Chan's World

windstorm 2008

2008-09-23T21:24:00.002-04:00

well we here in the louisville area had a bit of a windstorm. They are calling it WINDSTORM 2008 (original eh)

trees were uprooted and all over roads (and houses) and ofcourse powerlines were all over the place.

This happened last Sunday and there are still people without power. Schools have been out (which means I had nooooooo work for a whole WEEK!).

The main reason schools were out (they say) is because of all the traffic lights being out AND because of the kids being around the downed power lines.

Kids today did not have LOUIE THE LIGHTNING BUG to tell them about powerlines that are down. I have had his little blues song in my head this whole week! And younger people/ foreign husbands are looking at me like I am insane.

SING IT LOUIE!

Finally Ramadhan???

2008-09-01T23:49:00.000-04:00

Ok then

RAMADHAN MUBARAK

I'm ready for my close up!

2008-06-20T17:42:00.002-04:00

Look mom Im on TV

so now that I am famous Autographs will be $5

Boom said he will only charge $3 for a paw print

Apparently this ran a few times this morning (there is a longer version as well) but they came and talked to me yesterday

TEEE HEEEE

Hijab Hanger

2008-03-31T10:40:00.006-04:00

I know what you're thinking. It must be school time, that is why you are blogging instead of doing your homework. ANNNNNND you're right. BUT in my defense I keep getting error messages and that is the only reason I am procrastinating.

So I have become quite the sally homemaker and it is really sort of weird. My latest thing I am pretty proud of (besides my broiled chicken teriyaki) is my HIJAB HANGERs.
I am sure many other hijabis feel my pain in the whole how to store them and then find them. I have folded them up and put them away ... only to never be used again and forgotten about. Which leads me to wearing the same ones over and over. When I have loads of colors and designs. You get to the point where you are like ... well Black goes with everything (really it doesnt) and I have different black scarves on the couch or on my book shelf that I wear most.
FINALLY I have DONE IT!
introducing the the SCARF HANGER. For some reason Bed Bath and Beyond thinks this is for pants. I dont get how that would work but it works great on scarves.
TAAAA DAAAAAAAA:

Things I have learned on my trip....

2008-01-21T19:43:00.000-05:00

Mauritanian people are the nice-est sweet-est people in the world. They are GREAT!
Malaria Meds are a must. (while we were there two of his relatives got malaria. But it was really no big deal to them...sort of like having a cold)
Mosquito Nets are a must (they stop both flies and Mosquitoes!!)
Bring Food nets ( Did I mention there are lots of flies ...you've seen those pictures of people in africa, flies all over the place walking all over the the faces of little kids and they dont swat at them but you are swatting at the tv for them like it will help. yeah that is Maurtiania)
Bactrim Forte ILOVE YOU!!! Aspergec I HATE YOU! (Stay away from fresh camel milk on the roadside and bottled water ONLY...UNDERSTAND)
I love the US Health Department and their resturant rating system. DO NOT ... I repeat DO NOT eat a Hamburger from a resturant in Mauritania the night before you are going to get Henna on both hands and both feet. Trust me ... you have been warned. That is all I have to say about that!
YOU CANNOT WEAR HEELS IN THE DESERT! (yes I did learn that the hard way on Eid)
Squatter toilets are NOT more sanitary because urine splashes on your feet. well like little dropplets ..... UGH ... you know what I mean
ALWAYS have your Embassy's Phone number incase your husband has been taken by the Gendarmerie in a city you dont know, in a country you do not speak the language and you are left with only the driver and cook/helper, neither of which speak a word of english. More than likely there are no phonebooks so write down the number before you go OK!
Camels are VERY tall and Donkeys are very LOUD!
Aly's Family ROCKS! I love them Very much!

saharan adventure in T minus 36 hours and counting

2007-12-07T00:28:00.000-05:00

Yes OBVIOUSLY I have a paper due. and it must be an important one ... worth... say 70% of my grade...beacuse there would be NOOOOOOOOOO other reason I am just playing around on the internet!

Anyway there is that and Aly and I leave on SUNDAY! yes SUNDAY! Oh my GOODNESS!

