Fabulous find !!!

Check out the wide variety of Halloween decorations !! .. You'll never guess where I found them ..

Gosh, if I lived in a house and and not an apt, I would be buying all these up to decorate my front yard ...

Ah yes, you can find these decorations at Daiso ... YEAP, MY Daiso .. my all time fav store. LOL !!

And everything u see is 2 bucks each !! So blardy cheap !!

3 little words I dread hearing ...

It started with Stanley .. he was sooooo used to asking Khalimah (my previous maid) where anything and everything was in the house, that he took for granted that newbie would be the same too .. when Khalimah first arrived at my home, one of the first things she did was to recognize what went where in the cupboards and even rearranged most of the stuff in them to maximise space and to also make it neater. So basically, she more or less, KNEW where most things were.

Stanley would just have to ASK her ONE time and she'd know where it was ... or if she forgot, she'd have a rough idea WHERE to look for it.

Newbie .. well, that's just it .. she's newbie .. and she's blur-ie, and when he asked her a couple of times whether she'd seen this or that .. he'd get the answer

I DON'T KNOW.

hahahahahah !! It's fine and dandy hearing that once in a while .. but everytime he asked her where something was or whether she'd even SEEN it on the table/shelf etc ... her answer would be that.

And said with a smile too !! ..

It just KILLED him. He was soooo annoyed with her, he'd complain to me no end about how useless she was.

hahahahahah! ... I gave him a very simple solution. I told him to quit asking her anything. Or at least stop asking her where things were. I told him she had no clue. He'd probably be better off asking Emily where it was. HAHAHAHA !!

Anyway, I never ask where anything was if I wanted to find it. I just go looking for it myself. Or if I ask, I'm already mentally prepared to hear that standard answer from her. When I ask, it's more rhetorical than anything.

SIGH.

And the worst thing is, she doesn't help u to look for it. Khalimah would. She would try to remember the last time she saw it and search for it there.

Newbie doesn't have initiative. At all.

Anyway, I've been looking for my Canon camera charger for days. I usually keep it in my study drawer .. but must've put them somewhere else this time when I was rushing off somewhere. The problem is trying to recall WHERE that somewhere is .. so I spent a half hour today hunting around for it. It was at the tip of my tongue to ask newbie if she had seen it at all while cleaning up. But the thought of hearing those 3 words from her stopped me in my tracks.

I'll take my chances looking for the damn thing on my own.

Anaconda ...

So we were at Marks and Sparks at Wheelock this afternoon looking for a swimsuit so that I can go down with Stanley and the girls ... Yes, I don't have a swimsuit .. well, I did have one but I gave that away recently (cos the thing didn't fit well at the chest area) and so I was swimwear-less.

Anyway, yes .. I shop at Marks and Spencers cos I am BIG. lol. And those shops selling teeny little swimsuits .. yes, they won't fit me. EVER.

So we were looking at my choices .. and boy, there wasn't much ... cos strangely enough .. even though the swimsuits were meant for bigger sized women like myself ... you'd have THOUGHT that they'd be more modest at the boob area .. I mean come on, if you're a big lady .. WHY would men want to stare at your boobs anyway? ... I thought it was bizarre that a lot of the swimsuits had fronts that revealed quite a lot of boob. HUH. There was ONE swimsuit that had a fairly modest front ... but guess what? .. It had this weird ass serpent like pattern on the front ... sort of like a snake's belly ...

I took one look at it and my heart sank. I was PRAYING my hubby wouldn't insist I get that just cos the front wasn't revealing. I'd rather die than look like a GINORMOUS ANACONDA.

hahahhahaha. Come on, don't u remember that awful movie in 1997 which had Jennifer Lopez in it ... getting chased by a giant anaconda in some Brazillian rainforest??!!

Anyway, I decided to just try it on. And true enough, even hubby had to agree that I looked like a snake cos of the design .. plus it blardy cost 110 bucks!

Thank GOD he didn't insist that I get that one. We settled on a plain black one with a pretty black and white design under the bust area .. yes, the front is a bit low but it isn't that bad. It wasn't $110 ... but $99 ...

And no .. there is NO WAY ON THIS EARTH I AM GOING TO POST A PIC OF ME IN IT .. lol.

reorganizing ...

So yes, that's what we did today ... I made her take every single thing out of my girls' wardrobe then I used a laundry rack with wheels and slowly hung the their dresses back up ... taking out the ones which either didn't fit or was old looking or just didn't look nice to me. Then made her roll it into the room to hang it back up in the wardrobe .. also instructed her on which way to hang the clothes up so that they all faced the same way .. and to hang them according to length for the dresses. While I was doing the sorting, I told her to wipe the whole cupboard interior. Like I said, my maid is not lazy ... just that she doesn't know A LOT OF THINGS and she lacks initiative. Anyway, I don't care. I am up to training her .. even if it KILLS ME. I don't want to have to do it MYSELF WITHOUT A MAID (like I stupidly did for many many years) .. lol !!

