Have your pet spayed or neutered, really!

I woke up Sunday morning and took Pumpkin to vet. Today was her lucky day, and ours for that matter.  Her howling had stopped, and we needed to make sure it stopped forever.  I dropped her off just before 9 am.  When I returned to the Land Rover to head to school, the battery was dead.  Awesome!  I called Stuart in a panic because, obviously, I was already late to school.  Fingerprinting in is the important part and what keeps you from being docked pay.  However, if you don't fingerprint in before a certain time, then you have no choice but to take an emergency day or an unpaid day.  Boo!  Fortunately, Stuart rushed from school, we jumped the car, and then I took his car while he took the Land Rover and sorted out the battery.  Whew!

Because I had arrived late to school, I couldn't quite get the hang of the fact that I had missed the first two periods.  I ran behind all day and was a bit confused as to which period we were in.  Most of the students were in attendance which was strange because usually after a holiday, especially this close to the winter break, they don't return. We had sent home several reminders, so it appeared that those messages were received and followed.  Things are changing, slowly but surely.

I left school early to attend Jack's inter squad swim gala. He won each of his races, however, it's not really about winning. It's about beating your best time, which I think he did in each stroke. He was quite pleased with himself.  His coach bragged about him, telling us that he is a natural swimmer.  His body is most certainly long enough to give him an advantage. I'm just thrilled he wants to be active!  

Once we were finished at the school we hit the super market.  I needed some things in order to make toffee for all the kids' teachers.  Then it was home in order to get kids ready for rugby.   I went to pick up Pumpkin and Stuart and the kids went to rugby.  When I arrived they brought her out in her cage.  The doctor gave me directions as to what to do once she was at home. I was told to keep her separated from Oreo.  That would not be easy at all.  The doctor looked into her cage to tell her goodbye and then asked the assistant why she hadn't put the collar on her.  The assistant said she had, in fact, put the collar on.  Seeing how Pumpkin is an absolute magician, it didn't surprise me that she had slipped out of the collar.  A few minutes later the assistant came back and Pumpkin had her collar on.

When I was driving home I called Stuart to tell him about the collar escape.  Just as I was speaking to him, I turned around to see that Pumpkin was in the cage, her collar behind her.  This was not going to be an easy recovery for her.  Once I had her home, I let her out of her cage.  She was super skiddish and wanted nothing to do with me.  I put her collar back on her and she FREAKED out.  She was like a pinball, shooting all over the house, running into things because of the collar, and bouncing off furniture.  It scared me.  I finally caught her and took the collar off.  I didn't have any other options.  She then ran upstairs and behind the sofa in the loft.  So much for keeping her isolated and calm.

I went to visit Cathy and ended up taking her and Kayleigh to the club for dinner.  The kids were finished with rugby practice and we all ate together.  Stuart had a committee meeting so wasn't able to eat with us.  Once we had finished dinner, we all headed home.  To my surprise, Pumpkin had rubbed off her bandage and it looked to me as if her wound was exposed and oozing.  I called Stuart and then I messaged the vet.  It scared me because I didn't know what to do.  After further inspection, it didn't look as bad as I had initially thought.  However, Stuart still decided he would take the next day off and take her back to the vets, just to be safe.  In the meantime, she stayed in our room Sunday night, which provided me with little to no sleep.  She was still scared of everyone and everything the following morning, but hopefully would get over it and forgive us for doing this to her.  Poor thing!

Monday morning, because I was on cat alert in the night, I messaged Lara and told her I was not walking. I needed more sleep. I know it was only an hour, but it was better than nothing.  I had a whole lot of nothing to do at work so I basically roamed the halls helping with the naughty boys. With just two weeks before break, the boys get extremely restless and misbehave more than usual.  I ended up leaving school early, picking up Millie and heading to a play place at one of the malls.  Millie's friend Sophie had alerted us that she would be moving back to Australia on Saturday and wanted her friends to get together one last time before they left.  We had pizza at the food court after they played for an hour.  The kids had a lot of fun, but I know Millie will miss Sophie.  Such is the life of an expat kid, sadly.  

While Millie and I were with Sophie, Jack went with Stuart to rugby.  The plan was that I would pick Jack up from the club, but in the end he stayed with Stuart, and I brought Millie home and put her to bed. Once Millie was tucked in, I made a batch of toffee.  Unfortunately our stove is not that great, and making the toffee was a bit difficult.  It never really got as hot as it needed to be.  Stuart said it still tasted yummy, so I guess that's all that matters. 

