making. Here are some shots taken last February 4.

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At last I got this package from Rochelle Price, the owner of SlingRings. Soon there will be ring slings up for sale in my store, the Home of Handmade Goodies.

It contains 50 pairs of rings for my ring slings.

They shipped my order from Laveen, Arizona last February 12 and the package was already received by Davao Post Office on the 28th. As expected, the parcel notice was delivered here at home yesterday after 9 days of sitting on their desk. If you ever need to know what a “snail mail” means, try the Philippine Postal Corporation’s service and you would certainly know.

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I was up until 3 in the morning looking at photos of cakes. Donald brought up the idea of baking cakes and pastries again and I remember when I wrote about some wild thoughts October of 2008. I really wanted to learn how to bake especially cakes and we actually have a plan on buying oven and baking equipments before Eman was born. Then came Eman March the following year along with the unexpected hospital bill and the  bills that came from him being hospitalized for three times last August 2009. I have no regrets at all because I can trade all the material things for the life and health of my kids. And came the idea of baking again which I think would be a great business. Well I have proven that getting into a business don’t have to be big. It should be something that you love to do and baking is not difficult to love. Who could resist the cakes?????? I fell in love with fondant icing. I can’t wait to get my hands to it.

There is one thing that made me have second thoughts. It was having a handful to do. I have sew cloth diapers and baby slings plus I make personalized gift items. I told Donald that maybe we are jumping from one project to another…..but he said doing that is not good if we have not perfected the craft and yet start another thing again. He said I have perfected the sewing and hand-painting of gift items so to start a baking business is not a bad idea. That I really need to hear from him so I won’t feel guilty. Why not try? After all all of the successful entrepreneurs does not focus on one business only. So we are now buying an oven for me to bake cakes and cupcakes. I am so excited! I wish I can bake cakes and cupcakes for Eman’s 1st birthday. Read more… »

Just one more to go and I am done with my online tasks. I really have to get it all done before the cut-off so I can get more moolah for Eman’s 1st birthday so even they say it is not until tomorrow until the cut-off, I just want to make sure that all my tasks are included in the next pay out. I am swamped with sewing and craft projects and I feel like I am needing some help especially with the cutting of fabric which takes so much of my time. And there’s my online store that has been sitting there for a month now……I already have a domain where to move my Multiply store but I still can’t find time to get everything in place. I just have to find the right ecommerce plug-in that suits my needs and read about the sites that sell merchant account. I think even if I cannot afford it, I can pick some ideas from their websites.

I am always fascinated with lanterns. I find them very regal and when I see one, I can’t help but dream of having our own place adorned with different kinds of lanterns like the Murray Feiss lanterns. I would love to have outdoor wall lanterns in the patio, hanging lantern inside the home and post mounted lighting in the garden. This is my dream so help me God.

See how the lanterns at Jack’s Ridge fascinated the little guy. That is what I love with the place. I want to go back just to sit and stare at them.

Wondering if my bone scanners are reliable. I underwent a free bone scan almost four years ago and since it is free, I have some doubts if it was accurate. The result says I have osteopenia. Osteopenia is a condition where bone mineral density is lower than normal. It is considered by many doctors to be a precursor to osteoporosis. However, not every person diagnosed with osteopenia will develop osteoporosis. I felt a relief to know not all can develop osteoporosis but when my mother, grandmother and aunties have gone through bone scan that same year, the result revealed my mother has osteoporosis and she had a case worst than my grandmother. Then I was back to thinking about the possibility I can also have it.

I did purchased one bottle of calcium supplement but I did not finish it because they are so huge. I feel like it won’t pass through my throat. LOL Now that I have given birth to two lovely kids, I was struck by the fear of it again because they say pregnancy and child birth reduces the bone density. Since I have back problem, it is very likely to develop it and I am actually feeling pains on my joints after some rigid work. I think I will not loose anything (but money) if I try to take one of the best joint supplement and the calcium supplement too or maybe go back to drinking milk? I think I prefer the latest so I will make a pitcher of milk that Mama Ingrid sent us. I love the taste of their powdered milk there, it taste like our fresh milk here.

Just woke up from a short nap and my head is aching. I can’t keep my eyes open when I am breastfeeding the little guy while lying in bed but I could have fought it because I hate the feeling of waking up from a not-so-peaceful nap. I feel I am old…..much older than my age. So next pay-out I am gonna buy myself some skin regimen to slow aging. Although I am blessed with acne and blackhead-free skin, I still love to have that blemish-free, soft and fair skin. I wanted to try Olay, just their new bath soap and maybe the moisturizer. Since we are always going out, I need to keep my skin hydrated and healthy. Of course I also love to have fairer skin which I have achieved when we were living in Trento. Imagine staying inside the house for whole week? I seldom get my skin under the heat of the sun. But that is so impossible to do that now so Olay will be my best friend from now on. Weather is so harsh to the skin too and it could really make me look older if I won’t do anything about it now and I am crossing my fingers that I will be religious in using regimens like that. I am just tooooo lazy. I am not putting anything on m y face, just the regular bath soap and lotion after bath. I hope the price I’m gonna pay for Olay will make me patient and religious.

Oh my goodness….I can’t stand the heat! I am just so happy that we are one of the few lucky ones to have not affected with rotating brownouts. I can’t imagine how to survive El Niño with no electricity. My sweat is dripping ad I feel like I am burning fats. No need for any kind of work out or the famous hydroxycut. I am sure most of us are praying for heavy rain. We could really use a typhoon over here just not the very strong one.

I was looking at old pictures and found these precious ones. I forgot to blog about this, not that they don’t really matter to me but because I can’t keep up with a lot of things to blog about when this happened. Last March 20, 2009, the day before her Graduation Day, Ella drew this in 4″ x 6″ white board.

We were waiting for Eman to make an appearance and she envisions what will happen when that most awaited day will come. As you can see, I am on the delivery table and the doctor was helping Eman come out.

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One thing that really makes me jealous of the people of America is the disability benefit. I have met a lot of friends in the marketplace in FarmTown when I was still crazy with it and some of them are on SSDI (social security disability insurance). One was struck by polio when he was little and the other one was a recovering alcoholic. They receive a monthly stipend and they are entitled to special discounts on services and purchases so even they don’t have a job, they still can survive through their insurance unlike here in the Philippines that people with disabilities are still working to earn for a living.

This photo was taken last October 29, 2009 while Eman and I are on a taxi on our way to deliver cloth diapers along McArthur Highway. This old woman is selling candies and cigarettes in the sidewalk and as you can see, she’s sleeping in her wheelchair probably because she was so tired. You can see a lot of scenes like this  across the country, some are worst than this but they are all equally saddening as to why they still need to work. I hope the government will do something about this soon.