It's raining in Riyadh

Homeschooling the neighborhood

Maia and Brooke

Rory's name in Egyptian Hieroglyphics

Felicity enjoying homeschool

Felicity and Quinn

Kingdom Tower in Riyadh

Felicity in her Abbaya in front of our Compound

We are just having a blast here in Riyadh Saudi Arabia. Our transition has been smooth sailing so far. I feel like I've been living in th stone age without a phone or internet. Now we're just awating our air shippment and then life can really begin. It's got Important stuff like rollerblades, jonny jump up for Pyper, art supplies, oh yeah and the girl's school curriculem!!! What did I get myself into? Homeschooling for the rest of the semester! No Fear, the internet is finally here (with a borrowed McKinsey computer to save me). But I think it really has been good so far, especially having had nothing to go on. It's a good challenge for me.

Some friends in our compound got to skip school because it flooded yesterday (yeah, can you believ it? RAIN in the desert) so they all came over to our place and did homeschool with us. It was great, we are making a big group effort timeline and it's strung around our school room. The kids put stuff on like: when underware was invented, guns, chocolate, sissors, bowling balls, chalk etc. I guess we'll get to the important stuff too, but its sure fun for them to drive a little.

Our little sand piper

I have really enjoyed getting to know our newest little addition. Pyper Maeve is about two and a half months old now and such a sweet ball of sunshine. She has a beautiful head of brownish red hair and little eyes just like her Grandpa. I'm convinced he sprinkled his happy personality on her before she left him in Heaven. I miss him.

Rory and City enjoy playing with Pyper as soon as they get home from school each day, helping to get her jammies on and snuggling with her before bed. She is cooing and sucking on her fingers all the time now. I cant believe she is already growing so fast. It seems faster for Rich because he has only been able to come home every few weeks or so. I know its been real hard for him so I try to keep pics updated on the web for him to see, and of course web camming when we can.

I am happy to have my body back to normal, now my battles are just making sure I keep a full supply of milk and washing bright yellow poopy diapers. I am so lucky to be able to stay home and be with my children, whom I enjoy every second with. They are definitely the best girls in the world (sorry to be byest). I guess I'm pretty much saying I have it good, no Great! Thanks for spoiling me Rich, I love you.

Getting ready for Baby

Well we are super excited for this next adventure, especially Rory and City. They cant believe they're going to be a big sister soon. They have been playing soccer all week, and the people teaching them are high school girls. I told Rory that maybe when she's in high school she can teach her baby sister soccer too. She grinned from ear to ear.

We are all on track at this point, car seats, stroller, crib etc, Only thing left is Daddy. Hopefully he comes home next Wednesday. I came home with reusable diapers and showed Rory how to use them. She got so excited about this amazing process, and immediately declared that she would be the first to change the baby! Sweet, if I can keep that enthusiasm for a couple months I will have really accomplished a miracle. Now we just need to spread it to daddy.

Anniversary getaway

Ok my mom would be in Heaven! It is date season right now and every palm tree is full of berries. I feel a bit homesick thinking of mom all the time, I'm even craving dates. Me and the girls got to pick some, Rich thinks this baby is going to be made of dates because I've eaten so many.

Last weekend we decided to grab the girls and go snorkeling for our 11th Anniversary. Fujairah is the Eastern most Emerate of the UAE and is renowned for its beautiful mountain scapes and snorkeling. I got to see two sea turtles the size of Felicity, WOW! It was really an amazing experience swimming with the first one for about fifteen minutes before I had to come back to shore. The fish were beautiful, Rich saw a huge school of sardenes that circled around us forever. The girls really enjoyed seeing so many salt creatures and fish. I noticed these fish were not like the onse Rich and I saw in Puerto rico, which were the same kind from the Fish store.

On our way home we stopped at a market, we couldn't turn down a beautiful persian silk rug. Even the girls had to each buy one.

Jumeirah Mosque

We went to the Jumeirah Mosque today. The government has set this mosque aside to give tours to the public during off hours. It was such a wonderful experience for all of us. Almost more of a question and answer session which was even cooler. The women were very thoughtful about their answers and I think Rory and City really understood and respected the importance the muslims place on prayer. It makes me look inward to really ask myself about my own relationship with god too. The building was basically just one big room that everyone squishes into to pray 5 times a day, and they even let a gentleman demonstrate how he prays standing then kneeling and touching the ground with his forehead. I was happy that they let us take some photos too. The building has a couple of minarets for the call to prayer and a large dome above the central room, all of which have beautiful detailed pattern work on the outside and painted patterns inside. Most of the mosques that are here in Dubai have very light coloring as well, beautiful.

Dessert Safari

Getting ready to ride the camel.

Rory and Felicity came into our bedroom this morning all inspired and dressed up in their little belly dancing gypsy outfits. They are going to plan a show for us. Last night they got to see a real belly dancer when we went on a Dessert Safari with them. We started out Dune Bashing with an Iranian family, all of us squished into a Landcruiser. The driver Mohammed Ali let the air out of the tires and headed out on the dessert sand, up and down like a roller coaster all over the dunes. Reminds me of diggin up scout mountain with John when I was little. It was "a bit freaky" (as Rory puts it) at moments but of course I wasn't scared. We then got to the camp area where there were camel rides, four wheeling, henna tattoos etc. The girls got really worried when the camel got up to go for a walk, but even more so when he stopped and sat back down. He basically jutted forward to kneel his front legs down and then back for his hind legs to kneel. I think they were happy to be back on the ground. The camels stand about twice as high as a horse, talk about damage if you fall off. Dinner was delicious, dad's favorite Shawarma to start with and barbeque along with other traditional sides. Needless to say it was a very fun night and the girls slept on the way home.

Belly Dancer

Rory rolling down a sand dune

Dune Bashing

Free range Camels

Getting ready to go

Tra la la

A bit about Arabian culture

Here is a little bit about our trip to Dubai.

A stuffed camel at the Museum.

City girl dressed as a gypsy.

Spice Souq, lots of yummy smells here! Saffron is the native favorite.

This is an Abra, a typical taxi boat used to get accross the creek.

The way that Rich explained Dubai in a nut shell is that it's Mormon paradise. He's totally right. Everyone dressess very modestly and there are no advertisements at all. Even the television has hardly any swearing and absolutely no kissing or intemacy (its all edited out of the movies.) The men who are muslim Emerates wear long white dresses called Dishdashas and headscarfs called The women have Abeyyas, long black robe/dresses and burkas that cover their face and hair also black.

We had a great trip to the Souqs (markets) and wandered around looking at lots of fun stuff. There were textile souqs, Spice souqs, and the biggest one was the Gold souq. Lots of gold jewelry everywhere, bling city. I think my favorite was the spice souqs though.

Rory and City swim in the hotel pool every day, so they have turned right back into fish. Pretty much all they had learned in the Philippines came right back to them. We have gone to the beach only once so far, the girls were on a search for Sponge Bob square pants and the othe characters too. They only found Patrick the starfish, mr. crabs and a couple of Jelly fish. They were so cute playing with another couple of filipino kids.