How Filipino are You?

A tag from Miss Anah
Thanks Anah. I think I'd scored perfect "20" coz I answered "yes" to all the questions. I added 7 more , hahahhaa just like you.I have more to add but I'll give others a chance.

Filipino are you? Are the Filipino traits strong in you? Are you the typical Filipino? Take this simple quiz I have fabricated to determine your being Filipino. Read the items below and tell whether or not you do or exhibit them and count the items that are true to you. After evaluating all the items refer to the gauge below with your points. Remember to take seriously the frequencies (at least once, twice…) in the items; if you lack even one frequency, then don’t count the item.

1. 
   
   1. You can speak Filipino (erstwhile Tagalog)
   2. Whenever necessary, you take the hand of an elder relative and pat the back of the palm of that hand to your forehead and say “mano po”
   3. You know “bayanihan” and had witnessed it personally at least once
   4. You’ve seen a bahay kubo at least once
   5. You’ve ridden on a jeepney at least five times
   6. You have separate clothes for in-house and outside use (pambahay at panglakad)
   7. You’ve eaten adobo, dinuguan, kakanin, tuyo, dilis
   8. Your meal is incomplete if without rice
   9. You hear Sunday masses and attend Misa de Gallo with your family
   10. You can sing “Lupang Hinirang” very well, with no lines missed
   11. You don’t care donning ragged and torn clothes exclusively for use inside home
   12. You have bought items in a “sari-sari store” at least ten times
   13. You have played patintero, tumbang preso and piko during your childhood
   14. You can sing at least five OPM songs, and know what OPM means
   15. You know the Philippine presidents from the year of your birth onwards
   16. You have witnessed “balagtasan” at least thrice
   17. You’ve been recounted with stories involving aswang, tikbalang, manananggal, nuno sa punso
   18. You’ve been read, have read or have heard Filipino legends (Ang Alamat ng…)
   19. You’ve lived, stayed or visited Philippine places other than your city or town at least seven times
   20. You’ve visited local (or public) wet market at least five times
   21. You have heard guys trying to sing Englebert Humperdink songs on a karaoke machine.
   22. Your main means of expressing anger is tampo.
   23. You eat with your hands or use your fork and spoon together.
   24. You visit home taking with you a few balikbayan boxes
   25. Your favorite almusal is Blend45 coffee and hot pandesal w/ some star margarine
   26. The smell of fried tuyo ( dried fish) feels like home.
   27. When you were a kid, you wear your best dress on Xmas day and visits your ninong & ninang for some agibaldo
   28. You'd rather sleep on a banig or papag than on a mattress
   29. You wear duster at home and tsinelas
   30. You use your lips to point at something.
   31 Always uses tabo no matter where you are.

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Here’s the gauge to tell how Filipino you are:
19 - 20 = The Filipino blood, spirit and flame burns intensely in you. You are the typical Filipino, who takes pride of your nationality.
15 - 18 = You are proud of your being Filipino and that the traits unique to most Filipinos live in you.
11 - 14 = You are the Filipino who, even adopting strongly the cultures of other nations, still don’t forget some old ways of the Filipino life.
7 - 10 = The Filipino culture has little by little been forgotten by you. You need to at least try some of the items mentioned.
4 - 6 = The Filipino culture has substantially faded in you, or that you have not been exposed to the true, authentic traits of being a Filipino.
1 - 3 = You’re a Filipino, only that you may have not been born and raised in the Philippines and had not lived up or been accustomed to the ways of Filipino living.
0 = You’re not a Filipino.

Anah & I haev mutual online freinds so I bet they are already tagged but I'd like to include Malditangpinay,Lutchi,Mamagirl,Ritchelle,Juliana,Sarah,geri,lani Rhebs,Tess,Bless,Vanessa&Wena

Wordless Wednesday ~ The Oregon Coast

Agate Beach,The Oregon Coast. The Water Here Is Freezing Cold Even In The Summer But The Ocean View Is Just Incredible

The Bluest Blue.What A Magnificent View

There Is Where I Would Like To Have A House When We Retire.

Princess With The Pacific Ocean Behind Her. Somewhere Beyond That Water Is The Philippines

Join Wordless Wednesday and share your photos

Weighing In ~ Week 3

Pound Lost This Week: 2 lbs
Total Pound Lost: 5 lbs

Target Weight : 110-115 lbs

More to go…….

