Full House

The girls are in town! I picked up my sister Sharon and my nieces Carmel and Ellie Nur from the airport. Well, actually, I met them only briefly at the airport and then again at Avis car rental. I brought two car seats for the girls. Who knew all the car seats we had sitting unused at home would come perfectly handy like this!

It was my first time seeing Ellie baby and gosh such a noomie. She is already so full of character and active, and such a smile and happy face on her :-D And my dear Carmel of course, I was so happy to see her. The last time Carmel was in Durham with us was for our wedding. She was 8 months old and our flower girl. Now, she is young lady of 2 and a half years, with a brilliant and creative mind and a curiosity for life.

We got home safely, unpacked our stuff, and commenced the fun. Carmel was quick to the aquarium. She loves fishies you see. I later found out that her favourite "animals" are BUGS - particularly spiders. OK, so she loves invertebrates, arachnids and the like. Hey, her favourite colour is PINK. I knew that, and saw that coming. We had a wonderful discussion of our likes and interests. In the future we will likely see a certain Dr. Carmel, PhD DVM, naturalist and veterinarian and spider enthusiast.

Shar, Ellie and I went out for some shopping. We went to Whole Foods to get some organic food stuff and then some clothes shopping for the girls and Ethan and back home.

It is colder today and even started to drizzle by the time we got home. Kelly is studying for step 3 (USMLE) - at least I hope she managed some studying with the girls and the house abuzz with movement and frenzy.

Mom cooked some khoresh for dinner and burbur chacha for dessert.

With the kids asleep, Shar, Kelly, Mom and I wound down with snacks and good banter on life, family, children, careers, and America's Next Top Model (who's going to win it next week??).

Action packed day. Completely, and utterly, pooped.

Surprise Visit

[L-R: Angelica, Kelly, Ethan, Adwoa]

Adwoa and Angelica paid us a surprise visit. We've not seen Adwoa for ages (at least a year or more). My dad succinctly summarized our feelings when he said that Adj and Angelica's visit really uplifted our spirits. These ladies are just beautiful, happy and positive souls and really, they made us smile.



Adwoa is a graduate student pursuing a Masters of Education at U of Alabama (Tuscaloosa). She hopes to teach secondary school French and ESL, and in the near future to also complete a PhD in Education. Hmm.. I did not think of this during your visit, but I should connect you, Adj, with my sister who is currently a PhD candidate in Education at the U of Toronto and obtained her M. Ed. at Emory (Atlatna). My sister just co-authored a book entitled "Schooling and Difference in Africa: Democratic Challenges in a Contemporary Context".

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

My beautiful and precious nieces, and Ethan's cousins, Ellie Nur and Carmel.

My sister and the girls are all about fun and learning. And by the looks of many pictures I have seen of them, they especially love to dress up.

This week the girls, mom, dad and grandma, are going to Australia (Sydney) to see some friends. Then, in only two short weeks, grandma and papa joon will come and visit us and meet their very first grandson for the very first time. How exciting for Ethan - having all four of his grandparents visit him (God willing).

I hope to post more news and pictures of my fabulously talented young nieces in the future.

I do, however, need to come up with a better way of calling Shar, Babak, Kelly, myself and all grandparents involved. We all seem to share the names "mom" and "dad" and my blog entries are likely confusing to everyone but me :-p So, from here on in, I will be using names as much as possible, with all respect to everyone of course.

Happy and safe travels dear ones in far-off, beautifully exotic, New Zealand (tisk tisk)...

Auckland Marathon 2006

Congrats to my sister who completed the Auckland half-marathon. HIP HIP HOORAY!

Shar completed her run in under 3 hours (which was her goal for the event). She was congratulated at the finish line by mom, Babak, Carmel and Ellie Nur. This was Sharon's FOURTH half marathon - she also ran in Delta (British Columbia, 1999), Atlanta (Georgia, 2001) and Toronto (Ontario, 2004).

Keep it up!