Yey! Thank god it’s Saturday! It will be a long weekend since Monday is a holiday to commemorate the death of former Philippine Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino. Though it is normal for me to have 3 days off after Friday because I only work twice a week, i.e., Tuesday and Friday, I’m still loaded with lots of work. I have to finish about 100 articles for Tuesday’s deadline and I have to finish editing 100 articles for Monday’s deadline. Whew! I think I won’t be able to go to the canteen today because I need to sleep because I spent overnight at the office to finish last night’s deadline. I’m so tired! I think I should start taking energy pills to keep me going. I have been wanting to post new entries on my blog sana, but I really don’t have enough time. I really miss blogging I hope there are 48 hours a day for me to be able to do all the things I need to do…haaay. That’s it for now, I still have to prepare because Abeth and I will go to the church later for the anticipated mass. Ciao!

Last Wednesday, I stayed home to finish my work that is due for submission the same day. Andre stayed with me the whole day and we stayed in our room for the whole day. While I’m doing my work, he’s busy watching Blue’s Clues on DVD. I missed this moment… spending my whole day with Andre. We used to do this in the past whenever I don’t have work and before we put up the canteen. But since we started a small business, we don’t spend our time together that often anymore because we have to bring Andre to his lola everyday, while I go to the canteen to manage it. Sometimes I feel guilty of not being with him, not being the one to take care of him. But, Abeth and I know that this is just temporary, and that this business is for us and for Andre’s future. It’s just temporary because I still need to manage it since it’s just starting. Once the business is established, I don’t need to be there everyday. Maybe I will just have to go there during closing time to get the sales money and daily sales record.

I can say that Andre enjoyed that day. We just stayed in our room. He never asked me to go downstairs. We had our breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, and dinner in our room. I will just leave the room whenever I have to pee, since the toilet is located in the first floor, and I will just ask him to stay in his place because mommy will pee. I wish we had two toilets so that I don’t have to go downstairs. When I get back after a quick pee, he’s still on the same place. Ang bait noh!

We had “lugaw” for breakfast that Abeth bought before he goes to the office. Andre enjoyed his lugaw and almost finished his share (I think it’s about 1 cup of lugaw). Takaw noh! For the morning snack, we had chocolate cupcakes that I baked last Saturday, and he enjoyed it too. For our lunch, I just ordered foods from Jollibee and have them delivered to our house, since I am too lazy to cook that day. I looked for their website to get their phone number and to check their menus. Andre saw the picture of Jollibee on my LCD monitor and told me, “Bee, bee, bee”, which means Jollibee. So, I ordered Chicken, hamburger, fries, and Palabok. When the foods arrived and I brought it inside our room, Andre said, “WOW!” and suddenly released the cupcake he was eating and excitedly opened the paper bag with fries and finished all of them. It’s so delightful watching him finish all the fries as he dips them in catsup and gravy.

After having our lunch, he continued watching DVD, but this time, he watched “A bug’s life”. Then after a few minutes, he asked me to lie down because he’s sleepy. He asked for milk and slept. He slept for 3 hrs. Then, when he woke up he played with his cars and had our afternoon snack and early dinner. I gave him burger and finished about 1/3 of it, while I enjoyed the palabok. He then continued watching, playing, dancing, and jumping, while I continued my work. I hope we can do this everyday so that I won’t experience acne depression.

By the way, Abeth saw everything we did for the whole day because I opened the webcam for him to be able to see what we were doing. So parang andun na din sya. Hehe. Inggit nga siya. He went home earlier than usual to be able to be with us. So when he arrived, they played together. Since I wasn’t able to cook for our dinner, I just asked Abeth to get food from the canteen. Hehe ang bad ko noh! Hehe. I know he understands.

This is how I spent a day full of fun and love in a small room with Andre and Jollibee, a day that seemed so endless and enjoyable because I got to spend a whole day with Andre…again. I missed this moment. We’ll surely do this again, not just with his ‘memmy’ but with his ‘deddy’ as well. Ulitin natin to ha.

Below are the pictures of Andre during the day. Have fun!

Wooohooo! At last! I finally found time to blog after almost a month of being absent in the blogosphere. I’ve been wanting to blog about our small canteen. And now, I am going to share with you some photos of our canteen and some of our menus. It’s really tiring because I have to personally take charge of the canteen whenever I have no work. I personally go to the market and grocery to buy all the ingredients and things needed on our business.

