Thesis Update!

My thesis has been sent to my 'god-knows-who' second examiner! :)

 

How do I feel about it?

Thrilled

Nerve-wracking

Blessed

Great

Akhirnya...

 

Hopefully, no major corrections la yer. I just want to grad and convo this year :)

THINGS ABOUT MY TWIN PREGNANCY

Last week marked the 28th week of my twin pregnancy. Therefore, my check-up routine would not be set in a month's time anymore. It has been re-scheduled to two weeks' time since twin pregnancy is said to be a high-risk pregnancy so the idea of seeing your O&G regularly might help in encountering any sticky situations that might crop up later in time. 

For every single check-up done previously, my O&G (Dr. Suriati of Kuantan Medical Centre) confirmed that both of them are boys. When we told Azalea that she's gonna get a couple of kid brothers, she was so overwhelmed with joy and excitement. Every night she rubs and kisses my tum tum without fail. Not to mention the times where she would help me with the dishes and even give me a massage at the back whenever I need one. Just so you know, superstitious beliefs have null value in my life but I seriously think that one of the old wives' tales about opposite attraction can sometimes be plausible. Azalea is so undetachable from my tummy and I reckon it is due to the fact that I'm carrying two boys! Deep down inside my heart I always pray that she would still portray her random acts of kindness to me and be a good sister to her incoming baby brothers. Aameeenn.

During the first trimester, I lost a few kgs due to morning sickness. Sheesh, I couldnt believe it, morning sickness is nothing fun at all. When I was pregnant with Azalea, I barely vomited.Thrice, yes I vomited for only 3 times throughout my prior pregnancy. So, this whole thing about morning sickness was somewhat new to me. The first trimester is the period of adjusting, so, for me, I had a hard time adjusting to whatever stuff that I had to adjust myself with; hormonal and body changes in particular. I was also swarmed with negative behavior, thinking, aura etc and I felt stress out about a lot of things. None of these occurred during my first pregnancy. Thus, it is affirmative that every pregnancy is different from each other so let's embrace and treasure each pregnancy as if we have never been preggie before :)

From my last visit, I have discovered that:

1) one of them weighed at 900g and in a normal position

    whilst, the the other one weighed at 700g but in a breech position,

2) my placenta was in a low-lying position,

3) and that I might go into labour 3 weeks earlier, in week 37 or so.

4) I gained another 4 kg!

In terms of the boys' weight, nothing is peculiar. But a low-lying placenta is no good because Dr Suriati said I might be experiencing bleeding starting from week 32 and onwards (ok this troubles me much). Nevertheless, she assured me that it could move up on its own but if it still remained at the same position, a c-sect would likely be the answer. oh no!I was dumbstruck! and I know, there is no one that I can turn into except the Most Merciful and Kindness of all. O Dear Allah, please let me go through the natural birthing process again. Aameennn.

I didnt see THEM coming

Subhanallah.
Mashaallah.
Alhamdulillah.

I am pregnant for the second time.

The only difference in this very recent pregnancy is that...

I'm expecting a pair of twins.
Identical twins, to be exact.

Subhanallah.
Mashaallah.
And yet again, Alhamdulillah.

Officially bukan merempat lagi.

Dah masuk umah tapi tak dan nak upload pixies. Umah still in a mess! Mane nk ngemas nye..bz bebenor ni. Gini la gayenye dah keje. Sheesh..

Bz-bz pun sempat lagi pi scouting for a few pre-schools for my lil peaches, Azalea. Dan lagi berangan nak kasik name next daughter Amal Jasmine. Takim kate best..Tapi kalau laki? Kalau laki nanti la pikir..Ngandung pun tak lagik...Yang penting boleh tanam bunga azalea ngan melur kat umah..Kalau next rezeki is anak lelaki, takkan nak taruk nama bunga..abeh nak tanam pokok ape plak erk?

I think my house tu is too big untuk 3 people. Rasenye kena pregnant setahun sorg nak kasik meriah satu rumah tapi boleh ke jage?Hmm...That's the question theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...................

Speaking of kindy, rasenye cam dah jatuh chenta sama itu IIUM EDUCARE kat UIA Kuantan tu..Pegi usha line sat haritu..memang tangkap cinta abeh dah ni. Takim felt the same way too. So, we have decided to send Azalea to IIUM EDUCARE at UIA Kuantan. Dah kalau maknye UIA-bred mestila nak stamp uia gak kat dahi anaknye.theheheheheh. I just love being in that environment, I hope she will too.

