Happy 2008

Wishing everyone a happy new year! Inshallah 2008 will be a good year for everyone....

Bye Bye 2007, it was good knowing you!

We are not doing much today....I wanted to go out and party, but then decided to have an small gathering at my house with my friends and family so the kids can welcome the new year with us.

Pink eye

oh oh!!

For years I have been hearing about my friends' kids getting the pink eye, and I thought I hope my kids do not get it!

Well guess What??? I GOT IT!! yeh on Christmas day when I can not go to the doctor to start treatment! BTW does anyone know of a good eye doctor in the tla' el3ali area??

I should have gone to the doctor the minute I noticed one of my eyes is too red, but I thought maybe it is because I am tired...uggh! Now my eye is red, and one is significantly smaller than than the other...not a very good look!

Lets go back in my history...this is the third time I have gotten this in my eye. The first time I was about 6-7 my eye was very swollen though! Everyone was being nice to me, and I recall being in a car going to some one's place in a hill and my neighbour was driving. For some reason I picked that time to put my hands on his eyes blocking them..playing the guess who! Thankfully he did not kill me, because I would kill anyone who does it to me while I am driving!

The second time I was in Lebanon on vacation...I was not allowed to wear makeup for a whole week! But thankfully the week was over the day we went to a Khathem Alsaher concert, and I looked all pretty when I took a picture with him, but my idiot cousin took a picture of us with his body cutting his head off! Unfortunately that was 15yrs ago before we had a digital camera so we found this out too late! I am still mad!

This is the third time in Amman...Hmmmmm it seems my eye gets sick in the middle east...INTERESTING...

Well now when hubby comes on Friday night he will not only see a fatter wife, but one with a pink eye as well and maybe no makeup for few days! crab!

update: Thank you Anon...I totally forgot about the eye hospital,it is a 10min walk from my home! We went there and saw a doctor. I am glad it was open today!

After I finished this post I checked Ziad's eye and yup, he has the pink eye...he is the one who gave to me! His eyes have been red since Sunday, but I thought it was because he was going to bed late and waking up early. DAH at me! Well now we are on antibiotic drops and getting the drops into Ziad's eyes is a pain in the rear!

I had to tell him about the consequences of not taking the drops of course I exaggerated a bit, and I think I scared the hell out of him. He is scared of the drops but he does not want his eyes to get worse so he is letting me put the drops in his eyes, the first time it took us 1hr, the second time it took 10min..hopefully next time it will take the less than 1min it is supposed to take to put a drop in each eye...

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all my friends.

I hope everyone is having happy and safe holidays, and that everyone is enjoying all the decorations and lights.

p.s. I hate snow, but I love this picture. So cozy, I want to be in that little house by the fireplace sipping some hot chocolate then going for a walk in the snow, building a snow man , having a snow fight, then going back in for more hot chocolate and a cozy nap.

My Eid post...

I have lots to blog about but I have been too lazy.

First let me say how cold I am and how this cold is making me extra lazy! Like I can afford to be any lazier! I can’t wait to be back home to the land of affordable heating and insulated houses. I just can not see myself spending $1000 for solar to heat this apt! You know how many shoes and clothes I can buy with that money instead?

Ok now I am done with my obligatory I’m so cold rant...lets move on...

Eid was fun, Ziad was upset that he did not get to go to Eid prayers, poor guy. We got dressed, went downstairs to be with the rest of the family. Hubby’s sister and brother arrived from Saudi shortly after, so it was nice to hang around together. Everyone left for their traditional Eid lunch while the kids and I went to Mamabean’s house for the cookie party.

It was great, the kids had a lot of fun and it was great to meet the bloggers who attended. I finally got to meet the famous Rambling Hal. The cookies were yummy. I had a hard time eating them; they were too pretty to eat.

The next day we went to Aqaba. Few weeks ago my sister in law went to Aqaba and did not take Ziad with her. Ever since he has been driving her crazy, every time he sees her he asks “why didn’t you take me to Aqaba with you” so this madness can stop we decided to take him there. Of course he still asks her the same question saying that he wants to janenha (drive her crazy) and zahea’ha (bore her) with this question because she did not take him with her espoo3 elmadi.

