September, 2012 - The New School Year

We began September with the first day of school.  This is Jordan's senior year -- her last year!!  And then she gets to decide what she wants to do with her life.  Here she is waiting for the school bus at 6:45am on the first day of school.  

She used to wait for the bus with her friend, Nathan; but he didn't like the school here and is now going to his high school in the states and living with a friend.  Sometimes it's hard for families to adapt here and they end up splitting up to keep everyone happy.  After Nathan decided to stay in the states, his younger brother didn't want to come back here either, and is now going to a boarding school in the states; and now their little sister is all alone here without them.  I'm so happy that Jordan liked it here and that we were able to spend these two years together.  Next year, she'll be in the states going to college.  It will be lonely, but it won't be as much of an adjustment for us next year because we have been able to adjust slowly while she has been at school all day, doing homework all evening, and visiting her friends on the weekend.  One weekend this month she spent the night at Angie's house, and she went to a pizza party on another.

We celebrated Bruce's birthday with presents.  I love how the two dogs are posing in this family picture.  Sorry, it's blurry.

This one is clear-- but no dogs.

We also celebrated with a pot roast dinner, home made biscuits, and an apple pie.

Labor Day here was just another work day.  We thought of you all having barbecues and a long weekend.

We continue to walk to the pool each Wednesday evening to eat shawarmas at the rec center.

For P.E. this month, Reese rode her bike to the elementary school (which is right next door to the pool & snack bar) as school was getting out, to meet her friends and spend the afternoon swimming.  She loves the independence she has here in Saudi.  We would never be able to allow her to ride her bike alone to the pool in Peachtree City!

I also enjoyed spending some time in the sun, at the pool this month.

Jordan and Reese tried out for the swim team and go to swim practice 2-3 times a week now.  Reese loves her independence and insists on riding her bike there and won't accept a ride.  Jordan loves her independence in a different way--she likes to drive the car there... her practice is a bit tougher and she's exhausted after school, P.E., and swim practice; so her driving skills have really come in handy.  One of her best friends, Kelcy, also joined the swim team, so she enjoys having a friend to swim with.

Jordan is still babysitting her favorite little boy, Benjy.  He has a baby brother now, but Baby Zach goes with mama still.

Brooke's voice teacher had visa problems and couldn't get back in the country this month, so Brooke began dance lessons at the rec center.  She can ride her bike there if she chooses and hang out the girls afterwards.  She is taking ballet and jazz and will they will have a recital in June.

Bruce and Brooke continued helping with the theater this month by building sets for the middle school production of Alice in Wonderland.  Brooke isn't allowed to have a part in the play since she's homeschooled, so it takes a lot of grace and courage for her to go and help build the sets.  She enjoyed being a part of the production even if it was back stage.

A major disappointment for her was when we found out that the panto this year was cancelled.  They didn't have a stage manager or choreographer and felt they just couldn't pull it off this year.  What a disappointment that was for all of us.  Brooke had put all of her hopes into that one show.  We trust that the Lord has his hand on her life, and that this was his will.

The Lord always answers prayers quickly for Brooke, and another play is being produced in November with ONE part for a teenager (boy or girl, age 12-15--how perfect for her!) and 3 adult parts.  Here is a picture of her auditioning for the part... and SHE GOT THE PART!  We're so happy for her and proud of her!  I really wish she could have been in something fun like the panto last year or the middle school productions, but this will have to do for now.  The play is called Waiting for Godot and it will be performed outside for 4 nights in November.

We celebrated Brooke's 14th birthday a few days early at the beach with two other homeschool families.  I made some cookie cakes and we brought food to barbecue.

It was very hot and windy that day and difficult to keep even one candle lit!  We all huddled around the candles and held up towels to block the wind.

We drove home after dark and Brooke had a wonderful day.

Jordan is continuing to teach swim lessons at the Al Rushaid Village compound.  Brooke and Reese and I enjoy socializing with our friends, the Burrows, while Jordan teaches lessons.  We usually take a taxi to Jordan's high school to pick her up, have dinner with the Burrows when Jordan is finished teaching lessons, and then take a taxi home.

Jordan has also been spending her time working out and preparing for the CFA (Candidate Fitness Assessment).  She will be tested on a kneeling basketball throw, pull ups, push ups, sit ups, a 40-yard shuttle run, and a one-mile run.

This is how Jordan feels after a day at school.

Shadow agrees.

On Brooke's birthday I made her french toast with apples for breakfast, and she didn't have to do any school work.

In the evening I made brownies topped with Andes mints and we celebrated by opening presents after Bruce got home from work.

Brooke used all of her birthday money (and a little more of her own) to buy an IPOD Touch 4.  She also got some boots and jewelry.

Reese had to hurry off to AWANA because it was the first meeting of the year with a pizza party.  Jordan went to swim practice with Kelcy.

Jordan was elected as a member of student council this year, so she stays after school some days for student council meetings.  She is also a member of the HFH (Habitat for Humanity) group at school.  She is planning to go to Kenya in February this year to help build a house, and is very excited about the trip!  Her class load is very heavy, but I'm glad I talked her into taking exemption this year--that's basically a period of study hall where she is able to get some of her homework done.  This year she is taking yearbook again (she really enjoyed that last year).  She ran for editor but didn't get it, but she's assistant to the editor.  She is also taking AP Literature/Composition, Weight Training, Arabic II, Physics, Honors Pre-Calculus, and AP Psychology... whew!

