And the selling actually begins ..

From the time I SAID I would start selling my stuff till about 3 days ago, I was kinda reluctant to let them go .. But it's still clutter and as of yesterday, I've sold the Fisher-Price Papasan chair and the Mothercare swinging crib. Oh yes, I sold off my Quinny Buzz too *sobs* I'm now left with the Cosatto Bath/Diaper changing station from Mothercare and the Graco swing. *sigh* will put both up for sale soon. Not like I'm going to have any more babies. Lol :p

Funny text convo w The Hubby

So, last night .. I boiled barley for The Hubby. He's having a really bad sore throat. First night he was back from the States, and I felt like strangling the man as he lay sleeping. Hahaha! His coughing kept jolting the poor baby awake.

Anyway, so in a bid to stop his coughing .. I also forced medication on him on Sunday and boiled the barley for him. Little did I know it was EXPIRED. lol.

Words with Friends

Well, I'm kinda hooked on the game. Of cos I don't win ALL the time. It's really challenging and I like playing when I have the time. And it's played on the iPhone. How convenient is that?

This is a nicely played game. Everything spaced out quite evenly all over the board. I like! I don't enjoy beating a friend per se. I enjoy the game. Really. To be fair, this game played with my friend - It's only her 2nd game ever. So gotta give her a break. Anyway, I could see as we went on in the game, she was improving. Awesome ! :p

So if you have time to spare on your iPhone, do check out Words with Friends, and go out there and play a game or 2 with your friends. You'll learn new words !

Yay!

So the man has just left in a cab for the airport to fly off to Phoenix, Arizona. He left with 2 less than half filled Samsonite suitcases. And my trusty list of what to buy for the girls and me.

The man wants me to be precise. So he told me to make sure I give him all the girls' dress sizes for the different stores I usually shop at like Gap and such. He'll be going to 2 major shopping areas, Scottsdale Fashion Square and Arizona Mills which is a factory outlet. Love those outlets. Just love em to death. When we lived in the States, we used to plan our holidays around factory outlet locations.

Man, these places have all the major brands in the US like Coach, Gap, Ralph Lauren etc. And before u think these places sell stock over runs or defective goods that didn't pass QC, well .. you'd be dead wrong. Often, these stores just sell stuff that's just from a past season ie they're not old old .. Just a season before. And they'd be sold at a much cheaper price than full retail.

Oh my, you can shop till you drop. Literally. I love factory outlet shopping. Who cares if the handbag design is from the previous season's collection? Not me. I ain't a supermodel or a Hollywood celebrity. Ain't no one looking at my bag and snapping a photo. Hell, I think most people don't care.

So back to my list. I have all sorts of stuff there. Mainly stuff for the girls. And I did ask for a Coach handbag and gave him a few options to look out for. Let's hope he manages to score ONE for me.
I kinda like this one.

Conversations with The Hub

Eh, don't forget to pass me your fuel card before u go off to Phoenix on Saturday, I tell The Hubby last night.

Ok, I intend to top up the gas for you on Friday night so it should last - I'll only be gone for 8 days, he says.

SILENCE.

Ok, what if I go out to the pub or some night spot every night .. then I'll need to top up the gas what, I reply.

The Hubby looks at me. Then looks at the baby who's chewing on her toy sitting on my lap on the bed.

Ok, go la, he says.

HAHAHAHA. Go where .. ? HOW? With a small baby in tow .. Sometimes, I wonder why I say these things. Not as if I can and want to go ANYWAY. Man, I'd be happy just going out for DINNER at a nice restaurant with Haslynda, my gal pal. We seldom get to meet for lunch or tea UNLESS she's on leave from work. Dinner, we haven't done in a while. I thought we'd go and catch a movie too this time .. yes, with baby Charlotte too, of course. What choice do I have? (LOL) .. Anyway, it won't be the first time for Charlotte. I think we just might catch "Cowboys and Aliens" .. Olivia WIlde looks fabulous in it !!

Nostalgia ..

I get nostalgic looking at photos of my 2 years in the States .. from Sept 2002 to Oct 2004, hubby, myself and Claudia had the wonderful opportunity to live on an air force base in the States. It was AWESOME. Those 2 years went by so quickly! We managed to make roadtrips almost every other month initially, then after I got pregnant, we slowed down.

