Happy New Year!

It’s New Year Eve today. In just several hours we will be in a brand new year and 2008 will be just history. Not sure what the New Year has in store for us but I am hoping that everything will be much better than this year. I have a pretty positive feeling about 2009 and am so looking forward to it.

Looking back at soon to be called ‘last year,' nothing much I can brag off (LOL). 2008 was not a very productive year for us, so definitely not my favorite year. I have a couple of my ‘2008 Goals’ accomplished though, so not totally a bad year for me. Top of all, I got my driving license just on time for holiday shopping(LOL). Talking about the nice thing, this year also, to my surprise, I was able to persuade dear hubby to go on a trip to Chicago and New York City and added to that was a trip to San Francisco. It was not in my goals(LOL) but it was just something sweet especially it happens in the same year. I had wanted to visit those three big cities for so long but unfortunately those were the last places dear hubby would like to visit.

Health was not at best for us either. Billy and I had experiences quite a bad spring allergy and were pretty much sick the whole spring season. I am crossing my fingers it will not be as bad or better more it spares us come spring.

As for Billy, he still has significant delay in speech. He made some good progress though since we enrolled him in school early this year. Next year would be a very exciting year for him and us as well. Other than our big trip, Billy is going to a new preschool end of February. New school means a new environment, new teachers and of course new peers too. Hopefully he will not have any problem adapting to his new school.

Lastly, I would like to share my New Year’s Resolutions with everyone. I have just three main resolutions this New Year, to be the best mom for Billy, to do better on my spiritual journey and to improve my writing. Wish me luck!

HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL!
MAY THE NEW YEAR BRING PEACE,HAPPINESS,HEALTH AND PROSPERITY TO YOU AND YOURS.
Peace!

Merry Christmas All!

Wishing everyone

Merry Christmas
and
Happy New Year!


May you have a blessed one.


Hugs,
Hilda, Doug & Billy

Virgin Mobile – Outrageous, Annoying, Worse Service!

It started in early November when dear hubby decided to get a new mobile phone to replace his old Kyocera. I got a little jealous(LOL) he got a new phone so I decided to get myself a new one a week later. So I went online and ordered myself a new flip phone they had on sales and with free shipping. It arrived three days later. Great!

I opened the box, checked everything, put the battery on and I noticed right away that the phone is damaged. Five numbers on the keypad have no backlight. I had a similar phone(different brand) before and it had the same problem but not after had it abuse for many years though. At first, I wasn’t worried that much because they have (sounds like)an easy returns policy. But I was dead wrong, trying to get a refund or replacement for a defect phone you bought from them was a nightmare.

I wrote them an email about the problem on the very same day I got the phone and was asked to call their service center. Called the service center but gave up after several try. Darn! What a silly service center, it’s okay to talk to a machine but they do not even have the ‘number’ to choose from for return. So confusing! I thought had not caught it but dear hubby complaint the same thing too.

Eventually we got a live person on the phone, told her about the problem, did the troubleshot but still not get it fixed and she says we can return it but have to pay for the shipping. We paid for the defect phone and have to pay even more to return it! Can you believe it?

Unhappy with the answer, I called them again the next day and was told the same thing. So we packed the phone and went to the post office but decided to hold it as it cost us almost $5 to mail it back. We thought it's not worth to pay for the shipping and decided to call them again.

So there I was back on the phone again. After some calls, one lady finally did the right thing. YES! I should get a replacement phone and return the defect phone for free. We did the troubleshot again and activated my phone as she required. (I did not even have it activated). Okay to make the long story short, I activated the phone online but still need to call them twice because their system was down. Then called them again to make a replacement order but the phone was out of stock. Call them again the next day but still out of stock.

Did I told you that I have to explain the same thing repeatedly to two or three person each time I called? Yes, how annoying was that. I was so relief when the lady told me that she will make a little note on my account that we did the troubleshot and all I need is to make a replacement order. But guess what? They still asked me to explain things when I called the next day. Darn! By this time I told them NO, not again, please. I have been calling them for two weeks and was sick and tired of explaining the same thing again and again. Why do I need to explain to them again when they already know what they need to do? And I asked her to please just go ahead and put the replacement order whenever the phone available. But nope, they still need me to call to be able to make the order as if I enjoys calling, listening to their ads and later tell them exactly the same thing I have told them for week.

