It's Worth It!

Applying for a car loan like the car title loans tampa was a little tough on us because at the time we applied for a joint loan, I still didn't have my green card so they didn't approve me as a co-signer. We were so nervous that they might not approve us because of the fact that we're a one-income family and that my husband's pay won't be enough to cover another car payment, if we were to get a new vehicle. We needed a family car so badly and that's the reason he never gave up. He made a couple of phone calls before he finally told me the good news - we got approved for a car loan!

With the amount we were approved with, we were able to get a Land Rover and let me tell you, that vehicle is just amazing! Very spacious, luxurious and comfortable at the same time, and above all, it's perfect for our family. And every time we look at it and when we're driving in that vehicle, all we could say to each other is, "We're glad we got this and we never settled for something less because this vehicle is definitely worth it!"

I Proudly Support Our Troops

I am a very proud U.S. Navy Chief Wife and that is something I definitely would stand tall among the crowd for! I have been supporting my husband for more than five years now, and I will keep on supporting him till the very end.

Saying you support our troops isn't hard of a thing to do. You can say it anytime, anywhere, or even for as many times as you want. But, actually showing you support, that, is a whole lot different.

We all have different ways of showing we support our troops. I, myself have my own ways of showing it to my husband and to all uniformed service members. This actually reminds me of the tiny yellow ribbon pin that my husband gave me a year ago, which we all know that a yellow ribbon symbolizes "We Support Our Troops". I always carry it with me anywhere I go. It's the only one I have right now, and with my husband making Chief just recently, I kind of want to get at least two custom pins; one that says, "I Proudly Support Our Troops" on it, and the other one with "I Am A Proud US Navy Chief Wife". I bet that will be awesome!

As a military spouse, I show support to my husband by staying right by his side at all times - especially when things get really tough because that's when he needs me the most. Mind me, when your husband has the type of job that my husband does in the military, doing so wouldn't be an easy thing to do. It has basically taken all of my courage to make me able to sit there and say, "Yes, I support him with everything in me, and with anything I can." That's why they say, being a Military Spouse is the toughest job there is because it's never easy to remain strong for your entire family while your significant other is out at war when deep inside, you're filled with fear and a whole lot of mixed emotions that nobody would really understand, unless, they, themselves are in the same shoes as you are. Most of the time, you're left with nobody to hold on to but you and you need to deal with it day in and day out with nothing in your heart but the hopes and prayers that they will come home alive. You're expected to fill in the Father's spot while at the same time, being a mother to your children. But no matter how tough things may get in the future, nothing will ever make me change the way I show support to every military service members. I love being a Navy Wife and even when the day comes that my husband no longer is an active duty, I still would wear my yellow pin as a sign of my support, and I will never falter to always stand there, proud and tall among the crowd!

Because I am, now and for always, a Military Spouse.

Because They're Worth It

I don't know how many I've already read about life insurance and all of their benefits for the entire family. It's like, there's a hundred of them out there which makes it even more tougher to pick the best one for our love ones. Choosing the life insurance that will meet all of your expectations is not an easy thing to do. Though, there are a lot of them out there that say they're the best, it still is a good thing to go through as many as you can and then compare them and from there, you can work on the one that really suits you best.

Visiting life insurance's websites like http://www.trustedquote.com will benefit you a lot. You can find so many information about certain life insurance companies, and with that being said, you can educate yourself as far as which ones to compare, how much it'll cost you to get one, how to buy the one that you've found best, and all sorts of help you might need along the process. To me, it kind of still sounds a bit complicated, but I'm sure you'd be provided with all the help available, and once you get it all done and over with, that's when you'll finally tell yourself, it was all worth it.

Anything for your love ones is always going to be worth it.

Thinking of Getting A New Laptop...

Right now, we only own one laptop since the other two got broken last year. I honestly don't know what happened to the netbook. It just stopped working. But the other 17-inch laptop fell and the impact damaged the hard drive.

Anyway, I am not at all complaining or anything since we have a desktop computer and iPads that we could use. It's just that, since I love to blog, sometimes I'd wish we have two laptops right now so I could still write if I want while sitting on the couch and relaxing and my husband is using the other one. But I'm also thinking about spending money on something that isn't really a need at this time especially when we've already got so much in our plate as far as money is concerned. But if ever I end up getting a new laptop, one of those refurbished laptops would definitely work for me. I mean, I really don't need a brand new one when all I need it for is mainly to do blogging. As long as it still works, that would be perfectly fine for me.

