Christmas Is Here

Today I spent the day cleaning my living room and I mean CLEANING. You know the kind that you're on your hands and knees wiping the corners of the walls. I'm so tired from cleaning and decorating our Christmas tree and our house. Now my house looks like Christmas just threw up all over my living room. It's green and red so you can't get more Christmas-y then that. I've been toying with the idea of changing the theme of our Christmas tree but I've decided to wait. My son was helping us decorate the tree and I wanted it to be his tree and he can put what he wanted on it and if he broke an ornament then I won't be too angry because they're old. Which he did break a couple of ornaments earlier. I wanted it to be fun and colorful so he'll remember this experience, I think it's more for him than for us. We decided to buy a fake tree last year because it was just less messy and cheaper in the long run and also we didn't have to drag it from some lot and bring it into the house. Now my living room feels clean for the next 5 minutes and I'm sure it'll be upside down again within minutes. We're sort of ready for Christmas, we just have to put Christmas lights on the house, Christmas cards, presents and we're good. Did I say that we're sort of ready... hmm I take that back.

Four day weekend

It's Sunday today. I had a lovely 3 day weekend, because it was relaxing. My cousin came up from San Francisco to spent time with us doing the Thanksgiving holiday. It was really nice catching up with her. We haven't seen much of each other because we get busy in our lives and it's hard to take a minute and see how each other are doing. My cousin is the only family member from Malaysia I have who is living in the U.S. So it was really nice to have her here for Thanksgiving. It's comforting to talk to someone who knows who you really are. You don't have to pretend that your life is perfect and you have everything under control. My husband took care of our son while I went shopping with my cousin yesterday. Anybody who is a mom knows that it's a luxury to shop without your children because you can't concentrate when your child there. I guess while I was out with my cousin, my husband brought our son to the park and a pond near our house. Here's a couple of photos that he took. My husband was going crazy taking pictures with our new camera.

Thanksgiving

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving day always falls on the fourth Thursday of November. It's a big holiday in the United States. It's a day that everybody give thanks to what they have in their life. It's a day of eating turkey with gravy, marshmallow yams, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie. People usually share this feast with family and friends. I think everyone love this holiday because they are with friends and family the whole day and everybody gets to eat as much as they want and watch American football while the food is being cooked.

The day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday. It's the first day people start shopping for Christmas presents. It's just unbelievable how people shop in the U.S. Some stores open at 1 a.m and others 5 or 6 a.m. Some of those people get there really early and stand in line until the store opens. I did it once when I was in college because I had nothing else better to do and wanted to experience it. It was fun but I never did it again because I didn't see any point to it. The sales are o.k but nothing worth waking up early in the morning and standing in the cold. I'll stand in line if they were going to sell a 40 inch flat screen television for $100 USD, which I don't think is going to happen any time soon. Shopping in America is an experience because sometimes you can't believe how cheap things are. My mother was shocked that even cars go on sale. I just found out today a Wal - Mart employee died because he was trampled by people who were standing in line since Thursday. When the police said they had to close the stores the customers were complaining that they have been waiting since Thursday for the store to open. It's just sad when a human life is less important than material stuff.

Anyway, I've posted pictures of what we had for dinner on Thursday night. It was delicious and it was even sweeter because I shared it with friends and family.

Television Addict

Thursday night is must see TV for me. It has my C.S.I. Las Vegas, Grey's Anatomy and there's a couple more shows I try to watch but it's kinda hard to watch it when it's on at the same time. I love watching television. I'm such a T.V. addict it's not even funny. I think it's in the blood because my brother and sister are T.V. addicts too. I would tape all my favorite shows and watch them later in peace. I love crime, sitcom, drama, you name it I like it.

