June 24, 2012

Yesterday was 3 of 3 of a series of 10k races.  Last time I placed first in my age group.  Last time it started at 7:00 and was warm and sunny.  This time it was started at 6am was humid and was already above 92 degrees when I parked the car at 5:35 and kept climbing.  I tied for 3rd and was completely happy that I simply pushed through.  At the end I met two teachers, one from Ireland, one from Peru.  The fastest girl had driven up with a couple friends from Abu Dhabi that morning.  The two girls were from New Zealand, the guy was from Syria.  He was smiling and friendly until I asked him if he had family back home.  He does, but they are safe for now.  He wishes Obama would take interest and help.  The biggest cheers from the crowd came when a lady running in her abaya crossed the line.  Her two cute kids came running over to congratulate her.  There were two other covered Arab girls wearing more of the swimwear option: leggings, and long sleeved tunic with a hood.   Brighter colors and more aerodynamic.  I got home, showered and went back to bed.  The kids were still asleep and I was committed to join them.

Isaac was set apart as the Deacon's Quorum President at church.  Their numbers will be low for the summer (just 2 in the branch), but there is another boy turning 12 at the end of August.  He has been playing the piano for priesthood for a couple of weeks, so we hear hymns being practiced a lot at home.  I LOVE that they are all playing.  Makenna has been committed to The Entertainer and is getting really good.

Yesterday we went to the pool for an hour before a gang of 6 year old girls showed up--birthday party.  They took over the shallow end which messed up our game.  We would take turns throwing the diving rings, as scattered as possible and then race.  Two people would go after rings against one person swimming a lap as fast as they could.  All the heats were really close, but the ring swimmers usually beat the lap swimmer by a hair.  It was a good way to make us do speed work.  Even Jess liked it, who normally balks at laps.  She will only do them if it buys her 10 more minutes.  Anyway, after a dozen girls showed up, we decided to head back.  We ended up having a yard work party.   Makenna was pruning bushes, Jessica was raking leaves, I was attaching a new end on the stupid hose (I get to do this at least once a week and always break a nail in the process.  ouch!) and Isaac was digging out a couple stumps of bushes that had died (before we moved in).  I was recently solicited by the next door neighbor's gardener to hire him, he was pointing out all the leaves and how we obviously needed his help.  We bought ourselves a rake and it does look loads better.  Gardening in the shade after swimming with the ability to stay wet thanks to the sprinkler (even if it's too warm) isn't so bad even if it's 100 degrees.   It's hard to tell what's sweat and what's sprinkler.  The kids ended up bagging a few big piles of leaves and then burning the bush stumps in a big broken flower pot.  Fire adds another element of fun.  After the ashes had cooled, Makenna carefully scooped up little plastic shovelfuls and sprinkled them around the roots of her favorite bushes.  I finished watering while Jess and Isaac set up the little soccer nets and played until they kicked they ball over the wall and had to knock on the nice Iranian couple's door to ask for it back.

Jess officially finished all her current school work.  We just ordered 3rd grade history and science and 4th grade math and Language Arts.  Good grief.  That's my baby?  Makenna finished all her 4th grade stuff awhile ago.  I ordered her 5th grade math a couple months back, so she has been chipping away at that while she waits for the rest of her stuff to come.  Isaac already started Algebra 1 and an 8th grade science class.  I ordered the second half of world history from him from k12, but for English, he is switching over to BYU independent study.  I talked with them on the phone for over an hour trying to decide if it would be a good move. . . .  And we are trying it.  He'll start with one English class (9th grade) and when he finishes the rest of the k12 stuff, he can transition over.  The great thing is that if he does the advanced route, he doesn't have to worry about AP classes, he can just take BYU courses instead and get high school and college credit at the same time.  Nice.

We had pancakes and bacon for breakfast yesterday.  I have to work up to the idea of bacon for a few days before we do it. First you have to plan ahead and buy some at a store that has a non-Muslim section.  I actually bought two packages last time, but the second has been sitting in the freezer waiting for me to want to bother to cook it.  Then you have to prep the kitchen.  Pancake batter must be made and ready, the kitchen window must be open all the way, the fan above the stove must be on full power and one child must be stationed at the door to pump it open and closed.  You see, we have an over sensitive smoke detector in the kitchen.  I have to use the fan most of the time when cooking on the stove, but bacon requires extra effort.  The detector is right above the door going from the kitchen to the main room (dining room/family room/music room/school room) and if I can get Isaac to pump the door fast and furious, we can avoid the piercing screeching of the smoke alarm.  And the kids can have bacon.

I don't really have pictures from anything, but we have plans to take the underwater camera to the pool while it's daylight.  Here are a couple of random shots.

See anything?  I barely noticed as we drove by and had to circle back to take a picture.

There is a well kept volleyball court for. . . . someone.

