Thankful Thursday

Today we went on an adventure. Steven was off work so we went with some friends to the west coast of Qatar to visit an old Arab movie set and have a picnic at the beach. It was quite the experience!

I am thankful that our friends included us in this great adventure.
I am thankful that our friends had a GPS that made things much easier.
I am thankful for the DVD player that keeps our girls happy when we travel.
I am thankful that my husband knows how to change a flat tire.
I am thankful that we found the movie set even though it was hidden in the middle of the desert.
I am thankful that our girls got to see a beautiful beach for the first time.
I am thankful that I packed enough food for a week's stay. (because the sun makes me really hungry)
I am thankful that we only saw the "Restricted, Military Area" sign when we were safely leaving the premises and not when we first arrived.
I am thankful for the precious moments our girls give us -- they were holding hands on the way home.
I am thankful that God listened to our prayers and got us there and back home safely.
I am thankful that we should all get a really good night's sleep tonight.

Wordless Wednesday

Lil H and Lil N

Ten on Tuesday

Looking over my past posts, it seems that I've been a bit negative about Doha. So today, I will focus on the great things about this place. Since I stay at home with the girls and just make the occasional trip to the store, these 10 things are limited to those activities. Hopefully once I venture out a little more, I will be able to share some more significant discoveries. So here goes...

Ten things I LOVE about living in Doha:

1. The extra living space
2. Having a maid
3. That the following items are very reasonably priced: fresh fruits and veggies, organic milk, fresh baked bread and croissants (10 huge, freshly baked buttered croissants for $2.75)
4. The new friends we've made
5. No sales tax
6. The clubhouse swimming pool and playground
7. Our new Tahoe and 75 cents per gallon gasoline
8. The automatic exercise I get from going up and down the stairs all day (Unfortunately I'm not losing any weight because of #3 above)
9. That I can get my car washed at the grocery store parking lot while I shop--very convenient
10. That someone else is in charge of the maintenance on this place (no more nagging Mr. D to fix things!)

Well, that was easy. There are actually many more things that I love about living here, but I will save them for another day....

Miscellaneous Monday

Some miscellaneous favorites:

Mr. D's favorite football team is the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Mrs. D's favorite meal is spaghetti.

Lil H's favorite words are "no, no, no" and "be-yah be-yah". We have yet to decipher the latter.

Lil N's favorite stuffed animal is her little pink elephant. It's the stuffed animal that we put in her hospital bassinet when she was born.

Our First Fat Lip

This picture doesn't do it justice. Let me assure you, it was bad. Little N was running along the sidewalk and tripped and ate the concrete pretty bad. I don't think any other part of her body hit the ground other than her face. There was blood everywhere and lots of tears. Mom remained surprisingly calm. Several minutes later, she was up and running around again although she could tell something was different about her lips. She kept sucking them into her mouth the rest of the day trying to figure out what was going on with them and why they were so puffy.

Our New View

We now have a new view from our back window. We've seen camels grazing in the field behind us the last few days. We have no idea what they are grazing on since it looks pretty bare to us. It's fun to watch the camels and the girls love to scream at them from the windows. There is one person (seen in black) that herds (by foot) about 15 to 20 camels. Wow!

Divas in the making

I think these pics speak for themselves...

TAMU-Qatar Building Celebration BBQ

TAMU-Qatar celebrated the opening of its new building last week. Mr. D attended many festivities and we all got to go to the BBQ. We hoped for brisket, smoked sausage, and potato salad, but none of that was found. :-(
They just do things different here......

We did get to enjoy some good entertainment though. The girls were able to get close to a camel, there was a train ride, and the Aggie Wranglers showed off their moves. Both girls loved watching the dancers and even showed off some dance moves of their own.

Here are some pics from us at the BBQ.

UPDATE: To answer your questions "what did they BBQ?" It was camel. Ok, no.. just kidding. They had turkey hot dogs, hamburgers, chipped beef (I think) and BBQ chicken. So I guess chicken would be the answer. You eat a LOT of chicken in Doha.

The Boot Scoot

The Doha Aggie Club puts on a Boot Scoot for all the Aggies in Doha once a year. Seeing how there isn't that much entertainment for us like there would be if we were back in Texas, this was a must attend event. And a room full of Aggies sounds like fun to me! Here are some pics of us and our friends.

We were served a delicious Tex-Mex meal and they even had sopapillas with vanilla ice cream and honey. YUMMY!! There was plenty of mingling and lots of dancing -- even though the hotel where they hosted it only had carpet and no dance floor. It's a little hard to really boot scoot on carpet, but we all managed to try. And of course, Mr. D was just so happy to finally be able to wear his Cowboy hat.

Oh -- I almost forgot the highlight of the evening.... the door prizes. I won a trip for two for a weekend to Dubai, which is only about a 30 minute plane ride from here. I am so excited! I wonder who I will take?? :-)

The Playground

Here are some pics of the playground at our compound. This is a favorite attraction for the girls. We usually go at least 4 or 5 times a week. It's small, but we usually have it to ourselves when we go. This particular day was a little bit busier than usual, but the girls like watching the older kids and learning new things. They now like to slide down on their belly and try to climb up the slides instead of going down them -- just like the big kids do. They also love these springy things -- I have no idea what the real name is. It has a big spring and when you rock on it, it goes back and forth.

We always go with our beach buckets and shovels in hand since there is plenty of sand to play in. They can transfer sand from one bucket to another for large amounts of time. :-)

And they love the swings. The swings don't have the baby strap across them, so they make Mom a little nervous, but I guess that comes with the job.