How are bridget & Gabi feeling ???

Bridg, did you get over the shaky hands & the weird feeling ? I hope so !

Gabi, I love your baby's pic !!



Good morning, MENA !!

(whenever my husband sees a topic on VJ that says, Way to go, MENA or whatever... he thinks we're talking about him ! He sometimes spells his name Mena !!! )

It's FRIDAY!! This has been such a long winter, I really don't know how much more I can take these Michigan winters!

Happy Friday - YAHOOOOOOO is all I can say....heading to work soon but going to listen to some live music w/a small group of friends...should be a good time...I hope everyone has a great day!!

Awww, Maureen. I'm sorry. I love fall, but I hate winter if there is more than a couple days of snow.

Keep yourself warm....

Mornin' everyone! Have a great weekend and do something fun!!

thanks monnik, i keep saying each year that this will be the last one but here i am still here. It's scary to just pick up and move and to start over. Sometimes, i wish my job would offer me a buyout so that I can make this move and live in a sunny and warm climate all year round!

Nuts!!!! Looks like we're snowed/iced in again today. I have a doctor appointment I really need to go to at noon so I'm hping the streets can get a bit cleared between now and then. Not much going on around here......I'm ready for spring!!!!

Have a great Friday everyone!

ohhhhh...I just saw that it's 75 degrees in South Beach, Fl. I'm sooooo jealous!

Starting to snow here...my boss and my boss' boss are out today so I'm gonna see if I can cut out early.

g'morning everyone. it's friday!!!!!

Good morning everyone! Winter is very long and that is one reason I am greatful to be back in Miami. The weather has been amazing this past month. Nohting planned for today. I don't do much during the day except watch my soaps. Have a great day!

happy friday

jJ

Happy, Happy Friday, All!

Today is our first dental appoinment as a couple. My husband will get a tooth pulled for sure. I can't wait until we see each other again after the appoinment. He will be such a baby - I think.

Jackie - from yeasterday...no pun intended.

So I went to bed reading a book and suprisingly fell right asleep. I'm starting to hate this book but since I actually bought it, i.e. it wasn't given to me, I'm compelled to read it. Maybe it will get better but I can't get over the fact that it's about a guy who started out hiking trying to get to the top of K2 in pakistan then finds and area in need and I guess builds schools for them....that's all well and good but he is the author and he praises himself up down sideways, etc. Seems egotistical to me but heck, I can't climb more than one flight of stairs without huffin' and puffin' so what do I know.

Anyhoo woke up to find my feet were moving......kinda weird. Hands still shaking. I mean if I didn't know any better I'd think I had something really really important going on that I am nervous about...which I don't.

I didn't expect it to snow until this afternoon so I freaked upon waking up and rushed to the store to go food shopping. I was rush rush rushing because the merry peoples are scheduled between 9am and 11am plus my kids are due back from their dad's at 9am when I find myself behind a lady who is about in her 60's. She's unloading her cart and she looks at me up and down and scowls wicked bad and says "why don't you go back home where you belong".



So.................I said, "I'd LOVE to...I hate driving in the snow so the sooner you unload your cart the faster I can get home!!!"

She just shook her head and didn't look at me the whole rest of the time. I'm assuming it's because I wear hijab. This is the first negative thing anyone's said to me in the whole time that I can remember.

Anyhooo Gabi I want more pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And Jackicakes don't listen to sourpuss tell us the rest of the story we all love you!!!

Happy Friday! Workin' on my day off. Bleck. Found a new love in life....BAGELS... nothin' special but they're so gooey and chewey and so darned addictive. I LOVE fryin' up an egg, add a slice of deli sliced turkey, shredded cheddar cheese...*drool* place on delicious bagel of any flavor *slobber* .. they're also great for breakfast on the go. Virtually crumbless!

I really think my son has ADD or something coz he is doing horribly at school and just isn't picking it up like he should. How do I get him tested? We worked 2 hours on 3 math questions that he should have been able to figure out but he just looks at it and says "i dunno the answer" and seems to have no clue how to even go about finding it. Maybe he's just lazy?? I'm at a loss here coz this is one of the most important things he can learn (math) and I don't know what to do to help him

Jax, where u b? I COULD NOT stay awake last night (just ask gabi) I was barely coherent. I feel like a crap friend right now coz I haven't been able to call. DARN U CELL PHONE 9 O'CLOCK PLANS!!! if it weren't for that phone bill, i'd make my nights start at 7 but just can't afford it right now...

