here i am, all the boys and hubby are sleeping. i'm tired too, but i just want to have some time alone. Christmas just over...2009 is going to be over soon too. what have i done?

anyway, just a little update abt what i've been doing for the past one month....in summary.

toilet training 2 boys
don't know what on earth am i thinking...toilet training ian and nathan concurrently after we moved in to our new home. anyway, nathan's toilet training is half success...he will go toilet when he feels like peeing, but there're times i do need to remind him to go. this boy will tend to hold his pee when he's having fun playing, then holding his bird to tahan. so whenever i see him hold his bird, i know....it's time for him to go toilet. there's accident every now and then...i'm no longer the patient mama cozai, reward stickers when success and encourages him to do better next time when he wet the floor, nowadays...or most often, i WHACKED!!! coz nathan would step on it and run ard...my jonathan is like a koala bear, stick to me all the time, i carry him 80% of his wakeful moments...so having to carry that koala bear and clean the mess is really no joke to me. i scold and scold....but my dear nathan is a very 'forgetful' boy, will run away smiling after all the punishment after that.

ian? i want him to go diaperless at night. so which mean i gotta wake up and carry that sleepy boy to pee in the middle of the night. 1st 2 weeks, many accidents...wash bedsheets and sun the mattress till jem so fed up. and finally he can't tahan, want ian to wear diaper at night again but i'll continue to do the bringing him to pee every night. oh well, since he hasn't finished all his diapers, i'll wait till no more diaper to wear then start to REAL training again. this time, i bought waterproof mattress protector from the forum...protect the mattress.

i guess that explained why i'm so tired...and falling sick more often recently. last to sleep...then wake many times at night for that koala bear, and 1st to wake up everyday, and then no nap. thankfully i'm a live to eat person...FOOD is my reward for all my hard work.

christmas celebration
my hubby bought me christmas presents!!! *hugs* he bought me wmf pots. am the lousy wife, didn't buy him any....
opened up our home for christmas gathering last night. jem 下廚(with grand in laws supervision) made cheesebaked minced beef spaghetti, grand in laws made scones, salad, chicken wings and sausages. the chongs brought agar agar and chips, sin yee made lemon cheese cake, i made molten chocolate. i kept forgetting to take out my camera to capture all the food and people...if you guys (esp bern! you took a lot of photos during the dinner) have some nice pictures, send them to me, and i'll upload here. i can't seem to upload the photos from my camera, macbook memory almost full :P

i tried out the molten chocolate for the 1st time. prepared the ingredient the night before, try out to bake a few the next day in the afternoon, trying to find out the best timing to achieve that outer layer is set and ooze out when cut open that cake. i have leftovers after pouring the chocolate to the molds, my boys lick so shiok till the whole body and face full of chocolate, and the table, the floor, the cabinets!!! and thaaaaaaat triggers the volcanic eruption in me....but i hold it!!! coz....i need them to eat the failed cakes for me :P

1st round - overbaked. cake all set, no lava come out. they ate
2nd round - underbaked. the bottom is not even set...they ate happily
3rd round - my boys are napping, bathed and cleaned up the mess (plus scolding for running ard)...i let jem to try out...the result was just nice...could be better if bake 1 min longer.

so after dinner, the ladies get to eat the almost perfect molten chocolate...the guys...ended up eating the already set cake...they play ps3 shiok shiok till my cake all set liao, but it's ok, still can eat. sin yee's lemon cheesecake is very nice! ian ate 2 big serving the next morning.

unwrapped presents was fun! papers all over the floor...how come ah? i remembered those days when we celebrate christmas at nat's place, we unwrapped 'politely', haha...those days we have no kids...and even have kids, they're too young to open...but here, tear tear tear....man...anyone of you captured that mess?

tv
oh finally, we bought it TODAY!!! our home will have a new tv this coming monday.

cleaning
so that was it...moved in to new home for almost 2 months. thank God for in laws, i take care of the boys and settle their meals in day time, but night time, we'll go up and have my in laws yummy dinner. each day, i'm trying to think of ways to minimise cleaning...coz that's seems to be the task i spent most of my time doing each day and feel bad for not spending enough time with my boys. spilled food and drinks and urine..there's no end to it. the boys have their own set of plates and bowls...as for me, i eat straight from the pot...nathan thought that's my bowl and asked me to transfer the food BACK to the pot whenever i'm eating their leftovers.

