Early this week, I have launched my team’s new website EPVirtualAssistants.

Along with the launch, we also launched our referral program open to all our visitors as well as readers. We are giving away 2 hours worth of free services for every successful referral.

Visit our website! I would love to hear feedback from you!

24 hours in one day isn’t enough for me to finish all my daily routines. My daily itenerary includes:

7AM: Wake up and eat breakfast

8AM - 1130 AM - Work! Work! Work!

11:30 - 2:00PM Lunch and Afternoon naptime for Mikee

2:00PM - 7PM - Back to work! work! work!

7:00 - 10:00PM Dinner and Mikee’s Sleeping Time

10:00 PM - 3:00AM Work Work Work

3:00AM - 7AM - zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

As you can tell, I barely have time for myself or for my husband! And I badly need help for time management. I know for sure that this is the same thing for most of the moms out there. We feel that the hours wouldn’t be enough to finish all our seemingly endless to do lists.

Time Management is indeed a skill that needs to be learned and adopted. I started to do researches about time management. I’m looking for tools that will actually aid me in managing my personal tasks as well as running my own virtual assistant business.

One of the tools that I found was Impactful actions. This website focus mainly on goal settings both short and long term. As well as time management. You can actually list out all your to do’s be it personal or work related.I enjoyed using this tool for goal setting and planning my life and its truly very helpful.

Though I am still open for your suggestions. What do you think is the best time management tool out there? What are your recommendations?

We are back on our feet. Electricit has been restored for most parts of Aklan. Telephone lines are now back and running, more and more banks are now back to its operation. Gaisano Mall has opened and is partially operational. Students are now back to school, employees are now back in their cubicles.

No more hot and dark nights. Welcome back ice cold coca-colas and ice cream.

For most of us life is back to normal.

Truly,God has been great. There was an overflow of blessings. Filipinos and Aklanons have showed unity and generosity during the calamity.

One realization: angels are still among us.

Lying beneath the crevices of our hearts…

I am a lousy card player. The only game I know is Lucky 9! So, I would like to know more about card games. Poker seems to be one of the most famous card game of all.

Here are some insights I learned about poker:

Wikipedia defines poker as:

Poker is a type of card game in which players bet on the value of the card combination (”hand”) in their possession, by placing a bet into a central pot. The winner is the one who holds the hand with the highest value according to an established hand rankings hierarchy, or otherwise the player who remains in the hand after all others have folded (the player who makes an un-called bet.).

There are different variations when playing poker. There’s straight, stud, draw and community. Just reading wikipedia alone makes my head already dizzy.

So I thought I should be asking help from the experts. Im lucky because my hubby is an expert poker player. He knows a lot of card games. Last night, I asked him to teach me how to play poker.

He started with explaining the rules of the game. And believe me I got lost. I feel this is far more complex than my Mathematics subject! He laughed.

I tried to digest all the things he’s telling me. But it doesn’t seem to go down the drain. After a few hours of trying it out. He gave up. I laughed.

I made a compromise. I told him I would try my best to learn the game if he will also try his best to learn more about the internet (he’s not a computer genius!). He stopped for a while and looked at me doubtfully.

After a few minutes, he said “its a deal”.

This is only the first part of my posts about my journey as I venture inside the world of poker. Wish me luck!

Last February, I signed up at Impactful Actions website and used it for goal setting. After I used it I was so eager to start working on my goals. Several months after, I revisited my account there.

I reviewed all the goals that I have set last February and I was thrilled to realize that I was able to achieve 90% of my long term goals. In a span of 4 months I was able to start with my multi Virtual business, set up a small office space (right beside my kitchen) for my te,am and set up out website.

As I reflect and look back, though 4 months seemed to have gone by so quickly, I have gone through difficult times before I was able to achieve them.

I didn’t realize the achievements I made for the past 4 months. Impactful Actions made me appreciate the value of goal setting. By clearly defining my goals I was able to distinguish what I really wanted to achieve in life. I can’t wait to fill out my new set of short and long term goals at impactful actions.

I would highly recommend that you use Impactful Actions as your goal setting tool. They offer a very affordable rate of only $10. Whats best is that they will also plant 70 trees in your behalf if you sign up. It will not only help you define your goals and action plans, it will also help save the earth.

I’m gonna stop writing for now. Im excited to start my goal setting for the next 6 months.

Yummy Ice Cream

This is my favorite picture yet of Mikee. It was actually taken last January 2008 during the Ati-Atihan festival in Kalibo. It was a hot sunny day and it was her first time to actually see the tribes dance with their colorful costumes.

While waiting for the next tribe she spotted an ice cream vendor. This is her look after she took her first lick. And I was so happy I got my camera ready! This is the same photo I submitted to clipapic for background removal.

I was so excited to see the output. I am excited to use the clipped image.

I actually didn’t expect the image to come back so soon. But it actually did. Just a few hours after I made

After Background Removal

yesterday’s post the image came back to me clipped already. I was able to save precious time and effort in removing the background or worse, ruining the best picture of my daughter. Plus the possibilities of where I can use this picture is endless.

Best of all, I got Clipapic’s service for free! Clipapic provides a free trial of their clipping services. All you need to do is to sign up at their website, upload your image and activate your account. And after a few hours you will receive your edited image.

Here are some information about Clipapic’s Clipping Services:

24/7 availability, 365 days a year: Our website is our online office open and available 24 hours a day 7 days a week

· Fees are affordable: As little as $0.50

· Process is convenient: Simply upload your image on www.clipapic.com

· Fast turn around time: Have you clipping path in as little as 2 hours

· Satisfaction is guaranteed: High quality hand-made clipping paths by artists and graphics specialists

· First clipping path is FREE

Now I am off to buy myself an ice cream!

Though I work full time as a virtual assistant I actuall have my own set of “AFI’s” (areas for improvement) My graphic design skills and knowledge with adobe photoshop is very minimal. Techniques like background removal would actually take me hours to complete. With my very busy schedule, I barely have the time to spend for my personal tasks (believe me I would rather sleep).

With 21 days of no electricity, I actually had the time for myself and my family. I rekindled my passion for scrapbooking (inspired by scrapscene)  and also taking pictures of my baby Mikee. I was able to make my first ever mini book of Mikee…

I barely recognize that I actually have spent the entire day just cutting and pasting colorful materials for the book. I also had the time to revisit our pictures.

Electricity came back yesterday. And one of the first things I did (I turned on the airconditioning unit right away!) was to look for a background removal software. I honestly didn’t check my mails (theres gazillions of them). And after a few clicks i found clipapic.

According to ClipAPic: “Clip A Pic specializes in image clipping that generates quality flexible and convenient to use clipping paths of your scans, gifs, jpegs and illustrations. Our background removal service is quick and easy to use. At a price that is very affordable.”

So I signed up for a free account,  and uploaded Mikee’s Picture.

All I have to do now is wait…

Now that we already have electricity, let me start opening those gazillion emails…

At last, Aklan has caught the attention of the media.

8 days after Typhoon Frank has hit the Western Visayas, people are now slowly picking up the pieces. We all try to live our normal lives. Just this morning, classes for elementary, high school and college students went back to school to help out cleaning their campuses. Gaisano Mall in Kalibo partially operates while banks are now back to business. Water supply has also resumed.

Here are more photos from June 21st, Saturday morning:

The winds blew heavily amongst the trees, the sea level slowly rises…

Taken at Green Hut Resort, New Washington. Sea Level is usually 5 feet below this veranda. But that Satruday morning, the waves are higher than ever.

A view outside our gate, as the waters from the sea flooded our streets (Rizal)

For those who are eager to know what Kalibo looks like now, here are some pictures taken today:

Over the weekend, several helicopters have landed at Aklan State University fields, these are a few photos of what New Washington has received:

Earlier today, I have received news that Congressman Joeben Miraflores suffered a mild stroke. Please include him in your prayers.

