Long Weekend Short Work Week

This week we had a long weekend. This was due to the Saudi National Holiday that was on Monday. So that meant that Michael was off on Sunday and Monday. We spent two of the days going into Al Khobar on the shoppers’ bus. The first time we went we had a list of a few items and end up carrying a lot of stuff home! Guess that happens when you don’t have your stuff! Michael really was having a hard time not having “HIS” space to work at. We have one little desk and he said that every time he went to work I had stuff on it. Which is true. So we ended up purchasing a table that he could set up in the office room for him to escape to and do “work!” We also purchased a rug for the living room and some decals for the wall. Although when we got home the one rug we bought was way too small. So, on our second trip we bought two more rugs. Now I just need to buy some padding to go under it so it feels a bit softer when you sit on it. Here is our living room! It’s looking like a home now!

The design on the wall comes from Ikea and are stickers. The carpet is also from Ikea.

 

On Monday we met up with some friends at the golf shack to have dinner! We met another family that lived in Euless. Sarah, Miguel and their son Liam who is 3 years old. Caley and Liam hit off and seem to be the best of buds when they are around each other! When we left the golf shack the sprinklers were on and the kids just ran to it and had a blast running in the water! Here is a picture of them playing!

 

I’ve been cooking again this week. I made tortillas and pizza this week. We were able to purchase chips and hot sauce from Chillis. So, we had a Mexican food night which turned out pretty yummy. Although I need to adjust the amount of olive oil that is in the tortilla mix because I think it is just way to much! The pizzas turned out pretty good, too! The girls made their own pizza rolling out the dough and putting on their toppings. Which by the way I bought some pepperoni from the commissary that wasn’t half bad. Here are some pictures of this week’s cooking adventures!

 I was so happy to have my griddle!!! We use is a lot!

 

On Wednesday, Michael went back to Al Khobar, shopping for Halloween items, because he is in charge of the haunted house! Just right up his ally! There is a group on camp that is donating the money to help make the haunted house and basically they gave him a budget between three to four thousand dollars! November 1^st will be the big day! There will be a charge to go through the haunted house and the money raised will be used for the ninth grade prom! The ninth grades will also help run the haunted house!

So while Michael was gone, the girls and I decide to play outside in our back/front yard. We played with the water hose and had lots of fun. I wished that I could have taken them down to the beach but it was way too windy. I got the bright idea to just give them their bath while we were out there because the water is the same water used in the bathtub plus it comes out very warm! The girls had a blast here are some pictures!

 We tried to make crazy hair but it kept falling down!

 

On Thursday Caley and I went to check our mailbox and were very excited to see that we had a package! We a slip of paper in our box saying that we had a package and went around to the mail center to pick it up! It was our very first package from the states! And it was from Gammy. We waited till Daddy and Macey were home from school before opening it. The video will not load but Macey started jumping up and down screaming about the contents...candy... that was in the package! Thank you Gammy!

 

 

Here are some bonus videos from this week!! Enjoy

This is hoe Macey greets me everyday when I pick her up! Priceless!!!

 

We visited our friend Andres's classroom and did some dancing!

 

Here is a picture of Caley and Liam playing!

 

 

Until next time be blessed!

The Myers



Sand Angels and a Taste of Home

Our week started out slow but towards the end we were busy, busy! At the beginning of the week Michael had his back to school/meet the teacher night. He really enjoyed meeting the parents of his students. He made a comment say, “All my student’s parents showed up!” This is the first time in his ten years of teaching that this has ever happened! And while he was busy with work the girls and I decided to have dinner on the beach. We went to the Surf House picked up dinner and made our way to the beach. They loved it, just sitting out there watching the water. But they really loved playing in the sand. They made sand angels, dug in the sand and didn’t want to go home even though it was really dark outside. Here are some pictures of them playing and having a good time!

