March 2012 – Page 4 – robinchartier

work related injury

The past few days have been crazy busy, packed with events from morning till night. On top of that, Dr. Google says that I have carpal tunnel in my right wrist. It started hurting about two weeks ago, right about the time that my ribs stopped hurting and I was thinking about working out again, of course.

I started noticing it when I would pick up Camille or use the computer for an extended period of time. I think I stressed it because I carry her on my right side, using my right forearm to support her and I brace my left hand against my wrist. I guess my wrist wasn’t happy being the bearer of 25 lbs so it started protesting. In addition, the glorious trackpad on my Macbook Air isn’t helping matters. All that finger swiping puts a lot of stress on that wrist. Now I’m even more like my mom — wrist brace and all.

My wrist doesn’t feel much more supported in the wrap, but it does remind me not to use it when possible. We’ll see if it’s any better in a week or two or I may have to go to the doctor. It just feels like I need my chiropractor to adjust all the little bones in my hand and wrist and things will be all better. :sigh: That’s one of the things I was looking forward to this summer. Oh well. Where’s my workman’s comp?

I didn’t get a chance to post about National Day back when it happened last month, but I didn’t want to forget it entirely. National Day is basically the American embassy’s 4th of July celebration in February because it’s too hot to celebrate in July. Everyone dresses up and goes to the embassy and all the important people from other countries and foreign embassies are invited and we feed them American delicacies: McDonald’s, Subway, Pizza Hut, Dunkin Donuts, and KFC. Seriously.

When someone told me about it, I didn’t believe them, but it actually turned out to be really fun. The embassy courtyard is decorated and the fountain lightbulbs are changed out to red, white, and blue ones. The palm trees are wrapped in lights (you can see in the above picture) and the fast food vendors build really nice displays to serve food from (the Subway one is right over my shoulder). There was something strangely fun about watching people in formal dress walk around with containers of chicken nuggets.

It was the one time you actually can take photos inside the embassy compound, but I didn’t know it so I didn’t bring my camera. Boo. I have this photo that a friend took and then the one below was taken by one of the embassy photographers.

A bunch of photos from that night can be viewed here. I’m not in any of them.

Then this past weekend we had a bunch of fun activities and I can’t believe we fit them all in. Thursday morning our family went on a hike — a difficult one through a rocky wadi. Josh has all the pictures from that and since he left for Saudi this morning, I’ll have to post them later.

Then after a quick shower and clean-up we went and had family pictures taken at a small fort nearby. It was a lot of fun and the kids all were cooperative and behaved themselves so I’m thinking we probably got some good shots. Whenever I get them back from the photographer, I’ll post some here.

Then Josh picked up Lucy to babysit the kids and the two of us went to the Canadian Stampede. All I knew about it was we were supposed to dress in western wear and be prepared for a great time. We kept hearing, “you have to go — it’s so much fun.” They were right.

I guess the Canadians (and others) like it because there is a ton of alcohol, which is a rarity around here, country music fans like it because they can dance to country music all night, and foodies like it because they have actual BBQ. Of course I forgot my camera so all I have are these 2 photos of Josh and I that a friend took. I was too busy enjoying the line dancing anyway.

Yes, line dancing. Didn’t you know about my secret love? I don’t actually like country music, but back in college Josh and I took line dancing one semester as a PE credit because one of our best friends convinced us that it would be fun if we all did it together. She was 100% right.

So at this stampede party they had the DJ from the local radio station playing music and every now and then he’d bring this country line dance instructor up onto the stage and Armond would teach everyone a line dance, step by step, and then play a song and everyone would dance. It was easy to follow him because he was a good instructor and because they had him projected onto big screens so you could see what he was doing even if you were in the back.

Josh was a good sport and agreed to do it with me and the best part was starting out each dance and then looking at each other and smiling as we remembered, “Oh! We’ve done this one before!” So thanks Kathryn Branch, Josh and I were indebted to you all evening long. And it’s good to know that over 15 years later we haven’t forgotten everything from college.

My guys

Josh and I went on a shopping spree today. He leaves for Saudi Arabia on Saturday morning and there were a few things we needed to buy at the souk before he left.

The key to good souk shopping is to have “a guy.” Everyone has a guy for pashminas, a guy for silver jewelry, a guy for carpets, etc. If you go to the same person over and over again he gives you the “friend and family” price. If you don’t have a guy for a particular thing, the way to get the best price is to go with a friend to visit their guy.

So today was a day where several of us got together to show each other “our guys.” First we went to visit our dishdasha guy. We needed a little boy dishdasha and a friend needed one for her son. While we were there we found that the shop also carried traditional Omani dress for little girls. We needed 2 outfits and then picked one up for Camille as well. When it came time to pay we were quoted a higher price (because our guy wasn’t in the shop) so were about to explain that we weren’t cruise ship people, that we actually live here . . . but then our guy walked in, recognized us, and gave us the reduced price.

From there we wove our way through some back passages of the souk to visit a friend’s abaya tailor. Not only is it better to go with a friend to get the better price, but it’s almost impossible to give directions to these little shops: “Turn left down the alley where the cats are fighting over a fish head, go past the 1001 guys waving incense at you, right before the corridor gets really narrow turn right and you’ll find yourself in the abaya tailoring section. It’s the 8th shop on the right with 3 abayas hanging from the doorway, ask for Mohammed . . . never mind, I’ll just take you there myself.”

