Remember last year before I moved to Illinois I started writing tribute posts to people, places and things I loved in Michigan?  One of them was about Meijer, the grocery store.  Well today, I got to reunite with my long lost love.

I had to go to a store in Aurora to return something, and on the way back I was planning on hitting up a grocery store to buy supplies for dinner, which I was planning to make later that day (chicken pot pie, another post, another day).  Anyway, there I was, driving down IL-59, looking out for Aurora Ave to make a left turn, when there it was.  On the horizon like a beautiful tree with red apples.  Only the apples were letters, and it spelled out… (more…)

As promised, the rest of my Spring break… for those of you who want to know how I spend my time when I have nothing to do.

Wednesday morning Saqib dropped me off at the Metra station in downtown Lisle and I took a train to Union Station downtown to get on another Amtrak train to Ann Arbor.  I was a little nervous about using “so many” trains to get to my destination, because public transportation makes me nervous.  The schedules, tracks, fees, and employees are generally confusing or not very helpful.  But alhumdu’lillah, I made to Ann Arbor in one piece, to be picked up by my bhabi.

Wow, what a driver.  Hunno really knows how to make good time.  She picked me up right when I stepped off the train, and we were off to the grocery store before I knew it.  We had to pick up a few items for ammi who was waiting for me back at home.  Hunno, who wanted to make good time, managed to pick me up, stop at the store and get me home all within one hour.  Impressive, wouldn’t you say?

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This past weekend Saqib and I hopped in our car, and headed down 94 East towards Michigan to visit my parents for the weekend.  Most of our drive was completed while there was still daylight.  And in the sunlight, I really got a chance to see all the beautiful colors of fall.  The trees on the sides of the road were gorgeous!  They were still in the process of changing colors, and the leaves were still on the trees.  Through the green there were bright splashes of red, yellow and my personal favorite, orange.  Man.. do I love the fall in Michigan.  You don’t get a scene like this everywhere in America.

Whenever I see all those colors together, I always think of something my abbu pointed out to me once a road trip.  There are so many different colors, different shades, different tints of green, red, yellow, orange and brown, yet they all look so beautiful together.  Truly, Allah creates everything perfectly.

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This past weekend Saqib and I returned from our Honeymoon, and arrived back in Illinois just in time for the AlMaghrib course Sacred Scrolls.  It was a one weekend seminar taught by both Imam Suhaib Webb and Shaykh Yasir Qadhi.

 
Click the picture above.

I was a little anxious to go to an AlMaghrib class in Illinois because I’ve only been attending them in Michigan and Canada.  My tribe, Qabeelat Ittihaad holds classes in both Dearborn and Windsor.  I’ve grown accustomed to the people, the set up, the lunches, the dinners, etc.  I wasn’t sure how they did things here in Chicago in Qabeelat Wasat.

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The countdown to my wedding is no longer being measured in weeks, but rather in days.  I’ve got four more days until I’ll officially have “moved out” of my house.  I’ll actually be leaving Michigan on Monday, but I suppose the rukhsati marks my departure from my house.

I can’t describe how sad I am to leave my home because there are too many things I love about it.  But I think I can at least try to describe the many reasons I love my own room and why I will subsequently miss it.

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