Fab 5 Friday...

Oh, peeps!! It's Friday...it's a 4-day long weekend...and it's fabulous!

Okay...let's get after it!

FAB 5 FRIDAY

1. Track and Field Carnival. This past Wednesday was the track and field carnival  - field day - at school. I ended up helping out at the event as a "marshal" - otherwise known as cat herder. Yes, I assisted in getting the kiddos organized for the various running events they were participating in. It was fun - and I've still got my "teacher voice" - which comes in handy when herding 2nd and 3rd graders. The boys rocked it...each of them took home two ribbons in running events and I had a fun morning hanging out with them and their friends.

Grayson at field day...with his winning relay team

Caleb and his buddies

2. Lunch at Fiercer. I should've grabbed a quick snapshot of us having lunch at Fiercer Curry House in Publika. It was a fun lunch with Christine, Mabel and Susan! Always enjoy spending time with those women!

3. Orchids. Yes, orchids make the list this week. We actually have orchids growing on our patio...and they're beautiful. I can't take credit for them, as Elizabeth takes care of all the plants, but, you've got to love a climate where you can grow these beautiful flowers so easily.

The orchids we currently have blooming

4. Helpful friends. I just have to thank people who have gone out of their way to make me feel welcome here in KL - and I'm so thankful that it continues to happen. It doesn't matter if it's responding to a Facebook post about where to get Pizza Hut pizza from or taking me to find the local printing shop, checking on my child's writing progress, asking me to lunch or a simple text to see how my day is going. Those are the little things that make me grateful for coming to KL and embarking on this crazy adventure.

5. Mani and pedi. Yeah...completely selfish on my part, but my mani and pedi appointment makes the Fab 5 list this week. Nothing like a little Mommy relaxation!

Okay...we'll be celebrating Super Bowl Monday here in Malaysia! Don't really care who wins, but so glad for the long weekend so we can watch some good commercials Monday morning!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Or Happy Chinese New Year! (The literal translation is: Congratulations on getting more wealth! I like it!)

Chinese New Year is just about to kick off here in Malaysia - and around the world. (Yup, the Google doodle is all about it today!) With the diverse population here we are lucky to celebrate a multitude of holidays - and this is another new one for us! It's been great fun learning a little bit about this holiday - although, I don't think we've even learned a fraction of what we could/will! We have our lanterns hanging at the house, the kids have been sure to tell me that this is the Year of the Horse (You can go here and learn what year you were born in. I was born the year of the dog as was Grayson - oy vey! No wonder he's my mini-me in personality!), and they've been saying, "Gong Xi Fa Cai!" a lot!

The malls are all decorated. Some of them are just beautiful.

Some of the gorgeous decorations

The boys showing a giant rabbit some love!

Lanterns and horses everywhere!

Some of the neat plants that are often given as gifts

Another thing we've learned about is ang pao or red envelopes. These little envelopes with money in them are often given to younger, unmarried people and children. Yes, the boys scored some ang pao and now think that Chinese New Year rocks - even if you're not Chinese.

Ang pao envelope

There is a lot of gift giving that goes on during this holiday - food and hampers (gift baskets). Mandarin oranges are very traditional and you see them being delivered places by the cases and cases. They are a symbol of good fortune and abundance.

Oranges and hampers 

Blaine's office has been overwhelmed with hampers and oranges and other gifts. His secretary, Ser-Pin made the most amazing cookies (which she sells at this time of year) and gave Blaine about 5 different kinds - which we have been happily eating all week. He's had vendors give him various things - even a case of Coke. (I'm sure that's because it's red - the dominant color of the season.)

Just a few of the cookies and treats we've received!

Anyways, in conjunction with the holiday - school is closed tomorrow and Monday. Lots of businesses are closed and we're going to enjoy a quiet weekend here in KL. Wishing all of our family and friends much prosperity in the new year!

Chinese Cooking Class...

I haven't had a cooking class since before Christmas and now I have four coming up in the next few weeks. Today was Simple Chinese II. (No...I didn't attend the first Simple Chinese, but that wasn't a pre-req - so I was all good!)

Christine was our chef today and Susan attended with me - which always makes cooking more fun. Friends make cooking more social...

There were three dishes on our list today: Chinese Spring Rolls, Three Cup Chicken, and Deep Fried Gold Cake with Yam and Sweet Potatoes.

We started with the Chinese Spring Rolls as the filling needed to cool down before you could roll them in your wrappers.

