What a week!!

Well, another week has blown by and I can't believe the girls start school this coming Thursday!Our last week of Summer vacation was filled with activity, starting with a trip to the newly re-opened Liberty Science Center last Sunday. Mohammed has a corporate membership through work and we love to go there with the girls. The new layout of the building was unrecognizable, but more fun for the girls than ever. We walked around for several hours and saw an entirely new (live) animal exhibit, along with a "surgery" show. Later in the day, the girls even participated in a real science experiment where they collected DNA (well, wheat germ DNA, that is, but it was still cool!).

Midweek, I finally went in for my thryoid biopsy. I was a little nervous, but I have to say it wasn't all that bad. Better yet, my results were reassuring, as there were no malignant cells present! Now to see what the next step is!

Later in the week, Leena had her Kindergarten orientation. It kind of snuck up on us, and I didn't remind her until the morning of the orientation. Unfortunately, Leena is not as gung-ho as Yasmeen was at this stage in her life. She managed to keep it together long enough to meet her teacher and visit her classroom. They even gave the class a mock bus ride to familiarize them with the bus rules (this was not Leena's favorite part). Thankfully, she met a little girl that had been in her dance class this past year, so the 2 held hands and walked off together! I can't believe my baby is going to start ELEMENTARY school! Time to focus on the next phase in life now, I suppose...

And that brings me to today. Mohammed had to leave for a business trip to LV this morning so the girls and I are going solo for the weekend. We'll miss him, but also look forward to him coming home Sunday morning! Thankfully, we'll be meeting Aileen for dinner later today and keeping busy with school preparation STUFF and getting the house in order before the craziness of fall begins. I hope you all have a fabulous Labor Day Weekend!

Birthdays and more Birthdays...

So we've had 3 birthdays in our extended family this month! My SIL, Mona celebrated her day on the 12th, my brother celebrated on the 21st and my nephew just 2 days ago, on the 23rd! I can't believe Joey is 19! I remember when my sister was pregnant and gave birth to him an entire month early. He was so tiny and delicate...well, he's neither now. Joey is a big, strong 19 year old and as handsome as ever (don't kill me for posting this Joey!!). We all stopped by at Aileen's today for a birthday BBQ, but with the heat up to 97 degrees, and the humidity so high that the sweat poured off you like you were jogging in the desert, we pretty much stayed inside the cool AC all afternoon. We missed the cake because of a previous committment, but I just want him to know that we love him very much and that the girls have officially put him on their "ok to get in my bed" list along with the family cats and select family members (thankfully, both Mohammed and I made the list). Here's to many more birthdays to come, and a little flashback of Joey at just a few months old (and this past year).

Sleepovers, Scramp night, and more (oh my)!

Well, this past week has been a whirlwind of activity at our home. First, the girls hosted their first sleepover with friends on Wednesday into Thursday. I had several activities tenatively planned, but the whole event went rather smoothly and we actually rushed to get in the last of the planned events before the friends had to go home. We had two five year olds, one 7 year old, and a twelve year old...so it was great that somehow they all managed to make the sleepover work. They played, swam, ran, danced, watched movies, snacked, played some more, did several crafts and at the end of the evening, conked out cold!

Thursday was uneventful, but I started tidying up for the big event in our home that comes around each month-SCRAMP night. This is where a group of women get together in my house and stamp and scrapbook into the wee hours of the morning. It's a great time, and if you haven't scrapbooked, don't knock it...we can hang until 2am just chatting, rubber stamping, scrapbooking, snacking and making cards. Tons of fun and pretty productive most of the time. Since we start at 7pm, we usually take a few hours to get settled in, but by midnight, the party is in full swing, and so is our conversation! But, that's another post...

Friday, I shopped, swept, mopped, cleaned, decluttered, set up shop and scrapbooked. What fun (at least the last part)!

Today was just the girls and I for most of the day. Mohammed was out with the fire department in the morning, and then helping some friends paint their new house--Go Yankos! So...I thought it was just a good a day as any to go back to school/dance classes/tennis lesson shopping today. We made a lot of headway and Leena and Yasmeen scored on all fronts. YIKES--who knew jazz booties could be so expensive! Anyway, they cooperated, and even decided to have a fashion show complete with pictures.

Well, I'm off to finish a layout I started last night and then need to start planning for an upcoming workshop this week, as well as a class at a local craft store for September. Hope you are all keeping just as busy as we are!

