Secrets

I have a scholar friend in UK, we'll call her "I", who recently let me know she met an old friend of mine from school, "N".

At first, I was all like "cool, what are the odds of that happening?"

Then it dawn on me. These two gals know me from different parts of my life. The only thing they have in common is Moi. The things that they can gossip to each other about me is...how should I put it...painfully embarrassing.

I used to be dorm mates with N. And no, we did not experiment with lesbian sex but I guess that kind of information would be kind of embarrassing too. We were however very close, the bestest of friends. The type of friends you could confide your love for Anthony Hopkins and/or Sean Connery and not fear any repercussions for having a thing for old, bald, charismatic men.

Anyway, being young and away from parental control, we did a lot of stupid things together. Stupid as in how? Stupid as in taking a bath in the boys toilet at the school during a water draught and ALMOST getting caught by the boys. Stupid as in dressing up in all-black (ghetto gitu!)and having a cake fight behind the school halls. Stupid as in getting into a relationship with any of the boys from our school, just because everyone was doing it. I was there for her when she got panic attacks rehearsing for the debate team. She was there for me when I broke down and cried over River Phoenix's death. You know, the real important stuff.

We were dorm mates for 2 years and those two years were the best and worst times of my life. We stayed in touch after school and went to each other's wedding. We saw less of each other than we would want to but emails and sms's kept us updated. The last time I saw her was a few months before she moved to the UK.

I first met "I" during my scholar induction course. To say we hit it off would be...exaggerating, heee, but the years have matured us both and we now visit each other's blog daily and admire pictures of our kids. She was there when I had this insane crush on another one of our scholar friends and probably knows about the whole breaking-down-and-not-being-in-a-relationship-for-2-years-becoz-still-hung-up-on-the-guy despite clapping with one hand (bertepuk sebelah tangan). She knows about all my other stupid and embarrassing things I've done since I graduated from school and supposedly matured.

Seriously, if N and I were to sit down everyday and exchange stories about me and my stupid antics, they would have enough to last for years.

Damn!!

To N and I, go easy on me, kay. Kalau aku asyik tersedak, aku tau lah sapa dok ngata aku nanti. Heeee...

I Object!

Excuse me?

I checked my statscounter and apparently someone googled "old malay women" and found my blog.

"Old Malay Women"

I'm trying to find the post where I may have used that term but I am at a lost.

This saddens me.

I'm not freaking old.

Am I?

Scarface vs Clearface

I'm a sucker for free stuff. I go to the supermarket and I'll be the one lining up to grab the free food sample, regardless whether or not I even LIKE coffee (don't!) or even care that the new improved Vico is made from chocolate imported from California or the Caribbean.

So you can guess my excitement when a colleague of mine gave me a voucher for a free facial treatment at NY Skin Solutions. FREE!! Facial Treatment!! I nearly had an orgasm as looked over the voucher and noticed that the FREE!! facial treatment would cost RM300 at normal price.

That's how you gage whether or not the facial treatment is going to be good or bad. At RM300, they're probably going to do more than just slap a hot, wet towel on my face and scrub my pimples raw with a wire brush.

So last week, I took the time to go for this FREE!! facial treatment. I was a bit nervous coz I was anticipating getting the 3rd degree, you know, the deal with free samples. What if they just did the treatment on half of my face, as a marketing gimmick to get me to pay them money to treat my other half? What if they did such a good job that I would be mesmerized by the results and throw my credit cards at them for more?

It was then I decided. I came for the FREE!! treatment and that's all!!

The lady that attended me was nice but I freaked out a bit when she told me the session would last for 3 hours. WOW!! 3 hours of someone pampering my face was excessive, even for a pampering-whore like myself.

Turns out the pampering session lasted for 2 hours (and what a bliss those 2 hours were..) and the last hour was for a full force SALES PITCH!!

I knew it!!

Luckily I had psyched myself up before going into the spa or I would have found myself RM5600 poorer. You heard me, RM5600!! For 20 treatments. Which calculates to Rm280 per treatment.

