Fed up!!

I'm so fed up with the hygiene here. What I mean is how food is handled, where its handled, etc. Yes, here I go again on my MIL. You see my MIL works so hard to make sure that this house is clean - spotless. I just don't understand why the kitchen is always left out. Yes, it gets mopped everyday but they mop differently here than we are accustomed to. I have never seen anyone use a regular mop. They use what looks like a big squeegee with a handle and then throw a towel over the squeegee part. The towel looks to be a good 10 years old and it probably is. When I was here earlier this year and did the cleaning, I would launder this towel because it would just get so dirty. I have never seen it laundered since I arrived back here. They just rinse it out with some warm water and call it done.

They also do not understand the concept of using paper towels. When I was in the U.S. - had my own place, I always used paper towels. My reasoning was that I could use my favorite cleaner "clorox clean-up" and then just wipe the counter down with the paper towel and its been cleaned - thoroughly. Here they just keep using the same cotton towel and wiping up God only knows what with it. We're talking normal little spills to chicken drippings from RAW CHICKEN!! Not healthy!!! I have bitched about my MIL using this towel in the kitchen and she claims she cleans it by running it under hot water and even said she boils it - but I seriously doubt it. I think it needs to be laundered and I also think a new towel should be used everyday. Shakil mentioned to her about getting her some more towels so she could have a new towel everyday but she is so damn stubborn I'm sure it went in one ear and right out the other.

She leaves chicken out on the counter to thaw and that has gotten to me since day 1. She loves to leave chicken sitting out for hours after its cooked. Most people probably think that is fine since its cooked but its not. She likes to leave it out for a good 5 hours before it goes in the fridge.

Lately she has been cooking and cooking. Why does one keep cooking more food when the fridge is already full of food plus we're receiving food from other relatives??? Then we have a surplus of food here and nothing is ever wasted by anyone here. She serves days old food forever! I won't eat anything that has been refridgerated past 3 days. I know it sounds like I'm bitching a lot but I'm just fed up with it, hence why I haven't been eating MIL's food. I know she must wonder why I've stopped eating her food - I just cook something for myself. I really don't think she cares though as long as she has SOME mouth to feed. She still has my hubby, FIL and BIL.

Ok, done with my rant. It's Monday night here and it's Halloween! No Halloween celebrations going on here in Pak!! :-) I used to love Halloween as a kid - dressing up and going out with my friends door to door - those were the days.

Shakil is working tonight and then he's off - so weekend starts tomorrow for us. I'm looking forward to my "Night without MIL"!! That's the one thing I have to look forward to every week. I'm just glad that hubby is being cooperative about it. Thanks honey!

Until later...

Bye for now.

weekend comes to an end...

Weekend has come to end for Shakil and I. He's back at work and I'm here at home just watching some t.v. There have been some good movies playing on HBO. Not that I've been watching much because when I lay down to watch a movie - I'm out like a light. I just fall asleep.

I was having the Pizza Hut craving again and Shakil took me there on Tuesday night for my, oh yes, "Night without MIL"!! The local Pizza Hut here is jammmmmmmed packed for Iftar. We arrived there at 5:30 p.m. and didn't get seated until after 6:30 p.m. which was about the same as last time. I wanted a booth so that made the wait a bit longer, but I'm not complaining. I was definitely in no hurry to return home to FIL, BIL and MIL. The service was less than good though that evening. During Iftar at Pizza Hut it's all you can eat - which is awesome. They even have free drink refills which is hard to come by here. The waiter brought us a pitcher of Pepsi and when I poured myself a glass it was nice and luke warm. I have one word - YUCK - he had just taken it off someone elses table and put it on ours. Shakil did get the man to finally go get us a new pitcher of soda which you knew was fresh because it was cold and fizzy. That asshole just was too lazy to go get a new pitcher for us originally. What the hell???

The rest of the weekend was pretty non eventful. There was Iftari out Wednesday night but it was at Pizza Hut and Shakil and I had just went Tuesday - so we didn't attend. Last night I wanted to go looking at baby cribs again. Shakil tried to take me there but the traffic in the market was just unbelievable and getting a park would have been easier said than done. Shakil called it the Eid rush so we're going to just wait until after Eid to go take another look at cribs.

