ANNOUNCEMENT!!! I HAVE CHANGED MY DOMAIN

To all my dear blogger friends, just wanna drop a line here to inform that I have got my new Domain http://www.agnesdiary.com up and running. Please include my new domain in your blogrolls. Thanks.

My Special thanks goes Lesley for her help.

TUESDAY TOOT - CHANGING OF DOMAIN

I have finally decided to change my domain to www.agnesdiary.com with the advice and help from my blogger friend, Lesley of Beachlover, who lives in the US. We are actually half a globe away from each other. In order to guide me through the process of transferring to my new domain, we chatted on google talk which is something new to me and that I got to know it from her too. I would like to thank Lesley for being so helpful and patience to me. A big TOOT for Lesley. Thanks a lot.

ETHAN'S 1ST BIRTHDAY

We have had a great time at our little nephew, Ethan's 1st birthday on last Saturday night. Crystal and Pearl were thrilled with the balloons given out by Joyce soon after we arrived at the party. Almost all the family members were there to share the joy of Ethan turning 1. Actually, it was a double birthday celebrations that day, but we only got to know it on the night itself that our friend, Dominic, was also sharing the same birthday with Ethan, who turned 40++. It's always been fun getting birthday presents for children; We gave Ethan a Barney and a Wheels on the Bus VCDs as his birthday presents that will definitely bring out the joyous character in him.

All ready for the Party

A lovely birthday cake for Ethan (made by Deana)

Another cake for big boy Dominic
Ready...Cut the cakes
A Happy familyThe balloons gang
Ethan & grandma

A Barney and a Wheel on the Bus VCDs for little Ethan

Please hop over to Joyce's blog for more photos and video

ZONG ZI / DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL

To celebrate the traditonal Chinese dumpling (Zong Zi) festival, we had dinner at brother, Alfred's house in a small way this evening. My mum cooked most of the dishes by herself since this morning. Zong Zi can be found everyday in almost every food stalls around the Chinese populated areas in the city so we do not have to wait till the festive season to taste the Zong Zi unlike Mooncake Fastival where mooncakes are being sold one month leading to the festival.

I like to eat Zong Zi same goes to my mum and my two little girls. As they are made of glutinous rice which is believed to be difficult to digest by young children, I usually limit the intake of one Zong Zi only for Crystal in a day. It is also said to be unhealthy for patients with high blood pressure due to its high contained of fats. So eat in moderation.

If you want to know the story behind Zong Zi festival and its recipe on how to make Zong Zi, visit here. You will love it!

GO GREEN, NO ALLERGIES AND SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT WITH SILK PLANTS & TREES

We love to have indoor plants and flower arrangements in our home. We used to have some indoor plants and flower arrangements as part of the decorations to enhance our wooden furniture in the living room and a pot of plant in the washroom. However, eversince we had our first daughter five years ago, we removed all of them to protect her from allergies problems caused by the plants and flowers in the house. By doing so it also save us time in maintaning those plants especially when I have my own baby to look after.

But How to Get a Green Thumb? By using silk trees, flowers and plants would be the obsolute solution for going green, solve the allergies problem and save the environment at the same time. Believe it or not? The silk plants look exactly like real!! I particularly like this silk bonsai plant, it would be perfect for putting at the side table with my feng shui figurines, that would sure bring luck to our home.

A silk bonsai plant, it looks really real..

OLD TOWN WHITE COFFEE

It's pouring saturday afternoon, perfect time to take an afternoon nap. Since I am not used to having afternoon nap, I sit in front of the computer surfing and blogging away though I am a bit tired. I was woken up by Crystal at 3.00am as she was having nosebleed again, she was scared to see blood coming out from her nose for the third time.. so I have to be there to comfort her and gave her reassurance that it would be okay, and put her back to sleep again. It was a stressful night that I was unable to sleep after that; I got out to the market with Pearl at 6.00am to buy some ingredient to make soup for Crystal which my mum said is good to stop nosebleed. Hope it will help. While checking on the web for the cause of nosebleed, I found this piece of information useful, please check it out for the causes and treatments for nosebleed in children.

