Garden fun

Thought i would show you all a photo of the garden while i haven't blogged for awhile :) enjoy because we most definitely are alhandulillah

Holidays

So the holiday season is approaching, and before anyone jumps on me about how haram it is to celebrate Xmas I wasnt talking about that!! We are going on holiday :D again its a family holiday thing, we are visiting my Mum in Canada for the New Year but its a holiday and Im very much looking forward to it.

It will be Chilli's first real snow holiday and hes very excited to be trying out snowboarding when we go over :) Hes been excessively checking prices and updates on all the different types of boards, bindings and boots.. I swear, he knows more than me, while I dont claim to know everything and Im not amazing on my board Ive been on a board probably 3 seasons and I love it :) I dont love the timings between seasons as I feel I forget many things but then it all feels new once more when I get on the slopes. I love it!!

Ive been trying to 'organise' our 23 days over there in Canada so I know how much money we need to save up for all the little things we want to do. At the moment we have 7 trips to the slopes, which means lift passes and maybe a few rentals for hubby.. and 5 days at a ski resort which I am super excited about.. although Im not really looking forward to having to share a room with my mum and her husband!! Allahu alim... it doesnt sound like she expects us to be together 24/7.. things its about time she realises that I have my own family now and Im not just her 'baby' grrr

Things at work are up and down, Im working with a new girl who's command of the English language isnt very good which causes more work and more problems for me really. Its times like this that I wish I didnt have to work, but Allahu alim.. I enjoy the week off that I get even if I do have to live with 12+ hour shifts :)

Thats really all thats happening on my side at the moment.. teeth have settled down alot alhamdulillah, I have stained elastics which are neon yellow at the moment thanks to Mr Tumeric :D but I enjoyed the curries :) Oh yes, Ive been making alot more desi food lately much to Chilli's delight which included aloo queema, aloo gobi and aubergine curry (I cant remember the name)

Onwards and Upwards
Peace and Assalamalikum,
Ammena

NW10

Just a short one to say Im having tons of fun with the snow (maybe not directly but oh well) and with the girls, but I really dont think I will ever get used to being called 'auntie' but masha'allah it sounds so cute coming from the little ladies :D Ive got some cool pics so far masha'allah.

Thursday

So I promised everyone a blog of my big day on Thursday and I never got around to blogging about it. Its now Saturday and Im in Ottawa (another blog) but as my friend is making me some tea I thought I would blog about while Im waiting. So I woke up a little late for my snowboarding lesson on thursday which was at 10am, I phoned ahead and rearranged it for 11am, that way I would have just under an hour there, then and hour lesson then I would stay for a little bit longer. Anyways, I got there just after 10am and went to the desk to get the lesson paid for. The woman proceeded to tell me that they didnt have private lessons on thursdays :( so why was I booked in then!? silly people, so I stayed around for just under 2 hours. It was so busy there and it even started snowing again, but the slopes were pretty icey already, Im doing pretty well I think. I can turn around while going down the slopes and Im a lot less scared of going down the slopes because I know how to stop now. I think its all about confidence! The slopes have closed now, but insha'allah Im hoping to go to the ones that I started my lessons on this week if its still open.
Anyways, I drove home and picked up my computer on the way back.. then I settled in to sorting that out and tried to revise a little for my firearms license exam. The computer has a new hard drive so everything has been wiped out, including all my lectures (but I have them saved on my ipod alhamdulillah) Then I went to pick up the car for my weekend trip to Ottawa :) there was something funny about the car, it wouldnt seem to go past 40km/h but I just figured it was something that just needed to warm up. Which it wasnt!!! Took me forever to get here at not more than 100km/h on the highway!!
So then after awhile I set out for my exam.. which I was running late for and eventually got there 5 minutes late :( but alhamdulillah I passed the exam so now I can officially shoot rifles and shotguns :P beware!! heehee.
Anyways, its time for tea and we are going to take back the car to see if I can get it changed insha'allah.. then off to the war museum and some touristy things insha'allah :D catch u guys soon.
Peace and salams, Ammena

So far....

