Is it healthy drink......or is it not???

It is a routine to get some live cultured drinks (Vitagen & Yakult) for the twins as weekends approach! So, a marketing trip was paid to the hypermarket. Besides shopping for that, i've also been addicted to this particular orange juice which claimed to be of 'PREMIUM' quality, like 100% purely squeeze....not from concentrate....no preservatives.....bla bla bla!

What really made me fall in love so much was the amount of PULPs were really a lot so the chewy feeling had kept me coming back for more !!! Despite the fact that it is a renowned brand which in turn 'promises' quality assurance, i still doubt how 'genuine' /true/real are their claims??? And i think the fact that i drink so much of it does justify my worries lor........

WHAT DO YOU THINK LEH.......????

Then, as i was browsing the drinks for my sons, i came across a new product by Vitagen !!

~~~~VITAGEN COLLAGEN~~~~

ergggg.....as far as i understand, anything related to collagen is suppose to produce beauty-related benefits.....to the skin, IS IT TRUE ah?

Anyway, not really having a concrete answer to my queries & doubts, i just grabbed a pack of it for my consumption as my hormones then got really excited lor........vain pot again **@@##?? :)

When it was scanned at the cashier, it came up to double the price of the kids' vitagen......causing my huby to shake his head left & right.....& 'ngam ngam cham cham' again !!!

Though it is oblivious more healthy if i were to do the juice extraction direct from real fresh fruits, the hassle & presence of lazy bugs usually prevent us from carrying the task, thus resulted in us headed for these next best alternatives which we believe is healthy.....YET, is it really so is another question to be answered??

please help to catch away my lazy bugs lar.......blek ???!!!

What Do You Think Of Me

A tag from Jo-N :


A) LIST OUT THE TOP 5 PRESENTS YOU WISH FOR :-
1. Healthy & safe family
2. Wealth & prosperity.....i know very greedy hor
3. Filial & Good children
4. Easy & stable career......haha
5. Smooth journey in life

B) THE PERSON WHO TAGGED ME IS:
~JO-N~

C) YOUR 5 IMPRESSIONS OF HIM/HER:
Patient
Loving
Caring
Mature
Wise

D) MOST MEMORABLE THINGS HE/SHE HAS GIVEN/DONE FOR YOU
She always gave me good advice especially in relations to parenting skills which i'm so much in lacking.

E) THE MOST MEMORABLE WORDS HE/SHE SAID TO YOU
When she says : she felt happy & said "NICE" to know me as a virtual friend......i know she means it......... !!

F) THE MOST IMPRESSIVE/FAVORABLE POST OF HIS/HERS FOR YOU AND WHY
Each Child Is Different
I just simply agree with her opinion so much and the fact that i can never write the thoughts so well made me admire her so much......jo, did i made u chicken skin i.e. hair rise.....haha??

G) SOMETHING YOU LEARN FROM HIM/HER :
One important reminder from her always was to LOVE our children the right way.....

My home work done !!

Happy "Ching Meng"

"CHING MENG" is more of a celebration for "my side" of the family which resemble the "ALL SOUL DAY" that huby's catholic family celebrates! Unfortunately only dad & mum joined the rest of my dad's side of families for the praying session at the Nirvana memorial park where my grandpa & grandma were buried. My mom being the superstitious & conservative type still had the belief that we, being the daughter that was already "married away" should not participate in this celebration as they alleged that it will bring bad luck to the sons of the family .........sigh ......... double sigh !!!

Anyway, for me i don't mind being forbidden to join-in this event as the extreme hot weather recently really kill my mood for any outdoor activity!!

After performing the rituals at the grave, there will usually be accompanying by a great dinner at home! My mom cooked a few of her usual favourites which could be eaten during any other festivals in the year......hai, "lei lei, hui hui" also the same ones, lets check out what THE CANTONESE eat during big festival :

(1) Steam chicken / "pak cham kai"

which happened to be my mom's most favourite, so this is a must.........

(2) Next is our special dipping sauce for the above chicken which we name

"yin sai chung" sauce.

The contents are mixtures of fried onion+garlic, spring onion, coriander & basil leaves all finely chopped and added with soya sauce.

(3) Next is what we called "nga-ku fried khan-choi". These 'nga-ku' is the smaller version of the arrow head which made the famous arrow head chips that i'd much talked about during the CNY!!

Do you know that we don't just eat the above dish plainly. They were meant to be wrapped by the below vegetables ("sang choi")...not sure what is the english name but it's like lettuce to me! Then dip with the sweet sauce ('hoi sin' sauce)!!

