Flowers

Photos of my table top arranagement and hand bouquet. I made them myself. Save money plus I can put what I learnt to good use.

Beng has been very supportive when I say I want to learn flower arrangement and hair-cutting. By this, I mean he will send me to classes and fetch me after classes. In between, he will help to take care of the children. After having a hard time with the children at home, he will still smile and ask how the class is and compliments me on my amatuerish arrangement. Well, you may think what is the big deal. Many years ago, he was not like this. He will say, "go what class, stay at home and spend time with the kids lah!". Then he will go out and meet his friends, Toh and Jaime for kopi!

Now, I am trying to persuade him to let me cut his hair. He arrow my Dad and Brother, saying that I should try on their heads first and when I am more comfortable, I can try it on his head! (Dad and my Brother are my strongest supporters! I did not even ask Dad. He ask me to cut his hair for him when I told him that I was learning hair-cutting. My brother lagi best! When I was doing my confinement after having Engie, he was the one preparing the formula milk for Engie at 3am in the morning!)

Coming back, even though Beng was recluctant to let me cut his hair, he successfully persuaded his oldest sister to let me cut her hair! Although the result was a bit *ahem*. But, Beng tells sister Kheng that the hairstyle looks fabulous on her! Anyway, Kheng and her husband, Myron have been very supportive. She did not go and get another haircut, neither did Myron ask her to go and get it fixed!

Yeah! My wonderful family! I am so blessed!

My surprise present for Beng

Beng was really, really surprised when I announced the Best Husband Award. Well, after so long in marriage, we do not need to give material things to our spouse to make them happy, isn't it? That is the problem with men! They feel that they have to buy us diamonds, expensive handbags, big bouquet of flowers to make us feel us happy! Well maybe, we will feel happy for that moment. In the end, if you revert back to your bad habits or undesirable attitudes, all the gifts will come to nought. And, you think that buying more gifts will appease us!

(Note: Beng does not have many bad habits and undesirable attitudes that I can't stand. He used to have but he makes effort to change himself to please me, just like how I change some of my habits to suit him as well. Marriage is all about compromising and changing for the better for each other. And the most important thing is that God is instrumental in making our marriage works!)

Beng has not given me our anniversary present yet : (

He thinks that he needs to spend thousand of dollars to buy me a gift that he thinks I want. Darling, I tell you now! I want to have a life-time vouchers of calf massages, redeem wherever and whenever. And, don't you dare to buy a baby cow back! Calf here refer to the fleshy part of the back of the human leg below the knee and not anyone's calves ok.... only my calves!

So, if we are shopping and I say, "darling, my calves are tired, can you massage for me?" You must say, "yes, my dear." There shall be no "but, there are so many people around!"

Hey, the best part is, it does not cost you any money!

Don't want to give ah. Ok lah, never mind then, give me my Osim iMedic! Thanks yah!.

Dawn's Speech

Dear family and friends,

[I have made an impromptu Chinese speech before this English speech below. As such, I do not have the script.]

We are honoured and thank you for your presence. Today is a very special day for Beng and I. It is our wedding vows renewal ceremony and our 10th wedding anniversary celebration. We were pre-believers when we got married and therefore did not go through a church wedding ceremony. Although this is not a wedding ceremony, we pray that after the vow renewal ceremony, God will honour our marriage and bless our union.

Our marriage is like any other marriage, with its up and down. However, our love has deepened and strengthened over the years. This is especially so after we accepted Christ in 2002.

Although 10 years is not a very long time compared to 30 to 40 years of marriage. But we truly thank God for being faithful and keeping us together for the past ten years. We also prayed that He will continue to bless our union for the rest of our life.

Last but not least, today, I would like to present a Best Husband Award to Beng. This is to thank him for his effort for being a good husband for the past 10 years, for 10 years of marital happiness and 2 beautiful girls.

I hereby ask my lovely girl, Leiya to bring the award up.

Andy's Speech

Hi Everyone,

Thank you for taking your precious time to attend our wedding vows renewal ceremony. We would like to thank some people for making this so special and memorable for us. First, we would like to thank Ps Edward for solemnizing our vows, Pastor David for the Holy Communion, Brother Sunny for the wonderful music and Brother Larry for being our MC. Brother Sunny and Brother Larry were only contacted at the very last minute and they agreed to help us without hesitation.

Second, we would like to thank the hosts who have helped us to welcome the guest. ([sic] Sister Melissa and Sister Joanne)

And I would like to thank all the guests for taking their precious time to attend our ceremony.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my lovely wife for coming up with this idea of organizing the vow renewal ceremony.

