My new niece.

Here she is, Emilia Marie Smedley, born Friday August 29th, at 0518 am, 6 pounds 8 ounces, and 18.5 inches long. She is so pretty! Congratulations Alex and Renee, you two are going to be great parents.

Half-assed update.

ok, so here i am almost at the end of August. My sister in law just had her baby shower, and is about ready to pop. My Mom and Dad moved into Dad's new house, We are getting ready to move, I am in clinicals at a local hospital. I work nights on thursday, friday and saturdays. Ayman starts preschool on wednesday (Yes!) I am feeling a little overwhelmed. A little. I am super excited to get into the new place; which is my dads old place, right down the street. I really need to star packing. For real. I am excited about Alex and Renee's baby. I hope she doesn't go into labor when i go out of town in September. So that is it for now, i have nothing else to report.

This is just silly.

I woke up angry at Amr this moring at 4 am, because I had a dream he was lining up another wife, right in front of me. In the dream he was talking on the phone, to my friend Diane from my old job. He was talking to her about her daughter, and would not get off the phone to say goodbye to me. I was leaving our house (not our house, you know how dreams go like that.) He was on the phone, I asked him to get off the phone, and he shook his head no and gave me the Egyptian hand gesture for "wait" (which is to pinch your four fingers and thumb together, to where they point to the sky, and shake it a couple times) I asked him, "Are you talking to a woman?" He straight just said "Yes." I asked him who, he looked at me, all indignant, and said "Diane" I whipped out my phone and tried to call her, (as she is on my contacts list) however, I could not key her name in.(you know like when you try to scream, nothing comes out, run and it is like you are underwater?) It was a dream I made myself wake up from, because i was getting PISSED. Here I am at 0440 feeling hostile inside for something that never happened.
Hmmph. Who knew?

Totally lazy blog post:Soccer and water fun.

Ayman at soccer pratice....It is kinda funny to watch the kids are interested; kinda.

Jennah shows us her tortilla chip. Look closely in her mouth.

Jennah, showing her Daddy an absolutely fascinating leaf.

Jennah and Ayman love to play in the hose in front of the house. They are supposed to be watering the plants, but it doesn't really end up that way. They get way more water then than the plants.

I put the nozzle on the misty setting. It was totally boring, so it didn't last very long. And that concludes my very lazy, mostly pictorial post. Ayman is in his last week of summer school, i am still plugging along in school myself, and we are moving on September first. Woo Hoo! I love moving, I mean, who doesn't? Packing up all the crap you have accumulated, loading it into a truck taking, it off the truck, unpacking it, getting rid of boxes, settling in. it is totally awesome. Can you detect my sarcasm? Because I am laying it on pretty thick.

So cute

How cute are these two?

Ugh, help!

OK, i am begging the moms out there to help me by giving me some ideas on how to potty train my son. Daytime is great. No problems there. It is the night-time that i can't seem to do anything about and it is pissing me off. How did you get your kids out of that last overnight diaper?
The frustration is unbelievable.
Help!

This girl cannot be trusted.

So what happens when you don't hear or see Jennah for about 5 minutes? She climbs up on to the kitchen counter and helps herself to dry chocolate milk mix. I picked up the camera, to take this picture and what did she say? "CHEESE Mommy!"

Not to be outdone, Ayman also had to say cheese. I think this is one of the cuter pictures of him I have taken lately. Did I mention that he was in the hospital for 4 days in the beginning of June? He had a raging case of viral tonsilitis, that got out of control before we knew it was really happening. He got admitted on a Tuesday, and discharged on Friday afternoon. Jennah stayed with my mom and Gene, where my mother totally spoiled her. Apparently, Jennah has a flair for retail therapy. Mom got her a purse, sunglasses, a skort, mary janes, and Jen picked out a pair of tie-dyed yoga pants from Dillards all by herself. Mom said she carried them all around the store.
Here is something cute. While Ayman was in the hospital, he missed his sister so much that he had a toy phone that he used to call her on. One night we called Jennah (for real) and she was in the bathub, it went a little like this:

Ayman: Hi Jennah, what are you doing?
Jennah: I taking a bath!
A: Your taking a bath?
J: Yeeeeah!
A: Okay, I love you
J: Love you Ayman!

