Not By My Strength...

Hubs had to go out station for work purposes and we didn't follow him. For 11 days.. so that left me all alone with a soon to be 5 year old, a just turned 3 year old and a 6 week newborn baby *gasp

Even before this, whenever anyone asked me how I was going to manage taking care of the three of them by myself especially when hubs has to travel, I say, "I know I can't do it by myself but by God's grace and if He helps me and gives me strength, only then can I do it." And let me tell you, that is the absolute TRUTH. Fact is, a hundred million things that are totally out of your control can go wrong.

10 days... and mind you I managed to cook at least three times a day. Lunch and dinner and either for breakfast or for tea time. Here in Malaysia, it is common to cook once for lunch and eat the same thing for dinner. No harm in that, it's just that I love cooking for my family and trying out new recipes..but boy was it a challenge.. I had to prep,cook and clean in stages.

So far I have managed to keep up my old routines.. However, I had to let go of many things namely in the region of housekeeping. One step at a time. Prioritise.. Could I have done this on my own strength? No way...

Hubs was a pillar of comfort and strength as well. He would keep tabs on the kids and through Skype would make the kids accountable for their actions.. 

Even so, after a bout of flu and cough which hit me and the kids- thanks to the haze, the next time Hubs has to travel we are going with him.. : )

I am 30 going on 31....

On September 21, I turned 31.. It was a beautiful day from the beginning until the end. The day before, Hubby would say out loud, "T minus ...hours and .....minutes" depending on how much time was left to 12midnight and it would be my birthday. He would announce it in a loud and deep baritone.. And I would break into girlish giggles with my daughter running around saying, "Happy Birthday Mummy". The children and Hubby had gone out to Secret Recipe and bought a cake. When leaving it with the hotel staff to be delivered to us later, my daughter started crying. Hubby explained to her that it was Mummy's birthday cake and it was a secret and not to tell me. This happened at 6pm. Can you imagine, my daughter NEVER said a word. She never even mentioned the word cake. She would say happy birthday and kiss me and all but nada about the cake. And mind you, she tells me everything. She turns 3 tomorrow and I have to say she keeps a secret better than so many adults I know.

At 12midnight, the hotel staff brought the cake. The F&B manager, Mr Eddie had stayed back and brought 4 other staff. He played the guitar as they sang Happy Birthday! Can you imagine. Such lovely people. Where are we staying? We're at the Best Western Hotel and Residence Sandakan. This is a wonderful hotel and I love it her for many reasons. In total we've stayed here for about 5months now. Mom called and so did my BFF.

The next morning, I found a lovely note that Hubby had written. From work he sent a really, really cute e-mail using lots of emoticons..was awesome.. Once back from work, he took the kids and said he was going to reception to collect something. So, i thought hmm must be balloons or flowers or something...Then, he calls me and asks me to go to a certain room to collect something. I'm thinking hmm he must want me out of the room for this next surprise. The hotel has a spa called Lembah Impian Spa and they just started operation. I was their first customer. That was where Hubby made me go! The bliss of it all.. They were really good and my masseur massaged away my aches and pains...I put my phone in the silent mode -sorry peeps getting myself pampered : )

When I came back to the room, a beautiful hand made card was waiting for me. I love hand made cards! It was made by Hubby and my two kids! I shed tears of happiness as this surpassed any gift... I managed to convince Hubby I didn't want to go out for dinner (I was too content and relaxed after my spa) and so we ordered our favourite pizzas from Pizza Hut... All in all it was a beautiful day and I couldn't have had a better celebration. I thank the Lord for my lovely husband and kids. 

About a Bout of Toddler Vomitting

Warning: Long post but worth the read : )

There is a reason why the police like to interrogate people right after a crime or incident. This is because as time goes you forget details and things seem a little fuzzy or you want to talk about it but you lack the strength or you just don't know where to start. Of course, I always knew this but what happened a few days ago reminded me of the fact.

On Tuesday, my soon to be 3 year old daughter had diarrhea. Her poop was extremely and I mean extremely watery. She had it twice and the next day in the evening her poop was normal. *sigh of relief. Then, suddenly at 10p.m. she vomitted. And after an hour she vomitted again. And after that she vomitted every half an hour. So, here we are in a first time situation of such a nature and we find ourselves not in a place where you can find a clinic or hospital at almost every end. We are in Sandakan, Sabah where there is only ONE hospital. A government hospital with a classy name; The Duchess of Kent. They do have a new building and children who are admitted are warded in the new building. The rest of the hospital is very much like other Malaysian government hospitals.

