Pay day=Good day

This week we got paid, which is one of the highlights of our month. Having a few extra dirhams in the bank does not make me sad at all. 

Tuesday was Jack's last rugby practice until September. So now what? Well gymnastics, of course. They are offering a class at his school for 10 weeks starting next week so he is going to join. He is super excited!

After his practice on Tuesday night a number of families stayed and ate dinner to celebrate the end of the season. It is there that I found out Jack's school is having a Garden Party on Friday from 9:30 am-11:30 am. I should have been aware of it and would have been had I read the school newsletter. At any rate, the Garden Party involves us sprucing up the school play area and garden. It is a community project to make the school look a little more tidy. We feel activities like this are really making us a part of the community. I suppose once you have a child in school that is bound to happen. 

Stuart didn't train on Wednesday night and we hadn't gotten anything out for supper. Naturally that means ordering curry from the Curry House. It's our favorite! A relatively uneventful evening. We might have to stop this blog soon because we have nothing interested to tell anyone anymore. However, there are moments I want to make sure we never forget. 

Thursday evening we did our usual; went to the Rugby Club, had dinner and let the kids run amuck. We have been trying to have Miss Janet not let Millie nap primarily because her naps turn into a night's sleep and then she won't go to sleep at night. Every since that darn 'Pass Fairy' came, Millie's bedtime is torturing all of us, including Millie. She was so cranky when we got home from Miss Janet's house on Thursday that I ended up rocking her to sleep. We let her sleep for an hour before we went to the Rugby Club, knowing she would be totally worn out after the evening out. And what a true reality that became. We met up with Sara, the very first person we met when coming to the UAE. We met her in the Phoenix airport. She's from Arizona as well. It was great to see her. 

Showers and bed were in order once we got home, as they always are. Cathy, Claire and a friend of Claire's came back to our place for a bit and we had a cup of tea and biscuits. Try left around 11ish and I did my usual on Thursday evening, stayed up watching television, or not as is more often the case, and woke up around 1 am to go to bed. 

Friday morning we were up and out by about 9. Stuart wanted to get to the school to get his pick of the jobs. He was concerned that we would be stuck doing something that was less desirable if we showed up late. He ended up helping make concrete (wearing more than he mixed I think). He also leveled the ground where the planter was going. 

Jack painted some of the iron work that ended up on the walls and Millie and I sifted sand to get out any of the trash so they could dump in fresh sand. I am pretty sure Millie brought home more sand than she sifted but that's fine. 

The dad's had wheel barrow races with the kids in the wheel barrows. There were kids activities for the entire time we were there. We all enjoyed our time there and the school looked better for it. 

We had talked about going to the Golf Club after the work day but in the end found out we would have needed to make reservations because it was a horse racing weekend.  So in the end we decided to head in our own directions to get necessary things done and then meet up at a later time at Jack's rugby coach's house. His wife is an ADEC teacher and their kids go to Jack's school. 

A group of us invaded their house around 5 pm and had a BBQ. It was great fun. The one thing I do miss is having an outdoor space. Although we haven't had that or a few years because our yard in AZ is unfinished. So in reality I don't know what I miss. 

It was quite an eventful night. Jack has had a number of friends learn to ride their bikes in the last few months and he has become very envious. We have taken the training wheels off his bike several times. The last time Stuart took them off he told Jack it was the last time and that they were staying off. We've gone out several times to help him and he freezes up and has no interest, usually resulting in tears which everyone knows I can't tolerate. The last time he did this was last week. So we decided rather than frustrate Jack (and ourselves) we would just ask Pop if once he was here, in a few weeks, he would teach Jack. Jack seemed pleased with that and so did Pop. Well, sad news for Pop but good news for Jack. He spent almost 2 hours at the BBQ on Louis's bike (Louis's dad is the rugby coach) and wouldn't you know, he is riding his bike like a pro. He gave up playing with his friends that night to practice on the bike. I think the kicker was knowing that about 5 minutes before he started trying to ride, Thalia (wade and Karen's daughter) learned how to ride as well....on the same bike. 

When he spoke of learning how to ride his bike on Saturday morning he stated that Louis's mom taught him how to ride a bike.  Truth is he just was so determined that he taught himself. No one ever ran behind him, but simply did a little instructing from the sidelines.  

