Some Pics

Here is the pie I made. Looks Yummy lol.










And my beautiful rabbit.

5 Months

Yesterday was 5 months since I said my shahada. I can't believe it's been 5 months already. It feels like a life time but at the same time it doesn't seem like it's been that long.

Now I'm off to back a pie for my dad. If anyone wants a piece just tell me lol.

Reading

Here is a list of classic books. There's some I want to read, some I have read, and some I will never touch. lol.

1. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain

Read-very good

2. Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain

Want to read

3. The Æneid Virgil

Never heard of it

4. Age of Reason Jean Paul Sartre

Never heard of it

5. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll

Might read

6. Through the Looking Glass Lewis Carroll

Might read

7. All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque

Want to read

8. The American Henry James

Never heard of it

9. Andersonville MacKinlay Kantor

Never heard of it

10. Animal Farm George Orwel

Very good-absolute power corrupts absolutely

l11. Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy

Never heard of it

12. Arrowsmith Sinclair Lewis

Might read

13. Babbit Sinclair Lewis

Want to read

14. Bell Jar Sylivia Plath

Never heard of it

15. Beowulf

Never heard of it

16. The Bible

Read a good portion of it

17. Big Sky A.B. Guthrie

Never heard of it

18. Billy Budd Herman Meville

Never heard of it

19. Brave New World Aldous Huxley

Never heard of it

20. Brothers Karamozov Fyodor Dostoyevski

Never heard of it

21. Caine Mutiny Herman Wouk

Never heard of it

22. Call of the Wild Jack London

Never heard of it

23. Candide Voltaire

Might read

24. Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer

Might read

25. The Castle Franz Kafka

Might Read

26. Catch-22 Joseph Heller

Read-crazy book

27. Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger

Going to read

28. The Chosen Chaim Potok

Want to Read

29. Complete Stories of Edgar Allen Poe E.A. Poe

Read some of them-some good some weird

30. Color Purple Alice Walker

want to read

31. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Mark Twain

Want to read

32. Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas

Want to read

33. Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevski

Want to read

34. Cry, the Beloved Country Alan Paton

Never heard of it

35. Daisy Miller Henry James

Never heard of it

36. Darkness at Noon Arthur Koestler

Never heard of it

37. David Copperfield Charles Dickens

Never heard of it

38. Death Comes for the Archbishop Willa Cather

Never heard of it

39. A Death in the Family James Agee

Might read

40. The Dollmaker Harriet Arnow

Never heard of it

41. Don Quiote de la Mancha Miguel de Cervantes

Never heard of it

42. Dracula Bram Stoker

Want to read

43. Dune Frank Herbert

Never heard of it

44. Emma Jane Austen

Never heard of it

45. Ethan Frome Edith Wharton

Read-slow to start but was good

46. Farenheit 451 Ray Bradbury

Read-very good

47. A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemmingway

Want to read

48. Farewell to Manzanar Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston

Never heard of it

49. Fathers and Sons Ivan Turgenve

Never heard of it

50. The Fixer Bernard Malamud

Never heard of it

51. Flowers for Algernon Daniel Keyes

Never heard of it

52. For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway

Want to read

53. Frankenstein Mary Shelly

Want to Read

54. French Lieutenant's Woman John Fowles

Never heard of it

55. Germinal Emile Zola

Never heard of it

56. Giant Edna Ferber

Want to read

57. Giants in the Earth Ole E. Rolvaag

Want to read

58. Go Tell it on the Mountain James Baldwin

Might read

59. Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell

Want to read

60. Good Earth Pearl S. Buck

Read-very good

61. Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck

Read-very very good

62. Great Expectations Charles Dickens

Might read

63. Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald

Read-hated it

64. Great Short Works of Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad

Never heard of it

65. Green Mansions W.H. Hudson

Never heard of it

66. Grendel John Gardiner

Never heard of it

67. Gulliver's Travels Johnathon Swift

Never heard of it

68. Heart is a Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers

Never heard of it

69. Hiroshima John Hersey

Read-very good

70. The Hobbit J.R.R. Tolkien

Read-very good

71. House of Seven Gables Nathaniel Hawthorne

Might read

72. Hunchback of Notre Dame Victor Hugo

Want to read

73. I Heard the Owl Call My Name Margaret Craven

Might read

74. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden Hannah Green

Might read

75. The Iliad Homer

Never heard of it

76. In This Sign Joanne Greenberg

Never heard of it

77. Invisible Man Ralph Ellison

Want to read

78. Ivanhoe Sir Walter Scott

Never heard of it

79. Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte

Never heard of it

80. The Jungle Upton Sinclair

Want to read

81. Jungle Books Rudyard Kipling

Might read

82. Kidnapped Robert Lewis Stevenson

Want to read

83. The King Must Die Mary Renault

Want to read

84. Kristen Lavransdatter Sigrid Undset

