James and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary yesterday.

The Sweet Seventeenth of July…

We had a simple dinner on Wed at Bakerzin before going for the GoForth mission conference. Oooo I had such a good spag vongole (clams) and the desserts were so yummy! I didn’t know that Bakerzin served such good food. I thought it was rather commercialized. But I really enjoyed it - good food and conversation.

Being at GoForth brought back good memories because we attended our first one together 6 years ago in 2002.

The speaker for the night ended his sermon on Spiritual Renewal for Missions with these words - he has been with the same woman for 52 years and how does he experience marriage renewal? He refers back to the scriptures - He who is in Christ is a new person/creation. He’ll ask the Lord to show him something new about his wife everyday since she is in Christ and she is constantly being renewed. I thought that was so apt! Esp in this age where everyone is looking for something new and changing partners because the old has gone. He added that it was the same for spiritual renewal for missions - to ask the Lord to show us new things in whatever He’s doing around the world.

The word about marriage really spoke to me. So timely. Sometimes it’s just so routined after a while esp when the kids come along. It takes a lot to venture out into the new. But I thank God that James is always on the forefront of things and that helps to keep our lives exciting and new constantly.

Yesterday, we went to the park with Sophie in the evening. It is not very often that we get to throw the ball around and eat "junk" food (not really junk but sandwiches and fruit for dinner) as a family at the park. I saw how James played with Sophie and it made me laugh so hard. James is just so funny sometimes. Sophie REALLY enjoyed herself. Seeing them lying on the grass, laughing and pointing to the clouds made my day.

I’m really thankful for the family God has given me. I pray that I will not take anything for granted.

James and I celebrated our third anniversary the past 2 days.

Mon nite we had dinner at Prinsep St at a little Italian restaurant, Trattoria Lafiandra. Our initial plan was Wild Rocket at HangOut@Mt Emily but we went there and it was CLOSED! Argh… we had checked the website the night before and it was down. What a bummer… was quite disappointed coz I was really looking forward to that.

HangOut & Mt Emily holds lotsa good memories for us. We spent a few days at HangOut@Mt Emily (a nice little backpackers hotel) after we checked out of Merchant Court hotel (where we held our wedding dinner). He actually blindfolded me all the way to the room! I had no clue where we were going… the counter staff must have thought we were mad! These newlyweds!

We spent out childhood memories at Mt Emily, separately of course, coz we haven’t met then! I used to go jogging at Mt Emily for Physical Education lessons while in school and James used to go to that church at the foot of Mt Emily (Church of Christ Malaya). And we took our wedding pics at Mt Emily.

But dinner at the authentic Italian restaurant turned out very pleasant. The place was small, like 4-5 tables inside. But food was quite nice.

After that we held hands, took a little walk at the new Cathay and went home.

We spent Tues together with Sophie. Had brekkie at Botanical Gardens, lunch at Go Go Bambini (cafe cum baby gym) at Dempsey Road and then hair cut + wash at Yen’s Salon (Holland Shopping Center), came home, rested a bit and then dinner at Crystal Jade for dim sum.

It’s our 3rd wedding anniversary today.

So much to say…. not sure where to start. I’m just very thankful that we’re together and very happy.

Reminisce with us on this special day….

Pic: Walking together for rest of our lives

James and I celebrated our second anniversary on Monday 17th July 2006!
It’s been a wonderful two years… best years of our lives… I was so
contented just spending the day together. We didn’t have a fancy
dinner, neither did we give each other fancy gifts but it was really
nice just spending a whole day just the two of us. Actually three, plus
baby.

We started the day thanking the Lord and praying, had nice slow
breakfast at Ya kun, came back to rest and then it started to rain,
then we went down to chinatown to buy specs for each other, and ended
up at Bugis shopping for comics and had dinner at Pastamania. It was
simple but that’s what we love to do - spend time with each other. So
nice…

Hahahah since we started a commentary going in the last post, thanks to Judith :), i figured i should do a post on this!

In response to Steph:
haha that’s true that’s true… it’s true that marriage requires hard work, and maybe the Man problem doesn’t really go away

But but but i’m really so glad i don’t have to deal with does he like
me or does he not like me, is this the one? Those questions totally
baffled me for a long time. You of all people know all the rubbish i
went thru!

BUT yes! To all my young readers out there marriage is hard work! The
first year of marriage had to be one of the hardest time in my life!
People say that oh first year is honeymoon year but it was difficult
coz you think you have problems with your best friend, but wait till
you get your best friend poking into your life EVERY MOMENT OF THE DAY,
NITE N DAY. hahaha!

But still it was different from those “is this the one” questions coz i
found the one. It was hard to work out issues BUT it’s so much easier
to work out issues when you know that he is the one and there is
commitment to be together forever. Totally changes the dynamics. You
fight fight fight, argue argue argue but ultimately you know you wanna
stay together forever. That’s what i love about being married.

Thank you God for the covenant of marriage. That’s why i believe
cohabitation is flimsy, it doesn’t have the strength that a real
committed marriage has. Trying out mentality type commitment cannot
handle the struggles of a marriage relationship.  You are not
committed until you are ready to sign on the dotted line and vow before
God.  So gals n guys, don’t let anyone fool you.

I received a special present from James yesterday. Actually it was given to him by his client but it’s one of my favorite things! James picked it for me.
Coffee table books!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If there’s something that i love as much as travelling and gummies is a COFFEE TABLE BOOK!

I love looking at pictures with concise but value laden words. Too much words confuse me.

It was so nice. I finished reading the first part and flipping through the rest of the book.

This was us on Sat using the new old couch we found.
We get to sit outside our house to enjoy the breeze and just chat. I
took the first photo… James caught a photo of me on the phone…
erm…

We celebrated our first year anniversary on Sunday 17th July! We took
the opportunity to go on a short getaway to Bintan, Angsana Resort.
Really nice to just relive our honeymoon days in Koh Samui - spa
resort, candlelight dinners, breakfast in bed n walking on the beach. Except that
it rained everyday we were there. Bummer. But still it was nice to
catch up and relax… and watch TV. Deprived us.

Pics: us at the beach, us at oleh oleh pasar, me eating yummy chilli crabs