We had fun in Aqaba; Although we did get up at 4 am to get ready for the bus to leave at 6 sharp, which was changed to 7 sharp! yeh right, does something sharp exist here? We left at almost 8. the bus ride was not too bad, everyone was joking around and we chitchated with my sister in law's friend. Bilal slept most of the time, and Ziad was all over the place talking to everyone.

We went on the horse carriage, something Ziad has wanted to do forever! And we went on the boat and saw the underwater, very very cool! It would be so awesome to dive there...or at least go snorkelling. We really wanted to go for a camel ride, but did not know where to go, poor Ziad and Bilal they were really looking forward to riding on a camel. (So was I)
When hubby comes we want to go Petra and Wadi rum. We did go to Wadi rum, but it was at night time. There was a party, we danced and chitchatted then went back to Aqaba to sleep!

O wait, I have got to talk about our room in Aqaba! It has the tiniest two beds I have ever, ever seen! I was sharing the roon with my sister in law along with my two kids! My sister in law has a house in Aqaba, her husband and sons were also there, so she just went there for the night. Bilal and I slept on one bed, while Ziad slept on the other bed. Sometime during the night Ziad joined us on the tiny bed! Eventually I got up and slept on the other bed all by myself! What a night!

We also got to go shopping! All my shopping experience in Amman has been at the mall! And this souk we went to reminded me of Lebanon when we were little and went shopping with my parents,so that was fun.

All in all it was not a bad Eid. With the cookie party and our trip to Aqaba it was anything but boring.

The whole time I was writing this post I was listening to a song on Rotana Zaman! I am done with this post and the song is not done! People 30-40 years ago had so much more patience than we do today eh?? Songs were way tooooo long! I am changing the channel, this is torture!

Eid Mubarak!

Eid mubarak to all ....Inshallah everyone will have a safe and happy Eid...

All I heard today is how horrible we are for not taking Ziad to hajj and how unfair it is that there no ka3ba in Amman! OMG

We got past the hajj thing and he realized this is eid is the famous kharoof eid, how come everyone , and he means everyone in the world has a kharoof except for us! sheesh! Now I have to go out and buy a kharoof or everyone will laugh at us...(kharoof=sheep)

Then he made me feel guilty because I have been saying that baba will be here when Eid comes, oops sorry for not being so specific, he comes a week after eid, "I was all excited that Ami(rami) will be here on Eid, now he is not...blah blah blah"

Eid does have a whole new dimension when you have kids...

This Eid the kids got educational arabic games....that is all they wanted, they picked them out themselves so do not look at me like that, I am a fun mom OK! Hubby is bringing them toys they chose from Toys r us's website, and I bought them a couple of leapster games from Ebay. I do not get how people can buy their kids presents and keep they a secret until eid, christmas, bdays. I have been trying to do this for six years and so far no good...I get too excited and show them...O well..maybe next year!

nothing to post about

It is official; I have run out of words! I do not have anything to blog about!! NOTHING!

I have had the most boring weekend ever!! Bilal is sick...the sickest he has ever been! He has not moved off the sofa for four days! And neither have I! Well except to tidy the apartment up a bit, and to take a shower and to get some food from the kitchen. We have watched so much cartoons, my brain has turned into mush! And I am feeling super fat! I just had to throw that in there...The feeling fat thing I mean.

Today we overslept; we were awakened by Ziad’s bus missed call! OOPS! This happens when you use your cell phone as an alarm clock! Note to self, buy an alarm clock. So Ziad had a day off today as well, since I could not leave a very sick Bilal and take Ziad to school.

I was going to post about something serious today as a matter of fact. I wanted to post about the Pakistani Muslim girl murdered by her father in Toronto, but I decided I was not in the mood for posting about something so depressing. The poor girl; Allah yer7amha.

Then I was going to post about something I read online the other day. I can not find the article, but apparently people are whining about the drive thru, mainly Tim Horton’s (kiss, kiss miss u Timmy) drive thru! What am I going to do without the drive thru??? Those little windows have been a life saver for me! If it was not for the drive thru I would have bygone so many eating outs! There is no way I will take two kids out of the car seats, and order while making sure the kids do not bother others, and do not decide to leave the store, and then try to balance holding two kid’s hands, while holding the coffee, and food to the car! I only have two hands for god’s sake!