Two days later I call them again, luckily I only had to explain (again) once and later was told that an order was made for me the day before. Aaah? Okay, whatever. It was last weekend. They supposed to mail it on Monday. It was 6 days ago. I should get it in three days but it still not shows up. Look like I have to call them AGAIN! I paid for a new phone and I will fight for it even though it is just one piece of crap.

We have been using Virgin Mobile for about four years but now are looking for another provider. They maybe forgot that we bought their phone and paid for their service. Guess what? They are going to lose two customers very soon. Billy can have the two new phones to explore and play with. I have wasted so much of my valuable time calling and explaining things to them because of that cheapy phone. I had enough.

Good News!

Hi guys! I had some good news to share today. I got my driving license! Yeaaah! And I already took over the ‘chauffeur’ job (if you can call it a job) for our darling son from my dear hubby started last week. For about two months, dear hubby has to works from home in the morning and only went off to work after he fetched Billy from school at noon. We did not have any problem with the transportation before because he rode on their school bus. That was before they had to stop running the school bus due to new school regulation.

So I determent to get my driving license very soon. By hook or by crook, I need to get one. (LOL) And yes, I did it! I got my driving license last Wednesday. The road test was quite easy, I would say. To my surprised, the guy did not test my parallel parking. I was so happy he did not as I am not so good on that one. ‘No error, you did a good job,' says the guy when I asked him if I made any. Horayyy! Hey, the examiner guy was so nice but quite serious, so no funny business….haha!

Thanks to dear hubby for being so helpful and supportive without any complaint. Okay, maybe some complaints particularly when I scared him to death when drove on the wrong side (whoooops!) of the road a couple of times. It happens on the very first week I started practicing my driving. Silly me!
Oh yeah, I would like to thank you for all your support, encouragement and good wishes, especially to Beth, Luthie and Dora…..thanks kawan. More later!

Billy's First Trick Or Treat

This post has been sitting in my draft waiting to be edited and post since Halloween. So this is a sort of an all story...hihi.

Guess what? Billy has his very first trick or treat experience yesterday morning. His school organized a trick or treat field trip to a nearby college. Since parents were invited and were Billy’s first time trick or treat, dear hubby and I joint the group. It was really fun watching the children in their Halloween costumes. :-)Billy wore a bumble bee costume from his school's Halloween costume's collection. He refused to wear the one we bought him. Ahem....yup, the tiger costume....hihi. Good thing we were able to return it to the store. Save some money for Christmas....haha.

They are ready for trick or treat.

My Bumble Bee Trick or Treater

Beautiful little Zebra.

Little bumble bee and the Little Wizard with one of the teacher.

Look like I need another bucket, dad.(LOL)

Thank you!

There were two or three hallway with students with bags of candy waiting for the children. They are as excited as the trick or treater.(LOL!)

Ain't they adorable?

The goodies from Billy's bucket. Among them are book, toothbrush, cup and stickers. Don't know what we gonna do with all those candies now. (LOL)

This Week Pic - Bumble Bee Trick Or Treater

Happy Halloween!!

After that depressing Halloween experience last year, my hubby and I decided not to participate in Halloween fun this year. Billy is still too young to understand the trick or treat fun. It might be different in another year or two as he get bigger. So for the first time in many years, we are going to turn off our porch light on Halloween night. We are going to rent a movie instead. (LOL)

Happy Halloween all!

I Am Back!

Hi all. I am back! After resting for two and a half months, I am back into the blogging world again. Horraaay! Thank you for visited my blog while I was away. Also for all your messages and kind wishes, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

Taking Break From Blogging

Hi All. Happy Thursday! I have decided to take a short break from blogging. Yes, just for a short time. I will be back in November. I need some time to really work on something, okay..... a couple of things before the year-end. Hopefully I will get it done on time and have some good news to share with you when I return in two and a half months.

Lastly, thank you for visiting and for all your comments and messages. I really appreciate it. I would still be doing my blog hopping when I have time. Please bear with me ya. :-)

Thank you and happy blogging!

Yeah..... my Little Billy is two and a half years old today. How time flies!

