Do you think giving some loose diamonds as gifts to parents good enough to thank them for their kindness? Just thinking about what gift to give to my parents-in-law again for taking care of the kids while we are away. The first time that we asked them to take care of our kids when the hubby and me went for an 8-day holiday to Phuket last year, we took both of them for a long holiday break in Macau, Hongkong and China in April this year with us. I think it was a good example to do that because the next thing we knew, my sister-in-law, who has been gaining favor from my parents-in-law for taking care of their kids while she's at work, took my father-in-law to a dinner on Father's day - for the first time. Now that we have asked my parents-in-law again to take care of the kids while we're on travel, I'm thinking again on what gift to give to them as a sign of gratefulness.

The past few weeks had me found busy with work. I have been going with the hubby for some work. Two weeks ago, I joined him in Melaka for thePlan09 Conference. We stayed at home for 3 days and traveled to Thailand for 3 days, stayed one night at home and the next day, we flew to Brunei.

I think you cannot have your piece of cake and eat it too. I am missing my kids so much. I wish we can take them wherever we go... but since our trips require our full attention, we couldn't take them with us.

Hopefully we can go for a short vacation when we go back home on Monday. It would be good to spend time with kids again. We'll probably just drive to a nearby resort... There's no rv in Malaysia... that would mean no need to buy rv insurance. But I guess, if you do have an rv, you can always check the internet for the insurance.

It's Saturday now. Two more days and we're going back home. Can't wait to have my arms wrapped around my kids. I just miss them.

Hubby and I just came back yesterday from our fruitful trip in Ranong, to visit the work and the workers among the Sea Gypsies (Mokens). Hubby asked me to go with him because he needed some Moken profile photos. I can say that I have improved a bit with my portrait photography. Thanks to articles on photography tips online. I kind of have an idea how to take shots. Now all I need to do is pray for a DSLR. It doesn't matter what brand... I just wanna have a better camera and probably divert my hobby from blogging to photography. NOT! ^_^

Now, we're on our way to Brunei. It's gonna be my first time to go there. There's a church (that hubby visited last year) that invited me to minister to the youths and the children.

I love traveling and even though these trips are for work, I feel like I'm going for one of those Orlando vacations. This is just one of the blessings we get when we obey and serve God... meeting our hearts' desires and actually enjoying it. God does want us to be blessed... all we need to do is open up our lives, our vessels, so that others can enjoy His blessings also. And the more the blessing flows though us, the more that we are blessed... And God is pleased because then, if we truly wanna be a blessing, He gets the glory and not us.

Last month, when my parents were still here, our church did an evangelistic program. They had a play called The Story of Joseph. Since my kids were so much into Bible Stories, we didn't wanna miss watching it.

Our church, FGA (Full Gospel Assembly), is a mega church with 8,000+ members. And when they do presentations/plays, they're sure to be world-class shows. The backdrops had always been delicately made... The last Bible story play we watched was the Story of Jonah, which, until now, my son (2.5 years old then) still talks about it.

Since my parents were here also, all of us paraded to church and watched the play. The Story of Joseph (the dreamer) has always been my favorite story/character in the Bible. So I was glad to be able to watch it with my family. And once again, I was awed at how much effort they spent in making the play as beautiful as it was. And as usual, I admired the costumes, make-up and backdrops. Since the scene was during Biblical times, you could see a lot of brick-made walls and not sure whether they had it made in Ft Myers custom doors, but the buildings with nicely done doors were just amazing.

The actors/actresses acted very well... and the singers were just awesome. The script and the songs were carefully and beautifully written... One can't help but be in tears towards the end of the play. Well, who wouldn't be in tears to hear the story of Joseph? It's an issue of forgiveness and no matter what our brothers/families or even friends had done to us, God always asks us to forgive because He first forgave us.

It's a good experience for my kids to see plays like this.

Additional Notes:

It's not just a fats-filled me but a fats-filled us. Why? Because the hubby is in, too. We started doing this Mayo Clinic Diet together 10 days ago. It's more on protein-and-no-carbohydrate diet. What worries me is the fats we're taking in. According to the diet menu plan fats don't produce fats. Fats burn fats. So the more you eat fats, the more you burn fats. Indeed, both my hubby and I had lost weight.

After this 12-day diet, I think I need a colon cleanse or a detox just to flush out all the not-so-good stuff we ate during this 12-day diet. We have two more days to go to finish this plan.

After this, I wanna be healthy again. Like the real Mayo Clinic endorses. To eat all the food in the food pyramid, according to their nutritional value.

... or Jerusalem Diet.

Will have to blog about it soon coz I'm still on the research about it.