Month: May 2015

Stretching

A little more than a week until Josh comes home and only one more big event in-between now and then. Tomorrow I’m heading out with the kids to Dubai. Solo. I’m actually feeling good about it and not nervous yet. We’ll see how I feel between waking up and arriving at the airport . . .

It’s funny when people encourage me by saying, “Oh your kids are great. They’ll be so helpful as you travel.” That is completely true, but has nothing to do with the fears that my brain comes up with. They are assuming that my hesitation to travel with my kids has to do with them, but it’s all about the most difficult traveler: ME. One of my triggers is people depending on me (please don’t ask to follow me when driving somewhere. I’ll spend the entire time afraid that I’m going to get us all lost) so the idea that I’m responsible for all the passports, making sure we’re at the airport on time, finding a taxi that isn’t going to take advantage of me, and getting everyone to the hotel are all things that my brain would love to play with. And I haven’t been a bad traveler in years, but I don’t like to be caught by surprise so I think through all potential stumbling blocks before they happen.

On the return trip we have an extra complication. Calvin flies back to Bahrain with us and then turns around a few hours later and flies back out with his soccer team to Germany for their Europeans tournament. So he has had to pack for Dubai and Germany in two separate suitcases and we’ll keep the Germany one in the car while we’re in Dubai. Then I’ll have to remember to hand over his passports before we separate. Today was spent packing my suitcase (traveling light — Caleb, Camille and me in a carry on size) and collecting Euros, Dirham, Dinar and Dollars for both trips (dollars and dinar for the things I had to buy today and the other currencies for the weekend and beyond).

It’s the perfect trip to take solo since our airport is familiar and easy, it’s only an hour flight, and we know Atlantis like it’s our second home. I’m hoping that taking this baby step will give me more confidence about traveling with the kids on my own next year. There’s still parts of Europe that I’d like to see and Josh can’t take vacation every time I want to go somewhere.

Time to shut down my brain and try to sleep. See you in a few days!

In the spotlight

My kids have been on fire lately. First, Calvin was selected as a Teen Ambassador and went to the conference in Florida. Then he came home and the next week won Youth of the Month at the teen center. The most recent base newspaper has a photo of him on the front page of the Desert Times with the other conference attendees (the link will take you to the electronic version of the paper).

And this photo appeared on the NSA Bahrain’s Facebook page. Upon their return, the kids gave the base CO a brief of what they had learned. (Check out that suit!)

In the same paper, there is an article about the Firebolt Memorial Run. Carter has been getting up at 4:45 every morning and running with the High School track team. They don’t have an official team, but there are a few middle schoolers who come out to run. Since Carter trains for distance running, every time the base has a run (about 1x/month) he and the other distance runners will go over to base and run it as their training for the day. In the most recent run, Carter came in 1st place in the kid division (page 4). He ran a 6:15 mile in their most recent team competition. He said he loves to run.

Last weekend the younger 2 boys were in an international baseball tournament playing teams from Saudi and Australia. I have whined and complained about baseball this season, but the tournament was really fun. 

We had an evening barbecue after the games where my boys made fast friends with the Australian boys. Now they have another reason to want to visit Australia. 

The wind picked up and it got chilly fast. We had to be back again the next morning at 7am for an 8am game (one of the reasons that I might whine). 

The wind remained, but we had fun anyway. 

It was gritty and dusty and the wind kept blowing caps off the players. I can’t imagine how the pitcher got through the game without walking everyone. 

She has learned to function well in the desert. You can see why the old school tribes always wore headscarves. 

I asked her to bring me a bottle of water, but she brought me a Coke instead because “I thought you’d want one. Can I have a sip?” Ulterior motives indeed. 

players from all three teams
We were also able to participate in the centennial observation of when the Australian military landed at Gallipoli and suffered large casualties during WWI. The Australian team brought flowers and a flag and read an account of the day, played their national anthem, and had a moment of silence for the fallen. I appreciated that my kids were able to observe another country’s patriotic ceremony and to remember that our military allies also have sacrificed much. 

The kids all traded jerseys, hats and anything Bahraini for anything Australian

then spent the afternoon sharing lunch and competing in a skills competition. 

Carter came in 2nd place in the throwing competition (and had a mention in the Gulf Daily News!) and his friend from the Australian team (Carter’s double — when they traded jerseys, I kept thinking he was Carter) won silver in base running.
The last big event of this week was Caleb’s Living Museum presentation. He’s been working on this project all semester. The kids choose a famous person and research their life — creating timelines, written reports, a “self-portrait,” and the last piece of the project is the oral presentation. 

Caleb chose Jesse Owens because of their shared love of running. Today he dressed up, set up his table with 5 artifacts that he created or collected to represent Jesse’s life (the horse was because Jesse Owens raced a horse and won), and then spent 2 hours giving his talk to anyone who came to his table. 

Camille was insistent that her horse’s tail be braided. She noticed that Caleb had taken the braid out so she waited until he was occupied to redo it. I’m impressed that she can braid. I didn’t show her how to do it either. 

The kids go to a great school. I’m not talking about academics, but the community is kind and close-knit and the various elementary school classes that visited each station were respectful and encouraging. Caleb is a natural presenter. He had great eye contact, animation, and enthusiasm. 

And the fact that he was happy to work with his little sister by his side made it even sweeter. 

Two hours of non-stop talking and he was raspy voiced (even more than usual) and tired

but really happy!

the next step

I wish I could share with you the text message thread that one of my sisters started after my last blog post. If you think I’m funny, they clearly come from the same gene pool. One sister said I should write a book about our childhood and then proceeded to cast famous actresses for each of us for the starring roles since my book was sure to be a smash hit and Warner Bros would pick it up and make it into a movie. She was very generous and cast this Robin as me:

though this one is a bit more accurate:
Stay tuned. The more I talk about it, the more likely it is that I will write something someday. 

When I was Calvin’s age, I was consumed with stress about my future. Where would I go to college? Were my grades good enough to get into the best colleges? What was I going to be when I grew up? How would I know what I was supposed to do with my life?

You would think as a parent that this phase of life would bring the same stresses. Maybe even more so because this being who I’m responsible for is going to go out and fly or fall based on how well I prepared him for life. But a few weeks ago, as Calvin was preparing his class schedule for his Junior year, I realized that I’m not worried about him at all.

I’m the mom that told him to take a less strenuous schedule (who needs two math classes at the same time?!) and encouraged him to look at junior college or even a gap year for service or ministry. I don’t want him to be consumed by the same fears that I had at his age and I could see him headed in that direction. The idea that every decision at this age means the difference between success and failure is a myth. There are a lot of different paths to a successful adulthood, especially when you aren’t measuring in dollars.

Josh and I are kind of in the same spot in our lives. Two years from now, as our oldest hits college age, Josh will hit retirement age. We’re not sure what he’s going to do “when he grows up.” We know he will be “graduating” from the Marine Corps, but we don’t know where we’ll go, what job he will do, or what our lives will look like as normal people instead of active duty. It would be easy to be worried or stressed or feel the pressure to make the Right Decisions, but in the same way, I think there are several paths to a successful phase 2 of life. I want Josh to be able to do something he loves, something that gives him more freedom, a sense of purpose, and we won’t be measuring success in dollars this time either. I’m hoping that 20 years of experience has given us wisdom and perspective to approach this transition with peace.