A STICKY SITUATION

And quite yummy, too!

Halloween is my favorite holiday next to Christmas because everyone gets to be crazier than normal and the kids get goodies.

Candies are always fun, but hardly anyone gives out homemade treats these days.  I am currently always on a tight budget so I wanted to make something cheap but delicious.  I almost always have popcorn at home because, I reaaalllyyy love popcorn.(You can ask my friend, Charo. She'll tell you.)  Popcorn is inexpensive and healthy, and if you're feeling indulgent (which is pretty much all the time for me), just add melted butter or a sprinkle of truffle salt and you've got yourself a good snack.

For this year's halloween treat, I decided to make some popcorn marshmallow pops. Here's what you'll need to yield a little over 50 pieces:

1 bar of butter (not a stick, a bar)
500 gms of popcorn kernels
400 gms of marshmallows
salt
Optional: rainbow sprinkles or m&m's

Of course, cook the popcorn.  While the popcorn's cooking, melt the butter in a large bowl in the microwave (you can also use the stove. Whichever way you decide to melt it, be careful not to burn it).   Place popcorn in a large bowl or tray once cooked.

Once the butter has melted, throw in the marshmallows and some salt, and put it back in the microwave for a minute or until marshmallows have melted.  Your marshmallow and butter mixture should look somewhat like this:

Pour that over your popcorn, add your sprinkles or in my case, chocolate candies, then mix lightly to coat.  You might want to use spoons to coat the popcorn as the mixture is hot.

Once the popcorn has cooled, lightly grease your hands with butter as things are about to get sticky.  Shape popcorn into balls, stick a popsicle stick in the middle and that's it!

Trick or treat!

TEACHER'S DAY

It was teacher's day last October 5 and although Joaquin only has 2 teachers and 1 therapist, my son named 3 more people he would like to give teacher's day gifts to. I had a budget of Php50 (max) per person and I didn't want to give something generic, like a cupcake or hand lotion. I wanted to give potted plants, with flowers preferably. It would be something nice to grow and keep inside the classroom, or at their desk.

The potted flower plants were expensive but I found potted cactus plants for 3 for Php100.  I added Php10 for the pots. When I got home, I grabbed some ribbon. Joaquin took charge of naming the teacher who would get each plant and he spread glue on the top part of the pots so the ribbons would stay in place.  I printed out a simple message, had my son sign his name, glued the note to a popsicle stick and voila! Pretty teacher's day gifts within my budget!

We did a good job, Mama!

WORK WOES

I'm loathing my new work schedule. From a very normal work sched of 9am to 6pm., I now work from 1-10pm.

The TL who is managing my original account went on maternity leave last week and because I'm the only other person at work who knows how to make the tedious weekly reports, she had to turn over her team to me.

And this is on top of eveeerrrryyttthinnngg that I do at work.

I can never give a specific answer everytime people ask me what exactly it is I do at work. First off, I work for 2 companies.  These are my functions at work:

1. Product management
2. Client acquisition and business dev
3. Auditor (yep! I'm also part of the Finance department)
4. Billing and Invoicing (another finance task)
5. Agent commissions and incentives
6. Team Leader
7. Applicant interviews (also a part of HR)
8. Operations 

A friend once told me, "Work flows to those who get things done".  And I'm really not complaining because I do believe I'm efficient, but lately I feel like I'm spread too thin and I'm tired and underpaid and it's not worth it anymore.

The only reason why I still work here is I love the people I work with. And it's so damn hard to look for people you can happily work with.

So anyway, I just wanted to write about how much I hate my new work sched and how I'm probably stuck with this sched for the next 2 months.

I hate that it's sooo hot out when I leave home. I hate that I can't be at home before my son goes to bed.  I can't even hitch rides with my friends anymore and because it is so unsafe to walk to the jeepney stop past 10pm, I've been taking cabs.  More gastos.

And I miss tweeting.

Shet.