Marriage and Beyond

posted by Jennie on Jan 21

This is my three year old Jed, doing the yoga tree pose. He regularly sees the three of us, Jeff, me and her Auntie Esther and he wants to be good at it as well. Beside him here is Esther on the wii balance board.

 

To date, I have missed one day and I am not about to miss another workout again. Commitment is a big factor for me to be able to take control of my health. Last year was not a very good one, having been sick half the year. I pray that my being intentional towards a healthier me will help a great deal. Otherwise, I might have to get hold of the best diet pill to get rid of some unwanted flabs. My balance is definitely getting better but I do have to work more on those strength exercises.

posted by Jennie on Jan 20

The hubby and I have a date tonight – a four hour marathon of the first four episodes of 24.  It’s hard to wait.  I put a couple of assignments to a halt while I peeked in on the first episode.  I don’t mind watching it again later.  I can’t believe Tony Almeida is working for the very people they have been fighting against when he was still with CTU.

True, a lot of scenes from all of the previous seasons were hard to believe.  Like Jack Bauer getting away with every single brawl and attack, unscathed.  The worse I saw of him  was his torture under the Chinese government but there were whole packs of scenes that he got away from, that were far from believable.  All that being said, I am still nuts over the series. We could go for hours on end, with just a few bathroom breaks, watching Keifer and his genius production. 

posted by Jennie on Jan 20

Personally, nothing beats workouts that you can do right at home. After having progressed from fifteen minutes, I am now enjoying no less than thirty minutes of yoga and aerobic exercises every day. Truth to tell, what is best after an exercise is an honest to goodness massage, which I really can’t afford to have on a daily basis.  It would be such perfect mix.

 

The hubby and I used to go to the spa once in a while and because he loved it so much I wanted to see if I could learn to do aromatherapy massage, so I took classes in 2004. While I was doing those classes I found out I was prego, so I wasn’t able to practice what I learned. I later found out from a massage dvd that reflexology is so much more beneficial Read the rest of this entry »

posted by Jennie on Jan 20

This is the second time my son is having his hair trimmed at the same time as his father.  He actually was excited to go to the barber’s and see his reflection and his father’s side by side.  He still got startled by the buzzing sound of the shaving tool but he readily closed his eyes upon my encouragement to do as papa does.  To just relax and let “kuya” trim his hair and that it might help for him if he closes his eyes like what his papa does.   Such an easy young man.  Very agreeable, as always. 

My son seriously scrutinizes his new do. Truth be told, I can do so much better than that! My little guy was probably trying to figure out what was wrong with the picture, the trimmed finish definitely was not as good as that of his first one.  I didn’t mind, the hair is going to grow back anyway.  The barber who did his hair last month wasn’t around.  This little guy is still no less of a cutie pie to me. 

posted by Jennie on Jan 19

To jump start our plans to shift themes for our living area from pink/floral to earth colors, I have began crocheting dresses for our dining chairs. I’m using the same patterns (too lazy to experiment on a new one).  You will see some of the old dresses that I made for my dining chairs from my Craft Box.

I am thinking of crocheting one for my stereo cabinet as well.  I love that I am able to get back to doing these creations. The last time I did some serious crocheting was four or so years ago, just around the same time I stashed my badminton racket away to some storage place.

Here are shots of  my unfinished first piece.

I know it may take a while before I finish the whole set. I am almost tempted to just buy one of those pretty ones from the home section of Tiendesitas. There are tons of them in real affordable prices! But then again, there’s something about your very own personal touch adorning your home.  :-)

posted by Jennie on Jan 18

Jesus Inspired, Valuing Eternity or JIVE, our church’s youth group just turned Five! They held a special outreach/celebration program last night at the church auditorium and had loads of fun. We celebrate the five years that the Lord has been with us ministering to these young people who themselves have gotten into the core group and have started reaching out to the young people of Makati. The core leaders of JIVE were the ones who organized the program. The band played great music and a number of young people shared their testimonies how they grew in the Lord through the years that they were with JIVE.

 

JIVE regularly meets every Sunday at 3:30 P.M. at SBC-Makati.

posted by Jennie on Jan 17

Here is our three year old, getting savvy on learning how to box. His other favorite is golf. It is fun how he knocked out his father during one of their games.  This is probably the single game console I will freely allow him to play-but with limits still.  The few times I allow him to play with his aunt’s psp, he gets zombified.  Adults aren’t immune to having that effect, let alone a three year old.  I love that this console involves physical activity and interaction with the family.

As much as the hubby is into online games (which is why choosing between video cards was one of the prime things he considered when he bought his laptop), we don’t want the little guy to get into this generation’s addiction.  There are many issues about kids being glued to these consoles, even grade school students missing classes just to linger in internet shops to play online games.  I know we can’t stop technology from its  inevitable progress but we can choose to do our best to manage the way we allow it to affect our children.  It is the only way to not allow the advancement of today’s world go against the quality of lives that we want for our families.  :-)

posted by Jennie on Jan 17

After having practically shelved all types of workout when I played my last badminton match more than three years ago, I have altogether dropped any attempt to exercise. The few times my sister got me free passes to Fitness First, I almost fainted doing the ellipticals towards my third minute. Both times I practically just went to the gym to linger inside the sauna room. Haha!

