Checking In.....

Greetings all...... just checking in as previously promised.....

I've been thinking about creating a private blog for my babies..... been mulling around a few thoughts about what I would want it to include- haven't narrowed it down yet. I want to make it private as I don't share much info about my brood- as I like to protect them and their identities..... the world can be a strange place and I guess I'm just a little paranoid but that's me. I can't find it within myself to put my kids names and forget about pics, out there for just anyone to look at... feels too weird.... hence the reference to their nicknames here and everywhere else I might mention them.... lol

The years fly by soooo quickly and I was thinking about how to preserve this period of their lives... to capture it for me to look at in the later years and for them as well. For them to look back on themselves growing, smiling, fighting, living in a foreign country, making new friends, traveling around Egypt and the sorts. And now, you have the cool option of turning your blog into a book.... which I feel is totally cool- just might do that.......

Anyhoo, hope everyone is getting ready for the blessed month of Ramadan!!! I'm a mixed bag of emotions as I was looking forward to being in New York, in "my" masjid with my sisters.... doing it how we would do it every year. But instead, I'm here in Cairo, with my family and praying that this year won't anything like the last Ramadan. I was confined, cooped-up and not pleased about not being able to go the masjid.... I already beat that dead horse issue here.... ain't going there again.... sigh

InshaAllah, I plan to check in again before Ramadan officially starts but if I don't make it back and/or you can't come back to read my blurbs, Ramadan Mubarak!!! Much love and kisses from me and my family to you and yours....... :)

My henna addiction... and other stuff

Jumaa Mubarak everyone!

Just trying to keep my promise of stopping by to post a little something to let you know I'm still here- I think Fridays will be my posting day... a little more free time.

I'm here trying to decide on what's for lunch... what's for dinner.... and I want to become a little more active here since me and the hubby were discussing "the future" last night. It looks like for sure now we intend to make this place our home. So, I'm thinking about what I can do so I can feel like my old self again. Since I can't attend masjid here, there aren't any projects/gatherings or committees to join..... so what is a sister to do? Groups here come and go: people attend in droves then disappear for lack of interest, other commitments, family issues, moving back to their countries and the list goes on. I was trying to establish an Islamic clothing store here but the owner of the shop turned out to be a real jerk so I let the spot go... I'm not trying to create more of a headache for myself! They ARE a unique breed..... lol

So the idea is to maybe sell some stuff online and from another location here if I find a decent spot- hijabs, abayas, intimate apparel, a few thobes for men and boys and those prayer garments for girls which I see some people actually wear outside around here.... I invested in some quality stuff not garbage and I contacted one of my best girlfriend's who lives in Mecca and shipped some very nice (and different) clothing here... I have the need to do something so I think I'll see how this little venture goes....

Anyway, I gotta ask again: if any of you sisters here in Cairo are reading this, does anyone know of a GOOD henna artist??? I'm like really craving a nice henna job with REAL henna NOT black dye!!!!! If ya do, holla back at a sista.... all I can do around here is "ohhh" and "ahhh" over Ash Kumar designs.... his stuff you can get replicated in any decent henna salon home but here.... it's just a dream...... :)

Until next time.... take care, be good, stay positive and try to remember to make dua for your sisters!!!

Just popping by........

Just thought I'd give everyone a quick shout-out since I had 2 seconds to check to see if there were any new comments I needed to post... there was a few so I know someone is still reading! LOL

Still keeping up with the lives of most of the people I've come to know here on Blogger- everybody posting their lives on Facebook.... me included! But just thought I would ask: has anyone missed me????? :)

All things here in Cairo is fine.... spending time with the babies.... kinda wishing I was in NYC for the summer but ya can't have everything!!! But there's nothing like summertime in the BEST city in the world.... and I miss my friends and family!

Working on a few personal projects here so when/if something materializes, I'll let everyone know.

The clan is back from their evening walk... gotta run..... remember to keep Allah (SWT) in your lives and love those who don't love you!!!

Yeah... I know.... went missing again!

Salaam Alaikum everyone!

Yea.... I know.... it's been a LONG while but I've been incredibly busy with daily life and all my babies. And I've also found it much easier to jot a quick blurb on Facebook... with life being the way it is, I only have a quick sec to post something and keep moving!

But I must tell you, I've been pretty much up to date with info on the daily lives of some of the sisters here on Blogger since they post daily on Facebook as well: some have added new additions to their families, others have had their first arrival (MashaAllah!) while others are dealing with family issues and some are still battling their demons, psychologically speaking.

