T-7 HOURS TO GO!

T-7 HOURS TO GO UNTIL THE WEEKEND STARTS(A 3 DAY WEEKEND)!!

In case you couldn't tell....I am so ready for 6pm to be here today; it's when Matt will be home from work & our 3 day weekend begins. I am so excited for our 3 day weekend...I love the weekend. It's my favorite part of the week because I get to spend so much time with the hubs.

We don't have any plans. I am too excited to have a couple days to sleep in(and I know Matt is excited about it too!)

Hooray for having off Friday(and I'm sure it's going to make waking up Monday THAT much harder, but we'll deal with it when it comes).

In other news, my brother is still employed with UBS in NYC. Thank God, literally & thanks to everyone for their prayers. There were layoffs Mon & Tuesday & they are done for this round. Whew! He has been working so hard. He has received great praise from people he has been working for & received credit for doing such a great job. I am so proud of him. He is the smartest brother! I am so thankful that Someone has been watching over him.

And, and, and.....1 more thing. A really BIG thing. My twin cousins Becca & Libby are going through 1st Communion this weekend. Sad I cant be there, I feel like the worst Godmother ever!!!(Sorry Libby). But hopefully pics will get passed along & I can post them. They are the cutest & were the flower girl & ring bearess in our wedding. They are sooo special to me & I love them both so much! Keep them in your prayers as they embark on such a sacred, special occasion. They are the dolls in the above picture after having their hair done for our wedding. They truly are the best!

More to come after the weekend, have a great one everybody!

WONDERFUL WEEKEND

Matt & I with 2 US sailors from the USS Kidd on Sunday night at JUMBO seafood restaurant

We had a great weekend & now its only a 4-day work week....whoo-hoo!
Friday we had a relaxing swim in our pool after Matt got home from work followed by some delicious Thai food(curry to be exact).
Saturday we planned our route to get in sight of the Navy fleet of ships, REALLY hard to do. The base is way out past the airport & is almost in a cove-like area, probably so the ships are a bit protected. But, with the use of my binoculars,we were able to see the aircraft carrier & could see all the planes that sat on it. Those ships are enormous! Anyways, we did that from East Coast Park, which we walked to....we came home & crashed we were so tired. Saturday night we had our first dinner with 2 sailors. They were very nice, both from California. I think they were 29 & 25 yrs old & both had been in the Navy for 7-9 years. Very talkative. Interesting. 1 worked in IT & the other did navigational duties.
Sunday we took it easy. Went shopping again but came home empty handed :(
We met 2 new sailors for dinner. It was fun meeting these guys, finding out about their lives & why they are in the service. The 2 we met with Sunday(that are picture above) were pretty laid back & both very interesting. As we were leaving dinner we decided they were picture worthy & took a few pictures. We were even given a present by Seeda(in the red shirt). He's originally from Thailand & he's 35 yrs old...been in the military 9 months. Bless his heart. He was just the sweetest, most appreciative thing. He gave us a miniature bronze painted statue of a Buddhist monk. Apparently he was a Buddhist monk for like 20 years. Crazy! You never know with some people.
All in all, we had a great time meeting our sailors, learning about life on board a navy ship( and why its better to be on a small one) and learning about their life in general. We are glad we got to do it. Our sailors seemed very thankful & appreciative. I think most of them expected us to be older. But we got along with all of them & I am pretty sure they just enjoyed some nice conversation.
Matt & I loved doing this. It is always nice to learn about other people, other cultures, etc...We feel like it makes us better people & opens us up to many different things. We are so thankful for the opportunities that we have been given.
So, with that said. Its a short work week for Matt. There is a holiday on Friday(something about it being the equivalent of Labor Day ). So we are definitely excited about that. Along with, it will be 4 whole months(this weekend) since we got married. We both agree that every minute has been great & we love being newlyweds.
Hope everyone is doing great! More to come later this week.

