This is the story of my family. There is no drama, no fabrication, no lies - this is how my family had lived from the beginning of our lives. Up till now, I've always find myself not appreciating my family for who they are, and many times I have always wished I had other people's family. But no more. This is a tribute; my appreciation for how much they loved me despite the odds.

My dad grew up from a humble family and had many brothers and sisters. He graduated from Singapore Polytechnic and started working at some publishing company. There, he met my mother who just graduated from secondary school. My mother came from a pure peranankan family who treasured tradition, and she only had one elder brother. One thing led to another and they fell in love and got married. Then, my dad went on to work as a minor engineer in SMRT. He didn't earn much but he and my mother got by. My mother continued working at that publishing company until my elder brother was conceived where she took a few months' leave before going back to work. At that time, they lived in a small apartment in Bedok. My mother hired a maid to take care of my elder brother as she continued working. Then they shifted house from Bedok to a somewhat bigger flat in Pasir Ris - it was a 4-room flat. This was when I came along! Yes my mother conceived with me and she quited her job so that she could stay at home to take care of us. Our maid was still with us then. After 3 years, my younger brother came along. By then, the maid had already went back to her hometown so it was stressing for my parents to handle three children who were no bigger than 7years old. We somehow managed through. When I was around 6years old, my uncle died and my grandparents came to live with us. It was quite hard on my father at first since we did not make much back then. However, God was good to us and guess what? Yes, my dad got promoted to Senior Engineer and he made much more than his previous salary. When I reached 9years old, we shifted to Tampines, somewhere really near to our primary school so that my parents do not have to worry about us coming home late after school. The Tampines flat costs a bomb! But it was much bigger than the past two flats - it was a 6room executive flat with 2 balconies. The house was really spacious when we first stepped in, until we cramped a lot of stuff into the house. This time, I finally had my own room! Of course my elder brother had to share the room with my younger brother :P And my grandparents took the room nearest to the kitchen. It was quite a good year for us because we didn't have to cramp in the small house in Pasir Ris anymore! And we have two shopping malls here in Tampines :)

When I graduated from Anglican High School, my dad was thinking of moving again and this time he wanted to move into a private estate. Unfortunately the private estate which my mother was in love with was a bit too ... private. It was practically constructed at the end of a road and it was super close to some power plant. So guess what? If we lived there, we would be inhaling poisonous fumes almost every day and if that power plant were to explode, I wouldn't be here blogging right now. Another bad thing was that it was about half an hour walk from the main road. So it is quite a killer, and since my dad was worried about our safety, we decided not to move. Ohright, our Pasir Ris was rented out. At first their rent was only $1k per month which was super cheap and the stingy clients didn't want to pay much. My parents kicked them after 2 years and now we are renting our to a family from China for $2.4k per month. Awesome isn't it?

As my brothers and I slowly grew up, my mother was missing the working life as she felt her life was pretty mundane. So she decided this time she could finally graduate from her favourite course - Food&Beverage. She went to SHINES, a private school and she graduated as the top student there! :D I'm so proud of her! Ohright, and their course costs about $6k. Yes that much. But my father supported her till the end. Now she is working as a supervisor in Mandarin Oriental Hotel, supervising trainees under her. Even though her pay is not as outstanding as my father's, she still enjoys it and she is hoping to open a cafe after gaining enough experience. I trust her abilities :)

