Our little artist..

Emily loves to draw nowadays and her passion has became my collection as most of her masterpiece were dedicated to me (that's my girl!). Hubby asked me to find ways to unveil the potential in her. She decided to stop the drawing lesson when her jeh jeh stopped, so I was thinking maybe I'll bring her out to the field more frequent and by doing this maybe she'll find more inspiration to draw....

The Fact of Life

I'm sure parents will be asked this question at least once over their lifetime as a parent: "Mummy/Daddy, where do babies come from, how are they made?" LOL, I remember my daughters asked me this some time back, well this is how I explained it:

"One day daddy and mummy love each other so much that we decided to make a baby, well to make a baby, you'll need this. Mummy has an egg and daddy has a worm, one day, daddy's worm swam into mummy's body and met the egg, the worm joined the egg and a baby is formed, mummy fed the baby through the food that mummy takes each day and as the days passed by, the baby grew and one fine day when the baby decided to come out, mummy experienced a big "stomachache" and when mummy pushed hard, out came the baby, so that is how mummy and daddy made both of you"

While explaining this I made some action, of course they giggled and was amazed by the storylah....

On another note... for those who are concerned and eagered to know the updates... I was tested.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... negative through a self pregnancy test yesterday. Still no sign of menses, dizzyness has improved slightly, no sigh of nausea but still with a gigantic appetite throughout the day. :D

The king of pop - MJ is dead

I dropped Michelle to school today and on my way back I heard the song "Billie Jean" playing over the radio and I recollected the good old 80s day where my brother and I were so called "fans" of MJ, even my late mom knew him and was fond of him, songs and MTVs like "Beat It" and "Thriller" were so famous then.

While back home, I was searching a book over Amazon.com and on the top right of the website I saw this shocking news "Michael Jackson, 1959 - 2009.....". Can't believe my eyes, I googled it and read the news over the net, indeed MJ had passed away.

You see no one can actually escape death, human history revealed that no Emperor, Kings, Queens nor anybody is immortal. Life on earth is just a short journey and in the hands of the Almighty God, so while you and I are still alive on this earth today and God knows until when, let's live it to the fullness, to me a well lived life is a life lived under the perfect will of God.

Preggy?? Bigger house??

Have been having "symptoms" of preggy these few days... like getting dizzy spells, feeling uncomfortable in the morning, super good appetite the next hour and perfectly okay throughout the day... hmm or maybe suffering from mild anaemic, I was dignosed with low platate count last few months, I decided to boil a postnatal drink to boost my blood level (red dates, "kei chee" and "tong sam"), see if my menses come in a few days time, if not... it gives us more reason to search for a bigger house in which hubby is diligently working on now.

Landed property in Penang is selling at super high price and funny thing is, it's still selling like hot cakes, can't really understand Penangnite, really so many 1/2 millionaire and millionaire out there one meh? A 20*60/20*70/20*80 could easily range from RM500-700K depending on the condition (original vs renovated). It's pretty normal to spend RM500K just to buy the house frame and land, to top it up you still need to spend another RM100-150K to renovate the place into a moderate reasonable place to live in.

Haiz.... we prayed for God to provide, we merely human can only plan, outcome is in His hands.

Special gift...

Hubby bought this for me as our 10th wedding anniversary gift, a ring and a pair of pearl earrings from Lazo Diamond. It cost hubby a mini "bomb" ha ha ha, thank you dear and I love you. Initially we plan to buy a couple ring but after surveying through the choices, hubby decided a ring for me will do in which I glady submitted... since there's a promotion I got an additional pair of pearl earrings as well (ha ha one stone killing two birds) ke ke ke.

Baked Chicken - Celine's recipe

I tried Celine's recipe, you can find the recipe here

I improvised a bit as I can't find the actual ingredient used by Celine and the result is quite satisfying, the meat is tender and juicy (as stated by Celine) and the children say thumbs up, they commented it tasted like Kenny Rogers, ha ha ha.
The spice that I used (mixed herbs and chicken seasoning)

The marinated chicken

Tada.........

1Malaysia

With the newly appointed PM, we Malaysians were presented with a new concept entitled 1Malaysia. Much debate has been brought up and interested parties at large wanted to know in detail what really is in our PM’s mind.

It is communicated that the two main objectives of this concept are nation building and nation unity, which makes me to think is it our nation has not been growing or building in recent years and our nation has not been united after 50 more years of independence?

