During my Singapore trip, for the Nuffnang Awards, I got to indulge in a massage as well as a Fish Spa. “SAY WHAT? You say??”. No, it is not a spa for fish, but really its a spa WITH fish! After reading Kenny Sia’s review AGES and AGES ago, I’ve been wanting to try. EKKkk… all the excitement and scariness all at the same time…. “What if I get like fungus growth from someone else who dipped their grotty feet in before I did?”

Apparently, its all good because of some UV treatment they do with the filter that is used and the water is supposedly treated daily… ladida. My feet are fine now, so I guess, it’s not as scary in that way.

I was smiling and excited in the beginning and well, in the first 3 minutes… I was crying. It really felt WEIRD. BUT…After the initial start and getting the idea that these were little fishies chewing away at your dead cells out of my head, it actually felt relaxing like a … bubble bath. So good that Dave and I went back for seconds.

Oh, if only they eat hairs too! EAT away!! hehehe. I thought that it might be cool if we had like a mini tank of these fishies at our house so what in the evening when Dave got back from work, we could relax and ‘feed’ our fish friends while we watched tv or something. But then… what if we were watching a movie, and by the end of the movie, we pull out our legs and all we’re left with are two little stumps. eehhh…..

ANYWAY, here’s a little peek as to how SUPER SKM really is. She’s got balls of FABULOUS steel, unlike Krupps… who squeeled like a little girl who’s DS had been taken away from. Love Love!

I’ve been trying to be more reflective these days. I think reflection is always a good thing in being able to grow. Whether it is to grow as a person, grow in relationships, happiness and even in love.

So lately I’ve been noting the small things that make me happy. It is always easier to focus on the larger, more obvious things that we think can make us happy ( like more money, a massage or a holiday) but I think that a happy person finds joy in the smallest of things.

For me so far from what I can think of from today is…

Arranging things into order. YES this includes putting my hangers together.

Pairing up socks (the washing machine keeps eating up our socks! Or I swear there is a sock monster that keeps eating our socks!)

The feel of newly vacuumed carpet.

The smell of freshly washed clothes.

Hanging out clothes and making sure I use our pegs as effectively as possible (i.e joining the corners of each garment so that it only needs one peg between garments)

Getting random kisses from Missy A, and hearing her sleepily say “I love you” before she drifts off to bed.

Seeing Missy C smile, and then stick her tongue out straight away.

When Missy C sneezes and farts simultaneously.

Receiving comments on my blog. Go on… make my day.

When Dave calls, just because…

Hearing my sister laugh… and then laugh at her for laughing.

Stacking folded clothes so that the edges are nicely lined up.

Getting wet when Missy C kicks with so much excitement when she is having a bath.

Hearing Missy A randomly try to read words she sees.

Erasing a pencil mistake cleanly.

Sitting on a bed when the doona is folded and put in a corner ( I like the bed to be nice and flat).

Receiving snail mail (espcially if it’s a package from eBay or Etsy – hahaha.. ok this one doesn’t really count).

Wiping off a surface until it is smooth.

Using the car wipers and seeing the rain drain away.

Laying out in the garden, eating outdoors (even if it is just a sandwich).

…oh, I’m sure there’s more, but I need to sleep otherwise I might get too excited!

I’m already smiling just thinking of these, and to think! All of these happen almost everyday. I should remind myself to just slow down, stop, think and remember that JOY can be found everywhere and almost everything I do.

What brings you JOY?

Hahaha… you’ve all heard of matching outfits for mum and baby…  here’s one for Daddy and baby!

Where did Missy C go??

Oh there you are!

It has now been two weeks since little Missy C has been… out, and we are just beginning to settle into a routine. She feeds every 3-4 hours, yes and even through the night. Her jaundice has cleared up which means that I can start stretching out her night feeds. We haven’t yet begun that considering her temporary cot is right next to our beds, so when she cries, I can’t help but get out and service her. Feeding her with a warm bottle of milk gets her back into a deep sleep and within 20 minutes from waking, she’s out cold, drunk with milk.

I have somewhat been well rested. All thanks to my wonderful family, and super husband, Dave. My family does all the cooking, hang out the washing, do the dishes and pretty much all the homely things. Super Dave has been that big support, emotionally and also been doing the diapers (kinda).

He also handles Missy A. He makes sure she’s fed, changed, and ready for school, and while she was sick, he was monitoring her temperature and played Doctor Dad. When I was tired, he’d watch over Missy C making sure that I had some peace to sleep. When I was feeling the blues, he’d cuddle me and see me through the tears and assured me. He also enforced my sleeping, making sure that when there was a time to take a nap, I had to nap (which kinda also didn’t work since I downloaded StoneLoops on my iPhone).

Today, he’s back at work so I’m flying solo. So far… so good but I am certainly missing him – we all are. Dave, I love you so much and thank you so much and  …come home soon!

