Apat.

Over this past year, I have challenged not only myself but my whole family on spending more time outdoors instead of having our faces glued to a piece of electronic & I am happy to say that our efforts so far have been amazingly successful!

As a mother in this day & age it is so easy to be sucked in and immersed in the world of technology we live in! I was always telling my kids that there is so much more to this world than TV and smartphones & encouraged them to play outdoors more. I realized that I was a hippocrate! Here I am telling them one thing and I am doing another! What kind of shit is that? I’ll tell you the God honest truth…that’s that “I am the parent. Just do what I say.” BULLSHIT.

Funny huh…

Camping is our favorite thing to do as a family & and because of what we do for a living, vacations are usually reserved for the summer. So we decided to take up hiking! Being able to go for a day hike was the perfect answer to getting our whole family outdoors a lot more. We’ve done quite the list of hikes in our immediate and beautiful Bay Area…Briones, Black Diamond Mines, Rockville Hills, Pena Adobe, & Muir Wood National Monument.

Spontaniety at its best, we decided to do a spur the moment trip up to Pinecrest to test our skills and hike Cleo’s Bath. It was a 3.5 mile hike with tough terrain.

I was so proud of the kids! They hiked up half a mile of a wall of boulders to get to the beautiful swimming holes. It was a hard and scary hike but we worked together as a family to conquer the hike and it was well worth every minute because we ended up here…

The run off water from the melting ice was breathtaking! It was the freshest, clearest water I’ve ever seen and swam in. I honestly surprised myself! Hubby is an avid hiker and has always invited me to join him but I’ve always felt that I could never find the stamina and strength to complete a strenuous hike.

But guess what? I did it. And so did my kids.

The wilderness has always stood the test of time and we take the beauty of it for granted. Technology is not everything. Enjoy the amazing parts of this world just by stepping outside your doors, challenge yourself and the ones around you.

Tatlo.

It has been a while since my last post and things have changed for the better in my life. Went through another job change and decided to leave the financial industry and go back to retail!

I am currently with Pet Food Express and have been rockin’ with them for over 2 years now. Making a career change was the best thing I could have done for myself and my family. I have never been one to settle for unhappiness or discontentment so when I felt I needed a career change, I went with my gut and followed through. Sometimes change can be hard & I am definitely not the exception.

Making this career change was tough but it was amazingly rewarding. I have joined a wonderful company who has extremely high values/standards and has built up such a positive culture and environment for their employees! Sometimes I wonder why I didn’t try searching for a company who cares about their people sooner!

This company has renewed by beliefs in myself and that I have a purpose in my worklife.

If you are unhappy, don’t be afraid to make a change. You just might surprise yourself.

Dalawa.

My time thus far being a mother and wife has been one of the most uplifting experiences in my life. At 29, my family is my biggest accomplishment. I never knew how much I could love until them.

I wish I was able to give them more financially, when pitted up against my husband, my skills and pay rate is very different. We still live in a world where in the job field, women are not equal to men. I am learning this the hard way. I have no formal schooling and stuck doing food service or retail where the hours stink and my time is devoted to serving people and spending most of my time with high school and college kids. If I could have it my way, I would rather spend that time with my kids and husband. Thru the week, I am almost non-existent in their lives since I’m working 50+ hrs a week.

Sometimes I ask myself, how did I get here? Why did I not apply myself into the college thing to get a degree? Now here I am complaining about how everything is currently. Yet as I constantly scroll thru Indeed, put in my resume, create profiles for multiple companies, still nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

So I surrender to low pay, shitty hours and lost time with my family until I retire or die, whichever comes first, I guess.

I have devoted my life to the pizza/food industry. 10 years. I started from the way bottom and worked my way up into a managerial position. They used to call me the garbage disposal. Ha. I would take over red bottom-lined stores, clean up the crew, fire/hire, train & re-train, get the store into the black & then the company would move me to another store to do it again, and again, and again. I finally put in my notice almost 2 months ago & have since found another job. This time with a nationwide financial institution, which I will not name. TBH, I never really believed in the saying, “the grass is not always greener on the other side.” until now….

It really isnt.

 

Isa.

#mamalife is lying in bed at 5:07am knowing damn well that I have to be up in a couple hours and wrangle my two kids together to get them off to school. I know I’m definitely going to hate myself in a bit. Aha.

This swing shift is totally kicking my ass RN. My sleeping schedule is way off and I have never been this way! I am the type that can sleep thru anything! Trust, I was raised in a loud Filipino household who didn’t care what time it was, it’s always karaoke time! Flashback to when I attended a year of high school in the Philippines, my Aunt Tita owned and managed her own carinderia (mom & pop typa quick food service eatery) in the lovely city of Rosales, Pangasinan. I remember late nights being at the carinderia, the wafting smell of Red Horse and cornik while the roaring sound of karaoke music filled the room almost bursting your ears! It is definitely a fond memory that I haven’t visited in quite some time.

Guess I can throw in a few Zzzz’s before my little rascals wake up.

Good morning? Ha. Yeah, good morning.