I-CARE Blog Contest

(Post-dated post. Please scroll down for new posts. Thank you!)

As promised, I am happy to announce that my blog contest starts today.

<a href="http://www.janetluison.com/2009/08/i-care-blog-contest_31.html/"><img src="http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w184/janet_bl/ICARE-1-1-1.gif"></a>

Here's how to join:

1. Post ideas on how you show "CARE" to your family or friends and give a brief explanation for each idea.

That's all you need to do... then

2. When you're done posting, you may enter your name and entry url to Mr. Linky's below.
3. You can enter all your blogs, as long as one entry per blog only. And each blog's entry should be different from the other blog's entry.
4. The contest will run starting on September 1, 2009 (today) and ends on October 1, 2009.
5. I'm going to look through one by one. I know it's going to be a challenge but really, I'm going to do it myself. This means winners are not picked by random.
6. Don't forget to include the I-CARE blog contest badge in your post and on your sidebar. You may take the badge off your sidebar after the contest ends.

How do I pick the winners?
1. by the uniqueness of the ideas and
2. by the number of ideas you have come up with, using different aspects i.e. emotional, physical, intellectual, psychological, spiritual, etc.

What are the prizes?

1. 1st prize winner gets US$20.00 plus 5,000EC
2. 2nd prize winner gets US$10.00 plus 5,000 EC
3. 3rd prize winner gets 5,000 EC

I'm so looking forward to reading your entries. Thank you sooo much!!!

This contest is for bloggers who have a paypal account only. However, if you don't have a paypal account and you still wish to join for fun and for blog exposure, you may do so. I'm going to pick one winner from non-paypal bloggers. I'm gonna send a surprise package for the winner. Just don't forget to put a "non-paypal user" note in your entry. Thank you!

World Habitat Day

The United Nations has designated the first Monday each October as World Habitat Day.

This year on Oct. 5 in Washington, D.C. and around the world, please join Habitat for Humanity in support of this global observance as we come together and declare that the lack of decent, affordable housing is unacceptable.

According to the United Nations, more than 100 million people in the world today are homeless. Millions more face a severe housing problem living without adequate sanitation, with irregular or no electricity supply and without adequate security.

For more information, click here. World Habitat Day

By the way, this is not a paid post... Just doing a favor... :D


it's me,

The Best

I know I have posted about aiming for the best in my previous post... or probably in my other blog. We all are aiming to be the best, we want the best things in life, we want to have the best way of doing things, always on the lookout for the best diet plans or the best diet pills (if we're on diet), or the best exercises. We don't want any thing but the best.

But sometimes, our best, or things or ways we think are best are not enough for the Lord. He may ask us to scale back in order to see that God's ways are better than our own. There I go again. :D

it's me,

Resting

I have been resting since this morning. The past few weeks had been tiring for us, for me and the hubby at least. I think it's the no-carbo diet that made us feel so tired. We know that carbohydrates and sugar give us energy. And so no matter how much meat and vegetables we eat... if there's no starch or sugar, it wouldn't be enough.

Glad that we have time to rest because the next day, we're going to Phuket, Thailand for another work. God allows us to rest because it is good for our health. That's why He rested Himself on the 7th day after 6 days of work. Jesus Himself displayed an example of going into wilderness and be alone for prayers and rest.

Now we know that all good things are from the Lord. All we need to do is follow His examples. This way, we avoid being unhealthy which would include premature ageing which would then probably require us to look for the best wrinkle creams possible. LOL.

Anyways, obedience is better than sacrifice as I have learned from the past. We can do things our own way and justify it as hearing from God...

Where is this post leading to? LOL. Oh well, this brings me back to where I started. I need to rest some more. Ciao!

it's me,

Back Online

I was surprised to see that almost all my blogs' latest update was 1 week ago. In fact, I missed journaling my last three days of my 12-day Mayo Clinic Diet. Of course, I updated it first coz I have a few friends who had been waiting for the diet result.

Now I am back to updating my blogs, researching some things to do in Brunei (yes, I'm going to Brunei next week for work), looking up for an insurance quote, uploading photos in my facebook, etc. And of course, am back to tending my farms.

it's me,

So Fast

The "ber" months (months that end in letter ber, I mean. i.e. September, October, November, December) has started already. Time flies so fast, indeed. Before we know it, it's Christmas time again. For my family, parties start in October when we celebrate our son's birthday. We have something to celebrate every month after that.

For others, they may celebrate Halloween. And so they start giving Halloween invitations. For our American friends, they would start their long holiday season by celebrating Thanksgiving.

I want to observe the Advent with my family this year. So I hope I won't forget the first Sunday. I would probably observe it 4 Sundays away from Christmas Day. It would be nice to celebrate something traditional with my family.

it's me,

An Old Photo

While I was browsing through my files, I saw some of my old photos I took last December. One of the activities we did last December was to go mall hopping to check out the Christmas decorations. We were going to The Curve when we passed by Ikano. In front of the mall, there was a children's play area and we saw two ponies. My kids got excited to see them and asked whether they could see the ponies. Both of them did. Here's Samantha's photo. She was barely two years old when she did her first even pony ride. She looked rather ecstatic, didn't she? One thing lacking in the picture is the equestrian apparel. Of course, we didn't know we were going for a horse ride so we didn't get any. Probably when the kids grow and if they want to be horse riders, they could get those for themselves.

