Am I Fabulous?

Someone thinks I am fabulous and has given me a Fabulous Award! I am really flattered and honored, thanks for the award Leena. I think you are a fabulous person too - pretty, smart and generous and you deserve the award.

I'd now like to pass this Fabulous Award to :

Elaine
Barbara
Chin Nee
Hui Sia
Anggie

Designer Brands At Smart Prices

I’ve a piece of good news to share with the fashionistas and fans of designer fashion and designer brands. You can now purchase from a wide range of designer clothes, designer handbags, designer shoes, jewellery and all things designer made at BIG discounts from this awesome website Koodos.com, the ultimate designer online store. For example, you can get the stylish Patrick Cox metallic shoulder bag (as shown in picture) at only 177 Pounds at Koodos, at a 40% savings and the funky, elegant Jimmy Choo leather boots shown in the picture here costs only 379 Pounds, at a huge savings of 44% off the original price!


At a fraction of the price, you can always grab some really nice items from famous brands such as Prada, Gucci, Jimmy Choo, Chloe, Furla, Celine and much more. Now you can doll up yourself and dress up to the nines for the coming Christmas party or to your company’s year end annual dinner & dance from head to toe in designer fashion and be the envy of your friends! Quick visit Koodos today and treat yourself to something really nice – you truly deserve to look good and feel good!

I Want To Follow You Kakak!!

When my maid left the house to go Raya shopping with my hubby's staff several days ago, Sherilyn was very upset. She kept screaming "I want to follow you kakak" and bawled till she almost puked. It freaked me out when I saw her choking and coughing and on the verge of puking. If she puked, nobody would be around to help me clean up the mess. For almost an hour, she sat on the floor sucking her thumb to give herself some solace, facing the front door and pulled open the sliding mosquito net door, waiting for kakak to come home. What a 'chai leong' (pathetic) scene, like a little girl being abandoned by her mummy.

I wonder how she will take it when the day comes when my maid has to return to Indonesia for good. And I wonder how she will react to her new kakak. Hopefully the new kakak will get along really well with the gals.

Do You Allow Your Maid To Go Out?

My maid asked me yesterday if she could go out with other maids in the neighborhood during the Hari Raya holidays as she has been invited to follow. I could have just said a big 'no' to her but I told her to ask Sir (my hubby). Based on experience with my first maid where I had no choice but to leave her alone at home, she has had the time and luxury to go out with other maids when my hubby and I were out for work. Consequently, she turned out to be really rebellious, lazy, kept asking to go out more and one day upon the advice of my neighbor's maid, put some 'charm' and urine into my drinking water which I drank.

It is also the advice of the maid agent never to give this freedom to the maid, unless we are ready to face the consequences. It is also stated in the maid's contract that they are not allowed to go out during their 2 years' contract with the employer.

Later when my hubby was back, he told our maid that she can't go out with her friends during the holidays. He told her that we can bring her out for a feast but going out with her friends whom we don't even know is a big NO. My maid was obviously very upset with the decision, moreover my hubby told her off rather strictly. I think she later wept in the bathroom. Later, I told my hubby that he should not have been too harsh with her with his words. Feeling a little bad, my hubby then offered my maid an alternative, that is for his staff to drive her out for a shopping spree. She happily agreed and off she went to the new Giant at Bukit Jalil with my hubby's staff and his wife who is an Indonesian an hour later. My hubby even paid for all her shopping expenses, totalling RM150 for clothes and shoes. That's our Hari Raya gift to her. Tomorrow, we will also be bringing her out for a feast.

To those of you who have a maid, do you give your maid a rest day in the week though it is stated in the contract that no rest day will be allowed? For those of you who allow your maid to go out, do you see any negative impact it has brought?

Outstanding Assignments Cleared

I've finally completed all my outstanding assignments and only left with 1 that I had received yesterday. It's a feeling of relief yet itching for more assignments. Have not been receiving many offers for the last few days. It's funny that when I am bogged down with many assignments, I feel the stress but when I don't have any, I feel upset and itching to have some. Humans are just never satisfied with what they have! Well, at least today I can start writing more personal posts and spend some time reading to the girls.

I Need A New Set Of Cookware

Most of my pots and pans had been damaged by the great flood that swept through out house last year. We had bought some new ones but my maid has spoilt them – she was boiling some barley water one day and had forgotten to turn off the fire and our stainless steel pot is now as black as charcoal. She also tends to forget to use a soft sponge to scrub our non-stick pans, resulting in scratches on the non-stick pans. I’ve read that it is highly toxic if we consume the burnt scraps from the non-stick pan. It’s high time that I get a new set of berndes cookware as this brand of cookware is highly durable and non-reactive with food. My aunty who uses Berndes cookware told me that the stainless steel pots are made with high quality stainless steel in 5 layers and non-stick surface which make cleaning after cooking a breeze. I always believe in getting good quality cookware as they are durable and can last a long time.