I'm having a hell of a time sleeping at night because my legs have started aching. I had asked my OB here about it and he claims that it has to with calcium defficiency - baby is building her bones right now or something is what he said. Has anyone else had the leg cramping before? I can be fine all day long with no leg cramping and then when I lay down for bed - it starts up!!! I just turned 6 months pregnant and boy time does seem to be passing by. I can't believe in just 3 months or so, god willing our little girl will be here. :-)

I went in twice this week for BP checks. The first day I got it checked it was 120/90 then the next day it was 120/80 which is better. I'm hoping to keep it under control with the diet changes I've made (well, as much as you can here) and exercise. I'm still not getting as much exercise as I need and that is really my fault because Shakil has asked if I want to go for walking. I'm going to get myself in gear.

The weather here has become cooler here FINALLY!! :-) It's getting in the middle 50's at night and low 80's during the day which is much more tolerable. We just open the window at night (we have a screen on the window otherwise we'd be eaten alive by bugs) and turn on the fan and it makes it very nice in our bedroom.

Until later...

Bye for now.

Aftershocks still?/updates

Everything is fine but Shakil asked me if I felt the earthquake during the night. I thought "what"???? It seems that Shakil even felt it in the building he works at. He does work on an upper level so maybe that is why he felt the jolts. I didn't feel anything here at all. I'm glad I didn't because it probably would have startled me being alone and knowing Shakil was at work.

I've heard that we might feel these aftershocks for several months. I never realized that aftershocks went on that long. Hasn't the country already been through enough? I know we don't have any control over it all - what's gonna happen is gonna happen, right? I guess all we can do is say a prayer in hopes that it all comes to an end.

In other news, my grandmother who was 89, passed away just a few days ago. I was sorry that I couldn't be there for the funeral services. I did get to see her before I left and I hope she knew I was there - she had not been herself after a bad fall and hitting her head. She had a long life and will be missed.

Seems my MIL still and won't understand that I need more than 5 minutes notice before attending any Iftari's. 3 days in row and even after Shakil saying something to her - she still does it. Sheesh. Fil and Bil are back from Karachi and when I said that I wouldn't be attending tonight (it was literally 3 minutes before they were walking out the door) Fil said, "ok - you're not going" and he let it go!! Go FiL!!!!!!!!! It was so nice not having to argue!!

The food here is slowly starting to get on my nerves. I do have my favorites here but MIL thinks that there has to be a 1 inch layer of oil on everything in order for it to taste good - what the hell??? She also enjoys doing lots of frying - which we all know is not healthy!! I've been refraining from much of her cooking and just sort of eating something on my own. Today she did make a dish of shrimp, veggies and noodles that turned out nicely. I'm having to watch my salt intake though because my blood pressure ran borderline on my last OB visit. I'll be going in 3 times this week just for a blood pressure check. Gotta keep a check on it.

Good movie on right now or I'd type up some more random thoughts. :-)

Until later...

Bye for now.

Last minute Iftar's/walking...

Ever since Ramadan started Iftar timings have been an issue - what I mean by timings is last minute timing to leave for somewhere. We do have Iftar here at home sometimes but there times when we go out - over to relatives or meet up at a restaurant. It seems that a relative likes to give us a call last minute and tell us what the evening entails. Even then, you really don't know. What really gets my blood boiling is when MIL might get a call in the morning time and then neglects to even tell me there are Iftar plans in the evening.

Let me use today as an example because it realllllllllly pissed me off!!! There were some phone calls this morning because Shakil answered on 2 different occasions so that could have been when the invite occurred and I just wasn't told. Shakil was leaving for work, it was about 4:30 p.m. I was in some comfy pajama pants, hair pulled back and in a tshirt - definitely not proper Iftari attire!! 5 p.m. rolls around and there is a knock on my bedroom door - I automatically think "it's MIL"!! She starts saying outside of the door "Tara - are you coming"??? "Tara - are you coming"?? I'm thinking "going where"?? "nobody has told me shit"!! I open the door and she is quite ancy - everyone gets ancy when its close to Iftar - it's like that was all she could get out of her mouth was "are you coming"??? I proceeded to tell her no and apparently that wasn't the answer she was looking for. She then started saying "yes - you are coming"! and I would say "no thank you - I'm not going" and then she'd come back with the "yes - you are coming" and this went on for a good couple of minutes. She just kept on and on and on and I was becoming very angry. I told her I had to be online to chat with my Mom and she would say I could talk over at where we were going. Well, I really wouldn't be comfy doing that!! She finally gave up I think and I just slammed the door and was still very upset. I had gotten over the fact that she was telling me to go somewhere 5 minutes before leaving time but was just really upset how she handled herself. Mother-in- laws!!!!!!!!!!!! Shakil tells me this is normal to have last minute social occasions. Well, I don't like it!!! I need to be told in advance if we are going out. What is wrong with making some plans for God's sake????

