Although the students at my school have been gone for weeks, this week is the official last week of school for students. The rumor is that we will be finished by June 30, although the calendar states we will be in school until July 5. It seems that the last day of Ramadan is considered a holiday, and that would be July 5. Those who know how things work around here suspect our employers won't make us come for Sunday and Monday only, rather will just give us the entire three days off. Time will tell.
The blue part is my name in Arabic, which will be a little thicker, and then the rest will just be design around my name. I'm very excited.
Sunday I worked on producing data for my principal. I also officially told her I had withdrawn my transfer request. We decided that we could figure out care for Jack and Millie and I could stay at the school where I know the ropes and love the English teachers who are my responsibility. I hear horror stories of other schools and I can't imagine choosing to go into a situation like that when I have an amazing position right now. So I'm staying.
I didn't get all my data done on Sunday, but knew I had the rest of the week, or at least I thought I did. Our senior leadership team met at 10 am where I was informed I would need the date delivered to our School Improvemnt Teams by Tuesday morning. Super. Needless to say, I took it home and worked on it Sunday after the kids went to bed.
When we got home from school the kids read for 20 minutes, then played upstairs, and then we headed to the pool. I swam laps and Stuart and the kids played in the pool. Some of our neighbors were at the pool so the kids had someone to play with. After some time in pool we headed to the restuarant to have dinner. During Ramadan they pull the curtains so no one can see us eat. It enables them to still serve food before sunset, as well as after sunset.
Once dinner was over it was home time, shower time, Skype time with Grammie and Pop, and bedtime.
Monday morning when Jack woke up he had a stomach ache and claimed he wasn't well enough to go to school. Because they are doing a lot of nothing at school, and I had an emergency day left for the year, I decided to stay home with him. Then of course Millie wanted to stay home. We are NEVER 'those' parents, but on that day, we were.
Turns out he could have sucked it up and gone to school. He recovered well about halfway through the morning. I think school is boring right now and he would rather be at home. Unfortunately they will have to go to school until Thursday because that's how long we've paid the school and Kayleigh can't start staying with them until next Sunday.
We watched movies on Monday afternoon since the kids couldn't go to friends' houses. The same rules apply in my home that applied when I was a child. If you do not go to school, then you do not go to friends' houses after school.
Stuart left for rugby training just after the kids were in bed. I had a relaxing evening watching trash on Netflix. It's part of my daily routine and I love it.
I got up and had my nearly 4 mile walk with Cathy on Tuesday morning. Every since I had surgery in January I have had slight issues in the poo department, which is where our story begins. On our walk Sunday I had some rumbly in my tumbly and was certainly concerned I would not make it back to my house. On Tuesday my bowels started to act up earlier in our walk. You guessed it, I crapped myself on the walk, literally.
I felt the issue coming on over a mile from home and knew there would have to be a lot of concentration and sphincter squeezing. Sadly, it just wasn't enough. About a half mile from my house is a grocery store that I had hoped would be open, but when I sent Cathy back to check she discovered it was not open, and by that time it was too late. I already had exploded in my shorts. Good night nurse! Really? Now what?
Cathy wanted to know if I wanted her to go get her car. Uh, no! I wouldn't offer that to anyone that just soiled themselves. So then she suggested I sit down on the curb for a bit. I decided that was a good idea. I had on running shorts that had roomy legs, rather than spandex. At this point my only issue was going to be having dookie run down my legs as I walked the remainder of the way home. So, how do I keep that from happening? Well, of course I have to get the poo out of my granny panties. So, like one does, as I'm sitting on the curb with my knees by my face, I squish the poo out of the side of my pants. What kind of nightmare did I step into. It looked as if a dog had an upset stomach and relieved himself right there by the curb, oh but it wasn't a dog it was a grown woman who can no longer dictate when the urge for a movement will come. Super!
So with the majority of the problem behind me, no pun intended, I proceeded to walk home, thanking God the entire time that it was early in the morning and no one was out to see this shit show (literally).
On my way home, with my left hand, because my right hand was not so clean, I messaged Stuart to tell him what had happened and asked him to keep the kids out of my site so they wouldn't see my issues. It's not that I have shame to tell this story to anyone who reads the blog, yet I don't want my children going to school telling their friends 'My mommy pooped her pants'.
Fortunately, when I got to the house the kids were still in bed. I went upstairs and had no other choice but to step into the shower and start disrobing. I took off my shoes first and assessed they would need a tumble in the washer. I threw away my socks and then took off my draws, ditching them and my shorts, as one would assume. I showered, felt better, and the kids were none the wiser.
After I was truly clean, Stuart asked my why I threw my shorts away. He said, 'Couldn't you have put them in the washer?' Uh, not a chance! You can't make this shit up!
