Meet Me on Monday

A great way to know each other. Come, link up and join the fun with our beautiful host Java.

Questions:

1.  Tomorrow I'm going to _________?
Attend two classes from 8-10, then from 10-12. Good thing quizzes are so college that I don't have to fret being unprepared lol. In the afternoon till 5, I need to work in the library for my part-time job. And from 5 to 6 pm, I would have to treat my infected chicks with certain drugs as part of my experiment. My, and I almost forgot I need to pick my daughter from her school at 5:30. Ahhh, just realized how busy I would be tomorrow, omg!

2.  Pudding or Jello?
Pudding! I love the feel as it slowly melts into my sweet loving mouth.

3.  What book are you currently reading? 
I just bought Jane Austen's "Emma" the other day along with "How to kill a mocking bird" and I'm quite excited to start reading them. But then I'm just really too busy to even open a page. Nevertheless I promised to start reading as soon as winter vacation strikes.

4.  What is the first concert you went to see?
A concert from our local artist, an alternative rock band called "Color it Red". Seen them in the early 90s and was so amazed to hear the beautiful raspy voice coming from a petite lady. I so love their first album.

5.  What is your current weather?
63°F with 72-88% humidity. Hope it  doesn't go lower and the humidity doesn't go higher. And hopefully no rains especially on my birthday this coming Friday and the birthday trip the next day! Yay! Pretty excited!!!

Thanks for dropping by! Have a great week and enjoy the holidays!

Friday Fragments

 Another fun with Mrs. 4-4-4-4 and other fragmenters for the juicy bits and pieces of our week.

***So funny, the more I was stressed preparing for my big seminar, the more I procrastinated. Imagine, I ended up blogging last weekend lol. Who can blame me, I love blogging more than burying my head to boring papers. The mass of comments I received made my day! I love the thoughtful ones where we know they really read our post, ahhh the more I spent my time blog hopping and commenting back lol. I enjoyed it better! Much much better!

***My daughter caught colds due to sudden change to freezing temperature so both of us ended up skipping our classes for the day. I dosed her with vitamin C, fruit juices and warm soup. Glad she recovered fast, in two days she's back to normal!

***I lost my house keys and the key/lock man sent to open our door just couldn't open it for an hour. So sad. So I have no choice but to agree with his decision to finally break our door lock open and replace with new one. Ouch! another 27usd wasted down the drain and a moral lesson hardly learned.

***Finally had my seminar presentation yayyy! Two weeks or more of stressful sleepless nights were worth my effort. Professors and colleagues were awed with my presentation lol. At least that's what they told me. The topic I discussed was taken from Nature, one of the highest impact-factored scientific journal, entitled "Adaptive prediction of environmental changes by microorganisms". It's quite interesting actually. Bacteria just like us learn how to cope up with their environment and thus survive the harsh environment. This is kind of scary especially for bacteria that cause deadly diseases, right?

***Again for this week, we infected another sets of chicks with pathogenic E. coli and will treat them on Monday with specified antibiotics. Hope I will get good results.

***I'm back to watching Desperate Housewives. Still on the 3rd episode of Season 8. Love it!

***My birthday is coming!!! It's next week Friday! Told my friends I will not celebrate such old age but they took it as nonsense! They're planning a surprise trip for me on my birthday! They wont divulge where.  Hmm, okay can't wait!

***Another big experiment is scheduled on my birthday but I managed to convince my professors to move it one day ahead lol. Nobody messes with my day! Bahahaha!!!

***No, unfortunately  somebody managed to mess up with my big day. My daughter won. They have a Christmas party at her school exactly on my birthday and she don't wonna miss it. So my birthday party/trip organizers moved the trip one day later, where we really need to wake up really early to avoid traffic jams. Hmmm, now I'm really very curious where in the world they're taking me.

That's it for now. Thanks for dropping by and commenting. Have a great weekend!!!

Friday Fragments

Another blogging fun for Fridays. Posting too short for stand-alone posts yet too important to discard. Come and link up and join the fun with Mrs. 4444's and other fragmenters. This is my 2nd week and I'm getting hooked. Hence, my fragments...

