Monday, December 27, 2004

Reflexology session

This holiday season, it felt like I spent most of my energy figuring out how to eliminate shoulder, arm and hand pain that I've been experiencing for the pass few months. Since mid December, my left arm has been bothering me for one whole week and when the pain goes away from the left arm, then it traveled to the right. Feels like a loosing battle but I'm determined to get rid of this pain. I’ve decided to give reflexology a try. I've read that by massaging the certain spot on the bottom of foot would resolve the issue you have on the body so I was hoping that massaging my shoulder spot on my foot would solve my problem.
Before starting the reflexolgy session, the Chinese reflexologist/accupressurist gave me this extremely hot herb tea to drink which was suppose to flush out toxin in my body while I soaked my feet in hot herbal bath. She said that I'm experiencing pain because the toxin were blocking the circulation to my arms and hands.
Me: "Where did I get all these toxin from?"
Reflexologist: "From your diet and from what ever your liver cannot process."
Me: "Where can I buy this tea so I can flush out toxin more often on my own?"
R: "This is my own secret recipe, it's not available at any stores"
Figures because I've never heard of such de-tox tea. It's her sales strategy so I give her that. After soaking my feet for 10 minutes or so..
R: "Do you feel hot? Are you sweating?"
Me: "Yes, I am sweating and feeling warm?"
R: "Good. Sweating out all the toxin"
Me: "If that's all it takes to remove toxin, wouldn't exercise gives the same result as long as I sweat really hard?"
R: "Exercise help but doesn't have the ingredients in the tea to detox your body"
I personally thinks that exercise does help detox the body naturally so that was a great clue from her which I've had forgotten.
Once she felt I detoxed enough, she started to work on my feet starting with my little toes.
R: "Does this hurt?"
Me: "Yes"
R: "That means your eyes are not good."
She works on my big toe
R: "Does it hurt here?"
Me: "Yes"
R: "You teeth are not good."
As she move from toe to heel, all my answers were yes it hurts so every organ in my body is not healthy in her opinion. I think any healthy person would hurt too if this is their 1st exposure to this painful experience but she disagreed with my conclusion.
One positive outcome from the experience is that I temporarily forgot about my shoulder pain since all the pain were intensified on my foot. It wasn't a relaxing session at all.
At the end of the session, she said that she took it easy on me since it was my first trial.
At the end, reflexology didn't solve my problem but I might go back again for the torture.

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Oddity in this world we live in

Most of you probably heard head lines about this story of fetusnapping but I found this article which goes in to details of how she did it.

Monday, December 20, 2004

Mellow weekend

Didn't do a whole lot of shopping but I did find some great deals at Kohl's. I bought 2 tops that cost $1.50 each. I thought $5.00/ top was a great deal. I wore it to work today. It's comfortable and fit for the hot weather we've been having for the pass few days.
Can't believe people are coming over for dinner this Saturday. Speaking of company, I must only clean the house when we are expecting visitors. Why you ask? As I was cleaning the master bathroom this weekend, S came in and said
S: "Who's coming to our house today?"
Me: "No one. Why?"
S: "Why are you cleaning the bathroom? You usually clean when someone is coming to visit."
Me: " To day, I'm cleaning because I want our bathroom to be clean"

On the subject of cleaning, S is becoming a great helper now that she's 4.5 years old. She likes to sweep our kitchen floor so I let her do it while I cook in the kitchen. She's so proud of how much dirt she's able to gather. Most of the dirt are crumbs under the table where she sits daily.
S: "Mom, look at how much dirt I got"
Me: "Wow.. That's a lot of dirt.."
S: "What do the dirt say when we sweep them up and put them in the trash?"
Me: " The dirt say 'Oh.. man, I wanted to stay, I didn't want to go in the trash!'"
She'll just laugh and continue to search for dirt to sweep up.

Friday, December 17, 2004

Christmas Recital

Last night was daughter's Christmas recital at her pre-school along with the kindergarteners. I took half day off work to attend the event. I was in such a hurry to leave and beat the traffic that I forgot to bring the digital camera nor the camcorders.
Before the recital, I surprised her by picking her up at school. When I got to her school, she was playing with her best friend H on a tricycle. She was happy to see me and gave me a professional tour of her classroom which impressed her teacher.
After the tour, we hung out with my dad while waiting for hubby to get off work so we can catch an early dinner. Dad just returned from his South East Asia vacation and was happy to his and mom side of the family and also really happy to be home with his fruit trees. He mentioned how harsh the weather was in Menado where his sister lives. He ate ikan bakar (Grilled fish) while in Menado and it was delicious but gave him sore throat. He also suffered from stomach issues since his intestines are no longer immuned to the bacteria.
Hubby was stuck in traffic for 1 hour so he was not in the best mood when he arrived. We went out to Happy House with dad and my in-laws and everyone liked the food dad and I ordered. S ate some beef which I told her was chicken.
After dinner we headed to the church and the chapel was full of parents and family members. We sat on the 2nd to the last row which made it difficult for me to see the performance. I was instructed to take daughter her teacher but teacher was no where to be found. I sat with S until her teacher arrives while watching people looking for better seats that weren't there. The parents were out of control with their cameras and video cameras. The adults were disregarding the director's request to stay clear of the isles so the kids can get on and off the stage easily. Serenity now.... The school provided picture time at the end of the songs but some parents just felt that was not sufficient and must take pictures while the kids were singing. May be I was jealous because I forgot my camera or I would have been one of those people? No.. I respect the teacher's request so the show can go on.
Over all, S did a great job. I didn't really watch any other kids except for the ones standing next to her. She did the hand gesture right on the beat while singing the songs. With one number each of them got a bell in their hands and they were shaking the bell like crazy and having a great time.
One of her classmate, F did not want to be on stage and was crying so one of the teachers went behind F and moved her hands like a puppet during the songs. S stood next to F and consoled F during the breaks. I think S will be a great big sister some day.
The performance capability of a 4 vs. 2 year olds is night and day. When she was two, we went to her spring recital where she dressed as a flower singing "Mr. Sun". When her group got on stage, she stood there in front of the audience and sucked her thumb through out the whole song while some of the kids were singing.

