I am sure by now, you already seen my new blog template. I have been wanting to change it but procrastinated. Finally my itchy hands decided to do it. It took me 1 night of work, doing it while I was having a night conference.

This time around it was not that difficult. Let me share some tricks to go about doing this. It only worked for wordpress as I am not that familiar with blogspot.

First, you go and browse through the internet. Google for WordPress Template or WordPress Theme. Choose one that you like, the overall outlook, color and the number of columns. Don’t worry about the header and the font, those can be changed.

Once you have selected it, upload to your blog. For my header, I used Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 to help me with the 3D, font, reflection, photo edge bluring…etc. It is quite a need tool. You can also paste pictures on it and resize it on the spot. I copy the final image to another image tool and save is as jpg. Tada, one nice header.

Next I have to move all my ads from one template to another. A tip for you, when you add any ads script to your template, always have a comment before and end of the script. It helps you locate all the scripts easily.

Oh, I accidentally deleted a simple code, my entire blog vanished. Becareful! I always have backup of my template files, I just upload that file again and it is back to original. Pretty Cool!

Lastly, you can change the font in the stylesheet file called CSS. If you don’t know where things are, you can use the trial and error method. Pick an obvious font and start replacing it one by one to see the effect on your blog. Remember backup the original file.

Let me know if your fingers are itchy and want to change your blog theme. I can help you along but I cannot do it for you.

Happy Styling Your Blog!

Oh no…I shrunk the kids.

How I wished I can do that at times?! Like when

1. They want to talk at the same time.
2. They are too noisy
3. They fight
4. They cry
5. They ask too many questions
6. When mummy wants peace
7. When mummy wants rest
8. When mummy wants silence
9. When mummy wants privacy
10. When daddy needs sleep

Sorry, mummy just wanna have fun. I still love you both the way you are.

Last week was really busy for me. I had 4 night meetings in a row running from 9pm onwards. I have a big project that will materialize. If only, my company will give my team part of the cost savings we made for this project.

Besides that, last week was also Tim’s exam week. I started tutoring him the week before every day at 8pm-9pm. I bought many mock up exams papers/books for him to practice. He likes doing it and that’s good. By the way, if I got 8 of those books, I get 2 Education VCD and another free book. It is good deal and one book cost RM1.90. I need to send the proof of purchase with a RM4 POS express envelope to collect those VCD and the free book. It was another chore for me to run to the post office to get that POS express pack.

Being a paranoid mom, I asked Tim everyday when he return from school whether he know how to do his exam. On one of the day, I didn’t expect this to come out from my timid boy. He said, maybe I can scored 100. I know it is very hard for him to achieve that because he has the same gens as me, making careless mistakes. I just laughed. However on Friday, he told me that the teacher announced he got 100 for Maths. I am still in disbelieved and waiting for the Maths paper to come back.

My hubby reminded me that I have a church ladies meeting on Friday which I forgot all about it. I was one of the committee. I was asked to setup the projector and computer for the speaker. She wanted to present the bible verses in Chinese and I was afraid my computer may not have the Chinese font. Anyhow, I installed a couple of Chinese package for Windows XP Pro and prayed that it will work. It did!

The last thing I had to do and it was the most satisfying was to go visit Shireen (aka HealthFreakMummy) and Baby C. I always wanted to visit her but I didn’t get her contact. Thanks to Chanel who gave me her number. I took Friday off to get something for Baby C. Baby C has gone through so much with her surgery and prolonged vomiting. It made me cry every time I read about her. I prayed for her and Shireen constantly that this tragic will be over soon.

Paik Ling organized a collection to contribute to Baby C medical bills. If you would like to contribute, email me or her.

I met Shireen, she is still keeping very strong. Baby C was sleeping when I was there. I am really glad that the doctor finally found the cause of the problem. Sad to say, Baby C has to go for another surgery yesterday to correct the kinked gut. Shireen thank everyone who contributed. You know who you are. Well visiting Shireen and Baby C was the best thing of the week because I must say that in the virtual world of Internet, we do have many caring moms.

My area is prone to mosquitoes and I am not sure why. Maybe clogged drains or maybe it is the rainy weather. I suspect there are a lot of cases of Dengue in my area too. The foggers are coming very frequent to fog. They come with bazooka smoke guns. My neighbor’s children have Dengue and I am very worried but all of them recover speedily. Thank goodness.

Last Saturday when I was returning home with Emily after her music class, Timothy rang my iPhone and Emily answered. She turned on the speaker. Timothy was shouting.

Tim: Mummy, faster come back and rescue us. The mosquito men are coming! *He meant the foggers*

Ok, I was like 2 minutes away and managed to pick him and papa up so that they don’t covered with mosquito spray. Papa opened all windows so that the house is fogged thoroughly, inside out.

After dinner about a few hours, we returned home. Guess what? We still see a few mosquitos flying here and there. Looks like the spray didn’t helped at all. I wonder whether the mosquito was immune to the chemical used. Sigh, better used our own spray.

Today the inspectors came to our place to check. He found nothing but he told us many cases of Dengue around our area. It must be bad. For me, maybe the best thing to do is to build up the immune system of my children. Papa got the roll on mosquito repellent for them to apply to the skin. It helps.

By the way, now both Emily and Timothy have rashes. The rashes are reducing but didn’t disappear. I thought was dust mites or bed bugs but the doctor ruled that out from the look of the rash. She said it could be something they ate or some chemical.

Papa suspected the chemical from the foggers. Well the doctor prescribed better anti-histamine called Aerius. She also asked us to apply moisturizer on their skin because the dryness may cause itchiness. I purchased Cetaphil moisturizer for them because it has no smell. Tim does not allow me to put any fragrance cream on him. Emily was alright with it.

Do you know Teacher’s Day is this Saturday 16th May? Happy Teacher’s Day if you are a teacher.

I remembered when I was in primary school, some of us will go buy stalks of roses for the teachers. My school is near a wet market which is now Lot 10. The seller will wrap it nicely for us individually.

Today, Tim is having a Happy Teacher’s Day celebration and Emily will have it tomorrow. Timothy wanted to make cards for his teacher. I helped him along. The thing with cards is nobody wants to keep them. I decided to make something special with Tim’s help so that the teacher will keep it. I decided to make a Japanese Doll card which I learnt a few months back from a sheet of instruction. It is very simple to do if you have the hand of origami.

I had to make 8 cards because Tim does have a lot of teachers from BM&Maths, English&Science, Seni Visual, Jasmani, Chinese, Moral and Singing class. I made extra 2 for Emily’s teacher.

This is a busy week for me. Besides making cards, I had to tutor Timothy and prepare him for his exam next week. He is fine with Maths , Science and English but have problem in Bahasa Malaysia and Moral. Oh well, BM is not his forte. It is difficult to make him remember BM words. Now I have to read a BM story with him every night. He has no problem reading BM but he just doesn’t understand what he reads. Yeap, I tried to speak BM with him too. Hopefully he will pick up BM someday and I know he will.

Seriously I don’t remember my parents tutoring me in any of my subjects. I never attended any tuition in primary. Times have changed. However I must thank all the teachers who taught me and instill good principles in me. Now do something to appreciate the teachers that are teaching your children.

Would you eat from a toilet bowl? I believed not. On mother’s day, we went to TBowl restaurant where almost everything is in toilet bowl. Chairs are toilet bowl and table are sinks with a glass top. Food served is in the toilet bowl. The taste of the food was not bad but nothing special. The only thing that is special about this place is the toilet bowl deco concept.

Tim wanted to order ice-cream that was shaped like a piece of shit. Sorry no pictures as I ordered banana split instead. And thank goodness, my drinks came in normal glass.

I saw a lady who couldn’t accept this concept. She asked the waitress to remove the toilet bowl. It was a hot soup noodle and after many tries, the waitress failed. In the end, she had no choice but ate from it.

If you are down in Penang, you must try this.

Flowers from hubby & children:

After I sent my children to bed, I went on to do my own things in the study room. I heard little footsteps coming down from the stairs. It is either Tim or Emily. She didn’t come to the study room but she was doing something outside for 5 minutes. I was wonder what she was doing outside.

I opened the door and her sad face greeted me. I asked her why.

Emily: I lost the Happy Mother’s Day card.

Little did she know that I took it out from her bag. I showed her that the card was on my table. Her disappointment look had changed to a big smile and she showed me what was inside the card….a 3 in 1 coffee mix.

How sweet! I gave her hug and she went back upstairs to sleep.

It was not the card or the 3 in 1 coffee mix. It is that she remembered the gift she made for me and wanted to give me a surprise even though she was about to sleep.

Why did I take it out from her bag? Because I wanted to take a picture of it to put on my blog. I was hoping to put it back so that she can surprise me the next morning. Opps! Sorry gal for spoiling your surprise.

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers out there. I hope you get your surprise too! Mom, your surprise will be arriving in June.

I must say that my children has blossom or grown up. At this age, there are many things that they can do on their own. I do not have to be with them all the time like when they were babies.

Knowing me, I love to sleep in especially on a holiday or weekend. Tim will wake up first, he is an early bird. He will go and brush his teeth, either go down stairs to watch cartoon or go to the play room. If he is hungry, he will go down stairs to the kitchen and grab some biscuits from the cookie jar.

Emily will wake up next, she will go to brush her teeth and join Tim in the playroom. Yeap, mummy wakes up last because mummy is a late bird. By the way, they spend an hour playing with each other in the room.

They can do a lot on their own and here are some of the things. I guess having no maid help a lot because they do the things themselves.

• They can eat by themselves. Emily needs some help if the food is not to her liking.
• They can bath by themselves. They like to bath in cold water except for rainy days that I need to switch on the heater for them.
• They can wash their own school shoes.
• They can help themselves in the toilet if they want to do big or small business.
• They can help themselves with switching on the TV or video player while I am cooking.
• Tim can pack his own school bag and does his homework. He still needs a lot of help with BM.
• They can put away their toys but with constant reminders.
• They can sleep by themselves when lights out. Sometimes when papa put them to sleep, they bully papa by asking him to be in the room. As for me, when I leave the room, they sleep.

Now you know why, even without a maid, either me or my hubby can take care of them. They are a lovely pair of children, just precious!

Please slow down, I still want to enjoy their development a little longer.

*contain unattractive pictures*

Tim got a bad rash since last Wednesday. He came home with rash on the face and legs. I suspect he ate something that he was allergic too. Up to this day, I am not sure what. Anyway, I applied calamine lotion to ease his itch and monitor him, hoping it will go away.

A few days after that, it seems to look better. However on Sunday night, it becomes worst and Monday, it starts to spread to the hand. His primary teacher called to ask us to take him home from school, she was afraid that he has chicken pox. My hubby did tell her that it is rash and not contagious.

No choice, I had to take him to the clinic. The doctor prescribed some antihistamine (Zyrtec). Hydrocortisone cream (a steroid used to reduce inflammation) and anti-itch medicine. The cream is to be used sparingly. Well his condition is very bad that I need to use this cream. Today he looks much better.

The doctor gave Zyrtec pill and Tim never learnt how to swallow a pill before. He was terrible at it. He kept it in the mouth until it dissolve and finally swallows it. The next course, I had to make it into powder form and add a little water for him to take it. I also prepare some tic-tac for him to get rid of the bitter taste.

I remember my mom gave me “kar in chee” after I eat medicine. I still love it, not the medicine but the kar in chee.

Mothers do not have Labor Day holiday per say. We still have to take care of our kids when we are off from work. Remember the time I took off and went down to KL for a shopping spree, maybe that was Labor Day for me. Anyway, now it is my hubby’s turn, he went down to KL for a mission conference for 3N/4D. I am home alone with the kids. He is back now.

Labor Day was a day well spent with the kids. First we went to have morning breakfast at indoor mamak café. Each has a roti canai. Timothy likes it with curry and Emily likes it with sugar. She started to take curry but still see her spicy face after eating it. I had my ice milk tea in mamak style. Both of them shared a syrup lime. Next we went to do some groceries shopping in Giant, which I have no clue that there was a sale going on. A few items were on sale but needs to purchase in carton. I got some stuff to cook lunch for them. My children wanted pasta and pasta, they shall have.

After their nap, they wanted to go to an indoor playground in Queensbay mall. We don’t have that many good indoor playgrounds as compare to KL. They played more than an hour and all sweaty. Queensbay mall was really packed with people during labor day but not as bad as MidValley KL. I hate the way, they blocked certain path to the carpark, forcing folks to go down and jam up the parking lot. Of coz, I was smart enough to take a longer route to go up.

Of coz, there was this crazy car with plate number KL XX. While I was queuing to go into the car park, he cut into my lane with no signal. “Nevermind”, I said. There were 2 lanes. As I approached nearer, I found that the left lane was going up to the indoor carpark and right lane was going into the open car park. I signaled to move to the left lane and was quite successful. The KL plate car tried to get very close to me wanting to cut in front of me. I really hate people who do that. It was a bumper to bumper queue. However my lane move faster and he missed cutting in. He was trying to go left and right, not sure what he was doing. I didn’t let him through. Fortunately another car cut in front of him and he was way at the back as our lane move faster. I mean how fast you can get by cutting into people lane, such inconsiderate driver. Another thing, I bet he got stuck in the parking jam because many were force to go to lower floors. I managed to sneak to the upper floors with plenty of parking space.

After the kids enjoyed the playground, we did a little shopping at Jusco. They were having some sale. I got some items. My children saw me carrying so many stuff, they offered to help me carry. I was surprised by their gesture.

I felt happy and rewarded them with going to ToysRus, their favorite shop. It must be the economy downturn, a lot of toys were going for 30-50% discount for members. Timothy spotted some Lego going for 40% discount. It was really cheap and I got him a set.

Last stop, we headed for Borders bookstore to read some books. Of coz, not forgetting has a nice supper at Starbucks. My children just love the atmosphere there and I can surf the net with my iPhone while they enjoy their cakes.

Tim: Mummy, I miss papa

Mummy: Ooh, you want me to put you on a plane to KL, to see papa.

Tim: No.

Mummy: Emily, do you miss papa?

Emily: If I say I miss papa, you cannot say send me to KL on a plane, ok?

Mummy: Ok. :giggles:

Emily: Yes.