While I was busy on the net, Clet suggested why don't we have a cup of Old Town White Coffee and "ham jin piang" (a popular local cake) for afternoon tea, hey! why not, afterall he is making it for me so that I can stay awake and continue with my blogging. The 2 in 1 Old Town White Coffee is quite thick which is good enough to make me stay awake for the afternoon probably till night.

A big packet of Old Town 2 in 1 White Coffee.

A mug of Old Town 2 in 1 White Coffee and "Ham Jin Piang" for our afternoon tea.

PHOTO HUNTERS - BAD HAIR

PhotoHunt

It always a problem managing the hair for this doll, it becomes like a bush after combing it, looks like bunch of Bad Hair to me though. Don't comb it? Then why package it with a comb together with the doll? Anyone has any idea how to manage it?

BACK ON USANIMALS AGAIN

It has been a while that we stopped giving or rather the girls refused to take the vitamins that we find is best for them, simply because the taste of the natural wild berry flavoured of the Usana's Usanimals multivitamin tablets are not as good and alluring as other brands of vitamins. They are made by using natural sweetener and flavouring, and lack of artificial colouring. The tablets are in different animal shapes and grey in colour. We even showed them this Usana's Mega girl video clip just to convince them but the effect only lasted for a while.

Lately, Crystal suffered from nose bleed and severe allergy, so we decided to put her back on the Usanimals multivitamins again a couple of days ago so that she is able to get the nutrients that is lacking from the food that she consumes. Both of them are very picky eaters. Pearl has been eating much lesser solid food than before instead ask for milk more frequently which is good too.

Surprisingly, Crystal is willing to take up to a daily dosage of two tablets as recommended for the last two days; while seeing her sister taking it Pearl also started to ask for her share. Unlike before we have to crush the tablets and put them in their milk. They even rejected the milk after tasting them, kids are smart they know what have been added to their milk right!? Actually, The Usanimals multivitamins are not for sale in Malaysia yet but a friend of ours gave us some by sending them all the way from New Zealand and we also managed to bought some after that by the help of our friend while she travelled to Singapore months ago. Hope the girls are doing good with the vitamins and become mega girls..:)

SOARING FUEL PRICES

I received a sms from my brother, Albert, at about 7.30pm yesterday telling me that the fuel prices will be increased to RM2.70 from RM1.90 per litre whereas diesel will be increased to RM2.58 from RM1.58 per litre at midnight following a cut in fuel subsidy. At first I thought he must be joking cos we only expect any changes on fuel prices in August. So after a second thought, Clet said it could be right as we did not listen to the news that evening. Minutes after confirming the price hike a phone call away from Albert, we rushed out to fill up our humble car's empty petrol tank in order to save RM43.37 (to be exact) of our hard earn money before midnight. The traffic was terrible due to the queues leading to all the petrol stations in the city. It created a havoc in the city where everyone was trying to save their petrol money in the last few hours.

The move to increase fuel prices and the call to Malaysians from the PM to change our lifestyle and spend more prudently (spend less in a way) will in return hit the businesses and Malaysian's economy as a whole. It's indeed a very sad news to many of us who are already struggling to meet our pressuring financial obligations. :(*** Many have voiced out their views and demonstrations are every where to protest the prices hike. Would that make any differences at all??? what do you think???

Impatient drivers trying to jump queues by entering from the exit of the Shell station opposite Taman Fortuna.

A terrible traffic jam along Penampang Road leading to Petronas and Shell stations opposite Taman Fortuna.

Another traffic at Esso station next to the Inland Revenue Building in Karamunsing.

Still a long queue at the back of us waiting for their turns to fill up their tanks.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

I do not know what's the name of these beautiful flowers. They are very eye catching that I couldn't resist to take some photos of them at the Wong's home.

TUESDAY TOOT - LITTLE HELPING HANDS

As it is still school term holiday for Crystal, I feel pretty much like having holiday too. Everything has been slow and we got the chance to stay at home most of the time for the week. The girls are allowed to sleep through till late morning so I got a bit of time to get ready breakfast for them. Crystal has been good staying at home and Pearl is enjoying having her elder sister's company at home. Since they are playing with each other most of the time, I also got the chance to finish my beading work on two pieces of pearl bracelets which I had put up for sale on ebay. I also managed to do my laundry before the weekend and Crystal voluntarily giving her little helping hands to fold the clean laundry when she saw me doing it. A little TOOT for her!! :)

