Happy Halloween! I did a little photo shoot with my girls! (Saffy, Nutmeg, Ginger, Cinnamon & Sugar). Saffy looked like a little "vampire" rat in the picture below!

I thought I would share the music mix I've made for working out. I use it when I'm running on the treadmill or walking at the park. I've linked all the songs to Amazon.com where you can preview them!

1. Move Along- The All American Rejects
2. Unwritten- Natasha Bedingfield
3. Beautiful Day- U2
4. Girlfriend- Avril Lavigne
5. Without A Fight- Hoobastank
6. Break- Three Days Grace
7. Fly Away- Lenny Kravitz
8. Fly On The Wall- Miley Cyrus
9. The Take Over, The Breaks Over- Fall Out Boy
10. Anna Molly- Incubus
11. Boys- Ashlee Simpson
12. Revolution- Jars Of Clay
13. Whyyawannabringmedown- Kelly Clarkson
14. Light Up The Sky- Yellowcard
15. Circus- Brittney Spears
16. I Write Sins Not Tragedies- Panic At The Disco
17. Face Down- The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
18. Take Me Away- Christina Vidal
19. Don't You Know Who I Think I Am- Fall Out Boy
20. Toxic- Brittney Spears
21. It's My Life- Bon Jovi
22. Why Can't I- Liz Phair
23. Come Clean- Hilary Duff

What are your favorite songs to listen to when working out?

Today my Sugar, turns 2 years old. 2 years ago I went into Petco looking for pet rats. I ended up getting Sugar and her sister Spice. My girl is getting older. Sugar has 2 large mammary tumors and another small one starting. She also suffers from abscesses on her front paw. But, she is still enjoying life for now. This morning I had an early birthday party for her. All the girls got to enjoy some peas and applesauce. And of course, yogurt peanuts!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Sugar!

Giveaway is now over! Congrats to the winner!

We finally have a date for our wedding! F.B.'s parents were able to book the Manila Hotel for our wedding in December! His parents have booked the Champagne Salon, which is part of the Champagne Room for a buffet style dinner in the evening. We still have to set up an appointment with a judge, but we will probably have our civil ceremony at the hotel as well, earlier in the evening. We will also be staying 2 nights at the Manila Hotel, as a wedding gift from F.B.'s parents. So exciting!

And, because I've mentioned it before, I want to do a "wedding date" blog giveaway!

I just ordered a gorgeous necklace from KYM Jewelry on Etsy to wear at my cousins wedding & my own wedding. It's made with two gorgeous Swarovski pearls & a crystal spacer on a delicate chain. I chose white for my own necklace. I think it will go along nicely with my other wedding accessories & dress purse.

In celebration of our wedding; I would like to order & give away one of these lovely elegant necklaces for one of you. You can customize your necklace with the color pearl of your choice. ( Swarovski Pearl Color Chart Here.) The necklace is perfect for any special occasion.

To enter this giveaway you will need to do 2 things, by leaving a comment on this blog entry:

1. Guess the date of our wedding in December.
2. Leave the color pearl of your choice. (Optional)

Remember anyone can comment, you don't have to be registered on blogger!

Whoever guesses the correct date or guesses the closest will win the giveaway! In the event 2 or more people guess the same date. I will use a random number generator to determine the winner!

This giveaway is not restricted to the United States, so my international readers can enter! And, family & friends are not excluded from this giveaway- as they haven't been told the exact date yet either!

The deadline to enter this giveaway will be: November 7th, 2009

Our wedding date will be revealed, when the winner is announced!

KYM Jewelry also has another website here!

Edited to add: This post gets a ton of hits since it was written 5 years ago. I know it's not current anymore, and I'm sure there are a bunch of new malls in Philippines since I wrote this. 

F.B. and I hang out at alot of malls when I visit the Philippines, so I thought I would share some of the malls I've visited.

The malls are humongous in the Philippines! They stretch for several miles and are usually more than 4 stories. Supermarkets, Movie Theaters, Ice Skating Rinks, Arcades, Gyms, etc; are usually present in most of the malls. Some like Mall of Asia even have IMAX and musuems.

Shopping can generally be inexpensive (Peso to US Dollar) if you stick to Philippines products and not imported items. (USA, etc.) Electronics tend to be more expensive than the USA even though most are made over in Asia. (Which I don't really understand?)

Buying groceries and eating out are also inexpensive. A nice sit down restaurant like Gerry's Grill might cost less than $20 for two. Fast Food places like Chow King, Tokyo Tokyo can even be about $6 or less for two people to eat.

Clothing prices are not bad. I've seen t-shirts for P150 before ($3) and I bought a 'Pepsi' & 'Coke' t-shirt last year for about P400 ($8). Buying a Philippine magazine will usually cost around $2-3. Imported US magazines are much pricer.

Movie theaters are also less expensive. It's about $2 for an adult ticket. (Compared to $10-13 for a movie ticket in the USA!) F.B. & I see alot of movies when I visit!

Here are the top 10 malls I enjoy in the Philippines (Luzon):

1. Mall of Asia














2. Sta. Lucia East Grandmall














3. SM Marikina Mall














4. Market Market














5. Robinson's Place Metro East














6. Trinoma














7. Mega Mall














8. Glorietta Mall














9. Greenbelt














10. Greenhills














11. Robinson's Galleria















I'm really bad at math and not so good with currency conversion. But I find Peso Bills really easy to use. The exchange rate is usually around 46-50 Pesos to $1 USD. It always helps to check the exchange rate before traveling to know how much you will get for your money. Below are approxmiates of how much the Peso Bill is to the US Dollar.

50 Peso Bill = $1

100 Peso Bill = $2

200 Peso Bill = $4

500 Peso Bill = $10

1000 Peso Bill = $20 (Largest Bill)

Picture of some of the Peso Bills I still have in my wallet:















Yes I did put the word 'void' in transparent letters over the bills, silly me haha! Why? Because I didn't know if I should take a picture of real currency, lol!

There's also a 20 Peso Bill but that is like change. I'm really bad at using the coins actually. F.B. has tried to teach me several times but they work a bit different than US coins so I always get confused. I usually let him pay if we need to use the coins!

F.B. wrote me a list before of the coins though it's still confusing to me!

.05 = 5 cents (Little Coin)

.10 = 10 cents (Little Coin)

.25 = 25 cents (Little Coin)

1 Peso = 1 Peso (Big Coin)

5 Pesos = 5 Pesos (Big Coin)

10 Pesos = 10 Pesos (Big Coin)

NOTE: To see blog posts similar to this one check out:

Foreign Food Cravings
My Favorite Philippine Products

I ordered this gorgeous wood engraved frame from Personalization Mall.com. I also ordered a few more as gifts for family. I think it's absolutely gorgeous! (They shipped out my order fast too.) The frames were only $18 each and you can customize it with whatever text you want. The wood engraving turned out beautiful!

I chose part of the love verse for mine:

I also ordered 3 cute t-shirts for my Philippines trip from Aeropostle. I love the smile face tee!
Smiley Face Graphic Tee
Stacked Logo Graphic Tee
Fleur-De-Lis Graphic Tee
In Philippine updates: F.B. & his family are slowly getting the house cleaned up & back to normal. F.B. says the house is like a puzzle right now, that things aren't in their places. He went to Dad's Ultimate Buffet for his 30th birthday (Which is also part of Saisaki buffet.) I told him to eat alot of sushi & tempura for me, hehe! I love Saisaki Buffet! Their California Roll has mango in it! So good, yum! We got to talk on the phone on his birthday. And Sunday he was at Mall of Asia again at an internet cafe so we got to talk online again too around 1:30am (Philadelphia time).

F.B.'s father is supposed to come home November 15th. His father is a ship captain & is only home a few months out of the year. He brings shipments of fruits, veggies, flowers, cars, etc; to other countries, (USA included.) Earlier this year he was taking shipments of fruit from Coasta Rica to Philadelphia. But because of the strict rules, he wasn't allowed to leave the ship yard so we didn't get to meet up.

I had the craziest dream last night. I dreamed I arrived in the Philippines and pretty much forgot to pack anything & everything! I opened my suitcase and there was a few clothing items scattered around in my suitcase and I turned to F.B. and went, "I don't know how this happened... but I forgot to pack pretty much everything!" In my dream, I ended up calling my Mom with a list of things I needed and told her to use my credit card to ship my clothes & stuff to me. What a weird dream! I don't think I've ever forgotten to pack, and if I did forget something I could always buy it in the Philippines!

Happy 30th Birthday Baby, I love you! I wish I could be with you on your birthday this year, like I was last year. (I'm sure you'll appreciate me sharing all these pictures of you being dorky too, haha!) It was nice talking on the phone with you. *MWAH* I love you.

A little humor! I've taken six 15+ hour flights now, so I'm used to it. But there are little annoyances on every flight. I'm sure anyone that has taken a flight, can relate.

1. When you've been up for 24 hours already and the person next to you decides they want to be chatty while you want to sleep!

2. The person next to you that keeps poking you when the flight attendants come by with snacks or meals even though you have a blanket & sleep mask on!

3. Having to pee during a 15+ hour flight when you have a window seat & your seatmates are sleeping. (Believe me by the time you've flown a 15+ hour flight 6 times you'll be elbowing people when you have to pee!)

4. Finally waking up your seatmates to go pee as soon as the SEATBELT sign comes back ON and the Captain tells everyone to remain seated!

5. Trying to figure out how to work the toilet & sink in the bathroom. And trying to move around in there without hitting your elbows on the wall.

6. Trying to cram your carry on bag in the overhead compartment or under the seat in front of you.

7. Having beer being spilt all over you by your seatmate and hoping customs won't think you're the one intoxicated. (All while wishing you were intoxicated!)

8. Really hating the 3-1-1 rule because they won't let you bring water on board at the airport in Hong Kong, China (even past security!) And those little plastic cups of water the flight attendants give do not begin to quench your dehydration...