I suspect for that amount of money, I would end up with a face as clear as a baby's butt or glowing like Beyonce after a session of humping her "Beautiful Liar" but Bloody Hell!! Damn expensive.

I called up hubby to ask his opinion and he freaked out when I told him the cost. "It's not like your pimples are life threatening!!!"

Errr...point well taken.

So I stood my ground and eventhough the nice lady lowered the package to 10 treatments at RM2800 and lower still to RM1000 for 5 treatments and lower still to RM500 for 3 treatments, I refused to budge. One thing, I never can find the time to go for facials. Even when I make a point to go, I always end up either dozing in bed or just hanging out with hubby and the girls.

So after 2 hours of been pampered with biohydrolic-vanilla essence-all natural-seaweed....stuff, my face is objecting to being slapped and lathered with over-the-counter RM7.50 facial foams by prospering with multiple red buds of goo.

But what the heck, it's not like my pimples are life threatening.

Why I Start My Mornings By Reading the Papers

You've got to give it up for this kid. What ingenuity. Who, at the age of 9, would ever think this up.

"A nine-year-old German girl was so upset about having to tidy her room she put up a sign in her window urging passers-by to call the police for help."

As if that wasn't enough, she even thought of recruiting her younger brother. "Pedestrians saw the girl crying in the window, holding up a sign saying "Help! Please call the police!" Next to her sat a small boy."

I just had to laugh out loud when I read this. I pity the mother, who was apparently surprised to see a force of policemen barge into her home. I can't imagine if any of my kids ever pulled a stunt like this, memang nak kena piat telinga.



Here's another piece of news that caught my eye. I got to thinking, KARMA!! Apparently this guy wanted to kill his girlfriend by leaving her in a car parked on the railroad tracks. When the train came, it hit the car and launched it RIGHT ON TOP OF THE FLEEING MAN!!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

Best thing is, the girlfriend survived.

Moral of the story: Next time when you wanna kill someone, make sure you're not in the "hit zone" yourself.

Syazwani Mansor Needs Your Help

I saw this in today's newspaper. The sight of this helpless child just broke my heart. I pity the parents who have to see their beloved child suffer like this.

Syazwani Mansor is 3 months old and suffers from a hole-in-the-heart plus other ailments such as clinical Down Syndrome and bowel problems, causing her to wear a special bag that transports her feces directly from her stomach.
Can you imagine the pain this small girl is going through?
Unfortunately for Syazwani, her parents are not well to do and already have 5 children to feed (ages 14 to 3).

Syazwani needs RM26,000 for her heart operation. We all can help Syazwani have a better life. If enough people send just Rm50 each, Syazwani can hopefully live life as a normal child.

RM50. To many of us, that is not a big amount. Maybe something we usually spend in a day or during a weekend shopping spree. RM50 doesn't even buy you good work shoes unless you're buying from Bata. Rm50 is one night of eating outside.

We can do without that, can't we?

I am not affiliated with Syazwani's family in any way. I am writing this as a plea to all humanity to help this poor child. Please, if you wish to help Syazwani, send a cheque to Berita Harian Sdn. Bhd. (write Syazwani Mansor on the back of the cheque) and send it to Jabatan Kewangan/Unit Kebajikan, The New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd (NSTP), Balai Berita, 31, Jalan Riong, 59100 Kuala Lumpur.

Thank you for reading this. And a bigger thank you if you decide to send a cheque.

A New Beginning..?

A door appears. An escape from the mundane. What lies beyond is still unsure. It's an opportunity for new things, but is it for the better? Only time will tell.

Should I go for it? Shouldn't I at least try?

The choice is mine.

To be continued...

The Meaning of Dania and Dina

I took this tag from Moby.

Hubby was the one who chose the names for the girls. We had an understanding; hubby would choose the names for our daughters and I would choose the names for our sons. I don't remember why or how we came to an understanding on the matter but there you have it. As a result, our daughters are named Dania Jazmin and Dina Yasmin.

