GEOPROBE

It’s the name I gave when I called the Revenue Canada to register it for getting GST number. The name just came up, as it’s so close to my mind. Most possibly, that’s always the name I put whenever I need to sign up in professional sites acquiring company name. It was just fictious. I never thought of having own company but my husband does.

The 2 contract jobs I got at the end of this year in fact took me to the idea of making a small consultant company. Initially, one of my hubby’s friend suggested us to get a GST number submitted to the employer if hired as contractor so that we can claim some expense for more return in tax reporting every April. He said just easily call Revenue Canada with quick option, a GST number will be instantly created. I did call the toll free number, in a minute I got the GST number. Then, they asked me to voluntarily register my business too. OK I thought why not, it won’t hurt me. It’s free anyway.

Less than a week, I got confirmation letter from the Revenue. Very surprising, as normally if you deal with Govt, their response is always super slow. My hubby said, not this matter as they will get money from me. Aha! No wonder.

What I need to do, report my income from Geoprobe from next June. They give me extra time, supposed to be April. So from now on, I have to file all receipts of the expenses made for the Geoprobe. I did buy a new laptop, scanner, and other office stuffs which in fact I used for the work. I am hoping to get some return when I report them next year.

Rush-hour-free job

Last week, the negotiation completed. Finally, they are on my side. I am taken, Yay!! They agreed to involve me in their project with my favored condition, working at home sweet office base, honestly never thought of it.

Today I met the project geologist whom I mostly work with, at uncommon place for a first meeting. At a library of govt. geological survey. Surprisingly, the gentleman looks so young - to my sight. Aside from it, I wanna comment here, he is too cute to be a geologist o(~_~)o

So, what about the work? Nothing new, things that I have done it before. It’s all about data management for their prospective geothermal areas. All I need to do, spend time in the library to dig out the papers, articles, journals. Extracting data, information, do a bit analysis, put it in the accessible database, produce data presentation in digital format and also make reports with some "wise sentences" for fields development. The latter is serious part.

The coming hectic days of the work (without hassles of rush hours) are real full of excitement as I feel being a student again. Spending time in library brings me back to old days as a student. The things I love to do it again.

Hey talking about being a student, no kidding I am a UoC student wannabe. Hopefully next year provided the admission board still wanna take me. We’ll see.

FUn and safe Halloween

Here are common Halloween Safety tips, recommending parents to review the scenario of the trick or treating fun night.

• Wear an appropriate costume, if possible fire resistant, must be bright coloured, apply reflective tape to make visible.
• Wear mask with large hole in eyes part for better vision. In fact face paint or make up is better.
• To walk safely, always carry and use flashlight
• Asks for adult companion to trick or treat, or walk in group with older kids.
• Better hang around in your neighbourhood, plan which houses to visit and let someone at home know about the route.
• Start early, get home early
• Visit houses whose lights on. Stay at the door, never try to go inside unless asked.
  the most important one for parents: always check treats before kids eat them.
• Don't eat unwrapped candy, fresh fruit or homemade treats unless you are absolutely certain of where it came from and your parents say it is OK

Finalization

I've been in no-posting mode for almost 2 months. Got no desire at all to share all ideas, happenings here to my sis and gals. I held them off, though once ideas came across and thought of writing it here.

Anyway, I try finally to sum up :

- OTG, I got a job at an oilsands business company. I should say FINALLY after about 6 months trying to find the realistic one and had to decline one unrealistic job offer last month. Implies that I don't need to sacrifice my family unity, that job can be done in flextime and decent work hour. SO relieved, though it won't start till Jan'08. Hoping that they take me earlier especially this time when winter drilling started.

- So, in that case finding a dayhome is urgent for Rafee. Today, I ended my dayhome search at one family dayhome whose a great playroom colorful wall decoration, a lot of toys and also got play area at the backyard to enjoy the sunny day. The most important one, the provider is very friendly and competent as a caregiver. She's meet all my requirements. Frankly, I am so weary of the search. In 3 weeks, more than 10 dayhomes I called to make appointment to visit. To check, to see how are the kids. Are they happy? Is the provider confident in giving the care, the loves. What they do? What they eat. I asked almost everything. I am so glad today, I finalized it.
- On the other hand, I still dream on continuing my geothermal profession here, in the city boomed by oilsands. Last month, I was networked with one geothermal company in Vancouver whose projects are mostly located in Nevada. They called to chat to know more what I have done in geothermal industry. They wanted me to join in Vancouver which unfortunately made me think twice as I can't sacrifice my family to move there just for the sake of my career ambition. Negotiation is still on the way for the possibility to work as a freelance geologist, based in my own home office with limited travel as needed. Neat. Hoping it happens.

