Our Pumpkin Adventures

Back to School

2011-10-16T20:14:00.000+03:00

Our summer this year was one of the longer ones we have had. We were able to relax and have a great time with friends and family. However, as it usually does work was calling and we had to return to the land of sand.

It seemed a little cooler when we returned. Many hours have been spent in the pool and it almost cool enough to start going to the playground after school.

Our favorite activity still going to the beach..so we loaded the car up and found a few new friends to go with and headed out to the beach.

As usual we are pretty busy. School is in full swing and we are running with it. For those of you who are not familiar with international schools the teachers often do more than one thing, since we are the only ones around. There are also different types of international schools based on the curriculum that they are teaching. Our school is an American curriculum school, we follow along with what students would be doing in a typical american school, however we do push them a little harder... we expect them to be working above the grade level. My class of first graders this year are almost all reading at a 2nd grade level or higher...but do not have the same level of comprehension. We also have a lot of different nationalities to deal with..some classes have around 15 kids with 8 or more nationalities which also means that we have a lot of different languages floating around. So we get to teach all of these
sweethearts while factoring in all this.
Kd has been testing kids like crazy and he has a hard time telling parents that their child does not have enough english to enroll in our school and be successful. There are not always other options available...but since we are in English they must be able to read or speak some to get into the school. I am so grateful I will not have to deal with worrying about if my child will be able to get into the school as we move around the world. He also is trying to tell the older kids how important it is that they take the SAT so that they can get into the universities that they want.
Punky has been in kindergarten and it is going well. She is literally across the hall from me most of the day. She has been showing her attitude and not always wanting do complete her work...but her teacher is good and makes her do it no matter how much she complains or cries. I guess she is a little spoiled and she is getting a reality check.
Outside of our regular jobs I am doing 2 troops of Girl Scouts. I have Brownies and Junior Scouts, the girls love this activity and I am busy 2 days a week for and extra hour and a half. I am also working with a new teacher this year so I am trying to teach her our routines and how to use all of our stuff. Oh, and I am the divisional leader so I am working with all the JK- 3rd grade teachers to work as a team. KD is acting as the vice principal, while trying to set up classes so he can get his admin. license.

Well since our day is busy enough, I am going to call it a night and sign off.

Where has the time gone?

2011-10-14T20:18:00.000+03:00

WOW..I just noticed I posted at the end of last school year...now we are almost finished with the first month of school (26 days down..153 left to go!)

Busy busy busy summer. Punky was able to be involved in many Parks and Rec. programs back in the US. We went swimming, visited family and friends, and just hanging out having a good time.

We are super busy at school now. Punky is in Kindergarten and her class will be seperated into two classes after the weekend is over, there were 25 kids in the class. I have 19 in my class and there will probably be more coming in the future.

Life is good here. This is a favorite weekend activity.

End of the Year

2011-06-09T22:23:00.000+03:00

Well, we have 2.5 days of school left. Punky graduated from JK last week. Since KD is 2nd in charge and does a lot of the vice principal's job (we don't have one). He was asked to present the JK with their certificates. I almost missed this photo as I was getting ready to video tape her little speech. It brings tears to my eyes. Working at international schools and KD thinking about going into administration makes Gramma wonder if he will get to do this at her high school grad too! I have seen many school board members able to do this.

We have had our end of year staff party.
Report cards are written.
Spring Talent Show is over.

Now what shall we do? pack to go home~ really do not need to, we have clothes there.

Teach boys how to dance? check (we start them young here) We had friends over for dinner and heard Punky saying "Put your hand on my shoulder. Now hold my other hand." This is the result of that conversation!

Relax by the pool? OK, Punky is loving being in the water again! She is such a fish! This was near the steps as we were playing with the camera.

What have we been up to?

2011-05-28T20:48:00.000+03:00

We started this right before spring break~ at 7 am (before going to school for the day)

Punky is loving her riding lessons, not sure if it is the one on one time with Captain or if she is taking after King Daddy's family. She has lesson 3 times a week, one private and two with some other kids from school. She doesn't like her horse to move while she is just sitting there so we are working on her not screaming while sitting on the horse. She has trotted (doesn't want to now) and learned how to turn or stop her horse. She just looks so tiny up on that big horse!

We have also done this....

in Paris!

Our Spring Break this year took us to the House of Mouse- French style. We decided to make a vacation just for Punky. So we took her to spend a week at Disneyland Paris. It was great week. Aunt K took her first international (overseas) trip to meet us at Disney. Punky loved the rides and was pretty well behaved most of the time. She LOVED this..

Princess Make-Over

This week Punky will 'graduate' from JK. Next week she dances in the End of Year Music concert.

Cowgirl Birthday Party

2011-03-11T21:11:00.000+03:00

I have been lurking on Kelly's blog for a long time. She does a Show Us Your Life post, I enjoy reading it but have never posted anything because how can I compete with her southern decorating.

Well, this week I feel I can show something that I did. Her theme this week is Children's Birthday Party.

Well we just had Pumpkins 1/2 birthday party a few weeks ago (she is an August baby and will never have a party with her classmates on her actual day so we decided to celebrate her half instead). Pumpkin is obsessed with Cowgirl stuff (not sure what started it, maybe it was Toy Story 3 (not sure, I think she liked them before that). Well, we had a Cowgirl Round-up. We did one at school and one at the compound. The invitation for the parties was a boot shape that I found on the HPCreative Studio I told them we were doing the party in the YIS Corral (or L Ranch). These can be printed off at home.

I cheated and ordered food for the adults at the school party and made Mac and Cheese for the kids. They all got Cowboy/girl hats to wear at the party. I copied the boot on the invitation to create the cake (my first ever attempt at decorating and shaping a cake!)

My cake from a regular cake pan and cut out. I copied her boots for the design.

Here is the group of children and teachers in the nursery at school. They played Pin the Tail on the Donkey. Pumpkin is the oldest in the nursery, they range in ages from 3 months to 4.5 years.

The Nursery Supervisor made this wall design for Pumpkin- isn't it awesome!

A few weeks later (because she got sick that weekend) we had a party on the compound where we live.

The kids were wearing the cowboy/girl hats, bandanas, and sheriff badges. We set up empty cans and let them shoot them over with water guns. They also got out the lasso to try and capture our 'horse' (frog) chair and each other. Here is King D rounding up the hands.

This time we had dinner for the other teachers and the kids. The menu was some western grub- BBQ chicken, baked beans, biscuits, mac and cheese (for the vegetarians), potato salad and chips and salsa. I served everything in metal containers. The chips I used a cowboy hat upside down with a bandana in it.

I made another cake, this one like a horse. I think it looks pretty good (but one of the little ones said it looked like a heart).

Our little cowgirl dressed up as one. Her great aunt sent this from Arizona for her.

How Many Hats?

2011-03-09T19:56:00.000+03:00

I have not been good at updating this at all. So I think this may be a long one.

How many hats can one person or couple wear at their jobs and home? I think we have almost reached our limits.

My Hats-
1. My most important hat is that of Mama! I love when I can wear this hat and do a good job. My Mama hat has lot of challenges. It changes often with my other hats (I actually think it is in disguise most of the time and rarely leaves my head). This hat has seen smiles and crying. It is a difficult hat to wear. I have to make sure we are challenging Pumpkins little mind and yet at the same time making sure she enjoys school. We worry about her health- should I treat her with asthma medicine or should I just let he cough go and hope that she doesn't have an asthma attack. How much independence should I give her- I do not want to baby her too much and make her too spoiled. Am I giving her enough life experiences? Should I move her back to the USA so she can experience public schools? Does she get enough time with her grandparents? I love being a mommy, I would never give it up for anything. But am I doing good enough~ I guess time will tell.

2. I am a wife. I love my husband, but lately I feel like I am being very critical of him. I need to break my addiction to the internet and strengthen my addiction to my husband. How can I show my love to him? What can be done to strengthen our relation ship?

3. My 3rd hat is that of a teacher- I am a mentor to these children who live in a foreign country and their home country is just a place that they are going to visit on school vacations. I have to teach them in their second language, only a very few of the children in our school are native speakers. I mold them as they enter school (many for the first time in an american school). I assist them in achieving their wildest dreams. The foundation is always the most important. So how can you take a classroom of 6 and 7 year olds who all speak different languages and have very little experiences outside their home and school and teach them that the world is a vast open place that they can explore. How can I make them more independent? Am I too 'mean' to them and expect too much from them at this age? Am I really making a difference in their lives? I am really struggling with this this year as my class of mainly boys progresses through the year, I get frustrated with them and them get upset. I need to work on this too.

4. Another hat I have is that of Team Leader. I enjoy my job, I like the work environment. I work hard to see that the other team members all have a voice in what we are doing. I believe in collaboration and the majority rules. If you have a problem with me talk to me about it- do not make it something the whole staff gets involved in. I despise those who are always negative, please do not bring me down. I like to see the bright side of things, generally if we are going to do something there is a good reason for doing that. If the boss tells us to that this is what will happen and this is the way things will be, please do not argue because that is not what you believe- you were told this is what is happening, do it! This one is fresh in my mind because now twice in the last 117 days someone has done that to me- sent a whole staff e-mail basically calling me a liar who was trying to do stuff behind their back... mmmm I can not help that you may have more teaching experience than I do or have different ideas and thoughts, but I was asked to be the Team Leader and even though you may not like it that is the way it is, we do not need to have meetings that are basically just 40 minutes of you complaining about what you do not like. I am here to support the kids and great a fun learning environment. Yes , assemblies, Reading Week and other special events take time away from the direct instruction that you have with your students, but what are they really going to remember more?

5. A friend- I love this hat. I hate this hat. My best friends are all over the world. Carrie and Jodi in Iowa, Sheryl in Minnesota (soon to be China!), Sian in Saudi- but the other side =( These four are my non-related besties. I miss them. I want to talk to them. When we were in Jubail I would spend hours every week talking with Sian as our kids played together (we have plans for them to marry one day- they talk about each other all the time). I wish I could go over and see her more often, we always can pick up where we left off. Sheryl and I met while in Uzbekistan. Her family came to teach with us there. We have spent many hours drinking and snacking on the topchan. We usually see each other every summer, they have just accepted a job in Bijing and we are hoping to spend a holiday with them. Carrie and Jodi are my college friends. We have not been able to coordinate schedules lately because we have kids now (Jodi has 2, I have one and Carrie will have one in April!) I miss having someone to talk to that has the same thoughts as me. I get along with almost everyone. My best friend from Yanbu moved back to Canada (miss ya Liana) and my other friend her lives in a different area and it is hard to see her out of school and our schedules at school do not work out that we can see each other there too. I do not want to be friends with someone who has vastly different parents beliefs as mine, I do not want to be friends with someone who doesn't always show their true colors.

6. I am a sister/aunt/daughter/sister-in-law. I love my family a TON! I am counting the days until April 1 and I get to see my sister (love ya Aunt K) in Paris! However, I have always felt like the black sheep in the family. I am not sporty, I do not like to drink and party. I am quiet (sometimes) and sensitive. I wish I had the same relationship with my siblings as they do with each other. I feel left out- I do realize that part of this is my fault because I do miss out on a lot of stuff, but do I always have to be the last one to find out everything? I feel the need to be perfect around my family and if I am not they will criticize me (I know this is not true- but it is my thoughts). I am going to stop there- as I do not want to open up anything, just want to share a little of my thought.

These are just the basic hats that I know I wear- they change as regularly as prayer time in Saudi (actually more frequent and more reliable!)

We Made It! Winter Break is Here!!!!

2010-12-23T12:30:00.000+03:00

As I write this I am packing suitcases and cleaning up the house.
In a few short hours we are leaving for the airport, we will spend the next few weeks in Dubai, UAE.

We have had to say bye to a good friend.

We have celebrated the holidays with even more friends!

Our little Joker

2010-11-17T15:35:00.000+03:00

Pumpkin has been enjoying telling us jokes. We have tried to capture some of them in a video clip for you. Enjoy! Notice the jokes seems to have a similar punch line!