SETTING A LIMIT

Eversince I started printing some colouring pages out from the web for Crystal to practice colouring during her school holiday, she had soon discovered more interesting stuff in the web than only colouring pages. She was so excited to learn so much fun stuff that she took over my computer spending hours and hours surfing around Disney Playhouse webpages and other similar webpages, playing games and online colouring; skipping her nap times as a result. She looked pretty exhausted after that which I strongly think it would not be healthy for her if this practice were to continue. So I decided to limit her computer time to only one hour a day after the second day. In order to show to her that I am serious in setting a limit and keeping my promise, I have to make sure that the one hour of computer time is all hers and I will be there to guide her whenever she needs me.

By setting a limit will benefit her in such a way that she will not be deprived from attaining computer knowledge and also in a healthy manner. She is glad and happy with the arrangement so far. At the same time, she has also learned to read the time on the bottom left corner to mark her allocated computer time when is due to stop.

FRIENDS AROUND THE WORLD

I got this Friendship tag from Shern's Mom:

Start Copy HERE.

Rule:

1. Copy from ::Start Copy Here:: through ::End Copy Here::.

2. Add your blog to the list. Feel free to add all your other blogs. Just make sure to post this to each of the blog you added in the list.

3. Tag other online friends you know.You don’t need to be tag in order to join. If you want to join just post this one in your blog.

4. Let me know your blog’s name and url by leaving me a comment HERE. I will add you to the master list.That way, everyone is happy and can meet new friends too!5. Come back once in a while to get the master list! Let’s see how this makes our Technorati and PR goes up! :D

6. DO NOT REMOVE THIS: scrap page made by Yen. Using alphas and tapes from Kate H., flowers from Ida,paper by Catrine.

1. Me and Mine 2.Creative In Me 3.ChatterBin 4.Pea in a Pod 5. Sugar Magnolias 6.Because Life Is Fun 7. Piece o’Kaje 8. Mon a Bric 9. Bearandberries 10.My Journey11. Deeply In Love 12. Pink and Brown Diaries 13. Happyheart 14. Wilstop 15. FunFierceFab 16. Dancing in Midlife Tune 17. Celebrate Life18.Little Peanut , 19. BloggingInMyPyjamas, 20. Baby Shern 21.Precious Moments.. 22. YOUR-BLOG-HERE

Now, I would like to pass this tag on to : Dora at Life is Good..

WHAT'S YOUR POWER COLOR?

Saw this test from Colyn's Corner, just trying out to find out what color I should use to maximise my POWERRRR ..

Your Power Color Is Gold

At Your Highest: You are engrossed in passions that mentally stimulate you. At Your Lowest: You seek thrills and neglect what's important in your life. In Love: You see dating as adventure and approach it with an open attitude. How You're Attractive: You passion for life makes others passionate about you. Your Eternal Question: "Am I Having Fun?"

What's Your Power Color?

WESAK DAY CELEBRATION

As promised to our girls last night, BIL Edward, sent Edson & Kathleen over to our place at around 10am yesterday morning. Edson and Kathleen and our girls are real good buddies as their age gap are closer as compare to their elder cousin brothers and sisters. Kathleen brought along some cooking toys over as promised and they started to play after the girls had taken their breakfast (super fast this time coz can’t wait to start playing).

At around 11.30am, we went to the state-wide Wesak Day celebration or better known as Buddha's birthday celebration at Kian Kok Secondary School by the invitation of our dear cousin, Prescilla who is a very dedicated buddhist. This was the first time for myself and Crystal been to a Wesak Day celebration and this is a grand one according to Prescilla. We had lunch there and the kids are not used to having vegetarian food. But they had fun time running around the canteen while we were having our lunch.

We brought them to Burger King to have something to munch after that. Kathleen posted a question to Crystal by asking her “Who is the king of food”, “Burger King” Crystal replied jokingly. LOL.. :D, know what?? I realised dining at Pizza Hut is more satisfying and cheaper than Burger King.. The kids continue their fun time at home after that while I spent time with my dad, sis Angela, bro Albert and SIL Shirley at brother’s house in the afternoon.

The display of the Buddha for the celebration. The flowers are beautifully arranged all around the buddhas.

One of the flower arrangements

Vegetarian lunch offered at the celebration