>That little backgrounder is necessary to understand how big of a deal this is – what I am about to report. It has been eight days straight that I have been regularly doing my workouts – 30 minutes a day at least via Wii Fit. I never thought I would enjoy it as much as I do now. I guess what makes the workout more exciting is being able to unlock brand new sets and being able to progress in keeping my balance and outdo myself. It is just more than a week but I am beginning to feel uncomfortable with my usual slouchy posture. My favorites are doing the Yoga poses and boxing.

posted by Jennie on Jan 17

First, I would like to thank the people who got out of their way to email and check with me why this site was not accessible yesterday. Marriage and Beyond was down for at least 20 hours. Thank you, Polly and Lainy and another fellow Entrecarder from Online Social Networking Site who still made a way to visit even via his browser’s cache.

It was a couple or so days ago when I got a heads up from our blogging mentor/friend, Neil, that I have got to back up my database and files quick because his sites were apparently hacked and it looked like it pointed to the host which happens to be where this site and our other site are hosted.  I can’t imagine losing this online journal, all with close to a thousand posts with entries dating as far back as 2005.  No way, Jose!  This site contains a whole lot of milestones and events in our family that are too important to  lose.

Read the rest of this entry »

posted by Jennie on Jan 12

We have put up with our internet connection for almost two years now. What should be up to a 384kbps connection speed, averages at less than a hundred in most days. Even less than 50, would you believe, in real bad days? It took its turn for the worse during the holidays. We have refreshed our connection more than twenty times, today alone.  Here is a fresh speedtest report, to prove that I am not exaggerating.

And just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse (at least for the day), I ran the speedtest again after two hours and here’s what the result says.  Now a dial up doesn’t sound so bad after all.

I am happy to report that I came from PLDT today to seal our DSL Broadband connection subscription.  The set up boys will come in the next three days. Yipee! From what I know SmartBro and PLDT are like sister companies. But I have also heard that SmartBro messes up a lot and PLDT delivers better, at least in our vicinity.

Would you believe that this application for DSL connection is over two years old? It was only recently that a slot was made available and I was next in queue.  To begin with, I only subscribed to SmartBro because I needed a decent connection and an upgrade from my then dial up. Venturing into an online business with just  a dial up did not really sound very promising. But come to think of it, I could really have stuck with it and survived. We are given such headache by SmartBro anyway, half the time we are with them (present tense but soon to be past- can’t wait to write in the former tense).  It is such joy to finally be terminating my connection with SmartBro- the supposedly smart company that does not measure up.

posted by Jeff on Jan 12

Over the holidays, a blogger named Jeremy Schoemaker posted a blog entry about the Google Money Tree and the Hydra Affiliate Network who had both something to do with the use of his photo for ads bought on big sites like HuffintonPost.com, ESPN.com, MySpace and Fox even news. This blogger also posted screenshots of the pages where his picture was used, all pointing to the Google Money Tree System which, he says, “appears to be one of the biggest scams” online. Read the rest of this entry »

posted by Jennie on Jan 12

My son and two of the kids who he played with yesterday in church.  On the left is Jennilyn, 7 years old and on the right is Laari, who is also 3 years old, like Jed.

My son gets extra energetic whenever playmates abound and I cannot blame him. Around the house, he only gets to be with adults.  Which could also be the reason why he is articulate, he also figure things out quite easily.  At three years old, it can already be difficult for us to get around him and play some silly tricks.  He will be onto you sooner than you want him to.   Which is also neat because I have no difficulty trying to teach him new things.  He is the ever eager boy yearning to learn new tricks.

Still his want for a rather permanent playmate is clear, at least through our observation.   He does not really speak it out and as much as we have some thoughts about it too,  there are also a apprehensions given the world’s current situation.  If we all come to think of it, this time isn’t really the best time to bring another soul to the world.  But then again, we can all but plan and hope but ultimately everything is in God’s hand.  May His will be done.  He knows best.

Meanwhile, there are play dates we can plan out or even neighboring kids who he can play with.  He also has us to spend time with.  Fact is,  he is a pretty confident boy.  So far no issues with self esteem, he easily makes friends with people of all ages, from kids to adults.  I even think he is kind of a people person. 

posted by Jennie on Jan 11

The hubby and I do not normally watch the evening news.  The one time we did last week got to me. I wonder, could the reason be be a matter of “what you don’t know won’t hurt you.”  Maybe.  I also think the sensationalized nature of our local news makes things appear worse than they really are. Read the rest of this entry »

posted by Jennie on Jan 10

With the current global economic crisis, people cannot help but think of ways to cope and rise in the situation. As a work from home mom, I have personally felt its sting this past couple of months. Even the trivial amount we placed on a diversified investment recently sent us a report that to date we have lost 37 percent. It was more than three years ago that we gained more than 50 percent of what we invested before we had it liquidated. Everything around us tells of a crisis.

I personally look up to people who see through beyond the surface. More specifically to those who take risks despite the odds. If I only have the means, I will prayerfully look into franchises. Read the rest of this entry »

posted by Jennie on Jan 10

We are happy that Esther has chosen to stay with us since she finished taking the nursing board.  She currently is waiting for the exam result and we are all hopeful for her.  We have been urging her to stay with us instead of staying by her lonesome in Manila.  Her immediate family are all in America and her eldest brother in Macau.