PLACES, PEOPLE, EVENTS, GOOD FOOD AND MY LIFE

Nope, it's not our anniversary! It's not my 30th birthday yet either! Most of all Valentine's is over and my hubby already gave me flowers on Valentine's Day. What are these flowers for? He just surprised me with roses for no apparent reason! He's so sweet! Isn't he? Anyway, to my husband...this solemn song (makabagbag damdaming awitin) is for you...

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of AccuWeather. All opinions are 100% mine.

My spouse and I are really looking forward to this month of March! I guess we got tired of the long winter that happened this year and we're so excited to do several outdoor activities again. Plus, Daylight Savings Time will begin on the second Sunday of March, meaning we can spend extra time in the outdoors enjoying the day. In the next few days or weeks we are planning on going out to do some recreational activities and enjoy the warm weather. Speaking of weather, weather completely dominates our everyday lives so whenever my spouse and I are planning on doing outdoor activities or traveling, we make it to a point that we check the weather forecast online first so we can make sure that we will enjoy the outdoors. We don't want any hurricane, thunderstorm or cold front to ruin our day so we always check the weather at AccuWeather.com. AccuWeather makes living with the weather easier for us. It gives hourly forecasts, extended, weekly and even whole month outlooks which are not available in other weather site. Aside from that it gives radar and maps, news and video and extreme weather forecasts. There are also new sections at their website like Weather and Health, Weather and Travel, Weather and Home and Garden, and Weather and Outdoor Activity, which include a variety of five-day forecasts for key weather-for-your-life parameters that allow users to plan for travel, recreation, business, exercise, medication and more. This coming Sunday, the weather will be great and it will not rain according to AccuWeather so we will go sailing! Oh I can't wait to enjoy again the outdoors after this long winter.

What do you usually eat to keep yourselves healthy? I wanted to share with you what I've recently read online. These are some of the inexpensive but healthful foods that you must eat for a healthier you:
1. Leafy Greens - is one of nature's miracle foods which prevents diabetes and high blood pressure.2. Whole grain- studies showed that a diet rich in whole grains actually flattens your belly by reducing fat storage in your lower abdominal region.3. Nuts- are high in natural fiber that slows our digestive process, keeping hunger and unhealthy mid-afternoon snacks at bay.4. Yogurt -improves digestion but make sure you choose those with "active cultures" in the label lists so you can get healthy probiotics. Also pick a yogurt rich in vitamin D to prevent osteoporosis.5. Onions and garlic - reduce symptoms of asthma and the risk of developing stomach cancer so enjoy them in stir-fry, soups etc.

As I mentioned in my previous post, one of my friends will be getting married this summer but I think I can't make it to the wedding then because it's the due date of my baby. Anyway, I helped her in deciding which design to choose for her save the date postcards. She decided to distribute them this coming Friday to let her guests know in advance about her wedding so as to save that special day. Oh! I can see on her face how excited she was and I am so happy for her. It reminds me of the days when I was preparing for my wedding. Time really flies by so fast, it is as if I was just married yesterday and now I am pregnant and will be having my first baby soon! By the way, I might possibly make some save the date postcards too for my baby's baptismal celebration and her first birthday. Now, I am looking forward to her "firsts". I am one very excited parent-to-be!

I was scheduled for an ultrasound/sonogram last Thursday and my baby cooperated so well! My husband and I are so glad that the results were all fine. Here's what they commented:

• the growth development of our baby is BETTER than average
• the heartbeat is NORMAL
• our 21 week old baby weigh 1 lb and 2 ounces which is NORMAL (the average weight of a 21 week old baby based on U.S. chart is 0.79 lb)
• the baby is very ACTIVE: it was kicking, jumping and moving a lot which is a sign that it is HEALTHY
• our baby is a SHE! We will be having a baby girl!!!
  

Oh! She is actually kicking now while I am typing this! Her initial fluttering movements that started on the 16th week turned into full-fledged kicks and nudges as weeks have gone by. We are so excited to see her soon!!!

