Moments in My Life

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Brandon took his nap around 2pm this afternoon.  It was a little easier but still I needed to give him several warnings about closing the door.  That helped.  After he napped, I quickly vacuumed the floor and mopped it.  I saw ants coming out from the wall scavenging around for food/water.  But they are not at somewhere … one here and one there, no trails.  It was annoying.  That’s why I cleaned up the floor. 

It was around 2:35pm when I was done.   I washed my hands with soap and then pull the furniture back to where they supposed to be.  And then I was about to look for food to eat and the boy woke up.  I thought he might go back to sleep after I brought him to potty but no.  He cried and wanted me to be with him but I on the other hand was looking for food to eat as I was hungry by then.  I didn’t care, I let him cried and ate a breadstick with some potato wedges from our lunch.  I had a small salad earlier around 11:30am when we were out this morning.  I wasn’t able to eat much because of the little boss. 

I am tired … I didn’t have much of a break.  I had wanted to watch some tvb series while eating but that was not possible at all.  Now he is watching tv and I am typing this.

There are so many costumes and we have yet to decide what we should dress Brandon up as this year for Halloween. The first year, we got him a caterpillar and last year, we dressed him as an octopus - very cute! We usually go out for trick or treat at this specific area in South Torrance. The homes are usually decorated very nice for Halloween. I am almost a witch all the time. I have the witch hat, a orange color broom, and a dark piece of fabric which I cut here and there to make it look like an old witch rag. Hubby always in his regular cloth, may be this year we will be able to get him to dress up as someone or something.

Do you ever dream what you will do with the money if you ever win a lottery? The California Super Lotto winning jackpot for the next drawing is $44 millions. If I win this lottery, how will I use the money? I know probably half of the winning will go to the Internal Revenue Services and probably only nett $22 millions or less. That is still a lot of money. I will probably invest half into long term saving accounts and spend the other half.

The first thing I will do is to hire a large private airplane and fly to Hawaii with my family and immediate family members from my Hubby’s side. May be I will pay for my sister, brother and my father’s tickets to LA and we can all go to Hawaii together. Traveling like a celebrity is always in my dream. I will book a private jet from Airplane Charter Arkansas Wing Aviation Charter Services. They have many different sizes of aircrafts and can carry as many as 18 passengers. These aircrafts have a very roomy and comfortable interior and most with leather seats. Best of all, we can fly on our own time and don’t have to bother about the long lines at the check-in counters or boarding room. This is the way to go first class.

Picture credit: Copyright © wingcharter.com

After Heroes marathon for 5 days … sometimes 3-5 episods a day … I am done with Season 1.  I didn’t bother to start with Season 2 because I know how they made the ending to each episod so exciting that I will have to continue and keep watching the next episod everytime. 

Yesterday, Hubby’s off Friday, I was busy arranging for some buyers to view my listing in North Hollywood.  Today, I will have to drive up there to take some pictures for the BPO as he can’t make it to this only available appointment with the tenants.  So I am actually doing a favor for him but he will get paid for this instead of me.  He even asked if I can find any comparables for him.  I told him none as I couldn’t find any.  Or else, I will be really doing about 80% of the job for him and all he needs to do is to type the report and submit to the bank.  Oh ya, I forgot to mention, this property is actually a short sale. 

My SIL has just joined Netflix and I am able to watch Heroes online, using the instant play on their website, for free.  My hubby has watched all of the available episods while I was away and he highly recommend me to watch it.  Well, I had nothing much to do at night while waiting to take Brandon to potty around 1230am, so I started watching it last Saturday.  My gosh … this show is so addicting.  Luckily I don’t have to wait week by week for the next episods.  I just click and watch and click and watch.  I was able to watch 2-3 episods most of the nights.  So ‘gun cheung‘.  Now I wish I didn’t start watching this series.

My relatives in Malaysia will sure be very happy when they see the title to this post - ‘Going back to Malaysia again?‘. How I wish I can. I really miss them very much too. I love the food, the people, the shopping and the weather too. I like the rain … kinda help to clean out the air around. You see, we don’t get much rain here in Los Angeles. The air is much polluted here.

Anyway, my itchy hands acted up again and I was checking air fare from EVA Air. Their total ticket price is the same as I paid for my recent trip and lower than Malaysia Airlines for the same traveling dates. If so I may be packing up and heading to the LAX again in the next few months. Just a hint … I may be sending beautiful personalized Christmas Cards from Malaysia. *wink*

The 5 weeks break from being at a full time housewife is heavenly.  For that 5 weeks, I hardly cooked at all  (except a few times I made pasta for the kids).  I did not have to do any chores, no cleaning, no dusting, no cooking, no driving.  As for laundry, we shared this chore between my sister and I.  But most of the time my sister did it. And sometimes my aunt help with the laundry too as we were busy caring our sons.  Thank you kammo!! Most of the time, our laundry is folded by my aunt’s maid, Tini. Thank you Tini!

Now I am back being a full time housewife and a part timer blogger. I have to blog, clean, plan what to cook, cook, dust, research for groceries sales, cut coupons, buying groceries, wash laundry, fold laundry, etc etc … hmmm … actually I think I would prefer to go back to KL to continue my break for another month or longer. LOL!