Never heard of it

85. Last of the Mohicans James Fenimore Cooper

Want to read

86. Little Women Louisa May Alcott

Might read

87. Look Homeward Angel Thomas Wolfe

Never heard of it

88. Lord Jim Joseph Conrad

Never heard of it

89. Lord of the Flies William Golding

Read-good

90. Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien

Read-Very good

91. Madame Bovary Gustav Flaubert

Never heard of it

92. Magic Mountain Thomas Mann

Might read

93. Main Street Sinclair Lewis

Might read

94. Mayor of Casterbridge Thomas Hardy

Never heard of it

95. Metamorphis Franz Kafka

Never heard of it

96. Mill on the Floss George Eliot

Never heard of it

97. Les Miserables Victor Hugo

Might read

98. Moby Dick Herman Melville

Want to read

99. Moll Flanders Daniel Defoe

Never heard of it

100. Le Morte D'Arthur Thomas Malory

Never heard of it

101. Mutiny on the Bounty Charles Nordhoff

Might read

102. My Antonia Willa Cather

Never heard of it

103. Native Son Richard Wright

Want to read

104. The Natural Bernard Malamud

Never heard of it

105. Nausea Jean Paul Sartre

Never heard of it

106. 1984 George Orwell

Going to read

107. Nectar in a Sieve Kamala Markandaya

Never heard of it

108. Northwest Passage Kenneth Roberts

Never heard of it

109. The Odyssey Homer

Might Read

110. Of Human Bondage W. Somerset Maugham

Never heard of it

111. Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck

Read-good

112. Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway

Might read

113. Oliver Twist Charles Dickens

Might read

114. On the Beach Nevil Shute

115. The Once and Future King T.H. White

Want to read

116. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Alexander Solzhenitzyn

Never heard of it

117. One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Might read

118. The Oxbow Incident Walter van Tilburg Clark

Never heard of it

119. Painted Bird Jerzy Kosinski

Never heard of it

120. Pearl John Steinbeck

Want to read

121. Le Pere Goriot Honore De Balzac

Never heard of it

122. The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde

Never heard of it

123. Pilgim's Progress John Bunyon

Never heard of it

124. The Plague Albert Camus

Never heard of it

125. Portrait of a Lady Henry James

Might read

126. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce

Never heard of it

127. Power and the Glory Graham Greene

Might read

128. Pride and Prejudice Jane Austin

Want to read

129. Quo Vadis Henryk Sienkiewicz

Never heard of it

130. Rabbit Run John Updike

Might read

131. Rebecca Daphne Dumaurier

Never heard of it

132. The Red and the Black Henri Stendhal

Never heard of it

133. Red Badge of Courage Stephen Crane

Want to read

134. Red Pony John Steinbeck

Might read

135. Return of the Native Thomas Hardy

Never heard of it

136. Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe

Want to read

137. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Mildred Taylor

Might read

138. Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorn

Read-good except old English lol

139. Separate Peace John Knowles

Read-good

140. Shane Jack Schaefer

Never heard of it

141. Sherlock Holmes, the Complete Stories A. Conan Doyle

Might read

142. Siddhartha Herman Hesse

Never heard of it

143. Silas Marner George Eliot

Never heard of it

144. Sister Carrie Theodore Dreiser

Never heard of it

145. Slaughterhouse-five Kurt Vonnegut

Might read

146. Song of Roland

Never heard of it

147. Sons and Lovers D.H. Lawrence

Never heard of it

148. Sound and the Fury William Faulkner

Never heard of it

149. Stranger Albert Camus

Never heard of it

150. Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway

Want to read

151. Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens

Want to read

152. Three Musketeers Alexander Dumas

Want to read

153. Time Machine H.G. Wells

Want to read

154. The Tin Drum Gunter Grass

Never heard of it

155. To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee

Read-very good

156. To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf

Might read

157. Tom Jones Henry Fielding

Never heard of it

158. Treasure Island Robert Lewis Stevenson

Want to read

159. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith

Might read

160. Turn of the Screw Henry James

Never heard of it

161. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Jules Verne

Might read

162. U.S.A. John Dos Passos

Never heard of it

163. Ugly American William J. Lederer/Eugene Burdick

Might read

164. Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe

Want to read

165. Vanity Fair William Thackeray

Never heard of it

166. Walkabout James Marshall

Never heard of it

167. War and Peace Leo Tolstoy

Want to read

168. Wind, Sand and Stars Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Never heard of it

169. Winesburg, Ohio Sherwood Anderson

Never heard of it

170. Women in Love D.H. Lawrence

Never heard of it

171. Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte

Never heard of it

172. The Yearling Marjory K. Rawlings

Want to read

173. You Can't Go Home Again Thomas Wolfe

Want to read

174. Zorba the Greek Nikos Kazantzakis

Never heard of it

The ones that I've never heard of I still would like to read... I will just be after i get the others done first lol.