By the way, here are some of her pictures:
( Scroll down please...)

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of wellnessdaily.com. All opinions are 100% mine.

If you are a constant visitor of my website maybe you have read and witnessed how my spouse and I aim to keep ourselves healthy and fit. You may have seen several photos of us last year during summer, spring and fall season doing several forms of exercise including hiking, mountain climbing, rock climbing and more. I even shared with you some healthy recipes that I myself cooked and prepared which my spouse and I enjoyed. Anyway, have you gained some pounds from the holidays? My spouse did but he is serious about shedding those extra pounds. Guess what? He is loosing some weight and is still watching what he is eating to keep himself physically fit and healthy. Before, it was hard for him to keep his diet and was he struggling without the proper tools and motivation. Thankfully, we have an online reference tool or guide on the latest weight loss tips and tricks, dieting, eating right, healthy recipes, tips for wellness, stress-reduction and general well-being and more.
How about you? Do you want to keep yourselves fit and healthy or shed some extra pounds from the holidays and get in shape before the weather heats up? I suggest you visit www.wellnessdaily.com. My husband and I registered in that site recently and learned a lot from it. It is an easy-to-use site that provides us with everything we need in one location including the latest news about wellness. We really enjoyed this site because we can find everything we are looking for from expert opinions and stress relief to easy, nutritious recipes and videos on a variety of topics including weight loss, healthy eating, exercise and mental well-being. The site provides a central hub for those who are looking to get or stay healthy. You can also create a customized personal health and wellness news feed so that you can receive the most relevant news possible. Aside from that, you can be one of the first 25,000 who registered at www.wellnessdaily.com to claim a $5 product rebate which will only take you a few minutes to do. I really love Jennie-O ground turkey so this is a great rebate for me!

I suggest that you check out www.wellnessdaily.com and sign up! Plus, you can enter the Twitter contest for a chance to win a WellnessDaily.com prize package which includes coupons for a year-long supply of Jennie-O Turkey Store products and a one-year gym membership, valued at $1,250. All you need to do is to enter and tweet this “Enter to win $ towards a gym membership & JENNIE-O turkey products. Just follow @wellness_daily & RT this”. The contest runs through March 10, 2010. So what are you waiting for?

Yep! my husband and I had a COLD Valentine's Day celebration as I mentioned recently. This is in continuation of my post about the topic "MY COLD VALENTINE" by the way.

"Cold" in a literal sense that it was snowing on that special day. Geeez! I am really looking forward to spring and how I wish the weather will be better in the next couple of weeks so we can do some outdoor activities. Anyway, my husband turned the cold day into a warm and romantic Valentine's Day celebration.

Two days before Valentine's Day I was surprised with a special package delivered in our house. Guess what? He surprised me with a Hoodie-Footie Snuggle Suit hehe! I have no idea that he will give it as a gift coz we are laughing at the Hoodie-Footie commercial before. I told him that "If I were to wear that, I will look like a Care Bear" but deep inside, I wanted one of those hehe! It's a very special gift that I like and that truly made me smile upon opening the package and it's also a nice gift to keep me warm during winter.The hoodie-footie snuggle suit shown in the image above is personalized with my name. Together with it are heart-shaped chocolates, Valentine card, a red bag to store the hoodie-footie suit and other accessories. The hoodie-footie when worn looks like the image below:
By the way, during special occasions, my husband usually gives me a teddy bear but now I am the life size teddy bear (sort of) hehe! I am one of the care bears now!
On the day itself, I'm just expecting a dinner in a restaurant since I already got my gifts earlier. After he got up from the bed in the morning, he went outside and got the boxes of chocolates that he stored in our pick-up truck and after a couple of hours, I got a flower delivery from a flower shop. My husband was full of surprises and he is so sweet! Isn't he?