It was too cute. Mom said that Jennah laid on the floor on her back and said "I want to go home." Ayman was doing the same in the hospital. The weird thing is, now that we are out of the hospital and at home, Ayman is different. Not in a bad way. He is actually happier, more outgoing, and very loving to his little sis. It is cute, when he comes home from school the first thing he does is give her a hug and kiss. It is a nice change. It makes me wonder how long he had been sick. Right now, we are trying to get rid of that last pull-up diaper he wears overnight.
I will keep you updated on how that potty training is going. Jennah pees and poops on the potty, and will be going into pull-ups in a couple of days. I am so looking forward to diaper-free days again.

Pasta Update, the first four hours

Pasta's condition has been upgraded to: Good

He is swimming around his bowl and ate his breakfast heartily.
His progress will continue to be monitored.
He appears to be confused at this time, looking for his buddy, Rice.

I will post another update later, when his new tankmate is introduced.

RIP: Rice; Pasta, condition critical but guarded

So a little background here- the kids got 9 cheap ass goldfish at a party on January 28th. Three survived, in my largest pyrex bowl. Then, one of the three commited suicide by jumping out of the bowl, and another went belly up for no apparent reason (perhaps his time had come) so for the last guy, my dad bought a fishbowl starter set at Walmart, complete with gravel and plant. We also got a goldfish, which Ayman named "Pasta", and a black fish with buggy eyes and billowy fins, Jennah named him "Rice". I have kept them in a fishbowl that I have cleaned once a week for the last six weeks or so. Of course, the original guy that was left from the cheap ass crop, (that I named Joe, what a surprise.) kicked the bucket the day after I transferred him to the bowl. Other than that all was good in the fish bowl.
Until tonight.
When I came home from school tonight, the fish bowl had been moved. I thought this was Amr's subtle way of telling me the fishbowl was stinky. So I asked him about it. He told me the kids were looking at it, (which is really why we have them) Oh, and by the way, Jennah chucked a baby wipe in there. "Don't worry, it was dry".... Um, I don't know why this made it ok for me....
At about 1 am, in between episodes of the Andromeda Strain on A&E, I went into the kitchen for some delicious Spumoni ice cream when I noticed something disturbing. Rice was chilling on his side at the bottom of the bowl. Quite dead. Pasta at first glance appeared dead. I tapped the glass and found that he was not. Quickly, I got him out of the bowl into a cup of clean water, he was bad, guys. Gills barely moving, just sitting really still, I proceeded to clean out the bowl, and gravel and plant. I put water back in it, carefully measuring the temp, I mean, I don't want to f&%k with the poor guy even more right? By the time I was done with the cleaning he was a little perkeier. Still, I don't think he is gonna make it. I put him back into the bowl and he got hitched up on the plastic plant....so I gently moved the water around and he started swimming. He is acting erratically, I am hoping that the fresh water will help him out, and that I caught him in time. I added some food to it, so we will see what happens. Either way, I see fish shopping in my future.

