A Pictorial Summary of the Last Three Months

How do you like my fancy title? I thought it sounded more "studious" than "Recent Pictures". Maybe all the essay writing I've been forced to do is actually helping...

Seriously, here's what you've missed from September to December (in a nutshell) while I was off with my nose in the books:

Jake's 9th birthday. Those are supposed to be light sabers -- not my best work, but made with all my love! He had 5 friends over for a birthday sleepover. It was insane. Never again.

Michael's first middle school dance! He was so, SO excited. He's wearing a very cool black hat, but you can't tell because of the black door he's standing in front of. He had a great time and even wowed the crowd with his breakdancing moves. I can't believe he's old enough to be going to dances.

Michael earned 5 merit badges at camp last summer: Rifle Shooting, Photography, Videography, Fingerprinting, and Wood Carving. He's advanced rank once this year and is about to again - by mid-February he'll start working on his Star Scout rank, with just Life Scout and Eagle Scout after that.

Halloween

For those of you that haven't kept up with Star Wars since your childhood, Jake is Darth Maul. He looks so short because he's in his socks and Michael has shoes with wheels on, making him taller than usual.

Michael was such a disturbing Joker that I had to show you a close up. I could scarcely look at him. And the second we would make eye contact, he'd give me that disturbed look and say, "Why so serious?" Serious is right: seriously creepy.

Jake and I camped out with the Cub Scouts in November, trying out one of our new high-quality tents and my "princess pad" (a self inflating mattress pad from REI - the thickest they make). I'm not sure what skill he's working on in this picture; maybe learning how to lasso camels?

Michael took a Drama and an Improv class last semester at school. He has found his niche! This is a still shot of one of the skits the classes did. He performed his part with a perfect British accent. Talk about a natural performer...

We took a Mediterranean Cruise in November. One of the stops was Rome. I hate this street side picture of the Colosseum, but we didn't get a lot of good shots there that day. We were also disappointed that we weren't able to go inside, but we hope to go back some day. You can't see all of Rome in one day!

Venice was beautiful and fun! I can definitely see Steve and I returning there some day without the kids.

We found the most interesting market in Barcelona. It was large, lively and full of the freshest produce I've seen outside of Pike Place Market (and a farm). Our very favorite thing in Barcelona.

The kids loved exploring this old castle in Lisbon. We happened to be in the city at the same time as a NATO conference, which made traffic patterns interesting. Sadly, we did not get to catch a glimpse of President Obama. Regardless of one's political beliefs, things like presidential sightings or even little things like seeing our flag flying over the consulate are a thrill when you live overseas.

The picture collection from the cruise would not be complete without this one. How fun! I believe this was just after we got off the ship in Naples.

Speaking of Naples, the boys' absolute favorite stop on the cruise was there, where we hiked up to the crater of Mt. Vesuvius, famous for the eruption in 79 AD that covered Pompeii. It's still steaming! It last erupted in 1942.

We also saw Pompeii that day - very, very cool.

Moving on from the cruise...We had a shmal rather early this year (if you've forgotten what a shmal is, you can refresh your memory here). In this picture, Michael models the latest fashion in shmal gear:

There's no shortage of interesting Michael pictures, is there? He put in some service hours for Boy Scouts in December, helping out with a Mom's Morning Out. They worked on crafts and played games with smaller kids. I believe he is an Elf Helper. An old Elf Helper? Not sure what's up with the beard, but if you look closely you'll see jingle bells on his shoes.

Christmas Eve - in their new Christmas pajamas. We wanted an intimate, family orientated Christmas this year and got more than we bargained for when the internet went down and we had no way to call home.

Catching a Christmas day nap. Who says Santa doesn't bring presents for Dads??

Christmas dinner menu: Prime Rib, roasted asparagus, carrots, mashed potatoes and homemade rolls. Oh my, was it tasty!

Loving the Drops

It's raining this morning! It looks like it rained all night. The gray dreary sky puts me in such a happy mood this morning!

As a Pacific Northwest girl straight to the bone, I can complain about the rain with the best of them. I know what it's like to not see the sun for weeks - only gray skies and rain. And I'm not talking about downpours. That type of rain comes, dumps, and moves on -- leaving blue skies. The Northwest type of rain lingers for days, just a bit more than a light mist. Little drops coming down constantly: drizzle. You begin to wonder if the clouds will ever lift or if the gray sky is it, the beginning of the end.

But moving into the desert where we get less than three inches of rain each year makes me miss the rain like I NEVER thought I would. There's just something about looking out at the solid gray sky, seeing the drops of rain in puddles, and feeling the moisture on my cheeks as I walk to the car that goes straight to my soul and makes me feel at home.

Not everyone in my family feels the same way about this liquid joy. The kids came home at lunch and told me that they had indoor recess this morning. I asked why. Jake responded, "because if we went outside, we'd get WET," and then he stared at me in such way that I knew without a doubt a silent "duh" was placed at the end of that statement. I stared right back, speechlessly. My kids will play outside for hours at the park in 110+ degree heat, only coming in on my command for sunscreen and water, but they can't get WET?

It's starting to rain harder. I probably have more to say about this, but I really want to go outside now.

Should it be a Surprise?

Fate leads the willing, and drags along the reluctant.

-Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Those of you who have know us for our 21+ years of marriage know that you never, EVER write our address in ink. It's just bad judgment.

We were just remarking the other day that we've lived in Saudi for a longer time than we lived in Michigan. I really ought to know better than to tempt fate that way. No, we're NOT moving. But fate apparently thinks we OUGHT TO BE and is determined to punish us, along with those who used ink for our address...

