Mommy Diary

Archive for October, 2009

Yipee, we just got our car! It was a long and tiring trip yesterday. My dad called me in the morning but was not able to reach me because my phone was off. He reached my hubby so he YM’d me as soon as possible. Luckily, I’m almost always online so I read it right away. When my dad finally was able to reach me he asked, “Why can’t I contact you?” I told him, “My phone’s battery died and I didn’t charge it because nobody texts me anymore.” LOL So now you know my secret! Anyway, he said he has the car fixed and it’s ready to be picked up. I protested I don’t have the confidence to drive just yet and so we agreed that we would go there on Friday and my brother would drive us home. So now to the complicated part. A few minutes after that my father-in-law arrived unexpectedly. I mentioned that we’re supposed to get our car but there’s no one to drive it so he volunteered. Now he’s the crazier part. I texted my dad and he said he has a meeting at Megamall. I thought he said we should go and meet there and all we have to do is wait for his text message. We waited and he said he’s already “there” so we went to Megamall. When we got there I texted him, “We’re here.” I didn’t get a reply right away and I just assumed he was still talking with that someone he was supposed to meet at Megamall. Then he asked, “Where are you?” I said, “We’re here at the toy section buying Zyke a toy.” And then I received the bombshell, he was not there he already went home and that’s where we’re supposed to meet. Well, nothing could deter me from getting my car! So we hailed a taxi and barely avoided the afternoon traffic. It was already close to five when we arrived. So there, that’s only half of the story. Of course, we have to go home and got stuck in traffic. We left at 6pm and arrived at 9pm. That’s our first taste of traffic in our very own car!
Anyway, I had a giggle when S’s first attempt in driving was not so good. That served him right for laughing at me when I nearly flunked my driving test. Hey, give me a break – I hadn’t driven in eight years!
I don’t have pictures to upload but it’s a ’96 Mazda 323. My dad got himself a 2009 Honda City so he gave me this. I told him I thought he would give me the Honda City instead! Wishful thinking but I’m not complaining! te-hee!

Okay, so I just spent the last two days watching Mad Men Season 1. I didn’t know what to expect when I bought the DVD. I just heard it won the best series in the last Emmy’s. I was a bit disappointed watching episode one. Although the title was Mad Men, it didn’t occur to me that the main characters were just that – mad men. Or what else would you call chauvinistic men who see themselves as the lord of the workplace and treat their secretaries (which were of course, all female! This was the ’60s after all) as second class citizen. Not only that, these men were having affairs left and right and their wives haven’t got any clue. So after watching the entire season one, I finally realized why they named the series Mad Men. It’s because these men can make us so damn MAD! I was really fuming at one point that I had to slap my poor husband! Sorry, Der. Still, I’m definitely hooked. I would definitely buy seasons one and two asap.

I can’t believe I let almost a month pass without joining Fedhz’ Blogversary/Bday Contest. What with it’s amazing prizes at stake and with this economy we have, I’m sure the money she will be giving away will come a long way. So if you’re reading this and I know you have your own blog or maybe two, you can use that to help spread the word about Fedhz’ Blogversary/Bday Contest. For the mechanics, just go here. And just for your information the prizes at stake are the following:

Certainly, not bad right? And I’m sure worth every effort you put in. And if you will be so kind to put in a word to her about me being your referral, I would really appreciate it. I really need to win this one. ^^

I’m now working on my blogs. Currently, I have four blogs with it’s own domain. I have finished installing a template that is adsense ready and I hope that the clicks would follow. LOL I know it’s not that easy but I have seen other people do it and it’s not exactly rocket science. You just have to be consistent in posting quality content about relevant topics and if you’re diligent enough sooner or later the visitors will come. I have the ideas but one thing I lack is consistency. I can go months end without posting a single post in my blogs and that is my bad. Oh, how I wish I have enough money to outsource my posting. That is still in the future, but meantime I have to do the work myself.

I have been trying to organize our family budget. It seems like I have been staying at home for almost three years now but I have no idea how much money we need to survive in a month. In order to do so I need to know how much we spend. So starting last October 6 I started writing down what we were spending on a day-to-day basis. The experience left me frustrated because as I was expecting, we were living beyond our means. No, we didn’t incur debts or something but we’re slowly eating through our savings each month. Sigh. If we don’t start living within our means then in no time our savings account will be gone.
Although writing every expense down is really tedious and hard on the heart (it’s hard to admit that you spent that much money in a few days) I will continue this financial exercise. How else are we going to mend our ways if we don’t know the stats. So for now, I will be busy filling the pages of my journal.

It’s been a few months since I switched my first blog to wordpress and I have learned a lot since then. At least now I have an idea how a cpanel works and can upload files via the filezilla. I loved the idea of being independent and taking absolute control of my blog – at first. Buying this new domain made me think how convenient it is to have my blog hosted by Google. Blogger has made so many improvements ever since I last left it that I’m now thinking twice if I would transfer this blog to my paid host. Another thing is it’s free – who can beat that?
Among the new features I like with blogger is how easy it is to integrate adsense in your blog. It’s as easy as clicking one, two, three. I don’t have any background with html so if I wanted adsense on my blogs in my paid server I would have to find a template that is already adsense ready. With blogger, any template you want can be adsense ready in an instant.
Uploading pictures to your blog in blogger is also convenient. You will virtually have unlimited space because you’re being hosted by no other than Google but with your own server your space is only limited so you have to make use of third parties to store your pictures like photobucket.com and flicker.com. You can open an account for free but still there is a limit in the pictures you can upload.
With the above advantages you might think I may be crazy for even thinking about paying for my own hosting. But alas, there is this one disadvantage that makes me think twice about hosting all my blogs in blogger. Since what Google is giving you is a free service, there is a possibility that your blog or blogs will be lost. Yes, lost all of a sudden as if it never existed!I know it doesn’t happen that often because I personally only know one blog that actually suffered this unfortunate fate but that doesn’t stop me from thinking what if it happens to MY blog?
Oh, I can’t even think about what I will do if that happens. For the meantime I’m leaving this blog in blogger. After all it will be wise to spread your eggs and not put them in one basket.

Yipee! I just bought my own domain for this long-forsaken blog of mine. I’ve realized that I’m just so really pathetic in updating my blogs. In 1 1/2 years of blogging I have only two blogs with their own domain and those two are not even updated regularly. There have been so many distractions here and there and most of the time I can’t think of anything to write. I just love to read and read different blogs but writing takes such a long process for me so I usually put it in the backseat.
Anyway, hopefully these new domain would really inspire mo to update regularly so I can at least pay for its keep (and hopefully more). Everybody needs extra cash and I am no exception.