Honorable mentions:

Holy Quran-very good

The Earth's Children's Series Jean Auel -very good

HArry Potter Rowling-who doesn't like it?? lol

Packing and Swimming

I've started to pack for my trip (I leave in 19 days insha'Allah) I think that was a mistake now hehe. I got more stuff and it's the kinda stuff you don't want to put on top of everything. Like perfume and candy. My mom said to be careful since most of the candy they don't get in other countries and someone might take it. I hope that doesn't happen to any of my stuff but just in case I'm trying to hide it in the bottom of my case. My mom is saying that I'm going to go over the weight. But I hope not. 50lbs. is a lot lol. So basically once I get my next shipment of stuff, I will be repacking my entire bag :( O well, at least this gives me a chance to double check on my stuff :D

SWIMMING!!! I loooove it. I also really miss it. The last time I swam was at the Sister's Sports Night my MSA at college threw. This was way back in Jan. We walked out with wet hair at 5 in the morning to like 0 degree (Fahrenheit) weather. :S Well tomorrow my masjid is having a sister swim night at a local YMCA. I'm ooooo so excited! I miss it even though I'm not good.

My "Pets"

I only have one really pet. She is a mini rex rabbit. She's super soft and cute. I've had her for like 3 years. Then my other "pets"are just wild animals lol. Tonight I saw a raccoon and some bats.
Everyday we have a million and a half birds lol

• goldfinch
• cardinals
  
• robins
• indigo buntings
  
• red breasted grosbeaks
  
• pheasants
  
• turkey vultures
  
• bald eagles
• grackles
  
• blue birds
• humming birds
• oriels
  

I'm sure there's more and I butchered half their spellings lol.
I also have seen mannny deer, snakes, opossums, rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, and a fox. I absolutely love watching the animals sometimes. Tonight I waited until my little masked bandit came and watched him eat for awhile. Then I watched a bat fly around for a bit. My picture by the way is a deer my dad saw and took the pic of up north. He's a good photographer.

The Secret Life of Words

Like every week, I went to the library to get some DVD. I picked up one, "The Secret Life of Words." It was a very good movie.

First, it starts out as just showing this woman working. Then all of a sudden this little girls voice starts talking in the background. I was like "...if this is a horror movie I'm NOT watching it." But the little voice soon goes away. The woman is forced by her company to take a vacation, so she leaves to a little hotel on the sea. While she was there, she overheard someone needing a nurse for a burn patient that is also blind out on an oil rig. She takes the job and starts working with him.

He tries to get information out of her about who she is but she won't tell him anything. After working with him for awhile, he tells her a story about how he can't swim and has a fear of water, and another about how he fell in love with his best friends wife. She finally tells him about her life which turns out the she was forced to be a prostitute in the Yugoslav Wars. During that time she witnessed a mother forced to kill her daughter, and the girls that screamed at all would be cut open with shards of glass. She had slowly watched her one friend die from being cut open and not being treated. She then has him feel the shoulder area of her chest which is covered in scares from being cut.

The guy is air lifted off of the oil rig and she leaves him, but sends with him a backpack that has enough info in it for him to find her. He does and convinces her that she will be alright. It then cuts to her getting a glass of water by herself in a nice house and the little girls voice comes back. The little girl says that the woman doesn't think about her too much now except when she's alone on Sunday morning when her husband is getting the paper and her sons are out next door. "Yes, she has 2 sons now. My brothers." At this I started crying. It doesn't say if she had the baby or if she was forced to give it up...

I looked up information online about the Yugoslav Wars and found out it was basically an ethnic war. Rape camps or camps to impregnate women were set up, so the "pure" race men would rape "impure" women until they became pregnant. They did this because they thought the child would take on the fathers ethnicity and that would purify the land of unwanted ethnic groups.

I was horrified to read this. I didn't know anything about it even though it happened from 1991-2001. Why can't people just accept different ethnic groups for what they are? Why must one group be better than the other? Can't we just live in peace with everyone, no matter what their ethnic groups or background is? I also highly doubt that the ethnicity of these people were all that different...

Abaya?

While in Egypt this summer it's my wish to buy many things. Including a ton of hijabs, a prayer rug, and some abayas. I told this to a friend of mine and he sent me a link of something he said isn't called an abaya but didn't know that name. I was wondering if any of you could help me out on the name of it. I really like it. I want to get plain black ones and ones that are colored. :)

First

Well, well, well. This is my first blog ever. I thought I would try it out and see how it goes. I will try and use proper grammar/punctuation. If not sorry hehe.

So about me. I am a recent revert to Islam. I absolutely love it. I took on the hijab the first day which I also love. I am a college student studying civil engineering. I know... I'm crazy. I got good grades this year, elhamdolallah. This summer I will be traveling to Egypt. My family thinks they will never see me again. Those same family members are giving me a hard time about my conversion, but I just try to smile and ignore them.

Please pass my blog onto some sisters. I would love to meet more and get their input.

Well that's all I have for now. Leave me comments for more ideas to write about hehe.