Thursday, October 30, 2008

Looking Back (January – September 2008)

As soon as we got back I asked Steve to drive me to my master’s class at Vistana Hotel. The session started the day before. I missed the first day of my class. I was so disappointed when I found out that my class on that day was cancelled. What a waste to rush.

Hannah was supposed to attend school on the 2nd of January but since we arrived in Malaysia on 6 January 2008 she missed a few days of her classes. We sent her on Monday 7 January. None of our children cried on the first day or during the first week of their first year of school. But life is full of surprises. Hannah not only cried but she wailed for almost three weeks! Poor Yasmin! She was always called to calm Hannah down. I guess Hannah behaved that way because of the fact that she missed the first day of the class where students got a chance to introduce themselves to each other. She must have felt threatened or scared facing her new “friends” because everyone knew each other already except her! Must be a traumatizing experience for her. Alhamdulillah she’s enjoying school now.

Another birthday celebration began. It started with Hannah’s on Jan 13, then Najla’s (March 9), followed by Steve’s (10 March), then Danial’s on May 4, followed by Harris’ on July 13, then Yasmin’s on August 12. Only my birthday has not been celebrated yet. Once you hit 35 years old, the rest is not important anymore. It’s mind over matter, if you don’t mind it doesn’t matter…

Sometime in February, I don’t remember the exact date now, I wish I wrote it down that my eldest son told me that he was “baligh” already. Then we prayed together with him being the imam. Wow, my son is an adult. He has grown taller than me when he was 12 years old. My kids’ school had “yaumul ihtifal” (award giving ceremony) on Feb 16. Harris went to stay overnight at his friend Haniff’s house. He was supposed to come home Sunday night but he came back after “asar” because he fought with Haniff. I guess he overextended his welcome.

Yasmin went for “qiamulail” on Friday Feb 22. It was held at her school compound. In early April (1st -4th) I attended a work related training at KPTM KL. While in KL, Yasmin contacted me because she wanted to know what to do because she has her Big “P” on April 3rd. Wow, another child of mine has turned into an adult.

Irshad elementary school had its sports day on Sunday 6 April. It was held at KIPSAS soccer field. Since I had a class that day, I couldn’t stay the whole time with them. I just sent them to the field, stayed around half an hour and left for Vistana. I took a few pictures before I left. On 21 April a tragedy happened to Harris. He fell at Irshad surau and lost his permanent front tooth (top left)! I am going to write a separate entry on this tragedy.

Nothing much happened in May except for Danial’s birthday on May 4th and me attended the 7th Malaysia International Conference on English Language Teaching (MICELT) in Seremban.. I can’t recall anything special happening in June either. Sometimes I forgot to write down when interesting things happened. I am quite forgetful these days. Besides ageing, I think it’s also due to drinking or eating food which have been contaminated by ants! I hate those tiny creatures. I am sure God created them for a reason but they are being such nuisance to us. They even swamp our raw rice!

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Harris Lost His Tooth

On 21 April a tragedy happened to Harris. He fell at Irshad surau and lost his permanent front tooth (top left)! I was very sad when I received the phone call from one of his teachers. I went to see him immediately and he was asleep in the teachers’ office when I arrived. I called Steve at his office and arranged to meet with him at the Kuantan Medical Center emergency room. Since it was quite late in the afternoon, it didn’t occur to me to look for his missing tooth. I was only told afterwards by the doctor that if I found the tooth, I could insert it back immediately and the chances for it to stay permanently would be very good. There’s no use of regretting it now. There must be a reason why it happened. The doctor said that he would have to go see the dentist for follow-ups many times until he’s 18 years old when he can finally have a bridge or tooth implant. Poor Harris. My heart bleeds for you…

Looking Back (January – September 2008)

As soon as we got back I asked Steve to drive me to my master’s class at Vistana Hotel. The session started the day before. I missed the first day of my class. I was so disappointed when I found out that my class on that day was cancelled. What a waste to rush.

Hannah was supposed to attend school on the 2nd of January but since we arrived in Malaysia on 6 January 2008 she missed a few days of her classes. We sent her on Monday 7 January. None of our children cried on the first day or during the first week of their first year of school. But life is full of surprises. Hannah not only cried but she wailed for almost three weeks! Poor Yasmin! She was always called to calm Hannah down. I guess Hannah behaved that way because of the fact that she missed the first day of the class where students got a chance to introduce themselves to each other. She must have felt threatened or scared facing her new “friends” because everyone knew each other already except her! Must be a traumatizing experience for her. Alhamdulillah she’s enjoying school now.

