Spring Is Coming....

Grasses are green... (squirrel ni sebok interframe pulak...)

leaves are growing...

flowers are blooming...

... and I'm LOVING it!!!...

The spring is here! Not too hot... and not too cold.. hhmmm lovely!! And we were strolling @ CENTRAL PARK again.... (dgn perasaan ku yg agak cuak sbb syllabus tak abis lagi... exam lagi 2 minggu.. halamakss!!!). As usual... Hanna adalah orang yg paling gumbira.. lalalaa... :)

p/s: Mak Aya... kalo ko dtg time2 mcm ni... tak de la kite menjadi BEKU kat atas Empire State Building hari tu.... hehehehee... I'll put that entry later lah ye...

Hanna Goes to School!!

The Co-op Pre-School representative called me. Somebody has moved out so there was a spot for Hanna and she may begin immediately... no need to wait until new intake in Sept 08. Hanna sungguh terkinja2 nak pegi skolah malam tu... can't wait till tomorrow. I was also excited... as I'm gonna be the helper mom (teacher's assistant) for the 1st time.

Hanna's new schedule goes like this:

• School days - Monday, Wednesday and Friday 9.30am to 12.30pm (best tak?! 3x jer seminggu... and the fee, $172/month... plus $86 once a year. Believe me... that's the cheapest in town!!)
• Art & Craft class - Wednesday 4.00pm
• Story telling session - Thursday 2.00pm

Tried to get her as busy as I could so that she won't be clinging at me too much. Thought of enrolling her to the music class every Tuesday and Friday... tapi Abaji didn't approve!!... nanti leka main music je... jadi mcm Mak, eh tak... mcm Kassim Selamat!!.. Kelas mengaji kat Masjid East 96th Street tu tak terima budak 3 thn... aci tak cenggitu??! And of course spiritual activities has to be continuously taugh at home.

One thing I like about this school... it's a small group of children fully run by parents-teacher. Parents and teacher sit together and go through the syllabus and the teaching program. Every session must be attended by a helper mom on rotation basis whose child being taught in the class. And I already got my schedule to be the helper mom too. Kena jaga 6 kali sampai abis sem.

Frankly, I felt so blessed to be able to get involve directly with my daughter's formal learning process. I felt safe and secure to see my daughter learn and socialize in front of my eyes (although I cannot supervise the class everyday...). At least I'll have some ideas if I decided to homeschooling my children one day (hhmm... tak abis2 berangan nak homeschooling...). In 2003, there's more than 1 million of homeschooled children in the US. Well, maybe I would be able to do so if we continue to stay in the US forever (chehh... berangan lagi...).

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I'm BACK!!!

Hi!! Miss me huh?... (heheheh perasan). Oh... dah sebulan rupanya tak update blog ni. Was in the long marathon in completing my projects and assignments, just in time when Mak Aya came to visit me. I had great time spending with Mak Aya for almost 2 weeks!! Aku dgn rasminye telah menjadi tourist guide yg tak bertauliah kat sini. Huru-hara jugak nak membaca map subway... Sorry la Mak Aya for any inconvenience while you were here. Just got back form Orlando, Florida recently. Reason being... teman Mak Aya conference kat sana... sambil suka ria... dan menenangkan fikirian (konon...) dan berlepak-lepakkan... dan berindu-rinduan dgn Hanna dan Abaji di NYC.

The original plan was only to visit Seaworld and Universal Studios. Sekali tu... jeng..jengg...jengg... bila sampai sana tengok ade Orlando Premium Outlet dekat ngan hotel. Hehehehe... bak kata one of my friend... "penyakit dah mai dah"... maka tebuntang lah biji mata ku tengok COACH punye la murah... (tak de la murah sgt... but very much cheaper than KL!!!). Oleh kerana teringatkan rakan2 and sanak saudara di Malaysia yg mungkin berminat memiliki original COACH dgn harga yg lebih murah dan berpatutan... so aku telah memborong la setengah dozen handbags itusss!!.. ingatkan nak beli lebih... tapi sendri mau ingat la... excess luggage nak kena bayar... sengatt giler. So hanya ini lah yg dpt ku beli utk rakan taulan di Malaysia. Ingat nak mintak Mak Aya bawakkan balik Malaysia. Ohh.. tak terbawa olehnye sbb dia sendirik telah terhuyung-hanyang nak bwk her belongings. So, nak tak nak terpaksa la post to Mak Aya... mmg menyengat postage cost. But all in all… the bags are still very cheap compared to Malaysia.