Sekian, entry yang memang tak sampai 5 minit nak type ni..

A sister's grief is another sister's mourn.

I could empathy you my grieving sister 

 here I am mourning about it too

 I reckon, we are not relevant to her anymore.

What a sad, sad situation.

The one who must not be named!

You are so bloody annoying.
You are so bloody annoying.
You are so bloody annoying.
.
.
.
.

My wish:

You are not more than a parasite,
Who sucks the life out of me.

Only If I could turn back time and make things undone,
I would abstain myself for sure from these shenanigans.

My self-reflection:

God is great I must tell you right,
He knows things that I know-not.
People come to our life for a reason,
and your presence is nothing but a nuisance.

Your existence serves as a grim reminder,
for me to become more intact with reality.
And that people like you should be shunned altogether,
just to keep myself in sanity.

I learned this the hardest way,
but hey, God works in a mysterious way. 
This is surely a blessing from Him,
a lesson in disguise is all I can claim.
.
.
.
.
Sekian!

Unemployed No More.

3 years of living a non-routine life has come to an end.  Face it, sista! The 23rd of  October 2012 marks the commencement of my daily 8-hour working life. Sungguh indahnye time buat masters, my timetable was scheduled in any way I wish for sure. Tapi, wake up! It is time for me to really work on something to financially contribute to this family. More money means more kids on the way. Love that idea.

From Kuala Lumpur to Kuantan. Hijrah. Takim kata, nk ade big fat perubahan kna berhijrah dulu..So, I hope our decision to move to and stay in Kuantan was truly guided by Allah because He knows the best. I believe that Kuantan is the best place to raise our kid(s) to be humble and unmaterialistic. Despite of these, for sure I'm gonna miss KLCC-mothercare especially, good food (Chillis, Tony Roma's, Ben's, kedai mihun sup bukit antarabangsa ku itu), IKEA, JJ, Little Whizz, umah Chu, my Seri Puteri neighbors and UIA even more! 

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, here's to a new chapter of my life!

My CFS wonderland.

We had to give a hold up to our plan of moving to Kuantan last June due to a job offer at the Centre for Foundation Studies, International Islamic University Malaysia, Gombak Campus. Of course I was attracted to the handsome pay offered by Kak Zai (the Program Coordinator) plus we needed to get some extra money to so-called beautify our house in Kuantan, for crying out loud! I had to teach two different classes over there, level 5 and level 6 students. Everything went smooth in accordance to my plan, alhamdulillah. The students were all fine and both classes were dominated by boys and I guess the word 'peaceful' was totally omitted from my mental lexicon for 5 months or so. They were like sooooo childish yet very attentive bunch of kids. We did loads of stuffs and here's a couple of unedited poems that they wrote in one of my classes. 

Don't Give Up

Don't give up through the pace seems slow,
You may to success with another blow,
Success is failure turning inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt.

 

OH ENGLISH!

There is inside you,

All of the potential,

To learn English,

There is no boundaries.

There is no simple way to be clever,

There is no hard way to be better,

Maybe it’s you maybe it’s me,

You can be whatever you want to be.

p/s: pardon the grammar and syntax errors made by them.

By the way these students punye major is Economics so they didnt really explore or embrace themselves with their artsy-fartsy bit therefore kire ok la kan, they could manifest their feelings towards learning English through their simple poetry. Thumbs up people! May you pass your English Placement Test with flying colors, inshallah!

 

Thanks Athira for this pix!

With a few of my 969 students

Teaching these kids made me start reminiscing the good ol' days back in 2003 when I was a matriculated student myself at the Matriculation Centre, International Islamic University Malaysia. A handful of invaluable memories that could never be forgotten. Owh, how I miss you people, friends who were constantly there by my side through thick and thin. May Allah be a constant presence in your lives and may He bestow you guys with a place in one of His Jannah!Aaameen.

Euro 2012, I am all in.

I am still with you! Forza Italia. Skang my hearthrobs byk dah tadek tapi GG Buffon and DeRossi ade kire okaylah...Win, win my azzurris, my prayers are with you! Ciao.

