Last of the Tiles

we've been tiling our kitchen backsplash since forever it seems... took us a very very long time. so last weekend when chot came to the last piece of tile, i was standing by to snap up pics of the momentous event.

it was painstaking for him because he had to cut a section of it out and this made the tile very fragile. so fragile in fact it broke twice...

but in the end he was victorious... : )

i know we're not finished yet, we have the grouting to do (when is that going to be, i can't say) but this is the kitchen so far...

dent + car

the story behind this...

chot went to pick up the car from the shop. it was send in for fuel flush of sorts and change some belt thing and (the only thing i've been complaining about)... the squealing noise the car's been making.

he came home and began telling that the car was still making the noise, so he took it to another place. and at this place, our car acquired a dent. the guy that worked there accidentally rammed our car into a chevy aveo...

he was realllyy sorry about it (by right he should!!) and they will fix it for free (by right they should!!)... : )

Merdeka

Esok 31 Ogos, hari merdeka...

hari merdeka pada keluarga win ada maksud baru sebab arwah mak tok, ibu mak win tenat & meninggal sehari sebelum hari merdeka 2001. tok seorang yang sangat "considerate"... dalam nak pergi pun dia pergi dekat dengan hari cuti jadik anak2 dan cucu2 senang nak balik kampung.

dulu bila orang kata dia ada ayah, ibu, anak... tok yang PALING dot dot dot, win tengok sinis kat diaorg. macamana diaorang tau diaorang punya tu yang PALING dot dot!!...diaorang tak boleh pakai perkataan PALING.

tapi win paham, tu semua subjektif... sebab kita sayang dan hargai seseorang tu. dan utk win, tok PALING "best", arwah mak tok... yang PALING baik, PALING bersabar, PALING penyayang... rindu kan tok dan doa cucu nie sentiasa utk tok.

berjalan lagi

asyik-asyik pi jalan, asyik-asyik pi jalan.

hujung minggu nie kat US cuti hari buruh. cuti hujung minggu jadik panjang satu hari sebab hari buruh hari isnin. perancangan asalnye ada kawan2 nak datang melawat kami kat kampung waterloo nie, tapi masa kami di Peoria 2 minggu lepas rancangan berkhemah dan "whitewater rafting" timbul.

mula2 win tegas kata tak... mana boleh orang nak datang melawat dan win dah ajak datang pas tu kita suruh tak datang. chot pun cakap yang sama tapi lepas pikir dan pikir dan pikir, win sedar yang sekarang kitaorang masih senang nak berjalan... mana la tau tahun depan, mungkin tak boleh.

jadik win cerita kat chot apa yang win pikir, dia pun dengan pantasnye kata dia dah lama pikir macam tu... bila lagi kalau bukan sekarang. tahun depan kita tak tau apa yang bakal jadik, pas tu kawan2 yang lain kut tak se "free"... nanti menyesal. RUPA- RUPANYE DIA MEMANG NAK PERGI, DIA KATA DIA TAK MAU PI SEBAB WIN "INSISTED" KITA DUDUK WATERLOO UTK TERIMA TETAMU. chot nie ada kebolehan goreng baik punye.

jadik jumaat nie kami akan ke Peshtigo, Wisconsin utk aktiviti camping dan main air... chot sukaaaaaa air. dan lepas dapat tarik kawan2 yang win terpaksa batalkan "plan" diaorang ke sini utk ke sana, rasa tak la bersalah lagi.

berjalan lagi...

when i was small

a friend of mine emailed me these pictures. it's quite funny...

when i was small...

i break rocks with my head
ride my bike down the street and challenge the police

Kansas City Aqiqah Pictures

ameer's aqiqah went well. although he was very fussy on the days leading up to the event, like a good boy he behaved himself as he was passed around.

emmy's parents came to help her adjust to motherhood and were there cooking up a storm. makcik is really friendly and outgoing but pakcik is a bit on the quiet side. they reminded me of my own parents : )... my mom could really talk up a storm and my dad could really end conversations.

here are pictures of our Kansas City trip. Click here.

uh u guys??? is the sheep smirking??...

"bheeekkkk" the sheep said. "this is my fate... my dear mother warned me of this possibility and it's actually happening". and in his final moment as the knife sliced into his flesh he smirked, forever freezing the expression on his face.