After the toffee was finished, I sat down, had a glass of wine and watched a few episodes of Friends.  Stuart and Jack came home just before 9 pm, and the enchiladas came out of the over for dinner.  Jack had eaten earlier at the club so was off to shower and then bed.  

I didn't get up to walk again on Tuesday. Lazy! Thought I messaged Lara, but didn't and she ended up waiting outside my house for 10 minutes. Oops. We decided we needed to get over ourselves and finish the school term strong by walking everyday for the remainder of the term. We shall see if we actually stick to that plan.  

School proved to be full of boys acting up. Again, because they know it is the end of the term, they start to act incredibly foolish. It's ridiculous. I have a teacher who writes one boy up every day for his poor behavior and even when his mom comes in, nothing changes. I suspect we will recommend he goes to a new school next term, or at least that's what I hope we do. Thank goodness my social worker really works hard to help with the discipline.  

Speaking of my social worker, I am not sure that I have mentioned before, but since I have lost all of this weight she hugs me, uncomfortably, more than she used to.  It makes me laugh, and I tell my principal that sometimes you have to give up something to get something.  I need her help with the boys so I have to let her grope me a bit.  It's the sacrifice I have chosen to make.  I do like her, but not in that way, obviously.  But she does consistently provide me with laughter, trying to understand the English language.  Her English has gotten better since I first started working there and now she tries to use slang to explain herself, but it often comes out wrong.

She was telling me that since she has been working with the boys her husband told her she was more like a man.  She was trying to tell me that she had 'grown a pair of balls', but couldn't explain it properly or in those words.  I was cracking up in her office and so were the other Arabic staff members.  I finally had my Vice Principal translate to her the phrase, "grow a pair", to which she said, "No, not the balls, the long thing".  I nearly wet myself.  I had to leave the office.  Sometimes, just when you think there is no naughty bone in their body, they surprise you.  She does this quite often.  I tell her all the time how crazy I think she is.

After school on Tuesday I headed to the mall to buy a shower gift for one of my American Muslim friends who is getting married. There were no gifts at the store that she had registered for, so I ended up getting her a gift card.  When I picked up the card the sales clerk told me those gift cards were expired.  Huh?  Just when I think it can't get any more odd here, someone tells me the gift cards on the shelf are expired.  I don't get it.  Once I was home, we all got our rugby/workout gear on and headed to the club.  I rode the exercise bike while the kids practiced, and after practice, once again, we ate at the club.  It has just become a little easier the last week or so.  Lazy mom and dad, I assume.

When we were home from the club, I could tell I was catching that horrible cold Mandy had while we were in Jordan.  I was also getting a fever.  I took some Tylenol and was in bed earlier than normal.  In spite of the fever and cold, I got up to walk Wednesday morning, as to stay true to my commitment to Lara.  I did feel a bit better after the walk, but was still achy and feverish all day at school, therefore did very little.  I ended up taking a few hours off in the afternoon, not because I was ill, but because Cathy and I had planned to go to the Swiss Christmas Market in Abu Dhabi.  Mandy was supposed to go with us as well, but she had been signed off from school for the entire week because she was so sick.  She decided going with us probably wasn't the best idea.  We went to the mall after we strolled through the Christmas Market.  We ended up eating at Famous Dave's, which was awesome.  We had a great evening for sure.  

I had to go by the party store in Raha Mall to get Jack a Roman costume.  At school, the Year 3 and 4 students were having the Romans vs. the Victorians, and a costume was a must.  Claire had stayed with the kids while Stuart went to rugby.  By the time I got home, Stuart was already home.  I surprised him with a little Famous Dave's.  BBQ is one of his favorites.

Thursday morning's walk was a little more miserable than the day before.  School wasn't so great either, but I survived.  There weren't as many students at school as we had thought there would be.  I think students took the day off to go with the three day weekend that was coming up.  The Prophet's birthday was coming up on December 12, but since the holiday celebrations are moved if it doesn't fit well with giving us a day off, the holiday would be celebrated on Sunday the 11th, giving us another three day weekend.  

After school I laid down for a rest, hoping I would feel better before the craft night at DeDe's.  I had invited Eleanor and her brother Sam, and of course their mother, Sally.  Jack came home and announced the Romans had won the event at school and his costume was a hit.  We went to DeDe's and had an excellent evening.  The crafts were adorable and the kids stayed focused to do all 5 of them.  These craft events are some of my favorite times, as well as my most frustrating times.  I have a hard time letting my kids do what they want to do with their crafts.  They aren't always rule followers when it comes to crafts.  