- When you google me, you may find I've signed up a number of imaginative social networking i.e. Twitter , facebook, and LinkedIn. The latter is more job related. The former I found it so cool, microblogging provider for instant messaging to answer such questions of what ru doin'? what ru up to? what've u been up to? But the Facebook is SUPERCOOL! It got number of extraordinary applications using some imaginative spooky icons, attractive and more specific actions that can be directed to anybody in your network. In one day, enough made me a virtual
network junkie. Huh..

- I 've bought some healthy treats welcoming kids wearing spooky costumes who will knock our door next Wed. I found a local phone/internet operator here support the Halloween providing Pumpkin patrol in some communities for a safer Halloween. They will ensure little ghosts and spooky faces are safe and happy. I have a plan to accompany my 5yr old niece who's visiting us around the Halloween, holding Rafee with a Bear costume, begging for sweet treats from neighbors. Gonna be their first exciting fun experience.

Little bookworm

Today, we have a wonderful day, at almost near summer end. The sky is clear blue - I think I never see this such clear blue sky here before. The sky is not even tinted with any single of thin, wispy layer of cirrus cloud. That really amazed me when I took a walk to library at our neighborhood this morning. I need to pick up a book that I asked for a hold. It was so nice and warm.

My little one, Rafee starts enjoying library visit since he started walking. I let him walk himself, passing the automatic door and dropping the books to return by the small window close to the entrance. That becomes things he likes to do on the library visit. He goes through the door and normally he will go through to the children book section which is located at far back of the library area. He can remember the way. He likes to drop by playing the computer. I bet almost kids will be interested in playing with a colorful keyboard and tiny transparent mouse, though just for clicking them.

What he likes to get from the library? Flip board books, any books with images of train, cars, fish, animal and numbers. He is also big fan of Thomas and Bob. Hm.. pretty standard I guess for small boy at his age. I am so blessed that he likes books so much, it’s actually what I aimed at.

I introduced books when he was around 3-4 months. I know, at the beginning I felt a bit awkward, introducing books to babies?? Reading him, showing him page by page while he wonders what’s all about, Mommy. In fact, for them books are educational toys as they can play and learn. It stimulates their visions, their hearing and also introducing to different textures. I kept doing that with the hope of he will love to books. I believe the habit will develop later on when he’s big enough to flip the book and enjoy it.

Now, I feel so glad, I am benefited from it. He is never far from books. Always wanna have reading session during his playtime. Never get bored ask me or his daddy to read his books, over and over again. Sometimes I notice if nobody around him, he flips the pages and rattles as if he reads it. Oh.. so funny to hear his sounds.

Hope he will not get bored, or maybe there will be a time he will not be interested in anymore. I don’t know. But I think most of kids like to have someone read books, right.

So, start introducing books to your little ones since their babyhood.

Pinning the Caplang

No need to wrinkle your eyebrow. It means pulling back stick-out ears (caplang) as what Rafee has. Its medical term is Otoplasty. This is a new issue on him. Well, I just wanna share this and if you wish you can post some comments.
So, last week, I took him to a nearby clinic, just for walk-in visit as it was urgent thing to check his ears. It's a been a week, I notice he kept rubbing his right ear and that night he was so fussy when he slept. I was worried that he may get ear infection. So the doctor checked him. This is my first time to see this doctor. He looks like an experienced doctor. He said that I need not to worry. Rafee is OK. I asked why he keeps rubbing his ear. He answered, possibly he is teething as some babies like to rub ears when teething. OK, I didn't know as he normally bites my nipple when teething. No wonder I didn't know. Then, we had the conversation -

Doc = By the way, your son got stick out ears. You are aware of it, aren't you?
Me = Yes, you have a concern on it, doc?
Doc = Well, I just wanna let you know that if you wanna pin his ears, it's covered by the govt.
Me = What?? pinning?? what's wrong with them?
Doc = well it's a minor surgery to pull back the ears, will not harm the hearing ability. You don't want you son being teased right when he is at school. Children are cruel in there. They love to tease on weird thing on other kids.

