Pogue Party's Arabian Adventure

Why have I not been blogging???

2011-12-12T14:15:00.000-06:00

I really can't believe I haven't blogged since MAY!!! What in the world? I'm really just out of the habit and hopefully this little post will get me going again. We are alive and well in Saudi Arabia! The house has been rather quiet since Whitney graduated and left the nest. We miss her like crazy and can't wait to see her next week. Not only will she be coming but so will ALL OF THE REST OF THEM!! Yes, Taylor is coming from Idaho and Ivy, Calder, Piper and Rhett-baby will be coming from Vegas. We are so excited we can hardly stand it! Evan is almost half way through with his junior year. He's doing great and loving life. He got he opportunity to take a trip to Berlin.....(that deserves a post of it's own....) I'm staying busy decorating for Christmas, being the branch Young Women president, and whatever else I do on a day to day basis.....So expect more posts very soon!!

Hey 19

2011-05-24T10:38:00.001-05:00

"Calling out around the world, are you ready for a brand new beat? Summer's here and the time is right for dancing in the streets......"

So Whitney turned 19 this week! She has always loved her birthday and likes to celebrate BIG! She starts talking about her birthday weeks ahead of time and makes sure everybody knows.... I checked her out of school and took her to Applebee's for lunch. That evening she invited some friends over, we ordered pizza and they did what they do best.......this time it was a spontaneous street dance.

She took a pic with most of the kids there, here she is with Evan.

Here she is with Marcus.

Here she is with Tanya and Wafa.

Here she is with Taylor (who is also heading to BYU-I) and Abdullah.

Here she is with Luke who is moving to China soon. We'll miss them.

Here she is with Micha.

Here she is with Ben (who leaves soon for his mission to London, England -cool!)

Ninth Street, Dhahran, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has never seen such action! Whitney is such a fun girl and I can't help but think how quiet the house will be next year without her here. Happy Birthday, Whit-Bit!! We love you tons!!!

Idol Nights.....

2011-04-19T08:11:00.001-05:00

I have always been an American Idol fan! I jumped on the bandwagon in Season 2. I absolutely love it and can't understand how anybody can't! Evan is as obsessed as I am and Whitney and Brad just endure it as best they can. We have continued our Idol tradition here in Saudi Arabia. We get it two night a week just like in the States only one day later. So we get it every Thursday and Friday nights. We get together with three other families EVERY week~ the Masons, the Mosleys and the Stratfords. We rotate houses and cook lots of food and it's just a good old time.

This past week it was at our house. We laughed how we all ended up Saudi-style with the guys in one room and the girls in the other.

Here are the girls. The cute lady below is "Nana", Brent Mason's mother. This is her second visit to Arabia and we all just love her.

Gwen, Debbie, Donna and Abigail. Below, Leanne and Tori.

Now on to the boys room, here is Evan,

and Brent, Rusty, Brad, Wade and Christian.

Sorry to Whitney who was the photographer and didn't get in any of the pictures.

We all have our favorites but we all agree that at this point it's sad to see any of them leave!

That's right!

2011-04-18T16:10:00.001-05:00

Apparently in Arabic, there is no "guh" sound. I learned this a long time ago when I was ordering myself a silver necklace that was to say Gwen. I had the choice of them spelling it like J-wen or like Quin. I chose the latter.

Last week we called in take-out from Tandoori, the restaurant very near our house. I placed the order, they asked my name and I told them Gwen. They spelled it the best way knew how.

I hung this one on the fridge!

Oodles of Oods

2011-04-05T08:03:00.000-05:00

This instrument, my friends, is called an Oud or Aoud.....pronounced "ood". Don't you just love that name??
–noun

a musical instrument of the Middle East and northern Africa belonging to the lute family.

All of you who know Evan, know that he is obsessed with all things musical and plays many different instruments. Today, Brad signed him up for Oud lessons. He'll go for an hour and a half once a week until summer. He is beyond excited! Now we begin shopping for a reasonably priced one.

If you want to know what one sounds like, go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJYe4g_kUj4

Hopefully I can post a video of him playing in a few weeks!

Spotlighted......

2011-03-31T17:13:00.005-05:00

http://thefrancks.typepad.com/team_francks
(scroll down to March 31, 2011)

Hi Friends! Sorry I haven't updated in awhile. I'm not sure if it's me, my computer or blogspot but I'm having a plethora of problems posting. We'll see how this goes. Well, my dear friend, MaryRuth has a new feature on her blog called Tweet, tweet, let's meet. She featured moi this week. Check it out. I have to add that it is because of MaryRuth that I am now the biggest blog stalker of all time. Many years ago, we got her Chistmas card and in it was a web address to her "blog"- a word I was unfamiliar with. I read hers, read her friends (many of whom I still read- Catherine, Hillary, Emily Kate...) A few years ago, I started my own. I love it!

Continuing our American Idol tradition here in Saudi Arabia is a blast. This, in my humble opinion, is by far the best season ever. We get it here on Thursday and Friday nights. Three families and ourselves get together EVERY Idol night and whoop, holler and eat yummy food!

Hopefully I can get this problem solved with blogger and can upload my pics soon! Thanks again, MR!

I'm Back......

2011-01-22T20:51:00.000-06:00

Ooops! What in the world has happened to my blogging? It's been two months now. So much has happened lately that I'm overwhelmed with the thought of trying to capture it all with words and pictures. So, I'm going to just touch on some highlights and go from there.

The middle of December found us boarding a big plane to bring us back to the good old USA for the Christmas holidays.
Brad, Whitney, Evan and I flew to Miami and rented a car. We drove down to Key West for a few days. We ate some good food and saw some sights then on to Orlando for some real fun.
Drove up to Orlando. Checked in to the condo and met up with Victor, Stephanie, Devon and Emily (Brad's sister and family) We dropped off the kids and headed to the airport to pick up the other kids. Taylor and Ivy and Piper flew in around the same time so Brad and I went our separate ways to find them. Bought Piper a Minnie Mouse at the airport. Calder didn't fly in until the next night. It was SO great to gather them all up and then we headed back to the condo. Jerry had reserved two three-bedroom condos right next door to each other. They were beautiful!
Brad's parents, Mary and Jerry, flew in later that night. Brad's brother, Brian and wife, Cindy had arrived that day, as well. Now everybody was there.
Took Disney by storm! Everybody hit it hard. Covered it all, Hollywood Studio(where our favs are Tower of Terror and Rockin' Roller Coaster) Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom....The funnest thing was Piper being there. She was really, really good and it was so fun to watch her loving every minute.
Ate Christmas dinner at Golden Corral but even that was good. It was a huge buffet with all the holiday trimmings.
Spent a wonderful week there then put the Huntington's on their flight back to Vegas and the Graves back to Arkansas. The other Pogue's (Mary and Jerry) were headed to Ft. Lauderdale to go on a cruise. Said our goodbyes and flew back home to Louisiana!
Spent a relaxing ten days with our family and friends. Nothing set in stone to do, no wake-up times, no committments.....very relaxing, enjoyable days. Some eating, some shopping, some movies.
Put Taylor in a plane back to Idaho for winter semester. He's signed up for snowboarding class (along with his real engineering classes) and is spending all the free time he has on the mountain and loving every minute of it.
Flew back to Saudi in time to rest a couple of days and send everybody back to school and work. Chelsea was glad to see us when we picked her up at the kennel. She knew we had had fun without her. The best thing about this trip is we got bumped to Business Class for the longest leg from Dallas to London....it was fab!
Found out the happy news that new Baby Huntington will be a BOY! Piper will be the beautiful big sister to a bouncing baby brother in June!
Evan tried out for the school, Dhahran Academy's fall production of The Crucible. He found out he got the role of Giles Cory and he is really excited. They started practice Thursday and it will be a busy couple of months with practice almost every day.
We also got word that Whitney has been accepted to BYU-I! It's nice to feel like we have a plan now and can make summer plans. Yay, Whit!
The kids are heading into mid-terms this week but after that, have their trips to Switzerland and Bali to look forward to. Evan to snowboard in the Alps, Whitney to snorkle, hike and bike in Bali. What's wrong with this picture?? I've never been either place. Someday.....

So, that's basically what's been up! If you ever look at my facebook, you knew most of this anyway. Now I feel like I can start from 'now' and I'm not behind anymore! (It will also help to change my Christmas background to something else!) Love y'all and thanks for reading!

Piper says.....

2010-11-18T23:04:00.000-06:00

I'm gonna be a......... Another cute little adorable baby to love. So excited! New Huntington due to arrive around June 30! I've had this post ready for awhile just waiting for permission to post! So excited!

Our trip to Dubai.....

2010-11-18T15:12:00.022-06:00

The kids and Brad had a week off of work and school due to the Hajj Eid. (remember we live in Arabia!) We decided to take a little adventure and drive to Dubai. We know several families who have driven it and didn't really want to spend money on plane tickets. It was about an eight hour drive through the desert but the roads were fine all the way!Google image of the city and also the Palm in the ocean where the Atlantis hotel sits. (no, we didn't stay there....just visited) It was amazing. All the land was filled with VERY high dollar real estate. It made us wonder who are all these people and how do they all have this much money. Evan ran into a friend outside the Atlantis....how random is that??Back to the beginning, we got up early on Friday and left about 4:30 in the morning. The sunrise was beautiful. We watched it rise over Hofuf.

We drove and drove and drove through nothing but sand for what seemed like forever. Really, just nothing for hours and hours. If we go again, we will pack more food. We weren't hungry but it was unnerving to see that nothing was available. We got through customs fine into the UAE then drove through lots more sand.....got to our hotel late in the afternoon. It was called the Golden Sands 10. It was a high-rise apartment building basically, nice and clean but no frills. It had two bedrooms and baths and a living area and kitchen. Whitney thought we should have stayed at a fancy hotel for just one night instead of the cheap on for four.....but we disagreed! (trust me our four nights here was a fraction of one night at most others!)

We spent our days shopping, going to museums, eating yummy food and seeing some movies. Rumor has it that Tom Cruise and the whole cast of the new Mission Impossible were in the mall at the same time as us. They are filming there. We didn't see them but the mall was buzzing about it. We saw Secretariet which was really good.

I took a picture of these workers because as we drove by it Evan said...."I used to have a Hot Wheel just like that but I never thought about putting people in it."

The highlight of Whitney's trip was Ski Dubai. It's an all indoor ski mountain with lifts and runs....just amazing. They provide all the equipment in the fee. She skiid for about three hours and loved every minute. Evan opted to use his money for something else since he's going to Switzerland in February to ski. And since he hadn't skiid before, he would have had to pay alot more to have the training class.

This water feature in the FestivalCity mall was cooler than the picture shows.

One night we went to Global Village. It's a big fair thing where vendors come from all over the world to sell their wares. Whitney got a henna on her arm from an African lady.

The biggest disappointment of the trip was not being able to go up in the Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world. We waited until the last day and they were sold out of tour tickets. We did drive along side it and looked up. It is unreal how tall it is. That's a must if we ever go back.

