2008 - A year of peace, faith and grief for our family

Dear all at LC300,

Today is the eve of Christmas 2008. Recalling back this year of 2008, it has been a year of peace, faith and grief for our little family...

We start the year with passing of my beloved mum on the 14 Jan this year...I can still remember very clearly all the events that unfold leading up to her last heart beat and to her funeral and eventual cremation in Mandai Crematorium Hall 3...I experience extreme grief for a couple of months during which I draw strength from my faith in God...hence it has drawn me closer to God and able to know Him better through saints like St Therese, St Bernedette and St Faustina Kowalska. These 3 saints has certainly broght me a step closer to God. I thank them for the diaries, autobiographies that was painfully written by them...thru the writings I find great peace and calm in my life and hence in our little family...Tiffany PSLE was stressfull for all of us this year in the family but in the end God has given us all that is being hope for: To enable her to continue her education in her Catholic School (just like what my mum has hope for me when she was enrolling me in school in Malaysia.)

To my mum it is not important whether a school performs well academically..she is not interested in enrolling me in "Raffles Institution-type" of school or schools where you will mingle with the royalties (sultans). To her,she has just got one single objective and that is to sent her children to a Catholic School (never mind if the Catholic school is an Ah Beng school..that is not important)...hence this tradition was passed down to me.. and I emulate it.

2008 is also a year that saw improvement in my running speed and endurance..the 2 marathons (SAFRA and StandChart) showed an improvement in timing, something which I never expected...my legs too..the pain on the knee joints were gone and I am able to run continuously 10km without stopping..something which I never expected and I thank the good Lord for it..

2008 ended the same as it started for us...my close colleague James was earlier diagnosed with gastric cancer, passed away at the age of 33 on 19 Dec, leaving behind his wife and 2 young sons aged 3 years old and 7 months old. I attended his funeral on the 22 Dec at the Church of St Francis Xavier and Fr John Bosco said the mass and when I was at the Mandai Crematorium, everything that took place there on 17 Jan during my mum's cremation flashes back to my mind. I grieve with the passing on of my wonderful colleague and friend, James.

This morning I happen to be in his office where he shares it with 2 other of his colleagues. I still cannot believe that he is gone and will never be back.

We stayed home most of time for this year and I took every opportunity to sleep well at home..(our PUB bill has gone up due to the longer hours of our aircon in operation); we did not travel to anywhere this year. Just a short trip to Sentosa at the Shangrila Rasa Sentosa. With the current gloom economic outlook, where else is better than home, anyway?

All in all, we experience peace, faith and grief in this year of 2008 AD.

To end this entry, our little family would like to wish you and your families a blessed Christmas filled with peace, joy, faith and many graces from God.

Merry Christmas to one and all!

Albert, Theresa, Tiffany and Felicia + Santa

Felicia's 1st Christmas Performance

Dear All

We attended Felicia's very first "public" Christmas Performance with the adult choir at Holy Trinity. The children's choir is very very small...max 19 kids...at the Sat and Sun performances, only 12 and 11 kids respectively. Although the children were "used" as intermission for the adults to change for part 2 of the performance, they were darn cute and good...considering the wee number of voices compared to the adults' at least 50 members! Being a proud mum here, I may be bias lah! But she was so cute, looking at the conductor and at the same time, her eyes were roving around, making her look a bit squinty...like a little Harry Potter.

Needless to say, the adult's choir, under the conductor of good musical background (they made an album and evangelised through singing in Malaysis recently), they really brought the true meaning of christmas back. 2 songs were original compositions by the conductor and the lyrics and music was so touching, I cried a little. Tiffy was naughty and looked around and commented why everyone was teary...and when she saw me, she commented I had tear mists in my lashes..cheeky!

Felicia would be practising next for the children's pageant and mass this 24 Dec. She says she's enjoying herself and having fun as everyone is very nice. It's great to be instrumental in channeling and moulding a little soul in the path of what I believe, God would be pleased with. It's tough being parents, but when our kids smile at us and give us cheeky grins or make cheeky remarks, we feel somewhat gratified.

Love Theresa

After going thru the sacrament of reconciliation

Last nite went for the penitential service at the Holy Trinity. It was a wonderful feeling having to know realise that all your sins have been purged from your soul and you are reborn again (temporary, though...) as we will sin again some point in time in our lives..but never mind about that...for now, I want to kill sin so that I can be with God and that is the spirit that we have to adopt.

I was thinking this morning, should I drop dead this morning, I should be able to go straight to heaven as I am now purged from all sins...well, this is just a thought.

I thank God for giving me this chance of reconciliation... for I am what my colleague used to say "...the lowest lifeform"....in heaven and on earth and shouldn't deserve God's great mercy.

You have a nice day!

AlbertY

Fun at Changi Airport for Christmas

Dear All

You won't believe it (neither did Tiffy nor me!) that we had fun at Changi Airport T3 yesterday! When you spent at least $50 at any shop there, you'll get to go to Candy House where you get to fill a mug (which isn't fancyful or anything) with any sweets you wish from the Candy House till it's full. But you can only fill it such that you can fit the mug's lid tightly back on it. You get to keep the mug and the sweets. Every $50 gets you 1 tix for 2 pax to enter the Candy House and for 2 pax to sit the Choo choo train. This Choo choo train travels along a small stretch of the T3 (level3). It's quite fun for Felicia but Tiffy didn't like the train ride (made her wanna throw up). I found it fun, like being a kid again, but it was quite embarrassing when I sat down behind and the kids in front were so light, the carriage kinda creaked under my weight :(

Best part is, the shops there absorbed GST, so there was 7% discount on the price tag! Isn't that great? I didn't intend to spend so much, but with the novelty of the candy picking, who could resist? Surprisingly, Tiffy enjoyed picking sweets in the Candy House. When I was inside the Candy House, I felt like a kid again, goggle-eyed at the colourful goodies all around us, and I got to look at things and became a kid again for a while with the gals, especially through the eyes of Felicia, who believes christmas is the time to get lots of goodies and presents just because there is a Santa. 

Merry Christmas everyone and May God bless you and your families with peace, health and happiness this Christmas and the New Year 2009!!

Love Albert and Theresa, Felicia & Tiffany

Help Pray for my Friend's twin sons

Dear All

My friend, whose now migrated to Australia, has twin sons who are born with physical abnormalties. One has this problem of his skull bones fused at birth (the other less severe) and recently (about in June 08) had undergone major surgery to crack open the skull bones so give him space for his brain to grow. It seemed to have been a successful op.

Now for the next op. Both boys are born with their urinary tract ending at the base of their penis instead of the tip. Hence they need to undergo surgery...Joseph on this Fri (5 Dec) and Jonathan (the one with the major skull op) this Sat (6 Dec). My friend, Dawn Quintal, requests for prayers. It has been very very tramatic for them for the major surgery. This would be comparatively "minor" but it's still a delicate surgery as their penises are tiny...(they are about 2+ or 3 years now).

Thanks in advance for your prayers.

Love Theresa

Come Support Felicia and New Divine Mercy Church!

Dear All

Felicia is in the children's choir in Holy Trinity. She'll be singing with the children's choir and the adult's Seraphim choir at 2 sessions of the Christmas concert so as to raise funds for the new Divine Mercy Church in Pasir Ris. Details are:

Date: 13 Dec 08 (Sat)

Time: 7:30 - 8:30pm

Date: 14 Dec 08 (Sun)

Time: 12:30 - 1:45pm

Tickets are $2 pax (very very cheap!! Tiffy wonders how they will raise funds at cheap prices!)

Anyway, if you can, come give her your support.

We will be attending Sun 11am Mass so we'll have time after that to immediately attend Felicia's concert. She is so very thrilled with all this christmassy things and to be singing with the grown-ups, Pageant as well as the children's Mass on Christmas Eve. For us, we'll be busy fetching her up and down 2 - 3 x a week, but we are not complaining as it is a worthy cause.

