Life In The Secret City

Back To Routine!

2008-07-28T13:37:00.007-04:00

Happy Monday all! Hope everyone had a great weekend. We had a nice one. Unfortunately, some people were not that lucky. In Knoxville yesterday two people had been killed and five others were seriously injured as a man walked into a Church and started shooting while kids were performing a play there. Thank God none of the children were hurt. I do not understand how someone could do such a thing. So sad. My heart goes out to the families and friends of the victims.

I got my quiet morning back. After a week rest, Billy went to school as usual today. He was really excited when he saw his bus and teachers this morning. It has been wonderful to have him around for the whole week. We spent most of the time indoor doing puzzles, drawing, blocks and watching his favorite shows. I saw him showings some great skills that I have not seen before. He can sort colors and shapes, string beads and very good in doing puzzles. :-)

He will be two and a half years old in two weeks. My baby is growing so fast. I missed him being a little baby. (LOL) How times flies.

Have a good week everyone!

I am taking a break.

Blogger Award

2008-07-28T09:48:00.012-04:00

A friend, Phil - Inobong Proper, have tagged me on this beautiful Blogger Award. Thank you Phil! :-)

It has been done according to the following rules:

1. The winner may put the logo on her blog.
2. Put a link to the person you got the award from.
3. Nominate 5 blogs.
4. Put links to the blogs.
5. Leave a message for your nominees.

Hmmmm.....now I am passing this beautiful Blogger Award to;

*Coolingstar9
*Cay
*Lydia
*Shirley
*Joann

Have a great week and happy blogging, friends!

This Week Picture (Giant Ice Cream)

2008-07-25T15:46:00.006-04:00

This giant ice cream was not mine! Somebody made me hold it and pretended it was mine. So not fair.(LOL)

Rough Weekend

2008-07-22T15:00:00.004-04:00

Happy Tuesday all! Hope you all had a great weekend. Ours was not so good. Our little one has been sick since Thursday last week. He has high fever most of the weekend with the highest 103 degree on Saturday. It was down on Monday morning but we bring him to see his pediatrician anyway, just to make sure it is not something else. I was really concerned because his fever kept returning.

And glad we did as the doctor found he got ear infection in his right ear. We have not seen any signs of him having an ear infection all this times though. Never saw him pulling his ears or looked bothered by his ear or anything like that. Poor one. We are giving him an antibiotic twice a day now. Hopefully it will be gone soon. In ten days we will bring him back to the pediatrician for follows up.

He is getting better today. No more high fever but we decided to keep him at home for the whole week this week. So presumably, the mummy will not have so much time on the internet and do my blog hopping. But I’ll try to catch up when I can. Please bear with me yah.

Oh yeah, I had promised to let you know about our belated anniversary gift we just bought a couple of weeks ago. It’s a mattress (Simmons Beautyrest) …..haha! We have decided it’s time to change our old mattress and thought it would be nice to buy it for our anniversary. Pretty expensive but it’s very comfortable and we are going to use it for a long long time, guess it worth the money. :-)

Tag

2008-07-18T23:04:00.014-04:00

I've been tagged by Dora and Cay, on this fun tag a couple of days ago. Sorry for take my sweet time to completed it. :-) Thank you, kawan. So here it goes.

1. When you buy a greetings card, are the words or the picture more important to you?
Picture is more important to me but I like humorous cards too.

2. What's your favorite kind of cake?
I love yam cake.

3. Do you ever make gifts for people, if so what, or do you buy them?
Normally I buy them.

4. What's your favorite holiday?
I enjoy sightseeing, mountains and beaches. But I do not mind roaming around in the big city too.

5. Are you going on holiday this year?
Yes, we have been to San Francisco, Chicago and Washington DC. We are going to Pennsylvania then to New York City next month and will be going to Illinois and Iowa in the fall. And like Dora, we are looking forward to our holiday trip to Singapore and Malaysia early next year….yeah!

6. What was the best party you've ever been to?
Hmmmm….....Many.

7. If you are married, describe your wedding. If not, what would your ideal wedding be like?
Our wedding theme colors were white and blue. We had our Holy Matrimony at the Univ of Missouri-Columbia Chapel. It was just a simple wedding. We had our rehearsal dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant and later the reception at hubby’s research adviser house. Two days later we flew to Bahamas for our honeymoon, our wedding gift from my sister and her hubby. Then we went for our second honeymoon in Las Vegas when I returned from Malaysia 6 months later .