This morning when Shakil came home from work he and I went to the park for a walk. We needed some exercise and my OB has told me that I should get in 30 minutes of walking daily for my pregnancy. It's become cooler here FINALLY and it was around 5:30 a.m. when arrived at the park. We started walking and then about 15 minutes into our walk I notice these women walking barefoot in the wet grass. What the heck??? What do you do that for?? Don't your feet get all dirty??? Shakil tells me it is therapeutic - but I don't buy it.

Thanks to Zunaria for contacting me - I enjoyed the chat.

Until later...

Bye for now.

A night without MIL/inlaws??

I've started bringing up to Shakil that 1 day a week I want to have a night without MIL and inlaws. MIL is living here with us along with my FIL/BIL. FIL/BIL travel back and forth to Karachi frequently but MIL is here to stay for the time being. Everytime Shakil and I go out somewhere - MIL always is with us. I also attend any other family gatherings and those are no short occasion - you're there for a few hours. So my point is I think I should be able to have 1 night a week without my MIL or inlaws. Just one night that Shakil and I spend time together/go out for dinner or something. He's been pretty good about it but sometimes doesn't understand why MIL gets on my nerves so bad. I can't really say that she is getting on my nerves - well yes I can. It's just she is always around and to be honest - she can be quite nosey - well nosey isn't the right word to use. She is just always up in your business I guess. I do respect my inlaws very much because they are my husband's parents and family. He respects my family so I in turn do the same.

After Shakil has worked his 4 nights a week - I'm more than ready to have that 1 night without MIL/inlaws. I have started attending Iftars without Shakil which is a step up for me. Last time I was here I wouldn't do anything without Shakil just because I didn't feel comfortable. So Tuesday rolls around and I start speaking of "night without MIL" as I'm calling it. This past Tuesday rolled around and I started mentioning "night without MIL" and we ended up spending the evening with MIL and had Iftar with her. Shakil had said we'd do "night without MIL" Wednesday since I have my OB appt. Well I was the sweet daughter-in-law and told Shakil to invite MIL to my OB appt since I was having an ultrasound. It would be her 1st time seeing our baby and Shakil's as well in action.

Wednesday night Shakil and I did have our "night without MIL". :-) I wanted him to take me to this place here in the city that serves really good seekh kababs. My last night here back in June we went there and I haven't had it since. I've really been craving some. So he took me there and he ended up getting a couple of the Iftar specials and he thought there were going to bring seekh kababs - well they didn't. They brought some other kababs but were not the seekh kababs that I wanted. So Shakil being the sweetheart he is - when he saw me ticked off - he ordered me that kabab plate that I originally wanted. It was verrrrrrrrry good and I really enjoyed it. I didn't enjoy that we had to sit outside because there was quite a bit of smoke from the bbq'ing they were doing. Oh well - all in all it was good.

After Iftar Shakil was asking what I was wanting to do. I really didn't know what to do but I knew that I wasn't ready to go pick up MIL over at his grandparents (we had dropped her there b4 going out). I told Shakil just to take me for a drive and then we could go pick up MIL. Well we ended up going over to a market where we had looked at baby cribs a few days back and there were a couple of other stores I wanted to check out. So he parked and we just walked around the market for a bit looking at these stores. It was nice doing that together. After the market we went to pick up MIL and called it a night.

Oh of course I need to mention about my OB appt. I had a level II ultrasound and our baby girl is doing just wonderfully!! She is really growing and weighs in at just over a pound now. She has no birth defects - thanks to God and looks just perfect to us. She was even sucking her little thumb at one point and us being able to see that was just priceless!! :-)

Ok so do you all agree that "a night without MIL" is a good thing to do? Is it too much to ask?? Just wondering. Thanks for all your comments lately - you all are just so very nice and I really appreciate it. Ok now I'm going to catch up on reading some other blogs. :-)

Until later...

Bye for now.

Chicken rolls!!