Hubby first fell in love with the name Dania when he was flipping through a baby's name book in PKNS, Shah Alam. It was then he decided that all our children's names would start with the letter D. Why? Don't ask me but it sounded like a nice idea at first until we found out that there aren't a lot of Muslim names that start with the letter D. Not unless you wanna count Doremon or Dinosaur. Which doesn't sound very Muslim-like to begin with. Heee.

Dania means "God is my Judge" or "Closer to God", depending on which online site or book you're referring to. Jazmin refers to a flower, usually written as Jasmine. When you combine the two names, it probably doesn't make sense but everyone loves Dania's name. My MIL had doubts about it being a Muslim name but we assured her we weren't going down the road to name our kids Apple or Chandelier or any other inhuman object.

When we found out I was expecting a second daughter, hubby immediate announced that he would name her Dina Yasmin. Dina means "Judged" or "Justified". Yasmin basically has the same meaning as Jazmin; flower. So we have two "flowers" in the house. :D

I can't imagine what name we would choose if we had another girl. Names that I found online:

Daffodil - another flower?! Plus I can't imagine myself screaming "DAFFODIL!!!" in the middle of Tesco with a straight face.

Dagmar - sounds like Dogma, which brings Ben demon-worshipping Affleck to mind. Pass!!!

Dahlia - yet another flower. Plus it sounds to close to Dania.

Dakota - Too American.

Dolly - like Parton? Hahahahaa...

Durriyah - nice but I have trouble pronouncing the letter "R". Heheheh, sket2 pelat le gitu. It has a nice meaning though - shines brightly.

I already know what to name my sons (if we ever have any, Amiiiinnnn). But I'm not telling. :D.

I too tag...anyone who wants to do this tag. Enjoy.

How to Help Your Kids Be Smarter

As a parent, I'm always on the look out for my kids' best interest. I want to give them the best education, the best food, the best home to live in, the best life possible. So when I came across this article on msn.com titled 9 Ways to Make Your Kids Smarter, I was intrigued.

Make Music
It says that learning music helps engage right-brain learning and also helps get better grades in school and higher IQ in adulthood. I'm so glad I've enrolled Dania for piano classes. More importantly, I glad that the whole thing was her idea. It helps when Dania loves these extra activities, rather than me pushing her and becoming a "kiasu" mom.

Breastfeed
Everybody knows that breast milk is best for babies, up until they're two years old. I was fortunately to be able to breastfeed both my kids; Dania up until 4 months old, Dina up until 10 months old. Breastfeeding not only gave my kids a head start in life but also benefited me by helping me heal faster from the effects of labour.

Foster Fitness
Playing games not only benefits the body but also benefits the brain and self image as it helps cultivate confidence, teamwork and leadership. The girls go to the playground nearly everyday (unless its raining) and since last month, we've been taking them for swimming sessions. They're still too young to show any interest in any organized sports but whatever they participate in, be it badminton or bowling or archery, you'll be sure I'll be there on the sidelines to cheer them on.

Play Video Games
Not violent games like CS or World of Warcraft although it has been proven that professional gamers do have a higher percentage of brain activity than non-gamers. We're talking more along the line of educational games such as the classic Pacman, Leapfrog or games you can find at children-friendly sites like playhousedisneychannel.com or sesame street, which help kids to enhance their motor skills. I hardly let the girls near my laptop because of their grubby hands but maybe when they're a bit older, I give them 30 minutes or so a day playing computer games. Or maybe this would be a good excuse for hubby to buy PS2 (3?).

Junk the Junk Food
Twisties, Ding Dang and the sorts all contain too much salt and sugar and can reduce children's' ability to fight infections. Fortunately this is one area of parenting that both hubby and I agree on; no junk food for our kids. The occasional chocolate, ok. Potato chips and such, no. We help boost the girls' immune system by feeding them fruit and vegetables. Luckily the girls aren't fussy eaters and they loooovvveee vegetables.