Checklist:

Hold the mail (just went online and did that ...seee procrastinating on the paper paid off)
Shots (5 ... COUNT THEM 5 including Typhoid, Hep A, Menengitis, Polio, and Yellow Fever which I had to get the yellow fever one to get into the country)

Ok never mind about the checklist because I keep thinking about stuff and its freakin me out!
I did get this handy arabic Phrase book that is pretty cool. The arabic is correct (according to Aly) but the transliteration is Egyptian style, so Aly told me to read the arabic. Like that will be NOOOOOOOOO problem at all.

Me: Salaam alaikom Salma squiggle squiggle Line dot?

Maybe I will just do alot of pointing to the book.

anyway the adventure of a lifetime... I have NO idea what to expect or what will happen.

please keep me in your prayers and Du'aas

2007-11-08T19:35:00.000-05:00

Alright kiddos ONE month until my trip and I am flippin out

WHY:
1. UGH school is CRAZY! My professor is ...well...lets just say only one person in the class passed the midterm and we have all complained to the dean. I will be missing finals week (which is only a paper we have to turn in) so I have less time to do all of my work.

2. WORK is .....hmmm I am just going to say I am ready for a change. I will be quitting my job in order to go on the trip and I have noooooooooo clue where I will be working when I come back.
I am not worried about it so WHAAAAAAAAAATEVA

3. What we have to take there...."gifts" 2 desk tops, a laptop, a fax machine, his 5 sisters, 5 brothers (one brother and one sister is under 5 years old so they will be easy to buy for). I still have not got the final count of Neices and Nephews. We have not even began the conversation on Cousins.
All people under the age of 15 are getting candy!

Well My Visa is on its way back to me and I have had my shots and ordered my malaria pills.

Yeah its going to be an interesting month!!!!

Any tips will be greatly appreciated!

2007-09-23T14:03:00.000-04:00

It is offical. I am going to Mauritania later this year.
How offical you ask? WE HAVE THE TICKETS!!!!
"Are you freakin out?"
YEEEEEEEEESSSSSS!
"Are you excited?"
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSS!!!
"How long will you be there?"
almost 6weeks plus we are going to Casablanca for a few days

I am attempting to cram in any hasania arabic I can find because pretty much Aly is the only one there who knows english. And I am sure you have heard me talk about how he is not a good translator. (he likes to just answer for me and not tell me what they said. Or he will give me just a vague jist of what was said EXAMPLE: someone has said something for about 5 whole minutes...I ask Aly what they said and he says ... they are talking about politics. THATS IT)

OK also
So far ramadhan is going pretty well.... every night (pretty much) Aly and I have iftaar together... then he goes back to work ... then when he comes home we have dinner...pray isha and taraweeh then off to sleep.

Have you been having that problem where you have been looking forward to dinner...dinner rolls around and you eat a few bites and you are FULL!!! Oh man I am begging my stomach to let out a bit so I can finish my food... But no such luck.
Actually we eat dinner about 3 or 4 hours after iftaar because we are soooo full from just the dates and soup (oh and bread yummy breaaaaaaad) we cant even think about eating more.

I have only gone to 2 peoples houses for Iftaar and we have only had his brother (and my cute nephew) over to our house for iftaar. But Aly and I both have said we like having iftaar at home the best....it is exactly what you want ...when you want it.

GOOD TImES

2007-09-12T21:12:00.000-04:00

RAMADHAN MUBARAK!!!!

The last few Ramadhans have been pretty blah for me ..... I dont know if anyone else has had that problem.
So InshaAllah this one will be pretty cool.... well you know what I mean people getting together and learning cool things and all that rot.

My only thing is that now when all the dealers at work call me and are yelling at me or just fighting with me, I will be too tired to fight back and I will be just calm and quiet. ( they are not going to believe it is really me ahhaha)

Western Adventure

2007-08-25T21:22:00.000-04:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7475898@N04/

Well I am finally back from the WESTERN ADVENTURE!!!
Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan was it fun
Ok we Started out in Jeffersonville ... Made our way to St Louis... had fun good times... then went to KANSAS CITY (thanks to Aly's Magic Box....called... Magellen)
From Kansas City we switch to a Church Bus to load everyone in
Granny
Justine
Aunti Allison
Uncle Jay
Kaleb
Yeshua
Mom
Drea
Aly
and Moi

