PD Vacation Dec 09

Thanks to WSL, I found a way to upload photos onto blogger a lil easier :-).

Went to PD from 14 - 16 December for a well-deserved vacation (on my part, at least, i think!). Kids were so excited. We stayed at Tiara Beach resort, a water-park resort with slides and water-playground, sand-castling area and man-made beach.

We were here before in June 2007, and the kids liked it so much that we decided to go back. Looks like we were not the only ones who liked it here. They like it here too. In fact, they were swarming the whole place!!!

Except for the flies, we had lots of FUN!

Jumping straight into action!!

Making the Kids take a break at the Sand-castling area.

Night activites at Tiara Beach Resort

2 bedrooms Apartment. Kids had Fun 'sardined' together!

FUN at the REAL Beach

Dare-devils

Souvenirs from PD!

Hot Day

Heading Home

Now I need a vacation to recuperate from this Vacation! :-)

Frustrated Blogging

I've been trying to update this blog for the past 3 days with photos from our PD Vacation.

We went to PD from 14 - 16th Dec (last week!), and I thought pictures speaks a thousand words. Guess the pictures I wanted to put in was too 'cheong-hei' (long winded) and Blogger kept crashing on me!!

WSL told me that she'll "quit as a Follower" when the blogs she's following are not updated frequently .... so, this is just a short post to keep my Blog at least partially updated, else my 'fans' might think I'm 'losing steam' .......

Ok.... just one photo first (i'll try to post up other photos later)

Support a Home

All the camps and worskhops finally over as of yesterday. There's still the Church Christmas Party this Saturday (but that doesn't really count)... so I'm set to relax. Of course I still have Fitline and Breastfeeding... that's year-round work. (Actually not work la, since I really enjoy doing it, so it doesn't feel like 'work' - more like hobby. But I get paid for these hobbies! Good eh?)

I've always have an interest in Homes for Children. These homes not only take in orphans but also kids whose parents are not able to take care of them. Whenever I start talking of these Homes, invariably some people will comment that some of these Homes are very 'high-profile' ie, they have big corporations and many influential people supporting them. These people will also comment that they rather give their money to lesser-known Homes. and when I asked them which Home do they support, most will not be able to give me a name!!!

As I've been working closely with some of these 'high-profile' Homes, I found out a few facts:

1. Yes, they may be well funded, but all the monies goes towards the welfare of the children. These children, like any children deserve:
good food
good clothes
good education (it's difficult to get anyone to volunteer to tutor them for FREE, so tuition teachers have to be paid)

All the above can be bought with Money, and most of the time, all the money donated to these Homes are actually not eough! Home Administrators sometimes have to go looking for donation when they should be spending their time looking after the welfare of the Children.

2. It's a fact that most people are more willing to just give money, but not their time

3. And even if Big Corporations and Influential People support these Homes, they do not visit the Kids on a regular basis and give them what they need most - a warm, caring and loving HUG and ADULT EMOTIONAL SUPPORT - on a regular basis.

I know of this company. My friend was in the committee. They wanted to do some charity. When my friend suggested these 'high-profile' Homes, the other committee members shot down the idea, saying that these homes already got the support of many big organizations. They wanted a lesser-known Home. Guess what? 2 years later they still have not done any 'charity' for any Homes. Why? All Homes suggested do not meet their criteria of deserving their help. So what happens to the money collected? Dunno.

Why are many people against supporting these Homes? Some refused to give anything because they say the Home Administrators will only take for themselves the rice or canned-food donated. Do they have proofs? Mostly it's just hearsay. It's just rumours passing from one mouth to the next without a thought to find out for themselves if it's really true. It's really a bleak way of looking at people - with suspicion, thinking that all these people who worked for the welfare of the less-priviledged as dishonest or worse - crooks!!

If you can help just ONE child by regularly giving your help and love, you might just have changed this CHILD's future. And if you really want to support ONLY 'lesser-known' Homes, then do it!! Don't just yak about it.

It's rewarding

I've not updated this blog for 10 days!!!

It's been a frenzied time for me. Feverishly promoting the school holiday camps. Runing north, south , east and west asking people to sponsor 15 less-priviledged teens so that they too can attend The YES! Camp which was held on 2 - 4 Dec 2009 (Wednesday to Friday).

It's already 1st Dec and with 4 more teens left unsponsored, but I knew somehow, someone will help us pull through. Amazingly (but not surprisingly), it happened! Thank you to all my good friends who either sponsored a teen (some even sponsored 4!) or heped me get the word out!. Indeed there are many great amazing people out there!