(4) Here's the Mushroom chicken feet.....another favourite of mine, yum-yum!!

(5) Deep fried BIG prawn....... argh.....sinful, sinful !!!

(6) Finally is the Take-away Roast duck.......emm, emm.....

Oh ya.....there was also ABC soup !!!

A lot of food hor.........Oooh.......that's very heavy for my stomach !!! Now...don't u think no matter what celebration / festival it maybe, it's all about food at the end of the day!!!???

Steamboat CRAZE & Assorted..........

A very laid back post...........

A public holiday (Prop. Md b'day) that falls on a week day (thurs) had us thought of fulfilling our sudden crave for steamboat. In fact we decided to STEAM the BOAT that whole 'DAY' starting from late breakfast to late lunch so that we could hang around at home without having to worry about hunting for food outside !!

So the night before, we did all the marketings. My fussy huby wanted to make the dipping sauce "SPECIAL" so a thorough browsing was done over the shelfs. According to him, this particular 'brand' is famous for its' superior quality & taste. It was from Japan. As i have absolutely no idea of how special a soya sauce can be, i can only be his follower. One thing of obvious note was the 'special' price of course!! I think it can easily cost a few times higher than the ordinary type that we consumed. Well..........after trying it out, the verdict was.......i still like the usual type, and it's not that premium to my taste afterall, hahaha.......

In order to be able to immediately start the steamboat early in the morning, i spent that whole night washing & preparing everything ALL BY MYSELF........that was really hard chores i tell you....and for a while i actually regretted !!

We started the morning by making our chicken herbal soup base........

Then, just shifted everything out from the fridge to the table....nicely displayed for my camera before we started to attack them.......hehehehe

And when it comes to steamboat, i especially LOVE vegetables so i had requested to have at least 3 types of them......and gosh, we were like cow that day !!!

A MUST-HAVE for steamboat was the "Taiwanese Sausages"....so glorious....yayaya, i know it's not healthy !!

Then, i bumped into these little century eggs in Giant so i had sinfully picked it up. Actually the last time i ate this was so long long time ago.........yaya, i know it's just another lame excuse!!

Anyway, i only allowed myself to eat 2 of it and 1 goes to my huby.....now i still have like 6-7 balance and i think my body has recovered and ready to swallow it again......haha

And finally here is the ultimate companion to the steamboat.........yes, CHILLY PADIs !!!

At the end of the day, we were so satisfied especially after longing for another steamboat for a while!! The last one that we had was during CNY back in huby's hometown!! I had the feeling that we just went eating & eating non-stop and probably break a while for TV, walk around the house for some other chores & there we ended up at the table eating again.........arghhh !!!

Anyway, i think it must have been the "power of the teo chew" that resulted in our steamboat craze.....oh my !!

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Towards that weekend (should be last week), huby was away to Bangkok........again, apparent this time was an incentive trip to his customers!! So, being mother hen to my little chicks, i have to tag them along to whatever plan i may have. Coincidently, i had agreed to a gathering with some girlfriends. Luckily we had chosen a place quite comfortable to house my 2 monkeys for at least 2 hours of lunch !!!

Believe your eyes.........see how comfy the monkeys were!! I brought along their gameboy, stationeries & colouring books & chewing gums just to occupy them !!!

Did the place look familiar ????? Yes, it was "The Apartment". Though i like the setting there but i must agreed that we were quite dissapointed with the food. But, nevermind lar....so long as we had a good chat. As the boys didn't really had a fulfilling meal, we proceeded to get some donuts at Big Apple after our session.

Later, the boys participated in the FREE sand art session given to the kids so all the aunties got to chat further........

wakakakaka, look at what the monkeys had done to mr. bean's eyes !!! LOL

That's the end of our Saturday !!!

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When dady was not around, mumy as usual was lazy to go out. The part-time cleaner worked from 9am to 1pm so we sort of had some quick bites for breakfast!! Then, as the boys wailed that they were hungry, i searched over my kitchen and found a box of cheese pasta. So I immediately threw them into boiling water, together with some steamboat left over the other day. See below......it supposingly looked good ehh, no?

Then, just when i squeezed the cheese gravy to be tossed over the macaroni, i kinda smelt something sour gushing over my nose!!! There & then only it knocked on me to check the expiry date...............tadda !!!
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It expires on 31/3/2008.....i think i must have kept this for at least 6 months. And it was another week to expiry so being so sceptical, i decided not to serve my kids.........there it goes down the garbage bin, what a waste but still better than another episode of diarrhoea, right (like what happened the last time) ?
