The other day my sister asked me how long I’ve been married and I told her I shall be celebrating my 7th wedding anniversary soon. I then told hubby about it and he said “Eh, your daugher is seven years old already lah, how can we be married for seven years?” Hehe. I must be getting old.

Yes, I must be getting old indeed because I told him “Dear, this year for our anniversary, the best present we can get each other is not to get each other anything or do anything because we’ve been sick and so busy running around, its so tiring.”

My dear man said “That sounds terrible.” but I think inside he must be shouting with joy and agreeing whole heartedly. Hahaha.

Yes indeed. I must be getting old. I can’t believe I’ve turned so practical and unromantic. Help!

I’ve been sick with a very bad flu. Fever, Chills, Cough, Blocked Nose. I couldn’t eat. So I was on a diet of plain porridge and bread. Because I ate so little all week, my stomach became bloated afterwards and I had wind in the stomach, bloatedness, nausea, flatulence blah blah blah. Plus we had a really busy 2-3 weeks with all sorts of big errands to run. Fortunately we’re almost through with them now.

Thats why my blog has been neglected for some time. I’m now finally beggining to feel a little bit more like myself now. Before that the fever and chills were so bad, all I could do was moan and sleep all day.

Its horrible to be sick. I’m still feeling a little bit tired but at least no more of those horrible chills. I felt all day nausea which was so bad that I even got a pregnancy test kit to test if I was pregnant. Hahaha. But of course I’m not. The timing is not right though the bloated feeling and nausea sure felt that way.

I hate to be sick. Did I say that already? Yes, I hate to be sick!

Seeing as how the family room is one of the most social areas for everyone in the home, it’s important to keep it as organized as possible. Between the electronic equipment, kids’ toys, and DVD collections, it can be challenging to keep everything in order which is why investing in a few key furniture pieces for the living room will make life a lot easier. As much as we would love to keep our children’s toys and games alongside the baby furniture in the nursery, kids’ gear tends to wander and end up in the kitchen, living room, or other common areas of the home. A great way to keep everyone happy with their respective toys and provide an opportunity for the whole family to enjoy the common space is to incorporate a corner of the room that is dedicated to organization.

Whether you wish to use clear plastic bins, a kid-friendly storage unit, or a built-in shelving unit is up to you. All options will provide an accessible place for your children to grab their favorite toys and teach them how to clean up when playtime is over. You can color code each bin for all of your children or personalize each container with their name. A solid wood toy chest can serve as a coffee table and a storage unit for your children’s stuffed animals and toy collection. If you decide on a hinged lid model, be sure to keep a close eye on your kids while they’re playing in the living room to avoid any dangerous accidents from occurring. Place a plush play mat in a section of your family room to designate a “fun zone” for your children when they want to play with their toys, draw, or read.

Entertainment centers serve a number of functions from housing all of your electronic equipment to keeping your CD and DVD collection in order. Depending on the model you have, this piece of living room furniture can also provide additional space for children’s books, sticker collections, or coloring notebooks that are accessible to your children throughout the day. Keeping your space organized with versatile furniture and kid-friendly storage containers will turn your family room into the fun and relaxing area of your home that you’ve been looking for!

This article was contributed by guest blogger Suzanne, an expert at CSNBaby.com

I love contests and dreaming about the chance of winning. However, entering contest does take a certain amount of effort. You have to fill up some form or survey and come up with a slogan at times. Then you have to go mail your entry. And finally if you do win, you have to go and collect your prize at some far away distant land. Hahaha.

Well, that was what happened to me recently. I won some foot protection stockings, 12 pairs in all costing up to RM100. But I had to go and  pick it up in a land far away. Which comes to the next  point about me. The fact that I can’t read maps very well.

My husband was very kind to offer to take me to this distant land to pick up my winnings but I think he got very frustrated by the way I read maps (as usual) and I think eventually, he probably thought it was easier to give me the RM100 to go buy the stockings myself. Hahaha.

I remember once when we went on a holiday somewhere, we ended up having a big fight because of my map reading skills. He got frustrated and you know smoke started to come out of his nostrils and ears and then he said I can’t remember what, which ended up in me saying “If you’re so smart and clever, why don’t you read it yourself!” which of course he can’t because he was driving. Hahaha. And one thing led to another and the holiday (well that day anyway) turned into a disaster. Its so funny now to think about it. Sometimes we fight over such small things and we ruin our own happy day and now, years later, I can’t even remember what we said to each other and why we got so mad. Silly isn’t it?

