Happy Birthday, Miss A!

Yesterday, Miss A turned 2!  I can hardly believe she's 2 already.  We celebrated with cake and presents at home.



She has grown so much in the last few months.  She has started talking much more and putting words together in short phrases.  She asks where people are.  She got a baby doll for her birthday and it was love at first sight.  Today she has told me that she has put the baby down for a nap a few times "baby, nap", and she tells me when the baby is up, "baby up".  She loves to do what Big E does.  She watches him and tries to do the same. Most of the time it's cute.

Here's to another year of learning and growing!

Back to a New Normal

Well, we've been back in Doha for a month now.  Where does time go?

My flight with two kids by myself went fine.  I could do it again if I had to. The biggest thing that happened was that since I can't go through the body scan (which I'm glad for, I don't like those things) in the Tulsa Airport with a chid in my arms and I had no one to help watch them, I had to be patted down.  Why do you ask?  Because my maxi skirt, which I chose to wear for comfort, was too long. Are you kidding me????  What is happening to our world?  Modesty is rewarded with suspicion and a pat down. Anyway, that was the worst of the trip, thankfully.  Big E fell asleep in Chicago as we waited to taxi for take-off.  Miss A had trouble getting comfortable enough to stay asleep, but she wasn't fussy much.

Coming to Doha this time around was soooo much easier than last year.  We just had to get over jet-lag.  There was no trying to figure things out, no jumping through hoops or getting lost trying to get somewhere.  We know people and have things that we need to do.  Also, though Doha doesn't feel like home like Carthage did, my house feels a bit more homey now.  Maybe Steve coming two weeks before me helped. :)

To get over jet lag, which was completely different this time around, I had to just keep busy.  36 hours after I arrived in Doha, I started watching kids again.  The first week I had 8 kids (including my two) from 6:20 until 3:35.  I actually think it helped us get over jet lag.  Big E only fell asleep once during the day.  I reorganized my kitchen cupboards, which I had been wanting to do, I sorted through some things that I brought back with me and put them away, I cleaned a lot.  Anything to keep myself awake.  Last year I had no trouble falling asleep at a normal bed time, but we'd all wake up around 3 am. This time around, I had a hard time sleeping at bed time and sometimes wouldn't fall asleep until 3 am.  So glad that's over with.  

Big E is a  master at going to school, though it's taken this long for him to remember his backpack on his own when we walk out the door in the morning. :)  But hey, he's doing great for a 4 year-old. He doesn't say much when you ask him about his day.  Usually it's "I don't know" to whatever you ask. Maybe I don't ask soon enough. :)  It's odd to go from having him home all day every day and knowing what goes on in his life all the time, to having this 6 1/2- 7 hour gap of time that I don't really know what he does.  But he seems happy.  He has homework to do each night on the computer, reading and math.  He enjoys doing it.

Miss A missed Big E at first.  She'd ask where he was through out the morning.  Now she's used to it.  She is starting to talk more and put words together in short sentences, such as "where Daddy do?" (like go, only with a d).  She tells me when she's hungry and when she wants a nap, which is thankfully earlier in the day, so that way she gets to nap before we go pick up Big E

Oh, another interesting thing that happened was that someone in Georgia tried to spend $178 at Walmart a few weeks ago.  Somehow they got ahold of our US credit card number, made a card and tried to use it. Thankfully our bank caught it as the distance was too far away from our usual spending, and denied the transaction.  But what a hassle.  I had to wait for working hours over in the US before I could call and settle things.  Well, Steve ended up calling, but still. It is all taken care of now, though.

I've been asked to organize the play group this year.  Hopefully it'll turn out better than the last time I did it.  :)

Time in the Good Old USA

Here's the next part of our summer.  It wasn't quite as busy as we had more time. :) This is another post mainly for me with lots of photos, so if you don't want a photo dump, then be warned. :)

When we left Frankfurt, we found out, yet again, that Miss A's reservations was missing.  So after standing in line to check in like normal, we had to go over to a special counter and stand there for a while.  It's a good thing we were early.  They had to basically start all over with our reservations.  When I got back to the States, I called our next airline to make sure everything was set for my flight back to Qatar.

