The boys have been gone for 3 weeks and I am super ready to have them back. I've broken a computer, my blackberry is out of money, a glass shelf in the bathroom has fallen, the Magic Jack isn't working, my AC in my car is making a funny noise, the house AC has been broken (fixed after about 5 different house calls!), and I miss my i-pad. These are the things that happen to me when Matt is gone :-)!
I also miss the sound of the boys laughter, the fighting with their sister, tucking them in bed, and just the every day kid stuff that I take for granted. I've NEVER been away from them for this long before this summer. I don't know how Matt does it! That is one thing to be thankful about over this last year - Matt has not been TDY hardly at all. That's the only thing to be thankful about - of course, I'm just kidding. I can probably find 2 more things! I also miss the security of Matt being here and knowing he is just around the corner from me. I miss him making fun of me... I miss him.
We are moved into the new house and I have gotten the pictures on the walls. I'm anxious for the boys to see it when they get here because when they left there were still LOTS of boxes. I have taken pictures, I just can't share them with you right now until Matt comes home to rescue me and my lack of technology skills. The USB port doesn't work on the computer that is working. Matt will probably come home and fix the other computer within minutes. Anyone want to take bets?! I get so frustrated with it all.
My job is going fantastic, however I am so busy I can barely see straight. I'm taking over the bus coordinator's job b/c it is vacant, and my partner in crime is on vacation. It doesn't help that all of these new people are arriving and I have no clue what I'm doing in the office. I'm learning though - QUICKLY! Nothing like being thrown into a job. Next week I have to run a meeting in front of all of the parents and children at the Embassy. That's A LOT of people and I'm already nervous! Say a prayer for me to stay calm as I hate public speaking. I'm sure Matt will be in the back making faces at me. :-) Don't encourage him.
Next time I log on, I hope to share some pics of the new house. Until then.... have a great week!
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Friday, August 5, 2011
Why Can I Never Think of Any Catchy Titles Anymore???
So much to report in just a few days! In a nutshell - we moved. I said I would NEVER move within a move (still in Kuwait), yet I agreed to it. It's been completely exhausting, but I think it will very much be worth it. Why on earth would we move? Location, location, location. It will help us stay off these crazy roads over here.
I also started my new job. I think it's going to be fantastic! It's so strange for me to not have to report my every move to someone. I'm already realizing how micromanaged I was last year. This job is going to have so much freedom and flexibility. When your working full time and have 3 children - that's important! More to come on that at some point.
Lastly, you didn't really think I was finished talking about that Poland baseball tournament, did you? I didn't think so. Read this....
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/sports/for-uganda-little-leaguers-exhilaration-and-then-heartbreak.html?pagewanted=all
and this... (there are many articles out there if your really interested.)
http://espn.go.com/sports/llws11/story/_/id/6827020/2011-little-league-world-series-saudi-arabia-gets-uganda-berth?campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines
I'm already tired of the feeling so sorry for Uganda. Does that sound unchristian of me? Probably. It's not that I don't feel terribly sorry for those kids. They have absolutely nothing as far as worldly possessions. Our kids have SO much - especially in Kuwait where children don't have one top of the line $500 bat, they have multiple top of the line bats, gloves and helmets. It's one extreme to the other. What has me upset is the thought that 4 other teams spent $1000's of dollars (it's NOT cheap to fly a family of 5 overseas and stay 8 days, trust me!) to play in a tournament against kids their own age. They wanted a fair chance to go to Williamsport and play in the Little League Wold Series and instead they were cheated. I don't blame it on the Uganda kids... I am guessing they don't even understand what it's all about or why they aren't getting to go. But, somebody knew they were falsifying documents. Coaches I am guessing, but I will never know. If you read all of the articles it states that multiple parents admitted to changing information on their birth records. These were boys with muscle definition and a lot of height. One pitcher broke another child's arm from Saudi Arabia which tells you how fast he was able to throw. Plus, the article fails to mention that while Uganda bean Saudi in the finals, Saudi had already beat Uganda two days before in the tournament. Even more impressive now that we know the truth! So in reality, they both beat each other once. It just happened that Uganda beat them in the final game.
I just wish the boys would have had a fair chance. Would they have won the tournament? Never say never, but no, I don't think that would have ever happened. However, I do think it would have left a better memory for them in their 11 and 12 year old minds. I guess it's a teaching lesson. Good luck to Saudi in the tournament! I hope they make us proud.
I also started my new job. I think it's going to be fantastic! It's so strange for me to not have to report my every move to someone. I'm already realizing how micromanaged I was last year. This job is going to have so much freedom and flexibility. When your working full time and have 3 children - that's important! More to come on that at some point.
Lastly, you didn't really think I was finished talking about that Poland baseball tournament, did you? I didn't think so. Read this....
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/sports/for-uganda-little-leaguers-exhilaration-and-then-heartbreak.html?pagewanted=all
and this... (there are many articles out there if your really interested.)
http://espn.go.com/sports/llws11/story/_/id/6827020/2011-little-league-world-series-saudi-arabia-gets-uganda-berth?campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines
I'm already tired of the feeling so sorry for Uganda. Does that sound unchristian of me? Probably. It's not that I don't feel terribly sorry for those kids. They have absolutely nothing as far as worldly possessions. Our kids have SO much - especially in Kuwait where children don't have one top of the line $500 bat, they have multiple top of the line bats, gloves and helmets. It's one extreme to the other. What has me upset is the thought that 4 other teams spent $1000's of dollars (it's NOT cheap to fly a family of 5 overseas and stay 8 days, trust me!) to play in a tournament against kids their own age. They wanted a fair chance to go to Williamsport and play in the Little League Wold Series and instead they were cheated. I don't blame it on the Uganda kids... I am guessing they don't even understand what it's all about or why they aren't getting to go. But, somebody knew they were falsifying documents. Coaches I am guessing, but I will never know. If you read all of the articles it states that multiple parents admitted to changing information on their birth records. These were boys with muscle definition and a lot of height. One pitcher broke another child's arm from Saudi Arabia which tells you how fast he was able to throw. Plus, the article fails to mention that while Uganda bean Saudi in the finals, Saudi had already beat Uganda two days before in the tournament. Even more impressive now that we know the truth! So in reality, they both beat each other once. It just happened that Uganda beat them in the final game.
I just wish the boys would have had a fair chance. Would they have won the tournament? Never say never, but no, I don't think that would have ever happened. However, I do think it would have left a better memory for them in their 11 and 12 year old minds. I guess it's a teaching lesson. Good luck to Saudi in the tournament! I hope they make us proud.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Had To Add a Few More Baseball Pics
This is the play I was telling you about.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Gave Up On Me, Didn't Ya?
I wouldn't blame you for giving up on me. When you don't blog consistently, it's hard to know where to pick up and begin again. It's almost so daunting I don't have the desire to do this, but I'm gonna take another stab. I know one day, I'll look back and be glad I did. Maybe my new goal will be to put an update once every two weeks. We'll see how long that lasts. A friend of mine gave me the details of having her blog printed, so I'm going to look into having my Europe one printed.
So, I guess a lot has happened since I left off in April. For starters, I completed my year at the school and then quit my job. Yep, I loved it and I quit. Morally, I just didn't feel right working there. I didn't have any problems personally, but I saw a number of employees who did and I just decided I couldn't work there anymore. A new job opportunity opened up for me at the Embassy and I submitted my resume. A few interviews later, I got the job as the CLO - Community Liaison Officer. It gets me into the federal system which is definitely in my favor. I'm also going to share the job with another co-worker and only work 30 hours a week which gives me more time with the kids. It's a win, win. I was able to work it out so that I still got most of the summer off work, was able to go to America and Poland, and will start my new job next week. I'll let you know how that goes. Here's a few pictures of my last day at work. I'm going to miss everyone!
Let's get back to America and Poland. We (Hayden, Jordyn and I) were able to go to AR for a couple of weeks and while we were there, we flew to FL with my brother and his family for a Disney vacation. Matt and Landen stayed in Kuwait to attend all those baseball practices in preparation for Poland. We had a fantastic time in AR and FL. We stayed in a beautiful house, got a great deal on some military tickets, and enjoyed every minute of FL. We played with cousins in AR, visited with friends, and said goodbye to my grandparents house. Wish we could have stayed another week or so, but we had to get back to fly to Poland. I wonder how many miles I've flown this summer? As you know, I really don't like flying, but I'm dealing with it all. Before we left AR, I had a little - ok, HUGE meltdown. I truly thought I was going to be fine... I only have to face one more year. But, I think I had the biggest meltdown yet. Anyway, I'm over it and back in the routine of being here. I'll be fine. Plus, Mom and Dad promised to come visit, right??! lol I also am looking forward to my sister and a friend of hers coming for a few days. Can't wait!
