Wednesday 31 July 2013

last (official) day

 
My last official day in current department, insyaAllah. Although it's comforting being here, it's time for me to step out of the cocoon and venture. Sometimes it gets too comfy, it scares me.

I hope my move will be blessed as blessed as Ramadhan itself. Wish me luck.



Tuesday 23 July 2013

our spelling bee


Came back from work yesterday to a happy face proudly showing off her trophy.
She said Omar won the first place coz she misspelled one word.

To her it's a winning trophy she can put on display :)

To us it's an effort of her getting out from the comfort of cocoon. She's shy and timid. A total different person from the then bubbly, friendly, talkative baby toddler that she was. When she told us she was registering herself for the contest, we absolutely supported her to go ahead. 


And she won.
You go girl!
We still have spaces for more trophies..


Friday 19 July 2013

baju raya kecoh-ness

10 Ramadhan. Cepatnya masa berlalu! 

First weekend Ramadhan bawak kids beli baju raya @Alamanda. Tak survey-survey pun. Jauh sekali lah nak ke Jalan TAR sinun. Nampak booth aje terus rembat. Kids punya baju raya setel.. alhamdulillah. Meraikan anak-anak. Mak Pak takde baju baru untuk raya takpe. Yang apaknya konfem takpe sebab dia memang bukan penggemar baju melayu. Yang mak nya tu, betul ke takpe??  He.. he..


Adam paling excited. Cik Mat ni kalau nak outing, haruslah dia pilih sendiri baju dia.. seluarnya, bajunya. Time ni takde pilihan .. lepas kelas Global Art pegi Alamanda so pakai je la baju tu. Baju raya pun dia yang pilih sendiri. Memula nak hijau tu... jenuh gak nak pujuk suruh ambik kaler lain. Dia ni takde lah cerah kulitnya.. kang kelam pulak kalau pakai hijau tu.. At last he agreed on kaler lain which I think sesuai dengan dia. Pastu.... merengek nak samping pulakkkk. Layan. Puasa nya idak yer dik..

Iman pulak takde masalah bab kaler kaler ni. He's fair. Apa kaler pun okay dengan dia. Cuma tang peha tu, gebu nau... susahnya nak cari seluar yang muat. Last-last terpaksa beli saiz besar sikit sebab nak sesuaikan seluar dengan peha dengan bon*** dia tu :D

Kakak pulak ambik baju kurung pesak gantung. Memula dia ambik kurung moden. Sekali angkat dari hanger, makkk aihhh.. jarangnya.. Innernya ada sekali tapi jenis spaghetti strap gitu.. Of course we were against that. Lepas tengok kejarangannya, Kakak pun tak nak he he.

Kalau tahun lepas, tema baju raya we all is light brown.. tahun ni tema 'now everyone can choose'. Everyone is entitled with his/her own opinion/choosing (of course with guidance and a little bebel from me) so last-last the 3 kids semua kaler lain-lain. Apaknya nak pakai baju last year aje. Mak nya, walopun dok kata takde mood nak cari baju raya, dalam hati masih menaruh harapan kot-kot berjumpa dengan baju love at first sight nanti.


Ni kejadian lepas setel beli baju raya. Cik Mat Adam tu lapar.. maklom lah tak puasa. Lepas tu penat pilih baju raya bersamping bagai kann.. merengek nak kan makanan dengan air. Pegilah kami ke Cold Storage. Beli roti dengan air tin. Dengan few barang-barang lain. Adam macam biasa lah, ligat. Berlari-lari. Adoi.. kalau orang tengok haruslah cakap mak pak tak reti jaga anak.. tapi hakikatnya easier said than done la. Dia terusik satu botol pasta sauce tu, depan mata mak nya 3 bijik botol menari nari on the shelves, lepas tu tergolek satu per satu ke lantai. Yang last sekali tu malang sikit nasibnya, jatuh dan pecah..

Pakcik supervisor kata tayah bayar. Terima kasih Encik.

Lepas bayar semua, carik-carik roti... aikkk mana dia?? Haruslah dalam kekecohan tadi dah tercicir.. isk. Pegi pulak beli mexican bun Roti Boy. Kena tunggu pulak 15 minit sebab baru masuk oven. Masuk keta pulak semerbak baunya... kena pulak time tu pukul 4:00 petang.

Apapun syukur urusan baju raya anak-anak dah selesai.


Wednesday 17 July 2013

kepompong...


............. saya mahu jadi rama-rama yang indah. tolong bebaskan saya dari kepompong ini............







Tuesday 16 July 2013

furry friends

Remember this mummy cat and her kitties? Read here.

Mummy Calico with the 3 first-borns. Later we got to know 2 of them are females and one is a male.The kittens are all grown ups now. Perhaps, if compared to us humans, they are now in their late teens or early 20's. They are still playful and very manja okay. 

Mummy Calico has given birth one more time. To three more little kittens, and I have no doubt as to which cat the father is :D The resemblance is almost 99%.