Aklan survived typhoon Frank, now, we are all striving to pick up the pieces and rebuild the town that was…

In less than 24 hours after I posted “New Washington Got Hit By Typhoon Frank”, my heart was so touched by the amount of concern, thoughtfulness, care, help and prayers I got from fellow Filipinos, Aklanons and even foreigners.

I have come to realize that God is great.

Early this year, New Washington inaugurated the monument of Cardinal Sin, in our town plaza. It was indeed a center of attraction for everyone.

But after the Typhoon, this is what it looks like:

5 days after the typhoon, still New Washington and the rest of the towns Aklan doesn’t have electricity, and no water supply.

The municipality of New Washington though was fast enough to clear the trees, electrical posts and clean up the town plaza. Relief goods are now being distributed at the municipal hall. Free charging of mobile phones are now being offered at the municipal hall and at the Smart Tower.

During lunchtime, a helicopter landed at the grounds of Aklan State University. People from all walks of life rushed to the area. Some were in awe watching a helicopter land, but mostly people are all expecting to get help.

As the helicopter landed, a team of Filipino soldiers went down. Mayor Peralta and his team welcomed the visitors.

Soon 3 boxes of mineral water and few boxes of relief goods were unloaded from the helicopter.

I was thrilled with joy.Though I know that those boxes wouldn’t be enough for all the people in New Washington, help started to come in.

My husband said he saw another truck filled with rice being unloaded at the municipal hall.

I know that most of you would like to help us so my team and I started to put up a list of what we think we really need:

1. Medicine (for wounds, fever, cough and cold, diarrhea)

2. Mineral Water

3. Rice

4. Used Clothing

5. Canned Goods

6. (Katol) Mosquito Coil / Insect Repellant

7. Candles

8. Sleeping Mat (banig)

9. Noodles

10. Slippers (for those who have lost their slippers during the typhoon)

If you are a doctor or a medical professional, we would also benefit from a Medical Mission. New Washington only has one health center with one doctor, and with hundreds of people affected by the typhoon our medical team wouldn’t be enough to cater to everybody’s needs.

Supplies for building the houses such as bamboo, and nipas are now running out of stock. One piece of bamboo now costs 80-90 pesos. The increasing amount of materials is hurting a lot of families esp those that doesn’t have enough to buy the materials.

Here are some actual photo’s of Geove’s house:

My mom cried informing me that she sold our Mango Tree that fell off for 600 pesos to a realtive whose house was washed out by the typhoon. She used that to buy rice, 3 pieces of medicine for her hypertension and one box of Nido for Mikee. My heart felt like shattering into pieces.My mom is almost 70 years old.

I just sighed and said to myself, this too shall pass…

People from all walks of life, people that I haven’t met at all, have showed enormous love and care thru emails and comments on this article. I can’t help but shed a tear everytime I read all of your emails and messages.But this time, its no longer tears filled with sadness and fear, but tears of happiness and gratitude.

I still continue to pray that help continues to pour in.

My husband and I are planning to go to Roxas City this weekend and purchase groceries for my family and my team and their families. For those who wanted to give a little help or even just a small amount of donation for us, my team and their families, you can deposit some funds into my debit card:

You can load our prepaid debit card online. Visit www.payoneer.com

Instructions for loading the debit card:>

1. At the Payoneer’s homepage, click on: Load Money

2. Choose: Load Card by Payoneer prepaid card number

3. Enter our Prepaid Card Number: 5115260002041839

4.. It will take you to payment method page, you can choose whether payment will come from a Visa Credit Card or Debit Card, MasterCard, Direct Bank Debit or Load Cash. Choose the amount you want to load onto the prepaid card then click on “continue”

5.. Next, you need to enter your credit card holder and billing address details, as well as your cc details. Then Click on “Continue”

If ever you need any help on loading the debit card, Payoneer has a live person chat that you can ask help from or you can chat or email me for questions.

Thank you for all your prayers, concern, care, love and donations to us. In behalf of my team and my family, our sincerest thanks.

I will continue to update you guys with what’s happening with New Washington as much as I could so please continue to include us in your prayers.

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