Happy Easter everybody!

My easter may not have been as eventful as everyone's, having not joined any Easter Egg Hunt activities. Random fact: today our local SM has a special promo selling eggs at 1 peso a piece. Imagine that! What a nice way to celebrate this holiday!

Okay, so this Easter, I have learned something, too and for me every learning experience is a good experience.

Today, we had a chance to visit one of my friends' friend, a guy who, as they say, has lost his way in this life. Or probably, he has chosen a path that even he himself describes as non-exemplary. He used to be a spiritual, scripture-reading person and had a future goal of sharing the gospel until one day he realized this all stopped and he already has an entirely different life. I can assume that what he now is, is not an overnight experience but an accumulation of choices that he has made along the way.

At one point in the visit, he tried so badly to avoid us, keeping himself in his room, also pretending he has somewhere to go to. He left us at his house. But when he came back to get his wallet, we grabbed the chance and did all that we can to persuade him to join us. We wanted to be close to him and make him feel sincere that we were there for him. Well, all's well that ends well, he did join us and we gave him a message about the importance of scripture study and its benefits on our lives, and how, if we hold fast to its teachings, we will be able to "thwart the fiery darts of the devil" (if I'm not mistaken) and avoid temptation.

Well what I remember most was his message. He told us that he can relate a lot about temptation. He gave us a message that felt powerful to me. He said that if you give in to one temptation, something will come that will be an even bigger temptation than the first, until you give in to that too. And if you give in to that, you will give in to many more and become numb in the end.

So true, so true and so powerful. I never thought that the visit can evoke him to say these things to us. The guy who tried hard to avoid us ended up giving us his piece of mind, his feelings and testimony. I hope that we can all persuade him to come back with us.

So there. I've shared with you my Easter learning. Have a nice day and I hope we could all remember the essence of the Jesus' atonement and Resurrection which we commemorate today.

Happy Easter :)

Sincerely, Flor

PS. I hope the message in the picture would ring true in my life as well. I'm going through something too, as with all people, we are all plagued with temptations that are pretty hard to battle. Hopefully, I can spring back 

Teaching the Youth to Give Back

(a Gawad Kalinga experience)

Hi there!

A few weeks ago, a friend of ours, who also goes to the same church as I have, has invited our single and youth members to give community service to children from a small barangay in the south of Manila. We were truly interested to join because this girl who invited us was a member of the Gawad Kalinga group who we all know is much known for the wonderful causes that they champion and services that they render to struggling communities. What I personally know about them is that they build homes for numerous families and communities in the country.  

As a student back in high school, (which was NOT a long time ago) we used to have the subject: CAT or the high school sort-of military training. As part of the subject, we were also invited in by the Gawad Kalinga to help build homes for a small, nearby community that they are sponsoring. We brought small shovels. The boys were in charge of the heavy load of work, like carrying bricks, shoveling cement, etc. While some of us girls were in charge of cleaning up. We had an easier job . And although it was really dusty there and dirty because of the cement that gets stuck in your airways, it was quite fulfilling to know that there is a family that would consider the walls we were building as their own home.

I was quite excited because I thought that we would build homes again. However, we were told that the community that we will be visiting already had homes. We could help paint but that would cause us to shell out a huge amount of money to donate paint. We thought that that was a good idea already but we also learned from them that of course, we can only donate so much that would cause us to give a few buckets of paint. The few buckets could help us paint 1 to 2 homes. The organizer advised that it might cause the other people from the other homes to feel envious as to why they were not chosen for the service, why other homes would be painted and their homes would not. We felt sad about that, but we knew that this truly could happen. Plus, I'm not sure but I think we were also told that the G.K. has a new policy wherein the family members of the new homes should be the ones most responsible for the building of their house. A labor of love. This is a good idea, don't you think? The GK organizers thought we should start a teaching/educational community service community.  So we started asking how we should plan the activity. We were advised by our leaders to organize one wherein the youth are the ones implementing the service and the leaders would be there only for support. This is so that the youth would learn at a young age to not just be participants in a service, but grow up to become leaders.

