"No, no. no, no, no"

"No, no, no, no, no", that's Ivan's favourite verse these days. Trust me, it's contagious. It got me, Dar and my ILs to start "No, no, no, no, no" too :P

Our lil monster is turning 3 soon & he is already 2/3 of my height now!! (Coz I am "not tall", that is :P).

It's been a busy weekend, running around. On Sat, sent my car to claim the warranty for the tinted film (rear screen). Wasted 2-3 hours waiting there, long queue, should have left the car there, thought it would be fast coz only the rear screen. At night, went to D19ital Mall, USJ19 - nothing much, so empty, lots of vacant shops/lots.

Sun, went to Digital Mall, s14, finally bought a digital photo frame that Dar has been eyeing for quite some time (since last year!) coz it was on offer.

Mon, babysit an additional lil monster as his mommy had to work (only Selangor had holiday). They were busy Thomas-ing and Playdoh-ing --- lobster, starfish, octopus, clown fish (of coz I was the one PlayDoh-ing most of the time).

There goes another long weekend..... spending time with my lil' monster!

Online Clothes shopping - rk-fashion.com

After 5-7 days of waiting, finally our goods ordered from www.rk-fashion.com arrived! We have been warned that the quality of the clothes might not be as per the photos shown on the site but we were hoping for the best when we proceeded with our first order.

Sigh, out of the 9 pieces that were delivered (we ordered 10 pcs per the minimum, but 1 was out of stock - Thank God!), only 4 pieces turned out okay, still acceptable (2nd and 3rd photos above). The 2 pieces that LL & myself both ordered (same design - 1 sided sleeve above), supposed to be maroon but turned out to be bright pink - the colour is still acceptable but the top seemed to have too much cloth, however, the good thing is it created a fuller bust (for me, not sure about LL, she gotta try to see if it is too lose for her).

The other 2 pieces ordered by my colleagues Mich & Becky were a disappointment, the colour not only turned out very different, the quality of the material was also poor (refer first photo on the left above, supposed to be a lighter beige).

The worst one gotta be the black and white item on the bottom left above. The T-shirt material was "like those RM5 White Langkawi T-shirt", it was not even cotton!! I felt like wearing a maid's costume when trying on it :P but i guess even maid's costume looked better (maid's costume is cotton and with apron n all). Sorry hm, wrong choice. It looked so good in the photo, we were fooled! Thank goodness the dark blue tiered dress with white ribbon was nice (2nd one on top row), the cutting was also nice, esp the bust part, gave the illusion of bigger bust with some pleats.

Although it's cheaper buying from www.rk-fashion.com we will not be buying for the 2nd time. Once bitten twice shy. Guess I will stick to www.irenelim.com/fashion and also www.spfashion.net based on past experience, the quality of the clothes are as per the photos shown on their sites and best of prompt delivery - delivery on the next day upon payment!

The only cons about www.irenelim.com/fashion is that the clothes were sold like hot cakes, very often it's either out of stock or out of size by the time i log in and view at night. Superb service though, very prompt response on queries and orders. Good job Irene!

As for June of www.spfashion.net, her service is also quite prompt and good. But her restocking is not so frequent - the last restock was Apr 09. The good thing is that we get additional discounts during stock clearance now.

For now, I might turn back to physical shopping (going to the shop, try on, swipe my card) or if I don't have the time for that, will stick to www.irenelim.com/fashion and http://www.spfashion.net/ for online clothes shopping.

Our "Acquisitions" in SG

As promised, here u go... we managed to do some "acquisitions" (shopping) and these are the goods acquired - jeans for us, T-shirts for Ivan, couple T-shirts for us. Too bad they don't have the smiley tees for kids, else can wear Smiley T-shirt as a family.

Wedding at SG!

One fine Sunday, sometime in May09, mom received a call, all the way from Australia. To her surprise, it was her nephew, Eugene (her 2nd sister's youngest son) on the other line. Eugene has called my mom to extend his wedding invitation to our family as well as the rest of the relatives in Kuantan for his wedding in Singapore in July09 (he will be back in Singapore by then).

Mom thought that he called to inform of Joel's (his 2nd brother) wedding. He told mom that he met his wife-to-be only over a year and mom's response was "over a year is good enough". So, mom was "assigned" to inform the rests of her siblings and to get confirmation on their attendance. Eugene told he would call again for the confirmation of attendance in 2 weeks' time.

To cut things short, to everyone's surprise, there were 17 (plus 2 kids) of us who confirmed our attendance. Before confirming, we did some research on the mode of transportation - bus? fly? drive? We have decided to fly there instead (via Air Asia of course). So we bought our tickets and confirmed our attendance right before Eugene's 2nd call to mom.

