Having the sniffles and scratchy throat

Dec should be a time to take things slow and probably go on leave. But I'm having the sniffles and having a sore throat AGAIN!!! Been falling sick way too often this year. At first it was attributed to the little hours of sleep I clocked in due to work, the housework, cook and taking care of a baby and worse even get up to pump when Sophie was still young. But now that I no longer breastfeed her in the night and there is no more night pumping to do, you'll think I'll get more rest....

No...

Okay only myself to blame too because I'm still not sleeping earlier. Preferring to stay up, catch up on FB, twitter, emails, chats, updating her blogs, etc...

Gosh I really have got to learn to just REST.

Now that I'm sick and feeling awful I really should just crash on the bed. Else maybe get MC for tomorrow and look forward to my long leave.

December and counting

Finally we are in the month of December where the year end holiday mood sets in. Unfortunately on the work front, I'm still as busy and working just as hard. Sob sob. But as I have a weeks worth of leave, I have made plans to clear them off.

On my off days, I'm packed with plans to complete my Christmas shopping, go for my facial, celebrate hubby's birthday, attend Christmas parties and yes feast on all the yummylicious goodies like turkey, shepherds pie and maybe indulge in some sparkling bubbly too

And with so much feasting to come, I better get my act together and start getting active again. Recently I was complaining to Alexis that it's almost impossible for me to do any exercise especially on a weekday. By the time we get back from work it's dinner time and I have to prepare Sophie's dinner and have my dinner. Then proceed to bathe her and put her to sleep which should be around 10 plus. At that time I would have lost all motivation if not the will to even think about any exercise.

Good thing Alexis felt for me and agreed to help put Sophie to sleep. He used to do the bed time routine until she decided that she only wanted me to put her to sleep. But thank God, this time round she was not so fussy and so for the past 2 nights, Alexis has been tucking her to bed after her bottle of milk.

So no excuses for me now to skip my exercise. Also no excuses for me to sleep so late.

Now for a dose of discipline and motivation.

Days like this

It was a public holiday today and we decided to get our butts off the bed early and go for breakfast. We headed to Siglap and had breakfast at Killiney. We found out that Sophie is not a fan of chee cheong fun as she spat out after a few mouthfuls and was contented with her or rather Daddy's french toast.



And since the weather was so good, we proceeded to East Coast Park for a stroll before Sophie took her afternoon nap. The heat and all the walking must have tired her out and she knocked out on the journey home.


In the afternoon, we went over to my bro's place as we had to scrap the plans to go kite flying. It was actually a nice afternoon there as I had a chance to rest while my bro and sis in law took care of the little girl. I even had a short nap... Perhaps I can consider bringing her over more often so that I can catch more winks. Haha.

What a nice way to spend the public holiday
- With my family
- Having a nap
- Just chilling

Don't even know where to begin to describe how today sucked big time

- Sore throat
- Running nose
- body aching
- tired as hell
- headache
- hubby having to work on a weekend
- being a maid on a weekend which includes, cooking, washing the clothes, cleaning up, blah blah
- Wrestling with a baby that refuses to nap
- blocked ears from the constant sneezing
- stuck at home and having to eat maggie mee
- having to deal with guilt from baby that jumped on the bed and landed on the floor face down with a huge bump

TIRED....

Hope tomorrow gets better

Me is Ninja in the night



This was my FB update some time ago and I see so many people agreeing, especially the mummies. I should take comfort that I'm not the only one around who have to resort to such tricks to go undetected in order to put Sophie to bed.

But these few nights... correction is these few weeks, 3 weeks to be exact, my little one has been up in the night and would not go back to sleep unless I breastfeed her. Initially it happened after her bout of illness so I thought maybe she's still uncomfortable. And of course the rationalisation that she could be teething. But after one too many times, she's gotten so used to it that she refuse to go back to sleep on her own. So poor mummy has to wake up everytime she cries. Which can be as bad as 4 times mind you!!!

