We had a busy day today. Ammar had his first day of the service until Feb 5th, so he had to work on the weekends, too. While he went to work, Nadia, Aidan, Nina (Nadia's sleep over friend) and I went to go swimming so they could have fun before I returned Nina back home. This is Nadia's second time having Nina sleeps at our house.

When we got home, Ammar had already home, and the house which we left upside down, was sparking neat and clean.... he is sooooo sweet!

I put the kids to bed and we sat in the sunroom together, spending our time chatting and joking around while I studied my GRE prep, and he signed his patients note.

At night, I enjoyed the warm jasmine tea in front of the fire place while watching and really enjoying the view of my husband sitting down, cuddling with the kids watching 'the incredibles'. Those are my favorite people in the world, my hearts, and my whole life. I can't imagine living without one of them.... They are so precious, thank you God for them.

Lots of things happened this year.

It brought me to be wiser and happier.
Mostly, I am so blessed for what I have, especially blessed to have a wonderful family, wonderful husband, wonderful kids, and wonderful life. I have great friends, and I do lots of stuff I really like.

Miss Andrea, our baby sitter and our house keeper, Angie have been really big help in my life. They are so wonderful and I can't ask for more.

I got bad things happened recently, I crushed my car and crushed other people's car, but what a blessing, everything came and resolved so fast. Within 2 hours I got my rent a car, police reports, insurance appraisals, and rent a car. This won't happened that fast if Ammar didn't come right away, instead of keep driving to work, but came after me and drove me out to insurance office, and the auto body shop where my car towed to this store and got my rent a car within 15 minutes. I am sorry that his patients had to wait until he came to work.
It was not my fault so I got everything under control, the insurance was so fast and informed me about the car, now it's being repaired and within couple of weeks I should get my car back.

I also lost my dearest brother. Until now, I still can't overcome my sadness of losing him at the very young age.

Those 2 incidents made me realized how fragile our life is and how much I appreciate what I got, what I have and I can't thank God enough for all the best things happened in my life, especially my family in my country, my children, and mostly Ammar.

Happy New Year 2010.

It's Christmas, and we had a lazy day.

I woke up in the morning with 2 projects on my bedside, from Nadia. She made me a pine tree and a rose from lego. She came to my bed and said : "mommy, I made something for you. It's rose and christmas tree"

It's a nice thing to start my day!

She also played 3 different games while the boys took the nap.
I can't believe how big my girl is.

She grows up to be a very sweet little girl (I really am not making it up. She is really sweet!), especially to me... every time Ammar made fun of me, she would jump and said :"No Daddy, mommy is good, she is the best... I love her so much" and came to give me a big hug and kisses..

I

It's thanksgiving. My friend from my old dental school in Indonesia who lived in Chicago came to visit with his family.
We also had other 3 families over to give thanks with us with the yummiest turkey dinner and the turkey "little daughter" (humongous chicken).
I managed to sit every one on the table and had a formal dinner. The kids are all in the different table and the adults sit on our formal dining room.
Nadia and Aidan had a blast playing with the other kids. I put Aidan to bed at 10 pm and he went down again knowing that Nadia was still playing with Nicholas and Darian downstairs. The kids ended up sleeping at 12 midnight while me and two friends did our first time crazy shopping, leaving at 1 am and came back at 5 am, leaving the husbands with kids at home. On the top of it, I have them all last minute sleep over. It was really fun, the kids had blasts, and we continued the fun for having lunch together at the yummiest dimsum restaurant in town.

My friends from Chicago stayed until Sunday, and we really had a wonderful time together with their little girl, Vivian, who is 1.5 year old. The fun was that she was so happy playing outside in our yard with Nadia's teddy bear cozy and warm costume. She looked so cute in it and she had fun touching the grass and walked on the huge empty space while Nadia and Aidan drove the car around the yard. The last hour before they left, I set up the studio lights and took pictures of them and my kids for Christmas card.

Today is Aidan's babysitter's birthday, Miss Andrea.

She has been having lots of trouble in her life, money-wise.
Her car broke down, and she doesn't have health insurance. In every situation, she is a wonderful baby sitter. She used to work at my kids' old school, now I take her to be Aidan's babysitter. She is a hard worker, never complains, and my kids love her so much.

Sometimes she got in my mind, I wish I have the whole money I could spend to help her up, I could only do so much, ...

Today is her birthday, finally with help from everyone, she could fix her car, and had it back working 3 days ago, slowly things get better for her.

I took her out for nice lunch at Olive Garden, with the kids. Nadia is off school today, so Nadia stayed with Aidan and Miss Andrea in the morning while I ran around going the thanksgiving dinner shopping for our guests tomorrow. We met at the restaurant, and we all had a great time. That's the least I could do to make her happy on her birthday.

Happy birthday, Miss Andrea, we love you so much!

The digital era is a blessing, but it also swamps you. I have never imagine myself having to take pictures endlessly, hundreds of pictures every day, and not to worry to buy anymore rolls of films.

I love taking pictures, but boy, now I realize it is really time consuming to organize all the pictures. I am buried under miles and miles of photos above me, and it drives me nuts, but I can't stop taking pictures especially at this season, it's just simply beautiful. Everywhere you drive, you see winding roads and beautiful colorful scenery around you, beautiful colors, and beautiful people around.

Loved it!

I have a friend who is so sweet. She is a super mom I call her. She home schools her son, a sweet boy named Brendan, and she is an awesome cook.
I haven't seen her so much lately although our houses are quite near, 5 minutes away.

Today, I came to her house, Aidan had fun playing with Brendan, and she taught me how to make bread. I tried making bread myself, and it didn't come even close to what she made. She generously taught me how to make bread from A - Z, she even gave me all the tools I need to make a loaf of bread, on the top of it, she brought me home the bread we cooked today.

I drove home and the first thing I did when we got home was slicing the bread, ate it, and wow! That was the best whole wheat bread I have ever tasted.

Thank you, Sue. I love you!! Thanks so much. You are amazing!

Everything happens for a reason.
If God loves you, things happen for the better.
All you need to do is believe in God and pray.

I believe God gives blesses for individual who gives blesses.
If you are a giver, God will give you more.

Blessed, hope our family is given blessings.
Amin.