Cousins and Birthdays

As I mentioned in my last post my sister is in town with her 2 daughters. Naturally I’ve been busy with them over the past week. On Friday, after school let out for the boys (last day of school!!), I picked them up and took over to my parents for some barebeque. They haven’t seen my nieces in a little over 2 years, but they fell into routine immediately. They went to the park, played in the backyard, made jokes, and had a lot of fun. My older niece is very good with them, equally dividing her attention and making sure each gets a turn at whatever they are doing. Finally around 10-10:30, though they were still quite awake, I could see they were beginning to tire so we went home, they were torn between spending the night, and going back to my place. They wanted to spend the night at my parents but also longed to spend the night at my place. We went home

The following morning after a pancake breakfast we went back. It was going to be a long day. That evening my sister and I had planned a dinner get together for my parents’ birthdays. My dad’s birthday was the following day (his 65th) and my mom’s is tomorrow (her 60th). Since neither of us had any idea what get them, we headed to the mall and did some shopping. Dad got a new digicam, and mom got some nice perfume, and I got ice cream . Well, Deen got ice cream, and I gotshared some of it. After rushing home it was time for Deen’s haircut, followed by baths, picking up cakes, heading to the restaurant. It was a fun evening, mom shed quite a few tears, and I think even dad shed a tear or two. All in all it was a loooong day. But where the kids were concerned, they had a blast. It’s always fun when cousins get together and have fun. I don’t want my kids to be strangers to their out of town cousins, so this time together is valuable.

Tonight its off to Niagara for the night and all day tomorrow. Isn’t it cool to have fireworks on your birthday! Mom gets fireworks every year. Let just hope it doesn’t rain.

Been a While

Its been ages since my last post. Do I still have a blog even? I did notice I have a lot of spam comments though…they have all been cleaned out.

As for an update, well, my life has been pretty non-eventful. Since my cousins left, I’ve kept quite busy with work and running (gave up on the push ups, and taken up jogging), and the kids. One weekend my eldest has a birthday party to go do at the movie theatre, but since his brother wasn’t invited (poor kid) I bought us tickets so we could see the movie too. We saw Night At The Museum 2. I’m know the kids enjoyed it, but I have to admit I quite enjoyed it myself. My favourite scene had to be the Darth Vader scene, I thought it was absolutely hilarious (I’m a Star Wars fan in case you hadn’t guessed ). I also took them to see Up, another really good movie! If you have kids (and even if you don’t), I definitely recommend this one.

As for my cooking, I have done anything new. Made a few dishes that I’ve already tried, and with so much work, and things that have to get done, I haven’t had a chance to prepare anything new. Hopefully soon I will cook up something new and share it.

What’s coming up? My parents are having milestone birthdays this year. Mom will be turning 60 next week, and dad turns 65 this weekend. My dad was talking about going on a relaxing vacation somewhere in the southern states, which then turned to a cruise, which then turned into a week in Hawaii, which ended up in, “we’re staying home” and now my sister is coming with her kids for 3 weeks. My dad is so indecisive it drives me crazy! On the plus side its been over a year since I saw my sister, and in that year my younger neice has learned to talk so it should be lots of fun. And my boys have a lot of fun with her older daughter, who is as full of energy as my kids are. I’m sure if they all ran into each other you might actually discover a quark (don’t mind the lame humour….if you get it even, haha).

I hope to blog more often now, and keep things alive so I don’t lose all my readers

Reconnecting with Family

I’ve been home for over a week now. The weather has definitely been better in Vancouver, but oh well

I have some family visiting from England, my aunt (my mom’s sister), uncle and their 2 daugthers. Another of our cousins got married over the weekend, and they came to attend the wedding. That last time I saw the older of my 2 cousins was back in 94, and the younger one a few years back, but we never really had a chance to talk. Needless to say, I’ve been busy over the past week. Its been a lot of fun reconnecting with them, since our mothers are sisters we been have a good laugh at their expense :p My mom is the second eldest, while my aunt is the second youngest, in a clan of 7 kids, we laugh at how my mom bosses my aunt around. All around though, it was just good to connect with immediate family again.

My cousins have been through a lot in life and those experiences have made them very independant. It allowed us to connect at a more realistic level, and not just horse around or be fake, if you know what I mean. Not to say we didn’t go out, and have fun, or stay home and just chill, or play with my kids, we did all that as well. I have to admit it was a fun week and I am sad to see them go back home tomorrow, but I will definitely keep in touch with them on going.