We ate some yummy roasted corn from Global Village. Got up early Tuesday morning and headed home after a quick stop at McDonalds. Here are a few sights we saw on the ride home. Brad and I laughed later while looking at them that they didn't seem odd and they seem like they should! Traffic slowed down for this fellow. Luckily not many cars on the road. Can you imagine hitting a camel with your car??
The only stress of the trip was that Dubai is growing so fast that many highways were new and the GPS didn't recognize them. Brad did an excellent job of getting us around. I'll close with a quote by Whitney....."Dad, I'm sure if you wore a thobe and drove a BMW, you'd be more respected and less honked at!"

That time of the year......

2010-11-06T08:16:00.002-05:00

The weather is finally cooling off a bit here in sunny Saudi Arabia. The past few nights have been very pleasant and the temperature in the 60's. (an added plus is NO MOSQUITOS) Friday night (our Sunday) Whitney noted that it felt like "gumbo weather". And so it was....... No Rabidaux's sausage so Hillshire Farms turkey sausage had to do (and it did). Along with some chicken, onions and the roux we brought over, it was a hit!

Random Stuff.....

2010-10-23T13:01:00.013-05:00

Well, again, it's been too long since I blogged. Life is normal, busy. I really am in a blogger's slump but here are a few random things. I've been reading this book, The Help. Thanks to Katie, Ivy and Donna for recommending it. It's fabulous. Really, one of my all time favorites. Read it if you have time. As most of you know from facebook, we took family pictures while we were home for summer. I finally got them all printed and framed. Today my friends, Donna and Leanne came and helped me hang them. They look SO good and I'm so excited. They make my family room seem so cozy. No more bare white walls waiting for the pictures! I'll put up another pic soon of the huge family one I got done in color. I bought a sideboard table thing today to go under it in the living room. I'll get it hung tomorrow and post....maybe......

Just another view of our little family room....

I love this guy. He's been working so much overtime lately that we haven't been seeing much of him. But this week he's in training so he gets to leave the house later and come home earlier. Yay!

I snapped this today during Whitney's "naptime". She'll freak if she sees I posted this (actually, that I even took this. She's still right there in the same position as I blog) but she'll get over it.

A few Fridays ago (which is like our Sunday) all the guys had a meeting in the afternoon so Donna and Abigail came over and ate lunch with us. We watched 500 Days of Summer and played beauty shop. Whitney curled their hair and they both looked so cute. Fun to have a nice, fun girls day. Cupcakes and popcorn were also involved.

We can't seem to keep Chelsea off of the X-box lately! haha Found this on my memory card. I guess Evan got her all set up. Maybe taking some attention off of his own video game addiction! But anyway, cute picture. (ignore my fat-self in the background)

I still read all your blogs even though I'm a slacker on mine! On a happy note, Leanne is back in Saudi. We missed you!

The Reason.....

2010-09-24T11:51:00.002-05:00

To Whom it May Concern:

Please excuse Gwen's absence from her blog, facebook and any other forms of communication. You see, her new Kindle arrived and she has been busy reading books, playing word games and other worthwhile activities.

Really, I LOVE my new Kindle! I ordered it and had it shipped to my friend Debbie's house in Utah. Her husband, Wade, brought it back to Saudi for me last week. (along with my blue case with light that works off the Kindle battery) I had debated for a long time about whether or not I wanted one because 1) I enjoy owning books 2) I like the way books look on the bookshelf and 3) I like the way books feel, the pages turning, the print, etc. But I finally ordered mine and I love it more than I ever thought I would! I've ordered a few books and am really enjoying reading. Starting with Catching Fire (second book in the Hunger Games series). Awesome. Next, Mockingjay (3rd in the series). Then, because Evan recommended it, The Book Thief. Also, all my scriptures, song book are on it and easily accessible. ***** (5 Stars from Gwen for her Kindle!!!) Any book suggestions??

Other cute pics from summer.....Ok, so they're all of Piper, so what?

2010-09-01T00:02:00.015-05:00

Ms. Piper playing with her blocks and a BlueBell bucket Piper and all her cool, big girlfriends...overstimulated but they are thrilled
Piper and Aunt Whitney

Piper playing in the Louisiana rain

She didn't want her knees to touch the sidewalk or grass

I love this one and it's not of Piper....MawMaw and Whitney

Uncle Taylor and Piper wanting to reach that fried fish

Piper tasting her first snocone with help from Aunt Whit...I'd say she liked it

The cool friends again

Playing blocks with Great Grandma

If she could just get her hands on Dre she could pull his adorable curls

Piper and PaPa chilling in the beanbag

The Mosley's come to visit......

2010-08-31T23:44:00.005-05:00

Donna and her kids Chad and Abigail came to visit for a couple of days and we had so much fun. Donna and Rusty are our friends from Austin that live in Saudi. It was so fun to have Donna here and introduce her to my friends and parents and show her around "my world". Since Evan was gone to Iowa that week, we thought it would bed fun to all crawl up in his bed and take pictures. Below is Abigail signing the signature wall in Evan's loft.

Chad and Taylor got to know each other and do a little fishing. They will both be at BYU-I this coming semester so they had alot to talk about. Plus both recently returned from their missions- Taylor to France, Chad to Peru....well, at least they could talk about the contrasts!

Of course, we stayed up talking late both nights! It was fun....

Other Summer Stuff......

2010-08-31T23:20:00.008-05:00

A list:

Evan flew from Saudi to Lake Charles with Christian Mason, a boy his age we know from Saudi....they did fine. Evan did get delayed for several hours in Dallas. Michael, our next door neighbor was on the same flight so they ate and visited. I was glad to get Evan home. I really missed him.

The day after he flew in he started driver's ed at Parkview. It lasts Sat. and Sun afternoon for two straight weekends then three days of a few hours of driving. He is now the proud holder of a Louisiana Driver's Permit.

Orange Texas Stake Youth Conference was held in our area this year. Glad the kids were there for it. It was great. I housed six teenage boys at the house and got them where they needed to go. So fun!

I had PRK eye surgery, the older form of Lasik. I see super great close up now, like for reading but my far vision is still not as good as I'd like. I think over Christmas, I'm going back in for a tune-up. I will be regular Lasik this time which will be much easier. It's amazing though to be able to read and do my crosswords without glasses at all.

Brad flew in August 1st which is his birthday and our anniversary. We were all so happy to see him. I was actually thinking we'd been married 24 years but he came home with some beautiful diamond earrings for our "25th" anniversary. What? 25 years? Could it be? Yes, Ivy informed me that she was almost 24 so it had to be 25. How did I lose a year? A real sign that I'm getting older. But I love my gift. They are beautiful. And luckily Brad had ordered himself a new trolling motor so I didn't feel guilty!

Whitney was invited to go to Destin, Florida with the Guidrys. She was gone a week and had a great time. Lots of fun in the sun!
Taylor flew in from Idaho the day I had eye surgery. It was so good to have him back. He fished almost every day and fried fish for like nine days straight for lunch.

Evan was invited to go on vacation with the Zingers. He flew to Minneapolis where they picked him up and the drove to Des Moines. He had a great time. He turned 16 while he was there and they treated him like a king; amusement park, birthday dinner at Ruby Tuesdays and Kirstin even called to get the recipe for his favorite Butter Cake. He had a blast.

Donna, Chad and Abigail came to spend a couple of days with us. Fun! (own post to come)

Piper (along with her parents) came to Nana and Papa's house to visit. Papa (Brad) was so cute and went to Walmart to buy her some toys to play with. Of course Nanas and Papas must have toys! (own post to come)

Brad's parents also came and we had a great time with everybody.

The day before we flew out, we took family pictures with Lindsay Janies Photography. They were supposed to be outside but in true Louisiana fashion, it poured so we had to opt for inside. I think they'll be good anyway. Can't wait to see them.

August 18th- Brad, me, Whitney, Evan, Ivy, Calder and Piper loaded up to head to the airport. Taylor had left on an earlier flight to Saudi. We met up with him in Bahrain. Perfect timing. Elaine Newton was also flying out of Lake Charles so we had fun with her in the airports. Had breakfast at Chili's in Dallas before we parted ways!

Crazy Summer but I'm gonna try to catch up....

2010-08-31T18:04:00.006-05:00

This summer has been so, so, so packed with stuff that I've just not even known where to start. It's been busy and fun. I'm just going to start blogging stuff. You might enjoy some of it but mainly it's for us to remember all the details. Whitney and Evan both took trips with friends that they really enjoyed. I took some trips. We had lots of company which we loved. I'm just gonna start and add to it when I can. Here goes.....

Cupcakes and Stalkers.....

2010-08-31T17:45:00.010-05:00

Well, ok. I really do enjoy reading blogs. I justify it by saying things like "I hardly ever watch tv" or "I'm really interested in reading about normal people and their lives"...I'd actually much rather read about someone like me than somebody famous. So most of you know that I read NieNie Dialoges which is the blog of an "inspiring beyond words" woman who survived a horrible plane crash. I've read it for years. Also, her sister has a blog called "C-Jane Enjoy It" of which I am also a faithful reader. Andrea reads them, too. Thousands of people do, just saying. When we knew we were coming to Provo we decided that we MUST find out where they live and drive by! Do you think this is creepy? To make matters worse, we decide to recruit sweet, innocent Rita as our driver and Lisa as one of our accomplices. Ivy acted like she thought it was dumb but she was all over the clues helping us find the Retro House. So in Blue's Clues fashion we wrote down everything we knew about where they lived and went on the hunt. We never found NieNie's house. (later that week she actually posted her street name....(It would have been fun to wave!) At one point Andrea said defensively, you don't understand, we feel like we know these people!" The key words being -feel like- because we don't ....actually....know them....but we do like them. We also found their parents home which is featured in their blogs alot. So that's that. We stalked....just a bit

They talk alot about a shop called Sweet Tooth Fairy that we found and it did not dissappoint. We all ate our share of wonderful cupcakes and cake bites. Heaven!

In case you want to stalk Stephanie and Courtney on your own, I'm sure they wouldn't mind:
http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/

http://blog.cjanerun.com/

EFY=Girl's Trip.......

