Abandon

Abandon
Part of Speech: verb

Definition: leave behind, relinquish

Synonyms: abdicate, back out, bail out, bow out, chicken out, cop out, cut loose, desert, discard, discontinue, ditch, drop, drop out, duck, dump, dust, flake out, fly the coop, give up the ship, kiss goodbye, leave, leg it, let go, opt out, pull out, quit, run out on, ship out, stop, storm out, surrender, take a powder, take a walk, throw over, vacate, walk out on, wash hands of, withdraw, yield
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That is what I have done to this blog. All of the above. What can I say.....life gets hectic....and now there is Facebook. So you will find me over there more than you will here. But a quick update of what is going on.....

Mr. D is still plugging along with his job, and playing some softball every once in a while. The difference is that he travels to different countries to play instead of different cities like back home.

I am starting back to work full-time tomorrow!! I'm also about to be involved in 4 fantasy football leagues. Yikes!! Just say no, just say no.....

Lil H and Lil N started Pre-K on Sunday at the American School. It's only been 2 days, but they seem to really like it. They are in separate classes. This is the first time that they have ever been apart. The teachers said that both of them seemed a little lost the first day. But I think they are adjusting. They even ride the bus home in the afternoon and think it's fun. Maybe we will transition to bus riding in the morning to give me a little extra time to get myself together for work.

This summer Lil N was diagnosed with asthma, but she is on preventative medicine now and she seems very healthy. We've been back in Doha for over a month and she has not had a runny nose or coughed once. And we've had dust storms and been going to the pool regularly. So the medicine seems to really be helping.

So catch me over on Facebook...although I may not have time for that anymore after tomorrow. We'll see.

I'll leave you with a recent video of Lil H and Lil N. This was right before bedtime one night. They were both being silly, and I'm not really sure what they were singing about. These were impromptu songs that they were making up to their bedtime music cd. The best I can tell, Lil H is singing about princesses with rainbows and castles in the sky and crowns, hearts and a horse. Lil N is also singing about her flower horse, but then starts singing about getting married and having a baby and taking care of it. Who knows where they get this stuff from. Enjoy!

Lil H



Lil N

Happy Birthday Girls!

A picture on their actual birthday before school.

(Lil N, Lil H)

Now on to the birthday party....

Princess Barbie Cupcakes...

Prince Cupcakes...

Lil H & Lil N before the party...

Our first guest...

During all the fun.
(I love the big smile on this little girl's face!)

The girls made out like Barbie's! Barbie dresses, Barbie princess dolls, Beach Barbie's, Barbie goggles,... among MANY other things. And they each got their own kick scooter! Pictures of that to come later.

AWANA Presentation

One Friday morning at church, they did a presentation regarding the AWANA program. They asked the girls to recite a verse they had learned. Here is the video. Sorry it's a little shaky. It all happened really quick. The verse: "Through Him all things were made." John 1:3

Clean Bill of Health

Hello All! Thanks for your continued prayers and inquiries about Lil N. We went to her follow up appointment last weekend. The doctor says everything is fine with her and we are weaning her off the breathing treatments. We will be done with them this Friday.

We are supposed to try and minimize her exposure to dust and watch her breathing to make sure it seems normal. But at this point, the doctor just thinks she had a lung infection that caused asthmatic type breathing, not asthma itself. She does want us to follow up with a pulmonologist this summer just to be on the safe side. Lil N is back to being her energetic and hyper self! Thanks again!

Oooh baby, It's cold in here!

Proof that it actually does get cold over here. :-)

We're Home!

We're home. They let us go about 4 p.m. today. They sent us home with a breathing treatment machine and a bunch of medicine. I had to sit down and map out the medication/breathing treatment schedule for the next few days.

4 a.m. Breathing Treatment with medicine #1
7 a.m. antibiotic #1
8 a.m. breathing treatment - medicine #2
10 a.m. breathing treatment - medicine #1
1 p.m. antibiotic #2
4 p.m. breathing treatment - medicine #1
7 p.m. antibiotic #1
8 p.m. breathing treatment - medicine #2
10 p.m. breathing treatment - medicine #1

I'm not sure if they know exactly what was wrong with her. The discharge papers had both the words pneumonia and asthma written on it. Hopefully, her chest congestion and cough will clear up after a few days. We go back to the doctor on Thursday to check out her breathing levels and probably do another chest x-ray. Her breathing levels were good when we were leaving the hospital today so she is definitely improving. Thanks for all of your prayers! I'll keep you posted.

