School assembly....

So the kids had a big day at school today. Midget and monkey were rockstars! Monkey helped lead the assembly, and ran the media presentation. He is such a whiz kid with the technical stuff.. Midget read a poem with 2 of her friends for rememberance day. The British veterans day. They all did a great job, and it was a nice program, wait.. let me get in touch with my british/arabic self... "it was quite lovely wasn't it?!"
So cute. So here is the rememberance day, they do some nice things. At 11:11, they all take a minute for a moment of silence. The poppy's were all over the school. The poem midget read was about Flander's field. Here's the poem:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

I wish we did the moment of silence back home, they honor their veteran's quite well. Happy veteran's day to our vets back home also. We thought of you today :)

No dryer....

My brand new dryer is still not working... I am afraid these clothes piles are going to form and try to kill us all in our sleep. The guy came and took the dryer, kept it for 3 days, brought it back and it still doesn't work. Very, very annoying. So now, i have resorted to using my lovely staircase to dry clothes. All the little twirly vines are great to hang the dedicates :) Who knew incompitent me could be so resourceful... Desperate times lead to desperate measures.
We had a good day yesterday though. I went and picked up a co-worker of hubby's wife. Well i eventually picked her up, after taking a 20 minute detour. Somewhere on the way to shwama or something, but i found my way there. We went and had lunch, and then to pick up the kids. It was nice to be around another texan :) Her husband picked her up around dinner time. She's doing remarkably well, especially being pregnant. As hubby says, she is a trooper!
So I will spend my day again waiting for my dryer guy, fun times. But Friday, Friday i will be driving off to have a relaxing weekend, think happy thoughts!!

Villa pics....

Here is our entry way.

Here's the living room, love our house by ikea :)

The open space by the stairs, too big to be a hallway, so we want to make it a space to read... sure thing :)

The dining area

The playroom


Here's one of our bathrooms, it's the washroom right near the kitchen, very convenient in getting the kids to wash their hands :)

Still getting the upstairs sorted out a bit, but we will get them up soon too. Right now there is mounds of laundry since my new dryer is taken out to be fixed. Amazing that that 50 dollar pair of washer and dryer set we got at a garage sale didn't break and is probably still going strong, and a new one breaks in the first few weeks! Remember that set grammie and grandpa, best set ever!!!

Busy weekend

I told you we were busy!

Here's my new lamp, i got a baby one :)

These are the lamps, but in a chandalier, aren't they beautiful?

Lots of chritsmas decor, i even got some ornaments at crate and barrel

Part of Ski Dubai

Spider from halloween, that is our skylight above the stairs:) ignore the sand that covers it ...hehehe

My happy, tired camper!

We had a busy weekend, but a relaxing one. My little man arrived safe and sound from camp full of exciting stories. He had an amazing time, he was even the first one up to the top of the mountain! Turns out my little couch potato loves mountain climbing?! Something a little hard to learn about your child in Texas :) he went snorkeling and brought back some corral for me, i feel the love people! They kayaked and discovered a "secret" island. So much fun! We still haven't heard all the great stories. He was so wiped out he slept until 10 a.m. one morning and went to bed by 8 last night!
We also dragged him to the mall of the emirates yesterday, hubby went with his friend/co-worker/other girlfriend after work one night. So i was crazy jealous and he wanted to take us. It only took 45 minutes to get there, so we went. I had seen the most amazing lamps, and you know i had to go on and on about them you know who :)
After hubby tried to get me one, found out they cost a bit more than we realized, and that they came in a billion colors thought it would be best to bring me. he was right, and wrong :)

Weekend...

So I guess back in Texas we would say T.G.I.F., so what is it here T.G.I.T.? It just doesn't have the same ring to it. But Thank God, or Allah, or whoever you believe in that it's Thursday. My baby boy comes home today, and I am so excited he is. I have missed him so much! I can't wait to here about all the things he got to do at camp. Yesterday midget and I went to have a playdate with a couple of classmates. We rode home with them, and then hubby picked us up. The girls went swimming, and we all sat around the pool and "chatted", because people don't talk here, we have "lovely chats". We did have a wonderful time. It's funny how we were all from different places, France, London, Denmark and Texas. Ok, so me, i'm a bit of the oddball. But they are all so fascinated with Texas, it cracks me up.
It was cute though when hubby got there, you can tell he's so thrilled to see us sitting around and having a good time. I know he worried about us not settling in. We did have a great time. A couple of the moms were talking about ladies night at one of the hotel lounges. Yes, there is a lot of drinking in this muslim country! But people go to the lounges to "chat". Well they were talking about the mojitos, and the nachos. Midget's friends mom was all excited about the mojitos, all i could think of was nachos!! IT was really funny though, the french lady explaining them..
"They have the most marvelous nachos, this big platter of crisps with this sauce on it, and tomatos".
I promptly corrected her, they are not crisps, they are tortilla chips, and that sauce lady, it's not sauce, it's the nectar or the Gods! It's Queso woman, melted cheese!! Some things i can ignore, but after being gone from Texas this long, i am needing some Tex-Mex. This cantina laredo we go to, it's ok, but i could die for some La Casita!!

So here is the last update we got from camp. By the time most of you read this he will be home. You guys are lucky you got to miss him a whole day less than I did!

"
"Everything good at camp - students have just returned from trekking and swimming, they are all about to enjoy some birthday cake for Tony Matar. Students should all be back tomorrow by the end of the school day."

Almost done...

We have 2 more days, or a day and a half before my little man gets back... This house is WAY TOO QUIET!!! I never thought i would complain of that, but i would kill for some bickering between the two kids right now :) This is the latest update, we got it last night...
"Everything good at camp - students did mountain biking, kayaking and rock climbing today. All are in good spirits and everyone is healthy and happy."
Really, that's it? I wait all day for that??
This afternoon we are going for a playdate with some classmates from midget's class. her brother and sister are gone on the trip also, and a little girl from her class who lives nearby is also coming. Poor little thing speaks french, and is having to learn english as the days go on at school. It's so adorable though, she told midget she is her "best friend", and she said it in english, so midget was so happy :)

MY BABY....sniff sniff sniff...

This is the only pic i was allowed to take before he left, in an elevator :(

So yesterday morning, i dropped my first born child, my baby, my sweet little man... off for his first camping trip. He will be gone for 4 days, 4 days! 3 nights and 4 days. Can you tell this is killing me? Poor midget and i were missing him horribly last night. I never really realized how much life and energy that kid has, he is a handful, but a nice one.
So he is off to another one of the emirates on an adventure camp. They will be mountain climing, kayaking, stargazing and having a wonderful time i am sure. Lucky kid!! The tents are air conditioned, and the food is catered, so the boy scouts this is not :) Roughing it, not really.... I am so excited for him, and i am dying to be picking him up to hear all about it!

Here is our update we got from the teacher last night, i can't wait to get the next
one!

"All arrived safe and sound, playing problem solving games on the beach followed by dinner at 06:30pm"