Snapshots of November

November came and went like a flash! Here's a glimpse of the fun...

Michael celebrating his 10 1/2 years of life! Note the 1/2 candle, for his "half" birthday..

Learning some good chess moves...

November was all about baseball. Steve was the assistant coach of Jake's team, "Big Red." The games were played at 5pm, just as the sun was setting. Temperatures were fabulous...in the mid-70's.

Michael enjoying sandboarding/sand sledding in Shaybah. This was an amazing trip we were blessed to be able to take with the cub scouts to a remote area of Saudi Arabia. I'll try to get a post up about this soon...

The second grade got right down to business this year and performed their musical, "Bugz." Jake was a firefly.

Who knew Jake's mouth was so big?

Jake's First Piano Recital

After watching his big brother on the piano for a year, Jacob was pleading for his own lessons. Seriously. He even coaxed a babysitter into teaching him how to play Fur Elise while we were out one night. We happily gave into his "demands" to learn, and started him in lessons this September with Miss Lydia.





Jake had his first piano recital last weekend. This was the very first time he has performed completely alone in front of a large audience. All of his other performances have been with groups for cub scout skits, 2nd grade musicals, etc. While he was eager to show off his hard work, he was understandable nervous (as was his mother!). He did a FABULOUS job and we couldn't be more proud of him.

He played Ode to Joy by Beethoven and The Clockshop, which was a duet with his teacher. Here are the short video clips:

Halloween 2009

Here's one for you...I now have to worry about their Halloween costumes being too hot, instead of worrying about how to get the costumes over their coats! Thank goodness the trick or treating doesn't start until after the sun goes down. However the 2:30 parade at school was a different matter...

This was Michael's very last Halloween parade. How did he grow out of those so soon? As 2010 and middle school approaches, I imagine that there will be many more "lasts" and "firsts" for him. He is already talking about the school dance that will replace the parade for him at Halloween. Oh boy...

Please indulge me as I take a quick detour down memory lane...here is a picture of his first Halloween parade in 2003, as a 4 year old in preschool. What a great big brother he was (and is), taking 2 yr. old Jake along with him:



...and then six years later as a 10 year old in 5th grade:


The kids paraded and had their parties at school on Wednesday, Oct. 28th, which is our "Friday." The theme seemed to be Black for the 2009 Green family costumes. Jacob sported an authentic ninja costume that Julia brought him from Japan this year:


Don't you think that Jacob's costume looks very similar to one of our everyday sights...


We waited until the 31st to do the actual trick or treating. We kept things pretty low-key this year and stuck close to home. There are some neighborhoods of the community that are literally packed with kids, teens and parents trailing with cars. It's down right dangerous on some of the streets - in fact last year a kid got hit by a car. It's much less crazy in our immediate neighborhood. The Miller family came over to go trick-or-treating with us, and then we had some fabulous roasted butternut squash soup for dinner. A very autumn-like meal, despite the desert heat.

Catching Up...

Hmmm, it looks like it's been awhile since I've posted. I have been keeping lists of things I want to write about and hopefully I will start working on those topics this week. Normally I have a ton of time to spend at the computer. However lately, I've been spending much of that time working on itineraries, flights and accommodations for our upcoming trips to London (November) and China (March).

In addition to that, I have been researching and applying to schools for online classes. I'll be registering later this month for classes at Bellevue Community College (in WA state) for the winter and spring, and I'm waiting to hear from Washington State University on acceptance for the fall -- they both have distance learning classes and I'll be able to finish my accounting degree completely online from over here. WSU is going to treat my situation similar to military and give me in-state tuition once I've had my WA driver's license for a year, which will be in July. We are excited beyond belief about their decision, which will allow me to use my 20 year old tuition scholarship there. Next on our plate will be computer shopping, as I'm not confident I will be able to rely on our "dinosaur" for online classes.

School is still going well for both the boys. We had parent/teacher conferences several weeks ago and both the boys are doing great. Socially, it's like night and day from last year at this time. Hurray for settling in and making friends! Speaking of school, did you know that that our school in the compound is the ONLY school in ALL of Saudi Arabia that held classes before mid-October? The other international schools, as well as the Saudi schools have been closed, due to Ramadan and swine flu fears. I feel for those mothers, and am horrified to think of how short their summer break will be next year.

On a sad note, we took Skippy back to her foster parent in town a couple weeks ago. Jake was doing great with his allergies but there were other issues that ultimately made her a bad fit for our family. At the top of the list was her ongoing grave dislike of Jacob and her inability to stop terrorizing children that came over to play. The psychology of what may have been causing all of that was well beyond our limited knowledge of dog training, and we thought it would be best to break the bond before it was too difficult to do. It was heartbreaking, especially for Michael but she really didn't turn out to be the family dog we wanted. We are going to give it some time, talk to some animal behaviorists and see if it's something we can do better with a different dog. The worst part of all of this was that it came to a head within a week of Uncle Fuzzy, the hamster, dying.

The weather is cooling down to reasonable finally, enabling us to enjoy Jake's baseball games, bike rides and many other outdoor activities. The highs have been ranging from 88-98 degrees this week. Unfortunately with the "cooler" weather comes mosquitoes and the flu. Oh well, I guess you can't have it all.

In a nutshell, that's what we've been up to...Stay tuned for Halloween pictures, a photo tour of the inside of our house here, an education of the different types of palm trees we have, and our thoughts on a recent teen riot in downtown Khobar.