Hi, Ho! Hi, Ho! It's Off To Work I Go...

Most of you know that I have stayed home with my kids the last several years. I worked while we lived in CA and haven't worked since then. Matt has always been so supportive of me not working. In fact, I think he prefers it.

I won't get into details of Germany, but basically it about sent me over the edge to stay home on a daily basis there. The time passed very slowly and the dreary weather didn't help any. My goal, here in Kuwait, is to make the best time possible out of the situation and for the time to pass quickly. I hate to wish our lives away, but that's honestly how I feel. I have struggled with the thought that this is the end of my staying home as far as Jordyn. She will begin kindergarten when we move back to the US.

Once Matt arrived in Kuwait, he was talking around to other spouses and a job practically fell in my lap. I sent in my resume, interviewed 2 days after I got here, and waa laa.... I have a job at a local school. I was offered either a teaching position (my major was accounting and I have no education hours) or a job as a secretary. I have thought about getting my education hours and some point to teach, but decided to go ahead and go with the secretary job for several reason. The hours are shorter, less stress, and I will have the benefit of taking Jordyn with me to work. I am going to be the KG secretary and she will be in a KG1 class. Perfect! My desk is right outside of her classroom and there is a window that I can peek in to see how she is doing. She will ride with me to work, then ride home with me afterward. My hours are from 7:10 - 3:00, no weekends, summers off, 2 weeks at Christmas, 1 week Spring Break......

We are going to give it a try and see how it goes. I already have one friend who started work there as a preschool teacher and has already quit. It sounds wonderful and ideal for me, and I am excited about it. However, if it doesn't go well, it's not like I have to have a job. I'm going to work because I want to work. The last couple of weeks in the apartment have confirmed to me that I do not want to sit here all day every day. Most every spouse that I know here has some type of job - either part time or full.

So it's going to be a big week around here for us. A big transition for Jordyn and I. I feel comfortable knowing the boys are in their routine and settled, the house is settled, and now it's time for Jordyn and I to settle. I am praying this goes well for us. I think I really need it. It's going to be rough for Jordyn as she will be the ONLY American in her class. This school is made up of all Kuwaiti children. Should make for a fun class picture this year, huh? Keep us in your prayers this week.

Below are some pictures of the school. The school itself is very, very nice. It was built in 2006. However, the surroundings? I think the pictures speak for themselves.

Surrounding the School:

The School - ABS

On a side note, I am not going to go into great detail but I am struggling with a bladder infection (UTI.) It has been a problem since I arrived and I am starting my 3rd round of antibiotics this week. I have a huge history with this (kidney reflux surgery when I was young), but have never had one drag out so long without it being a kidney infection. Please keep that in your prayers as well.

Mosque

Here is a beautiful Mosque that is near our house. It's just a block or two off the path from how I will travel to and from work. The picture really doesn't do it justice. Notice the dirt in the air we are breathing? It's usually a little clearer, so I'll have to take pictures of it again. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to go into the Mosque and take a tour like we were able to go into the beautiful cathedrals in Germany. From what I understand, there is one mosque that has scheduled tours called the Grand Mosque. I have no idea where it is, but I'm sure we will eventually tour it and post pictures. Most of them are not this beautiful...

A New Day

How hard is it to get a TB shot for an almost 4 year old? It's proving to be pretty hard. Long story short, I spent 4 hours yesterday trying to get it done. The clinic was moved, nobody spoke English, took a trip back to the school for translation of a note, nobody can give me an address, I made a zillion phone calls trying to get an address and I still have nothing. NOTHING. How can you require a health record from a certain local clinic and not be able to give an address??? I am hearing that this is pretty typical for Kuwait. So, off I go today in a taxi with my new maid who is trying to help me (from Shrilanka), her taxi driver (Phillipine), and Jordyn into a downtown district that has a medical clinic. The driver can speak some Arabic so he is going to ask some locals when we get there and we hope to find the clinic. He told the maid he would go in and translate for me. Then, provided I get the shot, I get to take her back in 2 days to have it read. Wish me luck! Stuff like this is frustrating and very stressful to me. It's SO different living some place foreign, rather than just visiting.

