Almost Sick

The hubby was not feeling well after we got up. His body was aching, throat was hurting and head was hurting. I had to cook and get lunch/dinner ready for this week and was doing my own stuff while he was attempting to do his homework. I had to run to the grocery store to get some milk etc while he stayed home with the dog. When I came home he was in bed and looked pretty sick. I quickly made some instant porridge for him for dinner. I knew that he was really sick when he went to lay down in bed. I quickly make some chinese herb for him to drink in hope that he'll not get worst. I also drank about a mug which now I think I should have had more. This after noon at work my throat was starting to feel sore and my head was not feeling the greatest. *sigh* I was drinking tons and tons of fluids hoping that I won't get ill because I don't really want to take off as I still have tons of things to learn. I'm still filling up on fluids and trying to over come being completely sick. Wish me luck..*fingers cross*

TIRED!

I'm beat..I'm extremely tired..mentally..I went to my new job today and I was dump bunch and bunch and bunch of information. I am supposed to absorb everything but all that happen was it went in my right ear and out the left ear. So overwhelming, so many things to learn and so challenging. I am supposed to read two thick file and learn stuff. I am more hands on person. I am not good at reading and learn from it I am thinking of talking to my assistant manager/ trainer and telling her that because I need to be the one doing the clicking and writing my own notes and learning from there! I need to do that..When I got home there was a couple of inches of snow and I had to shovel too because hubby wasn't back..all I wanted to do was lay in bed and forget about everything else..this week is going to be a challenging week for me and hopefully next week I'll slowly get the hang of things. We have MAC and Windows on our desk but we use MAC more and I have no idea how to use MAC although it is an awesome computer. What a waste but I'm determine to learn and like it..*finger cross* thank god for my retail therapy last weekend if not I'm not sure if I could survive this..

Retail Therapy Is Great

Hubby has been really busy with work, school and before school starts his grandpa was in the hospital. Life have been pretty busy for us thus no time for me or the puppy. I'm been deprived of shopping because I don't like to go shopping alone. Yesterday we were getting ready to go out and eat but ended up going on a service call because a station broke down. By the time we came home it was almost 3pm therefore we decided that we will go out for dinner. After dinner we were both extremely full so I suggest that we go to the store and walk around a little which I enjoyed very much but it cost us some dough..*wink* the best part was hubby decided to play with the Internet on the phone so he didn't even care what I took..*nyek nyek nyek*

Damage #1: Two Ralph Lauren sweater, a pair of Baby Phat's tights and a pair of Nine West pumps. Two Ralph Lauren top for a friend's son.

Today hubby had to do finish his quizzes but I had urge to go to the mall because I'm actually looking for a pair of Jeans therefore after he was done I suggest that we go to the mall to walk around. I didn't manage to find any jeans but we managed to do buy a ton of clothing. We walked just half of the mall but we thought we might as well stop before we do anymore damage to our bank account.

Damage #2: Me: Old Navy dress, sweater, and turtle neck. A pair of express pants. Gap sweater. Hubby: Old Navy-two pairs of pants, 3 polo tee and a long sleeves top.

Those were the damage done this weekend. I think my urge to shop is full filled for the mean time unless I manage to find a nice pair of jeans *roll eyes*.. Another thing I found out is when I go shopping next time I should ask hubby to take the phone and play online then I he would be good while I go look around..LOL..That's another way to make hubby not get bored that's all..

Graduated!!

