A Slice of Life in April

Wow - April flew by! Here's a glimpse of what went on around here (travels included) in April:

At the Panda Preserve in Chengdu, China

Michael is trying to convince the duck that he comes in peace by pretending to be one of them!

Jake and I pausing for a moment on the Great Wall.

I WILL write more about our trip to China soon - I promise!

Many hours were spent in April holding, walking, petting, wiping up the floor and working on training Peaches. This was a common sight...

...as you can see, loving on Peaches went on all the time!

Everybody loves her! And the best part is...she loves everybody too! I think we have a keeper this time!

Jake raced in the Cub Scout Soap Box Derby again this year. After being disqualified last year for crashing twice, it took an ENORMOUS amount of guts and determination to just back into a car this year. He did, and we are so very, very proud of him for that. AND not only that, he took 3RD PLACE in his division.

That's our boy!

Another Soap Box Derby picture. That's Jake in the green car. In this particular heat, the kid in the other car lost his wheel - it's laying in the middle of the road by the white line. They don't actually race each other. They are separately timed and the winners have the best average time. (this is starting to sound like a calculus problem I was just working on....)

Enjoying some fabulous Chinese food in Beijing. Even the worst meal we had there was better than the best Chinese we can find around here.

And finally...just one of my favorite pictures taken recently around here. This was a camel herder and his flock (?) in the middle of the desert. We were digging up sand roses in the middle of no where (more about that to come) and was greeted by this sight. Check out the pile of blankets he is using as his saddle...

Stuck in Saudi - China Trip part 1

Have you ever noticed that no lesson in life is ever free? As we gain wisdom, it usually seems to come at the expense of something else. We may have paid with our time, such as a missed opportunity that resulted in a long wait. We may have paid with the loss of something valuable, such as jewelry carelessly left in a hotel safe. And of course, there are those lessons that cost us money. Our latest acquisition of wisdom cost us just that: cold hard cash.

To get into Saudi Arabia you need a visa, pre-authorization to enter and stay for a specific amount of time. Without a valid visa you can't get into the country, ...or OUT of it either!

On March 22nd we were heading to the airport with our bags packed for two weeks of travel in China and HongKong. On this particular trip we would be leaving out of Bahrain at around midnight, requiring us to leave Saudi and drive across the causeway. Our excitement and anticipation level was quite high; we'd been dreaming about this trip for several years already, well before coming to Saudi.

It was apparent that there was a problem at immigration on the Saudi side rather quickly. The normally languid official in the booth roused himself from his boredom-induced stupor and began speaking rather animatedly to our taxi driver in rapid Arabic. After a brief exchange, our taxi driver told us that our visas had expired and we would have to turn back. Excuse me, turn back? TURN BACK?!? Didn't he know we had a plane to catch in three hours? After talking with a supervisor and learning that there was no way we could get new visas on the spot, we had no choice but to go back home. And then the waterworks started...

You see...because it was already 9pm with no flight to catch, there was no reason for our exhausted boys to stay up. As we were putting them to bed they naturally had some questions. When would we be leaving? When could we get the visas? Would we be able to afford the very last minute airline tickets to replace the ones we were likely not going to get a refund on? What about all the hotels, tours and transportation within China for which we had already paid in full, and was past date of even a partial refund? Were we going to China now AT ALL? We had to leave them to drift off to sleep without any answers, for we had none at this point. What a mess, or more accurately, what a nightmare!

In a nutshell, Steve was able to get the visas the next morning and our amazing travel agent in Khobar found us four affordable seats on a flight leaving that afternoon. We only had a 15% cancellation charge on the tickets we cancelled two hours before the flight. We got to Beijing only one day late, but quite a bit more than a dollar short!

We were lucky, incredibly lucky . The wisdom we gained cost us thousands of dollars less than we were anticipating when we went to bed that sleepless night. So as not to tempt fate in the future, we've had our visas translated by a co-worker (even the numbers are in Arabic) and the dates kept in our travel planning folder. There are plenty of other lessons to learn without relearning this one!

Peaches the Puppy

Being the epitome of impatience, I was really hoping that the 2nd time was going to be the charm.

In the midst of all the college class stress in February, I thought it would be a good time to try another dog - a puppy this time. My husband thought I was nuts. If you had seen my stress level, you would be agreeing with him. But please hear me out...

Remember Skippy, the aggressive, possessive Chihuahua we gave back to it's foster parent in October? The dog with the incessantly loud bark that only liked three of us? And...the subject of Michael's dreams as well several heart wrenching essays he wrote in school? He was still sleeping with her picture and her collar under his pillow. Even Jacob, who was terrified of the little ball of fire, kept asking when we were were going to get a dog again. We really wanted to try another dog sooner, rather than later. But there were a couple of factors that made the timing of getting a dog somewhat out of our control.

