Stuart had taken his car to have a tune up the previous day, and since he had taken Cathy back to her house the previous evening because she had a horrible migraine, he picked her up to take him to get his car from the garage. He got back to preparing when he returned.
Sean came over just after 2 pm and the Rouvis joined shortly after. We ate around 3 pm. The food was amazing and the company was so enjoyable.
A pre dinner Baileys.
The kids and their dinner!
And the others and their dinner!
Monday morning I slept until 8 am. I went to Dubai with Lara and Kayla. We shopped at the mall and then went to Global Village, which is a shopping and cultural experience of all the countries/continents of the world. The traffic to get to this place was unreal. There were so many people. I was so glad Stuart hadn’t gone with us. It was way to peopley for him. I bought a couple of things from my favorite European store called Tipsie Gypsie. We got home just after 9 pm and I was exhausted.
This was the display in front of The Americas region.
We were up around 5 am and heading to Dubai to meet up with Roy and Joy Lawson. Roy is one of the two ministers who performed our marriage ceremony. He was also the pastor at Central Christian Church when I sang in the band so many years ago. We met them at the cruise terminal just as they were coming off of the boat. They were both surprised as they didn’t expect us for at least an hour after they arrived. We immediately headed to Dubai Mall. We had breakfast, went to visit the fountain and take pictures of the Burj Khalifa and then went on the Big Bus Tour, my favorite thing to do in any city!
We got off of the bus a few times; the museum, the souq, and for the show cruise on the Dubai Creek. It was the perfect way to see Dubai.
Lovely Roy and Joy on the top of the Big Bus.
At the museum Joy did what Joy does best, take pictures.
After the Souq experience we waited by the creek for the Big Bus to collect us.
The Dhow cruise was a relaxing break.
We returned to the mall after a 4 hour tour on the bus and had a late lunch at Texas Roadhouse, the antithesis if local cuisine. We then headed back to Al Ain to check them into their hotel and go watch Jack play touch rugby. They would have stayed with us but Roy is allergic to dogs and cats.
Getting them to their hotel was not as easy as I thought it would be. They stayed at the Aloft. What I forgot was that the Aloft is connected to the city’s football stadium, and it being the National Day holiday, there were still a great deal of celebrations going on in and around the stadium. They did, however, get an upgrade and were able to see some local men on the stage at the back of the hotel. Their room looked right down on the courtyard. The men were doing their traditional Yolla dance. It was for sure an experience not all get.
Once they were checked in we headed to the club to watch the second half of Jack’s rugby match. They got beat quite badly, but he wasn’t terribly upset by it. I then took Roy and Joy back to their hotel to get a good night’s sleep. I then remembered I needed a sheet for my toga for our Romans vs Amazonian Day. So I had to take a detour to Carrefour before returning home.
Wednesday morning I was up early to get in my costume. Millie was also ready to go. We had a great day of competitions between our Year 3 Romans and our Year 4 Amazonians. Sadly, the Amazonians beat the Romans, but all the children had fun, which was the important part.
Jack and I picked up Joy and Roy after our staff briefing, then dropped them off at the house for Stuart to take them to the rugby club. Jack and I headed to the orthodontist. Jack was so excited about his braces.....until he realized the brackets would catch his cheeks. Then it wasn’t quite as thrilling. He kept messing with the wire as it didn’t connect to his eye teeth because they are too far up in his head at this stage and they have to wait for a month until the front 4 straighten up.
Lovely!
He chose blue rubber bands for this first round.
We went to the club after his appliances were on. His rugby buddies greeted him and were as excited about his braces as he was.
Stuart had his dress match. This is the rugby practice the Wednesday before the Dubai 7s. It’s where they all dress in a dress and play touch rugby. It isn’t great preparation for the Dubai 7s, but they seem to have fun.
After his training, we stayed for quiz night. The first 4 or 5 rounds were good and we even ended up winning a food voucher. The last round was music. I’m always so crap at this particular round. It also seemed to last forever. After the quiz was over, I took Roy and Joy home and then went to the grocery store to buy the ingredients for my no bake cookies in preparation for the cookie exchange at DeDe’s on Saturday. Once I was home it was time for bed.
Thursday morning we got up and were already ready for the week to be over even though we only went two days in the week. Millie got star of the week, and her teacher wrote that she is a ‘slayer of dragons’. That totally describes Millie. She’s scared of nothing and no one. We were so proud of her. Stuart left school around 10 am to go to the Dubai 7s. His first match was at noon. I covered his third lesson and his playtime duty. His team covered him the rest of the day.
After school we headed home to change clothes and then to pick up Roy and Joy. We headed to Dubai to check them into their hotel. Once they were checked in we headed to the Social House to eat dinner. We got an outside table and were able to see the fountains, by the Burj Khalifa, go off several times while we ate.
We had the perfect seats. After dinner we headed back to Roy and Joy’s hotel to drop them off and say farewell. Our drive home seemed super long. Stuart messaged to say they had lost their first match and won their second match. He was headed back to his hotel about the time we passed the Dubai 7s stadium on our way home. When we arrived home the kids went straight to bed as did I.
I was awake at 8 am and making my no bakes.
These were the easiest cookies ever!
After the cookies were finished the kids and I met Cathy at the mall to see Frozen 2. That Olaf just simply cracks me up. I so hope Jack always wants to go see Disney films with me, but I suspect our time is short regarding these films. After the film, we shopped around for a bit and then headed home. Once home we went to our neighbor’s house for a holiday party. It reminded me of home for sure. There weren’t a lot of people I knew, but some from school that were at least familiar. I spent a couple of hours there and then came home to make dinner for Cathy and myself. She came over and finished baking her apricot slices for the cookie exchange the following day. We watched a couple of Christmas movies and then she decided to stay over in the guest room.
Saturday morning we headed to the orthodontist at 9 am to have the bracket replaced Jack broke off on Thursday afternoon. He had suffered for a little over 24 hours with a wire poking in his cheek. I’m not sure he did anything wrong to break the bracket, but maybe the pain he experienced will keep him from doing foolish things concerning his new hardware.
Cathy took a cab to the orthodontist. She had taken her car to the dealership to fix the airbags on her car. The error light was on so she felt she needed to get it checked out. Sure enough, they would need to order the part which would take 4-5 days. It was decided she would pick her car up and return it later in the week for the repair. Once Jack’s mouth was sorted we stopped at the supermarket for a few things, then headed back to the house.
I prepared dinner for the evening and Cathy marked some of her books. We then went to collect her car. We decided we would also have lunch at the club. Once we were back from the club it was time for our cookie exchange. As there always are, there were a few folks that flaked and decided not to come. This kind of stinks as we all made a certain amount of cookies. However, those who did show up had a fantastic time catching up with friends and eating delicious cookies.
When I got home Stuart had arrived and had his laundry in the washing machine. The kids were playing at their friends’ houses and returned home shortly after I got home from the cookie exchange. I brought home several dozens of cookies. Some went into the freezer immediately. I put the enchiladas in the oven and made Millie pasta. I went to take a shower while Millie was eating. After Millie was in bed Stuart and I ate. Jack went to bed around 8:30 pm. Stuart waited up for a delivery guy to bring his new iPhone 11, but it didn’t show up. So he went to bed. I caught up on my trash shows and then called it a night. We are very excited for this next week to fly by. Bring on the winter holidays!
The following are pictures of Stuart at the Dubai 7s. He had a great time.
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