Rivyoohoo Giveaway

I want to preempt all my regular blog post to give way to these wonderful giveaways that I don't want you to miss! Rivyoohoo is where I do my reviews, so hop on over then stay tuned. Zen Ventures will resume its' regular quirky postings in a couple o' days!

My Snot Boogie Woogied! Seriously it did! You wanna know how? Well, go HERE and find out. A surprise giveaway awaits you there too!

I grew up with Coconut Oil and it's tastier than Olive oil. Want a big jar to try out? Well then, go HERE. You might just be the LUCKY ONE!

Slave Driver

EF5 damage on a good day

So it seem like my little sassy girl always had a very crooked definition of the word PARENTS which I happen to discover today.

Arguing and debating about cleaning up after her mess is as common as the snot in her nose or mine or the hubby's in this household and just like our snots, she can be very headstrong and will resist complying no matter what threat we throw at her.

"Anak, clean up your mess now or no TV."

"But Mama, this is such a hard thing to do"

"Well, you are good at making a mess, you should be good in cleaning them up too"

"But it is so hard"

"Then don't make a mess, so you don't have anything to clean"

"Mama... this is so sad"

"Anak, it is not. You made the mess. YOU clean it up. Who else do you expect to clean it up?"

" *sniff*...You and Papa"

"Whoaaattt? what did you say?"

" I said... You and Papa"

Can I trade kids with you for a month?

Excuse me I'll go pull my hair out & kill some ants. Drat!

Bad Breath

Bad Breath?! I know, I know. You're probably saying this woman is nuts and has nothing better to talk about. Nuts, I am , yes and proud of it matter of factly.

Is there a point to this story, yes I will get to it, hold on to yar britches.

I know everyone's got bad breath! I'm not ashame to admit that I have it. I'm sure you have it. Unless, you have a condition called halitosis (say: hal-uh-toe-sis) then please say no more and cover your mouth or chew some gum when you talk to me.

Alright, alright, I'm getting to the point.

Well, you see I work in an environment where I ocassionally mingle, for the love of me, with REAL PEOPLE - yes, I do too - on a need to basis. I'm safer this way, if you get my drift. Now I was told NOT to talk about my job when blogging but this one is an exception, I promise I'm not going to diss anyone except this one person, only because he is not my co-worker and ONLY because he always blow me away with his bad breath! His name is Joey rhymes with ewwweyyy.

I MEAN REALLY.

If you've got bad breath, how can you not know? If I was a cat, I would have exhausted all my nine lives with this one guy. And today, I almost died again! Joey needed something and came to see me. As soon as he opened his mouth, I knew I was gonna get it! The Poo pit! God, IT SMELLED LIKE HELL! And his breath travels like 1000 horse powered industrial fan!

I CAN JUST SEE HEADS ROLLING. ALL MINE!

I tell you, if I get more doses of his halitosis, I will end up in lalaland or inside a wooden box! I'm such a good girl in all this, I'm sure I'll go to heaven. BUT I DON'T WANT TO DIE YET!

Now Excuse me but I have to wash my nose. His stinkin' odor is stuck inside my nostrils. I can still smell it and he's already gone. AND when I get home, I'll have me a mega shower. I've been skunked!

Wish you were here to experience this with me. I sure need a pal to die with me next time. I've got cookies and tea. And NO don' tell me to wear a mask. It didn't work last time!

And what's the point to this story? Well, that bad breath is BAD BREATH and it can kill just like underarm odor! AND No, I'm NOT going to talk about that now. So much stink for one day!

Paying it Forward - Woman to Woman

I remember when I was fresh off from college and started looking for a job, I felt so lost and so insecure because I didn't have the right suit to wear during my interviews. I drool literally when I see other applicants wearing fancy corporate suits next to me, same time feeling a tinge of self-pity because I couldn't afford any of those. Looking good boosts self-esteem and confidence.

And why am I telling you these?

I know how it is to have nothing and there are LOTS of women out there now who are in the same shoe as I was. But the good news is, there is help! This is where you and I come in.

I'm proud to let you know that I've recently partnered with Charlotte Parents' Moms@Work event to help acquire donations for this years recipient: Dress for Success Charlotte. A cause aimed in helping underprivileged women in our country! The event will take place on Sept 17, 2009 at Westin Hotel Charlotte NC.

Moms @ Work is an annual event hosted by Parents Charlotte Magazine intended to bring working moms together to network and socialize. The Speaker this year is Wendy Sachs, former congressional press secretary and Emmy award-winning former producer at "Dateline NBC".

Dress for Success is an international non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of women located in 85 cities across the U.S., Canada, the U.K., the Netherlands and New Zealand.

This is what I'm accepting in their behalf:

Conservative jewelry such as necklaces, broaches, earrings (pierced and clip-on) and bracelets – no watches please. In addition, scarves in all colors and patterns– large enough to tie around neck – no wool please. Please put items separately in small zip top bags to avoid tangling and breakage.

This is your chance to make a difference. Your donations doesn't need to be new. Give from your heart and know that your little donation will go a long way. You can donate IN HONOR OF YOUR MOTHER, YOUR SISTER, YOUR DAUGHTER OR YOURSELF. Who knows, one of these women receiving your donations could be related to you!

As a compliment to those who own businesses & wanting to donate, I'm giving you the option to include your business cards inside the zip bag along with your donations.

Be a part of this GOLDEN mission. Most women have a piece or two in their jewelry boxes that they never use. Pass it on to someone who can use it for all the right reasons.

To donate: Please email me at criska826 at gmail dot com so I can email you back the address where to send your donations. Then please link your blog or Store with Mr. Linky. DEADLINE for donations is Sept. 10, 2009.

Caution: Only legit people donating should link here. If you are caught cheating, this blog has a standing order to shoot first then delete after.

NOW THESE PEOPLE ARE AWESOME. They answered my call to donate without lifting an eyebrow as soon as they saw my post on the Etsy Forum which sadly was closed by Etsy Admin. WHATEVER.

All I know is that I have found kind-hearted fellow Etsyians WHO will DONATE to my drive:

Le Chat Rose , Earth Wind N Fire , GrandMa's Best kept Secrets , Peppers2 Creations , Boo Boo's Bowtique . YOU RAWK!

AND I ALSO KNOW that I'll get by with a little help from my bloggy friends...

Saving the Planet One Garbage at a Time

If you could, would you? According to EPA, Americans generate trash at an astonishing rate of 4.6 pounds (2.1 kilograms) per day per person, which translates to 251 million tons (228 million metric tons) per year. The United States ranks about in the middle of the major countries (United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, France and Japan) in landfill disposal. The United Kingdom ranks highest, burying about 90 percent of its solid waste in landfills. Do you want a future filled with Trash for your kids? Of course not! I already have one little stinker and that is all I can handle!

But God, I love that little stinker.

And this is why I'm very passionate about ensuring that NOT only my kid's but every kids' future is hazard-free, green and livable as well. And the only way I can help make this possible is to lay the foundation now by finding ways to protect Mother Earth for them, in every little ways I can! You know what they say, EVERY LITTLE THING COUNTS! Thankfully, Terracycle Inc. share the same vision. This is why I decided to sign up as a Terracycle Brigade for Kashi , Cliff Bars and currently on wait list for Stoneyfield Farms Yogurt .

These products are just a few of those consumed daily in my household and though they're subject to your usual recycling, courtesy of the City's local trash collector, Terracycle offered a better alternative by partnering with these companies and contributing $0.02 per package collected which will be paid to the school or nonprofit of your choice. The collected materials will then be upcycled by Terracycle into new eco-friendly, affordable products AND most of all, away from landfills!

I DO KNOW WHAT I'M SAYING, YES.

Terracycle has also eliminated the hassle of shipping the collected items back to them by providing prepaid shipping labels and bags via UPS. I received mine today and I'm ready to stuff it!

Shipping bags & labels provided by Terracyle


My Kashi Package collections

Ready to Ship!

Now this is one cool way to recycle! Not only does it help our environment, it also helps your organization in return and help Terracycle provide better products out in the market. Definitely a win-win situation. My daughter will start school soon, so her school will get the donations. To be a part of this new innovation in recycling, you can sign up at Terracycle and sign up for the products that you commonly consume in your household. I dare you to be a Trash Warrior today - to help Save our Planet one Garbage at a time - for a better world for your kids and mine...

YES YOU CAN DO THIS!

I practice what I preach: Some of my daughters' items as she starts school this fall. Pencil Case by O.P.P (Other People's Plastic), Ticonderoga's Enviro Sticks Pencil and Terracycles' Chip bag Pencil case - made from Sun Chips bag. And oh before I forget, FTC this is not sponsored nor a paid post - though I wish it was - just so it's clear, you know.

"Heal the world
Make it a better place
For you and for me
And the entire human race
There are people dying
If you care enough for the living
Make a better place
For you and for me..."

-Heal the world by Michael Jackson
1958-2009

Ready to take the Challenge? And yes you can call me GREEN NUTS or TRASH LADY after this. I'm proud of it and I take it seriously.

