I am swamped!

I don’t like to sound like I am complaining because I wanted to have this job in the first place and I do really want to keep it.

Teaching is a lot of work. I have a minimal number of classes per week but the amount of work is tantamount to having a 7-5 job. I used to have more classes per week in China but I was always relaxed. I had time for other things like meeting my friends, chatting with my family back home, and partying. Right now it seems that the time I have is just enough for lesson planning and making props. Other tasks like most of the housework are postponed. The pile of clothes waiting to be ironed is incredible… I don’t know if I can ever iron it all to the last piece of clothing.

Hubby understands that since I am now working, he has to help me with the housework and that’s what he is doing but I never dare let him do the ironing (he can’t do it to my standard). I still do the cleaning but at least he tries so hard not to make a mess.

He cooks sometimes. He likes doing it and I let him because he’s a far better cook than I am.

The work brought so much adjustment to our household. I still do most of the work but I noticed that when hubby can help it, he tries to minimize the housework for me.

If I Were Obese

If you have read some of my earlier posts, you’d know that I am a person who is conscious about my health and my body. I always try to eat healthy and if I notice that I am getting heavier than my normal weight, I try to tighten up my diet but I am always careful that I am not overdoing it. My friends often tell me that I am lucky because I can control my weight just like that but they are wrong. For me, maintaining a certain body weight is not a walk in the park. One needs to have the discipline. I always try to stay in shape the natural way and I would never result to getting a lipo because I believe that whatever lipo can do, I can do it just by exercising and eating healty.

In some cases where reducing food intake, eating only healthy food, and exercising are not working, there are still ways to attain a healthy body weight. If I were to be in such case, I’d consider getting a lap band because it is the safest, proven weight-loss surgery available today and it is the only weight-loss surgery that is completely reversible and adjustable.

Early Christmas

shanghai-christmasChristmas is always early in the Philippines. At the onset of the “ber” months; i.e. September, October, November, and December, people already decorate their homes with Christmas decors. So when I’ve seen that some of the establishments here in Shanghai are already decorated, I was not surprised.

You see in Philippines, we only get to decorate our homes to give it a feel of the season during Christmas. Unlike in the US of A, we don’t decorate our home for Halloween or for other holidays. We only get to do it once a year so we put the decorations up as early as possible and let them stay there as long as possible. I often hear people say that the longest Christmas season happens in the Philippines and I completely agree with that.

Great Gift Idea for Your Child

letterfromsantaDo you remember how you believed in Santa when you were a kid? How cool it is to learn stories about Santa and to receive gifts from him? Do you remember sending Santa a letter? Did you get an answer to your letter?

Santa is a big part of Christmas for kids and what could be more exciting for a child than to receive a letter from Santa! Make this Christmas more fun and meaningful for your child by letting LettersFromSanta.com send a personalized message mailed from the North Pole directly to your child. Visit LettersFromSanta.com and choose the best letter and envelope for your little one.

Share Your Phone Story

I was just visiting and reading a site where people can share and read each other’s phone call stories. They expose the numbers of their callers and tell people what to expect from such numbers. One woman there said that she got a call from unknown number and the person on the other end of the line claimed that she is with her (the receiver of the call) husband. That’s a little bit funny to me but some reports are not to be ignored. Like a call from a number owned by a child molester. So if you are getting weird calls, maybe you can share it in this site or maybe you’ll learn that the number of your caller has been previously reported by others already. Check out www.reportphonenumbers.com to read more.

Block Unknown Numbers

I was awakened last night because our landline kept ringing. I thought to just pretend that it doesn’t bother me and that I am sleeping soundly so my husband will answer it but turn out that my husband had thought  of that too. After several rings, I was not able to take it anymore so I decided to just answer it myself. Who the hell will call at such an unholy hour?

It turn out that it was just a prank call!

If anyone of you have encountered the same problem, know that you can do something about it. There is this thing called “reverse phone lookup” and this allows you to track unknown numbers that call you. With this service, you can then know if the number is important or not thus allowing you to block unimportant numbers. NationwidePhoneLookUp.com is available in US and their database has more records available than virtually any other service around, tipping the scales of running a successful search heavily in your favor. Visit their site now to learn more.

Our Simple Anniversary

We celebrated our one year of being married together on a plane. Yep. I was so angry at Marcus when he unthinkingly booked our flights from Vienna to Shanghai on the evening of October 12 (GMT +1:00) so technically we were on air when October 13 happened.

So I didn’t expect too much from the beginning. We agreed to just celebrate it a day earlier so on October 12, we went to a nice place for lunch and after that, we revisited the villa where we got married. We spent a quiet afternoon there and at 5:00 pm we drove to the airport.

For me that was our anniversary.

But on the 13th while on the plane, we were served with a very special wine. Afterwards, a warm “Congratulations” from the pilot and the flight crew was heard from the voice over. The whole plane cheered for us and asked that we kiss and so we did. :)

(More details to come).

Going to a Costume Party

In line with the upcoming Halloween, Marcus’ company decided to hold a costume party. A few week ago, we discussed about it and we started to think what our costumes will be. First, he said he wanted to go as Dracula but who is the partner of Dracula? Winona Ryder? I cannot really remember but whoever she is, she’s not looking scary at all. I wanted that we go there as partners. If one is looking scary then the other must be looking scary too so “Dracula and his partner” will not work.

After a lot of thinking and kidding around, we finally agreed to go there as Franz and Sissi-the last Emperor and Empress of Austria. And since we were in Austria that last week, we went shopping for our costumes. They were a lot of choices of Dirndls and Lederhosen so we didn’t exactly have a hard time looking for the costumes. Dirndl and Lederhose are the native costumes of Austria so they have a lot of it. We just need some costume wigs to go with out traditional Austrian clothes and all will be perfect.

I am sure that weren’t we in Austria that time; we would have a hard time looking for the costume and we would probably just have ordered it online. For me, I like both kind of shopping: Online shopping for its convenience and old fashioned shopping for its fun.

Have a Happy Halloween everyone!