UPDATE:

I realize this would be more interesting if I had pictures, but I'm too much of a stress ball to think about that. Plus, when you are sitting in a place with everyone in head scarfs and burkas, you kind of stick out like a sore thumb even without taking out a camera to snap pictures. Thankfully, between the driver, the maid, and myself - speaking 3 different languages at times - we visited 4 more clinics this morning which took a total of 2 more hours. I made quite a spectacle of myself as we entered the 4th and final destination. I tripped something awful on a step into the grand entryway. Yep. Classic Jolee, right? After more deliberation with the doctors there (mind you this is the very first place I visited!) we got the shot we so longed for. Get this, at one of the clinics the doctor signed off on all her paperwork and signed that she was cleared for the shot. If I had known that and could read Arabic, I would have shut my mouth but I had to explain we never got the shot. The doctor and his nurse had a heated debate and he told her to do it, but never again. :-) Ahhh... another memory.

Boo Boo #1

I have a feeling there will be more. It took me a grand total of 5 weeks to mess up the brand new car. :-) I wish I had a picture of the big huge rock w/ metal bars attached to it in the middle of the dirt parking lot that did the damage. I had gotten to an area where school was letting out. There was NO WHERE to park and I was already a wee bit stressed from going 3 different places in the middle of the slums to find an ATM (and a million men looking our way). I remember pulling in and thinking, I need to remember that thing is there so I don't hit it when I leave.

Obviously, I am already showing signs of Alzheimers at a very young age. I got Jordyn back into the car, strapped her in, got my GPS going and I was on a mission to get out of that place. I put it into drive (can no longer see the huge rock thing while inside) and hit the accelerator...... Crap! I hit that thing!!!!!!!! I thought I had punctured a tire or something from the horrible sound it made, but I decided to take my chances and get myself home. I prayed the whole way there and I made it without any problems.

The damage isn't so bad (despite the fact that it has under a 1500 miles on it.). It's really just that plastic piece that runs along the side of the car. It ripped the screw out and dented it a little. I'm just glad that is all it did. I'm thinking bringing a brand new car over here was a big mistake. I knew that as soon as I arrived. Well. I guess it takes the pressure off of me now, huh? A neighbor of mine said she has dents and problems all over her car. She's just going to wait until she gets back to the US and have it all fixed. It's not worth trying to here. I think I'll just adopt that policy. Thank you, honey, for being so understanding and not getting angry with me!!

While I am posting, I will answer another question I received on the comments. Does Matt like his job? How is he adjusting to all this compared to me? Yes. Matt likes his job. I really should let him answer this, huh? There is a lot of security at the Embassy and that would totally stress me out on a daily basis, but Matt doesn't seem to be bothered by anything really. He never is. He just goes, adapts, laughs, thinks life is an adventure, and goes his merry way. We have a lot of the same feelings toward Europe vs. Kuwait, but overall he likes it.

He's a glass 1/2 full kind of guy and I try to strive to be more like that. Obviously, from my blog, you can tell I'm a 1/2 glass empty girl but I feel like I have come a long, long way and try my best to have a better attitude. He has a GPS in his head, I'm serious. He doesn't get lost.... it's kind of strange to me. He's been in this type of climate many times so that is nothing new for him. He can always make me laugh about everything when I get to feeling down. He does find it all stressful with the kids and struggles some with feeling responsible when they are upset and going through such a transition. We laugh and joke a lot as a family. That's how we get through it.

Part 2

Let's move on to the bedrooms. The ceilings are high and the rooms are huge! I told the kids to enjoy them now because they will probably never have rooms this big again. :-) I forgot to take pictures of the bathroom that Jordyn and Hayden share, but you can see a little of it from one of the pics I posted the other day. I still am not completely finished decorating and getting things just the way I want them. I need to buy some plants and more candles, and rugs. I'll get there eventually. I've also already changed some things around from the pics below, but I didn't feel like going back to take new pics. I've hung some more pictures, moved some cluttery toys to their closets, and put the step ladder up. That box is still sitting there. I think Matt thinks the magic box fairy is going to through it and it will disappear. It's the only box left in the house at this point.

Hayden's Room

Jordyn's Room

Our Room

Landen's Room

In other news, look who learned to ride their bike without training wheels this week! She didn't want to let the boys out do her. Landen learned at age 2 (almost 3), Hayden the week he turned 3, and Jordyn just a few weeks before she turns 4 (technically, still 3.) ha! Landen gets all the credit for teaching her.