Someone asked... why am I doing this? Honestly, I'm not making tons of money from these camps (yet), but I do it because I really really enjoy it. I enjoy seeing the awareness and understanding dawning in the kids eyes. I enjoy seeing them come out of their shell and start opening up. I enjoy pushing them to their limits and have them succeed.

There were many participants who were initially not happy to be there. They were forced by their parents, or by their guardians(in the case of some of the sponsored teens)

There was this girl.... she was sulking. She was not happy to be there. Everything is boring for her. On the last day, she was smilling and high-5-ing her new friends. And she wrote "people are not that bad... i just have to give them, and myself a chance". That's great isn't it?

Another said "Now I appreciate all that I have. I will be more positive from now on, and not complain just because I don't get my own way."

Yet another, "I have been to many camps, but this is the best camp ever!!"

Out of 29 participants, all (but 1) had an amazing time. I'm not making this up. I've proofs!! I actually recorded them saying these! And I have it in writing too!!! Ask to see it if you want!

So... one did not enjoy himself. He felt that the camp was 'military' and he did not come to camp to be 'tortured'!!! He told me personally that he hated the camp. (But yet, during graduation time, when we gave out the certificates, he said that he had a great time.) Oh well.... you can't please everyone!!

I'm happy.

And exhausted.

But Happy

Very happy

Kudos Damian and Marcus!

UPSR Results were out last Thursday (19 Nov).

As expected - 5As for both Damian and Marcus. (out of 87 students, 19 of them got 5As.)

Now we can all relax. The weeks before the exam.... the weeks after the exams.... were pretty torturous for Damian , and me! Damian - because that's Damian la. He allows his imagination to run wild with 'what ifs'.
What if he wrote the wrong thing,
what if he accidentally shade the wrong box,
what if he calculated wrongly.

And torturous for me - coz - he keeps 'what if-ing' with me!

One of his teachers was telling them about a student who didn't get the results she expected and she killed herself! I told Damian (the day before the results were out) that if he kills himself, I'll kill him!!!

So... UPSR so important meh? 5As so important meh?

On results day, one of the boys were seen with his fingers crossed, eyes screwed shut and chanting to himself "Pls let me get a C! Please let me get a C!" (He was expecting a D for his BM paper!)

Another boy who was totally not expecting it, continued to stare off into space when his name was announced as amongst those who has gotten 5As!

A girl cried coz she worked so hard for her BM, score the A, but then scored a B in another paper!

Seriously ... how important are the As? Yes, of course it's great to have, but seriously.....does it really determined our kids future?

Stephanie and Josehine is now worried that they can't get 5As. I always told them.... no need to compete with kor-kor. Be the best they can be. Always either do better or maintain their own standards. Good advice? And when they've tried their best (and don't get an A), I really think they deserve a reward for their efforts.

R.I.P s

If you've read my kids blog, you'll know about the hamsters.

Tobias was more than 1 year old, so quite middle-age by hamster-age standard. (Hamsters have a life span of 2 years). When it died last Thursday (12 Nov) Damian cried his heart out.

Two days later, we got 3 new hamsters from Carrefour Sri Petaling. One for Damian, one for Stephanie and one for Jo. They paid for the hamsters themselves out of their allowances. And the next day, not even 24 hours later Jo's new hamster (Jocy) died. Steph's hamster (Casterfur) don't look so good either. Damian's hamster (Arwen) was still ok. Jo and Steph was sad, but not too sad.

So we took Jocy and Casterfur back to the Carrefour. Initially they didn't want to change the hamsters for me, but I made a fuss ;-) so, of course we got our hamsters changed. At the same time, Jeremy wanted his very own hamster, and he bought one (out of his own allowances too). He named it Magic!

So now we have Arwen, Jocy II, Bonnei & Magic! And not forgetting Lucky which is Tobias's son (he's almost 1 year old) Are you following me with all those hamsters' names?

Today ...... Arwen died! (after only 3 days with us) She was from the first batch of 3 hamsters we bought. So I guess the first 3 hamsters were sick. Damian cried like it's the end of the world.

Now I'm worried the other 3 hamsters (Jocy II, Bonnei and Magic) might be sick too!. Don't think I could take any more tears from them!

Panda Eyes

This morning, Damian commented "Mommy you look like a panda!"

OMG!! This is from the son who used to think I was the most beautiful thing God ever created! (ahem!)

Panda eyes! I got panda eyes!!!

Ok.... calm down..... I'll log off now and go straight to bed!

Yes, I'll go to bed as soon as I finish answering the 10,000 emails, reading all the blogs, and updating this one! And going thru Facebook, updating my websites.... what the heck am I spending so much time on the internet anyway!!!! Ok - off to bed!! Good night!