We took him out twice on Saturday to ride around. He was so very pleased with himself. It was a bit surreal and amazing how quickly he learned. While at the mall buying a helmet on Saturday, he just told

us how grown up he was now that he knew how to ride a bike with no training wheels. He may be hard to live with for a while. It's funny because I think I was at least 7 years old before I could ride my bike.  Of course he's the size of a 7 year old if that makes a difference.  Crazy!

Millie, as a result of all the bikes and scooters that were out on Friday evening, now knows how to ride a scooter. She was given one from Karen and rides it down the hall and back again. She continued o show off on Skype for my mom and dad when we spoke to them on Saturday evening. This experience would be much different if technology didn't allow us to Skype or call people from time to time. Skype helps me feel as if we get to see our families nearly every week. 

Another week closer to Grammie and Pop's visit, and our two week spring break. Yahoo!

Hum drum life we live.

We definitely have a routine set in place now. The last few weeks have proven that we are in a grove of sorts. Each week is starting to look the same other than an occasional surprise here and there; most of the time something we didn't expect. 

Sunday is the beginning of the work week as well as rugby for Jack. Then Mondays and Wednesdays have become my evenings with the kids due to Stuart's rugby practices. We are back at the rugby club on Tuesdays for Jack's second practice of the week. Then we usually hang out at the rugby club on Thursdays after a long week. I sense a habit forming. 

The weekends have recently been consumed with either rugby matches or birthday parties and this week was not an exception to that rule. 

Prior to the rugby match for Stuart and the birthday party we attended, was a full week of school. I started out Sunday with a belated 'birthday' present. One of my students brought me an Itouch. It was not new, nor did it have an adaptor or any charge to it. I quickly went to the social worker and asked them to call her house to see if anyone had given her permission to bring this rather costly item to me. It was a bit odd because all the adults involved at school were trying to tell me that maybe she had just brought it as a gift for me. I was pretty sure no one knew she had given it to me, but then again maybe they did and were okay with it. 

On Monday I brought a charger from home to school and thought I would plug it in. As I did, I noticed it was code locked and everything on the screen was in Arabic. Well duh! I am not sure why I was so delusional (or so arrogant) to think it would be in English. At any rate, when the girl who had given it to me couldn't remember the code to unlock it, she told me she would take it home and ask her sister what it was. So I told her that was fine. Then a couple of my students reported to me that her dad had told her she could bring the Itouch to me, but that her mom yelled at her for doing so and she was to bring it back home. I told her I had thought that might be the case which is why I had the social worker call her mom on Sunday. Bummer! Really thought I had scored there. 

On Wednesday I woke up with a sore throat and by Wednesday evening my neck was so achy that I knew I had strep throat. I went to the hospital at 9:30 pm, once Stuart was back from rugby, and 56 dirhams later ($15.12) I was back home with antibiotics and a doctor's note giving me Thursday off from work. I truly did feel like a truck had hit me. In order to not be docked a day's pay you must have a doctor's note, stamped of course, to hand in when you are off from work. I was hoping to have perfect attendance this year, but not going to happen. 

Jack had a field day at the rugby club. He went with his school and they had different events in which they participated. Jack has been having some issues with wrestling at school, which I think I have mentioned. But what I was told today about Jack made me stop and put things into perspective. I have focus so much on what he has been doing wrong at school that I have totally neglected to celebrate the things he is doing right. I hate lessons like this. As adults you would think our rational brains wouldn't need to be jogged in order for us to know some of this, but being human, I guess it happens. 

So what happened that jiggled some sense in me, also made me cry. A grade 1 teacher, whom I happen to know, had asked Jack to do the sack race for the second time because there was one kid who hadn't done it. She asked him to go slowly and said he didn't question why and just did it. Apparently he went ahead of the other child at one stage and when he realised it, he slowed down and waited for the other child to pass. The other kid just stopped with him and Jack encouraged her to go on. In the end Jack let her win! She said she was so pleased at how grown up he was. Naturally, I cried because I know how competitive he is and know that he must have sensed that this child needed to win worse than he did. It's moments like this that make parenting so rewarding. 

I started feeling better Friday morning and it was a good thIng because we had a birthday party to go to and I was on my own with the kids. Stuart got up and headed to Dubai for a rugby tournament. We went to the birthday party and got a text halfway through telling me he was having a blast. He is definitely in his element right now. 