2010-08-31T16:10:00.038-05:00

Earlier in the summer Andrea and I had talked about how fun it would be to go to Utah for awhile. We decided that all our big kids would be at EFY in San Antonio for a week and that would be a perfect time. After paying more for plane tickets than we had hoped to and Andrea making arrangements for her littles, we were all set to go! We left Sulphur about 5:00 in the morning to make the drive to San Antonio. Andrea drove her Excursion. It was she and I, Whitney, Evan, Mary-Catherine and Sarah-Beth. (I remembered that they hyphenate their names now!) Following close behind were the Powell twins and Trevor. We made good time to San Antonio, got everybody unloaded, registered and moved into their dorms- all in record time. (Evan's Company)

(Whitney, MC and some new friends)

(the girls part of Whitney and MC's Company) EFY is so awesome and my kids always love it. I was sad that this would be Whitney's last year since she is 18. We left at noon to drive to Austin to get on the plane. We had no problems other than we had decided to take only "carry-0ns" to save time. Andrea forgot that she had a huge bottle of expensive hair product in her bag. She sadly had to forfeit that to the security lady. Our flight was very bumpy and rough and Andrea and I were both feeling very ill. She actually about reached for her sick bag a time or two. Luckily...or not....we were sitting by an extremely talkative man who visited and chatted the whole time. It did kind of keep my mind off the horrible flight. We were met at the airport by my daughter Ivy and granddaughter, Piper! From that point on, Ivy was our chaffeur. All we had to do was buy the gas which we were glad to do. We had a great time. I loved my spot in the backseat next to Piper. Our first stop was Sandy! My friend from Saudi, Donna's, son had just returned from his mission to Peru and she was having a party at her sister's house. Alot of our Saudi friends that live in the area were in for the summer and there to meet Chad. It was fun to see eveybody and let Andrea meet some of our friends. We stayed there until late then went to another friend from Saudi, Leanne's house in American Fork for the night. It was so fun to be there with her. Andrea and I took over Tori's room while Ivy and Piper slept in another room across the hall. We were exhausted. We had covered alot of miles that day! The next day Leanne, Andrea, Ivy and I met Donna, her sister, and Debbie Stratford for a fun day of eating and shopping. Leanne took us to a cute little restaurant in an old house called Food for Thought. We all loved it. We enjoyed the food, the company and the yummy salad, sandwiches and deserts.
After a long lunch there, we hit up Rod Works and a few other Utah stores that I had always heard of but never visited. Said good-bye to Donna and Leslie and headed back to Leanne's to clean up to go to the temple. We met Debbie there and went through. I was wonderful to be there with these sweet friends and Ivy. Leanne's kids were so great and babysat Piper while we were there. Got up early the next day's and headed to visit Rita. We met up with Lisa there, had a great lunch and got caught up. We hit a few scrapbooking stores, a few cupcake stores (which will get their own post!) and maybe, just maybe did a bit of stalking! (also it's own post)

That night Rita had meetings so and Andrea and I headed to Lehi to do more visiting. We went to Cafe Rio and I met up with Richard and Dianna Barton. It was so fun to see them! Andrea met up with a friend there, too. After eating way too much.....again.....we hit up Ross to buy suitcases. We realized somewhere along the way that all the stuff we had bought was not gonna go into the carry-ons we brought. By this time it was late but we were running out of time. I really, really wanted to go see Debbie at her house so we gave her a call even thought it was 10:30 or so. She was a good sport and let us come. We had a great visit with her and I loved her house. Back to Rita's for another good night's sleep! Piper was such a good girl through all this running arounnd. Got up, did a little sightseeing around Provo and went to Tucanos for some Brazilian food.....because we just didn't feel like we had eaten enough on this trip so far....:( ha that's a joke.

Ivy left us there and went to meet some college roomies for lunch. We met up with her and headed to Salt Lake. Ivy's husband, Calder's grandmother has a beautiful condo in downtown that she offered to let us stay in. We spend the last night there. We got cleaned up and met my friend, Valeen at the Red Iguana. That's one of Ivy and Calder's favorite places ever. It was really good.
After that we thought that we must have more cupcakes! We knew there was another Sweet Tooth Fairy somewhere near so poor Valeen.....she was on her motorscooter and we made her lead us on a wild goose chase through Salt Lake and got there like a minute before closing! She's our hero! Slept great in the condo and up early in the morning. We ate breakfast right down by Temple Sqare then walked around the visitor's centers awhile until Deseret Book opened. We were so jeolous because Glen Beck was having a book signing later in the day (that Ivy and Piper actually got to go to). Unfortunatley it wouldn't happen until we were on the plane.

Piper playing in the grass and flowers on Temple Square.

Piper and Nana!

Our flight home was about as bumpy as our flight there but I did manage to sleep for most of it. We actually did spend some time in a van like this because somehow we forgot where we parked in the garage. Andrea thought you were supposed to leave the slip with the spot # on the dash! Luckily the guy was patient and we eventually found the car. Drove straight to Andrea's cousins house for the night. Got up early the next morning, got the kiddos and back to Austin. Whitney and Mary-Catherine had a date for Saturday night and Evan, Taylor and Matt hit up Six Flags.....I know this is more details than anybody asked for but it's mainly for Andrea, Ivy and I to remember our trip. It was great!

Vegas, Baby!

2010-07-04T16:17:00.011-05:00

Piper and Silly Aunt Whitney and Ivy at Cafe Rio!

Sorry for the delay in updating. It's certainly not for lack of things to say. My wireless internet isn't working at home so I'm using the desktop which is at a desk with a hard chair. I usually blog from a comfy chair or even my bed so.....I'll sacrafice! Two days after we got home from the beach with the Zacharys, Whitney and I drove to Houston to fly to Las Vegas to visit Ivy, my oldest daughter, her husband and of course Piper, my beautiful grandaughter! We had a room at Circus Circus so Ivy and Piper stayed there with us and we had a three day sleep-over! We did see Calder at least everyday but honestly, I think he appreciated having them out of the house so he could study for the bar. It's coming up at the end of the month!
Highlights:

Piper, Piper, Piper!! She is getting so big and we just played and played the whole time. She was a little angel the entire time.
Seeing Mary and Ric, Ivy's wonderful mother and father-in-law. I'm so thrilled that Ivy and Calder will have them close by
Dinner with Mary, Ric, Mayce, Becca, Davis, Ivy, Calder and Piper. Ric treated us to a wonderful Mexican dinner and it was delightful!
Getting my new wedding ring (I got it the same week Piper was born) sized by Ric. It's been a little big but now feels perfect.
Swimming at the little water park with Whitney, Ivy and Piper. I swear, everyone that passed by stopped to comment on how cute and chubby Piper was in her little Juicy swimsuit. Piper loved the pool, so we took turns in with her while the others sunned and snacked. Perfect!
The actual circus in the middle of Circus Circus....Piper actually seemed to enjoy it. The others of us mainly made fun of it but we had fun. Also, making fun of the very ghetto pool at the hotel!
Tons of food~ Cafe Rio twice! Pick up Stix, the yummy Mexican place that I can't remember the name....it goes on and on....
Deseret Book and the upstairs place where I got new stuff!!!

The only bad part was it was over too quickly and we had to get on the plane and come back!!!

Law School Grad.....

2010-07-01T21:26:00.001-05:00

Congratulations to my wonderful son-in-law, Calder on his graduation from University of Minnesota School of Law! They have relocated to Las Vegas where he is soon to begin a two-year clerkship with a Federal Judge..... Congrats also to Ivy and Piper who helped him all along the way! Aren't they the cutest little family?? (Picture stolen from their blog!)

Back and gone again.......

2010-06-19T23:16:00.005-05:00

So Whitney and I made the trip home just fine. We flew from Bahrain to Frankfurt (which was a new airport for us) then on to Dallas. One of Whitney’s school friends, Jakk was on both flights all the way to Dallas so that made the time go by fast for her. After lunch at the airport Chili’s it was onto the tiny plane to Lake Charles. Thanks to Susan for the ride home! We were home for one full day before we took off again. Zack is in Biloxi on the oil spill and is staying in a condo there. Andrea and the girls invited Whitney and I to go. We had a great time. Highlights of the Biloxi trip:
• Whitney and Mary Catherine being way out in the Gulf and hearing a “doglike” noise behind them. They turn around to see a black fin super close to them. Andrea and I were laying in lounge chairs watching them run as if in slow motion wondering why in the world they were ditching the rafts. Andrea’s exact words: “It better be a shark!” Actually we learned that it was a dolphin. Hilarious….they just knew they were going to be eaten alive.
• Lots of food…..Bonefish Grill (Thanks Zack!), Piccadilly, McDonalds, IHOP, Andrea’s muffelata sandwiches, chocolate dipped pretzels and strawberries, etc….the eating just went on and on.
• The beach had no oil that we could see.
• The pools at the condo were super nice.
• Having a sing along all the way home helped the time go by. At the top of all our lungs, we covered Kenny Chesney, Ronnie Milsap, Kenny Rogers, Johnny Cash…..you get the picture.
So now we are home one more day before we take off for Las Vegas! Can’t wait to see Miss Piper (oh, and Ivy and Calder, too) We’ll come back the 25th and plan to stay home from then on. Evan will come July 2, Taylor later in July and Brad on August 1st. Hopefully at some point during the summer, my whole family will be together in one place at one time. Is that too much to hope for?

Another Rock-Star Performance....

2010-06-12T08:00:00.006-05:00

I know I've talked about Evan and his rock band before but he just loves it. Here is an article from the school news about their latest concert. So cute that his picture was featured with the article.

Bisak Rocks! Last Saturday evening, Mr. Craig and his rock bands traveled to the British International School of Al-Khobar (BISAK), to perform in Bisak Rocks. The school is located on the compound formally known as Al-Bustan and have a new rock band program this year. Mr. Craig has worked hard in recent years to collaborate with other rock bands from area schools in an effort to create more performance experiences for our musicians. It was another wonderful concert for our musicians as the quality of performances were strong and our kids enjoyed the chance to play for a large and very appreciative audience. While the last roadtrip of the school year, Mr. Craig and our rock band students look forward to another successful year of performances in 2010-11 as the program continues to thrive and grow!

What Being Too Sick for School looks like......

2010-06-02T05:21:00.004-05:00

All you need is a little fever, a cozy blanket you quilted yourself in quilting class, an xbox, Call of Duty, a laptop to chat with friends who may or may not be at school and a few Mountain Dews.... oh yeah, and a straight chair. It wouldn't work to sit on the comfy sectional three feet behind because the connection isn't quite as good there!

I'm kidding, he really was sick. He and Whitney both came down with strep two days ago and are on antibiotics. They are on the mend. In fact, Whitney had two finals today and did not have the luxury of staying home.

Whitney is 18......

2010-05-25T12:07:00.004-05:00

Can't believe our little Whitney is 18..... really, I just can't believe it. Here is a picture of her and her friend, Taylor in our yard before their dance preformance last night. For those of you confused, Whitney is the brunette....sometimes she's blonde but not now. Whitney changes her hair like the wind changes directions but she always looks beautiful!

We love you tons, Whitbit!

Piper the Skyper

2010-05-23T07:00:00.011-05:00

I LOVE that I can log onto my computer, get on Skype and see my adorable little grandaughter babbling, smiling, laughing and playing in real time!

She's like a little blurr of activity..........oh the wonders of modern technology!

The Red Sea is really Blue and crystal clear......

2010-05-23T04:56:00.022-05:00

I feel so blessed to have had another exciting "Arabian Adventure". We were able to take a trip to the Red Sea which is on the other side of Saudi Arabia (between Saudi and Egypt). One of the many perks of working for Aramco is the company jets. They fly all over for business and if they are not full, you can request a ride for a certain time. A few days before, they confirm if they have room for you. The best thing is that it's totally free! The one downside is that there are no guarantees that they will have room for your entire group. So....Donna, Rusty and Abigail....we missed you alot!! We will go again. For sure!Wednesday afternoon the Masons met us at our house and we headed to the Aramco airport. There we met new friends, Randy and Jennifer, who are new-hires with Aramco. We boarded our jet and headed to Yanbu. It's about a two hour flight. We checked into the Holiday Inn and checked out the buffet.

