Fourth Anniversary ❤

With God’s grace and providence, we have sailed through four years of marriage together.God gave me you, for the ups and downs. God gave me you, for the days of doubt. For when I think I’ve lost my way and there are no words left to say, God gave me you (Anonymous). Looking back at the two little flower girls who are now young teens in secondary school and the same church we will be going tonight to observe our Friday night's service is a good reminder that God has been good all these while :)

Happy silk anniversary, hon and looking forward to embarking on our fifth year with more memories to be created together. 

2016 in a review

Twenty-sixteen had been a great one for all of us in the family. Albeit there was no spectacular nor outstanding achievements as far as I could remember, but I intend to jot what we have come along thus far. Over the second half of the year, my girl has developed a reading habit, attended RE Sunday Classes as an underaged and had her first on-stage performance in October and another one last night during Thanksgiving Night Service, and is semi-successfully potty trained (Dec 2016), having her monthly progress fully updated throughout the year (17th-28th months) these were probably the main highlight of 2016.

After Thanksgiving Night dinner at church 

For the family, we have survived two road trips back to my hometown (Sept & Dec 2016). Back then, I would be the first to go against long hours of road trip. I used to be very apprehensive and intimidated just by the idea of being a passenger for a 5-6 hours of journey. But, the experience we gained had proved me wrong.

On a personal front, I have failed to complete my dissertation on time and had been requesting for an extension, did not complete my racing car and is dubious of myself if I can complete them before CNY 2017 (because we acquired the set during our previous CNY 2016) and let alone my long-overdue wedding photobooks which I intend to complete. Somehow, the bible verse that goes ‘You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail (Proverbs 19:21)’ is certainly right. In contrary to the ‘failures’ or delays above, I have graduated for one more time in last Sept 2016. Holidays throughout 2014 and 2015 spent for attending courses as early as Missy was barely 3 months old has officially ended. I am utterly grateful for the support and constant prayers from my beloved husband and family members. Not to mention, the in-laws who sacrificed their sleep to look after Missy overnight when she was younger.

Not having my racing car completed may be a convenient excuse to giving way to the boss to display his numerous addition of ‘cars’ (the way Missy puts them) and many other Lego buildings including a ferris wheel, carousel and a Disneyland! Talking about display, we certainly need a new platform for our mini township. Besides, I managed to develop part of our Hong Kong trip in 2013 into 4R pieces via Pixajoy (Dec 2016). I am very pleased with the end result and foreseeing myself coming back for their services soon. Such a convenience at our fingertips. On top of that, I have embarked into sewing. Loving this new hobby of mine and I am hopeful if I can come up with more projects soon rather than just altering/repairing :P

Looking forward to a better year in twenty-seventeen and Abby will be registering for Kindy in March 2017 (almost one year ahead) as she will be entering a new chapter in her life in 2 years down the road. I am wishful that I can allow her to enjoy her toddlerhood with more fun activities before writing and spelling come into the picture. Time to get a bandana with ‘Getting Organised’ mantra printed on it. Hehe. How time flies! Today is the first blank page of a brand new 365 pages book. Let's write a good one.  

RE Year End Gathering (Rehearsal)

Missy has been looking forward going to “see jie-jie and gor-gor” (the way she puts it) every Sunday and she has been asking for it almost every day and night whenever we are dressing up or going to Ah Tai’s for dinner.  But, being the youngest toddler in the RE Kindy Year 1 class, we never had a quiet and calm time sitting down when the teacher is sharing Bible stories in front. This little girl just couldn’t help but wiggling around, sometimes helping herself at the book shelf next door to her class (with connecting entrance). Yet, this girl has a whale of time during second session which typically covers crafts, music classes and dancing session. But, she wasn't that cooperative most of the time. The moment she anticipated most was the “chop-chop time” where she got to go to the front to stamp her attendance all by herself as well as “present time”, where all kids were given some goodies/junk foods to be brought home as attendance gift.

