We celebrated our first holiday in Abu Dhabi! I was thankful to see some signs of Easter in the grocery stores (small displays of Easter candy) and I searched for Easter activities in the city. I found an event on Saturday at the Abu Dhabi Golf Course to attend.. they offered an Easter egg hunt, a visit by the Easter bunny, face painting and a bouncy house. It was SOOOO HOT that day.. the easter bunny didn’t even cover his face and the egg hunt was a bust, but we still had fun and enjoyed the day. We were glad to see other rambunctious kids inside the brunch to dilute the sounds of ours. We served their plates in priority of what would keep them the most happy, not healthy. See below to see what Will chose. LOL.
now that is what I call handsome!
such a ‘man’ in the making – I let him choose what he wanted: bacon, sausage, French fries and a donut. I added the strawberry and crackers which went untouched.
We were all so tired afterwards we came home and rested. When Will woke up from his nap, Audrey and I had all the egg dye ready to go. The kids really enjoyed this!! I was surprised Will was able to ‘get it’ and not destroy all of it. victory!
After doing this, we did about 100 Easter egg hunts in the neighborhood. Seriously lost count, over and over and over again. It was interesting to see that most of the kids that participated had no idea what we were doing. They were all from different backgrounds, but they learned quickly and had lots of fun with us. I made sure the kids were inclusive of everyone that wanted to play – the more the merrier.
check out his tan. I promise I cover him in sun screen.
Easter baskets on Sunday morning. So strange here that Sunday is like our Monday (first day of the work week).
How precious is she?
I tried to take the kids to church on Easter Sunday, assuming that there were services on the most important Christian holiday… after all settled back down from the Easter bunny, I checked out the website and sadly found that there was only one service at 6:00 a.m. 
Well we have had a whirlwind of a couple of weeks. I’ve been meaning to post and it seems that we are just having too much fun to slow down. I feel as if we have hit a turning point here.. instead of only enjoying the highlight moments and basically enduring the days, we are enjoying EVERY day. So what made the difference? Moving out of the apartment and into the villa.. fo sho! Everything has changed (for the better) and at the exact same time Audrey started school – which is a huge change in and of itself… AND we got our phone working!! I’m finding myself busier than ever between chauffeuring everyone around to and from school, Charles’ work and running errands as well as prioritizing activities for Will. However, is is better than not having a car and doing this in a taxi. God works all things to good for those that love him (rom 8:28) and I know as difficult as the apartment life was, it was absolutely necessary for us to experience so that we would have a positive outlook here in the villa. I know going from our house in Sugar Land straight to the villa would have given me a different (negative) outlook on this place and as much as I hated the apartment, I needed to live there to realize that no matter how frustrating things get, they could always be worse. It stretched me and grew me in a way that I am grateful for now. It was absolutely amazing to be reunited with all of our things from the US and if I had to do it all over again, I would still ship my stuff, I would have just shipped it when Charles left the US, giving us a shorter transition time here.. I’m telling you it was NOT EASY.
The last 2 1/2 months were so emotionally draining, it is such a blessing to finally be settled and having a normal-ish life. I can finally say that I am really loving it here. I’m enjoying the easiness of the beaches and pools..the way the kids just play outside riding bikes etc.. like we used to when we were kids. I spontaneously take the kids to the beach all the time and we play outside every single day until it is almost dark. We are having so much fun! I am watching our family dynamic change and know it’s for the better – We are more flexible, more laid back and are just going with the flow… something that used to be very difficult for me. Maybe it is because the kids are getting older, maybe it is because the culture here forces you this way since very little goes as planned & you are always having to switch gears, and maybe because I’m learning that little of it really matters…surely it is a combination of everything and even more importantly it is amazing how much fun you can have when you take away all the mundane household tasks and responsibilities… I’m enjoying my kids on a whole ‘nother level - thanks to Espy! she is so awesome..
This last week we have been busy hanging stuff on the walls, well, Charles was busy, I just pointed and rearranged. The walls are concrete here so you have to make a major hole with the drill and then put a plastic thing in it, and then put the screw in that. It was an ordeal, but par for the course.. since nothing is really simple here. We have also enjoyed our first date night since living here.. Charles took me to Emirate’s palace and we ate at a very fancy Lebanese restaurant… such a cool experience! We also have been regulars at the Hiltonia beach club, went to an Easter egg hunt/brunch at the Abu Dhabi golf club, had our usual 2 swim lessons/week for Audrey as well as international day and pajama day at school. I have thoroughly enjoyed my one on one time with Will… I took him to the beach/pool, splash pad and even attempted an art class with other 2 year olds.. we won’t be doing that one again.. but I was so proud of myself when he melted down, I laughed and just took him outside to distract him.. we found tiny ants to smash – it entertained him for a while… I’m telling y’all serious change is going on over in Abu Dhabi. LOL.
