Sunday the day started at 3:15 am with a message from the guests in the Airbnb. It seems they thought something was wrong with the air conditioner. After staying up the rest of the night, and several phone calls later to the states, the air conditioner repair man found no problem. That's money I will never get back. I have to give a shout out to Liz because she went to the house and waited for the repairman. Whew!
Since I was up anyway, I continued to sort out some of the crap from the guest room. Sean started moving his stuff in just after 9 am. The moving truck arrived just after I returned from taking Molly to be spayed. It was a busy Sunday for sure. I spent most of the day with Astrid and Oscar, our Irish friends' kids. Oscar and Jack played while Millie, Astrid and myself baked banana bread and chocolate chip cookies.
While the kids were playing, Millie had her tooth knocked out by her brother's elbow. She wailed and then settled down when she remembered the tooth fairy would show up that night and leave her money.
When we were baking, I continued sorting out all the crap we had moved from the guest room to the loft and our room. How have we have accumulated so much crap in 4 years?? It amazes me.
I went to pick up Molly around 4:30 pm and boy was she full of drama. Ah whimpered and cried as I put her in the car.
Cathy and Claire came over and collected our cat house from us as our cats never use it and it was one less thing to clutter our house. The kids were in bed at a reasonable time, but both whined about it. This getting back into a routine should be fun.
Monday morning Stuart and I had to go back to wok, so Kayla, our new babysitter, got to the house at about 7:15 am and both Stuart and I were off to work.
What a crazy day at work I had. It was full on until 3 pm and then I worked on the master schedule until almost 10 pm, with a smattering of putting the kids to bed in the middle. Stuart had made sure they were showered before he left for rugby and also fed them so all I needed to do was put them to bed. That was trying for sure.
I did cook dinner for the adults in the house, ate while I was working, then tried to watch some television, but since our VPN is still not working I can't watch the trash shows I so desire.
Tuesday was another day of hard work. I stayed until 4 pm putting teachers into their classrooms. On my way home I was told that Molly had gone to the vet because she had a fever from her surgery. I picked her up at 6:30 and then went home for dinner with Mandy and Cathy. I put the kids to bed prior to that. Sean and Stuart had a meeting for coaches at the rugby club, and then joined us for dinner. I continued to work while they were there. I wasn't a terribly good hostess.
I worked until 2 am. Molly wasn't able to walk up the stairs, so Mama ended up sleeping on the sofa in the living room.
Thank goodness Stuart and I had a meeting on Wednesday. So I didn't have to go to my school. The meeting was telling us how the curriculum was changing. The Abu Dhabi Education Council is in a transitional year and will be merging with the Ministry of Education, based in Dubai.
We had a break and then when we came back to the second half of the training, the trainer asked if any of us had done anything exciting over the summer. I said I published a book. So naturally some of my colleagues wanted to buy a copy. I conveniently had several in the truck. Ha! Never miss an opportunity to make a buck!
I rushed around to get to an appointment to get Gemma and Fechin's car valuated. Just as I had picked up their car, the guy who was supposed to go with me sent a message that the place was closed until 4 pm. It was then 2 pm and I was in the middle of town. So I went to Gemma's for coffee. By the time I did get the car valuated, I missed meeting a friend to discuss the weight loss surgery with her. I felt so badly about it. She understood and said we could reschedule. In the meantime, the kids and Stuart took Molly back to the vet for a check up.
On the way to meet the family at the rugby club, I got pulled over by a policeman and received a beautiful fine for talking on my phone. Seems I have money to burn these days. Oops!
The kids and I ate dinner at the club. On our way home, we stopped at Abela's for some snacks. The book signing was at our house on Thursday right after school, so I needed to get some refreshments. Once we were home, the kids showered and went to bed. Stuart got home just before the kids were asleep. It had been a very long day. It was time for all of us to go to bed.
School continued to be hectic now Thursday. The school was not even close to being ready for occupancy. However, we were told we would start school on Sunday no matter what. The show must go on.
Once I was home I waited for the first person to show up at the book signing. It was not a highly attended event, but I did sell quite a few books. It seems that people who couldn't make it, sent their money with other people. It was quite flattering.
After the book signing, Lara, Brian, And Cathy came by for wine and conversation. Brian and Lara stayed until after midnight. They are always in for the long haul. Stuart even went to bed before they went home. We watched a show called Naked Attraction. It's wrong on so many levels. It's from the U.K. and it is rude, but also like a train wreck and you can help but continuing to watch. Look it up!
Friday I had a conference call with my principal and vice principal. We spoke for nearly 2 hours, just catching up on what each of us had done to prepare us for the first day of school with kids.
Most of the rest of the day was chilled and enjoyed we went to the club around 4 pm for the official kick off of the rugby season, Open Day. Stuart played for the first time since his surgery. He played 10 of the 80 minutes. I think he is going to choose to play in the community team this year. We want to camp more this year and if he played more then we couldn't.
Saturday morning we took Molly up to the dog clinic to meet Peaches. Sadly, Peaches was way too much like Molly. She was very dominant and needed to show that to Molly. Millie was sad that we decided to go for Duke, but we told her that our loyalty had to remain to Molly and because Peaches wasn't terribly nice to Molly we really had to go with the dog that got along best with Molly.
After we took Molly to meet Peaches, we headed to my school so I could work for a few hours. I walked the building and looked at what each classroom had in it. We were missing furniture and the like, but still we were opening. Huh? I just work here.
Stuart took kids to Fun Block while I walked our building, discovering all kinds of things that were not complete or seemed dangerous. He also did the grocery shopping. A couple of hours after I arrived, I left. It was time.
Home we went. Then I headed to the bookstore to make some copies. Oh, did I mention we still have no technology in our school, including a copy machine? I bought some things for my teachers as well. I then took Jack to get his hair cut for school. He was actually excited about the new school now, which was such a relief for us. After the hair cut, I was home on the sofa for the rest of the afternoon and evening.
Sean made dinner, while Jack went to the Karnik's house and returned just after 5. The kids took a shower, ate and Millie was actually in bed by 6:30 pm. The night before the first day of school, and there was no fussing at all. She must have been very excited, and tired. Sean went to physical therapy and missed the kids bed routine, which is best for everyone. Stuart and I ate dinner and then I fell asleep on the sofa before 9 pm, waking up around midnight and heading to bed. I can hardly imagine what this upcoming week will be like. Until next we meet, pray for us.
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