During my primary school days, I am one of those junkies, eat a lot of junk food. I love to get this bubble gum that cost 5 sens for 2. I will eat the gum and behind the wrapper there is a picture. With that, you can tattoo the picture on your back of the palm. You take a few drops of water. Make the picture a bit wet. Then paste in on your hand. Later the picture will appear. Have you ever had that? Those were the days.

A few days back, I got this Bob The Builder tattoo that works on the similar concept. For my children, it is the first time they ever seen it. They thought it was a sticker but they couldn’t peel it. I showed them how it is done. Emily was pretty excited with the picture on her hand, kept asking for more. Tim was just playing cool.

I hope this bring back some childhood memories of yours. Ooh by the way, I love those bubble gums, I can blow a bubble as big as my face and pop it so that my entire face will be cover with gum. It is easy to peel off and my parents won’t have a clue.

Guess the hands:

My family went for a 1 day trip to Pulau Jerejak, a small island opposite of Penang. It used to be an Alcatraz of Malaysia, with an ex prison there. Now it has become a Resort & SPA. There are only a limited activities you can do there like jungle tracking – enjoying the flora and fauna, Abseiling, flying fox, suspension bridge, cycling, paintball, volleyball, netball and swimming. They have a nice swimming pool. You are not allowed to swim at the seaside as the jellyfish will kill you. Oh you can camp there too.

You may ask why are we doing there? My children loves to play sand and we hate to drive up to Batu Ferringhi so we though to go across to let them play some sand. They enjoyed the boat ride across and have an hour fun of sand playing.

By the way, food in the island is not cheap, so if you are going for a day trip, do pack some lunch with you. The adult fare for the ferry ride is RM20 with a bottle of mineral water and sandwich. If you are staying there, the ferry ride is RM10 per adult.

More info here: http://www.jerejakresort.com/

Queensbay mall:

Need I say more?

Service still not advancing here. I dragged going the Pos Office. I had no choice, my car insurance reminder didn’t come and I was late in renewing my road tax. Usually, my insurance company will renew my road tax but I need it today. I went to JPJ, bumma, the network was down. I had to resort to Pos Office. Usually I pay all my bills and whatever through Internet. However I cannot pay my road tax through Internet. How I wish I can. Can the government do something about this?

Anyway, while waiting for my turn, I saw many still paying bills through Pos Office. I mean I can setup a counter with Internet connection and process their bills with a fee without the wait. Hahaha..side job for anyone who wants to get a quick buck. The staff there as usual took their own sweet time. By the way, only some Pos Office provides the road tax renewal service, not all. Talk about consistency. Now do you know which Pos Office delivered this service? I don’t know too.

Yesterday at church I had a Watch Night service. It is a gathering of the church at New Year’s eve thanking God for safely bringing us to yet another year. We thank God on what he has done for us in 2006 and what the church done for him, also think what we will be doing in 2007. Usually the service is hear from 10pm to 12:30 midnight to watch the night and approached 2007 with the Lord.

Often I am given a year-end evaluation to fill in my accomplishments at my work place, for a salary increment or a promotion next year. I have no problem doing that as I had achieved a lot for my company in 2006. However yesterday when I was putting up a list in my mind of what I done for God in 2006, I had difficulty in figuring it out. Year 2006 wasn’t a good year I must say for the Lord. I think I can do better than this for God. Oh yeah, I learn in my work place that doing thing as expected is our job. We have to do above expectation and give our excellence. I wish same time next year I can do excellence for God for year 2007. That is my new year’s resolution.

By the way, I also am starting a parents bay project for you. I will have some news for you in the next few days. I do need your participation to make this work.

Happy New Year!!!

I was so afraid that Emily does not like to play dolls. I bought a few sets of Barbie dolls when it was on sale and a year ago she shows no interest. Now it is kept in the cupboard until she is older. Last week, she went to the toy box to get the broken baby doll. It is one of those irritating singing doll. Fortunately the sound card in the doll was broken. :clap:

I was surprised at what she does with it. She patted the baby doll to sleep and tell mummy to be quiet. She sang to it. She took a toy bottle and fed it milk. She told mummy that she wanted to sleep next to her baby doll. She took care of it very well. I am amazed where she learns that from. It makes me wonder does every gal born with maternal instinct even before she conceived a child? :sc: I don’t see Tim doing that.

Yesterday, I decided to get a proper baby doll set for her with milk bottle, pacifier and change of clothes. She was so happy and she carried it around. She gave the doll a name and it is called Amanda baby. I have no clue where she picked that name from.

A present for you. Today is Christmas day. Today is to remind all of you that it is the birthday of Jesus Christ, so wish him a Happy Birthday. At sermon today, my church elder reminded us that the world has forgotten the meaning of Christmas. He said in the newspaper, malls, media, everywhere there is no mention of Jesus but a lot of emphasis on trees, santa, shopping for gifts and rudolf. Hrmm…the silly red nose deer is not even important.

