New Year's Eve Resolution for 2016

So much to be thankful for as we draw 2015 to a close.  We had a terrifying health scare this year and by the Grace of God, it was non-life threatening even though the symptoms were not looking that way. That in itself reminded me again to never take life for granted and to always treasure the precious times with loved ones.

So thank you God to good health, loving family, good job, great friends and plenty of travels!

In 2016, I will be more vigilant. To never judge the book by its cover, to stay humble and outwardly focused.

To end 2015, here's what the fam & I got up to. We tested out our Sunnylife Christmas present. A good chuckle all round alright...

Have an awesome 2016 Everyone!

Well...Hello 2015!

There's something about the birth of a new life that makes you appreciate time with close friends and more importantly, family. When you have kids, you are time poor. So when you do find time, you want to spend it with people that matter in your world.

When you have a family of your own, you realise how important family means to you and how you can not live without them. Every moment spent with family becomes photo album full of memories for the next generation to flip. 

On NYE, we invited our close family friends and their family over for our last supper of 2014. We had lovely food, wine and the kids had an awesome time playing with their version of fire crackers. They had a ball! At around 9:30pm, our friends left our place, the kids went to bed, leaving Mr M and I to prep for all the dishes we were to cook on New Year's Day for 16 members of our family! And in the stillness of the final hour of 2014, Mr M & I spent the romantic night de-pooing and cleaning 1.5kg worth of prawns. Oh the life of old married couples! You just had to laugh.

Lots to achieve this year for both Mr M & I. Feeling anxious and excited at the same time. 

In 2015, here's to being less stressed, time poor and enjoying all the precious moments with loved ones! Emmanuel.干杯!

Farewell 2014!

After a turbulent start to 2014, I have witnessed first hand of God's sovereignty and faithfulness. To think what could've been a long, tough, trying year, God turned it around to be one of abundant blessings.

As 2014 comes to a close, I am reminded of God's love, grace & goodness. I thank God for His protection, deliverance & guidance in our family.

Thank you Lord for being our Jehovah Rapha, God our healer. When tragedy strikes and there is nothing in this world we can cling onto, you are there. You remain Sovereign & faithful. In your name we trust.

Thank you God for all things new this year; a new job, a new boss who is such a great one too I might add, a new work life balance (finally), a new car, new destinations (11 countries, 3 continents traveled in 1 year alone!), new QFF status (finally made it to Platinum! woo hoo!), new house, new family members (a niece & nephew) and these are just to name a few..

Here is a snippet of our final few moments of 2014. Happy New Year's Eve everyone!

 

 

 

 

 

Farewell...

After nearly 4 years of owning silver-M, we finally said goodbye to him today.

I was a bit teary when the buyer drove him away as it was the car that took home 3 of our babies from the hospital.  It was also the car where regular fishing trips and family vacations were made. And now.. he will have a new title of being our first family car etched forever in our memories..

But, having said that, a new chapter begins in our new black-P! The kids have already long gone forgotten silver-M and has made their mark (mainly shoe prints & food scraps) all over the new car :)

Happy Chinese New Year of the Dragon!

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! I hope everyone are enjoying all the feasting, collecting lots of ang pows (or giving away lots of ang pows) :)

2012 New Year's Resolutions!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! I am sooo looking forward to 2012 as it's not only the year of the Olympics (wow 4yrs has zoomed past so fast as I can still remember watching the Beijing Grand Opening Ceremony!), but also the Year of the Dragon (most powerful animal out of the 12) where we will meet our last and final child! Woo hoo! I also have at least nine friends/families who are popping our dragon babies too and about 4 weddings to attend. Yay :)

So to begin this New Year, here are all of our resolutions for 2012:

1) Renovate the damn kitchen! - Yes our kitchen is waaaaayyy too small hence why it has made me hate cooking! so we are in the process of getting the renovations under way! Stay tuned ;)

2) Build our new house - Yes that'll be right, just when my new kitchen will come into fruition, I may have to wave goodbye to all of it!

3) Take my family to an island resort some where not in Australia or Asia and do nothing but relax (not too sure how to relax with an infant but heck I'm sure I'll manage some how.. just get me there!)

4) Buy a new car - Yes both of our cars are over 10 years old and in need of some newness!

5) Aim to go to church every single Sun!

Ok I've just looked at my list and I'm not sure how we can afford it all.. so I will be stoked if we managed to tick all of it by year end!

Here's to a very fruitful, Happy & Healthy New Year! *Gan Bei*

2011 New Year's Resolution Review

Now that we are approaching Year end, let's have a look at whether or not we achieved our NY's Resolution for 2011.

1) Speak only words of affirmation & positivity - no criticisms & no negativity  - We definitely improved this year vs previous years. But we can definitely still improve in this area.



2) Travel to Europe & bring the in laws to China for a holiday (this will be a stretch to do both!) - Ok we were originally going to take the in laws to China, but last minute, they said they didn't want to go.. so heck, we went to Europe just the two of us instead and had a time of our lives ;-p


3) Move into a bigger house!! (yes it will be a bitter sweet moment for me if this does happen cos I truly love where we live at the moment.. but we need a bigger place for the kiddies toys and clothing. Sigh..)
ok we were also close to doing this but the price of the new house was just not right. Instead, we are thinking of building a new house next year! Lord please let it happen  in Jesus Name :)


4) Lose weight (for Mr M only cos I have no worries in that department thanks to b/f! Hopefully this point won't make it to 2012 resolution again :)  - Ok let's skip this one as we all know that didn't happen!


5) Make baby #3? ummm more on that later. - Completed! lol

3 Decades.

On the morning of my birthday, I automatically woke up at 6:30am feeling incredibly blessed that by God's grace.. I have finally made it to my 30's! As I reflect upon the years, I felt that I had lived a very fulfilled life (so far anyway) and there was definitely no complaints there.

I remember when I had just turned 25, I encountered a really bad quarter life crisis. Despite the fact that I was doing well in my career and had many close friends and family around me, I still somewhat felt empty inside. I was still single and I really didn't know where God would take me by the time I hit 30. It was that feeling of unknown and the uncertainity of which I allowed it to envelop me. I had always wanted to get married by the age of 26 and to start a family by the age of 28 but at that time, I knew those dreams would only be just that.. dreams .. and not a reality.

Fast forward five years later, as I reflect upon that defining moment of my life, I am overwhelmed by God's favour and love in my life. Never would I thought He would still allow me to achieve it all despite me seeing it with my very own flesh that it would be impossible. Everything that I had always wanted to do in my twenty's, I had done.

In my late teens, I had always asked God if He could kindly grant me the following:
I wanted to get married by the age of 26, I got married at 25.75y.o. (totally unexpected too!) - tick
I wanted to move overseas and live a different culture/lifestyle - tick
I wanted to live in an apartment type of lifestyle before settling down - tick
I wanted to see the world with my husband - tick
I wanted to work in marketing, managing a well known brand in a region (as opposed to a country) - tick
I wanted to have my first child at 28y.o, I managed to have it at 26.75y.o - tick
I wanted a daughter so badly and God decided to grant that to me after our first born son - tick
I wanted to have 3 children by the age of 30 - half tick

Despite the fact that I have not reached a CEO status, nor do I drive a BMW or live in a mansion in Toorak, I am humbled by the fact that everything that was important to me, God has granted...
And so I commit the next decade unto His hand and I pray that His will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

To God be the glory and praise..

Happy Birthday...

Happy Birthday to our dearest Er Jiu who turns 3 today!

'Er Jiu.. can you please move your hand? I want to blow!'

'Don't worry gor gor... I will blow for you instead'

A 'what the' moment!

The other day I handed over a bottle of SK-II whitening spots specialist to my mum who's always happy to receive freebies courtesy of P&G. This product is basically like a serum and the packaging is like parfum where you would literally squeeze droplets on any pigments on your face in order to 'whiten' and even out your skin tone. It is specifically aimed at targeting pigments (aka dark dots around your face caused by sun/old age) both under and on the surface of your facial skin. My mum couldn't be happier to show this off to my dad.

Then the next day, my dad asks me 'Where is my sample of SK-II Whitening spots specialist'? What the? I thought.. First thought was, when were you ever into prestige skincare? I then replied 'Don't you guys share the same bathroom? You guys can't share the same bottle meh?'

'Nope, your mum is using it all to herself and is not sharing at all!' replied the very unhappy chap.

My oh my! what has happened to my parents?.... all this... in the name of SK-II!

Savouring.The.Moment.

It has been over a year since I last visited one of my favourite person in the whole wide world!! I hadn't seen my dearest uncle Toan for so long because I had been on maternity leave and that my current role demands so much of my time in the office that I had not had the time to catch up with him.

So I made it a point to catch up with him tonight even though 1) I had so much work to do and it would take me at least 45mins from my office to Cabramatta. 2) I had forgotten to bring my breast pump from the hotel so it meant that I would be in a whole lot of pain during our catch up.  So after spending $90 in cab fare, I finally arrived to see my smiley uncle who was very happy to see me. Like usual, he showed me around his house of all the new furnitures that has been added to his room. He is just so cute! He then took me out for dinner and we caught up on life: past, present, future. I showed him photos of my 2 kids of which he kindly said that my daughter will grow up to be a very beautiful girl just like his mother.. *blush*

During this catch up, I realised that he was still very much the same uncle that I had known a decade ago. Even though he is 85y.o, he is still very active, still walks, still remembers very well. However, even he admits that mentality he is not as quick as before. And each time I had talked about how fast my kids have grown, I couldn't help but to feel saddened knowing that with every year my kids grow, it would mean that it is one more year that he ages. Gosh, how I wish we could just live forever...

After dinner, my gentleman uncle walked with me to the train station even though I insisted that I would walk him back to his house. But, he held my arm and pulled me towards the direction of the station. Moreover, he waited with me in the freezing cold with his shaky lips until my train finally arrived at 8:45pm. I was really sad to say goodbye. I just can't believe it has been ten years since I was his tenant, living and looking after him over my summer break. We had so much fun together. He taught me how to dance in the Chinese elderly Association of which he used to run. We would go out every single week to explore Sydney and he would take me out to eat at his favourite restaurants. Life was so simple, so carefree, so timeless.

And just like when the train door had closed and I watched him zoom past before my eyes, it reminded me yet again that that was then and this is now...

Mother's Day

When I woke up on Mother's Day, Mr M made me breakfast and gave me a present from the kids. It was none other than boxes of chocs and a very sweet card. Again as per tradition, he wrote inside 'daddy owes mummy a.... 4WD!' hahaha I wonder how long it will take before the promise fulfiled. lol.

For Mother's Day Lunch, we went to my folks place to have steamboat to celebrate!

Happy Mother's Day to all you mummies out there including mine :)

Snippets of Parenting: Photolog 3

Photos taken from Jan - April 2011