Less than 2 weeks until I leave for the Philippines. So crazy! I have to start packing next week & then I will just have last minute stuff to throw in my suitcase the night before I leave. I already have some stuff that I'm taking already in my suitcases, it's just not organized & I don't have any of my clothes packed yet.

The 20th, I believe I'm going to have my "Thanksgiving/Christmas" with my family. I think we may go out to eat for dinner and then exchange gifts before I go away. This will be the 2nd year I won't be home for Thanksgiving. Last year since I arrived home a week after Thanksgiving, my Mom froze me a plate of Thanksgiving dinner. This year I won't be home until the end of January. (This will also be my 2nd Christmas & New Years in the Philippines.)

I think F.B. & I are going to do what we did last year for my Thanksgiving. (Since it's an American holiday.) We'll have dinner at Gerry's Grill, go to Trinoma Mall, pick out some Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider, get some mashed potatoes from KFC & watch a movie at his house. Hehe.

I think we're also going to get our I.D. Photos taken at the mall when we go out, we will need them when we apply for our marriage license. We'll have to wait until probably November 30th to go to the USA Embassy to get my 'Certificate of Legal Capacity to Contract Marriage' because the US Embassy in Manila will be closed on Thanksgiving. Unless we go on November 27th. I'm not sure yet. I know the week of the 30th we will be applying for the marriage licence, because there's a 10 day waiting period & we may or may not have to take premarital classes.

NOTE: If you are getting married in the Philippines and you are a US citizen these requirements from the US Embassy in Manila Philippines, will be helpful: Getting Married in The Philippines.

Today I did some baking. I love baking Pumpkin Bread, etc around Thanksgiving and Christmas. This year I tried baking Iced Pumpkin Cookies! I found the original recipe here, but I altered it a bit. I left out the chocolate chips (didn't have any!) and the walnuts (I don't like them.) And since I didn't have Pumpkin Pie spice handy, I put in a 1 tsp of cinnamon & a 1/2 tsp of nutmeg.

Here is the altered recipe that I used:

Iced Pumpkin Cookies

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1tsp. baking powder
1/2tsp.baking soda
1/2tsp. salt
2 sticks butter or margarine, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 can (15 oz.) LIBBY'S 100% pure pumpkin
2 large eggs
1tsp. vanilla extract
Vanilla Glaze (recipe follows)

Directions: Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease baking sheets.

Mix wet ingredients together and dry ingredients together in separate bowls, before combining & mixing well. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Spread or drizzle with vanilla glaze.

Vanilla Glaze:

Combine 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons milk and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract in small bowl; mix well.

Yum! They turned out well! I put the icing in the fridge to firm up a little while the cookies were still baking.

✯ PR Sample ✯

Today I have swatches of Philly Loves Lacquer: Gloss48 Exclusive polishes. Six exclusive colors were created, each one designed by a member of the Gloss48 team. These will retail for $10.00 each during the introductory period, starting September 10th, 2014. After that they will retail for $12.00.

Photos from my birthday weekend/week. (The big 3-0). These are all Instagram & cell phone photos.


 
 

F.B. & I will be getting married December 2009. I was checking out wedding bands today online at Gordon's Jewelers and found wedding bands I love!













They are simple wedding bands made of titanium. (Just what I want!) I'm surprised they are so affordable. I thought titanium would be very expensive, but I suppose it depends on the design. I like the polished metal look. And I've always wanted silver or titanium wedding bands. Nothing too fancy. I think F.B. will agree with me, that simple is best.

Now I have to get F.B. to go to a jeweler to get an accurate ring size for him. I know I am a size 6. Then maybe we can order the rings early next year and we'll be all set for December! I'm so Excited!

Update on Spice: She is doing much better. She has a check up at the Vet on Tuesday. The stitches and incision are looking better. She's bad when it comes to taking her antibiotic though. She will try to drool it out her mouth (I give it to her in a oral syringe) Or if I hold her she won't swallow and then when I let her down she will wipe her mouth all over her blanket. Bad rattie! Oh well. I think most is getting in her.

Cinnamon went back for her 2nd check up tonight. And they removed the metal sutures! They also said I could stop the antibiotic. So my girl is all better! She hasn't had any bleeding since she got spayed. And she's getting chunky again. Her surgery area is turning into a scar and she's growing her fur back on her belly already. I undid the latch in the cage that separates the two levels so that she can live with her sisters Sugar & Spice again. I was worried they might fight or have dominance issues, since they were separated for 2 weeks, but they've been quiet all evening. I'm sure all of them are happy to have free range of the entire cage again!

In other news F.B. & I have been communicating better than we have these past few weeks. We still haven't talked seriously about things yet, but we are both doing much better since my venting post. Long distance relationships are so difficult & the distance between us is just crazy! It's so difficult when you're both from different countries. It's just so frustrating & such a struggle sometimes. Talking about or planning our future is also full of complications and struggles. Thank you everyone for your comments, thoughts & advice. I really appreciate it.

I am home from work today because of a family emergency. I will most likely be off work tomorrow also because of things. Very stressful & emotional time at home right now. My mom was in the hospital last night. It's not something I want to go into on my blog though. Personal family issues. Please just keep me & my family in your thoughts & prayers. Thanks. I did get to talk to F.B. on the phone this morning for about 40 minutes which was nice. I really needed him.

