Jolly Good Christmas!

It's my 2nd Christmas here in The States. I know it's a tad too late to wish people "Merry Christmas" since it's already Dec 27...LOL! So I shall wish all of you a "Blessed Belated Christmas!" I was really wrapped up with the hustle and bustle of getting last-minute Christmas gifts, wrapping them up, baking fruitcake and pecan cookies, and also pineapple tarts with my aunt for family, friends, and neighbors.

We had a Christmas Musical performed by the kids but we weren't allowed to take pictures because it might be a disturbance to the kids performing and also other people. But the kids were sooooo adorable with their cute outfits! Some forgot their lines, but nonetheless, it was a great performance after all! Kudos to Miss Amber Ferguson for organizing and directing this musical! She really did a superb job!

Here are some pictures taken at church during this Advent season:






























On Christmas morning, my family called me to wish me Merry Christmas. That was one of the best gifts, I must say. It's really great talking to them and realizing how much I miss them and everyone in Malaysia. For lunch, we were invited to a friend's house. She collects antiques and here's a picture of an antique Christmas tree that she has! Below that picture is her 'modern day' Christmas tree...notice that most of the ornaments are pink in color. Well, for those who do not know, pink symbolizes breast cancer awareness here. Yes, she's a breat cancer survivor. This explains the reason for the pinkish Christmas tree. She's a very nice lady and I thank God for the opportunity to have a friend like her.
































After lunch, we came home to prepare our Asian feast for some close friends. Since we already had American food for lunch (turkey, smoked ham, mashed potato, sweet potato salad, green beans, dinner rolls, and lots of pies!), we decided to have an Asian delight for dinner. Coincidentally, we were inviting some Asian friends as well. One is from Thailand and another friend is from Taiwan (I've mentioned her name on this blog before...her name is Yu Chen and she's my clsoe friend here). So we ate white rice, Mee Siam, sushi, mixed vegetables, fried eggs, char siu (BBQ pork...chinese style), fried seafood wantons, and more pies! Gosh, we were really stuffed on Christmas day!

After that, we exchanged presents among ourselves... Then Yu Chen asked me to check the showtime for Eragon at one of the cinemas. She gave me a movie treat and we went to watch Eragon at 9:30pm with her hubby, Jonathan. the movie was great and exciting and the main character, Eragon (the dragon rider in the movie) is so good-looking! *ahem*ahem* However, we thought that it was kinda short... oh well, I'm looking forward for the next sequel. You guys should watch it if you get a chance. It's something like Lord of The Rings... By the time I got home, it was already midnight.

Overall, it's been a jolly good Christmas for me. Let us not forget that the 'Reason for the Season' is God's precious gift to us, His one and only Son, Jesus. I was browsing through some Christmas e-cards as I saw this Christmas message:

"May the gifts we share this season be a reminder of God's precious gift to us. May your Christmas be filled with His love."


MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR 2007 to everyone!!!

With God, All Things are Possible!

As I was reading other people's blogs, I came across Jason's blog and I found this story. This is a very inspirational and awakening story. It's a daily reminder that we all need.


Brenda was almost halfway to the top of the tremendous granite cliff. She was standing on a ledge where she was taking a breather during this, her first rock climb. As she rested there, the safety rope snapped against her eye and knocked out her contact lens. "Great", she thought, "here I am on a rock ledge, hundreds of feet from the bottom and hundreds of feet to the top of this cliff, and now my sight is blurry."

She looked and looked, hoping that somehow it had landed on the ledge. But it just wasn't there.

She felt the panic rising in her, so she began praying. She prayed for calm, and she prayed that she may find her contact lens.

When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the lens, but it was not to be found. Although she was calm now that she was at the top, she was saddened because she could not clearly see across the range of mountains. She thought of the Bible verse "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth."

She thought, "Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every stone and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is. Please help me."

Later, when they had hiked down the trail to the bottom of the cliff they met another party of climbers just starting up the face of the cliff. One of them shouted out, "Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?"

Well, that would be startling enough, but you know why the climber saw it? An ant was moving slowly across a twig on the face of the rock, carrying it!

The story doesn't end there. Brenda's father is a cartoonist. When she told him the incredible story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact lens, he drew a cartoon of an ant lugging that contact lens with the caption, "Lord, I don't know why You want me to carry this thing. I can't eat it, and it's awfully heavy. But if this is what You want me to do, I'll carry it for You."

I think it would do all of us some good to say, "God, I don't know why You want me to carry this load. I can see no good in it and it's awfully heavy. But, if You want me to carry it, I will."

