Sunday morning we watched church and then had breakfast and did our normal Sunday morning things. We had a lunch of roast beef and the trimmings. Of course I didn’t, as I am still on the pouch reset and soup was my meal. Yummy!
The afternoon brought a lot of laying around and actually feeling a bit down. I find this quarantine thing has its ups and downs for sure. Stuart and I watched tv in our room for a great deal of the day and the kids were on their devices. It’s maddening, but sometimes it’s our only escape from this surreal situation.
In the evening, when it was time for showers, the princess had a full and utter meltdown. Over what, you ask? Well, I believe it was because she was told to not speak in a ‘tone’ with me. This brought on a great deal of yelling and talking back. As you could guess, this went over well with me. In the end, there were electronics taken away and an earlier bedtime. Funny that!
Stuart and I settled into the teaching evening once everyone was in bed. I feel I have a routine of sorts. I work harder on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings because I am preparing lessons for the following week. It makes the time pass a bit quicker and makes the first few days of the week a bit easier.
Monday morning I woke up around 8 am and zoomed with Lara. Lara has agreed to packing up our house and selling our stuff. She is a true friend, that is for sure.
We decided to take the kids to the park at 9 am before it got too hot. Grammie and Pop didn’t join us because they were getting ready for their check-ups with their general doctor. When we returned from the park, Jack was wheezing a bit as he has for a while, after he exercises. I used to see his lack of being able to breath as a dramatization because either he lost a competition or thought he didn’t play well. I’m going to feel like a schmuck if he has Asthama. I called the pediatrician and they set up a Google call for Tuesday at 2 pm. If they couldn’t diagnose him by the information I gave them, then I would have to take him into the office.
Grammie and Pop were gone by 10 am and the kids had started their morning schooling, which was quite productive.
Jack got onto a chat with, what would have been, his class at Riggs Elementary. He then finished his autobiography and Millie worked on standard measurement, which is difficult for my kids as the metric system is all they have ever known.
We had lunch without Grammie and Pop as they were out and stopped by Subway for lunch. Millie prayed for our lunch as a stand in for Pop. The afternoon was filled with a little bit of corn hole, some school and then after dinner we played Scattegories, which brings on a lot of laughter.
We also continued working on the puzzle from hell.
Our evening was a lot of the same, school, watching Netflix, Insatiable and Shameless, along side my brother Mitch. We have been calling each other most days and discussing the shows. It’s actually really fun. In fact, we’ve had some of the biggest laughs of our lives the last couple of weeks.
I got up Tuesday morning and walked with Sue. I was later than normal, but we still walked for an hour and nattered on even after we stopped walking. It was great as always. When I got home the kids had started their first hour of schooling and it seemed to be going fairly well. We finished a bit early and decided to go and view some houses in the neighborhood that were for sale. We ended up seeing 4 different houses. We found one we really liked, but until we get jobs there is no way we can qualify for a loan. So for now we sit tight and wait, and hope the house sits tight as well. If not, there will be another house that’s perfect for us. We atto stay n this neighborhood so the kids can ride their bikes to Grammie and Pop’s, not to mention the fact that we like this neighborhood. We got home and had lunch of burgers, but I didn’t. This day I was allowed to eat tuna. Yahoo!
It was an afternoon of sitting at the kitchen table and shooting the breeze with my mom and dad. So much so that we ended up just having the kids do about 20 minutes of work, but it was valuable work. Millie read some little stories and Jack took a Kahoot quiz on the Westward Movement, which meant he had to be taught about it beforehand.
Stuart and I went to get some things from Costco and were pleased to see they were enforcing their ‘no mask, no entry’ rule. There were not a ton of people in there. We got our items and headed home. When we got home we witnessed the kids playing in the water hose. They nearly ruined the grass, but they had fun.
This was after all the fun.
After dinner, Stuart and the kids played a new game, Rocket League, he bought for Jack on his PS4. Then we listened to Harry Potter, the book we have been listening to on our audio books. After Millie was in bed, Pop and I attempted the puzzle again, and Grammie joined a bit later. Then I decided to go out front and sit with Stuart for our evening white trash driveway time. Jack went to bed and then school commenced. It was business a usual.