Let's see... so off to Poland we flew. Talk about having one excited boy (Landen) in our house. The second he heard the words Kutno, Poland last fall it's all he's thought about. He eats, breathes and lives for baseball right now. LOVES it. I'm so thankful, for the whole family that we have met such great people and spent so much time at the baseball fields. Next year will be a whole new feel because we will actually be comfortable and know everyone. We are already looking forward to that. So - back to Poland. I won't give you the play, by play, but it was emotional and heartbreaking. The team came in 5th place (yes, there were 5 teams in the tournament.) We got a terrible, terrible, terrible call which caused us to lose the second game. I shouldn't blame it on the umps, but seriously... it was bad and we have pictures to prove it. Anyway, I won't dwell on it, but after that our boys just gave up. Three teams were 1 and 3, so the rankings became based on runs. Landen personally had a great tournament playing short stop and pitcher. He didn't hit that well, and neither did the rest of the team which really hurt us. However, he pitched fantastic against Dubai for the whole game with 11 strike outs and no runs scored. He also made many great stops at short stop for several outs. We were so proud of him.
Landen learned some good lessons in Poland and will always have that memory - some happy and some sad. I'm so glad he got the opportunity to do that. They stayed in dorms with the coaches and the parents were not allowed in. They mingled with the other teams players from Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Dubai and Uganda. BTW, Uganda won the tournament and will being flying to Williamsburg, PA to compete in the LL World Series! Pretty neat to watch TV and know you played the same team. I hope we are able to get some of it on TV. Saudi Arabia has won it for years and years, so they were devastated to be beaten by Uganda. Our team didn't really expect to win it, but they expected to perform better than they did. It was tough to watch, but that's sports. Hopefully they have better luck next year (we should be on a plane back to the USA!). Watch me eat my words. We've already been approached about the possibility of taking a juniors teams next year and to factor that into our move. Sigh. We'll worry about that later. Thanks to Nana and Pops for flying all that way to spend the week with us watching Landen. What sweet grandparents! Norma and I spent a wonderful day together in Warsaw, Poland which happened to be a very beautiful city.
Finally, though there's much more to add, I think Matt and I have lost all our marbles. We've decided to move within a move. I've eaten my words many times and said people were crazy to do that, and here we go doing the same thing I promised I never would. You would think I would have learned my lesson by now, wouldn't you? We've been offered a house in walking distance from where Matt and I will be working. It's not that we are far away now, but if you understood the driving around here you would appreciate it more. That's what we have to look forward to next week. The kids are a wee bit more excited than I am about it. Hope they like the new location and we are glad we went through the trouble. Stay tuned!
So, I guess a lot has happened since I left off in April. For starters, I completed my year at the school and then quit my job. Yep, I loved it and I quit. Morally, I just didn't feel right working there. I didn't have any problems personally, but I saw a number of employees who did and I just decided I couldn't work there anymore. A new job opportunity opened up for me at the Embassy and I submitted my resume. A few interviews later, I got the job as the CLO - Community Liaison Officer. It gets me into the federal system which is definitely in my favor. I'm also going to share the job with another co-worker and only work 30 hours a week which gives me more time with the kids. It's a win, win. I was able to work it out so that I still got most of the summer off work, was able to go to America and Poland, and will start my new job next week. I'll let you know how that goes. Here's a few pictures of my last day at work. I'm going to miss everyone!
Let's get back to America and Poland. We (Hayden, Jordyn and I) were able to go to AR for a couple of weeks and while we were there, we flew to FL with my brother and his family for a Disney vacation. Matt and Landen stayed in Kuwait to attend all those baseball practices in preparation for Poland. We had a fantastic time in AR and FL. We stayed in a beautiful house, got a great deal on some military tickets, and enjoyed every minute of FL. We played with cousins in AR, visited with friends, and said goodbye to my grandparents house. Wish we could have stayed another week or so, but we had to get back to fly to Poland. I wonder how many miles I've flown this summer? As you know, I really don't like flying, but I'm dealing with it all. Before we left AR, I had a little - ok, HUGE meltdown. I truly thought I was going to be fine... I only have to face one more year. But, I think I had the biggest meltdown yet. Anyway, I'm over it and back in the routine of being here. I'll be fine. Plus, Mom and Dad promised to come visit, right??! lol I also am looking forward to my sister and a friend of hers coming for a few days. Can't wait!
