Ants

If the old wives tale that having ants in your house = prosperity,... We ought to go shopping!

On Temptation

My brother has been here in the US for several days when we heard the bad news.

One of his office staff didn't come in to the office one day but left a confession letter. She stated that she stole the missing cash (a lump sum of a little over P50k was missing) and that she was very very sorry. The auditors would later find out that this girl has been skimming from their funds for a long time.

Her parents, equally apologetic, said that their daughter has not come home and they have yet to hear from her.

Now, the question is, what to do?

My uncle, who heads the enterprise, was reluctant about filing a police blotter. Kawawa raw and the parents promised to sell some things in order to generate the cash to pay for their daughter's theft anyway. If not for my Mom's persistence, a complaint (police blotter) would not have been filed. Mom hates to be the bad guy but really, if you don't prosecute these offenses, what kind of message are you sending out to the rest of the company?

Brother, not surprisingly, was much affected by this because he feels responsible. I couldn't resist pointing out that command resposibility aside, he was really partly to blame becase he was too trustful of his employees and could've implemented stricter procedures, especially when it came to handling cash.

Bro tells me that he trusted this girl because:

1. she's religious (Christian), very active with Singles for Christ

2. been with them for years

3. is a cousin of my brother's secretary (so at the very least, there's a hiya factor involved)

4. her monthly salary isn't small and the amounts she's being trusted with isn't that much larger than her salary (salary at P2ok, stolen lump sum was at P50k)

To which I replied:

1. Aren't Christians supposed to be forgiven anything so long as they repent? I don't want to get into a religious discussion  but I'm just pointing out that a person's religious beliefs does not necessarily prevent them from sinning.

2.  Oo nga, she's been stealing for years too.

3. Poor secretary, am sure she's really embarassed. Sa totoo lang, I'm just trying to stop myself from commenting on her (the one who stole) friendster page na "ikaw ba yung magnanakaw?".

4. A person's income doesn't really matter when they're in a bind. We once had an employee who stole P200k in cash, she earned a monthly salary of P50k and was in her mid 50s (i.e. it would be difficult for her to find a new job if she got fired). The thing is, the people who steal don't really expect to be caught - well, except for this girl who left a confession letter, haha! She probably did not expect to be prosecuted.

If it were up to me, cash / money matters should always be treated seriously. Because so long as everybody knows that you're vigilant when it comes to the accounts, nobody would even dare contemplate stealing from you. So when you're being lax, you're actually tempting people to steal, in a way, diba? 

If people are in a bind (translation: kapit sa patalim) and you make it so easy to steal from you, who wouldn't be tempted ?

Dad and I talked about this when shoti left for California and I tell my Dad that I hope that this serves as a lesson. Bro should be more attentive and not be so lazy in checking up on the accounts because this "lesson" didn't come cheap. Besides, he wouldn't want to tempt another person into stealing, would he ?

Ewan ko nga why brother is so trusting. Maybe it's because I'm not and he's sort of the yin to my yang. You can't blame me for being skeptical because I've suspected and actually proven theft a couple of times in my professional life. Hindi nakakatuwa.

Coupon Discrimination

I've talked about coupon clipping on and off these past several months and obviously, I am a coupon-clipper. So far, I've seen different reactions from store clerks whenever I present my coupons. Most of the time, they don't care. It's a common enough practice and it's no big deal.

Every so often, I do encounter raised eyebrows. Just last night, hubby and I went to Dunkin Donuts. We had 2 coupons - one for a free Dunkaccino and another coupon that lets us buy 2 donuts at 99c.

When I handed the coupons to the clerk, hubby was right beside me. We were told that we weren't allowed to use both because the coupons are limited to one per customer per visit, I then pointed out that hubby and I were 2 customers.

For a fraction of a second, I think the DD staff had his eyebrows raised. I felt a bit insulted and thought that he was looking down on us because not only did we come in with coupons, we came with 2!

He did let us use both of them and it was sort of funny too. Remember, it was one coupon per customer ? So, I gave hubby the other coupon and handed mine in first and said "I'll use this". He gave me a free Dunkaccino (no purchase required).

When that transaction was done, hubby then handed his in, selected the 2 donuts and when it was time to pay, he paid from his wallet. The total came to $1.06 with taxes, hubby didn't have coins so I got some from my wallet and gave that to hubby so that he can hand it to the cashier because after all, it was his coupon and his purchase.