Burnout, Ayman's IEP, and Clint Eastwood

Oh my. School is killing me. I am so bored and burnt out by it now. I know I am not done learning- I still have a few classes left. But the classes are BORR-IIIING. I took last Thursday and Friday off because of it. Tonight we the megacode for ACLS, (Advance cardiovascular life support, I think) Which is basically CPR with medications and defibrillation. I did really good, and passed, so I've got that going for me. Other than that, I gotta hang in. This is a short week so that is good, but what about next week? The week after? Arrrrrgh. I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I know it isn't a train. Must. Keep. Going. Hmphhhh.
Today, I had the annual conference for my son. He was diagnosed with a speech and developmental delay when he was three. He has been in Special Day Class (SDC), with an Indiviual Education Plan (IEP) since December of '06. He has been enrolled in state run preschool as well. He goes in the morning to his SDC, and to State preschool in the afternoon. It is good, because with the special day class, the bus picks him up at home at 0700, and then after that they walk him across campus to the preschool, and I pick him up from the whole shebang at 1430. At the conference today I got some good news and some bad news. The good news is- he is doing really well. So much improvement in the last year, the state preschool is doing wonders along with the different therapies the SDC is giving him. He is testing HIGHER than his age in most areas, and just a scoche below in others. However, he still has one full year- he will not start kindergarten until September of '09. they told me today- that he was ready to move on from his SDC. To where? State preschool. Cassie, you ask, isn't he already in state preschool? Why, yes, yes he is. So, Cassie, what exactly does this mean? Well, it means, he doesn't need to go to SDC. Let's take this one step further....He only needs preschool. So, Starting in August, with the new school year, he will only go to preschool from 12-3. This is a good thing, I know. But you know what else is a good thing? My son in school all day. HA. I know I am not winning any mother of the year awards with that little confession. But, whatevs, he is doing good; that is the important thing, and he will still meet with the speech therapist once a week, blah blah blah. So I got that going for me.
I paid off my braces today. You know, I was thinking, I am taking lighter classes now, and not having that payment on the braces frees up enough cash for me to get the DVR service back. I miss it alot. I mean ALOT. It will take some bargaining with my husband, but I think I will be able to swing it, as in, calling Comcast, getting the box and skipping on happily with my life. WOO Hoo. Yep, that is the ticket. Speaking of TV, and (why not? that is really all I do for fun,) I am watching Million Dollar Baby on AMC right now. Now, the subject matter is sad. I agree with the concept of it 100%. I believe in a persons right to die with dignity. Man, I was gonna go off on a rant about the right to die, but I really don't want to open that can of worms. Let's just say it is a damn good movie. Clint Eastwood is a silver fox, grrrrowwwl.
Ok, so that was a bunch of info. boring I know, but I am going to mirror this on my Myspace blog so whadda ya gonna do?
I'm out.

Home appliances, AC service and baking

My refrigerator is taking a crap on me. I mean, not literally but, you get it. I woke up today- and it was sinisterly quiet in the kitchen. I noticed the fridge wasn't cooling. This is bad because it doesn't get cold enough as it is- so it really can't take a break on the cooling. I guess most of them cycle, but this one really can't. Just recently, it stopped making ice- I think the reason for this is that it doesn't get cold enough or something, maybe not but, who the hell knows....moving on. So My dad, Jennah and Ayman and I took a ride to day to look for a replacement. A used replacement. I figured that I could get something for a couple hundred. I showed up at Wilson and Coffey and found this gem- except get this: It has an ice maker. woohoo. the deal with it is, it got damaged in shipment, and they fixed it. you really don't know where the major damage is unless you know where to look for it. They did a nice repair job. There is also a couple of dings on the outside door, but hell, that is gonna happen at my house anyway. so I am gonna buy it tomorrow, and it should be delivered by Tuesday. Thank goodness for that. I had to put everything in the freezer, to keep it all cold. The milk turned, and I had to throw out all the milk and mayonnaise based products. Perhaps, that is why I have had an inordinate amount of gastrointestinal distress....if you know what I mean, and I think you do.

On a more positive note, I was in contact with my Uncle Brian, who is a whiz with all things car related, and he says he can service my Honda's AC for very little cash. I will see if he can check out the thermostat as well (the car overheats when you idle, so no stop and go traffic, and no drive thru). Then, the kiddies and I will have a cool car to ride in this summer. YAY!

I made another cake- I kinda screwed up the topping for it though. I don't think it was a keeper. It came out a little dry, although they have you serve it with ice cream. It is OK, but I don't think I am going to categorize it as a "keeper", but when I upload the pic I will post it. It turned out pretty. My next attempt will be a carrot cake. I love carrot cake. I just have to acquire some spices for the dish. I have a delicious recipe for a cream cheese frosting. wanna hear it? hear it goes:
1 pound (2 bricks) of Cream cheese softened
1 cup of butter (2 sticks) of butter softened (it is low cal)
4 cups of powdered sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla
beat until creamy.

Don't ask me what the deal is with me and baking right now. Soon, I will be making a homemade ice cream cake- one of those ones that is rolled up. i saw a neat one on Emeril Live. I have to look in to it.

time sure does fly by....

It has been quite a while since I had anything to post. I mean, I have had stuff to post, but Ihave been to lazy to do so. My last post was in late April, and it is almost late May, so I guess it is time. I am back in class, for the next twelve weeks. No offense to my teachers, but I am straight up struggling to stay awake in the classes. Ugh, I dont wanna drink the nasty coffee they have there because then I get all jacked up caffeine-style, and never fall asleep. So let's have an update, shall we? (i know this is too boring now. Sorry, I just dont have the energy to spout all my venom anymore. I mostly save that for the myspace blog.)