Ok then we Head to Colorado (estes Park) Wyoming, Utah (Great Salt Lake) Nevada (Vegas Baby VEGAS) Arizona (Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, Sedona) New Mexico (Sante Fe) Texas (Amirillo) Kansas (Dodge City) and then Back to Kansas City

GOOD TIMES MAN!
Well I didnt have my Camera with me most of the time in Vegas... which is good because what happens in Vegas STAYS in Vegas!

here are the pics
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7475898@N04/

what really happened to Hansel and Gretel

2007-07-29T16:57:00.000-04:00

So as you know Aly and I are moving (switching apartments to the cool one bedrooms with vaulted ceilings). This means going through tons of crap. I was looking at some of my old notebooks from different classes. WHY WOULD I KEEP THEM! Anyway I found a story I wrote while sitting in my Logic class on October 11, 1998. (yes I had the date on it ....I am a geek remember) . No I have no clue where I came up with it and why. But here it is:

Prince Azfar finds breadcrumbs and follows them until he see a ginger bread house. He sees these two nasty little German kids running a muck eating the walls and even peeing in the garden. It smelled like they were having a barbeque. So Prince Azfar, who already had his lunch and was not hungry, went up to the children to see what they were doing.
“Hi there.” Said Prince the prince
“Hello” said the little girl and boy.
“Smells like you are having a BBQ, what are your parents cooking?” said the Prince.
“Oooh we have no parents” said the little Girl.
“They left us in the forest” said the little boy.
“My mother said it is dangerous for little kids to cook, because you can get burned” said the wise prince.
“We are not cooking anything…we pushed this old lady into a fire” said the little girl.
“Oh no…how could you….what about her family…. They will miss her” said the Prince
“She was mean and would not let us eat her yummy house; why are you being such a brat anyway. Why don’t you go back to your fancy white wall life and leave us alone!?!” said the little girl.
After the little girl said that the little boy pushed the Prince Azfar. Now the young prince very angry but saw that if her fought with one he would have to fight the other and after eating all of those gingerbread cookie walls these kids were kind of big. So he said “Ok fine, I will go, but not because you told me to but because I wanted to watch something on TV and I see you guys don’t have a satellite and I know cable wont come out this far.” The young prince went home and watched the hilarious movie. After the movie he went to the Toy room of the castle and got the biggest water gun he could find. It was the one with dual loaders. He filled the water gun to the brim with mild and sneaked out of his house. He made his way to the ginger bread house. When he found the house he crept up to the window and peaked in. He saw that the horrible children were sleeping. They had cookies in their hands and crumbs on their faces so he knew they had not brushed their teeth before they went to sleep. He positioned himself and started spraying the walls of the house with milk. He sprayed and sprayed till all of the walls were drenched. Then he waited as the walls stayed wet and started to get soggy. Then after about 5 minutes the walls were so soggy that they could not longer hold the roof. So the roof fell on the mean children squishing them. The Prince ran back home, jumped into bed, and went to sleep.

THE END

hey cooky

2007-07-10T20:26:00.000-04:00

I had a very very "chef" week going on at the end of last week
I watched the entire series of kitchen Confidential (great show!!)
I watched EVERYTHING Gordon Ramsay on You Tube (he is much nicer in London)
and to top it all off I watched Ratatouille.

Before I watched all this I have been cooking alot more than usual.
NOW I think I will only cook ... my tastebuds just cant handle eating out anymore.
I have pretty much ruled out all of the fast food places for one reason or the other.
(ex: they cook their fish and fries in the same oil so NO... Everything takes like Bacon there so NO....They always mess up my order so NO)

Then there is the regular resturants. Aly and I would order Carry out or go in but I have started to rule those out as well for different reasons... mostly the reason is ... I CAN MAKE THIS SO MUCH BETTER!

Ok so now I have to stop being all lazy and get to cooking!

Well I am going to do that tomorrow because we have so much fruit and Garlic bread so that will be dinner.

Thanks for the prayers

2007-06-09T20:11:00.000-04:00

Ladies annnnnnnnnnnnnnnd Germans (heheheh that was for Drea) ok fine GENTLEMAN,

I have an announcement!
Take your seats ...take your seats... NO PUSHING!

