Just now Cass was commenting on how big my tummy was (again)!
Cass – mummy, your tummy is SO BIG! (and then hits it like a drum!)
Me – yeah, thanks to YOU!
Cass – why me?? YOU are the one who wanted 3 kids. Don’t blame me OK!
See see see… see lar… only 6 but can bite me back with her laser tongue!
Happy Sunday friends! 🙂
No. of times viewed = 295
I tell you ar, this year is really a bad year for me. There are stumbling blocks left right top bottom for me. In everything that I do — from health to wealth to work to my overall mood the whole year long. Hopefully all the bad vibes and jinx will end too when the year 2014 ends.
Since yesterday, I have been unable to log in to this blog again. “Could I be that jinx and could my blog be eaten up by virus again?” I thought to myself. No way can my luck be so rotten right? I refuse to accept my hard luck. Today I tried to fix my blog problem myself. I sat in front of my computer and clicked on every single icon I could see to check if something was blocked or deleted. I emailed my blog host but the support staff could not help me too. What?! Whatever. I rather take matters in my own hands. Then I googled for an answer and then voila, I found a video tutorial on how to log in to my wordpress blog!
So guys, if you have a WordPress blog with your dashboard or Log In section that vanished overnight, fret not. All you have to do is just type /wp-admin after your blog’s URL, like this:
www.nameofyourblog/wp-admin
and then key in your username and password. That’s it. Easy peasy!
I feel a sense of achievement now. So glad that I manage to open the door to my blog again!
No. of times viewed = 176
There… finally the girls have erected the first of three Lego houses! I am so mighty proud of them coz you know why?
This is the reason why…
This Lego with 2,032 pieces is meant for 16-year olds and above but my girls – aged 6, 9 and 10 managed to co-build this! They take turns sitting at the table, spending an hour to two each time per person working on this project. For Cass, I have to teach her some Maths as some of the pieces that look similar measure differently in size. I really have to applaud their patience and I am amazed that Cass can read the Lego legend so well. She is the one who completed the third floor of this house last night! My girls are definitely better than me in the department of patience, critical thinking and three-dimension interpretation!
Here is the backyard of the house…
This Lego project is an excellent way for my girls to kill time during the school holidays. It helps with building their problem-solving, organization and planning skill, teaches them to think in three dimensions and enhances critical thinking.
Now, I sure hope someone from Lego reads this and rewards my girls with some mega Lego sets for them to work on during their next school holiday! 😀
No. of times viewed = 286
This is the girls’ first holiday project…
To construct a row of 4 Lego shop houses!
A friend of the girls’ aunt in Hong Kong gave this to the MIL. And now the MIL has delegated the girls to construct this mega project 😀
Today is the 4th day the girls are hard at work. They take turns constructing the shop houses.
This is the girls’ first project and after 2 days, they completed the first floor.
Chief contractor with the sidekick at work…
This morning, Sherilyn constructed a part of the second floor of the first shop house before she left for the enrichment center. Cass is now taking over. There are 3 floors for each shop house! This is by far the mega-est Lego project for the girls!
I am amazed with the patience that my kick-ass girls have to patiently sit for hours looking at the legend and finding the pieces. I know I have absolutely zilch patience for something like this ha! I see stars looking at the thousands of Lego pieces, especially those button-sized ones! And I feel woozy just looking at the thick booklet of legend. No way can I sit for hours on end hurting my fingers doing this!
Lego is a toy that requires absolute patience, endurance (for harder ones) and some brains to do! I fail in the patience department, miserably!!
I wonder if the girls can complete the entire mega project before they leave for New Zealand in 7 days…
No. of times viewed = 223
Today I bribed Cass!
I told Cass that if she would let me record a video her dancing and singing to Meghan Trainor’s All About That Bass song, I would give her a reward *evil mum* Now she is bugging me to shoot the video so that she can claim her reward!
Coz I think Cass looks too cute when she sings and dances to that song.
But don’t shoot me just yet. My main purpose is not to show off how cute she is when she sings and moves her booties to the song of All About That Bass. I want to record the video for remembrance sake. For her to watch it when she grows up. And for me to watch it many moons down the road and have a good chuckle all by myself when my babies have left the nest.
Would you bribe your child to do something similar to this? Do you think I am teaching her the wrong thing? That by bribing, you can get anything that you want?
No. of times viewed = 335
Christmas is exactly a month away. This year we will not set up the X’mas tree at home as we will not be at home for almost the entire month of December.
