"I'm five!"

May is a busy month for me. First we have Mother's Day celebration, with mother from both side of the family. Then we have Lynn's birthday, our wedding anniversary and my niece's birthday too.

For the past 4 years, we celebrated Lynn's birthday with family members from both side. For her 1 year old birthday, we held a party at our house inviting families and friends coming over. For her 2 years old birthday, we had birthday celebrations separately - one day with family members from my side, and the next day with family members from hb side. Lynn was so happy she got to blow the candle and cut the cake twice! For her 3 years old birthday, we held a small party at Pizza Hut, inviting only close family members from both side, about 11 of us excluding the children. Last year, we celebrated her birthday at a restaurant serving western food nearby our house. This year, initially we wanted to have separate celebration with our family members, during our regular weekly meet up. However last minute I got a SMS from my MIL canceling the weekly meeting. So I took the chance to have a day out for only 4 of us. And I'm glad that hb did not reject the idea as he just got back from a business trip at 2am that morning.

First we went to BookXcess. Because this kiasu mommy here could not resist the RM3.90 coloring and sticker books that were being offered during that time. Hehehe.

These are my loot! Hehehe. The paper quality is slightly thin but I can't resist the nice pictures. 16 pages per book and 2 full pages of stickers. The stickers are of same picture with the coloring pages. So if they want the kids can follow the color of the sticker to do their coloring. I get Lynn to give one coloring book to my niece.

Lynn requested me to get this princess book for her, so I bought it for her birthday present. :) It is hardcover with very good paper quality, big fonts and colorful pages. There are stickers at the end of the book too. She loves this book very much. Since then I have been reading the princess stories for her every night.

After we left BookXcess, we went to Critterland. We had fun 2 hours inside.

And the kids just love to bury themselves inside the pool of balls! LOL! We had so much fun that day!

On Sunday, my mom asked us go over for dinner. I thought just a normal family dinner cooked by my mom. I did not expect she went to order so many food to celebrate Lynn's birthday. Thank you mom!

Mee hoon cooked in Thai style. My mom was craving for this. This much costs RM20. It is very tasty and appetizing!

Yam cake and Pumpkin cake. RM1 for each piece. There were 10 each so total RM20. I found the yam cake a bit salty but the pumpkin cake taste good. And fried meehoon for the kids. My mom ordered for RM5 only but she gave us this much!

Fried chicken and stir fry vegetables by my mom. The fried chicken was the kids' favorite! Yum yum! ^_^

Ang Ku in green and red. RM0.80 each. A litle pricey for such a small size.

Chinese dumpling. RM0.80 each.

Lynn chose this cake herself - heart shape chocolate ice cream cake. I forgot to take the picture after cutting it. There was a thick layer of ice cream inside, just a thin layer of cake as the base.

 My favorite pic of Lynn for the day! :D

So now Lynn is officially five years old now. She can be very sweet like an angel, but she also can be very evil too. Lynn is a rebellious child since she was a baby. So it is a challenge for me to deal with her on the behavior modification strategies. Nonetheless, I feel blessed that she did help me a lot when come to taking care of Hao. Lynn is a happy child. I wish she stays happy and healthy always! 

Falling in love again

"A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person" - Mignon McLoughlin

I learn about this few weeks ago on a friend's wedding.

I think if I come across it 6 years ago, I won't be able to understand it. I thought I was mature at that time but apparently I was not.

I made mistakes.
I was in pain.
I learn my mistakes.
I paid expensive price for it.
I finally got my lessons learn.
And I changed, as I don't believe in changing others.

I believe - Whatever happened to me, there must be some reasons for it to happen. I may not know the reasons now, but I for sure will learn about it when the time is right.

It's this belief that keeps me moving on one after another challenge that I have been facing.

I also started to think more and more, especially after finish reading a book. Sometimes even a simple romance story also can teach me about forgiving.

 My dear husband,

Thank you for trusting me and having faith on me.

I always amazed by how we feel connected, how we can chat for hours, how we always want to order the same food.

I feel blessed that we are on the same side when come to parenting.

The only regret that I have is unable to love wholeheartedly the other person that you love too, no matter how hard I try.  

Thanks for giving me full freedom to do things that I want to do.

Thanks for never complain I do not really put much effort on the household chores.

Although we hardly celebrate any anniversary or birthday, not to mention receiving gifts from you on those days; however whatever that I asked from you, you always happy to fulfill  my request regardless the price.

Most important is I feel appreciated.

I love you. 

Happy 6th Wedding Anniversary. ^_^

Sumptuous Mother's Day Lunch at T.G.I. Friday's

I think this is probably the most expensive Mother's Day lunch that we ever have. :) I was craving for western food and thus we decided to go to TGIF for the celebration. Since there were 3 mothers altogether (my mom, my SIL and me) so I guess the 3-in-1 celebration make it worth it? LOL! Unfortunately there was no kids eating for free on that day due to their Mother's Day promotion.

We went to the Friday's in Sunway Pyramid. We did not have much problem trying to get a parking but not my brother. So me and hb waited 1 hour for them in the restaurant, choosing what do we want to eat slowly! LOL!

As usual, Lynn wanted to sit with me but I said, the chair next to me was reserved for my mommy! It's Mother's Day! :D

Me and my mom, with the kids. The kids refused to leave both of us taking picture alone.... Hahahaha!

My mom and my SIL both were having this Ultimade Mudslide (A chocolate-laced avalanche of Kahlua, vodka, Baileys Irish Cream and ice cream). It tastes heavenly!

My mom had this Tennessee Glazed Ribs, one of the signature dishes from Friday's. The meat was well marinated and it was simply delicious! Imagine my mom seldom eat beef and yet she was commented the meat was so good.

My dad had this Garlic Marinated Grilled Lamb Chops. The meat was perfectly grilled, don't have those "lamb" smell. :)

My brother had this Tennessee New York Strip and Shrimp. There were 6 shrimps so he gave each of us one. The shrimp was very fresh! And I love the Tennessee sauce. :)

My SIL had this Sizzling Chicken and Shrimp. Did not get to taste it and I was also sit quite far apart from her. So not sure good or not, but definitely not to my liking as I don't eat cheese. :)

Hb was not feeling so well. So instead of ordering steak, he ordered the Chicken Caesar Salad and the Spaghetti Marinara from the kids menu. The salad was good, both Lynn and Hao kept on asking for more until hb was complaining not enough. LOL!

This is what I was having - New York Strip with some pesto sauce. Nothing too great about it. I like the generous amount of the beans but I wish there was more pesto sauce on the steak. I think next time I should just order the Tennessee steak since I like the sauce. :)

These are what we have ordered for the kids - Grilled Cheese on White Bread and Chicken Fingers for Lynn and Hao, and Fajitas for my niece. The grilled cheese tasted very good, same for the chicken fingers. The meat was very tender, just right for the kids. I like the mayonnaise sauce. It goes very well with the chicken and the fries.

I wanted to order some desserts but everyone was very full and could not fit in more food. :) Anyway we had a good time there. Everyone enjoying the food although it burns a big hole on our wallet. Hehe. :)

Adjusting to New Schedule

I know I have been very quiet for these 2 months. Not only I write less, I also blog hopping less. One of the reason is I don't get to access internet outside my home. Another reason is the change in our schedule.

Last month, hb has changed job to work in new company. For the first time after 9 years, we are not working at the same place. So no more going to work together using same car, no more doing crochet at the car on the way to work, no more resting or reading in the car whenever there is traffic jam, no more having lunch together too. It is totally a new schedule for all of us, including the children.

Since the workplace is farther, hb has to wake up much earlier than before. Kids also have to wake up early as hb will be sending them to school on the way to work. At first, I was worried if the kids will get sleepy in the school. However I received a very positive feedback from Lynn's teacher. Lynn is a slow person in the morning. She needs longer time to "warm up" after waking up. So waking up earlier means by the time the class started, she will be fully awake and become active. :) Since they need to wake up early, I'm trying my best sending them to bed as early as possible at night. Depends on the time we reach home, the kids may go to bed as early as 9pm, or latest by 10.30pm. And they have to wake up before 7am. Mon to Wed, there is no change for us. My parents will go pick up the kids and we will have dinner at my parents' house. Thursday and Friday me will go pick up the kids and then I will take them for dinner near our house.

After hb started new job, we hardly have dinner together during working days. He works much longer hours in this job. He always come home late and has dinner by himself before coming home. Sometimes he even reaches home after 12am. So now left I pick up the kids myself. Whenever I go pick up the kids, for sure they will ask me where is papa. They are so used to both of us go pick them up together. But now they are used to papa always working late. Instead of asking me where is papa, they will say is papa still working? So most of the time when we are at home, I'm alone with the kids. Not only kids, I'm seeing hb much less nowadays too. Sometimes when he reaches home, I am so tired that I want to sleep. I started missing having lunch together, I miss the time we can chit chat in the car on the way to work and back home. I'm sure the kids miss their papa come pick them up from school too. Because every time when I go picks them up, first thing they ask me is where papa is. And I feel bad that every time I have to tell them papa is working late today. And they don't understand why last time papa doesn't have to work till so late and now has to.

In the past, we hardly call each other as we don't need to. However now, every night I will call him once for the kids to say good night with him. Other time I will sms or skype with him. In the past, we see each other almost 24 hours everyday. Now, sometimes we just manage to see other less than 1 hour in a day excluding the sleeping time. Many times after he comes home, he go to bed right away. If he's not that tired, he will tell me about his work during the day. Sometimes he needs to work during weekend too.

As for myself, temporary I'm helping my friend to prepare the financial statements for her company. The only challenge is I have to use MS Excel to do the bookkeeping manually. It is tedious and very high human error. Anyway, this is just temporary. My schedule will still change. Hopefully I get to settle down soon. And be more active at blogging again.