Tutorial: SUIT OF ARMOR (no sew)

You will need: 

2   Reflective windshield shades                          $2 (dollar store)
Cardboard                                                             Free                
Empty gallon milk jug                                          Free
Tin foil                                                                  $1 (you probably have enough on hand)  
Duct/reflective tape                                               $1- $10 (I had a roll of reflective tape on hand but                                        dollar store duct tape is probably fine)
Black sharpie                                                        Free (had one)
Yarn for hat plume                                               Free  (had some)

 

1- Take the first reflective window shield and cut out a hole for the head. The hole you just cut out will then be cut in half and taped to the shoulders using reflective tape. We drew the black lines to make it look like a full oval on each side, but it was really just half. Clever eh?

Next, we cut out a zigzag along the bottom of the next reflective sun shade, and cut strips part way up, decorating with black sharpie designs. The triangles we cut out of the bottom were taped back on to make the sun design on the front of the suit.

The sun shades came with elastic and little suction cups, so we made a button-like closure tying the suction cup to the elastic, and cutting a button hole on the opposite end (reinforce with duck tape). If you look closely at the above picture, you can see the little black elastic with a suction cup tied to it on the righthand side. This is also how we closed the top, though we had to make a hole for the elastic and suction cup for the top of the suit. 

The shield and sword are cardboard covered in tinfoil and reflective tape. We ended up taping a stick to the sward to keep it firm, then covering again in tape.  My friend wrinkled up strips of brown paper bag, and wrapped the handle to look like leather.

And for the back of the shield, we made an arm loop with duck tape, and hand grip with a milk jug handle.

Here's the rest of that milk jug, top and handle cut off, and covered in reflective tape, with a plume of red yarn at the top for good measure. I cut a slit in the back so it would fit an adult head, but it would be just right for a kid without the slit. I wish I would have made the helmet front a thin rectangle to cover the nose, because it would have looked cooler, but overall it far exceeded my expectations!

I had great creative helpers and this only took us about an hour.  Good luck!! 

The trip to Dubai

Here is me with my awesome friend Laura who volunteered her 12 passenger van as our transportation to the airport. I was really skeptical that 12 suitcases, 6 carry-ons, 6 backpacks, and all 6 of us would fit but she worked her packing magic (and I mean magic!) and got it all in with a little room to spare. We did this the night before so we could just wake up and go!

And here the boys are making shadow puppets as the sun came up in the airport. 

 And just look who was waiting for us at our layover in Dallas! Kristen just moved to Dallas and surprised us with her beautiful self, and even lunch at the airport! She stayed with us until we were all loaded on Emirates, and pulling away to Dubai. I love this girl so much!


And 14 hours of the BEST AIRLINE THERE IS later, we were on the other side of the world and waiting again in airport lines in Dubai. Lincoln was having none of it and it's a good thing the flight was smooth sailing because this tantrum while trying to get through customs with all our stuff almost did me in.



But lo and behold, we made it though the airport, loaded THREE taxis with our stuff, and made our way to the hotel. It is beautiful, and fancy, and relaxing and perfect.


It had all these space age switches, and I still am not sure how to turn on which light. I just start pushing these buttons, and hope something works. The little silver light turns on with skin contact, cool huh?


Here are the boys after exchanging their $20 traveling money in dirhams. They were so excited to have $70 dirhams, and these nifty quicksilver wallets the airline gave all the kids.

It also happens to be a perfect time to be in this hotel because August is Very Important Kids month, so they get free pizza and ice cream EVERY day! We will be sad to see August end, since we will still be here into September. The restaurant staff are like our second family here. They see us every morning and afternoon, and know us all by name, and spoil our kids like crazy. I'll have to get a picture before we leave!


Oh, and our hotel is connected to a giant mall, where we go almost every day because it has the grocery store, and fun stuff for kids (Dora Live! was there for our first week), and a theatre, and cheaper restaurants than the hotel, and an Ikea, and this fun free little boat ride.



Overall, we are doing great and LOVE it here! We love you all! We'll keep you posted on the house hunt!

Saying 'See ya later'

My goodness, what a busy few weeks it has been!

First off, Jason graduated last friday! Hooray! I was so proud of him, and so glad Lincoln held out his tantrum until after we got to see Jason walk. I was also a little too eager to cut out early and secretly thankful for the excellent excuse of a crying kid because it was going to me LONG and hectic trying to keep four young kids entertained and well behaved for such a formal, and let's face it, boring event. However, seeing Jason graduate was anything but boring, so I'm glad it was towards the beginning. (Well, that guy who wears the feather plumed hat and waves the mace is pretty cool too.)

And since we had to check out of our house the morning of graduation, it was a pretty crazy week! And it looked like this most of the time:

But other than the constant mess, it was a pretty cool time. We spent time with friends, and had as many parties as we could squeeze in! A couple going away parties, a graduation party, last dinner in america party (aka. come eat korean food with us ) and TWO parties with the girls from church. 

Oh and not to forget this fun day, where i got to go with my good friend to do baptisms for her first time ever at the temple, then delicious indian food afterwards. 

More to come...

Stand and Defend!

Jason's dissertation defense is upon us, just hours away. We're all on pins and needles. We hope the committee will be kind. We hope the edits are not extensive, since the deadline is just 10 days away. We hope Jason can relax, and do his best, and feel good about it. 

But, on a lighter note, have you seen this funny video? Well, the girls at church have seen it, so for class activities last night, the Laurels put together this AWESOME suit for Jason in honor of his defense. Isn't it amazing?!? Maybe I'll put up a tutorial because it was under $5, there was no sewing, and took us gals just 1 hour to put together. Go ahead and be amazed.

Good luck babe!

Operation: Phoenix

Do you ever feel like a charred pathetic version of your former self?

