OoSh.. @ Dempsey

oosh... so nice.

Yes, i was there with my friends :)
It actually looks better at night.
The dining area was dimly lited with candles.
With a touch of nature: water and trees, seemed perfect and romantic.

The food was alright.. dessert was... alright too :)
I guess it's just about the atmosphere.

We chilled on cozy couches after dinner. It was great.
time for chats and laughter...

I'll probably be there again with a different crowd.

New Song

love this song...

Hillsong United - Hosanna

I see the king of glory
Coming down the clouds with fire
The whole earth shakes, the whole earth shakes
I see his love and mercy
Washing over all our sin
The people sing, the people sing

Chorus
Hosanna, hosanna
Hosanna in the highest

Verse 2
I see a generation
Rising up to take the place
With selfless faith, with selfless faith
I see a new revival
Staring as we pray and seek
We're on our knees, we're on our knees

Bridge
Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me
Break my heart for what is yours
Everything I am for your kingdom's cause
As I walk from earth into eternity

we sang this during service today.
my personal response- tears.

So true!

This is an absolutely incredible interview with Rick Warren, "Purpose
Driven Life" author and pastor of the Saddleback Church in California .

His wife now has cancer, and he now has "wealth" from the book sales.

In the interview by Paul Bradshaw, Rick Warren said: "People ask me,
what is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is
preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God wants us
to be with Him in Heaven.

One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body --
but not the end of me. I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am
going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act -
the dress rehearsal.

God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity. We
were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't
going to make sense.

Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just
coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.

The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than
your comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than He is
in making your life happy.

We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life.
The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.

This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the
toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.

I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark
time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe
that anymore. Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that
it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have
something good and something bad in your life. No matter how good things
are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked
on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always
something good you can thank God for.

You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. If
you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, "which is
my problem, my issues, my pain."

But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off
yourself and onto God and others.

We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of
thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for
her. It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her
character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a
testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.

You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.
Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For
instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million
copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a lot of
notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God
gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of
ease.

So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety
and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide
what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.

First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our
lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases. Second, about midway
through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.

Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan
to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and
educate the next generation.

Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I
started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able
to serve God for free.

We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?
Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or
am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?

When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if
I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You
better

God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more
interested in what I am than what I do. That's why we're called human
beings, not human doings.

Happy moments, PRAISE GOD. Difficult moments, SEEK GOD. Quiet moments,
WORSHIP GOD. Painful moments, TRUST GOD. Every moment, THANK GOD. "

This is beautiful and "food for the soul!" A friend sent it to me, I'm sharing it with you.

a shout-out

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh is an insufficient, insignificant shoutout for now.
however, in all things, i believe that AAAAAmen will be sufficient, significant forever.
i might not have to comprehend the power of amen. Just simply believe that God's love surpasses knowledge. yupz, my knowledge included. a pea-brained fish.

Knowledge is not be the key. By believing, my God will bring me to where i need to be.

"come, and i will show you great and mighty things.."-God.

mY Getaway...

i'm away in aussie.. spending time with people i love! :)

one of the highlights for this trip was the stayover @pet's place! i love pet. we understand why. haha. i love her house. breathtaking view from her room.

hmm.. good to have friends and relatives all around the world! Stayed with uncle and aunty in sydney. great time. staying in my brother's wonderful big house in adelaide now.. so proud of him! :) i enjoy every moment of our family reunion!

i thank God for a time of relaxation and contemplation. i needed it. He knows. It's all coming to an end, but i do know that good things do sometimes end, but i have to return to reality. Holidays cannot last forever. :( but well, good news is that God's goodness really lasts forever!This is the one good thing that doesnt end. i love God. :)

"I'm your Abba Father, and that's all you need to know..."- God

i'm back!

boy..

blogging always reminds me of my time in the States.. coz that was how i keep my friends updated of what i'm up to! haha..

weeding my blog. so old.. even the tag board is infested with nonsense!

just celebrated my birthday! so good to celebrate it in singapore where lots of my loved ones are with me!! :) so happy!! Thanks all of u who remembered and celebrated with me!

ok.. think this is all i can do for today. too tired to type. lala.

yes.. have been busy

my poor blog.. have been neglected ever since i got busy with work!

yupz.. life has changed ever since i started work! yeps.. less free time on my hands, but i do love my job. Although it can be really challenging, i normally walk out of the office feeling good that someone has been helped. Of course there were days i walked out feeling sad for various reasons but generally, my job is fulfilling. For me, i think that life is too short to be wasted. If we can bring some happiness and hope to others, then why not? :) For those of u who are interested in social work, come talk to me! haha...

