Happy 10, Juju!

Born in Beirut, Lebanon, June 28, 1996.

Happy Birthday!

Heading West

I'm way behind in keeping up with birthdays and this blog! The gang visited me the weekend before last... time is just flying, I wish it could slow down a bit! The kids were very excited and puzzled by the apartment. Tala asked "Where's the upstairs?" many times, and Moody kept asking about the basement. It eventually sunk in that there was no upstairs and no basement.

This past weekend I drove to Columbus and "chilled" out with them... but not enough. I still cry every time I leave or they leave! Damn, it's not easy! To add to this, Sol and I are not on the same page... come the weekend and I want to do all the things I missed with the family, while he wants a break from all the handling and the hustle and the bustle of the week. At least, we both see that and recognize it. Hopefully we'll figure the point to meet in the middle before we go nuts, or nutter should I say!

Magda M., here is your request!

Next weekend is a long one, extended till the 4th of July. The gang is coming to Ft. Wayne on Fri. and we're heading to Chicago! Chicago has been on our list for a while, since the Sharks moved there... Well, here we come! We all can't wait... Sol and I are looking forward to the wonderful company Meem and T offer; the kids, who knows what the real reason is... Moody confuses khwaila Meem with the Toothfairy... lol. Is it because she's his Godmother or because of the gifts she sends him by mail?

Happy Birthday, Nuha!

Born in Benghazi, June 26, 1972.

Happy Birthday!

I miss you... Hope to see you soon, and the girls!

Happy Birthday... and Mabrook!

Happy Birthday!

Lui Elmagri, my nephew of Fairouz. Born in Benghazi, June 19, 1987--first grandchild to my parents!

Mabrook... Mabrook!

Shadda, Lui's sister, graduated from middle school (an important milestone in the Libyan education system) with an impressive score of 90.08%. Here she is, page 6, ID 264. Way to go Shushu!

Happy Father's Day!

Today is Father's Day in the US. We celebrated it, kind of, in the dead town of Fort Wayne. We got Sol two books, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by H. W. Brands; and a book that's pertinent to our current times, American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation by Jon Meacham (the managing editor of Newsweek.)

Here's to Dad: A very happy Father's Day... Enjoy reliving your childhood!

Wisdom of the day

Background: Hana's job is in the state of Indiana, and in discussing work with me, she has mentioned working with people based in India and also having coworkers from there. Moody overheard all of that.

Now, the exchange...

Dr. Donaldson: "So, what are you going to see in Indiana, Moody?"

Moody: "Indians!"

I bet he thinks Mom's coworkers ride on horses and wear feathered head dress! I am not going to say anything, just to see how far we'll drive into Indiana tomorrow before he asks,"Where are all the Indians?"

Happy Birthday, Walid!

My bro! Born in Tripoli, June 13, 1970.

Happy Birthday!

Here and There...

I drove back to Columbus on Friday evening. Saturday morning, I had two exams from 8:30 till 1 pm. Back home and we all went to Panera for lunch, picked up the party balloons and stuff, stopped for some more party supplies from Kroger's, and picked the cake--a Harry Potter one.

At the party place, we waited and waited and jumped and bounced, but nobody showed up. Moody kept saying, "It'll be sad if no one comes!" Well no one did, but we had fun nonetheless. The four of us jumped and bounced away for a full hour; it was hilarious and Moody was happy. At cake time, Moody asked Rachel, the girl they befriedned, to join us with her parents. They did, and we had a VERY interesting conversation with Rachel's parents.

When we got home, I opened one of the extra invitations sitting on the desk... It read "Date: Saturday, June 13!" What a mistake! Apparently, Barbi was absentminded when she filled them out. We explained to Moody why his friends didn't show up; he was not happy with Barbi and made it clear to her on Monday. Now we need to call everyone and make plans for ice cream outing this Saturday... gotta make up for Moody!

Finally, we got to work on the yard! Sunday morning we went to Oakland nursery got flowers, veggies, and herbs. The kids enjoyed it and helped choose flowers, most of which were red because it's my "favorite color," they kept saying. Moody helped Sol with the veggies and Tala was helping me using her "shovel," taking the topsoil the I put in the flowerpots. Shed did plant the white flowers she's posing proudly next to.

Sol in the picture in the middle of my perennial garden... I'm so proud of it! It was nothing like this when we got the house; was all a bed of weeds and three rose bushes we got rid of. I kept planting and rearranging perennial flowers every season and quite happy with the way it developed.

