Me, a dragon mum?

2 weeks ago, while dear was getting ready to go to work, Zac engaged in a cute conversation with dear's colleague, Eugene, who was waiting patiently in our garage.

Zac, for no reason said "Uncle Eugene, you know... my papa is a knight..." After a short pause, he continued "I am a king and Nana is a princess..." Then Zac walked away, leaving Eugene laughing to himself. Eugene then asked "Eh, how about your mama?"

Ehmmmmm, how could this happen? How could Zac leave me out? There are four members in our family and why is it that I have no role in this conversation? I was really puzzled and shocked.

Zac turned back to Eugene, with a "not-at-all-excited" look and replied "Oh, my mama is a dragon..."

Haha... Is this the "side-effect" of a SAHM like me, who takes on many roles... One moment a loving mum, another moment a fierce teacher, and the other times, a multi-tasking household helper. But most of the time, 24-7, without fail, I am the fearful discipline master, who uses my big eyes and loud voice to control the 2 rowdy children in the Huang family... ;p

Ehmmmm.... Now I understand why they see me as a dragon!!! Haha.

Biskut Sarang Semut

With Chinese New Year around the corner, we baked some cookies to get into the festive mood. One of them had to be my favourite cookie which I always eat at my cousin's house during Hari Raya.  

This is the 1st time I baked them myself, and both kids love it, as much as I did. :) I'm posting it here for my future reference, just in case it goes missing in my pile of recipe books. ;p

Biskut Sarang Semut

Ingredients:

- 6 oz butter

- 4 oz powdered sugar

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 6 oz all-purpose flour

- 4 oz custard powder

- 1 tsp baking powder

- chocolate rice

- baking paper cups

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven at 355 deg F / 180 deg C.

2. Sieve all-purpose flour, custard powder and baking powder into a bowl. Stir and set aside.

3. Beat butter and sugar well, till light and fluffy. Then add in the vanilla extract.

4. A bit at a time, add in the flour mixture from step 2, stirring it at the same time till all is well mixed. (I'm lazy so I just used a hand mixer.) 

5. Now that the dough is ready, using hands, roll it into balls and grate them.

6. Scoop into the baking paper cups and sprinkle chocolate rice on top.

7. Bake for 10 minutes.

Happy 4th Birthday Nana!

To our precious little princess, Adriana, 

Happy 4th Birthday!

No matter how many birthdays come and go, 

how much you said you have grown, 

you will always be our little girl! 

Always!

Zac's first 2 wheel ride!

Yesterday, Zac, for the first time, learnt how to ride a bicycle. He has been bugging dear to teach him, and last night, 10 mins was all he took to fully understand how to balance on just 2 wheels. I must applaud his effort because bikes sold in the US are slightly different from the ones we buy for our kids in Singapore. Over here, the bicycles do not have any brakes on their handlebars. The way to come to a stop was to pedal backwards, which means the opposite way of going forward.

Zac, mama and papa are so proud of you! We know you are capable of achieving your goals if you put your heart and soul into it!

5 rooms left???

Monday, 17th Jan was Martin Luther King Day, which meant a long weekend for us last week! Yippee! However, around this time last week, we didn't discuss how we should spend the 3 days. Totally had no idea what to do or where to go. One thing's for sure - we definitely wouldn't want to let the great weekend go to waste.

I've always wanted to go to Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon. As these two beautiful attractions are within Arizona, we thought we could just drive up, enjoy the scenery and then head back home. And since it's winter, we were wondering if it's safe enough for a visit. To get to the Horseshoe Bend, we needed to hike and as for the Antelope Canyon, we were only permitted to get into the park if accompanied by an authorised tour.  

