SweetTeen's Ballet Concert

SweetTeen's ballet school, Tippy Toes Dance & Art Academy, held their ballet concert on Saturday 29th October at the Theatre in Palace of The Golden Horses. 

She had been pretty excited about it for the past few months, going for practices and rehearsals 3 times a week. On Saturday morning she woke up early, telling me that she couldn't sleep well...probably because of the excitement.




Last week I took her to Sungei Wang to buy false eyelashes for her and her ballet classmates. There's this stall at the 2nd floor that sells them at between RM10 - RM30 for a box of 10 pairs.

She also needed white hairclips for the headpiece that she would be wearing, and since white hairclips are difficult to find, we bought black hairclips and SweetTeen used the liquid correction pen to turn them white!

On the day of  the concert she had to be at the hall by 11.30am for make-up and final rehearsal. I only put foundation, face powder, a little blusher and lipgloss on her face but by the time I reached the Palace of The Golden Horses at 7.20pm I couldn't recognise my own daughter even though she was standing right in front of me! She had been transformed by dramatic stage make up: loads of blue eyeshadow, blusher, lipstick and of course, those very long false eyelashes!

SweetTeen with those dramatic long lashes

Grandpa, grandma, auntie and CoolTeen came along for the concert. I think everyone enjoyed themselves watching the ballet except CoolTeen, who had an eyeful with these scantily-clad ladies...

belly-dancing!

Being Thankful

I check my email inbox everyday and once in a while I am pleasantly surprised by the funny jokes and inspirational stories that my friends send me.


I found this in my inbox one day and finding it very encouraging I thought I would share it here:

Be Thankful

Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire. If you did, what would there be to look forward to?

Be thankful when you don't know something, for it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times. During those times you grow.

Be thankful for your limitations, because they give you opportunities for improvement.

Be thankful for each new challenge, because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes. They will teach you valuable lessons.

Be thankful when you're tired and weary, because it means you've made a difference.

It's easy to be thankful for the good things. A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are also thankful for the setbacks. Gratitude can turn a negative into a positive. Find a way to be thankful for your troubles, and they can become your blessings.

Oh...there's also one thing which I am thankful for since I am a BIG fan of Angry Birds...something which I bought in Sungei Wang today while shopping with hubby and SweetTeen:

There is so much choice of phone casing for the iPhone
and nothing for the Samsung Galaxy Ace,
until I found this today (big grin)!

As much as I treasured my little Sony Ericsson Experia X10 mini, age is catching up and my eyes were straining to read the words on the tiny screen, so I had to part with it and get myself a phone with a bigger screen and bigger fonts...sigh!

A Rather Eventful Week

Last Saturday my kids went to visit the floating bookstore, Logos Hope, at Port Klang with the youngsters from our church. I didn't go along because it was an outing for the youths, and sad to admit, I do not qualify as a youth any more.

SweetTeen got herself a bracelet and found a cookbook for me to add to my collection of cookbooks :)

My treasured collection of cookbooks and recipes

One evening a few days later, hubby and I were downstairs when we were startled by a LOUD crashing sound. Both of us ran upstairs to find our kids looking quite shocked and standing very still. It seems that they were playfully pushing each other around when CoolTeen knocked into the display cabinet. Thank God for His protection, no one got hurt...not even a tiny little cut or scratch!


The glass piece on the door of the display cabinet had broken into large sharp pieces (should have fitted it with tempered glass instead) and it was quite a task cleaning up. Hubby had to place the large pieces between sheets of newspaper and shatter them with a hammer so that they could be wrapped in more newspaper and fit into the plastic garbage bag for disposal. The neighbours must be wondering what we were up to, smashing glass so late at night!

Large pieces of glass that fell from the cabinet door

Shattered pieces 

We didn't have many glass cabinets or glass tables in our home when the children were younger, but now that they are older we thought that it would be allright, but who knew....

Rainy Days, Laundry Blues

It had been rainy the whole of last week and the clothes that I washed on Monday still hadn't dried by Thursday. By then my laundry basket was almost bursting at the seams with dirty clothes (it's amazing how quickly it fills up!) but there was no more room to hang any newly washed clothes at my little wash area beside the kitchen.

So I took down all the half-dried clothes and transported them over to the living room and loaded up my washing machine with dirty clothes.


And this is the scene that greeted hubby when he came home from work one day...

Clothes draped all over the sofa and the fan turned on full blast!

Light Sleeper Heavy Sleeper

I find it quite fascinating that my 2 children are so opposite in their character, habits and preferences.


SweetTeen is a very light sleeper (like her mom) and every little sound during the night would wake her from her sleep. For the past 2 nights, clicking sounds from the ceiling fan in her bedroom have been keeping her awake. So it's dad the handyman to the rescue, and after a bit of cleaning the fan is now silent once again, much to SweetTeen's relief.

CoolTeen, on the other hand, would be dead to the world once he falls asleep. Whenever the house alarm goes off in the middle of the night triggered by lizards in the attic, he would be the only one sleeping through all the noise. 


So when a friend posted this video on Facebook, it seems like a very familiar scene in CoolTeen's room in the mornings, especially the part where he tugs at the blanket to cover his head. I have always been the only one in the family who can wake him up (usually with a few smacks on the rear) and I wonder how he will manage to wake up in time for his classes when he goes away to university in the not-too-distant future....






The older generation thought nothing of getting up at five every morning, and the younger generation doesn't think much of it either - John J. Welsh