And to think I used to say that she can sleep through the night. NOT anymore. Just praying and hoping that her teeth will emerge soon for my peaceful nights to resume too. And the only reason why I'm still up writing this blog is to remind Sophie the sacrifices that mummy has to make when she was young so she better be a good girl! Haha

I ♥♥♥ Hello Kitty

I may be 30, but I still have a soft spot for the mouthless feline, Hello Kitty.

And when I saw this Limited Edition Maybelline mascara with Hello Kitty, I just had to get it.

I was pretty impressed with this mascara. It gave a nice curling effecting and the mascara brush separated my lashes so it looks really sui! After all this is the Number 1 Mascara worldwide okay, don't play play.

Loving it for the moment, so my mojolica majorca mascara is on the sidelines for now.

Picked up so many facial products recently, from BB cream to make up brushes and all sorts of gels and all. Feeling so vain... or maybe being insecure that I'm getting older. Lets see how these babies help me put my best foot face forward.

Motivated

My Sept to do list included

1. To pack my wardrobe

2. Pack my toiletries

3. Do a scrapbook for Sophie's first birthday

4. Print Sophie's photos

After I cleared my wardrobe, I had a pile that is classified as the "still can wear but need to lose 3, 5 kg" type. That was my motivation to get back into exercise. So sad that even after one year, I still have not shed all the weight from the pregnancy. I guess I got conplacent that I could still eat more when I was breastfeeding but as I progressed to partial breastfeeding, the portions that I ate continued to be the same.

So I made a decision to get my butt off the bed and do something about it. Sadly my work out gear were all too small too :( so it was time to go shopping. And once I spend money on something, I really want it to be worth my money.

I also got back into the habit to record my food and exercise and now I have a new app on my iPhone that helps me track that too. The app is called MyNetDiary. What's really useful is that it even churns out a report on area you did well and areas that you fail.

So hopefully my renewed motivaton will get me the results I'm hoping to achieve by the end of the year.

Gambatte!!!

Too idealistic

Sigh, find that I've been very discontented. Discontented with work, with standard of living, with the mess in my house, with my body, with my lack of sleep, lack of free time....

But I wonder if it's because I'm too idealistic. The desire in me to be the modern mom who still has a great career, who can handle a job in the day, be a great mom in the evening, can cook, can clean and have everything. But as I struggle to find my source of happiness I end up feeling quite the opposite.

And it didn't help that work was just crappy this week and I had to work late for so many evenings just to clean up s#$@. As a result, I feel so tired and worn out by the end of the day that even my patience with my two babies is wearing thin.

I hate feeling this way. I need to focus on the things in life that really matters. And it starts with eliminating the things that steal my time, my energy. That's why technology, or more specifically my iPhone is such a distraction sometimes. No doubt, it has brought me so much more convenience and entertainment, it has also kept me from the things that I should do or things that I enjoy more. At the same time, if I want to make my life more enriching, more satisfying, I have to start changing my mindset. Stop complaining and start making a change.

Belt out, *I'm starting with the man woman in the mirror, I'm asking her to change her ways...

Don't we have have such struggles to be a better person? I know I do... But I'll get better, I know I will. So please help me God.

Newbie on the iPhone 4

With so much hype on the iPhone 4, Alexis decided to make it my next present. This was to be my big present from the hubby for my birthday, valentine's day and anniversary present. I had a feeling that he was more interested to get it as a new toy. To show his sincerity, he was even one of those who queued overnight outside the M1 paragon on the day of the launch on 31 July so that I can be one of the first few in Singapore to own the iPhone. Now that I'm an owner of the iPhone 4, I'm very proud to say I'm a a iPhone convert!

The iPhone is so much better than my previous Nokia E63. I especially liked the fact that the phone has 5 megapixel and comes with flash. And the photo quality is so much better than my previous handphone which was only 2 megapixel! Now I can go trigger happy and snap away at my darling Sophie.

With the iPhone, it's so easy to get connected on my social networks like facebook, twitter and ebuddy. Surfing the website is just a breeze with the ability to scroll up and down with a flick of the finger too. Oh and have I even mentioned about all kinds of apps to keep you entertained, simplify your life, be updated with the news, etc

Oh and just in case you're wondering, the antenna issue is really over rated and blown out of proportion. I hardly had any problems! And what's more if you have a bumper then it's not even an issue at all!