As promised, here are some pictures of the villa.. at least down stairs.. Will’s bed is arriving this week (inshalla). Inshalla is what they say here when they aren’t exactly sure when your stuff will be ready. In the US we demand an exact time and expect it to be ready when they say.. here, they smile and say Inshalla.. it means “God Willing.” They certainly don’t stress on deadlines here - it was supposed to be here a month ago. ha. There isn’t much to see upstairs.. just four bedrooms and four tiny bathrooms. I promise to post pictures soon though.
Here comes the truck! I was so pleased that we brought JUST enough stuff. I mean, EXACTLY. not one piece of furniture too many or too less.. just right. Everything fits in the kitchen, in our closets.. It was a challenge to know what to take, what to leave behind, but I aired on the side of storage and was selective about what we took – simply because I HATE clutter and didn’t want a bunch of crap all over the place. We guessed at most of the furniture placement before we left from looking on the floor plan of the villa, but we just weren’t sure how it was going to all come together. I had to pick curtains and other furniture pieces to go with our stuff from memory since I didn’t have it here until now.. but I tell ya, I’m really happy with it all. The movers were literally only there about an hour and a half and there weren’t even traces of boxes in the villa. They open and dump – I didn’t mind a bit and was thrilled to be able to put away OUR stuff. I wish I could describe the feeling of peace, of relief, a full body sigh, a feeling of “you made it.. “ the hardest part is over, an excitement, a new beginning, I actually had survived the most difficult transition and change I’ve had to deal with. It is behind me. I cry just thinking about it.
This was when the movers arrived.. I think he wasn’t so sure about it all… poor guy, the kids don’t know if we’re coming or going. He is so cute I just bite on him all the time.
and this one is her mother’s (and grandmother’s) child. She was just as happy as I was to have her things here. She had a swimming lesson while the movers were there and when she got home she just ran to the couch and did this. So glad I caught it on camera.
Here is my little chalk board, it makes a picture with every move and has been with us from the beginning of our family. I always write on it before it is packed so when I open the box she has a message for me… I told my mom (who gave me this) that my rooster (look at the top of her head) lost a couple of her feathers in the process of moving, but in a way, so did I - so we match.
loving all the fresh fruit. I go down to the port and haggle over the prices with the guys.. I think that is so much fun.
Our entry way^^
the staircase.. we put our gigantic world map up at the top of the stairs.. it doesn’t look big in the picture.. but trust me it is so huge… it is a reminder of where we are and how far we are from Louisiana/Texas - like it gives me chills {in a bad way} to see the actual distance, but also a reminder of the bigger picture of the world that we live in and get ideas as to where we’d like to explore next.
our coziest room, the Living room.
I included this so you could see the layout.. there are two steps down into the kitchen/dining area just past the couch.. no one has busted it yet there.. but I’m sure it will happen sooner than later. Still nothing behind the TV to block the ugliness of the back, I had my heart set on shutters, but can’t seem to find any here. grrr.
there was some room behind the couch and I’m so excited that I have a space dedicated for my computer.. this will make for easier blog postings!!.. I love the huge basket I found at Ikea.. surprisingly we keep our iron in there and blankets for snuggling up on the couch… the ironing board is stashed behind the other couch.. no storage here, y’all.
this is to show how the flow goes from the entry to the living room
I love this little spot^^
<<this direction is the table and chairs according to this^^ picture
so strange how the gas stove has a ‘lid’ – but they all do. You start the gas similar to how you start a gas BBQ pit. you turn the knob and then push an ignite button… we burn a different type of gas here and it cooks extra hot.. like no such thing as a simmer. I must admit that our meals have been less than great here, but I’m still trying to cook the same things as we did in the USA and it just isn’t tasting the same. for one the beef is TERRIBLE.. tastes a lot like lamb, which I think is disgusting. the chicken is good, and fish is cheap/good too. I want to learn how to cook some middle eastern dishes soon, since there are an abundance of ingredients here for all that stuff. All my appliances are Samsung and I absolutely love them. The dishwasher is so quiet we don’t even know it is on and the washer/dryer are amazing. Very happy with them!
left side of the kitchen ^^
right side of kitchen^^ *notice the little bar to the right
this is the view from inside of the kitchen.. it is the bar showing in the picture just before this one and a low cabinet that is actually our pantry. All of our food is in there and we cannot find the proper child proof lock and are constantly having to get Will out of there. I got home one day from dropping Audrey at school and Espy had a towel tied around the handles like the picture above.. I literally laughed out loud and told her what a great idea… she had it on the refrigerator too. :) that boy!