Have a grrrrrreat Friday everyone!

amal

For Gabi & baby Mehdi:


Bridget: sorry you had to deal w/ ignorance this morning!
Amal: Hope the kiddo gets what he needs to deal w/ his schoolwork & agreed... bagels are da bomb!
Everyone else... Happy Friday! I'm whooped from overwork yesterday and thankful I have a "light" workload today. Up at the a$$crack of dawn tomorrow to have some maintenance on my car.

were married
Had a beautiful cermony in SF yesterday
Im so happyyyyyyyy

Amal, i discovered my daughter was having math problems and these were things that I felt she should have known, i would go over and over these problems and she just wasnt getting it with how I was showing her and i then told her show me how you would get the answer and then she started doing these diagrams and I was never so puzzled in my life These schools are teaching children differently than the way how i was taught. No wonder she wasn't understanding it, I'm a college graduate and I still don't understand how they do their math. I cannot even help her with her math cause I am clueless how they problem solve. . A simple multiplication problem takes up about a half page on trying to get the answer according how the schools want them to solve their math problems.

I hope it gets better for your son.

QUOTE(amal @ Feb 22 2008, 09:51 AM)

Happy Friday! Workin' on my day off. Bleck. Found a new love in life....BAGELS... nothin' special but they're so gooey and chewey and so darned addictive. I LOVE fryin' up an egg, add a slice of deli sliced turkey, shredded cheddar cheese...*drool* place on delicious bagel of any flavor *slobber* .. they're also great for breakfast on the go. Virtually crumbless!

I really think my son has ADD or something coz he is doing horribly at school and just isn't picking it up like he should. How do I get him tested? We worked 2 hours on 3 math questions that he should have been able to figure out but he just looks at it and says "i dunno the answer" and seems to have no clue how to even go about finding it. Maybe he's just lazy?? I'm at a loss here coz this is one of the most important things he can learn (math) and I don't know what to do to help him

Jax, where u b? I COULD NOT stay awake last night (just ask gabi) I was barely coherent. I feel like a crap friend right now coz I haven't been able to call. DARN U CELL PHONE 9 O'CLOCK PLANS!!! if it weren't for that phone bill, i'd make my nights start at 7 but just can't afford it right now...

Have a grrrrrreat Friday everyone!

amal

Congrats on the wedding!!!

QUOTE(~~~water~~~ @ Feb 22 2008, 10:26 AM)

were married
Had a beautiful cermony in SF yesterday
Im so happyyyyyyyy

Woooooo Hooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Friday everyone!

I woke up a little late and missed my first class this morning--got dressed within minutes and ran out of the house to catch the next one....so i run out of the house to find that there's about a foot of snow...my jeans are a little long and i was wearing sneakers--so my feet were all mushy and wet by the time i got to the subway station--and i was making slushy noises while i was walking--ewww!! haha...THEN, my usual one hour commute turned into two hours, not because of the weather, but because there was debris on the tracks!! ugh!! oh, and i missed my other class, now i have a little break, then one more class and i am out!!

Hope everyone had a nicer start to their day!! Enjoyyy!!

I

am


FREEZING!!!!!







(back to Florida please...)

wuss

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Water Congrats on the Wedding and May your honeymoon last forever!

Yassmine the Baby pics are adorable. Congrats

Jackie I am so glad that God is blessing you and I pray that He continues. Great people deserve great things! Your Great!

Good Morning to all and Happy Friday. I am looking out the window at work watching it rain, But since we need the rain for all of the almond trees and all the other vegitation around here I guess it is good.

Where is Dawn? Does she know ur wakin up to her a$$ crack? Dawn, did u know u were this popular?? Sorry, couldn't resist!
Brig- U shoulda told her to go back to her home country...which, ancestrally (sp) ISN'T America either! then invited her over for some tea! lol


MABROOKULATIONSSSSS!!! I'M SOOOOOOO HAPPPPY FOR UUUUUUUU !!!
I wish you much joy and happiness with ur new hubster!



I've asked him so many times to show me how they do it or how he would figure it out and just says to me "I don't know what to do" or "i don't understand this". If I read it to him SOMETIMES he will get it..but most of the time, just a blank stare. So I play 20 questions (coz I refuse to do the work for him) until he answers correctly and then I make him explain to me why that was the right answer. It's so stressful


I'll trade ya!