The birthday party was so cute. Jack got out of the car ad said, "I'll take the present because Ava really likes me."  He's right. Ava just turned two and follows Jack around like a little puppy. She loves him! So adorable. 

We came home, I made brownies and we headed to Karen's to make homemade pizzas. She is a little more 'Betty Crocker' than I am so of course Millie and Jack love hanging out at her house with Thalia and Penny. 

Before we went to ther house the kids were playing in the living room. Jack was being silly and dawned this saying that these were his Arabic clothes. He's a character for sure. At least he notices. He has never mentioned the Kandoras or Abayas that a large number of people wear around here. So now I know that he at least is aware that some people dress differently here. 

Stuart came home around 10 pm on Friday evening and was gimping about just a touch. He was sore but said it was all worth it. Here are some pictures to prove he is actually playing. 

Saturday when we got up we headed to Abu Dhabi for another Ikea run. We needed some bedding for our spare bed, a couple of lamps, a few pictures and of course we had to have lunch there with Gina. It's always such a bonus to see Gina when we go to Abu Dhabi. We sat at Ikea for over an hour after we ate to talk with Gina. It was wonderful, as always. 

We got home, Stuart put a few pieces of our new furniture together, saying choice words as he went, and we had dinner and were off to bed in anticipation for another week to start. It's been a great week. 

Dana

Started the week a bit ill, or at least Jack did. Bleck!

I picked Jack up from school and all I saw was a tearful boy who could only say, 'I have a headache'. I felt his head and he was burning up. There were two kids home sick from his class and his little friend, Louis, had been throwing up all Thursday evening. Sadly, I think we just caught our first bug. He ate virtually nothing, a piece of toast and drank some juice, and fell asleep on the sofa at 6:20 pm. We had set him up there as soon as he got home, with a bucket beside him in case he had the urge to barf. I'm pleased to report there was no barfing on Sunday evening. We carried him to bed and Stuart hoisted him up to his top bunk and he fell asleep. I had given him some Tylenol as soon as I picked him up from school so I had to wake him up at about 8 pm for some more medicine. 

Rugby was canceled for Sunday evening because it had rained off and on all day. This was good because I know Jack would have wanted to muster up the energy to go and that would not have worked out well at all.   Although it rained, it did not rain hard enough to warrant kids being dismissed from school, as was the case earlier in the year.  That was fine with me because I was evaluated on Sunday by my head of faculty and my principal. No matter how long you are in education, observations don't get any less nerve racking (or maybe it's just me that feels that way). 

My observation was fine even though I haven't taught in five years. The one thing I know is that I have a good report with my students which seems to help them be less inhibited when learning/attempting to speak English. One of my students who never says a word or participates in class discussions, was the super star of the class. It was so great. I suppose I get to stay another year. 

My class threw me another 'birthday' party on Monday even though I told them that the principal was not allowing parties anymore. But I just decided it being my 'birthday' and all, we would have to go ahead with the party. I got a pair of sunglasses and a nice bottle of perfume. The sunglasses were obviously a 'regifted' item, but the perfume had the plastic wrap on it and everything. Not necessarily a scent I can wear all the time, but very thoughtful indeed. We partied, like you do on a Monday for no reason at all, and they loved it. Sometimes growing these relationships is a large part of their learning process. Next 'birthday' I am hoping for jewelry!  Oh, I also got this card. I am now referring to myself as 'Ms. Dan' (all of us are referred to by our first names- which is referred to as our 'good name'). 

The bed we bought week before last was finally ready for pick up on Tuesday. When Stuart got it home, although I had not smelled even a hint of smoke while in the house, clearly the people that owned it were smokers. Ugh! We contemplated trying to use the remedies we had read on the Internet, but in the end we decided to trash it and buy another mattress. We had purchased the bed frame and the mattress for next to nothing so we still paid less than if we would have bought a brand new frame.  It seems sturdy enough. The test will be when my parents sleep on it for 4 weeks.  We ended up just getting the mattress where we bought the one we sleep on. Lesson learned I suppose. 

Thursday we went to the mall to have some dinner. After we ate we went to watch Astrid perform on the ice rink.  Astrid is the daughter of our Irish friends, Gemma and Fechin. She had asked us to come and watch. On our way home I told the kids we were going to get home, take showers and go to bed. Stuart reminded me that Friday was bed changing day so we could probably skip showers. Yahoo! It turned out that no showers was a good thing because we had no water pressure when we got home. This happens from time to time, for no apparent reason. 

