2010 a year of transitions

Jaelyn is taking her nap & I’ve decided to steal some time off to do a quick blog entry…

Time really shows no mercy, in a blink of an eye, we are now approaching the end of 2010 in just a month time.

Looking back, 2010 has really been an adventurous year, almost too overwhelming for me.

My life took a great turning point in April 2010. I left a comfortable job to pursue for something more. It changes every course of my journey. I took two months to finally get a new job. Not exactly what I wanted (I wanted to work in the town area but ended up in an industrial area) but it was an experience of a lifetime. I’m got the position of an Accountant in a local listed company. On my first week of work, to my horror of horror, the turnover in this company was worst than audit firm. Then I realised this company pays miserable variable bonus, which I finally understood why the HR refused to comment on this when I asked. Besides that, the processes in this company was shockingly backward. I was so traumatized by the fact that I have to manually sign off hundreds of journals and the proposal to make a self inking stamp was rejected because it costs slightly more than $20. OMG!

I really would have left to find a better job if not for the second major change that took place in my life. For the past 1 year, we have been trying for no.2 but no avail. We kind of aborted the idea when I quitted my job in April. We didn’t give much thought to it and really, without any effort at all. Then to our great surprise, we hit the jackpot with one strike.

Following this was the suffering of morning sickness… It was tough! Tougher this round when I still have to take care of my active two year old!

So, I hang on to my job, counting down to my delivery every single day.

After I passed the first trimester, we decided it’s time for Jaelyn to start school, which was postponed from June to September due to me switching job.

It wasn’t easy getting her to adapt to school. I remembered on  the third day of school, I literately cry my way home because I felt so heart pain to see her crying when I left. I couldn’t stay long with her in the school because I was feeling nauseous all the time. It was really a struggle for her and for us. Initially we allowed her to stay over at my mum’s place every weekend. But it turned out that she will cry and wail and refused to come home because she doesn’t want to go school. ARgh… Sorry mum, but I have to stop her from staying over if I really want her to adapt to school fast.

It took us slightly more than 2 weeks for Jaelyn to adapt to school, though she will still cry in the morning when I drop her off every morning. We were glad to send her to school. Her English improved and she can express herself so much more these days. Almost find her too talkative at times.

My hubby went through a rough patch too. Supposed to start a new higher paying job in October, just to find out one week before the start date that the whole plan did not progress as it should be. Nevertheless, we are glad that he still holds a job though there was no increment and his workplace has moved further from Punggol.

So now, we battle everyday to come home early. Hubby got to reach home by 6pm to fetch my girl and I tried to reach home before 7pm to have dinner together.

It was tiring….

With the anticipation of another new family member means more things to think about and more finances needed.

Seriously do not know how to handle when no.2 comes along, the sending and fetching of kids, blah blah blah..

It is really a year full of transitions for us. Above all, I just really want to be thankful to God for giving me strength to last each day, to face the many challenges along the way. And I really miss my church friends.

Finally, to end it off, everything is worth it when I see my darling smiles! I wouldn’t exchange this for anything in the world. I love my family! 

 

2010 Pictures update!

Blogging is really something that once you stop for a long time its hard to get started again….

Been wanting to post an entry for the longest time but keep procrastinating… So many things took place since my last entry I didn’t know when to start…

So, I’ll start with pictures! Pictures paint a thousand words don’t they?

These are pictures of Jaelyn & me. And all taken at the happiest moments of my life in 2010. The period that I was not working!

During my jobless days, I bought Jaelyn & her best friend, Faith, for a movie treat! Shrek Forever After! It’s amazing how they get along so well with each other, just like sisters!

 

Somewhere in May this year, Jaelyn got a prolong cough which eventually led to a slight lung infection. She has to be on the Nebulizer for 3 days. I was so heart pain to see her struggling to have that Nebulizer on. But Jaelyn is always a strong girl, after a few struggles, she was even able to hold the inhaler herself. My brave Princess!

 

Daddy taught Jaelyn these “Kawaii” poses when she returned home after I recovered from chicken poxy.

Before I embarked on my new job, we went to KL for a short getaway! Really appreciate our Changi airport!

Thanks to my cousin, Huimin, we managed to get  to a few places in the short 3D2N trip. Besides KLCC, we went to Batu cave! Oh man… It’s really sweaty to climb the stairs up to the cave. Then we went to a mega shopping mall, Sunway Pyramid. We shopped the whole day there and bought nothing! Haha… We even went to the Light City at Selangor. It’s really beautiful!

