Life to live and explore

Buying gifts for the aide

Have quite a bit of shopping to do before the move. Need to get some spices, food and source in packets that may not easy to find in IL, and also need to buy some gifts for the big boy’s parents and  relatives.

We wanted to buy  a gift for the aide in the congressman’s office who helped us expediting the visa petition. He really worked hard to follow up with our case. Without him pushing to expedite the petition, it may be still pending, lying around on one of the shelves in USCIS California Service Center!

Thought of getting him a pewter or some local food, but not sure he will like it? The big boy suggested getting him a box of chocolates. He thinks chocolate gifts are universal, and very few people won’t like chocolates. May be we should take the easy route? :-)

Need another luggage and start packing for the move

I have not even seriously started packing, the big luggage is already full with only clothing and some miscellaneous stuffs. Definitely need to get another luggage for other photos, books and food stuffs that we intend to bring to IL. Also contemplating whether to get a new hand luggage as the handle for the existing one is malfunction, it is permanently pulled out and can not be be retracted.

Will be going down to KL this Wednesday. The visa interview is on Thursday, after submitting the documents in the morning, will have a couple of hours before going back for visa interview in the afternoon. Thought may have time to go shopping, can kill time and get the luggage, why not?

Have you heard of advertising and marketing through blogs?

After selling off the tutoring business and went for a surgery in April, I moved back to live with my parents temporarily while waiting for the immigration visa to get approved and before I move to IL. It has been more than one year that we have separated ever since the big boy went back to IL, it’s high time for us to be united!

The procrastinator and the inefficient CIS are responsible for this long separation. However, I couldn’t be more grateful that I am able to earn money online after selling off the business and waiting for this gruesome process to complete. After all, I have a mortgage to pay, it will be impossible to get by without an income for extended period.

My neighbors and friends are often curious what how do keep myself busy at home if not “working”, even my parents got upset at first thinking they have an adult daughter unemployed at home. I tried to explain to them about the online income from blogging and ads, but they are kind of skeptical, thought it’s a scam or fraud too good to be true.

When I started a blog in beginning of 2007, it was a simple gesture to share about Montessori education, I do not know many people were making money through their blogs. Of course there was very little understanding of how people can get paid blogging. It’s by accident that I learned about the opportunity to make money with my blogs and the existence of blog ads. I do believe that blogs have a lot of potential to be the new media that reaches out to people. Of course a lot of businesses are quick to smell it and started to advertise on blogs. Last year, in 2007, we had a lot of businesses advertised for Halloween costumes months before Halloween and Christmas season started well before the Fall. If you have not heard of it, you better learn what’s it and how you can be part of this brave new world.

Flood in the Midwest

There has been storms off and on for the last few week at where we are going to live. In fact, you might have seen on the TV that many areas in the Midwest are hit by flood. My parents in law’s basement was flooded too few weeks ago. Though it’s just the basement, it took the big boy one whole day to help them clean up. The sofa, recliner, bookshelf and tv stand in the basement were all soaked and need to bring outside to dry under the sun.

Can you imagine those houses that were submerged in the water to the roof? Surely it will be a hell lot of work to clean. Many of them will probably need to hire a disaster cleanup service to help with the cleaning up. It will take time for people to restore their home and hopefully they have insurance to cover the damages.

Need a break from this madness

It’s very frustrating to get stuck in this paperwork black hole for so long with no light at the end of the tunnel. Need a break from checking the online status and waiting for email update from the congressman’s office, it’s driving me crazy.

We need to shut off and stay away from the computer and take a break from this madness for a couple of days! It would be nice to get away and join the African hunting safari trips organized by T.Jeffery Safari Company. But, nothing of this sort will happen for a while as I am still recuperating from the recent surgery. I wonder what kind of animals are available on this hunting trips. The only kind of animals we would like to shot right now are the dumb immigration officers who asked us to wait thirty days for an “expedite” request.

Cannot drive is like without legs

Since the wounds are still healing after the recent surgery, have not been able to drive. Have to depend on dad to chauffeur me around. Dad works six days a week from 8.00 a.m -6.00p.m, which mean I am essentially stuck at home right now!

