More pictures of my baby in BubuBibi

More pictures of baby in BubuBibi!!!  Please go to www.bububibi.com to try them out


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Would you like to send something special to MOM on Mother's day? Living in Penang, Malaysia, check them out!

Mother's day is fast approaching. What are you doing for mom? Well.... enjoy the day with mom and get a delicious lemon cake with lemon custard from Evadis Cake. I met Evon, the owner and she makes extremely delicious and beautiful cakes.  For those of you who are living in Penang or outside of Penang, Malaysia and would like to send mama a delicious cake to THANK HER, make sure to contact Evon.

You can order the cake by filling up the form here.

http://www.evadiscakes.com

Easter 2011 - The boys had lots of fun!

The boys had a great time, especially Laynce, DS1.  He had 3 hunts this year.... one with the City of Frisco
here in Texas, April 16th, one at school and the last one was at my sister's. 
We had so much fun, did you?  We took our Easter Bunny pictures, courtesy
of 3:16 Team Reality.  That's my sister's company. 

Anyway, hope you had a great
Easter from BubuBibi!       

The boys, Laynce and my dearest nephew, Meng!	We forgot our Easter Basket but people were saying that we were so smart for using such a big "basket'	Our Easter Bunny Pictures
	Free Easter Bunny from 3:16 Team Reality, Thanks to my dearest sister, Loreena Yeo!
Laynce with his egg necklace	Laynce with his good friend, Nathan... opps... yes, we FORGOT our basket AGAIN... so... we had to advertise for Walmart!	Laynce with Mama!
Whatt??? Egg Hunt AGAIN?  Yes, this time, we did not forget the basket but we figured out that we can put a lot in the big bag, so, what the heck?	I guess my photography skills isn't good, I was focusing on the egg and didn't realize that I was focusing on the branch instead of the egg....	Picture time dad and mom!
Aww.... Little Laynden doesn't know how to get his own eggs but thank you grandma, she brought him 2 eggs....	He was in his favorite BubuBibi Diaper.	Admiring them???? Or... thinking of how to fit such big egg into his mouth
	The party ended with a big big pot of Curry Chicken.... making me hungry right now!

WAHM + Full Time Job - How do you jungle between both?

I realize that I am starting to write more lately because I feel that it is the best way to express how I feel inside instead of crying myself to sleep some nights.  I was looking through one of my customer's facebook page and she "liked" SAHM and claims that she is a SAHM.  I remember WAHM but did not really recall what SAHM.... it's Stay At Home Mom.  That's how it made me look back at how I started.  Some customers in the past have asked if I am a WAHM (Work at home Mom).  I said no... I am not but technically, I guess I sort of am, well, on the week nights and weekend?  

Also, I always wonder how many mom out there have to take care of a side business as well as having to work full time (over 40 hours a week)?  How do they jungle and are they successful?  If so, what is the secret to their success while I am constantly asking myself, what could I have done to be more successful?  One things for sure, I often find myself being upset for a day or two but whenever I look at my beautiful boys, I pick myself up, shake off the self pity and continue running.  I feel in my life, I cannot walk, nor jog, I have to constantly run.  

I try to tell myself that if the others can be successful, I can be and I have the determination to be better.  I see that there are people out there that sometimes tell me that "I am disappointed at your service, disappointed at your response time, disappointed at your product", those were the days I ask myself, why am I doing all these.  I should just be like others, after I get back from work, I should just grab a wine, sit and relax, watch American Idol or go to the gym to lose the extra fat that I've accumulated after having DS2.  I hope everyone understand that nobody likes to disappoint anyone.  I was brought up in a way to be honest and of course, do not disappoint anyone, the family and especially myself.  Sometimes, it is nice that people give others the benefit of the doubt, maybe something happened or maybe it's human error, I wish I have tons of people working for me whereby if an email comes in, it will be responded within 5 mins.  I wish the factory that I first dealt with did not give me wrong design or bad quality.  I just hope that people understand that I am also wanting the best for everything and everyone.  Though, I totally understand that different people have different taste and likes and dislike and I cannot expect everyone to like me, my services and my product, all I can do and promise is I will try my very best.

I have been tweeting a lot lately.  Thanks to Laureen @ momcupation, she told me that I should tweet more and thank you so much again!  I could see a more traffic coming to the side and a boost in sales.  Though, I did not realize that there are so many mom out there who blogs and are WAHM. :)  You guys rock!!!!!  Then, I started asking myself, how did I start and how did I get here?  For all the mom that have been wanting to do or start something but have not, you guys should go for it!  In my opinion, please note, this is just my personal opinion, there are some points that is really helpful, at least it got me started and it got me going.