SOMETHING:

ITS FRIDAY!!!
1. Last night Matt brought home flowers & a curry puff. How romantic! I almost cried when he walked in the door.
2. Matt had lunch plans with someone from work, so I had a date with the pool for a little bit. It's gettin hot over here! Example: weather.com says its 93 degrees F, but feels like 106 degrees F. I love it! It feels like summer all the time!
3. The Navy is coming in & we have dinner with 4 sailors this weekend. Pictures to come next week. Hope its fun.
4. Until the Man of the House gets home, I'm spending time with my new Marian Keyes book "the other side of the story". So far=so good.

Wacky Wednesday!

Matt eating some yummy Indian food for dinner. No, I did not cook this, these are not our dishes and no we are not at home. Had some shopping to do for a certain someone's recent birthday present. The food really is good despite how it looks in the picture...and no he's not making a face, I just happen to snap the camera it an inconvenient time.

We think its hilarious that there are Kenny Rogers restaurants in Singapore. You cant see it in this picture, but he has photos of himself all over the walls. Its crazy....and they are fairly busy most of the time. Matt always gets a good laugh & talks about an episode of Jackass with a fake Kenny Rogers(I even got to watch the video).

And last but not least....how many shopping bags does she have? This is the perfect example of a crazy....but a young crazy. I mean, how many times do you go to the shopping mall & load up a push-basket full of shopping bags? Ha! Only in my dreams. And yes, I felt perfectly justified in taking her picture while her back was turned. What's the hurt? She wasnt even looking.

SO MUCH TO SAY!

I have so much to say & lately I have liked doing it in the form of a list...but I'll spare everyone from that this time.
We had such an awesome, busy weekend. We found a new place for happy hour on Friday that is just down the street from our apartment. We visited a favorite restaurant Friday & had the yummy fish n chips! Both of us!
We also made a break though in one of our many talks, that we act like we're 40, not 28, what to do to change it & what to do to make ourselves happy. We went & saw a movie Saturday night called "Taken" & even had a nice dinner date before.
Sunday we went back to the Singapore Turf Club to the horse races. It was lady luck draw day so all the women got in free. Matt did an awesome job with the picking of horses & betting. I, on the other hand, seemed to be having the wrong feeling about horses....my picks were always the wackos of the group that would run sideways & never go into their gates without much pushing & force. Anyways, it was a fun time. Definitely a different experience with all those Asian men yelling who knows what. Makes us giggle all the time.
We even took in some yummy Indian food at the mall last night & then went shopping. It was quite a busy weekend. Matt learned all kinds of things about women's clothing, face cream, etc...He's such a great sport! But dont fret my friends, we shopped more for him actually.
In other exciting news, this coming weekend we will be hosting 4 US Navy Sailors for dinner. We are participating in part of a home-leave program through the American Association that pairs you up with sailors who are coming into Singapore & you can host a dinner, take them sightseeing, etc...Mainly just to give them a sense of family & friends while they are traveling & so they have some familiar-ish faces in a foreign country. We are so excited we cant wait! We have had so much fun google-ing all about what ships they are from, how the Navy travels in fleets, and so on. Matt has so many questions & I am just excited to feel like we can give a little(even though small) something back to our military, I can only imagine being in the Navy & traveling on a ship for long periods of time. Sailors of all classes & rank participate...we arent really sure what ours do or are. We only know their names. We do know there are 2 from the USS Antietam & 2 from the USS Kidd ( it is my understanding 1 ship has something to do with radar & 1 ship is a destroyer). Matt knows all the details. Makes that game "Battleship" finally make sense after all these years. You can google the ships & find all kinds of cool information about them. Anyways, we are really thrilled to be taking part in this & cant wait to meet our sailors/sailorettes, whichever they may be.
I think thats enough for this post for now, I'm sure I forgot lots, but there is always tomorrow!
Until then~