To get the Christmassy feel, I decorated my car instead…. with a set of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer car decor kit 😀 It comes with a pair of antlers with a bell on each antler and a big red nose! 😀
Can you see it? Look closer! Rudolf the red nose car is smiling at you!
Last year, we saw this car decor kit at Cold Storage in Singapore. I had wanted to get a set too seeing how cute it was on our Singaporean friend’s car but we forgot all about buying it, haiz..
Anyway, our dear friend gave me a set of pink bunny ears car decor when she came to KL mid of this year. This bunny ears car decor have certainly made heads turn and put a smile on almost every one who sees it. There were even passers-by who stopped short of what they were doing just to snap a picture of my pink bunny car!
So, whatcha think? Cute? My girls love it and so do I! 🙂
This car reindeer kit is available at Cold Storage @ RM29.90 a set. I hope Cold Storage would carry more designs in future.
No. of times viewed = 1123
We were out at Gardens and Mid Valley Megamall today. After lunch of dim sum at Han Room, we went our separate ways. Alycia and Sherilyn wanted to follow daddy coz daddy is a softie and will say yes to almost all their whims and fancies. Grandma and hubs’ aunt went shopping separately. And I wanted to do shopping. Cass was at a crossroad. She could not decide who she wanted to follow. Her heart wanted badly to be with her sisters. She stood there indecisively, shifting her eyes between ‘Team 1’ (comprising daddy and sisters, ha!) and ‘Team Mummy’ and had a hard time deciding. Finally she chose ‘Team Mummy’! So much for watching too much of the Amazing Race with her sisters, haha!
While going down the escalator…
Cass – mummy, do you know why I chose you?
Me – why?
Cass – because that team has so many people already. You are alone, so I am giving you my support to be in your team! I will always support you just like how you have always supported me during my time in the hospitals.
Side track a bit. A few months ago during a pap smear procedure by my gynae, Cass followed me into the procedure room. When the doctor shoved the metal apparatus (whatcha call that?) into my down under, Cass held my hand assuringly and squeezed it just like how I did to hers during each of her procedure at the many hospitals that she went to. She told me that she wanted to support me just like how I have supported her. She also knows that I hate peeling crabs and prawns, so she does this tedious job for me and puts the crab / prawn flesh into my mouth with her hand each time we eat prawns and crabs 🙂
My baby girl tugged a string in my heart again today. She is really ‘tai sek’ (worth loving). And for having her join my ‘team’, I rewarded her with a cup of Boost Juice again! 😀
Cass is my ever willing model as well, helping me model some of the clothes that I sell at my online store.
Happy Sunday everyone! Hope you are all having a great time chilling out with your family and friends.
No. of times viewed = 213
I have been kissed by some bugs that the drama queen brought back from either school or the enrichment centre. She has been having flu (not the full-blown kind that warrants sick leave) for quite some time already and just don’t seem to get better. I am now suspecting that she has sinus.
Anyway, since I have no appetite to eat anything that is oily, I whipped up my kind of health freak meals for myself for breakfast and lunch today.
Here’s my lunch consisting of sprouted alfalfa, avocado, cucumber slices, a boiled free-range chicken egg, baked cashew nuts and macadamia nuts, raw pumpkin seeds, seasoned seaweed and some homemade fried onions that I have in the fridge. The fried onions (non-oily) imparted such an intense flavor to the bowl of raw veggies. Very flavorsome and refreshing indeed!
Breakfast of sugar-free skinny yoghurt, baked cashew nuts, raw pumpkin seeds, ground raw hazelnuts, seasoned seaweed and a drizzle of palm sugar (gula melaka syrup). I know you are about to think how weird the combo is but let me tell you that my bowl of healthy yoghurt gave me so much comfort. Very soothing and cooling on my scratchy throat. This is definitely the food for a lackluster soul!
I hope the girls and I don’t fall sick. We have 2 more weeks before our New Zealand trip. We don’t want to be quarantined upon arrival in NZ, knowing how strict that country is! So from today onwards, there will be strictly no deep fried food and no spicy food 🙂
No. of times viewed = 291
Cass is indeed a lucky girl! A few weeks ago, santarina sent her another set of toy. For the vain pot who has always been pestering me to apply makeup on her face, she finally got her own makeup set! A wooden toy one that is, haha! Cass is so so happy with this toy!