The mail service we use in Florida is moving to a new address, so apparently WE now have a new address too. It's actually the easiest move I've ever made. No boxes required. But we've found that one of the worst parts of frequent moving isn't the packing and unpacking; it's losing touch with friends.

And one thing we really look forward to every year is getting Christmas cards from our friends and family. Even those long brag letters (they're actually my favorite). When we get our mail containing a stack of cards, I gather up every bit of control I possess to wait for Steve to come home. Then we make a couple cups of joe and dive into the cards together. And every time we move, the pile gets smaller as someone invariably doesn't have our new address or number. Sniff.

I think we'll probably send out a change of address card to friends and family, something similar to a Christmas card, using our Christmas card address list (so if you don't currently get a card from us, please let me know if you want our new mailing address). Our email address and phone number will be staying the same.

Get those erasers ready.

How Much is My Time Worth?

I'm one week into my 7th, 8th and 9th online classes now and just finished up going through the syllabi, schedules and assignments. One common thread amongst all of them has been the "introduce yourself" on the discussion board assignment. I really dislike that assignment. The classes range from around 50-100 students, and reading through all of their introductions is tedious, time consuming, and time wasting. Occasionally I'll recognize a name from a previous class, invariably someone with whom I vehemently disagreed. That always makes things interesting for a brief, uncomfortable moment. But when my eyes are glazed over at the end of the day I forget who is who and frankly, don't really care.

Steve always asks me, every semester, why I take the time to read each one. I've wondered the same thing myself. There's really no way to select all and mark all as "read," like you would in an email inbox, so I have to open each one. I might as well at least scan it for something interesting while I have it open. And in my economics class this semester, my professor responded to each and every post, carrying on conversations in some of the threads. You just never know what important tidbit of information you'll miss if you don't read those. And if HE can read and respond to all those, surely I can too.

But the real reason I read each one is that I do walk away from the assignment with something hugely valuable, something that I'm sure is a completely unintended effect of the avalanche of introductions: perspective.

Perspective. Just typing that word makes me squirm. It means an uncomfortable reset of my way of thinking and the way I view my circumstances. The acknowledgment that I wasn't looking at life the way I ought to be. And in many cases, the lowering of my pride.

I get a lot of encouraging comments from friends about my efforts to finish this degree at this time in my life, as well as compliments on my ability to balance being a wife and mom at the same time I'm carrying three university classes. While I really appreciate the support, ultimately it grows my ego and blurs my perspective. Take at look at some these introductions:

My name is ____ and I am a 34 year old returning student. I have two children (six and nine) and work as a tech in a pharmacy....But, with a full time job and single fatherhood, very little options for studying in a classroom setting. Right now, this works best for me. There are some nights when I might not be able to start my "class" until 10p.m.

I'm a single mom to an adorable almost 7-year-old daughter!...

I am married with two small kids and I work full time...

My name is ______ and I am active duty Air Force...

I'm a single mother of 3 sons not by choice but by the infidelity of my soon-to-be ex-husband...

...my 70 hour work weeks only permit me to take online classes...

...I am married and I have 4 children (ages 4, 3, 1, 2 months). My family takes priority to my schooling, so I’ve had to take some time off here & there. My oldest daughter has major medical concerns, but I hope to be able to finish the two classes I am scheduled to take this semester...

...my daughter is a Daisy in Girl Scouts for which I am the Troop leader...Besides Scouts and Full-time school, I work approximately 35 hours a week as a receptionist for an electrical supply store...

I am a 27 year old accounting major and am taking both microeconomics and macroeconomics this semester along with Finite math, Biology 140 and Poly Sci...(my note: that's FIVE CLASSES folks!)

And here's what my introduction read:

My name is LaLani Green and I’m a returning student living overseas with my family. My husband works for an oil company in the Eastern Province of Saudi, where we live on a large compound (a city really, with 12,000+ residents) with our 2 sons, ages 9 & 12. I enjoy traveling (last year we spent 2 weeks in China and took a 10 day Mediterranean cruise), shopping, reading, and being active with my boys. My husband and I are both from Western Washington and really miss the mountains and good tasting water, among many other things.

What I left out of that was:

• I have someone who comes 5 mornings a week to clean my house, do laundry, clean the patio furniture, wash the car, and pretty much anything else I need him to do.

• I have a cook who comes every other week for four hours that makes homemade burritos, calzones, scones, cinnamon rolls, dinner rolls and pretty much anything else I want him to make.

• My husband works a straight 40 hours a week and is home by 4:15 nearly every day - no weekends.

• My family is incredibly healthy

Get the picture?

Reading through all those introductions is not my favorite thing to do, but honestly I wouldn't consider NOT reading them. I walk away (three hours later) with a ton of respect for my classmates and a renewed thankfulness for the blessings in my life. How can I truly consider that a waste of time? You can't put a price on good, healthy perspective.

If At First You Don't Succeed...

...try, try again!

Remember this:

"I'm setting a goal of writing one blog posting each week - we'll see how that goes. I think it's reasonable and attainable."

I figure there's a couple of ways to look at this situation. Either I set my goal too high, or I just need to dust myself off, get up and try again. Being a glass-half-full kind of gal, I'm going to try again!

My semester runs from January 10th until the first week of May, with a week off for spring break (that unfortunately doesn't coincide with the boys' THREE week break!). On the slate to be attacked this time are Business Law, Statistics and Macroeconomics. I received good marks from both Steve and WSU for last semester for balancing family life with my coursework. Let's see if I can successfully add the blog back into the mix...