June 2010 – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

Pissed Off

I have been really pissed off with one of my suppliers. I was her customer but she had never valued me. I had given her so much business. She was arrogant, extremely rigid, very calculative, terribly stingy and unethical. Recently, we had a fall out and I finally ended my business relationship with her. I am not one who likes to find fault with someone else or create enemies but with her, she had tested my patience to the very end. Ever since I ditched that supplier from hell, I have been searching around for new suppliers. One of my new suppliers could offer me very good terms. Apart from selling clothes, she also sells gold coins and gold jewelries at good rates. But I don’t think I would buy gold coins or gold jewelries from her. For gold coins, I would prefer to buy them from reputable suppliers like usgoldbureau.com.

No. of times viewed = 169

During The School Holidays

During the school holidays, I hurt my back terribly and resulted in my movement being very limited. I was in great pain and had to go to the hospital to have an X Ray taken on my back. Since my mil has gone to HK, we had to bring the whole jing gang along to the hospital. My 3 rambunctious girls were like 3 wild baby monkeys … jumping, running and making helluva noise at the hospital. Thankfully we were not chided off by the hospital staff as we are regulars there and most of the staff there know us.

While my 3 rambunctious samsengs monkeyed around, daddy dozed off at the chair while waiting for our turn. He also had an X ray of his feet as he had hurt them during his basketball matches.

My 2 older girls also helped me tear the Pos Laju consignment notes. Alycia ain’t very good in the tearing and Sherilyn was pretty good in the tearing job. Alycia is better in sticking the docket pocket onto the flyer bags.

My customers’ clothes, waiting to be collected by the pos laju postman.

Do hop over to Old And New Stuff For Sale to check out my ladies and kids clothes new collection.

No. of times viewed = 622

2 Little Teachers

Baby was seated at the dining table having her lunch. As usual, rascal #2 who can never sit still during meal times was romping round the house, touching everything that catches her eyes and curious mind and then she spotted her old exercise book from pre-school that had the very first ABCs that she wrote. She then went to Baby and read out the ABCs to Baby, in a manner just like me or a teacher! What amused me was that Baby obediently repeated after her jie jie when instructed by her jie jie. Later Alycia followed suit and read a book to Baby. And there I was, with 2 helpers during lunch. Next time when my helper leaves us, I will rope in both Alycia and Sherilyn more to help me babysit their baby sister.

No. of times viewed = 238

Bedtime Stories With Granny

My 3 girls LOVE going to their koong koong and granny’s in Ipoh. When they are back in Ipoh, they are spoilt rotten by the ever indulgent grandparents. My dad, he will bring the girls to buy ice-creams, chocolates, junk food and bring them for walks by the hill side to see the old mother goose (which they love, though they were often chased by it!) monkeys and horses. They look forward to cycling on their bicycles and playing in the wading pool. My mum, she will make them kaya, jams, bread, pies, cakes, cookies and do many fun activities with them. One of the activities is reading bedtime stories.

They love being in Ipoh so much that they refused to follow us to Penang during the school holidays recently. My hubs, mum and I had to persuade and bribe Alycia to follow us to Penang!

A tender moment – my mum reading a story book to the girls before bedtime.

No. of times viewed = 259

Buying Cheap Supplements From Online Pharmacies

I have been waiting for over a week, waiting anxiously for the 7 tubs of supplements that I had purchased to arrive from the U.K. This is the third time I am purchasing these supplements for Baby from this online store in the U.K. These are supplements to support a healthy urinary tract system, so that her urinary tract stays clear of bacteria, in the hope that she will have no more UTI attacks. Baby has been taking these supplements for almost a year now. I stumbled upon this supplement a year ago while surfing the internet in a desperate mean to find something that could prevent those pesky bacteria from attacking Baby’s urinary tract.

These days, online pharmacies that sell cheap supplements are aplenty in the world wide web. I am a regular shopper of supplements from the internet. I find that these online pharmacies carry a wider choice of supplements, as compared to local pharmacies. I used to buy herbs (to treat the PCOS I was suffering from) and whey protein from the internet years ago. During the height of my PCOS disorder (and had unexplained weight gain), I consumed a lot of whey protein, in order to lose weight. I was on a high protein, low carb diet then.