In other news: My treadmill arrived Friday. My brother helped me assemble it. It took from 7pm-9pm. Mostly because we had to take apart my old broken treadmill to even get it out of my room. I was just able to use it tonight. Only for 15 minutes. But wow... that thing can fly! I got the: Weslo Cadence C44 Treadmill from Walmart.com












I believe the motor in my old treadmill was going. Sometimes during the middle of a workout while changing speeds it would blow a fuse and I would have to turn it on again and lose my distance/time/calories burned. Also it never seemed like run was "run". The new one has a slight incline already on it and you can adjust the incline a bit more too. So now I have to get used to the speeds of this new one. jog on this new treadmill is like run! I was out of breath. It looks like I'll be getting even more of a workout with the new treadmill and that incline definitely works the muscles in my legs! After 15 minutes I was sweating up a storm and I already had 2 fans on!

I do miss a few things about my old treadmill that the new one doesn't have. The old treadmill had a red display for the numbers- easier to read than black numbers on a gray background. I don't have any rubber grip on my handles and there's not much space on the tray to hold stuff except water bottles. My ipod video does not fit. My old display could hold everything I needed. Water bottle, chap stick, glasses, elastic bands, ipod. Oh well. At least it will give me a good workout!

I am excited though, because the plus reading is definitely more accurate than my old treadmill. The old one would say my heart rate was 70 after running. The new one said 160. That sounds more normal. And the calorie burning seems more accurate too. Now to workout all this week, even if it's just 15 minutes! I have to get used to the new speeds!

My ratties have been keeping it interesting. I had them outside one day a few weeks ago in the enclosed flower bed for less than 10 minutes. Sugar ended up getting a tick on her. It was such a pain to get out of her because it had gotten under her skin near her one ear. Then I had her on the antibiotic Cipro (Had half a bottle left from Cinnamon's spay.) for a week just to make sure she didn't get an infection or lyme disease. Now I've been spraying them down with small animal flea/tick spray if I do decide to take them outside.

Sugar hated the Cipro though. I had to give it to her in an oral syringe and this is what she had to say about it:

Then the day before the 4th of July Cinnamon ended up getting something in her eye. I'm not sure what it was. It looked like a small piece of gray cardboard or a paint chip to me. I tried flushing her eye out with saline, water. I even tried to get it out with my finger or by massaging her eye. After about an hour of messing with her eye I decided to call the vet. They saw her 30 minutes later and took her in the back to flush her eye out. The vet said he even had a hard time getting it out it was sticking in there really good! He did get it out though thank goodness! I think Cinnamon must have 9 lives or something. She's been to the vet 5 times & my other two have never been! (*crosses fingers*)

Spice hasn't gotten into any trouble lately. *knocks on wood* She's just been chillin' this summer:

My CVS finally had some of the Revlon Parfumerie nail polishes. There are 24 colors in the collection and they are all scented. I decided to get Surf Spray a pretty shimmery blue color with purple in it. When it's dry it smells like a fresh beachy floral scent, which you can smell even through my Seche Vite topcoat. I like strong floral scents, but if you don't this may bother you.

Surf Spray is also incredibly sheer. I find I like it best when I layer two coats over black polish. The color is more vibrant that way. On it's own, you're looking at 3-4 coats to get it somewhat opaque. Even at 4 coats my nail line was visible.


I don't own many Revlon polishes, but I really like the Parfumerie collection and there's definitely a few other colors on my wish list: Wintermint, African Tea Rose, Wild Violets & Autumn Spice.

Do you own any of the Revlon Parfumerie polishes?

P.S. This is the best black polish ever! It doesn't stain, opaque in two thin coats. It's a mini I got in one of the L.A. Girl Ombre Kits: (Midnite) a few months ago. I need to see if they sell a full size because I love layering polishes over it.


 

Even before my Cinnamon passed away, I had been thinking about getting two new female rats. It's been tough losing two rats within two months, I wasn't expecting to lose my Cinnamon so soon. Sugar had been ill and it was expected, but losing Cinnamon was so unexpected...

Friday night I went out to a few pet stores looking for female rats. Two of the stores, just had male rats, the other 2 only female PEWS. I was really hoping they would have other colors, but since they didn't I decided to get two new PEW girls.

Since all of them looked alike, they let me put my hand in the tank at Petco and I just waited to see who would come the closest. The first two girls I grabbed, didn't squirm so much or try to get away so they were the ones that came home with me. I named the larger girl Holly and the smaller girl Ivy

When I got home and gave them a bath, I discovered Holly was missing a good bit off the end of her tail. It's healed over now though. This actually turned out to be a good thing, because my Saffy, who I got back in May is also a PEW, but the tip of her tail is broken on the end. And Ivy, has a perfect tail, so it will be easy to tell them apart even if they all look similar!

Holly's Tail:
Holly & Ivy:
Holly is very curious and was even accepting a bit of people food the first night. I've owned 8 rats all together now, and I've never had a rat accept food or be so trusting the first night home.

Ivy was very scared and jumpy her first night home. She's starting to be more curious, though she is much more timid than Holly.

My Ginger rat, I have to schedule her an appointment at the vet for either this week or next week. So we can get her in and figure out how much it's going to cost to remove the tumor under her right arm. With Spice it was around $200 something, so it will probably be similar.

Today my Sugar, turns 2 years old. 2 years ago I went into Petco looking for pet rats. I ended up getting Sugar and her sister Spice. My girl is getting older. Sugar has 2 large mammary tumors and another small one starting. She also suffers from abscesses on her front paw. But, she is still enjoying life for now. This morning I had an early birthday party for her. All the girls got to enjoy some peas and applesauce. And of course, yogurt peanuts!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Sugar!

Lexi does re-stocks often, so be sure to follow her Facebook page, and Instagram for updates!