If . . .

. . . you give a girl your iPhone.

Trippin'

Who doesn't dream? Whether it happens during the day or after consciousness has left our mind, it's bound to happen. I don't always dream. I'll go through cycles of dreams that range from purely inspired imagination to downright crazy nonsense. Last night was one of the latter.

And it was one of those dreams where you find yourself in the middle of it, without knowing how you got there.

I'm walking down the sidewalk of some non-descript town. My sister, Katelyn & her husband are there; along with Pablo, Jill, Talia & Dave, Callie & Reed. Spencer & I are dressed very formally. He's in a tux & I'm a wedding dress. Everyone else is very casual. But no one seems to think we are out of place. We all go to a generic cafe/diner and order up breakfast at midnight. (That, I'm ok with. Breakfast food is ok any time of day) After the needed noshing, we find ourselves back out on the sidewalk looking for a Baskin Robbins. I'm growing a little more uncomfortable, trying to maneuver the street in wedding dress. A really great dress, but a formal frock nonetheless. We find the ice cream and thoroughly enjoy. When everyone starts talking what movie we're going to see, I have to protest. I'm not comfortable anymore and I want to change! I don't want to sit in a movie theater in a wedding dress!!

That's when I find myself in the middle of another situation.

Spencer & I are sitting on the couch in our living room, Skyping with Katelyn. We're watching baby Taylor do not-so-baby-Taylor things like walking. I say, "Oh I just want to hug her!" and so Spence says something very 'Princess Bride-ish' like "As you wish." and begins typing furiously. "Ok, now you can hug her." I lean over the computer screen and fall through the camera all Alice in Wonderland style and find myself in my sister's living room. Chris is in the corner, tying fishing flies. Sagey (the dog) runs over with a stick for me to throw. Katelyn and Taylor come around the corner, all ready to hug! When it's time to go home, I wake up in my dream (Inception, yes, I know) and realize it was just a dream. Then I wake up *for real* and need some Chapstick. 'Cause my lips hurt real bad!

How's that for trippy?

Sandy, not the girl

It's not easy to get a good picture of a sandstorm. Usually, pictures don't do them justice and video sometimes doesn't even define the essence that is blowing sand. The picture below is the sun. At 2 pm. And yes, those are the street lights that are on. If this were Cairo, 'on' streetlights during daylight hours would not be something out of the ordinary. Here in Bahrain, the lights are all fancy-like with them new-fangled sensors that flick the light on at dusk & flick 'em off when the sun comes out.


This was a particularly mild one, lasting just the duration of the day. I like to be inside and pretend that it's a cloudy, overcast, thunderstorm-y day. And really, two out of three isn't bad! The aftermath of a sandstorm; little piles of sand by all the crevices in the house, isn't the greatest, either. I could do without them. But hey, what 'cha gonna do when you live in a sandbox?

Happy Birthday!

I know each parent says it every single year, but here it goes, "I can't believe how old my child is!" Then they turn around & say the same thing about us; so, s'all good. Birthdays bring a reality check that I really don't want to cash. It marks a passage of time and sometimes, I'm not good with that.

Eliza is 11 today. She is my shining star! I could gush about her forever, which I'm sure everyone is *not* interested in hearing about. Eliza is a thoughtful, patient, caring, loving girl that is my sunshine.

We have a bedtime ritual that originated with Eliza. Yes, many things begin when the oldest child was born. It's just a fact of life. (being first born isn't easy, either) The bedtime ritual. Well, Eliza was about 18 months old and sleeping in a 'real bed', not a crib. She wouldn't stay in the crib; kept crawling out & landing on her head. We figured that wasn't good for her, so she moved into a bed at about 12 months old. The transition went wonderfully. For about a month. Since she was so short, she couldn't open her bedroom door on her own. We'd leave it open a crack. She took that crack and widened it to all the way open & discovered a new world of freedom. Where little girls don't have to go to bed when they were put down, making bedtime more of a nuisance to her nighttime partying ways than anything. However, one night, she wandered into our bedroom right before our bedtime and saw that we were already in bed.

"Sleepy?" she said.
"Yes," we both agreed, "We're very sleepy, we're going to bed."
"Oh, I go bed." and she walked back to her bed for the rest of the night.

Spencer & I looked at each other, could it be as easy as that? The next night, I put her to bed {which was obviously far earlier that we would actually be in bed}. I sang her a song and then added new preamble to the 'don't let the bedbugs bite' farewell. It goes something like this.

Mommy: "I love you, a bushel and a . ."
Eliza: "Peck!"
Mommy: "A bushel and a . . "
Eliza: "Peck!"
Mommy: "And a hug around the . . ."
Eliza: "Neck!"

I hug her then pretend to fall asleep on her neck. She was a bit puzzled and said, "Wake up, Mommy!" I said, "Oh, I'm so tired!" She asked if I was going to bed because I was so tired. Yes, I would be. {just not right now, but she didn't need to know that} She seemed satisfied with that answer, I reminded her to not let the bedbugs bite, bite, bite and I left the room. She stayed in her bed the rest of the evening & through the night. I repeated the altered routine the next night, and by golly, it was magic!

She eventually learned to just stay in bed, but it became part of "The Routine". And I say it the same way for the other chili beans. And she still asks for it every night. They asked about why I pretend to fall asleep on them, and this story comes out. The alteration that is sometimes made is trying to beat me to saying, "I'm so tired!" They say, "Wake up, Mommy!" and try to beat me to the punchline and say, "You're so tired!" I think it was Grant that began that.

So a 'Happy Birthday' to my 11 year old girl that isn't so little anymore! {she's 4'9"!}

Night Lights

Manama really went all out in the New Year decoration department. Their downtown lights were splendid! And it felt Christmas-y because Bahrain's national colors are red and white. Pictures only came out as a blur, so this video will have to do. Oh, and the kids went back to school today. Alham'dula-freakin'-llah! Sadly, it may take a while for the house to recover from 3 weeks of vacation. *sigh*

New Year, New Something

It's a new year. For some reason, everything has to be about renewal. It usually takes me a bit longer to warm up to the idea of a different set of numerals. I mourn the last year, a bit. I just got used to 2010. Though I suppose we have a whole new decade to get used to the prefix '201' changing the caboose every 12 months. I cling to the last year for familiarity, comfort in the face of unknown. Not much can be said about our 2010. Well, that's not true, but 2010 was quite a transitory year for us, not really defined as "The Year of ______ " anything. The first 7 months were spent apart, us in Idaho & Spencer in Iraq. Once he got home, there was that short window of about 5 weeks where our house was all packed up, we got on planes & shifted across the world to Bahrain. And the remaining 4 1/2 months of 2010 felt like a whole extra year squished into that space of time. The transition to Bahrain was smooth, extraordinarily so. I love the new life we're finding here. I'm just not thrilled about the passage of time, whether it be because of the New Year or any other event.

Over this holiday vacation, we did manage to have some fun. We made Christmas cottages. They're made out of graham crackers. So very easy & quick. I'll do gingerbread someday. Maybe.

Plots & Schemes

Merry Christmas to all! We had a wonderful Christmas; truly the best in a long time. Our first together since 2008. That was also the year we began 'group gifts'. It was what we called a Wii Christmas. {Ha, you can laugh at the double entendre.} All we got was a Wii and two games. We spent the day together figuring out the Wii and playing all the games. And the kids felt no lack. This year, we did something similar. We got Eliza & Mairyn an iFlip & a super awesome cool tripod. Plus a book called 'Attack of the Killer Video'. Grant & Jacqueline got a basketball hoop & two balls. They also each got a DS game to play on my DS. And that's it. There were prezzies from grandparents, too. Here is the post-present opening bliss:



I seriously think Fisher-Price and Ikea get their instruction booklets from the same company. No other toy company requires yoga, quantum physics and a bit of magic to properly assemble their products. We are still trying to get the 'Grow To Pro Bball hoop' put together.


I must have done something to deserve such a generous Christmas because my wildest dreams came true. I got this:



And this:



Aaaand, this:

Apparently, Spencer thinks I'm da bomb diggity. He's been "collecting" these presents and decided to save it all up for Christmas. The only bummer? Next Christmas is going to be really hard to top! But seriously, if I didn't have work, house & children to tend, I would disappear into my kitchen & office and not surface for a few months. I also have to say that one of these wasn't such a surprise. A few nights ago, Spencer was wrapping the serger. The kids wanted to help wrap Mommy's present and so were in the room with him. I was out in the living room, away from their area when I hear Grant's outside voice declare, "Wow, Mommy got a new sew-er!!" It was then that my suspicions were verified that I was *probably* getting that serger I wanted. I was still excited on Christmas, but I'm one that likes surprises. I can wait. I like the suspense. But I was adequately floored when I discovered those other two large boxes under the tree.

What else did we do today? Nothing. We played with our new toys, ate ham sandwiches and were together. It was a very perfect day. Oh, and the temperature was a perfect, porch-sittin', clear sky enjoying 73F. A light breeze from the ocean and peaceful suburb living. Love to all!