Our Old Pool Table

When I was growing up, my Dad bought us a second hand pool table and put it at the basement. My three older brothers used to shoot pools with their friends down there and sometimes cause a loud noise.

One time, my Dad was taking a nap and told them to keep quiet but I guess they were so into their games that they forgot my Dad's warning and one boy accidentally poke one of their pool sticks at the ceiling and woke my father up. He got mad and said that he will get rid of the pool table the next day and he did.

But anyhow, when my kids grow up, I may get us a pool table and put it at the family room where the four of us can shoot especially during winter times. It would be a good form of recreation on freezing days. And if the kids wants to invite their friends, they would have something to do for entertainment.

A Life Changing Experience

Naval Air Station Cubi Point was my first duty station after completing almost 2 years of electronics school. We were able to choose our orders based on class ranking. I am glad that I ranked high enough to get these "dream orders". I was fortunate enough to clean up the volcanic ash spewed from Mt. Pinatubo for just over six months and then I was able to work in electronics until we closed the base. Upon my departure from Cubi Pt., I was given this plaque during my farewell. It is one of the few things that I have to cherish from that tour.

As I reflect back on my 20 years of service, I would have to say that none of the assignments, that I had following the Philippines, would ever compare. I had many Commands, throughout my career, that were much better than the Command that I worked for in the Philippines but the experience of living in the Philippines made my career in the navy fulfilling. The time that I spent there changed my whole way of life and my way of looking at things in the world. Now I understand why MacArthur had such a strong love for the PI.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Hospital Tour

One requirement that I have to do in one of the subjects I am taking with the Nuclear Medicine course is to go to a hospital and look at their facility and observe. I went to the Weirton Medical Center and I I had a good time out there. The only thing that discouraged me are the things that some of the employees there told me about the field I am taking. They said that the job opportunity for this field is very scarce.

This made me think twice whether to continue or not with this course. My wife and I talked about it and she suggested for me to look for a course that is in demand in this area. I mean I like this field that I am taking but if I won't be able to get a job for it, then I have to shift.

So this summer, I have decided to shift my course into accounting rather than to continue with nuclear medicine course.

Oh man, it's hard when you have kids already because you have to take consideration of what is best for them before you make big decisions like this. But anyhow, I hope I do good on this next course that I will take.

A good place to build a home

The place where my home is right now is a perfect one for us because it is in the middle of every establishments like the school, post office, church, stores, banks, hospital, and it is a secluded area too that is why I love it. There is a big corner lot at next block and I am waiting for someone to put a for sale sign on it. I would definitely make an offer if it goes for sale because it is a a good place to build a house.

Finding home plans is never a problem if you have a lot to build a house already. I think if luck would let me win the lottery, I would have my dream home built hahaha. But seriously, if I would be given a chance and option, it would be very nice to build a house according to my own likings and design.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Just like her mother, our daughter is somehow addicted to using our computer too But hers is for her arts and games while my wife is for her blogging and online opportunities. Here is Rylie doing her usual drawing on the computer.

She's really good in navigating stuff in the computer.

Much Needed Project

Chelsea sneaked out again today when my son opened the door and she ran away from us. It was raining so I wasn't able to chase her, luckily, the neighbor got her and brought the dog back. This is the main reason why, I am really pursuing to have the backyard fenced. As soon as the weather gets warm, I would start getting the materials so that I could start building it. I went to the store yesterday and got an estimate of how much do I need for the materials.

I also checked for the powder actuated nail gun and other tools that I will be needing. My brother Rick told me that he would help me with the post and putting up the other stuff. I am glad because he has the experience of doing it, he did his own huge yard by himself so he pretty much know this stuff.

DD214

I was happy to find my DD214 in my email tonight. I reviewed it again for the second time and was disappointed that once again there are certain awards that I received that were not included in the list. Oh well, I am so tired of this, so I will just sign it and mail it back.

Oh well, I hope that this technorati code PUHGQRN254CU will give me luck lol..

Gloomy

We have two gloomy days in a row and today it rained. This is a shot taken at my Dad's back porch, my son saw a bird on this tree ( can you see it?) so my wife took a picture of it. I hope that the sun will shine this weekend so the kids can enjoy the outdoors.

Have a good Friday everyone!

Free WordPress Themes

My wife decided to transfer one of her blogs that is being hosted by bravenet because she find it difficult to upload photo there. When she told me about her plan, I asked her about wordpress because I be3en seeing a lot of bloggers using it. I even stumbled one blog that wrote about The Best Free Wordpress Themes For Download. If only I have much time to do it, I will try to do it for her but right now I am so busy with my finals. I told her to check out the free wordpress themes, she might find some that would be appropriate for her new blog's topic.

My Son's Scribbles

Here's is a pic of my son's scribbles. All of his drawings look like this but he can explain each drawing in detail. It's entertaining to watch him writing. he holds the pen very fancy and has a very light touch.

See how diligent he is?

Have a great weekend everyone.