Nurture Curiosity
When your kids sometimes ask questions like "why is the sky blue", and "why is grass green" and other questions that drive you crazy, that's good. Appreciate their enthusiasm to seek knowledge and take them to places that would only make them ask more questions like the museum, the aquarium, the zoo and the planetarium. Help them explore new ideas. The girls love it when we take them out, even trips to the supermarket is bound to bring about thousand of questions about the different people and goods found there.

Read!!
This is a no-brainer. However recent studies have shown that Malaysians are not active readers (I beg to differ, though). I remember when I was in school, I was in the school library nearly every day during recess time. I love books and thankfully my hobby has spilled over to the girls. I find our reading time together not only educational but also a great time for family-bonding.

Breakfast Breeds Champions
Unfortunately, this is one area I could do better for my kids. I buy cereal and bread but the girls are more likely to drink their milk than have a bowl of Frosties. But they say even a glass of milk is better than nothing as kids that go without breakfast have trouble concentrating and get tired easily (most likely due to hunger pains).

Play Mind Games
Chess, crosswords, cryptograms, riddles—they all train the brain to perform mental gymnastics. The girls love to do puzzles like Find The Hidden Object and Find The Differences between the Two Pictures. I love Sudoku!! Hubby? He plays "mind games" at the office, hehehehe...

So whether your kid was born a natural Einstein or not, there are several ways that we as parents can help boost their intelligence. Question is, do we spend the time and effort?

Our Mother's Day Celebration

We hadn't intended to celebrate Mother's Day. Hubby and I were just looking for an excuse to have a mini-honeymoon together. OK, our actual reason was because hubby had these coupons from this holiday club he had signed up (and paid good money to join) and they were about to expire. Not actually a romantic reason for a quick hotel getaway but whatever. The room was free and the mood was right.


If only we had gotten rid of the two leeches that refused to go back to their Grandma's place after their swimming session.


We checked in to the Holiday Inn on Saturday at around 2pm. After getting our room cards, we ushered the girls to the room for a midday nap. They were already so hyper with the thought of swimming at the pool but it was still hot outside. At the sight of the king sized bed, the girls immediately jumped on it and shouted ARE WE SLEEPING HERE TONIGHT? ARE WE? ARE WE? ALL OF US? ALL OF US?



I looked at hubby, he looked at me, then we both looked at our girls' excited little faces. Sigh, I guess we are ALL sleeping here tonight.


Once the kids had had their nap, we took them to the swimming pool. There was no one else there (only a bunch of Japanese tourist taking pictures by the koi pond) so I also went into the water. Dina was hesitant at first, but hubby was great at easing her fears. Before you could say "fishes in the sea, swim better than me" Dina was laughing and playing and learning how to float. Guess who else learn how to float? Yes, Moi!! I finally got my big butt to float like it was made of whipped cream. I hated the fact that water got into my ears (hubby was rolling his eyes everytime I complained) so next time I'm buying me one of those swimmers cap. Gonna pull them right over my ears, I DO NOT CARE if that makes me look weird. I'll be learning how to swim properly, instead of like a hyperventilating dog, so that would be weird-looking enough.

So after our swim, we headed back to the room to freshen up and go for dinner. The hotel was having a Nasi Kandar buffet special which none of us liked, so instead we headed out to Subang Parade for some Secret Recipe. We gorged on some fish n chips, lasagna and spaghetti meatballs. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.


The next day, the girls were jumping to go to the swimming pool but I told them we had to have breakfast first. Let me tell you, the breakfast buffet at the Holiday Inn was superb. They had EVERYTHING, from pancakes, to all types of cereals, from nasi lemak to dim sum. We stuffed ourselves so much I was afraid none of us would float in the water later on. As a result, I didn't go into the water this time; another reason being I HAD ONLY BROUGHT ONE PAIR OF BRA!!! What woman in their right mind would forget to bring an extra pair of bra? I guess I was thinking I wouldn't be need any bras for this so-called mini-honeymoon (*wink, wink*) so joke's on me!!



