The Unexpected ...

Assalaamu Alaikum :)

The unexpected just happened ... I am now a Kindergarten Teacher.

I think my mind is still trying to process the entire thing. I mean, the idea of entering the field of Teaching only recently came to mind and I have been debating whether or not this is what I want to do. I started to seriously consider applying for Teacher's College this year so obviously I would need to get more experience in what I want to do since I don't have much as it is. I thought I would volunteer at an Islamic school nearby so I can get a feel of what to expect.

The Director of the Islamic school attends the same Uloom program as me so it was easy to bring it up to her. Before I could mention anything, my cousin's wife (who also attends the class with me & worked at the school) made it known to her that I would be available to work for her if she wanted. And since this is a real small school, they would love to receive help. That's when I came in and asked, if she needed any help, I was available. All the while keeping in mind that my main focus was just to volunteer for a few days in the week. I was advised to call her to make an appointment for an interview ... that was interesting.

They need someone to teach Kindergarten because the previous teacher had to take time off due to a recent surgery. I suppose they got a bit excited when they found out about me and wanted me to teach their little ones instead. I gave it a thought ... and, why not? I love children, I spend time with a lot of children ... I think I can do this! I mean, how hard can it be?

It can be hard! It might be! I'm SO nervous *sigh* I went for my interview today and they were content with everything. They explained everything about the school to me and let me know what to expect with the Kindergarten students. It never occured to me what a task it would be to handle children aged 4-5. I became quite nervous when they mentioned my job to teach them how to go to the potty properly ..... ahhhh haha Oh great, just my luck. I can tell, I'm going to have such a great time with that haha Alright, well, the reason I'm so nervous is because ... *sigh* this will be my first job, ever. Major heebie jeebies coming on.

I began to feel more comfortable about everything when I went over day-planners and activities for the kids. Such as, what to do during Circle Time and Nap Time ... aww! I just need to get used to the routine and insha'Allah ... I'll be able to make that classroom my own. Du'as would help me greatly hehe And, if I reeally need help ... I can always run to an experienced teacher for some advice/help *ehem* Aaliya *ehem* :D

It's a real nice school. Actually, it was because of that school that I decided to pursue teaching. I visited my cousin when she used to work there and it was just so lovely! The kids took an instant liking to me which was nice. Eventually, the girls began saying, "can Sister Rafia be our teacher instead?" .. awww! I found one of the drawings the girl's did for me:

"I love you S. Rafia"

I can only wish that I looked like that

Well, maybe this won't be so bad. I have faith in myself ... I can take on little children ... right?! Please excuse me while I go practice my "I mean business" voice ....

Squeeky's Moment:
Alhamdulillah for such good friends. I'm so lucky to be surrounded by caring and considerate people. Every person in your life leaves a positive impact in you and help you in ways that you only realize later how much you needed that. Thank you :)

~*~*~*~* H A P P Y_B I R T H D A Y_R A J *~*~*~*~

Sorry Pluto ...

Assalaamu Alaikum :)

The news is out, Pluto, the last planet in our Solar System has been stripped down of its status! *gasp* For further reading, please review the article presented in The Star. Due to the new criteria of what a planet must consist of ... Pluto just did not make the cut. Instead they demoted it to a separate category, "dwarf planets".

Much-maligned Pluto doesn't make the grade under the new rules for a planet: "a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit." - The Star

I'm sad and a little disappointed. Not too sure why because Pluto wasn't really one of my favourite planets so I never gave it much attention. I am more of a Saturn girl but Pluto was like the baby of the family! How could they do such a thing :( Silly astronomers ...

I think the main root of my sadness is because the Planet song I learned in elementary school will be changed a bit now. Let me sing it for you ... *ehem* ...

Mercury, Venus, Earth & Mars

They are planets, they're not stars

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus too

Neptune, Pluto, then we're through

la la la la

I guess now, we're through after Neptune *sigh*

I will still love you Pluto!!

Canada's Wonderland

Assalaamu Alaikum :)

Insha'Allah, anyone reading this is in the best state of health & Imaan, ameen.

