Today is 31st of December, 2008. Last day of the year. And I am online doing some work. Hhmmm... I better take some time to think of things to do before the New Year 2009 comes. Anyways... I only have a few hours left. So the best thing to do is finish up my reflections which I have started already. And probably look for a cheap auto insurance for our car. Nowadays, with internet and services available 24/7, everything is possible. Another thing I can do within the few hours left is to call home and greet my parents and siblings. I am away from home now so it's impossible to do spring cleaning. Oooppsss... I almost forgot... I have done it just before we left for our holiday break. So it's done.

Wish you all a Happy New Year 2009. Hope everyone will have a blessed and bountiful New Year... from my family to yours!

"Mommy, I don't like letters." That's coming from my boy one day. So I asked him what he liked. "I Like numbers, Mommy." Uh-oh... is he going to be like his mommy? I thought he wanted to be a doctor and he's quite firm about being one. He started telling me and his daddy he wanted to be doctore since he was 2.5 years old. Now he's already 4 years old and he still wants to be doctor. But now... he's telling me he likes numbers! It's actually good too if he wants to be an engineer. So much opportunities await ahead, too, if you're an engineer. But to study it is a bit complicating... with lots of problem solving involved... all the numbers, all the symbols, linear equations, algebras, linear motion, and all the laws you can think of. It's quite fun, actually... but it's nosebleeding as well. If I could go back and be able to choose wisely, I wouldn't have taken civil engineering. I'd probably take Psychology. Oh well...

I so wanted to buy the portable DVD player for our trip. I went to shop around for it but realized it's too expensive. So probably I'll buy it next time. Hubby doesn't wanna take our notebook for our trip... for safety reasons. Our movie nights will be on hold then. Or maybe go to the cinema and watch movie there instead. Hehehe. Anyways... we will continue having ovie nights when we get back home... I wonder how much it costs to have tv lifts. It sure would make our movie nights more comfortable... as you can place your TV in different locations... even at the foot of your bed. Well, for now, it's me and hubby without kids and movies. And I am enjoying every minute of it. Not that I am enjoying my time without kids. I am missing them so badly... but this is the only chance Peter and I have after a long long time to travel around without kids.

My boy is so much into cars nowadays. Everytime we drive, he would ask me what's the name of each car he sees. He knows very well the Ford and Volvo cars. He also knows Kancil car. I think now he likes Kancil cars the best, especially the red kancil. He said it's his favorite car. One day, when we were driving, he told me that when he grows up and becomes a doctor, he would buy a red Kancil car for himself. LOL. His daddy said he's just like his daddy. He was dreaming to buy a cheap and small car when he was young! Hehehe. Anyways, local cars are cheap. Petrol price and car insurance rates are also cheap for local cars. It makes sense to have local cars actually. It's easy to get the spare parts when needed. So my boy is making a right decision to have a local car when he grows up... for now. Hehehe. Boys will be boys, indeed huh?

It's Yummy Sunday time. I am excited to see a variety of dishes again this week. I know people would be preparing a lot of food... so I'm expecting lots of food photo showcase. *drool*

My entry taken (last month) when we had breakfast at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf coffee shop. We were on our way to Alor Setar and hubby and I had breakfast just before boarding our flight.

Brek-o-day (with tea) - hubby's order.

mine was like this which I forgot the name already. of course, I regretted I ordered this. I preferred hubby's one more.

with free brewed coffee. Of course, I had it with fresh milk and sugar

A couple of nights ago, I decided I'd start talking my language to my kids. It was just a spur of the moment decision because we were having fun on the bed with the Christmas story I was reading to them. Then I stopped reading and told Schenker "Tama na. Matulog ka na" (it's enough. you go sleep now). Suddenly he giggled. I turned to my girl and said the same thing. She giggled. Then my boy asked me: "Mommy, why are you talking in such a silly way?" LOL. I didn't know that my language could sound funny to the kids. The rest of the waking night the kids were just laughing.

Last night, my boy asked me again if I could talk Tagalog. I talked Tagalog and again, he was giggling to the max. Then he asked me to sing Tagalog song also. And you know what I sang? Our Philippine National Anthem, Bayang Magiliw. LOL. Lupang Hinirang, I know, I know. I was just kidding. So I sang the song... with my not-so-good voice. After I sang the song, the boy exclaimed: "Mommy, that's a very nice song!" Hehehe. What can I say? The Philippine song is just sweet to the ears. I am glad he likes the song. Now I know what Tagalog song to teach him.

I was actually searching for the song Lupang Hinirang in Youtube and I saw charice pempengco's rendition. It was awesome. I also saw Regine Velasquez' rendition of the Philippine national anthem and she really sang it beautifully. She has that soothing voice. But the best video of all that I've seen was that of Sarah Geronimo's. She just sang with passion and pride. I loved that.

What values do we wanna teach our kids? There are acceptable values and not so acceptable ones, I know. Coming from a cross-cultural marriage in a multi-cultural society, teaching which values is quite complicated and confusing. You know... some values can be accepted in the society where I came from... but not acceptable in a society where I live with now.