It was wonderful. Whitney enjoyed her seafood, including lobster, while Evan enjoyed his cheeseburger. Some things will never change. Brad and I got the buffet minus the grill.

After supper we met with Saad, our dive guy. He was great and fitted us all for our gear. Headed to bed for our big day the next day. We met him in the lobby at 5:00am and headed to the boat. Here are Evan and Christian enjoying the life.

The sea was beautiful. Crystal clear like a big swimming pool. Saad kept apologizing for the "visibility problem". We were like "What? It's crystal!" But he said it was a bad day and was usually much clearer. Wow!

We headed out to sea with Saad and a guy we called "Captain Jack". Before too long the waves became enourmous and Saad decided we needed to head back. We agreed! Wish I had a picture of the waves we were in but did not dare have my camera out. It would have been soaked. Brad was the only one who got seasick, and he was the most experienced. He was facing backwards in the boat so maybe that's why. This is when we were back in calm waters.

Evan and Brad got in a few good dives while the rest of us snorkled. The reefs and corals were amazing. We loved every minute of it. Saad had brought us a nice meal complete with sandwich stuff, yummy breads, chips, fruit and chocolate. So we sunned and dove and relaxed and ate. Here is Brad doing the second dive. It's hard to tell just how clear the water was.Evan loves diving!

A picture of Saad and "Captain Jack". The captain looks mean in this but really he was pleasant. No English, but he seemed nice.

I love this picture of all our feet. Leanne's idea!

After being out at sea all morning we got back to the hotel about 2:00. We couldn't wait to shower. Everybody was all salty and itchy and gross. We all cleaned up and napped. We did the hotel for supper again. At eight we all came to our room for American Idol. Can't break tradition even on vacation! (we get in here in Saudi, it's just a day later). We all turned in for the night. We decided to meet at 11:00 Friday morning which was great. It felt so good to sleep late. We had arranged the Holiday Inn bus to take us around all day. We went to check out the newest hotel in town, the Movenpik. It was stunning....yet empty! We were going to eat their buffet but had time to kill. So they gave us a tour of the hotel, including the Royal Suite, and all the options down from that. Very, very nice. We were surprised to see the beautiful pool and private beach totally empty on a beautiful weekend day. (Could it be that no women are allowed to swim in it??)

At 12:30 we went to the buffet. It was super good. Here's a shot of a few of the desserts. The bread pudding was my favorite.

We hit a few shops. Whitney and Evan both bought some new Saudi sandals.

We explored around old Yanbu and found the alleged house of Lawrence of Arabia and lots of ruins. Check out more pictures on my Facebook. We took tons and they are really interesting.

All in all, a perfect week-end. We got back on the plane about 9:00 and got back to Dhahran around 11:00. So glad to be able to share these experiences with my family and good friends.....although Ivy, Calder, Piper and Taylor~ we missed you and wish you could be here with us!

Blog Neglect and Prom.......

2010-04-23T23:08:00.005-05:00

Oh my goodness, I hate when people neglect their blogs and here I am doing the same thing. I got back to Saudi with no problems at all. The flights were all pleasant and on time and all my luggage arrived with me! Taylor road-tripped across the U.S. on his way from Louisiana to Idaho. He spent a week in Arkansas with his grandparents and enjoyed that. Now it's back to school for him! Ivy and Piper flew back to Minnesota with only minor distress. Apparently Piper spit/threw-up on the crowded tram onto other passengers carry-ons......Ivy said that luckily they were nice about it! Life has been normal/hectic since I've been back with the usual stuff. The kids are settled back into school after nice breaks and the count is on till the end of the school year. Whitney had prom this past week-end (Thursday) so that was fun. (she is in black on the far left posing with three of her good friends) She looked beautiful. Evan has started basketball and practices most afternoons. No earth-changing things to post~ just wanted everyone to know we are still alive and kicking in Saudi!

Piper meets her Peeps......

2010-04-03T16:00:00.020-05:00

Well, little Miss Piper has had a very busy week! Ivy and Piper and Whitney all flew into Bush (Houston) on the same day. Mary Catherine, Taylor and I headed out to get them. We met Ivy and Piper first then got on the tram to Terminal D to get Aunt Whit.... Piper has had lots of people anticipating her arrival in Louisiana! She did not dissapoint! Here she is with some of her Louisiana peeps (in no particular order)..........

Piper meets cousin Dillon.........

Piper sees Aunt Whitney again................

Piper meets Great Grandma Pogue...................

Piper meets Great Grandpa Pogue..............

Piper meets some of the Wyningers...................

Piper meets Mr. Zack...............

Piper meets Great PaPa Dees................

Piper meets Lily and Emma...............

Piper meets Cousin Lindsay...................

Piper meets Cousin Dan................

Piper meets Ms. Andrea................

Piper meets Uncle Taylor..................

Piper meets Great MaMa Dees................

I know she's met many more people. I need to add to this later. But just for the record......

Piper LOVED them all!

Louisiana Life......

2010-03-19T17:38:00.007-05:00

I've been in the States for a couple weeks now and somehow haven't found the time to blog.....at all! Taylor and I are just enjoying being here without alot of responsibilites. Our biggest decisions are who to play with that day. I finally got some yummy crawfish from Sausage Link! They were wonderful...

Here's a cute picture of Taylor and Alex with Jenny and her friend in Houston.

Here's a couple from our first night home. MaMa and PaPa along with Chris and Lindsay, the Zachary's, Jace, Jenny, etc. met us at the airport. We came home and they brought crawfish etouffe and chicken and sausage gumbo. The Wyningers came over along with Don and Susan, Jennifer and Chris and Matt. Matt and Taylor were in the MTC at the same time so he's just gotten home, too.

Taylor and Jace catching up.

Jenn, Chris and Matt Sorensen
Have to show off bit.....how about these cute letter wall hangings I made for Miss Piper?? They are bigger than they look here and super cute. I know she'll LOVE them...well, at least her mom will.
Taylor's new ride! He loves it. He and I were a good team going into the dealership to buy it. I was proud to get it all done without any help from Brad at all. We negotiated, bought it, got insurance, the whole nine yards.....he would have been proud! (of course we made a few calls to him for advice but not too much)
We're enjoying being here in Louisiana! Whitney will join us next week and so will Ivy and Piper. Brad's parents are also coming for a couple days so that'll be fun.

If you want an autograph, I'll see what I can do.....

2010-03-01T07:44:00.001-06:00

Update....

2010-02-26T15:38:00.004-06:00

I'm getting in trouble from all sides for not updating my blog, so sorry. We've been super busy but really, I just get out of the habit. We are just LOVING having Taylor with us. I feel so blessed that we were able to get his visa so easily and to have had so much time with him right after his mission. He's had a great time and so have we. He and I will fly back to the States on March 9 and spend about a month there before he goes back to BYU-I and I come back to Saudi. Whitney will join us over spring break and Ivy and Piper will too! Yay! Evan is opting to stay here in Saudi with Brad. He feels that the 5 or so days there aren't gonna be worth the 24-hour plane ride. Whitney disagrees. Of course, both kids and I will be back all summer again!

My son, the actor:
Evan has become a star of the stage! He took drama this year in school and LOVES it! He tried out for the musical, Mulan and got the part of Ling. Ling is the tall, lanky Chinese soldier. They've been practicing hard every day for months. It will be wonderful! He had his dress rehearsal Thursday and the shows are Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. I put up a couple pictures but look forward to some videos of his lines and songs. You’ll be so impressed! He's just so good!! (He's the tall one...)

Piper's Blessing Day

2010-02-08T13:29:00.005-06:00

Brad and I didn't have a very good day Sunday thinking about Piper being blessed in church and us not being able to be there. Things that made it better:

Beautiful pictures so easily shared with the amazing technology that we are blessed with today.
Her Grandma Mary and Grandpa Ric being able to be there with them.
Knowing that her parents cherish her and will raise her in a house full of Christlike love.
Thinking of how blessed I am to have been there as she entered the world and the first three weeks of her precious little life.
Knowing that I can see and snuggle her again just next month!

Piper- You are Nana and PaPa's special girl and we love you like crazy!!

Now click on Ivy's blog in my list on the right for a full account of the day..... if you think you can stand the cuteness!

Saints/Superbowl/Saudi/Sleepy.....

2010-02-07T10:19:00.003-06:00

Well, it's Superbowl Sunday! Superbowl has always been an important day at our house. We've had a party or gone to a party every year that I can remember...until last year when we moved to Saudi Arabia! But rest assured, we will be up at 2:00 am cheering for our Saints! We are eight hours later here in the Middle East. So we might be in our jammies with our blankets, but we will be watching..... WHO DAT??? Geaux Saints!

Taylor of Arabia......

2010-01-31T03:43:00.014-06:00

It's been almost two weeks since Taylor has been "home" and I can't believe I haven't blogged about it! We love having him here....and I feel certain, he loves being here. How could he not? The big choices of his day are whether to:

bowl

golf

workout

jog

swim

lay out

It's a hard life, but somebody's gotta do it...

Chilling on the Arabian/Persian Gulf

It's been so fun having him get to know all our friends here and showing him around. I think he's decided that he'd like to live here "for real" sometime in the future. He's descrbed it as "paradise". We're like "Really??" Of course he's been working hard in France for two years with not much time for entertainment. Another thing is most of the homes there are tiny so he thinks ours is extra big...I'm sure it will wear off!

A few more weeks and it's back to the real world of school (BYU-I) and work. Until then, we are loving Taylor being back with our family!

Updates....

2010-01-15T00:49:00.024-06:00

A few of my favorites:

Piper at one week in her stroller at the Ridgedale Mall

How about those rolls? Adorable? Yes! Why don't they look that good on me?

Piper is a true-blue Vikings fan just like her parents

Piper and her cute friend, Nate

She was a sport and endured being photographed in the tutu Nana made her.