While Tala, Moody and I were working on the flowerpots, Sol spotted a tiny creature moving in the grass. To me it looked like a mouse, but sure was not when we had a close look at it. It was a tiny tiny baby that had no apparent eyes, an offspring of some animal... could be a mole.

I'm leaving to Louisville with the rest of the team in 30 minutes. I'm following the rest on my own car since it makes more sense for me to drive back to Columbus from there instead of coming all the way back here. Saturday will be Moody's makeup get together and then we'll head to Ashland for Moody's camp orientation. He'll be gone for a week starting July 31... sounds scary!

The graduate birthday boy!

Happy Birthday!

Today, June 2nd, 2006 is Moody's birthday and graduation day. Being born in 2000 made him a Y2K kid, and a Dragon Boy on the Chinese calendar. Not only was it a Friday, but a rainy Friday morning, just like today! Soon, I will post the story of Ahmed's birth and his name(s). [Aisha: stay tuned!] For now I just want to record this special day and wish my wonderful son "a thousand-thousand" happy birthdays!

Tala's Soccer & Tea Party Surprise

Summer is around the corner and a lot of activities are winding down, as new ones are set to begin. This is the last week of classes for all four of us, believe it or not! Yesterday was Tala's soccer final, and she got her medal and (gigantic, Tim Horton) water bottle (more like a barrel). It was fun, we took some pics and had icecream afterward.

Lefty takes the field!

Today was Tala's Tea Party at school, so I stayed home in the AM and went there with Moody. She was thrilled to see us! We, the parents, joined their circle time, sitting behind them as their teacher read them stories and played some act-along music. They had a blast, then some nice snacks and juice. The surprise was a little artwork from Tala to Mom and Dad, a combined Mother's-Day-Father's-Day gift. Here they are below, and make sure to read the little interview below each one! I loughed so hard at mine!

Tala expresses Love in some sort of Tifinagh script!

Coffee and Ba-Zing! Tala sure knows her Dad, lol lol lol
(Good guess by the teacher for Bazeen!)

Singin' in the Rain... In Fort Wayne

Today, I started my assignment at GE. Not much to say about it yet, but so far so good. I'll be flying to Louisville, KY, next week for meetings with the CEO and CIO. All the interns will be there, forty two of us representing twenty one universities. Oh, my assignment leader is a guy called Hanu!

The drive to Fort Wayne took me less than three hours; it was nice and relaxing; farms, cows, lots of cows, and Amish warning signs! Ft. Wayne is shabby and has this old industrial aura to it. Brick square buildings with cobblestone roads. It seems like I have traveled back in time. The GE offices are on top of their manufacturing facility, and the shortest way to get to the offices is to walk through the factory.

That's Eli in the picture in GE's Ecomagination commercial Singin' in the Rain. It's my favorite, of course. Really, imagination at work! Click here to watch the video.

I miss the kids and Sol... did my share of weeping when I arrived at the empty apartment yesterday. The kids didn't care much that I was leaving; they probably think it's like my other "leavings." It will sink in eventually. Sol thinks it's the price for teaching them to be independent and have no preference to one parent, kind of go with the flow and whoever is watching them.

Friday, is Moody's graduation party... From preschool! I'll miss it. It's his birthday too, yeppie! I'm driving back on Friday, after work, and we're having the party on Saturday. I'm also taking my finals on Saturday morning and I better get some studies done!

Miss you, guys! xox

Recital 2006

Before the Friday Show

Last weekend was recitals for the kids, the result of months of preparation. Both had performances on Friday, hip-hop for Moody and something called creative movement for Tala. On Saturday Tala had another show. They did a terrific job, and it was a very nice experience for them and us!

The school is called Generations, and it is a non-profit started by two sisters who teach there, along with a daughter of one and a whole lot of other volunteers. It is in an old building in uptown Westerville, and whenever I go there, the place is like a beehive with kids running around peacefully to/from classes, and parents steering them through. Over time you get to know the kids' faces, some of the names, siblings and parents. But you don't really see them doing their drills, except on the designated Parent Observation day.

