Happy happy joy . . . frown!

There's nothing better than a package! A package that I picked out and mailed to myself. These wonderful patterns range from 5 to 12! Hoo-rah! That includes all of my kids! I have big plans for these patterns. I'm thinking something for Christmas.


About a week before we left, I ordered these Oliver + S patterns online & sent them to myself. Spence brought them home from work & it was such a bittersweet moment. See, I also mailed myself my most recent fabric purchases. A month ago, I was still delusionally plotting that I would just carry-on my machine, mail my notions & have instant sewing when we arrived. Once I came to my senses (meaning I wasn't going to wrangle 4 kids, 6 carry-ons, 8 pieces of luggage AND a sewing machine box. I told you I was delusional.) I had already sent off the fabric. Just in case. That way, when our stuff does get here, I won't have to hunt for it. Maybe I just wanted it around as a pseudo-security blanket. Nothing more calming than beautiful fabric. Nor is there anything more frustrating than not being able to do anything with it!!


Hence, my frown. I may just have to drum up a campaign to find someone's unloved machine, sitting in the closet here. Though that could present it's own set of problems, (old, unfamiliar, possibly antiquated) but still; a sewing machine. My kingdom for a sewing machine! Just leave me some air conditioning. And an electrical outlet.

I even sent myself a kid's apron I cut out! Just in case.

First day of school

It has been a long time coming. I watched with longing & envy as mothers sent their broods off to school all month. I do like having kids at home. But kids at home during transition, not good. We have, effectively, been living out of suitcases since the first of August. We will continue living on the contents of our luggage until our household goods arrive. From trying to find enough diversion for them in the hotel to convalescing from jet lag in an empty cavern of a house and not being able to play outside, it has been a long month. But no more.



I think this morning was the only time I have ever bounced out of bed at 6:15 a.m. The kids wanted to show their excitement, but they were still 3 hours behind on jet lag. Sleeping through the night, but not getting up at quarter after six. I had to force breakfast on them, then we went outside for pictures & waiting for the bus. It took about 10 minutes for my camera lens to de-fog before we could take any pictures. Then the bus was about 15 minutes late. But that gave the kids some time to meet the other 'bus stoppers' in our neighborhood.

It was a half day and the kids dubbed it a success! They all like their teachers and can't wait for tomorrow. I'll remind them of that in the morning. One thing I am particularly excited about is hot lunch. They haven't ever gone to a school that serves lunch. I don't think it'll be an option for every day, but definitely gives me more options! For example, tomorrow is beef stir fry, rice & mixed veg. I couldn't pick a better lunch!

Water, water everywhere, but not a drop . . .

Water, water everywhere, but not a drop that's cold.

You heard me: cold, chilled, icy, moderately cooled. See this tower? That's the water for our 'hood. All the houses in our little compound draw their H2O from this tank. (It actually looks a lot bigger in real life.)



I don't know how the water gets into the tank. I just know that it comes from here & is not cold. The tower does not get up and walk around; so naturally, it just sits in the sun, percolating. Turn the tap all the way to the right, what do you get? Warm water. It's even too warm for comfort sometimes.


This is my view of The Tower of Power. I learned about this interesting phenomenon when I went to do some laundry. I opened my laundry room door & a gecko skittered out. I went to the washing machine, opened the lid, dumped in my load, added my detergent & set the dial. I went to leave when I noticed a little shirt on the ground. Probably fell out when I jumped 3 feet after being greeted by Hector. I went back to put it in and, by chance, put my hand in the water. It did not feel like the 'Warm wash/Cold rinse' setting that I had set. It was more like 'Hot Evening Bath'.

I have since learned that 1) If you want to get a cooler load of laundry done, do it before the sun has been in the sky for very long. Meaning, that I have to start a load before 8 a.m. if I don't want to shrink the oblivion out of it. Or 2) fill up the machine & leave it for a couple hours. Then add ice cubes. At the beginning & at the rinse cycle. Did I mention that I have to walk outside to my laundry room? And that it's not air conditioned in there? Seriously? Did a man plan this place, or what?

But I don't mean to complain. I love my new house. I'll find a solution; I always do. Maybe Spencer will just let me throw away our dirty clothes & buy new ones! Every week! How's about that?

Welcome to Manama!

Wow. We are here. I don't know where to start. 'Hot' seems like too miniscule a word to describe the H-E-A-T. 'Heat,' is considered a four-letter word now in this house. Imagine your entire body wrapped in Saran Wrap and then being immersed in lava. I've never felt the sensation of being instantly wet; palms, arms, face, etc. upon walking out the door.

Here is the current weather update as I type this. (It is 5:30 pm)

Sunny

Temperature:

99°F

Feels Like: 125°

My thoughts are quite jumbled & disconnected right now. Thank you, jet lag. We are all doing better though, this will be our 5th night. Everyone slept through the night last night, so we are on track for readjustment. Though I fear Sunday morning will come all too early for the school-going members of the family. The bus arrives to pick them up at 6:50 am. Yipee. Thankfully the bus stop is right outside our house.

Oh yeah, house. Lovely Manama House. It is more than I could have imagined. I fear I may be in danger of actually having some empty storage shelves. I do have to go outside to do the laundry in a non-air conditioned room. And I seem to have a grouping of geckos that like my laundry room. As long as they keep staying out of my way, I'll be happy. I have noticed an absence of ants & cockroaches in the walkway to the laundry room.


