25th Nov 08 过大礼。。。

today is our exchange of gifts.. there were many traditional things to prepare but my mum does most of the things or rather all of it.. hee.. i just had to take leave and do the last min. stuff..

we arranged for the bed to come in today, we also 安床 on the same day..

presenting some of the photos during the 过大礼.. hee..

preparing the butter cakes for exchange.. in wedding gift box..

orange juice for exchange..
my mum pasted the xi paper cuttings and tie them together with the ribbon..

gift basket..

have u seen such a small baby yam??
so cute! even smaller than the orange..

all the items for exchange..

traditional packs for the exchange..
consists of peanuts and others..

auntie doris came with dear dear for the exchange..

auntie doris talking to my grandma..

taking half of the peanut candies..

the wines for exchange..

the peanut candies..

auntie doris & mum..

auntie doris & dear dear
while waiting for mummy..

snacks..
bao is hidden by the tulips.. hee..

grandma talking to auntie doris..

crystal & dear dear..

crystal is here too!!

getting nearer and nearer the date of the wedding.. am slowly getting excited.. & i want to slowly enjoy the process.. and remember all of it.. been busy at work too.. next week is the D&D and the sales summit 2009.. there are lotsa work to do still.. hmm...

marriage prep..

over the weekend, accompany both mummies to order wedding cakes in preparation for the 过大礼．．　they ordered the traditional wedding packs..

while they were doing the orders, i took some pictures at the shop.. it has an aroma of the baking of the traditional cakes.. nice! we bought some to try out previously when we visit the shop about a month ago..

sharing some photos:

see those traditional stuff at the back? interesting.. hee..

the showcase of the butter cakes on display..

some stickers & ang pows for sale at the shop..

i like this.. want to use this to decorate my new house.. hee..

some other stuff my mum bought in chinatown in preparation of the exchange of gifts:

bedroom slippers.. one for me & one for him..
though is kinda "orr-bi" but can wear it in my bedroom.. nice!

mum wrapped the towels in pairs for the exchange of gifts and to give away to relatives during the tea ceremony on the actual day.. alot to wrap.. gota start helping her.. hee..

my own renotalk blog!

finally, i started my renotalk blog.. is fun! love it! can share with fellow renotalk bloggers on my house..

posted my 10th entry in that blog.. time to sleep.. nights!

url: http://www.renotalk.com/forum/index.php?automodule=blog&blogid=515&

happy "belated" birthday to me!!

dear dear bought my wanted kaya cake for me.. no cream.. been craving for it.. aunt yo blog has the recipe but many steps and very lei chey so haven had time to try it out.. maybe next time.. after we move in and settled down..

thanks dear dear for the cake.. he went to get it during lunch time..

our "GREAT" buys on saturday!

went to get the more stuff so that we can get the contractors to drill the holes for us and before they handover the house..

we had a hard time putting up the magnetic door stopper on our own.. so we had to get everything for the contractor to put it up..

we even planned ahead for the future to get the hooks for the baby "yao lan".. how extreme! haha..



we even bought the curtain tracks and the curtains for our balcony! the uncle is super helpful!

marriage preparation course part 2

before the workshop ends today, we were told to build a house with our own hands.. it was fun! it is a process, a teamwork.. hee.. fun!

our birthday celeb!

on friday, went k to celebrate our birthdays! we bought a mini cake for the celebration.. it has been a long long time since we sing k together.. we had such a fun time!

dear dear exams is coming, with the reno and housing plans, it has taken up alot of his time.. hope he can revise and do well for the exams.. after his exams, will plan for the move and then the wedding.. hee..

our lovely house part 2

some updates on our house.. the house will be ready for handover this coming wednesday.. it is so fast! i am very extremely satisfied with our contractors who were very responsible and fast!

some photos to share..

dear dear's bar counter..

initially i wasnt very excited about the bar counter..
but after it was installed.. i love it.. have reserved the shelves for my own use.. hee..

our dry wall for our wardrobe.. (when close)

"da-ta" when the door is open, it looks like this!

our sleeping area with our tv ledge and my dressing table..

we hacked our master bedroom as the current master bedroom is very small to fit a king size bed, wardrobe, study table, dressing table and tv ledge.. so we have to hack it..

thus, the study room and our wardrobe is in my masterbedroom and my sleeping area, tv ledge and dressing table is in the other bedroom.. i simply love it! initially, had the disonnance effect but when bits and pieces of the room is slowly done up and feeling more happy and excited to see the outcome.. hee..

the cupboard to store our bathings necessities.. hee.. how nice!

i think im falling into depression..

too many things to be accountable for.. i dont know where is the cheery stephy gone..
too many unpleasant things happened.. you know, i know..

