Saturday, June 23, 2007

More than meets the Eye


We closed on our new house May 31st! Yay! We've been settling in, praise God, but there have been a couple of little bumps we've had to go over.


For instance, the day we took posession the previous owner was *still moving stuff out of the house when we did the final walkthrough before closing. Now we know that she was really just here to try and run interference, which did work; we missed something that they had damaged since the home inspection. They cracked the mirror in the master bathroom. They had placed a fake flower arrangement in front of it, hoping we'd miss it on the final walkthrough, which we did. I called my realtor three hours after closing in tears and told him what I'd found. His response was, "Don't they know what Karma is?"??? He's taking care of it, luckily.


Then it rained three days after closing, and I found that there was water pouring into our basement. Went in the garage and saw that the dry wall was wet in a certain area, which made a trail that led to the ceiling. The roof was leaking! Those B$%$#^%& had a leaky roof and didn't disclose it! They lied on the seller disclosure and wrote that there was no leaking roof, no water coming into their basement. And our home inspector missed this! What a jerk! We were soooo angry, felt ripped off, and frustrated. If he was a good home inspector, he would have noticed the dry wall was damaged. They had hid this little gem as well, covering it with their watering hose which was hung on the wall in front of the damaged area. Thank God, water isn't coming in any more, we have had the roof repaired, $625 later!!!!!

And now for a good part of the story. My hubby decided he's building a fence around the backyard for our little ones, so he went and talked to the neighbor who borders our property on that side. They agreed on where he thought the property line was, and he even said he would go halvsies on it financially and that my husband can use his auger. Well, then my husband spends all day in the hot sun digging this fence post hole, gets it in, puts in the 2 sacks 80 pounds each of quick crete, and the guy comes back out. Says um btw I'm not the property owner I'm just renting you'd better have it surveyed I think you put that post on our property! DANG! So we dug that sucker out of the ground faster than you can say "greased lightening"!!!!!

Yesterday we had it surveyed, and lo and behold, not only were we well within our property line, but our yard is much much larger than we or the previous owner thought! And our neighbors on both sides were actually encroaching on our property line! When we were calling around and getting quotes on the survey, we were aghast at the price....but now after we see where our yard actually is, we see that it was money well spent. If you don't know where your property lines officially are, I highly recommend spending the $300-400 on the survey!






Sunday, June 03, 2007

Kareem Salama, a Brilliant Country Singer

I highly recommend buying a cd or 2 from Kareem Salama. The son of Egyptian immigrants, Kareem was born and raised in Ponca City, Oklahoma. He spent his childhood immersed in Western United States culture, attending Rodeos and Pow Wows, while simultaneously learning his family's roots in Islam and Arabic culture. With a degree in Chemical Engineering and recenlty finishing Law School, he's on the road promoting his new album, "Generous Peace".

His voice is robust, sexy, and All-American Country soundin'. I love him! His musical sound is open-chord guitar with a lot of grounded piano sound supporting it. His lyrics are not officially "muslim" or "nasheeds" (Islamic gospel songs), but the subject matter is definitely "Halal" (ie for you non-muslims reading this, Halal means religiously permissible, as in the subject matter is about living a good life, it's not about forbidden things and isn't leading the listener to sin - not about adultery, greed, alcohol, or other illicit/amoral activities).

You can listen to various songs from his album on his website.

I broke down and simply cried when I listened to Baby I'm A Soldier.

He was a soldier who’d only been married two or three years ago
And he put his hands on her knees that night and he said I gotta go
She said why would you leave this home and me;
I thought I was your baby girl
And he wiped away the tears from her eyes and said they’re sending me to save the world
And you know I love you and I pray to God that he’ll join us once again
But now its time for this simple man to be one of the few good men

(Chorus)
Cause baby I’m a soldier and I hear those trumpets calling again
And our kings and queens are saying this is a fight we must win
For truth and justice and for the way we live our life
And baby I’m a soldier in front of God I swore I would fight

Across the ocean and miles away there stood another man
Eighteen years, hugging his mama saying I’ll defend this land
Mama held her baby and cried and clutched him telling him not to leave
She said what will I do without my baby boy; son I’m begging you please
He said I love you mama but duty calls;
I’ll write you everyday
She said I lost your daddy like this and I don’t wanna lose you this way

(Chorus)
But Mama I’m a soldier and I hear those trumpets calling again
And our kings and queens are saying this is a fight we must win
For truth and justice and for the way we live our life
And Mama I’m a soldier in front of God I swore I would fight

Well the battle raged and shots rang out the two men fell to the ground
And they looked into the eyes of each other and were shocked at what they found
One man saw the mother of the other in that young mans eyes
And the other man saw the crying and screams of the other mans beloved wife
And the two men stared across that smoky field and whispered to each other
Maybe you weren’t the demon they said maybe you were really my brother
But I’m glad we’re passing cause I don’t think that I could forgive myself
For fighting you but maybe God will and we can live together in bliss

(Chorus)
Cause Ladies we were soldiers and we heard those trumpets calling again
And tell the kings and queens that sometimes there are fights no one wins
But we know for sure that there’s evil out there we must fight
But please be sure that this is one of those times
And please be sure to remember my mama and wife
And please be sure to think of my brother on the other side.