A few weeks before I was hesitant because we were not sure what the real program was. We were just told that we were to teach about hygiene to a bunch of children. We all thought that hygiene is 'cliche' as a topic to demonstrate about. But we all know that we should just stop murmuring and just start supporting the organizer.

When we visited the community, we met our friend's Gawad Kalinga group. I was impressed how they were there so early as a group and were very eager to assist us though we all know they wouldn't get any compensation out of their efforts. We also learned that they were still very young, still teenagers, but spoke with great enthusiasm and were really willing to be helpful. They said they first met and joined the group when they helped out in last year's biggest tragedy, the Ondoy calamity. Since then they have become Gawad Kalinga members organizing services in our city. 

We, the youth and singles, were grouped into 4 and each group was given children to bond with, play with and teach certain topics about hygiene. It was obvious that these children were from a less fortunate community. But they had smiles on their faces and once again I'm impressed that the Gawad Kalinga organizers have gathered these kids on a Saturday morning to be participants in the activity. I'm glad that all the children found us all fun to be with since they were all laughing, playing the games we thought about just that moment and were listening to our lesson. I mean, as a child, it's really not easy to listen to serious lessons in general. Luckily these were very good children. We were also told to give out cheers to show gratitude to the Gawad Kalinga sponsors in the area who were some of the country's big companies. It was such a fun moment and I will always be thankful to have met those children. I sure hope they retained something out of what they have learned about the hygiene topics we taught about.

I was also thankful that we have given help to those kinds in our own little way. We didn't have to shell out so much money but we gave a big amount of effort (especially those Gawad Kalinga people) and our hearts into that service.We were also proud of the youth because they too participated in the lessons, such young wonderful teachers! I'm proud of their presence there that day and feel good that our future leaders could come from these young group of people.

I hope we can all think of little ways to give back to our community. Remember, as what we have learned that day, we don't have to be rich to give, we just need to have the willingness to serve others.

Have a good day everyone!

sincerely, Flor

Looking good in Scrubs

Hi there,
Back when I was on duty as a nurse in the hospital, we always wear our generic light blue scrub suits to work especially on the O.R. or operating room. Of course we love wearing them since they are so comfortable... but then they fit so badly . We look so frumpy with no regard to fashion, whatsoever. Mind you, we have the same color of scrub suits as the ones they were wearing in the TV show, Grey's Anatomy and we just can't make our uniforms fit right or look as good as what the doctors wear in that show.

Finally, scrub suits that you could actually look great in

Recently, I'm being intrigued by the rave reviews on Blue Sky scrubs, maker of customized surgical scrubs and medical uniforms in the U.K. When I searched their testimonials page for women's scrubs, almost everyone gave a high mark on wearability of the scrub and the fact that they fit so well. I love the part when a customer said most scrubs indicate that they 're size 'XS' but they still fit like a trash bag. But when she wore Blue sky scrubs, she loved the fit and felt that she actually looked good in it and not frumpy any longer. That's because the top, they said, was tapered so it probably gives you a waist. The good quality fabric used in these nursing uniform scrubs were also loved by the customers.

I think that as a nurse, if you want to do your job well, the medical scrubs that you wear is also important. If you look and feel good in what you wear it could help  maximize your performance. I had a classmate once who kept raising and adjusting her sleeve while working. That is not good when you are in an aseptic environment or when you are scrubbing on an operation and you really feel the urgency to adjust your sleeve just because it's too big. Another of my duty buddies had a cap which kept falling over her eyes. You won't be as helpful when your vision is impaired just because of an ill-fitting scrub hat! So I think I would love to try Blue Sky scrubs and hats. They have a good product line. After all, I heard that their shipping is fast and customer service is good.


Have a nice day!

So You Think You Can Dance...

Who says we can't have fun? Here are my fellow singles dancing their hearts out just at our local church dance social. . . Not your typical church activity, eh? 

Antioxidants for a New and More Beautiful You

All women (and men) these days highly value beauty and skin care. It's always crucial to keep our appearance in check because this is how other people create their first impressions about us. We have to make sure that we use the right type of products that would improve our skin. Whenever I buy skincare products, I always look for certain qualities. They should contain antioxidants, have sufficient sun protection, and most importantly, they have to fight signs of aging. Anti-aging has become an increasingly in demand quality in leading skincare brands.