Anyway, we were at Suntec City last weekend and guess what we stumbled upon?

Yes!! .. My favourite place in the States to buy CHEAP shoes. Man, they did the place up EXACTLY as their stores in the States. I used to walk in often cos they had a store at the mall in town near where the air base was (it was a 25 minute drive .. ) and I was often in there whenever I was at the mall .. The shoes were cheap and of decent quality AND the best thing was, they had my size.

Yeap, I have BIG feet .. ok ok, I am generally big all around, but man, buying shoes here in my size .. which is a 10 .. is a real pain. Ok, admittedly it's now easier .. but still, I can't walk into Bata or any of the local shoe shops and expect to find shoes in my size. Even my flip flops are from Ipanema and cost me 40 bucks. *sigh* I saw them in my size at the sporting shop .. and grabbed them.

I've found some stores which stock shoes from Europe or the States .. they will have shoes and sandals in my size. Ok, I can probably find Crocs in my size .. but ugh. Not for me. I can't seem to find the material comfy. At all.

Anyway, back to Payless .. I walked in the store here and found 2 pairs I could wear .. and they were 40 bucks each .. and high-heeled too. Too high. I'm quite likely to fall and kill someone with my size and weight, wearing shoes like that. OR .. I could hit someone with my car wearing those shoes .. cos I cannot seem to drive with high heels .. lol !

I hope they bring in more of the bigger sizes soon .. and please let them have sandals or at least kitten heeled shoes.

I'm glad

Back in October 2009, I wrote a short letter to The Straits Times newspaper to complain about the senselessness of scheduling school holidays like Children's Day right smack in the middle of the week (depending on the day Oct 1st fell on) .. voila, the Ministry of Education AGREED with me ..

My letter and their reply :)

Am so glad that this year, both Children's Day and Teacher's Day is now a long weekend instead of a weekday right smack in the centre of the week.

Scheduled school holidays for 2011 :)

ok, ok .. I'm sure it's not solely cos of my letter .. and truthfully, it's not like I moved mountains. But it's nice to know that finally, they're doing SOMETHING about it. I'm sure I wasn't the ONLY one who complained.

Idiosyncrasies

We all have them. Some have stranger ones than others. And it's nice to know that my hubby and I seem to share a couple of them. One of them is over parking.

Specifically, in my basement carpark of my condo. We have a favorite parking lot we like to park our Odyssey in. If course, it's a single lot and it's right next to the exit door leading to our lift lobby. And obviously, it's not just OUR favorite lot.A few of the other car owners seem to favour that lot too. For obvious reasons.

Dammit.

My direct neighbour who lives in the opposite apartment has chosen to be nice enough to always leave that lot empty for me. Cos he's retired and his car, just like mine, is mostly parked in the carpark most of the time. I appreciate it. I really do. He goes out to buy lunch etc and when he come back, he's never parked in MY lot. Can't say the same for the other neighbours of mine who compete with me over that blardy lot everyday.

It's basically a case of who gets home the earliest, gets the lot. Now for me, I'm always up and down ferrying the girls all over the over the place at all times of the day. And so while I'm parking in that lot most of the DAY .. Whether I get that lot OVERNIGHT is another story. It's largely dependent on which of my girls have whatever class on whatever day. I think currently, I'm losing my special lot every Thursday. Cos for sure, one of my other competitors arrive home while I'm gone. Man, I should CANCEL that class of Claudia's .. LOL. Or if I choose to meet a friend for tea .. and I arrive home after 5.30 .. there goes my lot. It doesn't stop me from going out and living my life, but I get mildly annoyed whenever I drive in and see MY lot occupied. And nowadays, it's this blue metallic BMW. Damn his soul to hell lor.

Things get more exciting on Friday. Cos for us, we usually don't go out till Sundays for church so it is nice if we had that lot for the 2 nights. Last Saturday, I had a sudden desire to eat pratas for breakfast and rushed out to go buy some .. Upon reaching the carpark, I saw that my Odyssey was parked in my favourite lot .. and so trudged back home .. sans prata of course. I had FORGOTTEN that I had managed to get my fav lot the night before .. I thought I was parked elsewhere. But seeing my car there in my fav lot .. well, then breakfast doesn't seem all that important ..