Any apps that are highly recommended? Tell me about it!

Planning for Sophie's Big ONE!

Baby Sophie is turning one in 2 weeks time. We decided to throw a simple party to mark this milestone in her life with a few of our close friends. After all it can get over whelming for her if there are too many people especially.

Planning for her party has been no small feat. There is the timing to consider especially since a few of our friends have kids too, so lunch time is not so ideal since it may be close to their nap times.

Then there is also the cake. My gosh, have you seen the extent parents are going to just for cakes?With what have you, two tiers cakes, characters themed, I decided to keep it simple since my dear Sophie wouldn't even be able to eat her own cake. I can put in more effort when she's older and can appreciate it.

Some of my friends was asking me what I'm getting for Sophie. It didn't really cross my mind that I have to buy her something. After all, I do agree that not all presents have to be material presents. I know of someone that actually bought a Tag Heuer watch for her son that turned one! What I plan to do is to put together a scrapbook of her first years with my wishes for her. This is for her to know how she was as a baby. I doubt she'll be crazy about it, so the back up plan maybe is some fisher price toy! Haha

I want my copy of the Yum Yum Bento Box!!!

Waiting for the book to be stocked at the National Library patiently... I think my bento adventures will start very soon. Muahha

Bentolicious!

Recently I have taken a new interest in lunch boxes. Or to be more precise, japanese lunch boxes, or more commonly known as bento boxes. Just like all things Japanese, bento boxes are loving packed and artfully created to make one go "kawaii!! Just like how a young girl goes when she sees hello kitty, cute babies or all things pink. And that was my reaction too as I got introduced to the world of bento via fellow twitters like bentozen, SusanKYuen, bentolicious, etc.

It also happened that I have started to pay more attention to Sophie's dinner as she's now approaching one years old. And since the infant care does not provide for dinner, a policy of Cherie Hearts as they believe that kids should spend dinner time with their parents, I decided to take time to prepare her menu for her. Of course she does not care about how cute her dinner looks as long as its edible at this stage. It's more of a new interest that mommy has taken too.

So I embarked on my bento journey by first getting the necessary bento equipment. From cutters to egg moulds, to bento boxes to pretty picks, you get satisfy your bento desires all at the trusty Daiso where everything goes for $2. And I find that PS carries a better range... at least compared to Vivo City :P

Colorful picks with animal design

Bento box and silicon molds to hold food in

I'm so excited at getting all crafty over food. Hopefully it adds more joy and bring out the domestic goddess in me! :)

Sophie excited over my bento box already!

Half a year gone

Cant believe that half a year has slipped by like that. Gosh I wish I was more careful with my time. I wished I had savored more of Sophie growing up days. I wished I had spent more time with my friends. To spend more time feeding my soul, to rest, to dream, to appreciate things around me instead of living in a whirl day by day.

Still another half a year to pay more attention to the details in my life to make the moments count.

Do you enjoy your job?

I wanted to title this post, "Do you love your job?" But love is such a strong word that I don't think many would use that on their jobs.

Today I'm glad I had a talk with my boss to voice some unhappiness I was facing at work. It's been some time since I felt frustrated by the sheer volume of work, some colleague's bo chapness and my boss's recent disappearing act. Anyway the air's been cleared so hopefully things will get better and I will enjoy my work again.

Honestly I didn't think I'll be in Prudential for so long. 4 years and 6 months to be exact. Almost approaching 5 years in another half year's time.

My first job, which was to do Marketing in the Investments Dept in UOB was 2 years and 4 months. But things got unbearable after a while with almost the whole department experiencing a turn over. The colleagues that I used to enjoy working with left one by one. And the new ones were well not just as friendly. Moreover with a change in boss, it also means they brought along their own people and made you feel like the forgotten child.

