Anybody got big plans for tomorrow's holiday? I hope no one is having to work. We're having a big cook-out here with family and friends. Getting ready to clean off the porch and make it all pretty for tomorrow. I'm not working my job, but man, if it isn't HARDER work getting ready for this BBQ!!!!


Happy 4th everyone!!!!

No. Other then wondering how nice it is for the people at the Algerian consulate to get both Algerian and American holidays off... Plus get days before and after off too... no wonder no work gets done there.

But ooops forgot to wish everyone a happy Indepedence!

Spending the daylight hours with my sons at home. Probably grill out, something simple. I have to work in the evening, so hopefully someone will have fireworks during the weekend. Hope everyone has a great 4th, work or not!

Feels so weird this year since it's in the middle of the week. Normally I'd have today off but I had to work which sucked so I shot home quick, we went to the beach to grab some greasy fries and hot dogs and then grabbed our favorite spot and watched the fireworks. It was sooo cold!!! I wore a fleece jacket, sweats and I still had to put a blanket over me!! The fireworks were nice though.


Tomorrow is my mom's 75th birthday so we'll go visit and then pop over to my sister's house. She has a block party thing going on and just about half the state police live in her area and they have the most awesome fireworks in the woods there.


then my dad turns 77 on 7/7/07

Hope everyone has a good one!

hmmmmm well its supposed to rain...we went and watched some fireworks tonite. it was chilly but hey were good. we are supposed to go watch the demo derby at the fair tomorrow. prolly just having a small cook out here at the house...nothing big. we will see

going to my family for a bbq. my dad requested i make potatoes au gratin. weird bbq dish but whatever daddy wants! i think i'll slip in a potato salad too! happy 4th everyone!

Hicham and I are heading down to the family boat tomorrow to have a barbecue and watch the fireworks with friends. I'm playing golf in the morning with my Dad then making something to bring down to the boat.

Happy 4th of July!!!

I love the 4th of July!!!! I will be out watching the fireworks over the lake tonight. Hope everyone has a great independence day.

Happy 4th everybody....we are having a cookout with my brothers, one who is visiting from Nicaragua...Im sure we'll have a good time. I hope everyone enjoys the day....

Schedule subject to change due to rain, but............... we're planning on a barbecue, then off to San Antonio Missions baseball game. They're having Robert Earl Keen and fireworks after the game (Woooohooooooooo fireworks -- the only thing better than Used Car Night !!!)

Of course we always love Henry the Puffy Taco and the Ballapeno....

Friends are coming over later this evening to use the pool and grill some goodies. Unless we get rained out! We have a great view of the city firworks from our place....again unless it rains us out today.

I woke up in a piss poor mood today.. my family is pissing me off.. BUT.. I guess i will have to get dressed and try to be functional... I dont really wanna see the firework.. I dont really wanna socialize.. But for the kids i guess I have too

Send th e kids for a day of family fun and go back to bed

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand........ it's raining again.....

I wish i could leave them with people!! but that is not a option...



Last night I took a Valium cause I havent been sleeping good... Even with the Valium.. I tossed and turned the whole night.. I just cant win

Awww... I hate waking up in a bad mood!!! This too shall pass!

So we're off to my mom's in about an hour. UGH. I love her and all that but I'm not telling my parents that I'm going to Egypt so this is gonna be sooooooooooooooooooooooooo HARD!!!!! I"m NOT good at keeping a secret!!!! I just don't wanna hear all the bs this time about my being kidnapped, etc. etc. so I figure I'll just let them know when I get back.

Looks like a nice day out today though!!!

Yawn, good morning everyone. Wadi and I are going to my aunt's house this afternoon for a party cookout thingy. Then I think we're supposed to stay and watch the fireworks, but I don't want to watch no crappy Marblehead fireworks, so we'll probably make up some excuse so we can go see the *real* fireworks in Boston.

I did that once. Everyone should do it at least once. Now I sit in my jammies and watch it on the tv. Every single year I cry like a baby when the 1812 overture comes on. No idea why. Not like I'm miss patriotic usa or anything but the tears always come!

We used to go to the Esplanade every year when I was a kid for the whole day. I remember one year it was so hot that the fire department came to hose us all down. Then I've been to the Mass Ave. bridge a couple times when I was older to watch them, but there are just sooo many people, it doesn't even seem worth it. I'm not sure, maybe we'll be able to see them from home this year....

Today is our first wedding anniversary, we were married the 4th of July. I am sitting here still obsessing over our visa, my husband is in his kitchen in Morocco making yogurt (dont ask). Not how I pictured our first anniversary. I'm sure you can all relate.

it sucks when its your first anni.. and you can not spend it with your hubby

Well that sucked. lol.