***So surprised the other day. I was so exhausted sleeping very late working on my presentation. I prayed to God hopefully there would be no class the following early morning. Need to finish my ppt. The next day, indeed my prayers were granted. There was no class for 8-10 AM. I confirmed with the department secretary, she confirmed with the prof's office and confirmed me the good news! Pretty amazing, right? Is it just a coincidence or God just love me soo much! Yippee!

***I was watching my favorite TV series "The Walking Dead". Again, I'm quite unsatisfied with the kind of dull and lack of thrilling zombie-nation-attack-action for this week which was a far cry from the heart-stopping action-packed first season. However, this week's finale surprised me with the unexpected creative twist and it sure got me and made me cry. If you're a crazy zombie freak like me or just curious about it, check it out here.

I'm quite sad though they're done with the mid-season finale and will be back on Feb. 12 next year.  Hope they will be back even hair-raisingly better! Can't wait!

***I did my experiments this week. Basically, we want to test if certain antibiotics are effective to chickens. Right now, I'm still in the first phase of the study. So blessed to be assisted by the efficient team of Prof. S graduate students.

***My daughter sprained her ankle while practicing (running) for a school race. We went to a Chinese hospital last night and sure did got her no-not-the-massage nor the acupuncture but another type of interesting sprained muscle treatment method. I don't know how it's called, the doctor doesn't know the English term either. A kind of small metals hooked to a power supply then left it to stimulate the muscle's pressure points for 15 min. My daughter enjoyed it though. A kind of spicy yet soothing herbal patch was bandaged later. I hope this treats her painful ankles in no time.

Her  first time on a traditional Chinese hospital. 

***Reading the news headlines from home is sooo depressing. Corrupt government officials (and they're not even subtle), escalating crime rates, poverty, discriminations, massacres, justice not served for the victims, killings, public transport drivers' recklessness, kidnapping for ransoms, terrorist threats, ahhh and the list never ends. Too much for a morning coffee break! Wishing and praying for peace, that people would stop being so greedy and cruel, start giving love and make our world a better place to live in.

***December is finally here but the spirit of Christmas is nowhere to be found ~ yet. So sad. Amidst the intensely humid freezing wind filled with busy people, I can't help but missing my warm, festive, laid-back and Christmas-junkie home! Been missing spending Christmas with my family for five years now :( . On a lighter note, I and my daughter are going home next month. Woot woot!

***Lastly, while waiting for hubby to be online (who's in another part of the world), can't help to take these snaps to show off my drink~ Taiwan's famous delicious bubble milk tea which he surely misses by now.  My apologies for being a bit narcissistic in here LOL!

Advance Merry Christmas to yah all!
Have a great and awesome weekend!

Shotgun Proposal

Married? Tell us the story of how the question was popped.

Wooh! Such meme from Mama Kat suddenly transported me back ten years ago at my engagement moment. So how was the question popped? Sorry to frustrate you guys but our story was not that romantic. For starters, I'm not even sure if the question was popped at all. I think it's kinda funny. The question should be, was the question popped? Hahah, please read on.

I was on my sixth year with my veterinary medicine course when I found out I was two months pregnant. Yes, two months pregnant at the beginning of my senior year. How great was that. Pregnancies out of wedlock are frowned upon by our society. Our parents and families would surely be devastated. I was beyond horrified. Confused and scared, I informed my boyfriend of my scary condition. His answer was simple "then let's get married!" That was a declaration! He didn't even pop the question. He didn't even asked me if I wonna marry him. It's the feeling of having a shotgun pointed at your face and you have no other option but to accept the proposal.

See? Told yah, not at all romantic.

With his statement, the more I got scared. I'm not yet ready. I love him but we're still kids ourselves. However, my soon-to-be-hubby was sure of his decision. He was to marry me if that's the right thing to do. He's kind of mature beyond his years. Our friends used to tease him that such was his strategy of not losing me, hmmm.

But hear me out. The problem then was how to divulge such news to our parents. A role model daughter as I was, I was scared to break the forbidding news. So I left the noble task to my poor hubby. For three days I was gone for a field trip on an island with my colleagues, an overnight ferry ride away from home. He was left to resolve our grave problem alone (he's the sweetest and obviously I'm the meanest haha). When he told his parents about  our serious problem, surprisingly, they took the news calmly and understood our situation.