The video players were not working properly on our flight back home.  They would play for about 5-10 minutes, then start the movie back at the beginning.  So glad we brought something of our own.

Even though we got to my parents around 5pm on the 4th of July, we didn't see any fireworks.  :(  I was hoping that we would be able to make.  But we were so exhausted that by 8, Steve and I and the kids were in bed.  After like 20 hours of travel, fireworks just don't seem quite as fun.  But we did hear them. Sometimes I'm sad that my kids aren't experiencing life like I knew it growing up.  But then I remember that I don't remember much from when I was 4 and almost nothing from when I was 2, so I guess for now it's okay. ;)

My sister came the same day we did and so between her and her son, and us, there was 12 hours of jet leg.  My sister lives in Hawaii, so it's 5 hours behind Central Time, and we were on Germany time, which is 7 hours ahead of center time.  So when we were falling asleep trying to stay awake at 6 pm, she and her son were awake and ready to go.  We would wake up around 3am and she and Manu (her son) would wake up after 8 or later if an alarm wasn't set.  It was interesting for the first few days.  But we all eventually got over it.  I really do think that going west is easier than going east in terms of jet lag.  It's easier to keep yourself awake until a normal bedtime, even if you wake up at 3am, than wanting to go to sleep but can't until 3 am.

Anyway, the summer was filled with lots and lots of swimming.  Big E started to get used to the water and loved jumping in the pool.  He did take some swimming lessons, which I think helped a ton.

Here's Miss A waiting with me while Big E did his swimming lessons.

 He found he liked having an inflatable ring.  Now he'll wear a life jacket.  He started the summer unwilling to even get his hair wet in the bath (no worries, I still washed his hair, it just wasn't pleasant for anyone around :) ) and ended the summer jumping in the pool and excitedly telling everyone that he could touch the bottom of the pool and hold his breath.

Miss A loves to swim and this summer proved no exception.  She has no fear of the water and as soon as we said we were going swimming she'd get all excited and say, "Simming! Simming!!" and run to get her swim suit.


The weather was quite cooperative this year and it was much cooler than last year.  We were able to go outside in the mornings and go to the park.  We even had rain and got to splash in the puddles! I think this is only the second time Miss A has splashed in puddle created by rain.  The first being in Germany.

And Big E started to learn to ride a bike in the evenings or mornings.

Miss A liked to be pushed on the trike. Her legs weren't quite long enough to peddle herself.


Manu, Big E's and Miss A's cousin, was fun to play with.  He's just a few months older than Miss A and there were so funny together.  He would hit Miss A for sometimes no reason, and then she started bitting him sometimes in response to a hit, sometimes for no reason.  Ever since Manu and my sister went back to Hawaii at the end of July, Miss A has missed Manu.  She walked through the house calling for him and now she loves to watch a slideshow of pictures from the summer, particularly the ones with Manu in them.  :)  So I guess the hitting and biting didn't really effect their relationship.

Manu brought with him a love for The Piano Guys.  So we watched at least one video of them a day usually more. Peponi, Cello Wars, and So Happy Together, were the favorites and were watched most days.


Yep, even first thing in the morning, Manu would ask for Peponi and then all the others would join in and want to watch.  :)

Again...

And again..

Can you guess what they're doing?  Yep, watching The Piano Guys.  We really got our fill for a while during July.


My other sister, K, came and we got to meet her little girl, Miss E, who was born right after we moved to Doha.  Big E loved to make her laugh.  And she loved him.  It was so good to meet her; she's so cute.

Miss A loves Miss E, too, and asks frequently to see picture of Miss E. She also asks where she is.


With everyone together, minus my sister in Japan and a Brother-in-Law, we took some family photos.






Big E doesn't usually take naps, but Nana's house can be exhausting for little people.