Oxis International carries a line of skin care products that are based on powerful natural substances and are made of potent antioxidants. According to http://www.oxis.com, one of the compounds of their products, Ergothioneine, is made up of the popular but beneficial ingredient, glutathione, along with vitamins C and E. Thus, detoxification is one of the major benefits of Ergothioneine. This super anti oxidant helps eliminate harmful free radicals in our skin.

To know more about their skincare brand, Oxis penny stock investments and more, check out Oxis on facebook, or follow Oxis on Twitter.

Have a beautiful day!

Sunday Specials: Best Kuya

Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero.  

~Marc Brown  

I've always noticed them at church. The Kuyas in this family are always very sweet to the youngest sister, their bunso. They really adore her and give her hugs all the time. The kuya in this photo is guiding his sister and holds her hand as they are about to head home. I really envy this cute, little girl. It's nice to have an older brother who'd protect you when you need it most.

Sunday Specials: A Sweet Mother's Day

Last Sunday (May 9,2010) was mother's day and my family and I celebrated my mom's special day at home. 

At church, a family rendered a song number as a tribute to mothers. The youngest among the sons cried in the middle of the performance maybe because he really felt the wonderful lyrics he was dedicating to his mom who was at the audience. Some of the people watching got teary-eyed. Iba talaga pag lalaki na ang umiiyak. And so it was a very touching number and it was well appreciated not just by mothers but everyone who has ever been a mom, daughter, or son.

We had a simple dinner back home. My cousins and I decided to buy a very sweet cake for my own mama, my cousins' mom who was my aunt, and our grandmother. On second thought, since all our moms are not fond of sweets (diabetes, aging) , we kinda knew they would all end up eating little of the cake we'll give (hehehehe). Anyway, the cake shop ran out of the gel they use to write dedications on the cakes so we had to improvise by buying small Nips from a nearby tindahan.. Our gift ended up looking like this...

Cousin 1: mukhang "I O U" (i owe you)
Mama: ano yan? tao? (stick man)
Tita: di ko mabasa.. (i cant read it)
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Well, it's the thought that counts, though. Happy Mother's Day to your mom's too!
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Love,
LDSPinay

Dating, Ducks, and Brain Hemorrhage: Liahona April 2010

 Have you noticed something different with this month's issue? There were so many references to marriage and dating! I'm sure lot of us were pumped to read the features after seeing the cover page with the word "Dating" on the bottom. My single friends were practically teasing each other on who'd be getting hitched next. I guess dating and courtship is really an exciting (and a much-awaited) topic to talk about and the writers of the magazine got it right to convey that message this month. 

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According to a recent survey, the *Liahona magazine is being subscribed to and read by a larger portion of youth and young adults than any other age class. 

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The new Liahona magazine  has been divided into sections according to age groups namely the Youth, Children and Young adults. This is a great new feature . Now we can have access to the articles that we can relate to the most.  And since more of the magazine's readers are young adults, the dating-courtship-and marriage topic was spot-on.

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Spotlight on Dating

I especially like the Advice to Young Men and Young Women on Dating (p 50-52). The message was given by the Young Men and Women General Presidencies. They counseled that we should become the persons we would like to date and presented a bulleted list of qualities to develop that would make us "attractive and interesting". The bulleted list made it seem so easy but it was quite challenging as I try to review how I am in terms of dating.

My idea of a boyfriend would be someone who is great with church callings, has a good job, a great cook, can make me laugh and is handsome like John Krasinski (haha, well, a girl can dream). Now, I think I could only ask to date this kind of guy if I also have these same qualities.  Changes won't happen overnight so I better start improving on myself right now.

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Anyway, so let's say a guy asks you out tonight.  According to the article, here are some questions to consider before saying Yes :
- does he have a strong and good character?
- is he trustworthy and dependable?
- is he honest?
- is he respectful and kind to others and to me?
- is he unselfish?
- does he respect my parents and honor his parents?
- does he honor his priesthood?
- does he motivate me to be my very best?
- is he worthy to attend the temple?
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Whew! Those are tough questions for the guys to keep up with. So you boys better be prepared!
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When Ducks Don't Float 

       Another article (p58) i liked was about the ducklings who were too young and who didn't have enough of the 'waxy oil' needed to make them float. They immediately sank in the water when they didn't have their mother to help them  stay afloat. It is a good parable about obeying our parents. They alone would know if we are ready to float on the big pond.

