Archive for October, 2009

Yippeee! Yahooo! Doing *Happy Dance. Happy Dance* Phweeeeet! *twirls around* Hip Hip Hurrah! Yeah!

No. I didn’t win the lottery, 4-D or contest.

Yes, after the end of this week, the kids would have finally ended their end of the year final exam. Wow! Its so amazing. It’s coming to the end of the year and soon both of them will move on to the next year in school!

The girl has ended her exams so its just the little one. Yes, even he has a test at 5 years old! I find that so ridiculous. He skipped school for two days because he was sick. When I called up to inform the teacher, she asked me whether I could go and collect his books for his evaluation. I suppose its for me to help him “revise”. Since he was sick and only 5, I didn’t bother to collect the books until the day he went back to school which is the day of his test. Besides, I was too busy helping his sister with her studies.

Poor boy. He sounded sad because he didn’t know how to do his chinese paper and required a lot of help from his teacher. I told him not to be so sad. As long as you try your best. (Even though mummy didn’t go and collect your books for you to study. :P)

Eventually, last night, I went through some of his books with him, just so he won’t feel left out. We did a little “revision” too just like the way mummy spends time with his big sister revising her work. Hopefully today he will know how to answer some questions.

I just received the photobook I ordered for dad and I love it. I am definitely a photobook fan now. I uploaded my photobook on Wednesday afternoon and received it on Monday morning. Its perfect.

The kids love looking at it. They enjoyed helping me to wrap it up too. We got some gold coloured paper from their craft cupboard. Then we used some leftover gold trimmed soft red ribbon from an old hamper and tied it around the gold packaged. Top it up with a little red card with a “Happy Birthday Kong Kong” written in Chinese by my girl and signed in Chinese by herself and her little brother (whom she signed on behalf off) and we are all set to present it to Kong Kong.

Though it would have been much faster to wrap the gift myself, it is good to include the kids in such activities. To teach them about the joy of giving. However, of course it took much longer to wrap it as they argued over who should stick more cellophane tape on the package.

Updated:

A few of you asked which photobook company I used. I used Photobook Malaysia. I must say that I am very pleased with the service, the quality, speed of shipping plus the ease of creating the photobook with the free photobook software.

Dad’s birthday is approaching and I have been cracking my head over what to get him. That has been the way for several years now…… ever since he has Dementia.

He doesn’t need money in the form of angpows since he doesn’t need to spend much and besides he has his monthly pension. Still, we usually give him … just for good luck. I guess old people maybe still likes to receive red packets.

He doesn’t need new shirts or shoes or mugs or towels. It is meaningless to him. Sometimes he has difficulty putting on his clothes and he doesn’t want to bathe so what good would these things do for him?

He has never enjoyed music very much and now he has lost interest in newspapers, tvs… most things. So how?

He has no use for the latest gadgets. Persons with Dementia have difficulty figuring out how to operate or use gadgets. Once, he thought the handphone charger was his handphone.

And then, finally I thought of it. Dad has never been the sentimental kind, but I noticed that after he retired, he started to like to look at photographs. We have adorned his room walls with photos and tables with framed photos. However, he does not have hard copies of photos we took over the recent years ever since we started having a digital camera and started storing photos in our pc or other digital storage devices.

So I designed and ordered a photobook for him…. with photos of all his birthdays, and of his children and grandchildren. I am so excited. I can’t wait to receive it and I hope that he really likes it. I think this will help him to remember places and events. I really hope that he will like it and I can’t wait to give it to him.

With all our frequent handwashing, regular use of hand sanitizers especially after touching common public surfaces like hand rails etc, not touching the face with the hands etc, we were not able to keep sickness at bay. We’ve been attacked by various viruses continuously. When will it end?

First it was the boy. He got it from kindy, presumably. He passed it on to his sister. They had cough and cold. They recovered.