My dad was a favorite this summer.  Manu started calling him Paka, and so that is his name.  Shortly before we left the US, Miss A started calling him Baba. He never made it very far in the door when he came home from work before these two would run to him yelling "Paka!!". 

We visited a new (and 1st) Children's museum in Tulsa.  Though not very big, the kids had fun.  They had a tape tunnel that was fun for Big E once get got up the courage to go into it.

There are many birthday in July in my family and so we had a combined birthday party.  Big E and I made the cake.  

One of the more practical things we witnessed this summer was the installation of a tornado shelter.  My dad always called them "'Fraidy Holes". But I think he's changed his mind. 

We had to test out the shelter.  It's certainly not a place to hang out, especially if you have claustrophobia, but it'll keep you safe in a tornado.

We also witnessed a severe storm.  Not tornado producing, but there were some strong winds.  It was loud enough that I got out of bed to check the weather at midnight.  We lost a maple and a large branch out of another tree.  

But Big E got to climb a tree for the first time after watching his aunt climb up to cut some of the limbs that broke.

At the end of July, Steve and I and the kids drove to Carthage to visit some friends.  It was a wonderful visit.  Not much had changed, and it felt as though we had never left.  I loved visiting with friends and catching up.  I wish we could do it more often.  It was very refreshing, but at the same time made the prospect of going back to Qatar harder.  I'd move back to Carthage in a heartbeat.  I loved our time there. We visited many more people than in this picture, but it's one picture from our visit.

While we were in the States, we had to take advantage of fresh produce.  Near to my parent's house is a peach orchard.  So we went and picked some super yummy peaches.  We picked half a bushel and then ate all the peaches we possibly could.  Peach crisp, and peaches for snack, peaches for breakfast and roasted peaches with cream sauce.  It's making my mouth water just thinking about them.  I also went to the local farm stand in Bixby and bought fresh fruit and things and it was so yummy.  You just can't get really fresh things here, other than the occasional cucumber or eggplant from Qatar.  As you can imagine, Qatar isn't exactly an agricultural society.

Miss A and Big E grew up a lot over the summer.  Miss A now thinks she can use a computer like Baba.

We visited a splash pad. 

I got to work on some projects that I've wanted to do, but don't have the resources for in Qatar.  I made two maxi skirts and an Nativity Advent calendar.  I really enjoyed making the calendar, and I can't wait for Christmas to come so that I can use it.  Many evenings for the last month of my stay in the US I spent hand stitching the figures and watching "White Collar". So enjoyable.

We flew to Utah mid August and visited with some of Steve's family.  Big E loved playing with his cousins.  We stayed with Steve's brother and the kids loved playing in the backyard, which was so lovely with a swing set, tree house, and a trampoline.

We visited my grandparents.

And we visited my family's cabin up in Weber Canyon.  I love that place. I would love to spend a whole month or more in the summer there.  My grandparents used to live there.  It's so peaceful and beautiful there.  I have so many wonderful memories of summers and even a few Christmases at the cabin.  While there we enjoyed some cookies on the deck, took a walk down the road to see the horses and enjoyed the quiet. And yes, I was a bit cold. :)

We then met with cousins and aunts and uncles and went to catch butterflies in Provo Canyon.  The kids had a great time chasing after butterflies.

We went on a hike one morning, and it was nice.  I already miss being able to get out into nature and not melt from the heat.  :)

After our week in Utah, Steve flew back to Doha (kinda jealous that he got to fly by himself and do whatever he wanted on the flight, but I did choose to stay an extra two weeks with my parents, so I guess I can't complain), and I went back to Oklahoma.  Miss A started to take charge when she was hungry and couldn't wait for dinner.  :)  She pulled up her own chair and bit into an unripe plum and a peach.

Bed time is super fun when Nana and Grandpa treat you to ice cream in your pajamas and you can fall asleep on the extra long ride home.  (I did have to ask Big E to stop talking after about 5 miles, then he was asleep in less than a mile. :) ).

