Ruqaiya's Hospital Pics

My friend Natasha sent me these today. These are pictures of Ruqaiya when she was just born and still at the hospital. I just love these that I have to share them here.





Back in the day.

Azerbaijan

Last night Umar suggested we move to Azerbaijan....

So crickets do chirp in the winter.

Okay, I first thought he was joking. After all, neither of us can speak whatever language they speak there, which I assume would be some kind of Russian or Eastern European mixed with some Arabic dialect. Not to mention it's located in a relatively unknown region of the world. But Umar apparently was serious.
Cue more cricket chirps, skeptical laughs and giant question marks floating in the air.

It seems like Azerbaijan is eager to hire some English tutors to teach English and they're willing to pay 2000 New Manat (Azerbaijan currency) a month. By the way, a New Manat (AZN) is worth 1.25 United States Dollars (USD). So 2000 AZN would be about 2510 USD (figured out by using a currency converter). Not bad. It's already a lot more than what we have right now (Have - as in how we have SAVED after EXPENSES - as in the number in our bank accounts). So Umar said that we should look into it. Both of us can work there for 1 year, accumulating money and living peacefully.

Hurm. Well, as long as we have running water, decent phone and internet connections, a warm house with some good kitchen appliances and don't wind up getting caught in a war, rebellion movement or violent anti-foreigner resentment. Though language IS a problem. It shouldn't be too bad right?

I don't care about how much money I make, I refuse to live in a place like this!

Now this kind of place, I don't mind spending a year here.

I doubt we'll be moving here at all. Not to mention neither of our families would be happy having their only granddaughter/niece living away in some remote faraway land. It's a nice opportunity but there's still a lot of things to contemplate about before moving to a new country.

Ruqaiya's Smiles

Hi!

The thing that warms my heart the most is seeing Ruqaiya's smile. When I feel down, her smiles and laughter bring me up. From the perspective of a new mother, there is no one that will smile wider or become more excited to see you than your baby.

Simple Beauty Discussion

Dedicated to all wives and girlfriends whoever had a husband or boyfriend annoy or complain about us women use of beauty products.

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A husband once complained to his wife, "why do women have to spend so much money on beauty products?

"Why do you have to use a separate face wash and lotion(moisturizer) for your face? Why do you buy a specific body wash and lotion. I use the same soap and lotion for both. Why do you have to use BOTH shampoo AND CONDITIONER? Why do you spend so much on perfume or make up? And why do you take so long to get ready in the morning?"

The wife replied, "would you like it if my face was dry or oily and covered with pimples. Would you like to touch me if my skin was rough. Or cuddle with me as much if i didn't smell as good as you mentioned every time we hug? Would you prefer if my hair was not as soft or sweet as it is now and become rough and tangled? What if I didn't take some time and care to make myself look good?"

The husband opened his mouth but could only come up with an "ummm."

The wife continued, "I'm not just doing this for my own vanity. Of course I want to look as beautiful as possible in my opinion but I'm also doing this for YOU.

"Don't you expect me to look a certain way, smell nice and feel soft and smooth? Isn't part of the reason you love me is because of the way I look? Don't you want me to be physically attractive? Would you love how I look if I'm covered with pimples, my skin dry, scratchy and flaky and my hair dull, limp and rough? Or would you complain that I 'let myself go'. Would you have wanted to be with me in the first place or gotten to know me if I wasn't attractive"

The husband was silent.

The wife had a smirk. She already knew his answer.

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Every women wants to be beautiful. Yet there is a certain standard that society, both men AND WOMEN have set on us. Also I'm talking about beauty at the basic level. I'm not talking about having a perfect 10 body or wearing certain kind of clothing or accessories or having tons of make up or going through cosmetic surgery (that's insane!).

Don't you expect us to have even the simplest and most basic form of beauty? Even the most natural form needs some maintenance and care.

Keje!

Well sort of. I finally got some semblance of a job now. Umar's professor is allowing me to volunteer and help out with research. If I do a good enough job I might get paid too. Plus I can bring Ruqaiya with me to the lab. Yay no daycare! But it's still not the kind of job/research that I really want to do. So I'm still on my job search.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chips cookies

Unlike a lot of people I didn't grow up eating peanut butter jelly sandwiches for my school lunch. Frankly, I didn't like peanut butter at all. Crunchy, extra crunchy or creamy, I have a hard time consuming it. However, under this food supplement program I have with my daughter, I get a jar of peanut butter every month. Umar the husband is the only one who eats it for breakfast but the jars keep accumulating faster than he can finish them. So what to do with all these jars of peanut butter?

Make cookies of course! I may not like peanut butter, but I don't mind them in cookies. I found this recipe online, but I made so many of my own modifications that I may as well say I made my own. Needless to say, we love it! They don't last very long in our house. For those interested, the recipe is below (with some of my own personal comments).

don't they look delish?