Anyway, the other day, I could see the man holding his breath and trying not to explode. Lol. Eventually, we got to the land faraway and I got to collect my winnings. Sometimes I wonder if its worth it. All that trouble for 12 stockings.

Now, I’m waiting for the chance to win that RM200 plus bed sheet set or some shopping RM vouchers from a shopping center. Just you wait and see. Someday… someday… I’m gonna win something big. In the meantime, does anyone know of any contest that includes a car gps map thingy (or whatever it is you call it since I am a bit technically challenged, I can’t remember what its called) as a prize?

Which reminds me, the latest Proton Exora H-Line model has it, I think. The other day, we happened to drive pass a Proton showroom, so being kpc Malaysians, we went in to kaypoh and look around. What do you think of the Proton Exora. Would you buy it?

We got ourselves a new digital weighing scales to replace our old worn out and tattered dunno how many years old one. But I think something is wrong with my new scales. You see, it won’t come down. It just keeps going up! Heck! I think there was something wrong with my old tattered and torn old bathroom scales. It keeps going up too!

I remember sometime before Chinese New Year, I was telling myself that I want to lose 5 pounds but then I ended up with an extra 5 pounds instead! Now I’ve got to lose 10 pounds instead of the original 5 I had intended but those horrible scales just won’t budge!

I exercise daily or almost daily (for health’s sake first and beauty second). I cut down my intake of rice. But the scales won’t come down! It just won’t! Although I must admit that during weekends my exercise regime and diet goes flying out the window. Whooooooo! Bye! Bye! And thats when I laze around like a potato on a couch and pig out on everything else that I’ve missed out all week. Hehe.

But can you imagine that. Just 2 days of pigging out versus 5 days of exercise and diet regime and thats enough to tip the scares higher and higher. Its unbelievable. My only conclusion is …… there is something wrong with my new digital bathroom scales. What do you think?

Yesterday, my girl had her Grade 1 piano trial exam. Though it was only a trial, we were more nervous than her, worried about whether she would be nervous. Hahaha. It turned out alright. The examiner said that she was a very musical child and for a first timer, it was good achievement, something like that. My memory is so bad, even as I left the music school, I had forgotten what the examiner said so I can’t blog it. lol. I only remember “musical child’ so we went to celebrate even though we didn’t have the results yet. Hahaha. Anyway, its just a trial, so the “celebration” is to encourage and reward her for her hard work in practising and being brave during the test.

She wanted to have McDonalds, so thats what we had. After I left McDonalds and walked past KFC, I saw a familiar face. It was Small C. (The face was unmistakable) Then I saw Big C. So I looked out for Sasha. By that time we had walked on quite far ahead and the family was far ahead of me as I was turning my head back to look. I didn’t catch a glimpse of cute Lil C though. I wanted to run up to her to say “Hi! I know you but you don’t know me” then walk off with a cackle but then they went up the escalator and my family who likes to race in shopping malls had almost disappeared from view by then so I couldn’t go to kacau her.

Too bad. I would have loved to kacau her. My husband would probably think I am mad going to greet and chat with someone I don’t know like she is a long lost friend. Haha. But that is the thing with bloggers. She feels like a long lost friend even though I have not met her before. No, I think it should be, that is the thing with SOME bloggers. Those whom you connect with. They feel like someone whom you have known for a long time.

Maybe another time and place yah Sasha. Its just as well too because a moment later, the little one said “Mummy, I want to shi shi and mmm mmm” Oh. Oh. So I had to rush him to the toilet. Luckily I didn’t have to use a bottle like Sasha did. Haha. But when we reached the toilet, there was a long queue and the little one started to remove his jeans to get ready and everyone stared. Hahaha. I just smiled at another lady in another queue and said “Dia sudah tak boleh tahan” and the lady smiled back understandingly but no one offered the toilet for my poor boy. Hmm….

We went to the toy store to look at possible presents for the little one who will be 5 in two weeks time. He wants more cars for his birthday. Little cars, he says. Hmm… have to crack head on what to buy for him soon. Next month, have to crack head over what to buy for his sister. “If you all can’t tell me what you would like for your birthday, I will buy you more Maths books” says daddy who is their home Math tuition teacher leading to squeals of “No!” As for me, well, I would very much like to have a WII Fit or an electronic dictionary for my birthday which is in June. Hehehe.