Every morning, Abeth buys crushed ice for our sago/gulaman before he goes to the office. And, every night, he goes straight to the canteen after office hours at around 7:30 PM and go home later on to change clothes and fetch Andre. After that, he’ll go back to the store to help our helpers in cleaning and closing the canteen, while I take care of Andre. He always makes sure that all LPGs are closed as well as the doors and windows and electrical appliances.

However, we let our helpers to open the canteen at 9:30 AM so that by 10AM, we’re ready to serve our foods. By 10AM, and after leaving Andre to his lola, I will go to the canteen and then to the market to buy the things and ingredients that we will be needing. By 3PM, when the canteen is not busy, it’s the time for me to start doing my office work. It’s tiring diba? It really helped me to lose weight that I don’t need to take wieght loss pills anymore. Hehe. But, it’s okay, I love what I’m doing.

We have regular customers now and people start to recognize our canteen. It’s good to know that they keep coming back. We’re very glad to hear positive feedbacks. We have a competitive price for our products, and according to our regular customers, our foods are satisfying. I’m proud to say that our foods taste good. ‘Di naman sa pagmamayabang’ …hehehe….I think the customers that keep coming back can tell.

Here are some of the pictures (eto pa lang ung napicture-an ko so far hehe):

One of our best sellers is our TAPSILOG (tapa-sinangag-itlog), because we use fresh cow’s meat. Pag lumakas pa ang demand baka we might need a huge amount of cattle supplies… hehe…

Here’s another best seller, LIEMSILOG (Pork Liempo-sinangag-itlog)…

Here’s our SHANGSILOG (Shanghai-Sinangag-Itlog)…

Here’s our BANGSILOG (Boneless Bangus Belly-Sinangag-Itlog)

And one of our future products…BREAD ROLL (deep fried rolled-bread with cheese inside)

Also, customers keep coming back for our SHARKSFIN and SIOMAI served with Shanghai Rice, and our SPAGHETTI and CARBONARA served with garlic bread.

All our rice meals are served with our special soup…

Well, that’s it for now. I will share to you next time the other pictures of our foods.

By the way, here’s what our store looks like. We are also planning to put a television in the canteen so that our customers will be entertained while waiting for their orders. We will have to put a TV wall mount to put the TV for us to save space.

I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Ciao!

It’s been almost a month since I made a post here. I miss my blog! The reason why I haven’t been able to post for the past weeks is that we have opened our small food business near our place. Now, it’s finally open, the Andre’s Tapsihan Express. It isn’t our first choice for our business name. But, the DTI disapproved our first choice, because according to them, we should include as a suffix in our business name the products that we are selling. So, we decided to name it Andre’s Tapsihan Express and it is actually our last choice.

We are almost on our third week and it is doing pretty well. We normally meet our daily target sales. Since Abeth and I are both working, we hired 4 people plus Amy (our yaya) to assist us in our business. We have hired a cook, 2 helpers, and a dishwasher. Though we have our helpers, we still need to be there to handle the eatery since it is just starting. I personally marinade the foods and store it in the freezer. I also make the sauces and dips for our products. Since I only work twice a week, I stay at the eatery whenever I have no work.

It’s pretty tiring. But, we know that it is just the start because the business started just recently and we really need to handle it personally. This eatery helped Abeth and I to lose weight. Yes, I lost about 10 pounds already winkwink**. Eto lang pala makapagpapapayat sa akin hehe. Can you imagine, we have to wake up at 6am to go to the market and go home at 11PM because our eatery closes at 10PM, and sleep at 1AM because I have to make a list of the things needed for the next day.

We also miss Andre because he stays at his lola for the meantime. We bring him at her Lola’s place at around 930AM and fetch him at 10PM or even 11PM. We really miss him, but we both know that these are just temporary because we still have to establish our business. Besides, we are doing this for him, for his future. We feel that he also misses us because everytime we fetch him, he’s so excited to go with us and say goodbye to everybody. I also have to stay late because when Andre is still not yet sleepy, I still have to play with him and join him in watching DVD. I let Abeth to sleep ahead of us because he still needs to work the following day and he’s the one who buys other stuffs needed for our eatery before he goes to work.

I personally manage the business and I am the one who goes to the market and grocery. I personally buy the things needed at our eatery from pens to meats. But, eventually, I will teach my assistants to do them. It’s pretty tiring but it’s okay. I also designed the logo and our menu cards.

That’s it for now. I just want to share with you what’s keeping me busy.