In conjunction of the coming Honouring the Elderly cum RE Year End Gathering event, the kids were required to gather at the church hall for rehearsal. The kids had two rounds of rehearsal for each class. During the first round, I diverted Missy’s attention as I foresee that she would be clinging on me just like what she did during my choir rehearsal back then and this time, I wanted to saved up some  dramatic scene despite the fact that she loves dancing and prancing around at home. She had her milk fix when her class peers were rehearsing in front. Upon hearing the music they have been practicing being played, she started to get uneasy and started to wiggle around. The presentation was still ongoing the moment she finished off her milk and wanted me to bring her to the front.

Before the second round started, I decided to let her to go up with her friends. Besides, it was a rehearsal after all. As expected, she insisted holding on my hands so I walked her up to the front pew and passed her to the fellow jie-jie (class assistant). Being the youngest (and probably the smallest too), she was carried up to the performing stairs. To be honest, I was pleasantly surprised on how natural and courageous she was on stage. It had never crossed my mind that she would be standing in front at the age of 2y2mo. 

First Song: The Lord's Prayer (Mandarin)


Second song: 'Tian Fu De Hua Yuan'

RE Family Day 2016

Our little Missy took part in her first ever Family Day a few weeks ago (170716). It was such a meaningful event for me because I have been seeing young children participating in such events last year when Abby was just a couple of months and I never expected that we will be participating too that soon (a year later) with Abby being the youngest kid in the class. I have been counting down 3 since 3 weeks ahead after getting our invitation card. 

Every family get to move around to collect stamps where these will be accumulated for prize redemption. Each family will be given a form each according to the number of children. Before moving around, we had a stroll around the redemption counter and Missy was attracted by a Hello Kitty luggage tag that cost 5 stamps. Hence, we made up our mind to achieve our 5 stamps quickest as possible for the redemption. 

Every stations were packed with people and we picked the one with minimal crowd. We started off with the fishing game. A family must be able to fish out 6 fishes in a span of 2 minutes, and the kid must contribute at least 1 out of the 6 fishes. While the boss was fishing from an adult distance, Abby and I were fishing from a closer distant (kid range). We earned our first stamp here and decided to return for our subsequent attempts.

 

Next, we went to the marble maze. Luck was on Abby as she managed to collect 3 points, as per requirement from her 5 attempts.  Each station can be frequented thrice at three different times (non-continuous basis). Another stamp collected :). 

After that, we visited the Nerf gun station. The queue was long and Missy got so busy going around as the surrounding was rather familiar to her; with BILs supervising the station and all the Nerf guns were her deh-deh’s. For this station, we were required to hit a minimum of 3 cards with one of them must be contributed by the child with about 6 attempts if I have not mistaken. The boss aced his part easily while Missy and I spent the remaining bullets to hit the child requirement. 

We returned to the marble station to have our second round of game and luck was on our side. We managed to get 4 stamps before heading to the water balloon session. Upon seeing those colorful mini balloons, she was head over heels. Here, I was asked to throw the balloons and the boss & Missy teamed up to fetch the balloon. Only 3 balloons were required as per the conditions for kid’s category. So, it was easy peasy for us and we got our 5th stamp and quickly ran to redeem her Hello Kitty luggage tag. We emerged as the first prize redeemer of the day :P

Then, we decided to have a short break by visiting the jigsaw puzzle station where the puzzle was literally finished by the 3 of us, with Missy completing and inserting a couple pieces of them.

We managed to stroll around and played all the games including coconut bowling (outdoor game), dart the balloon, hula-hop, touch & sense (where Missy was given the privilege to see, touch & tell being the youngest participant) and returning to some of the station to fill up our quotas. By the end of the session, we managed to collect a total of 21 stamps which is equivalent to 21 points. 

The only station that we did not manage a single stamp was Station 10, where Missy called as "throw shoe" while gesturing slipper tossing with her leg. Each participant is required to put on a flip flop and fling it towards respective footprints with different points, whereas 1, 3, 5 and 0 with 3 attempts for kid and adult representative. A stamp will be granted upon the collection of 20 points. 