Jack's class has two birds, Mango and Rio. He has bugged us to bring the birds home every since he got into school. We finally agreed to have them in our home this past weekend. I never knew caged birds were so noisy. Most likely Mango and Rio will not be coming back for a visit anytime soon. Pretty but loud. 

Friday Jack had his last rugby tournament. They mixed up two of the teams and formed several teams so they could have a round robin tournament. Then they served the kids lunch afterwards. After lunch, the veteran rugby players played the under 17s. Guess who one of the players was? Yep! Stuart had an absolute blast. I am so happy that he is so happy here. Since he moved to Arizona and married me, I have felt he hasn't really had his own life/friends. He just inherited mine (although he loves you all). Now he has been able to meet new people and together we have found friends with kids the same age as ours as well as some of the same interests. I really love seeing him in his element and feeling at home in this country. By the way, he played really well and wasn't sore at all, though he was afraid he might be. 

Saturday we had a very low key day. The kids and I went to a birthday party at a local park where Spider-Man showed up. However, Jack informed me it wasn't the real Spider-Man. I quote,'Mama, that person was just asked to put on that costume so Charlie would have a good birthday. He's not the real Spider-Man.' Made sense to me. 

Still love it here but as always, miss our family and friends. 

 

A lot of the same......feeling rather boring now!

This week was very similar to last week, although neither of our schools had the inspectors in. 

We did have our first ever parent/teacher conference at Jack's school. As you would guess, he's the smartest in his class (or at least that is what we are going to believe) and he loves school. It was so surreal finally being on the other side of a parent/teacher conference. I heard Stuart say,'I am surprised that he has a 'B' (meaning beginning) for rhyming words.  He's been rhyming since he was three.' Oh my gosh, did he just become THAT parent. She explained that anything he has a 'B' on has most likely not been assessed yet. Easy, tiger!

Stuart pulled his calf muscle at rugby on Monday evening, and started having back spasms on Tuesday evening. He's a mess! Doctor hours are really handy here. He went to the doctor Tuesday night at 6:30 pm and was home by 8 pm.  He didn't even have an appointment.  Muscle relaxers were what was on the meds order. He stayed home from school on Wednesday and was well enough to at least go watch practice on Wednesday evening. As long as he is having fun and does not require major surgery then I am fine with him suffering with a muscle ache or two. 

I am happy to report that Millie has stopped asking for her pacifier. However, I am unhappy to report that she is not going to sleep without me sitting on her bed until she falls asleep. Stuart reminded me that I actually used to lay down with Jack and fall asleep, so there is progress. It's not so bad when she is tired, but nights like Wednesday night when I sat on the side of her bed for an hour and twenty minutes, it got a bit boring. Oh well, at least the pacifier is a faint memory. Too soon she won't want me to even come into her room, so I guess I should count my blessings that she wants me to sit with her. Ah!

Thursday, Stuart went to Abu Dhabi for the day. He was asked to take part in the ADEC curriculum day. He was in a small group of English teachers, principals and advisors who were discussing the curriculum. I think that makes Stuart a bit elite. Hopefully this will give him some advancement opportunities in administration. He really wants to help lead a school. 

Thursday evening, Stuart's staff had a bar-b-que out in the dessert. They were celebrating the raise they got (Emirati staff, not English staff) and invited all of the staff. Stuart and Wade went. Karen and I took the kids to the Rugby Club. It's the easiest place for all of us to hang out. There are great play things for the kids to do and we can sit outside, watch the kids, and enjoy talking. It seemed a bit cooler than it has been so we ended up sitting inside. Never in a million years would I let Jack and Millie run around a play area in the states, but in the Middle Easy....sure, why not?  The thing is, there are so many people looking out for each others' kids that you really don't worry. It's nice for sure. 

We got up Friday morning and took the kids to Fun Farm, a supervised play area in the mall. We then went to eat breakfast. Is that wrong of us?  Don't care! After we picked the kids up we headed to Mega Mart to buy a dryer. I have suffered enough with no dryer to this point but it really is too much for this spoiled little American girl. So I should be loving doing laundry this time next week. Yahoo! 