I guess this is why Tim Horton’s take only cash in Ontario, since they are a lot busier than those out west! I have to say I am going to miss being able to use debit and credit cards for my coffee and treats! I will go back to keeping a Tim Horton’s cash on hand! How inconvenient! There is one Tim Horton’s in Mississauga that is right beside a Scotia bank with a drive thru ATM! I love that location, whenever I am shot on cash I just drive to that one, ok so it is a good 10min drive from my house, but so worth it! Really I am not that lazy, I hardly ever used the drive thru before I had kids, ok that is a lie, I hardly ever used the drive thru in the summer before having kids.

So much for not having anything to say, what was I thinking; I always have things to say!

Too much Rambling here..

We are leaving Amman on Feb 01, I am sad about leaving so soon, I have grown to love it here. I am not even minding the taxis, the indoor cold and the annoying guys.

I am not looking forward to our flight home! We go from Amman to Abu Dhabi, then a 14hr flight to Toronto. OMG! I booked a hotel at Abu Dhabi airport, but I am having a hard time justifying spending $140 for less than five hrs! We get to Abu Dhabi at 9 pm, and leave at 2:00 am. I will try very hard not let the kids sleep until we board the plane from AD to TO...hopefully they will take a nap on the plane from Amman to AD so they can stay up late...... I AM NEVER TRAVELING THIS ROUTE AGAIN!

My baby is sick, I feel so bad because I let him go to school today. He was fine in the morning, but when he got off the bus he had a fever and was sleepy...he will be missing a trip to dream park tomorrow...:(

Ziad stayed home because he missed the bus today... it is so annoying how they left so fast, they were few minutes earlier than usual. Bilal's bus is so much better, they never leave without calling...

I have finished Eid shopping, I got clothes and presents for the kids, they were all educational toys, in Arabic, I still want to buy one more toy, maybe we will go to the mall on the weekend...hmmm maybe not, I will go alone on Sunday.

I need to buy a pair of black pants, but I am having the worst luck finding the right ones. I really hate pants shopping! I did buy a cute black turtle neck sweater from mango (what a funny name) to go with the black pants I am planning on buying...so I am happy about that.

Spring shoes (formally transit) do not have boots yet in Amman! I left Canada on august 01, and they already had a good selection of boots on display in the stores. I need to buy a pair of black boots and a pair of knee high boots to go with my skirt, sheesh! Hurry up already!

I think I am getting sick, I should start taking cold FX, hopefully it will work its magic and I will not end up getting the kid’s cold!

I have been going to the gym once a week these past three weeks! How horrible is that?? Something always comes up preventing me from going...*sigh* I am so going to be fat :’(

I bought a cute pair of pink socks. They are so warm cozy...my feet love them!

Ziad loves Barney! He told me that this morning, he thinks Barney teaches us good thing...*screaming*

Hubby is coming in two weeks, yippy...

bye bye goldie...

Well our gold fish (goldie) passed away this weekend....usually when the fish dies we go out and buy a new one before the kids realize that the fish is not sleeping. This time Ziad is older and more fahman! The fish is sleeping bit did not work on him...*sigh*

We had a small funeral for goldie on Friday, we had to decide where to bury her. We finally decided to bury her in the garden at his aunt's house downstairs. It rained on us, so we had to make it quick, we read the fate7a and put a flower to mark her grave, it was the shortest funeral ever! I hope the cat will not dig her out!

So now our fish bowl sits empty, and goldie is in jennah with her fish family and friends.

She was a good fish, always hungry! Anytime someone got close to her bowl she would come up and wait for food. I think she may have died because she ate too much. Right before bedtime on Thursday, Bilal decided to feed her, which is a big nono here! He put too much food, and being the faj3ani she is, she ate too much I guess...I was planning on cleaning her bowl in the morning....*sigh*

This is why I hate getting pets for the kids, their death too soon is inevitable...

Kids and reading

Before Ziad was born I stocked up on children books and I would read him a book every night. When I went to Syria he was seven months old, when I went into a book store to buy him Arabic books to read to him the girl has to hide her giggles when I told her I am buying these books for my seven months old baby. It is not like I was buying him novel, they were cardboard books with 2-3 words on each page, sheesh!

