Christmas 2008!

Merry Christmas to everyone. May everyone of you out there have a joyous celebration this year with your love ones.

As for me,on the eve of Xmas, I had spent my time with the Shermans to be part of their family tradition to bake sugar cookies. I am terribily thrilled, just because I thought it would always be fun to do something together with the family especially I am away from home this year. While I was looking at Crosswalk devotional before I went to bed last night,I was reminded the purpose of celebrating Christmas. Amidst all those shopping and gifts,the coming and the birth of Jesus Christ is the biggest salvation to all mankind on this special day.Today as I wake up and celebrate the first coming of the Lord, like a new beginning, I thank god for all the wonderful blessing and amazing journey he has been with me for the past year. It has been trialing but looking back and seeing how how much I have grown personally and with others, I knew I wouldn't come so far without his strength and help.Thank you, my abba....

"He who came as a lowly man to serve will assuredly come to take the reward of His service. He who came to suffer will not be slow in coming to reign. This is our glorious hope, for we shall share His joy." ( Faith Checkbook, December 25th 2008)

Winter Bliss

Trying to slow down myself after the past year of being on the move all the time--balancing work and study and pushing myself to my limits. Today was awesome. I walked the dogs in the park and enjoyed the afternoon winter sun. I listened to the Christmas Carols playing at the background and losing myself in the kitchen working on the Martha Steward baking recipes.I fed my little nephew with his little cute bottle.It has been a long long long time since I did all this. What a great feeling!Tommorow is Christmas Eve...I am excited.

Teachers College New York

Redang 2008

A quiet heart needs moulding

"Determining the right time to wean depends on the child and the parent but when the time comes, weaning involves withholding from the child what he wants, but no longer needs. God often withholds things we want but do not need, in order to change our appetites. This is not meant to inflict anxiety or pain, but to mature us and prepare us for the next level in our walk with Him. Too often we want life to be easy and comfortable. We don’t want to grow up and face responsibilities. But that would lead to stunted development. We forget that growth and maturity are almost always forged through some type of hard work or difficultly." quoted from (Olsen, Rachel Proverbs 31 Ministry,14 November )

Redeemer

A powerful and inspirational song by Nicole Mullen that always stirred up my heart. Thank you god for creating who I am and redeeming all my sins on the cross.

I found my treasure:)

I suddenly felt like looking at my wedding pictures and I realised I lost my link. I decided to go to Nick's website to have a look at guess what,he put up out thank you card as the testimony and all my wedding pictures on his site!Opps.Well for those who have been wanting to have a look at my wedding pictures since like 1.5 years ago, here are there...enjoy..I miss being an excited bride.

Cultural Revolution ( Part 1)

A documentary film by Hu Jie about Bian Zhongyun, vice-principal of the Girls Middle School attached to Beijing Normal University, who was beaten to death by students early in the Cultural Revolution. Includes extensive commentary by her husband.
"Though I am gone"
Watch this when you are ready or in the day, I watched this at about 11pm and I went to sleep with a burden heart.
Asia Society

The 30s and 40s

I wanted to blog this down because I felt so loved by god!

I met a nice Singaporean family from my BSF group and this nice lady has been taking care of me like a mother. Just over the weekend, she knew that it was hard for me to travel around New Jersey without a car. She offered to bring me to the Chinese Supermarket, an international market and then we went to my favorite supermarket TRADER JOE to get groceries. She also wanted to pick me up after church every sunday because she knew how infrequent the bus was on Sunday and I always had to take two hours to travel back from church to home even though they were pretty near.Of course I kindly declined even though she kept insisting. We chatted for three hours, i felt so great!! I like to always hang around with older woman because I felt they were so wise and there were so much to learn from their experiences. Their stories encouraged me to become a more stronger and mature woman. Now I began to realise that I have this tendency to join the woman's group which was for the mid 30s and early 40s because I just like to hear and share how these woman balance family and work, serve their husbands,children and be committed in church and social activities.They are such caring,capable and positive women who are so zealous of life that I look upon them as mentor.Some things about these woman who are so mature and stable that I am find it very attractive..

Anyway back to this Nice Auntie ( I don;t like to use Auntie because she is not Auntie at all), upon hearing that I have a stomach flu yesterday and have been staying at home because I have been vomitting, guess what, she asked her daughther to drop me at an email to say that she had left a box of curry and the BSF notes in the conceige. When I went and picked up the stuff,my heart felt snuzzy wuzzy. I felt so loved with the box of cooked curry nicely wrapped in a plastic bag and the bsf notes carefully wrapped in a plastic sheet. You can feel how attentive her little nice gesture were. I sent an email to her daughter, ming , who by the way was one of my fellow colleague at Teachers College ( Is such a small world..really)to thank her so much.This family is so sweet. God really knows how to place the right people at the right time in my life when I need it. Knowing this family recently really made my move back to New Jersey much more comforting and heart-warming. I felt almost wanting to burst out into tears.HE really provides!

