Special Day

There is one special date which occurs every year since 2001 and today is one of them, 111111. I heard many couples plan to tie the knot today and some pregnant ladies have even made appointments to have Caesarian section! What a crazy world we live in. As a practicing Muslim I do not believe in any day or date to be special because each moment is special for as long as God allows me to breathe the air and live a healthy life. This morning was special because we had to get up at 4.30 to send Harris to his school. He needed to be there by 5.00 am in order to join a leadership camp trip to Kelantan. I guess by now he has already arrived at wherever that camp is supposed to be held. The schedule for the camp is quite packed and I really hope that he will learn something that will benefit him for a long time to come.Yesterday was special because I took Najla, Hannah, Yasmin, and Balqis to IIUM swimming pool. Yasmin learned how to swim when she was 4 years old and she could still float and perform some breast strokes. She told me that she has forgotten other styles. Hannah was excited because she managed to float after being taught by a few ladies who were there in the pool. Najla had a hard time learning but if we go often enough she might be able to do it soon. She has been bugging me to send her to a swimming class. I talked to the life guard and was told that her class will only start in March next year. I think Najla swallowed a lot of water from the pool because she had stomach upset at 2am. She woke up crying and said she needed to vomit. After several attempts, nothing happened. Luckily she felt better half an hour later. There are 2 things that she really would like to learn: swimming and riding a bicycle. Well she shouldn't feel so bad because I learned how to ride a bike at the age of 24 and only knew how to swim in my 40s :)

Danial came home for Eid Adha celebration last Friday (Nov. 4) and stayed until Wednesday. As usual we celebrated our Eid in my mom's village. It was a nice family-get-together time. All the other kids were at school on Wednesday and Steve was at work. Since I was on leave, I managed to bake 2 batches of my wonderful chocolate chip cookies. I was so engrossed baking that Danial almost missed his bus! Alhamdulillah we got to the bus station just in time.

Wedding of the Century

Some people get married at such young age and others opt not to marry at all. But my dearest friend who happens to be my loyal housemate when I was a student at IU found her soul mate a bit later compared to many of my friends. But boy isn't she the luckiest of all because not only she got a husband but she got 8 instant children! Wow! On top of that her husband is going to open a spa for her to manage! Husband, children, business, 3-in-1, not a bad deal at all. So it was worth the waiting. I was shocked and very happy when she called and told me the news a few months before the wedding. Of course I would not have missed the ceremony for the world. My whole family (except for Danial) went to KB to attend the wedding. We stayed at a very nice and cozy inn called Barokah Inn. I got the place through a friend's recommendation. I think for RM 70 a night, the room was really worth it. After all, we only need it to sleep for a few hours. They provided 1 queen-sized and 1 single-sized beds. The worker told me that they have 9 rooms in total. It it located on Jalan Kebun Sultan and the telephone number is 013-988 7929 (in case if the inquiring minds want to know).

Birthdays

The kids with Yasmin's BD cake (I forgot to take it out of the pan)

Yasmin just celebrated her birthday last week. She is the first kid to celebrate her birthday during the fasting month. So we didn't perform our ritual which is going out to eat at KFC or Pizza Hut but instead we ordered 3 pizzas (1 large peperoni, 1 large Hawaiian chicken, and 1 regular veggie lover)for breakfasting. Sorry Danial, you missed that one. Yasmin wanted to have a cellphone as a present. Steve almost gave in but hey I have the veto power. So she got a few novels instead. Not a bad deal considering the extra costs - money wise as well as health wise - that will be incurred by cellphones. I got my first cellphone when I was 40 years old, as a birthday present from Steve. So I think Yasmin still has many more years to wait (maybe not until she's 40) to get that little gadget.Well, we can not have what we want all the time.

Harris was cutting his BD cake

They got to eat out at their favorite restaurant

Last month was Harris' birthday. I didn't get the opportunity to be there with the kids because I was busy playing tennis at the inter-varsity tournament in Malacca. We only managed to enter the quarterfinal round but we had a great time. We got RM200, two weeks unrecorded leave, and most importantly we had a chance to meet with friends from other universities around the country. Anyway, this entry is not about the tournament but it's about Harris' birthday. Sorry, I digress. Where was I? Oh yeah, I was not home when the celebration was taken place. However, I left my camera with Steve so that he could take some photos for me to see when I got back. Of all the places that he could have taken the pictures, he took them in the middle of the mess! That's why I had to crop the first 2 pictures (if you guys noticed :)). I guess that shows how creative men are ;) Like I said earlier, I was not home ( for almost a week) therefore my house was in a shambles. At night they went to have their regular birthday dinner at one of the Pizza huts in town.

