Veterans Day, John Finn, USN- Updated. (original date of Post:12/01/05)

I was in the San Diego airport on Veterans Day. My mom and I were waiting to fly back up to Sacramento. I happened to notice a very old gentleman, sitting in a wheelchair. This really isn't a big deal, but I noticed he wasn't in the preboard area. I was wondering if he knew this or if he needed assistance. Anywho, while I was scoping him out, I noticed that he was wearing the Congressional Medal of Honor around his neck.

Now being a former military gal myself, I found this to be nothing short of amazing. I decided to talk to him. I walked up to the gentleman and introduced myself. I told him "Thank You" for his service to our country. (Lets face it folks, you normally get this medal after you are dead. In fact, i had heard it referred to as: Coffin Metal Handles, instead of Congressional Medal of Honor). Surprisingly the old guy was very sharp. He was 97 years old! He told me that there had been a Veterans Day ceremony in La Jolla that day and that he was on his way home. His name was John Finn.  Just in case you don't want to click the link, I will give you the rundown on the gentleman. He received the first medal of honor of WWII. He earned this medal by manning a .50 cal machine gun,In the attack on Pearl Harbor, and going buck wild with it during a 15 minute attack, sustaining heavy injury to himself before he could be persuaded to leave his post and seek medical attention.

I really feel honored to have met this man. It certainly isn't an every day occurrence to meet a Medal of Honor winner. When I was in the Navy, I would always look on the ribbon racks of the particularly "chesty" servicemen to see if there was one (always displayed at the top of all the others) but never actually saw one outside of textbooks.. After I actually saw this and read the citation I felt really touched and thankful that that old dude was so brave and made that sacrifice.... I may be a raging liberal now, but I know something to appreciate when I see it.

Update: John Finn celebrated his 100th Birthday this past July. He is the oldest living MOH recipient. Also check this out, MOH winners have benefits and stuff.. I didn't know that. (November 8, 2009)
Update 2: John Finn passed away on May 27, 2010, two months shy of his 101st birthday. You can see his New York Times obituary/story here.  Fair winds and following seas, Lt. Finn. (September 15, 2011)
More about John Finn: NBC Nightly News 

I had no idea.

Blogger has this nifty thing called "stats" that i never much noticed before. It has only been tracking my stats since last May and since then i have only had 1k+ hits. Before I changed the design over, I had a counter (which, stopped working, but was around 30K+) I liked. Anyhoo, now i like to look at the stats. I can see from them that I get random and bizarre traffic. A lot of the traffic comes from a post called "Katb al Kitab (the paperwork)" I have also found that my top five traffic sources are as follows:

1. United States
2. Germany
3. Brazil
4. Russia
5. Canada

That is just weird to me, But hello to all of you, I am glad you stopped by. I also get traffic from: Luxembourg, Spain, UK and Finland. Hello and welcome to you folks as well. Hope you come back by sometime. Although it is ridiculously boring.

I can also see that although most of my spouses family is in Egypt, I have only had 9 hits from there since May, so clearly I have not been posting enough content for folks over there to care to look. Hmmm. I don't really know why I shared this.... It just seemed interesting to me.

Meh.

Happy Blogaversary to me!

I had no idea when my mom gave me the newspaper clipping about this new fangled "Mommy Blog" thing that I would be typing this six years later.

I started the blog when my son Ayman was about 10 months old. I wanted to basically bitch about things and share stories of my children. I totally have. Ayman is now almost 7, and he has a sister Jennah who is about four and a half now. I am glad I made this little spot on the web. We have a whole family in Egypt (Salamo aliko everyone) that gets to take a look at this to keep up with the kids milestones. I have pretty much taken the bitching out of the equation. (ok, not entirely) Sometimes I find it hard to keep up with the blog, and to keep it updated. There are so many other timesucks out there on the interwebz! But I am glad I have. It has come in handy as well. One of my fathers friends actually found him, by finding my blog. Kooky, huh?

Well that is all for now, I just wanted to give myself a written pat on the back for keeping this up so long. Here is to another 6 years, and more. Thanks for reading.

Eid Clothes, Masjid edition.

They feel the need to take a silly picture and a regular picture everytime. I am such a sucker that I cannot resist posting said silly picture. So, here it is.