Later on, we went to Cold Storage to get two loaves of bread and two ice-creams for the kids. I brought RM10 with me. When my bill came to almost RM15 I got a shock. Apparently the Mars ice-cream cost RM4.79 each! Siao!

Oh, another thing I wanted to write down but forgot. Last week we got a sofa bed for the study room. Its fun. Now we open up the bed during the weekends so that everyone can laze on it and I can have a good uninterrupted afternoon nap away from everybody. We can all congregate at the study room during weekends, daddy can play a game on the pc, the kids can play a game on the tv and mummy can laze on the sofa bed to read a book or daddy can laze on the bed to watch his kungfu movie, the kids can sit on the floor to read books while mummy uses the pc or the kids can laze on the sofa bed reading or playing, mummy can sit on the floor reading while daddy works on the pc etc. Lots of combinations. Hahaha. The funny thing with us is we spend much more time in our study room then in the living room. I guess that is because our family is small so its just more convenient and more cozy that way.

Lastly, a message to all you bloggers who always post lots of photos on  your blog. You are now a familiar face in public and almost like a celebrity where everyone can recognise you. Hahaha.

At least thats what it feels like right now. My neighbour has one of these rubbish containers sitting in his porch for his renovation rubbish. The wall dividing my porch and his is rather low so I can see all the rubbish thats in there.

Well, thats ok, accept for the fact that the workers throw their tapau food containters in there and then the flies come and  hover around. Now, when I step out of my house, it stinks and the flies try to fly into my house. Geezz!

Yesterday, I was busy spraying insecticide at the flies while the worker looked at me nochalantly.  I felt like spraying some over his face as well.

I saw the contractor last weekend so hubby quickly spoke to him about the food containers. He immediately asked his worker to remove the container. The worker looked at me unhappily as he removed it but the next day, new food containers replaced the old ones. Sigh.

I can’t keep on complaining. Who knows what those unhappy workers may decide to do? Maybe drop a brick or two on my car windscreen perhaps or worse? Speaking of which, they DID accidentally drop a brick into my back porch yesterday and they broke a pipe of mine when they dropped a pail onto it and then they tried to cover it up by placing my broom over the broken pipe. They also broke my roof tiles and placed a dirty shirt over it. We spoke to the contractor and they will replace the roof tiles.

If you still remember, earlier on they built their back wall onto my side of the property while I was away during CNY so now they have got a slightly bigger back porch by an inch or two. How annoying is that! The contractor and owner said they would tear it down when we complaint but then it was just completed. Do you think the workers will be very happy to tear down their hard work right after completion? I think not. So we decided to leave the wall alone but we reminded them not to enchroach into our area any more.

They’re extending their back and front rooms so now when I look out of my window, I get to see their beautiful wall instead of the trees, sky and road that I used to see before. Hmmm…..

My drain’s all clogged up now too, with cement, bits and pieces of walls, nails etc. Every weekend I have to clear it out. Last weekend, I cleared out 8 bags of rubbish from the drain. 8 bags! Me and the maid had to use my little garden tools to dig into the greasy water to come up with those 8 bags of rubbish, consisting mainly of sand, stone and cement. The water is greasy because the drain is clogged so it gets filled up with other people’s dirty, greasy, kitchen sink water and dunno what else.

My other neighbour is not doing any clearing so the rubbish has travelled to his side as well and now the drains aren’t flowing well anymore making it a great breeding ground for mosquitoes and you know how deadly the mosquitoes are these days. I’ve complained about the drain before and they came over to clean it once but the very next day it was back to more of the same. I can’t keep on complaining because who knows what those half dozen or more of Indon workers may decide to do if their wrath is incurred. I spoke to the new neighbour several times as well as to his contractor and they are apologetic but …..

I wish they would finish their renovation works soon. Worse still, is the fact, that the neighbour next to them has decided to join in the fun and is now renovating his house as well. He’s got one of those rubbish dump containers at the back of his house.

I thought we’re facing a slowdown? Why is everyone renovating their house?!! Ok. Finish ranting. *Slowly let out remaining steam from mouth and nostrils* I feel better now. Have a good weekend everyone. I wonder how many bags of sand awaits me in my back drain this weekend. *Let out more steam and a little smoke*

We communicate via email sometimes. It may sound ridiculous but sometimes we email each other every day to “talk”. For us, email is a very effective and useful form of communication.

