If my life could be defined in 5 words, those would be it. "A change of plans". But really, isn't that what life is; a continuous revision of plan upon plan? Nobody ever says, "I'm doing today exactly what I said I'd be doing 5 years ago." Never. Ever.
I'm finding it hard to even compose a cohesive paragraph. I so want write a better post and give this new news justice, but my brain power is failing. And let's face it, Christmas is 8 days away, so that means I don't have any presents wrapped, my laundry is lurking in the basement planning mutiny, and I'm just not clever enough to balance it all.
Without further ado, our change of plans is just that, a change of plans. Turns out we're not really going to Amman, Jordan. We are going to . . . . *drumroll*
Manama, Bahrain
Surprise! Now you know why that muppets song was stuck in my head. Great, now I get to listen to it in there for 3 years. Move over Roberta and Carlos, you have a new friend. Forecast for Manama December 17th, 2009: High 71F (21C) Low 62F (16F) Humidity 68% Chance of precipitation 20% (water equivalent of 0.05 in) Water equivalent? What the heck does that mean? What's the 'equivalent' of water? Powered potatoes? Oh well, I hear we may get a villa. Whoopee!
Ok, it's one week into this beast called NaBloPoMo and things are going pretty good. I'm really not sure why I'm taking on this challenge of posting every day for a month. I believe in quality posting, not quantity. But I saw it as a challenge that I wanted to try and so I'm tryin' it.
One of hubby's tasks while he was home was to get the desktops set up. Yes, we have two desktops. One downstairs called Monstro that the kids can use and my little red baby upstairs called Little Red. (yeah, original) I love Little Red; if you go to your bookshelf and pull out a dictionary, that's about the size of my computer. And it's a desktop! (dell studio, if anyone's curious.) Anyway, the real reason I started talking about that was . . . um, I think I lost my train of thought. Ok, hubby's task was to set up my computers aaaand, yes, I have been enjoying having it set up and all of my bookmarks back. Before we left Egypt, hubby's other task was to group all of our digital media into one place. Pictures on one external hard drive, music on another, you get the picture.
I flipped Little Red on and there were all of these pictures from Egypt that had made the dump to my EHD (is that a real acronym?) but for some reason, not wiped from my computer. I made sure we cleaned up afterwards. Oh well, I have been tripping down memory lane the last week. I'm not getting teary or sentimental. Egypt will never be viewed through rose-colored glasses by me, no matter how hard time tries to soften the rough edges. I miss my friends and acquiantances and the memories we made. I don't miss this.
That was me trying to give Jacqui a bath in the morning. Our water pressure sucked big time. So much so it looked like it sucked most of the water intended for my kid's baths back into the tank. Big pain in the . . . you know where. The case usually was that our landlord had turned off the water pump overnight and the tank would take half the day to fill, so if I could give kids a bath between the hours of 11am and 2pm, the water pressure was fine. (that was actually when I would do laundry b/c the water would only trickle out of my washing machine as well.) But let's play the Glad Game, my precious Pollyannas, I can now bathe 3 kids in 20 minutes flat. Bathed, scrubbed, dried, dressed and brushing teeth. (the fourth showers herself. big kids are great.)
I call this "Truck 'o' Meat". Oh the unsanitary! (mode of transport) Yum.
The Lost in Translation signs. I considered getting business cards for Spencer with this sign on them! Nah, not really. (yes, really.) This was at some horse stables by the pyramids. 'Cept the horses didn't look as healthy as that 'stud' on the poster. Really, I could go on forever, I've got 4 years worth of it! Anyway, I guess I'm just saying that I'm grateful to be here where I am now; a house with a yard, great water pressure, clean meat and a blog on which to share it all with you!
Boxes for me. Millions of boxes. Boxes for free. No, not really. They aren't 'for free'. They're for me. For me to unpack, sort through and toss. I am struggling through the slog of apathy and overwhelming urges to crawl under a rock and wait for it all to go away. Hmmm, can we say 'avoidance' anyone??
Here it is, the 12th of October, 6 months after we said goodbye to Cairo, and I am still stumbling over boxes. I have seen friends move after me that are more settled than I am. I should know, I stayed with one of them this summer, in their new house. I'm here, in my new house, with my husband coming home in 3 days without any room to park our car in the garage.
But really, don't worry. I just had to introduce this preface because it's how I'm feeling. I know that I will get this done. With Spencer home, we'll probably rocket through piles of boxes a day. Those things tend to happen with 2 adults around. I'm also feeling a bit guilty about not posting very often. I just don't feel like I have anything worthwhile to say nor do I have the time to compose my thoughts into anything that closely resembles structure.
We'll cover the last week in bullets: (or dashes, seeing as how I just realized that I don't have any bullets.)
-- Monday, Oct. 5th -- I drove my mom to Montana to my pregnant sister's house. We had a wonderful time together.
-- Wednesday, Oct. 7th -- I drove back to Rexburg. And jumped back into everything.
-- Thursday, Oct. 8th -- Taylor Brooke Andersen was born!!
-- Friday, Oct. 9th -- Chased my tail; ran errands that were long overdue and bought a piano.
