Observations galore!

Sunday I announced I couldn’t do any observations after period 3 as I had to go to my continuous assessment meeting. Because my principal has so much on her plate, she failed to remember that we had been asked to work each week for the entire term, on Sundays for 2 hours. This meant I would go to another campus to work on these assessments. At any rate, I left anyway at 10:30 am. 

In the end, the head of faculty who usually hosts the meeting was ill. So instead of going to work on assessments, I took Stuart to get Sean’s car,  then headed to the doctor to see if I could get my eyes done. She seemed rather sure that insurance would cover it. I would just need to wait a few days to find out. 

Stuart got home with kids just after I got home from the eye doctor. Stuart took Oreo to get his stitches taken out. He actually made it two weeks without ripping them out on his own. 

We left for the rugby club around 4:30 pm. When rugby training was over, we went home for dinner.  I made chicken fajitas in the crock pot. Millie went straight to bed when we got home because she was disrespectful. I’m not sure when she will ever learn. I’m hopeful, though. Jack had fajitas with us. We watched Elementary and then went to bed. 

Monday I got a message from Lara that she was not going to walk. I decided to walk anyway. Duke is my protector on days Lara doesn’t walk. 

I got to school and my principal was as friendly as a pup to me. I’ll take it. I started getting the Daily 5 ready for one of my teachers. We decided we would start this with one teacher and roll it out to everyone in a few weeks. I was very productive at school on Monday. It was a good day. 

I went to pick Millie and Claire up from school. Then I took Millie to Osha’s house, the palace. Millie was so excited. We dropped her off at 3 pm. Stuart picked Jack up from swim club and we were all home for a while. I went back to the palace to pick Millie up at 6 pm. She was still eating so Osha’s nanny invited me in for tea. I saw Osha’s mother and her extended family. While we were in the dining room, Kerri (the nanny for Osha) took Osha back into another room and brought out a gift for Millie. Millie opened her gift and then we headed out to the car. I thanked Kerri and she said this: ‘We love Millie and her confidence. It’s very good for Osha to have Millie around, as Osha is very shy and needs a personality like Millie’s to help bring her out of her shell’. It was such a lovely compliment to Millie. When we got home, Millie and Jack showered. Cathy and Claire came for dinner. It was a nice evening. 

I did four observations at school on Tuesday. My principal was at a meeting in Abu Dhabi which meant I had to do the observations she had scheduled for herself. I got a call from the municipality just before noon. It seems my dog troubles were not over. As I agreed to go meet with the woman at the municipality, the whole story became very clear to me. I knew why we were still being harassed. We live in a complex called The Village. Down the road a bit is a complex called Central Village. My friend, Dana, has been calling the municipality for several weeks now, complaining about these 8 wild dogs that bark all night, just behind her complex. When the rep from the municipality came to The Village he was meant to have gone to Central Village, but instead, our security guard gave him our villa as the one with a dog. Super random! When I finally explained these things to Fatima, she understood. I volunteered to send her a pin of the location of where the wild dogs were. I even sent her pictures of the dogs. Ugh! I hope this ordeal is finally over. 

When I finally got home, I called about our games for the Giant Games Night. It was to happen Thursday, but we decided to postpone the games night until the following Thursday. The games were not likely to show up in time. It then went to pick Millie up. I brought her home and got her ready for dance. We showed up to dance just to find out there was no dance. So I got McDonalds for her for supper and came home. Jack and Stuart left for rugby training, while Millie and I bathed Duke, bathed ourselves and then I painted Millie’s toe nails while she finished her chicken nuggets. While we were watching television, I was looking on Facebook and discovered that Clyde, of Bonnie and Clyde, our two beagles, had died the previous day. Millie cried and cried. She started talking about all of us dying. It was so sad. Bless her sweet little heart. 

Jack and Stuart came home and Jack was sad as well. Millie finally settled down and went up to bed. She continued to talk about how unfair it was that everyone would die one day. 

Wednesday Lara wasn’t going to walk, so I decided I would sleep in a bit as well. Once I was at school, I discovered my principal was not there again which meant I would have to do her observations for Wednesday as well. Ugh!

About mid morning I got the call that my surgery for my eyes had been approved by the insurance. Yahoo! I went for pre-op stuff at 2 pm and unfortunately missed Jack’s swim gala because of it. Thank goodness for video cameras. I am booked in Tuesday for surgery. I’m so excited! No more fat eyelids for me. 

When I got home, some of the big games had arrived, but not all of them so postponing the event was the best idea, but now I wouldn’t be there for it as I would be recovering from my surgery. 

The kids took showers and I got to see Jack’s swim gala videos, of which he won every one of his races. He’s a true athlete. 

Thursday my principal was out again, so more observations were on the schedule. Once school was over, I headed to the mall to buy a birthday gift for Millie’s friend Ava, and then buy some buckets for my teachers’ guided reading materials. Stuart had to go to school to pick up Jack, Adam, Daniel and Millie from school. Jack was having a dreaded sleepover, Stuart’s least favorite thing in the world. When I got home the boys were in Jack’s room playing the PlayStation. They were loud and having a blast. They played for hours. They took a break to walk Duke and then to eat. They finally wound down and went to sleep just after 11 pm. 

Friday morning the boys were up by 6 am. Jack and Adam had a few rugby matches and had to be at the club at 8 am. Daniel went to watch the matches and then they were all going to swim after. Millie had a birthday party at the rugby club pool at 11 am, so it was all perfect. 

I escaped it all and went to see Gina in Abu Dhabi. I got to the Westin at 9:30 am and we headed to pick up our friend, Rania, at 11:30 am and went for an Italian lunch on one of the islands in Abu Dhabi. We spent 4 hours just chatting and eating. It was such a relaxing time to catch up and spend some quality time with friends. Once we left the restaurant, we headed back to Rania’s house and stayed there until almost 11 pm. We got a cab back to the Westin and hit the bed. The Westin might have the best bed I’ve ever slept in. 

Saturday we slept in until 7:30 am. Those blackout curtains are amazing. I had a couple of cups of tea and then headed back to Al Ain. There were no big plans for the day. We took the kids to get passport photos, took my car for its 10,000 kilometer service, and organized dinner plans with the Richardsons. We had them over for a roast dinner, our favorite. The kids played outside, the adults chatted, and then we all ate a delicious meal. Good times with good friends is the best way to end a weekend.