(To my brothers who might be reading this, do not fret. I wear my bra everytime I'm at mom and dad's place. So stop freaking out!)


After the swim, we freshen up and checked out from the hotel. We were all still full from breakfast so instead hubby took us to have some roadside cendol in Subang. We then headed back to my parents' place for an afternoon nap.


So that's what we did for Mother's Day. It wasn't much but it was family-bonding time so as a mother, I say that's all that matters.

Happy Birthday to Me - The Big 3-1

I'm 31 years old today. 31. One year after the big 3-0.

Not much has changed since last year. Still at the same company, doing the same thing. Still staying in the same house. Still driving the same car. Still a mother to two daughters. Still married to the same man.

I wish I could report more positive changes in my life. One year, 365 days and I can't think of one single thing that I did that I'm really proud of.

I still have lots to be grateful for. I'm grateful for:

1. My family - my hubby and my two beautiful daughters. My parents who I get to see every weekend. My brothers who have grown up to be wonderful uncles to my kids. My in-laws who have accepted me for all my flaws and faults.

2. My job - as much as I like to bitch and moan about it, my work has given me a lot of opportunities to travel and meet such interesting people. I've made friends (and enemies?) throughout my 7 years in the work force and I count myself lucky to have them. Plus, having money (though not always enough) at the end of the month is always nice!!

3. My health - After being sick and bedridden for 2 months, there is nothing I would take for granted ever again. The fact I can EAT without throwing up! I can WALK without feeling dizzy! I can hold and hug my kids without being nauseous by the smell of their shampoo. I can hug hubby at night without being offended by his BO!! Hahahaha, just simple things I would usually take for granted. Thank you, thank you, thank you Allah for giving me health to enjoy these things.

4. My car - It's a Wira. It's 7 years old. It still runs great and though it's not as nice looking as before, it does its job of taking me from point A to point B in one piece. As much as I would love to have a new car, it would still break my heart to let go of my Wira. My very first BIG purchase. WHR ****, I love you!!

There are many things I would like to improve, now that I am older.

1. My relationship with hubby - Even though we've known together for more than 13 years (since 1994), there are still a lot of things about hubby that continue to surprise me. We've had fights that would rival WWWII but each time we've made up and vowed to be better spouses to each other. Our previous loss helped bring us closer together, made us see that whatever life would throw at us, we could always get through them by supporting each other. I hope to be a better, if not the best wife I could possibly be.

2. My relationship with my kids - As a full-time working mom, my deepest concern is that I don't spend enough time with my kids. Even when I get home in the evening, the only thing I wanna do is lay down and watch America's Next Top Model or CSI or Law & Order. Now, I vow not to turn on the TV until my kids are asleep. I wanna spend more time with them, more quality time with them. I realise they'll only be kids for a short time. I want them to know, that without a doubt, that they are the most important things in my life.

3. My health - I'm not looking to enter any marathons but I do want to start working out again. I want to be able to climb the stairs at home without having to catch a breath. I want to be able to play hide-and-seek with the kids without surrendering 10 minutes into the game. I want to be able to be there for my family, to be there when my kids are all frown up and have kids of their own.

4. My career - I don't want to be stuck in a rut. I want to be able to wake up and be excited about going to work. I want to feel that I'm making a contribution to the company I'm with. If hubby would let me quit (Hi, hubby..love you!) I would like to kick off my Wedding Planner business.

5. My overall attitude towards life - I want to spend more days smiling and laughing than bitching and moaning. I want to have more happy days than sad. I want to be able to take challenges in life by the horns and be able to look back a year from now and say "My life is so much better than it was a year ago".

So here's to me and my so-called birthday wishes. Cheers!!!

