my sister from black lagoon :)

sarah and her new goggles..nampak sah tak tau pakai kan :)

all's well that ends well. we begin a new chapter, as suggested by a certain someone :) *hugs that someone*... meh i nyanyikan lagu feveret you....hehe...

this is one of my all time fav picture of them. :) i so love this one :)

flutter kicking lah konon tu..

anyway, thanks for all the kind words. i am feeling much better, alhamdullilah. but still trying to get my bearings back.

kakak, wahh..very happy

well, we went swimming again yesterday evening and swam for 2 hours. the previous night pun kiter swimming camtu jugak. the best thing is that the lake is so big that we have this whole arm just to ourselves. nak diving2 macam dolphin pun boleh..macam i tak lah macam dolphin..macam tong jatuh dalam air lagi ada. this was what sarina said to me...mummy, you need to tuck your chin and look down and make sure your arms are by your ears and your hands are like this and you do this and do this and this..and then you will not look like you are doing the belly flop.

splashing around

hahhhh! aper...mentang2 lah dia ada swimming instructor..and i takder..wahhhh...i nyer diving macam man from atlantis, dia kata belly flop...hahahaha. sibuk seh dia..i can now float kan..kira nak try try lah, buat the strokes. i got out of the water tercungap2, sajer jer dia kasi comment. rupa2 nyer she was watching me the whole time lah..kepo betul seh budak ni..hehehe. but actually, pointers yang dia kasi sungguh lah berkesan sekali..hahaha.

sarah..slow and steady wins the race :)

look at the clear water...by now you can see that she is not that happy..hehe..kesejukan :)

sarah toksah cakaplah...dia jadi tuan direktor. mommy, you don't swim..i will swim to you okay..you stay there..then, let's dive mommy..yeas we do 10 more times okay..( after 5 times..she said okay..i don't want to do this anymore)..then..mommy why don't you carry me ..what?..carry you...alamak...to which i said..no i will not carry you. i want to swim...then tukar tactic pulak...tak nak pakai her life jacket. nak swim just like that..dah kena jaga dia proper..ended up apa tau..we did the dog paddle. she dog paddle to me and i doggy paddle to her...hahahahah. time ni, sean and sarina was wayyyyyyy..over the other side of the rocks. exploring the swimming hole :)

tengah boring...

ingatkan today nak swim lagi, but sean pulak sakit perut..apa nak buat. but insyallah, besok kita swim lagi :) so sesaper yang datang visit us in summer, this is what you will be doing most of the time..hehehe. swimming and road trips..insyallah :)

our swimming hole, lake wilson

well, for more pics, you know where to go :)

in as much....

it's getting tiresome....

another week has gone by since my last update. i guess, i needed time to think about stuff :) still nothing much to say. still feeling blah. at times i feel like it's time i move on. end this blogging here and now. but, i don't know. still mulling that idea over. whatever enjoyment i got out of this, has been sullied. oh well.

are we there yet?

also it didn't help that i am listening to dark and moddy songs..hehe. tengah depress lah katakan..hahaha. depress pun tak lah depress mana. cuma boring jer. so far this week has been a bit busy. been ferrying the girls back and forth for their swimming lessons and it is paying off.

lake okoboji, iowa...

sarah used to be afraid of going to the deeper end and jumping into the pool. now, we cannot stop her sehhhhh...today we went to the pool earlier. so the girls can swim for an hour before lessons. sarah started going under water lah..diving like a dolphin lah..and sarina went to the high diving board and dove into the 12 feet water over and over again. at least now, both girls do not have fear of water..tak macam mak diorang...hehe.

neway...nothing much to say also. so i let the pictures do the talking lah okay. pictures of the two lakes that we didn't spend time at.

lake calamus, nebraska

ash fall state park, nebraska...fossils of prehistoric rhinos and camels

the main viewing area, perfect specimen of the rhinos, sabre-tooth deer and camels

wild and free...

butterfly flutter by the daisies...

something for everyone..

vonage and other stuff...

itasca state park, minnesota

hmm..tap tup tap tup..dah nak dekat seminggu eh i tak update. a bit busy and well, mmg takder mood sikitlah to be frank. but, apa nak buat..dah nak jadi camtu.

