Leahs Cafe

There was about 2 inches of snow on the ground when we got up this morning. We did not realize it snowed throughout last night and early morning! That would be the first snow of the year. The weather forecast says there will be snow storm ahead next week!!

When it’s only 1-2 inches of snow, it’s fresh, fluffy and light, it’s easy to get them off the car and side walk. The roof, tree and ground covered with a coat of snow looks beautiful! But, there is no fun when it starts melting, it gets icy, dirty and quite a mess. We are expecting to get 7-8 inches inches of snow next week!

The ground is icy and slippery when the snow starts melting. Our landlord hires a company to plow the snow. That’s the advantage of living in an apartment, no shoveling snow in the winter nor mowing lawn in the warmer months!

Former colleague is coming to America to attend a conference. I am going to fly down to St Louis, MO to meet up with her. Already booked the air ticket! I am excited to have a chance to catch up with a dear friend. She is also bringing me some goodies from home in her luggage. My two sisters got me dried shrimps, ikan bilis, belacan and air-dried pandan leaves. T and I have been craving Nasi Lemak for breakfast!!

The flight from Midway IL to St Louis MO is only about one hour, however it takes 2 hours to drive down to the airport from the boondocks we live. Since the flight leaves at 8.00 a.m, we have to leave the house at 4.30-5.00 a.m!

Today last year I arrived here don’t know what to expect. It was still cool Fall weather when I arrived. Two weeks later, we rushed to the store to get me some thermal wears! It was a lengthy and bitter winter, everyone assured me it’s not typical.

T got me hooked up with the International Cafe, I met many new people and getting to know some friends. Many people asked me what do I do with my free time since I am not employed here. Well, I am actually fairly busy in the last year. First, though I don’t work outside of home, I do work online at home a bit. Since I discovered the big wild world of coupon shopping two months after I arrived here and that has kept me pretty busy, especially when we started selling the stockpile at yard sales and flea markets .

Besides, have been donating tons of the dairy products and perishables that I got for free to the food pantry and shelter. Before I got my driver license, T helped me to drop off more than 200 bags of cheese and a few hundreds cans of refrigerated dough(to make biscuit, crescent roll and dinner rolls) at the women shelter.

I also join the area woman center and volunteer there. I do the layout and typeset for the bi-monthly newsletters. Actually, they invited me to be part of the Board of Directors, but I wasn’t sure I have time for greater commitment, so I didn’t go for the meeting last month.

We have gone to the flea market a couple of times and were doing extremely well. We started our tables at about 6 -7 a.m, by9.30 t0 10 a.m., we were SOLD OUT. If we are able to go there twice a month, it’s better than me working part time! What would you do? Slave at a minimum wage job and let Uncle Sam takes 1/4 of your pay, or have the stores pay you to shop?

I may eventually go back to school to get a teacher certification, so I can tutor math part time or teach full time in a public school. I would love to go for a Montessori certification, but there is no authentic Montessori school at this small town where we live. However, during my initial inquiry at the university near us, was told I first have to send all my certs and transcripts to an agency for evaluations. I am yet to dig out all the certs and transcripts to do that!

All in all, I am thankful to God for all the people that He put in my path during this whole year, it has turned out to be nothing I would have anticipated, but a detour that has wonderful scenery anyway!