Smiling Award

Does my blog make you smile? I sure hope it does and this capable mommy to 3 kids thinks it does make her smile, that's why she has given me this sweet Smiling Award. Thanks Jo-N.

Now, I'm not passing this award specifically to anyone coz I find most of the blogs that I visit do make me smile.

Animal-Themed Gifts For The Animal Lovers

Are you thinking hard of what to get your loved ones and friends this Christmas? If you’re at a lost for ideas, hop on to TheJungleStore.com for some great gift ideas. This store specializes in an extensive range of gifts that are all animal-themed. From cute cuddly stuffed animals for the little ones to animal figurines, fanciful lamp shades, animal themed apparel, fashion accessories, door mats to just about anything you can think of, you can get them all from this gift shop. Bookmark this awesome website and you can visit them to search for gifts for just about any occasions for anyone who loves animals.

Oh No, Not Again Alycia!

It happened again this morning. Alycia was fine in the morning when she woke up - she finished her milk without any fuss, did her poopie business in the loo and then..... just when Alycia saw the toothbrush in my maid's hand, she started to fake puking again. In the process of faking it, she actually induced the vomitting sensation and puked her stinky curdled milk onto the kitchen sink, eeuuu! I can't believe Alycia! How can she hate something so much till she has actually developed a phobia just by the sight of it? Daddy was not happy with Alycia, so was I. But what are we to do? Force her to brush her teeth every morning, at the expense of her health? Puking every morning is really unhealthy. Maybe I should just keep the toothbrush away from her in the morning for the time being.

Hot Tub Spa In My Backyard

It would be really nice if we could place a hot tub spa at our backyard as we have ample space at our backyard to place a portable medium-sized one. I’ve seen a number of these hot tubs on sale at HotTubsHeadquarters.com and the one shown in the picture below costing only $945 can fit nicely at our backyard. My 2 girls love squeezing themselves into their tiny baby bath tub together during their bath time and pretend they are swimming in the pool. If I get this hot tub, not only will my 2 girls get to swim comfortably in the warm water, I’m sure they will be delighted to see bubbles shooting out from the massage floor. As for me, I can’t wait to have a nice massage therapy on the tub everyday, after a hard day’s work. Yes, this tub even comes with powerful dual massaging turbo jets! Oh, what an awesome luxury to have – affordable and practical. Another item on my wish list now!

New Blog Site Stats

Looking at the site stats of my new blog available from the host, I am surprised to see that I have an average of 1,681 hits a day, sometimes the figure reaches 3,700. But what confuses me is the stats also show number of visitors which have a different figure. These are the stats shown for yesterday :

Date : 10 Oct 2007
No. of visitors : 164 (the figure here is low as I still have 200+ visitors to my old blog)
No. of pages :367
Hits : 1879

Does anyone know how to interpret it, i.e. what's the difference between no. of visitors and no. of hits? What are pages too - is it the number of pages that the visitors had viewed from my blog?

Also, I am surprised to see from the stats that most of my visitors are from Australia (8,444 hits), USA (8,678 hits), Netherlands, Japan, HK and other countries abroad. It surprises me more that hits from Malaysia only stand at 500+. These blogging stats are really mind boggling!

I Need A Baby Sling This Time

I am going to get myself a baby sling when my 3rd baby arrives next year. With Alycia and Sherilyn, I didn’t see the need to have a baby sling as I was working full-time then and I had many people at home helping me with them – 2 domestic helpers, my mil and my sil. Now that I am a full-time SAHM and left with only 1 domestic helper, I will definitely need a baby sling. It would be so convenient to carry my baby with me on the baby sling while I get to do some household chores or chase after my 2 hyper active toddlers as my 2 hands will be free. I’ve seen some very nice baby slings at Slinglings.com, an online store specializing in baby slings of all types, sizes, motifs and colors at affordable prices.

So if anyone wants to send me a baby gift, do check out Slinglings.com for the baby slings. It would be a perfect gift for me, hint hint!



These are some of the baby slings that I like.

Thank You

I'd like to say thank you to everyone who had given me their well wishes, comforting words and prayers. Today, I found out from two of my friends that fetus with dilated kidney is quite a common problem. One blogging mom told me that her gynae also detected from the ultrasound scan that her son had a dilated kidney, even up to the time when she was about to deliver him. After he was born, miraculousy he was fine with no kidney problem. However, in some cases, the child would have kidney reflux and would require antibiotics for the rest of his/her life and in the worst case scenario, surgery is required. Another friend of mine called me today and told me that one of her friend's baby also had dilated kidney in utero but after the bb was born, she was fine too. Hearing these stories gave me some relief but then again, I still can't seem to get the worry off my mind.

Cute Quotes

Sherilyn's speech is improving everyday. She is now very expressive and loves parroting what we say. She even knows how to scold Alycia when Alycia whines and cries for no reason. Sometimes when Alycia is being naughty and gets scoldings from me, Sherilyn will say this to Alycia "you stubborn girl, stop crying. No reason to cry!" as she wags her forefinger at her sister.