8. What's the most romantic thing that's ever happened to you?
While having dinner in a restaurant, dear hubby took a beautiful ring out and proposed to me. The restaurant was quite full and we happened to be sitting in the middle of it. It was a quick nod from me as people around us were starting to look at us….haha!

9. What's your favorite girls' name?
Melissa Marie, Sara Alexandra, Megan Theresa,

10. What's your favorite boys' name?
William Jude, Steve Ivan, Christopher Isaac ,

11. Which celebrity would you like a dream date with?
Keenu Reeve

12. Which female celebrity do you find beautiful? Angelina Jolie or Jennifer Aniston?
Angelina Jolie

13. Which male celebrity do you think is attractive?
George Clooney

14. What is your best character trait?
Humble and lovable ….. my hubby says so.

15. What is your worst habit?
Impatient– It always gets me into trouble.(LOL) I am working on it though.

Now I would like to pass this tag to;
Rose
Jen
Mel
Dina
Deana
Sue

Family Vacation In The UK?

2008-07-15T17:29:00.031-04:00

Dear hubby told me that he would probably go to a conference in Italy sometime next year. I am so excited as we have been talking about going for a trip to Europe for sometime. It would be like a dream come true for me. (LOL)

After the conference, we plan to visit the UK for one week. Since there is still no black and white about the conference just yet, we can just plan our vacation and think about the hotels' reservation later. However, I am not really worried about finding good last minute on accommodation for the trip as I have found plenty of great deals for cheap hotels UK. Cheaperthanhotels provide last minutes' accommodation and hotels in the UK and year round discount on all types of accommodation and hotels. Some of the deals they offers also include free breakfast, free use of facilities such as gyms, swimming pools and internet access facilities. So this is great as we have many choices at last minutes and not just grab whatever deals the hotels offered to us.

London Eye.

Our first destination is London and later to Scotland and Manchester. I would like to visit some popular tourist destinations like Windsor Castle, London Eye, Buckingham Palace and many more interesting places in the UK. With the long list of places to visit and with so limited time, we definitely need to find the right London hotels to stay. I would surely check Cheaperthanhotels for the best deals for the hotels in London.

Dear hubby and I love old historic buildings. One of our European friends suggested we should visit the famous Scottish castle, Edinburgh Castle in Scotland. She said it is magnificent and we would definitely like it. Sound very interesting indeed. Good thing, I found that they also offer great deals on Edinburgh hotels. Cheap hotels mean more shopping money for me. (LOL)

Southside Guest House, Edinburgh

The Famous Edinburgh Castle.

Anyway, our trip to the UK, would not be completed if we do not visit Manchester City. Yup, the home of the world's most famous soccer club Manchester United. We should at least stay a day or two in Manchester. So I would be looking for a great deal for Manchester hotels too.

Golden Hotel Tulip Manchester.

I hope to get the same or better deals for us to choose from if dear hubby got a nod from the boss.

Durian!!!

2008-07-14T14:23:00.006-04:00

Look what I got from the Asian store last weekend! Durian(King Of The Fruits)! I love eating durian but hubby hates its distinctive odor. So being tolerate, I only buy durian once a year. (LOL)

These frozen durian cost $8.70

While we were at the checkout, I remember have not gotten one thing in my list (LOL) and went back for it. When I got back at the counter, dear hubby was having a conversation with a Phillipino couple. They were asking him about the durian. I thought they were curios of him buying a durian because not so many western like durian. The conversation goes something like this:-

The Hubby; Is it good?
Dear Hubby; No. It’s stunk. But my wife likes it. She is from Malaysia. (By the time, I reached the counter)
The Hubby; Bad? Like a fish?
Dear Hubby; Oh no, worse than that. It smell like something went bad, very bad. (All of us laugh out loud including the checkout guy.)

I asked the couple if they eat durian and the wife says she does. She agreed with me that durians are really yummy. They have durian trees in some part of the Philippines too.

Looks nasty but taste yummy.

It didn't last long.(LOL)

Happy Weekend!

