Something's Fishy...

I've been going through 'The Sims 2 withdrawal syndrome' - there's no such thing, I made it up cuz I AM SO ADDICTED TO THE GAME! Including the base game (The Sims 2), I've got the University & Nightlife expansion........which is awesome! But now, I can't seem to stop thinking about playing it!! That's how addictive it is!! Enough rambling on about fictitious lives and on with mine.

Robbie bought Abdurrahman a young fighting fish on Saturday, at a Burwood pet shop; which I used to be very familiar with because of my history of having 10 mice (not all at once but in total) as pets. From the beginning I've said "No" to the buy-Abdurrahman-a-fish-idea- men.....THEY DON'T LISTEN.......AAAAAARRRGH!! I always knew of the outcome if he bought the fish; which he did. The outcome was this: Abdurrahman picked up the small tank and threw it on the carpet, the water had seeped through the plastic tank and it also cracked so there was n
o way the leakage would stop. This happened today. I didn't realise it was the fish tank that fell when I heard a soft 'thud' on the carpet, until I walked into the living room. I did my best to hurry up and find the fish another home- and thank God it wasn't down the toilet.

Personally I don't like to have fishes as pets because I can't touch them & hold them. I like animals where I can cuddle, pat, touch, and play with. But today I sympathised with the poor fish. While I was moving him to the Capilano honey bucket I was begging to Allah to let him live.
Pretty fish with a blue tail. I think it's growing on me. Now it's on top of the washing machine where it's unreachable from the little terror a.k.a Abdurrahman.

~Peace.

Alhamdulillah, picked up Robbie from the airport yesterday, but boy was it a pain to walk from one terminal to another! How am I supposed to know which terminal is which? I've never had to pick up someone from Domestic before, until now. But that's all good.

When Abdurrahman saw his dad again after 2 and a half weeks, his reaction wasn't what I expected. He didn't smile straight away, he just stared as if he's seen a ghost or something. Of course after that he didn't want to let go of his dad. It was good to see Robbie's smile again, although he looks just a LITTLE skinnier, and his face almost grew a beard. But underneath all that he's still the same ol' man I married 2 years ago, no surprise.

One of the things I look forward to do today is going to Nafeesa's wedding. I've never been to a Bengali wedding before. I don't want to miss out on it because she's been a loyal friend since high school and she came to my wedding. So it's only fair that I give her something in return, in whatever shape or form.

Right now, I'm heading out with Robbie & Abdurrahman to the shops. I need some shopping done and Robbie's tempted to buy him another toy which i'm going to object to.

~Peace.

To-Do List...

Good morning!~ Subhanallah, what a beautiful day it is, the sun's beaming a smile. I've got a few things to do before picking up Robbie from the airport today.

• Post something overseas
• Find my brother a nice unexpensive suit, shirt & cufflinks
• Do some grocery shopping
• And pick up Robbie @ the airport.

I must say that I didn't mind not having my husband around a little while. But after time passes you start to miss your other half, you married folks know what I mean ;)

Off to have a shower with Abdurrahman.

~Peace.

Hey there~!

Alhamdulillah i've finally finished my exams, yay!! And for both of the written ones, I was smiling like a Ceshire cat when I saw it was 120 Mulitple choice questions. I was going to jump up & down right then and there, 'cuz I wasn't prepared for short-answer questions kinda format. We also had a clinical exam, which was shocking!! We're only given 25 minutes. It sucked.

Well, anyway, one thing I forgot to mention is that my hubby's in Perth for work since the 13/11/07; or did I mention it already? It gets quiet without him...yehh I miss him. The upside to it is I don't have to cook AT ALL, and that's awesome! But I still cook a little bit for my son & I. Inshallah he'll be back this Friday arriving @ 10pm, because he wants attend Jum'ah prayers first.

Inshallah today's the day that i'll get my plane ticket......woohooo!~ I'm going over to my brother's house and we're gonna go together.......'cuz I don't have the cash on me right now, without Robbie.

My son's woken up.

~Peace.

Exams Are Just Beginning

I've got my first written exam today, @ 2.45pm; i've to be there 15 minutes early.

Today is the funeral for the pious Pak Haris I mentioned in the above post. Inshallah he'll be buried @ Rookwood Cemetery. I can't go because of my stupid exam but I told my MIL to go instead, then she must be back @ 2pm so I can go spill my brains onto paper and hopefully, at least, get a Pass for it.

I AM SO NERVOUS!! After today's exam there's a practical exam for the same subject tomorrow.

My heart is racing just thinking about it. I mean, i'll be damned if I fail anything this semester; I just want to get this B Nursing over and done with so I could, inshallah, become a Registered Nurse and do Midwifery and then have more kids.......inshaAllah. I don't want to keep deferring everytime I fall pregnant; I ask Allah that it won't happen that way, if it is His Will. My last one is on the 26/11/07. Alhamdulillah I have 4 days to revise on the last exam.

Ok, i'm going to continue studying until 2pm. Muslim readers, PLEASE INCLUDE ME IN YOUR SUPPLICATIONS, PLEASE.

~Peace.

Death Comes Unannounced

This is the inevitable event that has occurred to a pious man who is quite well-known around the Indonesian community, especially around Tempe Mosque. How did I come to know of this tragic news?

Well, I was skimming down my msn list and there were a couple of people who had typed "innalillaahi wainna ilaihi roji'un" next to their names. The aforementioned phrase is used or said when a muslim person has died. The phrase means: "everything comes from Allah and everything will go back to Allah".

And so I clicked on this sister's nickname and asked her "who died?", she replies "Pa' Haris". I was ABSOLUTELY stunned, because I knew this man since I was a child and his wife is the most loveliest, most humble person i've ever met; we're all quite close. I couldn't believe my eyes! I had her confirm it for me, still I was in disbelief and in shock. She said that he died last night, at home, when he was leaving for the mosque. She also said that he supposedly died of a asthma attack, he's had it for a while. The police were at his house last night, apparently they want an autopsy done. I'm not sure what Islamic law is on autopsy.

Nevertheless, I can't even begin to imagine what his wife is going through at the moment. I know for sure that i'd be equally devastated, maybe even more, if I lost my husband that way.

Death is not a bad thing. It is a reminder for all of us who are still alive and healthy. The sort of reminder that forces us to reflect that there are more important things than this world; for us Muslims, there is the Hereafter to think about. Once the Angel of Death comes for our soul, that's it, there's no more second chance.

I ask Allah Almighty to forgive Pak Haris and to give his wife ease after this hardship, let all his good deeds be his bodyguards in the grave, forgive us for our sins and let this be a lesson for us all....Aamiin.

~Peace.

Catch-Up

I have been SO lazy with updating this blog. Now, i've decided to change the whole look. What do you think? I think it's time for a change! yay! Alot of stuff have happened since my last post; I think there are 3 main things:

1. My hubby's in Perth for a business trip for 2 weeks; that's the longest time he's been apart from Abdurrahman & I.
2. With all thanks to Allah, my brother's finally engaged! Allah-willing he'll be married by end of December 2007, in Indonesia.
3. Also, Allah-willing, Abdurrahman & I will be able to attend my brother's wedding. But my hubby won't be going though, he wants to sort out our plan to purchase a house.

Those are the 3 top things that i've been thinking about for the past week.

Alhamdulillah, the good news is i've already booked plane tickets for Robbie, Abs & I. But I was surprised when Robbie told me to cancel his ticket because he wont' be going with me & abs. I was a little sad & excited at the same time because i've NEVER gone overseas by myself; but I won't be anyway as i've booked the same flight as my parents & brothers...........but still, I'M EXCITED, WOOHOO!! Alhamdulillah.

Words are not enough to describe how happy I am for my dearest brother. He deserves this happiness after all he's been through. I hope to Allah that I won't miss his wedding, this is the special one because he's the last one to get married out of 3 of us. First was me, then my eldest brother, and now inshallah, will be his turn.

