A lot of the same......feeling rather boring now!

This week was very similar to last week, although neither of our schools had the inspectors in. 

We did have our first ever parent/teacher conference at Jack's school. As you would guess, he's the smartest in his class (or at least that is what we are going to believe) and he loves school. It was so surreal finally being on the other side of a parent/teacher conference. I heard Stuart say,'I am surprised that he has a 'B' (meaning beginning) for rhyming words.  He's been rhyming since he was three.' Oh my gosh, did he just become THAT parent. She explained that anything he has a 'B' on has most likely not been assessed yet. Easy, tiger!

Stuart pulled his calf muscle at rugby on Monday evening, and started having back spasms on Tuesday evening. He's a mess! Doctor hours are really handy here. He went to the doctor Tuesday night at 6:30 pm and was home by 8 pm.  He didn't even have an appointment.  Muscle relaxers were what was on the meds order. He stayed home from school on Wednesday and was well enough to at least go watch practice on Wednesday evening. As long as he is having fun and does not require major surgery then I am fine with him suffering with a muscle ache or two. 

I am happy to report that Millie has stopped asking for her pacifier. However, I am unhappy to report that she is not going to sleep without me sitting on her bed until she falls asleep. Stuart reminded me that I actually used to lay down with Jack and fall asleep, so there is progress. It's not so bad when she is tired, but nights like Wednesday night when I sat on the side of her bed for an hour and twenty minutes, it got a bit boring. Oh well, at least the pacifier is a faint memory. Too soon she won't want me to even come into her room, so I guess I should count my blessings that she wants me to sit with her. Ah!

Thursday, Stuart went to Abu Dhabi for the day. He was asked to take part in the ADEC curriculum day. He was in a small group of English teachers, principals and advisors who were discussing the curriculum. I think that makes Stuart a bit elite. Hopefully this will give him some advancement opportunities in administration. He really wants to help lead a school. 

Thursday evening, Stuart's staff had a bar-b-que out in the dessert. They were celebrating the raise they got (Emirati staff, not English staff) and invited all of the staff. Stuart and Wade went. Karen and I took the kids to the Rugby Club. It's the easiest place for all of us to hang out. There are great play things for the kids to do and we can sit outside, watch the kids, and enjoy talking. It seemed a bit cooler than it has been so we ended up sitting inside. Never in a million years would I let Jack and Millie run around a play area in the states, but in the Middle Easy....sure, why not?  The thing is, there are so many people looking out for each others' kids that you really don't worry. It's nice for sure. 

We got up Friday morning and took the kids to Fun Farm, a supervised play area in the mall. We then went to eat breakfast. Is that wrong of us?  Don't care! After we picked the kids up we headed to Mega Mart to buy a dryer. I have suffered enough with no dryer to this point but it really is too much for this spoiled little American girl. So I should be loving doing laundry this time next week. Yahoo! 

Millie fell asleep on the way home from the mall so we put her to bed for about an hour. Then, back to the rugby club we headed to watch a rugby match. I just don't understand subjecting yourself to that kind of pain. I was able to just sit and enjoy the weather with a shandy in my hand, while Stuart watched the match and the kids jumped in the bouncy house. I have not been able to relax as much in my life as I have the last five months. The quality of our lives and lack of stress we feel, overall, has been amazing. 

Saturday morning we got up to take Stuart's car for its 5000 kilometer service. We then went to the Gilf Club for breakfast. Miss Janet was cleaning our house so we had to find something to do for a few hours. We ended up staying at the Golf Club for a while because we ran into one of Jack's rugby coaches and visiting with them for a while. 

We stopped at a grocery store to get some rope to tie down the bed we bought last weekend. It ended up the lady who sold us the bed was ill so we had to reschedule getting the bed. 

I dropped Stuart off to pick up his car and headed home. On the way, the delivery guy called about bringing the dryer. It was 1 pm and since they told me they would bring it on Saturdat between 5 and 7 pm it only made sense they wanted to drop it off at 1 pm. 

Naturally I got the laundry going. It's a condenser dryer so I have to dump the water container after each load that dries, but what do I care. I did 2 loads of laundry and had them both dried and put away in a little over three hours. Compare that to 48 hours of drying time at this time of the year and you can understand my glee in my new dryer. 

Livin' the dream, truly!