borrowing creativity

I just can't seem to find the mental or physical space and time to blog with intention these days. So sorry to those of you who are interested in life here (=

I will say that it takes about a month to "re-enter". It just takes awhile to say hello to everyone, to get the kitchen back in order, the linens back in their places and all your suitcases and stuff sorted out.

Also, it is winter for only a few more weeks and we are desperately trying to fit in all our outdoor fun for the year. We left here when the weather was JUST getting cool enough to be outside and we returned with a few weeks left of good weather. We love this season (=

The biggest thing to affect our return this time is that we moved to this house just a few weeks before coming to the US. We got pretty settled, but after being gone for THREE MONTHS (whew!) I had forgotten where  we put a lot of stuff.

In the meantime while I am not really blogging, enjoy this post from my friend Rachel who is a phenomenal writer and expat (=

http://www.djiboutijones.com/2013/02/20-things-expats-need-to-stop-doing/

City Water!

As most of you know, life tasks just take longer to accomplish here. Our new house (we moved in Aug 2012 but were absent for three months!) was not connected to city water when we moved in. We had to call for a tanker to come and deliver water 2-3 times a week. We would run out and not be able to flush toilets, do laundry or dishes on a fairly regular basis. It was a pain in the neck for Tom to keep calling the water guy and he had to be paid in cash in small bills each time. And he didn't want to have me or our house helper pay him because we are women and he didn't want to look at us. Really. He would hold his hand out and look the other way (= His idea of being religious, apparently.

So during our absence, apparently the modern convenience of being connected to the city water main reached our neighborhood and everyone is now connected! Our water guy was surprised to get a call from us because everyone in our neighborhood is connected.

Because we rent our home, the landlord had to give his approval in writing and send something with a stamp/seal for us to give to the water utility company. Instead of filling out an on-line form or mailing in something to us or to the utility company, our landlord hand wrote a note, put it in an envelope and put it on the bus from his town (15 hours drive or a 4 day bus ride from our town). Hysterical process once Tom registered what he was saying.

Several days later, Tom got a call from the bus driver that he had some papers for us and that we needed to meet the bus to pick them up. Tom did so and after giving them to the water utility, in about 12 business hours the whole process was finished. Life is crazy here, some things are so old fashioned (like sending a paper by bus) and other things so efficient (you show me any american utility that could move that fast!) and you just never know what you are getting!

All the being said, I will never have to monitor our water levels or think about how much laundry I am doing in one day again.....hopefully!

Also typical to life here, during the process of getting our water hooked up, a major pipe burst from the city water main to our water tank on the roof. Tom had to get that repaired as well today. He has put in two long  plumbing days. Thank the LORD he can figure this stuff out!!

Camping!



These photos swopped places and I can't sort out how to move them so read the second caption first (=

We went with two other families - Jon and Vic our old friends and W and E our new friends. We were 7 adults and 9 kids all under 6 years of age

We were so happy to get out and enjoy the good weather this past weekend! We drove a Looooooong way to get to this beach but it was lovely. Very crowded most of the time, but still a great location.

The girls enjoying jumping in the waves...the second day was much cooler and had a great breeze but it meant that the ocean was a too rough for them to enjoy swimming.

 

Jon and Vic brought a kite and the kids had such fun with it. At one point two South Indian men came along and asked to enjoy the fun and just took the kite out of one of their hands. Cultures are so different! They were very kind but their view of community extends to anyone near them whereas we sort of let other people just play with their own toys (= 

Walter kept the kids busy chasing the Monster. They are taking a snack break here (=

 

                      

The comments are not working. This is taking too much time. sorry! wish I could comment on each one without this taking 20 mins.

The last photo is quite dramatic with the town being pushed right up to the mountains before the road takes you up and out into the desolate terrain right before the beach!   

Chuh-bahmas

Here are just some random tidbits from life these days:
Layla had a sleepover today with her dearest friend Retha. She took a nap before she went and woke up desperate to talk to me about everything she had to pack for her sleepover. However, both my kids wake up super slow and her brain was not actually functiong yet. It was hysterical to watch her repeat the word Chuh-bahmas over and over trying to sort out what was wrong. I finally said "pajamas?" and hit the nail on the head.  That dear girl dug around for a big bag, filled it up with all sorts of nonsense (sorry Retha's mom!) and dragged it out the front door. So cute.

