Truly thankful for these…

Posted on November 2, 2008 by The Giddy Tigress

After so many many days of dry weather, we were greeted with rain last Thursday.  I was in the gym the day before, and saw the weather forecast on the news channel, which predicted half and inch of rain the next day.  Lo and behold, when I took out the trash on Thursday afternoon, this site greeted me:

 

It’s actually drizzling, but you can’t see the raindrops in the picture.  You can see that the ground is damp, however.  And since that day, it has been raining here every day.  The weather has started to get slightly colder because of that, and you know what, we realize now that we had forgotten to pack an umbrella.  Bummer!

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Also on that same Thursday, I received a call from the OB/GYN’s office in the morning, to inform me that there had been a last minute cancellation from one of the patients, and the nurse asked if I would be able to come in that afternoon itself for a checkup.  After confirming with my hubby, we happily went for our checkup…which went well, I would say.  Doc examined me and said that the pregnancy was doing fine, with me being 21 weeks along now and all.  We also got to hear the baby’s heartbeat!  Yay!  But unfortunately here in the US, the ultrasound is done not by the doc himself, but by the Radiology department, and we had to have an appointment set up within the next week.

***

My Social Security Card arrived last Tuesday!  That means that I am now able to take my written road test and get a driving permit to allow me to take the road test for my driver’s licence.  I have, to date, completed 6 hours of driving lessons, and will be utilizing part of the last 2 hours for part of my driving test.  We plan to take the written test sometime next week, so I am now *sorta* studying the small booklet of road rules. 🙂

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And finally, tonight I am thankful for ONE additional hour of sleep, because Daylight Saving Time ends at 2:00a.m. Sunday morning.  This will be my very first time experiencing a switch in time due to the end of DST, and I will be adjusting the clock back by an hour before I sleep tonight. 🙂

Of course, my additional one hour of sleep will solely depend on whether Ethan decides to cooperate or not.

Posted in Thoughts & Scribblings | 12 Comments

Kickin’, movin’, squirmin’

Posted on October 30, 2008 by The Giddy Tigress

 

Once we got Ethan settled into daycare, it was time for me to go for a long overdue checkup for my “bun in the oven”.  My last checkup back in Penang was at the end of September, and I was longing to see my little bub there on the ultrasound screen.  I never knew how hard it was to secure an appointment with an OB/GYN here in the Bay Area till last week.  Those 5 letters have been rolling off my tongue so many times when I tried making an appointment, that I have really lost count.

After surveying and talking to several friends and weighing the pros and cons, and taking into consideration their recommendations, we decided to have our baby in El Camino Hospital.  My main priority was to deliver the baby in a hospital that is fully supportive of breastfeeding, and I was extremely happy to note that in a recent review of breastfeeding practices, new mothers at El Camino Hospital achieved the highest breastfeeding rate of any hospital in the state, with 97 percent nursing their babies in the hospital, and 93 percent breastfeeding exclusively when they leave the hospital.  According to Vien though, all hospitals in the States are pro-breastfeeding.

So once we decided on a hospital and hubbs had our health and medical insurance cards ready, I searched the insurance company website for a list of doctors affiliated with our health plan with the hospital of our choice.  Here in the US, doctors would only accept patients who were with a health plan they were affiliated with.  Some of the doctors weren’t even accepting new patients, though.

Now, the doctors’ had their appointments in their own clinics, NOT in the hospital, so we only had to go to the hospital during the actual delivery.  Our initial agenda was to schedule a brief interview with a few doctors to see if he/she would be a good fit, however when I called up several doctors’ offices, the receptionist informed me that the doctors do not provide interviews, and besides most of the doctors I had shortlisted only had an available appointment date in December!

Now that was WAY too far away for me.  I could already feel the little one kicking me every day now, begging to be seen on the ultrasound.  So hubbs and I decided on ONE doctor, who is recommended by two friends.  I called his office up and the receptionist told me the earliest appointment was December 1st.  Well, I then went into a “sorta pleading mode” and asked if there was any way at all she could fit me in earlier.  I gave her the facts that I was already about 20 weeks along, and my last checkup was over a month ago.  Well, that was last Friday, and she told me she would pass the message on the receptionist who was in charge of the doc’s schedule, and that receptionist would try to work something out for me.

On Monday morning, I received a call from the doc’s office to let me know that they could fit me in for an appointment next Friday, November 7th.  Yippeee!  I was in jubilation!  That was great news indeed!  So I am eagerly waiting for that day now.

Meanwhile, I can only immerse myself in pregnancy literature…

Posted in Parenting & Motherhood, Thoughts & Scribblings | 11 Comments

Got wheels to go a-cruisin’

Posted on October 28, 2008 by The Giddy Tigress

 

With a new environment, comes new experiences…and one of the inevitable ones is driving. Driving a left-hand drive car, rather. Everything is the total opposite of what it is in Malaysia, and I had to keep reminding myself that.

When I visited the States several years ago, I drove a little bit too, but this time round, I’m gonna take it a leap further and get my California state driver’s license as well.

