A Sunday hike started our week

We got up on Sunday morning in time to watch church, which is just before 10 am here in Branson. Stuart and I were a bit rude, as we approved assignments while listening to the sermon. We did this so we could spend time with everyone on a hike later that morning. 

We drove to a trail and hiked down 338 stairs and then had to turn around and hike back up. There was a way to go on, but it didn’t seem terribly safe. 

The cousins stood on the top of this structure for a photo op. Then we hit the trail. 

Pop blazed the trail on the stairs. 

Coming up the stairs was a bit more difficult. 

Grammie and Pop decided to head back to the top of the trail and wait for us, as we carried on around the trail. We ended up seeing a little deer couple, assuming on a date. Ah!

They seemed very comfortable with us in their woods. There is no way these deer would ever be shot. It was an amazing site to see. 

The buck!

Once hiking had concluded, we went back home and had a rest on the back porch.  We did have a snack as we were expecting ribs at 2 pm, but it turned out they weren’t ready until almost 5 pm. They were delicious and worth the wait. 

Jack, Stuart, Russ and Pop went night golfing, while the rest of us stayed at the house, performed surgery on a cyst I have had on my leg for nearly 2 years. Somewhere in our heads my niece and I thought we could dig the cyst out. Turns out we just bruised my leg and made the cyst a bit sore. Oh well. After surgery, we had a movie night with Frozen 2. Millie and Morgan had a little performance for us prior to the movie, which was very cute. Stuart and I worked and had a couple of meetings. Then it was off to bed around 2 am. We are so very over all of the crap we have been doing the last 13 weeks. We see the end in sight, which is what sometimes makes it more difficult to be motivated. 

Monday morning I didn’t get out of bed until nearly 10 am. I missed getting to have my Monday walk with Sue.   That has been such a huge part of my mental release for the last few months. But we will start it up again once I am back in Arizona. 

Around noon we left to see the wedding venue where my niece would get married in November. It is amazing. It’s very rustic and totally fits her personality. Mitch wanted to see it as he is going to make it beautiful with his gift for transforming a venue to fit the wedding she has dreamed of. The story of the venue is so sweet. It seems the gal who runs it was the first to use this structure. Her dad build the barn and surrounding area for her own wedding. Since her wedding, she and her mother decided to make it their business. We chatted with Brooke, of Willow Brooke Farms, for quite some time and it made the whole experience even more sweet. I was so glad I got to go along. 

While we were checking out the venue, the rest of the crew went to play putt putt. It seems that Emily beat Russ and was promised a new Audi and Louis Vuitton bag for the win. I’m not sure that promise will ever be fulfilled. Millie cheated, as she always does, but apparently they all had fun. 

We all arrived back at the house around the same time. Stuart and I went out to get some food for my crew, while Russ and his group ordered pizza. It was an ‘on your own’ meal night, which was fine with us. Once the kids had eaten and showered, we began our epic theater evening. 

They had taken snack orders, organized the downstairs area like a cinema, and made us all line up outside to enter the movie house. We got our food orders and then the usher (Jack) downstairs seated us. The entertainment before hand was fantastic. Millie and Emily did a dance number. Then we watched Mary Poppins Returns. We had an intermission for snack refills and the toilet, then the second half started after Millie and Morgan’s tricks. It was a great evening. Naturally, Stuart and I ended the night the way we’ve become a costumed to, setting assignments, class meetings, and approving of pupil work. 

Tuesday morning I was up just before 9 am. We started cleaning things up around the house and tidying the downstairs daybed area. Morgan, Emily and Julie were going home in the afternoon, so Jack and Millie would be going back to the daybeds that evening and the trundles would be stored for another time. 

We sat out on the porch, as we often do, and drank coffee while chatting the morning away. I talked about the stress that Stuart and I seem to be under with all the requirements we need to fulfill to properly leave the UAE. It looks as if we will most likely not see our paycheck for augurs, but who knows. We are doing all we can do. I am just going to have to take my anxiousness and let it go. It’s virtually out of our hands now. 

Around 11:30 am, Russ, Stuart and Pop went golfing in Springfield. Julie and the girls left around 2 pm, and I had the kids watch a movie downstairs while I decompressed on the porch. Grammie was watching something in her room and Uncle Mitch had gone into town to get some cash out so he could buy his new puppies on Thursday. We were all so excited. I ended up spending most of the afternoon downstairs. The golfers came back home around 6:30 pm and dinner was shortly after they got home. 

After dinner, the men went out to play horseshoes while the kids played tic tac toe and cornhole. The weather was amazing so we had to be outside. 

