My Guitar Story

My father taught me and my brother the basics of guitar playing while I'm still in Grade 3. I managed to play simple children's song in church like "I'm Free" and "This is the day". When I got older, I could play songs as long as I have the list of chords on top of the lyrics. For unknown reasons, I just stopped playing. I wonder why I didn't pursue my practice. We have acoustic guitars in church. We even have the kramer assault 220 electric guitar . There's no reason why I can't learn the guitar. Most of the Pastor's kids I knew learn all the musical instruments- bass guitar, drum, piano, trumpet, accordion, harmonica, and more. I concluded that I gave up learning because as the eldest of 14, rather spending my time on holding guitar, I prefer spending it on laundry, house cleaning, and study.

It's not yet too late for me to start learning guitar again. I still remember the chords. All I need to do is set aside time for practice so that before this year ends, I could play guitar with confidence. But wait, I don't have a guitar yet!

This is how my week goes: Chinese New Year, Couple Shirts and First 3D

Can I just post my photos here and I'll let them tell how our week goes? As the old adage says "A picture is worth a thousand words".

We wore red because they said so:) People wear red on Chinese New Year because red represents prosperity, fortune, and luck. Ultimately, they wear it because it shows happiness, so are we.

Central Department Store set this stage for family and group pictures. Thank you:)

at the center of Hatyai City and we're on the end of the lane...nothing much in here:(

with my sis and cranky tot:)

with my lovely family in front Lee Garden's Plaza Hotel

Couples Shirt: Yes we're nice to each other:)

not really a nice movie for the family but it's the only English movie of the day:(

while waiting for the theater's door to open

first time in 3D and I can't forget how involuntarily I cross my arms in defend of the broken glasses that flew right to me! Funny me!!!

Children's Day, Accident, Reading Test

I've been battling with my alarm clock every 3:00 AM. I used to be excited to wake up at 3:00 AM because it's "ME" time! I love the moment of silence, the time alone with God when I could pour out my inner emotions and my only precious moment of the day where I'm left undisturbed. But for this week, my faithful alarm clock who served me for two years was disappointed!It's waking sound who once became my good morning music became a dreadful sound of the day! I couldn't believe it either but once it performs its duty, my hand automatically reached for it and shut it down. Thus my mornings this week are in RUSH! I would blame migraine for all those chaos! It left me needing for increased sleep,  feeling mentally dull the whole week and excruciating neck pain! So my dear blog, pardon me for not you the time.

Now that I'm back to my feet again, let me bring you back what we did last Saturday. Thailand declared January 14 as Children's Day. All children are looking forward for this day because parents are preparing something special for them- a tour to mall, a visit to a beach or zoo , buying them presents and anything that could make children happy! 

As for us we stayed at home. Why? Hatyai City is crowded with tourists and families from neighboring provinces. How could Hyzyd enjoy a place jam packed with children? We moved our celebration on the next day. How right we are! Skippy's Wonderland was not so crowded on Sunday afternoon. Hyzyd was soo happy because he's big and tall enough to be admitted to Kid's Soft Play Station! His dad is the only one who's allowed to accompany him because he wore socks! I can't believe it. If I only knew I should bring along my socks! He..he..he...You know this mom has still a child in her that wanted to run , throw balls and lie on that soft mattress. Maybe because I'm a preschool teacher and it's my job not only to teach children but also to entertain them, I haven't completely let go the child within. 

the family with our fave food- fried rice with seafood, soup, papaya salad with crabs and peanuts and lychee juice . It's a very sumptuous lunch for only $10 including my hubby's repeat order!

my boys enjoying their time in the wide kid's soft play pen!

The first time for the family to watch MOVIE in a theater house! I'm here with my sis posing with the movie tickets for souvenir:)

It's a bit disappointing that all movies for the day are in THAI..no ENGLISH:(  We chose the one with Mario Maruer , the one that makes girls in Thailand and Philippines went crazy for his cuteness since he made a debut on "A Crazy Thing called Love". The ticket lady said there's an English subtitle for it but there's none...double sadness here:(:(...

Why watching movie in the theater isn't complete without popcorn and soda?

Here are what we experience on our first family movie date:

1. Be on time. No late admittance!

2. Before the movie started,  everybody were requested to rise to pay respect to the King of Thailand while the national anthem's being played.

3. Everybody leaves the theater room after the movie . There's no such thing as "repeat viewing".

Hyzyd enjoyed his time inside the movie house. Before the movie starts, there's a comedy film "ATM" being previewed and Hyzyd was laughing and it's contagious! The people surrounding us were curious trying to see who's this lil man laughing his heart out and speaking English! Hyzyd's voice is booming like a thunder asking his dad "Why daddy?" "It's so funny!"...etc....He stopped asking questions when the real movie started , played the Ipad for few minutes under my feet and went to sleep. Children's Day is fun, fun,  fun!!!!

You never know when accidents happen and when it happens, it left you speechless but what a relief it is when you see how your love one is saved from possible danger. Thank God for keeping my hubby safe last Thursday morning. On the way to school, a truck on the roadside suddenly cross the street without looking on his left or right side . My approaching hubby didn't have enough time to break thus he slammed on the side of the truck. The motorcycle's front face is broken. He got bruises on his legs and elbows. Thank God, there's no major damage. The motorcycle was sent to repair shop. The offender paid for it. He was excused from school . He walked limping but he's completely fine.

