Wednesday, October 31

change is always good!

well, i've been contemplating on which blog should i keep. but i've decided to take this to the next level. i'm very optimistic so i really think that change is good. we just have to learn the process and soon we'll get use to it and eventually learn to love it!

so, what am i really proposing here... well, i created an account with multiply.com and so far i'm likin' it.... so i decided to go and transfer all the blogs created here and use that account instead.

i'll keep this one open for my team bloggers, but i'll start the link now for my readers.

hope you'll like it as much as i do! don't worry, if it doesn't work out, then i can always go back *wink*

be blessed with all the possibilities ahead of you!!!

Tuesday, October 30

Feeling Blessed?

I know I just finished blogging about our trip to Canada but I thought of sharing you something that hit me today when I went to the office with my husband to talk to our team. See, my husband and I have been in business for almost 7 yrs now. In the beginning of our business, I was more of making money and recruting everyone. Didn't really care so much for my people. And so the years passed, so many things happened in our business. Some people that we brought into the business are still here, some became our family, some are still clients for years, some still referring people, some still calls us and invite us for parties or just to have lunch of dinner, some became our sister and brothers in christ. We love all of them. It's funny because William and I became a mom and dad to them. Now, I don't even see this business as work anymore. I see everyone that we brought into this business fighting for their dreams, their families. One person I brought into this business. When I met him, he was so depressed. He lost hope. Didn't know what to do anymore. He couldn't find a job. He has 7 siblings that his supporting and mortgage to pay. God gives hope. Doesn't matter how old they are. Some are 20's, some are late 40's, different background, some are just highschool grad, we also have professional - nurses, lawyers, doctors but then again when they accomplished their dreams, something is missing. They don't have the peace & joy. And God is the only one that can give them the PEACE & JOY. One thing I know for sure is God made us all and HE loves us all.

I've been reading this book called Guide to Success..

Let me just share you part of what I read.. It says ---

Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Sometimes things come to us. The work seems to go smoothly and the rewards seem even larger than we expected. What, am i on the roll? we may want to ask ourselves. No, its not on a roll, its time of blessing. Sometimes God just seems to let us have so much, we wonder why He's doing it. Life seems wonderful,and we can enjoy it. But we can't forget that all this blessing has a purpose. God doesn't give a promotion without expecting we'll use our new position wisely. He doesn't give raises that He expects us to spend only on ourselves; we need to remember the work of His church and give accordingly. Feelings blessed? Have you asked God what you can do to share these blessings? ...

This part --- is really true.. Yes, William and I received so many promotions, awards, winning trips but the joy that we have now seeing our teams we brought into this business years ago are also receiving the the samething, making good amount extra income along with his families and kids. They now have better relationships with their families. Our hard woks pays off, with God's help. Our everyday talk with them. Meeting their families. Having them over here at the house just to talk and listen to them. Planning the events. Booking their flights/hotels. Preparing lunch/dinner for them. To make sure that they ate. God really made it all happened.

Today, I had a talked with one my team. I was almost in tears just hearing him to say Thank You to us for guiding him step by step when he was feeling down, when his business was not doing well, when mostly all of his friends are being so negative and didn't have believe in him, when he was spirtually empty and all I can say is THANK YOU LORD! You were there to help us. Another team of ours, who had breast cancer. Couldn't find a flexible job because of her situation with her 2 little ones. She was an accountant. We asked her what she wants out of this business. She just wanted to make extra money for her kids clothes but she doesn't want to build a team. Again, Thank you Lord! and now she can buy and help her husband at home and at the sametime spending more times with her kids. First time, I met her -- I kinda pre-judge her. She's late 40's and I thought she's not gonna be good in this business. And I was wrong. I asked God to forgive me right away. Now, this is her 2nd year in the business and she also became our family. Again, we just planted the seed but God made it grow. Thank God that we didn't listen to some people that actually said to us before that we will never make it to this business. Because only God knows. He has a purpose. God introduced WFG to us for a reason.We are just so thankful that were not only here to help our team to accomplish their dreams but God also put us here to let them know that God is the only way. Without God in our lives, WE ARE NOTHING.

Lord, we lift our team to you. Continue to guide them. You know who they are. You know their needs. We thank you Lord for many blessing you've given us. We thank you Lord for giving us the opportunity to work with them. Thank you Lord for using us once again. Lord, keep us from being proud instead let us respect you in all we do. Thank you Lord for making us to do good things that makes you proud. We could have not done this without you Lord. Let us be humble enough Lord, to recognize the others on our team and be thankful for them. We love you Lord! You know our hearts, our intentions. Lord, I know you know that It's not easy to work with people. But I know that you put us here for a reason.

