March | 2008 | GreyMom

TLC’s The Secret Life of a Soccer Mom

There’s this new show on TLC entitled “The Secret Life of a Soccer Mom“. The premise of the show is that a Mom goes off for one week. Her family thinks she’s off to a spa getaway but the truth is that she’s on a one week soul searching journey. Reliving what she used to be or trying out what she’s always wanted to do. At the end of the week, she gets to decide whether to pursue a career or stay at home. I watched this episode where a former award- winning chef had to give up her career to care for her 2 toddlers and stay at home with the kids. I can totally relate. Of course I’m no award-winning chef but I did give up my career to stay at home and take care of my kids and husband. And seeing the woman be in her element in the kitchen was really something. She even said: “this is the best right here, just me with my spoon. I’m happy”.

It made me think of me. Of what I could have been and what I could become. There are restrictions now that I have kids. Daycare expenses, the thought of leaving the kids to strangers and letting them raise your kids does not appeal to me. So we make sacrifices. For the sake of the kids. For the sake of our marriage. For the sake of our husbands. And sometimes we get lost in the process. Who am I now? What have I become? And we lose the self-confidence, the self-esteem, the feeling of self-worth. Can I still do it? Will I be able to deliver?

Now I know that the TV producers just might have thought of this show as another way to make money and capitalizing on the reality-based shows’ successes. But it still made an impact and was thought provoking enough for me to write about it here in my blog. It made me pause and ponder.

I have yet to watch another episode. Once was enough to have made an impact.

image credits: www.tvguide.com

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on March 28, 2008 at 12:43 pm Comments (17)
Tags: stay-at-home-moms, TV Shows

A Year of Blogging

my very first attempt at an angel cake to celebrate my first year of blogging

I just saw from my registration here at WordPress that I recently celebrated my one year anniversary. And even though I do have posts from way back, they were basically lifted from my jurassic era (read: paper-and-pen journal). I’ve been writing and been uploading pics and receiving awards and making friends and I am very grateful. But I am still a newbie. I have yet to figure out a lot of things:

How do I protect my pictures? Sometimes I don’t upload pics to my posts for fear of being snatched away by pic thieves. And can you say privacy issues? I don’t want images of my sons in some wireless phone ad just like what happened here.
How do I do the widget thingy on the right side showing the award I got and in the process thanking the people who gave me the awards? I did it with the Rockin’ Blogger things but has since forgotten. Which makes me feel incredibly incompetent.
How do I do the RSS feeds? I still manually go to the blogs on my blogroll my clicking on their site.
How can I enlarge my fonts? I squint whenever I read my posts.

Can you say techie challenged?

I am very grateful for what blogging has done for me. I have met new blogger friends and have made connections. I have shared my stories as they have theirs and I shared some emotions I haven’t dared share with my relatives and friends. Special mention goes to Pinoy Moms Network where I met awesome Pinoy Moms from all over the world. You all rock!

And so goes a year of blogging. Here’s to another year. And another. And another.

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Blogging

on March 27, 2008 at 9:21 pm Comments (21)

Enchanted

I finally watched “Enchanted“! The DVD came out on Tuesday and while I had been waiting with bated breath (along with 27 Dresses which have yet to be released on DVD), I totally forgot. The boys being on Spring Break and TheFisherman having to cover for one of his co-workers, ergo a new work schedule, my schedule has been totally off track. It threw off my routine completely. Thank God it’s only for a week. I can not stand one more week of this madness!

Anyways, back to my McDreamy, who in this case plays the part of Robert, a divorce lawyer. Amy Adams is such a delight in this show. This role is tailor-cut for her and she really played the part of a Disney princess really well! Susan Sarandon is deliciously wicked as the evil stepmother. And the incorporation of real world and animation was fascinating! Such good, clean fun this movie. I even sat and watched through all the bonus features – bloopers, deleted scenes and the technical stuff. And at the risk of sounding like an old person, they don’t make this kind of movies anymore. Well, there’s High School Musical which had no sex, profanity nor toilet humor but that was for the tween group. Enchanted will be more of the adults-who-still-believe-in-happy-endings group, one where I belong.

image credits: www.justjared.com

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Movies

on March 24, 2008 at 2:15 pm Comments (9)

Spring Has Sprung!

It is finally Spring! And I am awake on it’s first hour. I have waited for this day and I am so glad it is finally here! Bring on the yard work, the flowers, the birds, the trees. I am so ready! I think this Robin’s ready too. I found him perched on top of my neighbor’s fence. And is that straw on it’s beak?

The boys are on Spring Break right now and they’ll be back to school next week. TheFisherman’s been covering for a co-worker which means he has a different work schedule. And so right now my own routine has been completely off track. But no worries, I’m finally feeling better. Well, I do sniffle a little bit every now and then but I am not complaining after all I’ve been through.

I have yet to make the rounds with my camera. I plan to take pictures of new life. I will post pics as soon as I get them. For now, here’s to new life. Here’s to hope.

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Spring

on March 20, 2008 at 2:25 pm Comments (2)

Add Up to the Love Train

Wenchie tagged me for this. Thanks Wenchie! Now let’s spread some love!

I have randomly selected 5 of you below to be tagged and I hope that you will similarly publish this post in your blog. You will have to tag 5 other bloggers and just keep adding on to the list. (Do not replace, just keep on adding! Yes we hope it will be a long list!