Really need to go out to run some errands by next week. Need to go down to the bank to withdraw the time deposits to pay the medical bills, it’s due next week! Also need to go meet up with the new owner who bought the business from us, to settle some paperwork and collect the final payment!

Finished medication for stomach ulcer

During the recent cancer screening tests, I have to go through the colonosopy and gatroscopy. Though the gastro specialist did not find any malignant, a stomach ulcer was identified during the gastroscopy. So the doctor gave me some medications for the ulcer.

Today, finally finished up the medications.

It was quite a hassle to remember to take the pills half an hour before meals. A couple of times during the last two weeks, I either forgot to take or took it less than half an hour before meals. That’s because when mom calls for lunch and dinner, she expects you to show up immediately, can’t even wait for the pills to do its job! That’s why it takes a week longer to finish up the medication!

Cancer and helicopter accidents are more common than we could imagine?

Due to the recent cancer scare, I have to go in and out of the hospital quite a few times. The oncologist is our friend, we really appreciate him taking time to see me although he is so busy with so many patients. He actually ONLY take referral cases from other consultants.

Some of the patients at his office do not even look sickly, they actually “look” pretty healthy. Cancer probably is more silent and common than we could imagine. Just like many of us do not think there are many people who get involved with helicopter accidents. But, the fact that aviation accident lawyers exist does tell us that it’s more common than we could imagine, doesn’t it? The website - HelicopterAccidentAttorney.com is here - serve as a legal and educational resource place for anything you need to know regarding helicopter accidents.

The Gucci Gang, wendy puyat, Tim yap, DJ Montana and Celine Lopez took care of my blogs

Took a break of two and half weeks from this blog, it was meant for a laparoscopic surgery for removal of ovarian cysts . But, it turned into a open surgery and cancer scare!

Back to my parents’ house recuperating from the surgery. The external wounds have healed well but there is still pain internally. At the same time, going through all sort of scans and scopes, to clear the doubts of the cancer tumor marker expression. Hopefully, a clear diagnosis will surface, so that next course of actions can be taken.

While I am away in the hospital, the Gucci Gang scandal, Wendy Puyat, Tim Yap, DJ Montana and Celine Lopez have been keeping this blogs alive! There is much to catch up in this two weeks, after burning a hole in my pocket with the medical treatments and diagnostic scans and scopes, time to catch up with April’s blogging income. :-)

Sweating over small stuffs

In the last few weeks, I realized that the perspective that I used to adopt very much determines my attitudes and my responses towards people around me.

May be there are lessons to learn in the midst of all this cancer scare!!

When you are facing with life and death, sweating over small stuffs does seem so silly, doesn’t it? I was a master in sweating over small stuffs in the name of principle. :-)

First day at the hospital

Took a cab to the hospital about 8.45 a.m. The gynecologist who is going to operate on me came at about 10 a.m, he drew the blood samples for lab investigation and told the nurse to give me two packets of medicine for clearing the vowel. The nurse asked me to start fasting after taking the solutions meant to facilitate bowel movement.

A woman who had just gone through a mastectomy and chemotherapy came in at about 10.30 a.m. She looked alright, but was vomiting everything that went in. She slept off and on and we got to talk in between her sleeps. We also watched the soaps on the TV to kill time. Of course there is no home theater seating and sound system, we lied on the bed, watching the 14″ TV in the ward.

The anesthetist came in the late afternoon and asked a few questions. The gynecologist came in the same time, he told me that my surgery would be at about 6.00p.m, after another small surgery that he was going to do on the same day. Well, I was under the impression that I was the only patient scheduled on that day and the operation is at 4-5.00 p.m. Anyway, it didn’t bother me much at that time.

At 5.00 p.m, I would have been fasted for closed to 7 hours, the nurse started to put me on drips and my activities of the last one and half hours before I was wheeled into the operating theater were confined to the bathroom and the bed. :-)

The last supper before surgery

Arrived at PJ about 12.30 p.m on the 2nd of April, second sister sneaked out during her lunch time to open the door to let me into their condominium. I took a shower and nap while waiting for them to come home. They came home at about 7.00 p.m, ate the simple dinner that I cooked for them.

My good friends TJ and WT dropped by to wish me good luck. TJ baked me a walnut chocolate cake and I had my last supper before the surgery!

PL came by to lend her moral support later in the evening. She did the same surgery about six months ago, she told me about the pain, it did scare me a bit. But, I slept well that night. :-)

Loaded off a huge rock

Many of you know that I am planning to move to reunite with my husband in IL and is in the process of disposing the business and our belongings. It’s a big relief to be able to sell the ground floor setup of the business. The offer to purchase the business came just in time, it loaded off a huge rock off my shoulders!!

With the business being sold and money collected from the sale, we are well cushioned for emergencies once we move into an apartment in IL. I think we have saved up enough emergency fund to weather anything that crops up during the transition period.

The news is out

Don’t know how my uncle knew that I will be traveling to IL even though it was the first time I talked to him today about the move. Must be her daughter cousin Veronica told him, she was too excited after I mentioned to her during CNY and forgot that I told her not to announce to everybody else yet. :-)

Guess the news has been out and I am expected to leave soon, I can’t change my mind or stay longer now, time to book the air ticket and travel insurance. :-)

Dark cloud above my head

It has not been a good week, going through the whole week feeling like the dark cloud stays above my head. Depressive and pessimistic thoughts make me so paralyze mentally.

It probably has to do with the hormones that goes hay wire.  Just don’t feel like myself this days. There are tons of things to do and all are over the deadline, but there is no motivation to get them done. Running behind schedule, late in replying to so many people, hate to be such an irresponsible person.

When it rained it poured

Today is such a black day for me. On the way to downtown, my car stalled right in front of the stoplight! It was running out of gas !! I did notice the gas was running low yesterday morning and did make a mental note to myself that the car needed a refill of gas. However, due to all the running around and the book sales, I totally forgot about it yesterday and this morning. Luckily two Samaritans helped me to push the car to a place less obstructive, else every motorist will be cursing me for the backup.

Thanks goodness there was a gas station about 10 minutes walking distance away. I walked there, got a mineral water bottle from the car wash boys, filled it with gas, walked back to the car, tried to start the car, wouldn’t start, walked back to the gas station, got another coke bottle, filled up both bottles, tried to start the car, wouldn’t start, sweat like a pig, a bit panicked, tried again to start the car, and I arrived at the place of appointment more than an hour late!

When I arrived home at almost 8.00 p.m, I realised that when I was in a hurry to get out of the door this morning, I have forgotten to submit links of a few posts to the relevant networks and they were all expired by now, 12 hours later. Not only that, got a message saying my account has been suspended when I logged on to one of the networks to finish up some pending posts.

Oh well, I hope that’s all for today, no more new discoveries…..

Win-win for everyone

With all the Montessori materials and books being sold (Ok, almost all), the living room is staying clear of boxes now. This weekend is time to bid goodbye to clutters and start living in less messy room.:-)

I didn’t expect everything to be cleared this fast. I can’t imagine anyone would want to buy the 50,000 beads, the copper wires and the half way done Montessori bead  materials. You should see the sparkles in this two mummies’ eyes when they saw the beads, they have apparently looked for beads and copper wires like this high and low for a while and they couldn’t find them locally. The beads were bought online and lugged all the way from IL two years back!

Anyway, I am glad all my babies found their homes and you are excited about your treasure hunts. :-)

Friend’s mother passed away

KW’s mother just passed away. Though She was diagnosed with cancer middle of last year, she seemed to be doing really well after all the cancer treatments. I think KW and his family didn’t expect her to leave so sudden.

Poor little old woman, she left the world without any of her children by her side, only the maid was with her. KW was of course devastated because that she left without knowing the Lord. It reminds of the same feeling when my grandma passed away years ago.

Loose ends here and there

With so many things to do and so many ends to tie up before the big move, I get a little overwhelmed today. We are talking about moving internationally and going through the migration process here.

Put all the Montessori materials in moving boxes and brought some of them home today. Going to snap some photos and put them online for sale. Undecided about whether to sell the books or not, should I sell them? There are all my precious collections, almost feel like selling my babies.:-)

My dream home

Despite all the fears about the unknowns and the unseens, I am actually looking forward to the move to IL. The winter in the Midwest is going to be a dread to a girl who have grown up in the tropics and think the air-conditioned room is really cold.:-)

However, I am glad we are going to live in an area with vast farm lands and less air pollution than where we are now. Do you prefer to live in the city or a small town? I grew up on a farm in a small town and I am a farm girl at heart, I would rather live on a farm than in high rise condo. The big boy may not be rich and won’t be able to provide a lot of luxury stuffs, nor can we afford to fly around in Private Jet Charter Flights. But, I think buying a little house on the farm or buying a piece of vacant land to build a house is an attainable dream.

I have always dreamed of living on a little ranch house on the farm. The big boy may work outside of home to bring in the dough. I can work at home and at the same time raise chickens, grow vegetables and berries, sort of a semi self sufficient lifestyle. :-)

Say cheese

Have really been slack off to follow up with the immigration filings. Finally got out of the house and went to the studio to take passport sized photos. Have to take twice with two different backgrounds. That’s because the photos required by the US States Department have to be in white background and for the Malaysian passport must be in blue background. They have to be of different sizes too.

Ended up paying twice the amount. My passport has expired, need to renew it soon. All this immigration filings and passport application are going to burn a hole in my pocket!

The beautiful and the dreadful

The big boy emailed me this pictures taken from his parents’ yard on Christmas day.

Aren’t they beautiful?

But, I know better that winter and cold are dreadful for a person growing up in the tropics. Bouts of the dreadful sniffles, cracked lips and nose bleeds are no fun, mind you. I really dread the cold that chilled to the bone, the cold that froze the fingers and joints until I couldn’t walk. I never expected the big boy to want to move from sunny California to chilly Illinois.

For those who have never lived in cold winter before.. I’ll have to let you know it gets really cold even if you are indoors.. you will freeze your butt off if you do not have adequate heat and these UGG boots to keep your feet warm. If anyone wants to migrate to the States.. make sure you choose places like California, Hawaii or Florida, else.. very cold!

When bad things happened to bad people

When I learned about the miseries that happened to this person that had caused much grieves in my life in the past, I was almost delighted. I wasn’t feeling revengeful or hoping that bad things would happen to her. But it was just good to know bad karma comes around. It’s bad of me, I know.

Do you believe people reap the negativities that they project onto their lives? Why would a woman who is so blessed, has good education, good job and a super nice husband complains no end about everything?  It’s a pity that she is so busy bitching, wallowing in envy and jealousy, thus she has no time to appreciate  the goodness in her life. I don’t judge my friends, but she is not my friend.:-) I do hope all this bad things that happened in her life will somehow help her to see how pathetic her life has become.

Forgiven but not forgotten

When names of people that I have not met nor kept in touch for the past 8 years were mentioned during conversation with some old friends recently, I knew I haven’t forgotten the hurts and the wounds are still very raw.

Indeed it took me a while to forgive them for the hurts I perceived and not to wallow in bitterness for my own good. However, I have decided not to have anything to do with this people because I do not need to be reminded of the bitter experience, I need to move on. May be in future but at this stage of my life, I just couldn’t bear to have bad memories refreshed and raw wounds opened.

Getting online at Starbucks

During my trip to PJ, while my sisters and friends were at work and nobody to meet in the morning, I decided to go to the Starbucks coffee place to get online. I borrowed my sister’s laptop and took a cab to the nearest Starbucks. I have never tried the WiFi service at a public area like this. So I wasn’t sure how to do it.

I ordered a cup of Cappuccino and some sandwiches, found out from the waitress what service provider is providing the WiFi available at the store. It took me a while to figure out how to connect to the network. The connection was good and fast. I think I may try that again one of this days when I get bored working at home.

Imagine sipping a cup of drink at a cozy corner of a coffee place, checking out the travel guides for an upcoming vacation or booking the air ticket. Not a bad idea at all!!