Anyway, allow me to share with you the highlights of my long hiatus.

- Had my much-awaited trip to Caramoan, Camarines Sur with my friends in the office last June 17-19.

- I dropped our precious Nikon D40 camera (DSLR) on the way to church on Father’s Day. It’s only 3 months old! We haven’t had it fixed until now. *sad, sad, sad* We’re back to using our old Samsung S630 digicam temporarily.

- As usual, our workload in the office seemed to double-up. And what’s sad is, the attrition rate went up. Almost every one I talk to wants to resign and find an account or company that would give them the work-life balance they deserve. *sigh*

- Attended the “Raising Godly Kids” seminar conducted by our church for two Saturdays. I learned a lot! I’ll be sharing with you the details of this life-changing seminar on my parenting blog when I have enough time. I look forward to attending more seminars in the future!

- Finally, my husband and I now belong to a small group in church that meets every Tuesday morning after work. Since we both work in a call center (same company), it was very hard for us to join a group that usually meets in the afternoon or evening. Thank God for the countless answered prayers!

- Had the outside of our house re-painted. Guess what the color is? Violet! Hehe. Nice one!

- On July 10, we officially dedicated our baby Ayesha to Jesus Christ. We only had two weeks to prepare for this special event, but I’m so glad it turned out fine. Click here to view the photos.

- I recently attended the 2nd PTA meeting at my son’s new school. For some weird reason, one mother nominated me to be the President. My opponent and I initially had the same number of votes. So to break the tie, I voted for my opponent. Haha! *big grin* I thought I was free from the responsibility, but the same person who nominated me as President nominated me again for the Vice-President post. And this time, I won! Waaaaaaaa!!!!

I think I have more to include in the list, but I can’t remember them all now. (sign of aging?)

Okay, there ‘ya go. It’s time to hit the sack. God bless you!

My fellow QAs prepared a welcome tarpaulin for me. They hung it at my station. How sweet! Thanks, guys! It really made my day.

Proverbs 22:26
Train a child in the way he should go, and even when he’s old he will not turn away from it.

Two weeks from now, my 78-day maternity leave will come to an end. I can’t help but feel a little melancholy. I know I’ll have a lot of catching up to do in the office and I’ll probably be very busy. I am scared to lose time and energy for my little angels. Part of me just wants to stay at home and take care of the kids, do a little ministry work in our church and put up a small business. But the truth is, I don’t have the guts to do so. I know in my heart that being a stay-at-home mom is a luxury that I can’t afford right now.

I need to help my husband reach our goals. After all, it’s for our kids’ future. All we want is to give them the kind of life they deserve.

My wonderful children, Greg (4 years old) and Ayesha (1 month old).

I only hope and pray that God would help us raise our children well while working earnestly for their future. Child-rearing is not an easy task. You don’t instantly reap what you sow. As parents, we are bound to wait years till we see the real fruit of our hardwork. One day, I want to be able to give myself a pat on the back and say, “Honney, you did an excellent job raising your children!”

Aside from island hopping and snorkeling (yes, I finally tried snorkeling for the first time and I soooo loved it!), what I enjoyed the most in Puerto Galera is SHOPPING!!! Beach dresses, t-shirts, board shorts, swim suits, sarongs, beach bags, slippers and all sorts of souvenirs are cheap there. So I went shopping until I dropped! Hahaha!

Here are some of my favorite photos taken by my husband.

More photos here.

Travel tip:
Always stay at a beach front resort especially if you’re traveling with a big group so you’ll have a quicker and easier access to the beach. In my experience during our recent stay in Puerto Galera, some of my team mates spent an ample time sleeping/staying in the room because they’re too lazy to go out. My god.

I had fun, sure, but too much time had been wasted.

Have a nice day!

Anyway, I’m going back to work tonight and I’m quite sure I have a lot of catching up to do so I’ll be very busy till the end of January. I’ll be fixing this site as soon as I can and will be blogging about our vacation in Bohol. We took more than one thousand pictures! Hahaha!

By the way, it’s my 28th birthday tomorrow. Tatanda na naman ako! Hay….

Basic Excel

Advance Excel

We studied how to name cells and ranges, data validation (my favorite topic), conditional formatting, V and H lookup functions, data lists and pivot tables just to name a few. Sa totoo lang e na-nosebleed ako kasi may Math!

Both trainings lasted for five hours (including the exam) and our trainer was great. He’s not strict when it comes to the English Only Policy. Yep, working in a call center is all about speaking English na walang humpay! To the extent na minsan e nakakasuka na. (of course I’m just exaggerating)

Kidding aside, what I love most about my job is the learning experience itself. Which makes me realize that there are so many things that we can learn each day. So we should never stop learning!

Just like what my favorite philosopher, Mahatma Gandhi, said: “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. LEARN as if you were to live forever…”

Needless to say, I think I’m ready to be a corporate slave again.

I’ve been feeling sick since last week. My throat, head and nape hurt pretty badly. Good thing my flu is almost gone.

I’m going home finally.
After 15 hours of work…

Click on the image to enlarge!