#chaptertan

[simplethings]

24 Dec: A Hygge Christmas Eve Recollection. Through some of my favourite photographs along Katong. . 🎄2015: This day three years ago we had our first date along the streets of Katong. I was purposefully late. Daniel was naturally late. We were both 15 minutes late; so neither waited for the other, & we were just in time for the movie 😆 . 🎄2016: The following year on a rainy eve of Christmas @dantanzy proposed at a café along Katong... the same café we went to the year before after the movie. The day of the shoot the booth we first sat in the café at was vacant so we seized the chance to take a selfie. . 🎄2017: The year I came home from Shg for good. We had planned a wedding long-distanced, & that year we had our first Christmas as a married couple. During the photoshoot our photographer asked us how many children we planned on having, amongst other questions. We laughed when we answered. And he captured that moment, along the back alleys of Katong. . 🎄2018: We spent the evening of Christmas Eve with Daniel’s parents as they advised the dos and don’ts for the next chapter. Looking forward, our lives are going to change yet again. Looking back, I am thankful & still in amazement at how it all began one Christmas Eve for us. As for this moment right here & right now, am simply embracing this very warm moment in its entirety. My heart overflows at how only a loving Creator could have mindfully conceived a perfect Christmas so many years ago for all of mankind & still take time to make it so beautiful & personal for an individual like me. On that note, here’s wishing a very Hygge Christmas from us to you & yours. ♥️. #chaptertan #chaptertanplusone #hyggechristmas https://www.instagram.com/p/BrxtlbkBX5N/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=3ybru4ehwonu

[simplethings]

9 Sep 2018: Happy wedding annoyiversary favourite person @dantanzy!! Can’t remember when these videos were taken but I’m never going to grow tired of annoying you for the rest of my life 😂 what a year it has been... know that I’m thankful for you, the things you do behind the scenes & openly for us. For standing up for me & for being all that you promised 365 days ago at the altar. To many more years of #chaptertan together! ♥️ https://www.instagram.com/p/BniW44wH2O4/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=hs4atv446ii1

[simplethings]

17 Jan 2018: These 2.5 weeks going back to work feel like we’ve been married a good 2.5 years when all we do these days is wake, work, sleep 😂 It hasn’t been the most easy in this new role... I feel so conflicted most times seeing how grey & ugly the adult world really is. My heart is like a wilting flower🥀 You have been a better husband than I a wife when each morning you make a breakfast smoothie for me & I on the other hand haven’t yet been able to make dinner for us 😭 I haven’t been the best working wife & I honestly am clueless how working moms out there do this balancing gig. How did my own mother do this? I wish she was still around for me to ask... guess I’ll figure my way someway, somehow. Meanwhile, posting up big smiles of us... to chase the midweek blues away. To see how you’ve loved, supported & comforted me these 2.5 weeks @dantanzy, truly blessed to do #chaptertan with you.

[simplethings]

9 Dec 2017: How does a moment last forever? 💗 Three months into #chaptertan with @dantanzy & very coincidently Beauty & the Beast was screening on TV tonight. 😍 So we watched the movie whilst doing the weekend ironing concurrently & then sang along to the song played during the credits - which was also the song we sang together at our wedding. #couplegoals #simplethings #letteringdecember #marriedlifeincludesironing 😝

[simplethings]

1 Dec 2017: Visited Nana today. @dantanzy got to meet this wonderful woman who looked after my sister & I the first half of my childhood. Showed her the video of our wedding & she asked when the babies will come 😂. Today I found out Nana is also a Teochew who married a Peranakan. Midway the video she asked Daniel for his surname. “Tan,” he said. And she replied, “That’s my family name.” Nana is not my biological grandmother; to find out today that we share the same married name makes things heartwarming. 💗 Funny also how things come full circle. Felt sad a teeny bit when I left the house I grew up in because it hit me how in a twinkling babies grow to become adults & how without much notice, adults gracefully age. #chaptertan #circleoflife

[chaptertan]

50 Days

Of married life.  

I could make a list of the top five questions people ask newly married couples. Some of which I have asked my own friends after their wedding, not knowing how they must have had answered the same question endless times to different groups of people. (Sorry!)

1. How is married life? 

2. How was your honeymoon?

3. Where did you go for your honeymoon?

4. Where are you living at now?

5. When are the babies coming?

If I could sum the five questions all into one, it would be this - So, what happens after the wedding?

Well 50 days on after the wedding, life happened for us. It can get a little intimidating and frightening - the pace of which life hits you in the face immediately right after the big day. 

We had wedding bills to pay, had our honeymoon, returned home to firstborn children duties, then got separated for 12 days after being married a month, fulfilled daughter-in-law duties, got reunited again just this week, fell ill and saw the doctor, hosted friends from Shanghai, continued with the job hunt, went for interviews, continued with the job hunt... and the list goes on. 

Daniel still has to follow up on his health check-up, there will come more firstborn children duties soon especially in two days’ and both of us have a sibling each to celebrate belated birthdays with.

It has been activity after event after duty that at times I miss the freedom we had while we were dating.  Yet, not complaining about how fast and much our calendar gets filled because it simply means that we are blessed with family and friends to love and care for. It however does challenge me to learn as best to be in every moment, and not fret about what will come next or how badly I am waiting and praying for myself to go back to work. (Which I really have been restless about, since after the wedding). And, to trust in my Heavenly Father. 

So this is 50 days into Chapter Tan. This is 50 days into married life. If the first 50 days have been such a whirlwind of colour, I cannot imagine the day when we look back at 50 years. <3

[chaptertan]

All I want to do, is grow old with you. :)

[simplethings]

11 Oct 2017: It’s back to long distance again for us for a bit. We’ll be ok though I can’t wait to be back with you already. For now, here’s to me fulfilling daughter-in-law duties and you son-duties while apart! ❤️ #ldr #lizdanrelationship #chaptertan