Her Sevi vanity set (designed in Italy) is made from wood and consists of lipstick, nail polish, blusher, eye shadow, comb, mirror and perfume. This is Just an awesome toy for little girls! Even her 9.5-year old second sister likes it! I always think that there is a little child in all of us and sometimes it takes our favorite childhood things to unleash the childishness in us and let our imagination run really wild 😀
Princess Elsa wannabe applying nail polish. Finally she’s got her own bottle of nail polish! 😀
” Squeeze squeeze some perfume on my armpit too!”
“Let me put some colors on my eye lids too!”
” And finally, the pink lipstick and I am all set to go for a ball” Cass always pretends that she is a princess who is going for a ball 🙂
I should have gotten Sherilyn this set of pretend make up years ago. Did you know that she had broken a handful of my lipsticks and eye brow pencils over the past few years? In fact, she broke my eye brow pencil again just a couple of months ago!! She has a very inquisitive mind, a pair of very itchified hands and vanity is the name of her game!
Christmas has definitely come early for Cass and she will be expecting another gift from Applecrumby & Fish soon. Thank you so much santarina!! 🙂
No. of times viewed = 309
Yesterday we went to Mid Valley Megamall for dinner and then brought Cass to shop for her school uniform and school shoes! Yup I know I am a tad early but if I do not shop for the new school stuff now, I am afraid that we won’t have much time. At the start of the school holidays next week, we will be heading back to Ipoh for a few days. A week later, we will be off to New Zealand for several weeks. Once back in KL, I would need to recuperate from my trip ha! On 30th December, Cass is scheduled for an MRI scan at HKL and on 2 Jan 2015, she would have to be in her ‘big kid school’ for orientation and to sit for a LINUS test. Finally on 5 January, Cass will be in Primary 1. I know all these will take place in a flash. Come 5 January 2015, my life will pretty much change too.
Can’t believe my baby girl will be in Primary 1 in just 1.5 month’s time! I still treat her like a cuddly baby and still carry her all the time. I know I will definitely be emotional when I see her donning her school uniform in the classroom.
Yesterday the drama queen went for her very first hip hop dance public performance @ the Setia Alam Eco Park. Check out her video in my other blog.
Happy Sunday peeps!
No. of times viewed = 398
I hope you are just as happy and thrilled as I am that you can finally see white and not red in this blog! Finally…. after 3 days! Though it is only 3 days, it felt like 3 months to me! I was on tenterhooks for the period my blogs were dead, feeling darn anxious on the fate of my 2 ‘babies’. I did not know if I would lose them forever or get back only parts of them and lose parts of them. I was hopeful of getting them back safely in one piece. I prayed fervently and PTL, I got my ‘babies’ back. Yeehaw, Health Freak Mommy is out of the woods finally (singing to the tune of Out Of The Woods by Taylor Swift!) 😀
My blog will now be white since I am now whitelisted by Google. I had to rid the old purple colored theme anyway. According to the 3 ‘doctors’ who treated my domain, the virus stemmed from the blog theme. Words cannot describe how happy I am to have my ‘babies’ back and in one piece, albeit the domain host did some modification and upgrading. Thank you to the 3 fantastic guys at Exabytes who have so kindly helped me recover my blogs by removing the virus, did some procedures on them and then helped me to submit my blogs to Google for verification and whitelisting.
Thank you to all my blog readers who took the trouble and time to send me messages and emails to inform me that my blogs had been infected by virus. Thank you for coming back after all these years to read the crap I write.
Cass is sending a flying kiss as a gesture of appreciation to the 3 guys who helped me resuscitate the blogs and to everyone who likes to read her stories 🙂
No. of times viewed = 321
Hey peeps, Health Freak Mommy is back after being in the pits for 2 days! But she is not 100% out of the woods yet.
My domain host has already cleaned my blogs of virus. So the blogs are safe to visit now. However, my site is still flagged by Google as my host has just only cleaned the site today. We have already notified Google to whitelist the site but this will take several days for Google to review and to whitelist my sites.
When you hop to my blog, you will still see the red Malware notice, as shown below. Click on details and click on ‘Visit this unsafe site’. No doubt it says unsafe, but it is now clear of virus. It seems that the virus stemmed from the blog theme which we have now removed.
SIGH!! This is the umpteenth time since late last year that my blogs have been injected with spam, virus, malware and possibly hacked. I cannot even recall how many times my blogs had been compromised.
Enough of my blogs being hacked. See my kitchen below. It was hacked today! Hacking continues tomorrow. We have to engage a contractor to hack down all the kitchen wall tiles as the tiles are starting to bulge out from the wall, no thanks to the contractor who did a very shoddy renovation job to our unit 6 years ago. Everything done by the contractor had to be redone by us at our own expenses now from the bathrooms and now to the kitchen. If we do not do anything about the tiles now, the tiles will one day collapse onto someone unlucky who is in the kitchen. We definitely do not want that to happen. And I. Hate. Renovations! Our kitchens are in a mess and very, very dusty now.
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So yup, my situation is one of messy now. Blogs are in a mess. House is in a mess. And my mind is in a mass of mess with too many issues to straighten out. My non-stop emails with the domain host (my mind is boggled reading so many IT jargons), messages to customers and suppliers, cleaning up the mess in the house and groping in the dark in the kitchen as the light switches are all yanked out too. But I am certain that this low point is just a passing phase. Life is a roller coaster. I will surely reach the top again 🙂
No. of times viewed = 344
The foodie hubs brought us to Nexus @ Bangsar South to hunt for something new and nice for lunch yesterday. It was our first time at Nexus.
We walked up and down Nexus to see what would excite the man’s taste bud. Finally he settled for Chilli Espresso for some local delights. He scored again for making the right choice. We enjoyed the food at Chilli Espresso very much!
Here’s the interior of Chilli Espresso, decorated with vibrant paintings by an Australian artist.
If you happen to be hungry now, I am sure you will end up with a rumbling tummy craving for some local food by the time you finish reading this post 😛
This is our ‘The Lot’ set. Hubs is a sucker for Western breakfast set.
Sherilyn is not in the picture as she was at her school trip.
Boneless Percik Ayam. Everyone loved the grilled chicken covered with fragrant lemon grass and spicy peanut sauce. Trimmings on the side are papadam chips and acar mango. The sauce is not too spicy and even the girls could stomach the spiciness. It reminds me of the boneless chicken chop that I had recently grilled with the satay sauce from the hubs’ catering kitchen. If you are a reader of my other blogs, you would have read my post on the grilled chicken chop with satay sauce. This boneless percik ayam set could have tasted even better had the rice been cooked with coconut milk. The saving grace for this dish came from the rich sauce on the grilled chicken, which exuded intense flavor to the entire dish. The acar mango was also very refreshing.
Fried kuay teow.
My order of Chicken Jicama Salad, which only costs RM12.50. Love this oriental salad, that comes with a piquant sauce, which is not too heavy. The combo of ripened sweet mango slices with juicy julienned turnip along with crispy puffed tofu is very refreshing. I am definitely going to order this again if we are here again.
The Chicken Jicama Salad is dressed in a sauce that reminded me of our rojak. The salad is composed of shredded sengkuang (turnip), crispy puffed tofu (tofu pok), ripened mango, cucumber, pea sprouts, cherry tomatoes, celery, red salad leaves and pan-fried chicken.
Margherita pizza for the pizza-crazed girls. And why are they so obsessed with pizzas lately? No thanks to Ninja Turtles!
Anyway, the pizza is good, with thin crust and chewy cheese on top. And it is sans ham, pepperoni and bacon – the items banned in the house by the health freak mommy 😀
The last dish that came was the Three-Egg Omelette.
Check out the pulled-cheese from the omelette. The girls love this kind of omelette and it comes with mushrooms and veggies wrapped inside. This was very yummy and wholesome. And ideal for low-carb dieters like the hubs and moi. Well, in fact everyone in the house except for the kids are on a low-carb diet now.
Chilli Espresso is definitely the place to go to if you want delish local and Western meals (with top notch presentation too) without burning a hole in your pocket. Definitely a bang for your bucks place for your meals!
Chilli Espresso
Unit G-6, Ground floor
Nexus @ Bangsar South
No. 7 Jalan Kerinchi
Kuala Lumpur
tel: 03-2242 2632.
No. of times viewed = 1018
My drama queen, also the celebrity chef wannabe fixed me something cool on a wet and cool morning today! When you see posts like this one, you’ll know that only the drama queen will fix me a meal. I can never expect this to come from the older girl but can expect something like this from the littlest one – but made from her blue tac 😀
Chef Sher’s healthy black sesame ‘mousse’ with green tea Oreos and cashew nuts.