And you know how you're supposed to tip baristas, right ? The change usually goes into their "TIPS" jar ? Now, I am an avid DD fan and drop by whenever I get the chance. I usually make sure that I give a chunk of change especially when I get good service. This time ? I paid $1.10 and got 4c in change. 4c went in to the TIP jar, just to annoy him (and no, we don't plan to drop by that branch in the near future, there are plenty of other DD branches in our neighborhood). If I had been a little bit more annoyed, the 4c would have gone back into my wallet.

Now, as I'm typing this up, I can't shake the nagging feeling that I might have been in the wrong. Is it shameful ba ? or embarassing to use coupons ? I do know some Filipinos who refuse to use discount coupons because its embarassing. Or did we, perhaps, abuse the system when we maximized our savings when we used 2 coupons in one trip ?

Where does it go ?

I initiated a bank to bank transfer Tuesday night and was notified that it takes 3 days for this transaction to get completed. By Wednesday morning, the funds have already been deducted from the source account (Account1) but there is no indication of any pending deposits for the destination account (Account2).

I'm not really worried because I've done this lots of times before and my $ always gets there eventually. I just feel a bit cheated because I do know that transfers are done electronically nowadays and it takes less than a second to complete the transaction. Don't tell me that they just record the transaction and have to wait for the actual cash to get transferred.

So, the question is, for the 3 days that my funds disappear (neither in Account1 or Account2) who gets it ? Where does it go ? Does my bank get temporary "custody" of my money and invests it somewhere and earns from it ?

Can anybody explain this to me ?

Obama

I've never followed politics. I only read the newspapers when I'm bored, I only get to watch the news on TV if someone else has switched the channel. Even when I was still in school and needed to be familiar with current events in order to keep up with Social Studies ? Nako, my Dad would always have to quiz me and drum the details into my head. He was like my Cliff Notes for the news around the globe.

The past few weeks, I find myself uncharacteristically drawn to the presidential elections. Probably because my 5 year old nephew has declared himself to be Obama's #1 fan because "he's a good man, I saw it on the news" to which his 8 year old brother would respond "what ?? Obama ? But he does not have enough experience! We should vote for McCain!"

Now, I cannot imagine where they got their views from. It certainly was not from the parents because I am sure that they aren't the type to discuss politics, especially in front of their children.

Last Tuesday, Nov 4, I watched the news voluntarily. *smile*

I wanted to see who would win and be the first to tell my nephews. I also wanted to see for myself. After all, our lives would be (indirectly?) affected by this event somehow. When Obama was declared the winner, I rejoiced along with his supporters. Not because I'm an Obama fan but because they were so visibly happy and to be completely honest, I rejoiced because I had not expected Obama to win because of his color. Obviously, America is more open-minded than I thought and this pleases me.

Watching McCain's speech moved me. If I were to judge his possible presidency by his speech alone, I'm sure it would have been a good one. He was very gracious about his loss and when he asked his supporters to support Obama and cooperate ? Wow.

I remember an election in our organization back in college, there were no other candidates for my position so all I needed was a confirmation - at that time, the required # of votes I needed to get was 2/3 of the members, I think. When I was declared the committee chairman, one of the guys* came up to me and told me that he will not support me and that he really thinks that I will not succeed without his help. Over the summer (my term does not officially start until next semester), he would call meetings with my committee members and made plans to impeach me.

He did not succeed. But really. Such hatred!

Having had that experience, it amazes me and moves me whenever I see grace despite these circumstances.

And so, let me end this post with a description of my nephew's reactions when I told them the news:

5 year old: Really ? Obama won ? He's the pwesident ? He is gonna wive in the white house ? Wow! He's a good man. Ahya, Angkong, Ama, Obama won! He's the pwesident!

8 year old: What ?? Mc Cain lost ? Haaaaaay! (sounds of fainting) what's gonna happen to us now ?

-----

* He wanted the chairmanship for himself but unfortunately, he was not qualified to run. He later campaigned, unsuccessfully, to have our org's constitution amended to lessen the residency requirement for officers. We did become become friends again when he apologized months later.

Super duper Upset

The downward market trend in the US is making a lot of people unhappy.

Me especially.

I just checked my 401k account and saw that between July to September 2008, I lost $7k.

Upset is too mild a word to describe how I'm feeling right now.

Goodbye, bank

Hubby and I had a little money left over from paying bills last year and we decided to put that into a CD - Certificate of Deposit. When we opened the account, we opted for the promotional 8-month CD that the bank featured in their website and were given good rates. It was around 3.xx%, I think.

