After work I went to Headquarters to turn in one of our teacher's airfare form. Her mother passed away and she had to return to the UK for the funeral when we were supposed to turn the forms in. The super tragic part is that two days after her mother died, her dad died. I can't even imagine. However, her mother was taking care of her dad so maybe that was God's little way. Still yet it is very sad for her. I told her I would take her form so she didn't have to worry about it.
Once I got home Sammy, Michael and Keira came over to play. The kids play so nicely together. However, Millie took Keira into the bathroom, closed the door, and told Keira to pull her pants down. Really? What is up with this 4 year old lately? How do you handle this? I just messaged Keira's mother and told her what happened and that we had spoken to Millie and she was grounded from playing with friends the rest of the week.
Stuart and I both got a 'thanks but no thanks' email from Brighton College about teaching positions. It was disappointing, but I guess it's the way it's meant to be. We have to get scholarships for the kids now or they will not be going to Brighton College.
Millie went to gymnastics and I decided to exercise while she was in class. I forced myself to walk a 15 minute mile, which meant I had to run at least a minute each mile. It nearly killed me.
After the gym we went home, the kids had dinner and did the normal nightly routine, and then went to bed. Stuart and I followed shortly.
School is not fun at the moment. I am overwhelmed with the testing, entering grades for 4 classes and trying to get prepared for our professional development week when we come back from spring break. And, if that wasn't enough, we found out on Monday that our inspection team would come to assess our school the second week back with students, April 18, and be there the rest of the week.
Jack's received his acceptance letter to Brighton College on Monday. Stuart said when he told Jack the news, Jack was elated. We worried he wasn't going to be excited because he really doesn't know children his age at that school, but he will make friends fast and get very involved, I'm sure.
Kayleigh came over to babysit on Monday evening so Stuart could go to his committee meeting and I could go see the doctor for my two month check up. I can't believe it's been 8 weeks since the surgery. He was very pleased with my results and told me I didn't have to have my B1,B6,B12 cocktail shot anymore. Yahoo!
When I got home Monday evening I had a message from one of my grade 1 teachers. She asked if she could take the place of one of our older grade teachers and monitor the exam given on Tuesday. The reason for this is hard to understand but I will try to explain. During our week of testing is also the time that our teachers are required to complete their report cards. It is time consuming because they have to put in a mark for each objective for each of the three subjects they teach. Also when we have testing it is only for grades 3, 4, and 5, which means no other students come to school. This is not because they are not allowed to come to school, rather it's because they choose to not come to school. So, this teacher thought the older grade teacher could use an extra hour to work on her grades. And since the grade 1 teacher didn't have many students on Sunday, fewer on Monday, and most likely would have no students on Tuesday, she decided this would be a nice gesture.
I then decided to send a message to all lower grade teachers and ask if any of them would also monitor testing. I asked the teachers to privately respond to me so that there wouldn't be any pressure. If they wanted to volunteer that would be great, if not then no big deal. To my surprise all but one volunteered to monitor. I really have a cooperative, team-player type of team of English teachers. They are really nice to work with.
Tuesday after school I took Jack's acceptance letter to Brighton College. Now we wait for the financial people to call us and pray that they can work out some scholarships for us. I then went on to the mall and did some 'Easter bunny' shopping. Since we will be in Sri Lanka for Easter, the Easter Bunny had to be prepared and have things ready to put out before we left.
Millie had gymnastics and I walked two miles during that time. Then I went to buy some eggs so Stuart could make sausage and eggs for the kids for dinner. I got back to the gym just in time to pick Millie up, head home for showers, me included, and head out for a pedicure with Clare. Stuart was on Daddy duty.
Wednesday was our last day of testing. Everything went smoothly and I finished packing them up just before 11 am. At 11 am the buses were called to take the kids home because for some reason our cafeteria didn't have enough food to feed the boys. Sometimes these random things happen. Although there were principals all week who sent their students home after testing, my principal is a western principal and follows the rules. Then naturally a random thing will happen like not having food for half of our students causing us to send them home. Hmmmm.