There WAS one girl he wanted to marry over here, but her dad didn't approve of him; which is unusual because to be honest, he's an all-rounder guy and I can't imagine anyone disapproving him to marry their daughters, of course he has flaws. Mind you, this girl was my close friend, friends since high school. I need to make it clear that my brother and this girl WERE NOT "going out" or "dating" or anything. They had feelings for each other and knew it, gradually they had the intention of marriage. And this went on for about 3 or 4 years; basically I got sick and tired of it and so did our family around us, because it was going nowhere. That's when I started to TOTALLY disapprove of the "relationship", if you wanna call it that. Soon afterwards our friendship started to disappear, but we're still friends to this day but not as close as before. I didn't care. I'd rather lose ties with her than with my brother.

Try to imagine your brother intending to marry your friend, and that intention is still there 4 years down the track, and nothing is happening! It's a -'i like you, you like me, let's get married, oh no your dad disapproves, but we'll wait and see what happens'- kind of thing.

Here's another thing to understand. In Islam, it's utterly important that both parents of both parties are happy with the intending marriage. If not, your marriage is guranteed to go wrong. Your parents' blessings is NEEDED for a happy marriage, because whether you like it or not your parents are involved too.

And so to make it short, after SOOOOO much contemplation and consideration my brother ended it with her. Of course it left her heart-broken but it was the right thing to do. And now that my brother's back from Indonesia, engaged, she found out and had the guts to call him, on Monday night, asking him to reconsider marrying his fiance!! When I was told about this I was PISSED OFF!! She knew no boundaries, no limits, NO NOTHING!! I've never disliked her more. I ask to Allah to make it easy for my brother and for him to marry the other girl, for him to be finally happy.

Whoa, I had no idea that I bottled up so much.

~Peace.

Ahh.......Daylight Saving

........and what does my husband do?? He REWINDS the clock 1 HOUR when he's gotta be at work by 8am this morning. MEN!!! Honestly, I forgot it was daylight saving today. When I looked at the clock in my room it was 5.15am and then I heard the door bell ring; I thought: "Who the hell would come by at 5am in the morning?!" Then I realised it was already 7am, and at the door was a nurse who comes by to groom my father in law. I'm STILL baffled as to WHY my hubby rewinded the clock 1HOUR.

~Peace.

A Belated EID MUBARAK!

So, how was your Eid eh? Mine? Busy as usual, as I had to host an open house whist the MIL is overseas; but then again it's a good thing 'cuz we've got the house to ourselves!!

Overall, I had fun alhamdulillah. I had the chance to spend some time at mum's place right after prayer because FIL had dialysis done @ Concord hospital.

I'm in skills class for NT6 at the moment......................the very reason I'm posting now, I'm bored!

~Peace.

Ramadhan Day 25

SubhanAllah, 5 days 'till Eid..............can't believe Ramadhan is ending, hope we'll meet again next year.

Starting from Monday (tomorrow), we're going to have the house to ourselves (cuz mother-in-law is going overseas for 3 weeks)...........yess!!!! But I have to host an open house after the Eid prayer because my MIL's relatives come over after prayers anyway.......*sigh*....I wanted to spend that day going to my parents' and seeing my family & friends there.....pffftt! This time I don't want to serve EVERYONE their food, i'll just set up tables with the food and drinks so everyone can serve themselves.................yeehhhhh, a much easier option.

Hubby & I are currently house-hunting, I pray to Allah that we get something out of that inshaAllah. See ya folks!

~Peace.

Ramadhan: Day 21; Ramadhan Stories 2

Often when it comes to donating for the sake of Allah it can be hard. This next installment of the Ramadan Stories teaches us that by spending more in the path of Allah, we are not losing anything, but rather we gain more than we have spent!

A Thousand Camels

During the time when Umar (ra) was the Khalifah of the Muslims, there was a severe famine. All the people of Madinah were suffering due to the shortage of food. One day, a tremor in the ground was felt. It was found that a caravan made up of a thousand camels loaded with large stocks of food was arriving from Syria. Returning from successful business and trade, this caravan was owned by Uthman (ra). Upon its arrival, several merchants approached Uthman (ra) and offered to buy it all.

Uthman asked them what profit they would pay. "Five per cent," they said.

He answered that he could get higher profit than that.

They then increased their offer, and still Uthman answered that he could get an even higher profit.

The merchants continued to increase their offer until they argued that they did not know of any other merchants who would offer him more than what they had offered. Uthman then said to the merchants, "I know of one who repays a profit of more than seven hundred to a single dirham (Arabian currency)." He then recited the verse of the Noble Quran in which Allah (swt) mentioned this profit.

"The likeness of those who spend their wealth in the Way of Allah, is as the likeness of a grain (of corn); it grows seven ears, and each ear has a hundred grains. Allah gives manifold increase to whom He pleases. And Allah is All-Sufficient for His creatures' needs, All-Knower." [2:261]

O traders! Bear witness with me that I donate all this to the poor people of Madinah!" said Uthman (ra).

People would easily spend $2000 for a new television or shiny rims for their car. But at the same time, dropping a $20 note into a Masjid's donation box or giving to a needy brother or sister takes second thoughts (or doesnt even cross the mind at all). What we have to realise is that all our wealth comes from Allah, not from ourselves. And in order to become wealthier, we have to give in the way that Allah loves, always knowing that we will get in return something multiplied by what we had given. In addition to that, Allah also multiplies the rewards of good deeds by many times in Ramadan, so now is the best time to invest in your Akhirah (hereafter)!

~Peace.

Ramadhan Day 15 (ramadhan stories).

A SCHOLAR IN CHINA

A Muslim scholar (Sheikh) was on a visit to China to give a series of lectures to the local Muslim community. One day, he was scheduled to give a lecture at a local hall and was about to take a taxi along with his companions to that location.

They got into the taxi and the Sheikh asked about how long it would take to get to the lecture hall. The taxi driver, through the translator, answered "Two hours."

The Sheikh immediately turned to his companions and said: "well, we can't sit in this taxi with the driver for two hours and not tell him about our religion. If we did that then we would be no different than any other non-Muslim or kaffir who uses this taxi. We are the people that Allah (SWT) chose to carry His message and honoured us to be Muslims. It is our duty to tell this person about Islam."

However, the driver was a native Chinese and didn't have a common language with the Sheikh. They had to communicate through a translator.

The Sheikh said to the translator: "Ask the man if he believes in any religion?"

Driver: "No, I don't believe in religion. I just get up in the morning, go to work and earn money. At the end of the day, I collect my money, go buy some food and drink for my family. What do I need religion for?"

Sheikh: "Ask this man if he has ever heard anything about Islam."

Driver: "Not much. I've seen a tape once and showed Muslims as violent people. I don't know much else."

Sheikh: "Ask him about computers. What does he think of computer?"

Driver: "I think the computer is an excellent invention. It is very useful and very sophisticated."

Sheikh: "Does he think that the computer could have invented itself or does he think that a human being invented it?"

Driver: "A human invented it, of course. It is not capable of inventing itself."

Sheikh: "Which one is more complicated the computer or the human being?"

Driver: "The human being is more complicated, of course."

Sheikh: "O.K., if the computer must have been invented by a human being, then it follows that a human being (which is more complicated) must also have a creator."

Driver: "O.K."

Sheikh: "In Islam, we believe that Allah is the creator of human beings and all other beings. Fine, now let's move on. Assume that you have never seen a computer before and never heard of it. If I brought a computer to you and gave it to you. Would you know what to do with it? Would you be able to use to its full potential?"

Driver: "No, I wouldn't."

Sheikh: "Now, if I gave you a manual for the computer, then you will be able to better use it? Correct?"

Driver: "Correct!"

Sheikh: "In Islam, we view Quran as the manual used by human beings to manage their lives. Without this manual, they will ruin themselves! Now, if this inventor of the computer assembled the machine and printed the manual, what would be the next step? He would need to train some engineers and others on how to spread the message about this machine. These people would, in turn, train others and others until everyone knows about the machine. In the example of Allah and Quran, the prophets of Allah play the role of the engineers. They learn the message and teach it to others so that the message will spread. Prophet Muhammad (saw) is the final messanger of Allah and he was ordered to take the message to all human beings."

