Happy Birthday to a music man

My man's bday is today..... so thought I'd post a pic here of him in the studio... it's one of my favorites.

May you have a wonderful day Hashim.... I love you.

Happy day everyone!!

Happy Birthday to The Man

Tomorrow's the hubby's birthday! The BIG 3-0!!!!!! and he thinks he's soooo old. I guess that makes me a dinosaur! ;)

Was planning to do a surprise bday party for him, but since it's impossible to plan anything w/out his knowing every tiny detail, I settled for a bday dinner w/ some of his friends.... which he first refused to do, but has since given the okay. :)

Happy Birthday lovies.... I hope you have a wonderful day tomorrow... and I hope the bday dinner on Friday is something you'll always remember. I wish you nothing but happiness in the coming year.... and for things to slow down so the next 10 years seem like 50! :)

a fabulous read

My sister introduced me to this book when I got to Calif. It's only been in the last 3 days that I've picked it up. Now, I can't put it down. Stayed up until 2 a.m. last night reading this darn thing and woke up at 6 thinking about it. Actually, I couldn't fall back to sleep because my mind kept going over everything that had happened.

Then I started thinking about hubby leaving and the fact that he'll be here tomorrow.... so sleep, I knew, would not come back to me.

This book pulls on my heart strings. I found myself crying at several points last night... when Amir's father died, when his best friend from childhood, Hassan, and Hassan's wife had been shot by the Taliban in Afghanistan. This was all after learning that Hassan had been his brother which only made the shame in his heart all the heavier because of what he had done to Hassan and his father,
Ali, years ago.

Then to find out that Hassan had a son and Amir is given the task of returning to war torn Afghanistan to find him.... but... is he a strong enough man to do this?

This is where I am at the moment. I can hardly wait to get back to it, but there are so many things to do today, so I guess it'll be another late night for me tonight. :) And really, I can't wait. I love books like this.... the ones that capture me immediately, hold on and don't let go until the bitter end.

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Naief's bday party is this Saturday. Hashim gets in tomorrow at 1 - I can hardly wait. We found out last night that more ppl are coming than first expected so I called the bakery this morning and changed the cake order. Have to run to the Dollar Tree shortly to pick up more decorations, plates, napkins, table cloths, toys for two addt'l bags for the addt'l kids, and I should be ready.

Me and my sis will make the menu tonight... what to make, what to make. I think we're doing pizza and some fabulous chicken from some mexican place, and then lots of dips and finger foods, beer, sodas and maybe a few games. I'm also thinking or will prob get one of those big bouncy tent things for the kids.... I just hope it doesn't rain.

The rain seems to linger and linger. I love the rain, but I'm truly sick of it. I want it to warm up, get sunny and allow us some time to enjoy some sight seeing and maybe even go to the ocean w/ Naief. Not to swim mind you, but just to walk, play in the water - maybe a little - and relax.

Hashim has been so busy at work and then spending all his other hours in the studio. He's totally ready for a relaxing vacation... and I'm so ready for him to be here. I hope the baby recognizes him .... but I'm sure if he doesn't, it won't take any time for him to realize who it is.

aaahhhhh... this is my first bday party to throw. I'm anxious. I'm not a big "life of the party" type of person, so I opted out of opening the presents in front of everyone and we'll wait for Naief's bday to do so. I just hope I'm calm on Saturday and able to relax and enjoy his first birthday party.

Here we are

Gosh... it's been almost a week since being in Cali and haven't gotten into an argument w/ my sister one time... okay, maybe a tiny little spat, but it ended quickly, so all is happy on the Jahooni and Um Naief cloud! :)

Naief is still trying to get used to the time change. He's waking up at midnight wanting to play... which last night my sister got us up, played for a while, and he slept until 8:30 this morning!!!! What a relief since he's been waking up at 4:30 and 5 in the morning every day.

We've been spending our days shopping for Christmas presents, stocking stuffers... and even a few things for myself... yeah, how could I not, especially since they're carrying Vera Wang at Kohl's now and her pajamas are to DIE FOR!!!! Oh my gosh, they are sooooo soft... your skin melts in them, believe me!

Stocking stuffers are the hardest to get... I rack my brain trying to come up w/ things to fill stockings, and buying for hubby has always been the hardest for me, but this year... with a little help from my sister, I was able to get things to fill his stocking w/out a problem!

And mentioning stockings, I COULD NOT believe the difference in sizes of the stockings between me and my sister and Hashim's was quite small comparetively speaking (and yes, we're talking about sister jealousy here! ;) ). My mother made me and Hashim stockings two years ago and sent them to us filled w/ goodies, so this year she tells me to bring them w/ me - which I did - and what did my wondering eyes see when I got here, you may ask??!!! My sister's stocking is two sizes bigger than mine!!! Yep! Even the dog's stocking is bigger than mine and hubby's !!! Oh.. and if you know me, that was a no go, so I marched in to my mother and told her right off that that would have to be fixed :)!! So yesterday my momma made me and hubby new stockings!! and now sisterpoo is complaining that mine is bigger than hers! Can you believe it!?? I can... but I laugh because it's been how many years that she's been getting gobs more stocking stuffers than me... matter of fact, there have been years that I haven't even gotten a stocking from my mom... so this is only fair, the way I see it! ;) hehehe AND... found out this morning that she actually measured the stockings last night when one of her friend's was over.... uh huh.... she can hardly stand that my stocking is as big as hers now!!


And... and all of you might figure, I miss my husband a lot. This is the first vacation I've taken w/out him and for it to be such an extended length of time, well... it makes me sad on days... but the daily shopping excursions have helped w/ that somewhat! ;) Altho, I know Hashim is not too happy to hear that! But hey.. I haven't had Christmas w/ my family... well, my sister in about 5 years and ... my mom, well, it's been about 9 or more years, so I see this year as special. Coz who knows when the next time will be that I get to spend the holidays w/ them and such an extended length of time!

My sister has a dog and it's been a difficult task in getting Naief used to him. If I sit Naief down on the floor, the dog is usually all over him... not being mean or anything, just wanting to lick him and it scares Naief a bit, so he usually cries and doesn't want to do anything but be held, which is hard for me. He's also not particularly keen on being held or watched by my mom... crying when I leave the room and when I left to get gas the other day, he went into a complete crying fit, and then when I took a shower, my mom thought she was gonna have a panic attack because of the way he started acting.... so that's been hard, to say the least. I feel like I have a siamese twin and it makes it hard to do anything... but I'm trying to see it as a good thing and know that soon enough he won't even want me to hold him... but it's hard.

Anyway... this has been our time in a quick nutshell. We have a dinner party to go to this weekend, so I'll be making a pie to take - one of my favorites - and then I'm gonna do some baking over the next several days... making some Christmas cookies, brownies and such. The nice thing about here is that they have ready-made pie shells, which is nice. Never tried them, but have heard their just as good as the real thing, so I'm gonna give 'em a whirl this time around.

Happy shopping everyone... and Happy Eid to everyone in Bahrain!

Miss you Hashim!