Life updates.

Busy. NAY! super busy. AYE!

Hence, this blog of mine remains as boring as always. Not so many big things have occurred in my life so far. Lemme think for a sec. hmmmm:

1. January, February & March

Still got a few classes to pay heed to. Course Design with Assoc. Prof. Dr. Isarji, Language Learning & Acquisition with Dr Normala and Language & Literature with Dr. Nora. I whined about my super duper busi-ness already, so for now it would be safe for me to just zip it. Because if I started to whine, I would never stop. God doesnt like his servants to lament. I should ingrain this in my mind!

2. April

April was the month of exams. I sat for those 3 exams aforementioned. Truth be told, I wasnt well-prepared at all. Due to this I only obtained 3.4 something for my GPA. Kinda sad but hey that was the price that I had to pay for my laziness. That served me right!

3. May

The month that I had been waited for. Actually, I told my hubster that I seriously need to take a break from my hustle bustle life. We planned for a getaway somewhere in Terengganu. Just a simple vacation for the sake of relieving our stress. * I was soooo terribly stressed out with my assignments, tests, exams yada yada yada and as for him, he was soooo stressed by seeing me so stressed out. LOL* It was so obvious that we needed to get away from that. As always, May is the month for Petrofac Family Day (Takim's company annual gathering). This year we got the chance to spend 3 days and 2 nights at Tanjong Rhu Beach Resort in Langkawi. OMG! I love this place, I mean Langkawi. It's a shopping paradise for crying out loud! We spent our time together in that luxurious room. Azalea and I were cuddling on the bed for the whole day while Takim had to go out and do all the scheduled activities. Who would want to leave this super comfy room?

The hall

This is the bathroom

Photo was taken via the room hall

The balcony

The bed

The food was so superb and fantastic in and out. I love the variety. Food wise, I would give them 4 stars out of 5!

As usual, the final nite is the gala nite. So, we needed to dress up a lil bit. The theme for this year family day was superheroes. I didnt play dress up. Takim was Peter Pan and Azalea was Tink!

Truth be told, it's actually a good thing that Petrofac annual gathering falls in May every year because May is the month that we celebrate our anniversary. Yippee. Speaking of shopping, due to our short trip this time, we managed to shop at the jetty point only. We managed to buy chocs (lotsa 'em), perfumes (Fresh Blossom by DKNY for me & Hugo Boss for him) and the best of all ... was a set of Corelle and Luminarc tableware. A Corelle dish can cost up to rm59 each at Isetan while you only pay it for rm23 in Langkawi. What a vast difference, aite? We couldnt buy many things since we boarded a ferry to the Kuala Perlis Jetty. Takim was the only man power on that day. I was preoccupied with Azalea. We were all sweaty and exhausted tremendously! We made a vow that our next trip to this island, we would by all means take the aircraft. Less hassle and less tired.

Taken at the Kuala Perlis Jetty

Why did we drive all the way from KL to Perlis?

We visited Takim's family back in Sungai Petani before we arrived in Perlis and on our way back to KL we spent a nite at my opah's in Parit Perak. In a word, that was a very short trip to the northern part of Malaysia and not to mention Azalea's first northern trip (Perlis+Kedah+Perak).

With the Sg. Petani Clan.

With Onyang @ Parit, Perak

She supposed to enjoy the scenery and all that but she slept all the way. What would an infant do in a long, boring and bumpy car ride? Sing to a song? I must be kiddin' myself!

Our Lil Lady boss

I was offered to teach at CELPAD UIA for the second time in May. Alhamdulillah rezeki Azalea adanya. I taught Section 3 LE0520 and my principal teacher was Ary, my fellow BENL comrade and yeah there was this other teacher who taught essay; DR. Abdul Shakour. I had to teach Writing Task A (summary). Everything went well alhamdulillah and it ended up in June. Insyaallah, they will hire me again! I must admit that I enjoyed myself teaching in UIA. I love its surrounding. This is a place where Islam is practiced without prejudice. This is also a place where you get to see people rush to the mosque during the azan. This is also a place that have taught me to spread my wings!

A few students yg ajak pose. Lemme recall; (Left) Alaa from Palestine, Haidar from Iraq, ME, Maen fron Yemen, Ma Huan from China and Fayed who was born in Oman. :) See, I still remember you guys and it is a proof to show that I do have a good memory!

A RACE AGAINST TIME

Time sure flies.

Nope it doesn't fly

It apparates to be exact.

So soundless.

So motionless.

Azalea;

She is approaching her 8th month.

At present, she weighs approximately 8kg.

She crawls all around the house like nobody's business.

She is super fast.

That gave her bruises on her cheeks 2 days ago.

Fell from our bed.

Mommy's bad!