Rocky Mountain Pictures

hike up pictures click here.

camping pictures click here.

hike down pictures click here. put mouse over picture in slideshow mode to see caption.

the hike up was damn tiring. chot & i never felf this tired in our whole life and swore we'd never do it again. then we reached the camp site and got a little rest, we felt a bit better and swore we'd only go again if it'd be a shorter hike or a day hike. and now after close to 2 months since... noooOPE, never again... not this trail. but ask me again in 6 months : )

wednesday

we got back into town later than we usually do, close to midnight!!! usually we'll make our move earlier so we don't end up driving in the dark. quite a challenge to stay awake when it's pitch black all around. plus cars with headlight are very annoying.

it's already wednesday huh??... how time flies... chot wanted to mow the lawn yesterday but since he's still tiling the kitchen backsplash i said i'd do it. BUT went to bed late last night and proceeded to wake up at 11 am. it's too hot outside to do it now. i reckon chot will do it after he comes home from work... that is after he cut the 2 last tiles to size.

ahhh... the life of a slacker housewife with a too good of a husband who doesn't demand. cik win slacker slack slack!!! feels crummy when i answer chot's "what did u do today?" question with a very short2 list... usually i don't even try to think of the stuff i did, i'd just say i did nothing.

NOW, i need to address a little issue that arose from my last post. i have to say i've made my friend bee (we stayed at her place last weekend) feel bad for not preparing meals for guests. and ellie meticulously planned out our expenditure if we'd visit her in Omaha... just pay gas and the rest is on her.

u guys and future friends we'll stay with in the future, this is for u guys... don't worry about it. i'm neurotic nowadays where money is concerned but the worry isn't warranted really. the reality is we are in a bit of a squeeze but not to the point of sorrow. it would be nice when we can get the nilai house sold and when my medical bills is paid off but we're managing fine. and when we come to visit, any meal option is fine and we definately do not want our meals paid for... no... no... no...

moving on... i'm still uploading pics of rocky mountain. and tons of other pics too, so a bit of a wait until that gets done. nonetheless, i'd like to end this post with the latest picture of adam and me... us and our squarer faces : )

salam hello

i'm thinking in english today, no... not because i sound stupid conversing in malay or prefer english over my mother tongue. i value my bahasa melayu and i think i'm fairly good in my grasp of both languages (ehm... ehm... BM SPM A1 i kid u not). and bahasa melayu is the language i'll teach my kids if ever i'll have any because they'll pick up english when they walk out the front door.

i think i'll try to write in english AND malay but not both at the same time. and today i feel english : )...

i've been so very quiet, at first i didn't think anything of it but then friends started calling and asking if i was well. since they didn't see any activity on my blog, they wondered. and a few days ago, my old buddy bai emailed me from malaysia... an alarmed sounding emailed asking if i was doing OK, if anything bad had happen because another old friend in Omaha (yes u kak ellie) asked her to call up my in-laws in gombak. now why didn't ellie just called or emailed me herself??... why because i was being a bad friend of course... my laziness overtaking my life. i was lazy pysically and mentally... lazy... lazy... lazy...

so that's it, i'm ok, we're ok... just plain old lazy...

anywhoooo... i'm writing today and i have a few more hours before chot gets home and off we will go to Peoria, the closest thing we have to a kampung here. Peoria is where chot went to college and where all of his friends and later they became my friends live. we enjoyed seeing and spending time with them and now with a lot of little ones there, we loved it even more.

but (there's always a "but" right??)... i am wrestling with myself inside to not worry too much about all the trips we make and all the expenses we incur from it. that's all i seemed to be about nowadays, worrying about money and afraid of being short. more now since we've started payments on our nilai house... and that's on top of everything else. i pity chot really, when i've become a bit of a dictator of "yes" or "no"...

the dictator said "no more trips after KC, not until december"... but really, do we really want to spend another weekend in this town with nothing to do. i mean, with nothing we like to do.

and the dictator said "we'll go to Peoria but only if u finish tiling the kitchen backsplash"... but on the last evening he had to work on it, he ran out of tiles!!!. how convenient really... a good excuse because we didn't see how he can finish the work in time.

but we're going to Peoria regardless because (1) our minds are already there, looking forward to the trip (2) i was the one who made the boo boo because i was the one who counted the amount of tiles needed and then coming up short... heh heh...

so, a fine dictator i am huh??... seems like nothing i say sticks... and i'll start worrying about our expenses when i come back ; )...

tried uploading some pictures but something isn't working somewhere... later then. oh my gosh, chot's on his way home and i haven't pack... or shower... or edit this post...

Kansas City

esok lepas kerja kitaorg akan ke KC. KC dalam 5 1/2 jam dari waterloo sebab kawan kat sana nak buat aqiqah hari sabtu.

kenapa pi awal sangat?? sebab diaorg nak sembelih kambing sendiri dan mintak tolong chot lapah kambing. sebab tempat nak sembelih kambing tu tutup hari khamis, dan aqiqahnye hari sabtu, nak sembelih hari jumaat lambat sangat... dah nak sembelih, nak lapah... nak masak... jadiknye rabu pagi.

rabu pagi beberapa ekor kambing akan hilang nyawa mereka...

cerita pasal sembelih2 binatang nie, teringat kat arwah tok win. win ingat win jadik tukang pegang ayam dan tok tamat nyawa ayam2 tu. paling ingat ayam2 tu mengelupar & melompat keliling laman pada saat2 terakhirnya... innallillah... ; ) nanti win ambik gambar...