Lord, I know that you are not done with us. We thank you, We Love you, All Praises to you Lord

Thanks for letting me share this here. Goodnite and Be Blessed!

Our first time long driving trip with Kai

Nice to be back! Came back this morning at 3AM..And I came to work around 2PM..I feel like we go out of town every two months. Lol. Which I am very thankful for and can’t complain. Really, this trip didn’t really go the way I plan it…I guess I just have to wait for HIS plan. I mean my plan was to take my side of family to Canada since they haven’t been there plus my parents doesn’t really like long driving or to even go anywhere. I mean Will and I been there 4x and this is Destiny’s 2nd time. I guess the 2nd time my mom actually went out of state was when they went to New York for my cousin’s baby’s Christening. (And I really had a hard time convincing them to go) and the 1st was when we all went to our first WFG convention back in 2001 (Las Vegas) I really thank our Lord for bringing WFG to us and this really give us the opportunity to visit different city, state and country. C’mon we all know that it cost money whenever you go out of town. This past trip to Canada – really its just convention but since my hubby doesn’t like to go anywhere without us and I have been telling him to go since the convention is only for one day and if the 3 of us go . We all know that were gonna ended up spending more and he said that it's okay just as long as we're all together. And that's very sweet of him...I know that I should be thankful because not everyone-- especially if their hubby or wife are going out of town for business. Most of the time -- the company are not allowing them to take their families or they just don't like the idea of bringing the whole family for whatever reason. I know that one of my colleagues here - she complains everytime her husband can't come home right away from business meeting and sometimes it will take him a week to get back. I mean we always go together to all the events and I love going with him but ever since Kalea was born. I'll be honest -its not easy to take a baby to out of town all the time. But I'm glad that my honey is always happy and excited to bring us.. So, I said 'Ok, fine".. So then -- we ended doing our vacation and this time really were not on that situation to be spending a lot. But God always Good! Even if our plan was not to do anything big. We still had a great time… Sorry – my memory card was full. And that is one of the reason I didn’t take any pictures from the HARVEST Party at Willow Creek. So thanks Love! =)

Kalea's trip to Canada =)

-Said our prayer
-Daddy cooked some hotdogs and eggs for breakfast
-Left at 5AM to pick up the Van
-Then we started driving
-Love, thanks for the CD. Will and I were listening it together and it was so cute because we would look at each other, smile, and nod. Lolz. Didn’t get to finish it coz the kids woke up. So, we started playing the Stellar Band CD
-Kai’s awesome –since this is her first time long driving. She was sooo awesome. We would only stop to stretch for 10 minutes and time to drive again. The drive wasn’t too bad. It was only 8 hours… compare to the 17 hours we did last time…
-And this time – we decided to rent a van with no TV. Just to see how Kalea is going to be… And thank god!!! She’s a trooper! Didn’t give mommy, daddy or Ate des a hard time. Either she was sleeping or talking. ha ha ha. We also had a great time talking. We had our time with Des and the rest was just me and Will.. We never ran out of things to talk about.. Lolz.. Especially knowing how talkative we are.. ha ha ha
- Convention was sooo awesoome --- it was only for one day-- so many good things going on and we are very excited for our team

Kalea just chillin and relaxin


Bridge to Canada





WFG Limo service for all the Associates


Dinner at Sushi Palace


Dad posing with Canadian money lolz



Kai and Des-- just woke up



Monday morning -- we went to see http://www.unionvilleinfo.com/ .Very nice place -- so relaxing to walk around

Uh Oh! I am getting an error saying that "We're sorry, but you have exceeded your photo upload quota" Help anyone??? Love????

You can go to my website to check out the rest of the pictures.. Some-- I haven't download http://picasaweb.google.com/SantosFamily2007/CANADA



Anyways --i'll continue uploading more pictures later.. once it let me upload more pictures.. Again, thank you Lord for the safe and fun journey..Thanks for making it all happen for us...it was fun long driving again with my family and this time with Kai...he he he...Looking forward for our next trip and i think this time its just gonna be me and my hubby ( no bebe's allowed) ha ha ha and Lord willing --- it will be my family and my inlaws for our trip next year.

