musical chairs.

been thinking a lot about how we're going to get our house ready once we're ready to move in. we really, really need to start tucking away money for renovations and furniture and fittings and all that jazz, cos i know we'll need a lot.

i know some people say they'd rather just move in first then get the whole decorating thing slowly done. well, not me. i'd like for the house to be mostly ready before we move in. i guess we need to start looking at contractors that can work on the house later on. i've seen how my brother works on the interior of his house - it seems like a tedious but fun process, which i don't mind since there isn't any rush to it. his and my SIL's place is gorgeous, looks like it's one of those chic-hipster cafes. but then again, my taste has always been a bit different in the sense that i like my house bursting with colors and cozy vibes.i'm not really the modern type, no.

seriously torn about this whole moving issue. on one hand, i don't think it's necessary for us to move right away, especially when the distance from the new place to our workplaces will be quite far. it'll have quite an impact on our finances too, if we keep up with the traveling.

but on the other hand, maybe the move will be good for us too. sure, it's quite a distance from kl (and we're used to living like, really close to everything) but that can also be positive in the sense that we'll be able to stay in and focus on our own family more. and we're worried about bringing up jigglyboo at the current place we're staying at. it's not a bad place but the mannerisms of the kids that stay there leave much to be desired. we need to start trying to instill manners and discipline into jigglyboo early on, while she's still small - and basically we just don't want her to be surrounded by an environment that isn't healthy for her.

so i guess, that leaves us with a choice. to choose current comforts or future benefits. choices, choices.

photo credit: second charm

a message of love

'tis the season for graduation ceremonies in the states, which means it's also the season for commencement speeches.

i've always loved watching or reading commencement speeches. they are empowering, funny and inspiring. so far, my faves are obviously the infamous one by steve jobs and also ellen degeneres (look it up if you haven't seen it). this year, i haven't had the time to go through many yet but the one that's caught my attention so far is the one by John Legend at U Penn. actually, John Legend impresses me just by being married to Chrissy Teigen, my fave model, hands-down, not because of her beauty per se (which she obviously is) but because of her realness.

"So love your self, love your work, love the people around you. Dare to love those who are different from you, no matter where they're from, what they look like, and who they love."

you should read the entire speech HERE, it will make a difference to your day, i assure you.

mr legend is right. the opposite of love isn't hate, it is fear. nowadays especially, you see so many people hating each other - for their different ideologies, for their different backgrounds, for their different religions. why is it so easy to hate? because people are afraid of things that they don't know. but instead of making an effort to try and understand people that are different from them and bridge those differences, it is so much easier to just
keep their distance and stay huddled in their own safe world.

i have always believed in love and kindness. i choose to believe in the best of people instead of their worst. eventhough this sometimes gets me hurt and people make fun of this naivety, i choose to stand firm in my beliefs. i do not want to waste my energy in being negative towards others.

especially now, with jigglyboo in our lives, i would want her to go out into the world and explore. and i hope that when faced between love or fear, she will always choose love.

celebrate.

remember that i was planning on making brownies for R's birthday? well, last week i made two pans of em.

the first one was this photo above, which actually turned out quite well (threw in some pumpkin seeds for goodluck since my attempt at making brownies always end up in disaster!). in between myself, R, my sister and a friend of hers who slept over at our place last weekend, the brownies went quite fast. then since tuesday was a public holiday, we had a few friends over for dinner (when i went to feed jigglyboo then promptly conked out on the bed next to her, leaving R and our friends to their own devices playing monopoly haha). anyway, baked another pan of brownies for that night (this time with whole-wheat flour and dark chocolate), different but good all the same.

also have a bunch of arts and crafts stuff (glitter glue, colored paper, markers and the likes) leftover from the stuff i bought to make props for R's birthday (which went quite well, methinks).

i know it's super early days yet, but already planning my joint birthday with jigglyboo in my head, haha. i wonder if we'll be nicely moved in the new house by then (probably not, seeing as we havent even gotten the keys to the house yet and we'll need time to save up for renovation and decorating works). can't wait to have a housewarming party (altho my poor friends will have to travel all the way just to come haha). oh well.

but if we do decide to move, i guess i'll have to be on the lookout for new career opportunities closer to that side of town. i mean, i think i already have a pretty good job here already but it wouldn't be very practical to keep shepherding jigglyboo around with all that traveling distance. sigh. so i guess, will have to put off the moving in anyway then.

excited to have our own space, i haven't stayed in any landed houses since college days (except for the parents house, of course). but not excited at all the cleaning up that it requires. i barely have time to clean up the current apartment, much less a whole house.

anyway, back to the earlier topic of birthdays. yes, this year, me and jigglyboo are gonna have a joint birthday celebration! never really been into joint celebrations but if i have to share with someone, might as well be with her.

speaking of jigglyboo, she's at that age where everything she does seems just adorable. but seriously, she spends most of her waking hours just laughing and playing! just got ourselves a food processor to get ready for her days of starting her on solids. only a few weeks away, so excited!

milestone.

it was R's birthday yesterday. he's hit the big 3-0. sadly, we didn't have time to celebrate as we were both exhausted. it was jigglyboo's first day at her nursery and she wailed her little heart out on the way to and back from the nursery. but apart from the traveling, i think she's adapting well with the new environment. at least, that's what R told me since he's in charge of sending her and picking her up. i hope we get an opening at the creche downstairs (run by the same people) soon. i think the distance is shorter - but we just gotta make do with what we have now.

i was actually planning to bake a cake or some kind of dessert last night after making dinner but then the electricity went out throughout the whole two blocks of our apartment. so we haven't even celebrated R's birthday with a cake yet. sigh. anyway, we left all the dirty dishes out and we all went to sleep early. the electricity came back on around midnight, thankfully.

jigglyboo woke up around 4am for milk and i couldn't go back to sleep so i went around the apartment, doing laundry and washing dishes. also prepped the stuff for the chicken sandwiches that R and i are going to bring to work later.

this got me thinking, i'm not really a super-cook but i like preparing simple, relatively healthy meals. maybe i should start a home-based, take-away lunch business. i like my job but i feel like we should be channelling our energy into something i'm passionate about, no? oh well, i guess it's something to think about.

we used up our furniture voucher over the weekend and got ourselves a new bed and mattress. if we do move to the new house, at least we'll have enough beds for each room haha.

the parents and my sister A are on a two-week trip to europe. ah, so nice. i guess i've gotten used to seeing them all the time that i kind of miss them.

can't wait for the weekend; planning on trying some new recipes. ina garten's tomato sauce from scratch is soundng really good. mmm.