Doing Well

2010-10-16T21:12:00.000+03:00

KD has been traveling again. It seems like he is gone every two weeks for a few days, generally it is only a half day meeting too.

Princess had her 4 year old vaccinations on Wednesday and that did not go well. She was/is still limping a little on her right side. She still is loving school and taking items for show and tell. Last week we had virtual school. All lessons were done on the internet via moodle. Well, I thought it was difficult teaching 1st grade on line, but Pumpkin had all of her lesson on line as well! She made her first trip to Chuck E Cheese and is also requesting to go to Disney World.

I am doing well. Waking up each morning and jumping into the pool. So far I have shed 5-10 lbs. Going to alternate between that and walking before school.

Going Again!

2010-10-01T19:15:00.001+03:00

I am going to make sure I update this more frequently!

Things are going well, Pumpkin has started school, JK, for 1/2 a day then she goes to the nursery for the other half of the day. Pumpkin won the Respect award at the Elementary Assembly for the first month of school. makes a mommy proud!

KD is busy with school stuff, AFG, testing, counseling, and other important things.

I am busy with my class of 8 boys and only 2 little girls! The life here is good. We have made a vow to lose weight this year and have both been pretty successful thus far. It makes it easier that we are both doing it together.

Summer Holiday

2010-08-03T17:50:00.000+03:00

Where has the time gone? I have been horrible at posting this year. Well, we made it home from Saudi.
Pumpkin loved the fact that Grandma and Papa were on the airplane with us (when she was awake enough to realize they were around!).

The furniture that I had ordered on line had been placed in our living room and it is WONDERFUL! A nice chocolate brown leather set that is very comfortable.

We made it home just a few days before the 4th of July parade. Pumpkin loves the carnival and the parade and this year she was able to share it with her cousins.

We are also very proud of this group for serving their country during WWII! My grandpa was able to be part of an Honor Flight to Washington DC. If you have not heard about the Honor Flights they are a wonderful thing, WWII vets are picked up at their local airport and flown to DC for a tour, they get maili call on the flight (family and friends write them letters) and there is the Honor Guard when they return that same evening. The one Grandpa went on the small airport was full of people showing appreciation and welcoming them home from their DC adventure. Anyways, Grandpa was able to ride in the 4th of July parade with others who had been on the Honor Flight. (Grandpa is the first (with a full body) on the left).

I will post at least one more time this week, as I am getting busy packing to return to Saudi.

Schools Out, Gramma and Papa are here, we are packing suitcases!

2010-06-24T14:50:00.000+03:00

Well, that pretty much sums up what I have been up to lately.

Here is what we did a little over a week ago.

Since then we have been playing and having fun with these two.

Hot HOT HOT!

2010-06-24T14:22:00.002+03:00

To walk outside is like to walk into an oven! Yesterday it was 115, at least!

Thank Goodness for air conditioners!

3 more sleeps!!

2010-06-12T18:44:00.000+03:00

The process started way back in February, we filled out the paperwork, sent important documents back and forth, dealt with the government, sent more papers, waited, dealt with the government again, dealt with GRO (government relations officers), waited some more, shopped, counted down, and now we are 3 sleeps away!

We are excited!

Grandma and Papa are coming to Saudi Arabia in 3 more sleeps!

Fun in the Sun and Sick in the Sun

2010-05-23T18:42:00.001+03:00

WOW- whatever has been going around knocked us all down, of course not all at the same time- but we each got our own week. Punky started out with a fever at school that we could not get to stay down paired with coughing all night. Then it was KDaddy's turn. He never stays home from school and this time he spent 4 days home in bed. Then of course I had to get it, I tried to work on Sunday but only made it half a day and then spent most of the rest of the week at home. Today is a week later and it is the first day I feel almost back to normal- I do not wish this on anyone, unfortunately the boss got it too!

But the week that KDaddy was sick we felt good and went on a little adventure on the other side of the kingdom to visit Prince K and his family. Here is a very cute picture from when Princess Pumpkin met K after being separated for almost a year.

We had a great time playing with Prince K- I just hope we didn't pass the illness to them too. Punky even got to have a Krispy Kreme thanks to Prince K's dad.

We are looking forward to a visit from Gramma and Papa, they have never been out of the country and now are headed to Saudi Arabia for their first experience. 22 days left!

Woopsie Wednesday

2010-05-06T08:10:00.000+03:00

All of us have had that horrible time when we win the Worst Mother of the Year Award!

Well here is mine-

Punky was just over a year old and I was cooking breakfast for all of us one day before work. For some reason she was out of bed early and downstairs. I set her up on the counter while I was preparing the eggs (we did this a lot) I made sure she was nice and secure and them turned to make some toast. Next thing I knew I heard a thud and a scream. Punky was laying on the floor. I grabbed her , not who was more scared at this time!

We took her to school and noticed that she was not walking. So at morning break Daddy decided to take her into the ER. Well, lets just say Mommy did not get much work done. She had x-rays and all done to her and it was determined that it was just bruised. She started walking again the next day and is fine now! Mommy learned her lesson that day!

Why oh Why Ramblings

2010-04-25T08:15:00.000+03:00

Why oh why does life do this to us. It seems as if everything is going smoothly and you are going to get ahead and then something happens.

I was so behind and worried about things when I went to work yesterday, but my great students pulled through and did great making me feel like I could get this assembly done and be successful with it. Of course that means that something had to give--- well Punky woke up with a fever today. It is testing week and KD has to be there for that. I have to be there to prepare my kids for an assembly this week. Punky can not be there- so I am home with her.

I got an e-mail from a coworker last week and it was real curt and the 'tone' was not pleasant. I talked to the principal about it and was told to treat her like I would a toddler------huh, treat another 'professional' as I would treat someone younger than Punky!?!?

On an positive note- my parents got a visa to come visit us!!!!! They will come to Saudi Arabia in the middle of June. I can not wait.

We went to the beach again over the weekend and had a great time. I found something else I want to bake- pumpkin pretzels- YUMMY!!

While on spring break we went to the beach and I found some really nice shells. Well, I finally got around to cleaning them and I think one or two still had animal matter in them (They were up high on the beach or even on the road- so I didn't even think about checking them). Talk about interesting- they have now been completely emptied and are sitting in bleach water again. They do look nice though!

Not My Child

2010-04-12T09:33:00.001+03:00

Oh what a week it has been!
Hi! My name is Punky! Mother told me I get to type now!
I did not throw a tantrum at the grocery store on Thursday. (remember I am only three!)
I did not then tell Mother that ' i can not stop, my tantrums are long' after she put me in the car while Daddy finished shopping. I think Mother laughed at me!
I do not call my mommy Mother now. I like saying Mother. Mother what are we doing, Is this the way to my school Mother. (Mommy would really like to be called mommy or mama or even mom- but being called mother by a 3 year old?!?!?)
I did not get to have an Easter Egg Hunt this weekend. My chocolate bunny did not look like this

I hope you enjoyed my post. It was my first! I think I am ready for JK next year!
Thanks for reading our Not my Child! Check out MckMama to see what everyone else did not do this week.

Spring Break

2010-04-11T21:14:00.003+03:00

Most people want to go to a warmer place over spring break. Well, we did go to the beach- but it wasn't much warmer then being at the pool.

For our Spring Break this year we decided that we really didn't want to travel anywhere. We are working on getting a visitors visa for my parents to come to Saudi Arabia in June. Since we are paying for them to come we saved the money by staying close to home during the break.

The first day of break we went to the beach. Going to the beach here is different. You drive about an hour or so and then turn off the highway to a side road that usually changes to a sand washboard. This is Punky's favorite part of the ride, she loves to hear her voice vibrate on the road. Then your hubby has to turn in your identification cards (iqama) to the coast guard station. After all this you still have to drive a little ways to get to the actual beach. The beach that we normally go to we basically turn around and go down a hill to the beach. We went to a new beach this time and KD decided to go down onto the beach this time instead of just parking on the road (can you see where this is going?)

Well we were stuck. So I unload Punky and some of our gear (have to have sand toys and snorkeling gear- oh and food too!). KD borrows a friends car to go talk to the coast guard guys. At this point I had removed the abaya and am wearing a swimsuit tank and short (which is forbidden wear - or at least when it is visable- in the kingdom, ya know since my figure will be so attractive). Let's just say I got a good greeting from the Coast Guard!

The exciting event is that Punky snorkeled for the first time!

For the rest of the week we stayed home and went swimming in the pool and took a day trip to Jeddah. The trip to Jeddah was successful- Punky insists on growing up and she needed new tennis shoes and clothes! We were also able to meet up with some friends from when we taught in Tashkent and talked for a few hours!.

Not Me Monday - Teachers Edition

2010-03-22T06:34:00.002+03:00

It was not this teacher who had to laugh at a student who rubbed sand paper on his chin (after being told not to!)

It was not this teacher who has students who think the way to get a ball off the roof is to throw someone's shoe at it. (we did get them both down- but our wonderful counselor decided to teach the boys a lesson and make them think that said shoe has disappeared for a few hours and this teacher did not laugh about it.)

This teacher would never spend a whole day watching movies (it was for the end of reading week) just so she could work on report cards and book orders.

This teacher does not have the office staff willing to do anything for her (heck- all I do is feed them occasionally).

This teacher has not gotten so sick of tattling that she is going to start a tattling book and have them write it down for me instead of telling me (do you think I can get some of the other teachers and assistants to write it down to?)!

It is not this teacher who is on Spring Break next week (actually starting after school on Tuesday)!!!!!

Head on over to MckMama to see what everyone else has not been up to this week!

This teacher is off to make breakfast and go to work.

Update on our lives

2010-03-20T20:57:00.004+03:00

Hhhhmmmmmmm...... where to start!

Again it has been awhile since I have updated what we are up to.

I posted this over a year ago and now that some people other then family and friends are reading my blog I think it is time to update our introductions.

King Daddy (KD)

KD has been working hard. He is the counselor at our school. He is supposed to assess all new students to make sure they will succeed in our school. He also just finished taking classes to renew his teaching license. He seems so busy now. I hardly see him while we are at 'the office'. KD has also been inspiring our young artist, they love to paint together.

Oh, he has fully recovered from his diving accident in December, for which we are very thankful.

Queen Mommy

Queen Mommy is teaching 1st grade and finds that she really likes it! I just wish I were a little more organized, piles are my enemy. Queen Mommy has been really enjoying baking a lot lately. This weekend was banana muffins. Last week was oatmeal peanut butter cookies. The office staff has asked for baking lessons. (I am really looking forward to the Filipino and Indian food they are bringing for lunch while we bake!)

OK now we have the boring ones taken care of it is time for Pumpkin!

Pumpkin

She is really changing. Our baby is disappearing and we are getting a little girl. A very outgoing little girl. She loves being around people, so going to the nursery is perfect for her. Queen Mommy gets a little upset because she rarely gets a hug and kiss good-bye before Punky is running off to play with her friends. Punky is also very fond of the water. She has begun wearing a snorkel mask instead of her regular goggles. She is wanting to get to the bottom of the pool and enjoys having up push her down to the bottom to get some 'treasure'.

She is also very observant. She notices some things that we don't and will definitely comment on it.

The Reason for our Blog

I started this blog to document our travels while teaching overseas.

Why are we overseas? Well, it all started because my hubby (boyfriend at the time) wanted a change. He had only been teaching in Kansas. We talked about going to Alaska teaching and while we were looking into that and discovered an overseas teaching fair. We accepted a job in Uzbekistan and worked there for 4 years. Two years ago we moved to Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia!!!

Why pick Saudi Arabia? We thought we would never go to the middle east because it was too dangerous. Well, when we arrived at the job fair we had a whole handful of school interested in having us come in for interviews. We really did not want to go to Saudi Arabia, but figured we could use the interview as a practice for some of the other ones. The assistant superintendent and superintendent were very personable. We looked at the package they offered and figured it was reasonable and it would be a safe place (drug free- limited contact with the locals) to raise our young daughter.