Games Online

Time flies so fast, I can't believe that I am now retired from my 20 years of service from the navy. I am glad that I joined the service because I have a learned a lot of things especially lessons in life. It seems that not long ago, my wife and I are anxiously awaiting to have a baby and look at us now, complete with a girl and a boy.

Now my 4 year old daughter can even play puzzle games and stuff on the computer. I found one of the Miniclips online and she just love playing with it from time to time. My wife would not let her use the computer often because she doesn't want Rylie to get addicted to those kind of games.

My daughter is a girly girl so she love to play those dress up game on the computer. It's funny because every time she would finish one thing, she would call us and show it to us all the time. Do you let your kids play games online?

Hopefully.. No More Snow

During the first day of warm weather, the kids can't wait to go out and play even if the snow was still deep. But I am glad that they did play in the snow because after that, the snow started melting and now its all gone. Hopefully, no more snow will come. Rylie built herself a little snowman without any help from us, she wanted to do it by hereself.

I have to chase my little man because he was just running around.

Here's the snowman she built. It wasn't perfect but she was very proud of it.

Good Credit

Having a good credit is advantageous in finding great deals especially if you are planning to apply for a loan or a credit card. The higher your credit score is, the better deals on interest rates that you could find. I am so glad that my wife and I managed to pay off some debts last year because , each of us have an outstanding credit score now.

There are however circumstances in life that you can't avoid such as emergencies. whenever you accumulated so much debts and wasn't able to keep up paying your bills, your credit score get jacked up and then your credit is down. Good thing is that even if you have a not-so-good credit, you can still avail with bad credit personal loans and other loans for your immediate need of cash.

Just be very careful in agreeing to the terms and conditions, always read the fine prints because there are certain companies who will get you with those fine prints that oftentimes neglected to read by consumer.

Got a Calendar from School

During the St. Patrick's day celebration, the school where I am attending to handed out some calendar for each student. I am glad because I don't have a big calendar at home, only a table calendar that was given by a friend. My daughter had so much fun browsing on it because each picture dhows the stuff that I am currently studying, the nuclear medicine.

I believe there are also pocket calendar at the admission or reception are that they give out. I remember when I tried recruiting, they provided me a box of calling cards and a bunch of pocket calendars so I could give them to the folks that I would recruit too. I did not last in that field though, I wasn't really good at it.

It's nice to have these kind of stuff because through handing out to people they become aware of the services, programs, or products that your company is offering.

Korean Friend

I was browsing our archives of photos and saw these two shots of photos with a korean friend when we were ready to leave the base. These were taken when he inspected the house that we we were living in. He works at the housing office and we became friends with him. Wish to see you again Mr. Ha.

Make your Home Energy Efficient

If you're trying to do your part to help the environment and to save more money each year on your overall energy consumption, there are many things you can do around your home to ensure it's energy efficient. Energy saving programs and tips are available online that can help you to decrease your energy consumption. To find out where you're losing your energy dollars, check out microsoft-hohm.com. This service is brought to you completely free of charge. All you have to do is create an account. The program walks you through with simple questions about your home and your current energy consumption and creates a customized plan that will get you on the road to saving big bucks each year and help you to reduce the footprint you leave behind.

Most people already know about the energy compliance ratings of home appliances but do they really know how the ratings work and if they are getting the most bang for the buck? When I first purchased my appliances, I relied on the information that was presented to me by the sales associate that was processing my order. This program can help you to rate your current appliances and point out better choices for your particular situation. Now you can arm yourself with the knowledge you need to make better purchases that will save you lots of money in the long run.

There are so many factors that have an impact on home energy consumption. Things like windows, doors, insulation, and a whole lot more. Even if you think your home is as efficient as it can possibly be, chances are, with the ever-changing advances in technology, you could most likely be doing much better. It can be tough and sometimes even confusing to figure out how to cut energy costs. You can take the guesswork out energy use by simply creating a free account and getting your personal energy evaluation right now. To get started, simply click on one of the helpful links above.

Pimpin' Your Ride

It seems that most guys have a special bond with their truck. It doesn't matter if it's brand new or been in use for many years. I own a Ford truck, built in the 90s, and it has been of great service to me since I first bought it. The years are starting to take their toll and my old truck is beginning to lose its luster. With all that we've been through together, I can't ever get rid of her. That's why I've decided to fix her up and make her like brand new again. I started browsing the web the other day, looking for parts and ideas. I couldn't believe how many style choices and modifications can be made with the available truck accessories on the market. It's really nice having so many styles to choose from but it does make the final decision even tougher.

A friend of mine replaced his stock grill with a really cool and trendy grill and it doesn't even look like the same truck anymore. Something as simple as that can make all of the difference in how much street appeal your ride will show off. After all, your truck is an extension of you and your personality and you want it to speak on your behalf when you take to the streets.

I've seen some really nice trucks on the web and in magazines and they've helped me to come up with a few really good ideas that will bring my old truck back to life and command a second look from people passing by.

If you're into ground effects, spoilers, body kits, grills, or even special headlights and taillights, you need to stop by CARiD.com. They have a huge selection of parts to dress up almost every type of vehicle on the road. You can check them out by simply clicking on the helpful link above.