The male then-kitten was very frail as first. When it was first weaned-off (sort off) from Calico, he looked lost and very kesian. My heart cringed at seeing him walked unsteadily, a little dirty and with sad sad eyes. Now, he's the biggest of them all. Who would've believed a stray cat like him can be so gemok and bulat?

The other two females have already given birth and have kittens of their own tho I haven't seen them anywhere near our house. Judging from the teats, I believe the kittens are still alive he he. They come and go. Most probably we are not the only human beings that feed them. Yup, we feed them routinely and we even have resorted from giving leftovers to buying cat food for the cats. And we now know they do not like the salmon-variety and sometimes get bored of dried food and has to be fed with leftover. Which at times we intentionally keep aside for the cats he he. And they also enjoy sips of milk every now and then.

We are smitten. Yes indeed!

When we (we = me and Kakak) bought the cat food for the first time, Tebby was not in 100% agreement but he gave in to us girls (as Kakak puts it - girls' power). Smallest one he said. So we picked the smallest pack.The girls' power went on, from small to full-sized packs. From first to our second to third and fourth. And guess what, now Tebby fusses over when the food supply is almost gone. I remember the other day he opened the fridge and took out the milk carton, during day light on fasting day! Then I heard him talking to the cat he he.

There's this one particular cat that is our unofficial house-pet. She runs and greets us when we get back, with tail high-up, long manja non-stop meowing, then golek-golek kat kaki sambil mata merenung with those big soulful eyes *sigh* Lately she begs us to let her in. Keeps on meow-ing in the usual long manja tone until we give in and let her in.We usually let the kids play with her for half and hour or so then gently shoo her out.And almost every morning, when the front door is opened, she'd be there waiting and greets us with her long manja meow-ing. 

This girl really gets us wrapped around her little paws!


Thursday 11 July 2013

cooking a la stress..

Traffic was baaaaaaaddddddd yesterday on 1st Ramadhan.
Dugaan pertama bulan Ramadhan tahun ni.
No, wait. Second dugaan as my alarm set at 4:40 and 4:50 did not went off. Nasib baik I set it at 5:00am for daily wake-up alarm. Later I discovered that I had actually set it up at 4:40pm and 4:50pm and not am! 

I had, earlier on visualizing myself calmly frying marinated beef, do omelette, heating up sup tulang. And later watch TV and do some catching up with the kids while waiting for azan Maghrib. Isn't Ramadhan the best month for us to gather together and have dinner together? Something we do maybe 3-4 times only a week on other months.

But what actually happened was: -

Sampai rumah 7:10 malam. I had just 20 minutes to prepare for iftar. Tebby sent me home first then he was off to fetch the kids @taska. While he was at that, I fried the beef, did omelette and heated up sup tulang. Thanks to my 3-tungku dapur! Did those in style some more! Coz I was still in my crisp black pants, not-so-crisp-anymore white-purple striped pintucked office shirt. Complete with tudung and socks! While those cooking on the stove, set up the table with myriads of pinggan mangkuk. No time to pilih anymore. Tebby nyer request for sirap bandung oso kenot layan, tak sempat! Teh-O panas and Sarsi. Not a good combination but beggars can't be choosers right. Suffice to say while I was still susun-susun makanan atas meja, Tebby and the kids sampai (Iman with a really tired face with slumped shoulder and all :D) and kedengaran lah azan Maghrib.

yup. like that. except that I did not rasa-rasa the taste

Syukran Ya Allah, we could still break our fast with the kids albeit a few minutes delay, and indeed the simple food was more satisfying (and economical) than those of PARAM.

Wednesday 10 July 2013

gelagat 1 Ramadhan


Sahur 1 Ramadhan 1434 bersamaan 10 Julai 2013

Tengah sahur pun buleh annouce siap-siap
Kakak 'Lepas makan Kakak nak tidur balik'
sambil suap nasi lauk sadin
Iman 'Saya nak tengok TV lepas ni'

Adam pulak
'Ummi, budak 5 tahun kalau tak puasa tak pe kan?'

:D

Monday 8 July 2013

welcoming Ramadan al Kareem



Alhamdulillah. Bertemu Ramadan sekali lagi :-)

Anak-anak dah dimaklumkan sejak 2-3 minggu lepas, hopefully they are mentally prepared to embrace Ramadan. Kakak should be no problem insyaAllah as on normal days pun she doesn't eat a lot. I am a tad bit worried with Iman coz he eats a lots and he also does lots of snacking :P Adam, a little excited to fast, probably he still doesn't know what awaits him but one shall always try right?

As for me, dah practice a bit.. sort of coz I have just finished ganti puasa. Oh ya, I need to get some ubat gastric for Tebby, just in case.