"cast my cares upon You"

my lovely house.. in the making (part one)

my reno has started 2 weeks back.. didnt manage to take pics in the 1st week because when i went over to inspect (usually after work), it is already very dark and without proper lightings, didnt take any pictures..

the 1st week of reno is also quite boring, the hacking of the walls and the removal of door frames to replace with wooden ones.. the whole house is filled with debris.. oh my! imagine the dust and all..

but in the 2nd week, the dry wall for the wardrobe is up, windows is up but not the grills, the kitchen cabinets is done, even my oven is in place, the only thing is the solid top that is not up yet.. now the reno works is halt for about a week till my aircon is up then we can complete the rest of the carpentry works for the toilet, wardrobe, dear dear fave. bar counter, painting for the whole house and the rest of the furniture to be delivered and our house is done.. oh yes, and the lightings which we have already bought!

sharing with you some pictures tha: though they were not well-taken..

am getting the white roller blinds for our study and bedroom.. hee

Marriage Preparation Course (mpc)

went to attend a mpc this afternoon.. we went in with an open mind on what to expect on marriage life.. am glad that dear dear was willing to go through the course with me as i understand not everyone will like such prep course.. at first, questions pop out when i first suggested to go for this course was, is our relationship so bad? why should we even attend? everyone goes through marriage as it is.. why should we spend to go on such courses? but, we enrolled and attended the first session and it was great! never regret on the $ spent..

we were being asked to do a focus questionnaire that consists of 164 questions and the results will be announced to us next week.. how exciting!

next, we were asked to list down the 10 reasons we want to walk down the aisle with our partner.. i will type it out and print it out nicely to put in our study room to always and remind ourselves why we want to enter in a marriage.. i think that it is really important because as what the speaker mentioned, when we go through a rough patch in our relationship, the 10 reasons serve as a reminder why we ever want to enter into a marriage..

we were also told to do some "homework" that is to list down our expectations of our partner and be as specific as possible and we shall have some discussion and evaluation next week.. the speaker shared that when she done her mpc back then, one of her husband's expectations was that his wife will make breakfast for him every morning.. but the speaker mentioned that she is a night owl so she will not wake up early in the morning to prepare breakfast.. so there were some concerns in the inital stage of the marriage.. personally, i think that is important also.. hmm.. what is my expectations... hmm..

key points that i learnt from the course are the 5 different levels of communication.. at any one point n time, these 5 levels of communication should always be part of our communcation.. something like the maslow hierachy.. haha..

indeed, it was a very enriching and fruitful session for the both of us.. by rediscovering ourselves and this journey we are going to embark on..

my convocation..

took a day's leave to attend my convocation in the morning.. dear dear, my parents, my granny & my cousin went.. after my convocation, i went to a korean food outlet with siang and my family to have lunch.. after that went with xiang to check out string curtains for my house.. went to ikea to look at their roller blinds.. not too bad and very afforable.. well, it was a fruitful day for me.. hee..

went to visit the dentist yesterday because of my wisdom toothache.. he suggested to extract my wisdom tooth who is affecting my pain.. my face was half swollen when i took these pictures..

thank you dear dear who bought my long sleeve white top in preparation for my convocation.. thanks for rushing down to school this morning to attend my convocation and had to go back to work in the afternoon.. muaks!

thanks steph for waiting for me.. i was late, she helped me wore my gown and waited for me.. thanks for the safety pins and black pins! hee..

east coast outing..

last month, my company organised a family day.. dear dear and me went together.. we went cycling too.. we spent a great day togethe cycling along the coast line.. it has been sometime since we went there..

let's find time to go there again. before that, i really would like to go hort park for a walk..