What next?

Well its been a pretty fulfilling month. I have gotten into a nice routine with some friends, each week we have a day to do art together and another day preschool play/lesson time, and another day is piano. I'm really enjoying having these commitments, and something to look forward to. Especially our play group with Pyper, its her  first. We went to the farm on my friend Joanne's compound. Pyper was so excited to feed the horse, and he was very gentle on her little fingers. They had about 150 goats that she was NOT afraid of at all. She just walked right up to them, big or small. There were many babies, so cute.

To put a twist in all this, last month I had put in a resume for teaching at the girls' school. They just called me for an interview this week, I walked out with an offer. It felt so good for them to be excited about what I have to offer and even just to be needed in a job. Well it has been a while since I worked, so I have to admit I was a bit nervous. However I found myself more stressed and even picky about what I should choose. Last month I also got an offer at another school that I turned down. Its so strange to be in a society that is so desperate for teachers. In the states its just the opposite. In fact it's better not to go into teaching just because it s such a saturated field. Here they're a dime a dozen, and I have no more pocket space.

Well I do love to teach but I think I'm going to just stick to what I'm doing, rather then add a bunch of useless stress. I love having energy at the end of the day to play and exercise with my girls. My favorite lately is running laps together. Rory especially enjoys running with me, she surprised herself by running about 5 miles. Who knows maybe I'll get to give private art lessons to a Saudi princess. Its possible!! Really my big love right now, is making my own art. I jumped into oil painting, Grandma Dilworth would be so proud. I really LOVE it, I can't believe I never touched the stuff. My goal is to do 5 paintings before summer hits. Woohhooo! Canvas, here I come!

Egypt in a nutshell

You know how you feel sometimes when you stand up too quickly and get a head rush, well that how I feel about Egypt. It was really quite amazing and of course very fun. But woah what a rush! Our awesome friends, the Sterns from chesterland, hosted our stay in Cairo, they moved there a few months ago. Our first few days were enlightened with Hanukkah and Christmas celebrations. We then spent a day at the pyramids, I must say they were definitely worth the trip. I really liked seeing people taking camel rides al around them, so picturesque.  We drove around an area that was well, shocking. I really loved it though. Its called Garbage City. This town is situated right on/next to the land fill, and the people who live there sort the trash, its to be recycled or re-sold or re-furbished etc. So cool, its kinda like my garage back in Ohio, except no racoons of course.
We then trained in to Luxor where YES the souq salesmen attack you. Its all true, everything that has ever been said about the crazy ways they hassel you. I quickly figured my way around though. My catch phrases became, "sorry, I don't speak to strangers" or "no Engles" or simply wearing a scarf on my head seemed to keep them off my back a bit. Everyone would always ask, hello m'dam where are you from? I would answer Saudi Arabia or Afghanestan and they would be puzzled and then just chuckle. I really did enjoy the game though, the Egyptians are so nice and have a great sense of humor. My responses became more of an ice breaker and a gentle way of saying "I'm just looking".
Touring Luxor was well spectacular! We walked and walked and walked. There were some men who had a stick gate blocking a certan spot with a view, after I was let in to go see, I was then harassed for payment. "backsheesh", :) Same with the bathrooms anywhere in Egypt. Anyone could come and stake their claim to a bathroom, they would keep it looking nice and occasionally offer tissue for you to use, but only in return for "backsheesh". interesting.

Private schools

Now we are back in Riyadh, with a re-design on our schedule. The girls are in private schools now and just having a ball. We don't have as much time together as we did last semester, but what we do have is more than we had in Ohio. I get more Pyper time too, I think she was a little bit neglected last semester. Each morning she drenches herself in her little water play station just outside my back door, while I organize and unpack (still). Then we see the girls about 2:45 for homework and all head out for a play at the playground before dinner. Life is bliss.

The regular sabeth day afternoon cruising

Kingdom Tower at its finest

the broom hockey club

Much needed trip home

Well finally a visit home. What a gift from the lord. I was just sinking into a depressing state of caged up reality when Rich calls up to tell me we are finally able to go to the states for Iqama (residency visa) processing. Yahoo!!! I guess the shock from Thailand back to my guilded cage in Riyadh was a bit too much because I seriously started to cry from happiness. We were outta there in about one week, packed and tickets in hand. My mom had visited Chestertucky the previous month but I missed her, so Janae talked her into coming back for one more week with me. It was such an amazing break. And we even got a holiday, Halloween, my favorite. Rory had such a great idea, Madusa. I love it when my girls give me a creative blank canvas to work with, costumes have become my favorite art project each year. City decided to be a "Man eating Siren". She did have a seductive blond wig too. (what am I teaching my children?)

Well being away from Daddy got old very quick, but he came at least every other weekend to see us. Mom and Dad McClellan let us stay with them, in turn I helped out around the house. My favorite part was the misc. tiling patch jobs. I forgot how much I enjoy tiling/mosaics.