I have a super bad habit of NOT recycling clothes from one child to another. I just cannot stand seeing it being worn again ... so boring. There are like a gazillion clothes out there in the stores just waiting to be bought and worn so I refuse to reuse ... I chucked out dresses and tops and bottoms ... there are a few that I really really like that I keep .. either cos Lauren only wore it once or twice and I know I won't mind seeing Emily in it but other than those few pieces ... I packed up the rest to give away.

And now the wardrobe looks so much neater !! And I can tell that the girls can do with more clothes !!! YAY !!!! It's SHOPPING TIME !!!

Ah yes, the benefits of being organized ... u can tell what u need more of and what u need to throw out ... :p

Frustration ...

While my new maid isn't lazy or anything, she has zero organizaional skills. ZERO. She has no clue and no initiative to say, clean up and organize cupboards. So imagine my horror, when I opened my girls' wardrobe and saw the state it was in. Everything was more or less hung with no sense of anything. They were not hung according to length, type or even whether it was Lauren's or Emily's. I could see Lauren's school uniform just hanging in between some party dresses and such.

sigh. It's only been THREE months and my cupboards are fallin apart ... not literally, but the stuff inside. She cleans and cooks and irons fine .. except for minor stuff here and there .. but she won't do anything extra unless tasked to. One thing is mainly, she seems to have no time .. ah, that's another thing she has ... BAD TIME MANAGEMENT. really bad. She's always rushing to do this and that. I don't know why cos my previous maid had tons of free time to sit down and play with my girls. Newbie can barely get things done and at the end of the day she looks frazzled and tired. While I do pity her and try to cut down on her chores ... the basic stuff still has to be done.

My maid is lucky I am not the screaming sort. I have never yelled at or hollered or screamed at ANY of my maids. I consider it counterproductive. Yes, I feel like doing it but I don't. I just nag and remind and nag and remind till the cows come home. And I look resigned. This is just with my new maid. My previous maid was SuperMaid. Never had to remind or nag her about anything.

My previous maid used to tell me that if I ever decided to yell at a maid in my big ol' voice, the maid would pee in her pants (this was when she heard me yelling at my dog one day) .. hahahah !! This was of course after a few years with me so she could speak plainly to me ... I have never had any need to yell at anyone except my hubby and kids. Ah that group of people, I yell at a fair bit of time. Not really hubby though unless he yells first when we argue then I just holler back out of anger and retaliation. The kids I do too once in a while if they're really naughty and won't listen to reason. Actually, I mostly just raise my voice. Not really scream or yell.

Anyway, I'm taking the opportunity to use the cupboard cleanup to also look through my girls' stuff to chuck out stuff they've outgrown or stuff that looks either drabby or worn or I just don't like anymore.

What a way to spend my Saturday afternoon. Blah!

Clovis, NM ... I miss it :(

here u go .. a pic taken somewhere in the town of Clovis, NM .. yes, it is a teeny town 3 hours away from Alburquerque. It took us 28 hours to get there from Singapore .. and the last flight we took was on a small plane that seated barely 20 people and we could see the pilot flying the plane. ha ha ha !! But it was home for 2 years and we (Claudia and I) loved it there.

Change ...

yes, I changed my blog template again. Decided that I didn't quite like the last one ... it was a bit too flowery .. lol.

Anyway, my blardy blardy vertigo is back again. I was ok for a mere few days only. I am so bummed. It's NOT back full force ... just a bit. But still.

I am going to make an appt to see an ENT specialist .. I really can't take this.

I am vertigo free !!

Finally, on Friday ... I was back to normal. It was a BIG relief. I was getting sick and tired of feeling dizzy.

I was waiting for a friend to pass me something last week .. here is a pic I snapped with my Omnia. Still hate the camera resolution ... bah! .. My old Nokia N73 took better pics even though it was 3 megapixels. Just that the N73 didn't have Wi-fi ... that really sucked.



Heh, I was sitting on some steps here at the foot of my friend's block ... I actually got out of my car. hahahah !!

seriously ...

it looks like my vertigo is here to stay ...

sigh.

I'm still having it .. it's been almost 3 weeks now. really really very bummed out. It's not super bad now .. but there are days when it's not so bad .. and days when it's really really awful. And those days, it's really very hard to NOT feel grumpy cos everytime I move my head wrong or suddenly, I feel the earth spinning. It's almost debilitating I swear.

My doc says that it's likely I'll have it for life. I kinda thought it'd go away and come back periodically ... but that hasn't happened so far.

Anyway, today, I witnessed maniacal driving IN THE BASEMENT carpark of the Woodlands Civic Centre when I dropped Lauren off at kindy. The fella was driving really fast and taking the corners fast too. Blardy idiot. How dangerous. As he parked his little teeny car and got out, I got a look at him. Blardy skinny dude. He obviously felt he was HOT and was a good driver to boot.

Huh.