In addition, my lovely friend from school just dropped me a card before she left.
In the card,it said," Hello! how are you doing? Well I see you often in the class but never got to share, so I decided to write. haha How's everything? how's your family ? How's your place in NJ? Well just wanted to say" hi" Love you in Christ, K. Isn't that sweetest thing you can ever receive?????I really really really felt so loved by god and his people. Seriously, two people showed me their love when I felt so sucky these few days....oh my gowd! God love me so much!

And then, this morning, I told my good friend,S. in mid 30s and said I felt very blessed to know her and thank her for everything she has done for me. Yes, she has been superb in helping me sorting out some logistic stuff during this period of time. No complaints, always ready to help and yes, I feel that she is always so available when I need to talk. Gosh....can you believe a mother of 2 with work to juggle and making me feel like she is always there...isn't that incredible?? I think I really have to give her a big treat to her and another woman in her mid forties..hehhe ( whom I will reveal more when the time comes)If this thing ever fall through, I feel god really has a plan for everyone.

So all these 30s and 40s woman appearing in my life and us becoming good friends, I thought to myself: god is indeed good...HE is indeed preparing me for my next stage of life as I approached my 30 and starting to have my own children. He showed me good role models...role models that I always aspire for: To be always ready to serve,care and love and invest in people's life because you never know how your little gesture can be of help to someone.

Thank you my lord,in the midst of uncertainty, there is calmness, love, assurance and comfort from you whom I only know can provide so timely.

My Hubba Hubs....

If u believe it, this is my first time doing such test about BB....let me see how many did i strike?

1. He’s sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen?
Soccer

2. You’re out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad?He eats salad more in the states or whenever when we are out eating angmoh food in Singapore which is rare. But if there is the occasion,Italian Vinegerette or Asian Sesame Dressing to go!

3. What’s one food he doesn’t like?
Liver.Durian.Any food I like extremely, he doesn't like!!We are opposite.

4. You go out to the bar. What does he order?Any kind of beer!?Favorite any thing that is smooth and not Tiger.

5. Where did he go to high school?
ACS

6. What size shoe does he wear?

10? Am I right?

7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be?

He loves comics in the past and now he collects a lot of manga and animations CDs. He is a super huge fan of Fantasy books. He has a huge collection of it,some part of it...i have resold them on ebay because they were taking too much space when we were in the states. Am I mean or not??hehhe

8. What is his favorite type of sandwich?

Ramy burger??heheh and anything that is huge with meat to fill his big appetite.No pickle and not much cheese especially goat cheese and blue cheese.

9. What would this person eat every day if he could?

Pasta and any kind of flavored rice!

10. What is his favourite cereal?

cornflakes with raisins?

11. What would he never wear?

He is pretty open to wearing anything but not a dress,g-string or tight briefs.Hahha

12. What is his favourite sports team?

Liverpool

13. Who will he vote for?

Secret.

14. Who is his best friend?

I guess me ...Hahaha

15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn’t do?

Getting messy and unorganised or getting moody once in a blue moon

16. How many cities/countries has he lived in?

Singapore,America

17. What is his heritage?
Hainanese like me!!!Yeah

18. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind of cake?

I never bake him a cake on his birthday.Hhehehe but I bake cakes on a regular basis. Betty crocker chocolate,butter ,carrot and lots of muffins and cookies...all those that are fast and speedy to do...hehehhe

19. Did he play sports in high school?
Soccer,basketball,and did i tell u he is a dragonboater when he is in JC..ahhahah

20. What could he spend hours doing?
Playing games and hitting balls at golf courseHaha

Growing up.

I can't imagine how I went thru my uni days back in NTU. Just today, while visiting NIE, I am thinking how on earth had I survived my three years in NTU.Thankfully, living in hostel had salvaged my traveling journey back then.

I felt really nostalgic being on the campus itself. The landscape still had a tinge of familiarity but on close scrutiny, there were a lot of new changes. Brand new blocks of hostels, a new research centre for the engineering school and being in NIE itself was different compared to the old days of dusty coridoors,WIP landscapes and inadequate facilities. I am so impressed by how things had changed .
Time flew,new changes, new improvements.

Walking through the coridoors of the academic professors' office seemed to remind me of how I went and visited my professor for the many meetings in his office with my group mates to refine our final year project. A bit de javu. But 7 years have passed by, this time round, I am meeting my friends who were lecturing there to seek career advice.

Looking at the young graduates who were rushing for tutorials and lectures, I just suddenly felt I had grown older. I was once that young!