Last night there was Iftar at a restaurant called Nando’s. They appear to be famous for their "Peri, Peri chicken" which seems to be the ethnic name for the fiery spice some know as chili they are also famous for their sauces/marinades. I haven’t seen anything else on their menu besides chicken. You can get the chicken seasoned from mild to very hot and the chicken we had was seasoned hot. It was so damn good and I was more than full after eating it with some fries and some yummy dipping sauce – I still don’t know what that dipping sauce was.

Anyways, we left there and when we got home MIL started talking about more food. She was asking me if I wanted anything else, etc. My gosh we just finished eating and she was asking me if I want more – what the heck???? She mentioned that a relative had sent over these chicken rolls. At the time I was so full and couldn’t even imagine having one. She said they’d be in the freezer when I want one – didn’t even know what I was missing yet.

Today for lunch I decided to pull out one of those chicken rolls out of the freezer. I heated it up in the microwave and took it upstairs to eat it – didn’t want to eat in front of MIL since she’s fasting. I took one bite of that roll and the cheese just came running out. The chicken roll looks to be shredded chicken, cheese, some green chilies, sautéed onions and some sauce all rolled up in a big paratha. My god this thing is good!!!

This evening for Iftar I had 2 small homemade samosas and some jellibee with MIL. FIL and BIL have gone to Karachi for a bit – they’ll return. Once again after eating MIL wanted me to have more food but I informed her I was just too full from having the late lunch (the chicken roll). Got online for a bit and few hours passed by and that chicken roll started calling my name again. Yep, you guessed it – I decided to have one for dinner too. I went to retrieve it from the freezer, popped it in the microwave, went upstairs – took one bite and thought I should take a picture of this new found craving of mine!! So there ya go – there is the chicken roll that has more than satisfied me today!

Until later…

Bye for now.

Updates/my food handling issues!!!

Update about the past few days first - Shakil took me out to Pizza Hut Tuesday night for Iftar. Now Iftar was about 5:40 p.m. -ish and we arrived at the Pizza Hut at about 5:30 p.m. - BIG mistake!! The entire restaurant was packed!!! There was not one seat to be had. Shakil talked to the guy taking names and he said it would be 6:30 p.m. before we could be seated. Since me being a lady they told me I could go wait inside where the waiting area is - well I told Shakil he'd have to come with me - I wasn't just going to sit there alone. They let us go wait and it was wasn't long that they came offering bottled water for us, dates, etc. Then shortly after that they came by with piping hot pizza - yum!! They gave me a slice but I just had a bite and gave the rest to Shakil since he was the one fasting - not me.

We finally got called to be seated and Shakil asked the guy if it was non-smoking and the guy said yes but the funny thing was that he tried to seat us at this little table for 2 where some woman - yes a woman (you don't see that here very often) - was just smoking away. What the hell???? I of course started bitching and Shakil got us moved to another table. Well the next table they took us to was a table for 2 as well but right in the middle of the room - I wanted a booth damnit!!! So Shakil was sweet enough to ask the guys that had just been seated as well in a booth if they'd switch with us and they did. :-)

The pizza was especially good and it was all you can eat with salad as well. Salad here in Pakistan can mean many things. When I think of salad I think of a nice green salad with veggies and some salad dressing - well not here. Salad here can just be tomatoes/cucumbers and onions which I like don't get me wrong. It also can mean a salad that is just filled with cholas and other spices, etc. My point being that there are many types of salads here - which I just love. Especially the salad at Pizza Hut.

We finally were able to retrieve the new shalwar kameez and sample I had given from the tailor. But unfortunately its not quite right yet. This tailor is a pain in the ass - we're not using him anymore. Shakil took it back for alterations - we shall see what he's done. The tailor claims he didn't know it was supposed to be maternity.

We attended Iftar another evening over at Shakil's grandparents and the food was very good. I wasn't feeling too good with heartburn so I was quite hesitant on what I ate - which is hard to do because everyone is trying to get you to eat more or have more, etc. The sweets were good and those settled just fine - don't they always? ;-)

Now about the food handling issues here that are riding my nerves big time. My MIL sometimes has no concept of putting food in an airtight container. She sometimes just covers the dish or bowl with a plate and puts it in the fridge. Which I guess isn't too bad. My main issue is how she just leaves meat or chicken I should say just sitting out on the counter to thaw - not good! She claims she is going to be using it quickly but I still think you should thaw in the fridge or run some cool water over it to thaw. It's still pretty hot here with high's in the 90's so I don't think leaving on the counter is good at all.

