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What have we been up to? ... Read on.

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I was going to update and write a post this week.  I started it, but never got to finish it yet.  My family took ill and caught the tummy flu bug this week.  Jordan had it first on Friday night all the way to Saturday.  We decided to stay home from church to rest and not spread the bug to other people.  And then, Sunday night all the way to Monday, Aubrey had the bug.  Unlike the others, she also got a little fever.  We didn't get any sleep all those nights.  Then Monday night, Jeb caught the bug.  He was so miserable that night that he had to miss work the next day.  Both kids are doing well now.  Thankfully, it is just a 24-hour bug and goes away quickly.  They just needed a lot of rest, cuddles and story time and sips of Pedialyte, then they were able to get over the bug quickly.  Jeb is just starting to feel better and keep his dinner down.

I am hoping and trying not to catch the bug.  I have been very careful to wash my hands all the time and clean / sanitize surfaces that we would normally touch.  But if I ever do catch it, I hope it would be after everyone is healthy again.  It is no fun being sick while the family is sick too.

UPDATE:  I am starting to feel the queasiness in my tummy now too, so I might be getting sick.  I will need to cut this post short and just publish it.  I will try to write another post later when everyone, including me, are feeling better.

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Photo courtesy from ReMax house listing

We recently fired our realtor that we first got when we put our house on the market, and then got a new realtor and even changed real estate companies.  We hope that we can get better results with our house sale with our new realtor.  In case, you are interested or wondering, here is our house listing.

dining-living_roomsI have added a couple pictures in a new sub-album in our "Our First House" album, called House 2009 - selling.  There are some pictures of our house before we left for the Feast and "staged" it for Open Houses and showings.  Of course, I also added a few pictures of how messy and cluttered the house was before.  One thing that I kinda regretted is forgetting to take an after picture of the kids room.  All of the pictures I have of their room are either them messing it up or just plain messy.  It would have been nice to have put in their scrapbook a picture of their room that is nice, uncluttered and tidy.  Oh well, we'll just have to imagine that their room did look emaculate at one time. :)

Our bank, US bank is sponsoring a Get Ahead in 2010 sweepstakes, and I decided to take advantage of it.  There is nothing to lose anyway, and it is worth the try.  I entered a little story about how we would get ahead in 2010 if we win $5000.  The story with the most votes, win.  It is very unlikely that we will win this contest since the leading story has already 2000+ votes, and the voting period ends on the 28th of this month.  But anyway, you never know.  If you want to vote and help us get as many votes, you may vote once a day per email address.  Please click to vote now!

Unfortunately, voting is open to US Residents only.  Thank you for your help in this, we appreciate it.  If we don't win, thanks anyway and at least we tried.

Here is the story I submitted:

Hoping to Get Ahead with a House Down-payment
$5,000 would greatly help us in getting ahead in 2010, by giving us some
[extra] down payment for a house. My husband's current work facility is shutting down and thus they are moving us ASAP. Being not able to "plan" for this, because it just happened with the bad economy... a little help for a house down payment would be great!

amberly_8-months1amberly_8-months2I know a lot of you have been asking and wondering how Amberly is and what she looks like now.  It has been nearly 4 1/2 months since I have written an update about her.  She has been growing fast and steadily.  She is 8 months old now.  She has been crawling now pretty well.  In fact she has started to attempts of crawling when she was at the end of her 6th month.  She also has been standing up and holding onto things to support herself.  Amberly has been learning and developing new things by leaps and bounds lately.  She is also teething, but hasn't have any teeth cut through yet.  And yes, she babbles a lot now too; and wave 'hello' or 'goodbye'.

I have updated Amberly's album... so I am finally caught up again.  Sorry, mom... I know you have been itching to see new pictures of your grandbaby, Amberly.  So here they are!  Her Third, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eight months are all added.


By the way, don't forget to check out my "What's New..." section to see all the updated and added albums I just did for 2009.

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 02 February 2010 22:38 )
 

Life in the Woods

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Movie date night
My hubby took me on a movie date tonight.  We watched "Blind Side" and we really liked it a lot.  It wasn't overly a chick-flick so guys will enjoy watching it too.  Let's just say it is a "football-flick."  It is also nice to see God included in the movie.  It is hard to find movies right now with God in the picture.  It will be a very good date movie.

It was very sweet of Jeb to plan a movie date for me.  I have been a bit too overstressed, frustrated, grumpy and moody lately, it was time to take me out! :)  It definitely was a much needed and wonderful breather for me.  I actually can say that I really enjoyed the evening out without having to think or worry about the kids.  One of my many "stress-relievers" besides prayers and meditation is crocheting.  So, after the movie, Jebby also took me to Walmart so I can stock up on my yarn to create many crochet projects through the winter.  It is a very nice and sweet gesture for him to do for me.  I love my man! :)  I'm blessed to have him.

Thanksgiving week/end
Like most my weeks, this week has been a busy week.  We had a great time spending Thanksgiving and the weekend with Jeb's family.  Chad, Lora and their kids came up from Kansas to visit and it was wonderful spending time with them and the kids enjoyed all the cousins company.  I did however, missed my family immensely.  I think it is also because of the fact that my sister Cheryl and her daughter Shoshy is visiting my family in the Philippines right now.  If only I could... I would have hopped in the plane with my sister and haul all the kids to the Philippines.  But then again, I might just be talking without thinking... that trip might be a nightmare having all 3 kids with me!

