Halloween 2012



After a long hiatus and a lot of life happenings, I thought it would be a good idea to start back on the blog. I do this a lot. I recognize how unreliable I am as a blogger. I recognize that IF I have any readers left at all they have given up on reading anything from me. With that being said...

It's Halloween time. This year, and for several months now, Madeline has said she wants to be a cat. So we made sure to pick up some ears and a tail while in the states for repat this summer. I made some paws out of some hand-me-down Minnie Mouse ears the girls have taken no interest in. They worked well, allowing Mads to still use her hands and appear to have paws.

 

I went easy with the Abster this year. The only time she has worn the cherry top hat to her cupcake outfit is for this picture. I knew this would happen. I just wanted the picture. It's okay. She still has a costume, and still looks adorable. Our little cupcake.

The only reason I dressed up is because we were invited to a costume party. Funny thing is, I was probably one of two adults that dressed up. I felt kind of dumb, but I also felt like people were jealous of the crazy chubby woman dressed like a vampire. When else does a gal get a chance to dress up and it seem acceptable but on Halloween?  I don't understand why more people don't have fun with this holiday.  My teeth were some cut out poster board. They got soggy fast, but again, it was all for the picture. 

Paul threw on his Indiana Jones hat and went as "casual Indiana." A wise choice. He looked dashing. Of course I didn't get a picture.

The plan on Halloween is to dress up, do some trick or treating, and visit with friends. Then home for a movie and relaxation.  Should be fun. 

PB and Baby Sandwich

Abby has been going through something lately.  And part of this "phase" she is going through is doing everything she possibly can with her food except eating it.  I've learned most of her tricks and games, and have the ability to prevent most of her attempts to escape meal time. This was her final attempt at getting rid of her peanut butter sandwich for lunch yesterday... rubbing it on her face.

The Fourth

It's been a while since I did a photo session with the girls, so I decided to take some pictures of them for the Fourth of July holiday. We didn't really have any plans for the holiday because it's not celebrated here in Saudi, but we still wanted to show our patriotism so we dressed in red, white, and blue.

Last minute, we were invited to our good friend Fiona's house to have a BBQ with her and the boys and other friends here on camp. It is always nice to spend time with them. We got to meet Fiona's parents, who are very nice people, and the food was delicious!

Madeline had a great time playing with her friend B, and Abby had a nice nap (she hadn't napped during the day for some reason and was out by 6:30 pm). I took some firework-like candles I had left over from a birthday and we stuck them in the grass and lit them. It was fun for the kids to see them lit. That was it for fireworks.
This time of year was always one of the favorite times growing up. We always had so much  watching the parade, having water fights, and eating and hanging out with our neighbors and their family. At night we would walk down to the Junior high and watch the fireworks from the West Jordan park. Wonderful memories! I miss those days and I miss living in the U.S., but I am so greatful for my freedoms and that I am a citizen of the USA.

Daddy Day

HAPPY FATHER"S DAY!

We orded a little something for Dad on the internet, but it didn't arrive in time. So, the girls and I went out and I let them choose some gifts for Paul. We made a nice dinner of breaded chicken, rice, and salad. Madeline helped me make some pecan brownies and some homemade hot fudge sauce. Then Madeline drew a picture for her dad and painted a picture. 



Paul with his girls at dinner

Madeline did a painting for Paul of a Dragon on a rainbow. She decided, by herself, to use a lot of red because it is her dad's favorite color. 

Madeline's painting


 This is a drawing Madeline did for Paul. It is a picture of Paul with a read shirt on. He is petting Kitty-roo. By his feet is his video game controller. To the left of him is a TV with his video game on it. Madeline says the red is blood. A recent game Paul just finished puts blood around the edges of the screen as the character loses power/life. Madeline likes to watch Paul play some times and I guess she picked that up (eek). 

Madeline's drawing


Madeline decided her dad and her needed a plant to take care of. She wants it to grow so high they can climb it to the clouds. 

At the store, Madeline recognized this razor and said dad needed a new one since his face was so hairy.

This is a treat for Paul that Madeline picked out. When she gave it to him she said, "It's candy. Candy is not good for you. It makes your tummy hurt. Can I have some?"

Abby wasn't extremely excited about participating, but she did color a quick picture for her dad. Madeline helped her write her name.

It was a nice day and I think Paul really loved everything the girls did. I am so happy he is my husband and the father to my children. He is everything a dad should be amd more. He is so great with his girls. We love him SOOOO much!!

