Setting Foot in Europe- First Day: London

I am now blogging at our friends' house in Stalybridge, UK. We are staying here for 5 days. Stalybridge is just about 10 minutes overground train ride to Manchester Piccadilly.

What can I say? I've never really strongly desired to visit Europe before. The door just got opened for us and everything fell into place!

London is a such a lovely place! It's got a feeling of New York but with a fantastic European architecture. I am especially blown away by the boulevard with a sweeping curve at Regent Street! It is awesome!!! I feel a little bit disappointed that we didn't get to spend enough time in Oxford and Regent streets to take photos. I just thought shopping in London is out of the question for me... and funny... being that I came from the place where the biggest mall of America is just 10 minutes drive from us.

Anyway, we got here on Saturday (February 13th). One of my very good friends, her daughter and their church friend came to pick us up at Heathrow Airport. They brought us to Mitre Hotel in Paddington straight away so we could kind of rest before we explored the city of London. They gave us our Oyster cards and so it was easier to just hop in the train and go.

Our first day was pretty much resting at our hotel, eating out at one of the Aberdeen Steak Houses in Piccadilly Circus, underground train rides and trying to cross one of the London bridges. It was freezing cold that night! So, we decided to go back to our hotel and retire. I was amazed how easy to get to places with the underground train.

That was our Day One in London.

The secret of having a super nice pre-schooler in a 9-hour flight across the Atlantic Ocean is Stompie, the elephant and gum!


Izzy was excited to see Angie for the first time.


Izzy's mommy was so happy to see her very thoughtful friend, Tuul.


Taking the underground train in London for the first time!


In the train... Paul and Izzy didn't seem to have a bad jet lag.


Our first hotel, The Mitre Hotel in Paddington.


What did they put in this water to cost it $9?


Dining out at Aberdeen Steak Houses...


Eating up our most expensive dinner ever!



Help me figure out what I was supposed to do with two different faucets on the sink?



Exploring one of the London Bridges...

London

Wow, it's been like forever since my last post here. I've been so busy with other activities (more important than blogging, obviously!) and other hobbies. I know I have other hobbies that I want to make monies! Hence, I kind of neglected this one. I still hope to monetize this blog and my other blogs someday! ;)

Anyway, we have an invitation to do special lectures in London next month. My former boss/friend and his family invited us over. So off to the land of the queen in less than a month from today! I am so excited for this trip. It's gonna be my first time to Europe! I've been to quite a few countries in Asia but never to Europe yet. Our trip is pretty set, including our very specific itinerary.

Here are some of the places that we will be visiting: London, Isle of Wight, Manchester and Scotland. We made sure that we will be in London while I celebrated my _th birthday! And speaking of my birthday, I still want to eat at a restaurant where I have an access to the view of the London bridge. And yes, I will try to sing the famous children song, "London bridge". I know it doesn't make a lot of sense but it will for sure bring back childhood memories I have with my sister. We played that game growing up a million times!

Seriously though, I am just glad that we have this opportunity to help train church leaders of this new Mongolian church that our friend has started. It's quite impressive that this church has just been planted for not even a year yet, but they already expect 30 delegates to be at this conference. God's Kingdom keeps on advancing!

Oh, and we will also be meeting two of my cousins who are based in London. I haven't seen them for quite sometime. So, that is something I am looking forward to as well.

Signing off... for now.

Merry Christmas 2009

What a joy it is to remember the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ -- that He came to save those who repent of their sins and trust in Him; and that He is coming back again to complete the eternal redemption of His people!

2009 was a full year for our family. We started it with our bi-yearly vacation to the Philippines in January. We got to visit our Filipino side of the family. It was wonderful to see every one healthy and happy! Papa and Mama (76 and 66 years old) celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary. We truly thank God for blessing my parents with a beautiful marriage! On the last few days of our 21-day trip, we led a conference of 120 pastors and church leaders. We spoke on apologetics regarding true and false conversion and use of the law in biblical evangelism.

Late this summer, we finally got rid of our purple carpet! We updated our house. The renovation went well and we are very satisfied of how it turned out. Paul worked so hard and excellently in lacquering our woodwork and repainting our walls. Love the wide linen white wood trims! The red kitchen! The humble gold living room walls! The ice blue master’s bedroom! Izzy loves her prominent pink room! And yes, we love our new pattern-textured light gold carpet!

Last month, a follicular nodule in my thyroid was removed through surgery. It was scary being that it was my first time to undergo a general anesthesia. But it turned out well. My surgeon did a wonderful job! I am so blessed to have the most loving and supportive family, friends and church! Surely, God’s hand has been upon me, in healing me and helping me learn to trust Him more than I ever did before.

We can’t thank God enough for all the blessings He has poured upon us. Isabelle turned 3 and she sure is a darling! She has just started to pray on her own for her meals and before bedtime. She loves to sing and dance. She still loves Dora and still lines up stuff in the house. Oh, and she had her first (ever) stage performance this year. She was in a Charlie Brown Christmas play at our church as a Woodstock. It was so fun to see her perform! On the other hand, Paul’s painting business is still blessed with jobs even with our present economy. Paul and I continue to desire to grow in the Lord and be used for His glory. We enjoy our regular witness trips to Crystal Lake Beach and every opportunity we have to speak to people.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and your family!
Paul and Dina and Isabelle

Make-over Update

It feels great waking up in the morning in our bedroom in the main floor. Hubby finished repainting it the other night. He did the bath last night. We are so happy with the new colors on our wall. Isabelle's room also has a new dramatic color on the walls. The girl has been really excited, even though at one point, she pretended to be crying not wanting to let go of the lavender color. Funny.

