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.