The Christmas Curse

we ended up at urgent care again since vaughn had a really high fever and was not relieved by tylenol. usually when he has a fever and we give him tylenol, it would just go away. he was also shaking violently which freaked me out so we rushed to urgent care and sure enough, the doctor says he got an ear infection. we got prescribed antibiotics which he needs to take for 10 days! geez. i hate it when vaughn gets sick. mark always says, he would rather be sick than have vaughn get sick. it puts so much stress on us. i'm sure all the mothers out there can relate. but i guess this comes with the parenting territory so we just need to suck it up and know that all these too shall come to pass. it's weird but last christmas, vaughn and i were sick too. it must be the weather, i don't know. i hope next year it will not be like this again because it really puts a damper on our holidays =( santa claus needs to lift the christmas curse...

can't sleep

still sick. i'm sick of being sick. i promised myself i'm going to exercise more and be on the internet less often. surely surfing the net for a good 2-3 hours a day must be unhealthy. but voyeurism is so addictive. my friend angela "persuaded" me to join facebook. so now i am alive on the internet again....lol. i don't update it as often. i only go when people write on my wall or tag me in pictures. and that's the gospel truth. i am very happy going along my merry way on multiply -- and i can post more pictures here. so fear not my loyal friends! i am not migrating to another site yet again. lol. and my sisters are here. i love that i can see pictures of my nephews and nieces even if i don't see them everyday. it's great. ok. it's 4am. and i've decided i'm going to force myself to work tomorrow. there's so much stuff i need to do. sigh. sometimes i hate being a grown up.

boohoo i'm sick =( and how to save gas [random, i know]

oh i wrote this earlier and didn't post. dumbass. hahahaha.

this is so lame, it started monday night. i wasn't feeling well but went to work tuesday morning anyway. when i got there, i had a horrible headache and i felt like the room was spinning and i wanted to barf. kept making trips to the bathroom and took a headache pill but nothing was working. i ended up going home. i still feel awful, just weak overall. i don't get sick as often but when i do it really hits me hard. work has a christmas party this friday which i think i'll skip. you know how when your body gives you signals that it's working too hard? yes i'm heeding that warning. i can't afford to get sick since next week vaughn's daycare is closed and i have to watch him until christmas. sigh! anyway, here's something i got from tiff, i don't normally do forwards or posts forwards but i think here in cali where gas is so expensive, every little bit helps =)

TIPS ON PUMPING GAS (Good information)

I don't know what you guys are paying for gasoline.... but here in

California we are also paying higher, up to $3.50 per gallon. But my

line of work is in petroleum for about 31 years now, so here are

some tricks to get more of your money's worth for every gallon..

Here at the Kinder Morgan Pipeline where I work in San Jose , CA we deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period thru the

pipeline.

One day is diesel the next day is jet fuel, and gasoline, regular

and premium grades.

We have 34-storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000

gallons.

Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the

ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations

have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening....your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role.

>> >>>> >

>> >>>> A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.

>> >>>> >

>> >>>> When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you're getting less worth for your money.

>> >>>> One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY. The reason for this is, the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and

>> >>>> the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service

>> >>>> stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature

>> >>>> compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.

>> >>>> >

>> >>>> Another reminder, if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the

>> >>>> storage

>> >>>> tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up--most likely the

>> >>>> gasoline

>> >>>> is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might

>> >>>> pick

>> >>>> up

>> >>>> some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.

>> >>>> >

>> >>>> Hope this will help you get the most value for your money.

>> >>>> >

>> >>>> DO SHARE THESE TIPS WITH OTHERS!

this is so weird

when i post new photos it doesn't show up on the latest updates page. must be a bug. oh well, new photos up from bay area peeps visit and mai and karl's visit. just check my site teray620.multiply.com and click on photos. toodles! =)

i want to be martha stewart

and make gazillions of money doing crafts! i just recenlty discovered that she has launched a crafts line, i saw her stuff being sold at michaels and now online

http://www.marthastewartcrafts.com/

it is taking all my self control not to buy everything i see on the site, lol! anyway, if you read this blog and you are thinking about giving me a present...give me a giftcard to this site...please? hint hint lol! anyway, ok. gotta get back to slavin!

i'm so tired

of learning auditing. i fee like my head's going to explode thinking about audit risk, control risk, inherent risk yadda yadda yadda. sigh. 12 more days before d-day. it sucks but i keep telling myself that the pain is temporary. [damon: remind me again why i am torturing myself with this? oh i want to buy a house, right. lol]

anyway, ok. gotta get back. just needed to take a break and let out some steam. plus i'm getting dizzy from starving myself (too lazy/busy to get lunch. i'll do it later). to all who care: i am declaring myself as a hermit. i will be unavailable for comment/phone calls/hate mail/instant messages in the next 12 days. after that, it's PARTY TIME bebeh! till then...sigh...

