ClubMed December 2007

Here's a quick upload of our fabulous and VERY restful trip to ClubMed Bintan RIA. It rained the 2 out of 3 days we were there but it did not dampened our spirits and our quest for a good time! These pics are somewhat in reverse order as I can't be bothered to rearrange them.. enjoy!This is a picture taken by Letitia. The island has a whole array of natural things which even the most innocent of eyes enjoy. Letitia told us that this is a "Man-Faced Beetle". So that was our discovery for the week.

Letitia wanted to capture these rigs as she actually went on the trapeze and loved it. The professional shots were blurr so we refuse to purchase it. We promised her she'll get another go next time we visit another ClubMed. What a brave cookie! She also tried out Archery shooting real arrows and bow. As adults, we found that we enjoyed Archery tremendously too!

Little Miss Mathena did not miss out on the Circus fun! She had a ball trying the tight rope and reported that it as "very easy". She was all strapped up in safety gear and walking with bare feet.

Okay, the highlight was the NON-Stop food. Great variety, very Ang-mo in flavour as well as KID-friendly (sausages every meal?!) By the 3rd day, it quickly became quite a strain to face the food..... but I do miss it now that, I am home!

The GOs (The Initials G.O stand for Gentil Organisateur which comes from the French meaning friendly host) holds a lively and energetic concert EVERY night with very different themes and programmes. Quite entertaining and the circus team does wonders in showing my girls dancing grace and moves! You can just imagine both Mathena and Letitia open mouthed at all the moves.

One thing we fully appreciate is that the girls get their own beds in an adjoining room. We pay per person. They felt special and loved the 'girls room'. Slept like babies as of course they were exhausted by the end of the day.

The main building with the extended pool area. The kids club even has their own baby wading pool that is covered and protected. Excellent for families with babies!

The surrounds!

The yucky choppy ferry ride. The only lowlight...the thought of it is making my stomoach churn...yeeks!

We love the beach. It was BUCKETING rain, but we LOVE the beach!

We are afterall from the coastal Wollongong, NSW!

Verdict?
We will do it again and the next time for a longer period so we can make the most of the Club!
Sigh! Now, I have to go and clean up my dirty dishes...

Broken, Breakthrough & Bonded Together!

Took me a whole week to get my thoughts and the rest of my life together but this article is about the "Women's Breakthrough" CEFC style in Batam (Indonesia) last weekend.

In all honesty, I struggled with the fact that I HAVE to go. It was a pre-requisite to our intention to become members in CEFC. I have never been to anything so 'feminine' in my entire life and I had no intentions of going. I went pretty 'open' to what is to offer as well as quite hardened to the fact that "there's nothing new under the skies!".

These are the women that 'hit' me in the face and stole my heart,...

We were the Group SEVEN! Seven being seven of us and seven being a GOD (completion) number, we prided ourselves to be in this group. Somehow, GOD did His thing and gelled us all together with grace, dignity and so much gentleness. This hodgepodge bunch ranged from Stay at Home Moms, an Interior Designer, Marketing Executives, a High Power Banker to a future young Ms Dubai!

Unlike the normal get-together of women, we spent quite a bit of our time together praying, crying, praying and some more crying. Then during meal times, we'll be keeled over in laughter or bursting out in hysterical. After dinner, we'll do a bit more dancing and prancing (my deepest apologies to the ladies who had to dance with ME!) and crashing into each other due to wrong turning steps on the dance floors. Then, we did more sharing, crying and praying. I figured the tears help to 'bond' us as they soon dried up into pretty sticky stuff!!

I write this to honor the above ladies. I write to say thanks for the friendships, the support and the hugs and prayers. We all came together, not sure what to expect but all we were showed the undeniable HAND of God. At the end of it all, we all knew what we had to do, what we had to achieve and WHO was upholding us all this time, now and tomorrow!!! I am truly humbled by the courage, the strength, the humility and grace from all these beauties.

If we can do it all over again, I will...see you at the AfterGLOW!
For those dying to find out who Ms Dubai is....tadahh!
"T" (in Blue) is bound for Dubai in a couple of months hence we dubbed her that title. She will be the one and only friend in our heart living there. Then there's dear "R". Under that sweet and demureness lies a very deep and spiritual lady. Her presence in our group grounded us to see GOD's working hands in her life and ours! Praise GOD!
We found ourselves a "Titus 2:3 Mom" who came within our midst to encourage and serve us. What a privelege to have you so dear and near to us, "D" (white)!