Susan working on the filling

The filling itself would be great on rice or noodles...very flavorful...carrots, cabbage, ginger, spring onion, garlic chives, wood ear fungus (that was a new one for me!), minced chicken, soy sauce, and oyster sauce. What's not to like!?

Once the filling had cooled, we made the actual rolls and fried them. WOW! Yummy! And easy! We don't fry at home, but Christine said you could easily brush them with butter and bake them in the oven. Today...we splurged and fried them! Total deliciousness! (Blaine better hope he is home from work on time or they may be gone!)

Spring Rolls in various stages

Next was the Three Cup Chicken which is a traditional Taiwanese dish. I loved the dishes today because they were simple without a ton of different spices and ingredients - very easy to replicate at home. Three Cup Chicken has you searing your chicken pieces and then simmering them with ginger, garlic, sesame oil, soy sauce, Shao Xing wine, rock sugar, dark soy sauce, fresh chilies, scallions, and Thai basil. The dish becomes very dark and rich looking...and the sesame oil, herbs and soy sauces make it very fragrant.

Three Cup Chicken - Some of the ingredients

How good does the final dish look??

The last dish was dessert - Deep Fried Gold Cake with Yam and Sweet Potatoes. Gold Cake is a dessert that turns up primarily around Chinese New Year - which begins at the end of the week. (More on that later this week in the blog.) 

You essentially sandwich pieces of the Gold Cake between a thin slice of yam and sweet potato, dredge it in a batter and fry so that the Gold Cake gets warm and melty. (Is melty a word?)

The Gold Cake is in the top left corner. It is steamed in banana leaves. You take it out of the banana leaves and slice it into small chunks. Upper right corner shows the Gold Cake sandwiched between the yam and sweet potato. The final version is in the lower right corner.

Tonight I may dust a little powdered sugar on the dessert - just to sweeten it a little bit more. Christine said that the Gold Cake we used today was not as sweet as some you can buy.  I find that most Chinese desserts are not overly sweet - which is quite different from our American culture where sweet and sinful seem to go hand-in-hand! Nonetheless, this was an interesting combo!

Next week Thai cuisine on Thursday! Should be yummy! Looking forward to learning how to make my own Pad That!

Mommy Brag Moment...

I know, I know...we all think our children are the most wonderful kids on the face of the earth. (Maybe not ALL the time...just sayin'...but, wonderful nonetheless.) Anyways, please allow me this blog post to brag about Caleb.

Sports at our school are not as competitive as in the U.S. They don't practice everyday for hours on end. Most children don't have private coaches. I don't believe my child will be the next Jeter, Messi or LeBron. But, he's a hard worker who constantly wants to improve no matter what he's doing. And up until July of this year, his feet had never kicked a soccer ball. We asked him at the end of school if maybe he wanted to check soccer out because he was heading to a country where soccer is important. Where he would be attending a very "international" school, where many children loved the game. So he agreed to go to camp and seemed to enjoy it.

We signed him up for Saturday morning soccer upon our arrival here in Malaysia. And, I continued to see him work hard and do his best on Saturdays. (You'll remember some blogs where I said I didn't think he had the makings of a soccer player because I didn't think he was aggressive enough for the sport.)  At no time, did I ever think he'd be chosen to represent his school in a soccer tournament. Until, right before Christmas when we got the email. WOW! His hard work truly did pay off.

This past Saturday I had the chance to watch him play in a tournament at the local French School. He played 5 matches - and the kid was amazing. Yes, he played well. (He only sat out the first half of the first game.) He played striker the entire time. But, more importantly, he took criticism (and praise) from his coach extremely well, received many compliments from other parents, shook the players' hands on the opposing team, congratulated his own teammates on the awesome plays they made, watched the other matches and learned from doing so. His sportsmanship is what made me proud...that is what I found to be amazing.

They won 2 games, tied 2 games, and lost 1 game. They didn't win a medal that day. But, I couldn't be any prouder if they had...

Fab 5 Friday...or not!

Okay...maybe this week the Fab 5 aren't so fabulous! I spoke with my dad this week and he said, "Everyone always asks me if you like it in Malaysia. I tell them yes, you really seem to like it there." And I DO! I really like it here...I've made great friends, we live in a nice neighborhood, my kids go to a great school and have fantastic friends, and we're visiting some amazing places. But...........I'd be lying if I said there weren't some little annoyances. So this week's Fab 5 is NOT a Fab 5, it's a Top 5 - my Top 5 Annoyances (of the week...or the past few weeks. They change rather quickly...)

