I decided to have the big birthday bunny's celebration on Saturday, couple of days earlier.
I had everything planned out.
You see, in the morning, send the car off for servicing.
Afternoon, tuition followed by hunting for gift wrappers.
Late afternoon, drive him to town for the birthday dinner at Carousel.
Everything went as planned.. Well, we got a little more than what we have expected.
In the morning, while waiting for our car to be serviced, we finally went to Ikea, something which I've been wanting to go to since I can't remember when.
In the afternoon, baby got to unwrap his presents even though we hadn't gone to the dinner part yet.
And then right after our fantastic dinner, while we were on our way back home, I got into a so-called accident with a Beamer. Thank goodness we didn't hit them. The funny thing was that I was calmer than baby was. Kudos to me!
Well, whatever it is, the accident shouldn't be the highlight of the day right?
So back to the b'day celebration..
I didnt feel like giving him the presents yet but he insisted.. and kept on insisting close to an hour. Finally, I gave up. I told him to stay put in our room while I went to the other room to finish up wrapping. After half an hour or so, the gifts were ready to be unwrapped. Baby was excited, even more when he saw the first gift, which was the Garmin GPS. I knew he couldnt wait to use it. The 2nd gift, which I had cleverly placed under the box of the first, is the Ipod nano. We need one badly for our forester, and Baby had been yakking about getting one this year.
Im glad he loves the gifts.
and enjoyed the feast we had at Carousel.
I have to admit that at times he made me mad, for example, when he refused to help around when I was tired or messed up the house like as if I was babysitting two kids. But somehow he got things done especially when he thought I wasn't looking. And well, there were moments that he disappointed me and made me upset but somehow I ended feeling better coz he made me talk about my feelings and the things that made me upset, even if it means tongue-lashing him.
You see,
for all those crazy moments, he made it a point to make things better. He bettered himself, one step at a time. He showed that he cares,like what matters to me, are important to him too. The little things he does - the compliments on my cooking to how good I look, the unexpected hugs or kisses he gave, the way he scolded me when I didnt do things the way it should be done, the encouragement he gave to drive like a man (or maybe like him) and even the way he tried not to tell me that he was jealous. At the end of each day, there will always be something to smile and be happy about.
I love especially having him by my side at the end of each day and him as the first person I lay my eyes on every morning. I love our conversations on random topics we have every night right before we fall asleep. I love how he noticed the little details or the changes (which sometimes I wish he hadn't). I love to hear his laughter everytime I said or did something silly. I love the way he stroke my hair everytime I rest my head on his chest. I love the way he assured me when I got all worried and when he smiled everytime he told me something which I found highly interesting.
Most amazingly, he listens to what I say and what I didnt.
It scares me a little knowing how good he can read me inside out. haha.
I guess such bond happens to every husband and wife - you open up, you are honest with each other, you learn how they react or they dont to certain things or issues, you know the little sacrifices and compromises they made for you and not forgetting learn to love them more every single day.
Yes, I am loving every single minute I spend with him.
And I am grateful I have the rest of my life to do it.
Yeah, I know that we are married for just 9 months and we have a long road infront of us. Living together is a discovery on its own. Just the other day, I found out he doesn't like curry maggie.
bah.. Thankfully he eats everything I cook. So not a problem, that one.
Love and me didn't plan on going there. Instead we were initially thinking of cruising Greece or Morocco. But when I saw how enthusiastic the ladies, yana,wati and fiza were, and they asked Love and me to join in, ape lagi... we started to check on the available flights the very next day. haha
And thanks to Dol and yana, our tour guide, who went the extra mile from doing up the itinerary to having a meeting a few days before to have a rough idea on what to expect there, how much to bring, and even on how to come up with a shopping list for the shopping madness there. They are amazing.
So on the saturday morning, Love and me set off around 11 ish with Hadi as our chauffeur. We arrived at the Changi Airport 2 hours earlier and checked in straight away. Since both of us forgot to bring our reading materials onboard the flight we decided to buy some ourselves. I got myself a book from Oprah's Book Club, Anna Karenina while for him, the GQ mag.
We brought 4 bags in total, 3 trolley bags and 1 hand carry. heh.