God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

Without God, I'm nothing, but with Him... I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Phil. 4:13)

A sigh of relief!

PHEW!!! I love the feeling of satisfaction after exams!!! (especially since I did pretty well...keke!) Woohoo! I've got one more Calculus exam to go, then FINALS! After that....the long-awaited HOLIDAYSSSSS!!!! Yippie!

Oh and my close friend from Taiwan is coming back to the States tomorrow!!! Hurray!!! we get to go hang out, chill, and have sleepovers in her apartment! YAY!!! We would talk & talk & talk till dawn (our record was talking from 10pm when we went to bed till 4am the next day!!!)....You must be thinking, "What on earth were we chating about for about 6 hours??" Well, we talk about tonnes of stuff and that's our little secrets!!! so I can't tell you guys! hehe! 'What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!' (well, in this case, what we talk about in her bedroom stays there!) She has a car, so she would take me out shopping in the mall, catch a movie, grab a bite, cook together, and go do stuff together lar... LOL! I can't wait for her to come back!!! And the most important thing is that she's my Mandarin sifu/teacher! I get to practice my rotten Mandarin with her....it's really cool! Who would've thought that I would be speaking Mandarin here??? Maybe I should start learning how to read and write in Mandarin, too!

That's all for now! Y'all have a great day! Adios!

No excuse!

So SORRY to those who still drop by my blog and take a peek to see if I've updated....Busy life ain't an excuse for not updating for so long!!! But a lot of stuff have been happening and I hardly have time to breath, let alone update my blog!

Just a summary of wat's been goin' on with my 'busy life'...lolz!

~ TESTS!! one after another... This past week was chemistry (not doing too good in this class since I have the most strict and grumpy and demanding teacher... He doesn't allow us to bring formulas for chemistry... So we've gotta depend on our brains to memorize almost every fact and tiny detail in chemistry). Next week is Calculus! Imagine lar...In high school we only had about 4 exams in total (including finals, midterms, etc) and that's for the whole year. But this Calculus teacher is giving us 5 tests and also a Finals... So the total would be 6 exams in just 5 months (1 semester)! This upcoming one is Test 4. So we have one more test to go after this, and then the FINALS! Finally!!!

~ An October b'day party at a friend's house... We celebrated with 8 birthday boys and gals!!!

~ Worked at the Rolling Stones concert, 3 college football games, and 1 basketball game! Rolling Stones was okay to me since I'm not really a fan of theirs...But it was a full house! 42,000 tickets ranging from $60 to $300 were sold out! I did 'Pat Down' that day, meaning I had to search ppl's bags, pockets, and check to see if they're trying to sneak in prohibited stuff. Among the things I had to confiscate were the usual food and drinks, alcohol, weed/drugs (yes, this teenager was trying to bring in that too!), frisbies, banners, etc... For the other games, I did ushering.

~ Went for advising, and then registered for classes for the upcoming Spring semester. I'll be taking a full load again next semester. This time with more engineering classes, and two higher level math classes! Hopefully I'll survive it!

~ Lots of homework, lab reports, learning how to use MATLAB for engineering, and also a finals project for my EE class!!!


Events that I'm looking forward to:

1. Thanksgiving! We're invited to two close friends homes for lunch and dinner! Menu: Roasted Turkey (of course!), cranberry stuffing in the turkey, and others... For dessert: pumpkin, chocolate, apple, and peach pies! I know...That's a lot of pies! I'll have a small slice of 2 of 'em only lar... Hmm...which one should I eat eh??? lol!! Besides the glorious meals, the reason we celebrate Thanksgiving is to be thankful and eternally grateful to our Provider for all His blessings. We also thank God for our wonderful church, families and friends. (Did I mention that I'll get two days off because of Thanksgiving? hehe! That's another thing I'm very thankful for!)

2. In less than two months, we'll be celebrating Christmas! HoHoHo!!! And I'll be having my winter hols from Dec 9 to Jan 14!!! Hurray!!! Oh talking about Christmas, our Uni is having a Secret Santa Program whereby students and staff will get Christmas gifts for under privileged kids. The kids already requested their wish list and sent it to "Santa"! On Nov 28, we'll have a gift wrapping party at the Uni to wrap all the prezzies!! So all of us are "Santa"! Indeed, it's better to give than to receive!


One thing that I'm NOT really looking forward to is:

1. Final exams from Dec 1 to Dec 8! But I know I'll be really glad once it's OVER!!