Ciao! Be Blessed

Saturday, October 27

parties again?

yesterday after work, i had to run a few errands while in a hurry to get home on time since my 2 kids were going to their own separate halloween parties.

noel brought our son to his school's "halloween hop", while my daughter and i went to pick-up her friends and my gf, aileen. too bad dad didn't bring a camera, but you know for mom... cam is part of my necessity *wink*

well, off we went to elevate's "pumpkin bash" in willow creek. our girlfriend, char w/ des and her friend met with us there as well.

the girls had a blast watchin' and dancin' with the "stellar band" and def enjoyed the awesome activities they had put together. 1400 jr. high kids came. where were we? well, we ended up waiting at chilli's... of course we have to have our own fun too! as always, great talk with my girls.

here's some pics from last night!

both my hubby and i received a warm thanks from our kids for an awesome nite! just what we needed to hear to complete the night *wink*

but b4 i sign-off, just wanted to wish my gf, char and her fam a safe and fun trip to canada! see u all when u get back! can't wait for her endless stories and pics.

enjoy the weekend everyone! continue to be blessed and be a blessing!
-love

Monday, October 22

parties on a roll!

ahh! it feels good to finally blog. i've been bc running around all week finding stuff for the halloween party we put together for our friends (great way to see everyone since we hardly see each other).
well first, i celebrated my 31st bday last wed. i had a taste for seafood n since there's really no other place i know that my kids would dare to eat than red lobster (bsides we haven't gone there for years now)... they love shrimp anyway so why not take advantage of their endless shrimp special hehehe. well, after that late dinner we were all shrimped out hahahaha but i gotta hand it to my husband, he made our night perfect with his silly jokes and his talent in magic - i couldn't have asked for more. the entire clan weren't able to join us since it was school night. nwayz, again thanks to my loving and thoughtful husband, he gave me a remote starter for my bday - yep! he made up an excuse to be able to use my truck - not knowing he was getting it installed that day. thank God for husbands who look out for their wives' convenience esp. during winter. been using it since then... love it!

i guess the celebration wasn't over... my family along with my bf char coordinated a surprise bday party for me last friday. this was the 1st successful one hehehe ~ finally, no one slipped! ~
my hubby did a great job convincing me that we were going to watch a movie with the kids. man, i can't believe i actually fell for that! but all is well... i had a wonderful time! it's always good to be reminded of how much you're loved *wink*

note: click the thumbnails to see more pics!

sat: our 1st ever frendz halloween bash!!! i'm so blessed with such great friends of 16yrs. how do we do it? simple! we don't let anything get in the way... bsides love... understanding and support is the key! now we have the Lord to protect our friendship for life! now, what else can u ask for?
char and i were the hosts - and when you're the host, you gotta match with the theme! i was a school girl (but eventually was mistaken as britney spears - grrr!) and char was our sexy cop!

oh! and thank God for the glow sticks - the kids had their first disco party (inside their ate des' room)

anywayz, the highlight of the event came late that night - the Lord really does not waste any time. a friend was in need of encouragement and prayer. the Lord was glorified once again! and again, i'm so humbled and grateful to be used and be a part of His amazing plans (it was def unexpected)... esp. at a halloween party? c'mon! God is just sooooo good y'all! He sure is worthy of our praise and although coordinating a party is pretty tiring and puts a hole in your pocket... it was all worth it after having to experience the love of God to my friends. i'm sure char and her husband, will, can attest to that.

i have such great appreciation to the santos family for offering their home at the last minute! esp. with 18 kids (not yet complete i may add) but couldn't have done it without char's help! also, thanks to e for makin' it early... you're such a big help!

well, parties are starting to come up like waves... next thing you know Christmas is here! woohoo! i'm lovin' it! looking forward to each of them.

continue to be blessed!

Sunday, October 7

*wish* has been granted!

as promised to our lil' yanna & our boy with a big 10... we celebrated both their birthdays just the way they wanted.

with balloons, cake, gifts, hotel room, pool, bowling, luncheon... the entire family had an OH! SO AWESOME TIME! i couldn't have asked to be anywhere else. of course mom had to do all the arrangements... the pay-off? not one person had a dull moment.

here's a summary and again i'll let the pics speak for itself.
~ checked in last friday at hotel indigo (highly recommend this hotel - very inviting, colorful, relaxing, best for kids to enjoy instead of having a boring can't touch this or that hotel room - if u know what i mean *wink*) both kids and adults loooooooooved it!

~ ate some sumptuous food

~ said our grace to our Heavenly Father... thank you LORD!

~ swam till midnight! - we had the pool all for ourselves.

~ when the kids woke up, they went straight to the pool, while the adults hung out in their very comfy lobby, enjoying our bf and starbucks (ahh! the best part of waking up... who says it's just folgers? hehehe)

~ went to sagano jap rest in downtown barrington for our luncheon (yummy!)

