I never won any raffle draws or give away contest offline. But online I have joined once and I won the prize! Now, as I said here, I joined in the MOMMYFEST in my other blog. My main goal is to meet fellow mommies like me and winning the give aways are just secondary. But when I was blog hopping I saw a recipe book give away and I know I wanted that one to add to my collection of recipe books.

Today, I was so happy to received an email from Eleisia.

Hi Milet,

 

Congratulations! You are the winner of my Mommyfest Watkins Giveaway!

 

Please email your name and address so I can send your prize.

 

Thanks for participating in Mommyfest’s Blog Party and visiting my blog.

 

Eleisia Whitney

Watkins Independent Associate

And my price, lookie here!

I won a Watkins Vanilla Classic Recipes Cookbook, a 2 fl oz bottle of Vanilla, a 2 oz tin of Cinnamon, and a 4 oz tin of Black Pepper. Great isn’t it ? Can’t wait to get a hold of the cookbook.

Thanks Eleisia!

If you have LUPUS, your utmost priority is of course controlling your LUPUS. But you cannot do this alone. Your doctor plays an important factor on how well you fight the “WOLF”. A rheumatologist is the doctor who specialized in LUPUS. I have known this after I was diagnosed to have that disease.

The first doctor to treat my LUPUS is a NEPHROLOGIST. I was at my weakest at that time but I can point out that there is something wrong. The NEPHRO is clueless on how to treat me. My husband then boyfriend and I scouted for doctors. I tell you, it is a frustrating journey for the two of us. Until God finally brought me to HIM.

At the time that we met my faith on doctors have gone down the drain. I don’t believe any word they say. Yet my rheuma was able to make me trust him. He showed me that he know what he is doing. From 2003 until now, five years, I have been seeing him in his clinic.

He have seen me through worse and he have been part of Hubby and mine’s journey as we throde the unpredictable life with LUPUS. He is always there to remind me, I can consult to him via text message and he even defended me once when my HMO does not want to shoulder my expenses. He have seen me through my pregnancy and delivery, he was even the one who referred me to my OB GYNE (she is also the BEST!).

Now, I only see him every two months ? Why, because he was able to control my LUPUS. Last May 7 I went again for a check up. The lab results are all good. Then I remembered that I still need to asked him something about the condition of hubby. He asked me questions and then told me that he will just prescribed some meds for hubby since there a still lots of patients waiting for their turn. And would you believe those meds he prescribed help hubby a lot. And when hubby returned for his vacation Doc will check on him again.

As for me, I need to go back to him on June with laboratory results. Since he lowered my intake of prednisone. I am now taking it MWF. Also, I need a vaccine for flu and pneumonia ( I am prone to colds when its rainy season) which is part of his clinical laboratory service. And I promise him I would loss weight. hahahah!

Summer is..as declared by PAGASA. Actually rainy season came in early this year. Four typhoons have already visited our country. Fortunately we were able to go out of town before the rains begin. And the kids were able to enjoy sumer before school starts. Luis will be on 5th grade, Buma will be entering grade school and Aish will be enrolled in prep school. My little princess will be the only one not of schooling age.

This was taken during our first Subic trip for summer 2008. Outside Legenda Suites. Before we headed to my sister’s house in Pampanga.

My older sister’s house is in Pampanga but both she and my brother in law are staying with us during weekdays when they are working. Aish is left to the care of her grandparents. My sister have been wanting me to go to there house ever since they renovated it. She wanted to show the furnitures handmade by their contracted craftsman. True enough the furnitures are really nice. And they were given a wine rack for free. Although they have no wine on stock ;). Going to there home is a breath of fresh air and her father in law cooks delicious foods that’s why on our second trip to Subic we still drop by there place for lunch ;).

This summer our destination was not that far away from Manila but it makes the kids happy so we their parent are happier!

This is another post about Wordpress 2.5.1.

One of the factor why I prefer blogger sometimes over Wordpress is the convenience of adding a picture in the post. For blogger all you need to do is click on the icon for an image and it will automatically add the picture. For Wordpress, I need to upload the pic in my server, get the link and then put the link on the window that will pop up when you click the image icon. For me that’s a lot of work. So most of the time I just create a slideshow and post it in wordpress.

Now, my problem is SOLVE! When I first attempted to write a post via 2.5.1 I immediately saw the ADD MEDIA tab and put my cursor on top of one of the icon and the tool tip showed ADD AN IMAGE! Yahoo! But when you used that new feature you can see that the image will always be left aligned. Even if I put <center> and </center>. I was disheartened. I browse through my post to see the html code to put a horizontal and vertical spaces for the image but lo! i cannot find any picture. That’s just proved that I really don’t like posting pictures in wordpress. So I gave up and continued my post.

