Happy Birthday To Me~

Today is 26th April 2009, which marks the 24th year I'm in this world.

Being a 24-year-old, I do feel that I'm much more mature compare to last time. I've cursed less, I'm now thinking more like an adult (at times!), even my blogging style has changed. Changed A LOT!

The biggest achievement I have thus far is my little baby boy. There are still times when I'm amazed that me and husband had "produced" such a beautiful and cute baby. Those who came and visited us could tell you how adorable my little prince is. Hehehehe..

And in the nick of time, I've been living in KL for almost a year. Oh man, time does flies. There are certainly a lot of ups and downs living in KL. Being cheated while looking for a job. Took a bus home during the night but had zero idea where to go down. Shopping alone after a few days in KL. Staying in the hospital alone. Settled for a fabulous job with an angelic boss. Handling the whole company alone for almost two months while my boss was in her maternity leaves. Took my maternity leaves. Made a life changing decision. Learned how to crochet. Sketched my first wedding gown (still learning). Hanging out with fellow friends and Shouters (you guys are fabulous). Started a blogshop (still no business until now but never mind, "success doesn't come overtime"-Lasker). Travel to and fro Penang with the train. If I were to name all the things I've done last year, it'll take me the whole day to finish this blog.

Although there a few screwed up moments, I still love my life very much despite some disatisfaction moments. But no one's life is perfect, so I've just gotta learn to gulp all the negative moments down to my tummy and output it through "you know where". Life, perhaps would be happier this way.

Anyway, I would like to take this opportunity to thank a few persons that have a huge impact in my life. Thanks mom for your love, support and care (although you annoyed me at times :P), thanks Evie and Lasker for your advices and thanks a lot for listening to my rantings when I'm in the bad times.

Last but not least, I would like to thank Firewire aka Mr Hubby for your neverending love and care. Thank you for supporting me through my pregnancy, you've me it a lot easier for me. Thank you for driving me around. Thank you for helping me with the housechores. Thank you for goofing around with your dances and lame jokes just to make days a brighter one. Thank you for being there when I need you the most. Thank you for making feel protected whenever you are around. Thank you for fixing my blog when I'm stuck with the html codes (rofl!). Although we did had a few arguments but like I always said, arguments actually strengthen our loves and relationship.

And thank you everyone for filling my life with more colors.

Life As A Daughter In Law

Have you ever found yourself complaining about how your parents love to nag endlessly? How they always make you do things that you hate. How they always stop you from doing things that you love. How they never seem to appreciate those good deeds that you've done. How they critisize the way you look. I'm very sure that all of us are guilty of complaining about our parents. But let me tell you something, if you think being a daughter a hard, being a daughter-in-law is harder.

*to the guys, change the word "daughter" to "son" because being a son-in-law is nothing easy too.*

One thing for sure, if you don't like what your parents do and say, you can always talk back at them (which is actually very bad) but you can never do so to your parents-in-law. Talking back to them will only results in hatred from the whole family.

You talk back to your mother-in-law (MIL), MIL complains to Aunt A, Aunt A complains to Aunt B, Aunt B complains to Uncle C and it goes on and on. And as you know, when a story spread from one person to another, it will somehow be exaggerated. One small thing will turn into a bigger bigger deal when it's passed to one and another. Funny isn't it?

And parents-in-law will always side their children first eventhough they are the one making mistakes. For example, after dinner, their son can just eats and leaves the plates on the table and walks off and nobody would say a thing. But if the daughter-in-law does the same thing, she will be labeled as lazy, ill-mannered, disrespectful, not-educated and the list goes on. And the best part is, it will also be spread to all the aunties, uncles, gradparents and sometimes to the neighbour next door too.

Sometimes, they never really think on behalf of their daughter-in-law when it comes to doing things they think which is right. For example, one would asked the daughter-in-law and their son to paint the whole house because the house they are living now is in a bad condition. Their intention is good, but the problem is, they do not realised that paint fumes is bad for the daughter-in-law who is a few months pregnant. So I'm pretty sure if it was their own daughter, they will think twice beforehand.

Parents-in-law will never know about the good things that the daughter-in-law does for them. Either they don't know or they never bother to know or even if they knew, they just shrugged it off. But when the daughter did anything wrong, she will be labeled as a bad girl.

But if we look at the big picture, it's actually fair too in a way where your parents will love you more compare to your husband. Will side you no matter what compare to your husband.

I consider myself pretty lucky as I do not have any major problems with my in-laws.

So to all the parents-in-law out there who treated their daughter-in-law badly, please take note that you have children too and I'm sure you won't want them to be treated badly by their in-laws. As they say, what goes around turns around.

And too all the daughters out there, you can complain and rant all you want, but honestly, no one will loves you the way your parents do. Appreciate them before it's too late. ♥

College Days

The rain is pouring outside and so is my tears. Rainy days like this never failed to bring back old memories into my mind. One of them was my college days.

I wasn't as fortunate like many out there who has their parents to support them with their college fees. I was not like those who has their dads to sponsor them a car when they step into their college-hood.

I started working full-time right after SPM because my parents couldn't afford to pay my college fees. To continue my education, I had opted to work full-time and to study part-time.

I was working with my cousin back then so I was quite lucky as my cousin (who is also the boss) allowed me to go back at 4pm when I have class. So whenever I have class at night, I will leave my office at 4.00-5.00pm. My mom would wait for me in the office during that period of time to fetch me home so that I could wash-up and have something to fill my stomach.

After that, she'll fetch me on her motorcycle to the jetty so that I could take the ferry to the island where my college is situated. When I reached the jetty at the island, I would wait for the bus to take me to my college in Pulau Tikus.

Upon reaching Pulau Tikus, the first I do (if I wasn't late for class which started at 6.00pm) was to buy my dinner at 7-11 which is just opposite my college. After that I'll cross the road to my college and have my dinner while listening to the lectures in the classroom.

Our class normally finished at 9.00pm, and sometimes ended a little bit later around 9.30pm. I would then wait for the bus right outside my college to take me back to the jetty.

The part that would always be in my mind is how I waited for the bus alone under the rain. I waited and waited and waited until 10.00pm++ under the rain. At that moment, I felt like crying, I felt like the unluckiest person in the world, I hated my dad for all my sufferings, I hated the God for being unfair. I waited and waited and waited and finally the bus came. There are times when I was the only person left on the bus. No one knew how frightened I was at that time.

Everytime I reached the jetty, I'll feel relieved because there are normally a lot of people there and I know that I'll be reaching home soon. Sometimes, me and mom would go home under the heavy rain on her motorcycle and reached home soaky wet. That was the time when I hated my life the most.

There's one time when I was hit and run by a motorcycle while crossing the road to my college. My elbow, knee and foot were bleeding. My books were thrown all over the road. I was lucky because a men from the tyre shop nearby came to help picked my books up and walked me to the side of the road. He asked me if I was alright and I told him I was because I have less than RM20 in my pocket and if I go to the doctor, I would have no money left to go home.

I knew that my mom will be worried if I told her about what happened so I called and lied to her that my class had been canceled and was now on my way to the jetty. Upon reaching the jetty by taxi, I walked towards the ferry with my foot bleeding in my shoes. When I saw my mom in Butterworth's jetty, I broke down and cried because I couldn't take the pain any longer. That experience had left me with a phobia to cross the road.

When I was in my Diploma, I was fully sponsored by the Star Education Fund. A good friend of mine told me how she had applied and successfully received the scholarship. Feeling motivated, I too applied for it.

Feeling all excited, I went to my company's lawyer and asked him to help me out with the application form. There's a part where I need to fill in the reasons why I deserved the scholarship. And my lawyer did a good job by writing down a very sad story of how poor my family was and how I couldn't afford to further my studies without the funds.

I was the happiest person in the world when I received a call from the college asking me to attend the interview. Suring the interview, I cried in front of the interviewers while telling them my story. And I guessed that my story touched their heart as I got another call from the college after a few weeks informing that I've got the scholarship!

That was the proudest moment in my entire life as I got to study free for my Diploma. But I stopped studying after I got my Diploma because the exam fees are getting pricier and I couldn't afford to pay for the exam fees eventhough my course fees are sponsored.

Because of my constant class skipping, I failed my Diploma papers twice and only passed the papers the third time. But now that I think back, I had a reason not to attend class. The whole journey from going to college after work and to go back late at night were too tiring especially during the rainy days.

I've realised that going through ll these had really made me a stronger person. If I were all pampered by my parents back then, I won't who I am today. But I know, I would not let my children go through the same thing like I did if I have the option. Never~

And I find it really funny and sometimes frustrating when friends of mine complained and ranted about how bad their life is when compared to mine they are more fortunate than I am.

Other than that, I am really thankful for what my mom had done for me. Fetching me from home to work, from work to the jetty, from jetty back home again and again and again. Sometimes under the rain.

I love you mom. ♥

Newborn And Jaundice

After the abortion's problems, it's time to move on to something informative. When I gave birth almost three months ago, while I was still in the hospital, the paediatrician told me that my baby had jaundice too. At the time, my heart sank as I do not know how serious it was and I had very little info about it. But I did read about it before in forums but it didn't really help much. It scared me even more because most forummers there were sharing their terrible experience with jaundice. Some of their children need to be monitored in the hospital as it was very serious. And some said that jaundice could leads to death. But luckily after the paediatrician's checkup, I was informed that my baby's jaundice was minor and it will go away in 2 weeks.

After becoming a mom, I've read up a lot of parenting magazines in order to equip myself when time in need. I'm gonna share with you guys what I know about jaundice.

Jaundice is the yellow color seen in the skin of many newborns. It happens when a chemical called Bilirubin builds up in the baby's blood. Jaundice can occur in babies of any race or color but it happened to Asians more compared to the Caucasians.

Everyone's blood contains bilirubin (doesn't matter if you are baby or adult), which is removed by the liver. before birth, the mother's liver does this for the baby. Most babies develop jaundice in the first few days after birth because it takes a few days for the baby's liver to get better at removing bilirubin.

The skin of baby with jaundice usually appears yellow. Jaundice usually appears first in the face and then moves to the chest, abdomen, arms and legs as bilirubin level increases. The whites of the eyes may also be yellow.

Most infants have mild jaundice that is harmless, but in unusual situations the bilirubin level can get very high and causes brain damage. This is why newborns should be checked carefully for jaundice and treated to prevent the bilirubin's level from increases.

For mothers who wished to breastfeed their baby, they have to avoid taking gingers, wine and So Hup Yuen (a type of traditional medicine taken by mothers who have just given birth to get rid of winds from the body) until their baby is fully cured from jaundice. And before you take any medicine, it is best to check with your doctor first to see if it does any harm to your baby if you take it.

Other than that, just be calm and your baby will be okay in two weeks if it's mild. =)