pictures of Janine during party

Very captivated by the big blue ball on the Christmas tree..

What colourful lights...

Curious Janine (not George)

Curious Janine at work again..

Janine walking quite comfortable already..and she's only 11 months old

Christmas gathering at my mum place

Today, CT had to go work though it is a Saturday. He is now on 12-hour day shift, so he has only certain rest days once in a while. For lunch, Marianne invited me over. I dropped by the fish farm before going her place to buy fish for my dad and for Marianne.

When I arrived, Marianne was bathing Phoebe and I noticed that a lot of patience is needed because the child would be playing in the tub for quite a while. After that, we had lunch. Joshua cooked steak for lunch. Here is our widespread of food...

I enjoyed the lunch a lot because of the thick juicy ribeye steak! It was quite bloody at first and I knew I couldnt eat raw food. So Marianne cooked it a while longer and it tasted so nice...though some red parts at certain areas. To me, if I am not pregnant, I would love it medium rare. Haha..So, I didnt mind the blood. It was so delicious because of the fats and veins. Yum!

After lunch, I did art and craft with my god-daughter,Phoebe...

She just simply took pictures from magazines and pasted it on the construction paper. It was Christmas-themed pictures..

As you can see, Phoebe is left-handed. She will grow up to be a creative girl I can tell as she has been doing wonderful art stuff...

After that, Phoebe and I drank orange juice and each time she drank one sip, she would want to do "cheers" with our glasses..

After having so much fun, Joshua cooked tang yuan for us. Yummy...

I left their place about 3pm..to my mum's place.

Had Christmas party at my mum's place. There was so much food, so, my mum invited Marianne and Phoebe over. Joshua could not join us as he had to attend another party. There was turkey, roast beef, ham, huge sausages (all donated by Uncle Edwin-President of Chinese Swimming Club), I cooked mash potatoes with bacon and cheese, mum made salad and pumpkin soup and Esther brought 2 huge chicken pies from "Don shop"

I enjoyed the party as I could see Janine, my niece. I miss her so much. She is so so cute..Her curly hair is growing more wild.

Pictures of Janine will be shown next blog...

Sam: A Mother's Journey of Faith

About a week back, I was watching CNA in the morning again and it was showing a segment where they introduced a book. This time, it was a book entitled, "Sam: A Mother's Journey of Faith". They even went on to show an interview with the author, a local mother of 2 sons whose one of the sons, a teenager was fighting with cancer.

I was very touched by the interview and I wished I had taped it that time. But I was just so amazed by the interview that I forgot all about taping. I was reflecting on the interview and would like to share with all of you...

This mother of 2 boys, is a believer in Christ and she was sharing her reaction when she found out her sec sch son was diagnosed with cancer and the process she went through with all the treatments and stuff. She said that despite all that has happened, she mentioned that she actually thanked God for allowing this to happen because of the peace and joy that she experienced not only from God but by even looking at her cancer-stricken son. Her son was even assuring her and having so much peace inside.

Check this site-a blogger who penned down about this book as well...
http://qqlibrarian.blogspot.com/2006/12/sam-mothers-journey-of-faith.html

Read and listen to her interview
http://dl.nlb.gov.sg/highbrowseonline/2006/10/about_a_boy_his_mother_and_the_1.html

I was touched because it is just so similar with my dad's case. The reassuring peace and joy that the Lord gives us is just so amazing and something to shout about!

I believe very strongly in one thing- that is, everyone will def meet up with adversities in life be it you do good or do million charitable things..no matter how much "good" you do, there will always be obstacles in life- it can be an accident like my dad, it can be a close one suffering from an illness or it can also simply be your family member who passed away... These things are unescapable...

But one very fact remains for Christians that is no matter what happens, there is peace and joy and love from Him..I think this is the most assuring news I can find my security in..Just look at Chinese religion funerals, or other religion funerals as compared to Christian funerals, you will then know what I mean...

It is like a loved one saying to you, hey, no matter what I will be with you and not only that,I will be pouring forth my ever flowing love, joy and peace unto you. What more can we expect?