Anyway, right now I'm obsessed with Grey's Anatomy. I find the characters and their relationships fascinating. The plots are so out of this world that the fans live vicariously through the characters on the show. How can one not be curious with nicknames like McDreamy and McSteamy. The drama and romance on the show is totally great and it helps that the actors are easy on the eyes. The music on Grey Anatomy is pretty cool too because it sets the mood of that scene. Right now, I'm loving the story about Dr. Christina Yang and Dr. Hunt. I'm usually annoyed with Katherine Heigl's character Dr. Izzie Stevens, but now I'm curious and I want to know if she's losing her mind and her ex-boyfriend Denny is her guilty conscious or Denny is a ghost that came back to help Izzie go on with her life guilt free. It's a long story but a great one. I know I'm rambling but it is a great series and you really should check it out if you haven't. I hope you love it as much as I.

A Joke

I would like to share with you a little prayer that was e-mailed to me by a friend a long time ago. It's called A Prayer for the Stressed. Keep in mind I was still working.

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I cannot accept,
and the wisdom to hide the bodies of those people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.

And also, help me be careful of the toes I step on today as they may be connected to the ass that I may have to kiss tomorrow.

Help me to always give 100% at work...
12% on Monday
23% on Tuesday
40% on Wednesday
20% on Thursday
5% on Friday

And help me to remember....
When I'm having a really bad day,
and it seems that people are trying to piss me off,
that it takes 42 muscles to frown and only 4 to extend my middle finger and tell them to bite me!

Amen.

Life of a Stay at Home Mom

I can't believe it's Wednesday already. Time flies when you're busy, which is a good thing. I have so many things on my mind that I'm having a hard time keep my thoughts straight while having a conversation with someone. Why is it with women we can't just relax and say to hell with it ? I know I'm generalizing. Today I was thinking of bills, errands and what I have to do on Thursday to get ready for Friday. My brain is driving me crazy. My mom always told me to make a list to organize my thoughts. I try to do that and hope that I don't stay up all night thinking about stuff. Sometimes I like to leave the television on before I sleep so that I can listen to what's on instead of focusing on my thoughts.

I am trying to organize a small party for a friend who is turning 30th, which is no big deal. Then I realized that on Friday I have to come up with a science project to do with preschoolers and also bring snacks for them. I know I can handle all this, it will be fine, so I wonder why I'm stressing myself. Things happen and I need to take care of it. I need to learn to let go and not think it's the end of the world if it doesn't get done. The world will still go on if it's not perfect. Wish me luck that I don't lose my mind between now and Sunday.

Busy Monday

Monday. It's a start to a whole new week. I'm kinda happy because I've figured out what I'm cooking tonight and tomorrow night. I had to figure out what I was going to feed my husband and son in advance because I have a parenting class for his preschool tomorrow evening. Tonight it's pot roast with grilled asparagus and garlic potatoes. My husband will be happy because it's not Asian food..hehehe. Tomorrow it's nasi minyak with rendang. That's a load of my mind. I can't believe I spend $72.00 at the grocery store. Hopefully it'll last us a while.

Anyway, today my son and I went to a field trip with his class. It was kinda fun and cute. We went to the Nimbus Hatchery, it's where California Dept of fish and game spawn and rear salmons and steelheads. In the visitors center there was a room where you can observe how they get the salmon's eggs. I missed how they killed the salmon in order to get the eggs. I think they gas the fish first then hit them on the head and cut them open to get their eggs. I don't think I could stomach seeing that process and I know I didn't want my 3 year old to see that just yet. I don't feel to bad about them killing the fish because after they spawn, the salmon die. I've come to the conclusion that ignorance is bliss. I like the fact that I go to the grocery store to buy my meat that has been cut and cleaned. I wish I could be a vegetarian but I like meat too much to give it up. It was an interesting visit and I think the kids had fun. It was a beautiful day too.

Weekend

The weekend is over. I can't say that we did anything exciting but it was a beautiful weekend. We did errands on Saturday and on Sunday I did some cleaning. I don't know what it is about cleaning. I hate to do it, but I love the feeling when my house is clean. In Malaysia it's very common to have maids in your home but in the States it's kinda pricey to pay someone to come over to clean your house for the day. We use to have housekeepers but I was getting tired of tidying the house before they came to clean. The thing I loved most was when I came home to a clean house. I can't even describe how happy that made me. No dealing with dirty bathroom, mopping or dusting. I had to overlook some stuff because it was not done the way I would like it but at least it was done. I miss those days, but those where the days when I didn't have a child and I was working so we had money. Now I get tired after I clean 2 bathrooms. Hmmm... I was thinking about my wish for super powers. I was thinking I wish I had super powers and enough money so that someone would clean and organize my house. Oops! That's my job, that's why I stopped working so that I could stay home with my son. It's worth it though.