school and brush teeth
one more week to go, ian will be bk to school..nathan will start his N1 (nursery 1)....don't know how life would be....school starts at 8:30am...i cannot imagine that hectic morning...having to carry jonathan with me and rush that 2 bros to get ready to school.

brush teeth is a dreadful routine to me. each morning makes me blood boiling. nathan doesn't like to brush teeth. there's a period of time, i was so fed up that i hold his face and brush his teeth forcefully....violent right? yeah...i think so too, so i changed, make him stay in the toilet, and let him cry till he opens up his golden mouth himself. it works the 1st 2 days, but recently it's not working again. he's more stubborn than me...and i feel embarrassing to let my neighbor hear a crying boy crying so loud and so long in the toilet every morning!!! must be the horror experience done by me :P
so how? jem is on leave for 2 weeks recently...i let him bring nathan to brush teeth. and ngiao!!! it's a breeze ok!!! no struggle whatsoever!!! nathan brushes his teeth willingly!!!
i don't know how....when school starts, jem's bk to work and i'll be the one who make him brush teeth again. unlike now...i can let him stay in toilet whole morning coz no school...but time is tight when school starts....oh God, please give me wisdom and patience!!!

next year is an exciting year to me...will have a new cell group, and bk to church! yay!!! new year, new beginning!

good night...very late now. 2:35am..

Do laundry

Baby is ready to be cleaned

We were walking up the stairs to my in laws place. Ian was ahead of me, i was carrying jonathan and a bag, then...
Ian: "mommy!!! Do you need help?!!!"
Connie: "yeah, can you take the yellow bag?"
Ian: "No, You take yourself"

sound helpful only.

Oh Christmas Tree

Dear Kelvin and Candy,

Thank you for giving us a christmas tree!!! Thanks for fulfilling my wish. I've been wanting to have one (you can ask jem for this) but there's always one reason or another, there's no christmas tree in the end.

Looking at the christmas tree makes me feel so happy!!!

Thank you so so so much!

*hugs to my hubby to carry it home.

Jonathan's kiss

This is how jonathan kisses me everyday. Mouth opens wide and 'bite' my chin till all wet.

If you noticed some of my entries has different font and size, that's because i post it from my phone.

Duck drumstick

This is one of the things which ian is like me....eat till the bone clean clean.

Still

Don't know what are the latest christian songs, been singing all the old songs repeatedly especially after scolding the boys :p, very 'mang zang' (agitated in cantonese) and i seriously need to listen more songs to calm my nerve down. Oh well, actually it doesn't matter whether it's new or old songs. It's the words that is in it speak life in people's heart.

Nathan got hooked to ligtning mcqueen's movie. The first thing he asks when he wakes up is to watch the movie every morning. We've been watching it day in day out for the past 1 month. So finally i got the chance to watch what i want when at in laws' place today.

The song titled 'Still' from hillsongs. The moment when i play that song in youtube, there's this electrifying feeling goes through my body and tears welling up my eyes. Is the presence of God so strong that...can touch ppl's heart thru media? Or simply my spirit is so low that any songs can touch me?

Time to feed nathan dinner now.

random pictures

trying out a free online photo editing website. i like this frame :D

celebrated my birthday with jem and jonathan @ this nice restaurant called spruce. was hoping to go out paktoh with jem alone...but jonathan was stuck with me coz of breastfeeding. anyway, back to this restaurant, great ambience, relaxing place...the food is great! i had steak and it's the best i had ever eaten, soft, juicy and tender. their starter and dessert are very nice too...highly recommended

a glimpse of our living hall area. it's the familiar furniture from sengkang, still in good condition. new stuff for the boys, that green ikea table & chairs...2nd hand for only $50...good deals huh :D. left with tv...you guys are asking what's lacking in this house....wanna contribute some $$$ as house warming gift? (just kidding)

4 generation of liang household went to botanic garden last weekend. thank God for good weather :D our boys were wearing sport jerseys with the name 'david beckham'. grandma bought for the boys while overseas. maybe i should buy 3 sets of liverpool jerseys next time...jem's favourite....steven gerrard?

when my man said "this is the best cake i ever ate for the past 5 years."...then i better blog abt this.