Neigh....goes the Riders Cafe

So my dear friend, Susan ,knew that I had been wanting to check out cool hang out areas in Singapore and kindly brought me to the Riders Cafe at the Saddles' Club for lunch. I love that place!It is situated in the lush greenery where you can spend a relaxing time chit chatting with your frens and be amused by an odd horse trotting by. Riders Café has a rare, rustic charm to it, considering the concrete jungle called Singapore in which we live. This casual eatery is in good stead for a successful future as long as it maintains its quaint and cosy allure.Food serve is excellent although I think is a bit pricey for a lunch menu. I will definitely visit it again for is relaxing ambience.Thanks Susan for this wonderful recommendation

Toothpaste,soymilk and exfoliator=love?

R:I had some presents for you
Me:What?
R:Here,take a look..
I rummaged through the the NTUC plastic bag and found my favorite soymilk and also an exfoliator for bathing and new tooth paste.

I was grinning almost to heaven.Not that i had given instruction to him to help me buy the stuff. Since I am going to be back for just a month, I had not been on top of things and had been taking it really easy.That included compromising with my daily necessities such as drinking my favorite soymilk,my bathing toiletries.
Babyface was thoughtful to drop by the NTUC on his way back home to buy these stuff for me.Sweet.Sometimes, the smallest things in life can really made you happy.Thanks,babe.

Who builds the house?

Just resting in the lord and knowing that he will provide all we ever need even when we learn to rest can be comforting.

Knowing that I need to constantly learn to depend and worship in him in my marriage and family and other areas of my life,

Knowing that he will always prepare me to be a good wife, daughter, daughter in law,sister and friend

Knowing that nobody but HIM will constantly provide me with the right seasons of rest where there will be gifts like physical /emotional recovery and spritual wisdom and vision, away from anxiety and worry, away from all the little snippets of fear that seeped into the many facets of life,

Knowing that I can always trust that he loves and always provide.

Thank you god that you are the one who builds the house.They labour in vain who build it.(Psalm 127:1)

Unless the lord builds the house

Prayer for Marriage

Prayer for Marriage
Kay Arthur

(Excerpted from Prayers to Bless Your Marriage. Copyright © 2003 by Kay Arthur. Used by permission of Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, OR. All rights reserved.)

"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." 1 Corinthians 13:1

Earlier, we began a "Prayer for Marriage." Beloved, whether you're newlyweds just beginning to travel the road of life together or if you've been married for many years, learning to talk to your spouse can enrich your life and deepen the bonds of your marriage. God is the master communicator, and we can come to Him to be instructed and taught in the art of communicating effectively with the one He has given us. Let's continue this prayer:

Father, whenever we communicate, help us to uphold the priority of our marriage, permitting no other relationship to weaken ours. May the word "divorce" never be formed on our tongue, never pronounced with our lips. May it never be considered as a viable option-for it strikes terror in the heart, fear and anger in the mind, and anxiety to our souls. And it grieves Your holy heart.

May we always, in all our conversations, uphold the oneness of our marriage, understanding that what affects one always affects the other.

May we allow open and honest communication, encourage vulnerability and authenticity. May we never be guilty of breaking each other's spirit. Rather, may we affirm and strengthen one another so that together we can endure any weakness, any failure and not lose hope.

Father, help us to sharpen our communication skills. Teach us to communicate with our eyes-to convey our delight in the other's presence, to say, "I love you," to let our loved one know even in a crowded room, "You're special to me." Remind us to give each other the gift of our full attention when we talk.

Teach us to respond to what is said so that our mate knows he or she is being heard. Help us to keep a confidence, to build a wall of trust so that we are free to share all that is in our hearts. And as we listen, Lord, help us to avoid giving quick or pat answers. Help us to listen patiently. Remind us that our loved one does not always want advice. Sometimes we just want to be heard; to say it, and to get it off our chest.

Father, may we feel the freedom to open up and share our fears. Sometimes it is so difficult to admit weakness or fear, but we need to be able to talk to someone—and of all people, it should be our spouse. May we also know that we don't always have to dispel each other's fear-nor should we think we must have the cure. May we just learn to listen. . .listen and pray.

Father, we all need to have that sense of significance, of worth, of security, so teach us to continually look for ways, for words in private and in public, to build our loved one's self-esteem. When one of us shares with the other, may we learn not to attack each other verbally. May the goal of all our conversations be for the building up of one another, the healing of one another, and the encouragement of one another so our loved one will want to talk, to communicate. May our words never be demeaning or destructive.

And finally, Father, when our tempers flare, may we make it a practice not to lay our heads on our pillows and close our eyes until we have resolved our anger. You tell us very clearly, "Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity."

As we look at the one lying on the pillow beside us, may we remember that this is the one to whom we made our vows to love in sickness and in heath, for richer or poorer, for better or worse until death do us part.

Help us realize, Father, that a marriage like the one we prayed for is a marriage that speaks to all the world of the power and indestructible joy of living in obedience to the Word of God. A marriage that demonstrates to the world that with You it is possible to have a marriage without regrets; a marriage that gives others a snapshot of the marriage of the Lamb and the heavenly home You have prepared for us.