Millie fell asleep on the way home from the mall so we put her to bed for about an hour. Then, back to the rugby club we headed to watch a rugby match. I just don't understand subjecting yourself to that kind of pain. I was able to just sit and enjoy the weather with a shandy in my hand, while Stuart watched the match and the kids jumped in the bouncy house. I have not been able to relax as much in my life as I have the last five months. The quality of our lives and lack of stress we feel, overall, has been amazing. 

Saturday morning we got up to take Stuart's car for its 5000 kilometer service. We then went to the Gilf Club for breakfast. Miss Janet was cleaning our house so we had to find something to do for a few hours. We ended up staying at the Golf Club for a while because we ran into one of Jack's rugby coaches and visiting with them for a while. 

We stopped at a grocery store to get some rope to tie down the bed we bought last weekend. It ended up the lady who sold us the bed was ill so we had to reschedule getting the bed. 

I dropped Stuart off to pick up his car and headed home. On the way, the delivery guy called about bringing the dryer. It was 1 pm and since they told me they would bring it on Saturdat between 5 and 7 pm it only made sense they wanted to drop it off at 1 pm. 

Naturally I got the laundry going. It's a condenser dryer so I have to dump the water container after each load that dries, but what do I care. I did 2 loads of laundry and had them both dried and put away in a little over three hours. Compare that to 48 hours of drying time at this time of the year and you can understand my glee in my new dryer. 

Livin' the dream, truly!

School Inspections- Part 2

My school inspection started Sunday, but prior to going to school on Sunday morning, we had to get up and see if the Pass Fairy came and took the pacifiers and left a gift. As you can see, the Pass Fairy did indeed come. The plastic bowl was totally empty. Millie seemed fine with it. Normally Millie will wake up in the night and put her pacifier back in her mouth and sometimes she would wake up crying because she couldn't find it. She also asks for her pacifier shortly after I take it from her in the morning, but on Sunday morning there was no mention of it. She was just thrilled that she got a new baby doll. 

The big test would be that evening when she went to bed. 

We headed for school and I began to get ready for the inevitable evaluation. No matter how much experience you have in education, you still get nervous about someone coming in to judge you. My fear was the team would come in during my second group of students who are a little less motivated and more 'active'. Shocking! That is exactly what happened. A lady came to my room as I was bringing the students in from lunch. One of my students kept pointing at te lady and saying, 'Miss, Miss, Miss!' I finally recognized the lady behind me and told the students she would be coming to our room today. She stayed for over 30 minutes. She wrote a lot and then disappeared. 

Sunday night was rugby again, but no significant thing other that Jack has now started to think he is the best player out there, which I guess is better than thinking he is the worst player out there. 

Stuart could not let Jack have fun and be left out. So he went and started practicing with the veterans rugby players on Monday. As you would guess he was very sore on Tuesday, but went right back at it on Wednesday. Our family may get fit yet. 

I was only observed twice this week, in the end, which was perfectly fine with me. It seems we had positive feedback as to how we are doing, as far as a brand new school is concerned. So in light of that, we were all told we didn't have to stay for our regular afternoon (until 4pm) meeting on Wednesday. What a nice treat. 

I am a bit upset to report that Millie has asked for 'pass' every night this week when she goes to bed. And bedtime is definitely not as settling for her. There is much more crying when she is put to bed, and she gets out of bed a bit more. Typically Jack just goes to sleep and sleeps right through all of her fuss. But Tuesday night I could hear her crying and whining. Then I heard Jack singing to her to try to get her to go to sleep. I suppose that is the example he has seen so he is just participating in our tricks. It was so sweet to hear him singing to her. After a few songs he came running into the kitchen to report his good deed. He also proclaimed that he thought she was still probably not going to go to sleep anytime soon. But in fact, that was not true. I think his singing was the ticket to her slumber. 

Thursday at school was a chilled day. We watched the Lorax in the auditorium. We could totally justify it because we showed it in....wait for it....English! It was great! 

Thursday evening Gina came into town for her friend Rachelle's Stella and Dot party (jewelry, purse, accessories). So Cathy and I went to the party. It was a nice time and we had this Stella and Dot presentation via Skype. What will they think of next?

Jack had a birthday party to go to on Friday morning at 10:00 am. It was held at the bowling alley at Bawadi Mall. There were many kids there from his school. And so the birthday parties begin! He had a great time. 

When we got back to the house Gina came over. Her intention was to stay just for a bit and then head back to Abu Dhabi. Instead she stayed the entire evening and drove back around 9:30 pm. We visited and then she walked with Cathy and me to the co-op. Cathy and I had a pedicure and Gina walked around the co-op for a little (very little) bit. The co-op is super small. 

