Sunday I went with my Vice Principal to visit another school. We are really trying to get our heads around how we should present this new curriculum where the kids will best benefit. It’s quite difficult when we don’t have the students all day.
After school I went to pick up Millie and Claire while Jack stayed for water polo. Stuart picked up Jack about 50 minutes later. Once we were all home, I started sorting out the decorations from the ball into buckets. We finally have shelves in a storage area for all the things we have collected from our social activities. It’s not just piled in a corner any more.
The kids went to Lara’s and got home at 5. Claire came over to take Duke for a walk. We decided maybe that was Duke’s last walk for a while, at least at that time of day. Poor dog came back a bit panty. We did a whole lot of nothing the rest of the evening.
Monday was another day at school. I can’t get out of that place fast enough, even if it does mean I’m having surgery. After school I picked up Millie and Claire, while Jack stayed for swim squad. Stuart picked Jack up from swim squad. We all made our way to the club and returned the ball decorations. I went to bootcamp and twisted my bad knee. Maybe that will be another surgery soon. Certainly hope not. I find myself enjoying bootcamp a bit. I feel so much stronger.
When I got home, I attempted to call and change our home owner insurance so it could be a rental. I also tried to cancel services for the house in Queen Creek. Automated phone services are my nemesis.
Tuesday morning Lara messaged and said she wasn’t feeling up to walking so I slept for another 30 minutes.
I requested some personal time to collect Louise, Billy and Zoe in Dubai. It was denied. My principal said it was denied because I had been off work for 8 days for a surgery in February that she thought probably could have waited until spring break. She said another factor was that I would be out for 6 weeks for my hysterectomy. Hmmm, anyone know what would happen if this conversation were to take place at a school in the states? Yep. Super out of line. So I told my principal she would need to decide what she needed to do as I was leaving at 11:30 am on Thursday anyway. She said she guessed I would just fingerprint out and deal with the consequences later. What she doesn’t realize is that nothing will happen. That’s how little she knows about this system. I’m not sure why she wants to die on these hills.
I picked Millie up from yoga at school and we stopped for a snack before heading to dance. After dance I dropped her off at the club and picked Cathy up at the club to head to golf lessons. I bought Stuart’s birthday present while I was there, 6 golf lessons! I also booked a round of golf for Stuart and James, his brother who was coming into town to surprise him. We schemed this up last week.
After golf we ate at the club. Then it was home time, and time to fight getting the kids to bed. The creatures of habit get out of sorts when we break their routine.
Wednesday Lara and I walked and chatted about my school drama. She is definitely my sounding board most mornings.
Once Stuart was gone, I put my ‘James surprising Stuart’ plan into action. I wrapped Stuart’s birthday gift and set it on the porch. The plan was that James would arrive at our place around 9 and Stuart would come home around 10. I had convinced him he had to be home to get a delivery for his birthday. He balked a bit, but agreed to be home at 10. I was at school this whole time, but the story was relayed to me. James arrived on time, but Stuart got home early. It seems he opened his gift, was confused as to why he had to be home for that, went into the house and saw the suit case on the table and assumed I had started packing after he had left that morning, when it was actually James’ suit case. He then heard the shower running, out two and two together and figured it out when James was coming down the stairs. James thought he had plenty of time to shower before Stuart got home, but he really didn’t. Stuart was indeed surprised.
They spent the day golfing, then met Millie and me at school for Jack’s swim gala, where he won first place in all of his events. He really loves swimming and he’s fast.
Once the swim gala was over, we went home to change. The kids and dads put their swimmers on and I put on my workout clothes. I attended bootcamp and they swam. Afterwards we all ate dinner. James was picked up from the club at 9 pm. He went back to Dubai, checked in at the Westin and waited for Louise and the kids to arrive around 2 am.