We have been here for going on 3 years. We will be here for another 2 years. We have worked in two different schools, both for the same district. Jubail was larger and had more conviencies available. Yanbu has a positive environment that seems to fit our personalities better. Plus it offers KD a chance to be a counselor.

Saudi Arabia from Punky

I get to write in pink, pusha pink! (Mommy here- not sure what pusha pink is, but she loves it!) I like to swim in T. My friends are Y, N, J, Z, B and T. But I love KK! My mommy has a abya that i like to play with. I am from Saudi Arabia. (Please tell her she is in Iowa girl) Prayer time is when they all go home and put their buts up in the air to pray. I live in house 1. It doesn't snow here, but it does at Grandmas. The ladies take care of me. (the staff in the nursery- Punky is horrible with names) I get to go to JK, cuz I am coloring nicely and I am smart. I just want to go to HappyLand.

So that is how we ended up where we are now. It is the middle of March and we have purchased plane tickets to return to Iowa this summer!!!! We are swimming every weekend and planning a beach trip next week during our spring break. I hope to get more pictures uploaded soon (better take some!)

It's that time again!

2010-03-01T20:58:00.001+03:00

I do not have to confess:

I did not catch my Pumpkins vomit with the shirt I had just taken off her so that I would have a lot less mess to clean up.
I did not go to work on Sunday just to take my class on a field trip and then come home to take care of Pumpkin.
I did not have a date with my hubby on Wednesday night and it was not wonderful to have time to talk to him without my Pumpkin crawling all over me.
I do not feel guilty that I am going to fire my house boy after he missed 3 weeks due to a car accident because I think he is being lazy.
I have not spent way too much time shopping on line and trying to figure out how to get it to Saudi Arabia.
I have not told King Daddy exactly what I have bought.
I am not super excited that King Daddy is going to get our car windows blacked out!!!
I am not really really excited that I have a friend who is letting me 'borrow' her house to get a pedicure on Thursday morning!!!
I am not loving listening to King Daddy and Pumpkin on the baby monitor during their bedtime routine- they really do love having this bonding time!

Travels

2010-02-28T18:50:00.003+03:00

A few weeks ago we went out on an adventure!

Mada'in Salah is a UNESCO site in Saudi Arabia.

After finally getting all of our permits and everything lined up we were ready to go to Mada'in Salah. The brochure said that we would need to drive for about 3 hours. What is neglected to say was that someone had spray painted the sign to tell us where to turn. We took the scenic route through Al Aies.

We finally reached our destination (after a desert potty break- try conviencing pumpkin that it is OK to go pee pee in the sand!)

It was a great weekend with the boss and his wife and another family. Pumpkin had 2 big sisters for a few days and totally ate it up. We were able to see Mada'in Salah!

Mada'in Salah is very similar to Petra (I would hope so since they were made by the same people.)!

Winter Break (long post- long over due!)

2010-01-26T22:22:00.000+03:00

We just spent 3 weeks on winter break. Two of those weeks were spent in Koh Samui, Thailand.

Day 1

We splurged and bought 1st class tickets on Qatar Airlines. Qatar Airlines (no one is paying me to say this and I doubt that they will ever even know) is supposed to be one of the best airlines in the world. We were served the best airline meal I have ever had on our 2 hour flight out of Jeddah (steak with a cheesy herb crust). We were quickly transferred to our next flight (due to take off in 40 minutes) with plenty of time (no run through the airport). Our next flight was a 6 1/2 hour flight to Bangkok. We were in a lay flat seat so we all three were able to sleep). We arrived in Bangkok to find a stewardess waiting to escort (run) us through the airport so we made our connecting flight to Koh Samui. Pumpkin did wonderful walk run though the airport! Bangkok airways has a hospitality room for all fliers so we were able to sit a little and have a little snack before getting onto our last flight. We arrived on Koh Samui and waited for our bags. (We were supposed to re-check them in Bangkok but the airline told us they would take care of it so we were a little concerned). We were all well rested, a little worried though that the hotel would not let us check in early. Well, we were able to exchange some money and get to the hotel where we were immediately checked into our room. We changed our clothes and headed to the swimming pools. Little did we know when we booked the room that the hotel was on a large hill. We were staying at the top of the hill and the beach was at the bottom.

Days 2- 10s

Many people may ask ‘How did you spend your break?’ Well, we can answer “Sleep, eat, swim, talk and then repeat that daily”. Pumpkin easily makes friends where ever she goes. She was able to make friends with at least two other children around her age while we were at the pools, it didn’t matter to her that one of them barley spoke english, because she made friends with others who spoke no english! So our days were spent playing with these children in the pool, until Pumpkin was almost too tired to see straight so we napped, then went to dinner on the beach. Pumpkin actually went hoarse from talking and yelling with her friends so much. King Daddy and I took turns playing with her and visiting with some of the parents of her friends. We also made sure we would sample as much beer or mixed drinks as possible (too bad they never offered them with breakfast)!

Santa found us in Thailand also (he had already left a new trike and a wii game for us at home before we left).He brought Pumpkin a Cinderella dress and left 4 more princess dresses at home in Yanbu for her. It was very nice that technology allowed Grandma and Papa and Aunt K to see Pumpkin opening her stocking on Christmas morning from the other side of the world (gotta love Skype). So King Daddy and I were privlaged to eat breakfast with Princess Cinderella on Christmas Day. The rest of the day was spent playing on the beach and in the pool with our friends.

The next day Pumpkin finally got the chance to try ‘corn on a stick’ for lunch. Local Thai’s were selling their goods along the beaches daily. A lot of tourists were taking advantage of cheap prices and purchasing lunch from these vendors. Pumpkin was very taken by seeing grilled sweet corn on stick and being a true Iowa girl she needed some ‘corn on a stick’. It was surprisingly good (after all we have been spoiled by having the best sweet corn ever every summer!)

A few trips into town found us unable to exchange the Saudi Riyals for Thai Bhat, because our Riyals were the newer nots and not in the exchange banks big binder of scans of different currency. Movies were also bought and viewed and brought back to Yanbu with us.

We loved being in the pool daily. But Pumpkin was scared to walk on the beach because there were crabs (very very small ones) and she doesn’t do any creepy crawlies.

Out with the Old in with the New

New Year’s Eve found us at the hotel banquet. Pumpkin had refused to take a nap that day so by the time dinner was over she was spent. She was ready to go watch some movies and go to bed. We did get her to walk on the beach a little (I guess the crabs go home at night!) I also go some great pictures of her while she watched the entertainment. We gave up and called for the golf cart to take us up the 107 stairs to our room. Midnight sounded loud and clear with thousands of fireworks going off all over the island. It was neat to watch from the balcony of our room. We quickly called it a night and went right to sleep. I hope everyone has a great 2010!

If the end of 2009 was horrible that means that 2010 is supposed to be a wonderful year ~ right?!

Back to Yanbu

We headed back to Yanbu very early in the morning (remind me never to do that again). We waited at the open air airport in Koh Samui and saw the most intersting thing in these days of security. There was a containter with a sign above it saying to empty gun here. There was another one by the x-ray machine in the domestic terminal. So they still let you fly with your side arm, but you just have to empty it first. Gotta love Thailand! We made it to Bangkok with no problem, but then we needed to check in to get our other tickets and got onto the wrong floor and walked at least a mile (I was carrying Pumpkin since she had been awake since about 4:30 and it was only 7:30- she was going on 5 hours or so of sleep). They were paging us and we finally found someone who was able to tell us how to get off that floor onto the one below it to check in for our flight. We checked in and walked straight onto the flight. Unfortuntely Pumpkin only slept a few hours on this 7 hour flight (after demanding food again as soon as we were airborne!)

We got to Qatar and went to the Premimum terminal (they have their own terminal for first and business class flyers!) and ate a wonderful lunch and played with some toys (Pumpkin was wanting to swim in the hot tub that was in the ladies restroom and wanted to know why they had beds there). We got back to Saudi with no problems and eventually found the driver to take us back to Yanbu. Pumpkin slept about half way home (meaning I was almost unable to move because she was on my arm).

When we got home we found our package from Grandma and Grandpa L was waiting here so we opened our christmas presents from them. Thanks for the chocolates, tea and toys! The tea is very yummy! Then we got to see the other princess dresses that Santa had left her. Each dress was modeled in its entirety. KD and Pumpkin played on the wii for a while (KD is getting pretty good at Dora Saves the Snow Princess).

Mommy finally ended up getting the head cold that KD had while we were in Koh Samui and went to bed after getting some nose spray so that she was able to breath again.

Overall we had a great holiday! Of course we hate to see it end and Pumpkin keeps talking about going to Thailand. But the weather in Yanbu is much better than it was in Jubail. Today is the 6th of January and Pumpkin and KD took a dip in the pool while Mommy sat around in shorts and a tank top!

Out of the mouths of Babes

2010-01-20T22:01:00.002+03:00

It has been a while since I posted what Pumpkin has been saying and since the last two posts were downers we really need one to perk us up again.

Here is what I can remember Pumpkin saying in recent months:

While calling grandparents “Mommy are they related to you? Daddy are they related to you?” later in the same call “Grandma Jack loves me” (supposed to be Grandpa Jack).

On the airplane (we were looking for her pillow to make her comfortable on the 2 hour flight) KD “Where did you put the pillow?” P- “I do not know” searching continues. Pumpkin sits forward, grabs the pillow from behind her and says “Well, fancy that” as she hands it to KD. To make it even better she had the correct intonation while saying it!

“Mommy you can do that when you grow to be a boy” (this one can be reversed for Daddy when he is a girl).

“Cannon Fall” as she was doing a cannon ball into the swimming pool.

“I don’t want to sit on the toilet, I want to pee in the shower again” (she need to pee and someone was on the toilet so we had her stand in the shower and go- since she was getting ready for a bath anyway).

“Mommy, I can’t find my hat!” stated loudly at about 3 am one morning as she sat straight up in bed and then laid right back down to sleep for 5 more hours.

Every time we got onto the airplane and reach altitude we heard “Where is my food! I want to eat now.” I think she is beginning to associate the time when they turn off the seatbelt sign with the time they start serving the meal or drinks. It doesn’t matter to her that she just ate a meal less than an hour ago- we were on the plane they were supposed to feed her (which she ate very little of!).

While watching T.V. we saw a picture of the statue of liberty and Pumpkin said, “Hey that is the Statue of Delivery.”

KD was cooking dinner and the fire alarm is very sensitive to heat, it goes off when we put the oven on broil and open it to get the food. The other night we were listening to it and Pumpkin said, “Daddy is making fire again!”

Never Happened

2010-01-18T20:55:00.002+03:00

After a long winter bread (3 weeks) we are back in school and back to reality.

I just feel the need to share what never happened these past weeks at our house.

While playing brainquest with Pumpkin the question was 'What come out of a chimney?" the reply would never be "Santa Claus comes out the chimney!!"~ that would never happen!

The Ministry of Defense did not suggest that all students be sent home immediately because there was threat of rain today, so we sent all students home at 12:45 and we were home before school usually got out.~ that would never happen because who would cancel school due to rain (oh yeah as of writing this it still hasn't rained at my house- and it is 9 pm!)

I wouldn't be VERY tired today because I stayed up late last night to watch the Vikings win!!!~ that would never happen because I am on the other side of the world, how in the heck could I watch the game live on TV!

Stay tuned for Pumpkin Quotes heard recently.

part two

2010-01-12T22:33:00.000+03:00

The killer part of all of this is that it happened while Pumpkin watched. She was in the ER with us. She came home from the ER without her Daddy and saw/heard everyone asking me what happened. She saw me break down and sob (the next day). She saw Daddy unable to walk alone. She saw him not using his hand and arm.

Pumpkin is a water girl, she is only 3 but loves to swim and be in the water. She is learning a proper stroke and to swim underwater. We have her in private lessons all summer. I was not worried that Pumpkin would not go into the water again.

Starting the day after KD’s accident Pumpkin started to ask me to tell her about the boat accident. Then it moved onto the breathing accident. That same night I put her to bed and we said our Thank You God’s and Pumpkin mentioned that diving as not making daddy healthy and Thank You God for making Daddy healthy again.

