Stuart got up and we wished him a happy birthday. He opened his presents and then we watched church. The kids played Fortnite afterwards because Jack created an account for Millie. What do you say to your eight year old daughter when she says ‘Mom, I got 9 kills today’? Not sure, but very sure I won’t be getting any award for this.
For Stuart’s birthday lunch, we ordered Oregano’s, a local Italian favorite. We played corn hole in the afternoon, and quickly decided that this would be a game we would need to start playing either early in the morning or a bit later in the afternoon. My love of the cool weather has been destroyed, as summer is here.
Who is that masked man?
Prior to the lunch pick up, we went to Target to get a peg for our bike rack to go on the back of our car. We also picked up some puzzles that the ran out of early in the quarantine.
I’m not sure we will finish these as they seem a bit more difficult than the puzzles I remember doing as a kid.
We ate our lovely Italian lunch and then just chilled for the afternoon. Stuart set up his birthday present, a 40 inch television. We figured we would need one at some stage. This way, we are able to have some television time to ourselves and not make everyone watch what we want to watch. I’m hoping it doesn’t make us antisocial.
On Saturday afternoon, Grammie and Pop took Millie and Jack and they went to wash the car. Then they went to Sonic for milkshakes and ice cream sundaes. Millie put hers in the freezer and enjoyed it on Sunday afternoon.
Mess!
We watched the new television for a while and then kids showered and ate dinner. After dinner and before the kids went to be, Stuart and I sat on the driveway and toasted to Stuart’s 45th birthday.
The kids went to bed, and Stuart and I had meetings. I did my best to meet with my English pupils. It was hilarious. What we had wanted to do was a demonstrate our knowledge of a story by using actions to go with the story. It was a bit chaotic for sure, but we gave it a try. The rest of the evening was quite boring. I finally went to bed just before 3 am.
I was up at 6:30 am to approve some assignments and participate in my favorite activity all week, my walk with Sue. We had to go on Monday this week as I had an interview on Tuesday and couldn’t go at our regular time. Our walk was good for my soul and I do look forward to it each week. After our walk, I headed home and helped the kids with school. We finally got on board with the school work being sent by Riggs. Stuart and I decided to play corn hole after the first hour of school because it was cooler than the afternoon. We had lunch of chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, which were a hit.
The afternoon was filled with school, games, Fortnite and showers. Because it is heating up now, we are going to have to change our schedule for the park. We may need to move it to the morning slot in the next few days.
Also in the afternoon, the kids played dress up in Grammie and Pop’s closet. They used to love doing this when they were littler and staying with my parents during the week. I’m not sure but what they enjoyed it as much this day as they did all those years ago.
On Monday night I decided to skip my responsibilities as a teacher and go to bed early. I was so exhausted and felt there wouldn’t be a lot of interaction in the UAE waking hours. Because it is now Ramadan, many children are doing their work in the later evening, so not as many questions are being asked.
When I woke up Tuesday morning I discovered they could function without me. I only had one message and it wasn’t urgent. I only had about 30 assignments to approve and no one was the wiser. I completed my work for the day, got dressed, did my hair and make up in order to get ready for my interview.
The family left the house at 9 am and I started my interview at 9:10 am. It was awkward, but I did my best. So let the chips fall where they may. The questions were similar to the ones asked in the Assistant Principal’s interview. I felt I was consistent with my answers, as two of the committee had been in on my previous interview. We shall see where all of this goes.
Once the kids were back, we decided to play hookie for the morning and only do school in the afternoon. The kids were thrilled and so were the adults. We had lunch and then the kids did writing in the afternoon. They really worked hard, which was nice to see. Millie made up dances the rest of the day and then performed them for us before dinner.
After we ate dinner, we played cards for a bit and then put Millie to bed in our room, in hopes she would go to sleep a bit earlier. With her being the tiniest person in the house, she gets the smallest bedroom, which just happens to be closest to the living room. When she goes to bed, none of us are ready to do so. Therefore it does sometimes provide noise that keeps her from going to sleep. But we are not going to stop our lives for that, so our solution for now is to let her fall asleep in our bed and then we can carry her to her bedroom. Tuesday night it seemed to work. She went to sleep rather quickly.
Stuart and I sat in our lawn chairs, on the driveway, for a while and just were there....together.....but didn’t feel the need to talk.....or anything. These days do start to run together and become a bit mundane. It helps a bit knowing we are not the only ones going through this.
Jack went to bed at his normal time. He went through the routine of having everyone come into his room to say goodnight. He’s still such a little boy.
Stuart and I stayed up until after 3 am on Tuesday night. I had a team meeting and then approved some activities online. The good thing about a Tuesday night is that we only have one more late night before the weekend. That keeps us going for sure.
I didn’t wake up until after 8 am, and then realized that Millie was supposed to have Zoomed with her friend Kalina at 8 am. I rescheduled it for that evening instead, and once Millie woke up I let her know this. She was fine with that.
We went to the park for the first school slot and then when we got back we had our first hour of school. Because the days are heating up, we have decided the park needs to be the first thing we do in the day from now on. My mom did school when we returned while Stuart and I worked. I called my friend Skip to speak to him, and then we had lunch. We are starting to run out of creative ideas for meals, so I suppose it’s time to start at the beginning again.