The wedding started off on Saturday, 19 July 2009 with the "Getting the Bride" thingy. But for us, our program started at 11am (thank God, more time to rest), with the bride and groom (Eugene and Eileen) coming over to our resort apartment for tea ceremony. For this, sis, myself and "Yi Ma" was assigned the "Tea Lady", though sis and I were only helpers/assistants, rinsing the cups and pouring the red date tea into the tea cups. We had to be careful with the tea set - teapot and the cups as we were told that it was a 50 year old set (loaned from Eugene's "Ku Ma"). Thereafter, lunch was catered for at about 12pm.

Next itineray, church wedding was scheduled to start at 3pm and we had to leave the apartment by 2pm. During this short break, Vincent, myself and Loong quickly walked to Downtown East to do some quick shopping. Walked around Downtown East and E-Hub, there was only 1 store that we could shop for some clothes - Giordano. The Great Singapore Sale (GSS) was still on, we browsed through, after converting from SGD to MYR, the price of the clothes were still cheaper in SG than in MY. (Refer to next post for details of our quick shopping).

Ting, ting... it's already 2pm and sis had called Loong's handphone asking when we would be back as we need to leave for the the church wedding soon. We quickly paid up and walked back and got ready.

Then, ting, ting.. again, we were at the Church of St. Theresa and the time was 3.15pm. Eugene and Eileen walked thru the aisle, side by side, holding each other's arms.. (Eileen's dad did not walk her in and hand her over to Eugene as they had earlier went thru the "Get the Bride" thingy, Chinese traditional style). They declared their marriage vows, some singings, scripture readings.. ta-daaa.. and it ended about 4.30pm. By the time we reach the apartment, we had to bathe, get ready for the dinner.

Wedding dinner was scheduled at 7.30pm (7pm cocktail) at Grand Ballroom, Hilton Hotel. Dinner was served at 8.15pm, last dish served at almost 11pm (if we were in KL, we might not have stayed until the last dish is served, we would just leave , especially if the dinner is on a Sunday!). During the dinner, Eugene played his clarinet, then Eugene and Eileen gave their speeches. "I've never won any lotteries or lucky draws" said Eileen (I guess what she meant was that having Eugene as her hubby was a lottery strike for her, indeed :P), " It's unfortunate that I never get to meet Eugene's mom, I knew I would like her very much as Eugene is always telling me how much he is, like his mom" Eileen added. This really put tears in my eyes. Yea, "Singapore Yi Ma" (as we used to call her) would definitely love to be witnessing her youngest son's wedding, I bet she was, only that she was witnessing it from Heaven. I thought to myself, thank goodness I am already married and mom and dad were there to witness it. Hope that Loong won't take so much of a time so that he would not need to give the same speech that Eileen gave.
Finally, dinner ended. We were greeted by Eugene and Eileen as we were walking out. Eugene said, " Thanks for coming, seeing you all reminded me of my mom." Hearing this, tears started rolling from sis' eyes while she tried to hold back on them. I guess all of us missed her too.

So, that's it. Another cousin got hitched, another new addition to the already quite big and extended family (more additions when they have their kids).

------ THE END ------- (Ivan's favourite way of ending a story :P )

Losing the KGs

Losing the KGs had never been easy. Started at 53's mid May09, today am already at 48's.

It was tough, especially the Dieting part.

Still got few KGs to go before target achievement. There would be no "Mission completion" as maintenance is essential in order to keep on looking good and feeling good.

Gambatte to healthier, prettier and most importantly "lighter" life!!

Counting down .. 53.5 ... 50.5 ... 49.8 ... 49.2 ... 48.7 ... 47 .. 46 ... 45 ........ will it ever hit 43 or mayb 42??

Yes, if we work hard enough, put in more efforts, everything is possible.

Together, say "cheese"!

It's been a while since we last took a photo together. Have to improve on our 'self-shoot' skills in order to get our photos snapped these days (until we trained our lil monster to be our photographer).

Well, here you go, a photo of us, "self-shot" by me (not bad huh, at least both of us fit in the frame nicely!).

Photo taken while waiting for our medical reports last 2 Saturdays. Gosh, we had to wake up n reach there at 8am. Imagine, waking up so early on a Saturday! The first thing we did when we got home after that was to head to our bed and dozed off!

Happy Father's Day!!

This was what Ivan brought back for Daddy for Father's Day!! Hahaha, think the teachers did not put much effort in this though (potrait of daddy but er.. with no.. er.. hands and legs? Ivan supposed to draw that? hehehe.. ).