Then they visited my parents and dropped the bomb themselves. Imagine how my mom reacted. She was hysterical. My father was speechless. I can't imagine how awkward the situation might be. It's their first time to meet each other and what a great way to finally meet, huh? However, my parents managed to survive the blow. They believed that everything will be alright. That their daughter will surely finish her studies and become a veterinarian someday. That we will survive such sudden transition in our lives. Knowing what everybody had gone through (and I was a coward), I was really touched and kind of felt at peace with the situation and less scared of getting married too soon.

In our Filipino culture, we have the stage before marriage called "pamanhikan", where the groom-to-be formally asks the hands of his wife-to-be from her parents for marriage. My boyfriend's family and relatives invaded our home few days later and the wedding date was set. Hence, we were officially engaged. I was then 21 and hubby was 22 years old. The wedding was held two months later in our city's cathedral  followed by a grand reception at the hotel. And the feeling? I was like floating all through out in the midst of a whirlwind, from the wedding preparations to the wedding ceremony. I survived.

Overall, though the marriage proposal was not at all that romantic, we ended up so inlove with each other. We made the right choice. And now, we got two beautiful daughters who further strengthened the bond. Though our relationship has its ups and downs, we worked it out and maintained the romance in our lives. Last month, we celebrated our tenth year wedding anniversary. Yes we did it and pretty survived the odds. As for the romantic part? I'm still waiting for my diamond ring, wondering when my husband can finally afford it lol.

This post was inspired by the fabulous Mama Kat's meme.

Meet Me on Monday

A meme designed for my blogging friends to know me better. Pretty cool, right?  Hence, my answers for this week.

Questions:

1.  I really need to clean my _________?

My closet and get rid of the unnecessary stuff. Winter time is here and my wardrobes are still set for the summer lol! Just been very busy lately.

2.  What food makes you think of Christmas?

Fruitcake! Wish I could make one.

3.  If you could choose to stay a certain age forever, what age would it be? 

Oh, this one is funny. I happened to have the same exact answer with our fabulous host Java. 30 for me is the best age. Not too young nor too old. Just perfect.

4.  What was your first paying job?

A university teacher. I taught college students for two years. I happened to enjoy it a lot.

5.  Have you read the Twilight series?

Oh too bad, not one. I just skim the pages but not read it thoroughly. Just doesn't have this luxury of time to read and enjoy one yet. On a lighter note, I never missed a movie and looking forward for the new one.

I wanna know more about you too. So why not join the fun and link up.

Fragmented Friday

This is my first time to join this meme. I found its theme very interesting where we can document fragments of recent events in our lives ~ too short for a stand-alone post, but too good to discard. Hence my fragments for this week.

***I was so busy this past week with my experiments and at the same time pressured for my oncoming oral presentation where I'm not that prepared yet. I'm freaking out! Can't help blaming it to my late night experiment schedules that further exhaust and stressed me out. I know I had time management issues.

***I realized coffee is no longer effective for me. Drinking a cup still doesn't wake me up and more than a cup gives me palpitations. Crazy!

***I felt so bad my daughter had to endure staying with me in the lab till late night, sometimes until 3 ~ 5 AM the next morning. So terrible. To make up with her, we usually ate at nearest McDonald's that wee hour. But I managed to fix this by dropping her off to stay with some friends for the night.

***In spite all of the challenges rocking my week, I got many blessings to count and thank for too. I'm so grateful with Prof. H1, an expert to what I'm doing right now. Although he's not my adviser but he always find time to discuss with me regarding my research.

***I'm so thankful with Prof. H2, who without any questions entrusted me their lab keys and entitled me to use their laboratory and its equipment anytime. His PhD students are equally very helpful to my project, imparting their expertise and skills to the betterment of my experiments.

***Ah, Prof. S is the best. He is not my adviser and it's my first time to solicit his expertise, but he goes beyond from simply improving my protocols to actually performing my preliminary experiments as part of our class activities. He offered the experimental animals, the experimental area, the skills and the assistance of his research assistant and students. The bonus part, I got to learn a lot of experimental skills and have parts of my experiments done. How great can that be! Indeed, I'm beyond grateful.

***My daughter learns Math and Chinese mostly without my assistance. And she often gets 100 score which I buy for 3usd each, so to further encourage her. My hectic schedule plus my weakness in Chinese can't help her in any way but I thank God for heaven sent angels to assist her ~ her teachers and some of my friends. I'm so proud of her independence, smartness, diligence and for understanding our crazy situation.

