Author: Robin Chartier

That phrase has me smiling this morning. Josh has been in contact with his future employer to ask about the delay in the paperwork and the reply was that it’s in progress and “keep the faith.” That’s all I needed to hear. I was starting to mildly second guess that maybe they were having a problem adding a person to the department or that there was some other bigger blockade, but I’m happy to wait knowing that it’s being worked out behind the scenes.

We are stuck in another limbo until we know those numbers because they will determine our housing and we can’t look for a place until we know how it’s going to be broken down. It could be that they will pay $65,000 for rent per year and it’s a use it or lose it allowance. All rentals are done annually, paid up front, and that cost is not an exaggeration. Remember, I said in a previous post that housing costs were obscene?  Or it could be a $55,000 housing allowance and if we can find something that costs less we can apply the excess to utilities, school, taxes, etc. Anything less than 55k is going to tough to find, but my goal is to find a house as close as possible to school, with a wall that keeps the dog from jumping out of the yard, that is under whatever we’re allowed. Either way, can you imagine throwing away over 50k per year in rent? Nope, me neither. But that’s what we’ve been doing every year that we live overseas, the difference is that it doesn’t ever show up in our bank account so it technically hasn’t been our money to throw away.

I’d love to find a place before we go home for the summer so I can actually collect some things that we’ll need to furnish our next house. We’ll need a washer/dryer, fridge, stove, beds, couch — basically everything that goes in a house because we’ve had all that provided until now. And as everyone is leaving in June/July, those things are being sold right and left. But I can’t snag any bargains until we have a place to land . . .

Camille woke me up at 4 this morning with frantic tapping on my shoulder: Mom! I’m going to throw up! Thankfully it turned out to be a false alarm. (After she gets sick she’s anxious for the next week that she might throw up again.)

Then this morning, which came way too soon, Caleb crawled in my bed complaining of a headache and sore throat. Thanks sandstorm! So he’s back in bed, sleeping it off.

About 5 minutes after the bus left this morning I open the fridge to see the hamburger meat that Carter had prepared the night before for health class. (I think they’re doing a unit on cooking and healthy eating.) Sigh. I called him and yes, it is something he needs for class today so in exchange for me bringing it to him he promised to cook dinner tonight and clean the kitchen. I also negotiated that later this week when we have lamb burgers, he has to eat them without complaining and tell me how much he likes them. (He has a stubborn hatred of lamb and every time it shows up on our menu it causes problems).

What is the magic thread linking these three scenarios together? It’s that Josh left for Bahrain yesterday so naturally all 3 kids would have a breakdown of some sort in the first 24 hours. In the grand scheme of breakdowns this is nothing, but I’m keeping a close eye on my car, the washing machine and the AC, all typical candidates for trouble when Josh is out of the country.

Meanwhile we are waiting for approval to fly to Jordan next weekend. Oh, you didn’t know about that little side trip? It’s been on the calendar since fall with the contingency that Josh had a job. The job came through, but as an active duty military member, he has to have all of his travel approved by various officials. Usually it’s not big deal, but we are in limbo because of the moving of the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. As long as things stay peaceful in Jordan, we should have our approval in a few days. And a few months from now, Josh will be able to travel wherever he wants (as long as we can get a visit visa). #retirementperks

***and now my car has started stalling when I’m stopped at red lights. It did it for the first time yesterday and today it died several times on the way to school. Hilarious. The streak continues.

The numbers.

 

No, they haven’t arrived yet. I’m just like those Lost people, waiting with my future tied to a string of mysterious numbers. But I’m not actually stressed about it. It’s been a week since Josh was “offered” the job, and I did think that we would have a paper offer by now, but in the grand scheme of things, the numbers either work out for us to stay or they don’t. Either way, we’ll be fine.

