Giving in

It made me wonder why we have to give in to other people or digest whatever we actually dislike for the fear of being retaliated against.

It happened to me several times. The latest one was when Ayah, Hasya and I were watching Quantum of Solace at Cineleisure recently. Since it was a last minute decision, we just managed to get the front row seats for the 9pm show. Behind us were a group of young foreigners.

The movie was great, but we didn’t get to enjoy it. Why?

The youngsters made so much comments that I felt like gagging them with my shawl! They acted as if they were watching TV at home and made comments for every scene! And they didn’t even care to whisper. Isshhh!

They also pushed our seats with their feet. Ayah turned and warned one of the boys. When my seat was pushed, I did turn and asked the boy not to do it again. It stopped, but the racket continued. I told Ayah to just let go. We stayed till the end but the movie was already too stale to watch.

I didn’t want to find fault with the youngsters because I believed anything could happen. What if we pissed them off? The things that they might have done... I don’t want to go into that....

The other example is about the security people in my housing area. We paid RM30 to have them to patrol at night. They did their rounds... but these past few months we realized that the rounds became lesser. Ayah wanted to stop their service, but I disagreed. What if they wanted to teach us a lesson and did something to prove that we still need their services? It gave me the creeps just to think about it...

Take that RM30. The non-uniformed security people might say that’s the monthly payment for their services. But to me – that’s my Protection Money.

Maybe I was influenced by what I read in the newspapers. Maybe I worry too much. But I guess it’s ok to feel that way. Better safe than sorry.... And protecting our loved ones comes first.

Right?

Cupcake 101

The girls have been pestering me to bake some cupcakes for them. I’ve baked them a few times before, from scratch. Somehow, I never get to master the skill. I think, if I were to enroll in a cupcake-baking class for one whole semester, I’d still fail to make them right. I'm pretty certain of that :(

The cupcakes would always turn ugly on me. No matter how much I spoon the batter into the paper lining, the end result would still be hideous... Sometimes they’d tilt to one side, other times the batter would flow down to the baking holes in the tray and made a mess of everything... urrggghhh!

So this time, I just bought the ready-made cupcake-mix. And hired 4 girls to do the decorating part. The cupcake came out horrible as usual.... *sigh*.... but the girls managed to make them look much much nicer with the decorations.

Here are the 3, 6, 9 and 11 year old girls’ handiworks:


They had so much fun with the piping, choosing the tips, preparing the colors and planning the design. I just let them go wild with their imaginations.

There was only one drawback though - a messy kitchen afterwards! But it was sure worth it, since the most important thing has been accomplished - the happy girls enjoyed themselves, and I'm very sure that they loved every minute of it!

And ooh... they also get to pass my Cupcake 101 class with flying colors... :)

Happy 9th Birthday Hasya!

My dearest Hasya,
Happy 9th Birthday sayang... Ibu & Ayah berdoa semoga Hasya dipayungi kecemerlangan di dunia dan akhirat. We love you very much and always pray for you to be a solehah daughter and a good Muslim. May you get the best in everything, sayang...

Happy Bithday.. Happy Birthday.. Happy Birthday.. Muaaaaahhh!

Every Year On Your Birthday

Every year, on your birthday,
I think about how glad I am
that you were born,
how thankful I am
to have you in my life...

Every year is another year
filled with the special joys you bring
just by being yourself...

Every year, when you open your birthday gifts,
realize what a gift you are
to everyone who knows you,
especially me...

Happy Birthday!

By Joanna Fuchs- http://www.poemsource.com

School's Over - Party time!

I hope this time this entry can be posted. It’s been five loooong days of ‘fighting’ with Blogger. There was nothing wrong with my Streamyx but I just couldn’t post a new entry in my blog. It really was a pain in the... ehhhmm... neck.

Well, finally school’s over. The kids are all at home. You could hear their laughings and screamings from the NeverNeverland. I was tempted to put up a sign at the main gate that reads “Come join our party! It’s open 18-hour a day!” :P

School holidays to the girls when their parents are working would mean – art&craft sessions, food, TVs, DVDs, food, CDs, magazines, food, fightings, singings, food, games.... And that wasn’t typo when I mentioned ‘food’ several times - I guess somebody will crack the scale by the end of December..hehehe...

There were three events to go to last Saturday. One was the Sekolah Agama Penyampaian Hadiah for the top 3 students for each class. My Hasya was one of them but she wasn’t able to be there on that day. Her piano recital was also scheduled the same morning, and the taekwondo test in the afternoon. That was the 2nd time she didn’t get to go up the stage to receive her prize. The first time was her Ibu’s mistake – they reached the school 2 hours late!

The concert/piano recital went well. Hanna, Hasya and Haifa did pretty good. The taekwondo test went well too. Now that everything’s over, except for their squash classes, the girls are enjoying themselves like there was no tomorrow. I think if I were to stay home with them, I’d have to adjust my patience-o-meter to the maximum possible.

I could hear them laughing silly over SpongeBob on TV now. And it’s already 12:05 am! Bad mother! I guess I better go now and persuade them to sleep lah.

Or maybe I should stay up with them and watch the moody Squidward bullying Patrick?

My MIL and Dialysis

We balik kampong on Saturday. It was a balik-hari trip with only Hasya and Haifa as the occupants of the back seat. Hasya didn’t mind missing the pirate-themed birthday party that she was supposed to go to that day. Deep inside me, I was happy that she wanted to tag along tho’ I knew that she was really looking forward to that party.

Anyway, the reason for the balik kampong was because my MIL has just been diagnosed to be suffering from kidney failures. The final test by the urologist will be done today and the results will determine the frequency of the dialysis she’ll have to go thru. But the probability of her going thru a 3-day-a-week session is very high. Looking at her, I just couldn’t imagine how she’s going to get her treatment done for three-times-a week which usually will last around 3 to 4 hours per session.

