Journey of Happiness

S o, two days ago, I took my THIRD practical driving test. I was so nervous, whether or not I've done it twice before LOL! My examiner was Michelle, the lady that was the examiner on my first test. She is a very very nice lady. :) This time, I took the plunge to do the test without my instructor, Sean, going with me. He said that it might lessen the pressure on me. So I thought it worth a try. The first 20 minutes out of the 40 minutes, I was so nervous. My left leg was shaking so bad while doing the 'reverse to the left' manoeuvre! I decided to ask for some time, I took some deep breaths, prayed in my head and heart and got to calm myself down. Thank God, I finally did it properly. At the end of it, I got 6 minor mistakes and NO serious mistake! And I PASSED!! YAY!!!! I was so so happy, so giddy and so thankful and so relieved! I am thankful to The Lord for the calmness and wisdom, for Lan, who continuously and without fail, supported me and prayed with me, and for ...

H appiest birthday to you, Mam! Happier than ever before, I hope, day by day! Happy 46th years YOUNG! You are my MUM, my SISTER and my FRIEND! I love you to bits, though I know it's nothing compared to your love to me! I am thankful to The Lord for you, I am lucky to have you! You go through lots for me and never fail to shower me with your love. You bring smiles to my face when I cry and am sad. Love you, Mam! Thank you for knocking the Heaven's door with each and every prayers you've said for your children. I'm who I am because of you, too. :) xoxo

I know that this is a bit late for the day, but I still want to dedicate a post for my mum's birthday, like I do it every year in the past years of my blogging. So, here is a very happy birthday wish for Mami! I pray The Lord adds to you all the desires of your heart and the best things that He has in store for you! Amen! And as for the requested birthday present, please keep reminding Lan so that you really get what you asked, Mam! LOL! ;) But, here is a little birthday present from me. :) I love this picture of you smiling. You do know that you are really beautiful to me; when I 'grow up' I want to be at least like you. I love you, Mam! Credits: Composure Plus by Taylor Made Designs Birthday WA by Three Paper Peonies Date strip from A Work In Progress - Designs by Vicki. And, since it is only the third day of 2010, I think it's not too late to post about my resolutions. I am never really committed on making resolutions each year, but this year, I make this list as a ...

D on't worry, I won't spoil the fun. But, I'm sorry I might make you all jealous... I had so much fun today!! Gosh, I loveeeeeeee New Moon! It is so so much better than Twilight! The seats were full and overflowed with people, who were cheering every now and then at the scenes. It was such an exciting atmosphere! Amazing! And as gorgeous as Jacob's new look could be, I am still team Edward! *woo hoo!* I would love to watch it again and again, but Lan said, wait for the DVD... *sob sob sob* But I have to agree with him! No way I can beat the queue! It was a crazy bunch of crowds there! Well, I know that the New Moon fever is not over yet, but here I am honestly saying: I CAN'T WAIT FOR ECLIPSE!!! 30 June 2010, bring it over, baby!!! Ps. Oh man, I'm crazy! Ps2. after the movie, we had dinner at Yo-Sushi ! Yummy yum! I got a 30% off voucher for my birthday! We, of course, took our camera with us and got to play with the new lens (aka 50mm)! That lens, baby, is one ...

s tarted with my very first cervical screening (pap smears), Thank God it was quick and not quite as scary as I thought... Then, coming to office, greeted with a few 'happy birthday's from colleagues. Some even sang the song, which made me blushed crazily! We brought cake to office, so that they can enjoy the treat :) They were happy with it. The day went on quick with me chatting with my Mum. It has been awhile. It's good to talk to her again. Lunch was not the normal routine, Lan and I decided to join our colleagues to eat out instead of going home and cook. Today is special because I got a special letter from Yulia, the letter I had been waiting for. What a perfect timing! Today is special because I got 80+ emails in my inbox from all of my dear friends wishing me happy birthday and praying awesome prayers for me. Thank you, all of you! Today is special because I feel blessed, loved and remembered. Today is a remembrance day for me of all the great things my Jesus has do...