-- Saturday, Oct. 10th -- Had all 4 kids home, as I usually do on Saturdays. So you can bet that nothing much of merit go accomplished. I went to my friend's yearly Harvest Dinner; a gourmet feast where I felt like an adult for a few hours.
-- Sunday, Oct. 11th -- Went to church, had a couple over for dinner and games. Children decided to smoke a special brand of crack and act even more insane than they really are, trying to prove the point that I really don't have any control.
And that brings us to today. Today. 2-day. to-Day!! Yeah, let's see what happens.
I am up to my eyeballs (actually higher than that) in boxes. And sheet rock, 2 by 4s, electrical wiring and sawdust. Getting my 7,000 lb shipment and finishing my basement at the same time makes for a crazy life. Oh yeah, and throw in 4 kids that just want to find their toys amid the mountains of unopened boxes. Here's what greets me when I go to open a box:
Upon closer examination:
Uh huh, the cartons of joy are labeled in Arabic. Numbers in English, descriptions in Arabic. Then my master list has a translation in English. But usually, the contents are not accurately described. For instance, the list says, "toys, shoes" And the actual contents? Clothes and the removable shelves from the bookcase. So it's Christmas every time I rip into a box with my trusty box cutter. I had the delivery guys stack about 90% of the boxes in my garage, and arrange them in convenient to access aisles. It's like my own little Bed, Bath and Beyond! What am I going to find down aisle 28? Kitchen appliances or old socks. And therein lies the fun.
**p.s.** btw, my internet speed ROCKS!!! i am uploading pictures faster than i have in a loooong time. i usually click the button to upload a picture and go surfing around other tabs or write more of the story and before i know it, up pops my picture!! awesomeness. **p.s. done**
Cinco de Mayo, ah, a holiday that is really fun to say! Cinco de Mayo. Did you know that in Mexico, it is a "voluntary holiday" (oooh, something else fun to say) and is "not an obligatory federal holiday". It celebrates the Mexican army's unlikely victory over the French forces. A good reason to celebrate, but why, I ask, in America? For us, it is probably just a reason to go eat some good Mexican food. And since we have been seriously deprived of that in Egypt, we decided to go get our fill. We were knocking around Provo this week and popped in on our favorite local Mexican eatery, Los Hermanos. They are good in their own special way. I had the ever satisfying Chicken Chimichanga (say that 5 times fast) and Spence sampled his longtime fave the Smothered Beef Burrito. The kids filled their faces with the abundant chips and salsa and also branched out to the Chicken Taquito. All raved, everyone was satisfied, a good Cinco de Mayo.
It is such a beautiful spring here in D.C. I'm sorry to gloat, but I love springtime! Everything that goes with it; the rain, the sun and pleasant temperatures! I have missed seasons so much! In Egypt, there's just temperature changes. Seven months out of the year, it's pretty pleasant! The other 5, it's Hot, Melting and Insanely Hot. Any wind or breeze that comes might as well be the devil's breath. Not very refreshing. And, ironically, the leaves fall year round. There is usually some sort of flower blossoming or fruit tree fruiting. But it's all covered with a grimy layer of dirt and sand.
We got up this morning to the rain. The kids opened the door to leave for breakfast and were met with rain.
"Again?" Eliza said. "Awww, when's it going to stop?" asked Mairyn
This reminded me of a conversation they had our last day in Cairo. It rained for about an hour that day. We came out to gentle misting and when we were done inside, came back out to find it still sprinkling.
Mairyn: "Wow, it's still raining!" Eliza: "Yeah, that's weird." Mairyn: "What if it rained, like, all day?" Eliza: "And then all night and you got up the next day and it still rained?" Mairyn: "That would be a lot of rain."
Yeah, understatement of the year, Mairyn. Little did they know, that can really happen. They haven't been exposed to much raining in the last 4 years. That's a long time in a little kid's life. So our first 3 days in D.C. it rained. They were amazed. Rain all day, night and all day again. They were getting a little sick of it by the end of day one. Me, on the other hand, I could live with it raining for the next year! Yes, it does get a little cold and such, but I would rather be cold than hot. When you're cold, you can always put on more layers to make yourself warmer. Hot, there's only so much you can take off! There were times in Cairo when I would have welcomed the ability to peel my skin off. (alright, a little gross, yeah, but really, that's how you feel!)
I'm glad we took advantage of the beautiful weather this weekend. We went and visited a friend in Maryland who lives by a lake. The kids went fishing and we just enjoyed the sunshine. The day before, I took the kids to a nearby park to let them frolic and play. Wonderful freedom!!
Wow, we made it. It is 6:30am and the kids have been up since 4am. But it all good. We made it. It was bittersweet leaving Cairo. I will miss our friends and associations the most. Egypt, um, I'm glad I had the experience, but I am SOOOOO glad about so many things I don't have to deal with anymore. It may take a little while to completely miss the country itself. Hey, I drove past a Target on the way home. You got Target yet, Egypt?? Anyway, I have so many pictures to post about the trip and the days leading up to it. We have plenty of down time in the next week, so get ready. The fun is about to begin.
