Pictures of ARUBA!!!!

After many months of putting this off, I have decided to finally sit down for a few minutes and post some pictures from our honeymoon for you all.

We went to Aruba for our one-week honeymoon and boy was it a great decision to go there! The beach was amazing and the place was so relaxing. Mmmmm I wish I were there now! We stayed at the Bucuti (it included breakfast only) but that was fine as there are many restaurants to choose from.

Alright, lets get this picture show on the road!!!

Salem enjoying the sun and sand on day #2 in Aruba!

The beautiful sunset on the beach!

Salem walking off into the sunset.

Day 3: Just past the capital of Orangestadt while on our island safari. My suggestion to you: a half day is plenty! And please reconsider this tour if you easily get car sick or are scared of Jeeps rolling over. We had a blast!

A hungry resident at the donkey sanctuary. Hearing them bray is funny, seeing them bray is hillarious!! They throw their whole bodies into it.

The windward (east) coast right next to the Natural Bridge. The colour is amazing but the waves are very violent. I also got sucked out to sea at the nearby Natural Pool.

Along the east coast - last stop on our safari. Don't mind the hair!! Aruba is a very windy island!

One of our breakfast buddies: these guys are major leaches! They swoop in the second you turn away!

Amazing beach!!! This is in the middle of the day - hello fellow beach neighbours, far, far away!

Our view of the water from where we often settled on the beach. Can I just teleport there now?

Night out in the high rise hotel district. Look at home clean it is!!!!

Dinner was so yummy, the service was excellent and the view onto the main boulevard in the high rise district was great!

The high rise hotels as viewed from our quiet beach. Enjoy your dirty beach over-crowded tourists! We'll just stay here where it's nice and quiet!

Me enjoying the wonderful water! After this, the beaches here don't even come close! :-(

A view of our hotel from the water. The restaurant there is made to look like a beached pirate ship - it's called the Pirate's Nest. Great food, very friendly service - breakfast was served there. We ate like pigs!

The tanned happy couple on their last night out!

Well, so much for posting some new pictures!

Firstly, I must tend to my religious duties!!! So Eid Mubarak everyone! May Allah accept all your good deeds done during the holy month of Ramadan!

 
I was going to treat everyone by posting up a few pictures from Aruba but it seems the internet here at work doesn't want too cooperate with the new Flickr system: it won't let me link to the pictures. Booo stupid system!!! Oh well, perhaps tonight!

I wasn't posting much (if at all) during Ramadan as I was busy with my fasting, cooking and praying. I will be posting up a bunch of pictures and recipes over the next week or so - I hope you enjoy them and maybe even try a new recipe.

These days, life is getting back to "normal" although I have fasting days to make up. Salem is back to eating normally and I've noticed that my system does not like me eating much! For the last 3 out of 4 days since Eid, I've felt like I had a big wet ball of yarn stuck in the bottom on my digestive system, all thanks to the increase in food intake. I'm hoping that doing those catch-up days here and there over the next week or so will help ease my system back into fairly normal eating. Let me tell you though, not going to the gym is really showing, I hate my body right now and I feel like a gigantic cow!!!!

In the next few weeks, we will be leaving for Alberta to attend Lama and Ali's wedding. I'm looking forward to the wedding and seeing this wonderful couple start their new life together. I'm also really looking forward to seeing a part of my own country which I've never seen. I mean it's the ROCKIES for crying out loud!!! OMG! *jumps up and down* I'll be praying to see some awesome wildlife too (moose, caribou, whatever! Major bonus points if I see anything related to wolves)!!!!! The man and I might be bringing a laptop so there's a possibility of posting pictures from our trip once in a while. I will not be posting any pictures of the bride and groom until they return - Sorry, but I feel the need to show my respect to the couple by waiting for their approval for the pictures. I mean no disrespect to our guests, but I was more than disappointed when people posted pictures all over the place yet didn't feel the need to tell us that pictures of us were posted online. So there are pictures out there for strangers to see of our wedding which we never got to see ourselves.

We'll be in Calgary for a few nights, then making our way to Edmonton for an over-nighter, then to Jasper for one night and finishing off with another night in Banff. We're almost done booking everything (car and 2 nights are done) and now we're just waiting on the confirmation from this amazing looking place in Jasper.

We have a few things we'd like to finish up before we leave though, such as organizing the guest room, finish  fully unpacking and I want to make a trip out to IKEA and pick up some baskets and a new dining room table! Woohooo!!! I just need to figure out what to do about the lighting. Beurk!!!

On the menu tonight: Silat bi loubieh (swiss chard and black eyed peas) and.... quinoa! Yes, I will finally be trying my hand at some quinoa. Wish me luck, I have the feeling that I may need it!

The craziness that is Ramadan!

It's been a few weeks since my last post. "But why??" Well, Salem's mother and sister left for Calgary on August first, we had some major unpacking to do after that (we were down to 3 boxes and had almost a room full of stuff just piled on)... Needless to say, I was completely depressed and demotivated when our nearly fully unpacked guest room was once again crammed with stuff! I had to fight the urge to just throw everything right out the window, watching it as it tumbled to the alley below, making falling noises like those I so fondly remember from the Wyle E. Coyote cartoons I used to watch as a kid. On that note - Am I the only one who ever wished he would catch the darn Road Runner? Just once!!!!

Anyway, as of the 11th of August, we've been fasting and doubly renewing our dedication to Allah for the holy month of Ramadan. As a wife, I've also taken on the happy yet very time consuming (and sometimes stressful) job of cooking balanced meals for the husband and myself. I really do enjoy cooking but I think perhaps I'm still too much of a perfectionist, trying to constantly come up with new recipes, large meals that will satisfy Salem's tummy yet still remain nutritious. I constantly am reminding myself that this meal is our only real meal of the day (plus 2 small snacks a few hours later).

But worry not! I have been trying out new recipes, making old recipes and taking pictures! As soon as I can, I will be posting a slew of things so get ready and rest up your eyes while you can.

So what's a typical evening like for me? Here's an idea:

6:00-6:45 - I arrive home, do my prayers and feed the cat
6:45-7:45 - Prep dinner (usually a soup or fatteh with a salad as a starter then a main course with meat, veggies and starches).
7:45-8:30 - Break our fast, do our prayers and eat!
8:30-9:00 - do the dishes (this is a joint venture)
9:00-9:30 - sit for a few minutes and relax
9:30-10:30 - do our prayers for the night, then go on a walk to get our blood moving and some much needed fresh air
10:30-11:30 - veg out and have a snack/dessert then go to bed

Thankfully, weekends are a lot more fun as we stay up until (on average) 3-4 am. At this point, I would like to thank the Dollar Cinema for cheap admission and snack as well as late-night showings! I would also like to thank Dad's Bagels on Sherbrooke Ouest for providing us with our pre-dawn meal of fresh out of the oven bagels! OMG! Alhamdulillah!!!!!!!

Ok, enough mindless banter on my part, I will post pictures and recipes within the next week or so (insha'Allah).