Long summer blog hiatus: done!
Long summer vacation: regretfully, done.
Final back-to-school preparations: so not done!
We arrived back in Doha on Wednesday night, with nary a missing piece of luggage (huzzah), and with almost totally uneventful flights (we did manage to spill 4 drinks, but who was counting besides the husband and me?). Our travel day was actually pretty great: an afternoon flight to Dallas meant that we didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn and, therefore, we only forgot one thing at Grandma's house (the bottle of melatonin, but we have back ups here). Grandma dropped us off and Grandeur and Grandest met us at the airport and watched the boys while we got all the luggage checked (they even brought presents, for which the boys were very grateful). They stayed with us a while until we needed to go through security, so it was nice to see them one more time before we took off. We had lunch at the airport (accompanied by a ridiculously loud piano player, not my favorite) before boarding our uneventful flight to Dallas. We got there just in time for our next flight, but we managed to squeeze in a bagel run before boarding first, after all the myriad folks in wheel chairs (seriously, I don't know what it is, but every Qatar Airways flight we take usually has anywhere from 15-30 people in wheelchairs--it's craziness!) The boys slept almost the entire flight from Dallas to Doha--we even successfully managed to let E sleep on the floor under the husband's feet without being reprimanded. And I actually got to watch some movies this time around, a truly unusual development for me!
Back in Doha on Wednesday night, we were assailed by the intense heat and humidity as we hailed a giant taxi bus to carry all our luggage home. The drive back reminded me how much I detest the death-defying and almost death causing traffic here, but I managed to control my panic until we got back to our hoe sweet home, where the air conditioners were still working, the air filters needed to be reset (dust storms while we were gone), and the fridge was bare. The boys and the husband headed out a bit later to get dinner and then we went to bed late, since they had slept so much on the plane over.
The next morning, Thursday, the husband got up for work (bless his heart!) and E and I got up to see him off and eat a bit of breakfast, but we ended up back in bed soon thereafter. I let us take a nap, thinking that soon J would get up and wake us, but I woke up with a start later and realized it was noon! Jet lag recovery FAIL! I rushed to wake up the still sleeping J, hurried E out of bed, and got everyone some lunch, regretting our much to long snoozing and hoping it didn't come back to haunt me that night (hint: it did). We left the house to get some groceries and discovered the car air conditioner wasn't working properly, so it was a long, hot ride to the store. After cooling down and stocking up at the grocery store, we found that the AC was now functioning, so we zipped home, kept the car running, unloaded the groceries...and discovered that the door to one half of our freezer had been left a tiny bit ajar over the summer and was now frozen shut with all the liquid from defrosted and refrozen food--including some of the huge pork purchase from before we left. Aaaaggghhhh! I spent a few minutes hacking through the ice, decided the whole process of fighting my way through the ice and then going through the food to see what if anything was salvageable was utterly beyond my capabilities, and then carved out enough ice to get the door to close fully and walked a way. As it was, we had to leave anyway to pick up the husband so we could go to the bank and file a fraud report for my credit card, which they had suspended after alerting us to some suspicious charges earlier during the summer (over $1000 in just a few hours--these card number swipers are good!).
That night, I went to bed late (having slept way to long the night before), but the boys seemed really tired when we put them to bed, so I crossed my fingers...only to have J wake up at 1:45am and stay away until almost 3am. Ooops!! I have no one to blame but myself.
The next day was church, so we were happy to go back and see all our friends who remain after summer's big exodus. I got released from working with the young women (the bishop called the day before to warn me), so I taught them my last lesson and brought lots of treats to soften the blow. I was happy not have been made president but surprised to have been released; I never thought I would like working with teenage girls, but I actually had quite a lot of fun with this particular group, much to my surprise. Friday afternoon, after church, the husband and I napped (but not the boys!), and then I set about the mammoth task of unpacking. Ugh! The best thing about packing is that everything gets zipped up into neat if bulky suitcases, which I love. The worst thing about packing is unpacking, when all those neat packages erupt into haphazard piles on the living room floor. So I spent most of that evening trying to make sense of it all and transport things to the rooms where they will live in piles until I can put everything away neatly. It's going to be a long process!