 

Just last month, in October 2010, Jaelyn has her first play date ever with Jayvon, Eljaz and Justin. Truly a “J” affair. It was her first visit to Polliwog at East Coast and yes, she really enjoyed herself. So much so that she didn’t want to go home. And of course, from the picture, you know her favorite is the ball pit! Because there are so many pink balls!

Ok… for now, let’s end off with this pretty picture of Jaelyn attending Uncle Royston’s wedding on the 2nd October 2010.

Day of my life… 5 June 2010

Today marked the 14th day of my chicken pox!

Had a conversation with my mum this morning, confirmed that I’m no longer contagious as most of the lesion has scabbed over and many have fallen, leaving just brown spots waiting to be healed. The complete healing however, will take about a month.

Anyway, my mum urged me to quickly bring Jaelyn for the vaccine. I vaguely remembered she has taken the vaccine but was told by the nurse (ICAC) that it was not recorded in the Health Booklet. (We used to see Dr. Y. Y Yip at SBCC but now he has a new clinic at ICAC, both at Gleneagles) The nurse from SBCC is helpful to help me check Jaelyn’s medical record of all her vaccinations and confirmed that she has taken chicken pox vaccine together with MMR injection on 18 July 2009. However, that was recorded in her health booklet and I really cannot remember how many vaccinations she has taken and did she miss any. The nurse at ICAC said I can request for SBCC to give me a certificate to prove that Jaelyn has completed her necessary vaccination at their clinic, which is something that I would require when Jaelyn goes to Primary One. (Hmm… something new I learnt today)

I still don’t feel very comfortable so I decided to search through the receipts I have kept to verify the date that the nurse gave me. (to think that I kept this kind of receipt right?) And dang dang!!!

She has taken the CHICKEN POX VACCINATION!!! I’m super excited! I’m fetching my princess home!!! I changed the bed sheet for two bedrooms, wipe all her toys & our furniture using Dettol, my hubby helped me to mop the floor with Dettol too! And I’m going to buy Dettol air spray to disinfect the “air” in our house! I’m all ready to welcome my girl back tomorrow!

And I’ve also planned to go for service today after all the chores! Since I can go out, I must go to City Harvest Church for our weekly service! This has been a very tremendous week for our church family. We are in the limelight (press) again, and this time the greatest hit ever. Today (Saturday) is the day in the week that the whole church family most looked forward to since the news broke out on Monday, 31 May 2010 right after Asia Conference 2010.

I’m extremely excited to be able to make it for the service!

Really glad that we not only make it for service, but also for the pre-service prayer meeting. (Took a picture because we seldom get to attend service together when Jaelyn is around as someone needs to be with her at the playgroup) The service was great. There’s an atmosphere of love and unity and strong presence of the love of God. I’m proud to be part of the City Harvest family, so proud that our church members are all standing strong and tall! The video clip by Pastor Phil Pringles brought me to tears, his love for us and his believing in us meant so much in this tough time. Pastor Derek shared a short word but that is enough because we all know that the church members all came prepared to fight this fight of faith together, we are well taught and trained to pray & seek the Lord for encouragement, vision & revelation. I know the main purpose we showed up today is to show that we support the church and we love our Pastor! This church has taught us well that we do not build our faith on men but we build our altar on God. What will happen to City Harvest Church? Let me answer you, we will be stronger and we will emerge victoriously!

After service, we have a great time of fellowship with our cell group, eating fabulous food at a restaurant at Bedok! I’m sure going to bring my parents there soon!

Following, my hubby & me spent some quality time together, go dating! We went for a movie at Downtown East, watching Prince of Persia! It was a great movie with fantastic ending! Definitely worth watching with a great message of pureness of heart and importance of family. Oh… and I sinned a little having Magnum Gold ice-cream! Double wow wow!

And yes, I remembered to buy the Dettol air spray before the start of the movie. I have a great day today! It’s wonderful to be out and breathing after 14 days of home quarantine.

To end off, I just want to say, “ Love God, live life & love living!”

More of Jaelyn

After turning 2, my princess enters into the famous “Terrible Two” period. It isn’t that terrible, in fact, life is getting really exciting for her and for me!