Love Theresa & Albert

Bad times these days...even churches are not spared

Hi folks,

It has been quite a while since I last blogged...has been busy lately so no time to blog ...anyway these times are bad so we staying put here in singapore and particularly at home...resorting to doing things like playing board games like "Settlers of Catan" nice game for 4 four...

Read on the Cnn and these days churches also faces closure in US.
http://www.wjactv.com/news/18188011/detail.html

The year is coming to an end..how fast indeed is one year and we thank God for this year with much peace in our little lives and though the economic situation is bad but we are coping and the children knows it... we spent most of time chilling out at home. This year, the furthest we went is Sentosa, spent about 2 nights there and lazing around.

Recently. gotten news that my colleague James who is in the beginnning of this year was diagnosed with Stage 3 stomach cancer and now heard that his cancer has begin to spread to his liver although his stomach has been operated out and removed. Please pray for him as he is only in his mid 30s and he has 2 young children aged 4 and the other a few months old; moreover his wife is not working...

Well, see you all at LC300 Christmas party..Take care and God Bless!

AlbertY

Smaland Elections Made the News..please see below

News @ AsiaOne IKEA's new "Smaland Government" The new Government, an IKEA initiative, will consist of "Smaland citizens" from the children club, who will decide on important matters from paper recycling to animal adoption. -AsiaOne  Fri, Nov 21, 2008 AsiaOne There is a new Government in town and it has nothing to do with politics. What's interesting is that the Ministers and members of this new Government will be made up of the most important people in the world - children. IKEA's children club, Småles, is launching its latest initative - the Småles Parliament- for children aged between 4 and 10 years old to express their views and embark on projects that will make a difference to the society and the environment. The Cabinet will comprise six ministries and 12 Ministers supported by Members of Parliament. Although applications have closed on Nov 9, the Smålish citizens are waiting anxiously for the election results which will be revealed during their "First Parliament Session" on Nov 23 at IKEA Tampines, Level 2. The swearing-in of the first elected Småland Government will start from 10.30am - 12pm. IKEA's Småles Parliament initiative is to let children know that their opinions matter and their views are taken seriously. The projects will provide the children a chance to be involved in social and environmental issues, as well as to instill a sense of ownership. "It is important to let children know that their opinions matter and that they, even at their young age, can make a positive difference. "I am heartened to know that organisations like IKEA has taken the step to engage our children and their parents, and create opportunities for families to spend time together," said Dr Amy Khor, Mayor of the South-west District and Senior Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources. Country Marketing Manager for Singapore, Lars Svensson said:"IKEA believes that children are the most important people in the world. Through the Småland play area and the Småland nation, we want to show our young visitors that we see them, that they matter and that we take them seriously at IKEA. "With småles Parliament and Government, we want to bring this message further and manifest it in such a way that the children can see it for themselves and also really act on it." What challenges await these newly-elected Ministers and MPs? Activities such as paper recycling programmes and animal adoption at the Singapore Zoo are just a few of the numerous exciting projects in store. Other activities include allowing them to run their own businesses at the Annual Småland Christmas Bazaar. The Smålish citizens are enthusiastic about the new Småland Government and are already making proposals and plans. "I will encourage Småles to be kind, responsible, respectful and charitable by organising a donation drive and give to the less fortunate," said 9-year-old Lim Jun Heng. Jun Heng aspires to work with the other ministers to organise events and activities to make Småland a better place and he also intends to hold an annual fun fair on "Småland National Day" and surprise birthday parties for the less fortunate. Other Småland citizens such as Elton Pang, 5 and Sean Long, 9, want to set up a library to exchange books and make Småland, as well as IKEA, more environmentally friendly. However, it's not all fun and play for these children. They will be required to attend regular minister meetings (four times a year), facilitated by IKEA and Monsters Under the Bed - a language and storytelling school. During the meeting, these young ministers can give their feedback and make decisions on issues within Småland, which is the play area in IKEA. In order to avoid conflicts, the MPs will also get to vote on the proposals from the Ministers before any action is taken in implementing it in Småland or IKEA. The upcoming minister meeting will be held on Dec 5 and they will be visiting URA to view the URA Master Plan Gallery. This will be their first opportunity at coming up with ideas for Singapore, from more bicycle lanes, to boat rides, and free medical or schooling for children to free admission to attractions on Children's Day. So mark your calendars and pop by IKEA Tampines, Level 2 on Nov 23 at 10.30am to witness the First Parliament Session of the new Småland Government! For further information, visit http://www.smales.com.sg. Love Theresa & Felicia

Smaland and PSLE Results

Dear All

Felicia wasn't elected for any ministerial post and she cried herself to sleep. She lamented that she had so many ideas for smaland. Anyway, she attended the MP parliamentary party last Sunday with her best friend Bianca. She can invite 2 friends and the other friend flew off for vacation on Sat so only 1 friend made it. It is good that the 2 girls enjoyed themselves. On hindsight, it was lucky she isn't elected otherwise we parents have to fetch them to all sorts of meeting. The 1st ministerial meeting was Sat (22Nov), then the party (23 Nov), then to URA visit (5 Dec) then visit the real parliament house (11 Dec). They are THAT serious about this ministerial thingy. Geez, the kids are only 4 - 9 years old!! The youngest, 4 - the makan minister, could hardly ascent the baby steps to go on stage to receive the appointment letter!! Anyway, the magic show was pretty good, and it kept both kids and parents meserised.

Coming to the topic of Tiffany's PSLE, I was pleasantly surprised with calls from long lost friends like Vera, Wai Meng and Phyllis, who called just to find out how did Tiffy fare. So sweet of them. 1 mother of the girls in Tiffy's school told me that this year's t-score was low, hence aggregate scores are mostly on the low side this year. I do take these news as consolation and in perspective of Tiffy's score. I just thank the Lord for such friends who I believe are sent as angels to reaffirm that Tiffy has done well in light of the "national" average. Her cousin was so sweet when she told him her aggregate score...he said "can get in express is good already lah!" Most importantly, Tiffy feels she has done very well, and indeed she has as she has improved greatly from her prelims, as did most of her friends. It was surprising that those who did well in the prelims that did not fare as well as they and their parents want to. 1 mother who didn't have her daughter in any affiliate school expected her daughter to do well like 250+ aggregate, but had 204...she is now going around the various neighbourhood schools to see which one would take her into the express stream. When I hear of such sad stories, I really thank the Lord and Mother Mary for their mercy and blessings. Today, a friend told me it's better to have a child who is average in studies and high moral values than a child with high academic achievements but with no or little moral values. I believe she's another Godsend angel speaking to me.

PLSE posting results would be out on 18 Dec 08. Please continue to help us pray that Tiffany would be able to get into St Anthony Canossian Secondary School Express Stream. The school is 1 of 3 schools this year which was awarded the Distinguished achievement award, and most likely, with the kind of aggregate levels I am hearing from kids from non-affiliate schools this year, I think competition for her school could be tough. Tiffany has confidence in herself, and that is good, but I tend to be a great "worrier" so please pray for me.

Love Theresa and Albert

Closing Date of Ikea Smaland Vote and PSLE Results Day

Dear All

Today's the closing date of voting for Felicia. It seems there was a glitch so every smaland member who voted earlier had to vote again for their vote to count. Seems like many friends' kids are not smaland members :(

Anyway, even if Felicia doesn't get voted in (she says she'll be very very sad if she doesn't get the post, poor kid) she'll still be a member of parliament. Tiffy and I told her not to get too upset as at least she has tried and that was what that counts.

