Doing the Happy Dance

Ah, the first day of school. Say it with me, "Alhamdula-freakin'-la" (ignore the childish spelling, I'm giddy, dang it!) The girls were quite ready to start school. Counting down the days and making sure their new backpacks and lunch boxes were in place and clothes laid out. (I'll remind them of this day in the all too near future when I am dragging them from under the covers to the screams of, "Nooooooo, I don't wanna go!!) Mairyn was very excited about her new backpack, she got dressed and put it on immediately. We fixed her hair, ate breakfast and put on shoes all with her backpack already on. Mairyn has a "boy teacher" as the girls call it. She was a little apprehensive, for the first 5 minutes, then warmed right up. Yeah, Mairyn doesn't really have any adjustment issues. Eliza was very excited about getting Ms. Scott. Eliza has already informed her that that's her Grandpa's first name. And, the Year 4's get to go to Alexandria this year for their class trip. There are class field trips throughout the year for every class, but the 4-6 years (3-5th grades) get to go on an extended overnight trip this year. In January, I believe, they take a 3 day class trip to Alexandria. Eliza has been looking forward to this since she found out about it in Kindergarten. And now the time has arrived. Both of the girls had a smashing first 2 days and I am sooooo glad that it's here. I celebrated today and had lunch out with a friend, Sara. We both left our 2 year olds with Rere and did the commissary and then lunch at a great little bistro. Oh and Grant starts school on Monday!! Yay! All day, 5 days a week. Do the happy dance with me! Waaahoooo!

Eliza and Mairyn eating breakfast

Eliza's teacher Ms. Scott

Mairyn's teacher Mr. Chambers

A delayed post

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Jacqueline showing me how many is "2"

It's official. Jacqueline really is two. I can't believe it. The weather was perfect today, the first bearable day we've had in a week. We ate dinner and had the cake & presents outside. We got her a potty chair (something she won't really appreciate right away, but we will), a bath bubble blower, and a bunch of familiar board books just her size. She is such a little bookworm, she loves her books. She had a strawberry cake with cherry icing. She was such a cute little angel. Really. Since we've been at Grandma's, she's been having some trouble sleeping. ie: she learned to crawl out of the playpen and gets up at her leisure, bugs her brother in his tent, getting up and roaming the house in the middle of the night, etc. But tonight, alhamdul-allah, she and her sibs went to bed without any trouble. She was just plain tuckered out. Daddy really misses her and wished he could be there, she talked with him on the phone this morning. Any time someone sang her Happy Birthday today, she would mouth the words but not say them. Kuli sana winta tayyib, ya Jacqueline!


P.S. I neglected to post this on my own personal blog the day of. sorry

The Journey Home

As always, the trip back to Cairo sucked big time. The short leg, the long leg and the medium leg. There are many things that could have been worse, but it was pretty grueling. Jacqueline only slept for about 45 minutes on the overseas leg (8 hours long), and slept most of the Frankfurt to Cairo leg. She was pretty sleep deprived. Grant, I think, pulled off the highlight of the trip, though. When we were in the Chicago O'Hare airport, he opened the door to the automatic defibrillator station and set off a the alarm. We were sitting on the floor against the wall (no seats to sit on) and I heard this alarm go off. I wondered where it was coming from and Grant came running around the corner (we were on the corner) with his hands over his ears saying, "Sorry sorry sorry". I walked around the corner and closed the door and the alarm went off a minute later. And really, when you think about it, how is a blaring alarm going to help a heart attack situation? Still, this rude guy (NOT an airport official) got in my face and said , "You know that the fire department is going to come? You're in trouble!" I told him to eat rocks and packed things up and went over to the airline desk and told them what my son did. She said, "So what! Would you like to pre-board?" Would I, would I? (peg leg peg leg) We were the first ones on the plane. Which is a toss up in my opinion. I'd either be first or last. The kids can't stand waiting in line but then you are on the plane for a longer period of time before take off. I just got on. By the time I get the kids settled, etc. most everyone has boarded and we don't have much time before take-off.

Eliza and Mairyn were pretty low maintenance, as usual. They both saw friends of theirs from school in the Frankfurt airport. They were on the same flight as us and played together until it was time to board for Cairo. Oh yeah, and the airline bent my stroller up. I had a whole other issue with that, but really, a long story short, it was quite long and awful and I'm glad that I'm not doing it again for a long, long time. Next summer, when we leave Cairo, Spencer is leaving with me and that's all that matters!