Girl Humor (2)

WHO DOES WHAT
A man and his wife were having an argument about who should brew the coffee each morning. The wife said, 'You should do it because you get up first, and then we don't have to wait as long to get our coffee. The husband said, 'You are in charge of cooking around here and you should do it, because that is your job, and I can just wait for my coffee.'
Wife replies, 'No, you should do it, and besides, it is in the Bible that the man should do the coffee.' Husband replies, 'I can't believe that, show me.' So she fetched the Bible, and opened the New Testament and showed him at the top of several pages, that it indeed says 'HEBREWS'


THE SILENT TREATMENT.
A man and his wife were having some problems at home and were giving each other the silent treatment. Suddenly, the man realized that the next day, he would need his wife to wake him at 5:00 AM for an early morning business flight. Not wanting to be the first to break the silence (and LOSE), he wrote on a piece of paper, 'Please wake me at 5:00 AM.' He left it where he knew she would find it.

The next morning, the man woke up, only to discover it was 9:00 AM and he had missed his flight. Furious, he was about to go and see why his wife hadn't wakened him, when he noticed a piece of paper by the bed. The paper said, 'It is 5:00 AM. Wake up.'

Men are not equipped for these kinds of contests.(LOL!)

This Week Pic

Girl Humor

Got this in my mail today and thought I should share it with you. It’s hilarious! :-))

WOMEN'S REVENGE
'Cash, check or charge?' I asked, after folding items the woman wished to purchase. As she fumbled for her wallet, I noticed a remote control for a television set in her purse. 'So, do you always carry your TV remote?' I asked. 'No,' she replied, 'but my husband refused to come shopping with me, and I figured this was the most evil thing I could do to him legally.'

WIFE VS. HUSBAND
A couple drove down a country road for several miles, not saying a word. An earlier discussion had led to an argument and neither of them wanted to concede their position. As they passed a barnyard of mules, goats, and pigs, The husband asked sarcastically, 'Relatives of yours?' 'Yep,' the wife replied, 'in-laws.'

WORDS
A husband read an article to his wife about how many words women use a day... 30,000 to a man's 15,000. The wife replied, 'The reason has to be because we have to repeat everything to men... The husband then turned to his wife and asked, 'What?'

What Bill?

I had a big surprise when I opened one of my mails early last week. It was from a collection agency. My name was printed on it, so obviously it was my bill. (LOL) Nope, it was not my credit card company lost tracked of me but from the hospital in MO. It was a bill from some two and a half years ago for one procedure they had done on our little one two days after he was born. Unfortunately, it was not covered by the insurance. But I remember we had received a bill for it while we were still there. The amount was different though. I remember it well because dear hubby told me that it was an extra procedure and does not cover by the insurance. Okay, that’s fine and we had paid it right away.

Yet again, almost two years later, we got the same bill but with different amount on it. Okay, we moved to another state when Billy was about two months old. But we had the post office forward our mail from the old address to our new address for six months. In fact, we had gotten one bill from them while we in Knoxville and had it paid off. So why did this one show up after a couple of years later, urrrgh!

The first thing dear hubby did was to call the hospital. They said could not find us, okay fine. Dear hubby demanded they send us a new bill, which we received two days later. Glad we did called them because the amounts in both bills were different. The first bill we received was $411 and the recent bill from the hospital was $491 but we only need to pay $141 and the rest of it was paid by the insurance. Huh! What a big relieves! But don’t ask me why the different. Why and when did the insurance decided to pay, I have no idea. We would like to know the answer but thinking of all the hassle, we decided to just take it as that, paid it and get it off our back. I really hope that was the last surprise we had regarding the two and a half days stays in the hospital, two and a half years ago.

Back To Routine!

Happy Monday all! Hope everyone had a great weekend. We had a nice one. Unfortunately, some people were not that lucky. In Knoxville yesterday two people had been killed and five others were seriously injured as a man walked into a Church and started shooting while kids were performing a play there. Thank God none of the children were hurt. I do not understand how someone could do such a thing. So sad. My heart goes out to the families and friends of the victims.




I got my quiet morning back. After a week rest, Billy went to school as usual today. He was really excited when he saw his bus and teachers this morning. It has been wonderful to have him around for the whole week. We spent most of the time indoor doing puzzles, drawing, blocks and watching his favorite shows. I saw him showings some great skills that I have not seen before. He can sort colors and shapes, string beads and very good in doing puzzles. :-)

He will be two and a half years old in two weeks. My baby is growing so fast. I missed him being a little baby. (LOL) How times flies.

Have a good week everyone!

I am taking a break.