An the picture that is sweet as pie. I think they look adorable; I am not biased or anything.

Eid fun, '10

Ayman and Jennah wearing thier new Eid clothes.

Crazy face pic, always fun.

What a nice picture of Jennah, Amr and Ayman. Maybe I can get someone to take a picture of all of us today. We are going to the mosque picnic for Eid over at Nelson Park. I am sure a fun time will be had by all.

An I Phone for my Dad? ummmm, riiiiiiiiiiight

So I am talking to my mom today, about how I am trying to save for an IPhone. She tells me that my dad really wants one.

OMG.

Ok, my Dad has a retarded tiny little Sony Ericsson phone right now. He barely knows how to use it. He has had it for a year. Before that he had a Nokia flip phone. He had that flip phone for like, 5 years. Seriously. By the time he went to upgrade, he could only call the past with that thing, it was so old. Now he wants an IPhone? Jebus. I can only imagine how I would be spending the next 4 months of my life if he got one. "Cassie, how do you...." Dude, I don't have an IPhone. It is for that reason that I need to get one. Last week he called me to help him find a wireless network on the laptop. Even walking him through it he could not figure it out. *facepalm* Why would he want an IPhone though? I can only imagine so he can upload the IPod part with all of his Harry Potter books on CD. LOL. If they have a Harry Potter app, I bet he gets it. On second thought we should definitely get him the IPhone, then i will load it up with a bunch of Harry Potter nerd apps and Alex and I can mess with him. (like this or this ) Yeahhhh thats it. Excellent plan.

I love you Dad. LOL.

Eid Mubarek

Happy Eid al Fitr!

Funny Eid greetings.

Dates, I ate a lot of them. They were good, Ilhamdulillah.

Muslims have a sense of humor. lol.

Jennah is just like me.

Jennah and Ayman both go to school early now, so they wake up at o715. Ayman snaps to immediately. Jennah on the other hand, doesn't. I went in the room to wake them the other day. Jennah immediately asked me:

"Mom, when I get home from school can I take a nap?"

Yes, my daughter is planning her naps, even as she just wakes up for the day. Thats my girl. My reply: "Of course you can, Sweetheart."

Just thought I would share that. My mom had this to say about the above picture:

"She looks just like you, mouth-breathing and everything!"

I love you , Mom.

Uncle Alex, DDS strikes again. At a Ports game.

And we have HD video this time! Thanks Alex, this is great!

And here is the final result:

Last night we had corn on the cob for dinner. He bit into it with the wiggly tooth and it started bleeding all over his corn. I told him, "That's it, Uncle Alex needs to take that thing out." So tonight my dad took them to a minor league baseball game with my brother, SIL, and my niece and nephew. I sent Ayman with a ziploc baggie and some tissue. This is awesome. But now I have to give him two dollars- I was only going to give him one but as you can see in the above video, they said THREE. I told Ayman that the money goes down after the first tooth, so I guess that will be better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

First day of school, 2 times.

Aymans first day of school was the 18th. He is in first grade this year. He picked that shirt out himself at the "boutique" (a fancy was of saying thrift store, lol.) He is getting so big.

Not for nothin', but my son does an awesome robot.

And here he is at his very own desk in class. *sniff* I am verclempt.

Jennah was sick on the real first day of school so we will call this Jennah's first day of school. She is also sporting a complete "boutique" ensemble, WOO HOO! It is adorable and she was very excited to go back to school.

And here we have a crazy pose, just for funsies. Too cute. Mommy is super proud of you guys, and loves you very much!

My son knows how I work; Jennah is tired.

I went to tuck Ayman in tonight. He had his covers over his head, "hiding" as usual. Like I always do, I asked Jennah: "Where did your brother go?" He ripped the cover off real fast and yelled "RAWR!" I grabbed my heart and said, "OOOH! you scared me!" Apparently, my acting wasn't quite good enough, because he replied: "No I didn't." "Oh yeah? " I said, "Why is that?" He looked up at me and said, "Cuz I know how you work!"

Dude, I love my son. Too funny.