We managed to redeem 4 items namely; a Hello Kitty luggage tag, a Hello Kitty coinbox, a smiley cup, a sticker set costing 5 points each, and a Hello Kitty pencil of 1 point. We really enjoyed the event and the little girl was so happy but too tired and slept for a good 3 hours of nap before heading out to the playground in the afternoon. 

My first bake

This is my first bake with my new oven and I think I have never successfully baked for once with my mom’s oven except for a failed attempt, once long time ago. I have been coaxing the boss to get me an oven and he finally agreed to redeem one for me with points accumulated with his credit card. The oven arrived when I was still pregnant with Missy so it has been sitting on the shelves like a white elephant for months before my aunt in law offered to teach me in baking my current favorite blueberry cheese tart after seeing me ordering them several times from my colleagues for church activities and home services.

We quickly sealed a date on a public holiday and I brought my oven to Ah Tai’s place so I could get myself familiarize with the functions and temperature of my oven. The result was good, but not as appealing as expected. I even tried to make a batch on my own to be brought to the church for Sis Nancy’s farewell party. I was flattered that it was among the fast-going food and as witty as she is, Nancy commented that the tart isn’t pretty but taste as good as those outside bought and patted me on my shoulder and said ‘you have passed’ Lol :P The recipe isn’t anything mind-blowing and is available with just a click a way with Mr Google. From what I have gathered, they are pretty much alike from one to another. But, on a personal note, I am still not very satisfied with the crust and I am still figuring out on how to make it crispier to a perfect crumble, and of course to improve the appearance of the tart :P 

Count on Him :)

It’s December and the brand new year 20 fourteen is approaching. Not forget to mention that also spells oh-so-busy days are just right ahead. Few hours ago, I have just handed up one of my assignment. Part of the burden were immediately lifted off my shoulder. But, more obligations lining up and I will not likely to be able to heave a big sigh of relief until mid January 2014! Like what my parents and boss who have always drill into my head ‘{Count on Him}, the Lord {will} bless you and keep you. 

Checking In

Woosh! It had been more than one month since I last checked in. In a blink of eye, it’s May already! Time just zoomed by and it had been a long hiatus here in my cyber-home. Earlier this year, when we are just in the first week into twentytwelve, I was about to (almost) make a come out with an ‘Acheivements & Resolutions’ kind of post. If I was to post them, one of my resolutions would be updating this cyber home of mine religiously and attribute a mere of 50 posts for the second half of twentyeleven due to my laziness. Now, I am so glad that I did not do the reflections of what had happened throughout the year alongwith my never-ending resolutions in the new year (twas 5 months back) as I can see that, ironically it might be slapping my own face with a terribly failed resolutions, topping up many others by the time twentytwelve has come to its end :P. 

Ever since I started working in March, this site had been very quiet. My blogging mojo did not diminish, neither that I am completely consumed with work nor have nothing worth blogging about; but, I am often distracted the moment I was about to type away on the keyboard and many of the time. Secondly, I am mentally and physically drained upon reaching home after an hour fifteen minutes of driving home (not on a daily basis though. Will talk about it in a separate post) and thereafter dashed for a luxurious 15 minutes of shower and drying my hair, followed on with dinner before calling it a day. Sometimes, followed by ironing and there is no time allocation left for telly time and on some of the days, I hit the sack as early as 2130hr :P. 

There are a number of events that I’ve been meaning to blog about. Updates on my work, my current life, about the boss’ several visits here (almost lost count), some new possessions, some backdated activities just to name a few. Not to mention a fair share of lessons learnt the hard way too :). Talking about lessons not learnt, I can visualise you’ll be giving me that kind of look, if not similar expression as the boss’ “Again? So, the moral of the story is?” :P Besides, I have several projects on tow, be it at work as well as for divine works. My life has taken a new spin ever since I started working in March. There were many firsts that came into my list and still counting. These had certainly put me to a greater level and I think I am a better fighter now but I am still very much of a klutz though :P.  