We ended up the day with dinner at Lone Star Steakhouse even though the wind outside was so strong that snow got into my eyes and it was hard for me to see what I am stepping on. That's how we celebrated our Valentine...simple and warm in a cold weather.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of PayLoadz. All opinions are 100% mine.

Do you think starting a business is not that easy? If you are planning to have a business of your own while staying at home or not taking the risk of quitting your job why not try an e-business? You can sell downloadable goods like images, ebooks, music, video, software, movies and other digital files and e-products. Now, if you are thinking about how to sell these digital goods fast, easy and cost effectively, I suggest you use PayLoadz! PayLoadz is an e-store platform and payment gateway that you can use to deliver just about any digital good which will make it easier for you to do the business, offering you a storefront to feature your products. The registration is so easy! Simply sign up, list your products at PayLoadz e-Store, set your price on your product, and fill an optional entry for the "thank you" text that appears in the customer's email after their payment along with download instructions. It would also be better if you upload images of your product to further define your product as well as to add product keywords and descriptions. After submitting the product information, Payloadz will generate a code for the shopping cart button. By the way, don't forget to sign up for PayPal if you haven't yet, since your customers will pay you through it. Once your customer's payment is confirmed, PayLoadz's system will take care of the rest via file delivery.

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If the youngest confirmed mother in medical history gave birth at the age of 5 the world's oldest mother gave birth at the age of 70.Omkari Panwar became the world's oldest mother on June 27, 2008 when she gave birth to twins ,one boy and one girl, in India via emergency cesarean section at the age of 70. The babies weighed 2 pounds each and were born 1 month premature. Omkari Panwar and her husband (Charan Singh Panwar, 77) had 2 adult daughters already but were utterly determined to have a son so they pursued to have an IVF treatment to have a male heir. Omkari does not have a birth certificate and her age has been estimated by her claim that she was 9 years of age when the British Raj left India in 1947. Her husband mortgaged his land, spent his life savings, sold his buffalos and took out a credi card loan to pay for the IVF treatment so they could have a male heir for the family's smallholdings. Their son will benefit from a dowry when he marries and will be able to work their land.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Speek. All opinions are 100% mine.Do you have family, relatives and friends that you want to reach via a FREE web-based teleconferencing system? I have registered and tried a new Application Programming Interface (API) called Speek a while ago to talk with my family. Our conversation was clear and the call started on time. It actually works great and I enjoyed using it! Speek dials out to landlines, cell phones and voice-over Internet Protocol applications like Skype, Ekiga, Gizmo, Google Talk and SIP. Registration will just take you a few minutes. Simply enter your name, email address, phone number, confirm your password and you're done! Once the registration is complete, you can use the application with ease with it's simple user-friendly interface. It is reliable during peak usage and you don't need to download any software which can take up space on your computer, unlike other voice and video conferencing applications. You can even import your contacts from your Yahoo mail, Gmail, AOL and Outlook address books which will make it easier for you to connect with them. It also features integration with Facebook, Twitter and they are adding more features every day. So what are you waiting for? Hurry! register for private beta now! It's absolutely FREE!

In my previous post, I have mentioned to you about the 11 year-old girl from the Northeast who gave birth at an early age, but she is not the youngest among the young mothers. Could you believe that the youngest confirmed mother in medical history gave birth at the age of 5 ? It might be impossible to believe, but it is true!Lina Medina who was born in Ticrapo, Peru on September 27, 1933 and gave birth at age 5. She was thought to have a fast growing tumor in her stomach at first because of her increasing abdominal size but her doctors determined she was over 7 months pregnant and would be giving birth to a child soon.

How come she become pregnant? She had an extreme precocious puberty which is uncommon in children at age 5 and under. Her first menstruation occurred at eight months of age (or 2 1/2 according to a different article) and her body began to mature abnormally for her age. Lina's father was suspected of and arrested for incest and rape but was released due to lack of evidence. She also didn't reveal who raped or impregnated her. She gave birth to a 6 pound healthy baby boy at the age of 5 years 7 months and 21 days old on Mother's Day, May 14th, of 1939 by caesarean section performed by Dr. Gerardo Lozada. In the medical journal La Presse Médicale, Medina's case was reported in detail by Dr. Edmundo Escomel. Her son was named Gerardo after her doctor and was raised believing that Lina was his sister. By age 10, Gerardo found out that she was his mother.