 

 

On Tuesday the girls and I had to go to the clinic for our blood check from the previous week. Which tuned out that we really didn’t need to go. But since we were there it showed that I wasn’t immune to hepatitis B and that if I wanted I could start the shots like Michael did. So, I decided that it wouldn’t hurt since we do plan to travel in the future. I have two more shots in the coming months to complete the series. Caley also need a hepatitis A shot. Macey kept saying she wanted a shot until she heard Caley hollered out “Ouch that HURTS, with a little crying!”

On Thursday I went to the Mom and Tots group to see what it was like. I met a few more Moms and enjoyed watching the girls play with other children one of which is in Macey’s classroom. They played for a while did a coloring activity, had a snack and then played some more. It was a bit unorganized and a bit chaotic. At least the teacher inside of me was thinking of other ways to handle the group. I only say that because they came up with the coloring activity on a fly and drew a snake on a piece of paper for the kids to color and then added wiggly eyes to them. So as I left I made a comment that I could open the house up since I am literally a block and half from where they meet. Another mom explained the process so the first week of October I’ll open the house and will be in charge of the snack and activity. I’m looking forward to this!

We also got our air shipment in. It was a little taste of home! We finally have a vacuum, microwave, my steam mop and many of useful items that we were missing. It’s funny because we packed three packs of pull-ups but hope that it will take forever to use them since we are trying to potty train Caley. She is getting there.

 The girls were so excited to see some of the toys we had packed!

 

Caley's Potty Chart for this week

I’ve learned something new! Well not really… I put in a load of laundry before going to bed the other night and when I woke up in the morning the washer was still running!!! YIKES! Well I was able to rinse and spin the cloths. I put them in the dryer, they did their thing in there and then when I took them out there was something very wrong with the cloths! Here are a couple pictures of what happened. So lesson learned not to put a load of laundry on before going to bed…

 This shirt actually looks pretty cool but I guess there is too much chlorine in the water.

 

We have a long weekend this weekend and will get to enjoy our time together. We can’t go to Bahrain yet since we don’t have our multi entry/exit visas. But hope to go there on our October break!

Gammy this one is for you!

 

Here is a bonus video. Caley learned to snort. I missed the snort but love her expression and oh so cute little face! She thought it was pretty funny!

 

Some people have asked about our contact info so here you go:

Address:
Our Name

Saudi Aramco P.O. Box 1173

Ras Tanura , Saudi Arabia 31311

Our Vonage number is 817-230-4699

Until next time be blessed!

The Myers

4 Weeks in the Book

So it’s been a couple of weeks since I last wrote, sorry just been a little busy around here! First, I tell you that Michael is in love with his job. He gets nearly all his work grading papers and lesson planning done at work! I love this too because the girls really love when their Daddy comes home and can focus and literally play around with them! He also has the added bonus of coming home for lunch for an HOUR! The girls just cherish all this time they get with him! Macey always tells her Daddy, “I love you Daddy, have fun at work!” when he leaves to go back to work! His class sizes are small and he is enjoying meeting and getting to know his team!

Macey is now finished with the soft start of school and is now attend school from 12:50 to 3:45. She just loves going to school and cherishes her teacher and her friends that she has made. She has about 9 kids in her class and they all seem to get along. She is a leader showing her classmates how to do things. Every day they read stories do art activities, role play, have centers and have a snack. We were a little shock when Michael received a payroll deduction for Macey to go to school. No one or no paperwork that we filled out informed us that there was a charge. If we had known this we may not have sent her since I’m not working but we couldn’t take it away from after she started. It also gives her a break from her sister and me and allow her to be independent which is her middle name!

Every weekend so far we have taken the shoppers bus in Al Kohbar. It’s a way for us to explore and simple get out of camp. We learn something new each time we go. I have learned the right bathrooms to go to during our outing although it came to bite me in the butt when I hit my head on a sink! We’ve also learned that if we get into a restaurant before prayer we can get our food and enjoy the time while all the shops are closed. Although we have learned that some shops just don’t open back up after prayer. I guess the person(s) running the store take a lunch break which by the way has no rhyme or reason. So, you just don’t know when they will open back up.