Kitchen Nightmare!

No, this isn't the restaurant show on TV. I am talking about our very own nightmare at home. There are just so many things that need to get fixed but we have limited control because we're only renting.

The other day, while I was washing baby bottles, an awful smell started leaking out of the sink. It smelled like rust and something rotten that it almost made me throw up. I started pouring water with hand soap down the drain, but it didn't work. I couldn't get rid of the bad smell so I left it because I got tired dealing with it when I still had lots of other chores to do.

I just wish the owner would do something about it like fix the pipeline, and since the sink is kind of old, I hope they'd replace it with something like the undermount sinks . I bet it'll look so much better if they did. You know, I'm just saying.

Anniversary Gift

My husband loves wine! In fact, he's got probably close to 60 bottles of wine right now and that doesn't even include the ones he already consumed. I remember when we were still in California, almost every other weekend, we'd drive up to Julian to go to wineries to check out their really fine wine collection. I wanted to taste some wine at the time but I couldn't because I was pregnant. Regardless, my husband would still let me at least smell the wine and he'd tell me what it tasted like and that I probably might like it as well. So he'd buy the wine that he thinks I would love as much as he does.

Such a very thoughtful gesture and I have been wanting to thank him even just through a very simple gift since it's actually almost our 4th Wedding Anniversary in 2 months. And I really am thinking of getting him a bottle of special wine online if I could find a great deal on wine gifts. It's been a while since he last bought one and I want to be surprise him on our big day. I know too little about wines but I am confident I'll get one of the best, if not, one of his favorites that he hasn't had in a long time. I don't know how long it will take me to get everything done, but I am willing to do extra work just for him. After all, I know in my heart that he'd do the same thing for me in a heartbeat. So, that's my plan for right now - a special bottle of wine for my very special husband. I just hope he'll love it.

Time to Buy New Clothes

Due to the reason of me being pregnant when I arrived here in the States, we never really shopped for my outfits except for maternity clothes. I was hesitant to buy because my body was changing and I didn't know what size I'll be after giving birth. It was tough, though because I miss wearing my clothes that I left back home and I've been tempted a lot of times to buy some. I cannot even count how many times I found myself walking down the aisle inside the store where the clothing for girls are located. I've found so many designs I wish I was able to buy at the time. There were so many cute T-shirts, shorts, skirts, and my favorite, womens jeans. But when I started scanning through the jeans and saw the sizes, I was taken aback. They were, if not too long, too small for me. My hips grew wider and I knew right then and there that there's no way I'm going to fit in those. I have at least 17 pairs of jeans I left back home so just imagine how tough it really was for me to leave that aisle with nothing in hand. I really do miss wearing just jeans and shirt and I cannot wait to be back to my old size.

Now that I'm starting to lose all of the baby fats and weight I gained during pregnancy, I think it's about time for me to start buying clothes little by little. As what I've said, I left most of my jeans back home and it's almost winter, so I'm looking at buying more pairs of jeans than shirts. I also would love to buy a couple pairs of sweats and hoodies because I really can barely stand the cold weather and I need thick clothes to help me get through it. Good thing is, we live close to an outlet store and Black Friday is only a few months away, so if we go shopping, we'll definitely be saving a lot of money because for sure, they'll be having a lot of good deals. I don't mind not getting everything I wish I could buy for right now as long as everyone in the family gets to buy something for themselves as well, I think I'd even be more happier knowing I got to buy stuff for myself as well as them. After all, that's what family's all about, isn't it?

A Much-deserved Family Getaway...

Speaking of family bonding, now that my husband will be taking leave for 2 weeks starting next week, how I wish we live close to Disney World Resort. The reason I said that is, since I got here and it's already been almost 3 years, I still haven't been to an amusement park like the world-renowned, Disney World or Disneyland. I really wanted us to go to Disneyland when we were still in California, but because I was pregnant at the time, we never got to do it. We kept on planning but never had the time to enjoy because by the time our first born was 3 months old, I got pregnant again. I want to experience that "magical" feeling I've heard from people who had been to that place before. Although, the kids are still young to, obviously, remember the whole trip, I still would love for us to be able to take them to a place like that where anything, according to a child, can happen. I've browsed around just to see how much everything would cost us and I was really surprised that for the price of basically what we're going to get is just right! A family getaway is going to be so much fun if we also have to stay in one of those beautiful Disney World Hotels. Looking at how gorgeous their rooms are, I couldn't help but really get so excited. I mean, with everything our family has been through, I think we all deserve some pampering, don't we? Especially when we know we're going to create beautiful memories with our kids, now, that's something no amount of money can really buy.

