After a six week hiatus

Hello there! I'm back- giving some TLC to my much neglected blog site.
Well, I'm pleased to share that I've officially graduated from bible school with flying colours! :) Praise God!
More importantly, beyond that, these 4 and a half months have really strengthened me physically (juggling pregnancy nausea and exhaustion), spiritually (put me out of my comfort zone by exercising spiritual gifts & preaching abilities) and emotionally (building up my faith through ups and downs.) I can finally say, it's all worth it!
Many of my cell group members took time off to support me at my graduation ceremony yesterday; they bought flowers, bears, gift vouchers, took pictures of and with me and made arrangements to go for lunch together. I must say, it really warmed my heart that they made the special effort.
Most of the pictures are in their cameras and I will be sure to upload them on this site once I get them later this week.
So, today actually marks the first day of my new chapter after bible school. I promised myself 2 weeks of personal holiday, after which, I'll probably go full gear into pursuing my business dreams. More on that later.
It rained the whole day today, and it was actually quite nice staying home. I did some of my freelance work, read Yonggi Cho's book, emailed friends, tidied up the house and finally took out my new Fujitsu laptop and booted it for the first time. (It has been sitting in a box near my door untouched for the past week! Hehe!)
As for baby updates, I'm expecting a princess whom I'll call Kayla Faith Ong. She's practising mini-kickboxing techniques in my tum tum now and I've been talking to her quite a bit- speaking words of blessings - health and happiness into her life.
There's so much love I feel for this new life forming in my womb and it has really indeed drawn me closer to our creator God- and his goodness and love for mankind.
Oh well... I can go on and on, but I think I'll leave it as that for the time being.
Here're some of my fav. pics taken recently. I'm really starting to balloon from all sides. :)

Graduated from First Trimester

Praise God! I'm finally going into the second trimester of my pregnancy and it was all worth it when I had my ultra sound on Monday and saw the tiny fingers and feet of my lil' one. It was the most adorable, peaceful, magical thing I've seen and I was glad Vincent was with me when the doctor did the scan. The creation of life is indeed amazing.
Well, I wish I can say all the nausea has gone away with the first trimester but my digestive tract has not been very cooperative lately, giving me heartburns and sour taste in my mouth esp after every meal. I was eating my baby's favorite french fries the other day, and every bite into the crunchy supposedly yummy potato tasted bitter! Geez.
Also, I was driving Caron, my SOT classmate back home the other day and puked all over my steering wheel and at the car door when I made the mistake of talking. Just couldn't hold the puke in. Yikes! You wouldn't want to know what came out. I felt so sorry for Caron, but she was really nice about it.
Well, school is really going into full gear. We had an overnight prayer meeting the other day and I stayed up till about 3ish. Boy, I actually felt dizzy after that, but I was glad I still did it! Got 2 exams this Wed (arrgh...) plus lots of other activities. Feel dog tired- no other way to describe it!

Are you happy?

Below is an excerpt from Ulf Ekman's book that I'm reading now which I dedicate to a friend who was born-again but has joined herself with the world and given up the 'good fight' to live in backslidden lifestyle. Although, trust in our friendship has been broken due to our different visions in life, but I believe God is still pining for her to return to Him, to break the bondage of restlessness, weakness, unhappiness and misery, so here goes:
"They want to be in God's Kingdom, but the devil has convinced them that the cost is too high. They can never pay the price, and they will never overcome temptation or live in victory.
At a time of temptation they failed, and they accepted Satan's lie that God does not love them anymore, the race is run and the gate is shut. Therefore, they feel uneasy at spiritual meetings. They feel exposed, backslidden and isolated and would rather flee from the presence of God.
Yet when they are out in the world they do not find satisfaction there, either. In their hearts they long for God and do not want to sin. Hence, they are left out of worldly society, not being able to fit in there either. They are neither here nor there and are very uncomfortable.
If they humbled themselves and came back to God, they would find a glorious restoration and experience His love more than ever.
But if they continue to flee, they will become hardened and embittered and give themselves completely over to the world. Then they will become one of the most hostile enemies of the gospel, since it is impossible for those who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance (Heb 6:5-6)
No one can hate God like the person who has tasted His goodness and then rejected Him. No one lives an unhappier life.

Neighbours...