We can't wait for all the projects to be completed. Right now, we still have plastic taped on the walls in the living room, dining and kitchen. Somehow, we managed to be able to use the areas even with all the stuff hanging on the walls. Thankfully, we can use our bedroom, Izzy's room and bath now. We had to be able to make our bedroom in the basement ready for our guest who is coming today from Malaysia. She will be living with us for three months.

We are waiting for our friend to finish the work on the ceiling in the main floor. After that, hubby repaints it and the walls. Finally, new carpet will be installed. We are getting there. Hopefully, the entire project will be completed a week before my surgery, so I can at least enjoy the new look of our main floor.

Make-over

Our family is currently camping out in our basement because the main floor of our house in under a few renovations. We can't wait for the work to be completed. It has been a little inconvenient to see most of our stuff in the closets upstairs jam-packed in the basement. Our pool table downstairs is holding a lot of clothes. Last night, I couldn't help being bothered by the sight of all the clothes on the pool table that I covered it with a big window scarf. It just looked so disorganized... plus Izzy's toys are all over the floor. I started to breathe better as soon as I was done covering the clothes.

I really thank the Lord for the sunshine today. The last few days was a little bit depressing being that we were not able to go out because of the weather. We were stuck in the basement. Actually, living in our basement is not bad at all. It's nice to be able to use our guest room, bathroom and living room in this floor for a week and a half now... it feels like we are in a hotel. What's even nicer is that I'm so close to Paul's office, which vacant space I turned into a craft area. Izzy and I just need our afternoon walks and we are fine. But the cold, windy and rainy weather the past few days kept us inside most of the day.


Last night, hubby informed me that there will be a little delay on our re-carpeting. We chose a really nice texture-patterned carpet last week. The carpet store had to order it and it's not ready until 10 days. That only means that we will be in the basement until at least the 20th of this month. I'm a little worried now because we are expecting a guest from Malaysia next week. I just hope that we could at least make our house look decent before she arrives. Hubby did say that for major changes like what we are doing in our main floor now could sometimes take 6 months, so to have it for less than a month is really good. So, I guess I have to gird myself up for this. But the thought of having a new beautiful look in our house excites me.

What we are doing in our main floor are the following:

1. Replace all doors with a Alder doors. Hubby (THE painter) already stained and lacquered it. They look so sleek.

2. Replace all the woodwork with Poplar wood. The woodworker should be able to complete it today. Tomorrow, hubby starts enameling it. We decided to use linen white paint versus plain white. The woodwork is double the width of the previous one and is very smooth.

3. Finish the process of changing the ceiling from popcorn to knock-down.

4. Paint the walls... with bright colors. I am a fan of bright colors. I like to say, cool neutral colors are boring and that they aren't really colors. I love deep colors... but they must not be in a primary and secondary color wheel.

5. Improvise a multi-media furniture from the cherry-lacquered furniture we already have at our house for our main living room.

6. Re-carpet. We are so excited about our new carpet. It's top-of-the-line texture-patterned carpet. Thanks to one of hubby's friends who is a re-modeler, we got our carpet very affordable. Otherwise, there was no way we would go for it for its cost. Blessings come in different forms!

7. Replace cabinet doors... may not happen before this year ends though. We are not sure whether to enamel or lacquer the cabinets. If they are Alder doors, I would definitely want them lacquered. Otherwise, enamel is pretty too with a deep bright wall color.

Can't wait for the new look of our main floor!

Health Issues Update

I blogged about my health issues here and I wanted to make a quick update on it mainly for family and friends around the world ;) and for anybody who might have the same experience. I definitely welcome encouraging comments and stories.

Anyway, I saw my surgeon last week for consultation and she did a very good job of explaining the whole surgery process on my neck. She seemed to be well-experienced in her field. Before meeting her, I was hoping to see someone older (anywhere between the ages 40-50). For some reason, that's of importance to me. I already had a sense of trust in her being that she was recommended by my endocrinologist. Meeting her in person for the first time, gave me a comfortable feeling that she would do a great job. She mentioned that the procedure would last from an hour to an hour and a half. It's gonna be a lobectomy. This is the case where the entire right portion of the thyroid would be removed. And while I am asleep, they will do several biopsies of the part that would be taken out to find out if there is any malignant cell, which she said is a very slim possibility.

We scheduled my surgery on the 6th of November. A week before the surgery I must have a general physical evaluation to make sure I qualify for the procedure.

The anticipation of an up-coming surgery isn't very pleasant. But I am thankful to the Lord for the courage He gave me to choose that route rather than waiting for another 6 months and then go through a repeat process of tests, which my endocrinologist gave as another option.

I have a month to gather more strength from the Lord before my surgery. And to pray that my surgeon's hand would be guided by the Lord.

Izzy's Early Birthday

We celebrated Izzy's 3rd birthday with P's side of the family much earlier this year. The whole family got together two weeks ago for the party. We also celebrated the birthdays of two of Izzy's cousins. I got to make the cake which Izzy especially requested. She wanted the ice cream cone butterfly cake. She saw it from my cake recipe book. Too bad I wasn't able to take photos of all of the ice cream cone fun cakes... Izzy's cousins couldn't wait to pick their favorite design before I could get a chance to take the photos. Yeah, the little cakes came in different designs- butterflies (Izzy's favorite), flowers and I even made a lady bug. I will probably make another one on Izzy's actual birthday.




Our little girl was so excited to get a couple Veggie Tales DVD's, Kailan and Mr. Fluffy's Bakery set and a Kailan doll for gifts. Of course her favorite is the Kailan doll.