The last couple of weeks, and Back-2-School....

Salams, Seasons Greetings, and a Happy New Year to all :)

I've been neglecting this blog of mine for more than 2 weeks. No specific reason really - except maybe, because of my Bibikless status at the moment. It didn't help at all that the new Semester just opened on 28th December.

Insya Allah, I will counter-comment on all the comments left on my last posting on my Laundry Woes soon, ya? Please accept my apologies for not responding earlier :)

Anyway, the last 2 weeks had been pretty hectic -

I had taken a week off from work to instead slave away at home.

But, nevertheless, I had managed to meet up with my MT friends a couple of times for karaoke/birthday do, and a Pot Luck Hi-Tea/Dinner/Supper/Sahur. It was great to have been able to see them despite everybody's busy schedule.

We, as a family had also managed to squeeze in 3 movies - Avatar (3D!), Alvin & The Chipmunks 2, and Sherlock Holmes in the last couple of weeks.

And, not forgetting - I had the chance to join the Makcik Bloggers' gathering at Dave's Deli One-Utama on New Year's Eve. It was really good to see some of my dear Makcik Blogger friends again - Kak Ezza, Zai, Ibu, Kay, Yani and of course to finally meet Naz, Kak Teh, Datin Mamasita, Kak Puteri, Eja, NanaDJ, Hanz, SohoMama and Shahieda. You all can read all about it here :)

The last 2 weeks had, in a way, been a bonding time with the kids as they have been great at helping out at home, especially in taking care of our pet hamsters - Benji and Button, and pet terrapins - Seth and Jasper. Siap gotong-royong 3 beradik bersihkan the cage, etc :)

Hanna finally got a 1-to-1 lesson on how to operate the washing machine, and how to sidai baju properly :). She has been doing the sweeping and the mopping every now and then, and she has also been great with helping out with the dishes. Hasya has been helping to tidy up the living room especially (which seems to need tidying up every 2 hours or so! How?!), and setting the table for our meals. Hilman pulak has chipped in by doing the vacuuming around the house.

God Bless all of them :)

But, of course, the last two weeks have not seen all my laundry woes dissapear. They are still very much there. And they are now collectively known as "Mount Kinabalu". Soon, they are going to graduate to "Mount Kilimanjaro". Hopefully Dar will come back before they transform into "Mount Everest"... Hehehe!

AND, of course, the last two weeks have also seen me busy getting everything and everybody ready for school.

I finally decided that every one of the kids should have 5 pairs of school uniforms, so that I won't have to worry mid-week if tak sempat nak basuh or gosok. Whatever old uniforms they can still use, they'll use, and I just added a few new pairs each so that they'll have enough to last them from Monday to Friday. Heck, I've also made sure everybody has enough undies to last for 3 weeks in the (unlikely) event (of course!), tak sempat nak basuh. HAHAHAHA!

As for school shoes, I thought it would be quite ridiculous to get them 5 pairs each, so I settled for 2 pairs each. (That reminds me - I have yet to teach them to wash their own school shoes!)

As of 11:15p.m just now, ALL 15 pairs of uniforms had been ironed and hung in the kids' closets, all books had been wrapped and put in the respective school bags, and all stationeries had been put in their pencil cases.

And as of 11:30p.m just now, all three kids had gone to bed (and I hope are already asleep as I'm typing this!)

All three had their hair cut yesterday. Although I must say that I couldn't really see much difference in Hanna's and Hasya's hair before and after the visit to the salon! Apparently, Hanna needs to have another haircut in March when she'll have more hair for the stylist to work on (?!) And Hasya only had her fringe trimmed. Mind you, these two girls were the ones who had been bugging me to bring them to the salon for a haircut for the last month or so! And yet, when their hair was cut, it was not really cut. You know what I mean? Seriously, I don't really know what I was paying the stylist for.

Hasya's and Hilman's schoolbags are already sitting nicely on the rug besides the front door. Their school shoes are also arranged nicely near the door, siap stuffed with their school socks ;)

We've given all three kids enough school allowance to last them for 6 weeks, insya Allah. Ayah and I have been doing the same thing for the last couple of years - we would give the kids their allowances in advance, and it is up to them to make sure that they spend the money wisely so that it'll last until the last designated day that it should finish. If they decide to spend more than they should on one day, then, they will have to spend less on some of the other days. Failing which, they will be without any allowances until the next top-up day.

Hilman is especially happy that this year he'll be getting RM3 everyday instead of RM2 - same as his Kak Ngah. He said, now he can buy extra Keropok Lekor kat sekolah... Sigh... Sungguh tidak adventurous anak bujang I sorang ni...


As for Hanna, it's RM5/= per day as her school normally ends earliest at 2:30p.m, and it can also be extended until 6:00p.m. Frankly speaking, we don't really know how much is actually okay for the kids to bring to school. We know some of their friends who are given between RM5-RM10 everyday (and I'm talking about Primary school-goers here!)

Anyway, I'm SO excited for the kids!

Hanna will be taking her PMR year this year. And my do'a that she'll do very well in her exams. Ayah and I have decided that her outings with her friends will be VERY limited this year (if there is any at all, that is). And she's only allowed to go on-line and use her HP during weekends.

Hasya is a prefect this year, and she looks so grown-up in her new uniform :) She has shot up tremedously over the school holidays, and I wouldn't be surprised if she'll be taller than me by the end of the year.

