DINNER & DANCE

Tonight I attended SCAS' annual dinner and dance. Theme was One Night in Shanghai. Teachers and Therapists performed and a special dance group was there.

Teacher C was so nice as to reserve a seat for me at her table, although I already had a seat for me somewhere else. I enjoyed myself cos I had great company.

Lucky draws are always a draw to many people....me included...heh heh. Our table was quite "heng"..haha! Out of 10, 8 of us got our gifts, sadly Teacher C didn't get hers :(. The other was Nicole.

We were all gunning for the top prize....LCD screen. But when it came to the last 10 prizes, it was only Teacher C, myself and Nicole. So....by then, to Teacher C and myself, anything will do!! haha.

The 9th prize was a Karcher vacuum cleaner. My number was 0223. When the MC called 022, one of the teachers turned to me and said "do you need this?" and immediately, the number "3!" was called. All of us burst out laughing! It was so funny...so coincidental. Well...I believe it's God's blessing!

Thank you Lord for the gift. It's time to change my vacuum cleaner.

ANSWERED PRAYER

I want to thank God for this new supply. It came through the mail two days ago. A very pleasant surprise froma good friend.

It's actually an eyelet setter. I have an eyelet setter that only allows me to use one-size eyelets only, the commercial use type. This setter comes complete with 4 eyelet-setting tips, 3 hole-punch tips and a setting mat.

All I have to do is place the head over the paper, push down the handle and a hole is punched. but the sound it makes is like using a hammer.

But...it doesn't matter. I love it. I have just started using it and my next LO will feature the star eyelets I got on a great sale at http://www.scrap-n-crop.com/!

Thank you Lord!!!!

MY FIRST SISTER

This is my final LO for Scrap-n-Crop Challenge. I decided to do cirlces instead of sticking to squares and straight lines.

Title: 大姐 (My First Sister)

Materials Used:
Autumn Leaves Patterned Paper / Cardstock / SnC ribbon / Blings / Making Memories Acrylic Paint for 大姐.

I printed the words 大姐, cut out and use sponge to put paint on the cardstock.

My sister has turned the big 50. But she's still so youthful and hardworking. That's why I decided to use chinese words to describe some of her qualities.

(A close up below)

BLOG TUITION

This morning I helped 3 teenage students from Jonathan school create their blogs. They were so eager to learn and I'm glad I could help them. One of them is my favourite boy "Teck Yong". He had to create an email address and called himself ironman.chua. The when it came to putting a title on his blog, he thought while I attended to the other two and came up with "THIS IS MY LIFE". Amazing isn't it?

So for close to one hour today, I taught them how to get started. One of them is hearing impaired but he could read my lips and we communicated pretty well despite my half-past-six sign language.

The other 18yo boy speaks mandarin and he was so shy and told me that I may have to repeat the lesson a few times for him cos he might forget. But after what I saw today, I didn't have to tell him what to do. He has been journalling and his teacher is hoping he will express publicly and I hope this will help him. His mom is very happy that he's learning something new and told me that he's very keen on computers.

Next week we will continue and I'm looking forward to it.

MARTIN'S BIRTHDAY

Martin (my nephew, same age as Jonathan) celebrated his birthday on on Saturday 22 March 08. I decided to make him a welcome sign cos he invited his school friends, cousins and neighbours for the party his parents have organised for him.

I used a large chipboard and crayons to draw and color the words. The chipboard already came in yellow.

Happy Birthday Martin! God bless you!

DENTAL APPOINTMENT

Jonathan had his dental appointment today, almost one year after his GA cleaning. We had to change the appointment a few times cos of different reasons.

Well...as usual, I didn't want to tell him until the last minute cos I didn't want him to be nervous.

He was :( When he saw the dentist, his mouth started quivering and his teeth chattering. Refused to open his mouth...a fault of mine actually. Because he doesn't eat by mouth, whenever it comes to touching his teeth, his mouth becomes sensitive.

But the plus side is that he allows me to clean the outside of his teeth which has been well maintained. So with the last GA clean, they did whatever they could to patch, clean thoroughly and put a sealant on all the teeth.

So far, dentist say it seems ok but she wanted to see his baby molars. She said whenever I check his teeth, just to make sure that when the molars turn pink, that means they are about to drop. Since Jonathan is 11 yo now, his molars might drop any time. But because he doesn't chew a lot, they may take a longer time to drop. I just have to observe.

The thing now is to desensitize his mouth. Use a battery operated toothbrush and stimulate his mouth, gums and surroundings so that he will open his mouth for us.

Today's episode was another experience. He just refused to open and clenched his teeth really tight. And also, because of his bad experience with the tongue depressor at a GP clinic, he has the fear of opening his mouth. But in the end, he was willing to open a teeny weeny bit without us using the wedgy and dentist was able to see a little. She's a very patient and nice dentist.

She recommended that the next GA clean will probably be in 2 years time.

Lord, help Jonathan to stop being fearful and help him to overcome this and open his mouth and remind me to exercise his mouth and stimulate it regularly. Amen!!!

"BE" - LATEST LAYOUT

Jonathan was not well again on Monday afternoon. But thank God it was just a mild episode of retching. Then again, when he's not well, he's just tired and so are we.

We have decided to stay home again...to the dismay of his teacher...who thought it was she that is causing Jonathan to fall sick! I just have to say..."it's not you Teacher C!"

Thank you Lord! for giving Jonathan speedy recovery. So I decided to clear away my tiredness by finishing this scrapbook layout that I have laid off for a while...cos I couldn't come up with the designs although I had done the first part.