I almost spilled the beans about my trip and then it happened.....my parents started in about the doctors who supposedly masterminded the bombings in Scotland, et al and how they (muslims) are brainwashed in school and that a certain message is put into their mind so that when it's "time" they will be ready to kill so that they can take over the world.



Didn't think that was a warm n fuzzy time to talk about 1) my conversion or 2) my trip to Egypt.

Doodle,
My heart goes out to you, I went for the 1st time to Egypt 4-23 and got a mixed reaction from folks...from very supportive to - do you know that they behead ppl there....so hard...only thing that helped me is following my heart and doing what I knew was right for me and hoped my loved ones could support me..but if not...i can only talk control over those things which i have the control over....but at the same time...its hard when others aren't as supportive...good luck...u will be in my thoughts and have a great time in Egypt..i miss it so....and of course my fiance:)

It's due to the hell that I endured the first trip that I'm not telling them this time around. What sucks too is that the whole me being at the interview thing would just fly right over their heads, as it has all my friends too. Like NO ONE understands what a big deal all this is and that sucks. Oh well. Whaddya gonna do. It was like eating dinner with the big huge pink elephant in the living room. I can't wait to see how they react when he actually gets here. I'm sure my mom will have the look of fear and death in her eyes.

Hope everybody had a wonderful Independence Day. Mine was fabulous as this year we spent our first holiday together. Although I had to work tonight, we spent the whole day together grocery shopping, cooking, enjoying one another. This year is so much better than last year when we were separated, him in Jordan, me here alone. But our life together is wonderful. Hoping and praying that everyone waiting will have a successful interview and speedy reunion.

I wish you the best of luck with this and my thoughts are with you. I hope that your family and friends can see ur happiness and embrace ur SO with open arms. And if not, that is truly unfortunate for them...but ur right what can u do? I can appreciate the big pink elephant...I hope it all works out for you...and what can bring u down at this moment, right - ur going to see ur SO soon..YEAH!!!!!!!!

well our 4th didnt go as planned..it poured allll day pretty much and then by the time it stopped it was tooooo muddy to go to the fair soooo we are postponing goin til tomorrow, friday and saturday....

tomorrow i go to the post office to send out my passport to nyc saudi consulate to get my visa stamped im sendin it overnight, hopefully they will get it done asap and i will have it back very soon. i am including a prepaid self addressed overnite express envelope so all they gotta do is stick the papers back in that envelope and pop it in the mail box...lol lets hope it goes that smoothly. the guy i talked with in the consular services told me it takes 1 business day to process...so does that mean if it gets there early Friday they will process it friday and send it back?? or does that mean they will get it friday, work on it monday and possssibly send it back on tuesday?? lol so confusing. at least we got the ticket purchased and im getting everything else arranged as well.

Daemian went back to his dads tonight after being here a week. tomorrow i will go down and see him and then sat, sun and mon he will spend the night again here...and then next week im sure i will have him as much as possible. he is really getting into the whole idea of shopping for a gift for Geo from him personally. sooo cute. we took a bunch of pictures and i will print them out and make a collage for our living room wall in Saudi. very excited to be able to decorate my own house

alrighty, hope everyone had a good 4th!

edited cause i cant spell LOL

I had planned for Sam to be with us for this 4th, buuuuuuut, that didn't happen (thank you very much Cairo consulate!! ). So just decided that the kids and I would have a great day. We had lunch with my family, and they have really come to accept Sam and look forward to him arriving in US and are praying for his visa to be issued soon. So that was great, then took the kids and their friends to see Transformers movie and then went to watch our local fireworks show. Other than being very very muddy from the flooding rains we have had it was great and we had a great day which I didn't expect with my sadness over Sam not being here. But, we have to live our lives to the best that we can until he arrives so I am soo glad that we went out and had a great day and evening.

We trekked downtown to our big Fair St. Louis parade. 3.5 hours later, I was burnt to a crisp and ready to go home.

Andre had to work so I entertained myself cleaning the house, burning some bar-b-que for dinner, and scrapbooking. It was a nice relaxing kind of day in the end.

We managed to get downtown to watch the fireworks in Boston. A great show as always. We missed them last year due to World Cup festivities, so I was glad that Wadi finally got a chance to see them.

Of course, apparently, the fireworks in Morocco are just as impressive.

We had the best time yesterday. First we went to an afternoon BBQ at my gf's house. Her friend from Australia was visiting so that made it even more fun! Afterwards we went to my parent's house for a BBQ (thank God I didn't eat at my gf's BBQ, my mother had enough food to feed a small army). Some of my extended family and lots of friends of the family were there. It was a nice way to introduce Moh to everyone. My brother had gone down to Ohio to buy to good "illegal" fireworks. He put on a 2 hr firework show. Moh had so much fun helping him with it.

Wadi had a blast doing that with my family too. I guess we need to take a trip up to NH to get some more. But my mom is very concerned with us "making it across the border".