Eh, you wouldn't think it's sad if you were in this situation, man. My friend is experiencing the same thing in her condo carpark. Haha! So it's not just us. She told me that her hubby and her lugged 4 kids up the bus to a nearby mall on a Saturday .. Just to retain her favourite parking space. I was shrieking with laughter. I would have chosen to forgo the outing altogether. You won't see me on the bus with 5 kids man.

Ever.

Sent from Sam's iPhone :p

Bleah

My lovely blue Ted Baker frames were destroyed when SOMEONE (probably Calista) stepped on them while it was under my pillow. I'm so bummed. I really liked those. And my optician doesn't have that one anymore. Instead, I opted to save money and buy this brandless pair. Shucks, it still cost me $99 !! Mind you, I reused my lens .. so $99 is just for the ugly plastic frame

O Happy Day!

Man, I am about to die. Met up w an old friend for lunch at a Jap restaurant. Had lunch and chatted awhile then as I left to pick Emily up, we decided to meet up again in a few hours to have "tea".
Yeah, right, tea. Lol !
We had Indian rojak .. And it was a big mountain. Seriously, I had my doubts we could finish it but finish it we did. Then we proceeded to order another item from the stall. "Coin" prata set. It was quite yummy - we shared one set. We wiped that out in minutes then we decided to have dessert. We ordered "pulut hitam" ... I think the Indian stall owner and his stall assistants must've been thinking we were gluttons. Probably saying "man, it's no wonder those 2 ladies aren't slim with all the food they consumed" .. Lol !
The old lady who cleared out dishes .. She asked me whether I was still gonna have dinner after what seemed like a heavy meal. I smiled broadly and told her quite convincingly that of course I was gonna skip dinner that night!!

HAHAHAHAHA!

De-cluttering is hard to do ..

What is that saying again? .. Ah yes, one man's trash is another man's gold. HUH. You know who says that? .. People who HOARD. Or just dislike THROWING things away. The Hubby comes from parents who are hoarders. Not the horrible ones you see on "Renovaid" .. but close enough. When I moved into their place after getting married, they must have cursed me to high heaven. I, of course, didn't see it that way. I thought I was saving them from themselves. Their apartment was like a dumpster and I took it upon myself to get the whole place cleared out.  That, and I refused to live in such filth and clutter. It was an absolute nightmare getting the place cleared up and getting them to agree to throw stuff away.

Anyway, the bottom line is I like to clear out clutter. And I was doing that today. With the girls' wardrobe .. managed to get 3 bags of clothes to be chucked out.

Before I could instruct my maid to bring the bags downstairs to be thrown away, the man comes home.

First thing he says .. "oh, you're throwing these stuff away?"

Man, I had to STRUGGLE not to roll my eyes cos I KNEW what was coming. And mentally kicking myself HARD for not throwing the stuff away earlier OR at least hiding the bags in the store room so my maid could clear it later.

Of course, after that ONE question, things went downhill from there .. LOL !

He basically said I was ruining our retirement plans with my spending *me rolling eyes here* and please could I not buy things so much only to throw them away *me rolling my eyes again* -- ok I was a bit annoyed by that .. lol.

HAIYA, of course I was throwing away things that needed to be thrown away for various reasons .. it's really hard to de-clutter with The Husband around. The man feels as if I'm throwing his money down the drain. He thinks things have to be kept FOREVER and used FOREVER once they're BOUGHT with HIS money.

lol :p

Anyway, how did our bickering end you ask? ... well, I basically said that I should've cleared the stuff before he came home .. (lol) ... and he called me stubborn .. cos of the whole spending thing. Then our argument ended.


I for one, think the man is infinitely lucky that I

a) don't hanker over and buy luxury designer handbags like Chanel ..
b) don't buy expensive jewellery too
c) don't really shop for clothes and shoes for myself every month .. it's more on a need-to basis. If I run out of clothes or my clothes start to look shabby THEN I go out and buy.
d) don't insist that we have super expensive furniture or that our apt look like it came straight out of a home interior design magazine. We have 5 kids .. that ship has sailed long ago, man.

Tomorrow is another day ... onto yet another closet !!! .. A cluttered home is a messy one (duh).