There were awful moments when I felt tad helpless too, and these were the moments where my mind started to stagger around. At that stage, as much as I hate to admit it, I find myself in the stage of evolving into a critical worrier who basically worries about everything! How I wished that I could evolve myself back to who I am in yesteryears where I should worry more for my mid-term and final year papers. The guy who coined the phrase  “when life knocks on your knees, you’re in the perfect position to pray” was indeed a man of wisdom. And, never for once the Lord Almighty has ever failed my prayers. Not for once or twice that I experienced a quick somersault of hope each time I talked to Him, provided me with hands whenever I needed one. 

Occasionally, my all-time favorite songs; Happy Working Song (by Amy Adams) and A spoonful of Sugar (by Julie Andrews) do come in handy when I almost  had a meltdown. I couldn't agree more that life is such a mundane without music :). Oh yeah, in case you are wondering the photo above has no relation to this post. It is an artis-tree nearby to my mom's office inspired by a Korean who has literally brought a dead tree back to life with a combination of pink and white flowers. The tree project is titled saligo-saligo, which can be translated as life or revive in Korean (via). I hope that I’ll be able to post a proper update soon :P 

It had been a busy week

Hye Hye! It has been a week since a post appeared on this cyber home of mine. Let's just say I had a busy and tiring week working on a coloring task. It was actually 15sets of 7 pieces each (more to come) of our new church building blue-print architectural plan. Apparently, I was the one with the closest work field and currently have the freest time. Thus, I was appointed to take up the task :). The boss was in KL for the whole week to get his visa to India done and to get some RM exchanged into rupees, attending his former uni-mate's wedding banquet as well as fetching a brand new Ipad2 home. Talking about this, we couldn't find any money changers here doing rupees. None, prolly due to its minority population in our state. The boss sensed some urgency for me in getting the work done and had been helpful by video-calling me from time to time to make sure that I did not drop asleep while coloring. Lol.

Beside the need to withdraw myself from web sphere for full concentration sake, I was bending myself to almost 90 degree towards the table to reach the far end of the A1 sheet most of the time, keeping my hand moving back and forth while my eyes gluing on the telly when my favorite drama(s) were aired. I was sort of targeting myself to be able to get over it in a maximum span of two days time before I get my hand laid on them. But, oh boy! the first piece for the first sheet of the first set took me a whopping 40 minutes (where the first page has the most complicated layout). All in all, everything was done only in a few hours time before submission on Friday night :).

On another church-wise update, the kids were joining the 2 days 1 night spiritual nurture program (i.e Bible Camp) last fortnight and RE teachers were required to turn up to assist in the group activities. I did not turn up on the first day, but went for only half of a day on their second day, which was also the final day. We were asked to guide and take part with the construction of an aquarium by using polystyrene sheets along with some other craft materials. Students were distributed into 5 large groups of different level and age. I found that all the kids in my group (to whom I have never taught as most of them were coming from Chinese medium class) were very very cooperative despite having me speaking a handful lip smattering Mandarin and I personally think that they did a very good job. Guess some bias-ness is allowed here as I am the purple's team in-charge *thick-skinned me* :P.

And, yesterday morning I was in-charged with the revision session with my RE students. It has been a regular practice for me to apply reward system ranging from a piece of candy to a small pack of junky or occasionally some Christian-related fancy stickers and bookmarks whenever the kids take part in the class. Few days back, my mom brought back a bag of candies, courtesy of afriend of our family who came back from China. She handed it to me and suggested me to distribute them to the fello kiddos. So, once they were done with the revision handouts, each one of them had their fair share in getting one candy each. Since the candies came in different flavor and packaging, to be fair I asked them to close their eyes and randomly pick one. For the girls especially, who luckily drew out the panda, they squealed in delight. Whilst, the rest were equally happy and starting popping into their mouth right away after the class dismisses. The look on their faces was priceless! :)

Random Snippets: NYF 2011

Apart from the two full days and three nights of intensive biblical studies and fellowship activities, I couldn’t recall any other activities or rare happenings that I wish to elaborate on. However, here’s some random snippets which I wish to pen down as remembrance sake. National Youth Fellowship (NYF) this round was the maiden activity that was held with the participation from youths nationwide in conjunction with the Independence's Day and Raya holidays. Of course, I get to know brethren from West Malaysia as well as Sarawak.