Although I am authorized to take a total of 8 hours’ of driving lessons from an authorized driving school here, I drove around a couple of times prior to taking lessons, of course with my hubby offering tips and *advice* in the process. Well, last Friday was my first FORMAL driving lesson. My instructor, a nice lady by the name of Terry, sat by my side while I drove to goodness-knows-where, practising what needs to be done for the road test, including observing the various street speed limits, stopping a certain distance from the vehicle in front, and “backing up in a straight line”. The lesson was a whole 2 hours’ long, and we also had time to go on the freeway.

To get my driver’s license, I would need to first get my Social Security Card (application currently in progress), and then pass my written multiple-choice driver’s test, and THEN pass the road test.

I am definitely getting more confident on the roads now, and sometimes I would even be allowed to drive the car on my own. Hehe. Sometimes though, I still flick the wipers instead of the indicators, but that rarely happens now, I am happy to say.

Tomorrow morning I have my second driving lesson. My thoughts? I just wanna pass all the tests and get my driver’s license pronto!

Posted in Thoughts & Scribblings | 8 Comments

In the crib where we live

Posted on October 23, 2008 by The Giddy Tigress

So….new place, new home huh?

Before we left Malaysia, we had already finalized where we were gonna be staying in San Jose.  But up till then, we had only seen the floor plan of the apartment and the most we could do was to imagine what the real thing would look like.

Upon arrival, us two tired, weary adults and a highly-active toddler were greeted by an extremely cosy apartment.  There are two rooms, each with a queen-sized bed, and most of the apartment, save for the kitchen and bathrooms, is carpeted.

 

This is our living room.  The longer couch faces the TV.  In the afternoons, we do get some warm sunlight streaming through the blinds in the living room.  Oh, and there’s a door leading to a patio/balcony too.

 

Here’s where I have been spending a good deal of time in: the kitchen.  It’s fully furnished with a 4-burner stove, microwave, oven, fridge, dishwasher (which I currently use to air-dry dishes), larder, pots, pans, cutlery and an Asian cooking set (i.e. wok, chopsticks, etc).  No complaints so far, especially since the kitchen overlooks the splendid view of the swimming pool.

 

Well, here’s the view from the second bedroom, i.e. Ethan’s room.  The view from the kitchen is similar to this one, and Ethan absolutely loves it!  It certainly beats the view from the master bedroom, which overlooks the road where the garbage carts are parked.

We have two bathtubs in the apartment, the one in the master bedroom being a Roman-style oval tub, and guess what?  Two bathroom sinks too!  But what thrills me is the Hollywood-style makeup lighting above the bathroom sinks.  Love, love, love it!

 

So in short, we are satisfied with our apartment.  The relocation people did manage to provide as many necessities as possible, such as a high chair for Ethan too.

 

And there was no excuse for me NOT to start utilizing my kitchen, because our FedEx food shipment arrived the very next day after we touched down.

 

We had shipped several important food items from Malaysia, the crucial one being several tins of Ethan’s favorite Pediasure milk.  And our prayers were answered when all three of the boxes of food we shipped from Malaysia arrived safely with everything accounted for.

So…what else have I been doing?  Oh, we forgot to bring any shower gel with us, so I bought a bottle of Aveeno body wash from Walmart.  I know my good girlfriend Audrey highly recommends it, and so did cc, and you know what?  I love it!  The weather here is kind of dry, but this body wash is really gentle and I love the smell of it.  I’m gonna get more when I run out.

 

Oh, and of course, the very rare few times that I did not cook, we go to our favorite burger joint for a quick meal.  In-N-Out, of course!  I’d been craving for it since like forever!  Nicely done cheeseburgers, with NO PICKLES. 😛

And oh, check out what’s imprinted on the base of the cups they serve…

 

Posted in Close to Heart & Home | 25 Comments

Where the disgruntled are

Posted on October 23, 2008 by The Giddy Tigress

One thing that most people have in common is that they are disgruntled with their jobs.  For some reason, working professionals will definitely have a complaint or two about what they do for a living, and for those who have it bad, they would simply keep doing what they hate just so they can bring the moolah home.  It is a sad and unhealthy situation, but it is true.

But when push comes to shove, one will really need to determine if their personal interest is worth all that sacrifice of resigning their current jobs without a replacement job yet.  Or even if your current job is what you want to keep doing and keep suffering from.

Everybody would definitely like a job that is stress-free, where they are given the trust and responsibility to perform their jobs to the best of their abilities, without being micro-managed.  Unfortunately it is not a perfect world, and we find employees everywhere looking for better options to suit their interests.

I recently read that accounting professionals hold some of the most highly-stressful jobs, so I would not be surprised if the demand for highly-paid accounting jobs increases tremendously worldwide.  In Malaysia, in the US, and everywhere around the world, the internet is an excellent source for job hunters, and well, if you’re thinking of relocating to the States soon, and if you’re on the lookout for an accounting-related position, you might just find what you are looking for from this fantastic site with over five thousand jobs targeting Accounting Jobs in Boston.

Looking at the varied number of openings, I doubt a day would be sufficient to sift through all those job postings!

Well, I am certainly not on the lookout for an accounting job, so I think what I’ll do now is forward this website link to someone I know who is.

Posted in Rainmakers | Leave a comment