The Sweetest Things

 It had been over a year and a half since I'd enjoyed a Dr. Pepper (my favorite) when these two beauties showed up in our local supermarket.  And it was SOOOOOO good.










It had been one year since we had rain, but it is certainly rewarding to see what happens after it rained and this is the desert folks!

Amazingly, a Christmas tree also appeared in the desert. ;)












It had been six months since our last date, but our little town has a newly opened cinema we finally visited; and aside from one other couple the place was completely ours--crazy!

Time alone with my sweetie, is time well spent!

A year of sun, a day of rain

It rained the other day.  A true full day's rain--well a true full three hours of rain and it was BEAUTIFUL.  We even heard thunder in the distance, and there was enough rain to make puddles for our children to splash in and wade and giggle through.  They came in only after they were thoroughly wet and chilled (it would seem our blood has officially thinned--I'm cold when it's in the 60s).  Afterwards, we did the only thing appropriate, we took warm showers (except for Imp, who I think is crazy because she demands cold showers!) and then enjoyed mugs of hot chocolate.  After more than a year with no real rain, it was indeed a wonderful, refreshing break from the sunshine. 

A picture of new life

 Here is how we spent our time of Thanksgiving: celebrating eldest son's decision to show what the Lord has done in his heart.  For us, this is a picture of saving grace, a physical reminder of how we are redeemed.

As eldest son said, "Jesus died on the cross for me and rose again so that my heart can be cleaned; and I do this to show that my heart is clean and I can follow God and be with God in heaven one day."

 It was so beautiful and beyond my ability to describe...

but then that's what saving grace is.

Her tea party...

 She requested my blueberry muffins for her birthday cake.  I surprised her with two different kinds of quiche (there's a reason I've had to promise to take her to France one day) and various other goodies.  There was an assortment of teas and strawberry lemonade for those wanting cold refreshment.

We made paper plate and bowl hats and decorated with ribbon and flowers.  She helped me make the tissue paper flowers and picked out the tea cups and decorations.  And I must say, I do believe a fun time was had by all.
Happy Birthday to my lovely, eldest daughter.

She is six

Eldest daughter finally got her wish: she is older (by a little, and for a while anyway).  She is now six and seems to be wearing it well.  We had a lovely tea party to celebrate and it was also her first party with school friends as the main invitees.  I can't wait to post some pictures!

Camping in the Desert: Part Two

The last time our family went camping it looked a lot different.  

For starters, we were one child fewer and eldest daughter was 6 months instead of almost 6 years old, but hey, life can get hectic and hopefully now we’re back on track for more outdoor adventures.  Another difference was that the last time we went camping we went with my sister-in-law and then future brother-in-law, and there was a wealth of camping know-how between them and husband dear.  (I know that I enjoy camping—I was just never in charge of putting up the tent or starting the fire, or well, you get the picture.)  Also the last time we went camping was in the middle of a green forest and this time we were in the middle of the rocky, SANDY desert.

But all differences aside, we loved our last-minute camping trip!  We had been talking about going camping here for a while and finally decided to go for it the last two days of our holiday break.   So we ran out and grabbed all the essential things we could think of that we didn’t already have (like sleeping bags and lighter fluid--and no, we did not use them together) and borrowed a few more, and then we were off.  Camping here is easy-going, after all this area was largely Bedouin for centuries, so you can set up camp almost wherever you like.  Gathering wood is also easy (easier if you have a chainsaw we discovered, but nonetheless): pick a dead tree and go to work.

The children loved running up and down the dunes and following little animal tracks in the sand.   They did NOT love eating crunchy/sandy hot dogs and mac and cheese =( .  But now we know meals cooked in closed foil packets are the way to go in the evening when the wind picks up—live and learn.

The setting was so beautiful—open but secluded.  The only other people we saw were some locals out gathering firewood (with a chainsaw =)).  The sunset and sunrise were both gorgeous and we got to watch a beautiful orange moon rise between them.  Husband dear even saw a couple of shooting stars.

Aside from the sandy meal, and being kicked in the face by Imp while she slept (that girl did somersaults in her sleep and still managed to keep her sleeping bag on!), it was a great family trip, and I hope we can go again soon.

 Eldest son and daughter getting ready to run down the dunes.  I don't know who taught her to pose like this, but I think we may be in trouble with this sassy girl of ours.