9. Being on the runway for 3 hours because the air conditioning unit fell off the plane...

10. Looking through the Sky Mall catalog 5x's before you even take off.

11. Delays, Delays & more delays. Weather, Snow, Mechanical, etc...

12. Turbulence.... while you are trying to eat the airline meal!

13. Trying to take off or put on your shoes & tie the laces while the person in front of you has their seat reclined.

14. Falling asleep only to wake up 8 hours later & realize you're still on the plane and there's at least 7 more hours to go!

15. Sleeping through the on board movie only to wake up after it's over and see the plane on the map is still flying somewhere over Antarctica!

16. Trying to sleep even though you can't stretch your legs out fully... (Thank god for sleeping pills!)

17. When you're sleeping & your seatmate decides to turn on the bright @$$ overhead light. (Always bring a sleep mask!)

18. Babies. Crying on 15+ hour flights. Enough said...

19. Looking out the window, seeing the sun & the moon and then the sun again all while you're still in the air!

20. During landing the lights go off & on, the luggage in the overhead bins slams around and the man across the aisle crosses himself.

21. Finding your luggage is on a later flight to Philadelphia from Chicago. (Hey! At least you made the plane!)

1. Avon Glimmersticks Eyeliner: Blackest Black

I think I've spoken about using Avon glimmersticks eyeliner before. It's the best! I've been using it for a few years now & this stuff doesn't budge. I love it! I recently ordered from Avon & I stocked up on more of these.


2. Hollywood Lights Lip Gloss: Berry Premier

This is a fun new product. My cousins got me a similar one from Victoria's Secret last year, but I haven't been able to find it again. I think they stopped making it. Now Avon has one called, Hollywood Lights Lip Gloss! Besides the little flashlight built in, it's got a convenient mirror on the outside. Which is one of the reasons I love this product. I find I like the Avon version better because the lip gloss is thicker & moisturizes better.

3. DuWop Venom Flash: Silver

First of all, I love this stuff. But why is it so SMALL?! It's an itty bitty 3.5 ml! Aside from the size, I do love it. I like the subtle silver sparkles. I actually thought it would have a stronger cinnamon flavor. I love the tingle. I have sensitive skin & lips, but this didn't bother it at all. It does plump slightly, but I love the clear glossy shine to it best. Sometimes I layer this over my lip gloss.

4. Wet 'n' Wild, Wild Shine Nail Polish: Lavender Creme

Ooooh! You have to see this color in person to love it. It's a gorgeous hot pink with a slightly purple tone to it. I can't explain it. But it looks great on toes in the summer! And I'm always a girl that either has pink or red on her toes when wearing sandals. It stays on pretty good and doesn't chip easily. Plus you can't beat the price, it's less than two dollars!

5. Clean & Clear Invisible Shine Control Powder

This is a hard product to find! All the drugstores near me used to carry it & now they don't anymore. I was lucky enough to find them for $3 each at Five Below recently and believe me I stocked up! I love this product. It's a small compact with a built in mirror. And the powder is great at controlling oil. The powder may look blue in the compact, but actually it evens out your skin tone & reduces redness. I usually use a makeup brush & apply it after my foundation & powder, as sort of a finishing powder. You can also use it throughout the day whenever your skin gets shiny.

6. Johnson's Baby Bath: Vanilla Oatmeal

I just started using this about a month ago. It's incredible! My skin feels super soft & smooth 2 days after using this product! I couldn't believe it. Plus it's got a really nice vanilla scent to it. I've used it for shaving & I've even used it on my hair. It's gentle on sensitive skin with oatmeal & aloe. Plus for less than $5 it comes in a huge bottle!

7. John Frieda Frizz-Ease Creme Serum Overnight Repair Formula

For awhile I was growing out my hair & it changed texture slightly. It became frizzy & even dry. I don't know why. Besides my shampoo I use, I decided to try this product because alot of conditioners & products leave my straight fine hair looking oily. I like that I can put this in my hair at night time when I go to sleep. You do have to wash it out in the morning, but it leaves your hair soft, smooth & moisturized and controls frizz. Love it!

8. Noxzema Original Deep Cleansing Cream

Back to basics. For awhile I was using all Clinque products on my face. But because of the cost, I've switched up my facial products lately. I used to use Noxzema alot when I was a teenager. I love the smell. It smells nostalgic to me. I guess because I remember my grandmother using it when I was a kid. This still takes makeup off quickly and leaves my skin feeling clean & refreshed!

9. Jergens Skin Smoothing Moisturizer

I've used this lotion for about 2-3 years now. I usually use it on my face. It's got a great fruity scent & little exfoliating beads of jojoba oil that moisturize the skin. I've found it evens out skin tone & fades redness when you've been using it awhile. I was using Jergens Naturals Lotion: Soothe on my face for awhile, but now I've switched back to this.

10. Curve by Liz Claiborne

Besides my signature scent PINK, I also use Curve. I just love the scent. It's light and refreshing without being too flowery.


To see the first Bath & Body blog I did a few months ago: CLICK HERE!

(Nope, not getting paid to recommend these products! I just wanted to share them, because I love them!)

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