Filed under: Family
I love hosting parties. I like to arrange our table for dinners. I love having tea parties at home. But usually, our parties start in October every year. Schenker’s birthday is in October. Samantha’s birthday and our wedding anniversary is in November. We celebrate Christmas in December and my husband’s and my birthday in January. Once October starts, I would be very busy planning for dinners/parties.
So this October, we’re celebrating my son’s 5th birthday. He specifically asked me whether we could celebrate his birthday in Megakidz, Midvalley mall. We’re not sure though because it is expensive to hold a birthday party there. Also, it’s a school break. Not sure whether his friends will be around to attend the party. Of course, I have to think of sending party invitations so I would know how many could attend.
Schenker’s and Samantha’s birthdays are exactly one month apart. So have to prepare in advance, especially on the finance department. Then a month later, there’s Christmas. And you have to think of gifts for friends and family members. There really is a lot of things happening for us, especially on the last few months of the year.
The good thing though is… I love doing it. I love preparing for parties. I love wrapping presents. I love cooking for guests (I just hate washing dishes). I love preparing our house.
July 22, 2009
I have given away a lot of things already. I didn’t wanna take the things we don’t need into our new home. I was telling my son that we have to give away some of his toys to poor children. He asked why? I told him they’re so poor they don’t have money to buy toys. He said: Mommy, I don’t want to give my toys. I asked why. He said: we better give money so they can buy new toys for themselves. LOL. So true. Why would we give them old ones, anyway? Sometimes kids have more logic than their parents.
I notice though that the more we give away things, the more we acquire more. For example, we’re giving away our cassette player but in return, I wanna buy an XBox! LOL.Last year when we went to visit friends for Chinese New Year, we had fun singing karaoke through an xbox. I’m sure my kids would love to have it too.
For the meantime, I will TRY not to accummulate things too much.
June 27, 2009
The recent holiday places we had gone to was totally different from the places we usually go to as a family. We used to go to a place and just do a bit of family activities, eat local food, rest, and just spend time with the kids. This time, we were on the road a lot. The place we stayed at in Hong Kong was far from the center. It took an hour to get to the places we wanted to go to by MTR (rail). That’s why it was very tiring. Now that we’re back, we need another holiday just to rest. Hehehe. For the meantime though, I’m off to looking into Outer Banks rentals. After that, I’m back to work. Ciao!
May 8, 2009
I know I am still in Camerons mode. What to do… the place was just awesome. It’s a perfect place to go for retreat, family fun, and just pure holiday. So what do I love about Camerons?
1. cool weather
2. tea and scones in the middle of tea plantation
3. great view
4. beautiful people (must be the cool climate that makes them beautiful. LOL.)
5. water falls
6. historic hotels
7. steam boat
8. indian food at Kumar’s, especially the banana leaf food. super delicious!
I don’t mind going back there over and over again.
March 25, 2009
My son surprised me when one day he said “Salamat Pagi” (Good morning in Bahasa Melayu). He’s learning another language alright. And I haven’t even started teaching him my own language.
Also he loves to sing (he makes or composes his own songs sometimes) or music in general. I know that most (if not all kids) are musically inclined. But he’s different. He could tell what instrument is playing by just listening to it… i.e. piano, guitar, trumpet and drums.
Today, he was in a singing mood. I couldn’t understand what he was singing so I didn’t really bother… until my husband started recognizing the language. Hubby studied Mandarin also when he was in kindy. He told me to listen to our son coz he’s singing Chinese (numbers). I quickly grabbed my (new) camera and asked him whether I could take video of him singing. He said yes, so I shot a video straight away. (with his sister’s voice in the background). This was the second time I heard him sing Chinese. The first time was when he came home after their Cultural Festival party and he was singing Gong xi…. gong xi… gong xi… gong xi… something like that. I recognized the song coz you can hear that all over Malaysia now, for their Chinese New Year Festival.
February 6, 2008
Last December was the most trying time for us. We were so broke. Of course, nobody knew coz I made it a point to make our Christmas holidays special, with or without money. Most of our Christmas dinners were on potluck so I didn’t have to spend a lot on buying groceries for our food. I just bought some new things, small small things for our house decoration to make an ambiance for Christmas. The giveaways I prepare for each guest that come to our house was not that expensive either. I just wrapped them in a very special wrapper, which was recycled, and voila! I have created a very special Christmas Surprise for my guests.
Well, you might wanna ask me why we were so broke. Actually, throughout the year, we have used our credit cards tactlessly. By the end of the year, we have reached our credit limit and we couldn’t use any of them. Plus, there’s a lot more things we spent that even our money in the bank was used up. So the main reason of our being broke was the misuse of our credit card.
That’s why, for the new year 2008, hubby and I have resolved to be careful in our spending habit. We have learned a lesson. Expensive lesson it may be, but quite a good lesson.
January 23, 2008
I rose up early in the morning. At 6:30. I was excited. Anxious. Mixed Feelings overcame me. The feeling I felt when I was going to give birth to him. Once again, I turned to Him. Cried out to Him for comfort. Not for me, but for my son.
You see… I never really exposed him to different people without me or his dad. We were always there for him. I could only count the times when I left him to the care of other people. The first of which was when he was 16 months old. I left him to Archee aunty and my Filipino friends, Alve, Mian and Barbara. We went to Bali, Indonesia for 5 days. The next time we left him was a few hours only with Aunty Pauline and Aunty Jac, our Chinese friends. We went for a movie then. He was already 2 years old. The next time was only for 30 minutes with Joshua and Janke when his dad and I went to buy some things from Taipan. The next was last December, when hubby’s parents came to take care of them and we went for a Movie (Beowulf – I need to write my review about this movie). And that’s it. So I literally cried our before God. No. I’m not exaggerating. I felt so nervous and excited at the same time.
I showered. And I woke him up, showered him, and put on his first uniform. He looked so dashingly handsome in his uniform. I felt the pride swelled up deep within again. I snapped shots. Hubby and I took turns.
Then we drove off to his school, which was a 2-minute drive only (10-minute walk). His grandmother came with us, to witness his first day of school, which was a bad idea (more on this coming up). I went with him inside his room. He was placed in the En-Beethoven class. The other class was En-Picasso. Nice class names they got.
When the class was about to start, the main teacher asked the parents to leave. He refused to let go of me. And he started crying. My excitement and nervousness faded… Reality crept in. My heart broke to see him crying like that, calling out for me. But I have decided to release him on that day. If I stayed with him, I felt that I would only make it harder and longer for him to adjust.
The grandmother (as I’ve told you, was a bad idea) kept showing her face. She said if he knew we were there outside, he’d be comforted. I told her if he knew we were outside, he’d keep calling out for us. She sarcastically remarked “Ok. You know your son better.” But she kept showing her face. I understood her, alright… being a grandmother, she just couldn’t to bear seeing her grandson in such a traumatic situation. Good thing I managed to talk to the main teacher (there’s five of them in one class, one main teacher and 4 helpers) to talk to MIL to stop peeking thru the glass window. She stopped at first but later, she did it again, when the kids went out to the playground. She started talking to him and the boy wanna start crying again. The teacher told granny to go off it seems coz I saw it from a distance. That’s why I said it’s such a bad idea to have a grandma on the first day of school. I know it breaks their hearts to see their grandchildren cry out for people they’re close with in such a new situation, new people and new environment. But we have to get used to it the sooner. Otherwise, we’d just make it harder for our kids to adjust.
This is just a quick tip to those parents who are sending their children to school for the first time: talk to whoever goes with you… and decide on an unanimous decision before going to school. or better yet, don’t let others go with you. it spoils the plan.
Anyway… when the grandma stopped peeking thru the windown, the boy stopped crying already. phew! When the class was over, each of them was given balloons. They have free snacks also, btw. And when they came out, I was ready to receive him. I opened my arms wide and welcomed him, and congratulate him for his first day at school.
We both survived! LOL. I hugged him and he hugged me back like crazy. When I looked at him, he looked like he was happy only… like he never cried at all. LOL. And I asked him whether he liked the school or not, he just said yes. And when I told him to say good-bye and thank you to the teacher, he did it also, without hesitation (which he normally does when he meets new faces). And when I told him to tell the teacher “see you again tomorrow,” he also said that to the teacher. Hehehe.