Orderly bees on the bleachers! All smiles before the show

Likes the flowers, but still pouting

Ahmed had been in a recital last year, but this was Tala's debut. The show was held at a nearby highschool theater, and Friday evening was standing room only! We had to sit all the way in the back, which meant the kids wouldn't be able to see us. Moody was just fine, and he actually did his finest performance, waving his arm in the air, sliding on his knees and all. But little Tala came out on stage, starting out OK, then she started looking for us in the audience. By the end she just froze in place, looking out with a major pout! I had been telling Hana about my stage fright experience in 5th grade, the only time I ever took part in a stage performance like that, unless you count lecturing and such! I was the youngest in the dance group, and I had the spotlight in one part, which I always did fine except when I had those preshow jitters. I ended up OK, after encouragement from teachers, but it sure helped me a heck of a lot to see my father and my brother in the audience. Poor Tala was really stressed on Friday night. She came back out onstage for the finale. But after the show, we went to get the kids from the gym, and Tala just unloaded! She cried hard for a while, just releasing the stress, then she was able to relax and enjoy her cute flowers.

Getting ready for Round 2

On Saturday, we knew to get there early and grab the best seats in the house: center front row. Moody was sitting with us, and as it happened, also next to one of his dancemates, Alex. This was Moody's first experience watching the performance by kids he knew in the trenches. He'd seen the rehearsal and that helped him a lot with concentration in his number, but watching the recital really made the whole idea sink in even more for him. This time, Tala came out and she greeted us right away with her beaming smile. She was much more relaxed, did a charming number with her group, and was throwing kisses by the end!

Before this experience, there was soccer, ice skating, swimming, etc., but somehow the performance arts are so different. I don't know what it is, maybe the lights, the special clothes, makeup, crowd, or maybe it is all of those things. There were skinny kids, chubby kids, tall, short, white, black, kids with round heads, square heads, glasses, just all sorts of kids... It all hit me in the middle of the first show that they all had one thing in common: Just working their little big hearts out, and I told Hana that the whole thing was all about doing their best. It really works, and it is such an impressive sight to see, especially when you know how hard they trained. The amount of self discipline is just amazing, even among the three-year olds! Of course, there were lots of moments when they just kinda forgot what was going on and the'd just chat on stage, etc. lol lol But as soon as someone backstage gets their attention, theyd go back to performing-- with a passion! I can't wait to get the video of the shows, so I can watch them all over again. It's tough to resist the human spirit at its purest.

My fifth-grade show was in 1969, in celebration of Libyan Unification Day (April 1964?) when the Federation of three Libyan provinces evolved peacefully into the Kingdom. We used to practice after school in the unfinished theater of the Secondary (high) school behind my elementary/middle school. That year, 1969, was the last time that Unification Day was celebrated. In the summer break that followed, I learned a new word: revolution! That year was the year the music died for Libya. By the time I got to high school, the theater in which we had practiced was being used by gangs to sell moonshine! I wish all kids in the world get the opportunity and encouragement to do their best, even if it happens once a year, or even once in a lifetime. And thanks to all who helped me; in particular, I remember Kamal Buhidma, who was just a highschool student and a boyscout at the time, and our dance instructor. Thanks also to Mr. Ibrahim Majdoub, the music teacher at Zawiet ad-Dahmani school, when the music was still alive there...

Shamsa, One More Time!

Moody lost his second tooth on Monday, May 15. That's exactly three weeks since the first tooth. Shamsa came that night, left him the globe he asked for, and lots and lots of fairy dust all over the house. And upon Moody's request, she also stopped by Tala's room and left her a pretty hair pin. Moody is sure that when Tala's toothfairy comes, she'll pay him a visit too.

Moody's phrase of the day is "The proclamation constipation!" And according to him, this is how you make macaroona, "First, you put the oil, then the onions, then the meat, and wait."

The Computerworks!

Got this from a colleague at work. It's interesting, captivating irony... like a digital rendition of an analog computer.

Gore on SNL, it could have been!

While at the computer lab--bored out of my mind, waiting for the data mining project files to download and unzip--I received an email from Dale with a link to Gore's feature on SNL.

Of course, it's good and worth watching... You gotta love the US! Their politicians are not only funny but they strive to entertain their people, and it works! lol

But, that's not the reason I'm posting this. Last Saturday, Sol and I went to the Shadow Box, a SNL-like experience, so they claim! ha! What a waste of time it was... and a headache medicine afterwards. Now, I feel even worse for having wasted Saturday night there instead on watching SNL. Click on the image and enjoy!

A Very Happy Mother's Day!

Today is Mother's Day in the US. Happy day, Mothers! Moody and Tala made me a gift each, at school. Tala was so exited about it and kept telling me "I painted your flowerpot red!" days before the pot made it home. Moody is watching his gift and "can't wait to see the flower bloom!" Me too!