I am so up to doing just about anything fun with my whole family now. Our youngest is already 3 months old and she would be fine if in case we plan on going somewhere and we need to travel long distance. My husband and I really would love to make the most out of our time while we're here. So, by the time we all need to move to the next change of duty station, we know we'll be taking beautiful memories with us to definitely last us a lifetime.

Making It Through These Rough Times

In a one-income-family like ours, making ends meet can be tough sometimes. Having three kids and making sure we're able to provide their growing needs while at the same time, taking care of our own personal needs and for the entire household, are taking their toll on us. I may be earning online but my income still is not enough to cover other expenses around the house. If anything, I earn just enough to buy some of the kids' food and gas for our car that my husband uses to take him to work everyday.

In order for us to make it through with the amount my husband gets paid for, we save as much as we could and we restrain ourselves from spending money on things we don't need at the moment. The reason behind is, bills take so much out of his paycheck, leaving us with just enough to survive till the next payday. Well, we really have no other choice but to make sure bills get paid on time because if not and the amount keeps adding up, it might get ten times harder for us to catch up on our payments, leaving us with bigger balance to pay later. And if you keep paying bills late, whatever company you owe money to, has all the rights to report you to the credit bureau, thus, affecting your credit score, which can be a bad thing for you later on in life and we definitely don't want that to happen. Also, it's a good thing to search online for free credit score to see where you stand and be always on the right track as far as keeping a good credit. That's one of the many things my husband taught me when I just first got here and how to handle money wisely.

Paying bills is one big thing my husband is trying his hardest to stay on track regardless of how tough times can get. What he basically did with some of the bills was, split them into two separate payments; first half due on every 1st of the month and the second half, on every 15th of the month. In that way, we are caught up with bills and still are able to save money for the family's needs and everything.

I know how stressed out he is most of the time especially when he's the only one bringing in all of the money into our family. That's why I can't wait to start working as well and help out so he doesn't need to carry all of the financial burden on his own anymore. Indeed, making it through these rough times is not an easy thing to do. But I know that no matter what, as long as we keep both our heads held high and keep working on as a team, we'll get through this just fine.

Another Blessing

What a day to end the week! I received another blessing today - a letter from the USCIS, congratulating me for having my request for the removal of the conditional basis of your permanent resident status approved. We really are so grateful to God for being with us all throughout the whole process!

It took us months before we finally finished the first few steps on getting my citizenship. And the first thing we got knocked down was, adjusting/removing my conditional permanent resident status. The wait from filing the I175 form to getting my biometrics done was overwhelming. And when we got that done, few weeks later, I got a letter from them asking me to explain as to why our kids were born in different places if we are residing now here in the Midwest.

I actually had to write a 2-page-letter and we attached several documents supporting all the details I wrote to the USCIS. My husband took my letter first to the Navy and had them read it and they also provided documents that helped us big time. It only took 2 weeks since we mailed out the letter and we already got the response we've been praying to hear from them - I Got Approved! And now, we're just waiting for my new green card which will be here within 60 days. After that, new forms to file again, this time, for my citizenship. But I think it's not until next year or so. Anyway, I'll get a letter from them explaining what's the next step we need to take so I won't worry about it right now. And when the time comes, we already know that God will always be there for us as He'd been in this journey.

This Time Around

Next week, my Mother-in-law and her sister are coming for a quick visit and to attend my husband's pinning ceremony. We are all very excited to see Mom again and for me to meet Aunt Shirley for the first time! It's kind of a little sad, though that they'll only be here for 5 days because they couldn't get a leave longer than that, but we'll definitely make the most out of the time they'll be here with us.

When my Mother-in-law came to visit us in April, we planned on going to places in Chicago. But due to John's schedule and us not having a family vehicle yet at the time (not to mention that I was 32 weeks pregnant, too), we never got to do it. Good news is, John will be taking a 2-week leave right after he gets pinned and he said, he'll make sure we all get to go there this time. We got a huge family vehicle now and everybody could fit in it. And while we're there, I would love for us to take the Chicago Bus Tours so we could tour the whole place and not miss a single famous tourist spot they have. And I think it'll save us money for gas if we don't have to drive around to get to one place after another. Sounds convenient to me, but then of course, we've got three kids we need to consider so that will depend on how things go. I guess it doesn't matter which route we take as long as everybody enjoys time, that's all that matters.

