sunday

Our second weekend in the new house. We had an open house thingy yesterday that my parents, grandma, and aunt were able to come to. It was nice and everyone thought the house was great...I even got it fairly presentable before they arrived! With most things put up, it looks even more roomy in here. As soon as I rediscover my camera cable, I'll post pics for y'all.

I went to Juma'a (Friday prayer) on Friday, my first time here in Little Rock, though Jon's been going since the summer. It was great. I attended Juma'a regularly in Kansas City for a while, but it really wasn't very enjoyable...the masjid there was not well laid out and the women ended up being on an entirely different level than the men, with the Khutbah (which is like a sermon) and prayer being piped in on an intercom. And the Khutbah was primarily in Arabic. It was just hard to understand anything and was not very fulfilling. At the Islamic Center here, the women are in a seperate section of course, but are in the same large room as the men. The Khutbah was really well written and was given in English. Ellie went with Jon and Tristan came with me, and both kids did well. I really enjoyed it and I think we're going to start going regularly.

The kids are asleep right now, giving me an excuse to be quiet and look around online instead of doing dishes. That's always fun.

My great aunt, a really kind woman, is really ill right now and is in the hospital. I haven't seen her in two years, though we do write occasionally. It sounds like she is in a lot of pain. I am worried.