Some Memories

This morning I started thinking about Halloween. I know, I'm muslim I don't celebrate Halloween. I was just thinking about how the small kiddies look so cute in their costumes. Although I don't celebrate Halloween, I do enjoy seeing the little ones in their costumes. It brought some fond memories back to me.

I remembered when my buddy was about 4 years old, and I was living in the dorms at school. My parents let him stay with me for Halloween. I never thought of how significant this would have been to them. This moment that was solely theirs as parents, and they gave it to me. I got to dress him up in his Winnie-the-Pooh costume. I got to take him trick-or-treating through the dorms where a bazillion college students fawned over him. I was given that moment, and I am SO thankful for it. 9 years ago I got to take that blue eyed cutie all over, stuff him full of candy, and then send him back to my parents!

Shells And Cheese Baby!

Ingredients:

1 box of Jumbo Shells (not sure how many oz., but there was only one size)
1- 15 oz. container of Ricotta Cheese
1 lb. of ground beef (ground lamb would be yummy too)
1 or 2 jars of pasta sauce
1- 16 oz. bag of cheese (I used mozzerella, but experimenting is always good)
1 onion chopped small
minced garlic to taste (I love garlic so I use alot)

Preheat oven to 350

Boil the shells, drain them, and set them aside.

Heat up a skillet on med. heat. I like to cook the onion and garlic with my ground beef. Some might prefer to saute it a bit before putting the beef in.

Once the beef is browned, set it aside and let it cool. Once it's cool mix it with the ricotta.

Spoon the mixture into your shells, and put them in your baking pan. Use your discretion as to how full you want the shells. I was able to stuff almost the whole box of shells, I think I put about 1 heaping teaspoon, maybe added a little more than that. I had to use 2 baking dishes. I got them close to each other in the pan and poured the pasta sauce over them. Be generous with the sauce, you don't want your noodles to dry out. Bake your shells for 45 mins. take them out and put your mozzerella over the top, and bake for another 15 mins. Then you have a delicious meal!

I didn't use all the shredded cheese, but I can always find other things to put it in.

Good Things Come In 3's?

I made a really non-nutritious dinner of ricotta cheese stuffed shells. I did add a salad to this dinner though, so veggies were on the menu. So this dinner would be good thing #1.

Good thing #2? I totally got my awesome granny ride back!!!!! It spent about 3 months in the underground parking spot. Then it got pushed to the outside parking lot (I was thrilled to be able to use my underground parking again). It spent a month sitting outside and finally went to the mechanic. It's cured! It runs! It is a total grandma car! But it's mine, all mine! Even other muslims look at me funny when they see me driving down the road in this.

What's that you ask? What's good thing #3? I don't know, I'm still waiting for it to happen!

Expletives

That's what I have for Blogger today. This program is kinda peeving me off right now. I was trying to put up a post for the past few days. Will Blogger upload my photos? Nope. Can I finish my post without the photos? Nope. It wouldn't be the same.

So, nuts to Blogger. Get your program outta the crapper so I can finally finish my freakin' posts!

Fall Fun

Yesterday was an absolute blast. For the third year, I've taken my little brother to a corn maze/fall festival. This time my mom and step-dad came along too. They didn't want to interfere with the brother-sister time, so they said they would go off on their own, cool. They just liked my corn maze/fall fun idea (but they drove and paid for the admission, I wasn't complaining).

There was a thing called the Pumpkin Slinger. My dad and bro tried to use these huge sling shots to shoot small pumpkins into a thing out in the field. You need to try to get it in the hole which is the mouth on the guy.

Way to go Daddy-O!

The top of my boy's head, and you can kind of see what they're aiming at.

Too many people so I missed the shot of the boy feeding the llama, but got one of the llama sniffing his hand! They had a petting zoo there where you could feed the animals.

Dude! I totally fed a camel, it tickled.

There was a magician there this year. That was pretty cool. I was amazed by the tricks. How did he pull that rabbit out of the book?!!? My brother and I kept looking at each other like, "How did he do that?".

We all went in the maze at the same time and split up. Me with the boy and my mom with my dad. We found my mom when she got lost from my dad (tee hee). She soon disappeared to find my dad again. At one point we saw the parents and the boy yelled "RUN!" and took off. I had to go running after him, except his legs are way longer than mine, I finally caught up to him. The boy and I hit all the checkpoints and got out of the maze first, Woo Hoo! We ate some roasted corn, and drank fresh lemonade while we waited for the 'rents. It wasn't too long after that we started on our way home. We were all exhausted just like the little lion cub at the petting zoo.

It's Been Awhile

I'm getting bad about updating this blog....

It was such a nice week though. I didn't even mind going to work this week. I was on the line that is really physically challenging, but with two ladies that were so much fun to work with. It was almost like it wasn't work. That next to never happens where I work. Thursday night's episode of "The Office" was hilarious. My sister was here to watch it with me (I've gotten her addicted to it). It's so much better to share the laughter.

Something very important got taken care of this week as well. That is a HUGE weight lifted off of my shoulders. I hope this good stuff just keeps coming.

A Little Eid Party

Alhamdulilah, it was a really nice day. One of the sisters had a little Eid party at her house. It was a really good time. I met some sisters I didn't know before. We ate, we talked, we laughed, we watched the kids go nuts. All in all a good day. The only interruption to the goodness was a call from my sister that brought a few tears to my eyes with her sentimental rememberances. I quickly wiped them away and again chatted happily with the sisters.

I couldn't have had a better Eid celebration if I tried.

EID MUBARAK!

To all the brothers and sisters out there. I pray that you all have a blessed Eid. May Allah accept all our fasting, prayers, and good deeds from the past month. InshaAllah have a great Eid!

Strength

Do you have any idea how much inner strength you posess? Any idea how much you can bear, and how that strength can get you through? I never imagined that I would have to go through so much. I never imagined that I could be strong enough to take all this. Some of the simplest things have been made difficult and complicated. How does this happen? How can I deal?

This Ramadan has strengthened me in a way I never thought imaginable. I have only Allah to rely on. Even the person I've relied on the most to be there, isn't really there. Only Allah can give me the strength to get through what today brought me. He will not give us a burden we can not bear. Alhamdulilah.

A Pretty Good Week

It's been a while since I blogged. It's been a pretty good week. It's amazing how much better a week can go when you don't have a cold/flu the whole week. I got a surprising letter in the mail this week. I interviewed for a job 3 1/2 months ago, and I got the letter in the mail telling me I didn't get the position. Really? I didn't get the position? After 3 1/2 months I didn't figure that out, was it necessary to still send your letter? I think they could've saved themselves the stamp.

At work this week our muslim group held an iftar dinner. I invited my friend to come with me. The food was absolutely delicious, the company was great. I got to meet a few new people. I got excited about some upcoming things within our company too. The building that my division is moving in is being redone. They asked the muslim group what we needed as far as space for prayer and washing for wudu. It sounds like we're going to get a nice washroom and a really nice prayer room. Alhamdulilah. Every year we have a "holiday" party in December. They call it a holiday party, not a Christmas party. They have a video they show every year with prayer readings from all different religions. It's been the same video for a really long time. They re-did it this year to include a muslim reading as well. Alhamdulilah. I work for a huge global company, and muslims are becoming more visible. Alhamdulilah.