Prayers Needed

Please pray for Lil N. She has been at the hospital since Saturday. She woke up Saturday with a horrible sounding cough and labored breathing. We took her to the doctor, and they admitted her to the hospital immediately. She is responding to the treatment but her breathing levels are still not where they should be. The doctor has mentioned a few different things that could be going on. We are trying to remain positive and are hoping for a diagnosis of a bacterial or viral lung infection or even asthma. We'll keep you posted. Please pray for her.

Merry Christmas!

Doha Alarm Option

What's your choice for an alarm sound? Buzzer? Music? How about caterpillar jackhammer?




This is right outside our bedroom window. And like clock-work, it's reliable.....10 minutes to 7 a.m. EVERYDAY!

On the bright side, we no longer have the little trucks back there screeching their tires. :-) I guess the big hole and road barriers have scared them off.

Update

The girls are doing better. I ended up taking them to the doctor on Sunday. That was a lovely 4 hour experience. So many sick kids in the waiting area...

Anyway, Lil N has bronchitis and an ear infection, and Lil H has a cold and an ear infection. Both are on antibiotics and are starting to show some improvement. Their cough still sounds bad though. Hopefully it will be cleared up enough for them to go to school on Thursday. It will have been a whole week since they've been. They are missing it so much.

Thanks for your prayers.

A little prayer

Will you say a little prayer for Lil N and Lil H? During the marathon blog I've been doing, I've been listening to them downstairs just cough and cough. They've had a cold for about a week now, and their cough is really sounding bad today. They haven't had any fever so I think it's just a common cold that has to run its course. But they want to get back to school, and I need to get back to work this week as our office has a Friday deadline. So if you don't mind, please say a quick, little prayer that God will heal them and get rid of their cold and cough. Thanks.

Run for the Ring

Last Saturday, TAMU-Q had a 5K "Run for the Ring" event. Mr. D participated in it, and the girls and I cheered him on. We actually participated a little....we almost made it to the first round-a-bout (maybe 50 yards), but then had to bow out gracefully. We then had our own little race down the hill that led into the parking garage. I should have thought through the situation better before I decided to go take the trikes back to our vehicle. Trying to wrangle 2 out-of-control tricycles speeding down a hill with screaming toddlers on them isn't as easy as it sounds. Oh, if I only had pictures of that.....

Lil N and Lil H before the race...

And we're off!!!

And now we're way behind...

Here comes Daddy! Go, Daddy Go!

He did it!!! Yeah, Daddy!

Halloween Pics

Our Cowgirls!! Lil N and Lil H

Yee-Haw!!
(Yes, those stick horses traveled back with us on the airplane after our summer visit in Texas....)

Cowboy'd up Mr.D and his Cowgirls.

Jacob, Lil H and Lil N

The compound had a Halloween function at the clubhouse for all the kids. Here's Lil H and Lil N scoping out the "fish pond". The little boy next to them in the monkey suit is Jacob, their friend, neighbor and class-mate. He's so cute. His baby sister was a banana. LOL!

Friday Funny

I'll be the first to admit that I'm kitchen-challenged. And I don't need anybody's help trying to trip me up in the cooking/baking area -- I do a fine job on my own. I at least try really hard and follow instructions very carefully...but even that doesn't work sometimes. Luckily on this day, I was making something I had made several times before, and I was able to realize that something was wrong. Imagine a true beginner, following the instructions word for word. I'm not sure what they would have come out with, other than some oil and blueberries still sitting on the counter!

Fantasy Football

Remember in one of my posts how I talked about how I was in 2nd place in both of my fantasy football leagues.... I think that was way back in week 3 of the football season. Well, no more. I'm have spiraled downward, and quickly. I'm now clawing my way up from the bottom, trying to make the play-offs. I think I'm now 4th and 7th in the leagues. So there is still hope...but it's not looking all that good.

I at least have one good memory from a week where I scored the highest points in one of the leagues. That particular league offers a "Winner's Ball" for that week, and you get to sign the ball, display it in your office and have bragging rights for the week. The week I won the ball, I was still at home, not working yet... so displaying it and bragging about it to Lil H and Lil N wasn't all that rewarding. :-) So I'm now displaying and bragging about it to you. Like my team's name? I'm the only girl in the league so I thought it was fitting.