As a Malaysian I am concerned over the future of my homeland, after all this is the land that my next generation and many generations to come that will reside, live, work and spend most of the time in (if not entire life)….provided if our government is serious in delivering the results of nation building and unity.

It is also enforced that 1Malaysia supports the aspiration of our Vision2020 (just 11 years to come) of building a Bangsa Malaysia (a Malaysian nationality). I for one highly supported the idea of abolishing the columns of “Bangsa” and “Agama” in all forms filling whether in official or non-official related matters. If our government is serious in the two main agendas as communicated, it should review all current policies to support these two objectives by eliminating favoritism, bias, special privileges in all its establishment and implementations.

Well, that’s indeed a daunting task and hard-pressed road ahead for our new PM and his team to work on, in which all of these will be closely watched, monitored, measured, evaluated and criticized by average Malaysians at large. Well, to Malaysians out there, are you watching??

A or B

After been lecturing for half a year now (trial period), I decided that lecturing is what I wanted to do, so since April I've been scouting around looking for a full time lecturing position. Just this June 2 colleges (I named them A & B here)came back to me with their offers(I don't know why good things sometimes comes in pairs). After evaluating the pros and cons, probing answers to all my doubts, I somehow decided today which college to take up and gathered my guts to turn down the other offer (which in terms of benefits and salary wise is better). I may sound crazy but I prayed that God will give me peace of mind for the decision making and I'm quite at peace now, so let's continue to pray I'm making a wise decision here...

Just to share A Vs B

A - quite established, nice building, new working cubicle with laptop provided, salary is 10% higher than B with dental benefits, 25 days of annual leave, currently the department I'm about to attach with is without the head (turnover of the head is high!!), near to where hubby's office so can car pool very convenient, 5 days work..

B - growing college, older building with older facilities, desktop provided, salary is lower, no dental benefit, 24 days AL, 5 days work, flexi hour (8-4, 9-5 or 10-6), after chatting with the head, he's quite sure of what he wanted to do, free and easy guy, get to learn ODL (open distant learning)model of learning as it is affiliated with a local U.

With this evaluation, I decided to go for B.

Michelle is 1+1+1+1+1+1+1

Michelle turned seven last Thursday (11.06.09), she has been counting the days to her birthday since Emily's birthday in February.. ha ha. Since I'm not working I brought her out for breakfast then we did some shopping. On the way back we dropped by the bakery and she chose a Snow White cake. We do not plan to have any fancy celebration as we sort of celebrated during our hotel stay earlier. I should have downloaded the photos earlier, enjoy the video....(one of their friends dropped by, I only have 2 girls). We waited for daddy to come back from his badminton games for the small celebration, that's why they are in their pyjamas he he he. Michelle has indeed grown into a bubbly and happy girl, we thank God for her growth. Here is her picture at one, compare and contrast....

What really happen on 05.06.2009

Ha ha, below is the chronology of event of our 10th wedding anniversary:

8.00 - 9.00am - Get everybody to wake up and dressed

9.00 - 10.00am - Breakfast

10.00 - 12.00noon - Penang Annual Horse Show at the Turf Club open day

12.00 - 2.00pm - Lunch at the Little Cottage, next to the Waterfall Hotel

2.00-3.00pm - Check in to our hotel, wash up

3.00 - 4.00pm - Super hot swim (the kids can't resist the pool)

4.00 - 6.00pm - Rest and wash up

6.00 - 10.00pm - Dinner, a walk in the garden and Pasar Malam

10.00pm - Completely knock out

The next morning, after breakfast off we went to the beach before checking out. We had a great fun time as a family, we may plan for a similar annual trip in the future...

Waiting for the van to ferry us to the main fair venue

A picture with the clown
Daddy, the girls and the horses

The girls at the hotel lobby

The external view of the hotel that we stayed in - Bayview Beach Resort

Mei mei with her castle
Jeh jeh relaxing by the pool
Sun rise view from the hotel balcony
Daddy and Emily with their project

05.06.1999 vs. 05.06.2009

Below are the chronology of above two special occasions….