Now Ziad and Bilal love books, we buy 2-4 books from Ctown every week, Arabic books of course, and we read 2-6 books every night depending on how early we settle down in bed.

I love reading! One day when I was eight or nine years old I discovered a room full of books and magazines in my grandfather’s house. That is when I realized my love for reading. I was in heaven; I would sit there for hours. They were books collected over the years, my young uncles, my older uncles, my aunt, and some for friends of the family. My favourite books were a series about kids who solve mysteries, kind of like Nancy Drew. Loza, nossa, atif, bakheet and takhtakh, those were their names, I wish I knew what the series if called. There were also some romantic novels, Ghassan Knafani books, the Red Crescent magazines (they had the saddest stories about Palestine), and few other novels for Arabic writers. Before I left to Canada I had read every single book, and magazine in that room. I wonder if they are still there! I hope so! I want to take some books that I would love to reread.

When Ziad was in preschool the teacher read them a book everyday, and they had daily library visits. Everyday he would bring a new book to read, he was always excited about it, and most days we read the books before he even took his snow suite off. On top of that we visited our local library everyday, we borrow 20+ books each visit. In KG they were still read to everyday and had daily library visits. Everyone in the school had to log the books they read. KG kids were to read 11 times a week. Ziad loved it when we read, and dare I forget to write the name of the books he read in his log every night.

In Jordan Ziad never comes home with a book to read. They have a library at school, but it is not important for grade one to read so they do not have access to it, until they are in grade 3. I do not get it, the library is there, why not let grade one and two students borrow books to read or to be read to them?? No wonder the girl laughed at me for buying books for my seven months old baby in Syria!

Introducing the first girl in the family...

This is Miss Maya....my new niece, she was born on Nov 30th.

She is the first baby girl in a family of four boys, well my two boys, my sister's son, and my brother's son. Now my sister has a girl. Is she ever going to be spoiled , especially by me, you know how much fun it is to buy baby girl clothes and toys?? It will be a lot of fun!:)

Random Rambles

It is official...I am a lazy person, and winter gives me an intensive to be lazy...I am too guilty to just sit around and do nothing all day in the summer but in winter nah no guilt.

I need to buy more sweaters, I am not a sweater person, but now that I am in Amman, it is different, and I actually like turtle necks now... I need to go shopping!

I just register for my second last course, gosh I forgot the name of course...ok business policy and strategy, hubby will bring me my course material and then I get busy, I wanted to take the two remaining courses, and I really really wanted to take finance management, but it is a paced course and being out of the country I worry because it is not flexible, o well...next time the course starts I will be in Canada inshallah and I will take it then! And I will be all done with my degree! YIPPY! I have to decided what to do next, restart CGA or go for my masters...we will see...I plan on doing both eventually , I think I will start with my CGA and then masters ba3deen I will be done with those when I am 60, bas ya3no sho warai sa7??...yes I do not think I will ever stop studying, as much as I hate it, I love it, but I will never go for a PhD...It is not my thing.

I have been eating well for the past two days! The cookies called me none stop all day yesterday! But I totally ignored them! I had a carrot, not very yummy! I miss baby carrots and celery, has anyone seen baby carrots and celery in Amman?? And although I did not go to the gym, I worked out at home...So yay...

Yesterday my mother in law made ma7shi! She bragged about her ma7shi to her daughter and her grand daughter for hours, I make the best ma7shi, no one makes it better. Last time I made ma7shi she said it needs more spices ...it was yummy everyone else said so and it was all gone! Well her ma7shi sucked yesterday! The sauce was not even red, and it tasted so plain and blach no spices at all, and no salt, a waste of calories! So never brag about something until after it is has been done and you know it is good...then brag away!

We are talking about going to Egypt during Eid holidays, but I am not sure about it...hubby will not be here, so I am not looking forward to dealing with the kids without him, but Ziad is dying to go to Egypt and see the pyramids.

I hope we can go to Lebanon when hubby is here! Stupid situation in Lebanon I am so sick of this! I want to see teta and the rest of the family. Inshallah we will be able to go. Ya3ni being in Amman, I am so close, but so far! *sigh*

O yes her comes the complaining!! This weather is horrible for my hair! I am having a horrible hair day everyday! I blow dry my hair and it looks nice for a total of five minutes then it gets all frizzy and looks ikky! Grrrrrrrrrrr.....