You'd think since I've been so busy and have so much to post about that I would in fact, post! I spent December in Louisiana and had a wonderful Christmas season with friends and family. I was thrilled when Brad "surprised" me by replacing my engagement ring that I lost about seven years ago. It's beautiful and I love it and I love him! After Christmas in the 28th, I deserted ship and headed up to Minneapolis to be with Ivy when she had the baby. Brad, Whitney and Evan were left to take down the Chistmas tree and decorations and pack for Saudi. Packing for Saudi is a huge task in itself. I had a good flight from Lake Charles to Minneapolis. It was 0 degrees when I landed and didn't get much higher than that the whole two weeks I was there! So a very-pregnant Ivy and Calder picked me up at the airport. She looked exactly like she had a basketball under her shirt. I know people use this example alot, but that's really just what it looked like. We chilled that evening and the next morning, the three of us head to her doctor's appointment. We had planned to head straight to the Mall of America afterwards to walk, and walk, and walk but that wasn't necessary. They came out all smiles with Ivy announcing, "I'm having a baby tomorrow!" She had said going in that she planned to beg...guess it worked. We went back to the apartment and took down the Christmas tree. It was so prickly and sharp that they called it the "Tree of Death". We finally got all the lights and ornaments off and Calder, covered in a coat and heavy gloves, tossed it from their third story balcony. Then he went out and drug it around to the dumpster. The rest of the day was packing bags, charging cameras and cleaning stuff. We head to Abbott hospital at about 5:30 the next morning. It was a snowy day and we had a beautiful view of the city from her room. We watched tv and played Phase 10 all morning until things got too uncomfortable for Ivy. It was a long day but Ivy and Calder both did amazingly well and at about 9:30 that evening, Piper came into the world. That was December 30th, 2009. She is beautiful and healthy. Eight pounds and one ounce of adorable, chubby little girl! We stayed in that room for several hours until Ivy could get around enough to move to post-partum. By the time Calder drove me back to the apartment, it was 3:30 in the morning. He went back and stayed with Ivy. We spent the next day, New Year's Eve in the hospital and they came home on January 1. She is just a wonderful, sweet little girl who loves to sleep and eat. On the 4th of January, PawPaw (Brad), Uncle Evan and Aunt Whitney came to visit on their way back to Saudi Arabia. The kids got in some shopping and all got their turn at holding Piper. We took Piper on her first outing, a steakhouse not too far from their house. It was fun to get her out and have a wonderful meal beside a roaring fireplace. They were sad to leave but had to fly out the morning of the sixth. I spent the whole next week. Ivy, Piper and I enjoyed several trips to the mall and a few trips to Target. Piper loves to shop! All of us also accompanied her to the pediatrician twice, to church, to Chili's and to the movies. A girl on the go, that's for sure! I had to fly back on the 12th. It was hard to leave. I only cried a little and was proud of myself for staying composed. Ivy and Calder are wonderful parents. They work as a team and are obviously crazy about Piper and each other. That made leaving easier. They will do just fine! I had an ok flight. I did have to stay on plane for three hours at Heathrow waiting for the plane to Bahrain to be de-iced. It was fine though because the plane wasn't full at all and I had three seats to myself. I threw back those armrests and slept. It's nice to be back with Brad and the kids. We are eagerly waiting for Taylor to fly in Tuesday night!! The jet-lag is yucky as usual but will pass soon. I'll try to do better at updating. Sorry about this marathon post!

The Cutest Kid Ever!

2009-12-31T02:56:00.005-06:00

Our adorable grandaughter, Piper Elizabeth Huntington came into the world today. She weighed in at 8 lbs and 1 oz. and 21 inches long. Ivy did great! Calder did great! It's been an amazing day. We're exhausted. I'll post more about her later. But right now, she's perfect- enough said!

Cousins Gingerbread Party '09.....

2009-12-23T23:38:00.013-06:00

For alot of years now, we've gotten together with my parents and my brother's family and made gingerbread houses. I was reminded that we skipped last year because we moved right before Christmas. We were glad to be back into tradition this year. Tonight they all came over, ate crawfish soup and got creative. Dan and his finished house.
Lindsay also did an awesome job.
Evan's ark! Amazing.....
Dustin and Whitney

The neighborhood of houses....
. We always have a great time doing this. We love our cousins and have missed them so much!

Hot Springs.....

2009-12-23T23:23:00.009-06:00

Brad flew into town on Thursday night. Friday night was the Zachary's party and Saturday mornng we left for a quick trip to Hot Springs! We had a great time. When we got there, Christmas dinner was all ready. We ate way too much all week-end but we had a great time.

In this picture, Whitney, Devon and Aunt Stephanie are watching YouTube videos and Emily is getting a back massage from Evan. Doesn't she look comfortable?? Brad posing with the fried turkey that Victor cooked. It was delicious!
The real turkey cook!
Evan and Devon spent alot of time playing football in the front yard.
Glad we got to make the trip even though it was a quick one!

Skyping......

2009-12-23T23:12:00.006-06:00

I think I finally know how to "Skype" now! I've been wanting to get it all figured out before the new grandbaby arrives. One night while we were in Hot Springs, Ivy and Calder let us test it out on them.

Modern technology amazes me!

Fun in the Car.......

2009-12-14T22:52:00.009-06:00

We are having a great time being home. It's been so fun to see my parents, cousins and friends. We've been on the run the whole week. I haven't taken even one picture since we've been back in Louisiana! Not sure why.... but last night Andrea and I and all the kids went to Vidor to a Christmas concert that they did at the church there. (which was wonderful, by the way) On the way home I passed a camara back and had them take some of themselves. We were entertained by Evan and Alex singing all the way home.

One more from Thailand.....

2009-12-05T13:59:00.031-06:00

Can you stand one more post on Thailand?? ~ We went to the most beautiful flower garden I have ever seen. It was called the King Mother's Garden. I loved it so much! Nothing really to say in words....just check out the beauty.

Our trip to Thailand.......(next eight posts!)

2009-12-05T05:38:00.002-06:00

Beautiful! Whitney and Angelina
We just got back from a trip of a lifetime! We feel so blessed to have been able to do this. We went to Thailand for six days! It wasn't quite long enough but we were able to see lots of things. Brad's friend from work, L.D. has a house in Chaing Mai, Thailand. His wife, Pin, lives there with their little girl, Angelina. L.D. flew over with us and we met Pin. It was so wonderful having them with us. They showed us all the sights and we loved every minute of it. The next eight or nine posts are dedicated to our trip. There was just nothing I could leave out. And I still have a few posts. I'll add them soon. And y'all better leave me some comments! This is LD, Pin and Angelina! Our wonderful hosts!

Laos and Burma........

2009-12-05T05:37:00.013-06:00

The original plan was to visit Burma and Laos. But by the time we got to the Burmese border it was too late to go in. The border closed at 6:00 pm. We tried again the next morning but were afraid it'd take too long to get back out so we settled for this picture by the gate. You can see the Burmese flag flying on the other side. I'd say we were close enough to add it to our list of countries. What do you think? But Laos, we visited! Right when we got off the boat and inside the country, we made some new friends. Whitney had on her LSU cap and we hear someone say "LSU??" We turn around to some cap-wearing 'Bama fans. We had a fun chat with them about football, etc. (Just for the record, all those beer bottles belong to the 'Bama fans, not the LSU's!)
Some adorable little girls who wanted 5 baht for me to take their picture. So cute. Very humbling.
Evan holding a bottle of something with a cobra in it....or was it a scorpion...both were available.
Whitney with the flag of Laos.
Who would have ever thought the Pogues would be in Laos?? Not me! (by the way, I'm standing downhill. I look shorter than normal in this picture)

The Food........

2009-12-05T05:08:00.009-06:00

We were all proud to have stepped out of our comfort zones on the food. I have to admit I was a little worried before we went. I am not a very adventurous eater at all. But most of it was really delicious and we loved it. Here are a few pics:

Well, it was all good until this point! Evan and Brad gave this a try but it was all I could do to look at it and prop it up for the picture. This was at a restaurant near the Burmese border.
Here is Evan giving it a try. Evan, the guy who eats plain hamburgers with ketchup only.......

Buddhist temples........

2009-12-05T03:12:00.022-06:00

Most of the Thai people are Buddhists. It was so interesting to see their temples. We ended up touring quite a few of them. This one was totally white and just beautiful. They are very ornate.

I love these next two pictures of Whitney and Pin. Pin is helping her light a candle at the Doi Suthep temple when we were on the Golden Triangle tour. The lotus flowers were so pretty.

I was always under the impression that a monk was a monk for life. Well, not so in all cases. We were taught that almost all young men are monks at one time or another in their lives for varied times- maybe a year, two years, etc..... We saw monks in their orange robes of all ages, all over!

We noticed this sign but didn't really have time to go chat with a monk but I'm sure it would have been interesting!

Elephant tricks..............

2009-12-05T02:34:00.014-06:00

We met some pretty talented elephants at the camp. This one was an amazing artist. I've seen this on tv and was sceptical but I saw it with my own eyes. He even cleaned up his own supplies!

Got to watch a few play a game of soccer.

Evan feeding one some sugar cane.....
If an elephant was gonna reach out and touch someone, Whitney didn't want it to be her! She got braver after a few minutes and was feeding them, too.
An elephant put a hat on me.....never had that happen before.
This was a great little park and we really loved it. Elephants look like the happiest animals ever. We all agreed on that.

Foot massages.................

2009-12-05T02:31:00.009-06:00

One of the best parts of the trip and we took advantage of this almost every night! I had heard about the awesome Thai foot massages and was not disappointed. Let's do the math....140 Thai baht for one hour-we all got half-hour massages each night so 70 baht. 70 Thai baht=$2.10 in U.S. dollars! Has to be the best bargain in the entire world- HEAVEN! Evan finishing up and gettin on his shoes while Whitney and Pin relax and enjoy!
L.D. seems to be enjoying his, as well!

Anyone heading to Thailand, put the foot massages on the top of your list!

Need a second job......

2009-12-05T02:04:00.008-06:00

We stopped at an elephant camp to see some shows. First we fed bananas and sugarcane to them then they all went down into some water to play around for the crowd. We noticed something rather gross, so if you have a weak stomach, skip the rest of this post! It was even nastier than the pictures indicate.... So if you are in Thailand and need a job, maybe you can appy for one like this....first the lady pushed up her pants legs and wandered down into the water with a basket.
Then as the elephants poop in the water and it floats downstream, she catches it in her laundry basket.....oops, you missed some! There is a net to catch any leftovers.
We learned that they collect it to help fertilize the rice fields.
Not on my list of career choices but impressed............. Poor lady!! Can you imagine??

The elephant ride.....

2009-12-05T01:13:00.015-06:00

Quite possibly the funnest thing ever! After we left the elephant camp, our tour guide took us to a place that wasn't for tourists. They had elephant rides at the camp but ours were "authenic". The had some rice farmers ride us around on their "work elephants". Amazing! I kept having to tell myself, "I'm really on an elephant with a rice farmer sitting on it's head steering by the ear somewhere in a jungly area in Thailand!" Just surreal. The scenery was beautiful. Honestly, it was a little scary at times but we trusted in our barefoot farmer who couldn't speak a word of English, for some reason. Well, maybe they were the farmer's sons. They looked about 15 and kept getting off the elpehants to roll smokes!
Rollar coaster?
Look how close they were to the edge in this next one and how much Whitney is squishing Evan!

L.D, Pin and Angelina waiting for us.
Their "driver" let Evan be in charge for awhile. He loved it! Truly, this was the chance of a lifetime. We had a blast and would do it again tomorrow if we could!

