Archive for January 2009

Heal The Wound
Point Of Grace
Download the chords here.

I used to wish that I could rewrite history
I used to dream that each mistake could be erased
Then I could just pretend
I never knew me back then

I used to pray that You would take this shame away
Hide all the evidence of who I’ve been
But it’s the memory of
The place You brought me from
That keeps me on my knees
And even though I’m free

Chorus :
Heal the wound but leave the scar
A reminder of how merciful You are
I am broken, torn apart
Take the pieces of this heart
And heal the wound but leave the scar

I have not lived a life that boasts of anything
I don’t take pride in what I bring
But I’ll build an altar with
The rubble that You’ve found me in
And every stone will sing
Of what You can redeem

Repeat Chorus

Don’t let me forget
Everything You’ve done for me
Don’t let me forget
The beauty in the suffering

Repeat Chorus 2x

Leave the scar

This is a song sang by Joanne during service today. All of us made mistakes and we are ashamed of our past failures. Our wounds will heal but the scar will always be there. Initially, I was pondering.. why must our wounds to be healed when the scar is still there reminding us that “eh..God ar..i’ve made this mistake, I’ve failed in this area..but God.. why dont you also help me remove the scar too..“. But if you look at the other side, actually, this scar is there to remind us how God has healed us. It is through God’s mercy that we are forgiven. We can use this scar to share the truth to others who need mercy and healing in this area.

The truth will set us free, Amen!

God has healed our past and uses the scar to remind us of what He did for us on the cross. God is a forgiving God who loves us and dies for our sins on the cross, so that we are able to walk in a no-guilt life and walk our life with joy and happiness. No matter what we have done, God still loves you. Even though we have scars in us, God still uses us and always have his loving arms around us.

Romans 8:28 (The Message)
Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

A few days ago, Sherlynn was asking me to participate in this competition. But I told her I’m afraid to stand in front of the public, afraid to face what i’ve done in the past. I wanted to hide myself like a tortoise. I’m a bird without a wings who wishes to fly but afraid that I’ll fall. My past experience has become a stumbling stone in my life. I tried to put this past away, but the nightmare keeps haunting me. Is it worth to let this mistake to bug me forever in my life? It takes a lot to really believe the truth and to walk in faith. I really want to get out of this kind of life and live like what I was in the past. I’m very glad to be in this house of God, where sisters and brothers care for each other. No condemnation and I’ve found assurance and security here.

Off track abit.. Just now I think I saw someone familiar at Far East..his voice also familiar.. Haha.. but I didnt approach him. :shy: and ya, want to thank my Loving Number 1- Shu Ning. I almost broke down just now on our way back home. Thanks for being there, girl.. Encouraging me and told me that everything will be okay. I’m not a saint who can please everyone. There’s surely one party bounds to get rejected. I knew I should do something but I couldnt.  

*SCREAM** Hello Kitty is here at 7-Eleven!!

 

$5 Purchase = 1 Stamp
Promotion from 7 Jan – 17 Mar 2009. Redemption till 24 Mar 2009. While stocks last.

$5 purchase excludes Hello Kitty redemption ($3.90 + 5 stamps). Cigarettes, statutory items, bill payments, top-up services, phone cards, lottery sales and fuel purchases at 7-Eleven@Shell.

Credits: http://www.7-eleven.com.sg/promotions_monthly#hellokitty

Wah..excited.. Everything is soo cute that I do not know which one to get (Haha..maybe get all 9.)! Think from today onwards, I should spend more at 7 Eleven.

See the enlarged screenshot HERE.

Finally, I’m done with the blogskin for Alex. Haha.. promised him for sometime le but didnt manage to start it. So, from morning till now, I forced myself to squeeze out sometime to start plan for his blog design. A few days ago, I started to draw shapes and sizes of different potatoes. It will be the “mascot” for the blog. Like my simplyjas.com blog, I chose sheep as my mascot. So, his blog will be potato.

So, this is the sketch of the potatoes in my sketchbook.
 

 
I also asked my bro to help me draw his impression of potato. In the end, I decided to use his as the banner for the blog, and used photoshop to do my colouring.  

Then as usual, I created the blogskin and input all the colour scheme. This is a very simply design because I dont think guys like too much things on their blog? (from my past experience with my brother’s blogskins [2])

And I used two of my potato designs for the sidebar.

       

And just now, shu ning was jealous after seeing the design. She asked me to do for her too. Haha.. Ok lar.. =)
 

Gong Xi Gong Xi! How’s your chinese new year celebration so far? I enjoyed myself catching up with my relatives and friends.

How’s your CNY celebration? For the first four days (including CNY eve), I was super busy helping out in spring cleaning, reunion dinner prep and visitation. During the CNY service last week, we learnt that:
1) I can express my love
2) I can take initiative
3) I can discipline wisely.

During this season, I practised (2) a lot. Took initiative to help out, approached my relatives and cousins for a chat. Normally, my cousins and I have lil things to talk. We have “age-gap” as we are 10+ years apart.

God first worked on my relationship with my cousin, Nicole. Last year, I worked for her and it was then we started to care for each other, talk to each other more. In the past, we only meet up together when there’s big events like CNY, bday party. Now, we even meet up to make pineapple tarts, shopping, update each other our lives. =)

Now, I’m also getting closer to my other cousins who are 10+ years older than me. =)

Thank you God for this wonderful time during this festive occasion!

