I woke up very early this morning. I was up by 4AM so I decided to take a bath, cook our breakfast and baon, read my Bible. I’ve been reading the book of Jeremiah for a couple of weeks already. Today, I savor the chapter 17 and felt that God was talking to me because what was written in that passage perfectly soothe the worries that I’ve been having previously.

Reading the following verses, I felt comforted and confident:

I went back to bed after cooking and felt a sense of serenity knowing that God is taking care of me. His words have banished my anxieties away.

You don’t need to be called religious to read the Bible. Go pick yours and check the Reader’s Help at the back and see how you can be comforted with the Word.

Who doesn’t get irked when what you’re looking for leads to a white and boring 404 error page? Some webmasters get creative by using illustration and witty Page Not Found statements to entertain their visitors and possibly, to encourage them to explore the other parts of their website. A non-profit organization decided to go beyond creativity by using 404 error pages for a good cause.

NotFound.Org works in collaboration with Child Focus, FAMOUS and Missing Children Europe in retrieving missing children all over Europe. They invite website owners to use a poster of one of the missing children listed in their database in leiu of plain old 404 error pages.

I live far from Europe and knew not one of the missing children but I believe in the advocacy of NotFound.Org in reclaiming the future of these children.

To know more about this project, take the time to visit the websites of NotFound.Org and Missing Children Europe.

I am so excited to have my DIY-inspired party this week! I pray that every craft that I will do will look nice and pleasing to everyone. I will post photos to document the success of my first DIY party 🙂

Our Monday started earlier than usual. We were so excited for this day because we expect to claim God’s promises. And God is faithful. He showed us how much He loved us.

After lunch, we took half the day off from work to have my congenital anomaly scan. For the past few days, we’ve been talking to our baby about our second date when we would know our little angel’s gender and condition inside my womb. I had a quick lunch on the way and finished eating (yes, mabagal ako kumain!) while settling the bill and schedule at the hospital. When our OB came, the nurse led us inside the room to begin with the ultrasound. My husband and I were so happy to see our baby again, all grown up and now looked like a human being already. Our first meeting was when our baby was only six weeks. Back then, baby was as tiny as a pea but the heartbeat was so strong and active. Yesterday, every aspect of our baby’s body was inspected and measured. Praise God that the brain, and every body part and organ is perfectly healthy and normal. Our OB actually had a hard time seeing our baby’s face and identifying the sex because our child is in breech position. I had to lie on each side (twisted was more like it), so Dra can get a better view and give an accurate observation. Finally, baby glanced at us. Dra made a quick note of the facial features. Baby also turned into the right position and revealed the gender. We have a baby boy! I wish I had my phone with me at that time so I could have snapped an image of hubby’s wide smile! He was so happy to have a son. But he assured me later on that he would be as excited had we had a daughter. Before leaving the OB-Gyne room, we talked to Dra about our next appointment and the next tests that I have to take. As soon as we got out, I asked hubby to take pictures of the film so we could share the good news to our relatives and friends online. We also took turns sending SMS to our family and some of our close friends. We then dropped by the mall to deliver the news personally to my parents-in-law. They were so happy because our baby boy is their first apo.

After a quick visit to hubby’s parents, we went straight to claim our next blessing. We commuted all the way to Alabang and talked to another sales agent about the specs of the car that we’ve been eyeing for some time and the inclusions that come with the package. We then asked for the account officers assigned to us to check the actual unit and settle everything that needs to be done. After about an hour and a few reminders from the account officers, we headed to my parents’ home in our own, brand new car. The rain started to pour in and we were a bit tensed. Driving a new car feels different. It was night time and the rain turned into a thunderstorm. God was truly with us because we reached my parents’ house safe and sound. We told the whole family about the day’s blessings, enjoyed adobo for dinner and played with the kids for a while before heading to our own home.

Before going to sleep, we thanked God for granting the desires of our hearts. He has fulfilled two things that we’ve prayed for in our faith goals at the start of the year. Sure we were not able to have a child and a car in an instant because God wanted us to get His best for us. He made sure that everything will be ready by the time we receive His blessings. Truly, with God, nothing is impossible.

Weekends must be special. I cooked my hubby’s favorite dish for today’s lunch. Good food. Good life! Happy Sunday everyone 🙂

We are determined to eat homecooked meals more often so when we came home one night and found out that the chicken that we’ve wanting to cooked were still frozen, I quickly scoured our freezer and storage for something that’s easy to prepare. It was a bit late already and we were both tired and starving. Fastfood delivery was not an option at that time. So, I took out the frozen leftover mixed veggies, butter and Spam (chopped two slices into bits) and combined them with a bowl of pandan rice which I cooked earlier. After that, I fried the remaining slices of Spam. I then re-heated our leftover pinakbet, which I cooked the day before, and served dinner for me and my equally famished hubby.