We thought we would have the best chance of success this time with a puppy. There are resources stretching as high and wide as the Cascade Mountains for raising and training a puppy. Books from Amazon.com, books at our little compound library, books in the elementary school library, videos on YouTube, internet articles, etc. There is very little information, outside of the Cesar Milan Dog Whisperer DVDs, to assist inexperienced dog owners with integrating an adult dog with possible issues into their home. We don't even have access to dog obedience classes here. So, a puppy it was going to be.

Secondly, it couldn't just be any puppy. We absolutely needed something off the hypoallergenic list because of Jake's allergies. And not just any breed on the list - it needed to be small. The smaller the dog, the less dander. In addition to being hypo and small, the breed temperament was a HUGE consideration, as we wanted a friendly, family dog this time. All these requirements narrowed the options down quite a bit.

Getting a dog in Khobar at a pet store was nearly impossible for us. Muslims don't like dogs, so dogs aren't in high demand around the Middle East. We found a couple pet stores in town that sometimes had dogs, but they couldn't tell us exactly what kind of dog it was. The standard answer, no matter what it looked like, was "terrier."

If we got a puppy from a breeder in the US, then we'd know exactly what it was. That idea was pretty quickly squashed - Saudi Arabia limits the kind of dog being imported to guard dogs only and has started cracking down on people trying to skirt that issue by having a vet certify their Yorkshire terrier as a guard dog. In fact, we know a family here that has 2 pure bred puppies still being boarded by a breeder in the US four months after purchasing them because they haven't been able to get them into the country here. And quite honestly if all that wasn't a deterrent, the price would have been!

Well then, how about getting a puppy from someone on camp? Possibly, but not the best odds. There is an Aramco compound rule that no one is allow to breed dogs here. I have no idea what the consequence is - I doubt it's a one way ticket back to the US - but it's severe enough that IF anyone has puppies, it's not advertised. If you have gotten a puppy from someone on camp, you heard about it by word of mouth only.

So. What to do? We started spreading the word anyway, keeping our fingers crossed for a miracle. Then one day in February a friend of ours told us about a Havanese puppy they smuggled in over the causeway from Bahrain, who happened to have a sister still waiting for a home. Was Havanese on the hypo list? Yep. Was Havanese a small, friendly, family dog? Absolutely. Was a dog going to be easy to get into Saudi by car? Not at all. But the worst that would happen would be that they'd make us take it back before letting us across the border back home.

Keep in mind that I'm going crazy from stress at this very moment from all the studying. I was still trying to hit a stride, find some routine and keep my life in balance - and not doing a very good job at any of it. Adding an untrained, not housebroken, 4 month old puppy to the mix sounds like the straw that would break the crazy lady's back, right? Come on people...when have you ever known me to back down from challenge? In fact, I thought it was the perfect time to get a puppy - while I'm establishing a routine, not in a year when I've already settled into a one. And besides, considering all the factors, when would another puppy that met all our criteria come available again?

We brought the puppy home the following night. She was quiet as a church mouse in the little crate we hid between the boys, who were pretending to sleep. The customs official looked in the window but said nothing and let us through. We had a dog again!!

Peaches is working out great. We've taught her to ring a bell that hangs by the sliding glass door when she wants to go out (we haven't decided on a dog door or not). And while we rejoice that she is clever enough to be easily trained to ring the bell, we groan about opening it for her non-stop on the days she just wants to go out and play every 20 minutes (just who is training who, I ask?). Jake is having absolutely no health issues at all - she licks him all the time and he does fine. She LOVES when people come over, especially kids that play with her.

Oh - I have to cut this short. The bell just rang - someone needs to go out...

Ali, the Fish Monger

Fish Monger: a dealer or trader of fish

Another really cool benefit to living on our compound in Saudi Arabia is being able to enjoy the services of Ali the Fish Monger. Ali comes on camp to sell seafood to the residents here. And he doesn't just sit by the side of the road - he comes right to your door.

Ali usually calls up out of the blue. He describes what type of seafood he has available in the dirty styrofoam coolers that fill the back of his rusty truck and if I'm interested, he comes right over. I've never been one to buy food from door to door salesmen, especially ones that drive rusty trucks. Not that I've had a lot of them, apart from the Schwan's frozen food man and this one time some guy was selling steaks out of the back of his car (that one still puzzles me). But I was eased into Ali's services gently...