Life;

Predicaments are never-ending

Especially when Takim is not around.

Lord puts me to tests.

I have to remain stoic, more or less.

I know that my life is different

A bit peculiar.

This is also a test that I need to endure with.

This is what you get

When you can fondle you hubby for half of your lifespan only.

You get to be an iron lady, indeliberately.

It breeds inside you.

I am no Thatcher, yet I'm also an iron lady.

I don't have all the time in the world.

Time waits for no man

Every second counts

In the meantime, life is precious

We cannot undo it

Hence, seize the moment

Carpe diem

Hope I have the time of my life!

six extremely busiest months ever

I was too busy to update this blog of mine and even could not get my hands on facebook as regular as before. I had to commit to my hubs, classes, assignments and especially to Azalea. She was fully breastfed by me up until her second month only and that was really a sad thing.I believed I was the lousiest parent ever lived! I couldnt find the time to stock up my express breast milk (EBM). I simply gave up. I wasnt like this before, I mean easily surrender to something. I should be capable of producing sufficient EBM stock.

PRESSURE! I couldnt agree more...pressure was the real culprit! I was so stressed over my studies. I had 30 pages of papers of 3 different subjects to be submitted before the deadlines. That didnt include those mini assignments that chipped in at intervals to make my life became so disorganized, messy, dun, barren (refers to my thesis writing) and lifeless.I guess due to this, my milk glands didnt produce adequate milk for Azalea to consume. Poor her!

We bought Mamex Gold as our alternative to EBM. At first, she puked! Quite a number of times. Of course I was worried sick! After few trials, she could finally adapt it. Alhamdulillah. At present, the routine is I breastfeed her whenever I'm with her and she consumes formula milk when I'm not around with her.Luckily for me last semester, I didnt work so I had breastfed her most of the time. Sometimes, she would still want to consume the formula milk. I still couldnt decipher why she would still want the FM even tho I was around.Hmmmm.Yet, that's not a biggie deal, coz we bought that FM for her, so, she could have it whenever she wants it.No problem.

Oh yeahh, we opted for a new paediatrician, Dr. Kumari of Ampang Puteri. Dr. Lim was slashed out from the list. Sorry Dr. Lim. I know you do speak English, but when you speak, I couldnt comprehend you. Not because of the registers used but you tend to eat your words and the pace was so machine-gun like. Please, dont take it to your heart, okay Dr. Lim. You are very well indeed appreciated by my hubs and me especially during those days when Azalea was warded due to jaundice. *Dr. Kumari is Afrina, Sarah and Arissaa's paeds as well*

At last, I managed to survive!Perseverance is the key that was granted by God to aid me in going through this little test from HIM without suffering so much of anxiety. Thank you Allah!

The day I was bestowed with the "MOMMY" title.

My hectic life as a student, wife and lecturer ended in the month of October 2010. Right after my final exam paper. I could still remember, the final paper that I had to sit was Semantics. Dr. Subra was head over heels seeing me in the hall. He was afraid dat I coudnt make it dat day due to an early labour, perhaps. Yeah, it was precisely my 37th week. Dr. Subra anticipated that my future baby would be a bright kid simply because his first daughter who was born in November is a really bright kid. We'll see how! *Mommy prays the best for you dear Azalea*

Hubby was with me all the time. Be there right next to me to undergo the last bit of my pregnancy term. Loads of things happened in between before my labour day. The in-laws (ayah & mak) went to perform Hajj. Because of this, for the first time ever both of us got to spend our Raya Haji without our parents including me. As for me pulak, I could not travel so far away. My due date was getting nearer and nearer, remember?Yeah, our Raya Haji was not that hillarious for obvious reasons. Early in the morning on that very Raya day, I thot my water bag broke but it wasnt actually. FALSE ALARM. Haahahah. Bikin gempaq jer! I ended up being checked for cervical dilation. It was not fun at all, mind you. That was my first time being in that situation and I cried all the way. Sissy! Takim hold my hands until the procedure ended. He hugged me so tight as it seemed he could feel the pain as well. Deep down inside my heart it somewhat foreshadowed that my life is not going to be easy starting from that very moment.

25th November 2010.

I kept on going to the loo for so many times that particular nite. And innocent me, I didnt know that those were the contraction signs. Dont blame me, contraction was not something that happened to me like for everyday, aite? Later that morning, I woke up as usual and the pain became stronger and stronger. Contraction is pretty much like period cramps. .The difference is that contraction comes at intervals and starts in the back and moves around to the front in a wave-like manner. It gets much more intense especially in the crucial hours for delivery. I could not even stand when the contraction started to strike once every half an hour. Takim cooked our lunch via my instructions. We finally got to eat our lunch around 5pm. Believe that!