Meanwhile, Jennah went swimming at my moms today with her brother. I noticed she got out of the pool well before him. I assumed she just wanted to dry off on her favorite chair. After a while she still hadn't come in so my mom looked outside, and the above picture is what we found. Poor little baby doll wasn't feeling good and just fell asleep sitting there. I picked her up and took her in to the house where she slept more. When we got home she slept even more. She has a runny nose and the sneezes too. Tomorrow is the first day of school. I don't know if she is going to make it or not.

Just thought I would share part of my boring day. Oh totally unrelated, It is the 7th of Ramadan. Ramadan Mubarek!

A gem from my brothers Facebook page.

Today, My sister-in-law and I did some running around while my dear brother watched the four children we have between our two families. While we were gone he posted this picture captioned:

"All four kids while Facebooking....mediocre parenting at best."

How many kids do you see there?

I love you , Bro!

Milestone: Ayman lost his first tooth.

I took this picture on August 7th, 2004 of my baby boy's first tooth. I have to say it is one of my favorite pictures of him. Yesterday, August 14th, 2010 That tooth went bye bye. It had been loose for months. I kept telling him, "You better pull that thing. The tooth fairy doesn't give you money if you eat it!" He would not wiggle it. Well, he wouldn't do any aggressive wiggling. I remember working on my first tooth like it was job. I crunched it til it made sick noises, I twisted and pulled until it hung on by a thread. Then, I finally just pulled. Ayman wasn't having any of that.

Yesterday, we were at my cousin Adam's 17th birthday party at Uncle Jim and Aunt Cindy's house. I was telling my sister-in-law Renee about the tooth situation, and how I tried to pull it earlier but was too chicken to do the deed. I mean I tried, but I just couldn't. It wasn't happening for me. Renee said: "Uncle Alex will pull it!"

Sure enough, wouldn't you know it, Uncle Alex did. Here is a picture of the amateur dentist and his willing patient, shortly after the procedure. I have to say my brother had some skillz. Before Ayman, or any of us knew it, he had that tooth YANKED. I quickly tucked a piece of tissue in the socket before he could see it was bleeding and ....

There ya go. He seemed a little shocked at first, but then he was VERY excited, and Auntie Cindy gave him a cow shaped trinket box to put his tooth in for the tooth fairy. Ayman asked how the tooth fairy knew he lost a tooth. Amr told him that she got an email or they tweeted it or something. (which was pretty funny coming from Amr.) In the wee hours of this morning, Ayman woke up to 3 dollars in his cow trinket box, in place of his tooth. I am still amazed that my baby lost that tooth. *sniff* They grow up so fast....

New look...same great taste.

Well it was time. I have had this blog going on six years with no changes to it. I saw this new template and liked it, so there ya go. I am still the same lame ass me though. Don't worry.

Change is good.

Finally............

After 17 months, I have finnally gotten my Respiratory license. Yay me! Now i just need a job. LOL.

Congratulations, Auntie Renee and Uncle Alex!

On Wednesday, June 2nd, at 1332, my brother Alex and his wife Renee welcomed their second child into the world. Sanderson Alexander Smedley was 8 pounds 2 ounces and 20 inches long. I am so happy for them! Ayman and Jennah are quite happy to have another little cousin and can't wait to be able to really play with him.

Congratulations you two! Enjoy your new addition.

Backyard Sprinkler Fun

Interview with Ayman

Interview with Jennah

Jennah gets a big kid bike.

So when Ayman was learning to ride a bike, the kid next door, Nicholas and his mom Deb were watching. She was telling me about how she couldn't get Nicholas to ride without training wheels. (that is his bike in the foreground) She said she had a bike the perfect size for Jennah, that her son had grown out of. SCORE! So without any further adieu, Jennah and her debut on a bike with two wheels. (and two training wheels.) Yay, Jennah!

Ayman Rides a bike!

ok, so today I started getting Ayman thinking of learning to ride his bike. I talked to my hairdresser about it (thanks Rim!) and she said the best advice she got was to look in the distance when pedaling. I took Ayman's training wheels off, steadied him and ran behind him. I told him if he felt like crashing, to do it on the grass. Well, as you can see, he was successful! Way to go big boy! Mommy loves you so much!

Cupcakes- Ms. Sonia's Mary Kay party.