Since 2 days back, Tiffany was very very worried she failed Chinese in her PSLE. Her worry caused her to have sleepless nights. Luckily it was only for about 2 or so days before today's PSLE release of results. We praise the Lord and Mother Mary for miracles! She has performed much better than her prelims (with a B for Chinese!! Yay!!) and qualifies for express stream. We pray that she'll get into her affliate school, St Anthony's Canossian Secondary which is just next door to her primary school. She had hoped to do much better to qualify to a different school like Hai Sing Catholic but we all feel she better play it safe and go back to her affliate school. Anyway, she did much better than expected and she's very pleased with her results. For us parents, we are pleased that she had improved in her grades and qualifies for express in St Ant.

There were mixed emotions in the school canteen as girls from other classes filed out to break the news to their parents. Our Tiff's class was one of the last to be released. Bert joked was it because they were the best class? Our joker Tiff saw the results slip and the highest aggregate for PSLE - 287 - was the 1st thing she saw and her eyes almost popped out of her head!! She thought she got 287 lah! Her classmate was better still - she saw the lowest aggregate score 1st of 87 on her results slip and HER eyes almost popped --- she thought she scored that low!! Ah ya, these children!! At least Tiff is optimistic by zooming in on only the good stuff?? Haha.

Anyway, this family was waiting for their daughter when she came out with her friend, teary eyed. She told her parents her results (couldn't and didn't want to hear anyway) and then the flood of tears came. Made me tear a bit too. Then she tried to smile a little. Her mum tapped her on her head. Don't know if it was tears of joy or sadness. 

One of Tiff's best friends did quite well (at least one of the better ones amongst her friends) but was emotional too as she didn't get good enough aggregate points to enter her 1st choice school. I heard that when she got home, her mum was displeased with her results. I told the poor girl that her results were pretty good and she still has some choices. I guess if a child usually does well in school, the expectations are very high whereas if they are average, if they do better than normal (although it is not fantastically high) that in itself is satisfaction for both the child and the parents. I guess in life, it's all about relativity. Those girls who are PRs and don't do 2nd language amongst her friends did so much better than Tiff in their aggregate scores. I feel it wasn't fair to those who have to juggle 4 subjects than this small group who only took 3 subjects...plus they usually sweep the top 3 positions in class because their average score is higher. The playing field is not level actually. As I usually tell Tiff life is not fair, she reiterated to me today that well, life isn't fair. Luckily for us, God IS always fair and merciful to us!

Thanks to all of you for praying for us and Tiffany! Continue to help us pray that Tiffy can get into her 1st choice school. We had already submitted our options form and pray that all will go well for her.

Love Theresa and Bert

Help Vote for Felicia!!

Dear All

Felicia is keen to be the next Prime Minister (PM)....not of S'pore lah....of Smaleland in Ikea Singapore :)

Here is the happy candidate, all smiles and ready to serve...

What she had written (those tiny words below the blue ones in the above poster) was "I will make sure that Smaland is a fun and nice place for everyone. I enjoy reading and singing. My favourite animal is the elephant and I like to eat chicken wings."

If you have kids below 12 years and are members of Smaland, please vote for her. If your kids are not Ikea's smaland members yet, you need to bring your child's birthcert (or just ezlink card?) to Ikea at either Alexandra or Tampines and apply for a passport.

Our potential PM's brief campaign poster (same as the above) will be put up on www.ikea.com.sg and Ikea Tampines from 14 Nov. Voting is opened from 14 to 20 Nov.

For your info, in case she can't be voted in as PM, her 2nd choice is Makan Minister. Kinda of cute huh??

If you can, please give her your support. She'll be appealing to her classmates tomorrow as well. I told her if she wants the post badly, she has to "campaign" and gather votes herself. So she said OK, she'll do it.

Thanks in advance for your support!

Love Theresa

My recent experience with sales people

Dear All

This morning, I had a phone call from this sales person from an financial education company for children. I had met her at the Tampines Mall rooftop playground about 2 or so months back where she approached me whilst I was watching Feli playing. I decided to hear her out as I feel anything new could be beneficial or interesting to know about. Anyway, I gave her basic info like my 2 girls' name and age and school. The course is about teaching kids money management skills. If I had remembered correctly, it's a 16h course costing a bomb of at least $500. If it was an office training programme, I'll go for it as it is considered reasonable...but for kids as an enrichment programme that comes from our pocket, it's a luxury and extravagant expenditure!

Anyway, she had been persistant in following up, and I had told her I am not interested. Don't know why these people have selected listening skills...still persist in pushing another program to me...studying skills that is offered by another section which she's not under...but being in sales line, I guess she wants the commission.

Anyway, from then on, I told me I'm busy and call me another time. Anyway, she called me yesterday and was not free to talk to her. So she called me again this morning, so as I was a bit freer, decided to listen to her. 

1st boo-boo she made was refer to Felicia by another name!! I asked her who is "Gloria"? She avoided answering me and managed to find out Feli's name. Next, she asked how Feli did for her exams. I told her she passed and when she insisted how well Feli fared, I told her I'm happy with her results. Then she asked what was her grades, and I find that kind of personal so asked her why she wanted such an info? Then she asked if Feli has tuition. I told her of course! (I believe I had already told her that before!). Then she told her if Feli wasn't doing well in studies, she should attend the study skills program. I told her her programs are too expensive and asked how did I know...I told her I had asked her before! Next biggest boo-boo which cheesed me off was she told me to drop all tuition and the money saved could pay for the study skills program and I would never ever need tuition again!! I was mad that this sales person who doesn't have children of her own and doesn't even remember much about me and the kids, who has not assessed my needs, is just too keen to push her product. I told her good-bye. Try again next year. Economy not good, so good-bye again. Then she asked if my job was affected. And I told her I'm a stay-at-home-mum, and that I had already told her that before! Still, she hung onto the phone. So I told her again good-bye and call next year lah! This is an example of a very bad sales person!! So many boo-boo and blunders. And she still had the cheek to push a product that I don't need.

Just soooo cheesed off with her! And I thought I pitied her and give her a listening ear, and she was so irritating!!!

If there's any of you in the sales line, sorry, no offence. Anyway, none of you do that to us :) I just was so irritated by her I wanted to get it off my chest! Afterall, it's not a cheap product. I believe these info can always be picked up from books and I believe there are software programs available that teach you such things anyway. Much cheaper than attending such programs where you only retain at best 60% of what you learn. 

Theresa

Divine Mercy (Part 1)

Hi folks, still got about 1.5 hours to my next class at 4pm..so have some little time to blog....today this morning on the train I continue to read about the diary of Saint Faustina and here some of the key points. First of all, before I proceed any further, I would like you to know something about this image...

This image has been revealed to Saint Faustina and later on, on one occasion, Christ himself has specifically told Sister Faustina that if she negelct the painting of this picture and the entire works of Divine Mercy, not only she has to answer for her own soul but also a multitude of souls...as written in the following passage...it was at this part of the story that I found it so moving and emotionally touch....and at this point , I paused for a long while at this part of the book and began to feel for our dear saint...I found myself unable to carry on reading from here this morning...and here is where I stopped:

I was moved at this point...St Faustina was entrusted with such a heavy responsibility by the Lord and if were I in her shoes, I may have freak out..

You can see from here that the Lord's words are clear, direct, no-nonsense type, and certainly no small talk business like "Hi How are you?..that sort of thing..

To be continued...

AlbertY

This is no ordinary diary....and here is why...

Wow has been busy lately...so no time to blog. But anyway I am fine just in case you are wondering how I am lately, I am fine, thank you...lately I have stumbled upon this book (a diary actually) but it is indeed no ordinary diary...

As a matter of fact, when I first started reading this book, I have my doubts like nay other person but I have now overcome my doubts and have believe without reservation what is written is true and have indeed taken place...first of all Sister Faustina has been canonise a saint in 2000 by Pope John Paul II. So that helps a lot for an ordinary folk like me to accept it.