So folks, do check out http://discounted-premium-outlet.blogspot.com/ to purchase those lovely handbags.

Ceritera Lapuk...

Quite a number of events happened this past few months, although they were small and not significant to others... but definitely mean something to me. Managed to captured some moments, but too bz to update the blog. Totally forgot about them until I did housekeeping to my folders recently...

My 1st attempt on PIZZA making (late January 08)

Jadi beb!!.. made it from scratch, was quite impressed with myself since I don't really fancy being in the kitchen. (This pic was taken after aku rasmikan the 1st slice). Ni dah malas nak kira kitchen experiment yg ke berapa dah nih. But this is my 1st time masak pizza, hasil permintaan tekak sendiri dan Hanna. (Susah nak cari kedai pizza halal sini). But I didn't know that the dough recipe was meant for the thin crust pizza, so rasanya rangup mcm makan biskut instead of roti. Hanna named it pizza kruk..krukk... Paling best, being left overnight tak 'lemau' pun (maybe bcoz of very dry weather). So, abaji bawak gi office on the next day. Wanna try? Here.

Light Headed (early Feb 08)

Ohh... rimas giler dah ni. I'm not used to have long hair anymore. Not like zaman anak dara sunti dulu. So Zarina (my new friend) took me and nenet to Chinatown on the 4th day of Chinese New Year. Kasi cantas itu rambut..... Why Chinatown?.. coz it's so much more cheaper compared to saloon near my house. It turned out to be that the saloon owner was Malaysian (Ipoh mali maa...). Fuhh.. bantai cakap melayu jer la... dah lama giler rasa tak cakap melayu with strangers. Ingatkan bleh dpt discount... huhhh!! I was reminded to pay tips some more!!.... mencikk tau dok cni!!... sumer nak kena bayar tips. But my head felt so light after that... no more hair poking around my shoulders.

Sempat tengok lion dance kejap on the way balik. Kiri kanan jalan penuh bersepah dgn confectionary. Mercun kat cni bunyi mcm kentut jer... meletup pastu beterbangan keluar confectionary (hahaha.. tak dapat nye nak menghalau hantu....). This is how ABC (American-born-Chinese) celebrated CNY. Takde la kuat bunyi mercun mcm bom meletup like in their origin country (or like M'sia). True culture assimilation could be seen here. Singa menari - kepala singa cina pengang, badan kat tengah mat saleh , pegang ekor... mat gagak. Tukang pukul gendang... rupa mcm melayu... (Hispanic kot?!)

Hanna's Art & Craft Class (mid Feb 08)

I joined a moms' association here. Not so much for myself but for Hanna. Most of the members are doctors' wifes from all over the world whom their husband doing reseach or specialist at the hospital nearby. Ramai housewife lah... I've made some friends but really have no time to mingle around with them due to commitment of my study (huhuhuh... rugi jer bayar...). Being a member, my daughter has the previlage to join the art & craft class, music class, playgroup and outing sessions, and with minimal fee, she can go to the pre-school there. Actually there's much more activities for mommys and their kids conducted by the members, but couldn't join most of them coz selain bz, their venue is considerablely far. Tak berani suruh nenek bwk Hanna jauh2 alone since nenet is still not familiar with the road here. But Hanna has attended few classes on Art & Craft held once every week. Clearly, she has ripped some benefits from it. She really enjoyed them so much.

Hanna's 1st art - Valentine's Card to Abaji... syiok betul tgk dia layan tampal2 love tu... 1st time holding scissors and glue!

