School in Dubai

We knew finding a school for all 3 kids in August would be a long shot, so we planned to probably need to homeschool this year, but wonder of wonders, we found a school close by, on the american curriculum, in our price range, with openings for ALL 3 school kids in our family, and we are loving it. HOORAY!
Here are some interesting things you should know:
 1. School uniforms are the cutest things.

2. The kids like their new school. They were pretty sold on the cool uniforms, but they like the classes too! They are out the door at 7am, and are plenty busy until they head home at 2:30 (the 5 year old is especially tired, but so happy). I love hearing what they did that day: "We had computers today, we got an email and sent our teacher a message, oh and I got my art kit! We get to take home our recorder flutes to practice for music class. I wrote my name in arabic, it's much shorter than you think." "I got my science kit today, and it had real vials! I told my teacher I would teach her to speak african if she let me make an explosion in the science lab. I need to bring my swimsuit and towel next week, we are swimming in P.E. " "Frequency words means words you use a lot. We got our science kit! Something funny happened, I fell asleep in arabic class today because she was talking and I was tired because I didn't understand the words." Of course there are complaints too because school is only magical on the first day, but overall, it's great!

3. I spend a LOT of time driving. There is one road in and out of each town, and EVERYONE needs to be on it at the same time every morning and evening so we have to plan for plenty of time in the car. I take the kids to school, then JR to work. Then hang out with Lincoln all day, then bring the kids home, then bring JR home. I think I have it down the the quickest routes, but we still end up needing to fill up the tank twice a week. Luckily, gas is not very expensive here and a full tank of gas for our little car is the equivalent of about $16 USD. Crazy right?

 4. Random observation: The Porsche seems as common here as the Honda was in the states. There's the sporty model, the sedan, the family car... a Porsche for everyone! Well, not everyone, because we certainly wont be driving one.

 Speaking of cars, here we are pushing our rental to the road... the battery died. 

Moving Home

We moved out of the hotel and into our villa exactly a week ago (It has been more than a week now, but this post has been waiting in the drafts box for a while!). I was sad to say goodbye to our hotel friends! I know it was just heir job, but they they went out of their way to be so so kind to our family. They knew our kids by name, and snuck them packets of Nutella for their pancakes, and just made us feel so special. I think Lincoln thought they were our relatives because would find and hug the hostess every morning before breakfast and they would shower him with hugs and kisses. We just love them! On our last night, after we finished dinner, the restaurant staff called and asked us to come back down because they had a surprise for us- a delicious chocolate cake for our whole family. I really was on the verge, and over the edge of tears to say goodbye to them. I wish they were all my next door neighbors! Have a look at all these sweethearts!

This cake they gave us a a farewell was so yummy!

We are in our own place now and it is pretty much empty, except for the basics. We actually like it this way, so maybe we are minimalists at heart. Time and paychecks will tell. We were terribly lucky to get internet in a few days instead of months, and having communication to the outside world makes it feel downright homey.

Building furry friends

The mall attached to our hotel where we spend A LOT of time happens to have a Build A Bear Workshop, which as everyone knows, is a universal magnet for all children everywhere. An expensive magnet. But, our friend gave us some buy one get one free coupons for stuff in our mall and badabing-badaboom: new stuffed animals for everyone! 

I forgot what a fun event it was! Pick out your friend, make a wish on its little satin heart, stuff it, sew it, shower it, brush it, and then select one of the hundreds of adorable outfits. 

 

We now have a rainbow bear chef,

a special agent german shepherd,

A black-belt karate smurf,

And a firefighting camel. Along with some extra happy kids.  

Dubai Stay-cation

I know we are in limbo for a few days while we sort out housing, but I really just feel like we hit the jackpot. Someone flew us to Dubai, where they put us up in a fancy hotel for a few weeks, and it just feels like an awesome free vacation! We wake up in the morning and stroll downstairs to an amazing breakfast buffet, then head to the pools, where someone brings me an umbrella for shade, or a towel when we get out of the water. All the while someone else is cleaning our two rooms, and even adding cute elephant towel origami to the kids beds.

 Also, there's a huge mall attached to the hotel so when we are done swimming or hungry for dinner, we stroll through the marble halls and red carpet of the hotel, and grab some yummy tikka masala at the food court, and maybe an $1 (37 cents US) ice cream cone for the walk back. If the line is not too long, we might stop for a quick free boat ride,

and the kids will definitely stop at the front desk for a sugared date, or apple, or whatever they have out that day. 

My point is:This rocks! I really wish you guys could all be here to enjoy it with us!

Here's my new friend and I, going out for a movie at our mall.

The kids love that there's curry flavored ramen here! ( the grocery store is in the mall)

Even chilling in the hotel room is entertaining. This fort is a daily game.

Did I tell you Dora was at our mall with a free show every night?

 

Here are the kids with their new stuffed animals. 

Oh, and here's a day out at another mall where we met some friends for an evening of games for super cheap!

Vacations don't last forever, and soon we get to embark on the new adventure of real life in Dubai. Today we will get the keys to a big lovely villa, and next week the kids will start school, and I will commence setting up a home that will be mostly empty for a good long while. 

Let new good times roll! 

But in the meantime, i'm heading to the pool...

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!