A week into 2008

This is too fast, we are now a week into the new year 2008. I can't believe it. My boy will soon be turning 2 in less than 2 months and I have yet to come up with the theme for his birthday. I am not even sure if I plan to have a birthday bash like last year for him. My MIL helped prepare most of the dishes for the last party. I made a few, and we had so much leftover that we had to ask every guest to take doggy bags with them when they left.

It is a lot of work, but it is fun to meet up with all the relatives. I don't really have any relatives here, though I have a few good friends. Although they are all my husband's side, and we don't meet up too often. Unlike me, they don't get together for no reason. When I was back in KL, I would go out for mamak session or a coffee bean evening with my cousins. It was fun to hang out and gossip around. I do miss those moments.

Catching up with my sister

My sister and I are very close. Although we are not anywhere close in age, but we are very well together. Can you imagine that we even have babies on the same day? It is true. Our boys were born practically only an hour and half hours apart.

Anyway, we chatted a lot using MSN Messenger since we are located across the world from each other, one in LA and the other in Australia. But lately, since her IM was infected with virus, we no longer talk online anymore. It has been weeks since we last chatted and I really miss her.

This afternoon while my son was sleeping, it came to me that it’s time to make a phone call to her. I went online to find out how much it would cost me if I call her using my Cingular cellphone and let me tell you I was SHOCKED when I saw the rate to call Australia is $3.49 per minute. I was hesitated to call her due to the expensive rate because I know when I start talking to her, it will not stop since we have a lot catching up to do. This may rack up my cellphone bill to hundreds of dollar.

Then I found out about MobileTalk by Packet8, the cheaper way to call international countries using your cellphone. It will help you save up to 90% from the regular international calling rates your cellphone company charges you.

And since it will only cost me 3 cents a minute for a call made to Australia, I can afford talking to my sister for hours!

Packet8 Mobiletalk offers:

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A new plan for Christmas week

We have a change in plan. Instead of going up North to Oregon, we may be going south to San Diego during the week of Christmas and New Year holiday. We discussed about the trip up North and found it not necessary doable for a 3-4 days trip. The drive along may take 2 days to go up since we have a little toddler with us, it is not easy to have a straight non stop drive. We have to have frequent stop so the toddler won't feel so stiff inside the car. We also need to fill up gas and eat.

So instead we are planning a new trip. This time we are going south to San Diego. The drive is not that far from Los Angeles. It takes the most 2 to 2.5 hours drive with no traffic. One time when I went down to San Diego with a group of friends on Thanksgiving Day and took us 4 hours to get to Sea World, and by that time we arrived, it was almost closing.

This time we are planning to get discounted tickets to the local attractions through Trusted Tours and Attractions. Readers, if you sign up now for their newsletters and you will automatically entered into their 4 free tickets drawing of any attractions and tours found on their website in 21 cities. Besides San Diego, they also cater to Key West, Savannah and more.

Now I need to check out the hotel rate and start making our reservation.

Worth it all!

Since we bought our annual Disneyland passports a little over a month ago, we've been there 4 times. The last two times we went in the evening. It is a totally different experience compared to the day time visit. In the evening, we get to take the ride in dark. There are also Chrismas lighting and it looks so wonderful, especially the beautiful icicles decoration on Sleeping Beauty Castle.

Although each time we go, we only spend 2-3 hours top, but it is nice just to walk around. My boy especially enjoys looking at all the ceiling fans found around the park, inside the stores and restaurants. He gets tired after the evening outing and sleeps better at night. hmm ... we may be heading out to Disneyland again coming Wednesday evening, since this Thanksgiving weekend is considered as black out dates for our passes.

Going to Knotts Berry Farm

Later this morning we will be heading out to Knotts Berry Farm (it is now 1:45am as I am typing this). SIL's volunteered donating blood every time her company has a blood drive. This time her office honoring these volunteers by inviting them and their family for a day at Knotts Berry Farm. They will even serve lunch at the picnic area.

This can be said the first time we are visiting somewhere as a big family (MIL, FIL, SIL and us). They seldom want to go anywhere when we suggest to go out. Sometimes I would bring up suggestion to go out eat dinner together but MIL almost always reject the offer. They prefer to eat at home, she said. They are kind of boring actually. Initially, FIL has insisted on going for this event but SIL talked him into it. Well, will see how the day go.

Met my uncle at Disneyland

My uncle (ah pek), my father's oldest brother, and his wife came for holiday in LA and SF. They arrived on Oct 11th at LAX. The next day they followed their tour group to Disneyland. I told my Hubby to get off that day so we could go at least meet them at Disneyland. It was going to be difficult to meet up outside their tour iternary as they are jam packed with activities everyday.