Hubby was a bit disappointed (maybe he expected something nicer since this is the 1st time he'll be getting something from Ivan). Nevertheless, this is only the 1st time, I am sure he will bring back something better next time!

Well, we had an early celebration for my dad & a belated one for my mom last weekend when they were here. It was a 4-in-1 celebration though (me & hubbby's birthdays, mother's day, father's day). Went to South Sea, Subang Airport Road for seafood. It was indeed the best and most satisfying dinner I have ever had! Though the bill costs almost a bomb (but reasonable if you are talking about seafood). The place is now nicely renovated, compared to the last time I went there in Jan09. They even have an ambassador now, a HK actress.

Here's something I got from some forwarded sms hubby received last year (it was so meaningful, I'm still keeping this):-

"A dad is earthly representation of GOD, just as mum. Mum carries the baby in her for 10 months. But a dad carries the whole family for lifetime. He is GOD's love in action. He looks with his heart and is the BANK where his children deposit all their worries and hurt. A dad is the CEMENT that keeps his family together and his LOVE lasts a lifetime."

Though father's day seemed to be more quiet compared to mother's day, I would like to say that for a child, a father's love and care is as important as a mother's and I would like to wish all fathers especially my hubby, my dad, FIL, "Happy Father's Day!!"

We have been married for 4 years!!

May 30th, 2009 marked our 4th Wedding Anniversary. We celebrated this together with our birthdays (it was a 3-in-1 celebration). Went to Midvalley, bought this couple T-shirt (comes in nice packaging though), watched Terminator Salvation on Premier Class at GSC Signature, The Gardens, shopped till we dropped...

Hubby's been outstation quite frequent these days & I've been working late. So it was a good catch up for us! Just like good ol' "pak-tor" (dating) days!

Think I forgot to say this personally to him, " Happy Anniversary, dar!" Never too late :P

Happy Birthday to us!

May 29th marked our 29th birthday - yup, me n my hubby both share the same birthday (we were born on the same day - same day, same month & same year!!).

We are officially 29, the final year before we hit our 30's. Gosh, time passed real fast. Kind of scarry to know that we will no longer be in our 20's next year!

When I was 15, I longed to be 18, to leave the house and get my full freedom. Then when I turned 18, I longed to be 21. But when I was 21, I wished time would tick slower as my biological clock was ticking too. But like they always said, once you turn 21, your age seem to catch up with you faster, you can't even pull the "hand-brake"!!

Well, we should look forward and make sure that our lives are lived to the fullest so that if we were to look back, there are no regrets. A year older is a year wiser!

Diet

Started on a Sugar Blockage diet since 18 May 09. It's tough! I've never craved for chocolate and ice-cream this much in my life.

I guess it's true, the more you can't have it, the more you wanna have it. So it's no rice, no flour, no noodle for me for some time.

For the sake of HEALTH & BEAUTY, I MUST achieve my target.. I must get back to my old weight! Gambatte!!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day this year is more meaningful. Ivan just started school last week and he brought back this Mommy chick & Lil chick artwork for me for Mother's Day. Awww.. though I know very well that the teacher must have helped him or could have done it all for him, it was sweet.

I know it's a bit late but I would like to wish a very Happy Mother's Day to all the moms in the world (including myself). We are the greatest, most selfless (this is true when it comes to our kids) living creatures, this especially goes to our mom (and especially my mom, not forgetting my MIL).

We are already starting to wonder what Ivan will be bringing home for Daddy for Father's Day, which is next month.

More SWIM-ming!!

Went back to my hometown, Kuantan & there the boys - Ivan and his cousins Ian & Isaac had lots of fun in the pool.

SWIM-ming!!

Brought Ivan for swimming session 2 weeks ago, with Ian at BK5, sis' place. The moment he saw the colourful balls in the pool, he almost jumped into the pool! Excited as he was, I had to quickly change him into his swimwear. When it's time to come out from the pool, he was a bit reluctant. He must have enjoyed playing in the water so much!.

New job, new life

Few days more & it'll mark my 1 month anniversary at my new/current job.

Am still coping with life without MSN, YM, Skype, facebook, hotmail, yahoo mail at work. Luckily am still able to access thestar.com for some news update, if not, I would have died of boredom. But at least, less distractions, better concentration on my work.

Hope to settle down soonest possible but there are so much to learn, so much to do, so much to pick up. I have to keep reminding myself "Higher position, more $$ comes with more work!"

Am keeping my fingers crossed & hope for the best. Hope I can go through the hurdles soon..