According to my new REALLY awesome Rheumatologist "you have no active Lupus Antibodies in your system now" that was a few weeks ago (my follow up appointment OCTOBER woo hoo ...not I will see you in 6weeks or 12 weeks ... it was a "I dont need to see you until OCTOBERRRRRRR"

So Thursday I went to my Kidney Dr (also really awesome) "All of your tests came back normal......see here where they were all really High and scary they are all in the Incredibly normal range........ I dont have to see you for another YEAR!" ( I was on the 3 month rotation)

*We are not sure if I have no protein in my urine because the meds or because I have no lupus going on so I am going to keep taking the meds and worry about that later.*

I would like to OFFICIALLY thank all those who were praying for my sooooo hard and let them know YOUR PRAYERS WERE ANSWERED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The only bad thing that happened: I had an allergic reaction to this antibiotic he gave me so i have been basically sleeping since Friday morning. It was pretty gross ...except I got Angelina Jolie lips it was ... well ... odd. Anyway Red splotches everywhere and itching and swollen hands and feet from the itchy splotches.
***Lesson learned I am allergic to levaquin and that family of antibiotics.

Cakes with meaning taste better

2007-05-25T19:26:00.000-04:00

4 Years !!!!!!!!! (and lovin every minute of it!)

I have been waiting for this cake since my birthday! In fact I made a cake a few weeks ago because I wanted this cake soooooo much and it just did not taste the same. I think because it was not a special occasion cake...those are the best. This is the same lady who made our wedding cake and that cake was AWESOME so I know this one will be good too.

Top view

Side View

Have I mentioned how much I love cake?

Derby mom

2007-05-07T23:53:00.000-04:00

Is my mom not the cutest person in the world!
Yup that is mom at the Derby. Its pretty rare for Louisville area people to go to the Oaks AAAAAAAND the Derby in the SAME year and NOT be in the Infield. Mom is well connected.
She went in style and had a great time hangin out with celebs.

The lesson I have learned from all of this: Derby cookies are the best cookies in the WORLD!
(and Knowing is half the battle)

whats up

2007-04-29T23:11:00.000-04:00

I finally got to see Wednesday's LOST episode. I am sooooooo a SUN KWON fan now!
she totally rocked this episode.
When she was getting the Ultra Sound I was like YESSSSSSSSS! hands up in the air and everything.
Anyway I am now back to thinking that they are all in like purgatory or something like that.
They are all dead or whatever.

Moving on.... I have a new Doctor's appointment tomorrow. I went thru a bunch of hoops to get this appointment so I hope he is worth it!

Also.... Aly and I are thinking about going to Mauritania in July (so I really hope this Dr. is good he has to patch me up for my African adventure).
So yes I am a tad worried about going to the Sahara in the middle of summer.

Ok last ...but not least... I am baby sitting my nephew next weekend (Derby weekend). Yup no mint juleps for me... I am going to be watchin Nouh....yup two month old sprinkler system. And the sucky thing is that Aly will be busy and so it will be just ME! And then Aly's going to be like ohhhhhhhh whats the big deal ... its just a baby.
I can just see it
me: Oh my God Aly the baby just peed on me and it got in my hair.
Aly: (chuckles)....he's a kids. He dindt do it on pourpus (yes I am trying to type with an accent)
me: But that is gross and I think he did it on purpose... he had that crazy look in his eye when I was changing him
Aly: Are you Okay? (said in that Chan you are crazy tone he always has when he says that)

Ok so wish me luck

The Year of the Chutney

2007-04-17T20:46:00.000-04:00

At work I heard this old song by Crash Test Dummies MMM MMM MMM and I thought ... I wonder how they did the video for this. As soon as I got home I looked it up and I was POSITIVE the Boy who "shook and lurched all over the church floor" was Wentworth Miller.

I looked up Wentworth Miller and nope Not him... he is to old BUUUUUT I did find out he is Chutney (no wonder he is so Cuuuuute).

Chutney is when a person is really mixed. Most of America is technically chutney but they dont like to admit to it.

I am as Chutney as it gets
Barak Obama CHUTNEY
Wentworth Miller CHUTNEY
Tiger Woods CHUTNEY
Cameron Diaz CHUTNEY
Kimora Lee Simmons CHUTNEY
Frankie Muniz CHUTNEY (does he even know what he is?)

So there you have kids.... move aside pure breeds......we chutneys are taking over!

