I found a post that I didn’t publish before we left Bahrain. Nothing special — just a wrap-up of Ramadan fun. This link will take you to it: June Ramadan
Beachside paradise
A vacation. It finally happened. The kids had a 3 day holiday scheduled for EID and we didn’t have any plans other than to sit around and wait for our household goods to arrive. A bit depressing right? Then we got word that the government had declared a 5 day holiday for the public sector, meaning mandatory school closure AND 5 days off for Josh too so I ran to the phone and called him at work. “We need to go somewhere. Can you figure something out?” I’m normally the trip planner, but my brain has been fuzzy with a head cold and 1/2 working lungs so I deferred to the Middle East expert to pick a location for a road trip.
He called back 30 minutes later with a destination, lodging taken care of, and a plan for 3 nights away at the beach in the northernmost Emirate, Ras al Khaima.
Sunday morning we hopped in the car and headed out for our first road trip in 4 years. We realized Camille hasn’t developed any road trip stamina when 20 minutes into the ride she was crying about being “starving” and wanting to stop at McDonald’s. Since it was only a 2 hour journey, we told her she had to wait until we were at least half way and then we would get her a Happy Meal to sustain her for the rest of the journey.
And of course a stop at McDonald’s means we have to get ice cream — 25 cents a cone!
Back on the highway blazed through the sandy dunes, headed north.
We instituted a NO ELECTRONICS rule for this trip so they had to rely on old fashioned entertainment.
In just over 2 hours, we arrived at our beautiful resort destination.
It’s hot and humid, but I don’t even care. We’re at the beach!
The water was a bathtub — 95 degrees. That might seem like bad combination, heat and hot salt water, but tropical ocean water always delights me. After a lifetime of being chilled by the Pacific it’s a welcome change.
sea swells and tiny waves!
After exploring the beach, we headed up to our villa on the hill and unpacked. Basically we only brought swimsuits, blankets for the kids to sleep on, and a crap-ton of snacks because plenty of food keeps the minions happy.
After a sunset swim in the pool (with an amazing view overlooking the ocean) we went to the hotel restaurant for the buffet dinner. Again, it’s all about the food.
We were at a resort, but the kids were glamping. Josh and I got the bedroom with the bed and the kids all camped on the living room floor. We marathoned Stranger Things among the pile of blankets, ate movie snacks, and laughed all evening. We should do this more often.
Hello lo, lo, lo, lo …
Yes, there’s an echo in here. Supposedly our shipment is getting on a boat and leaving Bahrain today, but I’m not holding my breath. Nothing is ever delivered as promised in the Middle East or the military and I’ve got both working against me in this case.
We have a couch to sit on and beds to sleep on
but not much else.
View when we walk in the front door . . .
The someday living room/music room
We bought the beanbag so the kids have somewhere to sit and study upstairs.
We have everything we need, but nothing to make it feel like home. That’s OK, I know this part of a move is always hard. I could go back and read the same kind of posts that I’ve written every time we’ve moved in the Middle East in the summer. It’s hot, we are stuck inside with nothing to do, and feel a bit disconnected. It was true in Oman, Bahrain, and now here in UAE. Egypt was our easiest transition and I think it’s because we moved in December, which was perfect. Walking and exploring weather from the moment we landed. Someday I’ll be able to walk around outside. In November.
I’m still sick, but getting better. It finally clicked that I had strep, not just a bad sore throat, so Josh went to the pharmacy and bought some miracle antibiotics for me. My days have mostly been full of naps and coughing. I did drive myself to the gym once without getting lost and I half worked out (in between wheezing) so yay, me. Another personal victory was driving myself to church to go to the women’s Bible study group which wasn’t fun because I dread doing new things with new people, but I survived. I hate the New Church feeling — church is supposed to feel like home and family and going to a new one never feels right. TIME, time, time, time . . . that’s the only thing that fixes it. And doing things with strangers because that’s how they go from being strangers to friends. Eventually.
I haven’t been blogging because there’s nothing interesting to tell. Camille is still crying every day — 3 weeks into school. We had one good day where she only cried when she was bitten by an ant on the playground, but since then she has cried even more. We removed the waterpark bribe because it was too much pressure for her. She was focusing on that and stressing too much about it and that was making her cry. Someday she won’t cry. I hope.
The boys are great. Happy and busy. One playing rugby, one swimming, and one in soccer. Josh’s work is great and he’s happy. It’s just the girlie part of the family that needs a little fixing. We are planning a family road trip over the EID vacation next week and I’m hoping that helps lighten our mood a bit. And I’m really, really hoping that our stuff will be ready to be delivered after the holiday break.
Adjustments
I’ve been sick for days. I caught a nasty cough/cold at the end of last week that has knocked me on my butt. Mostly because I spend 22 out of 24 hours of the day coughing which wears me out. But I can’t sleep because every time I lie down I start coughing again. Poor Josh is suffering right alongside of me as I keep him awake all night, so he went to the pharmacy and brought home every cough remedy known to mankind — cough syrup, cough drops, herbal teas, and sore throat drops in every flavor. And he made me try them all. I’m not sure if it’s working, but none of the foreign medicine has killed me yet, so that’s encouraging.