One of our biggest journeys so far was the trip we took to Farm, a local grocery store. I made a Facebook post about this but here is the logistics. We bought groceries, the cashier keyed in the WRONG amount into the credit card machine because everything is manually keyed in (computer isn’t connected to credit machine like we see in the states). It was just a little wrong but an $18,909 charge was made to our credit card. We immediately talked with the manager who said, “You come tomorrow and I’ll give you cash or a check.” I guess they can’t just credit back or cancel the transaction. So here we sit disputing this amount with the credit card company. Michael has the cell number to the assistant CEO with this company so we are hoping that this will be resolved soon. Just a little crazy that this charge even went through. We have now set up parameters so that nothing like this will happen again.

As for me, I am doing pretty well. I’ve been meeting other stay at home Mom’s and am planning on going to the Mom and Tots group tomorrow. Michael and I sat down Friday and listen to the sermon from our church about the Monsters in our Midst. Ironically it was about loneliness. I’m going through some changes with this move figuring out what my role is, what I’m supposed to do. This has been difficult at times because I’ve always been on the go. But, life in Ras Tanura is different. It’s a slower pace, it takes four minutes to get across camp by car, it’s just different. I’m glad that I can listen to these sermons and still have God speaking to me even though I’m not physically in church. I’m learning me again. Getting up to exercise and take in God’s presence. I know that it won’t always be easy and when our stuff gets here it will really feel like our home and not a vacation rental!  

Caley is doing well. We have Mommy school in the morning time and she has already learned how to spell her name! She doesn’t get it right all the time but usually figures it out. Macey is learning to write her name and is doing very well. I’ve loved just sitting back and watching them play. They can be pretty funny at time having their pretend Mommy and Grandpa! Not sure why they say these two name more often but it is still funny. Caley loves being able to go outside and pick up leaves or shells. She just loves to collect them! Our little nature girl but she still will scream when she sees a bug! LOL!!!

Our quick ship is suppose to be in this week which will be help since we packed our microwave! You just don’t realize how much you use something until you don’t have it! I’m so ready for my vacuum and steam mop. Crazy, I know what hey I’m a stay at home Mom I feel the need to clean!!! LOL!!!

I’ll leave you with some pictures that we have taken (sorry not much but a few) and a video of Caley singing her name!

 

 Here is some pictures of what our sunrise looks like! By the way the birds start chirping around 5!

 

 

 First Day of School

 

 Michael rides his bike back and forth since his school is maybe a minute and a half ride!

 

 Most of the time our waves are small but on windy days they can get pretty big!

 

 Caley singing her name!

Until next time be blessed!

The Myers

 

                                                                                                                                                      August 27, 2013

The Learning Game is on!

As with any move you always have learning happening. We are learning new things about our new home every day! I am going to just put some thoughts down about what we have learned so far from moving to Saudi Arabia!

1.       Our new friends that we have only known now for about nine days are the most generous and caring people around. Really! Last night we were at a dinner, a friend came up to introduce this person who had connections about getting a golf cart. The guy told us the price, and our friend was like I’ll spot you until you until you get paid….what, I mean that was so sweet of him to offer. Another example (we don’t have a washer and dryer in our house they are on back order) so we have had at least a dozen people say just come over to do your wash and you can use our Internet too!

2.       I/We don’t like the public restrooms outside of camp! I didn’t know about the squatty potties! Well in most public restrooms you’ll find basically a basin/drain with spray hose to clean yourself. I guess they don’t use much toilet paper! There are regular potties too but most of the time they have water (and god knows what!) on the floor! With no toilet paper! So the lesson learned is I will be carrying toilet paper in my bag when we go out!