How Jess looked coming down after a shower. 

18 June 2012

I don't feel like we have all that much news.  We went to a water park last Thursday with a few of the kids' friends and stayed for 8 hours!  Opening to closing.  It was very fun.  We are going to another (bit of a drive) tomorrow with a family that's about to leave for the summer.  This ward/branch is the opposite of Baumholder in the summer.  Most of the wives and children leave for 1-3 months while the dads stay and work and get away for just a few weeks at a time.  In July we combine the ward and branch and meet at 10 am.  That's going to be a challenge for us who are usually still in bed at 10am on Fridays!  ha ha.  Our schedules have gone so wacky.  Matt still has Wednesdays and Thursdays off.  While it would be nice to go to church as a family, he is actually being very useful on base where they have LDS services on Sundays.  The attendance varies between 9-15 people, most of the guys are only here for 3 month rotations, so Matt is providing some needed stability.  

It's HOT.  The highs range in the one hundred and teens region, the low, at like 4 in the morning is 88.  88 is as low as we can hope for even in the dead of night.  I have been trying to run in the mornings, getting up at 6:30 with Matt and leave at 6:45.  It's bearable, mostly.  Some days you can really feel the humidity to the point it is hard to breathe.  I have only been managing 5 1/2 miles 4 times a week (I don't get up on Matt's days off or Fridays).  Swimming is a great option and I have my bike now, so I should hop on it, but nothing is quite as satisfying as running.  I have one more race--the last 10k of a 3 race series on Saturday.  It starts at 6 to try and capture the lower temps.  I placed 1st in my age group in the last one in April.  If the competition stays away again, who knows, maybe I'll stick around and get a medal this time.  

We rather selfishly gave Matt a small grill for father's day and all the ingredients to make a delicious steak dinner.  Because Friday is the Sabbath here, my birthday was on Father's Day (for the branch).  We went to church early to gift bag lots of homemade cookies to give to the dads.  We celebrated ourselves on Saturday because Matt had a training day and was able to come home after only half a day.  The kids surprised me with breakfast in bed (after I had run and showered :-) Later we had steak and a fruit pizza birthday cake--simply divine.  

The kids are looking forward to the Olympics. Makenna wants to tell Kim that we will keep her posted on who is winning.  It really doesn't seem like it's been 4 years since we were all cheering on Michael Phelps in China.  A lot of the British stores here are hyping up the games.  

The kids are excited to start ski lessons in July.  Our wonderful piano teacher loaned us about a dozen fun piano books for the summer and Makenna is learning the Entertainer, Isaac is playing Pirates and the theme to Peanuts.  I love having them play again.  I am dedicated to practicing and relearning myself.  I am trying to stay ahead of Jess so I can at least help her.  The other two are too far beyond to for me to have a hope of catching up.  

Stay cool and be safe!

Book Worms

No one wanted to put their books down at dinner time.  

Catch Up

I don't really have pictures and that makes me less likely to get on the computer and write about life.  But I'm getting emails from family (LOVE IT!!) and realizing that I am the one falling behind.

Jessica went to her follow up dentist appointment with fantastic news.  Her teeth can feel extreme cold, but are not overly sensitive.  So the roots are alive and well for now.  The dentist cautioned us that they could still die, you just can't be sure in tooth trauma cases.  We have been joking with Jess that if her teeth do die and turn purple, it will only be the top halves because the bottoms are fake and will stay white.  Now that nothing hurts any more, she thinks it's quite funny.  Her lip has finally healed up and she is eating and drinking normally again.

We had a marathon church day.  We went early to the Branch President's house for two baptisms.  One was the husband of a very sweet young Philippino sister who was baptized as a teenager, but then went inactive.  She had started coming back (with her husband and cute nursery age daughter) right before we moved here.  I didn't know he wasn't a member until they announced his baptism. I had given them rides before and knew her fairly well.  She was so happy all day.  The other baptism was the most smiling young man from . . . . I forget which country in Africa.  Darius has been coming to church every week for most of the time we have been here.  So there is no proselyting, but converts can still happen.   The large living room was packed, with people also sitting in an overflow room.  They had borrowed chairs from a nearby school.   So after that was normal church.  At the end, the kids were driven home by Brother Van Moorsel and I stayed for a Relief Society enrichment meeting and then a baby shower.  I got home about 8 o'clock that night.  It was long, but everything was good.  For the RS meeting we had summer salads to share and then had several mini lessons about getting to know each other, ourselves and the Lord.  The get to know you game while eating was simple, but very effective and interesting.  Someone had brainstormed and placed lots of random questions under chairs.  We went around the room reading the question and trying to guess, which elicited more comments and conversation.  Things like "who has lived in the most countries?  Who has the longest travel time home (including plane, train, bus. car. . . )?  Who has the longest hair?  Who speaks the most languages?  Who has served a mission?  Who wears the highest heels?  Who has run a marathon? (there were 4)  Who knows how to knit?

