Day 3-4: The long awaited cleaning spree

Sunday & Monday 

4 November & 5 November 2012

My mom and I flew the distance to let our new home have its long awaited cleaning spree. How interesting. Not that I'm complaining, it's just funny when you think of it. My brother cannot be put to blame because he has to juggle his time between God, family, work and school. Not forgetting his two newest family members, Buddy and Sox. He normally comes home tired, so that explains why the house is in a dusty condition.

Because the weather here is dry, dust tend to accumulate in the speed of light. So on the third day of our arrival, we started cleaning our house. I find this a good opportunity for me to be more independent for I have a very easy life back home in Malaysia. The house was always spotless because I was fortunate enough to have a maid. I'm such a bad kid. There are times where I wished that I didn't have a maid though, so that I would have been grounded with cleaning skills and all. But, it's never too late to learn right? 

So I was in charged of sweeping and wiping the windows. Sounds easy, but it took a lot of energy to get those stubborn stains of the window pane. I even had to asked my mom to help me with the stain. It just didn't want to leave and get a new home. With the help of my mom's biceps and triceps, the stains left reluctantly. Woohoo! Now I can declare the house clean for a few hours because I'm pretty sure dust will start coming back. 

Besides cleaning, we did a lot of grocery shopping too. My mom and I love doing grocery shopping here because the stores here, like Target, sells everything! They have clothes, kitchen utensils, bathroom stuff and grocery under one roof. It's amazing! So one minute we can be looking at food and another minute cute outfits will be grabbing our attention. You can imagine how big the store is! 

Of course besides cleaning and grocery shopping there are some fun highlights too. Some of them are.... 

• Sunday Service at the Newsong church. ( Day 3 )

We headed for Newsong church in the morning. Apparently we were running late and, unfortunately, we missed the worship session. I was pretty sad because my brother kept telling me that "worship is the best part!". But he comforted me by letting me know that there is always a short worship session at the end of service. That managed to cheer me up a lil'.

The pastor was a Korean and he spoke about how all of us are orphans because God adopted us into his beautiful family in conjunction of Orphan Sunday at their church. The Newsong church has a passion for the orphans in the world and I reckon that that is something really amazing. They adopt and share the love of God with the children. Many a times we complain and we don't see how fortunate we are to have a proper family when there are millions and billions of children in the world that are dying of hunger and cold. We, I included, have become so ignorant of all the statistic and numbers we see in reports. 1 million looks like this 1000 000. Yeah, there are 6 zeros, so what? Well, try picturing 1000 000 faces and those faces are not smiling, they are crying for food, for a home and for love.

Just think about it. 

• Dinner at Uncle Sam Lai's place ( Day 3 ) 

Uncle Sam was our hero for fetching us from the LAX airport to our current home. He, being ever kind, invited us over to his place for dinner with his family. We were so hyped for it! Mom decided to cook an Asian dish since Uncle Sam is from Hong Kong and mom decided to cook Bak Kut Teh. So once the soup is done, we went over. 

Uncle Sam has a lovely house with a roof slanting towards the back, a garage at the front,  a swimming pool at the back and a 30-year-old tree in front of his house. When we rang the door bell, his daughter Samantha, chimed "they brought foooood!". We chuckled at her statement. How cute can a kid get? 

We were introduced to Aunt Anna, Uncle Sam's wife. We then proceeded to setting up the table for dinner. In minutes we were all seated around the square table with home cooked pork ribs, baby pak choy and bak kut teh making us drool. We said grace and started eating like barbarians. The pork ribs were so deliciously tender. I would really want to head back to Uncle Sam's place for another round of it! Oh, what caught my most attention was that Andrew, Uncle Sam's 3-year-old son, uses an airplane spoon to eat. I never had those when I was little! haha. 

Again, it was our first time meeting the family but it felt as if we have known them forever. Mom started chatting with them about anything under the sun. It was getting a little late and we had things to complete at home so we headed home. 

With this little visit to Uncle Sam's place. I can tell that Uncle Sam and Aunt Anna are one of those couples who knows how to control and take care of their family. They are loving and at the same time, strict. They drew the lines and their children were obedient enough to respect that. Kimberly is such a great eldest sister. Andrew fell asleep during dinner and just before he was shipped upstairs. Kimberly made sure that he wasn't cold by pulling his blanket up till his neck and what touched me most was that he gave him a kiss on the forehead. Although they don't say it, I know they love one another a lot. I went home with a concept of how my family should be next time and it was all thanks to Uncle Sam.

"What cha looking at?" Sox

You maybe wondering why name Sox, Sox. Well, first of all, Sox's legs looks as if he is wearing real socks and he looks like a fox. When you combine socks and fox together, you will get Sox. Therefore, that's how Sox got his name. (:

Buddy and Sox cuddling in the cold night.

More doggie pictures to soothe those eyes of yours! It is getting colder each night and the sun is setting earlier and earlier. When the clock hits 5.30pm, the sun is already sleeping. There is a good outcome of that though. It encourages us to sleep early and wake up early to enjoy more sun. I guess it's finally the time to find out whether waking up early is my specialty. (:

Homemade Red Velvet cupcakes! *over baked! 

It was around 9.30 in the night and the kitchen was all clean and roomy. It was a crazy idea, but I still went on with it; I baked. This time it was red velvet cupcakes! It's a premixed cupcake mix, so you can't credit me entirely. Forgetful me forgot to read the instructions carefully and I over baked the cupcakes. Nevertheless, it's still yummy and edible. Even my mom, a person who sets very high standards, said it was good. Sorry I can't get you to try one, but you can always eat with your eyes!

Till then.