The Telford's Adventure: A busy week and a visit from Gina.

Sunday I got to school and my secretary messaged to say she wouldn’t be at school the entire week, which meant I would have to do the cover plan all week. Lovely!

I was able to get some work done and prepare my teachers for the data information they needed to give to me. It was a busy, but relatively productive day.

I picked the kids up from school and got home to help them do their homework, the bane of my existence. I was determined we wouldn’t leave it until the last minute, this week.

We went to the club early so I could meet with the club house manager about the Christmas Festival. I was happy to hear that all he wanted was for me to supply some activities for the kids, rather than full on games. It was decided that there would be Christmas market stalls where local artists could sell their wares.

After I met with him, I worked out on the exercise bike. We came home and I was in bed by 8:20 pm. It’s the earliest I have been to bed in about 5 years. It felt good.

Monday school was full of observations. Because we have been so busy at school, we kind of forgot we would have to have evaluations completed before the term testing started on November 22. Oops! So, two a day for the next week or two seems to be what is going to happen.

When the kids got home from school they did some more homework. We were well on our way to avoiding last week’s fiasco.

Stuart headed to rugby while the kids showered. Jack called me a liar and spent the majority of the evening in his room. He seems to be testing the boundaries more than I care for recently. He ended up coming down and eating dinner and chilling, then both kids went to bed. Since Jack has been a bit of a pain lately, Millie has made an effort to point out the fact that she ISN’T behaving like Jack.

Stuart got home early and then he went to bed. I went to bed around 10:30 which was still early for me.

I got up to walk on Monday morning, which has been my sanity recently. I was pleasantly surprised when the delivery from the warehouse I ordered on September 20, finally got delivered. I was as happy as a puppy with two peters. The room was a wreck, but at least the items were there and we could use them very soon.

Once I left school, I picked the kids up. We got home, did homework and went to rugby. We decided to also eat dinner at the club. Neither of us could be asked to cook anything.

Wednesday I had two observations that kept me from being able to go to Jack’s open house. He was really bummed about it. I felt so badly, but it was unavailable. In the end, the school nurse called because Jack had come to the clinic complaining of a headache. He has headaches quite often. We’ve had MRIs and everything, but nothing has come of it. After Stuart picked him up they went to the eye doctor, thinking maybe he needed glasses. It turns out that his eyes are fine. Stuart and I both had our eyes tested since we were there. We came home with new prescriptions. But I’m pleased to announce I still don’t need reading glasses.

We got home and were able to lounge around for a few hours before having to pick Millie and Claire up from school. Jack got to feeling better, and was disappointed that I wouldn’t let him go to a friend’s to play. I follow my parents’ rule; if you come home sick from school then there is no leaving the house. He didn’t like that rule at al.

I put dinner in the crock pot. Stuart and Sean went to rugby while the kids and I stayed home. The kids made their own pizza for dinner. I seldom do ‘fun’ things with them, so was quite pleased with myself. However, neither of them love the pizza very much. Oh well, I tried.

I see this at the camel crossing, most mornings on my way to work.

Thursday school was very busy. I got some of the supplies sorted, but manly just finished up the observation paper work for the week. I picked up Millie, Ava and Hattie from school and brought them to our house for a play date.

The girls had a bit of a show for us during their play date. It was adorable.

They stayed until around 7 pm, which is when Stuart picked Jack up from Adam’s house as he had gone home with him for a play date. The kids went to bed and Stuart and I started watching Ghostbusters with Melissa McCarthy. I, naturally, fell asleep.

Sean had a date Thursday night, or at least dinner with a lady. I was awake when he got home at midnight, but tried not to be too nosy, which is so difficult for me.

We got up early Friday morning to help set up the rugby pitches for the women’s tournament and the Under 9s matches which started at 9. Jack had an awesome two matches. His team is going to be really good.

Afterwards the plan was to take Millie, go to my school and work on sorting my new supplies. Jack was going to go to Dubai with Stuart for his match. But then Stuart reminded me that we don’t work on the weekends so the kids and I met some friends at the pool. We took Ian with us and stayed for about 4 hours.

When we got back, Jack ran away from home. The poor kids must be hormonal because everything irritates him or makes him cry. He got mad at me because when we got home from the pool I told the kids to go and take a shower. He didn’t want to do that. I told him we weren’t going anywhere for the rest of the day so I told him it would be one less thing he would have to do later. He argued and argued and argued, even though I didn’t engage with him. He told me I treated him like a baby. When I went upstairs I informed him he didn’t have to take a shower, and if he wanted to be a grown up then that would mean I no longer made his breakfast, lunch or dinner, and he would need to start doing his laundry, you know, the basic things adults take care of. When I left the bathroom he told Millie he was running away. I said, ‘That’s fine, but tell him not to take anything with him because everything in this house belongs to me.

I heard him close the door. I followed him outside and, as he was getting on his bike, I asked him where he was going. He said, ‘I’m leaving!’ I said, ‘That’s fine, but you can’t take that bike. That’s mine.’ He said, ‘Well, actually Grammie and Pop gave me this bike for Christmas, so it is mine.’ I said, ‘You’re right! Off you go.’ Dang! He got me.

I went back into the house, knowing he’d be gone for about 5 minutes. Now if it was Millie running away, I’m sure I’d have to go find her after a few hours. While Millie showered, she cried because she thought Jack had really run away. I kept reassuring her that he would be fine. When she relaxed for about a minute, she asked, ‘Since Jack is gone, can I have his iPad?’ She was really torn up by it all, clearly.

As I predicted, he returned about 5 minutes after he left. He claimed he rode all the way to the round about by our house. There’s no way he did that. He didn’t have the time to do that and he didn’t have the nerve to do that either.

We sorted everything out in the end and he decided that maybe he would be my child again. Wow, it’s difficult growing up.

Cathy came over after the majority of the drama ended. We had dinner and chatted until Stuart and Sean arrived home from their rugby match. Then we all sat around and laughed the night away.

Saturday morning I was up early because our cats were whining and wanted to go outside. To be honest, the hour or so I can get in the morning with no one awake is nice. Once everyone was awake, we got ready and headed for Abu Dhabi. We had made arrangements to get Gina, who was in town for the weekend, and we were going to the food festival called Taste of Abu Dhabi. We arrived at her hotel just after 10. Since Taste of Abu Dhabi didn’t open until noon, we decided to head to the mall for a walk around.

Once we left the mall, we headed to the arena where the festival was. The kids played at the bouncy and then the bungee, while we sampled some delicious food. Of course Jack had sushi and Millie had fish and chips. It was a lovely day with Gina. We ended the day at the mall and then we took Gina to the airport. We got back to Al Ain at 7 pm, just in time for showers and bed.