After the 3 hour flight, we transit at philippine and waited for 4 freaking hours, where after lunch, I tore the discount coupons of all the premium outlets while Love pretended to be busy reading his mag.bah.
We then continued our flight to LA. It was a long flight to US and we spent hours sleeping. Once we reached LA, we were greeted by the chirpy tour guides Dol and Yana, not forgetting their little Nurin too. We camwhored a little while waiting for the feeder bus to go to Thrifty, the car rental company.
We got ourselves two 3.3 litre Chrysler, black and silver. The 6 of us: wati,yat,fizah,khairul,love and me were in the black Chrysler. 
Have to admit, the GPS is one of mankind's greatest creation. We love it to bits.
We checked in at our Super8 Motel in Anaheim. Shared a room with couple fizah and khairul. The room wasn't that bad as I have expected a motel would look like. Room was spacious and the bathroom was clean.
At night, we headed out for dinner and called it a day.
The 2nd day, we woke up early around 5ish am and made our way to Vegas. Initially the fog was horrible but subsided half an hour later.
We reached Las Vegas premium outlets around 10ish and began our shopping madness.
Love and me split up at first. Him with the guys, me with the ladies. But this didn't work. We always ended up shopping together coz somehow for some things, we needed the other half's opinions. And if it wasnt because of me tagging along while he went on a t-shirt spree, he would have bought 3 GREEN t-shirts. This little thing of us needing each other was a little unexpected and I still find that it was adorable of him.
There, I bought fossil and adidas watches, armani clothings and earrings, dkny jeans, ralph lauren t-shirts, aldo bags and shoes, bebe jeans and top, guess necklaces and jeans and ck undies. All for just 200+ USD. And then I spent a good deal at Coach outlet. 7bags for 600+USD. I nearly fainted. Went crazy a while until Love came by to knock some sense into me.. haha. Coz I would have bought all.
We headed to MGM Grand Hotel Vegas and unpacked all our shopping bags to fit in the luggages we brought along to Vegas, solely for this shopping purpose.
After that, we had dinner of maggie goreng and black pepper beef (packed for us by lovely mak)
The 3rd day was spent at the Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon. The scenery was breath-taking.
Later that night we went to noorani, the indian restaurant. It was our first time there. Finally, some asian dishes after dinners of burgers and fries and maggies.
For the 4th day, we drove back to L.A and stopped by Desert Hills Premium Outlets to burn holes in our pockets yet again. This outlet is similar to the Vegas Premium Outlets. Bought things from Bass, Levis, Aldo,Burberrys, Banana Republic,Dior,Bebe,Charlotte Reusse etc. Too many to type them out. I have to say, things are way cheaper there. Despite the cold weather, we could still shopped like there is no tomorrow. bah. But even so, Love and me finished shopping an hour before most of them. We didn't get to cover every shop in both wings as we prioritised on which shops we wanted to go first. Anyways, I didn't manage to take any pics except the pics of our happy faces. haha.
On the fifth day, we went shopping (yet again) at Block at Orange and South Coast Plaza. Spent on bath and body works and VS products, VS lingeries, Papaya tops and dresses, Forever 21 jeans, some t-shirts and shoes. The best deal for that day was the 12bucks Forever 21 jeans. *faints*
The sixth day, went to Hollywood Walk of Fame and Universal Studios. The walk of fame kind of a disappointment. Merepek seh. The funny part was that I believed everybody felt that it was a waste of time (after noticing its just a long pathway with stars and names on it) but nobody said anything until Wati spoke up first. She said, "Hah, datang jauh2 setakat tengok ni je." And the rest of us went, "a ah." lolz... After that, Dol suggested going to Universal Studios.
