: : James & Iris : :

a blessed new year

2012-01-25T11:55:00.000+08:00

ok, it's our (iris and mine's) 1st chinese new year together as a married couple this year.

i must say and i must congratulate my wife for being so excellent. definitely, i think by God's grace we both individually have changed (for the better, of course) in the past 7-8 months of our marriage. God certainly have blessed us much to be able to give much as well even despite iris' change of jobs.

nonetheless, i've observed the small little things that my dear wife has made. one, she's been helping me around with the house and with the chores. two, she's been unexpectedly patient and enduring during this time. three, she's been rather cheerful and easy-going nowadays, which i'm really thankful for.

iris has been different, somehow. i recount with a cheery grin on how she convinced herself to not look at the piggy innards at the steamboat table, how she gently iron my clothes (and hers) on the 2nd day of chinese new year (despite us being late for our visitations), how she wakes up with a naughty smile and went out first-thing to continue her korean dvd drama. hmm, indeed i think my iris has changed!

so i think it's worth every cent to have brought her to TWG tea place at Marina Bay Sands. Just look at how cheerful she is! :)

a first sermon

2011-11-15T17:00:00.001+08:00

how do you express how you feel and think after you've preached your first sermon on a sunday morning? i dont know just how to because i cant quite clear my mind to do so.

first of all, i am deeply humbled and in awe of God's Spirit at work in me because i know it isnt by my own capability at all. rather, i know that i am so technically flawed -- i stuttered at my own sentences, pronunciation was really bad, and i couldnt bite my words well. i went back and hear my sermon again, and even as an audience i was quite sure i didnt want to hear myself again because it was pretty painful to do so.

second, i am gratefully indebted to pastor alvin and joe for running through the first draft of the sermon. they've corrected and given me much suggestions and feedback and it was there that i've build up from them. moreover, it was a risk that pastor alvin has taken to give kevin and me the opportunity to take the pulpit.

last, i'm humbled by the feedback and assurance that others have given me after the service on sunday. i was almost astounded by the amount of positive comments i've received and it absolutely humbled me. i was speechless and my heart was just filled with praise and thanksgiving to our almighty God who can use absolutely anyone to accomplish His work and purpose.

thank You Lord. thank You Jesus!

Homemade "Bread"fast!!!

2011-10-07T10:15:00.002+08:00

how often do you make your own bread in the morning? or more specifically, how frequent do you make breakfast for your love ones in the morning?

i was contemplating on this privilege of making bread for my wife this morning, and thanked God for granting me the strength to do so almost every weekday mornings whenever possible. of course, it wasnt that she had requested me to do so, but since our wedding i thought i want to make her a 'made-with-love' breakfast.

naturally, it was hard in the beginning to do so. first, you have to plan for this before the week begin and monitor your bread and ingredients resources (especially halfway through the week when your ham or bread is about to finish). second, you have to force yourself out of bed to make the breakfast instead of having that extra 15 minutes more of sleep.

shortly after the initial weeks, of course there were personally grumblings (even occasionally now) about needing to do so every morning. adding to that, sometimes the comments of "too sweet" or "too little kaya" discouraged you at times. but nothing beats the smile on her face and the pride she carries when others comment on her 'made-with-love' "bread"fast!

heh, and a honest confession here: i had finally converted her to a bread lover. hopefully she doesnt get sick of it or the bread that i make every morning. :)

New Eyes

2011-09-29T22:15:00.003+08:00

ok not exactly new eyes, but my dear wife went for LASIK today and corrected her eye sight to perfection! :)

apart from the tearing a few hours after the operation, she now has to be extra careful to take good care of her eyes. she has to be wearing goggles to sleep the next 2 weeks, and a post-op check up tomorrow.

she's all happy and excited about her perfect vision now, and I'm happy for her (though we're $3K poorer now). at least she can do away with spectacles and contact lens from now on.

me? I prefer spectacles and frames, given that I look better with them than without. ;)

An Invitation to Our Wedding :)

2010-12-30T17:39:00.002+08:00

dear friends, we will like to sincerely invite you to our wedding ceremony on saturday, 21 may 2011, 2pm at bartley christian church main auditorium (level 3). we apologize for a lack of sincerity, creativity and a personal touch due to time and budget constraint, but we hope you will take time out to celebrate this occasion with us. :)

we will appreciate if you can drop us a note on our tagboard (on the right of the blog), indicating if you can make it to the ceremony (and if you will coming along with your partner). we will accordingly add you to our guest list on the right. alternatively, you can drop us an email to us so we can register your presence. we look forward to having you with us on our very special day. :)

vanity and shoes!

