I love you,
Yes, Mikayla turned a big 1 (one) on the 21st December 2008 (Sunday). It was quite low key as Canaan's Christmas Open House was on the very same day. So the church was busy with all things Christmas and open housey. Melanie was particularly upset about that. I guess it's a maternal thing, Melanie informed me that she was doing all the hard work while I just "enjoyed" the process. THAT, my (male) friends is like the ultimate female trump card, and our que to shaddup. Anyway, it was all out of our control, whining about it was not going to do anything. We spent the whole day at the open house, where Melanie won a coffee maker. Lunch was free for all and free for all. Many people came, including friends from other churches. But there was not dinner...
Yes, we went out dinner after that long day. But there was little fanfare. Uncle Elroi and aunty Anne (not to be mistaken with the pretzel making one); uncle Bob; aunties Sarah, Rachel, and uncle Irvin; and kai yeh Kok Leong were those in attendance. We ate at one of our favourite restaurants - D'Fortune in Menjalara. And called it a (birth)day.
Next year there will be a small "Mikayla" update section on this blog. The demand is just too great, already Mikayla's life is more interesting than mine! She lives and charmed life...
Mikayla,
Mommy and daddy loves you so much. You are so cute, so beautiful. You are truly a "gift from God" to us and to our family. We pray that you will grow up to be God's gift to your church, and even to Malaysia and the rest of the world. Your kong kong has already mentioned (a.k.a. prophecied) that one of his grandchildren will be a pastor, would that be you? hmmm...
I am looking forward to the many many more experiences we will be having together.
Daddy (mommy will have to get her own blog)
P/S: You're going to make daddy even more of a cry baby... 
Tiramisu all for my baby... watch this space for the pix & vids of Mikayla vs. Tiramisu.
**some nostalgic moments:
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Happy Birthday Mikayla!!!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Winter Break
This did NOT happen
This DID happen... for you
Remember in all the shopping, gifts, and makan... JESUS!Merry Christmas and a Happy 2009!
Yours truly,
Lemuel Yee
P/S: He did not just die for you, he ALSO overcame death... for you too
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
All I Want For Christmas Is...
"Why not just give me the cash instead?" or "What am I supposed to do with this?" or "What a waste of money?"
Don't get me wrong I am not ungrateful, just being honest here. Don't lie to me, I know we have all had that experience. Then some of us hold onto the gift for another year or two and then "re-gift" it to another poor soul (or someone else who would actually appreciate it).
So far my philosophy for Christmas gifts is this: "if I wouldn't like to receive it, I won't give it". Maybe this might help some of you.
For me, the best thing to do is to give a "group gift", which means getting a few mutual friends (a term I learnt in Facebook) together and give something more significant. It will cost you the same, but the gift's value (not just monetarily) will grow exponentially. Although this would require some extra planning and organizing.
With Christmas looming and the prospect of having unwanted "surprises", I have created this "wish list" for those of you who genuinely love me but face the challenge of expressing your love through your Christmas giving. Hopefully this will make your Christmas shopping (for me) less stressful and more enjoyable (for you). Prices for the items on my wish list range from as low as RM2 to more over USD2,000. So go ahead, get a few guys together and do some planning/organizing!
Samsung Omnia
Last Christmas, when Mikayla was born, for some unknown reason my pocket PC of almost 5 years died on me in the hospital. Since then I have been jumping from phone to phone, just borrowing people's cheap backup phones. I am currently using Osbourne's old and reliable Nokia.
The Omnia is really an all-in-one gadget. It has the usual Phone and PDA functions (i.e. calendar, to-do list, making and receiving phone calls, SMS, etc.). On top of the usual stuff this baby also has a built in GPS and AGPS, not to mention the HSPDA (3.5G) connectivity, also useful as a PDA and also as a thumb drive/external hard disk.
My life has really been a blur since my trusty O2 XDA II konged out. I feel a need to get my life back on track as I begin to build my ministry next year.
Mic Stand Pick Holder
The standard mic stand pick holder
I have a tendency to drop my picks when I play guitar, especially on fast songs (I think I just can't keep up with the tempo). Anyway apart from my efforts in practice, this item will come in helpful during those embarrassing times.
Similar but different
With my faithful green pair of crocs wearing out, it is getting hazardous for me when it gets wet. Maybe I should just slip, fall, then sue Crocs for a new pair of Crocs?
My current Beach Croc is in the size of Men's 8-9. So might as well try the outdoor crocs this time around.
A Taylor Guitar (814 or 914 series)
Not just another guitar, a Taylor 814... *drools*
Hope agianst all hope, but I just heard a message from a CD in Sarah Tan's car. The speaker excouraged us not to limit God. God has no limits, only we limit God by putting him into a box. So I decided to put this up as well. This is definitely out of the box.
As all of you would know guitars is a real passion of mine. I can't play it as well as I wished I could, so I resort to just loving the whole concept and idea of a guitar. This guitar would be more than a music instrument, it would be more a piece of art. I am currently tracking several auctions on Ebay. It is MUCH cheaper in US, since these babies are made in US. Currently the most attractive is this Taylor 2006 814ce Fall Limited Edition with sitka spruce top and Madagascar rosewood sides and back. Check this baby out! That's what I call a sexy back... yea...
