I am one worried mom

My son is now in the process of applying for middle school and of course I want him to go to the best school for him. The middle school process in new york city is comparable to college application process. You have to fill in a form and put your five choices and depending on the schools that you have selected, you might be called for interviews and tests. It is so stressful not only for the kids but also for the parents. It is highly competitive as there are only a certain numbers of seats in the top schools and the applicants are getting more and more by the year. Ok, that is for the public school application. Now, we have also been trying to get him into the international school and that is a another process that is giving us headache. he had to sit for this Independent School Entrance Examination for two and a half hours, comprising of Math and English. We had some practice done on the sample questions and even though he didn't get everything right, he managed to answer most of the questions. Come the real thing, he said he didn't get to finish quite a number of questions as he was spending too mich time double checking his answers because he was really scared he might answered them wrong. I was so upset because he was supposed to answer all and then checked the answers! He is a bit of an overthinker so he would always take longer time going over things and that has caused him some marks. I have been reminding him time and again about his time management, that he should know how to time himself in tests and he had sat for his state exams twice and he had done really well. I guess he got freaked out about this test and he was being too careful. Well, he got most of the questions that he answered right, that is good but the fact that he could have gotten more marks if only he tried to answer the remaining questions. Anyway, we got the results and it is not as good as what he had gotten on the practice test (I think). A few days after the test, we went for the interview and it was a family interview. While he did conduct himself well, he was so nervous in the beginning that he kept looking at me for answers when the director of admission was asking him questions. Anyway, the process had passed and all we can do know is wait and hope and pray for the best. Tawakkal is what we do now. I keep on reminding myself that whatever happens, it is for the best. But still, until we get the results, I am going to be one worried mom.

Bread making

For the past two weekends, I have been learning to make homemade bread and it had been fun. Kids got involved, they love punching down the dough and kneading..well, actually more of playing with the dough. The outcome was better the second time,"practice makes perfect". It is a nice feeling to be smelling the bread baking in the oven and to know that something simple yet delicious is about to be done in a few minutes. The best feeling of all is when my hubby and kids enjoyed the warm bread and nearly the whole loaf was attacked within minutes.. For me, that is a huge achievement! Am not a huge fan of cooking, i mean i dont hate it but i dont love it either but there are times when i want to try new things and when it comes out great, I am a happy bunny!! So far I have made the basic white loaf so next project, at the request of husband dearest, is the dinner rolls and cinnamon raisin bun (well, the second one is my request to myself). So maybe soon we will not be buying bread from the stores anymore, maybe just maybe...:)). Nothing is impossible. Who ever thought I would be making my own bread? Not me, for sure. Cooking used to be so foreign to me before! Everything related to making food was and sometimes is still scary to me but I have to say I have come a long way. Last week, I made fish curry and hubby said that it was delicious! Yeay! Then we told our daughter the story of the very first fish curry I made, it was when we were still dating and oh my, it was a disaster. It was sweet and the fish was all falling apart! I was living with my aunt at that time and well, she freaked out too. she wasnt a good cook either and both of us were trying to "fix" the curry by putting salt, then sugar, then salt again then sugar again because the taste was so weird! we didn't have tome to make a new one so by the time hubby came,we had no choice but to serve him the horrendous dish. my aunt and I were trying to read his face when he ate it. he was a good actor I guess because not only he ate as if it was okay (he didnt say it was delicious but he didnt say it was bad either), he also had a second helping of the unedible dish. I couldn't eat it myself. Yeap, it was THAT bad! Then I told my daughter that if your dad hadn't eaten it, maybe I wouldn't have married him. Hahaha.

Running day today

Yeay..at last today I went running at central park..for someone who lives fifteen minutes away from this iconic park of new york city, I am sure a late, very late addition to this popular sport at this popular park...hope that makes sense..hahaha..actually, it is not that I haven't been to central park before..been there tons of time..but not for running..only walking and strolling and people watching. So now since I am determined to start running and son dearest is also in his school running team and it was such a nice day today, we decided to go running. My daughter went as well and as usual she would be sprinting away, (running is her way of walking)and I was shouting from behind, asking her to slow down..it was a good run and I was sweating which is really hard to do in fall or winter...there was a lot of people running and was happy to finally be part of the "group". Hopefully this new hobby will last even though not sure when the next time I can go running at the park as the temperature will be dropping starting from tomorrow. Well, if there is a will, there is a way right? Talking about will, boy, did I have a lot of will power today..today is BLACK FRIDAY!!! And I didnt set foot in any store.!!!..walking to and from central park, we passed through so many shops and there were people everywhere with shopping bags and there were sale signs everywhere in every single corner!! Arghh!! Wish I could go but then was thinking that there wasn't anything that I REALLY want or need for now and don't really want to drag the kids and brave the crowd..they will be whining till my eardrums burst anyway plus the "banker" is at work today despite the thanksgiving holidays!! So no black friday for me then.. Hopefully tomorrow wil still ada some leftovers..:)).. Willpower for tomorrow lain cerita..:)) Smile and the world will smile with you!!!!

Knitting project

So I have decided to resume my knitting project after nearly three years hiatus..determined to make hubby his scarf which I have promised...hmm...almost three years ago 😉. A few days ago, I wanted to order some yarn from this online shop. And then I just realised that I don't have a clue of what type of yarn to get and how much of it needed to make a scarf. So kenala buat homework dulu..spent more than an hour doing that. It was a bit confusing because there were so many conflicting infos. So I took the leap of faith and followed this particular website, it looked reliable enough. Okay, done with the homework, off I went to the shop (in the virtual world that is) and found this craft shop that offered free shipping with a $40 purchase. So now pening with the decision to buy up to $40 la pulak. Eventually the yarn I wanted to buy to make the scarf came up to only $15. But nak free shipping punya pasal, I decided to get yarn for my self and my daughter..(my son not a fan of scarves). Dah siap pilih all the yarn, still tak cukup syarat..the yarns were cheap to start with and ada sales on top of that. So decided to buy some felt fabric that my daughter needs to make her dolls' t shirts. And then I made the $40 mark..phew, macam lari marathon..😊. So now eagerly waiting for it to be shipped, of course free shipping comes with its downside, 7-10 businees days!!! Jenuh le menunggu. So in the meantime, I am practicing my knitting skill or rather the lack of it. And after reading up on knitting, I discovered new stitches and techniques. And there are sssoooo many different types of stitches..well, the basic two are knit and purl, but the combination of those two can make the other many wonderful types of stitches. Last night while we were watching our Saturday night movie, I was busy practicing all these new discoveries, rasa seronok la pulak..as I am typing this pun, macam tak sabar nak start knitting..hahaha..new found love? We shall see..... Discovery is a wonderful thing...

The aftermath of sandy

After hurricane sandy..Alhamdulillah we are okay, no damage to our building, still got power and water. Other people not so lucky, some friends have to move to the office, no electricity in their building. Other people are even worse, lost their homes and everything, either burnt down by fire or destroyed by the rising water. They don't have anywhere to go, except for the shelters for a few days but how do they build their home and their life again? Saw one man who went to his mom's house or rather what is left of it, amd all he could salvage was his mom's corningware bowl. One, only one single thing had survived the fire. Some of the people interviewed on tv looked so clueless and overwhelmed by what had happened. They do not know what to do or where to start? They couldn't believe this had happened. Their life as they know it, has been turned upside down, inside out and they have a long road ahead of them to make it right agan, to make it normal again. My heart goes out to them, wish them all the best and hope they have the strength to get up and march on.

Sandy is coming...

Hurricane Sandy is coming to town. It is on its way now from down south. Schools are closed tomorrow..the kids are happy obviously. We have bought some water and milk and other basic supply, it was forecasted that there would be some electricity and water supply disruptions due to the high wind and rain. Low level areas in NYC are in the danger of being flooded so mandatory evacuation was ordered. Luckily we are not in that area but we still have to be vigilant. Need to fill up bathtub with water, just in case takde air. Have some candles on hand, and need to fully charge both iphone and ipad by tomorrow afternoon. So no mindless browsing for a while okay?:)) it is getting cloudier and cloudier by the hour now and it is said to be windy now..not sure of that since i dont dare to go out now. The last hurricane we had was last year, a few days before raya puasa. Even though we were spared a direct hit, the damage was still huge. It is said that this hurricane sandy is going to be much worse. It is dubbed the "Frakenstorm" as it is going to be a monster storm, slamming itself into mostly of the whole of America's northeastern region. Many states have declared state of emergency. New York's subway system is being closed down. The storm is said to last for two days, it is definitely going to take its own sweet time in leaving us, so I am praying that everything is going to be okay, Insya Allah. Stay safe!

Volunteering is fun and tiring..

Today, I started volunteering at the kids's school's book fair. Boy..it was tiring. Wth the setting up yesterday and the grand opening today, all the other colunteers and me had our hands full. But it was fun! And i have the whole week next week to do it too..:)). The book fair committee would get books from scholastic and will help sell them and some of the percentage of the sales will go to the school. Well, at least i think that's how it works. See, I wasn't at the meeting as i was asked to do something else that i don't like to do at some other place that i don't like to be at, by somebody that i don't like..no, not form the school, this person is from somewhere else..gosh..how i despise this person..anyway....back to the book fair...i love it when the kindergarten kids come to it.not only they look so cute and adorable, (well at least before they started screaming when they don't get to buy the books that they want, or rather the 'non-books' items is more like it, for example the colourful erasers, pointers, pens, pencils and what not), but they are funny too. There was this boy who came to the cash register with money in his hand and just gave it to me without having any books to buy. I told him that he needed to go and choose some books before paying and he gave me this blank and confused look! And he had quite a lot of money in his hand..😀. Someone took him to the books and at last he came back to pay for them witha big smile on his face!!!. And some kids would be bringing $10 and came to the cashier with books worth $40! Boy! That is quite hard explaining to them that they can't buy them all. Usually we would let the teachers do the explaining, we wouldn't want to be the cause of some kids wailing...!!! March on!!!!