Then I realized that the old icon for add image is still there.  I click the picture and click the Insert/Edit image and the window that pop up contains the link of the picture plus the box to input your desired border width, and margins for the vertical and horizontal. To make sure that the numbers I entered will be followed I removed the codes that wordpress made in the CLASS section.

So the add media is for your pic or video or even music (i haven’t tested this yet though) to your server/host. And you can edit the image by clicking the IMAGE/EDIT icon.

Now I am so inspired to upload pics! I’ll try the music later.

..while doing the upgrade and changing my template.

I know, I know I have bought my domain last October and it was only know that I am paying attention on what I really wanted my blog to look like.

So, I started with the upgrade. Doing an upgrade is no stranger to me but having it done using my own host is a first time. God thing I purchased the domain from bluehost. I know its not cheap but I used my blog earning to purchased it. And I will be sharing this one with my brother. When I click FANTASTICO, there was already a upgrade to 2.5 link, so the upgrade only took seconds. But when I open my wordpress there was again another reminder to upgrade to 2.5.1. I was kinda irritated but the irritation was gone when the upgrade link also has a link to the wordpress plugin. So the plugin made my life easier.

Because of this when I changed my template I went to find some plugins to aid me. And the template also forced me to research some more regarding php. Urgh!

So for a whole day I search and search and found this very useful plugin.

BLOGROLL LINKS PAGE by Mark Allen - I wanted to put my blogroll into another page since I settled for a two columns template. This plugin makes my life easier because at first I thought of copying and pasting names and blogs. But this one, just download, unzip and upload it to your server. Afterwards, make a new page and make sure that you click the HTML tab and put <!--blogroll-page--> in the body and you’re all done. A page with all your blogroll!

CFORMS - in the new template there was a header that has a title of CONTACT. I have long been wanting to put a contact me page in my blog wherein users will input their name, email address and message and it will be sent to me in my email. But of course I did not pay much attention before. Now, I again googled and found this plugin. When download and activate it there would be a tab for it in wordpress wherein you can tweak the form to your liking. It’s a good template really!

GOOGLE XML SITEMAP GENERATOR - i just realized while doing the other day that I haven’t submitted my sitemap to google via their webmaster tool. The sitemap will help googlebot/google crawlers crawl your website. This will also help you be listed in the google search engine and might help in improving your PR! Download the plugin, unzip and upload and then activate. It will then generate a sitemap for your blog which you can download to your desktop and later upload to google.

SRG Clean Archives - Again, to clean the cluttered look I decided to put the archives into another page. This was also because the template puts an ARCHIVE in the header. Although the easy way out is to delete the line for the ARCHIVE header in the template I realized its a good idea to put a ARCHIVE PAGE. So this plugin did the trick for me. Download, unzip, upload, activate. Thats it!

WORDPRESS AUTOMATIC UPGRADE I admit I am on a lazy mode when it comes to doing some technical stuff so the upgrade is something that I avoided for a long time. Maybe, delaying the upgrade was a blessing in disguise because the plugin is already created at this time. It does all the techy stuff all you need to do is to be patient and wait. Right now I don’t find any bugs regarding my upgrade. Fingers crossed! Am not sure though if this plugin is the one which detect the new version for the other plugins or the 2.5.1 version of Wordpress.

I was so glad I set aside sometime to improve my blog. Although the template is not catchy but still I was able to achieve the clean style I wanted.

Hubby went home again for the 4th time. Its a 15 day vacation. I was so happy that the moment Anevay saw him outside the gate she utter Daddy shyly. Daddy gave her the Barney stuff toy and that was the start. I have written about the vacation here so I am just sharing some pics now.

This was taken during Maxinne’s 1st birthday in Fazoli’s Eastwood (oh man! i miss Fazolis!). The party was scheduled at around 2pm, that was also Anevay’s nap time. She dozed off during the party and I was thankful that hubby was with us because Anevay is heavy na.

And here is the little girl enjoying her new toy. We bought it in Eastwood din right after the party. I always wanted one for Anevay since our dvd is malfunctioning and we can bring this one when we go out for a long trip. So nde maiinip ang aming prinsesa.

Mother goose, the Anevay way c/o Daddy. When daddy is around, asahan mong kung ano anong experiment gagawin nyan kay Anevay, ung isa naman feel na feel

Inside the van, on our way to the resort in Subic. Kita nyo malapit na sya kay daddy nya ?

Daddy teaching Anevay to swim.

It was time to go home but before we went our way ayun nagswing ang mag ama. Kita nyo yung ngiti ng bata ? Actually nilalaro din sya ng Kuya ko jan.

Palpak na shot!

Daddy wanted to take Anevay to Kuwait. Inaayos ko na ung gamit ng daddy nya jan. Look at them.