What I really enjoy in this current company is the spirit of the people. From the management to the fellow colleagues. Oh not to mention that there is a sense of family and closeness that we share. That's why it's not surprising to find us going out for brunch or dinner even on weekends. Oh and did I mention that we also have birthday leave too? Just some of these perks of being in a company that cares.

But ultimately I think the colleagues matter a lot too. And I'm glad that I work in a fun department where even though we make alot of noise sometimes, we always deliver our best. We all have our different patters - the life wire, the obsessed one, the anal one, the lor sor and cheong hei one, the everything also want to sell one, the motherly one.... but we have come to learn to accept one another.. or maybe still getting there.

Anyway reminding myself that it's TGIF tomorrow! So going to enjoy my work tomorrow and look forward to the weekends with baby Sophie!

Brunch at Hatched

Had an egg-cellent idea to go for brunch this Saturday. So I rounded my girlfriends from the office and suggested an egg-citing place, Hatched!

Enough of the pun :) Hatched is located at Evans Lodge which is tucked away from all the bustle of the city and just next to the Botanical Gardens. Just nice if you wish to grab a bite after a walk in the Botanical Gardens.

My first impression: Cosy place, great for small or big group like ours-there were 9 of us! The decor was done in a no-frills meet old school feel as you can see from their benches.

Their menus were very interesting too with specially designed characters to represent the different ways their eyes are prepared. And it's hard not to be tempted to order one dish as there were so many ways I love my eggs to be cooked, scrambled, fried, sunny side up, etc.

And on their wall, there also had special items not found on the menu like their cupcakes, ice cream and dinner menu.

I ordered the Sir Benedict, which is one of their signature dish. It consisted of 1/2 English muffin, topped with Blackforest ham, poached egg & Hollandaise sauce, served with homemade mash and a side salad. The muffins were lightly toasted and the wining formula must lie in the Hollandaise sauce. Before this I had no idea what egg Benedict was. (Don't be clueless like me, read the origin here).

Most of my friends opted for the Designer Eggs where they cook the scrambled eggs with toppings of your choice like ham, bacon, cheese, onions, etc. That also came with their homemade mash and a slice of toast and a thick one it was too.

Verdict: Great place for egg lovers. Leaves you egg-specting for more eggs the next time you come. Left with a great egg-perience :)

Hatched

26 Evans Road
#01-06 Evans Lodge

New Look

How do you like my new layout? This is blogger's new designer templates which is very useful for people like me who wants to update the look for my blog for the longest time but just am clueless on how to go around doing it. And they made it so easy to update the template that it's not only the design but the layout, pictures and many more.

And guess what there's even a video on how you can create the look you want to achieve on your blog too. Link is here.

I like how this meadow background gives me a calming and serene effect. This may just inspire me to blog more often :)

I think I shall explore other templates available and see if I've really done myself justice by selecting this template so quickly.

Happy 4th Year Anniversary

We celebrate yet another year of our blissful, happy marriage on 3 June 2010. And this year it's with two of my babies, Big Baby Alexis and baby Sophie! Baby is like a pet name that I give to Alexis. But he's too shy to even want to call me dear or any endearing terms when we're in public and just calls me Susan. Bleh :P I still hint to him that he can at least call me dear, honey, etc..

We celebrated this special day by having what I call a "Moving Day". Moving of the jaws ad moving of the body.

In the morn we wanted to have brunch because I like starting my day with nice food. But alas after dropping Sophie off at my in-laws it was already 11. So we ended up having an early lunch at Bakerzins.

Then we went to SengKang swimming pool to check out the pool that we wanted to go for the longest time. We heard that there is an in door pool and jacuzzi as well as slides. So that was us moving our bodies. I think I may bring Sophie there for a swim one day as the children's pool is really big and the toilets are near by too.

And for the evening, we ended the night with more moving of the mouth! Seafood at Jumbo. Cereal prawns that I love, chili crab that I've been craving for, fried you tiao coz it looks nice and vege just coz I think I needed some fiber after so much of an indulgence!

Looking all satisfied after having crabs!