3.       It is okay to be up at the crack of dawn! I mean it happens around 5:15! I actually enjoy this! I get up and go for a walk! I walk either along the beach or on the boardwalk that is along the beach! It is peaceful listening to the ocean wave’s crash against the shoreline. I feel safe walking alone. But. I’m not alone because many others are out walking/jogging! It’s a reflection time for me and a time to take in God’s beauty. It’s quiet although I did see a boat and heard it blowing its horn the other day but basically you don’t see any boats.

4.       I learning to adjust from being a working mom to a stay at home mom! The way things are working out as of right now I may not be subbing this year. Trying to find child care that would be reliable and would take Macey for half day and Caley for all day is a bit difficult plus trying to figure out how to get ourselves around camp and on time. As of right now Macey will be in the afternoon which I hope it will change to mornings. If that happens then I could sub in the mornings and have the afternoons off and only need childcare in the morning for Caley. We will see what plays out. Several moms that Michael has talked with wished they didn’t work their first year. I am comfortable either way we choose.

5.       Michael is still in shock about his schedule for school! He showed me his schedule and was like I’m going to get my work done at school. So here is his basic schedule. He goes in at 7 at 8 he teaches his A class. Then he has a 15 minute nutrition break. Then he teaches B class (short time than his A class). Then there is lunch for an hour. After that he goes back teaches another class and then has two planning periods till 4. I think he is going to love this plus he doesn’t have any more than 16/17 students in each class! No high stakes tests to stress over, there is some testing but nothing like what he has done before. This is a dream and we are still pinching ourselves!

6.       Riding the bus to places is not a bad ride at all. The company just replaced all their buses last year after a 15 year contract and bought some really nice Mercedes buses that pretty nice! They have two seats and two seat on each side on the inside and should you go shopping a but a lot of stuff there is a ton of room under the bus to store it!

7.       People here are kind. We went on the shopper’s bus to Al-Kobar last week. Caley fell asleep in my arms. I had my phone under my leg/under my abaya. When I stood up to get off the bus my phone fell, but I didn’t know it. When we got back on the bus I started to think about my phone and was going to play candy crush but realized I didn’t have it. Okay take a deep breathe leaned over and told Michael…We decided we would be the last ones off the bus so that we could check the floor. Then as we were stopped at security I hollered back to our friend Andres and told him. As soon as I did someone a couple of rows back said I found this phone and was going to turn it in when we got back, is this yours?? YES, YES!!! I was relieved! Thankful for the kindness of this person giving it back. Heck I wonder if that happened at home (TX) if someone would have given it back…

8.       The pool here is COLD!!! If you know me I don’t like the pool cold. Here the pools are on chillers so they don’t get bath water hot. But wow!!!! The girls get in and say, “COLDDDDD!” It is cold. So I stay in the kid pool where it is warmer!

9.       Michael has had to start his Hepatitis shoots over since his count in his blood wasn’t high enough. So, I’m thinking that will happen to me too! But I can’t get in to do blood work until all the paperwork has been processed and I’m in the system which should happen any day.

10.   Bowling only cost about 2 buck to play. We had fun the other day when we played! The girls had fun too even though all of theirs went into the gutter!

11.   Budget meals in the local dining hall are cheap and you get a ton of food. We got two meals and had left overs for the next day. It’s sad to say that it is cheaper to eat camp than to cook at home!

 

I guess that is all for now. I’m sure there is a lot more to write about but this is all I can think of for now. We are all doing well. We still do not have Internet but will soon! Macey seems to be adjusting and has had some emotional rollercoaster days but finds things that she likes to do and feels better. We now have satellite TV and this has helped now that we have access to the Disney channel!

 

Until next time be blessed!

The Myers

Pictures our Saudi House

Here are pictures of our house furnished with Aramco furniture!

 

 Girl's Room

 Another view of the girl's room.

 The girl's closets.

 Flowers from the tree outside our house! Caley loves to pick them up! Jasmine Tree...

Guest bedroom/Michael's office.

 Closets in the guest bedroom.