In seconds, I was totally shocked hearing what he said. Immediately, I realized too, what he said may be right too. Then I bombed him with questions. Like, is this case common here, how they fix it, when the best time to fix it, what happened if it's not fixed, what the psychological concerns, is it common case here and so on.

I went home with question marks on my head. It's a dilemma. I wanna keep it as is, it's God's a gift. On the other hand I don't want my son get sad because his friends tease him. Overall, it may affect to his personality, his health and also motivation to go to school, and other problems that may come up. If I ignore doctor's advise I may regret later on when the kids really tease him. In the meantime, I try to get second opinions for Rafee's ear. I guess, the best thing is to do as early as possible, so the surgery will not hurt him too much. So what do

you say??

Breastfeed toddler

Thank God, It's been a month - finally- he takes cow milk with sippy cup. It took almost 2 months to make him drink the milk with the cup. I notice he even enjoys drinking from it. He always listens to me whenever I said to him “Rafee drink your milk, please!” He voluntarily follow what I said. I learnt the hint, just put the cup around his playing area so he can easily grab the cup whenever he feels like it. Well, what they said is right most breastfed babies are a lot easier to switch to cup-fed. It's proven!!
However, he still can be away from mommy’s breast!! Maybe he thinks mommy's breasts are too good to be left alone :). And so far, he takes breast milk only 2 - 3 times during the day. But, he can’t sleep without sucking my breasts!! Honestly, I can’t do much for the latter. I have no complaints so far, though I know it may not be a good idea for his teeth. In fact most of the time, I enjoy looking at how his face changes when he looks at my breast, asking for nursing. He is extremely happy. During nursing, It’s like there is an electric connection between, they call it parental attachment.

On the other hand, I realize that I am a lucky mom among other moms who desperately want to breastfeed their babies while their breasts do not really cooperate to produce milk for their babies. Yesss, while my breasts are still productive to provide milk for my boy until now, why I need to wean him from it especially when I have no complaints to do so.

After I read a lot of reading, surfing on breastfeeding issues, I realize now, it's a stupid idea if I disconnect that attachment I have made through my breast. I understand that by giving him my milk which contain incredible healthy nutrients, also brain boosting fat (DHA), I not only feed him to grow as a healthy boy, but actually I also feed his brain to grow to boost his intelligence. Breastfeed toddler also provides security and comfort for them. By continuing to breastfeed my boy until he is ready to wean, it helps ensure that his dependency needs are being met, thus providing my boy with optimal emotional growth.

I summarize here what they say about breastfeeding toddler :

• Parents, and many experts, have noticed that the children whose emotional and dependence needs have met fully during early childhood, tend to be the children who are the most independent and emotionally secure when they are older. Child-led weaning helps build trust between parent and child, allowing the child to develop independence at her own pace.
  Continuing to breastfeed can enhance the relationship between mother and child. Because your nursing toddlers needs are being met, she will feel better about herself and thus tend to accept discipline more easily.
• Nursing eases frustration and smooths over many of the tough transitions that a make up a toddlers life. You may find that your nursing toddler rarely has temper tantrums or, if he does, that they are easily "tamed". This particular benefit depends on the other aspects of your parenting style as well as your toddlers individual temperament.
• Breastfeeding also provides calm, quiet moments that are restorative and de-stressing for both you and your toddler. It can be a wonderful way to maintain your connection to your toddler if you must work.
  

Soo.. yeah.. both of us are enjoying breastfeeding, I am not in too big of a rush to give it up. Even when I start my job, I still can nurse him when I get home.

Mana Janji ku..

Untuk Bunda Nasser yang kujanjikan resep pempek gepeng (^_^) ini lho cerita dibalik kesibukanku ampe janji ku padamu belum terlaksana..
Sorry banget deh belum sempet ngeblog lagi, sebab lagi ada yg super urgent utk diurusin. Bisa ditebak sendiri deh.. siapa lagi kalo bukan sang Raja Kecil. Dia lagi susah makan en doi nih agak picky eater so aku harus muter otak tuk jadi super kreatif mom untuk memberikan menghasilkan makanan yang bakal dia suka. Plus juga mesti sabar feeding him, karena saat ini dia lagi aktif-aktifnya deh. Naik turun tangga, waduh... makin trampil deh. Paling lucu kalo mo turun tangga dia sudah ambil ancang2 dengan posisi pantat duluan kira2 setengah meter di mulut tangga. Mundur-mundur sampe ahirnya dia merasakan ada bangian yg turun mulai deh dia taruh kakinya di anak tangga tersebut. So, gimana dia nggak kurus, setiap selesai makan, langsung cruising kemana dia mau.