By this time, the trip was coming to an end and they almost reached the lecture hall. But the Sheikh can see that there were tears coming out of the driver's eyes. The words of the Sheikh was having a significant effect on this driver.

Driver: "These ideas are very interesting to me. Do you mind spending 15 more minutes with me to tell me about this religion?"

The Sheikh agreed to spend those few minutes with this person and did. The man asked many questions and seemed genuine in his desire to learn more about this religion. At the end of these few minutes, the driver said: "I want to join this religion of yours. How do I do that?"

He was told that all he needs to do is say: "I bear witness that there is no God but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad (saw) is his servant and messenger."

Clinical Placement

Day 3 - 12/09/07

Well it has been several days since clinical is over, for the year, yes!! I'm trying to recollect my memory from last Wednesday.

As the week progressed I got more restless because I wanted the week to end so bad! I was sick of Liverpool Hospital and just get home. Wednesday was good, although I didn't see my friend on the ward; turned out she had 2 days off. Alhamdulillah I got teamed up with a somalian nurse, who is also Muslim. She was really good at her duties and didn't ignore me through the shift like some a**hole nurses do. The thing I remember vividly about Wednesday was the VERY FREQUENT trips to the pharmacy for our patients' medicine. I didn't mind it after that because I got to sit down for at least 10 minutes, which was the thought always on my mind.

Day 4 - 13/09/07 (Ramadhan Day 1)

Ramadhan has finally arrived; I was gonna miss the cafeteria food at the hospital; which wasn't all bad. This was my first time working in the ward while fasting. Alhamdulillah I did pretty good and didn't passout or anything of the sort. But it is VERY tiring. My hubby started his shift @ 12noon which was awesome, so he could take Abdurrahman to my mum's place for her to look after him. But the thing was I forgot to take out Abs' car seat to put it in Robbie's car >_<. At around 11am on my morning break I saw 2 missed calls from Robz and I called him back to apologize for not taking out the car seat; seriously, I was half asleep when I left for clinical that morning.

Day 5 - 14/09/07 (Ramadhan Day 2)

This was the final day of clinical for the year! yay! Afterwards, we've got two weeks off uni and then we come back for the final 5 weeks left. Some other people have clinical starting tomorrow after a good week off - those poor buggas! To sum it all up; alhamdulillah the facilitator gave me a satisfactory mark although she wasn't really good as our faclititator - i've had better and more enthusiastic. I hope I never see her again. Seriously, if I ever get her as a facilitator again, by Allah I will swap with someone else. That's how crap she was.

Ramadhan Day 3 - 15/09/07

I love Ramadhan!! Why? Because I don't have to cook until 5pm!! WoooHOoOoOOoOOoo!! I'm really loving it 'cuz then I can just focus on getting the other stuff done or start on my assignments. The whole day we went around looking for a Gazebo because the one in the backyard has been torned down by the strong wind. We came back with nothing.

Ramadhan Day 4 - today

Guess what. I can't pray or fast for the next 5-6 days >:(. I hate when that happens. But on the bright side it'll mean that I can fast on the last 10 days of Ramadhan, which will be an important time for this month. I haven't had the chance to fast in the last 10 days of Ramadhan for the past 3 years because my periods always come at that time. And finally, inshallah i'll have the chance now!
Today I was supposed to head to my parents' house in the morning but Robbie's got the sunday off work so we're heading up there around 11.00-ish and have Iftar at my aunty's house. It won't feel like an Iftar to me because i'm not fasting. Some of you my think it's a good thing that i'm not fasting, but for us it's a feeling like we're missing out on something grand.

How was that for a recollection of memory? That'll all folks!

~Peace.

Clinical Placement Week.

Day 1: 10/09/07

Another week of clinical, only this time I wasn't looking forward to it. The group i'm in, we've got a crap facilitator - well, she's better than nothing. Not challenging enough i'd say. But other than that the first day was good, alhamdulillah!
Oh, I got placed in Liverpool this time - last time I SWAPPED to Liverpool from Sutherland. On Monday, there were just 3 of us girls placed in 1 West; it's a general medical-surgical ward, they have almost everything. Each 3 of us were teamed up with a nurse, or two. And subhanallah, I saw my friend, who started the nursing course with me at the same time, working in the same ward; and yep, you guessed it! I teamed up with her. It kind of felt wierd in a way because we were once on the same level and now she's an RN (Registered Nurse) and i'm STILL a student.

The skills I did on Monday were of the ordinary; which are showering patients, making beds, doing observation rounds, medications.

Day 2: 11/09/07

I was a wee bit late today, because i'd normally like to arrive 15 minutes before 7am or at least 10 minutes before to familiarise myself with the patients' medications and know what they're for when I give them. It bugs me so much when i'm late to something. I'm the sort of person who likes to punctual and not hold everything or everyone up. But as it always happens, you're gonna be late to at least one event in your life.

I did a foot ulcer dressing on both heels of the feet today. It looks like THIS PICTURE except on the heels. Yeh pretty common for diabetics. There's alot of patients in the ward with Chronic Renal Failure (CRF).
There's a lady with a really bad fungal infection on her leg; the smell of it stinks up half of the ward to the point where a fan is used to keep the smell away, but you can still smell it! Apparently she's had maggot therapy on that leg *shivers*

Ok, let's see what tomorrow brings.

~Peace.

Just uploaded a video off my phone....

...it's somewhere in Youtube as well. Here it is:

Clinical Placement Week 2

Day 1

Hey all~ Assalaamu'alaikum my brothers & sisters in Islam. Alot has happened within the past week. I've been bombarded with "unpaid work" - which is my placement @ Liverpool Hospital. If only they paid us for these two weeks..............but noooooo, it's entirely for experience *rolls eyes*.

Last week was Alhamdulillah a very good week in the wards. I got the feel of the daily routine of medication rounds and I got to do an Intramuscular (IM) injection on a patient...which was awesome!! It's been years since I've done some injection. All went smoothly until I re-capped the used syringe. Nicki (our facilitator) saw what I did and her eyes popped out of her sockets! Apparently I've forgotten the rule-of-thumb that YOU NEVER RE-CAP A USED SYRINGE. Nicki said to me "I did NOT just see you do that. I could fail you for that. You have just injected a patient and by re-capping the needle you could've pricked yourself!" Now I understood why she reacted the way she did. With that I learnt my biggest lesson; and I hope she won't fail me :(

As for today, I've taken the day off to look after Abdurrahman; he spiked a fever on Saturday night and it got worse on Sunday morning - which meant that he & I had to stay put and couldn't go to my mum's place on Sunday morning. Robbie took the day off work yesterday and together we took our baby to the emergency; just in case it was the horrible influenza virus.
After getting his temperature checked, the nurse gave him a medical iceblock to increase his electrolytes and asked us for him to urinate into the specimen jar. Robbie tried but to no avail. I tried the second time. After turning on the tap for a minute or two, my hand was in the way and got some of his urine on it, lol. So I grabbed the jar and he filled it up almost full. I was like "Oh, good boy! Yay!", I was never so excited about urine before!! Lol.

After all that the Doctor concluded that it wasn't a ear, throat OR a lung infection, and that it was viral *shrugs*. But he did tell us to look out for signs of rashes on his skin, and vomiting ALONG with the fever. We were in the emergency for 3 hours. I was so happy to see my parents at the emergency afterwards. Throughout yesterday his temp. was stable but it got higher to 40 degrees C overnight. And THAT'S WHY I'm @ home looking after him instead of going to my 2nd week of clinical. Inshallah i'll be able to go tomorrow, if Allah wills.

~Peace.

Clinical Placement Week 1

Day 1-5 (Monday 13/08/07 - Friday 17/08/07)

At the moment i'm just so buggered with the internet, as it won't load pages although the wireless network is working and i'm connected.

I wanted to just put down some stuff here, about my clinical placement @ Liverpool Hospital, before I forget about it.