I have a lot of instances that make me stand on my own values and teach my kids about it. An example, I called my son's name one day. He answered me back and simply said Ho? (that Ho which was coming from the nose). I quickly told him not to answer me like that again. You know what he said... but so-and-so does that too. So I told him... it may be okay for them to say that... but not to me.

There are a lot of values that I find that are very good ones though. Values which I would readily embrace. Not because I forget my own values... but those are good to be kept. In an Indian society, if a daughter-in-law sits in front of her parents-in-law cross-legged, she would be considered disrespectful and acting superior. I did that a lot of times. And when my mother-in-law pointed that one out to me (she's very good in pointing out my mistakes, actually)... I was surprised. I had been doing that for a long time and had been, in their own perception, disrespectful. Once I got that, I became very careful in what I do. It's not because they want me to act like a servant... they just want respect. Is that a good value or bad? Can I embrace it? Sure! I live in their society. I should change some things to fit in.

Some values can really be bad. But I'm not gonna talk about it now. But some values which were not taught in my society can be acceptable to me which can create harmony among my family now. Why would I throw it away?

Some values that are even found in the Bible are not even acceptable in my society... like when men meet other men... Bible would say to kiss each other on the cheek. Do that in the Philippines... or even in Malaysia... or even in Thailand... or even in the USA, in fact... and people would think one is a gay! And that's even a stumbling block for others.

So whatever values we wanna keep and teach our kids... we only know what's good to keep and what's to trash away. That's why we cannot question other people why people do this and why people do that. If they do wrong things... and they know they're wrong, then they're accountable and responsible for it.

Like what I always say... it's within our hearts. God sees the hearts. We may do good values but we judge other people because they don't follow our values... then it's the same story. God is the ultimate judge. So only He can judge. And the good news is... God doesn't judge by what we do... but what's inside our hearts when we do it.

So what values do I want to teach my kids? The values that I know which would please my God.

I saw this pink purse by coach when I was looking for a purse last month. I almost bought it until I saw a Carlo Rino purse. Do you think I should have this too? Anyways... I'm not sure if I can keep up with pink friday though. my pink days (or rather pink years) were over. Since I got pregnant for the first time, I was so into pink, until last year. Now I am back to red. Red has always been my favorite color. But of course I wanna try to join and find entries for this meme. It's quite cute actually. Now I wonder if there's such thing as pink video cards? I would definitely feature it here.

I'd been wanting to buy a fondue set since the first time I had chocolate fondue at Swensen's in Phuket. I tried looking around but it was either too big (fondue fountain) or too pricy. I got this one last week while doing Christmas shopping at Sunway Pyramid. I finally have my own fondue set which is perfect for my family and for my guests for tea or dinner. This is a very healthy alternative for dessert. No need to think so much of weight gain and diet pills. Hehehe. Hope you all had a good weekend.

Please sign your name and your Yummy Sunday url and you may leave a comment too. Thanks for being a part of Yummy Sunday!

Pink Mama just published her first Pink Friday meme and I am joining. Here's my first entry: Samantha's Pink Boots.

This was how she got her boots: Samantha's Pink Boots

(yummy sunday entry for december 7 - post dated)

One of my favorite places to eat is at Nando's in Subang Parade. I usually order the quarter meal which includes a quarter chicken - wing part, mediterranean rice and fresco salad. but last week, I ordered this:

Nando's Espetada

This is usually served in a skewer, hanging with a plate of side dishes below it. Like the image on the right. Had to take it from the web just to show you how they serve it. :D

I and hubby had a chance to watch a movie last week when the kids were away. Well, can you believe we watched a kiddie movie? Oh well, there wasn't any other nice movie available so we opted to watch The Bolt. Other movies were horror movies which were not our type of movies. But what made us decide to watch this movie was it was shown in 3D. It was fun.

Bolt tells the story of a dog who is convinced that his role as a super dog is reality. When he is ripped from his world of fantasy, and action by his own doing. His own obsession with his owner and keeping her protected from the green eyed man of the television show he works on completely absorbs his life. This takes him to the point of no return when he believes that she has been kidnapped, and he accidentally gets packaged and shipped to New York city in pursuit of his owner. This is when the story unfolds, and he goes through a transitional period where he learns that he is as super as every other dog. His disbelief of his abilities being non existent fuels a lot of different emotional changes, and eventually comes to a reality of who he really is. This all culminates when he finds his owner and reunites with her in the action packed climax of the movie.

There are a lot of themes you could draw out of Bolt. But as I watched it, Bolt reminded me of a Homeschooled fellow. I have seen a lot of homeschooled kids/people and my impression with them is like they live in their own world... and when exposed to a real world, they couldn't relate. They don't know how to relate to other people. They're mostly overly protected... and when they're out there, the believe they are better than the rest of us. When in reality, they're just one of us. They don't even care you exist and they wait for their parents to tell them what to do. This goes especially to those who don't have a social life, I think. Kids that were not exposed to other kids their age, or just other kids in general. Probably, this is not true to others... but I have seen a lot of homeschooled kids and they all act the same way. The reason why I observe them is because since getting pregnant with my first, we were already considering some options of where to send the baby (when he grows up) to school. So for 4 or maybe 5 years now, we've been observing homeschooled kids. This was just one of the reasons why we decided to send our boy to a real school. Anyways, I have yet to come across homeschooled kids that know how to relate to other people.

