Cooking… on Saturdays

What a laugh to think Mummy sharing about cooking?

Honestly, Mummy is a lousy cook as always PaPa complains….

PaPa works full day on Saturdays. Usually Mummy will be alone with JL and AL juggling time to with two kids. Saturday morning, currently Mummy needs to bring JL for his swimming class (another 2 more classes to complete the basic course) with AL (and all her toys to keep her occupy for min one hour at the pool side). Then bath and settle their lunch, after that to JL’s music class. Mummy will usually stay back in the music centre with AL because it will be a waste of time to go home and back to the centre again for the last 15 minutes recap session.

Cooking is a big challenge for Mummy with 2 kids. Since AL only likes to do food sampling and she prefers chunky food especially food consumed by her KorKor, then Mummy will usually cook soup with rice or noodle. JL also is a simple boy and not fussy which makes Mummy a bit easier to manage.

Standing near the stove too long is not a good idea then Mummy found the idea of using thermal pot. Well, it is quite pricey but Mummy got Endo brand (the cheapest one) using Jusco Vouchers which we exchange from our Credit Card Points. Good idea leh…hi hi…

The thermal pot comes with 2 layers...so the bottom Mummy uses to boil soup and the top either rice or noodle.

Just put everything into the big pot on the stove and let it boil for a few minutes. As for the top smaller pot, boil the rice until almost dry. Then transfer both to the thermal pot and done -- lunch and dinner for JL and AL. No special recipe and just put anything Mummy can find in the kitchen and no salt /soya sauce. This thermal pot will continue to cook and keep the food warm till dinner time. Mummy usually does not need to re-heat the food till evening.

Mummy believes that balance diet with lots of fruits and vegetables will help to build a person’s immune system (plus personal hygiene) especially with the H1N1 cases increasing daily. Mummy also make some reading on supplements just to update own knowledge and finds there are so many different type of supplements which includes human being (adults and kids) and even for animals like dog supplements, horse supplements and others just to mention some example. Mummy wonders do the kids need extra supplements if they are eating balance diet?

Memories of the Kids…

Our kids are growing too fast and there are too many moments which Mummy wishes we have a video camera to capture all those moments. With better technology, video cameras are now more compact version with compact video cards unlike many years ago. Besides that, price is also quite reasonable now. When Mummy witnesses how both JL and AL grown so much, it is a great memory which is not captured but Mummy hopes Mummy’s mind will remember all these memories forever and forever…

Listening to songs…

PaPa actually converted JL’s music class CD songs into Mp3 so that we could listen together in the car. Ariel enjoyed the songs too and clapping all the way. We wished we had more than one Mp3 players because currently we only had one. So, PaPa would usually play direct from the CD in his car and use the Mp3 player in our Kancil because Kancil only had cassette player.

Getting rids of flabbiness

Mummy managed to get back to original weight but…. except for a few places. Mummy had problem with flabby tummy and big thigh which looked very obvious when other part of body was not that big. It was hard to explain and Mummy hoped you all would know what Mummy meant. Would there be any diet pill which worked only on tummy and thigh? Mummy had to put in more effort to rub Mummy’s tummy and thigh using this special lotion from this wonderful mummy which Mummy had to admit, Mummy had been lazy…

The Finale....

For those who had been patiently reading Mummy’s long winded and boring story about our simple and mini apartment, thanks for the patient. Mummy wanted to record some of the things we did for the apartment but since it had happened such a long time, being such a short memory person, Mummy hoped Mummy had not missed out anything.

After all these renovations and adjustments, we hoped there would be no more further changes and no more extra money incurred. PaPa’s Yee Ma who stayed in Florida had been asking us to visit her. We hoped to be able to save money and then start checking on Florida vacations. One thing for sure, going to Disney World would be top in the list.

• History of our mini apartment renovation-Part 1
• History of our mini apartment renovation – Part 2
• History of our mini apartment renovation – Part 3
• History of the Kids’ Room- Part 1
• History of the Kids’ Room- Part 2
• History of the Kids’ Room- Part 3

History of the Kids’ Room- Part 3

This is the 3rd time the kids’ room being adjusted after Part 1 & Part 2.

Before even AL could enjoy the room arrangement, we had another unplanned adjustment with the kids’ room.

Sam Yee decided to remove all the existing cupboards from all the rooms because the color was ugly. The cupboards came built-in when they purchased the second hand apartment. All were nice full height cupboards. We decided to take over two cupboards from the two smaller rooms with some modification done by PaPa. We didn’t like the color but this would save us a few thousands ringgit by just taking over the cupboards. Since the cupboards were big, we needed to rearrange the room and trust me; it took us a few days to decide with some minor healthy argument to rearrange the whole room. Moving around the two big full height cupboards alone by PaPa was an extremely difficult and tiring task. PaPa burnt a lot of fats like as if he was taking a lot of the best fat burners in the market.

please ignore the messiness...

