Nervous

Tomorrow will be Iki's first day at school. I've been nervous for the whole week, and today the feeling almost blew me out. Alright, I might be overreacting about this school thing, but I just can't help it. I keep thinking if Iki would be alright at school. Until now he's still a very shy and sensitive boy, eventhough he knows some of other kids he will see at the school later on. I'm so so worried of him (>.<).

Actually there's a school bus picking up all the children, but tomorrow I will send him to school by myself. I know my son, and he will definitely cry his lung out if I just send him off to the bus at his very first day. Anyway we talked a lot about school these past few weeks, about the fun he would find there, about the friends he will meet, the teacher, the toys. He seemed understand but at the end he always insisted that he wanted me to be there too (@_@).

I just finished preparing his backpack, and checked it again and again for at least three times. I baked mini muffins together with him today and he put some himself into his lunch box. I trained him a lot not to talk in Japanese to the teacher, to tell the teacher whenever he needs to go to the restroom, how to open and close his lunch box, where I put his clothes, sandals, etc etc etc etc ETC. Arggghhhhh I'm such a noisy mother!!! (>.<)

Tonight between my long speech to him about school during dinner time, he hugged me tightly, kissed my lips, and said "You are my Mommy, my taisetsu mono (my very important thing)". It was the sweetest thing my 3 years old son has ever said to me.



I'm very proud though, that this baby has grown up, was able to say such things, and will start going to school tomorrow. Yet I'm still nervous haha!

I don't think I could sleep peacefully tonight.....

60's or 70's fashion ideas

I NEED HELP!!!!!!

There will be this birthday party coming on Feb 7. Everyone coming must wear 60's or 70's costume!

Please give me some advices, considering we're living in this jungle, and buying things is impossible. I might have to sew the dress on my own, but I just can't think of any good ideas.

I have something for you who gives the best creative yet easy to make idea, which I will use to come to the party. I will send away MY handmade goodie (^_^)!! But since I'm running out of time, I could only wait for your ideas until Sunday, Jan 25.

So hurry up, think of something unique to help US, and to get my handmade goodie (^___^)v

In search of a good maid :p

I got a new maid now. She started working this morning. How did I manage to find a new maid within one week?!

I brought Iki last Wednesday to the routine boxercise with the wives neighborhood. and they asked me why. I explained them that I fired my maid and there was nobody taking care of him while I was away. Since then the news spread all over "maid network" and everyday some women came over to look for a job. I thought It would be difficult to find a new maid, but I was wrong!

I chose Christina to fill in the job. She is not young anymore, experienced, can cook well, great with children, speaks a little English (just in case Hiro wants to communicate with her), and can stay with us here.

I spent this whole day teaching her the way she should do the house chores here. Hopefully she could adapt well within few days.

I do hope I chose the right person :)

Not my day...

I got my left tummy ache in these past 4 days. The pain come and go so I didn't really pay attention on it. I was thinking to go to a doctor but I don't have maid now, and going to a hospital bringing Iki wouldn't be a good idea.

But yesterday evening the pain got worse. I told Hiro but then because I didn't cook, we went to Wet Monyet anyway for dinner. To my surprise, the pain was getting worse, and I couldn't walk anymore as we arrived home. Hiro was upset because I should have gone to the hospital earlier, for he's afraid if it was my appendices.

So he made me called the expat doctor at 9.30 pm yesterday, and he met me at the hospital not long after that. He checked me up, did some tests (vaginal, urine and pregnancy), and came to a conclusion that it was not my appendices (thank God), but that there's infection inside. He gave me antibiotics and pain killer, and asked me to give him a call in the morning again.

I felt better then. I still could feel the pain but it is not as painful as last night. I called the doctor and he said that I must finish the whole strip of the antibiotics and take a good rest for few days to recover from the bugs. The thing is, I don't have maid now. I had to do the house chores and cooking and I couldn't take a minute rest with my active son bugging me around the whole day. I told him that I'm sick and need to lay down to reduce my pain, but he kept jumping on my damn stomach. I was so upset but I also pity him. I know he's alone and wanted me to play with him. He didn't have nap today and I didn't have any power to make him so that he was so grumpy in the evening. I was so exhausted that I was really waiting forward for Hiro's coming to help me out taking care of him. But Hiro suddenly called me that he had something to do at the camp and would go home very late. It's now 9.40 pm, and he just left the camp. Which means he would arrive here in another hour. He hasn't had his dinner yet, poor papa-chan; so I'll have to cook for him again after this - and cleaning up, poor me. I guess having a maid these few months spoilt me a lot (>.<)

Hhhhh today is just not my day!

I'd better take a short rest now. Feel so good to be able to ramble again here, after 3 months!!

