It's that time of year again...

I don't know how I feel about the State Fair. From what I can tell, you either like it or you just don't. That seems to be the way it is here; you either hear "I LOVE the fair!" or "I HATE the fair!" I wasn't too keen on it last year (I was pregnant and it was HOT out), but this year it was more fun. We rushed over there this morning because Dan leaves tomorrow and we thought he'd appreciate the experience. It turned out to be perfect actually, cloudy and not too hot, not too many crowds... it's all relative of course, as you can see for yourself, there were still ALOT of people there.

The most impressive thing about the fair is how many foods they can serve on a stick. I was going to bring a pen and paper to write them all down, but here are the ones I recall off the top of my head. Pickle on a stick, cheesecake on a stick, hotdog on a stick, corn on a stick, deepfried chocolate bar on a stick, pasta on a stick, meatball on a stick, meal on a stick (meat and potatoes), pizza on a stick, olives on a stick... and that's all I can remember right now. If I had been looking for them I could have found more, trust me.


I was determined to eat something gross and fair-ish this time, seeing as what I've noticed most about the fair is people talking about what they EAT there. So we ate 3 very disgusting things, which we shared in some degree or another. They got worse as the morning went on... First, a "MOJO" a chocolate, caramel coffee. Believe it or not, you CAN get this decaf which I did (I don't need Hafsa to stay awake for the next three days, thank you very much). It was pretty sickly sweet, kind of like a French Vanilla Cappuccino at Tim Hortons in Canada. Yum. Then we got the fried cheese curds. These are so salty and oily, but... delicious. You can only eat about 4 before you have to stop though. The last thing, I'm not very proud of... we were sucked in by the gravitational pull of the deepfried chocolate bar. We "shared" it, but Ozayr and Dan tapped out pretty early and I ended up eating the rest. It was pretty disgusting I must say, and I was ashamed before we even started it.

So what else did we do, aside from eat? We saw some animals and Maymuna got to touch a baby lamb. We visited the creative arts building. We saw the international bazaar and almost spent all our money. Instead we watched some Native American dancing which Maymuna LOVED.

We saw the butter carvings... yes, whole heads carved out of butter. From what I understand, the "Dairy Princess" gets the honor of having a replica of herself made out of butter. She and the sculpter sit in a cold, revolving, glass booth while this is being done. And the Minnesotans come and watch. It's a strange place we've moved to, folks. Maymuna was strangely fascinated by this and kept asking to see "The Cheese", even on the camera display on the way home. That's pretty odd, but I guess she has a strange relationship with dairy. You'll be happy to know that they keep all the shavings so no butter goes to waste...

Our final stop after a busy, busy morning was the creative arts building. We didn't go there last year, and I am glad we did today. There are some pretty crafty people in this state, and the knitting, quilting, sewing and baking can really blow you away, even if you don't usually appreciate such things. I went there because my friend Shelly had entered several pieces of her knitting in the competition and I wanted to see if she had won anything - and she did! (I never had any doubt) Congratulations Shelly!

And so we finally left the fair, absolutely exhausted and sticky. As we left we heard some man walk past us say "that girl looks like Dora!" I think it might be time to grow out her bangs :)

The Stone Arch Bridge on a Sunny Day

The last year...

I promised a post commemorating our move to Minneapolis, seeing as it's been a whole year since we moved. As I sat down to write this the only thing that sprang to mind was, it's been a year? It really has flown by fast. Since May of 2005 almost everything in our lives has changed... New house, new job, new city, new baby...

It was indeed a year ago that Ozayr packed up our little Honda and drove the 22 hour drive to Minneapolis. I once asked him what he thought when he crested that hill on the 35W when the whole city skyline comes into view... "Heeerrrrrre we go!!" is what he said he thought, and I'm not sure whether it was with excitement or dread. Now we really love that view, and we make comments like 'the city looks so beautiful tonight' or how we love it when fog hides the tops of the buildings. Then Maymuna and I followed him a couple of weeks later, and we set up camp in our temporary abode on Marquette Avenue.

That's when it all really began... the parade of visitors, I mean!! My parents came first, then Ozayr's and his brother. Then my brother. In the last twelve months, each of our parents have visited 3 times, his brother once, my brother 3 times, and my bestfriend once. Oh, and we've been to Ottawa 3 times. That's a grand total of 11 visits in 12 months. I love it actually, please don't take this for a complaint. It's a completely different dynamic, living with your family or friends for a week or two, instead of just spending an hour or two with them at a time. You get to know each other in a different way, and I am really enjoying taking people around Minneapolis and developing some nice traditions that we do every time they come (somehow these mainly involve shopping, right grandmothers?)