I can’t complain that the vacation was short but rather I am thankful that hubby can afford to go home twice a year (last year, thrice a year because he went home for Anevay’s birthday). Not all ofw are given that chance. Some only go home after two years. Mahirap un!

And I think the vacation was worth it for his side because of this…

Anevay has a habit that when she wakes up in between her sleep she will look for me and would sometimes sleep on top of me. Just like in the picture. Daddy and I were surprised that she went to her daddy and sleep on his chest.

P.S. you see the letter C. That’s one of the rubber mat i put on the side ng sleeping area namin. Para kung mauntog man sya nde masakit. Ayun, tatlo na lang natitira. Naalis na lahat ni Anevay, that’s also the reason for those traces of double adhesive tape. And yes, we don’t have a bed. Two mattress lang that occupies the room. That’s the reason why I can sleep soundly without the fear of Anevay falling. And I can do some housework when she takes her afternoon nap.

—–

When I was looking for a resort I was able to find some sites that really help me a lot. One is a list of Olongapo resorts and the other one is a list of Batangas Beaches with website and with phone numbers.

Also to make the vacation, really a vacation meaning no one drives from the family, we rented a van. I always use the services of this Rent a Van company and they are really reliable. The truth is the vehicle that was assigned to us at first is an INNOVA. I told the driver its too small for us since the head count is 11. Then the owner said he will just make us used the Starex. But we were surprised when the driver arrived with the Grandia. Their number 9118835. And they have been operating for five years now.

So you’ve noticed me around. Yey, I decided to get back to blogging. I think I missed out some tags and awards…so sorry about that! The past few months have only been spent surfing the net, staying at home, going out of the house only if it is necessary. I am not really sure what hit me but I guess it does not yield desirable result.

I still don’t have the much sought after PR after seven months. Yap! That long. But when I look at the stats almost all hits came from google search! Then my real rank and alexa rankings went down. Kainis! And to top it all, when I went for a check up with my rheuma, we saw a 14lbs weight gain. Ang galing d ba ?

So, I promised myself to shake off what I am feeling and be good to myself and my BLOG! heheh! But ok one of the thing that has been on my mind for four months is the medical needed in securing the visa. It was part of our plan that we moved to Kuwait this year BUT my xray showed a pleural thickening in my left lung. According to the medical clinic that perform the test Kuwait is very particular with lung diseases so any past and present traces will be declared UNFIT. That really really was DEPRESSING for my part.

At first it was really hard for me to accept but when I was on my way to the clinic for the final decision I prayed to God to let me accept everything he plan for us. And I was able to accept it calmly and with another plan on my mind. Hubby and I talked about it. Now, we have a different plan. Although separation is still inevitable at this stage but we have to endure it for quite sometime before everything falls into place. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Kaya ngaun I decided to blog again. I even put up a new blog called MOMIESPACE. Wala lang. Nah, not exactly wala lang. I’m going to do some SEO experiment with it. Oppss, before you asked me some techy questions..my experiments are only simple ones. Which I learned from some SEO sites and through surfing. Gusto ko lang itest if those tips really worked. Anyway, I am going to share the experiments here.

Now na active ako sa blogging namiss ko naman manood ng Asian Dramas. Kdramas, Jdramas, Tdramas. Yan ung naging libangan ko for the past months. I started with Coffee Prince, then Hello My Teacher (parehong Gong Yoo) hanggang sa iba’t ibang drama na. If you want to get loads of Asian Dramas you can visit mysoju and Aznv. Buti na lang I am running @ 1000+Mbps. Kaya no buffering. In the past I never enjoyed watching those subbed dramas from local channel now I know why. The voices are a lot different, sometimes the voices they used tends to be comical.

Okay, enough na. I thought wala ng bagyo pero ang lakas ng ulan dito. Katakot! Kami lang ni Anevay dito.

Mari is asking my to do’s.

A mom’s work is never finished. Super true! But well, I have to be organized to make sure that everything is done without me suffering from so much stress. Something that LUPUS patient like me should avoid. Tomorrow, I got everything line up. Actually I already have made up my schedule in my mind.

Here goes :

1. Spend ten or 15 minutes in the treadmill
2. Prepare breakfast
3. Go to meralco and bayad center (for MWSS)
4. Go to BDO. I forgot to get my ATM card from hubby’s wallet. So the card is in Kuwait right now. I just declared it LOST and will do the necessary steps for the replacement.
5. Mop the floor, once the princess takes her afternoon nap and then fold the laundered clothes.
6. Burn some of my older brother’s file to DVD. His laptop (my previous laptop) on has a CD writer. Mine has DVD writer.
7. Bloghop my blogroll and the blogs of those who participated in the MOMMYFEST.