FRIDAY FUNDAY

WE LOVE FRIDAYS!!
Thank goodness its here! We are ready for the weekend to begin. Fridays usually help it come a little faster...I go to lunch with Matt which makes the day go by fast (for both of us).
So, like previous post here is info/gossip/opinion/whateveryouwannacallit:
1. Madron is getting to us a little bit ( spell madron backwards)
2. Feels like there is something in the coffee, maybe its just me
3. NO plans for this weekend.
4. Did I mention how AWESOME it was not to have to fill out any immigration forms coming back from Malaysia....hey! I got a green card/dp pass! So sweet!
5. I finally took the dark polish off my toes & painted them a very sweet pastel pink...my Mother would be so proud, may even tear up.
6. So excited to go shopping for dresses to wear to Bryan & Hallie's wedding in Sept
7. Riverside Indonesian bbq here I come...it is sooooo good. Matt cant wait to pick dinner, I'm sure
8. Does laundry & cleaning ever end? I wish we had a dishwasher!
9. How crazy are people across the US becoming? I must be watching too much Nancy Grace(Heather H, dont laugh or roll your eyes).
10. I have admitted to Matt, as of yesterday, I am officially addicted to curry puffs. Again. Its becoming quite a problem.
11. Should I get my hair cut? (I go through this every year....grow it long, cut it short, contemplate, cut it, grow long, contemplate)
12. Is the rain really all THAT inconvenient?
Hope everyone had a Happy Easter. Have a great weekend!

WAY BACK WEDNESDAY...AND A LOVE STORY

In honor of a blog I read on Kat & Karl's site, I thought ours was in need of a Way Back Wednesday post...even though our way back is really just over a year ago, it still counts, right?

So here are 2 pictures from when I was in Singapore last February....it was the most bittersweet time of my life. Here I was, completely head-over-heels for this man. He had help fly me to Singapore & I was having the best time of my life just being with him. It was so hard leaving though. I had done such a good job holding up(or so I thought) but when it was time for me leave at the airport, I become such an emotional mess, I spilled my breakfast tea all over my track suit....and I thought I had something in my carry on to wear instead, but it was shorts & a dress. Ever since then, I have always packed my carry on very carefully.

Moral of the story: love works in mysterious ways; here's to those who say it always happens when you least expect it!

Cheers!!

THE PARTY IS OVER....LOTS OF PICS THOUGH

Statue of Murugan at the Batu Caves

In front of the Batu Caves Temple

Stairs to the Temple

Mean monkeys outside the caves

Matt on top of the 272nd stair

Looking back @ the entrance of the cave

Batu Cave Temple

An opening in the caves showing sunlight

Nat in front of a temple in the caves

Matt in front of the temple

Looking back down the 272 stairs

Ready for a dinner date...looking handsome!

It rains as much in KL as it does in Singapore!!
On our way to dinner with our ellas!

Street we had dinner on, very busy area

Petronas Towers at night

Day time view of the twin towers

The KL Tower, view from a park

Looking straight up at the petronas Towers

The old train station in the city

Matt with the city in the background

Nat in front of a fountain in the city

View of the top of a mosque from the monorail

IT FEELS GREAT TO BE HOME, IN SINGAPORE!

What a trip! We can definitely say Kuala Lumpur was an interesting experience. To sum up our trip, I've written a few little diddies below:

1. Our flight to KL on Japan Airlines was awesome. They have a camera outside the airplane & inside after showing safety videos, you can actually watch your pilot's view of take-off and landing. We have never seen it before, but it was awesome.

2. Our flight was about 35 minutes. GET THIS: it took longer to get to the airport in Singapore from our apt & the airport in KL to our hotel than our actual flight!

3. Our flight on JAL was so quick & smooth, we didnt even realize we were landing until I saw out the window, as we are about to touch down, and exclaimed to Matt "we're landing, we're landing!" He was a caught off guard as well.

4. Pretty sure our cab driver from the central station to our hotel was crazy. I was almost certain my half of the beat-up jalopy was going to fall apart from the rest of the cab. Our driver was horrible, I wasnt even sure we would make it to the hotel.

5. At least we had side-by-side massages Friday afternoon....I think Matt is hooked

6. Pretty sure the monkeys at the Batu caves were on crack. We had to leave because they started fighting with each other & were squealing & hissing.

7. Had an awesome dinner at Maredo's steakhouse for Matt's birthday. We loved it! The steak was great & so was the wine, and the dessert!

8. Saturday, after taking ourselves around the city we realized the only awesome thing about KL is the Petronas towers & really its kind of a dirty city.

9. We were soo glad to be back in Singapore Sat night. Feels good to sleep in your own bed & be back in your own home! Not to mention use public transportation thats safe, clean and easy to use!

