Creating Christmas

We have tried to create our own Christmas here at our boring apartment... I created a fire place for the stockings after hunter wanted to know where we were gonna hang them "cause mom we dont have a fireplace"... Of course the next question is how is Santa gonna get into the house to leave gifts if we dont have one..... Of course everyone knows he can come through a window or the front door... hello!!!! ha ha ha....

Anyway, we have a wall hanging as well, i hung it on the bulletin board outside our front door... I think my snowman is the cutest, with the eyelashes!

Hunter Stuck....again

It was mean to get the camera instead of helping, but it was funny... he had to rock him self over to get out!

People watching...

Okay so now that I have all updates from halloween done, I can do the boring stuff.... ha ha ha...

So there is this "guard post" I can see outside my kitchen window. It's just down the hill a bit and across the drainage ditch, over the wall and on the other side of a fence. But we are up so high from it that I have a pretty good view. Every morning when I am waiting on my coffee I can see the guards at the post "on look-out" I guess and I usually stand there and watch them... I don't know why I find it so interesting, they don't do anything at all, just stand there. Sometimes a truck will come by and they will change people... Then I realized this morning that I always watch them and found myself asking why I do that? Can they see me? What if I was standing naked in my window, could they tell? Then my thoughts randomly went into the realization that I am constantly watching people. Outside on my porch, when I am in public, all the time. I just stand and watch what people are doing, not thinking anything inparticular, just watching and wondering what they are thinking maybe.... I don't think I am normal.....

Okay, Halloween Night...

Okay here are the only pics from Halloween night that we have. I am so bummbed that this is the only picture I got of Hunter that night. He looks great! He was a ninja complete with all kinds of "weapons" attached to his costume, and the bag I made him that matches his costume. It turned out pretty well if I do say so myself!!!

I am dressed in my witchy hat and hair, but we were running so late that night that I did not even have time to put makeup on or my costume, so i just threw on my abaya with my hat and hair to hand out candy. I am standing by a wall/door hanging that my friend and neighbor made that is wonderful!!! I made one too but hers is better....

Jack was also dressed up and took hunter around trick-or-treating... He just wanted to scare the little kids I think.... although he ended up scaring some adults as well... or so I've heard....

Ahhhh... Halloween....

I forget to post...sorry. I forget that i have this blog, not even sure anyone reads it. I guess it does not really matter does it... I forget to post things. I had every intention to taking all kinds of pics at halloween of hunter and jack and I but then my camera was not working well, or at all, so I had to farm out my duties of picture taking to friends, so i forgot to post them... so here they are... This was actually for the halloween party the thursday before halloween that jack and i dressed up for. I won 1st prize for the costume contest!!! Yeah, go me! Hunter is not in costume but was upset that we were not taking his picture, so we had to add him in a few shots and then wanted to have one by himself.... he is trying to be scary! oooohhhhh, i am so scared!

Can I say that I dont look anything like what I "thought" I looked like???? Does this happen to anyone else or is it just me??? Every time I see a picture of myself I think... is that really me??? Is that really what I look like??? I don't feel that fat.... ha ha ha....

A few little crafts!

Here are a few bags that I have made from patterns I found on the internet... I thought they were cute....

This is a camel wall hanging that will go on our front door when I am threw! Just have to do the quilting around the camel and then finish the sides and it will be good!!! I can't wait! I love this one.

This is a quilt that I made for a girl (empress). It was for her 10th birthday! It turned out really cute. And its so warm as well. I should know, I had it on my lap for about two weeks straight while I was quilting it (by hand).....

This is the most recent quilt. Just finished it last week. It is a dinosaur quilt for Hunter's room. He is really into dinosaurs. Its complete with a bed skirt and pillow cases! It really turned out better than i thought it would... I will be making a few throw pillows and a window treatment as well, as soon as I get around to it....

The CAKE!

I forgot to post the picture of the cake for the party. Here it is...

Also here is the picture of Hunter's new bike... He was so excited.

Of course he had to take the picture with Speckels and baby Speckels...

Birthday Party!!! (a month ago)...

I have been very lazy with this blog lately. I am finally getting around to posting the picts from Hunter's 8th birthday party last month. We had the party at the pool over the weekend. It was so much fun for the kids. I made 8 pizzas for the party!

Hunter in the Pool!

Here are some of Hunter playing in the pool... (before his hair cut)....

Houses!

Here are some houses...Saudi Houses...not ours! I wish! HA HA HA...

Pictures! Pictures! & More Pictures!

Here are some pictures from out in town on our way to the grocery store...

More Pics!