Over the years, a good number of doctors have attested that this is not a hoax based on the records of photographs, Xrays and biopsies of the baby in Medina's womb taken by the doctors who attended her care.

I love music! Whenever I am browsing online and working with my site or even if I'm just relaxing and cooking I love listening to music. It makes me feel more relaxed.

I am looking for more songs that I could listen to and download for FREE. Thankfully, I have found an MP3 Search engine and have found lots of songs that I am looking for. Since I am now pregnant, I am also downloading classical music for the baby to listen to inside my womb. My baby is now on its 21st week and could hear music or other sounds outside the womb. By the way, I can feel my baby like he or she is practicing martial arts LOL! Her initial fluttering movements that started on the 16th week turned into full-fledged kicks and nudges as weeks have gone by. Anyway, my favorite classical songs to download are those by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Aside from him I also like the music composed by these famous classical composers: Dimitri Shostakovich, Franz Peter Schubert, Frederic Francois Chopin, George Frideric Handel, Johann Sebastian Bach and many more. Now, I am enjoying lots of music for free and so is my baby...I guess. hehehe.

It was snowing again this morning at our place. How I wish there will be no snow in the next couple of days so my spouse and I can enjoy the weather. We are really looking forward to spring! We miss doing outdoor activities, sailing on the lake, strolling in the park, traveling, playing miniature golf and more. Speaking of miniature golf, one of my friends loves playing miniature golf and she invited us to go with her family for a miniature golf tournament in the summer. That sounds good to me and we will definitely join them this summer so we can have a bonding time too. By the way, during the conversation with my friend, she mentioned that her son is addicted to playing miniature golf and even asked her to put up a miniature golf course in their yard but she didn't want to spoil her son. What's more interesting is, my friend is planning to buy a tee time potty putter instead so every time they got bored in the bathroom while pooping, they will still enjoy the family's favorite sport. LOL! Are you interested in the potty putter? Check out tee time potty putter now!

I am scheduled for an ultrasound/sonogram tomorrow and my husband and I are so excited about it! Hope my baby will face the camera so we will get the gender result tomorrow. By the way, what's your guess of our baby's gender? Is it a girl or a boy?

I had a friend who loves whippets and she actually sent some videos of her dog to me the other day. By the way, a whippet is a breed of dog in the sighthound family. It's fun to watch the videos because her dog is so active and very playful. It runs all over her house and seems that it doesn't get tired at all. I have learned that whippets are attached to their owners and they are friendly in nature. They are good with young children too as they are not prone to snapping and they are also used in aged care facilities. According to my friend whippets are also outstanding racing dogs. She is also thinking of getting another whippet so that her dog can race with another one. LOL!

My baby is on its 21st week now and I'm always checking on what his/her average size is as well as her weight. For pregnant women out there who also want to know their baby's average size inside their womb, here's a chart that you could refer to :

Whenever I have questions in mind about pregnancy stuff, I always visit babycenter.com. I has almost anything you could possibly think of about pregnancy, babies, toddlers, pre schoolers and big kids. I am enjoying this site and will still visit it until my baby becomes a big kid.

The Windows operating system is very prone to viruses and it's the problem encountered by my aunt several times that really disappoints her. Last week she decided to reinstall her laptop but the installer for her printer driver was lost and nowhere to be found. She needed to install it as soon as possible because she will be printing lots of invitation cards that she made for her son's birthday. She asked me if I have the same printer driver installer as hers but unfortunately our printers are not of the same brand so I just searched online for Free Printer Driver Download. Thankfully, I have found one. The Free printer driver download searches for the printer machine via email instantly. By just selecting the printer brand, operating system and entering an email address they will email the driver download search results. I'm sure my aunt will be happy about this plus she can also enjoy receiving discount coupons towards her next ink or toner cartridge purchase. She can then save money with it!

