A reflection of the life we are living...

As I begin to write this week, I've been very reflective of the changes we have gone through over the last six and half months. We made some HUGE sacrifices to uproot our family and move half way around the world. We separated ourselves from our family and dear friends, Although technology has sure helped make this a bit easier. Not sure if I could or would have made this transition without Skype, What's App and email. But, we all know that life is ever evolving and changing for the greater and the not so great. We've made great friends here and that sure has helped us in  or transition! But, this week and last week there have been deaths in the families of some dear friends. One family lives here in Saudi and another lives back home in Texas. It's so hard to lose a loved one and it make me cringe to think about it ever happening in my family even though one day I know it will happen. Sometimes I wish I could twinkle my nose and hop over to hug our friends during their pain. I feel left out not being able to support them! But then, there is another side to this and that is we have friends who are expecting or who have had a baby.  I so wish I could see their beautiful faces and their growing bellies and see them transition into parenthood, or hold their little ones. I guess it can be said that I may be missing home a little bit...

 

Then I look at what we have here and think, well this is the path we have taken. It all seemed to line up just as it was suppose to. We as a family see more of each other now than ever before. I'm getting to raise my babies, caring for them and not letting a daycare take care of them all day because I have to work. It really is a dream, a dream that has felt so good. Michael and I still are in awe of what we have done and the memories we are creating.

 

Enough rambling, just felt the need to purge some of the feeling going on in my head!

 

Last week the girls and I met Michael up at the Surf house for lunch then played on the beach for a bit before he returned to work. We haven't done this in awhile but I think we will be doing it at least once a week until it is too, hot! The girls sure love their Daddy and do miss him when he isn't home for lunch!

 Relaxing, taking in the sounds/smells of the ocean and watching my girls play before returning to work! From Michael

 The beach has many treasures. Macey found some coral and was very interested in it.

 "Hey kids what do you do during lunch?" "We, go to the beach and get all giggly sticking our feet in the water!!" Says the girls on lunch break!

 

Last week we went into town. We were trying to find the craft store. Which we finally did after visiting Dessert Designs and getting directions from them! They have this beautiful stairway with a mosaic tile...so pretty!

 

 

 

I got several orders this week for tooth fairy pillows. Here are the ones that I did this week. I am so excited about doing these and the fun the kids will have when they loose their teeth! I've got ten more order to fill after posting this on Face Book! I love it!!

 

 

 

 Friday's here have become a jewel to us. We get up when the girls get up. Make coffee (which I don't drink, but Michael and Macey, do!) Make breakfast, relax, watch some T.V., poke around on the internet ,be lazy....Well, that is what happened today. To a T. Then we went out to the yacht club! Seems so yuppie to say...But we were the only ones there. I packed a lunch, brought the girls toys and we had a great time relaxing, playing and enjoying the beautiful weather that we have had!

 

 

The life guard were there and they were cleaning up the beach. We walked in front of them to try and find some neat looking shells. We found plenty of shell but we also discovered this...

 OIL! I guess that is what you'll find when there is a refinery not but five to ten miles from here.

 Daddy taking the girls on the rocks!!!

 The girls and I, don't like the picture but it was the only one that looked good of all three of us! I was trying to get Macey to settle done since she was jumping all around!!!

 I've always seen people post these kind of pictures and now I can!!!

 What is this place to them? A GIANT sandbox!!!

 "Oooh, Look Mommy, Look what I found!!!" All the treasures in the world to them!!!

 

 panoramic view of this morning!

 Macey, showing off how she does her squats!!!

 Oh, can we say Sassy Girl!!!

 

 I said earlier that we use technology all the time. This morning we were talking to Hazel and Gammy. Yesterday we talked with Grandpa and Grandma Kitty, Grandma and Uncle Chris. Love that the girls will grow up knowing their family and their faces and not just their names!

 

 

Until next time ((HUGS)) From the Myers!!!

Just hanging around!

It's funny when I think of my blog and how I expect to write at least once a week and then I let four weeks fly by. I'd like to say it's because we've been traveling all over and been super busy but actually we haven't done all that much! Here is some of the recent activities!

 

The weather has been quite nice especially during the daytime. The girls LOVE playing outside. Here they are just hanging around on the swings. They ride their bikes, run around and water color paint the side walk or where ever their paintbrush takes them! We love it to because they aren't sitting in front of a T.V. or iPod, they use their imagination and go on adventures! We have a bench bucket that we brought from the states, they jump up on it and scream "Ladies and Gentleman!" carrying on with a show or whatever they want to talk about! It's sweet to watch them imitate us or others they have been around!

 

Macey's school had a parent playdate.  I took Macey to school had Caley stay with a friend and then joined Macey in her classroom to observe the playdate activities. I didn't get but one picture because I was playing with her. She heard a story called "Mrs. Wishy Washy" at one station and at the next station they had the play animals that got all dirty and the kids pretended to be Mrs. Wishy Washy give]ing the animals a bath. It was fun. Macey would put a clean animal down and when she wasn't looking I stick the animal back in the sand so they got all dirty again. I think she finally caught on to what I was doing very quickly. We had a good laugh!

