My Wii Fit Night Out !!!!!!

Last week was a busy night and can you believe that I drove to downtown 2 nights in a row!!!! First was to watch the Broadway show Wicked and it was worth the drive. The 2nd night to driving to downtown was even better. It was the highlight of the week. *grin* I've been to a few parties and I wondered what would make a Wii Fit Party any different. Boy, it was beyond my expectations. I was pleasantly surprised to see a friend I've not seen for a long time. They had set up 3 TVs to 3 Wii Fit system, and by the time we reached the party, the gals were playing on the aerobic games. You could hear all the laughing and cheering. I was abit shy at first so I sat down and chatted. Finally I was forced to step on the board when my gf Wendy finished her round. Thank God nobody laughed at my BMI and then I choose the hula hoop!!! We had a good laugh at my butt twisting activities. I've to say working on the wii fit with your girlfriends is very fun and hilarious. I believe we will burn more calories from laughing too much. Seriously, Nintendo should come up with a wii fit where we can drag just our board to our gf's house and a few of the boards to be hooked up to just 1 console. Kinda like how we have 1 aerobic instructor to 20 clients... but in this case a few wii boards to one console so gals can meet up and exercise together. We had some good drinks and delicious food and continued with our wii fit games. Nintendo Wii staff were very helpful and I now know to use my hip and knee to maneuver to catch the flying hula hoop instead of using my head ...hehehehe... I know I'm dumb... Before we knew it, the ladies told us that we had to stop for awhile. So we sat down and continued to chat and before we realized it, they came out with a wii system for both the hostesses. We were all excited for them and man.. wished we got one too... hahaha too bad.... that's what we thought, before we knew it... the ladies now came out with Wii Fit boxes and announced... "Everybody gets a Wii Fit" and we ladies screamed like HELL.... it was like an Oprah moment. Not only did we get a Wii Fit but also the Yoga Mat and a Yoga bag and a cute workout outfit. I was hugging my Wii Fit so tight... Never have I won anything like this before!!!! So Thank you to MJ and Jen (both co-editor of ChicagoMomViews.net) for inviting us to the party.. and Thanks to Nintendo for the Wii Fit. What a perfect night for me!!!

BTW, stop by at ChicagoMomViews. You may just win a Free Wii system and Wii Fit worth about $370. Enter the contest and you might be even luckier than me!!!

Continue reading...

Koo Koo Ciao dissapeared!!!

My sister in law is pregnant (brother's wife) and weeks ago, I spoke to my sister in Singapore. She told me the good news that the ultrasound revealed it was a boy. Fastforward to last Thursday, I was on yahoo chat with my cousin's wife and she brought up the topic of babies and said "wah, your brother is going to have a girl." and I said "NO, its a boy."She asked "are you sure, that is not what I heard." Confused, right away I called my brother and thank goodness it was not midnite yet or the suspense would have killed me. "Eh, are you having a boy or girl?" I didn't even greet him as I got too excited.... He answered "Girl." Surprised!! I asked "What happened to the Koo Koo Ciao?" He in his cool manner said "Koo Koo Ciao dissapeared." After that call, I confirmed to my cousin's wife that she got it right. Then I called my sister but got her voice mail and left her a message... "Idiot, why didn't you tell me that the koo koo ciao dissapeared!!" For some of you that would have figured it out by now.... Koo koo ciao is a Hokkien word meaning... P-N-S... boys genital.. Its a common thing that parents in Malaysia will find out the sex of the baby. I refused to know my babies gender as I believe that its one guaranteed pleasant surprise that God gives. I just love the suspense and it was hard with the boy as I had to do amniocentesis. I had to remind everyone that held my pregnancy records to not tell me the sex of the baby. I know, I know some parents like to be prepared.. I just always had 2 (for each gender) names ready... and got everything in yellow, green, blue and that way I could save money on clothes which they only wear for 3 months... I'm happy my brother will get that little girl who will twirl him round her tiny fingers. He is a good dad to begin with... And we 3 siblings now each have the 1 girl and 1 boy combo. And this little girl will get to wear Gilly's baby clothes ... which I like seeing as its a reminder of the baby girl I got.. So.... hehehe Koo Koo Ciao Dissapeared news... was a hoot!!!

Continue reading...

