Winter holidays Day 1

09/12/19 2pm

Less than 10 hrs before we head to the airport and begin our winter holidays. Feeling excited yet jittery. Praying that the trip would b good, I would survive the night flight with enough sleep, praying that the girls would b in their best behaviour, and we wont b too overwhelmed by the cold weather. 

We are using more bags instead of the luggage bags this time round bcoz uncle choo says it would b difficult to lug them around on the snow ground. I'm praying that the logistics / transportation of us/luggage would b smooth; that we would b able to find the landmarks/hotels with ease. Praying that I wont go berserk on the trip bcoz of the endless bickering.. 

09/12/19 1030pm

Waiting for the cab to pick us up.. the girls are starting to fall sick with grace having a full fever now..  praying that they will recover quickly and that God will make them well! 

The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him,

Nahum 1:7 NIV

 chilling at the lounge before the flight 

Doraemon! Hopefully we have the chance to visit the cafe when we head back to chitose airport.

On the 2hr bus ride to our ski resort 

And we finally arrived!

Joy and grace are officially sick, both with fever and sore throat. Praying that they will get well tomorrow. The kids are super excited abt seeing snow. I do hope we be able to see snow-ing action tomorrow. Trying to take things easy with 2 fever kids. Not sure how joy is going to start her ski class tomorrow (which is non refundable) but we shall see. Praying that God will heal the girls in super speed; and that we be able to spend some time together as a family. Thankful that in spite of the circumstances, things were pretty smooth sailing today. Looking forward to day 2!

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
John 8:12 NIV

环岛追追追 II

Now that the PSLE results are out, and Joy is probably going to a far far away school. So has the search for a house began..

We went for our 1st viewing last sun. There were 3 contestants: A) super old but huge penthouse condo which is in serangoon; B) new 4 bedroom condo at bartley and C)2 storey terrace house near the twins school. All 3 contestants carry the same price tags but the living conditions are vastly different. For people who prefer an "ang moh chu", taking up opt C) might be a good choice. But landed being landed, it's super far to the nearest mrt. At best, its walking distance to the nearest bus stop. Nah, it's not for us. We all concluded that we prefer B) bcoz it's new and its sheltered walkway to bartley mrt. 

But we probably do more viewings before we decide further. 

          

Since then, we decided to do a trial of the actual time taken if we were to stay at B) and joy going to sch etc vs the time the twins take to go their sch too.. thus began our adventure today.. hahahaha 

We parked the car at nex; took the train to bartley and walk to that condo. Then from then, we walked back to the mrt, took the circle line; changing for downtown line and eventually arriving at king Albert park.

The duo continued to walk up to the sch while vera and I rested af KAP. I was exhausted. Time taken: 45mins. That wasn't v near. I had hoped it to b under 30mins. Oh well. 

We headed back to nex, have lunch and took the car. Drove to the condo, and started the time from the place to twins sch. 

Time taken: 3mins 

It would have been perfect if joy stayed on at pl.. while we were discussing the various options etc, Vera blurted out "otherwise chek chek can go pl sec ! Why must u go other schs when u can go pl sec 🤣"

Such wisdom..  hahaha..(I agree too) but I want to believe that God has plans for each girl and probably Joy will b happier with her choice. And if that's the case, then we will try to make it as comfortable as possible for each of them. It would have been nice if she had stayed in PL and she could enjoy the proximity as well. 

We were all exhausted by the adventures today, even Joy. I told her that she would have to do it everyday when sch starts and probably the knowledge is finally going to sink in her now..

Praying that God points us to a place that's most suited for us to stay. Praying for wisdom to make the right choice. 

I need a nap. William is right. Nap is an option if I work full day. But it is a necessity if I'm a mama full day. Hahaha

环岛追追追!

今天是陪妈妈环岛追追追工作日!

The Choos are out in tow to bring me everywhere for my appts today. It was not intended to be this way initially. I had only planned to spend the morning with them at home while william head over to the old house to settle some stuff. But he was delayed and by the time he was done, I had to zip down to novena for my 1pm appt. He offered to drive me down bcoz if I drove, I probably need a lot more time. And thus began the start of the "tour". 

I feel bad when they travel alongside with me for my appts. I feel like its wasting their time. But uncle choo always feel that its impt to let them know that 妈妈赚钱辛苦， and that's the least he could do so (driving me around) so that I could just concentrate on the appts itself and not worry abt parking; traffic etc.. 

The novena appt ended on time and I'm now at parkway parade waiting for my 3pm appt. The kids and papa choo are somewhere in this mall. The girls are equipped with their story books and entertainment. Hopefully this appt end early and I can drop them all home before going for my last appt. 

Very thankful that they are here with me, that they have grown to understand that this is part of my work. Probably treat them to bubble tea later.. hahaha.. looking forward to our holiday! Yeah!

This is me and my llao llao.. ever since they opened an outlet at sengkang, I know I can kiss my clean eating goodbye. 

Appt kena shifted to 1 hr later, so the glutton me decided to stop here for my afternoon snacks before heading there. After all, I had cried my eyes out with my morning squabble with uncle choo..

That's what we humans do right..  whenever we wanna win or feel right..  we think of reasons to support our cause.. 

I feel like a goldfish with my eyes swollen from the morning showers.. tired and sleepy... 

The sugar treat didnt do much to lift my spirits. Should have gotten 幸福堂 instead.. lol.. feeling tired and crappy.. praying that God gives me wisdom and strength to carry on for the appt.. 