One day Julia called up and asked if I was interested in buying some really nice, big shrimp. She'd have them cleaned and deveined for me, and put into whatever size ziplock bags I wanted. And all of this for an amazingly dirt cheap price. I leaped at the chance and arranged for six pounds of shrimp. Sure to her word, she dropped by 6 bags of beautiful, cleaned shrimp later that afternoon. When I asked her where she came by this housewife's dream, with a little grin she simply replied, "Ali. Don't worry - I'll get you hooked up." It felt like a drug deal.

And over time, it actually has become a bit of an addiction. I hate buying seafood at the store now. Ali's seafood is usually better quality, at a better price, AND he cleans / deveins / fillets however I want it done. I know you are thinking that the guy at the supermarket fish counter can do the same thing. Sure, if he speaks English. And that's a BIG if here.

I Didn't Really Fall Off the Edge of the Earth

...though it's been close - there were a couple times over the last four months that I was only holding on by my fingernails. And quite honestly, even if I had scrapped together the time to post some entries here, you wouldn't have wanted to read my tantrums.

Remember those online classes I was so excited about? I only took two classes: math and world history. However, I grossly underestimated how much more time it takes to teach yourself math from a textbook compared to attending a lecture. In a classroom you are able to see a demonstration of the math, hear how it's done, write the process, listen to classmates ask questions you never thought off, etc. Online classes consist of you and the book. To be fair I did have lecture notes, but reading is reading. I also was able to participate on discussion boards with my "classmates" and get help there, but again, reading is reading. I found some YouTube videos that helped a bit, but weren't really worth the time it took to sort through the duds. And I'm good at math: I shudder to think of what it would have been like if that wasn't the case.

So, I lowered my expectations , stayed up until the wee hours of the morning far too many nights, missed Jake's field trip, stopped writing the blog... and basically cut out anything that wasn't absolutely necessary in my life, and somehow ended up getting a better grade that I expected in both the math and essay-heavy history class (gotta love those participation points!). I am taking another math class this quarter (business calculus), but ONLY that class. Hopefully I can get some balance and joy back into life!

I have so much to catch you up on now that I won't be lacking for topics for a while. In addition to normal everyday news such as our new puppy, Michael's Statue of Liberty cake, and the Crocs that make Jake look like Donald Duck, we just got back from a fun-filled two weeks in China. If you haven't been checking the blog very often these days, I can't say that I blame you - four months is a long time to go without posting - sorry about that. But I'll try to get in several a week going forward. Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Sand Sledding in Shaybah

Just recently we have been introduced to sand sledding. SAND sledding?

It's very similar to snow sledding, the biggest difference in my mind (aside from the obvious snow/sand difference) would be that walking back up the sand dune is much more difficult than walking back up a snow hill. That being said, I have heard of die-hard sand sledders that take turns driving the kids back up the dune using their 4-WDs. I suppose in the absence of a chair lift one has to be creative, and with gas being cheaper than bottled water here, a sand dune valet is the way to go!

You have to know that the expats living here have excellent work/life balance. Nearly everyone is home by 4:15 and never works a weekend. That leaves a tremendous amount of lot time to pursue hobbies, coaching baseball and finding ways to have fun in the desert. So when I hear men discussing the best brand of sand board wax, I only bat an eye because I had never heard of sand board wax - not because I'm surprised that these guys would go to that extreme.

In November we had the privilege of going with the Cub Scouts to the Shangri-La of sand sledding: Shaybah. Shaybah is an oil producing facility that was made in the 1990's in the middle of the Rub' Al-Khali, the empty quarter of Saudi Arabia. You can look for hundreds of miles in any direction and see nothing but red sand dunes. I think it's similar to the image you see depicted in many paintings of the middle east - very typical desert. Aramco built the roads to Shaybah where they found the oil, using giant bulldozers to move the mountains of sand. Approximately 1,000 men live and work there, although some only during the week. There is now a tiny little town that has a recreation center, dining hall, fire station, grocery store...pretty much everything you need to live there, including an airstrip. There is an interesting view of Shaybah from space here.

Last month the Cub Scouts borrowed (hijacked?) the company 747 and flew down to Shaybah for the day. It was a very unique experience, especially in these days of increased security. The boys got to take turns going into the cockpit with the pilots! My boys don't remember a time when that was common on commercial flights (Jake was 2 days old when 9/11 happened).

Arriving in Shaybah was very surreal. As I mentioned earlier, it's literally in the middle of nowhere. It instantly conjured up images in my mind of wandering for days, unsure of what direction you are going, mirages, crawling around in search of water, and caravans of camels. And as we begin to wander up and over the dunes in search of the perfect sledding hill, we lost sight of the town - or any signs of civilization for matter. It was all sand any direction you faced, and the few shrubs that were around all began to look the same. It was disorienting and uncomfortable to say the least. Is there an official term for the fear of the endless desert? Needless to say I didn't let the kids out of my sight for a minute!