This reminds me when I was on my second day teaching in Q-Dees, I asked my students what they wanted to be when they grew up. Three of them wanted to be horse riders! Children and weird ambitions. They come together. LOL.

it's me,

Getting Better

It's always best to involve God in whatever decision making we do. God has spoken to me and realized where I did wrong. He showed me which part was wrong. My heart was wrong. It has been a long time since I haven't been working in a secular environment. And the real test of your heart is when you're outside your own comfort zone.

So I asked God to change my heart... not in the literal sense. I asked Him to change my heart attitude towards my working environment.

And the first thing that happened today in the morning was going inside the school with the principal at the same time. We greeted and I asked her how she was. And it came out. She had been having nightmares, she said. Too much pressure from the parents they're all getting. She couldn't count the times when the parents had called her up yesterday just to complain and scold. Suddenly, I felt for her... for all of them. How could they stand the pressure? Of course, each will have his own motivation.

The principal apparently dun need extra job as her hubby earns quite enough and her kids are all grown up. It's her principle in life to be fruitful in every thing she does. And it hit me. How fruitful had I been in my walks of life?

That instant my heart attitude had changed. God wanted me to stay.

After the conversation, I walked to my room and saw Winston Lim's mother, sitting on my chair behind the teacher's table. She didn't get up when she saw me. She just sat there. I greeted her. She greeted back.

And then she told me that the two girls had a party bag, could I get one for her son too? Coz it's not nice that the girls had and her son didn't have any. So I asked the girls from whom they got it from. They said a name but I couldn't figure it out so I asked who the teacher was. So I went to the teacher and told her what Winston's Mom wanted. She said it's only for her students so she couldn't give one for Winston. The teacher went to tell Winston's Mom. Apparently she was embarrassed coz another teacher was involved. So she said she didn't ask for Mrs Justin. I said I didn't know who the boy was so I had to ask the teacher.

She was still sitting on the teacher's chair... and cautioned me that the son was grumpy because he slept late last night so better keep other children away from him (by now, of course I knew what she meant). She actually only stood up after she told me whatever she wanted to say. but of course, then, I was very nice to her the whole time. I wonder how Mrs Ng handles her. Or probably she wasn't like that to Mrs Ng because Mrs Ng was Chinese? I tell you... in Malaysia, they always promote this One Malaysia thingy where every race is equal and it seems like that to the onlookers. When you dig deeper, you would realize there's a lot of prejudice racially.

But I already decided not to be affected by this in school. After all, I only have one more week left.

I feel for all the teachers there though. They've been working really hard and no one is idle. I can guarantee that. When the teachers leave, I'm sure it's not because they couldn't handle the kids. It's the Kiasu (selfish, competitive) parents that's the problem.

it's me,

High Fashion Eyeglasses

Among the three pairs of fashionable eyeglasses that I just posted, which do you think would make as My favorite high fashion eyeglasses? You are right. I like red so I would choose the first one. That's it of course, if I need to get a pair of $ 8 Rx eyeglasses. I am just glad that you actually get a cheap but high fashion glasses, considering that every thing now is expensive. One can't help but think of ways on How You Can Start Spending Smart.

it's me,

Late Teether

Some babies have it even when they're newborn. But usually, the average age when babies start to teeth is between 4 months and 12 months. At 12 months, my son didn't show any signs of teething. We checked his pediatrician but she assured us that the teeth will definitely grow. Even with the assurance that he will grow his teeth, I was madly worried. What if my son was one of those special ones and he wouldn't grow his teeth? Who wouldn't worry that at age 14 months, my son hasn't started teething yet?

You can tell the relief I felt when at 16 months, he started showing his swelling upper gum. And when finally those long awaited pearly white teeth came, 4 of them came together at the same time. But because he was a bit older, he didn't have a bad time growing his teeth.

Why am I saying this? I just realized that most of the kids his age has already started growing their permanent teeth! His best friend Sanjay showed us yesterday his 4 new teeth.

And you can guess that my son's teeth are still intact. And because he doesn't have a sweet tooth, there's no sign of tooth decay.

Samantha will have a different tooth story I'm sure coz she started teething at age 9 months old and she does have a sweet tooth. She's definitely going to see a dentist earlier than her brother. Just yesterday, we saw a dental clinic for kids in Taipan. They may not have a dentist like the southpark dentist but I'm sure they'll make a good job.

I hope my kids will like going to a dental clinic. Hahaha. Yeah I know, it's a wishful thinking, knowing that my boy is a bit fuzzy and has a low pain tolerance.

Anyways, for those parents who are worried about their kids not teething early, please don't get worried. They will definitely grow their teeth in their own time.

it's me,

I Love Whoofy and Clumsy

Kids are going to Banting tomorrow for their weekend. Monday will be a public holiday and so we decided to send them to their grandparents in Banting. One thing that the kids love being in Banting is they could be with the grannies' dogs. They are excited to go tomorrow. Schenker told his grandparents that Whoofy and Clumsy were his favorite dogs. I love them, he said.

I'm thinking whether we should get a pet for my kids. That would mean I have to teach my kids how to take care of a pet then.

Speaking of animals, I wonder how it would be like to have a cattle ranch. I'm sure we won't be able to afford the maintenance, especially the cattle supplies like food, medicine, etc.

What am I thinking... even with pets, I'm not sure whether we could afford to maintain one. Anyways... maybe when the kids are grown up, I might consider buying them a pet. Who knows...

it's me,