Retrived from crosswalk

We are united as one!

We are a team and the best partners!Thanks for being an awesome man of god!I can shoulder all your burdens through Christ!

Today's reflection on marriage refreshed on how I can serve and love BB more. I thought these 3 questions are good reminders for the wives:

1. What did I love about my husband when we meet?
My answer:
His steadfastness
HIs honesty
His integrity
His generosity
His patience
His gentleness
His compassion
His openess
His adventurous
His determination
His humility
( Wohoho.coming up with this list is effortless, BB)

2. When will I make time for him today?
Through prayers in devotionals

3.How can I show him that I love him?
By being a very good active listener ( WIP)
Be always encouraging and supportive in all things
Cook nice meals
Build a warm and organized home for him

Dollar weak, more visitors for me ..hoho

Backtracking to Kenneth's visit two weeks ago. We were at Brooklyn bridge and had the best pizza in NYC-Grimaldi.
Clear sign of the US dollars going weaker and the economy going into recession---More visitors for me from Singapore!!Wohoho. More to come.

Susan Koman Breast Cancer Run

On June 7th, I took a cheap chinatown bus and went down to DC Washington to visit Steve and Carol. I also took this opportunity to take part in the nation wide Susan Koman Breast Cancer Run. There were about 250 thousand runners that day and with the temperature hitting high at 40 degree celsius and relative high humidity, the initial start to the run was unbearable. But, knowing that I am running for a good cause ( all donations will be proceeded to Breast Cancer Research), I persevered. Along the way, there were a few times i wanted to stop.( I am not a good runner)But I thought about how mum had battled the fight and finished the race.And I realised I needed to run with "good faith" as well.So I kept visualizing that I would hit the finishing line and try to overcome this mental barrier. I am glad I did! Steve felt bad that he did not get me the pink shirt which said,"in memory of your love ones". I told him that its absolute alright. Because i felt it was not about the "physical material" but was the "spritual" that was more important. I felt her presence, her indomitable spirit when I ran.
She would always be with me wherever I go.
Pictures

After all

Can't get over the song " After all".
Listen to the lyrics clearly and really want to make you cry.Video of the movie" Notebook" and Peter Cetera

Plus 1 again!Surprise Surprise

So I am officially one year older on June 11th!!
BB made a video for me.Guess what's my initial reaction.
Me: Hey how come you put in all the fat and ugly pictures ??
BB: Hahah...Now it proved that I did not go by looks
Me: The video is not accurate. We had a longer history than that and they are not in chronological order...
BB: hahah,hey i can't put everything in lah..the file is too big to send over to you
Me: We definitely went more places than that..and also resolution very bad
BB: You come back and I show u the one on desktop
Me: And the words disappear too fast, I can't see some of them
BB: Mmmm....

Of course I ended off something nice..but not that nice as well
Me: Thanks anyway babyface...really appreciate it....though i think u copy my idea of doing a scrapbook for you on your birthday except yours is digital. ( competitive side of me emerging)
BB: Sigz.

hahah, can't believe I am so anal and notice so many things about the video. Actually, I am very thankful for this video because BB usually would not do such "creative" stuff so I really appreciate him for making an attempt amidst his busy schedule.As such, my acts of appreciation are:
WATCH THE WHOLE VIDEO FOR 15 TIMES CONSECUTIVELY
REPEATING THE LAST PART OF THE VIDEO WITH THE SONG "AFTER ALL" FOR 20 TIMES
TEARING AND USING UP TISSUE PAPER WHEN I THINK OUR JOURNEY WAS EXACTLY WHAT " AFTER ALL DESCIBE"
SEND HIM MULITPLE EMAILS AND BOMB HIM WITH MY SUDDEN SURGE OF APPRECIATION AND FEELINGS AFTER WATCHING THE VIDEO



And then, my friends gave me a surprise birthday celebration. I am so terribly touched and it really surprise me coz since young, I always prefer to be low key about birthday celebration. I had this weird phobia of people singing birthday song for me and hate to be the center of attention. So when I stepped into the room without realising anything, I was so surprise that I was almost speechless. Felt almost like a celebrity!Watch this video:
I just keep rattling on nonsensical stuff,mentioning how well Erica has lied through the entire thing.( Erica and I were suppose to just have a dinner plan together and she even made me dressed up. I guess I blend in with the hawai theme in the end. Notice how dark I am now...super duper hot now..39-40 degrees celsius )
I am so thankful that my friends made an effort to spend time to come up with a mini party for me. Totally unxpected!!And all the efforts in making the decoration,ripping my facebook profile picture, flowers, ballons, good spread of food and drinks and baking my first personal cake!!Seriously, I am almost move to tears!!Nobody has baked a cake for me before. And Vera took 6 hours to bake that super duper delicious cake. I am seriously touched.
Thank you my dear friends. You guyz had made such a memorable birthday for me this year. The past year has been rough but you guyz have been such a good support. I am so thankfulthat I met you all!!
More pictures here

Eagles Concert

Alright,my first concert in Madison Square Garden !Eagles Rock! Crowd was definitely different,I am almost one of the youngest there!But they were so good that i wished I had learn guitar and jammed their songs. Gosh,so good...and sad to say, my camera ran out of battery and I managed to find some videos online which were very close to the one I am attending.Enjoy Desparado and Hotel Califonia...Don Henley Rocks!