And another one that likes to frequent the ceiling of Mairyn's room. I did not want to influence the children with my abhorrence to all things creepy crawly, so I told them geckos were good. They don't have any teeth, they're not poison, no claws & don't bite. They eat bugs we don't want in our house. And then that's when they named him, Hector Protector. (and just b/c he's a gecko, I kind of want to change the spelling to Hektor Protektor, but then I decided it looked a bit German in spelling, and that wouldn't make sense for a Bahraini gecko)

Whoo-boy, if you can't tell already, I am wiped. I will wrap this post up, but don't worry. Now that we have internet, I will be giving very frequent updates. We have a lot of things happening this next week; first day of school, first grocery shopping trip, etc. And of course, I'll have more pictures.

Leaving on a jet plane

Here we are.

Sitting in the terminal.

Waiting.

I saw Ben Stein. He wears sneakers with his business suit. Huh.

Jacqui got up about 5 times last night. She's already had numerous meltdowns today.

Grant is full of boy energy that compels him to bounce off the walls.

Mairyn & Eliza are both running on nervous, excited vibes.

We, the adults, are just hoping to make it through the flight & not have used the emergency door.

We'll be out of contact for a while until we get internet. Hopefully within a week.

I just checked the weather in Manama; 107F with a heat index of 123F.

Boo-yah.

Bring it..

Bulletproof

I am too tired to even think. Here's how the previous week went. In bullet points.


Monday

• Mairyn's dentist appointment
  
• Bank
• Various & sundry errands all preparing us to leave on Thursday

Tuesday

• Finish my list of 501 things to do

Wednesday

• Try & finish the list of 499 things still left to do.
  
• Cram all the stuff we "need" for then next 3 months into our seemingly inadequate suitcases.

Thursday

• Pack the car & try to arrive at the airport early enough to rearrange our seats, which are spread around the whole plane. Both flights.
• Airline rep. says that the gate rep. can "try" to shuffle the full plane around. {hey, if someone else wants to babysit my 4 & 6 year old for the 5 hours we're on the plane, that's fine with me.}
• Get through security. Actually went well. But they were calling our name for the flight while we were still pulling on our shoes. Great.
• Stumble onto the cigar tube plane & distribute ourselves. Thanks to some on-plane shuffling, only Spence & Eliza had to separate from us.
  
• Once in SLC, we fed kids & got to the next gate to sort out the seating thing. I lucked out when I got Mr. Fabulous. Mr. Fabulous took my name & seat assignments & said he'd put it on the 'wish list'. That didn't sound good, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt. 20 minutes later, Mr. Fabulous called out for Passenger Penrod. I walked up to the counter and, sliding 6 matching row boarding passes across the counter, he said, "Here you go, sweetie." I heart Mr. Fabulous.
• Get on the plane & plow through the next 5 hours.
  
• Land at Dulles at 11pm.
  
• Wait an hour for our bags.
• Send Spencer to collect the rental car during the 'bag wait'.
• Arrange baggage in rental Ford Explorer with Jenga-esque skills.
• Drive through hurricane spawned thunderstorms to our home for the next 9 days.
• 1:30 a.m. - get sandwiches & yogurt at the 7-11 because everywhere else is closed.
• 2 a.m. - finally in bed.

Friday

• The intermediate chapter begins.
  

Seasoned Travelers

In the whirlwind of packing & preparing, we are still taking time to breathe & laugh! We had a Walmart run this morning & the kids got firewater (flavored sparkling water) as a reward. Mairyn REALLY liked her raspberry flavored water.

Mairyn: "I love this water! I want to take it on the airplane with us!

Grant: "You can't, Mairyn. No liquids allowed on the plane."

'Nuff said, my boy.

Family Photos

Now that there is a pseudo-lull in our life, I'm coming through on that family photo allusion. When we took our family vacation, we went through UT and caught up with a golden friend. (you know the poem; 'make new friends, but keep the old. one is silver & the other gold) Leslie is an amazing photographer. She has more talent in that little trigger finger of hers than could ever be quantified. Along with her sister Emily assisting (trust me, we needed it!) we had an amazing time. Who can say that about family pictures? And sorry for the post being so long, a collage in Picasa would be an injustice to the pictures!

Happy Birthday, Jacqueline!

My baby is 4 years old. Wow. How time does fly!

On Thursday {her actual b-day} we were getting ready to welcome the movers into our house. To box our life up & move it across a few oceans. But with little kids, they really don't care which day is observed as long as there's cake & presents!

Today, she got to pick our one red raspberry. We planted raspberries at the beginning of the summer. We watered them every day. Then on August 2nd, one little berry decided to turn from green to red. {we have about 5-8 green buds on each cane} So Jacqui got to pick the prized pretty & eat it. I hope it was memorable. We also finished emptying the house of loose crap & trash. It's amazing what you find when a dresser is pulled out! We also had cake, presents & fun with our Jacqueline Ruth today.

*these portraits are courtesy of my dear friend, Leslie. Don't worry, there's more where these came from! I actually have some free time now & can get back to blogging!*