Emotions

It still hits me hard. That feeling...that emptiness. I see pregnant woman and I want to be them. I see babies and I want to hold them but I fear that if I do, I'll start crying.

I thought I had grieved enough. Maybe I was wrong.

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Happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there. I had a blast, mini-honeymoon with hubby (and the two girls in tow) at Holiday Inn for the weekend. Story and pictures coming soon.

How was your Mother's Day?

Jail Bird

News of Paris Hilton being sentenced to jail for driving while having a suspended license has dominated the entertainment headline news this past week. Her claims of how "it's so cruel" and "all the policemen want to ask me out and f*#k me" is driving me nuts.

For one thing, Paris is the poster girl for the destruction of the youths nowadays. This girl (and I use the term loosely) contributes nothing to society. She's filthy rich and has all the means to make a great difference but instead she flashes daddy's credit cards at all the night clubs and high-end boutiques. Instead of helping the poor and the needy, she goes on TV with her on-and-off BFF, Nicole Ritchie, to make fun of the working class and add more publicity to her already over-publicized self.

And since when is it cool to have a sex video?!!?

She claims she's a singer; have you heard her songs? She sings about how "the gods are crazy" and how she wants to be your "devil and angel too". She sings about "how she can do things so much better". She preaches about how she's more beautiful, better (in bed, I presume), the best thing anyone could ever wish for, how guys would die to be with here, etc, etc, etc.

Talk about masuk lif, tekan butang sendiri....pffttt.

She claims she's an actor. Yeah, right. Starring in the hacked up redo of The House of Wax isn't really Oscar quality. Not even MTV quality. Rumor has it audiences cheered when her character got hacked away in the movie; just goes to show how much America really loves their little princess.


She claims she is the "iconic blond of the decade". Goodness. And how dare she compare herself to the late Lady Diana and Marilyn Monroe. The nerve!!!

Everything she's done, she's done with the intention of getting noticed. With her, it's all ME, ME, ME, ME. But when the police noticed her driving offense, she suddenly cried foul. It's not fair, she's being attacked because of who she is, the judge is just out to get celebrities like her.



Yo, woman (again I use the term loosely). You committed an offense. Your license got suspended in the first place because you were driving under the influence. If I were the judge, I wouldn't just give you a 45-day stint in the joint. I'll would also make you do community service, cleaning out bed pans at old folks home, sending out meals-on-wheels for the needy. maybe that would give you a better perspective in life.

Some say Paris's jail stint will only make her more famous. OK, whatever. I just thank God that we still live in a world where money can't buy you everything. Maybe there is still hope for the human race after all.

Added in: Here's a link to a fantastic post about Her Majesty asking for Arnold the Terminator to save her sorry ass. The pictures are divine!!!

Unwelcome

She found me!!! At work!!

And she didn't have the courtesy to admit that she hunted down and called hubby's phone to weasel our home address from him!!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....

Because she lied and because I had work to do, I basically told her to buzz off. Not interested, sorry, nope, don't have 5 minutes, don't have 2 seconds either.

Thank you but no thank you. Callo, sayonara, don't let the door hit your butt on the way out.

And make sure I don't see you again!!

Our Spider-Man 3 Adventure

Last weekend was full of activities. After the kids’ Tumble Tot and piano classes on Friday night, hubby and I shipped them off to my parents’ house for a night of a much overdue date, just the two of us. What better way to spend a romantic evening together than to watch SPIDER-MAN 3!!!

Hahahaha…

Anyway, hubby had already made ticket reservations online using my GSC account to see the midnight show (lagi romantic gitu, kononnya). Seeing how Spidey is so HOT right now, the only place that had available tickets was GSC Klang.

We headed towards Klang at around 10pm. We wanted to get there early to get the best seats. After parking at the Bukit Raja Complex, we headed in and went straight for the cinema ticket booths. We lined up at the counter for pre-reserved tickets.

Once we reached the counter, I handed over my reservation slip.