finally managed to bake a thumbs up cake and got praises from jem :D and he rated 4/5!!! can you imagine what he has to go through (come to think of it...it's what COZAI has to go through) whenever i baked a not-so-nice-cake for the past 5 years in sengkang? either finished it all by myself or uncle dustbin ate it. anyway, must thank the well reviewed aunty yochana's banana cake recipe. been thinking about baking a banana cake, but don't know which recipe can achieve that 'soft, fluffy, moist' effect. the last banana cake i baked back in sengkang days was quite dense...so i decided to give her version a try today.

measured all the ingredient before all the boys are up this morning...ian likes to get involved in the cake making, so i let him help me (with supervision), nathan's not interested so i let him watch lightning mcqueen, thomas train from youtube. and jonathan...of course, i waited for him to have his 1st nap and quickly start the baking journey.

here's aunty yochana's banana cake recipe

Ingredients:
180 gm. Butter
180 gm. Fine sugar (i used 160gm, find it a bit sweet for my taste but jem said just nice, ian said good!)
2 nos. Extra large Eggs - beaten lightly (i used 3 small eggs and weigh till exactly 130gm)
250 gm. Cake flour (i used self raising flour and omitted the baking powder)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. Bicarbonate of Soda
220 gm. Bananas - mashed
50 gm. Dairy whip cream (i substituted with evaporated milk)
1/2 tsp. Banana essence (i used vanilla essence)
2 bananas - slice (ehh...didn't use, use walnuts instead)

Method:

(1) Cream butter and sugar till light and creamy.
(2) Pour in eggs gradually and beat till creamy.
(3) Add in whip cream, mashed bananas and banana essence and mix well.
(4) Add in cake flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and beat for a while only.
(5) Pour into an 8" round tray, and arrange sliced bananas on top.
(6) Bake at 175C for about 50 to 60 mins. or until cooked. (mine took abt an hour or slightly more)

tadaaaa!!! my 8" cake tin can't fit all, so i poured some to make muffins. baked abt 20 mins.

jem said "it's not dry, the taste is just nice, not too sweet, moist"

pardon the 'holes' at the center of the cake...i don't have stick to test, so used chopstick :P but look cantik cantik yeah :) during that 1 hour, i used aluminium foil to cover it...else the top will cracked n turned dark brown. but the outer layer of the cake was bit crumbly and some texture is loose...don't know why...maybe bake too long or oven is hotter...but still taste good.

if you want to try, try this recipe...a person like me baked for 5 years with all the failures can come up with this...am sure you can do better.

different ways of sleeping

All my boys are sleeping now. Ian came out of the room and wanted me to baobao him sleep. I was enjoying a cup of coffee with an apple crumble bought from amk. After baobao him a while, i put him down to sleep on sofa. Then he woke up and slept this way.

looking at him, my dear ian, my 1st born. He's 4 years old now. We just celebrated his birthday yesterday. He's very happy. Will post u video when we sang him birthday song. pardon my ugly voice ok. am reluctant to post the clip up because of my voice but i like this clip...it's funny.

art time

Good night. Going to sleep now.

posting entry from my hp now. let me try adding photos ok. oooo....it works. took this photo today

you know the movie 'lightning mcqueen'? it's abt a proud rookie race car got himself lost in an old town, and there he learnt to care for others than being selfish. i watched this countless times after my bro bought the dvd for my boys. they love it so much till they watch it almost everyday back in sengkang days. and we stopped for almost a year when we moved to in laws' place during the selling and buying flat period.

now we started to watch again. yeah...all dvds are out of the boxes. nathan likes it so much that he can watch 2-3 times a day. this is one movie that i never got tired of it. there's certain part of the show still makes me 'wow'....esp guido's (a mini forklift) 'pit stop' scene and the touching scene where lightning mcqueen pushed the badly damaged race car to the finishing line.

i don't mind letting my boys watch this countless time, feel that it's educational...teach people to be selfless....and i like one of the songs in this movie...titled "find yourself". haha, actually i like the music first...then i checked out the lyrics...and find that i can identify with it...which makes me like this song even more....






sigh...it's 12:03am now...my boys slept early tonight coz they didn't nap in the afternoon. i thought i have a lot of time 'me' time finally. jem is doing charity work (playing mj) with family at their home. but after doing all the hanging, folding, sorting clothes and filing, it's 11ish...serve me right...keep procrastinating, didn't do filing for abt a year coz all the files are in storage place, the documents are all over the place. i spent the whole afternoon and night just to sort them out and file them accordingly.