***I'm so glad to have good friends around me. Their support and hugs are very much appreciated. I would have gone crazy had I didn't have them around. Truly they're my true friends. A Thanksgiving greetings and a chat with a good friend from Fiji last night was a nice surprise too.

***My husband's constant chat and text messages everyday, though he's a country away from me, strengthened my weakening perseverance and optimisms. My mom's text messages brightened up my days.

***Indeed, for this Thanksgiving Season (though we don't celebrate one in our country), I had so many things worth thanking for!

***This particular message caught my attention. So true and had me thinking and reevaluating my priorities in life.

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Also linking for

My blog is great! Yey!

Yay my blog is great!!! 

Thank you so much Judy for the affirmation and for granting me this award. I'm very honored. Please come and visit my new blogging friend Judy on Judy H-J's Thoughts - A Twinless Twin and join her as she reminisced her adventures with her beautiful twin Janine. I really love her blog. It gets me teary-eyed at times as she celebrates her twin's well-lived life.

Here are the rules for accepting this award:
1. I must tell 7 things about myself.
2. I must pass it on to 15 other bloggers.

Hence, these are my seven confessions:

1. I never make it out to the door without forgetting something. I don't know, maybe some early manifestation of Alzheimer's disease? I hope not.

2. I got two sweet hyperactive daughters whom I love so much but both delivered through Caesarian sections. My first baby was intended for a normal delivery, but she just won't come out so the doctors decided to open me up. My second baby I guess was fated for CS delivery after everybody got traumatized with my first emergency CS operation. Thus, my ugly CS scar on my no longer flawless belly lol. However, this scar and the continents of cellulite along with it were worth my precious girls.

3. Library and book stores are my havens! I don't mind spending my whole day and sometimes buying loads of books for me and my kids.

4. At present, I'm a PhD student (veterinary medicine). However, I'm not so sure anymore if I'll finish this degree. Life with it often gets too stressful and miserable.

5. I was once casted for an extra role on a Hollywood movie (in 3D to be released on December 2012) directed by the famous Brokeback Mountain's director. My part was a nurse, a good friend of the protagonist's mom. I was called twice for costume fittings and I saw my own star for Hollywood walk of fame coming lol. But nah, I canceled the said event since I'm crazier about going home in my country and chose to spend my long-awaited vacation with my family.

6. I once got a scary biking accident. A reckless student on a scooter bumped my little bike from behind one night sending me flying upward like some trapeze superstar (as recounted by my traumatized best friend). I was lucky my face landed on my bag (with a jacket inside) and not on the hard pavement. Ouch! otherwise, I don't wonna imagine! Got some bearable scratches on my knees and a small but deep bloody cut on my chin. As for the culprit, she was sent to jail. Nah not really. She just paid for my hospital bills and for my Romanian friend's trauma for witnessing everything lol.

7. I once won our college beauty title but got stripped of it when I was discovered being two months pregnant. Hahaha, not really! Thank goodness I was just a first runner up. Otherwise, that would be a huge scandal, isn't it? LOL.

That's it guys and my apologies for my usual craziness. Now, I'm passing on this award to fifteen other great blogs. I love these blogs and hope you will find time to visit them and you would know why (in random order).

Say It With Roses
Perspicacity
Jo's Precious Thoughts
Scientific Nature A Whammy
My Photo Meme Blog
A Go-with-the-flow Mama's Blog

Spice Up Your Life
Just Another Mom of Twins
My Little Angels in America
Someday Somehere
Rolled Up Pretty
Pinay Mom in Germany
Write in Motion
Belles Roses Romantiques
Climbing the Digital Mountain One Step at a Time

Congratulations guys! Your blog is great so tell us about yourself!
Cheers!

Tardy party hosts

Every year, we organized a Halloween party for a group of friends. Actually, we did such themed parties since my daughter Joey came to Taiwan. Such occasions are rare opportunities and good excuses for us to dress up, get a little bit crazy and just have fun. Last year's Halloween was a blast too. However, the real intention for this simple gathering was to celebrate my best friend's birthday.