1) Find something that you like and very familiar with.  I think this is crucial because you will find yourself smiling and explaining to people about what you are doing.  

2) Work with 1 or 2 people that motivates you.  The 2 person that I can rely on is my sister and Eve.  Let's talk about my sister first.  She is 3 years older and growing up, we use to fight a lot.  In fact, till this actual day, I always sit down and try to recall our happy moments... BLANK.... all I can think of is the fighting and how we got in trouble till dad gave us a big time and wouldn't let us in till 1am and I had mosquito bites all over the next day.  She is very determine, still remember when she was in high school, she told my dad that she wanted to be a Civil Engineer, she worked really hard and graduated with a Civil Engineering degree.  Though, several years ago, she realize that she really like Real Estate and started her own real estate business.  She was bold enough to QUIT her full time job to become a real estate agent.  Today... she is a well known agent in our city.  I am just so proud of her and she is one person that always motivate me because she totally understand what I go through.  Hmm... but she did tell me that someday, I need to choose between my full time job or becoming a WAHM.... I told her, I will strive to keep both since I love both SO MUCH.  Then... the next person is Eve, I met her through a customer and started chatting online.  I shared and taught her a lot about selling, working on web pages, posting pictures etc and we became very good friends.  There are days whereby we are upset with complication with our business and we share together and of course, we "complain" about our hubby and share sweet moment together.  I think without these people around us, it is easy to just give up.

3) Taking critiques - This is one part where I am still in the beginner's class.  I take it so personally and most time, I just feel like hiding in the closet and not coming out.  I am learning... yes I am and I know that this blog will remind myself to take these criticism and improve myself and my business.

4) DO NOT GIVE UP!!!!  This is a very very important point.  Again, from my experience, I have gone through many ups and down.  Like mention above, some times people can make me upset and I do question myself as to WHY am I doing this but I never once GIVE UP!!!!  It reminded me of my rollerblading experience when I was in college.  I was just an average student in class.  There were only 4 girls in the class majoring in Computer Science.  The guys in my class are all very good at programming, ohh no... not for me... I do terrible at that.  But anyway, I still remember having a group study one day in the library and one of my classmate was reading and he turn to me, he asked me a question.  I was able to answer, the reason is because I happened to just read that less than 15 mins ago.  He then mumbled to himself (pretty loud)_and I heard it.  He said... "Ohh.... if you know how to answer it, then, this question will not come out".  In my heart, I was asking, what do you mean?  It sounded like he was saying that I am "stupid", and if a stupid person can answer, why would the professor be so nice enough to give easy questions to all?  I was upset that day.  I took my pair of roller blades and went out alone, near my college, there was a steep hill.  I was so upset that day and I was trying so hard to blade up that steep hill but when I was half way there, I stopped because I was grasping for air and I asked myself.... why am I doing this?  Should I just give up and come down now half way OR should I go all the way up and later enjoy the breeze down all the way?  I decided that I've came so far, why give up now?  So, I continued up all the way and I got to see some beautiful scenery and realize that if I were to give up half way then, I wouldn't have gotten the opportunity to see something beautiful.  Then I continued down and since it's downhil, I did not even need to use energy and enjoyed the way down.  I then always remind myself about this incident, whenever I am about to give up, I think about this and I will go on.  

5) Networking/ Social Media - It is getting more and more crucial and honestly, again, this is another challenge for me because I am sort of anti social.  I don't have much face to face friends, I come back from work, I go straight to the hotel, and then, when I go back home, I do not go out with friends, I just sit infront of my computer and work and just stay home with my family.  Thank goodness I still can manage doing some networking with the help of Facebook, Twitter, Blogger but honestly, the best thing is to go out there and meet people.  Do play dates.... etc.  

I think there are a lot of other important points to be a successful WAHM but for me, since I do both, a full time traveling job and WAHM, scheduling to me is very important.  I am getting really forgetful lately, so, as soon as I remember something, I make sure that I write it down on my notebook.  I realize that I am hugging my notebook some nights instead of my pillow or hubby when I get home.

Anyway, thank you so much for the people that I just recently met online such as Rachel, Jennifer, Laureen, Elizabeth (Jennfier's sister, just found out today) for wanting to help me with my reviews.  I cannot say how much I appreciate the kindness and the help!  

Hopefully years from now, I will look back at this blog and be glad that I did not give up both!

Traveling and cloth diapering? Got to try it!

