childress_london

HAHA! Krikit! I would have been well chuffed with the win + the butterfinger too I think we should start using our British slang around here, Krikit. We could rule the world with how many slang words we probably know. My grandma lived in Manchester and I visited her often..I also had a british boyfriend for quite some time and have many british friends...and my dad is from Glasgow...so I'm as British-Canadian as you can get without being born in Britain.

I AM BOSSLESS TODAY! WOOOOOOOOO! I needed this SO badly! My boss is a nightmare and last night I Finally snapped at her. (probably why she didn't come in)

AND THEN...our cuban housekeeper who obviously has a crush on me brought me a mini cherry pie. It was so cute of him. Made my day!

Makes me think I should do stuff like that more often for people...

You have a housekeeper?

And he's male???

So my daugher called, all excited, to tell me she had won a bunch of money at the Blackjack table in Vegas. She and her fiancé had gone with 10 of their friends for a 30th birthday surprise. So after we hung up I went to the local grocery store to pick up some items and saw a sale on Butterfingers. When I got to the checkout it didn't ring up as the sale price so I said "Oh. Those were marked on sale. But that's okay. It's only 6 cents so don't worry about it." But the cashier wanted to verify it and ended up refunding the full amount of the item and then gave me the item for free as well! Store policy.

And so ends the tale of two generations. My daughter is chuffed that she won the cost of her trip and I am chuffed that I got a free Butterfinger. Oh, how my expectations have been lowered throughout the years.

WOW what store was that? I've never had that happen to me. "Chuffed" is a new word to me. What does it mean?

First to explain to all those in chat last night, i lied, charles is not a little green alien man, can you ever forgive me for the lie? it was a very good party and alot attended seemed to have a lot of fun but many were curious as to WHY the party was called. Well the party was call due to me, my time on VJ my be decreased here shortly because:

AHMED HAD INTERVIEW THIS MORNING AND HE GOT THE VISA, HE GOES BACK TOMORROW AT 3 TO GET IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you believe it after one denial and all this time, he said it was white skin lady with black hair and she ask many long questions. But according to him he thinks it was because she like same music as him ha didnt get the whole story, but seems she didnt look at much, just alot of questions. OMG i dont know what im feeling now. I had so many praying for us, Ahmed said to tell each of you ty. Now he just stays in Casa overnight to get the visa, returns home to go to dentist appointment and sign our store papers over to his brothers so they can continue the work. I know he will jump on the first plane he can, he sounded so happy. wow just wow that is only words i can think of now........

WOW that's GREAT! Congratulations!

WOWWW MABROOK-U-FREAKIN-LATIONS girl!!!!!!!!!!!! It's about time! I'm so happy for you I could sneeze pee!!!!!

Go and see the cats on Parliament Hill. There is a feral cat colony made up of all sorts of boxes and houses on the hillside behind the Parliament buildings. Quite a number of cats live there year round and are a big visitor attraction. There is a regular caretaker who feeds them every day and people aren't allowed to get near them. They have all been neutered and vaccinated and are healthy. It is really neat to see. You should take a tour of the Parliament buildings as well - very interesting.

Oh yes, I've seen the cats. But I didn't know what they were doing there. LOL. We tried to tour Parliament during the summer, but the day we went they had already given out all of the tickets. :-( We'll try again some day. Maybe this spring.

Yeah but that means you're cool. I've been here two years and don't have one, so you are a step a head of me.

I don't know about a step ahead. LOL. Maybe a few behind.

Hi everyone. Went to Canada over the weekend to see my hubby. I finally got to try poutine. :-) Is there anything else uniquely Canadian I should try on my next visit?

A beaver tail!!

Beaver tail? Is that like a bear's claw (a sugar coated pastry with almonds)? LOL

It's like deep fried pastry, sprinkled with a variety of choices.... for example, cinnamon sugar is the traditional BT flavour, it's shaped like a beaver tail!

It reminds me of my childhood, skating on the Rideau Canal and stopping for BT and hot cocoa !!

Hi everyone. Went to Canada over the weekend to see my hubby. I finally got to try poutine. :-) Is there anything else uniquely Canadian I should try on my next visit?

Where in Canada is he?

He's in Ottawa.

Then i second the beaver tail on the Rideau Canal!!

mmmmmmm And make sure you have ketchup chips.. and nanaimo squares.

Don't forget dill pickle chips, those are sooo goooooddddddd!!

I found some dill pickle flavored pringles a few weeks ago. They were pretty good.

OK now I'm hungry! LOL

every single chocolate bar EVER in a convenience store! haha

So true! That and Vachon cakes.

- I just ate the last Mille Feuille Vachon that my mom brought yesterday. Please eat one of those on my behalf. And a Maple Passion Flakie.

So can I get these things at the grocery store?

every single chocolate bar EVER in a convenience store! haha

So true! That and Vachon cakes.

Hmmm....I think I need pictures.

Hi everyone. Went to Canada over the weekend to see my hubby. I finally got to try poutine. :-) Is there anything else uniquely Canadian I should try on my next visit?