So for this year's Halloween/bestfriend's birthday, we organized the party once more and guess what, the hosts, that means me and the birthday girl were late, very late. It was so embarrassing and I'm not proud of it. Anyways, that day was so busy ~ bestfriend and I studied from night till morning to catch up with our deadlines, slept for 4 hours, then went shopping, cooking, went to my lab for 30 minutes to culture some bacteria, then went to assist bestfriend's cooking, decided which dress to wear, then took a shower and dressed up my daughter first, then me. Crazy day huh? Yes but I survived it although the consequence was bad ~ got late to start the party like at least for an hour. Terrible indeed! Just grateful all our guests were our good friends, who understood why the tardiness, or kind of expected it from us already lol.

Meet my best friend or we call each other "sisters". Planning ourselves to tour Europe together one day or just simply retire on one of the beautiful islands in the Philippines. Hmmm, it's free to dream right? As for the friendship part, we've been through a lot together ~ in the highs and lows of our lives. For almost five years of being together, we learned to love each other practically like sisters.

She was a Roman goddess and me, I don't know, some lady in pink?

A better view of our dresses! I'm supposed to be Poison Ivy  that night but this girl managed to convince me to wear the pink chiffon dress! I so love it too though I'm no longer sure what I will be..

That's my daughter in green. She was Tinker Bell. Somebody stole her wings lol.

Some of our friends! Indeed a good time to take a break from our stressful lives!

For this particular pinky meme, I and a good friend/colleague from Cameroon who also wore pink that fun-filled night posed for the camera. He was actually the earliest bird among all of us~ never failed to be on time on events.

Pinky us!

Showing off our pinks.

Everybody had fun that night especially our birthday girl and of course our little princess Joey that the extreme tardiness of the party hosts were totally forgiven (and hopefully forgotten lol).

Linking for: 

Pink Saturday

and

Sunshine Award

I was honored again with another blog award and this time it's the prettiest Sunshine Award. Yayyy!!!

This sunshiny award was given to me by a sweet mom blogger Rovie of Anything About Bella. Thank you Rovie for brightening up my day. This is indeed lovely! It's refreshing to know that I was able to inspire people or at least I inspired Rovie enough to honor me (wink wink!). Apparently, Sunshine Blog Award is awarded to bloggers whose positivity and creativity inspire others in the blogosphere.

Here are the rules for accepting this award:

1. Thank the person who gave this award and write a post about it.

2. Answer the following questions below.
3. And pass the award to 10~12 fabulous bloggers, link their blogs and let them know you awarded them. 

Hence, my answers to the questions:

Favorite color?  Lilac. Such a lovely relaxing color. It was my wedding motif too ten years ago.

Favorite animal?  Dog. Totally, a man's best friend. I love to adopt than buy one. So many neglected dogs out there deserve our love and care.
Favorite number?  I love three. My daughters' birthdays.
Favorite drink?  Green tea. It's healthier and gives me a boost to my busy days.
Facebook or Twitter?  Facebook. All of my friends are there. Even their pets have their own accounts. Seriously.
Your passion?  Serving my hubby and kids. They are my world. Everyday I thank God for such wonderful blessings.
Giving or getting presents?  Giving. It feels good to give, help and make someone happy in our own special way.
Favorite day?  Friday. It means I can watch movies till late or be lazy all night and blog or bloghop till I drop. 
Favorite flowers?  Oh, I just can't get enough of red roses. Wish my husband gives me one each day. 

There you have it guys. Now, it's time for me to share the love. Sunshine Blog Award is the cutest so I must pass it on to twelve deserving bloggers~ who either inspired me with their sassy and creative blogs or made me smile with their thoughtful comments on my posts.  Here they are in totally random order. 

Judy of JUDY H-J'S THOUGHTS - A TWINLESS TWIN
Barbara of Spanish4Kiddos
Jackie of SAHM City

Beauty of Beauty and the Green 

Jessy of Jessy's Adventure

Shanda of A Pause in the Path

Icar of Of Limes and Lemons

Jen of Making Our Life Matter

Gagay of I am... but Gagay

Rosann of Christian SuperMom
Anney of Blog ni Ako

Rashida of Women Walking in the Spirit of Christ

Hope you would have time to visit their cool and amazing blogs too. Have a wonderful day ahead to ya all. E*Hugs!