I didn't feel well all day. It seems Jack might have had a stomach bug and given it to me. My friends who are runners said that 'runner bum' is quite common. Oh, except I'm not a runner. It was only a 4 mile walk.
After the eventful morning, I had a rather boring day, thank goodness. Once I was home and had my Ramadan nap, Cathy and her family as well as the O'Reillys came over for pizza. We are the only three families in our original group who are still in Al Ain. Each summer before we break up for summer holidays we always get together. It's a strong bond, we have, and our friendships have stood the test of time.
Wednesday I went to school to discover my principal was out for the day. I came home as I wasn't feeling so hot. Stuart had come home as well. Maybe we were both home because there was nothing to do at work. We ended up starting to watch the new season of Orange is the New Black.
Once the kids were home we went to buy their school uniforms, which wasn't cheap, and we didn't even get their PE kits or their black leather shoes yet. Boy this new school had better be worth the dough we are kicking out for it.
Once the kids were showered, fed and in bed, I had to go to the mall to get teacher gifts and some souvenirs for my mom. Cathy and DeDe tagged along, which was nice. After our shopping was finished, we sat and had an iced tea at Tim Horton's. While we were there a Vice Principal Cathy knew came by and had a chat with Cathy. She shared some concerning news about 'randomly' releasing people from their contracts. Immediately DeDe and Cathy were concerned. I wasn't particularly concerned, but it was a strange thing for a Vice Principal to share. As we talked about it, we decided she was about the drama, and although some of the releases may have been random, it wasn't the English teachers she was talking about. As we continued to shop and try to calm down, we made a joke each time one of us talked about buying something. The comment was usually, 'you aren't going to need that because you aren't going to have a job tomorrow'. It eased the tension and made for a great laugh.
As we were driving home, DeDe was actually sent the list of teachers who were being terminated. Because it was written in Arabic, she sent it to our friend, Hassah, and Hassah read it to us. As I suspected, none of our names were on the list. Whew!
Thursday, since it was a late night, Cathy and I decided not to walk in the morning. Once I was at school I discovered we had three teachers who were let go. They were specialists from other Arabic countries, and as far as we know it was a random approach. It was very sad because they were good teachers.
Thursday was the kids' last day of school. They played once they were home while I sorted out their backpacks, as they brought all their school things home.
Stuart went to pick up the Richardsons and brought them to our house for dinner. Then he took them to the airport. They were heading to Vietnam for two weeks. I was very jealous, but we think we might go there next summer as we are not coming back to the states next year.
Friday morning around 4 am Jack crawled in our bed. Then Millie came in after Jack was up and downstairs. Millie has developed a fear of being alone in our house. She doesn't want to go anywhere without us. It seems the kids were watching an R.L.Stine show on television that was really scary. It was when we were having people over for dinner and it wasn't discovered until the scary bits had already been seen. Oops! So now we are dealing with that.
Once we were up and about, I headed to Dubai with DeDe and a couple other gals for a shopping day. Being unable to eat or drink in public, in the past, would have been an issue for an all day outing. However, they now block off the food court so non-Muslims and kids can eat and drink as they please.
Our initial stop was the Arte festival. However, since summer holidays are so close and during Ramadan things slow down, there were not that many vendors open. However, I did finally decide to buy a pair of earrings with my name written in Arabic. He said it would take about 4 days to make them so I should get them early next week.
Once we discovered the Arte festival was a bit of a bust, we got a take away coffee and headed to Mall of the Emirates where we shopping for a bit and then had lunch at IHOP! After a little more shopping, we decided we weren't ready to go home, so we drove to yet another mall. Murdiff City Centre is close to the airport and one of my favorite malls in Dubai. Once we had walked around a bit more and bought a few more things, we decided to have dinner at Texas Roadhouse. All 4 of us on the shopping trip were Americans. We often take advantage of times we can get a taste of home. Once we were full of food it was time to go home. We didn't get home until almost midnight. It was one of those delightful surprises in my week.
I got up Saturday and lounged around until around noon. Stuart went to his friend Sean's house to watch rugby. Rochelle and her kids came over just after lunch. She stayed for a couple of hours and we just caught up on the latest gossip.
I ended up clearing out our refrigerator in the afternoon, made three batches of banana bread from the frozen bananas in the freezer, and sorted out and donated many of the kids' clothes and toys. I know we are sure to return from our holidays with many new clothes and toys, so weeding out right now is for the best.
In the evening Stuart went out again to watch another rugby match. This week was another one gone. This time of year it is difficult to keep the kids occupied. It's too hot outside for much fun, everything is closed during the day because of Ramadan, and we are trying not to spend money for activities since vacation is just around the corner.
The only disappointment of the week was the vote in the UK. Ugh! But on the bright side, it's only 10 days until we hit Arizona! Yahoo!
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