Tribal Villagers

2009-12-05T00:28:00.011-06:00

As part of our Golden Triangle tour we got to visit a few tribal villages in the jungle near the Burmese border. It was amazing and humbling. Some of the pictures are mixed but most of these are the Longneck People. Most have come from Burma but we learned there are no records of these people anywhere. They are not Thai citizens and can't go out into the country. As long as they stay in the jungle, the government doesn't bother them. They grow a few crops and sew things to sell to the tourists. It was hard to imagine that these people live like this in today's world....but they seemed happy. Evan posing with one of the Longnecks.
This little boy walked all the way down to the village with us and made sure we had walking sticks to help us on our way. Our tour guide spoke to him and learned that he was in the fifth grade. As we were leaving he showed up at our van waiting for his tip. He was adorable. We didn't see it but heard that there is a school room where they are taught in one of the huts.
Another beautiful child. Notice she is having her soup for lunch. One thing we noticed is they seemed happier before the pictures were taken. They look sad in them but didn't before. Maybe they just don't like to pose for pictures??
These precious little girls met us as we walked up by singing Happy Birthday in English. We were told that they probably learned it from Christian missionaries and now sing it to all non-Thai people that come by.
One of my favorite pictures of the trip. This little girl couldn't have been more than six or so. She is hard at work weaving a scarf. We were told they work on these all the time and finish two in two or three days. They are sold for the equivalent of $3. Notice the strap around her back supporting her. We got to pick up a set of rings that they wear around their necks and trust me, they were HEAVY!!
Whitney and a Longneck girl.
She was from anothe tribe. All of them had the big ear things. We were just struck by how beautiful they all were.

Rockband in Abqaiq.....

2009-11-14T14:06:00.016-06:00

I could go on and on about how wonderful Evan's school is....but that's another post. One of his favorite things, last year in eighth and this year in ninth is what's known as Rockband (nothing to do with the game). It's a class where they play and learn instruments from Mr. Craig. (Evan still plays the trumpet in the 'real' band, but this is cooler and funner!) Evan already plays the guitar and the bass so he tried out for the afterschool Rockband and enjoys that. They stay after school and practice several times a week and preform. This past Thursday (like our Saturday) they had a preformance in Abqaiq (pronounced Ab-Cake) about an hour from us. Brad and I and some other parents rode with them on the Aramco bus. An extra bonus was that it was Abqaiq's "International Cuisine Day"! Lots of booths selling yummy and interesting foods. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed spending the afternoon listening to all the bands.

Bands from all the Aramco schools played three or four songs each. Some were quite good and some were just ok, but all of them had a great time.

Here's a shot of the wonderful Mr. Craig with his awesome three-necked guitar. He's also Evan's Geometry teacher.

Evan waiting for their turn to play. He doesn't seem happy to notice Brad has the camara on him, does he? We rode the bus back to Dhahran about six. Very enjoyable day!

Halloween '09....

2009-11-14T11:44:00.005-06:00

Halloween is always a big deal in our family. Back at home, we always had a huge party with chili and treats and tons of people. We were feeling a little sorry for ourselves here in Saudi but it turned out to be really fun. Here are the nerds, Whitney and Angelina with their basketball star friend, Tori.

The Mason's invited us over for a delicious "dinner in a pumpkin". We sat in their driveway and handed out candy and all the kids took off trick-or-treating.

Evan went as an Aramco worker. Check out the Nomex.

A couple more pictures of the nerds. And a big shout out to my talented, crafty, thoughtful friend, Kristin, for making me the cute Halloween banner in the background. She also sent me a Thankful one for Thanksgiving! I love them!

Fish Market.....

2009-10-28T15:50:00.003-05:00

First off, sorry for the bombardage of posts all in one day. I don't update for a month, then I post four at once. Anyway, took a fun trip yesterday and wanted to tell you about it.
I am a member of the Women's Group here at Aramco. They have weekly meetings, activities and it's just a generally fun group. Yesterday they hosted a trip to Dammam, a city about half an hour away to visit a fish processing plant, fish market, herb shop and vegetable market. We left on the bus at 7:00 am. These are my two good friends, Leanne and Donna, on the bus. These ladies make living here fun! First we arrived at the fish processing plant and immediately had to put on these "surgical" looking caps, gowns and masks. Guess they didn't want germs getting on their fish! At first I thought the masks were for the smell but there really was no stink at all.

They gave us a nice tour then served us a fishy snack. (see later post.)

We saw fish of all colors, shapes and sizes. Some were pretty, some were not!

Next stop: Vegetable Market!

A few funny things from the trip......

2009-10-28T15:43:00.006-05:00

Between the fish and veggie markets, we stopped at a little herb store. We found a couple of interesting items!

A closer look so you can read it.......so....what do you think this is for?? Oh, and darn those "manufactural" cycles, aren't they a pain?? (click to enlarge)

I've been meaning to post a picture of one of these. This is what a typical Saudi restroom stall looks like! Yes, basically a hole and the floor with no toilet paper. But there is the handy, dandy sprayer. At the bigger places like the malls, theaters, etc. there is usually the option of a "Western" toilet. And the floors are always soaked even if they are clean! Go ahead and try to get a visual of us maneuvering this situation with no hooks to hang your purse and doning a floor-length black abaya! You'll enjoy it!

And yes, my friends, those really are skinned goats you see hanging. Tempted??

Never a lack of something fun to see here in Saudi Arabia!

Vegetable and Fruit Market.....

2009-10-28T13:45:00.027-05:00

I cannot even begin to tell you how great the vegetable market was!
These guys love to have their pictures taken. He was pretty proud of his squash.

Now I really do understand that these are way, way, way too many pictures of fruit and veggies. The problem was I love them all and couldn't decide which ones to post, so.......I posted lots, but trust me, it's not all!

....and can I say how much I love my new camera?!?!?!

Here are all the ladies loading our stuff onto the bus.

After the market, we were brought back to a beautiful park in Dhahran for an Arabic picnic. Donna, Leanne and I decided it would be fun to unload all our stuff on my front lawn and take pictures of it. So fun!

It was just a super fun day!

Fish Sticks......

2009-10-28T09:19:00.009-05:00

Ever wonder how fish sticks are made. The wondering is all over for me! We watched it first hand at the fish processing plant. It all starts with a big, rectangular block of frozen fish. They put it through a machine that cuts it into little rectangles.A little guy stands there and straightens them all out.

Next, they are sent through a stream of flowing batter.

After the tour they had us go in a lunch room and they served us fish sticks and fried shrimp.

Just for the record, this place was super clean and I would totally buy Alasmak brand of fish.

Day trip to Bahrain.....

2009-09-23T09:49:00.013-05:00

So since Brad and the kids were off of school and work this week we took a little trip to Bahrain with two other families. We had the best time. The Masons rode with us and we followed the Moselys. There wasn't much traffic on the causeway so we got there in record time. We went straight to Ric's, our favorite American restaurant in town. We got our fill of bacon and sausage since we can't get that here in Saudi. After we ate all we could, we drove over to the Gulf Hotel and checked it out. It's is super nice and we were all tempted to stay the night and if we had brought extra clothes, I know we would have. The pool was beautiful and so tempting! (There was some talk of a ladies' slumber party there at the Gulf when all the kids and guys are at Youth Conference) We headed to the Seef Mall and caught some movies. The choices weren't great for once. Whitney and I saw "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" or something like that- not great. The guys saw something else. We shopped around awhile then ate at Johnny Carino's. Delicious! More shopping at City Centre and some Cold Stone ice cream. Whitney had heard that Pinkberry was open there now but we could only find the sign that it was "coming soon". Cold Stone was just fine! It was such a nice day.
Here are a few scenes from the day:

Whitney outside the mall in front of the Johnny Carino's sign

All the kids relaxing at the Gulf Hotel

Evan posing with the newspaper man. (Notice he is holding Evan's hand in the picture. Haha Here that is just a friendly gesture. He was a nice guy and happy to pose with us!)

At the Grand Mosque posing behind some columns

Whitney and Tori by the Ric's sign

The whole group enjoying a good old American breakfast complete with all the pork we wanted!!

A little spoiled?

2009-09-19T06:49:00.003-05:00

Quote of the week: I think we are getting a little spoiled. We drove in the driveway last night and noticing that the light outside the garage was burned out, I commented that we needed to change it. Without a second thought, Brad says "Well, call maintenance." Uh...serious?? We both had a good laugh. "No, I'll change it tomorrow." (He really WAS serious until he realized how ridiculous that would have been.)

Dates.....

2009-09-13T08:47:00.012-05:00

If you would have told me last year that I would love to eat dates, I wouldn't have believed it. I'm not a very adventurous eater and I'd just never been introduced to dates before. But let me just say, they are delicious and very abundant here.

They are heavy on all the trees so the outside maintenence guys trim the trees and they just drop down in the street. Our friends gathered a bunch and brought them to church for whoever wanted them. We put them in a bowl and have been eating them all week. I did a little research and found that they are about 20 calories each. No wonder they taste like candy!

Update.....

2009-09-12T02:04:00.010-05:00

Sorry I haven't been doing very good at actually writing and giving information on my blog. Sometimes it's just easy to stick up pictures but that's just not the same.

* The kids are all back in school and things are going good. Whitney is taking "Beginning Guitar" at the Acadamy and she's really liking it and catching on. We took her to Rashid Mall and she picked out a nice acoustic guitar and a white strap with pink flowers! Evan is excited about Rock Band (not the game). At his school, there is an enrichment class called Rock Band where they learn the basics of some instruments and preform some music. He already had taught himself to play the guitar so he loved that class last year. This year he tried out for the after-school preforming Rock Band and got one of the lead guitar spots. He'll love that. (He still plays the trumpet in the regular band.)

* We've been having fun doing some actvities with friends. Some girl friends and I have decided to have a Phase 10 game day a few afternoons a month and we had the first one last week. Our ladies group from church also has a Lunch Bunch one day a month and Book Club one night a month. This month we read The Sunflower by Richard Paul Evans. I didn't love the book but the discussion was fun and uplifting. Next month is Three Cups of Tea. I'm just getting started on that but think it'll be a winner.

* For those of you who don't know, this is the holy month of Ramadan here in Saudi Arabia. (well, in all Muslim countries) It's been SO interesting to witness. Basically, they fast all day then after the evening prayer, they feast! Brad says that the Muslims at work generally leave about one in the afternoon, go home and nap, then party with friends and family. The word 'party' has a whole different meaning here, though. No alchohol allowed in this country. They seem to just be out and about with friends and family enjoying themselves. The stores and malls all stay open until the middle of the night. We've been at nine or ten and things are just starting to liven up. We had heard about the Ramadan sales but haven't been that impressed. Brad did get his prescription glasses at a huge discount and that was good.

* We had a "girl's night out" to the Dhahran Mall the other night and that was so fun! Me and a few friends and Whitney and her friend, Tori went on the 9:00 bus and took the 11:00 bus back. I think we all got a pair of shoes. Whitney bought a pillow. Nothing too exciting as far as purchaces but lots of fun and laughter.

* When you move to Saudi Arabia, there is a whole lot of lingo that you have to learn that you've never heard before! One of those words is "eid". Everybody is always talking about what they are going to do "over the eid", etc....Actually there are two eids. One is the week after Ramadan from what I can gather and work and schools are closed. That will start next week so lots of people are planning trips, etc. I think we're gonna stay here and plan some little day trips and beach days, etc. For whatever the reason, the kids having a few days off school is always welcome! And it'll be fun to have Brad home, too.