This morning, Sherilyn was feeling a little lethargic and was just lying on the couch the whole morning and refused to budge from the couch. This was the conversation between my maid and Sherilyn this morning :

Kakak : Kay Yi, don't be lazy. Go upstairs and bathe.
Sherilyn : Are you crazy!

I think she doesn't really understand what the word crazy means but she sure knows how to answer back in rhyme! Must be all the Mother Goose rhymes that she's been watching that's wiring her brain to speak in rhyme!

New Wedding Bands For Us

Since our courting days, I always tell my hubby that if he wants to buy me a gift that I’ll really like, buy me not flowers or chocolates. Present me with jewelry and I’ll be the happiest woman around. My hubby still ‘owes’ me a wedding band. It all started when he lost his own wedding band. My hubby has a habit of putting his wedding band everywhere because he doesn’t wear the ring all the time as the nature of his job requires him to handle food and dirty his fingers. So one day, he removed the ring and kept it in his pocket and after that, never found it again. I was very upset that he could loose such an important item and I made him promise to buy another pair of wedding band – one for him and one for me. He has yet to fulfill his promise and I’m still waiting for him to bring us to the jewelry shop to get our new wedding bands.

Wide Screen Projection Television

My 2 girls always fight for the seat that’s in front of the computer each time I read to them from the computer. My 16-inch computer screen is not big enough for the both of them to see the words and pictures at a comfortable angle at the same time. Since we are about to get a new television, I’m really tempted to buy a 60-inch projection television that can be connected to our computer. With such a wide screen, both my girls will have a very good view when I read to them from the computer. The words and pictures will also be magnified, how great that would be and no more cock fights during reading time! I have seen many projection televisions on sale now and I’m just wondering which brand I should be getting – Sony or Samsung?

We've Chosen Yet Another Indon Maid

I've just returned from the new maid agency's office (run by Alycia's classmate's parents). Looking at the bio datas of the available maids, we finally selected an Indon maid who looks pleasant and matured. She indicated her age as 26 years old in the bio data but I doubt that's her real age as she looks like she's in her late 30s or early 40s. Anyway, looks are very deceiving and can reveal very little about a person, based on my experience with my previous maids. This maid has had 2 years of experience as a domestic maid in Singapore. At least, I don't have to teach her from scratch the basic household chores. She also indicated in her resume that she has high school qualification which I'm quite happy as I prefer to have a maid who's more educated.

Well, I'm just praying that she'll fit in and meet my simple requirements. We have to wait for at least 3 months for the maid to arrive, which means that she'll only arrive earliest mid January 2008. Luckily my current maid has agreed, albeit quite reluctant to extend her service for another 1 month. My hubby has promised to give her a bonus for agreeing to stay on. And guess how much we have to pay all in for this new maid? Close to RM7k and that includes the agency fee of RM3,600 (agency fee would be RM4,300 for a Cambodian maid), 6 months advance salary for the maid at RM500 per month and some miscellaneous charges. As a goodwill gesture (since we are from the same neighborhood and his son is Alycia's classmate), we didn't have to pay the RM280 insurance for the maid.

One worry off my mind now.

What's It With The Toothbrush

I found out recently that one of the reasons why Alycia has been puking in the morning after her milk is because she hates to brush her teeth with toothpaste. I've been keeping the toothbrush away from her in the morning and all she needs to do now is just to her to rinse and gargle her mouth. But daddy doesn't like the idea of Alycia not brushing her teeth and going to school with a stinky mouth. He insists that Alycia brushes her teeth, at least without the toothpaste if that's a bit too much for her to bear in the morning. So yesterday, at the mention of "Alycia, brush your teeth", she started to fake vomitting. When Alycia saw the toothbrush in my hand, she immediately puked in the kitchen sink! You tell me, did she fake the whole episode or she genuinely can't stand having a plastic in her mouth early in the morning?

What's Next Brother?

I couldn't recognize my brother's car when it was parked in front of my house when he came to collect mooncakes from me a couple of weeks back. I noticed something different about his Nissan Sentra car . When I took a closer look at his car, I noticed that he had added yet another accessory to his car, this time a chrome wire billet grille to the front of his car and it really made a great difference to the look of his car. My brother sure knows how to doll up his car. I wonder what car accessories he’s targeting to fix to his car next.

Nuchal Translucency Scan

Today, my gynae did a Nuchal Translucency scan on my baby. Everything looked fine but the baby's kidney looked slightly dilated. There could be a blockage somewhere that prevents the urine from flowing. My heart was just crushed when my gynae told me that. I could see the baby sucking its thumb and it was very active and moving around. I would have to go back for another NT scan next week to check the bb's kidney again. My dr said that in some babies, the problem is transient and during subsequent scans, the kidney would look normal in size again BUT if the problem is still there, then I'd need to do an Amnio test to check the chromosomes. My mind is blank now - I can only pray to God that he will have mercy on this baby.