So at 10am last Saturday morning, dear called Antelope Canyon Tours to check if their tour trips were still ongoing in winter. And since it is still on, dear decided we should give it a go. So there we were, at 10am, searching and booking for a hotel room, packed our luggage, got the kids ready and by noon, we were set to go! I was just bragging to dear about my packing speed. The past roadtrips, which were carefully planned beforehand, took me one whole day to pack for our family of four. Especially with now being winter, there are more clothes to choose and bring - all the jackets, thermal wear, gloves, socks and extra sets of clothings. And surprisingly, I managed to pack everything in less than an hour. I was amazed at my speed. Haha. Dear even joked about going for more unplanned trips in future. ;p

Everything went perfectly that day. We reached Page at about 5pm, and hiked up to see Horseshoe Bend since the sun had not set yet. And by dusk, we were off to check in to our hotel. And that's when everything started to go wrong...

This was the only picture we took of this place - the entrance to the resort.

Firstly, to get there, we drove in total darkness for about a few minutes. This resort is situated in a National Park, so that explains why it is in such a remote area. As we entered the carpark, we were shocked to see that the carpark was empty, not a single car was there, and all the blocks of rooms wasn't lit up. Even the walkway was dark. Really scary! Dear went to check in while we waited in the car. When he came back, he said that the front desk lady mentioned that there were only 5 rooms left. I was just thinking to myself "So popular meh this place?"

We then drove around searching for our block and entrance to our hotel room. As the place was very dark, we had a hard time looking for it. Guess what? Our room was in the furthest block there, and in between our block and the hotel lobby was 4 other blocks which had NO lights turned on AT ALL... Total darkness! Pitch black! It was really spooky! The kids were begging to go home. They were terrified, and I must admit that me and dear were a bit scared too.

It was total silence as we entered the building. The silence was creepy, to the extend that it made my hair stand on end. With a fast walking pace, we quickly looked for our room.

The room - small and quite dim, only a little lamp next to the TV for the entire room. At that point, we knew that there was no way that we were going to spend the night there. So all four of us went back to the hotel lobby, BY CAR, and asked if we could get a room in the block just next to the lobby. They said that it was not possible. That's crazy! How could there be no other available rooms?!! Dear wanted to check out and asked if a refund could be done. We were told to contact Expedia instead, and up till now, they have yet to get back to us, so we are really unsure if we can get our money back.

That night, we drove around, looking for a hotel. For the first time, we looked for one that was bright, well lit and had more cars in their carpark. Haha! Most importantly, we must be able to see HUMANS staying there! Best Western seemed to be the best choice and again, we called Expedia to book. The reason for booking through Expedia again was to show them that we sincerely needed to change to a safer hotel and hoped that this would increase the chances of getting a full refund back for the cancellation made at Lake Powell Resort.

We cut short our trip to just 2 days and decided to drive back to Goodyear the next day, after the Antelope Canyon tour. Then another sad thing happened... I lost my handphone. I would have noticed it missing if I brought my bag along to the park. Since we needed to take the jeep, I thought travelling light would be ideal, and as such, we only brought a backpack. I didn't even bother to check if my handphone was in my other bag.

I really felt guilty! Already having issues with getting our refund back, and now my precious handphone is missing. So much unnecessary expenses this time round...

Dear, no more of such surprise trips ok. And in future, please go through the hotel reviews carefully! The experience was a bit too much for us to handle. :(

Photos from picture day

My hands felt itchy yesterday. I was in the mood for some craft work, and definitely scrapbooking came to mind. 

But with no developed photos on hand, I'll take a much longer time to scrapbook. It'll be ages before I finally decide which stockcards to use - so many colours and designs to choose from but not everything might be suitable for every photo. What I had were the photos from Zac's and Nana's picture day. With an itching hand, I was so tempted to cut these out for scrapbooking. But on the other hand, I was a bit hesitant to do that as I worry I might spoil them.

Talking about picture day, I was initially unsure what this day was all about. And with me being a bit embarrassed to ask the teacher, I just followed the instruction on the note which the kids brought back from school. The note wrote "Please wear nice clothes to school for your pictures." So, I assumed picture day must be the class photo-taking day like what we had in Singapore. 

After class, I asked the kids how their picture day was. Zac gave a funny look and said "The lady made me laugh then she take a picture." Ehmmm. He must be wondering how come mama is asking such a silly question! Haha. Picture day take picture lor!!! 