More Marshmallows!

Marshmallow Eyebrows!

Pictures!

Yes! Its working, I am gonna put a ton of pictures on here now. So get comfortable and look at what we have been doing!

This is Hunter playing around with marshmallows and he just walked into the living room with them all around his mouth! It was so funny after I stopped laughing I had him sit down so I could grab the camera.

We are still here!

Yes. We are still here. I got fed up with the internet connection and tried to boycott the computer for a while, but it did not last long. We are all having a good time here, homeschooling is going very well with Hunter. I think he is enjoying the personal attention, I am enjoying his progress... I see it every day and it makes me feel good.

We have not made it to the pool recently, its been kind of cool here... Yes I know what you all are thinking, oh poor us... I mean you all have what, had snow? But its been tough, I mean, I have not been able to work on my tan at all!!! ha ha ha.

So anyway just wanted to let you all know that yes we are still alive, and no we have not been the victims of any random terrorists activity...

So I have updated the blog, ARE YOU HAPPY RAMEY???

Pictures....

We are having some trouble getting the pictures to load so I can post them. I hope we can fix the problem before long. Will post them when I can.

'Bout Time!

I know, it's about time I posted some picts... I have some from in front of our apartment on the compound, some out in town. We have gone shopping for three days in a row really, groceries, got a new bike for Hunter, and some other necessities. I was able to get a few picts in town, sorry there are not many... it's a bit hard to get them when we are out... kind of hard to explain, but between dodging "crazy-ass" drivers and speeds upwards of 120 kilometers an hour, as well as not knowing if you can take picts of the people here, it's a challenge. I did not get any opportunities to take picts of saudis out, I know some of you wanted to see the dress of them, which is unique to say the least... I just dont know there "rules" and really I have heard you need to get permission to take their picture... So needless to say I did not have a good "sneaky" opportunity to take anyones picture.

We Are Here!

We have made it to Saudi, we actually arrived about 7am (saudi time) on the compound on Thursday. I have been so tired and busy unpacking that I forgot to post, and forgot to take any pictures. I was so mad at myself, i was gonna take picts of Jack and Hunter meeting at the airport and our arrival at the compound and our walk into the apartment, I just forgot.

Jet lag is a bitch! I have been sleeping at all these weird hours, trying to stay up as long as possible, yesterday was probably the best day. I woke up at 5:30am, managed to stay up all day until 7pm, then i crashed on the couch. Finally went to bed about 8pm and of course woke up at 12 midnight wide awake and ready to go again. Crazy i know. But i got up for only about 2 hours then was able to go back to sleep and woke again at 6am. So thats okay, I cant complain too much!

Hunter and I went to the pool yesterday, (yes i forgot the camera). He had so much fun! I figured we would be there for an hour or so.....no... we got there at 10 am and stayed till way past 2pm. Hunter wore himself out! When we got home he immdeiately wanted to put on his pjs, I figured he would fall asleep watching tv, what i did not expect is him to actually "ask" to go take a nap! He slept for hours till we finally woke him up at 6!

I of course was sitting in the shade and still got burned! I have to remember to lather myself in sunscreen whenever i leave the house. I mean for pete's sake, i was sitting in the freakin shade!!! I did the same freakin thing last time i was here, burned myself to a crabby shade of red and purple. Thankfully this time its not as severe, just a bit bright red on my arms and face. It will "hopefully" go tan, but doubt it. I will probably be as red as a beet for about 3 days then look like a snake shedding skin for about another week. The joys of having fair skin. I hate it!!!!

That is pretty much all that is going on, we have settled in to the apartment, have pretty much everything unpacked and i have already gone over Jack's "cleaning" job over the entire house. HA HA. He says i am neurotic...I dont know about that, i just think i am "healthier" than most people. Have I mentioned that I miss my vacuum cleaner!!!! I knew that I would with light beige carpeting throughout the house! But honestly the vacuum that they give us is a joke!!! I broke it out the other day and immediately began sneezing fits for hours.... Needless to say we are going vacuum shopping on Thursday! Yeah! (maybe i will make it that long)...

Okay I promise I will try to get some pictures of us this time! I am sure Hunter will want to go to the pool every day for the rest of his life now....

"Leaving On a Jet Plane"

Yes, you read that right. We are leaving on a jet plane. Most of you already know, because it was such short notice that I did not even have time to blog about it, I just called everyone instead. But yes, I got a call from Jack on Saturday night saying we are leaving on the 18th! I sat up in bed thinking that it was going to be Tuesday, yes today! I nearly had a coronary... to say the least. I mean I am excited and I sooooooo want to leave and see my husband, but two days notice!!! I did not think I could do it. Of course I never went to the calendar to look up the actual date, just still assuming that it was Tuesday... my bad....