"LL" brought to our group so much joy and transparency. She served us in her grace and natural openness to love and care for us all. She assisted in the role of facilitators with "HP" (in group pic) who too by word and deed showed us GOD's grace and abundant love. They both cried with us, wipe our tears and held our hands,...not to take away our struggles but to stand alongside us!

The voice of our team! The power plant as well as the encourager in song. "A" will be and always have GOD's hand on her life, with or without washing detergent (internal joke!) Alongside her stands "TM" another beautiful lady who's given all her entirety to GOD and allowing HIM to take over.

We won't forget "ML" who's also in the group pic, she humbled us by her sharings yet she showed us a true flower blossoming in GOD's hand. I witness her physical change from a wilted and forlorn little girl to a intensified and glowing lady. A miracle at work!

Remember, we'll all be praying for each other.

TENTH Anniversary (9/11/2007)

This year has been quite a milestone.
In all honesty to reach being married for 10 years, is quite a feat. Looking at the above picture, all seems so smooth, happy and rosy! Yet, in reality, it's sooo much hard work, so much prayers, so much of humbling ourselves as we learn to 'realigning' our priorities and mindset (as a couple).

We celebrated with a simple dinner with important people ~ our family and our past cell group leaders from Wollongong. Ross and Ann have been in our lives throughout our churched life in Southern NSW. They have helped in keeping our marriage on track, not with each other BUT, with God's plans! Tough call! Thanks, Ross & Ann for being there!

I am learning day-by-day to be a contented and Christlike wife. I have failed in so many ways to serve and love my Alex. He's has over the past year, put up with a lot of emotional blackmail, tantrums, tears and cold shoulders. He has expressed a few explosions in respond. It has been truly up and down BUT, I do THANK GOD! I thank HIM for the guidance in His WORD, the moments where we get reminded on what is important, for touching our sinful hearts and redirecting our selfish desires and of course, for his MERCY and Grace ~ for not zapping me into smokes when I rebel!!!

Thank you, Alex, for staying TRUE! True to self, to GOD and to your family!

ps. I AM married to the RIGHT man!

Mathena's FIRST Ballet Exam

Mathena just sat for her VERY first Ballet assessment. A TTA (Tiny Tots A) ballet exam in front of a real examiner. The idea is to get them used to the routine of ballet exams and dispels away the fears. Little Miss M had been looking forward to it. The dressing up, the music and the steps she knew so well...

This is where she gets to dance in a princess outfit!

Doesn't she JUST melts your heart?

I was quite impressed that she DID remember all her steps.... These three girls performed together as a team. Don't they look beautiful?

"Calm Baby Confident Mum"

This is a *plug* for my friend's book: "Calm Baby Confident Mum"

My friend Simone Boswell has been with us in more than half our parenting journey in Australia. She is a GODly sister and a loyal friend. Her love for GOD reflects in her life and role as a mother and wife. She has 6 homeschooled lively and absolutely delightful children. Her experience in parenting has brought her to many churches and mother's group and she has commited herself to encouraging moms with young ones. She answers phone calls/emails (usually real tough breastfeeding/sleeping issue) as well as run classes on parenting. She STILLS have free time to be a friend, entertain and bless the socks off the people she meets! I have been so blessed as a friend to her and even though I am miles away, I keep her on my 'speeddial' and email hotline.

I have been meeting many young moms with babies, have tried to 'recap' in my mind what we did and done for our girls. In all honesty, the information in our heads are all jumbled up into one HUGE lump. Those early tender years are not usually lived in clarity. So, I recommend that you guys read the book by a lady who's 'been there done that' six times round. Her experience MUST speak volumes! Hmmmm, maybe I should have more kids to 're-live' babyhood again....sigh!

Calm Baby (click) Confident Mum

To see how wonderful a mother and homemaker she is, see:
Simone's Section

Mathena's Ballet 2007

Marching in time!

Waiting their turn..

Letitia (Grade 1) and Anna Grace (Tiny Tots A)

Ballet Bambinas!

Mathena had her Ballet viewing this afternoon and she did us proud. I was busy filming the whole event on video that I did not take any photos. Here's some that a friend took for us. Well done little munchkin. Mommy, daddy and Letitia are as proud as punch!