The PSLE results would b out by next week (finally). Praying for clarity, that God plant Joy in the right school for her, and with that, the right place for us to shift to.. in Jesus name I pray, Amen!

A heart filled with thankfulness

I burst out laughing @ "one big round".. hahahah.. after all, I've tried to convince them that I should/deserve to eat kfc today..hahaha..but oh well, they are da best..so blessed to have both of them as my BFFs.. each time I feel down or tempted to eat crazy calories, they are here to cheer me up and stop me to do things I probably regret when the mind is clear. 

It has been a crazy Oct and I'm exhausted even before Nov ends. Thankful for such blessings in my life; William is bringing the girls to chinatown to have dinner with me just so that we could have dinner tog right after my appt.. my heart is so full with blessings and Thanksgiving.

Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up.

Proverbs 12:25 NIV

https://proverbs.bible/proverbs-12-25

Morning me

And we made it in time (714am) to school today! Yeah! Praise the Lord! Missed the alarm at 6am and only woke up at 635 by the helper vacuuming noise. So thankful that the twins managed to get ready in double quick time. Though there was some traffic along the way, I'm glad that we managed to arrive in time.

Enjoying my breakfast at Hong Lim now. The osaka team are on the plane back to sg! Yeah! It feels so long that they are away. Haven't been able to zzz well since we camped at my mama place after the cruise. The body is sleepy but mind is too awake... hopefully things will get better when they are back!

Haven't been so close to the twins for so long. We showered together; slept together and chatted before we zzz.. there was a little drama during the sleeping time yday and both vera and I cried for stupid reasons. I was hurt by her remarks but oh well.. I guess it's part of parenting. There were episodes being replayed in my mind, exploding or scolding/bulldozing my way thru. But I didnt. I was tempted. (Haha!) She is lucky to b my 3rd kid where I've mellowed so much in my parenting style. I've learnt to exercise control with my temper/anger mgmt. I've learnt to empathise more and expect less. I've learnt so much from these girls, to which I'm thankful for. 

Today's mad rush made me realize how much william does for the girls in the morning..coz I'm usually still in Lalaland when they leave for school. Probably should do this once a while.. prepare bf for them, bring them to school etc and let the man sleep in..hahaha..  

Wanna try to squeeze in a trip for the 2 of us before the end of the year.. hahaha.. but our schedules are pretty packed.. shall see how.. there is HKK in dec for the entire village too.. which the girls are so looking forward to.

We are going IKEA for lunch later just bcoz the twins loved it.  Hahaha..

The twins and I

On the 2 hr bus ride back to the port. We are into the 4th day of the cruise. Decided to do a 6D5N cruise with the twins and my mama since william will b going Osaka with Joy and I can't work much since J is on leave too..

My sleeping beauty who zzz 10 mins into the bus ride, on both ways of the trip. Thank God! Hahaha...

Thankfully we manage to do some shopping with the twins buying quite some stuff too. Hahaha..

Checklist: After you - simply loving their desserts.. 

Sugar treats motivation

Thankful that these few days on the cruise have been awesome. Stopover at redang on the 2nd day and even though the twins didnt want to disembark initially, I just wanted them to see the beautiful beach. And I'm glad that we all enjoyed ourselves that day too..

Pretty!

The weather was pretty and so were their moods.. thankful that they have been pretty cooperative all these while.

The tattoo they made at redang..

Bento for lunch on board! 

Ice cream again! Becoz it's only $1.50 per scoop, so we had to have it everyday. Hahahah.. we later realise that we could have it for free at the palace lounge..🤣

While on this cruise, there were many times when the twins only wanted to stay at the kids club 0r in the room bcoz the last few times when they were here with their grandparents, they literally had TV / sweets buffet.. but bcoz I'm here this time round, I wanted them to try out more things. Thus we went to the beach and shopping at BKK today..

Lovey dovey.. may they continue to be close buddies even when they grow up 

I also managed to have many one to one occasions with vera. Usually when Joy / papa choo is around, they are her default choices to go to. But this past few days, we probably hang out tog more often than for the whole of this yr. I now know that she doesnt like prawns or soya milk, but she loves beef and lobster. Shes more of a meat person and her love language is quality time now instead of touch previously.

Thankful for the opportunities to create memories with my family. Looking forward to tomorrow's activities on the cruise.

*******

*waiting at the lounge for the twins to finish their "kidzania" activities*

Hello captains!

Them as butlers..

Seriously, I'm dead tired by late afternoon and there are probably a few more activities before this end.. its their 3rd time doing it but its still pretty fascinating for them, which is good enough for me.

Thru the activities, Grace is always the vocal one, willing to say her thoughts and views to the trainers while Vera is the reserved one. She is able to vocalise, but given a choice she would stand behind her sister and wait. It's something that we already knew, and slowly but surely, given the right opportunities, she would be able to grow her confidence.

*Pizza making*

*cheers to fruit punch*

We did 1 last swim; had dinner and packed our bags. It was time to go home tomorrow. The kids are at the kids club for one last time while the dowager is doing her final sprint at her casino, trying to recover her losses. I finally have some me time alone in the room. Yeah!

Overall this trip has been fun, they have been amazingly cooperative; and even though there were little spats, they always managed to patch up without much interference. I'm glad that we came for this trip. It was good bonding for the girls and me; n for my mom with me/them too.