been busy since moved in. washing dishes, laundry seem to be endless. but am thankful that i don't have to cook dinner at this moment, always look forward to ah po's cooking after a long day. i cooked a few times only...i prepare only breakfast and sometimes lunch for the boys. i started to use my oven already. got ian to help out a bit. we made

mini cupcakes - failed, too dry and not sweet, ian said not nice as not sweet, father in law ate one and ended up drink whole cup of water

carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting - this time the cupcake size is bigger, i literally begged ian to eat it but he refused. kept saying he will only eat when he grows up and bake one himself and will add a lot of sugar in it. then when his favourite neighbor eats the cupcake, he asked to eat and said very nice...ngiao! i begged, he refused. but when she ate, he wanted to eat all the sudden. ah po said not bad just not cooked enough...will taste better if bake longer. jem said not bad too.

bread and butter pudding - recipe suggested adding strawberry flavored yogurt, i don't have, i added aloe vera yogurt. ended up....i have to eat most of it...my boys ate tiny bit, my man never touch it.

too adventurous yeah? just moved in and start baking? as though i'm not busy enough? i am. tired and busy. but there was once i thought about this when staying at in laws' place. since 2005, i hardly go out, and there're many things i wanted to do but i couldn't as i have baby/kids to take care. there's always this 'one day'...when my boys are big enough, then i'll get it/do it. i don't want to wait anymore....i told myself, if i can do now, whether my boys is around, if i think it can be achieved, i'll do it. at this moment, please don't think as though i have big dreams to achieve, i'm just saying daily stuff.

taking baking for example: i want to make some desserts. i'll prepare ingredients at night while boys are sleeping and do it when the boys are around rather than waiting for the chance when all 3 sleeping at the same time.

if i want to meet friend for lunch - if i can go alone, that would be the best. if not, i'll bring all 3 along. my in laws worried that i cannot manage 3. yeah...i wondered whether i can too...but i think i'm in a desperate stage already :P. i brought all 3 out to clinic, to buy food, all are short trips. can i manage? i can only say one step at a time.

of course, there's always a price to pay for being 'desperate'...that is lack of rest. whenever my body cannot take it anymore, i'll have bad migraine and that's enough to stop me from doing anything (i couldn't). just had migraine couple nights ago. thankful for my hubby and in laws to help take care of the boys.

so the topic 'want to have maid'? brought up again. my answer is....


still the same....

quick one.

stay in new home day 8. cooked 1st simple meal for the boys. the whole morning was rush rush rush. i decided to cook brunch last min so called ah po no need to cook. and think i didn't cook for too long...underestimated time needed to thaw minced pork, and ended up cooking it while rock hard (no time no time). 2 older ones keep wanting to see how i cook, stood quite close to stove, my mouth busy telling them to back off! then jon kept crying wanted to be carried. one hand carry baby, another hand hold chopstick, mouth kept warning, then trying to flip that frozen minced pork and trying to avoid that dancing oil at the same time. my reward of this adventurous cooking is ian likes it. can't believe it, coz i tried the noodle myself, not nice...sauces i mixed taste weird but he finished the whole bowl of dry noodle with fried minced pork. don't mind cleaning oil splattered stove, top and cabinets...at least my effort paid off.

my next plan is to make cupcake. got recipe from my sis, and wanna try out my new oven. still planning...maybe next week when ian has no school.

can't believe it, we moved in to new home finally. looking back from the day when we started to look for an agent to sell our home last dec, sold our sk home in feb, bought a resale in april, got our key in jul, started reno in aug. i can't help to thank God for His perfect timing.

now the resale cov is back, i thanked God that we don't have to pay any cov during that down time...the low or no cov days were between apr - jun (if i read correctly), that saves us a lot of money. thank God for good agents and....not so good one...let me share with you why.

before we started to get an agent to help us looking for flat, my mom in law and i been visiting other flats with different agents, one of them was quite pushy and i really don't quite like him. the rest of the agents don't really follow up whether you still interested in the unit after the viewing, even if they do, they ask politely and not pushy abt it. but this particular one, after meeting him, i told myself i wouldn't want to deal with this kind of agent again. i actually put the word 'blacklisted' beside his name in my phone contact list.....so if he calls, i can decide whether to pick up his call :P.

