WOW...all i can say... is WOW

Asalam Alaikum

I am a bad blogger, i have said it before and now i say it again...bad bad bad.

But in other news, I have left the relative comfort of my parents house in Boston, for the very strange and slightly uncomfortable Abu Dhabi, UAE. I am not happy with many things here. If I had to make a list, my top 3 would be- the heat, the fact that there is no real quality yarn(I wont even dream of hopping for a LYS), and the fact that about 2 months after i got here, My dear, dear companion and link to the other knitters out there-Ravelry-was BLOCKED. I want to cry every time i say it. It is a very unfair and very stupid thing done by some very stupid people.

"We apologize the site you are attempting to visit has been blocked due to its content being inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates."

MY FOOT!!!

What could possibly be so offensive about a bunch of knitters? We are by far one of the least offensive groups of people I have ever seen.

At least twice a day I want to go down to Etisalat and do some protest knitting in their lobby. But then I think, if I do that the government here will probably block anything related to knitting and then where will i be?

Also on my list of things to hate- MEN STARE. In the US people stare for a second because of the abaya and scarf, then they look away quickly like they are afraid or something. But here, in the Muslim country where they are supposed to "down cast their eyes and be modest" they stare at me in what i can only call a slimy way, it makes me very uncomfortable.

Of the nice things,(besides my Husbands family-they are all super nice) are the textile stores, and tailoring material stores. There are whole sections of town filled with them. This is a very good time to do more quilting, and i dont think i will ever buy ready made clothes again. Also very good is the fruit market, not that i get out of the car to select the fruit very often(see above-MEN STARE) but i have always loved the idea of going to pick out fresh fruit from a market according to what is in season. Apparently right now is Mango season. You know in the US i never really liked mangoes, now i know why, they had no taste, but here the mangoes are so tasty.

Inshallah, I will have some pics up soon, i have complete a couple of things and without ravelry, im kinda at a loss.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with ham and cheese in it, toast and fruit and yogurt smoothie.

Supper: Tuna noodle casserole and green beans.

Tuesday Breakfast: Banana breakfast shake and pancakes.

Supper: Detroit style coney dogs, fried potatoes and fruit salad.

Wednesday Breakfast:

Lunch: Spanish tortillas with black beans and rice.

Supper: Chicken a la king and green beans.

Thursday Breakfast: Applesauce raisin batter bread, cheese and yogurt.

Supper: Spaghetti and mixed greens with baked goat cheese toasts.

Friday Breakfast: Maple walnut granola.

Supper: Cornish Finnish Michigan pasties and Corn.

Saturday Breakfast: Waffles

Supper: Tacos

Sunday Breakfast: Eggs and toast.

Dinner: Chili and corn bread.

Supper: Corn Pone Pizza and Salad.

For lots more menus visit the Organizing Junkie.

Piggy

Bronte and I went to the big toy sale at Kmart yesterday, I was going to put some toys on layby for Christmas.....but we couldn't find anything that we liked. Until we found this piggy. Bronte is mad for pigs at the moment, she gets excited whenever she sees one. So I ended up buying it for her. I took a few photos of her playing with it, until she realized that I was taking photos and then she started to ham it up. A photo I took of Gremlin this morning. He seems to be getting bigger and bigger everyday, even though he shouldn't be growing anymore.

Our busy days!

Yesterday and today have been quite busy. I thought it would be fun to share some of the happenings with you all. This week my parents found out that their neighbors had some bunnies that they were wanting to get rid of. They asked us if we would want them, Dad had a cage we could use and he will help me butcher them this fall. I thought that sounded like a fun opportunity so we said yes. I hope it all works out all right as the kids are having a great time with them now but I do want to butcher them before winter. They are very cute and tame and all 4 kids really enjoy them.
Yesterday was a full day of working on the roof. Mom, Dad and Luke came over and helped all day. Mom stayed on the ground but helped a ton with picking up trash, taking care of kids and helping with house stuff. I worked on the roof quite a bit but not all the time. The 3 older kids spent some time up there working as well. (Jonathan the most). Jake also came over and helped quite a bit. We are blessed to have family and friends that are generous with their help. The picture above is of Jonathan and Dad.

Ken and Luke and a view of how the new shingles are looking. It got pretty hot up there. We drank a lot of water! A cute little picnic guest (at lunchtime).
For our picnic party for supper I (with quite a bit of help) had fun making these fruit arrangements in ice containers. This was the first time I have tried making them but the ended up working pretty well. I thought they were a lot of fun to make and will probably make them again some time. To make them I put some floral Styrofoam in the container and then covered it with a lettuce leaf. We cut fruit into different shapes, We made some melon balls (with a melon ball spoon) and then we also make some cantaloupe cutouts in flower and star shapes. We put all the fruit on kabob sticks (often putting more than one fruit on the stick, like putting about 4 melon balls (or grapes would work very well if you had them) or a flower shape and then a juneberry in the center. After putting the fruit on the stick we then stuck it in the Styrofoam, arranging it like you would a flower arrangement. I also added some mint sprigs for greenery.

Lots of food!

A pretty fruit bowl that a couple of the ladies put together.

Some of the picnickers.

We put candles on the deck rail. The looked cute burning but most of them blew out (from the wind) after a few minutes. Oh well! :-)

A few of the people inside. For this table I just used some blue and white checked cloth I had for a table cloth, I then put a red place mat in the middle with a little vase of daisies.

The kids had fun playing tug of war.

I had a blue table cloth with white flowers and then a red and white one which we put on a couple of tables in the yard. Mara picked daisies and put them in vases for the table. I thought it looked very pretty for Independence day.

We did go to the fireworks thought we were feeling very weary by that time. There was a beautiful display. Megan tried reaching for them and kept saying "pretty!"



Today it was back on the roof again! We were blessed to have Luke and Mike come and help us out a lot! The house is now done but we have a little over half of the garage yet to go. Maybe we can get it done tomorrow after church (and the potluck and parade), we shall see. But now it is off to bed for me!

Happy 4th of July!!

Red, white and blue around our house. We have a busy day planned with putting new shingles on our roof, have a bunch of company for an evening picnic and going to the fire works. We plan on having fun and we hope you do too!!

God bless America!