So, once the cleaner was done, i immediately rushed out like a mad mother crazily hunting food for her hungry kids !!!

Dinner was spent with grandpa & grandma.....as usual when dady was not around, they would be the ones that will be taking care of us !!!

Dady was coming back that Sunday night........around midnight! So when dady was not around + mumy finding excuse not to carry the boys upstairs, the boys had to sleep on the floor of the living hall !!! We waited until dady was back & everyone happily went back to our room for a good nite sleep........

That's the end of our Sunday !!

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Here are just a showcase of the loots from Bangkok.....courtesy of my shopaholic lou kung!!

Famous, yummy yet hazardous JUNKS !!!

And i just LOVE the macademia nuts so so so much. As they are so expensive here, i requested him to get these...........little did i expect macademia nuts chocolates which were so sumptuous i tell you. I know it's very sinful to my body so again, i only allowed one piece of chocolate at a time!!! Arghh....how i wish i can swallow more............

Next is "dodol"......ahh, i think melaka ones are better! Though i like dodol too but i don't know why i only like those in triangle shape ones and not like these....yucks!!! I still haven't take a bite at it yet.......

How can the dady came back empty handed without anything for his precious. So die die also he must get them something. Not the usual thomas train that is not moving (which they already had).....this time, these trains are movable type !!!

These keychains are just a plain burnt to the pocket....i don't understand why he bought them so there went my curse again...........

Finally, i can't believe my eyes too............you will surely agreed how much he loves these little pony shirts, yes he was only buying the little pony logo(s)!! And i realise the older my old man is, the more vain/"oi leng" he has been......"sei for mou" ????
So i kind of believe the sayings that goes " fart lou hau " now, hahaha...........

That's the end of my assorted updates too !!!

annie-q termed it "lau sai"/diarrhoea post.....and i have to agree......blek !!

At 5.4 years old.........

There are really a number of great achievements that were worth a note here as my boys ended their first 5 years of milestones (5 months ago).....

I was not & think is not (moving forward) a super discipline mother when it comes to parenting!!! And i was not the type who would bother to check & measure what my sons would have achieved against the standard benchmark at a certain age eg. like

- how much they should have been eating at certain age,
- how tall or heavy they are by certain age,
- by when to wean them off paci, bottle, diaper & etc etc....

During those episodes, i too, faced condemnations, teasings, hintings from people surroundings against certains things that my boys did not achieved....like still sucking paci, still wearing diapers, still drink milk/juice from bottle, still need to be fed.....just to name a few !!!

But thank god, i was not bothered at all & did not even felt the need to follow 'the so-called standards'. At times, of course i felt agitated too towards those who just couldn't be bothered to mind their own business!! And i just sort of swipe those 'comments' under the bed.

I continue to enjoy quiet moments by tucking in the paci whenever the boys made noise so long as they don't annoyed me with noises.....while some might be very patiently bear with their grumpy kid as they took away their paci drastically;

I continue to enjoy my beauty sleep.....thus couldn't care more to wake up for midnight toilet training....while some sacrifice too much/too early for midnight toilet training;

I continue to enjoy mess-free environment by feeding them with bottle.....while some might struggle to clean the floor as they 'force' their kids to drink from cup when they are still not ready;

In fact, i'm not shy to say that my boys were quite late achievers due to my slacking behaviour. On the other hand, i do stand on the principle that 'limits' or 'deadlines' DO EXIST in implementing progress to the life of my kids'.....

One obvious undeniable thing was when i started to discover that their butt was getting too big to fit into even the biggest (XL) size diaper!!! But somehow not long after, Dryper came out with a new size XXL......woohoo, i thot to myself....help was coming my way just at the right time & i got to slack further for months!!!

But then, i had given myself a deadline as to when i must stop enjoying these luxuries but to start the "midnight" mission ....and that was upon my boys reaching their 5th birthday (Nov-07) !!!! Thank god, i was quite persistent in fulfilling this responsibility of mine this time!!

Ah ha.....start calculating how much it costs for 5 years of diapers and don't forget to times 2 !!! Oh, btw can u imagine all my SILs' kids were weaned off diapers by 2 years old or latest 3???

When i first started my task, i was really like a zombie! Luckily my huby was willing to share the task. Before the boys were about to knock off, a pee is a must. Then alarm clock was set every 1-2 hours to bring them for a "release". The first few tries were returned with much struggles as we disturbed their peaceful sleep. But as the routine sets in, they became more cooperative hence the job gets easier day after day!! After nearly 2 months of training without 'accident' towards the end of the training period, we were confirmed the boys had been successfully trained to control their bladder during night sleep.