8 months later, I didn't bother to check out the rates anymore and just let it rollover and renew itself. A month after the renewal, I noticed that we got a very low 1.xx%. I called to ask about my account and was told that we shouldn't have let it roll over by itself, that we should've gone to the bank and talked to a representative about better options and rates, and that what we did was the worst thing that we could've done (financially) for our account.

Okay, I get the point.

So with that thought in mind, I decided to be vigilant and kept a countdown of the days leading to the CD's maturity.

Hubby and I visited the bank and talked to a rep about our account the weekend BEFORE - I said that we were vigilant, didn't I ? - the CD was about to mature. We wanted to know and be clear about what our options were and how best to handle this at maturity. We talked to a very helpful agent, Carmen, who told us that there was nothing she could do at that point because our CD has not matured yet but that we could come in up to 7 days after the maturity date to decide what to do about our account.

We asked about online promotional rates and was told that they (the bank) would be able to arrange for us to get the same rates, even if we did not apply for anything online, and that if we were to add a little bit more to our CD, she would also be able to give us an extra 0.1% rate.

This was music to our ears. Our other alternative was to just apply for an online savings account - one online bank offers 3.5% interest with a $1 minimum deposit. Yes, I did not mistype that, it's a $1 minimum deposit and your money does not get tied up for any period of time. The only reason why I wanted to keep our CD with the local bank was that it seemed easier to access funds if there was a local branch. With an online account, you will have to transfer funds to a checking account and it takes around 3 days before the transfer clears.

So this weekend, we went to the bank and asked for Carmen. Unfortunately, Carmen was with other clients and there were 2 other representatives who were free to talk to us. We politely declined them when we were approached and explained how we had already talked to Carmen before that we would rather that she handle our inquiry.

20 minutes later, Carmen was still occupied. By this time, the 2 other representatives and manager have already approached to ask if we were sure that we wanted to wait for Carmen. The manager came to us again (for the 3rd time) and asked if we were sure that we wanted to wait for Carmen. He convinced us that it would still be a while before she gets freed up but that another representative - Javier - would be more than happy and very qualified to help us out.

We caved with the pressure and agreed to talk to the other guy.

Javier didn't sound happy to talk to us. He was probably offended/hurt that we didn't want to talk to him at first - I don't know this for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case. Bottomline, he didn't agree with Carmen's statements to us the previous week. We would have to do everything online if we wanted to avail of the online promotion.

When we got home, I found out that any changes we want to apply on our CD would have to be done over the phone and for that, we'd have to wait till Monday and do that during regular business hours. So we wait again.

This afternoon, I called and got connected with a bank rep. Bottomline ? If I were to renew my CD, I would NOT be eligible for the advertised rate because that is only for new accounts. To qualify for that, I would have to NOT renew my CD and then apply for a new one. Also, the additional 0.1% that Carmen told me about ? They would not be able to honor that online, they only honor that at the local branch - apparently, this was something that the managers / staff can give out at the local branches.

Hay. Kainis no ?

I'm not really sure if this is because I'm not a big-time account holder, I hope that this wasn't the case. But since this bank isn't even trying to keep our business, we decided to terminate the account. Online na lang, $1 to open and maintain - this would leave us with the flexibility of having funds available for DP on a 2nd car (if / when we need to buy one).

Why is it that while these institutions try so hard to tempt one into opening an account with them, they don't do anything or offer incentives for someone to maintain their account in good standing ?

I remember making lambing to the bank manager or the account manager in Manila and they would make the extra effort. Why doesn't this work here ?

I have a similar gripe about cellphone companies but that's a whole new post altogether.

labels

A member in a support group I belong to raised the question a question about manners and how to handle delicate situations. She asks, how should parents handle situations where they're asked "Why [child1] is smarter/prettier/more intelligent than [child2] ?"

I'm actually looking forward to reading the feedback from the other members because as a child, my siblings and I have been in plenty of situations where we get compared with each other and with other children / cousins and having suffered through these humiliating moments, I still do not feel equipped to deal with this if this happens again.

So far as labels go, my older sister is the pretty one. She gets asked to be part of the bridal party or to join the Santacruzan (heehee, but she never did). Being petite, she also has the luxury of looking younger than her actual age, to the point that when her friends would see us together, nobody would believe that she's actually 8 years older than me.

