I heard about a children’s cooking class at the same place I did mine at – they had an opening today (the day we leave for USA), so I signed her up! she loves this type of thing! On the menu was Pizza Rolls, Sugar Cookies with Icing and Animal Chips… She had a great time!
We have done all of these things together before, so she was an old pro!
I don’t have time to dig for all the old pics and posts.. but here is a reminder to try and make: Pizza Bread
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WHAT?! A decent picture together!? of COURSE it had to bee with these glasses and not precious coordinating outfits. Hey, I guess I have to take what I can get!
Could they be any goofier?! They get it from their father, I swear. I thought it was hilarious how serious Will was being in these glasses that were obviously silly.
^ I thought this was sweet ^
Good Mernin’ Sunshine!^^
Today was Audrey’s last day of school!! They had a free dress day and somehow in a miracle of persuasion, I got her to wear this monogrammed sear-sucker dress. Being that her grandmother has the best monogram shop ever, she has plenty of precious monogrammed outfits and many she refuses to wear… breaks my southern heart. Today, however, she appeased me – Victory! In just a few months she’s off to Kindergarten!!
I just love children’s puffy swollen early morning faces
…and p.s. if you’re counting down with us, this time next week we will be in route to America!
The list making has begun, suitcases are about to come out and packing will officially begin. A few months ago I may have done just about anything to get the heck out of here and back to our homeland, but I can honestly and peacefully say that I’m not really dying to leave here. Don’t get me wrong, I’m SO READY to see our families and I am more than excited about spending an entire summer with them… but thankfully, I am enjoying our new life here and I’m in a good place, a comfortable place and I’m really happy. I find this to be a great thing and God’s timing in all of this is just always perfect. If our moving departure would have been a bit later (like originally planned), then summer vacay would have come before I got adjusted and, I am not real sure I could have come back. I wasn’t adjusted, ready or settled enough to leave (and make a healthy return). I always imagined that when we left, I’d be desperate to go and dread our return to Abu Dhabi, but I’m pleasantly surprised I’m not desperate to leave here, and I will look forward to our return. How profound. I’m guessing that it means we think of this as home now? Isn’t that what it feels like to leave home… you enjoy your home, excited to go on your trip and will be happy to come back… hmmm. what an interesting realization.
enough deep thought.. Now, onto the summer! I have lots of fun things planned ahead: Fourth of July Celebrations, Audrey’s Art Camp, Shreveport Trip, Sugar Land Trip, San Antonio Trip, and lots of swimming and boating in between. It is such a strange feeling to not have seen any family (in person) for nearly 5 months, I’m pretty sure it is the longest we’ve been apart in my entire life. I’m excited, nervous, thrilled, and just about to burst with joy.
I’m keeping very very low expectations for the travel day – I wish I could say “flight” but we have 3 flights… yes, THREE. We leave here at 11 p.m. drive to the airport, depart at 2 a.m. – fly to London, layover for 5 hours, then take the second flight into USA (Dallas), layover for another 2 1/2 hours and then fly into Lake Charles at 8 p.m. After factoring in the time differences, I believe it is about a 30 hour travel day.. is that even possible.!? I am praying for lots of sleep for the kids and maybe eve a little for me, the minimal amount of meltdowns possible (for all of us) and for ease in the airport thru gate changes, terminal changes, and customs with two littles and lots of luggage… Did I mention yet that I’m doing this solo? ha. Prayers please! No matter HOW difficult or bad that it might be, it will be over in a day(ish)…and it is 100% worth it.
Since being married almost 7 years, we’ve lived in 5 different homes and none of them have been in Louisiana. This summer is a unique experience for us to have family in the same city, grandparents at an arms reach, and aunts / uncles around. Awesome! It is something I won’t take for granted since it will be a long, 10 months before we return.. but we won’t talk about that part right now… Lets just have FUN this summer!!!
Here are some of our favorite apps (so far!)