then after viewing many flats and made offers on some flats and got rejected...by then am already getting a bit disappointed and desperate, keep asking God when when when. then this blacklisted agent called me one day, he said that he remember my in laws stay in this block and he got one selling unit in the same block. straight away i told him i got my own agent and will get mine to liaise with him (don't want to deal directly with him). so in the end, ironic right...the one i don't like was the one who found us a home. the unit was not even advertised in the newspaper yet.

during reno days, one of my id's sub contractor told us his friend wanted to buy this unit but we got it 1st, and they said it's a very good deal...their parents are staying in the same block. i was like.....hennngggg, if my in laws didn't step in to advise us to buy this unit and the peace we both got after viewing it, we could have miss it. today we view, we made the offer the next day (if i remember correctly).

i like my new home a lot. been busy after moving in...still adjusting taking care of 3 kids alone at home...been going to in laws' place for lunch and dinner. our pantry still quite empty, will slowly fill up more food in pantry and fridge and will try to cook 2-3 days a week (uhmm..jem loves his grandparents cooking, so

need to stop now. very tired...dozed off many times while updating this

sorry, not been updating...been trying to use the comp for the past few days but too tired, always dozed off after all our boys sleep at night. i know this is not new to you...but at least must let you all know why i've been mia.

okie doks!

renovation almost over...left with touch up this week. 90% of our stuff already moved in to new home (10% still at in laws' place)...most of the stuff still stucked at the living hall at the moment. very messy now. but we always look forward to unpack our stuff, to clean up whenever we can. it's good to stay near in laws, always leave our boys for them to take care then we can do the unpacking in peace.


what has been happening?

we celebrated mom in law's birthday on 7 oct. took this picture when they're singing birthday song :D

when jem was out of town, this was how nathan talked to his dad...

most people said ian and jonathan are most alike. what do you think?

"hum hum, doh doh ah ming!!!" (that's nathan's way of saying "come come, tornado is coming". they are so fascinated with it till emulate at least 3 times a day at home...the destruction after tornado. if it's day time, it's ok, i have all the patience in the world to get them put the toys, boxes, chairs, books..etc into respective boxes. if it's close to bedtime, whole house can only hear my voice, scolding, nagging at them to put the toys back.

grandpa with his grandsons.

shiok eh!

here's the kitchen! was in the midst of washing some kitchen utensil. our ian was trying to help. he just drank a cup of plain water, but use detergent wash 2-3 times as though that cup is super oily.

see what i mean! messy messy

master toilet

gotta bring my boys down to playground now. will update again.

renovation updates

- replaced all door locksets - done

- new wrought iron gate (see picture below) - done!

- carpentry - kitchen, toilet cabinets and wardrobe - done!

- bi-fold doors for toilets and storeroom - done!

- shower glass panels for both toilets - done!

original aluminium gate

to white coated wrought iron gate, can you imagine my boys climbing up and down here??!!! i'll keep the door closed most of the time!!!


grilles are up...i requested to have only 5 horizontal bars instead of 6...uhmmm....still prefer without grilles....

took 3 days to assemble kitchen cabinets. solid surface will be installed this coming monday. can't wait. my new toy, built in oven. due to space constraint, i can't have a longer island table, it feels quite 'cramp' when i stand there...but i'm still happy, can do baking, cooking prep there and watching my boys at the same time. the carpentry work is very good (i know it's too early to tell but i'm comparing this with my previous sk home...sk one was lousy workmanship right from start)

my tall pantry unit

not much changes in living area, only the dining light installed today...i like it!

common toilet - cabinets, toilet fittings, accessories all up...

as for master toilet, am waiting till they fix up the mirror then show u

good night

renovation progress....sorry no pic

this week

- acid washing....finally see a clean floor tiles...no sand, no dirt...

- varnish parquet....hope they do a good job.

hob, hood, oven, kitchen & toilet accessories to be delivered by this week.

i like this moment...it's 1.19am....supposed to sleep but i only have this moment...to sit down quietly without having to run ard, busy with the boys. i like dim light, and oh yes! air con :D

not thinking....just looking ard the room...big and small boys are sleeping...only if i could do this every night and without affecting my next day, i would do every night. but physically i don't think can take it. when move to new home finally, maybe this time, i'm still busy cleaning and clearing up the mess in our new home. i don't dare to think what will happen when move to new home...can i cope with 3 boys? can i go back to the days when my boys sleep by 10pm instead of 11ish now? the whole world is hoping i get a helper, who would understand how much i value privacy? but am i too selfish to just think of myself and not taking grandparents in law into consideration?

