Eid Break pictures part one

On the other side of our back fence.

The backyard should shape up in the next few weeks...he has worked hard.

He pulled out the grass and is planting tomorrow

It's starting to come along. Not sure how they get it to grow that way, but those branches are grown together like that.

I got my new kicks on.....

THANK YOU MS CATHY!!!!! Clifton bought Jacob some awesome awesome John Deere Cowboy boots his last trip home, but his feet are growing so fast that Cathy took them all the way back to the states with her and exchanged them for a bigger size...(she also purchased some pink cowboy boots for little sister that are too cute for words).

All dressed up for a party...of course this day was monumental because he never pee'd or pooped in his diaper all day...we may be getting close to being potty trained. Our goal is no diapers by Wednesday.
I'm going to party too!

Jacob and Maddie at the pool after the pancake breakfast birthday party!

Ramadan is almost over...the entire Middle East shuts down for Eid starting Tuesday and everyone goes on vacation...we are staying in Doha, but the following weekend AFTER everyone holidays we are traveling to a resort and spa north of Muscat, Oman known as the Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah Resort and Spa...it is huge and stands alone about 30 minutes from Muscat. You have to drive through a man made tunnel to get to it since it is sealed off by the mountains. We are leaving the kids here with the nanny and the neighborhood watchdogs and Clifton and I are going to have a lovely relaxing time. These are some pics from the resort. It is the highest rated in the area...7 stars...thank god for off weeks and airline miles. The following are pics from the resort...of course mine will be better!

Oh.....my new officemate story. So 2 weeks ago I had a line of students standing at my desk in my office as soon as I unlocked the door. I was talking to them and putting down my stuff and I opened up my middle desk drawer, looked down and there was an itty bitty mouse in my desk, he had chewed through a plastic container in my desk and was snacking on a pretzel. The students couldn't see and so I slowly closed the drawer and continued my coinversation with them. Inside my head I was screaming cuss words from the top of my lungs, but I remained cool and calm and acted like nothing was going on in front of them. Class was about to start in 3 minutes next door and I knew if I said something they would scream and there would be a load of girls in traditional dress standing on desks freaking out. I couldn't call facilities, because I had students standing in front of me...they train us when we start work that all facilities requests must be emailed to the technology help desk since facilitews doesn't have theiir own...so while I was talking to the students I emailed the help desk the following:

Subject:Please Open NOW

There is a mouse in my middle desk drawer…somebody better come get this shit right now before I scream and make a spectacle of myself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought the email just went to my friends in IT Justin and Ghalia...sure enough 3 minutes later Juston calls my cell phone while I a standing in front of class and asks "Are you on the desk with a broom?" I said, "No, I am in class acting like nothing is happening...please please do something" of course it was Justin to the rescue calling the appropriate folks and getting it handled. They came during class and caught it and then sanitized my desk.

Unfortunantly, the email gops out to all of the IT department and facilities...so they were all very amused and most gave me a hard time for emailing IT with such a request...but then again I followed proper protocol and I had no choice being surrounded by students. Someone asked me what I would have done if I were in College Station...I told the truth, I would have called or emailed Susie. They asked who is Susie/ I said the lady who gets things done. This is true, I would have emailed her she would have gotten the mouse taken care of by the proper folks and then I would have taken her to lunch. Of course I think IT has forwarded the email to the world...they are easily amused.

So officemate gone? NO NO NO not so fast. The little guys who caught him thought there might be others so they set a round cage trap and put a cookie in it next to my desk. I came in after the weekend to a mostly eaten cookie and mouse poop all over the floor...but no mouse in the trap. am not suprised...that is the Doha way...so we will never know if there was more micew in the office or if they live there now since we opened up the restaraunt.

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.

6 months old!!!!

Jacob at 6 months for reference

Sissy turned 6 months old on Friday. She is finally up to 13 and a half pounds (her brother was ~25 at this age) and 23 inches! Developmentally she is on target...just really really small. The dr. said she would be worried about her size if her mother was anyone else but me. 5th percentile all around....





She is eating sweet potatoes, pears, rice cereal, apple sauce!!!





She sings....she will sing along to the radio in the quietest, sweetest little voice. She laughs out loud when you play with her. She rarely has anything to say, but when she does....she will babble on for minutes and then she may not have anything to say for another day or so. She love her brother and the feeling is mutual. She is getting into that insecure phase where she prefers to be held by mom, dad or Josie...not as bad as her brother was though.



Someone asked about outfits, but they didn't post their name in the comments. As far as sizes, she wears 0-3 months...she is getting close to 3-6 months though...but 99% of the 3-6 months stuff is way huge on her. For some reason the only 3-6 month stuff she can wear are the sleep and plays my mom and dad and the tennessee/georgia Meltons have sent her. She will get there though...

Happy Monday!!!!

SERIOUSLY?!?!?!

As they would say on my favorite show...

I don't even know where to start, so I will go through the timeline-

As I posted before, dad had a stroke while Clifton was on his way to the states...but he is fine.

Clifton came home early to avoid Gustav. He made here safe, but bagless---which is a big deal because everytime he travels to the states he purchases a ton of stuff for all of us. Jersey got out and ran away...(I left a door open for two hours, what was he supposed to do)

His car died the next day as he was trying to drive out the gate with me and Jacob in it, we got out and me, Clifton and the guys pushed it back to the house. The heating element in the water heater went out and then an hour after that Clifton got a devestating phone call.

Gustav parked his happy little butt over the Mississippi Delta and just dumped rain at his mom's house and his grandma's house (they are next door to each other) long long long story short...the whole family had to go there and rescue mom and grandma from the houses. Apparently it was very dangerous with very high water and everyone is okay, but 2 feet of water flooded mom's house and destroyed everything. She lost most of her stuff, her car and the water caused all the floors to buckle and the house is in ruins. Grandmas house was not as bad...she lost all the stuff in the bottom storage like water heater, washer, dryer etc... Clifton is blessed with an amazing family who has all taken time off from their incredibly busy lives to drop everything and go over and start doing whatever they can. Aunts, uncles, cousins, cousins kids, step kids, in laws, exes...etc etc.... have been working sun up to sun down trying to salvage stuff, pull up carpet, pull out sheet rock and of course in this lovely hot steamy weather. One of the cousins has a temporary place for Clifton's mom to stay until we figure out what to do....un related to the flood...the foundation is cracked BADLY. Just amazing, we have no idea how we would ever thank all these people for everything they are doing. Thank God for family... for this family in paticular.

Clifton's mom is just devestated and we wish so bad that we could be there for her, sometimes things really really suck by being this far away.

So, bags came yesturday, cat came home, water heater is fixed, truck is fixed and perspective is that grandma and mom are okay. We will figure out all the rest of the stuff in the next few weeks.

Okay, here is some fun stuff......

Jacob's first day at school....he loves his school!!!!

GAME DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I managed to find enough hair to stick a bow in that sucker.....




There have been as many as 23 excavators behind my house at a given time for the last month. They now are a few yards from my back wall and they start digging and crushing rocks at 5am!!!! Hell Yes!

THIS IS JUST FANTASTIC....MY FAVORITE THING JON HAS DONE ALL YEAR!!!!(thanks Susie)