And So We Pack....

Or piling things up first…... We practically will be heading to three different directions, one of whom is going to a place that warms up during the day but can really get ugly cold at night, as told by the teacher who is going there with my numero Uno. I have done my research but yet to find such statement from anyone about that particular part of South Africa, where my dear apple pie is going to. In any case, my girl will be armed with winter jacket and the gang as well as lighter clothes for the days. And please don’t overpack! Well, good luck to that. I don’t know how to pack for three weeks in one medium size suitcase, without a chance to use washing machine. Hands will become handy indeed!

And here is a mother’s job if she wants things to be accomplished without fail. Aside from preparing first aid kits for each group, she also needs to prepare the camera, its batteries, the charger and the connector. Label and pack each one, deliver to respective rooms. Email (thank God and Bill Gates!) and print out the complete scheduling the whereabouts and contact numbers. This will be on my to-do list for tomorrow, along with buying present for my friends in the USA.

And the packing continues….. 50 hours to go!

We Had These Last Saturday! At Mezza9

It's been a while since all the five us enjoyed a good dinner together, away from home. Somehow there has always been one excuse, legitimate or not, after another, that made it impossible to go out together and enjoy a nice meal.

The meal was intended to celebrate many of things, the end of school year, anniversary, father's day and a June birthday or just hang out together and simply eat a (pricey!) meal. We talked, we laughed, we argued, some whined, one got mad and was happy in a short time and tried each other's food. As always for us, it's hard to eat too much of one type of food. Everybody ended up trying each other's food, expect my food. They all thought my Thai mango salad with soft shell crab is simply weird! A-ha! That's just fine, I didn't mind having them all by myself anyway! Not only that, I also wiped all the green stuff from everyone's plate. Here comes the goat!

We (they!) started off with garlic bread.


Sushi for the three sushi eaters.


Grilled Salmon for No.3.


RotisserieChicken!


Sausage!


Steam Fish.


Potatoes for everyone!


My Thai Mango Salad with soft shell crab! Mine only!


Yum desserts! No explanation needed!




We headed home happily indeed!!!!! 'Til the next meal!

Random Clicks By Miss K

We had a crazy weekend and our No.3 had a very full schedule on both Saturday and Sunday, filled with rehearsals, church, dinner and performance. We left her alone on Saturday morning, because we had to take the other two to the dentist, followed by frantic last minute shopping. She was bored at home and started clicking around with the 450D. Some of her interesting snapshots are down below:

Her scrunchy:


Her Cinderella dolly:


Her batik Giraffe:


An extra click by mommy: Chickens on the cow from Vancouver

Alive & Well

I am pleased to report that my chili plants are growing really well, now it is day 39. Following the advice from my sis to move the plants to a bigger pot, I was worried for a bit that I might have killed them all, but I guess I didn't. Soon, I should be thanking my sister-in-law for looking after them. A loaf of freshly baked bread or cake will do a good job for thanking her in advance. I will be thinking of what to bake soon.

So here they are, still looking good. Thanks to my sis for the advice, the one who likes to look at the pictures in this blog but refuses to read the posts, she probably doesn't read this bit as well.....



Four days to go before the big day of leaving for the long holiday. I have not started packing, but have listed out the extremely important things to bring. I am back to the "excited" mode. I am thrilled to use the new camera too, the kids and I are so fond of it that we kept on clicking everything...... Between now and Friday night, we still have dentist appointment, facial treatment, shopping for gift and lunch with mother-in-law. And maybe a couple of forgotten ones?? I will know that when I remember, of course.

Waiting for the helper to clean the house tomorrow and the packing shall begiiiinnnnnn......

Welcoming New Family Member

Finally, a new member for our camera family: Canon EOS 450D. Woo hoo.....



I have only managed to flip over some pages of the manual. It is basically similar to our current 350D, but better and probably (should have) more features. It is less pricey compared to 350D that I got a couple years ago, but, oh well, it's technology, ......... what to do? It has a bigger LCD monitor, which is good for my eyes! More to it, blah, blah, blah.... have to read the manual.

