Winter in the UAE

The seasons are changing and the weather has been perfect lately. It's mid-80's and sunny most of the day, a few scattered clouds and we even had some rain! We put a patio area in the backyard and bought a grill. We have two new bikes and a trailer that holds two kids. The girls are really enjoying being able to spend so much time outside!

Trick-or-treat

If you sense that my posts are lacking in frequency and content, you are correct. My laptop has died which leaves with an iPhone and iPad to use for updates. Sharing photos and typing out posts are not as easy without a camera connector and keyboard!! Maybe Santa will treat me to a new laptop for Christmas this year ;). Or maybe I just need to find time to go to the one HP repair center in Dubai (40 minutes from our house) to see what is wrong with my laptop.

Anyways, we enjoyed a wonderful Halloween this year. It's really exciting now that Ang can understand what is going on. We painted our pumpkins, went to a Halloween party at school and got to trick or treat with some of the neighbors. There were actually some really impressive decorations in the neighborhood. Unfortunately Caitlin had to stay home for most of this as she was sick. Ang must be bringing all sorts of lovely germs home from nursery - the latest round was tonsillitis. It only seems to have struck Caitlin and fortunately she seems to be feeling much better after a few days on antibiotics.

We now have a small bucket of candy to consume, dried egg smashed on the back of our house, and some great memories of a fun Halloween. You can see the photos using the link below. Enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38403322@N00/sets/72157628037259148/

Working girl

Rich had to spend a few hours in the office this morning - on a Friday, which is our weekend. I guess he has been missing Ang lately because he invited her into the office with him. Her face lit up and she was so excited to pack her bag for work. It looks like she is having a great time!

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> Sent from my BlackBerry Handheld.

The sandpit

We are doing a big patio project in the backyard and a good portion of our (dead) grass has been turned into a giant sandpit. Angela is loving this and has spent so much time out there digging, building sand castles and making a mess. Eventually the area will be covered in brick tiles - hopefully soon!! Caitlin is happy to sit on the patio and just watch her big sister make a mess. The weather is now perfect for being outside and we are loving it!

(and notice, no diaper on Angela! We are giving potty training a go!)

Farewell, lizards!

Our family has grown by one! This is Millie* a kitten we adopted this afternoon. She is about four months old and was found abandoned at a cat farm just outside Abu Dhabi. The person that rescued her believes that she was dumped after spending some time with people because this cat loves people. She lets Angela pick her up and is currently curled up on my lap, purring away.

We are hoping this helps with the lizards!

*The family that rescued her was calling her cinnamon but we have decided to rename since Angela cannot say anything that sounds even close to cinnamon. Millie is our latest choice, although we are waiting to see if this sticks.

Too cool for school!

Angela started at a new nursery today. We are very excited about this because it's so much closer to our house (less than 10 minutes walk). One change is that all the kids wear uniforms. While I don't really think 2 year olds need uniforms, this is really going to help simplify our morning on school days. Plus, she looks really cute!

The up's and down's of life in a villa

Welcome back! I didn't really intend to take an almost 2 month break from blogging. The summer was busy and I preferred to spend my evenings with family and friends instead of updating you all with our lives. Since I haven't even begun to sort through vacation photos, I'll save that topic for a future post. I'm sure I'll be feeling home sick soon enough and re-living our trip home through a post will help remind me of many great memories!

As I've mentioned before, we decided to move from an apartment to a villa. I did most of the arrangements before we left for the summer but left Rich to oversee the movers while the girls and I were in the US. We arrived back in Dubai this past weekend and drove to our new home! When we pulled up outside Angela looked a little confused. She asked if her toys were inside and then asked if Gloria was inside too. We answered yes and she ran to the door, gave Gloria a great big hug, and spent the next two hours with her toys.

After only a few days here, we are already figuring out the ups and downs of life in a villa. Hopefully you will enjoy the few favorites I've included below!


Leapin' Lizards!
Last night I walked downstairs and noticed something scurry by in front of me. A tiny lizard. While I hate the idea of these being in our house, they do eat bugs and are completely harmless. So for now, they stay. Fortunately we rarely see them so they don't really both me.

H O L Y C R @ P.......I took a brief break after right the above section and as I walked downstairs a lizard froze just in front of me! Its a good thing Rich was home. After snapping a very blurry picture (just for your viewing pleasure), Rich trapped it and humanely disposed of it on the front walkway. I take back what I said above, I guess they do kind of bother me!

Do you know the meter man?
On Saturday evening our door bell rang, just about dinner time. It was the water meter reader who had been sent to investigate high consumption. It seems something had triggered a reading that showed consumption being 30 times more than normal. We haven't even been home most of the past month, d'oh!! The man had a look around and left instructions of 'might be leak, call plumber'. The maintenance team arrived early the next morning and spent three days fixing out tank and pump. We haven't yet received a bill for the 'excessive consumption' but the meter was running at a crazy rate so we are very worried!

Wheeeee!!!!
One of the reasons I really wanted to move was because our apartment really lacked decent outdoor play for kids. The pool required climbing a steep set of stairs and the kiddie pool wasn't special enough to hold Angela's attention very long (especially because she could jump out and run to the big pool in less than 5 seconds). The new house has multiple playgrounds and swimming pools within a five to ten minute walk! The first playground we discovered was a bit of a let down and was just a small slide. However, yesterday I took Angela for a walk and discovered a slightly (very slightly) better playground with swings. Ang was happy with that....wheeee!!! I'll also point out that there is a gym, grocery store, coffee shop, ice cream stand and Hallmark (random) within walking distance. While its still a little too hot outside, none of this is too far for a quick walk in the heat.

The spice rack
Moving is usually a great time to purge all of those little things that have been hanging around a little too long. In my case, this would be the spice rack. I love to cook and have accumulated a random assortment of spices in our cupboard. I rarely sort through my belongings which became so apparent when I was sorting stuff. Not one, not two, but THREE jars of paprika. Seriously? I can't even tell you a recipe that I use paprika in. Its just one of those things that gets added to the shopping list anytime I need 1/4 teaspoon of it because I can't imagine why I would actually have had it in the first place. Anyways, I have a lot of organzing left to do but am really enjoying the purge (and the fact that this house has so much more space than our last house!).

Once we have finished tidying up the furnishings I promise to be back with updated photos and new stories about our life in this new house. I'll leave you with two pictures of the girls since I don't have many to fill this blog. Ang has jumped right back into swimming lessons and took to her new teacher well today. Caitlin's hair has been tamed a bit - Ang decided to help dress her up today!