It’s been a long time since I blogged about my little baby. Daddy forgot the camera for the third class and then that was the end of my picture taking because daddy keeps forgetting. Daddy didn’t attend his 7the class because daddy was busy with school work. I told daddy that he had to attend his graduation blah blah blah. I even invited his grandma and grandpa for graduation; everyone was supposed to be there but it ended up just me and Stanley. The weather was horrible, it was snowing pretty bad and grandpa and daddy was at a site busy working away. It was about 1.5 hrs from home and I called daddy at 5pm to tell him not to even attempt speeding back as the weather was horrible. I called grandma to tell her not to come if she doesn’t feel like driving in this cold nasty weather. It was a little disappointing more for me actually because I think Stanley can care less. Anyway back to Stanley’s graduation; he was going to be tested that night itself and there was only 1st to the 4th dogs get like a ribbon. I told daddy I don’t care what number he gets I just wants him to get between one of those numbers. Even 4th place is fine with me and daddy just laughed and told me to practice more with him. I did try to practice my hand command with him but it didn’t really work and I knew that we would lose points from that and his stand command. One of the part of the exam was the dogs was supposed to sit and stay for a minute and lay and stay still for another minute. Those two minutes felt like the longest two minutes of my life. I was trying to telepathy to Stanley to please stay and NOT move and I will reward him with treats later LOL. Finally the test was done and the dogs were free to play with the agility training stuff while she go calculate the scores. Teacher finally came back with the scores. The teacher told us that no dogs scored 50/50 but I was surprise because there was a Chihuahua there that I thought improved and was quite good. Any way Stanley got the FIRST place..I was so shy yet so happy for my little fellow. The teacher made a comment that one day that he improved a lot which I agree because even his grandpa was impress with him when we went up to the cabin the last time. I want to start him on the next class but I’m going to have to see mine and daddy’s work schedule etc. I was so happy yet so shy. Man I can see myself as a competitive mother next time too. I really hope not because I don’t want to give too much pressure to my child next time that if we have one. I really hoped that his daddy was there to see him but oh well there was nothing anyone was do. I am just glad that he got something out of this class.

Daddy took a picture of Stanley when he was sleeping on our bed one night.

Online Gambling

BIL likes to gamble here and there. He will gamble with family or friends, once in a while he’ll also visit the casino around here but the nearest casino we have here is about an hour away from home. I know he loves to play online games and he knows about online casino but I am not sure if he knows a specific online casino site. I found one called DEX casino and is the most trusted casino online. Their site is found to have the best online casinos, poker rooms and gaming sites on the web. The best part is their team has bet on most of the casinos and all of the recommendations are through personal experiences. I am sure BIL was not aware of the site and might be leery about online casinos and since this site most trusted online casinos listed he can go play around different casino at the leisure of his own home but in moderation of course.

White Cake with Caramel Frosting

Since I like to browse thru the recipes site that always make me have cravings for what ever I see there. Today I've been looking at cakes and I wanted to have some cake. I had a piece of cake at hubby's grandpa's funeral and it was really awesome. I was hoping that I can find a recipe like the cake I ate. It didn't come out to be like the cake I ate at the funeral but it tastes pretty good too.

White Cake

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup butter

1/4 oil
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup milk

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.
In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar,oil and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.

Caramel Cake frosting

Ingredients

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
confectioners' sugar, as needed

Directions

Cook sugar and butter for two minutes.
Stir in 1/4 cup milk.
Bring to a boil; cool.
Stir in 10x (confectioner's) sugar, until thick enough to spread.
Makes enough for 2 large cake layers.

Free Consumer Resource

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Famous Pork Chops

We've been staying at home the whole weekend because hubby has his online classes and weekend is the time he tries to catch up on it. I can go out if I wanted to but I am too lazy to leave my warm and cozy house if I don't have to. After much discussion between hubby and I on what to make for dinner tonight we decided on pork chops. I didn't even bother to ask him what kind of pork chops so I just tried to figure it out myself. I decided on Famous Pork Chops.

Famous Pork Chops

INGREDIENTS
1 cup crushed butter crackers
garlic and onion powder to taste
ground black pepper to taste

a dash of italian seasoning

a dash of cayenne pepper (depending on how spicy you want)
1 eggs, beaten
4 pork chops
1/4 cup butter

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. In a shallow bowl combine crushed crackers, garlic salt and pepper; mix well. In a separate bowl beat eggs.
3. Dip your pork chops in the egg batter and then in the cracker mixture. Place the pork chops in a casserole dish. Place chunks of the butter around the pork chops. Cover and bake for 45 minutes.

p/s: I added 1/2C of Parmesan cheese into half of the cracker mixture.

I made baked potato, steam mixed vegetables and French Beans Casserole for the side dish.

French Beans Casserole

Ingredients:
1 can (10 3/4 oz.) Campbell's® Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup

1/2 cup milk

Dash ground black pepper

2 cans of cut french beans

1 1/3 cups French's® French Fried Onions

Directions:
1. MIX soup, milk, black pepper, beans and 2/3 cup onions in 1 1/2-qt. casserole.
2. BAKE at 350°F. for 25 min. or until hot.

