Don’t know what to name this post and since Daddy is away again on one of his working trip to U.S., I decided to title this post like what you saw cos the house is really really really in a BIG mess!  The biggest culprit is Little MissTroubleMaker.  Now I have clothes hanger and toys on my kitchen top. And more clothes hanger, food crumbs, books, colour pencils, you just name it!  Each time I arranged my stuff, the next moment they are in a mess again.  At one point, I have to send her next door so that I can work in peace.  Last night, she has been eating Milo  and milk powder straight from the spoon that is in the tin.  And each time you say NO to her, she will look at you in the eye but her hand is still moving.  That makes you really wants to yell at the top of your lung.  *sigh……… ok, this is not what I want to write but I just got carried away.

Actually today I want to write about my dear Hubby that I called Daddy.  Don’t know about your Husband but if I send him out to get me a packet of sugar, he will come home with two packets of sugar.  If you ask him to buy 2 tomatoes, he will buy 5 tomates.  And I was once was told this story by BIL.  Daddy was around in his mid 20s.  The first time Daddy earned some money from the stock market, BIL ask him to belanja durian.  So they went to the stall in SS2.  Instead of buying few durian, Daddy told the man, “I buy all of them (the whole lorry)!” Wakakaka…

The not-so-recent case was:

I asked him to buy the kids gummy vitamins and look, we ended up with 4 bottles of gummies at home.   And knowing kids, they will want to finish up the whole thing in one day.  No body warned that ‘child safety cap’ doesn’t work with a 9 and 7 years old child. p/s:  Don’t buy the Spiderman brand.  They are not chewy.  Very yucky.

Oh, this one I did not ask him to buy:

If you want to eat peanut butter, buy the Skippy brand. Very famous among Americans.  At least I can rest assured that they doesn’t contain melamine!  2 x 2 liters pack.  Our ordinary pack is only 750gm.  Eat till lausai.

*sigh… I so missed Daddy now.  Fai tit come back!  Beh tahan ade!!!

Even if I was not tagged by my Sister, I will still hijack this meme from her blog.  I find this meme very different from others.  They are quite informative and reveal something that happened before I was into blogging.  I took sometime to follow all the previous link (kaypoh ma) and when I ended up on AnnieQ’s meme (sorry, lazy to dig the link.  She is on my blog roll anyway) I was quite surprised to know that her first pregnancy was a success from IVF.  And my million dollar question to her was, “did you asked the doctor to give you twins or it just happen that you have twins?” Very interesting meme right?  Here goes my meme:

1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED? Yes.

2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME? Yes.

3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS? Thankful and thrilled!

4. WAS ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU? Nope.

5. HOW OLD WERE YOU? Initially I was shy to reveal my age cos everyone thinks getting pregnant at 25 y/o was a bit too young. But now, they envy me cos now I CAN FLY!  Hokkien say “ho miah”.

6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT? Missed the monthly thingy and the pregnancy test kit says it all.

7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST? Daddy lor.

8. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? Yes.

9. DUE DATE? 13 April 2000.

10. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS? At one time, puke till blood vein burst. Lucky from 4th month onwards everything is back to normal.

11. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE? Wah, nine years ago man!  I can’t even remember what I ate 30 days ago.

12. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST? Refer to question number 11.

13. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD SEX? Girl.

14. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING? I was stunt when the Gynae told me it’s a girl.  And later before i left the room the Gynae ask me again, “Are you alright?” LOL, I think my behavior is very obvious.  I have to put on a fake smile.

15. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY? Twenty Three!!! 23!!!  I was around 40kg and by the 3rd trimester I was 63!  You can’t believe how bad my stretch mark is.

16. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER? Baby don’t shower.  They take a bath daily.

17. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW? Now I’m lost.

18. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY? Nope.  All went well.

19. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH? Private Hospital in Klang. (I almost want to give a cheeky answer again. LOL)

20. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR? Hmm… let me see.  From the minute I started to realise the twitching was a contraction till the baby delivered to this world is about 7 hours.

21. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL? Daddy.

22. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH? The Gynae, Midwife, Nurses, Daddy.

23. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION? Not very natural leh.  It was vacumn.

24. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN? What is that painkiller that make you drowsy and sleepy?  So drowsy till you can’t open your eye to push and you keep on drifting in and out? And I swear I will never let them poke me with that meds again.  Reason, refer to question number 23.

27. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH? 3.5kg.

28. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN ? 2 days earlier than the schedule date

30. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER? Kharsyn.

31. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY? 9 years and 8 days old.

JZ:  Do you like pet?
Me:  Yes.
JZ:  Do you have a pet at home?
Me:  No.  Why?
JZ:  How come I never see any animal pics in your blog before?
Me:  Haha.  No pics doesn’t mean that I don’t love animal.  Aiyoh, how to have pet at home when I don’t have enough time for the 3 monkeys.  Don’t forget I am FTWM (full time working mum).  By the time I reached home, gotta juggle between housework and the kids.

I was quite surprise that this blogger is quite observant on the things that I’ve posted.  So, for the sake of showing to the world him that I love animal and not necessarily to have a pet at home, here are some pics of my Niece’s 8 weeks puppy which I took during Chinese New Year.  They have to bring back all the 3 dogs (2 puppies and the Mummy dog) to hometown during CNY!  You tell me la, where to find time to keep a pet at home?  However, I did extend my offer to friends who need someone to babysit their dog.

Super cute, right?

Conversation with my then, 6 years old Son:

Son:  Mummy, can we have a dog at home?
Mummy:  Well, you tell me.  Who feed you rice?
Son:  Mummy.
Mummy:  Who bath you?
Son:  Mummy.
Mummy:  Who cook for you?
Son:  Mummy.
Mummy:  Well, wait till you can feed yourself, bath yourself and cook for yourself then only mummy bring back a pet dog, ok?

Top:  Flower bun, omochi and peanut butter in monkey container to compliment the flower bun
Bottom:  Rice with black sesame seed and crappy looking teddy bear.  Their eyes is like a vampire. Yikes!  But taste good lor.

This back dated bento was somewhere way back around February.  SIL bought this teddy bear fishcake from the wet market for our CNY steamboat and I just hijack a few pieces from the buffet table. *ngek, ngek, ngek*

We had a small party at home on Easter Day to celebrate my eldest Princess 9th Birthday.  Initially we was supposed to have an Easter egg hunt too but too bad, the rain just wouldn’t stop.  There goes my Kinder Joy (Bye-bye $$$).

When I say a small party, I was trying to limit her friends to at least 6 person but later, the crowd just grew bigger and bigger and she even invited her Sunday School friends :S .  And I ended inviting my Sisters.  If you must know I have a lot of Sisters.  If invitation was extended to Sis 5, then Sis 1 and Sis 3 will be included too.(If not, later they don’t want to flend me then how?)    Then Hubby ask if he should invite his Siblings.  Aiyoh, make me feel bad only but how to fit all of them in our house?  SIL, if you read this, forgive me.  Next time round, ok?

It is very easy to think of a theme. Any teenager her age is crazy over High School Musical.  Sis 5 help me with the banner while I was busy whipping up food in the kitchen.

There are other food like the bolognese sauce, yam samosa, california roll, unagi kabayaki, tamago (egg sashimi), foochow red wine mee suah (for the adult).  Each time I pick up my camera, there are always someone calling me or something to be done and I kept on forgetting about the food pics.  What do you expect la.  ‘M’ is for mother and ‘M’ is for maid.  Organizing a party is not easy, ok.

No pix on the whole lots of Kinder Joy too as I kept on forgetting or was too busy.  Muahahaha!  What an excuse.  The kids was so disappointed as they was looking forward to the egg hunt.  To keep noise at minimal, after the kids ate, they was in our room playing PS2 (HSM game too).  It was so peaceful as now the adult can sit down and yak while digging in the fondue pot!  Thanks Selena for the fondue pot!  I know that was like one year ago since I received them. LOL.  I just melt the dark chocolate with cream and had marshmallow, ice-cream balls and strawberries digging into it.  No pix again.  I was darn busy serving guest.  Refilled the drinks.  Wipe the spills.  Clear the rubbish.  Serving ang chiew mee suah *wink*  Good thing my Sister’s maid help me with the dirty dishes or else my back will break man!  And the poor me gotta finish up all the left over.  The best diet pills also can’t help me this time.

The weird part  is where after the song was sung, the birthday girl was supposed to cut the cake.  I almost ask, “where is the knife?” but realised it was a cupcake.   So weird to cut them and so weird not to cut them.  So I go, “Ok, everybody just take one and eat”. LOL

Happy 9th Birthday Sweetie!

Sis was helping with the deco while I was busy in the kitchen.  Little MissTroubleMaker in action *rolling eye*

I will skip the cupcake recipe and go straight to the fondant.  But before I do that, I die-die also want to post up my double chocolate cupcake.  The fresh bake makes my kitchen smells heavenly!

