What's new with me?!

I know that I haven't been able to write since August and it's because I've had a big adjustment to my life. Hubby and I have decided that it would be a good move for me to get more involved in Global Academy so I have thrown myself back to the workforce since August that's why I haven't been able to write much.

Everyone in the family is adjusting to me going back to work. I have weaned Phoenix from my breastmilk, I now sleep with hubby in the same room again and Cairo & Phoenix are the new room mates. The boys now sleep with their yaya's instead of with us so that we can get enough sleep.

I'm filled with mixed emotions about working. It's been great to have my brain working once again. I've always been a workaholic and my greatest challenge before was trying not to work too much and learning to delegate and trust other people. I'm still trying to find a balance but the good thing about my work is that I can do it from home and I can just work half day then work from home afterwards because I still have to make sure that I have time for the boys. During the days that I'm gone the whole day, hubby pitches in and takes care of the boys.

I will try to find more time to be able to post more entries =)

Fitness Update-Meet my trainer

Here's a picture of my trainer(red shirt) with hubby(black sleeveless).

His name is Bob and he's the reason that my body hasn't quite stopped being sore for a month now but he's also responsible for motivating me to get back in shape.

He measured me last week to check my progress and although I didn't lose that much weight-around 2 pounds only =( - I was able to cut my body fat and lose inches all over my body! woot woot! My body fat percentage is now 12%, I had 16% when I started. It felt good to shave some inches of myself but of course Bob is giving me a hard time about my diet :p He said that I was doing everything right except for the amount of sweets i take. hehehe. I said that until I am breastfeeding diet will be a foreign term for me.

Major Body Pain!

I joined a boxing class last thursday after taking a break from the sport for about 3 and a half years. I have to be honest and tell you that I sucked. I was so bad! My footwork was really off together with my balance and punches so I did look quite pathetic. I did expect that tho.

What I didn't expect was the PAIN I felt the next day. I know, you must think that of course you'd be in pain after boxing but I thought that since I've been working out more these days I wouldn't be so sore. Wow, that was the understatement of the year! I couldn't even put the spoon in my mouth when I ate because my hand and arm were shaking but felt numb at the same time.

I am seriously having second thoughts about going back to boxing all because I'd have such a hard time doing weights the next day. My trainer said that I'll be sore the first week and maybe second week only then my body would've adjusted to the workouts already.

In the name of vanity, I shall try to go back into that boxing ring. As the saying goes, no pain no gain!

Saved by Pigeon Pacifiers

My first born had absolutely no oral fixation when he was young so he never used pacifiers. My youngest is the complete opposite! He cannot go thru a day without sucking on pacifiers or munching on teethers that we'd both go crazy if I forgot to bring any on a day out with him.

I bought a lot of pacifiers and teethers. With teethers, he's liking both Avent and Nuby BUT for pacifiers he only wants to suck on Pigeon Pacifiers. I bought him A LOT of pacifiers and it was only when I chanced upon the Pigeon ones that he was truly satisfied with them.

I noticed that the Pigeon pacifiers look like bottle nipples and not those weird balloon looking ones so I guess he finds it comforting to suck them. I highly recommend this brand of pacifier to moms. It's a must for orally fixated babies and their pacifiers are age appropriate. I just moved him to stage two and my baby loves him like anything. This has really saved me a lot of headache and has soothed my baby into a lot of restless days and nights :)

Mixed Emotions Day

We had our US Embassy Visa interview this morning and we were able to renew ours while Phoenix was granted his first US Visa. This was supposed to be a happy day, tiring but happy. Everything was going well until I talked to the yaya of Phoenix.

She went on an off last wed because she told me that she wanted to check on her kids and her house after the storm. I let her go then she told me that she had to bring her kid to the hospital because he has pneumonia. Things went downhill from there. When I talked to her she told me that she would just stop working because she won't be able to think properly if she's not with her kids.

I understand how it is for a mother to worry. The thing that irritated me the most is that why did she even apply for work if she was going to flake out right away?! She was a stay-at-home-mom that recently got a caregiver's certificate because she wanted to work and now that she was working, she couldn't put her feelings aside to be able to do her job. I just wish that she didn't even apply because it would have saved all of us this hassle. She left me hanging because she just told me that she can't come back anymore so now I'm left with no one. Argh!

Good help truly is hard to find nowadays. I'll just try to stay positive and be thankful for our US Visa's.

Bellevue for a day

As I mentioned in my previous blog, we checked-in Bellevue Hotel and stayed for a night. I wasn't able to take much pictures but here are some photos I got in my phone

We actually got a room upgrade for free. I forgot why, hubby just told me that we were upgraded for free because of some mistake the staff made. Lucky us :) 

My overall assessment of the hotel was that it was ok. The staff were obviously not used to having that much influx of people come in all at one time so they were a bit slow. It was hard to get in touch with people from the front desk and in the event that I was able to get thru their line I had to wait for a LONG time to talk to someone.

Hubby & I both had mixed emotions regarding the food. We ordered room service for Cairo & Ann and the food was good but when we ate in Cafe d'Asie(same kitchen serving the room service) for breakfast the food really was not good at all. Hubby & I love Phoenix Court that's why we just ate there for dinner. I never liked Peking Duck but hubby has rubbed off on me and we both ate it for dinner. We gorged on it that we both had indigestion afterwards. Even my breast milk came out fattier because of that duck! It was still worth the indigestion tho ;)

My favorite part of our room is the aircon, we put it to 30 and it was still so cold! Great way to make up for the heat that we came from. 

Exiled to Bellevue

I think that we all were shocked by the attack of "Basyang". I believe that most people were like me and thought that this storm wouldn't bring that much destruction in a few hours. Like majority of everyone in Metro Manila, we had no electricity in our place last night till this afternoon.

Having an infant try to sleep through the savage noises that "Basyang" made in our house was not a good experience. It wasn't because Phoenix was crying, he was actually very quiet BUT he was awake and I could see how wary he was of the sounds that he was hearing. Our whole house wasn't able to sleep because I think that we were all frightened.

The village was a mess when I went out this morning as I went out to buy a lighter so that we can use it to ignite our gas stoves. The streets have become color green due to the massive number of leaves and trees that have fallen on the roads. I saw about 3 meralco posts were destroyed together with some gigantic trees that were uprooted along the main roads.

Hubby & I decided this morning to check in to Bellevue Hotel since we wanted the kids to be comfortable since Phoenix has barely had any sleep today because of the weather and the brownout. Just when we were able to check in, my cook tells me that we already have electricity in the house. Great timing huh?! Oh well, we're already here so might as well stick it out.

I will tell you more about my experience in Bellevue in another blog.

I have to go first since I need to attend to my boys.