Yaumul Ihtifal

This year, Yaumul Ihtifal (awards day) for both al Irsyad Secondary school and al Hidayah Secondary school were held at locations other than their own campuses. Irsyad had theirs at KIPSAS hall while Hidayah had theirs at UTM. We attended both ceremonies. Yasmin got a few awards which include being the 1st in the class, public speaking contest winner, and choral speaking group winner. Harris got a consolation prize for public speaking.

The winner of the coral speaking group contest performed during the ceremony

These are the presents Yasmin and Harris brought home :)

Yaumul Ihtifal for al Hidayah was held at UTM on Sunday, 10 April 2011 and we stayed at the Scholars Inn on UTM campus. It was a two-room apartment, with a kitchen, air-conditioning, and even an astro on a flat-screen TV! The kids loved it especially Danial because he wanted to watch Mann U played that night. I could have enjoyed myself more but unfortunately I had to finish marking all the final exam papers for my students. Danial got 2 awards, one for good academic standing and the other for getting a second place in inter-school debate.

After the ceremony ended we went to his friend's house. He lives near UTM because his father is a lecturer in the Architecture department at the University. It was a good visit. It was on the way to his friend's house that I found out Danial performed in Dikir Barat! I was really disappointed for not realizing it because when the group came out, I was in the toilet with Najla and Hannah. Danial's friend's parents gave us a wonderful lunch. We left their house around 3 pm and reached home at 10 pm.

Danial and his good friend Huzaifah

Yasmin's Back

Tuesday night Yasmin arrived, from her trip with Uncle Husni and family to KL, at about 1.30am. Before arriving Husni called and Steve got up and waited for them in the living room. I must have slept like a log because I didn't hear the sound of the phone or the bell ringing. All I know Yasmin was in the toilet taking a bath yesterday morning. So now our family is back to normal, with 4 kids at home and us. Harris was really hopeful to go to KL on Saturday with them but unfortunately Husni's car was really full. There were 3 big bags for Khadijah to take back to Egypt, Omar's bags to take to his school in Johor, Husni's family's bags with enough clothes for 4 days, and a box full of goodies from us to be sent to Danial in Johor. As soon as Husni's car left, Harris went to his room and shut the door. Usually that's what he does when he's upset about something. Luckily we had a wedding to go to that afternoon so Harris was happier. Najla and Hannah were fine because they would not dream of parting from us (yet). Harris said "Yasmin always gets to go. When she's in a boarding school, I will go places with uncle Husni". Poor Harris:(

Birthday Time

Today is Steve's birthday. As usual we don't celebrate or give each other present anymore because for us everyday is a celebration, hahaha. But it is different with our kids' birthdays, we must celebrate or else... Since yesterday was Najla's birthday, Steve baked our family tradition's moist chocolate cake. At night we went to eat at ECM Pizza Hut. I guess the kids were really starving because they ordered 2 large pepperoni pizzas, 3 orders of bread-sticks, 3 cups of mushroom soup, iced lemon tea, orange juice, and pepsi. I ordered a regular crispy-crust veggie-lover's for me. Before we entered the restaurant, we bumped into parents of one of Steve's students. Just for the sake of conversation, we mentioned that it was a celebration for Najla's birthday. Little that we know, about half an hour later they gave a box of present to Najla. Wow! That's what we call rezki. My mom who is with us for this whole week, also bought a present for Najla. As soon as everyone "inhaled" the food, we left the mall so that we could get our beauty sleep before enjoying another day of life. These are some of the pictures I took yesterday:

Fruit Season Again

Salam, hello, hi,

Here I am sitting in my quiet office enjoying a bunch of "rambutan" and some "dokong" fruits. We took a lot from my mom's village yesterday. Normally my family and I would go back to see my mom once a month but since the fruit season started we have been going for almost every week! I feel kind of bad because it seems that eating her fruits is more important than seeing her. But then again, she would insist that we do just that. I think this past weekend would be the last time we go back until sometime before "Eid" which will be around the 11th of September. Anyway, the "durians" are almost gone but "rambutans" are a lot more on the trees. I think the "dokong" will be gone soon too. I forgot to check whether the "mata kucing" were still intact. I am not surprise if the bats have clobbered them all. Wild boars have been having some feasts over durians as well.

Lately, I have been neglecting my blogs as well as my emails and FB. I have a lot to do for my classes. I prefer teaching EOP to EAP because I can actually relate my past experiences as an administrator to my EOP class. But it's a good learning experience for me.

My kids are growing fast and soon Harris will be as tall or taller than me. He hasn't been back home every time we went because he was busy with school activities. He will be sitting for his UPSR soon. I hope he'll do just as well as Danial and Yasmin. I wonder if the Government is really going to abolish UPSR some day. Well, it doesn't make that much difference to me because none of my kids will go to boarding schools at the age of 13! They are still too young to be separated from us. Once they leave the house they will be gone! I want to keep them for as long as I can. Also, with or without UPSR, Malaysians will still be crazy about exams, grades, and tuition classes!