Before stepping out this morning, to leave for my first clinical placement in 4 years, I was quite apprehensive in how my son will cope with me gone for so long. You see, I've never left him for more than 3-4 hours, in today's case was 9.5 hours (0630-1600). I guess it's normal for mothers to worry about their child like that, especially with the first one.

However, I was SOOOOO excited to put on the uniform once again and head out to the real world, where others are in worse shape than I am. It only took me 15 minutes max. to get there and alhamdulillah I arrived on time. We were all waiting @ the main entrance for our facilitators to come and collect us and go through the usual checks and information (as per usual with clinical placements). There were 9 girls in my group but 1 person didn't turn up at all, which could turn out to be a negative thing on their behalf. Nevertheless, we proceeded.
I got placed in a complex Endocrine ward (AG 2 West) which included fields such as: gastrointestinal, aged care & mostly some diabetic patients. There others went to Renal and Respiratory wards.

The history of the patients that I was teamed up with had so many broad and diverse history. Honestly, I was shocked to see a young girl of 19 years in one of those rooms. I looked up @ the hand-over sheet to find that she was newly diagnosed with Diabetes. Subhanallah, our faith are tested at any time and any way that Allah wills. The other patients were pretty much elderly.

The first drama of the day happened while I watched 2 nurses helping a slightly immobile patient into a shower chair. Keep in mind that this patient is incontinent of urine AND faeces (i'm sure you know what that means). As soon as they got her (the patient) onto the chair, she urinated on the floor enough to make a fish pond! Oh well, stuff like that happens all the time in Nursing. All you can say is: "Oh no! She thinks she's on the toilet". Afterwards, having the nurse shower and dress her, she pooped out a little nugget just under the seat while the nurse and I were helping her into her chair! Oh boyy...they reminded me of my early days of clinical. We've got the morning shift for THE WHOLE 2 WEEKS, which means getting there BY 7am. By the end of the day, I couldn't really concentrate in debriefing with Nicki (our facilitator), 'cuz my feet were REALLY hurting - Nurses don't get to sit down for most of the shift - and plus I wanted to head straight home to my little boy.

Speaking of Abdurrahman; he's cheekier than ever now! Alhamdulillah he's able to copy our actions and say some words that I tought him such as: "Ma", "Diddi" (which is 'daddy'), "Om" (to call my brothers, which means 'uncle'), "Ummi" (grandma, to call my mum), "Buu" (grandpa, to call my dad), "Nene" (another grandma, to call my mother-in-law), "Kah" ('car'), "Bes" ('bus'), "Bye", "Uh-oh". Subhanallah, babies are so smart! Oh! He's also growing 6 more teeth simultaneously.

Ok, that'll be all for now. Got an early start from now on, until the end of next week :(

~Peace.

The Results Are In.....

and .....ALLAHU AKBAR, I got a Pass and a Credit for my results!! Alhamdulillah!!

I was a nervous wreck, anticipating to see my results online............and then B A M! I saw those two beautiful words of "Pass" and a "Credit". I couldn't help but make the most sincere prostration to my Creator; I was SOOOO grateful that Allah has helped me gain those grades. And you know what I did afterwards? I danced around my room, picked up Abdurrahman out of his cot - of course he wasn't asleep - and swung us around and around until we both collapsed on the bed. THAT'S how happy and grateful I was.

Well, I wanted to share the news with anybody who's tuned in. And for those whose awaiting for uni exam results, I hope you kicked ass :)

Until next post......

~Peace.

18 Months and on.....

...and it was time for my little man to get his 18 months Immunisation, after I postponed it for a week because he's just recovered from a horrible fever.

I was looking forward for him to be at this age; but now when I focus back, it's not much of a difference from last month. The injection was on his left thigh; although he had a delayed reaction he cried a little, as I expected. Pondering on his growth, as a person, from birth to this present day, astounds me even more. SubhanAllah he's grown soooooooooo fast for me to fathom. And before I know it he'll be 2 years old next January.

Anyway.........I'm at my aunty's house just to hang out and chill, because I rarely see them on a regular basis since I got married.

My friend NAFEESA is off to England tomorrow to get married to her fiance, and she's having her Nikah and Indian wedding over there too. I've decided to see her off at the airport tomorrow inshaAllah.

Aight, until next time habibs.

~Peace.

Snotty Season.....Literally.

Tell me one person that DID NOT get the flu/cold/cough viruses during this month. Nup, I knew you couldn't.

Let's see, my little boy had just gone over his fever last Saturday; we were supposed to go to my mum's but couldn't because his temperature was still too high. Right after that, my throat started getting REAL croaky and felt that I was going to pass out at any moment.

Got a lot of visits from my family this past week because they wanted to see how Abdurrahman was doing. Oh, by the way, my little boy has turned 18 months today. I was feeling his gums for some new teeth coming and, alhamdulillah, I felt something sharp to the right of his two front-bottom teeth.
You see, he only as 4 teeth, on average he should have more but I'm not worried that; I'm just flippin' excited! Yay! He knows his got sharp teeth now, he always wants to bite my chin. Didn't think it would hurt that much, but to my dismay, it did.

Well anyway, I've been really down with the cough, flu, and sore throat; subhanallah it's a terrible thing to go through while looking after a sick baby. I'm trying not to complain because there are others out there in the world who are going through so many horrifying things, compared to a cough or a cold, and they deserve nothing to be going through so much pain. It's a test of faith.

I'm really sick of these Muslims, who call themselves "devout Muslims", and perform actions that are contradictory to the Islamic practice- blowing things up, hurting people -I'm sick of it! Allahu a'lam, Allah knows best who is telling the truth. I know for sure the media is screwing things around and making Islam look rotten in people's eyes.

On a not-so-serious note, I finished reading "Memoirs of A Geisha", finally. It took me quite a while; around 2-3 weeks. It's a pretty good read, very facinating. I love how Sayuri expresses herself almost poetically. When she describes a person's beauty It made me want to watch the movie more to see if the director did a good job @ picking the characters. After finishing the book, I looked through YouTube for the movie, and I found it! Yay! I watched it and was almost totally impressed of how good of a job well done those people did with making the film.

There are a few things though: 1) the book is always better than the movie. 2) Being taken away from their family - it is not how Chiyo and Satsu seperated from their parents. 3) Hatsumomo's not that pretty. 4) Michelle Yeoh was PERFECT to play the part of Mameha, very pretty in the movie. 5) The character Nobu had one arm missing in the book, in the movie he had two arms.
I'm really glad they kept the ending that way.

Personally, I wouldn't like to be a geisha if I had the choice. But being forced to become one? No, I would rather die. No offense or disrespect to those out there who think otherwise, but it's just my opinion. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVED the book dearly, couldn't put it down until I was nearing the end of it.

The one movie that i'm also excited about is Harry Potter and The Order of The Pheonix. I reckon it'll be AWESOME DUDE!!

Speaking of awesome, take a look at this person's blog who took a picture of my VAN. My brother found it on the internet and told me about it. No, we don't have that number plate anymore because the RTA thought it was "inappropriate" *rolls eyes*. It doesn't matter now anyway.

Until next time.....

~Peace.

There's Ease After Every Hardship.

Assalaamu'alaikum wr.wb. to my Muslim readers, and Hey to the rest :)

Haven't bothered to daily or even weekly blog my happenings. Right now, at the moment, my son has a bad fever for the past 24hours, and if it continues to go on i'm takinghim to the doctor. His temperature has been high as 40.2 degrees C. So you can imagine how FREAKED OUT I was. A doctor HAS seen him during a house call last night, and he prescribed Bactrim and Demazin. He says that my baby has an infection.

If you saw how he looked last night, your mouth would've formed a really big "O" shape. My mother called, 2 nights ago, and I told her about Abdurrahman's state. She came over last night with my brother and just held Abdurrahman until she left.

Didn't sleep a wink last night! I was staying up all night placing a luke-warm face washer on his head to keep his temperature down. I couldn't fall asleep easily this time, usually I can. But then at 3am my body gave up and just shut down. The trip to sleepy land didn't last long though, I woke up at 5am and haven't gone back to sleep since.