4 years of marriage

It's not always been easy. And now with a baby, it has sure added joy and sometimes tension to our relationship too. We have our squabbles over the housework, families, work, etc but at the end of the day there's nothing that we cannot resolve together because we know we have a common goal. Not to take each other for granted and look out for each other's interest.

We make a promise that we must always remember to say I love you often and end each night with a good night kiss. Though these are seemingly small things but it's the small things that matters too.

I like it that Alexis can still surprise me from time to time be it with flowers or just by showing a different side of him which is totally unexpected. I too enjoy discovering more about him, growing old beside him, and falling in love with him day by day.

Love you honey bunny!

Finally a Holiday!

Title says it all. The family of 3 is off for a holiday to KL this week. This will be our first holiday as a family, Sophie's first road trip to KL. Hope we survive it especially the long drive and hopefully Sophie's feeling better and no longer bothered by the teething episode where she was constantly being cranky.

Just the list to pack for her is already so long! The good thing is, we'll be staying at my colleague's, Vivienne's place so at least the cooking aspect is all sorted out. Else I think I have to lug along the slow cooker to cook her porridge.

Reminding myself that we're there for a holiday and time to take things slowly and just relax. So for once, there is no agenda, no itinerary (Yes, on other days I even make plans when travelling up to KL :P ) But Vivienne did promise to bring us to lots of foodie hideout for nice local food. Dieting plans out of the window!

Looking forward to Wednesday already!!!

Making small changes to my lifetsyle one step at a time. For too long, I have been procrasinating on doing exercise, eating healthy, all because of baby.

Well if you don't know, apparently after you exercise the composition of the breast milk for nursing moms changes as lactic acid build ups due to the exercise. According to some studies, it may result in the baby being fussy or refusing the milk as the taste of the breastmilk may changes. So I didn't want to take any chances and laid off almost all exercise. And besides which mom has time for exercise when you're already trying to get more rest, more sleep everyday.

And as for my diet, I'm honest when I say that my appetite is probably bigger after I started breastfeeding. Did you know that one can burn 200-500 calories just by breastfeeding? So in a way I could afford to eat more. Initially the breastfeeding did help me shed my weight, but as I got complacent with my diet, there is no change to my weight after the 3rd month or so...

But it's almost close to 9 months since I gave birth and its finally time to stop the excuses and get this body of mine to do some good! So today I traded my bubble tea (one of my weakness I swear!) for fruit juice. And mind you not just any fruit juice, but kiwi grapefruit. And did you know that grapefruit is a diet fruit? It may block enzymes involve in fat and carbohydrate storage and speed up the way our bodies burn fat, resulting in weight loss.

And that's not all, I also traded my evening to go jogging instead of shopping and opted for a no carbs dinner with my barbeque chicken salad with corn on the cob.

Proud of myself...so far. But I know it will take more than one day's effort to achieve my desired weight loss.

PRESS ON!

Pleasant Surprised

Don't you like pleasant surprises? I know I do. Be it a call from an old friend, a mail from someone unexpected, or flowers from the hubby just because or simply good food when it's unexpected. And boy have I discovered some lately.

Portuguese egg tarts

Now who would have thought Mr Conel Sanders would include these Macau delight in his finger lickin good menu? After all, weren't they the ones that took away some good desserts? Like their good old strawberry cheesecake which I still secretly hope they will revive one day.

Never mind that portuguese egg tart seems like sucha mismatch to fried chicken like I don't know pokka dots to checkereds? If you have not tried their egg tarts, you should else you don't know what you're missing. Each egg tart is smooth with a bit of caramelised in flaky crust. The kind I totally love. Totally yumms.

And thumbs up to another item on their menu, their KFC AM breakfast!

To be honest, I didn't have any expectations of their breakfast. After all I though surely it must be their way of trying to gain some market share of Mac's breaskfast. But I was proved so wrong. I had their waffles which came with maple syrup and scrambled eggs. The waffles were fluffy and light and were slightly crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. The taste is so much better than Mac's pancakes. I am so coming back for more!

No wonder Mr Seetoh is sold too!

