Monday, May 19, 2014

A Beautiful Birthday Week (Week In Recap N To Do List)

Hello, Friends!
  
Last week was another hectic week for me, but it was a fun and joyful one, also!
Two girls from my team had been formalized as permanent employee, and they treated the main members of the team out to lunch at a nearby restaurant called Rumah Putih, which means The White House. It's a vintage house with antiques furnitures, pretty chandelier, beautiful inner garden with swimming pool, which the owner had turned into a restaurant and cafe. Here is our picture by the pool after lunch. Thank you for inviting me and congratulations, Elfrida and Lisa!



A coworker just delivered her second baby, a baby boy named Golden. What a name, right! I sent her a care package for Mommy and Baby. For the Baby I got him some baby clothes. Considering that this is her second baby, I thought she would have had enought toys and stuff, but clothes will always be useful. Also, I sent some little things that I thought the mother can use:
  • A pretty purple nursing dress in flower pattern.
  • A small bottle of fresh orange-scented shower gel from Body Shop. I remember that after my baby was born, I didn't have much time to primp or fuss about myself, but I definitely take shower! Sweet smelling shower gel is a little luxury that even the busiest woman can enjoy.
  • A pack of ready-to-use eye mask, to help with the lack of sleep.
  • A cute hair scrunchie. A new mommy always need something pretty to tie her hair back so it won't get in the way.
  • A baby picture frame for the USG picture or baby picture.
Congratulations, Erna and Hendra!


Online shopping is now booming in Indonesia, and Hubby also caught the olshop bug. After several success in finding great items with cheaper price online, he was pretty much hooked to online shopping I had to tell him to stop buying new pants and shoes just because they are cheaper than in brick and mortar stores! Haha!
  

I just want to include this message from Hubby that he sent last week for my birthday. Isn't it sweet?


My birthday was over the weekend, so imagine my surprise, and delight, to come to the office on Monday morning and found all these beautifully wrapped presents on my desk! The picture only show some of them, I received several more later on. It was so sweet of my coworkers to remember my birthday and shower me with so much love and attention. I feel so blessed and thankful to have such wonderful team! It really made my day. But I didn't know it will only get better and better throughout the day, and the best is yet to come...


Throughout the day, not only gifts that kept coming in, but surprise birthday cakes, too! First, I got a cheesecake tart from my personal bank. Then I got a huge chocolate cake from my team. Then someone else sent me a delicious picnic roll. Late in the afternoon, the biggest cake of all came: this gigantic, gorgeous, colorful, fruit cake! My oh my! My team was like: "No more cake, please!" I shared most of them with other department, and also with security personnels to show my appreciation that they work 24/7 to watch over the building where we work in. I know that it's their job and they got paid to do what they do, but still, I want to show that I appreciate what they do everyday. Besides, don't you just love it if someone else show appreciation for what you do, even if you know you're supposed to do it anyway?
  

It's a tradition here in Indonesia that when you are the birthday girl or boy, you can expect gifts from your friends, but you also are expected to treat your friends with something. It could be something as simple as buying a cake for them, or some snacks, pizza, it can be something more over the top such as holding an extravagant, lavish event with live music and performance and sumptuous five course dinner in a five-star hotel ballroom.

For my birthday this year, I decided to treat the main members of my team, about twelve people, to lunch at a rather-expensive-yet-still-worth-it Chinese restaurant called Duck King, located at the mall not far from my office. I basically let my team to order anything they want out of the menu: grilled duck, various dim sum, softshelled crab, shrimp in mayo, etc. Look at the table here, full with bounty. Looking at the happy faces and radiant atmosphere, I felt so happy and blessed, to be surrounded by these wonderful people, wonderful coworkers and subordinates, my lovely team.



 The surprise went on and on all day, with all the presents and cakes kept pouring in. It was nuts! It felt fabulous! I felt fabulous! And happy. And lucky. And thankful.
I worked until late that day, so Hubby arrived home before I did. When I reached home, Hubby disappeared to the kitchen and came out, to present this beautiful bouquet of pink roses for me! I was really really surprised! Happily surprised. Hubby never got me flowers before, not once. So this one felt very special!