What else have i been busy with? ministries as well as hobbies!!

yes.. my new hobby- cooking/baking.
love to flip cookbooks and try out new recipes! At times i do wonder if it's worth the time and money but i truly love the feeling of success when my food turns out good! so happy!!! And the relationships built with others in the process.. priceless. In view of that, it's worth the time & money.. Baked dark chocolate souffle with elin and eliz today! so much fun! the souffle turns out pretty good too.. but, uncle stan thought it tastes more like the chinese "huat kuey" ahhhhh!!!!!

Sunday afternoons shall be exciting in the future.. maybe we should meet for some sports or recreation... flood my blog with sugguestions!!! anyway.. night ppl. my eyes are shutting... getting so small.... bye...

OnLy 1250m mah...

wa-lah! people.. i know u must have been checking my blog to see if i've posted anything on Fraser's and Mt Ophir. In fact, i was just waiting for pictures but oh well.. i guess i'll just post!!

Fraser seemed too long ago to be talked about. The long lasting memory will be the powerful leech bite which itches till now. Will try and post the pic of the FAT leech! Tried killing it but without success.. anyway, loved the trip for it is just really nice to hang out with YMM friends again. I had tons of fun just laughing and cracking up. Oh.. but the sad thing was that Justin fell sick during the trip :( poor boy.

The point about justin being sick leads to the beginning of our next trip... Mt Ophir. Justin was supposed to go with us but he was down with dengue that week. sigh! Anyway.. We trained so hard for this trip... including an overnight hike (from Kallang to yishun) and lots of jogging and climbing of stairs.. We did all we could physically but Ophir was just something else for the tiny fishie brain. The mental strength has to be strong.

It was deceiving in the beginning for i wasn't expecting the climb to be THAT tough. We hit the initial checkpoints pretty quickly and we arrived at our campsite (checkpoint four) in less than two hours? We stopped for the day, rested, bathed, ate and went to zzz at eight plus. We woke up at 130am the nx morning, all ready to ascend to the summit!

The darkness slowed us down. All we could see was the little patch of land where our flashlights shined. We kept going like this for the next two hours until it began to pour. Yupz. We were drenched.. and had to "keblakang-pusing" to our campsite. :( tears And that was another two hours. On our way back, my flashlight flickered, trying to tell me it's weariness. And finally, it breathed it's last. With that, i went "plop" and fell the first time. Picked myself up and said "ya... ya.. i'm alright" Kept going.. 20min later... "plop" i went again. Fell on rocks while trying to cross a puddle of water. ouch. Simon and daryl yanked me out of the dark water. sigh. poor legs. Yupz.. so we continued and before we arrived at the campsite, mich went "ahhh..." and when i tip-toed to look at what's going on, i saw that she landed on some big rocks too.. poor girl. I slept when we finally arrived at the campsite. It was just too strenous for a little fish.

Long story short.. we tried again after resting. And yups.. we made it to the top! The route got tougher as we went higher. Grooves were our friends. Three-point contact was the ideal position. Ropes were saviors. Repelling was my favorite. Ribena was my motivation. Uncle toby had given me strength!

Anyway.. lots of UNEXPECTED things happened in this trip.. Oh, did i mention the zzzing over in Larkin Bus terminal? haha.. once in a lifetime kind of experience. And crossing on the wrong side of causeway and being stopped by Police? And last of all... being punked by our leader?? I mean.. gosh! Personally i loved this trip! It allowed me to learn more about myself, my tolerance, mental strength as well as physical strength. On top of that, it allowed me to get to know my team-mates better! The experience of bathing and sleeping together always changes things. Hmm... :p (i mean girls k?). Ya, and it is a blessing to be part of this team. Am thankful for no one was hurt during the trip and i must say that u guys did wonderful! So... Mt Kinabalu next year? Please sign up :p

i'm HOME!