A bit of background to this book... a 600 page book, light and easy on the mind, bought at a cost of $21 (available in the Catholic Bookshop at Queen Street) no many copies left, this book like I said is no ordinary idary coz whatever is written comes directly under the guidance of Jesus, Himself. Words spoken by Him, is highted in Bold. So in essence, this are truly God's words (coming directly from God Himself) to a very ordinary nun. and of course this nun is none other than Sister Faustina from Poland. Born 1905 and Died in 1938 at the age of 35 from tuberculosis.

She is really the chosen one by Jesus Himself to disseminate messages and the devotion of Divine Mercy. She is able to see and holds a direct communication with Jesus , Himself practically everywhere and anytime. also include in her visions are her guardian angel which one led her to see the souls in Purgatory, she is also able to see Mother Mary in quite a number of occasions (including this one when she saw Mother Mary visiting souls in purgatory..and also the following Jesus explains why the need for purgatory:

and on top of that one nite she dreamt of St Therese of Lisieux (my favourite saint) and hold a conversation with her. In that dreamt, St Therese revealled to her that she is a sain and now is in heaven. Sister Faustina then her whether she (Sister Faustina) will be goin to heaven and St Therese reply yes indeed and then sister Faustina go on by asking St therese whether her parents are in heaven, she reply yes...! so beautiful indeed!

But she suffered a great deal in the sense that a lot of sisters in her own religious community (Mother Superiors included) did not believe her and thought that is a hallucinating and a lunatic...how sad it was...and here what Jesus told her in the following of the non-believers:

But eventually she draw strength from our Lord Jesus which was constantly beside her all the time. How encounraging. This book is commanded by our Lord Jesus to sister Faustina to write down diligently whatever He tells of her.

A total of 6 notebooks, this book is not about the life of Sister Fautina, it is direct messages coming from Jesus, Himself. So the messages in there is very direct, short, and no small talk or whatsoever. If you think that God does not speaks directly to man in this modern times, this book proves otherwise.

On another occasion, Jesus paints the vision of His second coming and that is a scary...here it is

To be continued....still reading notebook 1.

P.S. Church of Divine Mercy is now coming up at Pasir Ris...

Prayer to St Therese and St Faustina:

St Therese and St Faustina, I humbly ask of you to take my soul to heaven when I die..I do not want to go to purgatory..I am scared.

You have a nice day!

AlbertY

Our Little Year End Holiday

Dear All

Bert has been very very busy since it's going to be the start of the new term, and he is now loaded with extra duties. I guess we shouldn't be complaining as that would mean he would still have a job which we are very fortunate to have, seeing how the financial crisis is unfolding and that Singapore is in a technical recession. Of course we are worried, as no one knows what the future will hold. But then, we thank the Good Lord and Mother Mary for each day and the blessings they have given us.

As we did not have any holiday last year being Tiffany's P5 preparation year for this year's PSLE, we decided to have a short holiday this year. As the economy didn't look too good, and the regional countries are all in turmoil, we had our "overseas" holiday at Sentosa, the island at the most south tip of the Asia continent.

We spent 3D2Ns at the Rasa Sentosa Resort over the Deepavali weekend. It was really a leisurely holiday as we spent most of the time eating and sleeping!!! We simply lazed around in the hotel room chomping on snacks (on the beds AND most importantly, mommy's NOT complaining), calling in dine-in service, and when we feel like it, we just go out for some attractions. 

Places we visited on 1st nite were Merlion and Underwater World. Best to skip Merlion. The Underwater World's tunnel has more giagantic fishes so it's quite worth the visit that we went through the travellator twice. Felicia got to touch the sting ray and the shark in the touch pool. She was so scared to touch the shark (or some blackish fish hiding partially amongst the rocks) on the head. The head was nearest to her as she's too short to reach out to touch it's tail. She was afraid the fish would bite her. So when the sting ray came near and Bert and Tiffy touched it, I quickly called Feli to touch the sting ray and the shark looking fish. She was so so happy. The shark felt rough whereas the sting ray was soft and slimmy.

Next day, very early in the morning (Tiffy woke us up at 6:30am), Tiffy quickly chased us up for breakfast so that we could get the 1st 10am show to 4D magix. The previous nite when we were there, the queue for the show was super-duper long. So there was no queue when we bought the tixs. The girls found the show a bit scary, especially for Felicia, who are holding to my hand very tightly. She even took off her 3D glasses at one point, hence I missed some parts of the show...what a pity (for me lah). So when Bert asked me if I felt this or that, I had to tell me, no I didn't cos I was like slanted towards Felicia and stealing glances at her to see if she was alright. I think Bert found it enjoyable.

Next we went to Cineblast. It's a rollercoaster "ride" on a space-ship like seat. We had sat this before but it was located elsewhere in Sentosa, and the show was different. The girls enjoyed this one much more than the 4D, but attendance in Cineblast was miserable...only we 4 and another Philippino couple. Anyway, I told the Philippino guy operating the theatre that the girls prefer the Cineblast to the 4D magix, and Tiffy told me the guy looked so happy. So glad to have made the day for someone. I mean, if you have something nice to say, and it doesn't involve too much effort anyway, just so it. It could help the person through the day.

We next went to Dolphin Lagoon...the highlight for Felicia. She was talking about the dolphines that last time we visited them...I think about 3 years ago? At that time, the 2 girls were quite small still and they got to touch the dolphines. This time, I got the whole show on video, so the girls can remember it better. The lucky 2 volunteers from the audience had the chance to pat the dolphin and stroke their underbelly...the comment from the Australian lady of her experience was "it was magical". I could also feel the magic too...especially when the whole experience was played to such nice music.

Later, we had a 1h bike ride along the bike trail. We lost the trail along the way, so backtracked a little, and spent quite a bit of time pushing our bikes as either the place was crowded, or else it was dangerous (in our opinion) to ride the bikes. Anyway, after reading the maps along the road, we managed to get back to the lost trail. Tiffy was very observant. She spotted a monkey and a white pea-hen along the way. I missed seeing the animals as I was busy concentrating on the road!

In the evening, Felicia played on the water slides at the hotel. She was getting a bit big because of her height, but fortunately, the staff were not strict, so she and other bigger children (plus some mothers) slid down the slides. The last time we were there, we saw a monitor lizard entering the pool for a swim. That's when we all evacuted the pool. Luckily (or is it unluckily) nothing eventful happened this time round.

On the last day (Deepavali day), we decided to catch 1 more attraction before checking out. Since the girls are afraid of Fort Siloso, we went to the Butterfly and Insect Kingdom. It seemed quite run-down from the outside with no tickets issued (only a receipt!) and we thought it's just a museum of dead butterflies and beetles. To our surprise, they had a walk-through butterfly garden. I remember there was also one at the Singapore Zoo. Can't remember if there are any other butterfly parks. Anyway, the butterflies at Sentosa didn't like to land on our hands unlike the other places (can't be sure if it's the zoo) where they happily and readily landed on our hands. If you are lucky to have them land on your hands, you'll find them very feathery light, like a slight breeze blowing on your hands.

Surprisingly, we enjoyed the Butterfly park. On the whole, I think the girls enjoyed themselves. As for Bert and I, it was an enjoyable, relaxing holiday. Only thing was, there is a great washup when we got back!! There was not enough drying area for the 3 days wash, plus the weather didn't help much too...cloudy most of the time.

Bert hopes to find some time to blog. He's currently reading the life of St Faustina...the saint that gave us the Divine Mercy. Shall tell you more about it next time.

Love Theresa & Albert

Fine Balancing Act of Disciplining Kids

Dear All

Last night we had a little tiff with Tiffany. It was over a matter of her submission of her swimming cert to her school as this was her external cca for last year - for her school records, as she doesn't have any cca. (She had a couple like violin, classical indian dance and adventure club, but they were all like at most 1 year or so, and doesn't have any cert to proof her attendance. However luckily they were organised by the school, so perhaps they'll have records of her attendance). Anyway, it was important for her as part of her primary school leaving cca records, otherwise she would not have any ccas recorded for primary school.