Where in Canada is he?

He's in Ottawa.

Then i second the beaver tail on the Rideau Canal!!

mmmmmmm And make sure you have ketchup chips.. and nanaimo squares.

Woot! I'm getting a good list of things to try. Can't wait!

Hi everyone. Went to Canada over the weekend to see my hubby. I finally got to try poutine. :-) Is there anything else uniquely Canadian I should try on my next visit?

A beaver tail!!

Beaver tail? Is that like a bear's claw (a sugar coated pastry with almonds)? LOL

Hi everyone. Went to Canada over the weekend to see my hubby. I finally got to try poutine. :-) Is there anything else uniquely Canadian I should try on my next visit?

Where in Canada is he?

He's in Ottawa.

Well I just got back from the pediatricians office. She has told me what the doctor in Canada told me and what everyone else has told me. That even if he has "ADD" it is just above the line of normal behavior and she doesn't recommend further testing. She said if I wanted it, I could get it, but she suggested making the school pay for it if they want it that badly. She said that he is very well spoken, can name his favourite authors and is just your typical class clown. She also doesn't agree with medicating children unless they truly need it and she doesn't think my son is in need of medication.

I am relieved but at the same time, the schools are on their own little mission and it just means another hurdle because regardless of who I see and what I say, they won't stop until they've heard what they want to hear.

A.D.D. and others supposed diseases like S.A.D, etc. are marketing ploys by pharmaceutical companies to sell drugs.

Think about it...look at how many "disorders" were on the official psychology list in the 60s and look now.

It is mind-boggling.

True...but that is like my mom saying there weren't as many "gays" as there were back in the 60s... My answer? "Mum, yeah there were..it just wasn't acceptable for them to come out at the time...it was secret.."

Medicine is always advancing..Psych is always advancing..we know a lot more now then we did 50 years ago...and while we shouldn't be prescribing things left and right, there are disorders that need medical attention.

My son has ADD. We finally got him on medication a few years ago, which was helping him concentrate better, but he ended up being allergic to several different ones. Strange huh? I don't like medication anyway. So we have to work more with behavior modification and lots of encouragement. It's easy for kids with ADD to get discouraged and just want to give up. He wanted to do well in school, he just couldn't focus. Homework was a nightmare. He's very bright. He would tell me the answer to a math problem right off, but it took ten minutes to get him to actually write the answer down. I'm sorry but this is not "normal" and it's not about a normal kid being a little rambunctious. This is a true problem that he has had to deal with and continues to deal with. (He's 11 right now). My younger brother had ADHD and was a 100 times worse than my son ever thought about being. My mother didn't like the medication either and she took him off. She did a lot of reading on the subject and put him on the Feingold diet, which really helped. She ended up having to take him out of school and homeschool him because they couldn't handle him. Unfortunately, I know this is not available to most mothers. :-( Today he is in his late 30's and works at a police department and is a wonderful intelligent person. So, medication isn't always a must or needed. But the cooperation of teachers, schools and a lot of hard work on the parents part is necessary in any case.

Hi everyone. Went to Canada over the weekend to see my hubby. I finally got to try poutine. :-) Is there anything else uniquely Canadian I should try on my next visit?

Tim Hortons coffee,lol

LOL already been there. :-)

Hi everyone. Went to Canada over the weekend to see my hubby. I finally got to try poutine. :-) Is there anything else uniquely Canadian I should try on my next visit?

Uh oh, I think I have a nickname!

It's pretty quiet when I get home. I live by myself right now (kids are with their Dad) and I don't even have a pet! So I turn on the lights, turn on the computer and get comfortable. Then it's a whole evening to myself, every night. Yeah, sometimes it's heaven and sometimes it's pretty lonely. I can't wait until my hubby gets here. Sigh.

Me? I'm nobody, really, but I *do* love to cook!

If you can cook, you are a very important person indeed. You can cook for me anytime!

I'm Pandora and I'm currently a criminal intelligence analyst. My life is so full of twist and turns, who knows what I will be doing tomorrow? LOL. I stayed home with my babies for eight years and I don't regret one minute of it! My husband Hesam just completed his degree in software engineering. I'm hoping he will find a good job when he gets to the U.S. :-) My ambition in life is to be a perpetual slacker some day. I hope the training is available online.

Wow it's so interesting to see what everyone does. Great thread.

I didn't know there were chat rooms here? I'll try to make it. :-)

Congratulations!!!

lmao, granola bars....high fiber.....doesn't matter. After 2 hours, my stomach is biting at the ppl next to me. I don't know why that is ...one would think that my metabolism was sky high but sadly it is nonexistant. I swear I about took a chunk out of my pharmacists arm when she reached accross me to grab something.

I hightailled it to the back for a "cuppasoup" and I'm miserable. I think I'll grab sonic later...*cries* I'm hungry....

1 packet of oatmeal is not enough to feed a bird! LOL Too many carbs anyway. Carbohydrate will be used up by your body quickly leaving you hungry again in a short time. Try adding some protein to your breakfast - eggs, meat, cheese, etc. That will keep you feeling fuller longer.

