Mansaf..

Help !!!! how do I make mansaf??? I thought I knew, but now that I am ready to start I am clueless! My cookbook is no hlep! Neither is Mama!

what a night!

Last night we came home after being out for most of day...the cat was very hiper so we let her play around while hubby and I watched TV.

A little bit later we hear a splash! Well I heard it, so I go check and sure enough the cat has fallen in the toilet! She didn't fall all the way in, she got herself out before she got all wet. The poor thing was scared, he heart was beating so loud. Thankfully the toilet was clean, I had cleaned it with bleach bathroom cleaner earlier in the day!

To add to her misery I gave her a bath! She is a cat she hates bath time, but I will not have a cat that fell in the toilet running around my house, NO WAY! so she got a bath. Now she smells so good, I think I will give her a bath more often...

Cats are so ugly without their fur! They probably think we are the ugliest things in the world because we do not have fur eh? I had to hold her for over an hour all wrapped up in a blanket because she was shaking like crazy! NOTE to self: always keep the toilet seat cover down in the downstairs bathroom!

Other than that we had a good weekend. We went to chuk E cheese, we had so much fun! I am more of a kid than my kids...it is so embarrassing! Yesterday we went to a fair in the area and went on some rides, and played some games. We went to my parent's house for a dinner party. I saw my neighbours and other friends I have not seen since I left to Amman, so it was fun to catch up with everyone! The good thing is that now I am officially an adult, it was the girl's job to help cleanup and do the dishes. For years it was my sister and I doing all the work, while those girls sat and watched TV right after dinner...now they are all grown up *sniff, sniff* one is a doctor well still a resident but still, and one is doing some pharmaceutical research, the others are in university...they are all grown up! I remember when we met them twenty years ago, they were little annoying brats, but we did spent alot of times together, they were the best neighbours ever! It was nice to see them again...

missing Amman....

I am missing Amman these days....could I be feeling homesick after spending six month in Amman??

Today is hubby's niece's jaha and katb ktab. I am so mad that they didn't do it while I was there...uggh! I am super happy for her! She is hubby's favourite niece...not because of her but because hubby used to love her father too much and he passed away from cancer 24 years ago, when Dana was only 10 months old.

So now the little baby is engaged , legally married. I hope the wedding will not be this summer. There is no way we can go to Amman this summer!:(

Hubby's other niece got engaged few weeks ago. I used to not like her much before, but after being neighbours for few months we got pretty close...Now I love her ..for people who were at the cookie party, she the same niece that came along with me. Of course I was not there, when they had the party, I am so mad at them for not doing anything fun when I was there...grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...........

Yesterday I was watching a Jordanian show and it made me miss Amman....so I think I am home sick for Amman now:(

great customer service

I was in bed this morning and looking forward to my morning milk and cereal but I was too lazy to get up, doing the five more minutes’ thing over and over!

As I was stalling getting up I got thinking about the one time so long ago when I started eating breakfast. I was never a breakfast person even though it is the most important meal of the day.

I started eating breakfast when I got pregnant with Ziad. I used to stop at Tim Horton’s every morning and order the exact same thing every single weekday morning. The staff at that Tim Horton’s knew me and...I think they named me the pregnant bagel and milk lady. After few months I would say the usual at the drive through. I used to have a whole wheat bagel, with cream cheese and a large chocolate milk everyday, I know I am so boring, but I do love those bagels!

After Ziad was born I had an awful postpartum problem! Constipation! After your birth bodies go out of whack and all sorts of things happen to the body...and believe me you do not want to be constipated few days after giving birth! It is 100000000000x worse than any other time. So of course I could not take any off the counter remedies since I was breastfeeding my few days old Zozo. The next best thing was a high fibre cereal. I chose Kellogg’s raisin bran cereal. It did the trick! When I had my second baby I was already eating cereal every morning I did not have the same problem. So pregnant ladies, do start eating a high fibre cereal from now!

So I got hooked on raisin bran cereal. I had it every morning for month. One day I bought a new box and was all looking forward to my breakfast! I dug in and YUCK! The raisins tasted like olives! I thought that I bought a faulty box; I threw it out and went to the grocery store to buy another one. It was the same! YUCKY RAISINS! What am I supposed to do now?? How could this happen...I was very upset! I called the 1800 number on the box and talked to a nice lady. I complained my heart out. It turned out that they used a different vinery! I was so sad! How could this happen?? My yummy cereal! How could they do this to me! So I went out and bought bran cereal and some raisins...it is not the same though!

Few days I received a letter from Kellogg’s. They were very apologetic. They sent along four coupons for free Kellogg’s products. Cool I thought. I kept on buying bran cereal and eventually got used to it. I add a bit of sugar and some cinnamon and it is yummy! A couple weeks later they sent another four coupons for free stuff...I bought more cereal with those and I guess other stuff...

