Julia's Missing!

 It was one of Damon's diplomatic "all-nighters"... He left early in the morning and didn't return until 1:00'ish.  I'm sound asleep, of course, when he finally comes home only to be woken up very abruptly when Damon bolts in the room exclaiming, "WHERE'S JULIA??!!!!".  Of course, we then both begin a rather frantic search -- where could she be?  Heaven forbid she walked out of the house somehow??

She's clearly not in her bed.  Or under the bed. Or the closet.  Or the "Go-Fort", or the bathroom.  Or the Hello Kitty tent in the living room.


Next, it's downstairs to examine all her hiding places down there.  Not under the table.  Not in the guest room.  Not in the kitchen.


WHERE IS SHE??!!!!??  Now the panic is starting to set in.   We search again in all of her usual spots and again.  Finally we find her.  Camouflaged in blue, she is sort of tucked in between cushions sound asleep on the couch in the living room.  Phew!  However, it took me hours to get back to sleep THAT night!


Ahhh, Julia.....  She's a stealth child and can creep into any room of the house undetected.  Maybe you saw something out of the corner of your eye whiz by, but usually not even that.  And then you'll find her, usually with a coveted item (candy, ipod, toy ...) in some secret spot.  So without further ado, here's Julia to show you all her favorites in pictures:

You can hide a long time under here -- perfect after sneaking a snack from the fridge...

If you're in a hurry, stash your snacks under the couch in the "white room" -- no one goes in there!

The guest room is also a good place -- the shower is the perfect spot for hiding!

I like to hide under the bed, too...  You can store a lot of toys under there!

If you're really feeling sneaky, this closet is the best!

And the best play to hide when you're trying to play on the iPod... under the covers! Two can easily fit under there!

 

Tourist Time -- Off to the Grand Mosque

Finally -- some tourist time!  We've been here for months, yet haven't explored much of the area.  Well,  I haven't explored.  Damon has had more opportunity showing visitors around for work, visiting the mosque, the Sultan's Dhow, "Turtle Beach" and a variety of other places.  I've been holding down the fort with the girls.  Of course, with the scorching heat, exploring is a bit limited at this time of the year.  But, finally, the moon and the stars aligned, and I had some "kid-free" time to go explore.  Off I went to the Grand Mosque to tour with one of our co-workers that is here just for the summer.

 To beat the heat, we left first thing in the morning, but it was already almost 100F.  And sunny, of course.  It's like Groundhog's Day over here...  hot, humid, and "abundant sunshine" day after day after day.  So far, not too tired of it. 

Construction for the Mosque started in 1995 and took six years to complete.  It was built from 300,000 tons of Indian Sandstone, has two prayer halls, four  minarets (45.5 meters tall), an expansive courtyard, a garden, and can accommodate up to 20,000 worshipers. 

The women's worship area can hold 750 worshipers and is modest in comparison to the main hall.  Sparkling chandeliers dangle from one end of the ceiling to the other and there are ornate stained glass windows above every door.  And, I believe the carpet is ONE PIECE, custom made for the room.

There are additional passageways lining the perimeter of the property.  Each of the alcoves has a unique intricate tiled design.  Each "block" of each wing has a particular style dating back to some ancient tradition.  However within that style, each one is unique. 

  
Then you step into the Main Hall.  Wow!  The chandelier is 14 meters tall and hangs from central dome that rises 50m from the floor.  The carpet is one piece, took four years to make, weighs 21 tons, and is the second largest in the world.  (I wonder where the largest one is??)  There is also a large garden, but not much is blooming this time of the year.  I'm looking forward to going back in the Fall when its cooler and the plants are recovered from the heat!

Chloe's Kindergarten Scrapbook

Free photo slideshow made with Smilebox

Remember when....

We had a rough start to the month of May and it just seemed to spiral downward until the very last day.  It was one of the month's we'll look back and say....

Remember when....
I started working every day and you (Julia) looked at me with teary eyes and told me how you didn't want me to EVER work and you didn't want to EVER go to school and you wanted to stay with my forever and ever and do school at home forever and ever.  Words I may remind her of when she's a teenager!  However, it did make for a rough transition to working.

Remember when ...
We got the call that our "household effects" (aka - stuff from storage) had arrived and were ready to be delivered?  And, in my second week of work, I already had to ask for a day off.  And, Daddy was out of town?  But it worked out fine and everything was delivered in one piece, for the most part.

Remember when...
2 days after our shipment arrived Chloe woke up with a high fever, Julia did the next day, and Daddy was still out of town!!  Daddy left his visitors early to help back at home.  Days passed and still fever.  Finally went to a doctor and STREP!

Remember when...
The medicine didn't work for you (Julia) and we had to go back to the doctor?  We took two steps into the office and you got sick all over the floor?  They did see us right away (not surprisingly), but your fever still wasn't going down. Got some new meds and crossed our fingers that we could get some sleep and some relief.

Remember when...
We were up every night for two weeks trying to keep the fever from getting over 103, which it did on several occasions ... all the way to 105.  And remember how you hated those cold washcloths?  But, loved the ice cream!  And you watched Mary Poppins for the first time (in the middle of the night) and laughed and laughed!

Remember when...
Your fever finally broke and we finally slept through the night.  And, we started to get our stuff unpacked and organized.  We found our photo albums of all our friends and family.  And special stuffed animals, toys, and games we haven't seen for 1 1/2 years!

And all was well again...

In the middle of all of this, there were some brighter moments.  The baby birds outside our door kept growing and growing.  They seemed as interested in us as we were of them and would watch us come in and out and in and out. 

At one point, during a fever free moment, Julia decided to take her book out and read to the baby birds.  I think they liked it.  Not sure if Mommy Bird liked it much, though.

Another celebration was the arrival of our car!  Yeah! A dead battery, but other than that, all was well

And finally, we got to attend the Kindergarten Poetry Performance and Mother's Day celebration. All the students had to share a few poems in front of all of the parents -- a big task for young kids!  But, they all did great, especially Chloe, of course.

With summer just around the corner at least we got all this illness out of the way (right?) and will be able to enjoy weeks of vacation!