One of my best friend's and I finally spent a day at Paramount Canada's Wonderland. I'm sure no one will understand what a big deal this was but we do! We've been friends since we were 15 (Buffy the Vampire Slayer brought us together aww) and before Sunday, we never had the opportunity to go there together. Yesterday it happened and as usual, whenever we make plans to go out, somehow, there is rain in the forecast *grr* The same thing happened yesterday so all I could do was pray that we didn't have to deal with rain droplets because then the park would shut down the rides and we would not have any fun at all! But alhamdulillah, it did not rain at all during the time we were there. Instead, it was just a bit chilly but I would rather have it be that instead of walking around in very humid weather. So we were quite happy!

We went really early ... we were there before 11am. Something I'm not used to because when I would go with my family or anyone else, it's always after noon. But I liked this, there weren't as many people around and we had access to the rides without those irritating lines. For my personal entertainment in lines that ended up being longer than I liked, I bought Power Poppers to eat so that I could stand there with crackly noises coming out of my mouth haha It was funny. Really, it was. The text on my friend's shirt also received a lot of attention, but I won't go into further detail as to what it said teehehe For the first time ... my friend really heard my voice. I scream on rides like there's no tomorrow ... she calls them "shrills" haha I even scream on rides a person wouldn't dream of screaming on ... heh ... heh ... it's still scary!

Altogether it was a very pleasant day and to commemorate the day, we bought matching bracelets! I'll be sharing some pictures and one of them will reveal the *true* reason as to why we wanted to go to Wonderland so badly ... yay!

The first rollercoaster ride we went on!

My future hubby will win me one of these one day *daydreams*

The time arrives ... we enter Hanna Barbera Land!

I took this picture because when my brother was young, he thought it was a candy wall or made out of marshmallows and licked it eww

*~*~* DRUM ROLL PLEASE *~*~*

SpongeBob! Squeeky! Friend! Patrick! aww our dream came true

There was some Penguin dude there but we didn't know which pre-school show he belonged to. Poor guy wasn't receiving any attention so he started dancing about haha

P.S. - I lost my voice :(

- MuslimFest -

Assalaamu Alaikum :)

I had a pretty nice time at Muslim Fest. I went with my cousin's and sister so I spent half the time with my sister and my young cousin and the other half, I spent it with my aunt and my cousin-in-law, along with her two kids.

The first half, we arrived there just before the Sister's Extravaganza show was about to begin hehe I was curious and wanted to check it out. I am glad that I did because it wasn't so bad for a first sister's show. Masha'Allah, there's quite a lot of talent out there! A sister by the name of Sophia Baig shared some of her poetry and she discusses some very strong issues, such as women, the hijab and the obsession with finding Mr "tall, dark & handsome" haha She comes from a Chinese, Pakistani (?) and Spanish background ... I thought that was quite diverse! Anyhooz, the main attraction I wanted to visit was the Art Exhibit because I just love viewing Art :) Especially these type:

I thought this was so amazing! It reminded me of my sister's, she made the Ka'ba out of toothpicks haha It was quite good

This, as well as the next one was done by a fellow hydro. I had no idea she was such an artist!

The second half of the day, I spent it by spending some time with my cousin's little kids, masha'Allah, I just love 'em! We went through the bazaar to see what was new and happening. A lot of pretty hijabs were being sold at a good price so I took advantage of that teehehe Later, we took a break and sat outside in the beautiful weather to get something to eat. My aunt and her daughter-in-law left me with her kids so they could go purchase some food so I was the babysitter for a little bit. Those kids are cute, but very energetic! Oh my goodness, they wouldn't stay on the bench with me and instead wanted to run around on the grass so I told the elder one that we need to guard this table so no one else would take it from us. He found it to be an important job so he decided to help me, aww.

I did have an odd encounter outside though. This random woman approaches me and stares at me for a bit and says in Urdu, "tum bohot achi dikri" (you look really nice), something like that, it was quite sudden so I don't rememeber too well but I replied back with a "jazaakAllah", thanked her. But she continued to look at me and then finally said, "did you understand what I just said?" Now, I'm assuming she doesn't think I'm from a South Asian descent. So I told her, yes I did understand and she further went to ask what my background was, if I was Pakistani. I told her, "my parent's are from Hyderabad, India and I'm from here". She said, "ohh, then you did understand me" haha and said I looked nice again and then left ... nice woman.