I was shocked when they brought back the pictures weeks later. When I opened the envelope, I was expecting to see the normal class photo - the one with the shorter children sitting next to each other in the front row and the taller ones standing at the back row with the teachers.  

Theirs was totally different. It was more like an individual photo. And these individual photos were placed next to each other, with their names written just below it.

Well, back to my story, I am glad I took the risk of cutting it up to satisfy my scrapbooking "craving". Hehe. The kids love it! 

My first project

The combination of bright colours from scrapbooks have always fascinated me. When I admire a piece of such artwork, it never fail to make me feel cheerful and positive. And the best thing about it is that it always seems flawless. Art can never go wrong!!!

I've always wanted to try doing one, but never really had the chance to. Maybe "that feeling" is just not there yet... No inspiration = no mood! Hehe. 

That feeling finally came a few days back. I wanted to give something special as a birthday gift to the sweetest baby girl I know who will be turning ONE. So there I was, spending one evening on my very first project. The feeling was "oohh la la". Ideas kept flowing in and I couldn't resist the temptation of adding more details. I was so into it, measuring, drawing, cutting and sticking, that I didn't realise how much mess I have created. Pieces of stockcards and stickers were everywhere. Haha.

The end result...

So proud of myself. Hehe. I think Nana is a bit like me. She was looking at my creation and kept going "Wow! So nice! I like it! Can I do one too?"

My new year resolutions

Happy New Year everyone! Have you thought of your new year resolutions yet? If not, think of it now! Better late than never ya! Hehe. 

Well, frankly speaking, before this, I have never thought of any. Maybe because back in my hometown, I'm running a normal Singaporean life - one who is stressed trying hard to juggle between work, family and finance. There is just no time to spare on other new "activities". But then again, these could be just an excuse or maybe lack of organization?

Thankfully 2010 has been a great year for me! No doubt that the kids were a handful most of the time at home, but at least, that is all that I have to tackle. With no stress from the working world, I am able to focus on the kids.

2011... There'll be more to look forward to. We'll be going home for good! And I'm so looking forward to it, I THINK... Hehe. As much as I love my current lifestyle, I do miss my family back home. But then again, I'll miss the carefree life here. Going back means back to the workforce and lesser family time. Arrrggghh! This is so confusing. Mixed feelings inside of me. And the worse thing about it, is that there's nothing I can do. We have to go back for sure, sooner or later. I mean, how long could we possibly be away?

The best I could do is to enjoy every single moment now. So, here I am, listing my new year resolutions. :)

1. Spend more time with dear and the kids

- I admit that I am with them all the time, but that was just physically. My mental mind is somewhere in the virtual world. I'm guilty of being too caught up with the net, searching for new recipes, hooked on Facebook and blogging. I shall spend lesser time on these activities, and limit it to just a few hours each day. Like what dear always say, "How about sitting on the sofa with us and watch TV together?" I promise to do that more often ok dear! :)

2. Quality is better than quantity
- I need to get this into my big head. Being a kiasu mum, I think most of the time, I focused too much on the amount of revision Zac & Nana do at home. When I'm feeling ambitious, I want them to finish up at least one chapter of the English and Math assessment books per day. What was I thinking? This is totally against what I learnt from my teaching diploma course years ago. Learning is supposed to be fun, not a drill. I am guilty of forcing them to sit on their chair for hours, trying to finish up all the written work. For a change, there will be more educational games and teaching materials for them to play with. Like what my lecturer used to say, a balance between play and studies is always the best!     

3. Improve my driving skills

- I really want to build my confidence for driving. I need to overcome the fear of going on to the road. To tell you the truth, I only dare to drive on familiar routes around the area. Haiz... I guess I need more practice. Like what dear always say "Practice makes perfect!"

4. Drink more water
- I am such a coffee addict. When I worked, all that I need to get my day running is a cup of coffee, and it's just once a day. But now, things have somehow changed.  Each time I feel like getting a drink, my eyes will be glued to the packets of 3-in-1 coffee in the cupboard. And when temptation gets their way, I'll probably be drinking my second or third cup of coffee that day. I seriously need to stop this! I need to drink more water, not coffee, not juice and definitely not rootbeer!!!