The maid is here!!!

I got my maid!!! Yahooooooo!!!!!!

She came on Monday... so, have been with us for 4 days already. I've been praying for a good maid. Really praying. We tried to get one from the agency. Do you know that we have to pay about RM8700 to get a maid now? Agency fees plus 6 months salary in advance!! Needless to say, that's a huge chunk out of anybody's pocket!

My friends (husband and wife) had a maid who wanted to try greener pastures. So I got her to work for me, without having to go thru the agents! Thank God for great friends. They helped me to get her! Well,, yes, she's only been with me for 4 days, so it's hard to really tell if she's any good. But so far, she's been ok - willing to learn.

And suddenly I find myself with time. YES! Time to get back to work!!! So... guess what? I played games on FB!! (Something I said i wont waste time on). But hey... games on FB can be quite fun (and therapeutic)! :-P

Ok ... better get back to work! Got a few people to talk to the next few days. I know they're serious about losing weight and getting healthier, and I'm sure I can help them! Great!!

Jeremy & Exams

Yes.... again!!

Happened yesterday. Teacher called! He refused to do his BM penulisan paper! I know! *BIG SIGH* What to do? What to do?

I went to school. He said if he can't get 1st in class, then he wants to get LAST! OMG! Where did that come from?

I asked, "How did you know you can't get 1st?"

"Because the last exam, I didn't get 100. Another boy already got 100 and they count the marks of 2 exams to get 1st"

Well, anyway, I'm not going to give you the blow-by-blow. What finally convinced him is the threat to send him to a holiday school and he wont get to go anywhere for the holidays. He will have to go to a boarding school and can only come back when normal school reopens next year!! (Ok... quick, where to find such a school .... just in case i really need one!) And if he purposely fail - off he will go to this school!

I sat outside the class for 15 mins. Then went to check on him. Turned out that he got most of the answers right. See how la, when the results comes out.

Today, he went to school happily. How come? He's sure he's going to get 1st in

Maths!

Chefs in the Making

I have been now maidless for more than 2 months!! Really really tough. But now getting the hang of it. It ain't that bad. I got part-time cleaners, at least. But I'm tied down - can't go out as and when i like - can't go hospital anytime to help someone to breastfeed, making apppointments for fitline in the mornings, then have to rush back to cook and get the kids from school

Kids got it tough too. They've learned how to wash plates properly, sweep the floor, fold their clothes and put them into their proper place in the closet and cook!

Yes cook!

Damian cooked this Fried Rice (a bit wet tho) - I just gave verbal instructions and he did everything. The orange? His idea. he even cut them himself.

This dish was cooked by Josephine - all by herself, without me standing next to her!

The two girls having a blast. This dish (Seafood spaghetti), I got help la.

Not having maids can be a blessing in disguised.... but I still want one!!! I think I can 'see ' one coming soon! ;-)

Missing Kung-Kung

I was out for a meeting when I received a distressed call fom home. Damian was on the phone sobbing his heart out. He must talk to me NOW!!! I rushed home in record time. (It didn't occur to me to call his father, who's at home babysitting!)

What was the emergency?

Damian read a story from Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul which made him think about his grandfather, Kung-Kung. That inspired him to write a poem. And then the tears started, and soon he was sobbing! Real big sobs! I just held him. What can I say? I wanted to cry too.

With Damian's permission, here's the poem he wrote. (You can see that it does not matter about rhyme and prose, as long as it came from the heart):

A man died a few months ago,
Suffering from a mistake he did long ago
His family misses him, although he's far,
But they know he's in their hearts.

They cry for him each other day,
For he is not around anymore
Many distractions have made them forget
But nothing can replace him.

'Him' is my grandfather
whom I love so much
Even if he's gone from Earth
He'll never leave my heart.

Jeremy

My friend WSL asked (on msn) how come no more updates about Jeremy. I answered coz he's boring nowadays. nothing much happened.

Jeremy's been 'coughing' for quite some time. Why 'coughing' (and not plain coughing)? Coz it's not real coughing. It's more like there's some irritation in his throat and he's clearing it all the time with a cough. All the manuka honey and Superkid from Fitline dont seem to help (by the way, Jeremy hardly sees the doc, and even when he does, he hardly takes the medication given)

So, i took him see doc. and doc said that his throat is very dry and 'raw' probably from too much screaming or shouting. It's not infected, and his lungs is clear, and it's not a normal cough. So he must have hurt his throat from screaming.

Yar, that explains it! Jeremy has gotten into the habit of crying and screaming his lungs out whenever he's angry. Well... last time he screamed too... but now he's bigger, he scream more and very much louder too. Once, Josephine told me that Jeremy screamed and cried in school so loud that they could hear him in her class which is 2 floors above.