Like Bolt, there is hope though. And parents need to be very resourceful so the children can get enough exposure. Otherwise, all homeschooled kids would be like Bolt when he was inside the set of the Hollywood TV sries.

Something's wrong with Mr. Linky. If you open this blog and it asks you for password, just click cancel a few times. Sorry for the inconvenience. :(

(the entry for November 30)

Last Thursday was my girl's 2nd birthday. We went to KLCC to visit Petrosains Center. Before going there, we had lunch at Chili's. I ordered Double Chicken Taco. This was how they served the taco.

About Yummy Sunday

A Christmas Story & A Christmas Bear

Come and meet the BIGGEST Christmas Bear ever! And enjoy a heartwarming Christmas story, complete with fun arts & craft. The children will also have the chance to take photograph with this very special bear.

EVENT AT MPH SUBANG PARADE for Children

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Date/Time For Children 7 (Sun) 2.00 – 3.00 pm Kidzone A Christmas Story & A Christmas Bear Come and meet the BIGGEST Christmas Bear ever! And enjoy a heartwarming Christmas story, complete with fun arts & craft. The children will also have the chance to take photograph with this very special bear.

There more more events coming up at MPH One Utama and MPH Midvalley Megamall. I hope to be able to go with the kids for some exciting arts and crafts activities. It would be fun.

I love facebook. It's fun. Everytime I am online, I always open my facebook to see updates from friends. It is such a cool social networking site where you can get reconnected with old friends, stay in touch with recent friends and meet new friends. The only thing is that... I'm not really interested with what's going on with others if I don't know them personally. But new people add you up... it's fine... it's just that sometimes, you're more interested in what's going on with the friends that you know already. Anyways... it is funny because one of my friends just caught a rat from her rat trap... and she was kind of freaking out... so other friends commented about their rat traps, spider traps, and whatever traps you could name of. Why am I saying this? Because it's just an itsy bitsy tiny thing and the whole world knows about it. Facebook is fun.

If you can remember how I blogged my hubby's (and my) laptop... His IBM notebook crashed. The computer guy said there's problem with the motherboard and if he fixed it, we might as well buy a new one coz it was very expensive. Since then my hubby has been using friend's notebook. But last month, somebody told us they were gonna give him a new notebook. So last Saturday, we went to see that friend because the notebook was ready. It's a very impressive IBM (Lenovo) thinkpad T60 R series. You just swipe your finger to turn it on... which means no need to type your password... and which means you cannot use it without my fingerprint. It's fun.

Our friends has been in computer business for awhile now. And they get all the latest gadgets one can find. They have really been blessed because of their generosity... in which, also, makes us, the receivers, very blessed. We are really blessed by them. Early this year, they gave us the Sony Cyber-shot digital camera also... which I use nowadays to take photos for my blogs. And now, the IBM lenovo R series. It's quite sleek and leightweight. Oh... I sooo love it! Thank God for using these friends' lives to bless us with such cool notebook. I also wonder if these friends ever have POS systems for their business. They need it so badly for their customers. Anyways... I am just grateful for the early Christmas gift. It's awesome. God is awesome.

{Yummy Sunday #2 for November 23, 2008. Post-dated to keep it to the top for this week. Please scroll down for newer posts. Thank you!}

Sizzling Mushroom Yee Mee with Chicken

Please sign your name and yummy sunday url here in Mr Linky's and enjoy visiting other entries as well.

I got this forwarded message from a friend. Actually it's a lie. My husband got it from a friend , Elizabeth, who blogs at the hinge, and I stole it from him. LOL. I laughed so much when I saw this image. hehehe. I so can relate to this. Sometimes, I feel I spend too much time on the internet I miss having a real life. I hope you will enjoy this one.Now i am logging off to get a life. I mean sleep and dream on sleeping on a sleep number bed. tomorrow I have to wake up early. Will send the kids to their grannies' place. yehey. i and hubby are going to have a date.

So.. when does the season of Advent begin?

The season of Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, and for nearly a month Christians await the coming of Christ in a spirit of expectation, singing hymns of longing. Then, on December 25, Christmas Day itself ushers in twelve days of celebration, ending only on January 6 with the feast of the Epiphany. Exhortations to follow this calendar rather than the secular one have become routine at this time of year. But often the focus falls on giving Advent its due, with the Twelve Days of Christmas relegated to the words of a cryptic traditional carol. Most people are simply too tired after Christmas Day to do much celebrating.

So on the 25th Day of December starts the first day of Christmas. Not on the 1st of December. I got a bit confused with the dates as to when and how last year. Putting up the advent calendar on the 1st day of December was right after all. So 4 days more to go and our Advent Calendar and Christmas tree will be up.

Just for fun, I took the quiz: what Christmas Ornament are you? Here's my result:

You Are an Angel

A truly giving soul, you understand the spirit of Christmas.

What Christmas Ornament Are You?