First rolled sushi

Pretty nice-looking, eh? (I mean, the plate)

It's a lot of fun too rolling the sushi up, other than eating them heartily. After all, we don't need to think about the $$ for every bite we ate.

I test-run the first sushi with just one and a half cup of rice and cucumber slices. It's really much easier than I thought. Then I went out to get some tuna and add them into the sushi. Now that I have more confidence, I am googling for recipes for more varieties. It's a good thing I finally get started. No need to go Sushi King already, I told the boys.

Surprisingly, meimei who doesn't fancy sushi before, didn't even need encouragement to give mine a try. She takes them in, piece after piece. I'm so happy.

Korkor was the one who asked me to take picture of our first home sushi and put it up on the blog here, after three quarter of them was wiped out.

And I also baked raisin cupcakes.

*burp*

Preparing stage of a photobook

Last Aug, I bought my first groupon voucher for a photobook and it's going to expire in March! Talk about procrastination!

I had been busy, as we all know, but still, it's all convenient excuses. The company sent me a reminder email and oh-shiats! I have less than a month to complete it now. Gah!

Having no idea what theme to put into the book at first, so I started looking at my archives of photos, right from the time korkor was born. There wasn't much digital prints that time, since digital cameras weren't so in yet. As I was reminiscing those old times, I find myself smiling from ear to ear.

There are some shots of myself where I think "eh, I looked quite sock also wor" (special angles la, some of them I looked so haggard and downright mm-kin-tuck-yan) and some "look at my forearm! soooo skinny meh??!!) . And then, of course, the cute faces when they were toddlers, oh yeah, I have so beautiful and cutesy kids, where did those genes come from??!! Some videos of little meimei babbling, how I wish I could go back to that time! Priceless! And then I regretted not taking more videos of the 3 of them.

I wonder, if I had been a happier person before, cause the photos looked like I really was. It shone in my glowing face. Or is it because I had selectively forgotten the sad and bitter part of the yesterdays?

Better get back to my project now, time is running out!

Sunday little happy things

Things that made me smile today:

• Having breakfast at the balcony with my kids, them loving the koko krunch and honey stars cereal with milk (I normally cook those Quaker cereal for them, so this came as a pleasant surprise indeed)
• While I had my coffee and butter cake I made the night before. Heavenly feelings!
• Bits and parts of them helping out with the dishes, vacuuming, transferring stuffs from one corner to the other, even though they whined a bit. (Don't whine or complain too much though, I'll be lecturing how much we are working hard for you to live comfortably!)
• Cutting the boys' hair. Wonder how long it takes for them to put their foot down and say "NO, mommy! I want to go to a proper hair salon". I think I am getting better and better at it though.
• Drying meimei's hair with the dryer while she scrutinize my drawer of make up set. Ooh~ how she longs for the day she could put them on on herself, I guess? I always tell her that I am putting make up for myself because I'm getting old. She needs not because youth is so much beautiful by itself.

I'm so blessed.

The story of little mimi.

Do you remember about little mimi's story that I had wanted to tell?

Little mimi was the name given by meimei to her little doll which was rather special. That doll was specially chosen for her from my HK trip a couple of years back to keep my promise that I would bring something special home for her. It came with a little wardrobe and some cute little outfit for playing. It has some other little stuffs which were of very good quality. I loved it myself and seeing the joy when she saw that was priceless.

So, it had been one of her favorite among her sea of toys, something like Woody. I forbid her to take any toys out when we go gaigai because.. well, I do not want to make that a habit. But that time when we were planning to go for the whole body health medical check up, I prepped and warned them about it the night before and that they ought not to complain or make any noise. I suggested they could bring some books to read or something to play with. Surely they only think about ipad, but meimei thought of taking her little mimi out.

Well, since I felt sorry that it would be taking a long day for her, perhaps it could be alright. I had reminded her to take care of her belongings and make sure that all comes home in their rightful home.

It was all well and dandy. Until after we left, and we decided to drop by at some furniture shops along the way home. After a few stopovers, she softly asked me in the car if I kept her little mimi away. I said no and immediately, I guessed she must have left it in the medical center. She confidently said no, she had taken it home from there. So, it could only be at one of those shops we were hopping by.

I told her to check carefully and she timidly said it wasn't anywhere in the car. I said she had lost it for good then. To which she replied, it's ok since she still has her Barbie dolls and other soft toys at home. And that made me fumed!

