Phewh, it's been hectic...

Wow...what a challenging Ramadhan it had been...and then an even more challenging Syawal...

The thing about challenges is that no matter how prepared you think you are, you really never are, until you're faced with them. My father taught me to always "hope for the best, but anticipate the worst". And, the worst always comes along! Ha ha! But, I've learnt to take them all in stride, coz after the worst has gone, the best reward usually comes strolling by too....

My Merdeka gift for Petronas was indeed a rewarding challenge. No doubt the financial reward does extremely good for the home front, and where the need for new handbags is concerned. But the Ringgit Malaysia can't beat the overwhelming sense of pride when emails pour in with "...wow, such a brilliant idea...", or "very impressive, such extensive research...". Hmmphh...Hhaaaa... Alhamdulillah...syukur...

Then come the post Raya challenge in Syawal when my mum fell seriously ill. Since the world around me has been evolving with "that granduncle passed away...", "this aunt has stage 4 cancer...", "that friend's mum passed away...", you'd think I'd be prepared for the worst to hit me right? Well, I thought I was prepared for the worst to hit me. I hade it all planned : engaging the qariah's khairat kematian, closest relatives and friends to call, arrangements to make, and so on. The first round my mum was admitted to IJN, the pacemaker implant, preparing my downstairs spare room for her and my dad to stay for a month while she recuperated...these were all good. I was calm, and prepared. Then, came the second round she was admitted. I was shaken and taken by surprise. It finally dawned on me that this could be it. What if the implant didn't work? What if that last time I said goodnight to my mum was really the last time I said goodnight to my mum? I was awake, alone, and I thought of all this while I passed Marrakesh his 3rd bottle for the night.

But, Alhamdulillah, things didn't turn out for the worst. My mum returned to my place 3 days later. It had been a mismatch of meds and they just had to try new ones. And my mum was going to be okay, insyaAllah. But, that thing, that night, that I thought about all by myself...it was something that I could never ever be prepared for. I realise now, that it is something that I would only know when the time actually comes.

I hope to be the strong woman that my mum is. At this moment in her life, she made it very clear to me that she doesn't fear what God may have laid forth for her, for she has lived her life fully, has loved well and has not any regrets. She postponed being admitted to IJN, the first round, because she wanted to hug and kiss my 3 boys first, as she had not spent Hari Raya with them. We had gone back to Rostam's kampung in Selama this Raya. That night, after she had hugged and kissed each boy ever so lovingly as she always does, she was ready to go, no fear, no regrets, come what may. She looked at me calmly, kissed me and passed me all her jewellery, and said, "...just in case...". Then, we were in the car enroute to IJN.

I am 38 now. I hope that in 30 years, I would be as strong and fulfilled as my mum is now. And I hope that my 3 boys will have as much love, respect, understanding and admiration for me as I do my mum.

Jules makes her debut!

Alhamdulillah...JulesDelightfulness made its debut yesterday in the form of Ramadhan/Syawal favours by f-tersix, and some Raya cookies ordered by friends of JulesMD. InsyaAllah, i truly hope they receive positive response.

For this debut, I have packed JulesDelightfulness in Jules' signature Black&White Polka Dots. InsyaAllah, for future lines, I hope to present designs to reflect the season or the festivity/celebration, while still maintaining the signature image.

JulesFudgyliciousness too has spread cheer this week as Ramadhan Barakah to a group of very savvy people! And next week, more JulesFudgyliciousness will be sent out to add merriment to the Syawal celebration.

I wish to thank all dear family and friends who have strongly supported me in building my Jules Brand. Mainly, of course, darling husband and beloved offsprings, only God knows what they've had to put up with! Family, Friends, Business Friends, DropDeadGorgeous Fashionistas, Giftmagique partner, KerepekLa & Ole-Ole partners, and very importantly, Tangerine team. Thank you, I am indeed very blessed to have all of you in my realm.

I hope Jules will go on to add more goodness and sweetness and richness in many more lives!

I'm back...with JulesMD!

Hey there! It's been a while...

I've been busy with my usual things...and also creating new things! They're not all completely done yet. And with me not so savvy with these IT things, I'll need a bit more time to set things up perfectly.

Almost there...

I'm back...

...after so long.

I can't believe it's been about 2 weeks that I haven't written anything. Guess I was busier than I thot!

And there's the heat issue... It's just been so hot and scorching that I dreaded having to go out, even to fetch the boys from school. And the boys were still up and down with fever because of the heat...

Newspaper headlines have not been exhilirating either. Myanmar. China. Sad. All so sad.