Egypt has improved immensely since my last post- I have basically surrounded myself with expats and I have 2 really good Egyptian friends so my inner circle is tight and I'm in a good place right now, Alhumdulillah. After all that initial drama, I finally have some relief, some peace of mind about my state of "being".... so overall, I feel like my old self again!

My Papito is 3 months old now- yes. Three months have flown by and the Naughty Princess and Big Papi started school the beginning of October but since this past Sunday, school has been shut down until December 1st (alledgely) since a few boys in the primary area have been diagnosed with swine flu... we're supposed to have a meeting next week at the school to discuss how we're to handle their work load while they're out.... so I guess we'll receive a complete lesson plan to follow until school resumes. Gotta keep them busy.... especially since both of them are doing exceptionally well, MashaAllah! :)

Planning a trip home, InshaAllah, while they're out- hopefully, I'll be successful in finding some decent fares- and I plan to use my frequent flyer points to purchase at least one ticket .... I gotta buy more than a few! Thank goodness, I only have taxes to pay on Little Papi and Papito!

My family and friends are eagerly awaiting the actual arrival news so I need to get crackin' with my ticket search.... and this is the start of the busy holiday season so tickets won't be cheap- but just landing in New York and being able to smell my city is worth EVERY SINGLE PENNY! Must haves when I get home: Junior's cheesecake from Brooklyn, a bacon & egg sandwich from Al-Noor halal deli on 4th Avenue in Brooklyn, a FEW containers of Haagen-Dazs (well, gotta make up for ALL those months I wanted and couldn't get it!), a Nathan's hot dog with some fries and a REAL Pepsi down in Coney Island, have some delectable orange beef with fried rice and yummy spring rolls from my favorite Chinese restaurant and consume enough pizza at my favorite spot, Gino's, to last me for a year...... LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL.... but I'm not kidding! And a visit to my nail salon for a SERIOUS manicure/pedicure and an elaborate hands, legs and feet henna job at my favorite Indian henna palace! NO ONE does it like this sista........ unless your name is Ashkumar (professional world reknown artist)!

Okay.... gotta run as it's lunch time for the rugrats.... and I'm waiting for the Olympic man to come service my washer/dryer for the 2nd day in a row: he checked it yesterday, it started to work with no problem.... as soon as he left, it had an error message! So much for expensive, state of the art machinery.... oy!

Everyone be good and safe.... take care of yourselves and remember to love each other... even if someone doesn't love you back!

Just here... for the moment.....

I've received sooooo many emails from people telling me to "come back!" and "I miss your posts!" and "I miss you!!!".... and I thank you all from the depths of my heart for not forgetting me! Well, my story is the same- but thank Allah, I've finally gotten the new flat to where everything I have is in it's right place- still waiting for my bloody boxes from Alex, though... but that is a whole other diaster. The good folks here decided in customs that I shipped too many things and that ALL of it couldn't be for me and my kids- like I brought my entire life here to sell! The nerve! The guts! The gall! And they charged me a HUGE HUGE fine as a penalty for sending my things here to set up my life- soooo very nice of them- a few THOUSAND US dollars.... thank you, Egypt. pfft..........

And I'm extremely exhausted still from the initial move, the move again and all the unpacking... and with my little hijabi Princess, Big Papi and Little Papi in tow, things haven't really slowed down much. And for those who don't know (only those who were closest to me have been privvy to the details) I'm expecting.... again! So, there's the other reason for all my tiredness- came here with my troops, alone and pregnant and trying to make it all work- even my ob/gyn here has told me he's in complete awe of me! Foreign land, no help, no hubby here at the moment, came alone with small children, moved, moved again... and all while very much pregnant and not feeling well. Well, me, I believe you do what you gotta do- at any cost so, there it is in a nutshell. If you see me, I look about 2-3 months OVERDUE but I'm not due until sometime this summer.... it's funny how much bigger the belly gets with each baby! Just to give you an idea: when I was pregnant with my first, the Hijabi Princess, everyone thought I was having twins and I even heard triplets... and you know how the belly expands with each one- so imagine what I look like now??? :)

The looks before when I wasn't so big was like "Maybe she's still carrying that baby belly from that baby on her hip" but now people just look at me like "???" and some are like "MashaAllah...." yes, I AM carrying a baby on my hip and VERY much pregnant- again.... HA!

I will try to post more now that things have calmed down some- take my new camera out the box finally so I can take some pics of some sites soon... I promise to post them- don't expect anything fancy... just random shots of stuff and life around Cairo.