I did some more cupcakes, this time for Miss Sonia's Mary Kay launch party. i accented them with sweet peas, lavender and sword fern from my parents yard. The cupcakes themselves are again Red Velvet with cream cheese frosting (a very popular cupcake.) they turned out nice, and I got a lot of compliments. I think though, it is about time i get some cards printed up.

Red Velvet Cupcakes, Bridal Shower

So I made some cupcakes for a bridal shower my sister in law was hosting. I baked and decorated the cupcakes, which were Red Velvet, with cream cheese frosting. The decor on top is comprised of two silver wedding rings tied with a garnet colored organza bow. We filled in with an assortment of fresh flowers and , Voile! Yummy and Pretty. Thanks so much mom for helping me out, with out you, this would not have been nearly as pretty.

Woo Hoo! video of a race, starring Ayman and Jennah

Up Late With Netflix

Yeah I went ahead and did it. Netflix subscription. Last night I watched a documentary called The Union: The Business of Getting High(it was about the British Columbia pot trade and misinformation about mary jane) Tonight it was Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past- not the greatest movie, but entertaining. Whoa I am having a de ja vú. I think when I first started this blog I had a Blockbuster membership. We lived in our ghetto apartment, with no cable. Whew, I digressed a little there.. Saturday I watched The Invention of Lying, which might I add, I really enjoyed. Sunday I attempted to watch New York, I love You- despite of the nice scenes with Bradley Cooper in them, that movie sucked sack- couldn't finish it. Thank goodness it was in the instant queue because lemme tell ya, I would have been totally heated if I had that one sent to me. Sunshine Cleaning- Billed as a comedy, So. Totally. Not. A. Comedy. Even thought it wasn't a comedy I still liked it. So what is on tap for the future? Well, I have Funny People on the way, which my brother assures me is a whimsical romp, and Star Trek. In my instant queue I have Donnie Darko and Interview with a Vampire. Like I havent seen that one a million times. Oh well. So that is it. I cannot update you on my licensing, as I do not have it yet, but rest assured, I will fill you all in (maybe) when I get it.

Now here is something. People who know me know I love me some Lady Gaga. This kid is seven years old. his name is Timmy DeMott. He kicks ass. His mom taped him singing Bad Romance (acapella, and man can that boy snap!) The first time I saw the video the kid had 3k hits. Now he has 953,035. Seriously. If you watch it keep in mind the boy is 7, and posted this himself, and no, I don't want to hear anything snarky about him. He is fabulous.

Tomorrow I am getting a pedicure- probably the only one I will get for the remainder of the year, so I hope Ann drags that sucker out. I am looking forward to being down a shoe size after she uses the illegal foot shaver. Yay me!

That is all. Thanks for joining me in a little pointless babble.

Family Yosemite trip, 2010

self portrait.

Amr and Jennah at El Capitan

Jennah and Ayman, Yosemite Falls

Family Nasr, Yosemite Valley

Picnic time.

So the whole family took a day trip to Yosemite National Park. We had a very nice day. The Tour, not so much. Can I just say the driver sucked? He got me all psyched in the beginning, bragging about how he knows so much about Yosemite, so I thought it would be super informative...it wasn't. So we got bored. Seriously, you don't want to bore my brother. This sort of thing ends up happening:

You have been warned.

A Birthday Dinner.

Jennah and the customized Cherry Chip cake I made for her.

Ayman, Millie and Jennah with the cake.

Photobomb! (LMAO, Alex)

This is my present. I got her 4 years ago last Thursday.

Well we had a little dinner over at my Mom and Dads house tonight- and a tiny birthday celebration for the girl. No big deal, just dinner, cake and ice cream. She did get some good presents, and loved decorating her cake wit the M&M's. She even let Millie help her open presents. My girl is a great sharer. Well sweetie, Mommy loves you so much, Happy 4th Birthday. *sniffle, tears, sniffle*

Cass and Daph go to The Soup

Photo time! This was done at turbo speed, apparently Mr. McHale needed to get back to the set of Community right away....It took literally 2 seconds, Daph has mad IPhone skillz.

This is before the show taped, We are in the front row, and if you click on it you can see Joel McHale and Guiliana Rancipandi on their phones.. I was soooo excited, *squee*!