3. STIR . Sprinkle with remaining onions. Bake another 5 min.

Chicken Noodle Soup and Oatmeal Dinner Rolls

Since its cold and I had some chicken bones in the freezer I decided to make my own chicken broth so I can make some soup to warm up. I placed the chicken bones in a large stock pot and boiled it for about 12 hours. Add some salt and some chicken seasoning. Then by noon I started preparing and making my Chicken noodle soup.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients

2.5 cups of chopped celery

2.5 cups of chopped carrots

1 big onion chopped

2.5 cups of shredded chicken

Chicken Broth

2.5 cups of egg noodles

Salt to taste

Method

1. Put vegetables in the pot with the chicken broth. Boil for about 2-3 hours.

2. Add shredded chicken. Boil for another hour

3. Taste the broth to see if it's tasty enough if not add salt or more chicken seasoning

4. Add egg noodles and turn off stove. Let it sit till noodles are cooked

I wanted to have dinner rolls like you get at the restaurant while waiting for your food. I wasn't sure if people ate their chicken noodle soup with dinner rolls. I asked hubby and he said make what I want. I didn't know whether it would go with the soup and I was contemplating for a little bit but I figure what the heck if it doesn't pair it doesn't but I wanted to eat some so I took my trusty bread maker and started dumping the ingredients inside to make the dough.

Oatmeal Dinner Rolls

Ingredients

2.5 cups warm milk

1 cup of quick- cooking oats

3 tbsp butter

2tbsp yeast

1tbsp sugar

4 cups of all purpose flour (I mixed it with bread flour)

1.5 tsp salt

1/3 c packed brown sugar

Method

1. Put everything in your bread maker according to your manufacturer's direction. Press dough mode/button.

2. When it's done take it out of the bread maker and knead it a little.

3. Grease the pan with butter. Roll your dough into balls (I wanted mine a little different I took my rolling pin out and rolled my dough and cut it square/strips).

4. Cover and let it rise in a warm place/free from drafts for about 30 minutes or double in size.

5. Baked for 15-20 minutes of until done. When done spread some butter on top.

At first I thought I messed up the recipe because the original recipe was to actually knead the dough by hand etc but I didn't want to deal with it so I alter it. The dough didn't look like it was rising and after I put it in the over for it to rise the second time it didn't really rise and it was not double in size. I thought I messed up the roll and was getting disappointed so I figured I will just bake it. No harm done if it's already messed up I cannot imagine I'm able to mess it up more. I baked it and after 10 minutes it didn't look like anything was happening. I was starting to swear silently but decided to leave it in the over for another 5 minutes. It looked like it rose a little and the bottom was getting brown so I decided to spread some butter on top then take it out. I spread butter on a piece tried it while waiting for hubby to come out just in case it was horrible and I had time to discard it but to find out it tasted really good just like the once at the restaurant. I was then beaming with pride. Hubby then tried it and really liked it..*phew* it's important to me that he likes it because he will eat most of it and the reason why I make stuff from scratch it mostly because of him..A grandma once tell me a key to a man's heart is home cook food *wink*..

Egg Tart

Many years ago when I was still in Malaysia I had a friend's mother that knew how to make egg tart and I actually when over to their house to learn how to make them. Everyone said why do you even want to try or learn how to make egg tart when it's so convenient to just buy them at the store (food in Malaysia is so convenient). Knowing that I will eventually go overseas to study and might want to eat them so I decided that it won't be a bad thing to know. I made it a couple of times when I was back home just to see if it works and after I moved out of the dorms to my own apartment. I made it a couple of time then too but I've not made it since then. I bought some from the Chinese bakery before but that has been a long time. Suddenly I had some cravings for egg tarts. I hear/see the word egg tart every where [actually I Google egg tart too so I can compare my recipes that didn't help I'm assuming :) ] so after dinner last night I decided to make some.



