Another pleasant surprise

It was kinda weird, though. It all started with an email asking me to post a text link for a website selling dresses. A representative for the said website asked if I could put their link on my other blog. I agreed, I thought it was just a simple way of helping businesses spread their wings on the Internet.

They couldn’t exchange links with me, but the rep said they were going to pay me yearly for the ad. And the payment’s quite nice.

Whoa! That’s the first time anyone’s ever going to pay me for just posting a simple link text. And no clicks needed. I guess all I need to do is keep my other blog alive.

Interesting. Ain’t that a pleasant surprise.

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When I was in high school, one of my teachers taught us the prayer for a pleasant surprise. Until now, I continue to pray for it, and there are indeed times when I receive one (maybe I do get it always, sometimes I just don’t know that’s the surprise).

I want to share the prayer to you. Just try it. You have to say this prayer every Tuesday, anytime before noon.

Say three Our Father, three Hail Mary, and three Glory Be. After which, you say, “Dear Jesus, through the intercession of St. Anne, please grant me a pleasant surprise.”

I don’t remember if it had a longer version, this was all I could recall. But when I say this short prayer, I feel it works. Who knows, you might get your pleasant surprise, too.

Primpandprettify.com’s Summer Blog Contest

Doing a favor to a colleague and co-blogger…

Just want to invite you to join Primp and Prettify’s Summer Blog Contest. One lucky reader gets a chance to win a free waxing service at Lay Bare, Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Sunblock Gift Pack, and a Sassa swimwear. Mechanics are posted on her blog, so visit and submit your entries. You only have until the 25th of March to submit your entries. Check it out, okay?

Click here to visit the contest page.

Mommy diary: A half a day at the mall

Zee, me, and hubby at Megamall, 020710

Hubby wanted a break, so we decided to spend half of the Sunday frolicking in Megamall (would’ve spent just 1/4 of our day there, but hubby’s AE peppered him with multiple revisions on a logo and he needed the WiFi to email N versions of it). Zee did pretty okay and was even patient with her dad while he worked on his laptop in the Food Court.

All was well until around 8:30 when it happened: Zee pooed.

It was not the first time she pooed in the mall. I learned that it would be tedious for me and stressful for her, though. During her first poo outside the home, she wailed until Kingdom Come — or until I picked her up from the changing table. This time, I tried putting something under her head, which would serve as a makeshift pillow. I sang some songs as I cleaned her up. I guess midway through she realized she was on that table again and, well, cried until Kingdom Come.

At least it took a shorter time than the first to change her nappies.

Hubby and I also learned that Zee’s a bully. Or so we think. In the church in Megamall, she kept screaming at the kids near her. She even screamed at the months-old baby sleeping beside her. I think it had something to do with the doll my grandma bought her last week. She’d grab the doll’s cap and scream at her, probably because it wasn’t responding. Or because she’s not used to having another kid around. Brat.

We decided to bring her to public places more often. We hope through that, she’d get used to the idea of crowds.

For now, well, she’s the queen of the house.

Cold feet

There is an idea inside my head. My head says it is good. The idea seems promising from this end.

But then there are the dilemmas: the lack of a few things, some of which includes guts and the set skills needed.

And then there are the questions: Can I sustain it? Do I have the patience to do it? Will it be beneficial in the long run?

This always happens.

No wonder nothing ever happens.

Get a chance to win Php5,000 worth of Fully Booked GCs

Was just bloghopping when I saw this at The Jagged Barn:

Win Php5,000 worth of gift certificates from Fully Booked! Just click on this link to join. You’ll be answering a short survey that gives you a chance to bag this prize.

There will be a lot of things hubby and I can get from Fully Booked with those GCs. Hope to win. Hehe!

Just wondering

After the MMDA launches a female public urinal along EDSA, a party list representing the third sex requests for their own urinals.

So… how would that be any different from the usual urinals?

One week

That’s how long hubby has been working for his present employer.

This was one of my answered prayers, actually. Since mid-December last year, he’s been on the lookout for a new job, submitting resumes here and there, and attending interviews in between.

It came as a surprise; what was supposed to be his interview date turned out to be his first day at work. On that first day, he went on overtime. Last weekend, they did an overnight brainstorming session. Yesterday, he called up to tell me that he’ll be coming home early morning the next day (which was just this morning).

I guess we shouldn’t be complaining, right? He’s got a job, which means he’s going to earn money, and they’re giving everyone tasks to do, which means the company’s earning.

I’m just worried Zee won’t see him much during her waking hours.