There werent many shops to entertain both me and Love and we ended up only buying magnets and Starbucks coffee. With the cold weather, we ended finishing up the Universal Studios tour earlier than the rest. And when we were on our way out, they were just halfway through. bah. We ended waiting at the lift area for an hour coz Love forgotten to get the keys from them, and I would have frozen to death if we have gone back in to find them. We reached our Super 8 motel at Anaheim around 10 ish and tried to rest but couldnt. Because an hour or so after that we were all ready to go for the midnight Thanksgiving CRAZY sale. There was a heavy jam on the way to the Desert Hills Premium Outlets and we couldn't find any parking slot except one which was near the fire hydrant. I didnt notice that until Love pointed it out to us. Nobody said anything so we left the car and went on shopping only to find out that there was a ticket later.. =(
Anyway, the midnight sale wasn't like what we have expected. The queues for boutiques like Coach,Dior,Burberrys,Jimmy Choos, etc were so long even though the shops were not opened yet. Imagine that. And most of the shoppers were asians (Indons,Chinese and there were some malays too!!). So most of us wasted our time on queuing. I was thankful that Love and me, we kinda helped each other out. I let Love shopped while I queued up for him. Once he got what he wanted, he joined the queue while I went to other shop and started to queue for him and waited for him to shop again. We repeated this "strategy" of ours and we ended getting what we wanted. We finished shopping at 6ish in the morning and spent our time sleeping in the car while waiting for the couple Fizah and Khairul. Around 7.40 am, we set off to our motel to rest and packed.
We checked out by 12.30pm and spent our time shopping at Walmart and Sears as our flight was at 9pm. Once we checked in at the airport, we endured 20+hours of flight and waiting til we finally reached Singapore. We were so exhausted by then.
So for this trip it was basically lots of T.I/Rihanna/Neo's songs, shopping, missing spicy food and then got sick of Indians' and thankfully there's Warung Pojok, shopping,breathtaking sceneries, freezing cold weather, shopping, boots (which can be a pain in the ass), lack of sex (which to me is like a non-existed sex life), shopping, cleavage and vegas, drugs in the Vegas streets, scary african americans,fish burgers, long hours of driving and more more shopping. heh.
And they are suggesting going again in 2years time. Yeay.
P/S: Knowing the camwhore me, I would have taken more pics right? So yup, check out the photos.
My in-laws have safely reached Jeddah yesterday and I think they should have reached the holy land by today.
It was a solemn day, last Wednesday, when all of us, sent them off.
My dad, ayah, was approached by bapak to do a proper sent off from home. And when ayah azan, I could see that most were crying while others were close to tears. Even Love. And that was the second time, since I know him, that I saw him cried.It was emotional for me too especially to see mak in tears. I also had a sudden realisation that with them away, I'll be taking over mak's duties at their home. I really do not know how good I am but I know that I can push myself to do better.
After the 20-minute car ride, we finally reached the airport.The departure hall was crowded with relatives of the other pilgrims. We waited anxiously for about an hour or so before bapak and mak could finally checked in. While waiting, many of us hugged mak and bapak. I had my turn too. I cried as I asked mak to doa for me.
After their departure and sending the relatives from JB back, Love commented that I didnt look sad. I knew I wasn't sad. I am happy for them, for what they have wished for, which is to go haj once Love got married (since he was the last to get married), came true. I was told that they went to confirm their booking for this year's haj the following day after our wedding.And of course, I know that mak and bapak wouldn't want us to sit around and be sad when they are gone.
The best thing for us to do all along while they are gone is to pray for their safety up until they come home and that their haj will be accepted by Allah. Amin.
PS: Mak's pic with izzul kinda made me a lil emotional compared to the pic of bapak. Most probably because it is also a picture of me. bah.
Im back and yeah, I need to update on the many things that had happened these past 2 weeks.
I promise I'll upload the pics of my US vacation soon. :)
Btw, our long awaited Subaru Forester came in three days before our trip. Besar siul. Amazingly I have confidence in driving this big thing. And I never realised how particular I am in maintaining the car, from its exterior to the arrangement of things in it and to the very minute detail of what my car will smell of. tsk tsk
I know that getting the forester wasn't what we have planned on getting initially (remember I blogged bout getting an mpv?). Love and me realised that once we go MPV, we cannot turn back to sedan unless of course we stick to the MPV up until we are fifty or so, when all our kids are married and own a vehicle. So we decided to move on to an SUV instead. And boy, I definitely love the rugged-look of the forester. Can't wait for another year or so, for the end of the warranty, to modify it: add the air scoop, change the rim and the tyres to 18-inch or so, add the thule roof rack etc
And it has been days for me to think of a nick for this new car. The previous one was called Whitey simply because it is white. But I don't feel like calling this subaru forester Blackie simply because I dont want to. =P
Its okay then, i'll just simply call it Forester. Coz 'Forester' is simply cool like that.