Water, congratulations on the wedding! Monnik, congrats on the visa! And Yasmine, congrats on your new bundle of joy! Bridget, I think I know the book you're reading.......Three Cups of Tea........it's the story of Greg Mortenson but, I don't think he's the author. I agree, the beginning of the book is a little slow but it gets better. I attended a fundraiser and book signing a few months ago and he said that they had a really hard time finding a publishing company to accept the book and the reasons were interesting. The first chapter of the book is titled "Failure". One publishing company said that a book should not have a depressing opening chapter and insisted that the first chapter be called something more positive such as "Joy" or "Success". But, I remember him saying that he refused because his success in life came about only after he initially failed to reach his goals.......there can be success after failure. I found that inspiring.

It's our first snow day of the year and I was SOOOOOOOOOO happy to get to sleep in late this morning.

Have a nice day everyone.

Oh I'm glad the book gets better! He actually did author the book but he had a co-author so I'm putting in my mind that the co-author sung the praises for him, otherwise it just seems too much like patting oneself on the back. Don't get me wrong, what he did was amazing and courageous but I just think that charity done in silence is a lot more valuable than that done for show.

How is your husband settling in? Has he had any major adjustments to make or is he finding the transition easy?

So far so good.......my husband is settling in OK thank God. He DOES NOT like the cold weather and will NOT go anywhere without his thermal underwear.
He likes going to the supermarkets and can not believe all of the different choices we have for any one item......like toothpaste for example......there was a whole aisle just for toothpaste & mouthwash. He also loved the self serve machines at the supermarket where you do your own checking out. When he used it the first time he kept saying out loud.....really loudly......Da 7aga momtaza.....meaning "this is something excellent!" It was funny. Eating out is fun and I love to watch him order off the menus and communicate with the waiters. I love chinese food and now we both know he does not

He gets along great with my family and has gotten a chance to meet a few of my friends' spouses and that helps because I know he misses his friends and family back home. Now, he sits on the webcam and talks with them the way we did not too long ago.....it's weird sometimes when I wake up and find him next to me......I still can't believe it sometimes.

It's tough on a man when he's is not working, even if he doesn't come right out and say so..........so, we definitely need to find him a job cuz he's gonna get restless if he's not working soon.....so we're continuing to look and apply in many places. So far so good. One day at a time. Hope your hubby gets his visa soon.

So far you're the second one who said their Egyptian husband doesn't like Chinese food! I wonder if there's a trend here? I'm glad he's transitioning smoothly!!!!

I know my husband will find it hard not working for the first few months but he's going to go to an ESL school which is held from 9am to 4pm M-F for one of the months so hopefully that will allow him to network and find some friends to hang out with during the other times. Are you near public transportation? I feel so lucky that we have the train station a few blocks away and the bus stop into Boston is just around the corner so he can go exploring while I"m at work.

There is a train station about 10 minutes away but there are buses that pass from in front of our apartment complex that go to the train station, downtown, and elsewhere. That's been extremely helpful. He loves taking the buses and has memorized their schedules and I was impressed at how quickly he learned the names of roads and highways. So, yea.....having mass trasit nearby is important.

My husband is taking a conversation class that meets one night a week. He likes it and it gives him the chance to meet people from other nations. He said to me that in Egypt, most people are Egyptian. But in his class, he got to meet Korean, Japanese, Hispanic, Indian, and Chinese people to name a few. I never thought of it like that cuz I'm so used to living in a state that is so diverse.........so, his take was interesting.

He told me that his homework this week is to find 10 phrasal verbs and 10 idioms. I was like.......what's a phrasal verb? He couldn't believe I didn't know and then said.....I'll teach you and started giving me all these examples like.......turn off the light.....take out the garbage.....he kept saying them and i said OK.....that's enough you're gonna drive me nuts with the phrasal verbs.....he was like.......that's an idiom.....you're gonna drive me nuts!!

That's so funny I wouldn't have known what they are either!!!!


I just got a delivery from JC Penny and so between that and the finds I found at Macys the other day my husband's bureau is stocked now with flannel jammie pants and wicked soft long sleeved jammie t-shirts, jeans with flannel inside, khakis with flannel inside, a fleece coat and fleece pullover, 7 button down dress shirts and about 6 different sweaters. With my luck he'll get the visa mid-July.

I started working for the county seven years ago to the day Only 1094 days to retirement

Hi ya'll. I am taking a driving break at a McDonalds in Georgia that has wifi. lol...yep, I paid $2.95 to get my VJ fix for the day. I will be driving, well,, for about 20 more hours. (i stop for every and all blue Rest Area signs) I heard on the weatherchannel that I might hit bad weather, rain in Georgia and snow in Indiana.

I never been on my laptop in public before. Feels kinda....exhibitionist.lol.