2008-07-13T15:00:00.004-04:00

Happy Sunday all! I hope the sun is shining where you are. We have pretty good weather today. Actually, it is cloudy but nice. It has been raining since yesterday until early this morning. Hopefully the weather would be nice for the rest of the week.

I am so happy that Billy and dear hubby are recovering from cold. They were down with cold since last week. It’s pretty heartbreaking to see them coughing continuously. Dear hubby even loss his voice for several days. Poor one. Thank God they are getting much better now. It’s hard to have both the big and the little guy sick at the same time because they can get very cranky at time…..hihi!

Happy weekend!

Incredible Love Story

2008-07-12T15:18:00.006-04:00

This story sent to me by a friend sometime ago. It’s a beautiful love story, so I decided to share it with you.

An incredible love story has come out of China recently and managed to touch the world. It is a story of a man and an older woman who ran off to live and love each other in peace for over half a century.

The 70-year-old Chinese man who hand-carved over 6,000 stairs up a mountain for his 80-year-old wife has passed away in the cave which has been the couple's home for the last 50 years.

Over 50 years ago, Liu Guojiang a 19 year-old boy, fell in love with a 29 year-old widowed mother named Xu Chaoqin.

In a twist worthy of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, friends and relatives criticized the relationship because of the age difference and the fact that Xu already had children. At that time, it was unacceptable and immoral for a young man to love an older woman. To avoid the market gossip and the scorn of their communities, the couple decided to elope and lived in a cave in Jiangjin County in Southern ChongQing Municipality.

In the beginning, life was pretty harsh as they had nothing, no electricity or even food. They had to eat grass and roots they found in the mountain, and Liu made a kerosene lamp that they used to light up their lives. Xu felt that she had tied Liu down and repeatedly asked him, 'Are you regretful? Liu always replied, 'As long as we are industrious, life will improve.' In the second year of living in the mountain, Liu began and continued for over 50 years, to hand-carve the steps so that his wife could get down the mountain easily

Half a century later in 2001, a group of adventurers were exploring the forest and were surprised to find the elderly couple and the over 6,000 hand-carved steps. Liu MingSheng, one of their seven children said, 'My parents loved each other so much, they have lived in seclusion for over 50 years and never been apart a single day. He hand carved more than 6,000 steps over the years for my mother’s conveniences, although she doesn't go down the mountain that much.'

The couple had lived in peace for over 50 years until last week. Liu, now 72 years, returned from his daily farm work and collapsed. Xu sat and prayed with her husband as he passed away in her arms. So in love with Xu, was Liu that no one was able to release the grip he had on his wife's hand even after he had passed away. 'You promised me you'll take care of me, you'll always be with me until the day I died, now you left before me, how am I going to live without you?' Xu spent days softly repeating this sentence and touching her husband's black coffin with tears rolling down her cheeks.

In 2006, their story became one of the top 10 love stories from China, collected by the Chinese Women Weekly. The local government has decided to preserve the love ladder and the place they lived as a museum, so this love story can live forever.

We Are Going To New York City!

2008-07-11T15:02:00.004-04:00

I have been very excited these past several weeks. God has been so good to us. Praise God! Many good things seem to come our way lately. One of them was something dear hubby and I have been waiting for quite sometime. We got positive result on it just recently! So you bet how excited we can get ……haha! NO! We are not expecting another baby. I better rule that one out before you flood me with congrats and trigger another excitement on me..…haha!

There is another reason why I am so excited right now. We are going to New York City in several weeks. Yeah!!! Finally I am going to step my foot at the Big Apple. Dear hubby hates big cities so no surprise New York City was not in his ‘Must Go’ list. I have been giving hints to dear hubby to reconsider a trip to NYC for many years and only gotten the ‘nay’ answers. The best answer I have gotten were ‘you can go there with your sister when she comes visit’ or ‘maybe someday, hon.’

However, he seems to have changed his mind recently. As we are going to Pennsylvania in several weeks, he has given me some hints that he would not mind traveling to NYC for a couple of days afterward. And the best thing was he has given me the job on looking for hotel for us to stay while we are there. Of course without any hesitation, I took the job….haha! Since neither of us had been to NYC, it was quite a challenge to find the hotel that we would like. The key is the hotel must be at least 3 stars, good user reviews and close by to Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Central Park and other major attractions.