Alhamdulillah, Abdurrahman's temperature has gone down to the 37.9 degrees C range. I'm so happy to see him act his curious self again. Seriously, I was dead worried that he wouldn't make it through the night. I prayed and cried and asked My Creator to restore my baby's health, if it is His Will.

I'm really grateful to Allah to see him laughing, smiling, playing, and dancing again.

Here he is watching Sesame Street:


~Wassalaamu'alaikum wr.wb

~Peace.

Oh, The Relief!

Hey! How are my favourite people?!

Do I have any though? *shrugs*

I have finally completed a semester full of deadlines, pressure, expectations & snotty know-it-all first year Nursing students. Some people just don't know what they're in for if they think they'll fly through this course without sincere, hard work. Like I said, blardy snotty first year students (not all of them).

I now know the pressure that studying mums get when they go through balancing uni & family life, especially for those who've got more than 1 child. During the assignments fiasco I couldn't have my 17-month-old son in the room with me. I don't have any other rooms because I don't own a house and the room that I sleep is the only place where I can study. "OH ALLAH, PLEASE PROVIDE ME A HOUSE IN THIS WORLD, AND PROVIDE ME A PALACE IN JANNAH, AMIN."

Thanks to Allah, I felt good doing my first exam. Except for 2 questions that I KNOW I got wrong. What the heck is a "Reticular Formation" and "Spermatogonia"?! I know that it was something with the brain and the sperm. That's all! Alhamdulillah, there was a diagram of the heart we had to label. I was so grateful that I stayed up the night before, going into detail about the heart. I was like "WOOOHOOO!!! I see a heart diagram!!"

As for the 2nd exam, which was on last Thursday the 14/06/07. It was 100 multiple choice questions and 20 true-or-false questions. I LOVE those types of exams.

Now that I've done my exams I've got to think about more uni stuff. Like, what subjects to pick for next semester; yes, I'm planning to stay put with part-time studying - I've realised I work better that way with a child and all. Alhamdulillah, I'm happy with how I dealt with uni this semester; if I kick it up a notch next sem, inshallah I'll be at my best.

Well, that's just an update so far. Oh! A shout-out to Nafeesa: when are you available? 'Cuz I'd love to catch up @ a Cafe or anything. Let me know~

~Peace.

Boldness.

I'm currently enjoying the tasty flavour of Heaven Chocolate truffles.....................yehh................i'm a choc-a-holic. I don't know what girl isn't one.



Guess what. I'VE SHAVEN MY HEAD, BOLD!

















Nah....just kidding. I didn't go bold, but my now-17-month-old son has.



Oh lookie here, he's 17 months today, alhamdulillah!!



Anyway, Robbie & I were contemplating on shaving Abdurrahman's hair. I was like "Let's do it! We should've done it when he was a baby". And so we decided to go ahead with it. It was the right timing too, because we we're on our way to my mum's house and my brother's pretty good at cutting guys' hairs, with the shaver. Boy, was I excited!!!



When I told my mum she was like "Do it after the wedding, not now". There's an upcoming wedding inshallah, one of Robbie's relatives who's gottenn married in Indonesia and now having her 2nd wedding here. Me: "Mum, it'll be cool for the wedding, he's gonna look so HOT!". That's exactly how he looks now...lol.

Before shot
Now, compare it to this:
After shot

BIG change huh?!
This is what happened:
He's not scared, just apprehensive

And then:
Bad boy

That was the highlight of my Saturday. Hehehe. Until next time,

~Peace.

For those who are ready for marriage...

here are some rules regarding seeking a suitable partner according to Islam. First, let's look at 'Readiness of Marriage':

1. knowing one's rights and obligations of an act is itself an obligation
2. knowing yourself well with the abilityto take the burden of responsibility (Mukallaf) is an implied requirement
3. for males, he must have the ability to provide and maintain his wife and family that would follow
4. for females, her ability to consent is sufficient readiness.

Okay, that was straight-forward. As I have promised my friend Nafeesa, who will be married in 2 months inshaAllah, I'll include some things to make a marriage contract. My husband & I are attending this Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence) of Marriage @ the Al-Ghazzali center, and I thought this might help on the road to marriage.

Preparing the Marriage contract in Writing

• a written contract is not obligatory but recommended.
• conditions in a marriage agreement, which stipulates the acting on a prohibited matter make such conditions void, but the marriage valid.
• matters which are a necessary responsibility of a party, but not stipulated in a contract, is still obligatory on that person. Not fulfilling such an obligation gives the right to the other party for divorce.
• matters which are not stipulated under Shari'ah, but there is benefit in such a condition and if present in a contract must be obligatorily fulfilled. If no recourse is stipulated, for such a condition however, it canot be enforced through official means, e.g., an Islamic court or through recognised Leaders of a community.
• it is permitted to give the right to one's wife to divorce herself without the involvement of the Islamic Court or authority, and is called Tafweed.
• acceptance of Tafweed after entering into marriage is acceptable, as long as the husband agrees to this stipulation.
• a woman may stipulate conditions of contract and Tafweed attached to it.
• the written contract must be witnessed by at least two parties. It is best to make available the same copies of the contract each to the husband and the wife.

Ok, there you go. Hope that helps.

~Peace.

No Regrets.......

But I wish these "Fiqh of Marriage" classes existed BEFORE I got married, it would've helped ALOT! Alhamdulillah :)

Robbie signed us up for a 10-week short course about "Fiqh of Marriage", provided by Al-Ghazzali. This class involves the study of the Personal Rights and Responsibilities, i.e., the Fiqh of Marriage. The Study Circle will cover Hanafi and Shafi'i Schools of Methodology. The content will include presentation on the laws and guidance pertaining to:
- Interpersonal interaction prior to marriage and during courtship

- Cultural misconceptions affecting Islamic Principles

- The Marriage Contract

- Rights and Responsibilities of husband and wife

- Consultation, the foundation of an Islamic Marriage

- Death of a partner

- Rules of Divorce, including the Australian Law

- Rights and Responsibilities of ex-husband and ex-wife.

The person who teaches it is Br. Afroz Ali. This guy's awesome! He's very well-known around the Muslim Village forums and quite intelligent too, mashallah. I must say, after just attending one session I felt different. You can say that I felt enlightened. There was a specific area of topic which I needed confirming, just for peace of mind. According to Shafi'i or Hanafi madhab (school of thought), a female is not allowed to wear fragranced perfume and adorn herself in public, because it'll attract the attention of non-muhrim men (men she can marry), whom she passes by. As soon as I found out about that I sticked to the rule. I didn't care who it was to tell to do otherwise, right up to this moment.

I remember a time when Robbie & I were just married, I'd say about 1 month. My mother-in-law would say something to the effect of: "put some lipstick on" or "put on some make-up". I responded with silence and only told Robbie that when sisters would go out, they're prohibited to adorn themselves and put on make-up, and perfumes with fragrance. And he didn't believe me until tonight's class. So for one, I'm glad he heard the ruling from the horse's mouth.

We got home @ 10pm. On the way home I was begging to Allah that Abdurrahman would be asleep when we'd arrive. Alhamdulillah he was. Until next time y'all...

~Peace.

One of many chances to thank Allah Almighty.

ALL PRAISES DUE TO ALLAH!!!

I have just received good & wonderful news from my husband, whose being going on job interviews to get the job he's wanted for so long. At last, he has been offered the position of (?) Team Leader. He called me and I teared up a little while I was congratulating him, 'cuz this is what he wanted. Inshallah the pay will increase overtime and we'll be able to MOVE OUT AND GET A PLACE OF OUR OWN, INSHALLAH!! But that'll take 2-3 years I guess, I don't care, I put my trust in Allah and stay patient until we move out of here.

I just wanted to congratulate my darling Robbie; may Allah guide you through this new journey and make you steadfast in His religion. Amin.

~Wassalaamu'alaikum.

Fauzia Resurfaces.

