What I'm ''UP'' To Recently......: June 2009

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

It Snowed in June!!!!!!!!!!!!!!..............

Just KIDDING!!!!! But dosen't it look a lot like snow.....

Monday, June 29, 2009

CANDY!!!!!

World's Best-Selling Candy: The Top 10

Photo illustration by
Laurel Daunis-Allen

1. U.S. — M&M's

World rank: 1*
Country: U.S.
Best-selling candy: M&M's
Who makes it: Mars Inc.
Annual sales: $1.8 billion**
What is it: Chocolate candy

Invented in 1941 by Forrest Mars and R. Bruce Murrie, the duo who gave the candy its name, M&M's top the list as the No. 1 candy brand sold in the U.S. with $1.8 billion in sales. Virginia-based Mars Inc. is now the world's leading confectioner following its 2008 acquisition of Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co., according to Candy Industry magazine, and it also produces the Snickers and Dove brands in addition to Pedigree and Whiskas pet food.

*Ranks according to Euromonitor
**2007 sales figures in U.S. dollars

Photo illustration by
Laurel Daunis-Allen

2. United Kingdom — Cadbury's Dairy Milk

World rank: 2
Country: United Kingdom
Best-selling candy: Cadbury's Dairy Milk
Who makes it: Cadbury
Annual sales: $852 million
What is it: Milk chocolate bar

According to the European candy trade group Caobisco, the British are the second largest consumers of chocolate in the world, annually eating more than 19 lbs. per capita. (The Swiss are No. 1.) Cadbury's Dairy Milk, which the company plans to make certifiably Fairtrade in the U.K. and Ireland by the end of the summer 2009, is the most popular chocolate bar with over $852 million in sales.

Photo illustration by
Laurel Daunis-Allen

3. Germany — Milka

World rank: 3
Country: Germany
Best-selling candy: Milka
Who makes it: Kraft
Annual sales: $733 million
What is it: Milk chocolate

The Germans are the fourth-largest consumers of chocolate per capita. Milka is the best-selling brand in Germany by a wide margin, grossing more than $730 million (Lindt trails in second place with less than $500 million). Now owned by Kraft, Swiss-created Milka uses the same mauve-colored packaging and cow-in-snow-covered-mountains image as when the name was trademarked in 1901. All but one of Germany's top five best-selling candy brands is a chocolate product, with gummi maker Haribo coming in fifth.

Photo illustration by
Laurel Daunis-Allen

4. Brazil — Trident

World rank: 4
Country: Brazil
Best-selling candy: Trident
Who makes it: Cadbury
Annual sales: $682 million
What is it: Chewing gum

Trident is not only the No. 1 candy in Brazil, it is also the No. 1 brand of chewing gum in the world, Cadbury says.

Photo illustration by
Laurel Daunis-Allen

5. Japan — Meiji

World rank: 5
Country: Japan
Best-selling candy: Meiji
Who makes it: Meiji Seika Kaisha
Annual sales: $479 million
What is it: Chocolate bar

Japan's winning brand is Meiji chocolate from privately held Meiji Seika Kaisha Ltd. The Tokyo-based company opened "100% Chocolate Café" in its hometown in 2004 featuring 56 different types of chocolate made with cacao beans from 18 countries in flavors such as cheese, black pepper, jasmine, basil, and lemon salt.

Photo illustration by
Laurel Daunis-Allen

6. Russia — Orbit

World rank: 6
Country: Russia
Best-selling candy: Orbit
Who makes it: Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co.
Annual sales: $445 million
What is it: Chewing gum

Orbit gum, which is owned by Mars Inc. subsidiary Wrigley, dominates the Russian candy market with $445 million in sales. Alpen Gold chocolate bars, a division of Kraft, is a distant second, grossing less than $198 million.

Photo illustration by
Laurel Daunis-Allen

7. Mexico — Trident

World rank: 7
Country: Mexico
Best-selling candy: Trident
Who makes it: Cadbury
Annual sales: $354 million
What is it: Chewing gum

Mexico is another country of gum-chewers with three gum brands among the five best-selling candies. Cadbury says it was the first gum to voyage to space, in 1964.

Photo illustration by
Laurel Daunis-Allen

8. France — Hollywood

World rank: 8
Country: France
Best-selling candy: Hollywood
Who makes it: Cadbury
Annual sales: $318 million
What is it: Chewing gum

California-themed Hollywood gum is the most popular candy item in France. While chewing gum may still be seen as largely an American activity, "le chewing gum," as the French now call it, has all but replaced "pâte à mâcher," which literally meant "paste to chew."

Photo illustration by
Laurel Daunis-Allen

9. Italy — Vivident

World rank: 9
Country: Italy
Best-selling candy: Vivident
Who makes it: Perfetti Van Melle
Annual sales: $313 million
What is it: Chewing gum

Vivident chewing gum reigns supreme in Italy's candy market. The sugar-free gum is manufactured by the Italian- and Dutch-owned Perfetti Van Melle Group, which also owns other household names such as Mentos, AirHeads, and Chupa Chups, among others. Italians spent over $312 million on Vivident, up from just under $107 million in 2001, when Italian chocolate maker Perugina claimed the No. 1 spot.

Photo illustration by
Laurel Daunis-Allen

10. China — Hsu Fu Chi

World rank: 10
Country: China
Best-selling candy: Hsu Fu Chi
Who makes it: Hsu Fu Chi International
Annual sales: $256 million
What is it: Assorted candies

Hsu Fu Chi International offers a wide range of sweets that include jelly beans, gummies, lollipops, peanut crisp, chocolates, and coffee-flavored hard candies. In September 2008 the company recalled two of its puffed-rice roll products — the Cheese and Butter Corn flavors — from Singapore following detection of the presence of the chemical melamine.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Ahahahah..........

yes thats right..... the Jt's in this home will be attending camp, that means 8 ppl will be gone for a week.....which means....quiet, peaceful days... i'll be home with little big sister and yurika..ahahahha.... okay i'm being weird.... thats cus i couldn't skleep last night cus of annoying mosquitos and the dog barking in the crack of dawn.... oh and btw Micheal Jackson died..what a sudden thing..oh well..ppl die all the time....

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Nature is good

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

The meaning of family

F A M I L Y

I ran into a stranger as he passed by,
"Oh excuse me please" was my reply.

He said, "Please excuse me too;
I wasn't watching for you."

We were very polite, this stranger and I.
We went on our way and we said goodbye.

But at home a different story is told,
How we treat our loved ones, young and old.

Later that day, cooking the evening meal,
My son stood beside me very still.

When I turned, I nearly knocked him down.
"Move out of the way," I said with a frown.

He walked away, his little heart broken.
I didn't realize how harshly I'd spoken.

While I lay awake in bed,
God's still small voice came to me and said,

"While dealing with a stranger,
common courtesy you use,
but the family you love, you seem to abuse.

Go and look on the kitchen floor,
You'll find some flowers there by the door.

Those are the flowers he brought for you.
He picked them himself: pink, yellow and blue.

He stood very quietly not to spoil the surprise,
you never saw the tears that filled his little eyes."

By this time, I felt very small,
And now my tears began to fall.

I quietly went and knelt by his bed;
"Wake up, little one, wake up," I said.

"Are these the flowers you picked for me?"
He smiled, "I found 'em, out by the tree.

I picked 'em because they're pretty like you.
I knew you'd like 'em, especially the blue."

I said, "Son, I'm very sorry for the way I acted today;
I shouldn't have yelled at you that way."
He said, "Oh, Mom, that's okay.
I love you anyway."

I said, "Son, I love you too,
and I do like the flowers, especially the blue."

FAMILY
Are you aware that if we died tomorrow, the company
that we are working for could easily replace us in
a matter of days.
But the family we left behind will feel the loss
for the rest of their lives.

And come to think of it, we pour ourselves more
into work than into our own family,
an unwise investment indeed,
don't you think?
So what is behind the story?

Do you know what the word FAMILY means?
FAMILY = (F)ATHER (A)ND (M)OTHER (I) (L)OVE (Y)OU