Dua minggu yang lalu, aku bawa Rafi ke dokternya untuk one year checkup. Yang kudapatkan berat dia agak turun, beratnya nggak sampai 3X birth weight. Normalnya kan umur 1 tahun berat harus 3x berat waktu lahir. Ya udah, aku dikasih wejangan deh untuk nambahin beratnya dia.. Anehnya nih dokter bilang aku harus coba stop breastfeeding.. karena menurut dia Rafi nih get mostly satisfaction from nipple makanya dia nggak terlalu tertarik makan. Hm.. dalam hatiku it's not easy man!! terutama aku paling nggak tega liat anak nangis demi ASI. Kalo ASI, sejak 2 bulan yang lalu disaat dia mulai aktif crawling, ASI nya memang sudah agak kurang, karena setiap dia tertarik ke ASI aku selalu alihkan ke sippy cupnya. Ya kucoba memberinya homo milk dengan sippy cup daripada dengan botol. Karena umumnya breastfed baby is a lot easier to be switched into sippy cup than bottle, betul .. karena nipple confusion.

Cuma ada satu hint dari dokter yang kupikir agak unbelieveble .. dia bilang put him in the playpen (crib) to play, biarkan dia menangis, ditambah lagi dia pake ngancem "your roof will not fall just because he cries".. waks! Nah petunjuk yang satu ini aku agak pusing juga ya.. habis gimana Rafi paling nggak suka di krengkeng di playpen, jelas dia jadi ngga bisa cruising ke tempat2 yag di sukai. Akhirnya, ya nggak kulakukan petunjuk nya dia ini, walau make sense juga sih biar anak nggak habis energinya..

Apa hasilnya setelah , pelan2 akhirnya dia jadi suka fruit yogurt walau awalnya dia nggak suka sama sekali (karena asam ya). Dia paling suka nasi putih dan mie goreng. Nah ini dia aku harus campur makan bergizi lainnya di antara makanan2 favoritnya itu. Untungnya dia masih mau makan rice krispies cereal dan toast tiap pagi. Awalnya dia suka olesan tipis butter ditoastnya, lama2 dia suka juga peanut butter. Mudah2an nanti dia mau fruit jam deh, ya dia nih agak2 nggak suka yg asam-asam. Ya mesti sabar deh ya 'Bu!

Ini tugas dokter untuk menaikkan berat badannya memang berat, karena aku disuruh follow up dalam 3 minggu.. makanya aku agak2 stress juga mikirin gimana supaya ada gaining gitu lho.. plus juga akhirnya ya biar dia doyan makan juga. Ya Ibu mana coba yang mau anaknya kurus gitu lho.. Kesimpulannya, sudah seminggu ini aku sibuk memikirkan solusi buat Rafi. Kilk sana sini di google search, mencari trik-trik jitu, feeding the picky eater dan common problems in feeding the toddler. Mudah2an ada hasilnya. Oh iya, disaat panik, aku sampe kepikiran adekku desti di Jakarta. Biasa deh.. minta tolong dia untuk mengirimkan Scott emulsion dan obat sejenisnya utk menambah nafsu makan. Ya namanya juga usaha, ya nggak. Kalo misalnya Rafi tinggal di Jakarta ama neneknya, dia mungkin dah dicekok-in kali ya.. kayak aku dulu waktu kecil.. hi2.

So, Bunda Nasser mohon maaf ya, insya Allah besok aku kirimkan resepnya plus trik2 masakan2 lainnya deh.. tunggu deh postingan berikutnya.

Ini pempek-ku

Maksudnya sama sekali bukan mo nyaingin pempek palembang yang terkenal itu lho. Bukan juga mo nyombong karena buatnya di Calgary he2.. Nggak koq. Saya cuma mo bagi-bagi cerita aja, sebab makanan langka ini akhirnya berhasil juga kubuat. Coba lihat foto disebelah ini mirip pempek palembang 'kan? en pempek yang kubuat ini dalamnya pake telor lho. Terus kuahnya juga kubuat rasanya hampir mirip kuah pempek palembang cuma lupa nyampurin ebi. Ya penting setelah 3 tahun nggak ketemu pempek akhirnya bisa juga menikmati pempek buatan sendiri. Padahal selama di Jakarta dulu mana pernah ada niat bikin sendiri.