Just in case you didn’t believe me that this was our pantry.. take a peak ^^
I do have flour, sugar, and pasta up in a higher cabinet. It is amazing how different this pantry is from my US pantry… but there’s no need for a huge storage space for food here.. since we have to go to the grocery store a lot more than the average American family does.. and there’s no such thing as a Sam’s Club here.
We put the chalkboard on the wall behind the table and put the phrase: bil hana wish shifa’ – It is an arabic phrase similar to Bon Apetit. In Arabic this means: May you have your meal with gladness and health. I was looking up all kinds of different phrases to put up there and I had my heart set on “Blessed.” but when I did the translation it translated to Mubarak.. um no.
AAAAND last but certainly not least, we have booked our flights to come to the US for the summer. We depart UAE on June 28th and will be in USA until August 16th, then to London until the 21st. Just enough time to adjust back to the 9 hour time difference before Audrey starts Kindergarten September 5th. Originally we didn’t plan on being gone longer than 3 or 4 weeks, but as we planned it just kept getting longer and longer. I wanted to be in US in early July, but naturally the flights are outrageous around the fourth of July so we had to choose to bump it up or back, and since our family usually has a reunion around the fourth, I chose to bump it up so we could attend. We also have friends in London that we wanted to visit since it is exactly 1/2 way, it could break up our 18 hour flight.. so we had to wait on them to finish their USA home visit before we could go hang with them for a couple of days (Charles will come meet us there and fly back to UAE with us). I have been told by just about everyone we see to get out of town during the entire summer, it is HOT and it is a ghost town… Bottom Line is that we want to spend as much time as we can with our families while we can… we are making one trip home per year and we will need to make it count since our parents aren’t able to come visit us here. Our sisters/brothers can though!! red rover red rover, let a visitor come over!
**My cousin’s daughter, Allie, had to do a Flat Stanley project.. google it if you’ve never heard of this before.. I know I had never heard of it before she sent it… Here is what we did with Stanley while he visited us…
Woah!!! Allie, you told me I was going to the desert, but I didn't expect for a place that was so hot to be so COOL! Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates - a country that will celebrate it's 40th anniversary this year! Even though Abu Dhabi is located in the Middle East, they are very tolerant and respectful of other cultures and religions. They encourage and invite the diversity... it's a good thing since people living here are from all over the world! Only a very small percentage are actually local Emirates. Here in Abu Dhabi the most common language is English but the native language is Arabic. Did you know that in Arabic they write from right to left? The Arabic alphabet looks like this:
Ok, Ok. Back to my trip! After my loooooong 17 hour flight (thanks a lot Allie, you didn't warn me about me that part!) I arrived to the McManemin's villa in Abu Dhabi. I met Ms. Christa, Mr. Charles, Audrey and Will. This family was ready for some fun! Ms. Christa took Audrey and Will to the movies in the morning and can you believe she forgot me?! I was left at the villa with Mr. Charles while he was trying to learn Arabic (Bor-ring!). Thankfully they came back to get me before too long. We went to this really neat area of Abu Dhabi called the "Corniche" it means "beach street." It lines the island of Abu Dhabi and has the most gorgeous views. We rented an awesome bike that sat 4 people! Ms. Christa made me ride in her purse so I'd be safe. It's a good thing too, because Mr. Charles kept swerving and pretending like he was going to run us into the walls, trees and potholes.. such a crazy guy!
Here is a view of my in my high class Vera Bradley seat (yeah, very manly, I know)
After a long biking journey the little Mc’s started to get squirmy so the big Mc’s decided to get some ice cream. I was surprised to see that they had the same ice cream store we have in Lake Charles, Louisiana.. Cold Stone! I picked my favorite flavor, Cake Batter! YUMM! We ate outside and watched the people on the beach… the water was like a turquoise blue..not exactly the OLQH blue, but still just as nice.
After we finished our ice cream and walked around a bit, we hopped back on our bike and saw some more interesting sites! We got to see the tallest flag pole in the whole world! The emirate flag is red, white, green and black. When they celebrate it looks a lot like Christmas colors! It doesn’t look that big in the picture because we were so far away, but trust me it was HUGE! Oh, and do you see the color of the water? Nice, right?!