Few months later after a visit to Amman, I came back to find a big box from Kellogg’s. They fixed the problem with the raisins and had sent three boxes of the raisin bran cereal. Later they sent another box with three boxes of cereal.

For few months I got free cereal and my favourite cereal was back to normal! I did switch to the plain bran cereal eventually because it has lower calories.

But seriously, isn’t this great customer service or what??

when everything misfunctions...

Yesterday I had a bad electronics day!

First when I was vacuuming a sheet got stuck in my vacuum cleaner and I the belt broke! Good thing I looked at the manual , the same thing happened to my old vacuum and I threw it out! But since I bought this vacuum two months ago and I loved it I read the manual and I checked the belt. Sure enough, the belt was broken. I had to go out and get a new one!

My cable box was not working! It kept on saying that the channels will come shortly all day long! So for the whole day we did not have cable on the downstairs TV. It worked fine upstairs without the digital box, but I did need to the box to work! I can not stand watching TV without having the information on the bottom of the screen, so I did not disconnect it from the box and put directly to the TV. I was too lazy and what is the point if I do not know what I am watching! So we just watched the leapfrog letter factory DVD all day long! Later at night Bilal pressed something and I figured out that the box does work at channels 900...which are the same channels but I have to put 933 for tree house and so on...so now we have cable with info again!

It was raining and very windy yesterday, so the satellite reception died as well! It was moved by the wind and until Hubby came home and fixed it we did not have any Arabic TV as well!

When I came home at 3:30 after picking Bolbol up from preschool, I came on my laptop to check stuff, and oops! The wireless card or whatever it is, is not working! I had to bring my laptop up here and hook it to the Ethernet...ah I hate being tied down!

When Ziad came home from school I told him that nothing is working today, he asked is the microwave still working though?? I had to go and check the microwave...alhamdoullah it was working fine! I do not why he asked about the microwave...so funny!

So now everything is working fine...except for my laptop of course...but I watched a mosalsal this morning on the satellite and Bolbol is watching his cartoon on cable...I guess I will get the wireless device from the desktop and put it on the laptop and go downstairs...I hate being this far away from the kids!

bye bye laptop...:(

waaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

The wireless thing on my laptop stopped working yesterday. After spending an hour with HP on the phone last night it is still showing an orange light!

It seems that the pavilion has had a recall because the motherboard is miss functioning! Too many crashes and stuff. My laptop only crashed a couple of times so far, but I do not want it to get worse. Besides this wireless thing has got to be fixed! I can not work without it!

I like using my laptop in the family room where my kids are watching TV or playing.

So this weekend I will pack up all my files and pictures, and as soon as I get the box from UPS I will be sending my laptop off...

I guess I will be a bit MIA for a week or so until I get it back. I will check the blogs from time to time on our old desktop. It is in the basement, which I hate, so it will be very minimal.

Not a good time, this means I have to finish our taxes before Monday! OMG way to go procrastinating SAM! Bad bad bad girl!

O well..it will only be 7 days or less the lady said! I can live without my laptop! I will have more time to do other things right?? waaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...no I don't want to be away from my baby! Ok ok khalas grow up me! I still have the desktop so it is not too bad! But all my stuff are saved on this laptop and I hate the basement! O shut up, grow up...go get dressed and go to the gym! stop whining....but but but...I am going to miss my laptop...:x ....Ok I am off to the gym, I do not want anyone calling me fat at the party in two weeks!

Our trip to the falls.

I am procrastinating! I have a long to do list, and what do I do instead?? I blog! Tsk tsk tsk!

This past weekend was the first good weekend of the year; it was nice and warm, sunny and beautiful!We decided to go to Niagara Falls. We have not been there for about three years. It is a 1hr drive from our house, the whole way Ziad was asking if we are there yet. This is the first time we go somewhere and I do not show him pictures online. So he did not know what to except. Every time we passed a bit of water he would ask if this is Niagara fall....you should have seen his face when first saw the falls! And it was the puny American falls that he saw first. He was amazed by the falls, he has been there before but he was about 2 when we went last time, so he did not care much about them




When we first got there we saw the American falls, and we thought wow how did they get so big?? Did they do something to make them bigger? What is going on, they were always so small and boring, and how did they get big and awesome?? So we parked and went down to the falls again, walked past the American fall, to the Canadian falls, and to the gushing river. My hair got all wet and frizzy, I knew I should not have blown my hair straight, but o well...at least I had a good hair day for few hours.



When we were walking away from the falls to go play on Clifton street, the American falls looked very small and insignificant after spending a bit of time looking at the bigger falls...so I guess they didn’t do anything, the American falls are great and awesome they are huge and very impressive, but when compared to the horseshoe falls they look a lot smaller and insignificant! I never noticed that before!