I started "part time" cloth diapering with my oldest son since he goes to day care and they wouldn't take cloth diaper, so, I had to do it only on the weekends and in the evenings.  Though, we have been pretty much cloth diapering my second one full time but I have never traveled with him especially with cloth diaper.  Yes, we do go out to the mall with cloth diaper but not away from home for a week.

Our trip to DC is coming up soon since we need to go to DC to get my son's birth certificate, yes, he does get dual citizen until he is 18.  After that, we will be visiting my OBFF (Online Best Friend Forever).  I've met this girl through a customer and became very good friends only by talking over msn.  Then, we got to meet each other on a family vacation back in December 2009.  We are finally able to meet up with Eve again.  Eve lives in VA and has a pair of twins a year older than little Laynden.

So, this time, I told myself that I'll try to travel with cloth diaper full time so that I can feel exactly how some mom feel....

Good luck to me!  I will definitely blog about my experience when I get back.  Find out at the end of May!

Unable to attend The Cloth Diaper Change on April 23, 2011? Everything is online now... why not this?

Some of you probably have plans before you found out about the Cloth Diaper Change.  But like myself, I couldn't register in time, so, I didn't get a place and the next one was a little too far.


Like I just posted in my previous post, I see my kids through the computer each week, thanks to technology, guess what, you can now attend the change ONLINE!!!

What to know more about the Cloth Diaper Change or help put cloth diaper in the Record Books?  Click here

Sign up here

So how do you communicate with your babies if you have a traveling job?

Any mommies out there who is a road warrior?  Some of you know that I do have a day time job but some don't.  Anyway, I am an IT consultant, therefore, the nature of my job is to travel.  Thank goodness, I have been traveling to the same city for 2.5 years now but every Monday, I hit the road, I take a plane, fly out to another city and then, on Thursday, I fly back home. 

Those who don't know that I have a side business think that I am a selfish mommy.  In their eyes, I am a self centered person as I leave my husband and kids every week to go to work and they think that by 5-6ish, I have all the time to myself while my poor hubby has to take care of our sons the whole day.  What they don't know is I work from 8am to 8-9 pm in the office and I do not even go out for dinner as I feel that I am wasting my time, I immediately pack something to go and head back to the hotel to start answering emails, listing item, doing shipping, talking to suppliers, basically I am everything.  Thank goodness my husband/ sister helps me pack at home as I am able to dial into my home computer to print out the labels.  Most nights, I stay up to 2+am.  They judge me even before they give me the opportunity to explain myself, even though I feel that I do not owe anyone an explanation. 

I still remember, both sons, I started traveling on the 10th week, I took 8 weeks off for maternity as I had c-section for both and then, on the 10th week, I hit the road again.  My first trip after having my 1st baby was to Korea for a week every other 2 weeks and when he was 4 months old, I had to station there for 4 weeks straight.  As for my second son, thank goodness it is a domestic trip and I am away only 4 days in a week. 

I make sure that I get a picture of each son daily from my husband.  That is a must to me, whenever I have a long day, I look at their pictures, it puts a big smile on my face and I remind myself that I have to keep on fighting to provide them the best. 

So, how do we communication?  Thank goodness for technology, we chat though the computer most nights.  That way, it makes them feel that I am still there I hope?  Sometimes, I do wonder if my baby knows or understand why he sees his mama through a monitor and sometimes, she's real.  I wonder if that confuses him?

Anyway, my husband flew to Phoenix for an interview on Monday and this is the most promising one so far.  The HR came back stating that they will send us an offer.  Yesterday was the best day in so many months as I finally hear something good.  Though, as I started thinking, that means, now, we will have to take my husband away from the kids as well.  It is hard for him to move with the kids over to Phoenix, therefore, they are still better off staying where we are since my parents can help me take care of the boys.  Unfortunately, my parents cannot move because they have to take care of my brother who is recovering from cancer.  I started checking on the air tickets and found that the tickets range from $300 to $390.  Since the ticket price is so high, it seems that most likely, hubby can only fly once in 2 weeks back home and he has to take off on Sunday evening and be back on Saturday afternoon, which means we only get to see him 1.5 days in 2 weeks.

Laynce, my oldest boy is so very attach to his daddy.  Like I've mentioned above, I travel so much, so, all his life, it is daddy and him.  I have been thinking so hard, what shall we do?  Do we just let go of this opportunity and wait for something closer?  Or if we let this opportunity go, then, the next opportunity will be years from now and it will be hard for us to sustain with just my income?  Life is full of mystery...