Husband dear hard at work procuring firewood.  He only had a small hand saw and was going to try to use the car to help pull the upper part of the tree down.  However the rope was not very thick/strong, so in the end my man sawed through and broke the tree down all by himself. =)

 All while we watched and cheered (and played in the sand).

Sunset.

 Sunrise.

  

 Eldest son and Imp greet the dawn with the moon still smiling down.

Camping in the Desert: Part One

 Our camping adventure begins like this--any of you who know me will immediately see the humor in this picture.  Husband dear said my job, upon arrival, was to set up the tent.  I allowed as how this might not be the best plan, but our tent came with a  roughly hand-sketched diagram and instructions in German, so he thought I could manage (ha!) and it was either that or go cut firewood from dead trees...

In the end, the tent went up (with help from eldest daughter and husband dear).  Here you can see our view (around Imp).  Isn't it beautiful?

And another view from outside the tent.











The light was beautiful but fading, and we still had firewood to collect, a fire to start, and many adventures to have...

This is not normal

This is a picture of eldest daughter completely crashed on our couch in the middle of the day (with the TV on, and her brother and sister playing around/on/over her).  She’d been complaining of her head hurting and just seemed out of sorts, but after the impromptu nap seemed much better, which was a good thing because we had a long car trip planned for the day.  All seemed well until we pulled up to our destination and she says, “Actually, I think I need to throw up…” which she then did all over herself, her blanket, the back seat…

I was a little afraid this was going to be a virus that we would all get to experience, but thankfully it was just the once and we were all able to enjoy a few days of a holiday break together after this rather less than auspicious start.

Sick Days

Well these past weeks have been a strange fog of sickness and life lessons.  We are emerging from this wicked sickness that—had you asked me a week earlier—I would have promised it might end up with me expelling my lungs from the force of coughing…

But just because we are sick (husband dear too) doesn’t mean the world stops or slows down—so sometimes, as husband dear was so good to remind me, sometimes we have to step off and take sick days.  And so for two days we did.  The only effort we put forth was into making sure our children stayed alive and made it to and from school.  And praise the Lord, we all survived and are once again well (and then sick again briefly for eldest daughter =( a story we’ll tell next installment).  Thank you to all of you who thought of us and prayed for us, and have been so faithful to do so always—we love you!

Stanley's Visit: Part Two

What a difference a little know-how makes in fixing up pictures.  Husband Dear took pity on you all and took the red-eye out of these, maybe one day I'll try to learn how to do that...

In this picture you can see the henna she just got done (it's very orangey on the first night).  No henna for Stanley, darn that laminating film!

 Stanley hanging out with the other "kids."  I can't say what is more disconcerting in this picture--Stanley's electric blue eyes that follow you everywhere, or the babydoll without eyes...

This is the one playground toy I can't look at without feeling a little sick...NEVER eat creamed spinach and then take a spin on this bad boy is all I've got to say...

I added this picture so you could all see the henna after a day or two, it gets much darker as you can see here in this picture.  Stanley enjoyed playing at the park--we took him when everybody else here goes to the park--at night. =)  Thanks for the visit Stanley!

Look who's back for a visit

It is eldest daughter's turn to host our friend Stanley, and she decided the first place he should go is to ballet class with her and Imp.  Please forgive the wild hair and red eyes, sometimes it's all we can do to capture the moment around here.

In other news, I stepped into a hole and turned my ankle right after their class ended.  This left me with a sore/bruised ankle and the realization that I had three miniature personal assistants (and a wonderful husband) who happily let me boss direct them around from the couch.  Still, hopefully I'll be back on both feet again soon--because as much as I love them, I don't trust my personal assistants not to eat my super-secret peanut M&M snack. =)

And the cast is off!

Sweet girl, she never once complained about wearing this cast, even though she's right-handed, and it's been over 100 degree heat for most of the time, and dry and sandy everywhere you play (and I won't even begin to tell you all the things we found inside her cast when they took it off).  She never slowed down and she never complained.


She did promise to stay off the monkey bars for a little while.=)  We'll see how long that lasts...


Here you can see how we remove casts--with a saw!  Thankfully we've done this before (and viscerally, at least, she knew she had too from her previous cast experience) so this also went smoothly.

  

And, just to be sure everything in her arm was working properly the good doctor gave her another lollypop to carry on her way out.  

Semantics or spelling? You decide.

This awesome picture is brought to you courtesy of some friends of ours here who found this jewel in our local market and left is somewhat anonymously on our doorstep tonight.  Husband Dear is convinced that the "f" needed to be an "s" on this packaging, but I think there's room to argue that the consistency of the um, treat, inside may have led the marketing folks to the wrong descriptive word in the dictionary.  Needless to say after a week of tough classes and back to school colds, this provided much laughter and comic relief.
And I must say that, hands down, this is the best barf I've ever tasted--you knew that was coming right?

And sometimes you walk straight into the glass door

This is one of those posts that I hesitate to share, because let’s be honest it’s just plain embarrassing, but if you get past that it’s pretty humorous and the laughter helps it to hurt a little less—a little anyway.  So, we were walking into my favorite shopping complex and husband dear and the kids were up ahead of me giving me plenty of time to observe them as I walked.  Mainly I was taken with Imp and her, ahem, style.  She made it out tonight in flowery leggings and long sleeve top (it’s still 100 degrees here) and shiny pink heels dragging a magna doodle behind her.  After I observed her, and admired the job I did on husband dear’s haircut this afternoon, I saw two ladies in the perfume store smiling at Imp and then me.  I was then thinking, “that was so nice of them to smile, I’m going to smile back,” and WHACK.  That was when I walked smack into the retracting glass door.  And this wasn’t one of those times where you play it off quickly with a “nobody noticed so it didn’t really happen” kind of recovery, oh no.

 A)  I never saw it coming, so it was a full on smack the door and bounce off reaction. 

B) Several somebodies noticed and either laughed outright (my dear family) or had a mixed look of surprise and concern (the shopladies).  

So, what did I do?  After the shock of, “I can’t believe I just walked into the automatic door,” I brushed myself off and laughed.  On the way out after shopping I felt a little vindicated when I noticed the door didn’t make it unscathed either.  There at my head level height was a big forehead smudge warning of the importance of watching where you’re going.

Multitasking

Life here moves at a much different pace--not that it makes it any less hectic, just different.  I wrote before about a day in the life of our family, but here's an actual glimpse.  We have no dryer, but with temperatures well over 100 (STILL) and a balcony we can dry clothes pretty quickly--oh, and also dates.  These dates were given to us from our friends and neighbors fresh from the date palm and they are so delicious!  And in case you're wondering--yes, our outdoor balcony (and in fact our entire apartment) is carpeted.  I believe we may have the only place in this town with carpet.  I'm hoping for tile next time, and some trees.  Also this boggles my mind as well, but I'm pretty sure the tree in this picture is never watered (and considering it has been nearly a year since the last rainfall I'd call that pretty hardy--or maybe it's roots have tapped into the water line underground much like the bush/vine that grew outside and up and into our second story bathroom pipe...but that is a story for another day). =)  Which reminds me, time to go and put the laundry out again, and maybe eat a few dates while I'm at it--happy weekend to you all!

Macaroni and Monkey Bars

Some days are ice cream days and some days are emergency room days--only in our family we like to fit them both in together...what a day!  It started with our rough and tumble eldest daughter meeting her match on the monkey bars.  Our take away lesson from this:  if you decide to eat macaroni and cheese with your bare hands (wha?) it is a good idea to wash before trying to swing across the monkey bars.  Thankfully, she had already worked this out, and informed me of it after we picked her up from school.  Oh, did I mention the children started school.  Yes, it is only day three, but they are really enjoying it (aside from the unfortunate monkey bar incident).  But I guess the silver lining is that our trip across the border to the doctor also included a stop at a Baskin Robins and a lollypop from the nice doctor.

Our Summer

We are back from our island adventures and I wanted to share some pictures from our time there--and I am super stoked because I took most of these (when you have a photographer husband it's a little sad to look at your own attempts at pictures.  It's even sadder when people assume by extension that I know how to take good pictures with fancy cameras--not that husband dear hasn't tried to teach me, but there's only so much my mind can retain =)).

 An honest to goodness shipwreck--you should see husband dear's pictures of this!  Mine were taken standing on the side of the car--hanging on tight because it was really windy.

Husband dear at work.

     

 Our favorite secluded playing beach--it was great except for when the wind picked up and we had to deal with the sand.  Imp called it the "sting-y place."

The interior of the island pretty much looked like this--we had a blast going off-road, thanks to our friends who let us borrow their vehicle on this trip!

We all had a great time climbing rocks and exploring, looking for fossils and geodes.

 Flamingos in the wild--this was a big exciting first for us.  After we discovered them we had to go every day so eldest son could check on them. =)

Be vewy, vewy quiet.  Eldest son and daughter stalking flamingos. =)