May Goings-on

Mengreadykan rumah untuk dihuni is not an easy job. Blimey! Soooo many things to handle in soooo lil time. To be frank, I do it for the fun of doin it! Papepon at least ade jugak progress kan. For the time being, we've got our false ceiling, fans, lights, grills, curtains, curtain rods & railings covered. In a word, all the neccessary stuffs for it to be called a home was successfully taken care of. If everything went well the way we planned it, we could actually move in to our new sanctuary right before Ramadhan. Since our (hubs n me) focus is now directed to  beautify our home, I mean just to make it as decent as possible, we are forced to be tightwads, positive tightwads shall I clarify, in so many ways. That's the fugly truth when I cannot financially contribute to this money-consuming event of my life. Sheesh. Takpe la...Things will get better, things will be better after this. I constantly remind myself of this non-enchanted mantra altho in reality they will not! 

Tight budgetry constraint does not mean that we should say no to having fun, rite? We did have fun celebrating a combo celebration of our 3rd anniversary and mother's day all together. We spent our quality time together at Ben's KLCC, nothing fancy and no splurging! Oh yeah, here's a poem, sonnet 130 to be exact. Had it not been that this poem is dedicated to a lady, it would make a great poem to describe my realness in loving you, my man.  

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks; 
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
   And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
   As any she belied with false compare. 

The godsends of the day.

What the hell was I thinking? Yeah I wasnt well-aware that I took the wrong set of keys as I wanted to get out of my house this morning. By the time I noticed it, it was too late already. Darn it. The consequence? Served me rite. Azalea and me were locked in our own house. We're trapped in between the door and and the grill. That surely was a record breaking moment that should be photographed and pasted on the door so that Ill always remember that not-so-funny and infamous event of my life. I lost 30 mins of my life doing nothing but waiting, lamenting, yelling and SOBBING of cos.

Then...along came my saviours.

Two lady janitors. They helped me out by looking for somebody who could really function in that situation on my behalf. In a jiffy, my neighbors, who live at a level below appeared with a hammer and a damp cloth. The husband taught me to strike the doorknob as hard as I could. After a few attempts, alhamdulillah it finally opened.

The aftermath?

1. I learned my lesson, obviously!

2. To be triple extra careful next time.

Surely, my god-sent heroes deserve all the good things in the world and the hereafter. May Allah bless you guys and deep down inside my humble heart I thank you all. Your help means the whole world to me!

Yes, there's a new name for HSBC.

Starting from now and onwards, SLOW shalt be thy name! Know what? Your crappy little service is slower than a herd of snails traveling through peanut butter! How's that?

Just so you know my husband and I are your unsatisfied clients who have to pay a sum of money due to your staffs' incompetency. We had signed our mortgage documents ages ago and everything was fine until our developer sent us a letter saying that they didnt get any single penny from the bank. We were not as mad as this and still could tolerate this predicament for a couple of days. We thought that there were still some documents that we failed to submit or what not.

When our loan agent told us there was nothing wrong actually with our documents that was where our blood went upstairs, you know! (cant help it, need to quote that!) Because you know what...we have to pay RM76 PER DAY as a fee for late withdrawal to our developer until they get that money from YOU and whose fault is that? Go figure!

We are your pissed off customers who think that this predicament is really, like, seriously, reflecting your work ethics. Please take note that your incompetency and inefficiency cost us a fortune and thank you so very much for keeping us waiting for NOTHING! That waiting for nothing damages our RM1300 already and it will increase to God knows how much more owing to your indescribable, irksome and despicable service/work ethics/whatever related to you, period!

p/s: We have been harassing (without fail) our loan agent and the so-called bank lawyer to at least give us some positive feedback regarding this. They have been giving us the same old cliche answer, "We have to wait for a reply from our HQ". Well, tell you what...eff that big time! As customers we dont want to listen to the same thing over and over again, got that? It implies that you guys memang x buat keje langsung. Nuff said!

2 in 1

Sana', my Algerian friend texted me last Saturday afternoon. She wanted to hold a surprised bday party for her bestie, Wani who happens to be one of my closest friends too. Last Saturday was Azalea's bithday FYI. She turned 1 dat day! WOWZER, it really had been a year already, aye? So, instead of celebrating only Wani's bday we ended up celebrating Azalea's as well. Hey, that lil pow-wow was such a good opportunity to catch up with my friends and their latest goings-on in their lives.

