my presents

A few days ago, I ordered books online as a treat to myself. I told the husband it will be my gift to myself for Christmas and for my birthday. I ordered the books at Wal-mart so I do not have to pay shipping and as of this evening it is already available for pick up. It is actually very fast considering that I was told my orders will not get to the store until after the 28th. This is one of the reasons I love that store. Whenever I order books from them they always deliver either on time or ahead of schedule. I still have to know if the store is open tomorrow so I can get my presents but I am not worried if it is not. I can pick up the books on my birthday instead, which is the day after Christmas. I am happy with my purchase. I just hope I am able to afford more. Perhaps next year.

beautiful kids

One of my cousins' son posted pictures of his kids on Facebook. The kids were invited to be part of a wedding entourage and he took lots of pictures for the relatives to see. He has gorgeous kids, a boy and a girl. The boy was wearing the traditional barong tagalog while the girl was wearing a beautiful gown designed just like the older member of the entourage who were wearing venus bridesmaid dresses. They all look lovely. While I was looking at the pictures I thought that if it was the little man, there was no way he would be still or keep the formal top on. I am afraid he is like me who gets uncomfortable wearing fancy clothes. Anyway, I can see how proud the parents of the kids were. I am too, since they are after all my relations and we always brag about how good looks run (as long as nobody contests it) in our genes :)

cabin fever?

It has been days since the severe weather started and it has not left our place yet. Roads are still icy, temperature below freezing, and so we are coped up inside the house. The only time we went out was to go to my OB appointment, a short stopover at the store to get more food, and then home where we have been all these time. The husband and the little man are driving me nuts already. They must be bored because one always has an online radio on full blast while the other has the television on (loud as well) surfing from one channel to the next. All I want is either to read a book or get online in peace but I cannot even hear myself think. Nobody wants to give way and I have been seriously looking for a place inside the house I can hide where the sound will not reach me. But as small as the house is, I could not find that place. Besides, one of them come looking for me every few minutes anyway. I guess I just have to tough this out. Hopefully next week we will have better weather so we can go out even if to just drive around the neighborhood. It sure helps a lot to be outside even on short periods, to clear a person's mind, no matter how cold it is.

keeping warm

Since it started getting cold, the husband urged me to get my sweaters, winter jackets, and coats out. He said he did not want to hear me complain about being cold when I can do something about it. I did get them all out last Fall and have been using them since but that did not mean he did not hear "I am cold" from me. I just could not stop it. Even with the choices of warm clothing in my closet, I still went to the store to look at more jackets with an excuse that I am bigger now than before so I need to buy a new one. I found a really nice waterproof jacket which I have been wearing every time we go out. I like the color, the design, and the fact that it is brand new. Well, it was new before I used it :)

We also had to buy a jacket for the little man because what he had was small for him and we do not want him to get cold when we go out. Even if more often than not he takes it off saying it is hot we bring it with us anywhere we go for when he needs it. I don't blame him complaining about being hot, he has a thick insulated jacket with an added windbreaker inside. I don't know how they do it but I would like one of these too if I can find it at the ladies' section. Now we only need to buy him a pair of boots so he will really be set for winter. I am still using my old reliable boots that the husband bought four years ago and I am happy with it so I am not going to replace it yet.

severe weather

We bought a kerosene heater today in preparation for the coming snow storm. Although we are hoping it will not turn out as bad as we feared, we are still getting ready for it just in case. We also bought water and some supplies we might need in the event that power goes out. I am hoping it will pass without harming anybody so we could enjoy the snow afterward. The weather forecast said we will get steady rain starting this afternoon and snow this evening. So I guess the severe weather will start later today. I hope the electricity will not be out so I can still enjoy being indoors.

bought a new printer

We bought a new printer just a few weeks ago. The husband got tired of buying ink for our old printer so when it ran out of ink he decided to replace it with a new printer instead. He claims that we pay less for the printer with ink in them than if we buy ink cartridges for the old printer. I guess he is right since we bought a cheap printer. I told him it is liable to eat up ink because it is cheap but he does not believe me. He said we will try it and see what happens. Before we bought the new printer I was online for days looking for printers that use refillable cartridge because that was what he wanted. I end up reading about laserjet 5500 toner and was forwarded to all kinds of websites offering refillable ink but not one talked anything about a particular brand of printer that we can buy. Or maybe it did, I just did not get it. It got confusing after so many websites so I quit. That was when the husband decided to buy a different printer. We will know before long if the printer we bought is worth the money we spent. If not, then we are liable to end up buying a new printer after the ink in this new one runs out.

drinking water

We are using water filter for our drinking water. The husband has gotten used to using a filter since we moved down south that it has become a habit, more or less. I like it. I think it is better that we use a water filter anyway to get impurities out of the water we drink. For the longest time I drank bottled water until I got tired of running to the store to get more when I run out so I switched to drinking tap again. It is not really bad, I just got used to the taste of bottled water. Now that I am drinking from the tap again, I make sure we have plenty of water stored up. I use our portable water filter since we could not afford whole house water filter, pour the filtered water in empty jugs and that is what we use for drinking. It has been working well for us so far. As long as we replace the filter every few gallons we should be fine. I do still crave the taste of bottled water but until I learn to be diligent in buying my supply I cannot complain about drinking tap water. At least it is cheaper this way.

gift cards

I received a gift card from Victoria's Secret after I purchased body mists, body lotion, and body butter online. The said items are going to be sent to the family in Leyte who likes this particular Victoria's Secret products. There is a store about thirty minutes from us and with the cost of gas I decided it was better to order the items online. Besides, it will ensure that I will not spend more than I need. I had a gift card I got from the mail prior to the purchase and that paid for the shipping. I am planning on using the new gift card for my next purchase because I still have items to buy from the store for my mom and sister-in-law. I have received plenty of these gift cards yet I did not use them because I did not see the need. Now that I do, I will enjoy the benefits.

not ready

We are expecting bad weather in the next few days. It is already very cold in here and the husband told me to expect it to get worse by next month. I hope he is wrong. Yesterday it was gloomy and cold and spitting snow. The little man loves snow and he is hoping we will have another snow day. I would like it too but I don't think it will be good for us. We are not well-equipped for snow days yet. We do not have toro snowblower to clean the driveway of snow and the husband and I cannot manually shovel snow for health reasons. We probably will get stuck if it gets bad although I hope it won't. We do not have auxiliary heat either. We have been planning to but we have never really done anything about it yet. I guess we are on denial. Denial will not help us any though so we have to do something soon before this weather gets worse. Once we get what we need we can just stay home and hope for the worse to pass without affecting us in any way at all. We are keeping our fingers crossed.