I have lots of ideas for things to post and I promise it will get more interesting as we begin to get out and explore some. We finally have most of our stuff in order and are starting to get into a routine with school. I have some more pictures to share, it's just finding time to sit here and upload them to the blog. Things are interesting around here and they get more and more interesting every day as I listen to people tell their stories. I can't wait to go to the camel races and am dying to see some out in the desert!

The Inside

Here's a few pictures of the inside of the house. I'll have to post the bedrooms next time. It's taking forever for these pictures to upload and I really need to get some stuff done around here. Once I start working (more on that later) I'll probably be doing good if I post once a week or so.

Let me tell you about the inside of the house before you take a look. After the complete meltdown I had about moving to Kuwait, I had meltdown number 2 when I found out we could not take our furniture. We were only allowed to bring 4000 lbs. In moving terms and with 3 children, that's not much! I envisioned we would be living with typical TLF (temporary living facility aka hotel ) furniture, hard beds and hideous colors and it would feel like a hotel for 2 years.

I was happily surprised when I found out that was not the case. The furniture is not what I would choose if I were buying, but I guess I can't complain for the use of it for 2 years. The couches are normal colors and the furniture is all a little beat up, but it's ok. That way I don't have to worry about if the kids scratch it up or something. The walls are very white and the curtains very beige... just blah all over really. I'm hoping to buy a few more rugs, some colored candles and pillows, etc to bring a little more oomph to the house. The beds are quite comfortable, I might add.

I chose to bring as many of my decorations and pictures as I could to try and make it feel like our home. We have our own comforters and sheets for the beds, I packed ALL of the kids toys (except for ones in the garage and we had to sell the trampoline), computer, our own towels and clothes obviously. It was the hardest move I have ever experienced as far as having to sort your house. I thought it was hard sorting stuff when we went to Germany. At one point, we had our stuff on 3 continents! We had stored stuff before moving to Germany, now over 1/2 of our stuff from Germany is in storage or transit, and the rest is here with me in Kuwait. Should be interesting getting all that stuff back.

I'm sorry I haven't replied to a few of your questions on your comments. I think I'll start replying on the post so that everyone will know the answer. The first question... "Have you found a church there?" The answer? no. Honestly, we haven't even gotten to that point to try. We have researched and asked around, but we have not physically gone yet. Of course, if we were Muslim there are mosque on every block practically. Some of them are very beautiful and I will get some pictures for you at some point. We have found one Christian church that has a few satellite churches in the area. It's pretty much the Light House church or nothing for us. Several of the people we have met are Catholic and go to a mass once a week somewhere near my home. The Light House church is primarily people from the Philippines that make up the church. We plan to go give it a try and I'll let you know how that goes. That was another breaking point for me when I found out about Kuwait. I was so longing to return to the US and be in a church atmosphere that we were comfortable in and the kids enjoyed. It was an issue in Germany as well. I know that going to church doesn't make you a Christian, but I have so many great memories of my church and youth group from growing up and I want my kids to be able to experience that. Dare I say in 2 years?

We Interrupt This Segment....

I know I promised a look inside my house, but I have to interrupt this segment for a few pictures for the grandparents. Jordyn took her first dance class tonight at The Little Gym and I snapped a few pictures of her. She LOVED it and of course, I sat there with a smile on my face. I really wanted to snap some pictures of the men and women around me, in their burkas and head scarfs, but I just couldn't figure out how to be that sneaky with the sound my camera makes.

Grammy, she finally got to use that cute bag you bought her a long time ago. Her dance shoes are inside. We were a little confused because they did tap in their ballet shoes, ballet in their ballet shoes, and tumbling in their ballet shoes. Maybe things work a little differently around here! I asked the teacher afterwards and she said they will move onto their tap shoes in a few weeks.

I was a little concerned that her outfit might not be totally appropriate since they were going to do a little tumbling at the end of the class. Obviously, I was wrong. Next time we need to pull out our tutu, butterfly wings and masks so she will fit in with the rest of the girls.

Don't ask me how much I paid for these lessons. You just might faint. Let's just say I paid more "per lesson" than my parents had to pay "per month" when we were growing up. It seriously hurt the pocket book, but I had to fulfill my promise to her. Right?

Next Up? Our House

Let's move on to where we live. We'll start with the outside today, and move to the inside on the next post. I don't want to sit here and load a million pictures right now.

Above, is the street we live on. Most of the town we live in, and many others are made up of new, huge, beautiful houses. They line almost every street, kind of on top of each other CA style with no yard. I'll get some more pics of the neighborhood at some point, but right now these are all I have on my camera. The picture on the right is the apartment complex we live in and we park our cars underneath that overhang. We can also park back behind the complex.

Most families here live in nice, luxurious, 3 story houses. We were set to live in one of those, had

seen pictures and planned who was going to have what room. However, when Matt arrived he found out this apartment was available. Why would we choose an older apartment over a brand new mansion? The kids. The other house had zero places for the kids to go outside and play. None. There was a tiny alley way (maybe 4 feet wide) and it sat right on a busy street. My kids LOVE to play outside and I LOVE for them to be outside. We knew that was going to be a problem considering the weather is so warm and conducive to being outside most of the year here. Thus, we chose the apartment.

The apartments are made up of 4 buildings, with 4 apartments in each building. They are big, 3000+ square feet apartments. Yes, they are older and have some groovy bathroom colors, but it seems to be working for us and Matt made a great decision once again. There are several other American families in the complex and lots of kids. It's a revolving door around here with various kids in and out of my house and my kids love it. It has a swimming pool, a small gym, and a recreation room (pool table/big tv/etc). Best of all, the kids can ride their skateboards, scooters and ripsticks around all the buildings. It's not a huge area and there is no grass, but I am thankful they have it!

Above is our front door. I'll let you have a peek at the inside next time.

It's Finally Over

It's the middle of September and my kids have still not started school yet. Some kids are already getting their progress reports. It's been a crazy summer and I keep saying it's the summer that just keeps on giving! I think summer is finally officially over in this household.

If you are curious as to why they are starting so late, it is because of Ramadan. From the earlier post I explained that Ramadan dates are based on the moon and change from year to year. This year, it just so happens to have fallen right when the beginning of school starts. They always have shortened school hours during Ramadan to help accommodate the Muslim students who have nightly festivities. It's evidently difficult to keep the kids separated, some allowed to eat lunch and some are not because of their religion. So, they chose to just wait until Ramadan ended to officially begin school. I anticipate the beginning of school being a little earlier next year, but I guess that remains to be seen.

It was very overwhelming to drive to where my kids are going to attend school. Well, a lot of things are overwhelming, but especially this. I had been told it is run down and not to be surprised when I visit the campus. Thankfully, I had been warned or I would have had a total meltdown I think. This is a private school, where they charge $12K - $15K a year based on the grade. Yes, your tax dollars are paying for my children to go to school. Thank you! They obviously do not spend the money on their facilities. It is old and not in the best condition. However, it has a fresh coat of paint and hard to tell in the pictures. The elementary school is in the best condition. There is no cafeteria in either school. The elementary children take their lunch box every single day and eat it in their classroom. The middle school has some food catered, but not much to choose from and the prices are high from what I hear. There are about 4 plastic picnic tables outside (in the 110+ heat) for them to eat their lunch. Nice, huh?

Gate to the School

Surrounding the School

We went back for orientation today and I honestly felt much better about it. The elementary school is fine and Hayden seems to have a nice spacious room for him to attend school. It looks like there are about 4 or 5 American looking names on the roster, and the other 18 all Arabic. It should prove to be an interesting year! The staff all seems very helpful and nice and we got to meet Hayden's teacher who has been in Kuwait for 5 years.

Landen will be attending middle school where he will be participating in block scheduling. I wasn't a happy camper when he had block scheduling in 5th grade in Germany, but now I am thankful that he already understands how it works. It can be quite confusing and I'm not a fan! It's harder to follow than a college schedule, in my opinion. That's a different subject though, so I'll get back on track. We think he will be able to take another year of band, but the band teacher is having visa issues and is stuck in the US right now. So, that could evidently change if the teacher doesn't arrive.The boys both seem to be upbeat about it, so we'll see how it goes tomorrow. We've still got to have their TB test completed and a few other forms to finish, but they are allowed to go ahead and attend. They will wear uniforms, but I snapped a few pictures today of them in their regular clothes. Oh, the life my children are living is so different than what I ever dreamed or imagined for them. Yes, they seem to handle it all better than I do. Did I mention the bus will pick them up at 6:40am tomorrow morning? School starts at 7:10 am and ends at 2:00pm. It's going to take some getting used to in our house, me included.

View from the Middle School