It's not about losing but her nonchalant attitude on her beloved possessions?? Shouldn't it be more compassionate? I was mad and I scolded her for being heartless, that I has wasted money on her for things she doesn't appreciate and so on..

I don't remember now what her reaction to that, but what I DO know is that later on, she tried to persuade us to turn back and look for it at those shops. She was pretty sure it must have been one or the other there.

As it was out of the way then, hubs didn't want to detour just for a little doll. Then she BAWLED like her favorite pet died! My gawd! I was so heartbroken then! You know, those kind of miserable inconsolable sadness cries? I felt so so sorry for her then. And I felt sorry for little mimi too, as I imagined the doll, if she has a mind, that she was stranded, left by her owner and would picked up by a cruel kid (like Toy Story 1).

I tried comforting her. She asked me if I could get another one of those little mimi again for her, and I thought, well, that would be too easy for her then, huh? Lose it and get another one? Shouldn't she be learning to take better care of her possessions now then? It's a life lesson that people she loves would die and be separated from her one day too. Or is that too much life's lesson for an 8yo girl?

It took a long long time for her to stop her tears from flowing and eventually, she moved on and got over it. But she still remembers her dear little mimi.

In loving memory of little mimi, the one in the center sitting on Barbie 2's lap.

Open house warming.

Before chap goh meh marks the end of the festive season 2012, we had some friends over for an open house cum house warming consecutively for 2 days. I think that was a feat that I shouldn't attempt a second time!

It was so much work! But of course, it was very warm and joyous as well.

Earlier the week, I had my good friend from HK who stayed for a night before flying off home at the very ungodly hours of the morning. JM were here too and we had a pleasant evening chatting, 3 of us, we did come a long way, didn't we? Thanks, MY for dropping by, it's just great having you over.

Then, the next day we had a lunch with my yoga friends after our workout in the morning. Everyone brought something over. It was very short though as I needed to pick the kids home then. Nevertheless, we all had a good time.

On Saturday, my high school friends came by to say hi.

I had this crazy will to cook sole-handedly for all 11 friends of mine, who came with their spouses and children. Some offered to bring along something and I really appreciated that! I didn't want to have too much leftover food as well so you can imagine almost everything was wiped clean. I believe the old folks would disapprove immensely of that cause guests ought to be fed well till there are abundance of food left!

We had spiral pasta (which the kids absolutely LOVED), fried meehoon, chicken rice, grilled chicken wings, charsiu, fried wanton. And the brought over food, egg tarts, cheese pies, macaroni cheese, and some others that I forgot. We still have food left, like the chicken rice, which we ate for lunch next day.

Then, it was my hubs' turn, his colleagues. I had not much energy to cook a feast hence I made steamboat for them. Easy job but not quite a good idea when there were more than 10 adults in the list, since not everybody can squeeze into the table at one time. As such, the kids, elderly and women get the privilege to go first. The good stuffs like raw fishballs were finished by the time the men sat down for their turn. And boy, there were still too many food left after they were done.

After dinner, we had a lou-sang again. Much of it was spew around the table, luckily hubs had the foresight to put newspaper beneath it. But it wasn't finished off as everyone was pretty full, and I felt that was such a waste of money. Someone said that Jusco's version of lou-sang was the best, but I myself was too full to eat.

Many left about 10+ while 2 of them stayed on to play black jack with my dad and hubs right over midnight. The boys wanted to have a go at the table as well, so hubs let them play with his money. After which didi wanted to use his OWN money to play! He took RM1 from his piggybank and I asked him if he was sure. He said yes, he wanted to "make" some money.

I wasn't there together joining in the fun, as I was busy cleaning up the whole place. Boy! Exhaustive, man! 2 nights in a row sweeping and mopping up the floor like that. Holding parties without any helpers really is not much fun.

When I was done, I was on the way to my bathroom when I saw didi crying his eyeballs out. Right away I knew he must have lost his 1 buck then. There he goes, his first bittersweet experience in losing money over gambling.

I comforted him, telling him he must be prepared to lose the money when he plays. This is gambling. Making money should be from work and not through gambling. Yada Yada Yada on and on lecturing about how some people gamble till they lost everything and throw themselves out from the top of buildings. Yawnnnnn.....

Later, my hubs told me he made money wud.. What?? He said he lost his capital then and held his tears back strongly so the other nice chap offered to lend him 1 buck to play on. From then on, he won, and when he made 4, he quickly decided to cabut with his hard earned money, returned the 1 buck (without interest, of course!) and went to bed.

Jeez!! Imagine him borrowing money from Ahlong next time to gamble?