Maymuna has grown into a little girl here, and less of a toddler. Hafsa was born here, I brought her back to this house as a newborn, and again to recover after her surgery. Attachments like these are slowly accumulating... There were times in the last year when I wished for an excuse to move back home, but those are becoming fewer and far between. While I wasn't sure a year ago why we were really moving here, I feel those reasons have gradually revealed themselves... Ozayr's experiences at work and Hafsa's swift medical attention (sorry OHIP) are a few of those things. I also like to hope that there is something here for me, that I'm learning something about myself or changing in some way. I do feel like Minneapolis is where we are supposed to be... for the time being... :)

Here's a pic of Maymuna from this time last year...

Yummy Summer Salad

Okay I know how strange it will seem to you all that I am posting a recipe here. Me? Yes. A recipe. Cooking.

I know.

This one is so delicious and summery that I feel compelled to share it. It helps me stay in denial because summer is almost over, people, I'm sad to say it...

Chicken-Thyme Penne Salad

3 cups uncooked penne pasta
4 cups cubed cooked chicken
2 cups red grapes, cut in half
2 medium stalks celery, sliced
1/3 cup chopped onion (I found these a little too much the first time I made it, and subsituted green onions the second time)
3 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme (or 2 teaspoons dried thyme)
1 and 1/4 cups mayonnaise or salad dressing
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon coarse ground mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

Cook and drain pasta as directed on package. Rinse with cold water. Drain.

In very large bowl, mix pasta, chicken, grapes, celery and onion. In small bowl, mix oil and 1 tablespoon of the fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried). Pour oil mixture over chicken mixture; toss to coat.

In small bowl, mix mayo, milk, honey, mustard, salt and remaining thyme. Cover chicken mixture and mayo mix SEPARATELY and refrigerate at least 4 hours but no longer than 24.

Up to 2 hours before serving, mix it all up together. Cover and refrigerate until serving time. Just before serving add 3/4 cup walnuts and mix. Sprinkle salad with remaining walnuts.

Ta-da! Okay, obviously this is NOT an allergy friendly meal... Don't forget to warn your hosts whenever you take food to a BBQ or dinner party where you don't know all the guests. It's all fun and games until someone gets a raging case of hives (or worse)!! Happy munching!

Stay "At Home" Mom?

Let me give you a brief run down of my day.

After we all got up, we all got dressed, cleaned up and had breakfast. No time for a shower for me. Sadly. Packed up the girls (final feeding, last diaper change, last potty visit, pack snacks/water, carseat for Hafsa, shoes for Maymuna). We drove to meet Ozayr at the airport where he was dropping off the rental car we borrowed for the weekend. From there we drove to the university to drop Ozayr off for work. From there we headed home to where Uncle Dan was waiting for us. Maymuna didn't want to go inside, so I set up the sand table and toys and waited outside, blowing bubbles for her to pop. Then she wanted some lunch, so I went inside, made it and brought it outside to the pinic blanket for her to eat. I nursed Hafsa while Maymuna ate. Got a call from a friend who wanted to meet us at the park. Packed up the girls (final feeding, last diaper change, last potty visit, pack snacks/water, carseat for Hafsa, shoes for Maymuna) and headed out there. Played. Went from there to pick up Uncle Dan. Went grocery shopping. Bought milk (for Dan) and other healthy products. Returned home, unloaded girls, cheerful banter with neighbours on the way in. Gave Maymuna a snack and drink and sat down to nurse Hafsa. Called Ozayr, left to pick him up from work. Left Maymuna with Dan. Hafsa cried most of the way to the university... breaking my heart... I tried not to drive recklessly. She fell asleep two minutes before we got there. Picked up husband. Let him drive home. Pick up subway sandwiches on the way because tonight was my "night off". Get home, unload Hafsa, apologize to her profusely for trapping her in the car and sit down to nurse her again. The rest of the family eats dinner. I then untangle myself from the family goings-on to take my weekly time-out for myself... a trip to Starbucks with my writing and my books. Funnily enough, I just couldn't relax and just wandered around the streets of 50th and France until it was time to come home -- I wonder why?