Conflict Resolution Chan

2007-04-15T13:12:00.000-04:00

As many of you may already know I am currently working on my Masters in Dispute Resolution.
This week has been a REALLY hard stress FILLED week at work and I had quite a few opportunities to exercise what I have learned. I am here to report:

I AM LEARNING!!!!!!

Old Chan would have torn peoples heads off, Screamed, and then told everyone where they could go (just not as polite as that). Then I would have had to pick up the pieces later and fix my NEW problems.

NEW CHAN IN ACTION: well I sat and thought about the situations as if it were a Chess Game. IF I...... THEN..... sort of thinking. I sat back and told myself JUST THINK... dont act THINK!
I did... and I was APPLAUDED at how I reacted to a particularly difficult situation that could have been REALLY ugly had I not sat back and THOUGHT how this should be resolved.

It was VERY hard to hold it all in .. But I did it.
So now I am going to take on even more difficult "disputes" because I can.
Think the UN is hiring?

tut tut sounds like rain

2007-04-02T03:23:00.000-04:00

Sometimes Aly can be so sweet.
He came home the other day and said hurry up lets go get some food. (He came home early and scared the crap out of me)
So I changed really quick and off we went. Driving driving driving and talking. He never said the dreaded "where do you want to go eat?" where I would reply " I dont care what are you in the mood for?" no no
he just drove to this hole in the wall place and we got some food to go.
Then we are driving driving driving ... I asked him where are we going ... he said the Galt House. I was like ummmmm we are going to bring our own food to the galt house? He said SURE.... they know me there. I was like ok *shrug*.
By this time I realise we are going in the opposite direction of the Galt House and actually going to the Park. Which was AWESOME. We found a cool spot and started to eat. Still chattin and havin a good time.
He finished his food in no time ... and I had barely touched my food. He then told me "huddy up huddy up before it rains" (that is Alyese for eat faster)
To which I replied ...."Aly it has looked like this all day ....what makes you think it is going to start now....besides its not nice to rush people when they are eating"

NOT EVEN A FULL MINUTE LATER:
plop plop right on my face. It started to rain.

UUUUUUUUUGH why do husbands have to be right all the time!

Kiss me I'm Irish

2007-03-18T09:34:00.000-04:00

Last night I had just gotten off the phone with my friend and we decided we would meet in 30 minutes at KOBE (Teppanyaki side not the sushi side). She had to 'jump in the showed for a quick rinse' which I was going to translate into I will see you in an Hour.
I hop on the phone with my mom and still continue watching tv. While I am on the phone with her. My hallway sirens are going off. I can hear it but I figured it would stop. Maybe someone was cooking something and opened their doors to let out the smoke (yes the kitchen is kind of far from the door but you never know).
So a few minutes go by and I am like 'mom the sirens are still going off' At this point I am looking for clothes so I can go out. I found these jeans I have not worn in AAAAAAAGES and they are sooooooo cute. Slide them on.... could not for the life of me find a cool scarf.
Sirens are still going off.
My mom was like are you dressed... open the door and see if you smell smoke.
GOOOD IDEA! so I did. YUP I smell ELECTRICAL smoke. Time to evacuate....yes it has only been going off about 10 minutes now.
STILL CANT FIND COOL SCARF! sooo I grabbed an OK scarf, my shoes, my purse and I walk out the door.
I opened the door grabbed my wedding album and walked back out the door (everything else we can replace not the album).
The fire doors in the hallway closed and my mother always taught me to feel the door before you open it. I feel it...nothing... I open it...nothing. So I am outside.
It is Saturday night on St. Patricks day.... not many cars in the parking lot. only 2 of my neighbors 4 cars there so they probably all jumped in another car to go out (they are 20-30ish mongolian couples that are always either working or hanging out).

But my Holiness neighbor's SON had 3 girls smoking out on the balcony. Parents were probably at church. Well some weekend retreat were they save poor mexicans and make them speak in tongues. I DUNNO BUT there are these girls on the balcony just smoking like no big deal.
So i said to them... did you hear the hallway alarm. "yeah we heard it"
(at this point I look around for TV cameras or Ashton Kutcher to come running out and yell how I have been punk`d) NOTHING
( I then realised why I never wore these Jeans as they had to be irregular or something because the waist was sooo loose it would always fall off ...life around your ankles loose and I didnt grab a belt)
so I said "well it kind of smells like smoke in the hallway (pause wait for concern to come across the young faces... but instead it was an OH WE ARE CAUGHT face because they are smoking) "like electrical smoke You might want to becareful.....do you know if they have called the emergency maintaince line?"
Lil brat one picks up her phone and calls boy inside "I think one of your neighbors called 911 man"
Neighbor boy peeks out of the window.
I just drive off. Called 911 ........they said they were on their way to reset the alarms and Hangs up. I am thinking you need to send someone to find the fire!