If you have in mind to buy supplements from the internet, you may want to check out www.healthfoods-uk.com. They are reputable, carry a wide selection of supplements and health products and have been around for almost 30 years.

No. of times viewed = 563

Crazy Over Yee Mein

My 3 girls are hooked on yee mein and they like it cooked in all fashions – Cantonese style, Hokkien style, soup base or simply eat the yee mein on its own. Even iLike yee mein – it’s crispy and reminds me of eating Mamee, my favorite childhood junk food 😀

The other day, I cooked one big pot of fried yee mein and can you beat it that my girls ate them for 3 meals straight in a row? For lunch, dinner and lunch again the next day!! I was laughing all the way coz my girls loved my cooking and it was easy job for me as I only had to cook once for 3 meals LOL!!

Here’s another fashion of savouring the yee mein….

Tofu fish balls, pork slices, prawns and veggie boiled in fried fish soup. The ingredients and soup are then poured over the uncooked crispy yee mein. My kids loved it!

No. of times viewed = 348

Nightmare Came Alive!

This morning, my nightmare (which is every mother’s nightmare) came alive for me… at the coffee shop. I was having breakfast with the hubs, Baby and the helper. I was busy chatting with the hubs and my helper was busy eating her food. Baby was seated on double stacked up plastic chairs – in between my helper and me. My helper would normally feed her and eat her food at the same time. Today, she must be so hungry that she had forgotten all about Baby and I think Baby must have kicked her legs and all of a sudden, we heard a loud bang and and and…. Baby who was on the double stacked up plastic chairs fell together with the chairs!!! The chair fell backwards and Baby followed suit. When I saw Baby on the floor with her arm twisted behind the chair, I really thought she broke her arm. Gawd, I tell you, I almost wanted to puke in shock. I quickly pulled her up and she was screaming in shock and in pain. It was really quite a scene and all heads and eyes were zooming on us. After a few minutes, thank GOD, Baby stopped crying. Our friends who were nearby came running to us and checked the situation. Questions like “why you so careless ah huh??” were flying everywhere.

Lesson learnt from this incident for me and for every parent:

1) Make sure one of your hands is holding on to your child’s hand if she/he is seated on double stacked up plastic chairs. Those chairs are very light and topple backwards very easily. Even if you are eating, hold your spoon with one hand and hold on to your child’s hand with your other hand.

2) If your maid is also with your child, don’t assume that she is watching your child. Never ever leave your child’s safety to another person and assume that your child is going to be safe.

3) If you want to chat with your spouse / other kids, make sure that one hand is still holding on to your child’s hand, to prevent her/him from climbing up. A toddler is a toddler. They will never sit still when they eat. They tend to move about a lot. If the chair is without a seat belt, it is really dangerous to leave your toddler there without anyone holding on to him/her.

I thank God that Baby only had blue-black bruises on her arm with some of her skin grazed off. Thank GOD that her arm is not broken, head not broken, nothing broken. Only her guilt-corroded mummy’s heart was broken into pieces. Thank GOD! I am still in shock. After this incident, I now have a phobia of high chairs and stacked up plastic chairs whenever Baby sits on one and I know this phobia is going to stick with me for a very, very, very long time…. just like how I have a phobia of doors up until today after Sherilyn’s thumb was bloodily squashed by one 4 years ago.

No. of times viewed = 362

Silence Spells Trouble!

Whenever I don’t hear my rambunctious cili padi singing or babbling, I better go and look for her and check out what she’s up to. Silence spells something is brewing somewhere!!

I was busy tapping my fingers on the computer keyboard when I suddenly felt something amiss. Why is the house so quiet all of a sudden? I turned back and ding ding ding… I saw this fella happily pulling and tearing up the toilet roll on the floor!!

I made her clean up the mess of course….

Do check out my latest collection of original branded kids clothes (Zara Kids, Guess, Baby GAP, Polo, etc) at Old And New Stuff For Sale at affordable prices! Spend RM150 in a single receipt on kids clothes and you’ll get free postage within Peninsular Malaysia. Here are some of the cool kids wear:

No. of times viewed = 440

Father’s Day 2010

After church today, we had a Father’s Day lunch at Duck King. While waiting for a table, I bumped into leng lui Wendy Lim (Kiddo’s Realm) and her family who were also waiting for a table!