Next it was the girl. Almost as soon as they recovered. She got it from school, presumably. She passed it on to her brother. They recovered from a second bout of cough and cold.

Then it was the man. He got it from work, presumably. Right after the kids just recovered. He passed it to me. He recovered. I am still having sore throat and some phelgm.

I have not yet recovered. I am trying my best not to pass it to the kids.

However, the girl started vomitting. I don’t know where she got this from because it was holidays and she was away from school. So it was probably in a public place, the supermarket or bookshop or whatever.

The doctor says its a stomach virus and she is not prescribing any medication. Not cough and cold like what I have, so I’ll still have to be careful about not passing it to the kids. She’ll just have to ride it out, says the doctor. She gave her a suppository to stop the vomitting and a warning to maintain utter care or the rest of the family will get it too especially the boy. Wash your hands frequently after touching each kid, she says.

Oh No. When will this sick unmerry go round ever end?

With the kids having concerts and exams, it is even more crucial that they don’t fall sick or in this case, that they recover quickly. One of the things I regularly face is how to keep the kids healthy just before their school trips, parties and concerts etc. Events that they look forward to for months, sometimes.

My only consolation is, when the boy wanted a hug and I said “Stay away from mummy ok? Tahan a bit. We’ll hug hug again when mummy is feeling better.” and he said “I cannot tahan, mummy. I love to hug hug mummy!” Well, now he has to stay away from his sister as well.

It would seem that the older I grow, the younger I feel in many areas. Take clothing for instance, I am beggining to want to dress younger and younger. (although the clothes and shoes don’t fit.) This is what most people call “Lau Hiau”. (Miang Old Hag). I don’t know how to translate it. Hahaha. It must be the syndrome of wanting to remain youthful.

The clothes don’t fit because you grow sideways naturally with age. If you try to look too slim you may end up looking haggard you know. So its good to have a little bit of fat …. around the face area that is. lol. The shoes don’t fit because after the first pregnancy, the foot grew a little bit bigger. After the second, it grew even bigger and unlike tummies, they don’t shrink back post delivery. The feet stays forever big.

At one time, even the watch strap did not fit the wrist and the rings did not fit the finger! Fortunately I managed to come off the peak weight with careful dieting  (translate that to eating like a bird). Gosh, it was hard work to come off the peak.

Anyway, the funny thing is, though most of the time I look like the housewife that I am, complete with baggy t-shirts and frumpy looking shorts and slippers that make me look worse than the more well dressed maid. Oh, and we must not forget the bare face and nails and the unruly hair that is quite often drawn up into an untidy bun and the bushy eyebrows.

Well, the funny thing is, I don’t feel that way most of the time. I only look that way but I don’t feel that way. I still feel young and good. Hahaha.

Maybe that is why, no matter how hard I try, I just can’t seem to see the old woman in the picture. I only see the young one.

I guess looks really does not matter. Its whats inside that matters.

My To Do List from 15 years ago….

• invite chairman for conference
• have lunch with hotel sales staff
• speak to sponsors about gifts for event
• have drink with girl friend
• have meeting with staff (again!)
• buy that must have high heels
• blah blah blah

My To Do List today……..

• fix that broken shower stall door
• call the contractor about the leaking roof
• help the girl with her revision
• help the boy with his concert practise
• remind the man to buy bread
• replace the must have high heels with runners (all the better to chase the kids with)
• etc etc etc

Whats on your To Do List? (I think it says a lot about your age and status. Hahaha.)

Its coming to the end of the year now as we are almost halfway through the first month of the last quarter of the year.

When I was a young single lady, I knew that the end of the year is approaching when I was busy planning for year end parties and company gatherings and trips and thinking about what party dresses to wear for those occassions.

Now, that I am a mother of two, I know that the end of the year is approaching, when I am busy helping the little ones prepare for their year-end tests and concerts and after that school holidays.

How do you know that the end of the year is approaching?