2 ladies picking Okra at the store

Instruction for selecting okra:

1) Grab bag

2) Pick up an okra

3) Hold the bottom end of okra

4) Quickly snap tip of okra

5a) if snap, put in bag or

5b) if it just bend, throw it back

6) Very importantly... do not look left or right or above you.

Okra is one of my favorite vegetable and I love eating it with sambal or curry. I was at the grocery store with my caucasian girlfriend last Monday. We decided to shop at night without the kids and it was fun. At the store, I saw some okra and decided it would be good with some green curry and decided to get a few. I was snapping the tip to see if they were young okras. My girlfriend was standing next to me and I told her to help me out. I told her "snap the tip and if breaks off, its good. the ones that bend are not good." I notice she was uncomfortable with my suggestion and was cautiously snapping a few and everytime she did that, she would look around to see if the POLICE was watching her. Till now I'm cracking up recalling how she looks when she was snapping the okras. Just like a little girl putting her hands into the forbidden cookie jar...

We had a good laugh when I told her, "hey this is sold here for asians so they know how the asians would choose it.. so don't worry." Then we both looked up at the cameras... Security must be having a good laugh at my guilty friend. I'm just a normal snapping okra asian lady and she the guilty snapping okra white lady. Does it mean we are better off with our kids around as we would behave better???

Continue reading...

My Not-So-New Laptop

Introducing my newest toy... or rather not so new toy.. Toshiba P305-S8838. I just love my new toy except for the weight.. hubby got too enthusiastic about gadgets and insisted on buying a 17" instead of 15". Why do I love this laptop? Because I can drag it anywhere in the house and it sits on my dining table in the kitchen alot. I just love to try out recipes from other bloggers and it just easy for me to have it next to me in the kitchen. I used to have to run the stairs to my loft to look at some recipes. I know it was good workout but this is so nice. I can chat online while I'm baking or cooking as well. We bought this laptop from Costco, hubby had been wanting another PC as I do hog the only one we had. I insisted that the laptop had to be a Toshiba as I worked for a Toshiba distributor and know how reliable they are. I also insisted that we only buy it from Costco as Costco has good 2 year extended warranty for computers. We waited for good 2 months to see if this laptop would go on sale.. and it finally did.. we paid $899 (after $100 rebate) for it while it retails $1200. I just need to kick my lazy butt to install all my software to the laptop, and I would be able to blog fully here. For now, I still upload my photos to the old pc.. then upload it to blogspot... hehehe.. I know I know... I promise I will do so in near future *grin* Till then... have a good day.

Continue reading...

Halloween !!!!

Halloween this year was the best!! We had just warm weather that we didn't have to worry about our kids freezing in their outfits. The temperature was in the mid 70ºF (22ºC) which was almost record high for this time of the year.

Greg at the Kindergarten Halloween Parade

The kids packed their costumes into their school bag and later they had a Halloween Parade. I had to go twice as the Kindergarten and the 1-4th Grades had 2 separate parades. The Kindergarten start their Parade 1 hour earlier and Greg's class was the last to come out. He looked so cute in his fireman outfit. It was a long parade as they have 16 Kindergarten classes.

Not realizing how long the parade would take, I had to rush home and grab supplies as I was volunteering for Gilly's class party. I got back to school in time to sign up at the office then waited for the parade to start. Gilly with her usual bubbly self was smiling and having a fun time with her friends.

Gilly with her classmate

A few moms and I had volunteered for the Halloween party. I was hoping to do the tattoos but that activity was quickly grabbed by one smart mom. I decided that I would get some toilet rolls and let the kids play the "Wrap the Mummy" game. Oh boy.. they sure had fun. They used 9 rolls of toilet rolls for 24 kids. I got them into groups of 4 and there were some arguements on who was to be the honored mummy. One girl almost cried as she didnt' get to be a mummy. I whispered to her "it was more fun to wrap the mummy as you can try to wrap them as tight as you can." By the end of the game, she came smiling to tell me she sure had fun wrapping. We gave all of them a little "prize".

Mummy all wrapped up

Mummy revealed!