Let's see... so off to Poland we flew. Talk about having one excited boy (Landen) in our house. The second he heard the words Kutno, Poland last fall it's all he's thought about. He eats, breathes and lives for baseball right now. LOVES it. I'm so thankful, for the whole family that we have met such great people and spent so much time at the baseball fields. Next year will be a whole new feel because we will actually be comfortable and know everyone. We are already looking forward to that. So - back to Poland. I won't give you the play, by play, but it was emotional and heartbreaking. The team came in 5th place (yes, there were 5 teams in the tournament.) We got a terrible, terrible, terrible call which caused us to lose the second game. I shouldn't blame it on the umps, but seriously... it was bad and we have pictures to prove it. Anyway, I won't dwell on it, but after that our boys just gave up. Three teams were 1 and 3, so the rankings became based on runs. Landen personally had a great tournament playing short stop and pitcher. He didn't hit that well, and neither did the rest of the team which really hurt us. However, he pitched fantastic against Dubai for the whole game with 11 strike outs and no runs scored. He also made many great stops at short stop for several outs. We were so proud of him.
Landen learned some good lessons in Poland and will always have that memory - some happy and some sad. I'm so glad he got the opportunity to do that. They stayed in dorms with the coaches and the parents were not allowed in. They mingled with the other teams players from Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Dubai and Uganda. BTW, Uganda won the tournament and will being flying to Williamsburg, PA to compete in the LL World Series! Pretty neat to watch TV and know you played the same team. I hope we are able to get some of it on TV. Saudi Arabia has won it for years and years, so they were devastated to be beaten by Uganda. Our team didn't really expect to win it, but they expected to perform better than they did. It was tough to watch, but that's sports. Hopefully they have better luck next year (we should be on a plane back to the USA!). Watch me eat my words. We've already been approached about the possibility of taking a juniors teams next year and to factor that into our move. Sigh. We'll worry about that later. Thanks to Nana and Pops for flying all that way to spend the week with us watching Landen. What sweet grandparents! Norma and I spent a wonderful day together in Warsaw, Poland which happened to be a very beautiful city.
Finally, though there's much more to add, I think Matt and I have lost all our marbles. We've decided to move within a move. I've eaten my words many times and said people were crazy to do that, and here we go doing the same thing I promised I never would. You would think I would have learned my lesson by now, wouldn't you? We've been offered a house in walking distance from where Matt and I will be working. It's not that we are far away now, but if you understood the driving around here you would appreciate it more. That's what we have to look forward to next week. The kids are a wee bit more excited than I am about it. Hope they like the new location and we are glad we went through the trouble. Stay tuned!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Our First Journey in the Middle East
This is it, in a nutshell:
Where? Qatar
Length of trip: 2 nights
Tiring? yes
Fun? Absolutely
Hotel? Ramada Inn Doha (crazy nice with many restaurants inside)
View from room? Chili's, Arby's, Starbucks and Dairy Queen
Expensive? uh huh. They do not use coins and a hamburger cost 27 Riyals. It made for some fun currency conversions.
Flight? Kuwait Airways - 1 hour (included meal)
Visa price to enter Qatar?? equivalent of $28/ each x 5
Weather? 95+ and humid (we hear Dubai will be hotter!)
Driving? Much more civil than here in Kuwait - they actually obeyed the signs.
Culture? We definitely blended in much more there. The western population was much bigger than here in Kuwait.
Games won? 2 (Qatar 1 and Qatar 2)
Games lost? 1 (Saudi Arabia - but we killed ourselves with errors) We had our team split into two teams though and they only had one.
Position Landen played? pitcher/catcher/short stop
Picture in Arab Times? Yep - all 5 of us
http://arabtimesonline.com/Por
Next trip? Wednesday - to Dubai
Kumari back? yep
Daughter's status? is home and doing well
Laundry done? yep
House cleaned? yep
Did I miss her? yep
Tired of Dust Storms? Confirmed YES as I turned on my AC in the car today on the way home from work and dirt was blown straight into my eyeballs. :-)
Still miss mexican food and Target? Yep! I had a lengthy conversation about it today with a fellow American at work and tried to explain the joy of Target to my British co-worker. Sigh.
Military tours being cut short from the Embassy and sent back to the US? Yep.
Could I be so lucky it would include Matt's job? Of course, not! That's crazy talk.
Kids bored from Spring Break? Yep, but it's been good for them to rest up and for us all not to deal with homework and backpacks this week.
Good week at work? Yes. Crazy busy with Spring Concerts, Graduations, Spirit Week, training in another office, and more...
Tired of me answering silly questions? K. I'll show you some pictures instead....