Prep time (including cooking steamed pandan rice): 30 minutes.

Result: Busog lusog minus the pagod 🙂

When I first met the man, who later on became my husband, I was pleased to discover that he cared a lot about how he looks and smells like. Grooming is a priority for him. He may come from a long commute from work but he can still manage to look presentable and mabango. He wouldn’t just spray on any scent. It has to be something that is not too strong nor too sweet. It’s a plus point for me because I have allergic rhinitis and I couldn’t bear the smell of strong perfume neither can I tolerate the floral ones.

I am thankful for spending my life with a man who cares a lot about grooming as much as he cares about hygiene. At least I wouldn’t have to come home with Stinky Pete. In fact, he is more conscious about his grooming than I am with mine. He has regular trips to the salon for a pedicure every other week, a monthly appointment with his derma for a facial, sometimes with a diamond peel and a haircut with his trusted barber. I don’t find it vain for a man to engage in these habits. I consider them as essentials for everyone regardless of sex. Okay, may be a facial and a diamond peel are optional.

Kudos to whoever it was who coined the term “metrosexual.” Metrosexuals are indeed the epitome of modern men. They are not afraid to take on steps that would improve their appearance. They are bold enough to go to a salon and avail of services that previously, only women indulge in.

So, how do we preserve the metrosexuals aka The Modern Man? I’d say we encourage them to care about their appearance as much as they go crazy with cars. Stop teasing them about being vain whenever they purchase grooming effects such as Kojie.san Men. It’s a deo and spray which perfectly fits into a man’s utilitarian mindset.

Visit the Facebook fan page of Kojie.san Men’s Club and find out how you can be man enough while making an effort to look good and smell nice. 

For 4 days, I was obliterated from the blogoshpere. No thanks to my provider for taking my site (and that of my husband’s) down without notifying us just because they need to migrate their servers. Their customer service for the past 3 days was far from being acceptable. I am thankful that today, they seem to have changed their mind and decided to do their job and be efficient at it.

Enough about them.  What’s important is that my site is now up and running again 🙂 I may not have that many readers yet but my online space is so precious to me. This is where I share things with my friends and other people and not be limited with 140 or 188 characters.

Dear PhilHosting, don’t ever pull that plug again without informing your subscribers. We have paid for our domain and hosting services. We deserve only the best after-sales support.

Instapatrol was just launched formally last Friday but it has already piqued the interest of the Anti-Epal Movement to use the app to advance their campaign. As many of us know, the movement is geared towards calling the attention of politicians who shamelessly engage in self-promotion at the expense of the taxpayers’ money. With Instapatrol, more and more people can report about such misappropriations that several government officials are guilty of. Hopefully, these politicians would take down their posters as soon as the matter has been brought to their attention.

The news about Instapatrol and Anti-Epal’s partnership was featured in Inquirer.net yesterday and on its broadsheet today.

Kwan Initiatives, the group behind this social responsibility app, is currently working on integrating the Anti-Epal button in both Anroid and iOs. So, the next time you see that poster with a huge photo and name of your councilor announcing his latest project, bring out your mobile phone and take a snap using Instapatrol.

Instagram is like Instax film for web. Instapatrol is like Instagram for social responsibility. It’s for people who are tired of being apathetic and who wanted to spread awareness with the things happening around them. It’s the brainchild of four mobile web developers who intended to create an app with the purpose of helping the community. The group is composed of Randy Valencia (yes, he’s The Husband :)), Dinjo Constantino, Teejay Temperante and Maoi Manzano.

Instapatrol is initially available for Android users. Just log on to Google Play and download the app for free. The app will soon be customized and made available for iOS. Take a look at this easy-to-use app which aims to tap the inner reporter in every Pinoy.

Instapatrol was formally launched at the DevNet1000 milestone meetup held last Friday, September 14 at Dillingers 1903 in Greenbelt 3, Makati City. The event was sponsored by Smart Communications, Inc. and gave other developers the opportunity to showcase their respective apps. Aside from Instapatrol, the other apps featured include Gorated.ph, MRTtrackr, Science Q & A, and MoodSee.

Congrats again to my husband and his teammates 🙂 After several months of conceptualizing and tweaking their first group app, it is now available for every Android user to download. Mag-Instapatrol na!