To give you some idea of the vastness of this area, take a look at the picture to the left. You can see Jacob in the foreground on the left, just down the hill from the camera. Now look in the very center of the picture at the dark spot. That spot is Michael, climbing up the next dune! You may have to click on the picture to enlarge it.

There was quite a wide range of sledding equipment, ranging from custom made and waxed wooded sand sleds, to cheap plastic Flying Carpet sleds (remember those...they are thin, long narrow strips that roll up?). Another family was kind enough to lend us a little plastic saucer for Michael and Jacob to use. Quite honestly, the only sleds that went fast enough to make the walk up dune worth it was expensive waxed wooden ones and the flying carpets. The boys gave our plastic saucer a couple runs, and then ended up abandoning them for just plain old running and rolling down the hills.

At the end of the day, we were treated to a buffet dinner at the top of one of the hills overlooking the town. There was all kinds of salads, raw veggie trays, grilled chicken and shrimp, rice, hummus and bread, grilled veggies...and then another whole table of deserts. The perfect end to a very fun day! And after climbing the dunes in the full sun all day, I can assure you that the plane was substantially quieter on the way home!

After being invited go sledding a bit closer to home on Christmas Eve morning and still being sled-less, I'm now on the prowl for a couple of Flying Carpet sleds. After an extensive search of toys stores in Khobar, we still haven't found any sleds - the closest we came was the plastic top of a baby changing table (which we couldn't buy separately). There are a couple of inflatable sleds in our garage that we brought with us from Michigan, but I'm told that they will not work very well in the sand. So more than likely we'll bring some back next summer, packed alongside the deodorant, Johnny's Seasoning salt, butterscotch chips, and printer ink cartridges.

I still have several more of my favorite pictures of our day in the "deep desert" that I didn't really have space for above, so I'll just attached them here at the end for you to enjoy.

Snapshots of December

This will be my last post of 2009, and hopefully I'll post more regularly in 2010 (I have to remember that they don't need to be long, right?) Here is a glimpse of December happenings in the Green house:

The boys still love to decorate Christmas cookies, but I do notice the amount of time they are willing to spend each year shrinking.

The Christmas Eve picture you weren't meant to see...

Mom and Michael, getting their grove on to Jingle Bell Rock when they SHOULD have been working on the Christmas tree!

Jake's lips were pursed, but he did a good job NOT blowing!

"Up on the roof top reindeer pause..." Wait, this time it's little boys retrieving a lost ball.

Watch out Gordon Ramsey...Michael's in the kitchen now and his language is MUCH cleaner!

Decorating the Christmas tree

More fake guitar...this time it's Beatles Rock Band! Steve got it for his birthday and LOVED it!

Celebrating Dad's birthday by lovin' on him:

London

It felt GREAT to step off the airplane into 75 degree, dry weather after being soaked to the core in London. But don't let that comment fool you into thinking that we had a miserable, rainy week along the shores of the Thames River.

It was quite a roll of the dice to even take a trip to London at the end of November. There were so many sights that we wanted to see, so much to do outside. Our apartment was in the heart of London; a 10 minute walk to Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, and Big Ben. There was a Winter Wonderland was going on in Hyde Park, complete with a German Christmas market (think mulled cider...), rides and attractions. And we can't leave out wandering the streets of Soho looking for interesting pubs after a night out at the theater. If the weather ended up being normal for London this time of year, the trip would have been a cold, damp disaster - or at the very least not what we had hoped for. Yes, it was taking a risk -- but come on...when have you known us to flinch?

Steve's sister Holly and her husband Kelly met us there, with their suitcases filled with somewhat random but much desired items for us such as racquetball racquets, college textbooks, Frangos, jeans, legos, and ink cartridges. Not only was it wonderful to be able to see them mid-year, but we love traveling with them and were delighted that they were able to join us.

The weather started out a bit drippy: our first night was spent wandering the immediate area in the rain looking for a restaurant. However, we woke up the next five mornings to blue skies and mild temperatures until the sun set. We spent a majority of our week outside, thinking every morning that the next day would certainly rain; the indoor attractions would have to wait until tomorrow. Unbelievably, "tomorrow" didn't come until our last day there. And once it started raining, it didn't stop all day, night..it was still going when we soggily boarded the plane. We got a real taste of what could have been, and it wasn't pretty.