Now that I have an office to display it in, maybe I can get it one more time. And of course, if I win the championship, it's mine to keep. Did I mention I won the championship last year??? GO NUTCRACKERS!

Maldives Trip

A month or so ago...(seems like forever), 4 of us ladies set off to the Maldives, a group of islands in the Indian ocean, for some much needed R&R. All of our husbands agreed to take on the "Mom and Dad" responsibility for a few days. We are sure they all bonded together to survive our absence. Instead of "it takes a village", over here we say, "it takes a compound". Anyway, we had a wonderful time and everyone, including our husbands, survived the trip.

Here we are leaving the airport. (see the tower?) We had to be taken to our island by a 20 minute boat ride.

This is the view of our island as we were coming in.

Some of the villas were actually out in the water.

We chose a villa on the land. Here was our view.

A few times throughout the day, sea planes would land and take vacationers out on excursions.

We didn't do much -- the point of an R & R trip. We laid on the beach, some of us read (not me!), we ate, people-watched...relaxing kind of stuff. We did do a snorkeling excursion which had more funny moments than memorable fish encounters -- masks that leaked, fins that were too small, and snorkelers that apparently couldn't swim...AT ALL...which was made apparent like 30 seconds after they jumped into the water. Literally, the people running the excursion were having to rescue people, snatching them up out of the water. Not too funny...but kind of.

We all got a lesson in Pig Latin from one of the ladies that we traveled with. Here we all are one evening. Our "new" names are below.

Errishay, Onnaday, Annya Ariemay, Engway

A Visitor

This is what I found in my backyard one afternoon. I had never seen a bird like it around here, and I was convinced it had escaped from the zoo which is about a mile or two from our compound. I took several pictures and showed them to my neighbors and friends, and they had never seen a bird like this either. But after doing some internet research, I found that this is a bird species that lives in Qatar. He is called a Hoopoe. I enjoyed watching him for about 3o minutes. Come back and see me some day!

Update

Just a quick update. I'm already in my 3rd week of work. It has been a little chaotic trying to get a schedule down, but I think I'm close. My brain was able to jump back into work much quicker than I thought. I thought it was nursery rhyme mush, but apparently there is a section that has retained all the stuff I've learned over the years and was just waiting to come out again.

Still have to get the dinner thing worked out. We've been having to do "take away" more than I like so I need to plan better to have a dinner on the table each night. Gotta get organized in that area.

The maid is WONDERFUL. I wonder how I was making it without her. Just for the ironing alone, it has been so helpful. Plan on packing her in a suitcase when we make our final venture home... ha ha.

The girls love AWANA. They've already earned their Cubbies vest. I'll have to post a pic later. And the way they can remember their scriptures...even from 3 weeks ago... I did not expect that. They are really enjoying it.

Okay...supposed to be working. Just took a quick break to update.

CHA-CHA-CHA-CHANGES

Lots of changes going on in our household. So I've tried to catch up on my posts because I don't know how much time I'll have over the next few weeks. So what's going on with us?

We've started AWANA with the girls which has made our Sunday's completely crazy. But they are having fun. And we are all learning more scripture by doing it.

Our part-time maid is moving in with us this week. She will still be part-time for us. She'll leave during the day to go do her work outside of our home, but she'll will return to our house in the afternoon and stay with us at night.

We are in the 4th week of Fantasy Football. I'm in two 10-team leagues and I'm currently ranked #2 in both. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of time to manage those teams. I wonder if that's something I could work on my resume for future use???

And the biggest change....I'm going back to work!! Mr. D is kicking me out of the house to go earn some money. Okay...not really, but I definitely think he is happy about the extra income. I'll be working part time for Texas A&M-Qatar as a Research Administrator helping them submit research proposals and working closely with my pals back in College Station. I'll get to do some work from home so hopefully it won't be too chaotic for all of us.

Okay...I'm off to start my crazy Sunday afternoon.

July 4th Party 2008

After our trip to Indiana, we came back and stayed a few more days with Grandma and Pops.

We went to a July 4th party in Kerrville. Here are some pics:

Lil N showing off her new head attire.

Lil H with her face paint.

A video of the girls dancing:

And one more pic from Grandma's house: