Dilbert - The Knack full

This is so cute. So appropriate for the family :) As hubby took things apart as a child, and monkey, and even midget are always taking things apart, just to see how they work. Some could say it's a bad thing, I say it's a good thing. How good they are, decides on how good my retirement home is :)
All hail the engineers!

ugh.... redness?

Ugh... I just spent 25 minutes on the phone, after trying for 3 hours to get through to make an eye exam. Really? That was painful. First I spent 10 minutes trying to explain that i want an exam. "Why, what is the problem?" Um, i want to get them checked... "Why?" I get them checked every year... "Why".... Because the Dr who is more qualified than you says i should.....I didn't say that, but i should have :) Then I said i heard they had a specialist in the retina, that was recommended by the dr there my daughter saw. So she goes "redness?", i say no, retina... she says "yes, redness, allergies, watery eyes.." with a rude tone.. So i say retina...R-E-T-I-N-A. "Why you need him, you have report?" No, i go once a year, a yearly check-up.. So finally she switches me to someone who might know english as a second language, if she really tried. She was only minorly annoyed with me. She says if i need to see the retina specialist he is only here once a week, and is booked through next october. Nice.... So now i have an appt thursday, which means she must be really great right? :) Her name is Dr. gjhdjhfkjhdkshkh, and that is all i got. But she is an ophthalmologist, and the lady was actually offended i asked :)
So in honor of the language barrier i encountered today, which has driven me to eat this kit kat i don't need. I give you this, the outsourced clip on rubbers. When Monkey came home saying he needed rubbers for school, giggling. I had no idea, and nearly lost it. This is so funny :)

Wedding....and P.S. It's hot!!

So being that the kids are at a British school, naturally the talk is of the wedding. I imagine it is everywhere really, as who isn't excited about a girl becoming a princess? Well, besides my husband:) I'm so glad though we are over here, as when we got up back home and I was a girl to watch Charles and Diana it was around 5 a.m.? I remember watching it though, and it was so amazing... So at least here it will be daytime.
The school is having a special day though, and we are doing a "proper" British tea. So I volunteered to help, as it sounds like fun! Well someone please explain "proper" tea sandwiches? I emailed the lady to make sure.... But eewww.... cucumber sandwiches?
I'm supposed to bring cookies also, and I'm guessing not chocolate chip :)
So i'm off to google what in the world these tea sandwiches are, and to hop in the pool. It is hot enough now to where it isn't cold enough to give you frostbite in the pool. And it's 102 degrees out! I'm thinking June is going to be rough....
Cheerio!

Easter Bruch at the Fairmont

We had the most wonderful day! We had reservations for the Easter brunch at the Fairmont Hotel here in Abu Dhabi. The hotel is very modern, and beautiful inside. The food.... oh the food was absolutely amazing!! The brunch was from 12 to 4. Our favorite British family joined us, and we had such a great time. The kids were thrilled their friends were there. Monkey, has discovered he loves to eat...... of all things... OCTOPUS!! They would make fresh pasta, midget picked which one she wanted, the guy sauteed the garlic and made the whole things fresh right there! They had lobster, shrimp, lamb, chicken, any and everything you could ever want. It was in 3 restaurants, and the desert bar.... oh.. my... gawd..... There was a chocolate fountain, so you know where midget was :) Little cones with chocolate mouse in them, with little decorated chocolate wafers with bunnies on them. You can't even imagine the deserts... I've never seen anything like it :) This i could get used to :)

Midget hunting in the bushes for eggs...
Just a note, there is no chocolate in them, 100 degrees out! So they traded tokens for bags of chocolate :)

Blowing some bubbles with her new shades :)

Monkey was loving all the sushi!

Midget and her BFF painting some eggs

Monkey eating... Octopus!

The boys playing video games at the hotel

Monkey and his buddy looking for eggs

Midget looking for eggs

Easter baskets

Monkey driving his new boat in the pool

Monkeys basket

Pretty girl

Girls hanging out in the booth

Silly boys...

P.S. We had to do Easter today, as Sunday is a school day :(

To the dunes! almost...

We were all set to go out on the dunes. Finally we were going to take my car, the Pajero. But alas, the Gods had other plans. Hubby had taken the back bumper off, as apparently the more experienced dune riders he goes with, the Germans, had informed him that the back bumper acts like a shovel, scoops all the sand and then holds it, which in the end yanks it off your car. Not good. So about 30 minutes before we were to leave, Monkey throws up all over the living room floor. That wsa that, and we all know who was the one to stay. So this time midget got to go with her dad, and they had a great time. :) Luckily in about 6 hours monkey felt better. So we stayed here, he slept and i watched season 2 of the Good Wife. Wild times in our house....
Someday, i will get to go out on the dunes!

The cute, the furry, and the floaters.

The kids and I have been a bit bored on this never-ending term break. I can't believe how long this break is! It's 17 days, that's a long time. So we decided to liven things up a bit and go the the Kids Park Zoo that is right here in Abu Dhabi. I have mixed feelings about the place. Yes, it has potential to be nice. However, the billy goat, if that is what it was with his head stuck in gate was a bit concerning for the kids. I felt so bad for the adorable Brown Bear, who was walking laps, 17 which we counted, in the heat. I guess we were comparing it to the Houston Zoo, which was so nice. There was a school with local kids there, and the kids were shoving mine out of the way. They did have some super-cute monkeys, and some beautiful white tigers though. The kids had a great time feeding the baby goats. For 3 dirhams a bottle they got to feed them a bottle. The guy let them out and they followed the kids making baby goat noises. So adorable.... Sadly then, Monkey asked if they starved them so they would eat the bottles from the people. A little too wise for his own good.. They looked healthy though, and were so cute.
Then we got to the duck pond, and midget was saying how cute, then monkey comes out with is that duck dead? Ummm.... well, you have a floater mr. zooman......
I tried to walk off before we had to see the man with a broom and dustpan scoop it up in front of the kids. He didn't seem surprised.. scary.
Overall thought, it was fun for the kids. A nice way to spend the morning :)
Be warned... cuteness below!

The blue on this bird, was amazing...

Monkey said, "Take a picture mom, and be sure to say look guys, we cornered a helpless peacock in an alleyway" :)

I think Monkey is getting hair tips from him :)

Gorgeous!!

Brown bear, brown bear what do you see? I see a bear making laps, training for a marathon.

Itty-bitty baby monkey, so cute!

People, we have a floater....

Stuck goat?

The break...

So we are almost done with our break. We had to stay home yesterday waiting on our overpriced crystal light packets, and our steak seasoning. I didn't realize, i had actually got 6 bottles, i thought it was 3. We are set for the next 3 years i think :) My bad.... We have enough crystal light for a long while, i hope. I was so loving my tea yesterday, as the tea here just isn't the same. Except at the ponderossa. I keep asking hubby can you bring some home? Oh to have the sonic drive in, and some sweet tea... and a cheeseburger, and fries..... Soon my friends, soon. I shall be home to help with the American economy, and put target back into the red. :)
Although my 370 dirham aramex fee has helped immensely i am sure...
Now to find something to do today :)

Aramex... Live and Learn

So living out here, lots (Actually most) places won't ship things to you. Which when you are living in a foreign country is not a good thing :) Sometimes you just miss the comforts of home. For example, the hubby loves to grill. We got a fabulous grill off dubizzle. For years he has used this one spice on his steaks and burgers. So when he naturally couldn't find it here, I decided to order it for him. His spice of preference is Fiesta steak seasoning. Well i found it on amazon, and it was 11 dollars, for a 3 pack. Bingo!

So then i stumbled across the crystal light individual packets, which i love. The kids love, and if it gets monkey to drink water, we need that! He doesn't drink it plain. It taste bad he says. Go figure... So those came in a 6 pack, so we got some of those. Then there was the nytol, which i need my ZZZZ's. And lo and behold, there were the pencil grips we needed for Midget and her handwriting crisis. So i ordered away... Thanking heaven for Aramex. Then i thought woohoo, i'm a member of Amazon Prime. How great is that, free shipping....
NOT GREAT!!! Not great at all!! Apparently that means they ship it as quickly as it becomes available. So i now have 4 deliveries coming. Not to mention one that is going to be sent back, you can't ship hairspray here, my dear Aussie, we will have to meet again someday... What this means, is we will be charged by aramex for each and every delivery, individually!! Yes, hubby is ready to say I told you so, it's coming i am sure :) I thought i had done so well too, i ordered it all from amazon, so that it wouldn't ship from the different people, and we wouldn't have this happen... so close!!!
So, lesson learned. An expensive lesson. So far, we are up to about 350 dirhams, which is about 85 dollars :( That's some expensive seasoning, and crystal light, and i think i'm paying about 25 dollars, for 4 dollar pencil grips!!

Plant Souks

A while back i had gone to the plant souks to get some plants. My beautiful yellow roses died, i suppose that shouldn't be surprising. My black thumb, and this weather. Our house is blocked by the villa in front. So it's hot, but somewhat in the shade. I've noticed everyone here has bouganvillia, so i got a couple of those. Cross your fingers i don't kiil them too..
The plant souk is a neat place though. It's a whole row of plant shops, and you can haggle the prices. So that is fun. I got both big plants, for 60 dirhams. So that is about 14 dollars? The man carried them to my car. Very nice. I got the special price, just for me :) Of course, the next lady probably got the same one just for her. I love going there though, it's so much fun to wander and look at the plants. On the other side are some pots, and what is like a flea market with all kinds of things. We got our giant trash can over there :)

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Break

We are on break for the end of term, and it's been nice :) A break is certainly a good thing! Now if i could just get the cat to stop meowing, or get hubby to feed him when he gets up. Sheldon is used to me feeding him as soon as i get up, so he doesn't get why hubby doesn't go feed him a.s.a.p. :) So even if i wanted to sleep in, not going to happen :( Plus this house is so loud! The tile everywhere is nice, but it makes for echoes and banging doors.
We had a company picnic at a local park on Friday, at 1 p.m. Not the best time since it's the hottest part of the day. So the pale people, we were melting! The kids had a great time though. They had a face painter and monkey got to see hubby's boss' son, who loves games and is his age. After that we went to get a patio set, i've been begging for months now. Finally the set went on sale, and the weather is so fabulous right now, it is just wrong to not eat outside. We got hubby a awesome grill off dubizzle, the craigslist off the middle east. With so many people coming and going, if you are patient you can find some awesome deals! So now we have to wait until the 16th to get it delievered. They didn't have it to pick up, and it wouldn't be available to pick up until the 10th, so free set up, was worth the extra few days. We also ate at a yummy place, called the Ponderosa. Okay, yummy may be a stretch, but it was a buffet, with queso, and Sweet Tea!! Sweet tea, i could have died and gone to heaven. I must have drank 3 glasses. It was like Texas in a glass. :)
Goofy boy, he had to have the mustache and goatee!

Let me just say, this is an awful pic, but her face paint was amazing a few hours, and before her glasses smeared it. They even had glitter in it!

The buffet at Ponderosa, and yes that is a Texas flag!!