....this is HOME truly where i know i must be... where my dreams wait for me..
....Count on me singapore....

hahaha.. YES! i'm home folks.. I know i'm patriotic.. can't help it coz it's National Day in a couple days. I can still remember that i left on National Days 2 years ago... hmm.. wow.. feels like it was a long time ago.. Anyway, am just elated to be Home again. Changes?? not really.. I guess two years wasn't long enough for drastic changes.. except for the two new condominiums by my house that shot up to the 25 floors within a year. Family? er.. same lor. Just a little different now that i do not have to do any household chores again... sounds good huh? but i begin to feel bad now. I feel like i need to contribute in some ways.. My ah ma is glad that i'm back... she'll cook up my fav dish whenever i whine. haha..

Anyway.. i've sent out my resume.. so folks.. keep me in your prayers.. alright.. will tell u guys more about my exciting Fraser's Hill trip in the next post.. stay tuned...

My New Found Friends!

Introducing Mr Peter Pan! Peanut Butter is my friend. It's with me in the morning, day & Night. Taste better when u eat it by the spoonful! The honey roast is AMAZINGLY good! Peanut butter with a tinge of sweetness... hmm... good with crackers or just by itself. It's almost magical! Fairytale good-ness...

History
The first patent for peanut butter was issued in the late 1800s. However, peanut butter as it's known today began with Joseph L. Rosefield, who earned a patent for shelf-stable peanut butter in which the oil does not separate from the peanut butter. Launched in 1928, Peter Pan was one of the first brands to sell this style of peanut butter. http://www.conagrafoods.com/brands/peter_pan/index.jsp

The next good friend of mine is Miss Lean Pockets! yum! My fav type of Lean Pockets is stuffed with mouth-savoring melted mozzarella cheese with hearty meatballs. chunks n chunks of meatball! Hurray! The chessy crust is crispy, thin and toasty. It makes a great lunch! Just stick it into the microwave.. yummy lunch in 4 min. GREAT STUFF! forget about cooking! Coz why cook when u can have such great companions?

Yesyesyes... i'm gradually losing friends and thus have to start looking for NEW ones! And Food have been faithful to me. Always there when i need them. haha... ooh.. going psycho! time to leave! agree? hmm..

i'm lonely again...

time flies. friends come and go.

The second session of summer school has ended... luggages rolling along the hallway, RA shouting "i'll be in your room next", people saying "ya! i'm going home for the summer!"
My roomie Ann has left. *tears* As i'm typing, tears are welling up, for i think... i am already missing her. She's more than just a friend to me. She's like my older sister! She'll take me to praticum and pick me up daily. She prays for me & cooks for me (@ times :p). I miss her presence coz i love to tease her. haha.. She's also my fashion consultant!!. Anyway, i'm just really blessed to have known her my last year here in ORU... The room is so quiet with just me alone. Sent her off this morning and it was so hard to fight back my tears. Well.. coz i do not know when i'll get to see her again. Yupz, good friends are hard to come by... especially one with a sweet spirit & big heart.

So many people have left... i'll miss them. They have made a difference in my stay here in the States. i cried when i left home... now i cry coz i'm going home. hmm.. i'm beginning to pack up my stuff.. am feeling like i'm SO ready to get on a Jetplane and go home... for i'm too lonely now. :(

Getaway!

hmm.. Ann ( my best friend cum roomie) & I went to Oklahoma city yesterday! :) lots of fun. haha. my definition. We didnt get to sightsee too much coz there aint nothing to see anyway! :p We mapquest-ed in the morning n left! It was an adventure.. we had fun chatting along the way, and finally making our way to the HUGE asian store. We drank our fav bubble tea and shopped! Oh wait.. we actually went to the OKC memorial first.. the site where the OKC bombing happened.. we took a couple pictures n left..
We saw an old lady crying as she looked at the pictures... hmm.. so sad :( Anyway, we thought it was pretty meaningful to be there over memorial weekend.

The Asian store was the highlight of the trip. We bought so much food n were overly excited over every single type of food.. I picked up a packet of Do-Do fishball and screamed to ann "This is made in Singapore!!!!" I haven't had it for long time!!!" Of course.. she laughed and said "u're crazy!!"

I bought dumplings (potstickers), nian rong bao, noodles, "tau pok" & other ingredients for the Vietnamese spring roll! so happy.. feels like home again when surrounded by familiar food. :)

My plan for tml is to make the spring roll.. or laksa.. hmm... *drool* Why am i always talking about food? I have no idea.. it's becoming my passion... sigh! why do i have to submit to my mentor's cult? i'm a true pamelonian pamelongelist.