I added some pictures of how beautiful it was today.

Friday

OMG! I can't believe it's Friday already. It's unbelievable how fast this week went by. I was way too tired to blog yesterday. I didn't even get around to the dishes yesterday and today was another full day. I was out of the house from 9:30 am 'till 4:30 pm. I'm so tired that I can't even add people to my blog properly. I keep clicking on things twice. I don't know if I'm coming or going. I can't even think of what to feed my husband and son. I'm thinking tonight is going to be a pizza or mexican food night. My son is so tired that he's still napping. Times like this I wish I was in Malaysia because in Malaysia I would call this masseuse and come over to the house and give me a massage and it's so cheap. It would cost around $20USD for an hour and a half. It's too expensive to have a massage in the States. All I can do to relax is turn on my DVR and watch my Grey's Anatomy and veg. That would be a great Friday night.

In school today we did the cutest little art project. A friend of mine gave me her materials so I could do it with the kids in preschool. It's the cutest turkey ever. I think the parents loved it more then the kids. It wasn't too hard and the best part was that it was not too messy. Gotta love those kind of projects. I've added a photo what the turkey looks like. I also added a picture of our pumpkin we did for Halloween. I thought it was cute.

Christmas Wish List for Moms

Do you ever feel like there's not enough time in the day? I do and I wish I had the energy and motivation to do all the things that need to be done. I can't help but wish I had special powers. I don't need the x-ray vision, shooting web stuff from my wrist or other stuff. I think the special power I would like is to multiply myself so that I can do all the things I need to do at the same time. Also, I don't mind the power to fly so I don't have to deal with traffic and parking. Super strength and speed would be nice because I could do everything fast and efficient. I would also like to be intelligent, talented, beautiful, well groomed, and skinny. I think that's my wish list for Christmas. Lets see if Santa can bring me that for being a good girl this year. I guess I'm just wishful thinking because it's almost 9pm and I have not showered the whole day. I feel gross and disgusting, but there was a lot of things that needed to be done and some of them are still not done yet. I'm just tired. I think I'm going to write to Santa and ask him for a new body. Wish me luck!

Veterans Day

Today's veterans day. It's a day we celebrate the men and women who served and are still serving this country. Even though I'm not a U.S citizen, I still appreciate the sacrifice they have made in order to keep this country safe. We thank you.

Preschool

Today was the first day back to preschool for my son. I know I've mentioned that I work at his preschool but I did not bring him with me because of his jet lag. After 2 weeks, I decided it was time to go back into some kind of routine for him. I dropped him off at 8:30 and was not too sure when I was going to pick him up. I was just going wait and see if he could handle staying there more then an hour. I think class ends at 11 or 11:30. Being the over protective mother that I am, I called an hour later to find out how he was doing and the teacher's aid told me he was doing fine but he did cry a couple of times. I guess it's only natural for the kids to learn the rules and schedule of the class, but when I heard that he cried a couple of times, I decided that I was going to pick him up in half an hour. I know I should have just let him stay the whole time, but I thought one and a half hours on the first day back was pretty good for a 3 year old child. I know he has to learn that the world does not revolve around him, but he doesn't have to learn that right away. He has a lifetime to learn how hard the world can be. Right now, he is a child and I would like him to stay an innocent child as long as he can.

Banana Fritters

Sunday morning, once again my son decided to wake me up at 5 am. I wasn't too sure what I was going to feed him. I realized we had 4 over ripe bananas. I decided to make some banana fritters. I have never made it for my family so I was not too sure if they would like it but since it's over ripe, nobody was going to eat it. My son did not care for it at all, he did try it so I was pleased with that. My husband liked it and I gave some to a friend of mine who I went to the farmers market with today. If you have any over ripe bananas, try the banana fritters. Here's what you do:

1. First mash the bananas.
   
2. Add a little sugar and flour till the mixture is a little doughy
3. Use a spoon to scoop it into hot frying oil.
4. Fry it till it's golden brown or when you think it's cooked.

