Ms. Kitty's Online Purrs…

• Of Missing San Francisco, Mini-Jetlag and Bigger Plans

  17May
  Categories: Dream Cocoon, Family Basics, Frugal Cubs, Happy Feet, Money Matters, Monthly Highlights, Ms. Kitty, My Little Shadow, Oh Life Bites, Photography, The Great Lab, This is Work, Turning Point Comments: 2

  …and so we are back from our first family travel this year.

  It was part of MLS’ 8th birthday celebration and also, an opportunity for us to explore NorCal as we have plans of moving to the West Coast next year. It is a definite plan and I hope the universe conspires in helping us achieve this ultimate goal, to build a home in California. I know people would often say that California is such an expensive and very dense State, that it doesn’t offer the best school systems compared to what MLS is having now. But you know what, to each his own and researching goes a long way. In fact, we have been able to narrow down our list with these 4 cities: Orange County, Irvine, Anaheim and South Pasadena and all of which offer school districts with 8-10 ratings. Houses can be quite costly but we are paying for a good education for our growing boy and hopefully, another addition to the family within the next couple of years.

  Despite us loving the Bay Area, I just do not feel that we belong there, most especially since our fields are not IT-centered. I was trying to feel the vibe I felt when I explored the communities of SoCal, but NorCal left me half-hearted. So most likely, we are bound to build a home in SoCal, specifically on cities mentioned above. There is no rush to this plan as we still aimed for MLS to complete his 3rd grade here in the East Coast but in the meantime, please pray that we will be able to land the job of our dreams (yes, I have some particular employer in mind, as well as TGL) and that relocation will be smooth all in God’s Will. Yes, there will be uncertainties and jitters along the way but who says that those 1st few steps will be easy.

  More NorCal photos to share in the next few entries . Have a good weekend everyone!
  

  

• Signing Off till Easter.

  24Mar
  Categories: BE Inspired, Diet Files, Dream Cocoon, Family Basics, Fasting, Foodie, Happy Feet, Happy Happy Joy Joy, Happy Thoughts, Health is Wealth, Hope for the Flowers, Lil Imp in the Making, Money Matters, Monthly Highlights, Ms. Kitty, My Little Shadow, Oh Life Bites, Pay It Forward, Private Stress Writing, Shameless Plugs, Spreading Positivity, The Crib, The Great Lab, This is Work, Treinta Y Cuatro, Turning Point, TwentyThirteen, Writer's Block Comments: 0

  

  This will probably be my last blog entry until Easter Sunday. I have decided to join the 7 days Fasting and Prayer by Bo Sanchez. I’ve realized that more than ever, now is the most opportune time when I needed to keep my focus and spend more time with God. You see, I have done this annually since year 2010 and I cannot tell you how much Fasting changed my life. It is such a powerful act of sacrifice and prayer that I have become witness to so many of God’s miracles. From all of the Fasting & Prayer Guidelines I have read and seen, Bo Sanchez’s offers the simplest. For that alone, I love it. It speaks right through my heart as if it were my own words.

  For this year, I have decided to go on a liquid fasting: Fresh Veggies/Fruit Juices and Soups + Avoid unnecessary time spent online meaning, ZERO Social Networking sites: IG, FB & Twitter. Until then, I wish you all the most blessed Holy Week.

  Dearest Lord,
  Teach me to be generous.
  Teach me to serve you as I should:
  To give and not to count the cost,
  To fight and not to heed the wounds,
  To toil and not to seek for rest,
  To labor and ask not for reward,
  Save that of knowing that I do
  Your most Holy Will.

• My DreamBoards.

  22Mar
  Categories: Around WWW, BE Inspired, Business on my Mind, Diet Files, Dream Cocoon, Ecole, Family Basics, Fasting, Foodie, Friends Keep Me Sane, Frugal Cubs, Gratitude List, Guilty Pleasures, Happy Feet, Happy Happy Joy Joy, Happy Tagging, Happy Thoughts, Health is Wealth, Hope for the Flowers, Just Run, Just my 2 Cents, Lil Imp in the Making, Lookbook, Mommy Dearest, Money Matters, Monthly Highlights, Ms. Kitty, Music is My Life, My Little Shadow, Oh Life Bites, Pay It Forward, Photography, Picker-Upper, Private Stress Writing, Shameless Plugs, Something New, Spreading Positivity, The Crib, The Great Lab, This is Work, Thrift Store Junkie, Treinta Y Cuatro, Turning Point, TwentyThirteen, Wardrobe Building, When Vanity Strikes, Writer's Block Comments: 0

  Sharing with all of you my Digital Dreamboards.
  I hope I inspire you with my positivity! Cheers!

  Happy Friday!

  Let’s all do the Happy Dance, okay, those who like the Harlem Shake, do as you please hee hee! (AND…one piece of advice, if you’re stressed, find custom stress balls and squeeze out those stressors away!)
  
  

  “Nothing is lost if one has the courage to proclaim that all is lost and we must begin anew.” –Julio Cortázar

  Tags: Dream Board, Dreamboard

• Hello March.

  01Mar
  Categories: Anger Management, BE Inspired, Dream Cocoon, Family Basics, Frugal Cubs, Happy Thoughts, Just my 2 Cents, Money Matters, Ms. Kitty, My Little Shadow, Oh Life Bites, Picker-Upper, Shameless Plugs, Spreading Positivity, The Crib, The Great Lab, This is Work, TwentyThirteen Comments: 1

  please be gentle.
  please be kind.
  please be better.
  please make me a better person.
  AND please mark the last month of 2013′s 1st quarter with good memories.
  
  In the meantime, I have to work and make sure to research on nice cigars as gifts to TGL’s friend.

• February Inspiration

  05Feb
  Categories: Frugal Cubs, Guilty Pleasures, Money Matters, Shameless Plugs, The Crib, Wardrobe Building, When Vanity Strikes Comments: 0

  “Get rid of anything that isn’t useful.
  Clutter weighs you down in many ways.”

  When my folks left almost 3 weeks ago, I did a lot of cleaning up which concluded with a lot of decluttering. My greatest challenge is the small closet that keeps my accessories, bags, and clothes including some kept Winter clothes not just mine but my 2 boys as well, not to mention my boy’s cheap vibraslap. I had to make a plan and that plan is to make sure to reorganize my clothes according to season. This means reorganizing it every couple of months as the weather here can be quite erratic. Yes, I am OC like that. I just want to make sure I maximize the usage of my clothes both old and some, new as I do not plan to shop any more clothes nor bags until the end of the year (including make-up, YES!). Simplicity and Minimalism Version 2.0, that’s me hee hee . Then, it dawned on me how I wear almost the same stuff every single weekend, every single weekday, looks like I have been rotating my clothes bi-monthly, yes, every 2 weeks. How boring? Probably because every morning and weekends, I have no time to think about what to wear anymore. Now, I understand why those fashion bloggers would post their Monthly Lookbook Inspirations and so I followed suit!

  Here, my friends is my February Inspiration. The weather is still erratic but a lot warmer now compared to January.

  (Photos snagged from the websites of: Madewell, Anthropologie, Gap, Zara, J. Crew, WhoWhatWear, and Forever21.)
  

• GRATITUDE LIST V.2013.1: January

  31Jan
  Categories: BE Inspired, Dream Cocoon, Family Basics, Foodie, Friends Keep Me Sane, Frugal Cubs, Gratitude List, Guilty Pleasures, Happy Feet, Happy Happy Joy Joy, Happy Tagging, Happy Thoughts, Health is Wealth, Hope for the Flowers, Money Matters, Monthly Highlights, Ms. Kitty, My Little Shadow, Oh Life Bites, Shameless Plugs, Spreading Positivity, The Crib, The Great Lab, This is Work, Thrift Store Junkie, TwentyThirteen, Wednesday Happy Thoughts, When Vanity Strikes Comments: 0

  I am Back!
  …back to reality.
  …back to the grind.
  …back to the old me and inspired!