One batch makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour
1 cup chopped oats
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Cream the butter, both sugars and both peanut butters together until smooth. The amount of peanut butter or the ratio can be changed to your desire. Crunchy peanut butter gives you delicious peanut pieces while creamy gives a stronger flavor and smoother texture that keeps the cookie from falling apart.

3. Beat in egg and vanilla.

4. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl, then add flour mixture to peanut butter mixture.

5. Mix in chopped oats and chocolate chips. I actually took old fashioned oats/rolled oats and chopped them up with a chopper but a blender can be used. What I usually do is chop them so that half of the oats are coarsely chopped and the other half is fine to medium. How chopped up the oats are will change the texture of the cookies.

6. Roll the dough into balls and slightly flatten with palm. Place each about 2-3 inches apart on cookie sheet. They kind of look like begedil (shape-wised).

7. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until edges are a light golden brown. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes before removing from baking sheet. The more creamy peanut butter added the longer it'll take to bake.

8. ENJOY! ENJOY!

Precious GM memories

As I was feeding Ruqaiya this morning and slowly drifting to a sweet slumber, memories upon memories of Gateway Malaysia (or more commonly known as GM by its regular members) assaulted the forefront of my mind.

GM really was one of the most pivotal influences of my life. It caused me to be more actively involved with trying to relearn my homeland's language as well as stimulated some self-confidence. I was always so shy and passive. I barely spoke what was on my mind. I barely let myself be creative and do things out of the box. I was rather guarded. For me, friends were people you got along with at school, connections I had to remake every fall. The few true friends I had at the time were few and they all had moved away with only e-mail to connect us and our memories. Honestly, the people of GM changed me. For the first time, I made friends not because we were in the same class or belonged to Malaysian families attended the local university. For the first time, I made friends on my own based on myself.

At first I was really shy but eventually I managed to open up. I was able to enter the conversations. I was able to contribute to the forum discussions even though the times I was online was when most other were asleep and when I was offline others were online. I remember going on everyday to check the forums. I went on before school and after school. I made serious points, I had crazy stories, I wrote poems and I spammed.

I loved it.

I remember the spam wars that would pop up now and then. When all of the posts consisted of nothing but "hahahahaha" and smileys. I remember when we had wars with smiley icons. I remember the forum discussions would always veer away from the original topics. I remember when we all tried to post in every discussion to increase our post numbers. I remember all of us trying to be "kings and queens" and getting our "titles." I remember having a hard time understanding conversations about the Malaysians way of life and school but finally getting an idea. I still remember going crazy over trying to figure out what the word "poyo" means.

We were always trying to get new members but still those of us that regularly go on were was relatively small. Maybe under 20. For me, this small number made GM special and unlike most other forums. We were able to become close friends, which I don't think would have happened had there been hundreds of members. Not only did we communicate at GM, we swapped ims and chatted via MSN and YM. I still have some of them listed. I've never used them before. Even on my first and only visit back to Malaysia when I was 16, I actually spent an afternoon with them.

I even had my first nickname come from the GMers. Yeah, I've had one or two before but they weren't actually used (except for my beloved late Atuk). Dee became my nickname and dear Asma popularized it.

GM influenced in other ways as well. I had my first blog as a result of GM. It seemed like everyone had one so I gave it a try. Who knew that I would still blog now and then. Though the real enjoyment was from designing the blog than actually blogging. Every other entry I had was probably about my new layout. I remember spending hours of my weekends working on a new graphic or trying out some codes. hehe. It sparked an interest in media production and graphic design. Although I haven't done any for a long time, I can still remember the techniques that I used and learned. Additionally even the address (windee) was inspired from my GM years when I took the title "Queen of the Winds."

Too bad good things come to and end. As more joined it became harder to keep up. I enter a state of depression that lasted for months. I wanted to disappear and even deleted some of my old posts. Older friends were going to uni and everyone became busier. Soon many of us have stopped visiting. I can no longer remember the username and password that I once entered in everyday.

Yet, even though we've lost contact for years and we have gone our separate ways, I still consider them my precious friends. Emma, Mira, and Maiza were my older sister figures. Asmaa and Shara were my hyper friends, with whom I can be crazy and start singing online with. Qiki was the creative one. Nasha was quirky. Dill was the elusive one to me but well known. Izzat, whom whenever I chat with we would always first talk about the time and the weather. And of course the Sharen brothers, notably Alleem, Haziq and of course Zufar, King of Hearts, founder, and the Lavender Gunslinger (no matter what I can never forget that. It was too funny).

The friendships were wonderful. They gave me self-confidence maintain the friendships I had with my American classmates. I go out with friends. GM gave me the sense of freedom to say weird things. To think poetically. To act quirky and odd. And I love it.

Hopefully I can meet these people again.