Danial has entered 2 debate tournaments and a spelling bee contest since the last time I wrote an entry to this blog. Yasmin has entered a corral speaking and public speaking contest in Terengganu. I am quite envious of my children because they are so active in school. Hannah has not participated in major events yet but maybe she's a late bloomer. She loves to draw and she is still going to the piano lesson regularly. I am curious how Najla will turn up once she goes to elementary school. Speaking of school, she is no longer in kinder garden but she re-joined her nursery where she doesn't have to learn anything in a formal way. She said she was bored with the kinder garden because she knew most of the activities they asked the kids to do. We are not too worried because she can read and write in both English and Malay. Lately, she said she will go back to the kinder garden after "Eid" so that she will be qualified to walk on the stage to get her kinder garden certificate at the end of the year.

We are all excited about our new house. We just saw it this morning. I think it's 80 percent ready. I was told that it could be finished by October. We really hope to be able to move in by November or December. That will be the perfect time because the kids will have their school holidays. Hopefully they will help packing and unpacking the stuff. Argh ... I hate thinking about moving, again! The aches and pains from our recent moving are still very much alive in our muscles and veins. But we hope, this time around it will be different because we are finally moving into our own home!

SMSNS Reunion

Last Saturday night was a really special night because it was a reunion for my classmates when I was at Sekolah Menengah Sains Negeri Sembilan. I was so excited to go ever since I was informed of the gathering. My plan was to leave early in the morning so I could spend a lot of time visiting with my friends. Unfortunately, my kids' school had an award giving ceremony on the same day from 8.30am to 1.00pm at Vistana Hotel. Well, it was not a 100% unfortunate because Danial received 6 or 7 awards and Yasmin received 3 or 4 awards. Anyway, after the ceremony ended, we rushed home to perform our Zuhur prayer and left Kuantan around 3.00pm.

As usual, when we traveled with the kids, we had to make a few stops for different reasons. By the time we arrived in Seremban it was already dark. Since we were so unfamiliar with the housing area where the reunion was held, we had to stop and ask for directions 3 times! Finally we made it around 8.00pm. A few of my friends and the teachers had already left. Many more were still there. I think that was the most high school friends I had seen in one gathering. I was surprised at the amount of food being served. Kudos to my friends Siti and Ajim who have done a great job planning and preparing for it. It was really exciting and I hope we will continue doing it from time to time, at least twice a year.

I am quite disappointed because my camera quit functioning just a few days before the gathering. I couldn't take any pictures but I am hoping that my friends will email me some soon.

Busy Weekend

I thought weekend is supposed to be the time when we can rest and catch up with unfinished business. However, things don't work that way when you have 5 growing children. Poor Steve looked more tired in 2 days than he did in the entire week last week! We did a lot of unpacking, rearranging, and throwing things.

On Saturday morning I went alone to piano lesson because Hannah participated in coloring contest at KPTM. Besides, she left her piano books at Da Vinci Art Center last week, so she couldn't finish her theory assignment. Najla was supposed to have art class that morning but she refused to go. She insisted in participating in the coloring contest also. Luckily the art teacher allowed her to do the make-up class at 3 in the afternoon. Both of them won and received a hamper each.On Sunday I took Najla to the telematch at KPTM. She participated in 2 games: filling an empty bottle with water and carrying a ping-pong ball in a spoon. Her groups won and they received 2 hampers. Harris came with us but Hannah and Yasmin went to their art class with Steve. The telematch was over around 11.30 but I had to wait until 1pm to get my present for winning the ping-pong match which was held a few weeks back. I got a medal and a small hamper also. By the time we got back I was tired and sleepy. I always feel that way when I stay out in the sun. That's why I prefer exercising early in the morning.In late afternoon all of us except Yasmin and Danial stopped by the contractors' houses to give our house plan. We are looking for a few quotations before we can decide which contractor to hire. Unfortunately both contractors weren't at home. Missions not accomplished. That means we have to see them this week.

Back to School

Danial has gone back to his school in Johore. Yasmin, Harris, and Hannah are in school and Najla is in kinder garden. We sent Danial to the bus station last Sunday after having him home for the whole week during school holidays. I took off from work that whole week also to do some packing. We managed to pack many boxes of books and some have been sent to the other house. We are still moving little stuff which can be transported in our car at nights. The big ones will be moved this Saturday. I have sorted out lots of toys and children clothes and I managed to get rid tonnes of them. Some were given to the nearby nurseries, and others were sent to an orphanage. My house is in such a shamble and I hope no one will stop by unannounced.