Since today was the 1st day of school after a week's break (due to PSLE marking), she dropped a bomb on us by saying she can't find the cert and student companion with the note to teacher. And this matter has been dragging for like 3 weeks already, before the PSLE started till now.

I mean, she can be laid back, but to the extend of her own matter, it was disappointing to us that she doesn't take her personal matter seriously...this is her only cca for P5 and she doesn't even have a cca in P6 due to the pressures of studies.

Hence, I blew my top at her. I had been following up on her on this matter for 3 over weeks and now she tells me she's lost it! Bert was more mad than me. I didn't realised he hit her and confiscated her MP3 player till he apologised to her this morning. I myself felt so bad last night. She was already asleep. One of her eyelid had eyelash thickened with dried tears. I was so afraid she'll run away because she was mad with us. I was so tempted to keep her ezlink card, but on second thoughts decided not to. In case she does decide to run away, at least she has money and not be dependant on others, and she can easily come home to us.

Anyway, she suddenly remembered she had already submitted her cert and note from us to her teacher. I mean, this just got me madder...she had unnecessarily brought this onto herself. After Tiffany had gone to sleep and Feli sat up with me to watch TV, she was leaning her ear to my chest and commented my heart was pumping very fast. I told her perhaps it was due to my anger with Tiffany. I have to watch my health too. I asked Feli what to do, and my fear that her sis will run away. Feli told me she was worried too that Tiffy would run away and told me to apologise to Tiffy and best to keep her ezlink card. I asked Feli to ensure her sis took the school bus home with her today. I then teased Feli that wouldn't she be happy to be without a sis since they both are always arguing. Do you know what she said? "No, I want my sister. Or else I have no one to fight with!"

This morning, I told Tiffany how much I love her. She says she knows yesterday when I brought them out to Centrepoint. I was supposed to get something for myself for my birthday present, but because things were not cheap and not to my liking, I ended up buying halloween t-shirts for them, and letting them eat tea-time at Long-John Silvers and buying nothing for myself. She realised how much I love them and especially her (she got 2 t-shirts and Feli 1, and she got what she wanted for tea-time as I was concerned she didn't have a good lunch yesterday).

I told her my fear she'll run away, but she assured me she won't. I told her we were angry with her behaviour, and she was so sweet, she said she'll try harder to remember things better from now on.

Disciplining is a fine balancing act. We love our kids so much we always want the best for them, yet we are afraid we are too hard on them, we will "push" them away from us. At times like this, I pray to Mother Mary and Papa Joseph for their help and guidance in guiding our children the Godly way.

Just my VERY chonghay sharing and 2 cents worth of thoughts. Thanks for reading thus far.

Love Theresa

Just Came Back from Birthday Party

Dear All

Our girls had attended their 1st birthday party sleepover at Tiffany's classmate's 12th birthday. It was held at the safra Changi Coast bungalow. It was the very 1st time Felicia slept away from Bert and me. I came back the next day (which is today, Mon 20 Oct) morning to join the children for a day of fun. As the pool was only opened after 12noon, the children were moping around. After waiting for 3 more friends to join the group of 4 (including the birthday girl) which stayed over night (the birthday girl's parents couldn't accommodate more as there were only 2 bedrooms each with only 2 single beds), we went down to the pool to swim in the hot sun (around 2pm). After a short dip in the play pool, deep pool and jucuzi pool, we headed back to the bungalow for a cool refreshing bath. After tea break, we had bowling at 4:30pm. It was a long time since I had bowled and was happy to clock 186 points. Tiffany had a spare whereas I had none, and not even a strike. Felicia was disappointed most of hers entered the gutter. It was a pity they didn't have the gutterproof thingy.

The kids later had some time at the arcade. There wasn't much to do at the arcade. I found the staff there to be quite unfriendly and the cost of the stay exorbitant (around $200+ per day for weekends and $100+ per day for weekday) as if you pay a bit more, you can get to stay at a hotel for this price. The lady at the pool issuing the towels was kinda rude to my friend when she asked if the kids could swim first as her hubby had to go back to the bungalow to get the pass. The lady at the arcade where I bought the tokens from was quite sourfaced. Even the guy from whom we ordered takeaways at the bowling alley was very slow in his service (it was a young guy too) and he looked most unhappy to serve us. I think he was a foreign worker, and the 2 ladies were chinese-ed aunties. Even the guys issuing the bowling shoes were slow motion. I guess work at this place must be very slow-motion and slow business.

Anyway, the most important thing is, that the birthday girl enjoyed herself, and the children did too. The bungalow is quite nice as it had only been renovated 2 months ago. The aircon was powerful and cool. The golf course looked beautiful that even the girls liked to just look at the scenery.

We only just came back around 9pm today. The 2 girls didn't get much sleep, so they have already hit the sack.

Love Theresa

Feeling the recession blues

Dear All

I believe the majority, if not all of us, are feeling the effects of the bad news that keep coming at us. First the inflation, then the fall of so-called long-standing banks. Closer to home, the increase of electricity tariffs at a shocking "high-jump" of 21%. We are also slammed with higher public busfares. Now the latest is increase in school busfares.

Meals outside, even at foodcourt, are at least $17+ for the 2 girls and me, not even counting Bert. If we stay at home, we also incur high cost due to use of TV and PC (read as electricity bills). If we go out, we get hit by high public transport cost and expensive (and not that filling) meals and, if we are out, we tend to spend more too.

Today, I brought the girls to eHub at Downtown East. We ate "cheap" - chicken rice, then stick to a budget of $15 on arcade games.

Wanted to go bowling as there was a discount for offpeak and for kids, however, the salesgirl said all lanes were full. Feli was upset, so we went back later (like 15 mins later), and found a mini bowling lane. It's kinda cute. It's half the normal lane-length and the balls are smaller and without finger grip holds. It operates by inserting $2 coins for a game of 5 rounds. So I let Feli play that just to appease her. Tiffy tried 2 throws and I one. It is definitely not easy to keep the ball in the lane, and the skittles were tied to strings from the "ceiling" of the chute. So interesting.

After we left, we noticed a long queue at the sales counter, and the guy in front of the queue was making payment for a lane. I was a bit upset that only a while ago, this same salesgirl told me there was no lane available. Tiffy told me it didn't make money-sense to give us the lane since I only letting the 2 girls to play. I thought she made sense. Anyway, think of it this way, I save $3 per kid and $1.20 per pair of shoes i.e $8.40 verse $2 for the mini game.

I try to explain to the girls we mustn't anyhow spend. They wanted to get these little figurines with a lighted base below. It costs $10 for 3 tiny figurines. But the batteries were exorbitant...3 batteries are needed at 50c per battery, and they only last at most 2 - 3 months!! If I get the batteries, I need to buy the whole set of 10 batteries, so that was another $5. It's so ridiculous to throw away $15 just on these figurines, which most likely will be thrown aside by the kids in a couple of days.

The next few weeks when the school hols really start, would be a challenge on our pockets. The kids would want to go out, and the temptation is so high to just spend on unnecessary stuff. Especially in the present climate where we are bracing ourselves for a recession and looming retrenchments for many people, we do not know how things will pan out. Things of this world change so fast overnight. People also have such short-term memories too. How great it is to know that our God is ever steadfast and constant in His love for us. Where things of this world is so transient and fragile, we turn to God for our strength and hope. Pray that our LC family and all our family members be protected from this current state of affairs.

Love Theresa 

The Exams are Finally Over

Dear All

Long time didn't blog. Feli's exams are finally over 2 days ago. The girls are on holiday since yesterday till next Wed for PSLE marking. It's only the 2nd day at home and the girls are already bored! What shall I do with them?