I definately wanna hit up Seattle but I'm sure it will not be anytime soon...but when I do maybe it will be the 4th annual one?

You can hook up with Amal, Gabi, the other Houston girl who hasn't posted in so long I forgot her name and maybe get a group discount on airfare. Seattle meet ups are NOT to be missed.

He he he...it's me, Pandora. Spent the last few days in Canada seeing my hubby. But now back in Houston.

Thats what I'm most worried about. My son gets really down coz of it. Now, just to clue u in on him (my son) a little bit...he REFUSES to go outside. This stems from when he was sick early in his life. It drives me crazy and I tell him all the time that he needs to go outside and make friends and he wouldn't be so bored all the time. I do worry about what he is learning from seeing hubster constantly on the laptop....

Amal how old is your son? I remember when my daughter was little, she was afraid to go outside for the longest time. I don't know why. It was like a phobia. One day when I made her go outside with me for a few minutes (she was about 2-1/2 at the time) the wind was blowing a little. She got really scared and pointed to the trees swaying in the wind. When I asked her why she was afraid, she said because the trees were moving and making the wind! I realized she was seeing the world from a totally different perspective. She's a teenager now, but still not very outdoorsy (no outdoor phobia anymore though - LOL).

My son is 9 now (almost 10). He doesn't like to go outside because he says he gets bored and has no friends to play with. It always seems that if he actually does go outside, there are NEVER kids out there to play with. I don't know how to fix this problem. It makes me sad. When I was young, I didn't like to be INDOORS. I was outside from the buttcrack of Dawn until the streetlights came on at night. I would only go inside to eat and then was back out again.

My sons hatred to the outdoors came around when he was about 2 years old and came down with Severe Aplastic Anemia and was soooooo immunodeficient that he couldn't leave the confinement of the house/hospital. He had to wear masks at one point to ensure that no germs got to him. He spent a good 3 months not being able to move at all because the medications made his bones hurt severely so the only thing he could do (that didn't hurt) was watch tv and play video games.

This was all during that 2 to 5 years in the beginning of a childs life when they get their personalities and attitudes towards life that sticks with them forever so this disease really screwed with his idea of fun.

Awwww...poor thing. :-( I was always outside playing too,usually by myself, sometimes with others. I didn't need other kids to play outside. I had a pretty good imagination. LOL. I wouldn't push your son to go outside if he really doesn't like it. Get him a Wii instead. :-) Or maybe you could offer to do things with him outside when you have time. Get bikes and go riding, go for a walk, get him a dart tag game and play outside with him. :-D Fun stuff. Oh, and my son loves his skateboard. He'll spend forever in the driveway on it - all by himself! (He's almost 12 BTW)

Bug - as you know, we are all different. You chose your husband because of his submissive qualities which coincide with your more dominant qualities. And as you've seen, these qualities are not necessarily ethnically specific. Some of us may be opposite. I love my husband for his dominant qualities, because (usually :-P) I have more submissive qualities in a relationship. His ability to take charge of a situation and take care of me. The way he wants to spoil me and treat me as his princess. I love all of these things about my man. (Plus his beautiful dark looks don't hurt either) I think this has more to do with his culture than with religion. He is not religious at all despite being raised Muslim. I am a Christian. Even in the Christian faith, the husband is supposed to be over the wife. The husband is supposed to love the wife as his own body. Etc. However, in the U.S. women don't like to accept that. ;-) Many American Christian women will assert that their relationships are equal and their husbands are not in charge. So, like I said, I think it's more cultural. Even within different Muslim countries, you will find different culture and way of doing things. Some MENA men like the western culture/ways better, just as some American women might respect the MENA ways/culture. So, just as we say not all MENA men are alike, not all American women are alike. Not all of us are staunch feminists who insist that we must dominate over the man instead of vice versa so that we feel empowered.

However, don't get me wrong. I am all for equal rights in the work place as well as in the law. I was in the Navy, where at the time women were still more of a curiosity and not as common as you see now. I'm a tough, independent little cookie. ;-) And if any man were abusive, I don't care what country he was from, he would definitely wish he did not exist by the time I got finished with him.

I will share with all of you that I work for the police department and I can tell you that around 8PM every night, the calls start rolling in about men beating up on their wives. It happens every night, 7 days a week. Think about it. Every day there are American women being abused by their American husbands. EVERY DAY. And I'm sure it is even more than what I see at work, because many women will not call the police. They suffer in silence. It's easy to think from where you sit that this is not going on in the numbers it is actually happening, because you don't see it. If it's not in the newspaper or it doesn't happen to a neighbor or someone you know, you don't know it exists. So I'm telling you, it exists in greater numbers than you may think in AMERICA. I think it's just more politicized in the media when it involves the Middle East, because Americans like to read about the "evil countries" and their "evil ways". :-P I hate the media.

But I LOVE my MENA husband. He's the greatest thing since sliced bread.

~Pandora

what a big price to pay for happiness

Somehow, I don't think they are happy. Maybe more like trapped.

Ohhhhh another person with hubby from Iran!