I know you won't find this as funny as I do, but I had to share!!  I find it hilarious!

It's Happening!

I can't think of a better Mother's Day Present.  You know what I got?  A day full of packing out my house!  Most women would think that sounds terrible, but I've waited 5 long years to pack out and move back to America.  AMERICA!  It honestly doesn't even feel real to me.

They weigh it as it is put on the truck, instead of weighing the truck before and after!  

I'm so excited to go back and shop at the grocery store where I KNOW the products, I'm excited to go into a restroom and not have maids staring at me, I'm excited to have a house without someone else living with me, I'm excited for there to only be a 2 hour time difference with my parents when I talk to them on the phone, I'm excited to be able to text my sister without it costing a fortune, I'm excited to drive where the people follow the rules (for the most part), I'm excited to get involved in a church again and for me children to know what it is like to get up every Sunday morning and worship God.  I'm excited about lots of little things that I always took for granted growing up.  I'm excited to spend a few days at Christmas with my family.  Can't believe it's been 5 years since we have done that.  I'm excited to be able to buy a Mother's Day card and celebrate the 4th of July with fireworks!!  It's going to be a good year.

The boys are excited to play football.  American football.  They are thrilled at the thought of going to school where everyone speaks English (and I'm guessing quite a bit of Spanish!).  Landen is already begging to finish High School in Las Vegas and we haven't even gotten moved yet.  I pray they enjoy it as much as they think they are going to.  Jordyn was playing with her toys yesterday.  There were four areas and she told me where each of them were:  Las Vegas, Kuwait, Arkansas, and China.  I would never have known to say that when I was 5 years old!  She is excited to move to a place where there are blonde headed people.  Hayden doesn't say a whole lot, but he does ask how many more days until we leave.  The question he asked me the other day was about how long it would take to get something if we ordered off of Amazon.  He was amazed that we would probably be able to just go to the store and buy it!  And if we do order it, it will only be a few days, as opposed to 2 or 3 weeks (minimum.)

I'm anxious for my sweet maid, Kumari.  She has found another family to move in with and I hope they are good to her.  Please keep her in your prayers as she is wanting to move back to Sri Lanka to be back with her girls in November.  I hope she does because those girls are growing up and she hasn't been able to be there with them on a daily basis.  I hope we can stay in contact with her, though I am doubtful.  We had a box returned to us today of some stuff I had mailed to her girls in November 2010.  YEP!!  2010 and today is May 2012.  I'm not surprised the girls didn't get it, but I am surprised it was returned to us after all that time in the postal system!  Kumari has cried several days and I know it is hard for her to see me bouncing around the house with a smile on my face.  It almost makes me feel guilty for leaving.  She will forever be in our hearts.

Only 2 1/2 weeks of work left and 3 1/2 weeks of school for the kids.  This is getting real.  My house may be empty, but my heart is full!

Ketchup - again.

I haven't blogged in SO long that the whole format has changed and I've got to figure out how to make a post!  I know I don't have any readers left at this point, but thought since I only have a few weeks left of overseas living, I would try to make a few posts between now and then.

Dinner at the Kuwait Towers!  It's closed for renovation now, so we got lucky!

Love this!

Ketchup:  mom and dad came and I was so happy they got to see what it has been like for us the last 2 years.  They were fascinated with just the things I thought they would be - people watching, grocery store products, and how big the city is.   They got to watch the kids play baseball, tour the Grand Mosque, and meet Kumari.  The flight was long, but I was super proud of them for coming all the way over here to see us.  Mom said that they must REALLY love me!  I've never doubted that.  I think she was super relieved when I took her back to the airport to go home.  She survived!  

On another note, Las Vegas became official and we decided to take ourselves a little house hunting trip over Spring Break!  We found a house (3200+ SF, 5 BR,  with a pool!) and all has gone well with the appraisal and inspection.  Get this, the seller requested we close on May 25th.  May 25th!!!  Happy Anniversary to Matt and I!  We'll take it.  We did have one little hiccup in our trip.  We were packed and ready for the airport with one last night of sleep and Landen wakes up at midnight sick.  I mean so SICK he left a trail from the bed to the bathroom.  I can just gag sitting her thinking about it.  After that it was all a blur of Matt and I trying to clean it up (while getting sick ourselves) and requesting a new hotel room.  After a switch of rooms in the middle of the night, we switched hotels so that we would have an extra bathroom in case it hit the rest of us the next morning.  Needless to say, we couldn't get on the flight and had to reschedule.  Long story short, the bug hit Hayden two days later and we didn't fly out until 4 days afterward.  It wasn't the best ending to the trip.

Landen batting with the Burge Khalifa in the background

Kuwait Seniors Team being goofy

We got back JUST IN TIME to go to Dubai for the boys baseball tournaments.  Hayden was selected to play with the 9 & 10 year olds and Landen played with the Seniors.  I have to brag, just turning 13 and he got to play with the big boys, while some of the 14 and 15 year olds played with the Juniors.  Proud Mom and Dad!  Hayden played awesome at catcher - I think that might be his calling.  Landen played outfield and caught some awesome fly balls with diving catches.  The Minors didn't have much luck (lost every game by only one or two runs) and the Seniors went 2 and 2 (losing one game by one run.)  We stayed after and enjoyed Ski Dubai, Wild Wadi water park, and seeing the sites of Dubai.   Great times for all 5 of us!

My favorite picture of the tournament.  Landen was on 3rd and Saud hit a Grand Slam.  He ran home and this is when he realized Saud hit it over.  He jumped a mile!!

Hayden at Catcher

Kuwait Minors Team

Family Picture with Dubai Skyline.  Landen is as tall as me this year!  