So I 'pakat' with the doc and asked (with a wink) in mock seriousness what can be done? Doc played along, and said 'well, if he does not stop screaming, and his throat really spoilt, then we've no choice but to cut it out."

Jeremy was:

It's all worth it

Sometimes, something just happen out of the blue, and makes my day:

MoonCake Festival Dinner

Mooncake / Lantern / Mid-Autum Festival today!! No need to cook! Uncle want to belanja makan at a restaurant. Yay!!!!

The family went to this restaurant. We've booked and ordered our meal a day in advance upon the urging of the manager as she said that they'll be very busy on account that it's MoonCake Festival. We ordered the set menu (Chinese 8 course dinner) that cost $688, plus extra dishes as there are 14 of us and the set menu is good for only 10 people.

7pm - arrived at the restaurant, wait for Mom and Uncle

7.30pm - Mom and Uncle arrived. Waitress said the food will be ready in 10 mins. Great.

7.40pm - Where's the food? Oh, another 10 mins. We observed a few other groups of diners entering the restaurant and seated.

7.50 pm - Food mana? Sorry ah, they're getting it. 10 more mins

8.00 pm -The table next to ours got their food. They ordered ala carte (not the 8 course set)

8.05 pm - Sis ordered white rice for Ben. We passed the time by trying to kill flies! Yes, there were flies!!! One into Steph's watermelon juice and drowned!

8.10 pm - I ordered white rice for Jeremy. The extra dish of Venison (not part of the set menu). We were so hungry it was gone within seconds!!! Where is the rest of our dinner????? Oh, there's a mistake in the kitchen. Dinner will be ready in 10 minutes!! Another table of diners who came in much later than us got their food!!!!!!!!

8.20 pm - No sight of our dinner! Our stomach is grumbling, kids are getting tired, we decided to walk out! Without paying for the drinks we already had, and the single plate of venison that we ate! Just walked out. The assistant manager quickly came after us and practically begged us to go back in. Full of apologies, she dragged mom back into the restaurant. So we went back in lor.

8.30pm - Dinner is (finally) served. The soup was bland, the vegetables has no taste, the fish was very salty (like eating salted fish), the chicken was weird. It was a very unsatisfying dinner. It appears to have been prepared in a hurry. The cook must have put too much salt in some dishes and forgot to salt the other dishes.

Oh another fly committed suicide in Jeremy's juice.

The bill came. Full charge on everything!!! Of course we complained, and ask for a discount. Uncle was saying never mind la, but we say, No, what's fair's fair. It's not that we're not going to pay. We just pay what's due. So, in the end, the restaurant gave us a 10% discount plus no charge on all drinks.

Well ... that's ok, i guess, but .... This is one restaurant I WILL NEVER GO BACK to.

I need more than 24 hours!!!

So many things to do (when there's no maid)!

1. Get kids ready for school
2. Separate clothes for washing in the machine
3. Wash 1st Basket of clothes (usually dark coloured ones)
4. Wash up after breakfast
5. Marketing
6. Answer Phone (usually on Breastfeeding)
7. Hang clothes to dry
8. Put Marketing stuffs away into Fridge or cupboards
9. Sweep and Mop
10. Answer Phone
11. Log onto Net, Check emails, Facebook, etc
12. Shower
13. Answer Phone
14. Prepare Lunch
15. Pick up kids from school
16. Lunch
17. Wash up after Lunch
18. Talk to one of the kids
19. Phone again
20. Talk to one f the kids
21. Wash 2nd basket of clothes (usually whites)
22. Phone
23. Talk to one of the kids
24. Collect Clothes when dried (or scrambling to get them in from the rain)
25. Hang 2nd batch of clothes to dry
26. Talk to one of the kids
27. Help kids with schoolwork (maybe)
28. Phone
29. Talk to one of the kids
30. Fold and Iron Clothes
31. Talk to one of the kids
32. On the Net
33. Phone
34. Prepare Dinner
35. Talk to one of the kids
36. Walk the Dog, kids go cycling
37. Dinner
38. Talk to one of the kids
39. Wash up after Dinner (Anthonsiti will do this part)
40. Hide in the loo to escape the family (read a book)
41. Shower
42. Talk to one of the kids
43. On the Net
44. Tell Kids for the thousandth times to go get ready for bed
45. Prayers before bedtime
46. PEACE and QUIET
47. on the Net
48. on the Net
49. on the Net
50. zzzzzzz (usually at 2 am!)

Hyperventilating now.....

I need OXYGEN .....

I need HELP ......

I take my hats off to mothers who has to work and also manage their families, day in and day out without a maid to help.