Where? Qatar
Length of trip: 2 nights
Tiring? yes
Fun? Absolutely
Hotel? Ramada Inn Doha (crazy nice with many restaurants inside)
View from room? Chili's, Arby's, Starbucks and Dairy Queen
Expensive? uh huh. They do not use coins and a hamburger cost 27 Riyals. It made for some fun currency conversions.
Flight? Kuwait Airways - 1 hour (included meal)
Visa price to enter Qatar?? equivalent of $28/ each x 5
Weather? 95+ and humid (we hear Dubai will be hotter!)
Driving? Much more civil than here in Kuwait - they actually obeyed the signs.
Culture? We definitely blended in much more there. The western population was much bigger than here in Kuwait.
Games won? 2 (Qatar 1 and Qatar 2)
Games lost? 1 (Saudi Arabia - but we killed ourselves with errors) We had our team split into two teams though and they only had one.
Position Landen played? pitcher/catcher/short stop
Picture in Arab Times? Yep - all 5 of us
http://arabtimesonline.com/Por
Next trip? Wednesday - to Dubai
Kumari back? yep
Daughter's status? is home and doing well
Laundry done? yep
House cleaned? yep
Did I miss her? yep
Tired of Dust Storms? Confirmed YES as I turned on my AC in the car today on the way home from work and dirt was blown straight into my eyeballs. :-)
Still miss mexican food and Target? Yep! I had a lengthy conversation about it today with a fellow American at work and tried to explain the joy of Target to my British co-worker. Sigh.
Military tours being cut short from the Embassy and sent back to the US? Yep.
Could I be so lucky it would include Matt's job? Of course, not! That's crazy talk.
Kids bored from Spring Break? Yep, but it's been good for them to rest up and for us all not to deal with homework and backpacks this week.
Good week at work? Yes. Crazy busy with Spring Concerts, Graduations, Spirit Week, training in another office, and more...
Tired of me answering silly questions? K. I'll show you some pictures instead....
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Sand Storm - 2011
Wow. This is definitely not something I had hoped to experience, but I got to anyway. I cannot even begin to describe to you the amount of dirt that accumulated in my house and on my patio in just a few short minutes.
We had been at the baseball field and come home to change clothes. We had big plans to celebrate Landen's birthday that night. He had invited two friends over to spend the night and we were going to Hard Rock Cafe to eat dinner and dessert. To make a long story short.... this is what was approaching when we were ready to leave. Needless to say, we didn't get to go.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
To give you a better idea, outside it looked like this:
Inside looked like this:
Newspaper Link:
http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=NDEyMjU3MzQy
Don't you wish you lived in the Middle East?? Of all times, Kumari is gone to Sri Lanka. :-) Ya just have to laugh and move on. Thankfully, we were home and not out. We had friends that were out camping and got trapped in their car for 4 hours. 15 more months, 15 more months, 15 more months.....
We had been at the baseball field and come home to change clothes. We had big plans to celebrate Landen's birthday that night. He had invited two friends over to spend the night and we were going to Hard Rock Cafe to eat dinner and dessert. To make a long story short.... this is what was approaching when we were ready to leave. Needless to say, we didn't get to go.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
To give you a better idea, outside it looked like this:
Inside looked like this:
Newspaper Link:
http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=NDEyMjU3MzQy
Don't you wish you lived in the Middle East?? Of all times, Kumari is gone to Sri Lanka. :-) Ya just have to laugh and move on. Thankfully, we were home and not out. We had friends that were out camping and got trapped in their car for 4 hours. 15 more months, 15 more months, 15 more months.....
Monday, March 14, 2011
Update
Kumari's daughter is better, I think. This is really hard communicating and understanding the severity of it from Kumari. I'm not sure she understands herself, and then she tries to translate for me. From what I gather now, she has a very badly damaged shoulder and she is in a neck brace. They are waiting on the swelling to go down so they can see if her neck is broken. She is moving all of her limbs and talking so that is a good sign. Obviously, she is still in the hospital.
Kumari is taking it one day at a time and in good spirits now. She is considering going over my Spring Break week (in 2 1/2 weeks), but I'm not sure if she will or not. We have told her we are sending her back for the entire summer as well, regardless of what happens now.
Thank you for the prayers for her. I know she appreciates them!
Kumari is taking it one day at a time and in good spirits now. She is considering going over my Spring Break week (in 2 1/2 weeks), but I'm not sure if she will or not. We have told her we are sending her back for the entire summer as well, regardless of what happens now.
Thank you for the prayers for her. I know she appreciates them!
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