Oh, I've been missing blogging lately, but for no good reason. Not much has been happening, so I guess that's my excuse: I honestly don't have all that much to blog about! But when has that stopped me before?! So, quick updates all around:
The boys were able to dress as "someone famous" for school last week, so E chose Superman, of course, and J hemmed and hawed until the night before and was stumped until we found this pants and vest ensemble that he liked and then we had to find someone iconic who wore a vest. A quick Google search for "famous people wearing vests" revealed...about a million pictures of Justin Timberlake. Umm, no, thank you. Then the husband suggested Thomas Edison, who wears a vest in almost all pictures we have of him (who knew? The husband, apparently!) so I explained to J that Thomas Edison invented the electric light bulb (Like these in the ceiling? Yes, just like those...only bigger.) and the phonograph (What's a phonograph? Oh, a record player. What's a record player? Umm...let me look at some of his other inventions...just a second...) and the movie camera (Wow, that's cool!!). He said everyone was impressed with his costume, so high fives all around. Parenting win!
Meanwhile, the boys are on February break this week (not to be confused with spring break, in April), so we have gone to the beach, driving through moderately treacherous mud flats and a few even more treacherous long stretches of soft sand on the way, and collected all sorts of wonderful treasures, including a brain coral about the size of an actual brain and some of the most amazing shells we have every collected in all our many beach adventures. (We also had to help dig one of our friend's Armadas out of the sand before we left, but we managed not to get stuck, thank goodness!) We have also gone to the children's library where I volunteer and I let them choose all their own books (normally I am much more prescriptive than that, because I'm me), so we have ended up with ten I Can Read books about super heroes, a couple of Skippy Jon Jones books, some non-fiction 100 Facts About books on fossils and nocturnal animals, and eight Amelia Bedelia books...I sense a certain sameness coming up in our bedtime reading sessions! We have also been back to the dentist for a consultation on J's teeth and we may also go to the doctor's office for a booster shot for one of J's vaccines, because what is a vacation without some medical visits, right?
Even though we had J's birthday party two weeks ago, I took down the last of the decorations...yesterday, just in time for the husband to have some folks over for a (delayed) Super Bowl party: two Canadians, another family from America, an Egyptian-born American, and a Brit (who was also born elsewhere, I think, but I am not sure where). We were all dutifully surprised by the outcome, just late to the party (What were they thinking??).
The husband lost his passport last month (it was tragic) and applied for a replacement on Jan. 13th. It finally arrived on Sunday, but when we went to go pick it up at the embassy, we were told we needed to get a police report from our local police station reporting it lost. When we went to the station we were told we could only fill out the forms for a police report of that kind between 6am and 12pm (it was after 2pm at the time), so the husband came back the next morning, at which point he was told he needed a letter from his employer stating that he had could receive a lost passport report, so he emailed his boss, came home, printed the letter from his boss, and we all went back to the police station. An hour later, he was fighting with the big wigs in the head office because his letter lacked the correct stamp, which should have come from HR, apparently, but eventually they relented and let him get his police report. We stopped off at the embassy, only to find out that they were closed for consular business on Mondays. So we still don't have the passport, but we take solace in the fact that it is, in fact, here in the country, and he will be able to get it soon...we hope!
We are also, at long last, getting some family pictures done on Wednesday, assuming our photographer's very pregnant wife doesn't go into labor! We last had these done almost two years ago in Cleveland, so I am very much hoping we don't have to reschedule and that they turn out well (our photographer is very talented, so I am sure they will be great!).
We had thought about going to Dubai once the husband's passport materialized, but we've thought better of it since he will be back in Dubai in May for two conferences back to back so it would be smarter to join him then, particularly since most of what we want to do is inside anyway, so the weather won't really matter. And I am gearing up for Wedding Week 2015, my sister's big, fat Greek wedding extravaganza!!! I fly out alone on Monday morning and the husband will be managing the kids for the week, so I've got a detailed schedule made for him and I'm stocking the fridge with provisions. I think the last time I flew anywhere by myself was when I went to my friends' wedding in Canada something like 9 years ago...maybe more? So that in itself will be an adventure! I can't wait!
I'd like to say the posting will get back to normal this week, but with the boys' vacation and then my own trip back to the States, I'm guessing things will be sporadic until near the end of February. But I will be thinking bloggy thoughts and posting whenever I have a spare moment, so don't think I will abandon my tiny reading audience entirely!