Halloween Dress-Up

I can't believe it's almost Halloween again! Time for those colorful outfits once more and the sweet treats, of course. And I can't wait for Halloween this year because our two older boys can finally go trick-or-treating with their Dad. They weren't able to do it last year because Skyler was still too young and Kaden was only 5 months old. Now that both boys are already walking and running around, they can definitely go around the neighborhood and have fun. Kairi and I would probably tag along and eat all the candies they'll collect. I'm so excited to see them in those cute little Halloween costumes! We still don't know what outfits to get for the kids, but I will make sure I'll get them something that would make them look really awesome; which reminds me, I think it's about time for me to enjoy Halloween as well - in a costume!

I've been here for almost 3 years now and I still haven't been able to really experience dressing up for Halloween. Well, I was pregnant last year and the year before that so I really didn't feel like doing anything at the time. But now, I am so up to it and I can hardly wait! And of course, if I want to participate in it, I need a costume, too. Sexy Halloween Costumes are what I have in mind right now. I think they look really neat. I won't get the one that's too daring, of course. I just want something that's beautiful but simple, sexy but in a decent way. I don't feel comfortable flaunting more skin because I'm not used to it, and what I would really love to get is, a Ninja outfit. It's just too cute and it does look sexy but not showing off a lot of skin, if you know what I mean.

I really like this Ninja outfit and when I showed it to my husband, I saw that "I-would-love-to-see-that-on-you" smile on his face and I just knew right then and there, that I made the right choice. I don't care if I only have to use it once for the price I need to pay. I mean, who says I can only wear it on Halloween? I can wear it around the house if I want to. I know it might not look appropriate, but having fun once in awhile won't hurt anyone, will it?

Boredom....

While waiting for the food to get done cooking, let me answer these fun questions I found online. I think I've actually answered some of them before, but doesn't matter. I am bored and I want to do something to get rid of it...hehehe

Here we go ---->

Do you love the last person you kissed?
- With all of my heart.. --> I kissed my baby daughter just a few minutes ago ;)

Who was the last person you kissed on the lips?
- My sweet hubby before he left for work this morning :)

What’s your real name?
- Kirsti..

Is it easy to make you cry?
- If it's about family, yes, it's easy to make me cry..

Have you ever been cheated on?
- Yes, I have been cheated on.. Doesn't sound good, but at least I wasn't the one who cheated, right? **wink...

Do you wish at 11:11?
- Did that once, nothing happened.. So I stopped doing it.. haha

How’s June going for you so far?
- Hmm, it's already September, didn't you know that? Anyway, June went pretty great for me and my family because we welcomed our third bundle of joy, our precious daughter, Kairi..

Do you like your life?
- No, I don't like my life.. I LOVE IT!! :)

What is your relationship status?
- Happily married!!

If you’re in a relationship, who with?
- My husband, John..

Do you hate anyone?
- No, I don't.. Such a waste of time and energy.. hehe

Does anyone hate you?
- Oh, I'm sure there's probably a lot of "anyone" out there.. We just can't please everybody no matter what..

What is your biggest regret?
- I didn't date before I decided to get married.. I've only had one boyfriend, and that's my husband now.. I never experienced how it feels like to date and all that.. It made me feel like I really never got to enjoy being single at all..

Do you miss anyone from your past?
- Yes, I do.. My friend, Yousef.. I miss talking to him..

Did you kiss someone at midnight on new years eve?
- Yes, I did.. I kissed my kids and my husband..

Ever been in love?
- I am very much in love right now.. I've always been :)

Would it hurt you to see the person you last kissed, kissing someone else?
- If I saw my husband kissing someone else? Hmmm, what do you think?! Would it sound crazy if I ended up declaring World War III? hahaha

How many times have you cried this week?
- Once.. I cried because I was sick and I felt so bad that I wasn't able to really take care of the kids.. It was tough not being able to do some things right because I was hurting and really weak..

Do you cry yourself to sleep at night?
- Yes, when I am terribly missing my family back home :(

Who are you messaging right now?
- Nobody..

Who was the last person to inbox you on Facebook?
- My sister, Hazel..

Who was the last person to break your heart?
- My ex (internet boyfriend), obviously..haha

Last question: Are you listening to any music ? If so, what song ?
- Yes.. I am listening to Charice's songs and "Louder" is the song currently playing.. (I'm singing along with it, too..I love Charice!!)