Another birthday celebration began. It started with Hannah’s on Jan 13, then Najla’s (March 9), followed by Steve’s (10 March), then Danial’s on May 4, followed by Harris’ on July 13, then Yasmin’s on August 12. Only my birthday has not been celebrated yet. Once you hit 35 years old, the rest is not important anymore. It’s mind over matter, if you don’t mind it doesn’t matter…

Sometime in February, I don’t remember the exact date now, I wish I wrote it down that my eldest son told me that he was “baligh” already. Then we prayed together with him being the imam. Wow, my son is an adult. He has grown taller than me when he was 12 years old. My kids’ school had “yaumul ihtifal” (award giving ceremony) on Feb 16. Harris went to stay overnight at his friend Haniff’s house. He was supposed to come home Sunday night but he came back after “asar” because he fought with Haniff. I guess he overextended his welcome.

Yasmin went for “qiamulail” on Friday Feb 22. It was held at her school compound. In early April (1st -4th) I attended a work related training at KPTM KL. While in KL, Yasmin contacted me because she wanted to know what to do because she has her Big “P” on April 3rd. Wow, another child of mine has turned into an adult.

Irshad elementary school had its sports day on Sunday 6 April. It was held at KIPSAS soccer field. Since I had a class that day, I couldn’t stay the whole time with them. I just sent them to the field, stayed around half an hour and left for Vistana. I took a few pictures before I left. On 21 April a tragedy happened to Harris. He fell at Irshad surau and lost his permanent front tooth (top left)! I am going to write a separate entry on this tragedy.

Nothing much happened in May except for Danial’s birthday on May 4th and me attended the 7th Malaysia International Conference on English Language Teaching (MICELT) in Seremban.. I can’t recall anything special happening in June either. Sometimes I forgot to write down when interesting things happened. I am quite forgetful these days. Besides ageing, I think it’s also due to drinking or eating food which have been contaminated by ants! I hate those tiny creatures. I am sure God created them for a reason but they are being such nuisance to us. They even swamp our raw rice!

I don’t recall what special events happened in June. But we celebrated Harris’ 10th birthday on Sunday 13 July. Then on Wednesday the 23rd of July Steve found a baby bird lying on the street by our car in front of our house in Taman Guru. He picked the bird and put it in a shoe box and brought it inside. It looked pretty weak so the kids asked us to take it to the vet so we did after Maghrib prayer. As soon as the doctor touched the bird, it made an exit out of this world. Steve and I felt bad because the kids were so sad. We took the bird home and buried it in the back yard. On the kids’ insistence, we took a picture of the dead bird before the “burial ceremony”. Hannah was hit the most by the bird’s death. She cried hard. For the next 2 days she kept going to the kitchen door, stood there and looked out at the tiny grave. She kept asking me if the bird entered hell or heaven. That was quit a challenge.

We went back to Ulu Bendul on Saturday 26 July. My sister “Along” took Hannah and Najla to see a fishing competition in Kampung Gedang, Terachi. They really enjoyed it.

A lot more activities took place in the month of August. Yasmin celebrated her 12th birthday on Tuesday the 12th of the month. As usual we baked a chocolate cake, had her cut it , and took some pictures. On Friday the 15th, Steve took Danial to a barber to have his hair cropped before he left for Setiawan for the Youth Cadet Training Camp. I even took a before and after photos. He was not too excited about it. But mothers always win!

The next day was a hectic day because we had to ferry the kids around. First Steve sent Yasmin to the Pusat Latihan Pertanian on Jalan Pekan to participate in a day UPSR clinic. It started at 8am and lasted around 5pm. In the late afternoon I sent Danial to his school where he took a bus to Setiawan with the rest of the group at 6pm. In the meantime Steve went to get Yasmin and a few of her friends from the clinic and brought them to Danial school so Yasmin could bid farewell to Danial too.

On Sunday our next-door neighbor’s son (Zaza) got married and both Yasmin and Danial missed Zaza’s wedding. Danial came back on Friday 22nd around 3.30am! Luckily Steve got u p and drove to the school to pick Danial up. I was sleeping like a log through out the night. Our whole family drove to the Slim River hospital to visit our friend who had cancer on Saturday 23rd. She was in a pretty bad shape when we saw her. The doctor said she could “go” at any time. It was a sad occasion but I am glad we went because she passed away on Sunday September 7.

Najla entered a cross-country run at her kindergarten and she finished in second place. Way to go Najla. I think she got some stationery as present. She was pretty proud of her self. On Saturday the 30th, we went back to Ulu Bendul again. My kids always love going back to the “kampong” to see my mom.