I'm glad the kids had fun with the game and they had a fun with the other activities. My only issue this year was the "NO FOOD, ONLY TRINKETS" rule that was adopted by the Parent Board. One mom said that new rule was doing us a favor which I thought was nonsense as trinkets are more expensive especially with this economy of ours. Now.. dont' tell me its a healthy rule and that I'm unhealthy. I dont' dump a big bag of candy every year... I usually would have 1 or 2 pieces of candy or fruit loops plus a few sticker, pencils and tattoos... But to say NO CANDY is just too much. We as parents have to teach our kids how to balance our lives.. and that includes its ok to have candy.. but not too much candy. Gilly's class ended up with only 2 treat bags as the teacher had to confisicate alot of treatbags with 1 piece of candy in it compared the the 15 bags they use to get. Now.. that is really taking the fun out of Halloween.

Gilly helping another group.

Gilly got to come home with me after the party and we went to pick up Greg from a friend's house. She was nice to babysit Greg while I was at Gilly's class. We came home and they got to rest abit and by then Daddy was home. At 4.30 pm the kids were begging to start the "Trick or Treat". We loaded the wagon with flashlights, extra shopping bag and drinking water. We met up with some friends and proceeded ... until 7.00 pm. As the weather was awesomely warm, we didn't rush to get home to get out of the frigid cold. They kids had so much fun and was amaze at how much candy they collected. They were excited as they got to see alot of their schoolmates as kids in the neighborhood would go to the same school.

The witch and the fireman

We usually have extra shopping bags as the kids would complain after sometime that their pumpkin is heavy. Don't gasp at the amount of candy we collect. We usually separate the chocolates from the candy then send them to the village hall. They have collection centers for donations which would be sent to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. That way, I do not feel its a waste of time going Trick or Treating and the kids are happy they are doing something good. They know their candy is being put to good use. As for the chocolates, I usually send them with Daddy to work. So.. do I have any sugar overload problems??? NOOOOOOOO..

Btw, if some of you notice.. my kids are wearing the same outfit they did last year. I'm so proud of Gilly and Greg. They told me that because they could still fit into last year's outfit, they didn't want to wear the same ones.. and that way, we can save money. I'm glad that my goal in teaching my kids the value of money has somehow worked. My constant money lessons has somehow soaked into their tiny little brains. The day after Halloween, we were at Target and Gilly asked if she could buy another costume for next year. She noticed the costumes were on sale (50% off) .. and she told me "mummy, maybe I can wear this outfit for 2 years." I smiling told her that was a good idea, and found her costume. So we are set for next year... with my wallet slightly lighter.

Continue reading...

BusyBodyBook Organizer

I hate to admit that I am one that always tries to remember everything in my head but these days after having babies, I tend to forget. Now that Greg has started school and I'm signing him up for activities. I worry that I may forget something. I do give piano lessons to a few kids and sometimes scheduling them too can ben a nightmare especially those kids that are into all activities. I always thought that I never needed an organizer and just with Gilly's activities, I was fine.... I won an organizer from a competition at momviews.net a few months ago. If in Malaysia, my friends would laugh at its cute name.. Busy Body Book is its name and being Malaysians, it would mean meddling nosy person... I think its a british jargon.. However, I LOVE this organizer as its very simple and easy to use. It has a page for emergency information, a 3-year calendar with the holidays listed. I was fortunate to win the Academic Year organizer which was even better as it was suitable for my lifestyle needs. At the back portion of this organizer, it had a section for the following year appointments, a sections for notes, and get this.... a perforated 4 sectionals for To Do, the final sheet has a section for restaurants and take out information and "important people" information. Now.. if you think I'm done.. the part I like best about this organizer is that its works in a "grid" format. Each page, list the days of a week... hence Monday, Tuesday, till Sunday. And it have 5 columns... which can accomodate up to 5 family members or if you are a student, you could use those columns for your school subjects. I find this just nice for my kids' schedule and my piano student's sessions when there is make-up classes. That way, I know I won't get any double booking on anyone. It comes with a bookmark that can be attached to the spiral of the book. I use it to remind me which week it is. The design on the cover is very retro and to my taste plus it has a plastic cover for protection.

For someone that used to give away any planner or organizer that was given to her.. this is one that I kept... and I'm glad I kept this one. Its just simple and easy to use. I dont' need those that has a section for menu planner nor recipe planner .. cos I'm one that cooks according to her mood... I'm trying to be more organized not perfect... so... try out BusyBodyBooks if you want something easy.

Continue reading...