After searching at several popular hotel reservation sites such as Quikbook, Hotels Combined and All Hotel, I have found four hotels that I am interested at.
The first hotel is The Hotel At Times Square I found through Quikbook. The rate is only $215 per night, quite cheap considering it is a boutique hotel and the location is almost what we are looking at. Times Square and Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Station and many more attractions are within walking distance from the hotel. They also offer varieties of amenities and services including free Wi-Fi, continental breakfast, personal safes at the front desk as well as in each room, cable TV, laundry and many more.

I found the second hotel, Hampton Inn Manhattan Times Square New York through Hotels Combined. It’s a three stars hotel with a very good user reviews and the rate is just $220 per night. Yeah, I am pretty cheap…haha! So I was searching for the best yet the lowest price I could get. This hotel is only three blocks away from Times Square and Rockefeller Center and five blocks from St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Central Park is only about 0.5 miles away. So we would probably take public transportation to go there, if we stay at this hotel. One more thing I like about this hotel is they offer a buffet-style breakfast as complimentary. Dear hubby would definitely love this.

Another hotel at Hotels Combined that caught my attention is Murray Hill East Suites Hotel New York. This hotel is located in the heart of the historic Murray Hill section of Manhattan. All rooms are furnished with full equipped kitchens with free coffee and tea. Sounds great! Our little one is a picky eater and to be able to make him food while we are on the trip would be great. I also like the fact that the hotel is within a walking distance from Grand Central Station. At least we would not have to think about the transportation problem. There are also a variety of fine dining, shopping and entertainment venues that are only minutes away from the hotel. Oh yeah, the lowest rate for this hotel is $308, not bad for all the features it offers.

I searched at another site called All Hotel and found Excelsior Hotel. This is a 4 star hotel, located on the trendy West Side between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue. Their rate is quite cheap with the lowest price is $239 per night. I like this hotel because it’s close by to a museum such as American Museum of Natural History, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Children’s Museum of Manhattan. It would be nice to be able to bring Billy to one of the museum particularly the Children’s Museum of Manhattan. Dear hubby would probably insist that we visit the museum if we decided to stay at this hotel.

Then I get to the hard part, to decide which of these hotels is the best for us. After looking at these hotels, I decided to choose the Hampton Inn Manhattan Times Square New York that I found through Hotels Combined. Other than the great price, I like what most of the visitor say about this hotel. I am hoping that dear hubby would not have any objection so we could make the reservation soon. That’s one exciting job!

Aaah!!! I Accidentally DELETED My Previous Post!!!!

2008-07-10T15:48:00.008-04:00

Aaah!!!!! How does it happen??? Silly me! Is there any way I could retrieve it? I have guest coming today and thought while waiting for her I could use that little times to clean some old entries in my draft. I used to be very careful when it comes to cleaning my blog. Oh well, I will be more careful next time. To all my friends who left comments to my previous entry, 'WHAT A TEASE!, thank you...hihi!

This Week Picture (Working Hard!)

2008-07-04T13:58:00.009-04:00

Moving the lawn.(LOL)

Respectful Parenting; Getting Your Child To Come When You Call.

2008-07-02T09:42:00.005-04:00

Pre-School Press(Vol 5, Issue 2) - Ms Heather.

One of the most frustrating moments in parenting comes when your child does not respond to you. For example, pretend your child is playing with their toys. You say, "It is time for dinner. Come to the table." But your child does not move. He pretends not to hear you. So you get louder and say, "Come to the table now!" But your child still does not respond. You may think your child is misbehaving. While that may be true, there is something else that is happening too. When children start doing something they enjoy, they have a difficult time stopping. We want them to stop when we say stop, but just because they don't does not mean that they are misbehaving. They just need time to change what they are doing, they take longer than we do to slow down and stop.
As their parent, it is your role to help with this process. For example, you can give them a 'warning' that a transition is coming. "Dinner will be ready soon. You only have a few more minutes to play". Then, wait a few more minutes and say again, "It's almost time to be finished with your blocks". Maybe even setting a timer to alert your child of the transition would be helpful. Remember that your child cannot tell time and really cannot understand the passage of time, so using cues to alert them is helpful.
One of the best things you can do to acomplish your objective(in this case having them come to dinner when you call) is giving them choices. They feel that they are still making the decision, not recognizing that you are the one that provided the choices, all of which are acceptable choices to you! Going back to the dinner example; 'It's time for dinner'. (You have stated the expected behavior). Do you want to have your blue plate or your yellow one? (You have drawn their attention to the fact that it's time for dinner and have given them some control and interest over the situation by presenting them with a choice).