Here’s what we had:

Roast duck, the hubs’ favorite but not mine. I donch really like ducks. I’d feel nauseous after eating roast duck, especially if it’s the drumstick part. Egg tarts and crispy siew yoke.

Steamed choy yuen kai (free range chicken) with minced ginger sauce. Love the ginger sauce!

And an assortment of dim sum.

After lunch at Duck King, we had ice creams for dessert at Wendy’s and watched football there.

I’d like to wish all the fathers out there, especially to my own papa a very happy father’s day.

No. of times viewed = 314

Goodies Made With Love From Home

When she’s around, I don’t have to worry about food on the table – 3 meals a day. She prefers homemade breads, cakes, cookies and homecooked food. When she’s around, she would discourage eating out and even discourages buying bread, buns and cakes from the bakery for she will bake them.

Here are some of the goodies that she made recently:

Pandan chiffon cake (sugar and oil reduced)…

Oatmeal-cranberry-almond cookies (sugar reduced)…

Marble cake. She baked 2 loafs of marble cake and a batch of oatmeal cookies in one afternoon!

And this is my breakfast… now you see why I was darn worried when I hurt my back and could not exercise for 4 days. With so much good food, I cannot afford not to exercise for even 1 day.

Stir fried leek flowers with fresh ‘kai pay koo’ (chicken drumstick fresh mushroom) and fishballs…

Crispy pan fried fish…

Loh kai yake (braised chicken wings).

A very tasty bowl of ham choi – siew chee geok (preserved salted veggie soup with roast pork trotters, tomatoes and onions).

Now she’s gone and will be away in Hong Kong for several months. I shall miss having piping hot and delish homecooked food served 2x a day. I shall miss looking forward to what she’s whipping up in the kitchen and in the oven for us to have tea and breakfast every other day. I shall miss staying cool and sweat-free during meal times. Now, I have to take over the kitchen. I shall be sweaty and smell of oil all over during meal times as I will be the one slogging over the hot stove, boo hoo hoo…

No. of times viewed = 336

My Little Earnest Helpers

During this school term break, my 3 girls have been helping me out at my online store. I have delegated some tasks to them, which they took on without any complaints and completed them with much enthusiasm 😀

Alycia is really good with sticking the dockets onto the Pos Laju flyer bags. This task is not easy and it requires good hand-eye coordination and dexterity. Sherilyn ain’t too good with this and she backed out after she had damaged a few of the dockets and flyer bags. But Sherilyn is good with helping me tear off the Pos Laju consignment notes, which Alycia ain’t too good in it. So each of them had something to help out.

Even Baby helped out… to throw away all the unwanted papers into the bin.

My girls had helped me prepare over 100 Pos Laju flyer bags with the Consignment Notes all nicely torn out ready to be used.

I must thank this blog reader of mine who had earlier suggested that I enlist the help of my girls with some of the tasks from my online store. With the help of my 2 older girls, so much of my precious time had been saved. Thanks Alycia and Sherilyn for your great help! And thanks to Baby who kept telling me this whenever I told her that my back hurt a lot “mummy, I massage you k?” Her volunteer to massage me was enough to soothe some of the pain I experienced on my back.

Did I tell you guys that I had the most awful backache earlier this week and landed in the hospital for an x-ray of my back as I suspected that I had a prolapsed disc? Well, this wonderful OTO Hans equipment cured my backache. Check out my health blog to read on….

No. of times viewed = 307

My Precious Baby’s Growing Up Fast

Alycia my first precious baby is growing up too fast. From a cartoon-crazed toddler, she is now ‘promoted’ to the next level. Though she is now only 6.5 years old and is in Standard 1, she looks like an 8-yo girl and many of her likes have now changed. During this school term break, the TV has been hogged by her the whole day. She now chases series like CSI, Numbe3s, Lost, Ultraman, Transformers and other TVB series! My mil had just left for Hong Kong and will only be back several months later and there is no one to control them and help me babysit the girls. My next best babysitter is of course the TV. I know it’s bad. But maybe not really that bad as my 2 older girls have improved their vocab tremendously by picking up from TV programs. When school re-opens next week, TV will be off limits, I must ensure this!