Ayman is rapidly approaching the end of his school year, and after a little bout with pneumonia, he is doing fine now. Jennah, is speedily potty training- she totally digs the potty chair. Ayman had nothing to do with it, but Jennah will totally go all Britney Spears and eat her cheetos and drink her juice while crapping on the potty chair in front of the TV. Yes. My potty chair is in the living room. When my daughter is home, she has no pants or panties on. Sue me. Whatever works. (right Colleen?- i wish i could visit you by the way...) I dont make my guests dump out the chamber pot, so it is all good. Hmmmm, what am I missing here? Summer is upon us here in Stockton, and we had the first of several ridiculously hot days today- early. I had to borrow Amr's cursed Honda of death today to go pick Ayman up from school, because it has an AC and my Kia does NOT. Totally ridiculous. I live in the hot-assed central valley and have to truck my two small children around in a compact car with no AC. Do not even think that a trick-ass-mini van wont be at the TOP of my list of purchases once I get my RRT, thank you very much. I made an awesome Southern Red Velvet cake (trust me, this recipe is easy and totally worth it) for mothers day this weekend, which was a nice bbq at my brothers house, (kudos to Auntie Nay Nay for the hard work, she is like, 20 weeks prego) I won't go in to all the reasons that I was upset and pissy on mothers day, let's just say, I would like some recognition. So, here are a few pics, sorry there isn't more, and yes, the cake was freaking awesome. Definitely a keeper.

Braces, OFF!

So, two weeks ago I got the braces off. I have just been too lazy to post a pic. Everyone knows it involves getting pretty and taking oodles of pictures of yourself. So tonight, I finaly did it. Of course, I should be studying or writing a paper, but this is way more important, huh Dad?
Oh yeah, I am trying to potty train Jennah. As you can see by the picture, it is going GREAT. (NOT)
Hope everyone is doing well!

updates

So here are some gems from Easter- As you can probably see, Jennah has learned to make a face. This is the only one she does. It is adorable of course. These pictures were taken at Genes house on Sunday. I just finished a module at school, and as of Monday, I am on clinical at a hospital here in Stockton. Lemme see, what has been going down? Jennah and Ayman went to the dentist and Yay! No cavities! Umm, I think that is about it, I am boring.

Jennahs 2nd birthday celebration.

So today my daughter turned 2. It is just amazing how time flies. She got her very own princess tricycle. We did a party for her at Ayman's preschool, where the kids enjoyed cupcakes with marshmallow peeps on them, made by me of course, and gender specific goody bags. Oh yeah, I was awake until 3 am the night before, but it was so worth it. Of course, no post would be complete with out a picture of my boy too.

The best proffesional amateur commercial ever.

this video has gone viral, I am mostly posting it here so my mom can watch it at work.
I will have kid related video later in the week.

Ouch, i went bananas

So, my father and I took the kids to a place in Lathrop called "Go Bananas" basically, it is a large warehouse in an industrial park, that has several inflatable bounce house things in it. It was pretty cool. Ayman and Jennah were loving it. Unfortunately, Jennahs favorite thing was this really high slide. She is a short little thing, so it took her a long time to make it up the steps to the top. Towards the end of the visit, she wouldn't walk up at all, but really wanted to go up. So, that left good ole Mom, what can I say? I am a pushover. I put Jennah in a firemans carry, and climbed her right up to the top. She loved it. Which made it necessary for me to do it like, fifty more times. Needless to say, my legs are killing me and I actually busted a sweat. The kids tore it up. I think it would be fun to go again sometime. I will have to take Amr, because he is way more into the physical activity than me.
In a completely unrelated note, I have seen my husband for like, one hour total all week. That is weird. He comes home, I go to school. I come home from school, he is in bed. He goes to work, I am in bed. WTF? Not only that but I have no energy. I was reading a friends blog and he was saying how he wished he had 1/3 of the energy he used to have. I am agreeing with that. I wish I did too. I just wanna sleep all the time when I have the chance. But I feel restless. Like, I want to do something, I almost need to do something. Like, ants in your pants, you know?
Whatever, maybe I am experiencing once of several self predicted mid-lifes.
I am gonna roll with it and see what happens. Perhaps the crisis won't include flunking out of mechanical ventitlation (ok, i see that that is a typo, but i like it so it stays). We'll see.

