FOR BECOMING A MOTHER

I hope I am not far from mother's day celebration and even if it is a little too late, I still hope that this writing is worth to read. This year is my 4th year of becoming a mother. It has been a joyful experience and I've never wanted to trade it with anything else.

As some of you may know, prior to becoming a mother I was a student living my PhD dream. Student and mother are two totally different roles. Studying was depressing when I did not know the peak of its demand and I was not able to see clearly how my project would go and how my supervisor would judge my work. I had to spent my time mostly in laboratory doing my experiments and it was depressing when I was not able to control the outcomes. Sometimes I had to stay until 2am in the morning just to find the bacteria's DNA profile was unidentified or did not match to any markers. Even more stressful when my love one was living far away from me. However, I can not deny the joy I had of becoming a student. It was my dream to finish my study and get the degree, and I had passion on what I was doing for my project.

Photo courtesy of Peter Ng

April 5, 2007 I became a mother of a very beautiful baby, we named her Bianca. I was still in my one year study leave at that moment. From the time I laid my eyes on her, I could not bear the feeling of leaving her to any baby sitter. I promised to myself I will take a good care of her and will do anything to make her happy and to nurture her in God's grace. She is an expensive baby, btw. Yes, I had to pay all single pennies for health care out of my pocket when she was still in my womb due to my immigration status (I was still under visitor visa in Canada at that moment). But nothing compare to the happiness we had the moment she arrived.

June 2007, my study leave ended. I had to go back to Australia to continue my study. Bianca was too small to fly for 24h. Thus I asked if I might have another year to be away from school. The university approved, unfortunately my scholarship did not allow me to have 2 consecutive years of leaving. Meaning if I take another year of leaving, I have to pay on my own all the remaining time I spend to finish my study. It was hard. Moreover, I had to think about asking someone else to take care of my baby, while I am studying. Even harder..
After thinking and pondering and another thinking...and another, I made a decision, the hardest decision ever.... July 2007, I sent out my termination letter to the University and scholarship liaison officer. I am leaving my PhD dream for becoming a mother..not that I am comparing the two roles, no..but that was the best I can do for my family.

Now, after almost 3 years I made that decision, sometimes I miss my school times..I miss the time I spent in library reading journal articles, I miss my friends at school, I miss working on my microbiology lab...(even though it sucks sometimes)..I miss thinking hardly and trying to connect the two facts I found on my bacteria...I miss my student life. I envy people who got their PhD degree and work on their fields.
Having said that, I never regret to be a mother. I never regret the decision I made. I am a happy mother of two lil toddlers.


I know by terminating my study I have disappointed some of my close friends and relatives. Therefore, with this I would like to extend my apology to those whom had been disappointed, I am sorry I may hurt your feeling and was not able to fulfill your expectation. But this is what I love to do..becoming a mother.

Our Long Way to The Destination

As some of you may know, we used to live in Montreal, QC. It is a nice city, however fate brought us to our new home...Edmonton, AB.
On May 23 '2008 we left Montreal driving to Mississauga,ON and stayed with our parents for 4days. It was like a family farewell, since we might not be able to see each other for longer period of time due to the distance. (Read my culinary report on that farewell here)
On Tuesday, May 27 '2008 we started our long 5 days journey across 4 provinces. These are some pictures I took during those 5 days.

When driving across Ontario, mainly we saw lakes and beautiful scenery. Lake Superior definitely is super big. Summer was just begun so the weather was nice not that hot but breezy. We had bad experience with filling up gas near Wawa, ON where gas station is rarely found. We almost run out of gas, thankfully we found one at just a right time. After that, we always filled up our gas every time we saw a gas station, full tank!.. coz we did not want to take a risk if there would be no gas station ahead. We also had difficulty in finding hotel in that area. Normally we drove until around 8pm and checked in a hotel for resting and continued the journey early morning the next day. But there was once when Christian had to drive until 11pm to find a motel. Poor him...

Thursday May 29 '2008 we reached Winnipeg in the afternoon. We stayed at Nyoman and Paul's house for a night. Too bad we could not stay longer there, we just wanted to get to our destination the soonest, but it was a good reunion. I would like to make a special note about their daughter, Sarah...I was so impressed with her attitudes. She is a very good girl and I think Paul and Nyoman are successful parents. Winnipeg does not change much since I left it 8 years ago...a nice medium sized-city.

Then we continued our journey to the next province, Saskatchewan. It was the most boring time, coz what we saw was only flat farm land nothing else.

Bianca got so cozy trying to enjoy the trip by reading her book given by Nyoman with bunny as a company and of course her pacifier. I am glad she was so cooperative during our trip.
We spent a night in Saskatoon, it was my first time to visit this city. In my humble opinion, it is also a nice small city.

This picture was taken when we crossed Lloydminster, the border city. It means that we were almost there to our destination.

Finally on Saturday afternoon, May 31 '2008 we arrived at Edmonton, AB our destination. After that long journey, I can only thank God who gave us guidance and protection during the trip. Thank You Lord for Your unchanging love and mercy!

A Good Two Days Visit From A Very Good Friend

I supposed to post this writing long time ago, but due to my procrastinating behavior and bunch of my motherhood activities (a good excuse, right?) I only posted it today.
We were having dinner Tuesday, July 29, 2008 when the phone rang. Christian picked up the phone and instantly handed it to me. I almost could not recognize the voice. Yes, it was a call from my dear friend Peter, a good friend from my Australian uni. Suddenly I realized that I almost forgot oz's accent...it was so hard for me to understand his very thick accent on the phone...(sorry Pete...). So we agreed to meet up the next day.