My life so far... well this week so far :P
I went to my mums over the weekend, I bought some bits for my snowboard and a cool tshirt with 9 different squares on containing british looking things which included; british passport, union jack, neon light for the The Cavern Club, a football stadium (that looks like Old Trafford) a red post box, a five pound note and something else that I cant think of. I really liked it though :P and I wore it yesterday heehee. I also got some goggles and a stamp pad for my board that allows me to stan my back foot on my board without it sliding off, just gives traction. Its in the shape of a butterfly :D
I was supposed to go for coffee with a friend on sunday night, but that didnt happen so I spent the rest of my night getting my stitching nearly finished alhamdulillah. Ill take a pic when its finished and post it here when I have my computer back, I just have a little bit of the border to do and Ive decided who its going to. Ive also commited myself to making a piece for each of my good friends over here, I have given 2 friends a piece (one as a wedding gift, the other as an Eid present) so just a few more girls to make for. Then I will start making some for friends back home insha'allah and maybe some for my new family :P and my new place heehee.
Anyways I was up early monday for work, Im working 7-3 mon-wed to work around my firearms course which is pretty tiring! The dude organising it, well he repeats his sentences like 3 times each.. and is practically reading off the book. Which I could do at home! I got home after 10pm last night, when I left at like 530pm, it took less time to drive there than I was told but still 3 hours to just read a book... its all about safety and a little history and stuff. The book is interesting, but he just makes it stretch out. Apparently the test is on the thursday, which I wasnt told before so will have to miss a bit of work for that. I was soo tired when I woke up this morning, was intending on going snowboarding after work tonight but think I will just sleep for a few hours and go snowboarding tomorrow after work.
Which reminds me, my snowboarding lesson :) it was brilliant, the instructor was totally impressed with me at the end. Ive learnt to turn and even went on the bigger hill and ski lift, insha'allah Ill take my camera with me tomorrow and take some pics. Ive also booked a lesson for thursday at 10am, which gives me a few hours sleep in, soIm looking forward to that. They close on monday :( and as Im away this weekend I cant go but Im determined to go twice this week and insha'allah go to the other one I used to go to if its still open when I get back from Ottawa.
Im taking my skates to Ottawa with me, so be prepared for plenty of fun pictures when I get my laptop back :D heehee, soo excited!! there is a lecture at my mosque on saturday which I obviously cant go to, but Audrey my friend txtd me to ask if I would be there before 7pm because there is a quran study class in her mosque then :D so I get to do something islamic at the weekend. Although, Im sure we will do more than that :P excited!!
Did you all see I have a new poll added to my blog for my next learning phase :) insha'allah you will all help push me on this one too :D alhamdulillah

My weekend plan, insha'allah of course

This weekend I have a few things planned, I booked a private snowboarding lesson tomorrow morning which should give me some more skill in my boarding insha'allah. Its at 11am, so I plan on getting there a little earlier (no I sort of know how to get there) and have a little time to myself before booking in for my lesson insha'allah. Then I will hopefully see how it goes and maybe stay an hour or so after the lesson, depends how tired I am :P Then its back to mine to buy some stuff for my mum before setting off to hers for the night, then sunday insha'allah Ill drive back down to cambridge after being fed (heehee) then Im hoping to meet up with a friend in the evening. I met her at the masjid today after our only contact being random text messages at 12am lol, so we decided to do something this weekend. She says shes wanted to sit down to chat with me for ages as she has been having hijab issues, I wish I could have been there for her before but better late than never eh?! Although I dunno why she wants talk to me, what can i help her with?? the little person who cant even stand up to her own mother and tell her abotu the change of path in her life. Allahu alim

Also Im looking forward to going over to Ottawa next weekend, Ive booked the car and insha'allah Ill get directions from my friend... i seriously need some new walls, especially since the winnipeg trip fell through. I also might be going to visit a friend in Michigan insha'allah. So something to look forward to in April :D

Ok, back to work.
Peace and salams, Ammena

I did it! On my own!

I actually went out on my own today and snowboarded for just under 2 hours. The picture isnt me obviously but its basically what I was doing the whole time :) I must admit I was nervous going their on my own and I go soo lost trying to find the place, it actually took me double the time it was supposed to but oh well. I was nearly ready to just go home when I asked someone who helped me in directions and I found it. It cost $10.75 for the whole day, where I usually pay $20 for a day, not much difference but hey at least I definately went instead of sitting around waiting for a phone call from my friend (who still hasnt got in touch with me, may I add) I got there parked up, wore my Everton hat over my hijab to keep my ears warm, paid for my lift pass and asked a few questions. I was thinking of maybe taking a few official lessons but thought against it at that point in time (u had to turn up an hour earlier and there was a massive queue)
So I headed over to the bunny slopes, theres a magic carpet lift there (just a moving flat carpet) which is soo much easier to use and probably less harmful for me :P At first I was practising going down horizontal to the slopes until I realised that I couldnt move very far before I stopped because of the general gradient of the slope. So I started trying to go down vertical to the slope, which usually scares me because you can end up going really fast. I was trying to learn how to stop, which probably sounds stupid but I think Ive got the hang of it and Im so pleased :) so insha'allah Im going to go a few more times before the season finishes although I dont know what that exactly is :D
I was excited to do it today :P got home just after dhuhr so got in, stripped off (snowpants) and prayed my salah, obviously after getting changed. So insha'allah I will look at my surah in more depth, i have the first 5 verses well and truly sorted and half of the 6th, so insha'allah by the weekend Im hoping to have cracked it and be able to cross it off my list :D