 One night Macey was so tired and we tried to get her to go to bed but she kept say, "I'm not tired!" Well I took a picture to show her.! Silly girl, I wish she still could take her naps, but can't because she has school in the afternoon.

 I joined a friend, her son, and Macey on the beach for a little workout and playtime. While we were there the waves were crashing pretty hard against the rocks. By the time I got to where the wave had been crashing over the sidewalk it had calmed down some. Someone said it was because of a storm surge. But it was pretty to see.

Another family and us have decided that once a week we would cook for each other. So one week I cook the next week they cook. It gives us some great friend bonding time as well as the kids getting together and playing with each other. On one of my night I decided to try chicken pot pie. I had two broiler chickens I needed to cook so I boiled them down. The pot pie came out well!

I forgot to a picture before we dug in but this one was the second one I made the first one was gone! It was delish!

 We put on a movie for the kids to watch because it was a bit cold outside to play! Love how they are all sharing the blankets and sitting so close to the T.V.!

 I've been getting busier with my crafting and am enjoying the project I've done. I think soon I'll have many orders for things as people are starting to find out that I have an embroidery machine! Just praying that nothing happens to my machine!

Each week we take a trip to the fruit and vegetable stand in town. It's hard to explain what happens when we go because the guys as they ooh and awe over the girls, really Caley because of her hair. They always want to take pictures of her. So this time I took a picture of one of the guys. Let's just say that this past week when I went in I didn't take Caley but took Macey. They love Macey too but it's not the same and asked "Where's your oher baby?". Macey got a banana and helped me pick out a few things. When I got ready to leave the guy that carries our food out left for a second but then came back out. When he got to the car and knew Caley was there he gave her a banana and a bag of strawberries... He said they were for Macey too but clearly was giving them to Caley. I've been trying to figure out how to stop this behavior because she at times can be a little bratty (I know that is awful of me to say) but if she doesn't get her way she is throwing a fit. It seems like Michael and I are the bad guys for saying "No!" But when we go into town Caley puts on her charm and will wait till she is given something. Frustrating because know one says no in town... Everyone is super nice and I love that they love on our girls but what is that teaching them...

I was really having a craving for some Mexican food and really wanted chicken enchiladas with tomatillo sauce. I think I saw tomatillos in the commissary and that is what got me thinking about them. Well a friend of my went into town and picked some tomatillos up for me, since the commissary had run out, and I made the sauce...not hard at all. That was the easiest part of this whole meal because I hand make the tortilla (which I tried to make corn tortillas but they kept falling apart) so I just ended up making flour tortillas. It came out pretty yummy and hit the spot that I was craving!

 

I took Macey to visit the ENT for her check-up and am glad to report that hearing in within normal range and that her ears (right now) are looking good. We are to go back in six months for another check-up but are praying that she just might have grown out of the ear infection stage, crossing our fingers!

Macey and I goofing around in the waiting room!

 

Okay well now all of us goofing around!!!

Macey did Valentine's Day (Friendship Day they call here!) She was writing all over the place, gave here a few tips and she got better. I'm impressed in just ten cards how well she was able to correct her writing!

 There is a store here called Dessert Designs. They make one of kind pieces of furniture. It's a unique store that has some incredible pieces. Michael and I've talked about one day replacing our dinning room table, well probably in several years after the girls are done getting crayon, markers and whatever else on our old table. So I found the one that I'd like. Here is a picture of it. This is a dinning room table made for 6 but we would have them put an extension on it to make it fit eight. There is a door in there that the tiles are sitting on. I just love the colors!!!

 

Our community had a parade. It was pretty neat to see everyone come together and have some fun. Michael was going to walk in the parade on stilts. He wanted me to make him some pants and then he wanted a shirt, too! Well here is a picture of the pants. I never got a full picture of him with everything on. Turns out that as he was walking he stepped on a ball from a juggler in front of him that popped something on his stilts. Well it actually broke the stilt. He was very lucky not to have fallen!

One of the pictures I took of Caley, loved they way she came out and her eyes!! Just wished the shadow wasn't across her head!

 I've taken a couple of photo classes and love this shot because thee cyclist was moving yet I caught him perfectly still. Just wish his head had been turned!

 A lady was wearing this beautiful head scarf, wish I could figure out how to make the sparkles really sparkle...

 Parade shots!!!



 

Silly String on the ground!

 

 Macey came home from school yesterday and showed me this. This was a hat she made and on the back she wrote her name, mom, dad and Caley's name. She was so proud and so are we!!

 

Have you ever seen this. We found our way to a pet shop and inside they had these colored chicks! Crazy!!

 Driving through Khobar, sitting at a traffic light we noticed this car's bumper sticker, can you guess what it might mean???

I googled it and am not sure if this is correct but here is what one site says:

As some noticed Arabian players in the game speaking Arabian, in Tanki there is no Arabic language so they use English and Numeric symbols, I will translate a list of words so you be able to connect with them.

M3 nfsk -With your self

Until next time, be blessed!

The Myers!