* We got the kids rooms painted and they look really good. Whitney's is bright blue and Evan's is bright orange. And when I say bright, I mean bright! I'll get some pics up soon. I haven't yet because we don't have curtains up or anything so I want to wait until you can get the whole effect. A funny thing that happened the day the rooms got painted: We'd gone down to get the paint the night before and made arrangements for the painter (from the store) to come the next day. The guy we bought the paint from drove the painter to the house. (of course I had to go to the security gate and sign them in) The painter didn't speak English at all. Well, maybe a few words....so the main guy dropped him off with his supplies and left him with me at the house for the day! (all the workers I have ever encountered here are super sweet and respectful and this one was no different) He of course was Muslim and fasting so I tried to eat my lunch in the living room, etc., so as not to make him hungry. So he basically painted all day long with no food, no water, no breaks, no trip to the bathroom, etc. We were amazed. So his boss called late in the afternoon to see if he was done. I went to check and realized that he'd been done for awhile and was just standing in the room! He would never have dreamed of coming out into our living area without being asked or even taking a seat in the rooms he was painting. So I invited him into the living room while he waited for his ride. Next thing I knew, he was sitting on the front steps in the 115 degree heat so I insisted he come in and sit. The kids were home by now and playing American Idol in the living room. I thought they'd get quieter with him in there but just the opposite. At one point, Whitney is blasting into the mike, "I tell you what I want, what I really, really want.....". That poor, poor man!! He smiled the whole time and was truly entertained. At one point they even offered him the microphone. He politely declined. I think he was very relieved when his ride got there and he could leave this home of wild, crazy Americans!

So ok, I feel better now that I've actually typed some stuff about our life as we know it! To all our friends and family, we miss you all, but we are doing fine!

* To Andrea- stop working so we can talk more! I can't solve the world's problems without you!!

The road to Aramco.....

2009-09-10T16:42:00.017-05:00

I decided to post some pictures of the drive into Aramco. It is honestly, well....not so pretty! Soon I will do a contrast post on how beautiful things are inside the compound. They really do a great job of keeping things nice and green. Anyway, this is what it looks like when we drive back home from Al-Khobar, the next town over.

....the highway, the security posts, the guard gates, some medical buildings, some workers....then we reach home, sweet, home!

Just Yummy......

2009-08-25T03:30:00.002-05:00

sha·war·ma (shə-wär'mə)
n. Meat, especially beef, chicken, or lamb, that is roasted slowly on a spit and wrapped in pita bread, traditionally served with lettuce, tomato, and garlic sauce.

[Arabic šāwurma, šāwirma, from Turkish çevirme, a turn (as on a spit), meat roasted on a spit, from verbal n. of çevirmek, to turn.]

Whitney's Jr. Year.......

2009-08-24T23:46:00.009-05:00

Whitney started school this week. Her first day was Saturday. That seems odd but remember our week-ends here are Thursday and Friday so Saturday is really like Monday. She goes to Dhahran High School. Most people call it "The Academy". I'm not sure if it was once named that or what but that's what it's called. Her school is not within the walls of the compound. The Aramco schools only go through ninth grade. But an Aramco bus picks of all "The Academy" kids in front of their houses and transports them to and from school. She gets on the bus about 7:30 and gets home by 3:15. School has been quite a culture shock for her but she's made several good friends and I'm sure this year will be even better. Here's a picture of her on the way out the door on the first day and of the bus she rides. It's certainly not your everyday yellow school bus!

Love you, Whitney and hope you have a great year!

Red Sea Diving....

2009-08-21T22:00:00.005-05:00

I've been meaning to post this picture of Brad for awhile. After we left for home, Brad and some friends took a little dive trip. He loved it! They got on the Aramco plane and flew to Yanbu on the other side of Saudi Arabia on the Read Sea. Enlarge to see all the tiny fish around him. What an adventure!

We're back......

2009-08-20T16:15:00.000-05:00

I've done an awful job keeping the blog updated over the summer. Hopefully now that I'm back in Saudi, I'll be able to do a better job. We had a great summer at home in Louisiana. It was extra nice being there with no job, no school, no real responsiblities. It was basically, Who are we going to play with today!? We got to spend lots of time with family and friends which was great. We flew back on August 16. We rented a car and drove to Houston and flew out about 4:00 pm. We didn't have any trouble at all. Of course, it's a looooong way, but the trip was uneventful, thank goodness. We flew into Bahrain this time. Brad had parked the car at a parking garage so it was easy just to get it and drive over the causeway back to Saudi Arabia. We stopped at McDonald's in Bahrain because the kids won't touch the airplane food. It was really nice to come into our house here and see everything just how we left it. The kids stayed up all that night and slept all the next day. I tried to sleep a little but still woke up early. Jet-lag is a very strange thing. Brad had to get up first thing in the morning and be at work so he didn't have any options! I got busy unpacking all the stuff we brought back and washing clothes. My friend Donna dropped by and it was great to see her again after all this time. When the kids finally woke up, they got together with some friends and hung out. Of course we've already eaten our schwarmas and stir-fry that they sell by the pool every week-end! School starts Saturday for Whitney so that will give us more of a routine. I think Evan starts a week from Saturday. Sometime Wednesday, Evan and I both came down with a summer cold. We feel bad but hopefully they won't last long! Picked up our dog, Chelsea from the kennel Wednesday. She acted pretty mad at us for a few hours, pouting and laying by the wall. We aren't sure if she's mad or if she really misses the little guys that took care of her at the kennel. She probably got way more attention there than she does at home. She got back to her old self by that evening. I'm planning to do alot of organizing this coming week. Also, going to get back in the habit of going to the gym everyday. Walking on my favorite walking track is out of the question until it cools off a little! We'll miss all our Louisiana people that we love! Don't forget to call.....

My bribe.....

2009-08-20T16:14:00.000-05:00

I think Brad was a little worried about me getting back on the plane after having so much fun with everyone in Louisiana. So I guess he thought I needed a bribe. One day I came home and he had bought me the Nikon D-90 that I've wanted for a long time! I am so excited to have it but honestly, am feeling totally overwhelmed by it! I even took a photography course here before we left for summer and still don't feel like I know anything about this camera. I'm trying to read and learn and I know in time, I'll catch on! Thanks, honey, I love it! (and I really was gonna get on the plane....)

The night before we left.....

2009-08-20T16:13:00.013-05:00

.....a party happened. It didn't start out as a party. A few friends and family dropping by to say good-bye turned into lots and lots of people. We had a great time seeing everybody and getting to visit. Even though Brad and I spent most of the evening in the back packing boxes and bags, lots of people came back to keep us company! It was so fun! (you can also see that I got my Christmas tree up so when we get back in December, I won't have to do it!)

Ivy's baby shower.....

2009-08-20T16:13:00.012-05:00

While Ivy and Calder were in town, some friends put on a fun baby shower for Ivy! It was so fun and extra special because both of Ivy's grandmothers could be there. She got tons of pretty little pink dresses, outfits and headbands. All adorable. We had so much fun laying them all out on the floor and mix-n-matching things.

So.....this will be one well-dressed little girl! Thanks everybody! It was a blast!

Another fun thing about the shower.....

2009-08-20T16:12:00.000-05:00

So my friend Debbie that lives in Saudi is in Houston for a little while. She is friends with LouEllen whom I've known for a long time and is the sister of my friend, Susan. Debbie and LouEllen decided to drive over for the shower. It was SO fun to have them here and to let Debbie meet all my friends! They even came over to the house after and we talked and laughed until the wee hours of the morning.
Debbie and I

Debbie, LouEllen and Susan

Youth Conference.....

2009-08-05T01:57:00.009-05:00

Whitney and Evan went to Youth Conference last week at Northwestern in Natchitoches, La. This was Evan's first year. They both had a great time hanging out with all their friends. Here's a few random shots:

If you haven't heard........

2009-08-03T18:28:00.003-05:00

Ivy and Calder went to the ultrasound today....Our grandbaby is going to be a sweet little girl! She's due December 30th and is right on schedule. I'm sure Ivy will put the pictures on her blog soon. She is adorable!

Week-end in Hot Springs....

2009-07-24T00:51:00.017-05:00

We really had a fun time this week-end. Whitney, Evan and I decided to take the eight hour trip to go visit Brad's parents in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The day or so before Whitney decided to ask Mary Catherine to come along, too. She had been there before with us and what's one more when you only have two kids and you're used to four! We decided to try out our new GPS thing. It took me a different route than we're used to and got there at least forty-five minutes faster. Of course, we made quite a few stops for food, snacks and restrooms.

Evan and Mary Catherine relaxing at the table. Maybe they were waiting for dinner? We probably all gained at least five pounds in the three days. Mary and Jerry served us homemade burritos, barbequed chicken, grilled hamburgers, homemade vanilla ice-cream, cookies, etc... It was all delicious!

A great big thanks to Grandpa for spending many, many hours pulling the kids around the lake! Here are Whitney, Mary Catherine, Devon and Emily waiting for the adventure.

Cousin Time: Devon and Emily are getting so big and we got to spend alot of time with them. Lots of hair done, cookies eaten and house played... So fun!

Emily is the queen of accesories! She just finished kindergarten and it's always different bling.... fancy necklaces, glitter head-bands, high heels...Adorable!

Another round on the tube. I told Jerry immediately that the screaming would not stop with these two, but that it meant NOTHING! Some people just enjoy screaming, I guess. The ride got wild and intense later for sure, but this was taken at the very beginning of the ride.

Love this shot of Whitney and her Grandpa!

The kids spent alot of time floating and relaxing in the lake. Their house is right on beautiful Lake Hamilton.

We lived in Hot Springs for a few years in the late 80's when we just had the older kids. In fact, Taylor was born there. Sunday we decided to go visit our old Church. It had been several years since we went there and it was SO fun to see everybody. It's been about twenty years since we moved away but we saw some dear friends and got to visit a little bit. We headed home Monday. Whitney drove 90% of the way home which was very nice. I couldn't exactly relax enough to sleep but it was great to not have to drive. So thanks, Mary and Jerry, for putting up with us. It was sure fun......

Scenes from summer so far....

2009-07-07T20:58:00.028-05:00

It's kind of amazing how this seems just like a normal summer. We've fallen right back into our summer routine of late nights and lazy days! We've really been enjoying ourselves. Here are some photos of our comings and goings........ Friends and Jo's Party House cupcakes.....
Like always, the Fourth of July community band concert and fireworks at the Civic Center over the lake. (OK, this photo is from google images but they really were good this year)

Whitney added a fun red strip to the back of her hair for summer.

Just a shot of some of the remnants of about 8 young men staying over with Evan and playing video games all night long.....really, no sleep whatsoever.

My very favorite thing, lots of crosswords. Thanks to Susan for the whole stack of "whole", "unedited" People magazines!

Taylor Z. in his thobe and ghutra that Whitney brought him from Saudi! They are headed to the mall like this. Not sure what ensued there but sometimes, it's just best not to know.....oh my goodness!

Girl's nights! We've had several late nights with the girls, talking and catching up. Here's a shot of Andrea with her yummy fruit pizza. Nobody else wanted their picture taken but it was fun.

A closer up shot of the red strip.....

Ivy came to visit last week-end and we hit the Bluebell pretty hard.....