Rasanya last weekend almost all para ibu, especially the working ones, dah sibuk with preparation to usher in Ramadan. To have a menu lined up, at least from Wednesday to Friday. Some may say, beriya-iya sangatlah pasal makanan sampai tak mention amal ibadah. Well, for one thing, preparing iftar for your loved ones is ibadah juga. Plus, meraikan anak-anak yang berpuasa. Dulu waktu anak-anak kecik masih belum mula berpuasa, tak ambik pot sangat pasal makanan berbuka. We could just eat whatever there was. Sahur pun takat minum air masak. Now that my elder two dah puasa, kenalah ease them up to go through the month jugak kan. Our menu pun take a lot of consideration of their appetite inclination :D

We went balik kampung last weekend coz my brother buat tahlil and small makan-makan. Dia masuk rumah baru alhamdulillah and to usher in Ramadhan as well. Sunday morning dah balik ke KL and went straight to Pasar Borong Selangor. Baru ada feel nak beli bahan mentah kalau pegi pasar basah (and the kids dapat main kepala lembu yang dah kena sembelih). Aside from preparing lunch yesterday (ketam berlada atas permintaan Iman and sup tulang feveret Tebby), we also marinated chicken for roasting later, 2 types. Tebby had enough of Mc Cormick so I did the marinade as suggested by few sites. I just couldn't thank Google enough he he.

We now have 2 types of marinated chicken (for roasting), 2 types of marinated sliced beef (for frying) and ikan rebus with garam kasar and asam keping (for frying later). Also stocked up telur masin. Nasib baik I checked our rice bank yesterday, we are in dire need to stock up..

And now we doa banyak-banyak that we can sampai rumah and have enough time to serve fresh homemade meals for our loved ones for iftar. I'll try to keep the take-ways to minimal insyaAllah.

Kalau orang lain dah gantung baju raya dalam almari, I have none. Not for us and not even for the children .. yet. No worries boys, I'll sure buy one suit each. I know Adam is gonna be very sad if he doesn't get one, lengkap with samping and songkok. Iman tak ambik pot sangat pun pasal baju-baju ni as long as ada iPad. And Kakak, she's very much a jeans-and-tshirt person, shrieked with delight when I told her I haven't gotten her any baju kurung yet :P

Anyway, for caffein-lovers..


I have skipped caffeine for few days already (under close supervision of a personal doctor & dietician that is!) Not because to avoid the withdrawal but from recent test, I have quite a serious osteoporosis. I shall story later-later than one. All I can say, at the moment, I have never seen myself so religiously taking calcium tab and drinking anlene!


Friday 5 July 2013

report card day SK BTHO 2

credit: www.onlygags.com

:D

Ours (Kakak and Iman that is) was last Tuesday. Sorang pagi sorang petang. Adam pun nak nyelit sama mintak hantar jemput dia to fro Genius Aulad. So we took a day leave.

Alhamdulillah both are coping, educationally. Kakak dapat no 2 dalam kelas and will be in second class (now she's in third). I have some reservations about shuffling classes just months before the big exam. Her class teacher ensured us this is for the students' benefits. I sincerely hope the focus will not be on just 5A-potentials. Anak-anak kelas belakang pun harap dilupa jangan. Kakak needs to buck up her Science and Math. Like me, she is struggling with Math but as she progresses we can see the improvement. While I, still struggling he he. No wonder I always overspent. Tapi, kebolehan bersosial si Kakak ni kurang sikit. She's very shy. Kawan dia pun jenis pendiam macam dia. If she needs to ask, she will ask tapi dia pegi depan tanya cikgu personally.

Tapi kat rumah kuat pulak suara Kakak ye?

As for Iman, days prior to Tuesday he kept on reminding us to be at the school on time. Reason being, lepas jumpa cikgu, dia boleh ikut balik :D He's coping as well, educationally. Cikgu cakap his score is between 80%-90%. It came as a surprise to us.. sebab kalau buat homework dia punyalah liat pastu main bubuh je sebab nak cepat siap. For a child like him, I won't compare him too much with his peers. Most importantly he has shown improvements from what and who he was months ago to him, now.

But I have one big concern. He hasn't got many friends in school. He has few friends he often spends break-time with. Some even share his food and sometimes went overboard pow-ing his pocket money. He still has few autistic traits we still have to deal with, among which the tendency not to socialize.

Oh ya, he proudly announced last few weeks he can now pronounce words with 'R' correctly. Sebelum ni dia tak boleh sebut 'R' betul-betul. 

Tuesday went by more tiring and hectic that our normal working days. Perhaps because on those days we are so cooped up in the office sitting on our comfy chair and hardly move around except to the loo and to the water dispenser! Kids were happy being sent and fetch to and fro. We brought Kakak to Jusco nearby and Tebby paid for 2 tees (which I picked) for Kakak. We sent and fetch Adam to and fro Genius Aulad.. much to his delight and insisted that we should do it more often :P We brought the boys to Carrefour to pass time before fetching Kakak from sekolah Agama.

Tiring but indeed a good day to us all :D