We have been doing more night swimming.  We have seen the moon go through all it's phases while looking at in from the water.  The great thing about going at night is you don't need sunscreen and you might actually feel a little chilly when you get out.  The kids like to go on Matt's days off best so they can be thrown around and play chicken.  He is by far the fastest swimmer, but has the hardest time doing somersaults.  Jess broke her old record and did 10!! somersaults in a row with only one breath.  The girls like to wear goggles that cover their noses.  They both look like mermaids swimming and spinning around under water collecting rings and playing.  They are fish.

The real heat is truly upon us now.  We must water the plants once or twice a day or they will die.  It takes about an hour to do, holding the hose with your thumb to make it spray.  I have taken automatic sprinklers SO MUCH for granted in the past.  We bought one little sprinkler, but it reduces the water flow which puts too much pressure on the hose at the connector site.  So we have to turn down the water and it just takes longer.  The kids take turns some days.  Whoever is doing it gets soaked from the waist down, nice warm water, not the least bit refreshing.  We have to wait until the backyard is in shadow or else the plants will just burn up.  If we aren't home during the window of shade, we have to water in the dark.  Blah.  We often go jump in the pool to cool off after watering.  Thank goodness for the pool chiller.  When I manage to make myself go run in the morning, I try to water a bit when I get back before the sun is hitting the grass.  There are a couple of trouble spots that look like they are getting fried.  I am wondering if it's because of window reflections.

School continues on, though some subjects are finishing up.  Isaac had already started his next math and science classes.  Makenna has her next math too.  But I am not ordering anything else until everything is done.  I want to feel like we are having a bit of a break.  They are all down to their last week or two with fewer subjects.  The end had been scheduled for mid May, but between homeschool events, visa runs, chess club, get togethers with families that are about to leave for the summer, we took many days off.  We are about to get ahead during the summer though.  The main fun thing we are planning is learning to ski, in Dubai, in the summer!  Cuckoo, but perfect.

There were two things that happened last week that cemented "home" for me.  I couldn't have said before hand that these were homey things for me, but during each I had a moment of realization.  First was fixing a pocket that Matt had caught on a handle and ripped out.  I pulled out my sewing machine, plugged it into a transformer and 5 minutes later his favorite shorts were as good as new.  Or at least as good as before the pocket got ripped, I couldn't removed a couple years' worth of wear and tear.  The other was making homemade rolls from scratch.  I had not used yeast for over a year.  It was so satisfying and so well received.  They got gobbled up.

Makenna finished her knitting class and has a sewing skill to teach me.  She often pulls it out in the evenings and works on it.  She is not too fast, but her stitches are so neat and even.  She has really been enjoying looking through her baby scrapbooks.  She will sit down and spend an hour looking at pictures and reading everything I wrote.  I am so glad I made the start I did, but every time I see her looking, it fills me with guilt that Jess has almost nothing.  It's a goal for our time here to create something for Jess.  I better get crackin' cause who knows how long I have. Makenna is my best grass clipper.  Until a week ago, all we had to trim the grass was an old rusty pair of hedge clippers.  She would patiently trim up a section here and there.  Now we are the proud owners of a human powered lawn mower (rotary blade that you push along, hard) and a new, bigger and better pair of trimmers.  She is still in charge of the edges.  We bought them at Dragon Mart.  Matt talked them down to AED 180 ($48.96).

Jessica is getting changed for soccer.  She still has it once a week until the end of June.  Then it's summer break.  It already feels to hot, but she loves it.  On the side lines it's me, two other homeschool moms and a whole bunch of nannies.  We have so many nanny stories now.  Makenna comes along to play with two sisters who have brothers on Jessica's team.  We all melt in the shade while Jess steams in the sun.  Jessica's favorite thing to do is go to the pool.  She has also enjoyed rediscovering her rollerblades.  She and Makenna have named the speed bumps in the neighborhood.

Isaac is being quite the teenager.  Last week, he was dropped off at the mall (gasp) with some friends to see a movie and eat.  Most things I suggest are met with a complaint, but in the end he is the last one to leave.  He didn't want to do chess club, but then begged to stay longer to take out the kayaks on the water after.  He didn't want present in the year end homeschool show, then spent three days polishing his poem to share.  He didn't want to go to a going away party at Chuck E Cheese (yup, there's one here), but ended up meeting a 16 year old boy who has become a good friend.  I guess the moral of the story is expect some whining, but don't give in to it because he'll end up enjoying it.  Currently I am hearing whining about going to a museum in Abu Dhabi with displays on loan from the British Museum showing examples of 3000 years of human history.  Oh yes, he is going.