That is one happy boy.

On my last day in home sweet home, we went to dinner at a really yummy bbq place, where I could get some pulled pork.  ( we ate as much pork as we could over the summer. ;) ) Then we went to the Bass Pro Shop to let the kids run around.  Big E thought the water fall inside with the fish in the stream pretty cool.  He also loved the atvs.

We had a great summer.  I can't wait for next time...

Germany in the Summer

I can hardly believe that it's September already and that I am back from summer vacation and halfway over jet-lag.  The summer that I looked forward to for so long is over with.  But we had a great time. This is mostly for memory sake, but I tried to limit the number of pictures.  There are tons of pictures. :) Not surprising with Steve around.

We left our house at 1:45 am to head to the airport.  Our first...shall we say adventure? met us in the check in line.  After a 30 minute wait in lines that weren't really moving, we got up to the counter and found out that they didn't have Miss A's reservation.  We had called a few days before to request child meals for our kids.  But then the lady called back and said that she would not be able to do it because the airline we were flying with from Doha to Frankfurt had us in an exit row and because we booked the flights through a US online agency, which doesn't allow children in an exit row, the airline couldn't add child meals without canceling the reservation. So we went without the child meals and I regretted even calling them.  Half an hour later they got it sorted out and off through passport control and security we went.  Oddly enough, we weren't in exit on either flight that day.  Not sure what happened there.

We enjoyed seeing different parts of Germany again.  And it was much warmer, even though we still had to wear jackets for the first few days.  I think I was almost blinded by the green.  :)  It was so beautifully green.

 It rained when we arrived and afterwards we enjoyed a beautiful walk in a nearby cemetery.



Miss A found every mud puddle and had to splash in it. Unfortunately for her, she didn't have any closed toed shoes at all.  I was waiting until we got to the States to buy them. So she was in socks and sandals.  I'm sure her feet were freezing. But she was happy.






Big E enjoyed a KinderJoy egg everyday.  The prizes were surprisingly appropriate.  Cars and trains.


Though Miss A didn't get an egg each day, she enjoyed playing with the plastic egg that the toy was in inside the chocolate egg.

On Friday we went to Hessen Park, which is an open air living museum.  They have taken historical houses and buildings from around the state of Hesse and relocated them to this park.  It was really fun to go see.  They set things up as if it was a village. I wish we could have taken more time to look at things, but with little kids...and sometimes big boys ;)... it's hard to see everything.
At Hessen Park, there were these natural rock formations.  Big E liked to climb them.


While Big E climbed, Miss A perfected "the look".


Here are some of the buildings in Hessen Park...

I got to spin rope.  Not many places at actors or workers about, but this one did and it was fun.

This building now houses a restaurant and that's were we enjoyed a yummy lunch.  I tried a CurryWurst and it was so good.



As we were walking out of the park, Miss A started humming and then hummed herself to sleep.  :)


We then got in the car and drove to the Limes, which was nearby.  The Limes is the remains of an old Roman fort and palisade.  The ditch on the left was dug by Romans and the mound as made by them as well.  There was also a mile markers. This is the northern most boundary of the Roman Empire.



The fort is reconstructed on the remains of the original fort.  There were house cellars outside of the fort where families lived. Well, not necessarily in the cellars, but the houses were outside of the fort. There was a museum inside the for that had the most amazing things.  There were a number wells in the fort and leather sandals have been pulled up from the well.  The water in the well preserved the leather.  Of course there were weapons, but also medical instruments, and coins and jewelry.


The kids slept all the time in the car.  We didn't have to entertain them much during our drives.


On Saturday we decided to drive back down to Heidelberg.  The forecast said rain was possible during the afternoon, but as luck would have it, it rained the whole drive down and the whole time we visited the Heidelberg castle.  I borrowed a jacket from my mother-in-law as it was chilly and the jacket I brought wasn't enough on its own.