This is his after-school look. 
So while we were walking home, I asked him what he did inside the room. He said he cried. And I asked him whether he would cry again the next day, he said no mommy, i will not cry. Hehehe. Talk only.
We came home feeling very exhausted. We were there for only 2 hours but I felt like we were there the whole day. It wasn’t a happy first day of shool… but what to do? It’s pretty normal for kids like that who are so attached to his parents. I think Samantha will handle it better coz now, we knew better, right? Hmmm… I hope so…
So, this was my boy’s first time in school. I will write more on his adjustments and how he copes with school next time.
January 10, 2008
Another new year has come. It’s time to reflect the year that has passed… and create resolutions for the new year. Time to do up all what has left behind the past year. It has been a busy new year for us, especially as a family coz our boy is starting his school already. He’s in pre-school 1 and today was his first day. On top of that, it’s my husband’s first day in training school for this year. He’s directing a training school which runs from January until March every year.
This reminds me that our car insurancehas expired and we definitely need to register again for this year. We usually ask our friend to do it for us coz my husband is always too busy to register. We just couldn’t fit it in his schedule. And I don’t drive. Not that I can’t drive. I can. But I’m not used to driving on a right-hand road. We use left-hand driving in the Philippines – American style. Here in Malaysia is British style so they drive on the right side.
So, as I was saying, we usually ask a friend to do it for us. But what if that friend is busy? I checked some auto insuranceonline, whether we can apply online. I found some auto insurance quotesand tried opening it. Will probably apply online if my friend is too busy to do it for us this time. And have to do it fast coz the auto insurance has already expired.
January 7, 2008
I left Philippines in year 2000 for work in Thailand. The first few weeks seemed forever. That time, I wasn’t really that technologically knowledgeable. So I had to make very expensive phone calls just to update my family on what’s going on about my life in Thailand. It was the most difficult time for me as I was very attached to my family… and knowing that I was far away from them made my heart really ache to see them and talk to them.
Of course, I could do emails. But that was it, until a friend told me to use chat onlines instead. I was so excited! In fact, the first few times that I use online chat, I made a lot of friends from different parts of the world. It was indeed interesting.
The problem was, how to get my family to chat with me. Then I discovered there were so many free chat rooms in the net. At first, I told my sister. And she was all excited to know she could easily connect with me thru chat rooms. Then she told my parents about it. The next thing I know, I was chatting till I dropped with them.
January 5, 2008
The clock was silently ticking, doing its own countdown. Hubby and I sat, waiting for the clock to strike at 12:00mn. New Year’s eve was different this time. We have decided not to do anything coz (except that I have prepared 12 different kinds of fruit on our dining table) we had a lot going on on Christmas and we were having a get-together on the 1st of January. Hubby and I had our own personal reflections before the New Year’s eve…
When the clock stroke at 12:00mn, we greeted each other, got mushy mushy a bit… then we started sharing our own personal reflections… of life’s challenges for the past year 2007… and of God’s greatness inspite of these challenges.
It was, again, very special. We had a break down of our evaluations. My breakdowns were: spiritual, physical, emotional, phsycological, financial, and intellectual. Hubby’s one was for individuals like me, his kids, his family, his work, and his friends. It was very interesting… especially when we evaluated our resolutions the other year. We got better in some areas, in some areas we need to work out more a bit.
Our resolutions have once again been written down…
We’ll see what we can do about these… if we can do them. We set up a not-so-high ones… just nice for us to be done, to be reached.
But one thing in our resolutions that stand out and will always be there is to be always beautiful. Hehehe.. who doesn’t want to be one? Am not talking about physical beauty (although it’s in one of those that were listed down)… But a beauty deep within. Be beautiful inside and out… and that’s to be a blessing. A blessing in all aspects of our lives. It’s not what we get or earn (a respect, an appreciation, or even acknowledgement) that matters… It’s about what we sow or give that builds eternal treasure that matters the most. To be a blessing in terms of giving out ideas, sharing of talents, knowledge and above all, friendship.
We ended up our reflections with prayers for the year 2008.
What about you? What did you resolve to do this year? Care to share?
January 2, 2008
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