I decided to leave him a note on his windscreen. I thought it was damn blardy good of me not to use words that rhyme with "clucking" and "lick" ... I decided to be courteous and wrote down plainly and politely that his driving was dangerous and that there was absolutely no need to drive fast in a tiny, cramped car park. I'm sure he read my note and threw it away in disgust .. but at least I told him his driving sucked. lol !!!

My hubby feels that one day soon, I'm going to get into a fight with another driver and that will either result in our car getting scratched or worse, me lying dead in a ditch ... and I always have the kids with me .. so it's kinda irresponsible to get into a fistfight in front of them ... And let's face it, if it's a fight with a guy .. skinny or puny he may be .. he'll still win .. and I seriously don't want to get hit. Or spit on.

*shudder*

Started a new blog ....

yes, this one is for us to spree together !!!

My first spree will be from Drugstore.com .. their Lil Critters vitamins .. all on sale. I also want to order Spiffies toothwipes for Calista ... well, in anticipation of her cutting her first tooth anyway. lol. And Sambucus .. which is cheaper online.

I'll be organzing other sprees .. Gap etc .. just bookmark my blog and look out for new sprees !!

http://spreewithkristalangel.blogspot.com/

Happy shopping everyone !!

In a place called "Vertigo" ....

no not the U2 song ...

I have vertigo for real ... darn it .. and my docs tells me that I seem prone to it and it will probably come on and off all my life.

I can't believe my luck.

Of all the things to be afflicted with, it had to be this one. I absolutely hate the feeling of being dizzy ... Wikipedia defines it as such ... Vertigo (from the Latin vertigin-, vertigo, "dizziness," originally "a whirling or spinning movement," from vertō "I turn"[1]) is a specific type of dizziness, a major symptom of a balance disorder. It is the sensation of spinning or swaying while the body is actually stationary with respect to the surroundings. My vertigo is not due to a bacterial infection BUT a problem in the inner ear balance mechanisms (vestibular system) says my doc.

I first had it in March this year .. that was a bad episode ... I threw up a couple of times ... it went away and then came back 2 weeks ago .. I was finally on the mend then it came back again a few days back.

WTH.

I can't swivel my head fast .. I can't look up and down suddenly .. and I have to lie down slowly ... it's killing me man.

Before you ask how I drive my Odyssey with this, well ..

Driving is not a problem cos I pretty much am looking straight ahead most of the time ... I just flick my eyes over to the side mirrors and turn my head slightly to check my blindspots so it's actually quite bearable.

Everything else is not. I was giving Calista her bath and had to pick her up from the bath tub .. I nearly toppled as I looked down and then tried to look up after picking her up.

sigh.

I am not on any medication currently as I am breastfeeding .. my doc urged me to stop temporarily and take the meds but Calista isn't trained to drink formula from a bottle so I'd rather not. So now I suffer ... the doc told me that without medication, it'll take longer for it to get better.

Complacency ...

Hubby was grilling Claudia on her spelling earlier this evening ... she was fine and got all the words correct.

Stanley ... ever the encouraging father ... *me rolling my eyes upwards here* .. told her ... "hmmm good. Don't get complacent. Remember the last time we got complacent? .. Mas Selamat escaped" ...

I burst out into laughter and said .. "That's because we weren't on duty that day guarding him" ..

LOL !!

Scraping the bottom of the barrel ...

yes, we have hit rock bottom.


out of sheer boredom, we drove to Singapore Expo on Sunday after church (we had lunch at the airport first though) .. to see the SKC Dog show.


sigh.


Yes, we have run out of things to do. Anyway, my friend was there with her puppy .. a little Yorkie and I thought it'd be nice for the girls to see other dogs. The girls did have fun looking at other people's doggies .. and there were PLENTY of them there ... nice ones too .. small ones and huge ass ones. I bet those generate GINORMOUS piles of poop. EW.


I say it now ... DON'T get a dog. A dog is a lifetime commitment and responsibility ... and they take up quite a bit of time and money.


My girls love our dogs. Yes, PLURAL. We have 2 dogs. Isabel, we brought back with us from the States .. she's a Golden mix and Kimmy, our Maltese, we got when we returned cos we though Isabel would be lonely.


Although I bathe Kimmy once a week ... and hubby bathes Isabel once a week too .. we still have them sent to the doggy groomer once a month to be groomed ... nails cut, fur trimmed etc. And because we are firm believers that feeding premium dog food will result in better health, my dogs eat good food.


Kimmy actually has to eat prescription food from the vet cos she's susceptible to gallstones ... she had surgery a year back to remove some teeny gallstones in her bladder and the doc informed us that it might recur. blardy hell. anyway, so far so good and the prescription food helps with her skin as well.


So anyway, yes .. having dogs is troublesome. While I do love my dogs and treat them well, I usually advise people NOT to have any. Especially if they have kids. Or are planning to.

Anyway, back to what we did on Sunday, ... we went to IKEA Tampines after that. That life-force sucking place ... I ALWAYS spend money there. Why? Why? Why?

So that was how we spent our Sunday. We need new lives. Seriously. Or at least an overseas posting again .. I'm dying to go back to the States.