Blogger Award

A friend, Phil - Inobong Proper, have tagged me on this beautiful Blogger Award. Thank you Phil! :-)




It has been done according to the following rules:

1. The winner may put the logo on her blog.
2. Put a link to the person you got the award from.
3. Nominate 5 blogs.
4. Put links to the blogs.
5. Leave a message for your nominees.



Hmmmm.....now I am passing this beautiful Blogger Award to;

*Coolingstar9
*Cay
*Lydia
*Shirley
*Joann

Have a great week and happy blogging, friends!

This Week Picture (Giant Ice Cream)

This giant ice cream was not mine! Somebody made me hold it and pretended it was mine. So not fair.(LOL)

Rough Weekend

Happy Tuesday all! Hope you all had a great weekend. Ours was not so good. Our little one has been sick since Thursday last week. He has high fever most of the weekend with the highest 103 degree on Saturday. It was down on Monday morning but we bring him to see his pediatrician anyway, just to make sure it is not something else. I was really concerned because his fever kept returning.

And glad we did as the doctor found he got ear infection in his right ear. We have not seen any signs of him having an ear infection all this times though. Never saw him pulling his ears or looked bothered by his ear or anything like that. Poor one. We are giving him an antibiotic twice a day now. Hopefully it will be gone soon. In ten days we will bring him back to the pediatrician for follows up.

He is getting better today. No more high fever but we decided to keep him at home for the whole week this week. So presumably, the mummy will not have so much time on the internet and do my blog hopping. But I’ll try to catch up when I can. Please bear with me yah.

Oh yeah, I had promised to let you know about our belated anniversary gift we just bought a couple of weeks ago. It’s a mattress (Simmons Beautyrest) …..haha! We have decided it’s time to change our old mattress and thought it would be nice to buy it for our anniversary. Pretty expensive but it’s very comfortable and we are going to use it for a long long time, guess it worth the money. :-)

Tag

I've been tagged by Dora and Cay, on this fun tag a couple of days ago. Sorry for take my sweet time to completed it. :-) Thank you, kawan. So here it goes.

1. When you buy a greetings card, are the words or the picture more important to you?
Picture is more important to me but I like humorous cards too.

2. What's your favorite kind of cake?
I love yam cake.

3. Do you ever make gifts for people, if so what, or do you buy them?
Normally I buy them.

4. What's your favorite holiday?
I enjoy sightseeing, mountains and beaches. But I do not mind roaming around in the big city too.

5. Are you going on holiday this year?
Yes, we have been to San Francisco, Chicago and Washington DC. We are going to Pennsylvania then to New York City next month and will be going to Illinois and Iowa in the fall. And like Dora, we are looking forward to our holiday trip to Singapore and Malaysia early next year….yeah!

6. What was the best party you've ever been to?
Hmmmm….....Many.

7. If you are married, describe your wedding. If not, what would your ideal wedding be like?
Our wedding theme colors were white and blue. We had our Holy Matrimony at the Univ of Missouri-Columbia Chapel. It was just a simple wedding. We had our rehearsal dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant and later the reception at hubby’s research adviser house. Two days later we flew to Bahamas for our honeymoon, our wedding gift from my sister and her hubby. Then we went for our second honeymoon in Las Vegas when I returned from Malaysia 6 months later .

8. What's the most romantic thing that's ever happened to you?
While having dinner in a restaurant, dear hubby took a beautiful ring out and proposed to me. The restaurant was quite full and we happened to be sitting in the middle of it. It was a quick nod from me as people around us were starting to look at us….haha!

9. What's your favorite girls' name?
Melissa Marie, Sara Alexandra, Megan Theresa,

10. What's your favorite boys' name?
William Jude, Steve Ivan, Christopher Isaac ,

11. Which celebrity would you like a dream date with?
Keenu Reeve

12. Which female celebrity do you find beautiful? Angelina Jolie or Jennifer Aniston?
Angelina Jolie

13. Which male celebrity do you think is attractive?
George Clooney

14. What is your best character trait?
Humble and lovable ….. my hubby says so.

15. What is your worst habit?
Impatient– It always gets me into trouble.(LOL) I am working on it though.

Now I would like to pass this tag to;
Rose
Jen
Mel
Dina
Deana
Sue

Family Vacation In The UK?