Our Marriage and Ring Vows

Andy

Marriage Vow
Dawn, this day before God as our witness and these friends, I receive you into my life to be one with you in marriage. As Christ loves the church and gave himself for her, so I gave myself for you to be a loving, faithful, and godly husband.

As Christ is head of the church and is responsible for her, so this day, by the grace of God, I assume full responsibility for you, not only materially, but also physically, emotionally and spiritually. No matter where the Lord may lead us, I pledge you my life, as a loving and faithful husband.

Ring Vow
Dawn, as God has demonstrated throughout history His relationship with man giving a token as a sign of His covenant with man, so I too give you this ring as a token of my new relationship with you.


Dawn

Marriage Vow
Beng, this day before God and these witnesses, I commit myself to you in marriage, knowing that God meant us for each other. I accept my responsibility to submit to you as the head of our household as a service to the Lord. I will strive to bring our children up in the love of God, instructing them always in His ways.

Today, I covenant and promise, before God and these witnesses to be your loving and faithful wife; for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish as long as we both shall live, according to God’s holy ordinance. No matter where the Lord may lead us, I pledge you my life, as a loving and faithful wife.

Ring Vow
Beng, as God has demonstrated throughout history His relationship with man giving a token as a sign of His covenant with man, so I too give you this ring as a token of my new relationship with you.

Our Anniversary Part III

8 August 2008, Evening

My second surprise for Beng for the day was the presence of Toh and Alan. (Recap: first surprise was the studio photography but it was not a pleasant surprise, rather it was a why-am-I-not-fat surprise!)

I invited Toh and Alan, Beng’s best friends, without his knowledge. I told them not to let Beng know about it and if Beng invites them, they must turn him down immediately. They agreed and Toh, despite having a newborn on Aug 6, came and stayed until 10.30pm because his car was stuck in the carpark he wanted to catch up with Beng.

Cost of studio photography: $135, Cost of Beng's shirt: $35, Cost of the surprised look on Beng’s face when he sees Toh and Alan: priceless. He was like, “eh, how come you are here!” Twice!

The ceremony went on as planned and smoothly. We recited our vows perfectly. Pastor David calmed our nerves greatly before the march-in and Pastor Ed cracked some jokes during the exhortation. Overall, the experience was great and the memory is priceless. We ended the ceremony with a thank-you speech by Beng and a speech by yours truly, plus my present for Beng. (my third surprise).

I will post our speech and our vows , plus a picture of my present for Beng in my next post while waiting for the photos to come in.

Eric… my fans are waiting leh…..

A break from our anniversary story

Ok, ok, my number 1 fan, (actually my only fan) has asked me to write this week. So, here goes…

8 August 2008, Evening

We arrived in the church early and were surprised to find a handful of people hanging around Han’s. The Prayer Rally does not start until 8pm and these people are actually spending 3 hours waiting for the Prayer Rally to start. The only time I am willing to spend 3 hours hanging around waiting for anything to start is my vow renewal ceremony : )

After waiting for 2 hours, Larry was the first to turn up. Larry is super on. He is always the first to turn up for any kind of cell function. He is also likely to be the first person to put up his hand and cheong into the battlefield, while the rest of us stand around and see him get hit by bullets! No lah, of course we are not such people, right, SA846! We actually politely applause while he got hit by the bullets…. Hahahahhaha! Just kidding! No offence!

The guests start to trickle in… One of my best pals, Zoe, managed to reach the church, carrying a 15kg sleeping toddler, congratulate me and left before 8pm because she needs to catch a bus to Redang at 9pm : o !!! I am so touched! She could have said, “I am sorry, I am not able to make it” but she came all the way from the west to TCC to say congratulation!!!. She is also the one who gave me the piano (eh, not a toy piano hor!) at home. Not that you have to give me a piano to qualify to be my best pal. Diamonds, gold and cars are fine too ; )

Zoe is the one who lead me to Christ and she is also the one to show me that as long as you are willing to ask, God will give you. When I first met her, she does not even have a boyfriend. So, I gave her an oh-so-mighty lecture about fertility rate, the bliss of marriage etc. Anyway, she was too polite to say, “Shut up, b****” She just told me coolly that the Lord will lead her to her Mr Right. True enough, within a year, she was married.

