Oh what a few weeks.....

Some people use wooden spoons for spanking-in my house they are used for chewing and dancing on your bike.

Maddie's favorite spot in the house-which is gross.

I have no idea what he is doing here-just a cute pic

Getting her dance on.

Okay- this is funny...it rained ALOT in March and April...i mean alot. It's a big deal because:

1. It never rains, so there is no drainage system...I mean the entire place floods with even the briefest of showers.

2. No one knows how to drive in rain and no on has replaced their windshield wiper blades in years....(plus I had one student tell me that they couldn't drive with their wipers on because they are distracting...I guess if you never have to use them, they would be)

3. Remember that we deal in round-abouts here and not traffic lights...so just imagine a bunch of rain-phobes with no wipers driving in flood waters on a round-about system...if it wasn't so scary it would be hilarious

4. None of the buildings are water tight

5. Everytime it rains-since there is no drainage system in Doha EVERY and I mean EVERY sewage system/tank overflows...so there is sewage EVERYWHERE...at one point I had to drive through human waste everyday to get out of into our compound for 3 days straight.

6. That would be gross except, Texas A&M Qatar is the lowest point in education city....so when it rains, all of the sewage and water from all 6 universities, Al Jazeera, Qatar Academy, QSTP, etc etc...flows to us spills out of our toilets and the floods the first floor of the building....multiple times this semester- we had to shut down the first floor for sanitation and safety purposes. By the way, smell rises.

One Saturday afternoon while chillin in our driveway, the maintenance manager had the guys come squigy water in the club house parkinglot between rain showers....we have no idea why.

We dyed easter eggs for the first time!!!!

Easter baskets

Shingle boy-coming downstairs

She was confused on what she was doing....and no that isn't our yard....that was the Kent's...who were out of town. A few of us just crashed their yard for the hunt.

Later Jacob and the girls would learn that plastic easter eggs float in pool.

Jacob's haul

Rebecca Franklin helping Maddie with her eggs

So then Clifton left us for 15 days....the longest we have ever been without him....we survived, but parenting is a team sport and things are 1000 x's better for all of us with him home. I was so bored I organized the house....

He doesn't like pants

Week 3 shingles.... he is not 100% yet STILL

Then Clifton came home and we had Convocation, commencement followed by a concert by Enrique Iglasias (ick), and an awards ceremony (where I got to present an award) and we got to see the Ewings who were there giving some awards in Dick's honor.

The Heir Apparent came to graduation. The short lady next to him is TAMU's president Dr. Elsa Murano

Sword dance done by my students

I love that Jim always gets involved

This year Mark joined in as well!!!!

Tempting Reno with a cookie

She is just mean....

Awards ceremony with some guy, Steven Duffee and Thamer - one of our students who won the emerging leader award

Me, Leslie and Donna

She will probably be walking soon........

Bed head....

Every Sunday and Tuesday I pick Wade up from school with Jacob and yesterday, Maddie was playing tunes on her piano/drum set and the boys were dancing

Just thought I would cut and paste Trevor's (the hippie Austin boy you have seen in pics) party invitation he sent out. Clifton arrived on May 3rd....Trevor threw the party for him at my house/pool the 1st and 2nd....what a nut

Cliftons Back to Doha Bash because we all miss clifton...
Host:
Trevor Gibbs
Type:
Party - Barbecue
Network:
Qatar
Start Time:
Friday, May 1, 2009 at 12:00pm
End Time:
Saturday, May 2, 2009 at 5:00pm
Location:
Al-Fardan 2 Pool
Description
As you all know, Clifton Griffin has been away from Doha for almost 2 weeks...and he has been dearly missed. He returns to Doha on Sunday, May 3, so we are going to have a 2-day pool party at his compound on Friday, May 1 and Saturday, May 2...noon-5pm both days. If you would like to show (indirectly) Clifton how much you've missed him, then come hangout at the pool with me.

OH NOES!!!!!!!!!

So what happened to this cute little boy????

Two weeks ago, Jacob had a cold. Shortly after that, his sister went to the doctor for her one year check up. (she is 5th percentile in height and weight (17 pounds) and completely healthy-just petite). Anyways, she got her MMR vaccinationaand her chicken pox vaccination.

Well, about a week later, Jacob got a rash under his arm and a cold sore on his lip-normal for him because he has sensitive skin. We tried all of our usual treatments for almost a week, but no change. In fact it was getting worse. Finally, the school called me today to tell me he was complaining of leg pain and he wouldn't go outside. This is sooooo NOT my kid. He could have a fever of 104 and he wants to play outside. So, I took him to the doctor. Turns out he contracted SHINGLES from his sister.

When she went in for her chicken pox vaccine, it had a live virus in it (as they all do) and since he had a cold, his immunity was weakened and since he himself has been vaccinated for chickenpox, he came down with the Shingles. Which explains the rash, cold sore and body aches with absence of fever. Poor dude. Now we just have to pray that all children that have played with Maddie this past two weeks don't get chicken pox or shingles and that all the kids Jacob has played with don't get chicken pox. Neither are contagious now. Of course none of this has affected Maddie-she is just the giver in this little scenario.

Here is Jacob!!!!!

A taste of the family photo shoot

First off- Sherry Patrizi is incredible-not only did she do a bang up job of capturing my family, she is hilarious and a delight and it is so nice to get a taste of Texas in Doha.

Secondly-don't try to send these pics to Walgreens. Sherry is not done editing them, I know they may look finished, but she wants to touch up a bunch of stuff and then we will order pics through her to send to y'all. SHe is amazing and a wiz at this stuff.

I just wanted y'all to get an idea of how the photo shoot went. This is only a little bitty bit of what she did...can you imagine??????????????