This weeks pick was from Melissa who can be found at It’s Melissa’s Kitchen and I am so very happy she chose Chocolate Pudding!

I remember from days past, yeah I am getting old and the word “past” just seems to fit this so nicely as Chocolate Pudding for me represents my childhood. I remember waking up one summer morning to check out side for snow. Yes, SNOW of all things. My mom was making chocolate pudding, home made of course, and the smell drifted through the house and it smelled just like the hot cocoa she made us during the cold winter months in Oklahoma.

So when I embarked on this trip down memory lane I could not help but sniff around the pan to see if I would be taking on a small trip to the past and as I closed my eyes and took that whiff…AHHH yesss..I’m home.

This pudding worked out so wonderful, and yes ladies, the Corn Flour that I have is Corn Starch!

The proof was in the “pudding” so to speak because my pudding set so nicely. So getting all the ingredients together was not that difficult and we are really lucky to have milk here similar to what I am accoustomed to in the states.

Once I got everything all dished up in the bowls, I realized I had not plastic wrap. So I had to use the little plastic lunch bags that are common over here for just about everything from freezing meat to sending a small lunch with love notes for the kiddies! I covered the bowls, I made big bowls of this delectible treat and into the fridge it went.

Here we go…we made some whipped topping, ground up some chocolate and there you have it. My trip down memory lane came to life on my counter.

meet super cup! moe’s swim buddie.

Today I took the boys to the beach for the first time and they eventually liked it. Fortunately for me there are swimming pools at the spot I went to. My daughter and her friend took the boys to the sea and they were terrified!

They came back with tales of Sharks and other sea creatures that they thought were gonna get them. Poor babies lol. The waves are pretty strong even if you are on the sand up close so needless to say, their little heads went under and now they will never ever again go to the sea they said lol.

Well, I got off a couple of shots of them but they were running all over so it was not that easy, plus I did not feel like ruining my camera today with sand and water and who knows what else. I must go check out my sun burn..who knew I could burn?

his version of a water gun!

little omie..smiling for me!

It was nice finally making it to the beach here in Lebanon. I had not been yet in all the three years that I have lived here. Weird huh? I usually travel to the states and this year I opted to stay in Lebanon and hope to have a nice summer free of any issues.

The current is so super strong here and the only ones that were able to keep their balance in the water seemed to be the little kids lol. Me and all the other adults kept falling down. My daughter got flipped around and kept popping up out of the water so she earned the new nickname, Poppy lol. It was funny.

By the end of the day, we looked a bit red and the soles of our feet burned because the sand was super super hot! Yeah, I know, put my shoes on. Little hard when your feet are wet and the sand clumps up so much that you have to remove your shoes.

Great day!

Today I just realized that all this time, when you make a note on the google reader, it does not automatically show up at the blog you intended the note for. rather, it stays just there on your google reader. What a dork lol…so now, I have countless “notes” to copy / paste into the wonderful blogs I have been reading lately. Man, they are all gonna be time stamped with todays date….geez!

i believe the picture speaks for itself. i am very happy he got them from his dresser and not the bin of dirty laundry. he paraded in and demanded a photo be taken. i guess my love to take pictures is rubbing off of them except they like to be the subject of all my discs. i love you omar!

my little guy at the end of the taekwondo matches

i was stressed for time as i had a lot of reading to catch up on for my coursework and i found myself getting so wrapped up in it. there are so many things that i have found out regarding china and i must say some of things are quite shocking in nature.

i never really remember hearing about the opium wars or the rape of nanjing, which are some very dark days in the history of china and as i continue finding things out, i see that little has changed regarding how countries use each other. they just mask it and slap the word “freedom” on it to entice the blinded people like me into to supporting a ficticious cause.

war is never pretty, it’s not supposed to be. i guess i will never fully understand why people can not just be people and get along or at least get along enough so that everyone can exist and do what they would like, raise their family the best way possible.

so that is what i have been doing with my time lately, HOMEWORK! lots and lots of homework. i also finally made it to the curtain shop and will, in two weeks time, have some very nice curtains in the whole house. at the moment i have a variety of colored sheets lining the windows so that would be “peepers” don’t get a gander inside my sometimes unruly house lol. not to mention my 16 year old daughter that has an attraction to just standing and staring out the windows into space. wonder what goes through her mind when she does that.

i finished up some embroidery projects that i got from PIMPSTITCH. they are fully open now and offer very nice designs from four different women. each of them are very talented and i can’t wait to show off my finished work to them. i feel like a kid waiting to get approval for good work lol. anyhow, i really like the change up from crocheting this one blanket. i made a mistake somewhere in the blanket and for the life of me i can’t figure out where i went wrong. oh well, maybe i can hide it lol.

my children are out of school now and after the extremely busy week last week things have sort of slowed down a bit. however, the boys are climbing the walls already and just itching to go every where. because we usually have traveled during the summer they keep asking when they get to go on the airplane lol. it’s cute. of course, we are going somewhere, just not soon. we are planning to travel to egypt and i am trying to imagine how they will like it since they are so young. maybe they will become speechless at the sight of the pyramids? i doubt it but hey, a mother can wish can’t she ?

we had a taekwondo thing yesterday. it went rather well, it was just long. some of the kids were brutal and i wonder if they are being trained at all. they are from a different team but fight as if they are in the streets. i really hate that. one girl was really aggressive and it was so embarassing to watch her because she looked like a cross between a rabbit and a cat. not sure what the moves were she was doing if you could even call them moves. anyhow, we had taken little omie with us and as you can see below, him and his sister were getting bored. lol.

so is my tale for the past few weeks and i must go. don’t forget to visit the stitching sight if you like that kind of thing…i know i like that kind of thing.

well here he is. i about cried when i first saw him in his little cowboy outfit. his class did a little country dance that was just too too cute. i wonder if i could put the little video here lol. lets seee

well i guess i can be taught huh? lol. well, sorry for the movement in the little video, my daughter is the camera person lol…i almost got sea sick because she moves too much geez. anyhow, at least we got something on it. they made a dvd for us anyways but i doubt you want to sit through that whole thing. this was the cute part. then it was time to get the diploma which they made very nice for them, my son was dancing in the line which was a shocker..i guess he was really happy.

afterwards we went across the street to get a cola since it was so so hot…(probably shoulda got water but hey, it’s a celebration right?) i really liked it when moe moe shared with his little brother. it was so sweet.

for his special day, he got to sit in the front seat and we went to burger king. they got to play outside and run and run and run. the slides were wet but i don’t know from what since it has not been raining. so they cleaned up the slides and the boys played even more. well, that has been most of my week so far and i hope not too much more will be coming up because i am just exhausted from all the running around. enjoy your day!

well, here he is, all of 3 years old and in the fall will enter KG-1. it is a happy and sad day all at the same time. it’s the realization that he is getting bigger (bieggert in his words lol). he was so proud this day and even did a cute little show with the rest of his class. we went to mcdonalds afterwards and he had his pick of whatever he wanted to do.

he even got to sit in the front seat. yeah, i know some of you parents out there are like what??? well here in lebanon a car seat is not really something you find to often in a taxi. you would most likely find them in owned cars. we do not own one here, not practical at the moment lol.

anyhow, he played and played and was just so very happy. i was so proud. he is still a bit young but that is ok, i think we can manage through it with some ease since his older brother already did the school work, i know what to expect. my little omar kissed a girl this day lol…she was rubbing the back of his head and then he kissed her….it was cute! but hey, that’s my guy little missy…hands off.

well, one more graduation tomorrow for my oldest son Moe. Report back later on that one.

one mad, one happy
Originally uploaded by Ms.Aaliyah

i really just had to make a note about this one. it was funny because usually omie doesn’t want to take pictures let alone sit next to anyone. we had been at the park for a long time and it was just time to go. moe didn’t want the fun to end of course and showed me with is mad face lol.

as most of you are probably aware, there is a show called the Deadliest Catch. yes, i have satellite so i get to watch it all the time. i joined up with the time bandit website which you can see here, TIME BANDIT . when i joined i noticed that there was a book and being the fan that i am, i ordered it (i ordered the signed one of course).

a lot of things took place prior to getting the book and the details are a bit long so i will spare you the lengthy details and just say this: i had to deal with the customs department for lebanon when i went to retrieve my package that had my chocolate and time bandit book and they were more worried about my book than anything else. lol. it was a whole day affair that left me with a dang headache the size of the world and a lesson in how to claim items so that you never ever ever have to deal with customs again lol.

when i joined up at time bandit, i put my post regarding how and what i had to go through regarding the book so some people thought it would be neat if i took some pictures of the book in beirut. so, i did. it turned into a date with the book and my daughter and i had so much fun doing it. i will leave you with a few photos and the rest you can view here, Aaliyah’s Time Bandit Pics .

i have other pics there to so feel free to browse and post a comment or two…don’t be afraid lol.

without further delay…..here we are with the time bandit!!