My sister-in-law gave birth to a pretty baby girl on 6 May. Zara Zulaikha. The first granddaughter for my mother-in-law, the earlier 5 being boys.

A day before mother's day I had my mum stay with me at my place. Just a getaway from her routine with my dad, hee hee. I took her out for lunch with my sister at Pavilion, showed her the place and how KLites hang out. On mother's day, we all hung out at the Curve, shopped for a pair of new sandals for my mum, as advised by her physician. After trying out about 30 pairs, finally a pair of Hush Puppies made her happy. Phewh, but worth the time coz she's happy now, no more complaints about pain in the feet or the knees.

I had much earlier gotten a new handphone from darling husband for mother's day. My old one went kaput after thing2 threw it down the stairs. After that I was using a friend's old phone on loan. This new one is from the Nokia Nseries. Cool... and I can load up lots of my boys' goony acts on it! New things are great, but with any new phone, there's the info transfer that needed to be done. So, imagine that...

Came the water problem. Somehow water was not being pumped up to the tank, water was only available at the front porch and in the kitchen. So, you can imagine how that went, and it's still not settled, coz the Syabas registered plumber refused to make any repairs while Syabas is still doing works in the Cheras and Pandan areas. Sigh... hanging in there...

Then there was Teacher's Day. Made 67 chocolate baskets for Esfahan's teachers at Sekolah Desa Pandan. This was ordered by the PIBG at a extremely low budget, so it was my community service. But everyone was happy in the end, and that's what matters most. On top of this, I also made 7 gifts for the teachers who teach Esfahan in 1 Elit.

At Damascus's kindy Krista, I made 8 gifts, for the teachers plus the caregivers. They were happy, Damascus was happy, so I was happy.

I also made a choc basket for Esfahan's piano teacher and a decorative plate for his speech&drama teacher. All were happy. Peewit!

Then darling husband went on his company trip to Bangkok. My mum came over to keep me and the boys company for 5 days. During his absence, there was still the water problem, and the heat. Marrakesh would throw tantrums at night coz he was just too hot to sleep, and this kept me awake. And the maid, who comes in 7-7 mon-sat, went awol coz her baby was sick at home, so she too had not had sleep, and she ended up falling sick too. Aaaaaaaaa!!!! But I soon got reinforcement from my ever so faithful and highly reliable sister. She came in to help my mum mind thing1 and thing2 while I chauffered cat in the hat for his piano and drama classes.

Somewhere along the way I must have twisted something in my left knee coz it feels a bit swollen and heavy now, making it hard for me to run up and down the stairs. Not to mention the pain in my waist and back. I must get another massage. This time a full body massage. Been thinking of going to the fish spa too. And maybe crop my hair short, coz I really can't take the heat anymore...

And newspaper headlines are still sad. Politics. Bitter politics. Sigh...

It's been hectic

With the boys. With work. With the boys falling sick. With the darling husband's birthday. And the boys still sick. Sigh....



But the worst had been when our friend's 12day infant son passed away from heart complications. Apparently he was born lacking 1 major valve in the heart. And the doctors at the hospital had not detected this earlier on....? Sungai Buluh hospital. Sad..........This is one area where I'm really bad at. I'm not good at dealing with deaths of a child. And, I was very mad at the hospital. No doubt it's all God's will. But there are things we can do. And I'm quite sure things like this can be detected during pregnancy. And, upon birth a full scan would detect it too, so immediate action can be taken to do what needs to be done, instead of waiting a few days till the child shows abnormal signs then only taking action. At least we can then say we had tried and done our best. Sad.....



Thing1 and thing2 have been having tonsilitis these past few days and I've put them on antibiotics. And yesterday I allowed them to spend the afternoon in the pool at my aunt's house. She made some spaghetti and yummy desserts, just simply, to celebrate her 4th grandchild's 11th birthday. It was darling husband's birthday too, so I brought along a cheesecake. No, not from my kitchen. Isetan's cake shop. So, we had chocolate fudge cake for Adam Aliff and blueberry cheesacake for darling husband. Hmm...yumm yumm. And my aunty had made caramel pudding and 'buah melaka'. Yumm, yumm, yumm...Then the kids and the dads splashed in the pool; my 20month old thing2 was actually jumping into the water! Not scared! Hmm... and now they're down...