Please make dua for me and all my babies... we're here and making it by Allah's (SWT) mercy- and I feel we just might be able to make it work here. I've found some good people, Alhumdulillah, to be in my camp so I think with my new network, I just might elect to stick around for awhile... not to give up just because of the sometime crazy culture that exists here and the extremely rude, arrogant people- and let's not forget the lot that feel that they have bigger, smarter brains than the rest of us but are very HIGHLY uneducated- makes me chuckle. Gotta take the bad with the good- I've also met some fabulous Egyptian sisters, MashaAllah- the kind I wanna be around: good, practising sisters who have it together: Islam over culture! I've decided to do my usual- laugh at the rest mentioned above and keep moving... stupid is as stupid does.... and my girlfriend from England who is married to a nice Egyptian, has explained some of the customs here to me- she also used to think most stuff was crazy but when you do dig a little deeper, you realize WHY they do some of the things they do and it makes sense when you stand back... but other stuff, you're still like ??????????????????????????????????????????????????

Anyhoo, time for tea and put Little Papi down for his morning nap- maybe we'll get a chance to go out and enjoy the weather today! I love you all, for the pleasure of Allah!

Finally... greetings from Al Rehab, New Cairo!

Well.... we finally made it, Alhumdulillah! Been in Rehab since the 27th of February, waiting for an internet connection (to which I was told was already in my flat) so I was literally cut off from the REAL world until yesterday when I met the fab Umm Travis! She called me since my other sister, Umm Ismail, has been in constant contact with me and knew I wasn't feeling so great since arriving (another wonderful perk about living here- constantly sick) so she reached out to my sister- and she called!

We met at one of the most popular malls here and it was great... I can honestly say, I felt like I knew her forever! I developed an instant love and bond with her in my heart- InshaAllah, I hope it grows ever so stronger! (hugs)

So, getting back to this internet thingy, you know, I wouldn't have been soooo pissed if people would just actually be forthcoming with info. Don't tell me the guy is coming tomorrow, tomorrow and tomorrow never comes. If you tell me, "Hey, Anisa, can't have internet for 3 weeks", I can accept that but to keep blantantly lying to me is NOT cool. Quickest way to my bad side? Do just that... things will go sour in NO TIME...

So no more waiting for a stupid DSL connection as my fab sister told me about the store where I already hooked up my mobile service thru, that they offered a wireless modem (and I didn't know anything about this- not very computer savvy at all) so when we went in to check it out, I was sold! At bit more than I was looking to spend for the internet but at this point, I would pay almost any amount to be in touch with my friends and family! They all are going bonkers in New York (and the rest of America for that matter) wondering what the heck is going with me and my kids over here- most didn't want me to leave anyway so you KNOW the imagination is running wild with all sorts of weird stuff. People in their right mind wouldn't pack up their very small children and willingly fly them to a 3rd world country to live... lol

So... we are here.... dealing with the arrogance that is the way of the locals, and feeling like I've been placed in a time warp- dragged back about 100 years but I knew about all of this before I came so I can't complain by acting like I didn't know- just takes some getting used to. Having almost everything in life at your finger tips to going back to a "one horse town" like Umm Travis said in her post (more like donkey cart town)(lol) is alot to deal with at once- and I don't care HOW modern they seem, it's just NOT when u look closer... oh well.

Not feeling great today at all, went to bed shivering from chills like my poor daughter the night before so I'm coming down with something. So I think we'll be in the house for the next few days until I can feel up to snuff and the children are okay- they still have some lingering congestion and stuff going on.

Umm Trav, sorry for not such a fab first meeting (which is TOTALLY not me) (LOL) with all the running around shopping but I PROMISE, InshaAllAh, to make it up to you! Even my daughter took an instant liking to her- when she realized when we were getting in the cab that Umm Travis was missing, she said "Mommy, where's Auntie? We left her inside the store!" (meaning the mall). Yes, you left an impression with her. And my Big Papi was trying to pull up her niqab to see her face in the store.... always him, my little sourpuss! lol

Oh yes, Umm Trav.... met yet another character from Blogger? I know I'm pretty much very animated but THAT much? LOL LOL LOL

To all the sisters here in Cairo, looking to link up so send me your mobiles and home phone numbers, InshaAllah, so we can get together in the near future. And to all those who have my New York number- just give me a little time to figure stuff out here as how to connect everything and set it all up- then, InshaAllah, we'll be chatting like I never left!

Signing off to lay down for a hot minute- feeling rather yucky. More post to come, InshaAllah, about our adventures and the sorts here in the land of the pyramids!

How time flies....