Some tips on giving choices.

1. Give only two choices at a time; Young children are not ready for many choices and may get confused or overwhelmed with more than two options.

2. The choices you offer should be OK with you; Do not give the choice of oatmeal or pancakes if you do not want to make pancakes!

3. Do not make everything a choice; Some things should not be negotiable and presenting everything as a choice can lead to control issues later.

Remember, perenting is also about teaching and you are your child's first teacher!

Thank you Ms Heather!

Washington DC Trip 2

2008-07-01T09:53:00.018-04:00

Cape Charles beach. One gorgeous little girl came to say hi to Billy but our shy little boy run to dada instead.

I need my swimming trunk, mom.

Aaah! Strange looking bird.

A dash of sand found it way on Billy’s cheeks.

We drove through Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel from Cape Charles to Virginia Beach.

One of the tunnel.

Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
They charge two different entrance fees to the city parks/beaches to the local and out of state visitors. So we decided to keep our $8 and continue our journey instead.

We stopped for lunch at a seafood restaurant in Virginia. I ordered ‘fried soft crab’. It was pretty disappointing. As you see in the pic, it a very small crabs, just two of them. The two small crabs, coleslaw, biscuit and applesauce cost me $12. The crabs taste was not even close to the one I had in Gayang Seafood Restaurant, back home.

Dear hubby had fried fish fillet. His lunch is cheaper and taste better than mine.

Strange looking cloud.

Bethany Beach. I like this family friendly and well maintain beach.

Beautiful beach! .

Tired little one. Napping in style. (LOL!)

Virginia Beach…beautiful! Unfortunately, Billy was napping and we decided to just take some pics and continue our journey to the next town.

After the long boring journey, we brought Billy to the pool at the motel where we stayed in. It’s much more fun than just sitting in the car.

Billy fell off the step face down into the water, scared the hell out of me. But minutes later he was back into the pool. We have determined to send him to swimming lesson by summer next year….haha.

Washington DC Trip 1

2008-07-01T09:27:00.018-04:00

It had been two weeks since we got back from our Washington DC trip. I know…. I know…. where are the trip pics? (LOL) Things went pretty slow for me lately, I was hit by the summer bugs….haha!

Anyway, here are the pics from the trip. We had a great trip, lots of fun and beaches too. At the end of the trip, I have added three more states (Delaware, Maryland, and North Carolina) in my visited states group. Okay, enjoy the pics.

We are just a block away from the WH.

The WH

The WH

Billy and mommy resting in front of the WH.

Billy in front of the WH.

Unhappy Billy as dada put him in his stroller.

We went to Malaysia Kopitiam for lunch. Hainanese chicken or chicken rice as we called it back home. The rice was yummy but the chicken was just so so.

Dear hubby had Chicken Raja. It was pretty good.

This time we made it to the Arlington National Cemetery. Lot of visitors but felt so quiet. Somehow felt sad but peaceful. Thank you!

Arlington National Cemetery. It’s really huge.

At Crystal City Mall - Walked around the mall after dinner but most of the store have already close.

How I Paid Off $35,000 in Debt, and How You Can Too

2008-06-26T09:49:00.003-04:00

No, it's not me. I like some of the ideas and hoping my dear hubby would read this too...hehe!

Last December, after twenty years of owing money, I finally paid off all of my debt (except the mortgage — and I’m working on that). Co-incidentally, Leo paid off his debt at the exact same time. I didn’t pay off my debt overnight. It took many years, and I made plenty of mistakes. But with patience and perseverance, I met my goal.

read more

Summer Events In Knoxville/Oak Ridge

2008-06-23T15:28:00.006-04:00

Happy Monday all! Hope you guys had a nice weekend. Ours was okay. We missed The Secret City Festival events, which held at the Alvin Bissell Park last Friday and Saturday. I have forgotten that all kid's events were scheduled on Friday. The park is just several blocks away from us and still we missed it all. Oh well, there is always the next year.