Versatile Blogger Award

I was elated when I was honored with the awesome Versatile Blogger Award, not just once but twice. I got the first time within the first month of actively joining the blogosphere, awarded by no less than the amazing mom blogger Barbara from Spanish4Kiddos. I so love her blog since it teaches kids and adults alike like me the Spanish language, the fun way. Thank you so much Barbara! Then few weeks later, I was again honored by the fabulous Beauty and the Green. I so love her blog that features various inspiring pieces of art and fashion, from trendy clothes to chic accessories, name it. Thanks girl! If you have the moment, please check out and visit their cool sites too.

This award has few rules. First is to thank and link back to the person who gave you this award. Second, share seven things about yourself. And third, send the award to 15 other bloggers and let them know you have awarded them.

For the seven things about myself, I'll disclose at least seven weird ones:

1. I'm an avid procrastinator. I procrastinate on everything. I procrastinate even on my meal and sleeping time. With that said, my sincere apologies for procrastinating in passing this very cool award. I was really terribly busy these past crazy school months. I'm still terrible with my time management.
2. I just love horror movies especially the crazy zombies, but not the scarier Chainsaw Massacre thing. I know it's weird.
3. I'm scared of heights, really! But I love conquering it. Riding the scary Diving Machine G5 that drops a vertical 180 feet at a speed of 68 mph made me experienced a near-death moment. I survived it. Then riding the very scary Turbo Drop and Taiwan's tallest Ferris wheel (289 ft tall) all at Janfusun Fancyworld somehow helped me conquer this fear. Bungee jumping? I still say no, it's too much.
4. I love to sing although singing just doesn't love me lol. I sing when I'm sad, or worried, or praying, or happy, or even when driving. Weird, right?
5. I'm a nocturnal. I'm sluggish at daytime and active at night. I worked effectively at night ~ either doing my experiments or writing my reports. However, I know this is bad for my health. Still trying to change my style.
6. I'm one tardy lady. I'm always late even on events or parties I organized. They made fun of me saying that it's good my guests are all my good friends and they still love me though they hate the tardy part lol. Again, I'm still working on my time management.
7. I love cracking my fingers' knuckles. I cringe at the idea that such habit might deform my fingers. But I just can't stop myself from doing it. I'm addicted. So far, all fingers are fine and normal. But I'm working on stopping it, like for years  now.

That said, I hope you will still like me even if I'm that weird and unlikable lolz.

Now, I'm passing on this award to 15 more interesting versatile blogging sites. This may not be their first, but still they deserve the award. Here they are (not in order):

Loving the Family Life

Saving While Making Money

Cool Bean Mommas

Making It From Page to Table

Between Babies

Beauty Queen Gene

Peggy apl seeds

Food and Food Trips

Travelholic's Expressions

Seow Wei DigiScrap Blog

On the Old Path

Family and Life Online 

A Sahm Reviews. Net

Cassandrasminicorner

Kat in the Kitchen

Congratulations guys!
I love these blogs, so I'm pretty sure you would love them too! Have fun!

Wished that I vanished

Known in my family as the clumsy queen, I'm always been an accident-prone walking creature oftentimes ended up wishing to simply disappear from the face of the earth just to save my sorry ass from public humiliation.

photo from google

Talking about wishing to simply vanish into thin air, I once wished the first time I experienced this dreadful stage fright moment. Fourteen years back, on my third year college, I was convinced to join our college debating team. An  inter-college debate was about to happen in our university and they needed a team to represent our college. Based on my past high school experiences, I knew I kind of sucked on class debates. But just to help out my college, I blindly accepted the challenge. Little did I know, I had this awful "disease" known as stage fright.


We practiced everyday and did pretty good research on our subject. Time came for the judgement day. Dressed on our pearly white college uniforms and pinned with our shining college badges, we walked in the conference hall with a dramatic entrance. Why dramatic? We were a bit late. Everybody was already settled in their seats except for us, the moment we came in, all heads turned. Yes, embarrassing yet dramatic. My then avid suitor (now my husband), who belonged to the opponent team's college, was never been proud to see me get into the room and cheered for us (hmmm, at least that was what he told me).


Onstage, each team breezed for our opening speeches. But then, when the points of information were thrown to us by the opposing team (and they were good), my brain suddenly shut down. I became so nervous, my palms sweated, my face and ears got hotter and I could feel my body trembled. I never felt so terrified. I felt nauseous. I could not focus on the question. What did he say again? I felt stupid standing behind the podium with a microphone on hand. Wished the show would end at that instant. Wished I would wake up from such a  terrible nightmare.