When I was a young single girl, I knew that the New Year is coming when, I wind down from my partying, make resolutions and get ready to start my year afresh at work.

Now that I am a mother of two, I know that the New Year is coming when, I start shopping for back to school stuff and I try to wind down the little ones from their school holiday activities and pep them up to get ready for the new school year.

How do you know that the New Year is coming?

Not a paid post. I just love to share a good thing.

I love my personalised iGoogle homepage. Its like my personalised online magazine and newspaper. So far, I have created 3 pages. I am using the iGoogle Beach theme. I love it. It is fantastic because the sun rises and sets on the page. Another theme which I love which has a changing night and day scene is the Winter Village. 

On my homepage are news articles from all over the world plus a widget from Google News which displays updated news from the Google News site. I have motivational posters and sayings plus a clock and a countdown timer there. I have an easy link to the various google services I use like blogger, adsense, etc. I have a YouTube search box plus a link to my Gmail. I also love Google Maps which is right there on my homepage too.

The second page is my entertainment page. It looks very much like a women’s magazine. I stuff it with pictures of beautiful women (hoping that by looking at beautiful people daily, I will become beautiful too. Haha. Just kidding, maybe its just to inspire and remind myself not to let myself go and look like an old aunty). I included pictures of shoes, handbags and beautiful gowns, all very lovely to look at but no money to own and no reason to have because there is no occassion to wear them to. (sob. sob.). The pictures are updated whenever I refresh the page so I don’t get bored looking at them. On that page, I have rss to fashion articles plus those tabloid style celebrity gossip. (which only shallow people read. Its ok to be shallow once in a while so….. I read them occassionally. haha.)

The third page is my Parenting page. There I have pictures of children, parenting jokes, inspirational posters and sayings plus parenting articles of course.

I’m thinking of starting a health tab as well.

Its really like having an online magazine with personalised content that is updated regularly with the latest news and articles on the subject matter of your interest.

If you haven’t got an iGoogle personalised page, you should think of starting one. You can use themes to create the look you want, then pull in the rss to content you want plus add in cool gadgets too. You can see how some iGoogle homepages created by world-renowned celebrities and thought leaders look like on the iGoogle Showcase.

I use lots of Google Gadgets on my iGoogle pages. Do you know that  you can put some of these Google Gadgets on  your webpage or blog too? - Google Gadgets for your blog.

I have used MSN and Yahoo personalised homepages before but I find iGoogle the best. What about you? Do you have any personalised pages? What sort of theme do you like?

Last night I was stirring a glass of honey and suddenly I was small again, in my mother’s kitchen, drinking the same smelling honey which I had drunk often as a child. Its funny how certain smells can invoke childhood memories almost instantaneously transporting us back through time.

I know many smells remind me of my mother. Smells of peeling or chopping onion reminds me of helping her in the kitchen. Smells of cakes being baked reminds me of mum too. Smells of half boiled eggs reminds me of my dad who took it daily when we were young. Smells of Fish Oil reminds me of, well of Fish Oil taken as a child. Smells of plain white porridge or plain bread dipped in Milo reminds me of being sick as a child etc etc.

Most of my olfactory memories relate to childhood events. So I guess, if I want my children to remember me when they are older, I better go and whip up some good regular cooking of the same foods they love often. A pity, I don’t bake. That would make some good childhood memories.

Better don’t step on my tail today. As a matter of fact, better not be anywhere near me today.

It must be all that rushing around I have been doing lately. Rush. Rush. Rush. Yell. Yell. Yell.

As usual, the girl pesters me and does things so sloooooowly, so I yell at her.

When I bathe the boy and he accidentally sprays water all over my clothes I say “Look at what you’ve done!”

As usual, I’ve got a dozen things that needs to be done but I don’t feel like doing any of them.

So I sit here and sulk and nothing gets done and then I feel even worse because it means more rushing later on.

I gotta break this spell somehow…….