It’s real easy! Tag others and see your Technorati Authority increase exponentially! The benefits of Viral Linking:

One of the fastest ways to see your technorati authority explode!
– Increase your Google PageRank fast
– Attract large volume of new traffic to your site
– Build your community
– Make new friends!

The Strategist Notebook, Link Addiction, Ardour of the Heart, When Life Becomes a Book, The Malaysian Life, Yogatta.com, What goes under the sun, Roshidan’s Cyber Station, Sasha says, Arts of Physics, And the legend lives, My View, My Life, A Simple Life, Juliana RW, The Callalily Space, Petra, Summer in Blue, Confessions of an Army Wife, Bless’ Sanctuary, Happy Life, Living @ Evergreen State, La Place de Cherie, Chez Francine, Le bric a brac de Cherie, Little Peanut, Pea in a Pod, The Creative In Me, Me and Mine, Me and my Two Boys, My Life is Peachy, Chat, My Happy Place, Raising Sandy, I am Dzoi, Snapshots of Life, My BIG Picture, Welcome To My World, Hannah, Michellie, Lisa, Ris, Scotty’s Princess, What Women REALLY Think, Not Much More Than This, Jayedee , Jenn, Beth, Christie , Marla, Cailin, Simone, FlipFlopMom, Katrina , Gill’s Jottings , Work of the Poet, Wakela, Modern Day Goddess, Livin With Me, Writing in Faith , Maiylah’s Snippets, Soulful Thoughts of Rachel, REPAH, My Little Moments, Missy Misyel, Mga Muni-muni, Gina, Rowena’s The Sweet Life, GreyMom, you’re next…

Hailey, IA, Rey,DanaDebbie, and Momoftwo .

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on March 18, 2008 at 12:15 pm Comments (3)

Movies Recently Rented and Viewed

Dirty Pretty Things – you wouldn’t know from the title that this is a good movie with social awakening. Starring Audrey Tautou (which TheFisherman has a crush on but vehemently denies it), this is a movie about immigrants and the things they had to go through to make it. Very good movie, some disturbing scenes but not a violent movie, or at least not that much.

Lucky 7 – starring Patrick Dempsey and Kimberly Williams. Love both actors since the 80’s when he was the dorky dude with the moppy hair (Can’t Buy Me Love, With Honors, to name a few) and she the baby daughter that the father did not want to give away (Father of the Bride). A romantic comedy, this is definitely a chic flick.

Black Water– set in Australia, a group of 4 people venture out into the mangrove swamps to go fishing and gets tangled in the murky, dark waters. Long and boring, this was a slow-paced suspenseful movie. Good one if you’re one of those types of people who can stare at the screen for hours on end watching Discovery channel shows. There were moments when you feel scared but I don’t care much for these types of movies.

Into the Wild – much hyped about movie directed by Sean Penn and starring Emile Hirsch. I thought the character was pretty selfish. Maybe it’s the Mom in me but for this person to go out and venture out into the world after a comfortable life handed out to him by his generous parents and not tell them anything is being very very selfish indeed. I mean, I am all for the “finding oneself” and being a non-conformist but to let his parents and sister go through what they went through is totally unacceptable. The movie was long and could have been shorter and still had the point across. The scenery was breathtaking though and the acting was good.

Beowulf – We started to watch this with the kids as it said “not rated” in the Blockbuster sleeve. But about 5 minutes into the movie and the words “whore” and “fornication” were mentioned. We had to stop it there and then and told the kids not to watch it. The computer animation made everything look forced and stoic. Angelina Jolie plays a monster who masquerades as a beautiful woman out to seduce kings. It was an okay movie but definitely not for the kids. Too much gore, violence and foul language.

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Movies

on March 12, 2008 at 12:44 pm Comments (8)

Two Weeks

So we were down for the count after having been struck with yet another virus. And once again, I was the hardest hit. Having suffered a “double whammy” as my Doctor said. I’ve been to the Doctor’s office every month for the past 3 months and am bracing for this month. I do hope not. I did lose 10 lbs from the whole deal and have been careful with my rice intake. My sons are okay except that it is nearly Spring and we have to stock up on antihistamine meds in preparation.

TheFisherman insists Spring is right around the corner. He said he’s been seeing robins everywhere. Tween1 says his allergies are acting up and Tween2 just shrugs and continues on with playing. Me? I am excited about garage sales and flea markets. I anticipate the Spring cleaning and am itching to purge stuff as well. I have given away most of my skinny clothes. Not because I have given up on getting thin but because it’s cathartic to get rid of stuff that are otherwise crowding my closet. I can easily buy more clothes once garage sale season is here.

We had to miss one party last week. Which is just as well. It’s been 4 weeks in a row with the same people and I am packing up the pounds with all the pot luck parties. I am however, looking forward to camping and fishing and being out in the sun. I think I’ll even get a tan. One of those golden tans that glisten in the sun. I’ve always been envious of sun kissed tans. Being on the fair side, I only get red and not tan. I think tan people look healthy and glowing and sexy. There are a lot of products out there but I am hesitant to try lest I look orange and not tan.

Apologies to my blogger friends. I haven’t been visiting much lately. I am still recuperating and have been offline for the past 2 weeks. Life goes on though and I have been busy with mommy and wifey chores. Promise to visit y’all soon!

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