i hope i don't have to yell and cane my boys everyday...i hope i can be a better mother. is there a better way of parenting? i'm happy to have lunch with friends today, nathan behaves well, sit on the chair (without buckle him up) and just let me talk and listen. thank God for him.

i wish time stops ticking....am not ready for tomorrow. when tomorrow comes, i try to set good examples, i try to be a better and gentle wife, be more respectful to my in laws.

preparing breakfast for boys, cleaning hands and mouth, bathing e boys, feeding lunch, preparing ian to go to school, dabao or lunch out, make nathan sleeps, bring ian bk from school, make ian naps, jonathan's up, play with him...go to playground, bath the boys, feed nathan dinner, scold ian eat faster...preparing for bedtime, clean up the boys...bedtime story...11ish. next day...start again.

Jesus, please help me...to remember You in my daily activities with the boys...i always forget You.

good night

renovation progress

ohhhh woh wohh!!! i love my wall color. it's quite hard to imagine how the wall will turn out to be from a small color sample...glad turn out well. we decided on the wall color weeks ago...but on painting day, we found out there's a curve beam in the living room that makes it hard to join from wall to wall. even right up to the very day, still can't decide how to match the color. thank God jem suggested to hack that curve beam and use mostly white for wall, only use darker brown at the tv area (our tv will be near the window, see picture below)...our id suggested to extend the color to the next wall. we heed his advice. though it is just a base coat for the whole house, i absolutely glad to make that decision...can't wait to see when the actual painting complete towards hand over day.

they removed all the corrugated papers and plastic today, for the 1st time, i can see our floor tiles...nice nice nice! it makes the house look spacious. check out my cream white door and fan

one of the boys room...blue room

4-mth old jonathan

letting ian carry jonathan without support for the 1st time

who's going to school???

good night

can we live without tv? i believe we can...

how abt me? for the sake of my boys, i'll try to minimise and be selective. i don't mind playing the same programmes everyday. my boys', esp nathan recent favourite is watching kids singing bible songs. nathan always ask "i wan bobo song" when he wakes up each morning. each day repeats at least 4 times...there's 17 songs each cycle. because it's God-related, i'm more than willing to let them watch, although i already feel a lil 'xian' already.

but if staying with other family members with different beliefs, it's tough to control what the boys are watching at times. as most of you know, boys/men are visual people...i've never know abt this visual thingy till i learnt from church and ever since then, i started to observe people, just to find out how true is it, so whenever i'm at the mrt station or anywhere...whenever i see ladies with good figure, esp those who like to 'bang bua liap', i'll look at men who passes by...very easy to spot...can see their eyes look straight down straight down then straight straight straight...then down....it's human nature...simply can't resist.

we're living in a fallen world, i know it's hard to protect my boys from all this influence, if i can control tv channels at home, i can't control influence from outside. if i can, if i'm smart, if i have the support, i would choose home-schooling, but i don't have. so i can only pray for God's protection.
whenever there's scene showing sexy women, kissing scene, even slight r-rated, i'll try to distract my boys...i can't change or switch the tv off when everybody else is watching.

my in laws like to watch miss world...pretty ladies, with luscious figure. my boys were making lots of noise, they were playing sword, fight fight fight!!! jumping on the sofa, fight fight fight. then when the show started, all the ladies with swimsuit...no noise all the sudden! i was using the comp and when i turned to look at my boys...both in pause mode....ian was watching the tv with his mouth open. i blocked him, he shifted left, i blocked left, he shifted right...his eyes simply glued to the tv...to some, no big deal, but to me....it is.

always have unending worries for kids...

kitchen - white

ceiling fan - white

room doors - close to white

floor tiles - white

window grilles - white

wrought iron gate - silverish

in future, if my washing machine and fridge break down, new one will be white...

cleaning?....sure.....my face will turn white white ....

i kena suan by jem all the time....coz whatever we discussed and agreed together, ended up all changed and according to my preference. almost the entire home color were decided by me. kitchen worktop supposed to settle for black galaxy granite...but i changed my mind to lighter color solid surface. as for the kitchen cabinet color, supposed to be open to his suggestion, having the kitchen cabinet brown in color, but decided creamy white. ceiling fan supposed to be kdk silverish fan, matching our dining lights...but because shop owner said kdk fan only has 3 blades, some people complained no wind....i decided an uglier design 5 bladed fan and in white again.

