Happy Birthday Memaw and a real live blog!!!

Happy Birthday Memaw!!!!! What a special day for you....hope you have fun!

Jacob loves his tricycle he will ride it everywhere....in the house. Take it outside and he loses the ability to peddle....unsure why...but he is hell on a tile floor. He plays constantly with these two sweet twin girls down the road that are 4 months older than him. They are all in love and these girls are gorgeous...the whole family is pretty. Anyways, one day we will all end up back in College Station (they are Aggies too) and I will have to tell Jacob how he used to wipe these girls kisses off his face and how they used to chase him because they will surely be the prettiest girls in town at the rate they are going.

Jacob is thriving at his little school here. He probably would love to go full time since they are only open from 7-2, but he only goes three days a week. That's enough for me and Josie right now...plus it allows me to have some alone time with Maddie a couple of days a week. We needed that.

He now says things like, "That is beautiful", "That is so amazing", " Oh my gosh, I can't believe it...awesome" Clifton was giving him a hard time over something the other night and Jacob said his toe hurt (he was trying to get out of finishing dinner) and Clifton said, "you know what will make your toe feel better? Eating you Macaroni and Cheese" and Jacob said, "Daddy, that doesn't make any sense"

Maddie is great...some friends moved in down the street and I am becoming super close to Michelle. She has a little girl who is one an a four year old and 6 year old boys who are in school. (good about the boys...we are crawling with girls in this neighborhood) Her husband works at TAMUQ as well. We hang with the girls on my days off and go to the pool with the babies and such. SHe has lived a bit everywhere from New York to Missouri I believe and she has a fantastic sense of humor. Of course all the families in the compound are close and funny and they all take care of one another. There is a comfort level here with folks that I have never experienced before. SInce our house is in front of the club house and compound restaurant we get alot of visitors. I love it! Heck one of the neighborhood girls walk Reno everyday and the other night about 7 ten year old girls show up in our house to see the kids and walk the dog. It's just that kind of place.
Maddie sleeps 90% of the time with her hand on this musical bear someone gave us for Jacob before he was born. She cannot sleep without it.

Thanks to Clifton, the diaper wreath made a triumphant return this weekend! He picked up a frame and ribbon for me in the states last visit and I was able to find the rest here...so it isn't my prettiest diaper wreath, but that is as pretty as it is going to get in Doha.
So since Maddie is getting more mobile, we had gates custom made for our stairs and plexiglass put over the grate upstairs. It may be weird to take pics of this, but we were amazed at what a wonderful job the carpenters did. I can't believe something this well made was constructed in Doha.
Can't really see the plexiglass, but be assured that it exists in the following pics. They framed it in wood. Cost about 450 American, but well worth Maddies safety!

So I never talk about my students on here for several reasons, I will however give you all the full scoop at Christmas. I will say that overall I enjoy what I do and I have really really really enjoyed getting to know some of them. I have hilarious stories that go along with some of them... and some of these students are flat out amazing. They may represent the change in this region that everyone talks about.

Clifton's mom is doing great or as well as can be expected considering everything the woman has been through. His family has been phenomenal and been there for her every step of the way and Pearl is handling the situation better than I would if it were me. She is living in one of the cousins houses that she inherited which is so wonderful of them and she is about to get Clifton's truck if we can figure out a way to get it to her in Mississippi. Her house sadly is destroyed so we will have to move on from that and also start replacing all the things one loses after sixty plus years of life.

My dad absolutely hates his meds and they took away his driving privileges, but he is fine, considerably weaker, but fine.

I am cooking stew for the boys as I type and I am going out tonight to join my Syrian friend for IFTAR (the breaking of fast at sun down during this holy month of Ramadan) at a really nice local restaurant before she leaves for Damascus for a month.

Next blog I will talk of our upcoming Clifton and Molly weekend to Muscat and I promise the story of my new office mate...you won't want to miss it.