Then my mind, instead of thinking for smart answers to throw back was just secretly regretting about joining the contest. I should not have joined the debate in the first place. I should have studied even harder for the competition. Never did I thought being on stage will be this overwhelming ~ with the expectant audience, the seriousness of the competition, the fact that it was my first time to join a real debate, and that I was some lousy public speaker and a pretty bad debater.

Then I realized our team was losing. Our rebuttal was equally bad. I never felt so embarrassed my whole single life and in that instant, I wished the floor would open up wide and swallow me whole.


Yes, such was those onslaught of dreadful stage fright. Wished I could glamour everybody (like the vampire Bill Compton) to erase their memories of my humiliation lol. I knew I would be smarter the next time ~ that means never to join such competitions ever again lol. It's just way out of my league or I'm just too ambitious for it. If it's  unavoidable to speak in front of a huge crowd, then I should be well-prepared and well-equipped to go on to battle, armed with my powerful ammunition ready for the kill. Cheers!

This post was inspired by fabulous Mama Kat, where I will write about a time I wanted to disappear. If you want to join this meme, link up every Thursday.

Kick ass pressures

Going back to grad school, not even been officially enrolled yet as a student, the pressure is now getting on my nerves.

Pressures, stress and more pressures are now terrorizing my used-to-be-relaxing days. Vacation is finally over and I think I'm starting to get crazy.

Then again, I thought of my own limitations. I'm quite prone to attention deficit and easily falls to depression ~ often ending up either surfing the internet aimlessly or just sleeping off my supposed-to-be-busy days.

In this light, I guess I need this bombardment of kick ass pressures ~ to push me, to annoy me, to get me pumpin' and work my lazy ass out. Sounds fair enough, right?

Hope it works *fingers crossed*! Good luck to me though!

Can't help disappointing myself

In response to Mama Kat's fabulous weekly prompts, I was inspired to write something about the times I disappointed myself. Ahhh about this topic, I have a lot to say  ~ since I'm always been disappointed on "me".  I just can't help it.  I am not a perfectionist but I always disappoint myself for being so imperfect (oops please be warned that I am weird, sometimes).

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I disappoint myself for always been so disappointing ~ for always being late and for being an avid procrastinator, for being so clumsy, stubborn, impatient, irritable, tactless, immature, insecure, selfish, lazy, rebellious, paranoid, and simply for doing something stupid (oh please help me stop the list).

I disappointed myself today at my 5-year old daughter's first day of kindergarten class. I realized I failed as a perfect mom for her. Interacting in a community filled with competitive parents, I realized my daughter is academically falling behind from her peers. It's really my fault. I should have done better. I should have properly tutored my child this whole summer vacation instead of spending too much time watching movies or ogling on Facebook lol. I should have been a better mom *sigh*! Oh  come on, she's still a 5-year old kid, what's wrong with me? To hell with these competitive people lol. On a lighter note, we really had fun this summer.


Exactly ten years ago when I accidentally (lol) got pregnant, I disappointed myself for failing my dreams and for failing my family's dreams for me. Well, at least that was just temporary. I survived. I resolved to move on and catch on with my dreams~ together with my loving hubby and kids. Isn't that great!

When I was heavily pregnant with my first daughter, I disappointed myself for not controlling my diet hence I ended up like an overstuffed elephant. I really looked terrible and inherited a continent of cellulite! I learned my lesson the hard way (as always) thus I was very careful with my second pregnancy. 

When I delivered my first baby, again I disappointed myself for having an impromptu CS operation, the reason ~ too big baby, again because of stubborn me eating too much sweets at my last trimester (again a lesson learned).

And the list goes on and on. I'm afraid I will never have enough space for all of them.
 
Overall, how ever disappointed I may be with myself, I learned from all of my experiences. I took such disappointing situations as challenges to conquer. Though I'm imperfect, what I loved about myself is my will to look at the brighter side of anything. From there, I try to move on and sometimes just letting go...