So, bagaimana saya sampe girang bukan kepalang?? Ceritanya berawal saat seminggu yang lalu saya bermimpi makan pempek, terus akhirnya jadi pengen pempek. Ya kalo disini mana ada yg jual, ya nggak. Mau nggak mau ya harus buat coba sendiri. Tetapi sayang niat yang begitu mulia, pertama kali seumur hidup, menghasilkan pempek yang GAGAL!! Wuah rasanya mo maki-maki deh (tapi ke siapa). Akhirnya cuma bisa sakit hati sendiri. Parahnya, karena terlalu semangatnya dengan niat itu, saat itu lumayan banyak adonan yang kubuat. Kurang lebih sepanci ukuran sedang isinya pempek gagal berbentuk bulat gepeng. Pempek gagal itu sengaja kubuat gepeng biar gampang gorengnya (biar irit minyak). Kenapa sampai gagal, intinya kurang persiapan yg matang. Pertama karena terlalu banyak air yg kucampur disaat memblender ikan mackarel (katanya = tenggiri). Setelah itu baru kuingat harusnya ikan ditimbang dulu ikan sebelum diblender ya maksudnya biar bisa ngira2 berapa sagu yg mesti dicampur tho!! Hua..hua maklum aja deh masih amatiran nih masak di dapur. Walhasil supaya campuran bisa dibentuk ya mau nggak mau sagu nya jadi bahan utama dibanding ikannya. Jadinya, bukan pempek tapi seperti siomay sagu yg kayak di SD-SD itu lho. Untung ada selai kacang yg kusulap jadi sambal kacang untuk siomay itu lho dengan ditambahkan bubuk bawang putih, sedikit gula, dan cabe ulek en kecap ke selai kacang itu .. wah jadi juga deh makan siomay. Padahal maunya makan pempek. Tapi boleh juga deh rasanya, ya bener kayak siomay sagu SD.

OK, yang penting dah nyoba buat pempek yang akhirnay berhasil, dan rencana berikutnya mo buat siomay Bandung thea. Tapi aku dah punya rencana ini bakalan siomay rebus, bukan siomay kukus he2.. karena aku nggak punya kukusan. He2.. lagi melenceng dari resep.. dasar tukang masak amatir.

Incredible April

It's just ten days of April. We had a long Easter Holiday weekend, from Friday to Monday, with nasty weather. Only got one sunny tolerable day. Remaining, just dull days with rain and everlasting snow. For kids, they had new Easter experience, searching for fancy eggs on snowy grass.

I personally keep expecting whenever snow falling, that's gonna be last snow day. One day last week, I was on the busy to downtown, I overheard teens sitting next to me. They sounded full of complaints. I was giggling and a bit surprise too as they are Canadian born so they should be okay coping with "funny" weather. Of course not like me coming from other part of the world.

Enough complaining about weather!! we am as a passenger of this so-called the wonderful earth, we need to be ready to live in no matter happens in climate whether is gonna change or whether becoming warmer, or cooler we got to deal with it. Anyway, what we got now is consequence of what we have done in this world.. you can name it what is all about, mostly become hot political agenda for all those guys who sit in the government of all countries around the world.

Talking about government, April is taxing month. Great, we completed the tax report. This year we spent a bit of money to ask tax expert for calculating the tax refund as this year just a bit more complicated with presence of Rafee, and other things. What the expert found .. we will get less tax refund!! My husband was surprised, then he raised many whys to the expert. In fact we can't really claimed expense on Dependant.. but he gave some legal tricks if we wanna get some more refund tax.. we need to run home business. The point is we will pay less tax on our business income as we spend some of the income for paying the electricity, phone bills or can insurance (in case we need vehicle to run the business). Basically everything that used to run the business, though in fact we use it as well for daily life. It's very tricky, but many people here apply it otherwise you will feel so so bad after you money is gone being sucked by the govt. Services what we got here sometimes still is far below of most people expect here. Like, we still need to pay ticket for public transport, we still need to pay if you wanna go to university (not like in most European countries). The govt still misuse the money for political program like sending troops to Afghanistan. Anyway, part of the legal trick, my husband is planning to run small consultancy at home for project management, quality management as part of his expertise etc. Let's see...

Part from that tricky tax, I think this week I am ready to sow vegetable seeds I brought from Jakarta . It's been long I don't do gardening since I moved here. We just can't wait to harvest vegetables from own garden for the dinner..