Goodbye EntreCard

I'm officially saying adieu. Masalama. Paalam. Sei Chen. Goodbye to EntreCard. For good! I DON'T KNOW WHY I WAITED THIS LONG. I MUST BE NUTS. The widget in my blog has been intentionally neglected for ages. INTENTIONALLY, YES. ONLY WAY I CAN GET BACK AT IT FOR WHAT IT DID TO ME.

And NO it's NOT FUNNY. I almost had a nervous breakdown! I WILL NOT FORGET IT anytime soon.

But I admit, I can be a stubborn wench sometimes. I let that stupeeehhd widget set in my blog this long knowing I'm not going back to the program. I must have been addicted to it or something. WHATEVER. Do you even know what I'm blabbering about? Gosh, I have to ask!

Well, EntreCard is where you drop your cards and earn credits. period.

But if you must know, EntreCard in a sense has helped in my visitor stats back then, but ironically, it also gave me a high bounce rate due to short visits from reciprocate droppers. I really don't know why I put up with it. I'm such a dork!

So, the widget will be permanently removed from my blog but I will temporarily maintain my account until I can find a deserving EntreCard account holder to pass my credits to. Losing EntreCard will not be the end of this blog but a new opportunity to find other relevant ways like Google Analytics backed by Feedburner to track and improve my site. Thank you to all those who were dedicated in dropping their cards in my widget but SORRY you will no longer find it here. And NO you can't hate me for it!

"Here's the ironic truth. Due to the Adblock and No Script programs running in my laptop, I have not seen a single picture of the featured dropper in my widget since the time it was installed. Even the EntreCard site itself was totally blocked from my browser. This should be an obvious indication how bad the risk of dropping is. But Que sera sera. Whatever will be, will be."

Best of luck to you who opt to remain loyal and dedicated to the art of dropping. And to EntreCard, goodluck as Ziprunner takes over the company. Whilst me, I couldn't be any happier. I finally have closure. Yay is me!

How I survived my first Back to School

An almost quiet shopping experience @ Tarjay

Many back-to-school years ago, I was indifferent, uninterested and never cared a world about catalogs, store ads and fliers featuring back to school bounties and goodies. Tax Free Weekend didn't mean a thing to me. I was clueless and oblivious to this yearly phenomena.

But things changed this year. Like a rebirth and by default, I became an instant part of this all-time hit Circus!

On Saturday, me and my daughter officially became a part of the fraternity of parents and kids that paraded, milled, raced and raided the big stores for Back to School shopping while taking advantage of the Tax free weekend. I thought I would find myself in a jungle of chaos but thank you to those parents who opted to avoid this messy weekend, you helped made my first back-to-school shopping manageable.

It also helped that hubby did pre-back-to-school shopping during the week and gotten all the kiddos school supplies at already pre-discounted rates. Some stores like Office Depot were smart to do this. One great deal found there was the folder with pockets which costs only $0.01, where he also received a FREE large glue with his purchase. Now that's a good deal!

All that's left were "school" clothes. Knowing the hubby's love for shopping, he left this task to me. So, while we were cruising the Girl's section, he was several buildings away spending quality time with his laptop and free Wi-Fi.

Our first stop was Ole' Old Navy. Though they offered $10 and $10 off deals, most of the kids' jeans and shirts I needed were still expensive, ranging from an already discounted price of $19 to $26. Not worth the splurge for a fast growing kid like mine.

The Frugal deal: It is a steal for grown-ups.

Tarjay offered a better deal. Girl's Circo denim Jeans and the Khaki Pants were only $9.99 a piece! One feature I like about these jeans besides being inexpensive { cheap is not politically correct } is their adjustable waists - great for growing kids. The adorable Girl's Circo Tees {which I couldn't find online for reference} with cute prints sells for $4.99 but upon checkout, I discovered it was $0.99 off each. Sweet!

Girls undies and socks were also on sale. Everything fit into my budget! And with enough "leftover", I went and bought us some tasty Ice cream treats for a frugal-shopping well done!

To recap:

Target has made sure to ease shopping experience by delegating one end cap in their dollar section to contain informational flyers of each Schools' required school supply in the area along with list of categorized taxed and non-taxed items provided by NCRMA.

Most stores offers Pre and post back-to-school sales which is almost as sweet a deal as Tax free weekend. Great for parents who hates navigating through a crowded store. And lastly, don't underestimate the power of the Dollar Store for school supplies, especially if you're in a very tight budget.

Now one thing that puzzled me about Saturday was the lack of shoppers. Where did all the peeps go? My hubby and I decided they're all at Wal-Mart. Are we right?