Wednesday afternoon I took the kids to Rochelle's for a play. Jack had taken his Yoda light saber, which no longer lights up or makes noises. He kept bugging me about going home to change the batteries in it so he could 'fight' with Louie. I kept telling him no. He is at this stage where the word 'no' really means 'I'm going to bug her until she can't stand it and then maybe she'll change her mind', which never happens. I had a talk with him the previous day to tell him that when I said 'no', his response should be 'ok'. That was clearly a good talk, and didn't work at all.
After the kids were fed and in bed, Cathy and her mum came over for a visit. Her mum is here for a little over a week and we wouldn't have seen her had she not come over because we were leaving the following day. It was a nice visit.
We woke up Thursday, so excited for our trip. We all headed our separate ways, knowing that evening we would head to the Premier Inn for a sleep and then would be off to Sri Lanka. I think I've mentioned this before, but this is the first real holiday we have taken that didn't involve visiting family. We've been to California and northern Arizona as a family, but no trip like this.
Once I was at work, I loaded he test boxes into my car and returned the tests to the print shop. I then went to speak to someone in English teacher support about being transferred to a Kindergarten school that was close to Brighton College. I have put in a transfer request because the kids will start school around the same time we do. One of us will have to take them to school and the other will have to pick them up each day. In order to do this I have to be at a girls' school or Kindergarten school which both start later than a boys' school or a school like the one where I currently work. The lady I wanted to speak with wasn't there. I left a message and will see if that gets me any results. I got back to school at 10 am and left school at 11:30 am.
On my way home I stopped by the gym to ask how many more sessions Millie had paid for. I also informed them we were not going to be there that evening or the following week. Because of the bad weather a few weeks ago, they froze her time and we would just finish out her paid for sessions when we returned.
Once I was home, I found Stuart sitting on the sofa. Clearly he had been released early as well. So we decided to go have lunch at the 101 Cafeteria, just down the road from us.
We had decided to go to the airport and stay at the hotel on Thursday night since our flight left at 7 am. We knew we had a friend (Scott) who would take us to the airport on Thursday night, but didn't want to ask anyone to take us at 4 am on Friday morning. So Scott took us to the hotel by the airport.
Once we were checked in, we went to our room to put our things away. Then we came down for a bite to eat in the hotel restuarant. We met a family that was just passing through for the day, heading on to Europe from Melbourne, Australia. They were asking questions about the local people and the culture.
By the time the kids got their ice cream it was 8:30 pm and they were both exhausted. I headed up to the room to get them showered and in bed.
We had a 4 am get up and then we're off to the airport. We went to the Marhaba Lounge, which is a service provided to those of us with National Bank of Abu Dhabi accounts. We had a nice breakfast and then headed to our gate.
Once we landed, we gathered our luggage and headed through customs. Once out we were greeted by a man from Mt Lavinia Hotel. He was holding a sign with Stuart's name on it. Fancy!
No trip is complete without that first family selfie after touching down in the holiday spot.
The driver took our luggage and we headed out to a 'quite toasty' (as Millie put it) Colombo, Sri Lanka. We hopped in a van and were on our way to the hotel. The journey took a little over an hour, and I thought we might die at least three times.
The one thing that we discovered on the journey and that surprised us was that the time difference from Sri Lanka to Abu Dhabi was 1.5 hours? When you go to a different time zone, have you ever gone to one that is a half hour difference? I haven't, but it was legitimate.
We arrived at the resort around 4 pm. We put our luggage in the room, unpacked in our home for the week and started exploring the resort. The first thing we did was to check out the trip to Kandy, which provided stops at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, my dream of a lifetime. We decided to book that trip for Monday. Our friends, David and Leanne, and their son Xavier were to arrive Saturday evening and they were going to go with us on the Kandy adventure.
We returned to the hotel after checking out the gym, with full intentions to work out at least three days this week, then took showers. The kids took a shower and then I did. When Stuart got into the shower, that was when house keeping decided to come and put our 4th twin bed into our room. I knocked on the bathroom door and told Stuart to stay in there. He ended up having to stay for 20 minutes. To me it was hilarious. I'm not sure he saw the humor in it.
