Just an update........

A cute picture of the kids eating at Fudrucker's at the Rashid Mall the other night.

Evan running in his track meet. (stolen from one of his Facebook friends.....thanks!)

Ok, so I got in trouble from Andrea the other day because I haven't been updating my blog enough. So, I'm vowing to repent and do better. Whitney has my camera in Switzerland so I am pictureless but that might encourage me to write a little more. Whitney, or the Swiss Miss, as we are affectionately calling her now, left Thursday morning. She had to be at school at 5:00 am to get on a bus to Bahrain and then a flight to Abu Dhabi and then on to Geneva. I have chatted with her a few times on Facebook and she is having a great time. When we bought the kids those itouchs for Christmas, we never dreamed how great they would be. Wherever there is wireless internet, they can communicate with us. We've also been getting emails from the teachers on the trip and all seems to be going great. She has vowed to take tons of pictures, but we'll see. That same Thursday Evan had a track meet in Udhailiyah. He had to get on a bus at 6:00, an hour after Whitney. Brad and I decided to head into Khobar and look for furniture.....again......This time we really did buy some things instead of just "look". We went to our new favorite store, "Anteek" or something like that. We bought a beautiful bookshelf, a tv table and some other little pieces. No use to describe them, I promise to post pictures later. This was Evan's last track meet of the season. He has really enjoyed cross-country and has done really well, even with the big plaster cast on his arm. Later that evening, Brad and I went back to Khobar (have I even mentioned on here how all the stores close all afternoon?? -so you either shop in the morning or evening or both- but no in-between!) We headed for the Dhahran mall. We found this new little furniture store in there and went in. We saw this really nice red living room set that we impulsively decided to buy. It is really nice and very similar (for those of you who know) to the big red leather chair we have at home in Louisiana. Anyway, we ran into some new friends, Rusty and Donna, and we ate at the food court with them (Popeye's!) and they gave us a ride home. A first happened tonight at the mall- a man shook his finger at me and fussed because my head was not covered! Uh.....what, forgive my trashiness?? We'd been warned to expect that sometimes. Another man laughed and waved his hand at me like "don't listen to him", something to that affect. Friday is our new Sunday here. Sunday is work/school as usual but Friday is the Sabbath. We went to our church meetings then home. I made the best lunch. I stuffed a whole chicken with dressing and had mashed potatoes and gravy. It was delish! Brad had a YM meeting and I took my "non-Sunday" nap. Saturday of course was back to school for Evan and work for Brad. All our new furniture got delivered today and I love it all. The living room furniture is HUGE and may have really been to much for the room. I need Andrea to help me arrange it!! I think we might end up putting the love seat in the other little sitting room. Things are still going really good here. We love and miss you all! Remember to read Taylor's mission blog! He's doing great!

Little Differences.....

I've been thinking of a few odd things that I wanted to tell you that are different here in Saudi:

-at the grocery store on the chip aisle, all the brands-Lay's, Dorito's, etc- have a "Tomato Ketchup" flavor! I haven't bought any because, well, just yuck!

-at the beauty shop, you pay BEFORE they do your hair or nails

-if you have change coming back, they hardly ever give it to you. I mean, they give you the bills, just not the coins. BUT, sometimes they'll give you a small pack of gum instead.

-at the bank, you pull a number like at the DMV (although it doesn't take any time at all) When it's your turn, your number in neon lights up above the teller. Anyway, while you wait, a little guy in a bow tie walks around with a tea set on a tray and offers you coffee or tea in tiny porcelin cups.

I'll think of more but my mind went blank. There are so many! None of them or bad or a big deal, just so very different!

Address......

Just in case any of you want to send me some snail mail, here is our address:

Our Name

Saudi Aramco P.O. Box 1675

Dhahran 31311

Saudi Arabia

I told some of you our street address but we can't get mail here. I've already got an order in to Andrea for Tony's and Burt's Bees! So there you go, no excuses!

The injured...........

So Evan came home from school after his "Ghost Dance" preformance telling us that his wrist was hurting really bad and that he had hurt it at lunch playing basketball. I reminded him that I had seen him and talked to him during the afternoon and he hadn't mentioned it at all! Anyway, it looked really bad-swollen and bruised. We decided to let him sleep on it and see what tomorrow would bring. He was up several times during the night asking for Advil so we figured it was something..... The next morning we head down to the ER at the local hospital. We were stopped by guards at the front door telling us that Evan couldn't enter the hospital in shorts! What?? Anyway, we explained we were headed to emergency and he became more than accomodating. He actually escorted us down the hall and pointed us in the right direction. We didn't have to wait long for the x-rays or to see the doctors. There were two that saw him, a lady doctor then an orthopedist. After pushing and pulling and poking, they looked at the x-rays and confirmed that the wrist was broken.

We were sent upstairs to the "cast room" where a young male Arab nurse put on a cast. Evan was hoping for a bright orange or blue but here, white was the only option.

It felt better immediately in the cast because he couldn't move it at all. They prescribed some pain meds but we didn't give him any and he didn't need them. He missed track practice that day but went ahead and ran in a track meet two days later. Now it's just a matter of a few weeks....

Ghost Dance.......

While we were in Houston doing all our orientations, they showed the kids yearbooks of the schools here. While I was browsing through some of them, I noticed the "Ghost Dance" pages. I thought it looked like so much fun. They learn this dance and preform it as they learn about the native Americans. As it turned out, Evan got here just in time for the Ghost Dance. He had to decorate the outfit and learn the dance. The day of the preformance, I called a mother of an eighth grade classmate and we went together. It was entertaining and well preformed. It wasn't until later that day, we learned that he was injured but if you notice the last picture, you'll see him holding his wrist.

It did take me a while to get all the red paint off the sides of the shower!

Our new home......

This is it! It's really a cute house. Siding with a little cement porch and a one car garage. And grass in the desert! You wouldn't believe how hard they work, moving the hoses around all day to get grass to grow- but they do! Evan snapped this shot of Whitney and I chatting with the new neighbors.
This is Brad on Christmas morning eating breakfast. We made chocolate chip pancakes and enjoyed some of the fruit basket that was left on our door by some new friends!

I really like this picture of Whitney and Evan standing at the bus stop. It's right up the road from our house.

I had to throw in this picture. It's the kids being silly posing with a sleeping Dad. The room was pitch black but somehow my camera made it look so clear.

A view out my bedroom window. A bird sitting on the wall. There are always alot of birds around. The flowering trees are so pretty.

A view of one little corner of my kitchen. Lenae, show your mom that I have her cookbook all the way in Saudi Arabia! And somebody show Kristi that I have my Scentsy burner here, too!

Our new tv which will make things alot more fun around here! Some things you just can't go too long without!

I'm Alive......

Hi everybody! I know it's been forever since I've updated. We just got our internet and wireless connections yesterday! For some reason, I'm having a hard time uploading pictures to blogger. I did get one on here. It's the view from my front window! I have tons of pictures of the house and kids. Maybe I can get them on later. But all is well. OH and CALL ME! My vontage phone is up and running. That means you can call my home phone number back in Sulphur and it will ring here free of charge. Just remember the nine hour time difference! More soon, I promise!