Always Be My Baby

You'll always be a part of me
I'm a part of you indefinitely... song by Mariah Carey

In two weeks, I will be an official parent of a Kindergarten. I could not believe it! It hasn't totally dawned on me yet that my baby is no longer. In my heart, she will always be, probably even when she's 35 years old!

Lately, I can't stop looking at her just mesmerized at how fast she's grown. In her case, grown is an understatement. She is quite tall for her age. Already 4 feet and only 5 years old. This child that I carried for 9 months, cradled in my arms like a little angel unaware of the world around her, will soon spread her wings and see the world on her own for the first time. Friends and acquaintances forewarned me of this ugly separation anxiety that is a "natural" occurrence at the first day of school. I told myself that I'm pretty sure I won't get it, that my husband will get the full brunt of it more than anyone else.

My husband who by fate became a full-time stay at home dad. Who spent more time being at home with her. I'm sure this change will get to him and to me somehow. But I'm sure it will be short-lived. We'll all move on and get use to this new phase in our lives. I'm sure it won't be an overnight success but we'll do what we can.

As for me, I'm bracing myself from the perils, gories, glories and what-nots of finally becoming a parent of a child that goes to school. It's a start of a whole new world, this IS for sure and tomorrow seals the deal. My soon-to-be Kindergarten and I are going shopping and taking advantage of the tax-free weekend. Oh joy!

Forever my baby...I Love you always Anak!

Indeed my baby is a big kid now but no matter how old she gets, she will always be my baby...

Storm Rules My World

Rule is right. It seems like my world is plagued with storm lately. From Florida all the way to North Carolina. They rock my world and when I mean rock, it really does rock just like last night. A Nasty storm ripped through Charlotte early last night and devastated the area leaving us without electricity until close to midnight.

Waiting out the storm in a candle lit room - nothing romantic about it!

Here are some pictures of devastation in my street taken today. Not a pretty sight. Good thing about it is that no major damages occurred here, though some areas were not as fortunate.

Barely missed this car

This tree looked like the green giant pushed it down

And lots of trees with broken branches like this all over the neighborhood.

The only major damage this storm did to me is that it fried our satellite receiver when the satellite dish got hit by a lightning. Dang it! There goes my TV privileges. I did say cut out some expenses to make ends meet but NOT the satellite TV! Sorry dear daughter. No more TV for you too. We can always count birds and buzzing bees, no?

Ah, Please excuse me but I need to offer some dead satellite receiver and dish as sacrifices to the Direct TV gods, maybe then they'll bless me with new equipments! Wish me luck.

Our Not so Magical vacation - Disney Part II

A replica of the Ten Commandments in Holy Land

As promised, here is the sequel to my Tornado-ridden Road Trip in Orlando, Florida. And here are more photos from Holy Land.

The Scriptorium -Museum

This is my first time in this park and I can say, I'm glad I went, thanks to my mom! You don't need to be religious to appreciate this park. Being there is like being a part of a huge stage play. Like the Last Supper where you partake with one of the "Jesus-es". Perk? you get to keep the small wooden cup from Israel where you drank the "wine" from. The Passion Drama is one of the biggest productions in the park and rightly so, because of its' religious significance. The park was very crowded with "pilgrims" that day but it was worth the visit.

Scenes from Behold the Lamb - Passion drama
I was lucky to be standing right below this stage.

Next day was Disney @ Epcot. Which was a bummer. I did tell you they made more money selling rain coat, didn't I?

Me and my Mom in France pointing @ my little sissy's name
"I'm singing in the rain..."

This is my 2nd time at Epcot but one thing I cherished about this trip is finally being able to enjoy the rides with my daughter for the first time and simply having a blast! And of course, being with my mom, who almost strangled me for making her walk the park all day {but she still loves me}. As you guessed, muscle rub and liniments were our BFF at the end of that day.

We're famous @ Spaceship Earth!
We were featured twice on the big screen in the lobby for all to see

One of the best part of our visit @ Epcot was seeing the Dolphin show @ the Seas with Nemo and Friends. They're unbelievably amazing! A must-see. Then of course, the Illuminations to end the day was worth the wait.

Cheese! All smiles for their celebrity photo op!

In spite of the dreary weather, the constant whining from my mom bugging me to go home at every chance she gets, being wet and soaked in the rain and our feet hurting like hell, I'll say I still enjoyed it especially since we don't get to go to Disney that often enough. I cherish every moment of it. Good and bad. Above all else, my daughter enjoyed it. She was sold on the KidCot Stations! Thanks Disney!

And Thanks to you! Did you ever experience going to Disney in such bad weather? How did you make the most of it?

To find out the 10 Things I learned that you need to do when visiting DisneyWorld @ Epcot: Click Here .