did you take a cooking class at school?

Skye is studying for her school exams. Raine and I are in the same room. Every now and then, our resident cheeky girl would enlighten us by reading aloud or commenting on what she’s reading in her book.

Skye: I don’t understand why I need to learn about checks and banks!!? What do I care?

Raine: What you studying for?

Skye: Commerce.

Raine: Oh, I never studied Commerce. I did Cooking instead.

Skye (shaking her head!): Uh-oh, that means you got to walk 10 steps behind your man!!

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ya gain some, ya lose some

At our cousin’s wedding recently, one of Hip2bDad’s aunts took one look at me and lamented loudly, “You’ve lost so much weight, my dear!”

Have I? Really? That was Friday night at the bride’s open house and it got me wondering about that scale at the gym, hmmph!

Then on Saturday morning, another aunt came up while I was talking to a cousin about what garden pond filter he uses, held me at arm’s length and exclaimed, “Oh, you look so much better now that you’ve gained weight!”

Have I? Really? I hadn’t noticed, hmmph. As far as I know, my weight has stayed the same in the past 7 years. Well, okay, maybe a pound here, a pound there. No biggie. Still. When I hear such drastically different views, it makes me wonder.

Have you ever had different people tell you different things about your weight? Who do you believe? What do you believe :wink: ?

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how my morning got bunkered

We dragged ourselves out of bed on a Sunday morning to go to a golf tournament. Can you believe that? But only because my three teens were once budding little golf players and Hip2bDad is trying to inspire them to pick up the game again. I say, anyone would be crazy to send their kids out into this unbearable heat to chase a little ball!

Anyhow this was a one-off. And you know why we prefer to stay away from these events? Because they’ve got all these stupid rules about what you can and cannot wear and do! And quite frankly, on a hot day like today, we’d rather not be strutting about in the sun wearing polo shirts with long pants and proper shoes :shock: !!

I parked the car miles away and we hopped on a small shuttle bus to get to the main entrance of the golf course. Then we hopped onto a golf buggy to be transported to the main event. The girls got a big kick as they often do when they caddy for their daddy and he lets them drive the buggy into bushes and trees!

After asking about 10 completely clueless people for directions, we finally stumbled on the food tent where we stopped for some breakfast. One thing’s for sure, the food they serve golfers makes me look like a top-notch celebrity chef, booyah!

We passed many interesting people, most notably the scantily-clad air-heads hired by the companies sponsoring the event. I think I understand a little better now the scenarios that must’ve led Tiger to his downfall predicament.

And by the time we got back to the parking lot, I found someone had parked behind my car (obviously someone with a brain the size of a golf ball) and I couldn’t get out!! Thank goodness for the golfer who ran around my car telling me how much space I had to maneuver. It took forever to inch my car out of that impossible space!

All in all, the morning put me in a really foul mood for a Sunday. I’m going to take an indefinite break from golf. That’ll be all. I won’t be taking any questions.

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through the rear view mirror

Considering the amount of time I spend hanging out in my minivan, you can well imagine the things I do while waiting for my kids. You’ll either find me playing games on my pocket PC, flipping radio stations, singing along to songs I like, or if it happens to be gym day and I’ve just washed my hair, I’d be busy drying my hair in the cool air from my car’s air-conditioning.

That’s exactly what I was doing this afternoon outside my girls’ school. I do this all the time. It’s not a crime, right? So how was I to know that today, someone who was parked in front of me was watching me from his rear view mirror. His windows were heavily tinted so it never struck me until he and his camcorder eyes slithered over to my car door and sneakily threw a glance in through my window.

And no, it wasn’t his car, he’s the chauffeur judging from his uniform. I hope he was bitterly disappointed that there was really nothing to see. I was covered all the way to my knee caps in my ugliest pair of black bermuda shorts.

What’s more worrying for me, as a mom, was when I saw who he’d come to pick up from school. It’s one of Raine’s friends and I hope, for her sake, that her parents know what kind of perv person they’re sending to pick up their 17-year-old daughter from school :shock: .