A friend of mine asked me "How's your valentine?" I told her that I had a COLD VALENTINE! ^_^ L.O.L! Literally, my husband and I celebrated a COLD VALENTINE last week because it was SNOWING that day hehe!. Anyway my husband turned the cold day into a simple, warm and romantic Valentine's Day celebration with gifts, chocolate and flowers that he gave me and we also had dinner in a restaurant that night. The wind was so strong that snow got into my eyes and it was hard for me to see what I am stepping on. Over all we had a good Valentine's Day celebration and I will talk more about it soon (& more pics soon).

How about guys? How did you celebrate Valentine's Day with your loved ones?

I love it here in the state where my spouse and I currently live. My parents-in-law's house is just about an hour away from were we live and we usually go there on weekends to spend some time with them . I usually help my mother-in-law in preparing, cooking and baking plus we enjoy the meal as a family but I also wish that California is a nearby state. I have relatives in California and most of my friends are living there. I chatted with one of my friends who's living in California and she mentioned that she and her family will be moving to their new house soon. She's pretty excited about it because the new house is bigger and better than the older one. This is their second time to move from one location to another and they know how stressful it is, so to make it easier to relocate without any worries they hire San Diego moving companies which was recommended by their relatives. She said that it was a good idea since the San Diego moving companies are professional, courteous and careful with the client's personal property as their relatives said. She also mentioned that my spouse and I can visit their new house whenever we get the chance to go to California so we can talk some more, and she misses me personally.

Ernestine Jamison, a mother of four from Houston, Texas, found a snake head in a bag of Pictsweet frozen cut green beans while she was cooking for her family last month. She thought the object was a rock at first because it was hard but after further observations she found that the green and black frozen object has eyes, and it was an open mouthed snake! Ernestine's child took video and pictures of what they saw. Jamison contacted Pictsweet, and they offered her $150 which she turned down. Later, the company claims the thing wasn’t a snake head but a frog head. According to Jamison, it really doesn't matter even if it's a frog or snake because it is still gross.

I gave her a list of what to do's, things needed for the wedding and gave her "save on your wedding" tips that she needed. A very well planned wedding is a big factor if you really want to have the wedding you are dreaming of. Plus you must also consider saving money and keeping your expenses within your budget.

My husband is fond of playing his guitar and last week he improvised a song with the backing track "Moon Flower" by Santana. This is one of the songs that I usually request and I wanted to share it with you.

I had a good talk with my friend last week whom I haven't seen for a long time now. I'm so glad to hear that she got married and already bought a house to start her own family in. While we were talking she used her web cam to show me around her house. Oh my! The house looks big and elegant but there is more furniture that she needs to buy. She is asking for my suggestions on what dining room table would perfectly fit the color and ambiance of her house. She is choosing between these two Dining Room Tables she found online:

It was my husband's 30th birthday last week! I'm so busy looking at my mother-in-law's cook book and even searching online on what kind of cake to bake until I came up with the black forest cake recipe. Baking a cake is not easy for me as I am not a chef nor a cook and it's a fact that I just learned how to cook when I got married.

Oooops! Don't look too much at the cake because I'm really disappointed with my presentation (hehehe!). I guess I got so tired easily with this pregnancy thing and my lower back ached while decorating the cake that is why I didn't do it justice with the look of it but I should say that the taste was really great! My husband liked it! This is the third time that I baked a cake and I'll make sure next time that my cake will be perfect!

We celebrated his birthday on the day itself and celebrated it again at my in-laws house on the weekend. I wish my hubby all the best that life could possibly offer.

By the way, I also want to share with you the cake that I baked for my husband's birthday last year. This is my first trial:

I also baked a heart-shaped cake for our Valentine's Day celebration last year. This is the second cake that I made.