Pantry

 Kitchen 

 Girl's toy closet.

 Girl's bathroom.

 Hall closet

 Master bedroom!

 Master closets

 Halway looking towards the living room.

 Living room and formal dining.

 Looking into the living room.

 Another hall closet.

 

 Backyard with detached garage

Looking at the garage in the backyard.

 Front of the house

 

Jasmine tree in the front.

We Made It August 18

We made it!

Well, one of the biggest hurdles was made!!! We made it safe and sound to Saudi Arabia! We had two flights. One from DFW to Dubai and another from Dubai to Dammam. The first flight was about 13 and half hours. We rode in style in business class! Macey did well for the majority of the flight. She hardly slept, which was hard on us to keep her quiet while other were sleeping. I gave her some melatonin shortly after having dinner on the flight. She did fall asleep for a little while but woke in a panic because she didn’t know where she was. Towards the end of the flight I finally had to take all electronics away from her so she would settle down. I felt really bad for about two minutes while she screamed because she was made at me and others were sleeping but she settled and fell fast asleep! Caley on the other hand was quite the opposite. I gave her melatonin and she slept a good 6-7 hours. She woke up in a great mood and was playing with the flight attendants! Michael and I slept off and on throughout the flight when we could. We arrived in Dubai and had a four hour layover. So, we treated ourselves to the lounge. The lounge for Emirate covered most of the third floor in Dubai and was very large! They had a kid’s area which I must say was very boring. There was a toddler slide and picnic table for them to play with. There was also a 360 game unit but the girls don’t play that so they were running around pretended to play different characters from shows they knew and had a good time. Our last fight was a quick flight lasting about an hour and half. They fed us a meal which I found myself scarfing down because of the short flight, but wanted to eat, afraid that we might be waiting in very long lines at the Saudi Airport. Both girls passed out before this flight even began! So needless to say they were very cranky when we got into the airport which work to our advantage! Because they were both crying wanting to be held, which we couldn’t do with so much stuff, we arrived at the line for immigrations. There were about four or five people in front of us but because the girls were having a meltdown, the Saudi men had us go to the front of the line! Not sure if that was to get us out of there quickly or because that wanted to help us. Any ways we flew through there and went to get our luggage. Oh, what a nightmare that was, not really but we packed WAY too much!!! We ended up checking a total 11 bags plus we had four backpacks and other stuff! Again way too much! We know for next time! So we headed to customs which was just put all your bags on a belt and a guard looked at the stuff. We loaded all of our stuff and headed to the Aramco office but before we got there we were met by Andres (our friend who lives here), Tim (Head of Aramco Schools) and Michael’s principal Keith! They had a bag of cookie which helped perk the girls up! They were super sweet! We headed to the Aramco office got our temporary id cards and headed off to our new house.

The drive from the airport to the camp is only about 30 minutes which isn’t too terrible, I thought it was longer! It took an SUV to carry all of us and a truck to carry all of our luggage! We arrived at the gate of the camp were asked some question which we didn’t know and we proceeded first stopping to get the keys to our house. We drove down a main street named Surf Street and the turned onto three different streets before figuring out which street/house was ours! I have to note here that teachers/families are not usually housed in this area (why we couldn’t find the right street) because they are normally reserved for executives… The camp is just growing so fast that we were truly lucky to get one of these homes. So now back to the house…The house belongs to the original houses that were first built by Aramco many years ago! That being said there is not a single wasted space in the house! We have a three bedroom one story home with a huge room that is for the formal dining and living area much like the one we had in Texas but I’m thinking it’s wider and longer. There is a kitchen area that can be closed off by a door, two bathrooms a really nice size backyard with a good size covered patio! Oh, and we can just walk about a quarter mile and we are at the beach! The house came furnished which will do but I am so ready to have my bed to sleep in but I’m sure everyone feels the same way!