  I am actually writing this on the 1st day of February but for posterity’s sake, I back-dated it to January 31. Just had to emphasize that.

  Anyhoo, I’ve been back to work for a week now but it took me really hard to adjust without my folks around the home, back to doing housechores (particularly, cooking and meal-planning, yikes!), re-organized our home as the other room was shared with my folks and my closet with my mom. So much had to be cleaned up and finally, our home is back to its serene cleanliness plus a very deafening silence at times.

  It was hard getting back to our old ‘normal’ because in the middle of all these adjustments, we got hit by the nasty East Coast flu bug! First it was MLS, then me and finally , TGL. You can just imagine how bad the situation was at home for 2 weeks, we literally survived with food take-outs and deliveries. It was a first-timer for us as we never really get sick often, especially me and TGL. Most of the time, it would be just the lil’ boy but not all 3 of us, all at the same time! I guess after 5 years of Winter here, our bodies finally caved in and got hit! The upside of this is the fact that finally, TGL is officially convinced that West Coast is the place to be. Warmer, Happier, Closer to friends, family and home, err 12 hours away via plane. At least, my folks won’t have a hard time traveling to and fro, transferring planes with an almost travel time of 24+hrs. That, and I can just imagine how easy and economical it is to plan a trip home annually (me, day-dreaming hee hee).

  I’m rambling but I just had to inject this: I never really felt this place is our home even if we’ve been here for 5 years. I felt that we had to be here for 5 (going on 6) years to mature, to learn and grow up. It was a good start-up place for newbies immigrants like us but nothing close to settling. Hopefully 2013 is the year that our plans to relocate to the West Coast will materialize, please pray with us!

  To sum it up, I had a rough start this year not to mention that I’ve officially gained 8lbs! But that would not break my optimism for 2013. Let’s begin by listing my happy thoughts for January 2013.

  There will always be something that can sour your day. All you can control is your own response. Don’t lose your joy. -Joel Osteen

  

  1. Of course, New Year Celebration with my folks tops this list.
  2. A surprise despedida lunch (including tuyo-haven’t eaten this for 6 years and homemade siopao!) for my folks prepared by loving neighbors, L & C.
  3. Les Miserables with my folks on their last weekend here. Truly, I’ve no words for the film! Aahhhhhh, I can watch it over and over again.
  4. Victoria’s Secret Angel Reward card of $30.00! Did I shop too much last December to get this reward? Hee hee! I plan to buy a new pair of bikini for Summer.
  5. Couponing! I’ve started last quarter of 2012 and I am so regretting for not doing this early on because the amount of savings we are getting are just unimaginable! Planning on doing a blog entry on this one.
  6. Split Cam and Clone Apps. Made me sane on days I needed some laughter while battling homesickness.
  7. Great Grandma Brag book I got for $1 at the thrift shop. I can’t wait for my Grandma to see what I’ve prepared.
  8. Red Lobster, IKEA Food, Big Bowl, Red City Buffet, Papa John’s.
  9. Twilight Marathon, hee hee.
  10. American Idol, Glee, Pretty Little Liars, Carrie Diaries-even if it bores me sometimes, I’m happy to add this to my favorite TV series.
  11. Make-up & Skincare Shopping: MAC Candy Yum Yum, MAC Brow Set in BoyGirl, Lancome Genefique + Blush and Lippie, Clinique Facial Scrub, Missha BB Cream, Naruko Skin Care and yes, I’ve promised myself that shopping stops on February onwards. I can do it! Planning on an entry on this too.
  12. Post-Christmas Gifts from Friends, particularly the Make-Up Forever Rock Forever Kit, iDie!
  13. Established prayer routine.
  14. iMessage, Whatsapp, Viber, Facetime, Voxer. Makes distance a lot easier to deal with.
  15. Baby news  from one of my very bestfriends based in Chicago, weeeeee!

  How was your January?
  Ok, i’m outta here, gotta check this inetsoft.com for a reporting engine.