Oh, and I took a picture of this building because it reminded me of Vari Hall at York University *sigh*

Overall, I had a lovely time. Bumped into so many people I knew so it was also a little reunion with friends that I rarely see now-a-days. Also had some run-ins that I could have definitely done without but ... oh well :) It just added to the experience I suppose.

A Mississaugian for the Weekend ... umm, yea

Assalaamu Alaikum :D

I had such a beautiful weekend. I spent it at my khala's (mother's sister) place with my cousins. I knew I would have a good time but I didn't realize it was something I really needed for this never-ending summer *sigh* The men in the house were away for the weekend so my mother and I decided to stay with her sister for a few days. It would also give us the chance to spend some time with my grandmother (mom's mommy) because she is leaving for India in September.

Saturday:
We arrived this day and there wasn't really much to do because we got there in the evening time. It just gave my cousins and I time to figure out what we would do for the next couple of days. So we rented a movie to watch that night. Fun with Dick and Jane ... it was actually amusing, I enjoyed it. Oh, we also hung out with my other cousin, who has a little boy, 2 years old and it took him a while to get used to us but he loosened up a bit later. He's so adorable, if you ask him "what happened to you?", he will respond with "aashiqee", meaning "in love" haha Now who is he in love with, I have no idea. Silly.

Sunday:
Since my older cousin would be working most of the day ... my younger cousin and I decided to to spend our time in Square One. I love going there, only because I never seem to get through the entire mall in just a matter of hours. You need to spend an entire day there it seems. Okay, well for me, since I like to take my time to look at things and I'm also a picky shopper so it's hard to decide on anything *if* I even do end up liking something. Overall, it was a nice experience because I don't get the chance to hang out with my young cousin too often. Masha'Allah, she is a gem! What shocked me the most was through out the whole time we were in the mall, I actually forgot to visit a Dollar Store. A Dollar Store! If you didn't know, I love them. I think they're wonderful. Especially Dollarama and since Square One has both of them ... definitely something to drool over. So just before we were about to leave, we ran to one of the Dollar Stores (which I wasn't very impressed with). While we were eating in the food court, a guy approached us (we noticed he was stalking us quite a bit earlier). He was a Pakistani man and was going on and on about how he had no way of getting home and had absolutely no money for food etc etc ... I wasn't sure if he was telling the truth because unfortunately there are a lot of incidents taking place like that, only Allah Swt knows but I still tried to help him out because he identified me as a Muslim and really seemed to need help. Poor guy.

We finally had the chance to do some baking at home ... mmm mmm goodness. What did we make? We made chocolate cupcakes! My cousin loves to experiment a lot so we topped them off with M&Ms. Wasn't so bad, actually ... it was quite addictive. While making it, we basically put all the ingredients together until we realized we had no eggs haha So we had to borrow some from our cousin (who lives in the basement). We needed three and she only had three left, aww. We considered this time to be a slumber party so we had A LOT of junkfood with us ... voila:

We also played Carrom board for a little bit too! I was sooo happy because I just LOVE that game for some reason. It was so much fun ... of course my team kept winning hehe My uncle was pretty good too, he reminded me of my dad and I was thinking they should definitely play against one another.

Monday:
This day was just lovely. One of my cousin's, he dropped by the house with his 3 sons, his 3 hyper sons haha And it was an entertaining time ... especially his youngest, who is 2 years old. This kid is so cute masha'Allah, most of us call him "sumo" because he looks like a sumo wrestler teehehe The plan was to stay at the Heartland center for most of the day but ... that didn't happen so we hung out there for a little while instead. Went back to Square One and did those photo-booth pictures haha hilarious.

Cute Moment:
Has nothing to do with our weekend but my aunt was telling me that she was teaching her grandson Dawud how to play Hide-and-go-seek. She told him that he has to go hide something and she will come to find him. He agreed and hid. My aunt calls out, "Okay Dawud, I'm coming to find youuuu ..." And just then, emerging from his hiding spot, she heard a cute little voice saying, "I'm right here, dadima*". Awww :) He's so precious, masha'Allah.

*dadima - grandmother