Adjusting To New Environment

DENISE

Denise is doing well in school. She is self-motivated and I have no problem in getting her to complete her daily homework. Initially I was concerned for her Spelling but thus far she has been scoring full marks... Cham! The kiasu-parents symptoms are showing!

She was appointed as the Class Monitress. We asked if she volunteered herself :p But she said her form teacher was the one that selected her...:) She has to give commands for the class to "stand" and helped the teacher marked class attendance during assembly etc. When I met her form teacher, Mrs Ong during the Parent Meet Teacher Session, she commented that Denise is very helpful. She will even help to sweep the floor when the floor is dirty! I remember Denise telling us that she wants to be a helpful person this year; think it is coming to pass!

Last week, she was also appointed as the 小老师in class. Her responsibilities include helping the weaker students with their homework. I think she is really enjoying school...:)

DEBBIE

Debbie, on the hand, has been crying in school...:( The week break she had because of the family funeral must have disrupted her schedule. She is still excited to go to school every morning. In fact, when I told her we are going to Pat's Schoolhouse, she will be very excited. But the moment I drop her in class, she will start crying. Debbie is already "famous" for being Denise's younger sister, but now she is also known as the "crying" one in school...:p

This morning, when I dropped her, Denise's former teacher, Ms Wendy was there. She was, as usual, so sweet... She carried Debbie and brought her to the playground to distract and calm her down. I heard the school principal, Ms Ada, even brought Debbie to Denise's former classroom to familiarise her with the new environment... Thank God for loving and caring teachers...:)

New Schedule for 2010

This year is a milestone for both Denise and Debbie. Denise starts P1 in FMS(P) and Debbie starts Playgroup in Pat's Schoolhouse.

Thus far, it has been easy getting Denise to wake up at 6.45 a.m. every morning. I will drive her to school and stay for the Morning Devotion. I will stay to at least hear the verse for the week so that I can remind her what she has learnt in school.

This is how her Morning Assembly looks like. I will drop her off and she will settle down for her Silent Reading. Every Tuesday, she will assemble in the school hall for Chapel.

For the first 2 weeks, all P1s have a P4 buddy who will help take care of them during recess time. I found out that Phoebe takes the public bus to school. Maybe by the time Denise is in P4 she can takes the public bus on her own too... (provided I feel assured of her safety...:p)

It has been easy dropping Debbie in school too! On the first day, she just waved "bye" and went to the Music Room with the teacher. On the second day, she did not even wait for the teacher, she went into the Music Room on her own. On the third day, the Chinese teacher commented that she is the happiest child in class...:)


Well, this also spells the beginning of a new schedule for me. I have to wake up at 6.30 a.m. every weekday morning for the next 10 years!!! (till Debbie graduates from Fairfield)

Farewell to our Dad and Grandpa

Last Sunday, we were woken up by a startling news. JX's dad passed away in his sleep. He was supposed to wake up at 5am for his usual morning taxi shift. However, my MIL could not wake him up. By the time the paramedic came, they pronounced him dead approximately an hour earlier...

My memory of my FIL is that he was a very quiet man. The only time I heard him talk the most was when he discussed football with JX. He used to drive us around before we bought our car. In fact, during our dating days, JX would send me home at night and his Dad would come and picked him home in his taxi. Indirectly, he was helping us to "pak-tor"...:)

The first time my FIL came to church was for the screening of World Cup 2002 at our Jurong Auditorium. The second time was in 2008 for JX's SOT Graduation. In that service, he lifted up his hands to worship God and even teared a little...:) Could see that he was very proud of JX! Without our knowledge, he told my MIL that he wanted to go to church but it never happened...

My MIL decided on having a Christian funeral. Over the 5 days, relatives, friends from everywhere, colleagues rallied around us. People took turns to spend time with us and bought food for us. Even friends from KL and Jakarta came just to shower us their love and support! We, especially my MIL, were extremely touched!

After the funeral, when JX was packing my FIL's stuff, he found a Christian tracts in the bag that he carried daily. It was titled "What is my life". And among the many pieces of papers in his wallet was a nicely folded piece of paper with a Christian verse on it. It looked like a Thank You note from a Christian wedding that he had previously attended, but he kept the verse portion!

Someone told me "God's intention is always to save". We choose to believe in God's sovereignty! The doctor diagnosed that my FIL probably suffered a cardiac arrest. We may never get an answer, but one thing for sure, he has gone to a better place and one day, we will meet him again!

Like what JX said in the eulogy: "Farewell to a good son, generous brother, faithful husband and responsible father".

Trip to KL - Food Edition

Malaysia is the real Food Paradise!!! You can easily find nice and cheap food here... Even a simple roadside coffeeshop sells fantastic dishes!