So I decide I am going to KOBE and off I went.
My friends showed up (LATE as they thought I would be on Muslim Standard Time)and I told them my apartment is on fire. And they were like OHHH yeah I saw all those trucks going down the street. Which building was it... I said MINE... I am the one who called 911... I have my wedding album in the car. (they know in case of emergencies first one out has to grab my wedding album)
So they were like well we need to leave and go save your stuff.
I was like HELL NO ... what can I do put out the fire myself? I am staying here.

My friend was like ....maaaaaaan that is a true muslim....someone who will just walk away from all her stuff and say MashaAllah Alhamdulillah.

Really I was thinking... Man I am hungry and what could I do ... NOTHING. Might as well go out.

I had the BEST TIME...ate myself SILLY....got made fun of THE MOST from Patrick our slice and dice guy because I am allergic to seafood.

When it was all over my friends came home with me to see what we could sift through and salvage.

And the fire trucks were gone. Everything was fine.

Where was Aly during all of this you ask.....calling me every few minutes asking me what is going on and what I am going to do. Like I could do ANYTHING? So I told him ... I am going out to dinner with Jenn.

Barak Obama

2007-03-12T09:42:00.000-04:00

I forgot to mention that I went to see Barack Obama a couple of weeks ago. Yup we got a discount on the tickets (mom has connections).

Ok so we waited 2 hours in the chilly weather. Bombarded with people shaking our hands and wanting our vote (little did they know ... I was from the other side of the river and could give a crap about them)

Mom attempted to sneak us in early... but our plans were thwarted by huge bubba sized body gaurds. And fellas with white wires comming out of their ears. HONESTLY that is soooooooo 15 years ago! GET WITH THE TIMES MAN!

So we got our little Decaf mocha latte and cider and waited outside again in the chilly cold weather with all the hopefuls attempting to gain our votes with a handshake.

Aly drove in from Cincinatti right about 10 minutes before it was time to go in. He stood 10 minutes outside and was complaining aobut the cold. I really did want to beat him. I told him how I did not want to hear his mouth because we saved this spot for him and waited for 2 hours!

We get INSIDE. We had a pretty nice spot...nope ...no chairs.....and we wait. Squished. And wait.
AAAAAAAAAND wait. most of us still have our jackets and stuff on. Then ... it starts to get warm. REALLY WARM. Then all of a sudden I have this feeling like I am going to rip my shirt off or else I will die. I get a bit woozy (yes I kept my shirt on... it was ok I had a shirt on underneath it and an undershirt under that). I Started to FAINT! First time in my LIIIIIIFE! I felt like such an old lady. Yeah I have medical stuff I am dealing with but DAAAAANG!
Aly pushed me to this open clearing in front of us... some random woman gave me a half a bottle of water and people all around me we faning me.
Security came up to me and told me I could not stay where I was. I was of course saying Im fine , Im fine and wanted to go back to my very nice spot.
I go back and I am not fine... but I kept telling everyone I was.
Then an older gentleman faints. And everyone starts fanning him.
At this point we hear OBAMA is delayed and they are going to play his speech from last time he was in Louisville. I knew that meant he was at least an HOUR delayed.
I was still really woozy feeling and figured I needed to sit down quick so I said I was going to go find a seat and for mom and Aly to stay there.
They wanted to come with me ... but I did not wait 2 hour in line for us to lose our spot. So I walked around... bought a shirt and some Pins....got some more water and sat on the floor.

So apparently we were close enough that mom and Aly shook his hand. So it was worth the wait in line.
I liked all what he was saying. And he definately has my vote. Aly is still unsure. He wants to hear more from other candidates before he decides who has his vote.
But it was fun. My first political rally. Mom wants to do that more often and wants to join his louisville team or whatever.