After the pedis we went to a place called Leisure for dinner. It is a Lebanese restaurant in town center. It was delicious. We ate outside and enjoyed our time together while Kayleigh and Claire stayed with Jack and Millie back at the house. It was nice to have a night out. 

Saturday we got up and Skyped Russ, Julie, Morgan and Emily. Jack and Millie were crazy. I know they were excited, but it drove me nuts nonetheless. After our conversation with my brother and his family we went to see a bed that was advertised on Al Ain Swap and Shop. There are many gently used items for sale on a Facebook sight for people who live here. There are so many people that come and go that there is no reason to buy some things brand new. The bed was nice and we bought it. Now my mom and dad will have something to sleep on when they come in 8 weeks. Jack and Millie are very excited for their visit. 

We did a lot of nothing on Saturday afternoon. We watched a movie, ate supper, I showered the kids, and we Skyped Grammie and Pop. Bedtime came and it was the worst night of all without the pacifier. We put Millie to bed at 7:45 pm and she finally dropped off around 10:30 pm. This is killing me! I am sure we have messed this up royally. 

Still loving our life in the UAE.

School inspections-Part 1

This week was a very stressful week, relatively speaking. Both of our schools had the school inspection team come in and evaluate how we are doing. Stuart's inspection was a 3 day snap shot of how the school was operating. My school had its pre-evaluation visit. All schools have a day visit the week before the team comes to the school to watch everyone teach. So by Thursday Stuart was finished and my school's 4 day evaluation starts Sunday. There is a great deal of stress just to end the time with a 'your school did not pass'. From my understanding no schools pass. In fact, I wouldn't trust any school that was perfect. The reason we are evaluated is so we know how we can improve. It all makes good sense to me. 

Enough about school. I started running again this week. Bleck!  Sunday, as Jack was practicing rugby, I dawned a pair of running shoes and headed around the loop that circles the Rugby Club, Golf Club and Equestrian Center. The land where this all sits was gifted to the ex pats. Therefore it is a little bit of an 'island' of activities and restaurants and is most often visited by the ex pat community. 

I ran out of the Rugby Club and headed around the loop. I got to the front of the shooting range and thought I was on the brink of death. Mind you, this was at 2 minutes 14 seconds. I ended up running 20 minutes without stopping and walking 30 minutes, 5 kilometers. I was quite pleased. I did this same thing on Tuesday as well. Hopefully I am on my to getting back into shape. 

Things for us are finally not consumed with 'what do we need to do to be legal residence?', or 'what have we not bought for our house so that we can make this a home?'.  So this week was what I might call 'boring'. We had no major events and did a lot of 'normal' things. 

One thing we did attempt to do this week was to teach Jack how to ride his bike without the training wheels. It was his idea, but the effort was short lived. He is just so intimidated and afraid of falling off. It's crazy that he will try to do kart wheels and fall, wrestle with his friends at school (which he gets in trouble for doing), and jump off the swings as he's swinging, often face planting into the sand, but a bike? No way! I guess we will keep trying. 

Friday Jack had his second rugby tournament at the Dubai Sevens, a famous rugby stadium. His team is your typical group of kids under 6 who come out to have fun, run around, and might just pick a blade of grass or two. However, the teams they play are a little more serious. Can someone explain to me why some parents want to relive the glory days (or not so glory days) by pushing their 5 or 6 year old to athletic perfection? Some of the coaches were literally yelling at the kids, not encouraging them. It was so sad. In spite of that, our kids had fun. They haven't won any matches, but they are getting better. Jack has really improved. I fact, in his last game on Friday he almost scored a try. He got the ball, tucked it under his right arm like a football (not sure this was what he was supposed to do) and ran the ball all the way down the right side of the field. As the other team crowded towards him, he quickly turned left and started running into a gap. He was tripped up and landed really hard, possibly knocking the wind out of him. As he got up he turned to see our reaction. We could only yell 'way to go, Jack!', which I think kept him from crying. He turned a couple of other times, but sucked it up like a true kid of mine would do.  He's a tough cookie. The coaches are really impressed with how quickly he's picked up the game.  I'm just happy he likes to play sports. The physical aspect of it is what I think will be so beneficial for him throughout his life.