10. Thanks to all those sending birthday wishes to Matt! He is so appreciative of them all, each one means so much to him.

So...all in all he had a great birthday. We really did have a fun time in KL. We loved being on our adventure together! And we had a wonderful Easter Sunday as well!

Back to the ol' bump & grind today....it was definitely hard getting motivated this morning.

More to come later, enjoy the pics!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY(S)

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS!!

Today, April 8th, is my big brother's birthday, so a warm, happy, heartfelt Happy Birthday definitely goes out to him in NYC. Miss you so much, am so proud of you & cant wait for your wedding!

And also, a Happy Birthday to go to Matt! Even though it is not until Saturday, we will be gone on vacation & I cant post a b-day blog for him. So many words to say, I love you & Happy Birthday! I am so excited for our trip.

With that said, we are leaving this evening, lots to do until then(like figure out what clothes to pack, its been a week-long ordeal).

Cheers!

Note: Above is the lemon cake Matt requested I make for his birthday. Its so good, its gone! I know, a little elementary looking, but my resources here in Singapore for cake making were a bit limited.

I SHOULDNT HAVE, BUT I DID ANYWAy

I was in a festive birthday/Easter mood when I went to the grocery store this morning. And bought all the fixings for a SUPER birthday cake & now the frosting & sprinkles are just sitting there unused. I think I heard them whisper my name once or twice. And so are the jellybeans I bought for our Easter basket. I dont know what I have done! I wish I could take them all back, but just for like a day or two. Grocery shopping is hard in Singapore, because they dont necessarily carry all their items all the time. So when you see something you need, like lemon cake, stove top stuffing, etc....you have to buy it when you see it.

In other news, Matt & I made our pad a bit more cozy after shopping at Ikea yesterday. Got some new pillows, a couple of lamps. We are stylin' profilin' now baby! And it feels a little more like home. Also, Anthropology has these really cool wall appliques that stick on & peel off & dont leave marks on your walls. I'll post a picture of ours when I can figure out which way I like them best.

So glad this week is a short week! And we are so pumped for our weekend get-away. I cant wait to celebrate his birthday & shower him with presents(ok its just a couple). And of course, celebrate Easter. I'm thinking of making brunch right here at home, mimosas included :)

We had a great weekend. It makes Monday so hard! Even took in a couple pints Friday evening & talked my Chinese to our cab driver. I can only say a couple of things. He was a crazy one for sure & so excited when I talked Chinese. I told him he was trouble. Hehe. He laughed & corrected me, which sounded exactly the same as I said it, but whatever. Saturday we spent our morning at the Ministry of Manpower getting my passport/dependant pass corrected. Yes, we are finally done after weeks of thinking I was already. But everything is now correct, up-to-date, and final....NO MORE MESSING WITH MY STUFF! And thanks to the wonderful ladies at Nordam who were so helpful & screwed it all up in the first place. We really enjoyed spending our Saturday morning abroad doing your job :) Insert picture of a lady from the 50's with a sparkling white smile & sound of a chime at the end of the last sentence.

Hm....I'm definitely in a fiesty mood today. Wonder where I'm getting it?

THOUGHTS FOR FRIDAY...

Some thoughts for Friday:
1. Ryan, where is that update you were talking about?
2. Is lil' Nate not just the cutest? And while we are on the subject of babies, I dont think I have seen one ugly Asian baby in Singapore. Not, one. They are just the cutest little things...so well behaved. Enough of the baby talk, gets me in trouble.
3. Did the Obamas really think it was ok to give the Queen an Ipod? I'm horrified; Broadway tunes or not.
4. Ready for the Great Singapore Sale to hurry up & get here. I have shoppin' to do!
5. Matt's birthday weekend extravaganza needs to hurry up & get here.
6. Hope the house is ok
7. Cant wait until this afternoon when I get to go on my lunch date & Matt comes home...he needs the weekend to be here PRONTO!
8. Not a huge fan of the trash chute in our apartment.
9. But at least I have the most amazing view of the world, right out our windows every morning & every evening...sometimes it really is just beautiful.
10. How does tooth floss & triple antibiotic ointment just disappear?
11. Too bad my braid & pic curl technique did not work on my wet hair last night. Matt saw a poodle when he woke up this morning. Lawd, I did look crazy!