first things first, vonage :) well, it works. after however many weeks that i had this thing, only recently was it giving me a litle bit of a problem. nothing major really, just that sean could not access some of the msg boards that he's been reading. well not quite that, but some peak oil sites lah. rectified the problem today. it's the vonage adapter, but solved it by going through the d-link router instead. well, more like the d-link is directly connected to the DSL modem and the vonage adapter/modem has to go through d-link. it works well now. the fee, i got umlimited calls, for $30 per mth including taxes and calls to singapore or wherever is at $0.01 per minute. my calls to singapore so far are only $2.00 the most. that means, i have been talking for 200 minutes..hehe. it's worth it i tell you. apparently, there's a cheaper package with another provider, but i can't remember the name lah. need to find out about that though. so give it a try, hey first mth free and if you don't like it, you can send it back. all free..so they say. :)

itasca state park, one of the wild flowers growing there.

so what else has been happening over here. bouts of bad weather. two tornadoes touched down near us. we got chunks of hail, golf ball size or bigger. damaged the roofs to the cars ..well any exposed part actually. good thing about insurance, most of it will be covered. but still, that is almost like a grand that we have to fork out to repair both cars. but at least it's just that. at least it wasn't totaled like being carried away in a tornado and such. i am so done with the bad weather. like today, i was supposed to take the girls swimming, but it's humid outside and forecast calls for severe thunderstorm, with damaging winds and hail.

the field of ferns...at the headwaters site.

this weekend will be my first catering business exp. well, i just volunteered my time actually helping a friend. we're fixing thai food. it's a no brainer, but who knows. hopefully all will go well eh :) will try and marinade the satay today or tonight..hehe. i am so in a lazy mood. actually kinda out of sorts too.

the headwaters, where the Mississippi river begins

i have to say though, some things have been on my mind. i tried putting it aside, but it persists. thought that i was at peace, but i guess, there's still a small part of me that is kinda perturbed. you know how it is right, when you want to say something, but it will not be taken the way you meant it. that, it gets tiring after so many times of trying to rectify the situation only to be blamed for being at fault. like that lah...so with that in mind, maybe i should just shut up. :) but maka nyer i am just a simple plain human being, full of flaws and faults, i cannot just sit there and shut the hell up..hehe. but i do have to admit that in some ways, i am better at it than others. i can take a lot of abuse. i keep it pent up inside, and hope that it will go away. most times i just let it roll off my shoulders, but sometimes, it hurts too much. and where do i go from there?

not everything is black and white....

life is too short to think about these things kan. i should focus on the more positive aspects of stuff. like looking forward to going for a swim this monday at the lake. hopefully the weather will cooperate. maybe the waters will wash my blues away. father's day was nice, in a way. not nice for sean because i was being super bithcy. really no joke. kesian dia. so will make up for this another time. we also did not celebrate it proper with him. we went to visit his parents. but still had a good time.

it is always raining in my head....

back to what i was saying, i think, the gist of my writing this all down, is to let everyone know, that i am here and will always be here. that i can be reached, via blogger, multiply and email. if you do not know my email address, here it is: bunkerangs@hotmail.com. for me, communication goes both ways. it's not just a one way sort of thing you know. i felt that i have put in effort into getting in touch with ppl that i know. and i know that most ppl are busy, so they could not write as often as they would want to. :) which is fine, but once in a while, it would be nice for me to receive a warm hello. and as much as i may not seem fair to some, i do try my best to be just that, fair that is. it is already bad enough for me, to be away from my family and my friends. to be so alone here sometimes. takder senda gurau from my siblings and all that. don't get me wrong, i am happy, but at times, melancholy sets in. sometimes, it comes and goes, while other times, some unwanted event will trigger it. but for ppl to say things, which i believe is not warranted, just hits me below the belt lah.

when it rains, it pours

but to each his own. my apologies, to anyone and everyone that i have come across, if i had at any given moment offended you. be it in my actions or my writings. especially to you, like what i had written above, i am here. will always be here for you. the doors swing both ways. i hope, you will look at the situation again, with a clear mind and see it for what it is. should it still be the same as you thought it was, nothing i say will change your views. but, if there is still an inkling in you the desire to stay in touch, drop me a line, insyallah, i will welcome you with open arms as how i have always had.

a trip of ten thousand lakes minus two :)

ni lah sean nyer favourite country..hehe..tak sadar diri betul tau si sean ni..hehehe

well, minnesota nyer slogan..land of 10,000 lakes :) yang minus two tu, kira the lakes that we stopped by but weren't impressed. one was okoboji in iowa, while the other was in nebraska..nama lake dia i nak kena tanyer sean. i have forgotten.

tengah tunggu makanan..lapar..