Anyway, Tiffy's birthday party went pretty well. 6 classmates came out of 11 that were invited. They were Andrea, Cassandria, Hannah, Deanna, Claire and Kimberly. They are all very sweet and nice girls. Poor Tiffany fell at the exercise park and hit the back of her neck on the rung of the metal ladder. We didn't know till after the bbq when she told us about it. No wonder she was so quiet during the dinner. 

My mum, Bert and I had great fun bbqing the food. We realised that my mum is a great cook. She knows exactly when the food is ready. As the group was small and the replies came in so late, I decided to season the food myself. We had variety but all in small portions. We had grilled prawns, sotong, corn on the hob, porkchop, chicken wings, sausages, chicken and beef satay and of course, the kids favourite, toasted marshmallows. The girls came to toast whilst we were still cooking the last few batches of food, so my mum ended up cooking some of the marshmallows for them. And Tiffany told me that ma-ma toasted the marshmellows just right...melted just right to be stringy.

Unfortunately, only 1 girl brought her swimming costume, so I had to scrape 1 game. Luckily I still had 3 land games to play. Surprisingly, 12 year olds still love games, and are excited about getting prizes too! The last few 12 year old birthday parties I had attended with Tiffany didn't have any or much party games and hardly any prizes. I just thought of arranging some at the last minute, just to add some fun, and the girls enjoyed themselves.

Now that Tiffy and her classmates/friends would be split up next year, I decided to allow her to go out with her clique of friends. I had seen them and some of their parents, so I think, as Tiffy said, to not be so controlling. I guess when the kids get older, we must learn to let go and let them grow. It can be painful and worrying for us as parents, but like the story of the butterfly emerging from the cocoon...if we help the butterfly by tearing up the cocoon, the butterfly would be stunted and cannot function normally. The emerging process is important to squeeze out the water in the body and wings of the butterfly otherwise the wings would be shriveled and its body too heavy to fly.

On a side point, I was saddened when my mum told me my dad couldn't sleep last night. It seemed he was perhaps sad that my mum was sad that they are growing old. She then patted him to sleep and asked him to pray to Mother Mary and Jesus and always think of them. When I told this to Feli and asked her why we must die? You know what she said? She told her it's because Jesus is lonely in heaven and wants us to be with him. She also said not to be sad as one day we will be with kong-kong in heaven after all of us are gone. I believe God speaks to us through the mouth of babes.

Love Theresa

PSLE Ends Today!

Dear All

Today's the last day of the dreaded PSLE for Tiffany. Yesterday's chinese paper was a killer for her. Hopefully she'll pass. Yesterday, she also had no more steam left to go through science. Partly cos of study fatigue. I too am feeling it so I try to let her be.

Bert says I now can relax. But it's not over yet, Feli's exam is this Fri and I'll be also busy preparing for Tiffy's birthday party this Sat. I know I'm crazy to hold the party in the midst of Feli's exam, but I think Tiffy deserves a break and anyway, Feli's only in P2 so can let her relax a bit. She still has a long way to go (in terms of exam stress lah).

Tiffy is now out with her friends "partying". Feli groused it's not fair that che che can go out and she can't join them. Seems like the older girls have some outing plan during the Nov/Dec hols and Feli is not included. I know how she feels being the youngest in my family during my growing up years. However, my older sis, though she teases me alot, still brings me for most of her outings with her friends. So I've told Tiffy to try to include Feli in some.

Pray that Tiffy finds today's science paper a breeze. She needs a good grade in order to pull her aggregate up since she has no confidence in her chinese paper.

Please continue to help us pray that Tiffany passes all her papers and get a decent aggregate to get into the 4 year sec programme as St Anthony's Cassanian Sec.

Thanks for all your prayers.

Love Theresa & Albert

PSLE begins

Dear all

In the midst of kang-chong mothers calling me, I inevitably passed on the kang-chongness to poor Tiffany. It's most unfortunate that she accidentally stood up on her double-decker and hit the top of her head on the ceiling this afternoon when she got irritated with her sis. She was nursing a painful head the whole afternoon. She hurt herself once before a few days before her exam and was resting at home and I was coaching her then, and she did pretty well then. So I told her she'll do well tomorrow, so as to give her some solace and comfort. She was not a bit nervous this evening until I started to remind to pack extra pencils (must be 2B), pens, erasers etc etc. and going through the important points to look out for in both situational and continuous writing (i.e. letter writing and normal compo). She got so nervous that her head pounded and she couldn't sleep. I made a big mistake there. I had passed on my anxiety to her. So I had to remain calm and told her not to worry as she's very well prepared and English paper is her strongest subject so it would be a breeze tomorrow.

I am actually very worried about maths and especially chinese. Language is such a tough subject. It's either you know or you don't. And even if you know, it's so subjective it's hard to score. It's the little extra marks that mean so much to her...I just wish for her is to get a pass. Anything more is an extra bonus!

Please pray for her. English tomorrow (3 Oct), Maths (6 Oct), Chinese (7 Oct) and Science (8 Oct).

Meantime, I still cannot neglect Feli as her exams starts just 2 days after Tiffy ends her i.e. 10 Oct!! So you can see that it's a tough year for me, coaching 2 kids with 1 doing a national exam, at the same time. I don't mean to scare you, but somehow we humans can juggle and adapt to situations. I just try to take it one step at a time and play it cool..

Thanks for all your prayers.

Love

Theresa

The Final CountDown....

Dear All

This is the final week to what we've been preparing for over the last 6 years...Tiffany's PSLE.

I don't know if I'm doing the right thing, but I had prayed and asked for confirmation, and I believe I had received it, both through nature and a calls from other concerned mothers of her classmates. So I had decided to keep Tiffany home starting today (Mon, 29 Sep) to coach her. So far, she's been very obedient and diligent in her revision. It's amazing the tonnes of revision materials to cover and the amount of revision she did today. Chinese : 4 chapters of vocab, reading 1 compo with qns to answer, 1 full test paper covering SA2 work. Maths : complete tuition teacher's homework and some of school homework. English : 1 Paper2 test paper, plus 3 spelling lists covering letters A - C. Science : 1 PSLE revision test paper.

Tomorrow's maths tuition for Tiff with Feli going for extra chinese tuition in the afternoon. I intend to give them a good dinner break tomorrow, partly as my birthday is around the corner, plus it's about to be Children's Day, and I need to settle Tiffany's belated birthday party goodies bag for her close friends/classmates. It'll be just a small party limited to not more than 10 friends. Tomorrow's outing is something the girls look forward to as Feli just had her SA2 chinese and English compo exams today, and she found the chinese compo a killer. She was quite disheartened and said "Mummy...I don't think I'll be in the best class next year." I think she did ok but not fantastic, so she'll have to buck-up on the main papers.

Just dropped these updates as posterity to my exam blues experiences. Just finished marking Tiffany's papers and have yet to mark Feli's which is just a couple of pages, as she's had a heavy exam stress/load already today. Didn't want to stress the little one.

Nite all.

Love Theresa

Tiffany's 12th Birthday

Dear All

Tiffany just celebrated her 12th birthday yesterday, 16 Sep. She shares the same birthday as our Minister Mentor Lee Kwan Yew. I'm glad MM Lee recovered from his irregular heart rhythm and was discharged in time for his birthday. Tiff is thrilled that she shares her birthday with a very prominent figure in Singapore, and she obviously "loves" him in the sense that she admires him being instrumental to the independance of Singapore.

As with Feli, the kids would have their birthday celebrations a few times. Feli was like the whole of July! As PSLE is in about just 2 weeks' time, Tiffy is quite worried about the exams, but she managed to enjoy herself over the weekend (Sat) with Bert, Feli and myself at Seoul Gardens. They had fun bbqing their own food, which always tastes better when it's cooked by your own hands, and especially when they seldom cook their own food!