When we got home, we were going to meet Stuart at the club, but instead I showered the kids and they sat down to watch Santa Clause 2, which was Stuart's idea.  I slept on the sofa and sent Jack to bed after the movie was over.  Stuart had already taken Millie to bed, as she had fallen asleep about 10 minutes into the movie.  I went to bed just before midnight and bolted up in bed around 12:30 am, realizing I had forgotten to move Elvis.  He remains my nemesis.  I ran back downstairs to put up the 'bowling alley' for him on the table.  Whew!  Although I have read some things on Pinterest you can say to your kids if the elf doesn't move one night.  So I always have that list to fall back on.
















Friday morning I got up and still felt crappy. Stuart was off to the club for the first of two days for the Al Ain rugby tournament.  He had to work the first day, and was coaching Jack's team the second day.  Jack and Millie didn't play until Saturday so I had Friday to do some things that I had planned before the tournament day was announced, so I was glad they didn't play until Saturday.  Kayleigh came over at 10:30 am so I could go to the my friend Hassah's bridal shower.  There weren't a lot of people that showed up, but it was a lovely morning spent with friends, celebrating our gal pal's marriage.  After the shower, I sat around and tried to feel better.  Drugs helped for sure.  Cathy picked up Jack and Millie just before 4 pm and took them out in the desert for Carols in the Desert.  I had booked a dinner theater for Clare Richardson and myself as her Christmas present.  It was a one woman show, performed by the lady who did the play Jack was in.

The dinner theater was called a Merry Widow Christmas.  It was presented like a talk show.  The character, PM Widow portrayed herself to be a giving, sacrificing individual who just wanted to give back to the community, but in fact she was selfish and self serving.  She was hilarious.  There were parts of the program where the audience participated, which became moments of 'who can be the funniest'.  It was very entertaining.  I even sang karaoke, and surprised everyone.  Most of the people in the audience knew each other, but we were a little bit of the outside crew.  The food was delightful and the evening was very enjoyable.




I got home around 10 pm.  The kids had arrived around 9 pm and were asleep, so Stuart struggled to get them to shower, but since they had been in the sand it was really a need.  They were fast asleep by the time I got home, which was nice since I was still feeling a bit icky.  

Saturday morning I woke up at 6:45 as Stuart was leaving for the club.  I was a bit confused because I was startled as Stuart was moving around the room.  He left with Jack and Millie and I followed them about an hour later.  I spent most of the day with Millie and Stuart was coaching Jack.  I was able to watch two of Jack's matches, and all I have to say is tackle rugby wears on my nerves WAY more than tag rugby did.  Jack got a couple of huge hits and had his bell rung just a little bit.  Both times I went out on the field to make sure he was okay.  A few tears, but he popped up and started again.  He's pretty tough, so when he hit the ground and didn't get up, I knew he was hurt.

Millie's first game was hilarious. It was like herding cats. She didn't hardly move. I think the kids were nervous.  Of course, this type of athlete is difficult for me to watch.  I'm ashamed to say that I have video proof that my patience level is a bit low for kids that just stand and don't move.  Fortunately, in her second match she was a scoring machine. I think it had something to do with the fact that Jack and Stuart were there to watch her, as well as Mandy and Cathy.  She had more of an audience than just me.  So it was her goal to impress them all.  Her third and forth match were not as good as the second one but at least she did run around and didn't just stand there. I'm sure she will improve with time.  She definitely doesn't have the intensity that her brother possesses, but she's cute!  She does run fast, but I don't think rugby will be her sport, which is fine with me.

Jack's team only won once, but it was against the Exiles, their nemesis, so they were pleased. They progressed as the day went on. He has some very competitive players on his team so they were visibly disappointed with their end result.  They will get better, I am sure.  I left the club around 2, with Millie, to get my hair done. Naturally Millie got a mani/pedi while I had my hair done. I had initially booked a hair cut, but then decided I wanted to have my hair straightened, a keratin treatment.  Well, there ended up being a miscommunication and the only thing I got was the hair treatment, but no cut.  I wasn't happy at all, but had to deal with it because the gal that cuts my hair had left by the time I realized she wasn't coming back and the hair cut was off.

  

I got home just after 6 pm, to a house of people.  Because the club had stopped serving alcohol at 5 pm because of the Prophet's birthday, it seems the party moved to our house.  The kids were bathed and in bed by around 8 pm, and the party continued in the back garden, which is really a very small area big enough for about 10 people to sit in patio chairs.  It was a really cool evening and we sat and talked until around 11 pm.  Then everyone was off to their own homes.  We had some visitors leave earlier in the evening and then return with new members to the fun.  It was an entertaining evening for sure.

Just 5 days until we jump on a plane and travel to the land of OZ, and I am not talking about Kansas.  Australia here we come!