When I rolled out of bed at 9:45 am I had just enough time to get a cup of coffee before church started. When church was over, Mitch and Stuart made a breakfast/lunch for us all. I know I should have helped fix a Father’s Day lunch, but I’m a crappy cook, so that would have done no one any favors. I did, however, help clean up the mess.
In the afternoon we went to the puppy store to get some food for Roscoe and Lola. Mitch was going to go home this day, but decided he wanted to avoid weekend traffic and would wait until Monday. Once we were home, we played with puppies and threw water balloons in the afternoon.
The pups were not terribly thrilled with getting wet.
She decided she would get into the water balloon bucket.
Grammie and Pop went to their community group in the parking lot of the church, while we helped ourselves to dinner and then played charades once Grammie and Pop returned from church. After charades Millie went to bed but had her epic meltdown, as she often does when she goes to bed too late. It was wonderful, as you would guess. We just carried on and played dominoes while she pretended to cry downstairs. She eventually stopped. Again, what to do?
After dominoes we said goodbye to Uncle Mitch and the puppies. It always makes me a bit sad to see him leave, but now he has the puppies to keep him occupied. The companionship will make a world of difference to him, I think.
Roscoe and Lola.
We stayed up and Stuart worked while I watched television. When we went to bed we just laid there and started giggling. Then I couldn’t get to sleep. It was after 2 am before I dropped off.
I woke up just before 9 am. Mitch had already left. The weather was a bit cloudy and cooler. We sat on the porch for a while. Then Stuart and I decided to go to Wal Mart to get half and half. When we got home lunch of salmon, green beans and corn on the cob was nearly ready.
I spent the afternoon watching Netflix on my iPad. I kind of fell asleep for a bit. When I woke up, I came upstairs to the kids, Grammie and Pop playing dominoes. I played one round and then we stopped for dinner. Millie didn’t get her early night like we had planned. It’s just too difficult when it doesn’t even get dark until nearly 9 pm.
Jack went to bed about an hour later and then Stuart and I did some posting of videos and went to bed. We had sat on the porch with my mom and dad for a bit and then we went downstairs. We set our alarm for 4:45 am so we could get up and be in a junior school staff meeting at 5 am, which was 2 pm Al Ain time. It was nice to see people, but it wasn’t really a meeting, but instead it was a quiz activity. It was a bit of a waste of our time. Oh well, it was their way to try to get closer for us. Just after the meeting we received an email from the Head Master. It was totally calculated. It was bad news for those staying. The staff were told their housing allowance would be cut dramatically, their salaries would be cut by 25%, and there would no longer be flight allowances. It was demoralizing and made us realize that we made the right decision, as difficult as it’s been at times.
We went back to sleep until nearly 9 am and by the time we were up, Grammie and Pop had headed to Conway to stay with my brother Russ and his family for the night. My dad was going to get together with some of the old coaches who used to work at the basketball camps at University of Arkansas back in the day. Stuart and I decided to take the kids school clothes shopping. So we dawned our masks and headed to the Nike, Under Armor, and Justice. We haven’t ever done that as the kids have worn school uniforms for the last 4 years. It was fun. Millie can wear the cute Wal Mart clothes, but we bought her some hip things from Justice. Jack can’t (or won’t) wear the Wal Mart clothes. Therefore, his new digs came from the Nike outlet and the Under Armor outlet, of course.
We then went and had pizza. I was full on one piece. We walked around the Branson Landing.
The fountains at Branson Landing.
There were very few people there for a summer day, but I do believe people might be a bit skiddish as the numbers of infected people is on the rise. We had our masks and put them on if anyone was within 6 feet.
We got home and remembered we didn’t stop for gas. I went back out for gas and a gift for my dad and my sister in law. My dad’s birthday was the following day, and I wanted to take a thank you gift to my sister in law. When I got home the kids and Stuart were watching a Harry Potter movie. We had leftovers for dinner and then the kids showered and went to bed.
I had three meetings on Tuesday evening. My last one was over at 2:30 am. I was off to bed and the alarm went off at 6 am. Once we were up and the kids had eaten breakfast, we headed to Conway, Arkansas to see Russ, Julie and the girls. When we arrived Grammie and Julie were heading to the grocery store. After showing us the house, they headed on to pick up sandwich stuff for lunch. Russ and Pop were playing golf and then returned just before Grammie and Julie got back with food.