We went rug shopping tonight. We had 20 mins and bought two rugs (= I love knowing how to shop, how to bargain and how much to pay. It was SO EASY compared to our first time around. Granted we could have gotten them cheaper if we took more time, but we just had to move on. I'll show you pictures. This new house we are in has three more rooms than our previous house (office for Tom, office/second guest room and a large guest room.) Thankfully we did not have to buy more air conditioners....and there was furniture left here to fill two of the extra rooms, but we needed some rugs and it was about time to just go and buy them. The one for our TV room I want to wait on because I have a specific rug I am looking for . That is the worst way to shop here, but I have faith that they still have one somewhere in town (=

Layla is back in the swing of school. She had a bit of preschool paparazzi to deal with after being gone for three months, but I had prepped her teacher ahead of time and managed to squeeze her into the teacher's lounge and keep out the other kids (=

Ryan is talking up a storm and just being generally hysterical. He is now directing play time with us which is so fun. He wants to be a baby animal of some variety and wants one of us adults to be the mommy or daddy  version. It is all very prescribed in his head which is quite fun.

We had a time out in a park with my group of local friends. They were SUPER organized and very UN arab in their process (other than arriving an hour after their scheduled time). They had three or four plastic totes full of all the stuff for the fire and had fish to grill, shrimp, salad, and a pasta dish with broccolli (totally out of the box for them!) Coffee, tea, water and soap to wash up with, potato chips and a variety of drinks.It was a fun and freezing time. My kids actually wore their winter coats! It was really windy. So glad I grabbed them at the last minute!

Here is how it went down: "oh stephanie!!! where have you been? we haven't seen you? How was america? your family your trip? Ooo! you are a little bit fat!! (= yes, it is true, and they think it is a good thing after a trip to be a little bit fat (= awesome, no? That was all said in arabic, by the way (=

There is one girl in the group who is a sister and who lives in a different town. She desperately wanted to ask me if life in America was like it is on the TV shows. Dear girl actually said "but the men, they don't love a girl and lead her on and then leave her, do they?? Really!!?? I can't believe it!" Man, if she could see the stream of broken hearts from both genders...... Stuff like this is so sweet but so hard to actually correct. Her frame of reference is so so different.

anyway. I am getting super tired. Ryan had trouble sleeping tonight so I stayed with him until he fell asleep. It was hard for him to not have layla in the room.

Celebrating 10 years at Las Vegas

Before Ryan was born, Tom had and elaborate plan to surprise me with a cruise. This all fell apart when the doctor said I was not able to leave town, let alone get on a plane. It was such a sad thing (-:  This year he wanted to redeem plan but I was feeling too tired of traveling to add another trip to our time in the US. Instead, we settled on going to Las Vegas which is just an hour and 45 mins and we were able to stay for FREE at the Bellagio which is just so beautiful. Neither of us had been to Vegas and getting free plane tickets and hotel was just too good to pass up. It was a lovely time. I'm not sure we ever need to go back, but I'm glad we went once!

This was our newly remodeled room (= very modern. The mini bar was incredibly expensive and if you picked up ANY thing it was automatically charged to your room!

The lights at night were pretty fun to see. Our room had a good view.

 

 

The Bellagio had a lovely walkway through to the next casino hotel.

Our one and only attempt at the slots. We didn't understand how it worked so our one dollar was only good for one pull. Oh well (=

The food was incredible. We found an amazing deal to sample all sorts of buffets during our time there. You know you are getting authentic food when the instructions to the kitchen staff aren't even in English!

The Bellagio fountains are amazing. Truly beautiful.

This is a very large and complicated chocolate fountain! It started out in the ceiling of the walkway.

 

 

T 

 

We spent one of our four days driving out to the Hoover Dam and the National Park that was nearby. It was a nice break from the crazy/wierdness of Vegas (= So beautiful.

Windows 8

We got a new laptop for me while in the US and it has windows 8. I've been limping along trying to figure it out without taking the time to actually watch a tutorial on it (= I quite like some of the things. There is a fun photo editing thing that produced this.....we'll see how it turns out here.

Jet lag is getting better for sure. The kids have been getting up about 530am and dear Ryan is walking off to bed and falling asleep whenever he wants. He just lays down and then we turn around and realize he is fast a asleep! Keeps us on our toes as I don't want him to nap too long or it spoils bedtime.

Layla is definitely still adjusting. Her personality is pretty amped up still and I am SO looking forward to school for her next Saturday. It will help her focus and drain some of her energy (= Feels like we are barely entering normal life here still, but next week will be a bit easier.