So for those of you reading this and have doubts about the God I am talking about, please look around and reflect...search and I know you will one day experience Him and know Him in your own personal way.

in God whom I will always trust..

Have a blessed and meaningful Christmas this year, reflecting upon God's wonders, His creation and His greatest gift of all-His Son..

Jesus died that we might live.

Merry Christmas to one and all!

2 pm weather update

Just when I thought the rain would stop in the morning, it started to pour again. Now the rain map shows all parts of Singapore wet and some areas, with heavy rain.

Though the weather is still 25 degrees and its afternoon now, I feel stuffy cos I have to close my windows since the wind is so strong and the rain keeps coming in. I have already mopped a few times already so decided to shut it...

Am just glad I am staying indoors today. Going to jump in my bed soon and enjoy this weather...

Singapore's winter season is here!

Whole of yesterday, last night and this morning, it has been raining cats and dogs. I love this kind of weather since I am indoors and just relaxing at home. Its nice especially with the cool weather too.

This morning, woke up and saw on my computer that the weather outside was 25 degrees Celsius. Cool! I love air con temp weather.

I have a rain map on my desktop as well and this is how it looks...

Yup, most parts of Singapore drenched! The whole night it was raining and I didnt turn on the air-con. But in the middle of the night, I told CT to turn it on because I was bitten my mosquitoes..sigh. I was wondering how mosquitoes can make it all the way up to my house..Guess they were desperate to seek shelter somewhere..ha.

Anyway, hope this sunday would be a great cool day with no rain as I would be having a Christmas Eve Party at my place!

Charlotte's Web Movie Preview

Every morning whenever I turned on my TV to have my breakfast, it would be CNA as it is the default channel. There was one friday when I switched on, and it was featuring the upcoming show, Charlotte's Web and the contest for the viewers to participate and answer a question posed in the CNA website over the internet.

So since I was bored, after my breakfast, I went to answer the question-"Who was the author of Charlotte's Web?" Well, I am not much a reader and I know Charlotte's Web has been many student's literature book and I know it is a very popular book. However, since I am not much a reader, I made a guess in my head and thought it was George Orwell. Haha..how stupid and ignorant right? I know that guy is probably the author to Animal Farm or something like that. But I always thought or imagined Animal Farm and Charlotte's Web is about the same book.

Anyway, due to the advance of technology and being more internet savvy than picking up a book to read, I went into my trusted yahoo search, went to wikipedia and found the answer to confirm it and of course, I was wrong. So, I gave the full name of the author Elwyn Brooks White just to impress the judges, gave my personal details and click Submit.Results will be announced one week later.

Exactly one week later on Friday, I happened to wake up the same time and as usual, turned on my TV and they happed to show the same segment where they introduced a book or movie, and they were introducing a new one. So, I thought to myself that I had missed the results and went on to tell myself that I wouldnt win anyway.

But who knows as I was about to change channels, they talked about Charlotte's Web and reminded the viewers about the contest last week. I quickly stayed on the channel and waited for the results. They said there were close to 600 contestants and when I heard that, my heart dropped cos I thought no one would catch CNA at such a time like 8 plus am..since most would be working..Housewives would usually watch other shows than CNA, so, how is it possible to have so many contestants? Sigh..

So, they said they have picked up 3 winners. In my mind, I was like,"Oh boy..only 3 out of 600? Gone lah..sure cannot get." So, they went on to announce the first winner..and obviously, I wasnt expecting much already..then they announced the second winner, my heart sank and just thought thats it. Why am I still staying on this channel? And when they announced the last winner, they said, "Dawn Ling!" I was like" What??! Are you serious?? This cannot be?" So I quickly recorded that few mins of glory into my DVD recordable and quickly called CT excitedly and happily! Haha..

I won 4 movie preview tickets, a movie poster and "Wilbur" soft toy. I said I would like to give the soft toy to my baby when he/she is borned. CT told me how apt since next year is year of the pig! haha!