Thanks Mama Kat for getting the drama queen out of me. I enjoyed this awesome event. Moving on to read what others wrote about your prompts  :)

The ABC Me

Being a newbie in the blogosphere, VoiceBox is one of the few communities that welcomed me warmly and I instantly felt at home. When I got invited to this event to write an ABC list about myself, I decided to take the challenge. I think it’s really fun to share about ourselves in a chic way. Here goes my ABC, hope I will not bore you…

A – Aronne Tanya. She’s my delightful five year old little rascal who’s always been so sweet especially if she knows she did something wrong. She then comes kissing and embracing me all over and whispering “I love you Mom”, which often raises my subtle suspicion.

B – Blogging. I just found a new way to release my stress and keep my sanity.

C – Cats. I love to volunteer with Taichung PAWS, an organization dedicated to reduce the sufferings of animals in Taiwan. They trap, neuter and release stray cats, a humane way to reduce its population.

D – Dancing queen. I always love to dance especially ballroom and belly dancing. I’m not a good dancer but I’m taking it as a fun way to exercise.

E – Extrovert. I always thought I was an extrovert until I realized I easily got tired hanging out in big crowds.  I recently took this personality test (Carl Jung and Isabel Briggs Myers typological approach) and results showed that I am a moderately expressed extrovert, with slightly expressed sensing personality, distinctively expressed feeling personality, and slightly expressed perceiving personality. Hmmm sounds interesting.

F – Franje. I love my married surname.

G – Grades. I’m obsessed with good grades lol. A bad grade freaks me out, which happens always by the way lol.

H – Hyperactive. I was once a hyperactive kid so I could relate with my own hyperactive kids.

I – Ice cream (favorites are chocolate-mint and rocky road) is on the top list of my guilty pleasures.

J – Joey. My sweet and smarty 9-year old eldest daughter grew so fast, almost as tall as I am and we now have the same shoe size, omg! It seems only yesterday when she was our little bundle of joy, teaching her how to walk and talk. Now she's our giant baby, runs faster (always winning first place in track and field competitions at her school) and knows Mandarin better than I do. Indeed time ran so fast.

K – Karaoke. My family just loves to be a Beyonce for once or even an Abba. A party is not a party without a karaoke fun lolz.

L – Laugh. I love to crack jokes and laugh at funny jokes but I don’t love the way I laugh. Too loud, I can't help it!

M – Mango, the best tropical fruit ever. I so love it. Yum yummy!

N – Neil Johann, my husband. He loves his status of being the alpha in the family lol, surrounded by his submissive beautiful girls. He loves to be the king of his jungle so I just play along (sometimes).

O – Olive oil. I use it not only for salads but for my home made beauty skin regimens.

P – Parents-in-law. They are the best. When I became a baby mama ten years ago, they did all the major jobs for us for our wedding (bookings from flower shops to hotels, etc.), became my personal research consultants for my thesis, and took care of all our domestic problems (hiring house helps, etc.). They tried their best to make our lives comfortable in spite of the disappointment we caused them. Indeed I am so lucky or shall I say blessed.

Q – Queen. I’m always been a drama queen. Please bear with me.

R – Rain. When I was a kid living in a countryside, I always love when it rains. My parents would sometimes let us play outside in the rain with my siblings. But now living in the city with acid rain problems, playing in the rain is a big no-no for my kids. Too bad!

S – Siblings. I’ve got four of them: three pretty and loving sisters and a shy handsome brother, and I’m the eldest by the way. J

T – Taiwan. I’ve been living in Taiwan for four years now for my graduate studies.
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U – University. I taught in a university for two years (College of Veterinary Medicine).

V – Veterinarian. I am a veterinarian by profession but fancies to be a SAHM.

W – Weight. I was so happy I lost 4 kgs in 3 months.

X – X-men. I always love X-men movies and even the TV cartoons in the early 90’s. Storm has been my all time favorite.

Y – Younger days. I enjoyed my younger days. I enjoyed the perks of being active in our student body council, student publications and government youth councils. I guess I was better with my time management skills back then.

Z- Zombies. I’m always been a zombie movie junkie. I just love the creeps it gave me considering that it’s not real. I don’t like the other horror movies about axe-wielding murderers though. I’ve been waiting for the second season of TV series “The Walking Dead”. The show really scares the hell out of me. I give it five stars.

Thank you for reading my list till the end. Can't wait to read your ABCs too. :)