My mom and me and the girls drove around downtown, I felt like tourist. We went to the West side market and drove around in the flats checking out bridges. and then to the Rock hall to teach the girls about Elvis. I couldn't stop taking pictures the whole day, even on Mom and Dad's street. I can't believe I already forgot how breathtaking it is in Ohio in the fall, I practically wrecked ten times, just staring into the woods. Wow.

Rory goes to my beautician Kelly

Siren City and Madusa Rory for Halloween

Pyper's first pumpkin carving

Shaylee came yardsaling with me and Janae and Gramma Lee,

we took a break to play on the grassy hill.

City loses Tooth # 3

Cousin Kaela's exclusive birthday outing

McClellan family eirloom buggy, soooo cool!

Thailand pics

Soncran, our baby elephant

Rory and her best friend Talia

Felicity's fish face

Floating market

Phuket

Hydrant

Rory's cute hat and thai pants

Wat Arun steps

Grand Palace

Thailand

Getting out of here for the summer is on the top of every expat's mind. However we stuck around (except for the three weeks in Thailand). Yeah a little bit crazy, at least that is how we have been here at the compound. No one around but us. So to keep positive my blog will focus on mainly the fun trip to Thailand, and what a trip!!

We Jumped all over the Country, starting out in Bangkok. After landing we grabbed a mini bus to Hua Hin to meet up with Gilian, Amy, Trevor, and Talia. They had been in Cambodia all month and came up to meet us for a week. What a treat to see them, like seeing family. Rory joked about going to visit "Talia land" (instead of Thailand). Talia and Rory bacame best friends in first grade, they promised to come back to Thailand when they grow up. The funnest moment was dancing in the rain with a baby elephant named Soncran. I never knew I could love kissing a slimy cold wet elephant trunk. We even went back for seconds the next day and she just lit up when she saw us, what a smart baby. She danced and talked for us, she even painted us a picture. Later we found a fun hotel that had a cave for us to stay in, we battled a gargantuous spider who had big beautiful eyes but she won. Oh well I guess it was her house anyway. Gilian spoted a huge alligator lizard thingy staying under our cave, I think she almost had a heart attack but found it so exciting that she really kept her cool, I was quite impressed. A couple days here was just what the kids needed: bugs, animals, kayaks, ziplines, rope bridges.

After the Sterns left, me a the girls found some cave Temples to hike up to. After climbing about 500 steps and then around in a bat cave for a couple hours, we relaxed in front of the monks quarters. Looking at wild squirrel monkey things eating rice and dipping our fingers into the ponds for the fish to nibble. Poi was our guide, she was the niece of the hotel owner. She was so sweet and showed us all around her town, the girls just loved her to bits. She couldn't have been more than 20 years old.

Back to Bangkok again to meet up with Rich and Pyper. We had a few days before they got there so we went to the Grand Palace and Wat Arun (my favorite). The girls hiked super steep steps to the top and gazed out over the city. What a beautiful view, and the Temple itself was coated with tiny mosaaic tiles. After we picked up dad and the babe we ventured toward Phuket. Took us a couple days, we saw the floating market on the way and grabbed some messages too. One place we found along the way was a little western guesthouse right on a river, the girls loved walking around on the bridges and walkways.

Phuket was as expected (we'd planned to go to Ko Samui but travel just didn't work out) touristy. Although still fun because it wasn't too busy of a time of year. The beach was amazing. As tradition, I spent the mornings out watching the sunrise and snorkeling. One morning City joined me (5:00am) relaxing and bonding. This trip I had spent a lot of time keeping a scrap journal, its fun to keep flyers and maps to remember places and things.

We found some waterfalls and butterfly gardens, there was a cool collection of huge insects. Then we saw a fun stage show about the legends of the island with lots of animals and fire.

On the 4th of August we flew to Chiang Mai. Its a smaller city than Bangkok, a trendy college town. We spent a lot of time wandering around and going to night bazaars. People were very crafty and artistic here, we found some fun souveneres. One day we went rock climbing, even Pyper. We took turns with her while the rest of us climbed. Rory and City took right to it, very natural. Rich was a trouper and climbed too. I think this was one of my favorite days, although we did get rained out. We later hooked up woth some more friends, the Rollins from our home town too. They are working with Engineers without Borders, bringing college students to help out a small town up north. The goal is to install and facilitate a clean water system in Piang Luang. They kindly let our family tag along. There is a school that they installed a clean water system in last year. The school let me come teach some art and the girls had so much fun helping me and making friends. They were like celebrities always surrounded by kids, playing new games, eating a strange lunch, and even reading stories. Rory was embarrassed when they asked her to read to them and City to sing for them, but the Thai kids want to learn english so much. They were always asking the girls questions just to hear them speak english to them. and Lynn Rollins was there to teach them, she did a great job. I hope to go back again, it would be a fun for our family to have. On our third day we went back down to Chiang mai and then grabbed a train back to Bangkok. The girls have never been on a train, they had a blast making forts on the bunk beds and stairing out the windows. What an adventure for us all.

Ethiopia pictures