Tenko, Amma!!

Today was a fun day for our family. Well, it was fun for me because we went out like mall hopping..heheh!!

After we fetched Tricia and her cousin from school, we all went to Tesco, to have our lunch do our groceries and let the 3 kids ( yes including Lyle) play in the playpen. The thing I like best in going out on a weekday is the fact that the malls or hypermarkets won't be crowded. So, even in the playpen, only our kids were there playing and they had all the space themselves.

Then in the afternoon, all the kids had a long 3 hour sleep. I guess they were too tired jumping around the inflatable playpen, sliding and running that they all fell flat on the bed by the time we bathed them and put them to sleep. When everyone woke up it was almost time for dinner. So, we went out for dinner again and dropped by at Giant to buy of the cheaper stuff from there. Yes, that's how we shop. We buy certain things from certain malls, because we kinda have an idea of the prices already. In certain products, there's really a big price difference that you can't ignore. Then in Giant, they have another playpen..so while my Hubby as queuing up to pay. The kids played in the playpen again.

I guess, it must have truly been such a happy and exciting day for the kids, especially for Lyle because on the way back he was so bubbly and jolly. And I'll never forget the moment before I was putting him to sleep. He kissed me on the cheek and said, " Tenko, Amma". Oh, so sweet!! He just melted my heart.. I don't know why he said "thank you" at the moment, but I presume it's like a conclusion for our whole day affair.

Our boy has indeed grown up now to the point of expressing his feeling of gratitude. I could still remember the moment when we found out that I was pregnant with him. We gave birth announcements until he was born. Such a joyful time!

Marathon Posting

Whew! It's like I'm in for a blog marathon. This is my 10th post for the day and I have a few more posts to write. There are just too many things to write and I'm taking this opportunity while my kids are still asleep. So, there's so much of peace and quiet in the house. Ahh.. very conducive time to sleep... err , write!

I don't feel sleepy at all.. my mind is just so active.. thinking what to write for my next post. But guess what, I think I'm running out of ideas already. But, you better check my past posts where I posted my High school picture or maybe about Tricia's Favorite Classmate?

Virus Found

Oh no! I think my netbook already has a lot of virus crawling in its system. It's actually my fault since I downloaded a toolbar from which I thought was a trusted site but it turned out to contain a virus. There are also times when I surfed an exchange traffic site that has a virus too. Tsk..tsk..tsk..

Now, I badly need to reboot and reprogram my netbook to get rid of all these viruses and other unnecessary files and programs that slows it down. But, I have one problem, I couldn't find my original windows CD which was given for free when I bought this HP Mini. Hopefully, we could find that CD soon or maybe then I have to check out any custom software online.

Full Weekends

Whew! Our weekends are just full for this month and next month. So, we'll be having busy and fun weekends. Busy because most of our trips are ministry oriented and fun because we'll be in different places, meet different people and try different food ( opss!).

Our only free weekends will be in September and October. Hopefully, this will be the weekends where we could spend some time as a family in different places. My Hubby promised to take me to some beautiful places in Malaysia like Camerons, Terrangano and etc. And hopefully, we'll have the time and the finances for all these plans to push through. If Tricia wasn't able to go enrol in Kindergarten, then we could have had all the time to go around and see places..but no regrets though, we made the right decision to send her to school because she's really enjoying her time with friends and learning a lot of things too!

Moving to a New Room

Our Li'l girl used to have her own room when we were still in Thailand. She was indeed one brave girl as she was only 3 and a half when she moved to that room. There were times that her lamp was broken so, her room will be dark when the lights are off, but she was still okay with that.

But since we've been constantly traveling and rooms where limited wherever we go, we have to choice but to let her sleep with us in our room. Can you imagine 4 of us in one bed? Hahha! It takes contortionists to do that! I guess that explains our back ache every time we wake up. We should get ourselves a sleep number bed. But last week, my Hubby did a little bit of rearrangement in the house and made one of the extra room here in our house in Taiping . So, we're planning to make that as Tricia's room and she quite excited about it. She'll have huge bed and we'll have to get for her a nice 'princess like' mosquito net, a lamp and other things to make that space truly her own.

Next Destination: Hatyai

As if we're not tired of traveling yet.. ( we're not!) we're going to Hatyai this weekend. We're actually going there for two main reasons and a 100 of minor reasons..hehehe! 1) We need to renew our Thai Car's road tax so, we have to bring it all the way to Bukit Kayu Hitam for that process. 2) Lyle's vaccination is way past due date so, there's no better time to do it there ( the hospital where he was born and had his jabs) than this weekend.