Second craft - Paper Man!!

Ehh!!... tangan paper man sebelah lagi dah tanggal daaa....

Recently... Ester basket... No! We don't celebrate Ester as we don't celebrate Christmas and Valentines... this is just an art craft.

Got pink little bunny mashmellow inside the bag... the green grass inside was made from rope.

It's Story Time!!...

This is another activity most awaited by Hanna every week! I found out a Children's Public Library just a few block from our house in late January. Scheduled with many activities designed for infants, toddlers and older kids (from 6 months to 7 yrs old) like story telling session and creativity session. Obviously, Hanna loves being here... surrounded by many friends and friendly facilitators. She can learn a lot from this place. Balik kelas jer sure cakap homputeh yg slang tah ape2.... and the best thing is.. all classes are FREE!And she got her own library card too... They have losts of good books she can borrow anytime. Unfortunately, there's nothing on early Islamic education. I suggested to the library to have at least a series on Iqra' books or books about 25 Phrophets... hehehe... mcm la diorang nak layan...

Hhhmm... after looking at all these, yet I wonder why I don't have enough time to study although I'm not working. Couldn't be more than agree with K.Zie as what she had campak in her blog... I'm not just a mom... I'm a "Research Associate in the field of Child Development and Human Relations". And now I'm training nenet to be the "Associate Research Assistants" like what other professional nanny here does... provided she won't aks for salary jump!! :)

Oh My God !!!....

OMG!!... MasyaAllah!!! SubhanaAllah!!... Astaghfirullah!!....
As I was looking at my account summary thru Internet Banking, suddenly my eyes became so terbuntang!!... I felt my heart stopped pumping for a while, and then started beating fast like crazy!!!.. Rasa mcm nak gugur jantung nih. I was panicked and overwhelmed... Not becaused some hacker or conman has robbed all the money in my account, (ade baper sen sgt pun kalo nak curi...) but ade terlebih banyak duit pulak dlm account akuh! Quite a huge sum, bukan takat 2-3 ribu...(huhuhuh... sib baik in RM... kot in USD ke... pound sterling kaa... lagi la gelap mata ku ini...).

Oh... adakah ini rezeki datang dari langit ?!! From the transaction detail, it seems like somebody has used a corporate desktop banking and transferred it to me. Obviously this is not from individuals yg nak kirim barang kat cni. I was so excited and wanted to wake Abaji up, but managed to refrain myself form doing that because it was 4.30 in the morning. So, I decided to tell him after subuh nanti and continued doing my assignments. Hehehhh... tak bleh concentrate nak wat keja pun... I was in the deep hard thinking and wondering where the source of that money came from. Dalam pada tu sempat berangan pulak tu, hhmmm... bleh employ private nurse utk mak ngan abah la mcm nih... kalo tak pun boleh employ maid Filipino utk diorang... kehhkehhhkehh... (sbb baru discuss ngan Hakim siang tadi pasal maid indon susah nak dapat).

Tapi mujur lah imanku yg senipis kulit bawang dan kewasaran akal fikiran masih mampu mematikan angan-angan mat jenin ku... (dah la tengah dok buat project paper pasal ethics in Islamic economics ni)... As I don't expect to receive any money from anyone at the moment, I think this must be a mistake. I've heard this kind of mistake happened, which the receiver had already used the money. The court ordered to return the money and the receiver got penalised some more for being dishonest . Since it has happen to others, it could be happening to me as well. The devil in me said... alahai... duit dah masuk dlm acct aku, jadi aku punye ler.... diam2 sudah le buat ape nak kecoh. Tapi hati ni terdetik... dpt duit banyak tak tau mana asal usulnye, tak berkat nanti tak guna juga....

So, trying to be an ethical person, I contacted the bank to verify the source and genuineness of that transaction and now it's under invastigation. * Ohh... Abaji skype from office, tanya bank dah reply blum... hhhmmm... he must be wandering also...*