Top 5 Annoyances

1. Slow Walkers. This just seems to be a country of window shoppers...slow walking window shoppers. At the mall, these people might as well be crawling...they walk SOOOOO slow! I can't stand it. I know that I'm most likely the opposite extreme of this, but it drives me freakin' nuts! I almost plowed down a slow walking family of 5 at the mall this past weekend. They were walking slow and all 5 of them were side-by-side - leaving me no room to pass! Aaaaarrrrgggghhhhh!

2. Triple parking. Yes, as if double parking wasn't bad enough, triple parking is very common here. And let's just say...yeah, I've hit a couple of vehicles due to this. One was a garbage truck that was triple parked by the mosque. I dinged the hell out of Blaine's mirror and left some paint on the truck. But, come on - it was a garbage truck, triple parked on a narrow-ass street! That was not my fault! Then, well, I felt a little bad about this one...the Myvi dinged the mirror of a BMW that was triple parked. Mind you, I didn't feel bad enough to stop and leave a note or anything...triple parking makes you exempt from any damage you may cause.

3. Small ovens. The oven in my house is T-I-N-Y! A lot of my baking pans and dishes do not even fit in this oven! And, you can imagine how much this bugs me! I LOVE to cook...and these tiny ovens are horrible! I'm adapting, but will be happy for my full-size oven! (Or perhaps, we'll upgrade to that double oven I've always dreamed of! Hint, hint...Blaine!)

4. Staring. Ah, yes. I get lots of stares. My kids get lots of stares. My family gets lots of stares. Take a picture folks, it will last longer.

5. Sporadic Internet Service. One minute the Apple TV works fine, the next it doesn't. One morning I'm connected and uploading my latest blog post, 3 seconds later we drop the connection. For this self-proclaimed tv/tech junkie...the Internet is critical. Do not screw with my wifi!!!

Okay...there it is! I'll update you in a few months on what my new and updated annoyances are - they're bound to change! Enjoy the weekend!

WTF Tuesday...

Yup, it's been one of those days. Had a crappy workout this morning. Went and got coffee and came home to do a little cooking. Dropped an entire box of dry spaghetti all over the floor, then spilled a diet Coke and dropped a raw egg. Yup. Definitely a WTF kinda day!

So, I decided I would take a break and read the paper, "The Sun Daily" - a local paper. First, I read this article.

Oy, vey! Seriously!? I'm going to let you do the math on this, but this dad just needs to get a grip! Let his daughter marry whoever the hell she wants - which apparently she did - and get on with his life!

Then, I decided to scan the want ads. Why? I don't know. And this is what I see...

Female below 30 years old?? Seriously?!

Age 35 and below. WTF!?

And these ads were EVERYWHERE!! Some stated that you must be married. Some stated that you could not be married. Age and gender restrictions everywhere. I don't even know what to say about this...

It's only 2:15 p.m., but after this day...it may be time for a drink already.



Fab 5 Friday...

Happy Friday everyone! Time for the Friday Fab 5! These are the little things I'm thankful for this week!

1. Good Kids. Okay...I know I've posted on Facebook that it's time for the kids to go back to school - and I still believe that! (Come on Monday!!!) But, my boys have been super awesome this week! Even though a lot of their neighborhood friends have been on holiday or back at school...my kids have been rockin'! Well-behaved, fun, funny - just good kids!

The boys!

2. Routine. While vacation has been fun and fantastic - I crave routine. This week we worked to get back into a more normal routine...

3. Crossfit. Yup, just glad to be back working out at Crossfit...missed the people, missed the energy, missed the barbell...



4. Age and Wisdom. Yes, I'm thankful for age and wisdom this week. My back went out again on Thursday (damn L4 and L5 disks) - and I had the wisdom to stop my front squats. I'm in this for the long haul - and a few years back I would've pushed through no matter what the pain level was. But, if I want to keep doing the things I love - then I need to listen to my body and back off. Today I didn't WOD (and I WANTED to), but I know that by resting today - I can be back at it next week!

5. Birthday Lunch @ ABC Troika. Thursday had a group of us lunching at ABC Troika for Shannon and Michelle's birthday. It was a fun lunch - with a fabulous group of women. Great conversation and yummy food and drink!

Birthday Lunch!!

So there you have it!!! Hope you've got some things to be thankful for this week!

Bali Art...

We picked up our Bali art from the framer yesterday...

This is the picture Blaine picked out. It has real sand on it...

This is the one I picked out...tons of color.