Dear hubby told me that he would probably go to a conference in Italy sometime next year. I am so excited as we have been talking about going for a trip to Europe for sometime. It would be like a dream come true for me. (LOL)

After the conference, we plan to visit the UK for one week. Since there is still no black and white about the conference just yet, we can just plan our vacation and think about the hotels' reservation later. However, I am not really worried about finding good last minute on accommodation for the trip as I have found plenty of great deals for cheap hotels UK. Cheaperthanhotels provide last minutes' accommodation and hotels in the UK and year round discount on all types of accommodation and hotels. Some of the deals they offers also include free breakfast, free use of facilities such as gyms, swimming pools and internet access facilities. So this is great as we have many choices at last minutes and not just grab whatever deals the hotels offered to us.

London Eye.

Our first destination is London and later to Scotland and Manchester. I would like to visit some popular tourist destinations like Windsor Castle, London Eye, Buckingham Palace and many more interesting places in the UK. With the long list of places to visit and with so limited time, we definitely need to find the right London hotels to stay. I would surely check Cheaperthanhotels for the best deals for the hotels in London.

Dear hubby and I love old historic buildings. One of our European friends suggested we should visit the famous Scottish castle, Edinburgh Castle in Scotland. She said it is magnificent and we would definitely like it. Sound very interesting indeed. Good thing, I found that they also offer great deals on Edinburgh hotels. Cheap hotels mean more shopping money for me. (LOL)

Southside Guest House, Edinburgh

The Famous Edinburgh Castle.

Anyway, our trip to the UK, would not be completed if we do not visit Manchester City. Yup, the home of the world's most famous soccer club Manchester United. We should at least stay a day or two in Manchester. So I would be looking for a great deal for Manchester hotels too.

Golden Hotel Tulip Manchester.

I hope to get the same or better deals for us to choose from if dear hubby got a nod from the boss.

Durian!!!

Look what I got from the Asian store last weekend! Durian(King Of The Fruits)! I love eating durian but hubby hates its distinctive odor. So being tolerate, I only buy durian once a year. (LOL)

These frozen durian cost $8.70

While we were at the checkout, I remember have not gotten one thing in my list (LOL) and went back for it. When I got back at the counter, dear hubby was having a conversation with a Phillipino couple. They were asking him about the durian. I thought they were curios of him buying a durian because not so many western like durian. The conversation goes something like this:-

The Hubby; Is it good?
Dear Hubby; No. It’s stunk. But my wife likes it. She is from Malaysia. (By the time, I reached the counter)
The Hubby; Bad? Like a fish?
Dear Hubby; Oh no, worse than that. It smell like something went bad, very bad. (All of us laugh out loud including the checkout guy.)

I asked the couple if they eat durian and the wife says she does. She agreed with me that durians are really yummy. They have durian trees in some part of the Philippines too.

Looks nasty but taste yummy.

It didn't last long.(LOL)

Happy Weekend!

Happy Sunday all! I hope the sun is shining where you are. We have pretty good weather today. Actually, it is cloudy but nice. It has been raining since yesterday until early this morning. Hopefully the weather would be nice for the rest of the week.

I am so happy that Billy and dear hubby are recovering from cold. They were down with cold since last week. It’s pretty heartbreaking to see them coughing continuously. Dear hubby even loss his voice for several days. Poor one. Thank God they are getting much better now. It’s hard to have both the big and the little guy sick at the same time because they can get very cranky at time…..hihi!

Happy weekend!

Incredible Love Story

This story sent to me by a friend sometime ago. It’s a beautiful love story, so I decided to share it with you.


An incredible love story has come out of China recently and managed to touch the world. It is a story of a man and an older woman who ran off to live and love each other in peace for over half a century.


The 70-year-old Chinese man who hand-carved over 6,000 stairs up a mountain for his 80-year-old wife has passed away in the cave which has been the couple's home for the last 50 years.


Over 50 years ago, Liu Guojiang a 19 year-old boy, fell in love with a 29 year-old widowed mother named Xu Chaoqin.


In a twist worthy of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, friends and relatives criticized the relationship because of the age difference and the fact that Xu already had children. At that time, it was unacceptable and immoral for a young man to love an older woman. To avoid the market gossip and the scorn of their communities, the couple decided to elope and lived in a cave in Jiangjin County in Southern ChongQing Municipality.