A very tactless friend even went so far as to say "come on ? Are you kidding me ? She's your shobe ? But she looks older... uh... este.. you look so much younger than her!" she then turns to me and asks me to my face "come on, you're the Achi no ?" I couldn't say anything.

I am the smart one. My parents can go on and on about my achievements and the awards I've received. A typical conversation between my parents and friends or relatives would go something like:

Mom: this is my eldest daughter
Others: wow, she's so pretty! so beautiful and so lady-like!
Mom: and this is my younger daughter, matalino yan, she's done these [list of achievements]

So ano ? Hindi ako pretty ?

I felt bad that Mom felt the need to add something to prop me up. I used to resent being with my sister. I didn't want to go out with her or be introduced with her because just standing beside her makes me ugly.

Now that I'm older (and wiser, hopefully), I understand that it was hard on her too. If I felt some resentment ("hindi ako pretty?"), then I'm sure she felt it too ("hindi ako matalino?"). I vowed to myself that I will never fall into the trap of comparing my children.

Unfortunately, I now find myself doing the same thing with my nephews. When asked to describe my sisters' two boys, I would say that Lance, the eldest one, is the booksmart and mabait one. Lyle, the younger boy, is the streetsmart and naughty/pilyo one. It's true though.

Paano kaya to ? What's the best way to handle this without hurting anybody's feelings ? In my nephews' case, the labels just shows off their strengths and it's not a criticism. I only hope that they see it this way too.

Rice shortage ?

My sister starts ringing me yesterday while I was in the middle of a (work-related) conference call. I saw her name come up on the caller ID and I hit the busy button. A few minutes later, her name comes up again on my cellphone screen, I hit the busy button again. Predictably, her name came up again on my cellphone screen after a few minutes and annoyed now, I hit the busy button for the 3rd time.

She must have gotten the message after the 3rd call. I was busy.

Sis then tries to get hold of hubby. When she got through to him, apparently she had wanted to warn us to buy / hoard more rice. May shortage raw. She was just at Costco the previous day and gotten 2 sacks of rice for herself and my aunt. A friend (of the aunts') saw the rice and asked my sister for a favor if she could buy another sack for her. Sis went back to Costco and there was no more rice.

So panicking (a little, haha!), hubby drops by our local Asian store to get another 25 lb bag of rice. We just bought a 25lb bag the week before. Di naman ubos. Nobody else was panic buying... not at the time anyway ;)

So ano ba talaga ? I know that the prices are slowly going up... but is it *that* bad ? that we'd reach the point where we'd be willing to pay any price and still not be able to buy any?

How do you get over someone who doesn't love you back ?

A featured question on Xanga caught my eye and I just had to post my thoughts.

There's no worse feeling than being madly in love with someone and not have those feelings reciprocated. Trying to get over that love is not an easy task but could be done by:

1) Love yourself - hey, if you love yourself, you'll see that there's really no sense in pining for someone who won't or can't love you back. You'll learn to value yourself and know that you deserve more.

2) Get a hobby - find something else to do. Exercise & work out, join a club, go biking, start knitting, learn to bake or cook. Do something that would occupy your brain and body, don't spend your days mooning over someone's picture and daydreaming about what could've been.

and eventually... when things start falling into place and you're ready to move on w/o any baggages...

3) Love someone else - find someone who will love you back and give you what you deserve.

How about you ? Any advice for the lovelorn out there ?

Manang Bola

My Mom dabbles in fortune telling.

By "dabble", I mean experiment but her batting average is quite good actually.

When I was around 10 years old, I'd remember several occasions when my aunts, her sisters-in-law, would cajole her into telling their fortunes. Mom would bring out her cards (regular playing cards that have not been used for playing games) and do her thing.

The only thing that she'd even try to predict in the future are pregnancies, she refused to see anything more. According to her, masama raw.

So anyway, she'd correctly tell my aunts things about their past that my Mom had no previous knowledge of - financial difficulties and huge personal issues during specific years, things of the sort. She also correctly predicted the conception and birth of 4 cousins. I remember my aunts protesting at the time, "ha ? Me ? pregnant again ? Nope. Never again." and sure enough, when the predicted time came, they were pregnant.

There are times when she'll miss the mark completely too. Mom predicted my labor certification approval correctly - now, the story behind that one was amusing - but she missed our Greencard approvals by months and she predicted that we'll get our house sold and will have already moved to Massachusetts by last October - uh, missed again.

She has an explanation though. The future, she says, isn't written in stone. Since we have free will, there are lots of possibilities that depend on the decision that we make at specific forks in our life. I kind of agree.