So this past January 29th, the family left for a nearly five week trip to visit Amr's family in Egypt. When they were gone, I got to pop on down to Los Angeles (plane ticket and good times compliments of longtime BFF Daphne.) Daphne wanted to know what I wanted to do when visiting. I immediately answered "I would love to see a taping of The Soup." I have loved this show in several incarnations. I first fell in love with it in the heyday of the Talk Show, the late 90's. Back then, they called it Talk Soup, aired every day, and an hour show on Friday. Then , it was hosted by the awesome John Henson. (skunkboy!) Yes, Greg Kinnear hosted it before that, but I didn't watch it then, and I don't pretend like I did. After Skunkboy left, there was Hal Sparks, but I always thought that they should have hired fill in host Roger Lodge of Blind Date fame. Both were funny though. Aisha Tyler hosted it for a minute, then I kind of lost track. In 2005 I posted this with a tiny blurb about John Henson and the new incarnation of Talk Soup, The Soup, with host Joel McHale. When I wrote the post in 2005, I had never watched the new version of the show. I don't really know when I did start watching it, but the important thing is I did. It is still a great show, and Joel McHale is HILARIOUS. I knew Daphne had gone to a taping before and one of her co-workers had a hook up over at E! so it was on.

When we arrived at the E! Building on Wilshire in LA, we met Daph's co-worker Kate. Shortly after, someone from E! came out get us for the taping. We walked in and were met by Joel himself which was OMFG so cool. He insulted us a bit, and then we were taken to the green room to wait before the taping. While we were waiting Joel came back to the greenroom and chatted Daph, Kate, and I up for a few minutes before he had to go to wardrobe. We were also introduced to Mankini at that time. Very nice. Once finished with wardrobe, Mr. McHale came back to the green room to escort Daphne, Kate and I to our reserved front row seats for the taping. The taping went very smoothly, and Joel McHale was hilarious. I had a great night. More than I expected by far.

So, thank you, Daphne, and Kate for making my year. This is right up there with the news of how I am going to get my license in May (ISA). I will not blog about that until it is a done deal though, so stay tuned.

UPDATE: I got my license on June 21st.

Sleepover, Wooo HOOOO!

The pictures run backwards, But Ayman and Jennah had their first sleep over on Friday the 19th. Lilyith, one of Ayman's kindergarten classmates stayed over. It was her first sleep over too. They had a blast, and I took plenty of pictures for her mom to see. The awesome thing is that Lilyith gets along great with Jennah too- she has little sisters so she is just wonderful with her. I would totally do this again. So, if you want, scroll down to the bottom and work your way up. Thanks for reading.

The above picture is Jennah (right) and Lilyith, PASSED OUT. I mean it was only 11:30! Lightweights.

Ayman was not happy about having to sleep all by himself, but dammit, RULES ARE RULES.

Lilyith and Jennah at bedtime. Observe the awesome murals that Ayman and Jennah made on the walls. I was going to wash them off, but I think they compliment the room. NOT.

MMMMMM, Popcooooooorrrrrn

Jiffy Pop is old school but way cool. I remember when I used to stay the night at my Uncle's house. His wife at the time would have my brother, and cousin and I make Jiffy Pop. it always seemed like it took forever to get going and I remember my arm would hurt from shaking it, so we all took turns. I brought that to the table for these kiddies. It was a raging success, if I do say so myself. (and of course, I do.)

For dinner the menu consisted of Chicken rings and seasoned crinkle fries. What part of the chicken do you suppose the "ring" comes from, anyhow?

The kids playing dress up. Ayman is wearing a cape I made for him in ought six, for Halloween. he was Dracula. In this instance he was a ghost, and a wizard. Wonder where he got that, Dad? *coughHarryPottercough*

When we got home after school the kids were sent out to play. It was a beautiful almost spring day and the back yard is so....dare i say, verdant? Right now. They figured out a way for all of them to ride the Barbie Jeep (thanks, Grandma!) It wasn't dangerous at all. Look out Mother of the Year Award, i am owning you! LOL.

Hope you enjoyed that backwards pictorial journey.... Coming soon, the lovely conditions of my probation for the RCB, or "Why You Should Never Ever Be An Ass When You Are Younger And Have a Record to Prove It."