Excited and Motivated

As usual after my afternoon class (which ends around 4.45 or 4.50) I would hang around the class room. This is the best time for me to keep updated on what my friends are saying in their FB and also to check and clean my emails. In addition to that I would read one of my favorite blogs, which belongs to Prof Kamil. How exciting! Today I had an opportunity to read an entry that was written by his niece. It was so interesting that I felt motivated and excited to update my own blog. Thanks Aniz for giving me the motivation I really need. I like her style of writing which is very natural and relax. She made it looks so effortless!

Happy birthday

Today is Hannah's birthday. As usual we bake a chocolate cake as that is the kind that all my children love to eat. It has been a family tradition to bake a chocolate cake the day (or night) prior to the day of celebration. It is safe to say that Steve and I have become experts in baking it so if one cannot do it, the other will automatically takes over the responsibility. Since I was busy cooking porridge and chicken soup (along with hot and spicy soy sauce, yum, yum) he baked the cake. It is exciting because Hannah's birthday is going to be the first to be celebrated in our new home. I wonder if Steve has bought a present for her yet. I feel bad because I said something unpleasant to Hannah this morning because she has a habit of not using a prayer rug when she prays. I hope that incident does not spoil her day. I feel even worse after I read Prof Kamil's and Zaid's blog entries about raising children this morning. I know all the theory about raising children but when it comes to practice ... I guess that is part and parcel of being a parent. Happy birthday Hannah :)

School Time

It was that time of the year again. Luckily my class started at 8.30 am so I had ample time to send the kids to school after such a long holidays. This year it's very special because Najla is entering the first year of primary school. She was so excited and her excitement is still shown until this morning. I really hope that it will last until she finishes her PhD. When I sent her to the classroom, there were two girls who were already seated at the cluster of 4 tables that I chose for her. They are Auni and Alia. Soon after another one named Ainun joined in. We had a nice ice-breaking session with the girls. Najla seems to get along with them well.

Happy New Year

Subhanallah, wow! It has been more than 2 months since I last wrote an entry. Time flies so fast and before you know it's already a week in the new year. Alhamdulillah, thank God, now we have finally moved into our new home, on 18 Dec. 2010 to be exact. We managed to move all the big stuff but we still have tons of the small stuff to be sorted out. Since both Steve and I are so busy with our new semester, there is just no way that we can find time to clear the old house right away. So we asked the old landlord to allow us to rent the house for another month or so. I am so looking forward to the Chinese New Year 4-day weekend break in early February to select only the needed stuff to be transfered to our new home. Most of the stuff are books, papers, and old clothes. Both Steve and I have the tendency to keep everything, "in case" if we ever need them in the future :) I miss my old neighbors. Fortunately all my new neighbors are just as wonderful. We had an opportunity to get to know each other last weekend when we had a small gathering. I am very sorry for not being able to invite all my friends and old neighbors but maybe we will do something someday...