So last Saturday, I went with CT and my parents to the Singapore Zoo for the movie preview by the lake. I invited my parents cos my dad prob had not seen a movie for ages and I thought he would like to visit the zoo. Slightly disappointed as it was actually like a picnic event where people laid their mats and catch the movie. I didnt want to sit on the ground as I was certain I would feel very uncomfortable. So, we sat inside the pavilion with seats provided but it was so far from the screen.

We went earlier to have dinner there..

On our way to the lake, we passed by some animals and managed to take some pictures of it.

(Having problems posting up the pictures as it refused to appear after uploading. Will do so once this works again..)

1st visit to gynae

Yesterday night was my first visit to the gynae. The clinic is in Bedok Bus interchange there. It is a satellite clinic for East Shore Hospital. I chose East Shore Hospital because it is in the East- easier for people to visit and easier for me to go there as well. It was my colleague who introduced me to this gynae and I have to trust her since she already had 3 kids under this gynae-Dr Heng.

The gynae is quite bubbly and friendly but I guess the only downside is that she has many many patients.Heard she has about 67 patients per month. So, my first visit with her only took 10 mins! She just asked me a series of questions about my family's history medical condition, any drug allergies, my last menstration date and then told me my expected due date. She told me it will be around 4/5 Aug 2007. We asked her a series of questions and she just told me to abstain from liver, sting ray and shark meat. She said I could eat anything...how nice cos I love to eat.hehe

Then she told me to lie down as she put a gel on my tummy to do an ultrasound scan. Thank God the baby can be seen through the scan if not it would be more troublesome and painful to detect the baby which I wont want.

From the scan, the gynae told me that the baby is healthy and even showed me and CT the baby's heart pumping. He/She is only 0.65cm long. Haha..I cannot imagine how small that is! Amazing. Here is the picture of our scan. Heard from my colleague that every month when I go visit the gynae, she would scan for me and give me a picture of the baby. Yay!

Ok, so this is the picture of my baby now during 7 weeks...coming to 8 weeks. Cute? haha...

When we got home, CT was mentioning how amazing a sperm and an egg is enough to create a baby. How simple and yet,complex! So, the whole night, we were just so amazed at seeing God's creation unfolding right before our eyes...

We spent the whole night praying for our baby and thanking God for all that is happening..God is good.

what have I been doing?

Everyday I would "sayang" or soothe my tummy and wonder to myself-is this fats or is my tummy bigger because of the baby inside? Sometimes, my tummy would seem so big that I just think its fats because of the constant snacking..sigh..haha..so depressing.

Today, CT and I went to new Ikea Tampines to do some Christmas shopping for our house party during Christmas Eve where we invite the whole cell group over for dinner. So, got some nice cutlery and Christmas decorations for the tree. I love the new Ikea as its spacious and big. After shopping from 10 to 11am, we had lunch there. I had the poached salmon while CT had the today's special: Chicken Rendang, which was amazingly yummy. And of course, lunch at Ikea is not complete without ordering their Chicken Wings. Yum..

I called my dad while waiting for the food to arrive, to let my dad know that it is wheelchair friendly and there are handicapped lots available for him. So, it is wonderful. Passed by Courts Megastore beside it too. Still lots of touching up to do before the grand opening on the 16 Dec.

Pretty exciting as I love seeing new things sprouting. That is one reason why I chose to stay in Punggol. There are always new developments and construstion around the area. Ikea Tampines is just 10 mins from my house. So, very convenient. Cant wait for Giant to open there, though I could still see it building.

After going to Ikea, we went to the fish farm and met one of our ex-cell group members there-Tay and Debbie with their 2 kids. Tay was teaching CT how to get rid of "faeces" in our aquarium by buying shrimps. The minimum price we could buy was $2 and the shop gave us like 80-100 shrimps! And guess what, Ct was so excited about this new discovery that he just threw the whole bag in with abour 100 shrimps infesting our aquarium. I told CT I was quite disgusted just looking at it. CT just glued his eyes on it for a while. He was intrigued.

Here are some shots of the shrimps...

From the tank picture, if you stare hard, you can see lots of shrimps swimming around. I do find it disgusting but CT say leave it for a few days to clear the "faeces" before we place them in another tank. Oh well...