If you do not know who Christ is, it is time for you to find out. Christmas day is the day when God greatest plan was executed through Christ. It will be the greatest gift to you if you know who he is and believe. This message is my gift to all of you.

“BLESSED LORD and God, we come to you, aware that you have pierced our world. You became flesh, you dwelled among us, you saw us in our fallen state, you reached in and pulled us out. You offered us salvation, you offered us mercy. And we are ever thankful”

By Max Lucado

What did I get for my children?

I got the idea from this blog called my2lovelyrays. It is a doodle pad, you can use the colours on the pad and it comes off easily if you wipe it off with a damp cloth. It comes with stencils, easy for a 2 year old to trace a picture and colour it. The bad is the when the colours get on the hand, it cannot be wash off immediately. My gal painted her little fingers with it.

Have a blessed Christmas!

A good friend of mine gave me 2 free movie tickets in Prangin Mall. I can watch any shows with it. I took the children to watch Barnyard.

Barnyard was humorous with a plenty of actions to keep the children excited throughout the movie. The show talk about a heresy cow named Otis who wanted to run away from his responsibilities. However he cannot run far when his responsibilities catch up to him. His father Ben was the leader of the barn and took care of all the animals, protecting them from harm. However one night, while he was protecting some chickens from the hungry wild coyotes, he lost his life. Otis had to take over. Otis never wanted to become a leader, he wanted a fun life and love to party all night. All had to change when he was faced with it.

I must say the movie was done in a very creative manner and lots of surprises. The plot was predictable, hero saves the day kind of plot. It works for the children.

Finally I am done with all my Christmas shopping. It is really convenient to have a big mall near where I worked. You can get everything in 1 place. Yesterday I took a long lunch break to get Christmas gift. I got 2 huge gifts for Tim and Emily, both the same thing, preventing them from fighting. With that, it has already burned a hole in my pocket. Anyway, this year my hubby and I got good bonuses, so why not. I really love to see their expressions when they open the presents. That is the 2 big yellow boxes. I got the gift idea from a blogger. Have a guess?

Next, my hubby is a Christmas Eve baby. I thought of getting him a cake that shape like a canon camera. I contacted Mama Min because Sasha was here in Penang, she offered to help me to deliver it. However I am a few days late, it was too short notice to do 1. I got him a gift that is as good, something related to his interest. That is the red gift.

The smaller yellow gift is for my nephew. Ohh, I also need to get 2 small gifts for the nursery Christmas party, they have a gift exchanging program. I donno about you, I just love giving out presents during Christmas. More joy for me in giving than to receive.

Mummy: Pa what cake you want for your birthday?
Tim: I want swimming pool cake.
Emily: I want Tigger cake.
Tim: Swimming pool cake.
Emily: Tigger cake….
etc…
Mummy: Hey Look! See what that uncle doing. *you get the point*

Have a Blessed Christmas To You and Great New Year!

I was working on my computer in the study room, the children were watching their favorite cartoon.

Emily: Mummy, I want to ngor mm mm (pass motion).
Mummy: Please go and get the potty from the toilet. *She went to get her own potty*
Emily: Kor kor, mei mei ngor mm mm. Don’t disturb ah. Kor Kor, you don’t have any mm mm.
Tim: Yes, I got some mm mm. *He went to get potty*
Emily: Mummy, I finished my mm mm liao. Kor Kor still mm mm.
Mummy: Ok, let me clean you up.
Emily: So chau bi hor? (aka smelly)
Mummy: Yeap, you must drink lots of water so no chau bi lor.
Emily: Mei mei drink already.

Emily has been learning lots of words lately. Her favorite word now is “queen spay al” as in Queensbay Mall.

I am also reducing biscuits in their diet. I heard from my SIL that biscuit cause heatiness which is why the stool is sometimes hard and smelly. I tried to replace it with bun, bread or cake.

Yippy, finally I can strike off diaper from my shopping list. Emily is fully trained to go diaperless. It was a slow process, first I weaned her off the daily wear. Slowly take off during naptime and yesterday took it off from her night sleep. I remembered one naptime she did make a little accident. However once in the middle of the night, even with her diaper on, she called me to help her sh sh (aka pee). I took her to the toilet bowl. She can sh sh on the toilet bowl or the potty. However she needs help to get up on the toilet bowl. I must say that she controls her bladder very well. Often her night diaper is dry.

However I have one minor problem. I hate going to public toilet. It is either wet or you can see people shoe print on the toilet seat. Not to mention some gross stuff I saw. My gal preferred to sit on the toilet bowl. She doesn’t want to pee when mummy carry her. She doesn’t pee on the floor in a squatting position. Now I make sure she pee before we go out. I am slowly training her to pee while I am carrying her. If you have any good ideas, I appreciate your comments.

I know in the US, in every toilet you can take those paper toilet seat covers and place it on the seat before sitting on it. Maybe I can ask Vivien to send me a box of it. :giggles: