We just got back from meeting Ryan for coffee. Poor dude had to go back to work today, and I think 6am came a bit early! I’m thinking it’s going to come early for the kids and myself on Tuesday, but we aren’t going to think about that!!

We had a good week off. Went to the beach on Friday with some friends, kids had a blast playing and swimming. Apparently it’s a small time frame before it will get too cold to swim… go figure! The weather has been amazing. 29 this morning, and the humidity seems to have come down a bit. The kids are less whiny when we go out, which is nice. We bought a little pop up tent at Carrefour the other day. We put it on Thomas’ bed last night and the kids slept in it. They looked so cute “camping”. We need to find on that will fit on the top bunk for Daniel, apparently Thomas smells in such a confined space!

What else did we do this week? Not much. Relaxed. Napped. Had family time. Ryan and I went on a date to the four seasons and had a message and dinner. Ryan planned it and it was a surprise. It was an awesome time, with Kara looking after the kids for us (thanks Kara).

Oh, and a note for Kevin. The kids got a package today from rungreen.com (Our new favourite site)

They got John deere plates and bowls and sheets and shirts…. they are very happy campers!!

Thanks also to Layne for the use of her shipping address, she saved us a bundle!!!

I just got out of the tub. It’s my last day of holidays, and I like having a bath, reading a book, with a glass of red wine. Yah, Gay, I know, but it is nice. and there are no candles… well, rarely are there candles.
anyways.
I was sitting today with jen and kara, talking about what we wanted for lunch. I said I wanted a harveys hamburger. No… a heaveys cheese burger, with bacon and cheese(good name for it eh?) and topped with fresh(ish) lettuce, tomatoe, mustard, relish, ketchup. I especially lov how they use the spoons to do the relish and mustard and not cheap squeese bottles like I have to use. it’s like you can have as much mustard as that bun can hold, cause there is a gallon of it sitting right there…
Oh. and the pickles. Love the pickles. I even get pickles on the side(a trick taught to my by Jen, my elder and somewhat wiser sister)
Yh… the cheese burger, and the onion rings and probably a cold iced tea, and I’d tease the attendant for filling up the class with too much ice, improving harvey’s profits just that much more. But then I stopped. it took a moment, but a big part ‘o’ that meal comes with a healthy dose of sarcastic wit delivered in the package of mr shelston. Here’s a guy who works his butt off every day cause that’s what you do. You hang out with friends, and cover for them and tell them they they’ve screwed up when they have, then take them out for a beer afterwards. I don’t miss much from allstream, this new job is a lot of fun, but one thing I do miss is my lunches out with Mr Sheslton. Here’s to you, dood… making my hamburger a beautiful thing…
ps. thank God we didn’t go to KFC for lunches. that tag line would have just been too Gay.

I have to be careful saying things like normal here… it’s a pretty interesting city, if a job is completed to 90%, it’s considered done… Anyways. I have had a great little break. loved hanging out with the family, did a ton of dinners, jen’s baking was going full speed ahead, and there were about a ton of cupcake deliveries at all hours of the day. Friends of ours had triplets and 16 pounds of baby in one tummy is too much for any woman, let alone a 5 foot 4 trooper…
We spent some time at the beach, some time at the pool side, way too much money on starbucks coffee, and had some colorful dinner guests… Tomorrow, I go back to work, 6:30 till probably 5… time to get out of the summer routine, and the ramadan routine, and get back into the ramped up full steam ahead routine… At least until christmas break

You are never going to believe what Ryan and I did today!!! We went grocery shopping at Carrefour at 2:45 pm. While we were walking up and down the isles….. are you ready…..? We had COFFEE!!!! At 2:45 pm!!!! In broad daylight!!!!

OK, it was exciting to me. GOOD-BYE RAMADAN!!!!

I also updated the photos with some more recent pictures. Click on the photos tab to view them.

Today we went to the Sheridan Hotel for a “fancy” dinner with the kids and Kara. We all got dressed up, and the kids were extremely well behaved. Thomas was busy snatching all the garnishes off of the deserts (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries…) After a few handfuls he asks Ryan “How do you say Blackberries in Arabic?” I got up the nerve to ask some Arabs sitting next to us…. their reply “Toots”!!!

For everyone who knows us, they should have heard at one time or another that we refer to “farts” in a child friendly way as “Toots”. So Thomas and Daniel are eating their blackberries/Toots while Ryan, Kara and myself are cracking jokes about “How we like our Toots juicy” and other such childish nonsense. Finally we run out of material… and then little Thomas pipes up (after about 20 mins or so). “Hey Mom, Toots and Tooty bum are the same”, and bursts out into laughter. Funny thing is, he caught on faster than Daniel…..

Anyway, for all of our none Arabic speaking friends…. Toots=Blackberries…. you now know some Arabic!

In less than 48 hours I will be happily sitting in a Starbucks IN BROAD DAYLIGHT having a nice cup of tea for all to see!!!! Ramadan has had its good things about it, like Ryan being home at 130, the kids not starting school until 8am… but the not eating or drinking in public durning daylight has been really rough. Imagine 45 degree weather and not being able to have a sip of water! As soon as the Arabs see the new moon it will all be over, and I for one cant wait!

Draw backs… Daniel and Thomas will now be starting school at 7am (yikes). Ryan will be working regular work hours, but thats just regular life.

We went to the beach again yesterday. Ken brought his little Chevy Tracker and we went duning. It was SO much fun. I learned how to drive it up the dunes and drove down a hill that was probably 80 degrees straight down. It was really awesome. I cant wait to come home to Canada and practice my new “sand doughnut abilities” in the snow. Thanks Ken!

-jen

So. I didn’t write a lot this month. A lot of you realize that this is nothing new. 9 months ago, I started a resolution to update it every 2 weeks(I think) and… well… yah. t’s been more like a month on average. it’s not like there isn’t a ton going on, it’s just that I don’t do it… sorry I’ll do better… Oh, and for those of you who’d like a more balanced view of what’s going on here, try bugging jen
anyways… I was out last night test driving a used audi A6. it was nice to be behind a powerful, sexy german again… it’s been a while since the fatherland has taken me for a ride. car didn’t have any real guts to write home about, but it was smooth and brakes on a dime… sasha always had one, and he is a sexy beast… so oI think by association, I’ll be a sexy beast if I drive one… yay sasha…

we went to the beach on the weekend, it was fun but super hot. I ended up getting some sort of sun rash from the… uhh sun? might have been the water, but it was all across my chest and shoulders. Took a day, and went away. The boys are loving school. They are both enrolled in Qatar academy this year. Daniel is in kindergarten and thomas is in Pre-3. We were concerned about the ratio of nationalities in that school, but have been VERY happy with how they are treated and the general vibe you get form the school. Plus, it’s nice having the family so close to me. I work about 10 minutes away, and home is a 5 minute drive from that. Everyone on the same campus is pretty cool.

Humm… what else? Rosie’s leg is not doing too good. she tore the ligaments in her knee in January, and although she did pretty well for about 6 months, she is really starting to look like it bugs her.

Umm.. I think that’s it for now. if you have anyquestions for me… let me know in the comments. Dave… keep it clean.

Just wanted to let everyone know how we treat our guests in Qatar… any visitors form the colonies want to join?

Hey… yah, it’s been a while. today marked the first day of ramadan… First of all, ramadan is a month in the islamic calendar. it’s like saying today is the first day of september, which it is, but that is besides the point… so, when people are celebrating ramadan, really they are celebrating september… Another thing I found out is that their year only has about 355 days(or something like that) there is never a leap year, and the only way you can tell if the month is gonna switch is by reading the moon… All the Muslim countries in the world look to saudi arabia to tell them when the month is changing. Saudi was chosen cause that is where Mohammad lived and died. K. nuff history

Ramadan… the work hours are cut back to only 5 hours a day… none of this working 8 or 10 hours a day stuff… 5 is good… then you are encouraged to go home and have a nap. So, today I did. I went grocery shopping after that, Had to get some burgers for dinner. Hopped in line, adn the one lady in front of me had 1200 Canadian in groceries, and she didn’t buy any meat. She had 8 carts of food… she brought a pick up truck to bring it all home in. it was incredible. I had my burgers and felt like I was not holding quite the same calibre party as she was…

Anyways, I’ll see if I can get jen to write about the traffic, She and Kara went out tonight, I am home with the boys. I am interested to hear if the no eatign thnig all day makes people as agressive as I have heard they can be…

The family got in at 7:30 last night…

We used the Al Maha service, a meet and greet at the airport, turns out it was a colossal waste of money and arguably time. Both jen and kara said the flights were good, with the exception of the final 90 minutes, when the kids had been cooped up for 18 hours, and they were ready to run around.  When jen and Kara landed, all the passengers board a bus, this al maha service was supposed to skip that step. they were supposed to be ushered into a waiting car, adn wisked away to a nice lounge… Not so much. I think the one good thing that the service did was the imigration, but even that was a bit silly, the Qatari imigration is as  efficient as any I’ve sen, and we didn’t have any special requirements. Bah, lesson learnt.

They landed at 7:30, and we drove into our driveway at 9:10, everyone loved the work I did on the house, and the boys loved their transformers. Rosie went ballistic… she was running around, bringing us all her toys showing us them… it was cool. We unpacked our stuff(or at least put a serious dent in it) and crashed at about 11…

It’s nice to have everyone home.