Ok, I've got my glass of wine and master chef Australia on the TV...I am ready to write!
Another busy few weeks at the KL Kjol Household. We had a wine dinner we attended with friends and the expat group towards the end of March at a restaurant called 1919, Asian Fusion food.  Food was ok, they started us off with an awful sour plum drink, blah, and then the free flow wine started which was nice. I think there were 4 courses, didn't get to eat the starter salad as it was insanely spicy, I'm not even sure Eric ate all his and he loves the spice.  Next was fried eggplant, I don't like eggplant and this was delish! The main course wasn't that great, again spicy and fishy flavor, not great. All together though it was a nice night with great friends.

A couple days later we headed out for a weekend at the water and the Formula 1 track.  We went with our KL besties and had a fun weekend.  First day was spent by the pool and a nice Chinese dinner at the hotel.  Next morning, breakfast and off to the races.  This was my first Formula 1 experience and holy crap was it LOUD! Eric and I spent the day watching the races and hanging out.  I left just before the last race as you can only watch a car go around a track so many times before it starts to blur together.  Eric stayed and met up with Scott to watch with him a couple other guys from their seats.  I went back to the hotel and got some much needed sun and hung out with the ladies.  The boys finally made it back later and we all headed for Steamboat Chinese food.  None of us had tried it before, it's interesting but not my favorite, not sure I'd try it again.  Next day we hung out for a bit and then I headed home and Eric headed back to the races for the finals.

A quick shout out to my mom and dad for the AWESOME care package!! Face wipes, gardettos, girl scout cookies, (peanut butter patties will always and have always been the best.cookie.ever) Rudy's BBQ sauce, and some Easter goodies :) Thanks guys!

Had a dinner out with friends at a Malaysian restaurant in town called Songket.  Nice little stage set up with tables around for the Malaysian/Asian themed dances they put on during dinner. Different food, the appetizers we had were all great, but the food ok.  I'm not a huge fan of the local cuisine. Dancing was enjoyable, something different to do going out rather than just dinner.

Next up...more monkeys! Yep, can't get enough of the monkeys here!! Our friends mother was in town and wanted to see some monkeys before she left, and we knew the perfect spot to take her for an up close and personal look. We got some great pictures this time. Eric was sitting on a log and a monkey came up next to him and decided he looked like a good perch, so got in his lap!  Another monkey took perch on top of a motorbike, looked like he was going somewhere fast :)  Eric and I got to pet a monkey again, very exciting. Also saw a poor little monkey dangling from a tree limb and trying his little monkey hardest to get back up to a level that he could climb back up, but unfortunately he couldn't do it...the little monkey fell on the ground.  He was ok, but he gave us a fright!  loving the monkeys!!

This little guy was just pooped I guess.

Notice anything hanging from the tree in the middle there...???

Next stop, (a couple days later) the Batu Caves on Eric's day off on this past Wednesday for the installation of the new King. Here's a little wikipedia synopsis...
Batu Caves is a limestone hill, which has a series of caves and cave temples, located in Gombak district, 13 kilometres (8 mi) north of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It takes its name from the Sungai Batu or Batu River, which flows past the hill. Batu Caves is also the name of the nearby village.
The cave is one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside India, dedicated to Lord Murugan. It is the focal point of Hindu festival of Thaipusam in Malaysia...
Now that that is out of the way I can tell you what we thought.  Very impressive to see the gold statue at the bottom of the cave steps.  It's the tallest statue of that specific god in the world.  Monkeys everywhere, tons of people, and beautiful temples and caves.  There are 272 steps you climb up to reach the temples.  It took a couple rest stops on the way and some monkey pictures of course, but we did make it to the top.  That's tough work in this heat and humidity! We did it though, and glad we did. The culture here is so rich it would be a shame to miss any of it. 

As I have decided that we need to start crossing local attractions off the list of things to do here, we went to Aquaria, the aquarium here this weekend. It was a nice aquarium, I've seen bigger and better, but this one was nice.  The main aquarium had some big sharks, a giant sting ray, big sea turtles...gorgeous animals.  It was something fun and different to do for a little bit.

Eric has spent the last couple days in Singapore, he left Sunday and comes back tonight.  The days are the same, but the nights are a little long and lonely, glad he's coming back tonight!  Happy I have the girls to keep me company though :)

A special congrats to my little brother-in-law and his new fiance. He proposed and she said yes!! So happy for you both!!!  Can't wait until we can celebrate with them later this year.

We have a trip planned for the end of the month, woohoo, it's to Penang.  Still in Malaysia, but we want to explore our new country as much as the ones surrounding it. I can't wait for this trip, the beach, the culture, and the food!

I had my first tennis lesson today, well half of one, I split time with a friend. It was fun, I enjoyed it.  Apparently, I have a good back hand, better than my forehand. Might even take another lesson. 