In case you're wondering what got me started on this topic, let me explain.

I was talking with Mom this morning and she wanted to confirm whether I was pregnant or not. She's sure raw that I would get be pregnant this month and if I'm not yet preggy now, next month. She rambled a bit about how lucky it would be if we conceived last month or this month. Ang gulo.

Come to think of it, I'm not really sure if this supposed-pregnancy was predicted or is only wishful thinking on her part.

Ano kaya ? I guess we'll know in a few weeks. Sana. *smile*

Super Bowl XLII

Super Bowl XLII is my 5th in the US but is the first one that I really watched for the game and not just for the commercials.

I wasn't really rooting for any team but I found myself jumping up and down in the last 2 minutes of the game. NY Giants were down 4 points and were working to score some points. I didn't think that they were going to make it - given that this is the first ever football game I've watched, I still have no idea how much time it takes to score a touchdown.

Tonight is my last night in Massachusetts and I am not looking forward to seeing the disappointment in people's faces tomorrow. Everybody out here was rooting for the New England Patriots - I see a lot of people & kids wearing Patriot Jerseys (most were Brady's #12, he's such a hunk!) and after church this morning, I overheard a few people commenting that they haven't seen their church this full since Christmas. Super Bowl fans probably made the extra effort to attend mass to pray for their teams.

It's an even bigger disappoint for the Patriots since this would be their 2nd perfect game in a row if they had won. Imagine ? They didn't have any losses until tonight. The NY Giants really played a good game as most people didn't expect them to win.

I have to commend the Giant's spirit too. They lagged behind in the first 2 quarters, got ahead in the 3rd quarter, lost the lead again in the 4th until they finally gained the lead in the last 2 minutes. It just goes to show that it's not over till it's over. There's always hope.

Anyway, I fly back home tomorrow, I bet the smiles on the faces of people in NY would be a welcome sight to see. One more night and I get to be with hubby again.

Training thoughts

It's been a long time since I last attended a formal training session and right now (day 2) I'm feeling quite good about this. I was nervous about this because I wasn't really sure if I was ready or still able to learn. Thankfully, I am not too old-a-dog to learn new tricks :)

*whew*

Hopefully, days 3 to 5 will proceed as smoothly as the first 2 days. *fingers crossed*

On shoes and bags

I like to pack early for trips. A week before my / our departure, I'd usually have the bag that I am planning to use out and waiting for stuff and as I go about my day to day activities, I'd remember or think of something that I might need and I'd just drop that inside my bag. This is my way of making sure that I don't have to go without something that I need.

I mentioned in a previous post that I will be flying to Massachusetts this weekend to attend a week-long training at our headquarters. I'll also be staying on for another weekend for a meeting that I have to attend on Monday, this is the same client as the one which was cancelled due to a snowstorm weeks ago and I flew from airport-to-airport.

So now, am looking at my bags and can't decide whether I want to bring the small (hand carry size) roller bag or the medium one (which I'll have to check in) for my clothes. Hopefully, my stuff would fit in the smaller bag so I won't have to check anything in, I do hate waiting at the baggage terminal - and what I hate the most is when the airlines leave or lose your bag. Ugh!

I am also trying to decide which laptop bag to use, arte ba ? I have one which is small and compact (but heavy due to the padding) and a slightly thicker bag which is a roller bag. I find the roller laptop bag more convenient because I just have to pull it along and leave it on the floor whenever I stop and talk to other people. No aching shoulders. As for the smaller laptop bag, it has this sleeve at the back which you can slide down stroller handles so this makes travelling easier when you have both bags.

The thing is, if I'm bringing a roller bag for my clothes and another roller bag for my laptop, am not so sure if I can handle pulling 2 bags along - that would leave me with no free hands.

Me thinks I am over-analyzing this but it's really getting hard that I always have to go through this each time I leave - doesn't matter how long I'll be gone for or where I'm going, but I always have to go through this agonizing (heehee, drama) choice each and every time.

.. and don't get me started on what purse I want to bring... or shoes! I'm far from being a fashionista but obviously, I need to have something that matches. hay.

House-hunting

Hubby and I went house-hunting last weekend. We just wanted to see what else is out there and what our options were (in case our house gets sold soon). Grabe, we were surprised to see that houses are still so expensive - even with the real estate market being down - and are beyond our reach.