Then the other minor reasons? I miss Thailand, I miss everything Thai.. from Thai food to Thai language and Thai people... I'm looking forward for my favorite Phat Kra pao at our favorite restaurant, Sugar Rock.. I can't wait to taste Chayen.. Say hi to our nieghbors, our friends in Carrefour and the list goes on...I'm excited! Can't wait!

Showbiz : Farah Fawcett

It was just a week ago that I found out that she had cancer. It was in that news article too that her long time lover has finally asked her to marry him and she agreed. And a few days later, she died. She passed away a day after Michael Jackson died so, news about her death must have been overlapped by the famous icon's death. Farah Fawcett has suffered bowel cancer for 3 years and it has spread all over the body.

Cancer like bowel cancer, Mesothelioma cancer , leukemia and other types of cancer is indeed a very scary disease. We could only pray for God's protection and healing upon us.

High School Pictures

My HS classmate has uploaded our High School pictures in Facebook. LOL!! Some pictures were really so amusing with all our hair styles, poses and clothes. I can't help but giggle everytime I see our high school pictures plus all the comments and 'violent reactions' from my ex classmates.

Hahay.. High school life..I'm now reminiscing my high school life and I really had fun during those years. High schoo friends are always to be remembered and cherished too. Most of my High school classmates were actually my elementary classmates too, so you can imagine the many years that we bonded.

Thinking about this now, makes me want to have a High school reunion. We actually have some reunions but sad to say, I was not there to attend. But I'm glad I also met a few of my HS classmates during the time when we were in the Philippines.

Anyways, here's a sample of our HS yearbook picture.. I won't be posting the other pictures because it's just plain embarrassing..LOL!

Watson Sale

Watson is having a "Big" sale now. So, after we did our groceries at Tesco, I dropped by one of their shops to see the sale. Most of their items really have that 10-15% discount tag which is actually good enough if you really needed the item. While there are few items that that has a 50% tag.

I was actually looking for a detox tea so my Hubby and I can do a cleansing program for this month. They have two detox products that are on sale and quite affordable but the content is not much. So, if I buy 2 ( for me and my Hubby), it'll still turn out to be expensive. Maybe we'll have to wait till we go to Hatyai and buy the detox tea that we used to buy from there. For the meantime, I think I'll have to do a bit of research and look through the colon cleanser reviews for me to know the best way to cleanse our colons. I'm sure my sis would recommend coffee enema, but I'm just too lazy for that because it takes a lot of preparation and time.

Who's Tamilamuthin?

Ever since my girl has been going to school, she has always been mentioning the name, Tamilamuthin. At first, I thought that its a girl's name. Only to find out that he's a boy. He's actually our Li'l girl's classmate and seatmate in class.

She would always talk about him and say , " He's very nice, Amma." It seems that they are very good friends with this boy and they always talk and play together. And at one time she dreamily said, " I like his face". Oh, oh.. is my girl having her first crush? LOL!! My Hubby and I can't help but get tickled everytime she talks about this boy. Actually, the word 'crush' ( a very common term used in the Philippines) hasn't been introduced to our girl yet and I dont' want to inject malice in her fondness for her friend. But, it's just amusing how she talks about this classmate of hers.

Land Trips

Our family is so used to travel on the road already that is has become a part of our lives now. My Li'l girl now knows how to entertain herself while on the road as she'll just be happily drawing or answering her activity books. But when she's on a break, then she'll be chatting endlessly and trying to crack some jokes like, " Amma, Appa, why is 6 afraid or 7?" Oh, that sounds like a familiar joke but I actually forgot the answer already. "Why?", we asked. " Because 7 ate (8) 9!!" she answered with a giggle. Hmm. that's a good one.

Anyways, I love to travel.. even when I was still single, I loved my job as it required a lot of travelling. Now with family and kids, traveling is still fun but a bit more challenging especially that we always have to cater to the needs of the little ones.

One thing that I love when we travel by road here in Malaysia is that they have a lot of ' Rehats' or Rest and recreation places in between. Most of these places will be big with a lot of food outlets, playground and of course the toilets (and some has shower rooms too). Tricia's also loves to go to these toilets because it has water closets and sinks just right for her size. So, she proudly turns on the faucet ( I'm not sure if they have Grohe faucets or not) washes her hands, take soap from the dispenser and dries her hands like a grown up. Lyle on the other hand loves the playgrounds while the MOm loves the food outlets! LOL!

My favorite ' rehats' are the one in Tapah and the Jelutong one nearing KL because they have fastfoods like Dunkin Donuts, KFC and Burger King! But sadly, we were not able to eat at Burger King during this trip because we didn't stop at the Jeluont area. Hopefully, next time..

Weekend's Over

Time flies so fast... we arrived here in Klang last Friday and now we're preparing to go back to Taiping. Even our li'l girl complained and asked why we have to go back so fast. But when we told her that she has to go to school on Monday, she got a bit excited as she's going to see her friends again. Oh, I'll have to blog about her friends later..

But we just thank God that even if our weekend here in Klang was short, but we had a blessed and wonderful time with our Klang Family, people from the church and even the people we met at a meeting yesterday in KL.

Okay, have to go now ..Praying for a safe journey on our way back to Taiping.. See you later!

God's Supply is Sufficient

Do you ever worry about finances? I'm sure many people could relate with me. But one thing that I admire with my Hubby is that when it comes to finances, his Faith and Trust for God's provision always remain intact. At times, I fret and waver especially when I take out the calculator, try to budget the monthly expenses and other bills. But as always, at the end of the month or at the end of the day, we experience God's provision in amazing ways.

So at present, when I tend to fret about finances, I just recall how God provided for us in the past with the calm faith that God will continue to answer our prayers and continue to provide at the current situation. This is indeed one advantage for us, because we have HOPE in our Saviour.

I just remembered the story of one of the most richest man in the world who took his life away after he knew that his business has gone down. Maybe for this man, he felt there was no hope for his financial downfall. So, if we are experiencing financial difficulty, it's not the end of the line. We can pray for God's provision and there are also a lot of different institutions both government and private that can help us do financing, debt consolidation, pay for our credit card debt or do a debt consolidation loans .

Indeed there is more to life than gold or silver...

Going to Klang

I'm supposed to be packing some of our clothes now for our trip to Klang tomorrow. But here I am, stuck in the internet. Trying to grab some 'work' online and chatting with my cousins at the same time.

We'll be in Klang for the weekend and my girl is excited to see her favorite 'Attaes'. Praying for a safe and peaceful ( no cranky kids) tomorrow.

Okay, I better be logging off now, prepare my li'l girl's things for school and pack our clothes for the trip. Good night everyone!

Taxi Driver Man

That's currently my hubby's favorite song. It's actually an Indian Song that once your hear it, it'll be very difficult to take it out from your mind. Just as I'm typing this, the song just keeps ringing in my ears. LOL!!

Anyways, the reason why he's singing this while driving because, he has a new career now as the official 'taxi driver man' sending and fetching his mom, his sis, Tricia and 2 other cousins to school, to church , work and etc. And no, he's not complaining but loves to do all these while we're spending time with the family. But with all the riding the car, playing, eating and doing all the stuff, you can imagine how the car looks like at the end of the week. I guess, it'll need a good wash from the pressure washers, eh?

Anyways, if you're curious about my Hubby's song.. here it is. The kids love this song too..LOL!

jltl.wordpress.com

I didn't have any intention to create another blog, but after Yahoo 360 sent an announcement that their site will be closed in July, I had to move my Yahoo 360 blog somewhere else.

Yahoo 360 was actually my first personal blog ( my very first blog in Friendster was about my daughter) and it was there I found the joy of blogging especially with the comments made by my friends and family. And then, Janet introduced Blogger to me and that was when I left my 360 account and proceeded to write my posts in Blogger and the rest is history. :)

So now, I have my 'new' ( old Yahoo 360) blog which I migrated in wordpress. I won't touch this blog for now, but I guess in the future I'd like to make this blog about kids and parenting. Anyways, you're always welcome to take a look at how I used to blog at yahoo 360 about 2 years ago. Click here.

Of Moving and Self Storage

Even if it's still several months before we go back to Thailand, but I can't help but think what our new experiences would be at the end of the year. We will actually be moving to a different house when we go back there. I just hope and pray that we would be able to rent a nice house. My li'l girl has been 'dreaming' of a house with a garden and a big space to run around. :) Well, a house like that sounds expensive in Thailand, since the normal houses there are terrace houses ( 2 story houses with a garage) and without a lawn. But anyways, there's nothing impossible especially if a child prays about it, sometimes they have more faith than we do. ;)

Moving is actually quite a stress, I could remember the time when we moved houses. The 'new' house was actually just about a hundred meters from the present house but it was really tiring to move all our things. And once all our things were in the new house, it took us more than 3 months to organize and arrange everything. I guess we just had so many things ( some useful while some were not ) accumulated over the past years. You know, as Asians, we sometimes refuse to throw away things that has been broken or not useful).

But lessons learned, the next time we move house, I have to sort out our things first and only bring those things that are really useful and unnecessary. If not, then we might not have enough space on our new house to accomodate everything. In the US, they have the service called self storage where you can rent a unit and store you things in their place, but they don't have such service in the Thailand. If you're residing in the US, you might want to check out : phoenix self storage , arizona self storage and arizona wine storage .

The Weather

Whew! What a relief! Today hasn't been HOT all day but there are grey clouds looming on the sky. For days, we've been wishing it'll rain and I'm not so sure if today is 'the' day. The weather has been unpredictable for weeks. Imagine, Taiping is supposed to be a 'rainy' town where it rains almost everyday. But not this season..

There were a mornings that it seemed like it would rain heavily, but after a few minutes, the sky would be clear again..

Oh, oh, as I'm typing this now... the sun has come out again. So I guess, the hope for rain is already gone for the day. Tsk..tsk..tsk..

Wifi and Hughes Net

When we were still waiting for our internet connection at home to be activated, by HUbby and I used to always be on the look out for Wifi connection. Even if we were really not hungry, we would go to a cafe with Wifi and order coffee just to get free connection. There was a time when we went all around town trying to get a free wifi connection but to no avail. And the funniest of all was when we didn't want to spend for coffee ( at the cafe) anymore so we just parked our car outside the shop where we know there's Wifi connection and tried to 'steal' some signal. LOL! But, still to no avail since the signal was too weak to surf and check our mails.

So, you could imagine our great relief when our internet connection here at our house was finally activated. It's indeed very convenient and I don't have to worry about getting behind my 'work' online.

We're using adsl connection right now and it's a good thing that we got a promotion where we don't have to pay for the phone and phone line anymore. I've also heard about satellite internet by Hughesnet where you don't need a phone line and installation is easy and hassle free. I'm not so sure which internet satellite company is the best here in Malaysia, but I've just read about Hughes satellite in the US that gives you lightning fast downloads due to its superfast speed.

Oh No! Not Again!

I've written about Surviving Her First Day of School a few weeks ago, about how my Li'l girl cried and suddenly felt afraid when it was time for her to go to her first day of class. Well, after that she was okay. She truly like her school so much that there were even times when she would wake up all by herself for school.

But then after that was a two week school holidays. So, yesterday was her first day of school after the long break. And guess what? She did exactly the same thing last month. She refused to get up and get dressed. And while we were preparing her to go to school, she kept crying and begging us not to let her go to school. Finally, we were still able to convince her and we thought that that would be the last time she'd whine. But today on her second day of school, she still refused and told her Appa to stay with her in the classroom. Whew! And I thought that she has totally been 'delivered' from separation anxiety! LOL!

But what's funny is that everytime she comes back from school she'll be so happy and keeps on saying that her school is fun! So, i guess it's just the struggle of getting her up very early in the morning. Or maybe she's still scared to be on her own. Oh, I don't know. I just hope and pray that she'll be okay tomorrow and there won't be any drama or whining scenes anymore.

The Diet Challenge

Yes, I'm currently doing a diet challenge right now and all the updates can be found in my fitness blog. I'm still in Day 3 and I feel good on the fact that I haven't broken my diet yet. I have 9 more days to go before my 2 day 'break' . After which, I will be going to check my weight on the scale and see my improvements. And only then, I'll decide if I have to do another round of the 12 day diet.

I surely hope that this diet that I'm following right now will be effective so, there won't be any need for me to buy diet pills. I've actually tried this a few years back after giving birth to my 1st baby and it worked. I only want to at least lose some weight which I previously gained from my 2nd pregnancy. All the best to me!

Pity Girl

Our Li'l girl is sick. Yesterday, she had a high fever, head ache and vomitted too. So, today we decided to take her to the clinic for a check. The doctor said, that it's just common flu and should be okay in a few days. He gave us an anti biotic and some other medicine. But then her told us that if she's not better in two days, then we have go back for another check up.

But praise God, our girl is better now. Her fever has subsided and she has become a bit more bubbly ( she was so weak and quiet last night). I just hope and pray that she'll recover soon and her sickness is nothing serious. I was quite worried early this morning, especially after reading in the newspaper that Dengue fever is quite prevalent here in Malaysia. But thank God for I claim His healing over Tricia. AMen!

Of Foreign Languages and Travel

When I was in the university, I always dreamed of going to Germany for further studies or training. I guess my professors have influenced me a lot especially as they always make mention of good German design schools. So, when it was my time to take up an foreign language elective class, I took up German language with the 'dream' of being able to do a training there.

I did quite well with my class as it's just more on memorizing the German numbers, the gender of things and their basic words. But just like any foreign languages, if you don't get to practice it, you'll soon forget those words. And so I did. All I can remember now is " Danke" thank you and maybe a few of the numbers and things.

I never thought of taking up French as my language elective. But it would have been cool to have taken that subject too. I mean French is known to be the language of the 'elite'. It would be nice to go to France. But if, you're planning to go to France you might want to check out these sites : Sejour thalasso bretagne ( A spa in France ), Cave a vin ( an online French wine), Batteries electroniques and assurance ( an insurance in France)

Saturday Out

It was an unplanned Saturday out. My Mom in law was free the whole day and so we decided to go out and eat out for dinner at Taiping Sentral which is one of the newest mall in Taiping. It was great to spend some time out with my mom in law and we really enjoyed our time together. The kids also had a fab time as they enjoyed the 'rides' and games at the 3rd floor.

Taiping Sentral is quite nice. It's quite small but the variety of shops and food outlets are quite a change from the hypermarkets like Giant and Tesco. It is in this mall where you find the more popular franchise food outlets like McDonald's, Starbucks, Kenny Rogers, Old Town Coffee Town and etc. It also has movie theaters and an entertainment area. It's a great place to be .. to eat and shop. But of course, if you don't have enough time to go around shopping around, you can always shop online, even sell online and get free online auctions.

Let's Go for A Picnic!

Getting our kids preoccupied is quite a challenge. Once they're bored and restless, the 'poor' parents are also stressed as kids will be constantly fighting and whining.

So, one boring and restless afternoon, I made an announcement," Let's Go for A Picnic!". My Hubby agreed but my daughter couldn't believe that we were really going for a picnic until I asked her to pack and bring the food and drinks that she likes. Then she got so excited! It was a spur of the moment decision but we all got ready in less than 30 minutes. Both kids dressed, food packed, camera and blanket ready.


We went to one area near Lake Gardens where it's clean and has a wide space for kids to run around. And when we arrived there, we were 'welcomed' by several monkeys. It was the first time for our boy to see monkeys up close and he was delighted.

So, Hubby and kids ran around, while I have to watch for our belongings - food ( the monkeys might steal them) and bags ( the people might steal them too!). It was so nice to see the kids enjoying and running so freely. We then had our snacks and the kids resumed their play but decided to stop when we realized that Lyle was already panting and catching his breath. His pediatrician in the Philippines advised us not to exert him too much as she's suspecting that he has asthma. The clouds were getting darker too so, it was really time to go.



It was a fun afternoon and it's nice to do different kinds of activities with the kids everyday. Hopefully, we can go to the Taiping Zoo next time or maybe let the kids swim at the newly opened Coronation Swimming Pool.

Passport Missing!

The other week, while we were in Klang and preparing our things to leave for my Hubby's hometown, I found out that Tricia's passport was missing. I tried to search everywhere and turned the room upside down but couldn't find it.

Then , I tried to recall if I was able to collect Tricia's passport when we passed through the Malaysian Immigration after our Myanmar Trip. I vividly remember that Tricia's passport was the last one to be stamped (with their custom rubber stamps) . But suddenly I was not so sure if I took it back and put in my bag.

But after asking my hubby about it, he said he was sure that he saw her passport a few days ago and remembered that Tricia touched it. But then, we just couldn't find it and prayed that we'll find it before we go back to Taiping.

There were already so many thoughts that filled my mind because I've heard that the Malaysian Immigration is so strict. They don't simply replace lost passports but they do investigations, interview and etc.

But the following day, as I was doing my last stage of packing for Taiping. There I saw the red passport on the floor!! But I was sure, I looked at that place the other day but I was just so overjoyed and relieved that I was jumping up and down. Thank God!!

Kids Blogs Updated

I've just updated my kids blogs. I didn't realized that it has been a long time since I posted some updates about them. Yes, I admit I was quite busy with my own blogs and writing all the paid tasks. Hopefully, I can update their blogs more often. These will be my precious gifts for them when they grow up and read all their antics, tricks and things they did when they were still small. I hope that by the time they grow up all these sites will still be up and existing and maybe they can even continue writing some posts.

By the way, here are the links for their blogs My Li'l One and My Li'l Princess Diary. You're welcome to take a peek.