robinchartier

This girl.

 

Dressed up for a birthday party at an art studio. She even picked out the sunglasses that best accessorized her outfit. No worries that her dress drags on the ground and the armholes are open 1/2 way down her torso (until I cinched them up with a hair elastic from her wrist) because it’s sized for a 12 year old girl. She likes it so that’s what she’ll wear.

I love that about her. She likes what she likes and isn’t concerned what anyone else thinks. She painted her finger and toenails with aqua glitter nail polish and she was telling me how much she liked putting a clear topcoat over it because “it has extreme shine. I love extreme shine!”

Keep shining girl. I hope you’re always so bold.

Another day in the desert. It’s hazy and hot and we are on our way to Dubai to watch Carter’s baseball tournament. As I’ve mentioned before, I love my kids, but despise baseball so I think of this as the ultimate maternal sacrifice.

I bring books, magazines, knitting and snacks to kill all the time in between at bats or random pop flies to the outfield. On the bright side I might finish my sweater and a book today.

Back in the day there were those souvenir t-shirts that said something like this: “My Grandma went to Disneyworld and all I got was this stupid t-shirt.” Well, my husband went to Bahrain and I got another gorgeous carpet!

Yes, my love was in Bahrain for work and went carpet shopping for me. He even brought an empty duffel bag to haul his treasure home. The question wasn’t if he would find a carpet, but which one? Continue reading virtual carpet shopping

I just spent the past 10 days with my sister and nephew enjoying spring break here in Abu Dhabi. I think we did everything on the list (including the all-important CaliBurger — Carter’s favorite fast food fix. It’s as close as we get to In N Out without the plane flight to CA).

But with their departure this morning, I realized that we are now at the most crucial point in planning for next year. We have about 30 days until Ramadan starts and then 30 more days until school is out. In my experience, everything goes into hiatus/hibernation during Ramadan so I’m really hoping something concrete comes our way during the next 4 weeks.  Continue reading Phase 2

Having imagined what the retirement process might look like for the past few years, it’s interesting to see it unfold now. While we were living in Bahrain, Josh had his sights set on his current assignment in Abu Dhabi anticipating that he would retire from here with the goal of beginning a second career in the Middle East. He knew that the job market was much larger and more diverse here than in Bahrain and felt that it gave him the best chance of staying the Middle East after retirement from the Marine Corps.  Continue reading a vague update