Summer's here!

oh boy... hothothot.. it's been SO hot here in this wonderful land of Oklahoma.. my ORU friends who have stayed for the summer would totally understand this crazy oven-like weather.. it's a high of 95F today.. which is about 35C. I feel like a grilled fish after taking a walk out there.. my skin is protesting... look like a red snapper now. Well, i guess pam would not agree with me on that coz she's big on that forehead thing, n i'll still look like luohan to her.. anyway... my point still being that it is way hot here. But the bad thing about this hot weather is that places that are indoors BLAST their air to the MAX! I freeze indoor n melt outdoors.

hmm.. well.. i guess i'm preparing myself for Singapore in this hot weather. :) How's the weather there?? Can't stop telling everyone that i'm going home soon! haha. So excited.

Oh.. and i'm so proud of myself for overcoming the fear of dogs! haha. Coz i went to Renannah's apartment yesterday.. and she has a German Shepherd that weighs about 60-80 Lbs. Reuben is his name. Gosh.. he was darting around and hey..i wasn't freaking out as i used to.. :) But huhz.. cats, it's still haunting me. There was a cat in the parking lot yesterday, and it stared at me as i was walking by.. so i stared back, and it began to walk towards me.. then it ran! So i screamed for Ann to come help me!! Well, Ann ran in an opposite direction! Boy i was scared. The silly cat apparently got a shock from my screaming and ran into the bushed and hid. When will i overcome this? ahhhh.... the devil is a liar! :p

I graduated!!

Yes i did.. kinda.. will be goin HOME after i'm done with my internship!

we had our hooding ceremony in a Church, and it was really nice. I loved it and had so much fun! jackie's & her parents, ann, donna and laura were there too! My favorite part of my graduation was the little homely graduation party i had with jeanette and her family! We had so much Singapore food and some yummy desserts made by Aunty victoria and Mema (the host family). I love Jeanette's family. They are all so sweet and loving, and of course, i fit right in! We had a short worship, sharing and prayers. It ended with a sad goodbye scene coz it'll be a while before i get to see jeanette again. And for Ann, it was the last for a long time... Goodbyes are always sad. :(

Anywayz...It feels GREAT to graduate, knowing that it's OVER and no more studying for a while. I can't say that yet coz i still need to write papers for the internship! but ya.. that'll come true very soon. God is good. He carried me through... from the beginning till the end of my stay in ORU. I'm thankful for friends and people i meet here... started crying the other day when i say bye to some of my friends, whom i know i'll not see for a longlong time :'( It's really a bittersweet feeling...

I'll be home in a couple months. And u bet i'm looking forward to that! hmm.. somebody better watch out!! :p

My Easter Weekend

yupz... it's a late post.. but ya..haven't had time to update my post due to all "paper" craze. Too many papers due in a week. Anyway, I'm glad that it was my last HUGE paper for the semester! *praise JESUS*

Yaya.. easter weekend was way fun! Coz i went to jackie's grandparents' house in Enid, Ok. Nice little town. Everyone has BIG houses there (It seemed).. Yup, had Great dinner! the Thanksgiving type dinner with Ham, potato, green beans. rolls.. and of course.. bunny cake! It was a sugar-rush weekend! Coz we had bunny cake w braum's ice-cream n then we ate chocolates... :p

easter egg hunt was definitely the HIGHLIGHT. But with a bunch of college kids (Jackie, Taylor, Josh & me) it practically turned violent. The Biggest winner was actually the 3-yr-old cutie Abby. Well.. ya.. coz we weren't even serious in egg-hunting. we just wanna rob one another.. haha. And especially when we found out that there were money in the eggs.. haha... Taylor n jackie just basically lost it... they tossed the plastc eggs at one another, stepping on the candies and in the end just took up a ball and started playing dodge ball. It was scary... and abby just loved
being in the midst of them for she thought it was real fun to see her mommy chasing after her. :) we got so tired tt day n we slept.. zzz.

Grandma McCrate woke us up in the morning. n she asked "so girls, coffee, bacon and eggs or milk and cereal?" my reply was... "bacon n eggs please, grandma" Yeh! i felt so special. grandmas are just awesome. dun u think?

I experienced the dressy springy easter sunday service for the first
time. Gosh.. everyone was just dressy! haha. I tried to just
blend in. The meaning of easter was definitely not very well depicted
in the way i spent my weekend! haha...

Well, but i did not forget to give thanks to God for dying for our sin. He's alive. Praise Him. :)

My Birthday!

I had a wonderful birthday this year! I woke up in the morning smiling... and when i open my room door, i was greeted by a balloon and a bunch of other greetings on the hallway! Ann & Kristi wrote "happy birthday" for me in chinese and Grace & nancy also put up signs in Braxton and i'm pleasantly surprised! Well, this is just the beginning of my bday. When i went to class that morning, I was surprised by two boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts (2 dozen!!) yum... I was so touched coz Jeanette drove all the way to memorial to get em' that morning! :) thanks girl! And of course, my class sang me the bday song n i blushed.

Afternoon was great too! Coz patty gave me a bouquet of flowers!! besides that, Ms rivers handed me a card, a 3.5lB carrot cake and 2 tubs of ice-cream!! ahhhh.. screamz! she is so sweet to me and I am just overwhelmed by her love. :) I shared the ice-cream with the group that Ann & i led. We had a little "party" at the end of the group session, and they sang me bday song too! haha..

My bday ended with a climax at Pf Chang's w Ann, Jeanette & lynnette.. uhm... gosh! Chinese bistro. yum is the word. yeh is the feeling. Uh-huh is the taste. empty r the plates. haha... we had sweet & sour chicken, ma po tofu n curry vegetable.. *drool* & i receive my GAP giftcard from Ann & jeanette... :)

Ok, if u think that might be the end, hmm... NO!!!! coz this bday goes on and on... pretty much like birthdays, not just a day. The next day was great too! It began with shopping, er wait... not really coz it started with the not so "fun" run. Anyway, i did some Massive shopping! I was out the entire afternoon w jeanette, ann, donna & laura. Spent lots of money, got me a tank top, a cute top, a jacket & a shawl. I was so tired after that and i knocked out after coming back to my room. hmm.. then the party starts again at 5.30 when i met up with girls on my wing at Bourbon street cafe. It has nice life jazz music and good cajun food. We had fun eating & I got a harmonica as a bday gift! (from the musicians) yeh!!!

wow... gosh. That's my bday! I feel special & loved. Thanks everyone for making this a memorable bday... thank u for all ur ecards, testimonials, sms... everything!

Run, baby run!!!

cheers!!! yeh... that's my baby cousin!!!

My cutie cousin, hector won the baby race! He broke the local record! Wow! yeh... You go, baby! When i left last august, he was just beginning to crawl, but now, he is the champ runner! and he can talk too! When i called home last week, he shouted into the phone "jie jie" aww.... So i asked him, "is hector a good boy?" and he answered "Um.." and after that he refused to let my mom come to the phone. haha.. then when he noticed that my grandma had a bowl of stir-fried beehoon in her hands, he tossed the handset and charged towards the food! haha... cute boy.

classes resumed!

whee... it's over. Yup, my very last spring break in ORU is over! hmm.. well, am really not too upset over that coz that just means that the time to go home is drawing nearer! jump for joy! was talking again to curry about being able to be home FOR GOOD. gosh! what a blessing! we talked about it so much that i simply can't wait to go! hehe.. but i know i know.. I need to work really hard from now till then :)

I just realized that i've watched lots of movie in this past 3 months. gosh... have never watched that many movies in such a short period of time... Let me try listing them.. er..

1) Cheaper by the dozen 1
2) Cheaper by the dozen 2
3) In her shoes
4) Bridget jones diary 1
5) King kong
6) Walk the line
7) End of the spear
8) Bride & prejudice
9) Cinderella story
10) Janette oke's love comes slowly (i think)

haha.. 10 in 3 months! awesome. I think i left out some.. i'll keep thinking. hmm..

Aga-aga

haha... No friends, i don't mean "agar-agar" the jelly. I mean 'aga-aga' (approximate/ estimate) the amount of seasoning to add into my cooking :) Curry (clarice) just re-introduced that word into my dictionary! Yupz, I used "aga-ration" for my own cooking.. it's really hard to explain how much soy sauce or salt to add... the key is just "aga-aga". Gosh.. this is such a singlish post! haha...

My Dinner

A picture of my dinner as promised... :)

1.Stir-fry Kai-lan w carrot & mushrooms
2.Sesame chicken with mushroom
3.Fragrance white rice.

Recipe:

1/4 tablespoonful of SWEAT
plus +
1 entire motivated heart
equals =
A set of wonderful dinner!

Got it? i bet.