Give it a try and tell me what you think of it. Hope to hear from you soon.

Friends

I had a nice Saturday. My son and I went to a First 5 Family Day. We got to see our friends that we haven't seen for about a month because of our trip back to Malaysia. It was nice to let the kids run around and have fun. It was also great seeing the moms because that's the only time we get to catch up. We've known each other since our kids were 3 months old. We met at Gymboree and managed to stay friends for the last 3 years. It is getting hard to get together because our kids have their own schedules and some of the moms work. I enjoying meeting up with them because I can be myself and there's no judgment. The house could be upside down and we still won't say anything because we understand it's not easy staying home or working and take care of a child too. It's nice to be among people who understand where you're coming from. They are good friends because they listen and try to help in anyway they can. I'm thankful for having good people in our lives. You need those kind of friends in order to survive this crazy world.

TGIF

Thank God It's Friday! I know I don't have a job so some people might be wondering why I'm happy the weekend is here. The weekend means I don't have to get my son ready for school and rush around like a mad woman and it also my husband is around the house more. I can ask for his help when it comes to the chores and he can entertain our son too. We moms appreciate it's the weekend too.

Married with Child

Do you remember Peggy Bundy from the show Married with Children? It was eons ago, but the characters are very hard to forget. Katey Sagal played Peggy Bundy who was a house wife and sat on the couch watching either talk shows or soaps and eating bonbons. She refuses to clean her house, cook or parent her kids. I don't think she worried about anything. I was thinking about her while I was cooking dinner tonight. I'm always wondering what to cook for my family because I know it had to be something they will eat. I hate throwing away food, it's just wasteful. Everytime I have to throw food away I have the image of the starving African child. Ugh! this guilt thing that came along when my child was born really can gets on my nerves.

Anyway, I'm trying to do my part and save us a couple of bucks by not going out to restaurants. I love food, I hardly say no to food but just thinking of what to eat is such a drag. Feeding a family 3 times a day with your own cooking and not repeating the same dish within 2 weeks is hard. I tried Dream Dinners and it was o.k. Out of 4 dishes, we usually liked 1 or 2 and the rest were... so - so. Right now, my favorite cheat dish is the roastissery chicken. I had to go to Costco today to pick up a couple of items and I discovered that their roast chicken was only $4.99 and it was HUGE! When I saw the it, I thought to myself, "that is one huge chicken," and could not believe it was $4.99. I'm used to prices at Nugget Supermarket where the chicken is half the size and double the price. Remember I'm trying to be responsible and feed my family healthy food. I looked at it, read that the chicken was hormone and steroid free, so I'm thinking.. DINNER and etc. We can have chicken sandwiches, chicken with noodles, add the chicken to fried rice... the possibilities are endless. Well, that helps me cover some of the meal time menus. I don't have to think about what to feed my husband and son until..... Saturday. What a load off my mind.

The other thing that pleased me today was the price of gas. Usually it would cost $50 dollars to fill up my car and today, it only cost me $35. It's the little things that brings joy to our bank account.

Minor Disruption

Today was a full day. I did not go out and vote because I can't, I'm not a citizen so I can't talk about my voting experience. I can talk about working at my son's preschool class. I volunteer once a week at his preschool so I can be there if he needs me. I admit that I am a very protective mother and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Anyway, I thought it was going to be fun and easy. A little playing, reading and feeding them snacks. It was going to be a breeze. Boy, was I wrong to think that! It takes a special kind of person to deal with preschoolers or to be a teacher because you have to be enthusiastic and patient all the time. It's hard with 20 little kids screaming your name and wanting your attention when you have to be excited about it all the time. I feel awkward disciplining another person's child when they've done something wrong. After observing their behavior and language, all I want to do is protect and bubble wrap my child. It saddens me how fast they grow up. I volunteer at my son's school once a week, for 3 and a half hours, and by the end of class, I'm exhausted. I am at awe of them.