Happy Halloween!

went to the studio lot yesterday and saw alice and kids and other coworkers kids, want to make a tradition out of this where we go every year =) halloween night vaughn went trick or treating to a grand total of 3 houses! lol. we were at his grandma's since we live in a gated apartment that keeps kids out hahaha. vaughn just went to grandma's neighbors to trick or treat and that was it. he enjoyed it though, he especially loved carrying his trick or treat bag that i got last minute from the studio store sigh! anyho, i also got my christmas present from mark early -- a flash for my camera! and it makes a world of difference! see picture from last night =)

all i wanna do

is shop shop shop. i think i should have been a buyer for a retail store -- i LOVE to shop! basin mag switch ko ug trabaho? hehehe. joke lang. ka chada ba. but we have to be realistic especially now na naa nata anak. sige lang, we can always dream =)

"you exist...

because somebody remembers you and not the other way around" i heard that from an indie film i watched last night. don't really get to watch a lot of movies these days so when i do, i make it count and watch only movies that won't insult a caveman's intelligence hahaha =) the latest one i've also seen is Pan's Labyrinth. fantastic movie. but you have to watch it with no distractions since it's in spanish and have english subtitles (which i love btw, i know a bunch of people who hate subtitles lol!). the movie is like a beautiful bad dream -- if such a thing exists.

work's starting to get real busy since mickey's year end is here. stress level is at a maximum 10 so don't be offended or hate me if i don't return your phone calls or emails asap. i will make up for it i promise =)

last sunday we went to disneyland again with our friends eileen, marion, and their cute baby daughter leilani. saturday we had people over to watch the manny pacquiao fight. everybody had fun, but i didn't get to watch the fight since i was babysitting vaughn and his friend arianna (rebecca's daughter). actually, i think i had more fun babysitting the kids hahahah! boxing is ok, but it doesn't make my heart go bop, so there.

ok gtg and log in to work email. ttyl btw if you guys can call or text me your phone numbers, isang gave/lent me her wonderful nokia camera phone and for some reason my sim does not carry forward the phone numbers that i had i dunno why. thanks!

xoxo,

teray

dear santa claus

for christmas i want an iphone

EVERYBODY's in a pissy mood!

i think there is a national PMS epidemic going on -- a bunch of people are pissed over what teri hatcher said in an episode of Desperate Housewives:

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/FilABC/

i have no take on this because i'm so busy with everything else that i don't even have time to pause and reflect on what teri hatcher said lol. the only thing i can think of is: well, she's not the sharpest tool in the shed (i mean her character in desperate housewives) so that's probably why ABC thought they'd get away with it -- if she says stupid things like that i mean... but news travels fast in the 20th century and i have gotten quite a few emails about this since i do work for ABC's parent . so i thought i'd post it here (don't worry y'all i forwarded it to the ABC folks already).

on other news: out of the various celebrities, actors/actresses Mark and i have ran into, the ONE time he musters up the nerve to ask for a picture, he didn't have his phone (which has a camera). we saw the wrestler China http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0491321/ at target the other day. she looks fabulous in person, all these photos don't do her any justice and she's super nice. she even tousled vaughn's hair lol! so that's that. happy hump day everyone!

is it me?

or my imagination? i think cheryl from dancing with the stars got some sort of face retoke (surgery). she looks really different in the press pictures. either that or she just has a kick ass makeup artist lol! random random. actually not so much as i just saw her picture on our company portal and absolutely did not recognize her.

i lost my bag

idiot dodo me lost my bag at babies r us while buying a forward facing car seat for vaughn...sigh! please private msg or email me your telephone numbers so i can store it somewhere safe. i'm still hopeful that whoever's got it will turn it in or return it to me and may they have good karma for the rest of their lives...there's nothing in there but junk...junk that i love dearly huhuhu! sniff!

PWEDE???!!@@@?#%$%$^

I AM SURROUNDED BY IDIOTS! thank god magbakasyon ko next week kay lami na gyud kaayo ipatay ug mga istupido na mga tao!!! aarrrgghhhh!!!!

