May 2012 – Page 4 – robinchartier

How could I say “No” to this?

Last night I received this lovely note from my 7 year old:

Translation: Dear Mom,

I really want Laura’s dog. I will feed him. I will train him. I will make him a good dog. And I will potty train him. Laura’s mom doesn’t want another dog.

I guess Laura’s dog is pregnant with a puppy (this is what Caleb told me). Don’t know when the dog is having the puppies or even what kind they are, but Caleb really, really, really, really wants one. Oh my.

Backstory: After our Lab mix, Jonah, died (in 2009) we told the kids we couldn’t get another dog until we came back from our year in Egypt. I guess he’s been hanging on to that promise because our year is almost up and he’s already looking to cash in.

And here I was thinking that we were going to be able to get by without a dog for a while since we were still overseas. I guess I better start looking for our new pet. Two years from now, when I’m freaking out about how to ship the hairy beast back to the states I know I’m going to be sorry . . .

photo shoot

For Mother’s Day/Father’s Day/all those other special occasions that we’ve missed, we did a family photo shoot at a nearby fort and put together a photo album for the grandparents. Now that they’ve received them I can share a few of my favorite pictures here.

this waterway is an old falaj — a traditional Omani way of moving water from one place to another through a series of canals.

I really liked this series of arches inside the fort.

Can you believe this is only 10 minutes from our house? And it’s completely open. To get here we drove through a neighborhood because it’s in a residential area. Anyone can pull up in front and explore it. It was amazing to see that the crumbing “bricks” were really made with mud and straw.

this one might be my favorite

this and that

A friend gave Camille these princess slippers. She loves them so much she chooses to wear them out and about. Here she is picking her brothers up from school.

The other night we had an end-of-season rugby banquet at the Hyatt. Caleb won the “Player’s Player” award. It’s like getting MVP, but it’s voted on by all the players on the team instead of the coaches.

My Omani people project all framed and hanging on the wall. My framer created this 3 foot wide custom shadowbox for around $50.

My newest project that I finished today. Three goats and my three little bedouin goat herders at the wadi at sunset. I’m planning to hang this one in the boys’ room and then hopefully do one of a camel and a little girl for Camille.

Today we have to meet with the visiting embassy doctor to (hopefully) get our medical clearance so we can be approved to move to Bahrain. From there we will rush over to the American/British school to watch Calvin’s basketball game.

Camille has been talking more and more lately — of course she usually stops talking when I pull out the camera, but I got a little bit today when she was trying to pick a show on TV (Netflix streaming). The part I didn’t catch was when Josh pulled up the webpage and she ran over, shrieking in excitement at seeing her shows pop up on the screen.
(as always, these clips will be BO-RING if you’re not related to me).

She wasn’t excited about Annie at first, but her disappointment didn’t last long.

***We’re back from another fun camping trip. It was over 100 at the base of the mountain and 79 at the top. Lovely. And unlike our last trip, where we froze our butts off, were comfortable in our tent all night. Except for the tribal drumming by some neighboring campers that went on from midnight to 3 am (it was still better than a crying baby), we all slept really well.

Performing for one night only . . .

Camille!

That’s what Josh said when I came back to bed at 3-something with the sounds of baby screaming following me down the hall. At least she went to bed relatively painlessly and she only was up from 3 to 4 something. I was still flying high from my full night of sleep the day before so it didn’t bother me that much.

We’re off on our last camping trip of the season. We’re heading up the mountain to hopefully escape some of the heat. Summer finally arrived this week with temps well over 100. I know it’s hot when I burn my hands on the steering wheel. See you when we get back!