MIL also loves to serve leftovers for several days. I'm having to pay special attention to how long something has been held over. I guess they are just used to it here and it doesn't get them sick - but I really can't get sick being pregnant and all. There was some chicken tikka in the fridge that had been held over for more than a week and Shakil at it on Friday and it made him sick. He had several trips to the toilet and some major indigestion. He even called in sick to work because of it. You tell MIL that she shouldn't hold the food over for so long and the first thing I hear coming out of her mouth is "nahin, nahin, nahin" meaning "no, no, no" she just never agrees with anything in regards to food or food handling I should say. Ok I'm done complaining. :-)

Shakil is back to work this evening and he seems to be feeling better after the more than week old chicken. I'm glad I didn't eat any of it. It really would have backfired on me. :-( Today MIL cooked Mutton Qeema is what it looked like (won't be eating that) and she also cooked Chicken Karahi - note to self - today is October 15th. Just keeping check on how old it is or will get. I didn't eat Karahi as I'm having issues with chicken with bones these days. I had a boneless chicken burger for dinner and it was quite tasty! Did the job for me.

Until later...

Bye for now.

Earthquake!

Shakil and I were awoken at about 8:50 a.m. on the morning of the quake. The bed was shaking and it wasn't like it was shaking from someone just moving around too much - it was an all together different shake. Shakil and I were literally sliding to the end of the bed. I began to laugh - yes that sounds weird but I think I was just shocked. We were awoken out of a sound sleep to this. Shakil kept looking around the room and I got out of the bed and stood on the floor. The entire ground was shaking and the whole house was shaking as well. It didn't last long but long enough. We managed to go back to sleep and when we woke up we saw all the headlines on t.v. about what had happened.

So many lives lost and I've heard that the death toll is up to 25,000 and so many people homeless and not knowing where to turn. Most have lost everything - including family members. It breaks my heart to see all the devastation on t.v. Areas that already were so poverty striken have been wiped out. Just horrible - there really are no words for this.

My prayers go out to everyone who may have lost a loved one and hoping that lives can be rebuilt. I think we should all be so thankful for what we have - something or someone can be taken from you so quickly.

That brings me to how Shakil was late coming home from work last night - by 1 hour. He had called me at 10 p.m. telling me he'd be home at 2:30 a.m. and he didn't show up until 3:30 a.m. I think he thinks I'm nuts because I got angry with him. I told him if he's going to be running late - to please call. Things happen over here and everywhere all the time and I just think it's common courtesy to let me know. I was worried for that entire hour - just waiting to hear his honk at the gate to be let in by the watchman. When I heard that honk - a sense of relief came over me. I may just be overly concerned or whatever but that's how I feel. We all wanna keep our loved ones safe and we don't want anything to happen to them - ever!

Last night there was Iftar over at Shakil's Khalas (khala meaning Mom's sister) or his aunt for us English speaking folk again. I went with my FIL, MIL and BIL over there. They had pakoras, jellibee, samosas, sandwiches, etc. I was of course full after eating on that stuff but then about 30 minutes later we had dinner. Dinner consisted of nihari, some goat (which I won't eat) and pulao (or at least I think that is what it was). We stayed for a bit and headed home. I like for Shakil to take me for a drive in the evenings when he's not working but my FIL topped it - he took us for a nice long drive. I enjoyed it. Shakil is always wanting to cut the drive short. He's out more than I am so it's not a big deal to him.

Tonight Iftar was at home. MIL prepared some shrimp dish but I wasn't too fond of it. It really didn't have much spice. There was some chicken curry that I did have. She had leftover Chicken Manchurian on the table but I've had enough of that for a while.

Tomorrow night Shakil is taking me to Pizza Hut for Iftar - just he and I - no inlaws!!! They are having an all you can eat pizza buffet for Iftar. I'm really looking forward to it because I've really been wanting some pizza and the salad there rocks!!! :-)

Until later...

Bye for now.

Ramadan starting and the weekend activities

First of all I want to thank Sobia for her Blog Hopping post. I’m so glad you are enjoying my blog and I will definitely provide some insight on the challenges here being pregnant, adjusting and who knows what else!! It’s a heck of a ride here!

I want to thank everyone else again for their nice comments. I read each and every one of them and I really appreciate it.