They weren't terribly expensive pieces, but we'll always have something in which to remember the trip...

Dinner and Cargill Cares...

It's Monday. I have a love-hate relationships with Mondays...the weekend is over (hate), but I always view Mondays as the start of a new week (love). And, so it was today - a definite love-hate!

We had the pleasure of having some folks over for dinner last night. Jennifer Allard was in town for a Cargill project and had a co-worker, Eric with her - so we invited them over! We also invited Hub, our new friend that we met at Dining In The Dark, as he is still in bachelor mode until his wife and children get here on Friday. Easy dinner and lots of laughs. Jen and Eric brought a few fabulous gifts...which they didn't need to do! (But, I LOVE them!)

A candle holder made from a coconut, fried sweet potatoes, and a pineapple bush (tree?)

The pineapple is a symbol of prosperity for the new year

This morning all of us went out to Westport for a Cargill Cares activity. Blaine's office adopted a native school 3 years ago and have been working with them to help provide the children with various things. This year, Cargill provided backpacks with their textbooks and some art supplies for each of the 42 children. The building where the presentation took place was their school up until 1 year ago - at which time, the government started providing transportation for the kids and they now attend a public school with a much larger number of children. It was a well-attended event with the headmistress, the village "mayor", a member of the Malaysian goverment, various teachers, parents and many Cargill employees - along with some of the most adorable children EVER! Many of the adults spoke to the children and parents - there was even a lot of "scolding" going on. (We had a person translating for us.) The mayor spoke to the kids about the importance of education. He said he never went to school and when he was "asked" to move by the government, he readily agreed, but did not totally understand what he was agreeing to - and in turn, lost his livelihood. The government official asked the parents what more they (the government) can do as attendance from this village is very low (only about 40%). She stated that they pick the kids up at their door, provide them with breakfast and lunch each day - and she seemed to be making a very passionate plea for the parents to send their children to school. The teacher told us it is not uncommon to have kids missing class for months at a time with no real valid reason. It broke my heart...

But, then we started handing out backpacks...and there were so many smiles! So fun to see kids opening their backpacks, looking at their new books, and showing their parents. One can only hope that a little bit of renewed enthusiasm about school will help increase attendance.

Preparing for the presentation

Headmistress, Blaine, parents and Cargill employees, and a little cutie listening

Backpacks being distributed

Look at those smiles!

I wanted to bring this little guy home with me! His eyes were so mischievous!

Group photo

Then everyone who was in attendance had breakfast...nasi lemak and Milo!

It was definitely a heart-warming and eye-opening event...

Our Stay In Borneo Continued...

Once again, I still find it a bit surreal to say that I've been to island of Borneo. (It surely was never a place I intended to visit!) But, we really did enjoy the trip to Kota Kinabalu this past week. (We've already asked Blaine when his next trip to KK is - in hopes that we can tagalong!)

Wednesday night we took the kids to a cultural show at the resort. They did some neat dances and the kids were very interested in the dance that involved these long bamboo poles and had the dancers jumping in and out of them as they moved and the bamboo moved.

Thursday had us visiting the orangutans. The Shangri-La Rasa Ria is a stage 1 rehabilitation center for injured or abdandoned orangutans. They currently have 4 orangs between the ages of 3-6 years old. We were lucky enough to see 2 of them on the morning we went - along with a ton of monkeys who happily came to steal their food. I have to say, it was amazing to see the orangutans playing in the trees - just hanging their by one hand and jumping tree to tree. Definitely cool! 

Thursday night had us bringing the boys to the teppenyaki grill at the resort. They had never been to a teppenyaki place, and while we didn't have the most dynamic of chefs (we watched some of the other guys really put on a show), the boys did enjoy it.

Friday was a full day poolside - which hurt no one's feelings. And then Saturday morning - we had to go!

Saying goodbye with some of the staff

Anywho...we are back in KL. Had a fabulous trip! But, I will admit I'm craving a little bit of routine - hopefully, we'll get it back this week!

Fab 5 Friday Funnies...

Okay...we're still in Kota Kinabalu, but I'm banging out a top 5 of things that have just struck me as funny this week! I'll get you caught up on the remainder of our trip over the weekend!

1. Stuffed Proboscis Monkeys. Yes, I posted this to Facebook, but I still can't stop laughing at the freaking stuffed animal with a big nose and a red penis and the words "I am BIG" printed on him...OY VEY! Everytime I walk past the gift shop here at the Rasa Ria, I look in just to see if someone is buying one of these things!