Crapity crap crap

So last night, I watched the season finale of nip/tuck. Whoa. Here is my imitation of Daphne and I on instant messenger last night while watching:

Cass: omg
Daph: omg
C: o m g
D: wtf?
C: omg omg omg omg
D: omg omgomgomg omg
C: ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
D: OMG

And that concludes my poor re-enactment of the instant message conversation between Daphne and I.

In a completely unrelated note, I started school again last week, and Whoa, nelly! It's hard. Time to study, yo. Last weekend, I met Daphne in Manteca and we had a very nice time visiting with one another and seeing old friends from school. Much props to the Junior Varsity and Varsity EUHS basketball teams for spanking Manteca High, I always like to see that. It made the evening even better. Next time we have a class gathering we need to find somewhere more quiet to do it. I will ponder that one- I have like 7 months.

Alrightie then, I will try to keep you posted, or at least get a good video of the kids up here sometime....I should be getting my braces off soon so I may have that to show you....but I wont be specific, because you just never know.

Dr-aaaa-maaaa

Jennah is a drama queen. I believe I have said this before. Here are some good examples.
When I left with my mom to go to the spa on saturday morning, she was standing on the driveway with Amr, pointing at my mom and I in mom's car, crying. Then she threw herself on the ground, (so carefully.) She was on her side, with her upper body propped up, like she should be laying a cross a piano in a cabaret. She hung her head and cried. It was pathetic and hilarious at the same time. I am sure I will be going to hell for laughing at her.
Then, later that day when I came home, I noticed that Jennah was acting like a puppy, (which is pretty normal for her) but with the added twist of biting things. I was talking to her father and she came up to me and out of nowhere bit my thumb, Hard. So, I slapped her hand. I told her: "No biting Mommy! No biting anyone!" She totally lost it. She was bawling. I held her on my lap. She squirmed and cried "Le-et meeee dooooowwwn", "No, sweetie, say sorry mommy." she wouldnt. "Say sorry Mommy, and I will let you down." Still no go. "SAY sorry mommy." Finally, finally, finally, she says "Soorr-eeee Maaaaahhh-meee" through a red face, covered with tears and snot. I gave her a kiss, and said thank you, cleaned the tears and snot with a kleenex. I then set her down on the floor- where she promptly ran over to and dove onto her fathers lap, looking at me as if I were the devil.
Nice.
A couple of weeks ago, Jennah was crying after her bath. She was crying for no reason other than she hates to get out of the tub. It doesnt matter how long she stays in. She was crying and Ayman says: "Jennah, stop being a drama queen!"
Stop being a drama queen- Stop being a drama queen , indeed.

And now a word from Ayman.

So, as I mentioned before, I am on clinical right now. I was sent to a hospital in a town 45 minutes away (did I mention where before? I dont know, and I am too lazy to go back and look.) Anyhoo, I tried to get switched to the hospital close to me, but they said no. (see earlier posts, I was pretty heated.) Well, they called me this Monday and asked if I would switch with the girl working at county hospital. So I got what I wanted, and in doing so, I am actually doing THEM a favor. (those bastards) Oh, well onward and upward. I am doing Monday, Tuesdays, and Friday nights, so I have the weekends off again now. So it is all good. My first night on, I worked with my brother and he precepted me. Now, this may be an issue for some. I know my brother. He is extremely knowledgeable about his job, and he asked me questions and challenged me. I really appreciated it. I totally hope I get the opportunity again. He did a great job. It really makes a difference when someone is actively teaching you and not just having you do the work with out asking you why.
So next up, we have some awesome video of Ayman in the bath. Enjoy.



Ok, in the begining of the video, I am asking Ayman about about some arabic videos from You tube, so the Egyptian relatives will know what it is all about, but The American folks won't. Also, it is priceless when I cut to Jennah at about 45 seconds.
I don't know what it is, it just makes me laugh.