Ok, it’s time to go over the weekend activities here. Ramadan Mubarak to any of my Muslim readers!! Tuesday night Shakil’s grandmother came back to Pakistan. She had been out of the country. Now this is something that I’m not quite accustomed to - Shakil and I were just sitting watching t.v. or something and there’s a phone call. The phone call was to let us know that grandmother was coming in and that we all needed to meet her at the airport. Me, Shakil, MIL, FIL and BIL headed out to the airport to meet her. Now don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great that a good part of the family heads out the airport to meet someone. I really don’t think it happens too much in the U.S. Am I wrong? I know when I last spent 5 mos here in Pak – when I returned to the states it was my Mom and bro waiting for me. I would have been kind of shocked to see my whole family there including some extended family. I just don’t think it’s that common and I admire them doing that here. That’s fantastic.

After the greeting at the airport we all headed over to Shak’s grandparents house. There were several relatives there and most eyes were on the t.v. debating on when Ramadan was going to start. After hearing lots of chatting and chatting I came to the assumption that it wasn’t going to start on Wednesday or maybe it was Shak who told me that it was going to be on Thursday – heck if I know. All I know is that I’m not fasting. Shakil is fasting and he is not religious at all - the only reason he’s doing so is because of his mother. She loves to be on his ass about prayer and other religious activities. It’s always gotten on my nerves because Shakil is a grown man at 33 yrs old and doesn’t need someone telling him when to pray, etc. Ok – yes – be nice Tara. Ughhh, it’s just always gotten to me.

So Ramadan started here on Thursday and bright and early at 4 a.m. – who comes knocking on our bedroom door???? MIL!!! I heard the knocking and I thought, “You have GOT to be kidding me”!! Then if you don’t pay attention to MIL’s knocking she’ll start saying “Shakeeeeeeeel, Shakeeeeeeeel”!! It cracks me up when she starts wailing out his name. Shak finally awakens and tells her something and she appears to be satisfied. He’s done really well. He gets up at 4 a.m. and then goes to eat. I’m usually hungry at 5 a.m. every damn morning and have to get up as well to shovel down some cereal or something. My baby-to-be seems to think it’s time to eat at 5 a.m. everyday.

Oh and I went to the doctor on Thursday. I was sooooo nervous about going. I just didn’t know what to expect and I just knew that this doctor wouldn’t be like my OB in anyway and then I was worried about how sanitary things would be, etc. So Shakil took me Thursday evening. I had a 5:30 p.m. appt. We pull up to the clinic and from the outside it seemed really nice and I thought “ok, this shouldn’t be too bad – but what about the inside? That’s the question”!! We walked inside and there was a normal reception desk where a man was playing receptionist – not used to seeing that but hey - ok! Off to the left there was the waiting room behind some glass doors. We walk in to have a seat and it felt great in there – they were using a/c!!! It looked just like a typical waiting room you might find in the U.S. We filled out a little questionnaire thingy and then about 5 minutes later – I was called to go back. Ok the nervousness started up again because I had no idea what the rooms were going to look like. The nurse, medical asst, whatever she was weighed me and of course Shakil had to stand over and watch while I was weighed. She took me into the room and clicked on the a/c! Yippeeeeeee!! That room was feeling great too. The nurse took my BP and then she left while we waited for the OB. I looked around the room and it was very nice and very clean. I was impressed!! Not what I had expected - I was very skeptical just because of my E.R. experience with food poisoning when I was here earlier this year.

The OB came in the room and from the moment he walked in I knew he seemed nice. He proceeded to do the Doppler on me and Shakil got to hear our baby’s heartbeat for the 1st time! That was priceless when I looked over to him and he was smiling. Baby has a nice strong heartbeat and the doc could hear her moving around while he was doing the Doppler. So baby seems to be doing just fine!! I’ll be 22 weeks this Thursday and I go back to see this OB in about 2 weeks and I’ll also be having another ultrasound to screen for anomalies, etc.

So all in all the trip to the OB went great. He is a very thorough doctor and he really took his time with me, etc. I actually like him better than my OB in the U.S. He got his M.D. in the U.S. and even practiced there for over 20 years. He is up to speed on everything and is well aware of my Rh negativity – which makes me feel very good. I feel my baby-to-be is in good hands.