My parents are people who don't really splurge much on us because they are afraid that my brothers and I may fight for money. So they don't buy stuff for us unless we ask from them and we have to justify that those items would not affect our studies. That is when they will buy the item which we want/need. Being in family of 9people(+maid and grandparents), my parents are really the best! :) They are able to support 3 children who loves to shop, 2 high maintenance elderlies, pay for a maid to take care of my grandparents and still have enough money to spend on themselves. If I were the only child in my family, and my parents just have to support a family of three, I probably can ask them to keep ordering Chanel items like their clothes, heels (OMG THEIR HEELS ARE SUPER NICE) etc. But I know I can't because I'm in a family of 9people. But my mother did spend $3k+ on me once! Hahaha. I felt REALLY BAD at the end. You are wondering how my mother spent so much on me in just one day ... let me shed some light on this topic. You know, I was really fat back then (not saying that I'm super thin right now, but I did lose a lot of weight) like about 58kg! D: And I almost ... died once because I was just tooooo fat. I guess because I used to be an athlete then after putting on a lot of weight, my body was not accustomed to it, thus it sort of failed(?). So my mother hired a nutritionist to help me with it. Of course till now, I still have to visit her every week and each session costs about $100. My friends all said that I'm paying people to help me watch my diet ... HAHA :P If you say it like that ... I guess it is true. But yea, I haven't found the time to go for quite some time already, but I'm trying to make time for it! And right now I weigh 46kg. I lost 12kg in 6months. It was quite tough though .... :( Not being able to eat your favourite food, but hell I did not want to be fat! Not saying that fat people are ugly ... is just that I want to be able to run 4km without dying literally, or being not able to be a flyer for cheerleading.

As for my elder brother, being a person who sought out high end items, he spends a lot. And about 80% of those are on hair products. Hahaha :) He can spend about $500 on his hair. GOD. ($200 on cutting of his hair and the rest are spent on hairspray, hair moisture, hair gel etc etc) At least I don't spend so much on my hair! AND THANK GOODNESS he is bald at the moment due to NS :) And last time when he was still chasing after Gen (his current gf), he would spend a lot bringing her to fancy restaurants to appeal to her since she comes a really rich family. And I'm SOOO glad that my elder brother could get a girl like her. She is really sweet and cute. When she puts on makeup, she immediately transforms into a matured young adult.

As for me, I don't really like shopping back then because I was too lazy to walk about for so many hours until I met Kyle! My awesome half Italian, half Japanese with slight British descend. Or was it half Italian, half British with slight Japanese descend .... Hmmmm ... But I know for sure he is half Italian! Haha :P While when I met Kyle, I was basically ... A NERD. I wore baggy jeans and had mushroom hair. I have no idea how we hooked up, but one thing led to another and he was a effing rich kid. He would bring me to high-class functions and their dressings are just ... GASPS* So I had to go shopping. He would always send someone to pick me up and bring me about Singapore shopping. Well the first few trips were just epic fail. Then he told me of some of the special aristocrats functions. I TOTALLY FELL IN LOVE WITH IT. And started buying those Victorian-styled clothing (and slowly mixed with gothic/lolita), which was super expensive!! I could spend about $500 in one weekend and that is the price of just two set of clothing. And to total it all up, I spent about $3k on those clothes. Even now, I still think that it was quite worth it as it serves as a memory for me. Ohright, I loved their Masquerade Parties the most, but it was quite dangerous since rich people there only cared about sex. So I sticked to him most of the time. The bad thing about Kyle was that he hated taking pictures. As a result of that, I had no memory of him when he went back to Britain for business purposes. I guess that was the end of us. And life went on for me.

My younger brother is the saver. Yes he saves up a lot. He does not do shopping until special occasions, so basically he just stays at home to either game or study. Until recently I guess? Where my elder brother mentioned something about his style of life and he changed. He bought new clothes and started styling up his hair. Of course in my elder brother's eyes, he was just an amateur. Haha :P Glad to see that my younger brother is finally getting out of the house to shop.

I know my family is not fantastically rich like Bill Gates and such, but we are enjoying our lives. We do not have to scrap through our lives when we want to buy something we want, and we are practically loving every moment of it as a family. Of course sometimes I wonder what would happen if I were the only child, I would be even more pampered and spoiled than I am now, but without my brothers, who can I bully/irritate? Hahaha :) And of course, I love my siblings a lot. I want to thank my parents for working hard to give all of us a good life and they hardly take a break for themselves. Of course when they do, they really go all out, but that's not the point! :P Hahaha. I love my family the most. Of course I'm glad that my Baby can be a part of all of this! Even though, he has seen a lot of times when I fought with my parents :( At least he is there to comfort me :) Heehee. And even though I can always lend on my parents for money to shop, I still have to save up my own money. And I don't want to depend on them even when I grow up to be an adult. I want to give them a really good life when I finally achieve my dream of being a lawyer. And I know I will achieve it! :) Cheers!

Loving Cheerleading and Baby with No Boundaries {♥}