ni sean lagi..lapar habis..sebab tu muka camtu..sib baik i tak amik gambar lepas makan..hehe..lagi not happy.

anyway, we got into canada the same day. it was bleak and rainy the whole drive. we did not stop for lunch, instead eat chips and soft drinks in the car and eating the fruits that we had bought from the market. habis melekit kat belakang, sarah nyer pasal lah ni. hehe..seme sarah nyer pasal eh..hahaha.

our hotel

lake superior

anyway, disebabkan sean mengamuk that food was not great at the market, he refused to stop anywhere in minnesota until we get to canada lah. sampai jer we had spent like an hour driving around trying to find the hotel..but in the end, i told to stop at a gas station so i can ask. kalau nak tunggu dia..lambatlah..he'd rather drive aimlessly than asking for directions cheh! anyway, sampai jer..checked in and well, the view was nice, but the beds were small. dah lah hotel kat conference tu not that great, seems like this hotel was the same way too. then we looked around for a place to eat. most places nampak tutup gitu..so in the end we went to this place called gargoyle's. pretty pricey, so i thought that well, maybe the food would be okay lah eh.

the marina

i love the marina..kakak tangkap feeling..entah2 she was spitting...hahah

we thought wrong, it was terrible. the girls had fried calamri and i thought it was okay, but sean said that he didn't care much for it. we ordered this portobello pizza with carmelised onions and red peppers with asiago cheese on a white sauce. sounds great right? well it came and it looked good. thin crust, yumms, until i took one bite and wahhh..so sweet like someone put sugar in it. it tasted more like a dessert. since dah order kan..nak tak nak, habis kan jugak lah. i forced myself to finish it...it was awful. ( we read online later that the restaurant actually had very good reviews..but i guess we came on their off days agaknyer ) balik kat the room, sean said let's order proper pizza, so i ordered a cheese pizza and alamak..something must be wrong with this place agaknyer..it was also terrible. oily, and dry...such a disappointment and it was pretty pricey too for a medium pizza. sean dah boring sehhhhh...

love the banks kat sini..love the dandelions

ada pulak itek dengan anak dia berenang :)

besok nyer we walked across the bridge to the bay and marina and the rest of the town. i can see, how pretty this place is, but too bad it has fallen on hard times. a lot of businesses have closed down. so to revive the economy, they build a casino and that is what has kept it going. safe to say, sean said, let's jet. so we left, but by that time dah nak dekat noon and apa lagi..the girls and i dah lapar kan. sean said that he takut nak try any other eatery. so i told him why not go to tim horton's. wish kat sini ada tim horton's. it's the canadian franchise, like dunkin donuts gitu. apa lagi, i bought donuts lah and it was so good. also bought two of their cappe drinks...oh those flavoured coffee drinks lah kan..honestly, this was the first time i bought such drinks. i am not a mocha fan, but i ordered a hazelnut and a brownie flavoured one..and my goodness was it good :) so that was our lunch..:)

kesian empunya diri yang tengah lonely too..but it really sums up thunder bay

i love the bridge :)

we drove on highway ..tak tau pulak apa number and stopped here and there to look at the beautiful lakes all along the the way. it was so beautiful..but tak tahan nyamuk dia lah. besar besar sehhhh. i think we stopped at about 5 or 6 lakes and we hardly meet anyone on those lakes. except for one, where this lady asked me if i liked my camera and i said that i loved it. she said she does too because she has the exact same one..hehehehe.

Nym lake

Nym again

i have to say that i find canadians very friendly. a lot nicer than some of the americans , depending on which state that you visit of course. next year sean nyer conference will be in branson missouri..not my fav place. been there once for another conference and that was the first time that i had encountered racism. so we'll see how this time will be. anyway, after the last lake that we stopped , which was called Nym, very beautiful, we drove all the way to Bemidji, MN, where we stayed the night :) as per normal..here are more pics :)

this lake ..i tak tau apa nama dia dah lupa dah..

mall of america, mn

well, our trip started on saturday and we came back the following saturday. sean gi conference jer, the girls and i left for the mall. it is huge..2 days we spent there, i can tell you i only covered the whole of the first floor and a bit of the second. the rest tak jejak pun. too many shops and i am not much of a shopper.