I also drove today!! It was my second time to drive, both times have been only about 10 minutes, but this time Eric was not in the car with me to help with the left side.  I took the car to the grocery store and didn't hit anything, not even in the parking garage!! I'm so proud of myself :D  It's a little difficult driving on the right side of the car on the left side of the road, but I managed.  Just need to practice a bit more now when we find the time for me to.

One more bit of information I know you can't live without...I have won twice in a row in my desperate housewives of KL poker gome! YAY ME!

If you are interested, here's a link to the rest of the pictures I took at Batu Caves and Aquaria (there are some good ones)...
http://photo1.walgreens.com/walgreens/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=9644560001/a=4748092_4748092/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=walgreens/

Bye for now! :)

Back in Green

I know it's been a little while, and no excuse except I'm a slacker. :)

Lots of fun stuff has gone on since my last blog. First off was the American Ball. I felt like Cinderella, and it felt like the prom all over again (but with drinking...more fun I think) I got all dressed up, new dress, new shoes, I did my hair and make-up. Haven't worn a long dress since my wedding.  It's really nice to get all gussied up every once in a while. Eric wore a tux and we had a fabulous time.  The theme MoTown, the drinks free flowing, and the night amazing. Things started off nice with drinks and checking out the silent auction and pictures. Then we sit down for dinner and they have these little boy scouts holding up American flags and our National Anthem starts playing...oh what a sweet sound it was! The speakers needed some serious help, not entertaining in the least and although dinner was very good it was drug out over like an hour and a half.  Wine was still flowing though, so it was all good :)  After dinner was more wine and dancing and laughs. I won a couple massages and a gift certificate to a hair salon in the silent auction, yay me!  Yet to use the massages but will soon.  Made it home who knows when and just had a great night with great friends!

I have done two more cooking classes, Indian and Vietnamese.  Both Awesome.  I have not attempted the Indian yet and it's a long and scary process and I don't have a wok yet. One day I will try it and one day I will get that wok! Tried the Vietnamese with a friend and it came out delicious. We made spring rolls, with marinated chicken and beef and rice noodles...soooo yum.  I have also spent some time in the kitchen making another homemade pizza, banana bread, breakfast cookies and Chuy's creamy jalapeno ranch dip...just a few of my favorite things :)



We have also had some lovely nights out with friends. A bunch of us went to a great restaurant nearby and had a blast, ended up walking back towards home and stopping at a bar where Eric decided on a flaming lamborghini shot with a one of the other guys.  Had dinners out and in and just getting to know everyone and everything around.

We joined the expat group over here and went to a mingle last week at a bar in town. Had a good time with some friends, mostly drank because the food situation was a little bit unorganized, by a little bit I mean terrible and by unorganized I mean non-existent. They had appetizers that started about an hour and a half after we got there, but they started at the front of the room and we were at the back and by the time the trays got anywhere near us the food was gone :( we were staving!! stomachs were def eating themselves. We got a few leftovers on the dessert trays that made it through, not enough. So, what did we do, we prevailed and filled our bellies with wine and beer. I think we got enough calories in that anyway ;)

I have joined a gym and been going the last couple weeks, been at it like a fiend! I have had some motivation from some ladies that get me up and going in the mornings and I thank them for that. It would be a lot harder to make it to the gym without them.  I have finally been enjoying some classes! My gym back home was tiny and had no classes, so it's nice to have a gym here with some classes I enjoy. I'm sure you love reading about my gym adventure, but it's my blog and I'll write what I want too :-P  I know I sound like a total lady of leisure, and it's probably because I am now. Cooking classes, language classes, the gym, lunches, coffee...I can hardly believe it myself.  But if it makes you feel better I did nothing today but walk the dogs, go the gym and watch tv all day. Spent quite a few hours planted on the couch catching up on some of my US shows. Watched the latest Desperate Housewives and cried like a baby! speaking of which...I have started a Desperate Housewives of KL poker game out here. Yep, you read right. Played two weeks in a row now, poker chips, money, Texas Hold-em, wine and snacks...what's not to love! True lady of leisure this one...

Eric and I hosted our first party this past weekend and it happened to be St. Patrick's Day..uh oh..things got a bit crazy. Our theme was Green Tie Affair. Everyone wore a green tie on their person (not everyone had one on their neck..) There was vodka, jim beam, jack, wine, champagne, jello shots, beer, and Irish car bombs.  The Irish car bombs got out of hand and got people in trouble. One guy was pretty toasted early, one guy passed out on the couch and one guy passed out in bed and then got his toes painted..cough..eric..cough...There was dancing to Eagles and ACDC and fireworks in the city and the the view from our place was amazing to watch them. All in all party was great and a good time had by all. 

Enjoy the pictures and catch up with everyone later, miss you guys like crazy. <3

Selamat Pagi

Selamt Pagi Houston (and other places)...means Good Morning Houston! I have begun my Bahasa Malay classes., woohoo! I've had 2 lessons, it's once a week for 2 hours. Going well so far, learning a little bit. It's mostly about conversational Bahasa, so it's nice.  Although, problem is that I don't use it much as English is widely spoken, but it gives me something to do with some friends I have made :)

Eric and I got to see a couple Lion Dances that were put on, one in our building and one on the street.  They are really interesting and done for Chinese New Year.  Chinese New Year lasts like 2 weeks and these were marking the end on Chinese New Year.  Some kids get a little scared of the massive Lion or Dragon coming after them...shooooot, I'd be scared too if I was a kid and saw this coming for me...

I have made a couple friends out here which has helped me out a lot.  I have had a few rough days where I break down and I'm sure there will be more, but it's better now.  Meeting people makes all the difference in the world, especially since I'm not working.  Someone I really like and happens to live in the building next to us is Chantal and she is from Canada, ay. hehe.  But seriously, we have done quite a few things together, shopping, Bahasa class, dinners, etc.  Eric likes her husband too, so it's worked out nicely and she has a great 9 year old daughter. We went together into to the city one day to buy a Valentines present for the hubby's, we each bought a bottle of Moet Rose Champagne that came in a pink bottle you could write on...SO CUTE!  And they let us sample the Champagne since we bought a bottle. DELISH! 

Valentines Day arrived and so did our sea freight, YAY!!!  Eric went to work as normal, but left at lunch to help me with the arrival our precious things.  He had a little surprise for me when he got home, beautiful flowers and yummy chocolates! mmmmm. The movers did a fantastic job and unpacked all of our stuff and set up our bedroom and everything by 4:00 so we still were able to enjoy a nice Valentines Day together.  The big items we brought over were our couch and bedroom suite.  OMG our couch and bed are wonderful!! It was like Christmas and we got all new things, very exciting :)  The couch we were using left here by the landlord quite frankly sucked. It was rough and scratchy and just not comfortable.  Eric was in heaven when he sat on our couch.  He almost didn't want to bring it because he was starting to not like it anymore, but he thanked God when he laid on it here, lol.  He has promised to never say another bad word about our couch.  And it's so nice having our bedroom set here, it actually fills our room very nicely and it's indescribable how wonderful it is to sleep on our comfortable bed. Eric also made me an awesome dinner for V-Day. Stuffed Chicken Parmesean! So good, he is quite a man.  Here's a few pics from the move and Valentines.

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(the kitchen looks a lot better now) :)

my beautiful flowers!

<3



I went to a grocery store last week that had a lot of expat items and you won't believe what I found! Cool Ranch Doritos!! I was so excited, I had only seen flavors we don't have in the states like Chili (the pepper not the dish) and other weird ones. Couldn't believe I found my favs, I bought two bags and then when I got home I proceeded to eat almost the entire bag (I think I left some crumbs)...whoops! Oh well, totally worth it, I have been portioning out the second bag I got :)

One of the big malls here had a huge bear statue display for a few months, it was bears painted for countries from around the world, US had a pretty nice looking bear, if I may say so.

We also went to a rug auction this weekend. That was very interesting and a lot of fun. It was a silent auction/rug auction fundraiser benefiting a village in the Philippines that was destroyed by a typhoon.  Eric had way too much fun with his little number card for bidding, I was worried about him. Luckily I was there to keep him in check a little and let him lose some of the items we were bidding on. We ended up with a runner rug, the small rug shown in the picture of our bedroom (it's a Persian), a small one for framing, a hookah, and two Balinese figurines he won in the silent auction. All in all, a lot of fun and we got nice things for relatively cheap! SUCCESS!

This is just a pic of the auction, not a rug we got.

This is our score, minus the Balinese figurines.

Just so you can get an idea of how cheap the food can be out here, listen to this.  We went to dinner Saturday night with two other couples and one of their children and a guy and his 16 yr old son, so 9 altogether.  2 bottles of wine, plenty of beer, 4 crabs, and other meats and veggies at a Chinese restaurant. Everything was awesome and we all got our fill, we were there about 3 hours...the grand total for our bill...RM 1000. That's it, a little over $300 USD for 9 people to eat and drink good Chinese food. Ridiculous!!

That's about it for now, have a wonderful day! :)

p.s. A special congrats to a dear friend of mine Nicki and her new fiance Tommy!! So happy for you guys!!

haha...little Lucy!

 Sunrise over the towers from our living room...pretty nice



The Girls are Here, The Girls and Here!!!

A couple of metionables that should have been mentioned in the last blog, but I forgot...

1. Eric already got pulled over by the police. For what you ask, if you know Eric you can probably make a decent educated guess. Survey says...talking on his phone.  Yep, he was pulled over for talking on his cell phone.  Apparently, it's ok to drive like a nut but not talk on your cell while driving.  Things are done a little differntly here though, Eric asked the officer if he could 'pay his fine' directly to the officer. Eric paid RM100 which is a little of $30 to get out of his ticket.  Normally it only takes RM 50, but he didn't have a RM 50 on him, oh well.

2.  Eric and I found an Outback Steakhouse and had lunch there.  We took it back to where it all began, as Eric and I met at an Outback in Houston. Awww, the memories :)  We had a Typhoon Bloom instead of a Bloomin' Onion...YUMMO

We went on our first vacation over here.  We went to Pangkor Island, left super early Saturday morning and spent 5 hours in the car getting there and it should have only taken 2-1/2 hrs.

(Side note to send a shout out to Eric who as I type is messing with his ipad and playing our wedding song <3)

So, 5 hours later and lots of Chinese New Year traffic and we made it to the port where we pick up the ferry to the island.  I had been told not to expect too much, so we lowered our standards a little and were pleasantly surprised when we arrived.  The beach was nice, the water was good, the swim up bar and bartenders were DEF GOOD, the room was ok.  We had a great time, met some nice people, actually met a couple on the ferry that were from Houston, go figure.  We chatted with them over the weekend and some other people and just had a great time.  We rented a little 100cc motorbike for 2 of the days and cruised around the island and saw some sights and had some good food and felt the wind in our hair (a little scary for me riding with Eric, but we survived) He really enjoyed as it's been a few years since he's been on a bike.  We went to a Chinese Temple on the island as it was during Chinese New Year, it was really cool.  They had a mini great wall surrounding the entire grounds, dragons everywhere. Just really cool to see. Pics are attached in the link listed below.  We also saw some Sacred Rock, which is just as it sounds, it's a rock. Not sure why it's sacred, and we saw a Dutch Fort that's been left on the island, it's really small and not much to it.  They had birds and wildlife everywhere.  They had hornbills which were pretty neat looking birds.  I had gotten up from my beach chair to check out the birds next in the tree next to me to turn around and find 3 of the hornbills on my chair eating my fries, ha!  I fed some peacocks too :)  We saw some monkeys sneak into someones room that left their door open and they kept coming out onto the balcony with the food and go back into the room when they ate it, just back and forth, it was HI-LAR-IOUS! (pics in the link below)  Watch out for those mokeys, lock your doors!!! Monday night they had fireworks and they released 4 huge lanterns into the air from off the beach, it was really neat to see.  I thoroughly enjoyed our first Chinese New Year experience in Malaysia! But, it can't last, Tuesday came too soon and we headed back to KL, vacay over, boo :(



More pictures in this link if you are bored or interested...there's like 250 pics : /

http://photo1.walgreens.com/walgreens/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=8971931001/a=4748092_4748092/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=walgreens/

On our way back home we stopped by the airport (after getting a little lost) and saw the girls who arrived in KL that weekend.  Man were they happy to see us and I was so happy to see them too!  They were delivered to us on Saturday Jan 28th. So happy to have them home now.  They were a little upset at us though. After Lucy calmed down, it only took about 3 hours for her to start breathing normal, I gave them baths and once done they both preceeded to pee on the floor, awesome...Ava also pooped on the floor like a minute after that, awesome again.  They have since calmed down and seem to have adjusted well.  They actually like their stroller that I have to put them in to take them down the elevator and off property to go to the bathroom.  It's pretty funny to see them in there, they just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Eric's birthday was good. We went to the KL Tower, they have a revolving restaurant like Spindletop, only a little higher.  Enjoyed the buffet dinner and a couple drinks then headed to Changkat Street (a smaller scale 6th St) to a Whiskey Bar where Eric got a nice glass of scotch and a cigar.  Good Times!

We bought our first piece of art over here. I am very excited about it. It's a Batik painting, it's done on a cloth and outlined, waxed, painted, waxed, painted, waxed, etc etc....all in all it's really cool and I LOVE our piece. It's called The Goddess.

We now have cable and internet...WOOHOO! I can't believe we finally got interent, about freakin' time Malaysia, about time! Everything runs a little slow here (and that's being nice).

Hope all is well with everyone, we miss you guys terribly and I miss Bed, Bath, and Beyond! I took it for granted before. Cherish it my friends, cherish it. That and Target! I am starting to get a little homesick, but I'm doing good.  I've met a few people and started to make a few friends. 

Eric had Wednesday off this week and he gets Monday and Tuesday off next week, so we have another 4 day weekend ahead of us to enjoy and make our way around the city figuring it out a little better.

Stay Classy :)

one last fun one...this is my impression of godzilla  ;)