First and foremost, I want to congratulate my dearest friend Nafeesa on her engagement, and I hope that Allah Almighty sends down his Blessing and Mercy to her, her family, and her groom-to-be, on the day the knot will be tied :D

Seriously Naf, I'M SO EXCITED FOR YOU!! I'm already thinking about your wedding gift, LOL! Don't stress too much about the wedding details, well....I didn't anyway. Also depends on who's in charge with the organising. I wonder where you'll have your wedding reception and what you'll wear; I hope you'll be modestly dressed sis ;)That's definitely one of the good news i've heard this month.

Alot of burden lifted off my shoulders last Friday afternoon, after submitting 2 case studies that were due @ the same day and time. They were due @ 4pm and I arrived @ uni 5 minutes to 4pm.......parked the car just in front of the library and sprinted down to the Nursing headquarters. Mind you, I haven't sprinted like that in 3 years! After slipping them through the pigeon holes I had nothing else on my mind but to grab a spot to catch my legs. They were already weak and shaking like jelly! Which shows that I'm unfit, lol.

You know how excited you get when you've got a week off uni after assignments are over?? Well, that's how I feel right now! Temporarily free from studies....for the moment. I still have to do this online quiz before it ends on Monday morning.

Enough about stupid uni. Let me just recap some events - just minor events. Robbie & I took Abdurrahman to the Sydney Aquarium last Saturday and he enjoyed it, pretty much, cringing more like it. He's soOoOO cute when it comes to animals that scare him a little. He points to them and says "bah bah" from afar, but when he gets closer to them or they get closer and closer to him, he's blardy scared of them and holds on to me for dear life! That's how he was @ the Aquarium........well, not all throughout the Aquarium. He got pretty excited when he saw those baby penguins, I got excited too!I don't know why I thought the Aquarium would be boring when I was having a good time last Saturday. I guess this time I spent that moment with 2 special people. I can't wait to take him to the Zoo when he's big enough and not so scared of animals!

We also took him to the Easter Show on Wednesday, the last day it would be open. In my heart I REALLY, REALLY, didn't want to go. But would I stay home while my hubby & bubbago without me? I wouldn't feel right. Alhamdulillah, we had a wonderful time checkin' out the animals. Abz was still quite scared of the humungous cows and horses and the sheeps Mashallah! Never thought the horses would be that big! How on earth would I get on them? We didn't get on any rides 'cuz it wouldn't be fun if we didn't go on them together...who's gonna look after Abz while we're on the rides?! But we did watch this fasion show. At first I was like "Say, we're gonna watch a fashion parade, can you believe it?" I kept on giggling and saying how corny it was. But then the show began and my perception changed somehow. The clothes that were modelled were actually appealing to me....to me! Not only the clothes were appealing, if you know what I mean *wink, wink*. The were only 3 guy-models in the crew, the other girls were all sticks and needed food! There was this one guy-model who stood out from the rest: quite attractive, with a rugged-beard look. I had to lower my gaze after that first glance. We didn't stay for the whole show. Walked out because Robbie got bored and kept on nudging me to bail out. I didn't want to leave 'cuz I was starting to enjoy it - once in a lifetime experience. Eventually we left the show.

As for the showbags.......THEY'RE CRAP! Couldn't find anything that suited with Abdurrahman's needs - he's too young for those toys. Eventually, we got the Freddo and Hubba Bubba bags (2 for $10) and got Abz a huge Thomas the Tank Engine inflated baloon. At the end of the day I couldn't believe we spent 3 hours @ the Easter Show - my legs started to feel soggy and weak, and I offered to drive us home (that was a great choice).

Okay. Let's recep today's events. Finally my hubby gets his wisdom teeth removed, all 4 of them. We had to drive all the way to Fairfield to get it done because he didn't want to be awake during the surgery, so he went for a sedation. On the way there he was indecisive about which tooth will be removed and all I could respond was: "whatever youfeel is bugging you, take it out", I sounded like a broken record.

The procedure took 2.5 hours. After he was done they called my mobile to come & look in on him. When I saw his face I felt sorry for the poor bugga, LOL. Alhamdulillah he didn't feel any pain during the procedure and that it was finished. Far out, didn't realise until now how much mulah Dentists make PER DAY. While he's recovering he's only allowed to eat soups and cool drinks. Which is good for me, so I don't have to cook, yay! LOL. He's probably enjoying the special treatment that comes with the recovery...hehhe...spoiled. Think I'll leave it at that, for now.

Again, GONGRATULATIONS NAFEESA!!

~Peace y'all.

Gold Class..............for free.

Hey y'all!

Hubby & I watched 'Mr. Bean's Holiday' last night...........for free! yay! IT WAS SOOOOOOOOOO FUNNY!! The gold class tickets were worth it though. Last time we blew those tickets by watching stupid Borat, aarggghh!!

This Bean movie is better than the last one- funnier! Alhamdulillah my hubby sometimes get some free tickets @ his work, that's if he does a good job, lol.

I've just recently been hooked on watching 'Heroes' on dvd- yep, I'm ahead of national tv. At the moment I'm up to episode 18, "Parasite". I wasn't really into it went it first came out on tv 'cuz I didn't have the time to watch it. But when my hubby said that his friend had episodes 1-16 on his external hard drive, I couldn't resist the temptation!
IT'S SUCH A GOOD SHOW! Although, it reminds me of X-Men. But it's all good!

Signing out.

~Peace.

Is it me or do the days seem longer in non-daylight saving time? Last Sunday my hubby decided to take the day off work and just stay home and watch 'Heroes' all day. Productive eh?
And after all that bumming around we were amazed that it was still before 12pm.
But I like non-daylight saving time. A quicker time to pray Maghrib and I can spend alot of time during the day to do whatever I need to do.

I've become a computer-game freak since playing Need For Speed Carbon on my laptop. I even bought The Sims 2 PC on ebay. lol. I LOVE EBAY!

At the moment I'm trying to keep my son from randomly pressing buttons on the lappy while he's on my lap. Also waiting for my hubby to get back from Melbourne, for work stuff. He was only there for 2 days, previously he was there for work for 3 days. Of course, I miss him during those times. It's also an advantage 'cause I don't have to cook. hehehhehe! Not that I don't like cooking. I love it!

I've got to prepare for a tute & lab tomorrow. That's all for now, I guess.

Signing out.

~Peace.

Look up

Hey guys, sup?

Just wanted to let you all know to check out that banner up the top.

It's a 3-day conference in Melbourne, regarding giving Da'wah by the examples of Prophet Muhammad and not by suicide bombing and whatnot.

Check it out!

~Peace.

Never thought that my eldest brother would get married, let alone have a child. Well, now he's got both a wife AND a brand new son named Khalid Abdul Jabbar.

He was born on the 7th March 2007, @ 02:00 hours. I got the call from him around 5.30am that morning. Subhanallah, he sounded so at peace. I remember when I had Abdurrahman. An hour after he was out I kept repeating the sentence: "Oh my God, I have a son", over and over again to make it sound real to my ears. Both my husband & I were overwhelmed, especially me.

Alhamdulillah it was another happy moment for my big extended family. We were ALL there, all 22 of us, including little Khalid. 23 if you count my aunty's unborn baby, due sometime next month. Luckily my brother's wife had the room to herself (there were 2 beds in 1 room), so we were allowed to stay there. The last time, my cousin had her baby and it was too crowded for us all to be in there; so we filled the waiting room.

I had the previlige of bathing my first nephew, after he was brought home yesterday. I say that he's my 'first nephew' because I've had lots of other nieces & nephews from my cousins; and that's not REALLY a neice or nephew. This time it feels natural, like he's my child too. I warn you all that I get REALLY wierd and clucky when I'm around new babies. I act all funny & start speaking baby language. It's just so beautiful when newborns suckle on their mother's breast. I love it! Where do newborns get the knowledge of suckling & how do they know what to find when they want a feed? It's just amazing how Allah Almighty creates us all.

~Peace.