Wednesday morning I got up around 8:30 am. My parents had already left for the dentist. My mom had cracked a filling a couple of weeks back so needed to get it fixed. Stuart and I did our work and then had school for the kids. Again, it seems having them do their math in the morning our is good because it is more self-led, so they don’t need us a lot.
For some reason, on Tuesday, the doctor’s call didn’t happen, but instead took place on Wednesday. Wouldn’t you know it? After describing Jack’s breathing troubles she diagnosed him with asthma. She called in an inhaler to the pharmacy for him. When we got there I discovered his insurance policy didn’t cover medication. Again, this insurance racket might kill me. So $45 later, we were set for exercise and breathing relief. We picked up Chipotle for lunch, but not for me. Oh, I hope this reset is worth it.
They got the band back together!
After lunch Stuart played Jack’s new PS4 game with he and Millie. They played so long that we cut school short for the afternoon. Wrong? Probably. There are only three more weeks of school for them. Then we will have to figure out what to do with them during the day in June. That could prove to be challenging.
I worked on the puzzle some of the afternoon. I then got an email about the Dean’s job. They chose to go with other candidates, but I was encouraged to continue to apply for administrative positions. I suppose a Dean’s job was not the right job for me. Back to the drawing board I go.
The kids had made up dances and danced for us in the late afternoon. Millie is really good at entertaining herself and pulls Jack into her lay from time to time. Everyone carried out their evening routines. Then Grammie and Pop spent the evening with me working on the puzzle. It may be becoming an obsession.
During our late night on Wednesday I spoke with Cathy on the computer. It was so good to see her and catch up. It kind of dawned on me then how difficult this must be for her. She is compromised with her lung issues so doesn’t go anywhere. She’s a bit scared to do so. It wasa bit sad to speak with her as it kind of hit me we may never get back to see her. I believe she will come visit us, but it won’t be the same.
I woke up Thursday morning and approved some lessons, working until about noon in order to get lessons done for the following week. Normally I have this all done by Wednesday night. But with all the things weighing on my mind, I couldn’t stay focused all week, so failed to get all of my work done. Stuart worked a bit longer as well. The kids did their daily math while we continued working.
We had fried homemade chicken nuggets for lunch, I of course had an avocado. I was on day 8 of this reset and bored! But I only had one more day and was hopeful my baby tummy was back to its infantile state. I finally decided that at some stage I would actually have to fit back into the clothes I have, so this reset was necessary, and following a relatively strict eating plan needs to be in my future for the next six months, at least. Wish me luck.
The afternoon was spent doing a whole lot of nothing. We decided that watching two episodes of Magic School bus counted as our afternoon schooling session. The schooling thing is getting old, for us and them. We might have failed them this week in the schooling department.
Before dinner and showers we played some Uno. The kids then showered and played together, then performed a dance again. Millie went to bed, but not without a great deal of yelling. Her disrespectful tone is more than any of us can take anymore. She has an answer for everything. At any rate, after screaming and crying from her room she settled down. I then went into her room and she was able to listen to me with listening ears. I prayed with her and we asked God to help her to control her tone and stop being so disrespectful. When I said ‘Amen’, she burst into tears and said ‘I love you, Mama. I’m sorry’. I know she means it, but seems to never learn from her poor behavior. I did ask her if there was anything Daddy and I could do to help her stop when she starts to get disrespectful and yells. I told her I felt sometimes when we had to reprimand her, she was embarrassed and it made things worse. She said, ‘Mom, if you could do this (put her finger to her lips as if you say ‘shhh’) or this (made the motion of cutting her neck off), I think it would help’. So I agreed to it and told Stuart as well. We shall see if it works.
We worked on the puzzle we like to call ‘God’s little torture’. However, we had some more laughs, and it’s time the grown people get to spend together.
Friday morning I was awake at 4:45 am just thinking about all we needed to have done at our house in Al Ain in order to get all the stuff we want back to the states. We are having to rely on friends, obviously great friends, to get our stuff packed and shipped. We don’t have a ton of stuff, but there are things that mean a great deal to us, plus a lot of ski clothes and things that would be costly to replace. So I started communicating with our friend Lara. I had a down morning and really started to settle in on the fact that we would most likely never see the UAE again.
Jack has gotten that summer pudge in the seven weeks we have been here, so he decided he would get up every morning to go for a run. We told him he could go on his own, but he wasn’t terribly keen on that so he asked me if I would go with him. I told him I would, but I didn’t expect him to come into my room at 5:45. He also woke Millie, although she claims she was already awake. We went for our 2 mile walk/run and then were back to the house by 6:30. I was put on the porch by 6:35 am, drinking coffee. It was nice.
My little exercise gurus.
In the time I spent on the porch, Lara had sent me pictures of the furniture we were going to sell. I posted it on all the resale Facebook pages in Al Ain. By that afternoon, all but a sofa, love seat, bed, two toy chests and two small closets were sold. It was crazy.
While all of this was going on, we drove to a golf course not too far away from us, to watch some military planes fly overhead in commemoration of VE Day. They were so cool to see.
When we returned to the house, Jack took his weekly exams and Stuart and I made a picnic lunch. Our plan was to go to Canyon Lake and Tortilla Flat.
Telford road trip!
The Lake
This stands outside of the general store.
Prickly Pear Gelato? Don’t mind if we do.
The picnic in the back of the car. What a grand idea.
The view was spectacular.
The cactus blossoms were amazing. In my 28 years in Arizona, I have never seen a live version of these blooms. They were gorgeous!
Love our desert home.
The drive home was scenic and required a stop at Fry’s grocery store. It was the first time the kids have been to a grocery store since we’ve been back to Arizona. They secretly bought me a Mother’s Day gift, and then had to take me past the clothes to see what I would like. Jack pointed out a shirt that HE liked, which gave me a clue as to what he got me for Mother’s Day. It was actually quite cute.
We got home and chilled for a while. We were all a bit tired, I would say. I called my brother Mitch and had another good chat. We decided to play Uno, except interest was lost quite quickly so the kids went back to their rooms and played on their devices.
Millie had had a perfect day, and bedtime was no less perfect. She had a bit of a glitch at the beginning of the day, but when she came into the kitchen and noticed me doing the shh sign and then the cut your head off sign, she laughed and it was lol over. When I asked her about it later, she said, ‘The reason I laughed was because I told you to do one or the other, not both! Plus, when I laugh usually stop being sassy.’ The honesty killed me. But I think we may be on to something, finally. Time will tell. We spent the rest of the evening putting the puzzle together, or not as the case may have been.
Woke up just before 4 am again. This day I wasn’t sad, though, as Lara had messaged me and told me she had sold all kinds of stuff from the house, even things I hadn’t posted on Facebook. I was so very grateful for what she was doing for us. I ended up snoozing until 6:25 am when my exercise king woke me up. He also woke his sister up, which about sent me over the edge. I told him he wasn’t to do that again as she really can’t afford to loss sleep. We ran our two miles and Jack couldn’t wait to come back and tell Pop. He said, ‘I bet Pop is going to be proud of my commitment.’ He really cares more about Pop’s opinion of him more than he cares about our opinion of him. He wants to make his Pop proud.
I had coffee outside and just took it easy. I kind of forgot it was a work day until Stuart mentioned it just before we ate lunch. Prior to that we took a drive to an open house in the neighborhood. It amazes me how pictures can be deceiving. The house was nice but the back yard and pool needed a lot of work. Plus, it was out of our price range.
Lunch was eggs, fried potatoes and pork chops. I just had eggs and cottage cheese, but had definitely lost weight over these last 9 days. I felt good and was on my way back to my fighting weight. Ha!
Stuart and I worked for most of the afternoon. Millie and I made ‘watermelon’ cake pops.
My little baker. 
Roll ‘Em up, ready to dip.
Stuart and I then watched Back to the Future. What a great film that was. The kids ate dinner, showered and got ready for bed. We ate a bit later, showered and got ready for school. We still have 7 weeks of school left. We do have a week off the week that starts May 24th, for the end of Ramadan, called Eid al Fitr. That will be nice, but then it will be difficult to come back and work our old hours for 5 weeks. Here we go again!
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