The boys were able to dress as "someone famous" for school last week, so E chose Superman, of course, and J hemmed and hawed until the night before and was stumped until we found this pants and vest ensemble that he liked and then we had to find someone iconic who wore a vest. A quick Google search for "famous people wearing vests" revealed...about a million pictures of Justin Timberlake. Umm, no, thank you. Then the husband suggested Thomas Edison, who wears a vest in almost all pictures we have of him (who knew? The husband, apparently!) so I explained to J that Thomas Edison invented the electric light bulb (Like these in the ceiling? Yes, just like those...only bigger.) and the phonograph (What's a phonograph? Oh, a record player. What's a record player? Umm...let me look at some of his other inventions...just a second...) and the movie camera (Wow, that's cool!!). He said everyone was impressed with his costume, so high fives all around. Parenting win!
Meanwhile, the boys are on February break this week (not to be confused with spring break, in April), so we have gone to the beach, driving through moderately treacherous mud flats and a few even more treacherous long stretches of soft sand on the way, and collected all sorts of wonderful treasures, including a brain coral about the size of an actual brain and some of the most amazing shells we have every collected in all our many beach adventures. (We also had to help dig one of our friend's Armadas out of the sand before we left, but we managed not to get stuck, thank goodness!) We have also gone to the children's library where I volunteer and I let them choose all their own books (normally I am much more prescriptive than that, because I'm me), so we have ended up with ten I Can Read books about super heroes, a couple of Skippy Jon Jones books, some non-fiction 100 Facts About books on fossils and nocturnal animals, and eight Amelia Bedelia books...I sense a certain sameness coming up in our bedtime reading sessions! We have also been back to the dentist for a consultation on J's teeth and we may also go to the doctor's office for a booster shot for one of J's vaccines, because what is a vacation without some medical visits, right?
Even though we had J's birthday party two weeks ago, I took down the last of the decorations...yesterday, just in time for the husband to have some folks over for a (delayed) Super Bowl party: two Canadians, another family from America, an Egyptian-born American, and a Brit (who was also born elsewhere, I think, but I am not sure where). We were all dutifully surprised by the outcome, just late to the party (What were they thinking??).
The husband lost his passport last month (it was tragic) and applied for a replacement on Jan. 13th. It finally arrived on Sunday, but when we went to go pick it up at the embassy, we were told we needed to get a police report from our local police station reporting it lost. When we went to the station we were told we could only fill out the forms for a police report of that kind between 6am and 12pm (it was after 2pm at the time), so the husband came back the next morning, at which point he was told he needed a letter from his employer stating that he had could receive a lost passport report, so he emailed his boss, came home, printed the letter from his boss, and we all went back to the police station. An hour later, he was fighting with the big wigs in the head office because his letter lacked the correct stamp, which should have come from HR, apparently, but eventually they relented and let him get his police report. We stopped off at the embassy, only to find out that they were closed for consular business on Mondays. So we still don't have the passport, but we take solace in the fact that it is, in fact, here in the country, and he will be able to get it soon...we hope!
We are also, at long last, getting some family pictures done on Wednesday, assuming our photographer's very pregnant wife doesn't go into labor! We last had these done almost two years ago in Cleveland, so I am very much hoping we don't have to reschedule and that they turn out well (our photographer is very talented, so I am sure they will be great!).
We had thought about going to Dubai once the husband's passport materialized, but we've thought better of it since he will be back in Dubai in May for two conferences back to back so it would be smarter to join him then, particularly since most of what we want to do is inside anyway, so the weather won't really matter. And I am gearing up for Wedding Week 2015, my sister's big, fat Greek wedding extravaganza!!! I fly out alone on Monday morning and the husband will be managing the kids for the week, so I've got a detailed schedule made for him and I'm stocking the fridge with provisions. I think the last time I flew anywhere by myself was when I went to my friends' wedding in Canada something like 9 years ago...maybe more? So that in itself will be an adventure! I can't wait!
I'd like to say the posting will get back to normal this week, but with the boys' vacation and then my own trip back to the States, I'm guessing things will be sporadic until near the end of February. But I will be thinking bloggy thoughts and posting whenever I have a spare moment, so don't think I will abandon my tiny reading audience entirely!
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