Hey all~

Just at Uni at the moment. I brang along my son to a lecture today but we didn't last long. hahah! I expected that. It was a Lecture Tutorial for the subject "Becoming A Nurse". This is a subject which I've passed in 2003 semester 1. I've already lodged in a "Academic Credit Form" or something of that affect but Gloria, the chick who helps us nursing students out, advised me that I still attend all classes until the Head of Course grants me some credits for all the subjects that I've done.

I hope to Allah that I do get those credits.

Even though Abdurrahman & I only lasted half an hour in the lecture I'm still @ Uni printing some stuff out and looking for textbooks for my assignments- this time I'm going to start them early, inshallah.

I didn't feel like going back to the lecture even though my son was sleeping after a bottle of milk. I wasn't in the mood. Instead I queued up to buy some textbooks. WHY DO TEXTBOOKS COST MY LIFE SAVINGS?!?! AARrrgh Uni!!

~Peace.

Boy, oh boy. Today was not as tough as yesterday. Had class from 1.30-3.30pm; although the teacher gave us an early mark. My morning was kinda hektick: prepared hubby brekkie & lunch (he left @ 7am to start @ 8am), prepare Abdurrahman's milk and brekkie, do my washing, prepare for dinner and hang the clothes out to dry afterwards - which was useless because they ended soaking wet due to the heavy rain in the afternoon. I've never been more busy than that- I don't think.

By 10am I had to take a break and sit down because I felt my legs were about to split from my body. I watched abit of Grey's Anatomy. I've been downloading recent episodes off HERE. You can find & download all the episodes you like. With Grey's Anatomy I'm up to episode 17. If you're a Prison Break fan and can't wait to watch the episodes on Aussie tv, I suggest you download the episodes from there as well. Trust me, it gets SO MUCH jucier!

Anyway, I left Abdurrahman with my mother-in-law cuz she was free. I like going to uni. It's also a chance for me to get out and socialise with some people, especially the Muslim sisters. But these days, going to uni doesn't feel the same as opposed to not having a family. When I was going to uni before, childless, after class I felt at ease with staying back a little, chatting with some friends. But now, after classes finish for the day, all I want to do is get back to my son as soon as possible..............without speeding, of course. Didn't think it would rain today, hence I didn't bring an umbrella. So, by the time I got to my car, to go home, I was drenched! Love the rain.

I have a class from 10.30-12.30pm tomorrow. Inshallah I'll drop Abdurrahman off @ my mum's. Alhamdulillah she's willing to go to work late in the arvo to look after her grandson. I hope it all goes smoothly tomorrow.

~Peace.

First Two Days of Uni

I'm soOOo tired! Especially today. Nobody could look after my son. I had class from 8.30-11.30. I had no other option but to bring him to class; he was allowed to come and within the first hour he was fine. When it got around 10am-ish he started being fidgety. Eventually he was making too much noise in the class.

I had to walk in and out of class three times before I bumped into Nafeesa (a very good friend who goes to the same uni now), and her class ended up being cancelled. Her and her friend offered to look after Abdurrahman while I go back in class for the remaining 15 minutes. Alhamdulillah! Now I know NOT to bring him in class. I wasn't angry, especially not at my son. Rather, I felt sorry for him. There's a reason that mothers are more compassionate than fathers. Alhamdulillah Allah made us women like that. If I hadn't been compassionate with my son today I wouldn't have cared.

I wonder how it'll be like with 3 kids and going to uni @ the same time. My hubby doesn't eat rice so I've got to cook something different each day. Cooking is easy but if he would eat rice it would make things MUCH MORE EASIER for me.

After leaving uni for the day I bought 2 Wicked Burger Meals from KFC for dinner. That's how tired I am. I'm just going to lay back and put my feet up somewhere. Adieu.

~Peace.

Preparation

*sigh* Here we go. Uni starts today, inshallah. I feel like I'm sitting for an exam; a little scared & apprehensive and I don't think I'm excited about it.

Be right back; feeding my son his breakfast

Twenty minutes later:
Sometimes it's a battle feeding my son in the mornings, somtimes it's peaceful.

Anyway, I've got a 3-hour class this morning from 10.30am-1.30pm. Sadly, while I'm @ uni I have to leave my son behind, with my mother-in-law. I hope he'll be okay; he's been away from me before, but for 3 hours? I'll leave it up to Allah Almighty to watch out for him. I'd have to ask if there's a childcare facility @ uni or something because I can't leave him with my mother-in-law tomorrow; she has to do dialysis for her husband.

We'll see how it goes today; inshaAllah it'll work out for the best.
I'll let you know how I go on my not-so-first-day-at-uni.

~Peace.

Uni Jitters........................................bleh!

hey! wat up, mah homy-G's?? O_0

Hope everyone's well and all :) Yep, Thursday shopping night............what a night. I can't explain why I always feel faint, a little light-headed, and tired all at the same time whenever we go grocery shopping. But whenever I do the shopping during the daytime- I feel fine! Yep, I'm starting to notice the pattern here.

Believe it or not, Uni's starting next week; for UWS. Think I'm getting the Pre-Uni Jitters. I'm a little worried how my son will be looked after when I can't take him to Uni and my mother-in-law is busy with Dialysis at the same time? Inshallah I'll find a way. During tute registration, they've put as a "default" full-time student. Gosh! I'm gonna have to do alot of damage control within the first week! And another bizzarre thing: they've changed ALL OF THE SUBJECT NAMES in the whole 3-year B Nursing course!! I mean, WHAT THE HELL IS THAT??!! I've done most of the subjects that I'm enrolled in right now. I predict it's gonna be a bloody hassle for the first week, sorting out my official hours at Uni. Once that is cleaned up perhaps I have time for a part-time job? Inshallah I will- trust me, I need the moolah to help my hubby in searching a place of our own.
On the lighter side, inshallah I'll get to some familiar faces that I left behind 2 years ago. It is time to embrace Uni life, once again.

I'm getting bored of my iRiver mp3 player. I've realised that I didn't need it anymore. I've got the CD stacker in the car, my sony ericsson which has 1GB memory card. These days I'm not in the mood for music, not even Dream Theater songs. What I should be listening to is more Qur'an recitation, and HEAPS of Islamic lectures. So I've decided to sell it on.....*drum roll* EBAY!! YAY! hauhauah! Alhamdulillah, most of my items get sold :D Problem is: Starting price. What should it be? eeek! >_<
The iRiver plays AWESOME!

Btw, I'm trying to fight off a mouth ulcer- subhanallah, it kills!! I was over-joyed to find Sedagel in the drawer. IT KILLS EVEN MORE!!

Check out this video. This guy paints pictures of 30 people who have influenced him on his torso. I was amazed! Watch it:


~Peace y'all.

Belated B'day Post: I've Lived For 23 Years (Alhamdulillah)

Never thought that I would be married with a 13-month-old son by the age of 23.

My b'day was yesterday. Why am I posting a day after it? I don't know myself. I had the intention of posting sometime yesterday, but didn't get around to it.

This is my 2nd b'day with my hubby and son. And it feels so special every single time. *Gasp* Oh...my.....subhanallah! It just hit me. It may not be a big deal to some people but; it's almost my 2nd year of marriage to Robbie. Time flies TOO fast, apparently!

What do 'birthdays' really mean? In Islam, we try not to celebrate too much on our birth dates. Not to sound pessimistic but we view our birthdays a way to remind ourselves of how close we are to old age and eventually death. More likely, how close we are to death. Of course we welcome our special birthdays with open arms! You can throw a party if you like! It's best to keep it a standard pace. Because if we celebrate too much and over the top, we tend to forget our purpose in this life.

I've never had a birthday party in my life (except in Kindergarten). Not even in my teen years and not even now, in my adult life. Of course I've always had my close family to share my birthdays, and I've always appreciated that. Especially for last night. My mum, brother and 2 cousins came by just for the b'day; 'twas truly touching.

I know it wasn't a big party or anything; but that's exactly what I didn't want: A big party. The important thing is I have a purpose in life, a reason to live, and a destination to reach; Eternal Paradise. And that's what pulls me through this tough life.

