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.

Conversation with Najla

Yesterday while washing dishes Najla came to me with her new umbrella and the conversation goes like this:

Najla: Mak, look at my new umbrella. It's only 8 Ringgits. Abah bought it at the co-op.
Me: Really? What happens to your red umbrella?
Najla: I don't know. Hannah had it before. Besides it was torn.
Me: What? It's a new umbrella and it's already torn?
Najla: Yeah. I don't know how to take good care of it. I am not like you. You have many children.
Me: What is the relationship between having many children and umbrella?
Najla: Well, you can take good care of your children, and taking care of children is more difficult than taking care of an umbrella.
Me: ??? (Smart kid ;))

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:

Hijrah Iman Talk

Alhamdulillah, the talk went smoothly on Friday night. Many students showed up to listen to the young Ustaz sharing his bitter sweet moment of finding Islam. He was raised to be a priest and his ambition was to convert all the Muslims in this country into his previous faith. But as God said in the Quran, humans plan but God is the best planner of all. I really would like to thank my students for spending so much time making posters and planning the event, especially Pudin, Epi, Fathi, Sarah, and Bela. Please forgive me if I missed some names. We managed to collect around RM1,400 and all of the Ustaz's books, Hijrah Iman - Satu Anugerah Agung dari Tuhan, were sold out. I hope that he will get enough funds to further his studies locally or overseas.