SERIOUSLY, GET YOUR HAND OUT OF MY SHOPPING BAG

We call them crazies. Other people may have another name for them. But I feel ours is best. Its the name we give to the Singaporeans over here who we see doing crazy things(which is on a continuous basis daily). Let me give you an example from yesterday when I went to the grocery store. As I'm standing in line to check out, this seemingly harmless tiny, middle-aged Asian woman comes to stand in line behind me. Here is our conversation:
Crazy: I was juts trying to figure which one I should queue
Me: I think this one is the best, it is moving the fastest & is shorter than the rest.
Crazy: Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Crazy: I buy deese potatoes(holding them up for me to see) and go home. I have to boil and den I cook again. And I put da marazella cheese on top. It my granddaughter favorite. I have to make for her.
Me: Oh uh-huh.
Crazy: Cheese expensive.
Me: Yes, cheese is extremely expensive here.
Crazy: But, you know which is better? The marazella or parmasan?
Me: (Thinking what is marazella...mozerella?) Uhm...I think the parmasean is more
Crazy: Yes. I not like smell parmasan. It smell nasty to me.
And at this point she is looking into my shopping bag/crate I'm holding, looking at my groceries:
You make da dinner?
Me: Yes, I'm making pasta for dinner.
Crazy: (Now she has reached, yes reached into my basket & grabs my mushrooms)
Oh dis nice mushroom. I buy white button. Put in pasghetti. Is good.
Me:(Thinking holy crap! Get your hand out of my basket! Violation here!)
Yes, these are good. They are less expensive than the baby white buttons though.
And finally its my turn to check out. She leans on the conveyor belt & looks into my basket & then looks at the POS screen every time and item is scanned & makes a comment, oh das nice. Oh das espensive.
Can I just say what the heck? I mean, I cannot believe this crazy actually reached into my basket. I'm sure I had a horrible look on my face, but she just kept going like it was nothing out of the ordinary. I felt so violated. I was all alone. hehe.
Oh man. A day in the life. You definitely never know what you're gonna get over here. But I love it!

FUN!

I have managed to successfully pull of an April Fools joke already this morning, on Matt of course. Bless his little heart. And now I'm sure he's going to be planning one all day, or guilt trip me & NOT do one. Either way, it was totally harmless. I told him I received an email from someone at his work about my relocation. He wanted all the details & email forwarded to him, he was about to get mad. Ha. Then I said April Fools and he just laughed & laughed & laughed. So cute. What a good sport.

I went back to the Embassy yesterday. I should seriously write a soap opera & call it EMBASSY....see how the name just rolls of your tongue. I mean, can you imagine how long the drama can last there?! One incident could be the whole season. This is genius. And silly. No drama this time when I went. I did have to stand outside the guard shack, very near the gurkha who kept messing with his gun strap making me very nervous, for about 5 minutes. It was so humid I was sweating just from standing there. Ugh. Yuck. Oh well though, once inside I didnt even have to wait in line & my passport is correct this time. Hooray!

I also did a little shopping & bought a new dress for our date. We went on a 3 month wedding anniversary date last night. It was so romantic & we had a great time. The Italian food was delicious! I had homemade lasagna & Matt had seafood linguine pasta. They were both so excellent. Even had ourselves a glass of wine & some yummy chocolate thingy for dessert. I love our date nights together. In fact, thinking about it & looking back, we have never been on 1 bad date together. Ever. How awesome is that?! We are really pretty good about making the most of a bad situation & get along so well. Going on a date with him is one of my most favorite things! I love getting dressed up for him.

Matt even got to open a birthday present early when we came home. How about that to top off the night?!

So today I'm back on the wifely duties that got neglected yesterday. And to my Jillian Michaels workout dvd that kicked my booty yesterday, even though it did feel good to get hot & burn! Love it! Its just a 30 minute circuit routine & all you need is some weights & a comfortable floor to do it all on, all in the comfort of your own home. Until you realize you need to close the blinds because the Bangladesh construction workers can see you.

Better go now, no telling what else may come out! Our love to all!