It's reading test for my K-2. It's comforting to know that majority of them can spell and read the following words: well, wig, ten, king, ring, bed, net, bell, egg, and log. I'm completely shocked when one of my student who couldn't write well and seems like a slow learner read all the words perfectly! It really made my day glorious! The other one who's voice I haven't heard because she won't talk to anyone finally find her voice (so still, small voice that I could hardly hear) and read the words excellently! It's enough to put me on high spirits this week. I'm so happy and so glad of the improvement of these special  children. I now have something extraordinary report  to add on my   InetSoft's report engine .

On this week I learn to devote myself to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving. Only when we've spent time in God's presence and drawn strength from Him, will webe equal to the challenges we face on any given day.

Hyzyd and his Ipad 2

With Ipad in the house, my three-year-old Hyzyd is now into educational games and read-along stories and puzzles. There's something so intuitive and simple about touching things on the screen that they just dive in without needing to be shown how it all works. He's more at home in using it than me! Here's one of our conversation last night:

Hyzyd (while looking for me): Mom, where are you?
Me: I'm in the bedroom. Why?
Hyzyd (approached me) : Downloading. Give me password, mom?
Me (confused and called my hubby): Dad, what's Hyzyd's doing?
Hubby: Hyzyd's trying to download a game and Apple store asked for your password.

Ha..ha..ha!!!! Hyzyd now knows how to download games from Apple store. Thank goodness that it asked for password because if not then I'll say goodbye to $4.99 for Flight Control HD. As of now, we let him understand that we'll only download FREE apps because there are so many available which he haven't tried yet.

My Hyzyd is playing Cars 2 Racing. I tried this game and failed:( but look at him! Mission accomplished!

Oh my baby is now a Big Boy! Few years from now, he'll be asking me for call of duty modern warfare 3 ps3 instead of Elmo Loves ABCs Lite.

My New year's Resolution for year 2012

Now that the red flag for flood in Hatyai is lowered down, I have now peace of mind and enjoy this new year. I love the  clean slate each new year provides. Year 2011 was a great year for us- we have a blissful summer vacation in Philippines (it's Hyzyd's first time), my younger sister was granted 100% scholarship from Didyasarin International College here in Hatyai City (she's taking up AB Business English) , we're all perfectly healthy and we've managed to finish the year without debt! By God's grace, year 2012 will be even better!

I can stop thanking God for this new year. As always, New year brings hope and a new beginning. I'll continue to stay away from complaining and arguing. I won't let other people's negativity influence me. I work at tuning out pessimism and focusing on doing my best every day. I try to make myself indispensable by working hard, staying positive and contributing to the overall success of the school where I teach.

For year 2012, I will let God and His word guide me through : 'We...make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps' (Proverbs 16:9 NLT); 'Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed.' (Proverbs 16:3 NLT) '...with God all things are possible' (Matthew 19:26 KJV). 

This year's gonna be AWESOME!!!

What are thankful for today?

What are you thankful for today? At this moment, I Thank God that flood hasn't reached our place. If you read HERE you'll know that some part of Hatyai City is flooded. We're perfectly fine!

How about you? The following vignettes (which have been widely circulated on the internet) can help put things into perspective and remind us of what we have to be thankful for:

1. If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75 percent of the people in the world.

2. If you can attend a church or synagogue meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death, you are more blessed than 3 billion people in the world.

3. If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are more blessed than 500 million people in the world.

4. If you have money in the bank, money in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8 % of the world's wealthy.

5. If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.

a flood on New year?

Bye 2011! Welcome year 2012 and I guess it's time to download all our 2011 photos to CDs because our PC's hard drive is screaming RED already! We need the space for 2012 photos. After I could download all our photos to CDs and to our portable hard drive, I need to make about 2-4 copies (no need for me to look for cd replication shop because I don't need copies in bulk) to give to our family to be able to share to them what happened to us in year 2011. 

I need to go...News reached that a dam from Sadao will be opened and Hatyai is expecting flood..so sad...We need to prepare what needs to be prepared.

Happy and Blessed New Year 2012 to all!

God is sooo good! We're able to celebrate this special event with our family and friends. It's the first time for our family to really prepare something on the table late at night and still wide awake when the clock struck 12! Even our lil boy didn't go to bed. He enjoyed blowing his cutie party horn with a friend and witnessed fireworks from our friend's porch upstairs porch. Oh boy! It's New Year and it's raining cats and dogs in the side of our town! We're not able to capture the beautiful fireworks through our DSLR. But it's fine with us ..what is important is that we're happy and enjoyed the fireworks together, thankful that after 3 days, Hyzyd has finally recovered from fever (he's back to skinny and didn't enjoy his cracked lips:( ) and grateful to share our blessings to our love ones.

Let's start this New Year right.As we enter this New Year, let's stop and recall God's goodness, check the price tag on His will for our life against what we're already paying, and compare the rewards of both. Then, let's look in the mirror, and respect or correct what we're becoming:). We must let go of any old grudges that are weighing us down. Happy and blessed New year to all!