We (mom n i) went to SC to see hubby

Top: The view of the shoreline from the airplane
Middle: Charleston, SC. USS Yorktown Aircraft Carrier
Bottom: On board the aircraft carrier's airplane hangar

On long distance relationships...

Long distance relationships can be really tough :(

My husband and I have been married for 3 months, almost, and so it hasn't been much of a relationship but it's difficult that he lives in a state that is an 11 hr drive from here and so we can't easily see each other.

School is the reason why I am still living at home with the parents... but sometimes balancing everything gets very difficult... especially when you have this deep longing to be with the person you love.

It's really tough some days, but especially due to the fact that he has absolutely NO ONE where he lives... he has no friends or anyone in that place :(

There aren't even any other muslims that he can befriend... and so when he gets home from work, it's basically him and his walls that eat, talk and sleep together.

A's visit here... Nov 26-- Dec 1st

We had an awesome time... he finally had the chance to sit with my family and relatives in a more relaxed environment.

Also, him and I had been married over a month and so we were pretty much at ease on his trip here... thankfully!

The night before he came, I had been soooo nervous because school had kept me bz and i had hardly had any time to properly clean up the room that he was to stay in, or anything!

So, I ended up skipping a day of school and finished cleaning up within seconds of him walking through the front door.

I was actually putting the final touches on some lentil soup when my dad knocked on the door (my dad had gone to pick him from the airport).

The trip was amazing, but too short... we were running around going from one party to another... plus, the weather was kinda icky and i caught a fever :(

But overall things went well... and though we had to cancel our own dinner plans, initially, to accommodate another dinner party, that ended up getting canceled because the hosts (my uncle's wife & her niece that's staying with them) got strep throat... so, eventually, my hubby, A, and I ended up going back to our original plan and had a fun night :)

We just celebrated one month, alhamdulillah!

Time truly flies... I'm still in disbelief about being married... sort of, at least!

And wow... it's like it's already been a month.

The wedding went absolutely smoothly, even though so many things kept coming up last second... but really, alhamdulillah (All Praise to God) everything went perfectly.

And since everybody had basically come for the weekend, we didn't have to stress to clean everything up in a hurry... people came, attended and left pretty much the next day and so we had the chance to take things slowly one at a time and then tidy up.

A lot of other unfortunate events happened the week after the wedding but we've been able to handle them and pull through alright :D

There's sooo many things that I'm grateful to God for... alhamdulillah... really, we have all been blessed in sooo many ways.

Presents all around...

We celebrated the religious holiday of Eid Al-Fitr on Wednesday (it comes after Ramadaan) and so my sister and I decided to get together and buy my paternal grandmother a ring as a present for her, on this festive occasion.

We went to Kay Jewelers, and were extremely short on time, but managed to buy a diamond ring for my grandma and also I ended up buying a marquis-cut emerald ring for my mom (unfortunately, I am currently jobless and so don't have much money and so I ended up buying my mom a lab-created emerald as opposed to a naturally-occurring one, which was a little over 300 bucks =( )

Mom knew that we were buying a ring for my grandma, but my grandma did not know. And my mom had no clue that I was buying her a ring...

So alhamdulillah when we got home, everyone was pleasantly surprised!

Mom's ring:

Another ring :)

My sister bought me my wedding present today, and it was supposed to be a surprise.

But she told my paternal grandma about it and showed her the ring, while I was away at school.

Then, my sister went off to work and when I came back from school, my paternal grandmother (who is hard of hearing), hadn't realized that the present was supposed to be a surprise, and told me all about it!

The only thing that I did not know was, what kind of ring it was... she said that it had a black 'stone' or something on it...

That got me thinking... what could it be?

So eventually when my sis got home, my grandmother told her, "I already gave her the good news!"... my sister was terribly disappointed, but we didn't make it apparent to my poor grandmother.

Anyways, so my sister decided to give me the ring today as there was no point in hiding it :(

I found out the ring had a black pearl, surrounded by little diamonds on the side! i totally loooove it, alhamdulillah! And, I was, pleasantly surprised!

I'm very picky when it comes to pearls... i don't like white/cream pearls that much... I totally love black pearls, but still... I'm picky about the kind of pearl rings that are out there... I've got to say, my sister did an excellent job!

I couldn't have done better myself, masha'Allah!



So, above is a picture of the ring, from the retailer's website... this ring is slightly less expensive online than it was in-store... don't know why! And so I don't really know how much she paid for it...

Also, the ring itself is way better than what it looks like in the picture... The ring is far more delicate... the diamonds are also smaller and not very flashy, which I love! Because, believe me, I have myself a flashy diamond ring! (my wedding ring)

Bad day...

(continued)

I had bought some awesome cards to print our invites on (they were black, red and cream in color... very pretty though), but my dad went ahead and had cards printed from a customer of his who works in the business...

Problem is, i HATE HATE HATE the cards... 'A' apparently liked them... but I had already picked out the type that I wanted and now I'm stuck :(

So dad actually went and returned the cards that I had, and so we're gonna have to stick with his...

Also, the cards that I picked out were 1/4 of the price of the ones that my dad bought!

Sigh... can't do anything though :(