Random

This week has been noticeably cooler! We can't believe how fast it changed. The afternoons are still unpleasant, but the mornings and evenings are actually pretty nice. Still sweaty if you move, but if you are sitting still with some cool water, and if you aren't stressed or worried about anything, you may not even break a sweat. I've yet to get to that place, but we're happy that "Fall" is around the corner!

Layla started nursery school again today! It went much better than last time. This is likely due to the fact that she knows 4 of the 11 kids in her class. Their parents are all at the language school - see Birthday party photos and you'll see all the older kids who are with her. This is a big advantage over our last attempt, plus Layla is 5 months older and she has been settled here for much longer. we are hoping to have her in four days a week. One of those days will be without the foreign kids - we hope she will get more comfortable in a more Arab environment. It is likely that in January we will consider moving her to another good nursery school reccommend to us that does not have any foreign kids. It REALLY hampers learning language if there is even one other english speaking kid in class!

Visa attempts #2 and #4 are back in play. #2 was the situation where Tom was flat out told he wouldn't get a visa because of the wording on his diploma. We got a call two days ago that his paperwork was ready to be picked up today! hmmmm. Attempt #4 is a totally new situation that is our preference and a verbal offer has almost been made - enough that he was told the offer would come by email by today or tomorrow. We'll see about that.

So it feels like schedules are all mixed up and not ready to be settled for a week or two. Hopefully Tom will have a new work schedule and Lj has her nursery school and I am ready for my times out to the ladies gym and Ryan....well Ryan still needs to figure out how to sleep for 7 hours. Sigh. He was 80% there before our trip to Dtown, but we are back to waking up at about 4am or 5am every night. he isn't hungry, just awake and progressively crankier. I would like to chalk it all up to his runny nose (he sounds SO sad and pathetic!) but that might be wishful thinking. He's a completely easy baby in every other way so we are rather mystified by this one issue. However, we are grateful for just ONE issue at the moment with him!

I have been helping a new language school family get to know their neighbors...they need some to go with them to say hello and do general chatting. It has been fun to be out speaking Arabic again - I feel like it has been ages since I've visited. Oh wait. It HAS been ages. (=

Our visit yesterday was a total surprise. After the lady opened the door, I told my friend Debbie that this would be a short visit. It was a rather elderly lady and her generation speaks a version of Arabic I totally do not understand. The yard and house were dirty and not cleaned up. It wasn't filthy or anything, just old rugs laying around outside on the gravel (rugs keep the dust down) with trash and stuff all over. The mejulis (sitting room) had only two back cushions and a patchwork of carpets covering the floor. I got the impression they just bought a new carpet when the other got too dirty! I sat down on something hard and realized it was an ashtray. When is the last time you saw an honest-to-goodness ashtray! Or sat on one?

The dear woman had two teeth - one on the bottom right and one on the top left and both of them stuck out beyond her lips (= She was clearly surprised by the visit. Everything she brought out was dirty and it was definitely one of those times you just eat, drink and pray. Like I mentioned, I was shocked by how well I understood her and she told us that she was from the "dach a leah" which means the Interior. Her family were likely semi-nomadic bedouins that herd goats/camels and farm dates at certain points in the year. Her husband died 17 years ago in a car accident and she had just moved to this house last year. I was surprised by that - older folks don't tend to move. I think the house was such a bit because only her sons lived there (= Sorry to all you bachelor-types..... You'd likely think her family was poor, but I'm sure they aren't - one is an electrician, two are in the policeforce and one in the Army. They are well-cared for by the government, I assure you. They just live in that social/economic class of rural folks who have just moved to the city. They display their wealth in the cars, clothes and watches, not in their homes. They didn't even have air conditioners in all the rooms! It may mean all the guys sleep in the mejulis (likely) or that some of them are so fresh off the desert that the air conditioners are unpleasant. Who knows.

Anyway - that was my morning yesterday (= Hopefully I'l have a post here very soon about Tom's visa option being decided!! Please God?