The other day I was reading old entries from my blog and lamenting the fact that I used to have this whole "life" thing down so much better. My house was cleaner, I was more productive, in better shape,  more frugal, more motivated, nicer to my kids... the list goes on but suffice it to say that pretty much everything I care about, I was better at a few years ago.  I thought experience was supposed to make you better. What's this all about? 

(Up until this moment, I thought of "setbacks" as minor detours, but it occurs to me that what I'm describing is the very definition of being set back. Okay. I get it. But for the record, I don't like it.)

But before I got too buried in self-loathing of how I used to be awesome but I lost it, the clever voice of reason in my head said, "That can't be right. You don't believe that. You obviously still have some fundamental awesome, and there must be a scenario in which you could undergo significant physical and emotional trauma for a short time, and not be permanently halted by it."

And then it hit me.

Good condition, everything is pretty fine.
Major change rips through your life (or body in my case) like a wildfire leaving a wide path of destruction.
Fire dies to a slow simmer of smoking ashes and emotional backlash.

But even if I feel like my goose is cooked, I am not a burnt dinner,

I am a phoenix. 

I will rise from the ashes, and shake off the dust, and be fiercely stronger. My willpower will be more tenacious. My faith will burn brighter.  My wisdom will be sharper.

So this is what I will remind myself, when I feel charred, and stuck in an ashy gray haze, and beaten,
I will remind myself that I am not the glowing embers of what once was, I am a PHOENIX! I need to push out the pain, and shock, and self-doubt, and beat my wings back into strength, and rise up into something glorious and take on life and become a force for good, a force to be reckoned with.  

(photo found here)

Commence: Operation PHOENIX

How are you going to be a PHOENIX today?

reason # 7,800,903 why I love Jason.

# 7,800,903: He makes me feel so sporty. Without JR, I would never have random sports related experiences like using my mad skills to paint his face for a soccer game -

And I also wouldn't have the impossibly strong urge to chant "Man City!" to a random guy at the grocery store who happens to be wearing a Manchester United shirt. I couldn't pick out anyone on either team if my life depended on it, but something about spending so much time in the presence of Jason makes me momentarily get distracted from corralling 4 rambunctious children through a Meijers in northwest Ohio to thoroughly confuse/jeer an innocent bystander about his soccer allegiance... or just his choice of shirt.

And this makes me think, " Where did that come from?" and then I remember exactly where that came from, and think, "I love Jason so much!"


GO CITY!

Family pictures 2013

So, on our way to DC (to do our immigration paperwork and visit some family), the craigslist photographer we had booked cancelled to do a wedding. I was so stressed and trying to find a last minute replacement but everyone I contacted was too busy, too expensive, not willing to provide digital copies of the prints etc.

So, we were at the national zoo one day, watching the kids in the play area, me clicking away at craigslist leads on my phone, chatting with Mary E Scott about how she's never surprised when things fall into place for us because that's what always happens, when this stranger walks up to us and starts chatting (jason was wearing a hat from his alma mater) and as I explain what i'm doing, he says he knows a good photographer from church, and gives me her number.

 I call, she's available, willing, the right price, and provides digitals of all pics.  Where does she want us to meet her? Oh, the place we were already planning to be that day. SWEEEET!!!!  Plus she was great, and so talented! Seriously, I need a photographer and a random stranger walks up to me and gives me the contact of one.

My luck is ridiculous! Tender mercy for sure.

A big thanks to Danelle for coming through for us with just 24hrs notice! (she had another shoot that morning in Virginia, but hurried back to do ours!)

 Here are a few of the final products:

And when I say "a few" I suppose you know by now that I really meant... ALL.

... Signed, sealed, delivered!

Well! Jason is approaching the end is his schooling and has officially signed a 3 year contract to teach at a university in....

 DUBAI

 Yes, I know! It's wild! And we are oh so excited to finally have the offer and contract worked out! It's been a dream to take a job living overseas and it seemed far away, but now it's much closer! Hooray! 




But questions, everyone has questions! Feel free to drop me more, while I try to answer some of the common queries.

1. Where is Dubai? Will you have to learn another language? 

Dubai is in the United Arab Emirates, on the Arabian peninsula. They speak arabic, and while I have my heart set on learning some, speaking english is just fine. Jason will be teaching in english. The country actually has more foreigners that natives, so it's a big mixing pot of lots of different cultures, which is one of the reasons we find it so exciting.

2. Isn't that an arab country? Do you have to wear a head covering?

Yes, it's an arab country and Islam is the order of the day, but no, it is not required for women to wear head scarves. As you can see by this sign in the mall, they do have more conservative dress standards, but so do we mormons so this really isn't at all a stretch. Don't wear tank tops or short shorts? Easy peasy.

3. What about church?

Well, depending on which part of dubai the university houses us, there are THREE different wards (church units) we could belong to. And just a hop skip and a jump away in Abu Dhabi, they are about to finish what is to be the first new LDS church building in the area. Pretty Exciting! The temple district is a little broader, and the nearest temple is Frankfurt, Germany. Won't that be a fun temple trip!

4. What about your medical care? 

Don't worry, of course this was one of our first questions! Yes we will all be covered with good medical insurance, and they have plenty of quality medical care. And guess what? My medicine will actually be cheaper there than it is here in the States. Lucky!  

Misc. 

Here's another interesting tidbit! Because of the more conservative culture, kissing or even holding hands in public is off limits! That might be the hardest thing to remember, since I sure love stealing kisses from my one and only. 

Also, I will have to get the "Keep your hands to yourself" song from Yo Gabba imbedded in my psyche! 
Well, that was easy. It will be stuck there for at least a month now. 

... hands to yourself, keep your hands to yourself!  Hands to yourself, keep your hands to yourself...