I think one of the hardest things I have had to do was to walk out the door for work the following Saturday (it happened on Thursday) knowing that everyone would be asking and KD was home alone. I send a general e-mail to the entire staff explaining what happened and I would not/could not answer questions or talk about it all day.

Pumpkin has dealt with this with trauma with little difficulties. She was very clingy and kept checking on KD. She wants to hear the story of what happened. She knows that we are never diving again because “Swimming makes daddy healthy and diving doesn’t make daddy healthy”. She was scared to go into the ocean swimming- but overcame that (again). She doesn’t want to swim in the deep water, but wants us to jump into the water and throw her into the deep water, so I think she may be over that fear too.

Pumpkin knows that Daddy was hurt or had an accident and is now better. She asked for a snorkel and mask for Christmas (which she got, she loves the mask and her mouth is still too small for the snorkel but we play with it in the bathtub). She spent at least 5 hours a day swimming while we were in Thailand.

KD has regained almost all of the control in his hand. It was weird that as the bump in his shoulder went away his hand movement got better (wish we had a better Dr to diagnose it better to us immediately). We are a family of 3, just like we are supposed to be!

The King (Daddy) Lives!!!

2010-01-11T20:41:00.000+03:00

In my last post so very long ago I mentioned that there was an accident while we were diving.

Since I am using this blog somewhat of a journal and to inform family and friends of the happenings of our life I feel the need to detail it here as well.

King Daddy and I have discovered that we love to snorkel. We have been snorkeling since we first got to Yanbu. So the next step for us would be to see the fish even closer. We decided that we may try scuba diving, we have many friends who enjoy this and do it often. So we found a certified dive master and began our lessons in the pool. It was very fun in the pool. We finished our ‘contained water’ dives and it was time to do our open water dives. We met up with the dive master and went into the Red Sea to see what we could see. There were about 6 other divers on the boat, the dive master, the boat captain, technician and Pumpkin.

King Daddy and I were the last to dive since we were not going down for long or very deep. We jumped off the side of the boat (talk about weird, jumping into water where you can not see the bottom!). We swam to the rope and went down about 30 feet (our dive master was with us). We got adjusted to being under the water and began to explore around a little. We were almost done and I noticed that King Daddy was on the bottom (about 10 feet below me). Next thing I know he is gone. He had gone to the surface.

This was not good. The dive master took me to safety and went back to check King Daddy (KD). By that time the other men in the boat has noticed there was a problem and were in the water to get him.

What we figured out happened is that KD lost his regulator and panicked and went to the surface too fast. He swallowed a lot of water and was basically drowning. The men in the boat were able to get him back to the boat safely and eventually out of the water. KD also had nitrogen narcosis (the bends) where too much nitrogen was in his muscles and blood stream. He was full of gas. KD was unable to move or hardly breath for awhile (seemed like a long time to me- as I was standing there watching it). Eventually they were able to move him to the back of the boat and get to shore. We took him straight to the ER (his right side was still numb and he had no control of his arm at all). They thought he was fine in the ER and as soon as all of the nitrogen was out of his system he would be back to normal.

It took 2 days for him to get all of the nitrogen out of his muscles and blood stream, but our worries were not over. He still did not have good control of his hand and arm. A few days later we were researching on the internet and we now think that KD suffered a seperated shoulder. The more we used his hand the better it got. We were cleared to leave on our planned trip to Thailand for a 2 week holiday. I was still worried about how he would do flying.

Not Me Monday

2009-12-14T21:55:00.004+03:00

It has been a long time since I have participated.

Let's see-

* It wasn't me who let Pumpkin eat all of the frosting off her Daddy's cake.
* It wasn't me who let my students play all afternoon because I was exhausted and had a HORRIBLE weekend. (will write about that next)

* It wasn't me who tried to have a adult birthday party the day after she stayed home sick (too bad it was cancelled)

* It wasn't me who thought that Pumpkin really needed this new toy- even though Christmas is coming.

That is about all I did not do this week- check out the others at My Charming Kids

Long Time

2009-12-01T17:38:00.003+03:00

Where has all the time gone. It has been a long time since I posted....so this post will be just a catch up post.

We are now on Eid break. No school for the week, then we have two weeks of school and we will be off to Thailand for 2 weeks!

*King Daddy and I have been working on getting their open water certificate for diving. We have done the dives in the swimming pool and just need to do a few dives off the boat with our instructor. We had to cancel our scheduled time because we were both congested :( I can not wait until we get to go down!

* We have been able to avoid H1N1, all we have had here is the flu. It kept me and Pumpkin home for two days, which was really needed to recoup from the busy schedule that we have been keeping.

* We love the beach~ Pumpkin has been wanting to go every weekend!

* We celebrated Thanksgiving a week early with all our international friends. It was a great time with good food and friends.

Busy Times

2009-11-02T20:37:00.005+03:00

Wow! We have been busy busy bees the last few weeks!
King Daddy went to the other side of the country for a conference, bringing back with him a colleuge to work here for a week. We had great fun talking with her!

We bought all the gear to go snorkeling~ an amazing adventure! Especially in the Red Sea!

We really have enjoyed swimming out to a coral reef and admiring all of the fish that swim there, I have never done anything like this before and it is amazing. I saw that were easily as big as my head, and lots of little tiny fish all over the place. I even was able to follow a school of fish a little ways! Pumpkin and her friends were able to see the fish that decided to come close to shore, it was low tide time. One mommy even caught a crab in a bucket for the kids to look at.
Of course we celebrated Halloween too, I helped another parent arrange to have trick or treating on the compound. There was also a party in the nursery at school. We have a lot of candy now!

5 Question Friday

2009-10-23T22:04:00.002+03:00

Dude!! It's Friday?!?! I wanna know...just how the heck did that happen? Wasn't it just Friday, like, yesterday? Well, that means it's time for 5QF!!

Rules for Five Question Friday: Copy and paste the following questions to your blog, answer them, grab the MckLinky Blog Hop Code, and link up! I'd be ever so grateful if you'd link back to moi, also! If you don't have a blog, but wanna participate, I invite you to answer in my comments!

October 23rd Questions: (thanks to A., Tamara,Kimberly and Mindi for question suggestions!! Wanna contribute to future 5QF questions and be linked? Check out my Blog Frog community for the "Five Question Friday" thread!)

1. Whats your favorite horror movie? I really do not have a favorite horror movie- I avoid all of them!

2. Bath tub or Hot tub? Hot Tub- love to snuggle with my man while in the hot tub, in the bath tub I have to share with Pumpkin.

3. Do you prefer to view a movie at the theater or at home? At home, I get bad case of the wiggles. But I do love going to the theater also (popcorn!) but hate those who talk or leave cell phones on during the movie. People, it is okay if your friends can not reach you for a few hours! Or put it on vibrate for the babysitter to contact ya!

4. If you could chose a maid, cook or chauffeur, which one would you choose? I honestly have to say I have a maid, and have had a chauffeur, and my nanny did cook for me sometimes. I would definitely keep the maid. The chauffeur was nice when wanting to drink at the event you are going to, but I always felt bad when we were leaving early (he was waiting) or we kept him waiting. He was truely like a grandfather to my baby at the time. The main gripe about a cook is they don't make it like I would, even with the recipe! Now there are some flaws with a maid as well. We have spent many hours looking for where they 'cleaned up' the school keys too. If they can clean and put stuff away in a place that you would actually look for them or just leave them close to where they were to begin with it would be very nice. I have a houseboy now who does a decent job, but needs reminders to do somethings (ironing regularly, scrubbing shower walls). It makes it really nice to not have to worry about somethings after you have worked a long day and want to spend time with your child.

5. Electric Slide, Boot Scootin' Boogie, or the Macarena? All of the above if I am with friends and can copy them! I do know the Macarena without copying, but that is it!

2009-10-19T17:00:00.002+03:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

It was not my Pumpkin who lectured me after I said an inappropriate word after she spilt her milk all over the table where my computer was.

It was not my Pumpkin who has gotten out of bed at least 3 nights this week telling me that she slept on the bus ride home and didn't need to go to bed.

It was not my Pumpkin who missed her daddy this week so went and got Arfie (Build a bear dog) and repeatedly listened to his paw!

It was not my Pumpkin who refused to go into the Red Sea, although she will swim all over the swimming pool.

It was not my Pumpkin who was so excited about the fish food that her and Daddy bought a few weeks ago so forgot to tell me they bought fish too!

It is my Pumpkin who runs up to me as I leave her in the Nursery at school and tells me not to forget my kiss! I love Pumpkin!

Not Me Monday

2009-10-05T19:59:00.002+03:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

WAW! What A Week! This has been an interesting week. I certainly did (not) do a lot of things this week!

* I did (not) record myself 3 times trying to get the entire message correct, I do know the days of the week.

* I did (not) take a horrible picture of myself and post it on my Virtual School page to make my students laugh.

* I did (not) get called Granny all day on Friday because Pumpkin likes to play Little Red Riding Hood.

* I am (not) sitting here smelling paint fumes.

* I am (not) having to be at school all week for 3 weeks while there are no students allowed in the building. I am (not) having to still teach those students. I am (not) hoping the school board gives us credit for these weeks so were are not in school until July.

* I did (not) just forget what in the world I was going to write!

Not Me Monday

2009-09-21T17:38:00.002+03:00

* I did not have to hide my laughter as my 3 year old was throwing a tantrum, stopped suddenly and said "Mommy be patient with me!"

* I did not forget that the burner was on and try to adjust it to lay flatter, it did not result in me branding my finger.

* I did not get very excited about the new car that we got, even though I can not drive it.

* I did not spend all day playing playdough and tea- party

* I am not shocked and worried about how I am going to teach a class of 1st graders through a virtual school for the next three weeks- that does not mean that these little blessing will be out of school for a whole month!

* I am not enjoying my week off by relaxing by the swimming pool with Pumpkin.

I am going to wish all of my Muslim readers and friends Eid Mubarak!

Picture Updates

2009-09-21T09:51:00.004+03:00

I have finally downloaded the pictures from my camera, and will get more as soon as we find the card reader.

Here are some pictures of Pumpkin's party with the kids.

Here is a few from the compound.

And finally here is the new car (parked next to the old one!)

Five Questions- Pumpkin Style

2009-09-18T18:33:00.002+03:00

September 18th Questions:

1. What's your favorite line from a movie? Here is your glass slipper ma'am

2. What "group" did you belong to in high school? Goths, jocks, preps, drama, nerds? what is high school? I have a high chair! I play with everyone in the nursery!

3. If you had $1000 just for yourself what would you spend it on? toys, dress, girl things!

4. What was your favorite childhood cartoon? I have a lot, Tweenies, Big Cook Little Cook, Balamory, Yo gabba Gabba

5. What kind of sleeper are you? Back? Tummy? Side? Sprawler? all of the above!

My Thoughts

2009-09-16T21:32:00.002+03:00

We have just finished another week of school. This weekend we plan to sleep in and lounge around. Heck, will probably spend most of next week doing the same thing. As I write this King Daddy is working on the idea of Pumpkin sleeping in, he is just putting her in bed now. Then he needs to head out the door to go see if our new car is registered legally in Saudi Arabia so we can actually get it and drive it. I will post pictures when we actually get it!

Getting this car has been a long process- at least 2 weeks since we put a small amount of money down on it so that they would order it. If it is not registered now we will have to wait most of another week to get anything done because of Eid. All government offices closed at 3 pm today and will not re-open until Wednesday or so of next week! We are praying that our bank cards continue to work for the next week.

I say hoping they work because when our igama (residents visa) expires so will our access to our current bank account here in the kingdom. I have a shopping trip to Jeddah planned!

When your igama (basically your life line in this country- no igama = not a lot of travel, large purchases) expires your ATM card does also. King Daddy went to the back today- before it closed for a week, and tried to get some one to take a copy of his igama so we can access our money should we run out of what we have in our pockets in the next week. No luck, I told him that next time he needs to just give them a copy, I know our igama's were just renewed so keep your fingers crossed that the back lets us have some more money!

I just realized I have not posted pictures of Pumpkins birthday party here in Yanbu. Well here are a few pictures. King Daddy has more on his camera which I may have time to download this next week. (oops- need to get mine off the camera too!)

BRAGGING TIME!!!!!!

Pumpkin wrote her name today by HERSELF!

I visited her in the Nursery during my prep period, the kids were finishing their art projects and Punky still had to write her name. She wanted my help and being the ever supportive mother I am I gently put my hand on her elbow and told her the letters in her name (she got mad at me for that, because she can spell it!). She then wrote each letter with only a little prompting from the Nursery aide! Pumpkin thought that she did it with my help, but I only held her elbow, she formed all the letters independently. She repeated her name writing for Daddy at home tonight, because for some reason he was actually working while he was at work!

Welcome to Our house

2009-09-04T08:36:00.007+03:00

I have finally downloaded the pictures off my camera! So today is a sharing day!

Pumpkin showing off her dance moves after opening her birthday presents.

Eating at one of the best ice cream places ever!

After a long first day at school!

and a video of her swimming in the pool outside our house! Look at our little mermaid!

That is all we have time for today- it is off to a birthday party for pumpkins friend.

Not My Child

2009-08-24T20:02:00.002+03:00

Did you almost die of embarrassment when your child pulled their own pants down at the library? Want to scream bloody murder when your toddler took a pair of scissors to the dog's fur? Feel like a terrible mother when your kid said a four-letter-word at a back to school event? Well don't! Mothers aren't perfect and neither are children. Let's 'fess up today because it's Not my child! Monday!

I wasn't going to participate in the posting this week- but Princess has been doing good, so I do have some stories!

It was not my Princess who refused to go to sleep last night so King Daddy decided to leave her alone in bed. Since she was alone in her bedroom she did not yell to us "Daddy, Mommy- Now who will take care of me!?" Because our Princess was already sound asleep as soon as her little head touched the pillow.

It was not my Princess who while swimming in the pool a few hours ago asked if Daddy was going to swim with us. When told Daddy was working on making supper Princess did not say 'Inshallah' (god willing). She would never hear any adults at school say inshallah when hoping to get something done.

Pumpkin would never threaten to cry if I came to pick her up from the Nursery at school, she loves her parents and would prefer to be with them instead of a bunch of kids to play with.

Pumpkin would never reply to to a question in a different language because of her new little play mate.

A New Start

2009-08-21T20:19:00.002+03:00

It's that time again- kids are headed back to school. The kids we work with will join us at school on Monday for short week.

We are back in Saudi Arabia. This time we are on the other side of the country in Yanbu, We FINALLY made it out of the MSP airport and into Chicago, after sitting on the airplane for 3 hours! Imagine what we were going through, they board the plane everyone is buckled in and ready to go, we taxi to the runway and then sit there for 3 hours! Pumpkin had eaten pancakes at 11 am and it was now nearing 6 pm when we were still sitting on the runway. Luckily I had packed some candy (Thank you M.J. A and B)- it was from her birthday balloons. So we fed her some little pieces of colored sugar. When we FINALLY got to Chicago we learned the flight we were supposed to get on was still there and if we hurried we could still make it to New York that evening.
Well, there was a mechanical problem on the plane and we had to wait, the nice lady let King Daddy get us some food (it is about 8 pm now!) and we got on the plane and waited another hour until they delivered the correct part and fixed a seat belt. We did get to New York (12:30 am) and got to the hotel. We slept a few hours and took turns eating breakfast so that Pumpkin could sleep before getting on the planes again. We finally arrived in Saudi, transferred without a problem and sat in a really really warm 1st class lounge.

About 2 hours before our flight we remembered standing under a big air conditioner last time we were at that airport- relief finally from the heat. Pumpkin had fallen dead asleep. She was not going to wake up for anything! We got on the plane, put her in her seat flow 30 minutes, got off the plane, got luggage, took a bus ride to our compound while talking to our principal, got home and into the house, and up stairs- not a peep out of her. Mommy and Daddy took advantage of the situation and promptly to bed (to sleep- you dirty minded people!).

We spent the next 4 days trying to figure out where we were and when it was daytime and night time. Got that figured out and then all the boxes arrived. Oh boy- like christmas, new toys (or ones she hasn't seen for 3 months).

Then it was back to work, back to reality, and all without a car which is still on the other side of the country! Can not wait for it to get here so we can buy a new one!

Pumpkins Birthday

2009-08-08T19:40:00.002+03:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PUMPKIN!

Today my Pumpkin turns 3!

Pumpkin you :

* weigh 32 lbs and are 37.25 inches tall

* know more words than I care to count. Some of your new words are exhausted, cousins, fabulous, awesome, manicure and pedicure

* love to spend time with others, you are very social.

* love music and movement- you got a ballerina outfit for your party last night and are wearing it again today.

* can swim and dive underwater when you wear goggles, you have passed Red Cross Level One swim lessons and are almost finished with level 2

* have visited at least 5 countries and 5 states (at least)

* recognize the first letter of your name

* when asked you can spell your name for us

* are showing a preference for your left hand, but kick with your right foot!

You are doing so many things I can not list them all! We love you all the ways to the sun and back! Happy Birthday Punky!

August Memories

2009-08-05T16:03:00.005+03:00

My life has really changed in the last 6 years. I have a very new outlook.

Six years ago we were flying to London and Uzbekistan. We had a wonderful honeymoon in London and then headed to our first overseas school in Tashkent Uzbekistan. After arriving in Tashkent we began to work, then we spent a weekend in Samarkand. I however did not get to see much of it. I had a hard time walking, breathing. We just wrote it off as an adjustment to the heat and from jet lag. Little did we know it was something major.

I was diagnosed with heat stroke, DVT's and Pulmonary Emboli (PE). Dr J great care of me at Tashkent International Clinic. I thinking that was some of the best medical care I have ever had. Tashkent has no life support systems. The choice was made to get me to a medical facility that could possibly save my life. King Daddy and I were put into a medical ambulance to Greece.

After medical procedures and a week in the hospital I know I have someone higher up to thank for my life. One of the most touching things I can think of was related to me after I returned home from the hospital. My husband needed to return to Tashkent to work, I still had to be cleared by the medical staff to fly. So as I waited in the hospital my husband went to get plane tickets back to Tashkent. King Daddy was communicating by e-mail with my family, updating them on my status. My mom reports that King Daddy sent her an email stating that when he went to get the tickets it was across the street from a big church. He decided to go look inside the church, he loved the architecture. He saw the remembrance candles. He said that he had to light a candle because he knew that he definitely had someone higher to thank that he still had a wife. King Daddy is not religious at all, but all during my honeymoon I had requested his pocket change in order to light candles for my grandparents and nephew. I love the guy who lit that candle for me.

That all occurred in August of 2003, when we were thankful for a life saved.

Fast forward 3 years.

This is what happened.

We welcomed Pumpkin into the world! She is a joy to have around and we would not know what to do without her. She really lights up our world.

Happy 3rd Birthday Pumpkin. I will update later this week on what you have accomplished in your short 3 years of life.

This occurred in August 2006, when we were thankful for a new life entering the world!

August will always be a special month for us, we have a lot to be thankful for!

Our Summer Holiday!

2009-08-03T16:18:00.007+03:00

I have meant to post a lot this summer but time has gotten away from me. One week and we leave to return to Saudi for the school year.

We have been able to spend a lot of time with my parents this year. They only live in the next town over so having them visit is usually not a problem. Gramma has been very popular at our house!

Pumpkin has had her first sleep over with Gramma. The first started off fine, but we got a call at 6:15 am that we had to go get her, my aunt and fallen and was being taken to the hospital. Pumpkin loved telling us all about seeing the firefighters and policemen! The next one was better, she really enjoyed sleeping with Gramma all night!

We visited the cousins from

both sides of the family. Gramma made all of the girls similar dresses. Pumpkin was awe struck with the boys, whom she only met when she was one. She tried her darnedest to keep up with those two! While we were visiting them we discovered that she has a probable allergy to cats and dogs, unfortunately this was discovered by a trip to the emergency room.

Pumpkin has been taking swim lessons at the local pool. We took the required Parent and Toddler course first and she was so comfortable in the water. Only problem is that she was too young to join the Red Cross Level 1 lessons. So we opted for private lessons. One week later I was told that she has completed Level 1 and is almost done with Level 2 and some of Level 3. WOW! She turns 3 next week. I think we have a fish on our hands!

The vacation is almost over and for some reason I think I need a break! My plans for next summer include staying home and letting everyone come to visit us!

Favorite Kids Photo (Blog Hop)

2009-07-29T07:36:00.003+03:00

Pumpkin and her boyfriend Prince K
The cutest little Pebbles! (halloween 2007)
Pumpkin with her cousins in the dresses that Grandma made for them

Three Interesting Facts- Blog Hop

2009-07-14T18:04:00.002+03:00

This week's topic is Three Things About Me

1. My husband is the only person I ever dated. My husband being the one constant in my life. He does not try and change who I am (although I nag him constantly about things he does). He always supports me in what I do. He is a great father- how many women can say that daddy is in charge of bedtime routines. He is there for me and I love him for that!

2. I am lucky to be alive! 6 years ago in August I took my first international flight. I was on the pill and obese. I developed DVT (Deep Vein Thombrosis) and walked all over London wondering why I was tired. I took another long flight 3 days later and walked around for another week. I was short of breath all the time. Went to Dr. Jan and she diagnosed me with PE (pulmunary Emboli). I had about 3-7 blood clots in each lung. I was sent to a private hospital in Greece, Uzbekistan did not have the facililties for me. To make a long story a little shorter, I was treated and returned to Uzbekistan a week later. Shortly afterwards my husband was told by a visiting Dr. from UCLA that the chest scan he was looking at was that if a dead person to which my husband replied that the patient was sitting right next to him. We have decided that we have someone higher to thank that I am still alive today!

3. I love the life I am living. I you knew me in high school you would never think that I would be traveling the world and learning my history. I HATED history in school, still do not like it. But give me the chance to go see it and I am there. I have traveled to more than 10 countries and some of them more than once. I am on my second passport. My daughter's passport picture is from when she was a mere 2 days old! Her passport is almost full and she is not 3 (yet!). I love to travel, but hate long flights (unless we are not in economy class!). Now I want to see more of the United States to learn more about my country. I am proud to be an American!

2009-07-08T01:08:00.004+03:00

  I am not tired

  I am not tired!
  I am not tired!

not me monday- july 4th edition

2009-07-06T17:38:00.007+03:00

I did not completely forget it was my job to make the baked beans for the holiday BBQ. I did remember to make the egg bake, monkey bread and banana bread! What is a BBQ without the baked beans like Grandma used to make. Sorry Dad, I will remember next time (not that it was me who forgot).
I did not encourage Pumpkin to get candy during the parade, only to realize that it was mostly tootsie rolls, which she does not like, but her daddy and I like. We do not have about a half gallon baggie full of tootsie rolls.
I did not get to introduce my almost 3 year old to my godmother and her husband. It was so nice that they can finally get to put some personality with the pictures that they have been seeing.
I did not get attacked by a naked child yesterday as I was talking to King Daddy in the bedroom. How in the heck did she get all of her clothes off and why!
I did not just have to tell my sister good bye after only a week knowing I will not see her again until next summer.
We did not laugh so hard at a dog that was wailing along with a train whistle I almost pee'ed myself.
I did not have a wonderful weekend with family and friends. I love y'all!

This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

4th of July

2009-07-06T14:39:00.004+03:00

I Love America!!!

Oh the freedom we have! I am a true American. I love being free to make my own choices. I love being able to show my daughter that women can do anything that they want.

We have been back in the USA for 2 weeks now (going too fast!). The first time we went to get into the car I buckle Pumpkin into her car seat and start to get ready, she asks me if Daddy is going to drive, naturally I tell her no Mommy is and she cheers! She is just getting old enough to make memories, she knows that Mommy never drives in Saudi. Last year we pulled up to a store and got ready to get out and she said 'bya mommy' - no Princess mommy doesn't need to wear her abaya here. Oh- to have the freedom to choose what you want to do!

We had a great 4th! It started out a little wet and drizzly, but got better as the day went on. Had a house/yard full of family and friend for the parade. Followed that up with a BBQ in the back and then every one went their own ways for a little while. Pumpkin was able to enjoy her first set of carnival rides on Friday, which she loved. She meet a lot of family that had not seen her since she was born and one of my aunts who had never met her (at least in person)! She even managed to see some of the fireworks!

We are still in clean up mode, need to finish the left overs, Say good-bye to Queen Kimmy (We miss you and love you!) take down the tables, chairs, and tent. And pack up all the decorations!

My next post will come shortly- later today and I will try and add pictures to this one!

Not Me Monday (7)

2009-06-29T15:30:00.004+03:00

WOW! This week has been a long one- or at least a busy one!

Who returned to the USA without any cash in hand and the first ATM they tried did not work- panic time? Not Me!!

Who took Pumpkin to church this weekend and during communion took her with and had to laugh when Pumpkin stood at the alter with her mouth open and then stated, "I want one too" for Eucharist? Not me!

Who is in denial that her baby is growing up and had to hear her Pumpkin tell everyone "I am not a baby, I an a child"? Not Me!

Who made her husband skype for 30 minutes from his conference with her aunt who wants to buy a computer? Not Me! (Thanks again honey!)

Who listened to Pumpkin talk from the Minneapolis St-Paul airport until we stopped for dinner and hour and a half later, only to have her Cuddle into Gramma's arms and fall asleep? Not Me! She

really did talk that long and I think every third or fourth word out of her was Gramma. She is now calling me Gramma sometimes!

This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Home Sweet Home

2009-06-27T05:18:00.004+03:00

We are home again!

I know it is really weird that I have two home, one in Iowa and the other in Saudi Arabia. This time home means Iowa!

My last post mentioned that we were headed to the airport in KSA. We made it, however we read the tickets wrong and were too late for our flight. We got on the next one and made the trans-atlantic with no problems.

Get into New York and see the Statue of Liberty!

Got to Chicago and the jetway is broken- stuck on plane for 30+minutes, had to sit back down and buckle up. Pumpkin was not pleased and started to yell "MOMMA GET ME OUT OF HERE!" meaning the seat belt, everyone just turned and laughed though! Finally got off the plane to see that our next flight was cancelled---arrrgggghh! Call and find out we were already booked on the next flight, an hour later. Finally get to airport. Get to baggage claim and Love the expression on Pumpkins face when she saw Papa get up to greet her, i let her go and she took off to get her papa and gramma! She wanted almost nothing to do with mommy after that, until the next day.

Now we sit back and enjoy the well deserved vacation!

Times are changing

2009-06-21T18:36:00.003+03:00

We have spent the last two days packing up all of our belongings and getting them ready to be shipped to our new house. I must admit it is a lot easier when 2 guys show up to do it all and give you a list of boxes at the end of a long day for them, while you leave King Daddy here to supervise and take Princess to her best friends house to play!

10 hours and 70 boxes later all the stuff is loaded on a box to make a trip across country.

We are now headed to the airport for the next 16 hours on planes, and layovers.

We have become real good at traveling with our daughter. Some of our tricks include:

* her own seat, once she was mobile we bought her her own seat - it gives all of us more room (we are not the smallest people!)

* aqua doodle travel- LOVE it, she can draw with water and it dries quickly so she can redo it often

* color wonder- special treat for the airplane! no marks anywhere else

* iPod touch- I know it seems extravagant, but we download toddler games and tv shows and movies and she is entertained and can operate it herself, It is a lot easier to carry then a portable DVD player. Plus King and Queen get to use it when she is sleeping or not traveling!

* King Daddy wears a photographers vest- or fishermans vest- it has a lot of pockets and he is in charge of tickets, money, passports, and was in charge of pacifiers.

Pumpkin is old enough to not need a diaper bag so we have a rolling backpack that she keeps at her feet with all the above in it (plus a blanket and dolly and sippy cup). We each carry a carry on- this time it is a camera bag and a rolling suitcase (Pumpkin rides on this occasionally through the airports!).

i am in charge of Pumpkin the entire time (I am the only one she wants generally) so King Daddy is in charge of the carry on bags. Pumpkin was 2 when she wanted to take her own luggage (her words!), so when she is in the mood she will take hers. We have a stroller at each location so we do not travel with one- the Dubai airport provides them! We also have two carseats so we do not take them back and forth- this is the first time for that, before we used an Eddie bauer carrying back to put our carseat in and we add stuff to this bag too!

We make sure we have long lay-overs and get time to move around a bit. If we get the right flights we will break it up into two segments (overnight in London or Istanbul). This time we are stopping for an overnight in New York. We always fly straight back to our job location because we generally have our limit (2 large suitcases each- total of 6 large).

Well, our ride is here- potty time for all, load 3 suitcases into vehicle (actualy 4 one is inside another!), 3 carry ons and 3 passengers. See you all in the states!

Not me Monday (6)

2009-06-15T20:48:00.002+03:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

It is NOT me who is counting and knows that we have exactly 1.5 days of school left and 8 sleeps and 4 airplanes until we reach the thawed tundra!

It is NOT me whos King Daddy bought her a lapiz lazuli stone set in white gold- just because I liked it. Nope not me, I am not spoiled!

It is NOT me who is going to see the Statue of Liberty in 7 more sleeps!

It is NOT me who was taking a shower with Pumpkin last night and was asking her to wash the soap of Mrs. Lasater- I would never confuse my home life and work life. Heck no one ever talks about themselves in the third person.

It was Not me who completely forgot that today was Monday.

I will not be posting next week from another country- truely I will not be posting - I am going to be in New York for the day.

Not Me! Monday- Quiz edition

2009-06-08T19:52:00.003+03:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Who had a staff Party on Wednesday night and had to try on 3 outfits to make sure she got the right one? Not me!

Who organized a quiz night at the above mentioned staff party so that they could avoid everyone just standing around talking? not me, but the person responsible for this learned secrets from all the staff and shared it with everyone else and made them figure out who it was, and everyone loved it! I sure wish that I were responsible, but I would never do that because I am just not social (hehe)

Who colored with face paints all over Pumpkin and realized that the red may stain a little? Not me (she is no longer tiger striped!)

Who stayed up way to late writing report cards and went to school on 4 hours sleep? Not me! who would ever do that, I know that to teach 24 4 year olds you need plenty of sleep.

Who had just finished writing report card comments and hit the wrong button resulting in the loss of about 45 minutes and 11 comments? Not me! I always save my work frequently to avoid such disasters!

Who has 6.5 days of school left and a total of 16 more days until they return to the USA for 5-6 weeks? ME!! ME!! ME!! I take full credit for this one!

Party Time

2009-06-06T22:20:00.003+03:00

As we wind down the school year we also look towards the summer holiday. As a staff we work together and a lot of us live together as well. How do we enjoy ourselves? We get together and have a party around the swimming pool. Pumpkin was very excited have a party, even though she was going to be asleep for the majority of the party.

Pumpkin was kissing the male staff members trying to find her prince. Eventually she did find him!

Great fun was had by all, we even reveled our own little secrets to each other and got to know each other a little better!

End of the Year

2009-06-06T22:16:00.002+03:00

170 days have passed and that means only one thing, we are in the final two weeks of the school year. What a year it has been also! There have been some fun moments and also a lot of frustrations. I really have questioned my abilities as a teacher.

I hope that the group of children I had this year have been influenced by my teachings.

I did not do this! School edition

2009-05-25T19:50:00.004+03:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not wait for an hour to get finger printed this last week, in 100 F temps holding Pumpkin most of the time. You can read the previous post to see the whole story.

I did not want to cry as I looked at my class of rowdy boys and wonder what I have done wrong this year, they are so rowdy and it is really a challenge to control all of the class. Really this is my 10th year of teaching and the hardest one I've had.

I did not go shopping with our King Daddy or Princess Pumpkin this weekend~ had a great time with Queen C.

I did not get to watch my niece take her first steps via web cam in the midwest!

I do not have totally awesome aides who did the BEST scenery for our class production. I will post pictures soon, really I will!

I am not taking Wednesday off school so we can go visit our new school and spend time near the Red Sea.

I am not looking forward to writing reports for all my kiddo's! I am really really really not looking forward to it!

I am not using the Not Me's I wrote last week, because I still think they apply and just adding to them a little.

I did not watch in amazement as Pumpkin attempted to do a backstroke yesterday, she is not even 3, should she be doing proper strokes. Is it horrible that I have signed her up for Toddler and Me swimming lessons this summer and know that it will be to easy for her, but do not want to have her in swim lessons with a 'teacher' and older children before she is 3.

I did not go to Yanbu last weekend and think that is WONDERFUL that the swimming pool will be within 50 yards of our front door, no matter which villa we live in, 3 options and at least 3 different pools.

I am not totally excited that King Daddy has agreed to let me contact MckMama to have her take Pumpkins first set of pictures outside of department store!

I do not know that there is 12 days of school with the children and only 22 days total until I enter the midwest for my well deserved summer holiday!

Fingerprinting

2009-05-24T17:16:00.004+03:00

The government passed a new 'issue' that said all foreigners must be fingerprinted prior to receiving exit/re-entry, exit, work or residence visa's.

This is a country that is made up mostly of expats. So some people just figured this issue would just pass without any compliance as others have. Not so. Everyone is required to be fingerprinted. Now remember we are in a muslim country. That means all offices and business close for prayer times and they also do not work during the middle of the day, or most of them don't. The expat community works mostly day time hours, so our school is in session from 7:45-2:20.

Well, all of the teachers need to be fingerprinted. The local passport office has operating hours of 8 am - 2 pm (closing for prayer times). That means it is very difficult to take a staff of 50 to get fingerprints. We can not just close the school without having to make up the day, not something we want to do. We could each go over the time of a day, but who will watch the students and how long will each take? We could all go together and combine classes and do a movie or something~ sorry will not do appointments, how long will we wait in line? We could have a couple teachers go every day~ how long will the lines be, are there seperate times for females and males and families? Let's go after school to the next town where there is a GRO (Government Relations Office) staff member who will help us get in~ good idea!

As you can tell we went with the last option. About 15 of the staff headed down to Khobar to get fingerprinted. What a fun experience. No one under the age of 15 needed to be fingerprinted. So what did we do with Punpkin and the other kiddo's ~ put them on the bus and took them with us. I will just give you the run down of how much fun we had so you can go experience for yourselves (Oh, yeah you live in other countries!)

* Work all day

* head home, get some snacks for the family and water for the bus ride (don't forget abaya)

* 4:30 head to the bosses house to meet the bus

* spend and hour on the bus ~ make sure Pumpkin is entertained, fed, and happy as not to disturb others

*5:45 get to Khobar and find the office (after putting on the abaya) office proved not hard to find as there was over 100 people waiting outside.

* wait in line (don't forget it is about 100 F outside and you are holding a 2 year old princess)

* push around to get a better position in the ~~line~~ mob- a bunch of Indian/Pakistani/Bangladashi/Filopino men

* you are still in line and Pumpkin is still in your arms- of the guards are telling you to go home and come back Saturday, they are closed.

* stand in line and get almost to the front, the GRO guys are inside demanding we get printed.

* at the front of line- put Pumpkin on shoulder and hold up resident visa's

* Finally get inside, get fingerprinted ~ time 2 minutes, oh it is air-conditioned inside.

* Realize that 8 people who rode with you are still in the ~~line~~ mob outside.

* get numbers to pass off to those outside.

* go to toilet

* wait outside for remaining members of party

* 7:30 go to get some food~ realize that Pumpkin has not had a nap and it is past bedtime, but she has not had dinner

* get on bus to go home

10:30 carry a passed out Pumpkin upstairs to her bed

It was so fun, I can not WAIT to do it again!