At this rate, if we want to stay within commuting - let me clarify, EASY commuting - distance from the city proper (be it NYC or Boston) we can only afford to buy a townhouse or a condo and not a house, not if we're pushing for a 3 bedroom (and a den / family room) with 3+ bathrooms.

Gosh, I am still hyperventilating.

What motivates you to give to a charity?

Xanga, the other site where I maintain a blog, has this new featured question and it got me thinking. You see, just the other day, I was on the phone with my sister and somehow, we got to talking about our parishes.

I'm usually pretty easy to convince when it comes to giving donations & contributing to charity. All it takes is a woeful face or maybe just a mention of all the blessings that we enjoy in life and I'm a goner. Being thankful for what I have is a big motivator, it always makes me want to give back and help someone else out. However, I do need some sort of affirmation that whoever's asking for my help really needs it.

For example, a few years back, my church started this debt elimination campaign because it owed so much that all the money it got was just going towards the interest and was barely making a dent in the $300k principal that it owed. So they parish started this campaign. We were asked for pledges and extra envelopes were distributed so that we can give our contributions every week.

I didn't really get in the spirit of the campaign until a year later, when the new resident priest started implementing cost cutting measures. I didn't really see any need to donate my hard earned cash to the church when our airconditioning units were turned on full blast during the summer and the heater cranked so high during the winter. I also didn't see the need for all those halogen bulbs in the chandeliers. Where I came from, if it was hot ? We fanned ourselves in church. So anyway, the priest started replacing all the high energy bulbs with energy efficient ones. Then the heaters & air conditioning units were turned down to more reasonable levels. These actions showed me that they (the church staff) were committed to the campaign, so I started making an extra effort to contribute.

Last Sunday, a nun also came to speak to our church to collect gifts for the poor students in their school. They had these trees set up in the lobby and hung tags with kid's names, ages and preferences (clothing or toy). Some tags have the kid's preferences too. So we started looking around and some of them stood out, one asked for an xBox 360 game, one asked for a Wii controller, another asked for a PSP game, and yet another was asking for an iPOD case.

What ? These kids were supposed to be poor ? Come on, if they could afford to buy (or has access to these gadgets) then maybe they can afford to buy (get access to) their own accessories. We looked around and found a more reasonable request for an MP3 player, we took that tag and have gotten the item for the child already.

Happiness

What would it take to make you truly happy?

I thought long and hard and you know what ? Nothing. I couldn't come up with a single thing.

Yeah, I do have a few things on my wish/prayer list, but I wouldn't really classify anything as being critical to my happiness. We live a good life - me, my husband and our families - we're healthy and very close to our families. We have good friends.

Yeah, I could do with a raise and hubby could do with a good job. We sure would appreciate it if we receive our GCs soon and we could do with a nice vacation. We'd love to have kids some day. But if we don't get any of these soon, who cares ? We'll get it when we get it. We have simple needs and God has generously provided for us.

So yes, I am in a good place in my life. I am happy. Truly happy.

I just answered this Featured Question, you can answer it too!

Looking back

Life assessments are usually done at around New Year's time - it's usually the time when one looks back at the things that were accomplished the past year and start planning goals for the following year. It seems too early to make one now but I can't help but feel that I'm due for one since a whole lot of events have transpired in my life since 2007 started.

2007 has been a roller coaster for me. Got married to hubby in early 2007, honeymooned - our very first trip as a couple (what can I say ? we're old-fashioned *smile*) - in Singapore, and flew off to New Jersey, USA to start our married life together.

Q2 2007 saw us getting the announcement from our company that they're closing the NJ offices and the request that we relocate to headquarters in MA. This time also showed us some advancement in our GC applications and gave us our EADs.

Q3 2007 was pretty much spent entertaining potential buyers for our home and the occasional goodbye-but-we'll-see-each-other-again-dinners with friends and colleagues who, unfortunately, cannot relocate. A good friend from high school also came by and stayed with us while he toured NY / NJ - our very first houseguest. Oh yes, Q3 also gave us a bit of a shock when we heard that our real estate company was shutting down (and that our agent was among the 350 staff that were laid off). The best thing about Q3, however, was being able to work from home on a daily basis - a huge blessing!

We are now one week into Q4 of 2007 and I'm looking forward to receiving good news - did I mention how much of an optimist I am ? The way I see it, there's really no way for us to go but up, right ? And we do have a lot of things that we're waiting on - our GC, job for hubby, house on the market, relocation to MA - I'd be happy to get a few of these checked off of our list so we can go ahead and get started on the baby project.