Yesterday, being Tiff's actual birthday, and she had to go for extra chinese class, Feli and I brought her out for another birthday dinner. We don't know why, but Tiffy just loves fish and chips, and doesn't seem to be tired of it! She wanted to eat at Fish and Co, so again we head out to Tampines Mall (TM). This time we also tried the grilled tiger prawns, and had the starter squid slice grilled instead of fried (as was usually done). They were delicious! We were famished, so we wolfed down the starter before I remembered to take a photo of it!! Anyway, it was gone like in less than 5 minutes, and soon we were looking around, waiting for our main meal. I noticed 1 regular staff (a guy) who was with Fish and Co for like 2 years? I remembered he started out so outgoing and chatty and tried to create conversations with us when we first visited their outlet. Now, he just calls out the usual words like "Enjoy your meal" and when we were leaving "Thank you for coming and have a nice day".

I guess being humans, we'll get tired of our jobs after some time and perhaps want some change. Anyway, being more of an introvert, I wasn't too comfortable with having to make small talk with him the last time. It was tedious and not fun for us.

I suppose with inflation and coupled with the fact that they now sell their signature mint sweets at $16+ per packet, we only got 1 miserable sweet each after our meal :( I remembered they used to be generous and gave us at least 2 each, and they were much bigger and nicer then. I used to look forward to their mint sweet as it was great, but now, the standard has fallen. Talking about mint sweet, I found 1 toffee mint sweet from Watsons. It's brown with off-white stripes and they are really nice. The mintiness is just right, but just a tad too sweet. However, it's a nice treat to give yourself now and then.

Kids do not consider treats as birthday gifts (even if it were 2 dinner treats!!). So I got her what she was craving for -- a tamagoshi version 5. I know she'll soon lose interest in it, and misplace it, but I guess I'll never learn my lesson. What do we parents do for kids, yah? Feli bought her a myuk brand pencil case. I'm not into brand names, but despite what I learned in my BBA marketing course, I'm just too lazy to check out if the price justifies the quality of the product. So, the easiest is go for brandname if you want quality. But be careful about Billabong sling bags. We bought 1 recently for Tiffy, less than 3 months ago, and the sling tore off! We never expected this to happen (it's supposed to be quality product right?) so we didn't keep the receipt and hence couldn't be covered by the warranty :(

Tiffy has some good friends, one of whom gave her a converse wallet! So ex! She must have been a pretty good friend for them to remember her birthday. Anyway, I know her girl's mum and called her to thank her for the wallet. What's more, it was a very nice, useful wallet with lots of compartments and yet was compact.

I think some other friends will be giving her belated presents today in school. She's so excited and I was very happy that she truly enjoyed her birthday celebrations especially yesterday's outing.

HAPPY 12TH BIRTHDAY TIFFANY!!

Love Theresa and Albert

A busy saturday for me....Fel's 1st sacrament of reconciliation

Today saturday is so busy for me...waking up in the morning and getting ready to fetch Tiff to Chinese tuition class and then have lunch with Fel and getting her ready for her 1st sacrament of reconciliation from 12.30 to 4pm...was asked by the cathechist to read a short passage of the examination of conscience and reached the church at 12pm with Fel while sweetie see to Tiff at her tuition class....no wonder God made 2 parents per family!...and as for me there were lots of briefing and a short rehersal for the chosen 6 parents (myself included) and the session was delayed by 40 mins...so the session started at 1.40 instead of 1pm...and guess what ...I was assigned to line up behind the discipline mistress of SACPS..at 1st did not know but quietly Fel revealed it to me....

It was a rather meaningful session for both Fel and myself though I was tired at the end of it. In between, while waiting for Fel and her entire cohort to complete their 1st confession, I shuttle back to MP to fetch Tiff and sweetie to church for cathehism class at 3.30pm...and for closing of the Fel's session..... we were told to lit up the candle...we stayed on for Novena and after the Novena is over its was about 6pm and I counted that I spent 6 solid hours at the Holy Trinity Church...but it was time well spent....Well, as it was Tiff birthday on 16 Sep (LKY's BD also), we went for a dinner treat at Seoul Garden...everyone was happy and reach home at about 9pm.

Our room the aircon was leaking tonite. We tried sleeping without the aircon but it was far too warm...but suddenly while reading the newspaper, thought of using the pail to contain the water...why didn't I think about that earlier?

Anyway while reading the newspaper, came across this case of about this man from Pasir Ris was sentenced to 4 yrs jail and 8 strokes of the cane for beating up his wife..I felt so sad for the family...it must be a traumatic experience for the children aged 2 and six and the wife...

After reading this report in the newspaper, I told myself no matter what, I must love my family (sweetie, Tiff and Fel) the way God has love me aand as much as I love God...this is what God has entrusted me to...to take care of this family and love them well...I must not fail...

Almighty God, please help me to be good father to Tiff and Fell and a good husband to Theresa, in accordance to your plan and will.

Goodnite!

AlbertY

More of Cute Things Felicia Said

Dear All

Just to share some funny things Felicia said over dinner 2 nights ago. We were sharing about the talents God had given us. Whatever talent we discover, we have to use it to serve the Lord, otherwise He would take it away and give it to someone else. Do you know what little Feli said? "My talent is eating and sleeping!!"

Bless her little heart!

BTW, the fishes the girls caught at our LC excursion had all died. The baby fish died this morning. And guess what? What Tiffy said was correct. At least 1 of the fishes was pregnant, but we missed the live birth. They only discovered the dead baby fish all lying at the bottom of the tank. It was because Tiffy washed the tank with soap that caused the rest of the fish to die. I was quite mean to tease her as "murderer". She was very quiet and seemed remorseful and greatly saddened. Not only did the new-born fishes died, the rest died as well. Bert predicted the fish won't last the week. I didn't lift a finger to help them as I wanted them to learn responsibility and how to care for pets. I guess they had learnt it the hard way, especially for Tiffany. She asked for a pet for her birthday. I dare not trust to give her any pets other than fish cos firstly, we don't have space for a pet and secondly, Feli has asthma, so furry pets are out, and thirdly, I don't wish to end up taking care of the pets...taking care of two girls are enough already!! So I told her, we'll consider a fish after her PSLE.

BTW, she's having the PSLE listening comprehension for English and Chinese tomorrow. Please pray for her, especially for Chinese. I've heard the sample and I must say the Chinese listening comprehension is quite "cheem", so she needs lots of luck and prayers.

Thanks in advance for your prayers!

Love Theresa

Sunday Sermon by Fr Joseph of Franciscan Order

Dear All

Last Sun, 7 Sep 08, seemed to be dedicated to ME and married couples.

The sermon by Fr Joseph from the Franciscan Order, was very touching. A couple who were quite young in age but married for 13 years were on the verge of divorce. The wife believed there was a 3rd party but the husband insisted that he was only out with the boys. Each party spoke to Fr Joseph, and since he knew both of them, he asked them to write letters to each other. (That is the ME way). After they wrote to each other about what they wanted out of the marriage, they realized that they still loved each other. Fr was actually talking about the many ministries of the Catholic Church, and how we do not go to our various programmes for support. Our Church is so rich with resources and support, but most of us are either do not know or are week-end catholics only.

Anyway, he preached on the beauty of ME and how it is a world-wide programme recognised by the Pope. If there's any better promotion of ME and it's programme, if can't be done better than by Fr Joseph. He himself had attended ME 11 years ago. For priests and religious, their spouse is us, the community.

He reminded us that the difference between marriage in the Church and those done outside, is the presence of God. Marriage is NOT a commitment between just 2 people, but a union of 3, including God. That is the vital difference, so he encourages all couples planning to be married to do so in front of God, and for those married outside of the Church to take note and hint of doing something about it.

He didn't want to say more as he says ME is an ENCOUNTER, so as Jesus said to his disciples, COME AND SEE. ME is not just building a better relationship with your spouse, but also remembering that GOD is the centre of our relationship. He also said that "A family that prays together, stays together" is not any old saying, but there is truth in it. Even in our family relationship with our kids, we mustn't forget that God is present.

