STONECPS

Hubby and I took a leave from work last Wednesday as hubby just arrive form his three-weeks posting and so we wanted to spend some quality time together.

We started our day late as we arrived late Tuesday evening because we went out with my family to celebrate my mom’s birthday. Hubby and I brought our daughter to her Enopi class and then while waiting, we dropped by Chinese General Hospital for my monthly pre-natal checkup. After an hour, we have to go back to B’s school to fetch her and then we had lunch at our favorite restaurant, Café Monaco.

After lunch, we went back to Chinese General Hospital for hubby’s check up as he is experiencing tummy ache ever since he came back from Kolonya and he is thinking that he might have Amoebiasis again. His doctor confirmed that he is just constipated since he even gained weight which is a sure sign that he doesn’t have Amoebiasis. (Hubby gained 10 pounds which means that he really needs to go on a diet and do exercise to loose weight. Now I am thinking to buy him pull up bars to get him started with his exercise routine).

And because we promised B that we will take her to the mall, we went to SM Megamall as per B’s request, after our check up where we treated her to some toy shopping. She bought stuffed animals again and she went home not with one, but with three stuffed toy animals – zebra, a frog and her sexy peacock.

It was really one long day but B and I are both happy since hubby is back here with us.

I have been planning for our family summer outing for days now and it seems as though up to now, we haven’t agreed on where to go this summer. The problem: the budget.

My aunt asked me to plan for it since last month and I have been researching the net for the best place that our family can go for two days and one night. This outing is for all my relatives from my mom’s side of the family. We are composed of 17 adults and 5 kids. The only request that they require when they asked me to plan for this trip is:

• It should not be that far so our grand mother won’t have a hard time with the long travel
• The resort is not that expensive
• The beach resort should have a swimming pool so the kids can really have fun

My cousin found a place called Pueblo Por La Playa. It is a private, members-only resort in Quezon. My cousin got the quote from the resort and I presented it to all my relatives. I even showed them the website and they just love the place - the resort have infinity pools, a spa, and the resort offers different sports activities like volleyball, kayaking and jet ski. But since we are a little tight on the budget, my relatives find the rate per person a bit expensive and some of my relatives can’t afford to pay for all their family members to join this trip.

The kids in our family are all excited already after seeing how nice the place is so I really wanted for this trip to push through. The last time our entire family went on a family vacation was last January when we spent the New Year in Tagaytay and we really had a blast so we are all really hoping that we can do the same thing again this summer.

Now I am tempted to get payday loans since we plan to leave next weekend and it is a few days short from payday so I can pay at least half of the expenses so my other relatives won’t have to think of their contribution and all of us can join the trip. I also plan to talk to my brother and see how much he can shoulder.

I am really hoping that we will be able to finalize this trip before the week ends as it is really getting difficult to book for the accommodation since it is already the peak of the summer. I hope that my family can enjoy the sand, the sea and the sun soon.

Philippine Airlines is celebrating their 70th Anniversary and they are having promos on their airfare. And to counter this offer, Cebu Pacific offered a 70% off promo also from April 1-2.

My good friend Kathy alerted us of this promo. I was not tempted at first to book a flight as the travel period is from January – March 2011 but then on the first day of the promo I woke up around 5:30 AM just to check the rate and it was so affordable. The problem is I tried and tried searching and there are no more available seats during weekends and since school is still open during those months, I don’t want B to skip school for two to three days and I have no choice but to say no again for this promo (Yah, I really feel disappointed because the airfare is only P1000 round trip from Manila to Kalibo).

Oh well maybe this promo is really not meant for me. LOL. I hope they will release another promo soon as we really plan to go on an out of town vacation when baby boy is already big enough to travel by plane.

I haven’t discussed this with hubby yet as he is away (but I plan to discuss this with him when he return from his assignment next week), but I was thinking about a solution to resolve our dilemma on whether to renovate our house in Bulacan or purchase a new house here in Manila.

You see, hubby and I have been thinking if we will proceed with our plan to get a new housing loan to finance the renovation of our house in Bulacan. The problem is, Bulacan is quite far from the city which is where our kids will be studying. So we are thinking if we just buy a smaller house in Manila instead where it is close to the schools that we are considering for our kids.

But I got an idea this morning:

• Since our house in Bulacan only needs renovations (like changing of the kitchen sinks to Franke sinks, replacing the ceiling, the wood frame in the bedrooms, etc) then we don’t need that big amount of money to finance the renovation. The house there is just bungalow style with three rooms but I think it is big already for the size of our family so we don’t need to demolish it completely and build a house of our dreams from scratch. We can just repair some parts of the house to make it look nice so we can make it as our weekend house.
• Then we can get a loan then to buy a much smaller house here in Manila which will be closer to the schools where our kids will be studying.

Actually I am excited about this idea. I know how much hubby wants to live in the suburbs but I know he also doesn’t want his kids to have a hard time commuting to and from school everyday because it will be stressful for them. At least with this setup, we can go home to our house in Bulacan during weekends so hubby can relax and rest after a very tiring week at work.

Let us see what he gets to say with my idea when he comes back.

I saw this from the website of Pear Tree and this gives me an idea to send out photo birth announcements upon the arrival of our cute baby boy.

I was not able to do this when I had my first born but this is a perfect idea to show our precious son to our friends and relatives especially to those who are abroad and who can’t visit us in the hospital so they can have a fist glimpse of our second baby. So I already forwarded the link to hubby so he can choose among the photo cards from the site.

And speaking of our second baby, I am starting to plan again for the Christening of our baby. I actually have a list of restaurants and clubhouses that we can consider as our reception venue after the church ceremony. When hubby arrives, we will check each of this restaurants and clubhouses so we will know which one to book. I also have a caterer in mind already and I am also considering getting a dessert package from SanFo Treats:

It looks really yummy isn’t it? Hope we can fit this dessert table in our budget.