Universal Studios Singapore

Entrance of Universal Studios Singapore

It was a night of roller coasters, mascots and good food at the Universal Studios yesterday. It was a special invitation from one of my working partners to the latest theme park in Singapore together with some of my colleagues.

All ready for universal studios!

Despite being down with the flu and a sore throat, I decided to still go and check out the place. After all I had to see if it was well worth the $66 day ticket :P and see how it compares to the one in LA

Mr Kungfu Panda, Po!!

The usual operating hours of the park is from 9am to 6pm. But our event started at 6:30pm, so as we entered the staff were waving good bye to their guests and we had the whole park to ourselves. But then we found out that only a section was opened for us and there were only 5 rides for the night. Nevertheless I still enjoyed myself. The first ride that I took was the much talked about Battlestar Galatica, Human vs Cylon.

Description of the ride:
Themed after the hit television show Battlestar Galactica™, the world’s tallest pair of dueling roller coasters will propel thrill-seekers on several inversions, a zero-g roll, a cobra roll, corkscrews, vertical loops and near collisions mere centimeters apart.



The rides was crazy scary!!! There are basically two rides , the red, Human ride, was the first one I took. It starts off with a plunge that practically leaves your heart in mid air as you come crashing down and whirling all around. I was so After the rides, I was light headed and a little faint. I cant figure if it was from all the blood rush or the medicine that I took. I know, ko ko right? Sick already can still go to the theme park and sit roller coaster some more.

But after getting a "high" from the first ride, I just has to take the blue , Cylon ride. The one that suspends you and turn your world upside down as it runs through vertical loops, corkscrews and cobra rolls.

Somehow the adrenalin from the rides suppressed the flu and I was better already. I was still joking that doctors should give their patients a shot of adrenalin to make them feel better!


After these two rides, it was time to explore another part of the park, Ancient Egypt. Here I sat on the Revenge of the Mummy indoor roller coaster. It was exactly the same as the one in LA, so no surprises there.


After all the fun, it was time to fill our tummies. There was no lack of food as the streets were lined with tables of food with all kinds of cuisine to suit every taste buds, from Western to Chinese to Indian to Italian.

Streets of food, glorious food

Didn't get to see the whole theme park, but just based on what I saw for the night. I would say wait till 2011 when all the rides are ready to get more bang for your buck. But somehow it still lacked the movie magic like the LA one. What would complete it is definitely the movie tour bus where you see the sets like Desperate Housewives and also scenes from War of the World and Jurassic Park.

Anyway Sophie's too young for the park now, maybe in another year or two when she can run around then we'll visit the park and she'll be able to go on the rides... or maybe just the Party Go Round :)

Parenting is "heart' work

With baby Sophie growing so quickly, it's more apparent that Alexis and I have to agree on how we want to bring up Sophie. The values that we want to inculcate in her and the kind of person we want her to grow up into. I am convinced that there is only so much that is attributed to nature but how a child turns out is mainly how we nurture them too.

Its always funny how siblings from the same factory all turn out very very different. Just take my family for example, I have two younger siblings, a younger brother and sister and we all turned out so different.

My sister: Independent, ambitious, sporty, lives for the future

My brother: gift of the gab, rebellious (mostly during his youth), out-going, humorous

Me: family oriented, lives for the now, messy (according to the hubby)

That's why I tweeted this statement, "Parenting-doing it intentionally, doing it deliberately."

It takes effort to be a parent. To be able to bring up your next generation who will model after your life, the things you stand for, believe it, value. That's a huge responsibility upon my shoulder. I don't want to live my life carelessly, to just go with the flow and let things happen as they come. More so now that I'm a mom, with a little girl that's watching me. That's why more than just changing their diapers, ensuring that they have 3 meals, sending them to school, bringing them on holidays, its about nurturing them, molding them, shaping them to be the person of a character.

I borrowed this book, 12 Simple Secrets Real Moms Know by Michele Borda.

Here's the list:

1. A mother who loves teaches worth
2. A mother who is firm and fair gives her children a moral code to live by
3. A mother who listens shows her children they matter
4. A mother who is a good role model give her children an example worth copying
5. A mother who teaches values inspires character
6. A mother who supports her children's strength builds their confidence
7. A mother who encourages independence cultivates self-reliance
8. A mother who applauds efforts nurtures perseverance
9. A mother accepts her children's short-comings nurtures resilience
10. A mother who takes time for her children helps them build strong relationships
11. A mother who laughs teaches joy
12. A mother who takes care of herself holds together her happy family

Sounds like a good list don't you think :)

Parenting -replacing the hard work into heart work.

New wall sticker for the hall

Decided to jazz up the plain O' wall in the hall this year. As you can see it's just... a little boring now.

Cutting the wall paper stickers into more manageable size


Ta dah!

Just the way I like it. Pretty in pink. Wahaha. Very timely for the Chinese New Year too.

Spring Cleaning for Chinese New Year

CNY is in another 6 days. This year, we started spring cleaning early because we expected that there will be days when we will be busy cleaning Sophie than the house. While I'm the one pointing out the areas to be cleaned I would never be the domestic goddess at home and Alexis would be the first to second that.

In the home, I'm the hoarder because I feel that somewhere sometime down the road, this is going to come to good use although I have absolutley no idea what to do with it now. And my reasoning is that I spent money on it (most likely an impulsive buy), got it as a gift or a free gift so why throw away something good. Alexis on the other hand believes that if you have no immediate use for it, it must go since it does nothing but make the house more cluttered and messy. God knows how many arguements we have over our different styles at home.

So in my attempt to keep the house tidy, I borrowed this book titled Clutter Free from the library.

The author of the book is a more extreme version of me. She came realize how messy her place was when one day her door got forced open. But because her home was so messy, the burgular couldnt even push open the door! And when the police came by they told her that her place was ransacked... And to her embrassement she had to admit that the state of mess was her doing! So this book is written by someone who have difficulties keeping the home neat because it's just not natural to them unlike some authors who make it sound a breeze because it's just in them to be organized and neat.

Alexis's idea of neat

okay, I'm really not like that

I joked with Alexis that perhaps we could write a book on this topic too. In it will be stories of the fights we have over different housekeeping styles and how I find it an absolutely pain to keep the house tidy while he does it so.. more naturally than me. I'll give them pointers on things you dont do, like hiding stuffs things right at the top of the cupboard so that once its outta sight, it's outta mind or the story from Alexis's side about how being clutter free starts from having the liberation to throw things that you don't need.

So anyway Alexis is very excited over this project to give everything in the house a home that he has decided that as my Valentine's present, he shall do exactly that...Give everything in the house a home.

So there goes my idea of having a present that goes bling bling. The only sparkling present that I'll receive is a sparkling clean new house...which I told him feels like the equivalent of receiving an iron as a present :P Maybe just maybe I'll appreciate it more in the future...as for now, how about a more decent Valentine's Day present?

My tweet and Facebook status says it all
Susan Koh needs more hours in a day...so much to do, so little time.

There is simply not enough hours in a day, especially on a work day. Just the mornings are enough to drive me in a frenzy.

typical morning:
wake up, feed sophie, express milk, wash pumps, wash up, change, makeup, change sophie's diapers, dress her, breakfast (if I'm not already late), then rush out of the house for work

This usually takes anything between 1 hour to 1 and half hours, depending if Sophie is cooperative in the morning. Some days, I will feed her and when I'm done feeding her and gone on to pump, she decides that she's still hungry and wants to drink somemore. *faints* so I've to feed her again which throws the schedule all off. And if Idecide to be lazy and sleep in for 10 minutes, I'll be late for work already :P

Not to mention, work is getting more and more busy. I've got meetings to attend, presentations to prepare, research to do, funds to launch... blah blah blah. And then in the middle of the day, I've got to run off to pump, not once but twice. Not that I'm complaining lah, because it's the only time in the day that I have a mental break from the stress of wor... And also time that I think of Sophie baby.

I really do hope to keep up with the pumping to try to breastfeed Sophie for as long as possible. After all it is the BEST for her. So really got to gambetei and work extra fast. Which means less time to chat to my colleagues during office hours and work work work.