Getting settled

Leaving for three months is long enough that it takes about 2 -3 weeks on the front end to prepare and 2-3 weeks on the back end to get back into the swing of life. Jet lag is pretty bad with toddlers as it is impossible to just get them to lie in bed until they go back to sleep (= It is 4am and I am actually the only one awake! I've tried to arrange playdates at key times when they would be falling asleep and then just forewarn whomever it is that we will all be groggy and probably grumpy.

After the last three nights of awful sleep, I was determined to keep the kids awake yesterday evening (while I took a nap, no less!!) and forced them to play and watch TV with our wonderful nanny/house helper. As soon as I popped my head round the corner (after sleeping for two glorious hours) and turned the TV off, Layla was sobbing to just lay down and go to bed. I forced baths and a few bites of food and she sobbed the whole time. At one point she just escaped me and climbed into bed. Now that is what I'm talking about.

Ryan - true to his nature is happy regardless of how exhausted he is (= He is just sweet and fun and bouncy and fell into bed as well. I am thrilled to have gotten more sleep tonight than in the previous three nights combined even though I am still up at 4am.

Because we moved to a new home 6 weeks before visiting the US it sort of didn't feel like we were actually coming home. There are no memories here and I haven't quite emotionally bonded with the house. I'm still comparing it to my old one and longing for our yard though we are thrilled with the space for kids to run around inside and for space for hosting. We could actually host one dad and three kids, two unrelated single folks, one couple and a new family..... this weekend! Won't do all that though honestly we could almost stash everyone in a separate place if they didn't mind being in a crazy house (= I'm low key enough and with a wonderful house-helper I don't mind hosting a bunch of folks. Especially since it is SO helpful for new people in the country to talk to other folks as they compare career options or schools for kids etc etc.

Part of "planting" back in  our home here is to drive slowly around and look at what has changed. Not much has though some key things have happend....the huge, lovely playground and park area that popped up so enticingly then sat dormant and half-finished looks like it will be done this year! We are THRILLED. Our town is small enough that the only decent play area is the one at Layla's school. There is another park in town but is half-finished and about on par with an inner-city US playground (=

There is a small intersection that FINALLY has signage so you know who is (technically) supposed to go. I had been resorting to the biggest car gets their way for the last year. I drive a big car so there you go! One of  our favorite restaurants is rumored to be having a major bling overhaul. There are now pillars covered in disco-ball tiles in the eating area. wierd.

We we'll see how long it takes but I'm only okay seeing people I can be around when totally groggy and  and when the kids are wildly unpredictable (= That is a small crowd at the moment. Really I should be off to bed but I"m so happy the kids are sleeping and so happy for some peace and quiet. I'm just going to stay up a bit longer (=

Some photos of our last month

We had quite a few small snowfalls much to the delight of the kids. Jen and Mike had purchased GREAT clothes for them (=

 

They really enjoyed the trees to climb and deer who calmly laid right in our yard!

My cousin's wife had a baby just a couple of weeks before Jen! Little David and Lilyanna in their first picture here (=

Lilyanna finally was able to get off the oxygen tube and it was MUCH easier to carry her around! 

This, ladies and gentlemen, was MY OLD SCHOOL UNIFORM! Jen and I wore these in Hong Kong at Boundry Junior School. Can't believe Layla fits into it!

And this was my bunny ballet costume (= 

And this shirt was my P.E. shirt from the same elementary school. Such a kick to see Layla in it! The pink cowboys boots were definitely not part of the uniform!

 

Another dress of mine growing up - mom stashed these things away! Layla was quite excited to wear this on the plane.

Need.To.Keep.The.Kids.Happy! I was not thrilled about her flashing the pilot and groundcrew, but hey, the girl was about to be strapped down for 16 hours!

My mom with Paul, little David's older brother (=

Mom found a place for them to ride a horse for about 15 minutes. It was perfect (= Ryan did so well!

 

We saw so many friends in Colorado Springs. Here Ryan was being a kitty cat (= They had SO MUCH fun with these two sisters!

Mike-Mike! He usually joined us for breakfast - the only other member of the household to be awake (=

Christmas dress-up outfits!

Opening Christmas presents

Making Tom's/Tina's egg nog. An entrenched family tradition (=

The progeny of four cousins on the Lawson side. Layla is holding the bear to symbolize Lilyanna who couldn't be in the picture.