My energy level has dramatically increased. I can finish my work out routine and not feel winded. The push ups and squats are becoming less painful and I could see visible definition on my muscles and abs.
The physical results of healthy eating ( don’t want to call it dieting any more) and regular work out are very important to me . Other than the decline on my weight , I need to see that my body is also going through desirable transformation. Specially as we age , our muscles loses firmness and our skin has less and less elasticity thus you see sagging arm or flat butt. If I could not see any results from my work out then it would be very hard for me to get motivated to keep eating healthy and do any physical activities.

Its too soon to post pictures but when I get to where I wanna be I would definitely show it off but not just to brag but perhaps to inspire others that if I can do it so can you.

Eating Healthy:

My quick and easy version of Chicken Teriyaki.
This recipe doesn’t need too long of prep time like my other version where the chicken or meat had to be marinate for period of time before you can grill or bbq it. This one is when you don’t have much time but still get similar flavor and still is very healthy

Quick And Easy Chicken Teriyaki

Ingredients:

• 1 pound boneless chicken breast. Cut into thin strips/pieces,


• 1" thick ginger . Cut into big chucks so you can just fish it out if u don’t like biting into the spicy ginger.


• 3 cloves of garlic , smashed and chopped finely


• half of a medium size onion , chopped finely


• ½ cup Kikkoman teriyaki sauce


• ¾ cup apple juice


• olive oil for sautéing


• salt and pepper to taste


• 2 tbs brown sugar ( optional )


• 1 tbs Corn starch dissolved in some water

Heat skillet . Medium to high heat
Add enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan.
Sauté garlic, onion and ginger till transparent
Add chicken, salt and pepper
let cook for about 2 mins or till the chicken is slightly cooked.
Add teriyaki sauce, apple juice and sugar.
Use spatula to move/mix the chicken around the pan then
let cook for another 4-6 minutes or till it boils.
Slowly add corn starch solution while mixing.
Cook for another 2 mins.

Serve with steamed rice

E For Excellent and a Cheer Me Up Award From Tess

I'd like to accept this award in behalf of all my fans all over the world!! (hahahhaha Tsssaring lang po)
Salamat mommy Tess for your thoughtfulness. I appreciate having my name mentioned in your blog very much.

A 15 Year Old Girl From The Philippines Wows the World!!

The caption says it all..She really does have the "WOW" factor.
My jaw just dropped while after when I heard her sing the first line of teh song and up to the end of it I was just dumbsruck. What a great talented girl and she's a filipina. She obviously have good vocal coach ( maybe her parents) and she definitely have incredible natural singing talent. You could see it from the way she delivers every phrases and the dynakics and emotions that only a proffesional singer with many years of traning could do. Her stage present is impecible for such a young age , its as if she'd been on stage since the day she was born.


I hope she continues a great career in singing and posibly some international recording or perhaps the American Idol when she's old enough. I hopethat her parents guide her in the right path and I hope too that she always listen to the advice of her guardians.

I am very proud for her being a kababayan and a fellow singer too.
Every oohs and aaahhs from the audience she truly deserves.

Wordless Wednesday ~ New York Minute

Got this idea from idealpinkrose.
Great way to show case your talent ( or lack of ) in photography :)

Grand Central Station, N.Y. This is the view when you look up from below ( see the clock at the bottom? ). They even had a lazer show that day but my camera was not powerful enough to capture the dancing lazer beams on the beautiful curved ceiling. I love the details on the windows and the crown moldings.

Ground Zero, N.Y. City. It was a bright sunny day when this photo was taken about 2 years ago.My husband's office was just right across the spot where the Twin Tower used to stand.

Want to join Wordless Wednesday? Click Here

Weighing In

Week 2 : 1.5 lost
Total Weight Lost : 3 lbs.


I find it truly encouraging to put your progress in writing or better yet , in your blog.
I was afraid that I didn’t lose any weight because Shinjo got sick on the weekends and I just couldn't do my work out while worrying at the same time but I tried really hard to keep my portion control . I cheated a little bit after my kids requested chocolate cake for dessert :).

Monday Shinjo still has high fever and I just monitored his temperature in case it spikes up and we have to rush to the ER. Fortunately, his fever subsided in the evening .

I didn’t do my work out for 3 day L so today I was adamant to step on the scale but I was glad I did because it went down another one and a half pound. It was enough to give me the adrenaline to do my cardio routine and even went over a few extra minutes.


I am really inspired by Rhebs, Tony and Geri because they are consistent with their weight loss goal and they have the body to prove it. I’ve been seeing a lot of programs out there to help shed excess pounds but I’m too cheap to spend any dollars. I have a few work out DVD’s at home and a couple of work out machine so I think the thought of wasted money if I don’t use them would drive me to take advantage of stuff that I already have and later on if there’s negative result then I would definitely sign up on something even buy a gym membership coz I really don’t want the size of my clothes to go higher….lower….it should be lower…size 2-4 would be ideal.

Eating Healthy

Chicken Cutlet With Parmesan and Mozzarella Cheese and Stir-fried Veggies

Note: This is my own version of famous chicken parma but w/ a little healthier twist

Ingredients:

• Chicken Breast or tenders : cut into small strips and pounded till thin.


• parmesan and mozzarella cheese


• Mustrad


• Olive oil


• Salt and pepper

Heat your non-stick skillet and add oil. Avoid over heating because olive oil burns faster than regular cooking oil.
Mean time , season your chicken with salt and pepper.
With a turkey or basting brush , smother chicken cutlet with mustard
then roll them in the cheese mixture till covered.
Fry them in batches to brown evenly.
Don’t over crowed the skillet coz heat wont circulate and chicken will get soggy.

Set aside cooked cutlets over paper towels .

Stir-Fry Veggies

• Yellow and Red bell pepper cut into thin strips


• Broccoli florets


• Onion sliced thin


• Some garlic


• Some broth ( chicken or beef)


• Olive oil

Heat skillet then add olive oil
Saute garlic and onion till transparent , don’t let it get brown.
Add broccoli and let cook for 2 mins.
When broccoli is tender, add the yellow and red bell pepper.
Add broth ( just enough to steam the veggies )
Season with salt and pepper.
Cook for another 2 mins.

Serve with steamed rice or fresh baked rolls.

Bridges

The weather guy says that we will be experiencing 'arctic temperature" in the next few days and he was right on the money. Its been so freezing and I just didn’t feel like doing anything. Still ,its early in the day so I can still do my work out later on after all the chores are done ( and my blogging of course). My DS is coughing and has slight fever so I gave him some meds and it made him tired and sleepy. He’s been in bed all day ( poor thing).

Since there’s nothing new going on in my little life, I my mind decided to go back in the past and thought about all the beautiful places that I’ve seen. I truly regret that I didn’t have a camera back then to capture those amazing places. Thanks to the internet , I can still see the pictures of these stuff that I once and still do admires . In another life I think I would have become an architect or an engineer because I love looking at beautiful buildings ,sculptures, monuments and bridges .

First in my mind is the Penang Bridge in Malaysia. I was very young when I went to Penang back in 1991 and even then I already have such deep appreciation about this beautiful structure. I’m thinking maybe because in the Philippines were we have so many bridges , we don’t have anything as remarkable as the Penang bridge. We do have the San Juanico bridge in Leyte but it’s only 2 km long compared to over 13km length of Penang Bridge.

The Penang Bridge

When I was in Hong Kong 8 years ago, I was fortunate enough to see Tsing Ma bridge that takes you to the new Hong Kong International Airport (chep lap kok) . This bridge is immensely long( 1,377 metres ) and the view was just spectacular. You can take the bus or the train to get to the airport and back and they all goes through Tsing Ma Bridge.

Tsing Ma Bridge

When I came to New York in 2004 , the my eyes was just field with so many amazing structures. Old classic buildings with all its original details , unique sculptures and artworks and bridges. oh boy, do they have quite a few especially in downtown NY but of course the most popular of all is the Brooklyn bridge. I remember while driving through that bridge that I had to pinch myself and say “ Wow , I truly am in NY”.

The Brooklyn Bridge .Photo curtesy of hemmy.net

I hope someday I'd see the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Stobaelt in Denmark, The Sidney Harbour Bridge in Australia , Le Pont de Normandie and in The Millau Bridge France , the Tower Bridge and the Westminster Bridge in the UK.

Special Thanks To These Websites For The Photographs:
http://www.bestcoolpics.blogspot.com/
www.stringthebean.blogspot.com
www.globalgeografia.com
http://www.edsphotoblog.com
http://www.fintecna.it/

A Pound A Week

Its what the health expert says when it comes to losing weight. I started out lat week doing 30-40 mins with the elliptical every other day and strictly monitoring my diet ( although I still sneak little bites of treats ) . In the past I would go crazy with my work out routine then crash and burn after a 2 weeks or so and could never recover. I plan to do it gradually this time and be more honest with myself.

I incorporated some aerobic work out as well so I don’t get bored with the machine. I had this work our video of Carmen Electra for while now and its one of my favorite work out coz it addresses all of muscle groups and the routine are quite challenging ( which I like) plus you get inspired by Carmen’s gorgeous physique that makes you tell yourself “ I wanna have that kind of body “.Today I weigh myself and I lost 1.5 pound.
Good start.. good start...

I decided that I’m gonna post my progress in here in my blog ( like Geri & Rhebs) coz I think it helps your motivation. I really, really hope that I can reach my goal this year. Its hard…very hard…. every push ups , every crunches , every minutes on the machine…its hard and it hurts…but I know that the result will be so much rewarding..

Special Thanks to Rhebs for sharing with me some useful tools for my weight loss goals. I really appreciate it. I’ll try to keep up with the meal tracker.


Eating Healthy
Do you love dumplings??
Here is an easy way of making it with all the flavors but without the guilt.

Steamed Dumplings

Note: Measurements depends on how many people are going to eat. A pound of ground turkey should be enough for 4-5 people. I just eye-ball the measurements so its all up to you but make sure ingredients are chopped very finely so it is easier to keep the warpper sealed. Reserve some of garlic and green onions for your dipping sauce

• Dumpling wrappers


• Ground Turkey (white meat)


• Crushed Garlic


• Chopped Green Onions


• Chopped White or Shitaki mushroom


• Chopped Water Chestnuts( for some crunch)


• Egg whites(to seal the meat inside the wrappers)


• Salt and pepper to taste


• A teaspoon or so of paprika


• Half teaspoon of brown sugar (optional)

Dipping Sauce

• Vinegar


• Soya sauce


• reserve garlic and green onions


• pepper and some sugar to taste

Mix ingredient together and set aside for 5-10 mins to let all the flavor blend in .
Wrappers has to be in room temperature so it wont break.
Start boiling a little bit of water on a big pot with lid.
If you don’t have a steamer, just put a small bowl upside down and put a larger plate on top where you can arrange your dumpling to steam.
Spray a little bit of Pam on your steaming plate or wipe with oil so wrappers wont stick.

While waiting for the water to boil. start wrapping your meat. Make sure that you seal it tight so juices wont come out.
Steam till wrapper looks transparent. Avoid over cooking.

Serve with Dipping sauce.
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Dark Spots On Your T.V.???

My son found some magnets and thought that it will be fun to stick them on our TV screen while the color changes as he glides those little magnets and as a result was some discoloration on the screen. I freaked out because I thought we’ll gonna have to spend money on a new TV set. DH found a solution which was kinda cool so I thought I’d share them to you just in case you have the same problem. Its all here in this website http://www.woil.ws/fixmonitor/.

To Build Or Not To Build

Its been a little tense in our household lately because we’ve been planning on building our own home for quite some time now and finally at the last couple of week of December last year , we found a vacant lot that is just perfect for our plan. It is located in a well established neighborhood , great school , close to everything including hobby’s office and the price is just right for our budget.

So what are we waiting for?? Why not go for it??Well, it turns out that it is not that easy to purchase a piece of property.There are a number of steps that goes with it before you can sign the papers.You’d think we’ve done enough research about real estate stuff but surprisingly there’s a gargantuan legal procedures that you have to follow and we just talking about the LOT…there’s still the construction part of it which is another ball game.

Why didn’t we just buy a move-in ready house ??
There are plenty of options in our area for any kind of house that you can afford .Beaverton and the nearby Hillsboro area is where big multimillion companies have set up their branches and headquarters ( such as Nikes, Intel, Google, Netflix) so the demand for houses, condos , townhomes and apartments is booming. That being said , most of the area are already developed and very few vacant lot are available for people who wants to build their own just like us. That’s why it has been taking this long till we found the ideal lot for our future home. Another reason why we decided to build is because we really wanted to have control on the over-all design of the house and even though we are talking about a huge mansion here , it is where we are gonna spend our lives and raise our kinds so it is very important for us to have a home were we will be comfortable make it really your own.

So ok, we found the lot. It’s the fist lot on a street with homes that are probably no more than 5 years old. Everything seems to look good and the seller is very accommodating to all of our questions. Before we could finalize the sale , there has to be some inspection done and we’ve found out that the lot might have some problem ( like the soil might not be stable enough to support the house ) . My husband is really pouring out all his attention to this project and I really appreciate his enthusiasm and efforts coz if it were just me , I would have just walked away and give up coz it is such a lot of work to begin with. But he is determined that this is what is really best for our family and I can’t argue with him on that because he is known for taking serious risk ( like marrying a somebody from the Philippines against all odds and his family’s disapproval) if his mind is set into something and he will definitely do every possible way he can to get what he wants. Tons of research , hours of phone calls , meeting etch etch.

Grant liked the location so much so I heis trying to make a away to make the plan possible and he is now in the process in making sure that the house will be safely built on a stable lot and minimize any problem.

Just to give you an idea of how we like the house to look like, here is a sample picture .Its over 2000sq feet , with 4 bedrooms 2 and a half bath . 2 car garage , and a bonus/media room upstairs. My husband best friend is a license builder and he is the perfect man for the job. I am very excited about this project but at the same time a little nervous because it’s a very big financial responsibility . We would really need to be extra careful with our spending and we also need to find ways to be more conservative and to be honest….cheap...I have no problem with that I think so long as we have rice in the pantry, we will never gonna be hungry.

In this process I learned a lot of things that are very important if you are planning on buying or building a house and I'd like to share a couple of useful websites.

Lets say you found a property and you want to find out if the price is right according to current market value. You can go to this website called Zillow.Com and you can type in the address of the property anywhere in the country that you are planning to buy and it will show you a map with homes in the surrounding neighborhood and information such as current price, size, numbers of bedroom etch etch. You can even zoom in and see the arial view of the property!! Now how cool is that!! It can give you an idea of value of your own property incase you plan on selling.

This next website also very useful for families who wanna make sure that their kids goes to a good school. You might have heard of it. Its called Greatschool.net. Type in your address or your neighborhood and it will show you every school with ratings from 1-10 , parents reviews, student to teacher ratio etch etch.. Some parents prefers a more diverse school or maybe they are looking for private or public…any kind of information that will help you rest assured that your children is getting the most out of their school.

And lastly ,did you know that Google has new feature called Streetview where in you can see the image of the location and its surrounding on an eye-level view?? Used to be just aerial or birds-eye view but now you can actually see the front of the property and its street without having to go there.Although this latest feature is fairly new and there are still many areas that they have not covered but pretty soon they will. I think the advantage is that it limits those scammers that sells property with all false discription and the buyers waste their time driving to the location and find out what a disappointment it was. The downside is , now everybody could see how your house looks like. Makes you rethink about those repairs that's been sitting for ages.Technology is really awesome.

New Year New Look

I’ve always wanted a make over for my blog but I’m not an html savvy so it took quite some time ( about a month ) to gather up all the steps and techniques to get what I wanted ( or come close) and so here it is…my new 2008 layout. Can’t get me a brand new car but I’m just as excited to have a new look for my blog.


2007 breezed my life away just like a cold December weather in the Philippines.When you have kids , they take over your life , your world , your mind and I can’t seems to recall any significant event that happened to ME.. except for my weight gain .Hahahhaaa

There it goes again. Like an old broken record .The love-hate affair with dieting. All through this years of trying to fit in my skinny jeans , to no avail , I have learned that with the age factor , there is nothing that will work to keep in shape but to eat sensibly ,healthy and be physically active. In my case, I am having a hard time sticking with the later. But I know there is absolutely no excuse even wiht the unforgiving rainy season here in Oregon. I should be able to find time and don't make any more lazy excuses.



Like the 5 Stages Of Grief :
• Denial (this isn't happening to me!)
• Anger (why is this happening to me?)
• Bargaining (I promise I'll be a better person if...)
• Depression (I don't care anymore)
• Acceptance (I'm ready for whatever comes)

Now , I'm at the last stage. I went through all of that and it took a while to get to the final point…Acceptance…I know now that if I don’t kick my big fat butt to do some work out CONSISTENTLY…I’m never gonna get to my weight goal. Another thing is I should stop feel bad for left over food. I hate throwing food away so instead of going to the trash , they ends up on my thighs..

I salute all those people who lost their excess weight and stick to their work out routine and healthy lifestyle because it's not easy.


This year , my new blog theme is a salute to a new lifestyle…..staying fit and eating right!!