Hugs :-)

Keeping busy...

For those of you who know me well, you know that I am a scrapbooking addict. Well, lately, my mojo has hit the high road and I couldn't get around to doing anything productive when it came to dealing with photos, paper and embellishments. So I started doing something, anything, just to try to break through the creative block I was experiencing. Below you see a little of what has been occupying my time lately. Making tons of page kits (lookout, something creative is coming your way soon) and also doing a lot of photo editing on Photoshop (who needs wrinkles anyway??). I even broke out of my box a little and did this crazy cat layout you see here. The straight and clean lines on the Princess layout is much more my "style", but hey, I can't complain! Little by little my motivation is returning, and for that I am grateful! I don't know what I would do as a sanity saver if I stopped scrapbooking-heck, just writing it is blasphemy in my book! Have a great day...

We finally got our FREAK on!

Yes, we did it! We took a ride to Coney Island this weekend and saw the freak show. What else were you thinking? Well, after having passed it on the way to JFK a couple of weeks ago, Mohammed mentioned that we should really try to come out to CI sometime. Now, CI is one of my childhood haunts. I was born and raised in NYC, and my Mom was always up to taking the F train out to Brighton Beach to spend the day on the beach. That was decades ago, and from what I remember, it was a bit scary back then. I warned the Khashab crew, but they insisted, so off we went! We lucked out with parking (gotta love those broken meters), but I was leary about getting out of the van. It didn't help that we parked about 3 blocks from the actual amusement park area. I grabbed my cell and put it in one pocket and my debit card in another. I wasn't about to take my purse...that was for sure. Ok, if I'm sounding like a sheltered suburbanite, it's because I am, at this point. Hey, when was the last time you were in Brooklyn? Anyway, I digress...we made it up the street just fine and then I spotted it-a JAMAICAN BEEF PATTY stand. Yes, I was back! I hadn't had one of those since college (undergrad, that is) and I wasn't leaving there without one. We walked around for a while, on the boardwalk, taking in the sights (and what a sight it was) and eating some DELICIOUS Nathan's hot dogs. The girls enjoyed the atmosphere, although they can't tell the difference between Coney Island and Point Pleasant (we could!). We heard some sounds of the carribean coming up the boardwalk and saw a Puerto Rican band playing Salsa, which was fun. Then we were ushered into a Freak Show by a very convincing man who nailed a large nail into his nose. Not to be overshadowed, we also saw Serpantina, the lady who pranced around in a very scary outfit while holding a 15 ft albino python. The one in the picture below is just a baby! WOW-what a show...very interesting, Coney Island style for sure. Then the girls rode some rides, we bought the obligatory snacks (cotton candy and italian ice) and headed back to the van. I managed to get that Jamaican beef patty on the way back and boy was it good. Unfortunately, I had heartburn the whole way home, but hey, how often do I get to eat one of those? Hope you had a adventurous weekend too!

Scrapbooking Enabler Alert....

Ok, so I've given all you scrapper's out there fair warning. Today was a quiet day, except for the frenzy of cleaning and straightening out that is usual before one of my stamping classes. We are working on these cute, little "exploding" scrapbooks in a box you see below...but, that is another story! So, in the middle of the day, while getting ready for tonight, I received this package from http://www.frugalities.com/ and boy was I HAAAAAPPPPYYYYY! This website is famous for giving up to 49% off retail prices for all the scrapbooking supplies that they carry. What's the catch, right? Well, shipping is a little high, so save all your purchases for one, bigger shipment, since I think it starts at about $8 and well...the wait is a little long, too. It takes about a week to process an order, and then a week for shipping, but the deals are great. They limit your purchases to just 1 of each item, but I've been known to place multiple orders of the same thing-SHHHH. Here's my goody bag that arrived today--that's all I need to get my scrapping inspiration on. So, how's that for enabling? What have you created today?

Something New...

Ok, so we've decided to start a little something on this blog so that we can share some stuff with my friends and family that might otherwise be swept under the rug or forgotten about despite the best of intentions. Some of it will be personal, some professional, some ordinary, some not so ordinary, some mundane, some exciting, some about me, some about Mohammed and the girls, but all about life. I hope you take the time to comment on our posts and keep us updated as well. Here are a few pictures I'll share with you about what's been going on with us so far this summer. Enjoy!