Sunday, June 8, 2014

A Week In Recap: My Vanity Gifts, My Family, N My Penthouse Household

Hello, Friends!

I can't believe that it's already weekend again! Time to chronicle what's been going on last week in a week recap. Now, Friends, please don't think that I'm being vain in "showcasing" my life for all the world to see. Don't you think it's nice to have a documentation of your life for future generation? Not only our children, grandchildren, or nieces, nephews, younger generation, can read and learn from the past, it will also be a great mementos, sort of creating memories. Also, I learned that by documenting my week, I am much more motivated to live a more meaningful, productive, good, God-centered life, because I want to write positive things about my week. Also, I am able to look back and learn from past mistakes by flipping through this online journal.

If you think that this weekly recap is a bit vain, please don't judge. This week is all about showcasing the wonderful gifts that my friends had so generously, caringly, and lovingly, gave me for my birthday. I'm a girlie girl, and everybody knows it, so I received lots and lots of accessories, which I'll be showing here. I took picture of me wearing the gifts, and send it to the particular giver, to show that I appreciate it, love it and love to actually wear it in my daily life.

But first, I went to the beauty salon last weekend and had my hair smoothed and straightened. My hair had always been long and straight for years, until sometime last year I decided to try a semi permanent wave spa, that would give me curls and waves for about three months (it lasted six months). It was a nice change, and I have received positive comments all over, but I'm glad to be back to basic straight because straight hair is super low maintenance! My husband also prefers me with straight hair, because he loves his wife to look like a classic oriental lady. You know, with slanted eyes, porcelain skin, willowy figure and long, sleek, shiny, bouncy, straight black hair. That's his type of woman, which is pretty much me. Haha!

Here is me with my basic straight hair back, right after the salon visit. The unique braided necklace is a gift from Anissa. Thank you, Anissa!



This Hello Kitty bracelet with swarovski crystal is from Oina. She always manages to find the most amazing, prettiest gifts! Thank you, Oina! I love it very much!


This is the neon candy "popcorn" necklace that bought as birthday gift to myself, as I wrote here in this post.


This gorgeous Kate Spade Cedar Street Elissa tote bag in red geranium, is of course, a gift from my dear Hubby. I raved about it and wrote a review here.


Here is a picture taken by my coworkers to showcase the necklace and bracelet that I got as birthday present. Aren't they adorable! You know, you can make people who have given you gifts such joy by letting them know that you actually love their presents and truly use what they meticulously chose for you.


A closer look of this gorgeous piece of cuteness.


Here's another beautiful necklace in pearly white, crystal, and white from Ayu. It's very sweet of her to give me this belated birthday gift, and I appreciate that very much.


I liked it so much, I wore it two days in a row. Expect fashion post of me wearing this beautiful thing!



Enough on accessories. Let's move on to family life. I did mention that my dear parents came to visit for a week. I asked them to stay longer than just the usual three-day stop so they got a chance to spend more time with their grandson. You can tell from this picture that the grandparents and the grandson were having a marvellous time together! Mom especially is crazy about Michael, because she said that physically, Michael is pretty much resemble my oldest brother when he was little. Taking care of Michael is like taking care of her own son, that's what Mom said. Well, I always thought that Michael look a lot like me, but come to think of it, I do look like my eldest brother!

I recorded some videos of Michael with my parents, so one day Michael can watch it and see how Grandma and Grandpa loved him so much. I wish I had that kind of videos with my grandparents.


Work has been pretty busy this week, but I am very blessed to live very close to the office, that I can spend some time with Michael before tucking him to bed every night. Or almost every night. Not every parents can do so in Jakarta, with the traffic jam all over the city. Very often, working parents only see their children over the weekend, because they arrive from work after eight o'clock everyday. Again, I am truly blessed. I can even visit Michael randomly during my lunch hour! Hubby's office is farther, but he usually is home by 6.30 or seven pm, so he can still see his son almost every night. Not many Jakarta parents who work downtown can do that. Thank you, Lord!



One of my responsibilities at work, besides managing construction projects, is also to run the daily operational of our office penthouse floors. Odd, huh? One day I'm wearing jeans and boots and hard hat riding construction elevator, all sweaty and dusty, then another day I'm playing Mommy to this office household of a 25-storey building with around 1000 people working in it. As aforementioned, I also run the office penthouse floors, with all the first class, five star service there. This week, I had two more ladies joining my Penthouse crew, who were ex flight attendants, and today I asked them to do a simulation on how to prepare the table for shabu-shabu dinner over the dining table with induction stoves embedded on top. Yep, that includes preparing the cutleries, the spices, and folding the napkin in flower shape! I want the penthouse to ooze class and sophistication and run smoothly like grand houses of Europe where you cannot see that the staff but they are always available and alert 24/7. Well, at least that's the diamond standard I'm aiming for, and we still have a looooong way to go!