So we did! We bought our annual passes to the theme parks and went to Disneyland on Oct 12th. I was a little nervous that we may not be able to find them. Fortunately, we set the place to meet the night before and at 930am they came and we met and went around the rides together.

Sorry to say that they ditched their group while they joined us. But later that day, they rejoined their friends as we had to leave the park early. Brandon was a little tired though he had a nap there, but he didn't want to take the cold milk so we had no choice to leave to go home. If we found out earlier there was a baby center at Disneyland, we could have warm the milk there. Well, next time we know.

Tropic's Grill

A cousin-in-law and his wife have just opened a Hawaiian fast food restaurant in Long Beach nearby where SIL works (Boeing). Only recently they had the grand opening. I haven't visited their restaurant yet but will soon. Hubby was reluctant as he is worried that they won't let us pay for our meal. But I insist we go try, and will INSIST that we will pay for our meals.

So if you are in the neighborhood of Long Beach and would like to try some Hawaiian food, drop by Tropic's Grill. I've heard his wife is a very good cook and she is the chef for that restaurant. Here is the address:

Tropic's Grill
2292 E Carson St
Long Beach, CA 90807-3044
Phone: (562) 426-2743

They do catering too if you happened to have a party and too lazy to prepare the food, try ordering from them.

LowShue my Facebook pet

This is my adopted pet in facebook. It's name is LowShue. I chose to adopt a squirrel instead of the other animals was because everyday me and my son see two or three little squirrels running above the brick wall on our backyard. Sometimes even climbing up the electric pole that is located in the corner of my backyard. They will lay down quietly at the top of the pole. Such a weird behavior, may be waiting to catch a bird for meal?

They feed on fruits that are found around our neighborhood, including my MIL's persimmon and loquat. :)

Oh fine

OH fine, my sister is now on her way back to Malaysia for her 2 months vacation. She will be in Sdyney for 5 days and then heading back to Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday. How nice!! I wish I can go too because it will be fun for us to meet in Malaysia. We love to talk. And now that we share motherhood together, we have even more stuff to talk about. And furthermore, our kids can play together. They are same age, just minus/add 1 day.

My cousin had Lasik

I was shocked to see my cousin during my trip to Malaysia. He looked so much different without his glasses. And he is more good looking now than before. He told me he had Lasik done a while back. He is so happy now that he doesn't have to worry about his nerdy glasses anymore.

How I wish I can persuade my husband to have Lasik. Mainly, he worries about the procedure and the cost. I recommended him to read all information about Lasik from USAEyes.org. They provide free service to all patients. Most importantly, from their website you can find a list of certified doctors and use the right questions to screen for a good surgeon for your Lasik. I hope the doctor we eventually found, has contract with our medical insurance coverage and offers Lasik on a discounted rate. If so, the chances of my husband have a Lasik done is much higher.

Family Day 9-15

Yesterday we went to Hubby office's Family Day. The event started from 10am to 4pm. There lunch served - hotdogs, hamburgers, and a main menu which had salad, pasta, fruits, BBQ chicken, beef trisket and bun, and cookies (yummy). There was a stage with performances, but we never bother to see. There was a funfair-like event for the kids too. They have miniture rides, games and gifts. On top of that, there was a van that 4 different ice creams that you can eat all you wanted. Took a lot of pictures and will update blog with them once I've edited.

Family Estate Planning

We do not have a financial plan for our family future. I've been telling my spouse that we need to start a living trust so that in case of anything, there will be no need to hire probate lawyers. In any case, we want to try to avoid going through the probate court. With help and careful planning, we can do that.

My relatives would tell me to start a will, but it is not the same as back in her country. Even with a will, assets have to go through probate court before releasing them back to the heirs. Let me tell you, it is very time consuming going through probate.

Morris, Hall & Kinghorn is an Arizona law firm that can help people like you and me to carefully plan out the assets protection for the future. They are a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, and the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. With their 30 years of experience, they can help you with any of the following family estate planning:

• a will or living trust
• asset protection
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It is important to protect your assets, please take a moment to think about the future for your children. Start planning today, to protect your family for the future.


Photo credit: www.morristrust.com

My boy & I

Latest picture of me and Brandon. This is my new Avatar/Picture for PPP and MyBlog.

Took this picture at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hill Cemetery. Went to pray Hubby's grandma. Her plot has very good Feng Shui because facing the fountain. Also her plot is located in the front of the whole big cemetery. Brandon sure liked the big grassy area around the fountain. He was running here and there.

End of Music Class

Last last Thursday was our last toddler's music class for the summer semester at Torrance Adult School. The next semester, the fall semester, will begin on Sept 10th. By then, my boy will be 18 months and I may sign him up for the 18 to 36 months toddlers music class instead of the one we've attended, which was for 9 to 18 months.

