My Balikbayan Box

Finally I was able to fill my balikbayan box and sent it to the Philippines. This is the first balikbayan box that we will sent. I started shopping August and finally finished it second week of Nov. We sent it at once I just hope that it will arrive before Christmas so that my kids and mother could distribute it to my other relatives. I mark the items with the names so it would be easy for them to give the recipients. I really tried my best to shop and put all the items I bought in the box so I could send it to my relatives earlier,this way they could feel our love as we really wanted them to feel the essence of Christmas which is giving. One tradition that we Filipinos practice even to present time that the economy is hitting the country. The people in our country appreciate it very much if they could receive something from their loved one. No matter how small it maybe for as long you remembers them. The amount is nothing it’s the thoughts that counts.

First Thanksgiving Day with my hubby

We celebrate our thanksgiving day at my hubby’s cousin in Connecticut. We enjoyed the meals that was prepared by his cousin’s wife. Since this is my first thanksgiving with them they were happy to have me there. We prayed first thanking the Lord for the graces that we get from Him, since the family of my husband is Italian we started first our food with the appetizers of different cheeses,
different cold meats like Salami, Prosciutto crudo (Italian Parma ham),Prosciutto Cotto (Italian ham), Speck (smoked ham), Bresaola (dried beef), Mortadella (Italian Bologna ham), Pancetta (Italian bacon), Italian olives,
butter , wheat and regular bread,(sliced)
ricotta cheese on top of celery, and wine. Our second meal is pasta with Italian red sauce.
After that is the turkey with sauce

, cranberry sauce, string beans potatoes,yams, and our last is tea/coffee with different kinds of pies,
cookies
and cakes.
I ate a lot and it seems a never-ending eating, but I really enjoy the food. My hubby’s cousins are really great that I enjoy hanging around them. I take some pictures of them see this two sisters, they wore thanksgiving ornaments in their ears and pin in thanksgiving ornaments in their clothes.hubby's cousin-he is the host of the partythe wife--oh poor hubbby only his hands was included

Today's Thanksgiving Parade at downtown New York

Today's "Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade" celebrates its 82nd anniversary.The America's favorite Thanksgiving Day parade features all the spectacular pageantry, fun and surprises that made the annual New York City extravaganza a perennial favorite. Heralding the start of the Christmas season, the parade features colorful grand floats, lively marching bands, amazing character balloons and special performances by some of today's hottest stars and Broadway performers. Here are some of the pictures of todays activities at New York City.These are just a few of the famous cartoon characters that participated in the parade
Big Snoopy

Clowns with Macy's logo

Giant Turkey

Giant Shrek
Our very own International young diva Charice once again made our country proud as she performed for today's Thanksgiving Parade. Before her performance, Charice, on top of the "Good Housekeeping" float, was introduced by NBC's host as "The Internet Phenom from the Philippines."See video at You tube----

Thanksgiving Message

To all my friends and blog readers. I will not make my blog long, this is just to let you know that i am happy to have you here.Wishing you all.....



Thanksgiving Comments
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Shop at Asian Food Market

I and my friend Delia went to an Asian Store in Scarsdale and we bought some Filipino stuff. It was quite a big store where you can buy any Asian food from uncooked to cooked. I bought food that is cooked and I heat it in the microwave. And I bought some
lumpia wrappers(i will make lumpiang shanghai),
rice noodles( i make pancit and bring it to work my boss, who is a Jewish and co- worker, Italian lady love it), cooked home-made noodles(miki- make a la Paz batchoy out of it), my favorite
mackarel scad (galunggong in tagalog, I really miss it and cooked it with vinegar,garlic,onions,green pepper- call it paksiw, huh I had a good lunch),
yellow stripe travelly (salay-salay in tagalog) and
squid tentacles(ulo ng pusit good for adobo),
siopao and
Pomelo (suha) fruit. My husband like this fruit, he first tasted it in the Philippines in his second visit. When he was already here he told his lady boss that he loves Pomelo and he described it to her, one time when she came back from the bank she ask my hubby if that was the fruit that they were talking and he said yes. Sometimes you could buy this famous fruit from the Stop N Shop but its expensive though. You will really miss some food that you use to eat in the Philippines but if you go to any big Asian store you could buy those foods that you miss eating and the prices are reasonable too. Now I am starting to cook some the of fish and squid that I bought and its yummy. Next time it will post the recipe here.

Truly Blessed

I would say that I am truly blessed. First I found a part time job and been working for a month now, second I meet some Filipino friends just recently though I had one before I came here. This morning I was invited Delia to her house for lunch and since this day I am off I walk to her house. On my way to her house I could not help but sigh because it was already cold and seems my whole body is freezing. When I reach her house I ask her what is the temperature and she can’t help but laugh telling me 33 degrees. She followed it up saying this is not yet the real cold. HHHmmmnn, I really have to wait for the winter. While we are chatting another Filipina come her name is Beth, she is a nurse and this was the second time that I meet her. Delia prepared us a good Filipino lunch of kilawin, pancit at shrimp sautéed in garlic with sprite. We are chatting while eating , after eating we headed to the living room and there we continue our conversations. It was already 2 pm when we decided to go home. When I get home I immediately get our key for the mailbox, open it and get the mails. I saw my name in one of the mails, out of curiosity I open it and I saw the permanent resident card that was sent to me by USCIS National Benefits Center. Thank God I already got it…. I am truly blessed with this. I am very much happy.