To the birthday girls, Wani & Azalea:

May Allah shower both of you with His mercy and forgiveness

AND

May each and every passing year bring you wisdom, peace and cheer!

Liana +Me+ Azalea+Amal+Nicky+Wani (Sana took this pix).

Don't mind her. She doesn't mean to be rude.

Mommy and the birthday gals.

The birthday cake - cheesy choc!

p/s: Thanks 'aunties' for throwing me this party. (on behalf of Azalea, lol)!

To Azalea:

Hey we're (mom+dad) gonna celebrate your real birthday with a partay that suits your age along with a group of suitable peers, thehehehehe) real soon. But let's wait for dad first, okay? Love ya!

My sweetie pie!

Of late, she's quite cranky. Perhaps, sebab bile kat umah just ade kami berdua. Unlike kat nursery yg penuh dengan manusia. Skang dah pandai main and pandai buat orang ketawa. Sheesh!Sungguh tak kupercaya dia akan menginjak ke umur satu tahun in this short time! Walau sampai umo 30 tahun sekalipun, you will always be my baby!

Happy Birthday Octoberians.

Happy birthday to these October babies! *hope it is not too late.

1st - My dad

6th - My one and only baby brother

7th - My other half (encik hubby lerrr)

12th - My nephew Danish

21st - My baby sister, Ijah.

And a very happy anniversary to my parents (13th October 2011), 27 years of sharing! We love you to the point of no return.

"Semoga Allah panjangkan umur and murahkan rezeki kalian. Amin."

Our still-under-construction property!

We believe that there's no other place like home and because of this too, we didn't mind to put our back into getting the right house to live in. This house proves that love at a first sight does exist. An embodiment of a true-blue infatuation, I must insist.

Anyway and anyhow, to cut a long story short, this house and its atmosphere are just perfect for our lil family and we definitely can tell when a house is right for us. Instinct works wonders, fellas! It's really like we get strong flutters when we are in the house. In certain conditions, our hearts might palpitate as well :)

With Allah's blessings and mercy, insyaallah this house would bring all the joy and happiness to its dwellers. Amin!

The master bedroom

Via the guest room

The front view of the house.

Our side lawn

A "convertible" utility room

The front lawn

The hall

The family lounge

The staircase

The other part of the living hall

Our house rear view

A view via our dry kitchen.

The patio

The hall in full view.

Our mini store

The house in full view

The Pak Gad's house.

A Home Song

by Henry Van Dyke

I read within a poet's book
A word that starred the page:
"Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage!"

Yes, that is true; and something more
You'll find, where'er you roam,
That marble floors and gilded walls
Can never make a home.

But every house where Love abides,
And Friendship is a guest,
Is surely home, and home-sweet-home:
For there the heart can rest

~The end~

http://www.kotasas.com.my/bayu-ground.html

Panggilan Haji.

Selamat menunaikan rukun islam ke 5 wahai mak, ayah and tok.

Semoga memproleh haji yang mabrur.

We miss you guys to the max!

p/s: Teringin ke Makkatul Mukarramah and Madinatul Munawwarah, pronto!

A small step that can make a huge difference!

Hari Rabu adalah hari ke pasar malam. Time study dulu pegi pasar malam just nak cari food untuk pre-dinner, dinner and supper (gile pelahap). But now, things have changed. Now, pasar malam kat KL ni is the best place to get fresh meat, fish, vegies yada yada yada.

Sedang-sedang mencuci mata.

Bumped into this kakak yg jual barang2 mainan.

I took a great look at them and found tada..................

A so-called lappy for kids and to a great surprise I bought it for only RM15! The best thing about this pasar malam lappy is that it is a bilingual lappy. This multi-function lappy is of two languages: Arabic and English. It's worth every penny of mine, I tell you. The fact that I could not find laptops for kids yg dijual commercially yg gune Arabic had made me actually bought it.

The thing is, I want Azalea to be exposed to Arabic especially since she has already receive tremendous input of English via her morning cartoon programs. So I guess this is a good head start to get her acquainted with that language and hopefully she could learn it easily someday due to this little exposure, amin. To my knowledge, this lil exposure will be restored somewhere in her mental lexicon to the extent that next time, when she's ready to learn Arabic, her restored language input is ready to be triggered and learning Arabic would not be something impossible, insyaallah.