2010-12-28T08:38:00.001+08:00

i knew picking my own wedding shoes would not be an feat as my day wedding suit is a whitish cream 2-piece set, so finding a matching pair of shoes and belt will be a challenge.and true enough, when iris and i were out shopping yesterday, we spent almost an hour deliberating between two choice shops -- aldo or pedro. and when we decided on pedro, again, we couldn't really decide between 3-4 pairs of shoes. what a headache!

life is about choices, isn't it? and just choosing a pair of matching shoes for your wedding could be a real nightmare. my advice: try go for a classic black suit if grooms can. :) in the end, i chose a glossy pair that was creamy but has a stale tint of pink in it, which at the same time wasn't as outrageously expensive as the off-white classic pair that first caught my eyes.

Boxing Day! :)

2010-12-27T14:09:00.001+08:00

what a post-christmas celebration! iris and i had a wonderful time at johore bahru yesterday (which was boxing day) right after church on sunday, and it was really awesome (though tiring)!

we began our adventure over the causeway on the newly re-routed ride to the malaysia checkpoint. our stomachs were already growling with hunger and we immediately headed for our favourite sizzling stonegrill at the basement for lunch. it was fabulous--iris had her usual chicken chop with prawns while i had just chicken chop with a nice cold nescafe (see photos below), all for under rm$50!

iris and her raw chicken chop and prawn sizzling stonegrill.

me and my raw chicken chop sizzling stonegrill.

iris and her almost cooked stonegrill meal.

afterwhich we proceeded to our afternoon shopping, with iris finding some real buys from mango, the local padini store, and some good buys for our wedding such as contact lens, her day wedding shoes, an evening wedding shoes (for only RM$27!), and the brothers' ties (6 of them!) while i got a nice pair of polo ralph lauren polo tees and a pair of bermudas. what we couldn't really find was my white/cream pair of wedding shoes (and belt), and the sisters' hair clips.

our hands were aching by the time we were done, and by then we were hungry for dinner. again, to our surprise, we found seasons which to us is better known as swensen's. the food here again was really cheap (under rm$50 again), though we would have gone for their ice-cream if it hadn't been too expensive.

we headed home with our hands full but with satisfied and delighted hearts. it was just a pleasure joy to be able to find some of the things we would have needed for our wedding, and not to mention some of them at really cheap prices! :) we were more than happy! :)

where to find shoes?

2010-12-22T12:20:00.001+08:00

hmm, I just remembered I needed to find a pair of off-white or cream-coloured formal shoes. would anyone have a good suggestion where I might just be able to find them?

5 months more! :)

2010-12-21T08:45:00.002+08:00

we're 5 months away from the big day! how time flies! :)

iris and I celebrated desmond and beatrice's wedding at district 10 cafe, off winstedt road. it was a really nice chill out place, perfect for a small celebration like theirs of a solemnization ceremony. food-wise it was good, in particular the chicken wings and slices, though both of us lament on the sound system whose reception was unacceptable. not to mention, the whole place was beautifully decorated with a nice range of flowers, polaroids, and small little princessy items.

well, we certainly hope we can have ours done in a similarly beautiful setting (though it's in church premises), and I'm already thinking of a live band, a special couch and a pleasant surprise for iris. ;)

finally got my tuxedo!

2010-12-19T22:15:00.001+08:00

finally bought my tuxedo shirt after scouting around for the past few weeks. it was also our third time going to our bridal studio to try out iris' two other outfits for the indoor and outdoor shoot. iris' mum and sis came along, but both yielded vastly different results. auntie couldnt find any evening gown for the banquet night while weiying found two sweet tea dresses for the big day.

managed to also convince our bridal coordinator to rent an extra tea dress and mum's evening gown for free. praise God for that! tried negotiating for the bridal car from whitelink but they've refused to do the deal at the rate we would have wanted, so most likely we'll settle for the BMW 5 series from melvin.

so far so good for our wedding preparations but it looks also that our january schedule will be terribly packed with gown fittings and bridal photography shoots.