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Christmas Lights

Here's the labor of hubby's hard work on the christmas lights. It looks better and brighter in person. I told him we have the best lights in our street but he didn't believe me.

Sunday, December 12, 2004

Craving crab

I was craving for crab so we went to a Chinese market and bought 2. It's lots of work cleaning and cooking it but it was really tasty. Not as good as the restaurant version but good enough to satisfy my craving.
Spicy Crab

Friday, December 10, 2004

Yeah.. Friday :)

I've been receiving Christmas cards from friends and family already. My weekend task is to get stamps and figure out what type of card to send. Still contemplating if we should include the letter with the card to let everyone know what we are up to. I enjoy reading them and it's not as time consuming hand writing every single card. We'll see.
S is into Shania Twain's UP album so hubby is tired of listening to it daily in the car. I enjoy singing with her. Her favorite songs are 1) It only hurts when I'm breathing. 2)Forever and for always.
Ant: Could you email me your address please. Thanks

Monday, December 06, 2004

Voice of an old friend

Saturday night as we were finishing dinner, the phone rang. I picked up the phone and it was my friend Jo who resides in Taipei, Taiwan. Because our moms were good friends and we were neighbors, Jo is my oldest friend I know. We have been friends since we were 1 year old. I have lots of fond memories of fun and carefree good time together as kids even after our family moved to Indonesia. When I was 4 or 5 years old, I got in big trouble with both our moms when I picked ear-wax out of her ear. Sorry Jo, I was a kid pretending to play mommy. I hope there was no permanent damage.
When I visited Taiwan during school season, her mom would send me to school with her and I experienced life of a Taiwanese 6 grader for a couple of days. I got to meet her teacher, eat bien-tang (Chinese version of bento) like everyone else and have fun with her and her friends after school.
For a period of time Jo was in the US getting her master degree in film school and we were able to hang out together. She is a very giving, kind and thoughtful friend.
I still remember the day when she surprised me by sending a dozen of roses to work on my birthday. I thought it was from hubby who was then just a boyfriend but I was wrong. The roses touched me because she was on a graduate student budget and she could have had a great meal instead.
Over the years, with her movie directing, she’s always on the move. We've kept in touch here and there but it was nice to hear her voice once in a while. Her sister, G just had a cute baby girl so G is enjoying motherhood and Jo is having fun being an Aunt.

Sunday, December 05, 2004

Snow Play

We took S to our local winter wonderland. It was really slippery but the kids had lots of fun in the short 5 minutes that they have.
I was freezing the whole time. We got lucky because it rained before and after we left.

Slippery Slide

Kids having fun

Thursday, December 02, 2004

Healthy eating

I surprised myself today when I discovered that I'm able to eat cottage cheese alone with out any fruits or other stuff to hide the taste. Thinking back to May 2004, I was looking for options of healthy source of protein and cottage cheese has always been on top of the list. One of my coworker persuaded me to try and ever since then, I'm hooked. Initially I added pineapple and mandarin orange to hide the taste. I had to get used to the flavor and texture. Over time, I've grown to like eating cottage cheese with fruit for breakfast. It is more convenient than hard boiled eggs and high in protein. Now I'm so lazy that I just eat the cottage cheese alone and that tasted ok.
If you are looking for a easy healthy source of protein, cottage cheese is it.
I have yet convince hubby to try it. He prefers to get his protein animal style.

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Getting ready for Christmas

We spent Saturday morning at Target getting all the things needed to decorate the exterior of our house and Saturday night putting up our artificial tree and decorating it. Hubby and I were not keen on putting up the tree this year but S is really into Christmas this year so we didn't want to disappoint her. I find it odd that she does not recall helping with tree decoration last year. Hopefully she'll remember more of the event this year. She helped with assembling the tree and also decorating the tree. Hubby was more into decorating the exterior with lights. He labored all day Sunday putting up lights on the exterior of the house. By the end of the evening, he was complaining about his back and arms being sore. Our house looks really nice but he said that he's not done yet. I believe by this coming weekend, he'll finish with the decoration and I'll be able to post a picture.
It's been so cold lately that I'm not motivated to tour the neighborhood and see how others decorated their homes.
Last night, S was coughing more than usual. Hopefully it's nothing serious. *sigh*