James' farewell

We had another farewell gathering for James who would be leaving for a mission to Japan in two days time. Oh well...it seemed like people in our small group as what Bob had described were all around the world doing mighty works of the kingdom. First with Jane traveling to Honululu for her discipleship training and then a year mission in Southeast Asia, now James in Japan working with the high school students ministry and soon in later part of the year, Theresa will be in Jordan, Julie will be in North Korea and Bob will be in Australia!! I am so encouraged by my brothers and sisters.They really took a leap of faith and stepped out of the comfort zone to serve the lord and his people. SO lord,I prayed that you will bless my brothers and sisters while they are out of the mission fields with good health, boldness to reach out to people through your love and spritual discipline to keep rooted in your word.I also asked you to open doors of opportunities for me to serve you in any way in your timing.Prepare my heart,soul and mind as you geared me up for the work which you have prepared for me.Amen.p.s James just sent all of us his latest updates on his prayer request.In order to help us to remember what to pray for him, he sent us a wallpaper to remind us his requests:

Summer Central Park Walk

You can imagine how much I love Central Park.Here I am with my friends again!This time round, with a change in weather, I started wearing my flowy sundresses and skimmers to get ready for the hot swaltering weather.Another reason for me to dress up for the season!Yeah!

Columbia Picnic

Summer is coming. I love it because I love the sun!! We had been counting down to good weather everyday and with temperature hitting the 70s, we knew we had to head outdoors to enjoy the fabulous weather. As such,we went for our first picnic.We brought picnic mat, some home cooked fried rice and curry.YP brought her MAC along to play some Joshua Bell music.We happily lounged under a shady tree on the campus and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon.CS and me dozed off after attempting to read our books while YP was busy working on her work.Ooohhh....I love having picnic and spending my time like this. This indeed is simple life pleasure.I want to do more of this!A picture of me feeling really please of myself during the picnic and after a run along Riverside Park before that..

Commencement 2008

So on May 20th, some of the Singaporeans graduated. LC and WY finally finished their final lapse of the 5 years doctoral studies at TC. We had a mini farewell gathering for them to celebrate as LC would be going back to NIE to take on her new role in the insitution and WY would continue to stay on in NYC to look for a job. I had so much admiration for the two of them. I always wondered how did they handle balancing family and work. Especially WY who have two young toddlers to take care. Mind you when you are staying overseas, there's no such thing as maids as it's super costly to hire one.I always felt that doctorate students were always so focused, disciplined, capable and organized.This was something which I had observed and admired. You certainly need these qualities when you will be investing 5 years of your life,financial resources. Will I ever be ready for it if I decide to go into academia or will I still prefer to work in the front line with the children?

Food and Singaporeans

CS just tagged me this photo taken during the semester. When Singaporeans gathered, there's always food.This kind of reminded me of college days when you would hang around in the hostel, cooked and talked and then stayed up in the wee hours to study.It's still the same even when you are in grad school.

I miss the BBQ

I missed home and the activities I did with him and my family. Looking at these photos from Ian's website reminded me of how we first did our first bbq at my in-laws' place several years before he left for the states. How fun to have a few friends over and have a nice catch up.It felt kinda of weird that I am not around but at the same time, there was this sense of peace and joy to see that he and his family were doing well back home.Thank god for that.

Apple Crumble-Healthy Snack for everyday living

Recipe:
For the lower layer:
6 cups of fruits
2 tablespoon of water
2 teaspoon lemon juice
Cinnamon ( vary according to your liking)
For the topping:
1 cup of oats
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter(softened)
Direction:
Bake 350F for about 25-35minutes.

Spring 2008 in NYC

He was here for a week in the city!!I am so elated after three months of not seeing him. I am like recharged in the arms of love, soaring freely like an eagle,and zesty like a lemon. New York City is even more perfect with him around. We simply lazed around the Central Park for almost few days of the week, marveling at the cherry blossoms, oogling at the hot joggers around the Charles Dana,listening to the jazz band playing in the greens and just simply enjoying the warm weather!!I love Spring. Central Park is so beautiful...Alright back to mugging.another 2 days to go before I am free and start my summer vacation!!

A hike in somewhere near Paterson,NJ

Young was kind enough to invite us to his house for his birthday party. We had a huge barbeque with party games and a group hike out in the woods!!I missed the fresh air so much!!I am a country girl for sure...

