News In Brief

Hey ! Just wanted to let you know I am back on line and in the chair again .Thank you so much for all the well wishes from everyone . I really appreciated them so much .

Even though I am just now starting to get out and about these last few,days , much has happened around the Condo recently . Many relatives came to visit , along with some friends and neighbors . It surprised me to tell you the truth . I knew that a couple of people will naturally come to visit , of course , but some of the others were a nice surprise to see . The visits were fun and so good to see different ones I hadn't seen in a while . Same thing for phone calls .

It made me realize how bad I am about these social visits . I have gotten out of the habit of visiting people these last few years . One excuse after another and I just stopped going , or calling . Now I feel so guilty that I have not keep up this nice social custom . I have made a note to myself to try to do better in the future .

While I was in Tripoli Medical Center and surrounded by all manner of student doctors , I would wonder to myself , which one of you bloggers that I know might be in a group I was watching ?How surprised you would be to know you were so close to me and not know it , lol .

I met all sorts of people in the hospital while I was there and made many a new friend too . Several nights we women wandered from ward to ward , visiting with each other . We discussed all topics we had in common and found this world to be very small indeed !I even ran into a friend who was caring for her mother in hospital , that I didn't know was there at the same time as I . Two floors up and one of Moe's Uncles was hospitalized as well , so many family members came to visit us both .

Actually the only really negative experience in the TMC I had were the bathrooms .So disgusting . The house keeping staff only came 2 times a day to clean them and no trash containers available in the bathrooms themselves . No soap either and many of the fixtures were non operating , no water , or no sanitary precautions taken for the patients .All the other moans an groans about the hospital and staff are normal ones you might find or have anywhere else in the world .

Our son and his wife stayed with us and cared for Moe and I these past 2 weeks . Haroun had his 2nd birthday party here .I am so grateful that they came and helped us out so much . I don't know what we would have done with out them .

Summer time is on it's way here in Tripoli . It is getting hotter day by day . The mosquito population is growing by leaps and bounds ! Have to close the Condo up way before sundown or else the darn things will fly off with us like the vampires they are , with us never to be seen again !

I hate the summertime here . It is just hot , humid , and buggy all summer long !!! Yucky !! Even with the air conditioner going full blast .Houston isn't much better either , but at least there you can wear " naked" clothes and no one has a heart attack ! Thank goodness I don't wear the Hajib , or I think I would just die from being smothered to death in all that fabric !

Adventures Of The Unwanted Type

Hi !

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted but have been off having unexpected adventures of the "Unwanted Type " , lol ! I was taken seriously ill unexpectedly Monday last and hospitalized in Tripoli Medical Center ( TMC) for a week .
I am on the mend , resting at home , but will not be posting much this week . Still am on bed rest .

The whole time I was lazing around in bed at the hospital , all I could think of was NOW I NEED A LAP TOP COMPUTER !!!! LOL ! All that wasted time and no computer , OMG !!!! LOL ! I did get to catch up on some of my reading and that was good . Missed you all and hope your life is going smooth !Will write soon when I am able to sit at the computer longer . I thought I would send you one of my favorite songs, until then . OTE

Mother's Day

It will be Mother's Day in America on Sunday the 10th . I wanted to wish all mother's , be they mother's of pet rocks , puppies and kittens , or human children of all sorts , lol , a very wonderful day filled with the love and appreciation you so richly deserve . And not JUST in America ... but all over the world !

I want to share a few pictures with you

and beautiful love letter from my friend's daughter to her that says it all . Have a blessed day Mother's Of The World . OTE !


13 March, 2009

Dear Mother,

I've been blessed in this life for many reasons, but the number one reason is you.

Having you in my life just makes things a lot better.

When it's dark you are the only light I see, when it's cold your warm arms, heart,
and chest is the only thing I feel.
Things you say, things you do, are just some of the things that I love about you.
I love everything about you. I love the way you smell, the way you get angry,
and the way you love me. In other words, I LOVE YOU.
I thank my Lord day and night for having you as my mother.

Mother, I love you more than anything else in this world.
You are the Queen of my heart.

from Widian A. Abubaker

Dark Side Of The Moon

As I mentioned in my last post , I've been depressed this week over the deaths of loved ones . It happens to us all at some point . We all grieve at a different pace . I stumbled across Gina's Big Adventure tonight and read of the passing of both her parents with in 10 days time . I felt a gut wrenching ache deep inside me for her loss.

Then I started to remember what it had been like when my mother had passed away . She had been ill and had surgery . We were told that her cancer would eventually return at some point in time but she was ok for now .She would need another surgery in 3 months time .

She had the surgery . Survived it . Was due to come home 5 days later. The day she was to come home she had a blood clot go to her brain and kill her .It was a shock for all of us in the family .

My sisters did most of the arrangements for the funeral .I was barley functional . This caused a lot of friction between my sisters and I . Normal stuff that happens in families when some one you love dies .

I had 4 children that needed their mother and I felt like a orphan . Nothing could touch me . I was numb .Frozen and still as water in a ice tray . Moe tried reach me . My children tried . I did what I had to do everyday .Smiled , laughed , cried , nodded my head a lot .I was a robot . Not human anymore .

Then I discovered that some one else once felt as I did . Go ahead and laugh but I am sure I would have been totally lost if not for my discovery . I came across a copy of Pink Floyd's " Dark Side Of The Moon " .I played that record over and over until no one could stand to hear it but me . The pain resonated deep inside me . Made sense of my loss somehow .

The other thing that got me through it all was my children and their need for me . Their very neediness felt like they were sucking all my air out of me .I had no choise but to pay attention to them . I took them out of school the week of my mother's funeral .

We would do things together . We would pack a picnic dinner and drive to the nearest State Park to have sunset dinners by the ponds .We watched the alligators come to feed side by side with the deer and the squirrels at the ponds edge . We would hear the owls reading themselves for the night's hunt .Listen to things invisible moving through the grass .

Other days we would drive to Galveston Island and make sandcastles on the beach. Once we rode on the Bolivar ferry and saw the dolphins swim beside us all the way from one shore to the other . We had to fight off the seagulls from stealing our chips . Several times we went at night , just to watch the Gulf of Mexico a light from the ships out at sea .

Some days we would load up in the car and drive for miles and miles . No destination in mind , just the journey to somewhere and back .Music blasting from the car speakers with us shouting out the lyrics to the tunes on the radio

.Once we went to the San Jacinto battle grounds for a day spent exploring the place were Santa Anna was captured in the Mexican War . The kids climbed all over the Battle Ship of Texas .Learned of a great nation called Texas in the Battlegrounds museum .There was a small private cemetary on the grounds from the 1900's . We read the tombstones and wondered what had happened to the people bureied there . We watched the ships come up the Houston ship channel from the Gulf of Mexico .

I remember the sun shone a lot those days for some strange reason . I felt it should be raining , but it wasn't . Just the bright yellow sun shining down on us . Warm and healing me , even though I wanted to resist .

Depressed, Swine Flu , And Life

Ok , I have tried a different comment setting that hopefully will stop the problems that some of you have making a comment post . Let me know if this one works better for you, please . I have gone back to the old format . Hope this one works for you .

This has been a depressing few days for me . ! First Khadijateri losses her brother . Then several other people we know have lost loved ones this past week . It's like one funeral after another . Then it is the anniversary of my son's death and my sister too . This always depresses me . But on the bright side , it is my youngest daughter's anniversary today . There is always balance in Life , you just have to look for it .

My sometimes sane friend called me in hysterics the other day convinced that her youngest son had Swine flu , other wise known as the H1N1 , Type A flu . Sounds like Prince's new name , huh ? Anyway , I never was able to convince her that he just had the flu that everyone else in Tripoli has .

The next day she calls me to tell me she is sure she is dying from this flu , since she is now running a fever as well and called me to say good bye before she died ! She said there wasn't a box of Tampiflu ( however it is spelled ) to be found anywhere in the country, not for love or money ! We were DOOMED !!!!! OMG ! I spoke to her a few minutes ago and she had to admit she is STILL in the land of the Living , much to her regret ! And improving ! I just wanted to thank CNN News for causing her induced hysteria over the pandemic spreed of the flu from their moment by moment broadcasts .

When Moe and I went grocery shopping Saturday . I was amazed at HOW MANY people had the cold/ flu ! EVERYONE was sneezing ,coughing ,snuffling into their sleeves , Kleenexes , or handkerchief . Everyone ! Everywhere ! No where was safe from it . But on the plus side , more and more people where trying to be hygienic about it , washing their hands and using hand wipes I noticed .The butcher was wearing gloves . I nearly fainted .

But it is just the flu and nothing else . I read somewhere that they are screening at the Tripoli airport for people that are running fevers and that are unwell . So , be forewarned if you are traveling here soon .Your body temperature is being scanned .

Cousins

Haroun 23 months old . How he has grown huh ? This month he will be 2 years old , wow ! Doesn't he look tough !And those big big brown eyes , oh my !

Sophia is now 5 months . Isn't she a cutie ? Look at that smile ! She has blue eyes that twinkle !

Gail will be 9 months this month , already ? OMG ! What big blue eyes she has too ! And that smile ! A real flirt , huh ?

Sad News

My family and I would like to extend our deepest sympathies to Khadijateri and her family , both here and in America , on the sudden death of her only brother . Please keep them in your prayers .