Then on Saturday, The Secret City Festival events continued with WWII Combat Reenactment and WWII Living History at the same park. And guess what? We did not make it to the shows either …haha. It's all my fault. I saw my sister online on Skype and we chatted for 2 hours. By the time I was done chatting with my sister, it was already lunchtime for Billy. So we decided to just stay at home for the whole day instead. Pretty boring, huh!

This weekend, dear hubby is taking part in Dragon Boat Races in Knoxville Dragon Boat Festivals. It is a charity event with Knox Area Rescue Ministries as the beneficiary. Other than the dragon boat races, there will be an entertainment, cultural activities and fun activities for children. I am so excited, not only because of dear hubby is participating in the dragon boat race but also because they have Asian cultural performances and activities that day. Horaaay! It will be my first time watching Asian cultural performances live in East Tennessee. It should be fun for Billy as well, as there will be Children’s Fun Zone and this year for the first time they have Asian Culture Center…..yeah!!! I will try to take good pictures but we will see.

All Day Activities:
*More than 25 heats of racing
*Live Music by Dishwater Blonde at noon
*Live Music by Mission Possible at 2p.m.
*Performances by the Organization for Chinese/Chinese Americans at various times
*Children's Fun Zone sponsored by Coulter & Justus with inflatables, games and new this year - Asian Culture Center with fun interactive activities!

Just Billy Having Fun!

2008-06-23T09:37:00.005-04:00

Cape Charles Beach - West Virginia

This Week Picture

2008-06-21T22:19:00.003-04:00

Billy was picking flower in the park near the White House.

Please Help - Milk Pledge For Needy Children.

2008-06-19T18:49:00.007-04:00

"Malaysians drink about five litres of milk annually compared to Europeans who drink 150 litres of milk a year." :-(

Hi all. I read about this ‘Milk Loves You’ campaign and ‘Feed A Child’ on-line pledge in NST yesterday. The online pledge will provide six months of milk supply to 400 children in Pahang, Malaysia. Packaging manufacturer Tetra Pak will match your clicks with the number of milk packets to underprivileged children.

I did my part and would like to ask you to please help the needy children to have their milk soon. As soon as the clicks reaches 100 000, the manufacturer will donate the milk packets to the deserving children. All you have to do is going the website and click on 'Make Your Milk Pledge'. It’s very easy, no ads....hihi!

Thank you very much!

The New Straits Times - 2008/06/19

Click a milk packet to a needy child

KUALA LUMPUR: Click on a webpage and packaging manufacturer Tetra Pak will match your clicks with the number of milk packets to underprivileged children. The on-line pledge will provide six months of milk supply to 400 children in Pahang. Tetra Pak's managing director, Peter Jhaveri, said the company was targeting 100,000 clicks.

"Each on-line click represents a packet of milk. As soon as we receive 100,000 clicks, we will donate the milk packets to deserving children," he said after the launch of Milk Loves You! campaign and Feed-A-Child pledge here on Monday.

Tetra Pak is a packaging and distribution company for liquid food industries. The milk packets will be given to Tengku Puan Pahang Tengku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah Sultan Iskandar. She also made the first pledge after the launch. She appealed to all Malaysians to click on-line. She said most Malaysians do not include milk in their diet.

"As soon as I knew I was to donate milk to underprivileged children, I called several homes. They told me their children do not want to drink milk because they throw up."

She then made a personal pledge to Nestle, which was also present during the launch, to donate mini corn flake packets to encourage children to drink milk. Jhaveri said Malaysians drink about five litres of milk annually compared to Europeans who drink 150 litres of milk a year.

"Children here stop drinking milk after two or six years old. Efforts should be taken to instill the benefits of drinking milk," he said.

Those interested can click on www.milklovesyou.com.

It’s A Sad Day.

2008-06-18T15:49:00.005-04:00

Today is indeed a very sad day for me. I have received an email from my friend back home this morning says that one of our friends has just passed away yesterday. It comes as a shocked to everyone as he was a healthy and athletic person without any major health concerns. In fact, he passed away while jogging in the sport complex. He was still young, maybe in his late 40’s or early 50’s.

He was a family man, a great friend and a great teacher. I'm blessed to have known him and have been his colleague for ten years. I have great respect for him. He was like a big brother to me. While I was still singled, he was the friend I came to when I need any advice (work related or personal) from a man point of views. He had never been biased or prejudiced when giving his opinions or advice and whatever you share with him will safe with him. What a great person he was.