Composition of Chef Sher’s healthy black sesame ‘mousse’:
1) Skinny sugar-free yoghurt (we buy Farm Fresh)
2) 1 tablespoon of organic sugar-free black sesame powder (we use Bio Green)
3) Baked cashew nuts (sugar, salt, oil and MSG-free)
4) A few scoops of strawberry flavored Calciyum yoghurt, just to splash a hue of my favorite color to the mousse 🙂
5) Mini green-tea oreos (grandma brought back from Japan)
So whatcha think? Does she deserve a 10/10? I’d say YES to taste, presentation, initiative and choice of ingredients used! It was very yummy and oh so healthy too! 🙂
No. of times viewed = 555
Did I mention before that I have this craze over santan (coconut milk) and everything coconut? I love to eat santan in all forms. I drink it neat, as in how I would drink regular cow’s milk. I love to add santan into our rice. I love it in tong sui (sweet soup) and absolutely love cakes and kuih that have santan in them. Once, I convinced the tong sui seller to sell all her remaining coconut milk to me. She had a jaw-dropping moment when I told her that I drink it neat, just like that! She thought that I was crazy to be gulping down coconut milk, haha! Now she knows me well. She would always invite me to buy all her left-over santan and I will gladly accede.
Last week, I bought 3 packets of fresh coconut milk from my regular veggie and meat seller. I drank half a packet and used the other half to cook rice for the girls. The other 2 packets of coconut milk were deep freezed.
Yesterday, I added a quarter packet of half thawed coconut milk into my red bean tong sui. Half thawed coconut milk tastes very much like coconut sorbet. So imagine having coconut sorbet in your chilled red bean tong sui. Ah, such bliss and gives me an instant surge in serotonin (feel good hormone)!
My mug of chilled red bean sweet soup with ice coconut sorbet. A cup of this goodness can give me the same kick as an O, ha ha ha!
Food For Thought:
Weight Loss
New research has revealed that not eating enough fat can actually make you fat. According to Bruce Fife, N.D. in his article “The Fat that Can Make You Thin,” people who include more healthy fats in their diet, such as the medium-chain triglycerides in coconut milk, eat less than those who don’t get enough fat. While all fats help the body feel full and satiate the brain receptors that control appetite, the fat in coconut milk may increase metabolism and perhaps increase weight loss on a reduced-calorie diet.
Healthy Skin and Hair
Coconut milk is highly nutritious when ingested, and these nutrients may help fortify and condition skin and hair as well. The fatty acids in coconut milk are a natural antiseptic and may help treat dandruff, skin infections, wounds and dry, itchy skin. Furthermore, the high fatty acid content in coconut milk serves as a natural moisturizer for healthy skin and may help repair wrinkles and sagging in aging skin.
No. of times viewed = 433
Swiss roll cake vs chocolate chip walnut cookies. Which one is more of the junkie, in your opinion?
To my soon-to-be 11-year old, she tells me that cake is not categorized as junk food but cookies and biscuits are. Apparently, her teacher told the class that cakes can be brought to the children’s day party tomorrow but for biscuits… preferably not! What??! Aren’t cakes and biscuits almost the same? They are cousins and composed of almost the same ingredients, isn’t it? *scratch head*!!
The class has been told to bring such preferred sustaining food as noodles, spaghetti, fried nuggets, fried chicken, sausages and pizzas. But I ain’t going to wake up at 4am to cook such food nor drive to the school to deliver the food. You can call me lazy but time is just not on my side… for now.
Last night, my 11-year old asked me to buy a box of swiss roll cake for her children day’s party in school to be held tomorrow. When I told her that swiss roll is not suitable as the cream (made from milk) may turn bad, she said never mind, just get her a swiss roll cake as her teacher says cakes are ok! I don’t buy that reasoning ok. This morning, I went ahead and bought her a box of ‘superior’ chocolate chip cookies with walnuts from our favorite bakery. I said ‘superior’ as they are freshly handmade and do not contain preservatives. But the girl went ballistic when I told her just now that I bought cookies and not cakes! She said she ain’t bringing the ‘junkie biscuits’ to school coz her teacher said “cannot bring biscuits!” WTF!? Amusingly, sweets and candies can be brought to the party and she asked me to get a packet of sweets! Is this a joke or what?! LOL!
Anyway, when the girl saw the nicely packaged cookies that certainly do not look like any off the shelf biscuits, she changed her mind and said she is bringing them to school as well! That is the joke of the day for me, from my 11-year old!
The below pix were taken 3 hours ago at our condo when I picked up Alycia. It rained cat’s and dog’s shit, resulting in a mini waterfall from the roof gutters.
We stopped for a moment at the lobby to enjoy the strong wind blowing at our faces, sound of torrential rain water (water is SO precious to us these days!) and chilly weather just now 🙂 I imagined a dam full of water now, thus putting an end to the Klang Valley water woes forever! *wishful thinking*
No. of times viewed = 565