This turkey is finally getting used to going to her new school. I took this photo at a New Family party at the end of the first week of classes. This sweet little girl came up and was trying to be friends with Camille, but my Nervous Nellie was giving her the cold shoulder (preoccupied with all the worries inside her head).
I know that Camille doesn’t really warm up quickly to new people, but it turns out that not only is this girl in Camille’s class, but they sit at the same table. The little sweetie told me, “I try to cheer her up when she’s sad.” Oh Lord, my daughter is such a head case. Please help her.
I strongly encouraged Camille to act kindly toward someone who is clearly trying to be a friend to her (with a well timed glare) and I coaxed this better photo out of her. I’m hoping she doesn’t alienate all of her potential friends by the time she’s ready to make friends.
And she was happy to put the first week behind her! The snake was her prize for making it to Thursday. Working on two phobias at once. Thankfully she has adopted the snake as the school mascot with much greater ease than I had hoped. (She used to not even be able to be in the same room as a fake snake or look at a snake picture in a book).
Not crying, just melting.
Even though moving has brought a lot of hardships, there is one GREAT thing that makes our new assignment well worth it. Josh’s new job gives him so much more time at home and his work schedule is much more flexible. This photo makes me happy because it’s actually Josh working, on a conference call, while Camille reads a book next to him. We haven’t had anything resembling this in 4 years.
We’ve still had some (lots of) tears about school. Usually at night before bed Camille starts crying and wants to message Josie and tell her that she misses her.
Another happy update: my car arrived! This was a miserable day for me because I was sick and coughing and I really should have stayed at home, but I had to get my driver’s license before my car was registered. Then once we were there I stuck around so I could drive my car home at the end of the registration process. It ended up taking a lot longer than we thought it would and after several hours of sitting by myself in the waiting room with random men and coughing all over everyone (while Josh was running around taking care of registration paperwork) I started sending him text messages about how I hated living in AD and was going to leave and go back to America and was taking Camille with me.
Fortunately Josh has gotten his PhD in Crazy People and reacted like a professional Crazy Person Handler. When I looked back over our chat I laughed because I was all, “This country can kiss my ass” and he replied, “I know. We’re almost done. Getting the license plates now.” as if I had only suggested going for pizza and not threatened to leave the family and start a new life by myself. He just blew by it like it was No Big Deal. Well done babe, well done.
At least now my car is parked in my driveway and I can go anywhere that I want — except I’m too sick to want to go anywhere, so that’s a bit of irony for you.
Hoping that this was the last day of tears. She’s been doing better once she’s in class, but the morning routine and getting on the bus is still a struggle. This photo is from yesterday — down to just a sniffle and teary eyes while boarding the bus. I promised if she can go from waking up in the morning and all through the school day with no tears then we will go back to the waterpark. I don’t care how much it costs. If she can get comfortable with this transition, then it’s completely worth it. This morning she left with a thumbs up and a smile, so I’m packing the pool bag . . .
Yas, fun please.
Traveling back in time to last weekend, before school began. I had been feeling guilty ever since someone asked the boys, “what did you do this summer?” and their wry response was “We moved here.” I realized that their summer vacation had been a bit lacking in the fun department and resolved to have at least one thing that they could look back on as a fun summer memory.
So after church on Friday we headed to Yas Waterworld. Too many waterslides to count, a wave pool, 3 different kid splash play areas, and a lazy river.
We all needed a day that was just for fun — no thinking about moving, school, or work for a change.
I left my camera in my bag while we played in the water all day. It was HOT, but the water was perfectly cooled. Meels and I played and rode slides in the kid’s area while the boys all went to check out the big rides and see which ones Camille could handle.
They overestimated her thrill-seeking capacity and said that one of the family rides would be fun for all of us. But when they weighed our group before loading us onto the 6 person raft, and told us where we needed to sit based on weight, I started to have doubts. Then we hit the first steep drop and flew straight down and Camille started bug-eyed screaming. They chose poorly. We all survived, but girlie was wary of all the other rides after that. We finally coaxed her on a “normal” inner-tube ride (doubles, so she didn’t have to go alone) and then she forgave them and was a happy slider after that.
This is the “don’t touch me” face that immediately precedes the smiling Happy Family photo.
and then of course girlie had to jump into the photo and take over the spotlight
It was such a fun day that she was mad when we told her it was time to go home. She even wanted to go back on the “scary slide” one more time, but we told her we’d have to save it for our next visit.
The park is open until 10pm on Fridays so people were still pouring in as we were heading home. I guess we aren’t Gulf natives yet. When night falls I want to be on my couch with my feet up, not fighting masses of people in line at the waterpark.