Right, so after the first time she vomitted we went to a clinic nearby (we know the Dr and his clinic is opened till 12pm), Klinik Dr Mahen.(See end of post for details) At that time she had just vomitted once and was still looking okay. Dr. Mahen gave us some medicine to be taken orally to help stop the vomitting. Alas, Cupcake couldn't even drink water so she also vomitted out the med.

So about 1.20a.m. we went to the only available hospital at that time; The Duchess of Kent Hospital Emergency Unit. First, you have to register your kid and pay RM1. Then, they give you a number. Ours was 232. The number on the screen was 162. ???? Huh? Okay so there must be a system of some sort that we were unaware of. One family brought in their elderly mom. She had already seen the Dr. There was another lady. That's it. A few minutes after taking our number, they called us to take Cupcake's weight, gave her ORS (Oral Rehydration Salts) and asked us questions about her condition.

Once that was done we waited and waited and waited. There were 2 Medical Officers on duty. How long can it take, right. Maybe they were taking a break?

After about an hour, an ambulance arrived and 2 teenage girls were brought in. They had been in a minor car accident. I heard they rammed into a concrete pillar or wall or something. One had slight scratches on her arms and feet. The other had a wound under her right chin. Then, I noticed a board with a notice that said if your condition was critical you would have to wait erm..I can't remember how long and semi critical you have to wait..err I forgot again *smile sheepishly. Well, I do remember that if your condition is not critical you have to wait for 90minutes to 120minutes which was what we were doing. There was another mom who came in later with a child who had fever and she went in first.

Right, fast forward.....  My hubby prayed for our little girl. For the next half and hour thank God she took the ORS water and did not vomit.  Finally, we got to see the doctor. He wanted to put her on drips but we asked if it was possible to wait and see as she had seemed to have stopped vomitting. So, we hung around and Praise God our daughter was fine. What a relief..  The doctor checked her again (no other patients were around) and gave us the green light to go home. They gave us more ORS sachets.

When we reached the hotel room at 4.30 I started to feel queasy and 2 hours later my  diarrhea and vomitting started! Oh yes, earlier when I had asked the Dr if it could be food poisoning, he was adamant that that never happens in Sandakan. I asked him if it could be stomach flu and he laughed derogatively at me looking at me like I was speaking gibberish and said, "Stomach flu? Ha,ha,ha. What's that?" (Another laugh squezees through) and he says, " I've never heard of that. There's no such thing". Gives me a queer look.

Gosh...


Klinik Dr Mahen
Ground Floor, Lot 10, Block I, Prima Square, Mile 4, North Road, 90000 Sandakan, Sabah
Tel: 089 218273
Monday - Sunday including Public Holidays
8am - 12.30pm
2pm - 4pm
7pm - 12am

Sabah Road Trip: Sapi Island

The Tunku Abdul Rahman Park was named after Malaysia's first Prime Minister. It consists of 5 islands, their surrounding reefs and of course the sea!

An interesting fact:

• Geologically, the islands are part of the Crocker Range but became isolated from the massif when sea levels rose after the last ice age.

Sounds interesting right. These islands are a MUST! You cannot not visit at least one of these islands during your visit to Kota Kinabalu (KK). If you are travelling with a toddler and a baby, like me, then an island or two would suffice. As I mentioned earlier, there are 5 islands:

• Gaya Island


• Manukan Island


• Mamutik Island


• Sulug Island


• Sapi Island

We visited Sapi Island. Check out our ride : ) We bought our lunch at Jesselton Point, Nasi Campur (Malay mixed rice) and ate it at the island. Yummy!

At the island you can rent large tikars (mats) for RM15, tubes for kids (RM5) and so on. What's great is that they don't take advantage and charge you hourly. Instead it's a flat rate.

There are many operators at Jesselton Point offering rides to the islands. We bought ours from Green Holiday. We left at 2.30p.m and they said when we wanted to leave the island all we had to do was call them and they would get us! What a bunch of bollocks! We saw a storm brewing and wanted to leave the island and when we called them at 3.45, they said there wasn't anyone available to get us and we had to wait until 5pm when the last boat leaves. Then, around 4pm they were rushing to get us off the island as it was already raining heavily at the jetty. It was a rough ride and I truly believe the Lord's hand was upon us guarding us and keeping us safe. The rain was beating hard on our faces and bodies, ruthless bullets as we held our precious little ones close. I praise God for His mercy...Yup it was that bad..

I'm definitely going back to the islands someday but I'm definitely not going with the 'Green Holiday'.

Yup you're Green alright...Unripe in the brains!