We picked him up at the hotel on Wednesday at 6.30pm. We were late for 30min, Christian had to take another route around to avoid the traffic. From the hotel we went for dinner at a Malaysian Restaurant nearby, good foods they served (the above picture shows Bianca, Peter and me while we were waiting for the foods). After that we went to West Edmonton Mall, the biggest mall in North America, we were quite late to reach there, it was already 8pm something, so we did not spend enough time to wander around since the mall closed at 9pm. Peter said that he would go back to the mall the next day and he did all by himself (Good for him considering the distance from his hotel to the mall is quite something and he is new to this town...).

The next day, I invited him to come over to our place for dinner. Chris picked him up after work, since his hotel is on the way to get home. I cooked Chinese-indo food Fuyunghai, it is crab omelet with tomato sauce, and bought 3 kinds of Chinese meals (mushroom, tofu and spicy chicken), since I did not have enough time to prepare every thing. For dessert I made fruity pudding with homemade strawberry syrup. Chris bought a bottle of red wine and they both finished it up that evening. It was a very good time spending with him.

On the first day, Bianca was a bit cranky when Peter sat beside her in the car on the way to the mall. She cried a lot to my surprise, coz normally she is not like that, she is the most social little girl I've ever known. I needed to switch seat with Peter, I think she needed mommy to sit beside her. By the time I sit on the back with her, she stopped crying.
On the next day, she has known Peter better, so she spent some times sitting beside Peter while watching cartoon on TV. cute....

During the visit, Peter brought us some gifts from Australia. And here is what we got. The blue shoes were a gift from Pat, my best girlfriend in Sydney. The Vegemite is a typical spread in Australia which I'd never tasted before mainly because I did not dare to try it. I am glad Peter brought it for us, so that I have an opportunity to try it. The taste is not that bad though...but it is not my favorite. We also got a key chain which is not shown in the picture since Bianca did not let it go out of her hand. And of course Tim Tam is my forever favorite chocolate coated biscuit! Thank you Pete, thanks Pat!
It was definitely a good visit with him....

A Friendship Poem

Thank you Ary for sending me this beautiful yet meaningful poem....

We need friends for many reasons,
all throughout the season.
We need friends to comfort us
when we are sad,
and to have fun with us when we are glad.

We need friends to give us good advice,
We need someone we can count on,
and treat us nice.

We need friends to remember us

one we have passed
sharing memories that will always last.

Spread the poem of friendship to:
1. Charlotte
2. Pharma
3. Shinta
4. Judith
5. Tutut

Kreativ Blogger Award

It's been more than 3months I did not update this blog...mainly because I do not have enough time to keep up with 3 blogs which I should maintain...
So..big apology from me to all my beloved readers...


Two weeks ago, I got this award from my good friend, Febrie-Krucils' Mom...
Thank you for giving me this award...

It has been done according to the following rules:
1. The winner may put the logo on her blog.
2. Put a link to the person you got the award from.
3. Nominate 5 blogs.
4. Put links to the blogs.

5. Leave a message for your nominees

So now, I would like to nominate my friends:
- Widi
- Elyani
- Irma
- Ari
- Tutut

Happy blogging every one!

TAG...TAG...

Got this tag from Ayin in the middle of my hectic time moving away to another province...

This time around I am not gonna pass it along to others...

1. What do you want for your birthday?
~nothing in particular~

2. Who will be your next kiss?
~hubby and daughter~

3. When was the last time you went to the mall?
~yesterday to Kingsway mall looking for some stuff for Bianca~

4. Are you wearing socks right now?
~no, it's hot here now~

5. How did you spend your summer?
~picnic-ing with my friends and lil fam, travelling to cities nearby~

6. Have you been to the cinema in the last 5 days?
~Nope~

7. What was the last thing you had to drink?
~coconut juice with pulp~

8. What are you wearing right now?
~stretchy jeans skirt and top~

9. What was your last purchase?
~wet wipes, zippy cup~

10. What was the last food you ate?
~rice and green jackfruits gulai~

11. Who would be the person you would call if you were up in the middle of the night and couldn’t sleep?
~noone~

12. Have you bought any clothing items in the last week?
~nope~

13. Do you have a pet?
~nope, wish I would have had fish~

14. What made you laugh in the last 5 days?
~an unknown lady waved to my husband in downtown Saskatoon, she thought my husband was someone she knows~

15. If you could be anywhere right now, where would you be?
~home in Indo or somewhere in Venice or beach in Sydney~

16. What is the last thing you purchased online?
~skype credit~

17. One thing you hate about yourself?
~procrastinating behavior~

18. Do you miss anyone?
~my nieces, nephew, my sis~

19. What are your plan and my friends for the day?
~having dinner together (I cooked) and fixing our car license plate~

20. Last person you msg’d?
~mom in law~

21. Ever went to a camp?
~yup, long time ago~

22. Are you a good student in school?
~guess so~

23. What do you know about the (your) future?
~it's in His hand~

24. Are you wearing any perfume or cologne?
~not now, but yup sometimes~

25. Where is/are your best friend/s right now?
~in Indo~

Today's Humor

Secret To Success

A young man asked an old rich guy how he made his money. The old guy said, "Well, son, it was 1932, the depths of the Great Depression. I was down to my last nickel. I invested that nickel in an apple. I spent the entire day polishing the apple and, at the end of the day, I sold the apple for 10 cents. The next morning, I invested those 10 cents in two apples. I spent the entire day polishing them and sold them at 5:00 p.m. for 20 cents. I continued this system for a month, by the end of which I'd accumulated a fortune of a $1.37. Then my wife's father died and left us 10 million dollars." from: conectique_newsletter@conectique.com Thursday May15'2008