Frank Sinatra - Fly Me to the Moon Lyrics

The children sang it so well that I wanted to look at the lyrics further!!Did not know that the lyrics are so romantic!!Completely smitten by Frank Sinatra

Amazing!

Hahah, god is so amazing. Sometimes, he just wanted to test if you would take a leap of faith and guess what this morning, 6 people turned up unexpectedly at her event and she did not need me to make up the numbers!!Hoo Hoo..that means even though I have to wake up early to go with her, I am now in the library working on all the assignments. Spring break doesn't look like a break at all!Thank god for making everything work for us and teach me a good lesson on putting others priorities above yours when somebody whom you are not close really need your help!Lord, you certainly have your own ways!:)

Dilemma

God tested me today! Will I put other person 's interest above my priorities when I knew that by helping her, I will end up miserable and stress for the next few days?
Guess what is the decision. I did
Is so hard to come to this decision.My heart is unwilling but I am still going
God must have been so amazing to die on the cross for sinners just like me, someone whom he din even meet before.Can I do the same to someone who isn't close to me any all?

Yinan and Joshua

8 March 2008

Yinan has left Beijing to join Lei. I can't believe how fast that was. Well, I remembered two years ago, when we were in NYC for a short summer vacation, we were in their apartment for two months. We ski with them in Vermont and had great hot pot prepared by Lei. Gosh, they were such a sweet couple. And now she is returning to Beijing to join Lei who has chosen to work in Goldman Sacs in China. Sad. One lesser friend whom I got along well in NYC. I wish you guyz all the best in your endeavors back home.

On another note, the evening concert in Carnegie Hall with Yvonne turned out splendid and made my day!Just because we did not expect that a student rush $15 dollars ticket,would allow us to watch the top American classical violinist, Joshua Bells, live in performance in Carnegie Hall.

Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Kent Nagano, Music Director and Conductor
Joshua Bell, Violin

DEBUSSY Le martyre de St. Sébastien: Symphonic Fragments
TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto
UNSUK CHIN Rocaná (US Premiere)
SCRIABIN The Poem of Ecstasy

Encores:
CORIGLIANO Excerpts from "The Red Violin"
BIZET Farandole from L’Arlésienne

KNICKS vs DETROIT

7 March 2008




Okies I am not exactly a KNICKS fan. But since I am in NYC, I might as well be. But then, what a let down after all the efforts of getting a ticket to go to Madison Square Garden to watch them in a stormy rainy night!! After a close fight, they lost two points to the PISTON from Detroit. Alright, but it was fun just watching a live match in MSQ. The neon lights, the sound effects, the great band and cheerleaders and the whole roaring crowd made your adrenaline rush. Is an experience but I am not sure I will be back for another round of KNICKS game. Maybe if there is a L.A Lakers or Chicago Bulls,I might watch it again. Just to reminisce the old days in high school when I would only watch NBA because there were Michael Jordan and etc.Well, all for the thrill of it for a cheap ticket and an experience in MSQ. Anyway, the Singaporeans are going for Alicia Key's concert in June in MSQ. Dank!They would have so much fun!

True Discipleship Celebration

2 March 2008

I felt really lifted up when we have the True Discipleship Celebration on the Sunday two weeks ago. It is a mid term progress celebration for all the four groups who have been doing the book on Gospel Transformation. A time to share testimonies and how the past half a year fellowship and exercises in the book have been withnessed in each other's life. It was great just seeing how everyone is lifted up by the studies. Great evening just immersing and spending time with these brothers and sisters in Christ even though there were tons of assignments undone yet.

Sese in NYC!

1 March 2008



Sherine was here in NYC for her business trip over the weekend and we met up and I stayed over at her suite in Ritz Carlton for two nights. It was such fun meeting your secondary school fren and catching up on the silly stuff ever. I felt so sad when she had to leave. It was always nice to have someone familiar and endearing to you from home. I wish she can stay here for a longer period of time. Anyway,it was nice catching up with her and withnessing all her shopping treats along Saks Fifth Ave. Thanks babe for being such a dear fren. I wish I could be a better host in the midst of all these circumstances.I pray that whatever you wish for could come true. No worries and be happy.

Singaporeans' Evening with Bach

An evening with Bach and Baroque pastoral at Miller theatre tonight with the Singaporeans. I love going to concerts!!!They made me whuzzy fuzzy.
My favories:
Sinfonia from Christmas Oratorio,Part 2
Et in Spiritum Sanctum Dominum from mass in B minor
MAche Dich,mein Herze rein from St Matthew Passion
Schafe Konnen ischer Weiden from Cantata No 208
Erbarme Dich from St Matthew Passion
Concerto in D major : La Pastoella by Antonion Vilvadi
Le {reintems from Les saisons amusantes by Vilvaldi

I want to be refine..