And the new wine stock has arrived! I have been worried to see my inventory in the wine cellar getting lower and lower, and today they have been restocked, nice and full again. I asked the Penthouse ladies to order new orchids and snacks for next week, then I treated them all to lunch. I was happy with their performance today. They still have a lot to learn and improve, but overall they're catching up quickly. It was a productive day! In the afternoon, I felt like checking the apartment project we are building, but I was not wearing my combat clothes, so that will have to wait until next week.


Last week's to do list:
  • Fill out visa application for our upcoming holiday.
  • Preparing bank forms for visa application.
  • Purchase travel insurance for me and Hubby.
  • Send emails to two wine tour providers that I found last week.
  • Schedule two blog posts for while I'm on vacation.
  • Submit migration form for my cell phone migration plan. I decided to postpone this.
  • Reread, learn and contemplate on The Book of James, James 5 Part 1: Warning to the Rich. Hopefully I can write about my contemplation sometime soon. I have finished the whole Book of James. It's so good and inspiring and keeps you on toes!
  • Read Chapter 5 of Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle".  I read til Ch. 8!
  • Make appointment with hairdresser to have my hair cut and trimmed.
Next week to do list:
  • Interview at the Embassy to get our visa. Wish us luck!
  • Read Chapter 9 of Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle". 
  • Start reading the Book of Proverbs of the Bible, start with Chapter 1.
  • Grocery shopping.
  • Upload two new videos of Michael to YouTube. I try to document our family lives better for future memories. Also, so that my parents and relatives can get continuous updates on Michael's developments.
  • Schedule two blog posts for while I'm on vacation.
  • Purchasing new shoes for Michael. His feet grows up very quickly!
  • Pick up property papers at the notary office.
  • Decorate new furniture with proper tablecloths.
  • Hubby's cousin's engagement lunch at Angke Family Restaurant.
  • Set up a prayer corner with the statue of Mother Mary in our living room.
I'm linking up to these wonderful Ladies:

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Monday, June 2, 2014

Triple Red Threats



This look:
Little black dress (find similar here, here, here)
Cropped jacket (find similar here, here, here)
Red tote (find similar here, here, here)
Red bow wedges (find similar here, here, here)
Red earrings (find similar here, here, here)
Flower statement necklace (find similar here, here, here)


Several random things that I had learned in the past yet forgotten and need to be re-learned, as well as some new things I have learned recently...

You can either focus to fix your flaws, or improve your positive traits, or if you are lucky, you can do both. However, if you can only do one instead of two, choose to focus on your strength instead of weaknesses.

You must always be considerate and courteous towards others. Yet sometimes, the best thing that you can do is just be yourself. Yes, there's a line between being yourself and downright selfish, and as one gains more wisdom, the line becomes clearer and clearer.

When a woman becomes a wife and a mother, she should tell herself over and over that being a wife always comes first before being a mother. Why? Because naturally, your subconscious will automatically, instinctively, naturally, put being a mother first over everything else; and if you also put it first in your conscious mind, soon being a wife will be priority number 5321.

The more love I pour on my husband, even when he is unloveable, the more loving he becomes.

The more effort I pour over caring for my son, the more love grows in my heart for the child.

God speaks to imperfect human through imperfection. That's why I accepted the Bible as the word of God, after I read an essay on how imperfect and inconsistent it is. I am not perfect, I guess that's why I can relate to the perfect God through the perfect IMperfection.

In similar analogy, I am not perfect, neither is my husband. Therefore, like two different pieces of a puzzle, we are perfect for each other.

A woman does not need a man to be complete. I felt complete as a single woman, I feel complete now as a wife and a mother. It's just a different kind of complete-ness, if you know what I mean.

There is such thing as quality time instead of quantity time. Last year, a female coworker of mine got a divorce, and her only son has not shown any signs of missing his daddy, even for his birthday. The catch? For years, the father was the one who stayed at home with the son, yet the son feels no closeness with him. Instead, the son feels closer to the mother, who spends hours away working outside the home. I guess it's not enough just to be with someone physically. You need to be really really really be there, body, mind, soul, and show that when you're there, you really care.

A forty three year-old friend of the family just died in her sleep. From what we heard, she was sleeping, then woke up suddenly with some difficulty to breath, and there she was gone. We never know when, where and how. Be humble. We may think we are in full control. We are not. God is.

I only upload best pictures to the social media and internet. Pictures on me looking my best. Pictures of my home looking its best. Pictures of my family looking its picture-perfect moments. Most likely, others also do the same. So, stop thinking that everybody on blogs and Pinterest have better lives than yours. They only do what you also do: posting the best pictures only for all the world to see.





I'm linking up to these wonderful Ladies:

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