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clothes I would’ve so bought for my girls

You know, one of the things I enjoyed most about being a mother to two daughters is shopping for their clothes when they were little. In fact, I have to admit I loved it so much I would apply for a day off work to rush to the sales first thing in the morning. I would sometimes spend half a day just dallying over all the little girls’ clothes.

I would pick different designs and colors, mostly the ones I would wear myself, hehe! These designs below remind me of similar ones I have bought for my girls back then.


BG Beautiful Girls – Girls Sleeveless Jean Set
– Love the one-sided ribbon on the sleeve, sash belt and tattered legs. Very funky lemon top!


Soup – Toddler Girls’ Sleeveless Skirt Set
– Love the lacey skirt trimmings and graduated bright pink from top to bottom!


Flowers by Zoe – Girls’ Tiered Skirt
– Love the shimmery tiers on this one!

Of course, I loved tying up their hair with matching accessories too. Not to mention that shopping has gotten a lot less brokeback, or is it, back-breaking since then and you can always go dig around Bargainchildrensclothing.com for great prices and nice designs like these.

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don’t tell me to wait!

So just what have I been up to? Apart from the wedding, and hanging out at a friend’s casual outdoor party, and shopping for a new washing machine which turned out to be a little more of a run-around than I expected, that is.

The fun wouldn’t be complete though without a line-up of exciting administrative errands that I so enjoy – like waiting endlessly at the bank, waiting endlessly at Steev’s college for his transcripts, waiting endlessly at … well, you get the picture.

With all of this new-fangled technology that the world’s geeky community throws at us every other day, you would think that waiting would be an obsolete word by now, if not already banished to the lexical museum.

So what have I been up to?

Bank teller’s answer to my question: Wait, let me check!

Steev’s text message to me: Wait, need to go to library to return books!

Tell me you’re just like me, that you hate to wait.

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a cousin from out of the blue

What a great weekend! We spent the better part of it at a wedding on the in-law side. Friday night, it was raining elephants and gorillas. Visibility was poor and parts of the highway was flooded when we drove out to the bride’s open house.

As usual, each time we see the clan, there are the exclamations of how big the kids have grown and the repetitions of names, ages and school year to jolt everyone’s memories. Now that my teens are old enough to answer those questions themselves, my days as a human tape recorder may be numbered :lol: .

Saturday morning, we were off to the church wedding and reception. The bride was radiant, of course. Thankfully too the service was short and sweet, and the day got noisier as more of the clan crawled out of the woodwork whom we’ve not seen in ages.

The hotel dinner party that night was huge. There must’ve been at least 800 guests. In the midst of camera flashes and toothy hugs, Steev bumped into a guy from college that he vaguely knew. Someone he would say hi to as they passed each other in the hallway between classes.

In the small talk that followed, that guy turned out to be a cousin (?) Steev never knew he had. Can you imagine that? Right now, we still have no idea who he is but I’m sure with a little nosing around, we’ll soon find out he’s related to us. It’s the first time we’ve ever encountered something like this. Have you ever found a long-lost family member through casual conversation?

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boys’ winter jackets for below $30

I’ve always found it easier to shop for boys’ clothing simply because there weren’t that many styles or colors to choose from. But not any more. It seems boys’ clothes have caught up somewhat and are now much more fancy than they used to be.


Extreme Boys’ Winter Jacket – $ 29.90

Retail Price: 60.00 You Save: 30.10


American Widgeon Boys’ Hooded Polar Fleece Lined Anorak Jacket – $ 29.90

Retail Price: 76.00 You Save: 46.10


Private Label Boys’ Hooded Winter Jacket – $ 29.90

Retail Price: 60.00 You Save: 30.10

Bargainchildrensclothing.com has lots of really nice children’s clothing at bargain prices. Just take a look at how much you save off regular prices. These will never go out of fashion so you can always hand them down to the younger ones.

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