Birthday Present on Valentine's Day, Yipee!

Happy Birthday to me :) from some of our family's sweetest and dearest friends, Maury and JoAnn.


They must know of my love for Morocco and almost all things paisley. It's a Vera Bradley Pink Elephants hipster. So cute and will be great for travel.. to Morocco! But to make this gift even better, the a 10% of proceeds goes to breast cancer research.


Hmm, is Vera Bradley going Moroccan too? Check out that box! I think that will be my new memory box. Big smiles here :)

Special Message for a Certain Habibi

Today's post may be a little familiar, because I posted a conversation hearts photo about a month ago, but today it comes with variation. A played with picture(above) and one that is more plain(below). My reason for posting them again today is because it is indeed Valentine's Day. They have some very special words on them intended for a sweetheart named Kheireddine, and though I tell him all the time, each time means just a little more than the last. Everyday we grow together, though we are on opposite sides of the world. We still feel each others' love, though we are oceans apart. Instead of giving up and growing impatient when time seems to be lost, somehow we end up learning and loving more. He is like no other man I've ever known. He loves me, and only me, with an unconditional love that can not be surpassed. I'm proud to call him mine and I thank God for him with every breath. So to him and to you all, Happy Valentine's Day with much love! ~ Hadassah xoxo

More Birthday Fun?

Well, actually, yes, the twins had another birthday party. A second party is somewhat required with as large a family as ours, but my camera was set funky so no really good pictures came out of that.

Instead, I'll give you something from the past-


November 15th to be exact. This is my Other little sister, Joy. I've posted about her before, but she's just so darn photogenic and these pictures were too cute to keep to myself.
So here's a little about Joy- She is 5 years old and while she looks Japanese, like the twins, she also is Chinese. Her favorite things to do are; sing as loud as physically possible, dress up in tutus and princess clothes, do Disney character impersonations, and look at herself in the mirror. Oh yes, and recently she has taken up "telling secrets", which is really her way of saying she wants to talk to you.
Here she is doing what she does most days(if I let her)- laying on my bed staring at the mirror while wearing dress up clothes.

Here is another, that same day-


I like that these totally capture "Joy" and show so much about her charming little personality.

Ps. Maryam, that's my "Moroccan" room, still unfinished. I think my next post will be about the finished product. Hmm, if I could only do that by the end of the week AND finish American Lit... Wish me luck! :)

My Own: Frost Bite- Part 2

I woke up this morning to see that it was snowing :) and that the frost I posted about previously had melted and refrozen. Personally, I think it's prettier today than it was yesterday, no?
Lately it's been SO cold that the snow that falls is actually in individual flakes- like they are shown in science book diagrams. Each little flake is unique and special in it's own way. Kind of like the little girls below.
These little girls turned 7 today, and yet they are twins, they are two different individuals.
I gave them each a card showing just that, Charity (the older one) is the Ballerina - Figure Skating - Gymnast - Princess, while Faith is the Ballerina - Gymnast - Soccer Star - Princess. One is "pretty in pink" the other is more of a "tomboy" but not to the extreme. They will both whip out the dress up everyday after school, they both love Barbies and dolls and tea parties of all kinds. But Faith is more likely to wear jeans and gauchos while Charity wears dresses and skirts. These little snow flakes have developing personalities and everyday I watch as they become more of themselves and less "the twins".

Their first words this morning- Faith, " I feel much older today!" Charity, " Yeah, I feel 2 inches taller!"

Here are the links to - Frost Bite2 set and Charity and Faith's 7th album, enjoy!

My Own: Frost Bite

This was taken during my blown surprise issue, while I was cooling down..

I'm enjoying the beauty of all the frost on my windows. It looks like little ice trees.

For more see my Frost Bite Set

I've Blown the Surprise

Now that I've blown my birthday surprise, I am going to spill my guts.

I was so devastatingly nuts when I realized what I had just seen, I think I swore over 50 times in the course of 7-10mins. I felt horrible. I mean I wanted to know what it was, but I didn't, you know. I like surprises, and I secretly liked the torture they were giving me by saying that it was the best present ever, but never telling me what it was. AHHHH!!! Why did I open mom's mail. I SWEAR, I only thought it was an advertisement. Why would the envelope say "After 5 Days Return To: Customer service", on the out side? I guess there is a reason to listen to your gut when it says, "I wonder how mad dad will be if I open this?" A reason not to reason with yourself, "It's only and Ad, he won't care. Plus, I'm technically E.A. Bullis now, right?"

So, I opened it.










There was a Netflix ad, "Ok, it is only some Netflix words "John Mayer" I closed the envelope and tossed it across the counter.

"Oh sh*t! I did NOT just see what I thought I saw?!?!"
"Oh God, I'm and idiot! This is bad, REALLY Bad! Sh*t!... Sh*t!" "F*ck! Why?!?! Why send my birthday present to E.A. Bullis?!? For all intents and purposes, I'm E.A. Bullis! I DO I carry her credit card.. AHHHH!!!! WHY, PEOPLE, WHY?!?!?!?"

After swearing a couple thousand more times, I went upstairs and called Hope's cell, no answer, so I left a message, hung up, and continued my swearing fit..

"Why people, why? You said 'Don't open anything addressed to [YOU]!!'"
"They were right tho, other than a trip to Morocco, this is best birthday present ever! I never would have guessed."
I guess, I'm just thankful now that I didn't throw it away. How devastating would that have been? I'm glad I have a habit of opening junk mail.

So I was a little stressed, ok, a LOT stressed, not to mention mad at myself for opening it, i knew how disappointed Hope would be if she didn't pull off her WHOLE surprise, not to mention now she can't torture me anymore. Seriously tho, Ads! I thought they were ads! To cool off a little I had a mini photo shoot, of some frost on my window(I'll post that separately) and waited for Hope to call back.

She called back and explained, she had to address it to the name on the credit card and she didn't think I would open Mom's mail. Since I knew what it was, she told me that the plan was that all my brothers and sisters (minus Ricky) would meet at Hope's work and we'd head out from there to "pick out [my] present together". We'd drive to Northern Ill. University and when I saw John Mayer in lights I'd freak out and realize what was happening. Somehow they may have been able to pull all that off, because I'm usually oblivious, but I think I would have thought something funky was up when All 5 of us, plus a girlfriend and a friend, had to be together to "pick out" my present.. Anyway, we determined that it's Dad's fault. He was supposed to keep the mail out of the mailbox.... lol Somehow, I got to it today before he could.

So, YES, Hope IS the best sister in the world, and somehow she topped last year's, although that was pretty darn amazing and maybe 15 times more conniving.

Friends, we have a banner!

Ok, today's feature ~ the beautiful "La Vie Par Mes Yeux- Life Through My Eyes" banner above!

This is the work of my brother, Ben. He's awesome at this stuff, absolutely awesome! And while he's not one to "eat up" praise, I am not one to let "kind deeds" go unnoticed. So a big, "THANK YOU!" to my wonderful brother.

The photography was taken by myself, and all graphic and html work was done by Ben Bullis, who's company is iSynergy Inc.. PC and network consulting/supporting is his forte, but he is darn good at graphic design as you can see. Anyway, yeah, he's my brother.

Here's the original photo-

That I turned into this-

And Ben turned into this-

Ps. Check out this new site, Awahe.com, my habibi's :)