But the surprise didn't end there. He proceeded telling me that the original plan was, my team had worked out a surprise birthday lunch for me, where they also invited Hubby to come all the way from his office to attend the event. Well, well, well! If only I knew! Naturally, the plan failed to materialize, because I had already invited them to lunch first, before they got a chance to throw the surprise birthday lunch! The flowers had already been ordered, so my team sent it over to my home, so that Hubby can still give them to me, minus the surprise party!

Finding out that my team cared so much about me, that they took the pain and care in planning a surprise party for me, totally made my day! If I was happy before, I became emotionally touched now. I have the most wonderful team in the whole world! I felt humbly blessed, grateful, thankful. I felt loved and cared. And I was glad that invited them first, because I am very thankful to them. The lunch was the least I could do to express my gratitude and a way to say thank you for their kind gesture and thoughtfulness. It's OK that the party didn't happen, it's the thought that counts. I am so blessed, indeed. So very blessed. Thank you, Lord.




And finally, I had the last birthday celebration of the year with my girlfriends, Inti and Inne. We all came from different yet somehow similar background. We came from different cities. We all are Indonesian Chinese from a well-to-do families. Inne is the eldest child, Inti a middle child, I'm the youngest child, though I'm the oldest of the trio. We all went to school overseas: Inti in Canada, Inne in the UK, me in the US. We all live alone as single women. We have different look, different personalities, different fashion sense, yet we mix and mingle well. When we meet, it's a mix of Indonesian and English language for conversation!

We went to have some pork knuckles in a German restaurant called Paulaner, then did some shopping in Forever21. The sad news is, Inti will be leaving for Canada for a year in July. Several years ago, it was Inne who moved back to her hometown, but then she came back to Jakarta. Now it's Inti's turn to leave for Canada. Both Inne and I hope she'll be coming back, and she intends to come back, unless she meets a potential husband there, of course! Haha! Best of luck to you, Inti!



On the weekend my new bedroom furnitures finally came. Yayyy!! Thus, it was a very busy weekend assembling the furniture and major reorganizing project in our bedroom, which will last for the next two weeks or more, I imagine. At the moment clothes, our DVD collection, and all my things are still strewn all over the bed in our spare bedroom, because the assembling is not finished yet so I cannot yet start reorganizing them in my new wardrobe closet.

Last week's to do list:
  • Reread, learn and contemplate on The Book of James, James 3.
  • Read one chapter of Karen Stolz' "World of Pies".
  • Read Chapter 3 of Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle".
  • List point of interests to visit in Part 1 and 2 of our upcoming vacation.
  • Download visa application for our upcoming holiday.
  • Pick up migration form for my cell phone plan migration.
  • Call my bank to check about credit card expiration date.
  • Finalize house plan with architect.
  • Reorganize my closet and clean out the clothes I no longer want.
  • Organize rosary prayer for my neighborhood's Catholic community, which will be conducted at my house this week.
  • Reorganize bedroom with new furniture.
  • Meet my girlfriends for lunch.
  • Top up the family investment plan.
  • Transfer scholarship money for underprivileged children program.
Next week's to do list:

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(Frugal) Mommies Don't Get Corner Office?


Well, this Mommy does! 


I got my corner office last year right after giving birth to Baby Michael. Now, pliiiiiizzzz don't think I'm a mini Marissa Mayer or something like that. I just happened to have climbed the corporate ladder for years before getting married and having a baby. It was unexpected, me getting married and everything, since I was not the marrying type, but God lead me to having a family, being a wife and mother, and I don't want to trade that with anything else. Not for the biggest corner office in the entire world!

And please don't think I'm bragging about my career accomplishment. I just want to share that each and every one of us received a different gift from the Lord. For some women, it's the gift of being single and travel all over the world as a philanthropist, like a friend of mine. Or being an older single woman who channels her love by teaching children, caring for the elderly, and always lending a helping hand for her family, like a dear aunt of mine. Some have the gifts of being famous celebrities, or even one of those beautiful mommy bloggers, who inspire women to get fit, take care of their bodies, and get back into shape after babies. For some others, it's the gift to being a homeschooling mommy of more than one child  - sometimes five or six - without losing their mind, like many of you, wonderful Friends in the blogosphere. Some women has amazing skills in cooking and getting organized. And some others, - the ones I envy the most, the ones who often make me feel inspired and  also inferior at the same time - have the most amazing fingers that can sew, paint, knit, crochet, embroider, use hammer and nails and glue guns and whip up arts and crafts from even the simplest materials possible, or turn a shabby drawer into a chic-looking cabinet just with a pot of paint, like so many wonderful ladies I found on Pinterest.