Holly and I took the kids to see the Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre, celebrating it's 10th year there. The costumes and grandeur defied our imagination, the music was thrilling, and the boys were rapt with delight for the entire two and a half hour show. The larger musical numbers even had animals coming down the aisles! To to be fair, the boys would also add the priviledge of being able to drink blue slushies in the theatre during the show as one of highlights of the experience. And to be just as fair, my own excitement was evident when the lights came on at the end and there was no blue slushy anywhere on the floor! The whole afternoon exceeded our expectations in every way, and is included on all of our lists of favorite London memories.

Steve and Kelly saw the matinee show of We Will Rock You, a musical set to the music of Queen, while we were at the Lion King. Though I don't know any of the details, they apparently had a fabulous time as well and were impressed with the singing ability of the cast.

Amongst the best experiences we had in the city was the Royal London walking tour. The walk took us slowly from Trafalgar Square to Buckingham Palace where we would experience the famed Changing of the Guard. Our guide was animated, energetic, and above all not one bit ashamed to express his passion for England. As he defended the monarchy we got a dose of insight into why this seemingly outdated, seemingly irrelevant institution is still such a large part of the modern British identity. Our guide also had friends in the guard and after a quick cell phone call, he made arrangements for the kids to stand in the guard boxes, apparently something that NO ONE is normally allowed to do.

I'm not sure what Holly and Kelly would say about the food in London, but we greedily gobbled up every bite! In Saudi, our choice of restaurants on the compound is pretty slim and I can make better tasting food at home. Even in Al Khobar, our neighboring town, fighting the traffic and avoiding prayer time makes it's too much of a pain to be worth the marginal food. Therefore, you can be sure that when we are traveling, especially in places where it's safe to eat the food and drink the water, that we make the most of it! Some of our most memorable meals were authentic pub fish and chips with beer on tap, wine and cheese from a local deli, and scones with clotted cream at Harrods. Thanks to our wonderful sister and brother-in-law, Steve and I were able to have a night out and enjoyed an intimate dinner at a French restaurant as well.

As always (and I know you probably get tired of me saying this), the boys traveled like professionals. They continually amaze me with their willingness to walk all day, go on tours, and try new things. Michael even took the subway and city maps a couple times as navigator. That's my boy!

To see more pictures of our week in London, you can view my Facebook album by clicking here (you don't have to have a Facebook account to view them).

Reflecting on Christmas 2009

2009 was our second year celebrating Christmas in Saudi Arabia. Having Steve's parents here last year was a wonderful experience, one that we will always remember. At the same time, having them here masked the uniqueness of our community during the holidays, something that we would not discover until this year.


We haven't actually spent Christmas back in the Seattle area since 1996. That's not to say that we haven't spent the holidays with family at all in those thirteen years. While in Maryland we managed a couple trips up to Connecticut for Christmas with my Uncle Lee, one that included my dad meeting us there. We've also had Steve's sister Holly and her husband Kelly out twice, once in Maryland and once in Michigan. Still, including last year in Saudi, that accounts for only six out of the thirteen Christmases with family.


Occasionally when we were in the states we would invite families over for Christmas dinner with us. However, most of the people we knew either had family joining them, or went out of town for the holidays. We didn't think much of it, and just made our own traditions that were completely focused on the four of us. No obligations, no stress, no guilt...and a whole lot of staying in our pajamas!

This year came as a surprise though. Had I thought more about it in advance, it would have made sense. We were invited to go sand sledding on Christmas Eve morning, invited to "just hang out together" on Christmas Eve, invited to a couple different Christmas Eve services, Christmas morning brunch, and several Christmas dinners. It was way more Christmas than we were accustomed to, or could even manage. However, none of the invitations came with any obligation, just a longing to be together. After careful thought, we narrowed the festivities down to a dinner with close friends at our house on Christmas Eve, and one Christmas morning brunch at another family's house.




What makes this community so different during the holidays than the others we have lived in? I think it's that most families are either back in their home country with their extended family for the holidays, or they are here alone. There are very few people that stay in the Kingdom that have family coming in, besides teenagers returning from boarding school. Those of us that are here alone, bond together, much in the same fashion that we do all year long.

We end up creating a family of sorts - the people that you know you can count on in a pinch. You can count on them for anything from borrowing a can of pumpkin at Thanksgiving when the stores have none in stock...to asking someone to watch your eldest child while you take the youngest to the ER. In the absence of movie theaters, concerts and other entertainment ...the people you hang out with on the weekends.


It gave us a lot to think about this year: a chance to reflect on what we want Christmas to be for our family. What is a good balance for us? What traditions do we want to keep in place, and what can be sacrificed in exchange for spending time with people who mean a lot to us? And can we manage all of decisions without adding stress into our life?

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?