Road condition of all sorts

On our way home from the Great Wolf Lodge, we drove straight into a fog


When you encounter with such condition, first thing to do is to turn on your headlights

Since arriving in the US, we have driven in various road conditions. Never in our wildest dreams, did we expect ourselves to be caught in all the different situations. Imagine we were not car owner back home, everywhere we went, we made use of the public transport. That made us very inexperienced drivers. But over here, we have driven through strong winds, winds so strong that even your car could vibrate, through snow, icy roads and fogs. How in the world did we ever make it...God and His legion of angles have been watching over us.

In the meantime, stay tuned...as we welcome our third batch of visitors....


An early New Year greetings to all of you....

By the time you received this, it should be the last day of the year 2008 for many of you.

What a year it has been for us, one GREAT journey for the Shias. It was the year where we ventured into the unknown. Trust me, relocation is not 'glam, glam'. Uprooting the family, moving into a brand new world is very challenging. For YL is a new working environment, for the kids, a brand new school with many friends and for me...beyond words. Really, I am having my writer's block when it comes to my experiences here.

Back in Grace, we also went through trememdous changes. In my life in Grace Assembly, for the very first time, a pastor was called home to be with the Lord while in service. On the financial front, we saw the 'downest' moments. In the midst of the 'darkness', we also saw miracles happening. A friend of ours gave birth to a miracle baby girl after YEARS of trying. Much closer to where we are, we witnessed history in the making, the very first black US president was elected.....Like what King Solomon said, "there is a season for everything"

I am not a chef but I enjoy cooking and baking. I love putting wonderful food on the table for all my loved ones and nothing satisfy me more than to hear "this is very good" from them. But imagine putting a piece of raw lamb but nicely seasoned, marinated with some of the most flavourful herbs and spices, cut it up and serve?!!! But placed it on a rack and have it roasted under a heat of 350 deg F for 2 to 3 hours...the result would be quite different. It's heavenly.

Our life is such, a little of everything, put together, placed under the intense heat of trials and testings, we emerged a better person! If you ask me is 2009 going to be tough, I said 'yes', can we managed? I said 'Yes and YES!'

Have a great blessed New Year!
Love from USA
Yang Lik, Shirley, Kai & Ann

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Swimming in winter!

In this cold wintry weather while the kids are having their winter break, we decided to have a vacation with the 'wolves'.

We were told of this place called The Great Wolf Lodge. They have an indoor water park where the temperature was kept constant at 80 deg F (29 deg C). That's where we had our winter swim!

This wonderful place is located at the beautiful Poconos mountains.


Heading towards the mountains. That snow-covered slope is a ski mountain


Entrance to the Great Wolf Lodge. The whole resort is built to look like a log cabin. Spot the wolf


The lobby and the huge fireplace.


The giant-sized Christmas tree is real


Look at the little hut in the room. The kids were very excited to see it. It was a little room that was made to look like a camp.
Inside, there were a bunk bed and the kids' very own TV games. Kai and Ann took turn to sleep on the upper deck


This was the other side of the room. The usual one but the nice thing about the whole room was all the furnitures were made of log


...so is this a safe or not?


View from the room. Yes, it was nice and warm inside but outside, it was still freezing cold



Finally...the indoor waterpark

Our Christmas eve

Christmas eve was really quiet for us. We attended the Christmas eve service and headed straight home.

We understand that Christmas over here is very much a family affair. Where family members travel long distance and college kids go home for Christmas. We think it is best not to intrude.

So, our Christmas eve was just the four of us. It was a special experience as our thoughts drifted back home, thinking about what our families and friends will be doing on this special night.


I baked these coconut macaroons to be given to hubby for his Christmas present


All nicely packed. He was most delighted as these macaroons are his favourite


Kai's present for his papa. Wonderful drawings

Guess what I got for my Christmas present?

My deam mixer - a Kitchen Aid mixer. Yipeeeeee. Have always wanted this mixer, have seen it countless times, touched it, felt it but never bought it. But now....I HAVE it! Gift from hubby

This Christmas eve, there were no turkey or ham or quiche or log cake...only nice comfort food

Wanton noodle soup

Their first Christmas drama

Kai and Ann had their first experience in acting in a Christmas drama. There was no countless practices and full dress rehearsals. The bad weather forced the practice to be cancelled. So on the day of presentation, everyone just went up to perform. It was fun for everyone. The congregation had lots of fun, so did the performers. Kai and Ann enjoyed themselves very much. Barb Love called this kind of performance the 'Charlie Brown performance'. Everyone found the little shepherd most adorable!