The horseshoe competition was fierce. 

I sat on the porch swing and watched. 

The kids didn’t shower as they really hadn’t been out of the house the entire day and the next day was sheer day for the laundry, so they felt they could get away with being ‘dirty’. 

Jack had difficulty going to bed. He is at an awkward age and seems to think he is more of an adult that he actually is. He wanted to sit on the porch and talk with us, but what we were talking about didn’t interest him. He then insisted he needed more time to be awake as he had wasted his time sitting on the porch and we talked about nothing he wanted to talk about. He finally went downstairs and agreed to ten more minutes on his iPad. When I got down to say goodnight, he ‘needed’ 4 more minutes. I agreed, but then told him I would not be coming back downstairs so I would say goodnight right then. Stuart went to tell him goodnight and so did Grammie and Pop. When Grammie came back to the porch, she told me Jack wanted me to come back downstairs. I refused, saying he was being manipulative and that I had already told him I wasn’t coming down again. He messaged me on WhatsApp 118 times. He just wrote one word messages, but he was persistent. Once we went to bed, we spoke to him about how unacceptable his behavior was and if he did such a thing again, we would have to start insisting he went to bed at the same time as Millie. I suspect this kind of thing won’t happen again. 

I stayed up for two meetings, one at 1 am and one at 2 am. I then stayed up to complete some assignment approvals and settled in, waiting for my 5:30 am meeting, which was terribly unnecessary for me to be a part of. The good news is, during the transition time the next two weeks our jobs are virtually over. We will no longer have to stay up later than 11 pm, other than when we have our class meetings. We are very close to the end, thank goodness. 

We got up Wednesday morning and sat on the porch, as you do. Russ left just before noon and I was determined we would leave the house this day. The days we just lounge around the house really do put me in a funk. Stuart and I had received our final payout from our school in Al Ain. The way they have manipulated the system is quite criminal. Therefore, saying farewell is not as difficult as I had once thought it would be. And being so concerned about ‘doing the right things has lost its love in my heart. They have no consideration for anyone or anything. They are greedy and I’m not terribly bothered anymore, which is a good thing. 

Once Russ was gone, we finally decided on going to play putt putt. Grammie and Pop took a drive around the Ozarks while we did our thing. We weren’t gone terribly long, but it was good to get out. 

I ended up napping for the afternoon. I woke up to the smell of burritos cooking. Once dinner was over and cleaned up, the kids showered and had an early night. I did my school thing and then went to bed early. 

I woke up Thursday morning, so excited for the puppies to come. Everyone was anxiously awaiting our journey to Joplin. Stuart and I went to Target just after lunch and bought some doggie items for the new doggie father, Mitch. When we got home, we all headed to Joplin to pick up the puppies. Mitch met with the breeder and then signed all the paperwork. We then put them in their carrier to take them back to Branson. They were so cute. They didn’t stay in their carrier long because we all needed to hold them. We stopped in Nixa for Andy’s Custard and to let the puppies have a potty break. 

Lola is the little chocolate girl. 

Roscoe is the little boy. 

Cuties and the kids adore them. 

Once we were back home we bathed the puppies. They were wet little rats. They played a bit more with Jack and Millie and then went to bed. Stuart and I went out to the porch and stayed up way too late just talking with Grammie and Pop. 

I got up Friday morning at 8 am thinking I was helping out with the puppies while Mitch took his car to Big O Tires. But once I was upstairs I discovered he had already left and taken the puppies with him. 

The puppies returned and Grammie and Pop left to go see family in Monett. We played with and monitored the puppies most of the day. Mitch took them to the vet for a check up after we had lunch, and we headed to Wal Mart with the kids. 

Once everyone was back home we had a delightful dinner of baked potatoes and pulled pork with beans. We headed to bed a bit earlier on Friday evening as we were tired from our week. The good news was we would have little to do the next two weeks of school as the children are transitioning to the next year group and since Stuart and myself won’t be in the school next year, our responsibilities are few. 

We got up Saturday morning and decided we would take the kids out for lunch. There is a Culver’s in town where you can order and then sit out on their picnic tables, so we did so. The food was fried goodness. We then stopped in at Wal Mart to get Pop a Father’s Day present. Who doesn’t need a new grill set?

Once we were home we got things ready for school that evening. I had a meeting at 4 am, so was planning to go to sleep and set my alarm. We played dominoes before Jack went to bed and then Stuart and I were in our ‘office’ by about 10:30 pm. It was nearing the end. Our house had been inspected this week and things were starting to close out on our experience in the UAE. It was bittersweet for sure.