The cracks on the cake tells that they are a bit dry.

Pre-made fondant can be purchase from bakery shops but they are so easy to made that you can save money by making it yourself and keep the bragging rights of having made it all from scratch, right?  There are many different type of fondant you can google from internet.  So I just pick one that is the simplest.

Ingredients:
15g powdered gelatin
60ml water
10ml liquid glucose or corn syrup
1tbsp glycerin
500gm icing sugar

Method:

Sprinkle gelatin in the bowl of water and let it soak for 2 minutes. Use double boiler to dissolve it for about 2 minutes.  Use a wooden spoon instead of a metal spoon cos the metal spoon will make your fondant turn black (not really black but your fondant’s colour won’t be snowy white).  Remove gelatin and add a tablespoon of glycerin.  Some recipe said it is optional but I think it’s a must if you want your fondant to be smooth.  Make a well on the icing sugar.   Pour gelatin in it and stir them into a dough.  Jeng, jeng, jeng, it’s showtime!

You need plenty of icing sugar for dusting as they are very very sticky and make sure you have a clean work top.  Knead your dough for few more minute.  Tips:  prepare the dough the night before so that they will be less sticky and easier to work on the next day.  Leave them in a zipper bag.  I did a mistake by keeping them in the fridge.  The next day, they are as hard as stone.  I have to cut them into pieces before heating up in the microwave again.  And they are so sticky I almost gave up!

You just need some creativity with the fondant.  I get this fondant mat from Michael’s (U.S.).  They produces very nice vines to your fondant.

And the process goes on for about 2.5 hours before I get this result.

My first ever attempt in fondant, ok.

Of course can’t beat the work of professional.

Promise you won’t laugh, ok?

Jeng, jeng, jeng:

High School Musical cupcakes!

Someone’s birthday is around the corner *rolling eye*.

p/s:  Smells good.  Looks good.  But I never say they taste good.  wakakaka

1) I started going for vacation when I turned 21 years old. I did all adventurous vacation from rv to jungle trackking and never did once, I was down with food poisoning.  And finally, I got that while vacationing in Beijing.

One week after coming home from Beijing,

2) My smart tag and touch ‘n go card was stolen from my car.  I think I forgot to lock the door.

Two weeks after the stolen smart tag,

3) Our car out of the blue lost control and bang the highway steel divider.  Thanks God all of us are safe.

SIL ask me to cook mee suah & eggs for the whole family to eat.  I cooked ang chiew mee suah *slurp* minus the egg.  Last weekend I went back to my Mom’s.  She wanted to cook red eggs for us but don’t have time to do that.  So she gave me fresh eggs and a red paper.

Anddddddddddddd on Monday,

4) The daycare called and said Prince had Hand Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD).

5) At night when I hang my laundry, I noticed that my bicycle was stolen!

And you think that is all? No.

On Tuesday,

6) The kindie cum daycare  called at 12pm to inform that the Kementerian Kesihatan instructed them to close the kindie for  a week.  Looks like my son is the 7th person down with HFMD in the school.  Good thing I’ve gather enough information on HFMD from a mothering forum.

Can you believe this?  6 (666) bad luck happening to us!  I cannot imagine what will happen next.  And with the closure of the kindie cum daycare, I have to look after the kids for a week.  Meaning I am not working for the whole 7 days!  OMG!

p/s:  My BIL said not bad for 6667 = 6 disasters and 7 days off.  Kanasai!

I love my Mum’s version of french bread.  Her secret recipe was to add one teaspoon of condensed milk to an egg.  But I add a large head of tablespoon of condensed milk for 2 eggs.  And instead of using oil, I substitute it with butter.  That way, you get a sweet and buttery bread.  Yummy!  This was a big hit with my kids.

This bento consist of french bread, mangoes and cherry tomatoes.  The teddy bear silicon cup is from Wilton.   The silicon cups are quite bulky they almost filled up most of the gaps in your bento.

Initially, Princess wanted toast but toast are best eaten while they are still hot.  It is definitely a no-no for bentos.  I’m glad she is not fussy about food.