Yasmin spent the first half of the school holidays with her friend and our friend Husni in KL. She had a great time iceskating, an activity which I have never ventured in my life. Although busy, we managed to sqeeze in 2 movies, Alice in Wonderland(AiW) and Percy Jackson & the lightning thief (PJLT) on Saturday 13 March and Wednesday 17 March. Yasmin watched AiW with us but she missed the second movie because she was already in KL by then.

Poor Harris reluctantly attended a 2 day UPSR clinic which was organized by NST and held at Shah Putra on Saturday March 20 and Sunday March 21. He said it was boring and he was a little upset when he got home that Saturday. But then again everything is boring to him except for playing with computer games! I asked him to attend the session on Sunday but we would get him at lunch time. Surprisingly he agreed. I guess children are different. Danial and Yasmin didn't have any problem at all attending seminars or motivational camps like that. We just have to wait and see how Hannah and Najla will react when their times come.

That Saturday morning, while Yasmin, Hannah, and Najla attended their art class, and Harris was at the clinic, Danial and I went shopping for a ricecooker and a vacuum cleaner. My old ricecooker always gave me trouble lately so I decided to get a new one so I could make "nasi minyak" on Sunday, on Danial's special request. When I mentioned our shopping trip to Yasmin she said, "So you had a mother and son bonding time huh?".

We are so involved with this moving bit that we have been neglecting our agenda to build our new home. I have made copies of the newly approved plan but haven't found time to contact the potential contractors. I think I will settle one thing at a time. Come April, I will have more time to deal with it.

Mini Reunion @ TC

Thursday 12 March was our friend As' birthday so she asked me if we could get together with a few friends somewhere in town. We named a few possible places but in the end we both agreed on going to Telok Chempedak beach on Friday after work. She contacted Musab and Yani while I contacted Niki, Madhi, Amba, Lynnette, Tipah, Azie, Gie, Syamala, Ahmad, Joyce, Intan, and Gamini. They were all sounded excited to join but in the end only 5 of us actually showed up. Syamala had to give tuition, Joyce was too busy, Amba was tired, Intan was planning on going back to her "kampung" and Gie is no longer in Kuantan! Ahmad and Tipah said they were coming but only God knows what happened. I guess Niki was caught in the jam on the road as well as at home with her kids. Somehow, Azie, Lynette, and Gamini never replied until today. I wonder what went wrong. Oh well, maybe next time. We had a grand time anyway except that As had to leave early because her son had a terrible pain in his ear. Here are some shots at the beach.

CNY Holidays

I wonder how it feels to have a permanent 4-day weekend. We sure had a grand fun this past Chinese New Year 4-day weekend. My family and I went back to our kampung in NS and my mom was so excited when she introduced to me her "foster grand children" from USM. Apparently someone in my village had arranged an outreach program for about 60 USM students to stay with foster families. My mom "adopted" 2 girls (one is a pharmacy major and the other is a physics major) and my sister took in 2 boys - a biology major and ... (I forgot what's the other boy's major). They had such packed activities that I hardly saw them except at breakfast and dinner times. They climbed all the way to the top of Mount Angsi. I must admit that I have never climbed that mountain because I am not much of a jungle person. I hate creepy-crawlies so tennis courts and pingpong tables are my territories.
At the same time my cousin from Singapore also came and spent the entire 4-day weekend with us. It was so good to have him with us because we haven't seen each other for years. That was his maiden solo travel to our kampung. I think he really enjoyed himself being away from the hussle and bustle of the big Lion city. My husband took him to a miniature version of Angsi climb. They went to our small rubber estate which is very closely located to the Angsi mountain. After checking on our rubber trees, Steve decided to take my cousin hiking along the path which has been cleared by the National Electricity Board personnel. They had such a wonderful conversation that they lost tract of the way back to our estate. Luckily they didn't get "lost" for very long.
On Tuesday morning we had to drive all the way to JB to drop my cousin at the bus station to return to his hometown. Then we went up to Senai to send my eldest son back to his school. After everything was settled at his hostel, the rest of us continued our journey to Kuantan. The moment we arrived which was a little after midnight, I realized that we had been on the road for more than 12 hours. Time really flies when we have fun.

9th Birthday

We celebrated Hannah's 9th birthday early last month. We had our normal rituals which involved cutting a homemade chocolate cake followed by a pizza dinner at one of the "fatty outlets" in town. In the past we frequented the one in Ktn Parade but this year we went to ECM. I think that was the first time or maybe the 2nd time I went to that mall. It looks nice from the outside but it's not as user friendly as I would like it to be. Other people seem to be enjoying that place. I guess it's just me because I am not a shopping freak. This year I decided to bake 2 different shapes of cake: one was a regular round one and the other was a heart shaped. The kids liked the heart shape and Najla has already requested to have one for her birthday which is coming up next month.