Hilman pulak is in morning school for the first time. He kept on asking me not to forget to wake him up tomorrow. His sisters have warned him NOT to wake up late and cause them to be late for school. Mommy pun suspense jugak ni! Anyway, tadi Hilman siap pesan, "Mommy, I want hotdogs, and scrambled eggs for breakfast tomorrow, please..." Hmmmm, let's just hope Mommy can wake up early esok. If not, Cereals and cold milk ajer lah nampak gayanya, darling... :)

So, the kids and their Mommy are all geared up.

JUST BRING IT ON, SCHOOL!!!

(But, please have mercy and take it easy on me... at least until Dar comes back, ya?)

What a Sunday...

How shall I describe it?

It was makan, makan dan makan lagi...AND ketawa, ketawa dan ketawa lagi!!!

In one word - SEROOOONNNNOOOKKKK!!!

The day started off with me driving to Ab*d's place in Vi*la Da*an*ara and reaching there at 9:55a.m. The janji was to reach her place at 9:45a.m, and then we would just car-pool in her car to go to The Pa*il*io*. The MT was to have brunch at The Loaf at 10:30a.m. Biasa lah kan. When it comes to MT gathering or outing, when we fix a time to meet up, we always have to plus (never minus) 1 (or sometimes 2) hours! Hehehe!. Anyway, we left at 10:05a.m, and syukur alhamdulillah the traffic was okay and we reached The Loaf at 10:40a.m. As expected (Hahaha!) we were the first ones there. By 11:25a.m, all the usual suspects were there. Standard lah tu...nearly one hour off the scheduled meet-up time :)

Makan punya makan, sembang punya sembang...we didn't realize that it was already 2:30p.m! We said our bye byes and muah-muaahs and both Ibu and I rushed to Concorde for another get-together at The Melting Pot. This time with our Makcik Bloggers friends. Dup dap...dup dap jugak lah hati (to borrow Ms Hart's description of her perasaan untuk bertemu mata buat pertama kali!) Hehehe!

We reached there just after 3:00p.m, and were greeted by the lady who has made the gathering possible - Mrs Nordin. Already there were Madam Tai Tai, Kak Ezza, Superwomanwannabe, Ms Hart, Zaitgha, Ummi365, The Principal and Busybody. We were later joined by Bella, Kay-Leeda and Tireless Mom. Memula tu memang nervous giler...

I swear memang bergegar Melting Pot semalam! And it was indeed a Melting Pot of blogger friends alright. Everybody just clicked and blended very well with each other. In a way, it was rather strange because even though we had never met before (except for a few who had gone a long way together), it felt like we had known each other for years! Strange...but it was a very, very warm and very, very nice feeling :)

I've known Ibu, MrsNordin, Tireless Mom for the last 28 years. We were at a boarding school together, and The Principal was our junior. But, the last time I saw MrsNordin was about 3 years ago, while I had not seen Tireless Mom since she left ST*, while The Principal - since I left school (and that was a looooooonnng time ago!). As for Ibu, errrrr...tak dapat dielakkan - selalu sangat jumpa whether we like it or not! (HAHAHAHA!!)

As for Superwomanwannabe, the last time we met was probably when my Hanna and her Nadine were about 3-4 years old when we went to visit her and Ja* at her Mom's place in Kemensah (?), when they first came back to Malaysia for good. That was about 10 years ago. She had 2 kids then, if I'm not mistaken. And now, after 3 more kids (for her) and 2 more kids (for me), we met again :) And I've also met Zaitgha a.k.a The Kitchen Goddess, once at a Raya gathering at Kak Ena's arwah Bapak's place last year. Tapi, masa tu I ni pemalu and segan nak mingle mongle coz' saya budak baru berblogging...Hehehe!

As for Madam Tai Tai, Kak Ezza, Ms Hart, Ummi365, Bella, Busybody, and Kay-Leeda, that was the first time we met mata bertentang mata. But semalam we were berpeluk-pelukan macam berjumpa semula lepas 30 tahun tak berjumpa dalam salah satu siri Jejak Kasih... Hahaha!

IT WAS SO SURREAL...

We were chatting away and ketawa bagai tak ingat dunia even after the Hi-tea buffet spread dah tutup. Even Ayah and the kids who came towards the end to fetch (or rather "drag") me home (?!) made a comment - "Fuiyooo...we could hear you guys even from outside!!" Hahaha!

And as for Madam Tai Tai, Hanna made a remark - "Mommy, she looks so posh!" And I agree with her. The birthday girl memang very the posh :)

We HAVE to do this again. SOON.

MrsNordin, Madam Tai Tai, Ummi365, Zaitgha and The Principal presented all the Makcik bloggers with gifts, and I feel so ralat coz' tak sempat to get anything for anybody. So, that is a very good enough reason to meet up again, non? And of course, another reason is to gegarkan ANOTHER place pulak. I don't think The Melting Pot would allow us in again after yesterday. Macam Concorde we all yang punya! HAHAHAHA!

To all the Makcik Bloggers - it was REALLY nice to have finally met all of you yesterday. Thank you, thank you for such a fun-filled afternoon. I dah sakit rahang now ni coz banyak sangat ketawa :)

We parted ways after beberapa rounds of peluk ciums just after 6:00p.m, with everybody already looking forward to the next Makcik Bloggers get together.

And because rasa guilty meninggalkan suami dan anak-anak satu hari, I decided to make up for it by bringing them to Hard Rock for dinner after that :)

So, all fair and square...(But, Mommy still think Mommy had the most fun, okay? :))

Dan sempena dah berjumpa dengan Ms Hart, malam ni I nak masak her famous Ayam Bali. Buleh??! ;)

For more sure heboh reviews, please see MrsNordin, MsHart, Kak Ezza, Superwomanwannabe, Ummi365, Kay and Tireless Mom postings on the get together.

Here are some pics. Enjoy!