Here, we were having dinner at a small roadside Chinese restaurant with my family. The food here is awesome!!! We ordered their specialties... Nonya steam fish, Fried Bitter Gourd, Golden Tofu, Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs... Yummy! 6 dishes for 7 adults and 4 children only costs us RM$135...

After dinner, we had "Mao Shan Wang". A treat from my bro-in-law... RM$28 per kg and 4 durians cost him RM$364!!! Every ex, by any standard... But I must say, the durians tasted superb :)

At the Choongs, Fong Loo welcomed us with Patchi. They are like Godiva, Chocz kind of "chocolate"... Between FL and I, we called them "chocolate fits for royalty" because these are the chocolate that the Choongs will buy for the King and Queen...:)

Of course, for those of you that follow my tweets, we had 2nd round of durians with the Choongs. This time the durians were cheaper BUT they were equally good; those bittersweet kind that I love!!!

Before we left on Friday morning, they brought us to a coffeeshop for Dim Sum. My all-time favourite item is "wu-kok" (deep fried yam). I am NOT exaggerating but this place serves one of the BEST "wu-kok" I have ever tasted! The crust melts in your mouth and the yam is so soft that it does not get stuck in your teeth! I could not resist "tar-pau-ing" 2 boxes to Singapore! I probably ate 3 there...:)

We ate so much good food on this trip... Dragon-i; Chinese La-mian restaurant, Nasi Bryani at Bangsar, homecooked Nasi Lemak by the Choong's 3rd Aunty, Kajang satay and roti prata etc... FOOD! Enough for me to want to go back again and again!!

Trip to KL - Kidz Edition

The main highlight of every KL trip we made is the fun Denise and Debbie will have with the Choongs. This year, we decided to drive up on Dec 27, so that Denise could celebrate her birthday with her KL buddies! In fact Denise celebrated her birthday twice in KL! The second celebration was when we visited my step-mum, who was residing in KL with my step-sister.

After arriving at their place, Nicole immediately changed Denise into a dress and placed a tiara on her. Aunty Fong Loo ordered a Strawberry Shortcake agar-agar cake for Denise! How nice...:)

Besides celebrating her birthday with her friends, Denise finally got her wish fulfilled! She had always wanted to have her Princess manicure... She was so so excited! Chose a shimmering pink colour.

Whenever the adults need some shopping time, we will leave the kids at the indoor playground located within the mall. This KizSports & Gym is at Bangsar Village 2.

Here, Denise and Debbie getting themselves busy with Art & Craft sessions while we went shopping at Mid Valley MegaMall...:)


More fun at the arcade in Mid Valley:)

Of course, swimming is always a highlight for the children!

On the last night, the children put up a performance for the adults. Joshua - the "hungry caterpillar". Nicole - the Director. Denise - the Narrator and ticket-seller. Kellyn - the Butterfly :) The children deisgned the tickets. Each ticket costs RM$1 and the adults have to use REAL money to purchase the tickets. After the "show", they split the money and each child took RM$2 for the hardwork they put in... :)

Denise 6th Birthday

Denise turned 6 on 27th December, 2009. We usually celebrate her birthday 2 weeks earlier to coincide with the last day of school. Choosing a date was difficult because most of her classmates were going away before they start their P1. Thus we decided to combine celebration with Regan, another classmate whose birthday also falls in December. Denise and Regan wanted to invite both the K2 classes from Pat's Schoolhouse. As such, I decided to keep the celebration to just her classmates as the crowd was simply too huge!

First we decided on the date: 13 Dec, 2009. Then the venue: Kidz Amaze @ Jurong Safra. The next difficult decision was the cake! As the other child was going to have a cake, we decided on having an Agar-Agar cake for Denise instead.

It was not too hard deciding on the character: Tinkerbell! I had wanted to bun up her hair and dress her in green... But decided that it would be too much "work"...:p The agar-agar idea turned out to be great because it was cut, distributed and gone in record time!

Of course, the next BIG decision to make was the content of the goodie-bag! First we shopped for the bags, then we decided on the content. Besides the usual tit-bits and candies, we gave out quite a number of craft stuff like sand art and craft, crayons, eraser, rubber stamps, stickers etc. Denise helped me packed them...:) Look pretty impressive huh?

Don't get distracted by the Ben 10 cake...:p The focus is the family picture we took after cake-cutting... Haha....

Finally, present opening time! Thank you everyone for your generosity! It was a long and definitely unforgetable party for Denise!

High School Musical - Summer Celebration

A friend gave us 5 tickets to HSM - Summer Celebration held at Singapore Indoor Stadium. The show features songs from all the 3 series; even Debbie could sing and dance along...:)

Except for Gabriella who seems "fleshier" than the real girl, the rest of the performers look very close to the original cast. If not for free tickets, I would not have brought the children there... :p