Holy Hotness

2009-05-24T17:10:00.002+03:00

Today when we arrived home at 5:00 p.m. we decided that it was a little warm outside. So we do what any good citizen would do. We logged onto the computer and checked the temperature for the nearest large city (since I am not smart enough to figure out to get our city of residence to come up). Wow I was surprised to see that it was 48 C, now if you are like me you have no clue what that means, but know that it means sweltering heat. I looked and it is 118 F outside!

How could you be in a place that requires women to wear black polyester robes in public when the temp at the end of May is reaching 120 during the middle of the day! Luckily we will be gone during the hottest parts of the summer. We fly home to the midwest in 4 weeks!!!

What I Did (not) Do!

2009-05-18T17:08:00.002+03:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Ok- I have been pretty good this week!

I did (not) put mini M&M's into Pumpkins antibiotic to encourage her to take it.

I did (not) try to administer said medication the next time and the above trick did not work. So i did (not) tell her it was Pink Princess Medicine and she would be Cinderella after taking it.

I did (not) have to call her Cinderella Pumpkin for the most part of the day.

I did (not) put a DVD in for my students because there was a dust storm and they couldn't play outside.

I did (not) ask King Daddy if peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were considered breakfast to him.

I did (not) spend time on skype chatting with my neighbor and one other person last night.

See, I have been pretty good this week! Aren't you proud of me.

If you visit here please let me know by leaving a quick note to say hi!

Pumpkin-isms

2009-05-17T21:23:00.004+03:00

Pumpkin is known at school for being cute and adorable. She is willing to give everyone a good morning hug or a hug good bye. Needless to say while walking with her through the hallways while there are students in the hall takes a lot of extra time! If you do not know one of the perks included in our job in KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) is free childcare. That means that Pumpkin spends as much time in school as teachers do. She has her own classroom that includes 2 infants, 2 toddlers, and her- who I guess could be a toddler as she is not yet 3- then they add a few preschoolers (3 year olds) at lunchtime. Since she spends so much time at school she seems to say the funniest things.

I decided to use those to create a post of their own.

Now my list of favorite Pumpkin quotes:

"I think I may have allergies"

"Daddy, I want to share my M&M's with mommy." (finding an empty bag) "I think you ate all of them!"

"You will have to ask your parents." to anyone who asks her for something or to go somewhere with her.

"Now I am the teacher"

"Mommy (daddy) you are a genius"

"I thought you wanted me to give you a good night kiss"- after she was supposed to be asleep

"Don't worry, I will take care of baby J"

"But Prince K is going to miss me, I will never see him again"- after having to go home to go to bed following a day spent with Prince K.

"I think I need to talk to GRAMMA" (have to scrunch your nose and face up to say that word)

That is all for now.... I am sure that there will be many more to follow!

Heating Up!

2009-05-16T21:24:00.003+03:00

Things have been heating up in our area. The normal temps are about 70-100 every day. What can you do with all that heat? Well, of course we head to the pool or to the beach. Pumpkin can not decide if she likes to be in the ocean or not. A few weeks ago she ran right into the waves, which is surprising because it was the roughest we have seen the Gulf of Arabia since we have been here. After spending a good hour in the water with Daddy this is how we spent a good hour with mommy.

We spend a lot of time at the beach. The main reason we go is because our best friends moved there over spring break. Now how could I deny Princess the opportunity to play with her Prince K. They love to be together as much as possible.

Princess Pumpkin and Prince K are a year apart in age and very similar in personality. They met when we lived across the street on our compound (which is only barely wide enough for two cars). They spend all afternoon together during the week. I was really trying get a picture of them holding hands as they walked out of the water together, but the one on the left is the best I got that day. I happen to be good friends with Prince Ks mom (which is a bonus for me to go to the beach) but since we are always busy with the kids we have yet to get a picture of the Queens together. It will happen, I will make it happen.

While at the beach we decided to try out their swimming pool. We were having a great time in the water together.

Pumpkin is very comfortable in the water. She puts her floaties on and is all over the place. She also tells us she has to 'practice' and we take the floaties off and play around.

Stay tuned for the next post, we have been shopping!

I would Never!

2009-05-11T17:11:00.002+03:00

I would never clean the house before the housekeeper was coming so that the kitchen utensils were in the right place.

I would never call to a restaurant to ask them to bring me a menu (remember I live on a compound- walls all around- 2 minutes walk to said restaurant) and then turn around and make them deliver dinner to us.

I would never get excited for mothers day and then almost forget to have my students make their gifts for mom.

I would never stay home sick with my Princess and use the day to get all the sheets on the beds washed

I would never be thrilled that King Daddy bought us fast food for Mothers Day dinner.

And last but not least, I would never be happy that the water guy just rang the doorbell and asked if we needed a replacement water bottle for our water cooler. I have not been a little spoiled living overseas!

I am sure I am not the only one who didn't do things this week. Check out MckMama to see what everyone is up to.

Not Me Monday Returns!

2009-05-03T05:41:00.005+03:00

Since it has been a while since my last Not Me Monday I have started this early! If you are unfamiliar with Not Me Monday you can head over to MckMama's blog and see what it is all about. Basically it is confession time, it gives me a place and time to admit to everything I have done over the past week, but while writing I actually deny that I did what I did!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I would never laugh at Pumpkin as she was throwing a tantrum because King Daddy put shorts and a t-shirt on her instead of a princess dress after she had an accident.

I would never dunk Pumpkin in the pool to see how far above her head the water was, she hates water in her face, what kind of mother would I be if I purposefully dunked my Pumpkin.

While on Spring break in Dubai I did not have Pumpkin pull her panties down and squat over a drain so that she could go potty and I would not have a princess with wet pants for the rest of our walk home.

I did not ~~force~~ bribe Pumpkin to sing "row row row your boat gently down the stream, if you see an alligator don't forget to scream, ahhh!" so I could send it to grandparents. No clue where she learned it, she sang it for us last week for the first time.

I was not giddy last night when I discovered that 2 of my best friends were both on Skype at the same time, so we could have a threesome!

Stay tuned to see what I didn't do this week!

Easter and other thoughts

2009-04-20T19:37:00.002+03:00

Easter in a Muslim country. Is it possible? Yes, it is! We had a blast having an Easter Egg Hunt with two other couples and their children. We had over 40 jelly bean filled eggs and hid them on the yard and then turned the kids loose. They quickly found all the eggs and returned to the group. They all got Easter baskets, and the look on their faces was priceless. I will definitely do this again for the kids we are living with next! (pictures to follow soon!)

My mind has so much going through it right now I don't know where to start. I an just going to write and see what comes out.

* Mom is in surgery right now. The cookies I made to take my mind off it are already done baking, so I am thinking about it and watching the clock. I am positive that everything will be fine, but I want my mommy home where I can talk to her on the computer.

* I miss my friends. I have a great friend who moved to another compound and I miss talking to her while the kiddos play together. I think Pumpkin and King Daddy miss them too, so I can see weekly visits to the beach in my near future.

* I am totally frustrated with my job right now. How can I get so annoyed with one child?!? It is not fair for him, I will have to try and be more tolerant of him for the next 8 weeks.

* Speaking of the next 8 weeks, that is all we have left of school, they will be jam packed. I have to do a musical with my class of 4 year olds, plan Water Fun Day, do a site visit to the school we will be working at next year, pack to move to the school we will be at next year, get gifts for all the ladies in the creche from Pumpkin, spend as much time as possible with my buddy- since we will be seperated by a desert next year, and help plan an end of the year party for both my class and the staff.

* I made cookies to keep my mind off what is happening at home, now I have something like 12 dozen cookies on my counter that I do not want to eat. I love the recipe that I follow for these cookies, I think they are some of the best ever. I generally make the cookies and have a hard time eating all of them. I am sure Pumpkin and King Daddy will willing help me eat the cookies.

* OK I feel better now. I will survive the next 8 weeks, unless someone wants to take my place.

Now to cheer everyone up here are some Pumpkin quotes of the week:

"Daddy are you listening to me, do you hear me, I said to drive slower."

" This is enormous cookies."

"I have milk in my boobs, my boobs are small."

" Oh No, he will be so far away from me."

" My name is Pumpkin, I am a princess."

" Are. You. Listening. To. Me. I . Am. Talking. To. The. Sun."

Spring Break

2009-04-14T19:55:00.005+03:00

We just returned from spending one week in Dubai. It was a great week and I am ready to go back!

We stayed at our favorite hotel in the green community and we sat by the pool for hours each day. We cuddled with each other, ate some great food, and enjoyed being a family. We went shopping and bought Pumpkin a lot of sundresses, since that is all she will wear right now. We took some really neat pictures

with my camera (s

ee the color accent in the one with the blue polka dots!). We had Easter brunch, and ate pork. We ate some ice cream. King Daddy got his hairs cut. We sat in the sun by the pools.

We met some nice people. We had time to talk as adults. We went to bed late and slept in. We had a great time for most of the week.

We also had some bad time (but not many!) Queen Mommy hit her knee getting into the van after a day of shopping and it still hurts.

King Daddy slipped in the baby pool and bruised his foot.

Pumpkin had a cold and did NOT like the medicine we wanted to give her and ended up throwing it all up (along with her dinner and ice cream)~ never want to smell that again, but was fine to go swimming afterwards. Queen Mommy was glad that she did not have to clean up the mess (called house keeping!). I think that is all the bad things we had happen durring this holiday.

Got to the airport with no problems, got checked in, and went shopping in duty free. Emirates air has strollers available for you to use if you need to so Pumpkin was asleep in the buggy before we cleared passport control! She had been so busy all week! I finally got to give my husband part of his christmas present (a box of cuban cigars) and he bought her a late anniversary gift (a big bottle of chanel #5 perfume). We got some Cinnabon and waited for the plane to load. Pumpkin took a lot of free rides on the moving sidewalk (i think we walked both ways about 20 times).

We are back in Saudi, although I am a little sad that my friend moved to a different compound today. But we will have a very busy 9 weeks until we get to go home for the summer!!!

Gala Fun

2009-03-29T20:46:00.003+03:00

This past weekend was the big fundraiser of the year at school. They were raising money for Habitat for Humanity. So we all went and volunteered (we were required to be there) our Thursday to work a game at the gala. I was at the Frog Pond. Pick a frog and frog and win a prize. Pretty simple, made even better because I had parent volunteers.

King Daddy on the other hand worked at a baseball throw and worked the entire 4 hours setting up wood block and picking up baseballs. Needless to say he was a little tired at the end of the day and was more than happy to order dinner in and have drinks with friends.

Princess Pumpkin was being taken care of by the nice ladies in the creche (a fancy word for nursery or daycare room). She was also able to enjoy part of the day by doing this...........

and having her face painted

Poor baby fell asleep before we even got out of the creche, and slept the entire way home, and for almost and hour after we got home. She was also in bed early!

Not Me Monday (3)

2009-03-21T19:10:00.003+03:00

I have not had a little too much home brew mixed with kiwi lime juice and then try to use the internet, at 11 pm.

I did not take Pumpkin into the swimming pool and try to dunk her even though the water was still chilly.

I would never think that I say "take your hands out of your pants' enough to have it recorded. When you teach 4 year olds it seems that is always where their hands are- but it varies between front and back!

I did not make a face when King Daddy said he was going to make pasta for dinner. I am lucky enough to have a King to cook for me, so why would I complain when he was telling that I could play with pumpkin while he was in the kitchen.

I have not also had a conversation about boobs with my 2 year old Pumpkin! She did not tell me to feel her boobs the other day, which were actually her ribs.

Pumpkin did not get asked by a boy to go and see his bed with him.

Pumpkin did not begin to nurse her dolls again while at school, she does not know where babies get milk from, I thought we had gotten all the dolls weaned to bottles. The new one must not have been ready yet!

Toilet Paper

2009-03-21T18:52:00.003+03:00

I have been teaching for almost 10 years and this past week I have had a first.

The bathroom in our classroom seems to get clogged quite a bit. I stopped the whole roll of toilet paper from going into the bowl, by telling one boy not to do it anymore. Now we are still calling the janitors to unplug it so the 25 little ones in my class can do their business. Well, I noticed that the toilet paper was disappearing quickly. So I decided that enough was enough and they needed a talking to.

So after recess on Wednesday I had the kiddos all sit down, i grabbed a roll of toilet paper and began the speech. How much toilet paper do you really need to wipe your bottom? We decided the 4-5 squares would be appropriate. The only question they raised was .........What happens if you have a runny poo?

Out of the mouth of babes.......the nice part of this is that there was not plugged toilet today. Unfortunetly there were two computer techs in my classroom working on the computer and laughing as hard has they could while I was 'teaching' other how much toilet paper to use!

What A Week

2009-03-19T21:35:00.005+03:00

What a week we have had!

The week started out with the car overheating on the way to Al-Khobar for inservice meetings. We called the principal and he gave us a lift the rest of the way in. The car was towed back to Jubail and they decided it needed a new water pump. We figured fine-we are going to buy a new car anyways since we have at least 3 years left here. No- we only have 5 months left on this contract so we would have to pay for it all in 5 months instead of 3 years- so we will get the new car in August, in Yanbu or Jeddah.

The kids at school were bouncing off the wall all week. I teach Reception class which is an advanced preschool, these little guys are expected to be able to read and write when they turn five. Well there are 25 students in the class and only about 10 girls (a few of which are tomboys) so I have had about 15 hyper 4 year old boys that I am supposed to be teaching to read and write, but who would love to be running around throwing things.

I had to sit through a meeting that could have been covered in an e-mail. I hate it when people think that they need to talk to you in order to be understood. I have been teaching for 10 years, so I kinda know the end of the year procedures.

Enough with the complaining. The week did have some highlights

* I celebrated 6 years of marriage to a wonderful man.

* I booked first class tickets to fly home this summer.

* I spent some wonderful time with my neighbor and best friend.

* I discovered the pleasure of Kiwi-lime juice with a little home brew, could almost imagine it was a fancy drink!

* I had a first as a teacher- a lesson on toilet paper usage (more on that in the next post- in a minute!)

Best of all who couldn't be happy when they get to see this face daily!

Not Me Monday, Again

2009-03-16T19:45:00.003+03:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not tell Pumpkin that I didn't need to do her hair in the morning because the wonderful ladies in the nursery do it for her.

I did not get really excited that our LandRover broke down on the way to in-services (an hour from home) so that my King Daddy would have to finally agree to buy the new minivan.

I did not hold Pumpkin by the feet and dip her head in the bath water so that I could get her hair wet without her screaming, she did not giggle the entire time.

I did not almost walk out the door this morning for work with a plastic tiara on my head, thinking it was sunglasses.

I did not tell my students to sit in their cubbies and be quiet this morning.

I did not love the keynote speaker at our teacher in-services this weekend, as a matter of fact who ever enjoys sitting through meetings for two days straight (one of those was our weekend). I did not think this was the best teachers conference I had ever been to.

I did not get completely confused leaving on Wed. for the conference and tell the house boy to lock our door, I did not think it was Thursday, because I know my days of the week and I know that he cleans on Sunday and Thursday. (don't worry- the weekend here is Thursday and Friday)

I have not counted how many weeks of school are left (10), and how many weeks until spring break (2), because I think I have a wild group this year.

I am not totally excited that I may get to fly home on a 12 hour flight in First Class (and I am not really excited that the school would pay for it!!)

I did not take 25 preschoolers to the beach on Tuesday and let them play in the sand and not care that most of them had wet pants when we went back to school.

I did not let my Pumpkin have a learning experience by getting her ready to go swimming and taking her to the pool to play. It was not about 90 outside and the water was not freezing because it has been just sitting there all winter. We are not looking forward until speing break when we can swim in the water daily!

I sure have not had a busy week! Enjoy and check out what every one else has been up to!

Not Me Monday

2009-03-09T19:14:00.003+03:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I have been wanting to participate for a long time, so I created a blog and here it is!

It was not me who almost forget that I was teaching and not at home when I didn't almost ask a student if he went pee-pee in the potty.

It was not me who passed out chocolates to all the Women in the school for International Women's Day this week and forget to sign my name to any of them!

It was not me who forgot to take Pumpkins lunch to school this week so had to order her something from a restaurant.

It was not me who celebrates every poo-poo in the potty by singing and dancing (Pumpkin does not love it and is starting to request it!)

It is not me who gave Pumpkin a bath last night and squeezed the duckie who proceeded to empty all the yucky water into bath, it certainly was not me who yelled at King Daddy that all the crap came out, and Pumpkin would never ever begin to cry and say that the duckie crapped on her, and ask me to get all the crap out of the water!

It is not me who finally hired a house boy- and cleaned the house a bit before he started!

It is not me who is very excited that she has a blog so that she can participate in Not Me Monday!!

Our Travels- 5 Years Worth

2009-03-06T13:24:00.000+03:00

Many people will ask where we have been. For me it is easier to list the trips in order, or else I am sure to forget something. I will list each site and tell a little about it. We started this almost 6 years ago. I will have to get some pictures off my other computer to show you where we have been.

Aug. 2003 - Honeymoon in London on our way to Tashkent. Saw Stonehenge and Bath. Stonehenge is very impressive. We went to all the tourist sites.

Aug. 2003- Emergency trip Thessoliniki, Greece. I heard it was beautiful. I spent the entire time in the hospital. As stated it was an emergency trip. I had developed multiple Pulmonary Emboli (blood clots in the lungs, PE) as a result of getting a Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) from the long plane rides. Luckily Dr. Jan caught them in time and I was med-evac'ed to Greece with King Daddy. I had lots of tests done and Greenfield filter inserted to catch any other clots that I may get in the future. I will be on warfarin for the remainder of my life. But, at least I have my life!

Dec. 2003- Bratislava, Vienna, and Prague- Beautiful cities. Prague at night when the huge snowflakes were falling was amazing. We were in Bratislava on New Year's Eve. Vienna for two days. We would love to return to any of these cities, especially Prague. I would like to see it in the spring or summer.

March 2004- Paris. Again it was wonderful. We stayed a ways out of the city center, but getting around was very easy. The King took one of my favorite pictures of me looking at the Eiffle Tower. We found a very nice little bakery were we would go to get our breakfast.

Sept. 2004- Bukhara- Still in Uzbekistan. Our staff took the overnight train to see this city. We had a great time ad of course got to see some of the Bukhara style rugs being hand made.

Dec. 2004- Goa, Delhi, Jaipur India- We wanted to originally go to the Maldives, but did not have good connections. So we opted for this sunny resort community. I loved Goa, thought Delhi was way to crowded and enjoyed seeing the Taj Mahal. I would like to go back to Goa and spend time in the city, we never left the resort. It is pricey, since a lot of Russians and Brits go there and it books full quickly. We had our first elephant ride here.

April 2005- Zagrab, Croatia- we actually went to a teachers conference so we thought we would stay a little longer and see some of the sights.

June 2005- London- We went to see Lion King at Her Majasties Royal Theater-AWESOME!!

Oct. 2005- Rome-We went with a teaching couple to see the sites of Rome. It was magnificant. Their underground was not exciting at all, King Daddy was pick-pocketed on the way to see the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. Both were awe-stricking. Now to see the rest of Italy.

Dec. 2005- Koh Samoui, Bangkok, and Chang Mai Thailand- We had just discovered that Pumpkin Princess was around, Queen Mommy slept a lot! Daddy explored Koh Samoui and we both enjoyed Bangkok. Pumpkin discovered that she did not like a whole variety of foods, but loved fruit so Queen Mommy became addicted to Pineapple with whipped cream. Chang Mai was some of the best country side I have seen, again we were attending a teaching conference.

March 2006- Tashkent- it seems funny to list this one, since we were living there- but in the time we were there we never had taken a tour of the city. we decided it was time so we did. Finally we know some of the history behind the landmarks we had been using for directions.

Dec. 2006- London- Since Pumpkin Princess was only 4 months old we wanted to go somewhere that had decent medical help should we need it. We did- she had bronchilitis. First time we ever had a Dr. come to us. We saw Father Christmas at Harrods, went to Hamleys, and took a ride on the London Eye.

Jan 2007- Waterloo, IA and Boston, MA- We decided we had enough of Tashkent and began our job search again. Two of the big job fairs for overseas teachers are in Iowa and Boston. So we went. It was great seeing the family. Grandma and Grandpa acted as babysitters, even went to icy Boston with us.

Oct. 2007- Bahrain- We were our of school for Eid. We had just gotten our exit-reentry visa's and wanted to use them so we had the school driver take us to Bahrain for a weekend. We had a drink, ate some pork, and did some shopping.

Dec. 2007- Duabi- we picked this because we wanted a place without too much jet lag. It was great. The hotel we stayed at was in a really nice location and had good services. It was nice and relaxing.

Mar. 2008- Bangkok and Phukett, Thailand- It was an easy decision this year. The large school conference was in Bangkok so we had our tickets paid for us by the school. We enjoyed relaxing in Phukett.

May 2008- Dubai- Queen Mommy only! Again a teacher training, I took a sand dune ride in a 4x4. Shopped a little and met someone who has become a great friend.

Dec. 2008- Iowa and Kansas- We have not celebrated Christmas with family since we began our adventure. It was a chance for Pumpkin to see snow and her grandparents, aunts, and uncles. It was nice to have all of Dec. off of school so we could make such a long journey. We will do it again, but not next year. We will go some place warm again.

Coming Soon

Dubai again for Spring Break this year! A trip to Yanbu (we will move there next school year).

My Pumpkin Patch

2009-03-05T07:01:00.000+03:00

Members of the Pumpkin Patch.

King Daddy is my one and only. He is also a teacher, but is a school counselor. A great guy to talk to when stressed. King Daddy does a lot of the cooking and is also works wonders with Pumpkin during bedtimes. I love this guy with all I have!

Queen Mommy, me, grew up in the midwest. Met her king. We got an itch for something different and decided to start teaching elsewhere. I have been blessed with great medical care where ever I go. More about that later.

Pumpkin Princess is our little blessing. She has recently begun calling herself a princess and daddy is the King, so it was easy to pick our nicknames. She is 2.5, but that is hard to tell with her vocabulary and adult interactions. She lights up our world.

~~Our Life~~

The queen and king have been together for 8 years, married 6 years on St. Patty's day this year. We were both teaching in the same school. King wanted a change so we started looking at teaching opportunities. Found an overseas teaching fair, went twice. 4 years were spend in Tashkent, Uzbekistan working and having fun. Last year we moved to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) where we are now and plan on being for the next few years. We work at an international school with children of expat employees. Pumpkin goes to 'creche' (nursery) at the school during the day.

Life in KSA

We live on compound. A walled in area that has swimming pools, tennis courts, a restaurant, and a small store. The Queen wears an abaya when we go to the stores. An abaya is a black covering, I think if it like a choir robe, that covered the woman from the shoulders down and covers up the arms. Mine has a few rhinestones on it to make it a little more showy, some get very decorated. One thing that was hard to adjust to was prayer time, all the stores close and you can not go anywhere. We have learned when shopping to get to a restaurant before prayer time so that we can eat while it is happening. Women are not allowed to drive, luckily I have a good King that will take me where I want to go when I want to go.

Shopping is decent, only drawback is that there are not fitting rooms. I get a lot of Pumpkin's clothes at the Pumpkin Patch (great store!). We have our house filled with items from Ikea. We eat at Applebee's.

I do not really mind much here, I do get frustrated at times. The hardest part is that there is no alcohol in KSA or pork products. I have a much more difficult time with the pork! We spend our holidays eating pork and relaxing. Speaking of holidays we have plenty of them. WE travel during fall, winter, and spring breaks. Summer break is spent with family in the US. Princess has been in more countries than she has states. Her passport has extra pages and is not going to last until she is 5.

Newbie

2009-03-04T22:44:00.000+03:00

I have finally decided that it is time I start my own blog. I want to participate in Not Me Monday's (if I can figure it out) and wanted a way to share my life with family and friends.

I am ready to start my weekend (Thursday, Friday) and have a lot of cuddles with my Pumpkin Princess and King Daddy.