Wednesday, Feb. 1
It's Desert Friday and there's a dust storm brewing. Jordan enjoyed sleeping in and catching up on her much-needed sleep! Since Jordan doesn't have school today, I gave Reese and Brooke a half day; but they have to finish their school work before they can go to Grace's birthday party at 6pm.
The dust has blown steadily all day. Bruce could really tell as he rode his scooter home. We won't eat our shawarmas at the pool tonight... we'll get 'em and eat 'em at home tonight. In fact, we let Jordan practice her driving skills and sent her to the pool to get them. Unfortunately, there weren't any shawarmas for sale tonight... probably because of the storm.
At 5:59, the girls finished their half-day of school. Reese had packed so many things to take to the slumber party that we had to load it all in the car and drive her around the corner three houses away.
The rest of us drove to the Hobby Farm for dinner. We normally like to eat outside there, but with the dust storm we were afraid we'd have to squeeze into the noisy dining room. To our surprise, the patio was pretty sheltered and we only felt a strong breeze at our table, and only a few napkins tried to blow away. The temperature has warmed up considerably, so we enjoyed our dinner outside.
Brooke wasn't planning to sleep at the slumber party tonight, but when she hadn't come home by midnight and I couldn't stay awake any longer, I put a sweater on over my PJs and walked around the corner to the party and walked her home. The girls were all cuddled up together watching TV.
Thursday, Feb. 2
Happy Birthday, Aunt Marie! I know you're not awake in the states yet, but we hope you have a wonderful day today!
The dust is still blowing today. You can see that the sky isn't blue anymore... it's just dusty. Everyone's cars are filthy now.
Pretty flowers.
This morning we have a ticket to the Boy Scout Pancake breakfast. Everyone we know is going, so they should have a good turn-out. Even Grace's birthday party is going! Here are the girls waking up and getting ready.
Here's the birthday girl. Grace is 9 years old.
Here's the line to get into the pancake breakfast!
There weren't really enough chairs and tables, but we scrounged what we needed while the girls sat on the floor, and we enjoyed the food!
The pancakes were all you can eat, or you could buy a ticket for scrambled eggs, or a ticket for sausage.
Look at all the Boy Scouts cleaning in the kitchen!
The line moved fast.
There was even fruit, juice, coffee, and tea.
The kids enjoyed spreading Nutella on their pancakes and covering them with powdered sugar.
When we walked in the front door of our house, we could see the sun shining in from the back and could see a fine layer of dust on the tile floor and every other surface. I guess that's why everyone around here has a maid (or a house boy)... you need to mop your floors and dust just about every day! Let's see how long I can last without hiring a maid! (I think it would disrupt our home school.)
I made chocolate chip cookies today. Ummm, those beaters are good!
Brooke and Reese put their skates in bags and rode their bikes to the "Duck Pond" with Jayda. Here's what Brooke wrote:
I sat around being bored in the wind with Jayda, then we decided to go to the duck pond and on the way to the duck pond was the BMX track and we brought our roller skates and bikes to the BMX track and played on the ramps and roller skated on the ramps. It was really pretty out. It wasn't dusty at all anymore... just windy. Then we roller skated 1.5 miles to the duck pond. First we got Reese to join us. Then we played at the duck pond and put our feet in the water after we chased the ducks and the lifeguard whistled at us a bunch and said, "Dirty water." I saw a stick in the water that I wanted and he whistled again and said the water was from toilets. Then he started watching us like five feet away because we were the only people there and it got really annoying. Then we roller skated over to the park and we played there then we roller skated another 1.5 miles back to the BMX track. There were some teenagers my age there and they weren't very nice so we decided to leave.
Friday, Feb. 3
I met some other home school moms at church today and am planning to meet them for their monthly dinner outside of camp soon. They all live outside and come on camp for Friday school.
Saturday, Feb. 4
Although the sun is shining and beautiful, it's 61 degrees at noon with a very cold wind left over after the dust storm.
Bruce had to take the bus to the Ras Tanura compound again this morning. It makes his day much longer.
Jordan was sad to go back to school after having a three-day weekend without studying.
Brooke and Reese can't seem to get in the swing of school today. They haven't been meeting the neighborhood kids for lunch lately, and they've been staying in their PJs longer. Brooke thinks it would be so much easier if she could just go to the middle school on camp... I keep reminding her that not only will it probably not be easier, but she'll have homework after classes, have to wake up early, actually have to get dressed in the morning, miss out on our last-minute vacations, and have to study the Bible at home instead of in school.
Speaking of last-minute vacations, Bruce's buddy, Kevin in St. Louis, has invited us to go skiing in Utah with their family in March!! We are soooo excited! We've been once before and had a BLAST! At first we declined because Jordan can't miss school, but we have since worked it out. Jordan is going to Cambodia next week with her school, and we figure it would be fair to go skiing without her for a week. She is excited to get to stay with her buddy, Danielle, who lives in our neighborhood. That way, she can still walk Shadow and feed him. My friend, Jonie, will take care of Shadow during school hours.
Brooke and Reese will just take their spring break early. Here, the schools have a two-week spring break in April. They are both willing to do anything to be able to go skiing again with Kevin's familly... we've been wishing we could do this again for a couple of years! We can't wait!
Sunday, Feb. 5
It's 61 degrees with the cold wind again today. The weather report says the low will be 49 tonight -- brrr!
We received a warning today that on Feb. 5 and 6, a demonstration at Bab Al Bahrain is planned and that we should stay away from Bahrain for the time being. Two days ago, a British man was in Bahrain before dawn when two young men approached him, asked him to step out of his car and then one of them attacked him with a sword and as he was blocking himself, his two fingers were cut off! The two then fled the scene in his car and then one of them attacked him with a sword and as he was blocking himself, his two fingers were cut off! The two then fled the scene in his car. A lot of westerners frequent Bahrain because they don't have to wear abayas, can purchase alcohol and pork, and just like to shop and go out over there. We are fortunate that things like this don't happen near us, and we can just stay home and be safe.
Tuesday, Feb. 7
The wind has stopped and it's a couple of degrees warmer (but not much.) Today, Bruce had to go to the RT compound again, but because he had to board the Karan ship, he had to get there before the buses do and took a taxi. He left before dark and returned home after dark.
Here's what he had to say about the pictures he took for you today:
This is the hydrographer working on data they collected.
They map the bed of the Arabian Gulf very very accurately. This is a picture of the accommodation platform of a plant. The top is the helicopter pad and is about 80 feet off the water and 50 workers live in it all the time.
The Karan 8 is the only boat of its type in the region. It's 65 meters long and 24 years old.
This is the small mess hall on board.
This is a hydrographer "flying" a ROV (remote-operated vehicle) that flies along a pipeline to check for damage.
On deck on the Karan 8. See the supertanker in the background?
(Get a load of those duds!)
This is a mooring point where tankers connect to take on oil. This swivels so the tanker can move with the wind and tides. It looks small, but it's really 50 feet across and weighs several hundred tons.
This is the hoist for the ROV.
Jordan is packing for her trip to Cambodia tonight because the kids are riding the bus after school to the airport. Wow! An international trip without her family! We're planning to drive to the high school tomorrow afternoon to see all of the kids off.
- Pattie -
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