We only had one hour on the bike so when we returned it, we thought it would be fun to go inside Emirate’s Palace. None of us have ever been in a real palace before. This one is actually a hotel where people can stay, but I’m sure it cost a lot of Dirhams. What is a Dirham? Ah. It is their currency, you know like you have dollars and they have dirhams. Each US dollar equals 3.67 Dirhams. So, if you are going to buy a snow cone that usually cost 2 dollars, it would cost 7.34 Dirhams. {2 x 3.67 = 7.34} See, Allie, you should pay attention in math class! You really will have to use it when you grow up.
We got all the way to the entrance and noticed a sign that said “No Shorts Allowed.” Woops, apparently, Audrey and I were the only ones dressed appropriately. Mr. Charles, Ms. Christa and Will all had shorts on. BUMMER. The palace was out. We headed back to the villa and noticed a park that had awesome bouncy houses and even pony drawn carriage rides. Not a bad plan B if you ask me! :) So we went in and it cost only 2 Dirhams for the grown ups. Do you know how much that is in US dollars? {I’ll give you a hint, this time you need to divide by 3.67} You got it! It only costs $0.54 to get in. Once we were in we saw a nice big fountain, some horses and carriages, and then the biggest, baddest bouncy slide in the whole world.
We couldn’t believe Audrey and Will wanted to do it. You couldn’t drag me up there.. it was SO steep. Will even got a scab on his chin from the slide burning him. Allie, I know you would have LOVED it. When we were tired of climbing up, we decided to go to the next bouncy thingamajig and we stayed there a while. This one was more my style, I had fun jumping off the top with Audrey and Will. Ms. Christa kept having to lift us up over and over again, she said she didn’t mind though and that it was good exercise.
I don’t know about you, but I’m worn out just remembering our fun day. Thanks Allie for sending me to Abu Dhabi, I loved it and hope one day you can come with me. It was a blast! It is about to get really hot there though, during the summer months the temperature can get up to 120 degrees (and you thought Louisiana was hot!).
Sandy Hugs,
Stanley
With one car and two drop off’s I now have the title of “driver.” I’m not the best candidate for the job, but I want to have the wheels during the day, so I gotta do what I gotta do. We leave at 6:45 and drop Charles off, then I drive about 30 minutes to Audrey’s school and bring her and drive about another 45 minutes to get home (traffic is bad!!!). I’m looking into new routes {and closer schools for next year} I made the mistake of trying –what seemed to be simple detour- on the first day. Oh Gosh. We were lost lost lost and I was nearly in tears making her late on her first day.. however, Audrey was very forgiving and it didn’t phase her – we ended up getting there fashionably late and thankfully the school secretary was really understanding. I was in the car for 2 1/2 hours –round-trip- that morning. ugh.
Here in Abu Dhabi, school admissions is a super duper stressful situation (for parents). We chose to enroll Audrey in school now to guarantee her a spot next year for Kindergarten (KG2). They include Pre K at most of the schools here – they call it KG1.. which is what grade she is in. She goes to school from 7:50-1:10 and loves every.single.minute!
when we arrived a swarm of girls surrounded her and greeted her. They were excited to meet her and were so friendly!
Her teacher is there in the left corner… “Miss Nicole” There are 10 girls and 3 boys in her class… all are super sweet.
Here is a sign they have at the school.. Right next to the security guards at all the entrances. When we arrived late, I was pleased to know that the gate was locked and I had to go thru the main administration entrance. I noticed that they do co-ed school for elementary and then segregate the genders at High School level. I’m not certain, but I thought about this and I bet it is because there are a lot of Arab girls at the school. They would typically have to cover their heads or wear the long abayas in the presence of men, so by separating them, the girls wouldn’t have to cover and could wear normal clothes (uniforms). I could be wrong, but I am thinking this is why.
All the nannies waiting to pick up the children. I began to wonder how did they get here?? I didn’t see taxis and I know they don’t own cars.. AHHH.. Drivers. That’s it. I spend lots and lots of time to and from school (hour and 20 minutes in the morning and another hour in the afternoon), but I couldn’t ever miss picking her up or bringing her..it is special time... and the only driver we have is me 
Audrey finished off her lunch when I picked her up. She also pointed out a cute little boy and told me that he kissed her twice. my jaw DROPPED. WHAT?! I whispered back, we do not kiss our friends!!… what did your teacher say? and she replied that she didn’t see. OH NOOO!! I was a bit disturbed and made her ‘show me’ “HOW” he kissed her.. it was a peck on each cheek. ahhhh. now this makes sense. The boy is from Spain. that his how they greet each other. {sigh of relief}.
Me and my “big girl!” Seriously, when did she get this old??
Abu Dhabi Time