The kids wanted to go on a horse carriage ride, but we did not want to. When we were walking back some people got on the horse and the horse walk walking along near the sidewalk we were walking on. Bilal was running like a mad kid and yelling the horse to ‘tooooop, waitttttttt...’top peaase...he ran like that for about 5-10 min until the horse turned and went to the other side, it was so funny and cute.

We had a blast at the falls. It was a great family day! We had dinner, and then went to play at the arcades. It used to be called dazzle land when I was a kid and it was outdoors. We used to go there every week with our neighbours and their kids. We used to have so much fun so even though they changed it and added lots more to it, and made it indoor it still brought lots of memories of the time we spent there as kids.

To end the day we went on the sky wheel. I discovered I am not really afraid of heights! At first I refused to go, but everyone else wanted to go on.

Ziad started rushing eating his ice-cream. Bilal actually threw his ice-cream in the garbage so we can do on it. So I thought I will bear it, I will close my eyes if I need to, but within few minutes I was enjoying the view! It was great; I just wanted to kick myself for leaving my camera in the car. hmmmmmmmmmmmm darn it , I totally forgot about my phone camera! OMG I am such an idiot! Ok never mind we will be back soon Inshallah. The cool thing is that while we were on the sky wheel we found a short cut to where we parked. We were to go down the street, past the falls, up a hill and walk a bit to get to our car, but we took a short cut and it only took 5min to get to our car. It was great because after walking for hours my feet were killing me!

an everything post..

I have not been posting much lately. I have so much to do and I have not been getting anything done!

I have not been to gym for a while week. My scale is being very annoying and it got me all depressed. But I have to and I mean I have to lose 5lb before the 20th...so next week I am going on a calorie reduction diet with lots of fruits, veggies and whole grains...I have a party to go to where all my Friends from Hamilton are going to be. I can not be the fat sister, especially that my sister has a 4mo old baby and is already nice and skinny...gosh I hate my sister! (not really hate, but you know what I mean). The weird thing is although my scale says a number I hate all my clothes are fitting good, even my size 5/6 skinny skirts...maybe my scale needs new batteries?? or is it wishful thinking?? OK new rule! No stepping on the scale. Eat well , exercise and hide the scale.

I just registered Bilal for blast ball. I hope he likes. The boys will start soccer in May. Ziad starts Karate tomorrow, I will sign them up for swimming. I hope it won't be too much. I am going to join the classes at the gym next week. I have never done classes before..I am too scared ...everyone always know what to do except for me! I think I will just stay at the far corner so no one can see my screwing up. I am sick of doing cardio on the E-trainer....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

My cat is so annoying....she always follows me around. I think I am her favourite person so far. I will be walking and she is right there...one day I am going to squish her! She is so tiny!

Last week I discovered she had fleas! OMG fleas, bugs in my house! I washed her and got the live ones out! It is no fun washing a cat, she screamed like crazy! I got her a flea collar and yesterday she finally went to the vet and he gave her the stuff that go on the skin and kills all fleas and eggs and so on! I have to put this thing on her once a month.

I was very upset by fleas, but I should have known. We got her from people who had two huge dogs and two adult cats and a house that did not look very well kept. But it is all over now. My cat is clean. Last weekend after washing her and getting about 10 fleas off her I went on a house rampage. I vacuumed my carpet all over about three times. I washed everything that can be washed blankets, covers, cushions, sofa covers and vacuumed things that can not be removed. I think we are safe, especially that the cat was in our house for only less than two days when she was washed and treated. I do not get how these people could live with fleas! I just about died when I noticed them!

Bilal (3.5yo) loves to hold her, but he is too rough with her. She is always running away from him! Ziad is still too scared to hold her, he wants to play with her from far away. I am waiting for the day she gets back at Bilal.

A university if coming into town! Wilfred Laurier, I am so happy with the news. Our house value will go up blah blah blah...and hubby wants to buy an older house to rent out to students, there will be more jobs in town and other blah blahs. But I could careless, this could open a new horizon for me. With a university around the corner just a five min drive away from home and the kid's schools I may be able to finish my CGA courses in a classroom setting instead of online, and I may be able to start my MBA and hubby will not have any excuse of who will watch the kids. Ziad is at school from 9-4 and Bilal will be the same in a couple of years. Just in time for the university to open. YIPPY!

Hmmmmmmmmmmm what else? The weather finally got nice. Bilal and I went out for our first walk of the year. It was great. I love my neighbourhood. We walked to two playground. Then we walked to the pond to see the geese, but there were none there, so we just walked back home picking up rocks from the neighbour's yards. Bilal would not move without taking a stone or a rock..so annoying! But it was a fun walk none the less. It is raining today so I am back to being lazy. We plan on going to Niagara falls tomorrow...I have not been to the falls for so long , since before we moved to Saskatoon!