I looooooooove the iPad, There’s something for everyone! Audrey and Will can operate it with ease, it is educational, entertaining and just plain fun. I am thrilled with all the capabilities of it that I wasn’t even aware of before the purchase. For example, here we don’t get any reality shows (or any good tv shows for that matter). And with the iPad, I can download them to iTunes and watch them wherever I am. I am thinking of catching up on the bachelorette next time I’m at the gym! The kids can have their favorite shows on there and not all have to be purchased – you can find a lot of cartoons on you tube and just save it as a favorite for later. The kids and me are having a ball on it! It was awesome skyping with family and being able to follow the kids around the house and outside playing while their nana and papa watched. Facetime doesn’t work here, but I did some searching and I think there are ways around it.. When I get that set up anyone that has an iPhone 4 can just video chat with us at any time instead of going thru skype. I love this thing and am thrilled that it bridges some of the gaps for us. **by the way I found it on Dubizzle (similar to Craigslist in USA) from a guy that bought one in America, still sealed in pkg with the Target receipt. yes!
and FINALLY my kids have beds! I’ll give you the down low on whyyyyy this has taken sooo long.
We didn’t bring over beds because we wanted the kids to share a room to allow for a playroom and since Audrey had a girly pale yellow bed and Will was transitioning out of the crib we needed beds for the kids and chose to just find some here. If you remember wayyy back, we bought some from that furniture store I love here (one was in stock, one wasn’t). We got the one that was in stock delivered right away and ordered mattresses for the size of bed (American Standard bed sizes do not apply to the rest of the world.. note to self). Well, the matching bed we ordered was going to take one month to arrive. ok. no biggie. then two months passed, then three all the while I am going up there every week or two to check on the status. ok so now FOUR months passed and my inshallah attitude has totally worn off. I requested a letter in writing from them that if my bed had not arrived within one week that we would get full refunds for both beds. One week passed, got the cash and picked up these beauties for the equivalent of $250/each and delivered two days later. Nice. Honestly, I like them better anyway. I found them months ago in our initial shopping trip looking for beds for the kids and luckily they were still there. One problem… they are different sized twins than the previous beds… that means new mattresses. ughhhh. so now we have two twin mattresses that we don’t need. Maybe I can sell them.
Anyway – the problem is solved and in a country where the furniture selection is SLIM pickings for my traditional style, I lucked out, big time. I brought over the gingham duvets and my mom monogrammed the gorgeous shams before we moved… Still needing white box-pleat bed skirts which I will get this summer. My kids will get to enjoy the beds for a whopping 2 1/2 weeks and we’ll be gone for 2 months. LOL. They will of course enjoy them for years and I totally plan on hauling these back to the States with me (whenever we move back) and putting them in Will’s future room. Love it!
Audrey’s ^^ Her sheets are precious whimsical fairies
William’s ^^ his sheets are handsome red, white and blue trains
this is just Lagniappe. I actually captured the “I’m not really in trouble, am I?” face… dimple and all. I took this picture after catching him jumping from one bed to another like a spider monkey (*arms and legs out straight). He’s oh so bad, but I still lovingly, bite on him daily.
Still wondering about the Bird? Well, Mr. Will did it. Surprise Surprise. Yesterday, Audrey and I noticed that there was a baby bird on their bedroom balcony and we watched the mama bird bring food and feed the baby. Today frick and frack were playing upstairs and Audrey decided she would open the sliding glass door (which we didn’t even know she could do – they are really heavy and often stuck)… and let Will out to see the bird. (*don’t stress about them being on the balcony, they couldn’t fall or anything, it is safe). Will decided to pick it up and THROW IT off the second story balcony. About this time I come home from an unsuccessful outing and hear everyone upstairs and Audrey is yelling, WILLIAM THREW A BIRD, WILLIAM THREW A BIRD!!! Charles shrugged it off thinking she was just making something up.. he didn’t know there was actually one up there and he was thinking ‘how in the world could Will catch a flying bird and then throw it?!’ but he didn’t realize it was a tiny, baby bird that couldn’t get away. STILL in disbelief (even after I told him yes indeed there was a bird up there) he went outside and saw the poor little thing laying there dead. Charles discarded the bird before our little animal lover, Audrey could see, knowing she would be traumatized – but her heart was broken about it anyway. What would posses him to see a bird, pick it up and throw it.??! I’m hoping he was just trying to ‘help’ it fly?? I have heard before that you need to worry about the kids that are really cruel to animals.. but I’m not toooo worried about this since he is usually really kind with other animal encounters. {Sigh}. One thing I know for sure is that this little guy is ALLLL BOY and very very different from his big sister.