September 1st was the first day of Ramadhan (the fasting month). Hannah missed only one day of fasting but Harris missed 5 days. Yasmin sat for her UPSR on Tuesday 9 September. She seemed pretty relaxed. She got all A’s during her trial exam and I hope she gets the same for the real one. The UPSR exam lasted for 3 days. Sunday the 14th was a historical day for Hannah because she rode a bicycle unaided for the first time, just before Zuhur prayer. Our whole family went to our kids school for the break-fasting event on Tuesday 16 September. The school chose that evening because the next day was a public holiday. As usual, after any school events, most parents would not stay to help out the teachers to clean up the school area. Since the next day was a holiday, the teachers wouldn’t feel so bad staying late to clean up. They are truly the most dedicated bunch of educators regardless of the low salary they earn.

Danial entered “Musabaqah” competition at his school on Saturday Setember 20th and he got a consolation prize. Last year he got second place! He needs to practice more.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Looking Back (2006)

I will try to remember certain main family events which have taken place in the past 2 years.
In January 2006 we bought a new Innova. The kids were so excited when we went to the Toyota service center in Semambu to pick up the car. I am sure they feel relieve not having to be smashed together like sardines in our old Proton Wira whenever we go for long trips. Then in March my husband (Steve a.k.a. Mustafa) finally got his permanent resident status, thank to Pak Lah. It was such a challenge trying to get the PR. We filed in the application in 1993, a few months after we got married and we receive an automatic rejection from the immigration department. Then we had to appeal, 4 times before it was approved. For those ladies who are thinking of marrying a foreign man, be prepared for this mental and emotional torture. Alhamdulillah, the torture finally ends!

My son Danial sat for his UPSR exam in September. Alhamdulillah he got 5A’s. We didn’t pressure him to study because he’s the type who pays very close attention to what the teachers teach in class. We didn’t send him to any tuition either because Mustafa doesn’t believe in sending kids for tuition. He said “What are schools for?” I agree with him, after all it’s only UPSR! Just the beginning… he still have many more to go such as PMR, SPM, 1st degree, master’s degree, and a PhD… I hope all my children will do well in school.

In November we sent Danial, Yasmin, and Harris to a Quran camp in Salak Tinggi Mosque for a month. I think that was the third camp that they have attended. In late December Mustafa, my mom and myself went to Mecca to perform our Hajj. Danial, Yasmin and Harris took a day off from the Quran camp to send me to the airport. Then they continue the camp until Chrismas day. After that they stayed with my eldest sister (Along) in Ulu Bendul, NS for a week before my friend Husni took them back to Kuantan because they have to attend school. While we were in Mecca, Hannah and Najla stayed with along until we got back. Hannah celebrated her 6th birthday while we were gone with Along and her family. Mustafa and I called her on that day and she was so excited talking to us.

Looking Back (2007)

We arrived from Hajj journey on 26 January 2007. The next day, we had to rush back to Kuantan because I had to attend my master’s class. We celebrated Najla’s 3rd birthday and Mustafa’s birthday on 9 and 10 March respectively. As usual we baked a chocolate cake for any of the kids’ birthdays. We don’t do much to celebrate ours. Lately, I have been bad remembering Mustafa’s or even my own birthdays! It must be my age…
Danial celebrated his 13th birthday on 4 May. I forgot what we bought him for that day. I will write it when I remember. On 13 July we celebrated Harris’ 9th birthday. Then on 12 August Yasmin celebrated her 11th birthday. One of these days I will post their birthday photos in my blog. As usual, on 14 August, 2 days after Yasmin’s birthday, we celebrated our wedding anniversary. I don’t remember what we did, pretty bad huh? It was our 15th anniversary. My birthday was celebrated on 2 December.
We left for Singapore on Friday 14 December, on the way to the US to visit Mustafa’s family. We celebrated both Eid Adha and Christmas in the US. We had a great visit and as usual it was sad to say goodbyes after being with them for nearly a month.

Monday, September 15, 2008

The Beginning

I have always admired those who write or those who keep diaries. My husband used to write about the development of our kids until the fifth one (Najla) was born, he stopped! He said he would love to continue but unfortunately time (or lack of it) is the main reason for not doing it anymore. It is so sad that we do not have much of written memories about Najla. Since I am not good at writing I kept postponing my intention to pick up where he stopped. Finally, today is the most significant day that I managed to gather my courage to do so.

My friends told me in order to be good at writing I must write at least 2 pages a day! Haa… let’s see… I thought of writing in the baby journal which my husband used before, but I think I will try to use my abandoned blog which I created when I took Young Adult Literature class last year. At least it will be put to good use. I can’t wait to share it with my family.