down the beaten path

this is how i feel about my last 2 weeks. punched and beaten and knackered.

first the 3 big kids were ill. one by one with super high fever (39 degrees) and serious laryngitis. ulcers on inflamed tonsils and down the throat. then the baby came down with hand foot and mouth - second review tomorrow. she's been so cranky and has been all over me ... wanting only me.

i've had to stay home for days on both weeks nursing them. which means that the work has been piling in the office = late nights trying to clear the back-log. PLUS hubs was out-stationed during this time. i've had to battle this on my own. ugh. really tough days.

he's back now, but not quite. he's been working on an event where his nights have merged into days. i haven't spent an hour with him since he came back - so i've not been able to draw strength or re-charge.

it's still all me at the home front w the kids and juggling their school and work.

sigh ... just knock me out already. i need a break.

the kettle boils, bubbles and sings, musically

i've been craving for a bag of honey dijon kettle chips. told dg abt it last night. she wanted to offer me her bag of doritos ... *rolls eyes*. we all know it's not the same! but she insisted and i caved and relented.

then she left the said bag of chips in her car and was too lazy to go back and get it. sigh. so the crave lives on.

i don't know why i did this but while thinking abt kettle chips, i went on to think about kettle quotes - that i knew of at least. of course there are more

there's the ever favourite "the pot calling the kettle black" - which actually is quite funny if you get a 3rd person visual of a discussion between a pot-head and an african american name-calling.

and the popular "polly put the kettle on, and we'll all have tea". poor polly. i say, next time, send the lazy bunch off to starbucks for their fix. or only make tea if someone offers to bake something :)

and then i started thinking of chips the tv series. i couldn't help this pic :)
check our eric estrada! and those aviator shades. and ... and the tight pants. for the life of me, i can't remember the name of that other guy. and i'm too lazy to google it!

ok, this is getting weird.

the fat and thin of things

hubs was talking to the young'uns about being fat and thin.

he said regardless of your size, you need to be confident to carry off your look. and you should accept "what" you are. there is no such thing as chubby or pudgy. if you are fat then just acknowledge the fact that you ARE fat and work around it (if you don't plan to do anything abt it). most of all, you should embrace it and be comfortable in your skin and work it! more often than not, people will not notice the fat (or thin) and they won't dwell on it - macam he knows what being fat is all about.

but i digress ... so it was very engaging discussion. the kids were chipping in their take on the topic when hubs turns and points at me :

hubs : look at mummy. is she thin or fat.

MB : she's thin ....

me : *i smile*

MB : .... until she sits down. then she's fat.

NOTE TO SELF - don't EVER sit down for fear of that mid-section hamburger effect!! or i could do something about it. or i may just need to be comfortable in my skin and have that chocolate covered donut that i've been craving for.

boy in a hood(ie)

cheeky bu posed for these without any prompting. he's a natural with making these monkey faces. i love his spirit and his humour. isn't he a cutie :)

i got it from my momma

dollface always has her brows in a furrow. it's her default setting. she gets it from me. see ..

... but when she smiles, she's all angel!

*and scene* .... back to grouch mode again :)

check it out, we all look the same. thankfully, the girls all got my genes. heh.

OPI, oh my!

i went for a pedi 2 weeks ago and decided on a colour that was really off my usual range. i took on the OPI Summer Flutter Collection in "catch me in your net". this is a like a teal/ green with heaps of sparkle that look somewhat gold. it's the first nail swatch in the link earlier. i have an eyeshadow just like that which i love. so i thot the colour would sit well on my toes too.

after the first 3 days, i couldn't stand the colour. yes, i went green and didn't like it. i looked like i stepped in a pool of decomposed seaweed. like my toes were getting moldy. it just looked vile - to me at least.

today i decided i just couldn't take it anymore and had to have it re-done. now it's in a very safe nude-ish lavender shade. which is again, out of my norm, coz i usually go with nude-ish white or pink colours like the OPI bubblebath (i love this colour BTW). but i thought what the hey, if i can let my hair down and do green nails, i can do nude-ish lavender. i know ... i'm wild.

i pity the fool

i pity the fool who hasn't caught the A-Team, for 2 reasons.

