Finally

Alhamdulillah. Finally. Last March (31 st to be exact), we managed to move everything out of the old rented place into our new nest. I really hope that we do not have to go through such process anymore. The very first move we did as a married couple was when we moved from KL to Kuantan in 1994. At that time it was not so bad because we had not accumulated so much junk! Then we moved again in 1996 because the former landlord wanted to move into that house. We stayed at the newer place for about 13 years! Three of our kids were born in that house. Late in 2009 we were asked to move out by the second landlord because his son was supposed to occupy the house while doing his industrial training in Kuantan. Later, we found out that his son didn't want to stay there! Well, he owns the place. In April 2009 we moved again just a few houses down the street. At that time we decided to build our own house on a small piece of land which we bought in 2001. I guess that was the big plan from the Big Guy up above. If not because of that we would still be renting. We stayed in the temporary house for exactly 8 months and 17 days but we continued renting it for another 3 months after we moved to give us time to sort the things that we really wanted.

This was how the living room looked like when we left.

These were the junks that we recycled

This was how much we received from the recycled stuff (RM 32) :)

These were the little junks that we left in the house (with the permission of the landlord of course)

Baby chair

I am not sure about you guys but I am very sentimental when it comes to my kids' belongings especially when so many wonderful memories attached to them. For instance this baby chair shown in the picture below was bought for my first born. I don't remember where my husband and I bought it, maybe at Parkson in Kuantan. It is such a good chair (2 in 1) which can be used as a high-chair for eating or as a study table when you take the chair apart from the table. Some people might have thrown it away but we took it to our new house. Hopefully someday we'll send it to a furniture store to have it fixed.

Writers Block

Salam, hello, hi, aloha, etc.
Writer's block? What is that? It's a big word for an excuse:) Well I hate it when I feel like writing so much but I just could not put anything on paper, or in this case, in my blog. I just realized that I only wrote once in the month of February! Suddenly on Monday, I saw an article in the classified section of the NST newspaper about overcoming writer's block. I said, whoa, the writer must be talking about me. According to the writer, writer's block is caused by a variety of reasons such as "social, academic, and personal factors which increase our stress level and interrupt the free flow of ideas". Yeah, tell me about it. But the good news is, it can be overcome by following a few steps: brainstorm and organize, uninhibited writing, and grouping. If you want to know the details, you just have to read the article.

Social? I can think of one social reason for me. I am very busy coordinating a talk which will be conducted by a young convert at my neighborhood mosque, at my kids' school, and at my work place. The idea of inviting this young speaker came at around the time that I stopped writing! Wow, I don't even realize that the coordinating job is very stressful. No wonder I cannot write.

Academic? Definitely. At the moment I am swarmed with mid-terms to be graded. Well, it's not like reading the Twilight Saga, ok? Some of the stuff the students wrote can give someone a heart attack. I am teaching 5 sections of writing classes! Yes, isn't that ironic! I guess it's a lot easier telling students to write than doing it my self. So I must be gentle on them;)

Personal factors? Wow, this is the main bulk of the problem. I know just the biggest personal interference of my writer's block problem! It's definitely something to do with my moving into a new house. Boy, moving is no joke. My family and I have officially moved into our new house last December but the process of cleaning, repacking, etc has not finished yet. In fact there are still boxes and plastic bags in the old place that need to be scrutinized before we transport them to the new place. We are given until the end of the month to do that. By hook or by crook, everything must be hauled by the 31st of March. No wonder I am so stressed out. The pictures below are the proofs of the mess that we still have at the old place.