Woke up to the smell of fried fish from a neighbour which permeated right into my home.
Well, kudos to the auntie who diligently ensures that her family is nourished with all the goodness of omega oil, but I wish I could send her a note to tell her that her cooking (to be put it frankly) is 'nauseating' her pregnant neighbour.
Mind ya, she cooks like this everyday, starts as early as 7.30am and ends as late as 10pm. Sigh... I'm starting to wonder if she has a catering business specialising in fish, or something.
But as some of my dear ones have heard me gripe about this before, nothing beats this annoying, cheapo neighbour living across my unit who wakes up very early in the morning, picks up my newspaper and reads it to find out her latest NTUC promotions without even obtaining my permission.
She was caught in the act at least 7 times, but often, would try to bargain for 10-15 minutes more to read the headlines, "WAH! Mass killing in the USA!" or "It's Thursday and I want to check on the supermarket offers. I'll slip the newspapers under your door later, okay?"
Maybe Vincent and I are too nice, or really, she's super thick skinned to the point when we say we need the papers back, she still gets back into the 'stealing newspapers' routine. My! This woman drives me crazy. I'm sure it does not happen in a HDB flat, so I'm especially amazed this is actually happening in a private apartment where people pay more than $XXX/sqf to own a unit.
I'm inclined to believe too that whenever I throw out my newspapers, she actually brings it back to her home to sell to the rag and bone man to earn some spare change! Wah! Can faint! There was once I wanted to throw out some old clothing and she happened to be at the corridor and actually had the audacity to ask me what I was throwing out. She said, she wanted them!!! Can you imagine my disbelief?
Also, there was one morning during a heavy downpour when we bumped into her son at the corridor (son is okay, but typical mommy's boy) and she kept urging her son to ask us to send him to the bus stop (knowing that we drive) as the son does not drive. CAN YOU IMAGINE THIS WOMAN???
Phew! I've let it all out... leave me a message and tell me what you would do in my shoes.

Food journal

Food baby likes:
Mangoes
Peanut butter toast
Hot piping rice (lover of carbo- God bless the mom)
Prata (but only from Casuarina)
Japanese rice with chicken, beef
Korean beef on sizzling plate (Meridien Hotel)
Malay foodstall from Killiney Rd (chicken, cabbage, potato)
Delifrance (white baguette with egg and chicken)

Food baby dislikes:
Grapes
Cheese (ever had a whiff of fermented cheese?)
Fishball noodles

Food baby's not so keen on:
Horfun (especially those that leave garlic-ky aftertaste)
Hainanese chicken rice
Pasta (at this point- too rich)
Milk

Food baby does not mind (from time to time):
Teriyaki salmon from Fish & Co
Sliced fish steamboat from Balestier
Pizza (but crispy type)
Kenny Roger's chicken and side dishes
Soya bean drink/ soya bean curd (gd substitute for milk)

Blogging for Two

It has been weeks since I last blogged and to make it up, I now return with the power of 2! Me and my little one! :)
Yep, I'm 10 & a half weeks pregnant! Praise God for this precious gift! Everyday has been an adventure since I discovered I was pregnant! And I must say my adventure applies in every aspect of my life! Physically (with morning sickness that lasts from morn to night), mentally (trying not to overthink and analyse pregnancy symptoms), emotionally (mood swings) and spiritually (learning to lean on God daily for his grace through faith!)
However, in the midst of all this, I must say, juggling bible school and pregnancy has been quite a challenge as well! We need to be in school everyday from Mon-Sun, and there's ministry work, assignments, tests that never seem to end. Thank God for his grace that has seen me through so far, not to mention, the encouragement from friends like Tracy, Debra, Chelsia, Hsin Yih and frens at bible school.
Well, after weeks of vomiting into countless plastic bags or any containers that I can lay eyes on, I think I'm slowly easing into second trimester, although I do get the occasional nausea from long car rides or oily food!
Let's do a checklist: a big improvement in lifestyle's this week is that I finally managed to get myself a hair cut, facial and manicure! Definitely much needed for my well-being especially since you know I'm such a grooming 'freak'!
I've got so much to say but just don't know where to start or continue. Guess I'll leave it for the next blog update so that today's journal doesn't become a sea of words- which I'm often guilty of. Will try to take some pictures over the weeks and let ya spot the baby bump. :)
Till then! Keep me in prayer! And your eyes glued for updates!

Stretched from all sides- Part A

It's been 3 weeks since I last blogged and it wasn't easy! Many a times, I wanted to log in to post some updates, but refrained as I was so short of time with multiple priorities from school and work. So, this feels almost like a treat!
Just got back from Martin & Cat's Turtle Soup Restaurant. Food's yummy, very home cooked style with yam rice, asam prawn, that kinda thing altho I didn't dare eat the turtle(s)!
Don't quite know how to summarise what I've been through the last couple of weeks. For sure, it was extremely challenging in the physical sense as I had to wake up at 6.15am every day for school, go for prayer meetings, ministry work and attend every sermon and bible teaching. You can say I'm a church resident these days. 7 days a week!
But it's amazing how I've grown spiritually over the past month. I've gotten deeper in my understanding of being a Spirit-filled Christian. It is definitely a new level for me, and I want this to continue for the rest of my life- to be stronger, more motivated and full of faith for God!
Financially, God has been a wonderful provider. Never once did I need to solicit for work. The freelance assignments kept coming in and already, I've committed to 5 digit figure amounts. Praise God!
Mmm... think I wanna rest early tonight. Will continue with Part B tomorrow k? Adios!