I was informed there would be a senior leadership team meeting at 9 am on Sunday, which would mean another teacher would need to come and cover my class. In the end, no one came to cover my class, but I went after I had taught my 3 periods. It was then that I was informed that the teacher who was to teach the math and science sections for me was being moved. This meant I would have to teach the 15 periods for that one section of girls. I nearly started crying. I'm not sure what everyone thinks I do all day, but splitting my time as a teacher and a senior leader is not going to work very well. I knew it would all be fine, but right then it was just incredibly frustrating.
At the end of the Senior Leadership Team meeting I went upstairs and continued to work on getting my room ready. If I was going to have to teach half of the time, I certainly wanted my room to be cute. I started laminating letters and signs, all the necessary things. I left school just after noon because I had to go collect some books from another school. If the Heads of Faculty don't seek out the extra books that others have, we sometimes won't get them.
Once I left the other school I headed to the Flower Market, where we buy these cheap rag rugs. They are so cheap that I replace them each year, and since one of the cats barfed on one of my rugs last week, I decided it was time for fresh rugs.
Rugby training started for the kids on Sunday evening. I decided to walk around the pitches while the kids practiced. Stuart and u drove separately because Millie's practice ends about a half hour before Jack's so getting her home and showered would be vital to her getting enough rest in the week.
Most of Millie's team has never touched a rugby ball, so as you can guess they are quite hilarious. There is a lot of running in the wrong direction.
Once Millie and I were home she had a bath a sandwich and then it was time for bed just as Stuart and Jack walked in the door. Jack showered, ate and also went to bed.
Once Stuart and I went to bed we discovered that there was an irritating squeak coming from our air conditioner. It didn't really bother me or wake me up, but it did Stuart. Every time the unit would rev up it would start squeaking. Stuart would then get out of bed, take his shoe, and whack the crap out of the AC unit. That was what woke me up, not the actual sound it was making. Bahahahaha! Needless to say, Stuart was a bit tired and cranky on Monday morning.
Once the kids were off to school on Monday, I took off towards my school. I continued to get things ready for my classroom once I was at school. Around 10:30 am my vice principal called me with the good news. She told me that the Zone had called and told us we could no longer have 5 sections of grade 1 girls, and we would have to combine them. This meant that one teacher would have to move....wait for it....to grade 3! Ooo, I was so excited. It's amazing how life can change so many times, so drastically, in a few days.
When I got home I found out Jack had made the swim squad at school. He had stayed after school on Sunday to try out, and he was invited to start practicing with the squad. Because he was bitter towards me, do to the fact I wouldn't let him go to a friend's house, he didn't understand the email I read to him telling him he had been invited to be a part of the swim squad. He only understood when I mentioned it to him again when I tucked him into his bed, then he was excited.
I had the kids bathed and in bed by 6:30 pm. I thought I would go to work out with the touch rugby girls, but instead I decided to go to Trader Vic's with Leanne. I picked her up around 7:30 pm, while Kayleigh stayed with the kids and Stuart was at rugby training. It was such an impromptu event that turned out to be so much fun. I really like Leanne. We have the most in depth conversations about life. She has some wonderful insight that I totally appreciate and value.
We sat at the bar. The only thing I don't like about this restuarant is the smoke. It's one of the few places that allow smoking, of cigarettes, inside. A lot of places let shisha be smoked indoors, but seldom cigarette smoke is allowed.
Hello, crispy duck! This helped us forget the smoke.
I got home just after 10 pm and watched some television. Stuart continued to hit the air conditioner on Monday night. We had called maintenance earlier in the day but they never showed up. Stuart ended up going downstairs to sleep on the sofa.
We got up and went for our medical exam to renew our residence visas. Stuart drove me to school so I could fingerprint in, and then we went to his school to do the same. Then we were off to the medical place. There is one right by his school and it is not as busy as the one in the middle of Al Ain
I arrived at school just before 10 am. I got back to my normal duties. It was really nice to get something accomplished and be able to help my teachers, especially the new ones.
I took the kids to rugby practice because Stuart had to represent the rugby club at an event at a local hotel. I walked while the kids practiced. We saw the weather was turning sour. We ended up having to leave practice early because a storm blew in. However, on our end of town there was no rain, but It was super dusty.
We got home, I bathed the kids, fed them and put them to bed. Our routines are totally back in place. Sundays and Tuesdays are a bit more stressful because we don't get home from the club until after their bedtime. We will get used to it, I'm sure.
Stuart slept downstairs Tuesday night because the AC still wasn't fixed and he couldn't stand the squeaking. He has issues with background noise anyway, so this noise wasn't pleasant for him at all. I, on the other hand, slept like a baby!
Wednesday I actually got to school early. Stuart was home until late in the morning because he had a meeting at a school in town. When I got to school I carried on with my business. I left around 10:30 am to go to a meeting I had in town. Sometimes the meetings we attend are useless, but this particular one was productive and kind of excited me about the potential learning that is going to take place in our school this year.
After my meeting I met Stuart at 101 Cafeteria for a bite to eat before the kids came home. It was nice to sit and chat without interruption. It's also a really cool, local place where the food is good and cheap.
The kids got home and Jack's friends, Michael and Sammy, came over to play. Sammy had to go home because his eyes swelled up. Clearly he should not have touched the cats. Ugh! I felt so bad. I messaged his mother to tell her how sorry I was. She said their family is used to the issue so not to worry about it. I still felt horrible.
Wednesday evening Kayleigh came over to babysit again. Jack had an audition for the musical, The Land of the Lost Stories. So I took him at 5 pm to a local church for the audition. He was such a clown, mainly because I think he was nervous. He went off for his audition and the parents couldn't watch. Boo! He said he did well and they told us we would hear something from them on Friday. On the way home Jack told me he didn't think he wanted to be a part of the play even if they picked him. When questioned, he said he had never had people watch him do something like acting or singing. So we shall see.
After the audition I decided I would make the evening a date night with Jack at Circle Cafe, where they serve sushi, which is his favorite.
Jack was impressed that we could order our food on the iPad.
Believe me, his eyes were bigger than his stomach. In spite of all the extras we took home with us, we had a wonderful evening. We don't do these kind of things enough, so it was really special.
Once we were home, Jack went to bed. Millie was already asleep. I stayed up and watched television, as I always do on a Wednesday evening.
Thursday I was told at the end of the day that I would need to plan on teaching 2 sections of English, which meant 12 periods a week, until the cover teacher showed up for our teacher on maternity leave. Really? Oh, and hear's the kicker, it's grade 1 boys. Super!
I came home just knowing that we had a week off from school because of Eid Al Adha, and I wasn't going to worry about the grade 1 boys for 9 days. We had found out earlier in the week that we were going to get the week off instead of the originally planned 3 days. What a treat! When we found out we had the entire week we decided we would plan some things to do.
Friday I spent the day in Dubai with DeDe, and our friends Hassah and Heather. We went to the art festival and then spent the evening at Dubai Mall. There was some shopping, some food, and a lot of laughter. I didn't get home until almost 1 am. I unpacked the car and started a load of laundry.
I also got the email saying Jack was being offered the part of Humpty Dumpty in The Land of Lost Stories. I messaged Stuart and told him Jack and I would talk about it Saturday morning and then make a decision. He said he didn't want to do it, but I think it was just the unknown he was worried about. Once he found out some of his friends were also in the play he decided he would do it. I have a thespian!
On Friday, in Dubai, I had bought new bedding for Millie so wanted to get it washed so I could put it on her bed Saturday morning. Once the wash had started I went upstairs to take a shower. I decided I would come back downstairs and put the wash in the dryer. When I got downstairs the drain to the washer had somehow come out of the hole that lead to the pipe going out of the house and water was spraying all over our laundry room. The fortunate thing was our laundry room has a raised tile at the door that keeps water from going everywhere there is also a drain in every room, somewhere in the floor. This prevents flooding all together. I worked out that somehow the cats had jimmied the hose that drained the water, and they pulled it out. Dang cats!
I fixed the drain, put Millie's new bedding in the dryer, started another load of laundry to make sure the same thing didn't happen again, and went into the living room to watch the season finale of Bachelor in Paradise, total trash. I didn't actually go upstairs to bed until around 4 am. So as you can assume, when Millie came in at 7 am to tell me she was hungry, I wasn't thrilled. But we were on holiday so there was fun to be had and no time to waste.
I got up and put Millie's new bedding on her bed, then went downstairs to check on the second load of drying I had started on Friday night. It's seems it needed a little more drying time. The kids were awake and asking about breakfast, although they had already eaten a cinnamon roll.
We decided to leave for Raha Beach just before 10 am we had booked in to the resort for two nights. The Rouvis decided to join us for Saturday night. We arrived around 11:30 am and decided, since our room wasn't ready, to go to the mall that is attached to the resort and look for costumes for the kids for Halloween, as well as party favorites for Jack's birthday, which would be in 2 weeks.
We then went to the Irish pub attached to the resort, called McGettigans. 
It is the highlight of our stay at Raha. We were informed during lunch that the pub would be closing at 6 pm that night for the observance of Arafat Day, which was Sunday. For the 24 hours (sun down in Saturday to sun down on Sunday there would be no alcohol served in resorts or restaurants. Well, what do you know?
We got a call during lunch telling us our room was ready. So when we finished eating and paid our bill. We went to reception and thought an as
Once we were in our room we got our swimmers on and headed to the pool.
The Rouvi kids came to our room for about and hour and then we all crashed. A good sleep in a very cold room is exactly what we all needed.
School Corner:
Each week the school sends out photos of the kids from their week. So, I am going to start passing them along to you all.
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