When I had baby Missy A, I was given a list of things to bring to the hospital. This time round, I had to ask for the list again because I was just getting so overwhelmed with the amount of baby clothes I had accumulated, and I was … well… just making things complicated. How? Well… before Missy A was born, she was scanned to be a girl. BUT EVERYONE had predicted that she’d be a boy. So I was alittle worried in terms of getting the colour of the baby clothes right. Can’t possibly pack all PINK stuff… just in case. BUT at that time, given the circumstances, Dave and I were in … well.. not exactly superly prepared to have a baby so we had hand-me-downs from very generous and lovely people, and to us… we had not much choice as to what Missy A would wear. Just wear whatever we have. It was simple like that.

NOW… not that we are super choosey, or high-class now, it is atleast at a time when I have alittle bit of choice. Not a stretch for us, but I can afford to buy a $2.30 baby jumpsuit t-shirt from Big W… that Missy A has happily chosen.

ANYWAY… my point being… is now that I have all these things in my head that has made things complicated like… OH WHAT size do I bring?? 0000? Oh better bring some 000 just in case is a big baby. Oh what colour then? Yellow is a nice choice. But Oh… when people visit… it may make it uncomfortable for then to ask whether its a girl or boy? Oh then, her gloves, and booties… what size again!? OH and its winter! How cold would it be? Long sleeve? Short sleeve, and layer? BLAH!!! hehehe… ok… anyway… because of how complicated I made it… FINALLY I just put ALL the questions aside, and stuffed it. Too bad, if baby is going to ’swim’ in her clothes…. be it. If its too small… then… Be it. If its cold… I’m sure I can change the thermostat in our room warmer… and well… if gloves are too BIG, then… BLAH… We managed with Missy A… we can manage with baby #2.

In the end… I packed all the essentials on the list.

Hehehe… ok maybe I’m taking a few more extra stuff…. I couldn’t help it.

Just a bit of advice, pack exactly ONE set of everything: Singlet, wondersuit, gloves, booties, hat and bunny rug… all in a zip-lock bag so that it makes it easier for hubby to just pull it out when you’re in labour for the nurses/midwives to put the clothes in the warming cupboard .. all ready for baby. This way… one less thing to think about. Make sure to brief the hubby what he’s suppose to do. I.E TAKE this out and give to midwife when baby is coming. SIMPLE instructions.

Don’t forget to pack for yourself. Hehehe… with Missy A… I did. So lets just say I learned my lesson. One other thing… in-regards to undies… honestly, I just found that buying a cheap set from BigW, or Target 6/7 pack is the best way to go. That way, you could really just throw them out a month after….. hopefully along with the bad memory . When I had Missy A, I requested for a few disposables from the hospital… hehehe…

If you’re planning to breast-feed too… I didn’t exactly leak within the first few weeks, or have any accidents BUT no harm in prepping for that.

RITE AID was my besty. It will serve as my besty… and the value 60 pack is only $8.30 at BIGW.

I was thinking of making a video about my trip to NZ… but then the more I think about it… it may be more effort filming, and editing…something I haven’t done before… so maybe another time eh??

Well, our little trip to NZ, Auckland was purely because we had a wedding to go to, and when we booked our flights, we didn’t really plan on doing anything other than to help out set up the wedding. Such a waste to fly across an ocean, but we were trying to be so called ’self-less’ and just be and do what we can eh?  Hehehe… well we did manage to squeeze abit of a getaway but… in hind sight, that caused more stress than anything else. Still… NZ was beautiful.

I’d lived in NZ a while back, studied there even so it was really nice going back, and seeing how things changed.

All aboard the airplane!

We travelled with Qantas as they had a promotion where kids fly free. You pay for the taxes ofcoarse, but it was kinda still affordable. There’s a great selection of ‘new’ movies on the entertainment-thingiemajig BUT as the system was only fixed 1 hour into our flight… I was too scared to watch the good ones (like Benjamin Button or that….indian millionaire one… ) knowing I won’t get to finnish it. Missy A didn’t mind. She watched half of Madagascar 2 and switched to watch half of High School Musical 3. I watched part of… 4 holidays. Review of movie…. Bleh.. only so so.

Anyway, we arrived. First couple of days was wedding stuff, like ordering food. YUMMO cakes at the Cheesecake shop! But shocking shocking customer service. I sweat I think I knew more of the cakes on display than the poor pimpled face 13 year old boy behind the counter.

Aunty asked ” So, could I order a tiered wedding cake, does it get delievered and set up at the venue?”

Boy’s answer ” Um… I don’t know.”

Me trying to sound understanding “Ok… can you find out?”

Boy’s dumber answer ” Oh no, coz the boss isn’t in”

Me speaking really slowly  SO …THAT…HE…CAN…UNDERSTAND… “WHAT? Can you call them to find out as its pretty important…”

Boy’s even super duper answer ” Oh yeh but they are not working”

GGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRR!!! I had to step out and jsut let Aunty handle it…

ANYWAY… then we headed off for a break to smelly Rotorua. The drive was really pretty. Picture perfect pretty. Everything was green… and clean… and just… pretty…

The weather was really pleasant in Auckland, so we expected teh same. YES and NO when we got to Rotorua. Each morning it rained, and then only later in the day it cleared up which really limited what we wanted to do… OR atleast what the boys wanted to do which was most of the advernture stuff like dirt biking and fishing.

Still… we do with what we have eh? Pregnant woman and kid friendly activities…

First stop… Waitomo Caves to see glow worms. Because mum and I had already been (yonks ago) and we were on a budget trip… Dave took Missy A while we sat at the cafe for a cuppa.

You get to take a boat ride into a pitch black cave where the tour guide aparently sings songs, and tell you all about the glow worms while you stare up into the cave ceiling to witness these odd little bugs.

Missy A had been looking forward to this the whole trip and she carried with her for the wholeday the brochure that also showed parts of other caves that you can walk and tour around. Again, budget trip, we only bought tickets for the Glow worms, while Missy A expected to see all the other cave stuff… when she came back from her 45 min boat ride, a sad sour little expresssion was left on her face.

I didn’t realise that she had expected more from the tour because of all the pictures that were shown on teh brochure. SO NOTE TO SELF and future trips : Must explain to kid exactly what they will be doing and what they could expect.

She was so sad I couldn’t heck it. I felt so bad. Anyway… so Daddy had to take her aside to explain to her that although she may be disappointed, she should be happy that she got to see the glow worms, and think about that instead.

ANYWAY, the trip goes on… The boys book themselves a fishing trip in Lake Rotorua.

While we went to the Agrodome which is again… kid and pregnant woman friendly.

Aparently this is on of the tastiest sheeps…

…19 sheeps later, 2 sheep dog demos, one shaved sheep…

…and 4 baby lambs later…

The boys came home with BIG SMILES on their faces, a wealth of knowledge on lake trout fishing…

…and dinner ofcoarse!…

I don’t know if this is exactly pregnant-friendly… but SO YUMMO! We can’t eat raw fish because… I think its because of the bacteria in case the fish we eat wasn’t stored properley and not fresh. BUT knowing that it was just pulled out of the lake… it can’t hurt right??

Lemon Cooked Chilli Trout Recipe

Heaps of fresh lemon juice

Fresh chill and garlic sauce (bought stright from supermarket)

Onions

Mix all ingredients, make sure all the fish is coated. Set aside in fridge for 30-40 mins. Serve COLD.

In Rotorua there’s a famour Polynesian Spa – Voted top 10 in the world aparently. BUT sadly.. not preggo friendly, so we decided to do our own spa treatment at our motel.

Hahaha… this was really fun. Even Missy A got abit of a treatment.

lol… try laughing but not…hahahaha…

The next day, all cleansed pores and fresh faced… we headed to The Luge.

Took a gondola up a mountain…

…and those who were ‘able’ (hence NOT pregnantand old) geared up to slide down the mountain while the rest lazed it up in the cafe and cam-whored.

A couple of hours later, all luged out, weather cleared up, full of tea and back down the gondola…

We headed back for Auckland.

On the way back, we spotted a ‘park’ that showcased Rotorua’s natural…ness. I magine… a walk in a park… and you come across natural volcanic activity. HOW EXCITING!

ANYWAY… back to Auckland after a nice 2 days of good ole Family time.

I’d like to think that I have a wonderful marriage. I love my husband, and my husband loves me. Certainly we have our little arguements and disagreements… but at the end of it all… there’s alot of luuurrrvvee. (Everybody says awww….)

ANYWAY… so as my advice on keeping things that way… what I like to do is to every now and then surprise David Lee with something. Whether it is as a gift, or something done just to show him that I love him. We have been trying to be very simple and clear about what each of our love languages are (google 7 love languages – totally recommend this for everyone whether in a relationship or not or just want to improve on relationships, family etc…) and one of Dave’s is a ‘doing’ one.

So as a surprise… Missy A and I WASHED the car! In my fat, pregnant, water-retained, body… DOING this… is my way of showing him some love. He understood the length Missy A and I went, just to show him this…. AND I think he really appreciated it.

The car wasn’t very dirty to start with… which has been a habit I’ve been trying to pick up. I try to take everything that is NOT suppose to be in the car (i.e extra pair of shoes, a left over cardigan, used tissues..) OUT everytime we park the car at home. Sounds simple right?? Bleh… I find this really hard for some reason… and when I do do it… all the ‘rubbish’ mess ends up in our room floor, or the kitchen floor (I am honestly… a rather messy person… ). Also as Missy A was cleaning, I tried to explain to her WHY we were cleaning which also got her excited in anticipating how Daddy would react. I think it was also important that she understood that we can all show love to each other in different ways.