Egg tart

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour (add 3 table spoon of corn flour and fill it to make 11/2 C flour)
1/2 cup butter
1/2 egg, beaten

1/3 cup white sugar
3/4 cup water
4-1/2 eggs, beaten
1/2 dash vanilla extract
1/2 cup canned evaporated milk

DIRECTIONS
1. In a medium bowl, mix together the confectioners' sugar and flour. Mix in butter with a fork until it is in small crumbs. Stir in the egg and vanilla until the mixture forms a dough. The texture should be slightly moist. Add more butter if it is too dry, or more flour, if the dough seems greasy. Shape dough into 1 1/2 inch balls, and press the balls into tart molds so that it covers the bottom, and goes up higher than the sides. Use 2 fingers to shape the edge into an A shape.

2. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Combine the white sugar and water in a medium saucepan, and bring to a boil. Cook until the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and cool to room temperature (make very sure it's cool or else eggs will cook when you put it in). Strain the eggs through a sieve, and whisk into the sugar mixture. Stir in the evaporated milk and vanilla. Strain the filling through a sieve, and fill the tart shells.

3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown, and the filling is puffed up a little bit.

Note
Whole milk will work as a substitute for evaporated milk.

I was thinking I would make 1/2 dozens just to munch but for some reason 14 tarts came out. Hubby said that it's the best he's eaten. I used to use margarine to the pastry but this time I used butter and it helped a lot. He thinks that I want to make him FAT by making all these stuff lol..

Construction Business

Hubby has a friend that just started a construction business. I don’t think he’s had any official training on construction business and I am thinking of recommending him to CSkills. He can get information on the construction industry on how to get certified in this trade by 2010, the latest information on the safety and healthy legislation and on career development within his industry. He is going to need some workers to help him do the construction work too therefore I suggests that he goes to their website to look up on apprenticeship and hire apprentice where they will be able to develop new talent among his workers for the continued success of his new business. CSkills is a partner a partner in construction skills – the sector skills for construction therefore I think it’ll not be a waste of time for hubby’s friend to spend sometime to getting to know this website.

Need Advance Cash

Everyone knows that having a kid is not cheap. A friend of mine Jasmine just had a baby a couple of months ago and with the arrival of the new baby it meant that they have to spend to buy baby stuff for the baby. Unfortunately their car just broke down and because she is still on maternity leave and not making any income they don't have extra cash to fix it. I told them about a payday loan site I came across. Payday loans offers customers cash until their next pay day. I told them that cashadvance1500 offers their customer emergency cash for unexpected situations right into their checking account safely and securely so that they can have the cash the need to fix their car. They can also safe time by not needing to go to the bank to try and get a personal loan not knowing whether they will be approved. Moreover cashadvance1500 offers one of the best rates anyone can find out there.

Online Shopping Cart

XY loves to design and make beaded jewelry and he design is really pretty. She makes them and sells it to people at work and to friends. She has an idea that she wants to start selling it online. I told her than I came across ashop which is a online shopping cart software. It is affordable software, easy to use and accepts most major credit cards since her buyers would mostly have to use their credit cards to pay for the items. This ecommerce software is so easy to set up that she will have one less item to worry about. There is even a 10day trial for this software to see if she likes it which I doubt she will have any complains about it. All she needs to do now is to design more unique jewelry so that she can post and sell it online. I told her that she should get right to it so that no time is wasted and money can be earned. :)

Rushing

When hubby and I first decided/just got married I thought I was actually rushing into marriage. Apart of me didn't think that I was ready to be married. Marriage is a big deal for some people and their whole lives changes after they get married but for me I still feel the same apart from the fact that I tell people he's my husband instead of boyfriend. I have to learn to keep the book work equal, make sure we are not spending too much and we are saving enough, all those household responsibility. The only drastic change I encounter was daddy and mummy is not responsible for me financially anymore..sob sob..
But as years comes more and more people I know has either gotten married or engaged. I found out that some people got registered after a couple of months they have been together or planning to get married within the couple of months they are together. I had this feeling that I was rushing into my marriage therefore I'm just wondering what is actually going thru their head. Aren't they worried that because they barely know each other things might not work out. I mean look at Pamela Anderson; granted she got married within a couple of days after she met that dude but it makes me freak out to think about it. The last I heard is there is 50% divorce rate in the US. I think the rates is going up in other countries too. Some people might tell me so what if you know someone for a long time but they still get divorce. I know they do but I feel like the chances of that is lesser than jumping into a marriage to a person you barely know. I don't know maybe I'm old school but I really do hope that marriages lasts longer and people just don't think getting married quick and getting a divorce quick. Although I am not expert and I haven't been married long so who knows what will happen in the future but this rushing into marriage thingy just made me ponder about this topic.
*This post is absolutely NOT for my friend who just got engaged so KHM do not think I'm talking about you :P