This weekend I have to amend my proposal to my client and show them again monday or tuesday for their final ok. Some have said that the country will be hit by a financial tsunami this june, july. I know the construction sector hasn't been too vibrant. The industry directory I'm currently working on hasn't been able to lock in to as many advertisers and listers as it had last year. The team still has to be paid for their work. Tough. Lucky I'm on the employee end as I'm on a retainer. But still, tough, don't know if I'll be able to secure any other jobs in the near future. Tough, coz I haven't bought a new handbag for the last 2 months. Hmm.........



And I saw this absolutely gorgeous handbag in gold, something like a bowling bag, in pure, shimmery gold, from Secret Pon Pon. An Italian job. Yumm yumm... But without any other retainers I couldn't afford it. Sob sob... Well, maybe another time, and another bag...

There are too many things...

...in my house now. I had borrowed my parents' barbecue set for Damascus's birthday party recently, and now I'm stuck with it, coz my parents say that I'd have more use for it than they do. Yeah, but their kitchen is about 3 times the size of mine, so the pit had had a cozy little spot there. My kitchen is nice, well, I think it's nice, I love it, but it's just not as spacious as my mom's. So... I could just leave the pit in my front porch, and cover it up a bit with an attractive all weather covering... Hmm... will try that.


Then there are also the inflatable pool and the hundreds pieces of balls, which also had had a comfortable spot in my parents' store room below their staircase. My store room under the staircase needs some serious clearing if they were to fit in there. Hmm... will work on that too. For now, I'll just dump the pool and the balls atop my boys' loft bed which is now empty coz all 3 of them rumble on the mattress below. My Cat in the hat had no problem sleeping on the 5+feet high loft. But with Thing1 and Thing2 now in the picture, there's the risk of them racing up the loft ladder and, well, just simply jumping or flying down, coz "weeeeheeeeee!!! this is fuuuuunnnnnn!!!!!!".............So, that's why I removed the ladder and placed the mattress on the floor beneath the loft. They've been okay there so far, all 3 of them, they enjoy each other's proximity at night, helps them sleep... but I think they will soon outgrow it. Coz every night when I pass Thing2 his bottle, the 3 goons look like they've just tumbled out of a hurricane or the washing machine, and most often Thing1 would have his legs well on top of the Cat's head. So, soon I will have to do something about that too...


Geez... there's suddenly all these things to figure out...


At the moment I'll clear up the things from the birthday party first, mainly it's just the deco stuff. Ah, and there's the matter of all those presents... AAAAA!!!! New toys! These will add up to the existing 6 baskets full of toys in the upstairs living which has now become the boys' den. I guess it'll be another round of clearing and giving away. I normally give away to the red crescent shop or to a children's home. We'll see how things go at the end of the cleanup...


Guess we all know what I'll be doing this weekend...

The monsters are down

Aahhh...peace...and quiet...and a lot of mess to cleanup! So I call my kids monsters and goons and terrors... But these three wonderful creatures bestowed unto me by the Divine Power are the only true treasures of my life. When people say my sons are adorable, I'd say, yeah, well, they're okay, not too bad, other kids are cute too. But deep down inside, every mother would feel ever so proud with such pleasing remarks about their kids. Right? Sure I'm right...



All three are in bed now, a little bit past their usual bedtime, coz I just had to catch David Cook at the closing of tonight's AI. Heh heh... So, when I finally tucked them in at 9pm just now, they fell immediately into zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...



I hope my boys will grow up with some bit of artistic talent. Esfahan is taking piano lessons, and the three brothers' favourite happy tune now is Saiful Apek's "Aspalela" and Dewa's Dewi! Oh yes, Damascus has also been going around ranting "mama mama tolong, mama mama tolong"!... Haaa, yes, these are the things that heal my soul.....



Darling husband is out, moonlighting, good moonlighting, so I'm peacefully enjoying my coffee as I write. And watching Ghost Whisperer...I'm recording CSI, so I'll watch that with the man later.



I'm a bit free this next day or two, until clients feedback on my writing, then back to deadlines. I've another deadline, for my gift, that's due in June. Well, for now I'm free.



My parents are in Kelantan visiting my great grand aunt who's been a bit down lately. She's 86. I'd want to be there now too, but I can't find anyone to help care for the boys while I'm gone. I have help during the day, but at night it's just me and the boys, and that includes darling husband... If he had to leave for an outstation or overseas job, me alone at home with the 3 monsters for several days is never a problem. But him alone with the boys, for even one night is unthinkable. Well, that's the reality of things...we women do it better...heh heh...



About my great grand aunt, well, what's most important is I've loved her well. I hope to still find time to visit her soon, but even if I don't, it's okay...I have peace, whatever happens. And she's a wonderful woman who's loved well herself, so, she'll be okay too...