Batik Girls

Dresses compliments from Aunty Lynette and Chelsea

Our Baby is FOUR Years old!

And these are the pics that follows! (Hope all is well with everyone!)

Been soooo busy with NOT sure what!

We made Singapore's first ever "Fairy Bread", very uncommon here, as it was a "Fairy tea-party" theme. The last I heard, the little girls invited has been requesting fairy bread for breakfasts! Hehe! Amongst other things, we made Fairy Puppets, we pinned the "Wand" on the Fairy and we played Pass the Parcel.

We had "Body Tattoos" as a party activity. These are the girls at the party.

You can tell we had a small crowd. We had however 15 adults though.

To our surprise, we were given a box of lovely pink frosted cupcakes which I promptly maximised it into Mathena's 4th Birthday cake collection. It tasted chocolate-y yummy and was great as 'friendly neighbour' gifts!! I now regret not keeping more to enjoy...

Guess Who's having a Birthday this Sat?

Yep, this will be little Miss Mathena's 4th Birthday and her 2nd version held in Singapore. Will have a little tea-party for 4-5 little girls. Much of the day will be covered in 'pink'! Will have a games like 'pin-a-wand-on-the-fairy', body tatoos/painting, make your own fairy and of course, make your own 'fairy-bread' yumm! Pics will follow,...wish me luck!

Date Night

We've been sooo out of touch,..

If there's anything to highlight, it's this! Due to our running of parenting classes with our church, we have been trying to go out just the two of us over the last 2 months. With some incredible coincidence and quick decision making, we got hold of 2 tickets to see the famous King & I musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein. This was last Saturday.

As nearly all our dates go, there's plenty of excitement and drama attached. We were pleasantly surprised by a our close family friend (we are STILL shocked at their generosity!) who insisted in lending us their car. Not any car, but a soft top, zoom-zoom Mazda MX5. With pure glee and somewhat sheepish air, we drove (Alex did) the car through the crawling car packed polluted Orchard road to reach our final destination at the 'durian' performing arts complex of Singapore, only to be held up by the fireworks crowd and traffic.

With only 30mins to spare, we attempted to get a decent meal (you know? the kind that says it's a date!) but ended up gulfing down cups of corn kennel (concert snacks) and a couple of grilled chicken wings before rushing into the concert hall. The show was magical and very familiar as I felt like I knew it all my life. I hummed and wobbled my head the entire time but found it truly torturous to sit down for such a long time (moms don't sit down for long nowadays). The show ended about 11pm.

Unsatisfied gastronomically, we went in search of food to 'top' us up as well as avoid the mass exodus of cars and crowds. Alex has a strawberry crepe while I just had a Cammomile tea. In amidst the 10mins of food hunting, my dear husband managed to offend me and I retaliated by NOT EATING!!! In hindsight, that was DUMB. I should have asked to go to the most expensive restaurant to order Lobster or Caviar..... (long story!)

All in all, we drove home under the stars, cruise through the now quiet city then quickly put the top up as we banked into yet another traffic jam. Girls stayed over at our friends place and apparently had a ball. We went over first thing in the morning only to find them IGNORING us on arrival....

## Quick Update: Mathena (Age 3) will be taking her 50m swimming test soon as she's been doing extensively well at it. Letitia is enjoying learning all and more about the Human Body while dipping her fingers on Magic tricks etc. Alex has been recognised for his dilligent and pro-active work in his company thus been rewarded with more projects, more staff (not really a good thing) and more hours at work, Sigh! We are still facilitating GKGW at church and feeling VERY humbled with it though quite settled in church. We are now back to the basic 4 in the house until September where family will start arriving for our Miss No 2's highly awaited 4th Birthday. That's all folks! Will TRY to post more frequently!##

Dressing up for the GALA

Left out these pics from the cruise!

Cruise Lifestyle

Okay, 3 nights and 4 days we can take. Anymore than that, can be pure torture and boredom.

Sigh! Living a life luxury may not be all that's cranked up to be! But, we all had a nice and relaxing time... There were 4 days worth of NO COOKING, lots of kids programmes as well as fun-filled activity packed childcare services and glasses of champaign.

Using Our Talents!

We are good at dressing up and dancing!

Ballet cover-ups designed and sewn by Grandma Chua!

Mathena said the thing she does best is: "FIGHTING, Hi-Yahhh!"

Mathena in her toddler Ballet class at the new school venue in Toa Payoh!