welcome to the mall of america

excited betul nak gi theme park :)

anyway, first day, bawak the kids go to the theme park. they had fun, except that sarah is a wuss lah..hehe. naik ni taku, naik tu takut..yang dia tak takut cuma a couple of rides jer. the last ride for that day was this ghost blaster nyer bit..alah masuk dark tunnel in a motorised car..then tembak tembak tu jer...keluar jer that place..wahhhh..she was yelling at the top of her lungs ' get me out of here'..sampai i kena tutup mulut dia seh..so amat2 memaluken..hehe. anyway, second day, sarina nak ride this log ride, kesian kakak. ikut cakap adik kan...can only ride the safe ones. except for one ride that she got on herself :)

itu ezpression antara nak nangis and nak ketawa..hehe

sarah..let me out...hahaha

anyway, ada gambar log ride, but that one kena scan sebab the park camera took our picture..hahaha. sarah nyer muka lagi priceless. second day pergi auqarium and after that..i dah lah..had enough of the mall. evening pulak, sean drove us around. sometimes, mmg boring jugak when he does this, kira his recon mission..so we drove around to explore but tak stop to take pictures. bila dia stop, my camera pulak battery low .. dah tak leh amik gambar. sib baik brought the charger along. lawa jugak lah minnesota. i love the greenery.

our favourite food :)

biasalah..

food wise, we had good food until the last day there...that's the only day that marred our food exprience. first day, lunch we went to the food court. i had fish sandwich and sarina had sushi..hehe. murah and boleh tahan jugak lah sedap. dinner we went to the first ever singapore food place :) i had mee rebus ( a bit different lah, not as sweet and masam sikit, but pedas, best :) sean had nasi lemak and sarah and sarina had mee goreng. too bad we do not live there. i think the owners are malaysians.

one of the strangest looking fish i have ever seen..

masuk jer nampak koi pond..ikan ni macam jinak tau..dekat jer they all macam serbu to the top

second day, apa lagi, sean takder kan..the girls and i breakfasted at long john silver's..hahaha. best makan fast food :) sampai the next day, they requested again..bilang kat diorang..sorry hor..no time :) then lunch met up with sean and another dentist, and had lunch at the italian place...not bad. good tomato sauce. sedap. malam was the best part of all. we found the restaurant guide and saw a couple of afghani restaurant. we went there to have dinner and i have to say, the food is different yet familiar. it was so delicious. the girls and i and the father finished all our food. well the girls shared with me lah :) the rice alone was so lemak and yummy. different from the indian biryani tau. after that we drove around and went to wisconsin. this town called hudson. saw a small cafe there and saw all the desserts on diaplay. apa lagi...makan time lagi lah...hehe.

this jellyfish was so beautiful..

kesian nengok kuda laut ni..so sparse the tank tau..

i had harbenero chocolate cake..very rich and spicy too :) sean had the turtle cheesecake while the girls i terorder salah..they had the tres leche cake, or three milk cake. very dense and very rich. the wanted the chocolate torte, but itu ada kahlua lah..so cannot order. the last day, we went to this asian market place. saw the write up in a local paper. was so surprised to see what i had found. sebiji macam pasar kat malaysia. carpark pun macam car park malaysia. it has 4 separate buildings, but we went to only one jer, sebab sean dah boring.

it was so gorgeous..itu udang very the colourful lah..

i bought one..makan dalam kereta habis melekit2

we had lunch there, which was disappointing. write up said that the food was good, but maybe tekak masing2 lah. anyway, rupa2 nyer minnesota ni banyak asian transplants. especially the hmong community. so that was what this place was all about. saw a semi-wet market for the first time in US. tau ajer lah kan how very regulated this place is. anyway, we sat at this kopi tiam like place and ordered vegetarian fried rice, which was good, but it was cold. then ordered grilled fish, and i saw they served it with kicap potong bawang and lada. ingatkan they will give us a freshly grilled nyer..but they gave us the one that was already done, which is okay, but panaskan lah eh..nope...then i ordered curry noodles for the girls and they did not want to touch it at all.

geram betul nengok the fresh produce tau..

ni lah muka2 orang yang tengah lapar..termasuk yang tukang amik gambar :)

apa tidak, the smell was already off putting. i am wondering if it's the rebung that gave it that off taste or the smell. now, my mom used to eat rebung, but smell wise not so bad lah..this one it tasted like ada bende fermented , like our belacan but it doesn't taste like it too. it was not good eats. food wise it is different from the vietnamese or even thai food. so tu lah yang buat sean boring. but i had to point it out to him that at least it was cheap. dah tu, he tak nak explore the rest of the market..he said, let's get going to canada. so off we went there...hehehe. anyway, biasalah..more pics here :)

thunder bay, Ontario Canada...wahh..sean posing maut tu ..hahaa