For me, it's being a wife, a mommy, and a career woman who happens to love being fashionable and dressing up everyday. Or on most days. ^__^

Aaaand also being a frugal mom, which I will talk about in this post.


Vintage flower-shaped bag, find similar here or here.

What do you think of my cabbage-like, flower-shaped bag? When I got it several years ago, everbody was like: "It's very cute, LeeAnne, but how in the world are you going to pair it with?" My answer: with so many things!

I love unique purses that can "stand out" on its own. You carry one of these catchy, cheerful bags, and you don't need to worry about the rest of your ensemble. Just throw on a T-shirt and a pair of jeans, and you're fashionable. So practical for busy women. Look at this beauuuuuutiful Anusckha flower tote here. It's really something! I can imagine myself wearing all black and carry one, or wearing jeans, a simple pink top, and carry it for weekend errands.

Anuschka Bag (Buy)

My brother told how how many of his lady friends in Austin carry Vera Bradley purses. We don't have Vera Bradley in Indonesia, so I do some window shopping online, and I'm practically drooling over the fun, cheerful, colorful purses! I especially fall in love with this one. It's called Curvy Tote in Flower Shower. I found it here.


Vera Bradley Curvy Tote in Flower Shower (Buy)

And this one I especially like, because it's a basic black with a twist. The black color means the purse can go with any outfit. You can dress it up with a blazer or a simple cocktail dress, or you can dress it down with jeans and a simple top, or just a plain colored sundress. The pop of colors also will match any outfit color easily. It's definitely more fun than just a basic black tote!
M&F Western Paisley Peace Cross Bucket Tote (buy)


I've always been a frugal type and enjoying finding new tips and tricks to save money. In term of grocery shopping, now that I shop for a family instead of a single household, I spend more and aim to save more. One thing that I always do is stocking up when I find amazing deals. Especially if it's "buy one get one free" promotion for products that my family use on a daily basis, like toiletries, hand soap, laundry detergent, oatmeal, powdered milk, etc.

Like these baby wipes. I don't use baby wipes on my baby and use washable cotton wipes instead, but I always carry a pack of these and use them as wet ones in my purse. They are very very handy in situation when you need to wipe off your hands and there's no place to wash you hands. Hand sanitizer is nice, but sometimes you still need to wipe off your hands with some... fabric, I guess. These are "buy one get one free", so I stock up. I refuse to pay full price for something that I know will be on promotion regularly! All you've got to do is watch for the cycle and stock up accordingly. Trust me, it saves a lot, and worth spending more in the beginning. Stocking up also means you can avoid those unnecessary trips to the store because you run out of something unexpectedly.


I use bar soap, but Hubby likes liquid soap. This is a different variant than the one he usually uses, but they come in "buy a refill of 450 ml and get a small bottle of extra 100 ml product" promotion, - which is like a 22,22% of free product - so I got some. Last time I also bought different variants for him, whichever that was on special promotion. Luckily, Hubby's not too picky, as long as it's liquid soap. I never pay retail price for this brand, I always, always, stock up until the next cycle of promotion, because I noted a long time ago that they have promotion on a regular basis. 


You might think to yourself when you see this picture, "Woman, you have a problem!" Yep, I use lots and lots of baby oil. On me. Not on Baby Michael. My son uses baby lotion and baby talc, but his delicate skin somehow cannot stand baby oil. Mommy is the one uses TONS of baby oil, as beauty product. I use a little bit everyday on my neck, I mix a bit in my body lotion. AND I use A LOT of body lotion because I lotion all over my body, from neck to my feet, not just on my hands and legs. To me, baby oil is a bit expensive. I don't like paying full price for it. So I always stock up, A LOT. Regularly, this brand will have "get 100% more product" promotion, which is like "buy one get one free" so I always buy like a dozen or so to last me until the next cycle of promotion which happens twice a year.


I have a drawer full of toiletries and bath supplies for my whole family in my closet. So, no worries, Hubby and son! You will never run out of soap, Mommy's got you covered!

So, what are your tips to save on grocery shopping? Please do share with me! I love learning on how to save money!
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