ANYWAY… so we took out all the mats and vacumned the insides of the car while Missy A had a wet micro-fibre cloth to wipe the chairs and dashboard. E-A-S-Y.

THEN the fun part was to go drive through to MOBIL and get the car automatically washed! $7 … so E-A-S-Y! You really didn’t think I’d get the hose and bucket out to wash the car myself?? (lol.. love does have its limits!).

Have break… Have a Kit Kat.

OMG it took me like 5 mins to get the car into the right position. I’ve never driven to one of these before… so I kept driving over the plate that I was SUPPOSE to be on but the traffic light kept going GREEN rather than red, but if I kept going… I would have just driven OUT of the machine… (confusing stuff)…

Anyway… all I had to do was just dry the car with my CHAMOISE and pick my hubby up. Should have seen the bright eyed grin on his face.

$7 Car Wash

$2.90 Kit Kat (so pricey…)

Look on hubby’s happy chapper’s face – PRICELESS!

While I’ve been lazing on my expanding back-side, I’ve been making headbands. I love headbands as they can dress-up a plain outfit. So here are a few that I’ve posted up on eBay. They are all handmade from vintage finds, so they are all ONE-OFFS. you will not see these anywhere else.

ENJOY! Don’t forget to bid if you’d like to own them!

AUD$20 SOLD

AUD$10SOLD

AUD$15SOLD

AUD$10SOLD

AUD$10SOLD

AUD$15SOLD

AUD$10 SOLD

I’ve read in a book somewhere… or maybe it was from a sermon… (probably sermon cos I don’t remember the last time I have picked up a book), that when you have little girls, having dad take them out on a ‘date’ teaches them about respect, respect for themselves and also learn how they are to be treated when they are out with boys. YES I know, Missy A is only 4 but I really like that. I wished my dad had taken me out for dates. NOT that I don’t respect myself but I also think that there is a bond you can build between father and daughter in that will pass on to how a girl should be expected to be treated when they do find a BOY (God knows I will be fearful for when this day comes for Missy A)…. and get married. I also think that how your parents are around you teaches a great deal on relationships.

ANYWAY… my point being… I’ve tried to be transparent with Missy A when Dave and I do go out on ‘Dates’. Its nice. You can see that she appreciates it as a “daddy and mummy” time… and she understands. She understands dates as a special time spent together just with that special person, and so every week or so she goes on a date with mummy, or even sometimes goes out on a date with daddy. Just the two. It is a proper occassion, carefully planned and its all about the two special people.

SO ANYWAY…again…Over the weekend, we went to Apollo Bay, and one part of the day, Missy A told me ” Me and daddy are going to the pier to fish, like on a date”. SOOOO….CUTE!!!

Pity her attention span for fishing only lasted say 30mins and waiting for the fish to bite was “BORING”.

Ok, so I’ve missed a few days of posting my 10:07 … and also just my general posting. I got lazy. I got tired. I AM PREGNANT… and so all in all… I also kinda forgotten…(Baby brain). So THIS post will be a super post of the past few days! Enjoy!

Valentines Day

Missy A made a cute little painting with her hands and a few cut out hearts. We just cut out little heart shapes from scrap paper and blue-tacked them on the paper randomly…

Grabbed 4 basic paint colours, painted her hands and PRINT!

Then when the whole page is covered in little hands, we lifted off the blue-tacked heart shapes, and… Voi LAH!

In the morning I also made my lovelies heart -shaped pancakes, with blueberries and cream. SUPER easy…

Get the pancake shakers, mix as the instructions tell you, stick the end of a ketchup (or Dijonaise as we had) bottle to the end of it (it fitted perfectly in our case) and squeeze into the hot non-stick fry pan (without butter or oil). Then just top with the CANNED whipped cream (no whipping required ) and pop berries in and drizzle with MAPLE SYRUP! YUMMO!

SUNDAY – I love springvale…

You know you’re in Sprinvale when you’re walking in the carpark towards the market and you hear men shouting ” White Bitch, Yellow Bitch, Whore Sale!!” I.e I think they mean… “White peach, yellow peach, ALL SALE”.

Monday 1007

Blah… WHY do kids eat so SLOWLY!!! I don’t get why Missy A just doesn’t like food in general!

Tuesday 1007

Our own little Shark Bait OOOhh Shaka

Wednesday 1007

ooops… I think I forgot.

Thursday 1007

Bandaging Joey-Roo’s broken leg with toilet paper…

Missy A my happy assitant.

Thursday Daily Outfit

I had to hold in my ‘third nipple’…

Flower power! Hand-made flower head bands.