I wasn’t going to get an abaya, but since we’re going to be living in Bahrain I’m sure we’ll be visiting Saudi. Saudi law requires all women to wear an abaya so I figured I should get one now while I have an abaya connection. I looked all around and found the style I liked and the pattern I liked. I figured if I was getting one, I was getting a glammed up one like the Omani women. No plain black Saudi ones for me.

You pick the style, embroidery, rhinestones, and color. Everything can be changed. I liked this one, but it had too much yellow and I wasn’t sure about the big flower right on the boob.

I ended up ordering one similar to this since it was Josh’s pick and he’s way better at this stuff than I am. I love the colors of this one so I kept that the same. The only real change I made was to give it a small v-neck with a short zipper in the back instead of a high collar.

The “special price” for this custom made abaya and hijab is approximately $100. If I had less handwork it would be less expensive. While we were in the shop we watched one of the guys applying the rhinestones to the fabric one by one. Tedious.

From there we made our way to a silver/souvenir shop (picked up a pair of silver earrings) and finally to the guy who sells camel bags. Josh has been wanting one of these huge old handmade bags that the Bedouins used to haul their stuff around via camel. They are heavy wool bags with leather seams, handles, and straps. On previous visits the lowest price we could get was 130 OR for the largest bag, but on this trip, because Christie knew the guy, he gave us the “special price” of 100 OR. We snapped it up.

Our Omani girl sitting on the camel bag

We had the camel bag filled and it makes a great seat/ottoman. We were considering using it to store all of our unused winter clothes, but we don’t have many of those left!

By that point in our shopping trip we had exhausted all of our funds so we headed home loaded down with our purchases and a whole bunch of new “guys.”

wired

I left my computer on the couch, walked to the kitchen to throw something in the trash, and came back to find this:

Little miss loves my computer. And she moves like lightning. What a monkey.

oddities

found in the Japanese store Dyso. Not as strange or funny as my normal finds. The Japanese must have better quality control.

On a reusable grocery bag. I do find that grocery shopping always goes much better when I’m wearing clothes and socks.

Are you a good apron or a bad apron?

Ah, the land of animals — is that like Narnia?

I found a four leafed “crover!”

The larger size case holds two memories.

Yeah, um . . . huh?

Baby shower devotional

This morning I shared at our women’s fellowship meeting as part of a baby shower for one of the pastor’s wives. I’m putting it on my blog because I usually write things and they disappear into the black hole of my computer hard drive, never to be seen again. Back in the 29 Palms days I wrote a parenting column for our church newsletter. I would love to reread those today to see what wise words of wisdom I have for myself, but I have no clue where they are. So I’m putting this on the internet because supposedly once something is put on the web, it’s there forever. We’ll see.

This is the written version that I spoke from (using it as notes) so it’s pretty close to what I ended up saying:
************************************

One of the traps that is easy to fall into as moms (and as women) is comparing ourselves to others: Am I doing a good job? I’m not as good of a mom as Sara. She has 5 kids and they’re always so well behaved. I should be more like her.

And BKs baby — in the creche she plays nicely with all the other little kids and smiles at everyone. My baby frowns and steals toys and food from everyone. What’s wrong with her? What’s wrong with me?

One of the things I’ve realized after having several children is so much of who they are is a result of the way God made them and not how good or bad of a mother I am.

I’ve learned that my job as a mom is to help my children discover the ways God has gifted them, encourage them to use those gifts to serve him, and to figure out how to turn their weaknesses into strengths.

For example, my oldest son is cautious, careful, and a perfectionist. He was a dream to parent as a toddler. We’d go to the park and I could sit back and relax and read a book because I knew he would never move out of my sight and he wouldn’t climb any higher than he could handle on his own. The perfect child, right?

Not exactly. Unfortunately for him, our military life takes us to many new places and adds lots of uncertainty to our lives. Ask me how much I loved his cautious, careful personality when he was holding onto my leg and crying every week for the first 2 months at a new church. At that moment I was praising my middle child — the fearless, impulsive one who would say, “See ya mom!” while marching off into the unknown without a second thought.

Of course, taking that second child to the park was a nightmare as I had to shadow him around the playground because taking my eyes off of him meant that he was either going to disappear or get into trouble. Different children, different personalities, different gifts.

Just as it’s not fair or healthy to compare my children to each other, I shouldn’t compare myself to other mothers. God gave me these particular children for a reason and I am confident that he can even use my weaknesses to prepare my children for the future he has planned for them.

As an example, when I was growing up, my mom had a lot of guilt because by the time I was in kindergarten she had 3 younger babies at home. She said she couldn’t care for me the way she thought she should because she was tired and overwhelmed.

I remember getting myself up for school, getting dressed, feeding myself breakfast and then waking my mom up to say goodbye before walking myself to school. I was 6 years old.

For years my mom lamented, “I’m sorry Robin. You had to grow up so fast. You never got to be a little kid.” It was only once I was the mother of 3 little boys 5 and under, with a husband who was deployed that I fully understood her regret. I could not be everything they needed. All I could do was pray that God would cover over my mistakes and fill in where I was lacking.

And then I had a flash of insight and I called my mom. “Mom! Isn’t it wonderful how God knew when I was little that I would grow up and marry a Marine who would be gone for months at a time. That I’d be living a life where my husband isn’t around to take care of me or baby me? God knew that I needed to learn to be self sufficient and independent. He prepared me perfectly for where he has me today!”

God is good. He has a plan for your son and will use you to accomplish it — he can even use those things that you’re sure won’t win you the award of “Mother of the Year.” I hope knowing that gives you peace and confidence as you take on this new role of “Mom.”

Isaiah 26:12
Lord, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished, you have done for us.