As a side note, the puzzle is going verrrrry slowly... We are determined to finish it though! Here is our progress...

What have we done?

We went to Southdale Mall this afternoon to get Maymuna some yummy ice cream as a treat (Ben & Jerry's have several sorbets that are dairy free!!) and on the way out we passed a game store. Ozayr said, "I feel like doing a puzzle..."

That's how it all started.

We ended up with a pretty architectural theme (you can click on it to see it in greater detail) and decided 3000 pieces was challenging enough (!). I had in mind what I've seen at Ozayr's aunt and uncle's house in Ottawa - they might have a huge puzzle set up on their dining room table and work on it, on and off, for days, until it's done. No pressure. Their grandkids enjoy it, and anyone who stops by might take a look, put a piece in here or there. It gets finished when it's finished. This was my ideal vision.

So we brought the puzzle home and upon opening it, realized that we were in some degree of trouble. It took probably 2 hours just to turn over all the pieces. THERE ARE REALLY 3000 OF THEM. At some point in this Daniel said, what are the dimensions of this thing? Well, it's 4 by 3 feet. No problem... except that our dining room table isn't that big...

An hour later Dan and I have felt compelled to move our laundry room table upstairs and situate it in the dining room. Ozayr has yet to touch the puzzle at this point, but this sort of activity brings out the obessessive-compulsive in my brother and me, and we can't stop flipping the pieces over and organizing the edges and corners into piles. When Ozayr is finished putting Maymuna to sleep he sits down and in no time is assembling the Golden Gate Bridge. I say, hey, aren't we supposed to start with the edges? Hmmm, he says, I've never done puzzles that way... Obviously this says something about our different personalities or upbringings, or perhaps our left vs. right-brainy-ness... but honestly I simply cannot access my cognitive psychology education... I think it evaporated during labour with many of my brain cells.


Our status as of this evening is that Dan has completed about half of the bottom edge and Ozayr has a partial Golden Gate Bridge. I am collecting pieces for a blue building... though soon realized that there are more than one... but I'll deal with that later.

Anyway, I doubt there will be any dinners served on this table for many a day...

Welcome bro...

So "Uncle Dan" is here! Almost as much as I appreciate the great company, I enjoy having a second pair of hands around the house during the day. Dan holds Hafsa while I deal with Maymuna, handles Maymuna while I hold Hafsa, he loads groceries, runs Maymuna to the potty (though he draws the line right about there), and passes me my tea or gets me a cold drink whenever I need one. Plus there's plenty of good conversation and general good humour around here, even when things get frantic. Tonight he offered to watch both kids so that Ozayr and I could go out to dinner. Well, I didn't take him up on it, and perhaps I am a fool, but a singular thought sprang to mind,

"you know not what you do!!"

He babysat Hafsa for us while Maymuna & I picked up Ozayr from the university instead and we are going to work up to the full double babysit. But by golly, I sure do appreciate the offer.

All is well around home tonight. Maymuna is a happy little girl having her uncle to boss around. "Uncle Dan! Uncle Dan!" can be heard throughout the day, along with her orders to play with her, with the kitchen, with the dollies, to read her a book. Luckily Dan's easygoing nature extends to his nieces and I have yet to see him try to get out of anything Maymuna has planned for him.

Maymuna is getting very good at this potty thing, alhamdulillah. I remind her when we go out, "this place has a potty if you need to go, just tell me". I think she is taking this as a challenge, because we have visited the potty in just about every place we've been in the last week. Target, the mall, the grocery store and this morning at the Edina Grill, three times. Sometimes I suspect this is an elaborate ploy for attention or to get out of her highchair... but to be honest, it doesn't matter. If you are potty training and your child yells "POTTY!!" you just can't ignore the call.

Hafsa continues to be a pleasant little thing, machallah. I think she might be teething - I think I feel a tooth under her gums at the bottom front left and she can't keep her hands out of her mouth. Then there's also the fact that the last three nights she has been up most of the night. Last night she woke up every hour from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. Then she slept until 6:40 a.m. I nursed her again, and then she went down. I slept until 7:15 when Maymuna woke up. I crawled into bed with her. We fell asleep until Hafsa woke for good at 7:45 a.m. Woo-hoo! I can't believe that it has been a whole month since her surgery. And speaking of milestones, it was a year ago that we came to Minneapolis... but that's a whole other post...

Speaking of sleep, I desperately need some... goodnight...