All Moved In...

I can't believe that it has been nearly 3 months since my last post, but I have to defend myself and say that we have been very busy here at the Khashab household! After tying up the last of the loose ends at 51 Taurus Drive, we (finally) closed on our new house and have been hard at work putting things in order. We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our new space and the girls have adjusted beautifully to their new neighborhood, home and school.

The new house is great. We have lots of room to spread out and I've even been accused of ignoring some visitors when they come knocking on the door because I can't hear the doorbell from upstairs! A big difference compared to our condo where I couldn't escape the noise in the house anywhere! We've just finished setting up the girls' rooms and they are loving their independence away from each other. They haven't done such a terrible job of keeping their rooms pretty neat, either (with a little prodding from us).

I have taken over the formal living room as my scrap space (that is, until we finish off that fabulously large basement in a few years). Although it seems like my supplies keep multiplying, I'm working hard to keep things under control ;-). And the best news of all--Mohammed has become quite the handyman since taking over this house. I'm so very, very impressed with the skills he has developed--including plumbing, carpentry and painting! He even took down our entire master closet and installed a custom set-up that I am proud to show off to anyone who walks through the door! Decorating is fun, too. At our last place, I somehow never got around to decorating much--maybe it's because when we moved in I had an infant and was already (unbeknowst to me) pregnant with Leena. It's different now, and I'm enjoying thinking up different decorating options and, YES, shopping for those neat touches that will make this house a home for us.

I hope those of you local to us will pay us a visit soon, as I've become quite the hostess. Well, technically, I've only hosted family and playdates so far, but I have GOALS, people! With a killer deck and a hot tub outside, the party is just waiting to begin.

Take care of yourselves, and enjoy a few pics of us during the move and after, too. Don't you just love our sleeping arrangements on our last night at the old house??!!! And how about that sunrise view from our NEW upstairs window?

Busy, Busy, Busy...

Happy New Year, everyone! We had a busy wrap-up to our year, including a trip down South to visit the grandparents in North Carolina. We had a really nice time and the girls loved visiting with their grandparents and playing with their cousins. Yasmeen was especially enthralled with little Devante-her 2 year old cousin. We took walks, made Gingerbread cookies, played, went to the Nutcracker Ballet, went to the movies, and even stopped by to visit Chuck-E-Cheese. Of course, for me, no trip would be complete without a stop at my now favorite scrapping store, Carolina Memories. Yep, I did some damage there, but it turns out they are going out of business :-( and everything was 30% off--Can't beat that!

We also received some good news while we were away...we finally SOLD OUR HOUSE! Yep, we received an offer and negotiated long distance, and when we got back we were in Attorney Review. We are officially under contract now with a closing date of March 15th, BUT...no house on the other end. We have looked and looked and nothing fits us just right. We have put 2 offers in already and lost both for one reason or another (mostly the contingency on our property closing). I'll tell ya, people aren't kidding when they say selling and buying a house are STRESSFUL! We saw some new places Sunday and also today, so at least there are some prospects! So, for now we are in limbo and trying hard to make life as normal as possible for the girls, all the while dealing with inspection reports and appraisals on our current home.

Well, here's to an amazing 2008. Let's hope the next time I check in there will be some good news!!!

Feeling better...

Wow, it's been over 2 weeks since my last post and I have to say that although I've had good days and bad days since our sad news in late November, overall, I am feeling better. My body is healing and my mind is focusing on being positive. Mohammed ad I have had several events with the girls in the past couple of weeks, including a visit to Mohammed's firehouse with Leena's Daisy Troop (Yasmeen was there too!), Leena's kindergarten concert, and a gingerbread making session in Leena's classroom that I volunteered for. We've also taken a little time alone to ourselves, and I've even hosted my first Stampin' event since the news this past Friday and had a nice time with some friends.

Our home has yet to sell, but we are hopeful that things will improve in the new year. We've gone out with our realtor to see some larger homes, and it's amazing what a good chunk of money CAN'T get you in NJ! I've been keeping my chin up as my mantra for the New Year is to "Be Positive", but it's hard when you see one house after another that don't even come close to what we had in mind when we wanted to "trade up" from our townhouse. I guess in the end, we'll focus on our main features in a home that we can't live without and endure the rest until we can make improvements on it. Let's see where 2008 takes us...

In the next week, we plan on taking a trip down to North Carolina to visit the in-laws. Initially after our news, we cancelled this trip, but I thought a change of scenery and some much welcomed warm weather would do all of us some good. So, off we go, while the girls are on Winter break. I'll be sure to post some highlights from this trip when we get back.

I hope everyone who celebrates Christmas has a blessed one surrounded by friends and family, and to those who will be celebrating Eid in the next few days, Eid Mubarak, my friends and family! A belated Hannukah wish to everyone else. Whew...this is one busy month!!

Hugs to all,

Janet and the gang!

Transitions...