With young kids around and very little hours in a day where we get to see each other, we hardly have time to talk each day. And even if we do have time to talk, we’re always being interrupted during our conversation, either by kids or by the thousands of things that we need to do in our todo list.

During the weekdays, hubby leaves the house before we’re awake. He says goodbye to us individually and we all murmur back at him sleepily. Haha. When he gets home, its his turn to murmur back at us because he is usually either too tired or has more work to do. That was how it was before the girl went to Primary School. Now, its just a sleepy rush for everyone in the morning accept the little one who gets to sleep in a little longer each morning. With the kids around, that leaves zero communication hours each work week day. That leaves only the weekend and we’re always busy during the weekends as well, rushing around to do this errand and that.

So we find the email very useful. We email the things we want to say to each other before we forget to say them. Little mundane things or things that we want to update each other about. Sometimes hubby writes down those things in a little notebook to be talked about later but email is faster. We just write down whatever we want to say and the other spouse replies quickly in email then we discuss them in more detail when we do find the time to talk or we might reply in person instead of via email. Crazy? But it works for us and I’m happy to email the man about my day for him to read about in the evenings or early mornings otherwise I would probably forget to tell him all the little details by the time we manage to find the time to talk. ;)

I am the long hair type. It must be because from the age of 7 to 12 I was forced to have short hair, very short hair because of the school I attended. I was in Methodist Girl’s School. They were very strict about hair. Must be above the colar and ears, fringe above the eyebrows etc. So after age 12, I rebelled and I have been rebelling ever since. Hahaha. I’ve only cut my hair fairly short once since then and I hated the look. Besides long hair is so much easier to look after, its low maintenance, like me. Hehehe.

Here’s an excerpt of an article I read on the web about women with long hair pinpointing women over 40 to be exact (that would be me if you didn’t already know). Haha.

“What Long Hair Reveals About Personality

Women who are over 40 years old and wear their hair long may not resist growing up. Dimitrius writes, “Sometimes women with this trait are caught in a time warp and still think of themselves as teenagers or college students rather than as grown-ups. Such women may be fairly unrealistic in their outlook on life as well as in their perception of themselves.”

Women who have long hair may believe it makes them more sexually appealing. Long hair could also reveal a bohemian spirit or freedom from conventional expectations.

Read more: “What Your Hair Says About You: Discovering Personality Traits Through Women’s Hairstyles” - http://psychology.suite101.com/article.cfm/what_your_hair_says_about_you#ixzz0Av8SjgMq

OMG! Hahaha. Perhaps its true. I always feel younger than my age. I’m like stuck forever young in my mind altho the body begs to differ. lol. Older also means slower metabolism. I was supposed to lose 5 pounds but I gained 5 pounds instead. Grrrrrrr! (But then thats another story for another day). The second part about freedom from conventional expectations is not true for me though. I’m very conventional to the point of being exceptionally boooorrrrriingg. Yaawwwwn.

What about you? Which hair type are you?

The children love gardening. They love to watch things grow. We allow them to choose their own seedlings from the store and plant them. My boy chose tomatoes. My girl chose flowers. The flowers didn’t turn out. They didn’t make it through the sprouting stage. They didn’t grow well.

The tomatoes were okay. However, we had some problems with it. We didn’t have proper support for it, so the vines grew all twisted around some of our other plants. It didn’t stand up well but it grew all the same. When it began to flower, the kids were really excited. They could hardly keep themselves from plucking the flowers. There were many lovely tiny yellow flowers. However, only one of it made it into a tomato. lol.

We watched it grow, then turn yellow and then a bright orange. Yesterday, the kids were so excited, they plucked our single tomato and ate it. It was tiny but it didn’t taste sour. It was quite nice. I guess it tasted nicer because we planted it ourselves. The kids wouldn’t touch the tomato otherwise.

Now, if only I had the organic tomato growing kit shown in the image above. We would have lots more tomatoes to eat! Some of our tomato plants died because it was attacked by white ants. The kit includes a bottle of bottle of Safer® Brand Tomato & Vegetable Insect Killer. That would have helped. We didn’t spray anything on our tomato plants because we wanted to keep the tomato free from harmful insecticide. As a result, some of them did not survive. We also didn’t have the expandable plant stakes which would have given our plant better support. The stakes look really interesting.

Next time, we want to try planting tomatoes again, I know what to do.