CNY eve [25 Jan 09],
I woke up super early trying to do some spring cleaning. After doing the spring cleaning for a while, I need to rush a web design for my brother. I spent the whole day, from morning till evening doing it. It was frustrating when I’m trying to solve the problems faced while designing and my mum keeps nagging at me for not helping. Super pek cek. But luckily got Nicholas who helped me from the morning to the new year’s morning. We worked from morning to the next day’s 3am. Php codes are really irritating. Now, I think I’m hating them. Codes cant talk to you. They dont tell you what is the problem, how to solve. They just tell you there’s a problem and you need to solve them. Evening time, helped out with the prep for reunion dinner. And I’m the noisiest in the kitchen. Cause I’m concerned with the presentation of the food while my mum wanted everything to be fast. fast and fast. She kept buzzing me non-stop. In the end, we started our reunion dinner around 820pm with our grandpa.

CNY Day 1 [26 Jan 09],
Before going down to my da gu’s house, we went to our neighbour house to bai nian. Her whole family was wearing red and Whiskey too. We took our family photo outside the corridor and I took photos with the flowers.
 

Then, we headed down to my da gu’s house. On the way, took many photos with my mum and dad. You can check it out at my facebook. I tried a lot of times to get the nice shot of my mum but the photos didnt turn out nice. I only took 2 tries with my dad and got the perfect photo. When we reached, we started our lunch. After that, I was munching all the CNY goodies and the pineapple tarts my cousin, my mum and I made. Got compliments from my relatives that they were great. Of course lar.. it’s our third year making the pineapple tarts. Got a lot of catching up with my cousins. In the past, I found difficulty in finding a common topic to talk as they are +12 years old of my age. But strangely, we had things to chat. Think this is one of God’s work that make our relationships work out better. Two of my nephews are doing well. One ITE Multimedia Design and another SHATEC cuisine diploma. The age gap between my nephew and I is like 3 to 4 years old?

Giselle and Gabrielle were there too. I played with Gabrielle more than Giselle ‘cos the whole day she was sleeping. At the end of the day, we managed to take some pictures of Gabrielle and Giselle together. But apparently, we did not get a decent photo of Gabrielle with Giselle. Either one moves and one dont or the other moves and the one dont.

I told Gabrielle to do this action. This is called the “pretty pretty” pose. And she was wearing my star charm.

CNY Day 2 [27 Jan 09],
Afternoon, met Claris and went to Shir’s house to bai nian. When we reached there, Leong and Cai Hua were there. Spent sometime catching up. Then, Shir’s relatives said they wanna played mahjong. So, Shir’s mum sent Leong to represent her to play. Auntie was really very generous enough that she will pay for the losses. In the end, Leong lost $55. We spent the whole afternoon eating and talking. The guys shared to us their NS life and the jokes they had. Everyone’s like already grown-up. Guys become stronger and fitter!

Evening time, hurried my way down from Potong Pasir to Boon Lay to visit my maternal’s grandpa. I was super duper late. The rest reached there at 3 plus and I only reached there at 7pm. Everyone was like waiting for the arrival of the “queen”. As usual, chatted chatted and chatted. One of my cousins (Wei Wei korkor) told us that he got karaoke set at home and asked us if we want to go his house to sing. All my brothers went home and I went ahead to sing karaoke with my two cousins – Mei Yin jiejie and JianHong korkor. We sang from 1030pm to 12am. Super shiock. We going to his house again the day after Valentine’s day. Woohoo!! Karaoke again. After that, Jian Hong korkor sent me home and Mei Yin jiejie escorted me up to the flat. It’s bcos my house area got a lot of foreign workers and it’s super scary. My cousin going play badminton this sunday. Wanna go leh..

CNY Day 3 [28 Jan 09],
Have been sleeping late and waking up early recently. I’m super busy recently.. Received a call from my bro to send Edmund and Nicholas the files that I’ve developed. Actually, programming can be cool but only till you meet problems, you will not think the same. Packed my bag, 2 karaoke mics, my karaoke discs and went down to meet the rest of my caregroup member. On the way, met Shawn and Jun Yao at Raffles Place mrt. When we reached tpy, met carrie and alex at mac. Alex told me that he got present for me. So, he pased me this hello kitty plastic bag with present wrapped in hello kitty wrapper.

AND GUESS WHAT?? IT’S A HELLO KITTY WATCH!!!

*SCREAM* Hey, you can dare me if you want. Dare me to wear this watch and I will! Though this watch looks childish (and yes, it is a  childish watch), I will still wear it cause it’s from my ou xiang. and..this watch just stopped at 5:22PM and not working. Gotta get a new batt for this.

We had our CNY visitation from bentay’s house to mau’s to alex’s. We had food, games, karaoke, mahjong. Mau showed me her heels’ collection and they are soo cool. Should I adopt one of them at $10? (you should ask my wallet). When we reached alex’s house, I was both excited but not very happy. He wanna show me his Jay’s collection he has. After seeing what he got, IM TOTALLY JEALOUS! Take a look at my collections here. Then, alex gave me this:

Open it up and you will see this.

How to stop fainting when you see this right??

After seeing his collection, Im now finding a place for me to put my jay stuff together.. Dont think I’m withdrawing all my collection of hellokitties from my display rack just because of Jay. Jay and hellokitty both important to me.
 

Comic Intro
Note: I will not be blogging (in words) for the events happened this week.
See the comic strip for the story.

Have you tried the food at Ngee Ann Alumni House? If no, it’s okay! I’ve taken photos of some of the food we had. Li Ping, Maurise, Ben Tay and his two friends and I met for lunch on monday.

Tori Karaage Ramen
Tori Karaage Ramen
It taste okay. I still prefer the one I had at Shin Nichi Japanese Restaurant.
Ratings: (out of 5 stars)