Now, gotta get back to cooking. Since they have been here I haven’t cooked a thing, just been going to my parents for dinner every night

Walk in the Park and Light Show

This is now my third week in Vancouver. The weather has been pretty rainy most weekdays since I’ve arrived. The weekends, however, have been really good. On the first weekend the weather was gorgeous, not too hot, not too cold. I took the opportunity to take a walk around downtown Vancouver with a friend.

We walked down to the harbour centre (where the cruise ship was docked in my last post), and this time there were three ships docked. The Golden Princess had already left but the Star Princess was there, and let me tell you, up close, this ship is HUGE!!

From there we walked along the seawall to Stanley Park. Its such a scenic walk along the water with the mountains in the background. As we were walking through park I noticed one of the cruise ships was heading out to the ocean so we crossed the park to watch the ship cross under the Lion’s Gate Bridge.

Then we came upon some totem poles while looking for a quick snack.

That evening we met up with his wife and another friend and headed to English Bay for dinner on the patio over looking the beach.

At sunset

This last weekend was the Victoria Day long weekend. I flew home and spent time with the kids. It was a really busy weekend, we had a lot of fun. One of the highlites for the kids was playing with some glow in the dark bracelets I picked up from the dollar store. If you have need an idea for quick fun and excitement, pick them up. I got 6 of them for $1. I played with the setting on my camera and took some long exposure shots while they played. There is the result, I really like it, I think its art

Where I Been?

So where have I been? I had actually been on vacation for the last 2 weeks. Now don’t get all excited, I didn’t go anywhere. I actually initially didn’t want to take the time off as I had no plans, however, I was forced to take it as it was unused vacation from last year and I had to use it up before the end of April. I was home for the two weeks, not doing much but sleeping in and lazing around, and watching movies. So nothing really to report for vacation time.

However, my vacation ended with me being back in Vancouver again. This time I will be here for the month (minus a trip home for the May long weekend). Its already been an interesting couple of days. This week the main office out of which I normally work is a zoo. Deskspace is prime realty, and with all the managers walking around and having meeting wherever they can find a place to gather, its quite noisy. As a result, I relocated my workspace to a few blocks away to a lab with a view. I have the room to myself, its not freezing cold, and has a nice view.

I’ve been watching tugboats take what appears to be garbage from this cruise ship for 2 days.

While working I had a visitor too

Then this morning my day started out with dramas. I had woken up, but lay in bed trying to muster the energy to go to work. I finally decided to get up out of bed and the power goes out. Now, I don’t have the room with the window in the bathroom so its totally dark. We were then told to evacuate the hotel. So I brushed my teeth in the dark, got dressed and began the climb down 31 floors to the street. We were made to stand out on the street for about 10 minutes and then we were allowed to stand in the lobby. Apparently, the power had been out to neighbouring buildings as well due to a power surge, so the hotel was having issues so we were made to wait longer. Eventually the hotel manager made an announcement that the estimate on the power returning would not be until 11:30, and that they only have 1 elevator working and staff was supplying flashlights. I took my chances and showered in the dark and went to work. I was glad it wasn’t a shaving day :p

So there you have it. An update on what I’ve been up to.

Fitness

So, I’ve now lived on my own for 3 months now. Not living with my parents has meant eating less oily foods, smaller portions, and generally, a little healthier, not much, just a little.

A couple of months ago I looked down towards my feet and noticed my gut was extending out a bit too much to my liking. I’m too cheap and lazy to join a gym, so decided its time to start jogging. My attempts at this feat are greatly hindered by our wonderful Canadian weather where it ranges from beautiful weather to snowfall in a matter of days. I can’t run in the cold, I have trouble breathing. But alas, I see warm weather in the forecast, so inshallah, I will begin a regular regiment of running, and hopefully take off some pounds (and inches).

Also, a couple of months ago a friend of mine introduced me to this excercise program called 100 push ups. The goal of the program is to be able to do 100 consecutive push ups after completing the 6 week program. Sadly, mid way through the second week I got quite sick and had to stop. After many weeks of recovery I started back on week 2 and was pleasantly surprised by the results. Initially I was only able to do a measely 13 pushups, and after 2 weeks I did a little over double that in the exhaustion test. I, however, am stuck on week 4 at the moment, as I decided to hit the driving range last weekend and some unused muscles are sore from that experience. I shall start again on week 4 next week…promise Anyone care to join me?