Palawan's Beaches

For nature lovers another good place for adventure is Palawan, Philippines. An elongated island southwest of Mindoro, it is a 55 minute flight from Manila. It is rich in natural resources and boasts of exotic wildlife, white sand beaches, world class snorkeling and scuba diving. Also known as "the last frontier", it is a haven for adventure seekers and nature lovers. Dive spots in Palawan are plentiful, with each site offering a unique array of marine life. The Tubbataha Reefs are the best dive spots in the area.See pics.....
under ground river
El Nido
Sabang beach

Palawan Club Paradise
Coron Bay
Honda Bay-Snake Island

Tabon Cave
Tubbataha Coral Reefs

Palawan's clear waters

Palawan is appoximately 586 kilorneters southwest of Manila. The island province extends toward the southwest forming a partial land bridge between Mindoro and North Borneo. The western side of the island faces South China Sea. Puerto Princesa, the capital city, is the chief seaport and the center of trade and commerce.

...I BEEN THERE

...So often it seems that life is only made up of things to worry about. Life has many disappointments for all of us ... death, illnesses, betrayals, tragedies, and feelings of worthlessness and despair. Sometimes life can seem so very grim, and so many times we tend to wallow in pools of self-pity.
I would just like to say again ... I believe that our time here on earth gives us the opportunity to grow spiritually. We can experience much personal growth because of all the suffering, worries, and difficulties we have to go through during our mortal lives. It is God's way of fine-tuning us so we become more compassionate, more caring, more loving, and more aware of others' pain. After all, how could we ever dry the tears of others if we had never cried ourselves?
We all find ourselves in the valley of despair sometimes. It may sometimes seem that we are forever worrying, learning lessons, suffering pain, and facing challenges. But we must try to remember that the fertilizer that helps us "grow" is in those valleys, not on the mountain tops.
During the times that we feel scared and confused, we will always end up wiser and we will grow more from the experiences. We will understand more about people and life, become more sensitive, and we'll be able to enjoy life more after we go through the hard times.
We have to experience sadness so that we may better measure joy. Life has a way of balancing the sorrow with the joy, the disappointments with the hope, and the emptiness with the meaning.
I do hope you're able to realize that even though things look cloudy right now, they'll get better soon. Just remember that it takes rain to make rainbows, lemons to make lemonade, and sometimes it takes difficulties to make us stronger and better people. If you hang in there, you will see that the sun will shine again soon ... you'll see.

Useful Christmas Gift

I was watching the television when I happen to put the channel at HSN. I saw a new printer, scanner, fax and photo copier in one.And mind you its wireless too. I told my husband that it is very much useful to us. There was an instance that we need an important document to be photocopied or to fax, because we don’t have a copier and fax machine we will wait until my husband go to his office and do those things there. Last November 4 we had a problem with an urgent document which we badly need for my AOS interview the next morning, my hubby photocopied the document at his office and he forgot the copy of the thing he Xerox. There’s no other way that he could go back as it is already evening when he got home, good thing that next door has their own copier at home, we were able to re-copy the document and insert it in our files. From that instance I told him we had to buy a copier and we are lucky to find this item at the HSN. Its good and affordable. As of this blog I am waiting for the UPS to come. It was already delivered last Monday but no one is in the house. The deliveryman did not leave it at it requires the signature of the recipient. I just hope any moment from now he will arrived as I am anxious to see how it looks and not only that I could test if it’s really working good. This is also best as gifts for our loved ones….. Here are the features:
Get ready to have it all. Print, copy, scan, fax, reduce and enlarge photos and documents all with the remarkable Lexmark X7550 All-in-One Wireless Printer. Share your scanned documents, send photos by email or view and edit them right on the 2.4" color LCD screen. Brilliant 6-color printing allows your pictures to be as colorful and vivid as the moment you took them. The built-in 802.11g wireless technology provides high-quality printing from virtually anywhere in your home, giving you unbelievable printer flexibility and freedom.
Lexmark Wireless Photo Printer, Scanner Copier and Fax with Color LCD Features:
• Lexmark Productivity Studio Software - crop, rotate, resize photos and apply photo effects; plus enjoy 1-touch color fix and red eye reduction
• Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software - allows you to easily scan hard copy text documents into a soft copy format
• Lexmark Productivity Studio - easily converts documents to PDFs
• Built-in, 2-sided printing - save time, money and paper
• Flatbed scanner with 48-bit color depth - easily handles thick books, reports and more
• Up to 25-page capacity auto document feeder (ADF) - for multiple page faxing and copying
• Black and color faxing with 33.6Kbps modem speed - for speedy and efficient results
• Evercolor2 inks - achieve vibrant, resilient results with water and fade resistance
• Get 99 speed dials, automatic redial, and caller ID support for faxes
• Print directly from memory cards, PictBridge-compatible digital cameras or a USB drive
• Print fast borderless photos on popular photo sizes
• Get up to 30ppm black and 27ppm color printing
• 1-touch PC-free copying (color or black)
About Lexmark...
Enjoy all-in-one printing solutions and complete imaging capabilities for home or office digital photography from this award-winning industry leader. Lexmark offers fine quality printing regardless of budget and was the first to introduce a photo printer with an on-board camera card reader. These sleek, compact units fit into practically any space.

