off to go camping

I love outdoor camping. In fact this is one of my favorite activity during my girl scout days so many years ago. I always look forward of exploring nature, be on your own out there ... cooking meal from scratch, sleeping under the stars, bonfire story-telling and all those bonding activities like song and dance number which made my camping days really a memorable one. And now that I am already a parent, I would love to do camping again. But this time with my kids! I want them to experience nature, learn how to survive in the wild and not just by being stuck home the entire summer watching tv and playing video games. And if budget permits, I would even want to get those trailer hitches for our SUV, bring along bikes or trailer trucks as our home camp, away from the busy city and just enjoy relaxing weekend or setting out on a great camping adventure with the family. If only I could ...

security benefits

Back from our short but sweet Disney vacation!

And before I post about our family travel experience, allow me to share must read social security benefits I found on the net. This was shared to me by my blog friends and very alarming reality for people who wish to claim their social security benefits :

If you're thinking about taking on the Social Security Administration (SSA) alone, get ready for a long, long fight – 65 percent of all initial disability claims are denied and the average wait time can be two to four years.

Scary, isn't it? Aside from all the paperworks, long waiting lines, medical jargons ... many people trust and recommend getting local attorney or better yet, Allsup. As the company completes Social Security forms be it done either electronically, by phone or mail – including the Activities of Daily Living questionnaire. Hassle-free. They even gather relevant medical records and documents from health care professionals to simplify and expedite the application process. In fact, the company charges once claim approved, and the fee fixed or set by Social Security Administration. Do check it out.

Disney countdown ...

The little girl is counting the days 'til will be off to the happiest place on earth. She's very excited with the Hongkong trip not because she'll get to see the Disney princesses and the characters, but she's more excited that it will be her little brother's first Disney trip. And she's been babbling for days now on what to see, what to prepare for her brother's trip. Very thoughtful and sweet ATE, indeed.

For this trip, will be my early birthday celebration as the kids will be back in school by first week of June. And so as not to hamper their school days, decided to move the trip two weeks earlier. Will be having a simple itinerary as the kids with me and as this will be our nth HK visit, decided to spend most of our trip inside Disneyland...and a little shopping time for myself. Hihihi!

Day 1

7am: depart Manila

11am: check in at Marco Polo Gateway

1pm : malling at harbour view

6pm : avenue of the stars

Day 2: city for more shopping time

Day 3: transfer to HK Disney Hollywood Hotel

enjoy Disneyland

Day 4: breakfast at enchanted garden

last minute shopping at Tun Chung

depart HK for Manila

almost missed it ...

Just received mail from our insurance company today, reminder for our annual premium payments for the husband's mortgage life insurance. It is up for payment due again and I almost forgot to set aside budget for this. You see, I've been very busy tweaking our monthly expense budget for the past months to accommodate the little girl's seventh birthday party, and the insurance premium ...aahhh, almost missed it! Good thing our insurance company sends reminder notices for the payment due dates. Otherwise, if it hadn't ... I might have totally forgotten about it. Which means, payment lapses on our end and will require additional fees to re-instate the insurance coverage. Wheew!! Thanks to gentle reminders sent by the company, with thousands of things of my mind lately ... little reminder would truly help. :)

flower happy

I love flowers. In fact, I love giving fresh, beautiful flowers to friends on whatever occasion it may be. Be it birthdays, anniversarries, thank you token, get well soon or just simply to perk up their day ...sending flowers best gift to put a smile on their face. And I am thankful that giving flowers to the people I love now easy with global deliveries. Such as New York flower delivery I used last month for my sweet aunt based in New York. As she was promoted in her work, our family sent her nice yellow arrangement of flowers to celebrate the good news. She was happy when she received it.

And as much as I love giving flowers, I also love receiving them. The husband knows flowers are the best way to make me feel better especially on my low days. And he would often send me nice floral arrangements at work on my birthday, our anniversary and that would indeed make me extremely special that day.

back to school shopping

In a few weeks time, it's back to school again. This means I need to shop again for kid's school essentials. Aside from school supplies like pads and pens, I need to get the school uniforms, leather shoes and of course, rubber shoes for PE class.

However this year, my highschooler son Ico, request is to get him a rubber shoes designed for hiking and trekking instead the usual basketball shoes. He saw nice pair of Nike ACG on sale, fashionable look with serious performance. As he and his classmates are bound to do a lot of hiking this year, he's keen on getting nice pair of Nike ACG below. Price reasonable for Nike and I just hope these models available online.

blog reviews

Any idea how rankpay sites are done? It was introduced to me by some of my blogging friends as they believe it gives better leverage for their blog sites to be on the top list for Google search results. As I am not very particular how it works, my friends told me that it is an effective tool whenever for sites to be visited by readers. Certain key words are typed for search, the site appears on the top list. Ideally, the site must be found within the first three pages for readers to browse. If you ask me, this is an effective marketing tool if you want your site to be frequently visited by customers. Aside from asking people to write blog or product reviews, it helps that these reviews directly linked to the seller site by simple click. Though some sellers pay more just to be on the top search list, I would like to think that it still depends on the keywords used or hits your site receives in order to be on the top search list.