Papertowel Roll Art

I am what you would call a "controlled Pinterest" viewer.  I only look at it maybe 3-4 times a week.  There is a lot of really great ideas on there, especially pertaining to recipes and DIY (Do It Yourself) tutorials - art projects, sewing, etc.  I really enjoy creating things so this is pretty attractive to me. I'm proud of myself for not spending all day on that site. I can see how someone might be tempted to.

One of the fun ideas I found on the site was one for doing your own home decor by recycling paper towel and toilet paper rolls.

So I began saving up and finally when I have about 12 rolls saved, I started my own project. 

Here it is up on the wall. I decided to put it up in the dining room area where we have a high ceiling. It looked really big on the table, but when I put it up it looked pretty small, so I plan on adding to it as paper towel and toilet paper rolls become available.

I love unique art and fun craft ideas!

Latin Dance Pictures

Madeline has been going to Latin dance class once a week for several months now. It is one of the highlights of her Wednesdays. She loves getting all dressed up in pretty dance clothes and running around a large room of mirros with some of her little friends.  Since summer is upon us and everyone is getting ready to go on vacation, dance class is coming to an end.

Madeline's final performance is this upcoming Friday. This past Saturday they had pictures in someone's home.

Madeline started with some annoying allergies Saturday morning. She spent most of the day sniffling and wiping away her watery eyes. Not the best condition for a picture day.  So, once I had her all dressed up and ready to go, I took some quick shots.

It was a good thing I did because I hurriedly and mistakenly chose a DROUSY allergy medicine to give her right before we left. After waiting over a hour for her turn, she was less than excited to stand in front of a crowd of strangers in front of a really bright light and smile. 

After one tantrum because she didn't want to wear her face mask (her friends didn't have theirs on yet) and another crying spell after being folded up in some decorative, wooden fold out chair when trying to sit on it, and falling asleep standing up we finally got our turn.

For being a drugged, emotionally sensitive kid, she really did great. The photos didn't turn out how I would have liked them because they were rushing to get everyone done and Mad's wasn't 100%, but my baby is beautiful even with red, tired eyes.

MaMa Mia!

 Dinner time is not the easiest time in this house, only because I have some picky eaters. Actually - I am learning my little Abigail is more like me and will try, and like, more complicated meals such as a casserole or a vegetabley-type meat dish (YIPPEE!!).  So trying to cook something that everyone will eat and like is hard.  We have a LOT of chicken, some hamburger, and we order out at least once a week.  I have been trying to think of different things to make to mix things up a bit.  Honestly, I bet if I made something possibly questionable Paul would probably try it.

Anyway, so on a whim last night we made homemade pizza.  It was fun. The girls had a nice time helping with the dough and sauce and cheese. Paul did a great job just being really really ridiculously good looking and cheering us on and showing me where, oops!, that spot needs more cheese, etc. etc.

It tasted so-so, I actually kind of thought it was gross because we used a premade Ragu brand of pizza sauce that tasted like liguid metallic salt in a jar. ICK! Of course - the girls ate all their pizza.  We heard several "mmmm"s as they ate... go figure.  Maybe I am spending too much time trying to make things taste good? Maybe I should make my food taste like crap and then the girls will eat more.

The beautiful Madeline enjoys putting anything with a hole in it on her fingers. Here she is with her raspbery claws (cause she is a cat) rrrrraaaawr!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my family.

Swim Lessons

This morning was very windy.... it was very dusty... it was also the morning of Madeline's first swim lesson.  I decided to give swim lessons a try - even though Madeline has never been what you would call a water baby. She's gotten better as she has gotten older and a lot of the moms I know here are starting their kids in swimming lessons around age 3 or 4, so we thought we'd give it a go.

It wasn't the best day for it with the shamal happening and with the cold water in the pool and with the fact that she has never met the nice young lady who would be her teacher before who, it seemed to me, didn't have that much experience teaching uncooperative litte kids. She was sweet, and she tried to be nice to Madeline and comfort her as Madeline clinged to her tightly and bellowed "no, noooo, noooooo" over and over. When we started I stayed in the pool with Abigail to offer some kind of comfort to Madeline, knowing full well my presense usually doesn't help with things like this. About 5 minutes in I left the pool and took Abby over to the baby pool.  I still couldn't help watching her and shouting ideas of help across the pool... "maybe she'd be more comfortable without her swim goggles on?" "Madeline, she's really nice! She won't let you go under if you don't want to."  etc. etc. I don't know, maybe I sabotaged the entire experience (now that I think about it). I just wanted her to be relaxed and cooperative and have fun like she is at home or like she is in the baby pool.  It was the complete opposite.