That was the weekend of parties over at our home. Though I had said it was hard work, now I wanna have another one soon coz it was just too fun!

Share some of your angpow money, man!

There are times I often wonder what will become of me when I grow old?

Que sera sera, whatever will be will be...

I gave up earning my own keep to bring up the kids full time. Sometimes I wonder if it's worth it after all. What happens when I don't have any income? What happens when my hubs leave me for someone else? *gasp*

I am becoming more and more dependent indeed. Scary!

Can I rely on the kids when they become independent? The other day, I tried coaxing them to share 3 bucks from their angpow money also damn tough. Didi had a whopping 753 bucks while meimei had 604! They are so lucky! And I can't even get 3 bucks each from them??!! What the... "sang jei la, sang jei la...??"

In the end, didi agreed to give away 3 bucks, for me and hubs to share. After I objected, he finally gave me 2 while he took another RM1 from his piggybank to give to his papa making it RM2 as well. Ain't he fair? And I had thought I would have higher privilege than hubs?!

Meimei cried as she didn't want to split with her angpow money and in the end, rather fork out RM10 from her piggybank to give me! I ask her why RM10 when I wanted only RM3, she said she had no 1 dollar notes in the piggy. Then after probing deeper, yun-loi, she doesn't want to part with the new crisp dollar angpow notes. wtf!

After that, hubs complained to didi that meimei gave me 10 bucks, and what did he do? He went to the piggy to take another 10 dollar note to give his dad. *BIG QUESTION MARK* what is this???

He said I have 10 bucks from meimei so it's only fair that papa has 10 too.

So, from this exercise, do you think these 2 brats are reliable when they are working adults while we, the frail, lazy, poor old parents are hungry and need money to go eat wanton mee?

Aftermath.

Somehow, this had been what I was looking forward to. The routine. From the starting of the long school break, then the start of renovation works, followed by the chaotic moving home at the same time when school started, CNY preparation and again, public holidays and long weekends after the 1 week break.

Now that the dust has settled, I had been enjoying the pleasurable moments of freedom in the mornings again and of course, the warm and cozy home we are living in.

But oh gawd, another heartache comes along. The bills! They are mighty explosive! I mean, yeah, we ought to have expected that, given we had set aside the amount for the renovation works, but still....

*heartpain can die*

The other day as we were eating out after failing to catch a movie at the last minute, I did not know what to eat so I let didi decide as really, I do feel slightly sorry that he had no pressies from us this year. He chose Sushi King and papa agreed, albeit a little bit uncomfortably. I let him order the food and somehow, I had this sinking feeling we shouldn't be having another fiesta, after being admonished by him for spending some big bucks on some other stuffs earlier, and the bills we had to pay, then the big chunk of money we spent for CNY....

Poor things, we had 3 meals shared between us, and really, korkor wouldn't have enough, given he's really a big eater nowadays as he's approaching puberty but sadly, I think we couldn't afford to spend lavishly continuously just like that. I made a mental note to stuff him with other food later on as we go home or feed him with more homecooked food for the coming days ahead.

(Sorry, korkor, hope you understand we really, really wanted to provide what you ask for, but sometimes, we had to spend wisely as there were just too many bills we need to pay off)

That night, I had a small chat with hubs and he said he feels pressured now that the monies are almost wiped out. Sigh!!! (Waffor wanna move home leh???)

So.

I had to get out from my cozy slumber and work on the old place, clean it up and faster rent out to help out with the bills.

That had got me working my butts off these few days. I started with sorting out what the things I still need to move over to my current home. My gawd, there were still boxes of stuffs!

Then I sorted out the leftover things. Either those are don't-know-what-to-do-with-them or to-throw-away. I put all the former things in the smallest room which I cleaned up first, then I combed each and every corner and rooms one by one.

And while I was at it, there were little little stuffs that I reconsider and put over in the safekeep box. Sometimes, there are just things that have sentimental value and I do not know if I should just dump it or keep it. Like the music box which was the first Valentine's gift from my hubs. It's worn, old and basically, just "charn"... keep? throw? keep? throw? ... *big frown*

From now on, we shall be having family dinners during the weekend at home more instead of eating out everytime. Maybe once a month as a holiday for me? Anyhow, we ought to be having family dinners at home together in weekends, as hubs usually eats by himself on the weekdays. After all, we do have a nice dining table now, or eating at the balcony just feels wonderful, especially after a rainy day with cool crispy air.

I must learn to make sushi too!