T oday, you turned 13! Cece is totally grateful that you are getting to be a man each day! My beloved brother, be a great son to your parents and a wonderful brother to your siblings. Above all, be an obedient son to your Father in Heaven. God bless you! Credits: DeCrow Designs blueprint 16 (template) Stitched tags from Cool Summer Add-on by Lyndsay Riches. Background and Orange paper from Boy Meets Girl, a collab by scrappy cocoa and gettin' scrappy with Britt. Hanging stars from Pretty Music by Maelia Designs. Everything else from Tracie Stroud's Cake and Ice Cream. Fonts: Big title using dirty ego, small title using Pea Steph, journal using Pea Sara Prints.

A fter anxiously waiting for the news for a few months, the news is finally here... CONGRATULATIONS AND A VERY WELL DONE TO MY BELOVED HUSBAND for getting his scientific paper accepted into the infamous CADE* (the Conference on Automated Deduction)! I am very proud of you, honey! You worked hard and you deserve this acceptance very well! I thank God, above all, for such a great blessing that He has given to us; for your great achievement and for the happiness painted all over your face that continues to make me smile! Thank you, Jesus! I hope next year, I will be able to make you proud as well in the 23rd CADE! I am very competitive, you see... If it weren't for my eczema, I probably will be competing with you this year hahahaha... So, is it home or Montreal (Canada) we are going, dear? Ps. CADE is the major international forum at which research on all aspects of automated deduction is presented. The first conference was held in 1974. (taken from http://www.cadeconference.org/ ) P...

Yes, I am 24 now! Thank you, Lord, for another blessed year! Thank you, Lord, for all the wonderful family, friends and especially my husband around me. Thank you, Lan, for making each of my days so colorful, happy and beautiful! Thank you for the unending love. And thank you, all of you my beloved friends, for the birthday wishes, the wonderful prayers and encouragements! God bless you all! Ps. The photos are in HERE .

Y esterday, we really had a lovely afternoon! And it is all thanks to Jesus Christ and my beloved husband for making it so wonderful! Five p.m., as we agreed, we left office, feeling a bit disappointed that it started to rain. We got home and changed clothes, fetched our camera and mini tripod and off we walked to the restaurant. We were heading to Ego restaurant , which happens to be only 5 minutes walk from where we live. Every time we went pass there, somehow it was always full of people and has delicious smell coming out from the kitchen! And so we decided to try... Lan had marinated moroccan chicken salad with a chickpea, apricot and raisin salsa served with a yoghurt, honey and mint dressing for starter and ‘pappardelle portofino’ chargrilled chicken, manzanilla green olives, mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes in a cream, red wine and tomato sauce for his main course. And I had grilled goats cheese served on toasted brioche with caramelised red onions and a fig and blueberry jam ...

H is soft whisper woke me up this morning. Ughhh... Cannot believe it has been one year already! Time flies, but through it all, I am so grateful... for my beloved husband, who would do anything for me. I am grateful to my Jesus, for my soulmate, for His providence and hands upon our little family. On this same beautiful day, is my best friend's birthday. One that I have known for so many years and I keep loving her more each day. And, I am so happy that since 2007, we celebrate this special date together until forever! So... Happy Birthday, my sister in Christ, Yulie! We both love you! This one whole year has been beautiful to me. Not because we never fought each other, believe me, we fought quite many times! It is beautiful that through all of those ups and downs, we willing to improve for each other and we really improve. Along the way, we compromise, we forgive and we think alike. Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful one year! Thank you friends, for remembering, for the beautifu...

The day that you did not really wish for has come uncontrolably... The digits had to change... Still, I am happy that The Lord blesses me with you in my life. For you to be with me, walking beside me, laughing with me... Happy 30th Birthday, darling! I love you, always.

N i hao, friends! I am not really glad to say that we are back... Because we did not really one to return here. I fell in love with Beijing and still loving it! I love Lan's family, I feel that they are my own family. Well, for now, I will just direct you to our photos together, which are all stored in my multiply album . The stories will follow when the tiredness in me has passed. God bless!