*I hope that this will have a significant effect on you supaya senang belajar Arabic later on in your life, Insyaallah*

Kisah suami isteri

Here I am lazing on my bed on this not-so-peaceful Friday morning. I can hear all sort of noises from my bedroom window. Children and their high-pitched roars. That indicates nothing but sheer happiness. Azalea is still soundly asleep and her beautiful slumber is still not being affected at all by the irritating yet negotiable sound waves. The usual Friday mornings are so unlike this one today.

Before me and Takim went to sleep last nite, we had a disagreement. A disagreement about Malaysian films. Not a blatant disagreement. I'd see it more like a banter rather than a debate between two opponents. thehehehehe. Kelakar la jugak since dua-dua dah jadi macam pengkritik filem la plak. Initially, he asked me to go out and catch this new movie yang his fav. actor berlakon. My reply was "I don't think we should spend around rm20 for that so-called comedy. It is not comical pon. Not funny at all and it doesn't deserve our RM20!" To my disbelief, he blew a sharp response defending the actor including the director... bla bla bla and the next thing we know, we woke up late this morning when he actually had to rush for a short course at Concorde, KL. That surely served us rite...

My husband kate saya tak chill and xsupport Malaysian films.

I beg to differ!

My two cents' worth:

I am not trying to be critical here. This is just a layman's humble opinion. I think my opinion is worth to be heard. It is not that I don't appreciate Malaysian movies or films. In fact, I do! I love Yasmin Ahmad's, Afdlin's and some other Malaysian-made masterpieces. As for comedies, I appreciate good comedies since I love to have one hell of a laugh. We rarely have good comedies that we can really be proud of. My only resentment is that either we realize it or not, we are surrounded by heaps of junks. Comedies yang got no values except for massive lawak murahan. Ini belom masuk lagi bab2 story line yg tah hape2 and acting yang ___________ (please fill in the blank with your own adjective). Scarry! Ni mende2 yang sgt transparent and you dont even have to be an expert to notice such flaws!

Just so you know Takim...

Those are the very reasons why I resort myself to the avoidance strategy. Don't get me wrong. Tapi, I still bleh teman u to watch your movies yg I can tolerate cam KL Gangster tu...Any movies yg I rase worth our RM20. I just avoid myself from watching any crappy stuffs so that I can live my life without wondering why on earth they are ever made? I prefer to exercise one of my rights as a free human being by forbidding myself from being fooled by those movies yg meant to fool me. Okay. I love you! You know I would trade 100 best movies in for you! As long as you are happy.

Got to break some eggs then...

Azalea has never had eggs in her diet at all. I learned that she can now enjoy eggs once in a while. Am gonna give these fab recipes a shot. Thanks to Momtastic (my baby food guru).

1. Crack an egg and separate the white from the yolk (you may use the shell for this or use an egg-separator)
2. Warm olive oil or butter in a frying pan
3. Scramble the yolk in a bowl with formula, breast milk, juice or whole milk and transfer to frying pan
4. Cook over medium heat, scrambling constantly, until thoroughly cooked

** You may also add items such as pureed (or small diced & soft cooked) broccoli, carrots, peas etc...makes great finger food.

EASY Meats and Protein "Dinners" and Combinations for Babies

Baby's First Omelet

Ingredients:

2 Egg Yolks
Milk or Formula
Puréed or Chunky Veggies
Cheese

Directions:

Prepare a small frying pan with a pat of butter or a dab of olive oil and heat
Scramble egg yolks & Milk or Formula in bowl then pour egg mixture into heated pan.
Scramble egg mixture until almost cooked and add veggies.
Cook until egg mixture is no longer runny.

Add small bits of shredded cheese (Swiss, American, Cheddar or Parmesan)
Scramble again when cheese has melted.

Serve with Fruit Dices, Yogurt, and/or Petite Toast Points with Fruit Purée Spread.

Great for Lunch or Dinner too. Ensure that the Baby Omelet has cooled enough for Baby to eat. (Please use only those ingredients that baby has eaten without any allergic reactions.)

They sound easy-peasy huh!