Sol treated me to his famous egg and harisa sandwich for lunch. Later, we all went to the mall to pick me a gift. I picked the "large size" wallet that I desperately needed as evidenced by my current over-bulged one. The kids and Sol picked me a keychain. While at the store, Moody said to Sol, "Let's look for something nice for Mom; she likes nice things." We stopped by the Discovery store to change the butterfly kite which didn't fly well at all--bad design. There, Moody picked a motorcycle with a remote and said it was what he wanted from the toothfairy for the coming visit. We stopped at the newly-opened Disney store, and there Moody said he wanted a snow globe instead from the toothfairy. He'll eventually make up his mind.

We're having such a busy time, with so many things to do, and so many things coming our way. Last Sunday, I published the results of the 2006 Tibra Awards; Monday, I received the Operations and Logistics Faculty Scholarship Award from Fisher. A very pleasant coincidence! To top it off, the same week, I received an offer from GE to join their Information Management Leadership Program. It is out of town! I will be gone for twelve weeks, but will drive back every weekend. Hopefully it will be four-hour driving at the most depending on where my placement will be. It'll be rough on everyone, but how could we turn it down--GE is as good as it gets!

Last week, or was it the one before, was dress rehearsal at generations. This Friday is the recital... We're all excited and looking forward to it.

Shamsa is on her way again... Moody has another loose tooth and one growing out behind it.

Moody's first tooth

O'Sun O'little Sun
O'Little Eye of the Bride
I Give You the Tooth of a Donkey
And You Give Me the Tooth of a Gazelle

We are way behind on updating the blog. A lot has been happening, but no time to write it all. Two WEEKS ago, Moody's first tooth fell out, and that was a biiiig experience for him. Of course he'd been waiting and excited about the whole thing. That morning, his tooth was too loose and he was bothered by it. I tried jiggling it a little but maybe just helped along... It just fell out a little later while he was going about his normal morning things, you know, standing on his head on the sofa or something similar. He just brought it to Hana, I believe.

We sang the Libyan tooth song/poem, with the lyrics translated above. I still vaguely remember when I first learned to face the sun and say those words very precisely, in Arabic of course, then throw the fallen tooth into the sun. So, Moody and I sat facing east and he repeated after me

يا شمس يا شموسة
يا عوينة العروسة
نعطيك سن حمار
وتعطيني سن غزال

Why the donkey and why the gazelle, I haven't a clue! We didn't throw away the fallen tooth, well, because of the whole toothfairy thing! So I kinda had to improvise, but it goes both ways, as you'll see.

We had read a book about losing teeth, supposedly written by the bald short guy on Seinfeld, for his son. The book is called, "Daddy, are you the toothfairy?" So it deals with both sides of the fantacy, which is good. Hana got Moody a little tooth-shaped, glow-in-the-dark box for his tooth. [You gotta love America!] Moody called it a dog bone! lol lol lol He put his fallen tooth inside it and put it on his window sill, that night, so She can see it. We wrapped a gift he'd asked for and sprinkled glitter around his room, including the window sill, did the silver dollar, the note, the whole nine and a half yards! Next morning, Moody was in heaven! He really appreciated the whole deal, and he wouldn't let anyone clean the fairy dust that day!

Moody's toothfairy is named Shamsa. She told him that she took his tooth to the Sun, to help keep it glowing. As I said, improvising works both ways!

A lot has been happening, and I guess a lot more is on the horizon. But since we're talking about the sun and son... One funny thing happened on tooth weekend when Ahmed decided I was 'uspended, just like that, from playing racquetball on sundays with my colleague Yunzhi. Moody and I always spend saturdays together, "pallzie walzie day," taking him to his ice skating class, soccer, swimming, etc. He said he'd call Yunzhi and tell him to find another partner for sundays. He added, "You're supposed to spend sunday with your son... that's why they call it sonday, get it?" lol lol lol I wanted so much to say to him that on some certain level he was right! In particular, given Sunday's importance as a day of worship for Christians, one might even say it is a day for them to devote to the Son. It is a little early, but I can't wait to discuss things with Moody on all levels!

Dregiyat!

"I have toe polish!" Tala is so exited to have polish on her toenails. She refuses to wear nothing but flipflops and sandals, even if it's cold for that, just so she could show off her "toe polish." First day she went to school with it, she was telling everyone to look at her toes. Later at home she told us that Mrs. Rochon had toe polish too, and Mrs. Parker needs to fix hers. Even days later, we don't seem to hear the end of it!

