Facebook Bloghopping Groups

I used to advertise my blogs in order to get a good amount of traffic but when that company came to an end, I was bummed. I am a comment hog so I participated to some memes (blue Monday, Mellow Yellow, Ruby Tuesday, you name it). I feel like my posts are lifeless when no one write comments on it so I did that for a while. The problem of that was, sometimes some participants in memes don't really reciprocate so I got tired of joining eventually. My blogs went dead there for a while until I discovered some Facebook groups for hopping. Again, I love comment so I started participating on Comment Exchange hops then later on tried the Alexa Hopping.

I am an active member of some Facebook groups for blog hopping and one of those groups is the Filipino Bloggers Forum (FBF).  Admins to this group is strict, they don't let any  misbehavior sly and that is because they want every member to have  the same and equal benefits.   They mean business  when it comes to imposing the rules which is really good  for  everyone.     The admins decided to have some  awarding to the members for different categories and I got two awards, yay, hehehe.

Anyway, it was a fun online event.  Everyone shared video messages.  The admins sent me some memorabilia for the said event.  I love the mugs and the  extra treats that a thoughtful Miss Claire sent me, thanks sis!

Bloghopping groups  is a great help for bloggers like me because  that is where we get our traffic most of the time.  Without them, our blogs will be  dead.  I call them the lifeline of my blogs.  

Thank you so much  to my FBF family,

Beach Fun #Corpus Cristi Texas # USS Lexington

My children school is closed today and  will be closed also tomorrow.  We have been having a severe weather so I am thankful that I got to keep my children at home.  My son and I both have colds now so I really don't want to go out in the cold.  Anyway, I wish that we could be somewhere right now where the weather is warm.  Just like the weather when we were at Corpus Cristi.  The freezing temperature reminded me to post our adventure in Texas last yea so I got the cold weather to thank for that lol.  

We are very far from the place with  an ocean so  that was an absolute treat for my kids.  They really did enjoy the time we spent in Texas.  Wish we can do it again  in the future with the Dias family.  Shadow Shots

Alien No More

When my husband was still in the service and we were deployed in Korea,  fellow Filipinos there advised me to  apply for citizenship there because it is easier, they say.  The idea toyed in my mind for a while but since my husband was always busy with work, and I was not ready to give up my  Filipino citizenship yet, we abolished the idea of applying there.  When we came back here in 2010, I planned to  apply but then I got cold feet again and said that I will  do it the next year, then the next year.  In 2012, I filled out my application but stored  it away.  It was only last year that I decided to  really push through my plan.  After all, I have been living  here in the US for almost 9 years now so I was ready to give up my former citizenship.

Here's the timeline of my  application process:

• I sent my application on the last week of July
• August 7th - I received a notification from USCIS  that they  received my application already. Application Fee is $680
• August 14th - I got my appointment for Biometrics
• September 4th - I did my Biometrics at Application Support Center  in Pittsburgh.  This is located in Penn Avenue.  MY appointment was 1 but we went there early as we did not know where it was.  We got done  so quick.  Since no photos allowed, I did not bring my camera in my purse, I left it in the car.  I should have  brought it and took pictures outside the  USCIS building hehehe.  Bummer.
• November 14 - I had my Interview.  I was  a nervous wreck lol.  Although I literally memorize every page of the book that they gave me to study on, I was still nervous because of 100 questions that you learned in the book, they only select ten of them to ask you.  The interviewer  was very nice and he made me feel comfortable  so I  was confident in answering his questions.  After getting the first 6 questions right, I was done.  

I was freaking out  when December came as I never got any notification about the Oath ceremony.  I was  worried that they might find wrong in my application and  will go through it again.  I think that the delayed was due to the holiday so I was glad when I got my Oath Taking Ceremony notification after Christmas.  The Oath  Taking ceremony was held where I was interviewed on January  10 at 1:00 pm.  We brought our kids with us.  They only attended school for half a day.

 

I was the very first one to arrived so I got the first seat lol.  The guys that  was in front was the one who interviewed me.

After the Pledge of Allegiance, the Director encouraged us to share our  journey here in the States but I did not have the courage to talk in front (not my kind of thing lol).  Some shared their  stories though which is nice.  The Indian woman made me cry with her speech.  Some who took the Oath are from Vietnam, Cambodia, China, Russia, Canada, Czechoslovakia, and some other countries.  I was the only Filipino there.

The Naturalization ceremony program includes  showing a presentation of Faces of America, singing of the National Anthem, welcoming remarks, roll call by country, oath of allegiance, they they showed a  video address from the President, Barack Obama.  The video montage  of "Proud to be an American" make me teary eyed.  The program ended with the presentation of certificates and the rest is photo opp.

I got the love of my life to thank for, for  embarking this journey with me.  Without him, I could have never set my foot here in the United States.

I am glad that this has been done and over with.  It has been bugging me for years, whether or not to apply.  So now, we can all travel, and I will be an Alien, no more.  Next step is for me to apply for  a new passport.  I thank God for giving me my rock, someone that I can depend on for everything.

Family Togetherness #YearofTheHorse

It's been two years now that we started celebrating  holidays at our own abode.  We used to celebrate it at my FIL's home together with the rest of the family but hubby and I feel that it would be best to  be at home during  the holidays so the kids will get used to it .  Here are some of the photos we had  in Celebrating the new year.

The Burritos played monopoly while waiting for the ball to drop.  In previous years, we  let them go to bed before midnight but his year, they asked if they could stay with us so we let them.

Then we witnessed the ball dropped via television and we  took some happy snaps before going to bed.

We visited my FIL on the first day of 2014 and took a photo with him as well.

IN the year of the horse, we look forward to kicking bad habits to get fit and maintain family togetherness and nurture the love that we have for each other.