Our first night we walked the path to the boardwalk and went to the coffee shop. I tried an Arabic drink that tis called mint lemonade. It was different at first but grew on me! The girls got to see they beach but really couldn’t see because it was already too dark, they could hear the waves (small ones).

On Sunday the 18^th a bus came to pick us up to take us to lunch at the hobby farm aka where horses are kept but there is also a restaurant to eat at. We meet some other new teachers as well as some that have been here. We shared stories and had a nice time.  Although Macey had been up since about 2 in the morning she was tired and basically slept on Michael’s legs throughout the entire meal! We got her to wake up by asking if she wanted to go see the horses, boy she perked up and was very excited to see them. Both she and Caley have talked nonstop about visiting the beach and seeing the horses once we arrived in Saudi. I’m glad we were able to fulfill their wishes so quickly. We also went for a swim at the pool nearby. As we came in we met this sweet couple with a 6 month old baby girl! We started talking and they live really close to us. She is a stay at home mom and he is a Doctor who treats adults and children! Excited because we will choose him to see all of us instead of the company just giving us one! They are from California and have been here for about two weeks.

Tomorrow Michael goes to work for the first time. He is nervous as anyone would be starting a new job! This will be my first day at home with the girls. We may go down to the beach and play around before it becomes too hot. By the way the weather is HOT!!!! The humidity is the worst but everyone just keep saying just get through August and September and then we will have about 8 months of really pleasant weather!

We are so excited about our adventure and the many more friends we have and will meet. The girls seem to be enjoying themselves but we’ve only been here about 24 hours. Thank you for all the well wishes and prayers. We love and miss you!

There is No Turning Back Now…

It’s hard to believe that all of (well most of) our stuff is on its way to Saudi Arabia. There’s no turning back now! We are full of excitement, anxious and just stressed. Michael and I keep apologizing to one another because we keep stepping on each other’s toes! But, let’s face it a move like this will test anyone and will put you into moods you don’t normally get into! We knew what we were getting into!

Are final paperwork came in on Tuesday and it was a good thing we looked at it close because I didn’t have a ticket on the plane! YIKES!!! FREAK OUT MODE!!! Called our relocation person and she completely missed that I didn’t have a ticket. She took care of it and within an hour I had a ticket! Ok, breathe….I think it stemmed from my visa issue earlier but not completely sure why I wasn’t issued a ticket. I teased Michael and told him there were no business class seat left and that they upgraded me to first class! That would have been so cool!!! I’m just thankful that I got a ticket and that we are together on the same flight.

As of tomorrow our house will be on the market. I sure hope it sells, fast! We are selling it as an “as is,” because we know we have some foundation issues. We ended up hiring a structural engineer who knew what he was doing instead of the quacks at those foundation places. We had everything from “you don’t have any foundation issue, you just need to water” to almost $20,000. CRAZY!!! What is interesting is that the engineer said we needed work on one side of the house and a section of the garage with some correction in drainage which didn’t even touch what the other companies wanted to do. We have learned a lot during this process and will be better informed when we purchase/build another house. Life is a living and learning, right?

Nothing tells you that God’s working in your life than to show up at church and have the preacher preach directly to you, right? Well that happened to us yesterday at church. Pastor Daniels talked about how sometime you need to just let go knowing that God is in control and just see where He takes you. Ironically he introduced us to a woman who use to be Muslim, accepted Christ two years ago, and she is doing just what Pastor Daniels said. She sold her business in Arlington, wants to go to seminary and then wants to go find other women around the world who are hiding behind the veil to spread the gospel.  Who knows where Saudi will take us, what adventures we’ll have or the people we will meet. We are amazed at how during this whole process we have put ourselves out there not knowing what was to come. But, we know for sure who we put our trust in and will continue to as we spread our wings to explore this world.

The  next time I write I will probably be in Saudi. We have been truly blessed by the friendships we have made and will miss each one of you! (Tears)

 

Until next time be blessed!

 

Love,

The Myers