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Halloween may be over but people are still raving about the awesome and scary New York costumes they saw on TV! In our country, Halloween used to be a solemn time for adults and a really scary time for children. Scary not because of Halloween costumes but because of ghost stories that our relatives tell us. Unlike the US and UK, we didn’t have trick or treat or Halloween parties back then. Our families would usually go home to their hometowns and honor their dead. The children will be regaled with ghost stories and other tales about night creatures. We would watch the scary TV specials and try to sleep early to avoid the monsters. Hehe!

But during the late 90s, the Trick or Treat (ToT) culture finally invaded our Hallow’s Eve celebration. We saw the emergence of Halloween parties in high-class subdivisions, and later, Trick or Treatin’ in the mainstream populace. Our condo organizes the ToT for the kids and schools often put up Halloween costume parties. Even hubby’s office put up a cash prize for the employee who’ll wear the scariest costume on Hallow’s Eve. Crazy, I tell you! But to me, Halloween (or “Undas” in our language) remains a solemn occasion. I never joined costume parties and perhaps never will.. Unless our kid forces me to! LOL

Yep, I’m gestating for 20 weeks today and that means in another 20 weeks, we’ll finally meet our firstborn! How exciting is that?? My only problem is that our Baby Fund is still zero, i.e. no savings yet. This pregnancy of ours caught us by surprise and most of our savings in our first year of marriage went into our second honeymoon (babymoon) last October. The trip was already booked months before so we can’t cancel and save the money for our baby. So now, with 4 months before my due date, we’re gonna save money like crazy! Or like those ants preparing for the rainy day..

Search the Internet for “online university” and one school name that will keep popping up is that of Western Governors University. I checked their website and I was amazed with the amount of courses they offer! Imagine, they have 58 graduate and undergrad specializations in the fields of business, information technology, education, teaching and health. The best part? All these courses are available online! I’m sure you’d find something that would challenge your brain and suit your needs.

As for myself, I’ve always wanted to pursue further studies online but I was unsure what online school I should trust with my tuition money. Hehe! And from the courses I saw in Western Governors University, I’m kinda leaning towards having an online nursing degree. I feel the course will complement my background in Medicine =) So if you’re like me looking to advance your education, take a look at WGU — affordable online education within your reach!

It’s been a looong while since I joined a meme and this time I chose a new one which I haven’t joined before. Anyway, you can join in the fun HERE! =)

1. How’s it goin? Everything about as okay as it can get?
- Well, to start off, I’m 5 months pregnant and since finishing my first trimester (where I was nauseous and tired all the time), everything is just dandy! =) Oh, except for the acne explosion I got on my back! *sigh* Gotta find acne treatments safe for pregnant women soon..

2. How is your Significant Other (or other person you’re close to / have a relationship with, etc)?
- My husband is doing great! He just celebrated his 28th birthday with a seafood feast. YUMMY!

3. How’s your family?
- My family is doing great too! =) My two siblings are gainfully employed and the older one just had a baby girl. Of course my parents, first-time grandparents, are very happy about it =)

..I’d surely get this wonderful Sophie Girls Bedroom Set from MyNewFurnitureStore.com! I simply, simply adore the painted white finish with a delicate ribbon and rosette overlay with antique white hardware! Of course our lil girl can’t appreciate this yet but she’ll surely thank me when her style and taste develops =) The online furniture store I visited also had other bedroom sets for adults, boys and girls. They also carry lines of home theater seats, sofa sets, outdoor / patio furniture, kitchen, home office and garage sets. They even have stuff for pets which I adore coz we’re a family of dog lovers! =) Anyway, if you’re shopping online for furniture, do drop by MyNewFurnitureStore.com!

What’s next? Guesting on Jay Leno or David Letterman’s shows? Or maybe on the late night shows of Conan O’Brien or Jimmy Fallon? Whatever’s next, I only have one thing to say about Manny Pacquiao: he has a brave heart! Just imagine singing on American TV Dan Hill’s “Sometimes When We Touch” with a hard Pinoy accent! Looking for exit signs when the going gets tough definitely isn’t the way for this Pinoy. Kudos to you Manny! You certainly endeared yourself more to your loyal fans! =)

The holiday season is almost upon us and I’m sure most of you have started writing their Christmas list and what to buy for persons worth giving gifts to. LOL! As for me and Labsie, since we’ve got a baby on the way, we decided to cut back on Christmas gift expenses this year. The money we will save will go to our baby fund. As it is, we have only four months to go before our lil angel will arrive and we have ZERO dollars in our baby fund *sigh* Anyhoo, to save on Christmas gifts, we decided to send holiday postcards to most of our relatives.

The first website I looked for quality yet affordable postcards was Postcards.com — and they are currently running a 30% sale on holiday cards! Perfect, just perfect coz that meant more savings for us! You can view their numerous holiday postcard designs on the website. Postcards.com uses professional card stock of 14 pt. premium-grade paper. They also offer shiny UV coating that adds protection to their cards and make it last longer. Cards are available in 4″ x 6″ / 5.5″ x 8.5″ / 6″ x 11″ and can be single-sided or double-sided. So if you’re like me looking to cut back on gift expenses, go for personalized Christmas postcards! You can’t go wrong with it! =)

It’s been more than one year since we honeymooned and while I was diligent in recounting our honeymoon just weeks after it happened, I slacked and just finished writing about the first 4 days. Sad really coz the best part of our honeymoon was during the next half when we went to Coron, Palawan — the last frontier! As I’m too lazy to do posts about it, I just made 2 photobooks and had it shipped to our home. The Coron photobooks are below, enjoy viewing! =)

HONEYMOON POSTS (out of 10 days)
Day 1 and 2: honeymoon chronicles: makati/laguna
Day 3 (part 1): honeymoon chronicles: makati food pornography
Day 3 (part 2): honeymoon chronicles: sea creatures and robots
Day 4: honeymoon chronicles: chapel and kitchen

Coron Honeymoon: Days 5-6

Coron Honeymoon: Days 7-9

If you’re serious of going into the blogging biz, having your own domain name is a must. Sure, a FREE blogspot or wordpress blog can earn you some bucks but the income would be peanuts compared to what you can earn if you have your own domain name. This is the reason why my non-personal blogs all have domain names. That is, a company hosts the domain name on their servers so Internet users anywhere can type in my URL and access my websites or blogs by domain name. The trick is finding the best and most affordable company that offers domain hosting. And this is where WebHostingReport.com comes into the scene — it is a web hosting review website that compare the pricing, plan features, etc of the top hosting companies. If you need a web host like me, do check them out!

October is a big month for me and Labsie. It’s the month we celebrate our wedding anniversary (Oct 8), our couplehood anniversary (Oct 15) and the best event of all — Labsie’s birthday on Oct 31! Yep, my hubby is a Halloween baby! And would you believe he was born around 11:45pm? Very near the witching hour of midnight! =) But no worries, he’s not scary or monstrous at all. My hubby is the sweetest guy ever! As for my gifts for her, I still have to find something! For sure, I’ll have it by Christmas, LOL!