I’m a near-sighted person and I started wearing eyeglasses since 2000. I’ve been exposed to computers since I started working with the same company since 1999. I work in front of the computer for a minimum of 10 hours a day because my work requires me to do so. I tried wearing eyeglasses and contact lenses and tired of using them. I’ve read an article about Laser Assisted in Situ Keratomileusis (LASIK) surgery. In Lasik surgery, precise and controlled removal of corneal tissue by a special laser reshapes the cornea changing its focusing power. I don’t think I can afford to have it because I’m sure it is very costly. Maybe, if I win the lottery. Hehe.

We are planning to have another child, but I still have to lose more weight for me to be able to have a safe pregnancy. Since I started to lose weight due to my very busy schedule, I intend to lose more to attain my ideal weight. I don’t eat dinner now and have a light breakfast. Abeth really wants to have another child na and I promise him to have it next year. Besides, Andre is already 2 years old. I’ve been dreaming of becoming a “sexy” pregnant mom, who can wear sexy maternity clothes. And I envy those pregnant moms who can wear sleeveless and tube tops. I don’t think it would be possible for me to wear them because I just don’t have the guts to wear them kasi hehe.

Andre just turned two last May 17 and my mom is asking us what to buy for Andre. Since Andre loves playing outside the house and playing with some of our neighbors, I told my mom to buy him a swing set. So, my mom asked me to find a nice one for Andre. We checked the swing sets in Toy Kingdom at SM and haven’t decided yet on what to buy for the little boy.

A friend of mine is planning to buy a house and she is considering foreclosure houses. She found out that there are several foreclosure homes that cost as low as PHP500,000. They are certainly cheaper than brand new houses. It sounds good because you’ll be able to save a lot of money from these houses. Hmmm…we’ll consider this when we decided to have our own house.

Many people are becoming health-conscious nowadays. There are several ways on how to lose weight. Some people try to lose weight by means of exercise and proper diet. Some people take diet pills, such as Phentermine, Reductil, and Xenical, to help them lose their weight fast. As for me, I’d rather lose weight by having regular exercise and proper diet. But, I am currently not on a diet because foods are really tempting. I can’t resist them. Haaaay.

Last Saturday was Andre’s second birthday. It was a rainy day and I devoted my time for this special day by baking his birthday cake and cooking spaghetti. We didn’t have plans of having a children’s party, but just a simple dinner with Abeth’s family. My youngest sister also arrived to help me out and join us in the simple celebration. That Saturday morning, I woke up early to accompany my mother-in-law in the market to buy the ingredients for the menu. My MIL cooked the kare-kare and roasted chicken, while I cooked the lasagna, and spaghetti. Abeth wasn’t able to come home early because it was raining heavily.

On that day, Andre’s friends stayed at our house all day. So I decided to bake chocolate cupcakes for them. They watched me bake the cake and they all seemed to be excited to taste them. I asked 2 of Andre’s playmates to help me decorate the cupcakes by putting sprinklers on top of the icing. We finished baking the cupcakes and birthday cake around 4PM then I arranged it on the cupcake stand. It is the same cake stand I used during Andre’s first birthday. Since I wasn’t able to buy a cake board for his cake, I just used a used cakeboard from Goldilocks to put his cake. I prepared spaghetti on red sauce, lasagna, and carbonara to be given to our neighbors. The kids looked so excited to eat the cupcakes and spaghetti. At around 5PM, we have finished preparing the foods and Abeth arrived just in time for the “party”. We sung happy birthday and Andre blew the candles.

It was fun and a happy birthday for Andre. I can see that he enjoyed a lot because he didn’t sleep in the afternoon. He was so busy playing with our neighbors. Here are some of the pictures and a video of his birthday. Enjoy!

Andre with his playmates…

I wanted to share the video of Andre blowing the candles, but I am having problems loading it.  I’ll share it with you as soon as I fixed it. By the way, here’s our message to Andre…

To Andre,

We are so happy and lucky to have you. You’re such a wonderful and loving son. If you only knew how happy we are to have you. You give us so much joy. We cherish every moment with you, seeing you grow each and everyday, and teaching you all the things you need to know. We pray that you’ll become a good person, inside and out. We pray that you will always be a healthy boy. We will do our very best to provide all the things you need. Dad and Mom will always be here for you and will love you unconditionally. We will do our best to be the best parents that we could be. We love you son! We love you so much! Mwah!

Love,

Dad and Mom