Can you spot them?

Presenting the Christmas story really need not have elaborate costumes, sophisticated equipments and many man-hours made props. It is basically about this person call Jesus who came so that you and I may have everlasting life.

One of the elderly men preached a great message using the five-letter word.

J - Justification (Just as if I have never sinned, because Christ came)
E - Emmanuel (God is with us)
S - Salvation (He came to save people from sins)
U - Unification (In Christ, we are united)
S - Santification (Because of the birth of Christ, we are all cleansed from sins)

A very blessed Christmas to all of you and wishing you God's overwhelming abundant love for the new year and the many years to come!

Winter...the danger

While you 'wow' and say 'they are so lucky'...let me tell you in the midst of all the beauty, danger lurks in winter too. Remember I told you about the snow melting and the road becoming slippery, that's where all the danger lies.

I remembered when I was still in Singapore watching the news on TV about winter in temperate countries, I often saw footage of cars sliding on the highway and banging onto cars in front of them. Those footage have come alive. Thankfully, there were no accidents but they were real and they were frightening.



These icy roads are very dangerous. I had to drive Kai out to the main road to wait for the school transport. After letting him off at the bus stop, I couldn't get my car to move. There was no control over the car at all.
Although I shift my steering wheel to the left and right, the wheels were not moving. It took four to five kind neighbours to help me pushed the car. When fetching Kai, I decided not to drive to avoid any accident. When I walked out, I fell straight
onto the icy floor! You have to wear the right kind of shoes to make sure that the sole of the shoes could grip onto the icy road.

During the winter months, it is also not unusual to hear of old people who live of their own, dying of the cold in their house. Yesterday the temperature was -2 deg F (-16 deg C). That's really cold. Then there were always the poor, who couldn't afford heater or thicker clothes...all these make winter a very miserable time for some.

I used to long for white Christmas. Looking at photographs, watching movies. A white Christmas seemed so beautiful. I used to envy people who could sit near the fireplace, with a real pine Christmas tree adorned with beautiful ornatments and presents. Families gathered at the dinner table to eat turkey and Christmas pudding. All these were movie-perfect scenes. Yes, they only happened in the movies. Winter is the most ironical season, it's beautiful but it is also very miserable.

Now that I have experienced a white Christmas, I thank God that I live in the tropics and the experience I had. While it may not be the most perfect place to have Christmas but let me tell you honestly and from the bottom of my heart....you will never wish for a white Christmas after experiencing one...oh by the way, I don't mean the guided-tour white Christmas holidays.

Winter...the beauty


Winter is most beautiful when all you could see is nothing but pure white, serene landscape.
This picture was taken outside the church. It's a beauty


Take time to see and observe....the beauty in everything...both big and small

Anothing beautiful thing about winter is the Christmas lights used to decorate each home. They are really awesome!

Winter...the unusual, at least for us

We have come to realise that when it snowed, everyone stayed indoor but the moment it stopped snowing, everyone carry on with their life. So, instead of staying at home, we decided to venture out to the mall and see and of course to pick up more groceries in case the weather turn really bad. Singapore is not the only place that has an efficient workforce. Here, the people worked just as hard, just as fast.

The bull-dozer type of shovel was used, the carpark was cleared of all the snow and soon, the place was packed with Christmas shoppers


Not a lot left...


...but there were plenty of snow. The snow shovelled and piled up high

Coming from a tropical country, all these are very new and unusual to us.

Winter...the fun

There was quite alot of snowfall the past couple of days. The playground new our house was completely covered by the snow and it has turned into a mini snow tubing mountain. It was fun, we brought our big plastic lids and did our own style of snow tubing.


The playground


No need to pay to go to a skii mountain when you have one right at your door step


Can you see the three containers at the far left hand corner? It is part of a train that just passed. Yes, there is a railway track. That makes the whole park very special


Father pulling his kids on a sleigh



Simple pure fun. First you bring up the 'tube', when you have reached the top of the mountain, you slide down...weeeeee,
then you pick it up and go up again


That's little Ann sliding down


When you are little, your dad will help you to pick up the 'tube'...and after sometime, you have the privilege of just sitting there and watch others do the hard work


The adults are also entitled to the fun too!