Visiting distant lands, going home, and a night out in FTL

Earlier this month Hoor visited China for ten days. I can't believe he's walked on the Great Wall of China four times! He traveled to Beijing for four days and spent the rest of the time in the capital city of Zhengzhou in the province of Henan. Henan is famous for being the birth place of kungfu and is an amazing city in the heart of the country. Hoor has promised to post some pictures of his travels on the next blog post, so keep a look out... 

While Hoor was in China I flew back home to spend some much needed time with my family and friends. During my time at home I enjoyed walking to school in the mornings with Shariq and Sabreena while they filled me in on all of the happenings in Kindergarten. I also had a chance to visit my cousin, Alifia at Northern Illinois University. Ah, to be in college again! Later that weekend, we went to cheer on Shariq’s basketball team, the Elgin Longhorns. Ali shared plays with the semi-interested 6 and 7 year olds as he tried to coach them to a victory. The game was very entertaining because not everyone dribbled as they moved down the court. Coach K has his work cut out for him!

                    I definitely indulged in all of my favorite comfort foods that I avoided in Florida. Among my favorites were fettuccine aIfredo, Portillo’s, nihari, halwa puri, and deep dish pizza from Giordano’s. Why is it that all the good food is SO bad for you? My eating habits even forced me to dabble in P90X! Ok, let’s be honest. I spent more time swearing at the TV. Ali, good luck to you, but I’m going to stick to my regular workout routine.


Alifia and me at our family brunch

Although I was sad to leave, I was excited to return to warm and sunny South Florida to see Hoor. Our first week back was pretty uneventful. As Hoor struggled with his jet-lag, I struggled to understand what went wrong with Kim's Fairytale wedding. Most nights Hoor was asleep by six. During this time I caught up on all of my celebrity gossip.

 He was back to his normal self by the end of the week just in time for the Fort Lauderdale Trolley Loop. The trolleys took passengers to various drinking establishments in downtown and on the beach. The money raised went to local charities. That night we met up with some fellow Chicagoans!

We had so much fun checking out local hot spots and sharing stories about adjusting to life in South Florida. We ended up at a piano bar. It was no Howl at the Moon, but they played everything from Biz Markie to Elton John and we were entertained! We spent the rest of the weekend shopping for our Thanksgiving dinner. This year it will be just the two of us!



Halloween ~ My favorite time of year!

I love everything about Halloween! Dressing up, eating candy, going to haunted houses and watching scary movies are just some of my favorite things about the end of October.


I knew being in Florida would be a different Halloween experience for us. I'm sorry, it just isn't Halloween without a traditional fall. Instead of cooler temps and falling leavings, we had nonstop rain the entire weekend, but that didn't put a stop to our Halloween fun! On Saturday we drove down to Miami to see The Addams Family musical at the Adrienne Arsht Center. This was my first Broadway musical and it was an excellent experience! We had great seats and we truly enjoyed the show. The actors and actresses played their parts well and provided a show with jokes, songs, and dances that didn't disappoint! 

Later that night we decided we would head downtown for a Halloween block party. I dressed up as a member of LMFAO's Party Rock Crew and Hoor dressed up as Tiger Woods. I practiced shuffling to get into character and Hoor, well, we won't go there! The costumes that night made us laugh, wonder, and stare. We saw everything from Siri to Natalie Portman's Black Swan character to a Mammogram machine and a lot of other crazies!

Every day I'm shufflin'!

I was fortunate enough to fly home to surprise Shariq and Sabreena on Monday and go trick-or-treating with them. They were dressed up like scary vampires. Actually, Sabreena made it clear that she was not a scary vampire, but a pretty vampire. Look out Bella Cullen!

Alifia joined us for virual trick or treating!

Trick or Treat!

Smartie Pants with her parents!