Time 05.06.1999
8 – 9 am Hair-do at the saloon
9 – 10 am Make up and get dressed
10 – 11 am The groom arrived with his convoy
11 – 12 noon Banged the door, went through obstacles by the “sisters” and demanded the bride to be “released”.
12 – 1 pm Tea ceremony and trip to the church
1- 2 pm Church ceremony, sealing of the marriage
2 – 3 pm Tea reception
3 – 4 pm Tea reception
4 – 5 pm Rest at home
5 – 6 pm Rest at home
6 – 7 pm Dinner with close family members and relatives
7 – 8 pm Dinner
8 – 9 pm Harassment session by friends
9 – 10 pm The harassment continued
10 – 11 pm Harassment coming to an end, censored censored censored XXXX ha ha ha


Time 05.06.2009 (Plan)
8 – 9 am Get everybody to wake up
9 – 10 am Breakfast & Botanical Garden
10 – 11 am Still in the garden
11 – 12 noon Lunch and trip to Batu Feringghi for a night hotel stay.
12 – 1 pm Trip to the hotel
1- 2 pm Check-in
2 – 3 pm Afternoon nap
3 – 4 pm Afternoon nap
4 – 5 pm Swimming
5 – 6 pm Kite flying
6 – 7 pm Wash up and prepare for dinner
7 – 8 pm Dinner
8 – 9 pm Visit the night market
9 – 10 pm Night market
10 – 11 pm Should be very exhausted and go back to hotel… no action so no need to censor (the girls will be with us!!) ke ke ke

I will post the actual happenings next week, at the mean time stay tuned and blog rest for the weekend…..

Matrimony thoughts...

After getting married for 10 years (not a long period but yet not short either), my deep thoughts on marriage:

You lost yourself in exchange to a new “we”
You gave up your freedom in exchange to a new bond
You laughed because it made your other half laughed
You wept because your other half is in pain
You are complete because your spouse complements all your weaknesses
You give up authority to learn submission
Both of you are not perfect individuals but simply perfect for each other

I’m not sure how many more years God is going to bless us with.. whatever it is I’m contended for the first fabulous 10 years God has so richly blessed us with. Happy 10th Anniversary my love and I love you!! Muak Muak Muak…

By the way I was looking at our old wedding album the other day… we have indeed aged…

Before, taken in March 1999


After, taken in Dec 2007


After, taken in June 2008

Here we are... enjoy

As promised this is going to be a fully photo post...

Picture 1: Guess who is this??


Picture 2: "Hello aunties and uncles.. my post pretty or not?"


Picture 3: "Hi meet my bear bear.... my companion when mummy too busy to entertain me"


Picture 4: "Ha ha, you think I'm jeh jeh or mei mei?"


Picture 5: "Ta da, it's me Emily, did you guess it right?"


Picture 6: "Another girl girl here, guess who am I?"


Picture 7: "It's jeh jeh?... Observed carefully before you decide
Picture 8: "Can't tell leh.."
Picture 9: "Ke ke ke, confused?"
Picture 10: "Last chance now"

Picture 11: "It's me lar.. jeh jeh"


Picture 12: "Here we are, when we were small, we fight little.."

Picture 13: "As we grew up, we fight more but we still love each other"

Picture 14: "Mom once threathen us that we will have to stay in different houses because we fight a lot..."

Picture 15: "At the end of the day, we still hug hug and kiss kiss one another, mom and dad just don't understand our language of love.. ke ke ke"

God's blessings

After the miscarriage episode, it took us another year before I was confirmed pregnant again, this time I was extremely cautious, vowed not to take any kind of drugs (no matter how sick I am..)

A few weeks into the pregnancy I was spotting again... the whole cycle of what I went through a year ago came back to haunt me, will I lose my baby again this time? The fear of losing our flesh and blood is so great that I doubted if I ever can become a mother.

I went to see the gynae and again scheduled for jabs to stabilize the baby, in fact I need to go back on a weekly basis to receive the painful jabs, I told myself I'm willing to withstand whatever physical discomfort if only I can keep my baby intact in my womb for the full nine months. The medication really turned my body upside down, my appetite, my taste, my mood not to forget the painful butt after each jab. Hubby was quite helpless, all he can do was to assure that we are going to go through all that together (even though it's really me who sort of "suffering")...

God is good, after a few jabs and medication, the baby stabilized, no more bleeding and suddenly one morning I felt so good (no more vomitting and morning sickness), I soon realized we have survived our first trimester... yay!!

The second and third trimester went through smoothly, though I don't gain much weight (before 52kg, full term 62kg), I was as healthy as a horse. Finally on 11th June 2002, gave birth to our first daughter, Michelle after 10 hours of labour pain (admitted at 2.00am, delivered at 12.30 noon), she weighed a merely 2.56kg...

After a year, I was blessed with our second child, Emily, borned on 22nd Feb 2004 after 2.5 hours in pain, she weighed 3 kg....

Looking back, God has been so gracious to us, I stand in awe of Him. Stay tuned for the girls' pictures in my next post..