N o special plan we had yesterday evening. Suddenly, Lan proposed a plan for a dinner somewhere in the city center after the office hour. Hence, we went to Bella Italia for such a nice dinner. When we got there, we were said that the restaurant is fully booked, however, the manager was kind enough to give us a table for an hour. So, when we got to our table, Lan suddenly pulled out something from his jacket, it is the toblerone rose chocolate. He said, no need for a fresh rose, this rose you can keep forever. Such a sweet surprise, honey! How thoughtful you are! I am a big fans of chocolate, so, I was very happy! We ate it together when we got home and I get to keep the 'rose'. How about your yesterday, friends? Was it special too? :)

W e received the first two Christmas cards Monday, which are from our supervisors. Well, the one from my supervisor is an interesting one! 'Enjoy your first Christmas being married!' That's what she wrote in the card. Hehehe... Both Lan and I laughed on that. It just sounds funny to us. Many people ask what are we doing in Christmas, where are we going to go. The answer is: nothing and nowhere. We do not plan anything particularly special for this Christmas, but I do look forward to being at home and relaxing for at least several days at home. It is after Christmas that we plan to shop some gifts to be brought back to China during Easter, it is because the sale starts then hehe... Right now we are still in the office, finishing few things before the year goes by, getting ready for the business next year, which are already piling up. The building is very quiet at this time of the year, as the students are already on holiday, and some of the lecturers do not come to the offi...

23 is officially my age now! Not as depressed as usually, simply because I have someone to be by my side all my life now... Well, I felt better yesterday (Saturday) and was looking forward to have a special birthday dinner with my lovely husband, Lan. Let me share my story of this year's birthday. 16 Nov 2007 Friday night, Lan came home later than I expected him to be, saying that he had to mark the bachelor students' assignments and got really busy. However, I did not realise that it was his excuse to run to city centre and bought my favourite cake, tiramisu. He came home with a box of chocolate and a black forest cake, apologizing for not being able to find tiramisu. I was already very happy though. He is so caring, that I don't want to ask for more. He is simply the best. We had bacons and potatoes for dinner and everything went normal. After dinner, we watched Naruto (the Japanese weekly anime) together. When we finished, he excused himself to the kitchen to cook some w...

T omorrow is Hans (my little brother)'s birthday. He is going to be 11 years old! So, A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to YOU, brother! Well, this whole week, I have been doing something that I had never done before. I am a private English teacher now! Only for one week though, because Lee, the Korean girl who is my student now, rang me last Friday. However, she said that she is having a hard time during our lessons, because I am giving her the tasks which are similar to IELTS questions (Because that's exactly what she asked me to teach her!). I would say she is doing fine :) She is good, just need some more confidence. Moving on to my excitement! Well... two days to go! I am very very happy! At the very moment, Lan is busy with moving into our new flat. I hope he is doing fine. Jesus be with him. Although my flight is still 2 days to go, my PhD supervisor has contacted me to arrange our first meeting next week. *Oh God... the study will start again very very soon!* The great thing i...

"B een a month already!" Lan said that to me in his email. I wonder which is the real reality; time flies or we've been apart too long? We miss each other terribly that we've gone through some sicknesses one after another. The visa application has not given us a happy news. Instead, on Tuesday, 07 August 2007 at 10.00 a.m., the British embassy requires me to attend an interview in Jakarta. So, here is an extra effort to get my visa. Please, dear friends, kindly pray for me and for this visa application that it will come out quickly. Anyhow, being apart gives us many important lessons; about our feelings towards each other, the importance of each other's presence, the meaning of our marriage and many others. Being apart does not mean we don't grow, instead, it makes us much mature and gives us great understanding about our marriage. Thank you, Jesus, for allowing this to happen. I believe that You have a great plan for us. Amen! OK, friends, that's al...

C ontinuing my story about our prehoneymoon! Actually on the night of 07 July, after we said good-bye to Yulia, we swam for a little while. The water was so cold that both of us were shivering. Do you think it's romantic to take a swim under the starry night with your husband?! Hehehehe... Anyway it was fun! :) The next day we had an early morning. It was Sunday, 08 July 2007, we took a taxi at 6.30 to take us to the church, GBI ROCK Lembah Pujian, that is the same church we had our holy matrimony. We have arranged to meet my parents there, so that after the service finished we went home with them. After getting the swimming suits, we headed back to the villa. Grace and my parents swam until afternoon while Lan slept because he was so tired. As for me, I just watched TV and sometimes browsed around the Internet. For dinner, my dad took us to Pepito Restaurant (close to the Ngurah Rai International Airport). We had quite a big dinner there, that afterwards all of us had difficult...