Ok that is it for today folks...

Am I a bad daughter in law??

I just finished getting the kids lunches and clothes ready, did the after kids go to bed tidying up and checked my workout and eating schedule for tomorrow. I am about to sit down and sip a cup of tea with maramiya and when my mother in law called. She wanted me to go with her to her sisters house tomorrow morning. Her sister is having a get together with her friends. I almost said ok no problem, but it just so happens my mobile was in front of the mirror, and naturally when I was talking I snuck a peak at myself, and realized how fat I am getting! I had to choose between going to the gym and sitting with a bunch 60-70 yo ladies I have never met!

The thing is this week I can only go to the gym on sunday, monday, and thrusday as I have previous engagments on tuesday and wednesday that I can not get out of, and of course on the weekend I can not go to the gym because of the kids! I am starting to really get depressed about my weight and need to feel better, so I can not afford to workout less than three times this week.

So now I feel bad, but really I do not feel like going to hubby's aunt's house tomorrow morning and would rather workout! I hate this! My mother in law does not understand this, she does not think that one day at the gym will make a differnce, but it seems there is always something getting in the way of me going to the gym. The first week it rained , and the second week my son was sick, and now the third week this! grrrrrrrrrrr! I only have five hour to myself everyday, and one hour is spent tidying up the apartment, and 1 hr getting unlazy and ready to go out so really I have three hours to do things. I always try to be home 30min before the kids come from school so I can be sure to be home to meet them, and get their lunch ready, so really its only 2.5hrs, and I would rather spend it working out, OK? ah I still feel bad! damn!

Decision, decisions!

Ok seriously I hate this!! I have to decide when to go back to Canada. Hubby wants us to go back ASAP! He is negotiating with companies in Ontario and will be moving back there soon...so this post is really me thinking out loud...or whatever you call thinking through writing..I am loving Amman, I knew that I will like it here and that hubby will be the one whining...hahaha few months ago when we decided to come here hubby said in a stern voice, you will be staying there for a year , so prepare yourself for that! So I did...but he didn’t!
So the pros of moving back to Canada:
I will have a car to drive wherever I want to go! I am looking forward to car shopping...I will either lease new, or take over a lease...we will see...
No more waiting for taxis
Crossing the streets will not cause me any stress
I do not have to worry about losing too much weight and that my jeans will be too loose, there are old navy and the gap there...
Grocery shopping is a lot easier, again because I have a car
I will get to see and spoil my new niece, I don’t believe it, we are not an all boy family anymore...i have brand new niece...
I will be having fun decorating my house which is what got me all excited about moving back..buying new furniture, painting, I can not wait! My beautiful house, I miss it! I was washing the dishes this morning and making plans for what I will buy, and how I will set up the playroom/office...and o yeh we need to buy a new TV, a nice TV for our cute family room. I am beyond excited about buying stuff and decorating not thinking about who I will be giving this away to when we move again...
I will be with my family and friends again.

Central heat that does not cost an arm and a leg

Hot water without worrying that the boys turned the sakhan switch off, and good water pressure.

Better hair days, my hair does not like Amman water!

Drinkable tap water.

A big washer and dryer! O and my dishwasher!!

Baths!
But I will miss the friends I made here in Amman, and I will miss everything about Amman (except for the no driving and the stressful street crossing) I love how I can just call the 7ares and he buys us whatever we need, yeh hubby does that, but he does it while complaining and 70% of the time he gets the wrong things. Since we have leased the apartment her for a whole year, we will be losing about $4000 if the guy will not be nice about it. *sigh*

There is no or very little snow in Amman! I can live with that!

Bilal is happy at his school, I found him a preschool in Milton, but he will be going for 3hrs 3x a week only, and I have to drive him. Ziad will go to the neighbourhood school, and he will take the bus, I hope it is the stop right across the street from our house, how cool would that be? Ok so now I do not know, do I want to go before the end of the year?? Or wait until February which is when our ticket are booked, or wait until the summer... I really can not make up my mind! Ziad wants to go back to Canada, but he changes his mind so frequently it is hard to tell....what do you guys think?