Please let me know if you need me to buy these for your children!

2. Blaine Getting Thrown Out Of A Meeting. Yup, he flew to Tawau on Wednesday to try and deal with a former customer who is threatening to sue. He left at the crack of dawn and had a meeting lasting maybe 5 minutes before the owner/CEO threw up his hands and asked him to be shown out. I laugh because Blaine's quote was, "It's been a long time since I've been thrown out of a meeting." (I don't think he's ever been  thrown out of a meeting to be honest!) Additionally, Blaine knows that this big blow up the CEO had was all staged and part of the culture here of "saving face." Completely ridiculous. And to top it off, the CFO and COO called the salesman today and wanted to continue talks. Yeah, if it was me we'd be continuing talks in court! Thankfully, Blaine is a little more level-headed - although, he's not heading back to Tawau anytime soon!

3. Red Bean Popsicles. So the resort most afternoons passes out watermelon and popsicles while you are by the pool - which is really nice. The first afternoon we were here, the kids readily grabbed two popsicles, unwrapped them and took a big bite of of them. When I looked at their little faces there was a sudden look of shock as they swallowed that first (and last) mouthful. Yeah, that was not a strawberry popsicle - even though it kind of looked like one! It was a red bean popsicle - a very popular Malaysian treat - which my kids did not think was a treat at all! 

You too can make red bean popsicles if you'd like to play this mean little trick on your own children! Click here for a link to a red bean pop recipe! (I'll be honest - I like red bean in things...so I kind of wished I'd tried the popsicles!)

4. Water Aerobics. The two resorts we've been at in the past two weeks have had water aerobics...and it just makes me laugh. I know, I know...I shouldn't laugh. And I'm not really laughing at those participating - I've been in hysterics over the instructors. The first instructor in Bali could only count to 8 - that's all he could do. There was no interaction at all - nothing but 45 minutes of hearing him say, "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ,8." And then here, at the Rasa Ria - we have not one instructor, but two - teaching from the deck and it's like a comedy show. I will say that they can count past 8 and they do interact and it's definitely more entertaining, but I hope the participants don't think they worked off that croissant they ate at breakfast! 

Hmmm....I don't think so!

5. Speedos. Once again I will say it...Speedos should be banned. There may only be one thing worse than a Speedo...

Enjoy your Friday folks! Will catch you all back in KL!

Shangri-La Rasa Ria and Fireflies...

So we're in Kota Kinabalu this week. This is located on the east island of Malaysia and we're tagging along with Blaine this week as he had a couple of days worth of business over here. (It was a really great excuse for us to tagalong...this school break of the kids' is S-U-P-E-R long!)

We're staying at the Shangri-La Rasa Ria...which is just spectacular. The rooms are well-kept, the grounds are meticulous and the vast majority of the staff are wonderful. We've been spending most of our days poolside as Blaine has spent the last two days working. There is a waterslide for the kids and a large pool that doesn't have you on top of everyone even at the peak of business. (Although, I don't think it's overly busy here this week - which is nice.)

While this is not an all-inclusive, there have been a bunch of nice added touches...like they bring you ice cold water poolside and cold towels and watermelon and popsicles. (I'll tell you more about the popsicles on Friday - saving that one for Fab 5 Friday Funnies this week.) Anyways...here's some pics of the resort!

We did sign up to go look at fireflies last night. Now, I should really ask more about these excursions when we sign up for them. I assumed we would be walking around the grounds looking for fireflies like we do in the States...maybe putting a few in a jar to watch their asses light up...you know, that sort of thing. So, at 7 p.m. we went to the lobby to meet up with our guide - who then directs us to a van and says we have about a 10 minute drive to get to the place. Okay...we all load up and drive 10 minutes out to the middle of nowhere. I mean I saw a few wild dogs, a couple of shacks with some guys drinking beer out front and then we continued driving into the darkness.(It had all the makings of a bad movie!) When we stopped, 3 guys met us and took us down to a boat. Really!?! We're going out on a boat (without life jackets and with my husband who doesn't swim) in the pitch black??! But, yes...we did. And it was - COOL! We took the boat out on the river where we saw thousands of fireflies in the mangrove trees. Our guide was really personable...gave us just enough information on the fireflies, caught a few for everyone to hold in their hands and then chatted about Malaysia and soccer and all sorts of stuff my boys found interesting. A fun little excursion!

Tomorrow we're off to see the orangutans...which I'm rather excited about!! And Blaine has tomorrow off! Woot! Woot! Later peeps!