so should anything go wrong...easy, cozai will be suan for the next few years.

i don't know why i wanted a built in oven so much (maybe i know)...what will happen to my newly bought table top rowenta oven which serves me well? just because i'm going to have a new kitchen and have that space to add in built in oven...i insisted to have one. when i was studying in perth, we've got a built in oven, my sis and i used it to roast chicken wings, pork ribs all the time. i really like the spacious interior. so again, kena suan by jem for wasting money buying that table top (didn't expect to sell our home mahhh *lame excuse*), now become white elephant. he's right....and now...i wish my in laws' one break down soon so that i can give it to them. theirs is a $70 cornell oven come with rottiserie function...all the yummy scones, butter cake, chicken wings, quiche, whole chicken (used turnspit, gosh, the meat turns out very succulent), cheesebaked minced beef spaghetti come from there....so my lesson learnt from the liang household is i don't need a 'professional' stuff to have yummy effect. $70 also can achieve that.

having said that...there are other areas decided by jem...*feeling bad after changing so many things, so better give in to other areas*. wallpaper, wall color, internal structure of the wardrobe and pantry, sanitary wares, to keep existing parquet in all rooms...etc.

lighting are up last week...left with living and balcony area.

painting and sanitary installation (wc, basin, heater, shower set, mixer) will be completed by this coming week

carpentry, not yet...another 2++ week.

can't wait to see the outcome...

2 weeks passed since jem's relative, william went to the Lord.

i don't know whether ppl who went 'home' can appear in dreams of loved ones or speak to them...but if the Lord allows so, it certainly brings comfort to family.

i heard this from recent gathering...from his sister's sharing...saying that his wife, wendy dreamt of him, sat on his lap and chatted, she saw that he looked well...she woke up from her dream when he said he needs to get up.

his eldest daughter rachel dreamt of him too. she's so happy to see her father when back from school, he looked well.

his brother, steven. while he's crying over his brother's departure in his home, he suddenly hear him saying "don't be silly, i'm well". i was very touched when i heard this.

his son, ryan blogged about this...if want to, you might want to read... http://www.light-spirit.blogspot.com/
to me, there's always hope in God's family...i know for sure we'll see our loved ones again one day. reminds of me ah bo...miss her...but i know she's doing extremely well up there. i'll see her again :D

sorry for not been updating...ian fall sick 2 weeks ago, then i fall sick last week and now...seems like my father in law kena this week. am still recovering and much much better.

renovation progress

can't see living floor tiles, all layed over by corrugated paper.

all the floor and wall tiling all over the house - done
L box - up
new windows - done
new grilles - not yet
electrical - replaced all old casing and some rewiring....will need to do another round again maybe after carpentry work.

we shopped for kitchen and bathroom fittings last weekend...hopefully have all these install by next week. this week is running hot & cold piping and painting :D so cement and tiling related stuff will be cleared...ooh hooo!!!

couldn't sleep tonight...

am fearful...another relative passed away all the sudden last monday.

to us, is sudden coz he kept it from all his relatives even till the end of his day. only his immediate family knew abt it. he's got mouth cancer, found it one year ago, and now...he passed away at home and left 4 very young children and wife behind. but the good news is he accepted Christ the night before he passed away.

as we get older, we're getting more news of ppl falling sick, passed away...and there's another one...we got to know him in perth, one of our church friends. i don't normally look at the obituary section, but often when i do, 2 times i 'happen' to see familiar faces. he died of cardiac arrest, wife was pregnant with #2. i simply imagine myself if i encounter this, i'll be devastated...it's so sudden.

i just learnt this word 遺憾 from the taiwanese series recently. based on my own interpretation, it means do whatever you want to or must do while you live, so when you die, you won't regret or can go in peace.

i always think, wait till all my boys are independent enough, then start to do the things i wanted to do....then here comes the question...

do what?
i once listed down the things i wanted to do.
- be a good cook, want all my boys and my man tell ppl, my mom's/wife's cooking is very good.

all food related yeah? so far, always kena suan by jem for buying all the 'professional' kitchen stuff, but some of the outcome was so lousy that he dare not eat. the challenge here is not about trying...it's abt how to finish all the 'dare not eat' or 'not so nice' food. can you imagine if i bake 12 muffins, he eats only 1, i gotta finish the remaining 11? ok, if my boys like it, they like only 1 day...ate 2-3...i still have to finish another 8.