Happy 1st Birthday Vaughn Arthur!

i can't believe it's already been a year. birthday parties are fun if you're not the host who's running around like a chicken with it's head cut off =P but it was all worth it when i saw vaughn's expression light up as he was taking in the colorful site of balloons, bouncy, party favors, bubbles, food, and guests. but still, next year, i'm hiring a party planner lol.

thanks everybody for braving the heat and the traffic on LA's major freeways just to make it to Vaughn's party. i heart you all =)

pictures at:

http://teray620.multiply.com/photos/album/74

crazy momma

yes we're gonna have a birthday party...been up since 5:30 am. today is the day.

procrastination

i should be doing something else but i'm blogging instead. why is blogging so addictive? well, i've been writing in a journal since 4th grade when my mom gave me a diary. all entries used to start with "dear diary" then i just write and write about random stuff that happened in school and my crush hahahah! i kept some of my journals and on lazy days i dig them up and read them and i laugh at how neurotic my thoughts are. siguro we blog because we want to record some thoughts at a certain point in time. i write mostly to bitch, but now i've learned to also write about things i'm thankful for.

anyway, so yea, i'm procrastinating thru blogging. vaughn's 1st birthday is this monday na! i can't believe it's been a year. i feel like it went by so fast. the only tangible proof that is has been that long are the pictures on my multiply and tep's pbase. he's walking now and really taking on a headstrong personality, liwat kaayo sa mom and dad hahaha! he's really adventurous and is not afraid of anything. he's willing to try everything (i.e. gross looking foods) and he doesn't balk at obstacles (he usually climbs over, under, or steps over them), he's very curious and would like to touch, taste (even june bugs, eeww gross!), and hear everything. he also likes to help me out; when i change his diapers, he gives me the wipes and i say thank you even if he gives me too much. when he wants to go to sleep, he starts our sleep song (bambambambababambambam) and would pat his legs...it's so funny i can't help but laugh. i'm so lucky to have such a wonderful easy going baby. he doesn't really throw temper tantrums that much, only when he's really sleepy or hungry. but other than that we have no problem taking him everywhere. even my mom and my sister made that compliment when they watched him while we were in Vegas.

so anyway, ok, enough procrastination. i should get back to what i'm supposed to be doing. vaughn's birthday party is next weekend, we're gonna have a bouncy and bubbles and party favors and a raffle! it's gonna be fun!!!

i think i'm getting old

because i don't get why kids these days like to take pictures of their shoes.

can somebody please enlighten me???

i am las vegas baby

las vegas was off the hook!

we came up with aliases for everybody which was so hilarious

we left friday night, met up with everybody at the inn, drank till we got obliterated and passed out

woke up saturday morning with no hang over, adrenalin pumping on overtime so to the bellagio we go for brunch buffet. had a stare down and bitchfest with idiot hostesses who seated us at the wrong table and want us to move -- me: i want to speak to your manager. hostess lesson: never mess with hungry, tired, bitch mode adrenalin pumped teresa.

after the buffet we walked around bellagio for a bit then headed to our el cheapo hotel imperial palace. we're all poor and were not going to spend a lot of time sleeping in the hotel so we decided to go with what's cheapest on the strip.

got to imperial, parking sucks but hotel room isn't bad. we had adjacent rooms so we had the door divider thing opened so we have access to both. everybody was mentally and physically prepping themselves for the night to come. this involved drinking (of course), the guys watching some girls on the balcony flashing their wares, and a random photoshoot of us girls a la budoir style (no nudity tho, sorry guys!).

finally 9 pm came. all girls were dolled up, make up, flat ironed hair, perfume, and sexy outfits. the guys still looked the same but now wearing silly grins on their faces from being buzzed with champagne, tanduay, and beer.

party bus was on time. our driver's name was paul (even i am surprise i still remember his name). the moment we stepped on that thing we left everything behind and became our alter egos. party mode was on full blast and we were time warped and transported to another planet. all thanks to the uninhibited dancing of gorgeous (ger gerous) rebecca aka ALEXA. and the rest...well let's just say party king mark aka tryst said: this is too much. hahaha!

i think we took approx 2000 pictures (no you didn't read the number wrong) between all of the cameras that were brought to the trip and unfortunately i can't post all the photos here cuz i have to super super edit it for debauchery!!!

i really like this song

I seem to recognize your face
Haunting, familiar, yet I can't seem to place it
Cannot find the candle of thought to light your name
Lifetimes are catching up with me
All these changes taking place,
I wish I'd seen the place
But no one's ever taken me
Hearts and thoughts they fade away

I swear I recognize your breath
Memories like fingerprints are slowly raising
Me you wouldn't recall, for
I'm not my former
It's hard when you're stuck up on the shelf
I changed by not changing at all, small town predicts my fate
Perhaps that's what no one wants to see
I just want to scream...hello...
My God it's been so long, never dreamed you'd return
But now here you are, and here I am
Hearts and thoughts they fade...away...

my google bar says

"pork roast temperature"

just got up from a "nap"...what is it with me and quotes these days? anyway, yea, so so tired from our SF trip for our friends gretchen and jake's wedding.