I want to give a huge halfway around the world HUG to all of you who prayed for Espy and donated money for her. WOW – such a HUGE blessing that she cannot even wrap her head around. She is blown away with the generosity of people she does not know and has asked me repeatedly to thank y’all. She has shed many tears of graciousness and gratitude and knows that the Lord’s hand was in all of it. I explained to her that God is working thru each of you to help her and her family. I wanted you to know that 1/2 of her loan was covered – which would have taken her and her husband months and months of hardship saving to accomplish. God Bless You for all your thoughts, prayers and donations… Her house is fixed and her burden is lightened.
Thank you for allowing God to use you in a mighty way!
Love and Hugs,
I feel a bit dumb that I had never known that certain palm trees produce dates before I moved here.. but man, I tell you dates are BIG business here – at every grocery store, corner store and they even have their own high end specialty shops. This is the time of year they begin harvesting them and all over town you can see the bags placed over the dates. We have even acquired a taste for them and buy the ones that have been seeded and there is an almond in the middle. We have them with morning coffee or afternoon tea. People used to live off of these in the desert.. like it would be all they had to eat for long periods of time… I cannot imagine. They recently (in the last couple of weeks) put bags over them to prevent losing them. I thought you may want to see what these looked like this time of year.
Gourmet Dates…
Gift Dates…
Even a Ramadan special Date-Flavored Fappuccino..
I just threw these last couple of pics in for the heck of it.
Audrey Crawling around the street with her turtle, “LuLu” It is the name of the big grocery store here.. cute. *news flash..* I just checked her bucket outside and noticed she isn’t in there.. she is hopefully camouflaged in the thick plants on the patio.. if not, we’ll have one sad little girl tomorrow! Audrey kept taking her out to play and forgot to put her back. woops. It is too dark for me to see her now.
Will taking our neighbor’s toys.. poor kid still cannot ride a tricycle or scooter like the other kids – he just scoots along on the ride on toys.
We are all doing great over here and cannot believe it is already almost time to go back to the states. We are thrilled about spending time with our families at length. It’s gonna be fun!
**after getting questioned – I feel the need to clarify that nothing is wrong and nothing happened…. sometimes I write for y’all and sometimes for me – this is a type of journal for me to document all that we’ve gone thru and experienced thru the years and one biggest downfalls and biggest blessings of moving around so much is having to make new friends.
Since we have moved many times, I have found myself in the same boat of making new friends and at the same time maintaining my old long distance friendships. Both are equally hard. One thing I have learned while trying to form new friendships is that I won’t mesh with everyone I meet (and that’s okay). I have also been thinking about some of the conditions that make it easier to click with someone:
They need to be in the same stage of life. This does not pertain to old friends, just new ones. Although I enjoy the company of older ladies that are retired, it is hard to find things in common. Same thing goes for the singles and the kid-less as well as people that have kids much older than mine. We can get together and have a great time, but as far as the kind of go-to gal pal you must chat with daily… it just ain’t gonna click.
They have to have similar schedules or availability. If you make friends with someone that has kids in school all day everyday and yours are at home with you, it is hard to find time to hang together, because you know if you had no kids at home you sho don’t want to be hanging around someone else’s.
Your kids must get along with one another. If they don’t, you must resort to only getting together when you go out and leave them with a sitter. If your kid is always fighting with my kid it is not fun for me. Oh and your husbands must get along well too…
It is important to be able to identify the negative nellies and the drama queens. Don’t get too chummy with either. At first it might be fun to gripe together about all the challenges (this give you a false sense of having a lot in common), but then all you hear is gripe gripe gripe – about e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. The drama queens are the ones that have to make everything bigger than it actually is (this can be easily detected when you are doing your stalking background checks on facebook). I have met a great deal of gals that fall directly into these two categories with each move I’ve made.. It is important to identify this quickly so you can make a clean break…..