We all have a purpose in Life. Don't lose it.

~Peace.

Reunion.

I'm so happy and relieved that all my cousins (from mother's side) are here. My aunties and their families arrived in Sydney one day apart from another. I haven't bothered with updating this blog. Don't know why. I guess I must've been preoccupied with mother stuff, haha.

My parents are back, cousins are back; wonderful pictures of the wedding....wow~ my cousin looked AMAZING. I'll take a shot of the pictures and then i'll post them on here. Felt like I REALLY missed out on a lot- looking at those photos and hearing my cousins telling stories of how awesome it was being with Ummi & Buya (our mothers' parents), and going shopping everyday @ Jakarta. Girls, it sounded like you had the time of your lives!

The people I miss the most are Ummi & Buya; miss them so much. They've seen how AbdurRahman and & Hamzah look like and they are astonished that Uni Novi & I have kids now. And I miss all my cousins over there; the big ones, the little ones, trust me- with my mum having 14 other siblings, beside herself, there's BOUND to be LOTS of grand-kiddies and around 5 great grand-kiddies. It's impossible to fit us ALL in one photograph. Judging from the photos, they've grown so much and there are more additions! Subhanallah!

A little update on what's been going on:

• my son is inshaAllah growing 2 front-bottom teeth. He's handling it well but there's been a few restless nights for him, poor bugga. And also I'm teaching him to walk with just holding one of my hands- and he did it pretty well this morning! Another new thing with him is his ability to clap his hands! LOL! He looks soOO adorable when he claps!
• I've gotten my car back; after 1 year of waiting, wishing, and hoping. Alhamdulillah, I have my little freedom.
• InshAllah I'm going back to Uni, part-time studying B Nursing @ Western Sydney, Bankstown campus. Yep, Rina & Nafeesa, inshallah I'll see u both there!

I reckon that's all the update I can think of. It's Saturday and inshallah around 2.30pm I'll be going to my mum's house for a weekly visit, yay! The three of us usually go out, but today, I don't want to be anywhere near that husband of mine. Had a little misunderstanding (what married couple doesn't?) but it wasn't my fault. I've realised that men NEVER apologize. Why don't you test it out and see for yourself? I swear, it's the truth.

*b r e a t h.d e e p l y* Patience.....patience....patience.

I'll end it here.

~Peace y'all.

Homecoming.

AHOI-HOI!!

whoaaaa!! It's been............weeks eh? Yeh I know. I've been lazy mostly, to post one measly, little, post.

It's been 3 weeks since my son has turned 1 years of age. It's been turning point for me, so far. To recap his b'day party in a paragraph (or so): Alhamdulillah it was excellent turn-out. My mother-in-law invited the WHOLE VILLAGE...........and that's what she got. Food was enough for everyone. Not all of my friends came. I was kinda pissed. I spent all that money for blardy sms's and only 2 friends from school came, for which I'm soOOoo grateful. And for some people to tell me, face to face, that they'll come inshaAllah, but didn't. I HATE THAT!

I felt a hole inside of me grow that day. My parents were @ Indonesia, most of my cousins @ Indo too. I felt that they missed out on this somewhat important. Alhamdulillah it was better than I thought. All Praise be to Allah, he received soOOo many prezzies! So many clothes!!! That's awesome! So we won't have to shop for him for another 3 years!! LOL. Two of my school friends who came were Nafeesa & Lousia; girls, I ABSOLUTELY love your prezzies! They're adorable, and he loves it! :D
Getting abit cloudy now. I'll post up the pics of that day.

Me & my boyz
Nafeesa & AbdurRahman
Goofing around.


LOOK @ ALL THOSE PRESENTS!

~Peace y'all.

My Son Has Lived His First Year.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABDURRAHMAN, MY LITTLE MAN!!

Oh hey! Great to be here again! Finally, I am on time for ONE OF THE MOST important moment in my life...MY SON'S BIRTHDAY! Now, I want to post ON THE RIGHT DAY of something important to me. I am SOOOOOO buggered right now, but the love of a mother to her child cannot be beaten by tiredness and delaying posting in her blog on her son's birthday. No way. I'm trying to fight that tiredness right this minute. It was a big day for the little guy. You know what he got for his birthday? THREE INJECTIONS ON HIS THIGHS, that's what!Hah! Imagine getting that for a blarrdy b'day gift! Poor baby, he was fed up with the 3rd injection on his right thigh. We had to go to a completely different doctor to get him immunised. The usual doctor we go to is on Holidays, and the Medical Centre was out of stock of the '12 months vaccinations'. After those nasty injections it was off to the Baby Health Centre we went.



Alhamdulillah! He is progressing so well. Right now, he's 10.2 Kg, 75cm tall. He can now drink full-cream cow's milk (the normal milk), but I still want to continue giving him S-26 Gold Toddler, with all those nutritious ingredients. But somehow we'll alternate between the two.
Since it was his b'day my brothers wanted to come over to see him. He rang me up while we were still at the baby centre. So I just told him that Abdurrahman & I would pop by @ mum's place. Oh btw, my parents have departed to Indonesia, for mycousin's wedding. So my unmarried brother has the house all to himself.......HOW LUCKY! I wish I single now.........NOT! LOL.Ok, so the story goes: I had to get some shopping done and we couldn't leave my father-in-law all by himself. So I dropped off my mother-in-law and headed off down to my mum's place to meet my brothers there. And between those times alot of shopping had to be done, and I had to be home by 4pm to cook dinner. Regardless of the hecktik schedule, I had fun spending time with my brothers; nowadays, that moment is rare to have.


I always remember back to Abdurrahman's birth day. He came to the world early than expected. His estimated due date was 19 February, 2006, yep- one day before my birthday. I was excited! Instead he came 2 days before Robbie's birthday. I still remember that day vividly. I don't want to go into details just in case some readers get grossed out by birth stories. The first thing new mothers do when they meet is tell each other labour stories - it's facsinating! Alhamdulillah, mine was VEEEEEEEEERYYY easy. The whole labour thing went for 16 hours but the real pains only lasted for 1 hour; and he was out by 4.10pm, 3rd January 2006.



The BIGGEST thing I learned while going through delivery is how precious our mothers are. It is true what parents/mothers say: You will NEVER, truly know how it is to be a mother/parent, until you become oneyourself. Within 5 pushes, I received my gift from Allah Almighty. I was so happy that I was crying. Overwhelmed by what's happened. My gosh, I'm even getting teary while typing this blog.


My point is: when a mother hold her newborn baby in her arms, she thinks about nothing else except how Allah is Gracious; how beautiful her baby is; how hard is was for her own mother to go through the same thing. And with those thoughts in mind, I asked MY mother to forgive me, immensely. For all the pain I have caused her. For the way I acted sometimes - especially raising up the youngest, and only daughter. Dearest readers, I only ask that you treat your parents with kindness. Please, never mistreat them; or else you'll regret it.


Everyday I ask Allah to give me strength in raising my son. For him to be the best Muslim that he can be and never displease his Creator. Here's a classic shot of me & my boy :)

[Forever Love]

It is no surprise why Parents get all your attention,

After all they've been your guardian since you've

Stepped out into the world, since your first cry;

First word, first smile, first walk.

You'll never understand the love of a parent for their children

Until you become a parent yourself.

Why do you take them for granted?

How can you?

Your responsibility is to them after God,

They have cherished you & looked after you

And hoped all the best for you while you were still suckling.

They've watched you grow, grow & grow into a human being-

Into an individual; what you have become today,

Even if you are not the person they wanted you to be;

You will still be forever theirs,

Forever a father & mother's love.

When you stumbled when taking your first step,

They kept you going;

When your mother carried you, wherever she went for the whole nine months,

She battled with the pain & suffering of birthing;

She may have died while hoping you would have a great life!

Will you not help them up after they've taken their final step?

Will you not give them a shoulder to cry on?

Will you not lower your wings of humility to them?

Show them your gratitude, your generosity-

The next time a 'tomorrow' comes,

Will be on the Last Day.

~Peace y'all.