Senegalese Food at Church

Leigh and I attended church to find that Jessica was making a presentation of the work she and others accomplished while in Senegal.It was very interesting to hear of how they spread the word of God in another country. In the middle of her presentation, she had servers pass out a sample of Thebouidienne, which is a traditional food that she was taught to make. And,ooh, it was delicious! It's a dish with rice, fried fish, spices,etc. I'd love to get the recipe for this and actually make it one evening for us. Plus, we had a tea that had a punch to it called attaya. Out of the two, I preferred the cheb aka Thebouidienne. Here's a site for the recipe:

http://recipecircus.com/recipes/GeniaMarie/FOREIGNCOUNTRYRECIPES/Senegal_Thebouidienne_Fish_in_the_Mann.html

or

http://sociolingo.wordpress.com/2008/04/04/african-cuisine-senegal-ceebu-jen-rice-and-fish/

or

http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1626,158174-248195,00.html

Our church members will be making another trip to Senegal. Maybe we might be able to make the trip as well someday.

Much of the remainder of the day went smoothly. At around 4ish, Leigh went to help out at the church since their Bible Summer School commences this week, and they needed to move some heavy furniture as well as prepare some items for tomorrow's arts and crafts class. While he was out, I remained at home and decided to do some yard work when I got a tad wound up with a conversation in the late evening that left me nettled to the core and I needed an outlet. So I decided to go outdoors and remove weeds from the yard. I was working hard and sweating while all of a sudden I saw a slithery tail under the trees. Then I dashed for the phone and told Leigh to COME HOME NOW THERE'S A SNAKKKEEE !!!! He came and killed the thin,slinky snake which although it was beheaded, continued to bite into the air, which gave me the heebie jeebies. Shudder! So far, we believe that it was a cotton mouth snake, maybe.

Phones and Visiting Mom

This deal of getting to bed past midnight (or later) and not waking up until the late morning (11ish) is just not good. I need to get my body into a routine once again. If not, I'll be so out of sync when school begins next month. We started today on a late note and most of it was spent at home. Then we managed to browse at some phones. I am truly not a cell phone person. If it were up to me I wouldn't own one but they serve a purpose, especially when I'm not at home and an emergency arises. Plus, I like the security of having one when I travel alone on the road. So as I was saying, we were looking at new phones, and the salesman showed us Blackberries, LG Vu,Slvrs,etc...and to me they were foreign territory because I basically use mine for listening to music or actually talking on the phone. Nowadays, phones are capable of doing so much more-Finding the nearest and CLEANEST bathroom in your vicinity (see bathroomdiaries.com), watching a movie or television,etc..... It's pretty cool, but it can be intimidating.

We had dinner after the few hours of viewing phones galore, and then we visited Mom, who was having a very good day. We spent some time with her, and I even took loads of photos of her (and managed to get a couple of Leigh as well).

Friday

Leigh went to work and I did some of the usual tasks for the day: a load of laundry and ironing some name labels onto some of Mom's clothing using our Dymo, which is a Godsend! I love the simplicity and efficiency of just typing, printing, and ironing the label on. Plus, it eliminates the confusion of trying to decipher who the clothing belongs to at the home.Before zipping over to see Mom, I stopped by the Post Office. And we had loads of mail!! I received a birthday card/gift from my mother and father-in-law from England. I was sooooooooo thrilled ,so it was the first item of maiI that I opened while I was in the parking lot. And it brightened up my day so much! Thank you Mum and Paul! Then I opened a package, which were the pants I had ordered for bellydance practice. Woohooo...they're sooo cute, but I am going to need Leigh to sew up the hem for me since the pant's length goes past my feet and onto the floor.

Thursday July 10th-A New Earth

I started the day off by visiting the library for some new books. I've finished reading "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez as well as Sophie Kinsella's "Shopaholic & Sister"and "Shopaholic & Baby". Compared to "One Hundred Years of Solitude", I preferred "Love in the Time of Cholera", but I wouldn't read it again. It is about a man named Florentino Ariza who decides to wait for his love Fermina Daza, who has rejected him. He ends up waiting for 51 years, 9 months, and 4 days (which is when her husband passes away). It ended quite beautifully, but I didn't like the constant focus on prostitution throughout the book.But, alas, it's just my opinion.

As for Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic books, I thoroughly enjoyed them because Bex (Shopaholic) finds herself in more sticky situations when she discovers that she has a sister that she never knew existed. She finally meets her sister, who hates shopping and is the complete opposite of Bex.

The book "Shopaholic & Baby" deals with Bex discovering that she's pregnant, which means that a baby can never have too many clothes, prams, etc, right? Lol. Other than her shopaholic ways, Bex discovers that her doctor was her hubby's exgirlfriend from his college days. This causes some friction, which escalates with the doctor declaring her love for Bex's husband! It's a must read as well!!!

After getting some more books to read from the library, I went over to visit Mom. Then Linda took me out for lunch. We met up with a friend of hers named Peggy. Afterwards, we returned to the nursing home and saw Leigh there working on the internet. We spent some more time with Mom, who was very drowsy from her afternoon nap. A few hours later, I met Leigh for dinner and then I came home to feed the pets (cat, fish, and dog) while Leigh had a bit more work to get done.

P.S. Oooh! I bought a book titled " A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle, and I've just signed up for an online, summer course study offered at www.oprah.com site.

Memories

Here's a slide:

University Squirrel!

Got a few pics of this squirrel before we entered our belly dancing class last night.

Another rainy day to report...blah! At around 12ish, I drove to see Mom. Linda told me that Mom had almost fallen off of her chair, which is very high in altitude and she really would have gotten injured. Plus, they kept placing her at a weird angle (even though I had told them not to!)and that got Mom very agitated today because she wasn't upright. Thus, she kept moving forward and almost fell out of her chair. Grrrr....These people are ignorant!

However, I told Linda that I had spoken to the director as well as another burly nurse that works there that Mom needed a tray restraint or a bumper on her chair. Yet, they told me that it would be double restraint and they couldn't do so. Yet, two days later, I saw another patient with TRIPLE RESTRAINTS! Anyway, I told Linda that, but I also recommended that she had them do something helpful for Mom. Linda said that it would definitely prevent her from having a fall. So when I arrived, I saw that Mom had a tray restraint on her chair. She was in good spirits and liked the Liz Clairborne jacket and aqua lounging pants that I bought for her. After I got her three pairs of socks and wipes labeled, we went off to the dining room to watch a soap opera. Then we played dominoe bingo with the other residents.

First Belly Dancing Class

This a.m. I dashed off to the mall in pursuit of workout clothes for tonight's belly dancing course. I found some items for myself and Mom, and each item only cost $4!! I was overjoyed to find such a good bargain,especially since they were designer clothing!! Once this mission was accomplished, I stopped by to see Mom, and I stayed there for awhile. Then I drove back home and took my time getting dressed for the evening class. I picked up my sis on the way to class, and boy oh boy, my body was in shock---it still is..lol! We began with yoga stretches and then proceeded to work on our fluidity and femininity. We learnt many different belly dancing movements. And for awhile, I felt a bit overwhelmed, but the instructor was soooooo helpful and she worked on me one-on-one! This was our workout (or so I thought!) Then our belly dance instructor told us that we were going to commence with the workout. We learned more positions and movements, and at times, I felt like I was a tad challenged. But, I am so motivated, and I truly want to be able to dance like our teacher. She moves her stomach just like Shakira---it's so awesome!

I do believe that my case of insomnia will vanish tonight since my body is all tuckered out with the two hours of intensive dancing.