Author: Robin Chartier

One of my friends died on Friday night. She was a mom of 4 kids — 3 boys and a girl, just like me. Her name was Michelle. Her daughter, Julia, was one of Caleb’s best friends at school. She was killed too. She was only 8. Our friends were teachers at the American school in Oman, home on summer vacation, saying their last goodbyes before flying back for another wonderful year. Their older sons, 14 and 12, are friends with Calvin, the husband taught computer classes to my kids, we went to Atlantis with them, went camping with them, our kids were in Awana together and Josh served with them as Awana leaders.

So today I don’t care that our shipment hasn’t arrived, or if it ever arrives. The kids can fight and pester me and I’ll be glad they’re here to be frustrated at. When Camille is extra needy tonight I’ll think of Mike and know he wishes he could lie down next to his daughter and tuck her in bed and I’ll gladly stay 5 more minutes and then 5 more minutes after that. 

And then, in a few weeks, I’ll forget how much I have to be thankful for and I’ll find things to complain about. I always do. Life doesn’t seem so short or fragile until it is. And then I better hope I made the most of the time I had. I’m not very good at that part, but I’m immersed in it today. If I disappeared in a flash tomorrow, have I given the boys enough? What would they do? How would they turn out?

So I’m sad today. Putting on Mike’s shoes and walking around in them. Glad I can take them off at the end of the day and not be trapped in a nightmare that begins with a knock on the door from the Highway Patrol and very aware of the fact that it could easily be us. 

Between the dog, the kids, my sister and Jeremy in town, and Josh taking several days of vacation I haven’t made time to blog. What we’ve done hasn’t been particularly adventurous (except for eating out with a squirrely two year old) or exotic (except for our Iftar feast in the tent at the Gulf Hotel), but we’ve had a great week.

Tomorrow Josh goes back to work, Wendy and Jeremy leave, and the kids and I will try to get back on track in the remaining seven days until school starts. We’ll have new routines to learn, an earlier start to school, an extra creature to add to the mix, and no Lucy to help out. I also just realized that since we don’t have our shipment I have none of their lunch boxes, school supplies, normal clothes and shoes, and probably a number of other “necessary” items. At least I’m good at improvising and I have 7 days to “make it work.”

A short recap of what has gone on this week: kinect tournaments, swimming in our backyard pool, visits to base (for movies and food), drives around the island to check out both the beauty and the graffiti, an evening at Al Bandar resort for swimming, eating, and competitive water bottle finding, a trip to the mall for people watching, sweatshirt buying (the A/C here is freezing!), and Turkish food, staying up late and sleeping in (except for those on dog/kid duty), and lots of eating out at our favorite restaurants. Ramadan Kareem! (Happy Ramadan)

*** hopefully the photos are working now

Josh is home! Happy day!

Oh, you didn’t know he was gone? Good. Then I did my part to help keep America safe. Just kidding, he was at a conference in Germany for a week. The secrecy about his departure was more for our safety than yours. Last weekend we moved in to our house, got the dog, and he left about 12 hours later. That probably explains the frantic tone of some of my posts last week.

But now he’s home and I have another body to add to our dog sitting/Camille sitting rotation. Whew! On the downside, he brought home these wooden swords that have not added to the state of peace and quiet that I’m hoping to attain in our home. (I’ve always liked to make goals that are impossible to reach.)

Camille’s dog love has not waned. 

The only time he has any peace is while she’s eating (and then he wants to be close to her) and when she’s going to sleep. As tiring as the week was with a new pet and getting used to a new house, the boys were a big help when they weren’t fighting or complaining.  

This is her happy place. As close as she can be — breathing the same air. 

Petting him and touching his ears. 

Using him as a pillow

And resting on him while watching the Olympics. He may be named Micah, but he has the patience of Job.   

The prevailing thought running through my mind for about 48 hours this week was, “I’ve made a huge mistake.” Not just the dog — the decision to have children, living overseas, all the hours I spent tanning as a teenager . . . you name it, I could find a reason to regret it.

For starters, I knew that I would be taking care of the dog. I didn’t buy into any hollow promises of, “We’ll do everything!” or make them sign any weird contracts (ask Dave and Pam about that one), I knew that as a mom I’d be cleaning up after the dog the same way I clean up after all of them. Heck, they can’t even remember to flush the toilet half the time, I’m not expecting them to take full responsibility for a living creature. But I didn’t think my full time job as Dog Mother would start on day two. I figured I’d get at least seven days before the novelty wore off. I agree, it is hot outside, but the dog still has to be walked, he’s going to poop and it has to be picked up and thrown away, and I can’t watch the dog, the toddler who loves to poke at the dog’s eyes and play with his ears every time I turn my back, and feed starving children all at the same time. I’m awesome, but I’m not super-human.

And you would think the food thing would be easier now that we’re in a house. It would be, except none of our stuff is here so the kitchen (and its cupboards) are bare. At least in the hotel we had dishes, silverware, pots and pans and basic cooking essentials so even though I never felt like cooking, it was possible. Now we’re all sick of eating out and want to eat at home, but it’s not so easy to improvise a pot.

We went for second best and got take out from the base cafeteria the other night — BBQed chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans. I stopped at the base grocery store (more like a big mini-mart) and bought paper plates, bowls, paper towels and a few other things so we could eat in style. I got home to find that the plastic silverware that we brought over from the hotel had all mysteriously been thrown away so we had no utensils to eat with. Eating mashed potatoes and gravy using our fingers was not the dinner I expected, but at least we were eating around our own kitchen table. I also discovered it’s really hard to drink cereal out of a bowl because the milk drains out leaving the cereal behind . . . scraping the saturated Os into my mouth with my fingers is not my favorite way to eat Cheerios.

So I went and bought real silverware, 6 plates, 6 bowls and 6 cups. I also threw in a can opener, a cutting board, a cheap knife, and a glass storage bowl with a lid that could go in the microwave. I’m still looking for a saucepan. This is how I end up with 4 can openers: we move, our stuff doesn’t arrive, I get frustrated and buy something to hold me over until my good stuff arrives. This time I thought I was being smart by mailing my good knives to myself so they’d get here before my shipment and I wouldn’t have to buy a cheap knife. Six weeks later that box still hasn’t arrived. Time to start browsing Williams-Sonoma.com for replacements.

Things here have been rather chaotic this week. But I think (really, really hope) things are looking up. While I wanted to run away from my children a few days ago, last night they really increased their effort (after I threw a screaming fit and their dad told them to stop behaving like jackasses). I took away electronics for a few days so they’d have one less thing to fight about and last night after we all cleaned the house they raced each other around the living room (since we can’t watch the Olympics they have to invent their own events). Nervous dog is getting less nervous all the time and surprisingly he still likes Camille, even though she follows him like a pest every minute of the day.

I think I might make it.