Whitney, Lenae, Sydney and Alex at the fountain cooling off and having fun.....

Ivy with Whitney and Evan before we had to bring her back to the airport! Look at her CUTE little baby bump!! That's my grandchild and it's adorable already......

OK, Ivy.......

2009-07-01T18:20:00.003-05:00

Come on, we're ready................

Whitney's Utah trip.....

2009-07-01T01:01:00.012-05:00

Whitney had a fun trip to Utah. It all started when Andrea and I figured out that the kids wouldn't see each other for two weeks after we got home. We decided that Whitney should fly out to Utah to meet them. They had driven their motorhome out there for a vacation and then drop Alex off at the MTC. He'll be going to Madagascar (French speaking) for his two year church mission. Anyway, Whitney was excited and it was a big surprise for the Zachary kids. Maybe Andrea will post the video later of when they saw each other. It's adorable.

Kristin was nice enough to ride with me over to Houston to drop Whitney off at the airport. We ate some yummy Mexican food close to the airport. I was so glad she went with me because we got to chat and catch up the whole way. Whitney and Mary Catherine- Besties!

Taylor Z. and Whitney in front of the temple.

Sarah Beth, Mary Catherine, Lily and Whitney.

An "air hug" for Elder Zachary! So proud of him and know he will do a great job.

Another tire mishap.....

2009-07-01T00:48:00.013-05:00

One of the first days back we met up with friends at Casa Ole'. Here are Whitney and Evan with Mitchell, Trevor and Elaine.

Unfortunately, Whitney and Elaine had a blow-out on the way to the restaurant. Luckily they were barely moving when it happened and were able to get into an empty parking lot. So that was a unexpected surprise- buying new tires for a truck that is driven a few months out of the year. Not too fun....but thankfully it wasn't worse.

My goodness, I had never even seen a tire do this before.

A cute shot of Whitney and her friend since birth, Elaine! They were born three weeks apart.

Welcome home messages...

2009-07-01T00:39:00.008-05:00

We got home to see our cars and trucks decorated with Welcome Home messages from Lenae. It was really cute and fun. I eventually washed my van after about a week, just because I got tired of people trying to read it going down the street. Whitney and Brad's are still like this!

We also had big Welcome Home signs inside courtesy of Mary Catherine. For some reason I didn't get a picture of that before it fell down. But take my word for it, it was cute. Whitney's truck said "I missed your guts". We missed yours, too! Thanks for the warm welcome home, girls!

New Flower Beds....

2009-07-01T00:33:00.004-05:00

It was so wonderful to come home to freshly manicured flower beds with new bark and new plants. Thank you "Bishop Aaron". You aren't quite as cheap as our "yard-boy" in Saudi but you did a great job. They look awesome. Lynetta, tell him his work is now published.

We've been home a week........

2009-06-25T15:39:00.009-05:00

I just realized that I've been back in Louisiana for a week now and I just can't believe how fast time is flying! It's been so fun already. We got in to Lake Charles airport (I use the word airport loosely as the actual building was destroyed during Hurricane Rita and the new one is in progress). We were excited to get off the plane to find my parents, some cousins and friends all waiting to greet us. My ankles were swollen so bad it was like a freak show. I guess just from being in a sitting position for 24 hours or so. They got better after I put them up for awhile. Much to our dismay, none of our three huge suitcases arrived when we did and they acted like they had no idea where they could be! I knew they had gotten to Dallas because we took them through customs. (they arrived late the next day) We got home and were happy that our house looked just the same. Actually much better because our flower beds had been done. They look great. Our cars were decorated with windshield paint- so cute. Mom and Dad came over for awhile and so did the cousins. Later on, Kristin and Susan came over and stayed till 2:00 or so. It was so fun to see them. They kept worrying that I was too tired but I got a second wind and felt good. Spent the next day visiting and shopping. That night I went to Sausage Link for 5 pounds of delicious boiled crawfish. We were told that the next night was the last of the boiled ones so I barely made it. Most of you don't realize what a tragedy that would have been! Kristin came and met Susan and I and we went to WindyDoo's for some ice cream they back to my house for another late nighter! Fun! Then Saturday was Josh's wedding. I picked up my mom and took her with me. It was a beautiful wedding, a beautiful couple and tons of fun visiting and catching up with everybody that I haven't seen in six months. Sunday of course, I got to see so many more friends. We went over to Mom and Dad's for Sunday lunch and just hung out on her house all day. We came home and Whitney started packing for Utah. Kristin and I drove her over to Houston and put her on a plane Monday. She was going to surprise her best friends the Zacharys. I'll let her blog about all the details because honestly, I don't know them all yet. She's having a great time and they got Alex delivered to the MTC on Wednesday. For you Dhahran folks, she also got to hook with with Tori and Christian M. at the mall for a little while and meet them. They will be moving to our community in Saudi in the fall. She was glad to get to meet them. Since we dropped Whitney off, it's just been Evan and me. He's been going back and forth between Mitchell's and home. He's been helping out at the Vacation Bible School at the Catholic Church in town and having a blast. His girlfriend and some other friends are there, too, so that's been fun and something to get up and do every morning. Wednesday night, Kristin and I went to the movie to see The Proposal. It was cute. On a sad note, Sister Papadimitriou, passed away yesterday. We knew she was in bad shape Sunday. Sister Papa has been a pillar of our ward here in Lake Charles for as long as I can remember. She will be missed! I know this is long and boring but I kind of consider this blog a journal- so I know it's not always entertaining. Lots more fun to come, though. My niece's baptism is tonight and can't wait for Andrea and all the Zachary's to got home. I'll post lots of pictures when Whitney gets home from Utah with my camara!

Heading back......

2009-06-13T06:04:00.002-05:00

Wednesday night, or actually early Thursday morning, the kids and I are flying out of Bahrain. Laying over in London, then on to Dallas then on to Lake Charles! We will be there two whole months.

Things I'm looking forward to:

hanging out with friends and family
some girls nights out
eating at Steamboat Bill's, Main Moon, Sausage Link and O'Charley's
BlueBell
walking in the evenings at the SHS track
shopping at the mall in the middle of the afternoon
not having to take a bus to the mall
WalMart, Target, Kroger

Things that I will miss:

the pool/gym right behind my house
cheese bread (I know you're thinking I can eat cheese bread but you don't even understand)
my hubbie
my dog
throwing on my abaya if I don't feel like getting dressed to go out (haha- I'm serious!)
schwarmas and stir-fry by the pool on week-end nights
super-duper cheap gas

Not really looking forward to the flight but can't wait to see everybody! I'm not sure how the home phone will work out because it's still on Vonage here in Saudi so call me on my cell phone. (if you remember it! Let's see who my real friends are.....just kidding!) I might be a little jet-lagged for a few days but then I'm ready to have fun!

Flat tire......

2009-06-07T16:29:00.005-05:00

Thought you might like to see this! Last time we went to Bahrain, we had a flat tire on the causeway. Actually after that, in between two of the checkpoints, so we were barely moving, thank goodness. Brad, Evan and some road workers changed the tire in a few minutes and were on our way. We stopped to get it fixed at the first garage we saw. Here are Brad and Evan supervising the repair. Could any man and son stand more the same?? (Brad is standing on a hill or something because Evan is significantly taller than him now) Sorry for the blurry pictures. I took them out the window of the car. The a/c was more important to me in the 120+ degree weather than a quality photo...... Oh, and this is the garage where we stopped......

Just stuff..............

2009-06-04T16:41:00.015-05:00

Guess I've had a little "blogger's block" lately. Here are some random things we've been up to!

(images lifted from one of Evan's Facebook friends.....thanks!)

Tonight I chaperoned Evan's 8/9th grade Prom. It was beautiful. The theme was Hollywood or The Oscar's, something to that affect. It was fun to see him having fun with his friends. He is at an after-party now and I have to pick him up at 1:00 am. Guess that's the motivation behind this update. Can't go to bed anyway. (Evan is the tall boy in the pics with the white shirt)

Our compound/city has a movie theatre with movies that are not too old. We've been going up there alot. We saw Australia last week. We thought it was ridiculously long and not as good as we thought it would be. Evan thought they must have not been able to decide on an ending and just included everybody's ideas.....I have to agree. This week we saw Seven Pounds with Will Smith. It was alright. Cheap entertainment for sure!

I feel bad for the kids because all their friends back home are already out for summer. Feels like my kids have been going to school forever! It's winding down now, though, and that feels good.

The countdown is on.... we fly back to Louisiana on June 18th. The kids are really excited. I am too, but I'm really going to miss Brad! Wonder how he and the dog will get along all that time without us. haha I'm sure they both will be bored silly.

President Obama was here in Saudi Arabia today. I wonder what he and the King talked about.

Happy Birthday, Whitney...

2009-05-22T10:22:00.012-05:00

"You've had a birthday, shout hurray. We want to sing to you today. One year older and wiser, too. Happy Birthday, to you!" "Happy, happy birthday, Whitney-dear, happy days will come to you all year. If I had one wish then it would be, a happy, happy birthday to you from me."
"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, dear Whitney, happy birthday to you!"

We can hardly believe that our little Whitney is 17! Her birthday week-end started out with her going with some friends to Rashid mall to eat sushi then swimming at one of the friends compounds in Khobar. She had a great time. Thursday morning (which is like Saturday in the U.S.) the girls from church "kidnapped" her and one of their leaders cooked breakfast. They nabbed her at 6:30 a.m. Couldn't believe they could all get up that early!! When she got back we headed to Bahrain. We went to one of the malls and saw a movie. We saw "Knowing" with Nicolas Cage. It was pretty good, just a bit weird. But we enjoyed it. Left there and found a restaurant called Ric's that we've been looking for everytime we go to Bahrain. This time we had better directions and actually found it. It's a restaurant that all the American's like to go to. They have a Louisiana Cajun Shrimp night, Texas BBQ night, etc. It was really good. We also met another family in there that lives near us in Aramco and we enjoyed visiting with them. Left there and Brad and Evan needed to check out a scuba dive shop then we headed home. We got on the causeway around 8:00 and it only took us maybe 45 minutes to get back into Saudi. Not bad at all. The traffic is usually terrible on weekends. When we got home I made Whitney the cheesecake she requested and we went to bed.

Happy 17th, Sweetie! We love you tons!

Who are you?

2009-05-19T09:12:00.005-05:00

Can I just say how much I love blogging?? And besides keeping up my own blog, can I say how much I love reading all of yours? I really have to limit myself to a set time to read blogs because I could really waste alot of time if I let myself. I would rather read blogs than watch t.v. or read magazines (which I almost NEVER do)~ that's how I justify.

(photo courtesy of google images)

I am just interested in people, their lives and their stories. Not in a creepy way. More in a "Wow, what an awesome family!" kind of way. I love it when somebody tells me they read my blog. I love comments. Thanks to those of you who leave them. Here's the thing: I can tell by my live-feed map that many, many people read that I don't know about. There are visitors from countries and states where I don't know anybody. I would LOVE for you to tell me who you are. So come on friends, show your face! Leave me a comment and introduce yourself!