Chinese New Year 2010, this is Jaelyn’s 3rd Chinese New Year celebration. It also reminds me that she was borne 2 days before Chinese New Year… (Can you imagine confinement right into the festive season?) Anyway, she has really grown. She likes to carry her small “Little Pony” bag wherever she goes. She can put on her own shoes and sometimes her socks. She is also showing her princess syndrome, she used to put her shoes nicely back to the shoe rack but these days, she just left them where she took them off. Hmm…

During the Chinese New Year period (after the 3rd day of CNY where normal working life resumed), my parents went Thailand for holiday and so I have took leave to take care of Jaelyn while they were away. I really cracked my brain how to spend 5 days with her. I really want to spend quality time with her. So I decided to bring her to “eXplorerkid” at Downtown East since we got the vouchers during our stay at Downtown East chalet. It’s a huge indoor children playground! Jaelyn had lots of fun there. Going through the mega playground, climbing up, sliding down… after 3 rounds and I’m dead tired with a blister on my arm. Phew!!! Needs lotsa energy to take care of a 2 year old. We ended the session with a MacDonald treat for Jaelyn!

Can you tell from the picture that my baby has grown? No more a baby, now a cutie pie, a real toddy!  She is slacking and snacking away…

Some still moments of my princess. Isn’t she sweet even when she’s sleeping? My sleeping beauty!

Once again, ending of with, “Mommy loves you!” Really!!!

Jaelyn turns 2!

Jaelyn's 2nd Birthday from Sheryl Dua on Vimeo.

Jaelyn’s 2nd Birthday!

Having a kid makes me realised how much effort is needed to prepare for a Birthday!

Some people prepare for their kid’s Birthday as early as half a year in advance. Me? Hmm… I think about 1month or less???

Jaelyn’s birthday is just 5 days after Daddy’s. So every year, end January beginning of February is a busy period for me. It’s just me alone, planning for 2 birthdays! This year, Daddy really wanted to have a chalet BBQ and frankly, I have no idea what to do for Jaelyn. I mean she is just 2 years old! She has no much friends, neither do I have many friends with kids. It’s really hard, trying to figure out 5 kids to invite for her Birthday, I only managed to get 2 toddlers (Jayden and Claire) and 2 other babies (Gabriel and Nat). Good enough, really! I thought to myself, would she even remember she had a birthday party when she was two?

My sister-in-law has generously blessed us with a chalet unit at Downtown East! Vincent is totally excited about his BBQ birthday and me? The Birthday cake of course! I love cakes!!!

Well, you can see that the father and daughter are enjoying their birthday party! My daughter actually enjoyed satay! One of my favourites too!

Love the cake! I ordered from Pine Garden and it tastes FAB!!!The design is nice too! Just that the pink wordings can’t stand out, can’t really see JAELYN…

Jaelyn was enjoying the chalet so much that she cried and kicked the taxi door the next morning when we checked out to go home. But you bet she had a great time unwrapping her presents when we got home!

I make it a point to celebrate her birthday again on the actual day - 4th February. Look at my princess, she wore a crown and a top with many colors!!! Another tasty cake from Bakerzin. Yummy!

I just want to say, “Jaelyn, Mummy loves you! Always!!!”

(Missing her dearly now…)

Missing my Princess…

Let me showcase my princess Jaelyn’s growing up pictures!

Jaelyn’s 2nd Christmas! Look at her happy face with all her presents!!!

Christmas with Claire!!! Her very few childhood khakis!

There was just this once when Jaelyn was sick and I told her, “If you get well by Sunday, Mummy will bring you to the zoo.” Then my princess woke up on Sunday morning and said, “Mummy, zoo!” Though she was still having abit of running nose, we brought her nevertheless. It was a crazy 1hour queue to get the tickets and she was so upset with the heat. Her first zoo experience was only about 4hours long, with 1 hour spent on queuing. No more zoo on Sundays…

Jaelyn & her best friend, Barney! It’s amazing how all kids love Barney and how popular is the “I love you” song!

I hope you like my daughter’s first masterpiece, titled “Drawing on the wall”! Sometimes she will come to me, points to the wall and said, “Mummy, drawing! Who draw?!” See her cheeky glance?

One of her favourite phrase is “mei mei” (nice, pretty in Chinese). So when she saw this hairclips at Punggol Plaza she said to me “mei mei” and I bought for her, 3 for $12! And to date, none of them is in one piece. Hmm… Talks about Terrible 2…

Grounded Day 12

3 June 2010, Thursday, the 12th day that I’m being grounded home due to my chicken pox.

Went to the doctor early this morning to get some cough syrup and to ask him if I’m alright to go out. Sad to hear that my poxy scabs have not fallen off, it’s still better to stay home. Doctor said though it is not as contagious as the blister but it’s STILL CONTAGIOUS!