New template

Sucky.... I just uploaded a new template and with it deleted all my links :( sorry guys... insha'allah Ill be able to get them all back. As for news... Im going boarding tonight insha'allah and its going to be free :) heehee, insha'allah the snow storm doesnt come just yet
So girls, if you have ever noticed my comments on your blog and your link isnt attached here.. please comment so I can make more comments on your blogs and link to them insha'allah. Im soo sorry.

Boarding

I went boarding today :) left my place about 1ish all ready and sorted. Got new gloves (well bought them a few years ago just forgot about em) so no more brushin snow of wooley mittens, got cup of tea to warm me a little before starting, got my camera. Drove over to the slopes using a different route cause I was coming from a different direction, nearly there then my tyres go over the snow in the wrong way. Imagine this... there are 2 lines in the road that all the other cars have removed the snow with, so Im following that but then it seems to move to one side so i try to keep straight then I totally feel my tyres skidding underneath me, winter tyres my bottom!!! But i prayed and said no, on no, please no.. for a very long time and alhamdulillah Im back on track. Anyways I get to the slope, sort myself out while waiting for my friend... Im freezing my bum off at this point cause Im not moving (-15 and thats without the wind chill) then she arrives, we get our lift passes and head over to the slopes. Walk up 'my slope' as my friend has named it :P as in ammenas slope :D get to the very top and realise its really icey, to the point that im trying to stand and my board is sliding away from me. So we move to the lower level and get on track.... I get up and start moving my way down the slope, I feel more in control but Im still having issues with why things do what they do. Like I know what I want to do, I want to move in the opposite direction, so I try to shift my weight to the other leg but the board still travels that direction towards the trees, then I panic and just fall to my bum. Then at other times, Im totally not thinking and try to shimmy over to the other direction and I go, but it happens so quickly I dont know how I did it. Anyways I got to the bottom probably with falling twice, although it wasnt really falling it was more not being able to do what I wanted to do so I purposely fell. I was pretty impressed and my friend even said she wasnt expecting that heehee which was nice to hear. Then Im taking the board off my feet, as in getting out of the bindings and I hear a noise, I look down to see this black strap and to my horror I realise the binding that keeps my left toes in place has snapped off. We were both totally gutted, cut long story short.... my friend went to the other slopes while I went off to rent a board, wasnt ideal but we had only been there for like 30mins if that. So I walk to the shack and it says in big letters, we dont take debit cards as deposit, what do I have?! My debit card :( so Im off to wait for my friend. When she arrives she says, its probably a good idea the wind was really picking up and she said she found it hard to stand on the other slopes cause the wind was blowing from behind her and pushing. I was just soo frustrated though :( especially after such a good start and now with me going to chicago next weekend I will have to wait 2 weeks to be able to go :( Insha'allah it will work out though.

My weekend

This is just some of the random things I did over the weekend.





We had hot choc (white at that!) yummy.













We shopped.












We took scenic shots on the way home, well she tried :P










We made funny faces, ok, I made funny faces.











And most of all I spent 4 hours snowboarding on Sunday










Yes I had an amazing weekend, alhamdulillah, I ache and I think Ive hurt my wrist, but it was truly memorable.

Assalamalikum everyone,

so what have I been up to this week?? not much really... I started my permanent shift, 3-11pm.. so far so good, its nice to have all the time to do things during the day when theres light and people. I generally get up around 9ish and leave for work abotu 230pm then go to bed around 12ish, well depending on whos online and wants to keep me awake you all know who you are!! I was supposed to meet Laylah this week and, well it wasnt meant to be.. Allahu alim, insha'allah another time, although with all the snow coming down now i have nooo idea.. hence the pic. I tried to take a pic of the snow, its late and dark now, so i cant take it from inside, i have to open a window.... and well... u can see what happened.. im just taking a pic of the snow its falling that hard.

I went out for a hot choc today with a friend from a friend where i used to live. Masha'allah shes really nice and lives just down the road from me, insha'allah we will get to be good friends.. and she has such an adorable son masha'allah he was just chatting away lol, bless him.

Then i went for a tour of the city im living in, went for a drive to the shopping centre to try to figure out whats actually there in case i need it. Saw a few hijabis masha'allah, then went to buy some fabric.. i really need to learn to use this sewing machine i have, and in the store i turned around and there is a niqabi being greeted by a non-muslim by her first name.. she wandered through the shop saying hi to everyone, i couldnt believe it, so outspoken masha'allah. I asked about sewing classes... no community ones im afraid, so maybe ill just force myself

Well thats it for me... back to the stitching board oh i crack myself up

Snow

Salam girls... ok, so Im working 12-8 this week and from around 7ish last night it snowed. I was ok coming home alhamdulillah, although it took 10mins rather than the usual 5mins.. but alhamdulillah I will not complain about that when I think about how long it would have took me to get home from my last job. I woke up this morning at 9am (which is getting to be very easy) and first thing I did (after kicking myself for not waking up for fajr, AGAIN!) was look out the window. Surprise surprise... its still snowing. So I remembered the comment that Khadijah wrote about the snow and thought I would take a picture for her, so here it is. The view out of my spare bedroom window looking onto the main road.

So whats been going on?? i had a really good weekend, was able to keep up with some salah alhamdulillah. We went shopping to Newmarket (Canada!) on saturday with my mums friend and her little boy, she got some Timberland shoes (around 40pounds) and some warm clothes for the boy. I was able to pray dhuhr & asr together in the changing rooms, I prayed together because, well I am actually really far from home at the shops. Then we were back in time for maghrib, went out for chicken wings for food (i had the nicest big massive veggie wrap with nice chips with melted cheese on yummy!) and i prayed isha before bed. Fajr when i woke up.. sunday was a harder day we left for Niagara around 10ish.... the little lad needed the toilet so we stopped off at a service station just around dhuhr time so I prayed dhuhr and asr in the car alhamdulillah. I missed the time for maghrib cause we went after Niagara to visit some friends.. so I made my way down to Cambridge and prayed when I got home.. alhamdulillah, I was grateful for the times that I could pray. Although tell me this girls... if I have no way of finding out the qiblah direction, what do I do?? there was no rising or falling of the sun, no compass.. i just guessed and prayed that my Salah would be accepted, making duaa after each for this request. Insha'allah thats enough.

The girl who I was meant to meet at the immigration centre of YMCA has been sick for past 2 days so I didnt go down yet, today she emailed me asking to make it tomorrow when I had emailed her tellin her I wouldnt be able to make it today because of the weather. So insha'allah I will get down this week, although tomorrow Im starting work a little earlier to go and visit a supplier who doesnt believe our testing method so maybe Ill even go next week. Im looking forward to this change in times, Ill be able to go for Jumah insha'allah which Im excited about.. insha'allah the masjid has a proper jumah salah. Ill have all the time when Im awake to do what I want.

Im currently in the middle of reading 'purification of the heart' by Hamza Yusuf and i have to say when I get into it... its a good book masha'allah with many little things I could use. And Im supposed to be learning the duaa for the witr salah (Qunut) insha'allah ill take my english paper with me to work today and sit with that for half an hour... Ive told my forum the deadline is end of feb but i dunno whether ill be able to do it by then, cause usually i have a few days reciting the english.. then i gradually bring the arabic in line by line... Allahu alim. Insha'allah.

Well, now Im off for a shower after trying to send some cross stitch patterns to a friend. Fi amenallah, your sister in Islam, Ammena

Salam, can you believe 15cm of snow in 4hours... looks like this weekend isnt going to be as busy as I had planned. Alhamdulillah. As i turned onto my main road on the way home from work my back end skidded a little and of course I started freaking out and thinking I was going to go into the car waiting to turn onto the road I came off. I looked in my mirror when I got myself sorted and saw that the big pickup truck behind me had done the same. I also couldnt stop at one point and nearly went into the back of another big GMC pick up, alhamdulillah all ok.

My mum flies home in about 1hour, and im soo jealous... u know what she said?? well i wasnt jealous of you when u went home last year.. erm, sometimes I really dont see the logic in my mums thinking, and surprisingly enough last weekend she made a comment that she always gives me her advice and lets me make up my own mind.. yeh with mind games aswell i might add!! astagfrillah.. im going to leave it there, get back to some sewing.