In the beginning, life was pretty harsh as they had nothing, no electricity or even food. They had to eat grass and roots they found in the mountain, and Liu made a kerosene lamp that they used to light up their lives. Xu felt that she had tied Liu down and repeatedly asked him, 'Are you regretful? Liu always replied, 'As long as we are industrious, life will improve.' In the second year of living in the mountain, Liu began and continued for over 50 years, to hand-carve the steps so that his wife could get down the mountain easily

Half a century later in 2001, a group of adventurers were exploring the forest and were surprised to find the elderly couple and the over 6,000 hand-carved steps. Liu MingSheng, one of their seven children said, 'My parents loved each other so much, they have lived in seclusion for over 50 years and never been apart a single day. He hand carved more than 6,000 steps over the years for my mother’s conveniences, although she doesn't go down the mountain that much.'


The couple had lived in peace for over 50 years until last week. Liu, now 72 years, returned from his daily farm work and collapsed. Xu sat and prayed with her husband as he passed away in her arms. So in love with Xu, was Liu that no one was able to release the grip he had on his wife's hand even after he had passed away. 'You promised me you'll take care of me, you'll always be with me until the day I died, now you left before me, how am I going to live without you?' Xu spent days softly repeating this sentence and touching her husband's black coffin with tears rolling down her cheeks.


In 2006, their story became one of the top 10 love stories from China, collected by the Chinese Women Weekly. The local government has decided to preserve the love ladder and the place they lived as a museum, so this love story can live forever.

We Are Going To New York City!

I have been very excited these past several weeks. God has been so good to us. Praise God! Many good things seem to come our way lately. One of them was something dear hubby and I have been waiting for quite sometime. We got positive result on it just recently! So you bet how excited we can get ……haha! NO! We are not expecting another baby. I better rule that one out before you flood me with congrats and trigger another excitement on me..…haha!

There is another reason why I am so excited right now. We are going to New York City in several weeks. Yeah!!! Finally I am going to step my foot at the Big Apple. Dear hubby hates big cities so no surprise New York City was not in his ‘Must Go’ list. I have been giving hints to dear hubby to reconsider a trip to NYC for many years and only gotten the ‘nay’ answers. The best answer I have gotten were ‘you can go there with your sister when she comes visit’ or ‘maybe someday, hon.’

However, he seems to have changed his mind recently. As we are going to Pennsylvania in several weeks, he has given me some hints that he would not mind traveling to NYC for a couple of days afterward. And the best thing was he has given me the job on looking for hotel for us to stay while we are there. Of course without any hesitation, I took the job….haha! Since neither of us had been to NYC, it was quite a challenge to find the hotel that we would like. The key is the hotel must be at least 3 stars, good user reviews and close by to Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Central Park and other major attractions.

After searching at several popular hotel reservation sites such as Quikbook, Hotels Combined and All Hotel, I have found four hotels that I am interested at.
The first hotel is The Hotel At Times Square I found through Quikbook. The rate is only $215 per night, quite cheap considering it is a boutique hotel and the location is almost what we are looking at. Times Square and Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Station and many more attractions are within walking distance from the hotel. They also offer varieties of amenities and services including free Wi-Fi, continental breakfast, personal safes at the front desk as well as in each room, cable TV, laundry and many more.

I found the second hotel, Hampton Inn Manhattan Times Square New York through Hotels Combined. It’s a three stars hotel with a very good user reviews and the rate is just $220 per night. Yeah, I am pretty cheap…haha! So I was searching for the best yet the lowest price I could get. This hotel is only three blocks away from Times Square and Rockefeller Center and five blocks from St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Central Park is only about 0.5 miles away. So we would probably take public transportation to go there, if we stay at this hotel. One more thing I like about this hotel is they offer a buffet-style breakfast as complimentary. Dear hubby would definitely love this.

Another hotel at Hotels Combined that caught my attention is Murray Hill East Suites Hotel New York. This hotel is located in the heart of the historic Murray Hill section of Manhattan. All rooms are furnished with full equipped kitchens with free coffee and tea. Sounds great! Our little one is a picky eater and to be able to make him food while we are on the trip would be great. I also like the fact that the hotel is within a walking distance from Grand Central Station. At least we would not have to think about the transportation problem. There are also a variety of fine dining, shopping and entertainment venues that are only minutes away from the hotel. Oh yeah, the lowest rate for this hotel is $308, not bad for all the features it offers.

I searched at another site called All Hotel and found Excelsior Hotel. This is a 4 star hotel, located on the trendy West Side between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue. Their rate is quite cheap with the lowest price is $239 per night. I like this hotel because it’s close by to a museum such as American Museum of Natural History, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Children’s Museum of Manhattan. It would be nice to be able to bring Billy to one of the museum particularly the Children’s Museum of Manhattan. Dear hubby would probably insist that we visit the museum if we decided to stay at this hotel.

Then I get to the hard part, to decide which of these hotels is the best for us. After looking at these hotels, I decided to choose the Hampton Inn Manhattan Times Square New York that I found through Hotels Combined. Other than the great price, I like what most of the visitor say about this hotel. I am hoping that dear hubby would not have any objection so we could make the reservation soon. That’s one exciting job!

Aaah!!! I Accidentally DELETED My Previous Post!!!!

Aaah!!!!! How does it happen??? Silly me! Is there any way I could retrieve it? I have guest coming today and thought while waiting for her I could use that little times to clean some old entries in my draft. I used to be very careful when it comes to cleaning my blog. Oh well, I will be more careful next time. To all my friends who left comments to my previous entry, 'WHAT A TEASE!, thank you...hihi!

This Week Picture (Working Hard!)

Moving the lawn.(LOL)

Respectful Parenting; Getting Your Child To Come When You Call.

Pre-School Press(Vol 5, Issue 2) - Ms Heather.

One of the most frustrating moments in parenting comes when your child does not respond to you. For example, pretend your child is playing with their toys. You say, "It is time for dinner. Come to the table." But your child does not move. He pretends not to hear you. So you get louder and say, "Come to the table now!" But your child still does not respond. You may think your child is misbehaving. While that may be true, there is something else that is happening too. When children start doing something they enjoy, they have a difficult time stopping. We want them to stop when we say stop, but just because they don't does not mean that they are misbehaving. They just need time to change what they are doing, they take longer than we do to slow down and stop.
As their parent, it is your role to help with this process. For example, you can give them a 'warning' that a transition is coming. "Dinner will be ready soon. You only have a few more minutes to play". Then, wait a few more minutes and say again, "It's almost time to be finished with your blocks". Maybe even setting a timer to alert your child of the transition would be helpful. Remember that your child cannot tell time and really cannot understand the passage of time, so using cues to alert them is helpful.
One of the best things you can do to acomplish your objective(in this case having them come to dinner when you call) is giving them choices. They feel that they are still making the decision, not recognizing that you are the one that provided the choices, all of which are acceptable choices to you! Going back to the dinner example; 'It's time for dinner'. (You have stated the expected behavior). Do you want to have your blue plate or your yellow one? (You have drawn their attention to the fact that it's time for dinner and have given them some control and interest over the situation by presenting them with a choice).

Some tips on giving choices.

1. Give only two choices at a time; Young children are not ready for many choices and may get confused or overwhelmed with more than two options.

2. The choices you offer should be OK with you; Do not give the choice of oatmeal or pancakes if you do not want to make pancakes!

3. Do not make everything a choice; Some things should not be negotiable and presenting everything as a choice can lead to control issues later.

Remember, perenting is also about teaching and you are your child's first teacher!

Thank you Ms Heather!

Washington DC Trip 2

Cape Charles beach. One gorgeous little girl came to say hi to Billy but our shy little boy run to dada instead.

I need my swimming trunk, mom.

Aaah! Strange looking bird.

A dash of sand found it way on Billy’s cheeks.

We drove through Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel from Cape Charles to Virginia Beach.

One of the tunnel.

Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
They charge two different entrance fees to the city parks/beaches to the local and out of state visitors. So we decided to keep our $8 and continue our journey instead.

We stopped for lunch at a seafood restaurant in Virginia. I ordered ‘fried soft crab’. It was pretty disappointing. As you see in the pic, it a very small crabs, just two of them. The two small crabs, coleslaw, biscuit and applesauce cost me $12. The crabs taste was not even close to the one I had in Gayang Seafood Restaurant, back home.

Dear hubby had fried fish fillet. His lunch is cheaper and taste better than mine.

Strange looking cloud.

Bethany Beach. I like this family friendly and well maintain beach.

Beautiful beach! .


Tired little one. Napping in style. (LOL!)

Virginia Beach…beautiful! Unfortunately, Billy was napping and we decided to just take some pics and continue our journey to the next town.

After the long boring journey, we brought Billy to the pool at the motel where we stayed in. It’s much more fun than just sitting in the car.

Billy fell off the step face down into the water, scared the hell out of me. But minutes later he was back into the pool. We have determined to send him to swimming lesson by summer next year….haha.