at 7 pm mark was cooking a roast and vaughn and i just crashed in the bedroom. and i woke up because my eyes were starting to hurt. oh yea cuz i haven't taken off my freakin contact lenses yet.

i have the pictures and i want to arrange them in an artistic way but well who has time for that?

a million things running thru my mind (like always)...laundry, work tomorrow, vegas trip this weekend gotta figure babysitter logistics (hi sang!) and what the hell am i gonna wear, damn it's hot is this the greenhouse effect? eileen took leilani to florida? i wonder how the plane ride was for them, oooh that turon from goodha was really good, i need to call my mom, etc etc

random, i know. but it's also 3 am so synapses are misfiring...and i need to take off these damn contacts =P pictures of the wedding at my multiply. this weekend, vegas with everybody sans bebe =)

whoa my mom never did this for me

recently saw this at martha stewart's site:

Apple Cup
Cut an apple crosswise, about one-third of the way down. Scoop out the flesh with a melon baller. Using a lemon stripper, carve the child's first initial into the flesh. Rub the cut areas with a little lemon juice to keep them from browning, then fill the cavity with chicken salad. Refrigerate inside a plastic container.

Cereal Bracelet
Send a special note from you to school by stringing Fruit Loops or Cheerios onto an elastic string, then tying to make a bracelet. Attach a message such as "Have a great day" to the bracelet, then pop the tasty jewelry into the lunch box.

have any of you seen stepford wives? this is the image that crossed my mind while i was reading this. i think it's a bit much for a wee creature. but if i experience a brain glitch, i might do it for vaughn. hahahaha!

hahahaha they posted it

i submitted something to this website and they posted it hahaha!

http://www.himantayon.com/2007/07/22/straight-from-california/

it's in our vernacular so non-bisaya speaking friends won't "get" the joke/s. contrary to popular belief, NOT EVERYBODY who comes from the philippines speak tagalog. the people from the two biggest islands Visayas and Mindanao speak BISAYA. god how i hate it when people ask me if i speak tagalog! because i really don't. i speak broken tagalog and it's really hard to get my message across. like when this gas guy came over at the house, he's like, "you filipino?" so i say "yes" and he said "maraming salamat" (many thanks in tagalog) and i responded back "you're welcome" nice! now he must think i'm some whitewashed asshole. i can't think fast enough to say "walang anuman" (you're welcome in tagalog)...wait do tagalog people even use that phrase anymore??? thank god i didn't marry a tagalog guy because i would totally confuse him on a daily basis. lol whatever, BISAYA rules!

p.s. oh and i hate ignorant tagalog people who snicker and laugh and ask if it's a foreign language whenever i speak bisaya. tsk tsk, some people were not taught diversity by their mommas -- so tragic!

A Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

YEEEAAAHHHHH! Vaughn is walking! Mark just called me, he picked him up from daycare and he just randomly started walking! I am looking forward to chasing him around the park and the house and the grocery store and everywhere else and losing some postpartum pounds hahahaha! we're super thrilled! and before his 1st birthday too!

blech

ilovemyjobilovemyjobilovemyjob

bitchaboutwork part 1

There are times when I want to be the cleaning lady. Most of the time I wish I have a job that doesn't require as much overtime as the one I currently have right now. Oh well, the grass is always greener, even on the cleaning lady's side. I'm so exhausted from working 12 hour shifts...been doing that every day since this month started -- the powers that be have decided that we're going to accelerate our close and file before a certain movie comes out. Everyday I come home I feel like I was hit by a truck over sideways and under from being so fatigued mentally, emotionally, and physically (my ass is hurting from sitting on my desk for too long and I know I'm gonna be a hunchback when I get old). And then the baby wakes up like clockwork at 3 am in the morning. I know what you all are thinking: "dude, just be grateful that you have a job" … which I am don't get me wrong. But sometimes I can't help but ask myself: "why am I doing what I'm doing now? Is there any other way to make the same amount of money with little or no overtime and less stress?"