For five days, Brooke and I went to India with her Girl Scout troop and visited the Girl Scout Sangam World Centre in Pune, India.  We also toured Delhi, but I'll post those pictures later.

This month, Brooke worked on her Girl Scout silver award.  It required 50 hours and a project done in the local community outside of Girl Scouts that would benefit the community more than once.  She chose to raise community awareness of wild dogs that live on camp by posting information that explains what to do when confronted by a wild dog, and how to discourage the dogs from coming into the neighborhoods.  Here are the bulletin boards she created.  she even posted it in Arabic!

She also gathered some of her troop together and mended fences at the horse stables where wild dogs are frequently seen and pose a problem.  Here she is getting the chicken wire.

Checking the fences.

Mending the fences.

Thanks again for stopping by!

- Pattie -

August, 2012 - Cruises and Disney World

We began August by going on vacation with my mom.  We flew to Tampa to board a cruise.  Here we are at the airport.

We sailed on the Carnival Paradise to Cozumel.

Our room was crowded with 5 people, but we didn't spend much time in our room.

After breakfast, we didn't see much of Reese because she loved hanging out in the kids' club.

Brooke is sliding down the slide.

Here we are enjoying the beach in Cozumel, Mexico, at Mr. Sancho's Beach.  Brooke, Jordan, and Reese are playing on the inflatables.

It wasn't that easy to get to the top of the iceberg.  Reese is almost to the top with Brooke.

They made it!

 Here, my mom is enjoying her raft.

And Jordan is enjoying the sun.

Mom and I enjoyed the margaritas.

Back on the ship there is self-serve ice cream and passengers can eat as many ice cream cones as they want!

We spent 2 days at Disney World.  Here we are at our hotel.

It's blurry, but Brooke is coming down the slide.

Our first day at Disney World was spent at the Blizzard Beach water park.

This is the wave pool.

It rained and the park closed for a few hours, but we came back and enjoyed no lines until closing!

The second day we went to Hollywood Studios and then to the Magic Kingdom.

At Hollywood Studios, Brooke auditioned for American Idol.  We were surprised at the competition!!  Brooke didn't make it, but it was a good experience.

The Tower of Terror!

Magic Kingdom

Here is a photographer that saw the button on Brooke's shirt that told how she auditioned for American Idol, and he made her sing out loud to everyone on Main Street.

Here he's demonstrating how not to be shy.

It's a Small World ride

At the end of the day we rode Splash Mountain as many times as we could before the ride closed and kicked us out.  As we were leaving the ride, we saw this enormous bullfrog!!  When he finally hopped, we screamed so much!

As we were reluctantly leaving the park, we discovered that the Electrical Parade was performing one last time, so we sat along the route and enjoyed the parade.

This is Cinderella in her coach.

That was a LONG day and we squeezed in as much as we possibly could!

The next day was my 50th birthday!  We checked out of our hotel and drove to Port Canaveral.

Here we are on the Carnival Ecstasy.

We went to Nassau, Bahamas.  Reese bought a new hat.

The next day we were shuttled on a boat to Half Moon Cay.

It's a beautiful beach with a free lunch (a little crowded, though).

Back on the ship, we played on the water slides.  Here, Brooke is racing down the slide.

Reese tried the big slide.

Jordan is relaxing.

Mom got a fancy dessert in the shape of a swan.

When the cruise ended, it took us all day to fly standby back to Atlanta, so Mom spent the night at our house and then flew to Arkansas the next morning.

We put some corn in our backyard to feed the deer, and here we have a visitor.

Reese had to have a tooth pulled, and we all had various appointments before we headed back to Saudi, so the rest of our time at home was running errands and packing.  I took Jordan downtown to have her medical exam taken for the Air Force Academy.  A lot of candidates get rejected because of failing this exam, so we just kept this in our prayers.  She ended up passing the medical!

We didn't find three seats on any of the flights out of Atlanta, so we flew to Detroit to catch a flight to Amsterdam, and then flew KLM all the way to Dammam without any problems.  Our boxes didn't make it since we switched to Detroit at the last minute, but Bruce was waiting to pick us up when we arrived.  He drove me back to the Dammam airport two days later to pick up our 8 boxes.  It was like Christmas when we unpacked them.  I brought back my birthday presents, and the girls brought back some early gifts as well, and Jordan brought back tons of school clothes so we wouldn't have to worry about shopping over here for the whole year!

Here's a picture of one of my birthday presents... metal flowers that are hung above my bed.  They took up a lot of space in the box, but aren't they pretty?  I brought fabric to make curtains, pillows, and a duve' cover for my room as well; so hopefully, I'll find some time to sew this year.

Bruce had been taking care of Zoie, the desert dog; so she was at our house when we arrived.  Her owners were in the states, so we watched her until October.  We sure were happy to see Shadow... he was the same as always, happy to see us, and didn't hold a grudge.

We were pretty jet lagged when we got back, but school didn't start until September 1st, so we just enjoyed the end of the summer (a hot one!) in Saudi.  These pictures pretty much sum up how we felt.

Jordan didn't waste any time getting together with her friends.  I'm so happy that she has made so many wonderful friends here, and she'll take these memories with her when she goes to off to college.

What a wonderful summer we had together.  If Jordan gets accepted into the Air Force Academy, this will have been our last summer together as a family.  I'm sure we'll get to spend time with Jordan again, but the AFA only gives them three weeks in the summer, and I don't think she'll get any next summer because it starts in June as soon as she graduates from high school!

Thanks for stopping by!

- Pattie -