what else?...other than food

other than busy with the boys, i think i've been living quite an aimless life.

come to think of it, my aim in life is all my boys accept Christ as their personal Savior. you know, i always forgot God. i forgot to say grace, forgot to pray, when in need, ask Him for help and forget about Him the next min. no wonder my boys don't know who Jesus is. only ian knows a bit coz he's attending a christian-based kindy.

so...my only non-food related aim in life now is to pray earnestly for my children and to have them all accept God!

i gotta think of other things too....jem said once our boys grow up, i'll sure be very lonely and lost...it's true....

any place i want to go? to a place where it has fields of colorful tulips...and i just sit there as long as i want, to look at its beauty...

this is a super tough one...be a proverbs 31 wife to jem.

maybe another aim is to back to active in church days...
so if i achieve all these, will i feel 遺憾? i don't know...but for sure, if my children loves Jesus...definitely no 遺憾.

good night....

just 4 pictures only.

common toilet


master toilet


kitchen

among the 3 boys, jonathan is the first baby who....sort of...sleep through the night, though sometimes he would wake up once or twice at night, other times he sleeps through :D

maybe i should thank my mom in law's constant suggestion to use the 'yao lan' (from baby #1 till now), only till baby #3 then i gave in...coz that thing can make him sleep without nursing to sleep and fair enough he does sleep longer most of the time...
while other family members use yao lan, i use sling to sling him till sleep...have to constantly move around...not a very good habit but whatever works, i'll do. anyway, i don't have the luxury to just stand n rock him to sleep all the time, i still have another 2 kor kors to tackle.

sometimes i wish to know what's in baby's mind, does baby really enjoy being rock....so hard. for me, i try to rock as gently as possible, jonathan still can doze off. not for my in laws though...they rock very hard when i'm not looking. the louder the baby cry, the harder they rock, then sometimes swing back and forward. looking at the sarong, i can't help to think my boy is having sea sick and about to puke or if not, he's probably pengsan.

so how? i don't know...i can't help to intervene when they rock so hard...and now...maybe spoilt by me nowadays...when jonathan still cry when they rock, i carry him out and sling him and continue my routine with the boys...i nurse then keep him awake by burping him, sling him bk till sleep and then transfer slowly to sarong. so...it seems like he can't settle to sleep in sarong first but must nurse first....moving towards nursing to sleep path???...hope not.

what other issue? jonathan is a thumb sucker. i know babies naturally like to suck. think i read somewhere abt pacifier, and i'm quite against using after reading it. ian & nathan survived without it, so i apply the same on jonathan. again, my mom in law suggests pacifier. let me tell you, my mom in law is immune to "no" ok. today i say no, she'll suggest again tomorrow, always....as though she can't remember what i told her yesterdays/yesteryears. i said no from baby #1 till now, she still mention it (she's a very potential evangelist, not scared of rejection and very persistent)...oh well, like me, she can't help to intervene when she sees jonathan keep wanting to suck his thumb and i keep removing his thumb from him :P, she feels that i'm depriving what a baby should have...a pacifier.

and seriously, i do consider to give jonathan pacifier this time round due to his thumb sucking...but because of my ego and don't like to hear the word "deprive" (sound as though i'm torturing my boy and maybe i do), i dropped that idea.

anyway, who knows, maybe i will introduce pacifier when move to new home....where i don't hear comments...haha! 死要臉 yeah :P. it's ok if you think so, i think so too :D funny right, most of us were pacifier babies. i was, so does jem, i can't even recall i use it till i see those old photos. so why make a big fuss about pacifier. just try loh, won't die yeah?

that's all folks! good night.

yoh hoh

renovation progress

day 1 - hack hack hack

access balcony - from


to


grilles removed - i like this the most! the place become so bright and airy, doesn't feel...'confined'. if not because of my boys' safety, my new home wouldn't have grilles! next time....when my boys grow up, i'll bid grilles farewell!


living room - took this morning, the floor tiles wasn't hacked. the workers were tearing down fixtures. can't go in when they hacked the balcony flooring.


kitchen - before


after


ah po & jonathan




i like this photo, but jem didn't wear shirt, so i wear for him :P




to make 3 boys facing the camera together is very challenging...but glad to manage to capture this