So after not an entire half hour, I paid the sixty five riyals, thanked the teacher, and we mutually agreed that Madeline probably needs a little more experience of being in the big pool with mom and dad, and maybe we could try lessons next year.  On the way out from the pool it was so windy we were blown over - but I caught us before we did a complete wipe out.  And the security guys and the junior high kids got a nice view as my skirt was blown up while buckling the girls into their carseats.

This experience reminded me of when I first started swimming by myself (sans the windy skirt incident and sandstorm) and remembering it gives me hope. As a child, my family would go many weekends of the summer for a visit to my Grandma Vivi and Grandpa John's swimming pool at the condominium where they live. It was a good experience, one I always looked forward to.  We'd stop at Grandma's to get a towel and our special "yes I am not just some crazy person off the street who doesn't know a member of this community" tags that we had to pin to a visible area of our suits. Then, we'd walk down the street toward to small fountain pond with ducks and take the back route toward to clubhouse - a little rock layered creek/stream that was small enough we could leap back and forth across it and climb on the rocks as we walked.  This little stream led to the giant pond with the giant fountain, which, I bet if I were to see it now would probably be pretty puny.  The giant fountain, which always had ducks near it to feed and chase, was right next to the clubhouse. I was once attacked by a duck mom defending her ducklings that I happened to be chasing... it was a wicked circle of defensive mothers because, as I was being jumped on by the momma duck, my momma was grabbing the momma duck off of me. The troubles little kids cause... eeesh.  I certainly learned a lesson that day: Don't chase baby ducklings - at least when their mom is present - or you will get nice serving of duck profanity and possibly get your face snapped off.

The clubhouse is a big building that people who live in this particular condo complex can use for family parties - we used to always have a big Christmas party there every year - and downstairs are the bathrooms, a weightroom, and a jacuzzi.  It was always a quiet place that smelled of chlorine. The basement door has a ramp outside of it that leads to the pool area.  An L-shaped pool that began at 3 ft and ended at 10ft. 

The day I first swam in the deep-end by myself was all me.  I never had swim lessons. My brothers were fish, loved diving, and often played a game where they would drop a coin in the water and see who could dive down and retrieve it.  I wanted to play. So one day I just did it... I ran and did a cherry bomb right into the deep end. Then I doggy paddled my way to the edge and the cheering began.  I was much older than Mads. I stayed in the deep end for the rest of the summer.

So, nice memory and I'm not worried. I know Madeline will learned to swim one day... hopefully sooner than later.  At least we gave it a try. We'll try again next year and maybe spend some more time at the pool in the meantime. I think right now Madeline is more of a dancer/artist/speech writing consultant/doctor than a swimmer.

Abigail on the other hand... reminded me of an eel, slithering and sliding and diving all over the baby pool. She'll be doing a forward flying pike with a reverse twist into the deep end with a ripped entry into the water by the age of 3.

Toddler

Abigail figuring out how to unlock the front door. She pushed her diaper basket all the
way down the hall to attempt an escape.

An adorable child who I love more than anything who managed to climb on the ottoman, turn off the pc, turn on her dads video game console, change the settings on the TV with the remote, get behind the side table knock over a frame, break it, mess with some plugs, run into the dining room, eat some catfood and stand on my glass table and start dancing, get off my glass table and head to the bathroom to put the scrub brush and the hand soap in the toilet, and then while I was cleaning that up, climbed up onto the piano bench and started playing what Madeline calls a "very loud BOY song" (it was using the lower keys and Madeline has associated deep tones with men). This was all in a matter of 15 minutes this morning while I was trying to fix breakfast.

My Birthday

This year my birthday fell on the same day as Easter. I don't remember it ever doing that before, but according to the Internet (I was curious) the last time it happened was 2007. Before that??? No time after 1941. Pretty neat to think about. So it has only done that two times in my lifetime.

On my actual birthday, the girls and I went to a friends house to color Easter eggs. That night, a friend of ours watched the girls and we actually went out to dinner (on a date!) and did some shopping. It was really nice, and we only talked about the girls a couple times.  We ate at Olio, a restaurant at the Dhahran Mall - only because prayer time meant we would not be able to drop the girls off and make it to the actual Italian restaurant along the Corniche we wanted to go to.  The food was nice and we had fun reminiscing about when we first met. It was nice. We were scandalous - we kissed in the booth. But there was only one other couple in the entire restaurant at the time so we weren't reported to the authorities or imprisoned or anything.  It was really nice to go out - just us. I forsee future date nights really soon. We just need to find a regular babysitter that we trust first, which isn't the easiest thing in the world here.

Madeline had the idea to make me a birthday cake.  I had a cake mix for a super moist white cake I thought would be easy to whip up. The girls had a fun time helping (licking beaters).

I had some fireworks I have seen people here use as candles so we thought we'd give it a try. No where on the packaging does it say it is for cakes or that they are candles but I thought it would be fun to try. I was pretty neat, until we looked down as saw soot all over the cake.  Ahh well, no biggy. We scraped it off and had some cake.

We skyped with my sister and her two boys the night we had my birthday dinner. I love skyping with my family!

All in all, it was a really great birthday and I feel no different now that I am 34.

A Sword Foot.

I have been having problems with my left foot on and off and it makes it hard to walk on sometimes. The girls like me to carry them down the stairs (a habit we are trying to break). This morning as we were walking down the stairs Madeline says,

"Mom. I know right now you can't carry me down the stairs because you have a SWORD in your foot (my foot is sore), so I will just walk slow and be really careful... okay mom, okay?"

Don't worry mom, it's real.

I over hear Mads in the playroom making fight noises...
Me: "Madeline... what's going on in here?"
Mads: "My camels are fighting."
Me: "Ohhh, but our toys don't fight remember? Because we are a family and we love each other."
Mads: "Don't worry Mom, it's real."
Me: "You mean it's pretend?"
Mads: "Oh mom, you make me laugh. You are a funny mom."

April Fools Fail

I took great care this morning cleaning out our almost empty mayonnaise jar and refilling it with some vanilla yogurt so I could rave about this new "Mayo diet craze" I had heard about on the Internet (an April fool's joke on Paul) tonight at dinner.
As I sat at our dinner table, spooning "mayo" in my mouth, and telling Paul about it - hoping for a "oh my heck! Why are you eating that?!! Gross!!" reaction - he actually began asking me questions....
"How much weight are you supposed to lose? What's in mayonnaise? I would think you'd GAIN weight on a diet like that. So you want me to buy you a bunch of mayo then?" blah blah blah derp!

Epic FAIL.

A Little Less Jiggle

Increased oxygen and burning muscles = the pleasure of warm chocolate cake, increased oxygen and burning muscles = the pleasure of warm chocolate cake... this, among many other very strange things, is what I kept telling myself this morning when I started working out again. I figure, if I can train my brain to associate the feelings I get from cake with exercise -   I am good to go!

Today I weighed myself. It has been a long time, and I won't get into it too much in this post because this is a POSITIVE post. Numbers do not matter. What matters is how I feel, right?

Why do I think I need to lose weight? (in no particular order).

• I  want to stop jiggling when I brush my teeth.
• I want to feel good about myself. I want to look in the mirror and whistle at myself every morning - not just as self encouragement, but because I am a hot chick.
• I want to wear a T-shirt without looking like I am wearing a couple of baby swim tubes underneath it.
• I am NOT Steven Tyler. To be funny... sometimes I flap my tummy fat together while singing a Steven Tyler (Aerosmith) song (For those who do not understand - he has big fat lips and I think my belly looks like big fat lips).
• "I'm tired of sweating on relatively cool days" (movie quote: Crazy People).
• I want energy!! I get tired easy. I'm 34 (April 8th) and this should not be happening yet.
• I want to be sexy... and be able to do sexy dances and wear sexy clothes... until I'm like 85. Then I might slow down.
• I'm tired of looking like the State Puff Marshmallow Man's sister.
• I'm tired of being "the fat friend." I like to make my friends feel good about themselves, but not by making myself feel bad.
• I want to be healthy.
• I deserve this!
• For my girls. The other day Madeline and I were discussing eating healthy foods so you can grow up big and strong and she said, "Yeah! Someday I want my tummy to be big and healthy like yours!!" - Heart sank right there. I am NOT being a good example.
• For my husband. He has always wanted the best for me. He takes such great care of us. He loves me so much - even when I am a monster. He deserves a hot wife.
• I look like a "tatanka" from the side. All I need is a field of grass to graze on and I could be in the remake of Dances With Wolves.
• It's the right thing to do. I have time to do it now. No excuses!

So there you have it.  Today I did 50 minutes at the gym on the elliptical, jammin' to some pretty awesome tunes.  The lady next to me kept looking at me funny because I was closing my eyes and smiling a lot.  So I looked at her and smiled and then winked and then ended with a thumbs up.  That got her to look away.

Maybe I should have done my Steven Tyler impression for her.  Next time.

STAR WARS Stuff.

Let's face it. We are Star Wars fans. This isn't something we have ever been ashamed of. We like the movies - some more than others - and we would probably do pretty well in a Star Wars trivia contest. We're not "convention" nerds, meaning we probably wouldn't go out of our way to dress up and attend any science fiction conventions - unless they were in our town or something, then we might. Or maybe in some nearby town... like no more than 100 miles away. Road trip! Woo!
I have always been a fan, but more in my later years, as I have spent time with Paul. Girls do that sometimes when they want to get a guy... they like something, like sports, more than they normally would.  It gives the perception of sexy well-roundedness. I even tried to do a yoda origami for him once. Can you guess which one I did? I didn't think so. Pretty good, right? Almost an exact replica.

Paul grew up loving Star Wars. He even knows more about the fake history of these fake characters because he read Star Wars books as a kid.  He also loves Lord of The Rings, Harry Potter, The Matrix, and The Godfather... and he has watched a romance or two with me (and enjoyed it). He's a pretty well rounded fella. We really enjoy movies in general.

So when our friends invited us to a Star Wars party we were pretty excited.  I knew right away there would probably be 20 princess leia's so I would be different and go as the only other female character, Queen Amidala (There are actually several female characters like the crazy dancing girl who gets eaten by the monster because Jaba pushed her down a hole, or that jedi lady with arms on her head, for example). I've even memorized several of her lines - Queen Amidala's (and wasn't able to use them as the opportunity did not present itself - sad). I actually tried using one of the lines during the party (NERD) and as I was saying it the person who I was talking to turned away to do something else. I stopped half sentence and ended up in one of those laughs of dorky embarrassment instead. I really am a nerd. hmph. I wonder if he would have even recognized it as a line from the movie if he had heard it?  Probably not.

Do you ever do that? Do you ever plan to say something and hope the opportunity presents itself? I can't be the only one who does this.

Paul - up until the day of the party - was going to be the evil Emporor "Paul"patine (Palpatine). We ordered a mask and a hooded cape from Amazon and had them Aramexed in. Expensive, but we felt it was worth it. The girls and I helped him for a couple weeks with a couple of the Emperors lines - even Abs was walking around the house saying, "Noo, Noooo, Noooo!!!" in an evil, gritty tone. It was awesome. But last minute, and because the mask was uncomfortable and didn't fit well, we changed his costume to Darth Paul (Darth Maul).

Can you tell which one is from the movie and which one is Paul? Pretty close eh?

In this photo I told Paul to give me a growling, evil face... it looks like he's smiling.
He can't even FAKE the dark side of the force.

Awww, Darth Paul with his daughters, Princess Madeleia and Princess Abidala.

 I painted his face and made him a two-sided, red light saber out of a mop stick, some paint, and some shiny sticky paper I had. He still used the cape and then wore my abaya and a belt as a top. He looked awesome. And I do believe he enjoyed flailing that stick about when he demonstrated to the girls how to wield a light saber.

Here I am as Amidala. I should have smiled, but in the movie, when she is all dressed up in her Queen uniform, she doesn't smile. She also talks with this weird deep voice... "I cannot condone a course of action that will lead us to war." (ha! there, I said one of my lines).

We ended up going seperately.  It worked out fine. Even with a babysitter it might have been a problem because the girls don't know anyone that well and they are both still waking up at night at least once each. It would have been cruel to put a stranger in that position - Mads having a cough attack and Abigail, who doesn't take a bottle, wanting to nurse - Ha!

Paul went first for an hour or so and then I went.  I took some Bantha Fodder (homemade granola) as a treat. There was a nice selection of food. Both our costumes were a hit and I had some nice conversations with some good friends.  I also got to spin fire.  They had a friend who plays with fire come with his fire stick and fire balls. It was fun.  Picture to come soon I hope. 

May the force be with you.