To be financially independent is what most people are looking for.  As for a full time stay at home mom like myself, I also yearn to be financially independent if possible.  It is very difficult for me to be able to work full time outside our home if no one is there to help caring for my child.  But I also learn there are many ways to earn some extra income while staying at home with my child.  One of them is starting an Online Business. 

If I ever want to start an online business, I would probably be opening an Online Baby Store selling products for baby and toddler. As a mom myself, I love shopping online for baby products from the convenient of my own home. I do not have to drive out to the mall to purchase the items I want. I can also make comparison between the online stores to make sure my purchase is of the best value. So I definitely think this online business concept is possible and may bring in a good income.

But before I can start an online business, there are many things that I need to research for the website. Although I can pay someone else to do the whole package for me, but I rather learn it myself. I love to learn new things. And one of the most important component of an online business if how you want to receive your payment. There are many ways a buyer can pay for an order - credit card, electronic check, paypal or others. To set this up, I may engage the help from Orbit Payments from Global Funding Alliance.

Their credit card processing rate is low, only at 7.45%. Not to mention that they offer professional and secure solution to how the payment is processed and handled. Another feature they provide is weekly payouts, only a single week in arrears. This way will help my online business to grow much faster. There are many more features which I can’t finish explaining here. But you can always read more about this on their website.  They also provide a demo if any of you are interested to test their system out.

I know it is not as easy as it seems to start an online business as there are many other areas that I have to look into beside this. I will have to put in a lot of time for research and setting up before my online store actually able to open to the public.

You ever experience one of those days that doesn’t go your way?  Everything seems to be going AGAINST you?  Yup, today is that day for me. 

My day started really early this morning, at 6am.  I woke up but wasn’t able to go back to sleep.  I was sitting in front of my laptop till my son woke up at 8am.  He was fussing for his milk the moment he woke up.  *sigh* You have to learn to wait for the milk to warm up.

Then I washed two loads of laundry.  First load was my own clothing.  The weather is rather nice today, so I hung my clothing outdoor.  A second load was the blanket which I will be putting away.  It was hung outdoor on the line under the sun to dry.  I also hung my son’s cloth diaper inserts outdoor. It is unusually windy today so I used extra clips to make sure the items don’t go flying away. 

Later in the morning, when I went out to check the laundry, I saw empty line with hanging clips swaying about with the wind.  Where were my wet laundry?  On the ground.  *sigh*  Then I also noticed one of my WHITE tee shirt was on the ground too, laying next to the wall which was covered with spider web.  *double sigh*

I made the broccoli soup with pasta for my son.  After finished feeding him, I had my own udon noodle for lunch (from two nights ago).  I was sitting in front of my laptop which is on the dining table while I enjoying the bowl of hot noodle.  But my son was making a fuss because he wanted to see the YouTube with broken ceiling fan video.  I didn’t bother with him, and told him to sit down and watch his DVD quietly.  He started crying.  I ignored him and went back eating.  He cried more.  I told him to stop crying.  He didn’t.  His cries became screaming that he wanted to watch the video.  I tried to filter out the noise but it was too much by then.  I warned him that if he continue to scream, I would lock him inside the room.  After 10 minutes, he was still crying and screaming so into the room he went. 

After washing the dishes, I went inside to explain to him nicely why I put him inside the room.  He stopped crying but then started again.  *sigh* *sigh*  Anyway, to cut the long story a little shorter, I gave him his milk and then he fell asleep.

I came out to use the laptop and found the spacebar wasn’t working correctly.  I took out the button and saw much debris in it.  I went to take out the vacuum to clean it.  It didn’t occur to me there was a rubber plunger underneath it.  I knew it before as I cleaned it many times.  But the black rubber plunger got sucked into the vacuum.  I had to take out the bag and tried to find it by taking out all the dirt from the bag.  But it wasn’t there.  *sigh* *sigh* *sigh* 

What I did to replace the rubber plunger was to take out another rubber plunger from the F9 key (seldom use) and replace it onto the space bar button.  Now I have to find a replacement rubber plunger if possible for the F9. 

It is only 3:30pm now.  I wonder what else will come to me later today.  I do hope is something better than my whole morning.

EDIT: Later in the evening he pooped in his newly changed cloth pocket diaper without giving me any sign or signal.  *sigh sigh sigh sigh* On an regular day he would tell me to take him to the potty for #2.

Let me tell you, time really passing too fast.  It is now exactly two more weeks to my departure to KL.  I can be pretty sure that my 1 month vacation back to Malaysia will pass by sooner than I thought.  The next moment, I will be back here sitting in the same exact chair typing more posts.  Life goes on.   

A litte update about my brother.  He has been here 4 weeks now.  We did a lot of things together, esepcially on weekends.  On weekdays on the third and fourth week, we were laid back and most of the time we just stayed home.  What does he do while he’s at home?  He sits in front of his new Dell Laptop playing computer game, chit-chatting with his friend and such. He is done shopping for stuff around LA and he is ready to be heading to Boston.  His flight will leave on Wednesday morning.  Hubby will be dropping him off at the airport early that morning.  My brother’s plan is to spend 5 days in Boston and then travel down to New York and spend another 5 days there.  He will be returning to LA on May 31st.  Two days later, we will fly back to KL together.