But first, I must finish reading my project in the next two days!

Out Of Guilt, and Love Too

No, I didn't head to the kitchen and started baking brownies out of anger. It was guilt and love. Some mothers, when they feel guilty to their kids, they buy things for their kids. I, on the other hand, and some other mothers too, maybe, bake goodies for their kids. Let's not discuss why I felt guilty. I am guilty for being a human!

So here we go, extremely gooey-wicked-chocolatey brownies, so-so-so much more chocolatey than ever!!!! It's ocean of chocolate! Don't get me wrong, I didn't feel that much guilt, it happened that I still had lots of chocolate chips that I bought in New Zealand that I need to use up. Killing three birds with one stone indeed!

Bad Days Alert

I might have become an invisible woman these days.

* My anniversary was forgotten by most (or all) that normally remember, but I kept quiet, as I typically do. What matters is that I remember.
* I cut my hair by three to four inches and nobody said anything. (I had my hair up the whole time, of course, who would have seen???) What matters is that I feel good about it.
* The kids don't do what I told them to do (duhhh? not new!) I am jumping mad about this!

Why? Maybe:
* PMS (???),
* Lacking of beauty sleep (????)
* Haven't talked to a reasonable adult these days (???)

Yeah, maybe this overrated PMS thing or all of the above! Life sucks sometimes. I am not too excited about going on a long road trip at this very moment. The packing, arranging the house things, etc, and a zillion other things to prepare. Work and more work.

Tick tock tick tock, eight more days to go. Anticipate a very busy weekend ahead. Last minute shopping must be done, mostly for my dear two teenagers who have the joy of doing things at the very last minute.

Dang, I am grouchy! Too grouchy for Thursday, my favorite day of the week. Where is everybody??!!?? I should create something in the kitchen to release my inner anger.

Down Came The Rain

And so it poured this morning, brought the temperature down. It's cool now, it's nice. Wish it could be like this more often around here.....Awww...

Fried Rice Lunch

It's Saturday afternoon, it's raining. Fried rice was perfect for lunch. Sliced chilli was added for more excitement. Delish...

Shower Of "I Love You" In June

It's June already, time for summer holiday for many. For me, it's 14 more days to go before the big long trip. I have a mixed feeling anticipating it, because plenty of details need to be worked out as two of our lambs will be in faraway places. Excited, yet a bit anxious. ?!? June is also time when the school have many things scheduled and cramped out and require attention.

Looks like the birthday party is going to be off, a very very honorable reason so far: "I don't think your friends' mom will be very happy that their children going to the party every weekend over the past weeks!" Of course, I have communicated it to her that there are some issues that me might face to have her birthday party on the second weekend of June, i.e the last weekend before the long summer holiday, i.e. the only available time slot before the summer holiday. Many kids in fact have had join parties.... this sort of things happen nearly every June. I can't recall how many birthday parties she's been attending since last month. Nearly one party for one or two kids every weekend.

I am not making anymore excuses, other than the fact that this year's timing is rather poor. Sorry. She'll have fun on the plane when she really celebrates her birthday up there, in the plane. In fact, I think it is really cool to have birthday in the plane, how many people get to do that? Last year, she celebrated it at the Universal Studios in Hollywood. That's is another cool story to tell as well.

It didn't really hit me when suddenly in the past few days I got so many "I love you"s from my little girl, who is turning 12 on 21 this month. I was a bit too slow, I must admit, but gladly deciphered the case soon enough that she was being cheeky with me for not getting her party (I love you therefore you should throw me a birthday party!). Subsequently, I told her and kept on telling her that I loved her more, therefore, I implied, that she should just accept the fact that there won't be any party (again) this year.

This evening, I got "I love you most" from her. I haven't figured out how to top that yet. Bummer!