Making friends as an adult is so much like dating… Should I call her?, What can we invite them to? Out to dinner or over at the house? When should I friend her on facebook? hahaha.
Count it a blessing if you get to stay put in the same town and not deal with this on a yearly basis like me. Never take your friends for granted.. it is hard to make new ones.
There are big ships and small ships. But the best ship of all is friendship. ~Author Unknown
When you become a mom, your life changes. Your views of life change, your thought processes change and your priorities change. You never realize until after having kids a.) how much money you used to spend, b.) how much free time you used to have, and most importantly c.) the true value of a good nights rest!
One thing that shouldn’t change when you become a mom is the importance of friendships. Unfortunately I seriously struggled with this as a new mom. Figuring out how my friendships should fit into my life after I became a mother was NOT easy for me. In fact, my ideas of friendship evolved quite a bit over the years A.C. (After Children).
OK, so let me take you on a year-by-year “growth” chart of my thoughts on friendship as I “matured” in motherhood.
B.C. – (Before Children)
“I think I will take this Friday off work to go visit my best friend in Chicago! Hmm… things are pretty busy at work, do you think they can manage at the office if I take Friday off? Heck, if I am taking Friday off, I might as well take Monday off too and make it a long “girls” weekend. Maybe we could hit the spa while we’re at it!?!”
RECAP: Work Hard, Play Hard, Friends Rock!
Year 1 A.C. (After Children): 1 Newborn
I am TOO busy and WAY TOO tired for friends! I have a husband, a baby, my work… I don’t have time for friends!
RECAP: Unavailable and exhausted. Friends? What are those?
Year 2 A.C. – 1 toddler
OK, maybe I could use a friend. It would be nice to have someone to take “stroller walks” with at the mall and toss around parenting ideas with. I need a bit of sanity and some understanding from a fellow mother.
RECAP: Life is a bit lonely, I think I might be ready to meet another mom.
Year 3 A.C. – 1 Preschooler and 1 “in the oven”
MY KID NEEDS FRIENDS!! Since your daughter is my daughter’s age, we should be friends!? Right?
RECAP: I meet friends through my kid… oh, and I don’t necessary have to personally have ANYTHING in common with them as long as our kids play well together.
Year 4 A.C. – 2 Kids (Preschooler & Baby)
OK, I found a friend. A REAL friend. She has kids the same age as me, our husbands like each other… I am done… I don’t need anymore friends.
RECAP: Too many friends and finding new friends are TOO much work. I’ll stick with one, thank you!
Year 5 A.C. – 2 Kids (Kindergartner & Toddler)
BOO! My ONE friend moved away!… Maybe I should consider letting more friends into my life? Wait, can I be friends with you even though our kids aren’t the same age and sex?
RECAP: OK, maybe there IS an advantage to having more than one friend?! And MAYBE I should expand my “friend network” to include others outside my normal scope?
Year 6 A.C. – 2 Kids and 1 “in the oven” (Elementary Age & Preschooler)
A mom is a mom is a mom is a friend! I don’t care what age your child is, whether you have a boy or girl, or even if I LIKE your child! I need friends who can support me and not judge me… I am too busy for YOUR drama. My 6-year-old gives me ENOUGH drama.
RECAP: Quantity does NOT equal quality, yet it is good to have a diversified “friend portfolio.” Note to self: Ignore drama.
Year 7 A.C. – 3 Kids (Elementary Age, Preschooler & Baby)
Life is busy, thank goodness for cell phones, Facebook, Twitter and texting! I don’t have all day, every day to keep up with my friends, but I still need them! Now more than ever! Once I start sleeping, stop nursing, and manage to get the house clean for more than 30 minutes, can we try for a “girls night out” again? It’s a good thing Year 6 A.C. saw an increase in my friend index!
Question: The more friends I began with, the higher my chances are that I will still have at least one left when I actually have time for them again. Right?
RECAP: Lets call this… “The Year of the Electronic Friend.”
Present Day: 3 Kids (2 Elementary Age, & 1 Toddler)
So balance is returning, or maybe I am just getting used to the chaos? One thing I know though, my life would not be nearly as rich, as diverse, and as fulfilled as it is now if it weren’t for all of my friends.
Abu Dhabi Time