In the end, they sorted the room and we were off to dinner. We had paid for half board, which meant we could eat breakfast and dinner each day. The food was unbelievable. Even though my portions were beyond tiny, I enjoyed each bite taken. The kids even ate well.
Back to our room and bed was in order.
Saturday morning, at 4 am, I woke up itching like crazy and I had hives on my eyes, forehead and the creases of my arms. Clearly I had eaten something I was allergic, although I have never known myself to be allergic to anything but red die #40. So, note to self- avoid the seafood salad and the prawns for the rest of the trip.
Once we were all awake, we headed to breakfast, where the food was, yet again, incredible. The view from our table was spectacular as well.
Breakfast was a variety of meats, eggs, fruit, pastries, juices and omelets.
Everyone is ready!
We also got in the pool a few times, which was refreshing.
We had lunch at the pool just after noon. The kids had a hot dog and chicken nuggets, while Stuart had a roast beef sandwich (little roast beef and a lot of bread) and I ate a protein bar (it's vital for my protein needs these days, and it's cheaper). Jack's hot dog and Millie's chicken nuggets were $1.50 a piece. They came with tons of fries. This was a meal that was a super bargain.
We left the pool around 2:30 pm because the kids were tired. We took showers, not really thinking about the what time of day it was. Then Stuart reminded me of the fact that there was no way the kids could stay in the room for 5 hours and we would have to get out. We took a little rest then decided to explore a bit.
We headed out of the hotel and got a tuk-tuk (a three wheeled motor scooter- one at the front and two at the back) to take us to a supermarket for water and hair conditioner. I totally forgot that my daughter has terrible hair that requires conditioner more than once a day.
Our entire journey, which lasted about 5 minutes, cost us about $1.25. We didn't ask him to wait for us but yet decided to walk back to the hotel. It was only about a 10 minute walk. On the way back we crossed a very busy road to look for more sunscreen because we feared we hadn't brought enough. We didn't find any at the pharmacy that was across the road, and we had to cross back. Yikes!
We survived and on our way back to the hotel we stopped at a souvenir shop. I found some pants with elephants on them, and although I am not one who thinks I should wear elephant pants, these were cute. I didn't get them at the time, but went back later in the week. They were a total of 1000 rupees, which is about 25 dirhams ($6.75). Even if they fall apart after one wear I think I got my money's worth.
Back to the hotel and to the seafood Cove for the kids to have a chocolate shake, Stuart a beer and me a mint iced tea. We watched two chipmunks playing around the thatched roof, then we noticed a wedding taking place so we became the wedding crashes. We got as close as we could without being shooed away. There were dancers that brought in the men's wedding party and the groom's mom and dad. The same dancers brought in the bride's wedding party and her mom and dad. It was a really wonderful experience.
After going to a wedding we weren't invited to, we headed down the beach for a bit. The kids got all sandy, I was sweating my butt off, and therefore showers were in order...again before we headed to dinner.
Once back in the room, round two of showers were had and we watched Animal Planet until it was time to go to Italian night at the restuarant.
At dinner, Jack whined about the food. He wanted it to be the same food as it had been on Friday night. As patiently as I could, which we all know how that went, I tried to explain to him that every night would be different and there would be something he would like. I also tried to remind him that not every child gets a holiday where they are about to choose their food from amongst multiple dishes presented to them. Stuart reminded him that when we were little our holidays looked nothing like this and our parents packed a lot of our meals because they didn't have the luxury of eating out each night. I hope they know one day that we really are fortunate at this time in our lives. I'm not sure how to relay that very well, I'm afraid.
Unfortunately, at dinne, both of the kids had belly aches. And unfortunately we hit the loo on two separate occasions with me on butt wiping duty both times. The joys of motherhood! I think Millie and Jack had both had too much for the day.
We finished dinner and headed back for the kids to go to sleep. Stuart and I stayed up to greet our friends the Titos (David, Leanne and their son, Xavier). I ended up falling asleep so Stuart greeted them just before 10 pm in the bar, naturally.
We would start 5 days of fun with them on Sunday.
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