He will be certainly missed by his beloved family, friends, his students and everyone who knows him. My heart and prayers go to his family. May God blessed and give strength to his wife and family. May you rest in peace, cikgu Bahrin.

We Are Back!!!!

2008-06-17T09:36:00.005-04:00

Yeah!! We are back in town! So happy we made it home safe. We got home at about 11.00pm last night(Monday night). Actually, we supposed to stay overnight in Asheville, NC but last minutes we changed our mind and drove home. It was a nice driving home, at least for me and our little passenger as we were in our sweet dreamland most of the way. (LOL)

I still have loads of works to be done. Did all the unpacking yesterday and today will continue with house cleaning and laundries. Lot more works waiting for me, huh!

I will share about our trip when time permit.

Time to jump into the pool.

Enjoying his pool.

Hmmm...look like Billy need bigger pool soon. (LOL)

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library

2008-06-09T16:49:00.010-04:00

Have you heard of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library? The program being implemented in the state of TN and 42 more states in the US to promote the pleasure of reading on children.. It’s helping every child, regardless income to own a book and library at home by providing free books to children from birth until they are five years old. One book is mailed to the child’s home every month. How cool is that?

I have my son enrolled in the program about three months ago and he has received his second books last week. Billy already has a pretty big collection of books but it is also nice to receive free books to add to his small library.

So if you are parents of a preschooler and living in TN, make sure you enroll your child in the program. Every child under 5 years old is eligible. You can get the form from your public library or register your child online at Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. It is a great program. Thank you to Dolly Parton. She is really a real diva.

The Imagination Library is also implemented in Canada and the UK. So parents in Canada and the UK, if you would like to enroll your preschooler, check the Imagination Library site out. :D

Thanks Dolly Parton for the books.

On The Road Again

2008-06-06T15:58:00.010-04:00

Hi all! I am taking a break from my busy Friday. This would be my last posting this week, probably would be a while before I could update my blog again. Maybe! But I may surprise you…..hihi!

We are going on a trip again. This time we are heading to Washington DC. Dear hubby is going to a conference at the Uncle Sam capital city. It will be held at the Marriott Hotel, Crystal City. Actually, we were there last year. We will be staying at the same place, so nothing new. I would be happy to stay home with Billy especially if we had to fly but dear hubby said he would rather drive and have us come with. At least we do not need to put up with airport hassles and all. Unfortunately, Billy will be missing school for one and a half weeks.

We will be hitting the road tomorrow morning drive through Kentucky and West Virginia and arrive at Crystal City at around Sunday evening. We should be able to go around Washington DC and would probably visit a few more places we did not get to see last year. It is pretty easy to go around and the subway is close by the hotel.

After the conference, we will take the weekend to drive to Maryland and later to Virginia Beach before heading back to TN. We should be home on Tuesday. (June 17th)

Okay, I better run. I still have to finish my packing. Have a great weekend everyone!

Out Of Luck

2008-06-04T13:04:00.012-04:00

Thank you all for the kind wishes on our anniversary. Sorry about the short post…hihi! We had a great time last weekend and on our anniversary. A little unfortunate we has to put on hold what we have planned last week because of the bad weather.

Actually, we planned to go to the drive-in theater last Sunday. We just wanted to do something different and memorable on our special day, konon. Dear hubby has been persuaded me to go to the drive-in theater for a while but the summer warm weather always put me off. Last Sunday was supposed to be cool and nice but the weather forecast has changed. It was raining on the late afternoon. We will still be going to one after we get back from our trip this weekend. I am hoping they will have ‘Sex and The City’ movie on by then….hihi!

On our anniversary we went to our favorite restaurant by the lake but to our disappointment they were close that day. So we head to another restaurant at the lake, Chinese restaurant sajalah….haha! Malaslah mau fikir. We had a nice dinner. Nothing really super special, let alone a candle light dinner. (LOL) I was not that excited to take pic either. That’s explaining why only one Billy’s pic in that post.….hihi! We might have our special anniversary dinner in DC sometimes next week.

After dinner we take a walk at the lake. Billy had so much fun watching geese and ducks swimming in the lake. I should have taken a few shots, oh well, maybe some other time.