Love Theresa

LC Excursion to Singapore (Yeah!)

Dear All

We must say that today's outing was better than expected, all thanks to Lenz and his flair for being such a great tourist guide.

For us, the best tourist spots were the Hay Dairies Goat Farm and the fish farm. Those were the places where the girls had hands-on action, not to mention, both of them had either their pants or skirt bitten by the cheeky goats! That was funny for Tiffy but scary experience for Feli. Feli felt that biting incident was a damper on her goat experience. Afterall, that was her favourite skirt.

Tiffy never knew such great expanse of land existed in Singapore. She exclaimed it's as if we were travelling in Malaysia! So cute huh?

She thought (as well as me and Bert) that the outing would be kinda kiddy, but surprisingly, it was a wonderful trip for us. I especially glad that Tiffy enjoyed herself thoroughly as she deserved a good break from her mad mad schedule of studies. You should see the joy on her face when she was feeding the goats and especially when she was catching the long-kang fish! She sat cross-legged and calmly fished out the guppies from the man-made long-kang, whereas Feli and Cynthia were hopping about excitedly, chasing the fishes every-which-way! Surprisingly, Feli got the hang of it and actually caught almost as many as Tiff's. As the girls insisted on keeping the fish as pets, we bought a fish tank, food and net for them (again!) but we told them firmly that now that they are bigger, the fish is their responsibility. As the fish were caught by their very hand, they immediately put the fish into the tank, but 1 of them had already died. Later on in the night, another died.

Feli was so cute...when I told her that the fish was dying, she said "No lah, they are day-dreaming!".

Later on, she explained to me that the fish were tired from all the chasing that day, so they were resting. She looked so serious, I didn't want to break her little heart and just nodded with understanding.

On the way home from the last stop at the fishery, we were behind this very inconsiderate and dangerous truck driver. He drove quite fast, but without closing the lid on the debris piled high on the truck. Pieces of debri flew off. We kept at least 5 car-lengths behind him. (We didn't overtake as we were still getting out of this remote part of Singapore and were getting our barings). Then, a pickup came between the truck and us. But to our horror, a bundle a size of a half-filled NTUC plastic bag fell off the top of the truckload onto the road in front of the pickup! Luckily, the pickup swerved, but then the debri was in our path! I told Bert to move such that the debri went directly under our car. I didn't manage to video tape the truck, but got a short video of it after that incident when we allowed more heavy vehicles to go in front of us, to surround that horrid truck driver. I think the license plate number is XB215 something, but don't know to whom I can report him to. The experience was scary. What happens if a bigger and more dangerous debris fell out? Someone ought to report him!! Anyway, thank the good Lord and Mother Mary for bringing us safely home.

Love Theresa

I back after a short long break..... from blogging

This week wasted 3 days of my life attending ACTA course...and till now I still don't understand why I have to attend the same course and being bonded 2 times for the same course...even the trainer also was puzzled why I was there when I showed him my certificates...any it was fun listening to his "talking rot" session and you know what...from conversation with him I found out that he is a laspse Catholic...came from a family of 12 and a devout Catholic family...I asked him whether does he go to church regularly...he told he has stop attending church but all his siblings does and you know what? Of all the churches in Signapore...it has to be the Church of the Holy Trinity! What a small world...anyway the good thing in him is that he still believes in the power of prayers and he told he just rely on prayers to secure the next job assignment (He is a free lance trainer). He does not advertised or even a maintian a web page...so all his job assignments are solely relying on the word of mouth...and he has been doing this for the past 10 years...So I think God is still with him even though he has stop going to church...which means that I still have hope...

Through some of the conversations that I had with him over the period of 3 days..he relate to me his experiences of conducting a 10 day course on customer service to group of young, sexy and beautiful ladies (mainly from the airline industry, I am sure you know which airline) gearing up for the F1 event in Singapore...they are being groomed to be ambassador role during the 3 day event...and from his facial expression the way the way he describe the girls, I can see that the girls he handle during course must indeed be very extremely good-looking and that is ultimate the society wish to see in a woman...and he actually remarked that never in his life (he is about in his 50s already) he has ever been surrounded by so many beautiful girls (about 200 in total-20 different girls on each day as it is a one day course)...at the end of the conversation...I FELT SAD...and here is why:

The way girls are being used to lure, promote the event or even to entertain some privilage spectators goes to show our world has degrade woman to such a level that is so senseless and immoral even to think of....call me conservative, old-fashion whatever...but this is certainly God will regard is as something not quite right.....To me it was an eye opener conversation as it clearly demonstrated to me how sinful this world is in today's era...has the world become more sinful compare with 30 years before...I don't know coz I was not there but certainly it is indeed sinful...I am sure some of us must have read the papers recently highlighting the grid girls for the F1 event and all seem so well...but do you know that there isn't any article written against the use of women to promote the event (at least not that I know of, correct me I am wrong)...why must it be sexy young women use to promote the event?why can't it just be a decent sporting event?....As Catholics, are we (myself included) commiting the sin of omission i.e. having doing nothing about something when we felt is morally wrong and not right? I don't know, I am not sure myself too....St Therese please enlighten me on this...Mother Mary please guide me thru in this thinking....!

Dante once wrote: The hottest place in hell is reserved for those sitting on the fence"

You have a nice day! Got to go for a meeting!

AlbertY

Wall-E the Movie (No Spoiler in post..)

Dear All

Had decided to give the girls a treat today (Mon, 1 Sep), so we watched Wall-E and ate at Ajisen. As usual, over ordered - 3 set meals 2 of which came with main course of ramen, drinks and 1 side dish (chicken wings and sushi) and the other with 2 side dishes (chicken rolls and toufu) just for the 3 of us. Amazingly, we managed to finish most of it, except for some noodles and "ta-pao" the chicken wings). We had only 1 h for dinner before the show started and guess what? Whenever you are in a hurry, the cashier is slow like a snail! With only 1 customer queuing to make payment in front of me, it took him 10 minutes to serve both of us!! Tiff was like going "hurry up, we'll be late for the show!!".

Anyway, the ads and shorts took half an hour before the actual show started. There's no spoiler here, so you can read on.

The actual show lasted about 1.5h. If you are aged 11 and above, the show is OK. Nothing really fantastic. Personally I find the story line a little draggy. Tiff finds the "go-green" theme moving and thought provoking. Feli finds the show fantastic!! She loves it!! But she was so cute...As I had told them seeing shows was quite expensive nowadays, and since Tiff was too bz with tuition and extra classes tomorrow (Tue), we couldn't go on Tue (members of GV gets tickets at $6.50 only on Tue), we had to pay more for going to the show today. Throughout the show, Feli kept telling me over Tiff (Tiff sat in the middle) in a quite loud whisper "Mummy, don't waste money seeing shows anymore OK? This is the last show for this year, OK?" I really wonder whether she was fully enjoying the show when she's like telling me this throughout the show about 4x or so. There were some touching moments, which Feli and I differ in opinion but that's OK, cos its our own experience and what we individually take away from the show. I and Feli shared this as she was interested to know what I liked best about the show.

For me, I'll give the show 3.5 popcorns. I guess if your kids are below 11 and you are a kid at heart still, it should be higher, perhaps 4 to 4.5 popcorns?

Love Theresa

Happy Teachers Day (Belated)!

Dear LC teachers

It may be a little belated, however, I had every intention to send this earlier to you all, but since it's the start of the 1 week school break, I've been bz (read as the kids are either hogging the PC OR I'm bz coaching them or clearing up the messes left about the house!).

So, here it goes : "HAPPY TEACHER'S DAY!" Without teachers, the world would not be a better place, with no one to mould and form the hearts, minds and characters of our young. Thank you, all you teachers out there amongst our LC. Your hard work is never lost to the kids nor on the parents!

Love Theresa & Albert