Since I was clueless on what kidneys and dialysis was all about, I did some readings. Apparently, the liver and the kidneys are sophisticated machines doing the cleansing of the blood in our body. The liver actually does the cleaning out of the impurities and the kidneys get rid of excess water and other waste products. Every day our kidneys process about 200 quarts of blood to sift out about 2 quarts of waste products and excess water! How about that?!

When the kidneys fail to work, dialysis will be needed. I just don't know how my MIL’s going to sit for hours waiting for the machine to pump the blood out from her body, thru a filter that removes the waste products and returns the clean blood back to her body.

Whatever the results are today, I just hope that everything will be smooth sailing for her..... May the absence of painfulness and sadness be bestowed upon her...

Happy 14th Birthday Husna!

My dearest Sweet Husna - My first daughter. My special child,
Happy 14th Birthday sayang! May all our wishes for you come true!


My special one,
You and Abang Haziq have shown tremendous improvement these past few months. I don’t want to know why... or how... coz every little thing that both of you did - though it might be insignificant to others – was a milestone to be celebrated...

And today’s your birthday. Although you never asked for anything - Ayah, Ibu and your sisters love you and will always do’a for you. May all our do’as become Mustajab do’as!

Happy 14th Birthday Husna!!! Let’s cut the cake tonight!

Taming the Final Exams Tension.. Kids!

I saw my three girls waiting for me when I reached home today. My Hanis (3yo), Haifa (6yo) and Hasya (9yo) looked excited. Ini mesti apa-apa ni, I thought.

Before I could pull the key out, my Hanna (11yo) opened the back door and jumped in. I turned to see her lying on the seat and saw that her face expression was somewhat sad.

I couldn’t ask her what was wrong, since Hasya was shoving some papers towards me. There were 2 cards and some Sekolah Agama exam papers.

Hasya : Ibu.. Ibu... Hasya ada 2 invitations untuk birthday party Ibu... satu on Saturday, satu on Sunday. Please Ibu, can I go?

Haifa : Best nya Hasya dapat pergi parties Ibu... Haifa pun best Ibu, dapat pergi chocolate factory esok!

A-ah la Hasya, you got taekwondo classlah. The exam’s next week, so you gotta go on both Saturday and Sunday. Bulan puasa hari tu kan dah sebulan rehat...

Hasya: Please Ibu... Please...

We’ll see.. Ok, Hasya?

By now Hanna was already out of the car. I could sense her tension. Hasya’s finals (Sekolah Kebangsaan and Sekolah Agama) were over today. Haifa’s Tadika assessment was also over. Tomorrow, Haifa will be going for a Tadika trip to a chocolate factory. She just couldn’t wait for tomorrow to come... Willy Wonka wannabe... Chocolate factory kan... And Hanna? She still has Sekolah Kebangsaan and Sekolah Agama finals to study for.

Itu yang Hanna tension tu. Hasya and Haifa were going to have ‘fun’. Haziq and Husna already went for their school trip before Deepavali that day. It seemed to her everybody else were ‘enjoying’ and she alone got to sit at her study table for 3 more days.

It was 6:45pm at the dinner table when she blurted her feelings out loud. Why Hasya could go to parties, why Haifa could go the chocolate factory – of all places! Why she gotta go for taekwondo classes for two days in a row when Hasya could skip one. Bla..bla..bla… and Hasya was arguing why she could go and stuff. Adoi... sakit kepala ku...

Just now, in Hasya’s room, I talked to Hanna.

Hanna... you saw HSM3 before the exam. You told me that your friends haven’t seen it yet, but you have. We did like 20 cupcakes last weekend and you did the toppings on most of them. I didn’t pressure you to study pun. But now when the exam’s here, you just have to do it. Don’t compare yourself with Hasya and Haifa coz they’re much younger than you. You’d been 6yo and 9yo before, so you must know how it was like then. When the exam’s over, you got like 2 months to do whatever you want. Nak buat paintings ke, buat sand castle kat beach ke, tengok wayang ke, main internet games ke....

Hanna nak buat jigsaw puzzle lah Ibu...

(Aikk.. of all things?) Oh... Ok. Jigsaw puzzle it is. OK?

OK Ibu.

Hmmh... that settled it. I just hope that the tension left her for good.... But I could anticipate that she’d feel the same thing tomorrow when Haifa (knowing how Haifa is) came back with her stories on the chocolate factory...

So I'm ready with the second round of the same-old same-old tomorrow..

**Sigh**

Our 17th Wedding Anniversary!

Today marks our 17th Wedding Anniversary. Alhamdulillah.

There wasn’t anything special that we’ve done today, only the Sunday routine – sent the 3 girls for their squash practice and then to their taekwondo class.

Ayah suggested that we go out for a movie or have dinner just the both of us.... but I was a bit worried to leave the kids home alone when they will be having their finals tomorrow. I know that my requests or pleadings for them to study by themselves will fall on deaf ears especially when IBU is out of the house. Isshh....

So, although today’s a special day for the kids’ parents, it’s business as usual at home....

However, there are some things that I’d very much like to say here :

Ayah and the kids are truly the best things that ever happened to me.
Words aren’t enough to express how happy and fortunate I am to be truly blessed with six beautiful children and a terrific husband.

These past 17 years have seen Ayah and I coping with many happenings in life – Happiness, Sadness, Laughter, Crying… but no matter what happened, we emerged out stronger, firmer.... and most of all – closer.

We had a great 17 years together. Let’s hope that we’ll be blessed with more wonderful years to come :)