What's new?

The latest news from since my post last Wednesday is that we now have a live in maid. They are called maids here vs domestic helper or helper. I like helper better, but maid is the correct terminology in KL. Her name is Beth. She is from the Philipines and is 33. Bill and I both think she looks much younger than 33 and has two kids back in her home country. She arrived on Tuesday and it was a little awkward at first. I gave her a long list of rules of the house/contract (thanks to Mollee) and a daily, weekly and monthly chore list. She seems to be doing a great job. A few tweaks here and there are needed, but I hope it will all come together soon. It was odd seeing her this morning when I came downstairs with Gigi. I already bought a cute asian-ish robe here so at least I was covered. I had crazy hair and I'm sure crazy breathe. I don't brush until I leave for school. :) She was busy sweeping and opening the curtains, etc. When I went back upstairs (to brush teeth and get dressed) before taking Reid to school she had already made our bed and cleaned the bathroom. I think she swept too. I made dinner tonight and she is in the kitchen right now doing the dishes. I just kind of pick them up a little, like scrape the food in the trash and take the plates to the sink. That's one area I'll have to adjust a little. She disappears while we are eating dinner. The first thought is that she isn't helping, but she is probably trying to give us our privacy and her previous employer probably didn't want her around. We have young kids though so having someone clean the kids up or at least help will work out better for me. I'll talk to her about that tomorrow. She is eating our food...at least I think. She eats at different times so I've never seen her eat or drink around me. She asked what cups to use and I told her she can use ours. I think some people do have different things for the maids to use. She said she liked the mexican rice I made, but she didn't think it was done. I did. I made rice tonight as well and I actually ate this rice and thought it was delicious so we'll see what she says about it. Maybe she just likes it really mushy. I didn'tlook to see if she ate any meatloaf from the other night which was sooo good, but you know meatloaf. It doesn't look too appetizing left over. So tonight I made a salad with the japanese ginger dressing like at the cooking tbale restaurants, baked chicken and basmati rice. It was yummy! Tomorrow is a busy day, but I really want to get a cake made. The chocolate almond fudge cake is top of the list. Today a new friend (Trang - we had dinner at their house last Thurs - the bbq) took me to TTDI which is a another wet market. She showed me where she buys her pork, seafood, fruits and veggies and spices. It was really neat and much less crowded than the last one we went to. My absolute favorite part about the market was what I have deemed THE BAKE SHOP. THey have everything baking. all kinds of nuts...ground, slivered, sliced, whole, chopped. They have all kinds of flour, sugar, vanillas, extracts, sprinkles, cake pans, cake cardboard things, cake boxes! I was in heaven! I'm so excited. THey also have all of the mini and regular sized muffin papers! Now I know why the grocery stores don't have any - THE BAKE SHOP has them all! So that was really fun. I bought almonds for the cake. I think and I hope that is all I was missing. Let's see what else. Tomorrow I'm going to a house which is actually a store on Thurs an Sat to look at Chinese furniture. Heather (sugarland friend) invited me. Then we have a parent teacher conference and then another haircut for me. Trying a new place for the haircut. Hopefully they will do a little better job. I alreayd like them better. THe last place I went offered me the middle of the line stylist (here they have junior stylist, senior stylist, and then an art director) and this last palce said well assign you to a top stylist which turns out to be an art director...I think. I miss Juan Carlos! Well busy day tomorrow and I think I'm coming down with the crap everyone else has here. Some mix between cold and allergy sypmtoms. As long as it stays just that I will survive!