Though, with everything that is going on.... all I long for is to see that little smile on his face.... I love my boys and I miss them.  I am sure that God has his plans and he has the best arrangement for our family!

Laynden loves the keyboard, he is probably typing I LOVE YOU to mama

Laynden saw mama and he got really excited

It's 12am, Good Night everyone, I will have to continue with my business. 



Help Put Cloth Diapers in the Record Books - Celebrate Earth Day 2011!

Cloth diapers have come a long way in past 10 years, and it’s time to stand up and be noticed. Celebrate Earth Day, by joining the North American and International cloth diaper community on April 23rd, 2011 at 9AM PDT to set the world record for the most cloth diapers changed simultaneously.
There are many ways to participate so please take a few minutes to explore the site to find a location near you . The more babies participating the better, so every cloth diapered bum counts.

Happy Earth Day 2011 and Happy Cloth Diapering!

Lionel starts his daily radiation... I hope it all goes well....

It's been almost 3.5 weeks since we found out that he has the tumor that almost caused him to go paralyzed.  The hospital bills has been piling up, some allowed payment payments up to 3 years... I am not sure how he or us as a family can come up with additional $3,000 each month to pay for the hospital bills.  I do hope and pray that his radiation will be smooth and since I never had that, I don't know how it feels, I sure hope it does not hurt him.  Take care little brother!

Where are you my dearest Bruno, mama is missing you....

My dearest Bruno.... thank you for being a part in my life and now watching over mama.  Mama will always love you and we all miss you.  Please come into my dreams from time to time to let me know how you are doing.....  I love you.... from your dearest mama.

What is your hobby? I love looking at cakes.... Check out the cakes that I have done!

So, what is your hobby?  Not sure if this is considered my hobby since I do not really have free time.  I only do it during special ocassions and I just started learning how to make fondant cakes last year.  I had a friend who helped me with the fondant cakes miles away.  I met her after admiring her cakes online and since my first order, we became friends and have been chatting online.  She is such a nice girl, even though she is 10K miles away, she stayed up late till almost 4-5am since she is 12 hours ahead of us.  She make cup cakes and fondant cakes for a living, http://www.evadiscakes.com/   Just wanted to thank her for taking the time to teach me how to make these beautiful cakes. 

Anyway, check out my creations :)



Laynce's 4th Birthday cup cake in his school

Cookies for the goodies bag

He has requested an Airplane for his 4th birthday!

Front view of his Airplane cake

Laynce loves the Nissan GTR, he has requested for it for his 3rd birthday

Back view of the GTR cake... it is the first cake that I ever had to crave, I know, it looks as if the car is sinking :P

Cup Chinese New Year cup cakes for our guest

Our 8th Anniversary cake.  First time doing a 2 tier cake

Flowers are not real but I enjoyed doing this cake since it was for my parent's 35th anniversary and our 8th Anniversary, yes... they are on the same day, May 18th.

This cake was especially made for the tallest man that I've have met in person.  He is my coworker and my partner at work.  He is 6'6.  He told me once that he has a Popeye tattoo and I've decided to make the popeye and Olive for him for his 50th birthday.

Close up look of Popeye!

It was Laynden's 1st Month.... we had a small party and I decided to make some cute cupcakes for the guest.

A cute bootie for him....

Cancer.... what is it and why is it hitting my family all of the sudden?

It is just way too stressful now with everything that is going on.  Brother is slowly recovering, he is starting his radiation next week.  He seems to be walking better last week but this week, it looks like he is back to like before?  It is just hard as young people just do not seem to listen.  He is currently going to college and didn't want to be on the wheelchair and I think he has probably hurt himself a little by walking too far.

Hubby called his daddy tonight.  My father-in-law had prostate cancer 2-3 years ago and I was told that he had a surgery and was successful but like all cancer patients, they have to do a check up every "X" months or years.  He did his check up and they suspect that the cancer came back and probably spreading to the bones.  Doctor suggest that he does a PET Scan Carbon 11????  I am so bad with medical terms because growing up, at most I hear my grandparents have diabetes, high blood or high cholesterol.  The word cancer has never strike our family but sad enough, it is now. 

I told my husband that since he is unemployed now for the moment, he should take this time off to stay with his parents since they are in their 70s.  Though, they live miles away and that means, it will take him away from us....  Life is just too tough.  Still, the same question I ask each night before I go to sleep and before I make my prayers.... is tonight the end of the tunnel where I see the light? 

Do you have questions whereby you would like an instant answer, check our site out!