Jack is about to get that kid's flag.

This is Millie's attempt at rugby. She's trying to put on Jack's socks and cleats. 

That's one of the dads, Bob, photo bombing. 

We came back from Dubai and decided to have curry delivered to Wade and Karen's. Prior to that I decided I would run to the grocery store so that I wouldn't have to worry about going on Saturday. That ended up being a mistake. As I was returning from the store I ran into mass traffic. On Friday evening the new football (soccer) stadium was having a free football match. The local team was playing Manchester City team. As you can guess, every kandora ever seen in the entire city turned out for this event. We thought about going, but so glad we didn't. I can't imagine how long it took for everyone to exit the stadium at the conclusion of the event. I went through two round abouts trying to get home and there was literally no movement at all for several seconds. It was manic. 

Saturday morning, I left Stuart at home to do some school work. Cathy, her girls, the kids and myself headed back towards Dubai to hit the Dubai Outlets. We had talked about doing some shopping there on the way back from Dubai at some stage, but by the time you leave Dubai and whatever activity you have chosen for the day, you are usually too tired to venture through a mall. So we made a purposeful trip just to the outlets. There were some bargains, but not necessarily a place I will frequent. 

When I returned, Stuart was at the driving range with Wade. On the table there was a card from Stuart with some sweet words that only Stuart would say to me. At the end he stated 'I've left something for you in your car'. To give some back story, you need to know that the radio stations we pick up here in Al Ain are interesting to say the least. Most, as you would guess, are all Arabic. However, there is a station called Star FM that mixes Arabic and English, even when the DJs are on. They will be speaking Arabic and then all of the sudden you will hear, 'Here's to a great week, everyone'. Strange to say the least. At any rate, I went out to my car and there was an iPod nano in the console. Ah, so thoughtful. I have to admit, everytime I get to drive his car I am inveous of his iPod and the music he gets to listen to. But now, I get those same play lists. Yahoo!

Saturday evening we went to some new friends' house, Scott and Claire. They are an English couple with two children, Henry and May. Claire works at Jack's school and May is on Jack's rugby team. Also, Claire and Karen are friends. We had bar-b-que pork sandwiches which were delightful. It was a lovely way to end  a great weekend. 

We didn't get home until just after nine. I showered the kids and got both ready for bed. We have been talking with Millie for a little over a week about the 'Pass (pacifier) Fairy' coming to the house, taking her pacifiers and leaving a gift.  Saturday was the designated not. We made a big ceremony of it. She had agreed with this plan so we went for it. We placed her last three pacifiers in a small plastic bowl. Our plan was going to be to have her leave the bowl on the floor. She must have played with the bowl and all three pacifiers for about 30 minutes after we put her in bed. I choose to think that was the way for Millie to tell her pacifiers good bye. 

As I often do, I fell asleep on the sofa until about 1 am. When I awoke I remembered we had to replace the pacifiers with the present, so that I did. We shall see what the night will being. 

A time for rest... Or not.

We have hardly been able to rest since returning from the UK. This week was intended to be less hectic, but all good plans sometimes don't work out. 

We had Sunday off from school to celebrate the prophet's birthday. We got up to take my car to the Kia service station. It seems they want to service it in the first 1000 kilometers and then every 5000 after that. The place we take it looks like it is where all crap cars go to die; always super crowded and wrecked cars all over the place. When we got there they told me they couldn't take it in because they already had all the cars they could possibly service that day. Okay then. 

We went to collect Cathy and her girls. Cathy had gotten up earlier than we had and delivered her car to Kia. She would need a ride back to her car at some stage so we picked them up to go to Bawadi Mall. We were in search of picture wire. The down side of decorating a place from nothing is that you have to buy silly things like picture wire. 

We ate lunch and then took Jack to the inner tube slide instead of Fun City. He had a great time. Millie played on the indoor playground and everyone was happy. We shopped a bit for nothing in particular then headed back to Kia to take Cathy and the girls to their car. By the time we got home, bathed the kids and fed them, it was time for bed. 

Monday was extremely uneventful, which was nice. Both kids were sound asleep before 7 pm. It was great. However, since the time we started our December break, Stuart and I have not really returned to a sensible bed time. Monday night was no different. Midnight was the time we finally decided to hit the hay. I function relatively well on 5 hours, but from the snoring I heard on Tuesday afternoon around 3 pm, I can only ascertain that Stuart doesn't function well on that little of sleep. 