Bye bye Mina-chan

Yesterday morning I fired Mina-chan. After I got a phone call from her telling me (not asking me) that she's not coming because of sick (again!). Lately it happened every week. And Hiro already had long list of complaints about her job. And i'm so tired listening to his complaints. And I'm also tired telling her what to do over the same things every single day. And I just can't stand it anymore whenever she ruined my plan because she couldn't stay until night after her quarrel with her boyfriend. And I'm bored already with the food she cooked.And...and...and....anyway she was fired already :p

I felt good afterwards though a bit sad, especially when Iki cried (yeah...Iki likes her). Learning from this experience, I think I will make a printed "rules and to do list" for my next maid hahaha!

Hope I could get a better maid. Soon. Bye bye Mina-chan

Beauty and the beast ;-)

Leftover piece from our trip to Bali last October.

Imoet, the beauty. And Carla, the beast (^_-)v



Thanks for the great time, baby!

Rafting

One weekend after Christmas we shared a rented boat with my friend, Nira to bring our family around Matano Lake (my parents and sister were visiting, and Nira's sister's family was here too).



At first we asked the driver to bring us to an underwater cave. Hiro jumped into the water as we arrived and said that the view from the cave was amazing. Exactly like Capri in Italy. Iki and I got ready to join him swimming into the lake, but then we found there were some bees buzzing around the lake's entrance. Too bad......we just didn't want the risk to get stung by a bee at the beginning of the trip so at last we passed it :(



Then we went to some small islands there to swim.





And then we went to Nuha village for some "shopping". The villagers there made and sell rattan souvenirs. I bought one small basket and one very big one to put our dirty laundry in.



It was raining very hard on the way home. It was my first time feeling cold in the afternoon in Sorowako haha. I mean, seriously cold that I was shivering!

We enjoyed the trip. I'd like to go around Matano lake again someday. Matano Lake is breathtaking :). As the world's second deepest lake, it has amazingly clear water. I'd definitely like to go rafting there again someday

Happy?

Bed time is always a fight between me and Iki. He always tries to find
a thousand and one reason to postpone his sleeping time, and that
attitudes really drive me crazy. So every night I have to talk to him
in a very high tone to send him to bed :(.

And last night he asked me after I lost my patience,

"Mommy, are you angry again? how to make you happy?"

Which made me teary......

I gave him a huge cuddle. He always makes me happy, but he also drives
me crazy at the same time :p

Our Christmas

I know it's late. As what happened to the Christmas cards we sent to our friends too. Thanks to Indonesian Custom department and post office who charged us 40 USD for receiving blank personalized Christmas cards from Japan. And then when we finally got (and paid) them, the local post office didn't have enough stamps for the whole cards so they had to send them to the other city's post office AFTER CHRISTMAS.

Well anyway, we had a nice Christmas. My parents and my sister
here visiting us. So let me share our happiness with all of you...

We spent the Christmas eve at the expat bar, Wet Monyet. Iki met Santa Claus but was scared of him. He cried when I wanted to take his picture on Santa's lap.

Iki was a "good boy" so he got a lot of Christmas presents from Santa Claus this year. He excitedly opened them all and were really happy to find some cars inside.

We had special Christmas menu this year. Special because my mom cooked everything I missed, though for Hiro those food are not supposed to be Christmas food haha!

There were several events here too. There's Christmas concert from the Children of the International school. And some women from Boxercise and Fun Golf got together for a coffee after their exercises.

It was a nice Christmas after all, hope you had a nice one too ;-)

Japanese Dinner Party

Last Saturday we invited some friends to come for a Japanese dinner at our place. At first I only planned a small party, but at the end we invited 10 people!! We don't have enough plates so Hiro had to borrow some from his company, and I had to buy some more fork just in case some of them couldn't use chopsticks haha.

We prepared Takoyaki, Tenpura, Temakizushi, Inarizushi, Kinpira, Umekyuri, Chikuwa and cheese, Soft Tofu, and Chawan Mushi. Everyone enjoyed the meal, thank God. I cooked the tenpura almost all the time with some help from Nira so that I could have dinner too. It was our first time to invite such amount of people coming over to our place so I was really panic. Japanese food must be served fresh and hot so it was kind of hectic. Luckily Iki was busy playing with some guests that he didn't disturb me. I was really glad that finally I could made it. Hopefully we could do better for the next dinner(s) ;-)



Iki and I wore Yukata at that night. Which impressed the guests LOL



I was exhausted at the end of the day. I couldn't remember how many hours did I stand to prepare and cook all the food. But I was really satisfied (^___^)

Happy New Year

So it's 2009 now. How time fled away. Iki had his very first New Year Party and birthday party in the afternoon with the other kids at the Wet Monyet bar, and then Hiro and I spent the New Year eve drinking and dancing at the same place with other expatriates living here (like where else could we do that?)
Last year was a great year. We never thought that we would spend new year in a small city in the middle of nowhere in Indonesia. But I am glad that we are here together and more than ready to start this coming year. Hopefully this would be a better year for us, and for you too.
Happy New Year!