We have just recently updated our website.  We realize that customers have trouble viewing our website via Firefox and Chrome, so, we went ahead and updated our website.  We have added a side bar with the list of popular items.

Sometimes, in a store, it is easy to find a sales person to talk to and ask them questions but on an online store, it is defintiely difficult.  It is dificult enough to not be able to see or touch the product and customer has to wait via email to get questions answered via email.  So, we have added a LIVE CHAT.... since I am online most of the time till almost 2am CST most days, you can click on the live chat button to check with me on any questions you have.  I will try to assist you as much as I can.

Thank you so much for all of your support.  Please visit us at www.bububibi.com to chat with us if you have any questions.

Please pray for my brother!

Lionel is my little brother, even though he is 24, he will remain my little brother for the rest of my life.  I am the 2nd daugther in a family of 4.  When Lionel was born 6 years after me, all attention has been diverted to him.  Being the second daugther, I grew up not having much attention.  It was either my oldest sister or my brother because in our culture, the boys are important as they bring down the "family's name".  Though, I never feel upset that he took all the attention, in fact, we were closer to each other than the other sibblings.  My oldest sister and I always fight growing up since we were only 3 years apart but I had to help mom out to take care of Lionel since he is 6 years younger.  We grew up with the traditional cloth diapers and that's why I know about this at a very young age. 


Few months ago, Lionel complain that his back is hurting.  For years, on and off, he complains that he has sharp pain in the chest.  He always thought that it is because he hurt himself during a basketball game.  So, he has been drowning himself with Advil, the Costco size Advils has been drained out within weeks.  Then, approximately a month ago, he started sitting up to sleep.  Instead of laying down because it hurts him.  Unfortunately, I travel for work, so, I do not see him Mon- Thursdays and being a young man, he doesn't come home early at all, by the time he comes home, I am already in the room working on my business stuff while accompaying my sons to sleep.  2 weeks ago, he started walking weird and I finally saw it when he attended my son's birthday party (even though he lives with me but he is always in his room).  I insisted that he sees the doctor.  He hasn't really shown us how painful it is because he knows that he does not have health insurance and he knows that I am the only person working since my husband lost his job, he didn't want to burden anyone.  Last Thursday, I flew home and saw that this is not right, he has to drag himself and walking with a walking stick.


We drove him to the nearest ER.  They did a MRI and couldn't find anything, several doctors came by and finally, the did a second MRI and found out that his spinal cord has been compressed badly.   We were in the ER at around 7.30pm and by the time they found this, it was already approximately 6am.  Dad, mom and oldest sister including his gf were all there in the waiting room, all tired.  Doctor came in at 7am, told his that he wants to perform an emergency surgery at around 1-1.30pm.  Though, by 9am, a nurse came in, told us that the doctor do not want to wait as this is very serious.  He performed the surgery.  Around noon, we were told that he is suspected to have the Giant Cell Tumor.  They took out as much as they can and they do not think the tumor has spread, though, he will probably have to go through radiation.  Since he waited that long, the doctor said that there may be a chance where he may not walk like normal. 

Life is weird.... one minute, I have a perfectly healthy little brother, the other minute, I was told that my brother has cancer.  He is only 24, so, that night, I was sleeping outside of the Critical Care Unit, I was secretly praying to God, telling him, please shorten my life so that my little brother will live longer.  I am so sad... I am not sure why bad things keep happening to me and my family.  I do not know how long more I have to go through this dark and gloomy times.  Aunt from Australia called and told me to stay calm and that, there will always be a light at the end of the tunnel, in my heart, I asked, will there ever be or am I just stuck in a dark hole?  One min we are fine and since he doesn't have insurance, the next minute, we are buried in more than 100K of debt.  :(

Everyday I deal with stress at work, stress at home and I have customers that think that I am a bad seller since I do not ship wtihin the time frame.  Most of the times is because I am waiting for customers to inform me of the print/ color selection because in the past, if I haven't heard from the customer, I randomly ship to them and again, they were unhappy.  To me, it is just always my fault.  I can never satisfy anyone in this world.  I just hope that sometimes, people would at least think that there could be going on in someone else's life and be easier on people.  Sometimes, the harsh words that buyer says to me really gets to me because I do take each and every email personally. 

It's like a dream... a very bad dream, I can never imagine losing my brother.... especially he is only 24. 

Please pray that my little brother will heal and get to live with me for as long as I live.  I love you Lionel, I hope you will grow and learn from everything, I hope that you will turn over a new leaf and appreciate everything around you.