Before my blog become dusty with cob webs, I guess I should write something. As the children grow older, there are less and less things to blog about.

It started early Oct, when my children Sunday School class was preparing to do a performance at Prize Giving Day. My children came home with a script. I looked at it, 2 pages of script and almost fainted. Both my children were given the roles with most things to say. Oh how little faith I have in them or God for that matter. I am fine with Emily as she has her ways around it.

However God show me the impossible. First thing, Timothy told me that he didn’t want to do it. Maybe he too, has little faith in himself. Or he is afraid of people laughing at him when he forgets his lines. Anyhow I took some time with him, every Saturday to go through the script so that he can remember. We had 4 Sundays to rehearse.

To my surprise, he could remember his lines and he had no problem on stage. My second worry was if he got too nervous at the day itself in front of many audiences, he may forget his lines.

I liked what one of the teachers said, “If the audiences are laughing means you did a good job!” This definitely encouraged the children.

On the day itself, both gave a great performance. Timothy was Noah and Emily was Mrs Noah. Their class got 1st prize for the performance. When Timothy went out to take the prize, he pretended that the prize was too heavy to carry. What an actor?

From not a single word utter during his kindy school days to putting a good performance, he really has blossom. Praise God that he showed me that he has power to do the impossible with my children.

I can hear her laughter a mile away when she came through the door after school. She ran into the study room and showed me her report book. Yes! She achieved her target that I set out for her. All smiles and grins from her. Both Tim & Emily got the same position in class which is number 10. I am happy for them. Emily scored full mark for both toughest paper that is Moral and Kefahaman.

Last exam she wasn’t happy, she scored all As but position was 10. Tim scored less As but his position was 3. My in laws rewarded according to position. Poor thing, she was upset. I did reward her.

This time around, I promised her a reward if they get more than 5A. By the way she changed her mind so many times on her reward. She wanted Lego Bionicle, later she wanted Telescope, later remote control car and finally she chose this:

At least this doesn’t require any batteries. It is a guinea pig that she named “Dash”. It is only 2 months old. It is definitely much cleaner than hamsters. Now I hope my FIL will agrees to take care of it while we go on vacation.

Finally Emily can swim. I am proud of her and all credits go to her papa. At first, I wanted to start my children swimming lessons but the instructor said, they have to do it 10 lessons in a row. I hold it off until their school holidays.

However my hubby viewed YouTube on how to teach children how to swim. He used that to teach Emily and Timothy when they go swimming. Who would have thought that YouTube videos can succeed here? I am glad it saves us swimming lessons fee here.

Now I am waiting for Tim to do the same.

YouTube Swimming Lessons, thanks to Phillip Toriello for making these videos

How time flies, it is year end again. It is the busiest time of the year for me in my work place, doing closing and planning for next year budget. You can tell by looking at the frequency of my blog post.

Another thing that keeps me busy is planning for year end vacation for my family. I have to kill some frequent flyer miles before it expires. Those FF miles don’t come totally free as I still have to pay fuel and taxes, not forgetting accommodation. I wanted to play a trip to Korea because my children wanted to see snow. I did all my research, asking here and there for pricing. I even got a good deal for a ski package. Due to the fact that I speak and read no Korean language, I change plans.

Guess what we are going? I will reveal later. My kids are excited about it. The trip will be in December.

On another note, I remembered I used to vomit blood teaching my son as he is a slow learner. When he was 5 years old, he wouldn’t want to write his 1,2,3 or A,B,C. He had problem reading because he doesn’t want to speak in school due to selective mutism. I am glad he overcame that. Today, I am so proud of him after many prayers. In his exams, most papers he scored above 90 except for Penulisan and Kefahaman (Writing & Comprehension in BM). However he did improved his grades for those 2 subjects. Now I can see him, enjoying in his studies. Praise God for that. He is asking me how can improve his BM especially Karangan (aka BM Composition). I asked him to read more Malay Books.

As for my girl, I still do not know her results yet. She was on MC and the rest of the week was Deepavali holidays. However she already told me what she wants for her reward if she gets 5A. Will see whether she can get mummy to buy her the reward!

I have to say that my children have different characters especially when it comes to school activities. My elder boy doesn’t like to volunteer himself for any school activities. The one time where he was picked, yes picked was his Std 1 concert.

On the other hand, my girl would go for any school activities there is. Since she started Std 1, she joined Origami contest, Coloring contest (twice), sports day and the latest one is Fashion show. She will put up her hand for anything.

I guess, I have an introvert and an extrovert in my family. Here is my extrovert dream car….

This is a delayed post which I almost forgot about it. Anyhow, I saw it being queue up for me to write about. Here goes…

My hubby found the most delicious Lemang during the Puasa month aka Muslim fasting month. Lemang is actually sticky glutinous rice cooked in bamboo shoot. It is done under a fire which brings out the fragrant of the rice. It can be eaten together with meat floss or rendang (dry meat curry).

The delicious lemang is very soft and it goes well with the spicy meat floss. Both my kids love it!! The place where we got this is near the Taman Bukit Jambul flat but I believed it, you can find it only during Puasa month. If you come to Penang during that month, go try it! Super yummy…..

Sticking this here for my own reference. Start planning for next year vacation.

I started blogging about some useful household tips at my parkbay blog. I discovered these tips through reading or learning from others. If you have some good tips, let me know.

Household Tips:

Smelly Shoes
Lemon & Microwave
Folding Bed Sheets
Removing Gum From Hair
Folding Underpants

I received a huge parcel today from SWISS. I thought someone send me chocolates from there. By the way, the postman just threw this package over my gate. Fortunately it was nothing fragile inside.

What’s in it? It is my Adventures of Tin Tin Collection set. My kids love these comic. They used to hang around Borders reading it. I ordered it from bookdepository.com with free shipping. It is a good online bookstore, everything is free shipping. I wished they have other products than books.

This month alone, I have invested a lot on books. I am glad my kids are bookworms and they love to read.

Books from Logos Hope Biggest Floating Book Fair

Books from KL Big Book Fest

Last minute, I decided to go back to hometown with my children during the Raya festive month. I was looking for a safe and affordable transport to go back. My hubby could not join us because he had a project to do.

I heard of the Aeroline bus and went online to make a booking for my kids and I. You can also select your seats. The only bug in the system is that, I cannot book 1 adult and 2 children but 2 adult and 1 child. Don’t ask me why. The system kept throwing out error messages.

It is a double deck bus and it has a lounge at the bottom. I felt that the seats are very comfortable but because of the height, the bus is rather bumpy. The bottom deck is better.

My kids love it very much especially they can watch cartoons on my notebook while traveling. The bus also provided power points for you to plug your notebook in. However you need to get your own Internet. I am glad I had an USB internet.

On top of that, they served lunch and hot beverages like coffee, tea or milo. Cool?

By the way pick up in Penang is at Queensbay Mall or the Sg Nibong Bus station. In KL, it is Hotel Corus in Ampang.