We had lunch and then we sat on the porch while homemade ice cream was churning. Emily played music and Pop actually sang, danced and really jolly birthday boy. It was his 82nd birthday. We really had a great afternoon.
Millie and Emily performed a dance routine for Pop for his birthday.
Look how cute they are!
Sitting on the porch is one of our favorite things to do.
Grammie and Pop left to go back to Branson and we decided to drive around Conway. Russ showed us the university and the high school, where Julie teaches math. We then went to Target to pick up some crackers. We ordered food from a Thai noodle place and they delivered. After dinner, we sat outside again and the kids caught fireflies. This time in our lives has made us slow down and help our kids experience the simple things in life that we grew up doing.
Once in the house, both kids showered and then Millie went to bed in Emily’s room. Jack followed at about 10 pm. I uploaded my video for the day and Stuart took a shower. Stuart had a meeting at 2 am, but I had nothing so I looked forward to falling asleep watching Netflix.
I woke up at 7:30 am. We had coffee on the porch. Russ and Stuart went golfing around 9 am. The rest of us just sat around the house. Once the golfers were back we had lunch and then went to the lake. We spent a few hours at the lake. We had taken our kayaks, blew them up, took them into the lake and then were told we had to take them out to the bouts if the kids wanted to paddle. Ugh! We decided we would just take them back to the shore.
My kids love these girls so much!
This was before we were reprimanded for the kayaks. We came home and went to the supermarket to get things for dinner. We had spaghetti for dinner and spent the evening out on the patio. We went to bed relatively early. Millie decided to spend the night in Morgan’s room on Thursday night.
Friday morning we woke up just before 9 am. Stuart and Russ were scheduled to golf, but Russ’ wrist had been hurting him, so they decided to give it a miss. We had coffee on the porch. The weather was gorgeous, so staying on the porch was easy to do. We had lunch of leftovers. We then headed to Target to buy some masks as we were told we would have to wear masks at school. We had received word that school would be delayed for two weeks. This meant that we would actually get to relax a bit longer once our UAE jobs completed on July 2. So, although our plan is to go in and get our rooms ready, we don’t have to report to school until July 22. This will mean that we will only get a one week break in October and March. At least that is the plan for now.
We decided to order the best Mexican food in Arkansas. It happened to be in Little Rock, which is about a 45 minute drive from Conway, but it was delicious and so worth it. After dinner, we hung out on the porch. The kids went into Russ and Julie’s room and watched High School Musical. They were all so cute together.
Millie decided she would not sleep on the blow up mattress in the living room, therefore I did and she slept in the bed with Stuart. It might have been the best night’s sleep I’ve had since leaving the UAE. Who knew a $8.97 air mattress was the ticket to a comfy night’s sleep?
Saturday morning we got up and started packing up our stuff in preparation to come back to Branson. Mitch had actually come back to Branson on Wednesday to see us again and to let the puppies have a little more space. The puppies weren’t quite getting the whole puppy pad thing, but they will. It’s exhausting training puppies, as he has now experienced. At any rate, the kids were excited to get back to the puppies if only for a little more than a day.
We did take our for lunch at Burgers, Fries and Pies. It was deep fried goodness. If there is one thing I can blame on Covid 19 it is the 20 pounds, give or take, I have gained in these last four months. So my new July resolution is to stop the madness once we get back to Arizona. Enough is enough. Since I’ve put it in writing, I will be more inclined to actually follow through.
We headed back to Branson around 2 pm. We had such a great time with the Pennells in Arkansas. It was great to hang out with my nieces as adults. They have grown into beautiful, well humored ladies. They were absolutely priceless with Jack and Millie and were delightful to be around.
Once we were back in Branson we started laundry and packing our things for our journey back to Arizona. We got most things packed and then just had sandwich stuff for dinner. Jack wasn’t feeling so well so decided he wasn’t hungry. We had some porch time, but after the kids went to bed, we played a few rounds of dominoes. Stuart and I headed downstairs for our meetings, except Stuart decided to postpone his 1 am meeting until the following day. I stayed up to help my autistic child in a meeting with his new teacher. It couldn’t have gone any smoother. He was so excited she would be his teacher. It was amazing and I may have teared up a bit. Just 5 more days and our time in the UAE is officially closed out. It’s a bit surreal, but it is time for sure.
No comments:
Post a Comment