Welcome letter

When I get home from work I saw that we have mails on our mailbox. I open one of the mails that were addressed to me and I noticed that it came from USCIS confirming that my ADJUSTMENT OF STATUS was approved and WELCOME TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Was teary-eyed and say thank God for granting my prayers. I am so happy….

'Why did I get married?

This is an interesting quote from the movie 'Why did I get married?'and i wanna share with you my views regarding this movie which i know if you have watch it you could relate what i am saying in here. This is just my opinion.
In most cases, especially in relationships, you will only get 80% of what you NEED and you will hardly get the other 20% that you WANT in your relationship.
There is always another person (man or women) that you will meet and that will offer you the other 20% which is lacking in your relationship that you WANT and believe me, 20% looks really good when you are not getting it at all in your current relationship.
But the problem is that you will always be tempted to leave that good 80% that you know you have, thinking that you will get something better with the other 20% that you WANT
But as reality has proven, in most cases, you will always end up with having the 20% that you WANT and loosing the 80% that you really NEED and that you already had.

Be careful in deciding between what you WANT and NEED in your life.
Adultery happens when you start looking for what you don't have. 'Wow, this girl in my office is a real looker. But it's not her Wynona Rider features that got me. I'm crazy about her because she's also understanding, intelligent, tender - so many things that my spouse is not'
Somewhere along the way, you'll find a woman or a man who will be more charming or sensitive. More alluring. More thoughtful. Richer. Have greater sex appeal. And you will find a woman or man who will need you and pursue you and go loco over you more than your spouse ever did.
Because no wife or husband is perfect. Because a spouse will only have 80% of what you're looking for. adultery takes place when a husband or wife looks for the missing 20%. Let's say your wife is melancholic by nature.
You may find yourself drawn to the pretty clerk who has a cherry laugh no matter what she says: 'I broke my arm yesterday, Hahahaha . . .'
Or because your wife is a homebody in slippers and pajamas, smelling of garlic and fish oil, you may fall for a fresh-smelling young sales representative that visits your office in a sharp black blazer, high heels, and a red pencil-cut skirt Or because your husband is the quiet type, your heart may skip a beat when you meet an old college flame who has the makings of a talk show host.
But wait! That's only 20% of what you don't have.
Don't throw away the 80% that you already have!
That's not all. Add to your spouse's 80% the 100% that represents all the years that you have been with each other. The storms you have weathered together. The unforgettable moments of sadness and joy as a couple. The many adjustments you have made to love the other. The wealth of memories that you have accumulated as lovers.
Adultery happens when you start looking for what you don't have.
But faithfulness happens when you start thanking God for what you already have.
But I'm not just talking about marriage.
I'm talking about life!
About your jobs.
About your friends.
About your children.
About your lifestyles.
Are you like the economy airline passenger that perennially peeks through the door of the first class cabin, obsessed with what he's missing? 'They have got more leg room! Oh my, their food is served in porcelain! Wow, their seats recline at an 80% angle and they've got personal videos!'
I guarantee you'll be miserable for the entire trip! Don't live your life like that. Forget about what the world says its first class. Do you know that there are many first class passengers who are miserable in first class -- because they are not riding in a private Lear Jet?

My main message???
If you start appreciating what you have right now, wherever you are, you are first class!

Cousin's Wedding

Just recently my cousin on the father side ties a knot in the Philippines. They had a church wedding which the held at the Holy Rosary Parish in Angeles Pampanga. Steve as we fondly call him works in Dubai where he meet his now wife Jenny. Before the wedding they send a message at my Friendster asking me if I can go home and be one of their witness at the wedding. Sorry to say I turn them down for the reason that I can’t leave the country yet, I am still waiting for my interview for the green card. I explain to them naman the reason which they understand. They sent me some pictures of their wedding that I use to post here at my blog. See pics……











Steve and Jenny we wish you a fruitful years of marriage full of patience and understanding, a marriage blessed with kids he he he. I just hope the love that you have shown with each other will continue “ kahit maputi na ang buhok nyo” and you will remember what the bible says “na ang sinumang pinag-isa ng Diyos ay hindi kayang paghiwalayin ninuman”.