DIAPER FREE now, yeah......

Well done boys!! Bit late but jobs still get done.....

And now we still have balance of a pack of XL diapers which was suppose to be given away to my sis much earlier, but always forgotten.....i better not delay giving them away!!

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Next is, the boys had upgraded to another level of wanting to shower/bath themselves...... bcoz mumy lazy also la, hehe. It all started a week ago on one afternoon when one of the boy (forgot which one) refused to head on my call for a shower! Firstly I called out nicely, then yelled & screamed also to no avail...then i started to threaten with my weapon, also not scared. Out of sudden, the idea of letting them do it themselves popped out which might spark off some interest/excitement...i thought to myself. Once they heard the new idea, immediately they jumped & ran to the bathroom. From then onwards, i was "asked" to "GET OUT" from the bathroom, not even allowed to step in but was allowed to observe at the door step......ooh, my big boys!! What an amusement & relief to see how they willing to overtake some task of managing themselves.

Sean seemed to be more able to handle himself on this but little Scot still needs mumy to check if everything is in order....i mean his body clear off from shampoo !!

When lil Scot knew that i actually shoot him 'naked'....he started to sprinkle me with water & also 'shoo' mumy away.......

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One weekend, when the boys were playing with the neighbour's kids (who are actually indian), they got tempted with the little girl next door consuming 'chewing gum'. As mumy always told them that only adult should eat stuffs like that, they discovered a contradicting fact here as the little indian girl is only about 5-6 years old just like them. So Sean immediately ran into the house telling me that his friend was having chewing gum. Despite me trying to convince him that he should not follow what others do & that it is still not safe for him to try, Sean persisted with his demand of wanting to try it out. This boy of mine can be extremely whiny & grumpy when he really desires for something. So that evening was restless for both him & myself until i finally nodded my head that i'm going to buy one for him to try.

I got these gums from Isetan supermarket with fruits flavour. Sean was ecstatic seeing them. Thank god.....i must say my boys were quite obedient with the rules of having chewing gum! Very carefully in munching & chewing they seemed...... or could it be their timid character....bcoz mumy said : if the gum goes into yr stomach, u will need to go hospital for the dr. to wash yr stomach, hahaha....

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While i happily rejoiced over some of the boys' achievements lately, i am also sadden & uncomfortable with the fact that my boys nearly wean-off from drinking that 'golden drink' in their life.....MILK milk !! Yeah, blame it on the strong tastes that we implanted on them, now they think that the milk taste yucky!! Most of the time, i was only able to feed them the milk+milo drink when they were still sleeping. When they are wide awake, they reject it. The below content has been stagnant there for weeks.......sigh, sigh, sigh !!!

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Finally, here are some videos for your pleasure viewing taken recently.

Seen in the 1st video was Sean, apparently shooting himself with some sexy expressions, haha..... and it still kept me wondering why he allowed his brother to 'hit' him like that !!!

Shown in the next video was their latest hobby. The one behind who looked a bit clumsy in his play was Sean (the fatter boy of course......hehe). During the weekend, mumy was engaged with housekeeping her 'princesses stuffs' (cosmetics, make-ups, skin care, hair care & etc) and also finishing all the tax returns of the family (myself, huby's, dad's, mum's even for the Qi-Kong association that was managed by my parents)....yeah, everyone was bullying me !!

See how familiar they are......

The family attended another wedding during the weekend. My dad has a rather big family with 9 siblings and it has now reached the 'peak time' where members of my generation (i.e. my cousin) started queing up to tie the knot & start their own family !! It is not just a phase that we adult have to go through in life but over the years, my boys too have grown to learn a little about the culture of marriage !!! Over & over again they attended family members' wedding ceremonies as well as friends'/relatives' wedding receptions! So mummy & daddy also got to explain again & again: after uncle-A & aunty-B married, they will become husband & wife.......aunty can become pregnant.......give birth to baby & etc etc. We even taught them to change the 'name-calling' for those new member that joined the family.

Since it has become a norm to attend wedding, i'm not here to highlight those 'boring' details of the ceremonies which would not be unusual anyway!!

.........Unless if 'we' were "much involved".........hehehehe, .......jeng jeng jeng........does that spark off your curiosity??

Check it out......

This time the groom was my cousin brother, Mike.

Two months ago, Mike's sister was married away and that was the time F-Yee's (the bride) family (new additions to our family) met my twins !! After that faithful night, mom of F-Yee has sort of fallen in love with my monkeys..........hahaha !!