 

After having the big cupboards, we had extra storage in the kids’ room. The two small cupboards were taken over by Tai Pak Leong for Topaz and Orion.

History of the Kids’ Room- Part 2

When JL moved to his own room when he was about 2 years old, PaPa and Mummy started to think seriously about the room arrangement. Mummy almost needed to get anti wrinkle cream for trying so hard to think on the room arrangement without having to incur too much cost since we had very limited budget.

Do check out Part 1 to know how was the room initially set-up when JL moved to the room..

We got a double bunk solid pine wood bed from IKEA which was on sale and was a discontinued item. We were aiming on that bed for so long because we loved solid pine wood. Each time we visited IKEA, we would check out the bed in case there was any sales. Since it was a big discount, we just decided to get it. This double bunk bed was able to be used as two separate beds.

We got cheap children cupboards which cost us less than RM100. It is small and short enough for JL to access his clothes. The cupboards had with 2 mini doors for hanging clothes and 3 shelves at the side.

Since the beds come in two, we decided to get two children cupboards too. The room was arranged for two which was way earlier before Mummy was pregnant. The room was adjusted when JL was almost 3 years old. PaPa also added two bookshelves by screwing up a few cheap color boxes up. Everything was set up in pair even before we had AL.

please ignore the messiness...

to be continue....

History of the Kids’ Room- Part 1

From the history of our mini apartment renovation (Part 1, 2 & 3), now would be the kids’ room. The kids’ room would be the only room which was not renovated in the apartment. We could never decide how to arrange the room event though the kids’ room was bigger than the master bedroom. We wanted to make sure we didn’t spend unnecessary money and ended up having no space to store all the white elephants items purchased. Even when we were looking to get insurance for the kids, we got a few insurance quotes to do comparison before making decision.

Initially, the room consisted of one metal double bunk bed with a pull bed which allowed three persons to sleep. Mummy had used for a few years with Yi Yee and Sam Yee when we were renting one room to save space. Besides that, the room had three 2-door cupboards which initially were used by PaPa and Mummy when we got married.

Then we moved the double bunk bed to KongKong and PohPoh’s apartment which they used as storage. While the bottom pull bed was (and still is) used as one of our hanging clothes item in the balcony. We also moved all the three 2-door cupboards for KongKong and PohPoh to use in their newly rented apartment when they initially moved from hometown to here.

to be continue....

History of our mini apartment renovation – Part 3

This is the last part after Part 1 & Part 2

Lastly (hopefully...), we had our apartment refinance to a fixed rate. Our bank loan back then only tied us for 3 years. We had some balance from refinancing that we were thinking whether we should do our last piece of renovation (Mummy hoped this would the last one).

After discussion that we would never be able to afford any landed property for next many years, so we decided to carry on building a full height cupboard in the dining area to store books (top) and toys (bottom) then another connected cupboard just the bottom part making the bottom cupboard L-shape.

The top part was made as swing door (cheaper) and the bottom was sliding door due to space constraint. The bottom part was built much deeper to keep all the kids’ toys as compared to the top part. We were pleased with the outcome because it made the dining hall and living room looked neater.

Staying in the apartment, all our cupboards were built up to the ceiling to maximize the space usage. All the cupboards were designed simple with not great fixtures like drawer baskets, soft touch drawers close etc. All was just simple with basic shelves to keep the cost low.

After all these renovation in our mini apartment, Mummy wondered whether should we get home insurance or not?

Photos ar? Until Mummy could figure how to take a nice shot first because due to space, it would be quite hard to take photos of the whole kitchen cabinets and cupboards.

History of our mini apartment renovation – Part 2

Follow-up from Part 1

Secondly, before JL was born (one day before JL’s birthday), we had the full height wardrobe in the master bedroom installed so that JL could use one of our old cupboards (2-door cupboards x 3).

Thirdly, we had our 1st phase of the kitchen cabinet being installed. This bottom kitchen concrete top was installed with doors and drawers. Then we also got the 1st level wall kitchen cabinets installed.

Fourthly, we had our 2nd phase of the kitchen cabinet being installed where the 2nd level (up to the ceiling) wall kitchen cabinets installed. In total the kitchen area was renovated 3x (concrete/cement, 1st phase + 2nd phase kitchen cabinet).

Besides that, we built cupboard to cover empty slot near our main door to put our shoes, old newspapers, mop and other misc. storage on the top.

 

The whole apartment was dusty during the fixing up the cabinets even though not as messy as during the concrete/cement renovation (Part 1) We took time to vacuum and wipe all the dusty furniture after each fixing session. We should have got something like patio furniture covers to cover the furniture while the renovation was in progress.

to be continue....

History of our mini apartment renovation-Part 1

Imagine staying in the apartment and going through a few phases of renovation. The few phases of renovation was not within one month but ended up in a few years. Yes...a few years, no joke and not a fun thing too – from 2003 till 2007.

It was a second hand apartment (845 sq ft) when we bought just less than one month after our wedding in 2003. The apartment had all the basic necessity such as lights, fans and grilles installed when we bought. So, we just shifted in because we were only renting room with PaPa’s PohPoh, so not many big items to shift – only bed, mattress, cupboard, TV, computer, boxes of books and misc. items. It was any empty apartment and looked spacious because it was empty. Now, it looked full and full and full.

Firstly
We got all the cement related renovation done (while we stayed in the apartment). We decided to redo the bathrooms tiles because it was badly stained and could not be removed. We were hunting for tiles from porcelain tile to ceramic tile. The contractor used a special glue to glue the new tiles on the old ones due to building warranty (water proofing); we were not allowed to break the old tiles. Besides that, it was not advisable to use cement because it would cause the bathroom floor to be same level with the living room or master bedroom floors.

Then it was the kitchen concrete top and tiles on the wet kitchen wall for long term easy maintenance. We were using the kitchen concrete top without any doors or drawers for some months.

We also extended the wet kitchen empty slot so that the washing machine could be place on the top to save the floor space of our tiny kitchen. We wanted to break the whole top down but couldn’t because the bottom part was where the water meter was placed outside the apartment.

to be continue....

School Holidays Plan…

School holidays are just around the corner, which is end of this month. Even though it is a short ones but Mummy plan to take some days off to spend time with JL and AL. Mummy is not sure what activity to have with both JL and AL. It will be nice if we can go somewhere nearby and spend time together. Mummy will need to surf the net to search for any good bargain. Someone suggests that Mummy must check out Outer Banks.

Mummy hopes to find something which is affordable and yet fun for the kids too.

World Breastfeeding Week 2009 - 2

Follow-up from the previous post, here is the detail for this weekend event :

Event Schedule

• 10:00AM Opening
• 10:30AM Speech by VIP
• 11:00AM Group Breatstfeeding for 1 minute- 集体哺乳1分钟 (pre-registration is encouraged)
• {Lucky draw }
• 11:30AM Breastfeeding forum – “We are the happy breastfeeding moms”
• {Lucky draw}
• 1:00PM Baby Moonwalk Competition
• {Lucky draw }
• 2:00PM Breastfeeding Quiz
• {Lucky draw }
• 3:00PM Breastfeeding Talk by Dr. Koe – “It’s not tough to be a breastfeeding mom”
• {Lucky draw }
• 5:00PM The End

Other activities

• 11:30AM Children Colouring Contest (age 3 – 10) – quota is FULL
• 10:00 – 4.00PM Family Photography Session by Pixmoments

Details on “Group Breastfeeding for 1 minute”:

• Please arrive before 10.30AM and register yourself at the relevant counter by showing your IC.
• After registration, we’ll have usherers to show you to your seat.
• Announcement will be made 10 minutes before the start of event, every mommy MUST return to your seat and get prepared.
• This event will last for 1 minute, please try your best to breastfeed your baby throughout 1 minute.
• Please pre-register with Mommy Yiau (yiaukaren@gmail.com) for the ease of certificate preparation and gift allocation.
• For those who still cannot confirm your attendance, please be at the venue earlier to register on the spot but pre-registration is preferable.

Please don’t forget to get a lot of things at a bargain price and you will never know the surprises you will get, maybe kids' clothes at wholesale clothing price?

List of participating merchants:
1. Fabulous Mom – www.fabulousmom.com
2. The Baby Bliss – www.thebabybliss.com
3. Little Comel
4. Bibi Palace – www.bibipalace.com
5. Mumnbaby / Mamaway – www.mumnbaby.com
6. Funny Life Shop - www.funnylifeshop.com
7. Pixmoments Photography – www.pixmoments.com

Warehouse- Hasbro

This was not a planned warehouse. Nowadays, we were selective on which warehouse to go because PaPa worked on Saturdays and also both the kids had enough toys for time being to keep them occupy.

Aunty Ita called on Saturday morning whether we wanted to get a big transformers selling from about normal price RM3XX to RM120. It did sound tempting but then, we preferred a smaller one easier for JL to bring around to play especially in the car. Besides that, to save storage space too.

Then, Sunday morning, PaPa said we will just drop by to have a look. Mummy told PaPa that we will not want to ‘camp’ there because this type of warehouse sales, we usually need to ‘camp’ there for many hours because the goods would be released slowly. We used to do that with other friends together where one group would take care of the toys plus the kids and the other group would grasp the good which is slowly release batch by batch. JL wanted two characters which were Incredible Hulk and a ‘bad person’ (which Mummy didn’t know the name). JL now loved Lego and Figuring/Characters a lot. The normal price was RM45 and now selling at RM12. However, due to principle again, because he had a lot of toys, we asked him to choose only one. It was a hard decision and at last JL chose Incredible Hulk. He had fun playing with it in the car.

As consumer, we needed to be aware the normal price of the items and this is to ensure we always get the best buy. This applied not only for toys but also in other item. Besides price, we needed to know whether the item was what needed to avoid unnecessary purchase and wastage.