Apparently, Tala is going through some growth spurt or something in terms of identity and behavior. She'd be so whiny one minute, then apologizes so nicely the next. She sure has been testing her limits to the extreme. I hope to get the time during next break to have some girlie time with her soon and do lots of the girlie stuff.

Moody is growing, and growing, and growing! We turned in his registration this week for kindergarten--he's so elated. It works for us very well and we stress to him that Kindergarteners are mature and remind him he's a kindergartener now not a preschooler anymore.

Among the evaluation testing Moody had gone through was the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (KABC-II), an equivalent of an IQ test. According to this test, his learning percentile rank is 97, and his F-C intelligence is 93! We were told that in reality his ranking is even higher than that and it would have shown if he cooperated more in the test.

The pictures above were taken last Friday at the school outing at Inniswood Gardens. There, we followed the maze to read the story of "The Lady who fell from the sky." It's a neat idea to lay the story on tiles on the ground and end it with the statue of the lady. Next time, I'll document the story in pictures.

Moody is developing an interest in fishing. So one Saturday--that seems a long time ago--we packed the fishing gear and rode the bikes to the park behind our home. Moody and Tala were interested only in reeling and throwing stones in the pond... still fun! Tala fell asleep in the trailer in the way back home--wouldn't you when somebody is paddlling away to drag you and you're just enjoying the ride!

To add to the joy of the outing, the garage got cleaned up that day! We got back, and it was obviously not easy getting the bikes back into the garage. So Sol rolled up his sleeves (umm he was wearing short sleeves!) and cleaned it up. Of course, I helped by dragging more things from way in the garage to th outer limits for him to deal with and went inside. I didn't know that side of the garage is so spacey and has floor!

There's more happening here with Moody and Tala. I feel bad that we haven't been able to document it all... Well, there's only so much time in the day.

Plans for this summer include developing Moody's writing skill, and taking the training wheels off his bike. Mexico is looming in the horizon--would it happen? I wish!

Happy Birthday, Oofey!

Alexandria, Egypt, 2005

Rahaf Kambaraki, my niece, Noha's daughter. Born in Benghazi, April 20, 1997.

I was in Lebanon when Noha was pregnant and was assigned the job of buying the baby stuff for her. I later met with Rahaf's Dad, Khaled, in Damascus and gave him that, a long with two cute dresses of Jenna. I had asked for the dresses back when Tala was born so she could have something of her sister's, and I'm still asking, or is it begging? Bottom line: Rahaf, you owe me, habooba!

Happy Birthday!

A Touch of Spring!

Franklin Park Conservatory

Blooms & Butterflies

Moody and Tala had their spring break this week. Back to school on Monday. It's been easier with them on break; less things to do--no packing school snack, no backpacks and folders to check, papers to sort, and no hurry to get them up and going! Milood has come and gone and I missed it--Happy Milood anyway!

The jrabee3 had a good week with Barbi; went to COSI, the Zoo, parks, many ice cream treats (for being good!) and many other places.

Yesterday, they went to Franklin Park Conservatory for the Blooms & Butterflies. Pictures show that they had fun. Later they stopped by Barbi's house, picked up Keith and went for ice cream together. Finally, Moody got to meet Keith--Barbi's boyfriend. There'd been an element of jealousy there. Last week Moody told Barbi that he doesn't like Keith because he has a gun and might kill him! Keith is in the army and Barbi a national guard; she was deployed in Iraq for a year. We explained to Moody that soldiers protect their people and go and fight for them, not kill them. Took some more explaining that Keith's people are not just Barbi, but all Americans including Moody.

On Tuesday, I woke up with a headache, but went to school thinking it'll go away. Apparently it was part of that flu I had for days. The headache got worse and turned into an upset stomach. I dropped my assignment, gave notice to the teachers and headed home. I was sleeping in the basement when the kids got home. Moody snuggled with me and then said, “You need a teddy bear to make you feel better.” He ran up to his room and got me Big Teddy! Both Moody and Tala stayed away from the basement to let me rest. When I woke up, Tala said, “Is your headache gone, Mom?” And then she said, “Because we made the puzzle, your headache will go away!” And then started throwing me kisses and said, “Kisses make headaches go away!” MY sweet guardian angels!

With spring come more activities for the kids and the yard. Sol has been taken care of that this year. The yard looks nice and things are blooming already. I love working in the yard and tending to my flowers, but I have lots of studies to do.

Tala and Moody started soccer. All of their activities are on the days I’m at school. The upside is I’m relieved from getting them and their bags ready, driving them around, but I really do miss being with them. I miss spring!

Hyacinths in our yard

Our Pansies