Things Change

Sometimes I feel like I'm not the same person I used to be. I am in some ways like I still love to shop, chat with my family and friends and I still love to eat etc..but something is just not the same..People grow up and they move on to their next phase of their life. Something remains the same but somethings will change. I don't think anyone should remain miserable because of the past. There is some people out there that I dislike but I'm trying to put my grouches behind and move on. I'm moving and trying to move on so why can't other people do the same thing? Sometimes is not that you don't want to lend an ear but it gets to be a little too much and it just makes me want to run away. I have problems that I have to face on my own and I just want to maybe talk a little about it find a solution or move on with my life. I think life is too precious to be wasted to mope around on things we can no longer change.
If you are ever reading this I just want you to know that I care deeply about you and I want you to be happy. You have so much to offer and you should make your full use of your life and live happy. This is life.. life is just not fare sometimes and we have to deal with it. If life is constantly fare it would be really boring and there is no more competition. If you are willing to take a step and a time to sort things out I'll always be here to support you. You were always there when I needed support and I'll be here for you too. Just look ahead of you and you have a bright future for you out there.

Congratulations!!!

I would like to congratulate my bestiee KHM and her partner LL for their engagement. I am so very happy for my bestiee..I cannot wait to be the busy body to tell everyone I know that my bestiee is getting married. I am the first one in my group that got married and I am happy to have another person that is/will be married too..At least if I ever have kids in the future I have someone to talk to me about it..I am so very happy for both of you. All the best and we shall talk really soon..xoxo

Getting a better care

People come and go. As I mentioned in the last post about hubby’s grandfather passing away leaving grandma all by herself in a big old house but luckily I ran across a website-bettercaring a service for people to look after themselves or their loved ones. I am also able to do research for care homes around our area. Grandma is planning to stay at her current house until next summer now with this website we can search for a place that fits grandma’s requirements. It’s not going to be easy for grandma to search for a home and leave the one behind that she and grandpa built. Since grandma is pretty old herself she and her kids decided that it’ll not be wise to stay by herself and upkeep it. If grandma finds a suitable home at bettercaring she is going to have the help she needs and also meet new people her age and maybe reunite with her friends might already be staying at care homes.

Lost of a loved one

People come and go everyday. Babies born and also people dying. Life is so unpredictable. I lost both my grandmothers while I'm here and was never able to attend any of their funerals. FIL's dad passed away on the 31st January 2007 which is also MIL and FIL's wedding anniversary. Grandpa took a nap a day before Christmas eve and when he got up he suffered a stroke on his right side and was admitted to the hospital. He was 89 years old and a very active man. He was not happy at all when he had to lay in the hospital bed while he was being observe to see what's going on with him. He went down hill from there. The good thing was he didn't suffer a long time. He was at the hospital for a little over a week and being there I feel makes him feel like he was there for a longer period of time. We had the funeral etc on Friday and it was really an emotional one. I've met grandpa and spend some time with him but not a lot yet I could feel the lost in the family. We know that grandma is strong and is accepting everything but after 60 over years of being married to a man I'm sure it's a difficult thing. I could not imagine how difficult and painful it would be. She was not given any time to be prepared for this. When grandpa was admitted to the hospital it daunted to me that my grandma was admitted for almost the same reason. She was in there for about a week and was expected to be discharged the next day but she had a seizure and passed away. I was completely out for almost a week not being able to think of not having her around. My grandma, my best friend and my nanny. She was someone that I call almost once every week. She will ask me what's going on with me if she don't hear from me. Someone that I share my secrets with and someone that I can depend on for yummy food/recipes. I know it's a circle of life where someone comes and goes but sometimes it's difficult for the loved one to accept it. We just hope that FIL's mom will be fine and enjoy her own last years of hers just like MIL's mom. MIL's mom lost her husband about two years ago but she had time to prepare for it because grandpa was sick for quite some time. I'm glad that I was able to meet all of them. We will miss them and all the grandparents will always remain in our heart forever..

Happy New Year!!