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Call an Ambulance

       Speaking of parents, this story on p 41 was particulary touching to me. It speaks of a man who after feeling a sharp pain on his left received and followed a prompting that saved his life. It was exactly what happened with my mother who had a brain hemorrhage last 2000. My mother too experienced having a numbing pain on only one side of the body and my father who surprisingly didn't go to work that day carried her to the hospital. My father remembers not even being able to wear slippers bec of the emergency.

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       Also, as with the story, my mother recovered miraculously fast. She received a priesthood blessing that night before the surgery. We were really grateful that because of the blessing given my mother is here with us right now without even slurring speech or any form of paralysis. Aneurysms and strokes usually cause things like this to happen. My mother is very healthy and normal ..and thankful for the miracle that happened 10 years ago.

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How about you? Any thoughts on the Liahona?
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*The Liahona Magazine is the official magazine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Beauty and Confidence

Beauty is synonymous to confidence. Sometimes if we feel good about how we look outside, we also feel good about what we are inside. This can also be evidenced by the people who go on makeovers on television, who after acquiring their new look, swear that they have a better outlook on life and develop a more confident personality. 

But as we age, physical beauty is more and more difficult to maintain. It's great for the rich people, they always have the resources to go have a face lift, a tummy tuck or a botox injection every once in a while. But to maintain beauty, they also swear by using tried and tested skin care products and beauty regimens.

Some are very sure that the cleanser-toner-moisturizer ritual is the best. Others add that sunblock is essential as it helps stop aging by blocking UV rays. Some use special , albeit expensive, creams that they use for day or night to soften facial skin and fight wrinkles. Some use equipment like wands and special scrubs. 

Whenever i visit my favorite beauty stores, I am always hunting for the best moisturizers and sunblocks. Recently, I've been having sun spots by neglecting my skin when I travel and do activities outdoors. I've found that sunblocks are truly important and must be worn all year round. So i must really put an emphasis on this. Please don't forget to wear your sunblock. You must wear it before your moisturizer. Well, for moisturizers, i am still looking for the best water based moisturizer for sensitive skin. Water based and organic products are still the best. All of us must do things to make us both look and feel beautiful even if you have to go through a lengthy skin care regimen.

I say, beauty is not skin deep! It's true, these products are only applied to our skin. But if we look great, we develop confidence to go through our days with ease.

photo taken from videojug.com

How online advertising helps

Do you spend a lot of time in the internet? As for me, I consume hours just surfing the net. I spend a lot of it on writing and editing my blogs. Blogging is one of my biggest hobbies and I also maintain 3 blogs. I get to share my opinions about my favorite things, my opinions, rants and raves to a humble amount of readers and followers. As long as you are consistent about you blog posts and themes, fellow bloggers would be more and more interested in what you have to say.

I am also very fortunate to get to be paid to blog. Imagine getting paid to do your favorite things! A lot of business owners get to advertise through the internet and for just cause. Many turn to the internet for information, to watch, to read, and to purchase.The info you find in the internet isn't contained in one area. Many web contents can be read all throughout the world. Bloggers' articles are the best way to advertise to a large readership and for a very small cost.

Consumers are very knowledgeable these days. They demand to know what they buy before they spend on them. Information and advertisements on the internet are great sources of information on what we are about to buy. You can even find reviews so you know where your money goes to.That's why online advertising is one of the best forms of promoting your businesses and attracting possible customers. Both advertisers and bloggers benefit from this type of advertising. Some bloggers even work from home and still earn!

I love using the site www.Blogadvertisingstore.com . Their site helps advertisers find writers to promote their ads and helps bloggers find opportunities to promote for the advertisers. They make it easier for you to find tasks that are compatible with your blog. I also like that they clearly specify the the links and instructions for each post. It is a great way to earn and you as a blogger are also helping businesses to grow while just doing what you like to do best and that is to blog.

image taken from lodexsolutions.com