So we are leaving tomorrow, Wed, the actual 18th. And I think I actually got every thing packed and done that I needed to. I work better under pressure I guess.

So we fly out from OKC at 1:50 pm on Wed the 18th, and from there go to Dallas, London Hethrow, Jeddah, Abah (home).... It will take all of 2-3 days. We will arrive in Abah on the 20th but since there is a 9 hour difference it's really 2 1/2 days.... The joys of international travel. Not my favorite part of the trip, but I don't mind flying really, I think I have become pretty good at it, packing (especially carry-ons). People take a whole bunch of crap they don't need onto an airplane, kind of silly really.

Well I guess that's all for now, next time you heard from me I will be on the other side!

FINALLY!!!

YES!!! FINALLY!!!



Yes, I did repeat myself...I just wanted to emphasize that point, that yes finally (there I go again) we have our visas!!!! Yeah! I can't believe it! I am just so happy at this point I don't even know where to begin... But okay, (sigh) , I was standing in my kitchen making roast for dinner when I hear a bang like a door shutting, sounded like it came from behind me, (the acoustics in our house are strange) so I was expecting any minute for Vickie or someone to be walking in the garage door behind me with some kind of prank to scare me like always cause I did not actually turn around to look at the door. I waited and waited and nothing... So I turned around and nothing, no one... Did not think any more of it until my mom got up from the couch where she fell asleep on her lunch hour (did not realize she was still home) and she opened the front door and there as she opened the door lay a white fed-ex envelope!!! To my amazement I knew immediately what it was!!! It was like the most beautiful fed-ex envelope in the whole entire world. Although I contained my excitement for a brief moment as she handed it to me, (I don't know how I did not charge her down to get to it) but she hands it to me and I slowly flip it over to see the return address!!! And there on the back of the envelope was the name I longed to see; FROM: Diran Visa!!!!! Yes!!! My heart filled with butterflies as I tore open the... ummmm.... long ripper thing at the top of the envelope.... and there it was!!!! Hunter's passport and my passport complete with the stamp and traditional and all official looking seal of the Saudi Embassy!!! My NON EMPLOYMENT VISA!!!!

I almost could not believe my eyes. It seemed to gleam in the sun like a million sparkling dollars! HA! HA! HA! I know I have gotten carried away here..

For those of you who don't know, Saudi Arabia is on of a hand full of countries where you have to actually apply for a residence/work/non work/tourist visa before they will let you in their country. We have been waiting on this mere 2X2 paper to be officially approved by the Saudi govt and attached to my passport and hunters passport before they would arrange for any flights or any thing. And to get the visa you have to subject your self to a ton of labs (some of which are embarrassing) and x-rays and doctors physical, not to mention fill out their official application.... and don't even get me started on the whole marriage license thing...


So in short (actually long) we have our visas now and we are expecting word from the HR guy any day with info on flight availability...We should hear from him maybe fri or sat since its the weekend in Saudi right now. As soon as I hear of any possible flight date I will let you all know.

I did want to clear up a thing or two about my mom back there, she does not normally fall asleep on the couch on her lunch break but she has been sick with the flu for the last 3 days, still not feeling up to par today but getting better...

Okay so as you can imagine I am so excited! It really will NOT be long now that we will be flying across the ocean blue! I did call Jack to tell him and he was drinking (of course) and was so excited he did not know what to say! I think he was drunk! ha! ha! ha!

..................just kidding sweetie.................:-)

Here is Hunter looking pretty normal without makeing "fighting faces" or being goofy. Beleive me its pretty hard to get him to be serious in front of a camera. Even though he loves having his picture taken he always wants to look mean in them...

Hunter Being a Goofball!!!

We have a million more pictures of him being a goofball, its like an every day thing! But these are some of my favorites!

He cracks me up!

Hunter and Daddy! Aren't they Cute!

Pictures!

Hunter and Momma!

Welcome!

I have not arrived in Saudi as of yet! Just wanted to set up this blog spot so we can immediately update friends and family of our situation. We still dont have a date of departure as of yet for Hunter and I, but hope to have one soon. Of course we just feel like we are in limbo at this time. As soon as we hear any info we will post to this webiste. I will upload my travel itenerary as soon as I have one so you all will know exactly when i will be flying out.

Should have kept working longer.... did not know it was going to take 6 freakin months to leave! OH well, if I knew then what i know now right...

We shall see how the rest of this month goes...