The first program begun on an evening, and the boss arrived with his siblings only by the next morning. On the same evening, I mms-ed him how the name tag looks like; atthe same time, giving him a glimpse of the green group I was in. The next morning, he texted me upon arrival while we were having our topical studies inside the church hall. I took the opportunity to ask him which group he was assigned to. This boss, as always has his tacs in dropping a hint; this was the reply from him which I’ve coined “I think it was green. Wait wait, its blue leh. Eh, or was it red ah?” :P

From that banter message of his; I have the sense that he was in the same group as me. He just love making me anxious and seeing me eager in knowing something; specifically for things that would favor me in the end of the process :P. Even banter should come with a sense of logic, that’s very typical of him :P. You will know where did all the so-called logical colors came about below. To which he deliberately said "I see few colors at the bottom of the card mah; they didn't tell me which one was meant for the group" Lol :P Those were the colors from our state flag, which was located right next to the grouping color sticker.

Throughout the program, the church hall was full to its brim. There was a day when I reach there after the program has started, I had no choice but to sit at the very last row on a plastic bench and during the break time, I attempted to look forsome empty seats somewhere in the heart of the hall, but alas, only the most front row was unoccupied. So, I learnt my lesson and on the following day, I reached the church very early to get a decent seat.

I was seated next to a lady in her 30s; who half way through the program, conveniently grabbed my hymnbook and flip opened and studied whatsoever photos/bills/meeting minutes and what-nots can be found; to which I spaced in between of the pages. That took her a good 10-15 minutes and returned the book to where it was placed earlier at the space in front of my knee without a single word throughout ;P. As for myself, I am taking that as a very good reminder that some de-cluttering is due. Shame on me :).

I don’t remember if I have taken any photos during the fellowship activities or during the choir and musical presentations. But I have not missed out taking pixs of my portion for supper throughout the whole 3 nights but this one is my favorite, to which I am still drooling when I look at it ;). Pumpkin with white fungus dessert, a mini curry puff, a lone mini red bean glutinous dessert (I have never fancied this sticky dessert, took this because of its cuteness but I still stomach it) along with two slices of less sugar cake presumably carrot cake and the main highlight was its cream, which has a tinge of saltiness, a little grainy in texture. Tasted heavenly! ;)

It's a Shore Thing

I don’t blog chronologically these days :(. All my posts are jumbled up in term of sequence/date. This post is my one and only up-to-date post thus far, pausing so many long overdued posts :P. Not forgetting, Happy Malaysia Day to all, we Malaysians are truly blessed with public holidays. You are reading a Malaysia Day post for now, but you might be seeing an Independence Day or Mid-Autumn Festival next O.o

In the morning, I tagged along my mom to join the RE class students for an excursion to the beach in Second Beach, Tg. Aru. Retired to the bed early that morning, I dragged myself up again after 5 hours sleep. Off we went to the church to join other RE teachers with the lunch preparation to be brought over to the beach.

A view of the yachts docked on the shore

Spaghetti lunch for 150 paxs

By the beach

Sandcastles by the students

It had been quite a while since I last went to the beach and bythe time we touched down, there were a LOT of people camping by the beach andthe weather was merciful too. While the fellow students were having games, Ienjoyed myself sitting under a tree, enjoying cold breeze while watching all the students having a swell of time.

The big tree I dwelled under

Feeling all zen under the not-very-shady tree

Lush greenery. I love!