It's also for Scrap-n-Crop's Bingo Challenge again. It's basically like a tic-tac-toe style of rules so I decided to pay tribute to this challenge by scraplifting the tic-tac-toe design but at the same time adhere to the rules.

Title: BE

My take:
1) Journal your page
2) Use 3 or more photos
3) Use any 3 types of flowers

I didn't want to use pink or red flowers (too girly) so I cut out some green flower shapes and surrounded the flower with fabric paint that pops up after being blown dry.

Materials: Cardstock / patterned paper (for the words), ribbons, chipboards, Heidi Swapp Alphas, buttons.

SnC MARCH CHALLENGE

Scrap-n-Crop is having a challenge. I'm not eligible for the prize but decided to do one as a way to challenge my self. It's a very interesting challenge. The host gave us up to 26th March to complete and it was good for me. My design (above) is simple so I finished early.

I decided to use black because most of the items I used are brightly colored and I wanted them to stand out. I also thought using Jonathan's communication cards (Picture Exchange Cards, PEC) to make a journal since it's different.

Check out The BINGO challenge is thought up by my friend Liza (DT of SnC)

My take:
1) Use any type of paint
2) Use 3 different lengths of ribbons
3) Put journal

Materials used:
Bazzill Cardstock as base (black) / MM Blueberry Paint / Chipboard / HP Photosmart Printer / SnC & S.E.I. Ribbons

Jonathan initially said "not nice" cos it was in black. But after I added the borders and all the other elements, he took a long time to decide that it was nice...haha! so cute.

I enjoyed doing this. Maybe on a more ambitious project later. But for now...back to my other work....no more LOs for me for this week.

Here are more pictures:

Journal words: "I use communication aid to talk and sign language to spell".

I LOVE SNOW!

This is my 二姐's (er jieh / 2nd sister) backyard (pic above) in Memphis Tennessee, USA. She had 6" of snow this week. Her trampoline (left) is all covered with a layer of snow. Looks like a big piece of white chipboard!

I love snow. Only had a chance to play with it once when I was there in 1994. Beautiful.

(Front door)

THANK YOU!

All these years, my family has been receiving blessings from family members and friends. Be it monetary or gifts.

I have never really thanked our family for all that they have done for us.

Now....Thank you mom!; big bro; big sis all the way to 5th sis; youngest bro and Jon's cousins for all your emotional, financial and prayer support! You are always buying things for Jon and much more. Thank you so much!

To my big sis n bro-in-law. God bless you in your tour business. If anyone is reading my blog, go to http://www.luxury.com.sg/. They have the best hotel rates for Malaysia and around the world and special package tours too!

Thank you TC Molly and family and also H's family for your love for us.

I also want to thank my friends from my ex-workplace for your encouragements and support. To Janice, Joanna, Jackie, Michele Minjoot, Aunty Rosie, Aunty Nancy.

Today, I received a big package from my friend (aka boss) of Scrap-n-Crop too. Besides my order, she put in many "extras" for me. Another friend from KL also gave me some supplies. Scrapbooking materials are expensive and yet they are so generous! It was certainly a big surprise to me! RAKs from scrapbooking! Meaning? Scrap more! haha! But seriously....thanks! So...let me give a plug to Scrap-n-Crop. Their prices are lower than others around the world! SO SHOP THERE!

Most of all....thank you Abba Father for everything. Without you, I can do nothing!

John 15: 7
"If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you."

SCRAPPIN KIDS CHALLENGE - JON'S FIRST LOVE

This is the entry I'm submitting for a challenge by Scrappin Kids.

Jonathan loves to watch Wheel of Fortune (American game show) that was shown in Singapore many years ago. This show is the only TV program he will watch. We tried switching him to other children programs but he wasn't interested, not even Hi-5. He has a toy that he likes but that's not his ultimate favourite cos when shown the two, he will definitely choose WOF. Initially, it was the colorful wheel that attracted him. Then it became the alphabets and words and the funny lines that Pat Sajak (the host) says. He also laughs at the mistakes the contestants make. And WOF is where he learned english and how to spell too.

I always do straight and safe designs. I haven't found the technique to go into the more elaborate and sophisticated layouts. Maybe one day I will try. But I hope I qualify for this challenge with this simple LO. I used silver embossing powder to emboss the "1ST". Wanted to put an embossed heart but ended up using the foam hearts instead because the embossing didn't turn out good.

Materials I used:
Heidi Swapp Chipboard Alphas, HP Photosmart Printer, Self-Adhesive Photopaper, Silver Embossing Powder, Chipboard, Foam Hearts, Blings, Cardstock for text-boxes and border and Scrapworks PP.

Journal:
"You have watched WOF ever since you were one month old. It's the only TV show you will watch and it's fine by me 'cos it teaches you English and Spelling!"


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FEBRUARY

February has come and gone. It wasn't a good February for Jonathan. Started falling sick right after CNY and after recovering from one, another attack came. From allergy flu to stomach flu, it wasn't pleasant for Jonathan. Sleepless nights and all. We have missed school the whole month and next week is already the school holidays.

But thank God the episodes are over. He's recovering from the stomach flu that saw him retching and while throwing up, biting his lower right lip until it was swollen and now has ulcers forming in the inner lip.

But as usual, through it all, he was a wonderful and good boy. Didn't whine, didn't make a big fuss and quietly allowed me to administer medication to his mouth even though it hurt really bad.

It's time to take stock of his food intake. Re-evaluate the vitamins and all the supplements.

Lord....let Your protection continually be over Jonathan and give me wisdom to take care of him even better than before....