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Speaking of the little girl, it’s Zee’s 7th month today. She was born at about this time seven months ago. Wow.

Now she’s mumbling things, sticking her tongue out, drooling everywhere, pulling everyone’s hair, and trying to balance herself while inside her playpen. She plays with everyone, she even likes her yaya, but she really loves staying with her lola so much that she doesn’t even recognize her own bed back at the apartment.

Gotta remind myself to take a picture of her tonight.

Attached

Looks like we’re saying goodbye to our apartment.

With the recent financial situation, hubby and I decided to stay at my parents’ house for the meantime. Less utilities to pay, plus at least we don’t have to bring Zee over there and fetch her at night everyday.

I asked hubby whether he felt I imposed on him the decision to stay with my parents (as opposed to his parents’ house in Novaliches). He said no, though he felt I was still too attached to our house in Pasig even after more than a year of being “separated” from them.

Can’t blame my hubby for feeling that way… because it’s true. 29 years of memories in that house that I never left (except when I got married) is like an anchor for me. In between those years, the only time I got out of that house was when I went to school, when I had to take care of extra-curricular stuff, and when I had to go to work. Not even my siblings had the opportunity to fly from the nest; when my sister was entering college, she suggested staying in a dormitory. My mother wouldn’t allow it, she was scared that when my sister experiences an asthma attack no one would be there to take her to the nearby hospital. Since then, the rest of us never had a chance to live on our own during our younger days. Heck, even some of my clothes and some of our wedding gifts were neatly stored there (until Ondoy came).

I never experienced being out of the house for so long. And when that time came, it actually made me cry.

While staying at my parents’ house has its benefits, this would also mean less privacy and less space for us to maneuver. Well, at least we could use the area of our former store as stockroom… and as hubby’s recreation room.

We still have about a month to fix our stuff and move it to the house.

Ah, apartment. You have been so kind. Thank you.

And #3 Rissa St., welcome me back.

The start of my Mommy diary

I realized I should’ve been doing this since Zee was born. It’s been almost 7 months now, and I’ve only put one or two updates about her growth and development. And because this is a blog by a wife and mother, it’s just right that I should start doing it.

Welcome to Hits and Mrs. Mommy Diaries.

For this entry, I would just like to share Zee’s milestone on her 6-and-a-half month of existence: she can now prop herself to stand up when she’s in her playpen. Wee! I just don’t have a photo of her (her lolo hasn’t thought of capturing it yet). But she could stand up now. And she crawls pretty fast, too.

She’s already eaten her first batch of solids a couple of days after Christmas. She loves apples, bananas, potatoes, carrots, and sayote. Zee didn’t like the papaya. She’s presently on an apple-banana diet because she pooed too much when she ate the potato, carrot, and sayote (which induces pooing, said the pediatrician).

Zee’s gotten a tad bit noisier, too. She can say many syllables in one breadth now. And her saliva’s just everywhere. But she’s a baby, and we don’t mind.

She’s probably near the teething stage. Ah, it will only be some time until she learns to walk.

I’m getting nervous. And excited.

——–

Off to another topic, I tried monetizing my Blogger blogs by enrolling in online opportunities other than Adsense. So far, the most fruitful had been Paid-to-Promote. They automatically send payments through Paypal every 15th and end of the month. It’s my second time to get paid and I’m happy.

Hopefully, this will be a start of some passive income flowing into my savings.

Wonderful/weird

My start of the year’s pretty much filled with weddings. Two couples close to me and hubby tied the knot (to their necks — not!). Congratulations and best wishes to Mike and Zeth Lorenzo, who solemnized their union at St. Martin of Tours in Bulacan last Jan. 3 (they got married in the Dubai Consulate last year), and Kyo and Grace Arriola just this Saturday, Jan. 9, at Archbishop’s Palace.

I liked the bridal march of the second wedding. Grace walked on the aisle to a piano and violin version of Black Eyed Peas’ I Got A Feeling. Hehe.

——–

Also would like to thank Zeth for giving me a copy of Neil Gaiman’s Odd and the Frost Giants, fresh from a book sale store in Dubai:

Been a while since I actually held a book. Couldn’t bear to touch my now-soiled-by-Ondoy’s-floodwaters autographed copy of The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish.

It’s a nice book, I read it in just two hours. Shorter than Coraline (shit — that went under, too). Like most Gaiman works, it’s a fantasy short story but mixed with Norse mythology. I recommend this book for very light reading.

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Nothing can get weirder than hearing my dad singing the intro of Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance.

Rah-rah-rah-ah-ah…