Chaos and Dread

It's Monday today and a lot of the people go to the office make calls and go to their important meetings to get the job done. At this moment chaos and dread is how I describe my life. My house and closets are just chaotic. I can't even find the remote control for the T.V. because of the chaos. My son and I recently returned from Malaysia from our annual pilgrimage to visit my family. We've been dealing with jet lag for the whole week. I've been sleeping here and there for a few hours when I can, so I'm still kinda tired and unmotivated. I try to do as much as I can when I'm awake. I still have to unpack our luggage while putting away our summer clothes and
organizing our winter clothes. It doesn't help that my 3 year old son keeps pulling out toys that I put away. I'm on zombie mode right now. Beside picking up ten-thousand-and-one toys, I also have to go through my sons clothes to see what's too small and what he can wear for next summer. I'm waiting to be inspired. While waiting for my inspiration I thought I might blog for today.

The feeling of dread comes in when I think of the work that I have to do. I dread that the holidays are coming. I dread the decorating, the baking, the shopping, the wrapping, the putting away the decorations for next season. Living in the U.S is a lot of work for a Mom. It doesn't matter what race or religion you are, there's always a reason to celebrate something. Malaysia is near the equator so we wear summer clothes all year round. There's no pulling out the winter stuff and putting away the summer stuff. There's no decorating the house with Easter bunnies, 4th of July BBQ, Halloween costumes and carving pumpkins, Thanksgiving feast, Christmas decorating, Christmas baking, Christmas wrapping, Christmas returning, or Christmas cards because we don't celebrate seasons. It's a full time job (and a non-paying one at that) trying to keep up with the holidays in the U.S.. In the midst of the chaos and dread I try to create memories for my son of holidays that people celebrate in this country.

My house is not tidy most of the time. It doesn't always smell like baked cookies. I'm no Martha Stewart. It's foreign to me but I try to fake it and go with the flow.

...I'm still waiting for my inspiration to get my chores done.

Autumn Eats

I love Sunday mornings. I love going to the farmers market and seeing the fresh fruits and vegetables, the beautiful, colorful flowers. It makes me want to cook and live healthy. I love the feel of the cold weather because you know fall is here. After buying a bunch of vegetables and fruits, hoping I'll eat it before it rots in the fridge. I drive home noticing the changing color of the leaves. It hits me again that fall is here. Then I reach home and reality strikes me that I don't really cook well and junk food last longer then fresh food. Tonight after chopping and peeling the beautiful fresh and healthy vegetables that I bought today. My son decided that he didn't want to eat what I cooked, and threw a tantrum because we wanted him to eat what I had prepared. I hate to admit that I never have to force my son to eat junk food. It's sooo much easier to eat crappy food. But for now I'm determine to try and teach my son to eat what the earth can provide for us. Another day of promising myself that I will try to feed my family healthy and fresh food.

Goodbye to my beloved Honda.

Hi!

This is my very first post in the world of blogging. My name is Azlina and I'm from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and now I live in Sacramento, California. Today is a sad day. It's Nov 1st and I just sold a car that I've own for 15 years. An Aunt gave me that car for my 21st birthday. Nice Aunt, huh? It's the first car I owned when I first came to the U.S. My Dad and brother picked that car for me. It was a car that could fit all my college roomates to S.F and back safely. I was the one who had the most reliable car. It was a four door 1991 Honda Accord DX. I wasn't too happy when I saw that car. I told my mom that it looked like a soccer's mom car. It was not a cool car for a college girl to own. It was so sensible. What I really wanted was a Miata. Oh, well. Now, I drive a Passat Wagon. How mom can I get? I never did get my Miata. Anyway, it's the first time I had to sell a car and that car was really good to me. I use to drive it to S.F, Chico, Lake Tahoe and etc. Memories.... the good old days. Good bye my sweet, reliable, metalic blue Honda. Wave to it if you see it on the road.