1) it is a bad-ass movie. i felt they stuck to the series and was true to the characters and plot. remember this voiceover before every episode "If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... The A-Team." well the movie brought me back there. i do wish Mr T had more bling on him though. just the mohawk alone was not enough. but that aside, the kids, hubs, DG and I really had a good time.

some may argue that it's a guy's movie. very tailored for the testosterone. how a man comes up with a plan, then tells it to his posse who then make their own props and go on their way to carry out the plan and execute it with lots of guns and explosions and sh*t. but noooo, the movie is also for the women. which brings me to point 2 .....

2) hawtie bradley cooper. if nothing else, catch the movie to drool over this man. try to contain yourself when he comes on shirtless, his hot bod glistening in the sun. then again when he's in his suit looking all yummy.

now go grab the kids, or the partner ... oh hell grab somebody fool! book your tickets and go watch the movie. you won't regret it.

i love it when a plan comes together :)

we all scream for ice-cream

july is national ice-cream month in the US. in my opinion, this should be made into an international event.

my favourite is a single scoop of old fashioned vanilla with a generous dollop of hot fudge and chopped toasted almonds on top. otherwise known as the quintessential HOT FUDGE SUNDAE :)

i also like : haagan daz's chocolate peanut butter, rum and raisin, green tea, dark chocolate, vanilla swiss almond & mint chip. B&J;s peanut buttercup, new york super fudge chunk, and chocolate fudge brownie. (but since trying dreyers chocolate cake, i'm not sure if the choc fudge brownie is all that.) then there is the sticky chewy chocolate from swensen's, which is a classic. and don't gte me started on the popsicles .... magnum, cornetto and how brilliant is the frozen banana on a stick? take a banana, coat it with chocolate, smother it with your favourite topping and freeze it on a stick. ooh and the magic of hershey's magic shell!

you see so many flavours, so little time. hell, we really need more than a whole month to celebrate this. adding those pms days where we could probably eat it out of the tub and finish it too! and the times where you want to have some ice-cream with a wedge of hot apple pie or melt it over a brownie. i'll say it again .... so many flavours, so little time.

what's your favourite flavour?

ithink i'm ready for the iphone

i'm a self-confessed jamban reader. i catch up on all my hollywood gossip during my daily downloads. on occasion, i also do crossword puzzles - the celebrity gossip kind, no less.

i am also anti-technology.

then one day, hubs introduces me to the scramble application on his iphone. this was a win for both of us. he wanted me to get excited about the whole iphone thing so that i would switch from my boring lemon to the robust apple. i thought that it was a fairly intellectual way to while my time in the john.

so after months of playing scramble, and inadvertently leaving his phone in the toilet after i'm done, the man gets fed-up with me and decides to delete the app from his iphone. i immediately get withdrawal symptoms but he refuses to reload it. so i flip back to my mags. but the satisfaction is different.

i used to wait for weekends when DG and Dee come to visit, so that i can use their phones in the toilet. some days, i get desperate and use AG's tutor's phone when they have their evening sessions. the desire has waned (somewhat) now that it has been a few months. but the yearning is still there.

scramble aside, i am now ready for the iphone. i do think it's about time i get one. i am finally willing to part with my good make-up and shoe money and spend it on technology. but the freaking toy has a glitch and it seems to be a big problem. i tell you it's just not meant to be.

ps : and hubs says "don't download OS4 on a 3G. that must be code for don't turn your apple into a lemon"

bling it on!

what do the trademarked Tiffany Blue and my daughters have in common? the number 1837.

The trademarked color of Tiffany & Co., which bears the number (1837) on the Pantone Matching System (PMS) is named after the year Tiffany & Co. was founded.

Both my daughters were born at 1837hrs, 9 years apart. Yes, both.

This could mean a couple of things
- i'm a nini; so darn anal that both my girls birth were clocked at the same precise time.
- tiffany's really is a girl's best friend

the diva wave

baby turned 1 last sunday. we had the family over and did a quiet party. tho i have to say that it was tuff to keep it quiet w 4 rambunctious kids running around. anyhoo, the godma gave dollface her first bling ... a silver charm bracelet. our friend was busy showing it off the whole day. the baby loves her jewellery - we're so in trouble!

.... urm ... as you can see from the clip, it was a good thing DG switched it off when she did coz i was about to unleash the sailor in me. why? coz i thot she was taking a picture and i was carrying miss thang for so long. turns out she was doing a clip - good timing babes :P