I called my mom to make sure that what I experienced on that day were the real contractions. When those contractions came every 15 minutes, then we knew we should set off to the hospital right away! Off we went to Ampang Puteri Specialist Hospital which is situated around 7km radius from our apartment in Ukay Perdana. MRR2 was jam-packed with vehicles that day. I still could hold myself together and still could endure the pain. *Doa Nabi Yunus was really of great help* When we arrived, we went straight ahead to the labour room and on our way up, we bumped into my obstetrician and I personally informed her that I was about to give birth. She assured me that with Allah's will everything would be just fine.....

Once they broke my water bag, there's no turning back. I had to endure with the pain that was unbearable. All I could ever think of was death. I was given morphine to help me loosen up a bit hence I could get some rest before the real battle started. I was soooo highhhh.... The funny thing about this pain relief was that every single thing that occurred around me seemed surreal. But, one thing for sure, I could still focussed and followed the midwife's instructions faithfully. When the opening hit 6cm, my obstetrician, Dr. Fauziah came in. At that very moment, I started to push my baby out, automatically. I perspired profusely! Takim was there at that very historical moment. He hold my hand and his other hand pushed my head downward. I pushed and howled like nobody's business. To the end, I was terribly exhausted and Azalea was vacuumed to this world exactly at 1:18 am on Friday morning dated 26th November 2011. She put her on my belly and there I saw that beautiful God's creation coated with blood and amniotic fluid. She didnt cry.

Of course she didnt cry. She was drugged as well. One of the nurses (There were two nurses actually, one was the midwife and the other one from the paediatrics) stimulated her by rubbing her back to wake her up. She weighed exactly 2.99kg and 52cm long. Her eyes were so prominent and I knew exactly where did she get that from. Her dad!

That was the day, the day that I was conferred the MOMMY title. The day that I had to face the biggest challenge so far my life is concerned. Now, I have a new role being added up and that apparently means I have more responsibilities to commit to. I cant wait to celebrate Mother's Day as a mother for the first time eva this year. On top of all, I cant wait for Azalea to utter "MOMMY" out of her mouth. Cant wait, cant wait and cant wait.

OUR PRIDE AND JOY

Azalea Amani Binti Mohd Mustaqim

Save as Draft

Fresh from the oven! 5 minutes old.

We're all set. Just waiting fer you my schweet thang!

No words could describe our feeling. So, euphoric sekali this feeling!! Mommy and daddy have gone bananas in preparing these essentials for you dear anak. Now you're 38 weeks and still we have a couple of weeks more to meet you. We couldnt wait to hold you in our arms, to kiss and cuddle you every now and then, to play with ya, to sing you lullabies, to watch you grow, and to do other parents would do unto their precious ones. Dear Allah, we pray that everything goes well and to you we seek refuge. Insyaallah and amin....

Hard Rockin' Family Day

Where : Hard Rock Hotel, Batu Feringghi, Penang

When : 25th-27th June 2010

With the 'stoned' Beatles. They've been stoned to death, I assume.

At the pool.

The eye-catching entrance lights.

Our room's view.

So freakin' cool.

Cinta Pantai Merdeka.

Takim took me to his hometown in Kedah. A very remote (p/s: not to be misunderstood as uncivilized but more to exquisite and serene) place called Rantau Panjang. After all these years, I only knew that Rantau Panjang is only in Kelantan. Silly me! We spent our nites at Pantai Merdeka Beach Resort. A very big resort with only 3 rooms booked. Creepy~butta nothing bad happened because our room was just a room away from the employees' cabin.

I've got the chance to meet his old best buddy ever; Mat Chop (Mohd Yusof actually) and wifey Fiza,(if I'm not mistaken) for 2 consecutive days. Yeah, they spent their time reminiscing all the childhood memories, all the x-girlfriends they had, how 'macho' they were with their sling shots, yada yada yada. Me? I was so happy and laughed all the while. He was a "kampong boy" after all.

Takim brought me to every single inch of his so-called territory and told me soooo many times how he missed all these. I guess being a grown up really is depressing, huh? He has shown me:

1) his former house, the house where he grew up.

2) his "tempat mengaji."

3) the river that locates his secret hideout

4) the best place in Kota Kuala Muda to eat laksa.

5) his kindergarten

And along the way, I've met so many nice and warmhearted relatives and family friends. I felt so homey and welcomed. I didn't feel like a stranger at all. One thing about his kampung is that, it is surrounded with paddy fields. So refreshing and so so so so green. I love it. Feel like coming back to this place again, anytime.

p/s : and Sayang (my dear darling baby Takim), I thought I knew everything about you from the moment we met. I was wrong. Merci beaucoup for letting me "cruised" back to one of your joyful and memorable times of your life, your childhood. I felt like, I was there too. So vivid!