Work is going well and my last day is in 3 more weeks.  Woo HOO!!  I can't help but walk around with a huge SMILE on my face right now.  I've waited for this for 5 long, incredible, adventurous, emotional years.  I hope America is everything I remembered it to be.  CANNOT wait to get on that plane! 

Finally!

My parents are coming to visit me soon.  Finally!  They are going to brave the flights and the jetlag and come see what we have been living for the last year and a half.  I'm so excited and hope we have a good time!  Right now, it feels like June is FOREVER away so it will be a good distraction.  I might not get back on the plane once I land in Las Vegas for the house hunting trip.  It's very tempting, but I know I have to for the kids.

Landen has finished finals - yeah!  It's serious business here - testing times, 1/2 days, and similar to a college schedule for 6th grade and up.  I never had to do that so young!  I wonder how it will compare next year to school in the U.S. again.  Landen last went to 2nd grade in the states and he will be going into 8th grade when we return.  Amazing!  

Kuwait is gearing up for Liberation Day so we are beginning to see lots of lights and flags on the houses.  I'll try to snap some updated pictures while we do a little sightseeing.

What's Going On?

I'm READY to move to Las Vegas.  READY!!!  Too bad it's not June yet.  At least we have plane tickets to go house hunt in April!  Matt and I are obsessed with looking at houses online.  I think we've decided to buy one if we can find what we want.  The real estate is crazy cheap and the interest rates are low so it's good timing for us!   A new church family, mountains nearby, my own home, Target, Walmart, Hobby Lobby, convenience food, no transformers, a school with a cafeteria in it, conveniently packed lunch box items, drivers that follow the rules (for the most part), foods that taste like what we are used to in the grocery stores, scrap book items, not having to ship everything, no dust storms, quality toilet paper and paper towels,  Friday night football, not getting up in the middle of the night to watch the Hogs, American doctors, blonde haired people, Christmas lights, Mexcian food.....    it's gonna be heaven!

This week has consisted of Jordyn being sick (cold and pick eye), I have had a cold the last few weeks and have twisted my knee (yes, my bad one that I've already had 2 surgeries on), Landen has hurt his shoulder playing baseball, and now Hayden is starting his whooping cough episode that he does every year.  FUN WEEK!  sigh.   Thankfully, the lights are being installed at the baseball fields this weeks which means a break for us - right when we need it.  The timing is good and I am thankful for that!  It's also semester tests week for Landen and Hayden has 3 of his own as well.

Can't wait for my mom and dad to come visit.  They actually booked their tickets and there is no turning back now!  I hope everything goes smoothly for them and they enjoy it.  I'm excited to show them the life we've been living for the last year and a half.  I hope the weather cooperates.  It has been being beautiful, but today is dusty and windy and cold (cold being 50 degrees. :-))  (shh..... I'm going to try and get my parents on a camel if I can!)  Won't that be fun??!!

More Christmas Pics!

Merry Christmas - 2011

I'm having a terrible time with my pictures tonight, so I'm gonna go ahead and post.  I hope to share some more pictures from Christmas soon!!

Unfortunately there were no camel races for the Rowlands this year on Christmas day, but we still had a fabulous day!  It was probably one of the busiest seasons we have had in a long time, due to my job.  I wish I could post a bunch of those pictures, but I can't due to security.  So, I chose a few from home to share instead.

First things first, Matt and I got to meet Minka Kelly (I'm a big Friday Night Lights fan!), Robert Horry (lets be honest, I had to look up who he was) and Jordin Sparks (she's striking and very personable).   They came to the Embassy for a brief visit with the Marines and Matt was in charge of helping escort them.   It's good to be an LTC wife and work with the head marine's wife!  We got to chat with them a bit and snap a few pictures before they were off to the other camps.  FUN!

Other highlights from work were the Children's Christmas party - which was a brunch with Santa, Christmas Caroling, and a family movie night complete with a cook out and hot chocolate.  It was all a little more involved than it sounds considering my co-worker and I were in charge of it all, but we were happy everything turned out well and the families were very appreciative of it all.  We also held several activities for the staff, brought in and gave away live Christmas trees through the Trees for Troops program,  decorated the Embassy, and more that I won't bore you with.  You get the idea!  Thank you to my Co-Co CLO - who also happens to be my husband.  He is worked quite a bit by my job!

The kiddos have enjoyed being home from school and lounging in their pajamas.  We cooked a nice Christmas Eve dinner since I didn't cook on Thanksgiving.  We were able to Skype with my mom and dad and Aunt Terri which is always fun.  For some reason I managed to get so tickled about forgetting what I was gonna say that I had tears coming out my eyes, lol.  Terri decided I hadn't had enough sleep.  :-)  I honestly don't know what came over me.

Under the Christmas tree, Landen found a new bat (surprise, surprise!), a few shirts, a bible devotion book, some skull headphones, and some new Vans shoes.  Hayden got a new laptop, a remote control helicopter from Nana & Pop, Spy Car and Spy Glasses, and battling bug set.  The boys both also got Rock Band from Grammy and Pawpaw and love it!  Our old one had broken...  Jordyn got an American Girl doll, some matching doll clothes, finger paints, some new dress up clothes, and lots of other surprises.   Matt got a new Nike+ GPS watch and I got some cool new Ray Bans.  Santa was good to us this year!  Santa even left a receipt in Hayden's stocking....  he evidently shops at the 100 Fills store.  Interesting, huh?!  ;)  



It's not official yet, so I won't let the cat out of the bag until we know for sure, but we have an inkling of where we are moving next.  Clue #1 - United States of  ________________!!!!!!

Update:  So, before I got the pictures on here and posted this entry, it became official.  Brush up on your BlackJack because we are moving to another desert - only, this time in the U.S.  Yep - Las Vegas, here we come!!!!!!!