The Madagascar Rosewood back
Sexy back... yea
Paul Gilbert Guitar Picks
Any color will do.
So far, I have found these to be the best picks. The size is right, the shape is right, the texture is right, the tone is right, even the colours are right. These are the only guitar picks I use, I exclusively use Paul Gilbert picks. I stumbled upon these picks one day when David Yeoh lent one of his picks to someone during worship practice, since then there was no turning back.
Recently I went to get myself a few more of these picks. I seldom lose my picks nowadays, unless I borrowed them to someone else, then they lose it for me. However these picks are currently dried up in Malaysia, all stocks are sold out, that is how popular these picks are. Anyway those still in my possesion are getting worn out. They are getting blunt on the tip from strumming, and getting holes on the sides from scrapping the strings. Time for a bunch of new ones. Think you can find some?
Clip On Guitar Tuner
This is the Intelli IMT-500, available at The Guitar Store.
There are many types of tuners out there, but the ones I am interested in are the clip on time. The clip on type don't require a guitar jack plugged in to them to start tuning. These also do not need silence while tuning because they are not reliant on the mic to pick up the guitar's pitch. These clip on are based on vibration that the guitar emits to determine the pitch of the guitar. These clip on type tuners are also generally smaller, for me, that's a plus.
This is how it is used.
Mikayla Harness
That's NOT Mikayla
With Mikayla turning 1 this Christmas season, she should very soon be running about. So as parents our job is to spoil her fun by putting her on a leash... A baby harness should allow both Melanie and I, and Mikayla some freedom and room. A simple one would be great. Not some "cute" bulky one.
Definitely not a fan of lugging more weight around.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Yes, as some of you would already know, I have finally (this is like a keyword these recent months) fallen prey to the perils of Facebook. The last straw was when my father, of all people, not only invited me, but told me to get on Facebook. Like me he thought facebook was not "serious" enough, so I guess now we both just have to loosen up a bit. However as soon as we logged on we realized that many of the "serious" people were already actively participating in Facebook and the various groups. Anyway, I'm now in. Add me if you wish.
I'm still a total Facebook noob. It'll take some time for me to settle into my Facebook. So far I have 175 "friends", I'm sure many are real "friends" however there are quite a number that I'm not sure if I have ever met them. Some seem to know who I am, while some others ask me the very same question that I want to ask them, but dare not lest I make a fool of my noob-Facebook-self... I end up with many "Who are you?" messages.
Anyway, there I am in facebook, connecting with all my "friends" from all around the world. There already has been some old friends that I was able to reconnect with. Photos shared and "tagged" (whatever that means) in some others, while I joined some groups that seemed intersting to me (like a certain warehouse sales group). But at the end of the day, I think my blog will still be my main presence in cyber space.
Well... anyway, just so you know...
Monday, December 1, 2008
Worship List 081130
Prakash was scheduled as the worship leader this week, however since he swapped with David last Sunday he would be worship leading back to back. This Sunday was also a special week, there was going to be a shoot for a promotional video for the church. So I wanted to make sure that 1) the worship team did a good job and 2) I got my face on camera. So I got myself involved by arranging myself as co-worship leader. The shoot was really elaborate. Elroi (my brother did it) and it was not a home video thing. It was the full monty corporate video. I figured that the shoot would affect the worship time. I didn't worry so much that the people would be distracted by it, but kind of realized that this week the people would be more "ready" for church. And so it was that last Sunday that the atmosphere was really much better.
By Wednesday Prakash and I have already communicated and it already seemed like we were on the same track. By Thursday we have confirmed some songs and by Friday it was almost all set. Our direction was to get desperate for God, to have more of him in our lives and church. Below is Sunday's list:
- Cover The Earth (D)
- Friend of God (D)
- Breathe (A)
- Draw Me Close (A)
- Forever [by Hillsong, chorus only] (A)
That Sunday morning, some visitors walked into our church, they were with the speaker for the day. The speaker was Ronnie Tan. He is a Malaysian who is now pastoring in New Zealand, he brought along with him a group of young people. They were so full of energy and the worship team fed off their energy and enthusiasm. I believe many of our own church members too were infected by them. However we always knew it was going to be a great session that week. We had a time of prayer after the worship practice last week, we all put our instruments down and just gathered around for a short time of really worshipping God and prayer after that.
I informed the team that since we introduced the debriefing after our worship sessions our worship team has made giant strides, so we are now going to start a short "briefing session" after our practice time. We will use this briefing time to discuss about our dress code, the service, and any other nitty-gritty stuff that we have to settle before the worship session. We will start the briefing time with a short simple time of worshipping together as a team followed by a time of prayer. As it would happen, God really did hear the worship team's heart's cry. The service, from the worship to the preaching, was all great.
This week is definitely an up. Hope next week will be just as good, and even better.