“Two for Spider-Man 3, yah. Midnight show.”

The lady at the counter took a look at my reservation slip and handed it back to me.

“Kak. This is reservation for GSC. We are TGV!!”

*blink…blink…*

“Oh, not the same ah.”

“No, kak. This is reservation for a different cinema.”

*blink…blink…*

“So, you mean to say, I don’t have any tickets then?”

Apparently the cinema over at Bukit Raja was a TVG chain cinema. Mana le wa tau!! I haven’t been to the cinema on ages!! Plus I’m not at all familiar with the Klang area. Peh!!!

After a few calls to my brother (no help) and my friend who was a native Klangian (thanks, Noresh), we finally found the GSC cinema. The shopping mall where it was situated looked like it had been abandoned. Giller spooky!! We had reserved for midnight tickets but because the 11.00pm show was hardly full, we decided to switch to see the earlier show.

So what do I think about Spider-Man 3?

1. Should not be rated U. The fight scenes between Spidey and the bad guys were extremely violent, in my opinion. A PG-13 rating would have been more appropriate (hubby said Malaysia doesn’t have PG-13 ratings, only PG-18…ye ke?). There were a few kids around Dania’s age, who shielded their faces the entire time the fight scenes were on. That’s like 50% of the movie right there.

2. The bad guys were scary, especially Venom. I was totally spooked by him. Even hubby commented about the fangs, why did he have to have really scary fangs? And his scream? Damn loud and scary!!! Again, IMHO, not suitable for kids, unless you want them to have nightmares.

3. Overall storyline had big holes in them, big enough to fit a NY subway. Character development for Venom and Sandman took 5 minutes the most.

4. Peter Parker with a bad streak? Hahahaha, dunno if it’s just me, but I kind of liked him like that. He needs a better “badboy” hair-do though but he was more entertaining. You can see Toby McGuire had a blast playing that character.

Overall, I would give it 7 stars out of 10. Not exactly a movie I would pay to see again but it had its entertaining points.

Ramblings for Today..

I can't believe my long stay at home is coming to an end. 2 months is a long time but somehow, now that it's nearly over, I know I'm going to miss being at home with the kids.

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Last week I had my follow up check-up with my gynea. Fortunately, everything was ok, in fact she was amazed at how fast my body had returned to normal. She asked me if I had any plans for family planning. I told her I was considering using an IUD, as after my previous years.

"You plan to take a 3-year holiday?", she asked me.

"Well, maybe not 3 years. Maybe just a year or two."

"Why not just 3 months. Physically, you're ok, since the baby was still small. Having another baby might help you get over your remorse sooner."

I just smiled and told her that I would have to discuss this with hubby first. When I told hubby what my gynea had said, he just sighed.

"Maybe not as soon as 3 months. Maybe next year."

Part of me wants to be pregnant again. I look at other pregnant women and I envy them. However, part of me is still freaked out by the past 2 months experience. Another part of me is worried about how my work would suffer if I got pregnant again. For sure, muntah2 lagi. Hmmm....

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Yesterday, we took the kids to 1U for dinner. Even though I was still suppose to be in confienment, I was bored out of my mind. So I put on my bengkung, ikat kuat2, and we headed off a little after 6pm.

The kids were excited because it had been a while since we had taken them both out anywhere. Fortunately parking was easy to find and we spent the next few hours just window shopping. There wasn't much sale going on. Hubby wanted to eat at Itallianos (sp?) so we all sat down and had the most delicious pizza ever. Even the kids ate more than their normal share.

It was just 4 hours of the 4 of us together but it was enough to make me content.

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My maid was suppose to go back home for a holiday this August but she changed her mind when she called home and her mom told her to come back for good. As a result, she told her mom that she wouldn't be coming home this August or for Raya but only next year when her contract expires in July. Part of me is happy that she's staying on for another year but I wish she could stay on longer. She does her work ok and she's great with the girls. Hopefully she'll be able to talk her mom into letting her stay longer.