As is catch up-blogging! I have pictures from the summer as well as adventures to recount along with the usual day-to-day stuff around here. It's going to be a bit of a project but we are downloading photos as we speak so, assuming Blogger cooperates with me (always touch and go--I really should do something about that this year), I am back in regular update mode! I know, I know, you can't...ooh, look, something shiny!
Long summer vacation: regretfully, done.
Final back-to-school preparations: so not done!
We arrived back in Doha on Wednesday night, with nary a missing piece of luggage (huzzah), and with almost totally uneventful flights (we did manage to spill 4 drinks, but who was counting besides the husband and me?). Our travel day was actually pretty great: an afternoon flight to Dallas meant that we didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn and, therefore, we only forgot one thing at Grandma's house (the bottle of melatonin, but we have back ups here). Grandma dropped us off and Grandeur and Grandest met us at the airport and watched the boys while we got all the luggage checked (they even brought presents, for which the boys were very grateful). They stayed with us a while until we needed to go through security, so it was nice to see them one more time before we took off. We had lunch at the airport (accompanied by a ridiculously loud piano player, not my favorite) before boarding our uneventful flight to Dallas. We got there just in time for our next flight, but we managed to squeeze in a bagel run before boarding first, after all the myriad folks in wheel chairs (seriously, I don't know what it is, but every Qatar Airways flight we take usually has anywhere from 15-30 people in wheelchairs--it's craziness!) The boys slept almost the entire flight from Dallas to Doha--we even successfully managed to let E sleep on the floor under the husband's feet without being reprimanded. And I actually got to watch some movies this time around, a truly unusual development for me!
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| Pre-flight smiles! |
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| On the airport train in Dallas (wearing pajama bottoms after one of our spills), |
The next morning, Thursday, the husband got up for work (bless his heart!) and E and I got up to see him off and eat a bit of breakfast, but we ended up back in bed soon thereafter. I let us take a nap, thinking that soon J would get up and wake us, but I woke up with a start later and realized it was noon! Jet lag recovery FAIL! I rushed to wake up the still sleeping J, hurried E out of bed, and got everyone some lunch, regretting our much to long snoozing and hoping it didn't come back to haunt me that night (hint: it did). We left the house to get some groceries and discovered the car air conditioner wasn't working properly, so it was a long, hot ride to the store. After cooling down and stocking up at the grocery store, we found that the AC was now functioning, so we zipped home, kept the car running, unloaded the groceries...and discovered that the door to one half of our freezer had been left a tiny bit ajar over the summer and was now frozen shut with all the liquid from defrosted and refrozen food--including some of the huge pork purchase from before we left. Aaaaggghhhh! I spent a few minutes hacking through the ice, decided the whole process of fighting my way through the ice and then going through the food to see what if anything was salvageable was utterly beyond my capabilities, and then carved out enough ice to get the door to close fully and walked a way. As it was, we had to leave anyway to pick up the husband so we could go to the bank and file a fraud report for my credit card, which they had suspended after alerting us to some suspicious charges earlier during the summer (over $1000 in just a few hours--these card number swipers are good!).
That night, I went to bed late (having slept way to long the night before), but the boys seemed really tired when we put them to bed, so I crossed my fingers...only to have J wake up at 1:45am and stay away until almost 3am. Ooops!! I have no one to blame but myself.
The next day was church, so we were happy to go back and see all our friends who remain after summer's big exodus. I got released from working with the young women (the bishop called the day before to warn me), so I taught them my last lesson and brought lots of treats to soften the blow. I was happy not have been made president but surprised to have been released; I never thought I would like working with teenage girls, but I actually had quite a lot of fun with this particular group, much to my surprise. Friday afternoon, after church, the husband and I napped (but not the boys!), and then I set about the mammoth task of unpacking. Ugh! The best thing about packing is that everything gets zipped up into neat if bulky suitcases, which I love. The worst thing about packing is unpacking, when all those neat packages erupt into haphazard piles on the living room floor. So I spent most of that evening trying to make sense of it all and transport things to the rooms where they will live in piles until I can put everything away neatly. It's going to be a long process!
As is catch up-blogging! I have pictures from the summer as well as adventures to recount along with the usual day-to-day stuff around here. It's going to be a bit of a project but we are downloading photos as we speak so, assuming Blogger cooperates with me (always touch and go--I really should do something about that this year), I am back in regular update mode! I know, I know, you can't...ooh, look, something shiny!