If you have not gotten chicken pox, I would strongly recommend you to take the vaccine, especially if you are an adult. It is usually more severe in adults and take longer to heal. There is higher chance of complication as well. I had very high fever for 2 days and very bad body ache before the onset of the blisters.

Ok… enough of the chicken pox story… It’s 12.30am and I can’t get to sleep. Too much of slacking and plus the cough syrup I took in the afternoon caused me to nap till 6pm. Now I’m wide awake!

I’m really missing my bubbly 2 year old, who is staying at my mum’s place due to my poxy.

Let me use this opportunity to update her pictures!!!

In the next blog entry…

Asia Conference vs. Poxy Pox

In the blogging mood today… so better hurry!

I missed the whole Asia Conference 2010 due to my chicken pox! But I’m just so so so thankful for the thoughtfulness of City Harvest Church! They created this iPhone App – AC Radio and being an iPhone user, I benefited greatly from this app.

Almost all the preaching sessions were aired “live” via AC Radio so that I can be greatly blessed by great messages from great men of God.

A few pointers that I have caught during this Asia Conference which greatly touched my life. First of all was the Friday morning session by Dr. David Yonggi Cho. His preaching is simple yet full of anointing. I was especially inspired when he shared that we must “always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” quoted from the bible 2 Corinthians 4:10. It was as if the Holy Spirit spoke directly into my heart! He said that Christians must not have inferior complexity because Christ is living in us. I was greatly moved. His words reminded me that I am someone worthy, at least worth Jesus dying for. Immediately I am so lifted up in the spirit.

Following this session was a powerful sharing by the world renowned evangelist Rev. Reinhard Bonnke. His faith in God and love for people is amazing! He is so bold! I’m so blown away.

I was looking forward to Sunday morning service that will be broadcast over the internet. First visual contact with Asia Conference and is Dr. Yonggi Cho again!

(I even took a picture of Dr. David Yonggi Cho off the laptop screen!)

He said, “Christianity without miracles is no Christianity at all”. I really love his 4th dimensional teachings on praying, believing, visualizing and confessing!

Asia Conference ended with a big big blast with Dr. A.R Bernard closing the conference with an impactful word! He shared about being the “Model Citizen”! I’m so touched by his sharing on the reconciliation of God. God is not just into reconciling man’s relationship to God, but also reconciling man to his original self concept (man is created in the image of God)!!!

I can’t agree more to this! I have studied before on the discrepancy between the “real self” and the “ideal self” that people have. The message that Dr. Bernard preached is so true! We need to be reconciled back to the original self concept that God has given to mankind. It’s so important for us to have a good self image in line with God’s original intention!

I believe in everyone’s heart, there is an “Ideal self” that we always wanted to be. We want to do great things, the desire for greatness is the piece of eternity that God has put in our heart. Let us be bold to live out the true self! Let’s pray, confess, believe and visualize and bring that which is non-existence into existence! We can achieve happiness, prosperity and progress in our life! Amen!

Chicken Pox…

Today is the first day of Asia Conference 2010. An event that everyone around me has been looking forward to. Just by reading the tweet over the past few days, you can almost sense the excitement in the air.

Initially I am so looking forward to it too! I thought since I’m not working, I am going to attend all sessions of Asia Conference!

Lo and behold, last Saturday I started to have high fever… the fever didn’t go down on Sunday and I started to develop small blisters on my body and forehead. I went to see doctor again and confirmed its CHICKEN POX!

I have not seen Jaelyn since that Sunday and know so very well that I am missing Asia Conference. I can’t attend even a single session!

This morning, when I checked my twitter and facebook, everyone is talking about how amazing was the opening, how great was the word given by Dr. Cho. I went to Attributes website and checked the pricing of the DVDs. It costs $269.16. For someone who is not working, I simply can’t afford it.

Sigh… 

Cooking Mama

Some of my cooking effort…

December 09 Holiday

Last December was a very special one. It’s the first time in the last four years that I can take leave in December! For the first time the auditors left before Christmas. Hoo Hoo!!!

First, I went to Malacca with my hubby (without our princess)! Our long awaited holiday!

The famous Red Building… Oh.. and we have a nice coffee in one of the cafe in Jonker Street. I like the artwork done! Reminds me of Coffee Prince, a Korea drama.

Walking around beautiful Malacca…

Nice food… nice scenery… That’s my Malacca Trip in a nutshell!

Next… to make up for Jaelyn’s loss, we brought her to Batam!

Hmm… I must say our trip to Batam is quite a boring one… Didn’t enjoy the shopping there too… It’s just a listless weekend. But love spending time with my princess! Look how happy she is!