Alycia’s reading has also improved a lot. She can now read Chinese characters quite well, much better than the yellow banana here.

She bought this Chinese story book with Han Yu Pin Yin at only RM2 from her school. The Han Yu Pin Yin is helping her a great deal in recognizing the Chinese characters.

Next week I will be collecting her very first report card from her school. I am anxious to know how she had fared in her first term exam. Well, she got As for all her test papers. But according to her, it seems like everyone else in her class fared just as well wor. I’ll see….

No. of times viewed = 340

Down Memory Lane

When I was at my parents in Ipoh recently, I stumbled upon some very old pix of me and my 2 older girls when they were much younger, stored in my mum’s PC. These pix sure brought back a lot of fond memories…

This picture was taken during Valentine’s Day in 2006 at our old home just before the great flood that damaged it. Sherilyn was 2 days shy of her 1st birthday and Alycia was 26 months old. Both of them looked so chubby and cute. I looked much younger and prettier too. Now, I am older and look more ‘charn’ (haggard) 🙁

Alycia was about 3-4 months old here. She was a very huge baby, weighing in at 3.36kg at birth though she came 2 weeks earlier by elective c-section. She was our pride and joy as my hubs and I had gone thru a very very long and emotional journey to get her.

Alycia loved to suck her fist…

This is Sherilyn when she was about 1 month old. She looked very red when she was an infant. She was also a very constipated baby who would only poo poo once in 3-7 days!

No. of times viewed = 532

Not Raring To Go Home

Our loot from Penang and Ipoh, all lined up on the floor of the living room at my parents, waiting to be loaded into the car boot. We bought so much stuff that hub’s car boot was filled almost to the top! Not in the pix were 4 packs of diapers (super cheap in Ipoh Tesco) and 3 huge suit cases.

Did I tell you that my Princess Wannabe quietly put all her pretty dresses into her mah mah’s suitcase and placed it together with our suitcases at the door entrance before we left for KL? No one realized that and I had already packed her clothes into our extra large suitcase. Daddy conveniently loaded her suitcase into the car boot. We only realized it on our way to Ipoh. And this fella ended up having like more than 20 outfits to change (mostly dresses)!! She’s is SOOOOOO vain!!

Baby ain’t too happy to return to KL. She just sat on the floor and refused to give us her usual cheerful grin whenever we snap her pix. Notice her new hairstyle? I brought her to the cheapest place in Ipoh for a hair cut and my mum insisted that the hairdresser cut it shorter. Now, it’s too short boo hoo hoo 🙁 And guess who wasn’t too happy that Baby’s hair is so short and said that she lost her cuteness without the long curly locks? Guess, guess, guess… but no prize for guessing it right lar.

No. of times viewed = 358

Missed The Boat Again

I missed the boat again. My mum had informed me about 2 months back that the Sukuk bonds were up for grabs and had kept reminding me to purchase them. As usual, I was too caught up with work that I had totally forgotten about it. That’s the third time I had missed the money boat. The interest return at 5% is pretty attractive as opposed to 2.5% interest rate for FD (fixed deposit). Perhaps I should now buy gold eagle coins instead of leaving my moolah in the FD to grow at such miserable returns. I am pretty keen in the gold eagle coins as they are the only buillion coins with the guarantee and backing of the United States Government. They are also accepted in major investment markets worldwide.

No. of times viewed = 118

Raring To Go

These pix were taken inside the lift of our condo, on the day we left KL for Ipoh. The girls had waited for this moment for days. They waited for daddy the whole day to come back from the office to start the journey and made more than 10 calls to daddy on his handphone to hurry him up.

My princess wannabe who is forever the vain pot packed this bag full of her hair accessories, necklace and her paraphernalia. We told her not to bring the bag as our car boot was already full to the brim but she was steadfast with her wish. She was in tears when we forebade her from bringing this bulky vanity bag along. I can imagine her bringing along a huge suitcase filled with her vanity stuff 10 years down the road!! Daddy better save up some money to buy a bigger car LOL!

No. of times viewed = 268