My first iftar here in Pak was last night. Now I’m not fasting since I’m pregnant but I sure do participate in the yummy food eating! MIL prepared some Dal Gosht, Chicken Tikka, a dish with onions, tomatoes, chick peas, coriander and some masala – served cold which tasted great. There was fresh naan, samosas, pakoras and jellibee (sp?) I was soooo full after devouring many of these items. I can’t eat the goat – I just haven’t gotten used to that yet after seeing them slaughtered last Eid. I’m trying to get over it.

Tonight I had iftar with just FIL, BIL and MIL since Shakil is at work. She made Chicken Manchurian with some fantastic rice and I’m so full right now. Just hoping she doesn’t come with more food in a couple of hours – I know how she operates but I’m gonna have to turn her down.

In the morning when Shakil gets home from work we’re going to go for a walk in the park – that’ll be at 5:30 a.m. Yikes!! The doc advised that I try to get at least 30 minutes of walking in daily.

Until later…

Bye for now.

Is my hubby the only one??

**No offense honey on the 1st paragraph**

You know I guess I had really forgotten or set aside how much food my hubby can consume in one sitting. It’s rather funny actually. Colleen made a comment about his stomach being a black hole. She knows Shakil and how he is – she is the one that set us up 2 ½ years ago – yikes, it’s been that long already – time goes by so quickly. Anyways, my point is that anytime we sit down for a meal he eats everything on his plate. If we are having chicken with bones in it, he literally takes off alllllll of the meat and proceeds to almost start nawing on the bone. Many times I have had to slap his hand and say, “you’re finished – it’s all gone”! He’ll take his index finger and run it around the plate or bowl to get every last drop of whatever is left. Do any of your hubbies or significant others do this? Is it just a Paki thing or what?? I see many Paki’s here doing the exact same thing. Ha ha ha.

The past several days I have done nothing but sleep, sleep and more sleep. Like this evening I fell asleep at 5 p.m. and didn’t wake up until after 2 a.m. Shakil comes home at 5 a.m. and then I’ll end up going back to sleep with him no problem. I don’t get it and have even started to wonder if maybe I’m low on iron or something. I’ve read that pregnant women can have low iron. Maybe I just need to have that checked out when I see the OB.

Last night MIL came up to our bedroom – Shakil was at work – and told me that we were being called over to a relatives. She asked me if I was going and of course I said yes – I had nothing else better going on. I would have just slept the evening away. Next she comes with “what are you going to wear”? Well geez we just had some new shalwar kameez made for me – I’m sure I’d be wearing one of those. I go to the cupboard and pull out one of the purple colored ones and MIL says, “no, no not that one – wear this blue one”. Is it THAT big ‘a deal?? Every time we get ready to go somewhere it’s like this and now I’m at the point to where I just laugh about it. It’s really not a big deal but I just find it funny that it happens every time we go somewhere.

We headed over to one of Shakil’s mamu’s. (mamu meaning Mom’s brother) For all of us English speaking folk – it’s his uncle. There wasn’t a lot of people there and we just sat down for a bit and then I was served a very tasty pasta dish. I told her just a smallllllll amount because I wasn’t hungry. Here in Pakistan it’s best to just go ahead and have at least some because they’ll just keep on with you if you don’t. They then served me some very nice fresh squeezed juice. That is one of the things I love about Pakistan – you always get to have some fresh squeezed juice. It’s very common to go visiting and you are served some tasty juice – yummy!

No more than 15 minutes after I forced myself to eat the pasta dish – not that it wasn’t good – I was just so damn full already. I had dinner about 2 hours prior. So I’m sitting there and Shakil’s mami comes and says “Dinner is ready – let’s go”. I’m sure my mouth dropped at that point because I thought “what the hell??? I just ate”!! See – here we go again with the food issue!!! We headed into the kitchen and I had some of the Chinese dish – very small portion and they seemed to be satisfied with that! Ha ha. That Chinese was damn good though.

This afternoon over lunch my MIL claims I had some goat feet and stomach while I was there. Whaaaaaaaaaaaa???? She kept saying “remember that curry you had”? I KNOW I didn’t have any curry but she thinks I did. I think I’d know if I was eating goat feet and stomach. Oh my God – just the thought makes me ill!!!! I cannot and I refuuuuuuuuuuse to eat goat feet or stomach!!! Not happenin’!

On that note – that’s all for now!

Until later...

Bye for now.