REFINER

These [trials] have come so that your faith—
of greater worth than gold,
which perishes even though refined by fire—
may be proved genuine and may result in praise.
1 Peter 1:7

FROM THE FATHER'S HEART
My child, if I never allowed your faith to be tested, and if I never turned up the heat, how would you experience My deliverance? Would you settle for a dull finish, or would you rather reflect My light? Hold My hand tightly. We’ll walk through the fire together.

A GRATEFUL RESPONSE
Who wants to go through the fire, Lord? Yet, even in the hottest flames, You are with me. Sometimes it hurts when the outside layers are burned away. And just when I think I can stand it no longer, I see gold, Lord. I praise You for what I am becoming in Jesus. Thank You for being my refiner.

SIMPLE TRUTH

Whatever comes my way has already passed God’s inspection.

Will you be my Valentine?

I like the artistic class I am taking.
Seriously made us reflect on our personal artistic autobiography.
Today, in class, we had to compose a song.I made a silly Valentine song with another of my classmate. My friend said the song seemed to be depicting what I am going through...I guess sooo...So here is a revise version of "My Bonnie" Lyrics inspiration: We were supposed to include the few candies which have words imprinted on them.

My lover boy, send me an email
My lover boy,said he missed me
My lover boy, asked if I love him
I said yes of course,I love you
Hug me and kiss me
When will I ever see you again?
Hug me and kiss me and
Only you be in my heart.

So i came back and sang eagerly my new composed song to my lover boy and on top of that I sent him two links: Praying through the deeper issues of lifeand How husband can inspire romance in the marriage which i thought were good.

These were my Valentine gifts for him.

If you have realized.....

that i have not posted a lot of my pictures ..that's because our camera was down and it was time to get a new one. Well,trying to search for a new one because I really need one to take all the pictures of the classrooms which I have visited.Did I tell you the sweetest thing over this weekend was the children from MSC was so welcoming and loving to me even though I have not seen them from my last visit to the class? L ,my 5 year old who had slight physical delay came up to me and asked if I was sick. I was shocked that she knew and reckoned that the cooperating teacher has done a great job in keeping the kids in touch with me.She gave me a hug and said that she was sick and hoped that I was well. Then she went on and told me that she was sick but she still came to school. I was embarrassed. After a while, she came up to me and gave me another hug again, and said she wanted to invite me to her bday. I was so touched. Coz I had not seem this class for like one month and they still remember me!!!
Plus, A.,F.,and D. were really such sweet children, sharing their life with me.You know what, it is always interesting to talk to children coz u can never underestimate how much they have known at such a young age.One child said," I had no daddy but I had two mummies," . Another child said," We are not from the same father. She is my step sister. The third child said," I am Chinese even though my parents are Caucasions and American,"The fourth child said," I have a lot of play dates with my mother but I had very little with my dad. I only went to his house on weekends. i wish I had more time with him," It might struck you for a second if you are not prepared but when such statements came across, you must be quick to respond that all these differences are accepted in the classroom and that they would still be love and accepted by the teacher. That's the whole thing about accepting diversity is all about, accepting children of dfferent backgrounds, colors,social economic class, gender ,race and special needs and allowing them to feel integrated and be part of the classroom.They are all perfect in our eyes,When they told you such things, these information added to your pool of knowledge of finding ways of devising better instructional methods and designing curriculum taking into the context of their social cultural background.

With such a key important piece in mind, today's outreach in Patterson( a building across the local jail) with the Hispanic and African American kids made me want to read up more about them. I went for Hannah;s mission for the first day and I would be going on a regular basis to spend some time fellowshiping with them. Honestly, I am not sure of their family backgrounds but just culturally, i realized I have a bit of barrier initially of approaching them especially when I have known that they might be from low income families and I needed to be sensitive to it. But during the praise session, guess what, I told myself that I have to remove my" color lenss" and just be initiative and positive with them. They turned out to be such sweet children,seriously!! I pray god will use me to help children in anyway HE wants me to do,especially children with special needs and low income family. It just warmed my heart,knowing that their lives will have beautiful memories of having someone caring and loving them and impacting the way they see this world.

CNY 2008 : Year of the Mickey mouse

I realized I have grown to be so much dependent on him over the past few years that his absence do make such a huge difference to my life. As much as I am super busy with my schedule, there were times when I thought if it was nice to have him around.On friday, i can't believe I felt so accomplish by crossing out my checklist. After student teaching in the MSC,I went to Cathedral Parkway to do grocery shopping at West side and then went to the bank and did my check deposits.After which I went back to my room, did some reading,went to the gym in the midst of the heavy rain and had a great workout. I felt so great at the end of the day. I wondered when was the last time I had been so independent. I guess it was about 1.5 years ago before we were married. Working out was great for me especially I had not touch the gym for the last half a year .My new fitness schedule is out. I am going to sign out for pilates class,swim once a week and hit the gym once a week, all in all three times per week of exercise.

On top of that, a lot of baking and cooking with the fellow singaporeans. In fact, we just had our CNY celebration just now. It was fun. We did silly stuff competing to find positive stuff to say during "lao yu shen," ,ate Singaporean food and found someone who graduated from Harvard who was as passionate as me in ECCE.So we went on chatting hours and hours on early childhood eduation which made me felt so fired up.

And that explained why I am so awoke at this late hour typing this entry.There were so many things to give thanks for this week. Truely blessed to have such great support while he is gone and god revealing to me little encouragements in this period of uncertainty. Just a while ago, he threw me the verse from 1 thessolanian 1:3-10. I was encouraged by them that they kept their faith in times of trouble and rejoice in the holy spirit which inturn become an encouragement to others.I must start believing even more firmly that all these things will turn out to be good.

Spring semester

School started last week and it was another semester of "chionging" for all the courses. Each time, when things get a little tougher, I will remind myself how god has blessed me with this oportunity and how he wants me to use this knowledge to bless other people. I should be thankful of it and should be perservering in pursuing it. I realised that no matter what circumstances you are in, having a group of supportive friends do help you to pull through. But nothing beats being back home, having a little hug and kiss from the one you love so dearly. I started missing him already.This semester will be a life changing experience for me again. Truely,when you learn to battle each day, you grow stronger as a person.Isn't that wonderful?

When he is not there

You never know till u experience it.
I know that for sure LOVE is the greatest thing of all.
Nothing on earth beats LOVE
In the days ahead, I know there will be no one moment which I will be unsure of what to choose.And I know LOVE is the greatest thing of all.

We have become parents of...

Mr Sadam. Okies. I am not kidding. I forgot to blog about this on Christmas Eve because of all the shifting again. He is 10 years old from Uganda, a country in Africa which is severely impacted HIV/ AIDS. In his community, AIDs has wiped out the whole generation of hardworking adults.Frightened children and exhausted grandparents rarely have money for food,school or medical care.My Sadam is in primary school and he enjoys Math. He helps at home by carrying water and likes to play ball games. He lives with his grandmother, 1 brother and 2 sister and is in satisfactory health.The reason we choose Sadam is because he has only 2 more years to be sponsored. World vision has a rule that all children can be sponsored till they are 12 years old.We made a commitment of contributing US $40 dollars each month to help him gain access to basic needs and learn about God's unconditional love for him. Despite being financially unstable ourselves, we think that coming up with 40 dollars is still within our means.Come to think of it. If you set aside 10 dollars each week, cut down on your minature expenditure on earrings,games and food, this amount is enough to save these children in these countries. I therefore urge you to do the same.Please click on this link to

WORLDVISION

find out more information on child sponsorship. You can also write to your child and visit him if you want. One day,if is in HIS will, I will love to to go to Uganda to visit Sadam.
"For we are God's masterpiece.He has created us anew in Christ Jesus,so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)

I have a feeling we are going to win...

The bid of Youth Olympics 2010!!!Okies.I really love Singapore alot especially after being away for a while and i think is a fantastic city to live in.I am always so proud of it and think is a blessing to be part of this world class city.I can't descibe to you the reactions of the people whom I have met when I told them I am a Singaporean. They would always go," That's a wonderful place." " I wish to work and live there."

Singapore is one of the candidate city for the inaugural Youth Olympic Games. We’re already shortlisted as the top 5 countries who will be vying for the chance to host the first Youth Olympic Games in 2010 and guess what, the recent update shows that we are second behind Moscow. Just SECOND. And this means that we have a high chance of hosting YOG 2010.



Won’t we feel proud about having Youth Olympic right here in Singapore, in 2010? Support the bid.

Miss Martha,Donna and Mr Jamie

I have been really spending my time just oggling at all those nice recipes I have seen on the cookbooks.That day, I spent 5 hours in Barnes and Nobles browsing through all the cookbooks and taking down recipes.(One of my luxuries of spending hours at the bookstore during the winter break)I am so tempted to get all these books but I am worried to carry them all around with me especially we are moving around for this period of time. The
Martha Stewart Bake Book is really a fantastic book for an amature like me.Donna hay's classics have been great as well. One thing I like about all these books is they are really detailed in their description of the kind of ingredients,equipments and steps used.I think they are fabulous choices for people who want to picking up the fundementals of cooking and baking.
And just yesterday, I spent my time watching my favorite chef, Giada De Laurentiis on Foodnetwork. You see, I am especially into Italian food recently since Hubs praised that I have a flair in this area.:) And guess what, I discovered that Jamie Oliver will be starting his home show from Jan 6th onwards.I think Foodnetwork
is gonna be my favourite site and TV station

Thoughts

Shifted out from our beautiful apartment and residing at Ivan's place in Dover. Very quiet area which i am still adjusting to. Not even a single soul in sight and the only thing you can see is the wiltered trees in the winter. Next week will be fine when we moved back to the city.