Thanksgiving week was also deer gun-hunting week.  Jeb tried to sit out in the woods and try his luck in shooting a deer, but with no luck.  The deer might be too smart for him.  We see deer all the time when he is not hunting, mostly when the sun is down.  The day just before the hunting season started, the kids and I saw a 6-pointer buck run through the woods and in front of the chicken shed and then walk in front of the driveway and back into the woods.  He circled the woods and the chicken shed 2 or 3 times.  It was so awesome to see.  The kids were so thrilled to see a buck, they were jumping up and down and had to call daddy to tell him all about it.

Moving again...
The unpacking has recently been on a halt for the last 2 weeks.  I did however painted the downstair bathroom.  I also started painting the fireplace wall as an accent wall, but I ran out of paint so just half the wall is done.  I do have my paints again and I will need to finish painting that wall.  Although, it looks like that I will need to paint the entire living room area now the same color as the fireplace wall.  That is A LOT of wall to paint.  So, right now... I am stalling :-p  Well, also I have been sick and tired out a lot the past week.

We also found out recently that Jeb's company is shutting down the facility here in Fond du Lac, and moving us to Illinois.  We will need to wait for our house to sell first though before we move.  Right now, there are no offers on the house yet.  The real estate market here in Fond du Lac is not good at all.  So, it will take a lot of prayer to get our house sold.  We are thinking of moving in the Spring, April as the soonest.

Update on the kids

The kids have been doing well.  Jordan has started to learn how to read.  I have been working with him in sounding his alphabet on and off for a while now.  And just recently, he can sound out and read some short words.  It is really amazing.  It is not perfect, though but at least it is gearing on the right direction for him in learning to read!  Also, a good site that I learned about from a friend is starfall.com, in teaching kids their phonics and learning the basics of reading.  You are able to download a whole workbook in PDF that you can print from your computer to aid with your homeschooling.  I do this with Aubrey as a starter in learning her letters and sounds.  Aubrey sits along with the "classes" and joins in once in a while too, when I do the reading with Jordan.

Aubrey is so into princesses too.  Her favorite bedtime routine lately is Daddy giving her (as the princess) a pony ride to her bed.

Both of them love drawing and painting too.  Jordan also built his very first wooden toy the recently.  I got him a wooden toy train that he can put together and paint.  Jeb helped him with this but mostly he did it by himself.  I will have to show a picture of that sometime.  I also got the kids some needlework projects that they can do with my help.  They love "crocheting" with me when they see me do it.  I got Jordan a simple hook-and-loop kit, and Aubrey a picture stitching kit (comparable to doing cross-stich only you don't do the X's).

Amberly is 6 months old now and is growing bigger and learning new things each day.  She has been fighting a cough for about a month now, since after the Feast, so tomorrow we are bringing her in to see her Doctor.  She is getting really good with the rolling over and can actually get around pretty well with just rolling.  She sits up quite alright for a few seconds to a minute without us holding her, but she still slops forward when sitting.  And she loves playing with her toys.  She is the most content baby I have.  I can not complain... God has blessed us.

 

Last Updated ( Thursday, 03 December 2009 01:07 )
 

Newsflash

New Additions to the Extended Family

I know this is a little late but I am happy to let my readers know that I am aunt again to two beautiful babies.  My sisters-in-law, Anndylou and Kimberly had their babies.  We'll start from the most recent one.

Gavin Alexander Canning
gavinBorn at 11:45 PM on December 18th, 2009.  He weighs 7 pounds 15 ounces and is 22.5 inches long. Both Mommy and baby are healthy and happy :)  Congratulations to Rob, Kim and of course, big sister, Myra!


Shenandoah Anne Macaraeg
shanna
First born of Richard and Anndy Lou Cuizon-Macaraeg.  "Shanna," for short, was born at 7:20 pm on November 22, 2009, weighing 6.1 lbs and 18.5 inches long.  I am so happy for you both, and what a beautiful little girl!
 
Charles Gabriel is Here!

We are so thrilled and happy to let everyone know that Isis and Charles' had their new baby, Charles Gabriel Cabahug-Macaraeg.

charles_gabriel-150px

He was born on June 4, 2009 at 3:13 pm, and weighed in at 7 lbs. 6 oz and 20.5 inches.

He is the 6th grandchild of my parents (Macaraeg's side).  Congratulations to Charlie, Isis and big sister, Teatephi!

Read more at Meryl's website.

 

Photo of the Day

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What's New?

Comment on Pictures!

We listened.  And we acted on it.  Yes, folks, the comments feature on our Photo Gallery is up!  You can now comment on any of our pictures on our gallery without having to register and log in.  All you have to do is click on the icon that looks like a chat balloon with the "+" sign (if you hover over it, the "Add Comment" text will appear).  This will bring you to a page where you enter your name and comment.  That's it!  Simple as that.

At this point in time, I turned off the "comments moderation," so you are able to see your comment right away  However, once I notice more and more spam and unwelcomed comments, I will have to turn that feature on.  Once that is on, you will have to wait for my approval to publish or delete a comment, before you can see your comment on the picture.

Well, what are you waiting for... go and look through our gallery and comment!  We would like to hear your thoughts.

 
New Pictures Added in Gallery

UPDATE:  Amberly's Seventh and Eight month albums are now up!

Here's a quick rundown of pictures from 2009 I have added in our Gallery.  I apologize that it has been a while and I was not able to update it more regularly like I used to.  We have had a very busy end of the year last year, with the Feast, moving and me losing my camera, etc.  Also, being out here in the country, we have limited and slow internet making uploading and updating quite slow.  But anyway, I have managed to let my uploads run through the night while I slept, so here they are!

More pictures from 2010 yet to come!