BUSY PEOPLE:1.) my chopsuey 2.) mind bubbles 3.) vanity kit 4.) somethingpurple 5.) a detour 6.) Confessions of a Supermodel Wannabe 7.) Mitch of When Silence Speaks 8.) Hailey’s Domain 9.) Hailey’s Beats and Bits 10.) Air Sick 11.) Avee’s Adventures 12.) Never Ending Stories 13.) Essay of Life 14.) Tasteful Voyage 15.) A mom’s note 16.) Jenny and Belle 17.) Chez Francine 18.) Le bric a brac de Cherie 19.) La Place De Cherie 20.) Nora 21.) Just me.. Eds 22.) My Precious  23. In My Kitchen 24. Thoughts Of Me 25. Precious Words 26. My Online Journal 27. My Colorful World 28. Life Together Starts 29. A Housewife’s Journal 30. Being a wife. Being a mom. 31. MoMieSpace 32. You’re next here

Now lets see your to do list : Lilet, Mhay, Mayeth, Serena

Vannie tagged me.

In fairness this is the first time I got D as a grade. ;). Ibig bang sabihin nyan nde ako lakwatsera. Hehehe!

My Lakbayan grade is D!

How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!

Created by Eugene Villar.

I am tagging all those in my blogroll who wants to know their grade for Lakbayan!

Ayan dahil kay Vannie, naenganyo akong mag upgrade. So last night i took some time off. In the past, nung may career pa ko, I was always the one to remind my officemate to do the update kasi kung nde mahihighlight si manager tapos ang bagsak nun ako pa rin ang uutusin ;). I wonder bakit ngayon tamad na tamad akong mag update.

Kaya kagabi, i took some time off. Pero as usual, ang tamad na si Milet nagbrowse lang ng instruction. haha! The upgrade to 2.5 was just seconds. Ang bilis! That was done through bluehost. And then when I open na my wordpress ayun nagprompt na sya to upgrade to 2.5.1. Kainis. Nde pa tinapos ng bluehost ung upgrade. Buti na lang may sinabi si wordpress that there was a plugin that was created for the automatic upgrade. Syempre si tamad natuwa. I don’t know. I hate to do technical stuff nowadays. Allergic ako sa scripts and even instructions. The plugin stated that the upgrade would only take five minutes. So before ako nagupgrade nagexport muna ko ng aking mga posts. Para kahit anong mangyari, importing lang gagawin ko. hehe ;).

The upgrade was more that five minutes or kaya nagkaganun kasi makulit ako. Nainip ako so click dito, click doon. In the end nde tuloy naactivate automatically ung mga plugins ko. Matigas ulo eh! Pero un lang ang naencounter kong problem. Besides that wala na.

New features that I like about 2.5.1…ung add media nila. Now I dont have to upload the pics to my server si wordpress na gagawa nun automatically. Dun ako naasar kaya kumuha ako ng domain sa blogger eh.

And dahil nainspire ako nung look nung bago kong blog na simple but elegant looking, i browse for new templates. I saw the wordpress template na pareho nung sa blogger ko kaso lang parang nde ko type pareho sila ng template. Buong gabi akong naghanap, I slept at 1 am pero ung mga nakikita ko na gusto ko laging may bug.

Until later in the morning I found this template. 2 columns, simple. My mission, UNCLUTTER the CLUTTERED blog. Mejo naguguluhan na ko sa blog ko. Puro mga bayad na links na nga pati sidebar ba naman eh magulo. Nakakahiya.

Ngayon, I am presenting the UNCLUTTERED blog. hahaha! After hours of researching through GOOGLE ( i wanted to used the word googling, pero para sa tao lang yata ung term na un ) i found the right plugins to make my life easier. 

I was able to put an ARCHIVE PAGE, CONTACT FORM, MY LINKS ABOUT LUPUS IN THIS BLOG and BLOGGERS WITH LUPUS. You think it was easy ? Nde noh kasi ung template na gamit ko, instead na ung header i call na lang ung pages aba ginawang link to a http. O d ba. So kita nyo sa footer ung makikita nyo sa header o d ba ? Kesa gumawa pa ko ng function (which I am clueless right now how to do it) gumawa na lang ako ng shortcut. The archives, contact form and the links are all wordpress plugins. O d ba ang galing ng mga developer ng plugins ng wordpress. One click ok na lahat. Ang problema ko na lang ung adsense in every post. Nde ko makita ung inupload kong plugin sa plugin page.

That what keeps me busy the wholeday. Feeling ko nagwowork na naman ako. Hehe! Pero promise napwersa lang ako to analyze everything. I don’t want to go technical again. Sumasakit ulo ko. hahaha! Buti na lang walang umupo sa tabi ko at nangungulit! bwahahaha!

Ok, that’s it! May dalawang raket ako galing kay sheriff. Ang onti tinatamad pa kong magpost. Pag dumami na. Nung last time eleven isang bagsakan eh. Hmm..next post please.