I decided since I was leaving early I would go to work early as well. Stuart didn’t go to work so he took the kids to school and I left the house at 5:30 am. I got a few things done in the morning. We had an award ceremony at the assembly, where I informed Tiffany that she might want to remind people the fingerprint machine wasn’t working and they would need to put in their time manually. The entire time she never made eye contact with me and continued to walk forward, but really paying attention to me. No matter what decisions people make in life, I don’t think I ever give the cold shoulder to them if it doesn’t effect me. She’s a treat to work for, as you can guess. The sad part is, she has some excellent ideas and excellent leadership skills. However, they are overshadowed a bit by her childish behavior.
At 10:30 am she message me and said I would need to help a grade 3 class with their online assessment in my office as the teacher didn’t have internet connection and needed my assistance. So, I grabbed those students and had them tested in 40 minutes. I then left the building.
When we leave the building we are supposed to sign out in a book the security guard has. The security guard told me that the secretary had come outside and asked him if I had left. He said she was looking for my car. So of course I called her and asked her if she was looking for me. She said ‘no’. I said, ‘Oh, Narayan said you came out and asked him if I had left’. She again said ‘no’. Liar!
I decided to call my cluster manager, Jonetta. I explained the situation and she said, ‘Don’t worry. You are allowed to take up to 6 hours of personal time a month.’ So, I suppose I won’t worry about it until I get written up. And Jonetta seemed okay with it so I’m going to wash my hands of it.
I let Stuart know I was going to be late getting home and asked him if he could get the kids from school. He ended up getting them as I was rushing home. I changed clothes and finished packing once I was home. We left the house just before 1 pm, on our way to a wonderful birthday weekend away for Stuart!
We arrived at Atlantis just before 3 pm. Louise and James weren’t there yet, but arrived shortly after we got there. We got checked in and went to our suite. We were on the imperial level so we got free breakfast each morning.
We decided not to go to the water park, but instead took the kids swimming for a bit. We came back to the room and got ready for dinner. We had babysitters for the kids and we went to a fancy Japanese restaurant for Stuart’s birthday. We then went to smoke sheesha. It was a great night.
We got up Friday morning and had some breakfast in room. Then I went out to find a bottle for Zoe. They seem to have lost it at their previous hotel. I took a cab and the driver was bitter we were only going to be going 7 miles. It was not nice. But the mission was accomplished.
When I returned we headed to the water park for a couple of hours. We returned after some family rides and got ready for our brunch at Gordon Ramsey’s Bread Kitchen Restaurant. It was a delightful meal. The kids got to decorate their own cupcakes and then at 2 pm, we took them to the kids’ club and enjoyed another couple of hours at the brunch. All the while, Zoe slept.
The boys got hot outside so they came in for a cool wash cloth.
The cupcake station was a hit.
Zoe loved desserts!
Once we finished brunch we collected the kids and decided to go for a swim. The evening was filled with kids playing and having fun with our family.
Saturday morning we got up, went to Kaleidoscope for the buffet breakfast and then headed back to the water park. We spent a couple of hours riding rides and floating down the lazy river. We then decided to go back to the resort pool. Stuart and James had a beer at the bar, while Lou, myself and the kids had a swim in the pool.
We all headed up for a shower and a late check out. The plan was to have lunch and then we were heading back to Al Ain and they were heading to the Ritz Carlton for another two nights. We ended up eating a later lunch than expected, but it was delightful. The kids made their own pizzas and we were entertained by a magician.
We all got in respective cars around 5 pm and headed our separate ways. What an amazing weekend we had. We are always entertained with James and Louise. The best thing to come out of our times together are the plans for another time together. This trip we planned our Christmas holiday. Louise is flying me to Miami to go and babysit Zoe on a 7 night cruise in the Caribbean. Then the three of us will meet Stuart, James and the boys in Sydney for a little over a week. I’m so excited!
Once we were home I washed clothes and got the kids ready for bed. I had to pop into the supermarket for some lunch things for the following morning. It was a wonderful birthday weekend for Stuart, and we enjoyed it as well.
