Curbside Stories

Photo from here . Happy New Year! Allow me to thank you all guys for reading my entries, for commenting from time to time, for liking it on Facebook, for tweeting and for following.  It really meant a lot to me.  This year has been a year full of blessings and some of those blessings are you. Let us welcome 2011 with positivity. Cheers! XOXO Joanne

"Feeling appreciated is one of the most important needs that people have. When you share with someone your appreciation and gratitude, they will not forget you. Appreciation will return to you many times."  - Steve Brunkhorst ****************************************** The most important lesson I have learned this year is to learn how to appreciate. The year 2010 has been a year full of blessings and I thank the Lord for His generosity.  I could not even remember the problems I had because all of those were overshadowed by His grace.  He showered me with blessings better than what I prayed for.    This year I have learned to appreciate the things that we sometimes take for granted--the seemingly bottomless refrigerator where we can always pull out something whenever we are hungry, the clean and comfy sheets we lay our body when we sleep, the cool breeze, the sun's rays kissing our cheeks in the morning, the falling leaves, the raindrops, the cheerful jeepney ...

In just a few days, we will be saying goodbye to 2010 and we will welcome 2011 with a bang (literally and figuratively).  I actually feel like it is 2011 already each time I wake up.  Yesterday, after office, I went to the market to buy a horn for my son.  He's only allowed to make noise on New Year for his safety.  And besides, I will not buy firecrackers so noise would be enough for us to celebrate it. Aside from Christmas, the most awaited celebration in the Philippines is the New Year.  In fact, some families have more preparations for New Year than Christmas.  Aside from celebrating it with firecrackers and noise, Filipinos have other beliefs and customaries at New Year. Photo from here . You will never see a household without a basket of 12 rounded fruits.  It is actually not hard to find 12 rounded fruits in the Philippines because our country is a fruits basket in itself.  The most popular fruits during New Year are (1) watermelon, (...

About three years ago, my fiance and I decided to move to a new house as one of our preparations for my giving birth. It was October and I was on my 6th month when we moved.  It was a hard task because of the accumulated appliances and furniture, not to mention our personal stuffs. The packing stage took us about a week, while the moving stage took us only a day because we had a little help from a bunch of friends.  We used to live around our friends houses so the moving became easy. Do you plan to move to a new house?  If you live away from friends or families, I suggest you hire movers.  My friend in the US said Las Vegas movers are the best.  She moved in to a new apartment about a month ago and being alone and away from relatives and friends are hard but movers made it all easier for her.

Vacation starts tomorrow and I am excited! I am not too much concerned about the hassles of last minute gift buying and buying foods for the Noche Buena... I am just so excited to do all those things because I haven't done grocery shopping for quite some time now. My sister asked me yesterday what I will prepare for Noche Buena.  I will probably have the usual stuffs--spaghetti, chicken, ham, loaf and salad.  After the mass at 10 PM, we will visit our grand folks just across the road, exchange foods and stories until we get tired. During Christmas day, my son and I will visit his grandparents and some godparents if time permits.  I plan to treat him to a movie but I will probably do it the next day. I have lots of plans for the Holidays. What do you plan to do this long weekend?

Photo from here . Do you think of New Year's resolutions as early as now? I haven't thought of it... in fact, I don't do resolutions.  I don't think resolutions to be better should be ritually done every New Year because we can start changing ourselves for the better any day even without an occasion.   I remember when I was in elementary up until high school, during the last day of school before Christmas vacation, my teachers would give us an assignment (yes, they are so cruel).  On the first day of classes during the new year, we will have to submit our New Year's resolutions.  If I have known that year after year I will have to do the assignment, I should have kept the first one that I made and just copy it year after year.  It is hard to do a resolution.  It is just like having a debate to yourself that you should be better in this area of your life and it is hard to negate oneself.  Listing the whats becomes even harder when your inner self ...

This Toyota Innova caught my attention this afternoon.  I was already tired after almost four hours of shopping when my eye had a glance of it from the inside of the jeepney we were riding.  It was traffic so I was able to get a photo of this really unique car.  It is unique because it has Louis Vuitton's logo all over it.  If you will zoom the photo, even the tissue holder on the dashboard is clad with Louis Vuitton.  I bet the owner of this car is so obsessed with the brand. I have seen tribal inspired prints, famous animes, sexy women and even Hello Kitty (looks awful) painted on cars but this is the first time I have seen a famous leather goods brand on a car.  I was not able to see the car seats, but I bet it also has LV on it. Why?