Today I had the opportunity to weigh myself. And just from eating habits alone (no more pop, eating breakfast every day, smaller meals, healthy snacks), and a little bit of exercise I discovered that I have lost 6 lbs!! I was surprised! Now, if I can lose another 10 lbs, inshallah I think I will be content.

I think I should use Ahmed’s diet plan of cereal for breakfast lunch and dinner (haha, I’m just teasing). I think he deserves a round of e-pplause for his accomplishment, well done bro, well done.

Another Year

So this past week I had another birthday. I am officially one year older now. When I compare it to my last birthday, it was definitely a different experience. I won’t get into the details of my last birthday, but this birthday was quite pleasant, starting off with a phone call at midnight from a friend and their kids wishing me a happy birthday. When I informed the youngest of my new age, he replied “##?! Wow, you’re gonna be big when you grow up!!”

It was a weekday, so I decided to work from home, and got the usual calls from family, and facebook wall messages and emails. But its my kids that really made it special for me. I picked them up in the evening so we could all go out to dinner with my parents. I was greeted at the door hugs and happy birthdays and homemade birthday cards. We then piled into the car and headed to my parents and then off to Red Lobster for dinner!

The boys were just amazing that night. They were extremely happy, and full of laughter and fun. They each got an order of snow-crab legs (dutifully shelled by myself and my parents), along with popcorn shrimp. Then of course it was followed by a healthy helping of chocolate cake! We all shared one piece of course, that way too much chocolate for one person!

There was a possibility that they were not able to come due to illness, but alhumdulillah they were better, and it would not have been the same without the little guys. My boys definitely made it a happy birthday.

Looking back over the past year, so many things have changed. And projecting forward, I cannot fathom what my future holds. Come my next birthday, thing could be drastically different again. The thing to remember is to learn and grow from every experience we encounter. So whatever Allah (swt) has planned for me, I pray that I will have the wisdom to extract the goodness from it and become a better person.

Procrastinated Awards

What seems like eons ago (I have now come to realize its only been 10 days), I was given a couple of blogging awards from my readers So the first award, received from Miss Specs, was the Lemonade Stand for my postive attitude.

The second award comes from Nadia, for my cooking “skills” haha.

Thank you both for these very cool awards.

Now to come up with how I was planning on passing these on, I decided to look at my referrer stats.

Haleem	602
Elena	319
UTP	284
Piniyini	146
Google Reader	137
WordPress	101
Tasmiya	100
Nadia	69
Bloglines	66
A Crazy Place	47
Isheeta	44
Ordinary Girl	37
AKA	31
Miss Specs	27
Solace	25
Masood	21
Boba	18
Ambhi	14
Brujita	13
Liya	13
Nazias	13
Geeki	12

So based on these stats, I was gonna give Haleem the Lemonade stand but I he’s already been award it, so the Lemonade stand goes to Elena for generating visitors to my blog

I will pass along the honest scrap award too….Geeki for his hard work and successful completion of his masters.

And with that I will leave you with my latest creation. I tried chicken stew last night. I will have to try this one again, maybe in a couple months, and I’ll post the pic again.

Protected: New Ride and Gala

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

Keeping Busy

That’s right. I’ve been busy. I still have this @#@$# cold. Well, it is getting better, but this nagging cough is driving me up the wall. I wish it would just go away. I also wish I got my flu shot this year. Ah, but life must go on.

I’ve been driving around the city this week looking for my next ride. Its easy to look online, but of course you have to check it out in person, and take it for a test drive etc etc. That on top of a few other errands I had to run as well. So most days, I’ve been waking up, heading out and getting home juuuust before I start work. I almost found a car, but sadly it was sold, the financing for the interesting party finally came though. It was perfect though. So, sadly the hunt continues, along with the battle against this cough and cold.

In cooking news, I haven’t been all that creative with the cold and all, so just gonna share a couple of dishes I made. The first is a Thai fish packet, fish (I used sole), covered in veggies, drizzled in thai sauce baked in a tin foil packet for about 8 minutes.

This next dish is EASY! Almost a Geeki special Its just ground beef cooked in some ginger, garlic and chillie peppers. Then add some veggies and voila…done. Serve with rice and good to go.