Tuesday evening Jack, Millie and Stuart headed to the Rugby Club for Jack's team practice. They wear their kits to practice, which I think is great. They don't have that many matches so having them wear the kit to practice to get good use out of is a great idea if you ask me. 

Wednesday was by far the longesti day I have had at work. We got up early so that we could get my car to the maintenance shop and have the oil changed. Stuart just happened to have a meeting in town and it didn't start until 8:30 am. So he was able to pick me up and drop me at school as well as pick me up from school to take me back to get the car. After I picked up the car I headed back to school. Our parent-teacher conference started at 4 pm and went until 7 pm. 

In my 21 years in education I have sat in on multiple parent- teacher conferences, but none have been quite like this. It was a little slow at first, but when it did pick up it was manic. In Arizona we assigned time slots and apparently people just knew to stay outside of the classroom while you were talking to another parent. It's a big festival here. It appears that no one cares who is in the room when a teacher is speaking about their child's progress, but I suspect what seems to be the case is not, at all. I believe we are trying to change that process so that there is a little more privacy. Mind you, on more than one occasion having several parents in the room served me well. Some of my parents needed others to translate for them. All of the parents that come to see me told me their daughter loved me. Whether it was true or not, I loved hearing it. I had about 17 of my 47 show up, which I think is pretty good. Parent teacher conferences is a relatively new concept here and it will take some time for everyone to get used to these conferences being an expectation. All of the parents I met with were very concerned about their child's progress. 

When conferences were almost over, our Head of Faculty came in and said that our grades were really low, that some of our students who most likely are A/B students were failing. I couldn't believe it. After 3 hours at school that evening, trying to manipulate grades and figure out the problem, I headed home at 10 pm, a little defeated. It turns out there is a glitch in the program and they are going to work to get it sorted out before we ha out grades. Unfortunately someone at Stuart's school didn't get the memo and passed out the grades, screwed up and all. Needless to say he had some students upset. He dreads going to school on Sunday because of potential parent reaction. Hopefully things can be sorted out quickly. 

Thursday evening, after a long week, even though it was only four days, we headed to the Rugby Club for dinner. We made an early evening of it because I headed to Abu Dhabi to spend the day with Gina on Friday. We have not had a girl's day since before Gina came to the UAE. 

Gina had a Groupon for a day at Traders, a hotel with a private beach. So we ate lunch at the restaurant at the beach and then laid on lounge chairs for hours on end. I think we were there over 4 hours, just talking and laughing and catching up, with no interruptions. It was wonderful. 

Right across the water is the new Ritz Carlton. We just dreamed of what they were doing on that beach. 

We shopped in the late afternoon, had dinner at a place called The One, which was a combined furniture/home store and restaurant. Needless to say there were some things I had to have for our apartment. We closed the place down and were finally back at Gina's apartment just before 11 pm. Below is the view from Gina's place at night. She overlooks the Grand Palace Hotel and the new palace is being built just to the left of the hotel.

We stayed up talking until super late. We ended up calling a mutual friend (Sherry Bollard) who was at school. It was so fun! I have magic jack and can call anyone with a 480 prefix. So it definitely came in handy on Friday. 

Saturday morning I woke up just before 8 all on my own. It was weird not having a small child crawling I to bed or yelling 'Mama' from his/her room so that I can come in and get him/her althought both are quite capable of finding their way out of their bed and room. 

I headed home just before 10 am. When I got home the kids ate lunch and went down for a nap because we were having dinner with our Irish friends (Gemma, Fechen, Oscar and Astrid) on Satyrday evening. When Jack got up from his nap he wanted to go out and ride his bike without the back 'little' wheels. Stuart made his wishes come true and it wasn't 10 minutes until Jack was back in the house, pouting just a bit. It seems Jack has a little more 'Pennell' in him than I really want to admit. If he can't do it right the first time he doesn't want to do it at all. That was the scene out in the yard with Jack and his bike.  I suppose one day he will just get on with no training wheels and go. Until then we do a great deal of coaching. Ugh! 

Saturday evening we spent time with Fechen, Gemma and their kids. We have made some wonderful friends here, and as I continue to say.... this is the best decision we have made for our family, our marriage, and our future. We are still very happy we came inspite of some of the frustration. 

Low to everyone,

Stuart, Dana, Jack and Millie