My best girlfriend who recently moved to Saudi is currently visiting Cairo and we were chatting today about how fast time flies... on this same day, one year ago, we boarded Egypt Air from New York to Cairo- her and her youngest daughter and me and my two little terrors... with intentions on having a blast! Just a getaway, to take care of somethings for herself and me, to confirm my intentions (again) as to whether I really wanted to make that move. We had a trip planned to Hurgada when we were finished with shopping, shopping and did I mention shopping? lol

But things didn't exactly work out that way in the end- we had to cut our trip short after about 9 days as she had a very serious illness in her family. And on the night before we left, I had to have a frap from their Costa Coffee house in Al Rehab... it was raining and instead of me walking which seemed like a 1/4 of a mile (wasn't) I decided to cross a very wet wooden bridge which extended across a very elaborate water fall display... so guess what happened next? I went up the steep bridge okay but with having on high heeled boots, on the steep decline down, my feet began to slip... so I started to run-walk to avoid slipping... and all of a sudden, I couldn't stop! So, I had to think quick as I knew I was going to fall but definitely didn't want to fall on my stomach since I was 2 months pregnant and just a little paranoid (I had 2 miscarriages before that pregnancy) so I decided to brace my feet when I came to the end of the bridge so I ended up in a "arched cat stance"- when that happened, I heard three VERY loud snaps.... I couldn't walk! I managed to get up, limp to the coffee house (still had to get that drink... hey, I was pregnant!) and as I was standing there, I could feel my right ankle start to balloon up so big my boot felt tight around my ankle. Trying not to panic, I wasn't sure if it was broken as the pain was unbearable but I held it in like a trooper (helps to have a high pain tolerance...) and made it back to my hired car. The driver asked me what happened, and I told him I fell and I'm not sure if it's broken... he immediately drove me to my friend's flat, took my kids home and raced me to the hospital there in Rehab. Not long after arriving, they summoned the doctor from I think home, took three x-rays of my right ankle and we awaited the results... totally fractured in three places! The doctor made a cast, told me to buy a shoe, bear the pain since I was expecting and follow up with my doc when I got back home- I was ordered to wear it for 6 weeks and then have it evaluated further...

We left Cairo the next morning in route home... my husband was a wreck when we arrived for some reason he thought I said my right hand so he was a bit relieved to see it was my ankle... and that everyone in the end, was okay. On the flight home, I was miserable and feeling a little queasy which I NEVER do when I'm pregnant- my husband ALWAYS have my pregnancy symptoms eg: back pain, nausea, vomiting, food cravings, etc... talk about funny! But I couldn't wait to get home, in my house and elevate my feet...my kids were trying to rub it for me to make me feel better while I suffered thru that immense pain- I kept trying to sleep it off.... didn't work.

So we laughed today at exactly how time flies and reminisced about our lovely trip... I can't wait to see her late next month / early February, InshaAllah- may Allah reward her for being a very good sister (Ameen). I can't wait to have henna parties and sleep-overs! (LOL)

Raf, I love ya!

Just a little more closer now.....

I've been going a little nuts lately with trying to figure out what should be my next move with the BIG move we're untaking... I kinda feel like I'm in limbo- so much to do but don't where to start while other things can't begin because other things need to happen first... Ugh.

But, finally a step in the right direction, my hubby's friend has a shipping company he uses for his business and they, Alhumdulillah, have an excellent rate with shipping goods overseas so InshaAllah, this is the company I'll send my things with- that was a HUGE relief! Now, I spoke to my contact in Cairo earlier today and he's finalizing who he will deal with on that end to get my things from Alexandria to Cairo.... he's going to give me the details tomorrow, InshaAllah!

So.... here we are.... getting closer.... bags are being packed slowly.... finding out what's left to be bought (probiotics, vitamins, kid medicine, etc.)... last minute things to sell.... things to give away as charity.... buy my tickets.... get together with my girls before I leave and they leave for their destinations (Saudi, Australia, Florida and such)... make my rounds for my goodbyes to my family and friends.... take my kids to their last Disney show in New York.... call those I won't see to tell them I'll contact them when I arrive in Cairo via phone or after I get internet service (which I hope will be ASAP- I must have a computer at my immediate disposal!).... and the list goes on.

I really don't expect to have any entries about anything exciting until we actually get there- I'm sure that's when the REAL fun is going to start (yeah right) ;)

Slowly... but surely

Well, just wanted to say that things are stagnant right now with the moving process... I guess there's not much else to be done except find a credible shipping company that can come to my home and pick up what I need to ship. The hubby keep long hours and I can't get these boxes to any of the many local carriers by myself as I need a commercial van or open pick up truck to get the stuff there- and it's all heavy! This seems to be the hardest thing left to handle before I bid my home adieu...

Not looking forward to arriving in Cairo in the winter but it'll still be WAY warmer there than it is here! lol