My back still hurts...

...from standing all day in my crocs wedges with thing2 clinging on to me like a koala. For some reason he just refused to be put down. This was during thing1's birthday party last Sunday. That was 3 days ago and my back still hurts. Age, I guess. But the doctor confirms that it's not bone or disc related (phewh!), so I'm gonna try some good old fashioned urut to do the works. And, maybe some core workouts...heh heh...like that's gonna happen soon! My yoga instructor sister would bow to that!

Yup, it's still twitching and stinging. It may sound trivial, but try picking up a 15kg 1+year old in this condition. Hurts. Am gonna down the muscle relaxant the doc prescribed this morning and keep it low key till my favourite urut lady comes tomorrow.

My 3 goons seem to be carrying on diplomatically in playland now, so it should be okay. I should have a good hour before the peace turns to war.....

Hello all, Jules is here...

Hmm...finally, I have a blog! It's something I've been putting off for some time now. God knows why, I don't know, it's just something that you procrastinate sometimes, I guess...you know? Anyway, tonight is the night. As I eagerly prepared myself for slumber after a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong day with my very own "cat in the hat", "thing 1" and "thing 2", with mike scofield desperately going after the millions which he horrifyingly discovers may no longer be there, my husband dumps my laptop in my face and tells me to "START MY BLOG NOW!" And he plops next to me in bed and starts opening this and that, and asking me this and that, then typing this and that...and voilah! Here's my blog!

Phewh...now that's a lengthy one for a start huh? Well, I can be lengthy, and wordy, but I believe that I'm FUN lengthy and wordy...heh heh....

So... I just recovered from the exhaustion of organising my thing1's 3rd birthday party. Oh, by the way, here's a little background : My eldest hunk, Esfahan (born 16/11/01) is nicknamed "cat in the hat", for reasons those who are familiar with dr seuss's work would know. And the same goes for my 2nd boy, Damascus (born 15/04/05), nicknamed "thing1", and my 3rd son, Marrakesh (born 25/08/06), nicknamed "thing2". Yup, I have 3 horrifyingly gorgeous boys, who are the loves of my life. Only I, by virtue of having carried each one of them for 40 weeks, endured circa 5hrs drugfree labour, drugfree normal birth, and the worst, having been a horrifying circa 100kgs during each pregnancy! So, for all those...challenges...that I had to put up with... again, the worst having to lose all those kgs post delivery, I and only I have the privilege of calling my 3 gorgeous tesoros whatever nicknames I deem fit, and adoring. Only I can scream and yell at them, and only I will wakeup 4-5 times at night, every night for bottle feeds, for at least 2 years of each of their lives...yup, 2 years, so, all in all about 6 years lack of sleep. And I will rush to their side to comfort them when they have bad dreams, and lose sleep over fever, asthma attacks, and all those things. Of course, the father makes the effort to help, every time. But during the bad and sad times, the boys look for mommy. Ayah is for fun, play time!

I'm a stay at home mom. I used to work, when I had Esfahan I was still working. Then, my darling husband convinced me to leave my job that was beginning to cause me serious misery and pain, and to start doing the thing, or things, that I was passionate about. So, I quit. And I started to focus on doing my Gifts. Yup, gifts (along with procreating thing1 and thing2, heh heh). Mainly I do concept gifts. Meaning, I create a concept and plan the design and contents of the gifts based on the concept. And I tailor my gifts specially as per my client's/s' needs. So, I don't really do all those things that you would see in catalogues or stuff. When there's a request, I create. Or, when I've created on inspiration, I present and propose, and if it sells, I'm HAPPY! That's my passion. I won't be happy if I have to do something like what's already out there, but you know, sometimes I just have to because that's what's required. And my gifts come with their own tailored copy. Yeah, if you hadn't caught on yet, I write too. I also loooooove organising events and I dream of starting a urban-wellness-lifestyle cafe.

I have a timeline. When I turn 40, by which time cat in the hat would be 9, thing1 5, and thing2 4, in which case they would be securely independent and more vocal, I would already have a strong base in terms of growing my business, be it my gifts, my writing, my events and my cafe.

Ahah!...thing2 just began to whine for his 2nd feed for the night. 250ml of Dumex Dugro 1-3. Without fail, 4 bottles of 250ml every night. So, my story ends here tonight my good people. I think I shall then succumb to slumber, as the rain outside promises a pleasant and deep rest that my body yearns for... Hmph... but darling husband just turned on Entourage, that'll go on for at least 2 more hours... and 2 more feeds for thing2... Sigh... Well, till later...