But maybe finding that answer are for those days when I'm not logging in so many hours at work. August 1st, there is a light at the end of the tunnel after all.

yay!

vaughn's finally crawling on all fours (happy dance!!!) no more crab crawling and me scrubbing his dirty legs every night! hmm i wonder if i can put some sort of pad to his knees? hehehehe, j/k. he just randomly did it this morning which pleased me and mark so much. hahaha mabaw na kay mi ug kalipay ron. i'll take pics soon. xoxo

wedding shoot 7/7/07

our friends tep and ron had their round 1 wedding last saturday (round 2 is in september and i'm a bridesmaid...damn gotta lose all this post baby fat!). i did the photos...i think they look good, but see for yourself:

http://teray620.multiply.com/photos/album/67

see more at:

http://www.pbase.com/teptep/july_7_wedding
http://picasaweb.google.com/razlamadrid/RonAndTootsieSWedding
http://picasaweb.google.com/oliverdammasch/RonTepWedding

i'm so sad

my favorite ziba threader no longer works for the company. he's the only one who can do my funky eyebrows right, sniff

p.s. i know i sound so babaw but well, it's really hard to find a good threader who won't mangle your brow area or make your face look like you're surprised all the time =P

YAAAWAAAAA!

my stupid camera is broken! and i have to take photos tonight, and do a shoot next saturday. WTF. just my stupid luck! i should've gotten a point and shoot instead. isang's point and shoot she bought before my slr and it still works like a charm. canon better fix or replace this thing since it's freakin expensive! otherwise i'll go postal on their ass! yeeeaarrrrgghhhhh!

blast from the past

i'm in reminisce mode...thus the old pictures on my multiply. maybe this is what getting old does to you

too busy to blog

will update everyone soon. right now i'm really busy with something. i will let everbody know what that something is when i get back some good news. in the mean time, wish me luck! xoxo

Salamat, Thank You, Gracias, Merci Beaucoup

to everybody for the Mother's Day greetings =) wow, i feel so loved!

bah humbug! ikea shmea is charging for bags!!!

i'm all for going green and shit but wtf??? [i am just a ray of sunshine these days aren't i]?? so my mom, mark, vaughn, and my brother jun went to ikea last week to check some things out and i was really surprised when the cashier told my mom that they are now charging $0.05 for their plastic bags! whhhaaattt??? i felt like i was in the twilight zone back in the philippines asking for a bag from a vendor to put my wriggling live chicken and crabs in only to be told that they charge for bags. goddamit i moved to this country so i won't be charged for plastic bags and here it is now. if ikea really wants to go green and encourage people to recycle, they should do what the government does with bottles and cans: for every bag you save that has no rips/tears/bad odor, return it to ikea and they'll give you some cash. i bet THAT would be a hit. none of this checkout line highway robbery. i mean, i do have that ugly blue bag that they sell...only because i was forced to buy it one day when i had too much shit to carry and no love slave was around (back in the days when ikea didn't charge for bags and when love slaves were in fashion)!!! whatever [roll eyes here]. let's see how much their sales of votives, potholders, spoons, glasses, and all small things you need a bag for...let's see how much that'll plummet. my mom was telling me that maybe grocery stores will also follow suit. great. maybe we should make like other countries and carry groceries on our heads.

I HATE TIMEWARNER CABLE!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH! ever since timewarner bought out our cable company adelphia it's been nothing but poor service, false promises, billing errors etc etc etc!!! fffuuuuuuuuccccccckkkk this company. excuse my french!!! I HATE THEM I HATE THEM I HATE THEM!!!! to anybody out there who has great cable service, lemme know what you have and i will gladly gladly switch away from these imbeciles.

Dancing with the Stars!

i won a VIP ticket for dancing with the stars at work! wooohooo! it's gonna be on May 14th and i think we get to watch the stars dance (as opposed to results night), i'm so excited! the great thing about it is we don't have to stand in line, the bad thing about it is we can't bring cameras which is such a bummer! i might end up on tv so watch out for my face hahaha!

JAH!

;-)

random thoughts again

- everybody's crazy about paolo nutini, he's a scot singer/songwriter. i saw his video on mtv a few days ago, yea he's pretty good. i can understand where the goo goo gaga effect comes from.

- i'm dying to buy the soundtrack of The Last Kiss, apparently it's comparable to Garden State's soundtrack [note to self: gotta go to target this weekend] i'm still oldschool. i still like to buy cds instead of downloading music from itunes, but i'm very very picky with the cds i buy because i only buy 2 per year (or not more than 5 anyway). the quality is just not the same. yea when u start being resistant to change = you're getting old.

- speaking of getting old, i think i am trying to age as gracefully as i can. but then i get conflicting messages from all around about staying young, staying young at heart, blah blah blah blah. my big stay-young plan is to live vicariously thru others, or at least thru the younger people in my life, you know who you are...hahahah

- work's busy but doesn't suck as much as i was in public. so i have to constantly remind myself about that. at least here, we get 10 minute massages on friday, a cool pirate's t-shirt and a stress ball to "help us deal" with quarter pain.

- daycare is a very very lucrative business which i might get into if i have a house. hahaha. yea i know, it's hard to imagine me being a babysitter. vaughn's gonna start daycare next month and there's about a million things going on in my head. [note to self #2: gotta start daycare application, physician's blurb, and an excel spreadsheet for vaughn's daycare needs -- yes i'm a dork like that so sue me]. i hate this putting him in daycare business but maybe it's also good for my son. right now all he ever sees/interacts with are grown-ups. so maybe if he hangs with other babies he'll figure out that mommy, grandma, and daddy are not the only playmates he has.

- my friend eileen [the one in the preggy photoshoot below] had a bouncing baby girl: 9 lbs only labored for three hours, delivered naturally, without drugs -- man some people are just born lucky! i predict she's gonna have more kids in the future (as opposed to me hahaha)

- myspace sucks right now, mark got all kinds of spam comments from his friendlist. it's out of control. thank god i'm not on myspace then i don't have to deal with all the useless crap. hahahaha.

ok i think i'm done venting/spewing thoughts for the day. uh wait, one more thing: i want to do a photoshoot with someone real real soon. i think this weekend, yes. with eileen's baby and the fam for mom and ate kate's birthday. ok yea, that's it.

like father like son

did a photoshoot for mark and vaughn chillin in our bedroom, which took approx 5 minutes (they wouldn't pose any minute longer). thank god i got some good pics hahaha! [click on photo to enlarge]

my two favorite shots (itty bitty collage wouldn't do justice =)

random thought

i found a collage maker on the internet so i'm testing it out (see below). i'll make more in higher res if they come out ok =)

eileen's preggy photoshoot

i did a photoshoot of my friend eileen last sunday. i'm not very good at it YET so out of the 300+ shots that i took, i only liked a couple. i'm also very very picky so there you go...i need to practice more. so ron and tep, i'd like to do an engagement shoot with you guys, to my family: i'd like to practice doing family portraits, and of course there's my little bon bon to practice on (mark hates posing for the camera). lia's brother emman is willing to lend me his flash since i'm still so poor at the moment i can't afford to buy one yet =) anyway, here are the photos, enjoy!



mr. and mrs. moran plus leilani in belly and dixie the dog

eileen on the couch

reflections in sepia...hello little angel, when are you coming out? =)

whew

after months of planning and preparation, vaughn's baptism is finally over and mark and i can rest easy...for another 4 months at least! it's been two weeks since the event and i'm still reveling at the fact that mark and i survived throwing such a huge party. in reality though, we really didn't do that much, most of the work was done by mark's family and my family. but all the same, it was still stressful. i have now discovered that i actually can't be a party planner since i will probably die from nervous jitters and anxiety. i didn't count but i think around 100+ people showed up -- family and friends (cue: jaw drop here heeheehee). imagine what it would be like when we'll have our wedding. fortunately for us, we've enlisted the help of everybody around so the event went fairly smoothly...considering mark got a ticket for beating a red light when he was on his way to pick us up to go to the church [mr. cop didn't buy the whole "i'm late for my son's baptism" sob story], guests showed up 2 hours early due to invite miscommunication, there was an accident on the freeway going to the reception, etc. i was in high stress mode the whole day and i couldn't wait for it to be over. i'm so glad my family and mark's family are there to support us, and of course our friends. we couldn't have done it without you guys!

to everybody who came out and joined us for the baptism festivities, thank you very much. we really appreciate you taking time out to be a part of vaughn's special day. till next!

pictures will be up on multiply soon =)

is your life cooler than mine?

thanks to the internet i have officially become a voyeur...i sometimes stumble upon blogs of people who lead very very interesting lives. the feelings of envy start to creep up from the pit of my stomach and sometimes i just want to barf. i think about my life and what it has become -- work, coming home and caring for my son, passing out in bed from extreme exhaustion, then getting up again the next day to do the same things all over again. weekends are spent doing stupid mundane shit like laundry and cleaning house. it's a vicious cycle...over and over and over again. i need a break! all work and no play makes teresa a dull girl =(

critiqueing the oscars by teray the fashion diva! =P

the stars were out to supposedly shine in the annual 70th oscars but i think somebody in the hollywood fashion scene misinterpreted the word "shine" to mean metallics -- and lots of it. note to the fashion designers and stylists: thou shalt not dress thy star like a las vegas entertainer. oh and another friendly note: thou shalt not dress thy star in colors that make them look washed out. READ: ugly pastel colors make everybody look lifeless and dull (unless you sport a really fantastic tan).

sigh!

the fashion gods are definitely not smiling on hollywood right now. but that's just me. how about you, what do YOU think?


oscar commandment #1: thou shalt not wear thy doily to the academy awards. Ii guess her character Andy in the Devil Wears Prada is rubbing off on Anne Hathaway...sigh! Anne can I be your stylist??? I'll at least have the balls to tell you that you're putting on a hideous table-cloth-looking dress!

metallic pieces of crap


cate blanchett, fire your stylist immediately for making you wear this dress!


ditto emily blunt


jada's riding the metallic bandwagon but at least she/her stylist picked a color that flatters her skin tone


no no no! dull dress color + pale skin + no jewelry + glued on turkey feathers at bottom of gown = not a good look kirsten dunst [matud pa ni isang, sobrahan ra ka pa-unique mura na hinuon ug weird -- i luv it! best quote of the night hihihi!]


i hope gwyneth did her hair herself because if i paid a hair stylist and i come out looking like this, i will have the hair stylist tortured in the electrical helmet curling chairs that you seen in the salons. same deal with her stylist who picked out this horrendous colored dress!


she looks ok, not stellar like she always does. is j-lo losing her charm???


and now, for hollywood's redeeming factor/s:


rachel weisz = the only person who "got" the metallic look right



cutie abigail breslin of little miss sunshine "got" the metallic look too (u HAVE to see this movie btw, it's hilarious)


reese's dress is the bomb diggity yo! black never goes out of style. except she lost too much weight and her chin was prominently displayed on national television...tsk tsk, gain back a few pounds reese, then i'll continue to love u =)



i'm so so glad celine dion came dressed as a woman this time hahaha! great color choice and the gown really flatters her figure -- go celine!

and last but not the least, tep and i voted her to be THE BEST DRESSED WOMAN OF THE NIGHT (sang did u vote for her too? i think you said you liked beyonce...that's why i didn't trash her here hhihihihih! luv ya, miss ya! -- mura'g mean girls bah hahaha)

hellen mirren - her stylist is worth every penny

booger picking

i know this sounds ridiculous in this day and age of retail-ism (inventing words) but for the life of me i cannot find a nasal aspirator similar to the heavy duty one the hospital gave me. i called the hospital and they don't sell those damn things. yea...motherhood has reduced me to scouring the stores and the web for a booger-aid. sigh! to all my nurse friends out there, please swipe one for me from the hospital and mail/give it to me. salamat!

new do!

i cut my hair, short. vaughn has learned to pull my hair, so to prevent permanent baldness, i had to say goodbye to the long locks =) i didn't mind at all. i'm not one of those people who are too attached to their hair. i even told the stylist: just go crazy! hahahah. approach life with reckless abandon, especially with your hair!



before

after

crafty little devil

here's a picture of those yoyo things i made last night (per my previous entry). i don't like the buttons so i might take them off and replace them with a different one.

i wasn't kidding when i said i would give handmade gifts from now on (sang pls let me know kung dili ka gusto ug handmade gift for ling ling hahaha!). my friend lori's daughter sydney's bday is coming up and she's the kid that has everything so i'm making this for her.



it's not quite done yet as laziness has hit me and i've decided i shouldn't kill myself doing crafts i.e. finish a project completely in one sitting...so i'm going to finish this tomorrow and find something lovely to wrap it with.

vaughn and i went to joann's today to scour the fabric remnants bins -- i have decided that my new hobby will be fabric hoarding. hahahah! at least it's cheap and it will keep me away from the shopping mall. plus now everytime i'm attracted to something in a store, i tell myself: hey i can make that! which prevents me from buying desired thing and then hopefully forget the "i can make that" proclamation later.

vaughn had so much fun looking at all the colors and of course basked in the attention of the sales people cooeing and oooh-ing over him "he's such a cutie! how old is he? so alert! look at those eyes! hello there cutie cutie!" fortunately for them my son rewards them with a great big gummy grin and the old ladies would chuckle in delight. sigh! he's only six months old and he already knows how to work it. man i'm gonna be in so much trouble...hahaha

anyway, here's some stuff we found:

i already have an idea what to do with these fabrics (other than make them into name things) and i figured out what i'm gonna do with vaughn's baby food containers that i saved, voila! instant button keeper. i am secretly pleased with myself these days heeheehee =)

hmmmm

somebody gave me valentine m&ms at work yesterday...didn't put who it's from and disguised the handwriting so i can't tell who it is. so so highschool. it still made me giggle like a schoolgirl though, kamabaw ba sa akong kalipay!

what are you addicted to?

currently i'm addicted to this website: http://www.etsy.com/index.php

i think i'll put some items to sell (lia you probably heard of this site waay before i did, but you should sell your stuff here)

i dream of becoming (brace yourselves...) MARTHA STEWART! i don't want to work anymore, i just want to stay home, take care of vaughn, and do crafts for a living =)

sigh! i think i had too much starbucks coffee today. oh yea, i made my first yoyo last night (actually i made 2) it's not very neat but it looks good! i'll post pics asap. i'm thinking about stenciling some white onesies with funky designs for vaughn...and my nieces and nephews will hate me as will my close friends, because i have now decided to give hand made gifts for people. if you are opposed to such idea [and your birthday is coming up] lemme know. hahaha!

ok, back to slavin'

xoxo,

teray

p.s. purchasing a lottery ticket today, i might win and this dream might become a reality

The $10 solution

I saw this article in Time magazine a few weeks back and meant to post it on this blog, $10 is a very small sacrifice on our part but gives so much to the suffering people of Africa. Please help!


The $10 Solution
Thursday, Jan. 04, 2007 By JEFFREY D. SACHS

Listen for a moment to the beautiful and dignified voices of Africa's mothers. Despite their burdens of poverty and hunger, they will tell you not of their endless toil but of their hopes for their children. But softly, ever so softly, they will also recount the children they have lost, claimed by a sudden fever, children who died in their arms as they were carried in a desperate half-day's journey by foot from the village to the nearest clinic.
This is the ineffable sadness of malaria. Another African child has died of malaria since you started reading this article. Perhaps 2 million children in all will succumb this year.
The long-term consequences are insidious as well as tragic and even relate to the ability of the U.S. to prevail against the jihadists. Not only does malaria sap worker productivity and scare away business investment, but it also, paradoxically, increases the rate of population growth. Instead of having two or three children, couples in a malarial region often choose to have six or seven--unsure how many will survive.
Malaria also helps create a poverty trap with special ferocity in Africa. By a quirk of ecological fate, Africa has the world's heaviest toll of this disease, the result of its tropical climate, its specific types of mosquitoes and its limitless mosquito-breeding sites. Children are struck down in unmatched numbers. And Africa's disease toll from malaria may be even higher than previously recognized. Recent research has found that malaria infection increases the likelihood that an HIV-infected individual will transmit the AIDS virus to others. Many millions are also infected simultaneously with malaria and worm infections, multiplying the disease burden.
Osama bin Laden has called for jihad in Africa, trying to capitalize on its extreme poverty. Here's how we can respond. While malaria has shaped Africa's poverty trap, it is a trap that can finally be unlocked. Spectacular technological advances, some stunningly simple, offer practical and low-cost solutions. The most obvious one is insecticide-treated bed nets, now cleverly engineered to last up to five years. The cost to manufacture, ship and distribute each net is $10. A new generation of medicines based on artemisinin, an extract from a traditional Chinese herbal remedy, is remarkably effective in treating cases of the disease, at a cost of about a dollar per treatment.
Yet these solutions still aren't reaching the vast proportion of Africans in need. Hard as it is for us to imagine, Africa's households simply can't afford even $10 for a net, or a dollar for medicines when a child falls sick. Nor can African governments carry these costs on meager budgets or take extra vital steps to train local health workers and ensure that every village has reliable access to effective medicines.
Here is where you and I come in. Considering the costs of the nets, medicines and other components of malaria control, a comprehensive program would cost about $4.50 per African at risk, or about $3 billion a year for the whole continent. This is an amount that is too large for Africa but truly tiny for the rich world.
Let me put the $3 billion in perspective: there are a billion of us in the high-income world--that amounts to $3 a person, or one Starbucks coffee a year. It's around 12.5% of the estimated $24 billion in Wall Street's Christmas bonuses.
We should bring forth armies of Red Cross volunteers to distribute bed nets and to offer village-based training for tens of thousands of villages across Africa. In a brilliant demonstration of people power and modern logistics, Red Cross volunteers distributed nets to more than half the households of Togo in 2004 and Niger in 2005 in a matter of a few days in each country. That successful delivery model should be replicated across Africa, by 2010 if not earlier, but this will depend on mobilizing the needed resources.
New citizens' movements, including Malaria No More malarianomore.org and Nothing but Nets (nothingbutnets.net) have been established to achieve the needed breakthrough. We can each contribute $10 for a bed net. We can each learn more about the disease and become antimalaria leaders in our communities, schools, churches and businesses. We can urge our governments to work with the private sector and citizens' groups to win the fight against malaria during this decade. President Bush recently took a good step in scaling up the U.S. government's malaria-control efforts, but much more needs to be done to ensure that aid reaches the hundreds of millions of Africans at risk.
Together we can choose peace over jihad and life over violence. Through our common resolve, we can prove the power we each have to save a life.

will have time to blog...soon

been super super busy. went up to big bear this weekend, went to SD last weekend, going to disneyland this weekend with isang's highschool bestfriend, superbowl party on sunday, work's busy busy. so i'll blog about feelings and such later on if i can ever find the time anymore. but i will definitely post pics from the big bear trip soon...meanwhile check out the pics i took at SD. hope everyone is well.