My sister is serving a mission in Japan right now.  She says that the Japanese are fascinated with Americans.  They way they look and everything.  Well, while were in the courtyard of the Heidelberg Castle, Big E was walking around like this:

(Cute, isn't he?) Then some Japanese girls saw him, ran in front and snapped a few pictures of him and ran off.  It honestly is beyond me why people take photos of people they don't know.  To me it's a waste.  Anyway, as we were leaving the castle, the rain stopped and it cleared up. By the time we drove to the town, the sun came out and it became a very pleasant day.  We walked around the old town and to the river.  Since the clouds went away, we got a much better picture of the castle from the old bridge.  We also stopped and ate some yummy pastries.


One the way back to Frankfurt, we drove on the Autobhan, which is the highway.  In the left lane, you can go as fast as you want.  We were already going 150 km/hr (93 mph) with the flow of traffic. Then we saw this Ferrari.  I'm not a big car person, but I can appreciate the power this car has.  There were two cars ahead of him who were passing others.  I think everyone was just waiting (I know we were in our car) for the other two cars to move out of the way.  Then as the last car finally moved over, and the Ferrari stepped on the gas.  Within seconds he was past the horizon.  It was pretty awesome.


We enjoyed a nice bike ride around residential parts of Frankfurt and had a snack in the park.

We celebrated Big E's 4th birthday. 

The last two days we went to Eisenach to see the Wartburg Castle, which is where Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German. We stopped by a park to eat lunch when we got there and as soon as the car was parked, Big E got car sick and threw up all over himself.  I only had two pairs of pants total for him for this entire trip, and one of them was dirty as I didn't get it washed before we left for Eisenach, and now the other pair had throw up on it.  So he wore his pajamas pants for the rest of the time.

In Eisenach, we visited the Lutherhaus, where Martin Luther lived for a while with a family while he went to school.

Walked along the town square and chased the pigeons.

Stepped into the church that Bach was baptized in and also played the organ in.  Martin Luther also preached in this church for a time.

We then headed to Wartburg Castle.  It was a beautiful drive up the hill and then a good hike farther up.  I couldn't get enough of the green.

Most of the this part of the castle has been reconstructed throughout the years, but there are in places up to 60% original materials.  This was the first part of the castle to be built. 

This part was on the way to the area where Martin Luther stayed while he translated the New Testament. The ceiling of the walkway was so low.   I didn't have to duck but Steve certainly did.

This is the room that Luther stayed in.

The only thing that is original to the room from when Luther stayed here is the whale vertebra.  He used it as a foot stool.

We climbed the tower next to the castle that also housed the dungeon.  It gave an incredible view of the area.

For dinner we went to a restaurant that was made to look like a restaurant Luther's time.  They also served food that would have been common back then.  You can't really see it well in the pictures, but there is straw all over the floor.  For appetizers they brought out a tough bread with lard and a leek cheese sauce.  Miss A would just dip her fingers in the leek cheese sauce.  It was pretty good. You can imagine what the lard tasted like.

The table had holes in it where there were chairs.  When they brought out our drinks, the cups were pointed at the bottom.  So you had to put the cups into the holes.

We stayed the night in a bed and breakfast outside of town.  No one spoke much English, but that's okay.  We went for a nice hike in Drachenschlucht (dragon canyon), which legend has that a dragon lived there and that St. George killed the dragon there. It was a beautiful hike.  This is the Wartburg Castle from where we began the hike. 

Then we headed off to Bachhaus, were Johann Sebastian Bach was born and lived until his parents died.  We also got to hear some of the kinds of instruments that he played.  The presentation was only in German, so I have no idea what they were saying, but it was neat to hear a clavichord  and an old organ, and a harpsichord in person. I did think of my piano teacher while I was there.

We then drove home in the rain. As it was our last night and Big E hadn't ridden on a train/trolley yet and he had been talking about it all week, Grandma was so kind to take Big E on a train ride.  He was in heaven.  I don't think anything made him as happy that week as riding on the train.  Doesn't this smile just make you happy?