We was driving back to KL from Johore when our car lost control (floating in the air/tyre not gripping on the road at all) at Machap before hitting the steel highway divider.  Less than 3 minutes, the tow truck appear and hurried me (Hubby was outside of his car) to get down from the car (as if the car is going to explode).  That very moment, I find the whole accident thingy is so fake and again in less than 3 minutes, aar came to bring us (if any) to the hospital.  Since everyone is alright,  I refuse to go.  I felt like it was  a planned accident.  The way the tow truck appear is so fake! The rain was starting to pour.  The kids and me was asked to hurried in to the car that arrived at the scene  while Hubby stay back.  Hubby order the guy to drop us at Machap R&R.  While in the car, I was even more frighten.  What happen if the tow car gang is bad people?  I am in their car now.  They might kidnap us or something like that.  I don’t even have the chance to tell Hubby how I felt about the whole incident.  How come Hubby never thought of all this thing.  He look very panic all the time.  Instead of arguing, I just do what was told.  I’m not happy about that but I have no choice.  But thanks God that guy really fetch us to the R&R.  I  dashed out from his car the moment he stop!

Everyone was shaken.  Carlgene was trembling all over.  I have never seen him tremble like this before.  You know that type of tremble is like when we dunk him into the cold swimming pool.  I know we need to cool down.  The four of us took a sit at the R&R.   I can see that Baby Princess had a cut on her cheek.  Suddenly it crosses my mind to ask them if they are hurt instead of inspecting them only.  Luckly Baby Princess is old enough to relate and she pointed to her ear.  I lifted up her hair and my heart just break into pieces.  And she pointed to her lips too.

I was holding back my tears as I did not want to frighten the kids further.  I assured Carlgene that everything was alright and he said, “I love my Daddy’s car” in between sob.  It’s quite funny to hear that actually.  Fyi, Carlgene is a car lover.

About 30min later, Hubby rang me on my mobile and said a car ram the tow truck from the back.   And I go, “wtf”. The kids and me just wait patiently at the R&R.  We can see the traffic on the opposite highway started to build up.  Few minutes later, an ambulance passed by.  And I thought,  there must be more accident happened on the highway.

One hour or so later, two tow trucks arrived at Machap R&R.  At the same time, BILs  (not one but two!) who work in a moving services company rushed down from JB to fetch us back to KL while Hubby have to stay back to make police report and etc.  This incident has made me, and I believe the rest of siblings realised the strength and unity of the Neo family.  It really touched my heart seeing how helpful they are.  One of my SIL (in KL) even go all the way to arrange accommodation with her in-law in Batu Pahat for Hubby to stay overnight.

Our car.  Some said, it looks like the accident is caused by our puncture  tyre.  *shrug*  The rest of the body part is not damage.  Thanks goodness!

Now back to the two tow trucks.  Our car doesn’t look that bad as what I’ve imagine but the other car was badly damaged and the women driver died on the spot 🙁 .  You wouldn’t want me to elaborate further.  If this is really a planned job by the tow truck, their selfishness has involved one life.  Only them and God knows the truth if they are the culprit.  It was a very unfortunate event for that lady.

The other car that bang the tow truck.  Our car was already on (top) the elevated tow truck.

Maybe because of miscalculation of speed and distance which resulted her to bang to the corner of the tow truck that causes her death.  And we was quite fortunate that our car was on elevated tow truck and not the crane type or else it will be a double blow for us and even more fortunate, Hubby was still standing at the road curb when all this happened.  And you know what make me add on to my speculation?  How often do you see an elevated tow truck?  They are usually the crane tow truck type right?  For those that doesn’t know, continental (BMW or Merc) car can’t be tow because the back two tyre doesn’t move (or something like that.  Maybe someone can put them in better automobile term) are ‘back shaft drive’, it cannot be towed using rear wheel on the road as it will damage your gear box  unlike the Japanese or the national made.  When you think of the quick appearance and efficiencies of the tow truck, your speculation grew even more and more right?  Cannot be ‘co-incident’ they are passing by, ‘co-incident’ they have extra car on standby, ‘co-incident’ they drove an elevated tow truck, what’s more?

We are putting the accident behind us and moving on with life.  It took me 3 days to get back my blogging mood and with the permission from Hubby, I recap them  here to serve as a lesson or reminder for those that are driving on the highway to be very very careful especially those going back to hometown for cheng beng this weekend.  Thanks God we are safe even though Baby Princess and Hubby (very big or cheh/blue black) suffered from bruises and cuts from the exploded airbag.  I still can’t understand how she get the cut that ran down to her earlobe.  In a way that the airbag save us and hurt us.  Don’t know should be thankful or sad.  And one more lesson, PLEASE BUCKLE UP BEHIND!!!