Xiaohui came too. Hui is my secondary school friend since secondary school (duh!). She knows people. She knows my father, my mother, my father-in-law, my mother-in-law, my sisters-in-law, my brother, my sister, my daughters etc. She also knows Beng, Beng’s friends and Beng’s friend’s friends. I tell you she is scary. I told Hui that my sister is going to marry this guy named Eric Lim. She said, “Oh, he is my high school classmate!” When I told her that we are going to Adelaide to live, she gave me the name and address of one of her close friend, Amber who was staying in Adelaide at that time. We did end up staying under the same roof with Amber and she took great care of us. So, I tell you Xiao Hui knows everybody. If you see her, don’t tell her my name, she will tell you that she knows me ; p

Ok, I don’t know what is going on… I am supposed to tell the story of my wedding vows renewal ceremony, but I end up tell my life story. Ok, since it is time to knock off, ; p I am going to stop here.

To be continued……

No lah… that Eric Lim lah… he still has not passed me the photos for the ceremony to upload onto the blog. Since, he is so naughty, I am going to let you on a secret of his wife. That is, his wife’s sister is very pretty, ok!
;-p

Actually, I have not asked him for the photos yet (he is pointing a tofu at my throat now!)

Our Anniversary Part II

8 August 2008, Afternoon

Beng is supposed to plan the morning activities and I, plan for the afternoon activities. Our morning at the beach was great but wait till all my surprises for him roll out. ; )

My first surprise for him is the photography session at the bridal studio in the afternoon. Well, he wasn’t too thrilled. He is very particular about taking photos. You will know why later. After taking about 8 shots, we get to choose our best shot. I am pretty ok with all the pictures so I ask Beng to decide on the final one. He complained: “Why do I look so skinny in all the pictures?” -_-“ -_-“

The double deadpan looks refer to the photographer and me!

Beng insisted that they touch up his face for him. So, we ordered, “加肉”. It literally means to add more meat to the face. He usually requests for his face to be fattened. -_-

After the photography session, my sis-in-law, Khim was very kind to send us to the church. It was only 5pm when we reached the church. 3 hours to go.

To be continued...

Our Anniversary Part I

8 August 2008, Morning

Beng took me to Old Town Cafe at East Coast Park for breakfast. We wanted to spend the whole day together with each other. No children and no work. After breakfast, he suggested to go for a walk at the beach.... hmmm.... So, while I thought: "wah, sun so hot >_<", instead, I said sweetly, "Yes, dear! What a grrreat idea!"

We also rehearsed our vows at the beach. The rehearsal went really well. We remember our vows and could say it out pretty convincingly, not like a block of wood during rehearsal! He also asked me to listen to his thank-you speech, which he asked me to prepare for him. -_- His only instruction then was, "Not too long, please"

Anyway, he decided to add in the last sentence himself, which is "I would like to thank my lovely wife for....." (can't remember the actual line.) So, I asked him. If you want to thank me, you should give me a surprise, isn't it? Why did you tell me that you want to thank me. He said, well, we are husband and wife, so there should not be any secret, isn't it -_-"

Well dear, you will be surprised tonight! I thought.

The other day, my sis-in-law, Kheng asked me. "Dawn, you have prepared so many surprise for him, what if he try to surprise you too? I laughed and said, "Kheng, I understand him too well. He does not surprise me anymore. He tells me."

I was a bit disappointed that he does not even want to surprise me in his speech. However, on the optimistic side, he has proven my point!

Aftter the rehearsal, we went to Parkway to get his shirt and tie!!! Long story cut short. I gave him 3 days to get his shirt, Tues, Wed and Thurs. He was there before the shop opened and he was there when the shop closed. But, he could not decide white, blue or black!

Fine, so on the day of our anniversay, we went down to G2000 (Again! the salesgirls thought.) I help him to decide on which shirt to buy and got him a tie as well! We bought the shirt and tie and were out of the shop in less than an hour and he still look very handsome that night!

Dear, no matter, what colour you get, you will still look very handsome (in my eyes!)

This is the story of my life....

To be continued...

Dawn

The Day Before

Most of the logistics issues have been settled. I can finally heave a great sigh of relief. Most of the guests have confirmed as well. This is great. Tong Siew from Han’s was great. He accepts last minute changes and gave me a reasonable discount! : )

I almost had a nightmare trying to contact him last week. He is always in meeting and he knocks off work at 5.30pm sharp. Plus, he is the only one in the whole company handling the quotation.

On a separate note, Engie is down with a fever. This fever is going around like a game of musical chair. : (

Luckily, I have 2 wonderful sister-in-laws who helps me to take care of her when I am working. They also help to take care of the children when I was sick on Friday and Saturday. I could rest peacefully without the children disturbing me.

I will be on leave tomorrow but my colleagues do not know the reason for the leave. I just told them that I am celebrating National Day. They just go, “You are so patriotic meh?” Why don’t I tell them? Because I never invite them!

The people that I invite are family (no relatives), family in Christ and our very close friends. And these people are also the ones whom we are not pressured to invite. I don’t have to invite the cousin of my third grandauntie’s son-in-law, just because they invite us the last time or because Mum says so.

I can understand that the parents of the bride and bridegroom are very proud and happy that their child is getting married and they want to invite their relatives, long-lost or newly found, friends that they met on the bus etc. to attend the wedding of their offspring. I reserve my comment as Engie is not married yet. Maybe, I will be like one of those proud parents. I pray that I will not be. By the way, what is the name of the cousin of my third grandauntie’s son-in-law? I need to get her number so that I can invite her when Engie get married.

Someone, slap me! ; p

Dawn

I am so blessed!

I have finally recovered from my mysterious illness. Nausea, vomitting, general lethargic etc. Keeps retching the whole of Monday and couldn't concentrate on my work at all, so took off at 5pm since my boss is also on MC ; )

In case if you are wondering if I am pregnant, you don't have to wait until 9 months, you just have to keep on reading.... Ha, ha, ha.... let me build up the suspense first.

Today or rather last night, I felt so blessed again!!! We had a rehearsal with Ps Ed, Ps David, Brother Sunny and Brother Larry. They told us not to worry about anything as they will help us with the preparation and our job is to just memorize the vows. The most amazing thing is I only rope in the help of Brother Sunny and Larry on Monday night! And, they agreed to come for the rehearsal the next day! Praise the Lord!

Friday, 1 Aug 08 - Saturday, 2 Aug 08
I was hit by maybe food poisoning on Thursday. Woke up and threw up in the middle of the night. Mild diarrhea in the morning. Was weak and tired the next morning. Couldn't get myself out of bed, not to even mention work. Beng accompanied me to see a doctor. Doctor gave some nausea, diarrhea and gas pills. The moment I came back from the doctor, I came down with a fever and running nose as well. Why don't all of you come at the same time!!! The extra pills at the most cost only $5. But, a repeat consultation will set me back $20!!!!

Anyway, I did not take my medicine as I do not have an appetite. Didn't want to take medicine on an empty stomach. So, went to bed without medication. Was out of action on Friday and Saturday (catering not booked, MC and Musician not confirmed, vows memorized halfway, handphone no battery and it seems like a 1001 things not being done yet). Was a bit demoralized and had the thought of cancelling the whole thing. But, I pray to the Lord for things to be taken care of.

Sunday, 3 Aug 08
On Sunday, I was healed. I thought I want to skip church since I am not feeling well but you know lah... can't escape ; p God will heal the willing spirit. But Beng was down with a fever. : ( Now, tell me if the ceremony is still going to go on? Beng usually takes 1 week to recover from his illness. The last time we came back from Bangkok, he was sick for 2 weeks. Sigh... never mind. Go to church and pray.

Took Engie and Leiya to church myself. I thought that maybe after the church service, I can find Brother Sunny and ask him to help me with the music. I was supposed to go to cell on Friday and discuss with Bro Larry and Sunny to see how they can help me with the preparation. But, I was sick!!! : ( I looked at the sea of heads after the church service and can't find anyone familiar. Ok, never mind. I can give them a call but wait, my handphone is flat. Ok, chill... no worries, I can go back to the office on Monday to charge my handphone! How clever!

Monday, 4 Aug 08
Monday comes! Ready to charge my handphone in the office.... WAIT! My handphone is at home, so is my purse and money.....waillllllllllllllll....... Why do I have such salted vegetables life!!! No money for lunch, catering not booked, MC and Musician not confirmed, vows memorized halfway, handphone no battery and it seems like a 1001 things not being done yet!!!! My nausea came back. No appetite (not sure because really no appetite or no money). Retching starts. Colleague S asked "Are you pregnant?" (My eyes rolled).

Anyway, since boss is on MC and I am still not feeling well. So, I went home early to charge my handphone so that I can call Ps David. I have a hunch that he was trying to contact me. (countdown to Beijing Olympics: 4 days). As soon as I see some sign of life on my mobile, I dialled Ps David's number. He picked it up with a you-finally-call tone. Oops!

He started to ask me a list of ‘O’ level style of questions and I really felt that I was going to fail at that time… Who is the MC? Who is helping you with the music? How’s the catering? I was lost and helpless. Like an experienced teacher, he told me to call this, this and this; do this, this and this. Halfway through our conversation, I think I can score at least a 50%.

Tuesday, 5 Aug 08
Last night (5 Aug), we were having a great time rehearsing. Praise the Lord!!! God, I could kiss you many, many, many times if I can see you.

Ok lah… I am NOT pregnant… So anti-climax hor…. ; p