I went to the beach today and got sand and shells for Lexy. EVERYDAY...grammy bring me sanddddddddddd. I am going to get back on the road. I will post pics when I get home on Saturday.

jJ
oh oh oh if ya got my number, call. I'm charged up and ready

I guess you're not coming to see me

I mapquested Florida to Louisana,,,and it was a longggggggggg way If I made it to NOLA, I would have to drive down to Houston to see Amal and then over to the west coast....then I would want to see my east coast buddies. .. I am missing my Lexy and my kitty. I better go before MickeyD's kicks me out

jJ

TGIF! Working the Jazz Festival is kicking my rear end! Here is more pix of something funny I saw walking on campus today in Old Greek Row.


Yes those are shoes in the branches.

Did you get married in City Hall? Thats where we had our civil ceremony, at the top of the stairs! We even saw Mayor Gavin Newsom in the building that day! I had no idea you lived in the Bay Area! Congrats! I hope you got lots of pics, that place is gorgeous!

Did you ever tell us what you answer was to Ibrahim? Be very careful.

I don't remember her mentioning his name before.

I think she did in the post where she said he proposed.

Oh you guys are good!! lol.


Yes jackie we need to know your answer!!

Finally this morning I got some long awaited snow but by now everything turned into slush and ice - I need to go back to Boston to get my snow fix...

I haven't had any chance to post - I read but can't find a free moment write. I am so glad that this week is over and looking forward to the weekend - need to brush up my resume and interviewing skills as HR has approach me with an interesting position. There are some other internal candidates so I need to do good - wish me luck....

Jackie - can't wait to see pictures...Drive safely...

~water~ congratulations on the wedding!!!

Olivia* - thanks fo sharing your experience working on the Jazz Festival - that must be a lot of fun even with all the hard work - hope you will get a break over the weekend.

Gabi - Congratulations on a beautiful baby and thank you for sharing your pictures. Baby Mehdi is gorgeous and you look so beautiful and so happy

Bridget - hope you are feeling better - these are some weird symptoms - maybe you should have a check up...Get some rest over the weekend and let's hope that tomorrow will be better. I see that you are well prepared for Usama - now only if Cairo will do their job he might have a chance make it before the spring...

Amal - have you considered tutoring services such as Sylvana or even work something out with your son's teachers and Maureen, I agree that the way math is taught in US is weird - way too complicated...poor kids ...

Noura - wishing you good luck with your car tomorrow - too bad you won't get a chance to sleep in...Too bad that Jackie won't make it to see you - she have a long way back home...

Sora - sorry about your morning commute - as good as public transportation is in NY there are days when it's just good for nothing

Laura - Kansas is definitely no Florida - let's hope that it will warm up soon

Charles - you are a Kansas veteran - winter is like a breeze for you but I worry about Nessa. How is she handling the cold?

Nagi - hope that your recovery is going well - wishing you a relaxing weekend and a good news from Cairo - soon...

a1angied - Have a wonderful weekend!

m&n - glad to see that your husband is doing so well - that's a true blessing

jasman - you are getting closer and closer - so what are your plans for the retirement - tee time everyday...

JP - how is your pregnancy going? Still craving donuts - I guess now they can be considered legal - you got a pretty gods excuse for them. Also, was wondering if you ever found some cure maternity cloths since I remember that you were on the hunt...

Hope I didn't miss anyone. Apologies if I did....

Hi Hon...I'm doing ok. I crave donuts and taco bell but I havent really given into the cravings yet. I'm trying to be good, I went to the dr today and apparently I gained 6 lbs in my first trimester, and I'm not eating that much! As far as maternity clothes go...I hate them. I started buying regular clothes in bigger sizes, they are just plain cuter! I don't know why they make maternity clothes so damn wide!

I can't believe you need to get a snow fix! LOL I'm so sick of cold weather now that I need a sun fix!

Good to know that you are doing well. I admire your restrain but you are right - as long as the baby is getting all the nutrition you are fine eating for one - not two. I guess it will be easier to deal with the post pregnancy weight. I agree on the cold weather - I hate it too but since is winter at least give me some snow...

Well I'm a Cali girl...no snow for us!

Lost in NY,
Thank you . I still have that stent in, and it is driving me stark raving sane. I have to go to the doctors Wednesday. I hope he will take it ( more like yank it ) out so I can be somewhat normal again.
No news from Cairo, but hopefully sometime this year I should hear something. Stay warm and cozy!

Did I hear someone mention DONUTS??

donuts

So happy for you water, enjoy the funnies now that you are an old married women.

Im finally here. Thanks to all for the well wishes and compliments. And Im officially beat. Motherhood is great but its kicking my azz This child is definitely Moroccan, he's not happy unless he's eating or making me eat