The aunty then conveyed to my aunty (her 'chan kar') how she has liken the boys & way ahead (2 months) pre-booked my sons for some important tasks on the upcoming wedding of her daughter with Mike!! Fuyoh......hard to believe ehh?? After my aunt told me, i actually took it as a joke & sort of brushed it aside (of course deep beneath this 'sampat' mumy's heart, she was happily flying high) !!! Then, during our CNY gathering, my cousin brother requested the same thing again and this time as it was infront of his wife, i took it more seriously, thus agreed with much of my pleasure !!!

After the ding ding dong dong ceremonies below.......

OH ya btw, after DAP won, my uncle said can burn 'fire cracker' already.......bwahahaha

Here is the 1st important task that i mentioned :

" To get "A Little Boy" to jump on the married couple's bed " as legend has it that, it will bring luck to the couple in trying to conceive a baby boy into their family! And they claimed or rather believed that if you get TWIN BOYS to perform this task......arghhh...... than i no need to say also you understand lar !!! Aduh, why these people so greedy lar......anyway, i still find it funny & don't mind joining in crazy stuffs like this, haha !!

what a dream came true for the monkeys

And the 2nd task begins here .......

At the wedding reception, my boys were again given the task as the flower boys!! Since the last round at my sis's wedding, they already got so familiarised with this task! I just told them that they have to march-in along the red carpet in front of the married couple, they instantly nodded their heads signifying their experience on what & how to do it !!!

See how expert & experienced they were.....

Next pls, next pls, anymore order ????

A fruitful MC....

The power of advertisement had lured me into buying a box of coloured contact lens that claimed to enlarge my eyes' pupil so that my eyes look "bigger, fresher & glittering" !!! And i started to wear that pair of lens during the past CNY.....as of this week, it has been a month where the life cycle of that pair of lens should have already expired !!! But since i naively agreed that it indeed made my pair of eyes more shining....i was reluctant to throw/replace it. And as i forcefully continued to wear it, my eyes started to encounter discomfort (very red & teary eyes) yesterday morning at work......yeah i got eye infection. What a vain pot heh ???

But since i did not have the specs with me & the fact that workload was still like mountain, i bear with the discomfort....and the usual "eye-mo" drops don't offer any solution. So i left only when my eyes couldn't stand anymore late in the afternoon!!

So after dinner, a visit was made to the GP. Dr. said it looked not just the usual eyes infection, i had 'red eye' & asked me not to take it lightly. She then jokingly asked me to throw away all my contact lens.....saying things like: why need to wear contact lens......specs no good meh ???

Then she started to tell me the perscriptions.....antibiotics, allergy, eye drops & eye oilment..... i was like : alamak.....like that also so much medicine kah???

Btw, i finally continued the cholesterol pills that was outstanding from my diet for quite a while!!

Then dr. further instructed that : your eyes need to stay away from............TV........PC........then i interrupted : what ??? but i have to face the PC like at least 7 hours a day woh !!!

So dr. said : ok, then tomorrow u rest at home, i give u one day MC !!!

ooh......, ok......, wow......yes yes yes!! As i really never expected it, it suddenly reminded me how long I have not had a medical rest!!

My mind immediately flooded with a long list of things to do on a 'ME' day........oops, dream not so early, it was school holiday this week so means i had to babysit my monkeys while not working!! Yet i don't care.....i just tagged them along with my plan !!!

After breakfast with dady & saw him off to work, i got the boys bathed, packed & off we left the house at 11a.m.....

- visited the dentist for a long overdue scaling and did filling to 2 of my wisdom tooth;

- browsed the area in search of a center that offer arithmetic lesson for the boys (but failed to locate any);

- lunch at Secret Recipe (knowing that it offered the boys' favourites, hence no feeding-struggle);

That's MY MEAL.......slurpp.....slurpp !!

And a cuppa Cafe Latte on such lazy day was such a luxury indulgence, no!!!???

- next i dragged my monkeys to a pedicure (as expected it wasn't a relaxed one as the monkeys were such a disturb along the process);

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YET, here it is.......

My french mani......."leng mou / cheng mou" ????

- finally we proceeded one floor up to the hair salon for a hair trim on the boys.....(a wedding to attend this week end ma.....)

By the time we were done with the above, it was almost 4pm, everyone was exhausted so we long to go home. Had some rest lying down in front of the TV and not long after, the sound of the gate opening was heard.......dady reached home & game me a relief.

As i treasured my off day so much, i went upstairs for an hour of cardio DVD

work-out .......FUYOH !!

Felt so completed....accomplished....&.... satisfied !!!

Opps......i had my eyes here for at least 1/2 an hour already so i got to go now.......catch up soon !!!