It's been over a month since my last post and we have been going through many changes in our household. First, we placed our home on the market and started looking for a bigger house in anticipation of the news that we were expecting baby #3. It was an extremely stressful week prior to listing our home due to all of the preparations that we had to make to show it. From packing up 1/2 our belongings and putting them in storage, to rearranging and moving furniture, to cleaning, organzing, packing and sorting, to buying new accesories like bed sheets and candles...we barely kept it together when we finally signed a contract with Remax! Thankfully, we had already planned to take our last family vacation as a family of 4 to Orlando soon afterwards.

In Orlando, we enjoyed a thoroughly relaxing and fun 6 days together. We visited Shamu at Sea World, made our way around Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure and ate at a number of great restaurants!

Upon getting back, the madness of impromptu showings and the task of keeping the house in selling condition began. It hasn't been so bad, but I know I am under a serious amount of underlying stress and it's taken its toll...

Just this past week, I went to my 1st OB appointment at 10 weeks gestation and we were told the awful news that our baby had no heartbeat and stopped growing at about 7 weeks--around the time we were in Florida.

Our family has definitely been an emotional wreck these past 2 days, but we are trying to look forward into the future and are hopeful that when the time is right, we will try again. Sadly, we were all looking forward to welcoming this child into our family and we have all taken the news very hard-most of all myself and Yasmeen. I am trying to take 1 day at a time and keeping an attitude of faithfulness that will see us through this time. It's hard, but we'll make it! I am grateful for the support I have received from so many of you and we sincerely thank you for your concern and thoughtfulness.

Here's to transitions...both good ones and bad ones, but nevertheless necessary ones. For it is through change that we grow and learn to appreciate all that we are blessed with. May the next time I post here be a time filled with good changes and happy news!

Until next time...I'll leave you all with some photos of our happy memories in Florida...

More celebrations taking place...

Well, since the last post, my little Leena celebrated her 6th birthday and my parents celebrated their 46th anniversary. Talk about something to celebrate!! For Leena's birthday, my sister kindly offered to decorate her house for a family party for Leena since Mohammed was going to be out of town and Leena really wanted it there. Aileen did a great job putting up balloons and streamers and even kept to a very PINK and very dainty Princess theme for the event. Leena was shy as first, mostly because her cousin Joey's girlfriend, Miriam, was there. But, guess what! Daddy took an earlier flight back from Chicago and made it back to NJ just in time for cake!! She loved all her gifts-needless to say. Titi gave her, much after my own heart, a Fisher Price digital kid's camera. She was estatic because she had been unfortunate enough to lose her first camera of this type last year after receiving it from her grandparents. Now, all she wants to do is go around taking pictures of anything--well, almost anything--and she catches everyone (especialy me) off guard when she does it. Thank goodness it's a digital and erasing some of those pics is as easy as pressing the little garbage icon-LOL!

As for Mom and Dad...well, their anniversary actually fell on the day we celebrated Leena's birthday (both events are just 1 day apart). So it was 2 celebrations in one-although, I hate to admit that the little Princess may have taken center stage that day! Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad...you are a true inspiration to me and I am grateful to have grown up in the home that I did with the example that you 2 have set for us. I know I can speak on behalf of all of your children and grandchildren when I say "WE LOVE YOU" and wish you many more happy and healthy years together!

It's my birthday, and I'll sing if I want to...

Yep, I'm another year older and wiser today! For my special day, I decided I really wanted to take the girls toThe Rainforest Cafe for dinner. Maybe it was the fact that Mohammed is out of town and I was going to eat with kids in tow that made this particular place all the more appealing-after all, what kid doens't enjoy elephants, fish and gorillas--along with the occasional tropical rain storm thrown if for effect? My parents were sweet enough to meet us all out there. We had a great dinner and enjoyed walking around the jungle(but still missed you, Mohammed!). Then I remembered why I loved this place since the first time I had brought the girls here as just toddlers...IT'S FUN! Of course it was even more fun when the servers walked out with this HUGE volcano dessert and sang (shouted) Happy Birthday to me. Even with the 5 of us there, we couldn't finish 1/2 of it! Here are some pictures from our dinner as proof that it was a great evening...despite Yasmeen getting a little freaked out by the gorillas at first!

Love it when I get to see this...

Yesterday, Leena had her first Daisy meeting at our school and it went great. Yasmeen got to tag along for a change, and was great about helping out by taking pictures and escorting the little ones to the bathroom (and don't you know that EVERYONE has to go to the bathroom as soon as we start an activity??!!). So afterwards, we headed out to meet Mohammed at the firehouse while he wrapped up his house and grounds duty, and when we pulled up, I see him in the driver's seat of the firetruck in all his "gear". Yep, I love seeing that! I don't see him "in action" very often, so I think it's great when I get a glimpse of him in uniform--doing his thing. Hey, you know what they say about a man in uniform--especially when it's your hubby ;-). At that point, the girls were so excited to get into the truck with their Daddy, that they hopped out of the van faster than if they'd seen a bug on the window! Daddy backed one of the trucks into the bay and they "helped" him. Then he graciously agreed (sort of) to pose for this picture (and a few more). Thanks, Baby!! Love you!