~ went bowling (we all had a blast dancin' the chacha slide coz everyone in the bowling ally participated at one point)

~ the boys hit some balls at the batting cage

~ and of course... took the opportunity to go church (it's fuel time again! this is the 2nd year we're tackling our fuel handbooks and this time it's about the amazing life of moses - can't wait to share what i'll learn from it as we go through this series - stay tuned k!)

~ i was sooooo tired, but the boys still had the energy to watch the pacquiao fight.
for all it's worth... we thank God for a wonderful time He put together for yanna & ayre's birthday. thank you Lord for the plans you have for our children. may you guide their way and keep them safe in your loving arms. all praises and glory to you my Lord!

Wednesday, October 3

*sweet mood*



when yanna's in her sweet mood - big brother just can't resist!


power of self-control

k, before i share my newly found hobby (hope it'll stay that way hehehe) - meditate: self-control love, self-control! (i need to read the daily bread i sent today and i mean i need to read it over and over again to master it in my life) whew! k, now back to what i was trying to say...

i'd like to share my thoughts to char and all the other married couples out there who struggle from the adjustments marriage can bring. i'd like to remind you though that i'm not an expert, but simply being a friend, sharing to you what noel and i have realized and learned from our own struggles. of course we still have our misunderstandings - but thankfully now we are aware to handle it God's way. i would also like to point out that it doesn't matter how long you've known each other or if you have been married for 5, 10, 20, 50 yrs... marriage is a lifetime of adjustments. there is more to it than what you've been through so far. we should learn from our mistakes... not to take one another for granted. we shouldn't dwell on changing each other and pointing out flaws instead we should work on building and encouraging each other up. there's nothing more promising than to put God in the center of your marriage. He will give you the desire and power to change, you cannot do this on your own nor can you change your spouse. one of the best blessings we have in our marriage now that truly is helping every areas of our lives is that we do our devotional together before we sleep.

we're grateful to know that a big part of being married is to please God. i really believe that marriage must involve three persons: God, the husband and the wife. entering a marriage relationship has a life long commitment and God forbids divorce (that's in the book of Matthew). honestly, as for me and noel... ever since God renewed our spiritual marriage... divorce is never an option anymore.

and to all the singles out there, i encourage you to choose your marriage partner carefully. in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 it says, "one should never enter a relationship, as intimate as marriage, with those who refuse to honor Jesus as Lord. although my kids have a long way to go, this was actually our topic the other day. that we prefer our kids to be with someone who loves the Lord with all their heart, mind and soul. why? because having Christ as the first in your life brings great peace, comfort, joy and agape love.

~ ok, that's our lesson for today hehehe ~

anyway, i will post a picture later, but i recently joined karate and kickboxing class with my daughter, camille. and i could say it was definitely AWESOME! i'm such an unfit person hahaha, i'm not into sports nor have failed myself in many exercise techniques (classes, videos, equipments, etc.) that's why yesterday i felt like i was at a boot camp or something hahaha. those push-ups & sit-ups i had to endure hehehe i like the jumping jacks, but anyway, over all it i really think it's worth it. i must say though that kickboxing really pushed me to give up. my legs gave in on me. i'll try again next time, but i was commended by my peers coz they said for a first-timer i did more than what was expected and performed pretty good. however, my instructor said "i knew you're going to be the problem child!" hehehe - well coz i was giggling a lot. yikes! k, i hope i keep up with this... need self-control. i can do this!

i'm glad my daughter loved it! it's a great time to bond with her too! (in a different way - seeing another side of each other)

k, back to work!

Monday, October 1

Our Marriage Review

Hello readers, I don't even know where to begin. Thanks Love ( putting me on the spot there..j/k)lolz.. First of all, let me just say Thank you lord for another great weekend especially the sharing that I am about to tell you all. It might be a little confusing so bare with me