I am still thinking if I want to sign him up for the music class which is 1.5 hour or the parenting class which is 3 hours long. The music class for this age group starts at 10:45am and the location of the school is the same as our previous class. The parenting class for 12 months to 2 years old is located at another facility which is a farther drive from our home. That class starts at 9am and ends at 12pm.

But there is no obligation for the any students to stay the whole 3 hours class. We can leave whenever we want to. Parenting class will have more than just music. Was told that there'll be a weekly topic of discussion, a music time, art time and even outdoor time where students and teacher walk to a nearby park and play. That sounds fun right?

Most probably I will sign up for the parenting class for next semester, but I am just too lazy to drive that far away, about 15 minutes drive instead of 5 minutes. I get tired lately as I wake up in the middle of the night to take my boy to the potty. I've not been going out much with him lately.

Nothing much this weekend

We didn't do too much this weekend. Most of the time, Hubby has been sitting in front of the PC while I was sitting in front of my laptop. You may be asking, where was Brandon? He was running between me and his Daddy trying to get us to play with him but we were too busy posting on our blogs. HA! Another week went by and now another week is here.

I don't know what to say, but each week passes by too quickly and now we are done with the 1st half of 2007. Only 4.5 months to go before 2008 is here.

Oh yea, we did give Brandon another hair cut on Sunday evening out in the backyard. Will talk about this in my other blog.

Approved for PPP

Not me, I've been approved many many moons time ago. My cousin and my Hubby have recently been approved by PPP. They are now joining me to earn some extra pocket money for themselves.

I am going to be very proud of my cousin sister when her first ppp post is approved (now still pending) and when she received her first payment from PPP into her paypal account. Not that this is her first ever income, she has worked part time prior to this. But this is a long term thingy, she will countinue to earn more and more and more from blogging for money.

Now the only one still pending is my sister's blog. I wonder why.

Summer BBQ

Yesterday we had a family/relatives BBQ gathering at my in-laws. My MIL's sister (5 yee-ma) came visiting from Macau with her son and his daughter. They arrived last Thursday evening. So MIL had the BBQ to invite all her local relatives to come over and meet up. They even had a mahjong session in SIL's room.

We had beef ribs, steak, baby back ribs, sausages, hotdogs, corns, sotong (squid), salmon, shrimp, scallop and some veges. It was fun meeting up all the relatives which we haven't seen for a while. The last time we met up was during my son's 1 year old birthday party. Too bad, I was running after Brandon all the time and didn't have any catching up session with the relatives. Then we had to return (walk) home because it was Brandon's milk/nap time. Or else I would have stayed and chit chat till evening. Life is so much different when you are a mother.

Father's Day outing

What did we do on Father's Day?

Morning: Woke up and prepared to go to LA Zoo. Arrived around 11am at LA Zoo. Walked half way around the Zoo, had a snack by our favorite picnic area. Walk to the children's playgroud, let Brandon played for a little while. Then before we left the Zoo around 1215pm, fed Brandon his lunch.

Afternoon: After leaving the Zoo, we proceed to Travel Town Museum, which was about 10 mins drive from the Zoo. Arrived around 1245pm. Free admission. Walk to see the old trains on display. Took a train ride with Brandon on their miniture train. Only $2 for 2 huge rounds. Left the museum around 115pm. Go back home. Brandon slept in the car on the way back.

Evening: Brandon woke up when we arrived home. He had like a 30-40 mins nap. Orderred Papa John's pizza for our 'linner' (lunch & dinner). Went to pick up pizza and walked around Albertsons groceries store. Came home, called ILs to come over to play with Brandon. FIL was out playing mahjong at relatives, so only MIL and SIL came over. Ate our pizza. Ate more pizza for dinner.

I think it was pretty boring, except the trip to Travel Town Museum. Nothing much to celebrate for Father's Day here. I remember we used to go out nice restaurants to celebrate father's day with my family years back. We would go to 'The Ship' for western food dinner. Ahh ... I always love the warm buns with butter.

My Birthday Gift

Well, many of you knew we celebrated our birthdays last last weekend. For you who have the questions ... what do I mean by 'we celebrated our birthdays'? Probably you want to read this post to solve the mystery and your curiosity.

Anyway, I didn't request anything particular for my birthday. But I did ask Hubby if he has a surprise gift for me *wink*. Then on Friday, he came home from work and I saw him with a Target plastic bag with a wrapped box inside. I asked ... "Is that for me?" He said yes and asked me to open it immediately. I said not yet my birthday also ... he said no need to wait. So I opened up the gift. It's a box of Godiva Dark Chocolates. Yummy.

Congrats to HP & EL

CONGRATULATIONGS to HP and EL!

Congrats to my kammo and kaufu too, for becoming the "in-laws" for the first time.

I will be waiting for the pictures.