Yes, the breeze was cold but it was rather sunny. The prawn-head-me have totally forgotten about my hat *sigh*. Only upon touching home, I saw a slash of redness along my lowerneck, exactly where I have neglected when I apply the BB Cream this morning.Yes, I was sun-kissed and I have forgotten about sunblock too! *bummer me* Twas fun nevertheless and I reckoned that we should do this more often :)

Happy Quarter Life

Hello September Good bye August! How time flies and I have yet posted up my thank you note and grateful prayer to the Almighty Lord for giving me the opportunity to look up at the dazzling skies for a good quarter of the century on last 13^th August 2011. Like any other years, my birthday was kept at a low-key. The day before my birthday was my last day working. The moment I touched home each day; I was nearly collapse, literally and I threw myself to the bed early. Albeit tiring and lasted for a short term, it was indeed a valuable experience for me. I thanked God for the opportunity and have no regrets upon the decision made. Tossing and while lazing on my bed that Saturday morning, I caught a glimpse of birthday greeting on our notice board hanging on my room’s door. I widened up my eyes and after ensuring that it was meant for me, I mumbled to myself “oh my, I have totally forgotten about my birthday”.

Birthday greeting from my sis on the white board

I would like to thank all my friends for the wonderful birthday wishes; be it on the FB wall, SMS-es as well as calls. The longest distance of sms I received was all the way from a friend working in Azerbaijan. I thanked God for giving me a circle of wonderful friends whom I get to know over the course of the journey we called life. I still have ex-students (6 years back) from the RE class in Sunday School greeted me happy belated birthday, jie jie last weekend *awww*. 

White gold bracelet & necklace and pearl earrings as pressie

Thank you, Lord for I am blessed with a supportive and caring family and a loving boss. For through them, I find completion and feel whole in and within it. I thank You for all the good foods I smell and savor daily, the warm and cozy shelter I dwell under, the ability to sleep soundly through the nights and waking up and wake up every day to see the sun and to breath in fresh air despite staying in our technology infused planet, the successes I have accomplished, the many failures I faced for they make me grow wiser day after another, the good health I have been granted to walk through and enjoy life to the fullest in our temporary planet Earth, among others. Thank you again, Lord.

I can read 华语

The 7th Asia Christian Book Fair (3rd-5th June 2011)

I first stumbled upon its advertisement during a breakfast at Kwong Tung Chai charcoal roasted duck Kolombong. From that split seconds, we, the siblings made up our mind to go and have decided when and what time to reach at that very moment :). Given that it was a rare occasion, less frequent than we have the chance to get up on MV Doulos, hence we wouldn’t want to let go the opportunity and planned ahead to be among the early birds on its first day. My recent English NIV bible was bought from MV Doulus back in 2007, and first brand new bible was bought when I was in my primary two. Being a banana Chinese, who can only survive speaking Hakka as my mother tongue, a handful of Mandarin along with smattering Cantonese, I cannot write Chinese characters except for my name and some kindergarten level characters at the same time recognizing some simple characters, but to certain extent.

I have been struggling and make a resolution after another, unfortunately simply mojo I have in me cannot stand alone, and self learning is almost unattainable for me without any language sifu. Heard of some bilingual bibles from some church members before, despite the pin yin availability, there were some downsides; such as the availability for pin yin were either its availability was only for the New Testament or it can only be purchased in Korea (the publishing country of this bible), and so on. So, my main aim visiting this exhibition was the wisest decision, ever!. My prayer was granted and I found a bilingual bible which enabled me to read Chinese with guided pin yin for every character, and most importantly it is a complete Bible :). How to not feel euphoric when I can tell everyone that "I can read 华语 (Huáyǔ i.e Mandarin)" ? LOL I am so pleased that it’s a Chinese with pin-yin and New King James version; instead of King James, the version my mom have been using until today but a challenge for me who have been accustomed to NIV.

Among the participating booths were coming all the way from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Peninsular Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru), China and Singapore. I got this from a Singaporean booth, the only booth selling this bible beside Johor Bahru’s, which is selling it with slightly higher price. I got my deal for a jaw-dropping deal at only RM150. Expensive? Super cheap! The retail price was RM228. What a bargain eh? :)

My concern now is to get familiarize with the index which is only available in Chinese Character. Opps, yes I am a person whose very much dependent on index :P. And I am currently scouting for a box with the right measurement (too bad they were either smaller or way too big) or hand-made (or maybe tailored) cover or casing to house my new bible =). By the way, I heart Japanese fabric with abstract design or colorful print very very much. Hope I can manage some and DIY a cover, someday!