All in all it was worth it

why I love UPS

2007-03-01T18:21:00.000-05:00

After having a sister in the military for 8 years and half of that time spent deployed overseas. I have come to learn the sneaky tactics of the UPS guy/lady. My sister having nothing to do with her money except spend it ONLINE and no where else to ship it except our house, it was an almost daily event of hide and seek the package left by the UPS person.

I am SURE they have a class on hiding things in PLAIN sight! I had forgotten how good they were. Aly got a letter from Mauritania today and as I was putting the key in the door I noticed the floor mat looked strange and sure enough there was his package hiding right underneath.

I bet the UPS people are great at hiding eggs at easter.

The Fed Ex people I am not a fan... well there is this one guy I see everyday at work. He is ok.
But at home OH MAN they suck!
I havent had a home delivery of DHL but at work I am always chattin with the DHL lady she is ... well ... chatty.

Ok based on my dealings with the delivery people what have we learned?
Buy stock in UPS

FIN

Nouh is HERE

2007-02-24T18:12:00.000-05:00

Nouh was doin some for real gang signs and he looked so Gangsta in his hoodie so I was just showin mah props!

This is my new nephew Nouh Z. Benaly 6 lbs 14 oz 18 1/2 inches.

And this is me with the proud papa.

Aly was there EARLY this morning (like woke everyone up early) and is already going to spoil the little guy ROTTEN! looks like Aly is going to be my competition! Jennifer (aka Proud momma) doesnt have any brothers or sisters so its between Aly and I who is the coolest. She has tons of friends who have decided to call themselves Aunti but I am the only real mccoy.

She was pretty busy most of my visit so I didnt get to take any pictures with her but she was there. Though Proud Papa would have you believe he did everything himself.

Turns out that Lemrabott (aka Proud Papa) knows everything there is to know about babies, brest feeding and general care of said babies. As he has 4 older sisters who had tons of babies he used to watch them and take care of them so please forward any questions to him he will help you out.

I just got back from visiting him and he is a CUTIE! He likes me too.

Want to see the Video? Check it out

no nephew yet

2007-02-22T17:29:00.000-05:00

Well my nephew was supposed to be born today. My sister in law was supposed to go in last night to be induced BUUUT the hospital was busy last night and would not see her until 4am so she decided to go in tonight.
So tomorrow I should have a new nephew.

To me this is my first nephew and I am a brand new aunt even though Aly has tons of Nieces and Nephews (one of my nephews is the same age as I am and is a Doctor!) but I have never seen them so they don't count. This one I will get to see and touch and I will have to remeber his birthday and have him stay the night and crap like that.
OH wait... i am gonna have to friggin baby sit.
DANG IT! being an Aunt is HARD! Plus I dont know my competition so how am I going to know if I am the Cool aunt or not?

Anyway there has been questions of when is this baby going to have a cousin.... man and you thought there was pressure before... SHEEEESH!

You ready for some good news?

2007-02-15T22:21:00.000-05:00

I SAIIIIIIIIIID ... are you ready for some good news?

I CANT HEAR YOU!

Ok I will tell you anyway!

I went to the Doctor today ( the Kidney Doc) and my labs were WAAAAAAAAAY better!
I was all WOOOOOOO HOOOOO. Of course I am still sick and I need to see a Doctor about the LUPUS and getting that into remission buuuut my labs were greatly improved!

Ok so I really cut down on Protein but I never really did the Renal Diet right and the Doc said that it is pretty contriversial and for now not to worry about it so WOOOOO HOOOOO QDoba here I come!

I took Aly with me to the Doctor's office because last time I was all crying and freaked out and I know I seemed Crazy. So I am in the waiting room and it is all old people with Kidney problems and I am just looking at them thinking Oh my God is that how I am going to be. And I am just PRAYing with all my might. I turned to Aly and I told him I was worried i would end up like that and of course he is like "what if I end up like them first....you never know what is going to happen.... this is the life (sic).....it is up to the God (sic)"

He has a point.....so I'm gonna allow it.
Anyway I was glad he went because my Doctor is Arab and he was able to sneak in some questions he wanted to know....of course I know his hope was that the Doctor would answer totally in arabic and I would be none the wiser. But the Dr started answering in Arabic and then trailed off into english and I caught on to what the question was.
Its cool

anyway thought I would share the Great news to those who were worried

What did I tell ya ... I AM FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!

WOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO