lifeonplanetmum.com

This morning, around 5am, I was woken up by a loud rumbling sound and the sensation that our house was shaking. It sounded like someone was dragging very heavy furniture across our wooden floors.  I woke Matt up and he ran down to check to see if anyone was in our house.

It only lasted for a few seconds and we went back to bed, mildly scared and anxious. This morning, someone called me to collect boxes that I am donating away and she said she was up, “since the earthquake.” I was like, “WHAT?” I never knew Maryland was on a fault line and it seemed like the epicentre of the earthquake was about 2 miles away from us.

This is Matt’s fourth earthquake experience and my first. I can’t say that I want to experience it again!

James’ big day today! He came 7th overall with his timing. 30.82 secs. It was pretty cold this morning, about 16 deg C.  Poor boy! But he was so happy because he was the “first.” (Nevermind that the others were 6 year old kindergartners!)

So we are learning how to use coupons and make them really work.  As I cut everyone’s hair, our clippers became blunt. I suppose there must be a way to sharpen them but then Matt spied this great deal at Rite Aid’s, a pharmacy like Guardian, Boots or Watson’s.

On their website, there are two coupons to the total of $15 off and separately, the manufacturer, Wahl, have a $5 mail in rebate.

The clippers cost about $25 and after tax, Matt paid $11 for them. He sent off the mail in rebate and we are waiting for a $5 cheque back from Wahls! We ended up paying only $6 for this fantastic set!

Cameron’s class had a class project where they have to write about an animal.  He chose the Panda and we went to the library to borrow every book they had on pandas.

One of the funny things here is that parents cannot really help their children with the school work.  For the first six months of the year, Cameron was given projects and whenever he misspelled something, I would help him correct it.  Then one day, he came back and said his teacher said I had to stop helping him with the spelling (a few kids as well had to stop it) This is so different from the British system we are used to in Malaysia and Singapore.  I personally think Cameron’s spelling is atrocious but whenever I ask him to re-spell it, he pipes up, “But my teacher says you can’t help me and I am not going to change it!” I hope this will change at the new school.

So this project involved writing five facts about the animal and a drawing.  It was tough man.  Cameron hates writing or doing any sort of homework so it was good that we had 3 weeks to pass up this homework.

After the project was handed in, parents were invited to go look at the “Zooseum Gallery”.  Kids from kindergarten were all lined up against the wall, seated. Behind them, were the projects that they had worked so hard on. I was a bit surprised at the layout.

Then they invited all the elementary school kids from Grade 1 to 5 to view their work.  They would stop at a certain child, ask them, “Please tell me about your animal.”  The kindergartener would have to stand up, give a short presentation on their animal and answer questions before seating down again.  I thought this was an excellent way to teach children presentation skills.

Cameron was lamenting that no one asked him.  I thought that it might have been because I was hovering over him so I stood further away and very soon, many Grade 5 kids asked him about his project.  Cameron is always saying he has no friends, which breaks my heart, but I realised that he does have lots of older friends.  The kindergartners have recess with the grade 5 children and he plays frisbee and basketball with them.  I love how the Grade 5 children in this school are so nurturing towards the younger ones.

Cameron’s Panda Project.

The little girl standing up to present her project to Grade 1 children.  As you can see, it was crowded and soon, we were all running outside to get some fresh air.

The project ended with a trip to the zoo to see the animals they worked on.  I had never seen a panda before so it was a real treat to be able to see one.  It had its bottom to us though, so I did not take a photo.

These are some of Cameron’s classmates. I love how they do not wear uniform to school here.  This will change with the new school, sigh.

Cameron with the lion in the background.

On Saturday, it was National Train Day.  All across America, certain train stations had activities for kids and adults so we trundled on down to Union Station, where it is a hub for the long distance trains.

The station was really beautiful - like most train stations all around the world, Flinders Street in Melbourne, the KL train station (the old one) so this was no exception.

Anyway, the boys were thrilled because they got to go inside the very fast train, the Acela train, which runs from Washington DC to Boston.  It goes up to a maximum speed of 150 miles per hour.  As the boys are train fanatics, it has somewhat rubbed off me a little.

This was the business class. It was funny to hear the chap who was giving the tour say that Obama’s stimulus money went into refurbishing the carriages.

That was all we got to see because we had to queue for hours in order to see this train. There were bands playing (from the local high schools) craft for kids, miniature train sets running around.  It ignited James’ interest back in Thomas the Tank engine series - but begged me not to tell anyone about it because he thinks it is for babies.

We are taking a break from blogging about housing, even though it has obviously on our minds all this time. During spring break, as a treat for the boys, on one of the Fridays that Matt had a day off, we drove up to Baltimore to take them to the Baltimore and Ohio train museum. I don’t really know much about the history of all the cities in the area we live but it is a historical place.

As we approached the city, two things was quite different about the cityscape as compared with DC. There were really tall buildings! It was like the Melbourne skyline, coming in from West Gate Bridge. We then realised that there were no tall buildings in DC.  Matt explained that because of the White House, there was a height restriction to how tall buildings could be.

The second thing we noticed was how seedy the area was.  People joke about Baltimore as the murder capital of the world (it used to be DC) and we certainly felt threatened as we drove by the streets.  We started locking our doors and warning the boys not to make eye contact with anyone.  Perhaps we are paranoid but we didn’t want to invite any trouble at all.

Soon we were at the B & O Railroad Museum. The boys had a ride on an old diesel train.  James was mighty upset that the train was travelling at something like 20 miles per hour but I had to remind him this was an old train.

Here is a photo of James before the train started moving.  He was really grumpy afterwards and took a while to come out of his mood.  Cameron was with Matt in another carriage. Just because! Notice his “bowl” haircut? I did that! (proud mama!) Luckily he is not old enough to be conscious of things like that. Whew!

There was a beautiful roundhouse - the first I have ever seen. The boys have a toy one and we see them all the time on Thomas the Tank DVDs.  This was just a beautiful structure. I took photos with my iphone, which did it no justice. You have to be there in person to marvel at the architecture!

Sorry, picture gets all funny when there is not enough light!

The top of the round house, shot from the bottom.

This is a very crappy shot, but it is the only one I’ve got. The roundhouse houses all the old trains. It was amazing, seeing history coming to live almost, in front of us. Being able to see, feel and touch some of those initial vehicles and to know they were the very first trains, it was just humbling to know how far we have come.

Little House On The Prairie, anyone? Funny because we are reading to the boys about Laura Ingalls Wilder and showing them the TV series that I used to watch as a kid. When they saw this, they were excited that they got to touch “Laura’s horse drawn cart.”

Outside, there were miniature trains whizzing around.  It renewed the boys’ zest for getting an LBG train set in a G gauge. We promised them one as soon as we got here, but they closed down their business last year and was bought over by another company - I think, because they are now selling again.

The miniature trains were running in this beautifully landscaped set up! I wish I had nicer photos to show but that is what we get for leaving the DSLR behind.

Overall, it was a good day. They have Thomas the Tank here too, but Sir Topham Hatt has an American accent. James thinks it is not cool to like Thomas anymore and gets very irritated when we suggest things that are “babyish” to him, so I guess we won’t be visiting it anytime soon!

We have had such wonderful weather lately, top of high twenties (I still think in Celcius ) and the boys have had their spring break from school.  Today it was as hot as Singapore! 31 C!

The boys have been taking advantage of the hot days and been wading in the creek, James has been cycling in the park area behind us.  Neighbourhood children were out, catching fish in the pond - Cameron was so excited because he got to touch the little fish.  They were too small to be eaten but it was just thrilling for them to catch the fish.

Pointing at fish and turtles in the pond.  Bryan, James’ classmate came over for the whole day.  It was only when I took this photo when I realised Cameron is as tall as Bryan.

The boys checking out the wild geese that visit our neighbourhood pond every now and then.

Cameron is very headstrong in what he wants to wear, I did not match his clothes for him! (disclaimer!) Bryan came over in long sleeved shirt and jeans but it got too hot so he had to borrow Cameron’s clothes.

The boys looking for rocks. They had so much fun, Bryan found a ball and they played water football and water tag in the creek.

I will miss them when they go back to school tomorrow!

In the USA, if you know how to use discount coupons for your shopping, you can make a killing or in other words, buy things for almost free. There is a skill to it, it is not as easy as it sounds. I have a Malaysian friend in Florida who does extreme couponing and she has appeared in the local news more than once. She shops for her whole family - she has one child and she has managed to keep her grocery bill under $1,000 for the whole year. (correct me if I am wrong Jamy)

Anyway, what makes it so difficult for me and many people, is that you have to keep track on the internet, newspapers and weekly advertorials that come into your mailbox, pair them up with manufacturer’s coupons to combine them with in-store cash back rewards to get one item for free.  Some stores will honor their competitors’ coupons because they would rather you shop at their store rather than their competitors.  Say for example, you have a $1 off coupon at Safeway’s but you happen to be at Giants. You present the Safeway coupon to them and they will give you the discount. Not all stores do it, certain branches will.

Take a look at this video here of a lady in Massachusetts who is being interviewed by ABC TV.  You will be totally amazed at her bill at the end. This lady gets everything for free and ends up only forking out something like $0.01 for her whole cart! This is a must watch!!!

I know I keep going on about how easy it is to shop here but I have never experienced customer service like this before in any country.  In October of last year, I bought a Kitchen Aid toaster. It cost $30 more than any other toaster on the shelf and I was debating whether to get it or not.  After all, there is nothing “connoisseurish” about making toast!  A lady came by and said to me, “Get the Kitchen Aid! I bought one for my daughter when she got married and I have one. It is solid and lasted me for years!”  I was sold. Oh how easily influenced am I!

So imagine my surprise and disappointment when a few days ago, Matt reported that it was broken and was not working.  I thought gloomily that I had to buy another one, as you would in Singapore or Malaysia or even Australia. I am never the type of person who sends off warranty cards to register a product after I have bought it.  I had also thrown away my receipts - too much junk in the house already - so there was no way I could get it returned.

Anyway, I just tried customer service and explained to the lady on the phone that I didn’t have any of my records.  She just asked me for the serial number of the product and worked out it was within a year of my purchase.  Next, she said, “We will send you a new one by Fedex and inside is a return label. Please send back your old toaster in the box and use the label (so that it is free of charge) I don’t even have to leave the house!

Wow. I was like, absolutely stoked. America, you rock!

A friend of ours in Tasmania, Australia was writing on his Facebook account excerpts of a book he was reading, “Fat, Forty and Fired” by Nigel Marsh.  It was hilarious so I went to Amazon to order it.

It was $0.01 (from the Used Book section) hardcover and postage cost me $3.99!  Less than a week later, the book is here.

Matt ordered a cooker/BBQ grill, the sort he had always dreamed about when he was living in Singapore and Australia.  It is one of those that is used to smoke meats and it was as simple as finding the best deal within the USA and shipping was free!

We have ordered all kinds of stuff online here, we find that the malls don’t have as much as what the websites offer nowadays.  Can you believe, we bought our snow tires online too?

Ah…. this is what I LOVE LOVE LOVE about living in the USA!