One of the reasons that this transition to retirement isn’t stressing me out is because we’ve been preparing for it for years. I’m no math wiz, but I’m a money/numbers nerd and I listen to financial podcasts for fun. About 10 years ago we became debt free by following Dave Ramsey’s plan (Total Money Makeover). We cancelled all of our credit cards and slashed all of our expenses to make it happen. We even dropped a home phone before it was cool and suffered through the early days of VoIP  that made everyone sound like they were talking underwater. That might not seem worth it to save $30 a month, but all the little things we did combined added up over time.

Once we eliminated our debt we set goals for future savings — like buying a house. Someday when we grow up we’ll finally own a home and I want to be prepared when the time comes. We wanted to travel during our time overseas so we started funneling the money that would have gone to college savings for the kids into our family travel fund. That’s not the choice everyone would have made, but I joked that I was giving the kids their education now, through seeing the world, and we’ll do college on the cheap later (as Calvin is doing currently at community college — no regrets). The point is that we have a finite amount of money coming in so we choose some things and sacrifice other things.

Now with retirement coming up, that house fund that has been growing over the years can double as an emergency fund if this job doesn’t end up working out. I figure we can last at least a year by drawing on that money carefully and that will be plenty of time for Josh to figure out what we’re going to do next. And yes, that’s how our partnership works best. I am agreeable to going anywhere in the world and Josh will do the work once we get there. Then I make the money that he earns go further. Win. Win. Win.

Shamals are the seasonal winds that blow in sandstorms lasting several days and haboobs are the big walls of sand that quickly blow through town. The past few days have been hazy and dusty, but today was all sand, grit, and wind. Whatever you call it, it’s nasty. 

The color of the sky on my weather app is a perfect match to what is going on outside. And yes, the weather is indeed “dust.” I had to use a scarf to wrap my face while walking from the parking lot into the embassy and I still got grit in my eyes. All outdoor activities were cancelled at school because it’s not healthy to breathe any of that in. In Bahrain after a sandstorm everyone would get sick. I’m really hoping that’s not the case here.

I was at the embassy today signing Josh’s retirement paperwork in front of a notary. One step closer to completion! Josh also reserved the space for his retirement ceremony next month. Several people at work insisted he have one and I think he’ll be glad we celebrated the occasion when he looks back on it. Mark your calendars for June 14th!

This weekend has been jam-packed as it’s the last one before the month of Ramadan begins. It’s been predicted to start on Thursday, but we have to wait for the moon sighting to make it official.

This year, even more so than previous years, all the typical end of year parties, birthdays, farewells and who knows what else have to be fit in now because the last day of Ramadan is the last day of school and then everyone immediately disappears for summer or for good. The reason they have to happen before Ramadan is because once the month begins, no eating or drinking takes place in public during daylight hours, all restaurants are closed until evening, the school day is shortened to accommodate those who are fasting, and life in general slows down.

Yesterday afternoon was a farewell lunch for a family that is leaving our Bible study group and moving to Oman. We brought the kids and had a good time with a bunch of our church friends, but then we had to hurry home and get ready for the next event: the end of year staff party for ACS (the school where I work). It’s a formal event at a hotel ballroom and this year the theme was 007 so Josh dressed in his Daniel Craig suit and I threw on my swirl print halter dress with gold wedges and we were off. (Of course I didn’t take any photos, but there was a photographer there, so I’ll track some down.)

We had a great time and danced from the time the music started. The best part was the surprise that instead of a DJ, there was a live band made up of teachers and staff from school. They were fantastic and it was so generous of them to perform at a party that is supposed to be chance for them to relax and celebrate too.

Then today was a Texas BBQ feast with school and gym friends to say farewell to two families that are leaving Abu Dhabi. Both of these families have been here for 7-10 years. There’s a lot of that happening these days. There’s a big shift taking place as long time families head home, but I’m happy to be one of the remaining few.

So basically we ran around all weekend eating and saying goodbye to people. It’s a good thing Ramadan is coming because I’m about partied out.