Hope that I don't lose you . =)..So, ill try to keep it short ..we'll see

William and I have been married for 3 yrs now. And we went out for almost 6 yrs before we got married. Every 6 months or a year . we would have our Marriage Annual Review ( You talk, I listen), See William and I are totally different people. He is more on the serious side, very expressive and very emotional. And here I am the comedian one, unexpressive about my feeligs and unemotional( not all the time - okay). Hey, that's what makes us a good couple -- opposites attract..lolzz... Well, Saturday morning after our great meeting with our team. My hubby went straight home around 2PM and asked me if we can have my mom babysit the kids for the rest of the afternoon but I just came up with an excuse and told him that my mom is working that day. Really, I was just trying to avoid his question because I know exactly that he wants to have our talk. So, Yes -- I was pretty nervous...Knowing me --like i said.. I wasn't even ready. I didn't have anything ready to talk about.. Lolzz. I am not gonna tell you guyz the whole thing here but I will just give a good example.. Basically, my honey and I was saved and accepted Jesus Christ on Sept 2003. I started going to church before him but I noticed the my husband has more desire to follow the Lord and be obedient to HIM. Don't get me wrong, I also do have desire to follow HIM but I am the slow process and I know that God's time will come. At home, William does more of our devotional prayer and listening to Bible CD --- and I do the reading and research ( whenever I have my question). He asked me If i still love him. I said of course especially He is now a new creation, that’s who you are. He is changed, transformed by the love of God. He really didn't believe me right away. So, i had to explain to him in a very harsh funny way. But even if we kinda ended our conversation in a very confusing way. He was very understanding enough to just leave it alone and let me relax and have time to think. lolz..So,him and destiny went out to get some food.... I know that it wasn't done. So today! YES! and we just actually finished our dinner and finally continued our talk and finally finished this subject. Today i apologized to him from the harsh words I said yesterday. See, since I wasn't ready to talk yesterday. He was asking me some questions. If he was boring me -etc.. And I paused for good 30 seconds and I said 50-50... But I didn't' get to explain it to him right. But you can see the look on his face that he sort of understood and confused at the same time. So today after I had a talk with my girlfriends, I went to the car for good 20 minutes and I just prayed to give me the wisdom to talk to my husband. So thank God for the words. This time - he finally understood what I was really trying to say. We both know that our Marriage is not something that is going to be easy. We will face many more spiritual battles than we are facing right now. We both have to have a committed prayer life and devotion time ( not just him doing it) but also me with HIM. To be apart of a marriage team and not afraid of anything that Satan will try and destroy our lives. We both know that God knows everyone’s desires and knows that He will lead us on the right path. I know that HE desires us to show the love that He has for us in everything that we do and that means walking it out daily in our lives and to experience the true marriage in God is to let Him be an author. I know that even if we both made mistakes or have our downfalls from everything -- No matter what we know that God is there. He is the head of our marriage. Its not about looking at our mistakes anymore but its about learning to love unconditionally even through those mistakes. I know that God wants my 100% commitment, my heart and be obedient to HIS words. And may I say that I am guilty of all these. God is soo good! He just made a way for me to wake up and realize what I've been missing. I thank God for my husband. I thank HIM for being able to share HIS feelings about me anytime and it helps me a lot. I learned something new everyday. What did I learn from this talk experience? First of all and the most important - that one should we believe and trust our most loving Almighty God in every step. God ways are perfect. I have changed ( it will not happen overnight) but all things are possible with HIM and I have a new changed loving husband. Of course there is so much to be done, but we leave everything up to God. Well, gotta go to sleep now. I think my husband is about to read my blog soon..lolz.j/k. Hes been asking me to sleep now. See, one thing about him --If you wanna know. He can't sleep when I am not next to him. Before, I find that very annoying. Now, I find it very sweet. Thank you Lord for all your words of wisdom, your promises, your love, for directing me to the right path, the trials and forgiving me always. Thank you Lord for our marriage. We know that you are not done with us yet. We love you Lord. Goodnite!

All the praise and glory goes to our Lord, Jesus Christ

double celebration

i planned to blog yesterday, but i got lazy to even get near the comp so here i am taking a break already from working.

whoops! i had to log off earlier coz i had tons of work to do. so i'm here again.

nway, mama's 2yrs old in heaven now. her celebration along with my son, ayre's bday turn out great! my siblings n i were so pleased to see some of my mom's good friends. brings back great memories.

also thanks to my 2 lovely best friends, char n marge along with their family (whom of course are my extended fam 2) were there to make the night more complete. we had some great laughs...

can't believe it has been 2yrs of heavenly life with my mom and 10 yrs of earthly life for my son! plus, this friday will be my youngest daughter's 2nd bday. we're planning to celebrate it differently this time (specifically requested by ayre - don't worry i'll for sure blog about it) - we're celebrating both yanna's and ayre's - too excited for them!

k, i think i need to recharge my mind... i'm lacking things to say right now coz of the surprising revelation i got from someone close to me...hehehe let's see if she'll blog about it, otherwise - oh well! my mouth is purrrfectly sealed.

so since my mind is blocked from words... i'll just let the pics speak for themselves.

njoy d rest of ur nitey nite!

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