Long Lost Friends

I was looking through some old photos and found this pic of me and my buddy Eric. I knew he was a big guy but didn't realize how big until I saw him in this pic. We worked together in the Navy, about 9 years ago, while stationed Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, California. I don't remember the occasion (probably a Christmas party for work). Check it out, I was sportin' a mustache and had 18" guns in those days.

Have a great weekend everyone.

My Mentor in Blogging

If it wasn't for my wife, I wouldn't know the joy of blogging. She asked me a lot of times to try blogging before I finally tried it and now I do love it. At first I thought that blogging isn't really a guy thing but I was wrong. It is a great avenue in expressing your thoughts and ideas. I must admit that I still have a lot of things to learn in this blogging hobby.

I asked my wife numerous time about the relevance of web hosting in building your blog and she explains it to me. This technicalities however is not really my kind of thing so she is the one who decides where to get the domain and stuff. One thing that I learned though is that when your web host provider is good, the development of your site is smooth. There are certain providers that seems to have a very complex application and that is what you need to avoid when getting your own webhosting provider.

One of the blog that my wife maintains is from a different provider and she is not very fond of it because she said that the navigation on the site is very hard and features are limited. Now she is thinking to have it transferred to the current provider that both her other blogs and my blogs are subscribing.

If you guys are looking for some help about web hosting and other blogging software for your personal blog or for your business, Web Hosting Fan is the site that I recently been reading along. It offers many valuable articles that would surely answer the questions that you have in mind. They offer information and news on the latest trends for web development, search engines, and other stuff that you need in building your site as well as the traffic in your site.

Beautiful Day Outdoors

The weather has been really nice for the past few days. We took advantage of the sunshine and warm weather to get out and get some fresh air. We finally made it down to the Veteran's Memorial in town (we've been wanting to for a long time). You can find more photos that we took at my wife's Nostalgic Marveling blog.

This is a really nice touch added to the military display. For those in town with Veteran's in their family, alive or dead, a brick on the walkway can be purchased and inscribed with that Veteran's name and other info. Here are just a few of the bricks which display our pride and honor for our local veterans.

This tank is a "one of a kind" produced with a British and American parts. It was to be mass produced and delivered to war but these plans never made it past the prototype. We were fortunate enough to get the only one in existence.

Below are a few pics of the surrounding area. My son was really impressed with the trains and tracks. It was about 60 degrees F that day but the snow was still hanging around.

It's nice to see our Veteran's, new and old, being honored for their service to Our Great Nation. Good thing it was erected before the Obama administration took over, or we may have never seen it. Luckily, it's ours to enjoy, at least until the dems figure out a way to repossess the land, sell the equipment, and hand out the money to those who voted for them. Have A Wonderful Day everyone. GOD bless America, and the blue states too.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Adgitizing

Because of my full time schedule in class, I find it very hard to visit other blogs these days, so my wife encouraged me to advertise on Adgitize. But I do appreciate all your visits, most of the time I visit your blogs but I only drop entrecard just to have traffic back. Hopefully, Adgitize will give me more traffic. If you want to increase your traffic and you have a very limited time to gain traffic, advertise it at Adgitize. It is very affordable and you get the traffic that is worth the money you spend. Just click the widget on my sidebar if you want to try it.

Oh you also earn points even if you do not advertise with them, just display any affiliate banner and the adgitize group of blogs.

Car Collection

I would love to be able to say they are real cars but they are, in fact, Matchbox cars. My Mom kept my collection of Matchbox cars from when I was a kid and when we returned from Korea, my Dad gave them to EJ. It may sound silly but when we were playing with my old Matchbox cars the other day, I actually felt like a kid again...even just for a few minutes. I was holding my favorite car thinking, the last time I held this car, I was so innocent and my hands were soft and smooth and didn't tell the story of my life.

Here are some pics of EJ's new collection. Every time we go to store, he always wants to pick up a new car to add to his collection. He loves jets, helicopters, and heavy equipment (bulldozers, excavators,...etc). The pic below shows off his car carriers.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Compare to Truck Rental

I've moved over a dozen times in the past 20 years, so I've become quite the expert on the logistics involved in everything from local to long distance moves. A truck rental is an efficient and quick way to accomplish a local move but not so much the case when you're moving longer distances. When you start adding up the cost of fuel and other miscellaneous expenses, the end price is always more than what you estimate.

To keep costs low and to eliminate the hassle of driving long distances, ABF U-Packing is the way to go. You simply pay one set price which covers the truck, fuel, taxes, and a driver. For just about the same price as a rental truck, you can have someone else do the driving and make your move a relaxing and enjoyable experience. To find out more, click on the helpful link above.

Lazy days

We are a bunch of couch potatoes on lazy days. When we lost our Internet and Phone connection, there is nothing much to do. Can't blog, can't search, can't do anything online. I am just so glad that we have Direct TV instead of Comcast cable or else we could have been so bored over here especially the kids. Here are some photos taken by my wife while me and the kids watches TV.

Even Champ bonded with us.

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