Arriving in Bahrain

I have intended to reboot this blog from the day we found out we were moving to Bahrain, but then, life happened.  This massive, life consuming, emotion inducing move happened.  It's been 9 months since my husband first asked me... So hey, what would you think of moving to Bahrain?

Bah-Where?

Is there Starbucks in Bahrain?  Can I drive in Bahrain?  Will I have to cover my head in Bahrain?  Will we live in a nice house in Bahrain?  Will kids go to.... the kids!

What will the kids think?  Will they be on board?  Will they cry and scream how could you?  Will they embrace the adventure?  Will they hate us and need therapy one day if we do this?

Emotion.  Lots of it.  But we made it.  Here we are after months of planning and being separated as a family.  Months of fixing up our house to rent and months of saying goodbye to a life we've known for 10 years.  After a summer full of family, adventure, swimming and tears... we made it.

It's been 20 days since we arrived at our home in the middle of the night.  The kids were wide-eyed, excited and nervous.  They quickly found their rooms took a sigh of relief in their new space.  We were so hungry and because of that were so very thankful to our wonderful neighbors for stocking our fridge and kitchen with food to get us through a day or two.  After a few hours of just taking it all in we all crawled in bed and began the process of jet lag recovery and transitioning into our new life.

It's been a crazy 20 days.  For starters Jeramy has been gone to the rig for 14 of them.  Even before he left he was in the office almost every day.  Either that man doesn't care about us or he has such tremendous faith in my ability to handle literally anything that he thought it would ok to leave me in a new house, in a new country with no car, no cell phone, very few groceries and three kids.  Thank goodness for the wonderful people that I've already met that have pointed me in every right direction.  If it wasn't for grocery and restaurant delivery, we literally would have starved.  You can order just about anything and have it delivered right to your door for a very nominal fee.  Like dig in your couch for change to cover the delivery fee and order your groceries for the week.

We've come so far since those first few days.  Our shipment made it with very, very little damaged.  Buh-bye Target pie plate I bought over a decade ago and adios to a candle holder I scored at Homegoods that never really matched anywhere anyways.  I raved about our packers back in May, and I'm raving about them again.  Just amazing how everything made it in one piece.  We all have cell phones and I have a car.  It's the ugliest color of blue you've ever seen, Ryleigh has threatened to buy me a Crayola Crayon decal it's so bad.  But the girls made a good point, we never have trouble finding it in the parking lot.  It's a temporary fix though, when Jeramy gets home we will look for me a permanent vehicle.

I found a preschool for Weston.  He will be attending Eton House International Preschool.  It's a school that started in Singapore and I just love their philosophy.  They have the biggest and most amazing outdoor space I've ever seen.  It's like a farm crossed paths with a Children's Museum.  Y'all know my little man, he needs some space to roam and explore.  It's perfect.

The girls just got home from their third day of school.  They are still struggling with the idea of uniforms and the differences between private and public school.  I think a few teachers came out of the gate as very strict.  I'm encouraging them to give it some time.  They both seemed to have made a few friends.  Avery has actually already had a few sleepovers and is invited to a birthday party next weekend.  I have reports from several sources that Ryleigh spends most of her day laughing and hanging out with a whole group of girls.  So don't feel sorry for them, I think they're going to make it.

Me... I miss a few things.  I miss my church.  I miss my street and my friends.  It hurts a little that I got to sub last year and enjoyed it so much and found it so fulfilling.  Now this year I'm back to being at home full time.  I've been very busy setting up the house but that will end.  I do plan to find a good yoga studio, get involved by volunteering at the kid's schools and at some point begin working on the modules I need to finish so that when I move back I can complete my teaching certification.

But it's all good.  This is an adventure that we are blessed to be on.  We've already started planning some trips for the upcoming year.  One of which will be back to Texas for a long Christmas break, that's the trip the girls are counting down to.  I'll leave you with this conversation I just had with Ryleigh:

Me: So have you made friends at school that you can follow on Snapchat and Instagram?

Ryleigh: Yeah.

Me: Do you know where any of them live?

Ryleigh: Yeah, the girl from France lives on the other side of the camel farm.

Me: Oh cool, that's not too far.

Ryleigh: I can't believe I just said that.

Me: I can't believe I just replied back like no big deal.

:)

    



  

Houston, We Have a Bike Rider

Today, Ryleigh rode her bike to school. I didn't think it would be that big of deal or an emotional thing for me, but it turned out to be a huge deal and yes, a few tears were shed. I felt kind of like the first day of Kindergarten, a little paranoid, a little sad...and very much in shock that my little girl was taking another giant leap toward being a big girl. But mostly, I was so extremely proud.


Ryleigh is not a persevere kind of kid, she doesn't work at things until she conquers them. She's more of a try it and if it doesn't come easy, try something else, something that does come easy kind of kid. I know that this does not indicate grand things for her in the future, but until the future comes I have vowed to kick her ass every step of the way to keep her from giving up. Take the removal of training wheels...


Once we took the training wheels off her bike she gave it a try, fell over and didn't touch her bike again for two weeks. Then one day, she asked me to put the training wheels back on so she could play with her friends. I refused and instead took her by the hand and lead her outside where her bike was waiting for her to learn to ride it. She tried again, fell over and when she tried to go back inside leaving behind all aspirations of ever riding a bike without training wheels, I grabbed her by the arm and dragged her crying butt back to the bike. Approximately 20 minutes, lots of tears and lots of screaming later (thank you neighbors for not calling CPS, you're awesome) she was riding her bike. A few months later she was rewarded with a new bike for her birthday and now she is an amazing bike rider, in short bursts.

So when she decided she wanted to start riding her bike to school, I kindly explained to her that school is a mile away. A whole mile, full of ups and downs and did I mention, it's a mile away. She seemed to be pretty confident that she could do it, many kids her in class do it she told me. But still, I felt that we needed a practice run. So on Saturday we set out to give the ride a try and as predicted, halfway there, she gave up.

She said her leg hurt and that she had a head ache. She wanted to leave her bike for the alligators and limp back home, or preferably be carried and fed grapes so that she could properly hydrate undisturbed by the process of walking. Once again, the mama bear kicked in and I gave her three options...1) finish the ride to the school and then go home and play with her friends. 2) leave the bike behind and walk home, where she would be promptly grounded for the rest of the night. 3)Ride her bike home, where she would be promptly grounded for the rest of the night. Really, there was only one option that she could live with. So with much angst on her face she mounted up and finished the rest of the ride.

As we neared the school she perked up and by the time we got to the school she was absolutely beaming with pride. I showed her how to lock up her bike and then she got to show her little sis "her playground". The ride home was a breeze (though it is mostly down hill) and I woke up this morning confident that she would make the ride with no problems.

My kid are not allowed to give up, my kids will learn to accomplish their goals and make their desires a reality. Kicking, screaming, crying, it makes no differnce to me. I want them to know that from bicycles to families to careers, the world is theirs for the taking, they just have to put their big girl pants on and take it.

Deep Conversations with Avery

Avery: "Mommy, we made curties at school today."

Me: "You made cookies at school today?"

Avery: "No, we ade curkies at school toady."

Me: "You ate cookies at school today?"

Avery: "NO!...... woka, woka, woka, woka...."

Me:"........ OH!....You made TURKEYS at school today!"

Avery: "Yes. Turkeys."

Disney Dream

Today is Saturday and we have now officially been home for 6 days from our Disney vacation. Not that I've really noticed since I spent the first 24 hours home taking care of a sick husband, the next four days trying to get caught up at work and the last 24 hours taking care of a sick little Avery and my own fever. Somewhere in there I managed to unpack all but one suitcase and to do most all the laundry. Is it time for another vacation yet?

But back to our fabulous Christmas gift from my parents, an 8-night Disney vacation! We spent the first 3 nights in Orlando at the Caribbean Beach resort which gave us 2 full days at the parks. The first day was spent at Magic Kingdom where the girls got done up princess style at the Bibitty Bobitty Boutique followed by breakfast with the princesses. I'm telling you, that is the way to see the princesses. In an hour and a half we had every princess come by our table and sign their little books. Sure beats standing in line for an hour plus per character out in the park. We rode just about every ride in the park that day, thank you fast passes! The next day we set off for the Hollywood Studios and miraculously made it to the park before it even opened which allowed us to maximize our ride time and gave us time to head over to the Wildlife park before the end of the day.

Day three we packed up, jumped in a shuttle and headed to the Disney Dream for a 5 night cruise! I've never really done a real cruise, usually when we vacation there is usually some sort of adventure involved, lots of driving, sight seeing and historical marker reading. In other words, even on vacation we are total geeks. The idea of being stuck on a ship with nothing but food and ocean all around you just has never really appealed to me. But, this was no ordinary ship and we loved every minute on board.

There was a full sized theater on board, and once inside you wouldn't know that you weren't in the theater district of Houston or on Broadway. The shows were that good too! In addition to a live theater there was a movie theater too. While on board we got to see Pirates of Caribbean 4, and this family loves pirates! Which brings me to our favorite night, Pirate Night! We got to all dress up like pirates and there was a live show that included Captain Jack Sparrow that was truly spectacular.

The food was amazing and of course I ate way too much of it, but my sweet tooth is slowly wearing off. The best meal for Jeramy and I was at the French restaurant on board. Nine courses complete with wine pairings....ooh, la, la!

Ryleigh's favorite part of the cruise was Pirate Night but a close second was the Aqua Duck, a clear slide that actually went out over the ocean and back on the ship. If there wasn't a 20 minute wait to ride it, I think she would have been on that thing non-stop. When the girls weren't swimming, they were in the kids club which meant some alone time for mom and dad out in the adult only pool area. So yes, you can take a break from Mickey and the gang!

The best part of the cruise was having my whole family there, not just Jeramy and the girls but my brother, his fiance, my sister and my parents. I am so thankful to my dad for arranging the whole thing, it was a trip that we will never forget!

Here is our family share site with pics from my whole family...enjoy!

More Fun with Homework

Math Homework tonight: Mom: "Very good Ryleigh, 8+9=17 is correct. Now, show your work so the teacher will know how you figured out the answer." Ryleigh: "But I figured out the answer in my head." Mom: "Well, just show how you did that." Ryleigh: "What, you want me to draw of picture of me figuring it out in my head?" Mom: "..........whatever you think you can explain to your teacher."

Some Topics Just Happen

While helping Ryleigh with her homework tonight Jeramy came barging into the kitchen to bring up the topic of homosexuality. Well, that's not exactly what he planned, but it sort of happened anyways...

Jeramy: "I just saw on tv that they're going to show a documentary tonight about two women, a couple, that each had twins through in vitro".

Ryleigh: "They're gonna, wait, what...two women?"

Jenn: "Way to go dad."

Jeramy: "How did she pick up on that?"

Ryleigh: "They're married?"

Jenn: "Yes. Thanks Jeramy."

Jeramy: "Why didn't she ask what is in vitro? That sounds much more confusing."

Bieber Fever

Me: Hey Ryleigh, did you know that there is a Justin Bieber movie that just came out?

Ryleigh: Yes, all the kids at school were talking about it.

Me: Well, do you know who Justin Bieber is dating?

Ryleigh: Yes mom, Selena Gomez, duh.

Attempt to connect with my 1st grader, squashed. She is officially smarter than the internet.