The kids played around after lunch and then Stuart took my dad to get his truck window fixed. It wouldn’t roll up on Tuesday when they went to wash it, so after trying to sort it out at the house, they ended up taking it to the dealership. Once they were back, school hour number 2 happened. The afternoon would see the kids making up dances to their favorite songs. Then of course they performed them for us. This was their second day of dance class and recitals.
After we ate dinner, Millie got to talk to her friend Kalina. She then had difficulty going to sleep. In fact, she was still awake at 10:30 pm. millie is the child that has a small window of opportunity to put to bed and have her quickly fall asleep. We clearly missed it on Wednesday evening.
once Jack was in bed, and after our driveway time, Stuart and I worked our last evening of the week. He had a team meeting where his team was convinced Emirates flights would resume on June 1. If that is the case, we will be able to get back to the UAE for a few weeks and close everything up properly. We shall see If this really happens. I went to bed just before 3 am. I was exhausted, but still only slept until 8 am. i find myself being more tired than normal this week.
We skipped school for the kids on Thursday. I just couldn’t be bothered, to be honest. They got dressed and ate breakfast, then Millie helped Grammie dust the house, while Jack helped Pop mow the lawn. Each child was paid a bit of money and were pleased as punch.
We then left the house to wash one of our cars. Stuart had an interview with an elementary school for a teaching position so we had to get out of the house. He called while we were washing the car to tell me his interview was at noon rather than 11 am, as he had originally thought. We have decided our emails are not set on the proper time zone, which is what is throwing us off. At any rate, we had to figure out what we would do for another hour. We decided to go to the supermarket and Mom would pick up some needed items. We then drove through Taco Bell and got everyone something for lunch. I didn’t partake, as I have put myself on a ‘reset my pouch’ diet. It seems that being quarantined has not been the promoter for continuing to fit into my clothes. So I decided to attempt this 10 day rest. Wish me luck.
My mom and I headed back out to a couple of other supermarkets to get some advertised meat and fruits. I bought some items for my 10 day reset and then we returned to the house. My dad had gone to collect his truck at the dealership because they were going to charge him an arm and a leg to fix his back window. So his plan was to buy the part and take the truck to a guy at a shop up the road.
He returned shortly after we got all the groceries unloaded. I decided to go into the bedroom for a rest. I was so tired, hungry and had a caffeine headache. Oh, yeah, I can’t have coffee during these 10 days. Ugh! I ended up kind of dozing for almost 3 hours. It’s such an awful feeling to sleep part of the day away when everyone else is up, but I couldn’t help myself.
I had chicken broth for dinner and the we sat around and talked for a while. We then sat in the living room after the kids were in bed. It had been an exhausting week. Stuart and I went to bed around 10 pm and I fell asleep shortly after my head hit the pillow.
We were up just before 7 am as we had a rugby committee meeting at 7. It was good to see everyone on Zoom. We met for about an hour and then got the kids breakfast and sorted for the day. Jack had to do a couple of tests, but not before he had a session at the park with Pop. Both kids went to the park with Pop. They were back within an hour, all sweaty and tired. I had done some laundry while they were gone. I then laid down for a while as I was hungry, had a head ache and needed a rest.
Lunch was chicken, mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. Sadly, I had butternut squash soup. I’m hoping this reset will really set me back on the path of losing weight. If it doesn’t, I’m going to resent these 10 days.
After lunch we had another lie down in the room while the kids played on their electronics. My phone rang in the middle of the afternoon. The person on the other end asked to speak to Stuart. It turned out to be the Dean at the school he interviewed telling him he was going to be recommended to the board as their new 4th grade teacher. He was thrilled and of course excepted the recommendation. Of course, then, he wanted to take a drive to go see his new school. The kids went with us and fussed the entire time.
Once were back to the house, the kids showered and ate dinner. After dinner, we decided to watch a movie called Oddball. It’s based on a true story about an island in Australia where fairy penguins were dying out. Along cane Oddball, a dog, and frightened away the fox that were killing these penguins. It was a very cute movie and the kids loved it. Millie hit the hay just after the movie and Jack followed shortly, as did we.
I woke up about 4 times in the night. It seems that a liquid only diet causes more visits to the bathroom than I remember. We finally got out of bed around 8 am. The kids were already awake and deep into Fortnite with their friends from the UAE.
Stuart informed me that his step mother was in the hospital for some reason, but he couldn’t figure out why. When he finally spoke to his dad, it seems Lyn had a stroke. She was in an excellent facility for such a condition, but Andrew couldn’t be with her because of the virus. These times are so difficult for so many. He would know a little more in a few days about her prognosis.
Stuart and I went to the store to get some more soup for me and we went by Verizon to get Stuart a SIM card for his phone. When we initially got here he didn’t get one as Verizon had said his phone wasn’t zoned for the states. So we went to a different store and they had a way around it. Feels as if we are still in the UAE. There’s always a way around things in the UAE.
We returned to lunch of bacon wrapped pork chops, hash browns, eggs and biscuits. It looked amazing, but then again I think cardboard looks amazing when you are on a liquid diet. Millie didn’t eat much, and then expected to be able to have a jello cup after. Well, as you would guess, she decided to eat her eggs in order to get her jello cup.
The afternoon was lazy, as has been the case lately. The kids played games with Grammie and Pop and Stuart and I watched television in our room, well, maybe I slept.
We spent some of the evening getting ready for our week of work. This week we would be doing live sessions with our students, so it was sure to be exciting.
The normal evening routine ensued and all was right with the world. The talk of ‘opening’ up kind of worries me, but I guess that’s not my decision to make.
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